5 SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS
IN MY LIFE.
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this feast of St. Alphonsus is
5 Significant Moments in My Life.
If I handed you a pen and paper and asked you to jot down
5 significant moments in your life, what moments, what experiences, would you
come up with?
Would it be - becoming a parent, the changes that happen
in the womb of the mind when there is a pregnancy, birth, seeing your baby for the
first time, raising him or her, putting her or him through school, seeing a kid
go off to college, then marriage, then the experience of a grandchild?
Would it be falling in love, marriage, changing, the
struggles of marriage, even a divorce, and remarriage, what have you? Only you know your experiences and how they
made you, broke you, helped you recover or what have you?
Would it be a death or a parent, a child or a
spouse? Death can be a powerful teacher.
So too sickness, being cared for or caring for another. Then there is aging….
Would it a job, becoming what you did/do in life? Or a
job change, or a loss of a job, or retiring?
Would it be moving, a dramatic out of state move, going
off to college, the military, moving to Tennessee, or Utah, or Arizona, or
where have you.
So that’s my homily thought and question for you today?
SAINT ALPHONSUS
It’s August 1st, the feast of St.
Alphonsus. As I sat there last night
working on these thoughts, I asked my mind
and my memory, “What were the 5 most important moments in the life of Alphonsus
Liguori?
First would be his father. His father was strict. Boy do
I have plans for you. He had started arrangements for Alphonsus to get married
when he was a kid. It was to be a moving upwards. His father was often on his
case. Nothing was good enough. His father would be the type to challenge his
kid to do better, to have more, etc. etc. etc. His father was angry when his
son quit being a lawyer to became a priest. Then one day his father was walking
by a church. He heard a familiar voice coming out the window. He walked in, sat
down, listened to his son and said, “Not bad!” Then “Good!”
A key moment was the loss of a law case. We heard that he missed a minor detail and
that was why he lost. Then we heard it
might have been a bribe from the other side in a land case - and he was on the
wrong side. He hit bottom with that. Depression and locked doors resulted -
till he came out of his room and became a priest.
He became well known as a preacher in the Naples area -
but he broke down - health wise. His friends told him he need to take a
vacation. They sent him own to the Amalfi Coast to rest. Great choice. Then
someone -hearing there was a priest there - asked him to go up into the hills -
and reach out to the goat herders - whom nobody cared about. Then he found lots
of neglected people - up there in those small towns - far from the big city,
Naples. Then he founded a Religious Community to serve the
neglected. We came to the United States
for that reason. We came to Annapolis
for that reason. I became a Redemptorist to go to Brazil. Didn’t luck out.
Then there was his move from being strict and severe - to becoming compassionate and
kind. Growing up he was scrupulous - and
strict on himself, till he discovered that his perception and understanding of
who and what God was like changed. His met Jesus Christ - the Good Shepard. He later said, “In 61 years of hearing
confessions, I never refused anyone absolution.” Of course not….
He began to write - writing around 111 published books -
and the Jesus one meets there is Jesus the Jesus of the gospels. I believe Pope Francis discovered all this as
well. Alphonsus discovered that Jesus was warm, a lover, a friend, a Redeemer.
His key book, I was always told, was The Practice
of the Love of Jesus Christ. Get
into a warm relationship with Christ.
Meet him in the stable, a baby, then grow in your relationship with him,
meet him in the bread, the Blessed Sacrament, and sit under the cross and let
his blood drip on your head. Crib,
Cross, Sacrament as we always heard.
CONCLUSION
Enough already….
Those are 5 significant moments in the life of St.
Alphonsus. I hope you met him here in
the Redemptorists at St. Mary’s. What
are your 5?
