Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor of the Church
Black Friday, (given that name as that most retailers become profitable that day) is a day that many good people can be given choices that can be almost overwhelming. What may in fact be a great value may also be something we want but don’t need. Then the dilemma begins. We have to make a decision where we weigh the ‘pros and the cons’. It is times like these in which we often find ourselves stuck ‘on the fence’.
As for St. Anthony, whose feast we celebrate today, fence sitting never came to mind. Upon hearing of the martyrdom of five Franciscans in Morocco, Anthony, an Augustinian at the time, requested to become a Franciscan. Upon becoming Franciscan, he left Portugal and set out Morocco to where his brothers had been martyred. On the way he became severely ill and shipwrecked in Sicily. Recovering and moving to Assisi, Francis became aware of Anthony’s confident preaching and assigned him to be the brothers’ primary theology teacher.
Elijah also preached with a confidence that inspired. As we read in first Kings, Elijah created a situation that would force those sitting on the fence, off. Once and for all Elijah wanted to show the priests of Baal and the people of Israel who was the one true God. Many had come to believe that it was okay to pray to both Baal and the God of Israel. The poetry of what happened that day could not have been written better by even today’s finest writers. God used Elijah as an instrument to show through the power of ritual that there is one God and it is not Baal.
Jesus, the God of Israel’s finest instrument, makes clear, like Elijah before and Anthony after, the purpose of life. In today’s gospel we find no fence sitting in any of Jesus’ statements. We must honor and live commandments and teach others to do the same. Consider the fences we each sit on, how are these men still challenging each of us to get off the fence?
Lord, you know the struggles of our hearts, and you alone must be our true hope. Show each of us the path to life, so that we will find the fullness of joy in your presence, who lives and reigns one God now and forever. Amen.
-Michael Montgomery