The following is a talk on Piety which I gave at a Men's Cursillo in Co Tyrone
Come, Holy Spirit, O Blessed Spirit of Piety. Come, possess our hearts. Enkindle in our hearts such a love for God that we may find satisfaction only in His service. Amen.
Good afternoon Reverend Fathers, brothers in Christ. My name is Stephen Clarke; I am 22 years old and come from Dundalk. At the minute I am working in sales but am hoping to return to education next year. I made my weekend here in Benburb in September 2004.
I am going to talk today on piety. I must admit now that when I recieved this talk I felt a bit like how Pope Benedict said he felt when he was elected Pope...like a guillotine came crashing down on my neck! I thought: me? Me talking about piety!? Well, here goes...
Piety – the state or quality of being pious especially in religious devotion and reverence to God, a position which can be held either genuinely or hypocritically according to the dictionary.
Piety is the first leg of the tripod of piety, study and action. Without one the other two cannot stand. It is by these that we live out our baptisimal promises to be faithful children of God. We pray, we talk to our God; we have a consious relationship with Him who loves us. We study, meditating and pondering on His words and then we put all this into action by living as witnesses of hope to the world. But this must start with prayer: ‘For without Me, you can do nothing.’
Firstly, I must point out that much of the negativity that can surrounds piety today is unjustified. We hear today that to be pious or even spiritual is to be feeble minded or even backward at best. Piety really has no place in our modern, cosmopolitan, ego-centric world that is centred on the here and now, on oneself.
So, why so much negativity about piety? Well as Bishop Fulton Sheen said about the Church: ‘There are not 100 people who hate the Catholic Church, but there are 1000’s who hate what they believe the Church to be.’ The same can be said about piety. There are many false concepts of piety. Let us look for a moment at some of these false concepts.
There are those who spend their days on their knees, wrapped in rosaries, and then never a nice word, a warm smile. The world is the enemy, they are only consious of their own needs, forgetting that we are all loved and redeemed by Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. Then you have those for whom everything is an outward sign that does not reflect the inward desires of the heart. They use their prayers as a get-out-of-jail free card. They carry out the acts just to gain brownie points because they fear, they fear because they do not know love. And then there are those stripped of all virtue pretending to be righteous. Living lives contrary to Gospel values while on the outside clothing themselves in virtue. They Demand that others follow suit, and as such prevent themselves and others from entering the Kingdom of God.
All of this paints only a dim reflection of what piety actually is; a total opening up of ones life to God.
We may have a perverted notion of the gift of piety. When you call someone pious, it almost has a negative connotation to it. The true gift of piety is sincere, holy, and a condition of the heart. It is not merely "appearing" to be holy by our behavior and actions.
Piety is not surrounding ourselves with statues or wrapping ourselves in Rosary beads; it is not a safe conduct passage. We do not pray to the change God’s mind, we pray to change ourselves. There is no fooling God! He knows us, He has to know us, He created us! Instead, piety is about opening our hearts and minds to God, that our hearts may beat with His desires, that our minds may be open to the voice of God. It is a centreing of our very beings on the God who loves us, the God who walks beside us throughout our lives, the God who we will stand in front of some day. On that day, we hope He will say to us ‘Good and faithful servant, come inherit the kingom prepared for you.’
We all have heard of the ‘Holy Joes’ and ‘Holy Mary’s’ who spend their days hidden away in the church, fearful to venture out and bring that Christian joy to the world, precisely because they know nothing of the joy that comes from authentically knowing Christ.
It is not sufficient to only attend Sunday Mass and call one’s self a Christian. Christianity must be lived; it is an adventure, a pilgrimage from one’s head to one’s heart – the longest pilgrimage we make in this life. To be a Catholic is a life choice, it is not something we do, it is who we are. Christianity is not a spectator sport, we are not called to sit on the side-line looking on, but rather we called to be active participants in the Mystical Body of Christ – the Church.
‘I came that you may have life and have it to the full.’ Our faith should therefore encompass our entire beings. We must live out the ideals of Christianity with sincere and authentic piety through a life full of grace. Our piety is not to be static but growing and concious and so living our Christian lives to the full, turning our entire being, body, mind and soul towards God.
Now piety becomes our life. This opening of our lives toward God requires humilty, some may see this as a loss of independence but it’s not, as Pope Benedict said during his inauguration Mass: ‘If we let Christ enter fully in, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation.’
Our piety must not become some sort of sentimental routine but natural, a sincere outward reflection of an inward reality. It must be courageous, knowing that we do not fear men because we have a healthy fear of God. It must be strong, we must never be ashamed of Christ, He is not ashamed of us! We must aknowledge our faith without blushing; we must be firm in our convictions and therefore never able to be called sanctimonious. And lastly and perhaps most importantly our piety must be joyful. If we genuinelly know that God loves us, that God is with us, why be miserable? To know God and have an intimate relationship with Him is the only true joy in life, rejoice in the Lord always!
All that sounds well and good but God is way up there, how can He know what human life is like? Does God understand? Of course He does! He understands what it is like to be born into poverty, for His family to have to flee to a foriegn country to escape a vicious dictator, He understands the lonliness of being abandoned, even by ones closest friends, He understands the pain of a cruel death. Does God understand? Yes, ‘for God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son.’ Yes, He understands because Christ entered all of this, precisely to show us that God is not way up there, but right here, living and present.
He is here! He is here, body, blood, soul and divinity, present in the Eucharist, He is here living and breathing through His words in Holy Scripture, He is here, right here in each of our hearts. He is waiting; He is knocking right now at the door of our hearts, waiting for us to open the doors to Him!
‘Do not be afraid – open or rather swing open the doors to Christ!’ Our piety if it is genuine allows us to open up our lives towards God and recieve that fullness of life which He has promised us. Let yourself be embraced by Him. To quote Nicolas Cabasilas “If Christ dwells within us, what do we need? What do we lack? If we dwell in Christ, what more could we desire? He is our host and our dwelling place. Happy are we to be his home!”
Our piety, if it is genuine, requires a ‘yes’. We think back to that ‘yes’ that echoes throughout history. The ‘yes’ of a young woman to God 2000 years ago: ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, said Mary, let what you have said be done to me.’ Mary’s acceptance brought light to the world. Our ‘yes’ to the acceptance of God’s will in our lives will bring light as well, for we are called to be a light to the world, radiating joy, peace and love. it is by our love, that they will know we follow Christ!
Let Mary be your guide on your path of holiness. She will always point us toward her Son, the fountain of our true peace. The Son in turn points us towards our Heavenly Father, for He is ‘the way, the truth and the life.’ In the Rosary we contemplate the face of Christ through the eyes of Mary, the eyes of a mother. Who knows a son better than his mother? When we begin to see through Mary’s eyes we begin to recognise the beauty of Christ. Mary was the first to host the body of Christ; she was, if you like, the first tabernacle. To quote Pope Benedict: “Everything came from Christ, even Mary; everything came through Mary, even Christ.” She is, as John Paul II described her: ‘The Woman of the Eucharist.’ Let Mary be a mother to you, for Christ while on the Cross said to each and every one of us “behold your mother.”
“I am with you always, yes even to the end of time” this promise of Jesus to His disciples may seem perplexing to some but with the eyes of faith we realise that Christ is referring to His Presence in the Eucharist, the source and summit of our lives as Christians. In the Eucharist, Christ dwells since the Last Supper in the Upper Room. The Eucharist is the food we need to nourish our piety; it gives us the nourishment neccessary to persevere in holiness, to help our spirits grow more like Him every day. Our piety must be nourished frequently by the Eucharist in order to help it grow within us. You make sure that you eat three meals every day, doesnt your soul deserve a good meal at least once a week? ‘For he who eats my body and drinks my blood will live forever.’ It may seem difficult for us to believe that Christ is really present in the Blessed Sacrament but to those who do find it hard to believe I say: for those who believe no explanation is neccessary, for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.
Through the Eucharist we becomed transfigured to become like Him. You know the old saying: you are what you eat, well if we eat His body we must become like Him! Apart from the Mass, another encounter with Christ is Eucharistic Adoration. In adoration we can contemplate the mysteries of our faith in a close union with Christ. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a continuation of the adoration given to Him during the Mass. We can gaze on Him; we do not even have to say anything. A story is told of a man who went to his local church every day and for hours just sat with no rosary beads or prayer books. Eventually curiousity got the better of the Parish Priest and he asked the man why he just sits there. The man replied: I just look at him and he looks back at me. In the silence of Adoration, we gaze upon Christ and Christ gazes upon us. In adoration we contemplate Him, we adore Him, we love Him and we seek to grow in love for Him. In adoration our relationship with Him grows and matures, if we want our relationship, our piety, our holiness to grow we must spend time alone with Him. He is waiting! ‘Come, let us adore Him!’
All of these things, the Rosary, Adoration are aids to help us grow in holiness and thus become like Him. On your journey you too will discover methods of developing your piety and therefore enabling you to develop your relationship with God. It is a journey, as I said before an adventure that will lead us to true happiness, a pilgrimage that will bring us to new life in Christ!
Abandon yourself to His love, trust in Him and then we can say with sincerity of heart: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Let yourself be swept along by His love, relax and let yourself be overtaken in the imensity of beauty that is God.
I made my weekend here in Benburb in 2004, before that I was involved with the Church. I was a reader; I also worked in the sacristy of my parish church. But I wasn’t always like that, like a lot of children I stopped going to Mass after I made my First Holy Communion, much to my parents annoyance. Then on 14th August 1998, I went to Mass at a local Marian shrine to watch some of my friends serving the Mass, I came away that night wanting to be a server as well. I believe that it was Our Lady who gently but firmly nudged me back to the Church...so it’s her fault your suffering through this talk now! When I told mammy I was going to be an Altar Boy she nearly fell over!
Just over four years ago, on the 9th May 2004, exactly a month before I was due to sit my Leaving Cert. Exams; I had one of those life changing moments, my mother died. And I will admit to being a mammy’s boy. She died unexpectedly of heart disease aged 57. My world had totally changed in a matter of minutes. I was completely shaken, however I’m not someone who shows too much emotion in public and people continually said to me that they were impressed by how brave I was being. But I didn’t see myself as brave, I believe in all the wonderful things Christ has promised us and that is what got me through. It was from her that I learned about love and forgiveness, and of caring for those in need unreservedly, in short the basics of my Christian beliefs, I believe one of the greatest things you can hand on to a child.
Cursillo has helped me to see Christ in those I meet, in the situations I face and to appreciate more fully that Christ is with me and is counting on me! Cursillo has helped me develop my prayer life, my spirituality and my sense of charity in ways I never could have imagined. For that, I am eternally grateful.
To finish, piety issues us with a challenge to live our Christianity deeply, by knowing it, understanding it, and spreading it. Our piety achieves perfection if we put it at the service of others, to bring this holiness to life in others. Our piety will not be selfish but giving, a giving of self totally to Christ and to those we meet. In this ‘Year of Vocation’ we once again hear Christ calling out to us: ‘Go therefore and bring the Good News to all nations.’ Our Christianity never truly belongs to us if we do not pass it on to those we meet, to those we know and those we love. ‘We cannot keep a great joy to ourselves.’
Be ambitious; shout it from the proverbial rooftops: Christ is head over heels in love with each and every one of us. Be joyful as Pope John XXIII said ‘The Christian is a joy, a joy to himself, to God and to his fellow men.’ Do not be afraid to bring Christ to your homes, your places of education or work, to your social outlets. When we do this we truly become ‘the salt of the earth and light of the world.’
De Colores!
Steven T. Clarke
September 2008
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