Gather Nothing

June 21, 2008
Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, religious

Although prophets were sent to them to convert them to the LORD, the people would not listen to their warnings. 2 Chronicles 24:19

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. Matthew 6:27-28

Piety
Let us pray: Father, in the spirit of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, help us to sense and live in your real presence. Jesus, in the humility and obedience that St. Al showed, help us to accept the instructions that we are given to accomplish the work of God. Holy Spirit, watch over those who work in hospitals and protect them and those for whom they offer your loving care especially victims of HIV/AIDS. Amen.

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/062108.shtml

“Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.”

“Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”

The generosity of the Father reminds me of the famous passage in the next chapter of Matthew’s Gospel: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him. Matthew 7:7-1

In the face of all this godly generosity, we memorialize St. Al – Aloysius Gonzaga, the patron saint of Catholic youth – whose life was cut short after only 23 years. Despite being born into a family of great wealth and power, he renounced all he could inherit as the first son and finally got this father to agree to allow him to join the Society of Jesus. He did not worry about what he would wear, what he would eat, or how he would look. Instead, he devoted himself to a life of prayer and did what his “superiors” in the Jesuits asked him to do.

When the plague broke out in Rome, St. Al was assigned to the hospital to care for the ill where he was exposed to the disease, caught it and died before he was 23. In his short years, he received his first communion from St. Charles Borromeo and then learned the faith at the classroom of St. Robert Bellarmine, his spiritual advisor.

His attitude upon contracting the deadly plague was one of serene holiness. In a letter ti his mother, St. Al wrote:

I must admit that when I plunge into contemplation of the divine goodness, that bottomless and shoreless sea, I cannot grasp why God should summon me to eternal rest in recompense for such brief and insignificant toil, or why he should call me to a happiness I have so lukewarmly sought, and promise a reward for tears of which I have shed so few.

Please Mother, do not insult God’s infinite goodness by lamenting for me as dead, when in reality I shall be living in God’s presence and helping you far more than I ever did in my present life. The separation will not be a long one; we shall be reunited with each other in heaven when we join our Redeemer and joyfully sing his mercies forever. He takes away the life he had earlier given us, only to establish it in a safer place and to fill it with the blessings we had always desired.

Action

The image of St. Al caring for the ill in a Rome hospital has its modern parallel in the care needed for AIDS patients throughout the world. Currently, the Senate is debating a Global Aids bill called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). However, the bill is stalled and no vote is scheduled. Catholic Relief Services and Bishop Thomas G. Wenski are urging Catholics to contact their senators and ask for action on this bill.

Contact your Senators now and urge them to reach a bipartisan consensus to reauthorize PEPFAR. According to CRS, “Catholic health institutions deliver approximately 25 percent of all HIV and AIDS care worldwide. Much of this care requires advanced planning while many care providers depend on U.S. government funding to carry out their programs. Without a firm commitment to reauthorize the PEPFAR program, care providers cannot plan for future activities. The risk of suspension in assured funding, however brief, could disrupt HIV treatment, undermine the credibility of healthcare institutions providing HIV services, and endanger lives.”

The CRS web site announcement goes on to say: Our faith tradition as Catholics requires us to care for “the least of these” and to uphold the life and dignity of all people. People affected by HIV or suffering from AIDS need and deserve our love and care, just as Jesus called on us to care for those who are hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill. Catholic social teaching instructs us to live in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world. Pope Benedict XVI, in his World AIDS Day message in 2007 stated: “I wish to exhort all people of good will to increase their efforts to halt the spread of the HIV virus, to combat the disdain which is often directed towards people who are affected by it, and to care for the sick, especially those who are still children.”

The Church strongly supports PEDFAR and Bishop Wenski’s op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel concludes: PEPFAR has a proven track record of success. Delay is not an option. The lives of millions who struggle with these terrible diseases are at risk. It is essential for the Senate to act now to renew and expand this life-saving initiative.

As a fitting memorial to St. Al, please contact your Senator today. Use the simple form on the CRS web site linked above to send a message to your Senators. It will only take 1 minute to fill out the form.