The Quest for Christian Perfection I

Taken from De Fide Catholica

First Sunday of Lent

“In the world, a man who possesses average intelligence, who works with perseverance, who makes the necessary sacrifices and concentrates his efforts on one object, is sure to become of value. Independently of some possible failures, whether or not he has accomplished the desired work, he is certain that he will bear himself out. If there are some failures, they may affect the work, but do not diminish the man himself. Such a man is master of his personal value. What a comfort he can find in this certitude!”
Dear Brethren, I would like to comment on these words of Father Jerome, because, as usual, they are full of wisdom and good sense. Father Jerome speaks here about a man who lives according to the spirit of the world. He is truly a value to society according to this spirit. This is not a bad thing. We need such men in our societies. But it is merely human and worldly. On a spiritual level, things are different, because there is now an additional datum: God.

Father Jerome continues: “ He who has a vocation to live with God depends totally on the good divine will, even for his own excellence. Whatever his efforts are, his single-mindedness and his savoir-faire, he will become a value only if God consents to look at his efforts and bless him. The successes ensure nothing. A religious man is not master of his personal value.”
It might be good to meditate on this at the beginning of our Lent. Most of you have probably made good resolutions and have decided to make a good Lent. Very good! I can only approve. Now, what is a good Lent? Is it a time when we have to do penances and mortify ourselves until Easter? Yes, it is, but this definition of Lent, while true, is still incomplete. It tells us what Lent is in a material and external manner. And I would like to bring to your attention a certain error which can be found frequently in the spiritual life. This error would be a certain quantification of our spiritual life. And this mistaken way of thinking pushes us to believe that the more I pray, the holier I become. It is not necessarily false, but neither it is necessarily true. In fact, it is not unusual to meet Catholics with certain Pelagianist practices. This old heresy reappears regularly throughout the centuries. Jansenism was one of its avatars. Today, we can still see traces of it among many Catholics, even though they don’t consciously profess it, they are marked by it on a practical level.

What is the Pelagianist error? It is a belief that minimizes the role of Divine Grace and intensifies the primacy and the efficiency of personal efforts. In other words, my personal actions, if they are good enough, can make me deserving of the Grace. So, I simply have to multiply my good actions, my prayers and my sacrifices and then the Grace will increase in me and I will become more holy. The Grace is considered as a reward for our good actions. In Pelagian thought, man simply has to want to be a saint in order to become one. You might think that it sounds good and true. Well, if it is the case, let me reply with the words of Saint Augustine: “This is the complete emancipation of man from God.” For Pelagius, man doesn’t depend totally on divine will, as Father Jerome reminded us previously, but God depends on man’s will. He would be forced to recognize man’s value and then to reward it.

Of course we are not Pelagianist and we believe in the primacy of the Divine Grace, which is not a reward but the principle of our good actions. We don’t have to act in order to obtain it, but we have to cooperate with it and to remain under its dominion and to follow its inspirations. This is what it means as Saint Paul says, to walk in the spirit. We are not Pelagianist, nevertheless, we can be tempted to act as such to a certain degree. We can be tempted to think that because of the goodness of our actions, we are right and we necessarily fulfill God’s will. It is the same old temptation that we all have and which causes us to conforms God’s will to ours. Well, if it is just a temptation, it is still O.K. but be sure not to fall into this temptation. “A religious man is not master of his personal value!” The material goodness of our actions is not necessarily the guarantee that they are God’s will. I mean the particular and precise will of God about one thing. Of course God wants everybody to do good and to refrain from evil. But then, who can say with certitude what is God’s will?

We need time, prayer, meditation and silence to know it. Here is the perfection of the Christian life according to Saint Francis de Sales. Contrary to many of the usual beliefs, Christian perfection does not consist of the absence of imperfections. “Let us not be troubled by our imperfections, because perfection consists of fighting them. We could not fight them without seeing them, neither overcome them without meeting them.” And with a great lucidity, he adds: “Consider as suspect all these desires of a certain perfection which can be imagined but not practiced, and of which many makes lessons but, but of which no one makes actions.”

Neither does Christian perfection consist of the absence of passions. They are a part of our nature and as such, are good. There are some falsely devout persons who affect to have no passions. Saint Francis de Sales says about them: “I don’t at all like certain souls who like nothing and who remain immobile at every event because of a lack of vigor. Those half-dead hearts, for what are they good?”

Christian perfection does not consist of the absence of temptations. The book of Ecclesiasticus warns us: “Son, when thou come to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.” So it is good for us to have temptation, so that we can be lion-hearted and brave for the service of God and the conquest of solid virtues.

Christian perfection does not consist of the science. This one is good in itself, especially “the science of oneself which is very useful to devotion.” But it can be dangerous without charity and humility. Nevertheless, don’t give as a pretext a certain false humility to justify your ignorance.
Christian perfection does not consist of the multitude of desires. Dear brethren, we all have many desires. Very good! How many of them do we realize? Probably not very many! But as Saint Francis de Sales says again with very practical good sense: “Go in the way of your vocation with simplicity committing yourselves to action rather than to desire: it is the shortest way.” And he adds that as a bishop, he would loose his time by desiring to be a Carthusian monk. So we are what we are and we have to act as such, not according to what we would like to be.

Christian perfection does not consist in a multitude of exercises, neither of austerity. These are very necessary, but are just a means and not a goal. It is not without humour that our Saint exclaims: “ How foolish are those who estimate to be holy only those who are thin, as if holiness would consist of thinness.” Then Saint Francis de Sales gives this piece of advice: “Save your corporeal strength for the service of God in spiritual practices.” Once again , don’t give as a pretext the needs of your body for not practicing the virtue of temperance and certain mortifications. They are necessary. In fact, to be sure that you are right in this matter, just ask your spiritual director what you can do. Obedience will be your guide.

Now, dear Brethren, we know what perfection is not. It might be good to know what perfection is. This will be for next Sunday. Let us confide our good resolutions of lent to Our Lady, so that she can help us to keep them with wisdom, under the guidance of the Church. May she help us to understand that our value is nothing but that we have to turn to God and to let Him come into our soul if we really want to be good.

The Quest for Christian Perfection II

Taken from De Fide Catholica

Sermon for the second Sunday of Lent

Last week, we began to consider what Christian perfection is. With the help of Saint Francis de Sales and Father Jerome, our guides during this Lenten season, we have, first, seen what Christian perfection is not. To refresh our memories, let us remind that Christian perfection does not consist of the absence of imperfections, passions and temptations. It does not consist of the science and the multitude of desires and exercises.

Let us add that it does not depend upon natural gifts. These are conducing to the acquisition of human value, according to the spirit of the world, as we saw with Father Jerome last Sunday. He said: “In a natural career, an intelligent man concentrates his faculties for one work – familial, social, artistic, scientific or intellectual – which he molds according to his will.” But we are now talking about something totally different.

On the level of the Divine grace, our natural gifts are nothing but a means by which we have to glorify God. They don’t make our value. They could even devaluate us if we don’t use them well. Even our natural love does not give us our true value in front of God. Some people have a natural predisposition to love, sweetness and tenderness, but this does not make them holy ipso facto. Let us consider two persons. One is loving and sweet by nature. The other is bitter and rough. Saint Francis de Sales explains that if they have an equal charity, “they certainly love God equally but not similarly. The heart with natural sweetness loves more easily, more kindly, more gently, but not more robustly nor more perfectly. On the other hand, the love which springs from a dry and harsh nature is more brave and more glorious as the other is more delicate and gracious.” Please, remember this when you have the temptation to make yourself the judge of the charity of your neighbor. Charity is not necessarily the expression of external and visible marks of affections. Thus, Christian perfection does not consist of an effusion of feelings, especially when they are tactless and irrelevant. I think it may be not useless to recall this.

So, what is Christian perfection? First, it consists of fighting every affection for sin. Understand well, brethren! We say affection for any sin, even those that you might falsely call the “little” sins. “Venial sins displease God and if we have an affection for a venial sin, it is nothing other than the resolution to want to displease the Divine Majesty” as Saint Francis de Sales says. Then, he explains that everyone has some bad natural inclinations.

Now I can already hear some objections: “But Father, it is impossible to be totally detached from all sins!” I have already heard this many times by persons who try to explain that it is impossible for almost everyone to gain a plenary indulgence. I remind you of the necessity to be detached from all sin in order to be able to gain a plenary indulgence. So, it would be impossible to gain a plenary indulgence because we could not be totally detached from all sins? If I had believed those persons, I would have come to think that the Church was a cruel Mother who presents to Her children beautiful gifts that finally they would, after all, never have because they are not worthy of them. I would have come to believe also that the word of Our Lord was in vain: “You must therefore be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” All the advice and counsels of the Saints, the Doctors and the masters of spiritual life who encourage us to be perfect would have also been in vain. And what about the Saints themselves? Are they not the living proof that perfection is really possible on earth?

The fact is, dear brethren, that we like to believe that perfection is not possible in our present condition, so that we have a good excuse for not being perfect. The fact is that we like to satisfy ourselves of our condition with a pseudo-humility and a sight of so-called wisdom which pushes us to recognize: “After all, we are like this and we cannot change!”

It is true that one cannot change if one does not want to change. He might believe in God and love Him a little bit, but not enough to remove from his life what is an obstacle toward perfection. He satisfies himself with his imperfections. Therefore his Christian life only consists of fulfilling his duties of religion, but the practice of the evangelical counsels is totally unfamiliar to him. Perfection is definitively not for him. Blessed is he if he can manage to save his soul, but he is in great danger of losing it, because of an excessive or disordered love for creatures.

Saint Francis de Sales says that Christian perfection consist of loving God, above everything as we say in our act of Charity. The love for creatures is good as long as it remains ordered toward the love of God. But as soon as you love a creature more than God, it becomes a disorder, namely a sin. “ When a heart loves God in consideration of His infinite goodness in all circumstances, he leaves everything in order to remain in His Grace and nothing can separate him from it; further, he will leave himself, because the pure love of God cannot accept any companion.” It does not mean that if you love God you don’t love creatures, but that you love them in an manner ordered to God, in the right way. In fact, the love of God makes us love creatures better. There is no opposition between the love of God and the love of creatures but subordination of one to the other.

Now we still have to consider what is a true and pure love of God. It will be, if God wills our meditation for next Sunday.

May Our Lady, who knows the price of this love, help us to obtain it and to practice it with our whole heart.

The Quest for Christian Perfection III

Taken from De Fide Catholica

Part III: Third Sunday of Lent

Let us continue our meditation on the quest of Christian perfection. We know now that it consists firstly of fighting our affections for sins. This fight is the negative side of perfection that we can associate with the purgative way described by the spiritual authors, especially Saint John of the Cross and Saint Theresa of Avila. It is the way of beginners in spiritual life, but it is not limited to beginners only. We can be tempted to think that after a while, we can ease off of penance and mortification because we have reached a higher level of sanctity. Then we believe, maybe in good faith, but certainly not without error, that because we love enough God, we no longer need to apply to ourselves certain penitential practices.

But the three stages of the spiritual life – the purgative way, illuminative way and unitive way – are not totally separate and distinct. Even the great Saints still had to mortify themselves because they were still tempted and marked by concupiscence as is every human being on earth. Lent comes to remind us each year of the necessity of mortification which should not to be in spirit and in intent only but must be applied with actions.

By the way, if anyone knows what it means exactly to have the “spirit of Lent” without practicing penance, I would be interesting to hear it so that I may be enlightened. It is like the “spirit of the Council”: many speak about it, but only a few know anything of what the proper texts of the Council actually say. And I, personally, find it very funny when their so-called spirit contradicts the text itself. One day, a priest tried to convince me that we have to use only vernacular language for the Liturgy, because it is the spirit of the Council. I just responded by saying that I don’t know what this spirit is, but, on the other hand, that I do know what the Council says, and it says that Latin is still the language that must be used for the Liturgy.

But, I disgress, let us now return to the heart of our subject. Christian perfection, on its positive side, consists of loving God. In fact, loving God and fighting against sin is the same thing; they are like two sides of the same coin, because the love of God is the antithesis of loving sin and the two mutually exclude each other. The more you love God, the more you hate sins and the less you care about your sins, the less you love God.

So, we must first be purified of any mortal sins because they remove charity from our soul. You already know from your catechism that just one mortal sin is enough to lose the Grace of God. It kills your soul by removing the principle of its life. Deprived of its life, which is God himself, a soul in the state of mortal sin deserves, in justice, hell for eternity. This is justice, dear brethren, and this justice does not contradict the love that God has for us. So, damnation which is an act of justice, shows a posteriori how grave and terrible a mortal sin is. If I deserve to go to hell because of one single act that I have committed maybe just in two seconds, it is because this act was a terrible act against the love of God, the love He has for me.

For that reason, Saint Francis de Sales says that “the first purgation which must be made is that of sin; the means to make it is the holy Sacrament of penance.” Then he gives some practical advice in order to make a good confession. It starts with a good examination of conscience, with the help a book that can help you. “ read it carefully, and note point by point in what ways you have offended God, from the time that you came from the age of reason up to the present time (it can be since your last good confession); and if you mistrust your memory, write down what you have observed. And when you have thus prepared and gathered together the peccant humors of your conscience, detest them and cast them away by as great a contrition and displeasure as your heart can conceive, considering four things: that by sin you have lost the grace of God, forfeited your place in Heaven, incurred the everlasting pains of hell, and renounced the everlasting love of God.”

It is the occasion to remind you that you must confess every single mortal sin not already confessed since your last confession, in order to receive absolution validly. And you must confess them according to their species. If you have murdered someone, it is not enough to say: I did something I shouldn’t have done or to say I have sinned against charity and justice. If you don’t remember how many mortal sins you have committed since your last confession, try to be as exact as you can and to say how frequently these sins were committed. For example, if you have the habit of stealing regularly from the cash drawer of your office, say that you have stolen around 10 dollars a week for 2 years. Remember that one mortal sin deliberately hidden in confession makes this confession invalid and even worse: you commit another mortal sin of sacrilege.

Now, you may have already renounced mortal sin and you try to keep your soul in state of grace, which is good. But you still need to be purified. Saint Francis de Sales speaks about this, saying: “the second purgation, which is that of the affection of sin.” Then he explains that “there are some penitents who forsake sin, but do not give up their affection to it.” Remember that we said last week how necessary it is to get rid of such an affection! Our Saint continues and says that these penitents “resolve to sin no longer, but they have a certain reluctance to deprive themselves of the miserable delectations of sin; their heart renounces sin and departs from it, but does not cease that to look back often in that direction. They abstain from sin as the sick abstain from melons, which they do not eat because the doctor tells them that they will die if they eat them; but they repine at abstaining from them, they talk of them and are unwilling to believe that they are unwholesome, they wish at all events to smell them, and envy those who are able to eat them."

"For in the same way these weak and faint-hearted penitents abstain for some time from sin, but it is with regret; they would like to be able to sin without being damned; they speak of sin with a certain satisfaction and relish, and esteem happy who commits sins.”

Saint Francis de Sales warns us: “Alas! Such persons are in great danger!” The safety net by which to guard this danger is a great contrition which we can obtain by meditating on the goodness of God and all the benefits he displays in Creation. Then, by comparison, we have to consider the wickedness of our actions and their consequences. If God wills, we will put into practice these meditations during the Recollection in two weeks.

The fact is that as much as our contrition increases, our love for God increases too because it becomes the main reason for it. This love will not suppress the necessity that we have to fight against our bad habits and our bad affections. It will not suppress the necessity of penance and mortification. But it will help us a lot for this hard task. As the Curé d’Ars used to say, love doesn’t suppress the cross, but it makes it sweeter to carry.

May Our Lady help us to obtain more and more charity. May she bring us to its source, God Himself. With her help, we will apply ourselves next week to the contemplation of the Love of God which is His own essence.

The Quest for Christian Perfection IV

Taken from De Fide Catholica

“Deus caritas est ! – Man is not the source of charity. Only God is charity and the source of charity. When man wants to be charity for his brothers, he must ask God for this charity.”

Dear Brethren, when you want something, you usually go to the source of the thing you want in order to obtain it. Now, Father Jérôme reminds us of something that we already know but that we may forget too often. God is the source of Charity, because He is Charity.

We are now continuing our Lenten meditation on Christian perfection and we try to understand what, exactly, Charity is. Last week we contemplated its negative side, which is the hatred of sin. So now, let us consider what Charity truly is in its essence. The fact is, this is not such an easy thing to do. The reason for the difficulty we have in contemplating the true essence of Charity is that Charity is God Himself, we must acknowledge the deficiency of our intellect when it faces the immensity of the mystery of God. Then, we have to cast aside many prejudices and false concepts about Charity. So at this point, when I was preparing my sermon, I thought: “Well, what can I say now about Charity?” I was a little bit confused but finally I rested with thought that I simply needed to trust Saint Francis de Sales who spoke so well and so beautifully about the Love of God, because he just loved Him very much.

So, Saint Francis de Sales says that “the Christians of the early Church used to call each other brothers. Then, the first fervor cooled down and it has been decided that the Religious would be called brothers and sisters in order to show the sincere and cordial friendship they should have for each other. I say ‘cordial friendship’, which means that it has its foundation in the heart.” Then he explains that cordial friendship “is one of the main fruits of Religion performed by Charity. This union is such that it makes from many hearts only one.”
Thus, cordial friendship is not Charity itself but one of its main manifestations. It makes us see our neighbor “in the bosom of the Savior” as Saint Francis de Sales says. We have to see and to love our neighbor, whoever he is, “in the bosom of the Lord”. It makes all the difference between a true Charity and a natural love.

Natural love pushes us to love what brings a certain satisfaction and pleasure. When this satisfaction is sought for itself, it is indeed improperly that we speak about love. It is rather selfishness. Thus we have to cast aside our selfishness and to cast ourselves into the bosom of the Lord, so that we can love with His Heart. Saint Francis de Sales says that our neighbor, who is the one that we must love, is in the bosom of the Lord. I am know thinking of Saint John who put his head on the bosom of Jesus. What was he doing? He was seeking the love of God.

Dear brethren, if we really want Charity, we have to go to its source: Our Lord Jesus Christ. He can make our hearts malleable and shape it according to His good will, provided that we let Him. This work is delicate. It is often sorrowful, because it is a work of purification. The heart is very sensible and when Jesus touches it, you can feel a heat which can be painful. But then, when you are totally deprived of yourself and Jesus reigns in your heart, you feel only a peaceful and restful warmth. It is a great gain for those who accept this purification of the heart. They love God more than His consolations and they accept anything from Him. The others, the great majority, revolt or abandon. Their Charity is not perfect, because they prefer the consolations rather than the Cross. They are not in the bosom of Jesus. By refusing the grace of the purification of their hearts, they are in danger of losing the grace. Some might continue to practice their Faith but with no heart. They may do their duties and perhaps they do them well on a material level but Charity is no longer the principle of their actions. In fact, they try to fill in a lack of affection – the affection of the heart they don’t have for Jesus, with too much activism. They have to be busy, as if holiness consists of business. Then, they seek perfection in the achievement of their works, but, as we said at the beginning of Lent, this is not perfection, at least, not according to the Heart of Jesus.

Some others, because of a lassitude, even end up abandoning their duties of religion. They start by spacing out their confessions, then their communion, especially if they have committed a mortal sin. One day, they just leave the Church. God was not in their hearts, which makes religion a heavy burden. Be aware, brethren, that each one of us can be affected by this danger, lay people, priests or religious. Once again, if you don’t love in the bosom of Jesus, you cannot love as God wants you to love; you are not able to fulfill all the duties of our Religion that ,in the end, you disfigure.

Saint Luke, while speaking about the first community says: “the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul.” One heart and one soul! This supposes attention to your brother. If we have such an attention to give, matured and improved by a true Charity, in other words, if we love our brother in the bosom of the Lord, the fruits are great: “with great power did the apostles give testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord; and great grace was in them all.”

So, dear brethren, let us implore God to give us the grace of Divine Love. Let us ask Him to change our Hearts, so that we can practice a true Charity instead of trying to show it, perhaps, at time, with hypocrisy. As God is never fooled and truly knows the farthest corners and greatest depths of our hearts.
May Our Lady help us to accept the necessary purification that we need in order to increase our love and to love more perfectly.

Amen !

The Quest for Christian Perfection V

Taken from De Fide Catholica

Passion Sunday

“Charity is a friendship and not an interested love.” This truth is now well ingrained in our minds, so let’s continue on further and let us consider the qualities of this particular friendship, still by following the teaching of Saint Francis de Sales. And he says first that “ it is a true friendship, because it is mutual.”
I personally think that we should think more often about the idea of reciprocity between ourselves and God. We, too often, consider our relationship with Him to be a relationship between a servant and his master or a subject and his king. It is certainly true, because we truly are the servants and subjects of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and our King. But this notion does not reflect the entire reality of what Charity is. Loving one’s master or one’s king is good, but you rarely hear speaking about friendship for a master or a king. Yet our love for God has to be a true friendship, and this makes a huge difference. You probably have many acquaintances and you probably know many people that you like and who’s company you enjoy. But how many true close friends do you have? Probably just a few, because a true friendship supposes a certain close intimacy and that you cannot have with everyone.

A friend is someone that you love, that you trust, for whom you are ready to make any sacrifice in order to help if he has need. It is a person with whom you can speak frankly and discuss everything, even when you don’t agree and when the subject brings controversies. A true friend is present in your mind, in your heart, in your prayers. Our Lord Jesus Christ should be one of your friends, and the best one.
Saint Francis de Sales explains that “it is a friendship of dilection, which means of election. It is incomparable to any other and it is really eminent and supernatural. It is like a sun in a soul which embellish it with its rays and perfects all its spiritual faculties.” Thus, a soul that loves God with a true Charity is totally enlightened by Him. Charity, indeed, is not only a particular virtue, but also a general virtue which shines on and illuminates all the others. There is a practical consequence: “love gives perfection to all our works.” It is not the action itself which brings us perfection, but the love we put to our actions. Saint Francis de Sales explains when he says that suffering a little thing with two ounces of love is better than suffering martyrdom with only once ounce, because “Charity and love give a price to everything.”

Remember what we said in our first sermon about Christian perfection. Christian perfection does not consist in a multitude of actions, prayers and penances. It depends upon the love we have when we commit them. For that reason, charity is the supreme good of a soul. As such, it should be our most desired good and we should go to its source to obtain it.

We said last Sunday that its source is God Himself, because He is Charity. Now, we need to be more precise. How can we find God, or rather where can we find Him? The best place is certainly the place where He shows the greatest love, which is Calvary. It is good to turn our minds toward the Calvary during this Passion time. There, we can see Charity in its most delicate expression. We can also see the effects of sin by contemplating the sorrows of Jesus torn by the scourge of our iniquities. On Calvary, the purity of Divine Love meets the atrocity of human pride.

Saint Francis de Sales says: “ The Son of God is now on the Cross: What put Him there? For sure, it is love. Since it is certain that He died for us, the least we can do for Him is to live out of love for Him. Nothing is impossible to love: it will destroy in us everything that displeases the Divine Majesty.”

We should contemplate the Cross often. But remember what is most important. God does not expect from us a merely affective love. Saint Francis de Sales explains it very well with his usual good sense: “The Savior does not ask only for the affective love which makes us weep or which stirs up so many desires without effects. Hell is full of such desires. Our Lord asks for the effective love, which manifests itself with the affective love, as he showed on the Cross.”

At the beginning of Passion time, let us turn to Our Lady of sorrows and let us learn from her how to love God. Loving God means loving the Calvary; because there, a God made man taught us one day how to love. With Mary, let us understand that “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

The Quest for Christian Perfection VI

Taken from De Fide Catholica

Father Jerome dislodges many of our ideas about the spiritual life when he writes: “ How boring are the preachers and books of devotions which such affirmations as:
- If we are not more holy, it is because we don’t know how to do this or that, such as to renounce ourselves etc…
- If we don’t make any progress in the love of God, it is because we are not enough fervent or generous enough etc…”

And Father Jérôme asks: “ Why do we always blame our deficiencies, as if they were the unique and supreme cause of our mediocrity? Why don’t we admit that mediocrity is wanted by God for most of us? ”

This is most unusual to hear. We are usually accustomed to hearing that mediocrity is the consequence of a lack of charity and the fruit of a certain spiritual laziness. Now, Father Jérôme tells us that it can be the will of God. At this point, dear Brethren, let us understand clearly. Father Jerome is certainly not speaking about the mediocrity of those people who do the 'bare minimum' that is required to tend to their souls. These people are the ones who try to find a compromise between God and the world. Christian perfection is absolutely not their concern. They are just trying to find pleasures on earth without committing any mortal sins if it is possible. With five or ten minutes a day of prayers, they think that God will be happy with this and they don’t even recognize the very poor state of their spiritual life or how great the danger of damnation is to them. If such souls are present in this church today, I implore them to meditate on this verse from the book of Apocalypse: “But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.” May they open the ear of their soul and begin to return to God before it is too late. There is nothing worse than lukewarmness in the spiritual life, because it makes our will weak and predisposes us to mortal sin. It characterizes itself by a certain nonchalance regarding our eternal destiny. And the fact is that a soul who does not desire heaven will certainly never reach it.

But for now, we are speaking with Father Jérôme about another kind of mediocrity. It is the mediocrity of souls who really want to serve God and are concerned for their salvation. They aspire to holiness, and they are already holy if they are in state of grace, nevertheless, they are still overhelmed by the weight of their infirmities. They desire heaven and think about it, but they are still too constrained by earthly things. They would like to take off toward the heights of contemplative life, and yet they are nailed down to the floor of terrestrial realities. They!?… it could be us, if, hopefully, we do not belong to the first category of mediocrity.

This observation can bring trouble or sadness in a soul. “What? In spite of all my efforts and desire to love and serve God, I am still imperfect!” Then, a certain feeling of guilt can occur. “Well, it is certainly my fault!” Maybe! It is true that we can always do better. But let not this thought of sadness or discouragement encumber your mind. In fact, behind a true desire for perfection, pride can hide itself. It is probably for this reason that God wants us to remain in a certain state of mediocrity, so that we can be humble.

Father Jérôme continues: “ God’s aim is to make the most of us, not giants in the order of the Divine grace, but just pigmies. This is what, along with our deficiencies and failures, makes our lives so weighty. God could give us His grace in torrents, but, instead, He gives it to us drop by drop. He leads us in the way of ‘the minimum’ and of spiritual poverty. This is the only true explanation. We are the little people of whom the Prophet Isaiah speaks.”

We are not giants in the order of Divine grace. We have to accept it and to recognize our smallness. We have to accept that we must live with our “humiliating passions” as Saint Francis de Sales says. He advices us: “Do not be surprised by the unbidden things of your life and that you have so much difficulties to tell. God permits them to make you humble, with a true humility, which means you can recognize yourself as miserable and foul. It can be fought only by impetus toward God. Make a positive act by a contrary aspiration and override it.”

We need also patience, according to Our Lord Himself who says in the Gospel of Saint Luc: “In your patience you shall possess your souls.” Saint Francis de Sales explains that “the virtue of patience is the one that assures the most perfection. We should have patience toward others, but also toward ourselves, especially concerning the delay of our perfection, because we need to suffer our own imperfections in order to obtain perfection.”

Patience, along with courage, is particularly necessary, because we have to begin again every day our journey of spiritual progress. The book of Ecclesiasticus says: “ When a man has done, then shall he begin.” Every day that God gives us must be used for our sanctification. Every morning we have to start again to work for it. “What we have done until now is good, Saint Francis de Sales says again, but what we are about to begin will be better. And when we achieve it, we will start something else which will be better, and then, another one, until we leave this world to begin another life which never ends because nothing better could come. "

Dear brethren, we have meditated during this Lenten season on Christian perfection. With Saint Francis de Sales and Father Jérôme throughout the Sundays of Lent and with Saint Ignatius of Loyola during last week of recollection we thought about the end of our life and the means to use in order to reach it. God is our end. His Son is the Way, the only Way, to go to Him. In Him we can find the perfection we are seeking. In His Sacred Heart, we can draw the love we need which makes us perfect. It is again Saint Francis de Sales who encourages us, saying that in the expectation of the eternal life, “we have to raise our hearts toward God and carry on His Holy work, confiding in Our Lord. He wants to give us everything that is necessary for its execution and asks us only for our consent and our fidelity.”

This week, we have the grace to be able, through the Divine Liturgy, to follow Our Lord during His Passion. His Passion is the summary and the achievement of everything we have said previously since the beginning of Lent. At this point, there is nothing more to add, we just have to watch how much God loves us.

May Our Blessed Mother who stood near the Cross of her Son take us with her on this journey toward the Calvary. It will be a journey of pains and agony, but also a journey of hope toward the immensity of the Divine Love of our God. Let us not miss it.

Holy Saturday

Taken from De Fide Catholica

One of my favorite parts of the rite of Ordination of priests is definitively the chant “jam non dicam” which takes place toward the very end of the ceremony. It expresses in an admirable Gregorian melody, full of unction and tenderness, the feelings of the Heart of Jesus when He instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders. It was the first Ordination ever done, the day before His Passion.

“ Jam non dicam vos servos, quia servus nescit quid faciat dominus ejus. Vos autem dixi amicos. – I will not now call you servants: for the servant knows not what his lord does. But I have called you friends!”

Could there be more beautiful words for a new priest to hear on the day of his Ordination? After many years of preparation, most of the time filled with the joy given in the service of the Lord, sometimes in the darkness and in the midst of streams of doubt, discouragement and temptation, he has the consolation to hear his Lord calling him: “my friend!” At this time, the trials of the seminary are already far behind him, and the prospect of his future task does not even phase him. He simply enjoys this very moment when Jesus makes him one of His priests and calls him His friend.

There is a tradition in the seminary: on the day of his tonsure, the seminarian receives a little crucifix. I remember our good Father Gaudray, spiritual director in our seminary of Wigratzbad, who used to repeat many times – I guess he still continues to say this now – that it is a good tradition, but there is another one that we can begin. We can give to the new priest, on the day of his Ordination, a great crucifix, because the cross he will have to carry now is much bigger than the cross he had to carry in the seminary. With 59 years of priesthood now, Father Gaudray knows well of what he speaks.

Priests are indeed the friends of Jesus. We had the opportunity during Lent to meditate on the notion of friendship. Friendship involves a communication of the good between friends and creates between them a unified spirit. So, when Jesus made the Apostles his first priests, He wanted to share with them His greatest good: His sacrifice!

Let us well understand, dear Brethren: the institution of the priesthood took place along with the institution of the Holy Eucharist, because priesthood is for Eucharist. It is its first and principal raison d’etre. And the Eucharist is a sacrifice; it is the sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ, continually renewed every time a priest says again the words that Jesus said during the Last Supper: “This is my body – This is the chalice of my blood”

This is the testament of Jesus: His body and His blood! He had nothing more to give us than Himself and we have nothing more to expect from Him than Himself. It is through His priests that He made it possible for us to receive Him. You should never forget this truth. Whatever the personal holiness of a priest, he has been chosen by Jesus and called His friend. Even Judas, when he betrayed His Master, was called ‘friend’. God never takes back what He gave once!

Dear brethren, I would like to offer this Mass tonight, in reparation of sins committed against the virtue of charity. Not against sins committed everywhere in the world, but our sins, as members of Saint Francis de Sales church. You claim to be faithful to the Tradition of the Church, but you forget the most important testimony of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the most important commandment which He gave us before His Passion: that we love each other as He has loved us. Without this charity, all your devotions, prayers and sacrifices are nothing but hypocrisy. Today, you receive Our Lord from the hand of your priests, and tomorrow you will speak behind their backs! Do you not realize that it is paradoxical? Do you not understand that you cease to keep the word of God by doing this? Do you not see that it is just folly to do this since God knows and sees everything you do, that you say and what you think and that even your gossip will eventually end up in landing in the ears of the people you speak about, sooner or later. I have no illusion tonight and I know that no matter what we say about charity, there will always be Christians among us who will miss the most important detail of our religion. Jesus had no illusion and knew that among his friends, one would betray Him. This is the way it is. But I also know that we have holy people among us and I would like to give thanks to God for their holiness.

May Our Blessed Mother whom charity never failed help us to understand that we are loved by a God who humbled Himself for us. With her, let us give thanks for the sacrifice of her Son and for the Institution of Priesthood and Holy Eucharist. They are both gifts from the heart of Jesus for the poor sinners that we are.
Amen!

Hebdomada Sancta III

[Taken from Athanasius Contra Mundum]
Every deed of Christ is a cause of glorying to the Catholic Church, but her greatest of all glorying is in the Cross; and knowing this, Paul says, But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of Christ (Galatians VI:14) . For wondrous indeed it was, that one who was blind from his birth should receive sight in Siloam; but what is this compared with the blind of the whole world? A great thing it was, and passing nature, for Lazarus to rise again on the fourth day; but the grace extended to him alone, and what was it compared with the dead in sins throughout the world? Marvelous it was, that five loaves should pour forth food for the five thousand; but what is that to those who are famishing in ignorance through all the world? It was marvelous that she should have been loosed who had been bound by Satan eighteen years: yet what is this to all of us, who were fast bound in the chains of our sins? But the glory of the Cross led those who were blind through ignorance into light, loosed all who were held fast by sin, and ransomed the whole world of mankind. And wonder not that the whole world was ransomed; for it was no mere man, but the only-begotten Son of God, who died on its behalf. Moreover one man's sin, even Adam's, had power to bring death to the world; but if by the trespass of the one death reigned over the world, how shall not life much rather reign by the righteousness of the One (Romans V:17-18) ? And if because of the tree of food they were then cast out of paradise, shall not believers now more easily enter into paradise because of the Tree of Jesus? If the first man formed out of the earth brought in universal death, shall not He who formed him out of the earth bring in eternal life, being Himself the Life? If Phineas, when he waxed zealous and slew the evil-doer, staved the wrath of God, shall not Jesus, who slew not another, but gave up Himself for a ransom (I Timothy II:6) , put away the wrath which is against mankind? Let us then not be ashamed of the Cross of our Saviour, but rather glory in it.

For the word of the Cross is unto Jews a stumbling-block, and unto Gentiles foolishness, but to us salvation: and to them that are perishing it is foolishness, but unto us which are being saved it is the power of God. For it was not a mere man who died for us, as I said before, but the Son of God, God made man. Further; if the lamb under Moses drove the destroyer (Exodus XII:23) far away, did not much rather the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world (John I:29) , deliver us from our sins? The blood of a silly sheep gave salvation; and shall not the Blood of the Only-begotten much rather save? If any disbelieve the power of the Crucified, let him ask the devils; if any believe not words, let him believe what he sees. Many have been crucified throughout the world, but by none of these are the devils scared; but when they see even the Sign of the Cross of Christ, who was crucified for us, they shudder. For those men died for their own sins, but Christ for the sins of others; for He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. It is not Peter who says this, for then we might suspect that he was partial to his Teacher; but it is Isaias who says it, who was not indeed present with Him in the flesh, but in the Spirit foresaw His coming in the flesh. Yet why now bring the Prophet only as a witness? take for a witness Pilate himself, who gave sentence upon Him, saying, I find no fault in this Man (Luke XXIII:14) : and when he gave Him up, and had washed his hands, he said, I am innocent of the blood of this just person (Matthew XXVII:24) . There is yet another witness of the sinlessness of Jesus,—the robber, the first man admitted into Paradise; who rebuked his fellow, and said, "We receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing amiss; for we were present, both thou and I, at His judgment." 4. Jesus then really suffered for all men; for the Cross was no illusion, otherwise our redemption is an illusion also. His death was not a mere show, for then is our salvation also fabulous. If His death was but a show, they were true who said, We remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, After three days I rise again (Matthew XXVII:63) .

His Passion then was real: for He was really crucified, and we are not ashamed thereat; He was crucified, and we deny it not, nay, I rather glory to speak of it. For though I should now deny it, here is Golgotha to confute me, near which we are now assembled; the wood of the Cross confutes me, which was afterwards distributed piecemeal from hence to all the world. I confess the Cross, because I know of the Resurrection; for if, after being crucified, He had remained as He was, I had not perchance confessed it, for I might have concealed both it and my Master; but now that the Resurrection has followed the Cross, I am not ashamed to declare it.

-St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical lectures

Hebdomada Sancta II

[Taken from Athanasius Contra Mundum]
Dearly beloved, the Solemnity of the Lord's Passion is come ; that day which we have so desired, and which same is so precious to the whole world. Shouts of spiritual triumph are ringing, and suffer not that we should be silent. Even though it be hard to preach often on the same solemnity, and do so meetly and well, a priest is not free to shirk the duty of preaching to the faithful concerning this so great mystery of divine mercy. Nay, that his subject-matter is unspeakable should in itself make him eloquent, since where enough can never be said, there must needs ever be something to say. Let human weakness, then, fall down before the glory of God, and acknowledge itself unequal to the duty of expounding the works of his mercy. Let us toil in thought, let us fail in insight, let us falter in speech ; it is good for us to feel how inadequate is the little we are able to express concerning the majesty of God.

For when the Prophet saith : Seek the Lord and his strength ; seek his face evermore : let no man thence conclude that he will ever find all that he seeketh. For if he cease his seeking, he will likewise cease to draw near. But among all the works of God which weary the steadfast gaze of man's wonder, what is there that doth at once so ravish and so exceed the power of our contemplation as the Passion of the Saviour? He it was who, to loose mankind from the bonds of the death-dealing Fall, spared to bring against the rage of the devil the power of the divine Majesty, and met him with the weakness of our lowly nature. For if our cruel and haughty enemy could have known the counsel of God's mercy, it had been his task rather to have softened the hearts of the Jews into meekness, than to have inflamed them with unrighteous hatred. Thus he might not have lost the thraldom of all his slaves, by attacking the liberty of the One that owed him nothing.

But he was undone by his own malice. For he brought upon the Son of God that death which is become life to all the sons of man. He shed that innocent blood which was to become at once the price of our redemption and the cup of our salvation. Wherefore the Lord hath received that which according to the purpose of his own good pleasure he hath chosen. He submitted himself to the ungodly hands of cruel men which, busy with their own sin, nonetheless ministered to the Redeemer's work. And such was his loving-kindness, even for his murderers, that his prayer to his Father from the Cross asked not vengeance for himself but forgiveness for them.

-Pope St. Leo the Great

The Mystery of Fasting and Lent

(Taken from Athanasius Contra Mundum)

Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris. (Genesis III:19)

These words from the ceremonies by which we commence Lent is indicative of several things we necessarily must keep in mind.

The First is the Latin words address each of us individually. Memento homo, quia pulvis es, etc. Remember O Man, that thou art dust. Almighty God is speaking to us, to remind us that in the greater scheme of things we don't matter. We are but a speck of dust which He made out of nothing, something to keep in mind lest we get puffed up or full of ourselves, or think somehow we are great because we have money, or a Theology degree or something. And again we shall return to dust. We will die one day and make an account of ourselves, and there is nothing that can be done to escape it.

God addresses the individual, not some social group, he is not setting an action plan against poverty, or "injustice" or societal discontent. Neither are we hearing that we are perfect and must fight against society now. This is generally the message of today's Social Gospel or Social Justice Theologians. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said once "It used to be that only Catholics believed in the Immaculate Conception, now every man believes he is Immaculately Conceived." (Is Christendom dead?) This feature of society, the denial of original sin, the elements of that have sunk into Catholics on both the left and the right. On the left, they deny the doctrine of original sin. We don't have any sin, it is society, business, the government, those are the evils which we must fight. But we don't need to go to confession. Then on the right, there is a different evil. Unlike those apostates I have the Traditional Latin Mass, or the equivalent expression on the neo-conservative Catholic end. I am not like that man. I eat fish on Friday and I only go to Mass in Latin, and I pray a rosary and I don't get drunk and I don't act like the heathen, so I am better than them. Both of these attitudes suffer from the same problem: The problem isn't with me, it is with society, it is with someone else. It is the same reality following sin which began in the garden of Eden, Adam, when asked why he failed blamed his wife rather than himself, and Eve blamed the Serpent. No one could say, as King David in the 50th psalm: Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco, et peccatum meam contra me est semper. (Psalm L:4)

However, like any other man, each one of us is dust. We are as weak as dust. We are all equally capable of any crime, and often commit crimes that are as bad as others. I am quite capable of doing a whole host of evils that I can't even conceive of. I don't say that because I am likely to do them (God forbid), but because I can do them in light of my fallen human nature, just as any other man. I can lie, cheat, steal, murder, commit adultery, commit idolatry, take the holy name of God in vain, ignore the poor, hate my neighbor, be gluttonous, drunk, use obscene filthy language, just as any other man. There is nothing in my nature to stop that, because even though my will is oriented toward the good, due to my fallen nature it does not distinguish between an immediate good and an eternal good without the light of reason, and faith derived from supernatural grace.

Dom Gueranger says:
When the priest puts the holy emblem of penance [ash] upon you accept in a spirit of submission, the sentence of death, which God Himself pronounces against you: "Remember O Man, that thou art dust, and into dust thou shalt return!" Humble yourself, and remember what it was that brought the punishment of death upon us: man wished to be as a god, and preferred his own will to that of his sovereign Master. Reflect too, on that long list of sins, which you have added to the sin of your first parents, and adore the mercy of your God, who asks only one death for all these transgressions. (Liturgical Year vol 4, Ash Wednesday)

It is with this in mind that the Church commences Lent, that we may consider our faults, our nothingness, rather than our pluses or net worth and move toward making ourselves one with Christ on the cross.

To accomplish this, the Church employs several things for this season. Purple, the liturgical color of penance in the liturgy. The organ is practically silenced, whereas normally (in the ideal situation of course) it is present in all the chants of the liturgy. The epistles transform into Old Testament lessons, and the breviary picks up all the ancient prophecies and types of Christ, to prepare us for the resurrection, the fulfillment of everything past, present and future. Outside of the liturgy, the Church exhorts us to fast. Traditionally, the Church ordered us to fast every day of Lent with the exception of Sunday, while abstaining from meat on Fridays. That in and of itself is a simplification of still ancient and stricter regulations, and is comparatively light by the standards of the Eastern Church, where no meat is eaten or dairy, eggs or oil consumed until Easter (except that on Saturday and Sunday all but abstention from meat and dairy is relaxed).

Since Vatican II, the ideal of fasting has been thrown out the window like the proverbial baby in the bath water. The Traditional Ember days, by which in each season the Church instituted days of fast and abstinence for her intentions were eliminated, all fasting in Lent was reduced to Good Friday and Ash Wednesday, and even abstinence is rolled back on those unfortunate Fridays where St. Patrick's feast day occurs. Fasting or abstinence on vigils of the great feasts has also been eliminated, and it is suggested that those who do so are too rigid, divisive or are engaged in an "unhealthy" spirituality. Much the same way that those who cling to the Traditional Mass are said to be engaging in an unhealthy spirituality or something of that sort, for merely doing what Catholics for over a thousand years did, but I digress......

The reality is fasting and penance are things totally unknown to the world of today, and less known to the Church of today. Even among Traditional Catholics, though not most by far yet enough to be of some concern, the concept of penance and fasting as the fathers understood it tends to be weak, and it is not necessarily their fault. Just as there is a crisis of fatherhood in society, so there is also in the Church, from the Pope down to the parish priest, no one wants to be a Father, just an adviser, (and if a priest dares to do otherwise he is sent off to receive mental help) that way they need not take responsibility and bear blame. Thus, who is there to lead the faithful? Not all the faithful will readily understand theology, or the reason for discipline. The reality is while the modern prelates in the hierarchy are concerned about modern man's disposition and how to lower the standards to meet his "needs" (which are really wants), the reality is that it is man who must raise his standards to meet God's.

Fasting in the greater scheme of things, is not as difficult as some would make it seem, yet it is an extremely valuable tool in disciplining our senses, in practicing due modesty, and in laying the foundation for sanctification in our daily lives. Modern man is no more unable to fast than his medieval or ancient predecessors. It is merely a question of priorities. People are always willing to sacrifice and make things happen in order to meet their priorities. For example, a parent that really loves their child will make the sacrifices of time, money, and many other things to make certain their children grow up safe, and are well fed and taken care of. A single mother will work 2 jobs sometimes so that she can afford to provide for her children, because her children are a priority. People are sure to be present loyally at the TV during a given time on a given night for a basketball game, because they make that their priority (poor schmucks). People put away money all year around so that they can spend a small fortune on Christmas presents, because they make that their priority.

It should come of no surprise that to accomplish the things of God takes nothing other than one making that their priority. What is important to you? If God is important to you, if Christ and His Church is important to you, than making the necessary sacrifices to conform to Church Law should be a simple matter of priorities, as is mammon. Making a regulated life, where fasting becomes a priority 40+ days of the year, is not an impossibility for moderns, it is just a matter of the will. Thus modern prelates err gravely when they focus on making it easier for the spirit of the age, rather than preaching the conforming of the spirit of the age to Jesus Christ.

Given the modern Church has no interest in calling us back, and that even in the monasteries of the Novus Ordo one can scarcely find days of fast, it is up to those of us who would say we are the remnant of the Church's discipline and her sacraments to lead by example. Not so that we might say I am better than that man, but so that we might say Lord have mercy on me, a sinner, remembering that we are but dust, just as our brothers in the Novus Ordo, and that we are no less accountable than they, just because we have been fortunate enough to retain the glory of Catholic Tradition.

Lent with Lacordaire: Catholic doctrine cannot speak "to man only of man"

(Taken from Rorate Caeli)

Assumpsit Iesus Petrum, et Iacobum, et Ioannem fratrem eius, et duxit illos in montem excelsum seorsum: et transfiguratus est ante eos. Et resplenduit facies eius sicut sol: vestimenta autem eius facta sunt alba sicut nix. (From the Gospel for Ember Saturday in Lent, Matthew xvii, 1-2: "Jesus took Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: and He was transfigured before them. And His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became white as snow.")

It is easy for me... to show that Catholic doctrine enjoys a superhuman moral efficacy, even as a consequence of the interaction which it keeps between man and God. ... Now, in virtue of what does Catholic doctrine operate this superhuman transformation in the soul? Is it directly? Is it simply because it says to us, "Be humble, be chaste, be apostles, be brethren"?

Ah..., but everyone says this to us more or less earnestly: there is not a man steeped in pride who has not invoked the humility of others; not a man drowned in sensuality who was not invoked the purity of his victims; not a man who has not invoked apostleship to propagate his ideas, and fraternity to establish his empire! But the ear of man remains closed to those invitations of selfishness, or to those dreams of reason; it listens to them without hearing; it hears, without obeying.

Catholic doctrine would have succeeded no better, if it had spoken to man only of man; if it had proposed to him, as the spring of its action, only his interest, his duty even, and his dignity. To render man humble, chaste, apostle, brother, it has taken its basis outside of him: it has placed it in God.

It is in the name of God, by the power of the relationship which it has created between God and ourselves, by the efficacy of its dogmas, of its worship, and of its sacraments, that it changes within us that corpse which rebels against virtue; that it reanimates it, resuscitates it, purifies it, transforms it, clothes it with the glory of Tabor, and having thus armed it from head to toe, sends it forth into the distress of the world, as a new man, still feeble by nature, but strengthened by God, towards Whom his unceasing aspiration ascends.

It is thus ... that the miracle of our transfiguration is accomplished in Catholic doctrine: humility, chastity, charity, and all the interior elevations which result from these are but effects of a higher virtue giving the movement to all the rest. Without religion, without the interaction of soul and God, the whole Christian edifice crumbles -- consequently, that interaction, which is the keystone of the arch, is efficacious in a superhuman manner, since it bears man above humanity.

...humility, chastity, the charity of apostleship and of fraternity, obedience, penitence, voluntary poverty...are but branches of a single stream. ... There is ... a stream into which merge all those scattered virtues which I have named: and that stream is sanctity.

Henri-Dominique Lacordaire
Conférences de Notre-Dame de Paris (1844)

Be Converted with all your heart

Ash Wednesday Sermon, Fr Laurent Demets FSSP (De Fide Catholica)

Our Lord Jesus-Christ opens the doors of the spiritual life for us: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal.”

We have a natural instinct which pushes us to protect and conserve our goods. If someone steals something from you, you may become angry instantly, and this reaction is legitimate. The purpose of the passions is precisely the protection and the conservation of persons and species. Anger can be useful to help us overcome a difficulty. In our example, if your weekly salary, which allows you to live decently has been stolen, your anger will help you not to give up and to begin the process for potential compensation or reparation.

But the fact is, dear Brethren, that most of the time, our anger is disproportionate. Does someone steal from you something that you don’t really need in order to live, and right away you start to gripe and grumble, insulting your thief and perhaps using profanity and even blaspheming the Holy name of God. But for what purpose? Because someone stole a hundred dollars from you while you have a house with television in almost every room, two cars and many other goods that are not necessities for life? Indeed, you have been a victim of an injustice and you certainly have the right to make a claim for your goods, but don’t you think that your reaction is too extreme, for not saying sinful?

The fact is that we like to lay up to ourselves an earthly treasure. And we worry too much over this so-called treasure. Where our treasure is, there our heart is also.
"Haec dicit Dominus - Now therefore saith the Lord: Be converted to me with all your heart." Jesus Christ calls us. Be converted to me with all your heart! But where is our heart? It is where our treasure is. And where is our treasure?

Dear Brethren, we have to understand that we cannot convert to the Lord as long as we remain attached to earthly treasures. Remember that we are traveling. We will not stay on earth for eternity. We cannot allow ourselves to take charge of a heavy and burdensome load that we will leave one day anyway. Jesus tells us:

“Don’t be too attached to the things which are not necessary. I am the Only necessary because I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. All the creatures I gave you are certainly for your use, but only as means in order to serve Me. If you make these creatures your treasure, you will lose your life. If you choose me as your treasure, you will have life everlasting. So, be converted to me with all your heart
- How do we have to convert to Thee, O Lord?
- Now, as I told my prophet, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning.”

Dear, Brethren, this is now the time to return to our God as He wants us to do. And He wants us to fast and to weep. It is now the time to start again our Holy exercises of Lent, because they are a way to God. It is a time of purification and of renouncement; a time to practice virtues of penance, of obedience and of temperance; a time to lay up a treasure in Heaven that we will keep for all eternity.

Jesus wants to open the doors of the spiritual life, so that we can find an imperishable treasure. If we let Him open them, Lent will be a way of conversion or re-conversion; it will be the return of the prodigal son to the home of His Father. Finally, beyond the austerity and the harshness of our penances, it will a time of joy – the peaceful and plenary joy given by the presence of God in a soul.

May Our Lady help us to find this joy through our exercises of Lent. May she help us to choose Her Son for a treasure.

Amen

Sign of Contradiction

(Taken from Rorate Caeli)

Pleasure is not the foundation of society, but virtue. Enjoyment is not our vocation here below, but labor and grief. God has created us expressly to produce by us a thing which He could not produce alone: that is, greatess in vileness, strength in infirmity, purity in flesh and blood, love in selfishness, good in evil, virtue in a heart which possessed each moment the liberty of being a convinced sinner. This is our vocation, our fate.

Jesus Christ conquered the world only because He knew [this fate]; and because, from His Cross, slave and God, he supremely fulfilled it. Salvation (as well as all glory and all joy) is found in following him.

This is why -- thanks be to God! -- pleasure and enjoyment shall never [be the foundation] of a society here below. Misfortune must be stronger, so that virtue may exist; there must be poor, so that alms shall be given; wounds, so that they may be bound up; tears, so that they may be accepted; disorders, so that men may aspire to order; ruins, so that pride may be humbled; ... bloodshed, so that there may be saints.


Henri-Dominique Lacordaire
Conférences à Notre-Dame de Paris (1845)

Sermon for Sexagesima Sunday

Taken from De Fide Catholica

The parable of the sewer provides for us an occasion to examine our consciences about the way we receive the word of God. We probably all hear the word of God, otherwise we would not be here today. We hear the word of God, but how does this word affect our lives? Is it really a substantial food for our souls, along with the Holy Eucharist, or is it just a word that we listen to sometimes which we hardly know. In other words, do we put ourselves in the condition of a disciple who listens to his master, ruminates on his teaching and then tries to actualize it in his own life? Or are we just passive spectators who probably appreciate the quality of the divine word but have merely an esthetic or intellectual attraction for it as he could have for Racine or Shakespeare. I would say that in itself is a good thing since so many people just ignore the word of God or simply don’t know it.

But appreciating and even loving the verses of a great author doesn’t make you one of his disciples. Being a disciple means that you must follow a master and conform your life to his teaching and his own life. By definition it implies a certain intimacy with him and a certain attachment to his person. It is, alas, not rare to meet some people who like the words of Jesus Christ, who appreciate the beauty and the harmony of his moral teaching, but they are not his disciples. They don’t follow Him, they don’t imitate Him, they are not one with Him. They have heard the word of God, but it remains useless and ineffective as long as they don’t keep it and nourish it in their mind and within their heart.

Saint Paul gives a lesson to those who esteem themselves to be good disciples. It is for us, brethren. It is we who dare to boast of our actions. We think that we are good disciples because we have fulfilled a duty. But it is not the purpose of a disciple to fulfill his duties. It might be the purpose of a good soldier, a good citizen, a good student, but don’t you think that Jesus asks more of you than to fulfill your duties?

Imagine for example a father of family. This man works well and hard to gain money so that his family can live. His wife and his children have a decent home and food every day. He drives them when they need it and is ready to do anything they ask. Good man! But now, imagine that he never speaks to them and never gives marks of his affections. He provides for the needs of his family but remains in a certain way far from his wife and children. He is a man of duty, but is he really a good father and a good husband?

Are we really good disciples of Jesus Christ? Do we listen to the word of God in order that we may be true disciples? There is no other option than to take time to escape from the world and to open the door of your soul. We cannot listen to God surrounded by the noise of the world, in the midst of the agitation of our activities. I have already told you this many times, and I repeat it again, because it is the key to the spiritual life according to the entire tradition of the Church.

“But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father who sees in secret will repay thee.” Here is the divine intimacy with God. A secret relationship between you and Him which is only possible if you shut the door of your chamber and open the door of your soul. Daily reading helps you to do this. I mean a loving reading of the gospel or any spiritual book – and you have so many available, from the Fathers, the Saints, the Doctors – not just the last rumors about the Motu Proprio on internet. It is better to leave your computer screen and open a real book and take your time to read it, savor it and meditate on it. For Saint Benedict, the lectio divina is necessary in order to be a true monk. And a true monk is nothing more than a true disciple of Jesus Christ, which is who we are all supposed to be.

May Our Lady help us to be such disciples, able to listen to our God and to serve Him with a pure heart. If you don’t start today to listen to Him, why would you do it tomorrow? And who knows? Today might be your last day.

Sermon for Septuagesima Sunday

Taken from De Fide Catholica

A new liturgical cycle begins with Septuagesima Sunday: the Easter cycle. During this liturgical season, we are going to follow humanity from its condition of slavery to its deliverance. This change is signified by the parting of the Red Sea, of which we will be reminded during the Easter Vigil. As Moses and his people, we are on our way from Egypt to the Promised Land. Our guide is Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our manna is the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. We are on the way to recover what we have lost by our sins. And this way is long and hard.

Saint Paul gives us an image to help us to understand. The Super Bowl game today can help us too. Imagine a sportsman who wants to win a prize or a cup. He cannot win without serious and determined preparation and a strict discipline. For one day of glory, he may have to go through years of hard, grueling work. But when the day of his victory comes, the difficulty of the training is already far behind him. Saint Paul, this untiring athlete of Christ tells us that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come. And for us, Christians, the goal is incomparably different than for a sportsman. The Apostle says again that every one that strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one.

It is good and laudable to run for a corruptible trophy, but it is incidental. Running for the incorruptible one is necessary. The fact is that many people are able to strive for an earthly trophy but they forget about the most important one. They are ready to suffer a thousand pains for one evanescent reward, and they do absolutely nothing for the eternal reward. The reason is that they forget the One who gives this reward.

Now look at a sportsman. What does he in do in order to win? He wakes up early, he imposes upon himself a strict diet, he runs and trains almost every day, he tries to develop his skills and he works on his mental acuity as well. He has a strict program that he must follow under the guidance of his coach. And he also has a doctor who monitors the care of his health and physical condition. So, a champion does not become a champion by chance. He may have some natural abilities, but if he doesn’t uses them well, he cannot become a champion.

Now, what about the heroes and champions of Faith, I mean the saints who are now in Heaven? How do you think that they became saints and arrived in Heaven? By chance? They woke up early every day so that they could glorify God at the beginning of the day as the Psalms say: For to thee will I pray: O Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear my voice. In the morning I will stand before thee. And I will sing thy strength: and will extol thy mercy in the morning. They imposed on themselves a strict diet by observing the precepts of the Church of abstinence and fasting, which was in the past much more strict than today. And they practiced the virtue of temperance which allowed them to castigate their bodies and to refrain from the sins of the flesh. They took enough time every day for their spiritual exercises: prayer, meditation and spiritual reading. This helped them to practice virtues and to live as good Christians.

The Saints had also a strict program that they followed during their life. A rule of life was certainly necessary for them to keep a right order in their lives and to be able to do everything at the appropriate time and place. Wisdom and prudence led toward a higher perfection. And finally, they had the best coach and the best doctor you can imagine, in fact the same person: Our Lord Jesus Christ, helped by His assistants coaches and medical team: the priests, who are spiritual directors and doctors of their souls.

God gave them natural abilities and supernatural graces, but they still had to use them well. So do we! We have an incorruptible crown to win. Let us start the training right now.

May Our Lady help us in his difficult task. She knows how long and hard the preparation is. She knows all the difficulties we have. But, more than ourselves, she wants us to be victorious. And she will be present on the podium when we receive our trophy. It would be a shame to miss this event, by far more important than the super bowl. So, let the best win tonight, and let us all win the eternal reward at the hour of our death.

Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2007

“They shall look on Him
whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37)

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37). This is the biblical theme that this year guides our Lenten reflection. Lent is a favourable time to learn to stay with Mary and John, the beloved disciple, close to Him who on the Cross, consummated for all mankind the sacrifice of His life (cf. Jn 19:25). With a more fervent participation let us direct our gaze, therefore, in this time of penance and prayer, at Christ crucified who, dying on Calvary, revealed fully for us the love of God. In the Encyclical Deus caritas est, I dwelt upon this theme of love, highlighting its two fundamental forms: agape and eros.

God’s love: agape and eros

The term agape, which appears many times in the New Testament, indicates the self-giving love of one who looks exclusively for the good of the other. The word eros, on the other hand, denotes the love of one who desires to possess what he or she lacks and yearns for union with the beloved. The love with which God surrounds us is undoubtedly agape. Indeed, can man give to God some good that He does not already possess? All that the human creature is and has is divine gift. It is the creature then, who is in need of God in everything. But God’s love is also eros. In the Old Testament, the Creator of the universe manifests toward the people whom He has chosen as His own a predilection that transcends every human motivation. The prophet Hosea expresses this divine passion with daring images such as the love of a man for an adulterous woman (cf. 3:1-3). For his part, Ezekiel, speaking of God’s relationship with the people of Israel, is not afraid to use strong and passionate language (cf. 16:1-22). These biblical texts indicate that eros is part of God’s very heart: the Almighty awaits the “yes” of His creatures as a young bridegroom that of his bride. Unfortunately, from its very origins, mankind, seduced by the lies of the Evil One, rejected God’s love in the illusion of a self-sufficiency that is impossible (cf. Gn 3:1-7). Turning in on himself, Adam withdrew from that source of life who is God Himself, and became the first of “those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” (Heb 2:15). God, however, did not give up. On the contrary, man’s “no” was the decisive impulse that moved Him to manifest His love in all of its redeeming strength.

The Cross reveals the fullness of God’s love

It is in the mystery of the Cross that the overwhelming power of the heavenly Father’s mercy is revealed in all of its fullness. In order to win back the love of His creature, He accepted to pay a very high price: the blood of His only begotten Son. Death, which for the first Adam was an extreme sign of loneliness and powerlessness, was thus transformed in the supreme act of love and freedom of the new Adam. One could very well assert, therefore, together with Saint Maximus the Confessor, that Christ “died, if one could say so, divinely, because He died freely” (Ambigua, 91, 1956). On the Cross, God’s eros for us is made manifest. Eros is indeed – as Pseudo-Dionysius expresses it – that force “that does not allow the lover to remain in himself but moves him to become one with the beloved” (De divinis nominibus, IV, 13: PG 3, 712). Is there more “mad eros” (N. Cabasilas, Vita in Cristo, 648) than that which led the Son of God to make Himself one with us even to the point of suffering as His own the consequences of our offences?

“Him whom they have pierced”

Dear brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced in the Cross! He is the unsurpassing revelation of God’s love, a love in which eros and agape, far from being opposed, enlighten each other. On the Cross, it is God Himself who begs the love of His creature: He is thirsty for the love of every one of us. The Apostle Thomas recognized Jesus as “Lord and God” when he put his hand into the wound of His side. Not surprisingly, many of the saints found in the Heart of Jesus the deepest expression of this mystery of love. One could rightly say that the revelation of God’s eros toward man is, in reality, the supreme expression of His agape. In all truth, only the love that unites the free gift of oneself with the impassioned desire for reciprocity instills a joy, which eases the heaviest of burdens. Jesus said: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32). The response the Lord ardently desires of us is above all that we welcome His love and allow ourselves to be drawn to Him. Accepting His love, however, is not enough. We need to respond to such love and devote ourselves to communicating it to others. Christ “draws me to Himself” in order to unite Himself to me, so that I learn to love the brothers with His own love.

Blood and water

“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced.” Let us look with trust at the pierced side of Jesus from which flow “blood and water” (Jn 19:34)! The Fathers of the Church considered these elements as symbols of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. Through the water of Baptism, thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, we are given access to the intimacy of Trinitarian love. In the Lenten journey, memorial of our Baptism, we are exhorted to come out of ourselves in order to open ourselves, in trustful abandonment, to the merciful embrace of the Father (cf. Saint John Chrysostom, Catecheses, 3,14ff). Blood, symbol of the love of the Good Shepherd, flows into us especially in the Eucharistic mystery: “The Eucharist draws us into Jesus’ act of self-oblation … we enter into the very dynamic of His self-giving” (Encyclical Deus caritas est, 13). Let us live Lent then, as a “Eucharistic” time in which, welcoming the love of Jesus, we learn to spread it around us with every word and deed. Contemplating “Him whom they have pierced” moves us in this way to open our hearts to others, recognizing the wounds inflicted upon the dignity of the human person; it moves us, in particular, to fight every form of contempt for life and human exploitation and to alleviate the tragedies of loneliness and abandonment of so many people. May Lent be for every Christian a renewed experience of God’s love given to us in Christ, a love that each day we, in turn, must “regive” to our neighbour, especially to the one who suffers most and is in need. Only in this way will we be able to participate fully in the joy of Easter. May Mary, Mother of Beautiful Love, guide us in this Lenten journey, a journey of authentic conversion to the love of Christ. I wish you, dear brothers and sisters, a fruitful Lenten journey, imparting with affection to all of you, a special Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 21 November 2006.