OH, SAINT THOMAS, HEAL ME OF MY CYNICISM
September 22 is the feast of Saint Thomas of Villanova, a Spanish saint who was born in 1488, four years before Christopher Columbus discovered America. Thomas’s parents were noted for their charity and gave him a stellar practical example. As a child, Thomas went naked because he gave away his fine clothes to those who had none. Then, as an Augustinian friar he became noted for similarly dramatic alms-giving. He gave away his inheritance to poverty stricken people who were unmarried a.k.a. “the poor virgins”. But God forgive me, I bristled when I read the accounts of his generosity to those far less fortunate than he. Without wanting to, I found myself involuntarily feeling nauseous and begging of myself, “ Do you really know his good deeds were true?” Throughout my life, I’ve just been too scarred by people who protest their goodness in public, but in private are some of the stingiest people you’d ever encounter. I knew mothers of large families who prided the...
