HOMILY WEEK 26 01 – Year I
Love, and Live the Word of God with Humble Faith and Childlike Simplicity:
Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul
(Zech 8:1-8; Ps 102; Lk 9:46-50)
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Have you ever heard God speaking to you? Would you like to have a more intimate relationship with God?
Then love, and live the Word of God with humble faith and childlike simplicity.
We have a wonderful example of this in the prophet Zechariah, who has an experience of the Word of God coming to him, instilling in him a great care for Jerusalem, assuring him God will again dwell in Jerusalem, that God will save God’s people, and they will someday live in fidelity to God and follow God’s ways in righteousness.
Perhaps we are all like Zechariah, if we stop to think of it, each of us having that kind of experience. I remember during a thirty-day retreat at the Immaculate Heart Retreat Centre out of Spokane, as a young scholastic before my ordination, being advised by the director, Fr. Armand Nigro S.J. during points in the evening to pray for all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Being in the stage of first fervor at that time, I took him seriously, sat under an evergreen tree the next morning, and prayed earnestly for that experience, full of eager expectation. That experience proved to be the driest, most boring, most disappointing prayer hour during that whole retreat!
After it was over, I sat under that tree, feeling a bit despondent and sorry for myself, when I suddenly noticed a spider’s thread right in front of my nose. Depending on the slight breeze and dappled sunlight, it would appear and disappear. Suddenly I distinctly heard the words “My grace is fine as a spider’s thread, always there. Most of the time you won’t see it” not with my ears, but within my head. I looked around but there was no one in sight. With awe I realized that was the answer to my prayer – not the bombastic experience I was wanting and expecting, but a subtle inner voice/thought giving me the message that in my life, God’s grace would be a delicate, daily presence, not a more experiential outer experience. And that lesson has stayed with me ever since, a moment of consolation to carry me through even months of desolation.
Jesus, in the gospel, teaches us another very important lesson – to have humble faith in him lived out with childlike simplicity. The apostles, far too like our church life today, completely miss the example of the lifestyle of the master they are with, and focus instead on the worldly goals of possession and pleasure, prestige and fame, power and control. They are arguing about who among them was or would be the greatest. Jesus has to stop them, point to a little child as the greatest person in his kingdom, and proclaim point blank that the least among them is actually the greatest. He is trying to get through to them a lesson we still struggle to accept today – humble faith in Jesus is to be lived out in the Church in childlike simplicity, not at all in the ways of the world focused on money, fame and power.
I had a dream as an active bishop of an archdiocese to begin a secular institute of women who would be dedicated to spreading the Word of God, called Servants of the Word. I shared that dream with Lucie Leduc, director of the Star of the North Retreat Centre where I serve as chaplain and spiritual director, who expanded it. That idea has grown into Aurora Living, a three-year process of personal growth and spiritual formation for the average person beginning this October. How true it is – a dream kept to one’s self remains just a dream; a dream shared has a chance of becoming reality.
Personally, I love doing a monthly poustinia (the Russian word for desert) which involves resting, writing, fasting on water alone, and praying a series of “holy hours” in the style of Lectio Divina for a period of twenty-four hours. This homily, in fact, is the fruit of such a poustinia. I would hope a monthly poustinia would be adopted by the participants of Aurora Living. One goal would be, like St. Vincent de Paul, whom we honor today, to ponder the Word of God and spread love for God’s word among all people.
St Vincent de Paul is the founder of the Congregation of the Missions (Vincentians) and co-founder of the Daughters of Charity. Born in France in 1580, the son of a peasant farmer, Vincent was ordained at 20. His first inclination was to earn a good income, but appointed to the Queen’s household, he came under the influence of Bérulle (later Cardinal), and became a changed man. Vincent devoted the rest of his life to acts of charity. He organized groups to provide food and clothing for all who were poor: orphans, prostitutes, the sick, the disabled and the homeless. He established a congregation to preach and to train clergy. He collected large sums of money for his many projects and his influence spread from France across Europe. He liked to tell his followers, “Go to the poor. You will find God.” Vincent died in 1660, and was canonized in 1737. He is patron saint of charitable societies, one of them named after him – the Society of St. Vincent de Paul – which I serve as national chaplain.
We are invited to imitate St Vincent and his response to Jesus, to believe in Jesus, to fall in love with his Word, and to live it out with humble faith and childlike simplicity.
The Eucharist consists of two tables – both of them very biblical – the table of the Word (the Jewish synagogue) and the table of the Eucharist (the Jewish temple). We are first nourished by God’s word, and then we offer to the Father the sacrifice of the Word, his own Son, who died to demonstrate, once and for all, the depth of the Father’s love for all of humanity and all of creation, which is also groaning to be set free from its constraints.
May our celebration empower us to emulate Zechariah and St. Vincent de Paul in love for and living out God’s word with humble faith and childlike simplicity.
