By Leon Bent –
Live like a saint. It’s easier than you think! We can all spend our lives glorifying God profoundly and passionately, in little ways. As Mother Teresa once said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” Those are powerful, radical words.
Isidore was born in Madrid, Spain, and farming was to be his labour; working for the same landowner all his life. While he walked the fields, ploughing, planting, and harvesting, he also prayed. As a hardworking man, Isidore had three great loves: God, his family, and the soil.
He and his wife Maria, who is also honoured as a saint, proved to all their neighbours that poverty, hard work, and sorrow (their only child died as little boy) cannot destroy human happiness, if we accept them with faith and in union with Christ. Isidore understood clearly that, without soil, the human race cannot exist too long. The insight may explain why he always had such a reverent attitude toward his work as a farmer.
Isidore and Maria were known for their love of the marginalized. They often poor, hungry persons and prayed with them. During his lifetime, Isidore had the gift of miracles. If he was late for work because he went to Mass, an angel was seen ploughing for him. More than once he fed hungry people with food that seemed to multiply miraculously. He had great concern for the proper treatment of animals. He died after a peaceful life of hard labour and charity.
In 1211, he helped the King of Castile, in Spain, during a war. He appeared to the king and showed him a God-inspired path, by which the king surprised and defeated the enemy. In the 1600s when Philip the King of Spain was near death, people carried Isidore’s incorrupt body to his room. By the time they reached the king’s bedside he had recovered.
Isidore had deep religious instincts. He rose early in the morning to go to church, and spent many a holiday devoutly visiting the churches of Madrid, and surrounding areas. All day long, as he walked behind the plough, he communed with God. His devotion, one might say, became a problem, for his fellow workers sometimes complained that, he often showed up late, because of lingering in church, too long.
It is praiseworthy that an ordinary, humble, labourer achieved sainthood: Physical labour has dignity; sainthood does not stem from status; contemplation does not depend on learning; the simple life is conducive to holiness and happiness. Legends about angel helpers and mysterious oxen indicate that, his work was not neglected and his duties did not go unfulfilled. Perhaps, the truth which emerges is this: If you have your spiritual self in order, your earthly commitments will fall into place. “[S]eek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness,” said Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, “and all these things will be given to you besides” (Matthew 6:33).
Today, Isidore is venerated in Spain as one of the country’s greatest saints, and he is honoured especially in the rural United States. Not surprisingly, he is the patron of farmers, and of Madrid, the capital of Spain.
He died May 15, 1130, and was declared a saint in 1622, with Saints Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, and Philip Neri. Together, the group is known in Spain as “the five saints.”
REFLECTION: Contemplation allows us to renew our active lives (work, play, relationships), so that, all we do does not become mindless action, but rather, glorifies God. Then the cycle repeats itself. Our activity leads us into cyclic stopping, resting, reflecting, and, then, returning to activity with greater zeal and purpose. Being a contemplative in action means, our active life feeds our contemplative life and our contemplative life informs your active life. That is what contemplation in action means, and the cycle never ends.
This is what Isidore and Maria, both canonized saints, did to perfection. We can follow in their footsteps.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.
Leon Bent regularly writes for 9 Catholic Magazines, Journals and Web Portals, worldwide – occasionally, the reach is over 5 million readers.