FRANCIS OF SALES
Introduction
Brilliant, spirited, humorous, and very kind, St. Francis was bishop of Geneva during the Reformation. Both through his eloquence and his personal contact with people, he convinced many not to become Protestants and won many back to Catholicism.
He wanted to lead the simple life of everyone. Wearing ordinary clothes, he mixed with the people in the street, in the café around the corner, in restaurants. In his writings, especially in his Introduction to the Devout Life, he showed how everyone can become a saint in one’s own environment and everyday work. With St. Frances de Chantal he founded the Order of the Visitation.
Heb 10:1-10
The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone blissfully on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ:
You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year;
you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.
It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar
that whet your appetite.
So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God,
the way it’s described in your Book.”
When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.
Mk 3:31-35
Just then his mother and brothers showed up. Standing outside, they relayed a message that they wanted a word with him. He was surrounded by the crowd when he was given the message, “Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside looking for you.”
Jesus responded, “Who do you think are my mother and brothers?” Looking around, taking in everyone seated around him, he said, “Right here, right in front of you—my mother and my brothers. Obedience is thicker than blood. The person who obeys God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Prayer
Lord our God,
we thank you for St. Francis de Sales,
who showed in his amiability to people
how good you are
and how close you want to be to us.
Make us open and gentle with everyone
the way he was,
uncomplicated and understanding
and devoted to you, our living God.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Reflection:
Hebrews 10:1-10
“I Come to Do Your Will”
Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church, was a 16th Century saint, the Patron Saint of authors, journalists, writers, deaf persons and educators. Bishop de Sales believed that holiness was not reserved for those in the monastery or convent, but for everyone, in every state in life, within every occupation. After nine years as a priest and twenty years as a bishop, de Sales won back as many as 40,000 Catholics who had become Calvinists. After nine years as a priest and twenty years as a bishop, one of the last things he wrote were the words “Humility, humility, humility,” in his dying exhortation to his flock.
Today’s readings have a common theme of doing God’s will. In the reading from Hebrews,we are told that God does not want the sacrifice of animals and burnt offerings from the time of the Old Testament because the blood of bulls and goats is quite incapable of taking away sin, of bringing out about a lasting reconciliation with God.
The author then quotes words from Psalm 40 (7-9a) as a foretelling of what was really needed to bring about this reconciliation. “I Come to Do Your Will” is a quote from Psalm 40 and we pray this in the Responsorial Psalm too. The mere suggestion that we are expected to do something which someone else suggests goes against so much of our instinct. The thought of “doing the will of God” can lead to images of being constrained to do difficult things, to suffer a lot, and to do things that do not make us happy. How do we want to do that?
God the Father sent his Son to do the Father’s will, to make the ultimate sacrifice that will save all generations. For Jesus, doing God’s will was all about being in relationship.
The story of two teenagers who were in love with each other explains well the meaning of “doing the will of the other.” The girl often went to her boyfriend’s martial arts gym while the boy often accompanied shopping with her. Only after their marriage they discovered that she disliked martial arts and he couldn’t stand shopping! Why did they do it? It was, of course, because they were in love, with one another.
Doing the will of God may take us in some surprising directions and, yes, even to do things that are difficult. But it’s not about doing this or that; it’s all about being in relationship of love. We must learn to make the dream of God our own dreams and the will of God our own.Jesus’ words in the gospel further explains the picture: “For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”