THE WORD AND THE SAINT
June 13, 2023: Remembering St. Anthony of Padua2 Corinthians 1: 18-22; Matthew 5: 13-16
There is a close relationship between being salt, being light and saying an Yes to the Lord!
To say Yes to the Lord means to be like the salt... totally dissolving oneself in the yes that is said, choosing to remain insignificant and hidden but making a difference in the entire reality!
To say Yes to the Lord means to be like the light... remaining in your respect bright and burning, not counting the cost in melting yourself down or burning yourself up for the sake of the yes that you have given the Lord.
These characteristics of the Yes to the Lord are exemplified without doubt in the life of St. Anthony of Padua. The first reading places it plain and clear in front of us, what it means to say an Yes to the Lord and St. Anthony has been one of those remarkable persons who have lived this call to the full.
Jesus was never an yes and a no! He was always yes! And that is what he wants us to be - to entrust ourselves totally in the hands of God and be an yes always! That requires an enormous faith and relentless hope, filling us with a matchless love for God and God's ways. May St. Anthony intercede for us that we may in our daily lives be an yes that would make this world a better place, an yes that would inspire and illumine everyone around us.