Written by Sr. Rosemary Finnegan, O.P.
Readings from: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102020.cfm
Today our church celebrates St. Paul of the Cross, who was born in Italy in 1694, spent a short period of time as a soldier but realizing this was not his calling, he turned to solitary prayer. Out of that prayer, he developed a strong devotion to Christ’s passion which he wholeheartedly believed demonstrated God’s immense love for all people. He began to teach and serve others. His devotion to the suffering and death of Christ nurtured his compassion and grounded his ministry and touched the depths of his listeners.
At 26, he founded the Congregation of the Passion, known as the Passionists. They not only take the 3 traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, but also a fourth vow which is to spread the memory of Christ’s passion among the faithful. When he died in 1775, he was regarded as one of the most popular preachers in his time and someone who was very generous with his acts of mercy.
When I learned about St. Paul of the Cross, I immediately thought of one of his followers, Bishop Norbert Dorsey, who was also a member of the Passionist Congregation and served here as our third Bishop of Orlando from 1990 until 2004. Bishop Dorsey also was a gifted preacher and a man of compassion. Before becoming our Bishop, he served the Passionists in many leadership roles, even internationally. One of my remembrances of Bishop Dorsey was the motto he chose for his Bishopic crest: “Love is Ingenious”. This phrase was actually taken from the Rule of his Passionist Congregation, written by St. Paul of the Cross himself. The full text reads: “The love of God is very ingenious and is proved not so much by words, as by the deeds and actions of the lovers.” That word, “ingenious” comes from the Latin meaning ‘inborn talent’ and has come to mean inventive or clever. (1)
Jesus was certainly ‘ingenious’ in our gospel in order to show us what true servant leadership is. Jesus does the unexpected and inventive, once again. The Master is now serving the servants.
“Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.”
Jesus turns custom upside down. For us, it would be like sitting down at your favorite restaurant, looking up and seeing Jesus handing you the menu and pouring your water! He’s giving us an example and showing that we too should embrace that role of being ‘ingenious’ servants, doing things that need doing because people matter, looking for ‘inventive’ or even clever ways todo those dull, thankless jobs that mark us as ‘members of the household of God’. By our lives and our actions, may we, too, find ways to show others that God’s love is ingenious.
