*****
“He stayed with them and worked…”
This snippet from the Acts of the Apostles reveals something noteworthy about the person of Paul. It seems that when he wasn’t working at preaching in the synagogue he was working to earn his keep, at least, as we are told, until Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia. Put another way, notwithstanding the important work that Paul was doing in Corinth, he did not take Pontus’ and Priscilla’s hospitality for granted; he did what he could to support himself, or at least, to make himself less of a burden.
That action on Paul’s part may have provided just as powerful a message – if not more so – than the preaching he did in the synagogue.
It brings to mind the famous saying of St. Francis of Assisi (for whom St. Francis de Sales was named): “Preach always, and when necessary, use words.”
Today consider - what impact does our preaching – whether in words or in actions – have upon others?
*****
“Why are you standing there looking at the sky?”
Well, the day in question finally arrived. Jesus was taken up into heaven and returned to the Father. After standing there in silence for what must have seemed like an eternity, one of the eleven eventually broke the quiet by asking the question: “Now what?”
The rest – as they say – is history.
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“After Jesus had shown himself for a little while to the disciples, he ascended up to heaven, and at length a cloud surrounded him, took him and hid him from their eyes. Jesus Christ, then, is hidden in heaven in God. Jesus Christ is our love, and our love is the life of the soul. Therefore our ‘life is hidden in God with Christ Jesus, and when Christ who is’ our love and therefore our spiritual life ‘shall reappear’ in the Day of Judgment, we shall also appear ‘with him in glory.’” (TLG, Book VII, Chapter 6, p. 32)
In his Catholic Controversies (p.286) Francis de Sales outlines the activity of the Apostles – especially Peter and Paul – following the Ascension. Simply put, it would appear that once the dust of the Ascension settled, Jesus disciples got to work.
This same work continues for us today. Our task in the wake of the Ascension is to make the “hidden” Christ “reappear” through the quality of our love for others.
*****
“Anticipate one another in showing honor. Do not grow slack in zeal…”
No sooner had Mary received the announcement from the Angel Gabriel that she would be the mother of the Messiah than she “set out and traveled to the hill country in haste” where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. (Recall that in the context of the Annunciation, Mary had learned that her cousin was pregnant.) As if Mary didn’t have enough on her plate already, she dropped whatever she was doing in order to aid Elizabeth for “about three months”. Mary didn’t wait for the request; Mary anticipated the need.
One of the hallmarks of the Salesian tradition (and as embodied in the Sisters of the Visitation, founded by Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal) is this notion of “anticipating the need of our neighbor”. This quality invites us to be “on the lookout” for opportunities to do good for others. Simple things like:
• holding open a door for another
• offering to help carry someone’s groceries
• assisting someone who may have dropped something on the floor
• checking in on someone who’s under the weather
• being the first to greet someone or to call someone by name
• asking how someone is doing today.
These are ordinary, everyday ways of honoring others by simply acknowledging their presence and by recognizing that they exist.
Here is where Paul’s admonition in his Letter to the Romans comes into play. Insofar as each day is loaded with countless opportunities to honor people by anticipating their needs – by “looking out” for their interests – such efforts could understandably become wearisome over time. In the Salesian tradition, we need to approach each new day as yet another God-given gift: the invitation to offer to do good things for others rather than waiting for others to ask us to do good things for them.
Mary embodied the virtue of anticipating the need of another in her decision to offer her cousin Elizabeth assistance without waiting to be asked. In so honoring her cousin, she brought honor to herself.
Today, how might we honor Mary by following her example through our willingness to anticipate the needs of one another?
*****
"Ask and you shall receive…”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“If a man prays to God and perceives that he is praying, he is not perfectly attentive to his prayer. He diverts his attention from the God to whom he prays in order to think of the prayer by which he prays…A man in fervent prayer does not know whether he prays or not, for he does not think of the prayer he makes but of God to whom he makes it.” (TLG, Book VII, Chapter 6, p. 32)
Today here’s a question for you. When you “ask the Father for anything” in Jesus’ name, upon what do you focus - the thing for which you ask or the person from whom you ask it?
*****
“Why are you standing there looking at the sky?”
Well, the day in question finally arrived. Jesus was taken up into heaven and returned to the Father. After standing there in silence for what must have seemed like an eternity, one of the eleven eventually broke the quiet by asking the question: “Now what?”
The rest – as they say – is history.
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“After Jesus had shown himself for a little while to the disciples, he ascended up to heaven, and at length a cloud surrounded him, took him and hid him from their eyes. Jesus Christ, then, is hidden in heaven in God. Jesus Christ is our love, and our love is the life of the soul. Therefore our ‘life is hidden in God with Christ Jesus, and when Christ who is’ our love and therefore our spiritual life ‘shall reappear’ in the Day of Judgment, we shall also appear ‘with him in glory.’” (TLG, Book VII, Chapter 6, p. 32)
In his Catholic Controversies (p.286) Francis de Sales outlines the activity of the Apostles – especially Peter and Paul – following the Ascension. Simply put, it would appear that once the dust of the Ascension settled, Jesus’ disciples got to work.
This same work continues for us today. Our task in the wake of the Ascension is to make the “hidden” Christ “reappear” through the quality of our love for others.
*****
“I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds…”
Today's selection from the Book of Revelation reminds us of the end for which we are created - eternal life with Christ, the Alpha and the Omega. The reading also reminds us that the end for which we are created will include the end of life, as we know it - an end that includes being rewarded, as our conduct on earth deserves.
Notwithstanding God's compassion, God's love, God's forgiveness and God's mercy, each of us will experience this end - and its accompanying judgment - personally.
Still, the Salesian tradition challenges us to recognize the deeper reality of the "end" - or purpose - for which we are created, for which we live: namely, to love. Love not only prepares us for death. Love makes it possible for us to live truly here on earth.
Echoing the words of St. Paul, St. Francis de Sales wrote in his Treatise on the Love of God:
"Love has a perfection which contains the virtue of all perfections and the perfection of all the virtues. Hence, love is patient, is kind, and is not envious, but generous. Love is not pretentious, but prudent. Love is not puffed up with pride but is humble. Love is not ambitious or disdainful, but amiable and affable. Love is not eager to exact all that belongs to it but is generous and helpful. Love is not provoked, but is peaceful. Love thinks no evil but is gentle. Love does not rejoice over wickedness but rejoices with truth. Love suffers all things, believes all things that pertain to all that is good without obstinacy, contention or distrust. Love hopes for all good things for others without ever losing hope of salvation. Love endures all things, awaiting without anxiety the good promised." (Treatise on the Love of God, Book Eleven, Chapter 8). In conclusion, "love is that fine gold, tried by fire, that contains the price of all things, can do all things, and does all things."This kind of life - this kind of love - truly is our end. It is the purpose for which we are born, live, and long. It is the purpose for which God will one day call us home to himself forever.
Truly, such a life - such a love - is, indeed, its own reward. Why wait until heaven to experience it? Why not begin today?
*****
“Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech. Now we realize that you know everything…”
It’s probably safe to say that the Apostles were – as a group – pretty unsophisticated men. Insofar as many of them were tradesmen, they were men who would have put a high premium on keeping things plain and simple. If you had something to say to them, their preference would be that you give it straight to them, without a great deal of images or elaborations. Put another way, these were men for whom ‘less’ would clearly be ‘more.’ So, we can understand their appreciation in today’s Gospel selection for Jesus’ willingness to simply say what they needed to hear in a manner in which they could hear – and understand – it!
In his Introduction to the Devout Life , Francis de Sales wrote:
“Your language should be restrained, frank, sincere, candid, unaffected and honest. Be on guard against equivocation, ambiguity or dissimulation. While it is not always advisable to say everything that is true, it is never permissible to speak against the truth. Therefore, you must become accustomed never to tell a deliberate lie whether to excuse yourself or for some other purpose, remembering always that God is the ‘God of truth’…Although we may sometime discreetly and prudently hide and disguise the truth by an equivocal statement, this must never be done except when the matter is important and God’s glory and service clearly require it. In any other such case such tricks are dangerous. As the sacred word tells us, the Holy Spirit does not dwell in a deceitful or slippery soul. No artifice is as good and desirable as plain dealing.” ( IDL , Part III, Chapter 30, p. 206)
When it comes to preaching – to say nothing of living – the Good News of Jesus Christ, you don’t have to convince other people that you “know everything” in order to be effective. Just give it to people straight, in unembellished and unvarnished words – and ways – that they can understand.
And live!
*****
“This is eternal life: that they should know you, the only true God and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ…”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“‘Life is in the will of God,’ says the Psalmist, not only because our temporal life depends on the divine will but also because our spiritual life consists in its fulfillment, by which God lives and reigns in us and makes us live and subsist in God….Ah, Lord God, we are in this world not to do our own will but that of your goodness, which has placed us here. It was written of you, O Savior of my soul, that you did the will of your eternal Father. Ah, who will give my soul the grace to have no will but the will of God!” (TLG, Book VIII, Chapter 7, p. 73)
To know God is to know God’s will. To love God is to love God’s will. To know and do God’s will is to experience eternal life. Nowhere do we see this love demonstrated more clearly and convincingly than in Jesus’ knowledge, love and obedience to his Father’s will throughout his entire earthly ministry. Note the impact: not only did following the Father’s will not diminish Jesus, but it also empowered Him to be faithful to and effective in his purpose for living - that “we might have life and have life to the full”. (John 10:10)
If eternal life is found by knowing and loving God – and, by extension, by knowing, loving and living God’s will in our lives – then the eternal life that Jesus offers us is not limited to the next life; it is available here and now in this life.
Let us pray. God, not our will, but your will be done in us, in order that we might know something already on this earth of the eternal life you offer us in the One whom you sent in order that we might know and love you…Jesus Christ!
*****
“Savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock…So be vigilant…”
There are a number of variations of a Cherokee parable known as “The Two Wolves.” It goes something like this:
An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life. The old man said, “A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego. The other wolf is good. he He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too, as these two wolves struggle for supremacy.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old chief sat in silence for a few moments and then simply replied, “The one you feed.”
It is tempting to look for the “savage wolves” about which Jesus warns in other people, especially in the case of those with whom we find ourselves embroiled in misunderstanding, conflict and perhaps even hostility. However, it might be a good idea also to look inside of ourselves for any signs that such “savage wolves” might be living within us. And for what should we be vigilant?
Today be on the watch for any feeling, thought, opinion or perspective that would pervert the truth of who we are in our relationship with God, ourselves and one another.
