Page 31 - Demo

%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0Who will be my support forever,%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0Who loves everything in me, even my weakness%u2026%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0And who never leaves me day or night%u2026%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0I must have a God who takes on my nature,%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0And becomes my brother and is able to suffer! %u2026%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0Ah! I know well, all our righteousness%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0Is worthless in your sight%u2026%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0So I, for my purgatory,%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0Choose your burning love, O heart of my God!%u201d [131]136. Perhaps the most important text for understanding the devotion of Therese to the heart ofChrist is a letter that she wrote three months before her death to her friend Maurice Belli%u00e8re.%u201cWhen I see Mary Magdalene walking up before the many guests, washing with her tears the feetof her adored Master, whom she is touching for the first time, I feel that her heart has understoodthe abysses of love and mercy of the heart of Jesus, and, sinner though she is, this heart of lovewas disposed not only to pardon her but to lavish on her the blessings of his divine intimacy, to lifther to the highest summits of contemplation. Ah! dear little Brother, ever since I have been giventhe grace to understand also the love of the heart of Jesus, I admit that it has expelled all fear frommy heart. The remembrance of my faults humbles me, draws me never to depend on my strengthwhich is only weakness, but this remembrance speaks to me of mercy and love even more%u201d. [132]137. Those moralizers who want to keep a tight rein on God%u2019s mercy and grace might claim thatTherese could say this because she was a saint, but a simple person could not say the same. Inthat way, they excise from the spirituality of Saint Therese its wonderful originality, which reflectsthe heart of the Gospel. Sadly, in certain Christian circles we often encounter this attempt to fit theHoly Spirit into a certain preconceived pattern in a way that enables them to keep everythingunder their supervision. Yet this astute Doctor of the Church reduces them to silence and directlycontradicts their reductive view in these clear words: %u201cIf I had committed all possible crimes, Iwould always have the same confidence; I feel that this whole multitude of offenses would be likea drop of water thrown into a fiery furnace%u201d. [133]138. To Sister Marie, who praised her generous love of God, prepared even to embracemartyrdom, Therese responded at length in a letter that is one of the great milestones in the31