June 1st Fast

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JMJ

 "Yet, owing to the efforts of the archenemy of mankind, there are persons who, thanklessly casting away so many other blessings of redemption, despise also or utterly ignore the restoration of marriage to its original perfection. It is a reproach to some of the ancients that they showed themselves the enemies of marriage in many ways; but in our own age, much more pernicious is the sin of those who would fain pervert utterly the nature of marriage, perfect though it is, and complete in all its details and parts. The chief reason why they act in this way is because very many, imbued with the maxims of a false philosophy and corrupted in morals, judge nothing so unbearable as submission and obedience; and strive with all their might to bring about that not only individual men, but families, also-indeed, human society itself-may in haughty pride despise the sovereignty of God."  (Arcanum Divinae, On Christian Marriage, no. 16, Pope Leo XIII, 1880)  

The current crisis in marriage has certainly been abetted by elements by our contemporary society, like contraception, and no-fault divorce.  Though these things place great obstacles in marriage, they would not be resorted to unless first there were selfish motives to begin with.  Unless first, man sought to control his own destiny as Adam first did in the garden; as Lucifer did: "Non serviam", "I will not serve."  How often to we hear this false proposition that it is in man's nature to rebel?  Submission and obedience are anachronistic phrases that have no meaning for today.  And yet, man will be submissive to something.  If he is not submissive to God's will, he will be a slave to his own.


 Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman.  In contrast to a contract which requires the exchange of goods, a covenant demands the exchanges of persons: a total gift of self.  Yet, one cannot completely give to the other, unless he completely denies himself first.  And in denying himself, he refuses to submit to his own will, and agrees to submit to God's will revealed in the vocation to marriage.  This submission requires a humble and freely given obedience.  A submission that is instinctive; and an obedience that is not burdensome.


It is no surprise that the spouse of the Holy Spirit, readily gave her fiat to God, the Father referring to herself as a servant:

"Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word." (Lk. 1:38)

 She said her yes as quickly, and lovingly as a devoted attendant in the King's chamber would have. Might we do the same?  We may believe that we gladly submit to God's will, but do we submit to our spouse?  To our family's needs?  In our vocations, in our everyday lives, we are called to submit to God's will, but this is revealed through others.  This humble obedience, and willing submission is not a romantic notion but a difficult Truth that must be lived out constantly and consistently.  Tempted in the Garden of Olives, Our Savior Himself struggled:

"Father if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Lk. 22:42)

Yet, through Christ's obedience we are all saved and have the grace to obey as well:

"For as by one's man disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." (Rom. 5:19)

When we live this Truth, when we submit to His will, we acknowledge God's sovereignty over our lives.  We also reveal our trust in His loving plan for us.  God Bless you and be with you in your fast today!

May 4th Fast

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JMJ

"Any surrender of oneself to God that does not completely lay aside, from the moment of accepting the divine will, all thought and hope of retracing one's steps is false down to its very roots.  To give oneself to God and at the same time to cherish plans, dreams, or projects, however vaguely or theoretically or dimly, which are outside the way one has chosen, is not to give oneself to God at all.  It is too much like looking back when one has put one's hand to the plough; it is like looking out of the corner of our eye at a future we might have chosen if God had not come to us with His all encompassing demands."

(Fr. Frederico Suarez, Mary of Nazareth, p.53)

     Surrender to our vocation, to the path God has called us to, must be complete and continuous if we are ever to attain happiness and peace.  After hearing the path that God has chosen for her, Mary responded:

"Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.  And the angel departed from her." (Lk.1:38)

It is easy to romanticize the Annunciation, meditating upon Mary's beautiful words of submission, but forgetting the complete abandonment to God's will that those words meant.  The power to control one's life is a desire that stems from the sin of pride.   The surrender of this control is the great gift that emanates from the virtue of humility.  Though this surrender appears to be weak to the worldly, it reveals a great strength and wisdom.  It recognizes the true source of strength and power. By relying solely on God, one knows that His Creator will surely guide Him to what he was created for: eternal happiness. 

Complete surrender is not possible without continuous self-sacrifice and denial.  Mary could not have completely received our Lord in her body without first completely emptying her own self. Father Luis Lorda said in the Virtues of Holiness:

"Self-sacrifice is the fuel one must burn to keep a home warm." (p.63)

 The more we empty our hearts of self-love, the more God will fill them with His Love.  We can then more readily love others with His abundant Love. Our love is tainted by the impurities of selfishness, but His Love is spotless, pure and praiseworthy. Our fast tomorrow must spur us on to sacrificing in other ways, to bring to peace to our hearts and to our homes.   St. Theresa of Avila said:

". . . For this body of ours has one fault: the more you indulge it, the more things it discovers to be essential to it." (The Way of Perfection, 11, 3) 

Nothing can be more essential to our lives, our marriages, our families, than to keep the peace of Christ.  Let us strive ardently to completely surrender to His Love, holding nothing back.  God bless you! 

Painful Pleasure

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JMJ

In the movie Toy Story 3, the tyrannical bear, Lotso, who rules the daycare facility, Sunnyside, tells the new toys that daycare is a dream come true because there are no owners, and therefore no heartbreak.  Here is a place where the fun never ends, and the heartbreak never begins.  The toys don't belong to anyone and therefore cannot be hurt by anyone.  Sounds like a familiar line of reasoning, no?


Birth control eradicated the need for commitment in a relationship before relations were had.  Free of commitment, intercourse (and subsequently what people thought was love) became conditional.  There is no ownership, no belonging, and so no heartbreak.  But then there is also no real love.  True love is unconditional, for Love Himself makes no conditions on His love for us.  True love demands a complete gift of self in a covenant where each belongs to the other.  True love expects faithfulness, and so does not fear heartbreak.


The theme of the sexual revolution was "pleasure without pain": get all the highs without any of the lows.  It was an easy sell, and so attracted many eager buyers.  Yet with it came a hefty price tag: "free love" meant an empty life.  The line of the sixties was "peace, love, joy".  Ironic, because a person may be able to experience pleasure without pain, but not peace, love, or joy.  Peace comes from living a life in conformity with God's will, in conformity with the natural law written into our hearts.  Rebellion against this law brings only violence and destruction to the peace of our souls.  To love is to give oneself totally and completely; to pervert our purpose, and to thwart God's design creates a civil war within ourselves.  The peace that resides in the humble soul, produces the joy that illuminates his life.  One who knows how to love is full of joy, full of peace.


Believing in a self-serving love, one allows himself only to love himself.  He never opens his heart to the purifying fires of a self-sacrificing love.  Those fires and trials that purify his heart, draw him closer to the source of Love itself.  People believe that there is pleasure without pain, but ironically pain is all they are left with.  Going from one relationship to another, never fully giving themselves means they never fully receive another, never fully feel the love of another.  One may choose to love; but he also is choosing not to be loved.  And so what happens?  People who have bought this lie are not full of hate, but full of callousness and indifference, the opposite of love.


It is a struggle to love, it is a daily and constant sacrifice to love completely.  But the joy and peace that emanate from this love are everlasting as opposed to the brief pleasure that is derived from a loveless life.  

St. George the Dragon Slayer

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JMJ

Today is the feast of St. George, the dragon-slayer.  Here is brief account of his life from the EWTN library:

"According to the account given us by Metaphrastes, he was born in Cappadocia, of noble Christian parents. After the death of his father he went with his mother into Palestine, she being a native of that country, and having there a considerable estate, which fell to her son George. He was strong and robust in body, and having embraced the profession of a soldier, was made a tribune, or colonel, in the army. By his courage and conduct he was soon preferred to higher stations by the Emperor Diocletian. When that prince waged war against the Christian religion, St. George laid aside the marks of his dignity, threw up his commission and posts, and complained to the emperor himself of his severities and bloody edicts. He was immediately cast into prison, and tried, first by promises, and afterwards put to the question and tortured with great cruelty; but nothing could shake his constancy. The next day he was led through the city and beheaded. Some think him to have been the same illustrious young man who tore down the edicts when they were first fixed up at Nicomedia, as Lactantius relates in his book, On the Death of the Persecutors, and Eusebius in his history. 

The reason why St. George has been regarded as the patron of military men is partly upon the score of his profession, and partly upon the credit of a relation of his appearing to the Christian army in the holy war, before the battle of Antioch. The success of this battle proving fortunate to the Christians, under Godfrey of Bouillon, made the name of St. George more famous in Europe and disposed the military men to implore more particularly his intercession. This devotion was confirmed, as it is said, by an apparition of St. George to our king, Richard I, in his expedition against the Saracens; which vision being declared to the troops, was to them a great encouragement, and they soon after defeated the enemy. 

St. George is usually painted on horseback and tilting at a dragon under his feet; but this representation is no more than an emblematical figure, purporting that by his faith and Christian fortitude he conquered the devil, called the dragon in the Apocalypse."

Considering St. George is the patron saint of England, Brad Birzer (a blogger at Catholicvote) reminded his readers of  a famous English poem written by William Blake and set to music by Hubert Parry, called Jerusalem:

AND did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
 
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
 
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
 
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

It is certain that there are still some in England that seek to build up the "New Jerusalem" (the Kingdom of God) on its land.  Though the Western world, and in particular Europe, is in spiritual and cultural decay, one should never despair because the presence of the good, the true, and the beautiful in our world will never cease and will always point to its Source.  Here is a wonderful example of beauty in England during last year's Royal Wedding when the whole congregation (and onlookers outside) sang this beautiful hymn together.   Hopefully (and probably) there were some that were drawn closer to Christ by the beauty of the words and music.  Here is the short video clip:

Happy Feast Day!

Good Friday Fast

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JMJ

". . . And those that passed by derided Him, wagging their heads, and saying, 'Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!'  So also the chief priests mocked Him to one another with the scribes, saying,' He saved others; He cannot save Himself.  Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.' Those who were crucified with Him also reviled Him.' (Mk. 15: 27-32)

Meditating on these scripture verses concerning the crowd that surrounded the Cross, one cannot help but also remember the words from the Presentation in the Temple:

". . . and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, His Mother,'Behold this child is set for the fall and the rise of many in Israel and for a sign that shall be contradicted. . ." (Lk. 2:34).

The Cross is the sign of our salvation and yet a sign of contradiction.  The people shout that they will believe if only Christ comes down from the Cross.  Fulton Sheen often said that people will believe in anything but the Cross, but suffering.  Even those that suffer (like the ones who were crucified with Him, and "reviled Him") refuse to believe in its merits.  Christ came to die so that we might have eternal life.  Yet, we must die to ourselves if we are to inherit the victory Christ has already won for us.

Easter Sunday is a beautiful feast, but a hollow one indeed if we do not first live through and experience the Passion and Cross of Good Friday.  The Crucifix must be a powerful reality in our lives; not just a symbol of our faith, but a constant call to a radical vocation.  Sacrificial love cannot be a high ideal, a romantic notion; it must be a way of life for us as Christians.  


The Cross and suffering are realities, whether we choose to embrace them or not.  But by ignoring the Cross, we also refuse the hope that it contains: the hope of salvation.  And the knowledge, and the peace that comes with it, that the Cross is the Way to Heaven, to Eternal Happiness!


Persevere in your fasting and sacrifices, and have a blessed and holy Easter!