The saint that we celebrate today perfectly reflects the theme of my prayer time today. Her name is Liduina Meneguzzi, and the biography that I read about her in In Caelo et in Terra said repeatedly that she was an ordinary woman with nothing that unusual about her. She was born in Italy, became a nun at an early age, loved people and helped them, and then died of cancer when she was 40. Nothing really remarkable about her. You can read more about her here.
In my prayer today, I felt God helping me to realize that people today place way too much emphasis on "success". We have to have a nice house, nice car, beautiful spouse and just the right number of children, a "successful" career doing something meaningful, and a group of friends that we spend just the right amount of time with. If we don't have all of those things (or if the version we have of them isn't as nice as our perception of our neighbor), we feel like we've failed.
But it actually is even worse than that!
Not only do we have to succeed in life right now, we have to CONTINUE to succeed at every stage of life. It's not enough to be head of your class in high school, you have to go to the college of your dreams and graduate magna cum laude. Then you have to get a great job working at an amazing company doing meaningful things! If you don't do that, you're a failure. Every step of the way, if you're not succeeding in an amazing way, you're a failure. No wonder so many people today struggle with depression.
But God calls us to love. Just simply to love people. To be kind. To do SIMPLE things. Even to fail sometimes! Look at the lives of saints. Many of them failed many times. Many of them were hated and attacked by other people in the church. Some were excommunicated or oppressed. Some were martyred! All of those things look like failure from the world's perspective. But God fills our lives with purpose, even when that purpose doesn't line up with the "big house, nice car, successful career, great marriage and kids" program that we are all "supposed" to accomplish in our lives.
If you're struggling, it's OK. God is right there with you. Your life doesn't have to look like the Jones's. You have no one to keep up with. Just be you, and do what He calls YOU to do, and love people, starting with yourself.
God, thanks for the life of this ordinary woman, which teaches us what really matters. Blessed Liduina Meneguzzi, pray for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment