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“Resplendent and unfading is Wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her and found by those who seek her...those who watch at dawn will not be disappointed, for they shall find her sitting at the gate.”
In an introduction to an 1862 edition of St. Francis de Sales’ Spiritual Conferences, Cardinal Wiseman wrote:
“The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales is eminently a spirit of wisdom. For certainly all that we have written about it will have been written in vain if our readers have not recognized this spirit as a superhuman prudence. And what is this but wisdom? Moderation, avoidance of extremes, adaptation to all circumstances, and discerning the means to respond to all characters and situations - these constitute a wisdom difficult and uncommon.” (Conferences, p. lxiv)
St. Francis de Sales' spirituality is, among other things, a path to wisdom. It is a divinely-inspired, common-sense approach to living the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the state, stage and circumstances of life in which we find ourselves. St. Francis de Sales offers us a down-to-earth way in which to pursue the things of heaven.
One of the qualities of this God-centered, practical wisdom is prudence. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language describes being prudent as “wise in handling practical matters; exercising good judgment and common sense; careful in regard to one's own interests; provident…” Prudence comes from the Latin word, the root meaning of which is “to provide for.”
Today's Gospel provides a powerful story about the image of being prudent, to be “careful in regard to one's own interests.” One group of servants had prepared for the possibility that their master might be delayed in arriving. And, as a result, they brought extra oil along for their torches. The other group, however, did not prepare or make provision for this possibility and therefore only brought enough oil to provide one cycle of illumination.
The moral of the story is clear and unambiguous: “Keep your eyes open, for you know not the day nor the hour.” Look around you. Consider the signs of the times. See beyond the horizon. Or as we say these days, “Read the room”. To be sure, so much of St. Francis de Sales wisdom is about rolling with the punches, playing with the hand we're dealt or going with the flow. Sometimes, however, being “careful in regard to one's own interest” - being prudent, employing common sense - requires that we plan, provide and prepare for even the unexpected.
Perhaps, especially for the unexpected.
The book of Wisdom proclaims that whoever "keeps vigil for wisdom shall be quickly free from care." Part of that vigilance is about preparing ourselves to recognize the sights, sounds and smells of God's will and action in our own lives before it's too late.
After all, when did Noah build the ark? Before the rain!
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“Love justice, you who judge the earth…
Today we celebrate the life and legacy of Frances Xavier Cabrini.
“St. Frances was born in Lombardi, Italy in 1850, one of thirteen children. At eighteen, she desired to become a nun, but poor health stood in her way. She helped her parents until their death and then worked on a farm with her brothers and sisters.”
“One day a priest asked her to teach in a girls' school and she stayed for six years. At the request of her Bishop, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. Then at the urging of Pope Leo XIII she came to the United States with six nuns in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants.”
“Filled with a deep trust in God and endowed with a wonderful administrative ability, this remarkable woman soon founded schools, hospitals, and orphanages in this strange land and saw them flourish in the aid of Italian immigrants and children. At the time of her death in Chicago, Illinois on December 22, 1917, her institute had houses in England, France, Spain, the United States, and South America. In 1946, she became the first American citizen to be canonized when she was elevated to sainthood by Pope Pius XII. St. Frances is the patroness of immigrants.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=278)
Francis Xavier Cabrini was clearly a lover of justice. How might the same be said of us by those with whom we interact today?
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“God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made them.”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales observed:
“God has signified to us in so many ways and by so many means that he wills all of us to be saved that no one can be ignorant of this fact. For this purpose he made us ‘in his own image and likeness’ by creation, and by the Incarnation he has made himself in our image and likeness.” (TLG, Book VIII, Chapter 4, p. 64)
In effect, Francis de Sales claimed that while it would have been enough for God to show us how deeply he loved us by creating us in his own image and likeness, God loves us so much that he went even further by choosing – in the person of his Son – to create himself in our image and likeness!
Francis de Sales claims, “No one can be ignorant of this fact”. How much time do we actually spend reflecting upon “this fact” – that we are made in his image and likeness and that he is made in our image and likeness – just this day?
In the end, we all perish from this earth, but how we live our perishable lives, lives on long after we die. For what will others remember us just this day?
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“The Lord of all shows no partiality...”
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:
“It is reason alone that makes us human, and yet, it is a rare thing to find people truly reasonable. Self-love ordinarily leads us astray from reason, directing us insensibly to a thousand small – yet dangerous – injustices and iniquities.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 36)
We are told that God shows no partiality. How very different we are frequently in our interactions with one another. We show partiality all the time, which the Gentlemen Saint considered quite unreasonable – quite inhuman. Francis observed:
“If there is someone who is not agreeable, or to whom we have once taken a dislike, we find fault with everything that person does. We never cease to mortify that person – we are always ready to cast blame on that person. On the contrary, if someone is pleasing to us because of some physical grace, that person can do nothing that we will not excuse...On every occasion we prefer the rich to the poor, although they be neither of better condition or as virtuous. We even prefer those who are best clad…” (Ibid)
The truth of the matter is that we all have our favorites. There are some people whose company we would always prefer given the choice. There are other folks we would prefer to avoid at all costs. That said, like our God who shows no partiality, we are challenged to meet people where they are and as they are by showing them the respect and reverence they deserve as children of God.
Whether we like them or not.
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“The Kingdom of God is among you…”
In today’s Gospel we hear: “Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, ‘The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ The Kingdom of God is among you.” Jesus seems to be saying that the Kingdom of God isn’t about finding a thing, place or location, because in the context of the Gospel, the Kingdom of God is a person - in this case, the person of Jesus Christ.
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:
“God is in all things and in all places. There is no place or thing in this world in which God is not truly present. Just as wherever birds fly they always encounter the air, so also wherever we go or wherever we are we find God present.”
He continued:
“God is not only in the place where you are but also in a most particular manner in your heart – in the very center of your spirit. Just as the soul is diffused throughout the entire body but resides in a special manner in the heart, so, too, God is present in all things but always resides in a special manner in our spirit.” (IDL, Part Two, Chapter 2, pp. 84-85)
So, where would you expect to find the Kingdom of God today? Try looking for it in the Body of Christ - look for it within yourself and look for it within others.
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Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Elizabeth of Hungary: wife, mother, widow and religious.
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:
“St. Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Hungary, often visited the poor. For recreation among her ladies she sometimes clothed herself like a poor woman, saying to them, ‘If I were poor I would dress in this manner.’ O God, how poor was…this princess in the midst of all her riches and how rich was their poverty!” (IDL, Part III, Ch. 15)
The richness of poverty. Interesting concept.
In the Salesian tradition, poverty of spirit (“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for to them belongs the kingdom of heaven”) is less about doing without; rather, it has a lot more to do with how generous I am with what I have. Elizabeth didn’t serve those without by renouncing what she had. No, she served the poor by placing what she had at their disposal. Today, how might we practice poverty and know the true richness – and wealth – that flows from that practice?
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“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 just 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-admirable motive? 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?” The 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!
