“Every stitch an act of Love for God”
I am really nervous about this homily: an SDB with meagre knowledge of Mary Mazzarello (MM) preaching to a group of FMA! Hence the written text! I asked at least three sisters to do this homily, all refused; so here I am.
One way of escaping this predicament of my ignorance about MM is to say something very generic, as one SDB suggested. But thanks to Sr Virginia, FMA, who gave me a cart-load of books, I shall say something related to MM. So be prepared also for a lengthy homily – giving me time to show that I have tried to read the “cart-load of books”!
If I were to be preaching to a group of SDB, I could be an expert on MM if I were to say to them: MM was born on 9th May 1837; had a hard and busy childhood and adolescence – looking after her own siblings – she being the eldest of eight children and a cousin who lived with them, and at one time going to live with the group of male cousins; during an attack of typhoid going to look after her relatives at the request of Fr Pestarino, the parish priest, and gets a serious attack of typhoid herself that weakens her for the rest of her life; together with Fr Pestarino founding the “Daughters of the Immaculate Union” – which becomes the foundational group for the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians; in that sense, Don Bosco did not found the congregation, but only adopts the group – now that is for the SDB here present. Surely, her spirituality was not given to long hours of prayers in the church, and in fact some of the members of the Union of Daughters of Immaculate disagree with her on that – this seems to be a meeting point with the spirituality of DB. I tend to think, it is the spirituality of Fr Pestarino that must been very much like that of DB, and hence the adoption of the group by DB was easier!! In fact, Fr Pestarino became an SDB himself! All the information may not be relevant to the FMA here present.
I could be also developing a whole sermon for the SDB – as I did last year in the Salesian community in London – on the four dimensions of the spirituality of Mornese – that I learnt so well, thanks to the SYM Forum of 2001 in Nairobi: the window, the well, the path, and the workshop. And I could be an expert on MM!
In any case, today, given this context, I shall focus on the workshop and particularly the opt-repeated phrase from Maria Dominica Mazzarello: “Every stitch be an act of Love for God!” I am going to break that up into three parts and explore a spirituality of work, also attempting to situate myself within the life and writings of MM.
This reflection has been prompted also by the current experiences of my own life: I work at least four days a week outside my residence – from 8.30 to 5pm – sitting in an office at a college; I work among a team of women – Blessed among women – and FMA at that! – having enjoyed four years of student life, and now having to do academic administration; I also see an obsession for work – mere activity – that I see among my brother-Salesians, I have often asked myself in the past months: What is the meaning of work? Why do I do what I do? Where do my priesthood and my current responsibility meet? And I find MM’s adage providing much meaning here: Let every stitch be an act of Love for God! Besides, perusing through “the cart-load books” that Sr Virginia lent me, one word that I saw so often on those pages was, “work”. “So here we are!” (Now that is quote from Pope Francis: “So here we are!”)
Every stitch: Work – Meaningful Use of Time
Let us look at “every stitch”. What is work? For me, work is the meaningful use of time. Way back in 1987, when I began my MPh in a Jesuit college, each one of us was expected to choose an academic guide from among the lecturers. This was not the same as the supervisor for the thesis, but an academic guide like a spiritual guide. And this is what my academic guide told me at our first meeting: “Selvam, you are now beginning the second cycle of tertiary level education. No one will come after you to see if you are studying or not. Divide your day into three parts of eight hours each. Sleep for eight hours; spend about eight hours for prayer, meals, personal care, exercise, and social activities; and work for eight hours at the desk.” And the wise elderly Jesuit – God rest his soul – went on: “If you have not worked for eight hours on a working day, you should feel guilty about eating that day!” I have tried to follow that rather religiously the rest of my life. And as I often tell my students: my intelligence is here – beating the buttocks! Intelligence is an outcome of warming the chair!
MM was quite conscientious in her own use of time. When the clock struck the hour, often she could be heard to comment, “An hour less in this world, another hour for which account must be rendered to God.”
Yes, work is the meaningful use of time. Meaningful use. It is not just running around the whole day. It is not simply spending half of the day carrying a pile of stones from one end of the compound to another, and for the rest of the day, carrying the same stones back to the former place. It is a meaningful use of time: this consists in planning our work and giving proper time for all other aspects of our life: prayer, community life, personal development. In 1879, writing to Sr Angela Vallese, the community animator of a house in Uruguay, MM says : “Work is the father of virtues…[but] while I recommend you to work, I also recommend that you take care of your health” (L 25,5).
The Book of Genesis says, God rested on the 7th day. Does God get tired that He needed to rest? The rest there means that God had a panoramic view of all that he had made. An evaluation of sorts: “God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good” (Gen 1:31). And this is the meaning of the Sabbath: a day to enjoy the fruits of our work in gratitude to God.
As religious and priests, we need to be very careful about work and time. Since our work may not be always tied to an orario (a timetable) and a salary, we might tend to overwork, or at the other extreme, we might spend 2 to 3 hours watching TV or video on a daily basis. Could we afford that? Are we aware that even the work that I do in the privacy of my room or the kitchen or the garden contributes to the development of a community, a nation, and humanity itself. The stitch!
Act of Love: Work as Redemptive
Let every stitch be an act of Love. I believe that the work we do, besides its mundane benefits, has a redemptive value. It is not the fat salary that the father brings to the family at the end of the day, that will create a happy home, but the spirit of sacrifice that the father endures through his work that will create a home. It is not the tasty food that the mother cooks that will keep a family healthy, but the sacrifice the mother endures in taking care of the family that will keep the family in wellbeing. It is not the power of my words that will touch the hearts of people I preach to but the trouble that I have gracefully taken to prepare a sermon that has a redemptive value.
Every stitch could be an act of Love. It is this love that makes us smile (at least try to smile) even when we are tired and fatigued: “Always be cheerful and in good humour,” MM used to say.
Love for God: God deserves the best
Finally, every stitch be an act of Love for God. MM believed that it is not teaching embroidery or any other fine work that earns merit in God’s eyes, “but that done with the most upright intention, no matter how common place in itself or according to the world’s judgement it might be.”
The concept of purity of intension is very well captured in the Jesuit motto: “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.” Now, doing things for the greater glory of God could imply two things. Firstly, doing things for the glory of God implies that I need to do what I do in the best way possible. No half measures. God deserves the best. In the Salesian parlance we say, “Doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way,” because we do it for God.
St Peter tells us in his First Letter: “Each one of you has received a special grace, so, like good stewards responsible for all these varied graces of God, put it at the service of others. If anyone is a speaker, let it be as the words of God, if anyone serves, let it be as in strength granted by God; so that in everything God may receive the glory, through Jesus Christ, since to him alone belong all glory and power for ever and ever. Amen” (1Pet 4:10-11).
Secondly, doing things for the glory of God also means that I am not attached to the immediate fruits my work. St Ignatius implied this in his “Holy Indifference”. MM would say, “We ought to go forward with great simplicity without looking for satisfaction in people or in the things of the world.”
This is a deeper level in the spirituality of work. It also means that sometimes I am able to put aside my own personal plans in the mission, to ensure a community project; to avoid jealousy and dissension in ministry in such a way that our work, our service, our ministry becomes worship! A true sign of the Kingdom of God.
This holy indifference also means that I can move from one commitment of work to another when called to do so. Remember, what Don Bosco told the first group of sisters lead by MM when they had to move from Mornese to Borgo San Martin: “You must be like the bees. When they get too numerous they swarm to another place… we must spread out and do more good.” And in fact, in 1876, even the community at Mornese itself had to move to Nizza so as to cater to more girls. The present Rector Major calls this, “New Frontiers!” All for the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls.
Even as a young lady, at Mornese, MM told her friend Petronilla, “We will open a needle work class for the young girls of the village and we will teach them to sew, but our principle aim will be to teach them to know God, to make them good, and save them from many dangers. From this moment, our every stitch be an act of Love for God. “
Let our every stitch be an act of Love for God. Happy feast to you all!
Sahaya G. Selvam, sdb
Nairobi, 11 May 2013