Stanley Rother
one
A reading from
the holy Gospel according to Matthew
13:44-46
1. Jesus said to his disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” The Gospel of the Lord.
This was the Gospel we heard at Mass last Wednesday, July 28. That day was also the optional memorial of Blessed Stanley Rother. Stanley was born March 27, 1935 in Oklahoma and died at the age of 46 in Santiago, Guatemala, killed by a right wing death squad. He is the first US-born priest and martyr to be beatified by the Catholic Church.
I bring Blessed Stanley up, not just because of my particular admiration and love of this holy man. But because he, along with all the other Saints and martyrs, demonstrates through his life and death, that he had found the treasure which Jesus just spoke to us about.
Have we found that treasure?
Our Father who art in Heaven. . .
two
As is the case of all the lives of the holy men and women that we call the Saints, there is much to be said about them and what they did for the good of humanity. Blessed Stanley is no different. Looking back at our Gospel from Wednesday we hear Jesus say, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure, buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Stanley had searched for God, for Heaven, for that otherworldly treasure. To locate it mustn’t have been easy for him, and for that matter, for any of us. Jesus makes that understood by the fact that He said, the treasure “was buried in a field.” Now think about that. Imagine a huge field, tilled or untilled. It would be difficult enough to find an object in it, but notice the other word Jesus used. The treasure was “buried”!!! Try finding a buried object, be it a treasure or otherwise!!! To discover it you need conviction, determination, dedication and especially you need good will. That good will is what distinguishes a saint from someone who isn’t a saint. St Thomas Aquinas when asked by his younger sister what she needed to become a saint, he replied, “You need to want it!” Do I want holiness like St Thomas Aquinas? Like Blessed Stanley Rother?
Our Father who art in Heaven . . .
three
“. . . and out of joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
To be able to go sell everything that a person has and to do it joyfully, must mean that they not only located the treasure but they saw it and in some ways experienced it’s incredible, inestimable, otherworldly worth! Otherwise you could not leave everything. You could maybe leave a few things, some things, even almost all you have, for a good, attractive, enticing treasure, but Blessed Stanley literally left everything. He had found God. He had found Heaven. And because he experienced God and fell in love with this Heavenly treasure, Stanley was able to do what is normally humanly impossible. Not only did he leave his family, friends, language, culture, the comforts of modern America, etc but he left his own safety and well-being. When he headed back to Guatemala after a brief visit to the States he knew that he probably would never see his family, his friends and his homeland again. He had discovered that his name was on a death list of the right-wing death squads. Because he had come to love God in the Guatemalan people he had chosen to serve, the hidden treasure he had found, he was able to say, and even more to show that, & I quote, “. The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger."
Have we found that hidden treasure that Blessed Stanley found?
Our Father who art in Heaven . . .
four
“On the morning of July 28, 1981, just after midnight, shooters broke into Father Stanley Rother's church's rectory and shot him twice in the head after a brief struggle.”
“and out of joy goes and sells all that he has. . .” No doubt Stanley “sold” a lot of what he had during the pilgrimage of his life. That is he let go of things that were not good for him, like his sins, his attachments, his thinking and mindset that at times may not have been Christ’s way of thinking. These are things that we all need to leave. We leave them in proportion to the depth of our relationship and friendship with Jesus. The deeper that is, the more we are able to let go, without even almost realizing it. We actually come to a point of not even noticing or worrying that our death is imminent. That is why St Catherine of Siena has this to say of the death of the Saints. (I am not quoting verbatim). “It appears to the eyes of humanity that these holy men and women die of old age, an illness, an accident or even by being killed, but actually they, the Saints die of joy.”
“. . . and out of joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field”
Our Father who art in Heaven
five
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field . . .
That field is our lives, our every day lives. Most days life just happens to us and we passively let it happen. Can we follow the example of the Saints and be more proactive? Can we see life, our every day life as that field that Jesus talks about? We could be the explorers looking for that buried treasure in the field of our lives. It is there, waiting to be discovered, longing to be discovered, organizing things so that we can discover it, because that treasure is our beloved and cherished friend, Jesus. Let us follow the invitation of bishop Robert Barron when he wrote:
“As you walk through the fields of life, be open to the inrushing of grace (that is Jesus), when you least expect it. And when it comes, give up anything that holds it back.” Blessed Stanley Rother, pray for us!
Our Father who art in Heaven. . .