Today we honour all the saints in heaven, both those known to us, and unknown, and we ask for their intercession to help us through our pilgrimage on earth. We need their help and guidance, because sometimes, following the Lord and doing is what is right and good is not always quite as straightforward as we might sometimes think.
Christ tells us today: “Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right”. So what do you think about this situation:
“A man in the crowd said to [Jesus]... ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance’. ‘My friend’, he replied ‘who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs’.” (Luke 12:13-15)
How would you have responded if you had been Christ? Would you have responded to the apparent injustice, maybe advising him to see a good lawyer? Or would you have perhaps thought it best not to get involved in disputes involving money? But instead, the Lord uses it as an opportunity to warn people against longing for money and possessions, and putting their trust and security in them. St Vincent de Paul had an encounter with this very issue, which ended rather differently to how he had expected. I’ve had to reconstruct some of this from memory, as I’ve lent the book I got this from, but it goes something like this:
St Vincent, when he was a young priest, but in an earlier state of conversion, had someone leave him something in his will – I can’t remember if it was money or land or property. The slight snag was that the person who had written the will had lent it to someone else, who hadn’t returned it. So he headed over to sort this fellow out: he might have even had him put in prison, and then got what was his. On the way back, given this was the seventeenth century and there were no motorways or railways, he opted to travel back by boat. That seems simple enough, except that they were attacked by pirates and taken to North Africa. So Fr Vincent lost his inheritance and also ended up as a slave.
He was sold and then re-sold as a slave a few times, and being a Muslim country he was encouraged to convert, but managed to hold back. His last master was actually a Catholic priest who had become a Muslim. One of his master’s wives became interested in Fr Vincent’s faith, and then went on to criticise her husband for having abandoned it. So together, she and Fr Vincent managed to encourage him to return to the Catholic faith. Later on, Fr Vincent and his master managed to escape back to Europe, where his master was reconciled with the Church, and Fr Vincent returned at last, after a few years, back to his parish, minus any inheritance.
It’s an interesting story because it shows how God can bring good out of our failures and shortcomings, and use them to lead us to greater holiness.
The saints help us, both by their prayers and their example. And that’s good, because it teaches us not to become discouraged.
Curious about exploring things further? If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk