Homily for December 14th, 2016: St. John
The Church
celebrates today one of the great men of the 1500s, a century which brought
both the disaster of the Reformation, but also great saints. The previous
century witnessed repeated demands for Church reform in head and members. No
one imagined, however, that reform, when it came, would result in the departure
from Catholic unity of whole nations, and the setting up of altar against
altar. The fruits of these divisions remain with us today in the form of
literally thousands of Christian denominations which greatly weaken Christian
witness to the world.
At the very
time however, when this disaster was unfolding, God raised up men and women of
heroic faith: Ignatius of Loyola, the founder the Society of Jesus; his fellow
Jesuit and missioner to the Far East, Francis Xavier; Philip Neri, the apostle
of Rome; Charles Borromeo, born to wealth and privilege and made a cardinal at
age 22 by his uncle by Pope Pius IV, but a champion of Church reform nonetheless.
In Spain
the century witnessed the birth of St. Teresa of Avila ,
whom we celebrated on October 15th, and her fellow Carmelite whom we
commemorate today, St John St. John
Though 17
years younger than Teresa, John of the Cross was her confessor and spiritual
director. The writings of both on prayer are spiritual classics. A frequent
theme in the writings of John of the Cross was the importance of silence. Here
are three quotations from his writings which give an indication of his
spirituality:
-- “A soul enkindled with love is a gentle, meek, humble, and
patient soul.”
-- “What we need most in order to make progress is to be
silent before this
great God with our
appetite and with our tongue; for the language he hears best
is silent love.”
And finally, my personal favorite:
-- “In the evening of
life, we will be judged by love alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment