Living a Holy Life

A couple of years ago, I receive a letter or email from a young friend who was considering a vocation to the priesthood.  The missive let me know about some of the decisions he had made, including the acceptance to high school teach Latin in New England.  It was his closing sentence that gave me pause.  He said something to the effect of “let us each continue to grow in holiness”.

This young man is less than half my age, and until I read that sentence, I had not thought about living a holy life.  Yes, a good life, a life filled with virtue, one that loves God first and then neighbor, but a holy life? That would be far beyond what I could even imagine.

I was reminded of this letter on Thursday which was the feast of Anthony Mary Zaccaria.  This priest was a contemporary of Martin Luther.  And like Luther, he believed the Church needed to be reformed.  His solution was to work within the Church.  He founded the Society of Clerics of St. Paul.  They strove to imitate St. Paul in every way.

It was by living a life of holiness that St. Anthony was able to contribute to some reform of the Church.  In one of his more well known sermons he said, “Spiritual life demands that you never turn back or stop going forward; but rather that, as soon as you taste it, you make progress day by day and, forgetting what lies behind, strain forward to what lies ahead.”

The homilist at Mass on Thursday urged each of us to live lives of holiness in our own efforts to be Disciples of Christ.  I think my young friend, who is completing his Novitiate Year with the Dominicans, may know of this second quote by St. Anthony:

"Do not think that my love for you or the good qualities you are endowed with, may have me desire that you be just little saints. No, I greatly desire that you become great saints, since you are well equipped to reach this goal... All that is required is that you really mean to develop and give back to Jesus Crucified, in a more refined form, the good qualities and graces He has given you"  [Anthony Mary Zaccaria, Letter XI]

The Forenight for Freedom has ended -now what?

                I attended the Closing Mass for the American Catholic Bishop’s Fortnight for Freedom at the National Shrine on July 4th.  With over 3000 of the faithful, hundreds of religious women and men, concelebrated by more than 100 priests and five bishops, the Papal Nuncio and a Cardinal, it was a beautiful celebration of our faith.

                Those in attendance wove the exquisite tapestry that is the American Church.  Young and old, diverse ethnicities, those born in the United States and those who have emigrated from other nations were all celebrating Eucharist in this final mass of the Fortnight.  I thought how wonderful the beautiful singing and strong responses during the Mass must have sounded in Heaven!

               

  Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles Chaput was the Homilist.  He preached primarily on Matthew 22, what to render unto Cesar and what to render unto God.  He made the thought provoking comment that “we belong to God and only to God”.  Therefore if we render to God what is His, we must give ourselves – all of ourselves.

               

  He spoke about freedom and how seeking His kingdom first makes us free.  When we let go of earthly things that are supposed to make us happy and live for Him first, we become free.  There is much to consider in his remarks and much for me to pray about over the next days and months.

                

The recessional song was America the Beautiful. The final verse ended with celebrants still walking down the aisle.  The crowd cheered the Bishops as they left the altar.  The smiles on their faces were priceless!

                

As the music concluded, the woman sitting next to me looked me in the eyes and said, “And now we need to go out and witness.”  Simply and wisely said.  It’s now in our hands - those of we the people - to go and speak to our neighbors, co-workers, fellow parishioners to help them understand why this fight for religious freedom is vital.

Why

The decision by the Supreme Court on Thursday surprised many faithful Catholics.  One of my colleagues at a client came in saying, “God help America.”   My initial reaction was one of dismay, and then I said to a friend, “Well, we haven’t geared up for nothing.” 

While the Bishops and our priests have been distributing good messages of religious freedom, I don’t believe it has even begun to resonate in the pews.  Evidence of that is the showing of the rather paltry 2,000 people for the rally for Religious Freedom in DC last weekend.  The space would have held 4,000 and the Archdiocese communications department was almost pleading for people to come.  If the message of religious freedom was resonating in the pews, the tickets should have been long gone before June 24^th. 

It is my thought that if the Supreme Court decision had nullified the Health Care Bill, we would have gone back to our regular life, not being pressed to defend our religious freedom.  The second reading in today’s Office of Readings is from a homily by Pope Paul IV.  For me, the entire portion of the letter rings true to what we, as American Catholic’s, are being asked to do.   The first paragraph of the text is as follows:

“Not to preach the Gospel would be my undoing, for Christ himself sent me as his apostle and witness. The more remote, the more difficult the assignment, the more my love of God spurs me on.  I am bound to proclaim that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God.  Because of him we come to know the God we cannot see.  He is the firstborn of all creation; in him all things find their being.  Man’s teacher and redeemer, he was born for us, died for us and for us he rose from the dead.”

“The more remote, the more difficult the assignment, the more my love of God spurs me on,” is the phrase that got my attention.  So we have a more difficult assignment that we originally thought.  Perhaps this gives us the time to help our friends and neighbors in the pews truly understand the need for defending our freedom as we are spurred on by the love of God!