Jesuit Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, Religious
Looking for similes for the Kingdom of God, Our Lord chooses the small mustard seed and the little yeast. Small indeed, yet God has made these things great in their effects on the world around them. And so we see in the spread of this Kingdom which Jesus is and establishes. He sends out twelve apostles, that is not a large number. They were poor, humble, little. And yet, we see the great effects God has worked through them.
Today’s Jesuit saint, born in 1533 in Spain, faced many challenges early in life. His father died when he was twelve, and so he had to leave school at that young age to return home to take care of his family and take over the family business. He married in his late twenties, and had three children. But death took his wife and three small children by the time Alphonsus was in his mid thirties. Taxes on his family business led him to have to shut it down. Alphonsus was reduced to being poor, little, humble. He sought for two years to join the Jesuits, and was finally accepted as a brother. Soon he was sent to watch the door of the Jesuit high school in Majorca, which he did faithfully for forty-six years, treating every guest who came to the door as he would treat Jesus himself. Whenever he heard the doorbell ring, he would say, “I am coming, Lord, I am coming.” And then he would bring visitors to meet the Jesuits they were looking for, he would give charitable help to the poor who came, he would sit and listen to and offer prayers and words of comfort to those who just needed to talk.
Holiness does not need to be large, it does not need to be flashy or successful. In fact, Our Lord tells us that it starts small, humble, often unseen by others. Yet, precisely in that littleness, room is left for God to show forth His greatness in the merciful love His works in His disciples. Saint Alphonsus, pray for us that we may humbly love the Lord in our neighbor as you did!