MASS FOR St THERESE
Cardiff Cathedral
Wed 23 Sept 09
@ 12 noon

Saints seem to do more travelling after they’ve left this world than when they were in it. To date, St Therese has visited more than 40 countries, including Brazil, Russia, Kazakhstan, the United States, Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, Iraq, and Burkina-Faso. And I bet she now knows where Burkina-Faso is better than I do!  I would love to meet St Therese and ask her what it was like to travel through the Tunnel from France to England by Eurostar. For, I don’t believe that we are just marking the passage of a pile of bones. We are celebrating here in this Cathedral today the Communion of Saints. For we are in communion with Therese through the reverence we give to these relics. Therese gives new meaning to that old phrase: I’ll be with you in spirit. And indeed she is. Her presence is felt here among us. Wherever she has gone, many people have experienced conversion, healing, a renewed sense of vocation, and answers to their prayers. So, be careful what you say. She will be listening. In fact, why be careful at all? Talk to her straight – in any language you choose: English, Welsh, or whatever, she speaks the lot!  - and then listen to what she has to say. She is not without reason called the Greatest Saint of modern times. 

In her short life, Therese experienced little of the world and its ways. Yet she attended to something more important than anything we could think of. She answered a call to holiness. That, then, must be the rock- bottom, basic hope that she has for all of us: that we too will respond to God’s call to holiness.  As a consequence of Therese’s example of holiness, many people have already changed their lives. So, if we too are called to holiness, then that must bring about a change in the everyday situations of our lives. We know how difficult it is to change the minds and hearts of other people. So, imagine how difficult it is to change our own ways. We are called to have a conversion of heart, to let the Lord in, to do in us what we cannot do for ourselves, to draw us closer to him – and to stay then with the Lord for the future. Nothing greater is needed at the present time than that we establish a culture of prayer in the daily situations of our lives. God is not to be excluded any longer. We need to perceive his presence daily in our midst and in the middle of our endeavours, so that they become God’s endeavours, or rather God’s endeavours become ours.

Therese took seriously that God is all love. He has a deep love for each one of us. That, surely, must change the way we look at others and treat them. That surely must question the ways of politics that serve self-interest instead of the common good, the processes of war that never lead to a solution, the secrets of finance that make people poorer. The spirit of Therese demands that in this Cathedral today, and every day, we pray for God’s Kingdom to be ushered in: something worthwhile and wonderful: namely: a kingdom of peace, justice, mutual respect, and a sharing of the world’s resources, with the result that the aggressor, the terrorist, the brute and the bully have no place, or cause, or influence – ever again.  As others have been witnesses before us, and as Therese has been such a powerful witness, so too we are God’s witnesses today: witnesses to the belief that Jesus is truly risen from the dead, witnesses to the conviction that life is indeed stronger than death, witnesses that before us are not dry bones with no meaning, but they witness to a life of prayer, of human suffering, and of divine love.  This is the paradox of our faith.  Jesus really died.  So did Therese. Both died at a relatively early age in life. They were not rescued at the last moment by a stay of execution, or by a miracle cure, or by an act of God.  But Jesus is alive and powerful now.  Therese exercises a powerful influence now. Believe it, because it is promised to us too. 

Yes, there is an earthly yoke pushing us down that still remains to be eased; the burden still remains to be lightened.  When will God’s Kingdom come? 
God’s Kingdom will be ushered in when attitudes change.  For:
The world says:  Put up your fists.
But Theresa would say:  Love one another.
The world says:  Bloody his nose.
Theresa would say:  Wash his feet.
The world says:  Worship other gods: like money, status, power, promotion.
Theresa would say:  Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened.
The world says:  They don’t deserve what they’ve got.
Theresa would say:  You’re right, but neither do you.
The world says:  Take your revenge.
Theresa would say:  Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The world says:  Don’t let him get away with it.
Theresa would say:  Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
The world says:  Be ambitious.
Theresa would say: Blessed is he who laid down his life for his friends.
  
This is a high calling.  There is no calling higher than the moment when the Lord laid down his life for sinful mankind.  And in human terms, there is no calling higher than the moment when one person sacrifices their life, their time, their energy, in showing concern for someone else: a loved one who is sick or disabled, a difficult boss who tries one’s patience, the fellow-worker who exploits others and ruins their good name and reputation, or the criminal who shows no remorse. Yet, today, it can often seem that the reverse is true: that too many now lay down, not their lives for their friends, but their friends for their lives: trampling on others to get ahead, get promoted, get something first. No, Blessed indeed is he who lays down his life for his friends.  That is the example Therese puts before us today: to think of others first, to pray always for them, to love them always, because, despite their human foibles, they are really and truly, as she is, a temple of the Holy Spirit and an instance of God’s creative love. These lifeless relics before us and your veneration of them witness to the real life of a special person who loved much and asks us to do the same.
+Tom M Burns SM, Bishop of Menevia