Keeping Christmas
Some people just exude love. They are easy to be around. They are concerned without being intrusive. They remember you and what you talked about the last time you met. They laugh with you; they cry with you; they care about you.
There is a poem that goes something like: “I want to live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.”
That’s almost right. I don’t want to wait. I want to go the the places where people live, and share their love and life. That was Deacon Michael’s wonderful philosophy, motivated by the love of God.
written by Laura Weston, Deacon Michael’s widow
The readings today are very interesting and Grace Gagnet, who died, I assume there were a lot of people at that funeral, because she was a wonderful woman. She gives you an example, through San Juan Capistrano as well, an example of how we are to lead our lives. And it's something I wanted to talk about and I'm trying to figure out exactly how to articulate it, so bear with me a little bit on this.
San Juan Capistrano, he went in, and was reforming the Poor Clares and the Franciscans, because, quite frankly, after St. Francis there came a period of time where they became important. And becoming important, they took upon themselves certain things of the world that really diverted them from their mission. The mission of love. The mission of poverty. The mission of going out to the world.
And we see in the gospel the same thing of Jesus is saying, that He is the answer. He is the light of life. Yet in our lives we see so many thing that pull us away from it. I think some of his examples are a little extreme, but I think they make the point.
"Let me go first and bury my father." And he says, "Let the dead bury their dead." Well, Jesus was not that callous, but He makes a very valid point of the primacy of things in our lives.
But the second thing, and this is the thing that brings to mind Grace and this is how she's integrating into it is Grace in many ways was a fanatic. She really was. Lovely woman, but she was a fanatic. She loved Jesus so much. You couldn't meet her without talking to her about Jesus, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was it the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
Divine Mercy
I'm sorry, got it wrong. But, and if you talk to her and you say, "Oh you know, sometimes my son drives me crazy," you're going to find yourself praying about your son. A wonderful thing.
And that part is reflective of what Jesus is calling us to, and it is a difficult part to go through and try to live your life. By the way, when you show up at my funeral, just say, "We know that Deacon Michael tried. Even if he didn't succeed, he tried." I'll be happy because that's all I can do. I'll give you an illustration. I don't mind getting up early in the morning. I really don't even mind coming here early in the morning, except some mornings, because I always went to work early. But the thing that bothers me more than anything else, and this is on a very selfish level, is, I look at Robert, I look at Margene. I've cried with them. I know there are people here who are going to lose a loved one or they may die. I'm going to cry with you. I want to be there. That's why I get so excited about the fact that you've been married forever. That is part of what we are called to do.
All these other things. "Let the dead bury their dead." That's not Jesus. That is an illustration of what's important. Jesus went to the funeral for Lazarus. And raised him to eternal life. He raised him in real life, actual life on earth. But He also the promise of eternal life.
When we go out to the world, we're not called to be insular. We're not called to hold ourselves back and say, "I don't want to hear it." "I don't want to do it." "I don't want to get my hands dirty." “I don't want to do ..." And Jesus is saying, "Oh shut up. I'm the important thing. You're not the important thing.”
I can sit here and talk. Most of you I've heard stories from. I can come up with stories about what they are. But the reality is, and Betty I'm really not picking on you on this one, but it is, it's the Communion of Saints. Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. Hell is this unimaginable disaster of being separated from God. There may be a whole lot of punishments and everything else, but it is the separation from God that is so unimaginable. But the Communion of Saints. I pray for you. Sometimes that you would sing a little faster or something like that. I pray for my parents. I pray for my family. I pray for my friends. And you do all those things. We pray for Grace. I know that Wisdom is going to ask us to pray for Grace.
The theology, the Protestant theology, of once you're dead it's all over, is just not right to me. That we have the ability in our lives, at all times, to give of ourselves for others, loving neighbor, is something that is so wonderfully transcendent. That the excitement of being Catholic, I am being very specific, about being Catholic, for me, is just so wonderful because you are given the opportunity to participate in people's lives in the fullness. We have the opportunity. We did it yesterday, and we have the opportunity as time goes on to ask Grace to again pray for us. She can pray for us. If she's in Purgatory, she can pray for us. I can ask Robert, "Pray for me, Robert, I need some help." I can ask, and I can pray for them. I can be part of the body of Christ. The part of the body of Christ of loving people. Of loving them the way that God commands is just such an absolutely wonderful thing.
You know me. I don't even let people get out of the church before they have to greet me. And I love to play with the little kids and I love to play with the old women. The old women, they come up. Watching a 90-year-old woman giving me a high five, I just love it.
But more than that. There are times when people come up to me and simply say, "I'm going into chemotherapy Monday morning." All these things that are in their lives. "Pray for me, my son died." "Pray with me, my wife died." And these are the things that we are called to do. These are the things that the Franciscans were well known to do. This is why there needed to be the reform. Because they got away from it.
But it is something that each and every one of us is called to do. To live our lives loving our neighbor in a realistic sense of the reality of our lives. And when we allow the concerns of our lives to intrude, then we are separating ourselves from Christ, the light of life.
And so when we look at what we are called to do. When we look at what San Juan Capistrano did, when we look at the reality of our existence, it always comes to mind that it is to love thy neighbor totally. And that is the light of life that we get through Our Lord Jesus Christ. The light of being able to say, "I've lived my life and I tried." Again, I'll be happy if you just say I tried. I love to try to love my fellow man. That's what we're called to do. "Michael didn't always succeed, but he sure tried." Grace succeeded in my view. That's a wonderful thing. And it's something to which all of us can aspire. Go through our lives loving one another as Jesus commanded us to do. And then, don't let other things get in the way to separate us from Him.
October 23, 2018