To Be A Saint!

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 105 (104):3-4 Let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice; turn to the Lord and his strength; constantly seek his face.

Collect Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and make us love what you command, so that we may merit what you promise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Ephesians 5:21-33; Psalm 127; Luke 13:18-21

Jesus asked, What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches. Again he asked, What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough. (Luke 13:18-21)

To Be A Saint! I have heard it said on various occasions that non-Catholics acknowledge that Catholics know how to celebrate. This has been especially said of canonizations — the proclamation and celebration of sanctity. Every saint is a marvel of goodness. It is the goodness possessed by Jesus Christ, imitated and gained by the saint due to the power of grace with which he or she cooperated. This is the “kingdom of God” which our Lord so often proclaimed. It is “within you,” as he said on one occasion. It consists in genuine union with Jesus Christ and the grace that forges and develops this union. It is the most difficult project in the world (because of the power of sin), but it has going for it the involvement of God himself. But it is a marvel, and it is the one thing necessary for all of us. Alfred Bessette was born in Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Quebec, (then Canada East), in 1845 — the year of John Henry Newman’s conversion in England. While Newman was famous at the time of his conversion, and went on his course of a holy life culminating in his beatification in 2010, Bessette was born and grew in obscurity. He was born into a working class family, one of ten children (two of whom died in infancy). His father died tragically when he was nine, and his mother three years later. The boy began a thirteen-year journey of wandering from job to job with few belongings and little education. He was barely able to write his name or to read his prayer book. At various times he worked as a tinsmith, blacksmith, baker, shoemaker and wagon driver. What could be more ordinary than this? But therein lay a story of sanctity. From his earliest years, Alfred showed a deep spiritual life. He would often spend his scant free time praying before a crucifix or evangelizing his friends, and was already imposing on himself penances. In due course, his parish priest decided to present him to the religious Order known as the Congregation of the Holy Cross in Montreal, stating that he was sending to them a saint — such was the spiritual depth already attained by the young man.

It seems that Brother Andre (as he was known in religious life) was scarcely literate. In a teaching Order, his job was doorkeeper at Notre Dame College in Quebec. There he stayed at that job for the next forty years while doing numerous odd jobs for the community. He made his final profession at 28 years of age (so he was a late vocation) in 1874. He was a slightly younger contemporary of Mary MacKillop in Australia, who, though, was the saintly leader and co-founder of a teaching congregation. Their paths were utterly different, though canonized together in Rome in 2010. Brother Andre had a remarkable influence over countless people as a mere doorkeeper, and numerous healings were reported as due to him during his lifetime. The essential thing about him was that he was a very holy man, gentle and winning. His confidence in the intercession of St Joseph was unfailing. He was three years younger than the Australian Mary MacKillop, and died at 91 years of age, some 28 years after Mary MacKillop had died in Sydney. It was calculated that one million people filed past his coffin — this was a man who could scarcely read, and yet whose influence had far exceeded that of the most educated in his religious Order. What was all this about? His life was an instance of the power of grace, of the growth of the Kingdom of God in the heart of a generous man. God ruled in his soul, and through him God touched and led into his Kingdom numerous others. It began at his baptism, and the growth became a mighty tree. As our Lord expresses it, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.” The birds of the air perched in the branches of Brother Andre’s humble ministry as doorkeeper and odd-jobs man. Our Lord uses another simile to illustrate the transformation grace brings to a human life: “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Luke 13:18-21).

The greatest and most beautiful thing we can do in life is work for and attain goodness, that goodness which shares in the goodness of Jesus Christ. This the Christian calls holiness. The celebration of the canonization of St Mary MacKillop, Australian, and that of Brother Andre Bessette, Canadian, ought be a great reminder of this. The danger in a secular age, little disposed to acknowledge God, Christ and his Church, is that such great people will be interpreted in secular terms — such as heroes of courage, concern, or whatever. In the first instance, they are heroes of the quest for sanctity through the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. Christ was their life from start to finish, and this is the true challenge for every human being. To it, then!

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second Reflection: (Luke 13:18-21)

What The Kingdom of God Is Like Our Lord described his mission in terms of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God, he preached, was near. In the prayer he taught (the Lord's Prayer) we are instructed to pray that the Father's Kingdom will come. This Kingdom is God's rule in and through the person of Christ his Son. It is established through union with Christ. In our Gospel passage today (Luke 13: 18-21), our Lord describes what God's Kingdom is like in terms of two parables, two similes. It is like a mustard seed that grows to a tree sheltering the birds in its branches. It is also like the yeast that leavens the flour all through. So we are instructed to think of the marvellous growth of God's rule, the growth of union with God so that God fills the soul and the whole of a person's life, and through that person the rest of society. This growth is primarily due to the action of God himself through his grace, but it is also dependent on our vigorous and constant effort.

The one thing we must dedicate ourselves to unceasingly during life is to the coming of God in our hearts as king. Let us ask our Lady for a deep appreciation of this and the wisdom and dedication to bring it to fruition.

(E.J.Tyler)

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