One
of the things Bellarmine University is famous for is its Merton
Library - the official papers of Kentucky's most famous Trappist monk,
Thomas Merton, whose religious name was Father Louis. There is a statue
of him in front of Bellarmine's science building. I ought to know! I was the
longest serving campus minister in its history at 14 years. The Merton statue
was installed during my early years there and moved to its present location right
before I left.
One
of my favorite stories about Thomas Merton involves an exchange between him and
his friend Robert Lax. Lax asked Merton what he wanted to be. Merton answered,
"I don't know; I guess what I want to be is a good Catholic." Robert
Lax shot back, "What do you mean you want to be a good Catholic? What you
should say is that you want to be a saint!" In defense, Thomas Merton
responded, "How do you expect me to become a
saint?" "By wanting to," was Lax's response.
With
that, Thomas Merton realized how often people say they cannot do the things
they must do, cannot reach the level that they must reach, the cowardice that
says: "I am satisfied to do enough to get by, but I do not want to give up
my sins and my attachments."
How
many of us really want to be saints, "to be in that number when the saints
go marching in?" Most of us are like St.
Augustine when he prayed, "Lord make me pure, but not yet!" Most
of us wouldn't mind being a saint, if we didn't have to change anything,
especially if we didn't have to let go of our sins and destructive attachments
A
"saint" is not a "perfect person." A "saint" is a
person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, a person with a drive for
improvement - both in who they are and what they do - a fierce commitment to
their own lifelong formation, an unflinching quest for personal excellence.
This does not mean we earn our way to sainthood through personal growth and
good deeds. It means that we realize to the depths of our being that we are so
loved by God that we want to respond to that love by trying to become all that
we can be.
In
his book, The Pursuit of Excellence, Tom Peters says about himself,
"The idea of mediocrity scares the hell out of me!" "The fear of
mediocrity" may be the secret ingredient in becoming a saint. Thomas
Merton famously said that the "biggest human temptation is to settle for too
little."
We
are in truth "saved by grace." We are called to sainthood
and we are given the help we need to respond. We do not come to that help, that
help comes to us. We cannot make that help come to us, but we can open ourselves
to its miraculous arrival. We can certainly cooperate with God in the process
of becoming saints "by wanting to," by "hungering and thirsting
for righteousness.”
I
have started this homily by quoting from one of the most beautiful passages in
the Gospels. We call these words “the beatitudes.” What they are, really, are
descriptions of a truly “holy person,” a person who truly loves God. In
reality, they are a set of talking points on Christian holiness, a checklist of
the qualities a person possesses who seriously loves God.
Unlike
the Ten Commandments, which stress the things that one who loves God
should not do, this is a list of things that a person who
loves God does do. It is important to remember here that Jesus
is not saying “do these things and God will love you,” but
rather “if you love God, these are the things you will do!” We do not do these
things to earn God’s love, rather if we love
God, we will do these things. So, what, then does a serious lover of God look
like? How many of them describe you as a “saint in the making?”
(1)
He or she is first of all “poor in spirit.” What Jesus is talking
about here is not merely economic poverty. Even the dirt poor can be greedy in
their hearts. What it means, really, is the deep-down knowledge that when it
comes right down to it, we own nothing and everything can be taken away from us
in an instant. Every material possession, every blessing we have ever had, is a
gift from God that was given to us, not to hoard, but to share. The more we
have been given, the greater the responsibility we have to share.” “Poverty of
spirit” is a basic knowledge that we are all poor, when it comes
right down to it. No matter how rich we are, we are a heartbeat away from total
poverty. We can’t take anything with us, when this is all over! As they say, “There
are no pockets in shrouds!” A person who loves God, a person who is poor in
spirit, never forgets that fact!
(2)
A serious lover of God is able to mourn. One who loves God seriously knows that
we are interconnected human beings and therefore never loses his or her ability
to feel the suffering of others. A cold-hearted, self-centered, disinterested
person is not a friend of God. A friend of God shares the compassion of Christ
who was moved deeply by the horrible suffering of simple human beings and is
never far from “the gift of tears,” as the saints called it.
(3)
A serious lover of God is meek. A “meek” person is not a person who lets people
walk over him or her. A “meek” person lives with the knowledge that he is never
“a god,” but nonetheless always a “child of God.” In other words, he neither
inflates his own worth on one hand, nor does he allow others to deflate his value
on the other hand. Being meek means to know who we are in God’s
eyes- nothing more, but nothing less!
(4)
A serious lover of God hungers and thirsts for righteousness. A serious lover
of God does not dabble in religion, placing religion somewhere outside the
realm of his daily living and daily choices. Rather, he or she is a
serious spiritual seeker, always trying to align his everyday life with
Christian principles. He or she strives always to close the gap
between being a Christian in name and being a Christian in fact, while being
totally free of religious fanaticism and doing spiritual violence to others in
the name of orthodoxy.
(5)
A serious lover of God is merciful. Being merciful means letting God be the
judge of other people. It means giving people the benefit of the doubt, giving
them a break, wishing them well on their path, knowing that with God, it isn’t
over till it’s over, and with God there is always another chance. Yes, it also
means living the maxim, “There but for the grace of God, go I!” Thomas Merton
said, "The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the
interdependence of all livings things, which are part of one another, and all
involved in one another."
(6)
A serious lover of God is clean of heart. A serious lover of God doesn’t just
do good things, he or she does them for the right reason and with the purest of
motives. I tried to remind the seminarians at Saint Meinrad that it
is a good thing to want to be a priest, but one must go into it for good
reasons – to serve people, not for what priesthood can do for them. It is a
good thing to give to the poor, but one can give to the poor,
not because they love the poor, but because they will get their name in the
paper or will have a building named after them. A serious lover of God always
does good things, but he also does them for the right reason.
(7)
A serious lover of God is a peacemaker. War is getting more and more
irrelevant. We need to become as good at peacemaking as we have been at
building sophisticated weapons. There will always be misunderstanding between
people. One who truly loves God has the ability and the credibility to prevent
disagreements from becoming a reason for violence. We need not think globally
only. Families, marriages, neighborhoods, siblings and churches desperately
need these peacemakers. When enough of us really love God, we will have enough
peacemakers to move us closer to universal peace. If you love God,
you love his people! If you love his people, you will do what you can to bring
them together.
(8)
A serious lover of God will be persecuted, insulted and lied about. The
brighter the light the fiercer the attack! Evil does not like goodness. Evil
cannot tolerate the presence of goodness and so it attacks. One who seriously
loves God is more than willing to take persecution, insults and lies, knowing
that personal integrity is more important than comfort or approval.
So,
the bottom line is this – you will know that you are on the path to sainthood
if these "beatitudes" describe you! If these eight characteristics don't
describe you, make a u-turn while you can, because you're headed in the wrong
direction!
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