Feast of Saint Thomas More

Good morning. If you want to predict the outcome of your marriage review your dating history. If over the course of your dating you found yourselves quibbling over this and that, you can pretty well count on spending your marriage years doing the same. If in your reflection of your dating history your discovery is that the two of you tend to have delightfully engaging conversations it likely to be the same throughout the course of your life together. It likely seems fairly elementary to most, but you’d be amazed how many people report thinking things might change once they are married. If you had trust issues going into the marriage, it’s a pretty good indicator that one can expect to find themselves waking up asking themselves “Who is this person I married?” In today’s Gospel Jesus reminds us to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.” In other words, when it comes to marriage, caveat emptor, “let the buyer beware.” Be real people! If there was dishonesty during the course of your dating, then you best plan on half-truths cropping up under your bed like dust bunnies. In all fairness to these folks who wake up wondering if body snatchers absconded with their spouse, we seem to live in a very phony culture, a world where it can be very difficult to truly know who we really are dealing with. Look how often we turn on the television to discover that this person or that person isn’t truly the person we thought they were. It happens all the time. Why phoniness is so much a part of our cultural play book that it requires campaign pledges of “transparency.” Sincerity and genuineness is hard to find these days, which is why our saint for today, Saint Thomas More is certainly a saint for our times. Here was a man who never wavered in his fidelity to the truth. Saint Thomas More was a man who reminds us that the real loss in being phony or deceptive is that we wind up deceiving ourselves. He reminds us that when we are untrue to others we lose a part of ourselves. He was a genuine person who gave his life rather than misrepresent or compromise the truth. Make a great day!

Today we recall the good life, gifts, and works of Saint Thomas More.