LOOKING AT ONE’S 

WAY OF SEEING;

LOOKING AT ONE’S SPIRITUALITY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Looking At One’s Way of Seeing.  Looking at One’s Spirituality.”

Today, for us Redemptorists, we celebrate the feast of St. Gerard Majella.

Dates: April 6, 1726 to October 16, 1755. He died at the age of 29 - having been a Redemptorist for only 5 years.

Re-reading his life again this morning, he got me in touch with the question of his way of seeing life.

HOW ONE SEES LIFE

Sometimes when I stand up here and preach I find myself getting a bit nervous.

Why?

Well sometimes I see life and spirituality different than the Saint of the day. To say and to think that, well that’s feels like a no-no at times.

Next, I know people see life differently than I see life - and I don’t want coming to church to be like coming to a wrestling match.  Remember the old joke: “I went to a hockey game and a boxing match broke out.”

It’s then I have to tell myself, “Don’t be so self-centered, Andrew. Everyone sees life differently.”

The key issue would be that we understand how others see life and how we see life and we reflect upon the differences.

Comparisons is one of the best ways of learning.

HOW ST. GERARD SAW LIFE

We are told by biographers of St. Gerard how he saw life.

Before I describe where I differ, I have a question. When I read Saint Gerard’s life or any person’s life or any saint’s life, am I seeing the saint’s way of seeing - or the way the writer of that person’s life sees life.

I hope people hearing me or any priest preaching or any writer writing, that they say, “Well this is one person’s way of seeing.”

I hope people also get in touch with their way of seeing - and that from time to time compare it with others.

For example, it’s obvious to me that Luke sees differently than Matthew. I think Luke would be easier to talk to than to talk to Matthew.  But that’s my opinion. My way of seeing the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Luke.

St. Gerard sees God sending bullies and screamers into his life as God’s will. I disagree with that. But who am I? As a young man Gerard worked in a tailor shop and the foreman was a bully and Gerard took that as God’s will.  He did that for about 3 years.  He went to work for a bishop who was a bully and a grouch.  Nobody lasted working for this bishop. Gerard lasted because he already knew how to deal with screamers.

Next example, Gerard  was accused by a young lady of abusing a young girl.  Gerard kept quiet and just accepted the accusations as a penance.  He welcomed hardships and hard times.

In various Redemptorist houses there was a painting of St. Gerard facing our founder Alphonsus. Gerard doesn’t defend himself when St. Alphonsus reads him a letter from this young lady with the accusation.  He remained silent, because our rule said not to defend oneself when accused.

When this gal, Neria got sick and was almost dying, she wrote a letter to Alphonsus. In this letter she said she made it all up. She admitted her lies.  

She said that with Gerard’s help, she had made a decision to enter a convent. She soon realized she had made a mistake, so she accused the nuns in the convent of stuff as well as Gerard. She left after 3 weeks there and blamed the nuns there as well as Gerard of nasty behaviors.

I learned from a similar case that took place in North Carolina. A former golfer started a day care center for kids called, The Little Rascals Day Care Center. His name was Bob Kelly.

Well some little kid came home from the day care center and said to his mother, “Mr. Kelly did something wrong.”  But he wouldn’t tell his mother what the wrong was.  The mother took the kid to a  therapist - and then the whole thing got out of hand. It ended up that 7 people got accused of public sexual acts at the day care center. He ended up going to trial and was convicted of some 270 counts of sexual acting out  and got 12 life sentences.

I heard about it and because I knew about a few of these kinds of FMS syndrome cases - I began writing to Mr. Kelly in support as well as to the governor of North Carolina.

The solution is: if you know you’re innocent get a lawyer fast and sue the accusers.

In time he was exonerated and won the biggest law suit of this kind in the history of North Carolina.

In St. Gerard’s story we read that he had a different spirituality that all this is the will of God - to give us suffering from which we can grow.

I heard that kind of spiritual attitude as I was growing up and being formed as a Redemptorist. When I had my chance to be someone who formed others in becoming Redemptorists I took a different point of view. I felt I   was teaching a better spirituality and humanism.

I thought that I had grown.

CONCLUSION

Those are a few points about an agenda I have.

Don’t we all have agendas. I am saying today to get in touch with knowing your agenda as well as others - and try to find out what’s best.

To me the great laugh about St. Gerard is that he was an uneducated tailor who ended up a great saint. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard from Redemptorists who went to Italy and attend the Redemptorist shrines, that their big surprise was that  St. Gerard is much more popular than Saint Alphonsus - author of 101 books, etc. etc. etc.

Saint Alphonsus was a Bishop and doctor of the church and Gerard the tailor becomes patron saint of Mothers. This non-married male tailor becomes the Patron Saint of women who want to get pregnant or for women who are having tough pregnancies.