The gifted layman
Saint Thomas More was beheaded on the 6th July 1535 in London, England, for his loyalty to Christ and His Church, the One Catholic and Apostolic Church, as he refused to swear an oath declaring King Henry VIII to be the head of the Church in England, and is remembered on the 22nd June every year, together with the saintly Bishop John Fisher.
Saint Thomas More was a married layman, father of four children, and “a man for all seasons“ with respect to his wide knowledge and skills. Besides his resistance to Henry VIII’s abandonment of the Catholic faith and his martyrdom, he is quite known for his novel Utopia, a work of socio-political satire, published in 1516, written originally in Latin, which has proven to be a challenge for interpretation as to the motive behind and quintessence of it. The full title of the novel is A little, true book, not less beneficial than enjoyable, about how things should be in a state and about the new island Utopia. A fictional society on the island Utopia is described with its social, political and religious customs. Interpreters have been discussing ever since whether the author – who is present under his real name “Thomas More“ in the frame narrative – is depicting this fictional society in order to hold it out as a model, as the ideal society, or in order to criticize this model and its underlying ideas and tenets.
Plain works are easy to interpret, yielding a linear conclusion, yet complex works, and all acts of irony, satire, and even just simple good old humor, are not well digested by all, and only some people seem to be able to bear paradoxes and ambiguities, though they are at the very center of everyone‘s life. Obviously, Saint Thomas More was a man far more intelligent than most, far more intelligent, we must assume, than most of the readers and recipients of Utopia both in his and our day.
“Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest. Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it. Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good and that doesn‘t frighten easily at the sight of evil, but rather finds the means to put things back in their place. Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments, nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called ‘I‘. Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor. Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others. Amen.“
Saint Thomas More
For three years, from 1529 to 1532, Saint Thomas More served as Lord Chancellor, second in position and authority only to the King of England. And so he was not only, then, a very gifted man, but also one who, at one point in his life, was highly honored and esteemed by Henry VIII. That was before the tides of Henry VIII’s vices and of the new – “Protestant“ – times turned against him. After his execution, his head was exposed on London Bridge for a whole month to warn other potential traitors.
From a Catholic perspective, Sir Thomas More reached the high point of his earthly life not as Lord Chancellor but exactly there and then when he received the martyr’s crown and when a relic of his body – a saint’s body – was publicly displayed, as if held up for veneration. From a Catholic perspective, his childlike faithfulness, humility, and simplicity as a son of God and the Church are outstanding. By my lights, to find such virtues perfectly exemplified in very intelligent and gifted shoots of the holy vine whom the world tried to entice to abandon the “way of the cross“, the straight and narrow path, and whom it intended to make their own by all possible means and bribes, and who could have gained much worldly honor had they yielded to these, is always a special delight. Nothing is as noble as a king – or a little prince, so to speak – who has the heart to serve. This is the shape of the heart of any true gentleman.
No one will reach heaven by his or her intelligence or record of successes; only by responding to God‘s grace and mercy with faith and simplicity. No one will enter heaven as a scholar or as a man or woman in a highly respectable position; only lovers will get in.
“With what shall I come before ADONAI? With what shall I bow myself before God on high? Shall I present Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? Will ADONAI be pleased with thousands of rams, with hordes of rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my belly for the sin of my soul? He has told you, humanity, what is good, and what ADONAI is seeking from you: Only to practice justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.“
Micah 6: 6-8
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.“
Psalm 51: 19
“In the evening of life we will be judged on love alone.“
Saint John of the Cross
“Although I know well, Margaret, that because of my past wickedness I deserve to be abandoned by God, I cannot but trust in his merciful goodness. His grace has strengthened me until now and made me content to lose goods, land, and life as well, rather than to swear against my conscience. God’s grace has given the king a gracious frame of mind toward me, so that as yet he has taken from me nothing but my liberty. In doing this His Majesty has done me such great good with respect to spiritual profit that I trust that among all the great benefits he has heaped so abundantly upon me I count my imprisonment the very greatest. I cannot, therefore, mistrust the grace of God. By the merits of his bitter passion joined to mine and far surpassing in merit for me all that I can suffer myself, his bounteous goodness shall release me from the pains of purgatory and shall increase my reward in heaven besides. I will not mistrust him, Meg, though I shall feel myself weakening and on the verge of being overcome with fear. I shall remember how Saint Peter at a blast of wind began to sink because of his lack of faith, and I shall do as he did: call upon Christ and pray to him for help. And then I trust he shall place his holy hand on me and in the stormy seas hold me up from drowning. And finally, Margaret, I know this well: that without my fault he will not let me be lost. I shall, therefore, with good hope commit myself wholly to him. And if he permits me to perish for my faults, then I shall serve as praise for his justice. But in good faith, Meg, I trust that his tender pity shall keep my poor soul safe and make me commend his mercy. And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let you mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.“
Excerpt from a letter written by Saint Thomas More while in prison to his daughter Margaret
Saint Thomas More‘s humility, simplicity and readiness for a continual partaking in the cross of Christ and of a total surrendering to God‘s will were both expressed as well as continually reinforced by certain penitential practices he adhered to, among them the wearing of a hair shirt under his worldly robes.
The hair shirt as an instrument of mortification and penance
What is a “hair shirt“? And what is the point of wearing one? The Latin word for it is cilicium, etymologically stemming from the region Cilicia, modern-day Turkey, where a lot of goats were raised. In antiquity, a “hair shirt“ used to be a shirt made for example of goat‘s hair, thus uncomfortable to wear.
We encounter the “cilicium“ in Psalm 35 (Psalm 34 in the Vulgate) and numerous other places in Sacred Scripture, and in the lives of many saints.
“But as for me, when they were troublesome to me, I was clothed with haircloth. I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer shall be turned into my bosom.“
Psalm 34 (35): 13
“The king asked them, ‘What was the man like who met you and said these things to you?‘ They replied, ‘He wore a hairy garment with a leather belt around his waist.‘ ‘It is Elijah the Tishbite!‘ he exclaimed.“
2 Kings 1: 7-8
Just like the prophet Elijah wore “a hairy garment“, so John the Baptist wore “camel‘s hair“ (Mk 1: 6). The “sackcloth“ we come across on the pages of Sacred Scripture in numerous instances in association with prayer, fasting, and doing penance is the same principal idea: It is a garment made of burlap bags that is not harming its wearer physically but gives unpleasant sentiments and thus inflicts a little corporal “suffering“. Often, it is simply a matter of translation whether we read “haircloth“ or “sackcloth“ in our Bible.
“And Judith his relict was a widow now three years and six months. And she made herself a private chamber in the upper part of her house, in which she abode shut up with her maids. And she wore haircloth upon her loins, and fasted all the days of her life, except the sabbaths, and new moons, and the feasts of the house of Israel.“
Judit 8: 4-6, Douay-Rheims Translation
“Judith was living as a widow in her home for three years and four months. She set up a tent for herself on the roof of her house, put sackcloth about her waist, and wore widow’s clothing. She fasted all the days of her widowhood, except sabbath eves and sabbaths, new moon eves and new moons, feastdays and holidays of the house of Israel.“
Judit 8: 4-6, New American Bible Revised Edition
As for saints who at times or continually wore hair shirts as a way of practicing bodily mortification and offering up penance, the list is long and diverse: Saint Thomas Becket, Saint Louis of France, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta – to name just a few.
The use of the hair shirt or sackcloth was throughout the history of Jewish and Catholic tradition never just a thing for clerics, monks, and nuns. It was always used by the laity as well – from David the King and Judit the Widow to Saint Thomas More the twice married and widowed Lord Chancellor of England, and to someone like Saint Louis of France who wore one underneath his royal robes.
Saint Jerome, Saint Athanasius and Saint John Damascene testify for the ancient Church that hair shirts and sackcloth were frequently used by the early Christians, and that laypeople in respected worldly positions made sure that underneath their luxurious garments it was not velvet and silk but the rough side of a hair shirt that touched their skin. They voluntarily chose discomfort over comfort.
Like all practices of corporal mortification, wearing a hair shirt can make a contribution in training body and soul in virtues, in humility, in “dying to oneself“, in repentance, in “putting off the old man and putting on the new man“, and provides opportunities for offering up a certain participation in the Passion of Christ, alongside prayer, as acts of reparation for sins and for meriting graces for ourselves and our neighbors in union with the merit of Christ. It is one of numerous ways to cooperate with God‘s grace as we “work out (our) salvation“ (Phil 2: 12), and to attain to a closer union with the crucified Messiah.
“Martyrdom does not consist only in dying for one‘s faith. Martyrdom also consists in serving God with love and purity of heart every day of one‘s life.“
Saint Jerome
All penitential practices, especially if they have a corporal side to them, can also be regarded as a preparation for martyrdom: They are daily mortifications, daily little martyrdoms, daily little crosses – alongside all our daily little duties and obligations given to us by our vocation and work in the midst of an unbelieving world which often are peculiar hair shirts of their own kind.
To learn – through bearing various involuntary sufferings and through taking up voluntary discomforts – the meaning of suffering and of sacrifice done in love is part of the Way that leads to eternal life, and to truly learn this for real is surely possible only with the aid of God‘s grace active in us, enlightening us. Besides being a continual school and training camp of our ongoing conversion and preparation to become an offering acceptable to God in the Messiah, and being a means for the sanctification of every day and hour, prayer and penance, with six days of work as part of our continual penance, keeps the devil away from us according to the testimony of many saints:
“Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied.“
Saint Jerome
No son or daughter of Christ and His Church should seek to die as a martyr of the faith, but all of us should always become more and more ready to do so if necessary. Did not, then, the hair shirt play its tiny little part, make its very own small yet significant contribution in preparing the body and soul of Sir Thomas More for the hardships of a lonely prison cell in London Tower, of remaining strong in the Lord in the midst of yet unknown adversities and tribulations, and of bearing the disgrace and dreadful tempest of being publicly beheaded with an axe?
“And he said to all: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.“
Luke 9: 23
“Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.“
Philippians 2: 5-8
“A person makes progress only by imitating Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life… I should not consider any spirituality worthwhile that would walk in sweetness and ease and run from the imitation of Christ.“
Saint John of the Cross
“And I saw a river over which every soul must pass to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, and the name of that river was Suffering… And then I saw a boat which carried souls across the river, and the name of that boat was Love.“
“Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High. Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended and in supplication for the conversion of sinners.“
Apparition of the Angel at Fatima, Portugal, 1916
“Above all, accept and bear with submission the suffering which the Lord will send you.“
Saint Thomas More, Bishop Saint John Fisher, holy martyrs, pray for us!
Post scriptum: Excerpts from Lumen Gentium concerning the role of the laity and the universal call to holiness
“But the laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God.“
Lumen Gentium, par. 31
“They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity.“
“Now the laity are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances where only through them can it become the salt of the earth. Thus every layman, in virtue of the very gifts bestowed upon him, is at the same time a witness and a living instrument of the mission of the Church itself ‘according to the measure of Christ‘s bestowal‘.“
Lumen Gentium, par. 33
“Upon the laity, therefore, rests the noble duty of working to extend the divine plan of salvation to all men of each epoch and in every land. Consequently, may every opportunity be given them so that, according to their abilities and the needs of the times, they may zealously participate in the saving work of the Church.“
“The supreme and eternal Priest, Christ Jesus, since He wills to continue his witness and service also through the laity, vivifies them in this Spirit and increasingly urges them on to every good and perfect work. For besides intimately linking them to His life and His mission, He also gives them a sharing in His priestly function of offering spiritual worship for the glory of God and the salvation of men. For this reason the laity, dedicated to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and wonderfully prepared so that ever more abundant fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them. For all their works, prayers and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and familiy life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne – all these become ‘spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ‘. Together with the offering of the Lord‘s body, they are most fittingly offered in the celebration of the Eucharist. Thus, as those everywhere who adore in holy activity, the laity consecrate the world itself to God.“
Lumen Gentium, par. 34
“Christ, the great Prophet, who proclaimed the Kingdom of His Father both by the testimony of His life and the power of His words, continually fulfills His prophetic office until the complete manifestation of glory. He does this not only through the hierarchy who teach in His name and with His authority, but also through the laity whom He made His witnesses and to whom He gave understanding of the faith (sensus fidei) and an attractiveness in speech so that the power of the Gospel might shine forth in their daily social and family life. They conduct themselves as children of the promise, and thus strong in faith and in hope they make the most of the present, and with patience await the glory that is to come. Let them not, then, hide this hope in the depths of their hearts, but even in the program of their secular life let them express it by a continual conversion and by wrestling against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness.“
Lumen Gentium, par. 35
“The faithful, therefore, must learn the deepest meaning and the value of all creation, as well as its role in the harmonious praise of God. They must assist each other to live holier lives even in their daily occupations.“
Lumen Gentium, par. 36
“Therefore, by their competence in secular training and by their activity, elevated from within by the grace of Christ, let them vigorously contribute their effort, so that created goods may be perfected by human labor, technical skill and civic culture for the benefit of all men according to the design of the Creator and the light of His Word.“
“Moreover, let the laity also by their combined efforts remedy the customs and conditions of the world, if they are an inducement to sin, so that they all may be conformed to the norms of justice and may favor the practice of virtue rather than hinder it.“
“(…) remembering that in every temporal affair they must be guided by a Christian conscience, since even in secular business there is no human activity which can be withdrawn from God‘s dominion.“
“Each individual layman must stand before the world as a witness to the resurrection and life of the Lord Jesus and a symbol of the living God. All the laity as a community and each one according to his ability must nourish the world with spiritual fruits.“
Lumen Gentium, par. 38
“(…) all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity (…).“
Lumen Gentium, par. 40-42
“The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one – that sanctity which is cultivated by all who are moved by the Spirit of God, and who obey the voice of the Father and worship God the Father in spirit and in truth. These people follow the poor Christ, the humble and cross-bearing Christ in order to be worthy of being sharers in His glory. Every person must walk unhesitatingly according to his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith, which arouses hope and works through charity.“
“Indeed, in order that love, as good seed may grow and bring forth fruit in the soul, each one of the faithful must willingly hear the Word of God and accept His Will, and must complete what God has begun by their own actions with the help of God‘s grace. These actions consist in the use of the sacraments and in a special way the Eucharist, frequent participation in the sacred action of the Liturgy, application of oneself to prayer, self-abnegation, lively fraternal service and the constant exercise of all the virtues. For charity, as the bond of perfection and the fullness of the law, rules over all the means of attaining holiness and gives life to these same means. It is charity which guides us to our final end. It is the love of God and the love of one‘s neighbor which points out the true disciple of Christ.“
“Therefore, all the faithful of Christ are invited to strive for the holiness and perfection of their own proper state. Indeed they have an obligation to so strive. Let all then have care that they guide aright their own deepest sentiments of soul. Let neither the use of the things of this world nor attachment to riches, which is against the spirit of evangelical poverty, hinder them in their quest for perfect love. Let them heed the admonition of the Apostle to those who use this world; let them not come to terms with this world; for this world, as we see it, is passing away.“