Pierre Toussaint

All of us need a little help and then a little luck to make some success of our life and to be helpful to others.  Pierre Toussaint got a little help and had a little luck.  He ended up buried under the main altar of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.  He started out as a Haitian slave of Jean Berard.  Berard taught him how to read and write. It was a crime to teach slaves how to read or write in the United States.  That was the little bit of help.  Then the luck.  There was a slave revolt in Haiti.  Berard and family fled to New York City and tool their slave with them.  Berard died and Toussaint, being able to read and write studied and became a hairdresser to the rich, to support the Berard family.  Mrs. Berard freed Pierre just before she died.  That was a little more help.  Pierre married.  With his money he purchased the freedom of Haitian slaves, and as refugees in New York, he found them jobs and gave them money.  The Toussaints cared for abandoned children, helped open a school to teach children a trade, helped found the first Catholic school for black children in New York City, and an orphanage with Mother Seton.  Church hierarchy get buried under the altar of famous cathedrals.  And then there is Toussaint.  So what are we all doing with the help and luck that came our way?

The Tip

A way to be helpful to those who have less comes our way whenever we eat in a restaurant.  The waitperson does not have health insurance and is not making a lot of money.  It may be a second job.  It may be the only job they can get or qualify for.  Maybe they are poor students.  Who knows?  But what if the tip is going to them or shared with the person who cooked your food and cleaned off the table or washed the dishes?  If you have the means, then think about the tip.  Extravagant love is a way to look at it.  Or just a matter of sharing your good life with someone who is struggling.  If the service is lousy and the food terrible, you might be helpful by telling them so.

New Bed

HOMILY NOTES

FR. TERRY RYAN, CSP

JOHN 2: 13-25

MARCH 4, 2018

I bought a new bed, but there was drama.  Each year that I come to spend some time teaching and preaching in Vero Beach, Florida, I stay at our Paulist community home that we have here for senior priests.  I stay in a room no one else really wants.  It has no air, but during Lent the weather allows for me to make it livable.  Anyhow, the room is always available, but it has a bed that is very old and has bothered me in the past.  My first night here in the bed was dreadfully uncomfortable.  I said, “This is unacceptable,” and told the community here that I was having trouble with this bed and we needed to buy a new one.  

No one jumped at spending money for a new bed, but the priest in charge said, “Go to Sam’s.”  I was hopeful that I would find a good bed there for a good price.  Another Paulist priest went with me.  It is good to have another opinion when buying a bed.  Sam’s had only two mattresses for single bed.  They were cheap, but dreadful.  I would have been in back surgery before my time in Florida was done.  So we went to a mattress store and found lots of mattresses, but way more $$$ than Sam’s.  I did not find anything that was so right that I would buy it.

We went across the street to another mattress store.  We found a mattress that was very nice but it would be ten days until delivery.  Back surgery for sure.  There was a second mattress that was “not as good” said the salesperson.  It was cheaper and could be delivered in one day.  As I sat deliberating, the Holy Spirit got involved in buying a mattress!  

The salesperson came back and said, “I never have this third mattress in stock, but I happen to have one now.”  I tried it> Perfect.  He could deliver it in a day, and I would get “President’s Day” discount of several hundred dollars.  The mattress and box spring cost $500+ and the Paulist I was with produced a credit card and we bought it.  The mattress is wonderful, but the cost was several hundred dollars more than I think our house money manager was hoping to spend.  

So at church I preached on this incident.  Does it not speak of how Jesus acted?  He came into the temple and said, “This just won’t do,” in so many words.  I said this about my bed.  Jesus wanted change and the people in charge liked things just the way they were.  No one at the house wanted to spend money on a new mattress for a guest room.  So if you think that something is “just not right,” then act to change it.  If the Holy Spirit is with you, then you will know by how things go.

But here is the best part.  I said in my homily, in passing, of course, that I hoped to find a way to pay the community for the bed.  After mass as I was greeting people someone walked up to me and pressed some money into the palm of my hand.  “This is for the bed,” he said.  I put the money into my pocket.  Later, I looked at the money.  It was five One Hundred Dollar bills!  Maybe I will stay in Florida! 

The Call

Become who you are meant to be, or find your true vocation.  It may be a second calling, or a change in lifestyle and work.  How will you know you have made the right change?  You will live a more intense and beautiful life.  You will discover a more authentic happiness.  You may not have as much money or things or comfort, but if chosen freely, you will find more fulfillment.  The ego driven life is too fear-based and lacks fulfillment.  There are many rich, famous, 'important" people, and they keep making changes in their life to find happiness, but it is not driven by becoming all they were made to be.  More money, a different partner, bigger house, car, office, but not more fulfillment.  I did some teaching this morning on prayer.  The morning was three hours long.  I made $75.  I am on the way to the poor house at this rate, but I happy with what I do.  Maybe teaching about prayer is not what I am supposed to do?  Can I blog from the poor house?  Not to worry...today.

Fire

Someone said that if you cannot think of anything to be grateful for, start with not being on fire.  I thought it was a bit silly until I woke up one night with some physical pain that would not go away.  I was most ungrateful for this powerlessness.  Then I thought, "Well, I am not on fire."  It worked.  And after a while, the pain went away too.  Don't judge suggestions as silly, until you might need them.  Maybe that goes for people, and places too.

Sabbath

When the pilgrims' ship, the Mayflower, reached land, they docked off shore.. It was a Saturday.  A few guys went on shore to look around and collect some wood.  The next day was Sunday.  No one went on shore.  Then on Monday, women went ashore to do laundry.  That is why Monday is called, "wash day."  The pilgrims were a religious group who took seriously the Sabbath as a day of rest in honor of God.  Well, I am a Christian believer.  When do I do my laundry?  Sunday.  It is convenient for my schedule.  I never have church work on Sunday afternoon.  But this is Lent.  What am I doing or not doing for these six weeks to remind me that I am somewhat self-willed and wanting things to go my way?  Why not give up doing my laundry on Sunday for these six Sundays?  Hmmm.  I prefer something more general, that is not so easily measured, like being kind to the poor, or something that does not interfere with my plans or routines, such as giving up Brussel Sprouts.  We will see about the laundry.  It is tough to toughen up.  

St. Frances of Rome

My boyhood parish church, St. Frances of Rome, in the Bronx, was where I had my first memorable experiences of God.  All we had back then, and it was enough for me, was the basement part of what was supposed to become a bigger, more ornate church to be built on top of it.  That did not happen in my lifetime at St. Frances of Rome.  I knew every part of that basement church, as I was a student in the school and was a frequent altar server.  Whenever I went in there, I felt that I was around God.  It was what you might call "bonding with buildings."  The question I ask is, "Did the bonding experience of building and God change my heart?"  I would have to say, "Not much."  I had guys I did not like.  I judged people and got into fights.  Inside the church building I was better.  I think this is what is called "externalizing" the faith.  It is most affected by external beauty, but that does not translate into active internal beauty that sees all people as connected, and in my faith, as Christ.  Now you might have no interest in buildings and faith, but maybe your externalizing connection is with nature, a special place or walk that holds you in its beauty.  Ask the same question.  "Does the external beauty make you see more beautifully from the inside, act more compassionate, loving and forgiving?"  For many of us, we need more than external scenes or buildings if we are going to change for the better.