Photo Source: http://perseiden.blogspot.com/2011/06/ora-et-labora.html

Most of my days are spent listening to people, or preparing myself to listen. On a one to one basis, I prefer listening than speaking. Now there are notable exceptions to this, such as when I know someone is hurting, grieving or needing to be lifted out of wherever they may be psychologically, and I tend to speak when in front of large groups.

The point I am getting to is that most of my work is mental, verbal and relational. What I seldom do anymore – unfortunately – is manual labor.

St. Benedict, as we all know, had the rule of life Ora et labora, that is Pray and work. The work he typically espoused was manual labor which is a form of labor in which creation is renewed, the human person is expressed as being in the image of God the creator of all, and balance is struck within the individual.

My earlier years were filled with manual labor: in the fields for hours, in the barns tending to livestock, repairing old vehicles (the only kind I could afford), keeping ahead of the lawn, etc. There was almost a 50-50 balance in my life between working and learning/praying/thinking/planning.

It was a very human experience in every way.

Nowadays, I have to plan on manual labor. It doesn’t just present itself as frequently. The demands of career, family, and diaconate consume huge amounts of time and energy. Mind you, it is all very good but I assure you but those times that do come every so often when manual labor is needed are welcomed. They bring a different sort of experience of the world that is all to often forgotten.

To work with one’s hands is a noble endeavor. Those who do it every day to earn their way in life possess a dignity we all need to acknowledge. They possess a knowledge that is necessary for the human experience. Their doing is a witness to the incarnational aspects of our faith. May I say it is “manly” in the sense it is provisional, protective and productive?

Today, I wish to honor all those who have gone before me having worked with their hands…. the many men and women in generations past and those present around us.

God bless them all.

Was it necessary for the Son of God to have suffered for us? Indeed, and we may speak of a double necessity: as a remedy for sin and as an example to live.

It was above all a remedy, because in the passion of Christ we find a remedy against all the evils we may run into because of sin.

But no less is the usefulness of his example to us. In fact, we have sufficient example with which to orient our entire lives.

Whoever wishes to live in perfection need do nothing more than disdain what Christ disdained on the cross, and to desire what he desired.  None of the virtues, in fact, is absent in the cross.

If you look for an example of charity, recall: “No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for his friends.”(John 15: 13)

Christ accomplished this on the cross. Therefore, if he has given his life for us, it must not be burdensome to sustain whatever evil for him.

If you search for an example of patience, you will find an excellent one on the cross. You see great examples of patience in two circumstances: when one patiently bears great adversity and when one sustains adversity that one could have avoided.

Now, Christ has given us the cross as an example of both. In fact, “when he was suffering, he did not threaten.” (1 Pt. 2: 23) and “as a lamb he was lead to death and opened not his mouth.” (Acts 8:32) Great, then, is the patience of Christ on the cross. “We run with perseverance on the course, holding our eyes on Jesus, author and perfecter of faith. He, in exchange for the joy that was put before him, took up the cross, disdaining the ignominy.” (Heb 12:2)

If you look for an example of humility, look at the crucifixion: God, in fact, wished to be judged by Pontius Pilate and to die.

If you look for an example of obedience, follow him who made himself obedient to the Father unto death: “Just as through the disobedience of one man, that is Adam, all have become sinners,  so too through the obedience of one man all will become just.” (Rom 5: 19)

If you search for an example of disdaining earthly things, follow him who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col 2: 3) He is naked on the cross, ridiculed, spat upon, struck, crowned with thorns, made to drink vinegar and gall.

Do not therefore bind your hearts to fine clothing and riches, because “they divided my clothing among them” (John 19: 24), nor to honors, because I have experienced outrages and beatings (cf. Isaiah 53:4), nor to privileges because they wove a crown of thorns and put it on my head (cf. Mk 15: 17), nor to pleasures because “When I was thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink.” (Psalm 68: 22)

We glory in the Cross of Christ. May we never forsake it.

“Vocation of the deacon is to be a ‘confessor’ of the faith. He seeks to revive this ancient title in democratic modernity….. Central to the deacon/confessor’s anthropology is his self-awareness in Christ crucified…. a confessor is one who has been cast forth, handed over by God…. into the heart of danger like a lamb among wolves. The poor and outcast, not simply the altar, is his vocation. And at every curve and bend of that road he will find challenges and suffering. St. Paul would describe it as warfare. The deacon’s walk is an heroic one…the deacon will meet determined opposition and … extensive satanic counter struggle…the deacon discovers that persecution constitutes the normal condition of the Church in her relation to the world…. Only deacon/confessor.. can keep alive the sense of man and make the world a place where love is gently at work.”

www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cclergy/documents/rc_con_cclergy_doc_19022000_idf_en.html

St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr

All of this makes me think of an article I recently read on St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr of Rome, the deacon of Pope Sixtus II. You recall, Lawrence was martyred some three days after Sixtus, by being grilled on the gridiron. Lawrence’s diaconate was a call to martyrdom, in service to his bishop and the “treasures of the Church” whom he identified as the poor of his diocese. Lawrence is not officially called a confessor, yet in fact he was, and he serves as a model for diaconate ministry even today. His life as deacon vividly portrays all the Cardinal Stafford was saying some 12 years ago.

Deacons of the world, are we ready to be confessors of the faith? Even in the face of stiff opposition, even persecution and martyrdom? We in the United States, numerous though we are, have in many ways the easier task. Our brothers in areas of the world where martyrdom continues are daily called to confess the faith, even as St. Lawrence.

As you probably know, the Gospel was about the Visitation. The part I focused on was how John the Baptist “leaped for joy” when Mary greeted Elizabeth.

Leaped for joy, even before his birth.

John must have been one active man…. even before he was born, he was jumping around pointing out the presence of the Lord in our midst. Later in life, of course, he really made a scene with his camel’s hair shirt, his shouting and carrying on, confronting the king about his unlawful wife (can you imagine what would happen today if one of our bishops publicly told one of our politicians that the woman he was living with was not his wife, but his brother’s), eating honey and locusts, etc. Yes, John wasn’t afraid of making a scene if it had to do with preparing someone for the coming of the Lord or pointing out the Lord’s presence.

I asked the people last night this question, “What makes you leap for joy when it comes to your religion?”

We are to be a people of joy, are we not? We are to pick up where John left off by recognizing the Lord in our midst, pointing him out to others and leading them to him.

What makes your heart leap?

Here is the challenge I put forth last night, and I extend to you: Set aside a certain amount of time each day during which you make a conscious decision to open your heart to God’s presence. Then wait. Wait for as long as it will take… God alone knows how long. Someday, though, if you keep doing this, your heart will leap; there will be a flutter inside you; there will be a fleeting flush of joy that you will experience.

Your heart will leap for joy in the presence of the Lord.

Take up the challenge and see for yourselves.

In the news along with Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha is also Blessed Mother Marianne of Molokai. In the same decree attesting to the miracle that will lead to Tekakwitha’s canonization, Benedict XVI declared that another miracle was attributed to Mother Marianne (born Barbara Cope). Mother Marianne was a Sister of the Third Order Franciscans of Syracuse, who was born in Heppenheim, Germany and died on the island of Molokai, Hawaii on August 9, 1918.

Mother Marianne worked among the leper colonies on that island, taking up what St. Damien had done earlier on the same location.

Saint Marianne of Molokai, pray for us!

Two miracles are necessary for sainthood, both of which need occur after the death of the one proposed for canonization. The second miracle acknowledged as such yesterday involved the miraculous recovery of a Seattle boy whose face had been disfigured with a flesh-eating bacteria and who almost died, but then recovered completely. (Blessed Kateri’s face had been disfigured due to small pox.)

Blessed Kateri was born in 1656 in a village on the Mohawk River called Ossernenon, New York. Her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother a Christian Algonquin raised among the French. At age 4, she survived a small-pox epidemic, although remained disfigured and with poor eyesight. She decided to be baptized and pursue the religious life, fleeing her relatives who disapproved of her conversion. She was baptized in 1676 and made her first Communion on Christmas 1677. Her holiness became widely acknowledged, and she performed “extraordinary penances.” She died in 1680, and according to eyewitnesses, her facial disfigurement suddenly disappeared after her death. Her tomb is in Caughnawaga on the St. Lawrence River, about 10 miles from Montreal.

Her sainthood cause was begun in 1932, even though Native Americans have called for her recognition since at least the mid-1800s. She was declared “Venerable” in 1942, and beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

Saint Kateri, pray for us!

St. Andrew, after finding and being found by the Lord Jesus, ran to his brother Simon Peter and announced that he had found the Messiah. He bade Simon to “come and see” which Peter did without hesitation. Tradition has it that St. Andrew preached in various places after the Lord’s death, and was crucified in Acaia.

This feast day is extremely important to the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, for St. Andrew is its patron. The patriarch of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, also celebrates today his 20th anniversary of being elected patriarch.

Finally, the Church in Constantinople commemorates on this day the “Feast of the Translation of the Relics of St. Gregory the Theologian and St. John Chrysostom.” Their relics had been taken and transported to Rome during the Crusades, only to be returned to their original resting place in 2004, aiding in the healing old wounds between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox.

You can read some interesting history on this at: www.patriarchate.org/patriarhate/relics

St. Andrew, pray for us!