Last Saturday night I received a phone call from a friend who is in a 12 step recovery program. He asked if I would meet with a Priest who also was in recovery. I suggested this Priest, Father Richard , join me and Father Larry for Mass at the Chapel the folowing day, Sunday at 10:30 am. On Sunday, after Mass we spent sometime talking with Father Richard and a friend who came with him. It seems that Father Richard has long time sobriety, he is near 80 years old and lived and worked for many years at a half way house. He longer is associated with this half way house here in the Fort Lauderdale Area.
The four of us, Father Larry, Father Richard, myself and the friend who came along with him spent time talking obout our experiences in the various recovery programs. Our group spiritual thinking fell along similar lines. I shared with the group that I had been thinking of initiating a Matt Tablot style Mass on Monday evenings; a Mass reaching out to those in recovery programs. I invited Father Richard and others to join with me in pulling together the workings for this Mass. We sincerely hope that he will. But now onto Matt Talbot. Who is he and why did we choose him.
Matt Talbot was born May, 1856 in Dublin, Ireland of 12 children. Six of them grew to adulthood. Matt Talbot grew up in an alcoholic home, his father abused alcoholic and the rest of the family suffered from poverty as the result of this. Schooling was out of the question for him, he only had 2 years of formal education and thus was not able to read or write.
At 12 Matt had to go out and work and he found a job at a beer bottling company ; he started his drinking there. By sixteen he had graduated from beer to whiskey and would be seen coming home staggering. When he reached twenty all his time was spent in a Tavern where he spent all his wages . The neighbors now saw Matt as a habitual drunk or as today we might have called him a chronic alcoholic. He resorted to pawning what little he had and also stealing . At one time he stole a violin from a blind man. After having stayed out of work for a whole week, he ended up penniless and was in debt to all the local pubs. Not able to go into the pubs anymore to drink, he stood outside watiing for his friends to buy him a drink...he had spent a lot of his paycheck buying them drinks. But, they didnt even want to know him.
So he stood outside, a shamed man, He went home and thought about his life and what alcohol had done to him. He had tried years ago to hold to the Pledge of Sobriety in a local catholic church but was only able to stay sober for 3 months. And now here he is trying to stay sober, having halluciations,nausea and depression as he was self detoxing. He sought solace by attending an early morning mass and was able to go back to work. He took another 3 months pledge, then a 6 month one and final a pledge for life.
His sister Susan reported that when he wasnt at work or at church, he would spend numerous hours on his knees praying. His fellow workers reported that he was a hard worker, strong yet had a very gentle side to him. And the wages he received would be shared with his poor neighbors or charities. He only kept 300 pence ofr his own small needs.
When he reached age 67, in 1920 he was taken to the hopsital with a heart condition. He was able to continue working but on a lighter scale. He dropped dead on a Dublin street June 7, 1925 and was taken to the hospital where they found that Matt had a heavy chain wrapped around his waist, another on his arm and another on his leg. This he kept hidden as a remainder that he was a slave to Jesus and Mary. Upon seeing this some people became very intereted in this man.
They found his room looked almost like a monastic cell, a iron bed, a wood mattress, a pillow and a light blanket. There was also one chair and table upon which was a crucifix. The family reported his meals consisted of dry bread and cold tea and some times cold fish. He lived a model life of faith, hope and charity in addition to self denial, the spiritual principles of emotional sobriety. He saw God's way of life, not the self-indulgent way.
May we all learn to let go and let God and trust in his goodness. And may all of us who have hit bottom be there to reach out and help those or have not yet hit it.
Peace. And till the next time, may God bless us all. Father John Joseph
