Jun
22
St. Thomas More
June 22, 2008 |
In the Common of Holy Men in the Liturgy of the Hours, there are two parts that always get me fired up.
One is a hymn that goes something like -
“Rise up, O men of God! Have done with lesser things, Give heart, and soul, and mind, and strength to serve the King of kings.
Rise up, O men of God! His kingdom tarries long: Bring in the day of brotherhood and end the night of wrong.
Rise up, O men of God! The Church for you does wait: Sent forth to serve the needs of men, in Christ our strength is great!
Lift high the cross of Christ! Tread where his feet have trod. As brothers of the Son of man, Rise up, O men of God!”
And then there is this passage from Romans 12 -
“Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may judge what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect.”
These passages were prayed as part of yesterday’s prayer in memorial for St. Aloysius Gonzaga. But, they could also be applied to today’s saints, St. Thomas More (England, 1478-1535) and St. John Fisher (England, 1469-1535). (Their optional memorial is not celebrated today in the Mass liturgy because it’s Sunday.)
Both St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher had the misfortune of being contemporaries of the insatiable King Henry VIII. Someone had to stand up to good ole’ Henry and both Sir Thomas and Bishop (later Cardinal) Fisher stood against the tide of their times and the immense power of the throne to advance the causes of truth, faith, reason, marriage, and personal responsibility. They vigorously defended the Church and Christ. And they lost their influence, power, and ultimately their lives, because they did not conform themselves to their age.
They also unquestionably rose up like men of God. They acted as Christ expects each of us to act; consistent with God’s will and not man’s.
Real men of God know that there is right and wrong; they are not afraid to stand against the tide. They seek to be a perfect servant of God, which means serving man to please God as contrasted with serving man in opposition to God. Real men of God live Christ and the faith in everthing they think, say and do. Every part of their existence goes into trying to be the perfect servant for Christ and into trying to build his kingdom on earth. And they don’t waste time lamenting the fact that their world may be going to hell; instead they put everything they have into preventing that from happening.
St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. Thomas More, St. John Fisher - all showed us how to be real men of God. In this day and age, are we asking them to help us to be real men of God as well? Because, in this day and age, the odds of stacked against us and we need all of the help we can get.
