Sorrowful

“Suddenly I saw that priest looking at me. Silent. I can't describe his sorrowful glance. All I can say is that I wanted to cry there and then. I imagine that those were the same features that Saint Peter saw in Jesus’ face when he denied Our Lord. That glance changed my life as words could never do.”

The Living Word (Kirill Solovitskii)

There is a story told about Saint Josemaria…  He was once inspecting the construction works on a new home.  While he was at the site, one of the contractors on the site shouted a profanity in Italian.  In this case it was blasphemous…  Many years later that building contractor remembered that event.  He explained, “Suddenly I saw that priest looking at me. Silent. I can't describe his sorrowful glance. All I can say is that I wanted to cry there and then. I imagine that those were the same features that Saint Peter saw in Jesus’ face when he denied Our Lord. That glance changed my life as words could never do.”

And I have been reflecting on this because it is clear that Saint Josemaria did not let any little seed fall astray.  How easy it is to hear profanity on a building site or in the workplace?  People become stressed and agitated and it is understandable – though not acceptable – that we swear.  But the Saint could not bear a tiny seed to go astray, and he was sure to silently collect them in…

He understood the parable of the sower in a way that I never have…

“Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And He taught them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as He sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it had not much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil; and when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.’ And He said, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’ And when He was alone, those who were about Him with the twelve asked Him concerning the parables. And He said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables; so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again, and be forgiven...’” (Mark 4:1-20).

How lucky we are to be “given the secret of the kingdom” and how ungrateful I am to waste any of the seeds given to my care…  How wasteful when simply a good example and a sorrowful look could change the life of another!

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.