The Ministry of the Smile

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, known as the Little Flower, experienced a healing when she was only ten years old. She speaks about it in her autobiography, The Story of a Soul. Little Thérèse was suffering from an inexplicable illness that involved convulsions, fever and hallucinations. Her suffering was compounded by the death of her mother and the loss of her oldest sister, Pauline, who had left the family to enter the Carmelite Convent of Lisieux.

On May 13, 1883 as Thérèse languished in bed, her sisters Marie, Leonie and Celine knelt at her side praying. Thérèse wrote in her autobiography, “A miracle was necessary and it was Our Lady of Victories who worked it… I was suffering very much from this forced and inexplicable struggle, and Marie (her sister) was suffering even more than I. After some futile attempts to show me she was by my side, Marie knelt down near my bed… Turning to the Blessed Virgin and praying with the fervor of a mother begging for the life of a child, Marie obtained what she wanted.”

Thérèse then describes her part in this holy drama. “Finding no help on earth, poor little Thérèse had also turned toward her Mother of heaven, and prayed with all her heart that she take pity on her. All of a sudden, the Blessed Virgin appeared beautiful to me, so beautiful that never had I seen anything so attractive; her face was suffused with an ineffable benevolence and tenderness, but what penetrated to the very depths of my soul was the ravishing smile of the Blessed Virgin. At that instant, all my pain disappeared… Ah, I thought, the Blessed Virgin smiled at me…” She was cured.

This beautiful smile little Thérèse experienced was the facial expression she saw on a statue in her sickroom. She saw a smile cross the Virgin’s face on a statue in her room similar to the image on the Miraculous Medal, the Blessed Mother standing on the globe, her heel crushing the head of the serpent, her hands extended down with graces pouring from them into our lives. This image of Mary is also known as Our Lady of Victories, because, through her Son, she is victorious over the Evil One and his plans.
The smile of Our Lady healed little Thérèse and drew her ever closer to Jesus. This has made me think of the power of a smile to heal the hearts of those who are far from God, far from the Church, not coming to Mass or the Sacraments.

As Father Freedy, Dave VanVickle and I continue to offer our Encounter Parish Missions, I am amazed at the number of smiles I have seen on the faces of people coming to the mission. They are filled with joy as they hear the Gospel preached, as they pray the Rosary together and as they kneel before the Eucharistic Jesus while a procession with the Blessed Sacrament weaves around the church and the Eucharistic Lord stops to bless them.

The smiles of joy I have seen on our people’s faces is a powerful healing message to invite people back to Mass and confession. By the grace of their baptism these smiling Christians are given the mission of being evangelizers. An invitation with a smile to come back to Mass, a promise of prayer with a smile to those who are suffering, a deed of charity done with a smile—all these smiling encounters are powerful ways of proclaiming the Gospel and bringing people to Christ.

I call it the “Ministry of the Smile.” We all can exercise this ministry. It does not cost us a penny. It does not require advanced theological knowledge. All it takes is our acceptance of God’s freely given grace and our hearts filled with faith and the desire to bring our brothers and sisters to the Savior.

Think what a different world we would have if everyone exercised the Ministry of the Smile. Imagine how full our churches would be for Mass. How much more charity, kindness, love and respect would characterize our relationships!

I am convinced that a smiling welcome to people can be the vital first step in bringing them back to Jesus who reaches out to heal them and bring them hope.  Just as the Blessed Virgin’s smile brought healing to St. Therese, so, too, our smile and words of faith can bring the healing love of Christ to others.

Evangelization is not a complicated process. To set it in motion, it takes open hearts, deep faith and the willingness to smile at someone who needs Jesus.

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh