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Click HERE to listen to Sunday's homily.
One of my favorite books in our library is “Modern
Saints” by Ann Ball. We have so many
good books; we try to have the best and most up-to-date resources for you. “Modern Saints” is a collection of short
biographies of modern-day saints. I
picked it up again last week because tonight’s readings refer to light; and,
saints are lights in our modern world.
Jesus says, “you are the light of the world”. This is amazing because…He is the light of
the world! And, yet He gives us that
title, saying to each one of you, “you are the light of the world”. Now, before we let our heads get too big, St.
Paul reminds us in the second reading that it’s not just us…it’s mainly from
God. Christ gave us His light at Baptism…that’s
what the candle your godparents received symbolized. He gave us His light, and has sent us out to
be His light in the world.
Tonight’s readings tell us how to shine our light
brightly. It is through “good deeds”
that will “glorify your heavenly Father”.
From the prophet Isaiah: “share your bread with the hungry…clothe the
naked…satisfy the afflicted”…”then light shall rise for you”. If you know your Catechism, these should all
ring a bell. These sound very much like
the corporal and spiritual works of mercy!
The corporal works are to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty,
visit the sick, etc. (there are seven altogether). The spiritual works are to instruct the ignorant,
counsel the doubtful, comfort the afflicted, etc. (there are seven of those,
too). (By the way, it is said that
priests are to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; preaching the
Gospel will do that.)
This book, then, is chalked full of the works of
mercy. One of my favorite stories from
it involves St. Vincent Pallotti who was a priest in Italy in the 1800s. He had
a special love for the poor, and he lived simply and humbly, in union with the poor. He reminds us of Pope Francis. Fr. Pallotti hated to waste money, time, or resources.
One day, another priest was throwing away scraps of paper. St Vincent collected
the scraps and sold them for 10 cents. The other priest thought he was nuts.
They both went to a hospital to visit the sick. On the way, St. Vincent purchased
a box of crackers with the 10 cents. At the hospital, there was a patient who
was dying; he was notorious for hating priests. At the very sight of priests,
her would foam at the mouth and yell out obscenities and blasphemies. The two
priest prayed in the chapel of the hospital for him and the other
patients. When Fr. Pallotti arrived at
his bed, he was asleep, so the priest immediately went over to bless him. The
man woke up and opened his mouth to curse him. Fr. Pallotti dropped a cracker in his mouth! As the man chewed the cracker, St Vincent
told him about Jesus and mercy. He finished chewing and was about to start
yelling when St. Vincent dropped another cracker in his mouth. They did this
several times until God finally won. The
man finally broke down and started crying.
He made an Act of Contrition and asked for Confession which he made to
the priest. At the end of it all, he cried
out, “Jesus, have mercy on me”. A short time later, he died.
This was obviously a great example to the other
priest about not wasting anything; even scraps of paper can help save a
soul. To all of us, it’s an example of
creatively living the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. We try to do that at Newman. We just came off of our ski retreat. We have pizza or Chipotle after Sunday Mass…free
Tuesday dinners…white-water rafting retreat.
All of these are ways to open the door to instruct, counsel, comfort,
etc. It’s like the scraps of paper and
the crackers: salvaging the paper and using it to buy crackers was inherently good. And, it opened the door for the man to be
instructed and comforted….and ultimately saved.
We do the same thing…Chipotle is inherently good! And, it opens the door for the spiritual works
of mercy. Those who went on the ski retreat said that they learned spiritual lessons
even while skiing. If they fell, they knew
someone was there to help them back up. “Comfort
the afflicted” might be the way to describe helping those who tried snowboarding
for the first time (and fell often)!
Our mission is primarily to do spiritual works of
mercy…for the salvation of souls. There is such an emphasis on the corporal
works of mercy, and rightly so. We emphasize
both body (corporal) and soul (spiritual).
The corporal works can often lead to the spiritual and to the salvation
of souls, as it did for the dying patient through St. Vincent. Please join us in our mission of performing
both corporal and spiritual works of mercy on this campus.
Finally, the Lord himself will perform a work of
mercy for us tonight in the Eucharist.
He will bestow bread (the Bread of Life, himself) on us who are
spiritually hungry. Mother Teresa said
that spiritual poverty is the greater poverty.
We come to the Lord tonight spiritually poor and ask Him to feed and
enrich us….to give us the Grace to do good deeds, and to shine our light brightly
so that each of us will truly be the light of the world.
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