The Great Why

“John’s head was brought in on a dish and given to the girl, who took it to her mother.”

Matthew 14:1-12, Saturday's gospel passage, gives us a gruesome story. A dancing girl, a wicked mother, a petty king, a set of loose guests, and on a dish the head of the man Jesus had called the greatest ever born to a woman. Why did God allow a gruesome thing like this? Why? It is the great question all of us carry under the surface of our skins in the dark depths of our hearts. Why? It is a question answered in so many different ways, that it seems as if no answer has ever been given.

Something is surely happening all around us in the world and definitely also within us. God and we are partners in what is happening. Do we want to re-write gruesome stories? God inspires us to do so, if only we are willing. He respects our freedom, and that's why we see evil in all its form. But we can do something about it, by being God's partners in re-creating the world. Instead of complaining about the disorder that we see around, can we do something about it like St John Mary Vianney?

John Mary Vianney (1786-1859), famously known as the Curé of Ars, was the son of a peasant farmer, and a slow and unpromising candidate for the priesthood. But eventually he was one of the many who redefined priesthood. What he did to the isolated village of Ars-en-Dombes as its parish priest remains as the model for every priest, every pastor. He just served in only one place all his life. His holiness made this obscure village into a place of pilgrimage, and above all the parishioners into God-fearing, nay, God-loving persons. The villagers were converted back to God, thanks to the relentless and humble pastoral service of this man. Though a dull student in his seminary days, John Mary became a noted preacher, and a celebrated confessor: such was his fame, and his reputation for insight into his penitents’ souls and their futures, that he had to spend up to eighteen hours a day in the confessional, so great was the demand. Tens of thousands of people came to visit this great pastor, that the French State recognised his eminence by awarding him the medal of the Légion d’Honneur in 1848, but he sold it and gave the money to the poor.

A single person has the tremendous power to re-write stories and re-create lives, as the life of John Mary Vianney shows. It is the power of our love and service, not talents and great abilities that will lead people to God's love. He needs our humility, availabillity and instrumentality, not our great learning and talents.