A Life Given Out To The Lord!
WED EP Reflection 100720 (Brigitte of Sweden, Acts 23)
I have not been focusing on the saints of the Church in my reflection and mine today seems truly random. But is there really anything random in our lives? You would be surprised of what we learn. The saint celebrated today is Brigitte of Sweden. The Swedes call her Birgitta. She lived in pre-reformation era 14th century. We learn that she was married at 14 years old and ended up having 10 kids. After her husband died, she devoted herself to a life of prayer and caring for the poor and the sick. She went on to establish a religious order called the Brigittines. Men and women lived in separate poor convents that were dedicated to help the poor. Birgitta had a vision of Jesus hanging on the cross as a 10-year-old girl, which became the center of her spirituality. She is said to have traveled to Rome during a plague. Early Christian monastic life has been a growing interest amongst today’s Christian believers because of what it can offer to our modern-life spirituality. It can enrich our lives as we seek holiness, as we share with those less fortunate than ourselves and learn lessons from a life lived in community.
Birgitta’s decision to give her whole life to Christ after she became a widow, give us a window on her interpretation of what giving one’s life to Christ means. Is it the same as what we understand it to be in an evangelical way of interpretation? Obviously, she had family responsibilities like all of us, but it seems like she had an influential charisma to reach out to others with concrete steps, and put meaning and action to the words of Jesus. I think raising 10 kids makes you automatically an effective manager! She put to use her skills in God’s Kingdom, and where the Holy Spirit is at work, there is always great results.
Monastic spirituality also teaches us to focus on contemplative prayer, spiritual direction, rule of life, rhythm of life, daily prayer practices, regular retreats. As someone who has already considered a religious life namely a Dominican of the Order of Preachers, I can attest that one’s spiritual life is indeed enriched. Our lives are so different from those who lived in the 14th century. Our lives are now accustomed to an easy life compared to what life was then. They faced great challenges in those days but also, they had an undeniable great relationship with God, that’s what make their lives more interesting for us to learn from.
Other virtues we learn from them are joy and patience in the midst of suffering. This is truly rare nowadays because it seems we have a much harder time with pain and suffering in general. All our industries today are geared towards making our lives less complex, minimize pain and suffering by all means. That’s not what we see in the New Testament. This week, we have been reading from the book of Acts about St Paul’s incredible escape from a plot to kill him. He had been beaten up and his opponents were fiercely determined to kill him. Thank God they did not succeed. I am always surprised that the early church did not lose their cool even in near or fatal incidents. Their joy and patience remained constant. Can we really say the same for us believers today? Whereas we live in a part of the world where our lives are not threatened because of our beliefs, others like in Nigeria are. Some believers live constantly with attempts on their lives, and Jesus continue to shine in their lives, which puts some of us to shame, we are like chickens in front of their bravery.
Church history is full of believers like that. My favorite example is Polycarp. He lived 160 AD and at the time, the society hated Christian believers for many reasons. It happened that in the face of many challenges, believers could not deny their faith in Jesus and often enough they lost their lives like Polycarp did. He was the last surviving person to have known personally an apostle since he had been a disciple of St John. Their pain and suffering were beyond our comprehension and our tolerable threshold yet, their spiritual lives were even more sharp and clearly strong.
Lord Jesus, help us in our own journeys!
Amen.
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