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“The world as we know it is passing away.”
Francis de Sales wrote:
“God preserves this great world amid constant change, wherein day turns into night, night into day, spring into summer, summer into autumn, autumn into winter and winter into spring. One day is never perfectly like another: some are cloudy, some rainy, some dry and some windy. Such variety gives great beauty to the universe.”
Every person and every generation need to come to grips with the fact that our lives are always changing. No matter how good things may have been in former times or how good they may be right now, there is always more yet to come. The security of “what is” needs to be open to the uncertainty of “what may come”.
Put another way, we need to constantly reform, refashion and renew our lives.
This change goes against our grain. It is so easy to cling to what we know. It is so easy to believe that we have learned all we need to learn. It is so easy to think that there aren’t any more ways in which we can grow. We are tempted to say that we know, have learned and have grown enough.
On the other hand, Jesus invites us to believe in the Good News, that is, to believe in the power of God’s constant, unchanging love that calls us to learn more about God, ourselves and one another. Jesus calls us to believe that the willingness to reform our lives (with the help of the Holy Spirit) can help us to experience in the changing circumstances, events and relationships of our daily lives more of the justice, the freedom, the reconciliation and the peace that will be unchanging in heaven.
So, be willing to change. Be willing to grow. Be willing to learn. Be willing to reform. Be willing to be transformed. Believe that the power of the Reign of God can help you to become more of the person that God calls you to be. Turn away more convincingly from what is evil. Embrace more deeply what is good. In words and example, challenge and encourage one another to do the same.
While the world as we know it is passing away, Jesus promises us that the best is yet to come. Together, you and I can make the best of what is yet to come a reality in our own day by recognizing the opportunities that God provides in each and every present moment for our reformation, our transformation and our growth.
Believe in this Good News! Pass it on to others! Today!
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St. Francis de Sales had a special place in his heart for the person whose conversion we celebrate - Paul of Tarsus. Throughout his writings Francis not only refers to Paul by name but Francis also refers to Paul by two titles reserved solely for him: “The Apostle” and “The Great Apostle.”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales observed:
“The glorious St. Paul speaks thus. ‘The fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, constancy and chastity.’ See how this divine Apostle enumerates these twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit but sets them down as only one fruit. He does not say, ‘The fruits of the Spirit are…,’ but rather ‘the fruit of the Spirit is…’ Charity is truly the sole fruit of the Holy Spirit, but this one fruit has an infinite number of excellent properties…He means that divine love gives us inward joy and consolation together with great peace of heart, which is preserved in adversity by patience. It makes us kind and gracious in helping our neighbor with a heartfelt goodness toward him. Such goodness is not whimsical; it is constant and persevering and gives us enduring courage by which we are rendered mild, pleasant and considerate to all others. We put up with their moods and imperfections. We keep perfect faith with them, as we thus testify to a simplicity accompanied with trust both in our words and in our actions. We live modestly and humbly, leaving aside all that is luxurious and in excess regarding food and drink, clothing, sleep, play, recreation and other such desires and pleasures. Above all, we discipline the inclinations and rebellions of the flesh by vigilant chastity. All this so to the end that our entire being may be given over to divine dilection both interiorly by joy, patience, long-suffering goodness and fidelity, but also exteriorly by kindness, mildness, modesty, constancy and chastity.” (Book 11, Chapter 19)
From what we see in the life of St. Paul, he obviously did more than merely speak of the fruit of the Spirit. He lived it. His life was transformed by it. He shared it as a gift with all those whose lives he touched. Like Francis de Sales, may we not only admire the example of “the glorious St. Paul,” but also let us imitate his example in our own lives. Let us do our level best to embody and share the gift of the Spirit which indeed has so many excellent properties.Today!
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“Whoever does the will of God is brother, and sister and mother to me.”
What is God’s will? In more than a few places throughout the Gospels, Jesus is quite clear when He says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”.
What does it mean to be merciful? Jesus is extremely specific in Luke 6: 36 – 38: “Be merciful, as your Father is merciful. Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Pardon and you will be pardoned. Give and it shall be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over, will they pour into the folds of your garment. For the measure with which you measure will be measured back to you.”
To be sure (as we see in the reading from the Second Book of Samuel), making sacrifice – making offering – has its place in following the will of God. However, as the example of David clearly indicates, offering goods to God should also lead to our offering goods to others.
• Doing the will of God is not limited to what we can offer solely to God.
• Doing the will of God is also about making the sacrifices involved in not judging and not condemning.
• Doing the will of God is also about making the sacrifices required in pardoning and giving.
• Doing the will of God is also about making the sacrifices involved in doing our level best to recall throughout each day that “the measure with which you measure will be measured back to you”.
Thirty – sixty – one hundredfold!
Do you want to be known as “brother, sister and mother” to Jesus? Do you want to be recognized as a member of Jesus’ family?
Then, do the will of God by putting into to practice this maxim from St. Francis de Sales: “The measure of love is to love without measure.”
Today!
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“Do you not understand this parable?”
Notwithstanding Jesus’ explanation of the parable to his disciples in today’s Gospel (which, according to most Scripture scholars, is actually a reflection on the part of the early Church placed on the lips of Jesus), it is easy to misunderstand the parable if we see it as a classification of different types of people in whom the seeds of God’s life and love do and/or do not grow. We are mistaken if we believe that the parable offers us a spiritual template with which we can – as it were – pick classes of people out of a lineup.
To understand the parable, we need to recognize that all the scenarios that Jesus describes are at work within each and every one of us.
Consider this: on any given day, how deeply do we allow the seeds of God’s life and love to take root in us? On any given day, how many of those seeds get choked off by our worries, fears and anxieties? On any given day, how many of those seeds become overwhelmed by our selfish or self-serving pursuits? On any given day, how many of those seeds perish due to our inability and/or unwillingness to accept the adversity that sometimes comes with living a Gospel life? On any given, day how many of those seeds fail to germinate due to our shallowness?
In a sermon he preached on Palm Sunday, 1622 in Annecy, Francis de Sales observed:
“In all creatures, no matter who they are, some imperfections can be found. The person who denies he has any imperfections is just as much a liar as the person who claims that he has no perfections at all. Every person, however holy, has some imperfections; every person, however wicked, has some good points. Made in God’s image and likeness, each person reflects something of God’s goodness; made from nothing, each person always carries with him some imperfection.” (Pulpit and Pew, p. 258)
There is nothing to be ashamed of in this situation – after all, it is simply the truth. Some of the seeds of God’s life and love are doing rather well within each of us, whereas other seeds of God’s life and love need some real attention and lots of tender loving care. Just because we have difficulty in making good use of all the seeds of God’s life and love within us on any given day doesn’t make us bad seeds!
Today, how can we become God’s “good soil” in our own lives and in the lives of others? What steps can we take to get a better yield from all the good seeds of divine life and love that God has planted so generously within and among us?
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In a Conference to the Sisters of the Visitation (“On Private Judgment”), Francis de Sales referred to Saint Thomas Aquinas whose feast day we celebrate.
“The great St. Thomas, who had one of the loftiest minds possible, when he formed any opinion supported it with the weightiest arguments that he could bring forward. Nevertheless, if he encountered anyone who did not approve of what he had decided to be right, or had contradicted it, he neither disputed with them nor was offended by their action, but took all in good part. He thereby showed that he had no love for his own opinion, even though he could not abandon it. He left the matter alone to be approved or disapproved by others as they pleased. Having done his duty, he troubled himself no more about the subject.” (Conference XIV, p. 259)
Thomas Aquinas is universally recognized as one of the brightest intellectual lights of his age (AD 1225 – 1274). But perhaps his greatest genius, to which St. Francis de Sales alludes, was his recognition that being bright does not always mean to be right. While there is little doubt that he could make an argument for his position on any topic, Thomas was grounded enough not to have to win every argument. His brilliance was only matched by his humility in allowing others to draw their own conclusions, only after having done his level best to state his case. As the saying goes, after giving it his best shot, Thomas would allow the chips to fall where they may.
Each of us is entitled to our opinion; that is a part of our humanity. However, we are all familiar with another part of our humanity that is the source of much conflict and distress - the need to always be right and the need for others to always agree with us. Let us do our level best this day to avoid the temptation to force other people to make our opinions their own. In the Salesian tradition it is better to devote our efforts to trying to win people over rather than trying to knock people down.
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“The land yields fruit: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote: “Wherever we may be, we can and should aspire to a perfect life.”
Throughout his ministry, Francis de Sales repeatedly counseled people to make a stark – but sometimes all-too-subtle – distinction between perfection and perfectionism. It seems that the fault of many folks in Francis de Sales’ day was not that they were not trying to “aspire to a perfect life.” They were, in fact, trying too hard. They were overwhelmed with good intentions but underwhelmed by their results.
Typical of this counsel is a letter from Francis de Sales to Madame Angelique Arnauld, in which he wrote:
“I do know you well and I know that your heart is steadfastly determined to live entirely for God; but I also know that your great natural activity harasses you with many restless impulses. O dear daughter, you must not imagine that the work we have undertaken to do in you can be done so quickly. Cherry trees bear their fruit quickly because they only bear cherries which keep but a short time; but the palm, the prince of trees, only begins bearing fruit a hundred years after it has been planted, it is said. A mediocre life can be achieved in a year, but the perfection for which we are striving – that, my dear daughter, takes quite a few years to establish itself…” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 274)
If a grain of wheat takes time to grow – if an ear of corn takes time to grow – so much the more time is required for us human beings to grow as we “aspire to a perfect life.”
Anything worth doing takes time. In our case, it requires a lifetime!
*****
“Why are you terrified?”
It is a great question that Jesus proposes to his disciples in today’s Gospel. For our part, we could probably list any number of things in our own lives that have scared, frightened or even terrified us in the past, that could scare, frighten or terrify us in the future or perhaps are scaring, frightening or terrifying us at this very moment. The fact of the matter is that every life comes with its share of things, situations and events that should terrify us!
In a letter to Angelique Arnauld, the Abbess of Port Royal, Francis de sales wrote:
“‘Oh, unhappy man that I am,’ said the great apostle, ‘who will deliver me from the body of this death?’ St. Paul felt as if an army, made up of his moods, aversions, habits and natural inclinations had conspired to bring about his spiritual death. Because they terrified him, he showed that he despised them. Because he despised them, he could not endure them without pain. His pain made him cry out this way and then answer his own cry by asserting that the grace of God through Jesus Christ will indeed defend him, but not from fear, or terror, or alarm nor from the fight; rather, from defeat and from being overcome.” (Letters of Spiritual Direction, pp. 172-173)
There are things in life that scare, frighten and terrify us for good reason. Jesus is not asking us to never experience these (or other) emotions when they come upon us with good reason; rather Jesus is asking us to remember (as was the case with the disciples in today’s Gospel) that in the midst of whatever storms and surges that we may experience in life, we are never alone!
Jesus is always – and forever – with us.
