Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Billy Mays all gone in a week. Walter Cronkite is gravely ill. I recall when Princess Di was killed the world acted as though we’d lost a saint. Then Mother Teresa was called home a few days later and at least for some, perspective returned.
Friday we celebrated the Feast of St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei (the real one in 1928). A central theme of his teaching was the call to holiness for all or the sanctification of our daily work regardless of our calling. Thus while the priest has a special calling, doctors, teachers, businessmen, welders, farmers, salesmen, paralegals, etc. are all called to their vocation. So are late night co-hosts, tv stars, music stars, pitch people and journalists. And in the same way as a priest is called to make his vocation holy, we too are called to make our vocations (and our relationships) holy. We do this by simply directing all our efforts toward the glory of God.
We tend to make those who achieve dramatic popular and financial success, modern icons. Of course an icon is one immediately recognizable and associated with something. Imagine our world if all of our modern icons represented the values we see in the icons of saints. Imagine if they directed their vocations toward the glory of God above all else.
I pray for the health of those ailing and for the repose of the souls of those who have gone. May their families be comforted. I also pray that we don’t need to lose Mother Angelica or another saintly life to help us regain our sense of what a real life model or modern icon should be.
3 Comments
June 28, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Also Dr. Don Coldsmith passed away. He was one of the first authors to write western fiction from the perspective of the Native Americans. I used to love hearing his stories at Scout events, being as we are both from Emporia this would happen a couple times a year.
June 29, 2009 at 7:25 am
You know Serviam, I believe you have seen the sanctification, or a corrupted form at least, in most of the pop icons of today. One sanctifies their lives according to their faith, if ones faith is oriented to man, then one sanctifies to man.
For instance, MJ had a grotesque, even macabre, fascination with appearance. Often Saints (true and holy) would go to extremes in their humility, appearing cadaverous or wretched in their attempts to overcome vanity. MJ in his quest for physical beauty forced his body to extremes, though for the glory of vanity, not the extermination.
We could spend days and weeks discussing how this phenomenon of man oriented sanctification has effected the Church, particularly in Liturgy and Social Justice. But I feel it may be more productive to refocus our lives to God, lay person or Ordained. Perhaps if the laity would look to holy Priests (of which we have a great many in the metro area), and begin in some small way to emulate their holiness in our lives, we would see an increase in vocations, Saints and order in the world.
June 29, 2009 at 8:16 am
Well said. I wonder how in touch with reality MJ really was.