Christ has a threefold office: King, Priest, and Teacher. Every Christian participates in these offices.
“Apostles are Christians who feel grafted on to Christ, identified with Christ, through Baptism; enabled to fight for Christ, through Confirmation; called to serve God with their activity in the world, through their participation in the royal, prophetic and priestly functions of Christ, which enable them to guide others to God, to teach them the truth of the Gospel, and to co-redeem them through their prayer and their expiation."
“Christians who are ready to serve are guides, teachers and priests to other people; they are, for those people, other Christs, or rather, as I usually say to you, Christ himself." They are guides, because, with Christ, they have been destined to organize the things of the earth in order to bring them to God, by serving others as Christ did. By this service they seek to establish Christ's kingdom on earth.
Christians are also teachers, because they share in the teaching office of Christ. They have been sent by God to be living witnesses to the truth, and to teach, by word and example, the truths necessary for salvation.
Thirdly, Christians are priests to others, since by Baptism and Confirmation they have the great dignity of bringing his people close to the Creator. As we read in St Peter: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." This baptismal priesthood, which is essentially distinct from the ministerial priesthood, moves us to offer our body and soul as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
A Christian's dignity is great indeed. Recall, says St Ambrose, “that you have received a spiritual seal. So, preserve what you have received from God. God the Father sealed you, Christ the Lord confirmed you, and the Spirit himself has come as a pledge to your hearts." In order to respond as we should to God's great love, we must use all the powers of our soul, so that the gifts God has bestowed upon us bear fruit.
Our spiritual priesthood requires us to offer God spiritual sacrifices - the sacrifice of ourselves, in the first place - in union with the perfect Sacrifice of the Altar. We must also strive to imitate Christ the Teacher and be eager to spread good doctrine. Detached from earthly possessions, and with our hearts fixed on God, we will fight to place Christ the King at the summit of all human activities and lead all things to him.
Sin abounds all over the world; but more abundant still is the reparation we want to offer God in union with Jesus Christ. If we ask our Lady, she will win from her Son the grace and strength we need to enable us to fulfill our mission faithfully.Video:
By virtue of the baptismal character - an indelible seal received by the soul - the faithful are appointed to Christian religious worship, and participate in the threefold office of Jesus Christ: Ruler, Priest, and Teacher. This empowers Christians to share in Christ's divine rule over the world, to sanctify every human endeavor, and to teach all people the truths of God.
Afterwards, in Confirmation we receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
In the natural order, man is born and develops until he comes to maturity and to full mastery of his faculties. Something similar occurs in the order of grace. “It is obvious, St Thomas says, that in the life of the body the first requirement is generation by which man receives the gift of life; then comes growth by which he is brought to maturity; ... so in the spiritual life there is Baptism which is spiritual birth, and Confirmation which is spiritual growth."
Baptism brings us the power of the Holy Spirit, to act supernaturally. Confirmation strengthens and increases this ability. By the sacrament of Confirmation, the faithful are more perfectly bound to the Church, and are endowed with the special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence, they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread the faith by word and deed. Confirmation, like Baptism, imprints a character on the soul, and enables it more easily to exercise the priestly, royal and prophetic office.
Confirmation signifies and causes the growth to maturity of the person incorporated into Christ. By the imposition of hands, the Christian receives the divine power and strength to become a good soldier of Christ Jesus. The anointing with oil symbolizes our readiness to go into battle, recalling the way the athletes of old used to anoint their bodies for combat. And in fact, this sacrament confers on the soul the specific power of publicly confessing our faith in Christ by our words, giving us the courage and magnanimity to be leaders in the faith, and even, with the help of divine grace, even to suffer martyrdom.
We are greatly in need of fortitude, as we strive to sanctify ourselves the combat where God has placed us. In the sacrament of Confirmation, the Tradition of the Church “has unanimously seen a strengthening of the spiritual life. By giving more supernatural strength to the soul, through a quiet and fruitful outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Confirmation enables the Christian to fight as miles Christi, as a soldier of Christ, in his intimate battle against selfishness and concupiscence."
Confirmation, a pledge of God's fortitude, gives us the courage we need so that we can always triumph in our wonderful battle of peace to extend Christ's kingdom on earth.Video:
In Baptism our sins are forgiven, and we receive the gift of grace.
The Church asks us to consider the spiritual regeneration that Christ performed in us: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free ... for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
In Baptism we die to sin and are reborn to a new life. “Do you not know that, all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." In his infinite goodness, God has wished to give us this sacrament, which is a ransom paid for prisoners, a remission of debt, death to sin, regeneration of the soul, a robe of light, an unbreakable seal, a vehicle conveying us to heaven.
In Baptism we are united in a mysterious manner to our Lord's Death and Resurrection, because His merits are applied to our soul. The body is submerged in water so that the soul may be cleansed of all its faults. This death to sin, symbolized in the baptismal washing, fills the soul with grace, makes it pure in God's sight, and brings about a true spiritual regeneration, a rebirth that frees man from the guilt of sin and the punishment that sin deserves.
“In the sacrament of Baptism, the Holy Spirit takes possession of our soul and begins to act through his grace. He gives us the infused virtues, the ones we call theological: faith, hope and charity. They are virtues we can't acquire through our own efforts, or our talents or our good will. Our Father God has to give them to us. And he grants them generously, freely, because he loves us. So, it's a very good idea to bring children to receive holy Baptism as soon as possible; because in this sacrament, the Holy Spirit enters the child's soul and begins to act, bestowing those gifts, those virtues and so many other graces." St. Josemaría
By means of grace we are born to the supernatural life, and through the virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, our actions acquire an almost divine value.
Through Baptism we are raised to the exalted dignity of God's children. “O happy sacrament of water, exclaims Tertullian, through which, having been washed clean of our sins, we are freed from our original blindness, and brought to eternal life."Video:
It would be useless for us to spend our whole life trying to do good, if we did not rely on our Lord's help.
Christ was in the boat, and told the disciples to cast out their nets once more. Peter obeyed. But now there was a new spirit, an enthusiasm that wasn't there before. And Peter was with our Lord; Jesus was in the boat with him. Peter was no longer working by himself and for himself. It was God who was working through a docile instrument. Peter no longer relied on his own skill and strength.
Confident that he was now working for Christ, “Peter lowered the net anew, and they caught, a great number of fish. Believe me, this miracle is repeated daily."
We should ask ourselves whether we are closely united to Christ in our apostolic work, through obedience to those who direct our progress. Perhaps we will sometimes have to admit: “I have been silly and foolish. I have done what I could, but I have been wasting my time. ‘Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!’ If we have been working on our own account, as we see some people doing outside the unity of the Church, what results can we expect from our apostolate? Working on our own account, we haven't been able to do anything. But let's go on listening: ‘In God's name I will lower the net’. What a beautiful way to redirect an entire life, when, for whatever reason, we have tried to carry out an apostolate on our own account."
If we work with a right intention, seeking God's glory alone, in close union with Jesus Christ, we won't have to wait long for our apostolate to show results. “You can do great good or great harm. You will do great good if you are humble and give yourself joyfully with a spirit of sacrifice. You will do great good for yourself and for your brothers, and for the Church. But you will do great harm if you let your pride get the better of you. Then you will have to say: ‘we caught nothing’. I have accomplished nothing in the black of the night."
But ‘in your name’, because it is what you want. Tell him this: that you are going to work for Christ. The results will be marvelous.
And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men." And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. When we hear Christ's voice reaching us through those in charge of coordinating the work, we should leave everything -our comfort, our personal plans, our false prudence- and work apostolically as we are asked. Only in this way will our nets be filled with souls for Christ.Video:
Feb 26 Mon
Chastity leads to have the strength to use your sexuality honestly and virtuously, whether you are single or married. Living this virtue trains you in faithfulness, strengthens your will, and leaves you with no regrets. For an unmarried person it means saving marital intimacies for marriage. As one woman said, ‘‘It is sexuality dedicated to hope.”
For the married and the unmarried, it means having respect for the gift of sex. Chastity is a virtue that defends love from selfishness, and frees us from “using” others as objects. It makes us capable of authentic love. In short, abstinence ends in marriage but chastity holds marriage together.
Doesn’t chastity ruin the spontaneity and excitement of romance?
It depends upon what you consider romantic. Real romance is not what you find in a cheap novel. Giving in to one’s hormones at the drop of a hat is not romance. This is lust, and while it may be spontaneous and temporarily exciting, using another person is not romantic. In fact, too many good romantic relationships have been ruined by lust.
Only humans are capable of romance because romance is where imagination and love meet. Sometimes a person’s actions may appear romantic because they are so imaginative and thoughtful, but the actions may be done for the sake of seducing another. This is not romance, because love is absent. Only when purity is present, can one tell the difference between loving romance and selfish seduction.
In fact, romantic moments do not require physical intimacy—and the most romantic couples are the ones who realize this. They know that romance requires respect. You can have lust and passion without respect (as in prostitution), but you cannot have romance without respect. When that loving respect for the other person is present, a man stirs up his romantic creativity not for the sake of getting something from a woman but for the sake of expressing his love to her.
Lust, on the other hand, is boring, because it allows no room for mystery and anticipation. Everything secret is given away. The pure have more passion than the lustful, and it is precisely their passion that gives them the ability to build a greater kind of love. They exercise self-control not because of an absence of passion but because of the presence of love.
When it comes to the topic of sexuality, the media tell us that the most exciting sex is outside marriage. In reality the opposite is true. The world constantly exaggerates telling us that when it comes to sex, everyone is doing it, and the people having the most fun are the wild singles depicted on television sitcoms, while married life is dull and unromantic. However, according to the researchers who published the most comprehensive and methodologically sound sex survey ever conducted in the United States, “The public image of sex in America bears virtually no relationship to the truth.”
Podcast “Lust Is Boring”, Jason EvertVideo:
Feb 25 Sun
Suffering is universal on this earth. No one escapes it, not even animals. Why suffering exists is a mystery: that is, it is only partly intelligible.
We can have faith that God permits suffering to bring about a greater good. Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce greater good (ST 1.2.3.).
Sometimes we can see the good that God brings out of evil, sometimes we cannot.
God respects human freedom by allowing our actions to have real consequences, and sometimes those consequences cause great suffering. For example, God allows the thief to steal, and that means the thief really does deprive people of their property.
We can glimpse that somehow suffering and death are the consequences of sin, yet suffering existed on this earth long before the first sin was committed.
We can see how witnessing suffering can unleash in us compassion and care, which makes us more human.
Through our own suffering, we can see that we are vulnerable, and need God, and the help of other human beings. Suffering can make us humble and remove our individualistic tendencies.
Some suffering seems fair, as when criminals are punished. But other suffering seems totally unjust and we feel that God should not permit it, for example, the suffering and death of an innocent child or an innocent child becoming an orphan.
Three points will shed light on the problem: First, in becoming man, God took on our human condition and suffered with us.
Second, he transformed the meaning of our suffering: it is now part of his work of redemption.
Third, through his suffering and death, he overcame death, and opened the gate of eternal life in heaven to us: He transformed death from a pit into a door, from an end into a beginning.
Lent is a time in which we do penance. This means we take on some discipline to make up for our sins, and to improve our character. This discipline makes us suffer a little. This suffering is a mortification, that is, a small death, to kill some of our bad qualities, if possible. These practices help us become humble and aware of our need for God. They may also make us more compassionate, because they help us see what others are going through.
The Christian response to another’s suffering is kindness and mercy, and to alleviate that suffering if we can. What are some things we might be able to do to alleviate others’ suffering?
We can pray for them.
We can offer their ordeal to God for them.
We can be with them.
We can let them talk, and listen to them.
We can do little things for them that please them.
We can help them in a way they want to be helped.Video:
Feb 24 Sat
Jesus performed healings on the Sabbath. Doing so, he was condemned by the Pharisees, for no work was to be done on the Sabbath. Once “the ruler of the synagogue, … said to the people, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.’” (Luke 13:10-14)
The synagogue leader was correct. There are six other days on which Jesus could heal people, and so, people should come to Him on those days to be healed – and so keep sacred the Sabbath rest.
Even God, in six days created everything, and rested on the seventh day; then, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it (Gen 2:2). If such is the case, why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath?
Obviously, Jesus knew exactly why – and why, in so doing, He was not breaking the Third Commandment, even if He seemed to be doing so. Think of these two points:
First, Genesis states that everything God created was “very good.”
Second, after Adam and Eve sinned, God’s creation was now stained by sin and contaminated with death. It was no longer “very good.”
What was God to do? Was He to allow sin and death to have the final word? That would not be suitable for the all-good God. God must do something.
He begins His new work – the work of re-creation; particularly, the healing and the re-creation of death-cursed humanity. This preparation finds its culmination in the Father sending his Son into the world.
As God first created everything good through his WORD, so God now re-creates everything good through His incarnate WORD. Through Jesus the Father makes all things new.
On the Cross, Jesus willingly offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice to the Father, thus achieving the forgiveness of sin. So pleased was the Father that He gloriously raised Jesus, His beloved Son, from the dead.
On Good Friday, Jesus put the old sin-cursed creation to death. Having completed this work, He, on Saturday, took his Sabbath rest. On Sunday, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father raised Him gloriously from the dead, and thus obtained His everlasting Sabbath rest in heaven.
The risen Jesus builds the new creation, prefigured and signified in His Sabbath healings. Moreover, on Pentecost, the risen Lord Jesus poured out his Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, and so gave birth to the Church, which baptizes in the Holy Spirit.
Through baptism, we die with Christ. Our sin-cursed nature is put to death, and we rise as a new creation in Christ, sharing in his risen and glorified humanity through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The Sabbath works that Christians do in Christ on earth merit the everlasting Sabbath rest in Christ in heaven.Video:
Feb 23 Fri
Even in time of persecution let the Cross be your joy
The Catholic Church glories in every deed of Christ. Her supreme glory, however, is the cross. Well aware of this, Paul says: God forbid that I glory in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!
For us all, the cross is the crown of victory. It has brought light to those blinded by ignorance. It has released those enslaved by sin. It has redeemed the whole of mankind!
Do not, then, be ashamed of the cross of Christ; rather, glory in it. Although it is a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles, the message of the cross is our salvation. Of course, it is folly to those who are in the road of damnation, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it was not a mere man who died for us, but the Son of God, God made man.
In the law of Moses, a sacrificial lamb destroyed the devil. But now it is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Will he not free us from our sins even more? The blood of an animal, a sheep, brought salvation. Will not the blood of the only-begotten Son bring us greater salvation?
He was not killed by violence; he was not forced to give up his life: his was a willing sacrifice. Listen to his own words: I have the power to lay down my life and take it up again. Yes, he willingly submitted to his own passion. He rejoiced in his accomplishment; in his crown of victory, he was glad, and in the salvation of man he rejoiced. He did not reject the cross, for by it he was to save the world. No, it was not a lowly man who suffered, but God incarnate. He entered the contest for the reward he would win by his patient suffering.
Thus, in times of tranquility the cross should give you joy. But maintain the same faith in times of persecution. Otherwise, you will be a friend of Jesus in times of peace, and his enemy during war. Now you receive the forgiveness of your sins, and the generous gift of grace from your king. When war comes, fight courageously for him.
Jesus never sinned; yet he was crucified for you. Will you refuse to be crucified for him, who for your sake was nailed to the cross? You are not the one who gives the favor; you have received one first. For your sake he was crucified on Golgotha. Now you are returning his favor: you are fulfilling your debt to him.
From the Instruction for the Catechumens by St Cyril of JerusalemVideo:
The words of Jesus in the Last Supper, “Do this in memory of me,” command the continuation of his sacrifice on the Cross –which he was about to offer– in every Mass celebrated anywhere in the world until the end of time. This was announced in the Old Testament by the prophet Malachi: “From the rising of the sun to its setting, my Name is great among the nations, and in every place, there is sacrifice and there is offered to my Name a clean oblation” (Mal 1:11).
Therefore, in obedience to her Founder’s behest, the Church prolongs the priestly mission of Jesus Christ mainly by means of the sacred liturgy. She does this, most of all, at the altar, where constantly the sacrifice of the cross is reenacted; that is, is made present. Along with the Church, her divine Founder is present at every liturgical function giving fitting worship to God.
Every impulse of the human heart expresses itself naturally through the senses; and the worship of God, being the concern not merely of individuals but of the whole mankind, must therefore be social as well. Hence, the liturgy always has a social and external dimension.
But the chief element of the liturgy should be interior. For each one of us must always live in Christ and give ourselves to him completely, so that in him, with him, and through him, the heavenly Father may be duly worshiped and glorified. The sacred liturgy requires, however, that its exterior and interior elements be intimately linked with each other.
Thus, it is an error to think that the sacred liturgy of the Mass is only the outward or visible part of the divine worship, or that it is just an ornamental ceremonial with a list of laws and prescriptions according to which the ecclesiastical hierarchy orders the sacred rites to be performed.
God cannot be honored worthily unless the mind and the heart turn to him in quest of the perfect life that unites work and adoration. The liturgy, –the adoration rendered to God by the Church in union with her divine Head– is the most efficacious means of achieving sanctity. It should be the center of our interior life, the center of our day.
St. Josemaría: “I have often helped you consider this marvelous reaction of human love: two people who love one another, when they have to part, exchange some photographs with a dedication so full of affection, so aflame, that it is almost a wonder that the words don't burn the paper. It's the same with Jesus, who loves us to the end: he has to go and, at the same time, he wants to stay. But what we are not able to do, God can do: he goes and he stays. He institutes the Holy Eucharist so that we may eat him, so that we will be strengthened, so that we will be faithful and come to perfect union with him ..."
Illustration: Last Supper, Our Lord and St John.Video:
Our personal apostolate is always part of a universal mission.
The Messiah's mission, the salvation of every person, is a universal one. Although Christ lived in a small corner of the world and at a particular time in history, by his death he won salvation for all people of all races and all times. All souls are mine, says the Lord.
In order to imitate Christ, we need a big heart, capable of beating for the salvation of all souls and loving everyone to the point of sacrifice. St. Josemaría writes: “You should feel on your shoulders -remembering the image of the Good Shepherd depicted in the catacombs- the weight of the lost sheep, which represents not just a single soul, but the entire Church, the whole of humanity. Right from the start God wanted his Work to have a catholic, universal heart."
Even though each person should have a particular apostolic task to attend to, we can never shut ourselves up within the limits of our specific situation and our apostolic assignment. We should always remember that our task forms part of a universal mission.
The Holy Spirit, who gives us the authentic love of God's children, enables us to make our universal aspirations a reality. “We find we have the strength to love all mankind in a new way, which all will recognize as stemming from the grace of Christ. Our love is not to be confused with sentimentality, or mere good fellowship, nor with that somewhat questionable zeal to help others in order to convince ourselves of our superiority. Rather, it means living in peace with our neighbor, venerating the image of God that is found in each and every man, and doing all we can to get them in their turn to contemplate that image, so that they may learn how to turn to Christ."
The Church's mission, the mission of every Christian, extends to all nations and peoples. “Your charity has to be far-reaching, universal. You have to set your sights on the whole of mankind, with a concern for every soul in the whole world. This attitude will lead you to pray for everyone and, to the extent of your possibilities, to help everyone."
“Bearers of God, not because you bear his name in vain, but because it shows in the way you act: in your faithfulness to Catholic doctrine and morals, in the serious way you carry out your human tasks, in the charity you show towards everyone. That is the way to be good servants of God and the Church."
“Charity with everyone means, therefore, apostolate with everyone. It means we, on our part, must translate into deeds and truth the great desire of God who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth."
Illustration: The angel telling St Joseph what God wanted him to do.Video:
We overcome the action of the devil, by submitting to the will of God, which is expressed in different ways. Thus, God's desire for our lives can be expressed in the advice of a good friend, in the spiritual direction of a priest, and in personal prayer. We need to pray; he who does not pray, does not need the devil to tempt him, because he already has enough with his interior disorder.
Jesus Christ asks us to fight a good fight, by unmasking the enemy, fighting him directly and defeating him, despite the fact that, in our days, there are those who allow themselves the luxury of denying the existence of the devil.
However, the Gospel shows that the direct action of Jesus against Satan is evident and continuous, even tempting the Lord himself. But he teaches us that we cannot dialogue with the devil because, otherwise, he confuses us, deceives us and leads us to perdition.
The devil "is on the loose". Even in our days the devil is on the loose; he continues to deceive one and all, and he claims a victory or two. Specifically, he sows discouragement and distrust. God calls us to full holiness and fills us with hope, but the devil continually sows in us the mistrust that you are not worthy, that it is not worth trying, so that we give up the high Christian vocation to which God calls us.
And yet the diabolical action persists; it returns even if it is discovered and defeated. For this reason, the life of a Christian is a continuous struggle against the after-effects of past sins, which incline us to evil, and against the devil who tries to turn us away from the path of goodness.
When we commit a sin, only God can forgive it. Only he, who is the One we have offended, can move us to tears for even our smallest infidelities; only he can remove from our hearts the hardness that keeps us from recognizing who it is that we have offended. So, if he ever sends us suffering, we should see it as a divine crucible to purify our soul, and as a special opportunity to show true Love and make up in some way for our previous lack of love. “If God wills that we be struck down by some affliction, take it as a sign that he considers us mature enough to be associated even more closely with his redeeming Cross."
By means of our expiation and spirit of penance -which St. Josemaría tells us “consists mainly in the fulfillment of the duty of each moment, however costly it may be" - we will be co-redeemers in the middle of the world.
Our Mother, Refuge of sinners: obtain for us from your Son true contrition for our sins and for the sins of all mankind.Video:
The sacrifice that pleases God is a contrite heart.
St. Josemaría: “In what can we take glory? I am nothing but wretchedness. If I have anything that is acceptable, it comes from God. And this isn't false humility. With my human intellect, in God's presence, all I see is wretchedness. I see it as clearly as two plus two equals four. But I have God's grace: I can do all things in him who strengthens me. And I struggle to convert my wretchedness into something divine. Everyone who struggles is on the road to sanctity. My children, make good use of this light from God, because - as you have heard me say many times - even though God doesn't want our shortcomings, nevertheless he uses them to help our humility and our sanctification."
Our faults serve to reveal the inadequacy of our human condition. We are like the servant in the parable who had no way of repaying his master. A humble person feels the need to ask God for pardon many times each day. And a sure path to humility is contrition.
Tell God, “You know that I love you in spite of my weaknesses. That way our wretchedness doesn't separate us from God. Rather it brings us closer to him, just as a child who has fallen down does not turn away from his mother. ‘Mummy!’ he shouts, and he runs to his mother's arms. Or if he is a bit older, he runs to his father, whose arms are stronger... If we have made a mistake, big or small, let's run to God! God will not disdain a contrite and humble heart."
Contrition brings joy and peace. “How can we keep our calm? As I've told you before, by keeping a right intention. And now I add: by making acts of contrition. With acts of contrition, our spiritual life improves, and we are serene, at peace; and at times even our physical health improves."
St. Josemaría: “The Christian vocation is one of sacrifice, penance, expiation. We must make reparation for our sins - for the many times we turned our face aside so as to avoid the gaze of God - and all the sins of mankind. We must try to imitate Christ, always carrying about in our body the dying of Christ, his abnegation, his suffering on the cross, so that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies. Our way is one of immolation and, in this denial, we find both joy and peace."
God doesn't want us to be unhappy, nor does he take delight in our suffering. He “is not a tyrannical master or a rigid and implacable judge; he is our Father. He speaks to us about our lack of generosity, our sins, our mistakes; but he does so in order to free us from them, and promise us his Friendship and his Love."Video:
Christ was tempted in order to show us how to overcome temptations.
“Lent commemorates the forty days Jesus spent in the desert in preparation for his years of preaching, which culminated in the Cross and in the triumph of Easter. Forty days of prayer and penance. At the end: the temptations of Christ, which the liturgy recalls for us in today's Gospel."
“The whole episode is a mystery which man cannot hope to understand: God submitting to temptation, letting the evil one have his way. But we can meditate upon it, asking our Lord to help us understand the teaching it contains."
“Jesus Christ being tempted... Tradition likes to see Christ's trials in this way: our Lord, who came to be an example to us in all things, wanted to suffer temptation as well. And so it is, for Christ was perfect man, like us in everything except in sin. After forty days of fasting, with perhaps no food other than herbs and roots and a little water, he feels hungry - he is really hungry, as anyone would be. And when the devil suggests he turn stones into bread, our Lord not only declines the food which his body requires, but he also rejects a greater temptation: that of using his divine power to solve, if we can express it so, a personal problem."
“In the second temptation, when the devil suggests Jesus throw himself off the temple tower, Christ again rejects the suggestion to make use of his divine power. Christ isn't looking for vainglory, for show. He teaches us not to stage God as the backdrop for our own excellence. Jesus Christ wants to fulfill the will of his Father without anticipating God's plans, without advancing the time for miracles; he simply plods the hard path of men, the lovable way of the Cross."
“Something very similar happens in the third temptation: he is offered kingdoms, power and glory. The devil tries to extend to human ambitions that commitment which should be reserved wholly for God; he promises us an easy life if we fall down before him, before idols. Our Lord insists that the only true end of adoration is God; and he confirms his will to serve: ‘Away with you, Satan; it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and serve none but him’."
Our Lord really wanted to undergo the test in his human nature without using his divine omnipotence. In his struggle he only used the means which we can also use, so that the example of his victory may be profitable to us. The Gospel for today's Mass gives us a powerful reason for staying firm and serene, keeping our calm when we are tempted. As St Gregory the Great points out, the Lord, who came to conquer our death by his own death, likewise overcame our temptations by his own temptations.Video:
We must first acknowledge our faults, before we can atone for them.
King David, forgetting that all his glory came from God's graciousness and not from his own human strength, gave in to vanity and ordered a census of all the tribes of Israel.
But David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray, take away the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."
God wants us to acknowledge our sins, and not hide them from him. Sincerity is the first step towards repentance. St. Josemaría: “We cannot forget, our Father says, that original sin makes us prone to sin. We are of the same stock as that first fallen couple. We have a great propensity to fall. We still have a lingering taste in our mouths of the inheritance they left us. On account of our sins - original sin and our personal sins - we experience all those feelings that are not feelings of peace; all those errors: because human nature is very prone to error."
We have all sinned; and we all have faults and imperfections that distance us from God. “If you step slightly off the straight path, says St Jerome, it doesn't really matter whether it is to the left or to the right. What matters is that you have left the true path." And so, we should acknowledge our repentance, like David: “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." In thinking of all the things we have done wrong, we should bear in mind our own particular circumstances, because God has given us so much, and he is going to demand a lot of us. St John Chrysostom tells us that “if a person favored by the Holy Spirit and abundantly gifted by God falls into sin, it is not the same as when a person without such privileges commits the same fault." Given that God's faithful love for us is so very great, so superabundant and generous, no infidelity on our part can be considered small. But we mustn't be afraid to call sins by their name, however many years we may have spent serving God. “We must have clear ideas and a clear conscience. We cannot allow ourselves to do things that are wrong and say they are holy."
The best devotion is to make acts of contrition. We should always imagine ourselves returning like the prodigal son. There is no reason why we should drag a trail of wretchedness behind us. We should place it all in God's hands, and, with true humility, tell him, along with St Peter after his denials: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you."Video:
The mystery of death.
In the face of death, the enigma of human existence reaches its peak. Man is not only the victim of pain, and the progressive deterioration of his body; even worse, he is also tormented by the fear of his final extinction. But the instinct of his heart is right, telling him to reject the idea of a total collapse, and of a definitive end of his own person.
Man carries within him the seed of eternity, which cannot be found in matter alone, and so he rebels against death. All efforts of technology, however useful they may be, cannot calm his anxieties. In his heart, he desires a life beyond this life, but the biological extension of his life-span cannot satisfy this desire.
Imagination cannot give him an answer, when confronted with death. Yet the Church, instructed by divine revelation, affirms that man has been created by God for a happiness beyond these earthly trials. Moreover, the Christian faith teaches that death, to which man would not have been subject if he had not sinned, will be conquered. God will restore man to the wholeness that he had lost through his own fault.
God has called man to be united to Him in His own immortality. This victory has been gained for us by the risen Christ, who by his own death has freed man from death.
Faith, presented with solid arguments, offers to every thinking person the answer to his future. At the same time, it enables him to be one in Christ with his loved ones who have been taken from him by death, and gives him hope that they have entered into true life with God.
But man must fight for it. Certainly, the Christian must fight against evil through many struggles and temptations in this life, and eventually death. But by carrying Christ’s life within himself, man becomes like Christ in death, and he can look forward, strong in hope, to his resurrection.
This applies not only of Christians, but also of all men who accept divine grace. Since Christ died for all men, and the ultimate vocation of man is in fact the same for all, that is, a divine vocation. We believe that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being united to Jesus, in a way God only knows.
Such is the great mystery of man, enlightening believers through the Christian revelation. Through Christ and in Christ, light is thrown on the enigma of pain and death, which would overwhelm us without having his Gospel to teach us the truth. Christ has risen, destroying death by his own death; he has given us the free gift of life, so, now, as children of God, we may be able to say in the Spirit: Abba, Father!
Edited from "Gaudium et Spes."Video:
The sacrifice of the New Covenant
A covenant or testament is an agreement or compact —a personal alliance between two parties. In the Scriptures, it means an alliance between God and man. God renewed through Moses the initial Old Covenant with the people of Israel, which was begun through Abraham. It was sealed with a sacrifice, with the blood of sacrificed animals, because blood was the sign of life.
Thereafter, at every Passover, the Jews recalled and renewed their covenant with God by sacrificing a lamb. This paschal lamb of the Old Testament is the main sign or figure of the sacrifice of Christ.
Jesus instituted the Eucharist during the paschal celebration, on the eve of his death. He was bringing the paschal feast to its total fulfillment; he was renewing it and replacing it with the definitive sacrifice.
This alliance had had the following content:
• On the part of God, the election of Israel as a chosen people. God will make them a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation. This election demanded from them sanctity and fidelity to God’s commandments.
• On the part of Israel, unconditional acceptance of the will of God. The Jews will recognize him as the only God and will observe all the commandments that the Lord had decreed.
The Jews accepted the terms of the covenant and God instructed Moses to prepare for its formal acceptance, and to seal their agreement with a sacrifice.
This Old Covenant had to be substituted with a new one, as announced by the prophets: “See, the days are coming—it is God who speaks—when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel, but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31 33). This New Covenant will be permanent: “I will conclude a covenant with you that shall last for ever” (Ezekiel 16:59).
In the New Testament, during the Last Supper, Jesus made a reference to the Sinai covenant: The New Covenant sealed with his blood was to be the eternal one. And what had only been foreshadowed now became a reality: the communion of life between God and man. When Jesus said in the Last Supper, “This chalice is the New Covenant in my blood” (Lk 22:20), he was repeating the same words of Moses. But now it will be the new alliance that will never be broken. Those who will receive the Eucharist will become part of the new people of God. The old sacrifices offered in the Temple came to an end. The sacrifices of bullocks, goats, and lambs offered by the Jews have found completion in Christ’s sacrifice.
Let us pray for all Christians, that all may strive to acquire sanctity in the unity of faith, in the sacraments, and in the governance.Video:
Sin does not grow sweet by majority practice; truth is not altered by a vote. The Church is not a political party.
A few weeks ago, The New York Times spoke about “Pope Francis’s agenda for the Church.” It was no doubt oblivious to the fact that, unless we are talking about governance, reform of abuses, and missionary work, an agenda for the Church is the last thing a pope has. That is because the Church is not a nation, a business concern, a philanthropic society, or a big social club. Francis himself has said so. She is the Bride of Christ, and she is to follow Him and Him alone, bringing everyone to Him: This is the agenda of the Church.
Christ says He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and that no man comes to the Father but through Him. He does not say He is “one way among several.” He does not say that He is “one method of looking at reality.” He does not say He offers “a lifestyle” that some people may find amenable.
Rather, He knows very well He is that sign of contradiction that the aged Simeon foretold. He says things He knows will cause many to turn away. “Will you also leave?” He asks Peter, who answers, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”
St. Paul likewise rebuked those men of Corinth who were all too accustomed to the strife of the Greek political arena. “I am for Paul,” said some, and “I am for Cephas,” “I am for Apollos,” and “I am for Christ.” What sense can that make? Christ cannot be divided from Himself, as Paul admonishes us.
That impossibility of division extends beyond the present moment. The eternal Word of God cannot be held to say one thing on Monday and the contrary on Tuesday.
Sin does not grow sweet by majority practice. If we believe that God is real and not a figment of our imagination, if we believe that whatever reality anything possesses is merely derivative from God, a wavering shadow to His solid rock, then sin, which at its heart says with the fool that there is no God, or that God is not around to see, or that God does not care about it one way or the other, is a lie, an emptying, a turn toward unreality; and mortal sin is a leap from the rock into the void. Nothing we say about it can alter the matter.
In the end, each of us would do well to pray to see the truth and to hold to it, even when all the world would say otherwise. Fidelity is to say to Christ upon the Cross, “Keep me near you, Lord, and let me never be ashamed to be alone.” Nor will you be alone.Video:
The Mystical Body of Christ.
On his way to Damascus, Saul was nearing the city, when suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground, and heard a voice telling him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. This first revelation of Christ, in which he shows how intimately he identifies with his followers, deeply moved Paul's heart. Later, the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ would be one of the central themes of Paul's preaching: “You were called in the one body. You are the body of Christ and individually members of it."
We Christians are not cut off from others; we are not called to sanctify ourselves in isolation. It is true that sanctity is each one's personal responsibility; but it is sanctity in Christ. Our encounter with God is accomplished in his Son Jesus, and in him we become linked to all other Christians. United in Christ Jesus, we form “a single Body with a single Soul; with one mind, one heart, one feeling, one will, one desire. Nevertheless, we are many organs and members: For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. So, we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us."
All the members contribute to the good of the whole Body. As the Apostle says: If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."
In order to be holy, we need the help of others. Christian life is essentially a continuous effort of the soul to meet its Redeemer, but it is also a merging of us all into the one love of Christ. As a result, our struggle to be holy entails the constant effort to stay united, and to help one another through genuine fraternity, the basis of which is the Love of God.
“If you love one another affectionately, with Christ's charity, which is tactful and perceptive, you will all help one another; and the one who was about to fall will find support and strength to be faithful."
If it ever seems hard for us to draw close to God, we should ask ourselves what effort we are putting into loving and serving the others.
The love we have for our Lady, who is a Mother to us all, will draw us closer to the others. The thought that we are all her children will make us even more determined to look after our fraternity much better.Video:
Sin is a leprosy of the soul, which disfigures it, and makes a person “unclean.” However, the upright of heart are not perfect and sinless souls. They admit their sins before God, rectify, and continue fighting. How does a Catholic feel after making a good Confession? The result is gladness, rejoicing, exultation.
Following Christ is not something hypothetical, only for mythical saints who are perfect, but a real and possible commitment for actual sinners who are on the way.
Jesus heals the leper with an exquisite display of charity; he healed him by touching him, certainly the first time anyone had touched him, skin to skin, since it was known he was infected.
Kindness is doing good to another and in a good manner. The opposite of kindness is cruelty, which is causing pain or suffering in another, especially deliberately. Indifference is another vice related to kindness. It is ignoring the good one could do for another who needs it.
Cunning persons might use kindness as a weapon to get an upper hand over a victim. A person in an inferior position might use kindness as a strategy to gain favor.
Kindness is especially praiseworthy when practiced by a person in a superior position toward a person in an inferior position, as a parent to a child, a boss to an employee, a caregiver to the one given care, a rich person to a poor person.
Kindness must be guided by truth. It is not kind to confirm people in their wrong-doing, although sometimes might be appropriate to keep silent.
We grow in kindness by doing kind acts. Kindness begins at home, so the first beneficiaries of our kindness should be family members, and it can begin with the tiniest acts, like passing the salt.
It would be very mean of us to just try not to annoy, or hurt, or clash with the others. How could we be satisfied with that? Family life is an opportunity for us to show human and supernatural affection. Those small services we perform for the others are acts of love; and so are the things we do to help them, even when they don't realize it. So too are our efforts to bring cheerfulness into their lives, and the many other little things the heart discovers when it truly loves. What to other eyes could seem mere courtesy and good manners, in our case should be genuine charity, a sure sign of fraternal love.
The basic principle is to notice or ask what someone might want or need, and then quietly supply it. Courtesy and thoughtfulness are great aids in acting kindly. So is a spirit of service and humility.
Loving others is a clear sign that we really do love God, and that as a result, we love everything He loves, and in the way that He loves it. If God's own Love dwells within us, we will become Christ passing by.Video:
Authenticity. For decades, being “authentic” meant being non-conforming, “true to yourself” – which usually translated: indulge your base instincts; do not reason about them. Christian cultures and “society” were the arch-enemies of “authenticity.”
“AUTHENTICITY” was one of the four goods involving human relationships. They begin with “INTEGRITY,” integrating all the parts of the person –emotions, instincts, reason, and will– into one unified direction consistent with our ultimate end. Only when we’re not divided within ourselves could we be “authentic,” i.e., reveal to the world what is inside as a unified whole, not a contradictory welter of instincts, passions, feelings, and slogans.
Once “what you see is what you get” inside and outside, a person can enter into relationships with other human persons, i.e., “FRIENDSHIP.” And only then, can persons enter into relations with the fullness of Personhood, i.e., God, which is “RELIGION.”
That kind of authenticity is hard. It’s not the “authenticity” of “take-me-as-I-feel-like-it,” because that claim could be inauthentic to my true self.
Why talk about “authenticity” at all? Because there are many efforts to use selective “authenticity,” to advance bad moral positions.
Some seem possessed by a mania about “welcoming,” which ignores how Jesus “welcomed” people to the Kingdom: “Repent!” Metanoiete (in the original Greek) literally means “to turn around” –from sin to God– which the term “welcome” does not imply. Jesus "accepted" the kiss of Judas, but he also warned him of his impending betrayal.
Where to start?
First, the Church’s mission is not to promote your lifestyle but to put every lifestyle under Gospel scrutiny, calling for conversion where it is needed. The person who thinks the Church’s mission is to declare “I’m OK, you’re OK” is mistaken about both the Church and her mission.
He’s mistaken about the CHURCH, because the Church exists to foster a life modeled on the full truth of the Gospel, on Christ, not select visions of “acceptance” disconnected from Christian morality.
He’s mistaken about her MISSION, too, because the Christian mission is not to say that we are all “OK,” because we are all sinners. But, by accepting the demands and the way of life of the Gospel, in Jesus Christ, we are made OK. That’s very different from expecting the Church to be your personal cheering squad.
Second, when someone believes in authenticity, he cannot deny it to others –individuals and institutions.
Parents love children whose decisions and lives may disappoint them. Sometimes parents even think those decisions and lives are self-destructive. The child may not agree, but the child has no ground to demand a parent’s surrender to his or her “authenticity,” to become another voice of affirmation in the chorus. Parents have a right, sometimes even a duty, arising from the wellsprings of faith, to sound a dissenting note; that’s part of their authenticity.
So, while you are entitled to your parent’s and the Church’s love, you are not entitled to compromise their authenticity in the name of your “acceptance.” That would be to make the proud claim that you are more “authentic” than others.Video:
The Fourth Wise Man
It is said that there was a fourth Wise Man, who also saw the star shining over Bethlehem and decided to follow it. As a gift, he planned to offer the Child a chest full of precious pearls. However, on his way, he met several people who were asking for his help.
This Fourth King took care of them with joy and diligence, and gave them a pearl to each one. But that was delaying his arrival and emptying his chest. He found many poor, sick, imprisoned and rejected people, and he could not leave them unattended. He stayed with them as long as necessary to relieve their sorrows, and then proceeded on his way, which was again interrupted by another helpless person.
It happened that, when he finally arrived in Bethlehem, the other Magi were no longer there, and the Child had fled with his parents to Egypt, because King Herod wanted to kill him. The Magi continued looking for him, without the star that had guided him before.
He searched and searched and searched... and it is said that he spent more than thirty years traveling the land, looking for the Child and helping the needy. Until one day he arrived in Jerusalem just as the angry crowd was calling for the death of a poor man. Looking at him, he could see in his eyes the brightness of that star. That unfortunate who was being executed was the Child he had been looking for so long.
Sadness filled his heart, already old and tired by time. Although he still kept a pearl in his pouch, it was too late to offer it to the Child who now, having become a man, hung on a Cross. He had failed in his mission. And having nowhere else to go, he stayed in Jerusalem to await his death.
Barely three days had passed when a light even brighter than a thousand stars filled his room. It was the Risen One coming to meet him! The Fourth King, falling on his knees before Him, took his remaining pearl and stretched out his hand as he bowed. Jesus took it tenderly, smiled, and said to him:
"You did not fail. On the contrary, you found me throughout your life. For I was in all those you cared for on your way. You gave me your life. Thank you so much for so many gifts of love! Now you will be with me forever, for Heaven is your reward."
The story requires no explanation... each of us is the Fourth King, and Jesus waits for us to give him, not a pearl but our entire life, and to find Him in every person close to us... Let’s try to find Him every day.Video:
Each of us has a specific task within the plans of God.
When our Lady told the servants at the wedding feast of Cana: “Do whatever he tells you," Christ said to them: "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. They probably did not understand why they were given this instruction, and only learned of its effectiveness after the miracle had been worked. But they did what they were told, and they did it well. In order to perform the miracle, God made use of their work, which was unimportant in itself, but which was done well and carefully: up to the brim.
God relies on us, his creatures, to carry out his plans. And within those plans, within the work which God is accomplishing in the world, each of us has a small part to play, like these servants at the wedding feast. Jesus wishes to transform the water of temporal reality, all our human endeavor, into something of supernatural value.
Our work may be hard, and even quite demanding at times. Yet the love of Christ is urging us on, as St Paul reminds us. God looks for our prompt, generous response. He expects us to plan ahead, to be orderly, and to make good use of our time, so that we manage to do all that we should, and so fulfill our share of the work.
“Your responsibility should make you vigilant, like the sentry on duty, on whom the safety of a large part of an army may depend. Ours is an army of Christians fighting a marvelous war of Peace and Love. Even when a soldier is exhausted, he doesn't let himself be overcome by sleep."
That is how we should watch, without losing our good spirit, nor the supernatural strength of our divine Christian vocation. We show this loving vigilance in the jobs assigned to us, and working with a spirit of initiative and enterprise. That is how we will be effective in carrying out the work which God has entrusted to us.
Each should often ask himself: "Am I really doing all I can?"
We feel an even greater sense of responsibility when we realize that the work entrusted to us is not an isolated task, but fits into a much larger undertaking. We are not separate pieces. There should be fraternity in the Church, and human solidarity in the world.
“Despite your own passions and failings, the divine weight of caring for the holiness of the others falls on each of us; and we have on our shoulders the weight, which is equally divine, of protecting the holiness of the Church, and the sublime obligation of cooperating in the task of winning souls for God, a work which is so great that at the beginning it is hardly noticed, but which has no limits. How many great things depend upon us!"Video:
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is brought by his mother into the Temple, just as any other child. The crowd filling the entrance to the Temple does not grasp what is happening. Aside from Mary and Joseph, only the angels are informed witnesses to this event. The angelic spirits, looking down from heaven, were filled with wonder and exclaimed: “What a marvelous sight, unusual and amazing, incomprehensible and unthinkable! The Creator of Adam carried in the arms of his mother as an infant... He who resides in the infinite bosom of the Father, has been contained, through his own will, in human flesh.”
We notice a joyful humility, because this is the way Jesus fulfills the will of God. We would do well to imitate his unconditional dedication. “The humility that God demands of us is something very personal, something …that comes from the profound awareness that Our Father, God, is the One behind everything that happens to these poor instruments - servi inutiles sumus (Luke 17:10) –we ourselves are. God plays with each one of us as if we were little children.”
“When we strive to be humble, we can feel the amazing power of God acting, building on our weakness; and we know that we are never more powerful than when we count only on God."
Without docility, there is no dedication, St. Josemaría would say. Humility brings with it a full dedication to the divine Will, no matter how difficult or challenging it might appear. Mary fulfills the Law of God, and when Simeon tells her: a sword will pass through your own heart, our Lady renews the fiat she had spoken some months before in Nazareth. She presents her only Son to the Blessed Trinity and simultaneously puts her life into God's hands. What else would you expect of the handmaid of the Lord?
“The purity, humility and generosity of Mary are in sharp contrast to our wretchedness and selfishness. To the extent that we realize this, we should feel moved to imitate her. We, too, are creatures of God, and if we strive to imitate her fidelity, God will surely do great things in us. Our little worth is no obstacle, because God chooses what is of little value so that the power of his love be more manifest (1 Cor 1:27-29)."
Our Mother constantly gave herself completely to the service of God and those around her. Today we should ask her to obtain for us the grace to be always available and ready to serve others. Then, on fire with the love of God, one day we will be able to contemplate Him in the everlasting clarity of his glory.Video:
Caring for little things is our path to holiness.
Jesus worked the miracle at Cana in answer to his Mother's request. Today let us consider the important effects of the work which those servants did –work which seemed very simple and normal: just filling up some jars with water. But it was through that work that Christ worked his first miracle and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Even when it seems unimportant, our work brims over with divine transcendence if we work for love. Ordinary Christians must seek holiness through ordinary activities.
“Remember that character from literature, dreamed up by a French writer. He tried to hunt lions but only in the hallways of his house. Naturally he didn't find any. Our life is commonplace and ordinary. Trying to serve God only in big things would be like trying to hunt lions in the hallways. Like the hunter in the tale, we would be left empty-handed. Big things normally exist only in our imagination, rarely in real life."
“But if Love is what motivates us, then in the course of our life how many little things we will find that need to be looked after; how many opportunities for doing some small service; how many difficulties –unimportant ones– we will learn to treasure. Little things that can be difficult for us, and that we offer up for a specific intention: the Church, the Pope, the others, all souls."
“My children, I repeat once more: we will have lost our way if we spurn or reject little things. In this world, everything big is really a collection of little things. Pay attention to what is little, concentrate on the details. This is not some sort of fixation or obsession: it is affection, virginal love, supernatural outlook at every moment, charity. Always be faithful in small things for the sake of Love, keeping an upright intention, without expecting to receive anything in return here on earth, not even a smile or a look of appreciation."
On the other hand, Love makes little things big.
This is only achievable when there is love; when it is love that motivates us. And in terms of sanctity, our actions only have value when they are done for love, and with love. “Do everything for love. Then there will be no little things; everything will be big. Perseverance in little things for love is heroism."
Holiness consists above all in constantly growing in our love. “Our life is not a repetition of similar actions, our Father has told us, for the next one should be more upright, more fruitful, more loving than the one that went before. Each day should bring new light, new enthusiasm." Love is always new. It drives out any hint of monotony, and never ceases to bear fruit: particularly in one area, that of attention to little things.Video:
