“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some people will hear today.” (Saint Francis of Assisi).
Roman Ligocka is a Jewish woman who was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1938. During the German occupation of Poland, her father was incarcerated in various concentration camps, including Auschwitz. Ligocka and her mother were taken to the Kraków Ghetto; but prior to the end of the ghetto in 1943, they escaped and hid with a Polish family. Following the end of the Second World War, Ligocka studied painting and scenic design and worked as a theatre and film set-designer before she and her husband migrated from Communist Poland to Munich, Germany in 1965, where she continued with her creative work.
Recently, I read an account that Roma Ligocka told of an incident that happened in communist Poland when she was young, during a summer camp. One day – in the camp – all the children and their camp leaders were singing songs together. At one point the camp-leader began singing a revolutionary song that was offensive to God. Suddenly, one of the other girls in the group, stood up – obviously petrified – and said to the leader, with tears in her eyes, “I do not sing against God.” There was only silence and then the camp leader began a new song and nobody spoke about the girl’s reaction again.
Ligocka explains how in that moment – witnessing that other girl’s stance – something changed. That girl’s NO shook something in Ligocka because on that night Ligocka discovered that… “There are people who have the courage to stand up and say 'No'."
And that courage reminds me of the witness of the Saints… And I have been reflecting very much about the life of Saint John the Baptist…
“Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison, for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife; because John said to him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’ And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet… His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. 12 John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.” (Matthew 14:1-12).
You see, Saint John the Baptist said NO to King Herod in relation to his marriage – just as Saint John Fisher and Saint Thomas More said NO to King Henry VIII of England in relation to his marriage...
For these saints understood the words of Christ, who said, “Have no fear of them; for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known... everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in Heaven.” (Matthew 10:26).
And I have been reflecting on these deeds of those saints in taking courage to say NO – for as Saint Francis of Assisi said, “The deeds you do may be the only sermon some people will hear today.” – and I pray for the Grace to do such deeds that will be a sermon for some people today…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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