FAITH AND FAMILIARITY WITH DEATH

SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA, PRIEST, DOCTOR

2 Cor 4:7-15; Ps 116:10-11,15-18; Mt 5:27-32

Our Faith brings us to Physical Death

Let us recall again the principle of our spiritual life. We gained our spiritual life through our profession of faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. By the faith we professed, the Holy Spirit gave us a new and spiritual life that is Christ in us. Because we believe that he died and rose again from the dead, he shares his spiritual and immortal life with us, just as he shared our mortal life, which he laid down at his death. The mortal life he shared with us, he laid down for the love of us and our salvation; the spiritual and immortal life he now has with the Father, he gives to us who believe in his resurrection. Since physical death was the gate through which the Son of man gained possession of the immortal life with the Father, the same death is the path of the increase of our participation in the spiritual and immortal life he shares with us. Since faith beholds him always in his immortal life, the same faith enables us to share in his spiritual and immortal life. The faculty with which we participate in the risen life of the Lord is the spirit that the Holy Spirit generates in us at his coming. This spirit in each Christian is life, according to Saint Paul. It is a heavenly treasure beyond our comprehension, for it is the same life of the risen Lord in which we participate. “We are only the earthenware jars that hold this treasure, to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us.” If our spirit is life itself, it can never die. But we can lose it and our participation in the immortal life.

If our faith in the risen Lord remains intact, then all the trials and difficulties of this mortal life can only increase our participation in the immortal life and cannot terminate it. Saint Paul confirms this saying: “We are in difficulties on all sides, but never cornered; we see no answer to our problems, but never despair; knocked down, but never killed; always, wherever we may be, we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may always be seen in our body.” Paul paints a clear and simple picture of our Christian life here. We should not allow anybody to deceive us with sweet-sounding words of riches, wealth, honour, material well-being, and so on. Our Christian vocation is a call to focus on the risen Lord. But to share the life of the risen Lord, we must lay down our mortal life in love of him who loved us to death. “Indeed, while we are still alive, we are consigned to our death every day, for the sake of Jesus, so that in our mortal flesh the life of Jesus, too, may be openly shown. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” The law of spiritual convolution means that the more we join in the redeeming death of Jesus Christ through faith, the more others gain grace to profess faith in Jesus Christ.

We lose our continuous access or participation in the life of the risen Lord when we start acting without faith. Our Lord gives us an example of what causes loss of participation in the life of Jesus. “You have learnt how it was said: You must not commit adultery. But I say this to you: if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell.” The precaution the Lord suggests for us shows the inestimable value of the life we share with him, which we lose by such canal and transitory pleasure. It is tough to attain purity of heart, given the gadgets in our hands. The Lord admonishes us to die to our senses so that we may more and more participate in his spiritual life daily.

The life of Saint Anthony of Padua gives us much consolation. He teaches us simplicity of life, humility of heart, and practice of the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist and everywhere. He was born around 1195; We do not know much about his childhood. He was an Augustinian monk but became a Franciscan due to the impression made on him by the martyrdom of five Franciscans working in Morocco. He desired a similar fate, but God had a different plan for him. On his way to Morocco, a storm redirected his ship to Sicily, where the General Chapter of the Franciscan Order was going on. He met Saint Francis, after which his preaching career took a different turn. He went to northern and southern France, where he preached against the Albigensian heresy, and finally came to Padua. He is the first Franciscan theologian and outstanding preacher. Anthony worked many outstanding miracles through his simple faith in the word of God and the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. May we gain purity and humility of heart through his intercession.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, who gave Saint Anthony of Padua to your people as an outstanding preacher and an intercessor in their need, grant that, with his assistance, as we follow the teachings of the Christian life, we may know your help in every trial. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.