The life of a man who left everything for the love of Jesus and his Mother Mary

On the Feast of St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori

Rev. Marcel Divine Okwara CSsR

August 1, 2011

Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori was born in Marianella in Naples, Italy in 1696. He was the first child of his parents- Joseph and Anna.  He was born in a Noble family. At the age of sixteen, Alphonsus Liguori went to law school, and then became a very well known lawyer. With his success in the law profession, his father was so proud of him. But then, Alphonsus was thinking of leaving the profession. One day he wrote to a friend: “My friend, our profession is too full of difficulties and dangers; we lead an unhappy life and run risk of dying an unhappy death. For myself, I will quit this career, which does not suit me; for I wish to secure the salvation of my soul.” At the age of twenty-seven, after having lost an important case - the first he had lost in about eight years of practicing law - he made a firm resolution to leave the law profession.

In 1723, after a long process of discernment, he abandoned his legal career and, despite his father's strong opposition and refusal, began his seminary studies in preparation for the priesthood in the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. He was ordained a priest on December 21, 1726, at the age of 30. He lived his first few years as a priest with the homeless and marginalized youth of Naples. He founded the “Evening Chapels.” Run by the young people themselves, these chapels were centers of prayer and piety, preaching, community, social activities, and education.

In 1729 Alphonsus left his family home and took up residence in the Chinese College in Naples. It was there that he began his missionary experience in the interior regions of the Kingdom of Naples where he found people who were much poorer and more abandoned than any of the street children in Naples. When Alphonsus met these people, he said, “Oh, they have not even heard of the sweet name of Jesus.”

On November 9, 1732, St. Alphonsus founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer shortly known as the Redemptorists. The goal of the Redemptorists is to teach and preach to the poor. Redemptorists are called to be preachers- wonderful preachers that bring the good news of the Lord. Not only was he a bishop, he was also a canon and civil lawyer, a painter, musician, poet, architect. Alphonsus wrote 111 works on spirituality and theology making him one of the most prolific religious writers of all time.

He was unique among the saints for his life-long devotion to the Blessed Mother. St. Alphonsus was visited several times by Our Lady.  One of his most celebrated books is titled The Glories of Mary. He was also greatly devoted to the Blessed Sacrament, and was known for his sermons on the Eucharist. He had great love for Jesus and Mary.

He is the only professional moral theologian ever to be officially declared a Saint by the Church. He was canonized in 1839, and later declared a Doctor of the Church.

From St. Alphonsus, we see a man who was ready to leave everything and follow God. For the love of Jesus Christ, he left his money making and name recognition profession. His life reminds us of St. Paul who said in Philippians 3:7-11 “All those things that I count as profit I now reckon as loss for the sake of Christ Jesus. Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ and be completely united with him… All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, in hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.”

St. Paul too was a lawyer. And as a Jewish lawyer, he ab initio thought that all that matters was the observance of the law. He was a good Jew. He was learned too. But when he encountered the Lord, there was a radical change in his life.

St. Alphonsus left everything- family, fame, money, good life, easy life etc for the love of Jesus Christ. And he spent his entire life serving the Lord faithfully in the poorest of the poor. Today, we celebrate his life. Like St. Alphonsus, are we ready to follow the Lord unreservedly? I am not asking you to leave your job, family, money and follow the Lord. But there is still a way to do it. Just remember this: Money and other material things are for use. We are to use them; only God can be enjoyed. God and God matters should come first in our lives, then anything else.  St. Augustine himself said, “Some things are to be enjoyed; others to be used. Those things which are to be enjoyed make us blessed. Those things which are to be used help and sustain us as we move toward blessedness in order that we may gain and cling to those things which make us blessed. To enjoy something is to cling to it with love, for its own sake. To use something, however, is to employ it in obtaining that which you love, provided it is worthy of love. The only thing worthy of this love, the only “thing” to be enjoyed for its own sake is God.”

Our Five Loaves and Two Fish

Homily for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - On the Gospel

Steve is trying to show concern for his neighbor by praying for the poor man who lives down the road. But, as his son reminds him, prayer and good wishes are not always enough. Sometimes when we pray, God’s answer to us is, “But you can do that yourselves." This is what we see in today's gospel where the disciples are so concerned about the hungry crowd that they pray Jesus to dismiss them so that they could go and buy themselves something to eat. Jesus turns and says to them, “Hey, you give them something to eat. You can take care of that yourselves.” Only then do they remember the small guy with five loaves and two fish. Jesus blesses the five loaves and two fish and, to their surprise, that was more than enough to satisfy the enormous hunger of all the people. That is how we have the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand.

Why did the disciples not think earlier of sharing their provision with the crowd? Is it that they did not care? Yes, they did care and they did wish the crowd well. But probably they were simply being realistic and practical. Let's face it: five loaves and two fish is nothing before a hungry crowd of five thousand men, plus women and children. We see this more clearly in the gospel of John where one of the disciples, Andrew, says to Jesus: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” (John 6:9) The action of faith to which Jesus calls his followers often goes beyond the dictates of human logic and realism.

The story of the Miraculous Feeding of the Five Thousand, like most stories in the Gospels, speaks to us today because many of us can identify very readily with the disciples. Like them we find that our care and compassion is very often limited to prayer and good wishes. No wonder wish-you-well cards have become so popular. Like the disciples we wish people well but have no intention of taking positive action to help the situation. And, again like the disciple, what prevents us from taking positive action is often the realistic assessment that the little we are able to do is not really going to make any appreciable difference.

But in the gospel we see that when we translate our care and compassion into positive action, the little we are able to do is multiplied by God's grace in such a way that it becomes more than sufficient for the need. All that Jesus needs from us to feed the hungry crowds of the world is our “five loaves and two fish.” Why didn't Jesus just go on and produce bread from thin air to feed the crowd? Because God needs our “five loaves and two fish” in order to perform the amazing miracle of feeding the five thousand. I will like to conclude by sharing with you this story of how a certain Indian boy tried to contribute his own “five loaves and two fish.”

Tidal waves washed thousands of starfish ashore and they were dying on the sandy beach in the hot sun. People walking on the beach crushed the fish under their feet. An Indian boy walked with more care, once in a while stooping down, picking up a starfish and throwing it back into the sea. One man who saw what he was doing challenged him. “Young man,” he said, “what do you think you are doing. With the thousands of starfish on the shore, what difference does it make throwing one or two back into the sea?” The Indian boy slowly bent down, picked one more starfish and threw it back into the sea. “For that one,” he replied, “it sure makes a lot of difference.”

As individuals, as communities and as a world, we suffer all kinds of hunger – for food, for love, for peace. God is able and willing to satisfy all our hungers. But God is waiting for men and women who believe enough to give up their lunch pack, their “five loaves and two fish,” which God needs to make the miracle possible.