Guide Our Way

December 06 2013 | by

THIS EVENING we are gathered here to venerate a great Saint whose intercession has been invoked over the centuries by men and women in every corner of the world.

Anthony was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal. As a young man he entered the Order of the Canons Regular. As guest master of the Coimbra monastery he encountered a small group of disciples of Saint Francis who were on their way to Morocco to preach the Gospel. It was on learning of the martyrdom of the group that Anthony began to think of becoming himself a follower of Saint Francis in the Order which had only just been established.

Anthony’s health was never great. He could only be assigned light tasks in the Order, but he used all his time to pray and to reflect on the scriptures. After the Chapter of Mats in 1221, he was unexpectedly asked to preach at an ordination as no other preacher could be found and his words of learning and spirituality surprised and gripped all these present. His name became well known as a preacher.

Saint Francis established a bond of friendship with Anthony because he noted that here was the son of a wealthy family and a man of extraordinary theological ability, but who also understood and embraced fully the simplicity of the Franciscan life, leaving aside any of the self-importance which so often marked the learned.

 

Pure of heart

 

In art Anthony is often pictured with a white lily reminding us that he was pure of heart in the full sense of the Gospel. Sometimes we distort the term ‘pure of heart’, limiting it entirely to the realm of chastity, but the pure heart must also embrace simplicity of life, closeness to the

Gospel and rejection of a sense of security based on possessions and prestige. Remember that Anthony found his call to such simplicity of life through his encounter with those early Franciscan martyrs.

This evening we honour the relics of Saint Anthony. The small piece of his skin reminds us of Anthony the human person. Sanctity is not something which is extraneous to our bodily lives. Holiness is attained not by a mysterious flight away from reality, but is worked out in toil of mind and body by each of us, under the guidance of the spirit, in our bodies, in the real life situations in which we find ourselves, with our burdens and our temptations. Holiness touches every part of our human fabric.

In the Gospel reading we have heard, called The Mission of the Seventy (Lk. 10:1-20), Jesus is telling us first of all that the work of evangelization depends not on our plans but on his grace. Evangelization is not something that we carry out just on our own deeds. Jesus will work through us in ways which give us a strength we would never have imagined. This happens if we have the purity of spirit and detachment from worldliness which allows God to work through us.

This says something to us about the way we are called to live and witness as Christians in our days. We all remember the moment of the announcement of the new Pope earlier this year, an Argentinean Cardinal unknown to most of us. The real surprise came with the announcement of the name that Pope had chosen: Francis. This was not just about a name; it was about a programme.

 

Irish society

 

The miraculous works through which the Lord reveals himself indicate that we cannot put our trust in the structures or in the criteria of popularity of the world. We live in a prevailing culture that is less supportive of Christian witness than in the past, and where the traditional institutional frameworks for the transmission of the faith are less effective or relevant. In an Ireland where demographically the vast majority of our citizens were Christians, there was at times a false identification between faith and the culture of the day. Christianity and the Judeo-Christian tradition have truly helped to shape much of what is good in Irish society and have left an indelible mark of goodness. Sadly, when Church people deviated from the true message of Jesus lives were ruined.

In our time, however, we have to learn a new path and not simply to follow the culture of the day. The Church may well be called to distance itself from aspects of that culture. This does not mean fleeing from reality into an unreal comfort zone. It may mean robustly rejecting some of contemporary culture’s tenets. It may mean robustly defending the Church’s rights. It always means working to influence that culture by witnessing to the power of Jesus’ message.

 

Debate & dialogue

 

As contemporary Irish culture changes there is always the danger that even believers feel that somehow the Church has to compromise on the authenticity of its teaching, to adapt its teaching to that change, and indeed change its teachings and its message.

How then can the Church be present in society with the full authenticity of its message? What type of contribution to a more secular society is the Church called to make? As society becomes explicitly less religious, does that mean that the public value of our service as Christians and as a Church is adjudicated only by the principle that the one who pays determines the entire tune?

What is important in this process of debate and dialogue is that the Church in all its activities never fails to reflect on that poverty of spirit, purity of hearty and personal integrity which were the hallmarks of Francis and Anthony. They were prepared to abandon their personal wealth – which they could well have thought was their security – in order to witness to the power of Jesus by radical simplicity and detachment.

 

Pope Francis

 

The Holy Father constantly reminds us that the Church will not witness fully to Jesus through structures or even though the reform of structures. He says that what is needed are not new structures, but new attitudes. When our Church structures become entangled in the structures of society they can quickly lose their evangelical originality. Each of us is called to discern in our lives how we, in our corporeity, witness concretely – and not just through institutions – to the saving power of Jesus.

We continue to live out the Vision of Church which was that of Francis and Anthony, and which is today that of Pope Francis, through reaching out especially to those who are lost in doubt and anxiety. We all invoke Saint Anthony when we lose what is often some small and inconsequential item of our lives. This evening we turn to the intercession Saint Anthony above all to guide us and to guide our Church whenever it seems to be losing its true way. We join in the prayer of Pope Francis for renewal in the Church.

Updated on October 06 2016