Therese of the Passion

Therese has always had a particular interest in the Passion of Christ. Since I can remember, she has always been fascinated with images of Christ crucified and our Blessed Mother holding her Son as he was taken down from the cross. She can sit all afternoon and look at a book of the Stations of the Cross. In fact, she often takes our family bible out just for that purpose. Do I think it’s a little weird for such a little person? Yeah, except that I remember who her namesake is and I’m not surprised.

Yesterday, her questions about the crucifixion made me consider how much I mediate or not on our Lord’s passion. “How long were the nails? Did they hurt? Was Jesus sad when he was on the cross? Was he mad? Where the soldiers mean? Did Jesus not like the soldiers? Why did the soldiers turn away? ” I guess when you can’t read, you soak in every detail and every facial expression of every person in these scenes and it leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

Then after answering her questions, she says, “I’m going to die when I’m 12 years old. Then I can go to Heaven and be with Jesus.” I told her that I would really like her to be around for a little while longer than that. Her response: “Mom, I’m not going to be with you forever. I’m going to have to leave sometime.” Ha! To be so detached from this world and sure of the love of God that you do not fear death but embrace it. That is to have the faith of a child. It reminds me of when St. Therese told her mother that she wanted her to die because then she would go to heaven.