Window to Truth

Father Straub relates,

Saint Alphonsus, after leaving his legal profession at the age of 24 --he had graduated at the age of 16, as a civil and canon lawyer-- he left the practice of law and at the age of 28 was ordained as a priest in the Archdiocese of Naples. From then on, until the age of 34, he gave missions in the streets of the slums of Naples, preaching the great truths of the Faith, preaching all the truths necessary for salvation.

In the year 1730 when he was 34 years old --he had been born in 1696-- his health was entirely broken. He was going to live until he was 91, but at the age of 34 it looked like he was dying.

His doctor said, ‘You have to rest. I have a little house in the mountains, in the port town of Scala.’ (South of Naples on the East Coast of Italy.) The doctor said, ‘Father Alphonsus, you need to rest, or you are going to die.’

So Alphonsus gets on a boat going south of Naples down to Scala. He makes his way up the hillside. He is barely settled in the doctor’s house when the hill people from behind Scala crowd around his house.

‘There’s a priest in the doctor’s house?’ they ask.

Alphonsus greets them. ‘Children, have you said your prayers?’ And he makes the Sign of the Cross. But they don’t know how to make the Sign of the Cross. They don’t know the words to any of the prayers.

Now, they would never fail to baptize a baby. But no Eucharist, no Confession. They don’t know how to say the Hail Mary. These people are really abandoned. They are goat herders. The men would have a goat on their shoulders, paws on either side of them.

Alphonsus told them, ‘Come back tonight and I’ll say a sermon.’ (He was an accomplished preacher.) And that night he said Mass on the balcony of the house. And he began his mission, preaching to the poorest of the poor, the most marginalized, the most abandoned.

When he returned to Naples, the doctor asked: ‘Have you rested?’ Of course, he hadn’t.

But when a man finds his life’s work, it tends to improve his health.

Alphonsus consulted with the best priests he knew. He would not make a move without ecclesiastical approval. On December 9, 1732, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists. Dedicated to the perfect love of God in the hearts of all.

Two thoughts: What do we do in our community life to really love God perfectly? What do we do to evangelize the poor?