Saint Thomas More

To be an excellent attorney, you must focus on nothing but your business and clients. To be a good father, you must sacrifice your professional duties.  To be Godly, you must only focus on God.  Saint Thomas More proved these all to be myths.

June 22nd, is the Feast Day of Saint Thomas More, the day in which Christians celebrate and honor the heroic virtue of this holy man who went before us.

But why do we remember him?

Is it because he was one of the most successful and celebrated lawyers in England? No (but he was).

Is it because he was a faithful and wise judge? No (but he was).

Is it because he was the most trusted advisor and Chancellor of the King of England? No (but he was).

We remember him because he was a man who loved the Lord, his family, and his country too much to allow himself to live a mediocre life.

By intentionally adopting a life of serious prayer and study, devoted to his family and his professional duties, Thomas More shows us a life that by definition cannot allow for wasted time. If one were to excuse anyone for not making sufficient time for prayer and study, More would be an ideal candidate: he was married with several children, ran one of the busiest and most successful law practices in London, served in a number of local government roles in the city, and eventually took on increasingly demanding roles in public service until he became an advisor to the King and eventually Lord Chancellor of England.

In a letter he wrote to his friend Peter Giles explaining the unpolished product that was his Utopia, he apologizes for the delay in finishing the book and says that his tasks leave him no leisure for himself: “I am constantly engaged in legal business . . . I pay a visit of courtesy to one man and go on business to another. I devote almost my whole day in public to other men’s affairs and the remainder to my own. I leave to myself, that is to learning, nothing at all.”  Yet despite the incredible busyness of More’s family and professional duties, despite the fact that his obligations left him scarcely any time for himself, he prayed seriously. He taught himself Greek in his spare time. He wrote twenty books, as well as hundreds of poems and letters.

How did such a dutiful husband, father, and public servant still find time for such a vibrant, serious spiritual and intellectual life? He made time for the things he loved, the things he had a duty to accomplish. And making time for those good things required More not to waste any time.

If even one person accepts the example and the challenge of St. Thomas More to stop wasting time and clean up his use of leisure, it could change the culture. It could even change the world. As we celebrate the feast day of the great St. Thomas More on June 22, let us ask him to intercede for us and for our life on earth, that each of us may dare to be that one person, dare to be like St. Thomas More. Let us stop wasting time and, with God’s help, dare to be great.

We hope you enjoyed your Saint Thomas More Feast this past weekend and hopefully we can all learn from his example.

May God Bless You, Your Business, Israel, and the United States of America, 

Tom Winslow