St. Monica & Silent Suffering

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.”

I saw that a couple of you were at my 7:30 Mass this past Sunday, so you might remember my story about how my mom said that back-to-school shopping was the most stressful time for her, and I never knew until she told me that last week. And I think that’s one of the hallmarks of parenthood: silent suffering. It’s never to the children’s shame, but rather there’s some things for their own sakes that they need never know…that is, until they become parents themselves.

And that’s your role, that’s my role, in our ministries; we are spiritual parents. There’s a lot of silent suffering that happens that no one but our brother priests and our sisters will ever know, not to the shame of the people of God, but they need never know the things we go through for their sake. Some days we can bear those sufferings and boast about them in the same way St. Paul boasts about them. Other days are tougher than others and we begin murmuring amongst ourselves and against God.

But may St. Monica be our inspiration and guide today. She who suffered silently for the salvation of her son is our beacon that faith, hope, and love never fail. You know that towards the end of her life, St. Monica asked St. Augustine only one thing: that he remember her at the altar wherever he may be. I like to think that she can dare ask something like that precisely because she remembered him at the altar wherever she was. May it be so for us: Let’s bring all the people we serve to the altar this morning for the sake of their own salvation. But maybe we can also sprinkle in a little hope that one day, we might get a St. Augustine out of even one of them, who might in turn remember us at the altar.