March 30, 2007

“In Vino Veritas.” While some of you may not be Latin scholars, you may be familiar with this saying, which means, “In wine, there is truth.” Simply put, when a person drinks, they are often uninhibited, and therefore say what’s really on their mind. Well, wine isn’t the only key which unlocks the lips, the other is anger. When a person in enraged, watch out, not only may dishes and furniture fly, but something worse may hit you—the truth!

I have heard it said that there are only two kinds of people who always tell us the truth—our best friends and our worst enemies! Yet, perhaps now we can ask a question: “How open are we to receiving the truth?” I believe one answer fits all. Our openness to the truth is equal to our degree of humility. This means that if a person is very proud, they will resist the truth, even if it comes from a friend. It also means that if a person is very humble, they will accept the truth, even if it comes from an enemy.

If you have any knowledge of the saints, you already know they come in many types, shapes, and sizes. However, when I was a child, I thought saints were only monks or nuns who spent much of their day posing for the holy cards that my grandmother had propped up atop her bedroom bureau. I can still picture the haloed saints kneeling on a cold stone floor, gazing intently at a crucifix; meanwhile, outside the stone arched window, hovering high in a blue sky with puffy clouds, were chubby angels gently casting rose petals to the earth.

What is the connection, the bridge, between truth and the saints? Well, spiritual writers all would say the same thing: “humility.” Humility is the way in which one becomes a saint—not a pastel-colored “holy card saint,” but one made of flesh, blood, and bone. In reality, there is only one kind, because the “saints” who are portrayed in art on holy cards may not have looked very holy on the outside, but certainly were holy on the inside. They had an interior life by which they enjoyed earthly pleasures, yet knew their limits in making themselves happy. The saint’s body is on earth, but his heart is in heaven.

If you are familiar with a person noted for holiness, you will immediately recognize one thing: they know themselves. A holy person doesn’t just love God, they love everything which God has created, including themselves. A saint never suffers from “poor self image,” but rather “true self image”—a condition brought about by grace, and which causes sorrow in their soul. This is the “mourning” spoken about in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” A holy person, that is, the person who radically conforms their will to God, experiences a certain sorrow because they know that God is not receiving from them that love which is desired and deserved.

Saint Francis would often say, “What a man is before God, that he is and no more.” Rather than measuring themselves and their accomplishments by their own standards, holy people allow God to do the measuring; and God’s measure of authentic human accomplishment is Jesus. Some people stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their neighbor or coworker and say, “Hey, I’m not that bad!” Yet, stand aside the Savior, the true standard of sanctity, and we see ourselves as we really are.

Lent is an opportunity for us to step aside and spend some time alone and in silence to look at ourselves—our choices, our behavior, our words, and our direction in life. This quiet leave from others may simply mean we turn off the car radio, get up extra early to take a stroll, or make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. It is really through prayer that we come into the presence of God—Who knows all, sees all, and is most merciful to all. Next to Him, where we are humbled, we recognize those things which frustrate His workings in our day-to-day lives, namely, pride, ingratitude, sensuality, resentment and unforgiveness.

Admittedly, truth sometimes comes easier with some help from the vine, but to willingly receive and deeply live the truth, we must go to “the True Vine.” In Iesum, veritas et humilitas!

Fr. Glenn Sudano, CFR

Most Blessed Sacrament Friary, Newark, NJ

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