Most of my parishioners know that I am originally from the city of Chicago. I grew up in the Northside neighborhood of Rogers Park, one of the most diverse and most densely populated neighborhoods in the city. I have very fond memories of growing up in Chicago until the age of 12. I also remain a diehard Chicago Cubs fan. Growing up as a small child in Chicago, I grew to appreciate the wonderful museums that my hometown has to offer: Field museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Adler Planetarium, and the Chicago Historical Society. Even as a child, I realized that Art Institute of Chicago was a very special place. Art collectors in Chicago recognized early on the importance of the Impressionists in France in the 19th and 20th century, acquiring a lot of paintings that would later become treasured masterpieces.
I bring this up because I recently read a story about the great artists Henri Matisse and Auguste Renoir, who both have paintings displayed prominently in the Art Institute in Chicago. Both of these men had a very close friendship. Renoir, who was much older than Matisse, suffered from arthritis the last several years of his life, but he still painted every day. Even when his fingers were too crippled by the arthritis to grasp the paintbrush, his wife would attach the brush to his hand. One day, when Matisse observed Renoir wincing in terrible pain with each stroke of the brush that he made, he asked his friend, “My dear Auguste, why do you continue to paint when you’re in such agony?” Renoir’s response was immediate: When I paint, “the beauty remains, but the pain passes.” Renoir was so passionate and dedicated to his art that he painted every day until the day he died. His great paintings that remain to this day are a testament to his artistic genius and to his dedication to his craft. Pain, suffering, sacrifice, and commitment are part of life for many great artists, such as Renoir.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel today that being a disciple of Christ means total commitment - a commitment that is beyond ourselves and our other relationships, a commitment that is beyond any of our earthly possessions, a commitment that is beyond any sacrifices we could imagine. We are not called to be half-hearted disciples or cafeteria Christians.We are called to make a total commitment, to have high standards that we want to reach in our lives of faith. It’s just a commitment of convenience where we commit as disciples as long as it is safe & does not involve any risk or rejection or criticism from others.
French Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin is now remembered as one of the most ground-breaking Catholic theologians of the 20th century, even thought his writings were so revolutionary and so fresh and new that their publication was prohibited during his lifetime. He was a renowned philosopher & paleontologist who spent a lot of his journey as a priest pondering the meaning of our human existence and our relationship with the divine in our lives. He died back in 1955. Teilhard de Chardin is remembered for this famous quote: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” That quote has us looking at the world and our lives in a different way, doesn’t it? We are often so immersed in our humanness and in the values of the world and of our culture that we need to remind ourselves that we are indeed human beings comprised of both body and spirit - that there is more than just our material world and our material values.
I was thinking about the Year of Mercy while I was writing today’s homily, since we are getting ready to celebrate our Yr of Mercy mass in our deanery here in Tupelo this Thursday evening with Bishop Kopacz. When I was interviewed by our local newspaper about the mass this upcoming week & the meaning the Year of Mercy has for us Catholics, the interviewer brought up a quote by John Paul II, which states: “The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy.” Also, what we often see going on in our world today is that we want mercy for ourselves both from God and from our fellow human being, but we often do not want mercy for others when they need it or desire it. We want mercy for ourselves, but we are not very merciful to others.
Yet, Pope Francis gives us hope when he states: “Nothing unites us to God more than an act of mercy, for it is by mercy that the Lord forgives our sins and gives us the grace to practice acts of mercy in his name.” Perhaps those acts of mercy that we engage in will have a profound affect on our hearts & our behavior, which is a hope that Pope Francis has for al of us.
We have had some tough Gospel’s these past few weeks: Gospel messages that challenge us to take up our crosses to follow Jesus, to journey each day as humble disciples, to strive to enter the narrow gate. Indeed, Jesus never said that being his disciple was going to be easy.
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