Tony and Love

by: friar Alejandro Arias, OFM Conv. "Arriving at an older age is to be considered a privilege: not simply because not everyone has the good fortune to reach this stage in life, but also, and above all, because this period provides real possibilities for better evaluating the past, for knowing and living more deeply the Paschal Mystery, for becoming an example in the Church for the whole People of God."
-Pope John Paul II



This is exactly what our brother Tony, is doing in his latter part of his life. He has been living the Paschal Mystery in a profound way that has inspired me to begin living a holier life. Tony is a person that has many stories to tell us about his life in Shamokin, PA, from his childhood, when most of the family life was surrounded by coal mining, to bar fights that he has witnessed, to moments that he has encountered Christ in people that he at least expected.
As young people, we think that we have all eternity to change our life. We might say, "I will try to work on my holiness when I am older," or we might  think, "I have committed many sins and that the possibility of becoming a saint will never happen". Those thoughts are temptations that prevent us from thinking that holiness is not a possibility. All of us are called to become saints; the only thing that is required in order to be holy is love. And this is what Tony has done. Tony has loved those who hated him and has loved those who love him and above all he has loved Christ and his Church. But loving someone is not easy, especially if it is a person that I really don’t like, but this is the perfect time to begin exercising our love through Christ by asking his help to teach us how to love. Tony is an example of how he lives his vocation of  love out of love for Christ, and his desire of sanctifying his own life by becoming love itself.

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