God's Will at Every Moment
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1 August 1986
South Bend, Indiana

A little over two weeks ago I went into the Chapel in Paris which houses the mortal remains of St. Vincent de Paul. High above the main altar of the Church is the silver and glass casket that contains the body of St. Vincent. As I entered the chapel, I noticed in the distance a solitary figure kneeling in front of the glass casket. She was a young lady and she was deep in prayer. She had her two arms raised and resting on the glass of the casket, close to the head of the Saint. I remained some time in the Chapel and, when I left, the lady was still in prayer with her hands resting on the glass, earnestly asking the intercession of the Saint for some particular grace or favor.

What grace, I kept asking myself, is this lady seeking through the intercession of St. Vincent? The healing of a sick child? The obtaining of employment for her husband? Breaking away from drug addiction? Strength to forgive someone who had injured her? What her prayer was I do not know and did not dare to ask, but the intensity of it was clear and impressive. Clear also was the lady's conviction that the Saint, who has been given so many titles by God's people: Father of the Poor, Apostle of Charity, Protector of Orphans, could, by his influence over the mind and heart of God, do something for her. As I watched the lady in prayer, I could only guess what she might have been asking for. I could not help thinking that she was asking for one single grace. What that grace was remained a secret she shared with God and His servant, Vincent de Paul.

What one grace would you ask from St. Vincent de Paul this weekend? Perhaps another question should be posed first. Have we sufficient faith in his intercession to ask him for one single grace, or must Our Lord pass the rather sad verdict on us that closes this evening's Gospel: "And Jesus did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith." (Mt 13:58)?

The name, Vincent de Paul, will echo through the halls of Notre Dame throughout this weekend. How many of us, however, will at the end of it have spoken to the Saint with something of the intensity of that Parisian lady? How earnestly do we talk to him, who is the Patron of us all here, about the poor of our time? Does he, I wonder, find us theorizing much about the poor in a doctrinaire way? Is his name being used rather than his person being invoked in discussions about the poor and poverty in the world of our time? After all, it was Frederic Ozanam himself who observed that: "A patron saint should not be a mere signboard to a society, like St. Denis or St. Nicholas over the door of a tavern. A patron saint should be regarded as a type on which we should try to pattern ourselves as he patterned himself on the Divine Type which is Jesus Christ." (J.P. Derum, Apostle in a Top Hat, p. 112).

Supposing, however, we are convinced of the Saint's power of intercession with God, what one grace would you ask from God through his intercession? Would it echo one of the titles of the excellent topics that are being discussed here at this convention during these days: A greater readiness to respond to the cries of the poor? An eagerness to collaborate with others in hearing the cries of the poor? A clearer understanding of the Vincentian charism? These are all certainly very valuable graces. Perhaps, however, we would do better if we asked, not what we would like to obtain from God through the intercession of St. Vincent, but what St. Vincent himself would like to obtain for us from God. What might that grace be? It must remain a matter of conjecture. But if one is to judge from St. Vincent's voluminous writings, that one grace would not be more effective service of the poor, nor greater commitment to securing social justice, nor even a more generous response to the appeals of the Third World. The one grace would be quite a simple one: a more attentive, sensitive and personal response to what the living God is asking at this moment from each one of us. The formula, "doing the Will of God," may seem to be almost trite. It might even sound in some ears as faintly suggesting an outmoded spirituality. The truth, however, is that St. Vincent de Paul was led to the poor and was able to lift the poor out of their wretched conditions because he himself lived with a profound consciousness of the importance of doing at every moment what he thought God wanted him to do.

Perhaps the Saint might at this point like to add a word of qualification to what I have just said. "It is true", he might say, "that I did reflect much upon the Will of God and its place in my life and in my work. It would, however, be more accurate to say that after the year 1617, I rarely thought of the Will of God without thinking of Jesus Christ. The reverence and the love which Jesus Christ had for the Will of His Father impressed me profoundly. I began to consciously submerge my plans and projects into the mind of Christ Jesus, to have them x-rayed by Him. Can you think of Jesus Christ without thinking of His reverence at all times, His constant referral of all His activity to the Will of His Father in heaven? Indeed on one occasion I recall speaking to the Community of priests and Brothers with whom I lived and saying to them:

`It is not enough to do what God wants, but I must do it for the love of God. We must do the Will of God according to the Will of God, that is, to do it in the way Our Lord did the Will of His Father when He was on earth.' (Coste XI, Fr. ed., pp. 435-436).

"The world in which you are living has changed greatly since my time. There are millions more poor people on the face of the earth than there were three centuries ago. It is a grace of God that you have not allowed yourselves to become discouraged by the sheer numbers of poor who need help, millions more than in my time. Political systems seem so much more complex now than they did in the Europe I knew. My attempts to mediate between politicians of my time were not successful. When we have done everything in our power to mediate between people, we should preserve our tranquillity and peace, whether we are successful or not. It is only when we have emptied ourselves of self that God will fill us with Himself. Do not give up in the face of difficulty. `Christ's teaching,' I remember writing two years before I died, `will never let us down, while worldly wisdom always will.' (CR II:1). Do not lose your nerve, but make sure that you refer all your projects, great or small, to Jesus Christ and to the Will of His Father. Don't forget that it is the earth which revolves around the sun, not the sun around the earth. Christ is the center, not we, however dazzling our projects may appear. Christ is the Light of the World. We must allow that Light to penetrate the crevices of our minds so that we may at all times do, as He did, the things that are pleasing to His Father in heaven. I recall some words I spoke towards the end of my life:

'Let us galvanize our wills to deal, to say and to accomplish the divine words of Jesus Christ, `My food is to do the Will of Him Who sent Me and to accomplish His work.' (Jn 4:34). That has been your pleasure, Savior of the world... Since we cannot do it of ourselves, it is from You that we hope for this grace, confidently and with a great desire to follow You.'" (Coste XII, Fr. ed., p. 164).

To come back to the Chapel in Paris and that silver and glass casket. It was a coincidence that two weeks ago I should have entered that Chapel just at a moment when a lady was praying with upraised arms to St. Vincent de Paul. It is a coincidence today that we should be celebrating Mass with Bishop Murphy in this Church of the Sacred Heart on the First Friday of August, a day that brings to our minds devotion to the heart of Christ, the symbol of God's personal love for poor, broken humanity and of His personal love for each one of us. If St. Vincent de Paul was able to do so much for the poor of his day, it was because with his mind and heart he had come to know something of the length and breadth, the height and depth of the love of God that reposed in the Heart of Christ Jesus. As children of God, we must constantly be convincing ourselves in prayer of the excessive love with which God has reached out and is still reaching out to us each day and each moment of the day. If we are not convinced that God loves us as we are, even with our frailties, it will be very difficult for us to show the love of God to the poor. It is the work of humble prayer to come to know oneself as a person who is loved by God. It is the work of humble prayer to share that experience with the poor who are God's special friends.

May the thought of God's personal love for each of us, symbolized by the Heart of Christ, give us a new awareness of our value in His eyes. May it stimulate us to go forward and convince the poor that God does care for them. May we ourselves become sacraments of God's love for the poor. It is the love of God that presses us.

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