Saint Alphonsus Mary de’ Liguori, Bishop and Doctor – Readings

Commentary on Romans 8:1-4; Matthew 5:13-19

The Gospel reading comes from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. It touches on two themes relevant to Alphonsus. The first is where Jesus tells his followers that they must not keep his message to themselves. It is a message that must be shared and promulgated as widely as possible. And Jesus uses several images to make his meaning clear. His followers are to be the “salt of the earth”. But if they lose their taste, that is, if the message becomes dead in them, they are useless as salt and should be got rid of. We might add that salt only works when it is fully inserted in the food; it is no good if it just remains at the side of the plate. We, too, can only be effective ‘salt’ in our society when we are totally inserted into it.

Other images that Jesus uses are that his followers are to be the “light of the world”, shining the light of Jesus’ Way by word and example. They are to be like a “city built on a hill” which cannot be hidden. An invisible Christian is no Christian (although perhaps a good person). Similarly, no one lights a light and then hides it under a cover. On the contrary, a light is set up in the place where its light is most effective. Lastly, our light is to “shine before others”, not so that people will praise us for being so good, but so that they will be led to serve and praise God.

In the second theme, Jesus speaks of his attitude to the Jewish law. Jesus did not come to put an end to this law. Rather, he came to go beyond it and bring it to a higher level. So the Jewish law was not to be changed or invalidated, but superseded. In subsequent passages (not in our reading today), he will give six examples of what he means. He will say it is not enough not to kill, but it is wrong even to have hateful and hurting thoughts in the depths of one’s mind.

Alphonsus spent much of his time teaching people how to observe God’s law as it comes to us in the Scriptures. He constantly sought a balance between excessive legalism, the law for its own sake, and excessive laxity in watering down the moral requirements of the laws. Let him, then, be a model for us both in our readiness to share our Christian life with others in word and action, and also in being truly moral people—a morality motivated above all by love.

In the First Reading, from the Letter to the Romans, Paul distinguishes between living in the ‘flesh’ and in the Spirit. To live in the ‘flesh’ is to live a life of pure self-interest. To live in the Spirit is to be inspired by the vision of life that Jesus has given us. It is, above all, the law of love that is to govern our every action. Paul writes that:

God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

This was the deep concern of Alphonsus, that all live in the Spirit of Christ. And in his writings, he tried to show how this was to be done in the various situations of life.

Read more

Saint Alphonsus Mary de’ Liguori, Bishop and Doctor

Alphonsus Liguori was born in Marianella, in the Kingdom of Naples, Italy. He was the eldest of seven and came from a noble family. He went to law school at the age of sixteen and became a distinguished lawyer. At the age of 27, after losing an important case through an error of interpretation, he suffered a serious depression. Later, he decided to give up his career because of the corruption in the courts of Naples.

In 1723, after a long period of discernment, he gave up his legal career and, against his father’s wishes, began his training for the priesthood. He was ordained on 21 December, 1726, at the age of 30. He spent his first years as a priest with the homeless and marginalized youth of Naples. He founded “Evening Chapels” which were run by the young. They became centres of prayer, community, the Word of God, social activities and education. At the time of his death, there were 72 of these chapels with over 10,000 active participants.

In 1729, Alphonsus left his family home and began his missionary work in the interior regions of the Kingdom of Naples, where he found people who were much poorer and more abandoned than any of the street children in Naples.

On 9 November, 1732, Alphonsus founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (in Latin: Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris—CSsR). The congregation’s goal was to teach and preach in the slums of cities and other poor places. They also fought Jansenism, a very negative form of spirituality which created an exaggerated sense of sin, and which deterred people from receiving the Eucharist. A companion order of contemplative nuns, Redemptoristines, was founded at the same time by Sister Maria Celeste.

Alphonsus was consecrated bishop of the diocese of Sant’ Agata dei Goti in 1762. He tried to turn down the appointment because he felt too old and too sick to care properly for the diocese. During this period he wrote sermons, books, and articles to encourage devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1775, he was allowed to retire from his office and went to live in the Redemptorist community in Pagani, Italy—where he died on 1 August, 1787.

He was canonized in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI, and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1871 by Pope Pius IX. He was named Patron of Confessors and Moralists by Pope Pius XII in 1950, who also wrote an encyclical Haurietis Aquas about him.

Alphonsus’ greatest contribution was through his book, Moral Theology. This work was the fruit of his pastoral experience, his ability to respond to the practical questions posed by the faithful and from his contact with their everyday problems. He strongly opposed a sterile legalistic approach to morality and rejected the strict rigorism of the time, coming from theological elites quite out of touch with people’s ordinary lives. His system of moral theology was noted for its balance, avoiding both laxism and excessive rigor.

Read more