St. Aloysius Gonzaga
1 Jn 5: 1-5
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Placing Myself Second
From the beginning, Christianity has held the belief that, paradoxically, it is better to be “second” rather than “first”; this is the true measure of a successful, well-lived life: “the first shall be last”; service rather than self-promotion; obedience rather than self-assertion.
Today’s Jesuit saint, Aloysius Gonzaga, and Scripture reading bring this message to us again. Rather than saying that believing in and loving God empowers one to gain control in some way, the author of 1 John relates that we will be made “children” of God, who are docile to the commands of God.
Aloysius Gonzaga is a 16th century saint who was born a noble, but, divesting himself of his title/inheritance, he joined the Jesuits. He felt the call of God to help plague victims in Rome, carrying them to a hospital. In heeding God’s call, Aloysius himself caught the plague and died at the age of twenty-three. This young noble placed himself “second” by divesting himself of his privileged position and obeying God’s loving will to serve those who suffer.
—Timothy Perron, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province studying theology at Fordham University.
Prayer
Saint Aloysius, you were a child of God in both years and disposition to follow God’s will. With your prayers, help us today to imitate your sensitivity to divine directives, especially in service to those who are suffering or marginalized. Grant us to know that true wisdom is to prefer secondary status so that we may be first in line to care for those in need.
Amen.
—Timothy Perron, SJ