Imitate St. Therese of Lisieux’s way of humility, says Pope

Vatican City, Aug 9, 2005 / 22:00 pm

During this week’s General Audience at the Paul VI Hall, Pope Benedict XVI commented on Psalm 130 and underscored the urgency of living “spiritual childhood” according to the model of St. Therese of Lisieux.

After arriving by helicopter from Castel Gandolfo, the Pontiff noted that the Psalm, which speaks of Israel as “a child in the arms of his mother,” “develops a theme which is beloved in all religious literature: spiritual childhood.”

“Immediately my thoughts turn spontaneously to St. Therese of Lisieux, to her ‘little way,’ to her ‘remaining little’ in order to ‘be in the arms of Jesus’,” the Holy Father added.

“The great temptation of pride,” he continued, “in which man wants to be like God, the arbiter of good and evil, is decidedly rejected by the psalmist, who opts instead for humble and spontaneous trust in the only Lord.”

“Thus we come to the unforgettable image of the child and his mother,” the Pope said.

The child, the psalmist recalls, is attached to his mother through a personal and intimate relationship, not only out of mere physical contact or the need for nourishment.  It is a more conscious relationship, although always immediate and spontaneous.”

“This is the ideal parable of true spiritual ‘childhood,’ whereby one abandons oneself to God not blindly and automatically, but serenely and responsibly,” the Pope added.

The Holy Father concluded by highlighting that “pride, as we have seen, is opposed to humble trust,” and he cited the fourth century spiritual writer John Casiano, who “warned the faithful about the seriousness of this vice, which ‘destroys all virtues at once and targets not only the mediocre and the weak, but mainly those who have reached the top using their own strength.”