Our Personal Connection With God

Michael was passionately Catholic. He had lived a life without religion, and pop spirituality was not good enough for him. He saw more and embraced more in the world around him. His spirituality, his connection with God, was through his ability to see and love all of those around him. He loved babies, the elderly, the sick, the dying, couples and individuals. All were special to him. He saw them with the eyes of love. They were beautiful in his sight.

In this sermon especially he takes the liberty of personally addressing the people who came to the 6:30 communion service, whom he loved so much, and who loved him. He opens his heart in a way that he had not done before.

written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

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The feast of St. Rose of Lima

That responsorial psalm that we had, what is it, young men and women praise the name of the Lord?  We probably had fewer responses on that one than we have ever had.

Rose of Lima was a young woman.  She died at the age of 31, but she encompassed in her life a spirituality.  Spirituality is something that is kinda fuzzy but very tangible, very real.

And one of the things that just drives me crazy is when I talk to somebody, especially if they know I'm a deacon, they'll go, "I'm not really religious. I'm spiritual.” 

And I'm sitting there going, "What in the world are you talking about?"

"Oh yes, I commune with the blades of grass."

“Okay... what?  What are you communing with?"

"Well, Mother Earth."

"Okay, so is Mother Earth God in your view?"

"Oh... the cosmos." or... who knows what?

It makes no sense to me whatsoever. 

Each and every one of us in his our own way is called to a spirituality.  Because we are here, we perceive ourselves as having the ability to commune and talk and be with the Catholic perception of God, and of Jesus. 

So we want, in our spirituality, to not have our religious life being only, "Okay, read the Catechism, memorize the Catechism, and we're going to give you a quiz.  That's going to be it." 

Part of human nature is seeking something more.  Seeking the elevation.  To be able to participate in the divine in our humanity.  That is our ultimate goal through Our Lord Jesus Christ is to participate in the divinity in heaven in our humanity.  And that is the path that Jesus makes available to us. 

So we see, there are many, many different ways.  Rose of Lima chose the way, as I said, it is not a way that appeals to me, but the way of penance.  Third Order Dominicans receive Confession constantly and they engage in penitential acts.  Hers was the crown of thorns and other things that she did because it is an offering up of self to God.  We hurt ourselves, we offer it up in penance for our sins, for forgiveness of our sins.  To receive the punishment for our sins that we justly deserve. 

So, in our spirituality, if you are not into the penitential, it doesn't mean you don't have a spirituality.  It means it takes a different form.  And in the Church if you look at the spiritual saints, the the spirituality of saints, you look and see very, very many people with different forms of spirituality.

One of the ones that stands out to me is Teresa of Calcutta.  She told people that in the last 40 years of her life, this great saint, when she prayed, never felt the presence of God.  There wasn't anything there.  Yet, in her dealings with the sick and the ill and the dying, she saw God there.  She saw the face of God. That's something that I really, really relate to after Parkland Hospital.

In other instances, for example, and I am going to pick on older people in this room today, on a personal level I see a spirituality that Robert and Margene have.  That spirituality comes from their loss of their loved one, of their spouse, who is present in them even now.  Not separated by the physical death.  There is a spirituality in their relationship with each other that brings them closer to God.  That is a form of spirituality. 

Taking this old couple here, who like to hold hands when they are sitting in the Communion service, who have been married 66 now, how many, a whole long time.  There is a spirituality in the relationship between a man and a woman.  St. Paul talks about the relationship between a man and a woman being a foreshadowing of the great sacrament of Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross that brings us to heaven.  That's in Ephesians 5. 

And then you also have this young couple who've been married for less that 10 years.  Where you can perceive a similar spirituality of getting to know each other just as we have the opportunity to get to know God.  The crucial thing in my perception of spirituality is I can go out and say, "Well, I am going to be a penitent and I am going to take upon myself certain physical manifestations of penance.  I'll go out and get a silver crown of thorns."

My nature is such that the crown of thorns, and the pain and the blood it brings to me wouldn't bring me to, "Oh, I am so much closer to God,” but would be to me a complaining, "Gaw, this hurts all the time. I've got a headache all the time."  That is not a profitable spirituality. 

My spirituality, and I will give you an example and this, this frequently happens at Mass to me, is, I look out at the congregation and, you know, compared to you, some of you, I'm young.  Compared to most of the people in the congregation I am an old man.  And I look, you know, I'm a man, there's a good-looking woman there.  I have a harder time recognizing handsome men.  And what I see many times is, I see, I'm going to pick on Margene again.  I see in the old women particularly, especially the ones that come up to receive Communion with a cane, or a walker, or with someone there taking care of them, I look at them and go, "My gosh, how beautiful God's creation is.  Look at this woman.  How beautiful in her youth she must have been to be so loved.” 

I look out on the congregation, and I love children, you know that, but I look and I go, "Wow, God's creation is so beautiful."  Because, I mean, I look at John who is, yeah, I am sure he is the oldest one here.  But just think of what John must have been when he was 22.  The vibrant, active John all excited about becoming a dentist.  All excited about life.  That is a form of wonder of God that brings me closer to God.  That is something that I find very valuable.  That's a part of this spirituality.

And each and every one of us has made available to us in the totality of our lives, remember I always say that God gives us the opportunity, the gift, of taking everything in our lives to make ourselves holier.  That is a spirituality.  A spirituality is essentially a way by which we are given a gift by God to be able to communicate with God.  To bring us closer to God that we can be in communion with Him and bring ourselves to Him as we are. 

We can look at God in that great big cross up there on the crucifix and go, "Wow, he's big!"  But it doesn't bring us necessarily closer to him that we can open who we are and bring it to God. 

There is a spirituality that comes.  We see that in the spirituality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the queenship of Mary.  In all her manifestations, in her apparitions, this we see as a means.  And it is in the spirituality that we take the opportunities given to us to be spiritual. 

To be spiritual in the sense that there is an opening to God of us as we really are.  Not the external trappings of the world. Not the external manifestations that we have of all of the things that are going on, but the very core of what we are in our spirituality is opened up to God in its totality.  And the recognition of God's relationship with us which allows us in our lives to communicate with God on the level that is most important to us, because that is also the level that is most important to Him. 

And to bring ourselves before Him and to truly say that we are present to Him because we want to spend all eternity with Him in Heaven.  And that when we bring ourselves to Him in this opening of self through spirituality, by whatever form it might take in your lives, then we are in communion with Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Then we are in communion with God.  And then we are truly preparing ourselves to spend all eternity in heaven because we are in the presence of God. 

Mother Teresa did not feel the presence of God in the prayers, but, oh, did she feel the presence of God in those for whom she was caring: for the dying, the sick, the poor, the starving.  All of them brought her in communion, through that spirituality, ever closer to God, and was, I have no doubt at all, integral to her becoming a saint and spending all eternity with God in Heaven.

August 23, 2018 2