The Courage of a Confident Heart: Answering the Call with St. Thérèse

Neh 2:1-8, Psalm: 136, Lk 9:57-62

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

On this memorial of the great St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, the Scriptures present us with two powerful images of what it means to answer God’s call. One is a portrait of bold, confident trust in the midst of a royal court; the other is a stark lesson on the absolute priority of the Kingdom of Heaven. Together, they illuminate the “Little Way” not as a path of timid weakness, but as a journey of tremendous courage and single-minded love.

In our first reading, we meet Nehemiah, the cupbearer to the Persian king. His heart is broken for Jerusalem, his homeland, which lies in ruins. But he is in a position of delicate servitude. Showing sadness before the king was a grave risk; it could be interpreted as disloyalty. Yet, Nehemiah’s love for God’s people compels him to courage. After a silent prayer to the “God of heaven,” he makes an audacious request: to be sent to rebuild the city. His confidence is not in his own eloquence, but in the God who “would grant me favours.” He receives not only permission but the resources needed for the task. This is faith in action: a trust so profound it enables one to speak truth to power and embark on a seemingly impossible mission for the sake of God’s kingdom.

This boldness finds a surprising echo in the Gospel, where Jesus meets potential followers who hesitate. One proclaims, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus responds not with a welcome, but with a warning, reminding him that the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head. Following Christ is not a path to earthly security. To another, who asks to first bury his father, Jesus says, “Let the dead bury their dead.” To a third, who wants to say farewell to his family, He says, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

These harsh words are not a rejection of family duties, but a radical affirmation that the call of God demands an undivided heart. The Kingdom must have absolute priority. The courage required here is not that of a courtier, but of a disciple: the courage to detach from everything, even good and holy things, when they become obstacles to following Jesus completely.

This is precisely where the “Little Way” of St. Thérèse shines with the brilliance of Gospel truth. She understood that the greatest courage is often found not in one dramatic moment, but in the daily, hidden “yes” to God. She wrote, “You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all.” Her monastery was her royal court; her little duties and sacrifices were her mission to rebuild souls for God. With the confidence of Nehemiah, she trusted that God would provide everything, writing, “What offends Jesus, what wounds His Heart, is the lack of confidence.” And with the radical commitment Jesus demands, she offered every single moment, every inconvenience, every act of charity as a flower of love for the Lord, never looking back.

For us, the application is clear. The Lord is calling each of us to rebuild some part of His Kingdom—perhaps the ruin of a family relationship, the brokenness in our workplace, or the loneliness in our community. Like Nehemiah, we must pray for the courage to speak and act, trusting that God will provide the grace.

And in our following, we will face the same excuses. “I’ll follow you, Lord, once my life is more settled, once I’ve taken care of this or that.” But Jesus calls us now. He asks for the courage to make Him the absolute priority, to stop looking back with regret or sideways at what others have. St. Thérèse shows us that this total commitment is lived in the “little way” of the present moment: by embracing the duty before us with love, by offering a patient smile when we are irritated, by trusting in His mercy when we fail.

May her intercession give us a confident and undivided heart, so that we may answer the call of the Lord with the simple, courageous love that leads to sanctity.

Amen.