Feb 1 Thu - At every Mass, we express contrition for our sins

 Feb 1 Thu
Jesus called his followers to assist him with the proclamation of the Gospel. They stood with Jesus, took instructions from the Master, and validated St. Paul’s observation: “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” (1 Cor. 1:27)

Jesus identified Nathanael as an “Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” (Jn. 1:47) Nathanael’s forthright honesty is a model for all.
Judas, unlike Nathanael, was a man of guile and greed, a thief and a traitor. Months of dipping into the collection purse preceded the grand finale of his betrayal. We don’t know his motives, but we can guess he wasn’t impressed by Jesus.

Judas conspired with the chief priests and negotiated a deal. For a paltry thirty pieces of silver, he would deliver Jesus into their hands. Judas sealed his betrayal with his duplicitous kiss in the Garden.
Jesus reminded him of the abuse of friendship: “Judas, would you betray the Son of man with a kiss?” (Lk. 22:48) But rejecting friendship didn’t make the life of Judas any easier. Even the chief priests held the hapless traitor in contempt.

At every Mass, in preparation for our encounter with Jesus, we express contrition for our sins; and then, we offer our lives to Him during the Offertory, including our sins. God delights in the Presentation of the Gifts that represent our self-surrender –warts and all.
Judas brought his ill-gotten gifts to the Temple. Realizing the horror of his betrayal, he could have made amends, returned the thirty pieces of silver, and began again.

Thus, together with the Magi, Judas could have become a patron saint of the Offertory. But he lost the opportunity.

Judas would have fulfilled his restitution had he joined Mary, the holy women, and John at the foot of the Cross. The Cross of Jesus would have purified his sins, and the Resurrection would have led his soul to glory.
But Judas refused to accept forgiveness, and came to a horrible end.

“Don't feel humiliated when you discover your wretchedness—all of us are in the same boat! Our Lord doesn't cease to love us on that account. But we have to be sincere. Be very sincere; lose your fear, your shame of showing yourselves as you are. Only thus will they be able to apply the opportune remedy to cure us and help us work more effectively. And only thus will we truly realize how much our Lord loves us, since he's capable of pardoning our greatest weaknesses."

We have only to glance quickly at our life, at the occasions when we voluntarily turned our back on God's will, for our hearts to be filled with a deep sorrow of love. But Christ has forgiven us, and always forgive us when we approach him contritely in the sacrament of Penance. Today we want to kneel at his feet and tell him with heartfelt sorrow that we never want to offend him again.

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Jan 31 Wed - Sanctity implies love and commitment

 

Jan 31 Wed
We have abundant proofs of how generous God is. He has showered his gifts upon us. He has blessed us in baptism, with a Christian vocation, which yields a hundredfold here on earth, and gives us the assurance of heaven afterwards, if we are faithful.
He has given us an ideal which satisfies all the aspirations of our soul, and which turns sacrifice into something easy and pleasant.
He has entrusted us with a divine undertaking which transforms our life on earth into a wonderful adventure.
We are already happy beyond compare, and yet this happiness is no more than a foretaste of the joy awaiting us. And above all, he gives us his infinitely tender Love, his own fatherly Love.

If God has loved us so much, how should we respond? What should we do for him? What should be the extent, and the measure, of our love?

We must give ourselves completely in performing our duties, and in generously responding to God’s grace: that is how we can give practical effect to our desire to give ourselves generously in the Lord's service. There are usually two ways in which God reveals his most lovable will to us. One is through the duties of our state in life; the other is through the motions of grace in our soul.

Among the most important duties we all have are those prescribed by the commandments of God and the Church, and the personal commitments which our Christian vocation entails. These are a sure path to sanctity.
Sanctity means love and commitment; it is not just doing the minimum necessary. And a vague general desire to be a saint is not enough: we need to take unwavering steps each day in order to follow Jesus Christ, at the pace he sets.

The inspirations of grace are another way in which God reveals his will. These inspirations may arise in our hearts or come through spiritual direction, but in either case, what we need is a spirit of generosity and docility so that we respond to them as we should.

“How good our Lord is! He has sought us out and taught us this holy way of being effective, by surrendering our lives in a simple way, loving every person in God, and sowing peace and joy among men. Jesus, how very, very good you are!"

Our Mother Mary will help us to be generous. Do whatever he tells you. Was it not the persuasive way she said these words, and the look of love in her eyes, that led the servants at Cana to carry out Christ's command so generously, filling the jars right up to the brim?

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Jan 30 Tue - Thinking about heaven

 Jan 30 Tue
Thinking about heaven, one may have the doubt, “Will I be then the same person I am now?”

The last sentences that Cervantes wrote, four days before his death, are moving: "Farewell, thank you; farewell, gentle, pleasant friends; I am dying, and I wish to see you soon, happy in the next life… I continue to hope against all hope, because I no longer have it in this world, but I prolong it, I transfer it to the other, to that other that will continue to be mine, with my pleasant friends whom I hope to see happy. I know who I am, who I wanted to be, and, I insist, I still want to be; and I want to be this one I am, this very one... I know who I will always be.” This is the decisive expression describing the most intense possession of permanent life in God.

Cervantes also considers a second concept, uniqueness; he describes that each person is unique, that is to say: that like me there has not been, nor will there ever be another equal, both with respect to who I am, and what I am. Neither can I become another person. Every human being is impossible to repeat.

Life is like a little boat, which allows us to go out to sea, at the risk of being shipwrecked and lost. Let's imagine the scene. Sailing in that fragile boat, going through so many calamities. Not even during storms, should we lose our calm or become discouraged.

The sailor must keep calm, bring calm to himself, and advance serenely in the midst of the storm; God is my Father. He must not become upset or uneasy. Anxiety is the loss of serenity, of the firmness and calmness that man had achieved, that he had procured by calming himself.

Anguish enters, which is a deprivation, because man's proper thing is not anguish, but serenity. But this serenity and peace, in turn, is not given to him for nothing; rather, man has to conquer it, and win it, as God’s gift. In order to have peace, he must first of all become calm.

Man, even in the tightest situations, must withdraw into himself, look at the lighthouse at the distance, and calm down, perhaps through an energetic effort. Then, he arrives at his real self, his permanent destination. Serenity is finding oneself authentically, having conquered oneself from agitation or alienation.
It is not in anxiety, but in calm that man can truly take possession of his life and, in effect, fully exist; in it, he properly humanizes himself, and able to give himself to God.

Is it possible we remain looking at ourselves as persons? … As persons with an immortal destiny? … with a vocation to unending happiness?
I think it is enough to open our eyes, and see what each one of us is, and hopes to be. That is achieved in dialogue with our Father and Creator in contemplative prayer.

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Jan 29 Mon - Predestination

 

Jan 29 Mon
Predestination. So, let’s start in eternity past with predestination, namely Ephesians 1:5–6. The passage says:

    “He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, TO the praise of his glorious grace …"

So, grammatically, the purpose and reason of our existence is portrayed here. And what is ultimate, grammatically? This little prepositional phrase “TO” in Ephesians 1:6, and that is what is ultimate in reality. I love it when I find hidden pearls in these nitty-gritty things called conjunctions, nouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions, and prepositional phrases, which speak of massive realities.

Here we have that God predestined us to a certain end.
What end? -Well, that we might be adopted into his family; that may become children of God.
How did he do it? -He did it through Jesus Christ.
Who decided that? Whose idea was that? -It corresponds with the kind intention of his Will. God wanted it.
And to what end did he do all of that? It says, “unto the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6).

He did it for his praise. He did it to get our praise. He did it for his name to be exalted, specifically here, for the quality of his grace to be exalted.
We will spend eternity making much of God and his grace. Then, he will be the focus of everything, and he should be now because that is what he designed the world for, and that is why he brought us to existence.

Providence is the name we give to the care God shows in watching over his own. St John Damascene asserts that “Providence is also God's will in giving to each thing the direction it should take. Since divine Providence is God's will, everything that happens providentially has to be most excellent and worthy of God, and must happen in the best possible way." “Hence, trust in God means having faith, no matter what happens, going beyond appearances. The charity of God –whose love for us is eternal– lies behind every event, though at times in a manner that is hidden to us." St. Josemaría.

We are right to trust completely in our Father God. We may not always understand why certain things happen; we may not grasp why they should be so, especially when they do not fit in with our way of thinking; but it is then that we need to offer filial surrender, abandoning ourselves into God's hands like a child who knows that his father always gives him what is best. Sometimes a child is attracted by things that could do him harm; and his father, even though he knows the child is going to be disappointed, has to say no. The child may not understand, but it is for his own good. Everything that happens to us is good and right for us: for those who love God all things work together for the good.

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Jan 28 Sun - We must remain vigilant

 Jan 28 Sun
The tormented man of Capernaum recognized Christ. And Jesus commanded the devil with authority, "Be silent, and come out of him. And they were all amazed.”

John Paul II teaches that the evil spirit can exercise its influence not only on material things, but also on the body of man, which is why we speak of "diabolical possessions.” Satan can reach this extreme expression of his dominance.

In the Gospel, diabolical possession is usually accompanied by pathological manifestations: epilepsy, dumbness, deafness.... The possessed often lose control over themselves, over their gestures and words; sometimes they are material instruments of the devil. Therefore, these miracles performed by the Lord manifest the coming of the kingdom of God, and the expulsion of the devil out of the realm of the kingdom: Now the prince of this world is going to be cast out.
When the seventy-two disciples return, filled with joy at the results of their apostolic mission, they say to Jesus: Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And the Master answered them: I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Since the coming of Christ, the devil has been fighting in retreat, although his power is great and his presence becomes stronger as man and society move away from God. Through it, many become subject to the slavery of the devil, they move away from the kingdom of God to enter the kingdom of darkness, of evil; they become instruments of the devil in the world, and are subjected to the worst of slavery. Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. And mortal sin is the worst misfortune that can happen to a Christian.

With the light of faith, we can see in this possessed man every sinner who wants to convert to God, freeing himself from Satan and sin.

We must remain vigilant, to discern and reject the tempter, who grants himself no pause in his eagerness to harm us, since, after the original sin, we are subjected to the passions and exposed to the assault of concupiscence and the devil.
“We need to be vigilant because the world, the devil and the flesh are a band of adventurers who, taking advantage of the weakness of that savage you bear within you, want you to hand over to them the pure gold and the pearls and the diamonds and rubies drenched in the living and redeeming blood of your God, which are the price and the treasure of your eternal happiness, in exchange for the glittering tinsel of a pleasure, which is worth nothing¬¬."

Deliver us, Lord, from sin, from the Evil One; lead us not into temptation. Grant, by your infinite mercy, that we may not yield to the infidelity to which we are seduced by him who has been unfaithful from the beginning. And when we feel that our feet are of clay, we need to appeal to Christ and his Blessed Mother, our Mother.

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Jan 27 Sat - We need to give ourselves generously

 

Jan 27 Sat
This our response should be: not merely fulfilling, but surpassing ourselves.
We are responding properly to God's goodness when we serve him, when we accept his will and let him use us as instruments for working all the wonders he wants to perform in the world. “Free man, subject yourself to a voluntary servitude, so that Jesus won't have to say of you what we are told he said of others to St Teresa: ‘Teresa, I was willing... but men were not.’"

All that God has done and continues to do for us has this characteristic of abundance; it is an overflowing of his grace. Think of his Incarnation, or the way he constantly forgives our sins, or his continual presence in the Eucharist... Faced with all this goodness, we are like that servant in the parable, the debtor who could not pay. Ours is a debt that can never be repaid. Whatever we do, even though it might seem very great, is really very little.

“Our generosity, even if it were total, would be very little compared to the infinite and loving generosity of the God-Man, who offered himself in sacrifice to save us, giving even the last drop of his blood, the last breath in his body. Therefore, we must also try to give ourselves unstintingly, for the love of God, even though there are bound to be difficulties. That is why in carrying out our work, we should not try merely to fulfill, but to love, which always means surpassing themselves gladly in duty and sacrifice."

The waiters in that house at Cana in Galilee give us with example of how to give ourselves completely. “Fill the jars with water," our Lord told them. “And they filled them up to the brim," up to the very top. Let us not limit ourselves to doing the bare minimum. There can be no half-measures in our commitment. “For a person who wants to live a life of Love with a capital L, half-measures are feeble, they are miserly, they are mean and calculating. I will give you a piece of advice. When Love knocks at your door, don't throw up barriers or hold back your heart. Never be afraid of going too far. If we are generous to God, it will lead us to be generous to those around us, putting our heart into all that we do."

We need to give ourselves generously. God looks for our complete self-giving, in response to the love and trust he has shown us. Then we will never impose limits on his generosity. We are the water; the wine is the conversion of many. Jesus will never have to give less wine, because we had provided less water.

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Jan 26 Fri - Every man, as a man, is loved by God

 

Jan 26 Fri
A son took his father to a restaurant to enjoy a delicious dinner. His father was already quite old, and therefore, a little weak as well. As he ate, bits of food dripped from time to time onto his shirt and pants. The other diners watched the old man with their faces distorted in disgust, but his son remained completely calm.

Once they had both finished eating, the son, not even remotely embarrassed, calmly helped his father, and took him to the toilet. He cleaned the leftover food from his wrinkled face, and tried to wash the food stains from his clothes; he lovingly combed his gray hair and finally adjusted his glasses.

As they left the restroom, a profound silence reigned in the restaurant. No one could understand how anyone could make such a fool of himself. The son went to pay the bill, but before leaving, a man, also elderly, stood up from among the diners, and asked the old man's son, "Don't you think you left something here?"

The young man replied, "No, I don’t think I left anything behind." Then the stranger said to him: "Yes, you have left something! You have left here a lesson for every son, and a hope for every father!" The whole restaurant was so silent that you could hear a pin drop.

For any person, one of the greatest honors is to care for those seniors who once cared for us as well. Our parents, and all those seniors who sacrificed their lives, with all their time, money and effort for us, deserve our utmost respect. If you also feel respect towards the elderly, behave...

God has been taking care of you, each time you made a mess of yourself. He made you clean, he served you food –his Body in the Eucharist– to be strong. Shouldn’t you be patient with those in error, and give them formation? Shouldn’t you take care of those close to you, and help them get out from the mess they are in?

Thus, all of us, assisted by grace, should use charity towards those who do not behave as children of God, but rather offend him, because, in the words of St. Augustine, “No sinner, as a sinner, is worthy of love, but every man, as a man, is loved by God.”

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Jan 25 Thu - The Holy Mass. The real God is there.

 

Jan 25 Thu
We are passing through a difficult time in the Church (for Agnosticism is always difficult). It all began with one of the greatest obstacles to human freedom in the modern world; that is, the denial of the Christian affirmation that each individual is created and sustained by God.

The removal of God from the human mind, and the replacement by a “god of humanity,” was perhaps the most successful propaganda stunt of the Enlightenment. This is the belief in a god which we, men, can manufacture.

Yet the Enlightenment propaganda had some effect. We were convinced that we will be liberated by this maneuver, when in fact we were only destroyed by it. For soon we discover that there was no “god of humanity;” not because we could eliminate him, but because such god never was. The One who created the human, was not up to the human to create.

The pre-Socratic Anaxagoras suggested the existence of something like the Big Bang, the rotations of celestial objects, the progression of living things and their “panspermia” – or tendency to distribute. All of it supervised by the NOUS –a cosmic ordering MIND– which wisely separated what is like from what is unlike, then recombines them in likeness. Anaxagoras gave even good accounts of eclipses, meteors, the sun, irradiations, shadows, and rainbows.

The NOUS stood in the world, and supervised it, and made it more alive by his attentions. But what is this “standing in the world”?

In agreement with advanced quantum physics, I would call this “the stability of things.” Call this the essence of Realism.

It does not go away. Only we can go away.

Here I like to quote the late Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz, in the fight against Enlightenment propaganda:

    “The true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness; the huge comfort of thinking that we are not going to be judged for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, and murders."

We were promised a nothingness after death that the god we had created cannot deliver.

But what will we get when we shake off our “enlightened” desolation, the false god we can cancel?

Something quite marvelous takes its place immediately, for we begin to see a non-human way, a supernatural way forward.

We begin to see that, the fear we have been avoiding, has been cancelled.

There is still time to fill in our stolid, material lives, and these could be filled wisely with prayer, and with an important adjunct of prayer, which I should call formation.

For just as the “Enlightenment” could not make God disappear, but tried to conceal him behind an imaginary “god of humanity,” the reverse process may necessarily follow. We will replace this false god with the real One.

This is also the way into the Holy Mass. The real God is there, “standing in the world", dying for us, to set us free, to show us the way, to accompany us.
[Adapted from David Warren]

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Jan 24 Wed - We have the duty of looking after our health in order to serve God.

 

Jan 24 Wed
We have the duty of looking after our health in order to serve God.
We have to work hard in the service of souls. Thus, we need to be fit, so that we can go on working, and so that God can continue to place loads on our shoulders. Life is a gift from God, which we want to spend completely in his service. And the same goes for our health.

We should want to die of old age, after having spent our life in the service of love. Thus, good health is something to be appreciated. It allows us to toil in the Lord's vineyard from the first hour until the last, cheerfully bearing the burden of the day and the scorching heat. We try to stay healthy and strong, out of love for God and a desire to serve. But at the same time, we avoid being over-concerned about the state of our health. And we obey all that we are told as regards looking after our health. Docility in this matter is part of our total dedication. Not even our body is ours; it belongs to God and is to be used solely for serving him.

St. Josemaría desired that we “should take special care to ensure that our body is always fit to respond as a good instrument of our soul. We should use all possible means to avoid anyone becoming physically exhausted as a result of work or other causes. Such physical exhaustion often leads to a psychological breakdown as well, and saps the vital energy which is necessary for the interior struggle. I remind you that God's grace ordinarily counts on our natural strength."

We must look after ourselves in all the ways dictated by common sense. However, we are also called to exercise detachment as regards bodily health. If we fulfill the norms of prudence and nevertheless fall ill, then we offer that illness up to God.

Besides taking care of ourselves we must also ask God for good health. St Augustine writes: “If God knows that it is useful for you, he will grant it to you. If he does not give it to you, it is because it is better for you not to have it."

“When physical pain can be removed, it should be. There are enough sufferings in life! And when we cannot get rid of it, we offer it up."
“That is why you must look after yourselves, so that you die very old, squeezed out like a lemon, accepting God's will as of now."

Illness is another chance to abandon and give ourselves. In all simplicity, we make our needs known, never forgetting that we are poor for the love of Christ, to whom we have given everything.
May our Lady, Health of the Sick, ensure that it is always love for God that moves us to want to stay healthy, and to be generous in accepting God's will when we fall ill.

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Jan 23 Tue - We need faith in big things as well as in our small daily events.

 

Jan 23 Tue
We need faith in big things as well as in our small daily events.
A man’s heart plans out his way, but it is the Lord who makes his steps secure.
Increase our faith! we ask our Lord, with the Apostles. And the Church exhorts us: “Let us praise the God who is our refuge; in him we have placed all our hope. Let us call on him devoutly saying: Lord, look upon your children!" God does not turn his back on the prayers of his beloved children. But we do need faith, a practical faith that sheds light not only on the great truths and fundamental principles, but also on the ordinary events of each day.

St Bernard writes: “Sometimes our faith appears uncertain about things of the present, although it is very firm about the future ... But what sort of unbelief is that? Or rather, is any greater madness possible? Could uncreated Wisdom, the eternal Truth, deceive? Could infinite Charity not wish to give us what he has offered, or the Almighty be unable to fulfill his promise?" God will fulfill his promise not only in heaven, but here and now as well, in our daily pursuit of holiness and apostolate, in our efforts to win new apostles, in the fulfillment of our small daily duties, and in our fight to overcome the various difficulties that crop up.

Let us ask God to increase our faith, and to cast his divine light upon our daily tasks, so that we can be filled with love and hope, and our efforts can bear fruit. “God is always the same. It is men of faith that are needed. Then there will be a renewal of the wonders we read about in Sacred Scripture."

God's arm, his power, has not grown weaker! This is the faith with which we want to face up to all that the day has in store for us, all the challenges of the interior struggle, our work, and the apostolate. Once again, we will be able to say with our mother Mary: “the Lord has shown strength with his arm." For “if you are faithful, you will be able to boast of victory, and in your life, you will not experience defeat There is no such thing as failure, as long as we work with a pure intention, and the desire to fulfill God's will. Whether or not we are successful, we have still triumphed, because we have done our work for Love."

“Pray then. And if, in spite of everything, our faith should falter, let us cry out to Jesus, the Great King whom we want to serve as soldiers, using the same words that escaped from the souls of the disciples, as St Luke recounts: Adauge nobis fidem! Increase our faith!"

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Jan 21 Sun - Feast of Santo Niño

 

Jan 21 Sun
In the fullness of time there came also the fullness of God
And today we can see Him as a little Child. St Bernard tells us: “The kindness and love of God our savior for mankind were revealed." Thanks be to God, through whom we receive such abundant consolation in this pilgrimage, this exile, this misery.

Before his humanity appeared, his kindness lay concealed. Of course, it was already in existence, because the mercy of the Lord is from eternity, but how could men know it was so great? It was promised to us but not yet experienced: thus, many did not believe in it. “At various times and in various different ways, God spoke through the prophets, saying I know the plans I have in mind for you: plans for peace, not disaster."

What reply did man make, man who felt pain, and knew nothing of peace?
Now, at last, men believe with their own eyes, because all God’s promises are to be trusted.

Now, peace is no longer promised, but conferred; no longer delayed, but given; no longer predicted, but bestowed. God has sent down to earth a bag bulging with his mercy, a bag that, at his passion, was torn open so that our ransom pours out of it onto us. A small bag, perhaps, but a full one: for it was a small Child that was given to us, but in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.

For our sake the Word of God became perishable like the grass. Lord, what is man, that you mind him so much, or pay him so much attention?

Let man infer from this how much God cares for him. Let him know from this what God thinks of him, what he feels about him. Man, do not ask about your own sufferings; but about what God suffered. Learn from what he was made for you, how much he appreciates you, so that his kindness may show itself to you from his humanity.

The smaller he makes himself as man, the greater shows his goodness. The more he humbles himself for me, the more I love him. “The goodness and humanity of God our Savior appeared," says St Paul.

And St. Josemaría adds: “I see God lying in a place where only animals dwell, and I exclaim: Jesus, where is your majesty?
My child, have you seen the greatness of God become a child? For his Father is God, and his ministers are the angels. Yet he is here, in a manger, in swaddling clothes ... Such was the sign the shepherds were given. St Paul describes it very well. He says of Christ: emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. Helpless, he cannot defend himself. He is a baby who looks like any ordinary child."

We are moved, as were the shepherds, by the great lesson of humility our Lord teaches us even from the cradle. He came into the world in the utmost silence, unknown to the wise and powerful of this world.

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Jan 20 Sat - The Single-Minded Magi

 

Jan 20 Sat
The Single-Minded Magi
The three Magi had their priorities right. They followed the star to Bethlehem to worship the newborn King. Their single-mindedness, driven by conscience, teaches us to do the same, obeying God’s Will… Do I have that single-mindedness in accomplishing my mission in life?

The wise men followed the star, and it settled over the “manger” of Bethlehem. The wise men worshiped the Child, yet, like John the Baptist, could not yet enter into the Mystery of Calvary, the mystery of the Mass.

The wise men bring us to the threshold of the Liturgy of the Eucharist as they present their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the customary offering to kings. The gifts symbolize royalty (gold), prayer to God (frankincense), and the priesthood (the priestly anointing of myrrh). Like bread and wine, their gifts are the “work of human hands” and prepare us to participate in the one Sacrifice of Jesus. Indeed, Bethlehem means “House of Bread”—the house of the Real Presence of Jesus, Mary’s Child.

Every Mass (and every tabernacle) is a “House of Bread.” Mary’s Child comes to us again under the appearance of bread and wine. We may piously suggest the Magi should be the patron saints of Eucharistic adoration. The wiles of Herod would not deter the wise men from worship. And the Magi protected Jesus from Herod’s murderous rage by obeying God’s orders they received in a dream, directing them not to return to Herod. Their single-minded determination to their mission are examples for every one of us.

Herod the Great also had a single purpose: to protect his power. But he used his power for unjust purposes.

The primary duty of a Christian is that of the Magi: to worship God in the House of Bread. The Mass is the center, the “source and summit” of the Catholic Faith. The dictates of conscience require the fidelity of every Christian to Catholic faith and morals. Like the wise men, we must remain single-minded in worship, in obedience to the first Three Commandments. So, to fulfill ourselves and transform the world around us, we must remain faithful to the Gospel and Church teaching, regardless of the cost.

In so doing, the Magi were wise men. They were not acting as cowards when they avoided Herod. We are not cowards when we protect our dignity by evading unnecessary dangers and temptations. But a Christian is a coward if he refuses to care for the others and identify threats to salvation. Indeed, some mortal sins are so loathsome they cry out to heaven for God’s vengeance (cf. CCC 1867).

The illustration is a medieval altar-piece. The face of our Lady is charming.
The First King is adoring Jesus, offering him his life.
The Second King is telling the Third King, “Let’s follow the Star”.
The Third King is you, still surprised by God’s choice, and saying “Me?”

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Jan 19 Fri - Holy intransigence in what belongs to the deposit of the faith

 Jan 19 Fri
Catholic doctrine is not a construct of the human intelligence: we have received it from the Church, which faithfully transmits the truths that Jesus Christ gave to the Apostles. Therefore, if we want to be faithful to our Lord, we have to conserve her teachings, try to know them better, to live them, and transmit them integrally to the rest of mankind.

“Guard the deposit which I have given to you," wrote St Paul to Timothy. And St Vincent of Lerins comments: “What is the deposit? It is what you have believed and not what you have discovered; what you have received and not what you have thought up; something which comes not from personal cunning, but from doctrine; not the fruits of theft, but fruit of public tradition. It is something that has come down to you, which has not been invented by you; something of which you are not the author, but the guardian; not the creator but the curator; not the conductor but the conducted one."

“Guard the deposit: conserve clean and inviolate the talent, the gift of the Catholic faith. May what you have believed remain in you, and give the same to the others. You have received gold, give back gold; don't substitute one thing for another, don't replace the gold with lead, don't mix it fraudulently with anything. Be not interested in something with the appearance of gold but in the pure gold itself."

“What belongs to the deposit of Revelation," St. Josemaría wrote, “that which –trusting in God, who cannot deceive nor be deceived– we know to be Catholic truth, cannot be an object of compromises, simply because it is the truth, and the truth does not come by halves."

“Have you ever thought about what would happen if, on the basis of wanting to be 'transigent', all the changes, that we men might ask for, were made to our holy Catholic faith? Perhaps we would arrive at something in which we were all in agreement, at a type of religion which was characterized by a vague inclination of the heart, by a sterile sentimentalism, that almost certainly –with a little bit of good will– could be found in any search for the supernatural; but this doctrine would not be the doctrine of Christ, it would not be a treasure of divine truths, but something human, that would neither save nor redeem; salt which had become insipid."

This holy intransigence in what belongs to the deposit of the faith, ought to be always accompanied by transigence, which is equally holy, with people who do not possess the plenitude of the Catholic truth. But we cannot make compromises in the faith."

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Jan 18 Thu - The octave of Christian unity begins today

 

Jan 18 Thu
The octave of Christian unity begins today: they are days of special petition to the Holy Trinity, in which we ask for the fulfillment of the words of our Lord at the Last Supper: “Holy Father, keep in your name those you have given me, so that all be one as we are one." Urged on by the Holy Spirit, we are getting ready to live the octave in a unity of desires with the entire Church. We do so, full of supernatural hope, because we know that it has to be the Holy Spirit who moves the hearts of all those who believe in Christ and who will bring about the perfect unity of all Christians in the one Church.

Our prayer follows the path marked out by the priestly prayer of Jesus Christ, on the evening of his Passion. When the time had come for him to pass from this world to the Father, our Lord prays for a holy and compact Church with a unity which points up its beauty, for the supreme and highest principle of the unity of the Church is her resemblance with the mystery of the Trinity of Persons, and the Unity of only one God the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Like the Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep, Jesus Christ prays for the unity of his flock. For years he has guided his disciples, he has looked after them one by one; but he knows that the enemy is constantly trying to snatch the sheep and scatter the flock, and his Heart suffers, knowing that many will waver and abandon the sheep-fold.

The prayer of Christ also extends to those who have never been counted amongst his followers, those who never even knew about his flock: “I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold, and I also have to bring them, and they will hear my voice and will form only one flock with one shepherd."

With this octave, the Church wants us to take one more step in the identification of our sentiments with those of Jesus. Being well aware of the vicissitudes of the Church throughout history, and conscious of the weakness of the human heart, so easily swayed by error, egoism, discord, and desire for power, our prayer has to be more intense, uniting itself to that of the Good Shepherd: “as you, Father, in me and I in You, that they be united in us..., that they be one as we are one. I in them and You in me, so that they be united as one, and so that the world might know you have sent me and that you have loved them as you have loved me."

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Jan 17 Wed - God calls anyone, without asking for permission.

 Jan 17 Wed
God calls anyone he wants with a special vocation, without needing to ask for permission.

That group came from a far-off land. The clothes they wore, and the strange beasts of burden on which they were riding were not often seen in Palestine. The people around Jerusalem would have conjectured all sorts of things on seeing them. They must be important people: princes, perhaps, or possibly some of those wise men who delve into the mysteries of the stars. If so, they probably came from the lands of the Medes or the Persians, or even from some distant Indian city.

"We have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.’ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. This scene is still repeated today. Faced with the greatness of God or with a person who has made up his mind - with a decision both deeply human and profoundly Christian - to live up to the demands of his faith, there are people who find it strange and in their surprise they even get scandalized. It seems they are unable to countenance a way of life which does not fit into their limited earthly horizons. They smirk at the generous actions of those who have heard God's call. They are frightened by such dedication, and in some cases that appear frankly pathological, they do all in their power to thwart the holy determination of those who with complete freedom have given themselves to God.”

“On some occasions some people think that our Lord ought to ask their permission before choosing others for his service. Apparently, they believe man is not free to say an unequivocal yes or no to this proposal of Love. To people who think that way, the supernatural life of each soul is something secondary. They do believe it has to be reckoned with, but only after petty comforts and human selfishness have been accommodated. If this were the case, what would be left of Christianity? Are the loving but demanding words of Jesus only to be heard? Or are they rather to be heard and put into practice? Did he not say, Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect?"

“Our Lord asks all men to come out to meet him, to become saints. He calls not only the Magi, the wise and powerful. Before that he had sent, not a star, but one of his angels to the shepherds in Bethlehem. Rich or poor, wise or less so, all of us have to foster in our hearts a humble disposition that will allow us to listen to the word of God, and follow Him."

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Jan 16 Tue - Obeying God’s Will

 Jan 16 Tue
Obeying God’s Will.
As the New Year begins, we behold Jesus asking us to prepare our hearts and put aside everything that does not accord with God's will. May our hearts be fully converted to God. May he be the only goal of our intentions and the sole object of our affections. May our hearts show no hesitation in the face of hardship, but burn ever more ardently, consumed by love for God.

St. Josemaría asks us “never to forget the lesson given to us by the Holy Family. St Joseph had great love for freedom, and great respect for God's will. He didn't know what that will was. He came to know it later, when he realized that the Blessed Virgin was carrying the Child. Knowing this, he did not want to stain her reputation. He loved God's will even without understanding it. He thus earned the special affection of the most holy Trinity, who sent him an Angel to explain that all this was God's doing. St Joseph, that chaste, pure, clean man, loves God's freedom. He loves God's will and fully accepts it."

“Nor did our Lady understand when the Angel told her that this was to be a wondrous event, a marvelous divine work. After looking into it as carefully as she could –how can this come about, since I know not man? – and after learning the wondrous fashion in which it would be done, her reply was: ‘Ecce ancilla’. The Blessed Virgin loved the will of God..."

“The time came for Jesus to show himself as the Son of God, and he left them for three days. When they met up again, his Mother affectionately reproached him: ‘Son, why have you treated us so?’ On hearing Jesus' reply, the Holy Family again accepted God's will, by loving that freedom, and fulfilling the divine will."

Our love for God's will is shown in deeds. Men do their own will and not God's when they do what they want instead of what God commands.

“Now, in front of the infant Jesus, we can continue our personal examination of conscience. Are we ready to try to make our life a model and example to our brothers, the rest of men, our equals? Are we ready to be other Christs? It's not enough to say that we are. … Are you attentive to the Father's will, so as to be able to encourage everyone else to share the good, noble, divine and human values of the redemption? Are you living the life of Christ, in your everyday life in the middle of the world?"
 
Let us rejoice with the Virgin Mary, contemplating her most faithful response to God's will. Through her, the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. Let us ask our Mother that we may not “lack the faith, nor the courage, nor the daring, to carry out the will of our Jesus."

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Jan 15 Mon - Mary’s Question (2)

 Jan 15 Mon
Mary’s Question (2)
In the Visitation, the first lesson our Lady teaches us about thinking is: to ask questions in faith. Theology is defined as Faith seeking understanding. First, we believe what God has revealed; then we seek to understand it more. We don’t make our own understanding the condition of faith. We don’t say, “Once you convince me, then I’ll believe.” That’s what Zechariah did – and was punished. Faith in what God has revealed is necessary for the proper kind of thinking in the Church.

Second lesson: Mary shows that we should ask questions with the willingness to receive the answer. Zechariah’s question was the only answer he wanted. Our Lady’s question shows an openness to instruction. Here it’s good to recall Newman’s line that “Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.” A difficulty is a puzzlement or wonder about some aspect of the faith. It leads to that questioning and willingness to receive what God has to say.

A doubt comes from and leads to skepticism. It puts God on trial and demands that He prove himself. The irony is that God has done many things to prove His love for us. But we are not open to His answers. We keep moving the goalposts on Him, insisting that He prove Himself on “our" terms.

Third lesson: Mary shows us that our questions should be for the purpose of self-giving. Her questioning is not just an intellectual endeavor for her. She’s not asking just because, you know, it would be nice to know. She doesn’t suffer the vice of “curiositas". Rather, she asks, she seeks to understand more, so that she can conform herself to God’s truth. That is why we should ask questions about the faith: so that by understanding more we can give ourselves more.

Zechariah was punished by being struck mute – because skeptics really have nothing to say. Mary is rewarded by an explanation and by a proof. She didn’t demand them; God in His generosity gave them. He doesn’t always respond that quickly or that clearly. But He always rewards those who seek Him with sincere and upright hearts, who desire to know and understand Him more, not on their own terms but as He is.
By Fr. Paul D. Scalia

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Jan 14 Sun - Christ comes to open heaven for all men

 

Jan 14 Sun
Christ, who had come to open heaven for all men, could find means of bringing them all to that eternal home without help from any man. Yet he decided to ask men to co-operate with him in this divine task. He set up his Church, which would be run by mere mortals for their fellow-mortals, but which would be under his protection, and assisted by him until the end of time.

Christ, as God, could deal directly with every human being on earth. There would then be no need for Christians to be apostles for their fellow companions, no need for a Church with her teaching Magisterium, no need for the sacrament of Baptism, or of Penance, nor of the Holy Eucharist itself or of any other such aids. Christ could do all that we do, and all that his Church does for the salvation of mankind, and more successfully, of course. Yet he chose the way which divine wisdom saw was best: He called you and me.

When a soul has heard the voice of Jesus calling him, he cannot remain indifferent. Benedict XVI: "When someone experiences great joy, he feels the impulse to communicate it to the people with whom he is in contact. This is all the more true when it is a matter of the supernatural life that Jesus has brought to earth. This is a joy that cannot be hidden, because the Christian vocation carries with it, by its very nature, the need to do apostolate. The joy of having been saved by God does not fit in a single heart".
The great novelty of Christianity consists in knowing that God loves us with a Father's love.

"Ancient people lived in a world of fear, surrounded by dangerous demons, never knowing how to save themselves.
And now they heard it said: "Rejoice; those demons are nothing; there is a true God, and this true God is good, he loves us, he knows us, he is with us to the point that he has become flesh". This is the great joy that Christianity announces.

"This joy that we have received we cannot keep it only for ourselves. Joy must always be shared. Joy must be communicated. Mary immediately ran to communicate her joy to her cousin Elizabeth. And since she was raised to heaven, she has been distributing joy throughout the world; she has become the Consoler of the afflicted, our Mother, who communicates joy, trust, goodness, and invites us to distribute joy ourselves as well."

St. Josemaría in “Forge”: You wrote: “My King, I hear you proclaiming in a loud voice that still resounds: — I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled!”
Then you added: “Lord, it is me — all of me — who answers with all my senses and faculties: Ecce ego quia vocasti me! — here I am because you have called me.”
—May this answer of yours be a daily reality.

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Jan 13 Sat - Mary’s Question (1)

 

Jan 13 Sat
Mary’s Question (1)
The Blessed Virgin Mary – the epitome of humility, faith, and obedience – does something that we do not typically associate with those virtues. She asks a question: “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” Of course, the whole point is that she asks the question in all humility, faith, and obedience. In so doing, she teaches us how to question and, thus, how to think properly about our faith.

And we have to think about our faith. Not to do so would be a disservice to the faith itself. God’s Revelation is addressed to rational creatures and must be received and responded to by such. Jesus Christ, the fullness of God’s Revelation, is the Logos – the word, idea, and or thought – made flesh. God is our “reasonable worship.” (Romans 12:1) The failure to think warps and distorts the Catholic faith. It begets a superficial, superstitious, and brittle faith, apt to be shattered the first time someone asks a good question.

Unthinking faithful become easy prey. They are the seed along the path: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart.” (Matthew 13:19) An unthinking Magisterium would become tyrannical, not teaching God’s word authoritatively but just imposing its own power.

Now, to appreciate our Lady’s question, we have to contrast it with Zechariah’s question from earlier in Luke’s Gospel. (cf. Luke 1:5-23) The angel Gabriel appeared to him in the temple.  Standing at the altar, he announced the answer to Zechariah’s prayers, the birth of John the Baptist. In response, Zechariah asked, “How am I to know this?” At first glance, his question seems similar, practically the same, as Mary’s. But the difference is profound.

How am I to know this? Well, God’s messenger is standing in front of you. That should be evidence enough. If God’s sending of an angel isn’t enough, what will be? In modern terms, Zechariah’s question would be something to the effect of “Yeah, right” or “Oh, yeah? Prove it.” He is not receptive to the truth being announced to him. Rather, he insists that God prove Himself. Zechariah is a skeptic, not seeking to conform his mind to reality but insisting that reality prove itself to his liking. Which makes Zechariah an apt image of most modern thinkers.

Mary’s question is different. “How can this be?” could be translated How shall this be? or even How is this going to be? Point is, she accepts that what the angel said will be. But she also wants to know how. Mary first trusted – she had faith – that God’s messenger spoke the truth. Then, she wanted to understand how such a miraculous thing would occur.
By Fr. Paul D. Scalia

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Jan 11 Thu - We share the same faith of the Apostles

 

Jan 11 Thu
“We announce what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have touched with our own hands." Who could touch the Word with his hands unless “the Word was made flesh and lived among us?"

Now this Word, whose flesh was so real that he could be touched by human hands, began to be flesh in the Virgin Mary’s womb; but he did not begin to exist at that moment. We know this from what John says: “What existed from the beginning." Notice how John’s letter bears witness to his Gospel, which you just heard a moment ago: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God."

Someone might interpret the phrase the Word of life to mean a word speaking about Christ, rather than Christ’s Body itself, which was touched by human hands. But consider what comes next: “and life itself was revealed." Christ therefore is himself the Word of life.

And how was this life revealed? It existed from the beginning, but was not revealed to men, only to angels, who looked upon it, and feasted upon it, as their own spiritual bread. But what does Scripture say? “Mankind ate the bread of angels."

Life itself was therefore revealed in the flesh to us. In this way what was visible to the heart alone could become visible also to the eye, and so heal men’s hearts. For the Word is visible to the heart alone, while flesh is visible to bodily eyes as well. We already possessed the means to see the flesh, but we had no means of seeing the Word. The Word was made flesh so that we could see it, to heal the part of us by which we could see the Word.

John continues: “And we are witnesses and we proclaim to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, has now been revealed among us" – one might say more simply “revealed to us.”

“We proclaim to you what we have heard and seen." Make sure that you grasp the meaning of these words. The disciples saw our Lord in the flesh, face to face; they heard the words he spoke, and in turn they proclaimed the message to us. So, we also have heard, although we have not seen.

Are we then less favored than those who both saw and heard? If that were so, why should John add: “so that you too may have union with us?" They saw, and we have not seen; yet we have communion with them, because we and they share the same faith.

“And our union is with God the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son. And we write this to you to make your joy complete" – complete in that communion, in that love, and in that unity.
From a Treatise on St John by St Augustine.
Illustration by Luigi Catedral, alumnus Southridge School

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Jan 10 Wed - Quotes from Robert Cardinal Sarah (2)

 

Jan 10 Wed
Quotes from Robert Cardinal Sarah (2) in “The Day Is Now Far Spent":

“In your opinion, what would be the best way of summarizing the long pontificate of John Paul II? All those very productive years can be traced back to the three pillars of his interior life, which were the Cross, the Eucharist, and the Blessed Virgin, “Crux, Hostia, et Virgo". His extraordinary faith sought the foundations for its strength only in the most ordinary tools of the Christian life.”

Cardinal Sarah explains that “the crisis that the Church is experiencing is much deeper [than problems with a business]; it is like a cancer eating away at the body from within … In large sectors of the Church, we have lost the sense of God’s objectivity. Each individual starts from his subjective experience and creates for himself a religion that suits him.”

Over and against a “veritable cacophony [that] reigns in the teachings of pastors, bishops, and priests” which has led to “confusion, ambiguity, and apostasy,” the Cardinal calls Catholics “to receive the Church’s teaching with a spirit of discipleship, with docility and humility.”

Card. Sarah quotes Pope Benedict XVI that “the renewal of the liturgy is the fundamental prerequisite for the renewal of the Church.” He comments on this passage: “I humbly beg bishops, priests, and the people of God to care more for the sacred liturgy, to put God at the center of it, to ask Jesus Christ once again to teach us to pray. We have desacralized the Eucharistic celebration.” (111)

“If man claims to adapt the liturgy to his era, to transform it to suit the circumstances, divine worship dies. The development of some liturgical symbols is necessary sometimes; however, if man goes so far as to confuse the temporal and the eternal, he turns his back on the essential justification for the liturgy.”

“Priests in particular ought to carry them in their heart when they climb the steps to the altar. They must remember that, at the altar, they are facing God. At Mass, the priest is not a professor who gives a lecture, while using the altar as a podium centered on the microphone instead of the Cross. The altar is the sacred threshold par excellence, the place of the face-to-face encounter with God.”

“We need priests who are men of interior life, ‘God’s watchmen’, and pastors passionately committed to the evangelization of the world, and not social workers or politicians.”

“God is still calling as many men as He did in the past; it is men who do not hear God’s voice as in the past.”

“The only way to win this great combat is union with God. Christians will never succeed in overcoming the challenges of the world by appealing to political tools, human rights, or respect for religious liberty. The only true trick for the baptized is prayer and the encounter with Jesus Christ.”

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Jan 9 Tue - Quotes from Robert Cardinal Sarah (1)

 Jan 9 Tue
Quotes from Robert Cardinal Sarah (1). He wrote in the “The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise" (Ignatius Press) with Nicolas Diat in 2016:

“Man must make a choice: God or nothing, silence or noise.” (67)

“Prayer consists of listening to God speaking silently within us.” (52)

“Sacred silence, laden with the adored presence, opens the way to prayerful silence, full of loving intimacy.” (122)

“God is truly present in the prayerful heart. This human heart is God’s abode, the temple of silence… God the Father waits for his children in their own hearts.” (23)

“Noise is a deceptive, addictive, and false tranquilizer. The tragedy of our world is never better summed up than in the fury of senseless noise that stubbornly hates silence. This age detests the things that silence brings us to: encounter, wonder, and kneeling before God.” (56)

“Nestling in silence against the heart of God, with the open Bible over our head like the wings of the Holy Spirit, is still the best antidote, the one thing necessary to chase away from our interior territory all that is useless, superfluous, worldly, and even our own self.” (74)

“Without silence, without prayer God disappears in the noise. And this noise becomes all the more obsessive because God is absent. Unless the world rediscovers silence, it is lost. The earth then rushes into nothingness.” (80)

“Mother Teresa had a face charred by God’s silences, but she bore within her and breathed love. By dint of remaining long hours before the burning flame of the Blessed Sacrament, her face was tanned, transformed by a daily face-to-face encounter with the Lord.” (98)

“If our ‘interior cell phone’ is always busy because we are ‘having a conversation’ with other creatures, how can the Creator reach us, how can he ‘call us’?” (144)

“Silence is an acoustic veil that protects the mystery… a sort of sonic iconostasis.” (124, 136)

“Relativism is a widespread evil, and it is not easy to combat it. The task becomes more complex inasmuch as it arbitrarily serves as a sort of charter for a way of communal life. Relativism attempts to complete the process of the social disappearance of God. It guides mankind with an attractive logic that proves to be a perverse totalitarian system.”

“True freedom lies in the battle to agree with God the Father’s will, and to correspond to it.”

“Simplicity, confidence, self-abandonment in God’s hands: that is our path to God. Christian life is a conspiracy of charity.”

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Jan 8 Mon - THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

 Jan 8 Mon: THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him."  Jesus went to meet John the Baptist as just one more person among the crowd; he mingled with thousands of others who had come from all over the country."

As far as the other people in that crowd were concerned, the carpenter from Nazareth was a man just like any other. But John the Baptist, recognizing him as the Son of God, did not want to baptize him. “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus insisted, and John finally had to give in.

When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

Some days later John was faced with an unusual group of inquirers.
What a lot of gossip there was going on! Is he the Christ? Is he Elijah? Is he a Prophet? So many rumors were flying around that the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"

“For someone with little supernatural outlook, it might seem that John the Baptist wasted an opportunity of winning converts. John could even have answered with the testimony which Jesus was to give of him: ‘He is the Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear’."

However, those who went to ask John were in no frame of mind to understand those words correctly. “He did not deny, but confessed ... I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness."

Seeing the messengers' disappointment, he added: “I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."

Our Lord also showed himself to us when, with the light of the Holy Spirit, he made us grasp that he was at our side as we went along our path through life; and he was asking us, as he asked John, to bear witness to him. Each of us must bear witness to Christ. This is what he wants us to do: to get to know him, and then to share with others the saving news that we have found him.

St. Josemaría tells us: “All my children are Christ passing through the world. You are not known. Yet, all over the world, friends and colleagues at work are discovering Christ in your brothers, in you. Afterwards they too will bring Christ to other hearts and minds. You are Christ passing along the street. But you must walk in his footsteps."
“Now, do you understand the greatness of your mission?"

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Jan 7 Sun - Apostolate is inseparable from interior life

 

Jan 7 SUN: THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD
To be apostles of Christ, we must let him live in us.
“And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him." The Magi were the first Gentiles to adore the Child. They represent all the millions and millions of people throughout the centuries who need to fall down at the Redeemer's feet.

Now that two thousand years have gone by, we look around and see a world which is very distant from God. We could be tempted to pessimism because so much still remains to be done. But we should reject this thought immediately. “Is it because in twenty centuries nothing has been done? In these two thousand years, much work has been done. I don't think it would be fair or objective to discount the accomplishments of those who have gone before us.
“On other occasions there have been mistakes, making the Church lose ground, just as today, there is loss of ground, fear and a timid attitude on the part of some, and at the same time no lack of courage and generosity in others. But, whatever the situation, the human race is being continually renewed. In each generation it is necessary to go on with the effort to help men realize the greatness of their vocation as children of God, to teach them to carry out the commandment of love for God and neighbor."

“Christ has taught us in a definitive way how to make this love for God real. Apostolate is love for God that overflows and communicates itself to others. The interior life implies a growth in union with Christ, in the bread and in the word. And apostolate is the precise and necessary outward manifestation of interior life. When one tastes the love of God, one feels burdened with the weight of souls. There is no way to separate interior life from apostolate, just as there is no way to separate Christ, the God-man, from his role as Redeemer."

For a Christian, apostolate is something instinctive. It is not something added onto his daily activities and his professional work from the outside. … We have to sanctify our ordinary work, we have to sanctify others through the exercise of the particular profession that is proper to each of us, in our own particular state in life.

It is we Christians who obstruct Jesus' redemptive plans, because at times we don't act as he hopes we will. So, on this great feast, let us carefully contemplate the Epiphany scene and learn from those wise men from the East, who humbly kneel before the Child in Bethlehem.
You can tell him: "Lord, take away my pride; crush my self-love, my desire to affirm myself and impose myself on others. Make the foundation of my personality my identification with you."

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