Reflections: Popularity of a saint forever young

Sydney
7 April 2002

Roses welcome a 'Little Flower'

Archbishop, Bracks clash on embryos

Archbishop Pell widens net for Pentecost letter

Holocaust 'horror' remembered

Scrap refugee plan: bishops

New job for Catholic Weekly columnist

Graduates strive to revive cultural body

Centacare invests in a long future

St Pat's Girls' reunion

Quotes, claims online

Pro-life focus urged for Feast of Annunciation

4-star care at Calvary

The sword unsheathed

Editorial: Death with dignity

Letters: Santamaria and the DLP

Conversation: Inspiring students and 'making a difference' - Sharyn Dickerson, primary school principal

Reflections: Popularity of a saint forever young

Young flock to serve at Holy Family

Opinion: North Melbourne players kick a goal for morality

From virgin field to new school in three weeks

Obituary: Fr Ted - at home in two St Joseph's

Obituary: Visionary priest left a 'magnificent' memorial

Reflections: Popularity of a saint forever young

By Fr Tadgh Tierney OCD

It's hard to explain the enormous interest St Thérèse of Lisieux generates in the modern world. People who have thought of themselves for some time as inoculated against religion are finding that they cannot escape it. She even figures in the national and local newspapers as well as the Catholic press and now she moves into the neighbourhood!

The onset of the visit of the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux to Mt Carmel church in Varroville saw me sell more books and pamphlets in the foyer of the church than I had done for several years. Like the appeal of Harry Potter books to young and not so young, this tells me that my parishioners can indeed read, a fact which I had been beginning to doubt!

One of the glossy books we have on St Thérèse is called Song of Youth. This highlights an obvious appeal of Thérèse Martin to young people who can identify with her because of her youth. This also helps to offset an inevitable impression the young pick up in regard to the Church - that it is largely made up of elderly people, ageing Pope, ageing bishops, ageing priests and even ageing congregations.

Dying at the age of 24, Thérèse never knew what it was like to have a middle-aged mentality. She is forever young.

And, as in so many other areas of life nowadays, it doesn't hurt that she was good looking. Like Princess Diana, but unlike Mother Teresa, Thérèse didn't know what it was like to be old or to feel old. (And Mother Teresa certainly had an immense appeal, though she would never have won a beauty competition.)

Princess Diana will also be revered because she died before the age of 40. We may not regard her as a saint in Thérèse's sense, but people will recall her very human emotions that grabbed headlines often. But she also had a heart that responded to misery whether in Calcutta, Cambodia or in an AIDS clinic.

Everything St Thérèse stands for represents the dreams, idealism, innocence, inexperience and hopes of youth, not to speak of the complete absence of a jaded and tired approach to life. This guarantees the freshness of her message and its perennial appeal.When we read her Story of a Soul we are struck by its freshness and exuberance but at the same time by its profundity.

The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, centres on Jesus as the Lord of life and the conqueror of death. Jesus tells us: "Whoever believes in me will never die."

Thérèse had absorbed this gospel faith completely. "I am not dying," she said, "I am entering into life." She felt that her death would in no way interfere with or interrupt her mission of making God known and loved throughout the world. She is a recognised teacher of these things.

Many questions have been asked in the media about relics, but it is not what the crowds are interested in. If we are honest we will admit that the millions in various countries who have visited and prayed at the casket containing some of Thérèse's remains are completely indifferent to 16th century quarrels between Catholics and Protestants about the cult of relics.

They come because this girl tells us we matter to someone, namely God. As a result we learn that the life and death of each individual has a greater significance than the world would like to pretend.

Fr Tadgh Tierney is parish priest of Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church, Varroville - the first Sydney church to welcome the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux, 'The Little Flower'.