In the first reading today, we heard the story about how Saul disobeyed the Lord by not destroying all of the sheep and oxen as the Lord had commanded. The Lord said: “Obedience is better than sacrifice and submission than the fat of rams.”
Mother Angelica is a modern-day saint who, unlike Saul, did God’s will no matter how difficult or unreasonable it might have seemed. Mother Angelica had a dream to build a monastery. After raising some money by selling fishing lures, Mother Angelica and a few others went to Birmingham, Alabama and purchased the land. They began construction almost immediately but had many problems. One time, they had a large hole in the middle of the area where they intended to build. The foreman complained that the area wasn’t suitable for building. Mother responded: “We just need someone with a hill they don’t need to fill in this hole.” The next day a man came to Mother and said: “You know, I’ve got this hill in my backyard. Every time it rains it dumps a ton of water in my basement. You want it.” So, the construction of the monastery continued.
One businessman donated all the blocks and concrete required. Another gave his services to blast rock and move earth. Two women provided the bricks for the exterior. Shortly after completion of the work, a series of unexpected donations came in which were just enough to pay off the workers. Once the monastery opened, Mother realized that she didn’t have any money for food. Then, a local grocer came to her and agreed to donate all the food they needed for their first year of operation.
Then, Mother Angelica made a critical but difficult decision. She decided that the sisters would no longer engage in commercial projects to meet their material needs. She said that their work was to communicate the gospel. They would trust God for all of their needs. Mother Angelica told her sisters: “Faith is having one foot on the ground and the other up in the air for the Lord to put the ground under it.”
Mother Angelica began communicating the Gospel message on TV. Soon, she realized that she needed to have her own broadcasting facility so that she could reach a broad audience with her orthodox Catholic message. She said: “This is the really exciting part of any new ministry, just plunging in out of obedience without the full knowledge of where to begin – it’s wonderful!” So they began working on the TV studio. Sister Raphael, her right-hand person, said: “Jesus never gives us more than we need – He demands faith week by week. When God gives us an opportunity to do something for Him, and we have agreed that it is His apparent will, we must act in faith or the opportunity is lost. It is better to appear foolish before men than to answer God for being afraid to step out and trust Him. And God has always provided – just in time.” Then, they ordered a satellite dish and applied for an FCC license to broadcast.
Mother Angelica succeeded with her television network, EWTN, just as she succeeded in her publishing business. She overcame continual obstacles to become the largest Catholic broadcasting network in the world. Mother Angelica observes: “I don’t know why God chose me. I’m a nobody. God just uses me to move ahead in stubborn, obstinate obedience. It’s like David and Goliath – we’re taking on a major media world with a slingshot and a few stones, but we’re making it happen.”
Occasionally, all of us find ourselves in a position where God calls us to build his kingdom. I doubt that any of us will be asked to build a monastery or a TV station. But, as children of God, we are asked to spread the faith to an unbelieving world. I pray that we will follow the example of Mother Angelica and will faithfully do God’s will no matter how difficult it may be.
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