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May 13, 2022As I grow older I find myself more and more wondering whether I have left any sort of lasting legacy on this earth. I certainly have not achieved fame, fortune, wealth, or worth. I have experienced great sorrow and immeasurable joy. I have watched my children grow to adulthood and seen my wife pour herself completely into their lives. It has often been a difficult life; but it has been a rich and purposeful life as well.
This year I was able to go to daily Mass on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. I confess I went with a bit of a heavy heart. These turbulent times had certainly taken a toll on my life. An impatient driver rode my tail the entire way there, and my response to her was not as charitable as I would have liked. I pulled into the parking lot, made my Act of Contrition, and entered the church building to prepare for the Eucharist. There, our Blessed Lady chose to speak to me in a way beyond words, to break my hardened heart, and to draw me once again to the altar of sacrifice of her Beloved Son.
Near the altar there was a small stature of Mary surrounded by vases of roses. A woman came in several times to bring fresh flowers to honor the mother of the Savior. Though it was a small and simple gesture, quite ordinary in fact, it had great power to impress upon my soul just what Our Lady has given us in the life she offered up in love for the Son she bore.
The pastor gave a short sermon on the history and mystery of Fatima, highlighting the humility of the three children visited by Mary and her simple requests to pray the rosary, to offer our lives to her Son, and to work for the peace the world so desperately needs. Though he spoke of the dazzling appearance of the vision, he wanted us to consider more the ordinary life of Mary, who became the mother of the Church by her humble surrender to God’s call on her life.
There are no miracles of Mary recorded in the Gospels. Her Magnificat, while majestic and prophetic, was still a modest prayer of submission to the Great God who had overshadowed her and sent his Son to redeem the world. Throughout the life of Jesus, Mary shared in the great mysteries of redemption by the ordinary ways in which she followed and responded to the Gospel, living out her beautiful role in salvation’s story.
As Catholic men we are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, to live our ordinary lives empowered by extraordinary grace. Every word we say, every act of love we do, is our holy offering to the Savior who calls us not to be men of fame, but men of principle and purpose. If we are honest with ourselves, we know we have often fallen short of giving our all to God as Mary, our greatest example of faithfulness has done. But, like Mary, we have been given a holy commission to receive the grace that was purchased for us at the cross, and to walk by faith as our Savior walks with us into the Kingdom.
The way we love our families, work to serve the Church, love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and search out our ordinary and wonderful place in this great journey of faith is our legacy and our greatest gift. In the ordinary day-to-day activities of life, we serve as a beacon of hope in this weary and wicked world as we ready the Bride for the day of the Great Wedding Feast. Our persistence, our courage in the face of failure, our holy hope in the Kingdom to come, and our unwavering devotion to the One who has saved us in his Son, is our sacrificial offering, leading others to the cross, the Church, and heaven’s glory.
As I received the Eucharist that day, I admit I had godly sorrow in my heart, for our Lady’s message had broken me and put my daily sufferings in a more heavenly perspective. I left the Mass that day determined to immerse myself more in that grace given to me in my Baptism and celebrated in the mystery of the Mass. I knew it would take more than good intentions and holy platitudes to turn my attitude and my actions around. It would take the same kind of surrender that our wonderful, blessed, ordinary lady offered when the angel called her to reverse the curse of Eve and bring her Son into the world to save us all.
By faith, that same grace is available to us. In Christ, we as Catholic men are called to live better lives, not to achieve fame or fortune, but to find our purpose and our worth in the ordinary works we do by the extraordinary love of God.
This year, consider coming to the annual Connecticut Catholic Men’s Conference. There, you will meet many other ordinary men, living extraordinary lives graced by the Holy Spirit. There, you will find a renewed sense of purpose and joy and discover the way in which you may live out your calling to be a man of God. There, as you share yourselves with your brothers, you will see how powerful men who pledge their ordinary lives to a greater holy purpose can move mountains for the Lord.
May God speak peace and purpose into your hearts each day as you follow the example of our Blessed Mother, devoting your life – your ordinary life – to the Son who has brought you salvation through the cross. God bless!
