Cesar de Bus was born in France as the 7th of 13 children in 1544 in the era of the Protestant Reformation. He became a soldier at the age of 18, fighting in the war against the French Protestant Huguenots. After leaving the war, he lived a very worldly life in Paris, devoted to poetry and painting, but also in the pursuit of worldly pleasures. Returning home, he worked as a caretaker of a church. Passing by a shrine dedicated to the Blessed Mother one night, he had a mystical experience that led him to a deep conversion of faith. Ordained a priest in 1582 in Avignon, he was inspired by the holiness of St Charles Borromeo. He founded two orders: the Ursulines of Province for women and the Fathers of Christian doctrine for men. The male order disbanded under the French Revolution, but an Italian branch of that order survived. That order continues in Italy, France, and Brazil to this day. He died in 1607. He was canonized in 2022 by Pope Francis.
Peter, Paul, and the rest of the apostles were imprisoned many times for the way that they publicly preached the Gospel to the world in the years after Christ’s death and resurrection. As told in today's first reading from the Acts, when Peter and a group of apostles were imprisoned, they were miraculously set free and went out into the Temple area where they resumed preaching publicly about Jesus and his proclamation of God's kingdom.
We can create different prisons for ourselves, but we ourselves can also imprison God’s word in the world just as the chief priests and the Jewish authorities did when they put Peter and the other apostles in prison. Christ’s Gospel message needs to be more than just words to us. We are called to put those words into action. God’s word is there in our lives to inspire us, motivate us, and guide us along our journey. It can be a big challenge for us to live out our faith each day. Our lives can seem so busy that we sometimes do not make time for God or for Church. But God always meets us in our reality.
If God’s words do not infuse our words and actions, if God’s word does not have a place in our reality, then his word will be imprisoned just as it was when the first apostles were put into jail. How can we set God’s word free?
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