twisted Iron

Sirach 48:1-14; Ps 97 Rejoice in the Lord, you just; Matthew 6:7-15

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga.

He was at an early age inspired to be holy.  He entered the jesuits and there sought to grow in perfection.  He died at the age of 23 dedicating himself to the sick and those infected with the plague.

He once wrote his brother stating, "I am a piece of twisted iron.  I entered the  Jesuits to be twisted straight."

A piece of twisted iron.

Many of us, if not all of us, can relate to St. Aloysius.  We are all twisted iron in need to be twisted straight.

By discipline, proper guidance, prayer, and grace the process of being untwisted begins in our life.

Every examination, every act of contrition, every bended knee spurs the process on.

At the very heart of being untwisted is the gospel for today.  Jesus invites us to step into the furnace.  Each time we recite the prayer he teaches us, we allow grace to take over and our will and intellect get a little more untwisted.

I was speaking to a contractor the other day.  I have them doing some work at one of the churches, the church which happens to be names St. Aloysius in Westhoff.

I was asking him about some of the interesting jobs he has had over the years.  He mentioned a job in a city near the bay where they were asked to untwist a house.  The house, because of its age and its weight and perhaps being near the salt water, had twisted on its foundation.  The whole house was  needed to be untwisted.

By a series of cables and pulleys and come along winches attached to several trucks, they were able to untwist the house.

Sometimes it seems that is what we need; it seems we are so twisted that we need severe force, a few come along winches for the soul to begin the process of setting straight.

But this is what the  "Our Father" is meant to do for us in life as we journey.


Praying the "Our Father" and truly letting the words enter deeply in to our hearts and minds we begin to fill the pull toward heaven.  For each time we say the "Our Father" we are praying with the very words of God.  We enter into the intimate dialogue between Jesus and the Father.

These are not ordinary words.  They are heavens's words on human tongues.

SLowly the words of the prayer direct our mind and thinking realigning us to what is most important in life: thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...

There there the human will as twisted as it may seem encounters the eternal pull that seeks to untwist.

St. Aloysius pray for us.