Homily for September
28, 2014
Twenty-Sixth
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Virtue
St.
Therese of Lisieux was a nineteenth-century French nun who lived in a small
convent in France. She was serious about becoming holy and loving others like
Jesus loved them, but there was one other nun in the convent who used to drive
her crazy. Every day as they prayed in chapel, the other nun used to click her
rosary beads against the church pew – and it drove Therese crazy. Plus, the
other nun had an unfriendly personality and no one really liked her.
So
Therese made it her mission to treat her with uncommon kindness. She endured
the annoying habits of this other woman, sought to spend time with her and
included her in conversations, and did other small acts of kindness for her.
After St. Therese had died, all of the nuns were interviewed about her. This
particular nun said, “Oh yes, Therese was my best friend. She thought I was so
wonderful, she would always try to spend time with me.” It was only after
reading Therese’s journal that everyone realized how difficult it was for
Therese to befriend this woman, but she had been so effective at loving her
that the woman thought she was best friends with Therese!
To
become like Christ – to become a saint – to be the best version of ourselves,
we have to practice virtue. What is virtue? A virtue is a good habit that makes
us like Christ. St. Paul gives us several examples in the second reading –
love, compassion, mercy, joy, humility. I’m sure we can think of many other
virtues, such as patience, purity, kindness, courage, perseverance, trust in
God, self-control.
How do
we get virtue? In two ways: prayer and practice. First, we pray for any virtue
we need, because God wants us to excel in virtue. But God rarely gives us a
virtue automatically – He only gives us opportunities to practice the virtue.
For example, many people pray for patience. Then we shouldn’t be surprised when
we find ourselves stuck in a traffic jam after praying for this virtue –
because that’s how we grow in patience! Sometimes that’s frustrating; if you
pray for humility, you won’t get the virtue automatically, you’ll instead get embarrassing
situations so you can learn humility on your own!
Look at
St. Therese – she did not automatically get the virtue of patience and charity –
she had to work at it, every day choosing to react to this difficult woman with
kindness. She saw this difficult situation as an opportunity to grow in virtue,
instead of seeing it as just another frustration in life.
How
often have we seen a challenges in our life as just negative experiences to
grind through, instead of an opportunity to grow in virtue? A flat tire, an
annoying coworker, a difficult teacher, a sickness – all of these are a chance to
grow in virtue. God desires us to become the best version of ourselves, and as
our first reading points out so well, only in living a virtuous life will we
find the happiness we desire.
So this
is my challenge for you. Think for a moment about a virtue that you want to
grow in. Perhaps you need self-control, or maybe you’re a person who needs to
grow in patience. Maybe sexual purity is a struggle for you, or perhaps you want
to grow in compassion. Consider what virtue you want to grow in – and consider
what ways you will be able to practice this virtue this coming week. Remember,
the Lord will give you the grace to grow in any virtue, if you commit this
quest to His grace. He alone can transform us to become the best version of
ourselves. So what virtue do you need, and what must you do to acquire this
virtue through God’s help?
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