This week, Robert Bos and myself were having our little class together, wherein we have been studying the Fathers of the Church, and we have been reading this recent document of John Paul II - or rather from Cardinal Ratzinger, on the Deposit of Faith, and the Errors of our Day. All of a sudden when we were closing our class we saw a stranger on the property in a certain car, and I went out, as usual, to see if I could help this gentlemen, and he stopped in front of our place and got out - and he was with another woman. He spoke to us, and straight away he entered into this tirade about the Catholic Church being full of hypocrites. Robert and I just looked at each other, and we remarked to ourselves without speaking, this was a perfect example of what we had been talking about in our class.

So we listened, and began a conversation with this gentlemen who proceeded to tell us of his doubts about the Trinity; and about Jesus as Our Saviour. He said he didn't even believe there was Heaven or Hell, devils or Angels -- and that was just part of the conversation that he was expressing. But his big argument was that the Catholic Church is full of hypocrites. (By the way, he is a Catholic, and the woman, also).

Robert and I, even though we tried to find a common ground on which we could speak to this gentleman, it was not possible, because he simply refused to accept the testimony of Our Lord's own Words. It is funny that people often use that as their excuse that the Church, or the Community, of whatever, is so full of hypocrites; that's their excuse for wanting to pull out, or not be a part of it. Well, that is not Our Lord's way - that's the way of the Pharisees, but it is not Our Lord's way.

Our Lord teaches us today the mystery of salvation is in the Cross, and carrying our Cross means to renounce ourself in the face of our own hypocritical ways, and with those of our brothers and sisters. So you see the reading from Saint Paul in the Gospel Acclamation: "My only glory is the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ."

Let us develop this for a moment, for I want to speak about our Sister, Saint Theresa, the 'Little Flower', and about "renunciation of self" - the theme of my talk today. You saw in the Gospel that Our Lord, when He asked His Apostles and Disciples who He was, He proceeded to explain to them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer, grievously, to be rejected by the Elders and the Chief Priests and the Scribes, and to be put to death and to Rise again. What we don't realise is that - or we don't give enough thought -- is that the Mystical Body of Christ, in other words, you and I, individually and as a body, are destined the same way. It is so true, we are destined because where the Head has gone, so must the Body go, so we, too, are destined then to suffer grievously because of sin in the world.

So then Our Lord proceeded (after He told them this) to call them all together and He said: "If anyone wants to be a follower of Mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow Me." So the answer for those two souls who came here - the common ground that Robert and I were trying to help them understand -- is that to be like Jesus is to lay down your life for your brothers and sisters, hypocrites or not, and that we are destined to suffer grievously in our life in order to get to Heaven.

Saint Theresa, the 'Little Flower', in her Community of the Carmelite Convent, has a lesson for the world; indeed, she is a Doctor of the Church. She has a lesson to teach us, too, about renunciation, to deny oneself. This is the "Science of Love" and the "Science of the Saints", and this is what saves souls. It is not like this man and woman who just wanted to opt out because of the "hypocrites" they perceive to be not worth saving -- not even worth being part of the Church.

Robert and I told them that there are "hypocrites" everywhere, not just in the Catholic Church, but we said no more be cause we had no common ground.

So I want you to think about renunciation and the examples that I am going to give from Saint Theresa, the 'Little Flower'. When you want to understand a Saint -- especially Saint Theresa who was so hidden, you have to really delve deeply into her writings and try to grasp the beauty of what she means. One day she wrote a prayer for one of her Novices, Sister Martha, on "humility". And believe me, this prayer when you hear me read it, you will see that it addresses the central problem in human nature, whatever Community you are in, and you can make application for yourselves, for that is the whole purpose of my talk. She wrote this prayer on "humility", and for us it speaks volumes. She said to Sister Martha: Say this prayer:

You can well see with that prayer and that whole attitude, that whole concept of renouncing oneself, does away completely with any other attitude to hypocrisy. To see your neighbour as the person who offends you the most, who hurts you the most, who tries you the most, of whom you are tempted to judge their qualities of body and soul and attitude, to see, readily, the hypocrisy in their life. But on the contrary, this prayer speaks of how we should be happy to suffer, grievously, since we are destined to suffer grievously, to be misjudged, to be misused -- like Our Lord was as He said in the Gospel -- from the Chief Priests and the Scribes and the Pharisees. But the day comes after the Crucifixion, when we rise, and we inherit all of the Promises of God.

In the Convent of our 'Little Flower' -- it was just like our Community, no different. We all think that the Saints lived in air that was not contaminated by Original Sin, that it's fine to be Saint Theresa, but you don't know what it is like to live in our Community. Well, that is not the way it is.

Saint Marie Madeline explained to the Diocesan Investigation into the cause of her sanctity, something really remarkable about the Community in which they lived. She says in her testimony: "From the moment I entered Carmel I was aware that Sister Theresa was not like the other Nuns. It is true that when I entered the Lisieux, Carmel, I found the Community in a very disappointing state. I used to think all Carmelite Nuns were Saints, but I gradually became aware that at times there were a lot of very imperfect Nuns. They were noticeably lacking in silence, regularity and especially mutual charity, and there was some lamentable divisions among them. The Communities general orientation was in the direction of these disorders, but in this unedifying environment, Sister Theresa did not commit the least imperfection."

You can see what I am trying to say that those two poor souls who were talking to Robert and I, they really missed the point here. In a way of speaking, Sister Theresa lived in the same sort of Community in the world in which we live. There are imperfections everywhere, but that's not the way you talk about it. You don't run down other people in your own Faith and begin to lose even Faith in God!

"Saint Theresa", she said, "didn't even commit the least imperfection. Not only did she not follow the example of the imperfect Nuns, she even seemed different from the several very edifying Nuns as well. Her Virtue was unfailing and always fervent. I even decided to see if it were possible to find some fault in her, because I had heard several criticisms of her that were inspired by party feelings. So I watched her everywhere - at the laundry, washing dishes, at work in common, in recreation. I sometimes even tried to test her regularity, but I never succeeded in finding a single fault.

You know why? It was because she loved her Lord. She lived for Jesus; she lived, and wanted to live on a higher plain. She wanted to be thought of as nothing; she didn't mind that the Sister's should humiliate her and put her down. Sister Mary Madeline goes on to say:

"Generally speaking, the servant of God was unknown and even misunderstood in the Convent". Aren't we all! "Apart from some Novices who were close to her, no-one noticed the heroism of her life. When answering question 20, I said that I had observed her very carefully, and from that time on I was convinced of the excellence of her virtues. I know she suffered a lot without showing it, and that she had an extraordinary love for God. What I have learned about her virtues since her death has added hardly anything to my esteem; it was just as great while she was alive. My judgement was not affected by natural affection because, as I have said, my attitude towards her was always rather one of reserve, and almost mistrust."

This particular Nun disliked Saint Theresa the whole of her life in the Convent. She was so mistrustful she would hide from her in the attic because Saint Theresa was Novice Mistress in charge of her. She avoided everything about her. She wouldn't listen to her counsel - it's all here. She opened up at the Diocesan process. Yet, the beautiful thing is after Saint Theresa died, that was when the real transformation came. Saint Theresa never gave up on her - ever - even when all sorts of things were being said and done, she never gave up on her. So she says:

The same Sister, Marie Madeline, testified to the Commission that after Theresa's entry into Heaven, "I surrendered to her the care of my soul, and how she changed me - it is unbelievable. I don't recognise myself any more". Her testimony to the Diocesan Tribunal is frank and very moving. Indeed, during her life she never won that soul, but God doesn't miss anything, and after Saint Theresa's death, the conversion and the Grace to become a very Holy Religious Nun came to this Sister Mary Madeline.

Sometimes we don't see the reward of our renunciation, our self-denial, and the temptation is to give it up - it's not worth it, the soul is never going to change, what's the use? The Community is never going to change -- everyone's hypocritical, everyone's got this and that. That is just not the way. We are destined to suffer, grievously, to be like Jesus, there is no way around it. You are going that path, it is the nature of Christianity.

So what is really important here is -- Our Lord said: "If you want to follow Me"..., in Virtue, in Goodness, to really follow Me, then you have "to renounce yourself". The person who tries, on the contrary, "to save his life, will lose it; the person who loses his life" for Me, Jesus said, "will save it." This is why renunciation in Community life - Convent life, and in the world for that matter - but especially for us. We can identify with this. We reach heroism when we can renounce ourself.

Saint Theresa said in the beautiful prayer of humility: "To be happy that your brothers and sisters in Christ think lowly of you, or don't even think that you have not much to offer at all, or further-more, see you full of imperfection and a whole host of things. We should consider ourselves Blessed, because when Jesus said to Saint Peter: "Get behind Me, Satan!" - he was really looking over the head of Saint Peter and He saw the enemy trying to pull his strings; he saw the devil trying to get Saint Peter to give in to that thought. So Jesus looked through Saint Peter at the enemy and said "Get behind Me, Satan, you are trying to make Me trip and fall - you are thinking like man, not God!"

And so we, too, have to learn to put on the Mind and Heart of Christ, to see things through His Eyes, then we see our neighbour in a different light, and we bear the renunciation - the humiliation even - of renouncing ourself. This is war - it is a war, isn't it? It is a war with self, and it seems like many times you are losing the war, but you are not. We may lose individual battles along the way, to have our ups and our downs, our victories and our defeats in virtue, but we win the war because we never give up, we never opt out. We never just say: "Who cares! ... too many hypocrites" - and go for the lukewarm attitude which will make you insensitive to sin, altogether.

I wanted to share this with you because a Saint like her - a Doctor of the Church - has something to say for every walk of life, that is why she is a doctor. And how many people in the world - men, women - young, old - Priests, laity - everybody; professionals, unprofessionals, servants and masters, have found edification in her life. So she teaches, this beautiful humility which seeks to renounce ourself. So we are not to be discouraged by being misunderstood, by being misjudged, by being not promoted, by being thought irregular, by not being given your rights - and all these sorts of things.

When we look at the bigger picture here, you are winning battles for God that may on the surface seem that you are losing, but the day comes. In Sister Mary Madeline's life, it was after the death of Saint Theresa. Saint Theresa had the victory, it was just not in her life in the Convent, but she didn't lose the soul. This is the bigger picture; this is the relationship to our families, our friends, our relatives, our Order, our Community - the bigger picture, the ultimate goal, the end, the Resurrection and the reward of being with Jesus in the New Era in His Second Coming.

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