We claim to seek God and the purpose of seeking God is to open our hearts to let God in. Who is the God that we are seeking? We know that Scripture says that God is love. What does that really mean? It means God is one faithful, continuous, fruitful love. He’s goodness and he pours out that goodness all the time. He is, He was, He will be, and He will be that goodness all the time. Therefore generations will pass. I will die, you will die. More generations will come and God will be pouring out his love upon the world continuously until he has his plan completed.

So where= s the every day place where we open ourselves up to God or God provides an opening for him? I think the best place to look for him is in the lives of Saints. If you read the life of Jane Jugan who is the foundries of the Little Sisters of the Poor, whose religious name was Sr. Mary of the Cross, you find an interesting person.  She was born from a French family of fisherman and lived in poverty. She became committed to Christ somewhere in her teens; she joined the Third Order of the congregation of St. John. They had a program and she followed it. So she was like a Third Order of the Heart of Mary.

She felt called to help the poor. So she left her hometown and went and served in a hospital. In those days hospitals were notorious and she did nothing but work and slave for the poor and really exhausted herself. Then she gathered a few friends and they decided to set up a place for the poor and the elderly themselves. After twenty-seven years of this kind of work they decided that they should start moving toward becoming a sisterhood, a congregation. So they had elections and in a four year period she was elected a second time. At that time they felt they had a need for a spiritual director so they asked the parish priest to be their spiritual director. He agreed and made himself the Father General of the group. He deposed her. He annulled the election and took one of the younger sisters who he could boss around and put her in charge. He let Sr. Mary of the Cross do the campaign and fund-raising because she was good at it. It seemed that every time she went someplace she got money. He allowed her eight years of that and then he did something even worse, he removed her totally from the public view and put her in their convent to take care of the postulants, the incoming members. She did that for twenty-seven years and she died incognito. Even the young members didn’t= t realize that she was the foundries. He changed the history and made it sound like he was the founder of the order. But here= s the interesting thing from the time he took over there were four sisters. By the time Sr. Mary of the Cross died there were 2,500 sisters. From the management point of view and development she should have stayed on the job - right. She did it very well, every time she went out it worked. But God knew that she was conformed to Jesus and by taking care of the postulants, the new members, she really shaped them into sisters so that when they went out they spread the gospel.

So the power of God= s goodness flows into our lives to the degree that we can receive it. What did she learn in that process? What was the secret for her? She was totally at the disposal of God and she learned it the hard way. When you take care of the poor you’ve got to forget yourself. She took people in off the streets like Mother Teresa, and took them into her house and she bathes them and gave them clothes, etc. Then when the other sisters joined in they continued to do that. In the mean time when she went out begging she would not say anything negative to anybody who didn’t= t give them any money or abuse them. One time a man slapped her and she said: A O.K. now that= s for me now what are you going to give to my poor?@ It shook him and he took care of it. Another time she was with another sister and they were going around begging, the sister said: A It= s no use going to this place this lady is known as very stingy and miserly, she= ll never give us anything.@ Sr. Mary of the Cross said, A If that= s the case then let= s go here for Jesus.@ She rang the bell real hard for the Lord. When she came out she had one of the biggest donations.

So patience or the opportunities of patience are the places where we open ourselves up to God= s goodness in our life. Why? Patience is not simply enduring something. Patience is seeing the present situation of difficulty of suffering, of pain, as an opportunity to open myself up to God and then embracing it with that kind of growth and insight. Therefore it= s quite obvious, for instance, it= s quite easy when there= s a disaster to be generous for the immediate moment. Where does patience really come in, day in and day out? This guy says something, you= d like to punch him in the nose. Or something doesn’t= t go your way - there are plenty of opportunities of patience in our life. Benedict is very clear that it= s patience is the door to letting in the goodness of God in our life. Because it means it= s the place where we participate in the way of Christ, the way of Christ is the Paschal Mystery. It= s the death and resurrection lived out, day in and day out. That= s what transforms our life and opens us up to real solid hope.

When Sister was taking care of the postulants for twenty-seven years she was a radiant goodness. She was happy. She was interiorly peaceful. And she radiated goodness. Where does that come from? It comes from learning how to take difficulties, suffering and reverses in stride, because God is with us. We have a God who is always loving us. Always doing good for us. So if we keep our focus there and follow and ask the Lord to show us what= s the meaning of this trial and difficulties and so on in our life we will learn how to open our hearts to the goodness that embraces us and leads us into the kingdom.