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Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, in the \u2018Yellow Notebook\u2019 of her \u2018Last Conversations\u2019 writes, \u201cIt\u2019s said in the Gospel that God will come like a thief. He will come to steal me away in the nicest way possible. Oh, how I\u2019d love to aid the Thief!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then on July 7, after she has once again coughed up blood, her sister Pauline (Mother Agnes of Jesus) asks her: \u201cAre you afraid of the Thief? This time he is at the door!\u201d To which Th\u00e9r\u00e8se replies at once: \u201cNo, he\u2019s not at the door, he\u2019s already come in. But how can you ask me, my dear Mother, whether I\u2019m afraid of the Thief? How could I be afraid of someone I love so much?!\u201d<\/p>\n
Three days later, on July 10, after another hemoptysis around midnight, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se exclaims: \u201cNo one can make me last one minute longer than the Thief wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Finally, on July 31, she returns three times to the image of the thief. To Pauline she says: \u201cYes, I\u2019ll steal. \u2026Many things will disappear from Heaven because I\u2019ll bring them to you. I\u2019ll be a little thief; I\u2019ll take whatever I please.\u201d And later the same day she even makes up, in colloquial French, a humorous little jingle about her awaited intruder: The Thief will come, and take me off, Alleluia!<\/p>\n
Still later that day she uses the image for the last time: \u201cI was thinking I should be a dear and wait for the Thief very quietly.\u201d What is most impressive in all of this is the way in which, during her last agony and with her usual playfulness, so indicative of interior freedom,<\/p>\n
St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se accomplishes a living exegesis of the Gospel text, rewriting it quite literally with her lifeblood, which was flowing out of her lungs in the frequent bouts of hemoptysis common in those suffering from tuberculosis. We know how excruciating her sufferings became toward the end. Among the last words that her sister Celine (Sister Genevieve) recorded on September 30, minutes before Th\u00e9r\u00e8se died, we read the very last words are: \u201cMy God \u2026I \u2026love you!\u201d In her painful death, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se joyously welcomes the active intervention of the One who promises solemnly: \u201cAnd when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also\u201d (Jn 14:3). \u201cBehold, I make all things new\u201d (Rev 21:5).<\/p>\n
What about you and me? Do we hold on to our world? Do we think our life is eternal? Or are we waiting to be taken by God, ready to leave this world to an eternal life with Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, in the \u2018Yellow Notebook\u2019 of her \u2018Last Conversations\u2019 writes, \u201cIt\u2019s said in the Gospel that God will come like a thief. He will come to steal me away in the nicest way possible. Oh, how I\u2019d love to aid the Thief!\u201d Then on July 7, after she has once … <\/p>\n