Tag: The Beatitudes

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Traveling by the Light of Virtue

On this 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Jesus teaches us through the parable of the ten virgins. As Tony Crescio explains, through this imagery, Jesus is teaching us the importance of keeping our lives lit with His Divine Life as we make our way through this life in the valley of the shadow of death. In this, Jesus is calling us to participatory imitating in His Life, Who alone is the True Light which shines in the darkness.

Mass Readings

Reading 1: Wisdom 6:12-16

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

Reading 2: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13

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An Enterprise of Mercy: Business That Serves Humanity

“All human activity, including business, can be an exercise in mercy, which is partaking in God’s love for mankind …  Enterprises exist to serve” (Pope Francis, Nov. 17, 2016, to the Participants in the International Conference of the Christian Union of the Business Executives).

In a recent post on Facebook, a friend expressed hurt, confusion, and near despair. “I could use a hug,” she wrote. As a new small business owner who serves the Church, she had been advised to volunteer her time rather than restructure her business to make a profit and be sustainable in the long term. Her adviser wanted to ensure that she did not become greedy, operating under the false assumption that a business that serves the Church and earns a profit is a near occasion of sin.

Does this advice sound like an abuse of “Catholic guilt” to you? It certainly does to me. I think the counter-argument lies in Pope Francis’ enlightening observation: Business can be an exercise of mercy and, potentially, a means of entering deeper and participating more fully in the life of God.

A Life of Beatitude

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount provides us with a roadmap to living a Christian life—i.e., imitating Christ in the world (“imitatio Christi”). It is here that Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:6). To be merciful, St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, “is like saying that [a person] is sorrowful at heart (miserum cor), that is, he is afflicted with sorrow by the misery of another as though it were his own. Hence it follows that he endeavors to dispel the misery of the other person as if it were his own; and this is the effect of mercy” (Summa Theologiae, I. q. 21, a. 3). He continues:

“Mercy takes precedence over other virtues, for it belongs to mercy to be bountiful to others, and what is more, to succour others in their wants, which pertains chiefly to one who stands above. Hence mercy is accounted as being proper to God: and therein his omnipotence is revealed to the highest degree” (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 30, a.4).

Throughout Sacred Scripture, we witness the mercy of God, from his compassion for Adam and Eve as he clothed them with animal skin (Genesis 3:21; also see Against Heresies, 3.23.5), to his parting of the sea in the great exodus of the Hebrews (Exodus 14:21), to the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Christ for the salvation of humankind (John 3:16, Philippians 2:7-11).

A Work of Mercy

The Church has outlined for us seven spiritual and seven corporal works of mercy. The spiritual works of mercy are counseling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, comforting the sorrowful, forgiving injuries, bearing wrongs patiently, and praying for others (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2447). The corporal works of mercy are feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead (CCC 2447). Jesus tells us that when we perform the acts of mercy, we are, in fact, serving him: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

Throughout our days, we encounter opportunities to demonstrate mercy to others, from training a new team member to the care we take when serving our customers with our products or services. If we did not have a profitable and sustainable business model, we would be unable to hire team members and continue to offer our products or services. We would be unable to grow our business and continue to promote the common good. Cash flow is a tool that enables us to accomplish our mission. In his address to Christian business executives, Pope Francis is clear: “Money must serve, not rule. Money is only a technical instrument of intermediation of comparison of values and rights, or the fulfilment of duties and saving.”

Ministers of Mercy

St. Paul tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Love of money, which is driven by the three perennial temptations of power, prestige, and possessions, draws us and others away from God and turns us in on ourselves (known in theology as “incurvatus in se”). In this sad state, we are not serving the common good but our pathetic ego. However, for an enterprise of mercy, it is never about greed; it is about mission. And, as baptized Catholics, our mission is to serve and reconcile all things to love by administering the healing balm of mercy (Colossians 1:20).

So, then, the question becomes: How do we work to reconcile all things to Love in business? How do we become ministers of mercy in business? In the first instance, by putting on the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5-6) and ordering our business in such a way that it becomes a vehicle of God’s merciful love in the world, always recognizing and reverencing the dignity of the human person (“imago Dei”; see Genesis 1:27). As business owners, we not only must compensate our workers at a full living wage (CCC 2409) but also appreciate the creativity and human character of our workers (Rerum Novarum, 20) providing them with the space necessary to use their gifts for the glory of God (Laborem Exercens, 25).

It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to develop profitable and sustainable business models that promote human flourishing, beginning with the individual and extending throughout our community. It is a tall order, to be sure, and much easier said than done. But, therein lies the vocation. By taking these steps, we can transform a business from an entity that exists for itself, that exists for the sake of profit for profit’s sake (Rerum Novarum, 42), into an organization that exists for the sake of others. Called to be ministers of mercy, we are afforded the unique opportunity to struggle with the “principalities and powers” of this world (Ephesians 6:12) by developing a business that embraces and shares in the struggles of our community and the people who work alongside us. Our business and our engagement in it become a means for all involved to put on the mind of Christ. As a result, our production draws us ever deeper into the life of the God, who first produced us in Love.

Your sister in Christ,

Vanessa

A previous version of this post was first published on 10-28-21 at Catholic Women in Business.

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FRESH Exemplars

FRESH Exemplars: St. Leo the Great

November 10

Happy Memorial of St. Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church!

What does it mean to be great? St. Leo, whom the Church celebrates today, was the first Pope to receive the attribution of “the Great.” When we think of what it means to be great perhaps our minds turn to those whom our society most admires, for example, professional athletes, musicians, actors and actresses, and business moguls. Who we admire, who we think of as great, is important for a society, as it is precisely those who we develop a desire to imitate, for, as Aristotle taught, the human being is “the most imitative creature in the world, and learns at first by imitation” (Poetics, 1444B). It is then worth asking what it was that made St. Leo “the great” as this will shed light on what it means, from a Christian perspective, to be great.

Around the year 400 AD, Leo was born to a Roman aristocratic family. “In about the year 430 A.D., he became a deacon of the Church of Rome,” in which Pope Benedict XVI tells us, “he acquired over time a very important position” (General Audience, March 5, 2008). Ten years later, in September 440 AD, Leo was consecrated as Bishop of Rome, succeeding Pope Sixtus III. Benedict XVI goes on to add that his papacy, which lasted more than 21 years “was undoubtedly one of the most important in the Church’s history” (ibid.). St. Leo’s papacy took place during a very tumultuous time in the life of the Church, threatened as she was by division within and violence from without. Examining the manner in which Leo responded to these difficult times will simultaneously shed light on why Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI believes St. Leo’s papacy to have been one of the most important in the Church’s history and just what it was that made him great.

The first element of St. Leo’s life to consider is the contribution he made to the theology and doctrine of the Church, which is perhaps his most lasting heritage. Leo’s time as the Bishop of Rome took place amid the most pivotal Christological debates in the Church’s history. Responding to the main heretical positions of Nestorian, who held the human and divine natures in Christ to be completely separate, and Eutyches, who taught that the Person of Christ was a tertium quid, i.e. some third thing that was a combination of human and divine natures, in June of 449 Leo penned his famous Tome to Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople. In it, Leo asserted that in the Incarnation of Christ, “the distinctness of both natures and substances”, i.e., human and divine, “is preserved, and both meet in one Person…” (Tome of Leo, 3). Two years later, the Council of Chalcedon followed Leo’s lead and pronounced the doctrine of the hypostatic union, teaching that in the Person of Christ, human and divine natures had been united “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.”

While this may seem uselessly abstract, this doctrine forms the very core of the Christian faith, and has a very practical implication for how we understand our day to day lives as Christians. The reason for this is that the doctrine asserts that human and divine natures do not exist in competition with one another, but rather, human nature becomes most fully itself when in perfect unity with the divine nature. The practical implication for the Christian life is twofold. First, it forms the very basis of our understanding of the Church. In one of his sermons, Leo explains this unity in this way:

There is no doubt therefore, dearly beloved, that man’s nature has been received by the Son of God into such a union that not only in that Man Who is the first-begotten of all creatures, but also in all His saints there is one and the self-same Christ, and as the Head cannot be separated from the members, so the members cannot be separated from the Head. For although it is not in this life, but in eternity that God is to be all in all, yet even now He is the inseparable Inhabitant of His temple, which is the Church (Sermon 63.3).

The second practical application, then, is that this corporate unity means that a great exchange has taken place between humanity and divinity, such that by passing through the waters of baptism, we partake of the divine nature. Thus, in another sermon, Leo exhorts his listeners and us: “Christian, acknowledge your dignity, and becoming a partner in the Divine nature, refuse to return to the old baseness by degenerate conduct…Recollect that you were rescued from the power of darkness and brought out into God’s light and kingdom” (Sermon 21.3). During the difficult times in which he lived, Leo saw it as absolutely imperative that Christians actually live out what they believe. The reason for this is that the life of a Christian has an evangelical force about it, to such an extent that Leo taught that two things, the Eucharist and the exemplarity of the Christian life, prove the reality of the Incarnation of the Son of God (Sermon 91.3).

The second element that made Leo great was that he practiced what he preached. For Leo, the life of a Christian was exemplified and taught by Christ and characterized by the beatitudes, which he understood simply as virtues (Sermon 95.3 & 8). While we might look to the life of Leo as an example of any of the beatitudes, he is most well-known for exemplifying the seventh, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God (Mt 5:9). In 452 Attila, the chief of the Huns prepared to attack Rome, and Leo went out to meet him and eventually “dissuaded him from continuing the war of invasion by which he had already devastated the northeastern regions of Italy” (Benedict XVI, General Audience, March 5, 2008). Leo displayed the same courage and desire for peace when three years later in 455 Genseric, the king of the Vandals, prepared to invade Rome. Leo’s meeting was ultimately unable to dissuade Genseric completely, however he did convince him to refrain from burning Rome, “and assured that the Basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul and St. John, in which part of the terrified population sought refuge, were spared” (ibid.). Whence this courage, whence this desire for peace? Leo himself taught that the peacemakers referred to in Matthew’s Gospel were those who “are in mind always with God, giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, never dissent from the eternal law, uttering that prayer of faith, Your will be done as in heaven so on earth” (Sermon 95.9). It is precisely those who live in such a manner, Leo taught, who were fit to be called the children of God.

Today, as we too face the threat of division within the Church and chaos and division in the world at large, Leo reminds us that to be truly great is nothing less than to be a child of God. More to it, he exemplifies that those who live in accord with their great dignity as Christians have the power to foster peace even in the face of the longest odds.

St. Leo, courageous exemplar of peace, pray for us that we might be graced with the courage to live out our dignity as children of God, so that we might draw all those we meet into the one lasting and loving bond of peace we were all created for, the loving embrace of our Triune God.

Your servant in Christ,

Tony

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FRESH Exemplars

FRESH Exemplar: St. Martin de Porres

November 3

Happy Memorial of St. Martin de Porres!

Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Martin de Porres, illegitimate child of an African slave and Spanish knight and Dominican lay-brother. St. Martin was not able to enter a religious order in 17th century Peru as the law was such that those of Indian or African descent were not permitted to do so. However, he was granted to wear the Dominican habit. St. Martin loved Jesus so intensely that he offered to sell himself as a slave when the monastery encountered financial hardship. He is known for the hours he spent in Eucharistic adoration, many healing miracles, and service to the poor, such that many called him Martin de la Caridad, that is Martin of Charity. 

But, perhaps what stands out most about St. Martin is his preference of being called Mulato Perro, which means “mixed-raced dog.” While to contemporary ears, this may sound ridiculously self-deprecating, in this St. Martin demonstrates something that all saints have in common, that is, they are living sermons of the Scriptural text, bringing it to life before our eyes. Think here of the Canaanite woman who comes to Jesus, begging him to heal her daughter. Her persistent pleading culminates with her saying, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table” (Mt 15:27; cf. Mk 7:28). While perverse to modern sensibilities, what we see displayed by both is what the Church’s greatest thinkers up and down the centuries have seen as the foundational virtue of the Christian life, associated with the first beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit, i.e., the virtue of humility. 

It was Martin’s humility that attracted many to him for in bringing this virtue to life, others saw the reflection of Christ. This foundational virtue, then, provided the basis upon which St. Martin lived out the two-fold commandment of love of God and neighbor (Mt 12:30-31), placing special emphasis on imitating Christ’s seeking of the lowest place in the midst of serving one’s neighbor (Mt 20:26-28). In reflecting on the “Mulatto Dog,” then, we squarely encounter our own pettiness that seeks the highest place in recognition of our successes, credit for our ideas, and acknowledgement of our impressive titles. We scoff at anything less, for the culture of entitlement tells us we “deserve” more. Yet, what could be more than loving union with our God? At the end of the exchange with the Canaanite woman, Jesus says, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” (Mt. 15:28). Her desire was satisfied as was Martin’s, for by imitating Christ in descending to the lowest place, they have also imitated his ascension to the highest place, the eternal embrace of the Heavenly Father. 

St. Martin de Porres, pray for us that, like you, we may desire to be known as nothing but humble servants to our neighbors, whom God has given to us to love. Intercede for us that we might never shirk this responsibility that the Lord has entrusted us with, so that we might one day join you and our Blessed Mother in glorifying Him forever in Heaven. Amen.

Your servant in Christ,

Tony

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Gospel Reflections

Solemnity of All Saints: Striving for Happiness

Solemnity of All Saints: November 1

My Dear Friends in Christ,

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints. In doing so, the Church, together with Christ, wishes to remind us of the goal toward which we strive as Christians as we draw near to the end of another liturgical year and set out on a new one. In accordance with that same line of thought, over the course of the next few Sundays the Gospels remind us of the need to be prepared for the coming of Christ and of the necessity to cultivate the talents God has entrusted to each one of us during the course of our earthly pilgrimage before finally celebrating the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe on the final Sunday of this liturgical year. Accordingly, we might think of today’s solemnity having a threefold meaning for us. First, it reminds us of the end for which we were created and toward which we strive, i.e., eternal communion with the Triune God through, with, and in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Second, it calls our attention to that great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1) who have gone before us having made the most of their earthly pilgrimage, continually nourishing the gift of life they have been given by God, cultivating and sharpening all their faculties for their definitive encounter with Him on the other side of eternity, where the eternal embrace of Divine Love will set in perfection our likeness to Him, “for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). Finally, in order that we might reach this end of unblemished happiness, it calls us to link our lives to the long chain of exemplars who have gone before us, that is to join however imperfectly the company of the saints, who facilitate our imitation of Christ through their intercession and encourage us by their example, both when they once walked this earth and as we call their lives to mind in memory.

In the first instance, then, today’s solemnity reissues the universal call to holiness as formally taught by the Second Vatican Council. In its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, the Council Fathers taught “that all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity,” adding that “the Lord Jesus, the divine Teacher and Model of all perfection, preached holiness of life to each and everyone of His disciples of every condition. He Himself stands as the author and consummator of this holiness of life: “Be you therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (LG, 40). At the beginning of his famous Sermon on the Mount in chapter five of Matthew’s Gospel, we see Jesus assume the posture of a Jewish teacher, i.e., sitting, but not in any chair of authority (Mt. 5:1-2). Instead, he ascends a mountain, and from precisely this position which is representative of the purview of God, overlooking all of creation, sets forth what Augustine called “the perfect pattern of the Christian life” (On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, 1.1).

This perfect pattern of the Christian life begins with the Beatitudes. Throughout the course of history, there have been various ways of articulating exactly what the Beatitudes are. It is worth mentioning three briefly as they complement one another, giving us a more complete picture. The first of these comes from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and sets forth the mirroring dynamics that will encapsulate the three understandings to be mentioned here. In the first place, Papa Ratzinger writes that “anyone who reads Matthew’s text attentively will realize that the Beatitudes present a sort of veiled interior biography of Jesus, a kind of portrait of his figure” (Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, 74). Ratzinger’s description of the beatitudes as a “veiled interior biography of Jesus” points to his divine nature become Incarnate, and thus what we hear and see in the Beatitudes is the manifestation of the life of God among us. A certain fear and trembling (Phil 2:12) should set in at this moment, for, if Augustine is right in calling the Sermon on the Mount the perfect pattern of the Christian life, and the beginning of this pattern is the life of God, then the call being issued here is for nothing less than the imitation of God Himself. Yet this is precisely what Israel had been called to when in the giving of the law to Moses, God ordered him “speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:1-2), a command the Divine Teacher reissues in this same sermon, only this time, from the prerogative of the Son says: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). In his letter to the Ephesians Paul teaches the same, exhorting his readers to “be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:1-2).

At this point a word of caution is in order. The imitation of God through the imitation of Christ we are exhorted to today by the beatitudes should be understood in a scripturally based manner which the Fathers of the Church would later develop in conjunction with Platonic and Neo-Platonic philosophy. This understanding protects against the more straightforwardly moralist understanding of the imitatio Christi tradition would undergo in the Middle Ages, especially in the work of Peter Abelard. The difference is, that the development of this tradition tended to level down imitatio Christi to a simple replication of the acts of Christ whereas for the earlier part of the tradition, imitation of Christ meant a life of transfiguring discipleship, wherein the disciple experienced increased conformity to and participation in the life of Christ as they sought to imitate his life in their own place and time. This is precisely where the mirroring dynamics articulated by Papa Ratzinger come into play. For he says, not only do the beatitudes express the “interior biography of Jesus,” but at one and the same time, “the individual Beatitudes are the fruit of” Jesus looking “upon the disciples; they describe what might be called the actual condition of Jesus’ disciples: They are poor, hungry, weeping men; they are hated and persecuted (cf. Lk 6:20ff).” He continues, “these statements are meant to list practical, but also theological attributes of the disciples of Jesus—of those who have set out to follow Jesus and have become his family” (Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, 71).

The mention of theological attributes brings us to a consideration of the thoughts of Augustine and Aquinas on the Beatitudes. For Augustine, the Beatitudes were the virtues, each of which for him are the various dispositions of love in the soul and therefore a demonstration of participation in the life of Christ who is virtue in itself, an understanding he bases on 1 Cor. 1:24 (The Catholic Way of Life, 1.13.22 & 1.15.25). However, for Augustine, participation in the life of Christ, is only possible by the power of the Holy Spirit within us, and so he pairs the gifts of the Holy Spirit with the Beatitudes, the former making the latter possible (On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, 1.4.11-12), to the point where the virtues and Beatitudes can be thought of as fruits of the Holy Spirit (Exposition of Psalm 137.7-8). Aquinas, always the more detailed in his theological exposition, nuances this position in two ways. First, like Augustine he associates the Beatitudes with the virtues, but with the caveat that “these virtues are called divine” (Commentary on Matthew, 5 L. 2.410) due to their being produced by the action of the Holy Spirit within us, and in this sense can be called the fruits of the Spirit (Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 69.1, q. 70.1, & q. 70.1.3). Second, whereas the virtues are habits perfecting powers of the soul and do not necessarily manifest themselves externally, the Beatitudes describe realized action (Summa Theologiae, I-II q. 69.1, Commentary on Matthew 5 L. 2.410-411).

The weaving together by Augustine and Aquinas of the Beatitudes and the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives makes the connection with this Sunday’s first reading clear. There, those numbered among the blessed in the Book of Revelation are “clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev. 7:9-10). The white robes here are a symbol of baptism wherein we are gifted with the Holy Spirit who enables us to imitate Christ’s life of self-sacrificing love, the palm branches a figuring of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to undergo His sacrifice as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29). The passage from Revelation likewise highlights Aquinas’ insight, that the saints who already partake in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb are those who actively imitated Christ with the whole of their lives (Rev. 7:13-14).

That said, while the perfection of eternal happiness awaits those who so ardently pursue the imitation of Christ with their lives on the other side of eternity, because the imitation of Christ expressed by the Beatitudes is also participatory, the manifestation of the Beatitudes in an individual’s life is indicative of a proleptic participation in the life of eternal happiness. Said differently, it demonstrates that these individuals in some sense already participate in the life of heaven. This is seen in the very structure of each Beatitude. For starters, the word generally translated in English as blessed is in fact the Greek makarios, which means happy. We usually render this blessed to distinguish it from the passing emotion of happiness to instead denote a lasting state of being. Notice please, that Jesus does not say that those who follow him will be blessed, but that they already are. The promises associated with each Beatitude rather denote the consummation of the life of Beatitude wherein the blessed will share all things that can be said to belong properly to God alone and therefore His alone to give, e.g., the kingdom of heaven, the earth, comfort, satisfaction, mercy, sons of God, kingdom of heaven. What this means then, is that the living out of these Beatitudes is a veritable in-breaking of the life of Heaven, the very life of God in our own place and time, seen most perfectly in the lives of the saints.

The examples that could be listed here are almost infinite. But we could most readily associate the Beatitude of the Poor in Spirit with St. Francis, a perfect exemplar of the virtue of humility who intentionally made himself poor so as to imitate the poor Christ. In St. Augustine, who we are told spent the last of his days continually weeping as he prayed the penitential Psalms, we see the Beatitude blessed are those who mourn come to life. The healing janitor monk, St. Martin de Porres demonstrates how blessed are the meek, while Servant of God Dorothy Day and St. Oscar Romero place the beatitude of hungering and thirsting for justice on full display. In accompanying St. John Paul II to the cell of the man who shot him to offer him the forgiveness of Christ we witness mercy, and in the little way of the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux, we see a heart singularly devoted to the one thing necessary, the love of Christ. Finally, in the tireless efforts of St. Albert the Great, we see the fruits of the work of the peacemakers, and in the countless martyrs like Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, to name only two, we see the purest devotion and unity with Christ manifest itself to the world.

All of these saints and countless more beckon us to join their company starting today. Ultimately their exemplarity serves a threefold function for us. First, it puts on display the life of Beatitude in all its concrete messiness, and thereby serve as flesh and blood criteria for discernment so as to how to navigate our own pursuit of the imitation of Christ in our own time and place (Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, 71; cf. 1 Jn. 3:1-2), amidst our own struggles and dealing with our own weaknesses. Secondly, via their participation in the life of Christ, they make the life and love of our God known and present to the world, and thereby give us the support and encouragement so necessary in our own pursuit for holiness, wherein we experience hurdles and setbacks just as they did. Finally, when we experience the inspiration that their lives give us, we are taught of the importance of living exemplary lives. This is precisely why Our Lord follows the Beatitudes with an exhortation to be salt and light for the world. Ultimately, the purpose of the lives of the saints, both those who have already finished the race and those of us still hurrying to the finish line is this: to let our light, which is itself a participation in the one Light (Jn. 1:9-10), “so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16). This is our vocation which we live by cultivating the Beatitudes, and in so doing, bear fruit in charity for the life of the world (Optatum Totius, 16), calling others to the perpetual felicity of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Your servant in Christ,

Tony