The Brilliance of the (formally) Uneducated - St. Anthony!

To educate means to "lead out," presumably from the darkness of error and ignorance. It should, therefore, open the mind and fine tune the senses to see and discern goodness, truth, and beauty. What a pity it is then, that so many persons with papers framed on their walls consider themselves more educated than the man who comes to pick up their garbage! All that hard work and privilege has somehow elevated the educated person above the rest. After all they revel in debating the use of anthropomorphism, the cause of fall of Rome, the intricacies of neuroscience, or how to get a good picture of Mars... such wonderful knowledge to make the world a better place!

But, is it really more valuable than being able to fix a leak? Operate a welding torch? Put out fires? Raise children? Paint a beautiful picture? What has gotten into our minds that elevates one genius over the other? Or that demands that we be genius at all?

The real genius, and here I borrow from someone who I can't recall ---- oh, yes, St. Max! ---- is the saint. Because the saint is the one who leads souls from darkness. They lead us out of our own confusion and pride - that wicked, blinding attribute. This is why St. Francis was quite hesitant, even afraid, to have his friars formally educated! It took such prayer and intercession for St. Anthony (the man of the hour) to be able to teach and preach.

Holiness must come first, and then our education will do the world some real good. Now, the strange thing is that one can be holy and become wise through the spirit. But no one who was brilliant ever became wise without holiness. In fact, with St. Francis I would argue that this brilliant intelligence may very well impede wisdom.... for one falls back on acquired knowledge and remains stuck. But, with St. Anthony I will remain standing. There is a necessary place for education of the mind - leading the intellect from darkness to the light of all that is True. A real, solid education, therefore, makes one humble.

Those of us with degrees of all levels, and possible degrees in the future, and near degrees but for a few units, let us not fool ourselves. They are valuable, to be sure, but only in proportion to the humility gained in the knowledge of God. In the end, then, they are no more valuable than the contractors license, or the waste collectors permit, or the officer's badge. But, if this be God's will for us, they are very valuable indeed.... in fact, worth a Kingdom!

St. Anthony, pray for us!

The Death of Pride

"..bend the proud neck of the world to the feet of the Immaculata..."

It has been said, jokingly, that a man is head of the house, but the woman is the neck - because she controls the head. Similiarly, we can say, more realistically, that we claim God as our Head and still have Pride for a neck. This does no good. As long as pride - any amount of it - lies within us unchecked, it will have a certain amount of control over our lives. It will go so far as to attempt to control the Head, our God, and His Will over us. Therefore, we must pray to uproot all pride and for the courage to face our sinfulness in order to submit wholly to the Will of God.

At the same time, many of our brothers and sisters do not realize that they have a Head. They run around "headless" - no sense of direction, no sense of wholeness, no sense of authority, no sense of personal integrity, and unfortunately no sense of the power of our intellect and rationality. They are, individually, and as a whole - controlled then by the neck of Pride. Their eyes are turned inward on themselves, or outward on false riches. All the while they are empty, desperate, and really quite alone.

It is our duty, as St. Maximilian Kolbe reminds us, to "bend the proud neck of the world to the feet of the Immaculata." We first of all must turn our own gaze to her, and the rest will follow. For, when the proud neck bends at the command of the Head, it gazes on its enemy's destruction --- Pride, crushed under the feet of the Immaculate. We are thus free, controlled not by self love, but by the Love of God. We are free to love selflessly and eternally, giving back to the Trinity that great love first poured out on us.

As we approach Christmas we may meditate on the humility of the Holy Family. Mary the virgin mother, Joseph the gentle protector, and Jesus the Infant Savior.