March 3rd Fast

+JMJ

“The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”  

Pope Benedict XVI

In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul wrote,"When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things." Lent offers an opportunity to emerge from childhood and embrace maturity. It is an invitation to detach from the empty pleasures of earth and attach to the hope of heaven. With each penitential season—and really, with each cross— the faithful Christian finds himself in the position of the rich young man in the Gospel who, having affirmed that he kept all the commandments, queries the Lord further as to how he can obtain eternal life:

"And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Mk. 10:11)

God challenges man to sanctity. St. John Paul II often reminded his flock of the demand of the Gospels:

"Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. The kingdom of heaven is for those who are determined to enter it . . . Do not be afraid to be holy! Have the courage and humility to present yourselves to the world determined to be holy, since full, true freedom is born from holiness. "

The world  tempts man not only in the form of pleasures but excuses as well. Man often spends energy seeking reasons to excuse himself from fasting, prayer and the corporal works of mercy rather than preserving his strength to practice the aforementioned disciplines.  

Perhaps the reason that man yields to self-pitying and rationalizing his behavior is because he refuses to acknowledge that His Creator knows him better than he knows himself and so understands what he is truly capable of. Even the saints, had their doubts and fears when faced with an onerous task. Though St. Teresa of Kolkata was fond of saying—"I know God won't give me more than I can handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much."—she humbly accepted her crosses, shouldering through difficult moments, confident that she was "called to be faithful, not successful."

Let this Lent be a time of great trust that God's grace will be sufficient to carry the cross: those crosses that are freely and lovingly chosen and those that must be patiently accepted. Think not of its present burden but of its eternal merit.

"You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle! Are they not in your book?" (Psalm 56:8)

 

 

February 3rd Fast

+JMJ

"Depend upon it, it is better to learn how to live without being angry than to imagine one can moderate and control anger lawfully; and if through weakness and frailty one is overtaken by it, it is far better to put it away forcibly than to parley with it; for give anger ever so little way, and it will become master, like the serpent, who easily works in its body wherever it can once introduce its head. You will ask how to put away anger. My child, when you feel its first movements, collect yourself gently and seriously, not hastily or with impetuosity." 

(Introduction to the Devout Life, St. Francis deSales)

In her well known novel about the March family, Louisa May Alcott illustrates the near-fatal effects of Jo's tempestuous nature when Amy nearly drowns after a vengeful Jo spitefully fails to ensure that she heard Laurie's warning about the thin  ice they skate upon. As Jo tearfully repents of her hardness of heart, she laments that no one is aware of her mighty struggle to overcome this fault when her gentle mother surprises her with this confession:

"You think your temper is the worst in the world; but mine used to be just like it. . . . I've been trying to cure it for forty years and have only succeeded in controlling it. I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo; but I have learned not to show it; and I still hope to learn not to feel it though it may take another forty years."

As each new day dawns, the store of patience that is replenished through a restful night gives hope to the faithful Christian as he resolves to tackle each task with gentleness. Alas, with each disturbance of the day the simmering pot of impatience slowly increases into the rapid boil of anger, and seemingly nothing can stop a passionate nature from its wrathful storm.  St. Francis de Sales said:

"However, much I have been in the right,‟ he confessed, "I have never shown anger without discovering afterwards that I would have done better by not showing it.”

But each day brings unexpected vexations that try one's patience, and unexpected burdens that add to his plight.  Feeling justified in his reactions, one petulantly defends his tantrums by blaming uncontrollable factors. One may not explode each time, but irascibility creeps in when he allows every annoyance to irritate and irk him.  

Yet he will not learn to conquer this tendency until he recognizes it for the weakness that it is. It requires no effort to fall prey to a temptation to anger, but it requires great strength, endurance, and undoubtedly, God's grace to resist the ravening wolf of fury.  The fiery soul must courageously restrain his inner passions by using that same intense fervor to his advantage in conquering his fault rather than to his detriment in yielding to his impulsiveness. 

 Maintaining one's peace in the midst of constant disturbance is akin to holding down the fort in the midst of the siege. It is not something done on a whim, but a battle that must be prepared for with prayer and practical preparation. Anticipating and understanding the moments or people that particularly pique the soul will aid it in its fight against this fault.  One must implore God's help as he deliberately deflects blows to his peace, patiently plodding along the road to gentleness.

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, 

make my heart like unto thine!

 

January 6th Fast

+JMJ 

"To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go to meet the future with confidence. The core of faith rests upon accepting being loved by God, and therefore to believe is to say Yes, not only to him, but to creation, to creatures, above all, to men, to try to see the image of God in each person and thereby to become a lover." (Pope Benedict XVI)

St. Peter tells us to "Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour." It is certainly not difficult to notice the presence of the evil one in modern culture. Yet, it is not enough for the devil to drag souls down through overt temptation; the deceiver also furtively pulls souls into ruts by focusing their attention on all the destruction he has wrought.

Satan first seeks to terrify the devout by inundating the faithful Christian with stories of a pervasive evil. He convinces one to busy himself with anxious thoughts, making believe that he is accomplishing some good by putting his efforts into worrying rather than putting his efforts into prayer; yet nothing could be more fruitless than anxiety and nothing could be more fruitful than prayer.

If he fails in this regard, the evil one then tries a different tactic. If he cannot terrify the heart, he will instead harden it with contempt. Disgusted by the evil he sees and burdened by the crosses he must endure, one cultivates a cynical attitude, believing it will alleviate his weary soul. He is tired of dwelling in the darkness, but refuses to look for the Light. It takes very little effort or intelligence to be cynical but it demands great strength and thoughtfulness to remain silent and curb the appetite for caustic commentary.

The early Christians, living amongst pagan neighbors, also had their temptation to cynicism for surely they must have reminisced of the days when Rome lauded virtue and abhorred vice. Yet, they refused to be anchored by misery  and chose to live their days buoyed by hope. As Pope Benedict XVI said in Spe Salvi: "One who has hope lives differently." It was their hope of heaven that encouraged and lightened their hearts amidst tribulation. It was their hope of eternal happiness that radiated in their joyful countenances drawing others —depressed by the mania surrounding them— to implore them to share this treasure.

"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Rom. 5:3-5)

 

December 2nd Fast

 +JMJ

"Look upon the hour of adoration assigned to you as an hour in paradise. Go to your adoration as one would to heaven, to the divine banquet. You will then long for that hour and hail it with joy. Take delight in fostering a longing for it in your heart. Tell yourself, "In four hours, in two hours, in one hour, our Lord will give me an audience of grace and love. He has invited me; he is waiting for me; he is longing for me." (St. Peter Julian Eymard)

In his book, Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Personal Portrait, Fr. Leo Maasburg described the importance of prayer— specifically Adoration and Mass— for this saint of the gutters:

In 1972 when a catastrophic flood struck Bangladesh, Mother Teresa immediately sent her sisters there to help out.  The needs were enormous, and the work demanded superhuman efforts on the part of the Sisters. So they were asked if they would make an exception and not interrupt their work for prayer sessions. Mother Teresa decided against it: 'No, the Sisters will come home for Adoration and Holy Mass'...for Mother Teresa it was clear that the Sisters' strength dries up if they are not nourished daily by Mass and their Adoration of the Holy Eucharist."

During this season of Advent, the faithful Christian hears the Gospel story of the Birth of Christ; its familiarity is comforting, its sameness is soothing.  Listening to the Nativity story may bring back childhood memories, or evoke picturesque scenes.  It is easy to imagine oneself as the shepherd who would run in haste to meet his King just as he might imagine himself as one of the few standing by the cross. 

But perhaps, a more likely scenario for the modern man is the role of the innkeeper who said,"there is no room."  For why should one expect that he would make room to welcome the Savior to Bethlehem when he does not make room in his day for the same Lord? Instead of clearing the way so that he can spend time with His King, he clutters his path with excuse upon excuse.  

Many are blessed to be near churches with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, but many neglect to take advantage of this gift.  And why? Because in a culture where plans can be changed last minute, and distractions are ever at one's fingertips, committing to time in Adoration takes effort and sacrifice.  Saying yes to the invitation from Our Lord necessitates saying no to other demands upon one's time. It is the difference between just trying to simply squeeze in Our Lord somewhere, and the day revolving around the time with Him. Even if the former works, it is as if one is saying to Jesus,"I think I can find time for you on my schedule." But in the latter, he says,"Nothing is more important than you, my Jesus, and I will do everything in my power to be with you this day." 

November 4th Fast

 +JMJ

"Fear of the Lord, instead, is the gift of the Holy Spirit through whom we are reminded of how small we are before God and of his love and that our good lies in humble, respectful and trusting self-abandonment into his hands. . .When we are pervaded by fear of the Lord, then we are led to follow the Lord with humility, docility and obedience. This, however, is not an attitude of resignation, passivity or regret, but one of the wonder and joy of being a child who knows he is served and loved by the Father. Fear of the Lord, therefore, does not make of us Christians who are shy and submissive, but stirs in us courage and strength!"

(Pope Francis, General Audience, June 11, 2014)

The month of November is dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. In his excellent book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI enlightens the reader to the intentional interconnection of the sacred liturgy and liturgical calendar with the rhythm of time itself.  Just as Easter, the celebration of Christ's resurrection, purposely coincides with Spring, and Christmas, the Birth of the Light of the World, comes mere days after the Winter Solstice—the time when light gradually returns to the day—so too the month dedicated to the dead appropriately occurs when all of nature appears to be dying.  The brightness of the leaves is faded; their crackling under tread indicates that they are not newly fallen but long since dead.

While the world does all in its power to distract man from his finiteness, creation will not be deterred from inviting man to meditate on his inevitable mortality.  In keeping with this knowledge, the Holy Spirit mercifully grants man the gift of the Fear of the Lord, which means to "entertain a profound though filial fear of God, to meditate on the great disaster of losing His love, and of being separated from Him for all eternity."1

When one cultivates this gift, he embraces the words of Our Lord to fear nothing which can harm the body but only that which can harm the soul.  One shouldn't be surprised by suffering for it serves as a reminder that he is not meant for this world.  It serves to increase one's longing for heavenly rest, and helps the bearer to remember that the cross is not to be looked upon with angst and resentment, but with acceptance and gratitude.  The certainty of death and judgment sobers the faithful Christian, and prompts him to recollect that he must one day stand side by side with the martyrs, and then what will he have to show? 

"Nothing but crosses will assure us at the Day of Judgment. When that day shall come, we shall be happy in our misfortunes, proud of our humiliations, and rich in our sacrifices." (St. John Vianney)

1. Sheehan, Archbishop Michael. Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine. London:  The Saint Austin Press. 2001.