*****
“As to the exact day or hour, no one knows it…except the Father.”
Scripture is clear: the world as we know it will pass away. Scripture also makes it 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. “We must in all things and everywhere live peacefully,” says St. Francis de Sales. “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, where you live each present moment, 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.
*****
“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.
*****
“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 quickly 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 quickly will we be to make things right with anyone who might have a grievance against us?
*****
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 notion.
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 did not serve those without by renouncing what she had; she served the poor by placing what she had at their disposal.
How might we practice poverty today, and know the true richness – and wealth – that flows from that practice?
*****
“To the upright I will show the saving power of God…”
“Rose Philippine Duchesne was the daughter of Pierre-Francois Duchesne, an eminent lawyer, and her mother, Rose Euphrosine Perier, who was a member of the well-known Perier family. She was educated by the sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary; at the age of 19 she (without her family’s approval) subsequently joined the community. Rose witnessed the Visitation’s dispersion in 1792 during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. She attempted to re-establish of the convent of Ste-Marie-d'en-Haut, near Grenoble without success, and in 1804, she accepted the offer of Mother Barat to receive her Visitation community into the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1815, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne established a Sacred Heart community in Paris.
“In 1818, Rose Philippine Duchesne sailed for America with several other members of the Society. They arrived in New Orleans and traveled the Louisiana territory via the Mississippi River, ending up in St. Charles, Missouri, near St Louis, where she established the first house of the Society ever built outside of France in a log cabin. By the year 1828, six houses had been added in America including a foundation serving the Potawatomi tribe in a portion of the Louisiana Territory that would eventually become (in 1861) the state of Kansas. In time the Native Americans referred to her as the “Woman Who Prays Always.”
“Inspired by the stories of Belgian Father Pierre De Smet, S.J., Duchesne was determined to expand the Society into the Rocky Mountains, but illness forced her to return to St. Charles, where she spent the last ten years of her life, dying at the age of 83. She was canonized on July 3, 1988, by Pope John Paul II.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=377)
The Lord helped Rose Philippine Duchesne to see that the end of her local Visitation community did not mean the end of her having a purpose in life - in fact, it was a new beginning. As it turned out, her initial misfortune paved the way for a long and fruitful ministry in places and with people that could only have happened if she had cause to leave Grenoble. No doubt that Rose eventually came to see that in closing one door in her life God subsequently opened a window.
Rose Duchesne is a shining example of the saving power of God. How might we be instruments of that same saving power in the lives of others today?
*****
“My house shall be a house of prayer…”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“I ask you to imagine on the one hand an artist engaged in painting a picture of our Savior’s birth. No doubt he will give the picture thousands of touches with his brush and take not only days but weeks and months to complete it with various persons and other objects that he wishes to portray in it. On the other hand, let us look at a print maker. After he has placed a sheet of paper on the plate with the same mystery on the Incarnation engraved upon it, he gives it only a single stroke of the press, and in this one stroke he will complete the entire task. In an instant the printer will draw off a picture representing in a beautiful engraving all that has been imaged as described in sacred history. Although the printer has created it in but one single movement, his work likewise contains many great persons and various other objects, each one clearly distinct in order, rank, place distance and proportion. If one were not acquainted with the secret of the work, he or she would be greatly astonished to see so many varied effects from a single act.”
“In the same way, nature like a painter multiplies and diversifies its acts accordingly as it has various works in hand: it takes a long time to complete its great effects. But God, like a printer, has given existence to all the different creatures - which have been, or ever shall be – from one powerful stroke of his all-powerful will. From his idea, as from a well-cut plate, he draws his marvelous distinction of persons and other things that succeed one another in seasons, ages and times, each one in its order as they were destined to be.” (TLG, Book II, Chapter 2, Chapter 9, pp. 105-106)
What can we say about God based upon what we see in the greatness and beauty of creation? (1) Variety is the spice of life, and (2) all things bright and beautiful take time.
How might we take some time just this day to consider the greatness and beauty of creation, to say nothing of the greatness and beauty of the God who created it?
*****
“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?
