Spirituality Matters December 12th - December 18th
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“You are the highest honor of our race…”
“Today’s celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe marks the appearance of Mary to Juan Diego, a sixteenth-century Mexican peasant. The famous and familiar painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe found on Juan Diego’s cloak reflects the image of the Mother of Salvation in the reading from Revelation: a woman is clothed with the sun’ the moon is under her feet’ she is crowned with the stars…” (Liturgical Press, Loose-Leaf Lectionary for Mass, p. 1618)
There are so many reasons why we hail Mary as “the highest honor of our race…” One of the reasons that Francis de Sales cites is her embodiment of virtue in the midst of all the vicissitudes of life. He wrote:
“In her room at Nazareth she shows her modesty in that she is afraid, her candor in wanting to be instructed and in asking a question, her submission, her humility in calling herself a handmaid. Look at her in Bethlehem: she live simply and in poverty, she listens to the shepherds as though they were learned doctors. Look at her in the company of the kings: she makes no long speeches. Look at her during the time of her purification: she goes to the temple in order to conform to custom. In going to Egypt and returning she is simply obeying Joseph. When she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth she does not consider that she is wasting time doing such a loving act of courtesy. She looks at our Lord not only in joy but in tears. She has compassion on the poverty and confusion of those who invited her to the wedding, meeting their needs. She is at the foot of the cross, full of humility, lowliness, virtue, never drawing any attention to herself in the exercise of these qualities…” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 159)
Mary shows us that the highest honor that we can achieve in life is by living our lives in ways that give honor to God. While we may not be clothed in the sun or have the moon under our feet or be crowned with the stars, we are like Mary in this respect: the ‘Almighty has done great things for us,’ too!
How can our souls proclaim the greatness of the Lord today?
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“You’re damned if you do; you’re damned if you don’t.”
That statement pretty much sums up the message in today’s Gospel selection from Matthew. John the Baptizer got criticized being aloof and austere; Jesus got criticized for being an accessible, down-to-earth man of the people.
There’s just no pleasing some people.
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:
“Does anyone fail to see that the world is an unjust judge, gracious and well-disposed to its own children but rigorous towards the children of God? 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 or drinking, says the Savior, and you say, ‘He has a devil.’ ‘The Son of Man came eating and drinking,’ and you say 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…” (IDL IV, Ch. 1, p. 236)
You know the old adage: if you try to please everyone, you end up making yourself miserable. On any given day follow the example of both John and Jesus: be who you are, and be that as best as you can.
Come what may!
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“Let us see your face and we shall be saved.…”
This petition from today’s responsorial psalm would suggest that most days God is somehow hiding his face from us. It might lead us to believe that God doesn’t want to be seen.
Salesian spirituality takes a very different perspective on this notion. It suggests that rather than asking God to show us his face, we should be asking God for the ability to recognize his face in everything and everyone. Francis de Sales wrote:
“God is in all things and in all places. There is no place or thing in this world where he is not truly present. Just as wherever birds fly they always encounter the air, so, too, wherever we go or wherever we are we find God present. Everyone knows this truth but not everyone remembers this truth.” (IDL, Part II, Chapter 2, p. 84)
We human beings often fail to recognize how God is ‘hidden in plain sight.’ We fail to recognize how God is working within us and around us. Look at today’s Gospel: Jesus’ disciples failed to recognize the fact that Elijah had already appeared in the person of John the Baptizer and in John’s ministry. All of the Gospels point out – time and time again – that many people who actually encountered Jesus face-to-face failed to see the face of God in him.
As we continue to prepare ourselves for the Solemnity of the Incarnation – as we look forward to celebrating the great and mysterious day when Jesus showed us the face of God on Christmas – let us ask God for the grace to see his face in ourselves and in one another.
Wherever we are…wherever we go.
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“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the dead are raised…”
These words are Jesus’ answer to the question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Of course, Jesus’ words are not mere words, because they describe the actions that Jesus is performing, the miracles he is working and the healings that he is effecting on a remarkable level.
How would we answer the question, “Does the love of God dwell within you, or should we look somewhere else?” from other people? Of course, the most powerful and convincing answer wouldn’t come in the form of words, but it would come from our actions - namely, from the practice of virtue. Francis de Sales wrote:
“Let us try sincerely, humbly and devoutly to acquire those little virtues whose conquest our Savior has set forth as the goal of our care and labor. Such are patience, meekness, self-mortification, humility, obedience, poverty, chastity, tenderness toward our neighbors, bearing with their imperfections, diligence and holy fervor.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 2, p. 127)
As we all know, talk is cheap. And so, what kinds of simple, everyday signs might we perform today as signs that “the one who is to come” continues to come to us, each and every day?
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“Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me…”
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis wrote:
“When commanded to go to Rages, young Tobias said to his father, ‘I do not know the way,’ to which his father replied, ‘Go, then, and find some man to lead you.’ I say the same thing to you. Do you seriously wish to travel the road to devotion? If so, look for a good person to guide and lead you. This is the most important of all words of advice. As the devout Teresa of Avila says, ‘Although you seek God’s will, you will never find it with as much certainty as on the path of that humble obedience so highly praised and practiced by all devout writers.’ The advice of the great St. Louis gave to his son was this: ‘Choose as your guide an able and experienced person who can safely teach you the things that you must do.’”
Francis de Sales strongly believed that we should not attempt to ‘go it alone’ in our efforts to imitate Christ, to practice devotion or to “Live Jesus.” Whether in the form of a confessor, a spiritual director, a personal coach, a friend or perhaps a combination of these, we should seek out companions to accompany us along the road of life and avoid the temptation to be lone wolves. He continued:
“‘A faithful friend,’ Holy Scripture says, ‘is a strong defense, and those who find friends have found treasure. A faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality, and those who fear the Lord find one.’ For this reason we must above all else have faithful friend who by advice and counsel guides our actions and thus protects us from the snares and deceits of the wicked one. For us such a person will be a treasure of wisdom in affliction, sorrow and failure. Such a person will serve as medicine to ease and comfort our hearts when afflicted by spiritual sickness. Such a person will guard us from evil and make our good even better.” (IDL, Part I, Chapter 4, pp. 45 – 46)
God provides us with many means of support in our attempts to walk in God’s path.
· How often do we pause and thank our friends for helping us to be the people that God calls us be?
· How often to we thank our friends for keeping us on the straight and narrow?
· How often do we tank our friends for picking us up when we fall or for finding us when we stray?
How grateful are we for having companions on the journey?
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“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…”
“Genealogy (from Greek: γενεά, genea, “generation”; and λόγος, logos, “knowledge”) is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The pursuit of family history tends to be shaped by several motivations, including the desire to carve out a place for one’s family in the larger historical picture, a sense of responsibility to preserve the past for future generations, and a sense of self-satisfaction in accurate storytelling.” (Wikipedia)
Today’s opening chapter from the Gospel of Matthew is Scripture’s version of Ancestry.com. Bridging the Old and New Testaments, it outlines the “genealogy of Jesus Christ”. As such, it carves out a place for Jesus within the larger picture of salvation history. As such, it strives to preserve names from past generations for future generations. As such, it tries to tell the story of Jesus’ predecessors as accurately as possible. As such, it attempts to provide as much information as possible about the kinship and pedigree of those who came before Jesus.
Many of us assume that the “genealogy of Jesus Christ” ends with Jesus Christ. We assume that the story ends with the third set of fourteen generations. Nothing could be further from the truth! The “genealogy of Jesus Christ” isn’t limited to the names of his predecessors. It continues to this very day in the names of his followers, and it also continues in the present generation – in the lives of people like you and me.
How can we live up to our God-given pedigree today? How can we give convincing witness of our divine kinship today? How can we demonstrate that we are sons and daughters of God – brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ – today?
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“He shall govern your people with justice…”
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, St. Francis de Sales wrote:
“Be just and equitable in all your actions. Always put yourself in your neighbor’s place and your neighbor in yours, and then you will judge rightly. Imagine yourself the seller when you buy and the buyer when you sell and you will sell and buy justly…A man loses nothing by living generously, nobly and courteously with a royal, just and reasonable heart. Resolve to examine your heart often to see if it acts toward your neighbor as you would like your neighbor to act toward you were you in your neighbor’s place. This is the touchstone of true reason.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 36, p. 217)
How can we imitate the Lord who governs with justice? Let us start by examining how our thoughts, feelings and actions impact other people. Are we doing what is right, just and reasonable in our relationships with others?
