November 24 through November 30

* * * * *

(November 24, 2024: Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe)

* * * * *

“His Dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away; his kingship shall not be destroyed.”

Today we celebrate Christ’s kingship, Christ’s power, Christ’s royal character.  Unlike earthly kings, however, Christ’s dominion, as we hear in the Book of the Prophet Daniel, is an everlasting dominion.  Unlike other kings, Christ’s reign will never pass away.

What kind of king is Christ?  How is his dominion unique among other monarchs?  We look to the words of St. Francis de Sales in a conference on “Hope” he gave to the Sisters of the Visitation in 1620. The occasion was the founding of yet another Visitation community (some 80+ of which were established by the time St. Jane de Chantal died in 1641):

“You have always only one and the same king, our crucified Lord, under whose authority you will live secure and safe wherever you may be.  Do not fear lacking anything, for as long as you do not choose any other king, he will always be with you.  Take care to increase in love and fidelity towards Christ’s divine goodness, keeping as close to this king as possible, and then all will be well with you.  Learn from him all that you have to do.  Do nothing without his advice.  This king is the faithful friend who will guide you and govern you and take care of you as, with all my heart, I ask him to do.”

No benign dictator here!  No benevolent tyrant here!  No monarch here who lords his power over others!  No self-serving leader here who consolidates his wealth or influence at the expense of others!

Christ is a crucified king.  He is a monarch who lays down his life for others.  His dominion serves the needs of others.  His prestige gives others guidance and hope.  His wisdom provides sound advice.  His commonwealth is all about faithful, loving friendship.

Francis de Sales (as he so often does) really nailed it when he wrote in his Introduction to the Devout Life: “We lose nothing by living generously, nobly, courteously, and with a royal, just and noble heart.” (Part II, Chapter 36)

Like Christ, we are called to use our God-given power and promise to serve the needs of others.  Like Christ, our royal “divine right” demands that we love one another with “a royal, just and noble heart.”

Today, consider - how do we use our “divine right” as sons and daughters of God?

* * * * *

(November 25, 2024: Monday, Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“She has offered her whole livelihood…”

In a conference to the Sisters of the Visitation, Francis de Sales observed:

“The esteem in which humility holds all good gifts, namely, faith hope and charity, is the foundation of generosity of spirit. Take notice that the first gifts of which we spoke belong to the exercise of humility and the others to generosity. Humility believes that it can do nothing, considering its poverty and weakness as far as depends on ourselves. On the contrary, generosity makes us say with St. Paul, ‘I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.’ Humility makes us distrust ourselves, whereas generosity makes us trust in God. You see, then that humility and generosity are so closely joined and united to one another that they are and never can be separated.” (Conferences, “On Generosity” pp. 75-76)

We see this humility and generosity on display in today’s Gospel. Whereas some wealthy people who contributed to the temple treasury were relying more on themselves for their welfare (they made sure that they had plenty for themselves in reserve) before giving to others, the poor widow – we are told – gave to the treasury without squirreling anything away for herself first, strongly suggesting that she was relying more on God for her welfare. The wealthy contributed with conditions; the widow contributed without conditions.

Today, whether we have a lot or a little, what steps can we take to store up riches less for ourselves and more for others?

* * * * *

(November 26, 2024: Tuesday, Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“When you hear of wars and insurrections do not be terrified…”

In this age of 24-7 news cycles, one could be forgiven for being “terrified” from time to time. After all, we never seem to get a break. Whether around the corner or around the world, we are constantly exposed to a never-ending dose of unsettling news reports: stories of violence, accounts of revenge and descriptions of disasters. One could make the argument that you would have to be crazy to be unconcerned or unaffected by reports of economic, social, political and/or military turmoil!

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“With the single exception of sin, anxiety is the greatest evil than can happen to a soul. Just as sedition and internal disorders bring total ruin to a state and leave it helpless to resist a foreign invader, so also if our hearts are inwardly troubled and disturbed, they lose both the strength necessary to maintain the virtues they had acquired and the means to resist the temptations of the enemy. He then uses his utmost to fish – as they say – in troubled waters.” (IDL, Part IV, Chapter 11, pp. 251-252)

Francis de Sales believed that people should be informed. We should be aware – and where applicable, concerned – of the things that are happening around us. More importantly, however, is the need to know what is happening inside of us. We need to know the state of our minds and hearts. After all, sometimes the effects of the “wars and insurrections” that may surround us are nothing in comparison with the “wars and insurrections” that rage within us!

Trouble is a part of life. Don’t make it worse by allowing the trouble to upset you on the inside to the point where you can’t manage it on the outside - for your own sake, as well as for the sake of those who depend on you.

* * * * *

(November 27, 2024: Wednesday, Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Great and wonderful are your works.”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“The soul that takes great pleasure in God’s goodness…desires that His name be always more and more blessed, exalted, praised, honored and adored. In this praise due to God the soul begins with its own heart...The soul imitates the great Psalmist who considered the marvels of God’s goodness, and then on the altar of his heart immolated a mystic victim: the utterances of his voice in hymns of psalms of admiration and blessings.” (Living Jesus, p. 286)

When’s the last time you considered the “great and wonderful” things that God has done and is doing in your life and in the lives of others?

Today, how can you bless, exalt, praise, honor and adore God for his goodness? Not just in words, but also in deeds!

 * * * * *

(November 28, 2024: Thanksgiving Day)

* * * * *

“He fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him…”

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“Consider that a certain number of years ago you did not yet exist. God has drawn you out from nothingness so as to make you what you are now and has done so solely out of his own goodness. Consider the nature God has given you. It is the highest in this visible world, is capable of eternal life and able to be perfectly united with God’s Divine Majesty…God has placed you in this world not because God has any need of you but because God wishes to exercise his goodness in you by giving you his grace and glory. For this purpose, God has given you intelligence to know him, memory to be mindful of him, will to love him, imagination to picture his benefits to yourself, eyes to see His wonderful works, and tongues to praise him, just to mention a few…Consider the corporeal benefits that God has bestowed on you: the body itself, all goods provided for its maintenance, health, comforts friend, supporters and other helps… By noting each and every particular blessing you will perceive how gentle and gracious God has been to you.” (IDL, Part I, Chapters 9- 11, pp. 53 -57)

How can we possibly even begin to give thanks for everything that God has given – and continues to give – to us? Francis de Sales offers a suggestion, just as God has been gentle and gracious to us, may we strive to be equally – or at least, somewhat – as gentle and gracious to others on this Thanksgiving Day…and every day!

* * * * *

(November 29, 2024: Friday, Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * * 

“Consider the fig tree and all other trees…” 

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales observed:

“The cross is the root of every grace received by us who are spiritual grafts attached to our Savior’s body. Having been so engrafted if we abide in him, then by means of the life of grace he communicates to us we shall certainly bear the fruit of glory prepared for us. But if we are mere inert sprigs or grafts on that tree - that is, if by resistance we break the progress and effects of His mercy - it will be no wonder if in the end we are wholly cut off and thrown into everlasting fire as useless branches.”

“God undoubtedly prepared paradise only for such as he foresaw would be his. Therefore, let us be his both by faith and by our works, and he will be ours by glory. It is in our power to be his, for although to belong to God is a gift from God, yet it is a gift that God denies to no one. God offers it to all people so as to give it to such as will sincerely consent to receive it. He gives us both his death and his life: his life so that we may be freed from eternal death, his life so that we can enjoy eternal life. Let us live in peace, then, and serve God so as to be his in this mortal life and still more so in life eternal.” (TLG, Part III, Book 5, pp. 178-179)

Francis de Sales insists that our future depends heavily upon our present. At any given moment we can think, feel and act in ways bring us closer to either (1) redemption or (2) damnation. It all comes down to how deeply grafted we are onto the heart – and the cross – of Christ.

* * * * *

(November 30, 2024: Andrew, Apostle)

* * * * *

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!”

In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas J. Craughwell writes:

“Andrew and his brother Peter were sitting in their fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee, repairing their nets, when Christ called to them, saying, ‘Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ Although the brothers did leave their boat to follow the Lord, they never stopped catching fish: it was how they supported themselves and their families.”

“Time and time again the Gospels take us back to the Sea of Galilee: on one occasion, Jesus climbed into Peter and Andrew’s boat to preach to a crowd on the shore; on another, while the brothers and some of the other disciples were out fishing, they saw Jesus advancing toward them by walking on the water. After a long night of fishing and catching nothing, Christ urged the brothers to go out to the deepest part of the sea and lower their nets one more time. This time the catch was so great that the fishing nets broke, and Peter and Andrew had to signal to their fellow apostles and business partners James and John to come help them haul in the fish. And, when there was nothing for the crowd of five thousand to eat, it was Andrew who brought forward a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish, which Christ multiplied to feed the multitude…with much leftover to boot.”

“Tradition says that St. Andrew carried the Gospel to Greece. At the town of Patras he was arrested and tied to an X-shaped cross. The legend claims that it took him three dies to die, and the entire time he hung on the cross St. Andrew preached to all who passed by.” (p. 179)

Andrew - once a fisherman, always a fisherman. A fisherman doesn’t get to pick the day, time, situations or circumstances in which he fishes. He simply fishes, come what may. Such an avocation requires tenacity, patience, determination and a willingness to go wherever a “catch” might be found. Perhaps, that’s why Jesus called him to be a disciple: such qualities could come in quite handy when it came to preaching the Good News.

Jesus calls each of us - in our own unique ways - to be fishers of “men.”

Today, to what degree does Jesus see in us the same qualities he saw in Andrew?

* * * * *

November 17 through November 23

* * * * *

(November 17, 2024: Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“But of that day or hour, no one knows it…except the Father.”

Scripture is very clear: the world as we know it will pass away.  Scripture also makes it very clear that we cannot hope to know “the exact day or hour” that moment will come.

Still, it is only natural that we sometimes become anxious when we imagine that the world as we know it will cease to be.  It is even more understandable that we should become anxious when we consider the inevitability of our own personal death.  Here, too, however, we do not know “the exact day or hour.”

Francis de Sales himself reminds us: “We, in this life, are walking, as it were, on ice.” How should we deal with the reality that one day our earthly lives will end?

We deal with an uncertain future by living well each and every present moment.  The present moment is the only time we have at our disposal.  The present moment is the only time we have to make choices that either help – or hinder – our efforts at preparing for eternity.

St. Francis de Sales advises us:

“Keep your eyes fixed on that blissful day of eternity toward which the course of years bears on us; and these as they pass, they themselves pass by us stage by stage until we reach the end of the road.  But meanwhile, in these passing moments there lies enclosed, as in a tiny kernel, the seed of all eternity; and in our humble little works of devotion there lies hidden the prize of everlasting glory, and in the little pains we take to serve God there lies the traces of bliss that can never end.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 236)

To the extent that we live each present moment we can experience the gift of peace. St. Francis de Sales observed:

“We must in all things and everywhere live peacefully. If trouble, exterior or interior, comes upon us, we must receive it peacefully.  If joy comes, we must receive it peacefully, without throbbing of heart.  If we must avoid evil, we must do so peacefully, without disquieting ourselves.  If there is some good to be done, we must do this peacefully, too.”

And so then, place yourself in the hands and heart of Jesus who, St. Francis reminds us, is “the Prince of peace: where you make him your absolute master, all is peace.”  Place yourself in the hands and heart of Jesus who is the master of each present moment. For when you live each present moment there, you are best prepared for your last moment.

When we are at peace, when we live intentionally, we can handle everything that life has in store for us - everything, including death itself…a death that leads to eternal life.

* * * * *

(November 18, 2024: Monday, Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Lord, please let me see…”

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales offered wrote:

“God is in all things and places. There is no place or thing in this world in which God is not truly present. Everyone knows this truth in theory, but not everyone puts this knowledge to good effect. Blind men do not see a prince who is present among them, and therefore do not show him the respect they do after being informed of his presence. However, because they do not actually see the prince they easily forget he is there, and once they forget this fact, they still more easily lose the respect and reverence owed to him. Unfortunately, we frequently lose sight of the God who is with us. Although faith assures us of his presence, we forget about him and behave as if God were a long way off because we do not see him with our eyes. While we may tell ourselves and others that God is present in all things, we often act as if this were not true because we fail to remind ourselves of God’s presence.” (IDL, Part II, Chapter 2, p.84)

Despite the fact that the blind man in today’s Gospel could not actually see Jesus, it is crystal clear that he showed Jesus respect and reverence. What is the moral of the story? Even when we lose sight of how Jesus acts in our lives and in the eyes of other people day in and day out, it is always within our power to show him the respect and reverence by acting as Jesus did in showing respect and reverence for others.

* * * * *

(November 19, 2024: Tuesday, Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“And he came down quickly and received him with joy…”

The story of Jesus and Zacchaeus highlights an aspect of the Salesian notion of devotion - enthusiasm. Jesus only has to tell Zacchaeus once to “come down quickly.” For his part, Zacchaeus came down as quickly as he could!

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“When charity reaches a degree on perfection at which it not only makes us do good but also to do this carefully, frequently and promptly. It is called devotion. Ostriches never fly; hens fly in a clumsy fashion, near the ground and only on occasion; but eagles, doves and swallows fly aloft, swiftly and frequently. Good people who have not as yet attained this devotion by toward God by their good works but do so infrequently, slowly and awkwardly. Devout souls fly to him more frequently, promptly and with lofty flights.” (TLG, Book VIII, Chapter 4, p. 64)

This description certainly describes Zacchaeus to a tee. Here is a man with a great sense of urgency. He literally flew down to Jesus at the invitation to spend time with him. Once he arrived at his home with Jesus, Zacchaeus was just as quick to declare his intention to share his good fortune with those less fortunate than him as well as to make things right with anyone who might have a grievance against him.

How quick will we be this day to respond to Jesus’ invitation to spend time with him? How quick will we be to share our good fortune with others? How quick will we be to make things right with anyone who might have a grievance against us?

* * * * *

(November 20, 2024: Wednesday, Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“To everyone who has, more will be given.”

Everyone who has…what? Perhaps it’s the courage to say “yes.” Perhaps it’s the courage to take the risks that come with that “yes.”

In today’s Gospel two of the three servants took a risk when they invested that which their master had entrusted to them. As a result, they were able to make a return on their master’s investment with salutatory results. By contrast, the third servant – afraid that he might lose what his master had entrusted to him – played it safe by simply sitting on what he had received: with dire results.

Yesterday we were reminded of God’s distaste for indifference. Today, we are reminded of God’s impatience regarding inaction brought about by fear: fear of failure and perhaps sometimes even fear of success. Better to be hot or cold than indifferent; better to have risked everything and lost than to have never risked whatever it is your received.

Consider what God has entrusted to you. Consider what God has invested in you. How can you make a return to God today for his generosity to you?

Trust in God; take a risk.

* * * * *

(November 21, 2018: Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

* * * * *

“To everyone who has, more will be given.”

Everyone who has…what? Perhaps it’s the courage to say ‘yes.’ Perhaps it’s the courage to take the risks that come with that “yes”.

In today’s Gospel two of the three servants took a risk when they invested that which their master had entrusted to them. As a result, they were able to make a return on their master’s investment with salutatory results. By contrast, the third servant – afraid that he might lose what his master had entrusted to him – played it safe by simply sitting on what he had received - with dire results.

Yesterday, in the selection from the Book of Revelation, we heard of God’s distaste for indifference. Today, we hear of God’s impatience regarding inaction brought about by fear - fear of failure and perhaps sometimes even fear of success. Better to be hot or cold than indifferent; better to have risked everything and lost than to have never risked whatever it is you received.

Today, consider what God has entrusted to you. Consider what God has invested in you. How can you make a return to God for his generosity to you?

* * * * *

 (November 22, 2024: Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr)

* * * * *

“My house shall be a house of prayer…”

This quote from today’s Gospel goes much deeper than talking about a building. This quote has little or nothing to do with why we should be quiet in church. From a Salesian point of view, this quote goes to the heart of what it means to be human.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“God is not only in the place where you are, but God is also present in a most particular manner in your heart and in the very center of your spirit. He enlivens and animates it by his divine presence, for he is there as the heart of your heart and the spirit of your spirit.  Just as the soul is diffused throughout the entire body and is therefore present in every part of the body but resides in a special manner in the heart, so also God is present in all things but always resides in a special manner in our spirit.” (IDL, Part II, Chapter 2, p. 85)

God dwells in a very particular way within the heart – within the spirit and soul – of each and every one of us. In effect, then, as we hear in the First Letter of Peter, we are called to live “like living stones, letting ourselves be built into a spiritual house … acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”. (2:4-5) Using the words from the New Roman Missal, notwithstanding that we may be unworthy to have God enter “under our roof”, God is very much alive and at work in the very core of our being, enlivening us and animating us to meet the demands, challenges and invitations that come our way each and every day.

Each of us, then, is a house of prayer. Each of us is a particular manifestation and expression of the God in whose image and likeness we are created. And insofar as prayer is a dialogue, our fundamental vocation is to be engaged in conversation with God as we try our level best to bring out the best in our little corners of the world.

How can we be that house of God today in the lives of one another?

* * * * *

(November 23, 2024: Saturday, Thirty-third Week in Ordinary time)

* * * * *

“He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

In his commentary on today’s passage from Luke’s Gospel, William Barclay observed:

“Jesus gave the Sadducees an answer that has a permanently valid truth to it. He said that we must not think of heaven in terms of this earth. Life there will be quite different because we will be quite different. It would save a mass of misdirected ingenuity – and no small amount of heartache – if we ceased to speculate on what heaven is like and left such things to the love of God.” (pp. 250-251)

But there is also another takeaway from today’s Gospel, according to Barclay:

“Out of this arid passage emerges a great truth for anyone who teaches or who wishes to commend Christianity to one’s fellows. Jesus used arguments that the people he was arguing with could understand. Jesus talked to them in their own language; he met them on their own ground; and that is precisely why the common people heard him gladly.” (251)

William Barclay’s insight here is very much in keeping with Fr. Brisson’s understanding of one of the fundamental qualities of Salesian spirituality – if you want to speak to the hearts of people, you (1) need to meet them where they are and (2) use words that they can understand.

How might we “Live + Jesus” just this day by meeting others where they are…and speaking to them in ways that they can understand?

* * * * *

November 10 through November 16

* * * * *

(November 10, 2024: Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

In the first reading today and in the Gospel, we meet two widows who have one thing in common - both put their trust in God rather than in things. In turn, both are rewarded and recognized for their trust and for their faith in God.

In the first reading, the widow is a foreigner to the Hebrews. She is from Zarephath, a coastal city on the Mediterranean. Elijah traveled through this land during a famine. As in all famines, the rich complain, and the poor starve. The woman was poor. When Elijah met up with her, she was putting her last scraps together before she and her son would die. Imagine a stranger going up to this woman and asking for food in the name of the Lord. And imagine this woman putting her faith in God and feeding the prophet. Because of her putting her total trust in God, she received enough to eat for a full year.

In the Gospel, the widow puts two small coins into the temple treasury. Jesus said that her donation, although it seemed insignificant, was tremendous because she gave all that she had. Her donation was an act of faith that God would provide for what she needed.

What these two widows did is extremely difficult for most of us to imitate. No matter how great our faith is, it is profoundly difficult to put our total trust in God. There is something within us all that looks for solutions to our problems outside of the realm of faith, or at least, to have a back-up plan ready to go if our prayers don’t pan out.

 A great fallacy of our age is that money can solve our problems. It is the job of advertisers to convince us that we can buy happiness. Paradoxically, the happiest of those blessed with material wealth and riches are those who freely share their success with others. Authentic, lasting happiness requires the practice of humility. Only a humble person who recognizes his or her profound need for God is certain that the presence of God in his or her life is fundamental to happiness.

Someday, perhaps we will grow in our ability to acquire the kind of faith that these two widows displayed. But, then again, that is the fundamental reason why we gather together to worship, to pray and to celebrate the Sacraments - while we realize that our faith can always be deepened, we also acknowledge that we cannot do that alone. We need God and we need one another.

* * * * *

(November 11, 2024: Martin of Tours, Bishop)

* * * * *

“I directed you…that a man be blameless…”

The qualities that Paul associates with a “blameless” bishop include not being arrogant, not being irritable, not being a drunkard, not being aggressive, not being greedy for sordid gain. On the positive side, a bishop should also be hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy and self-controlled.

The adjective “blameless” is defined as: “Free of blame or guilt; innocent.” Synonyms include “clear, clean, upright, stainless, honest, immaculate, impeccable, virtuous, unsullied, unimpeachable, untarnished, above suspicion, irreproachable, guiltless, unoffending and above suspicion.”

You get the idea!

But notice what being blameless does not require: it does not require being a sinless person or being a perfect person. However, being blameless does seem to imply that as imperfect as we are – and as sinful as we are – we should be people of integrity.

Bishop or no bishop, it’s probably a safe bet that Jesus expects all of us who bear the name “Christian” to be blameless. Given the fact that He himself shows us how to be blameless and gives us the means to become blameless, can you (wait for it) blame Him?

* * * * *

(November 12, 2024: Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr)

* * * * *

“You must say what is consistent with sound doctrine…so that the word of God may not be discredited.”

What should we infer from today’s selection from Paul’s Letter to Titus? We can talk all we want about what we believe as Christians, but if we really want to give credible witness to the power and promise of God’s word, we need to be more concerned with how we live what we believe. In other words, we actually need to do what we say!

So, what does it look like when we are talking the talk and walking the walk? Paul tells us that we need to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, loving, reverent, self-controlled and chaste…among other virtues.

When push comes to shove, what do authentic, credible Christians look like? Paul suggests we look for folks who are “eager to do what is good.”

Today, can the same be said about us?

* * * * *

(November 13, 2024: Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin and Religious)

* * * * *

“Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

We all have skeletons in our respective closets. We all have things in our past about which we are embarrassed or ashamed. In his Letter to Titus, Paul remarks: “We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another.”

As we considered on Monday, who of us can claim to be ‘blameless’?

And yet, because of God’s mercy – because of God’s generosity – there’s more to us than our past. We can have a new present; we can have a new future. Paul continues: “When the kindness and generous love of God our Savior appeared - not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy - he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.”

The Gospel story of the ten lepers is a powerful illustration of how God’s love can change and transform our past. Jesus cured these men not because of anything that they did to deserve it, but rather Jesus cured them simply because he wished to do so. However, if Jesus did expect anything in return for his pity – for his mercy – for his generosity – he expected some semblance of gratitude.

Today, think about all the good things that God has done for you. Think about how merciful God is. Think about how generous God is. How can we show our gratitude? How can we say “thank you”? Perhaps Paul says it best.

“Be peaceable, considerate, exercising all graciousness toward everyone.”

* * * * *

(November 14, 2024: Thursday, Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“I urge you out of love...so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.”

As the saying goes, there are two ways to get something accomplished - the easy way or the hard way.

In his instructions of preaching, Blessed Louis Brisson observed:

“There are two methods of reaching our neighbors and obtaining their obedience. The first method is the method of authority. ‘I am the master. I have the authority. I command. Obey!’ This is the most common method, but it is not our method. Why? Because it isn’t Our Lord’s method. We don’t see Our Lord speaking or acting like this in the Gospels. He never played the master.”

“There is a second method, the method of persuasion. We don’t wait for souls to come; we go out to meet them. We take a good look at them and we study them up close. We try to discover the point through which we can reach them; we take hold and lift them up by the ‘handle’ which they offer us.” (The Oblate Preacher, James Finnegan, OSFS, trans., p. 61)

You get more cooperation from people by attempting to win them over rather than by running them over. You get more done by being more persuasive than punitive. You get people on your side by urging out of love. Jesus knew it, St. Paul knew it; St. Francis de Sales knew it and Blessed Louis Brisson knew it.

How about you? What method do you use when dealing with other - especially problematic - people?

* * * * *

(November 15, 2024: Friday, Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather...”

We’ve probably all had this experience while travelling by car in the open country - seeing birds circling somewhere in the sky up ahead. As we drew closer to where they were circling, we realized that these were not just any bird but birds of prey. And, at that point, we anticipated what we were going to see within the next minute or two - roadkill. Hence, we associate the gathering – or circling – of vultures with death.

By contrast, what would we expect to see gathering or circling around life? St. Francis de Sales mentions a few of the things for which we should look:

“Patience; meekness; self-discipline; humility; obedience; poverty; chastity; tenderness toward our neighbors; bearing with our neighbors’ imperfections; holy fervor.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 2, p. 127)

Which begs the question: what do other people see gathering – or circling – around us?

* * * * *

(November 16, 2024: Saturday, Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says…”

And what did the unjust judge say? Essentially, he said this: “I will do justice to this woman just to get her off my back.”

Have you ever done something good simply to get someone else to stop bugging you? Have you ever done the right thing just to get someone else to go away? Have you ever done the just thing in order to get someone else to shut up?

Let’s face it. Isn’t it true that sometimes we do the right thing for a less-than-right reason?

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Let us purify all our intentions as best we can. Since we can diffuse throughout all various acts to sacred motive of divine love, why should we not do so? On all occasions we will reject every kind of vicious motive, such as vainglory and self-interest, and consider all the good motives we can have for undertaking the act before us so as to choose the motive of holy love - which is the most excellent of all – and to flood it over all other motives, steeping them in the greatest motive of all....” (TLG, Book XI, Book 14, p. 237)

One might ask, “So, am I supposed to wait until my motives are totally pure before I attempt to do something right?” Lord knows that if that were the case, then the world would really be out of luck! In a perfect world we would always do what is good, righteous and just for only good, righteous and just reasons. But insofar as this is an imperfect world, we should not cease our attempts to do what is good for goodness sake; rather, we should acknowledge the need to purify our intentions even as we struggle to live our lives with other people in a reasonable, just and equitable manner.

May God give us the courage we need just this day to not only do the right thing but also to do the right thing for the right reason!

* * * * *

November 3 through November 9

* * * * *

(November 3, 2024: Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In today’s reading, a scribe - that is, a Pharisee with a degree in canon law - “steps up”, presumably in an attempt to put Jesus down.  Hence, the question: which of the Ten Commandments plus the six hundred and thirteen rules [the Deuteronomic laws] that rabbis believed God orally gave Moses was the most important of all?   

Some rabbis thought all were equally important - a kind of early example of “the seamless garment” notion. Most others used to spend a great deal of time disputing which ones were the greatest.

Jesus’ response is an acceptable one, quoting DT: 6:5 (today’s first reading!), stressing that the love of God must involve the total person: heart, soul, and mind. There are no half measures. Then, Jesus goes on to quote LV19:18, which stresses that we should love our neighbors as ourselves.

Jesus combines these two commandments and declares that they are the foundation of God’s entire revelation. That is, the whole law and the prophets rest on these two pillars. Combining these two may not be unique to Jesus, but it clearly shows his position on his understanding of the Torah.

We have the saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. When one part fails, the entirety fails. This saying also applies to love, too, in regard to the three-link chain of love: for ourselves, for our neighbor and for our God. Note the order in which the “loves” are named in the Gospel, however: God, neighbor and self. Love of self, perhaps, is the trickiest one of all.

On the one hand, love of self (what Francis de Sales referred to as “self-love”) from a solely earthly perspective can all-too-easily revert to infantile behavior - life is all about me. I have trouble learning that I am not the center of the universe - as a young child believes. If I fail to learn to admit that I am a sinner, then I am in for trouble. While I might admit that I am not perfect, I might have trouble admitting being wrong in any specific instance.  Frequently enough, I will do anything to avoid admitting failure. In sum, I have an overblown sense of the person I really am.

On the other hand, some of us may have been love-starved or abused when young in any number of ways. Authority figures or other powerful role models in our early development may have put us down so heavily that our self-image is badly damaged. From a solely earthly perspective, I may have real trouble loving myself. I may see myself as having little or no value. In sum, I sell myself way too short.

The Romans said it well: in medio stat virtus - in the middle (between the extremes) stands virtue. A healthy self-image stands in the middle. I am not the center of the universe, but neither am I a doormat. I need to check for the need for balance on this first step in the progression from what Francis de Sales calls “self-love” to “love of self”. Which begs the question – what is the difference between the two?

Simply put, “self-love” is all about how I see myself from an earthly perspective. “Love of self” is all about how God sees me; that is, with a heavenly perspective.

What better way to live this virtue than how Jesus did it – by meeting others where they are and by meeting ourselves where we are. After all, we can’t love ourselves and others for the person we aren’t – we can only love ourselves and others for the person we are.

As God sees us.

* * * * *

(November 4, 2024: Monday, Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Complete my joy…”

In the movie Sudden Impact (1983), hard-nosed San Francisco detective, Harry Callahan, (played by Clint Eastwood) uttered these now-famous words while challenging a would-be robber to do something stupid (specifically, to pull a gun on him): “Go ahead. Make my day”.

One can hear a parallel in today’s first reading. For all intents and purposes, Paul says the same thing – “Go ahead. Make my day” – while challenging the Philippians to do something good, appealing to “any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, and compassion and mercy.” What will make Paul’s day?

·        Being of the same mind with others

·        Being of the same love with others

·        Being united in heart

·        Doing nothing out of selfishness

·        Putting others first

·        Looking out for others’ interests.

Today, imagine Jesus saying, “Go ahead, make my day” or if you prefer, “Complete my joy”. How can we make Jesus’ day? How can we complete his joy? Try to be of the same mind, heart and love with others. Try to do nothing out of selfishness. Try to put others first by looking out for their interests.

And make your own day – and complete your own joy – in the process!

* * * * *

(November 5, 2024: Tuesday, Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus…”

What does it mean to have the ‘attitude’ of Christ? In his great ‘hymn’ to the Philippians, Paul notes that Jesus did not cling to his divinity nor to his power. However, Jesus’ self-emptying is not self-deprecation, because Jesus viewed his divine power as something which – by its very nature – is meant to be placed at the service of others. His self-emptying is the ultimate expression of divine – and, for that matter, human – generosity!

This ‘attitude’ of Christ lies at the very heart of the Beatitude that Jesus taught (and lived): “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” Blessed – happy – are those who realize that whatever they possess – whoever they are – is designed, deemed and destined, to be shared with others.

Francis de Sales certainly understood the necessity of having the attitude of Christ. “Our possessions are not our own”, he wrote in the Introduction to the Devout Life. “God has given them to us to cultivate and God wants us to make them fruitful and profitable.” How do we make our possessions – our power – “fruitful and profitable?” The Gentleman Saint is quite clear: “Make yourself a servant of the poor.” (IDL, Part Three, Chapter 15, pp. 164-165)

Do you want to have the “attitude” of Christ? Be generous! Put what you have – and who you are – at the service of others.

* * * * *

(November 6, 2024: Wednesday, Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work…”

Am I good or am I evil? Your answer to this question is no mere theoretical or abstract discussion. In the Salesian tradition, at least, the question – and its answer – make all the difference between life and death. If you believe that you are good, odds are that you will think, feel, believe and behave in ways that lead to life. By the same token, if you believe that you are evil, well – not surprisingly – you will in all likelihood think, feel, believe and behave in a manner that lead to death.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“Consider that a certain number of years ago you were not yet in the world and that your present being was truly nothing. The world had already existed for a long time, but of us there was as yet nothing. God has subsequently drawn you out of nothingness to make you what you are and God has done so solely out of his own goodness. Consider the nature God has given to you. It is the highest in this visible world. It is capable of eternal life and of being perfectly united to his Divine majesty.” (IDL, Part One, Chapter 9, p. 53)

During the 1970’s it was quite popular to say, “God doesn’t make junk”. While not exactly high theology, it does get to the heart of the Salesian understanding of human nature. To paraphrase the words of St. Paul, we humans – all of us – are more than capable of serving God’s goodness. As members of the Salesian family, we likewise know that being good and having good are not the same things as doing good. We all fail to live up to our God-given goodness. We all fail to put our goodness into action. We all fall short when it comes to recognizing and sharing our goodness with others.

In other words, as good as we may be, we sometimes do bad things.

Remind yourself throughout this day that God has made you a good person – after all, you are made in God’s very own image and likeness. In like manner remind yourself throughout the day to ask for the grace you need to be instrument’s of God’s good purpose in the lives of other.

* * * * *

(November 7, 2024: Thursday, Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“There will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Whence comes all this rejoicing over repentant sinners? In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“God’s favor floats over all life’s difficulties and finds joy in turning all miseries to the greater profit of those who love him. From toil he makes patience spring forth, contempt of this world from inevitable death, and from concupiscence a thousand victories. Just as the rainbow touches the thorn of aspalathus and makes it smell sweeter than the lily, so our Savior’s redemption touches our miseries and makes them more beneficial and worthy of love than original innocence could ever have been. The angels, says our Savior, have ‘more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just who have no need of repentance.’ So, too, the state of redemption is a hundred times better than that of innocence. Truly, by the watering of our Savior’s blood – made with the hyssop of the cross – have been restored to a white incomparably better than that possessed by the snows of innocence. Like Naaman, we come out of the stream of salvation purer and cleaner than if we had never had leprosy.” (TLG, Book II Chapter 6, pp. 116 – 177)

“Redemption is a hundred times better than innocence.”

Given the fact that all of us suffer from the leprosy of sin in any number of ways, not only should the power of repentance make for rejoicing among the angels in heaven, but this repentance should also produce even greater rejoicing among us here on earth! Who else but God could have the power to turn our sins into a means of our salvation?

* * * * *

 (November 8, 2024: Friday, Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Our citizenship is in heaven…”

In a letter addressed to Jane de Chantal, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Be devoted to St. Louis and admire his great constancy. He became king when he was twelve years old, had nine children, was constantly waging war either against the rebels of enemies of the faith, and reigned as king for over forty years. He made two journeys overseas. In the course of both of these crusades he lost his army, and on the last journey he died of the plague after he had spent much time visiting, helping and serving those who were plague-stricken in his army. He bandaged their sores and cured them, and then died joyfully and with fortitude…I give you this saint for your special patron.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 75)

Francis de Sales clearly held this devout king in very high esteem. Louis IX clearly and convincingly demonstrated how being a citizen of heaven requires Christians to tend to the things of earth. While he may have had a great many things on his plate as the ruler of a realm, Louis’ earthly duties and responsibilities were not an obstacle to living a Christian life. Rather, these very duties provided opportunities and occasions in which he practiced the Christian life and pursued a life of virtue. This was a man who was dedicated to fulfilling his earthly vocation in a heavenly way.

Of course, it is no surprise that Francis de Sales should admire such a noble, generous and down-to-earth saint like Louis IX. After all, Francis de Sales is likewise recognized for his very down-to-earth way of being a heavenly man. Of the “Gentleman Saint”, Jacques Maritain once wrote: “No one better than he has succeeded in showing the marvelous adaptability to the progress of love penetrating every state of life. I do not mean in spite of the temporal commitments of the Christian in the world – I mean because of these very obligations themselves.” (Kelley, Spirit of Love, p. x)

We are citizens of heaven, and we are citizens of earth. How might God challenge us to do justice to this dual citizenship just today? 

* * * * *

(November 9, 2018: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica)

* * * * *

“You are God’s building...”

To construct a building is one thing, but to maintain it is another. Prudent builders/owners not only allot resources for the actual construction of whatever it is they build, but they will also earmark resources for the ongoing upkeep of the building.

In a letter to Madame de Chantal (February 11, 1607), Francis de Sales observed:

“It is not necessary to be always and at every moment attentive to all the virtues in order to practice them; that would twist and encumber your thoughts and feelings too much. Humility and charity are the master beams - all the others are attached to them. We need only hold on to these two: one is at the very bottom and the other at the very top. The preservation of the whole building depends on two things: its foundation and its roof. We do not encounter much difficulty in practicing other virtues if we keep our heart bound to the practice of these two...” (LSD, pp. 148-149)

God – the Master Builder – has constructed each of us in his image and likeness. Today, celebrate the building-of-God that you are! Maintain the gift of your divinely-built edifice with the spiritual foundation and roof most readily available for your good - humility and charity!

* * * * *

October 27 through November 2

* * * * *

(October 27, 2024: Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”

Today’s first reading reminds us of the Lord’s promise to the people of Israel that God will protect them and bring them home for He is “the Father of Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn”. God is particularly solicitous of the weak - the blind and the lame, women with children and those who cannot survive on their own. 

This concern exhibited by a loving Father gives us some glimpse into the unique relationship between God and His people. St. Francis de Sales continually reminds us of God’s love for his creation.  This “truth” certainly makes sense and is very consistent with the fundamental reason for our existence.  After all, what child is not loved by his or her parents in a totally gratuitous fashion?

In the second reading, we are confronted with the role of the high priest, human as we all are.  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews makes clear that the high priest is able to be compassionate because he, himself, is a wounded healer.  Here again, we see the gratuitous nature of our relationship to our God.  God gives us a vocation, no matter what our state in life.  It is not ours to take, but rather to respond to his invitation.

The Gospel recounts the story of the blind beggar, Bartimaeus.  What a powerful example of how deeply God loves all of us, but especially those who are disadvantaged.  This relationship, while gratuitous, is not passive – in fact, there is a real sense of mutuality on display here. Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus to have pity on him. Jesus, in return, restore the sight of the blind man. The blind man asks that he might be able to see and Jesus tells him that his faith has saved him.

In other words, both men contributed to an interaction that resulted in a miracle!

We ask for the faith that we need to see the fundamental relationship between God and his people.  Sometimes, our own brands of blindness prevent us from seeing the unique God-given goodness in other people.  Perhaps even more tragically, our blindness prevents us from seeing the unique, God-given goodness in ourselves. This inability to see the good imprisons us and others by denying the possibility of maximizing our gifts and talents for our own good and the good of our brothers and sisters. 

Francis de Sales challenges us to emulate the faith of Bartimaeus. He challenges us to be confident enough in our own intrinsic self-worth that we dare to ask our Lord that we might see more of whom we – as well are others – really are, especially in the sight of God.

* * * * *

(October 28, 2024: Simon and Jude, Apostles)

* * * * *

“He called his disciples to himself…”

Remember the hit TV comedy series Cheers? These are the words from the show’s theme song:

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go here everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.
You wanna go where people know, people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.

In today’s Gospel we hear that even Jesus knew that “making your way in the world…takes everything you’ve got” and that “taking a break from all your worries sure can help a lot”, so he went up to the top of a mountain by himself to spend time in prayer with his Father. The next day, he calls his disciples to himself and named his Apostles. And to this day – nearly two thousand years later – everybody knows their names.

Just today, how can we make a name for ourselves in the service of God and neighbor? Today, how can we treat others in ways that makes them “glad you came”?

* * * * *

(October 29, 2024: Tuesday, Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“To what can I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like a mustard seed…”

It seems paradoxical that Jesus would describe something as vast as the Kingdom of God in terms of one of the smallest of all seeds: the mustard seed. Still, consider how St. Francis de Sales describes eternity in a letter to the Duc de Bellegarde (Peer and Master of the Horse at the courts of both Henri IV and Louis XIII of France):

“Keep your eyes steadfastly fixed on that blissful day of eternity towards which the course of years bears us on; and these as they pass, themselves pass us stage by stage until we reach the end of the road. But meanwhile, in these passing moments there lies enclosed as in a tiny kernel the seed of all eternity; and in our humble little works of devotion there lies hidden the prize of everlasting glory, and the little pains we take to serve God lead to the repose of a bliss that can never end...” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 236)

Indeed, the Kingdom of God is a big thing. In fact, it is the biggest and the broadest of all things. As Jesus reminds us, however – and as Francis de Sales underscores – sometimes the biggest of things come in very small, ordinary and everyday packages!

* * * * *

(October 30, 2024: Wednesday, Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“You have a Master in heaven in whom there is no partiality...”

In today’s selection from his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul outlines a sort of shorthand guide as to how people should treat one another. Children are supposed to honor their parents. Parents are supposed to raise their children without provoking or angering them. Slaves are supposed to serve their masters. Masters must not bully or abuse their slaves.

When it comes to showing respect, there is no caste system in the Kingdom of God. Regardless of how lofty or lowly our positions in this life may be, we are all expected to do “the will of God from the heart…knowing that each person will be requited from the Lord for whatever good” we do. To that end, Paul warns us that we will all be judged by how we treat other people because when it comes to honoring others, God shows no partiality and God has no favorites.

Recall this exhortation in Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life:

“Be just and equitable in all your actions. Always put yourself in your neighbor’s place and place your neighbor in yours, and then you will act justly. Imagine yourself the seller when you buy and the buyer when you sell and you will sell – and buy – justly. Examine your heart often to see if it is such toward your neighbor as you would like your neighbor to be toward you were you in his or her place. This is the touchstone of true reason...” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 36, p. 217)

When it comes to honoring others – and when it comes to treating them with justice, then just don’t do it in the hope of “currying favor” with God, but do it simply because it is the right thing to do.

And start today!!!

* * * * *

(October 31, 2024: Thursday, Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time/Halloween)

* * * * *

“Trick or treat!!!”

“Trick-or-treating or guising is a customary practice for children on Halloween in many countries. Children wearing costumes travel from house to house in order to ask for treats such as candy (or, in some cultures, money) with the question ‘Trick or treat?’ The ‘trick’ is a (usually idle) threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given to them. In North America, trick-or-treating became an ever-growing phenomenon Halloween tradition in the years following the lifting in 1947 of nationwide sugar rationing that had occurred during WWII.”

“The tradition of going from door to door receiving food already existed in Great Britain and Ireland in the form of ‘souling’, where children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for cakes. Guising, that is, children disguised in costumes going from door to door for food and coins also predates trick-or-treating, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895, where masqueraders - in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips - visited homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish, the North American custom of saying “trick or treat” has become the norm.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-or-treating)

(NOTE: in the United States Halloween has become one of the most popular social events for adults, second only to News Years Eve.)

Many of us will be opening our doors countless times tonight for little ghosts, ghouls and goblins that are wearing disguises and hoping for treats. Isn’t it reassuring that when we approach God in prayer for the many good things that we seek on behalf of ourselves or others that we don’t need to be disguised – that we don’t need to wear masks – that we don’t need to pretend to be something or someone we’re not?  Isn’t it wonderful that we can simply be who we are on this earth without the need to hide our faces from a God who loves us for the people we are?

Of course, there’s no ‘trick’ to expressing our gratitude to a God who loves us for the people we are. The best way is to ‘treat others in the same way, that is, to love them not for whom they aren’t, but to love them for whom they are!

* * * * *

(November 1, 2024: All Saints)

* * * * *

“He began to teach them...”

In her book entitled Saint Francis de Sales and the Protestants (in which she examines his missionary activity in the Chablais, one of the most seminal periods in the life of the “Gentleman Saint”), author Ruth Kleinman wrote:

“Saintliness is hard to practice, but it is even more difficult to describe.” A notable exception to this dictum are the words we hear proclaimed today in the Gospel of Matthew on this Solemnity of All Saints.

Jesus describes saintliness simply and succinctly. It is about living a life of Beatitude:

• Saintly are those who mourn, i.e., those who refuse to harden their hearts when faced with the needs of others.

• Saintly are those who show mercy, i.e., those who are willing to forgo old hurts and to forgive others from their hearts.

• Saintly are those who are poor in spirit, i.e., those who experience everything as a gift and who demonstrate their gratitude through their willingness to share what they have (regardless of how ordinary or extraordinary) with others.

• Saintly are the pure of heart, i.e., those who avoid artificiality and pretense and who have the courage to be their true, authentic selves.

• Saintly are the meek, i.e., those who know that power isn’t demonstrated by taking from others but about giving to others. It’s not about doing to others but about doing for/with others.

• Saintly are the peacemakers, i.e., those who bring people together rather than drive them apart.

• Saintly are those who hunger and thirst for what is right, i.e., those for whom doing good comes with the same frequency and urgency as the need to eat and drink.

• Saintly are those persecuted for doing what is right, i.e., those who are willing to stand up for what is right regardless of the cost(s) incurred.

And as it turns out, not only is sanctity not hard to describe, but also it isn’t nearly as hard to practice as we might think. In a sermon on Our Lady, Francis de Sales observed:

“There is no need of putting ourselves to the trouble of trying to find out what are the desires of God, for they are all expressed in His commandments and in the counsels of Our Lord Himself gave us in the Sermon on the Mount when He said: ‘How blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the lowly, and the other Beatitudes.’ These are all the desires of God upon which we ought to walk, following these as perfectly as we can.” (Select Salesian Subjects, #0170, p. 37)

Sanctity? To be sure, it is hard work. But with the grace of God – and the support of one another – it is doable!

* * * * *

(November 2, 2024: Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed)

* * * * *

“The souls of the just are in the hands of God...”

In one of his pamphlets that was later published in a broader collection entitled The Catholic Controversy, Francis de Sales wrote:

“We maintain that we may pray for the faithful departed, and that the prayers and good works of the living greatly relieve them and are profitable to them for this reason: that all those who die in the grace of God – and consequently, in the number of the elect – do not go to Paradise at the very first moment, but many go to Purgatory…from which our prayers and good works can help and serve to deliver them.”

“We agree the blood of Our Redeemer is the true purgatory of souls, for in it are cleansed all the souls of the world. Tribulations also are a purgatory, by which our souls are rendered pure, as gold refined in the furnace. It is well known that Baptism in which our sins are washed away can be called a purgatory, as everything can be that serves to purge away our offenses. But in this context we take Purgatory for a place in which after this life the souls which leave this world before they have been perfectly cleansed from the stains they have contracted. And if one would know why this place is called simply Purgatory more than are the other means of purgation above-named, the answer will be, that it is because in that place nothing takes place but the purgation of the stains which remain at the time of departure out of this world, whereas in Baptism, Penance, tribulations and the rest, not only is the soul purged from its imperfections, but it is further enriched with many graces and perfections. And agreeing as to the blood of Our Lord, we fully acknowledge the virtue thereof, that we protest by all our prayers that the purgation of souls – whether in this world or in the other – is made solely by its application.” (CC, pp. 353-354)

Notwithstanding the effects of our prayers and good works on behalf of our dearly departed, Francis de Sales reminds us that at the end of the day it is the life and death of Jesus Christ that purifies our souls, whether in this life or in the next. To that end, whether it’s the just or the unjust, whether it’s in this world or the next, we are all in the hands of God.

Here’s hoping that we pray for our faithful departed. Here’s hoping that our faithful departed pray for us.

And isn’t it true that all of us could stand to do with some purgation of one kind or another!

Today, and every day!

* * * * *

October 20 through October 26

* * * * *

(October 20, 2024: Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Through his suffering my servant shall justify many.”

Following the admonition of Christ that we should be the servants of others wouldn’t sound so daunting if it weren’t for one little word.

Suffering.

Jesus is very clear: to serve is to suffer and to suffer is to serve.  This statement begs the question: did Jesus serve because he liked pain?

Consider the meaning of the word “suffering”.  The American Heritage Dictionary describes suffering as “to feel pain or distress; sustain loss, injury, harm or punishment.”  Jesus certainly experienced all these things in a big way.  In this regard, we have in Christ one who is able to sympathize with us. (Hebrews)

But suffering is more than simply experiencing pain.  The same dictionary directs the reader to consider the roots of the English word servant, and therein we find a powerful revelation: in its root meaning, to suffer is to carry, to bear, to “bear children.”

Suffering is not simply the ability to experience pain. No, suffering is the willingness to forbear, to persevere, to carry on in doing what is right and just, what is healthy and holy even in the face of opposition or resistance.  Suffering is the pain that comes from efforts at bringing forth life in the lives of others.

This kind of suffering is not powerless passivity.  This suffering – divine suffering – is about being proactive.  This suffering – this service – is a matter of choice: the choice to love.

Jesus did not love to suffer.  Jesus suffered precisely because he was willing to love.  Jesus suffered – he persevered – in his commitment to being a source of love in the lives of others.

That’s what made Jesus a servant.  That’s what can make us true servants.  Like Jesus, while our service will be marked with suffering, it is far more important that it be marked with love.

* * * * *

(October 21, 2024: Monday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Take care to guard against all greed…”

Greed is defined as “an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.”

What’s important to note is that greed is not equated with merely possessing material wealth, but that greed is also about having an excessive or inordinate desire to possess material wealth. It isn’t about the amount of the wealth; it’s about the size – and intensity - of the desire for wealth.

Francis de Sales certainly understood this distinction. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, he wrote:

“I willingly grant that you may take care to increase your wealth and resources, provided this is done not only justly but properly and charitably. However, if you are strongly attached to the goods you possess, too solicitous about them, set your heart on them, always have them in your thoughts and fear losing them with a strong, anxious fear, then, believe me, you are suffering from a kind of fever. If you find your heart very desolated and afflicted at the loss of property, believe me, you love it too much…” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 14, p. 163)

The Gospel parable is a classic example of what Francis de Sales described. The rich man isn’t condemned because he is rich. No, the rich man is condemned because he does not even consider sharing his good fortune – his rich harvest – with others.

Note the distinction that Jesus makes in saying, “Guard against all greed”, because Jesus isn’t limiting greed just to material possessions. Many of the things to which we cling – many of the things about which we have inordinate desires to keep for ourselves - aren’t material at all: our time, our opinions, our plans, our preferences, our comforts, our routines, our ways of seeing things and our ways of doing things are just a sampling of the many things to which we excessively cling.

What kinds of greed – in any form, in all forms - might we need to be careful to guard against, today?

* * * * *

(October 21, 2024: Tuesday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“He is our peace…”

In a letter to Mother de Chantal, Francis de Sales wrote:

“I entreat you to keep very close to Jesus Christ and your Our Lady and to your good angel in all your business, so that the multiplicity of your many affairs may not make you anxious nor their difficulties dismay you. Do things one by one as best you can, and apply your mind loyally but gently and sweetly. If God gives you good issue we shall bless him for it; if his pleasure should be otherwise, we will bless him all the same. And it will be enough for you that you did your best in complete good faith, since Our Lord and reason do not demand results in things we do, but only our faithful and whole-hearted cooperation, endeavor and diligence; for these depend on us, whereas success does not. God will bless your good intention in undertaking this journey...” (Stopp, Selected Letters, pp. 195-196)

Jesus is the embodiment of this spirit. In success or setback, in acceptance or rejection, in good times or in bad times, Jesus always possessed inner peace in the midst of the multiplicity of his affairs; his “whole-hearted cooperation, endeavor and diligence” were united to his Father’s will. What Jesus did or did not accomplish throughout his earthly ministry was not nearly as important as the fidelity of his relationship with his Father.

So whatever you accomplish – or don’t accomplish – just this day, try above all things to do this one thing.

To remain in peace!

* * * * *

(October 23, 2024: Tuesday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come…”

We all know the expression, “Hindsight is 20-20.” As we know from our own experience, often times it is much easier to recognize the truth about something hours, days, weeks or perhaps, even years after the fact. While hindsight is better than having no sight at all, there are certain limitations associated with recognizing how God has been active in one’s life only after further reflection.

This pattern gets played out time and time again in numerous accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry. People didn’t seem to recognize that the Son of Man was standing right in front of them. Put another way, insofar as they were not prepared to recognize who Jesus was before he appeared, they failed to recognize him when he actually arrived!

The aim of the Spiritual Directory – the goal of the Direction of Intention – is to help us to acquire foresight when it comes to recognizing the activity and presence of God in our lives. Living in each and every present moment challenges us to anticipate the variety of ways in which God may visit, speak to or inspire us just this day and to recognize God’s divine activity and presence as it actually occurs in each and every present moment - and not merely after the fact.

In the movie Field of Dreams, Doctor “Moonlight” Graham (played by actor Burt Lancaster) says to Ray Kinsella, “You know, we just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening. Back then I thought, 'Well, there'll be other days.' I didn't realize that that was the only day.”

May God give us the awareness that we need to be prepared for the most significant moments - and each and every moment - in our lives, each and every day. But then, when you consider that we have only a limited number of moments allotted to us on this earth, shouldn’t every moment be a significant moment?

* * * * *

(October 24, 2024: Thursday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”

In a film released in 2004, Denzel Washington stars as John Creasy, a despondent former CIA operative/Force Recon Marine officer-turned-bodyguard. Creasey gets a shot at redemption when he is hired to protect the daughter of a wealthy businessman in Mexico City. When the nine-year-old girl is kidnapped and held for ransom, Washington’s character will stop at nothing to get the young girl back, even to the point (spoiler alert!) of giving his life in exchange for hers.

The name of the film is Man on Fire.

Jesus Christ clearly was a man on fire. He tells us so in today’s Gospel selection from Luke. All throughout the three years of his public ministry, Jesus demonstrated again and again to us that he would stop at nothing to proclaim the power and promise of the Kingdom of God – forgiving the sinner, healing the blind, lame and leprous, finding the lost, raising the lowly, humbling the proud and challenging the haughty. His efforts not only won him many friends, but also made him more than a few enemies. Undaunted by the challenges of his vocation, Jesus remained faithful to the work of redemption, even to the point of giving his very life for others.

Earlier this week, we remembered the life and legacy of John Paul II. Like Jesus himself, John Paul II was a man on fire for the Gospel. We recall the electricity that he generated wherever he went when he was in the prime of his life and papacy - he literally traveled all around the globe in his attempts to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ. We remember his surviving being shot by a would-be assassin, and how that attempt on his life began a slow and protracted period of physical decline. We witnessed his battle with Parkinson’s disease, and the death that it inevitably hastened. Yet through it all, John Paul faced his mortality with grace and confidence and with a fire – however diminished in the end – that was forever part and parcel of the person he was.

Jesus also wants us to be men and women on fire with the love of God and neighbor. Jesus also wants us – his brothers and sisters – to be unrelenting in demonstrating in our own lives the power and promise of the Kingdom of God.

Today, how might we get “fired up” for the sake of the Gospel?

* * * * *

(October 25, 2024: Friday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Live in a manner worthy of the call you have received...”

What call have we received? We are sons and daughters of God; we are brothers and sisters of Jesus; we are temples of God’s Holy Spirit.

How do we live in a manner worthy of this call? St. Paul is clear and unambiguous: “Live with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

In today’s Responsorial Psalm, we prayed the words “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face”. How do we know if we are making progress in our efforts to “live in a manner worthy of the call” we have received?

The answer is - look to see if other people see in our thoughts, our affections, our attitudes and our actions something of the face of God.

* * * * *

(October 26, 2024: Saturday, Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * * 

“Grace was given to each of us according to the measure of God’s gift....”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“God acts in our works, and we co-operate in God’s action.  God leaves for our part all the merit and profit of our services and good works; we leave God all the honor and praise thereof, acknowledging that the growth, the progress, and the end of all the good we do depends on God’s mercy, finishing what God began.  O God, how merciful is God’s goodness to us in thus distributing his bounty!”

God has great expectations for us: “Life on high with Jesus Christ”. God – through his mercy, that is, through his generosity – also gives us the grace we need to strive to meet those expectations. How can we possibly show our appreciation for the “grace that was given to each of us according to the measure of God’s gift”? Perhaps St. Francis de Sales said it best. “The measure of love is to love without measure.”

God’s love in our regard is certainly without measure. To what degree can the same be said of our love for one another?

Today!

* * * * *

October 13 through October 19

* * * * *

(October 13, 2024: Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”

In the closing minutes of the movie Field of Dreams, the character of Thomas Mann is invited by the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson to come “out” with the team.  Ray Concella is incensed. Why is the writer invited instead of Ray? Ray launches into a litany of all the things that he has done in following the promptings of the “voice” and ends with the statement: “Not once have I asked what’s in it for me!”  The ghost inquires: “What are you saying, Ray?”  Ray responds: “I’m saying - what’s in it for me?”

How honest!  How revealing!  How human!

We hear echoes of this same refrain in St. Peter’s statement in today’s Gospel: “We have put aside everything to follow you.”  Implied?  “What’s in it for us?”

The truth is that the Good News never seems to let up.  God never settles for less or for just “getting by”. Even as we grow in our love for God, ourselves and others, the Good News always calls us to give more, to go deeper and to press on.  The truth is that the Good News is not about being “good enough” or simply “getting by”. No wonder we sometimes ask the questions - “What more do you want?”  that can turn into, “What’s in it for me?”

What’s in it for us is a twofold promise.  First, we are promised that we will come to know the joy associated with being more concerned about giving than receiving. We will experience in this life the freedom that comes with allowing God to penetrate all – not just some – of whom we are.  In short, we experience the wealth that is only known by generous people. Second, we are promised that there will come a day when we will enjoy this God-given freedom forever in a life that never ends.

So, what’s in it for us?  How about purpose, meaning and direction in this life! How about the fullness of purpose, meaning and direction – and so many other gifts – in the life to come!

Now that’s Good News!

* * * * *

(October 14, 2024: Monday, Twenty-eight Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Brothers and sisters, we are children not of the slave woman but of the freeborn woman.”

In a letter to Peronne-Marie de Chatel (one of the four original members of the nascent Visitation congregation at Annecy who, notwithstanding her virtues and gifts, nevertheless experienced “discouragement, scruples and even moments of very human impatience and irritation”), Francis de Sales wrote:

“You are right when you say there are two people in you. One person is a bit touchy, resentful and ready to flare up if anyone crosses her; this is the daughter of Eve and therefore bad-tempered. The other person fully intends to belong totally to God and who, in order to be all His, wants to be simply humble and humbly gentle toward everyone…this is the daughter of the glorious Virgin Mary and therefore of good disposition. These two daughters of different mothers fight each other and the good-for-nothing one is so mean that the good one has a hard time defending herself; afterward, the poor dear thinks that she has been beaten and that the wicked one is stronger than she. Not at all! The wicked one is not stronger than you but is more brazen, perverse, unpredictable and stubborn and when you go off crying she is very happy because that’s just so much time wasted, and she is satisfied to make you lose time when she is unable to make you lose eternity.”

“Do not be ashamed of all this, my dear daughter, any more than St. Paul who confesses that there were two men in him – one rebellious toward God, and the other obedient to God. Stir up your courage. Arm yourself with the patience that we should have toward ourselves.” (Letters of Spiritual Direction, p. 164-165)

Of course, there aren’t really two people battling inside of us trying to see who will win out! Thank God for that, because most days we have more than enough to handle with our singular personalities! Indeed, it is discouraging when we don’t live up to God’s standards or our own. Indeed, it is frustrating to make what often times appears to be little progress in the spiritual life. Indeed, there’s more good that we should do and more evil that we should avoid. However, rather than drive yourself crazy in the desire to be sons and daughters of the “freeborn woman”, gently – and firmly – follow Francis de Sales’ advice:

“Stir up your courage. Arm yourself with patience that we should have toward ourselves.”

And - of course - with the patience that we should have toward one another.

* * * * *

(October 15, 2024: Teresa of Avila, Religious and Doctor of the Church)

* * * * *

“For freedom Christ set us free; so, stand firm…”

Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Teresa of Avila. In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell observes:

“Every day – all day long – God pours his grace upon the world. Those who accept it – who cooperate with God’s will – draw closer to the Lord, as in the case of St. Teresa of Avila, the patron of souls in need of divine grace. The easygoing life of the Carmelite convent she entered was not conducive to the contemplative life. So, she began planning a new branch of the Carmelites, one that would bring nuns (and friars) back to the order’s original commitment to a life of austerity and deep prayer…St. Teresa’s legacy is her collection of spiritual writings. She was the first Catholic woman to write systematically about prayer and the interior life. In 1970, upon naming her a Doctor of the Church, Pope Paul VI praised Teresa as ‘a teacher of remarkable depth.’”

Insofar as Teresa died in 1582, her writings were well known by the “Gentleman Saint”. In a letter to Madame de Chantal (1605), Francis de Sales wrote:

“The practice of the presence of God taught by Mother Teresa in chapters 29 and 30 of The Way of Perfection is excellent, and I think it amounts to the same as I explained to you when I wrote that God was in our spirit as though he were the heart of our spirit and in our heart as the spirit which breathes life into it, and that David called God: the God of his heart. Use this boldly and often for it is most useful. May God be the soul and spirit of our heart forever….” (Stopp, Selected Letters, pp. 160 – 161)

Through her writings and the accounts of her life, we see in Teresa the heart of a woman set free in Christ.

Today, how might we experience something of that same freedom today?

* * * * *

(October 16, 2024: Margaret Mary Alacoque, Religious and Mystic)

* * * * *

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.” 

Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell observes:

“At the age of nine, Margaret Mary Alacoque contracted polio. She spent the next six years confined to her bed as an invalid. When she was fifteen it is said that she had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary: upon emerging from her ecstasy, she discovered that she had been healed of her infirmities. During those six years Margaret Mary had developed a rather deep prayer life. When she subsequently joined the Sisters of the Visitation at Paray le Monial, she found the form of meditation prescribed for the novices rudimentary to the point of being tedious. Notwithstanding this source of frustration, Margaret Mary persevered and professed final vows.”

“In 1675 she had a vision of Christ while praying in the monastery chapel. He told Margaret Mary that he wanted her to be his messenger, spreading throughout the world devotion to his Sacred heart that, he told Margaret Mary, was ‘burning with divine love’ for the human family. Christ asked that the Church institute a new feast day in honor of his Sacred Heart and that, for love of him, Catholics should attend Mass and receive Communion on the First Friday of each month. He promised to save all faithful Catholics who honored him by displaying an image of his sacred heart in their homes or going to Mass and Communion every First Friday of the month for nine successive months.”

“Margaret Mary Alacoque encountered a great deal of skepticism when she began to tell the other sisters in the monastery about her visions. The nuns accused her of lying and questioned her sanity, while the local clergy dismissed her visions, saying that the Sacred Heart devotion went too far in humanizing Christ and thus diminished his divinity. The Jesuits, however – and the monastery’s chaplain Father Claude de la Colombiere, SJ – argued successfully that Margaret Mary’s revelations put fresh emphasis on the perfectly orthodox principle of confidence in God’s infinite love. Today veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a mainstay in Catholic devotional life.”

How ironic that God would choose a religious woman living in a cloistered community to become the herald (with the help of Claude de la Colombiere, of course!) of Christ’s unbounded love as seen so clearly in the image of his Sacred Heart? As Jesus told us late last week, nothing – however seemingly unlikely – is “impossible with God”. God took a personal, private revelation of his love to Margaret Mary and managed to transform it into a universal expression of love!

Notwithstanding her personal liabilities and the wholesale skepticism of her own community members and local clergy, Margaret Mary never relented in her fidelity to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in her lfe: come what may.

To what degree could the same be said of us?

* * * * *

(October 17, 2024: Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr)

* * * * *

Today, we celebrate the life and legacy of Ignatius of Antioch.

“Born in Syria, Ignatius converted to Christianity and eventually became bishop of Antioch. In the year 107, Emperor Trajan visited Antioch and forced the Christians there to choose between death and apostasy. Ignatius would not deny Christ – thus, Ignatius was condemned to be put to death in Rome.”

“Ignatius is well known for the seven letters he wrote on the long journey from Antioch to Rome. Five of these letters are to churches in Asia Minor; they urge the Christians there to remain faithful to God and to obey their superiors. He warns them against heretical doctrines, providing them with the solid truths of the Christian faith.”

“The sixth letter was to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who was later martyred for the faith. The final letter begs the Christians in Rome not to try to stop his martyrdom. ‘The only thing I ask of you is to allow me to offer the libation of my blood to God. I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ.’ Ignatius was killed by lions in the Circus Maximus.” (http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1171)

We do not know if Ignatius was afraid of his impending martyrdom. We do know that he was brave enough to face – and embrace – it. In other words, afraid as he might have been of death – and a violent death at that – he nevertheless acknowledged Jesus Christ before others.

Today, how might we imitate his example of courage by facing – and embracing – the challenges that we will meet?

* * * * *

(October 18, 2024: Luke, Evangelist)

* * * * *

“The Lord stood by me and gave me strength...”

Our first reading from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy reminds us that being either an apostle, a disciple or an evangelist brings its share of troubles.

Including being betrayed!

Paul cites at least three occasions in which he felt that he was – as we say so often these days – thrown under the bus. First, Demas deserted him; second, Alexander the coppersmith did him great harm; and third, no one showed up on Paul’s behalf when he attempted to defend himself in court. While he attributes his ability to get through these rough patches in his life to the Lord standing by him and giving him strength, it certainly didn’t hurt that at least one person other than the Lord – St. Luke – remained faithful to Paul throughout his ordeals.

St. Francis de Sales wrote about the pain that comes from being betrayed by those closest to us. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, he wrote:

“To be despised, criticized or accused by evil men is a slight thing to a courageous man, but to be criticized, denounced and treated badly by good men - by our own friends and relations – is the test of virtue. Just as the pain of a bee is much more painful than that of a fly, so the wrongs we suffer from good men and the attacks they make are far harder to bear than those we suffer from others. Yet it often happens that good people – all with good intentions – because of conflicting ideas stir up great persecutions and attacks on one another.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 3, pp. 128 – 129)

Paul found it very difficult to swallow betrayals at the hands of those with whom he lived and worked without becoming embittered about it. However, it seems that Paul was able to work through these betrayals because of the loyalty of two people in his life: the Lord and Luke.

Like Luke, how might we help another person work through the experience of betrayal? How might we – through our willingness to practice fidelity – give them the strength to overcome their pain and discouragement?

How? By standing with them today!

* * * * *

(October 19, 2024: John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and Companions, Martyrs)

* * * * *

“When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”

Today’s Gospel reminds us that we can never be certain as to when we will need to provide an accounting to God for the lives we have lived. We’ll never know for sure when we will need to demonstrate how well we have made good use of the gifts, the talents, the blessings – and above all, the life – God has given us.

When that day, that hour or that moment comes, will we be ready?

This consideration is sobering. The reality that each of us will die one day can be more than a bit unsettling. While Francis de Sales himself said that we should fear death, he challenged us not to be afraid of death. If we focus too much upon the inevitability of our last moment on this earth, the fear – and more importantly, the anxiety - it produces could prevent us from living fully each and every present moment that will precede our last moment.

The sacrifice of these Jesuit martyrs gives radical witness to the delicate dance that comes with acknowledging the inevitability of death while not being afraid of death – of owning our immortality without allowing our mortality to prevent us – risks included - from living life to the full.

As members of the Salesian family, we are challenged to be “confident and unafraid” when it comes to facing our mortality. The same God who will judge us at the end of our lives is the same God who gives us the strength and courage to do the best we can throughout our lives.

Francis de Sales offers us sound counsel in our daily attempts to live our mortal lives as best we can with confidence and without fear. “There is no better preparation for a good death than to lead a good life.” The Jesuit Martyrs of North America are a shining example of how there is no better way of preparing for death than by fully living each and every day to the utmost.

Today, how can we imitate their confidence and fearlessness today?

* * * * *

Daily Reflections: September 29 - October 5

* * * * *

(September 29, 2024: Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, Amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.”

When we think of serving the Lord, we probably – however unconsciously – image doing something great, something wonderful and/or something awe-inspiring for God or for others. Maybe yes, maybe no.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“You must be ready to suffer many great afflictions for our Lord, even martyrdom itself. Resolve to give God whatever you hold dearest if it should please Him to take it from you – father, mother, brother, husband, wife, child, your eyesight, perhaps even your very life itself. Prepare your heart for any and all such sacrifices as these. However, if divine Providence does not send you great, piercing afflictions and does not demand your eyesight of you, be willing to give god a few of your hairs. What I am suggesting is that we must bear patiently the slight injuries, the little inconveniences and the inconsequential losses that come your way on a daily basis.  By means of such little things as these – borne with great love and affection – you will completely win God’s heart and make it all your own.”

“Little acts of charity, a headaches toothache or cold, the bad humor of a husband or wife, a shattered glass, this contempt or that scorn, loss of a pair of gloves, a ring or a handkerchief, the inconveniences associated with going to bed early and getting up early to pray or receive Holy Communion, the feeling of awkwardness one experiences in performing certain acts of devotion in public: – in short, all such trials as these – when accepted and embraced with love – are highly pleasing to God’s mercy. For a single cup of water, God has promised to his faithful a sea of endless bliss. Since such opportunities present themselves each and every moment, it will be a great means of storing up vast spiritual riches if you learn how to use them well.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 35)

What is the moral to the image of offering something as simple as a cup of water to somebody else because we belong to Christ? When it comes to “Living Jesus”, ordinary things add up - little things mean a lot!

* * * * *

(September 30, 2024: Jerome, Priest/Doctor of the Church)

* * * * *

“Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you.”

“How offensive to God are rash judgments!” says St. Francis de Sales.  “The judgments of the children of men are rash because they are not the judges of one another, and when they pass judgment on others, they usurp the office of our Lord...if an action has many difference aspects, we must always think of the one which is best.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 28) 

These words of de Sales would have been very good advice for the disciple John in today's Gospel when he asks Jesus to stop a man from expelling demons in His name “because he does not follow in our company”. They are in fact very similar to the advice Jesus himself gives John: “Do not try to stop him. Anyone who is not against you is with you.”  John is not the only one who could profit from this advice.  Many of us could too.

These words of Jesus and St. Francis de Sales remind us that all those who do the work of Jesus belong to Him, whether they are “of our company” or not. We should avoid the tendency to presume the worst of those who are not of our tribe or group. We should focus less on denominational labels and more on the actions, spirit, and attitudes of fellow followers of Christ, without in any way diminishing our faith. Most of all, these remind us that if there is any trace of prejudice or bigotry remaining in our hearts against members of other religions, we should rid ourselves of such burdens…and of such blindness.

God needs you and me - and Christians everywhere - to be His prophets.  Prophets in the Biblical sense typically arise at a time when society has stopped listening to what God says.  Biblical prophets speak “on behalf of God”. They do not tell others what will happen; they tell them what should happen. They don’t predict the future; they describe and diagnose the present. They tell others what God wants and what God says.

·        God needs you and me to stand up and be counted on the values of the Gospel. 

·        God needs you and me to tell others that God wants peace, not war; life, not death; love, not hate; concern for the other, not preoccupation with self; freedom, not license; truth, not political correctness; justice for all, not discrimination. 

In the words of St. Francis de Sales, God needs us to “often speak of God in familiar conversation with our...friends and neighbors.” (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter.26) And “if the world holds us to be fools,” because we are behaving like prophets, “let us hold the world to be mad.” (Ibid, Part IV, Ch.1)

* * * * *

(October 1, 2024: Therese of the Child Jesus Virgin\/Doctor of the Church)

* * * * *

The disciples James and John asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?’ Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.”

In his commentary on this passage from the Gospel of Luke, William Barclay observed:

“There is no passage in which Jesus so directly teaches the duty of tolerance as in this. In many ways, tolerance is a lost virtue and often where it does exist, it exists for the wrong reason.”

“There are many ways to God. God has his own secret stairway into every heart. God fulfills himself in many ways, and no person or church has a monopoly on God’s truth. But our tolerance must be based not upon indifference but on love. We ought to be tolerant not because we could not care less, but because we look at the other person with the eyes of love. When Abraham Lincoln was criticized for being too courteous to his enemies and reminded that it was his duty to destroy them, he gave the great answer, ‘Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?’”

Recall the aphorism of St. Francis de Sales: “We attract more flies with a teaspoon of honey that with a barrel full of vinegar.” Tolerance is not merely the practice of putting up with others. Rather, tolerance is a decision to accept – dare we say, even celebrate - others where and how they are.

* * * * *

(October 2, 2024: Holy Guardian Angels)

* * * * *

“Their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father…”

God not only calls us to live a holy life, but God also provides us with the means to live that life – what Francis de Sales calls “aids” – and to help us to become holy people. In a conference (“On Constancy”) given to the Sisters of the Visitation, Francis de Sales remarked:

“The aids that God gives to us are intended to help us to keep steadily on our way, to prevent our falling, or, if we fall, to help us to get back up again. Oh, with what openness, cordiality, sincerity, simplicity and faithful confidence ought we to dialogue with these aids, which are given to us by God to help us in our spiritual progress. Certainly, this is true in the case of our good angels. We ought to look upon them in the same way, since our good angels are called angel guardians because they are commissioned to help us by their inspirations, to defend us in perils, to reprove us when we err and to stimulate us in the pursuit of virtue. They are charged to carry our prayers before the throne of the majesty, goodness and mercy of Our Lord and to bring back to us the answers to our petitions. The graces, too, which God bestows on us, He gives through the intervention or intercession of our good angels. Now, other aids are our visible good angels, just as our holy angel guardians are our invisible ones. Other aids do visibly what our good angels do inwardly, for they warn us of our faults; they encourage us when we are weak and languid; they stimulate us in our endeavors to attain perfection; they prevent us from falling by their goods counsels, and they help us to rise up again when we have fallen over some precipice of imperfection or fault. If we are overwhelmed with weariness and disgust, they help us to bear our trouble patiently, and they pray to God to give us strength so to bear it so as not to be overcome by temptation. See, then, how much we ought to value their assistance and their tender care for us …” (Conference III, pp. 41-42)

In the mind of Francis de Sales, God provide us with invisible support for our journey in this life through those “aids” known as “angel guardians”. It’s safe to say that some of the most visible ‘aids’ that God uses to provide support for our journey in this life are known by another name: ‘friends’.

Today, how can we imitate the invisible example of the angel guardians by befriending one another in very visible ways?

* * * * *

(October 3, 2024: Thursday, Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“He sent them ahead of him in pairs…”

Just two chapters into the Book of Genesis (2:18), we read, “It is not good for (the) man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him…”

Each and every one of us a unique expression and manifestation of the God in whose image and likeness we have been created. We are responsible for being ourselves – no one else can do it for us. We cannot ‘outsource” it to others. But even the God who created us, while One, is Three: Father, Son and Spirit. Within the Godhead there is something of both individuality and community at work at the same time.

While Francis de Sales challenges each one of us to “be who you are and to be that (perfectly) well,” we should not – we cannot – do that in a vacuum. We need community; we need one another. As John Donne so wisely observed, “No man is an island.” There are aspects and dimensions of our individuality that can only be recognized, claimed and developed within the context of being our individual selves in the context of relationships with others.

In today’s Gospel Jesus bemoans the fact that while the “harvest is abundant, the laborers are few.” From a cost-benefit analysis, Jesus could have covered a lot more ground by sending each member of his advance party out individually and alone. However, he deliberately chose to send them out in pairs. Jesus seems to be suggesting that companionship – kinship – is not a luxury associated with continuing to carry the Good News of Jesus Christ to others. It is essential.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, (III, 8, 146-147) Francis wrote:

“We must march on as a band of brothers (and sisters), companions united in meekness, peace and love.”

What’s the bottom line? If you are serious about “Living Jesus” – if you are serious about being who you are and being that (perfectly) well – don’t even think of doing it alone.

* * * * *

(October 4, 2024: Francis of Assisi)

* * * * *

Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Francis of Assisi. In his book entitled This Saint’s for You, Thomas J. Craughwell wrote:

“It is the rare Christian who does not get all syrupy about St. Francis of Assisi’s love or animals. Blame it on all those garden statues of Francis with a bunny curled up at his feet and little birds chirping on his shoulder. In real life, Francis’ view of animals was theological rather than sentimental. Animals form part of God’s creation, and, as the Book of Genesis tells us, everything in creation is good. No doubt Francis loved bunnies and birds, but he also loved spiders and snakes – and that is the challenge. Francis saw the world as an immense God-ordered system in which everything plays the role assigned to it by the Creator, and therefore every creature, whether it’s cute and cuddly or not, has value.” (This Saint’s for You, p. 31)

“One story in particular spotlights Francis’ belief in restoring the balance between man and beast. The town of Gubbio was plagued by a ferocious wolf that had carried off lambs, calve and other livestock – it had even killed small children. Afraid that the wolf would attack them, the people refused to travel outside the city walls. Declaring he was not afraid, Francis went outside the town in search of the wolf and hadn’t gone very far when he found the creature. ‘Brother Wolf,’ said Francis, ‘you have been stealing livestock that does not belong to you and frightening your neighbors. In the name of the Lord of Heaven, I command you to stop.’ The wolf drooped its head and lay on the ground at Francis’ feet. The Saint then turned to the townspeople, saying, ‘Brother Wolf will not trouble you or your animals, but in return you must feed him every day.’ The people of Gubbio agreed, and every day the wolf came to town for a meal. He became the town’s unofficial pet, and when he died the heartbroken townspeople had a sculpture of him carved and placed over the door of one of the town’s churches, where it remains to this day.” (This Saint’s for You, pp. 31-32)

In the case of Francis of Assisi, Jesus sent him out - literally - as a lamb to confront a wolf. In all our lives there are many things in life with which we must deal - some of them “cute and cuddly,” others life-threatening. Jesus gave him the power he needed to deal with any number of challenges, both ordinary and extraordinary.

And so we pray: God, help us to follow the example of Francis of Assisi (for whom St. Francis de Sales was named). Give us the power to combat things we experience as fearsome or ferocious with confidence, patience, gentleness and love.

* * * * *

(October 5, 2024: Saturday, Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.”

When you really think about it, it is somewhat presumptuous to speak to God, to ask God questions, to seek God’s favor or to suggest to God that there might be betters ways of doing things. After all, as the reading from the Book of Job reminds us, who has a greater resume than God?

This is the essence of the Salesian tradition’s understanding of humility, of littleness and of ordinariness. We stand speechless in the presence of such an awesome God. We stand in awe of how God transforms us from being nothing – in his eyes, at least – to being everything! We hear with Mary’s exclamation in the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”

In the opinion of St. Francis de Sales, this overwhelming realization of our littleness in the face of God’s greatness should not result in helplessness or complacence; rather, it should express itself in our practice of (1) gratitude, and (2) generosity. Put another way, returning thanks to God for all that God has given us is best expressed in our willingness to share what we have received from God with others.

So, what is our takeaway from today’s selection from the Book of Job? Perhaps, many a day the essence of our prayer should be less about how to speak to God and more about listening to God, specifically, how deeply God loves us and desires that we love one another. If we should need to answer God, consider using these words: “Thank you”.

* * * * *

Daily Reflections: September 22 - September 28

* * * * *

(September 22, 2024: Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”

The first disciples certainly did ascribe to the fact that Jesus was very probably the Messiah for whom they yearned, and yet he was a Messiah with a mission far from the reality that they expected. 

Today's Gospel gives a vivid picture of this dilemma in their failure to appreciate the fact that Jesus speaks about his upcoming death and resurrection and the suffering involved in that particular path.  The clear unfolding of that prediction met with confusion and fear on the part of his disciples, because they found themselves unable to grasp this reality in light of their own expectations, hopes and dreams.

Their perception of their role in the reality of this kingdom led them to argue among themselves.  Their expectations naturally convinced them of the importance of their own role in the fulfillment of Jewish hopes for their future and embroiled them in hostility, envy and enmity among themselves.  Jesus again clearly demonstrated the importance of their role and how their role would be played out - in ways far different from their own perceptions.  The little child in their midst presents clearly the ideal to which his disciples are called. 

Saint Francis de Sales speaks of the natural difficulty often involved in our acquiescence to the will of God.  Often we find ourselves in the position of the apostles in the Gospel account today, where following the will of God does not conform to our own expectations or desires.  In the Treatise on the Love of God  (Book 9, Chapter 2), Francis tells us:

“A truly living heart loves God's good pleasures not only in consolations but also in afflictions, but it loves it most of all in the cross, in pain, and labor, because love's principal power is to enable the lover to suffer for the beloved object.”

Today, we need to ask ourselves today how our own expectations, hopes or dreams prevent us from truly acquiescing to the Will of God.  Do the difficult times we encounter stifle us in our attempts to follow God's will?  Have we been able to abandon our attempts to have God's will conform to our own desires and wills?  Do we really appreciate the gift that Jesus is to us?

A prayerful reflection upon these questions will lead to the opportunity which is needed for us to acquiesce to the Will of God.  What a necessary part of our journey of faith this process really is!  In the Introduction to the Devout Life (Book 2, Chapter 1), St. Francis de Sales wrote:

“Prayer places our intelligence in the divine love.  It is the best way to purge our intelligence of its ignorance and our will of its bad affections...I suggest, above all, mental prayer of the mind and heart, especially that which is made on the Life and Passion of Our Lord.  In contemplating Him you will be filled with Him; you will learn to act like Him and to conform your actions to His.”

* * * * *

(September 23, 2024: Pius of Pietrelcina)

* * * * *

“Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim…”

Today’s selection from the Book of Proverbs offers us (as it usually does) some sound, practical advice. Simply put, if there is some good that you can do for another person – provided, of course, that it is within your power or purview to do so – you should do it! (Recall Nike’s tag line: “Just do it!”.)

But the Book of Proverbs also adds this caveat: do not postpone until tomorrow the opportunities you have to do something good today. One of the greatest obstacles we face in our attempts to do good things is the temptation to put them off - to wait for the right moment, for the perfect time or for the ideal circumstances. How many things have never gotten done simply because somebody said, “I’ll get around to it later” or “There’s always tomorrow”.

It should be painfully obvious to each one of us that there will come a time in our lives when we will no longer have the opportunity to “get around to it”. There will, indeed, come a day for which there will be no tomorrow. So, why wait until later to do something good for somebody else when you have the opportunity to do it today – now – at this moment?

Perhaps Rudyard Kipling’s (1865-1936) admonition can encourage us to not only do good things but also to do them in the here and now. He once wrote: “Live each day as though it were your last; one day, you’re sure to be right.”

* * * * *

(September 24, 2024: Tuesday, Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

In earlier times in human history – before the development and growth of urban centers – communities tended to be small and tight-knit. Everybody knew everybody else, so much so, that when asked to identify members of a particular clan, tribe or family it was easy to pick them out by how they looked, spoke or acted.

We are children of the Father, siblings of Jesus and embodiments of the Holy Spirit. How easily do others identify us as members of God’s family by how we look, speak and act?

* * * * *

(September 25, 2024: Wednesday, Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Every word of God is tested ...”

Beginning teachers are often reminded that their students will test them. Their students will pay a lot less attention to what is said to them and a great deal more attention to what is done to them. This reaction is the essence of what is meant in the words from today’s selection from the Book of Proverbs: we test and/or judge God’s words - we evaluate God’s veracity - by what God does. What God says to us pales in comparison to what – in our experience – God does for us.

Consider the example of Jesus in today’s Gospel. He didn’t give the Twelve the power merely to speak or to preach, but he also gave them the power to expel demons, to cure diseases and to heal the sick. In other words, “proclaiming the Good News” is about saying the right thing as well as doing the right thing.

How about us? How might our words be tested today? How will other people ask us to back up what we say to them with what we are willing to do for them?

* * * * *

(September 26, 2024: Thursday, Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun? All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full.”

The message in the today’s selection from the Book of Ecclesiastes seems to be saying something like this: “Go ahead, do what you want. Work on your projects. Knock yourself out, not that it’s going to make any difference in the end. You’re just wasting your time – your efforts will change nothing.”

Not exactly a basis for a motivational poster!

Does this mean that we should simply drift through life without putting our hand to anything? Does this mean that we are simply created to pass through this world without trying to contribute something to it? Does this mean that any attempt at leaving some legacy in our wake is simply a waste of time? After all, the Gospel parables of the “talents” makes it quite clear that God expects to (as it were) get a return on the investment that He has made in each and every one of us.

The key to understanding what the warning in today’s reading means – as well as what it doesn’t mean – comes from knowing the definition of the word “vanity”. Vanity is defined as, “Excessive pride in or admiration of one’s own appearance or achievements”. The key words here are “excessive” and “one’s own”.

We should work while on this earth. We should do our best to make the world – or at least our little part of it – a better place for our having been here. What we do does matter. What we do has results, provided that we do it for God’s glory.

Not ours!

* * * * *

(September 27, 2024: Vincent de Paul, Priest and Founder)

* * * * *

“There is an appointed time for everything…”

These words in today’s selection from the Book of Ecclesiastes should be prominently displayed on the door of every refrigerator around the world. The wisdom – and lessons – of these words are at one and the same time both simple and salient.

They remind us of how important it is to develop a sense of timing.

Consider these questions:

·        How many times have you hurt someone else not because you did a bad thing but because you did a good thing at the worst possible time?

·        How many times did you bite your tongue when you should have said something?

·        How many times did you weep when you should have laughed?

·        How many times did you hold on to something long after you should have set it aside to embrace something new?

·        How many times did you give up on something precisely when you should have given it one more try?

·        How many times did you spread yourself too thin when you should have been trying to keep your own act together?

Put another way, how many times in our lives have we attempted to place a square peg in a round hole? And don’t we know from our experience that it just won’t fit?

Francis de Sales (a great friend and contemporary of St. Vincent de Paul) reminded his readers that it isn’t enough for us to do good things, that is, to practice virtues. We also need to recognize when, where and how to practice virtues in ways that fit the events, situations, circumstances and relationships in which we find ourselves in any given moment. Look at today’s Gospel. Even as Peter correctly identifies who Jesus is (a good thing), Jesus rebukes him (not such a good thing) for not intuiting that now is not yet the time to start running around and proclaiming this truth to others. Key words - not yet!

And so, we pray today: God, please give us two things: (1) the courage to do good things, and (2) the wisdom of knowing when – or when not – to do them!

* * * * *

(September 28, 2024: Saturday, Twenty-fifth Week Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Pay attention to what I am telling you.”

Some things in life are more important than others. With the hope of trying to impress upon another person that what we are about to say is of greater importance than other things, often, we might preface our advice with words like “listen up,” “pay attention” or “now hear this”.

While we would like to think that everything that Jesus said is of equal importance, Jesus clearly wanted to impress his disciples with the inevitability of his showdown with the religious leaders of his time. And while we know that Jesus raised this issue more than a few times in the Gospels, the disciples seem to have had difficulty in grasping the importance of this prediction.

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“The more pleasant and excellent are the objects our senses encounter, the more ardently and avidly do they enjoy them. The more beautiful, the more delightful to our sight, and the more effectively lighted they are, the more eagerly and attentively do our eyes look to them. The sweeter and more pleasant a voice or music is, the more completely is the ear’s attention drawn to it. This force is more or less strong in accordance with the greater or lesser excellence of the object, provided that it is proportionate to the capacity of the sense desiring to enjoy it. For example, although the eye finds great pleasure in light, it cannot bear extremely strong light, nor can it look steadily at the sun. No matter how beautiful music may be, if it is too loud and too close to us, it strikes harshly on the ear and disturbs it.” (TLG, Book III, Chapter 9, p. 186)

There are so many things that Jesus wants us to learn about the ways of living in God’s love. How well will we pay attention to what God may be telling us about those ways - just today?

* * * * *

Daily Reflections: September 15 - September 21

* * * * *

(September 15, 2024: Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Get thee behind me, Satan.”

The saints are heroes of our faith tradition. They are people to whom we look for guidance and inspiration. They are people we admire. They remind us God can accomplish in us the kinds of things God accomplished in them. But the stories of the saints are more than a consideration of the promise of human strength, courage, fidelity and tenacity. Their stories are also powerful reminders of the reality of human frailty, weakness and infidelity. In a sermon he preached on Palm Sunday, March 1622, Francis de Sales observed:

“All creatures, you see, are a mixture of perfection and imperfection. For this reason, they can be used as symbols of either. Every person, no matter how holy, has some imperfections. Made in God’s image, each person reflects something of God’s goodness while, at the same time, that same person carries some imperfections.” (Pulpit and Pew)

Consider the example of St. Peter in today’s Gospel. When the apostles were asked the question by Jesus, “Who do you say I am?” Peter is the first to proclaim: “You are the Messiah!” A mere few verses following this great public demonstration of faith, Peter takes issue with Jesus’ prediction of his ultimate rejection, death and resurrection, and is subjected to a great public humiliation when Jesus turns on him and proclaims: “Get thee behind me, Satan!”

In the case of St. Peter, this display would not be the last of both his perfections and imperfections. In the Treatise on the Love of God, Francis commented:

“Who would not marvel at the heart of St. Peter, so bold among armed soldiers that he alone takes his sword in hand and strikes out with it? Yet, just a short time later, among unarmed people, he is so cowardly that at the mere word of a servant girl he denies and detests his master.” (TLG, Book X, Chapter 9)

Francis de Sales believed that we have as much to learn from the setbacks of the saints as we do from their successes.

“It is a good thing to see the defects in the lives of the saints. It not only shows God’s goodness in forgiving them, but it also teaches us to imitate the saints in their efforts to overcome their failings and to do penance for them. We study the virtues of the saints in order to imitate them; we study the failings of the saints in order to avoid them.” (Ibid)

This way of looking at the saints can be most helpful in our everyday attempts to “Live Jesus”. Seeing the defects of the saints can serve as a strong vaccine against any dismay or discouragement we may experience when faced with our own sins, failings and imperfections. Likewise, seeing the virtues of the saints can dissuade us from becoming smug or satisfied with our shortcomings.

What is the bottom line? The saints are our companions for the journey. They have much to teach us about how to pursue a life of devotion: overcoming our sins and failings and strengthening our practice of virtue. Francis de Sales (himself a saint) challenges us to see the saints as real people, and to realize that we can learn as much from their setbacks as we can from their successes.

Beginning today!

* * * * *

(September 18, 2024:  Cornelius, Pope and Cyprian, Bishop: Martyrs)

* * * * *

“I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered…that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.” 

True devotion not only does no violence to ordinary, everyday life – in fact, it should also enhance it. Among other things, devotion can produce an abundance of tranquility. Synonyms associated with tranquility include:

·        peace

·        peacefulness

·        restfulness

·        repose

·        calm

·        calmness

·        quiet

·        quietness

·        stillness

·        composure

·        serenity

·        equanimity

·        unflappability

St. Jane de Chantal observed:

“Preserve peace of heart and tranquility. Do not disturb yourselves about anything. Never trouble yourselves whatever may happen to you or around you. Tranquility precludes haste and levity. It makes us do everything in the spirit of repose, without hurry. I say not slowly or carelessly, but quietly, as before God.”

Note the distinction – tranquility is not about doing nothing. Tranquility is about doing something – anything – in a careful, composed, calm and unflappable manner.

Today, how might we go about serving God and neighbor in tranquility?

* * * * *

(September 17, 2024: Tuesday, Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Now the body is not a single part, but many.”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, St. Francis de Sales wrote:

“The supreme unity of the divine act is opposed to confusion and disorder but not to distinction and variety. On the contrary, it employs these last to bring forth beauty by reducing all difference and diversity to proportion, proportion to order and order to the unity of the world, which comprises all things, both visible and invisible. All these together are called the universe perhaps because all their diversity is reduced to unity, as if one were to say ‘unidiverse,’ that is, unique and diverse, unique along with diversity and diverse along with unity. In sum, God’s supreme unity diversifies all things and his permanent eternity gives change to all things…” (TLG, Book II, Chapter 2, p. 106)

Everything– be it our physical bodies, our families or our churches – is made up a variety of things. Everything – be it our physical bodies, our families or our churches – works best when each and every part does what it is designed and destined to do.

Each and every one of us makes up some part of the Body of Christ. The fact that no two of us are exactly the same actually makes possible the unity toward which Jesus asks us to work. In this challenge we experience a great paradox, perhaps the greatest of all paradoxes. It is only when each of us is fully and authentically our unique selves that unity with others is truly possible. Put another way, unity is not the same as uniformity, i.e., being exactly the same. Where everything or everybody is the same, then there can never be true unity.

Just this day, do you want to do your part to contribute something to the unity of any body – be it family, friends, neighbors, co-workers or church goers – of which you are a part? Then simply try your level best to be your unique self.

And allow – even encourage – others to do the same!

* * * * *

(September 18, 2024: Wednesday, Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?”

You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.

The above statement is essentially what Jesus is saying in today’s selection from the Gospel of Luke. John the Baptist was criticized for eschewing food and drink, whereas Jesus was criticized for enjoying food and drink. Try as you might to do the right thing – try as you might to be true to yourself - some days you just can’t win!

St. Francis de Sales was certainly no stranger to the dynamic of being damned if you do and damned if you don’t, especially when it comes to trying to live a life of devotion. Citing this very selection from today’s Gospel, he observed:

“We can never please the world unless we lose ourselves together with it. It is so demanding that it can’t be satisfied. ‘John came neither eating nor drinking,’ says the Savior, and you say, ‘He has a devil.’ ‘The Son of man came eating and drinking’ and you say that he is ‘a Samaritan’ If we are ready to laugh, play cards or dance with the world in order to please it, it will be scandalized at us, and if we don’t, it will accuse us of hypocrisy or melancholy. If we dress well, it will attribute it to some plan we have, and if neglect our attire, it will accuse us of being cheap and stingy. Good humor will be called frivolity and mortification sullenness. Thus the world looks at us with an evil eye and we can never please it. It exaggerates our imperfections and claims they are sins, turns our venial sins into mortal sins and changes our sins of weakness into sins of malice.”

“The world always thinks evil and when it can’t condemn our acts it will condemn our intentions. Whether the sheep have horns or not and whether they are white or black, the wolf won’t hesitate to eat them if he can. Whatever we do, the world will wage war on us. If we stay a long time in the confessional, it will wonder how we can so much to say; if we stay only a short time, it will say we haven’t told everything…The world holds us to be fools; let us hold it to be mad.” (IDL, Part IV, Chapter 2, pp. 236-237)

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t? Well, then, why not be damned (by people who don’t know better) for doing what is virtuous, right and good?

* * * * *

(September 19, 2024: Thursday, Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“She has shown great love...”

Throughout the history of great ideas, great inventions or great movements, often times what makes an idea, invention or movement great is the fact that nobody else had ever thought of doing it.

Such is the example in today’s Gospel selection from Luke. On the face of it, wiping and anointing the feet of an important guest – an expression of great respect and reverence – was something that in Jesus’ day one might simply have been taken for granted. As it turns out, someone did indeed take it for granted.

Someone described as “a sinful woman”.

She made her way into this august gathering with no invitation (no small achievement in itself) and proceeded to do what nobody else thought to do: through ritual action, she expressed her respect and reverence for Jesus by washing and anointing his feet. She might have been a great sinner in the minds of other people, but in the mind of God her sinfulness was only superseded by her great love.

Today, sinners though we are, how might we show great love?

* * * * *

(September 20, 2024: Andrew Kim Taejŏn, Priest, Paul Chong Ha-sang and Companions, Martyrs)

* * * * *

“Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep…”

First Fruits are a religious offering of the first agricultural produce of the harvest. In classical Greek, Roman, Hebrew and Christian religions, the first fruits were given to priests to offer to God. First Fruits were often a primary source of income to maintain the religious leaders as well as their places of worship…” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Fruits)

First Fruits – the very First Fruits of the harvest – are things that many peoples offer to God before making use of any subsequent harvest for themselves. In today’s first reading from First Corinthians, Paul suggests that in the person of Jesus, First Fruits have taken on a whole new meaning: Jesus is the First Fruits of the New Covenant that God offers to us! The First Fruits of the Resurrection are something that God has set aside for us.

And continues to do so.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“When he created things, God commanded plants to bring forth their fruits – each one according to its kind. In like manner God commands Christians, the living plants of the Church, to bring forth the fruits of devotion, each according to one’s position and vocation.” (IDL, Part I, Chapter 3, p. 43)

What better way for us to express our gratitude for the First Fruits of divine life and love embodied in the person of Jesus than by sharing our fruits of devotion with one another? First!

* * * * *

(September 21, 2024: Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist)

* * * * *

“Live in a manner worthy of the call you have received…”

In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell writes:

“During the Roman Empire, tax collecting was one of the most lucrative jobs a person could have. With the emperor’s tacit approval, collectors were free to wring all they could from their district’s taxpayers and then keep a portion of the proceeds for themselves. Caesar didn’t mind the profiteering as long as the total assessed tax was delivered to his treasury. But Jewish taxpayers forced to pay the exorbitant sums weren’t quite so forgiving, especially when the tax collector was a fellow Jew, like Matthew. Jewish tax collectors were regarded as loathsome collaborators and extortionists who exploited their own people. It’s little wonder, then, that in the Gospels tax collectors are placed on par with harlots, thieves, and other shameless public sinners.”

“Matthew collected taxes in Capernaum, a town in the northern province of Galilee and the site of a Roman garrison. Christ was a frequent visitor there, performing such miracles as healing the centurion’s servant, curing Peter’s ailing mother-in-law, and raising Jairus’ daughter form the dead. One day, while passing the customs house where Matthew was busy squeezing extra shekels from his neighbors, Christ paused to say, ‘Follow me.’ That was all it took to touch Matthew’s heart. He walked out of the customs house forever, giving up his life as a cheat to become an apostle, the author of a Gospel and eventually a martyr.” (Page 12)

Just when Matthew thought he had it made – just when he thought he was living la vita loca – Christ changed his life by calling him to live in a manner worthy of what God had in mind for him. Matthew – who clearly recognized an opportunity when he saw one – dropped everything he had valued up until that very moment to follow Jesus. And the rest, as they say, is history.

It’s amazing to consider how a handful of words can change the trajectory of one’s life. A few words from Jesus transformed Matthew from being a human being who was all about taking from others into a man who was all about giving to others - even to the point of giving his very life.

Today, how might God’s words invite us to change and to transform our lives?

* * * * *

Daily Reflections: September 8 - September 14

* * * * *

(September 8, 2024: Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen to what Francis de Sales has to say on this topic. (Introduction Part III, Chapter 36)

“If we like a certain practice, we despise everyone else and oppose everything that is not to our taste. If someone is poor-looking or if we have taken a dislike to that person, we find fault with everything that person does: we never stop plaguing that person and are always looking for an opportunity to run that person down. On the contrary, if we like someone because of their good looks, there isn’t anything that person does that we aren’t willing to overlook.”

“In general, we prefer the rich to the poor…we even prefer those who are better dressed. We rigorously demand out own rights but want others to be considerate when insisting on theirs. We maintain our rank with exactness, but we want others to be humble and accommodating when it comes to theirs. We complain very easily about our neighbor, but our neighbors must never complain about us. What we do for others always seems like such a big deal, but what others do for us seems like nothing at all.”

“In short, we have two hearts. We have a mild, gracious and courteous attitude toward ourselves and another that is hard, severe, and rigorous toward our neighbor. We have two weights: one to weigh goods to our won greatest possible advantage and another, to weigh to our neighbor’s greatest possible disadvantage.”

This is the essence of discriminating against others “in our hearts:” to live with two hearts, to live by a double standard. As James says, when we set ourselves up as judge (and jury) of our neighbor while failing to use the same standard on ourselves, we “hand down corrupt decisions.”

On the other hand, God shows no partiality. As people made in God’s image and likeness, neither should we. How can we remedy our tendency to prefer some people over others? On this matter, Francis de Sales is crystal clear and unambiguous.

“Be just and equitable in all your actions. Always put yourself in your neighbor’s place and your neighbor in yours and you will judge justly. Imagine yourself the seller when you buy and the buyer when you sell and you will sell and buy justly…This is the touchstone of all reason.”

Well, isn’t that reason enough to do our level best to show no partiality when it comes to the things of God, and in giving our neighbor his or her due?

* * * * *

(September 9, 2024: Peter Claver, Priest)

* * * * *

“It is widely reported that you are inflated with pride; should you not rather have been sorrowful?”

Sadness is something that most of us avoid at all costs. When it comes to making progress in the spiritual life, however, sadness is not necessarily always a bad thing. In fact, it can actually be a good thing! In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“Sorrow that is according to God produces penance that surely tends to salvation, whereas the sorrow that is according to the world produces death,’ says St. Paul. Sorrow, then, can be either good or evil according to its different ways of affecting us. True enough, it produces more bad effects than good for it has only two good effects, namely, compassion and contrition, whereas it has six evil effects, namely, anxiety, sloth, wrath, jealousy, envy and impatience.” (IDL, Part IV, Chapter 12, p. 253)

The kind of sorrow that both St. Paul and Francis de Sales are advocating is one that flows from the acknowledgment of our sins and weaknesses in ways that don’t disable us. This acknowledgement is not a ‘woe is me” sorrow that simply deprives us of the energy we need to make changes in our lives.

Is there something about your life right now of which you’re not proud? If so, don’t reach for a sorrow that simply makes you wallow in your suffering, but reach for a sorrow that helps you to do something to change the cause of your suffering.

And experience the “penance that surely leads to salvation.”

* * * * *

(September 10, 2024: Tuesday, Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to be able to settle a case between brothers?”

“Litigation (that is, the conduct of a lawsuit) is as old as civilized history. Evidence of trials exists in the hieroglyphic stone tablets of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the scrolls of Rome and Greece, and even the ideographs of the Chinese dynasties. The ancient Romans allowed law to be practiced directly by the “citizen,” without the necessity of a representative—a crude practice that was abolished, coincidentally, shortly before the fall of the empire. Likewise, the third century Chinese scholar Shao Chin Tse-Tse wrote in his seminal history of the Tang Dynasty, Ten Percent Fruit Juice, “The way of Confucius required that all disputes be brought before the Emperor by representatives of noble lineage...” (http://www.publishlawyer.com/history.htm)

And what exactly is a lawsuit?

“A lawsuit (or much less commonly a “suit in law”) is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff - a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions - demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint. If the plaintiff is successful, judgment will be given in the plaintiff's favor, and a variety of court orders may be issued to enforce a right, award damages, or impose a temporary or permanent injunction to prevent an act or compel an act. A declaratory judgment may be issued to prevent future legal disputes. Although not as common, a lawsuit may also refer to a criminal action, criminal proceeding, or criminal claim.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawsuit)

We’ve all suffered injustice at the hands of another person. We’ve all been the victim of someone else’s deceit or deception. We’ve all been cheated, betrayed or defrauded by someone else. We need to address these wrongs, and in extreme cases, we may even need to seek remedies through litigation. But setting aside the extremes cases, might it not be far better on any given day to try to resolve our claims in the court of common sense before resorting to the court of law?

Before choosing litigation, how about first trying reconciliation?

* * * * *

(September 11, 2024: Wednesday, Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“The world in its present form is passing away ...”

The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, is famous for this dictum: “The only constant is change”. In a letter to Madame de Chantal, Francis de Sales penned a similar sentiment when he wrote:

“I see that all of the seasons of the year converge in your soul: at times you experience all the dryness, distraction, disgust and boredom of winter; at other times, all the dew and fragrance of the little flowers in May time; and again, the warmth of a desire to please God. All that remains is autumn, and you say that you do not see much of its fruit. Yet it often happens that in threshing the wheat and pressing the grapes we discover more than the harvest or vintage promised. You would like it to be always spring or summer; but no, dear daughter, we have to experience interior as well as exterior changes. Only in heaven will everything be springtime as to beauty, autumn as to enjoyment and summer as to love. There will be no winter there; but here below we need winter so that we may practice self-denial and the countless small but beautiful virtues that can be practiced during a barren season. Let us go on our little way; so long as we mean well and hold on to our resolve, we can only be on the right track…” (LSD, p. 148)

Whether we realize it or not, the world in its present form is always passing away, because no two days, hours or moments are precisely the same. For that matter, neither are we and/or other people with whom we are engaged in a variety of relationships on any given day. While change is not always easy for us, change is at the core of what it means to be human, and change appears to be quite good for us.

Perhaps change is the only constant, after all, but with one notable exception. The love that God has for us - that never changes!

* * * * *

(September 12, 2018: Thursday, Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“The measure you measure will in return be measured back to you.”

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:

“Be just and equitable in all your actions. Always put yourself in your neighbor’s place and place your neighbor in yours, then you will judge rightly. Imagine yourself the seller when you buy and imagine yourself the buyer when you sell – then you will sell and buy justly. A person loses nothing by living generously, nobly, courteously and with a royal, just and reasonable heart…This is the touchstone of true reason.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 36, p. 217)

Francis tells us we lose nothing by measuring generously when it comes to how we deal with our brothers and sisters. Jesus goes one step further – generosity toward others offers us the promise of eternal life for ourselves…and then some!

* * * * *

(September 13, 2024: Friday, Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“What then is my recompense? That, when I preach, I offer the Gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the Gospel.”

Not to put too fine a point on it, but preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ – be it preaching in word or preaching in deed – is its own reward.

Or, at least, it should be!

* * * * *

(September 14, 2024: Exultation of the Holy Cross)

* * * * *

“He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

In a sermon preached on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Francis de Sales remarked:

“St. Paul, the outstanding master and teacher of the newborn Church, discovered in the crucified Christ the blissful wellspring of his love, the theme of his sermons, the source of his boasting, the goal of all his ambitions in this world and the anchor of all his hopes for the world to come. I had no thought, he says, of bringing you any other knowledge than that of Jesus Christ, and of him crucified. God forbid that I should make a display of anything, except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Pulpit and Pew: A Study in Salesian Preaching)

The cross of Christ is the core of our lives. The cross of Christ is the central image of our faith. The cross of Christ is the path to our salvation.

Still, no less than five times in the synoptic Gospels, Jesus makes it very clear - if we wish to be his disciples, we must be willing to pick up not his cross but pick up our own cross. We are not called to carry his cross, but ours. Put another way, we imitate the power and the promise of the cross of Christ precisely by being willing to embrace the crosses — the challenges, the burdens, the setbacks — that are part and parcel of our lives.

In short, the cross that we carry is the need to be ourselves — not somebody else — and to take all that comes with that effort.

Many of the crosses we carry are specific to the state and stage of life in which we find ourselves. Francis de Sales offers the following examples of the kinds of crosses that we might be asked to carry.

“To the pastors of the Church I offer a cross of care and labor, a shepherd’s toil to protect, to feed, to correct and perfect the flock. This was the cross first carried by our Lord who called himself the Good Shepherd: witness his journeys, his fatigue by Jacob’s well, his loving care for those who treated him badly.” (Ibid)

“To religious I offer the cross of solitude, celibacy and unworldliness. It is a cross that has touched the True Cross; it is a cross that was carried by Our Lady, the holiest, most innocent and completely crucified of all who ever loved the cross for Christ.” (Ibid)

“To those serving in government, I present the cross of learning, fairness and the sincerity of truth: a cross worthy of those who, St. Paul says, are in God’s service. Such a cross is ideal for crucifying merely secular values, for repressing self-interest: it encourages peace and quiet in the realm.” (Ibid)

“To workers, I offer the cross of humility and labor, a cross sanctified by our Lord himself in the carpenter’s shop. The cross of daily work is often a sure way to salvation; it may also be the best means of avoiding sin, for the devil finds work for idle hands.” (Ibid)

“For teenagers I have chosen the cross of obedience, purity and self-discipline. It will crucify the young blood of passion that is just coming to a boil: the boldness of youth still awaiting the guiding hand of prudence. It will teach them to bear the easy yoke of Christ in whatever calling in life God may place them.” (Ibid)

“For old people there is the cross of patience, gentleness and a helpful attitude towards the young. This cross demands a brave heart. They have learned that swift as a breath our lives pass away…” (Ibid)

“There is no shortage of crosses for married folk, but perhaps I could single out the cross of mutual support and faithfulness, and the cross of bringing up a family…” (Ibid)

There is but one cross of Jesus Christ. For us, however, our crosses come in many shapes, sizes and situations.

What cross might Christ asking us to carry today?

* * * * *

Daily Reflections: September 1 - September 7

* * * * *

(September 1, 2024: Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.”

Traditions are powerful things.  Whether they deal with the making of Grandmother's special casserole for our Thanksgiving meal, with the relative who hosts for Christmas and Easter, with those we accompany on family vacation, with rituals around the death of a loved one, or with something so simple as who sits where around the dinner table. Traditions are part and parcel of all of our lives.  When they are positive ones, traditions can give us a sense of identity, stability and value when our lives are filled with change.

But traditions can be negative too; especially when they become detached from the values they were meant to support and protect.  Jesus knew that fact all too well as today's gospel account suggests.  He challenged the Pharisees in their use of the laws regarding ritual purity.  Jesus saw them using the traditions to judge others unfairly as being “in” or “out” of the circle of God's mercy and love, as if they - and not God - were the determiners of righteousness and religious worthiness!

God's Word this Sunday certainly challenges us to look at the power of tradition(s) in our lives.  If they are positive, then we should continue to make them part of our lives.  But if they are negative behaviors or even attitudes - old grudges we just can't forget, old hurts we just can't forgive, old patterns of destructive choosing or thinking that we just can't seem to escape - then, with the grace of God already “planted within us,” we need to do something different to change them. 

St. Francis de Sales suggests, when these old negative “traditions” make us less than the child of God we are redeemed to be, that we concentrate on the “present moment.”  We are not defined by our past nor can we do anything about it except forgive it.  The future is yet to be.  But what we do have is the here and now - the present moment - and the grace of God in that moment. 

It is only in the present moment that we can replace old negative behaviors and attitudes with new, life affirming ones.  When we concentrate on accessing the power of God planted within us to make new choices “present moment” to “present moment,” we are well on our way to starting new, positive “traditions” which will sustain us now and mold us for the future, as people who “do justice and live in the presence of the Lord.”

Today, with God's grace, let us start a new tradition of living in the “present moment.”  That's a tradition worth keeping over time…even for a lifetime!

* * * * *

(September 2, 2024: Labor Day)

* * * * *

In today’s Gospel, Jesus describes the nature and focus of his labor in the words from the prophet Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”

Labor Day offers us a great opportunity to reflect upon the great work to which each of us is called – to continue the creating, healing and inspiring action of Jesus Christ in the lives of others in ways that fit the state and stage of life in which we find ourselves. Eucharistic Prayer IV in the former Sacramentary (supplanted by the Roman Missal) put it this way:

“Father, we acknowledge your greatness: all your actions show your wisdom and love. You formed man in your own likeness and set him over the whole world to serve you, his creator, and to rule over all creatures…To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners, freedom, and to those in sorrow, joy…And that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him, he sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, as his first gift to those who believe, to complete his work on earth…”

On this Labor Day, how might we continue Christ’s work in our little corner of the world?

* * * * *

(September 3, 2024: Tuesday, Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“We have the mind of Christ…”

What does it mean to “have the mind of Christ”? What does the “mind of Christ” look like?

Today’s Gospel certainly provides a practical answer, powerfully portrayed!

Look how Jesus used his God-given power - the power of both word and action. He didn’t use it for his own self-aggrandizement. On the contrary, Jesus used it for the benefit of others. If his audience was “astonished at his teaching,” one can only imagine how astonished they must have been when Jesus expelled an unclean demon from a man in the synagogue! Jesus’ “one-two punch” approach to preaching – employing both word and action – stood in stark contrast to the preaching of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes which Jesus himself criticized as being too long on words and too short on action.

What does it look like when “we have the mind of Christ”? The answer - when we both speak like Christ and act like Christ, that is, when we not only wish people well – in words – but also we do what we can – in actions – to make our wish for others’ welfare a reality.

* * * * *

(September 4, 2024: Wednesday, Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“We are God’s co-workers…”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“God acts in our works, and we co-operate in God’s action.  God leaves for our part all the merit and profit of our services and good works; we leave God all the honor and praise thereof, acknowledging that the growth, the progress, and the end of all the good we do depend on God’s mercy, finishing what God had begun.  O God, how merciful is God’s goodness to us in thus distributing his bounty!” (TLG, Book XI, Chapter 6, p. 212)

It would be enough if God simply made us the recipients of his mercy and generosity, but in his wisdom, God has also made us the agents or instruments of his mercy and generosity. Our common vocation is not simply limited to enjoying the gift of creation, but rather we are called to nurture it, care for it, shepherd it and develop it! God works in and through us; we work in and through God’s action. To us come all of the benefits, but to God goes all of the glory.

Who could ask for a better arrangement than that?

We are – in word and in deed – God’s co-workers. We celebrate both God’s generosity to us and share that generosity with others.

Today, how might God employ our cooperation in both receiving – and sharing – his bounty?

* * * * *

(September 5, 2024: Thursday, Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“If anyone among you considers himself wise, let him become a fool, so as to become wise…”

This apparent paradox – wisdom as foolishness, foolishness as wisdom – is found in both the Old and New Testaments. Of course, it is “worldly” wisdom that is foolish, whereas divine “foolishness” is, in truth, authentic wisdom. Put another way, when our “wisdom” makes us the center of the universe, we are truly the most foolish of men. By contrast, when we are so “foolish” as to make God the center of the universe, it is only then that we can hope to become truly wise.

Francis de Sales was no stranger to this paradox. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, he wrote:

“We recognize genuine goodness as we do genuine balm. If balm sinks down and stays at the bottom when dropped into water, it is rated the best and most valuable. So also, in order to know whether a person is truly wise, learned, generous and noble, we must observe whether his abilities tend to humility, modesty, and obedience for in that case they will be truly good. If they float on the surface and seek to show themselves they are so much less genuine insofar as they are showier. People’s virtues and fine qualities when conceived and nurtured by pride, show and vanity have the mere appearance of good without juice, marrow and solidity. Honors, dignities and rank are like saffron, which thrives best and grows most plentifully when trodden under foot. It is no honor to be handsome if a person prizes himself for it; if beauty is to have good grace, it should be unstudied. Learning dishonors us when it inflates our minds and degenerates into mere pedantry. Just as honor is an excellent thing when given to us freely, so, too, it becomes base when demanded, sought after and asked for.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 4, pp. 132-133)

So, ask yourself the question: “Does my wisdom inflate my mind, or does it tend to humility, modesty and obedience?” If your answer is the former, you may be far more foolish than you know. By contrast, if your answer is the latter, you may be far wiser than you ever thought possible.

* * * * *

(September 6, 2024: Friday, Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Do not make any judgment before the appointed time…”

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales makes a direct reference to this admonition from St. Paul, when he wrote:

“‘No,’ says the Apostle, ‘judge not before the time until the Lord comes, when He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsel of hearts.’ The judgments of the children of men are rash because they are not the judges of one another, and when they pass judgments on others they usurp the office of the Lord. They are rash because the principal malice of sin depends on the intention and counsel of the heart, and to us they are the hidden things of darkness. They are rash because every man has enough on which he ought to judge himself without taking it upon him to judge his neighbor. To avoid future judgment, it is equally necessary both to refrain from judging others and to judge ourselves.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 28, pp. 196-197)

Note that Paul is willing to go even a step further than St. Francis de Sales when it comes to making judgments. The former goes so far as to say, “I do not even pass judgment on myself”. In the big scheme of things, each of us has more than enough on his plate each day just trying to live our lives as best we can without spending extra time and energy (that we really do not have) judging ourselves and others. Besides, who are we to judge? As both St. Paul and St. Francis de Sales point out, it is God who is the one and only just judge.

Just today, try and remember this admonition: whether toward others or ourselves, judging is simply above our pay grade.

* * * * *

(September 7, 2024: Saturday, Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”

In today’s Gospel, some Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of breaking the Sabbath by picking heads of grain in order to feed themselves. The Pharisees seem to suggest that in life you have to choose between what is reasonable and what is right. As he frequently did, Jesus turned the Pharisees’ rationale on its head by suggesting that often times that which is most reasonable is most lawful.

In the Salesian tradition, we know this position as “liberty of spirit”. In a letter to St. Jane de Chantal, Francis cites examples in an attempt to describe this “liberty of spirit”:

“Take the case of Cardinal Borromeo. He was one of the most precise, unbending and austere men imaginable. He lived on bread and water, He was so strict that after he became archbishop, he only visited his brothers’ homes twice in twenty-four years, and in those cases only because they were ill. He only went into his own garden twice. Nevertheless, this strict man, who often accepted invitations from his Swiss neighbors in the hope of winning them back to the truth, made no difficulty about drinking a couple of healths or toasts with them at every meal, over and above what he needed to still his thirst. Here you see the trait of a holy liberty in one of the most austere men of our times. A lax person would have overdone it, a scrupulous mind would have feared committing mortal sin, but a true liberty of spirit does it out of love.”

“Bishop Spiridion of old once took in a famished pilgrim during the season of Lent. There was nothing available to eat except salt meat, so the bishop had some cooked and served it to the pilgrim. The visitor did not want to take the meat in spite of his hunger, so, out of charity Spiridion ate some first so as to remove the pilgrim’s scruples by his example. Here we see the loving freedom of a holy man. In another example, Ignatius Loyola ate meat on Wednesday in Holy Week because the doctor ordered it and thought it expedient for some trouble that Ignatius was having. A person of scrupulous mind would have contested this point for at least a good three days.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 73)

Consumed as they were about not breaking any laws, the Pharisees almost always placed this concern heads and shoulders above meeting the needs of others. By contrast, Jesus was convinced that meeting the needs of others was the fulfillment of the law. Francis de Sales put it this way (in all caps, by the way!):

LOVE AND NOT FORCE SHOULD INSPIRE ALL YOU DO;

LOVE OBEDINECE MORE THAN YOU FEAR DISOBEDIENCE

By all means, try your level best to observe God’s Law today. And above all, try your level best to observe the greatest of all God’s Laws – the Law of Love.

* * * * *

Spirituality Matters: August 25 - August 31

* * * * *

(August 25, 2024: Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Decide today whom you will serve.”

Our worlds change - sometimes constantly.  We might tend to think of the “changing world” as something only outside or beyond ourselves.  But sometimes the most difficult world to accept with all its changes is the world within each of us, the one with turmoil and vicissitudes that perhaps are known only to ourselves.

Today, we speak of the importance of making good decisions and choices.  Everyone wants to be free. Everyone wants autonomy.  Well, certainly God wants us to have that freedom as well, as it is the most dramatic and far-reaching gift he has given us.  In the first reading today, Joshua addresses this freedom head on:  “Decide today whom you will serve”.  That’s about as direct and as contemporary a message that we could have.  What do you want?  Well, decide!  There is no room for the wishy-washy in Joshua’s approach.  There is also no doubt where he stands:  “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Paul confronts the same issue in his letter on married life: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  This opening statement is critical because without it the later advice to be subservient could appear demeaning or even appalling. The ‘subordination’ to which the Christian is called is always presented within and because of love – Christ’s love.  The love of Christ is why we serve others, and put ourselves at least second, if not literally last. Christ loved us first and showed us the way to life.  To put others first, especially in a relationship – or in a family – is the only way to have life, and to share life, to the full.

It is also the only way to make love truly life-giving.

This teaching of Christ can be “hard”, and the early followers of Christ found it so, but like Peter in the Gospel, when all is said and done, “to whom shall we go?”  Again and again, the losses and trials of life affirm that only He has “the words of eternal life”.

Francis de Sales reminds us that instability in life is inevitable, and it is our failure to recognize the truth that makes us unstable and changeable in our moods.  He encourages us to remain firm and steadfast in our resolutions.  The challenge of our changing world 

“within” is one of constancy.  And that constancy is achieved by fidelity to the decisions we make in daily life to love and serve the Lord and one another – the very resolution with which we close every liturgy.

* * * * *

(August 26, 2021: Monday, Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater.”

You can hear the happiness in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. His joy flows from reminding himself of the “work of faith and labor of love” in the members of that early faith community.

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“When our mind is raised above the natural light of reason and begins to see the sacred truth of faith, O God, what joy ensues! The holy light of faith is filled with delight!” (Select Salesian Subjects, #0263, p. 58)

What a contrast with how Jesus describes the scribes and Pharisees! Their faith produces no good works; their love is lacking. Their faith is anything but happy. Jesus simply describes what is painfully obvious about them in his litany of “woes” that begin with today’s Gospel and continue thorough Wednesday’s Gospel. In a word, these people were just plain miserable.

How do people experience the gift of faith in us? Are we sources of happiness – or woe – in the lives of others?

* * * * *

(August 27, 2024: Monica)

* * * * *

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.

“St. Monica was married by arrangement to a pagan official in North Africa, who was much older than she, and although generous, was also violent tempered. His mother lived with them and was equally difficult, which proved a constant challenge to St. Monica. She had three children; Augustine, Navigius, and Perpetua. Through her patience and prayers, she was able to convert her husband and his mother to the Christian faith in 370. He died a year later. Perpetua and Navigius entered the religious life. St. Augustine was much more difficult, as she had to pray for him for seventeen years, begging the prayers of priests who - for a while - tried to avoid her because of her persistence at this seemingly hopeless endeavor. One priest did attempt to encourage her by saying, ‘It is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish.’ This thought, coupled with a vision that she had received, strengthened her in her prayers and hopes for her son. Finally, St. Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose in 387. St. Monica died later that same year in the Italian town of Ostia, on the way back to Africa from Rome.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1)

We can all relate to Saint Monica. We all have people in our lives for whom we want the best. We all have people in our lives that we want to be happy. We all have people in our lives about whom we have concerns and heartaches. Of course, as much as we might love someone else, we cannot live their lives for them. Sometimes, the most we can do is to pray for them, encourage them and support them. As for the rest, we need to leave it in the hands of God, trusting that God will bring about the good when the appointed hour has come.

Notwithstanding that she was his mother, Monica knew that her son had to find his own way. Rather than attempt to control her son, she placed all her cares, concerns and hopes into the hands – and the heart – of a loving God.

With remarkable results.

How might we imitate her example as it relates to our loved ones for whom we want nothing but the very best?

* * * * *

(August 28, 2024: Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church)

* * * * *

“For you know how one must imitate us. For we did not act in a disorderly way among you…”

“This famous son of St. Monica was born in Africa and spent many years of his life in wicked living and in false beliefs. Though he was one of the most intelligent men who ever lived and though he had been raised a Christian, his sins of impurity and his pride closed his mind to divine truth. Through the prayers of his holy mother and the marvelous preaching of St. Ambrose, Augustine gradually became convinced that Christianity was indeed the one true faith. Yet he did not become a Christian even then, because he thought he could never live a pure life.”

“One day, however, he heard about two men who had suddenly been converted after reading the life of St. Antony, and he felt terribly ashamed of himself. ‘What are we doing?’ he cried to his friend Alipius. ‘Unlearned people are taking heaven by force, while we, with all our knowledge, are so cowardly that we keep rolling around in the mud of our sins!’ Full of bitter sorrow, Augustine cried out to God, ‘How long more, O Lord? Why does not this hour put an end to my sins?’ Just then he heard a child singing, ‘Take up and read!’ Thinking that God intended him to hear those words, he picked up the book of the Letters of St. Paul and read the first passage upon which his gaze fell. It was just what Augustine needed, for in it, St. Paul said to put away all impurity and to live in imitation of Jesus. That did it! From then on, Augustine began a new life.(http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=418)

In his Letter to the Thessalonians, that same Paul who had such a powerful influence in the life of Augustine challenges us to avoid living in a disorderly way, although – as we see so clearly in the life of Saint Augustine – that doesn’t necessarily happen overnight. For most of us, learning to walk in orderly ways takes a long time – in fact, it takes a lifetime.

Today, ask yourself – how am I doing?

* * * * *

(August 29, 2024: Passion of John the Baptist)

* * * * *

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“All the martyrs died for divine love. When we say that many of them died for the faith, we must not imply that it was for a ‘dead faith’ but rather for a living faith, that is, faith animated by charity. Moreover, our confession of faith is not so much an act of the intellect as an act of the will and love of God. For this reason, on the day of the Passion the great St. Peter preserved his faith in his soul – but lost charity – since he refused in words to admit as Master Him whom in his heart he acknowledged to be such. But there are other martyrs who died expressly for charity alone. Such was the Savior’s great Precursor who suffered martyrdom because he gave fraternal correction…” (TLG, Book VII, Chapter 10, pp. 40-41)

We see in John the Baptist a person who was faithful to his unique vocation. As the herald of Jesus both before and after the latter’s baptism in the Jordan, John respected, honored and loved the Lord, as well as the things, values and standards of the Lord. His willingness to tend to the affairs entrusted to him by God impelled him to confront Herod on his immoral lifestyle (taking his brother’s wife to be his own) in a very public forum. Obviously, minding his own affairs didn’t happen in a vacuum – it impacted other people as well. In the end, doing his job – being faithful to his appointed tasks – cost John his life.

John didn’t lose his head over some mere intellectual principle: he gave it because of something he believed from – and in – the depth of his heart. How far are we willing to go for the things, the values and the people that we hold deeply in our hearts, presuming, of course, we possess such deep, heartfelt convictions?

Today, on what issues – and for whom – are we willing to stand firm, whatever the cost?

* * * * *

(August 30, 2024: Friday, Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

In the book Saints are not Sad (1949,) we read

“Holiness, in Francis de Sales’ conception of it, should be an all-around quality without abruptness or eccentricity. It should not involve the suppression in us of anything that is not in itself bad, for the likeness to God which is its essence must be incomplete in the proportion that it does not extend to the whole of us. So we must be truthful to ourselves and about ourselves, and we shall lose as much by not seeing the good that really is in us as by fancying that we see good that is not there at all. It is as right and due that we should thank God for the virtue that His grace has established in us as that we should ask His forgiveness for our sinfulness that hinders His grace.” (Select Salesian Subjects, # 0377, p. 85)

God calls us to holiness. God calls us to walk in his ways. Imperfect as we are, we can make great progress in this quest by accepting the grace of God, by putting God’s grace to work in action and by relying on the love, support and encouragement of others. This call to holiness also challenges us to be truthful with ourselves and about ourselves - to recognize what is good in us, as well as anything in us needing to be purified. While we will always be imperfect – while we will always be reminded of our weakness – we don’t need to be perfect to strive for perfection.

Today, how can the “foolishness of God” help us to become sources of God’s strength today? Today, how can God help us to transform our weakness into greatness in the service of others today?

* * * * *

(August 31, 2024: Saturday, Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“After a long time, the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them…”

In today’s Gospel Jesus issues what law enforcement professionals refer to as a “BOLO”: Be on the Lookout! Stay awake! Watch out, for you know “neither the day nor the hour” when the master will return and settle up with his servants.

For reasons that are obvious, the early Christians – and we later Christians – almost always (and perhaps, even exclusively) associate this “BOLO” with a warning to be on the lookout for the end of the world, be it globally (everybody’s) or individually (our own). In the Salesian tradition, this “BOLO” is not limited to the “end of days” - it’s great advice for every day, especially when it comes to being on the lookout for opportunities to make good use of the talents, skills, gifts and abilities with which God has gifted us! Francis de Sales preached:

“There is no need to worry overmuch when or where we shall die; in what town or in what country we shall die; whether alone or with others we shall die. What doe sit matter? Leave it to God, for He will never fail us whether in life or in death…All we have to do is to leave ourselves to God’s providence, asking nothing and refusing nothing: that is the essence of human perfection. Don’t ask God for death; don’t refuse death when God sends it. Happy those who practice this indifference, who prepare for a happy death – whenever God should decree it – by living a good life! This is what all the saints have done. Some of them set aside a certain time each year to think about death. Some of them did it once a month, others once a week, or even every day, at a fixed time. By frequently remembering the inevitability of death, they tried to ensure a successful journey from this world to the next.” (Pulpit and Pew, pp. 290-291)

Put your God-given talents to work. Do your level best each and every day to make a good return on the investment that God has made in you. To the extent that you are faithful to this effort, the day when the master returns to settle up with you will not be filled with dread – but with rejoicing!

* * * * *

Spirituality Matters: August 18 - August 24

* * * * *

(August 18, 2024: Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (her).”

What a wonderful gift the Eucharist is! Jesus gives us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. And he commands us to eat and drink of his flesh and his blood in order that we might have life - eternal life.

In today’s first reading, taken from the Book of Wisdom, Jesus invites us to the meal he has prepared for us, a meal that enables us to unite ourselves to his saving death and resurrection. On the Cross Jesus’ flesh was pierced and his blood shed for others, including for you and me. As we eat and drink, we are called to forsake foolishness that we might live and advance in the way of understanding. (Proverbs) 

The words of Wisdom remind us that this meal is a sacred, covenantal meal. In Jesus, God’s great love and mercy become visible, tangible. When we eat Jesus’ body and drink his blood, we are expressing our willingness to be one with Jesus in his saving mission to the world. We announce his good news to today’s world. In this meal, we become one with Jesus and one with the community, one in the Body of Christ. As we leave this sacred meal, we are challenged to live this daily reality of our oneness. 

St. Francis de Sales offers us some practical advice on how to make this manner of living happen more effectively. After Communion, he says: consider Jesus seated in your heart and bring before him each of your faculties and senses in order to hear his commands and promise him fidelity. This exercise can become our thanksgiving and our commitment to living out what we have celebrated and received. Jesus will offer us a way of using our intellect, our will, our memory, our hearing, our touching and our speaking today in a way that gives witness to God’s loving presence in the world. 

St. Paul today encourages us: Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise persons. Our eating and drinking at the table of the Lord makes all of us one. May the wise ways in which we attempt to walk today make visible the oneness we experience in Eucharist. Remember: you are what you eat…you are what you drink.

* * * * *

(August 19, 2024: Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“If you wish to be perfect, sell what you have and give to the poor…”

And the man went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Listen carefully to Jesus’ words. He doesn’t say, “Give it all to the poor.” He does say, “Give to the poor.” These words presume that what – or how much – is given to the poor is left to the individual to decide. In the case of the unnamed young man in today’s Gospel, perhaps his sadness was caused by the fact that he didn’t want to give anything away – not one bit – to the poor. If, in fact, he had many possessions. He is reluctant to share even the smallest amount of his good fortune with those less fortunate than he is, making it even more saddening.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales counseled:

“We must practice real poverty in the midst of all the goods and riches that God has given us. Frequently give up some of your property by giving it with a generous heart to the poor. To give away what we have is to impoverish ourselves in proportion as we give, and the more we give the poorer we become. It is true that God will repay us not only in the next world but even in this world…Oh, how holy and how rich is the poverty brought on by giving alms!” (IDL, Part II, Chapter 15. p. 165)

Listen carefully to Francis’ words: “Frequently give up some of your property…”

Count your blessings. Name your possessions. Be they material, like money, or non-material, like influence, time or talent. What transforms our riches into wealth is our willingness to share them with the poor, with the impoverished, with the less-fortunate and with those who have fallen on hard times.

Do you want to gain eternal life? Today then, how many – or much – of your possessions are you willing to share with anyone poor or needy?

* * * * *

(August 20, 2024: Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church)

* * * * *

“It will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Riches themselves are not the greatest obstacle to our entering into the Kingdom of God. From a Salesian perspective, it is our desire for riches that poses the problem - the grandeur with which we protect them and the passion with which we pursue them.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:

“Your heart must be open to heaven alone and impervious to riches and all other transitory things. Whatever part of them you may possess, you must keep your heart free from too strong an affection for them. Always keep your heart above riches: even when your heart is surrounded by riches, see to it that your heart remains distinct from them and master over them. Do not allow your heavenly spirit to become captive to earthly things. Let your heart remain always superior to riches and over them – not in them… I willingly grant that you may take care to increase your wealth and resources, provided this is done not only justly but also properly and charitably.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 14, p. 163)

How can we determine if our possessions might be holding us back from the Kingdom of Heaven? Francis wrote:

“If you find your heart very desolated and devastated at the loss of anything you possess then believe me when I tell you that you love it too much. The strongest proof of how deeply we are attached to possessions is the degree of suffering we experience when we lose it.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 14, p. 164)

Are we experiencing any difficulties as we strive to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven during our journeys here on earth? Perhaps, it is because our possessions have somehow managed to possess us!

* * * * *

(August 21, 2024: Pius X, Pope)

* * * * *

“Are you envious because I am generous?”

The parable in today’s Gospel certainly suggests that those who labored the longest surely were envious! They felt cheated, because as we are told, they “grumbled” –when they realized that the landowner had paid them the same amount as those who had barely worked a few hours!

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales counseled:

“We must be most careful not to spend much time wondering why God bestows a grace upon one person rather than another, or why God makes his favors abound on behalf of one rather than another. No, never give in to such musings. Since each of us has a sufficient – rather, an abundant measure of all things required or salvation – who in all the world can rightly complain if it pleases God to bestow his graces more largely on some than on others?” (Living Jesus, 0618, p. 246)

Of course, given how generous God is to us we would never be envious or complain about somebody else having more than we do -  or would we?

* * * * *

(August 22, 2024: Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

* * * * *

“Many are invited, but few are chosen...”

We are all familiar with the story of the Annunciation. An angel appears to Mary, announcing that God has chosen her to be the Mother of the Messiah. Notwithstanding a bit of foreboding and a few understandable questions that she posed to the angel; the scene ends with Mary accepting the invitation to play her role in God’s plan of salvation.

Mary’s affirmative response to God’s invitation is in stark contrast to the apathy of many portrayed in today’s Gospel parable. The “king” (obviously, God) repeatedly invites people from hill and dale to accept his invitation to attend his son’s wedding. (By extension, God is asking people to say “yes” to the power, promise and possibilities embodied in his Son, Jesus.) These people simply couldn’t care less, prompting the king to cast his net of hospitality further and further afield.

On any given day God invites each of us to play our unique role in God’s ongoing plan of salvation. Each and every day God invites us to draw nearer to the feast that is his Son, Jesus Christ.

Today, how will we respond to God’s invitation to the feast? 

* * * * *

(August 23, 2024: Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time)

* * * * *

“Which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

The question put to Jesus in today’s Gospel is not an exercise of “Trivial Pursuit”. This question is not mere rhetoric. Ultimately, it is a question of life and death. Jesus’ answer is direct and to the point: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

And when he describes the second as ‘like’ the first, Jesus is saying that the two commandments are essentially one in the same.

In a letter to Madame Brulart, Francis de Sales wrote:

“We must consider our neighbors. God who wishes us to love and cherish them must exercise this love of our neighbor, making our affection manifest by our actions. Although we may sometimes feel that this runs against the grain, we must not give up our efforts on that account. We ought to bring our prayers and meditations to focus on this point, for, after having asked for the love of God, we must likewise ask for the love of our neighbor.” (Living Jesus, 0618, p. 246)

Today, how can we put these two great commandments into practice?

* * * * *

(August 24, 2018: Bartholomew, Apostle)

* * * * *

“Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom…”

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:

“You can see how God – by progressive stages filled with unutterable sweetness – leads the soul forward and enables it to leave the Egypt of sin. He leads it from love to love, as from dwelling to dwelling, until He has made it enter into the Promised Land. By this I mean that God brings it into most holy charity, which, to state it succinctly, is a form of friendship…Such friendship is true friendship, since it is reciprocal, for God has eternally loved all those who have loved Him, who now love Him or who will love Him in time…He has openly revealed all His secrets to us as to His closest friends…” (TLG, Book II, Chapter 22, pp. 160 - 161)

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is clear and unambiguous about the quality that makes Bartholomew (a.k.a., Nathaniel) a friend of God: “There is no guile in him.” There is no pretense in Bartholomew – nothing fake, nothing phony. Jesus sees him as a man who is real, authentic and transparent. In other words, Jesus is an open book.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales offered some practical advice regarding how to practice the virtue of guilelessness.

“Your language should be retrained, frank, sincere, candid unaffected and honest…As the sacred Scripture tells us, The Holy Spirit does not dwell in a deceitful or tricky soul. No artifice is so good and desirable as plain dealing. Worldly prudence and carnal artifice belong to the children of this world, but the children (the friends) of God walk a straight path and their hearts are without guile.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 30, p. 206)

Today, do you want to be a friend of God? Then, Like Bartholomew, strive to be guileless. Simply try to be yourself – nothing more and nothing less.

* * * * *