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November 5, 2023: The Humility of the Saints
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No one likes a showboat. Well, at least most people do not. The theatrics are in order at this time of year during the World Series, which may be over by the time you four or five readers pore through this column. Being of the diehard sort of baseball fan, football for yours truly does not really begin until the last game of the World Series is finished. Until the last at-bat is done. Then, and only then, does football begin in earnest. I know, I know, all those years we had Tom Brady at QB for the Patriots, I missed so many games on Sunday afternoons because the baseball season still rolled on. I would catch glimpses of some of Patriots games in September and October, but no way was I going to sit in front of the TV for an entire football game while the weather was still warm, and possibly the Red Sox still in the hunt for a playoff spot. Even if they were not in the hunt, my attention remained on the greatest sport ever invented, in my humble opinion, whatever the teams were. There was great joy still in watching the Yankees lose in the playoffs, of course, which was a close second to the Red Sox winning. Sorry Yankees fans, but you still remain way up on us with world championships. You have this to hold over us for years to come.
With baseball playoffs, and this would speak to all sports playoffs (and regular season too), the theatrics during playoff games reaches new heights. Showboating is on full display. The meaning of each game takes on a higher level. Each at-bat is watched more intently by fans. Every pitch is deciphered like a dentist searching for a root canal. A player gets an infield single, just barely making contact, and after he reaches first base safely, he points to his own dugout with two hands at his teammates like he just won the Powerball. Really? Carl Yastrzemski never pointed into a dugout. Neither his own nor the other team. How about when a guy hits a home run during the playoffs? You would think the world was coming to an end. The fanatical fans go berserk, which is understandable, somewhat. The player takes 5 minutes to run a total of 360 feet (which would keep him out of the Boston Marathon). His teammates raise him up like he’s the greatest person born since Jesus. Or even surpassing Jesus. The showboating in sports today is sometimes hard to watch. Other times I simply laugh at the acting. However, I love baseball so much, I put up with the rest of the modern-day antics that seem to happen on way too many plays. Just my humble, useless opinion.
As we spend just over one week (this week) in France across the ocean as a group of folks who I hope will enjoy each other’s company, our tour will visit places where some of the most humble French people ever lived. One of them will be St. Theresa of Lisieux. St. Therese is a French Saint of the highest order, which is saying something when this country includes in the Communion of Saints the likes of St. Bernedette and St. John Vianney (there are others to be mentioned shortly). St. Therese of the Little Flower was as humble as a human being could be. she knew nothing about the word “showboating.” Of course, if one were to ask this Saint during her lifetime if she was humble, she would have answered, “Not at all. May God have mercy on my arrogant soul.” And she would have meant every word of it. With no false humility. I’m not sure she was capable of being high and mighty (I suppose she was capable in her free will), pointing into the dugout of her convent when she performed a “little task of love” for her fellow Sisters, or anyone for that matter, saying, “Look at me! Look how good I am!” This would fit the personality of a few folks I happen to know, and maybe even myself at one time, but not St. Therese of Lisieux. She was totally centered in Christ Jesus and his way of perfect service: “I have come not to be served, but to serve.” This is the number one verse in Scripture, by the way, every priest throughout the world would do well to understand, take on, and live with commitment.
Another French saint whose site our tour will visit is St. Joan of Arc. What else can be said when a believer gives their one and only life for the Person of Jesus? To be so centered in Christ in our lives reveals the highest levels of grace working in a person’s life, such as Joan of Arc. There’s much to love about this great French Saint. For myself, it’s the will to do battle for the truths of our faith in a world (and some in the Church) trying to “pressure Jesus into changing his colors.” Now, when I say “do battle,” I do not mean the use of violence in any way, shape, or form. Under no circumstances. Again, we are not Barabbas. We are Christ. Christians are to bring peace into this world. In the words of Pope Francis regarding the present violence in the Middle East, “Stop! Stop!” Christians desire and pray for violence to “Stop.” But we do so, in the spirit of St. Joan of Arc, who lived in a different time that included a different mindset, while ready to “do battle” against evil forces that seem to penetrate deeper and deeper into the fabric of our world. The first battle, if you will, in our faith, is to secure and defend the truth of what the Apostles have passed on through the Master. Without accuracy in this area, we have a state of confusion. And confusion in our faith is a sign that the devil has gained ground on Catholic thinking and practice. Let’s just say that St. Joan of Arc would have none of this. She would point into the dugout of the other team and say with assurance, “You’re going to lose this game.”
Two other Saints in the Communion I hope to visit in Paris are St. Vincent de Paul and St. Catherine Labouré. Both of them, from what I understand, with incorrupt bodies lying in different Churches in Paris. St. Vincent de Paul, of course, is the Saint who took care of the ill and cared for the poor in ways that may be surpassed by Jesus alone. St. Teresa of Calcutta could be on par with St. Vincent de Paul in matters of caring for the poor and sick, which makes the two of them of the highest order for seeing the face of Christ in the other person. In hoping to visit the site of St. Vincent de Paul’s burial, I’m already floating around in my head a prayer request that will continue to deepen my own priestly love and concern for the sick and the poor. Such devoted works of mercy for these two groups of people (sometimes they are one and the same) can only lead a person’s heart and soul into a deeper union with Jesus, who cured the sick by the thousands, and was so poor he had no place to rest his head.
A visit to St Catherine Labouré’s place of repose, on the other hand, will include prayers to her, and thoughts of a holy woman who was arguably more intimate with our Blessed Mother than any of the great Saints who were blessed with a Marian apparition. This apparition, we know, resulted in the Miraculous Medal and all the prayers that accompany the meaning of that most holy image. Standing before St. Catherine Labouré will be a personal special moment, just knowing she was so lovingly close to Blessed Mary. I pray for a portion of her spirit to penetrate and lovingly invade my priesthood.
With All Saints Day celebrated this past Wednesday in the Church, we rejoice in the many men, women, and children for whom the Church has raised to the Communion of Saints. These are the people we know who are in heaven, praying on our behalf to Jesus as we continue on this pilgrim journey to where they are. Another name for All Saints Day could be All Humility Day. Or, No Showboating Day. It’s safe to assume that all the Saints possessed the great virtue of humility. Some perfecting humility more than others. Those who chose not to exalt themselves in their lives, but to exalt the Lord Jesus who suffered and died for them. After verbally taking down the Scribes and Pharisees (once again) in the Gospel this Sunday, with the Lord revealing them for their arrogant show rather than helping others by easing their burdens, Jesus zeroes in on the essential importance of humility in the lives of his followers. That, like the Lord, at the heart of our Christian spirituality we’re taught to not consider ourselves to be the greatest thing since Superman. Or Wonder Woman. But rather be humble enough to extend a hand of love and concern to others. Imagine being a person who makes life difficult for others? Whether they’re aware of their own self-exaltation or not? Imagine taking advantage of others as a central theme in our lives? Such “exaltation” of oneself leads to perdition, for sure. Instead, the Lord teaches that we learn how to humble ourselves, so that we may be exalted to our rightful place in eternity. The place known as the Banquet of Life.
Again, very few people like a showboat, whether on a baseball field, a football field, in the world of business, and such. What’s easy to admire is someone who succeeds at what they do in life, and then proceeds to give thanks to God for the gift of their talents, seeing their gifts as true blessings. Fortunately, there have been some athletes who do so. They are worthy examples of what Jesus teaches in this week’s Gospel, letting the rest of us know that it’s possible on the higher plane of living that humility is genuine and present. May we continue to strive for this virtue that led Jesus to be born in the flesh, accomplishing what he did for the greatest good of our bodies and souls. And without showboating on his Cross.