Turning Points

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

The Gospel passage for today's liturgy marks a turning point in Jesus' life. St. Luke's Gospel records that Jesus "resolutely" turned toward Jerusalem and made his way there where he would suffer the fate of a common criminal and be crucified. The rest of the Gospel of St. Luke must be read with this verse in mind.

We also celebrate the memorial of St. Vincent de Paul today. Reading his biography, several of which are available on line, acquaints us with a man who also turned his face in a different direction in the course of his life. That turning point might have been an aggregate of several life experiences, but there is no doubt that at some point in his life Vincent de Paul made a life changing decision. He was ordained in 1600. He founded a religious order of men in 1625. Sometime between those two dates, St. Vincent had come to the decision to renounce his pursuit of a life among the aristocratic and fashionable and to pursue a course which served the needs of the remote and forgotten. Today, he is remembered for his love for the peasants of France through the institution known as the St. Vincent de Paul Society, present in more than 100 different countries of the world.

The road of life has many twists and turns. Each decision that one makes on that journey leads us to more twists and turns. In his poem, The Road Less Taken, Robert Frost tells us that the decisions we make on the way make all the difference in our lives. This is certainly true of St. Vincent de Paul. St. Luke records that it was also true of Jesus. The decision to go to Jerusalem, to accept his fate and deliver himself into the hands of evil men, changed not only his own life but ours as well. Who can imagine life without the redemption won for us by Jesus.

My mother was widowed when I was only six, the oldest of four children. To this day I remember that we were the beneficiaries of the good works of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in our local parish church. I am grateful for the turning point in this French priest's life and the charitable work that it has inspired in the lives of tens of thousands throughout the world.