Made For Greatness

“The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.” Pope Benedict XVI

I work in the center of a large city. Visitors to the city ask me often about the homelessness problem. I volunteer where I can, but it is a drop in the ocean to alleviate the problem. Recently, I read about Pope Leo XIV and his video message to youth meetings in July in Brazil, Peru and Portugal. He made some beautiful comments as he always does and reminded young people not to be couch potatoes. We need their energy to move people. Strangely, a young person asked me how to complete his  sacraments in the Church since he had only been baptized. I made a few inquiries, and I was given the runaround but persistence paid off. Another small event happened recently that was good to hear. Someone I know was feeling a bit lonely. I told them to get to mass more regularly. The complaint was that they didn’t know anyone there. I replied, why don’t you volunteer or something. All sudden, I am told that they are playing the guitar at mass. We need to move ourselves.

As Father Mush wrote, asking her (Mary Clitherow) intercession, “May I honor God by imitation of thy happy life, and by my death, which he will give me, to be partaker with thee and all holy saints of his kingdom, to whom be all glory and honour, now and forever. Amen.”

Scrolling through social media out of boredom is not always a waste of time. I happened to see a quick video about Mary Clitherow. I was surprised to read about her and the Forty English Martyrs. It is not automatic to be aware of British saints. She was one of those saints. To convert to Catholicism at a time when even hearing mass and worse, harbouring priests was not allowed. She was arrested and despite her Protestant husband and parents, she raised her children Catholic. Good for her, I thought. But, if you read about the challenges and death, a person could question if it is all worth it. She had refused to enter a plea, and this avoided having her children testify against her. She was sentenced to death by pressing on Good Friday that year. A door was placed on her while she lay down and rocks were put on top. She succumbed to her injuries. Her body was recovered from a dump and moved to a secret location, but her hand was severed and is kept at a convent in the UK. Saint Drogo of Sebourg was a Flemish noble who gave awayeverything to follow Christ in the 12 th century. He contracted a disfiguring disease and locked himself away in a cell attached to a church for 45 years. No one could see him and he lived on meagre rations.

St. Pacificus of San Severino: “Suffering borne with patience is a silent preaching of the love of God.”

We cannot detach ourselves from these examples. They are not campfire stories that we sit and wonder if they are true. They are!   We read about many people over the centuries, even around us, hopeful that the faith they had or have, will flourish in us as well. Nothing is easy. Let us go back to the question – Can we follow these examples? I would think these are not our decisions to make, yet reality is thrust upon us in various ways and through various people. We can run and disappear like so many around us, or we can continue to move forward with faith. We need to ask for this every day and every morning when we awake. We do not get up like cows and simply move about our day. We might want to touch reality with all our strength and then let Christ finish the work He brought to fruition.

"Nothing afflicts the Heart of Jesus so much as to see all His sufferings of no avail to so many” St. John Vianney