Today we celebrate the feast days of Saint Theophilus,
who was a friar minor, and Saint Ives, who was a third-order member of Franciscan.
Their stories are very much the same as many relatively obscure Franciscan saints who,
for one reason or another, felt inspired by God to follow the call to religious life
and left all things behind without counting the cost.
And remained faithful to their original fervor,
that fervor that led them to a conversion of heart,
that led them to a rejection of the values of this world,
and a willingness to leave all things behind in order to obtain the heavenly goal.
And in fact, religious life is meant to be that kind,
that kind of sign, a sign in the world by which we discern the universal call to holiness,
the universal call to put God first in all things, everywhere and always,
and to live in view of the life we will obtain only in heaven,
but to live it even now as best we can,
anticipating ourselves.
And we must be able to do that by our union with God,
by foregoing a lot of the natural pleasures of this life in order to give our heart completely to God.
Now, religious do that in a way which is very particular,
by practicing poverty, chastity, and obedience in the radical way in which they do.
But it is a reminder to all of us to that which we are called.
And,
And it's a reminder that we all need to have, because it's very easy to live each day as
a life we're going to go on forever, and to move from one merely human experience to another,
seeking to find our gratification here and now.
God wants us to be happy, and he gives us the goods of this world in order to experience
his providence and his goodness.
He gave us the world to be our transient home, it's not our permanent home.
This is why when Abraham was looking for the promised land, when he finally got to Israel,
he continued to remain living in a tent, Saint Paul tells us in the letter to the Hebrews,
because he realized that
that
Israel, the place where God had led him to obtain his promise, was only a sign of a city
whose foundation was built not by man but by God.
And so while there are a lot of legitimate pleasures and happinesses in this world, we
have to keep our eye on the goal.
And we celebrate these relatively obscure saints who just did that.
They didn't work miracles, or were not renowned for their great preaching, or for the deeds
that are recorded in history, simply remembered for their great love for God.
That is a sign to us of the call that each of us have to do likewise, and we think about
what we hear in today's gospel.
The Gospel from Saint Luke about the Lord as he tells us that we must keep our eyes
on the goal and be vigilant, recognizing that the Lord will come at some time, and we know
not the hour that he will come, and we must be ready for his coming.
And that is the challenge.
You know, we are not alone.
We are not alone.
We are not alone.
We are not alone.
We are not alone.
We come to Mass, and we pray, and we bring our temporal concerns before the Lord, and
our spiritual concerns, our sinfulness, our weakness.
We bring our trials and tribulations, our worries before the Lord.
But we're not always aware of the providence of God, and how all things work to the good
of those who love God, and that if we are willing to make whatever sacrifice that we
make, the Lord will always support us in
help us.
So that is a challenge.
his providence and his goodness in all things.
And if we do that, he will lead us into everlasting life.
And if we do that, he will lead us into everlasting life.