Abbey News
Sunday, October 11, 2009
CELEBRATE!
Join us today as we join the Church and especially the whole Cistercian Family in celebrating the canonization, along with four others, of our very own Saint Rafael Arnaiz Barone, monk of San Isidoro in Spain. Having died in 1938 at age 27 he is the youngest of the group being canonized.
Why, one wonders, would such a young man having lived only four years of a seemingly uneventful life in a Trappist monastery be found worthy of canonization? Perhaps the following quotations from an article about the Pastoral Letter "Seek the Face of God" written by seven Spanish Bishops to young people will shed some light on the matter:
The testimony of the young Trappist monk, the Bishops write, “leads us to strive for holiness in our particular vocation.” In fact, “the Church presents Brother Rafael as a model to be imitated, not to slavishly copy every aspect of his life, but to enlighten us in discerning the paths that God has marked out for us,” they added. If we more or less follow models, they can “be of little relevance or they can elevate us and urge us on. An ideal of little relevance produces a life of little relevance and and a holy ideal produces holy men and women. Rafael's model was none other than Jesus Christ,” the signers of the Letter said. It was for Him that the Blessed “renounced everything, his refined tastes, his affections, his vanity, his plans,” and became capable of “confronting difficult farewells in order to follow his vocation, embrace the impossible dream of becoming a monk, accepting an illness without a cure.”
This total adherence to Christ that Blessed Rafael undertook “is not an aspect of an entire life, but its essence, it was his life.” In fact, the Eucharist was for him “the center of irresistible attraction,” along with “the mother of Jesus, Mary.”
For the Spanish Bishops, the example of the Trappist monk is not lost: “May it not occur that we do not realize the treasure we have next to us [being in Spain], and that others will have to come from the outside to open our eyes.” Thus, they present the invitation to study the life of the future Saint and the exhortation to be “authentic” and to go “against the tide,” even aware of the fact that it is a difficult choice, due to the “many messages and many temptations against the path of the Gospel.”
Referring to the upcoming World Youth Day in Madrid 2011, the Bishops conclude their Letter asking that “Brother Rafael Arnaiz may accompany us as one of the co-patrons of the encounter, so that all the youth of the world can know the work of God in this young man of the 20th century.” (GT) (Agenzia Fides 1/10/2009)
As is well known before a canonization can take place the Church requires a miracle through the intercession of the person to be canonized. The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints has approved the miracle of the inexplicable cure of Begona Leon Alonso, a 38 year-old woman from Madrid who suffered from Hellp Syndrome during her pregnancy and went into a coma when doctors performed surgery to save her child. Details regarding the miracle attributed to Saint Rafael are published in this CNA article.
Normally his feast day would be celebrated on the date of his death. But in St. Rafael's case that is the feast day of Saint Isidore of Madrid so his feast has been transferred to the next day, April 27th. I'm sure Rafael is happy to defer to Isidore. A rather detailed account of his life can be found at Wikipedia and a shorter account appears in a YouTube biography.
Though no mention is made of St. Rafael in today's liturgy the readings a Mass could not be more suitable for recalling the life of Rafael as Fr. Justin points out in his homily for today. For our part we'll be commemorating our newly sainted brother with prayers of thanksgiving and festa fare in the refectory.
|
