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Introduction: Popular
Devotion
For most of my life,
I have asked St. Anthony of Padua to work overtime. It began
when I left my arithmetic textbook on the school bus and intensified
when I lost the new coat my parents had given me. Now I invoke
this saint regularly when I lose my keys and my Blackberry. In
fact, the parish where my parents worship is named for St. Anthony
and on Tuesdays, whenever possible, they pray the St. Anthony
Novena. The refrain of the sequence which is part of that Novena
remains a part of me: “The sea withdraws and fetters break, and
withered limbs he doth restore, while treasures lost are found
again, when young or old his help implore.”
Since St. Anthony
is enjoying the beatific vision, I’m sure he doesn’t mind helping
us find lowly items like keys and I-phones. But notice that the
refrain just quoted doesn’t speak of things like that. Instead,
it speaks of treasures: “while treasures lost are found again…”
Yet again, I don’t think this means we should ask St. Anthony
to find us a hidden stash of cash, diamonds, or gold coins. Instead,
this saint can be counted on to help us find a treasure at once
more profound and beautiful.
The Life and Times of St. Anthony
We can figure out the real treasure St. Anthony will help us
find and keep by reflecting for just a minute or two on his life
and times. He was born of noble parents in Lisbon, Portugal,
in 1195 and lived until 1231; at the age of 15 entered monastic
life. Anthony soon became an expert in Sacred Scripture, the
soul of theology.
Yet, Anthony himself was still searching. He
found the life in that monastery to be lacking in zeal and holiness.
His search was rewarded when he learned of the Franciscans who
had been martyred in Morocco, the first of the Franciscan martyrs.
So in 1220, St. Anthony entered the Franciscans, a time when
the founder, St. Francis of Assisi, was still alive. In Francis’
spirit of poverty, Anthony of Padua found his treasure.
Finding
that treasure, however, was not the end of the story but rather
the opening of a new chapter. Impelled by the love of Christ,
he went to Morocco as a missionary. As an ambassador for Christ,
he went there to search for souls, to help those who were not
Christian to discover and find the only name in heaven and on
earth by which we are saved, the holy name of Jesus.
Because
of serious illness, he could not remain in Morocco but found
himself called to preach against heresies in Italy and France.
Anthony, by all accounts, was a gentle man with a tender love
for the child Jesus. Yet he combined gentleness with strength.
His preaching against the heresies of the day was so decisive,
that he earned the title, “hammer of heretics.” Anthony aimed
to ensure that the true faith would not be lost or that it would
be recovered in instances where it was lost or distorted. In
this way, he practiced what St. Paul calls, the “ministry of
reconciliation.” For reconciliation as preached by Paul and Anthony
is not merely a question of feeling better about one’s opponents
or being mindlessly tolerant – but rather a question of being
reconciled to the truth. For it is truth that turns the key which
opens the treasury of graces of the God who is love.
In 1223,
St. Anthony was appointed by St. Francis as a professor of theology
for the Friars. There too, St. Anthony helped his brother Franciscans
to recover a treasure. In this case, it was the theology of St.
Augustine, the great bishop of Hippo and doctor of the Church
from the 5th century. In teaching Scripture and theology of St.
Augustine, St. Anthony indeed led his friars to the sources of
the Christian tradition and helped them discover its depth and
beauty.
How St. Anthony Helps Us
No doubt I will still continue
to ask St. Anthony to help me find what I absent-mindedly misplace
and lose – but if that’s all I do, then I am selling this great
saint short. Rather, we should invoke his help in seeking to
recover, for ourselves and for those who will come after us,
the deposit of faith. In introducing the Catechism
of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul the Great said: “Guarding the deposit
of faith is the mission which the Lord entrusted to his Church.”
“To be the strong right arm of the Church,” we must continually
seek and find an ever deeper understanding and love for the faith
the Church professes. We cannot effectively defend the Church
and foster her life without equipping ourselves to share in the
work of guarding and spreading the precious deposit of Christian
doctrine to fellow Catholics and to people of good will.
To find
this treasure, we do not have to go on a treasure hunt in far
flung places. Rather, we must open our minds and hearts to the
teaching of Christ as it comes to us through the Church and as
it comes to us through the extraordinary resources of the Knights
of Columbus. Aided by the prayers of St. Anthony may we continually
find the treasure of our faith and thus exclaim with St. Paul
in his letter to the Romans: “O the depths of the riches and
wisdom and knowledge of God!”
St. Anthony, pray for us!
Return to the Writings of Bishop
Lori
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