Chapter Eleven – Who Will Be Next?

As we close out Part Two – The Authentic Life – we come to the inevitable question of “Who Will Be Next?” Matthew Kelly has set out a clear case that the Church and the world need saints. People who are willing to acknowledge God’s will for their lives; people who are dedicated to prayer and striving for virtue. Throughout history, great transformations and movements within the Church have come from outside the expected channels. So who and what will be the greatest influence in determining our future? To whom does the future belong? Is it us?

Matthew takes an interesting approach in his methodology for affecting change. Storytelling. He believes that the future belongs to the storytellers; the musicians, the movie producers, the business leaders, the teachers, the preachers, the poets, the philosophers, the mothers, the fathers . . . all of us, as we are all storytellers. What are the stories we will tell? Great periods in our history emerge when great stories are told and lived. Stories are histories that form the future; they are prophecies set in the past; they are the things that captivate our imagination, enchant our minds, and empower our spirits.

Did you know that sixty-five percent of the Gospels are stories or parables? If we wish to raise a new generation of saints, we need to be mindful of the fact that the stories we tell today are forming the future. We need to tell and retell the stories of people like Padre Pio, Mother Teresa, and John Paul II to help inspire a new generation of Catholics who will take up the challenge to live a life seeking holiness. The lives of these saints are stories of virtue and character. If we read and listen to them over and over again, our lives can become examples of that same virtue and character, because we become the stories we listen to.

What are you willing to live for? Joan of Arc wrote the following just before her death: “I know this now. Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, and yet they give their lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have, and we live it as we believe in living it and then it’s gone.” What are you giving your life for today? Our lives are brief in the construct of eternity. We should see and live life as God would have us live it – each moment seen as precious and lived with vibrant enthusiasm. 

Teresa of Avila encourages us, “Remember, you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and there is only one glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be a great many things about which you care nothing.” Matthew says is it for us to find our place in the history of humanity. Nobody can do it for us. It will be a work left undone unless we do it ourselves. It falls to each person to find their role, their place. Matthew says it plainly: Be a saint. Be yourself. Perfectly yourself.

So who will be next? If not you then who? Marianne Williamson has some wonderful words to encourage us to step up to this challenge:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel secure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

One thing is necessary for Catholicism to flourish: authentic lives. The stage is set. The world awaits our response.

Question

What does living an authentic life mean to you?

In peace,
Dan