L’ABITO NON FA … IL MONACO

So goes the Italian expression. It means that a priest, a minister of the Church, a religious person is as such, not because he, or she wears a special ‘habit’. It is more intrinsic, more serious; it goes deeper than simply wearing such a ‘habit’. In the long History of the Church we have read that quite a number, unfortunately who wore the ‘habit’ did not live up to the expectation that such a ‘habit’ calls for. Many others, who never put on such a habit, but were true, genuine apostles, followers and gave witness to their Master, Jesus Christ. Many, non-robed, have suffered martyrdom, as a proof of their genuine belief.

The Gospel of the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, is a case in point. Quoting John: “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons, and we tried to stop him, because he is not of our company”. So he did not wear the special ‘abito’ or ‘habit’. But, the one who loves God is a living member of the Church, under whatever sky he is living, irrespective of the skin colour, his age and his upbringing.

Quoting St.Augustine: “Two loves have made two cities.” Meaning; the love of this world has made the city of men, the love of God has made the city of God. And Jesus Christ is the Father of the city of God. From eternity HE was earmarked to be sacrificed in advance for our Redemption. In His extreme suffering He has moved our feelings that are too cold and too guilty to turn to God, in a natural way. The Church is not only what it seems to us… it goes, it stretches, it is felt,it  exist in ‘deep waters’.

“It is not only in this visible building where everything is history, hierarchy, authenticity, virtues and shining miracles; it is also about the half-light, in the blur of shadows, saintliness lost to man’s sight, but not to that of the angels … and to God’s. There is not a single soul that has not an impenetrable sanctuary and which does not offer to God in this ‘holy of holies’, a hidden incense, and which is always acceptable to God.” (H. Lacordaire O.P.)

Love, which is the foundation of the Church, is the most evasive of living fluids, and if the eye of man has never yet been able to detect it in the swift current of his nerves, how much less is he aware of the ways taken by the ‘Divine Love’.       

The Church, therefore has an extension that no human eye or mind can compass. Those who confront us with the boundaries, which appear only in their eyes, have no idea of the twofold radiance which is in its nature, and which raises up souls to it in the East and the West, in the world of both the setting and rising sun.