"The Wheat of Christ

"Permit me to imitate my suffering God ... I am God's wheat and I shall be ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may become the pure bread of Christ."  This beautiful and oft quoted statement of St. Ignatius of Antioch reminds us of the suffering and persecution that has existed since the earliest days of the Church.  Though we may not be thrown into an amphitheater full of hungry lions, our daily "grind"  permits us to adopt these words and make them our own.  Most of the time we are our own lions, allowing our unrest, our anxieties, impatience and limitations stymie us, devour us.  St. Ignatius teaches us that we should, for the sake of imitating Jesus, invite him to replace all these impasses with his rest, calm, patience and perfection.  Let Jesus make bread from our bland and imperfect wheat, and we will find that he will use us to feed others in ways we never imagined.
This morning, we invited thirty Central Catholic Students to consider the life of a Marist Brother.  We reminded them that as they are even now, the potential for doing good is beyond their imagination.  When I think of myself at their age, and what God has done with me since, I am awed and humbled.  We all have the potential to be ground into the finest wheat and become the bread that will nourish others.
Bro. Rene