[1]The founder of the Knights of Columbus, Fr. McGivney was a central figure in the growth of Catholicism in America, and he remains a model for today. His example of charity (love of neighbor), evangelization (inviting others to know and love God), and empowerment of the laity continues to bear fruit and guide Knights around the world.
Michael Joseph McGivney was born in Waterbury, Conn. in 1852, the first child of Patrick and Mary, who came to the U.S. in the great 19th century wave of Irish immigrants. Patrick was a molder working in the heat and noxious fumes of a brass mill. Mary gave birth to 13 children, six of whom died young, leaving Michael with four living sisters and two brothers. Life was not easy, especially for Catholic immigrant families who often faced prejudice, social exclusion, and financial and social disadvantages. Young Michael thus experienced, from an early age: grief, bigotry, and poverty. The sorrow is these behaviors remain the experience of many people still today. But Michael’s faith sustained him. At home and in church, he learned and embraced love, faith, fortitude, prayer and putting love of God above any earthly rewards.[2]
The greatest love story ever written, started with creation, Joshua is reminding the people whence they came, not for their own doing but by God’s plan of salvation, by God’s commitment to His covenant, and by God’s love for His children. This love story reaches a crescendo with Jesus, the bridegroom, on the cross, as the ultimate model of self-giving love for His bride, the Church. In Jesus’ response to the Pharisees question on the matter of divorce, Jesus expresses what a commitment to God is to be. Like the marital covenant between a man and woman, joined before God, and community witnesses, we hear, “therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate.” (Mt 19:6) But this can apply to any vocational call. Whether it’s marriage or single; priest, deacon, religious or lay; as a Knight of Columbus. A vocation, lived in the model of Jesus, a self-emptying love for others, especially the outcast, for the glory of God alone, is living and embracing our part of this greatest love story. Jesus tells us, “Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.” (Mt 19:12) “For [God’s] mercy endures forever.” (Ps 136:1)
Faith for Father McGivney and the Knights is not simply knowing the catechism, important as that is, it was about knowing personally embracing the mystery of the greatest love story, spiritually and physically. It was about putting into practice the Great Commandment of Jesus: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt 22:37-38) True to the parable of the Good Samaritan, love of neighbor does not stop at the church door. It goes out into the streets; to the shelters and soap kitchens; hospitals, and hospices; even to the seats of power, to be a voice for the voiceless, to make invisible the visible. It’s about encountering those on the margins of society, and those who, though successful in the eyes of the world, are poor in spirit, to bring them practical charity and fraternal love that Blessed Fr. McGivney is a model for today.
[1] Scripture (NABRE), 2 Corinthians 9:6-10; Matthew
19:3-12
[2] Webpage: https://www.fathermcgivney.org/ Blessed Michael McGivney “A Model for Today” © 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment