Only Two Choices
Michelle and I enjoyed a delightful afternoon on the
patio watching birds come into the various feeders. For me, a female Wilson’s warbler wrested
with the indigo bunting for showiest plumage category. It’s always special when something unusual comes
in.
That thought reminded me of a recent conversation with
five other deacons and their wives. One
of the men, mentioned that he was speaking with a parishioner recently who
remarked on the deacon’s holiness. “I put
a stop to that talk! I said if he thought
I was holy that he should just ask my wife.
She knows how far I am from being holy.”
That touched off some laughter and heads nodding in
agreement. I let the laughter die down
and interrupted. “You know, there really
only are two choices in the afterlife. You’re
either a saint, or you’re not.” I let
that settle like the dinner we had just finished eating.
Maybe because I’m a deacon I run into those kinds of
comments more frequently than many. But
if you take your faith seriously, I suspect that someone may have said the same
thing to you. I think that waiving off of holiness is, for
many, misguided humility. We feel embarrassed
about undue attention, so we downplay situation. We want to guard against sounding like we are
bragging or prideful.
I recall reading a description of encounter with Jesus
in St Faustina’s Diary. Faustina had
already given up worldly ambitions and entered the convent. And yet, she says that Jesus appeared to her
and asked her, “How long will you keep me waiting?” For years, that exchange puzzled me, and even
disturbed me. She was already a
religious, what else did Jesus want from her?
If her sacrifice wasn’t enough, how would anything I have to give Jesus
make any difference?
It was my spiritual director who explained that Faustina was still holding back interiorly. True, I reflected, it is apparent later in the Diary that Faustina does learn how to remove all barriers from her heart, and Jesus accomplishes much for the salvation of souls through the message of Divine Mercy that inspires millions today.
I recall working with a young man in prison who was saying he wanted to change his life around, but he kept hanging around with his old friends who were a bad influence. I asked him one night to stand up. Then I instructed him to go forward and backward at the same time. He stood there for several minutes thinking that maybe it was a trick question and he could figure out the answer. Finally he turned to me in frustration. "You can't do it. You're going to have to pick one direction or the other." So do we all.
I am well aware that my journey to sainthood is ongoing. But I no longer deny that I am on that journey. If someone does say something about holiness concerning
me, my response is, “Not yet, but Jesus and I are working on it.”
His Peace <><
Deacon Dan
Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash
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