Grace Notes column: One phrase for life

Living life by a particular motto can have untold benefits.  Many of the saints had mottos which they oriented their entire lives to. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?”  That motto spoke to St. Anthony of the desert as the conversion or turning point of his entire life.   

We may be familiar with other mottos such as Padre Pio’s “Pray, hope and don’t worry.” Or, Pope St. John Paul II, who entrusted his life to the care and protection of Our Blessed Mother, and encapsulated this in his papal motto: “Totus Tuus”,  meaning “Totally Yours.”  

St. Junipero Serra’s motto was “Always forward, never back.” Padre Miguel Pro who was martyred for the faith in Mexico during the Cristero uprising against the government and who died by firing squad proclaimed the motto he lived his life by:  “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” or, “Long live Christ the King.”
 Each of us live our lives according to our beliefs and the way we understand life in general.  At the end of our lives we are generally tagged accordingly.  “She was so kind.”  “He was a good father.” etc. Someone whose motto for life is “Be a friend to everyone” will live their lives much differently than someone whose motto is, “success at all costs.”
 
When the idea of mottoes was presented to a group of grade school children, and they were asked to come up with a motto for their lives, the usual answers were given, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” 

“Say only the good things people need to hear,” or in mom language, “If you don’t have anything good to say, keep your mouth shut.” But one little girl had another take which amused the teacher. Her motto was, “Ladies go first!”  
 
We can overlook the natural egocentrism of a child. Normally we grow out of the more blatant forms as we mature both humanly and spiritually though the tension is always there. It’s the tension again between what Bishop Robert Barron calls the ego-drama vs. the theo-drama.

Whose script for our lives are we following?  God’s or one of our own making?  Imagine you are watching a performance of Swan Lake but something is really off. You begin to notice that one of the ballerinas seems to be out of sync with everyone else and after awhile you realize she is improvising her own choreography to grab some attention for herself. That is the mark of ego. Self exaltation can mar even the performance of a masterpiece.
 
In God’s sovereign drama (salvation history) we have crucial roles, especially as Catholics. Many saints bemoan the fact that if Catholics only lived the way they should, the world would be in much better shape.  

But sometimes it’s precisely Catholics who are unforgiving, filled with ambition and unwilling to drop rivalries that witness more to secular concerns than the building up of the Kingdom of God.  Discovering our actual place in the theo-drama on the other hand is exciting and eternally productive even if the rest of the world never recognizes it.  

As Archbishop Fulton Sheen noted, no one comes into the world not caring if their life has a meaning. Everyone wants to be known or remembered for something. Committing yourself to playing your part within God’s drama will take you beyond yourself into living out the deepest significance your life could have. Simply striving for holiness uplifts the whole Body of Christ and and changes the world for the better.
 
It’s always a good time to stop and ask yourself what the real driving force in your life is. Sometimes this means being brutally honest with yourself, acknowledging any discrepancies between what you say and how you actually live. Sometimes it means acknowledging where you have drifted away from the ideals you committed yourself to at one point, so you can get back into the Divine drama unfolding all around you. 

It almost always involves humbling ourselves so that God can lift us up to where we belong. We’ll never be able to do it alone. To serve that end, a short little motto can give us the direction we need. Ask God to show you the unique motto for your life!
 
In the heart of Our Blessed Mother,
 
Sister Anne Marie