He opened the book of nature before me, and I saw
that every flower He has created has a beauty of its own, that the splendor of
the rose and the lily’s whiteness do not the deprive the violet of it’s scent
nor make less ravishing the daisy’s charm.
I saw that if every little flower wished to be a rose, nature would lose
her spring adornments, and the fields would be no longer enameled with their
varied flowers.-St. Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul.
In this beautiful analogy the type of flower seems to
symbolize the type of vocation given to a person by God and the detailed
differences between two flowers of the same species shows the difference
between people with the same vocation lies with the details. Each one of these flowers are supposed to
bloom in holiness and show God’s greatness though them. Just as a flower cannot
grow and bloom without the sun and the rain neither can a person grow and bloom
in holiness without the Son and showers of His grace. It is up to the flower to accept the Rain and
Sunlight and if it is unwilling to accept these things because of the desire to
become a different kind of flower or not become a flower of holiness at all,
then it will wither up and die and shall be cast into the fire. The weeds of worldly desires may choke up the
flower and prevent its growth or the rocky ground that does not allow the
flower to deepen its roots of faith and humility will be become burnt up by the
sun.
The lily should not try to become a rose nor a rose a
lily. Each one is beautiful in their own
way and cannot be compared, for sometimes the Gardener desires to look upon the
daisy and sometimes the lilies and sometimes the rose. “I tell you again and again, my brethren that
in the Lord’s garden are to be found not only the roses of the Martyr. In it there are also the lilies of the
virgins, the ivy of wedded couples, and the violets of widows.” (St. Augustine,
Sermon on Feast of St. Lawrence). If the
ivy tries to become the lily how will it survive for each needs to grow in its
own environment that suits the purpose of the plant in order to grow and
glorify the Gardener.
It does not make one less perfect because they are
something different than their brothers and sisters for the happier one is to
be as Christ wills him or her to be, the more perfect they become (St. Therese
of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul). How
could perfection lie outside of what makes us grow, the Son and showers of
grace? Just as the sun shines equally on
the cedar and the little flower, so the Divine Sun shines equally on everyone,
great and small (St. Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul).
Then
when we do bloom we should not try to be humble and say that we are
unattractive and without scent (St. Therese, The Story of a Soul). Only someone who exalts themselves could say
something like this because only they would think of humility as speaking
poorly of the gifts God has given them.
The truly humble soul has no reason to say that they are unattractive
and without scent for they know that they are not the source, so instead of
insulting Gods gifts to them there soul magnifies the Lord (Lk. 1:46).
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