Spiritual advocates

Thanksgiving is on the horizon with Christmas a month away. In-between is much time spent with family, friends, and strangers who often have very different belief systems from our own. It is a season that begins with gratitude and ends with the birth of the Prince of Peace. But an unfortunate American tradition for Christians and non-Christians alike is that depression and suicide skyrocket during this particular holiday season.   

We are all made with deficiencies and weaknesses. God has fortunately given us saints whose lives and deficiencies mirror our own. We can look to their perspective, attitude, and behavior as a role model for our own. 

“It seems to me that were we only to correspond to God’s graces, continually being showered down on every one of us, we would be able to pass from being great sinners one day to be great saints the next.” (Fr. Solanus Casey)

One of these amazing, yet surprising, saints is Saint (Fr.) Solanus Casey who lived from 1870-1957. As a teenager he worked as a guard in Stillwater prison and ministered to the notorious Cole Younger gang—yes, as a teenager he was converting outlaws! His call to the priesthood took him to the Capuchins. Difficulty in mastering academics led to his being ordained a “simplex priest” which means he could not preach nor hear confessions. He did what others might consider the menial tasks of caring for God’s altar and sacristy along with being the doorkeeper (greeter). As people waited to be seen by one of the Capuchins, they would talk with Fr. Solanus. Eventually, people sought to meet with him for comfort, counsel, and advice from this simplex priest with simple ways. For Fr. Solanus, “faith, hope and charity were essentially one because they revealed the trace of the Holy Trinity in our immortal souls” (Capuchin Franciscan friars of the Province of St. Joseph). The last 25 years of his life, he had met or communicated with nearly 200,000 people. He didn’t fill stadiums preaching. He simply was present to them. 

We too are called to be merely present to the other person who crosses our path at that moment in time. In this way, we are His advocates, an instrument of the true Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Society provides advocates of many types: health, mental illness, legal needs, and more. While good in themselves, these are of human construct alone. Only God can provide spiritual advocates, and that is what He has called each baptized and confirmed Christian to be for others. This is why the universal call to holiness is so important. God through His Church is calling us to be church by allowing Him to perfect us. This allows us to more fully receive His love so as to then share with others. It might be visiting those in nursing homes, hospitals or homebound, helping a neighbor or a stranger in need, sharing a moment of joy in a conversation or text. Being available to pray with someone on the spot in the moment. Being truly thankful to see Aunt Sally at Thanksgiving even though she brings the same Jello salad that she’s brought for 40 years. Or simply listening to someone who needs to feel heard. These small gestures are significant and timeless when done for and with our Good God. 

Love, and God, will take care of the rest. (Mother Cabrini)

This is how the war against the culture of death will be won: one soul at a time. If one humble man like Fr. Solanus can meet with thousands of souls, who are we to say “I can’t…” to just one soul? We must rely on our Heavenly Father to inspire what we are to say and for the His Spirit to animate it. 

Admittedly, some people are hard to love. Yet love reveals the beauty and potential in every soul that reason cannot see. Delight in people for what they are rather than being sorrowed for what they are not. With eyes of faith, see them as they will look once redeemed. This is how God sees them, and us. 

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam 😊

(Image by Norman Rockwell from WikiArt, fair use)