“You know very well that our dear Lord does not focus so much on the greatness of our works, nor even on their difficulty, but rather on the love with which we perform them.” —St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus
These are the words of the same saint who said she wanted to be love in the heart of the Church, thus discovering the deepest meaning of her vocation. St. Thérèse understood that everything comes from God’s love and that everything we do must be imbued with that love, which is, so to speak, the exquisite flavor of all our works.
In this way, the saint deeply understood the Heart of our Father, who made all things out of love. Anyone who discovers this truth will find His love in everything, no matter how small, because everything our Father created is good.
Although sin can disfigure this beauty and the horror of darkness seeks to destroy everything, the original goodness of creation remains. And with God’s help, human beings are still capable of doing good, because their nature has not been completely destroyed by sin.
Saint Thérèse understands this, so she focuses on what is essential: it is love that gives value to all our actions, however insignificant they may seem. Thus, this path to holiness is within everyone’s reach. Man does not need to know everything to love; he does not have to be capable of everything to love; he does not have to possess everything to love. No, he simply has to lift his gaze to the Father and carry out all his activities willingly and out of love for Him. He only has to look at his neighbor with the eyes of the Lord to serve him out of charity. A smile, a word of comfort, a small gesture… There are so many possibilities for growing in love!
If Lucifer closed himself off to love and focused only on himself, then we can conclude, conversely, that putting our Father’s love into practice will be the remedy for this lost and often cold world. God’s love redeems us, and if everything we do—even in secret—is motivated by this love, we will bring light to the world. This is what our Father wants to see: His love reflected in us. That is more important than the greatest feats we can accomplish in the most difficult circumstances, if they are not imbued with the exquisite flavor of love.