Today in the book In Caelo et in Terra, we read about St Alberto Hurtado. It surprised me when I read his biography because I thought I knew all of the Jesuit saints, or at least the "famous" ones. My brother is a Jesuit priest and I was a Jesuit novice for seven months, so I thought I'd run across all of the well known Jesuit saints by now. Up until St Alberto, I hadn't found any in this book that I wasn't already familiar with.
St Alberto was born in Chile in 1901. His father died when he was only 4 years old, and due to his poverty he was shuffled around to different relatives while growing up. When he became a Jesuit priest several years later, he never forgot the suffering he experienced as a poor child. He encouraged all of the people in his diocese to take care of their poor, especially children. He passed away many years later of cancer, but even though he was in pain, he was often heard saying, "I am content, Lord." You can read more about him here.
We all suffer, don't we? And when we do suffer, we have a choice to make. We can choose to become bitter and angry at people and at life - even at God - for causing us to suffer. Or, we can do like St Alberto Hurtado did - we can remember our suffering and use it as fuel to alleviate the suffering of others. And we can, in our final attitude, pray, "I am content, Lord."
God, thanks for the great example of this loving Jesuit. St Alberto Hurtado, pray for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment