Posted by St. Gaetan/Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Gaetan, as well as commemorating the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost. St. Gaetan was born of a noble family in Vicenza in 1480. He studied at Padua University and took the decree of doctor in civil and canon law in 1504. He returned to his native town as a senator and was also tonsured as a cleric. In 1506 he went to Rome and Pope Julius II conferred on him the office of protonotary, with a benefice attached. On the death of Julius in 1513 Gaetan refused his successor’s request to continue in his office and instead devoted the next few years to training for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1516, returning to Vicenza in 1518. He was involved in Rome with the Confraternity of Divine Love, an association of clerics especially devoted to reforming the Church. He lived in Vicenza, Verona and then in Venice and in all these places was devoted to the reform of the Church and ministering to the sick. In 1523 he returned to Rome to confer with his friends in the Oratory of Divine Love. They decided to institute an order of regular clergy who would model themselves on the lives of the Apostles. The institute was approved by Pope Clement VII and the four original members made their profession in 1524. They came to be called the Theatines. Though members of this order took open themselves the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience they sought to support the work of the diocesan clergy and the reform of the Church as a whole. Initially they struggled to make progress and the order nearly came to an end. The army of the Emperor Charles V sacked Rome in 1527, the Theatines house was nearly demolished and St. Gaetan and the other members of the order had to flee Rome. But he persevered and the order survived. He ended his days in Naples where he died on this day in 1547.
There is much to learn from the life of St. Gaetan and the Theatines today. While we often tend to look back on past ages as those of faith in contrast to the present, the period in which St. Gaetan lived was one of crisis in the Church. Italy was troubled by incessant war and civil strife, while the Popes had degenerated into Renaissance princes who pursued a policy as worldly and unscrupulous as that of any other civil power. Many despaired of the reform of the church and threw in their lot with the cause of the Protestant Reformation. But there was also at the same time another reformation within the Church itself, the Catholic or Counter Reformation which was devoted to revitalising the energy which lay dormant within the Church itself. Last week we discussed the role of St. Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits, as the most prominent and influential of the Counter Reformation orders. But there were many other smaller orders like the Theatines which were devoted to the cause of reform. The distinctive role of the Theatines was that they did not aim to build up their own order as such, but rather be of service to the diocese as a whole by raising the standard of the clergy. The other distinctive feature of the Theatines was that they were not to seek for donations to endow their order, but were rather to live by faith without relying on extensive endowments. In practice this meant that they remained a small order and tended to be confined to people from noble backgrounds like St. Gaetan himself. But though only a small order it bore great fruits in promoting the reform of the Church. St. Gaetan did not despair that he lived in troubled times, but persevered in the cause of reform and by the grace of God he prevailed.
St. Gaetan and the Theatines took as their model the message of today’s Gospel from St. Matthew about seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. They did not lay up for themselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust corrupted and thieves broke in and stole, but rather laid up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and where thieves do not break in and steal. Consider the lilies of the field, Jesus said, they neither toil nor spin, yet they were sustained by their heavenly Father. Perhaps these words were originally addressed to a situation like that of the sending out of the Twelve and the Seventy two without purse and scrip into the towns and villages of Galilee to preach the Gospel of the coming of the Kingdom of God. The harvest was plentiful but the labourers were few, but his followers must not despair but trust in God. If they truly laboured for the cause of the Kingdom of God all things that were necessary would be added to them.
Many of the corrupt Popes and prelates in Renaissance Rome were great patrons of the arts and were highly successful if judged in purely worldly terms. But they hindered, rather than promoted the cause of reform because they trusted in their own worldly status and endowments rather than seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. By contrast, St. Gaetan and the Theatines took to heart the message of the Gospel. They did not seek for worldly status, but they persevered in the cause of reform and by the grace of God they prevailed.
Today there are many who see the Church in purely worldly and utilitarian terms. They see reform of the Church in terms of maintaining worldly status and manage the assets of the Church like the chief executives of a multinational organisation. Many have been led astray by fraudulent preachers who proclaim a false prosperity Gospel and say that their material wealth and extravagant lifestyles show that they have been blessed by God. But what matters in the long term is not earthly power and might, but seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. God will provide what is necessary for our needs if we trust in him. We need always to remember that what we think we want (which is usually material success in this world), may not be what we need. We cannot serve God and Mammon, but should rather seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all that is necessary will be given to us.
Let us pray that we will follow the example and the witness of St. Gaetan today. If we are tempted to despair by the troubled times in which we live, we must always remember that the saints of old like St. Gaetan also often lived in troubled times. But they persevered and by the grace of God they prevailed. Let us pray that by the grace of God we too may seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness in our own time and place.