September 27, 2026 ~ 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Year A

Spiritual Reflection

 September 27, 2026 ~ 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Year A (pdf)

Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kingdom of God before you."  Mt 21: 31

 In this last chapter, I would like to explain “the Theresian little way” because Thérèse of the Child Jesus proposes to us a holiness for the poor and the imperfect.

This little way of the imperfect, this road of imperfection that opens the door of holiness to the weak and the poor, is first a consciousness that God is mercy, par excellence, to the point that he descends toward a soul that recognizes its misery and has confidence in him. Thérèse of the Child Jesus discovered mercy to the extent that God’s Love is a love that thrusts itself from the top to the bottom, that descends, that searches for the poor and the little one – especially because he is little – in order to fill him completely. Thérèse says that mercy is for the little one because mercy is great and he is little. Her way, her little way, is a call to holiness which opens to all the poor and little ones.

Thérèse thinks that it is a need of God to be able to descend as low as possible to transform the poor and the imperfect by the fire of his merciful Love. Thérèse then explains that Love must lower itself because the more Love descends, meaning the more it gives itself to the poor, the more it can shower down holiness. Love’s joy is complete when it can lower itself to nothingness in order to transform it into fire. If holiness consists in entering fully into this desire of the merciful God, it is actualized by a descent into our poverty – that “nothingness” (nada) spoken of by Saint John of the Cross – by the theological confidence which transforms into a receptive capacity. Little Thérèse thinks that mercy has such a need of giving freely that it is only satisfied when descending to the depths of misery. . .

Thérèse chose to side with the little ones and the poor and to eat at the table of sinners. Her way is the little way of “the imperfect” and the poor. Thus, she chose descent and imperfection. “Let us side humbly with the poor,” she said. Father Bernard Bro tells us to what extent this little way of the poor opens the door of holiness to the wounded: 

To adopt this attitude toward oneself, which is to accept suffering without bitterness, to accept being crushed by incompetence, weariness, powerlessness, by sin itself perhaps, all this becomes the way toward poverty of heart that obtains everything from God. In one swoop, Thérèse jumps over many threats that had suffocated many centuries of Christianity . . . Before her, for many generations of Christians, in order to become a hero, someone good, it was necessary to learn insensibility in the image of the stoic Greek and Roman philosophers. One needed to be “good” to approach God. Thérèse of the Child Jesus cries out to us in an opposite way – from darkness to confidence – her little way offered to all, which can become for all the way to find God. Thérèse shows us that, before her, holiness appeared to be reserved to privileged and distinguished souls – the great souls. This holiness is proposed to all: “Yes,” she said, “your anguish, your fears, your weakness, your temptations can become the way to God.” She opens the door of holiness to the poorest, the most destitute, the most ruined among us.

André Daigneault, The Way of Imperfection, pp.120, 128-129

References from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

545     Jesus invites sinners to the table of the kingdom: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." He invites them to that conversion without which one cannot enter the kingdom, but shows them in word and deed his Father's boundless mercy for them and the vast "joy in heaven over one sinner who repents".  The supreme proof of his love will be the sacrifice of his own life "for the forgiveness of sins". 

725     Finally, through Mary, the Holy Spirit begins to bring men, the objects of God's merciful love, into communion with Christ. And the humble are always the first to accept him: shepherds, magi, Simeon and Anna, the bride and groom at Cana, and the first disciples.

Questions for Reflection

1.             How has this reflection enlightened my understanding of God’s need to descend as low as possible to reach me in the depths of my sinfulness and the misery that comes with it?
2.             How can accepting suffering without bitterness, or being crushed by incompetence, weariness, powerlessness, by sin itself, be the path of entering fully into the desire of the merciful God so I may become holy?
3.             In what ways can Mary be my help toward communion of life with Christ in God’s merciful love?

Prayer after Sharing

Thank you, God, for allowing me to see the truth about my weaknesses and how it calls upon the abyss of your merciful Love.