21st Week, Friday, August 27: St. Monica
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 / Matthew 23:23-26
Paul instructs the Thessalonians; God called us to holiness.
A motorist drove into a “full-service” station. Three attendants charged out to meet him. The first began to wash the windows, the second checked under the hood, and the third checked the tire pressure. When the trio finished their jobs, the motorist paid for the ten gallons of gas and drove off. Three minutes later the motorist returned. Once more, the three attendants charged out. “I hate to ask this,” said the motorist, “but did anyone put gas in my car?” The attendants looked at one another. In their rush to serve, they had forgotten the gas. Paul reminds his readers _—that we sometimes get so caught up with life that we forget the main reason why God put us here.
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Where does personal holiness stand on our list of priorities? “Be holy - for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” Leviticus 19:2
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The greatest danger for the church in Thessalonika is the pagan vices: sex, fraud, revelry, vague sectarian movements. Paul gives the church the motto: The will of God is your sanctification. He explains what he means by sanctification: to strive for perfection, to observe all that the Lord taught them. Sanctification goes directly against the fads and vices of the time. Living in sin is rejecting God. It is very important for Christianity that the faith demands a moral life. Religion and morality are coming from the same source - the faith in the all holy God and Christ. Holiness is the call of God, it receives the grace of God that makes us strong, it is the gift of the Spirit of God.
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Today we celebrate the memorial of St Monica, the mother of St Augustine, whose memorial we will celebrate tomorrow. We celebrate this memorial not simply because St Monica was the mother of a great saint. Part of the opening prayer for Mass goes like this and it is worth to take note: O God, who console the sorrowful and who mercifully accepted the motherly tears of St. Monica for the conversion of her son Augustine.
St Monica was born of Christian parents. She married a good man but he had a violent temper and was sometimes unfaithful. But St Monica managed to convert him to Christianity and he was later baptized. Her son, Augustine, proved to be a much greater challenge. When she was exhausted and tired with her son's wild and wheeling ways, she approached a bishop to ask him to intervene. The bishop responded with these prophetic words: Let him be, and continue to pray for him. It is impossible that a son of so many tears should be lost.
St Monica dedicated most of her life praying for the conversion of St Augustine. All in all, she prayed for something like 30 years before she finally had the joy of seeing St Augustine baptized. The consolation, experienced by St Monica and her total abandonment to God can also be ours today when we persevere in patience and in trust.
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When the bridegroom leaves the parents’ house on horseback to fetch the bride, his brothers, relatives and friends try to hold him back So he is often delayed. Weddings start anyhow only after dark. At the bride’s home, they eagerly await him to give him a festive welcome. The girls add brilliance by receiving him with burning lamps, gracefully dancing as they lead him to the house. Three details attract our attention, some of the maidens are called foolish. It is foolishness not to be ready. It is foolish to have a lamp that gives no light. When the bridegroom comes, they hear the sound of revel and mirth. They see the light of the procession and cannot join it for the last stretch. Both slept: the wise and the foolish. They want to light the lamps, but have no oil. The shining, light that honors the coming of the bridegroom are the good works, grace giving good deeds.
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Dear St. Monica, troubled wife and mother, Many sorrows pierced your heart during your lifetime. Yet you never despaired or lost faith. With confidence, persistence and profound faith, you prayed daily for the conversion of your beloved husband, Patricius, and your beloved son, Augustine. Grant me that same fortitude, patience and trust in the Lord. Intercede for me, dear St. Monica, for (mention your petition here) and grant me the grace to accept his will in all things, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen
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Prayer: Lord our God, source of all wisdom, you invite us to be wise and to encounter your Son with burning lamps in our hands. Help us to be prepared to meet him in the events of daily life and in people around us, that we may enter with him into your feast that lasts forever. Amen
