Exercise The Gifts You Have Been Given

Feast of St. Anthony of Padua 2025

(with readings from the Franciscan lectionary)

Grace is indeed given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. When the Holy Spirit brings us into the Church, He gives us one or more gifts, as St. Paul teaches. They may be obvious, building on our natural talents, or they may be hidden. Some are called to mission among people who don’t know the Gospel; others are called to prophecy, to speak or write the truth to people in ways that will convert their hearts to the way of Christ. And there are gifts of teaching and leading others in that way. Overall, the Spirit brings us together with all our gifts to “build up the body of Christ.” We just heard, “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” We are all called to grow, to change, so that when we sleep for the final time, we are truly images of Christ.

Then we will for all eternity proclaim, “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” We are not called to the Christian life only for our own benefit. We are called to image Christ so as to draw others—many others—to Christ in His Church.

As St. Mark wrote: Jesus said as His last words to believers, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.” That sounds like the life of the great saint, Francis of Assisi, who was known for preaching even to animals in the field and forest. He was that much overflowing with love for all creation.

Today we celebrate the life and work of one of Francis’s disciples, known here locally as San Antonio de Padua. He was originally called by God into the Augustinian order, the community of Pope Leo, but the Franciscans were also very active in those days, and when the bodies of the first five Franciscan martyrs were returned to Europe from Morocco, where they had been murdered for preaching the faith, he requested the Franciscan habit and was taken into that community. But his intention to preach in Morocco was blown off course when his ship, because of storm and high seas, took him to Sicily. Eventually he was assigned to Italy, and by chance, the Franciscans heard him preach and realized that his fire and holiness could be most effective with the poor they worked with.

His life from that point was filled with teaching and preaching and miracles. Historians tell us that he was so effective because he presented the Christian way of life in positive ways, not appealing to fear but to love. In his last Lent it is recorded that the crowds were so huge that he had to preach in piazzas or open fields. He would then spend the rest of the day reconciling penitents to Christ and the Church. He died at the age of thirty-six after just ten years with the Franciscans. Holiness is available by God’s grace to anyone who wishes to follow Christ, even when our own plans are disrupted.