🎓St. John Cantius, born in Poland, was a priest and professor of theology at
the University of Krakow who personified the union of faith and works. He passed
away in 1473, and his life was a continuous exercise of evangelical charity,
divesting himself of his possessions, clothes, and even his food to help the
poor and needy he encountered on his way. His generosity was so radical that,
once, after being robbed, he ran after the thieves not to recover his
belongings, but to give them the last coins he had forgotten to hand over, a
gesture that led them to repentance. This holy academic did not keep wisdom for
himself but transformed it into humble service, living the precept that true
theology manifests itself in love for one's neighbor. He understood that the
vigilance requested by Christ in the Gospel is not a passive waiting, but an
active readiness in the practice of mercy, becoming a living example of the "law
of liberty" which judges based on practiced love.
📜Epistle (Jas
2:12-17)
So speak and so act [brethren], as those who are to be
judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown
no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over judgment. What does it profit, my brethren, if
a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother
or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for
the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is
dead.
📖Gospel (Lk 12:35-40)
At that time, Jesus said to
his disciples: “Let your loins be girt and your lamps burning, and be like men
who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that
they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those
servants whom the master finds watching when he comes; truly, I say to you, he
will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them.
If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are
those servants! But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour
the thief was coming, he would have been watchful and would not have let his
house be broken into. You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an
hour you do not expect.”
🤔Reflections
✝️Today's liturgy presents us with a perfect synthesis of the Christian life through the example of Saint John Cantius and the sacred texts. The Epistle of Saint James resounds like thunder against a sterile and theoretical faith, affirming that "faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself." Saint John Cantius was not merely a theologian who understood this truth; he embodied it. His life was a living exegesis of the "law of liberty," the law of love that frees us from selfishness to serve Christ in our neighbor. He understood that mercy practiced in life is the only thing that "exalteth itself above judgment." By giving away his food, his clothes, and his time, he was not just engaging in philanthropy; he was living the faith he professed, transforming every act of charity into a confession of God's love.
💡The Gospel of Saint Luke, in turn, exhorts us to eschatological vigilance. The image of "loins girt" and "lamps burning" is not an invitation to fear, but to loving readiness. The faithful servant awaits his master not out of fear of punishment, but out of longing for his presence. This readiness, however, is not a passive attitude. The lamps need oil to burn, and the oil that fuels our vigilance is precisely the works of mercy mentioned in the Epistle. Saint Augustine teaches that charity is the indispensable oil for our lamps: "The oil, in a good sense, is charity... If charity cools, the lamp is extinguished" (Saint Augustine, Sermon 93). Thus, the vigilance of the Gospel is sustained by the active charity of the Epistle. Saint John Cantius kept his lamp burning not only with prayers and studies, but with the constant oil of his charitable works.
👑The interconnection between faith, works, and vigilance culminates in the unprecedented promise of the Gospel: the returning Lord "will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them." This reversal of roles reveals the depth of God's love and the dignity to which we are called. We are not mere servants, but friends and children, awaited for the heavenly banquet. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that at the evening of our life, we will be judged on love (CCC, 1022), and this love is manifested in concrete works, like those of Saint John Cantius. He lived girt for service on earth, preparing for the day when the Lord Himself would serve him in Heaven. His life teaches us that preparing for the coming of the "Son of man" is not an anxious and empty wait, but a time filled with the diligent practice of the love that gives life to faith and makes us worthy of the King's table.
➡️See English version of the critical articles here.
