ST.
ALPHONSUS LIGUORI:
ONE LIFE TO LIVE
The title of my homily is, “St. Alphonsus Liguori: One
Life to Live.”
August 2nd used to be the feast day of St.
Alphonsus Liguori - but he died on August 1st - so when the church
feasts were rearranged a bit - straightened out a bit - in 1969 - his
feast was moved back a day to August 1st.
But most of us old timers - and most of us are old timers
- we made our vows on August 2nd.
Mine was today - August 2nd 1960. Getting old.
LIVES OF ST.
ALPHONSUS
When we made our novitiate - a whole year - we stopped
our seminary studies - and went to special place to learn about being a
religious - and a Redemptorist - and not just a priest. It was a year to decide whether we really
wanted this life and whether they wanted us.
Our novitiate was in Ilchester, Maryland - which we
renamed "Hellchester". It can be hot in August in Maryland. We received our religious habit as
a sign of entering into this life. That made it hotter. Today we are more sensible
- and more human.
In that year we were all given this big 2 volume life of
St. Alphonsus Liguori to read. It was by a guy named Auguste Berthe. We read
that along with a few shorter biographies - plus we had lectures - many of them
on Alphonsus' thought and spirituality. We also read his writings. He wrote over 100 books.
Another life of St. Alphonsus arrived in our major
seminary days. It was by a Spanish Redemptorist named Telleria - but it was a
translation - a horrible translation at that - but many of us read it.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s two more lives of St. Alphonus
appeared. One was by a French Redemptorist, Theodule Rey-Mermet and the other
by Frederic Jones, a British Redemptorist. I read them all.
From 1984 to 1993 I had the job of Novice Master - so I
really had to get my hands on the life of this man - who lived from 1696-1787.
OBITUARIES
At one time in my life I used to write obituaries of
Redemptorists who had died. It took a while, but I got my hands on how to do
it. They weren’t like the ones in the
newspaper. If I knew the guy who died, I would jot down some of his characteristics
- and then ask others their take on the guy. If I didn’t know the guy, I would do more calls and jot
down what I was hearing. A few months later I would meet different guys who would say, “Thanks for
the story on Joe, you really captured him.”
I discovered here in Annapolis - I had not been a parish
priest since the late 1960’s - that the same thing is going on at a funeral. I
want to come up with a homily that is personal - and captures the life of this
person who died. I hope and pray that people who come to that funeral not only
pray for and think about the person who died - but they take the time to look at the time line of
their life.
I have two
funerals this week coming up. I like to get to the wake at the funeral parlor and ask, “Who
is this person who died?” I like to look
at the pictures - in fact study them - as well as the video if they have one. I
like it when someone standing next to me points out stuff in the pictures as
well as the stories.
I read a helpful book once, Photoanalysis. It talks
about how to look at pictures. It gives observations and possible wrong assumptions about what we are looking at.
Each of us starts to ask as we get older - and as we attend
more and more funerals: “What will they say about me at my funeral? What will be
people’s take?”
Each of us asks in the hospital - or nursing homes - when
visiting people our loved ones and friends or we are being visited: “What about me? What about my
life?”
MARY OLIVER
I love the quote and the question in a poem by Mary
Oliver, “What is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
I know we ask little kids when they are little what they
are going to do when they grow up. I
know high school and college kids meander around with that question. I know
people switch careers. I hope some of
you here today look at your life today - and see its twists and turns - its
surprises and its false starts and what have you. I hope you are pleased with
what you have done so far with your one wild and precious life - and you bring
that into the presence of God.
The Bible says the dream is 3 score and 10 if we’re
lucky. That’s 70 years.
We’re all relieved that longevity has lengthened.
I'm sure we've heard people say at times, “There was a time there I had to reinvent myself.”
LISTENING,
LEARNING AND LOOKING
Much of life is living, learning, and looking at others.
William Sloan Coffin - a Protestant minister - was once asked, “What’s the best part of being a minister?”
He answered, “Sitting down with people and being invited
into the secret garden of their soul.”
Right outside here at St. Mary's there is a neat garden, with a secret inner
place. If you have time, sit not just in church here or in the Eucharistic
Chapel, but in the secret garden here at St. Mary’s - or in your secret spots -
hide outs - man caves. I've heard husbands complain about the length of time women wander around stores in shopping centers. It's my guess that they are not just shopping for stuff - but they are shopping around inside their soul - away from the stuff and stress
of family and work.
What's going on inside your one wild and precious life?
I don’t know about you, but this is why I love
biographies and especially autobiographies.
ST. ALPHONSUS
Let me let that bring me back to St. Alphonsus.
In his old age arthritis hit him big time - and he spent
his end years in a wheelchair. All Redemptorists who go to Naples and Pagani
and Ciorani see his stuff and his wheelchair.
All Redemptorists who have read his life see the pictures and paintings
of him in his youth. They also see his old age pictures. Woo! Wow is he bent over and bent out
of shape.
In his youth - his parents started arranging for his
marriage before he was 10. He was the oldest of 8 - 4 boys, 4 girls. His father
was a tyrant - a dictator - and a sea captain. Alphonsus was pushed for success
- getting his 2 law degrees - one in civil and one in church law by the time he
was 16.
His mother was very religious - raised in a convent
school - and was the direct opposite of her husband - when it came to style of family
communication.
Alphonsus was a good young lawyer - but in time he got
burnt big time - in a law case about a land dispute. In the first books about Alphonsus
we were taught he made a mistake - by misreading or not reading a small detail
in the case and contracts. In the second set of books about Alphonsus there are
indications he was on the wrong side of a bribe.
Having failed, he went into a depression. He finally woke up and decided to
become a diocesan priest. This angered and disappointed his dad big time. And
his dad could do big drama communication.
Alphonsus gets ordained and becomes well known as a good
preacher. While a lawyer he had visited the hospital and prison - to help those
folk. As priest he continued - doing many things - till he gets burnt out and
quite sick.
Doctors and friends tell him to take a rest down in
Amalfi Coast. It has always been from way back a great place for a break and for one’s
inner and outer health.
While there he is told that there are goat herders way up
on the mountains above Scala whom nobody really cares about - especially Church.
He climbed the steps - Scala - and met them. He also found out
there were many tiny villages up in them their hills - whom no priest nor Church visited.
It was that experience that got him to leave fame and
work in the city of Naples and the busy areas in the Kingdom of Naples with the decision to help the poorest and most abandoned. He gathered friends in the priesthood - to start a community of priests - to reach out
to these folks.
That's how we Redemptorists started and that's why we began back in 1732.
At one point he was made bishop - not his cup of tea. He
wasn’t into robes and rituals and the rigmarole of show. He was concerned about
people. He retired - old age and arthritis and sickness had set in - and came
back home to the Redemptorists and he saw their growth.
That’s the basic vision and reason for the Redemptorists.
We came to America in 1832 because of the shortage of priests in America - and
we had gone to Vienna and Warsaw - so we had priests who could come here.
We came to Annapolis because there were no settled
priests here. The Jesuits had been coming here part time from southern Maryland.
And here we are.
TEACHINGS
St. Alphonsus lived 87 years and wrote over 100 books - so how much
do you want?
We were taught that the key message from Alphonsus was
the practice of the love of Jesus Christ.
For starters we get that in prayer - communication with
Jesus - connection with Jesus.
We get that in the Eucharist - receiving and sitting with
Jesus - and putting that experience into practice.
We get that in the Way of the Cross. He wrote the most
popular Stations of the Cross little book - to help people walk the stations of
the cross and consider how that’s our life often.
I love a comment I read once about St. Alphonsus - while theologians
were arguing all the different theories about how Jesus Christ is present in
the bread - the Eucharist - St. Alphonsus said: visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
He is called the Patron Saint of Moral Theology. He revised a classic text that became his whole big two volume classroom book on Moral theology. It’s middle moral
theology - neither too strict - nor too liberal. He himself suffered from big
time scrupulosity. Everything is sin. In Christ he was freed from that guilt for the whole middle part of his life till his old age. Folks can
relate to him on that one baby.
He was down to earth. He loved and wrote religious songs.
He painted. I don’t like his paintings on the suffering Jesus - too much blood
- but it was his way of trying to reach people and tell them how much Jesus
would go through for them.
He loved to tell people about Mary - and how much she
gloried in us - when we lived holy lives like her son.
CONCLUSION
Part of the reason we are here in this moment of our life
today - was because of this man St. Alphonsus.
