Sanctity and relationship

 Fr Thomas Santiagu began his sermon the other day, saying that to be a saint is to choose to be eternal.  For a saint is someone who has opted to be related to Jesus and that relationship is eternal.  For this relationship and the person himself or herself to be eternal, there is no shortcut.  And all that one has is this lifetime...long or short does not really matter. What counts is the intention and the intensity. 

Truly, just like prayer being a relationship, rather than a string of words or rituals, so is sanctity.  And to be holy, is to actually enter into a relationship with the Divine.  This is not a one day achievement, rather it is a life time work.  But one who genuinely has opted and worked for this relationship, he or she has become eternal.  The person continues to live on even after death.  The good that the person has done resonates in different ways in the lives and works of those still alive.  

On the other hand, there are some who wish to have a quick shot at fame or name.  Perhaps they should join the film industry.  Perhaps some of us religious too are in the wrong field of life!!! 

Why not to canonize Pope Francis?

Now that Pope Francis is no more and that he is laid to rest, the topic of his canonisation is doing the rounds. And I have serious objections to that!!! 

The main issue is that Francis did nothing extraordinary. He merely did and lived as he actually professed to live – as a pastor. And if we start canonising people for merely doing what we choose to do, what’s the relevance of ‘canonisation’? We cannot afford to make living as one is supposed to be, a criteria for sainthood. By making someone a saint for doing and being what one is supposed to do and be, we are subconsciously normalising substandard living, or making corrupt, lethargic life as acceptable and the regular mode of life. 

Another downside of making someone a saint is that he/she is exalted, his/her photos and statues erected, novenas recited, prayed to and all that stuff… except emulated! Unconsciously, we put him/her up so high that imitating that person’s lifestyle and living by that person’s attitudes is considered as beyond liveable.

Definition of sanctity

Perhaps the best definition of sanctity is what was said by St Francis de Sales: 

Doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way!

For us Salesians and for our young people, I don't think there can be a better way of putting across the notion of sanctity than this. 

Sanctity and humour

 I'm not an artist or one to really comment on art, but could not help but notice the fact that most of the historical paintings of eminent artists, especially of the Biblical figures, are all very serious and tense.  One hardly comes across Biblical characters in a lighter mood or appearing really happy.  There is always a sort of tension prevailing within that gets reflected on the face. 

It is hard to imagine that all those Biblical characters or the saints of the past did not know how to smile or be happy.  Could not have been so - after all, they were all human and in most cases, convinced and passionate about their commitment. Of course, all of them did have to face a lot of trials and tribulations, but even those they gladly embraced.  Those difficulties did not count much in the face of their primary choice for God and His people.  So why the long, sad, brooding face?? 

I'm guessing such paintings were in a way reflecting the inner tension of the artist himself or herself.  Especially of paintings which portray great depth and personality, the artist must have really drained him/herself out to be filled in with the person he or she is painting.  That's a heavy toll on oneself.  So evidently that pours out through the brush and the expression.  But I suppose, in reality, these Biblical characters and Saints whose numerous paintings we come across were men and women of good cheer and humour.  Difficult to imagine otherwise!

To be Christians/Saints

What does it take to be Christians?  What qualifies one to be a Christian...

Being poor, concerned, seeking after justice and peace, merciful, pure of heart, those willing to suffer for a just cause.  That's it!  For anyone looking for a roadmap to sanctity, the Beatitudes offer one summarized edition! These very virtues that bring us closer to God are also the very ones that help us become aware of our humanity. 

... and we're all called to be Saints! 

Holiness is grace

As I spent time in prayer this evening, and later talking to the confessor, it hit me hard that for quite sometime now, I've been thinking and trying to see what is it that I can do; that I need to do.  All this while, it never occured to me to think, what is it that the Lord wants me to do. 

I think what triggered this insight was what the preacher said about holiness.  He said, "We want to be holy.  We strive our best to be holy.  But we forget that it is God who makes us holy."  Though not very convinced of that one-sided affair of God making me holy while I sit there doing nothing. I also realised that doing things without Him, is equally empty.  Holiness is His grace and I have to respond.  Be aware.  Accept.  Be grateful for.  And build it up/share it around. 

So this evening's prayer: Lord, help me know what is it that you want me to do.  

Little things...

It is said that during the lifetime of St Francis de Sales, there was this particular young seminarian who came to meet him and speak about his desire to serve the poor and change the world and go to great lengths to preach the Gospels.  St Francis listened to him attentively and when asked for his advice as to how to go about doing all of that grand stuff, he replied, "When you leave shut the door silently." 

Sanctity in little things.  Ordinary things in an extraordinary manner! 

Grounded

Fr Sean, during his homily this morning, mentioned of something he witnessed during one of his visits to Loretto: a statue of John XXIII.  However what struck him most about the statue was that it was not placed on a pedestal or a plinth.  It was right on the ground.  Grounded.  Literally! 

Wish saints were seen as basically people who were grounded. Down to earth.  Not floating in the heavens, in robes white and gold!  John XXIII certainly did much good to the Church by convoking the Second Vatican Council, the deliberations of which we are yet to imbibe and fully understand, leave alone put to practice.  If not for any other achievement, just for this daring act alone he can be canonized. 

Know not about much about the previous Popes, but Pope Francis certainly does appeal to me as someone very much grounded.  Grounded in the lives of people, the poor the marginalised.  Grounded in nature. Feet firm in the actual grim, murky, confusing and challenging reality of people; not the ideal world we aspire to be or reach.  

Love your neighbour

The leader of a church music group practiced his trombone almost daily late into the night and sometimes in the early hours of the morning.  Someone complained this to his parish priest and asked, if such a man could be called a good christian at all.  "It's possible for the musician," replied the priest, "but not so easy for the neighbours!"

Little things but great

When we're dead and buried what mark will we leave on the world?  In our pride we probably think that we might write the world's best-selling book, invents some labour-saving gadget or discover the cure for some life-threatening disease. But the reality, of course, will be somewhat different.

Most of our lives are not made up of headline events.  Our days are calmer and much more about the ordinary comings and goings.  Maybe that's why many of the saints show us that the way to heaven is by striving to do the little things of life well.  For it is the little things that make the most difference.
(from the St Anne's Catholic Church Newsletter, Chertsey)

Be holy

Be holy!
The theme of the readings of Sunday (wk 7, year A).

I have been grappling Heidegger and his notion of the human person in his whole discourse on technology for the past one week.

Everytime I reach a point of pinning down his understanding, I feel myself inadequately prepared because Heidegger is speaking of a larger context of 'being' while I'm trying to figure out 'human being' within that - that too without grasping to any minimal degree the former.

At one moment I thought I got a glimpse of the meaning of what Heidegger meant by the following text.  A while later it was gone!

Only from the truth of Being can the essence of the holy be thought. Only from the essence of the holy is the essence of divinity be thought. Only in the light of the essence of divinity can it be thought or said what the word "God" is to signify.  ... How can man at the present stage of world history ask at all seriously and rigorously whether the god nears or withdraws, when he has above all neglected to think into the dimension in which alone that question can be asked? But this is the dimension of the holy, which indeed remains closed as a dimension if the open region of Being is not cleared and in its clearing is near man. (pp. 253-254)

[Heidegger, M. (1992) ‘Letter on humanism’, in Krell, D.F. (ed.) Martin Heidegger: Basic writings. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, pp. 213–266.]

Novena to Don Bosco: Call to Holiness

Novena to Don Bosco

(Remembering DON BOSCO and the significant people who shaped his life and works)

Day 9: Jesus Christ 

(His Master) 

CALL TO HOLINESS

Don Bosco's whole work for the boys was the result of a personal call from Jesus. God was above all else and the real cause of his initiatives. Don Bosco's sole concern was the welfare of his boys: Da mihi animas, cetera tolle (Give me souls, take away the rest).

Sanctity is easy. 

Don Bosco's often repeated words to his boys 

In Don Bosco, the extraordinary becomes ordinary. 

Words of Pope Pius XI while speaking about the way Don Bosco lived his holiness in the most humble and practical manner. 

Holiness is the best gift we can give to our young people. 

Said by Fr Pascual Chavez, the 9th successor of Don Bosco, in imitation of our founder who not only was saintly himself but made those in contact with him saints, as well. 

While at prayer one time, Don Bosco was interrupted by the visit of a wealthy noble. “Tell him I'll be there soon,” he said, and he continued his prayers. Three times he was called. Finally he went. “My dear Sir,” he said, you are a good friend of mine, but God comes first.
(Click here to download the pdf file for display)

Novena to Don Bosco: Spiritual Direction

Novena to Don Bosco

(Remembering DON BOSCO and the significant people who shaped his life and works)

Day 3: Fr Joseph Cafasso

(John Bosco's guide and mentor)

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

Fr Joseph Cafasso was the confessor of Don Bosco right from his days as a student of Theology till the former's death. Every step he took in the direction of his vocational journey was always discussed with Fr Cafasso from 1841-1860. Fr Cafasso is also the patron of the prisoners and the gallows.

Do you want to become saints? Here is the secret: Confession is the lock: confidence in your confessor is the key. This is how you open heaven's gates. 

Advice of Don Bosco to his boys, exhorting them to frequent the sacrament of reconciliation and avail themselves of the opportunity of spiritual direction. 

Go to confession every week, but not oftener, because it is not the number of confessions which make us good, but the benefits we derive from each genuine confession (with a good resolution). 

Following the example of St Philip Neri, Don Bosco used to tell his boys to make their confession regularly, and preferably to the same confessor.

Sanctity

A lovely quote by Dag Hammarskjold about what it truly means to be a spiritual person.  To know where one stands vis-a-vis God, His people and oneself...

You are not the oil, not the air -- only the combustion point, the focus, where the light is born.
You are only the lens in the flood of light. Only like the lens can you receive, give, and own the light.
If you seek yourself, “in your own right,” you hinder the meeting of the oil and the air in the flame, you rob the lens of its transparency.
Sanctification -- to be the light or in the light, effaced, so that it may be born, effaced so that it may be gathered and spread.

Transparency

Yesterday was the second death anniversary of Fr John Lens. I know not if his autobiography is being considered for publication or not.  Most probably with all the excitement of the visit of the Rector Major to the Province, this would have got shelved for another year.

Anyway, as I thanked God for this person, especially his role in my life, I could not think of a better description of him than this short verse from Thomas A Kempis, as quoted in Waymarks:

The purer the eye of the intention is, the more strength the soul finds within itself... but it is very rare to find a soul entirely free, whose purity is not at all sullied by some stain of a secret searching for itself... Work, therefore, to purify the eye of your intention in order that it might be single and upright.

Somehow Fr Lens, even in his weakness and shortcomings, made Salesian sanctity more appealing. He was not a perfect man.  He too knew that all too well and didn't in any way try to hide or camouflage it.  Neither did he take pride in his shortcomings.  But he did possess a great inner strength. He derived it from his transparent effort at being kind and loving. More than the love, it is this constant and transparent effort at being lovable, that I recall with great joy.

Political sanctity?

The recent turn of events like the US elections, the change of currency back in India by the PM, the prolonged war in Syria, the constant flow of refugees into Europe from across the Mediterranean, the whole politics of Brexit and more especially all that goes behind these apparent policy changes got me thinking this morning of one particular fact: Could sanctity and politics ever go hand in hand?

It is then that it occurred to me that perhaps there is no politician in the history of the world who has been canonized as a saint.  The closest who came to this was Thomas Moore, but then if he were to continue being a real politician he would never have been made a saint!  Politicians have never been canonized!  Perhaps only Dag Hammarskjold, Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela I'd consider as noble politicians (Gandhiji was more a leader and neatly resisted politics). But alas, none of them were Catholic!

So what's it with politics that makes it incompatible with Christian sanctity?  I guess it has something to do with the inherent system failure of politics.  Honestly, if politicians were true to their calling, the liturgical calendar would be most filled with their names - with the prefix St. That's one profession which truly facilitates the service of fellow human beings legally and literally. Unfortunately that's the only thing that never happens.

To be a politician one has to kill one's conscience.  No one can continue to have an altruistic attitude while being a politician.  Such is the state of political affairs - everywhere!

Holiness is for everyone

On the occasion of the feast of All Saints, here's an important fact that most of us conveniently forget or are happy to do without:

To be a saint is not a privilege of a few... all of us in baptism have the inheritance of being able to become saints. Sanctity is a vocation for everyone. (Pope Francis)

... and that's why the Gospel of the day speaks of the Beatitudes. 

Everyone is called to be a Saint

Religious Life and Holiness

This morning we heard a lay man share his views about priesthood and formation to priesthood.  One of the points he was very convinced of was that Priests are holy - more than lay people.  I asked him if his holiness had anything to do with his priesthood?  He was certain it was all about priesthood.

I feel differently.  Holiness is not the monopoly of priesthood or religious life... a fact that all would readily agree.  While most consider - like the above-said gentleman - that it is grace of God that really transforms a person, I am of the opinion that it may not necessarily do so. By doing so I'm not belittling God or His grace... rather I'm endorsing the same.  Because the God whom I believe in is not someone who would automatically work wonders in me, without my awareness, knowledge and most of all, consent.

I someone am convinced that religious life or priesthood is merely a path, just like married life or individual life, to holiness.  Perhaps it offers us greater possibilities of achieving that better and 'faster' but at the same time it also great risks ... with great possibilities come great risks!

Moreover God gives us all - ALL - opportunities; some utilize most of them, some less, perhaps some none.  But He certainly does not have favourites or pets whom he pampers with ready-made graces!  

Choose to be holy

Reading the Old Testament from the perspective of gathering the history of the people of Israel, one cannot notice the whole divine-human dynamics that goes on. I think the point where the Israelites then, and we today, fail to really live up to the sanctity that God calls us to and offers, is when we rest complacent over the gift that He offers.  This is applicable all the more to Priests and religious who claim to be chosen, 'specially' by God (something I totally beg to differ with).

God chose us! True! But that fact does not automatically makes us holy!  I too have to constantly, regularly, every moment and through every deed of mine, choose to be holy.

As for the fact of being chosen by God, whom did God not choose? Anyone?  God calls each one!  Each one!