The Venerable Matt Talbot Resource Center exists to compile writings about the life, times, conversion, and recovery from alcoholism of Matt Talbot (1856-1925) of Dublin, Ireland. Disclaimer: The placing of information on this site from external linked sources does not necessarily imply agreement with that information. This center is independent of any other center, group, organization, website, or Facebook page. Comments are welcome at: ven.matt.talbot.resource.center@gmail.com
Patrick D. writes: 'But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you' (Mt. 5:44). I find this demand of Our Blessed Lord very, very hard to follow. I am tired of people walking over me. The more civil and subservient I am to them, the more this happens. So do I really have to pander to people to be a proper Christian? Fr Bernard McGuckian SJ replies.The Scripture passage you quote is from the famous Sermon on the Mount. Jesus starts off with a reminder and a demand for attention which he repeats no less than six times. 'You have heard how it was said... but I say this to you.'
There is an implication here of a divine right to speak in this way which was not lost on some of those listening. It would eventually lead to his crucifixion for making himself equal to God. He was claiming the right to tell them that what was good enough for their fathers was no longer good enough for them. He was also raising the tape for all of us. This is clear from what he says about killing, adultery, divorce, truthfulness, vengeance and the one in question here, love for enemies and persecutors.
Jesus is concerned about what goes on in the hidden places of the heart because this is where the great drama of every human life is played out. He sees very little worthy of praise in refraining from murder since he asserts that there will be hell to pay for even thinking or speaking badly of others. He astonished his listeners then, and still does, by suggesting that it is possible to commit adultery with a woman who is not even aware that someone is looking lustfully at her.
To God, what goes on in the secret of our hearts is as clear as day. He may or may not be impressed with what he sees. Again, there is nothing particularly godlike in showing love to people who are nice to us. If God limited himself to loving those who love him, where would we be? On the contrary, He does not withhold sunshine or rain from any of us, regardless of our conduct. Jesus presents this expression of divine mercy and compassion as a model for our imitation.
The big change that has taken place between the Old and New Testaments is that Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, is now among us in person. After his Passion, Death - and Resurrection, the 'amazing' grace that makes possible a higher moral standard is available to all humanity. However, we can choose to ignore Jesus and
his offer of help, thus depriving ourselves of the resources needed to live a fully Christian life. 'Cut off from me,' he said 'you can do nothing' (Jn.15:5).
Forgiving enemies is certainly one of the important things beyond the powers of unaided human nature. However, if we stay close to Jesus, accepting both his example and his grace, we will be empowered to share in his magnanimity on Calvary: 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do' (Lk.23-34).
You write about being 'civil and subservient'. I would be reluctant to bracket those two words together. The former is a virtue, the latter a vice. We should always be civil and courteous to other people but never subservient. Subservience, with its connotation of obsequiousness and servility is unworthy of a Christian. Often it is only a ploy, as in the case of Uriah Heep, in David Copperfield, immortalized in literature by Charles Dickens and sometimes described as 'humility with a hook'.
Venerable Matt Talbot, the saintly Dublin working man, showed how clearly he understood the distinction between appropriate respect and servility in a famous remark he made about the owner of the timber yard where lie worked: 'T. C. Martin is my boss. He is not my master.' Matt had only one Master. We should all imitate him in this.
'So, do I really have to pander to people in order to be a proper Christian?' My answer to this would be a categorical 'no'. To pander is to cater to the lower tastes and desires of others or exploit their weakness. One dictionary says that to pander is 'to satisfy another's whims, tastes or desires, especially where these are considered to be in some way inferior'.
This is worlds apart from what St. Paul had in mind when he said that he made 'himself all things to all people'. Entering sympathetically into the lives of others in a helpful way did not require him to approve of all that they did nor to lower his own personal standards. He wanted to do them good as he saw it. The same applies to each one of us.
Proper Christians don't pander to anybody. They try to love others as Christ loves them. They mustn't be like 'Poor Judd', the old curmudgeon in the musical Oklahoma. In one of the songs Curly tells us - tongue in cheek - that Judd really loved everybody and everything, only 'he never let on'. True love always finds a way of 'letting on'.
Source: http://www.catholicireland.net/pages/index.php?art=2301
Note: Fr. McGuckian is the Central Spiritual Director of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, of which Matt Talbot was an early member.
Whereas prayers to Matt Talbot are almost entirely focused on him as the patron for alcoholics and other addicts, this prayer was posted on a parish website that also views Matt among social justice saints and saintly people (JB)
Matthew Talbot, you were born into poverty, among a marginalized people, and you went right to the edge as an alcoholic.
By the same grace that rescued you from alienation and despair, we ask your intercession today on behalf of all who are marginalized in this world.
See how the strong prey upon the weak and the violence and despair and alienation and oppression which afflicts so many.
We pray that your example of solidarity with the poor will be an inspiration for many to follow your holy example. Amen
Source: http://standrewsv.org/socialconcerns/prayers.htm
and for the launch of One Man’s Serenity: The Venerable Matthew Talbot,
St Mary’s Cathedral Crypt
By Most Rev. Anthony Fisher OP
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
17/11/2007
Ours is an age of addictions: to substances such as alcohol and other drugs or junk food, to gambling, pornography and the internet, to night-clubs, entertainments and experiences, to work and professional advancement, to sex, money, power. In some ways, you might say, these are the ancient enemies, even if the e-technologies and the e-drugs provide new faces for them and a new drawing and holding power. When the first Christians sought to express what was distinctive about their faith and life, they focused especially on their new-found freedom from sex, money and power - the possessions that like demons take can possession of our souls. Some early Christians took the dramatic step of consecrating themselves to the so-called ‘evangelical counsels' of poverty, chastity and obedience. But even those Christians who were not called to such drastic renunciation were nonetheless expected to live free of such controlling forces. Nothing must get in the way of our true humanity and our freedom to give ourselves to the kingdom of God. Not even good things like family, friendship, conviviality, intimacy, food and drink, security, comfort…
The world has always needed examples of such ascetical renunciation, of people who can say No, not just to bad things (which we all should do), but even to some good things, because they know they are not good for them or that they must offer prophetic witness to the world around them. We probably need examples of radical poverty, chastity and obedience more than ever in our consumerist, sex-crazed, individualist age, and sadly there are too few priests and consecrated religious giving such witness today. Which casts the duty back on the laity.
Matthew Talbot, whom we celebrate tonight, demonstrates that ordinary people can do such extraordinary things. He illustrates that people can renounce even very desirable things such as alcohol, even if they suffer an almost-overwhelming physiological, or psychological, or social, or moral, or spiritual magnetism to such things. People can, by God’s grace and their own self-acceptance, say No. And in the meantime our community must never lose hope for them, must always care for them.
People need such heroes. Not heroes in the sense of comic book or movie superheroes with superhuman powers. Not sports stars or pop stars, all art and pizzazz but often little moral substance. No, ordinary people who against extraordinary odds do the right thing. Like saying no to an addiction or compulsion. Like helping those who are trying and maybe failing. Or like housing those fleeing demons of other kinds, such as domestic violence.
As a boy I knew that my grandfather had, while a senior public servant here in Sydney, often spent his lunchtimes or other spare time working as a volunteer at the old Matt Talbot hostel hostel. My parents, too, have devoted much of their supposed retirement to the works of the St Vincent de Paul Society. Both generations, like Matt Talbot's immediately before them, have by their example spoken to me about human possibilities under grace, of the great things that are possible even for ordinary people. Matt Talbot's life and inspiration, and the movements, institutions and individuals that honour him, point us forward to recovery and hope for those who will accept their weakness and need. Such people stand like beacons in our world, as the consecrated virgins of the first millennium or the habited religious of the second. Beacons of the abiding truth that we can give some things up in order to achieve some greater things.
Such people are beacons, also, of the fundamental religious truth that there is more to the human person and the world, more to life and all reality, than meets the eye. Our readings for this Sunday tell us that all that we see around us in this beautiful but broken world will one day come to an end. In the apocalyptic language of natural disaster and unnatural violence, the consummation of the world, the Dies Iræ, is predicted (Luke 21:5-19). In the meantime we are called to fortitude, forbearance, patience, especially in the face of external persecutions and internal weaknesses. That hard kind of endurance is a defining characteristic of the whole Christian life. And it is testified to in the lives of those like Matthew Talbot who deny themselves alcohol or some other comfort or intimacy or self-will for the sake of their own good or that of others. They point to another – a better – world, where all self-destructive or other-destructive drives will come to an end, where people will live in harmony of body, mind and spirit, in harmony too with each other, with creation and with God.
Our Gospel lesson tonight is clear enough: we all need to cultivate the habit and persevere in the act of unfailing watchfulness: standing ready, rejecting evil, vigilant through constant prayer and the practice of patience. Despite the dire predictions, this is not ultimately for the Christian a matter of living in fear and trembling – though a certain holy awe is always in order. Above all it is a matter of living with a quiet confidence: for Jesus teaches that we should look forward to his coming to us, or our coming to him.
Nor is this waiting a merely passive guard-duty: our watching and waiting, our praying and persevering, actually hastens the coming of God’s kingdom, in us and around us. That is why Paul counsels us to get to and do our bit, to get on with it (2 Thess 3:7-12). He is not just criticizing laziness and busy-bodiness, but also that kind of complacency or hopelessness that awaits Christ’s return in stupefying idleness or paralysing anxiety. No, he says, we apostles worked night and day for building up the kingdom of God and so should you.
The St Vincent de Paul Society – and the great work of all of you attached to the Matt Talbot Hostel in Woolloomooloo and your 37 homeless services and women’s refuges in NSW-ACT operating under the banner of Matt Talbot Homeless Services – could never be accused of just sitting back and waiting for things to happen. We thank God and you for your generous service. In following the inspiration of St Vincent de Paul, Blessed Frederick Ozanam and Venerable Matt Talbot you tell the world that there is more to life than “sex and drugs and rock’n’roll”; that there is hope for every broken heart; and that by God’s love and yours God’s kingdom comes – into our hearts, our homes, our world.
That is a sight ultimately more persuasive than earthquakes, plagues and any other ‘heavenly’ signs. We Christians live the future even in the here and now. We accept our responsibility with regard to our times and invest each moment with its full weight of eternity. We know the importance of our rôle in rousing our slumbering world which is in danger of losing its soul through addiction to consumerism, violence, ideology, self-indulgence. So it is we who are called to be the signs of the end-times, to work hard to change what we can and to entrust what we can’t to God: serenely to let God’s kingdom come, now on earth as it is in heaven.
Source: http://www.sydney.catholic.org.au/People/Bishops/Fisher/20071117_800.shtml
| Why should I make any New Year's Resolutions? I never keep them. Almost all of us have had the experience of wanting to begin a new year resolving to improve, to do some things better than we have before. It is natural to have hope, to want to believe we aren't stuck in the ways we currently behave, and yet, all of us have the experience that we haven't done too well with our past resolutions. In fact, at this time of the year, the newspaper cartoons almost always point out the humorous side of our trying to make resolutions that don't seem to have a chance of succeeding. Why do our resolutions so often fail? So often our good intentions fail and fail quickly. There are many reasons, of course, and some of them relate to how realistic our resolving is, but sometimes, we resolve to end addictive behavior without really giving it a chance. Most of the time, most of our resolutions are our best attempts at just having stronger will power. Though there are outstanding examples of heroic virtue, and some people really do quit addictive behavior "cold turkey," there are far too many examples of failure. One instinct deep in Ignatian Spirituality is the sense that, while it is good to develop stronger will power and self-control, real change in our lives actually happens most reliably when it comes from our deepest desires. Ignatius knew, from his own experience, just as we often discover in therapy, in spiritual direction, upon reflection on our own experience, that usually do what we want to do. We rarely do what we don't want to do. The secret to change is to reform our desires - discovering what our deepest desires are and trying to change or re-form them. This was no self-help process for Ignatius and many of the Saints. It was the process of getting to know Jesus and falling in love with him. Once we fall in love with someone, all our desiring changes. Don't I already know Jesus? Don't I already have a relationship with him? Often this sounds too simple to us. Don't I already know Jesus? Haven't I already fallen in love with him? Of course, hearing the invitation at the beginning of this new year to examine our relationships with Jesus, and let them be renewed this upcoming year, begins with the freedom to acknowledge that there is room for growth here. And, it starts with something of an attraction, a small desire, even a bit of curiosity that wonders, "What more can I discover? How might my heart be more captured by Jesus?" Love always directs our hearts. But, there are other spirits, too. At times we discover the sad reality that falling out of love changes our hearts dramatically, too. Once we lose that affection, that attraction, that draw, then trouble begins. Whereas before we experienced a wonderful energy that wants to spend as much time as we can with someone we love, and wants to do anything we can for the one we love, now we experience a coolness, an emptiness, a distance, and unfortunately, at times, the other starts to annoy us. Sometimes we say, "it just happened," but upon reflection, we realize sadly that there was sin involved. We made some bad choices, some selfish choices. We stopped contributing to the relationship. What isn't growing is usually dying. And, of course, sin is contagious and we live in a culture that doesn't support self-less loving. There are the messages: What about me? What about my needs? We tend to keep score. There are bad spirits among us that seem determined to make loving difficult, that seem to prevent wounds from healing, that seem to promote division, highlight differences and ultimately lead to war. This whole pattern, which we have understood as "Original Sin" has described for us what we is overcome by Jesus' coming, and by his life, death, resurrection and gift of the Spirit. Jesus destroyed sin and death's power over us. Re-connecting with him this new year is re-connecting with his power to free our hearts to love again. How do we get to know and fall in love with Jesus? Getting to get to know Jesus in a new way, at a deeper level is just like getting to know anyone. We begin by spending more time with a person. We pay attention to them. We get to know their story more completely. Eventually, we become more and more curious and more and more fascinated by how the person acts, what motivates that person, how he or she thinks. Of course, the key here is not only to learn more about Jesus, but to come to really know him, to experience a relationship. It is easy to imagine that Jesus knows me. It is more difficult to imagine that I am in a relationship with Jesus, and we know each other and there is something special about this relationship. For example, some of us will get to know Jesus and become really fascinated by his mother and father and that will shape our sense of who he is and our relationship with him. Some of us will come to love the way he chooses and interacts with his disciples. Many of us will learn a great deal about Jesus from how he tells stories and reveals things about God and about the Kingdom of God. Still others of us will become engaged by how Jesus interacts with and heals sinners and sick people. Perhaps we will identify with this or that story which will characterize our particular relationship with him. What about my resolutions? While we are getting to get to know the Lord the things we may have been tempted to resolve begin to change. We may still need to lose weight and exercise more, but what will inevitably rise to the surface are patterns that are like his. Attraction so naturally leads to imitation. The more we fall in love with this wonderful Lord and his powerful way of loving and surrendering his life to the plan of the Father, that he be Servant for us, the more we will open our hearts to ask the Father to use us, to be servants, too. Then our desiring starts to be transformed. We will gradually and more deeply begin to ask for the graces we need - which is a more humble place to begin that making bold promises. We'll ask our Lord to purify our desiring. We ask to for the grace to be drawn into the pattern of Jesus' loving and forgiving. We ask for the desire to surrender more, to let go of our own needs more completely so that we can give ourselves to the needs of others first. We will begin to see the people closest to us with Jesus' eyes, with Jesus' heart. Our love for them won't depend upon how much they please us or even how much they reciprocate our love. That isn't the way Jesus loves us. Jesus loves us because we are sinners. Jesus loves us because we need forgiving and healing. Jesus loves us because we need loving. Gradually, our resolutions get freer and more about self-donation. We say, "Lord, these are my desires and I am asking you for the grace to live them." Gradually, the other spirits lose their power, their attraction. As Jesus confronts and contradicts the values of our culture in us and around us, the sillier all that kind of desiring becomes. We don't change our way of consuming and change our way of seeing our role in the world or hear the cry of the poor day after day by strengthening our will power. Our life style and our choices really become transformed when we become people who know, beyond anything else, that we are loved unconditionally by our God. When we become lovers of Jesus, we will naturally love the way he loves. When we become followers of Jesus this will be a blessed new year, indeed. And those who are sinners among us, the poor around the world, and those who suffer the tragic effects of sin, division and war, will experience the difference. |
For many of us, the beginning of a new year means making a list of resolutions. But did you know that God also has a New Year’s resolution? His resolution is to bless you! His resolution is to transform your life as you embrace his vision for you.
We spend so much of our Christian lives thinking about what we are supposed to do for God. But what about all the things that God intends to do for us? And what better example of the generosity and kindness of God can we have for this disposition than the Virgin Mary? Before she was even conceived, Mary was marked out by God to be the mother of his Son. From the moment of her conception, the Lord blessed her and kept her, preserving her from the stain of original sin. She did nothing to earn such a blessing. It was bestowed upon her by a loving, generous God.
What about you? Are you spending today thinking only of the ways you are going to change your life? Don’t limit yourself! Don’t limit God! He sees you as precious and unique. He rejoices over you and wants the best for you in all things. He is determined to stand up for you and intervene in your life. Perhaps today, as a new year begins, you can take some time to recall all the ways God has blessed you in the past and then tell him that you want to receive his gifts this year as well.
No matter what you face this year, trust that God can give you his peace. Believe that his face is always shining on you. Then when challenges arise, just turn your face to him, and you will know his strength and his presence. God has an amazing year in store for you! So be like Mary, and stay close to him. Let nothing block his flow of blessings!
Note: for more information about the "Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God," see http://www.churchyear.net/motherofgod.html
|
Conversation in heaven.
In ancient hagiography one often reads that this or that particular saint, because of his deep recollection and prayer, lived more in heaven than on earth. Of course such behavior would indicate great holiness and union with God. When I was little, not a few people told my parents that I was using religion as an escape - a remarkable thing to say about a little kid, don’t you think?
Priests say the darndest things.
Surprisingly, the most notable person to say it happened to be a priest; in his opinion, because I wasn’t good at sports, I took refuge in pious devotions. He told my parents I should be playing baseball rather than making visits to the Blessed Sacrament. (In my day, a boy who came from a mixed marriage - my dad was Lutheran - and whose parent(s) had been divorced, was considered ineligible for priesthood. These things were impediments and required a dispensation - hence the priest probably thought I was wasting my time praying.)
Imitating those who imitated Christ.
In some respects, I suppose the priest was correct, I expect I had found an escape from a very difficult home life, although, I learned from a very early age that heaven is my true home, and my family there is my support. Therefore, from the age of 5 or 6, I developed an attachment to the saints, the Blessed Virgin, and Jesus in the Eucharist. I read about the saints - often reading stories of my favorites over and over, I tried to imitate their virtue and prayer, but I failed miserably. Perhaps the one thing I might have done as well as the saints, is to frequent the sacrament of penance - but that is about it.
Nevertheless, they became my companions and very best friends. They were my confidantes and teachers. In fact, I attribute my success in certain studies such as history, geography, and language to my knowing the saints, who took me (my imagination) all over the world.
What becomes of the broken hearted?
Growing up, I maintained my relationship with the saints, who never abandoned me even though I abandoned the faith for a short time as a young adult. Today, they remain a part of my life in a much deeper way, and I see how their prayers have helped me, even delivered me from so much evil, while being such a consolation in this long loneliness of life.
This morning at prayer I suddenly thought of Matt Talbot, and I began to reflect upon his life. It seemed as if he purposely came along this morning to remind me of something he once said, “How can a man be lonely when he has Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament?”
You see Matt renounced a life of dissipation and alcoholism, and after his conversion, he lived as a penitent the rest of his life. That meant he left behind his bar friends, who had no time for him anyway since he wasn’t drinking. He embraced a life of celibacy, convinced Our Lady desired this for him. His loneliness was filled with prayer and devotion to the saints, Our Lady, and Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Matt balanced his life of prayer with labor and good works.
How can a young man remain sinless?
Matt reminded me how lonely it can be for younger people who happen to be in difficult situations in life. I remember when I was in my early 20’s, I was scared a part of my body would wither and fall off if I embraced a life of chastity - I’m serious. I remember one night coming home from the bars - alone - crying out to God: “Please, please, let me find someone - I just want to have someone to love me and share my life with.” Loneliness is a killer. (Yet God hears every prayer.)
The practice of the presence of God.
After many fallings and risings, I rediscovered Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, as well as my friendship with the saints; and early on, Matt was one of many who taught me how to live alone with the Great Alone - God, in His angels and in His saints. If we learn to practice the presence of God we realize we are never alone, and that only God can fill our loneliness. And in so doing, He heals the wounds that aggravate the pain.
Note: Additional postings by Terry about Matt Talbot can be found at http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/search?q=terry+nelson
Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Catholic Exchange
November 1, 2008
Feast of All Saints
Rev 7:2-4, 9-14 / 1 Jn 3:1-3 / Mt 5:1-12
As we mark this Feast of All Saints, it’s fascinating to remember where some of the better known saints started out and how their lives proceeded. St. Matthew was a tax collector. St. Mary Magdelene practiced the oldest profession in the world. St. Peter was impetuous and something of a blowhard, and he had to be pressed hard before he’d let gentiles become Christians unless they first became Jews! The whole lot of the Apostles ran for the hills when Jesus was taken captive in the Garden of Gethsemane, and that was just a short while after their robust promise that they’d follow Him anywhere and die with Him if need be.
The list could go on and on, but the point is a simple one: none of these great saints started out as saints. Quite the contrary was true. They slowly and painstakingly evolved into holy men and women, with many starts and stops and numerous temporary reversals. And very often, as many of them have testified in their diaries, they suffered from deep discouragement at their lack of progress and their frequent mistakes. St. Paul spoke for them and for us all when said in anguish, “The good that I would do, I do not.” Isn’t it the truth.
There’s a lesson in all this for us who are still struggling along our own roads: Growing up into God’s image and likeness takes a long time. It’s a lifetime work, and God understands that. After all, He’s the one who put us together.
So take heart. Rejoice in the little triumphs as they happen. Each one brings you a step closer to home. Each one brings you a step closer to the embrace of our Father.
Source: http://catholicexchange.com/2008/11/01/87389/
Note: Venerable Matt Talbot would in all probability be absolutely shocked that we would remember his life today as one proposed for sainthood, but God had other plans.
The last paragraph of this homily reminds us of a recovering friend who is known for saying at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, "Hi, I'm Barb. Thanks to God and this program, I am alive and sober today and one day closer to home."
