Spirituality Matters 2019: November 7th - November 13th
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“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 more pure and clean 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?
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“I myself am convinced about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness…”
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 – makes 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 way that leads 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 use the words of St. Paul, we humans – all of us – are “full of goodness.” As members of the Salesian family, we 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.
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 share that goodness with others.
Paul was convinced that you are good. Are you?
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“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. 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!
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“Some Sadducees came forward to pose this question to Jesus.”
Questions played an important role in Jewish theological, religious, political and cultural life. The so-called “Rabbinical method” presumed that the best way to come to know the truth was to learn to raise the right questions.
Elie Wiesel –– author, scholar, and holocaust survivor –– notes this method of learning in the opening pages of his book Night. In it, Wiesel’s mentor explained to him “with great insistence that every question possessed a power that did not lie in the answer.” (Bantam Books, 1960)
There is power in a question. There is promise in a question. There is possibility in a question.
Understanding this method of learning sets the context for today’s selection from Luke’s Gospel. The question of the Sadducees regarding marriage and the afterlife (not unlike the question posed by the chief priests and scribes - regarding paying taxes to Caesar - in the immediately-preceding verses) may not have been merely an attempt to trip up Jesus or to discredit him. This question may also have been a legitimate desire to settle an ongoing dispute between the Sadducees and the Pharisees (both groups religious leaders in their own rite) who disagreed on a variety of issues.
As so many times before, however, they did not like, understand or accept Jesus’ answer.
Herein lies the tragedy.
The scribes, the priests, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were all raised in a culture that viewed questions as the path to mystical truth. Ironically, they may have had the most to gain from Jesus –– the embodiment of all mystical truth –– precisely because they had so many encounters with him, perhaps more than any other groups mentioned in the Gospel combined! Sad to say, it appears that they consistently asked the wrong questions: shortsighted questions, self-serving questions, disingenuous or insincere questions, and they asked all these questions with a pre-determined answer in mind.
When asked why he prayed every day, Elie Wiesel’s mentor responded: “I pray to the God within me that God will give me the strength to ask the right questions.”
How often in our daily lives with Jesus and with one another do we ask for, desire or demand answers? How much energy do we invest in wanting to know the bottom line? Yet, for all our efforts, are we any closer to knowing the things that really matter, the concerns of earth that lead to the things of heaven? Why does our understanding of Jesus’ will for us, of his desire for us, and of his longing and love for us sometimes seem so elusive?
Could it be that we, too, are failing to ask the right questions?
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“Love justice, you who judge the earth…”
In his dialogue Republic, Plato uses Socrates to argue for justice that covers both the just person and the just city state:
“Justice is a proper, harmonious relationship between the competing parts of a person or a city. Hence Plato's definition of justice is that justice is the having and doing of what is one's own. A just man is a man in just the right place, doing his best and giving the precise equivalent of what he has received. This applies both at the individual level and at the universal level.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice)
We probably don’t think about it very often, but each of us in our own way is called to judge. However, deliberately or unconsciously, the thoughts, feelings, attitudes and actions we form every day impacts the earth, even only if it’s in our little corners of it. That said, our collective ways of judging – and treating – the earth add up over time.
The Book of Genesis reminds us that we are not only on the receiving end of Creation, but we are also cooperators in Creation – we have an active, ongoing role to play in Creation. In the Roman Missal we hear:
“You laid the foundations of the world and have arranged the changing of times and seasons; you formed man in your own image and set humanity over the whole world in all its wonder, to rule in your name over all you have made and for ever praise you in your mighty works, through Christ our Lord.”
Teddy Roosevelt is quoted as having once defined justice as ‘doing the best you can where you are with what you’ve got.’
How best can we apply those words in our attempt to do justice to the earth – and especially in our relationships with those sharing the earth with us – just 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.” Perhaps not ignorant, but how often do we really think about that? How much time will we 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?
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"The Lord of all shows no partiality, because he himself made the great as well as the small, and he provides for all alike…”
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the types of people that God invites to do great things in his name. Be they men or women, famous or obscure, wealthy or wanting, powerful or penniless, God uses people of all shapes and sizes and in all situations to be instruments of his will.
The life of Frances Xavier Cabrini is a great example of how one seemingly small person can do great things for God.
“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)
As great or as small as we may be, Jane de Chantal reminds us that “nothing is small in the service or God.”
How might we be of service to God and neighbor today?
