What is cynic?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a cynic as “a faultfinding captious critic”. In other words, a cynic is someone who carries a faultfinding mindset and being grounded in this mentality he always looks to blame others for the injustices he sees.
Cynic has its origin in the Greek word, kyōn which means “dog”. Now, many times when we think of dogs we think of loyalty and friendship. As the old saying goes, “A dog is man’s best friend.” But after living here in Papua New Guinea long enough and seeing that dogs here don’t get fed like the ones back in the States, many of them here can be anything but friendly to one another. When it comes to getting a day’s meal, they snarl and growl at one another to find and once found, protect their precious food.
The cynic is someone who snarls and growls at others in their thoughts and judgements. As the dog never thinks of sharing his food with other dogs, so the cynic never thinks charitable and forgiving thoughts towards others.
Today we live among many cynics. The modern lingo calls it “playing the victim”, but the truth of the matter is that those who “play the victim” are cynics. And to make sure we do not slip into becoming cynics ourselves, allow me to share with you the example of St. Martin de Porres. Fr. Robert McNamara writes,
“Most readers will know something about this lay brother of Lima, Peru. He was born in 1579, died in 1639, and was proclaimed a saint in 1962. Back in Peru’s colonial days, the ruling Spaniards brought over thousands of African blacks as slaves. Some of the slaves eventually won their freedom, most did not.
In his own person, Martin summarized the woes of the kidnapped black race. His Mother, Anna Velasquez, was a free black woman; his father a Spanish nobleman – in rank if not in character. When Anna showed Juan de Porres his baby boy, he exclaimed, I won’t accept him as mine. He’s too dark! Eventually, he came around and acknowledged his legal paternity. But he did very little to help his son, so Martin has to live out the role of a half-caste on the fringe of Liman society.
Another mulatto might have soured on life. Not Martin. He chose sanctity over cynicism. Joining the Dominican Order, he spent his life in utter humility and service of others.
One day this unselfish lay brother learned that his superior, faced with a shortage of funds to run the monastery, had set out for the market to sell some of the house’s most valuable items. Martin ran after the priest and caught up with him before he had reached the marketplace. Please don’t sell our possessions, the saint blurted out. Sell me! I’m not worth being kept in the order, anyhow; and I am strong and can work!
The superior, deeply touched, shook his head, Go back to the monastery. he said gently, you are not for sale!
So Martin remained free. But he had at least tried sincerely to imitate the Christ who did empty Himself and took on the form of a slave… obediently accepting even death, death on a cross.”
It was at this moment when Jesus was dying His death on a cross that our Blessed Mother also chose sanctity over cynicism. On that dreadful Friday we call “good”, practically everyone had turned against her Son, unjustly condemning Him and putting Him to death. At this moment in her life’s story, Mary could have responded with cynicism. She could have blamed others for her sufferings and woes. She could have turned her heart against them all. She could have been embittered by her circumstances. But she didn’t.
Once more in her life she chose sanctity in union with her Son. In doing so she teaches us that holiness happens through grace-filled and repeated choices to be holy just as Christ is holy. Mary’s whole life was a “pilgrimage of faith”[i] and a consistent choice for sanctity. Her pilgrimage of faith and constancy in choosing sanctity reveals the “story” of Mary’s soul. And as St. John Paul II teaches us, her story is now the Church’s story.
As men and women consecrated to Mary in filial slavery of love, we should reflect and discern whether or not we are making Mary’s interior story our own. Am I choosing sanctity with Christ every day? Am I choosing sanctity over cynicism? Sanctity over convenience? Sanctity over capriciousness? And the list can go on…
In the Litany of Loreto, we invoke Mary as the Queen of all Saints. Our prayer today, this Holy Week and throughout our life should always be that Mary help us to reach the heights of sanctity and union with Christ that God has called each one of us to and given us the grace to achieve through our Baptism.
Seize the day and this Holy Week, and make it all Hers!
[i] Cf. Lumen Gentium, 58; St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, 5-6.
