Feast Day: April 21st
Automatic doors are the worst.
I mean that somewhat facetiously, though we have had a decisive down-turn in the number of saintly doormen ever since powered-doors started their climb towards ubiquity in the 1950s. It has been 3 years since I wrote about a saint-porter, that is a saint who achieved his holiness from opening the door for people coming to Church, but there are many such remarkable individuals now canonized saints (or blessed): Paschal Baylon, Charles of Sezze, Didacus of Alcalá, Felix of Cantalice, Alphonsus Rodriguez, André Bessette, John Macias, Benito Solana Ruiz, Bonaventure of Barcelona, Solanus Casey, and today’s saint, Conrad of Parzham.
He was baptized with the name John and the patronage of John the Evangelist, the second to last of 12 children (though only 7 survived past infancy). He was known for his devotion and prayerfulness as a child, visiting the church some distance from his home even during inclement weather and walking all the way to a shrine of the Blessed Mother on feast days. He grew up helping on his family’s farm, though when he was still a teenager lost both of his parents a few years apart. A few years later, following a parish mission, he began to seriously consider religious life and entered the OFM-C (Order of Friars Minor, Capuchins) in 1842.
And then he spent 41 years open the friary door. He was widely known for his charity, patience, and generosity towards all who came knocking, and that he would step into an alcove of their chapel for brief moments of prayer whenever he wasn’t engaged with visitors. One line about him that particularly caught my attention says that he was “eager and ready to receive and help strangers.” He died in 1894, a few days after giving the role of porter to another friar.
Now, back to powered-doors. The problem isn’t the motors and electronics that make the things operate … but neither was it the physical act of opening and closing the door that made Br. Conrad a saint. The thing that made him a saint was loving individuals, and loving the Lord, every time he encountered someone. And power-doors are one of the many places in our lives where we have avoided encountering others … avoided them needing our love … or us giving them our love.
Think of all the places where our modern world allows us to avoid interacting with others: self-checkout, 2 day shipping, movie streaming, google maps, earbuds. I don’t want to be entire down on technology, but in making our lives “easier”, in many ways our lives are less human, less dependent on others, less open to others. When I go for a jog and smile and wave at a stranger they often look up from their own little world, shocked that someone would speak to them, care about them. And, to be honest, I often find myself in my own zone too, wanting to do my thing, keep to my own plans, not really wanting to be bothered, not really wanting to be noticed, not really wanting to need someone else, or them needing me.
But to live “my own” life, is not really to live a fully human life at all. We are made for community, for communion, for interaction, for self-gift, and when we risk ourselves and open up to someone else, we discover we are far more who we want to be. Our Lord knew this when He said “whoever would save his lifewill lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” [Matthew 16:25] Unfortunately, we live in an age where our lives are not always asked of us, or when they are we are quick to begrudge the request. As Christians we have to look for ways around this buffered, isolated, narrowed way of life and look for ways to push back against the things that keep us disconnected, solitary, “going alone”.
– Fr. Dominic is not the best at this! Asked before the Boston Marathon “Why do you run?”, I said some things about offering up miles for people, about praying and soaking in the grace and strength that God gives me, but I completely forgot that running is absolutely an opportunity to sacrifice for others, to cheer them on, to get to know them as you share miles of road together. But these are some of the best moments of those races! The kid you high-five on the sidelines, the person who gives you a cup of water at the aid station, the unexpected person who celebrates with you at the finish line, and the guy you cheered on who says it got him through some tough miles. Those, and so many others, are opportunities to love each other. Those are the places where saints are made.