Pleasing God alone: Remembering St. Monica
August 27, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Matthew 22: 23-26
Not to please humans but God, invites St. Paul today in the first reading. Our spirituality can reach its dreary bottom if we are constantly conditioned by our intention to please those around and live up to their praises and affirmation, and strive to evade their critiques and denunciations.
An externally illustrious life, with a painful emptiness within, cannot endure in its glitter for long. On the contrary, a life that might look apparently uninteresting could inspire and change people and history for ever, if it is built on deep spiritual convictions.
St. Monica, a simple mother with her perseverance in prayer and firmness in her hope, believed that her son will one day turn to the inner richness that God alone could give and she saw her belief come true!
Our spirituality cannot consist of straining out gnats, that everyone around may praise us for our diligence and in the obscurity of our privacy swallow camels without any qualms. How impoverished we shall be if we are so attentive about our external image, others' opinions, social status and success banners but mindless of the dirt, the negativity, the selfishness and the connivance we harbour within!
St. Monica understood this truth in her heart and saw through the misery of her son's spirit. And she knew exactly what was lacking there within him. She prayed hard and won for him, his salvation through God's mercy!
May the saint of today inspire us to thank God for our mothers who are our first catechists!