THE LITTLE WAY of Thérèse the Little Flower by Samuel Bastian - HTML preview

CHAPTER IV

Trust and Confidence

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mall and weak, the child can do nothing by himself. But w

S henthetenderloveofafathersuppliesforhisweakness, helplessness becomes strength.

The child wants to walk but cannot. His frail legs fail him.

Danger threatens, but his weak arms cannot defend him.

Happily, his father is there. One quick look is enough. The father bends down, lifts him up, holds him close, and protects him with joy. For that moment, the child is strong with all his father’s strength.

This is the privilege of childhood: helplessness wins swift rescue. A simple look from a child has irresistible power. No

father’s heart can resist it. How then could God resist it, He who created all fatherly hearts in His image?

This look of loving confidence is what God waits for from His little child. He often helps even when we do not call. Yet He comes with greater eagerness to the one who calls often, measuring His tenderness by the confidence He sees in the soul’s gaze. To trustfully turn toward God is already to pray.

Jesus said: “If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you.” (John 16:23)

In the same spirit, Thérèse said: “We obtain from the good God exactly as much as we hope for.”

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It is therefore essential for the soul walking the Little Way to nourish complete trust in God. 21 By becoming a child, she commits to expect everything from Him alone.

She must establish this confidence firmly and increase it day by day. She should also beg for this grace, because great confidence, like Thérèse’s, is a special gift of God.

We cannot acquire it by effort alone, but we can prepare for it through faithfulness and desire. Above all, trust must rest on solid foundations—not in ourselves, but in God’s love, mercy, and justice.22

21

Compare: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Trusting God with all your heart involves complete surrender of mind, will, and emotions, acknowledging that human understanding is limited and often flawed.

The Hebrew concept of the heart encompasses the whole inner being, meaning trust is not partial but total.

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Compare: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green." (Jeremiah 17:7–8 )

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First Foundation

Divine Love

St John gives us this definition: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) All that God is, He is infinitely so. Therefore He is infinite love.

He loves me with a love beyond description. His love contains tenderness, goodness, generosity, and an immense desire to do me good. He is my Father, always watching over me. He does not only care from afar—He dwells within me. His unchanging love is my Providence, and His almighty power serves that love.

God has written His love everywhere—in the stars, the sky, the flowers, the bread I eat, the clothes I wear, and even the stones of my dwelling. He has written it more clearly in tears, sweat, and blood—at Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Golgotha. He remains present in every tabernacle, repeating: “I love you. See how I love you.”

At this sight Thérèse cried: “O Jesus, let me tell you that your love reaches even unto folly… What can you expect, in the face of this folly, but that my heart should dart upward to you? …How can my confidence have any limits?”

Since all this love is for us too, why limit our confidence? Let us enlarge our hearts and repeat boldly with Thérèse: “We can never have too much confidence in God—so good! ”

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Second Foundation

Divine Mercy

Someone may object: “Saints can trust because they are holy.

But I am full of faults. I am too miserable.”

Too miserable? Have you forgotten that God’s love is above all merciful? Mercy is compassion that moves the heart to help. It

draws God toward weakness, to heal and forgive. The greater the misery, the greater His eagerness.

This is the Heart of God revealed in the Gospels. Page by page, we see Jesus moved by poverty, sickness, suffering, death, and even sin. The more lamentable the misery, the more tender His mercy.

Thérèse understood this deeply. She carried the Gospels on her heart and pondered them constantly. From childhood she was drawn to them. She received a profound knowledge of Divine Mercy, which became the light of her life and her mission.

Mercy was the sun of her soul. In its light she saw all God’s attributes radiant with love. Confronted with His immense mercy, she threw herself into His arms with irresistible confidence.

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Third Foundation

Divine Justice

Another objection: “God is also just. And Justice is severe.”

But justice means giving each one what is due—rewarding good as well as punishing evil. True justice considers intentions and circumstances. Seeing our weakness, God’s justice awakens His mercy.

This is why He judged angels and men differently. The same justice that condemned the angels eternally, opened abysses of love for Adam through Redemption.

Because He is just, God is compassionate and slow to anger. “For he knows our frailty; he remembers that we are but dust.” (Psalm 103:14)

Through Christ, grace abounds where sin abounded. (Romans 5:20) Justice itself grants us pardon, because Jesus has paid our debts. Thérèse saw justice as radiant with love. She hoped as much from justice as from mercy.

What many fear became for her a source of joy. From a just Father, the child may hope for everything.

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From these foundations Thérèse expressed several truths: We can never have too much trust in God.

•We obtain from God exactly as much as we hope for.23

•What offends Jesus and wounds His Heart is lack of trust. 24

•It is trust, and trust alone, that must lead us to love.

God is infinite in riches and love. He gives without measure. The more we ask, the more He loves to give. Trust opens His Heart and lets His benefits flow. [25]

23 Thérèse once engaged in a discussion with an older nun, Sr Fébronie, about the nature of God’s justice and mercy. Sr Fébronie emphasized divine justice, while Thérèse insisted that God’s justice is inseparable from his mercy, remarking that souls receive from God according to the measure of their expectation: those who demand strict justice will find it, while those who trust in mercy will receive mercy.

After Sr Fébronie’s death, she appeared to Thérèse from Purgatory, confirming the truth of this conviction. For Thérèse, the episode became a vivid lesson that confidence in God’s merciful love is the surest path, and that his justice itself is merciful when approached with trust. (from STORY OF A SOUL) Thérèse’s discussion with Sr Fébronie highlights her radical trust: God gives according to our expectation—justice to those who demand it, mercy to those who trust in it. This became central to her Little Way, encouraging souls to approach God with childlike confidence rather than fear.

24 Jesus said to Faustina: “Distrust on the part of souls is tearing at My insides. Even more painfully, distrust of chosen souls is wounding My Heart. Despite My inexhaustible love for them they do not trust Me. Even My death is not enough for them.” (Faustina’s Diary, #50)

[25] [FR MARTIN’S NOTE] Confidence must not become presumption (expecting God’s mercy without true repentance). But for souls of good will, trust should be as boundless as God’s generosity.

Thérèse believed God never inspires desires He will not fulfill.

Children have the right to be bold. Animated by this trust, she asked for pure love and immense desires. Events proved her right.

If we receive little, it is often because we ask little. In the Gospels, miracles sprang from confidence. This same confidence must carry us to the summit of love. “It is confidence, and confidence alone, that must lead to love.”

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Applications of Confidence

Past sins

Once pardon is sought, even the greatest sins should not disturb peace. Thérèse wrote: “I feel that even if I had on my conscience all the crimes one could commit, I should lose nothing of my confidence… I know that in one moment all that multitude of sins would disappear as a drop of water cast into a flaming furnace.”

Daily faults

Like a child who disobeys but runs into his father’s arms, we should ask forgiveness at once. Jesus forgives with joy.

Failures

When progress seems impossible, redouble confidence. Jesus often grants sudden growth to humble souls.

Darkness and Temptations

When God seems hidden, it is the playfulness of His love. Unite patience with blind confidence. Thérèse said: “He will weary sooner of making me wait than I shall of waiting.”

Fears about the Future

She trusted God, knowing He had always helped her.

Desires for Holiness

However great the desires, trust that God will fulfill them.

Thérèse counted not on her merits but on Jesus, who would clothe her with His own.

"My way is all love and trust, and I cannot understand those souls who are afraid of so loving a Friend."

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Thérèse longed to share this trust with all souls. She saw it as her mission to communicate this spirit of littleness until the end of the world. She believed that if weak souls felt what she felt, none would despair of reaching the summit of love.

And so the story of her life ends with this appeal:

"O Jesus! If only I could tell all little souls of your ineffable condescension! I feel that if it were possible to find one weaker than mine, you would delight in showering upon her even greater favors, provided she abandoned herself with complete confidence to your Infinite mercy." [26]

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