DAILY BIBLICAL SERMONS

Fr. Steven Scherrer

Year C (I)

2006-2007

TABLE OF CONTENTS

(The regular numbered Sundays, week days, and major feasts of the temporal cycle are not listed here, since they are easy to find.)

1 Sunday of Advent 7 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8 9 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12 13 Memorial of St. John of the Cross, December 14 14 December 21 18 Feast of St. Stephen, December 26 26 Feast of St. John the Apostle, December 27 27 Feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28 28 Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday within the Octave of Christmas 30 Epiphany 37 Baptism of the Lord 38 Friday, 1st Week of the Year 39 2nd Sunday of the Year 41 Memorial of St. Anthony of Egypt, January 17 43 Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle, January 25 47 Solemnity of our Holy Founders of the Cistercian Order, January 26 48 Presentation of the Lord, February 2 53 Ash Wednesday 63 1st Sunday of Lent 67 Solemnity of St. Joseph, March 19 81 Transitus of St. Benedict, March 21 83 The Solemnity of the Annunciation, March 25 86 Palm Sunday 90 Feast of St. Mark, April 25 106 Feast of the holy Apostles Philip and James, May 3 111 Feast of St. Matthias, May 14 121 Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord 122 Solemnity of Pentecost 129 Tuesday, 8th Week of the Year 131 Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, May 31 132 Trinity Sunday 135 Thursday, 9th Week of the Year 138 Solemnity of Corpus Christi 141

2

Thursday, 10th Week of the Year 143 Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus 144 11th Sunday of the Year 146 Nativity of St. John the Baptist, June 24 151 Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29 153 Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle, July 3 158 Solemnity of St. Benedict, July 11 165 Feast of St. James, July 25 175 Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, August 6 184 Feast of St. Lawrence, August 10 185 Memorial of St. Clare, August 11 187 Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, August 14 189 Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15 190 Solemnity of St. Bernard, August 20 195 Feast of St. Bartholomew, August 24 196 Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8 207 Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14 211 Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, September 15 212 Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, September 21 216 Feast of Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels, September 29 224 Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, October 4 227 Memorial of St. Bruno, October 6 229 Feast of St. Luke, October 18 235 Memorial of St. John de Brebeuf and St. Isaac Jogues, October 19 237 Solemnity of All Saints, November 1 245 All Souls Day, November 2 247 Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, November 9 252 Feast of All Saints of the Benedictine Family, November 13 256 33rd Sunday of the Year 261 Thanksgiving Day 262 Solemnity of Christ the King, Last Sunday of the Year 266 Feast of St. Andrew, November 30 269

3

INTRODUCTON

You have in your hands a collection of homilies on the Liturgical Year. In them, I have tried to catch the flavor and color, the feeling and tone of the various seasons and feasts of the Liturgical Year. Each season, each feast, has its own special character and particular way of presenting its message, showing us ever new aspects of the mystery of Christ come among us.

You will find that there are four homilies for each week of the year, and that these include all the Sundays and feast days of the Liturgical Year. You will also see that in the arrangement of this book I have decided to preserve the order of the Liturgical Year, just as it occurs, rather than dividing it into the temporal cycle, ordinary time, and the sanctoral cycle, which I think is too mechanical and loses something of the beauty and particular flavor of each season and time of the year, for the Sundays and weekdays after Christmas and Epiphany, for example, still have a sense and taste of Christmas about them, something which is lost when we just put them into the generic category of “ordinary time.” The same is true of the Sundays and weekdays following the Easter season. The mystery of the Resurrection still colors this time too, as it does many of my homilies during this time of the year.

The same is also true of the saints’ days, which often take on the flavor and emphasis of the season in which they occur. This is true both of those which occur during the Christmas and Easter seasons, as well as those which come towards the end of the Liturgical Year, for these latter are often touched by the expectation of the Parousia and hope for the heavenly Jerusalem. I have, therefore, placed them within the seasons during which they occur.

Any difficulty this might cause in finding a particular Sunday or feast day I have solved by listing them in the table of contents.

The Sundays are arranged according to the three year cycle (Years A, B, and C), each in a separate volume. The weekdays also have their own two year cycle for the first reading (Years I and II). Since I am not separating them from the Sundays, they will appear in these volumes in the order in which I wrote them. That way their thematic connection with the Sundays between which they fall will be the more apparent. So, for Year A, the week days will follow cycle II; for Year B, cycle I; and for Year C, cycle I again, for this is how the cycles fell when I wrote them. Thus one may shift between the three volumes for the appropriate weekday cycle, and will have a choice between two different versions of cycle I.

4

These homilies cover many themes, far more than I could comment on in this introduction. They are the themes of life, of our life, the life of faith, and of our daily struggles to live as followers of Christ. Christ gives us new hope, light in our darkness, courage when we are hurting and confused, love when we feel alone, and direction when we do not know which way to turn. His word comes to us through the Scriptures, and is most often mediated to us through the liturgy and the Liturgical Year, in which are collected the wisdom, inspiration, and piety of the ages.

During Advent we long for the fulfillment of prophecy, the Parousia, the coming of the Lord in glory; but we also prepare ourselves to celebrate and experience anew the beauty and awe of his first coming to the world in human flesh. Having taken upon himself our humanity, he illumines it from within, starting with his own personal humanity. But he does this in order to illumine all human flesh which accepts him in faith, is baptized, and seeks to imitate him.

Then at Christmas we see the splendor of God come among us for our transformation and illumination through our contact with the flesh of Jesus. We have this living and life-giving contact with his illumined and light-giving flesh in his word, in the Eucharist and sacraments, and in the meditative and prayerful celebration of the Liturgical Year. Particularly at Christmas are we aware of his divinity passing into and illumining our humanity from within. Hence Christmas is the splendid feast that it is, filled with light and wonder. I hope these homilies capture something of this for you.

During Lent we become more aware of our sins, and we repent with the whole Church. We follow Jesus into the desert, and we also recall and relive Israel’s wandering in the desert. We meditate on many Scripture passages during Lent which touch upon the theme of repentance. Thus do we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Paschal mystery, the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and the renewal of our baptism at Easter.

Holy Week leads us through the drama of Jesus’ painful suffering and death on the cross for our redemption. In the person of his eternal Son, God himself suffered for our sins. Hence we are forgiven and filled with divine life and light, since God himself, in his Son, suffered the penalty due to us. Our sins are thus forgiven through his painful death; and we are set free to live a new life in the glory of his Resurrection. We then continue daily and weekly to join the Son in his sacrifice of love to his Father every time we celebrate the Eucharist, thus offering ourselves in self-gift with Christ to the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Week homilies explore these mysteries.

During Lent—but at other times too—these homilies explore our call to holiness and purity of heart. God calls us to himself in love, and wants us to respond. The trouble is that so many good things in his creation, which surround us on all sides, can pull us now this way, now that, so that we become stressed and distracted, and God begins to recede from our view and consciousness, and we discover that our heart is becoming not only distracted and stressed, but also divided and scattered in both its interests and affections. Yes, we discover that our affections too can become divided among many of the good things that God has made, and that God himself often comes out on the short end, and so we feel that something is missing in our life.

We reflect then, especially during Lent, and discover that we are forgetting the main ingredient. It is as though we were making bread, and have the water, the yeast, and the sugar, but have forgotten the flour! We have left God out—the main ingredient. And so, during Lent we go into the desert with Jesus for forty days of increased prayer,

5

silence, and solitude, as we simplify our life, our needs, our food, and our recreations. We engage ourselves with Christ in his prayer and fasting in the desert, and find that we are renewed by our Lenten observance for our celebration of Easter.

At Easter we die and rise with Christ. We die to sin, to our old self, and even to our imperfections, although it seems that it is impossible to overcome our imperfections completely, for once we have conquered one, a new one appears, which we were not previously aware of. Nevertheless, we try to overcome them. We do what we can. And thus Christ’s victory over death and sin, over darkness and sadness, over depression, guilt, and alienation from God and neighbor becomes our victory too. In him we rise to newness of life, as St. Paul says (Rom 6:4), to life in the Spirit, to a risen life with the risen Lord. The splendor of his Resurrection then begins to illumine us. And yes, it even divinizes us; not, of course, in the sense that we become God, but in the sense that we become like God in becoming like Christ, with his divine life flowing more abundantly within us. We thus become an Easter people, a people living a risen life even now ahead of time in our risen Lord.

These homilies also explore our call to be a people of prayer, following the prayer of the Church, the liturgy, the psalms, the Liturgical Year, and our own personal prayers; but we also try to develop a spirit of prayer, so that we can sit in peace with God for some time each day without the need of many words, perhaps using only an ejaculation continually repeated or the rosary to draw us into God’s presence, and to focus our attention on God.

In this, it is a great help always to be trying to purify ourselves more from so many delightful things in this world, so that we might have a greater singleness of heart and mind in our devotion to God, loving him above all the other good things of his creation, and even voluntarily denying ourselves some of these good things in order to focus more undistractedly, undividedly, and singly on God, to love him with our whole heart and soul, which is the first and greatest commandment. The more we can grow in this direction, normally the deeper will our prayer become, and the more will it overflow into our whole day, so that we are always communing with God.

Yet, as we grow spiritually, we will discover ever new faults in ourselves, things which we have always been doing, but which never bothered us before, and which we never even recognized as faults. These things will now begin to bother us as we grow, and as God begins to call them to our attention, so that we might work at overcoming them one by one. And so, as we grow spiritually, we remain humble in our opinion of ourselves, being humbled by ever newly discovered and ever smaller imperfections within us. Indeed, to our surprise and dismay, we find it to be a rule of the spiritual life that smaller and smaller things are now beginning to trouble us more and more as we make ever greater progress in our life with God. So it seems has God designed things to keep us ever humble, ever learning, ever growing in his love, ever becoming more like his Son.

These are but a few of the many themes that are explored in these homilies on the seasons and Biblical reading of the Liturgical Year.

6

ON THAT DAY, SWEET WINE WILL FLOW FROM THE MOUNTAINS, MILK AND HONEY FROM THE HILLS

1st Sunday of Advent

Jer 33:14-16; Ps 24; 1 Thess 3:12 – 4:2; Lk 21:25-28,34-36

Days of great expectation have finally arrived. We hope for the day on which the Lord will fulfill his promises to Israel and Judah, when he “will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David; and…execute justice and righteousness in the land,” when “Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely” (Jer 33:15-16), as Jeremiah prophesied in the first reading. We await the coming of Christ into this world to transform and divinize it, to bring it his celestial light and heavenly peace. We hope for his mercy, as the verse before the Gospel says: “show us, O Lord, your mercy and give us your salvation” (Ps 84:8). We hope for the blessed days of his coming to the earth, because “The Lord will show us his mercy and our land will yield its fruit” (Ps 84:13), as we say today in the communion antiphon.

What is the fruit which the earth will produce when God shows us his mercy? It is a new and illumined world, full of God, full of divine love. He will come to transform us by his glory, and shine upon us. We will be illumined by his splendor, as were the shepherds, who kept watch over their flocks, when the angelic herald appeared to them, surrounding them with glory. This is the work of the “righteous Branch” which the Lord will cause to spring forth for David. And “he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” (Jer 33:15). He will justify us through our faith in him, clothe us with “the garments of salvation,” and cover us with a “mantle of justice” (Is 61:10).

It is for this that we now prepare ourselves, because he who began a good work in us, “will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6).

Why did Jesus Christ come into our world? He came for its transformation into his own image, into the image of the Son, so that we too might become resplendent like him, with his divinity illumining us from within with its own splendor. He came to fill us with his splendid love, and therefore at his birth the angels wished peace on earth to those of his good pleasure (Lk 2:14). Thus, full of his love, we can radiate it to all.

Is this not the transformation of the earth which Christ came to inaugurate? It is for the realization of this wish of the angels that we long during Advent. We hope for the realization on earth of what Christ began at his birth. We hope to be “blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thess 3:13), as the second reading today says.

On that day, when “the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Lk 21:26), then we “will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Lk 21:27). It is for that great day that we live and prepare now, in order to be blameless before God at the

7

coming of our Lord with all his saints. Advent is a special time of expectation and preparation for this. It is a time when we meditate on the coming of the Lord, and try to realize in ourselves and in our world the transformation and divinization which he came to work within us. We want to live within the enchanted spell of waiting for the coming of the Lord, because he who came, comes to fill us with divine love, so that we might truly be blameless before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each day we try to be more prepared, more transformed, more illumined, more distant from the temptations and occasions of sin, living a life ever more filled with love, more loving, more filled with the splendor of Christ.

“See the Lord coming from afar; his splendor fills the earth” (Magnificat antiphon, 1st vespers). We now live by faith, love, and hope in this spender of the Lord who comes. When he came, he enkindled our hearts with the splendor of his love, and said to us: “abide in my love” (Jn 15:9). And now, abiding in the splendor of his love, we hope for his coming with all his saints; for “that day will dawn with a wonderful light” (antiphon of 1st vespers).

This glorious hope makes us too long to be resplendent on that day. We want to shine even now, contemplating his glory, and radiating the splendor of his divine love into the world for its transformation “from glory to glory” in the very image of the Son of God (2 Cor 3:18). We have seen his glory (Jn 1:14), and we have received from his fullness, “grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16).

This is the mystery of the incarnation which transforms the world into the Kingdom of God, and into heavenly sweetness. Therefore we long, during Advent, for the full realization of this transformation and divinization of the earth; and we prepare ourselves and our world, for “On that day sweet wine will flow from the mountains, milk and honey from the hills. alleluia” (antiphon of lauds).

HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO DO THE WILL OF GOD! Thursday, 1st Week of Advent

Is 26:1-6; Ps 117; Mt 7:21,24-27 Today the readings teach us how we should live in order to have peace. First, from Isaiah we hear this important verse: “you keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Is 26:3). If we completely trust in God and obey him, we will be in peace, and live in his splendor—once we have been purified. The part about obedience we also hear today in the words of Jesus. He says, “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21). Then he gives an example, saying, “Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock” (Mt 7:24). How important, then it is to build our house—the house of our life of faith—on the rock of doing the words of Christ, for if we only hear his words, but do not do them, we will have built the house of our life on sand, as Jesus says today: “everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish

8

man who built his house upon the sand” (Mt 7:26). And we all know what happened to his house: The house of his life “fell; and great was the fall of it” (Mt 7:27).

We are called to holiness and to a life of perfection (see Mt 19:21: “If you would be perfect…”). We are justified by our faith in Christ, not through works; but once justified, we die with Christ to the past and rise with him to walk in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), and we do this by obeying his will. Jesus said, “My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Lk 8:21). And when a woman said: “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked,” he, responding, said to her, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Lk 11:27-28). That which will make us like his very mother is to hear and do the word of God.

Therefore St. James says, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). If we sin, we have to confess our sin, and obey again and better in the future. Thus we will walk in the splendor of Christ, “being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts” and “he shall be blessed in his doing” (James 1:25). Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34), and “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me” (Jn 6:38), and in this he is our model. We should follow the example of him “who “humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:8) if we want to live a life of perfection, which is our call (see Mt 19:21: “If you would be perfect…”).

MARY, OUR EXAMPLE IN LIVING AN ILLUMINATED LIFE Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8

Gen 3:9-15; Ps 97; Eph 1:3-6,11-12; Lk 1:26-38 Today, in the middle of Advent, we honor the Virgin Mary. The angel said to her: “Rejoice, O full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Lk 1:28). We honor and celebrate Mary today for her Immaculate Conception, that is, she was conceived immaculate, without original sin, by the anticipated merits of the passion and death of her divine Son. If she was immaculate since her conception, she was “full of grace,” as the angel says in greeting her. And we believe that she was not only free from original sin, but also from all personal sin and imperfection for the whole of her life. In this, she is a spiritual marvel, and a mirror for us all, even though we cannot reach her degree of perfection. Nonetheless, we can be inspired by her example and by the beauty of her spirit, seeing with such clarity in her the beauty which God also wants to work in us.

In his incarnation, God clothed himself in our human flesh to illumine it from within and divinize it, making it resplendent before God, justified by the merits of Jesus Christ, and transformed and sanctified, without stain. Such was the plan of God, for which reason “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph 1:4), as St. Paul says today. It was for this reason that Christ redeemed us, “in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him” (Col 1:22). Truly he wants to “present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ef 5:27). Mary

9

is an icon of this for us, that our hearts might be “blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thess 3:13).

To be free from sin is a great thing. What is it which most darkens and depresses us? Is it not falling into sin and imperfections? I am not thinking here of mortal sins. For a purified person, even small sins and imperfections torment him. Mary was completely free of all this. That is, she passed her whole life in the presence of God, living “in the heavenly places in Christ…to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph 1:3,6), as St. Paul says today.

And what was this life “full of grace” like, this life lived on the heights, “in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3), praising the glory of the grace which she had so abundantly received through her Son, and in a way that so surpassed every other creature? We know a little about this from our own experience; but what we know must be multiplied many times over for her.

In short, she was a human being transformed by Christ. She lived in the light, because she followed Christ perfectly, and Christ said, “he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). She had the light of life. She lived on the heights—“in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3; 2:6). She lived not only a risen but also an ascended life, because, as St. Paul says, God “raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6).

Mary was happy, and lived in heavenly peace, a peace not of this world. She was always with God the Father, and with God the Son in her home, and she lived in the splendor of God the Holy Spirit. She lived plunged into the Trinity. I believe that she was also a moderate and modest person (Phil 4:5), living a just sober, and pious life (Titus 2:12), in the nearness of the Lord (Phil 4:5). She lived in the divine love which shined in her heart (2 Cor 4:6).

All this we also can do if we are obedient. We can live a transformed and divinized life, a life full of the splendor of divine love, a life which abides in this splendid love (Jn 15:9) and which basks in its splendor, a life which pitches its tent on the heights. We do not always experience this to the same intensity, and the imperfections into which we fall will darken this splendor for us when we fall into them, but in all this Mary is our example and inspiration.

She is a human being like us and shows us more clearly our vocation also to live a new, risen, ascended, illumined, and divinized life, living already in the world with Christ “in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3) in spirit. We can live in this enchantment of divine love which illumines us. We can live a modest, quiet, and sober life, as she did, in moderation and in a silence full of God. Living thus, as friends of God, we bless the world, showing it the way; and we are thus its lights (Phil 2:15; Mt 5:14-16), radiating to all the light and beauty of the divine love which fills us. Thus do we follow the example of Mary.

10

A TIME OF WAITING Saturday, 1st Week of Advent

Is 30:19-21,23-26; Ps 146; Mt 9:35 – 10:1:6-8 Today we hear a message of Advent hope. The future will be better than the present: Hope for it! Although God afflicts you for your sins, he will manifest himself to you, and you will see him, and he will guide you clearly on that day, showing you with clarity his will and the way you should choose, so that you can follow it with security and without error. Therefore, wait for him! Have confidence in God! Isaiah says, “though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left” (Is 30:20-21). Days will come in which we will be well directed by God and will have no more doubt concerning his will. We will know clearly what he wants of us, and we will do it without doubt, without confusion, without error, without making so many mistakes. We hope for that day now, the day of the coming of the Lord.

When he comes, we will have an abundance of the water of life and light. Even “upon every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water” (Is 30:25). And what better water is there than that which flows in the mountains? And for light on that day, “the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days” (Is 30:26).

We hope now for those happy days which will come, although now the Lord is still giving us “the bead of adversity and the water of affliction” (Is 30:20) for our sins to purify us. We live in hope of future blessings when the Lord will come. We prepare ourselves now for those days, the days of his coming.

This Christ, whose coming we await, we see in today’s Gospel. He is compassionate towards those who are fainting and scattered abroad, “like sheep having no shepherd” (Mt 9:36). He wants to teach us his will with more exactitude so that we do not transgress it and fall into a pit of sadness for offending God. Therefore he teaches us his doctrine; but he also teaches us interiorly by means of our experience of consolation and desolation, so that we might know the correct way. He will say in our heart, “This is the way, walk in it” (Is 30:21).

Christ then wants to send us into his harvest which “is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Mt 9:37). Therefore he sends his apostles today, to help so many who are fainting, “like sheep having no shepherd” (Mt 9:36).

But why are there so few workers in the plentiful harvest? Is it not because few truly live the Gospel and perfectly do his will? If they do not obey him, how can they be his workers? How can they shepherd and help the fainting sheep if they themselves do not obey the shepherd? Only those who are obedient live in the light, and therefore can illumine the rest with the light which shines in them.

PREPARING IN THE DESERT TO BE BLAMELESS FOR THE DAY OF CHRIST

11

2nd Sunday of Advent Bar 5:1-9; Ps 125; Phil 1:4-6,8-11; Lk 3:1-6

The Entrance antiphon today, this Second Sunday of Advent, says: “People of Sion, see, the Lord is coming to save the peoples, and he will make his majestic voice to be heard in the joy of your heart.” Advent is a time of great joy because we hope for and prepare for the coming of the Lord. When he comes, he will fill us with heavenly light and with a peace not of this world. Therefore “Arise, O Jerusalem, go up onto the heights and see the joy which is coming to you from God,” as today’s communion antiphon says. We hear his majestic voice in the joy of our heart. It is for this reason that we listen in silence, waiting for his voice. It is for this reason that we go with John the Baptist to the desert during Advent: to listen and hear better.

The desert is a place of silence, far from the noise of the world. There John prepared himself for many years, until “the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,” when “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert” (Lk 3:1,2). And this word directed him to begin to preach, to be “The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths” (Lk 3:4). At this moment began the work of John to prepare in the desert a people for the Lord, that they might be ready for his coming.

John preached for only a short time; but he lived many years in the desert, preparing himself first in silence and austerity, in prayer and fasting, until he was ready—prepared and purified. Then God could reveal himself to him in his splendor and majesty, allowing him to hear his majestic voice in the joy of his heart. Then he could rise up and contemplate the joy which was coming to him from God; and he could be filled with heavenly light and a peace not of this world. He prepared himself in an earthly wilderness, a wasteland, but experienced heavenly manifestations. Now then, purified and prepared, he was an apt instrument in the hands of God to prepare his people for their Messiah.

John helps us too to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. His life was his most important sermon. He showed us by his way of living how we should prepare the way of the Lord, in the desert. By imitating him, we will see that “every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Lk 3:4-6; see Is 40:4-5). He prepared himself by a life of silence and austerity, far from the world and its pleasures, until he was filled with heavenly light.

But we have something greater than John here, namely, Christ himself already present within us. He has completed his paschal mystery, and he lives in and among us as Emmanuel, “God-with-us,” illumining us from within. He assumed our nature, our humanity, our flesh, and filled them with himself, with his divinity and splendor. If only we believe in him, are baptized, and imitate him, obeying him, we will be made new (Rev 21:5), “new men” (kainon anthropon) (Eph 4:22-24), a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15).

But to be able to perceive and experience this newness, this illumination, this splendor, this divinization, we have to be prepared. We have to go into the desert with John—and this we do during Advent. There, in the desert, far from the world, in silence, we are purified for the coming of the Lord, so that Christ can be born in us and shine

12

resplendent in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6). We should contemplate his glory in the silence of our heart, in the austerity of the desert, eating simply—“locusts and wild honey,” and dressing plainly—with “a camel’s hair, and a girdle of skin” about our loins (Mk 1:6).

Then, once we are prepared and purified, having prepared the way of the Lord in the desert, we will be transformed into the glory which we contemplate, that is, into the image of the Son by the work of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18). We will be transformed “from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18), receiving “from his fullness, grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16), for “we have seen his glory” (Jn 1:14). He wants us to live in this glory, in this splendor (Jn 15:9), and to radiate it upon others.

Thus we shall be “pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of justice which come through Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:10-11), as St. Paul says today. Then we will be the people which Baruch prophesied today, saying: “Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe of divine justice; and adorn your head with the glory of the Everlasting. For God will show your splendor to the world… [and] will lead Israel with joy in the light of his glory” (Bar 5:1-3,9). Let us live, then, in the joy of preparing ourselves in the desert to be “pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Phil 1:10), that we might be transformed and divinized by his coming, filled with heavenly light and a peace not of this world.

JESUS, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, COMES TO US THROUGH MARY

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12 Zechariah 2:14-17; Lk 1:26-38

Today, in the middle of Advent, we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, remembering and honoring her appearance to Juan Diego on this day in 1531 on the hill of Tepeyac, Mexico. As proof of her appearance, she filled his cloak with roses in the middle of winter, and left imprinted on it her image, which is enshrined in the Cathedral in Mexico City, and is honored to the present day. Her feast, like that of the Immaculate Conception, has become a part of our Advent devotion and preparation for the coming of the Lord.

The Lord comes to us through Mary. The mystery of his birth in the cave of Bethlehem is also the mystery of Mary. This is how God entered our world and our life. “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come and I will dwell within you, says the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell within you” (Zech 2:14-15).

God dwelt within Mary, and through her he dwells in our human flesh and in our human nature. He has made his dwelling in our humanity. He did so to renew our humanity, to illumine, transform, and divinize it, filling it with his own splendor and divinity, illumining it from within, like a crystal filled with the light of the noonday sun. He became incarnate to shine resplendent within our hearts (2 Cor 4:6), giving us the illumination of the knowledge and love of God, and making us also resplendent in his sight, new creatures (2 Cor 5:17), a new creation (Rev 21:5; Gal 6:14).

13

We now await his coming in glory with all his saints in great light (1 Thess 3:13), and we seek, especially during Advent, to be blameless in holiness before him at his coming. This transformation will happen through the incarnation of Christ and through the merits of his passion, death, and resurrection, whereby we die with him to our sinful past, to rise resplendent with him to walk “in the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), in the splendor of his Resurrection.

This mystery of Christ coming into our world, into our humanity, to renew and illumine it with his own splendor, takes place through our baptism and faith in him, and through our imitation of his poor, obedient life. As we obey him in faith and do his will, imitating the poverty of his birth in the cave of Bethlehem, we are transformed and divinized by our contact with the mystery of his incarnation.

All this comes to us in a human way through Mary, who was the first person to be so intimately transformed by his illumining presence within her. We thus also seek to imitate Mary in her transformation in Christ. She is our model, the icon of the Church, herself being the resplendent image of the Son.

During Advent especially, we imitate her silence, her listening to the Lord in the quiet of the night, her moderation, her gentleness, and her modesty. She rejoiced in the Lord, living quietly in his presence. “Rejoice in the Lord always…” says St. Paul. “Let your moderation be known to all. The Lord is near” (Phil 4:5).

We live in the nearness of the Lord, in quiet moderation, in gentleness, in peace so as not to dissipate the enchanting spell of his nearness. We live in waiting and quiet, longing for the Lord’s coming in glory, thankful for his dwelling within us as Emmanuel. We imitate Mary as she awaited the birth of her son. Like her, in the words of St. Paul, we “renounce impiety and worldly desires, and live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:12-13).

ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, DOCTOR OF THE ASCETICAL-MYSTICAL LIFE

Memorial of St. John of the Cross, December 14

Is 41:13-20; Ps 144; Mt 11:11-15 Today we commemorate St. John of the Cross on this his memorial. St. John of the Cross has taught us much about the inner life of the soul in its journey towards union with God. In his book, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, he teaches us about the active purifications of the senses and of the spirit necessary to come into union with God. The senses must be purified of their appetites and of worldly pleasures: tasting, smelling, hearing, seeing, and touching. This takes place through mortification of the five senses. In the first book of The Ascent of Mount Carmel St. John of the Cross gives many explanations of the importance of this mortification of the five senses from the pleasures of the world.

Then in books two and three of The Ascent of Mount Carmel he speaks of the necessity also for us to actively purify our spirit from its appetites for the pleasures of this world. Our thoughts of these things must be purified, so also our memories and imaginations about them, and our inner desires for them. This constitutes the purification

14

of the three faculties of our spirit from the appetites and pleasures of this world—that is, the purification of the intellect, the memory (which includes the imagination), and the will. These three faculties of our spirit must be purified of their worldly appetites if we wish to arrive at union with God in supernatural, infused contemplation.

St. John of the Cross teaches in the second and third books of The Ascent of Mount Carmel that it is the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, which purify and renew the three faculties of our spirit, the intellect, the memory, and the will: faith purifying our intellect; hope purifying our memory, which includes the imagination; and charity purifying our will, which is the faculty with which we love. St. John of the Cross is unique in the tradition up to his time in the emphasis which he puts on this point. But it is through this process, according to his system, that our spirit is divinized or made godlike, namely, through the working of the three supernatural theological virtues in the three faculties of our spirit.

These, then, are the active purifications of the senses and of the spirit in which we must actively work by a life of asceticism and mortification. They are called active purifications because we must actively play a dominant role in them by our own self-mortification.

There remain the passive purifications in which God works in us, and in which we are passive. Hence they are called passive because we remain largely passive in them, while God is the main actor. These passive purifications he speaks of in his book, The Dark Night.

All this purification is directed towards the end of being able to supernaturally contemplate God in infused, apophatic, wordless prayer, which is an ecstatic, mystical experience, and so come into union with God. This union should eventually lead us to a new, stable, peaceful state, which St. John of the Cross calls Mystical Marriage, or Spiritual Marriage.

Today we express our gratitude to God for having raised up for us such a great teacher of the ascetical-mystical life, a Doctor of the Church, St. John of the Cross.

JOHN THE BAPTIST SHOWS US HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD

Saturday, 2nd Week of Advent

Sir 48:1-4,9-11; Ps 79; Mt 17:10-13 Today we hear Jesus telling his disciples that Elijah must return to the earth to prepare the way for the Messiah, and that he has already returned in the form of John the Baptist. When the disciples asked, “why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” Jesus replied, “Elijah does come, and he is to restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not know him… Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist” (Mt 17:10-13). In another place Jesus said, “all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come” (Mt 11:13-14). Jesus also quoted Malachi when speaking of John

15

the Baptist, saying, “This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee’” (Mt 11:10; Mal 3:1).

The angel Gabriel said to Zechariah, John’s father, at John’s birth, that his son would go before the Lord “in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Lk 1:17). And finally, the prophet Malachi says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes” (Mal 4:5).

John the Baptist plays an important role in Salvation History, a role of continuing significance, as important to the present as to the past. His role is continually to show us by his way of life, by his preaching, by is call to repentance, and by his baptism how we are to prepare for the Lord’s coming. John lived an ascetical life in the desert. He purified his senses and spirit of the world and its pleasures, and so God was able to use him as an apt instrument—his own chosen instrument—to prepare his people for the coming of the Messiah.

During Advent we go into the desert with John the Baptist, to be prepared and purified for the Lord’s coming. We long, during Advent, for the Lord to come to us to free us from our sins, imperfections, guilt, sadness, and darkness, and to illumine us with the splendor of his divinity—incarnate in our humanity to renew and divinize us. John shows us our part in all this. We must undergo the purifications of the desert, to have a heart prepared to be able to perceive and experience the Lord at his coming. If we are not purified, we will not be able to perceive or experience him when he comes. The silence, the solitude, the prayer, and the fasting of the desert life, far from the superficiality and worldliness of the world, is the way that John shows us by his life that we are to prepare the way of the Lord.

REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS

3rd Sunday of Advent Zephaniah 3:14-18; Is 12; Phil 4:4-7; Lk 3:10-18

In the entrance antiphon today we hear these words of St. Paul: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice! The Lord is near” (Phil 4:4-5). Today is “Gaudete” Sunday, a day of spiritual joy in the Lord, for we are now so close to Christmas, the great celebration of our redemption. St. Paul also tells us today, “Let your moderation be known to all (to epieikes ymon gnostheto pasin anthropois). The Lord is near” (Phil 4:5). The word for “moderation” can also be translated by “modesty” or “gentleness.” A Christian should be someone who lives in moderation, because he lives in the nearness of the Lord. The Lord is within him, divinizing and transforming him, filling him with himself, with his divinity, with his divine life, with his splendor. In order not to lose or dissipate these great gifts, he should live in much silence, speaking quietly, keeping custody of the eyes and guard over his words so as to remain in this enchanting spell of the divine presence. The presence of Christ shining resplendent in our heart gives us great joy. Therefore St. Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice”

16

(Phil 4:4). He repeats himself for emphasis. Then he says, “Let your moderation be known unto all. The Lord is near” (Phil 4:5).

But why is it that many people do not rejoice in the Lord, and do not feel happy? It is because they are not doing the perfect will of God, or because God is purifying them for their imperfection and worldliness. How important it is—if we want to be happy—to do perfectly the will of God in all things, all the time, without exception! When we fall into imperfections, we feel sad. Then what we have to do is confess our imperfections, and, in a short time, or immediately, God will restore us to his presence and happiness. God punishes the unfaithful; but rewards the just. If we are still living a worldly life, we will not perceive the joy which St. Paul says that we should always have in the Lord. If we are living for the pleasures of this life, this joy and jubilation of spirit will be far from us.

Therefore, during Advent, we go into the desert to be purified of all this, to be able to rejoice always in the Lord and live a life of gentleness, modesty, and moderation in the glorious nearness of the Lord. The Lord is so near that Zephaniah prophesies today that he is within us. He says: “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has cast out your enemies. The King of Israel the Lord, is in the midst of you; you shall fear evil no more” (Zeph 3:14-15). This prophecy was realized in the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. He entered by his incarnation into our flesh, divinizing and filling it with splendor, illumining it from within. “The King of Israel, the Lord, is in the midst of you” (Zeph 3:15), dwelling and shining in your heart, transforming you into his image by the work of the Holy Spirit.

If we are perfectly doing his will, and if we have confessed our imperfections, how is it possible that we will not rejoice in the Lord? “Rejoice always,” says St. Paul to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 5:16). This is the basis of Christian joy. Those who go into the desert with John know this joy and jubilation of spirit. They rejoice in the Lord. They have left their sins and their worldly ways, and live now only for the Lord, leaving all for him, seeking their joy only in him, eating simply—locusts and wild honey; and dressing simply—with camel’s hair and a leather girdle around their waist (Mk 1:6).

John the Baptist shows us the way to happiness in the Lord, in the desert, the way of jubilation of spirit. All are invited to follow him. In his preaching, John says: “Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’… Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Lk 3:8-9). If we choose the way of pleasure in this world, we will not see much of this great joy. We have to decide what it is that we want. The life of John the Baptist in the desert shows us the way of true spiritual joy and jubilation of spirit.

17

THE TIME OF CHRISTMAS JOY IS DRAWING NEAR

December 21 Ct 2:8-14; Ps 32; Lk 1:39-45

We are now very near to Christmas, a time of flowers and songs, even though in many countries it is winter; but even so, in the world of the spirit, it is springtime, as the first reading today from the Song of Songs tells us: “lo the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come… The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance” (Ct 2:11-13). This joy comes from the Lord. When I look now through my window, it is winter, and there are neither flowers nor bird songs. All this joy of springtime comes from the Lord, from the birth of Christ the Lord, from the incarnation of God on the earth to inject into the world the beauty, splendor, and joy of his divinity.

It is the just, those obedient to the will of God, who experience this joy of spirit caused by the indwelling of Christ within us, because God blesses them. If we disobey him, we will not experience this joy, but rather will drink a bitter cup. Christ dwells powerfully in this new and special way, rejoicing the soul, only in those who do his will (Jn 14:23).

Only a few days remain now to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ anew into the world and into our hearts. The preparation consists in discerning with more exactitude the will of God for us, and in doing it more precisely, so that he might dwell abundantly within us (Jn 14:23).

Christ is already dwelling in the body of the Virgin Mary. She has already conceived of the Holy Spirit, and in her joy and simplicity, she wants to share this news with her cousin Elizabeth. St. Luke tells us that “In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah” (Lk 1:39). St. Luke notes that she “went with haste,” an indication of her joy. She had good news, and wanted to share it right away, without delay. And she went “into the hill country,” into a mountainous, elevated, fresh region, where the air is purer and more refreshing. She journeyed with joy. God was with her; and her joy in the Lord enkindled the hearts of Elizabeth and John, in her womb, who leaped for joy at hearing her voice (Lk 1:41,44).

If we want to live in this Christmas joy, we have to perfectly obey the will of God for us, and do what he wants of us. If we have failed in anything, we should admit it and confess our sins and imperfections, and begin anew in the joy of obedience, which is the joy of the Holy Spirit, which John experienced even in the womb of his mother.

18

SALVATION AND GLORY ARE NEAR TO THOSE WHO

FEAR AND OBEY GOD

December 22 1 Sam 1:24-28; 1 Sam 2:1-10; Lk 1:46-56

Today we hear both the Magnificat of Mary (Lk 1:46-56) and the Canticle of Hannah, the mother of Samuel (1 Sam 2:1-10). Both are hymns of praise to God for his great deeds to the poor who fear him; while he leaves empty the rich and powerful of the earth who do not fear him. Mary says, “And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts” (Lk 1:50-51). And Hannah says today, “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones; but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness” (1 Sam 2:9).

This is the mystery which we meditate today. God wants to lift up and exalt those who fear him—in the rich Biblical sense—which means, those who love, respect, and obey him with exactitude. His salvation is near to them, and they live in his glory, as the psalmist says, “Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land” (Ps 84:10).

If we love God, we will obey him; and then his glory will dwell in our land, and in our hearts. And is this not what Mary says today, when she says, “And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation” (Lk 1:50)? God exalts them, even though they are humble and poor, as was Mary.

These are his true lovers, those who do his will, as Jesus said, “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (Jn 14:21). Jesus loves and manifests himself to those who love and obey him, because only those who obey him love him. They are exalted by God for their love and obedience, for their fear of the Lord, because fear—in the Biblical sense—is love.

At the same time, the proud, who neither love nor obey him—who do not fear him—are scattered: “he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts” (Lk 1:51). Hannah says the same thing, namely, God “will guard the feet of his faithful ones; but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness” (1 Sam 2:9).

Only a few days remain now until the coming of Christ anew into our world and into our hearts. We can prepare ourselves by truly fearing him, and we do this by loving and obeying him in everything and with exactitude, living only for him with all our heart. Those who do this will be blessed in his coming. He will take care of and exalt them, filling them with light and splendor. But to enjoy this, we have to be cleansed, prepared, and purified. Let us use well, then, these few days which still remain until Christmas.

19

PREPARING THE WAY OF THE LORD

December 23 Malachi 3:1-4; 4:5-6; Ps 24; Lk 1:57-66

Today we hear about the birth of John the Baptist, whom Jesus identified with Elijah, who was to return to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. We hear in the first reading the prophecy of Malachi about this, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Mal 4: 5-6). His work will be to reconcile families so that all might live in peace and mutual love. Thus they shall be prepared for the coming of the Christ.

Malachi prophesies also about the precursor of the Messiah, saying, “Behold, I send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me… But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap” (Mal 3:1).

According to Jesus, John the Baptist was this precursor (Mt 11:1-14). And St. Mark begins his gospel thus, “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight—’ John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mk 1:2-4; see Mal 3:1; Is 40:3).

John prepared himself first, and afterwards the people, in the desert, in the spirit of Elijah. He lived the life of a Nazirite. He did not drink wine, as the angel told his father, Zechariah, saying, “he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Lk 1:15). He lived a life of abstinence and renunciation: “Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey” (Mk 1:6). He was a desert dweller, an ascetic, someone who renounced the pleasures of the world—he even renounced normal food and clothing—in order to live only for God in everything. Thus he was prepared for the coming of Christ. Thus he prepared the way of the Lord and made straight his paths. And by his example, he helps us too to know how we should prepare the way of the Lord.

John has always been honored by monks as the prototype of the monastic life, being a desert dweller for God, in order to purify his senses and spirit of the worldliness and superficiality of the world. Thus he was prepared when Christ appeared. He lived in solitude and silence; in prayer, fasting, and recollection; detached, stripped, and free of the world and its delights, in order to delight himself only in the Lord; and thus he lived in splendor and light

Each person should prepare himself for the coming of Christ. John, with the example of his life, shows us how to do this. Monks try to follow him radically; but all should imitate him, in conformity with the interior guidance of the Holy Spirit in each one. Therefore, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (Mk 1:3).

20

TODAY YOU SHALL KNOW THAT THE LORD WILL COME; AND IN THE MORNING YOU WILL SEE HIS GLORY

4th Sunday of Advent, Christmas Eve, December 24

Micah 5:1-4; Ps 79; Heb 10:5-10; Lk 1:39-45 Today is Christmas Eve. “Today you shall know that the Lord will come; and in the morning you will see his glory.” (Old Roman Office, vigils of December 24, Invitatory). God will come to save us from our sins and imperfections, and illuminate us with his eternal light. Tomorrow you will see this light shining resplendent within you. Therefore we are to purify ourselves for this. “Sanctify yourselves today, and be prepared: for tomorrow you shall see the majesty of God within you” (Ibid., 1st responsory).

Tomorrow we will see that God incarnated in a man, in my human flesh, affects me also. By baptism and faith, the mystery which took place in Jesus, being God incarnate, transforms, illumines, and divinizes me also, because in him divinity has entered into humanity and affects and transforms all those who are baptized, believe in, and imitate him.

Tomorrow this mystery will be actualized. We will be present before the mystery of divinity entering into our humanity, into ourselves, indwelling, transforming, illumining, and divinizing us. Therefore we want to be prepared and sanctified for this great commemoration, celebration, and actualization of the transforming mystery of the incarnation. We want to see the majesty of God within us.

“Be constant, and you will see the help of God upon you: Fear not, Judea and Jerusalem: Tomorrow you will go forth, and the Lord will be with you” (Ibid., 2nd responsory). We want to see this help, which is God shining in our hearts, illumining them with knowledge and divine love in Jesus Christ. Christ became incarnate to dwell within our hearts, filling them with love, peace, and celestial light, so that we might live, pray, and even sleep in heavenly peace, as did Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus in the cave in Bethlehem. This peace which descended from heaven and enveloped them will envelop us too tomorrow.

Therefore “Sanctify yourselves, sons of Israel, and be prepared. Tomorrow you shall go forth, and the Lord will be with you” (Ibid., 2nd responsory). We will walk with the Lord, with Emmanuel, with “God-with-us,” with God in our midst, transforming us from within, deifying us. For this God came to the earth, for our deification. He became incarnate in our flesh to deify it, that is, to fill it with his divinity. It is like an inoculation. We are inoculated by him living within us. We remain human beings, not gods, but we will have his grace, which is his life, and we will have his personal presence within us, destroying our sin and sanctifying us. Therefore the liturgy says, “tomorrow you shall go forth, and the Lord will be with you” (Ibid., 2nd responsory).

But do we not want to live every day in this divinized condition as truly new men (Eph 4:22-24), a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), dead with Christ on the cross to our sinful past and risen resplendent with the risen Christ to walk “in the newness of life” (Rom 6:4)? Let us live this way, then, at least tomorrow, and we will see what will happen. Let us live one day in the light, as sons of light, basking in the splendor of God incarnate

21

on earth. And may tomorrow be the beginning of a new way of living, forgetting the delights of this world, and living in the splendor of Christ incarnate for our transformation and illumination in him.

“Sanctify yourselves, sons of Israel, says the Lord: for tomorrow the Lord will descend, and will take away from you all lethargy. Tomorrow the iniquity of the earth shall be done away with, and the Savior of the world will reign over us” (Ibid., 3rd responsory). This is the mystery realized in Christ, in his incarnation, sacrificial death, and resurrection. In this mystery, by baptism, faith, and imitation of him, we are forgiven, transformed, and filled with God. Therefore we have to sanctify ourselves to be able to live within this new reality of faith. It is a truly new life, full of divine love and the hope of glory. It is a life in which we live in silence, full of the love of God and of the whole world. God removes lethargy from our spirit. He wipes away our sin, and that of the entire world.

This is something for every day, not just for one day; but on the day of his birth, he descends and takes iniquity away from the earth and begins to reign over us; and this day is tomorrow. Tomorrow, the day of his birth will be actualized for us, and this day is the beginning of the rest of our life. The Savior of the world will reign over us tomorrow. “Tomorrow salvation will be with you” (Ibid., Lauds). It will be a day in which to pitch our tent on the heights and bask in the splendor of God. He will illumine our face and our heart with the warmth of his refulgent light.

Tomorrow will be born in Bethlehem of Judah “The One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting…” And he shall feed his flock “in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God” and we shall abide in security, “for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and this one shall be peace” (Micah 5:2-5). All nature shall be blessed in him who is born tomorrow before the eyes of faith.

JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD HAS COME

Christmas, Midnight Mass, December 25 Is 9:1-3,5-6; Ps 95; Titus 2:11-14; Lk 2:1-14

Today is Christmas. Today the liturgy presents to us the mystery of the incarnation of God on earth as a man, dressing the splendor of his divinity in our humanity, to illumine our humanity from within, transforming and divinizing it, if only we believe in him, are baptized, and imitate him.

Today “The Peaceful King is exalted, whose face the entire earth desires to see” (Old Roman Office, 1 vespers). He is the “Prince of Peace” (Is 9:6) of the peaceful kingdom, where the wolf dwells with the lamb; and the leopard lies down with the kid (Is 11:6). Today “The Peaceful King is exalted above all the kings of the entire earth” (Ibid., 1 vesp.), and we rejoice in his exaltation.

“Today true peace has descended from heaven: Today through all the world the skies drip down honey. Today there shines forth for us a day of new redemption, of reparation of the past, of eternal happiness” (Ibid., vigils, 2nd responsory). This peace

22

comes from Christ, from his transforming incarnation in our flesh, from his propitiatory death on the cross, and from his splendid resurrection from the sepulcher.

Today “when the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared, not from works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by a bath of regeneration and renovation in the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:4-6). He inundates us today with this bath of the Holy Spirit. It is a free gift of God renewing us. This is the honey which drips down today from the skies in all parts of the world. The sweetness which we experience today comes from the incarnation of the eternal light in our humanity, a mystery actualized today for us, making us present to it.

It is a new redemption, an illumination which repairs the past and forgives our sins. Today we see the kindness and humanity of God. They appear today in Christ the Lord, lying in the manger. This is the great joy which we celebrate today, announced to the shepherds: “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:10-11).

Today we fall down with the shepherds and adore him. He is the source of all our joy, light, love, and peace, a peace not of this world. He descends upon us and fills us with heavenly light and peace.

He came to transform the world into the Kingdom of God. And that eternal Word “was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth… And of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (Jn 1:14,16).

This is why we purify ourselves of the worldliness of the world; that is, to be able to live in this light, and extend it to all humanity. Therefore St. Paul counsels us today to live soberly and piously, saying, “the grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, teaching us that, renouncing ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, piously and justly in this age” (Titus 2:11-12).

This manifestation of his grace, glory, and fullness motivates us to live in a new way, to be able to perceive these realities. That is, we are to live only for God with a completely undivided heart, leaving all else, renouncing the pleasures of the world, and living in silence and recollection. Living in this way, we will be able to contemplate his glory and be ever more transformed into the glory which we contemplate.

Today the Father says: “you are my son, today I have begotten you” (Ps 2:7). He who was engendered from all eternity, in “the splendor of the holy ones, from the womb, before the day star” (Ps 109:3), is born today as a man from a virgin. In Jesus, God pitched his tent for the sun (Ps 18:4).

“There shall arise in his days justice and an abundance of peace, until the moon be no more. And he shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth” (Ps 71:7-8). He shall have a universal and eternal kingdom of heavenly peace over the entire world.

“They that dwell in the desert shall bow down before him… The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him…and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba…his name shall endure as long as the sun” (Ps 71:9-11,15,17). This is the new king of light, the new Sun King; and in the light of his face the people shall walk, and in his name they

23

will rejoice all the day and cry out in jubilation (Ps 88:16-17). “His descendents shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me,” says the Lord. “It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven” (Ps 88:36-37).

Let us, therefore, walk in his light. In him is forgiveness for all sins and imperfections which darken our soul. He is “the dayspring from on high” that has visited us “to give light them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Lk 1:78-79). He is the light shining in the darkness, and he wants us to walk with him in this light, in silence and adoration, forgiven for all our sins by having confessed them. If we seek him in the desert, in solitude and silence, in renunciation of everything else, and by the way of the cross, of sacrifice, and of mortification, we will find him, and will be illumined and transformed by his light and love.

Truly, “the Lord has remembered his mercy…for the house of Israel; [and] all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Ps 97:3).

TODAY A GREAT LIGHT HAS DESCENDED UPON THE EARTH

Christmas, Mass of the Day, December 25 Is 52:7-10; Ps 97; Heb 1:1-6; Jn 1:1-18

Our celebration of Christmas has now reached its climax with the Mass of the Day. We now contemplate the mystery of the incarnation in its full splendor, in the birth of God in a man on earth. Today “A child is born for us, a son is given to us, whose dominion is upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Angel of Great Counsel” (entrance antiphon). His dominion or imperium is upon his shoulder. He has a dominion, a vast empire, without limit, a universal dominion of heavenly peace and light, and of divine love. He came to establish this kingdom on the earth, to renew the entire world with his light. He came to renew us all, freeing us from our sins, from the sense of guilt, and from darkness, so that we might live in the splendor of his love with which inundates us.

His birth makes this most holy night resplendent with glory, as the liturgy says, “Oh God, who made this most sacred night resplendent with the illumination of the true light, grant, we beseech you, that we who have known the mystery of his light on earth, may also enjoy his happiness in heaven” (old collect prayer of the Midnight Mass). The true light illumines this night with its splendor. This light also illuminates our hearts, once they have been purified of all sin. He came for this, to save us from our sins by the merits of his sacrificial and propitiatory death, and by the splendor of his resurrection. He administers this absolution and renovation through the sacraments. He also transforms us by our contact with the mystery of his incarnation, filling us with his splendor. The splendor which was in him thereby comes to dwell also within us, to transform us.

This birth of God on earth, actualized today, is something new for us, as we see in the liturgy, “Grant us,” we pray, “Almighty God, that the new birth in the flesh of your Only begotten may free us from the old yoke of sin which keeps us in servitude” (old collect prayer of the Mass of the Day). Today we experience “the new birth in the flesh” of the Son of God, presented and actualized before us, transforming and rejoicing us.

24

He came so that we might be able to participate in his divine life, as the liturgy says today, “Grant us to participate in the divine life of him who wished to participate in our humanity” (collect prayer of the Mass of the Day). This is a new type of life, with Christ shining in our heart.

“A sacred day has shone forth for us: Come, you nations, and adore the Lord: For today a great light has descended upon the earth” (acclamation before the gospel). He who was born today is the light whom all seek. It is the light for which we were created, and it is the only light which can fill the emptiness in our heart, and truly satisfy us. And because this light is born today on earth, we pray, “The Lord has made known his salvation; in the sight of the gentiles he has revealed his justice… All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Ps 97:2-3; antiphon for communion). We bask, therefore, today in the splendor of God.

Isaiah prophesied today, “The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (Is 52:10). If only we confess our sins and imperfections and do his perfect will, purifying ourselves of the delights of this world, and living only for him in everything, all the time, we will live in this great light, full of God and of the splendor of the divine love. It is for this that he was born on earth, assuming our nature—that is, to redeem and divinize it, and thus transform our world into the kingdom of God, into the peaceful kingdom where the wolf and the lamb live together (Is 11:6). This is a dominion “without limit” (Is 9:7), the dominion of the Prince of Peace (Is 9:6).

Therefore, “Rejoice with jubilation before the Lord, all the earth; sing and exult and chant psalms” (Ps 97:4). This new-born child, as Hebrews says today, is “the splendor of his [the Father’s] glory, the very image of his nature” (Heb 1:3). He was, as St. John says today, from the beginning, from all eternity, with God, and was God. He lived always in ineffable love and splendor with the Father. In him is the life and the light of men (Jn 1:4). And he has shone today in the darkness. He was the true light which illumines every man (Jn 1:4), and he has come into the world so that we might be reborn in him. And “we have seen his glory” (Jn 1:14). “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as an Only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14).

We see and experience his glory within us, if only we do his will and are purified. He reveals his glory to us. “From his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16). Today therefore is a day to bask in his splendor, giving him thanks for his great love.

25

THE CROSS IS NEVER FAR FROM THE MANGER

Feast of St. Stephen, December 26 Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-60; Ps 30; Mt 10:17-22

Even in the midst of the beautiful celebration of Christmas, we cannot forget the centrality of the cross in the Christian life. It is central in our faith and in our way of living; and today’s feast, that of St. Stephen, only one day after Christmas, reminds us of this. It was for love that Christ was born on earth: It was because God wanted to share with us the same love and splendor in which the Son lives always with his Father. He wants us to be born from him, renewed and divinized, and live in the heavenly peace of Bethlehem, living in the light, and in peace and brotherhood with everyone. But in doing this, we will be misunderstood and persecuted; but this persecution will increase still more the splendor in which we live, and therefore we do not have to fear it.

St. Stephen is an example of this. We see the glory of his death, persecuted for his courageous testimony to Jesus. Being carried off, brought before the council, and falsely accused, his face was “like the face of an angel,” and everyone saw this (Acts 6:15); and in his defense, he preached a long and powerful sermon, full of the Holy Spirit. And while all “were enraged in their hearts” at his words, “and ground their teeth against him…, he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:54-56). So we see that even in the midst of this persecution, in the midst of his martyrdom, he remained fixed on Jesus, the love of his soul, and even saw him with his eyes.

This is an example for us. The divinization which we receive through the incarnation of God on earth fills us with divine love, and enables us to give courageous and public testimony to Jesus, and suffer for him, for love of him, and thus grow still more in our love for him, the love which fills our life with beauty and splendor. It is the same love which we see in the illuminated cave of Bethlehem which is expressed today, one day latter, in the courageous testimony and martyrdom of St. Stephen.

And why are we persecuted? It is because we are not of the world, just as Jesus was not of the world (Jn 17:14, 16). “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Jn 15:19). Praying to his Father about his followers, Jesus said, “I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn 17:14).

If, then, we preach like St. Stephen, those who think like the world will reject and persecute us; but we should not be surprised at this, as St. John says, “Do not marvel, brethren, that the world hates you” (1 Jn 3:13). And St. Paul says the same thing, saying, “indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12). And Jesus prepares us for this today, saying, “and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10:22).

Such is our life, a life lived in divine splendor, remaining in and growing in this splendid love through contact with Jesus Christ, God incarnate. But at the same time, it is a life of the cross, a life not of this world, a life mortified to this world, crucified to this world (Gal 6:14), a life of mortification, lived only for Christ. In all this, it is a truly

26

splendid life, but misunderstood by the world and by those who think like the world, and therefore it is always persecuted.

But this very persecution helps us to grow still more in this splendid love which we adore in the illuminated manger of the Savior, Christ the Lord. Therefore we should rejoice in persecution, and God will compensate us with his love in our heart, as St. Peter tells us, “Beloved…, rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings… If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:12,13,14). In being persecuted for Christ, we live still more in his splendid love.

How important, then, is the cross for the splendid life of faith, exemplified today in St. Stephen!

GOD BECAME INCARNATE FOR OUR TRANSFORMATION IN GLORY AND SPLENDOR

Feast of St. John the Apostle, December 27

1 Jn 1:1-4; Ps 96; Jn 20:2-9 Today it is St. John the Apostle who helps us to contemplate the mystery of Christmas, which is the mystery of the incarnation. He says, in the first reading today, that he is writing to us about the Word of God, who is the Word of life, who came into our world. This life manifested itself in Jesus Christ. He was the life which existed with the Father; and John says that he, John, has seen this life and has heard and touched it. John says that he is writing to us about this life so that his joy might be complete.

We can never finish contemplating the mystery of God—that is, that the Word became incarnate on earth so that we might be able to share in his glory, in his joy, in his life, and in his love. For this reason he became incarnate. He gave us his own glory (Jn 17:22), which he always has with his Father (Jn 17:5), so that we might contemplate it (Jn 17:24), so that this glory might reveal itself in our spirit, and transform us into the same glory which we are contemplating (2 Cor 3:18). For this reason he shines in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6). Truly, “we have seen his glory” (Jn 1:14), and “we have all received from his fullness, grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16).

We see his glory in contemplation, and this glory is the same glory and splendor in which the Son lived eternally with the Father before the creation of the world (Jn 17:5). He wants us to share this same glory and divine love, which is splendid. Jesus came so that the love, with which the Father loves him might also be in us (Jn 17:23,26). And Christ wants us to remain always in his love (Jn 15:9), remaining always in him (Jn 15:4). And because his love is splendid and glorious, he wants us not only to contemplate it, but also to remain in his glory and splendor, although not always in the same intensity.

This is why Christmas is a celebration of such glory and splendor. It is because at this time we contemplate the mystery of his incarnation, which brings us his life, his light, and his glory. And meditating on it, this same mystery comes to be present in us—it is actualized in us—and it renews us, transforms us, and divinizes us. This is the transformation in his glory, in his splendor, that the Father sent the Son to earth to give

27

us, so that we might be a new creation (2 Cor 5:17; Rev 21:5; Gal 6:15), new men (Eph 4:22-24), “regenerated” by the washing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-6).

But in order to enjoy this salvation, we have to live, from now on, only for him in everything, renouncing worldly desires and pleasures (Titus 2:12). Only thus will we be purified to be able to enter into this splendid and transforming union with God. Only thus will we live and walk in his light (Jn 8:12), and be ourselves lights in the world (Mt 5:14-16; Phil 2:15).

Christ came to free us from our sins and bring us to our heavenly homeland; and he came to sanctify and illumine us here on earth in the midst of our pilgrimage to our eternal homeland. Let us live, then, in his light, renouncing the other lights of this world, which cannot satisfy us, or fill our heart, or nourish our spirit! Only the love of God can do that, and we find it in the manger of the illuminated cave of Bethlehem.

St. John, whom we honor today, is the great theologian of the mystery of the incarnation for our transformation in splendor and glory.

THEY ARE VIRGINS, AND FOLLOW THE LAMB WHEREVER HE GOES

Feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28 1 Jn 1:5 – 2:2; Ps 123; Mt 2:13-18

Today we honor the Holy Innocents, “all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which… [Herod] had ascertained from the magi” (Mt 2:16). We remember that previously “Herod summoned the magi secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared” (Mt 2:7). Then, we can imagine the rest. Herod’s soldiers arrived by night at Bethlehem, a few days after the birth of Christ, and killed all the male children two years old and under.

What a tragedy, what human sadness, this killing in Bethlehem at the very time and place of the birth of the Savior, Christ the Lord, the only Son of God! What are we supposed to learn from this? Certainly that the cross is never far from the manger, even though these children were too young to know what was happening. Yet, even so, their death is for us a sign and a reminder of the centrality of the cross in the Christian life, casting its shadow even over the manger at Christ’s birth.

But in the plan of God, even human sadness is transformed by Christ. These children have always been considered martyrs, because they died for Christ, they lost their life in this world for Christ, even without knowing it. Baptized thus in their own blood, we believe that they entered immediately into their heavenly fatherland, the first persons who entered heaven, because Christ opened its gates, closed since the sin of Adam. Therefore today’s feast, although it is a commemoration of something humanly sad, is also a joyful celebration, having the same joy which the Church always has in its feasts of the martyrs.

They are among the one hundred and forty-four thousand who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They are without blemish, virgins, the court of the Lamb. They “had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been

28

redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless” (Rev 14:3-5).

They are pure souls, without personal sin, already redeemed by Christ from original sin, and baptized in their own blood by their martyrdom. They are among the great multitude which is now “standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Rev 7:9). “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence” (Rev 7:14-15).

Therefore, although in Bethlehem “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more” (Mt 2:18; Jer 31:15), there is rejoicing today in heaven on the day of their glorious death for Christ, and they are welcomed as the first fruits of his salvation, the first martyrs, the first persons to enter into the kingdom of the Father.

We also rejoice over them and express our desire to immolate ourselves also in a sacrifice of love to the Lamb. We offer ourselves through a life of sacrifice, mortification, and the renunciation of the delights of this world; and we immolate ourselves in love to God. Only thus is true happiness to be found. A life crucified (Gal 6:14) and sacrificed in love is the only happy life, and these tiny martyrs are an example of this for us. We rejoice, therefore, in their sacrificial death in Bethlehem at Christmas. And we rejoice also in their victory, because since their death until now they are happy, following “the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev 14:4).

WHEN A DEEP SILENCE ENVELOPED ALL THINGS

6th Day within the Octave of Christmas, December 30 1 Jn 2:12-17; Ps 95; Lk 2:36-40

The Mass today begins with the beautiful “Dum medium” antiphon, “When a deep silence enveloped all things and the night was halfway through her course, your almighty Word leaped down from heaven, from the royal throne” (entrance antiphon; Wis 18:14-15). And the Mass ends with this rich communion antiphon, “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16).

Christ was born “When a deep silence enveloped all things.” How peaceful is the night when we sleep with a clean conscience, when we have confessed our sins and received Christ’s absolution, and when his splendor shines in our heart, illuminating and divinizing it, filling it with peace and joy in the Lord! It is as though we were enveloped in a deep and luminous fog of divine love. It is the beautiful silence of the night, the time of sleep and adoration, the time of peace and intimacy with God.

It was at this time that the eternal Word became incarnate, dressing himself in our human flesh to illumine it from within, filling it with his splendor, which illumines, rejoices, and divinizes us, transforming us into new creatures, and the world into the kingdom of God.

29

Those who obey God perfectly and have a clean conscience know this happiness and illumination, because, as the communion antiphon says, “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16). This beauty, this fullness, comes from God incarnate in our humanity, in our nature, and in our flesh on earth, filling us with the splendor of his divinity through contact with him in faith and imitation. His splendor, contained in his humanity, flows through his humanity and enters our humanity until it penetrates, fills, and transforms our spirit, divinizing us. Then, in the dark of the night, when all things are enveloped in a deep silence, and the night is halfway through her course, his peace, light, life, and divinity invade and inundate us; and we know that we have received from his fullness “grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16).

Today we also hear this beautiful acclamation before the Gospel, “A sacred day has shined forth for us: come, you nations, and adore the Lord: for today a great light has descended upon the earth.” Today is that sacred day, because now Christ lives in us. He is the great light which today, at his birth, has descended upon the earth and illumined the world. It is those who have left all for him who experience this light illuminating them and shining with the splendor of divine love in their hearts. Those who have confessed their sins and live—now penitent, converted, and purified—a new life, only for him, live in this light. For them, “through all the world, the skies drip down honey,” as the responsory at vigils says (old Roman office, December 30). They have renounced the delights of this world and now rejoice within themselves in his splendor.

Today also St. John says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him” (1 Jn 2:15). The further we are from the world, the more we can receive the fullness of Christ and enjoy the deep silence of the night.

And St. Luke gives us today the beautiful example of Anna, the elderly widow who “did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day” (Lk 2:37). She lived in this deep silence, far from the world, and received the Christ child in the temple, “and spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Lk 2:38). She is an example for us to follow.

THE MYSTERY OF THE HOLY FAMILY IN THE NIGHT OF BETHLEHEM

Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday within the Octave of Christmas Sir 3:3-7,14-17; Ps 127; Col 3:12-21; Lk 2:41-52

Today, in the middle of the Christmas Octave, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We see them in the nativity scene in every church and every home during Christmastide, in the illuminated cave, around the manger of Jesus.

When the shepherds arrived in Bethlehem, they saw them, “And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger” (Lk 2:16; entrance antiphon). The Magi too found them when they arrived in Bethlehem, “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their

30

treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (Mt 2:11; antiphon at vigils).

There is much to meditate on in these verses. Both the shepherds and the Magi arrived by night—both having received a heavenly message at night.

The shepherds were “abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them… And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will” (Lk 2:8-9,13-14). It was night when they saw this apparition and when the night sky shone resplendent before them, surrounding them with heavenly glory. And at this very moment of the night they went with haste to see this thing which had come to pass in Bethlehem. And entering silently into the dimly lit cave, full of respect and in a spirit of adoration, they saw and adored him.

The Magi too arrived at the cave of Bethlehem by night; and this we know because they were guided by a star, “…and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (Mt 2:9-11).

The mystery of the Holy Family in Bethlehem is a mystery of adoration in the darkness and stillness of the night, in silence, and in simplicity. It is a mystery of wonder and awe, of quiet and peace, and of great reverence. Those who kept watch in the silence of the night—the shepherds and the Magi—were the ones who experienced the splendor of God incarnate on earth for our illumination and divinization. These two scenes—the adoration of the shepherds, and that of the Magi in the night—are icons, representing for us the mystery of prayer and the adoration of Christ the Lord in the silence of the night. This is the time when he shines in our hearts with his divinity. It is those who keep vigil for him in the night who see him in his splendor.

We remember that here in Bethlehem, all is simple, all is silent. Joseph and Mary are unknown here. Joseph has no work to do in Bethlehem. No one is coming into his shop to order or buy tables, doors, or chairs, and to talk with him. All his time is passed with Mary and the new-born infant-God in silence, moderation, and heavenly peace. It was a time spent in recollection in the dimly lit but illuminated cave, far from the city, far from the inn, and far from the world with its noise and distraction.

And are not these the values of the monastic life: watching in the night, prayer and adoration by night, in silence and solitude, far from the city, far from the world with its distractions, far from our relatives, on the edge of the desert—on the edge of the world?

The cave is their cell. It is dark, but illuminated by heavenly light; and the hearts of Mary and Joseph are illumined with the splendor of God-made-man before them. They have much time for repose, meditation, and contemplation, doing what was necessary in silence and with moderation so as not to break this spell.

Is not the monastic life built on these values? Is it not an attempt to live the mystery of the Holy Family in the cave, in the night of Bethlehem?

31

THERE HAS ARISEN IN THE DARKNESS A LIGHT FOR THE UPRIGHT

January 1, the Octave Day of Christmas, New Years Day Solemnity of the Mother of God

Num 6:22-27; Ps 66; Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21 “And the shepherds came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child… And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them” (Lk 2:16-17,20). They went with haste because of their joy; and what they found was the most beautiful scene in all history, Christ the Lord, lying in a manger, dressed in swaddling clothes, in the illumined cave of Bethlehem. And what “was told to them concerning this child”? They heard these words from the angel, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” And “Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger” (Lk 2:10-12). They heard that the Savior, who is Christ the Lord, had been born in Bethlehem, and is lying in a manger in the city of David. And hearing this, they went with haste to see him.

Today, we find ourselves once again before Jesus’ manger, between Mary and Joseph, prostrating ourselves with the shepherds, adoring the child, Christ the Lord, our Savior. Truly, “A light will shine upon us today” (entrance antiphon); because “A child is born for us, and a son is given to us: whose dominion is upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Angel of great counsel” (old entrance antiphon; see Is 9:6).

This child was born to make us new: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, all has been made new” (2 Cor 5:17). And today we begin a new year, 2007. Today is a new day of a new world in Christ, who said, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). In the darkness of the night of Bethlehem, there has shone forth a light which illumines the world. He assumed our humanity, and gave us his divinity, and with this gift, he gave us a new and illumined life, a life which can remain in his splendid light, full of his love; and can radiate upon others the brilliance of the divine life which now flows through us. We warm ourselves, therefore, during this most sacred time, before the manger, illumined by the king of the universe.

He illumines us interiorly, forgiving our sins, and blessing us with his glory and peace. He embraces us and fills us with his love. And he wants us to remain thus, in his splendor, in his splendid love, although we do not always experience it to the same degree. If we fall into imperfections, and if we confess them, he will forgive us and readmit us again into this splendor. He saved us by this child, not by our own works, but by a free bath of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit which he abundantly poured forth upon us (Titus 3:5-6). This bath of rebirth, which makes us new, comes from this child, who inserted into our flesh, by his incarnation, this new power. He is the seed of the new world, of the new creation, the seed which makes all things new (Rev 21:5).

32

This is what we mean when we say that he divinizes us. The liturgy says: “We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity” (1 vesp.). What splendor comes from this illuminated cave, in the darkness of the night, on the edge of the desert! Our contact with this mystery, if we are baptized, believe in him, and try to imitate him—our contact with this mystery divinizes us, makes us also resplendent and illumined, full of the love of God, renewed and regenerated, made a new creation.

What a good way to begin a new year, being new ourselves, having left our former way of living for ourselves and for our pleasures, and having been reborn from him to this new way of living in imitation of him, dead to all else, and alive only for him (2 Cor 5:14-15; Rom 14:7-8)!

St. Paul tells us today that the fullness of time has come today in the birth of this child (Gal 4:4), and in this fullness of time, God has sent his Son so that we might receive divine sonship and become adopted sons of God himself. And to confirm this gift, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, which cries: “Abba, Father!” (Gal 4:6). The Spirit can cry “Abba, Father” from within us because, if I am baptized and believe in this child as the only Son of God, I am no longer a servant or a slave, but a son. This is the joy of Christmas: To stand before the mystery of the incarnation—made present before us—and be renewed by it.

And what better way could we begin a new year? We begin the new year being new ourselves, renewed and made resplendent by Jesus Christ, illumined by him, participating in his divinity, being divinized by contact with his divinity incarnated in our humanity. He puts splendor into our humanity, into our flesh, into our hearts, and rejoices and illumines us.

Mary, whom we also honor today, is the best example of this renewal of human nature. In these days of Christmas—and today is the Octave Day of Christmas—we try to live with Mary in the cave in Bethlehem, illumined by the light of the world, living in humility and quiet moderation so not to break this spell. She is lost in silence, recollection, and adoration before the manger with Joseph and the shepherds. “There has arisen in the darkness a light for the upright: compassionate, merciful, and just” (vespers antiphon during all of Christmastide—old Roman office; Ps 111, 4). And he shines now in our hearts as we sit recollected with Mary and Joseph before the manger of the Son of God. Today, truly, “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God: sing with jubilation to God, all the earth.” “The Lord has made known his salvation: in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice” (old gradual; Ps 97:3-4.2). During these most sacred days, then, in the silence of Bethlehem, let us live the mystery of the incarnation and of our regeneration and divinization in the splendor of the Son of God.

33

GOD BECAME INCARNATE THAT WE MIGHT BECOME NEW

January 4

1 Jn 3:7-10; Ps 97; Jn 1:35-42 We are still in Christmastide. We are now between the Octave Day of Christmas and the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, when we will commemorate the journey of the Magi from the East to adore Christ the Lord, and give him their gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Therefore we continue to meditate during this week on the great mystery of the incarnation and of our transformation by it. This mystery makes us new (Rev 21:5), a new creation (2 Cor 5:17); and Christ wants us to remain in his love (Jn 15:9). This means that we should also live in a new way, as regenerated persons (Jn 3:3; Titus 3:5), walking in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4) and “in the newness of the Spirit” (Rom 7:6).

St. John speaks to us today about this new way of living. Although we have sinned (1 Jn 1:8,10), Christ gives us a new power not to sin, that is, he gives us the power to conquer temptation and remain in his glory and love. He told us yesterday, “he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him” (1 Jn 3:5-6). This is good news. He wants us to remain in his love (Jn 15:9), in his light (Jn 8:12; 12:46), and he gives us the power we need to realize this.

And today St. John tells us, “No one born of God commits sin; for God’s seed remains in him; and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (1 Jn 3:9). And St. John will also say, “We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him” (1 Jn 5:18). Our way of living should be coherent with the new reality which we now are in Christ, that is: that we have been reborn in Christ as sons of God (Gal 4, 5), that we are transformed, filled with his life and his light, that we are living in his love, and that we are now basking in his splendor. And now, through Christ, we have the new power we need to live this new reality which we have received in Christ, and to avoid the sin which destroys it.

We should even also try to eliminate all imperfections from our new life, because they also overwhelm and darken our spirit, depressing us. The sacrament of reconciliation is a big help to us in this, and gives us alleviation from this sadness, restoring us to the peace and joy of the Lord. To be happy in the Spirit, as he desires us to be, we have to avoid all sin, and try also even to eliminate and confess all our imperfections, to thus walk in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4). “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11). Thus we shall know the happiness of having a clean conscience and of living as a new creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). Thus we shall live in coherence or congruency with the reality that we now are in Christ: new men (Eph 4:22-24), reborn in him (Jn 3:3; Titus 3:5), sons of God (Jn 1:12; Gal 4:5), and sons of light (1 Thess 5:5). Even though it does not seem possible to avoid all imperfections, we must, nevertheless, try to eliminate all we can if we wish to remain in his peace.

34

THERE HAS ARISEN IN THE DARKNESS A LIGHT FOR THE UPRIGHT: HE IS CLEMENT, MERCIFUL, AND JUST

January 5

1 Jn 3:11-21; Ps 99; Jn 1:43-51 Today’s beautiful entrance antiphon can be interpreted in a Christmas sense. It is: “There has arisen in the darkness a light for the upright: He is clement, merciful, and just” (Ps 111:4). Christ is this light which arose in the darkness of this world and of this life. In his mercy and clemency, he makes us just with his own justice, clothing us in a mantle of righteousness (Is 61:10). Therefore we rejoice for being forgiven all our sins and imperfections, and for having Christ’s own heavenly righteousness imputed to us. Once confessed, our sins are forgiven by the merits of Christ, and we are justified by his mercy and clemency if we believe in him. Thus he is just and his justice justifies us, because he is clement and merciful.

Thus he illumines our darkness and destroys our sense of guilt and our depression, once we have been purified, making us resplendent in his sight and happy with the true happiness of a clean conscience. And if there is anyone who is happy, it is he who has a clean conscience, the fruit of the redemption of Christ.

In Bethlehem, in the darkness of the night, in a cave illuminated by the light of the world, “there arose a light” (Ps 111:4) which illumines the world. For this, he came into the world, for its illumination, so that we might live in his light (Jn 8:12).

He reveals his will to us in our conscience. If we follow it, we will, once purified, be illumined and happy, and will bask in his love. And what is his will for us? It is that we live only for him in everything, purifying and cleansing ourselves of all the rest. Until we have purified ourselves of all the other lights of this world—which so many still seek—we will not live in the fullness of his light as he wishes. We have to die to our past in him, and rise to a new present in him, to walk in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), in the light and splendor of his resurrection.

Therefore St. Paul says, “once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Eph 5:8). And we walk “as children of light” by living only for him, mortifying ourselves to all else, to worldly pleasures, and living in silence, quiet work, simplicity, evangelical poverty, and recollection of spirit; in prayer, lectio divina, and spiritual reading of good books, written by holy persons. We should live a life of prayer and fasting and silence if we want to be illumined by this “light which arose in the darkness for the upright” (Ps 111:4).

If we want to be illumined, we have to obey perfectly the will of God, which we know in our conscience; and if we fall into an imperfection, confess it, and thus enter again into this illumination and happiness. Truly, “A holy day has dawned for us: Come, O nations, and adore the Lord: for today a great light has descended upon the earth” (Gospel acclamation). And this light has illumined the world.

35

BAPTIZED IN CHRIST, WE CONQUER THE WORLD

January 6 1 Jn 5:5-13; Ps 147; Mk 1:7-11

Today we hear about the baptism of Jesus. By his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus, the only Son of God, sanctified the waters of baptism for us, so that in being baptized, we might be reborn from him, becoming adopted sons of God in him, receiving his own Spirit (Gal 4:6) which transforms us into the image of the Son “from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18; Rom 8:29). This causes our divinization; and “from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (communion antiphon; Jn 1:16). Baptism, together with our faith, and our life of faith in imitation of him, renews us and inserts us into the splendid river of divine love, which is Trinitarian love, which is the love which always flows gloriously between the Father and the Son (Jn 17:23,26).

The baptism of Jesus, then, is the beginning of our transformation in him, inserting divine life into us, for baptism puts us into contact with Jesus, the source, for us, of the life of God. St. John tells us, “He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life” (1 Jn 5:12). And Jesus said, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him” (Jn 3:36). This is because, as St. John says today, “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 Jn 5:11).

If we live thus in the Son, having been baptized, loving and imitating him, we will conquer the world, which knows nothing of all this, and does not enjoy his splendid love. We will live in the light; while the world remains in darkness, ignorance, sadness, and depression. We will be victorious over all this, as St. John tells us today, saying, “whoever is born of God conquers the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 Jn 5:4-5). And Jesus said, “I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have conquered the world” (Jn 16:33).

We are, therefore, conquerors of the world. We have what the world knows nothing of: the life of God in us and his splendid love, in which we bask, and which transforms us into the glorious image of the only divine Son of God. This splendid love divinizes us; while the world remains in darkness and ignorance. Therefore we shine in the darkness of this world, showing it the way of life and light (Phil 2:15; Mt 5:14-16).

36

A JOURNEY BY NIGHT THROUGH THE DE ERT SWHICH ARRIVES AT ILLUMINATION

Epiphany

Is 60:1-6; Ps 71; Eph 3:2-3,5-6; Mt 2:1-12 Today is the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. We come with the Magi from the East, from the darkness which covers the earth (Is 60:2), to see the light which has been born in the land of the Jews. It is a long journey by night—and we know this because they were guided by a star—and through the desert, a journey of deprivation and purification, to arrive finally in the presence of the Son of God incarnate on earth before them. Thus did God prepare them to enter the illuminated cave of Bethlehem, and thus does he prepare us, calling us to renounce our land for a better land, to enter another and better Kingdom, in order at last to enter into union with him in splendorous love, and remain there with him in his light and embrace.

Until we are purified, we cannot see this light. We can, therefore, see in the journey of the Magi to Bethlehem what happens to us also in our journey of faith, hope, and love, following the star of divine revelation, but walking by night, in darkness, and through the dryness of the desert of this world, depriving ourselves of its delights, as did the Magi on their long and arduous journey through the desert. Only thus will we arrive, at last, at the goal for which we long—basking in the splendor of the Messiah, the King of the Jews, prostrating ourselves before him, adoring him, and offering him our gifts: gold, which is our love; frankincense, which is our prayer; and myrrh, which is our suffering, self-offering, self-oblation, and mortification.

Only thus, by undertaking this journey of faith, of love, and of hope, through the desert, by night, will we enter into union with God, which will transform us and illumine us from within by a light not of this world, and by a sun which does not set (Is 60:20). And our illumination on that day will not come from the sun or moon, nor from a lamp, but the Lord will illumine us with his splendor (Is 60:19). The divinity in this child will always illumine us, if only we continue to obey him. Those who want to arrive at this goal follow this road of the Magi, and are thus purified of the world and its pleasures, to be divinized in an experiential way now in this life.

For the rest, who do not follow this road by night through the desert, depriving themselves in this way, all this remains something of faith and hope. But for the mystics who walk the ascetic path of the Magi, it is a journey of discovery and spiritual experience, the experience of light and illumination, the experience of living in this illumination, which is Christ, God-on-earth, shining with divine splendor. Those who follow the road of the Magi through the desert by night are those who have their hearts purified to be able to experience this illumination. They are the Magi of today who live

37

in his splendor, illuminated from within, transformed by this light, and divinized in an experiential way now.

Then they can radiate in the world this interior and transforming light which they have encountered in the illuminated cave of Bethlehem. Adoring him, and returning by another way (Mt 2:12), they proclaim to the rest the light which they have encountered, because this child came to be a light to the nations (Is 49:6). “There has arisen in the darkness a light for the upright: gentle, merciful, and just” (Ps 111:4).

O Jerusalem, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee…his glory shall be seen upon thee…A multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and frankincense; and shall proclaim the praises of the Lord… The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory” (Is 60:1,2,6,19).

We also are this Jerusalem, now illuminated, not by the sun, but by God and in a way profoundly experienced by those who are purified, who have followed the road of the Magi through the desert, by night. And his glory is seen over us, because he is now shining within us.

And the Magi—both those of yesterday and those of today—are also illumined. God guides them, and if they follow his guidance, the light will dawn upon them, and be seen upon them. May we be in their number, and may we be illuminated like Jerusalem.

BAPTISM CONNECTS US WITH THE INCARNATION, FOR OUR DIVINIZATION AND MISSION

Baptism of the Lord

Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7; Ps 28; Lk 3:15-16,21-22 Today Christ rises gloriously from the waters of the Jordan, illuminated by the Father, and anointed by the Holy Spirit. And there came a voice from heaven, from the Father, saying, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased” (Lk 3:22), thus identifying him both as his own divine Son and as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah about the servant of the Lord, “in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations… He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth… I am the Lord… I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness” (Is 42:1,4,6,7). For this, Jesus came into the world, for our illumination, to be the light of the nations, to take away our darkness.

Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan sanctified the waters for us, so that we also might be able to be baptized and illumined, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and made sons of God in him. Baptism connects us with the incarnation, so that the splendor and divinity incarnated in Jesus might flow into us and transform, illumine, and divinize us. Baptism connects us with the flesh of Jesus; and the divinity in him can then enter into our flesh and spirit by means of this connection.

38

We then have the same mission that Jesus had—we are the extension in the world of his mission to bring justice to the nations by means of the truth (Is 42:3). As he did not tire, so should we not tire or faint, until we have established justice on earth (Is 42:4). In him, we should be a light to the nations (Is 42:6), lights in the world (Mt 5:14-16), lights in the darkness (Phil 2:15), to illumine those who dwell in darkness (Is 42:7). And all this is because we have been baptized. Through the incarnation, the divinity of Christ divinizes our flesh and human nature, and this is activated for us by our baptism, together with our faith in him and our imitation of him.

Our baptism inserts us into Christ and gives us new life—divine life—and a new way of living in this world because it is a divinized life, lived in the light, in the presence, company, and love of God who dwells within us.

But to perceive and experience this new life, we have to be freed from the passions, by renouncing “godlessness and worldly desires” (Titus 2:12) and by living “in this age, sober, upright and godly lives” (Titus 2:12). Thus we live only for God, and, in time, our passions will dry up and we will perceive more and more the splendor of the divinity of the divine Person of Christ within us, illuminating us. But without the death of “worldly desires” (Titus 2:12) by means of mortification and the renunciation of worldly pleasures, it would be difficult to perceive and experience much of this “newness of life” (Rom 6:4); and we will not see the splendor of divinity illuminating us from within by means of the incarnation and our connection with it through baptism.

Our baptism is our illumination, by which Christ shines in our hearts; and illuminated and divinized by him, we ourselves can shine in the darkness of the world for its illumination (Phil 2:15). Thus do we extend the incarnation in the world, and bring it justice, teaching, knowledge, and truth. We thus share and extend the mission of the divine Son himself in the world, living in it “sober, just and godly lives” (Titus 2:12). And in thus renouncing much of the exterior, the light of Christ shines all the brighter in our interior; and, then, for our part, we can shine all the more in the world for its illumination, extending thus the mission of Christ, the light of the world (Jn 8:12; 12:46).

Living this way, many will not understand us, just as they did not understand him (1 Jn 3:1); but that does not matter; and, even so, we will not tire, until we have established justice on earth (Is 42:3). And thus, as the Father did with regard to the Son, so will he do to us, taking us by the hand, guarding us, and giving us “as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations” (Is 42:6).

THE INVITATION TO ENTER INTO A NEW STATE OF TRANQUILITY, PEACE, LIGHT, AND LOVE

Friday, 1st Week of the Year

Heb 4:1-5,11; Ps 77; Mk 2:1-12 The first reading today speaks about “the rest of God,” and our invitation to enter into this rest. The Israelites did not enter immediately into the promised land, that is, into the “rest of God,” because of their disobedience (Heb 4:11), which the author identifies with a lack of faith, saying, “the message which they heard did not benefit them, because it did

39

not meet with faith in the hearers” (Heb 4:2). And his conclusion is, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience” (Heb 4:11).

To enter into “the rest of God” is to enter into union with God. It is to enter into a new state of rest, tranquility, love, and light, by believing and obeying him. This is the great invitation which he gives us. Many do not enter into this rest because they lack faith and obedience to his will. In their disobedience, they do not follow the way which he wishes, which he has shown us, the way of the cross. Many want their own ways, their own will, a broader, more comfortable way, and for that reason, although they want to enter into this blessed “rest of God,” they never succeed in entering it because of their disobedience, because of their self will, because of not following the indicated way.

This is the map of the spiritual itinerary. And the good news today is that, although in the past we have failed to enter into “the rest of God” because of our disobedience, imperfections, and sins, the Son of God has been sent to the earth in these final days to forgive our imperfections and sins by the merits of his sacrificial and propitiatory death on the cross, and that he has entrusted to the Church the ministry of the forgiveness of sins in his name and by his power, if only we believe in him. Thus we can begin again the spiritual itinerary which we have left off without being able to reach its goal in the past.

The paralytic in today’s Gospel is seeking a cure for his paralysis, but Jesus, reading his heart, gives him what he really needs—the forgiveness of his sins, which is his real problem. With this forgiveness, he can live very happily with his paralysis; but without this forgiveness, even if he had been cured of his paralysis, he would not have been happy. With the forgiveness of our imperfections or sins, we have the possibility of entering into “the rest of God,” of entering into this new state of tranquility, peace, light, and love, if only we obey him in the future.

JESUS CALLS US TO LIVE IN HIS NEARNESS

Saturday, 1st Week of the Year Heb 4:12-16; Ps 18; Mk 2:13-17

Jesus calls us to follow him unconditionally, with all that we are. Such is his word of invitation. It is a word “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit” (Heb 4:12), as the first reading today says. And today we see this word of invitation in the call of Levi. St. Mark tells us, “And as he passed on, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him” (Mk 2:14). St. Luke tells us, “and he left everything, and rose and followed him” (Lk 5:28).

His call is similar to that of the other first disciples who were in a boat, about whom St. Luke tells us, “And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:12). And also when he called the sons of Zebedee, James and John, who were in the boat repairing their nets, “they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him” (Mk 1:20). They left their family: their father; and their means of livelihood: their boat and their nets. That is, they completely changed

40

their life. And Levi did the same. He was “sitting at the tax office” and on hearing the call of Jesus, “he left everything, and rose and followed him” (Lk 5:27-28). He also left his livelihood to follow Jesus.

They are now free to spend all their time with Jesus, and all their work will be for him. These are the ones “who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb” (Rev 14:4-5).

Monastic and religious life follow in a very radical and literal way in the footsteps of these first disciples. In leaving all for him, we find all in him, a new life, a life in God, a life rich in prayer and heavenly peace, a life in the light, a life supremely meaningful: a life of silent work and prayer, a life of love and sacrifice, a life of peace not of this world.

For monks, it is a life of silence, working in the light, in the presence of God, invisibly radiating this light to the world. It is a life of silence and love, lived in gentleness and moderation, so as not to break this enchantment; and it is lived in the nearness of the Lord. St. Paul knew this mystery, and expressed it, saying, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is near” (Phil 4:4-5). Truly, leaving all for him, we find all in him. Losing our life for him, we find it in him (Mk 8:35).

WE ARE CALLED TO BE TRANSFORMED, AND TO CELEBRATE OUR WEDDING WITH CHRIST

2nd Sunday of the Year

Is 62:1-5; Ps 95; 1 Cor 12:4-11; Jn 2:1-11 Jesus came into the World to transform us. Today he transforms water into wine. Without him, we are like water. We lack color, fragrance, and taste. We are insipid, tasteless, without flavor, interest, beauty, or joy. Without him, we are sad, empty, and depressed; and our heart is filled with pain. We are nothing without him. But the good news is that God has not left us in our darkness. He sent his Son to save us from our sins and imperfections which depress us, and to transform us into new men (Eph 4:22-24), so that we might participate in his glory, as the acclamation before the Gospel today says, “God has called us, by means of the Gospel, to participate in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 2 Thess 2:14).

Today Christ transforms water into wine, and in great quantity. How different now is the wine, which was once water! Now it has a brilliant color which shines in the light of the sun. Now it has a taste that is sweet, strong, and substantial, which inebriates, and puts one into a state of wellbeing and joy, feeling comfortable, relaxed, and happy. And wine has a beautiful fragrance, with the aroma of sweet and mature fruit. Jesus performed this miracle to help his mother, the newly weds, and their guests. He remains like this until today for us, always ready to help us, and more than helping us merely exteriorly, he came to transform us interiorly, from water without taste into a rich, beautiful, fragrant, strong, and delicious wine.

The problem is that often we do not cooperate sufficiently; we do not obey him as he wishes, and thus we impede this beautiful transformation, or we fall out of this

41

enchantment by falling into imperfections. But if we recognize this, repent, and confess our imperfections and our faults of perfect obedience, he will pardon us and heal our hearts. And in a short time we will feel good again and will be able to enjoy this glory, the glory of our transformation from water into wine, from old men, sad and empty, into new and illuminated men, participating in the glory of the Son of God, the glory which he came to give us.

This life of glory begins now if we obey him and if we are purified of our passions and of worldly pleasures. St. Paul says that “those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom 8:30). This glorification is, then, something present; not only of the future—Jesus “glorified” us (Rom 8:30), says St. Paul. It is a present glorification, already realized for those who have the hearts purified to be able to experience it.

We have been called, justified, and glorified by Jesus Christ; and if we want to live in this glory, we have to live as he wishes, only for him in everything; and he will then teach us little by little how to do this, and what are the things which he wishes us to renounce for love of him, to have a heart completely undivided, reserved only for him. We therefore have to cleanse our five senses, plus our will, our thoughts, and our memory of all else, to concentrate and focus ourselves only on him.

He will also allow us to feel desolation and depression when we do not do this as he wishes; and this also is for our good, to teach us for the future, and to dissuade us, so that we do not repeat the same errors in the future. By means of this desolation, when we fall into imperfections, he shows us more exactly and in more detail the way of life which he has marked out for us; and thus he also motivates us, by fear of this desolation, to choose rather the way of glory and of perfect obedience. Thus we learn his will, even in the smallest details.

Then, we will live with Christ as our spouse, and will be as though married with him, as the first reading today says, “for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married…and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Is 62:4,5). This is the ultimate goal of the Christian life, to be transformed from water into wine, and to enter into a matrimonial relation with Christ. Those who cooperate with God and prepare themselves for this by walking the ascetical path, purifying their five senses and the three faculties of their spirit from all else, are those who can experience the glory of this matrimonial relation with Christ. And their life will be as a wedding, if only they can avoid falling into imperfections which break the beauty of this enchantment.

42

LEAVING ALL TO FIND ALL

Memorial of St. Anthony of Egypt, January 17 Eph 6:10-13,18; Ps 15; Mt 19:16-26

Today we commemorate St. Anthony of Egypt, the father of monasticism. He left all to serve God alone in the deserts of Egypt during the third and fourth centuries. By leaving all in this way to live in the desert, in solitude, in continual prayer and fasting, and in quiet and simple work with his mind and heart fixed on God, he arrived at purity of heart and the interior vision of God.

Many wanted to follow his example; and in his days the deserts of Egypt were populated with thousands of monks—anchorites, and also later cenobites. They were seeking perfection by leaving everything of this world, including the world itself, to live far from their families, in silence and penance, in the desert, abandoning a comfortable life and worldly pleasures. They lived without adornments in caves and simple and poor huts, eating the simplest and most austere food. And by living in this way, little by little they were purified to be able to experience the glory and splendor of God shining in their hearts (2 Cor 4:6); and, contemplating this glory, they were transformed “from glory to glory” into the very image of the Son by the work of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18).

They followed the call of Jesus to the rich young man, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Mt 19:21). And where their treasure was, there also was their heart: in heaven with Christ; and not in the pleasures of this world. This is the call to perfection—and all should follow it, as much as each one can: and the more they follow it, the better. Monks follow it radically and literally, and thus are a mirror and a very visible example for the whole Church of her call to perfection.

The Kingdom of God is beautiful and full of light, for those with the hearts purified to experience it. We can rejoice and bask in its splendor; but to experience this, we have to leave everything else, as did St. Anthony. This is what Jesus taught us, saying that the Kingdom is like a hidden treasure which can only be obtained at the price of everything else; and therefore the man who discovered it went and sold all that he had, to obtain it; and doing this, he obtained it. What is Jesus teaching us in this parable? Is it not what St. Anthony and his followers did? For having left all for the Kingdom, they obtained the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price (Mt 13:44-46), which is the splendid vision of God in the heart.

And we can do the same, if we want to, renouncing the delights of this world for those of the Kingdom of God, so that on the last day, Jesus will not say to us, “Woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger” (Lk 6:24-25).

43

THE SACRIFICE AND PERFECT WORSHIP OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Friday, 2nd Week of the Year Heb 8:6-13; Ps 84; Mk 3:13-19

During these days, we are reading the Letter to the Hebrews, and in it we hear that we have a new high priest, better than the ones of old. This is very important for us today, because nowadays there are those who do not want to believe in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. They do not believe that he is our mediator and intercessor before the Father. They do not want to believe that, as high priest, he offers a sacrifice, which has also become our great sacrifice and the perfect cult of the New Testament to worship the Father. And not believing this destroys our faith in the Eucharist as the perfect sacrifice offered to the Father by our high priest Jesus Christ. And if we do not believe this, then we also cannot believe that the priests of the Church offer the sacrifice of Christ to the Father as our perfect cult of the New Testament.

But in the Letter to the Hebrews, all this is clarified, and our faith is firmly established, that Christ truly is our high priest, and that he offers himself in the heavenly sanctuary interceding with the Father for us, making perfect satisfaction in his blood offered once for all on the cross. And the Eucharist is the perfect representation of this sacrifice for us, making this one sacrifice present before us, and making us present at Calvary at the moment of Christ’s sacrificial and propitiatory death on the cross for our redemption.

The Letter to the Hebrews teaches us that “he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12). “For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb 9:24). “…he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb 9:26). And “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10).

The death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the sacrifice which saved us; and it is the offering which we offer in the Mass to the Father as our sacrifice and perfect cult of the New Testament in the Holy Spirit.

THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST OUR HIGH PRIEST PUTS SPLENDOR IN OUR LIFE

44

Saturday, 2nd Week of the Year Heb 9:2-3,6-7,11-14; Ps 46; Mk 3:20-21

We continue reading the Letter to the Hebrews today, and we hear today this verse which compares the sacrifice of Christ to the sacrifices of the Old Testament, saying, “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:14). That is, our consciences are purified by the blood of Christ offered to the Father when Christ offered himself to the Father in love. This offering purified our consciences of all sense of guilt and of all pain, and made them resplendent before God.

Every time that we fall into an imperfection and our conscience is filled with pain and we lose, thereby, our peace and joy in the Lord, we need to be purified again by the blood of Christ offered in sacrifice to the Father. This happens when we confess our sins and receive his absolution, especially in the sacrament of reconciliation, when the merits of Christ’s sacrifice, through the ministry of the Church, are applied to us, and our sins or imperfections are sacramentally absolved. Then we leave the sacrament with jubilation of spirit and with Christ shining anew in our heart.

This salvation we cannot give to ourselves. Only Christ can give us this jubilation of Spirit, this purity of heart. And it is not only something negative; that is, it is not only the remission of sins or imperfections, but it is also a participation in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), an interior illumination (2 Cor 4:6), a washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). We are illumined, rejoiced, divinized, transformed, with the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and made participants in the very life of God, participants in his divinity and in his splendid love. And he wants us to live and remain in his splendid love (Jn 15:9).

All this we receive through the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This enlightenment comes from his sacrifice on Calvary, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb 10:14). This is our sanctification and divinization. And now he is seated in glory at the right hand of the Father, a glory which he came to the earth to share with us (Jn 17:22,24). And thus “when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12).

JESUS CAME FOR THE RENEWAL OF THE HUMAN RACE

3rd Sunday of the Year Nehemiah 8:2-4,5-6,8-10; Ps 18; 1 Cor 12:12-30; Lk l:1-4; 4:14-21

Today Jesus “came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up” (Lk 4:16), and St. Luke tells us that “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all” (Lk 4:14-15).

Now we have arrived at the fulfillment of time, and Jesus is preaching the arrival of the Kingdom of God on earth in him, saying, according to St. Mark, “The time is

45

fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk 1:15). We are now in the presence of the Kingdom of God on earth, brought to us by Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the divinity on the earth for the renewal of our humanity, of our race, inserting into the midst of it his own divinity, filling it with the splendor of God for our transformation, illumination, and divinization.

And when Jesus came to Galilee, at the beginning of his ministry, “in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali” (Mt 4:13), St. Matthew tells us that in this was fulfilled “what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah” when he said, “‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.’ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Mt 4:15-17; Is 8:23 – 9:1).

The hour has arrived. The Son of God is preaching in the synagogue of Nazareth. He himself chooses his text, and he reads it, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19; Is 61:1-2). “And he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Lk 4:21).

He is proclaiming himself as the fulfillment of this messianic prophecy. He has been anointed by the Spirit of the Lord. The Holy Spirit dwells within him as his own Spirit. And his mission in the world is “to preach the good news to the poor,” not only announcing the arrival of the Kingdom and of the light, but himself shining within the poor, filling them with the splendor of his divinity for their transformation and illumination, making them new men, a new creation, the dwelling of God on earth. And he will say in Galilee, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). He is sowing a new seed of a new human race, of humanity renewed by his arrival in the world, by his incarnation, by his assuming our flesh, divinizing it with splendor, redeeming and renewing it.

How good it is, therefore, to be one of those humble poor before him, one of the anawim of Yahweh, the poor of the Lord, the meek, the weak, and the humble of the earth, who no longer have anything except the Lord! In the fullness of time it is these poor who are the most transformed by Christ, simply because they have nothing else but him in this world. They have lost and renounced all else for him. And he now is their great treasure (Mt 6:19-21), their only Lord, the only one whom they serve (Mt 6:24). They are the last who have become the first (Mt 19:30), the least who have become the greatest (Mt 18:3-4). Blessed in him, they keep his commandments and do his will. They are the ascetics who walk the ascetical-mystical path, and are illumined by a light not of this world, and inundated by heavenly joy.

Their eyes have been opened by him, while the rest continue to walk in the darkness. They are the truly free, while the rest remain sitting in the dungeon. They are the true servants of the Lord who live in his nearness, in his joy, in his light. They are rejoiced by him, because he dwells within them in a special way, not as he dwells in the rest. In them is fulfilled the saying of Isaiah, “Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame; behold, my servants shall sing with jubilation of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart” (Is 65:13-14).

46

The poor, blessed today by Jesus, are these servants, the heirs of the Kingdom of God on earth, the Kingdom of transformed persons. They are the ones who know jubilation of spirit and the joy of Christ shining in their hearts. We can imitate them by making ourselves poor to all else for the love of him, leaving everything of this world for him; and thus he will shine in our hearts too.

IN CHRIST PAUL FOUND A NEW LIFE: CRUCIFIED AND RISEN IN CHRIST

Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle, January 25 Acts 22:3-16; Ps 116; Mk 16:15-18

Today we commemorate and celebrate the conversion of St. Paul, apostle and great preacher of Christ. In him we see the greatness and heroism of the vocation of the preacher, the apostolic vocation. After being himself converted from darkness to the light of Christ, Paul immediately began sharing his great discovery with the whole world, literally circumnavigating the world, preaching Christ, despite great obstacles, persecutions, and sufferings.

All that he suffered as a minister of the word, rejoiced him, for it gave him a participation in the salvific sufferings of his Lord. Therefore he was content to live the mystery of the death of Christ in preaching the Gospel, in order thus to share in the glory of his resurrection. He said, I am “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Cor 4:10). He also said, “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:8,10-11).

This is the great mystery which St. Paul lived and preached: dying with Christ, he also rose with him. By living a crucified life with Christ, he lived a risen life in him, bathed in light. He describes this new risen life thus, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col 3:1-2).

St. Paul lived an angelic life on earth, leaving all else in his life to live uniquely and totally for Christ, a new, risen, and illumined life. And the way to do this, he knew, is the way of the cross, the way of dying for Christ in this world. Therefore he said, “far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). Crucifying himself with Christ, for love, in this world, he lives a new life, and he walks in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), and “in the newness of the Spirit” (Rom 7:6). In crucifying himself for the love of Christ, he offers himself, as did Jesus, as a holocaust to the Father (Eph 5:2). Thus the cross is his life and his joy. Carrying about thus the death of Christ, the life of Christ manifests itself in him (2 Cor 4:11).

For him, the cross was to preach the Gospel in all parts and to suffer persecution. For us the cross can be the same thing, and it is also our renunciation of the world and its pleasures to live only for Christ. This cross gives us a risen and glorified life, thus

47

leaving behind the world with its fashions and thoughts, being renewed in Christ. Therefore St. Paul tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2).

Living this way, we live a life in the Spirit, having renounced the unnecessary pleasures of the body and of the flesh, being thus those “who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:4). Such is life in the Spirit, leaving behind a worldly and carnal life, because “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom 8:6).

Paul saw the light of Christ shining in his heart on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3; see 2 Cor 4:6); and, in being baptized by Ananias, his conscience was cleansed of all sense of sin and guilt (Acts 22:16). He was regenerated in Christ. He was illumined, and his spirit was rejoiced by Christ newly dwelling within him.

Now he could bring this salvation to the whole world. Therefore from this moment on he dedicated himself to preaching and writing, so that all might receive what he had received from Christ. “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!” (Rom 10:15; Is 52:7), he wrote. He preached what he lived, that is: his experience of Christ who had saved and illumined him. He was so united to Christ that he was transformed in Christ (2 Cor 3:18), and therefore could write, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal 2:20).

I THANK THEE, FATHER, THAT THOU HAST HIDDEN THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE AND UNDERSTANDING

Solemnity of our Holy Founders of the Cistercian Order, January 26

Hos 2:16,17,21-22; Acts 2:42-47; Jn 17:17-23 Today we honor the Holy Founders of the Cistercian Order, Robert, Alberic, and Stephen, who in the year 1098 left their monastery of Molesme for the desert of Citeaux, and there built the New Monastery where they dedicated themselves to living a life more faithful to the Rule of St. Benedict, which they were not able to live as strictly as they had wished in their former monastery of Molesme. They wanted to live more austerely in evangelical poverty, leaving the goods and pleasures of this world for those of the Kingdom of God. In those days, Citeaux was “a place of horror and a vast wilderness,” but when these Founders and their companions found that the asperity of the place conformed well with their desires to live a more austere life, they were delighted and began to build the New Monastery (Exordium of Citeaux 1).

Truly, as we heard in the Gospel read at vigils this morning, they were the children to whom God revealed his secrets, hidden from the wise and understanding of this world (Mt 11:25). The wise and understanding of this world do not understand the richness and beauty of a life of silence and prayer, hidden in the desert, and lived in continual fasting, simplicity, and frugality. The wise of this world do not understand the ideals of our Founders. They do not understand why our Founders loved austerity and why they

48

renounced the delights and pleasures of this world. They do not understand that this is the narrow and hard way of life (Mt 7:13-14).

The world does not understand that this is the way of the purification of the heart, that is, the purification of the five senses and of the three faculties of the spirit from the delights of this creation for those of the new creation, in order to be able thus to enter into intimate, profound, and experienced union with God. The world does not understand that to be able to better perceive and experience the delights of the Kingdom of God, one has to be purified of the delights of this world. The world does not understand this way of life, because it prefers its own pleasures, ideas, ways, and will. It prefers the wide, spacious, and comfortable way of this world, which is the way of perdition (Mt 7:13-14).

But children, yes, they understand, as Jesus prayed today, saying, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will” (Mt 11:25).

How beautiful is this life of silence, prayer, and fasting in the desert—filled with God, filled with light. It is a life in which we confess our sins and live with a clean conscience in the luminous presence of God, freed from the slavery of the passions and of worldly desires. It is a life lived in the nearness of God (Phil 4:4-5), in love, with Christ shining in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6), illuminating them. It is a life rejoiced by the Holy Spirit (Jn 7:38-39), far from the noise, distraction, attraction, and temptation of the world.

It is a life which loves the entire world, because it lives far from the world and has renounced its pleasures, for those of the Kingdom of God. One who lives like this can bless the entire world in his love for all, and thus raise the spiritual level of all.

This life of silence, fasting, mortification, prayer, and flight from the world (fuga mundi), lived in austerity and renunciation provides an environment in which the soul can arrive at purity of heart, unite itself to God, and remain in his love and light.

These monasteries, beginning with the New Monastery, which Saints Robert, Alberic, and Stephen built in Citeaux in the year 1098, are oases in the desert of this world, places of peace, silence, love, and light, where people can come to rest, pray, and be cured of the wounds of their souls.

And for those who live always within these monasteries, they are places where they can be transformed and illumined to become beacons in a world lost in darkness, pain, guilt, noise, confusion, and sin. Thus these monks serve for the transformation of the human race and for its rejuvenation in Christ.

WE ARE STRANGERS AND EXILES HERE ON EARTH IN THE MIDST OF STORMS

Saturday, 3rd Week of the Year

Heb 11:1-2,8-19; Lc 1; Mk 4:35-41 Our days are full of storms, small things normally, but things which make us lose our peace and cause pain in our heart. It is our own imperfections which cause us the worst pain, putting us in the midst of a storm at sea, into a depression. It is as though Jesus

49

were asleep within us, hiding himself from us. And we become sad, looking at the waves, the wind, and the water filling our boat.

And in this situation—which is a common one—what did the disciples do in today’s Gospel? They woke Jesus up, and asked for his help, with faith that he could save them. And we should do the same—especially in the sacrament of reconciliation, through which he normally channels his pardon—asking his help, his pardon, and the restoration of his peace and joy in our heart.

And what did Jesus do? “And he awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mk 4:39). Is this not what we want—the cessation of the wind and of the storm in our heart, the return of peace, and this “great calm”? And he will give it to us in his good time if we call upon him in faith, especially in the sacrament.

It could be that we will have to suffer a little first for our imperfection, which caused this storm, in order to motivate us to eliminate these imperfections in the future. And while we await this return of peace, we should hope for it with faith and confidence. The smallest imperfections can cause these storms, this loss of peace in our heart. And thus God teaches us his will more exactly, so that we might grow in virtue and holiness in following it.

These experiences also help us to feel like “strangers and exiles on the earth” (Heb 11:13), as the first reading says. We realize better, in these storms, that “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14). As the patriarchs “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb 11:16), we also understand better in these storms that our life here below is an “exile” (1 Peter 1:17), and that we should follow the words of St. Peter, when he said, “conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile” (1 Peter 1:17), fear to offend God and to fall into a storm.

Truly, we are “strangers and exiles” (Heb 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11) in this world, seeking a heavenly homeland (Heb 11:16). We live here below in hope, longing for the peace which awaits us in the fullness of the Kingdom of our Father.

THE LIFE PERSECUTED FOR THE TRUTH IS THE ILLUMINED LIFE

4th Sunday of the Year Jer 1:4-5,17-19; Ps 70; 1 Cor 12:31 – 13:13; Lk 4:21-30

Today we hear about the persecution of two prophets: Jeremiah and Jesus, persons sent by God to his people to show it the true way of life and love. And St. Paul speaks today about this love, the love of God and our participation in it. These are things very important for us today. God continues inspiring persons and sending them to his people to teach them the true way of love; and people keep persecuting them and rejecting their doctrine. May we not be among those who reject and persecute those whom God sends us.

But very often, if we are faithful and obedient to the will of God and live and speak the truth which he gives us for his people, we will be among those rejected and persecuted. It is impossible to avoid this if we are faithful.

50

Jesus himself prepared us for this, saying, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves…Beware of men; for they will deliver you up to councils, and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake…and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next… A disciple is not above his teacher… If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Mt 10:16,17,18,22,23,24,25).

And Jesus’ conclusion is, “have no fear of them…do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Mt 10:26,28). Persecutors can persecute us, but they cannot damage our spirit nor diminish our joy in the Lord.

Jesus prepared us for this prophetic vocation and for the persecution which would follow and be a part of our life, for, as St. Paul said and experienced, “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12). We cannot live faithfully and escape from this. Truly, “Do not wonder, brethren,” said St. John, “that the world hates you” (1 Jn 3:13).

It will always be like this because the majority does not want to hear the truth. It wants a comfortable life, full of the pleasures of this world. It does not want to go through the narrow gate and walk the hard way of life. It prefers the wide and spacious way, which is not the way of life, but that of perdition (Mt 7:13-14). It does not want to love God with all its heart, with an integral and undivided heart, reserved only for him, but rather it wants its own pleasures, ideas, and ways, and the delights of this world. And when a prophet comes—that is, a person sent by God to tell it the truth and show it the true way of life and holiness—it does not want to hear anything of this, and rejects and persecutes its prophet, chasing him out of their land, as they did to Jesus today: “And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong” (Lk 4:29).

And Jeremiah was told today, “They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you” (Jer 1:19). But even so, Jeremiah will have to set himself against the whole nation in his mission to proclaim to it the truth from God. And it will be the same for us if we are faithful to his word. Thus the words which were directed to Jeremiah are also directed to us today, namely, “And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land” (Jer 1:18).

Thus, as a prophet, Jeremiah is placed, as was Jesus, “for the fall and rising of many in Israel” (Lk 2:34). He is set “over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer 1:10). Such is the vocation of the prophet and the effect of his word of truth and of the testimony of his life. He is set for the destruction of evil and for the conversion and edification of the people.

And what was the mission of Jeremiah? It was the same as ours, and it is expressed in these words: “But you, gird up your loins; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them” (Jer 1:17). Our mission is to be obedient to the will of God and to live it and proclaim it to all for their good and for their conversion and transformation; and suffer rejection and persecution as did the prophets and as did Jesus and St. Paul; and thus live in his glory, light, and happiness as his faithful servants, for “Blessed are you when men hate you, and

51

when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy” (Lk 6:22-23).

Such is the Christian life. It is a participation in the prophetic life of Jesus; and follows the pattern of the prophets. It is a happy life in the Lord because it is completely dedicated to him and lived in the truth. It is a life crucified in this world (Gal 6:14), and therefore it is a risen and illuminated life.

WE CAN LIVE NOW AHEAD OF TIME IN THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM

Thursday, 4th Week of the Year

Heb 12:18-19,21-24; Ps 47; Mk 6:7-13 We now live in hope for something better in the future, the heavenly Jerusalem. We do not live only for this earth in which we now live. And God disciplines us here below, showing us our imperfections so that we might be able more and more to purify ourselves of them to be every day more prepared, more ready for the heavenly Jerusalem. And to the degree that we are already obedient to the will of God and already purified of our imperfections, to that same degree do we begin even now to live in the joy of this city of light.

Therefore the discipline of God helps us. When he allows us to feel guilty and sad for our imperfections, we learn what our imperfections are and we learn more exactly what his will for us is. This sadness, furthermore, motivates us to remove these imperfections from our life in order to be able to live in the happy presence of God even now.

For the sinner, yes, God is frightening, as was Mount Sinai in the Old Testament. But for the repentant who approach him, he is full of love and light, and welcomes us very well. The first reading today tells us that “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in festal array, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel” (Heb 12:22-24).

Truly, as St. Paul says, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). And even now we should live in heaven in spirit—with our heart where our treasure is (Mt 6:19-21). And if we can purify ourselves of the delights of this world and of our imperfections, we will live a life of joy and heavenly light even here below. Christ won for us the forgiveness and justification of God through his death and resurrection; and through the sacraments—especially in confession and in the Eucharist—we receive this great gift of his forgiveness and justification, which is the gift of salvation.

In receiving and living in this gift, we live in his light, we live by anticipation in the heavenly Jerusalem, and we share this good news with all by preaching it everywhere as did his disciples today. Thus we are carriers of good news, carriers of the Gospel.

52

ILLUMINATED BY THE LIGHT OF CHRIST

Presentation of the Lord, February 2 Mal 3:1-4; Ps 23; Heb 2:14-18; Lk 2:22-40

Today is a feast of light, the Presentation of the Lord in the temple. Joseph and Mary offer their son to God in the temple. This offering anticipates his own offering of himself at the end of his life on the cross “to propitiate (hilaskesthai) the sins of the people,” as Hebrews says today (Heb 2:17). Thus he came “that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb 2:14). He offered himself for our redemption from sin so that we might shine with the splendor of God. Today, therefore, is a feast of light.

In him we are illumined and contemplate the splendor of God. He is, in the words of Simeon, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel” (Lk 2:32). He fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah when he said, “I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory” (Is 46:13). And “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Is 49:6).

Christ is our light, sent to us by the Father to illumine us, to make us all light. The soul, saved by Christ and illuminated by him, is, as St. Macarius says, “covered with the beauty of ineffable glory of the Spirit, becomes all light, all face, all eye… Thus the soul is completely illumined with the unspeakable beauty of the glory of the light of the face of Christ and is perfectly made a participator of the Holy Spirit” (Pseudo-Macarius, Homily 1.2). Thus our life is transformed by this light. We, through our union with Christ, the light of the world, are transfigured in light. We become “sons of light and sons of the day” (1 Thess 5:5). We are light in Christ, as St. Paul says, “for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (Eph 5:8).

If we do what Simeon did, that is, accept Christ in our arms, recognizing him as our Lord and Savior, letting him rule sovereign in our heart, without competition, living only for him, doing, at last, his will with exactitude, we will be illumined, and our passions will be overcome and become dormant within us. We will be transfigured in light by Christ. We will contemplate his splendor, and while we contemplate it, the Holy Spirit will form us in the luminous image of Christ.

Christ came for this, to shine in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6), to free us from sin, from darkness, and from the passions, so that we might become all light, all face, all eye, covered with the beauty of the glory of the face of Christ. Did Christ not say that he who follows him will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (Jn 8:12)? This is his will. This is his plan. If we obey him, this will be realized in us. If we live according to his most perfect will for us, in due time, this will happen.

53

And what is his most perfect will for us? It is that we live uniquely for him in everything, in every aspect of our life, with him as the only pleasure and joy of our life, with him as our only treasure (Mt 6:19-21) and only Lord (Mt 6:24), living simply, austerely, and in evangelical poverty, leaving all for him. If we do this, we will be purified of the passions. And if we pray, fixed only on him in abstraction from all else, we will see his light illuminating us from within with its beauty and splendor, and we ourselves will shine as lights in the world (Mt 5:14-16; Phil 2:15; Eph 5:8; Jn 8:12; 12, 46).

Today, therefore, we rejoice to welcome Christ, the light of the world, in his temple, and be enkindled by him. And we say, “we receive your mercy, O God, in the midst of your temple” (Ps 47:9), and we proclaim with the Scriptures that “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Ps 97:3).

Now, O Israel, your light has come—“your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (Is 60:1). Upon you his glory is seen (Is 60:2).

We are this Israel—the glory of God has risen upon us and is seen upon us because it is within us. It is Christ shining within us. It is “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel” (Lk 2:32).

THE PRAYER OF UNION

Saturday, 4th Week of the Year Heb 13:15-17,20-21; Ps 22; Mk 6:30-34

How important it is to have time to rest with the Lord and to pray in silence in a deserted and desert place, alone with him! We need this as human beings and as Christians, because God made us that way. We cannot be happy or complete without it.

We see the importance of this silent prayer in today’s Gospel. Jesus said to his apostles today, “‘Come away by yourselves to a desert place, and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desert place by themselves” (Mk 6:31-32).

There are various kinds of prayer, and all of them are important, good, and necessary. We pray the psalms in the divine office, we offer the sacrifice of Christ together with the sacrifice of ourselves in the Mass. We pray the rosary, and we pray in our own words explaining to God our problems and needs. At other times we thank God for his help and blessings, and at still other times we praise him.

But there is still another kind of prayer which is also very important, but which only a few know about. This is silent prayer, in which we sit before God in love and concentrate on him without words, without meditations, without ideas, and without images. But we can use an ejaculation, such as the Jesus prayer, constantly repeated, to help us focus on God and avoid distractions.

In doing this, we can sit for a while, and at times we experience a deep peace, and our soul rests deeply in God. At other times we fall asleep for a little while as we pray in this way. But at still other times we fall into a profound state of intimate union with God, in

54

which he fills us with light and love, uniting himself profoundly with us, illuminating us from within.

This profound prayer transforms and transfigures us in light for its duration. It makes us, truly, “sons of light” (1 Thess 5:5), and we walk in the light of Christ (Jn 8:12). This prayer of union makes us want to change our life, to simplify it, to do great things for God, to dedicate ourselves to his Kingdom, and to preach and extend his Kingdom in the world. It makes us want to live completely for him, and for him alone. It fills us with light and happiness and renews us, until we arrive one day at a new and stable state of peace, tranquility, love, and happiness in God, which is the goal of the life of faith.

JESUS WAS SENT TO CURE US OF OUR SENSE OF GUILT

5th Sunday of the Year Is 6:1-2,3-8; Ps 137; 1 Cor 15:1-11; Lc 5:1-11

In the first reading today we hear the call of Isaiah to be a prophet. First Isaiah experiences the glory of God in the temple, and says, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Is 6:5). Isaiah feels unworthy before God. He feels impure, a “man of unclean lips” (Is 6:5). Then, after confessing his sin and admitting his unworthiness, God acts, sending a seraphim “Having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar” (Is 6:6). And Isaiah describes what happened, saying, “And he touched my mouth, and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven’” (Is 6:7).

God absolved him of his sins, and in the act of doing this, took away his sense of guilt and unworthiness, and made him worthy, and he now also felt worthy through the gift of God’s pardon and justice conferred upon him. This act of God rejuvenated him, made him a new man, and this was an objective change which he was not able to do to himself. Only this act of God renewed him.

Then, seeing that he is now prepared, forgiven, and rejoiced by the Spirit, the Lord wants to send him as his prophet to preach this salvation to the people. And the Lord said to him, “‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me’” (Is 6:8). We now see the great change in Isaiah. Before, he did not feel worthy before God; but now, after being touched by the burning coal, Isaiah offers himself immediately into the service of the Lord to preach and share with everyone this great discovery, this transformation which God has worked in him.

The same thing happened to St. Paul in the second reading today, and to St. Peter in today’s Gospel, namely, they were suffering from guilt and sadness caused by their sense of imperfection and unworthiness before the Lord. St. Paul says today that the risen Christ appeared to him, “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain” (1 Cor 15:8-10).

55

It was not Paul who cured himself. He could not do that, and he knew very well that he could not cure himself of the pain of guilt, imperfection, and unworthiness in his heart. But he also knows very well that he was completely cured by the grace of God, and that he was now cured and happy in Christ, and was a new man (Eph 4:22-24), a new creature (2 Cor 5:17), a new creation in Christ (Gal 6:15), buried with him to sin, and risen with him to walk in the newness of life (Rom 6:4), in the newness of the Spirit (Rom 7:6).

This is the same grace of pardon, justification, and renewal which we all need, and which we cannot give to ourselves. God gave it to Paul for the first time through the ministry of Ananias. When Ananias came to Saul, he said to him, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus…has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, and took food and was strengthened” (Acts 9:17-19). And after a few days, “in the synagogues immediately he proclaimed Jesus, saying, ‘He is the Son of God’” (Acts 9:20). That is, he wanted to share with everyone in the most direct way possible his great and happy discovery of the forgiveness, justification, and new life which he had received in Christ, so that others too might receive the same.

Is this not exactly what we also need? And God, for his part, is ready to give it to us through the ministry of the Church, especially through the sacrament of reconciliation, if only we humble ourselves in the sacrament before a man, a priest, to receive it. This salvation comes to us through the grace of Jesus Christ, gained by the merits of his salvific death on the cross, and channeled for us through this sacrament of healing.

And to make sure that we do not miss this point, today’s Gospel also gives us an example of the same thing. Peter, seeing the great catch of fish which they made at the command of Jesus, “fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’” (Lk 5:8). And for having said this, did Jesus depart from him? No! Jesus did not depart from him, but rather called him to be his apostle. “And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men (anthropous ese zogron).’ And when they had brought their boats to land,” St. Luke tells us, “they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:10-11).

It was the words of Jesus, directed to Peter, which raised him up and cured him. Jesus healed his heart, took away his guilt, sadness, and unworthiness, and invited him to be his apostle, a “fisher of men” (anthropous ese zogron) (Lk 5:10). And responding, Peter left everything and followed him.

Every time that we feel like this, guilty and unworthy of God because of our imperfections, we should do what Peter did today, humble ourselves before Jesus, especially in the sacrament of reconciliation, and confess our unworthiness, imperfection, and guilt. Having done this, Jesus will cure us with his word of absolution and with his word of invitation to be a “fisher of men.” In this way he renews us and rejoices our spirit.

CHRIST CAME TO RESTORE THE PEACE OF EDEN

Thursday, 5th Week of the Year Gen 2:18-25; Ps 127; Mk 7:24-30

56

In the first reading today, we hear the account of the creation of woman. She should be “a helper fit for him” (RSV. ezer cnegdo, Gen 2:18,20. The Hebrew expression, “ezer cnegdo” means “assistant fit for him,” “help fit for him,” or “helper fit for him”). She is like him, a human being, but different also. Then we hear that “the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed” (Gen 2:25). Adam and Eve, at this time, had perfect control over their passions. They still had not yet sinned, and they live in a state of peace, love, and light with God, with themselves, and with each other. These two lived together as man and wife, as “one flesh” (Gen 2:24).

We see here the complementarity of the sexes. The woman helps and completes the man, and therefore they unite together in matrimony and live together. What one lacks, the other complements, and thus together they are complete. Therefore they live together in marriage, the woman being “a helper fit for” the man. Thus each one fulfills his or her own nature as man or woman, and at the same time compensates for what the other lacks. What one needs, the other can provide. This is marriage in God’s plan. God made the sexes different, so that they might help and complement each other mutually. What the man cannot do well alone, he can do very well with the help of a woman, his wife. And the woman also is helped by living with and helping, in her own way, a man, her husband.

Freedom from the slavery of the passions—symbolized by the fact that they could live together naked without shame or concupiscence—which Adam and Eve had, and lost, Christ came to restore, in a new way, if we follow him with faith and obedience. Thus we will once again have peace and happiness in our relation with God, with ourselves, and with our neighbor, as did Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Jesus came to free us from the slavery of the passions and the devil. He came to save us from original sin and from all actual sins by the sacrifice of himself on the cross and by the glory and splendor of his Resurrection, which he wants to share with us. What he first wants to see in us, though, is faith in him and in his power to save us.

Today we see an example of this faith in the Syrophoenician woman in today’s Gospel. She compared herself to little dogs under the table, eating the scraps of the children. For her humility, petition, and faith, Jesus granted her the cure of her daughter from the demon which she sought from him. He will do the same for us if we ask him with this kind of faith and humility.

THE FALL OF MAN

Friday, 5th Week of the Year Gen 3:1-8; Ps 31; Mk 7:31-37

Today we hear the important text of Genesis about the fall of Adam and Eve in disobeying the command of God not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17). They were tempted by the devil under the form of a serpent (Wisdom 2:23-24). He deceived them, saying, “when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). They ate, and “Then the eyes of

57

both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen 3:7), that is, they had lost control over their passions.

With this direct act of disobedience to a clear and explicit command, given directly to them by God, they fell out of the original state of grace and lost their other special gifts, such as immortality, the control of their passions, and their intimacy with God. And they were expelled from the Garden of Eden.

We clearly see here the evil of sin. Sin is disobedience against the will of God. When we disobey God, choosing rather our own self-will, our own desires and pleasures, and leaving aside the desires of God, we sin, and fall out of his light and love. We cut ourselves off from the vine which spiritually feeds us. If the sin is grave, that is, if it is a mortal sin, we fall out of the grace of God, until we repent and receive his forgiveness. Then he reestablishes us again in his grace, light, and love. If our disobedience is not grave, that is, if it is a venial sin or an imperfection, then we do not fall out of his grace, but experience a lessening of his light and a certain sadness and sense of guilt.

Christ came to repair all of this, to restore us once again to the fullness of the grace of God, in the splendor of his love, and in great intimacy with him, as were Adam and Eve; but not in exactly the same way, for we remain mortal, have to fight to overcome our passions, and to grow until we recover our lost intimacy with God. But in Christ all this is once again possible for the person of faith who imitates the life of Jesus. He can be transformed and divinized, justified and sanctified, by the merits of the death of Christ and by the light of his Resurrection which illumines him with the splendor of God.

THE RESTORATION OF OUR INTIMACY WITH GOD

Saturday, 5th Week of the Year Gen 3:9-24; Ps 89; Mk 8:1-10

Today we hear about the punishment for Original Sin. Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden and lose their intimacy with God, who formerly walked with them amid the trees of the garden in the cool of the day, while they heard his voice (Gen 3:8). But today we also hear a verse which is called the protoevangelium, in which God says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15).

We note that the pronoun (he) in this verse is masculine in Hebrew (hu). This is, therefore, a prophecy (protoevangelium) that one of the male descendents of the woman will destroy the work of Satan. Christ fulfilled this prophecy. He is the male descendent of Eve who crushed the head of the serpent.

In Christ we are freed from the curse which the sin of Adam and Eve brought upon us. The Spirit of God will again return to our humanity with the coming, incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His divinity, entering by way of the incarnation into our humanity, will again illumine us, and will restore to us the intimacy with God which Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden of Eden before their sin. By the death of Christ, God is adequately propitiated, that is, an adequate satisfaction has been made for this sin and for all sin; and hence the enmity between God and man is overcome.

58

Now, therefore, man has a new possibility to live in the light with God if he believes in Jesus Christ and the power of his propitiatory and expiatory sacrifice. Through this faith, the merits of this sacrifice free him from darkness; and, through the sacraments, he receives the new life of God which divinizes and illumines him.

Now, if we confess our sins, especially in the sacrament, and if we purify ourselves of all that is not God, in due time we will be able to return to the original state of peace, light, love, and happiness, which Adam and Eve enjoyed from the first moment of their creation when the Lord God walked with them amid the trees of the garden in the cool of the day while they heard his voice (Gen 3:8). This great intimacy with God, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, whom he gives us, is once again, since the incarnation, a possibility for us if we have faith in Christ and if we purify ourselves of the world, so that he be our only happiness in this life. The more we can do this, the more we will enter into this restored state of peace, light, happiness, and love; and the more we will be illumined.

GOD TAKES CARE OF THE POOR

6th Sunday of the year Jer 17:5-8; Ps 1; 1 Cor 15:12,16-20; Lk 6:17,20-26

Today we hear one of the truly great texts of the New Testament, the Beatitudes. Here Jesus teaches us that we can be happy and blessed in any situation, and especially when we are in the midst of exterior difficulties, when we are persecuted, mistreated, misunderstood, and when we live a simple and poor life, without any trimmings, and in the midst of worries about the future. In all this we can and should rejoice in Christ, because he takes care of us, reassures us, and fills our life with light, love, and joy.

If we lose all for him and our behavior is, as a result, misunderstood, and if in this situation we depend completely on God, without human help, he will fill our life with every good, and will so take care of us that we will not have to worry any more about the future or about our happiness or wellbeing. If we are mistreated for obeying his will, he will take care of us all the more. Living like this, we are among the blessed poor of the Gospel.

Therefore we should never fear to do the will of God, because it does not matter what kind of reaction we experience for our obedience to his will. The more we are rejected for our good behavior, the more we will be blessed by God, not only for having obeyed him, but also for having suffered for him. “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy” (Lk 6:22-23), Jesus tells us today. If we suffer mistreatment for obeying him, we are blessed.

Living this way, we are conformed to Christ. We imitate the pattern of his life. We are crucified with him in love and imitation of him. And we rise spiritually with him now, already, ahead of time.

The poor especially are proclaimed blessed: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Lk 6:20). The poor here are the anawim of Yahweh, the poor of the

59

Lord, who have nothing else to depend upon. Their only support is the Lord. Their life is austere, simple, and basic; without pleasure. But if they completely give themselves over to the Lord, they will be happier than the rich, because God will fill them with his own light and splendor.

In fact, it is the comforts of the world which distract us from God, which divide our heart, and which fill it with other things, other loves outside of God, to the point that many forget God. Then they do not experience this wealth which the poor know. Rather they experience a great interior emptiness, and their heart is full of sadness, worries, and fears of every sort. How much better it is to be among those blessed poor of the Lord!

How happy are the poor of the Lord, those persecuted for Christ, those rejected by this world, those who voluntarily strip themselves of the delights of this world, those who live in evangelical poverty, those who renounce unnecessary pleasures, and in many ways live voluntarily like the poor for love of God! Happy are those who do not desire any other joy outside of God, for they are those who will live in his splendid light, and whose hearts will rejoice all the day. They are not choked by riches. They are not like the seeds which fell among the thorns and which “are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Lk 8:14).

It is true that “whoever would save his life” in the comforts and pleasures of the world, “will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mk 8:35). We lose our life for him by living only for him in evangelical and voluntary poverty. Thus we will save our life and live in the light. Those who do this are those who hate their life in this world for Christ, and in doing so, discover true interior joy. “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:25).

“But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Lk 6:20). Abraham said the same thing to the rich man in hell who in his life “feasted sumptuously every day” (Lk 16:19). “Son,” he said, “remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish” (Lk 16:25). He is tormented for his life of luxury and gluttony. And gluttony is one of the capital sins. If we have our joy in worldly delights, we will lack joy of spirit. Therefore blessed are the poor; but woe to the rich, for it would be “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mt 19:24).

These rich are those “who lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the midst of the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and…invent for themselves instruments of music; who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first of those to go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves shall pass away” (Amos 6:4-7).

THE WAY TO ARRIVE AT THE COUNTRY OF LIGHT

Thursday, 6th Week of the Year Gen 9:1-13; Ps 101; Mk 8:27-33

60

Today we hear the confession of Peter, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. Peter understood who Jesus was, but he did not yet understand very well. He still did not understand what kind of Messiah he was. He did not understand that he would be a suffering Messiah, and that he would die, and rise again on the third day. Peter’s understanding of the Messiah was still too human and too worldly. And when Jesus explained to him that “the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again… Peter took him, and began to rebuke him” (Mk 8:31-32). According to St. Matthew, Peter said to him, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (Mt 16:22). It is clear that Peter’s understanding at that time was very far from the mark and incomplete, because Jesus then called him “Satan,” saying, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men” (Mk 8:33).

And what do we learn from this? We learn the importance of suffering, persecution, and resurrection in Jesus’ life and in ours. We know that this also applies to his followers because in the following verse Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mk 8:34).

Truly, if we follow Christ, if we live the mystery of his cross, if we deny ourselves (Mk 8:34), if we glory in the cross of Christ (Gal 6:14), if we mortify ourselves in this world, we will be misunderstood, persecuted, and rejected. Thus we will participate in the death of Jesus, persecuted by the world, which does not understand anything of this. We will be persecuted and despised also by those who think like the world.

But the final part of Jesus’ saying also applies to us, namely, that we shall rise after three days. That is, we shall experience a spiritual resurrection now, at the present time, rising with the risen Christ. We will live in his light and happiness, in intimate union with God, in jubilation of spirit.

Truly, “whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mk 8:35). We lose our life for him by living as he taught us, only for him, and by suffering persecution for living this way. The result is that we live already ahead of time a risen life (Col 3:1-3), and we walk in the newness of life (Rom 6:4), enlightened. We live divinized and illumined by the splendor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the way to arrive at this country of light is that of the cross.

THE RENUNCIATION OF THE GOODS OF THIS WO LD RAND THE EXPERIENCE OF THE LOVE OF GOD

Friday, 6th Week of the Year

Gen 11:1-9; Ps 32; Mk 8:34 – 9:1 Today we hear a very important verse which has made many saints. It is: “whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mk 8:35). This verse teaches exactly the opposite of what one would ordinarily think, using only common sense. Who would normally think that we save our life by losing it? Yet this is exactly what Jesus teaches us today. He says that we should

61

lose our life for him and for the Gospel, denying ourselves and living the mystery of the cross: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mk 8:34). If we do the opposite of this, we will not save ourselves, but will truly lose ourselves: “For whoever would save his life will lose it” (Mk 8:35).

We try to save our life by filling it with many things and pleasures—and I am not speaking here of sinful things or sinful pleasures. If we fill our life with these unnecessary things, God would be only one more thing among many for us, and he would have to compete with all of these other things for our attention. And since his love, happiness, light, and presence are very pure and subtle, a person with his heart so full and divided among so many good things of this world and of this creation is almost unable to perceive the presence of God, and therefore has very little deep and personal experience of God.

It is for this reason that the mystics, who have so much experience of the love of God, are also all ascetics, that is, persons who have abandoned everything of this world, which it is possible to abandon, and live austere lives, depriving themselves of the unnecessary pleasures of life. They are those who do not try to save their life, as does the majority. On the contrary, these mystics are those who lose their life in this world for Christ, depriving themselves of all, leaving all, stripping themselves of all, detaching themselves from all, and disencumbering themselves of all things for the love of Christ. They are, therefore, those who receive “a hundredfold” now in this life, and afterwards, eternal life (Mt 19, 29).

It would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man submerged in his pleasures (and not necessarily sinful pleasures) to enter into the kingdom of heaven (Mt 19, 24). To obtain the hidden treasure, the man who discovered it had to sell all that he had. Thus Jesus teaches us the importance of abandoning everything for him, of losing our life in this world for him if we wish to obtain the treasure of his love. Therefore Jesus teaches us that we should have only one treasure (Mt 6:19-21) and only one Lord (Mt 6:24); not many treasures, not many lords. And in the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:25). The best disciple is the one who renounces everything for him, as Jesus says, “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:33).

CHRIST SHINES IN AN UNDIVIDED HEART, RESERVED ONLY FOR HIM

Saturday, 6th Week of the Year Heb 11:1-7; Ps 144; Mk 9:2-13

Today Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John, on a high mountain, where he took them apart to pray (Lk 9:28). “And as he was praying, the appearance of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became dazzling white” (Lk 9:29). “…and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them” (Mk 9:3). “…his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light” (Mt

62

17:2). And “lo, a luminous cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him’” (Mt 17:5).

And what does this mean for us? It is a manifestation of the glory of Jesus as the only Son of God. It is a glimpse at the glory in which Jesus lived forever in the bosom of the Father, before the foundation of the world, in the night of eternity. Jesus referred to this glory when he said, “Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made” (Jn 17:5).

Jesus became incarnate to give us a participation in this same glory; and as the three disciples on the mountain saw his glory, so too have we, in another way, seen his glory with the eyes of our spirit. St. John tells us this, saying, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth… And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace” (Jn 1:14,16). “…we have seen his glory;” we have contemplated his glory. He has shined within us as a light.

He came from the splendor of the Father to introduce us into this same splendor and glory. And he gave us this glory so that we might contemplate it, as he said, “The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them” (Jn 17:22). It is precisely this contemplation of his glory which transfigures and transforms us, which illumines and divinizes us; and we are enlightened; transformed “from glory to glory,” in the very image of the Son by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3, 18).

It is those who live only for him who are the most illuminated. That is, those whom Jesus can most illuminate are those who leave everything for him, who renounce the good things of this creation for the better things of the new creation. It is those who renounce the good for the better who are the most illuminated. Christ can shine in their hearts because he does not have to compete with other things for their attention. He finds their hearts undivided, reserved only for him, and therefore he inhabits them powerfully and with great splendor, as the governor and master of their heart.

WITNESSES OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH 7th Sunday of the Year

1 Sam 26:2,7-9,12-13,22-23; Ps 102; 1 Cor 15:45-49; Lk 6:27-38 Today we hear what in St. Matthew’s version of the Gospel is known as “The Sermon on the Mount.” This sermon describes a whole new way of living, an alternative lifestyle. It describes Kingdom living, whereby one actually lives Kingdom values in this world. It describes the life of the new man, living in the new creation, which is a new world in the midst of this present old one. Christ came to bring this new world, to transform the present world into a new world, into the Kingdom of God, where we would live by new values, Kingdom values; and no longer by the values of this world, no longer by worldly values.

And this is something more than just ideas, dreams, or beautiful words. It is something practical which a follower of Jesus Christ should begin to live now in the concrete, in his present life.

63

This is the way the new man lives, the new man who is renewed and rejuvenated by Jesus Christ. We are to strip off the old man, and clothe ourselves with the new man (Eph 4:22-24), and change our behavior so that it becomes Kingdom behavior, behavior no longer of this world, but of the Kingdom of God.

Thus, since we are divinized by the incarnation, by God dwelling in our flesh, in our humanity; we must show forth this transformation exteriorly in a radically new lifestyle and in transformed behavior. Our life and the way we live should be radically new, renewed and illuminated; and the light which radiates from us should illumine the world.

Just as we died with Christ to our former worldly life, so now have we risen with Christ to this new, risen, and glorious life; and the splendor of our new risen life should be visible in our new manner of living, in our Kingdom living, in our alternative lifestyle given to us by Jesus Christ. And today’s Gospel explains concretely exactly how this new man should live.

Hence, as we have borne the image of the first Adam, the earthly man—as St. Paul tells us today—so too shall we bear the image of the new Adam, Christ (1 Cor 15:49); and this will not only be after the resurrection of our body on the last day, but also now in the present, by living a spiritually risen life now, already, ahead of time, in the midst of this present old world.

And concretely, how will this new man live this renewed, rejuvenated, divinized, illumined, transformed, and risen life? We have a concrete example of this in the first reading, of how David spared the life of his enemy, King Saul, who was pursuing him to kill him. David had the opportunity to kill Saul when he came across him asleep in his camp, but he spared his life out of respect for him as King of Israel, the Anointed of the Lord.

In the same way, we should love not only our friends, but also our enemies, those who hate us and refuse to speak to us, or who speak to us with anger and hatred, who attack us, without our having provoked them. Jesus says today, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Lk 6:27-28). Instead of speaking to them with anger, Jesus says, “To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also” (Lk 6:29).

Thus we will not lose our own peace and joy in the Lord, and we will not darken our own soul, falling ourselves into sadness and depression, suffering guilt for having attacked someone or for having spoken to him with anger. Thus we will maintain our peace and joy in the Lord. Living in this way, in the light and joy of Christ, we can even bless those who hate and attack us. And very often, after a few days, our enemy will recognize his own fault and repent and begin to speak and act nicely towards us.

Thus are we to live in the love of God, and radiate it to all, especially to our enemies. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them” (Lk 6:32), Jesus says today. We should, therefore, be tranquil and peaceful, always radiating the love of God, refusing to become angry when someone insults or treats us badly, refusing to respond badly, but rather always giving a good response.

Thus we will not lose our own peace, nor fall out of the spell of divine love in which we live; and at the same time, we will do much good to many, and will be genuine witnesses of this new world of Christ, the new creation, the Kingdom of God.

64

THIS IS THE ACCEPTABLE TIME, THIS IS THE DAY OF SALVATION

Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:12-18; Ps 50; 2 Cor 5:20 – 6:2; Mt 6:1-6,16-18 Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin the very special season of Lent. Although it is a time of repentance and penance, it is a happy time of preparation to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of the death and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a time in which we prepare ourselves to renew our Baptism, dying to sin and to the past in the death of Christ, and rising to a new and illumined life in him to walk in the splendor that streams from his Resurrection. Lent is the springtime of the Church, the time of new life, of resurrection from the death of sin.

The prophet Joel says today, “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation!” (Joel 2:15). All together we proclaim today a time of fasting, of abstinence from the delights of this world to return all together to God with all our heart, with a heart without division, with an undivided heart, reserved only for the Lord. We leave the delights of this world to delight ourselves only in God, so that he might be the only delight of our heart. And with him being our only delight, little by little we will be purified of other worldly delights to be able to perceive and experience him in the joy of our heart, to the point that we are filled with his joy and light.

But to arrive at this point of joy and light, we have to renounce first the delights of this world, leaving thus the good for the better. Therefore we fast during Lent. And, as St. Benedict says, really, all of our life should be a continual Lent (RB 49), a continual fast from the delights of food and of this world, for the better delights of the new creation. Lent, therefore, is our annual reminder and retreat which animates and reminds us of what we should be doing all year long, all the time. Those who want to arrive at intimate and experienced union with God do this. Thus have monks lived all the time, not just during Lent, during the most fervent periods of their history.

Let us not let pass then this acceptable time, this day of salvation. If you have not lived like this up to now, today is your chance to change, to begin anew, to repent and be converted. You have to change your attitude, orientation, and way of living. Instead of living for ourselves a life which is an endless search for ever new pleasures, we should renounce all of this, and begin to live a life of evangelical poverty, only for God, if we want to be saints and be illumined by him. If we want to walk in the splendor of his Resurrection, we have to leave behind the lights of this world which drown out the subtle light of God and hinder us from experiencing his joy, and love in our hearts. We have to sacrifice the good for the better, and this is for all of our life, not just for Lent. But Lent

65

is a reminder of this, and a good place to start. It animates us to begin anew if we have not lived well up to now in this new way.

Thus we will be purified to experience the love and light of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ shining in our hearts on Easter morning, and throughout the year.

St. Paul says today, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). This is the Paschal Mystery which we begin today to prepare ourselves to celebrate. Christ took our sins upon himself, so that his righteousness might be imputed to us. He received our sins, and, in exchange, imputed to us his righteousness. Thus we are renewed in him, made righteous by him, by the merits of his sacrificial death on the cross.

FASTING AND THE TRUE JOY OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Friday after Ash Wednesday Is 58:1-9; Ps 50; Mt 9:14-15

Lent is a time of penance and fasting. Jesus said in today’s Gospel, “The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Mt 9:15). Jesus is the bridegroom, and we the bride, and these days in which we now live are those in which the bridegroom has been physically taken away from us. Our days, therefore, are the days of fasting—particularly during Lent, the time par excellence of fasting.

But I do not believe that this should mean that our time of fasting is a time of sadness. Jesus said, “when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men… But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face…” (Mt 6:16-17). And Isaiah also says today, “Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?” (Is 58:5).

The season of Lent is not a sad season, nor should fasting be something sad. How can we be sad when we focus ourselves so intensely on God that we want him to be our only joy, and we rejoice all the day in him in so radical a way, living only for him to the point that we sacrifice all other unnecessary human joy for the love of him? This type of life is not sad, but rather is a life of true happiness and spiritual joy. It is a life in which the spirit rejoices more than in any other type of life. It is really the happiest life of all.

One type of fasting is to have an adequately balanced diet of sufficient quantity to maintain health, but which renounces all delicacies and seasoning except salt; a diet without meat, fried foods, and things made of white flour or sugar. Such was the constant diet of the early Cistercians. It can also be a diet of but one meal per day. Thus one eats simple, plain, and healthy foods, but without adornment, so that Christ might be the only adornment of our life. And the result is joy of spirit, because then Christ can reign supreme and without competition as the only Lord and Master and joy of our soul

66

(Mt 6:24), filling it with his light and life, for it is empty of other things, of other pleasures, of other delights, that is, if our whole life is oriented in this way.

A fast of this kind increases our joy in the Lord and makes our spirit jubilant. It is for this reason that St. Benedict said that the whole life of a monk should be a continual Lent (RB 49), or a continual fast; and so lived strict monks in the times of greatest fervor. And, as Isaiah says today, if, while we fast, we also love, help, and serve our neighbor, our joy will be complete.

YOUR LIGHT SHALL ARISE IN THE DARKNESS

Saturday after Ash Wednesday Is 58:9-14; Ps 85; Lk 5:27-32

If we want to live in the light, we have to do the perfect will of God. And what is his perfect will for us? It is that we live uniquely for him with all our heart, with an undivided heart, with a heart without division or distraction, so that God might be our only joy, to the degree that this is possible; and love our neighbor as ourselves (Mk 12:30-31).

In practice this means a life of prayer and fasting in the desert, far from the worldliness of the world with its pleasures; and this is the monastic life, a type of life which monks try to live all the time. It is a life in which we love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and all our strength, and at the same time we love also our neighbor as ourselves.

All are invited to live this way, as well as they are able, according to the responsibilities of their state in life, because these are values which apply to all who wish to live a life of perfection.

And how are we supposed to love ourselves? We should feed our body, sleep some hours each day to renew our strength, and take care of our spirit, nourishing it with prayer, lectio divina, and spiritual reading. We should also do the work which God has given us, whatever it be. This is the love of ourselves which we should have.

And we should have the same love for our neighbor, loving him as ourselves. That is, we should be concerned about his food and physical necessities as well as his spiritual needs: that his spirit be guided and oriented correctly.

But since there is specialization in this world, we normally specialize in one or another aspect of this care for our neighbor, depending on our own gift, specialization, inspiration, and work. If our work is to cook, we primarily care for his physical nourishment. If we are preachers, we primarily care for his spiritual orientation.

And what is the spiritual orientation which we wish to give our neighbor? It should be that he also love God with all his heart and seek his joy only in him, to the degree that this is possible, and that he know that the path of perfection is that of a life of prayer and fasting in the desert, far from the worldliness of the world with its pleasures, and that he also love and help his neighbor in the same way that he himself was helped.

It should be our preoccupation, therefore, to live this way ourselves, and to help our neighbor with the testimony of our own life and with our words, sermons, etc. to live this

67

way also. If we do this, once purified, we will live in the light, as Isaiah says today, saying, “if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday” (Is 58:10). Thus lived Levi in today’s Gospel, for when Jesus said to him, “Follow me… he left everything, and rose and followed him” (Lk 5:27-28). Then he loved his neighbor by inviting his friends to his house to be instructed by Jesus.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE SHOULD BE A CONTINUAL LENT

1st Sunday of Lent Dt 26:4-10; Ps 90; Rom 10:8-13; Lk 4:1-13

Today is the First Sunday of Lent, our annual retreat in the desert with Jesus, where we accompany him, passing our time with him in prayer and fasting. In fact, though, as St. Benedict says, the whole life of the monk should be a continual Lent (RB 49). This is the ideal. Our whole life should be a life of prayer and fasting, of denying ourselves in food and drink, and in the other recreations and pleasures of this world. But if we have not lived as we should have, at least we have this time of Lent to make a special effort for a few weeks. Therefore at least during this time we should live only for God, which is always his will for us at all times.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is in the desert. What is he doing in the desert? He is emptying himself of all but God and living for him alone. St. Luke tells us that, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the desert, tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry” (Lk 4:1-2). These days of Lent, in which we imitate Jesus praying and fasting in the desert, should be for us happy days, because in thus doing more strictly the will of God, denying ourselves recreations and diversions and the succulent dishes of the world, we can enter into a closer and more direct union with God, and can purify ourselves of extraneous things which distract and divide our heart; and thus we can experience more intensely the love of God. And experiencing more the love of God by living this way for a few weeks, who would not want to live this way all the time, the whole year through, since, as St. Benedict says, our whole life should be a continual Lent?

The popular idea of Lent as a sad time, I do not believe is correct. Lent is a happy time because during this time we live more as God wants us always to live: fasting from the delights of this world, and loving God with our whole heart, with our whole soul, and with our whole strength (Dt 6:5; Mt 22:37) without distraction or division of heart. Lent is, therefore, a time of love and happiness; and those who live this way all the time are the happiest, the most filled with God, and the most filled with divine love. Lent, with its readings and prayers about fasting and the renunciation of the delights of the world, about the desert and penance, and about prayer, is a reminder for us, reminding us of how we should live all the time if we really want to be saints and happy in God.

Jesus was tempted today in the desert. We are also tempted not to do the perfect will of God. And when we are conquered by these temptations, we lose our peace and joy,

68

and fall into sadness and depression. Thus we learn that it is better to obey than to disobey God. Although obedience appears to go against our natural human desires, it is the way of happiness; while the way of following our natural desires, our curiosity, our personal interests, our desires for pleasure, and our self-will is the way of the death of the spirit, the way of darkness, of sadness, and of depression. To be happy we have to do what God wants us to do, as Jesus did today, resisting the temptations of the devil. Only by resisting and rejecting the temptation to follow our desires for pleasure and our self-will, will we be happy, because this is how God wants us to live; that is, only by resisting the temptations of the devil will we be happy, even though it seems that the opposite is the case.

Thus, therefore, Jesus rejected the temptations of food, of wealth and pleasure, and of vainglory. He chose rather the desert, fasting, and prayer; and his Father blessed him. Thus should we also do, and not only during Lent, but throughout the year, throughout our whole life if we want to become saints, and live in the love and light of the Lord. Lent, therefore, is our official annual reminder of these perennial values. During Lent the Church emphasizes these penitential and sacrificial values of the Christian life.

LIVE WELL AND ASK WELL, AND YOU WILL BE HEARD

Thursday, 1st Week of Lent Esther 14:1,3-5,12-14; Ps 137; Mt 7:7-12

God has good will towards us, and wants to give us good things if we ask him. Jesus says today, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Mt 7:7-8). If this is Jesus’ teaching, why then do we not always receive what we ask for? I think that there are two reasons: 1) we are not living correctly according to his will, and 2) we do not ask correctly according to his will; nor do we ask for the things which he wants to give us.

Jesus told us this first point about living correctly and according to his will when he said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you” (Jn 15:7). That is: We have to live correctly and in conformity with his will to abide in him. Then, if we abide in him, our petitions will be heard.

St. John tells us the second point about asking according to his will, and about asking for the right things which he wants to give us, when he said: “And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him” (1 Jn 5:14-15).

How then should we live to be living according to his will, to be heard? What kind of life is in conformity with his will? It is a life lived exclusively for him—as much as we can, and the more radically and literally we can live like this, the better. By living like this, a life of renunciation of the entertainments of this world in order to live exclusively for him, we will abide in him completely and with all our heart; and if we also obey him

69

even in the smallest details of life, we will live richly in him, and will ask for the right things.

God will then grant our petitions because we have asked “according to his will” (1 Jn 5:14) and because we are living correctly—only for him in every aspect of our life. Thus we will abide in him and in his love (Jn 15:9), and we can make our petitions with the confidence of being heard; and we will ask for the right things, the things which he wants to give us. We will ask for forgiveness and salvation; we will ask for his light, love, and joy. And he will give them to us in his due time. Let us, therefore, live completely and uniquely for him in everything, even in the smallest details of our life.

GOD WANTS OUR REPENTANCE, TO FORGIVE, TRANSFORM, AND DIVINIZE US

Friday, 1st Week of Lent

Ez 18:21-28; Ps 129; Mt 5:20-26 We hear today Ezekiel’s great chapter on personal responsibility (chap. 18). This is a chapter of great hope and happiness for sinners who know that they are sinners and want to repent and change their life. God, through the mouth of his prophet Ezekiel, encourages us, promising that we will be received and forgiven if we are truly repentant for our sins or imperfections and are now walking the straight path of his perfect will. He says, “if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has committed and keeps all my statues and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness which he has done he shall live” (Ez 18:21-22).

Christ was sent from the Father to fulfill and perfect this promise. He became incarnate among us to communicate to us the splendor of his divinity and to transform and divinize us, making us resplendent in his sight. By his death on the cross, he propitiated the Father with the loving sacrifice of himself to the Father on our behalf, thus making perfect satisfaction for all our sins, so that we, upon invoking his name with faith, might be freed from all our sins and imperfections and from the guilt and sadness which our sins cause us. This grace of redemption is communicated to us above all in the sacrament of reconciliation. Christ died in punishment for our sins, paying himself the price in his blood which we could not pay, suffering himself the punishment due to our sins.

Once dead, he rose gloriously, indicating his victory over sin and guilt, and he shared with repentant sinners, who invoke his name in faith, the splendor which he was sent from the Father to give us. Through faith, the splendor of the Risen One is communicated to us, and we walk in the light which streams from his Resurrection, walking in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), having buried with him our sinful past.

How important it is then to repent of our imperfections or sins and walk in the happiness of God, living a new and risen life in “the newness of the Spirit” (Rom 7:6)!

But if we trust in our former justice and fall into imperfection or sin, this light is diminished or extinguished, depending on the seriousness of the sin. Then we have to put ourselves in the place of the wicked and repent again. Sometimes we have to suffer for a while from guilt in darkness and sadness as a punishment for our imperfections or sins, but in our due time, if we repent, invoking Christ in faith, above all in the sacrament, we

70

will be saved and illumined to walk in the splendor of the Risen One in jubilation of spirit, divinized and made resplendent in him.

BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT, EVEN AS YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT

Saturday, 1st Week of Lent

Dt 26:16-19; Ps 118; Mt 5:43-48 Christ calls us to a life of perfection, and gives us the power to live it through the merits of his propitiatory death on the cross, which saves us from our sins, and through his glorious Resurrection, which covers us with his splendor. We should, therefore, walk “in the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), having buried with Christ our sinful past (Rom 6:4).

The first reading today tells us that God will make us a holy people if we keep all his commandments with all our heart. That is, we should do his will with all our heart. It says, “This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances; you shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul…that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he is holy” (Dt 26:16,19).

Today’s Gospel gives us an example of this perfection. Being perfect, we should love not only the good, our friends, and those who love us, but also our enemies. We should be perfect; that is, we should do more than the publicans and Gentiles who, yes, love those who love them. Rather we should be perfect, loving even our enemies. “Be, therefore, perfect (teleioi),” says Jesus today, “as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).

Such is our calling as followers of Christ—it is a call to a life of perfection, to a life which can even love our enemies. And to the rich young man Jesus said, “If you would be perfect (teleios), go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Mt 19:21). This is perfection: leaving everything and following Jesus with all our heart, living uniquely for him in every aspect of our life.

St. Peter tells us the same thing, saying, “as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15). And the definition of a saint is someone who is virtuous to a heroic degree, someone who lives a life of perfection.

Loving our enemies is a good place to begin to live a life of perfection. Instead of entering into conflict with them, we should refuse to give a bad response, even though they speak and do evil to us. We should bless them, pray for them, and show them signs of charity. This is much more than the Gentiles and publicans do. This is a new form of behavior, far from the behavior of the world. This is a form of behavior which is perfection. It is the behavior of the new man, the behavior of the new creation, the

71

behavior of the Kingdom of God. If we live this way, we will be saints, and God will bless us with his light and love, and we will walk in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), in “the newness of the Spirit” (Rom 7:6) as new creatures (2 Cor 5:17) in the light (1 Thess 5:5).

THE SAVING INCARNATION, DEATH AND RESURRECTION

2nd Sunday of Lent Gen 15:5-12,17-18; Ps 26; Phil 3:17 – 4:1; Lk 9:28-36

Today, on the mount of the Transfiguration, we get a glimpse of the true glory of Jesus Christ. This is a glimpse of the splendor of his Resurrection. Jesus was transfigured in light immediately after predicting his death and Resurrection (Lk 9:22). Hence today this transfiguration scene presents us with three mysteries: the glory of God incarnate in a human nature (incarnation), the prediction of his saving death, and the prefiguring of his glorious Resurrection, which covers us with splendor. Furthermore, the two figures—Moses and Elijah—who appeared to him in glory, also spoke to him of his own exodus which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem, namely, his saving death. Finally, the Church has chosen this scene of the transfiguration for the Second Sunday of Lent to show us in this way the realities which we celebrate, or are preparing to celebrate, during Lent, namely, the death and Resurrection of the Lord.

We are saved by the death of the Son of God on the cross. This is the perfect sacrifice of the New Testament, the perfect propitiation of the Father, the perfect satisfaction for human sins, including original sin. By this sacrifice, the alienation between God and man is removed and repaired. We activate the salvific effects of this propitiatory and sacrificial death for ourselves as individuals by means of our faith. Thus Christ redeems us and puts us into a new relationship of friendship with God by means of his death. What we most long for, that we receive through the death of God. The death of God on the cross is the beginning of our new life in God; and the Resurrection of God surrounds us with splendor, resurrecting us to begin to live a new risen life in him, filled with glory and light. Thus we see that both the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ are salvific. His death makes satisfaction for our sins and takes away original sin, thus opening for us the closed gates of paradise. And the Resurrection covers us with the splendor of God raised from the dead.

But the other mystery which we contemplate today—that of the incarnation—is also salvific, because the eternal Word assumed our human nature and divinized it in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The eternal Word not only divinized the body of the man Jesus, but also human nature in general. But for this divinization to be activated for us as individuals, we need to be baptized, have faith in Christ, and imitate his life.

72

This divinization of the human nature of Jesus Christ did not change his body into God. It remained a human body, but because it was assumed by the eternal Word, it was filled with God. And we too are not changed into God, but filled with God, with divine life, and with divine splendor through our contact with him, while remaining human beings: Yes, human; but now divinized through the incarnation of Jesus Christ in our humanity.

But this divinization through the incarnation always goes together with the saving effects of his sacrificial and propitiatory death on the cross on the one hand, and with his glorious Resurrection on the other hand. Thus, by means of his death and Resurrection, the incarnation of Jesus Christ has its saving and divinizing effect on us.

Today, therefore, we see the glory of all this in the transfiguration of the Lord. We glimpse the glory of his divine Person shining through his humanity, a splendor which divinized his humanity; and through our contact with him in faith divinizes us also. It changes us into new creatures, giving us joy and light. It is this splendor, which openly manifested itself in the Resurrection, which glorifies us, giving us a risen and illumined life in him. And it is his death which releases for us this divinizing glory of the Risen One.

GOD WANTS OUR WHOLE HEART

Thursday, 2nd Week of Lent Jer 17:5-10; Ps 1; Lk 16:19-31

Today’s Gospel is a study in contrast between the rich and the poor, between a rich glutton and a poor beggar. The rich man “was clothed in purple and fine linen and…feasted sumptuously every day” (Lk 16:19), while the poor beggar, named Lazarus, was full of sores and lay at the rich man’s gate. The rich man trusted in himself and lived a life of luxury, pleasure, and gluttony in daily banquets. When he died, he was surprised to find himself in hell, while he saw Lazarus afar off in the bosom of Abraham.

This parable illustrates Jesus’ teaching in the beatitudes: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God… But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Lk 6:20,24). Why does Jesus say, “woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation”? It is because a life filled with human consolations, gluttony, and the pleasures of this world will not receive the consolation of God, either here on earth, or here after. Jesus teaches us here that the way of worldly pleasures, which is the broad way of the many, leads to perdition. He teaches us that this is not the narrow and difficult way of life which few find (Mt 7:13-14).

Jesus, on the other hand, calls us to a life which loves only him, to a life of sacrifice and mortification, to a life which seeks its happiness only in God, to a life of simplicity, plainness, and austerity, to a life which leaves all for him. To possess the Kingdom of God, we have to leave all the rest, as did the man who discovered the buried treasure or the pearl of great price (Mt 13:44-46). This is a life which burns itself up, offering itself to God in love (Eph 5:2), and it finds the great treasure, which is Christ shining it its

73

heart (2 Cor 4:6). This is a life in the light (Jn 8:12), a life which abides in the splendid love of the Son (Jn 15:9), a life which is one with Christ (Jn 15:4).

This is why Jesus said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God? For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Lk 18:24-25). Surrounded by these worldly pleasures, few manage to live simply and austerely, for God alone.

And from hell, the rich man, tormented in the flames, heard these words from Abraham: “Son, remember that you in your life-time received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish” (Lk 16:25).

The rich man did not live as he should have. He was a glutton, and gluttony is one of the capital sins, which if not repented of will be severely punished.

In short, God wants our whole heart, an undivided heart, not a heart divided between him and the pleasures of this world.

THE REJECTED SON HAS BECOME THE CORNERSTONE

Friday, 2nd Week of Lent Gen 37:3-4,12-13,17-28; Ps 104; Mt 21:33-43,45-46

Today we are presented with two types of Christ, that of Joseph in the Old Testament, and that of the son of the owner of the vineyard in the Gospel. Joseph was the beloved son of his father Jacob, but his brothers hated him and tried to kill him. Finally they sold him into slavery in Egypt. But afterwards he became the savior of his brothers, providing them with grain. Such was the fate of Christ, rejected and killed by the Jews; but after his Resurrection he became the Savior of his people and of the entire world.

Those who are of Christ will suffer the same fate. They too will be rejected and persecuted, and thus will God be able to make maximum use of them to minister Christ’s salvation to others. We have to learn to accept this fate, and to embrace it with love, happy to be rejected with and for Christ, knowing that Christ is thus using us more effectively to promote and extend his Kingdom in the world. We need to accept this role and live it well, with joy and love.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is the “son” of the owner of the vineyard. In the Gospels of Mark and Luke he is called “the beloved son” (Mk 12:6; Lk 20:13). This is a clear and important witness that Jesus is the only Son of the Father, the only Son of God. It is, according to this parable, the fate of the only-begotten Son of God to be rejected and killed by his people, but afterwards to become their Savior, as he teaches in this parable, saying, “The very stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Mt 21:42; Ps 117:22).

It is precisely through his rejection and death that he will save those who killed him, as well as his people, and the entire world, if only they believe in him. Today’s communion antiphon explains how he will do this: God “loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation (hilasmon) for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). In propitiating (hilasmós 1 Jn 2:2; hilasterion Rom 3:25; hilaskesthai Heb 2:17; hilasmón 1 Jn 4:10) the Father for our sins,

74

as our intercessor (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 9:24), he became the “cornerstone” (Mt 21:42) which supports the whole edifice. Only as the only-begotten God made man could he do this, and he did it by the sacrifice of himself (Heb 10:10,14) in love to the Father.

Through him, therefore, our sins are forgiven, and we can rejoice with a clean and happy conscience. And in his Resurrection we are rejuvenated and illumined by the light of the Risen Christ. To experience this we have to believe in him, confess our sins, especially in the sacrament, and be purified of the world. This is the “newness of life” (Rom 6:4) which Christ was sent from the Father to bring us, for our transformation, illumination, divinization, and sanctification.

HE HAS CLOTHED ME WITH THE GARMENTS OF SALVATION —THE PRODIGAL SON

Saturday, 2nd Week of Lent

Micah 7:14-15,18-20; Ps 102; Lk 15:1-3,11-32 Today we hear the parable of the prodigal son, which illustrates God’s mercy towards us. This prodigal son, who had “squandered his property in loose living” (Lk 15:14), at last wanted to return to his father; and while he was still on the way, his Father saw him, and “ran and embraced him and kissed him” (Lk 15:20). The son, who had already repented, repeated his words of contrition before his father, saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Lk 15:21). After expressing his sincere repentance in this way, what did his father do? He clothed him in “the best robe, put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet,” killed the fatted calf, and ate and made merry (Lk 15:22-23).

This is Jesus’ teaching for us, in which he teaches us what God wants to do to us when we fall into an imperfection or sin and lose our peace and joy in the Lord. First, he wants to hear and see our repentance. Then he gives us his forgiveness, his absolution, especially in the sacrament of reconciliation. This absolution grants us God’s forgiveness, gained for us by the merits of the sacrificial and propitiatory death of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, on the cross.

During Lent, we focus on the paschal mystery, which is the foundation of our new life of faith. God’s forgiveness comes from this sacrifice. Christ made perfect satisfaction for our sins, perfectly pleasing the Father with the sacrifice of himself in love. Thus he propitiated the Father for us, with the result that the Father forgives us our imperfections or sins and removes from us our sense of guilt, darkness, sadness, and depression.

Then we can rise with the Risen Christ from the grave of our guilt and depression, now absolved by the merits of this divine-human sacrifice of God made man. Thus we walk in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), illuminated by the splendor which streams from the Risen Christ. God raises us together with Christ to live a new and risen life in the light. Thus he clothes us with “the best robe” (Lk 15:22). Indeed, “he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Is 61:10), as Isaiah prophesied.

75

NOW IS THE TIME TO REPENT AND FIND THE NARROW PATH OF LIFE

WHICH FEW FIND 3rd Sunday of Lent

Ex 3:1-8,13-15; Ps 102; 1 Cor 10:1-6,10-12; Lk 13:1-9 Today’s first reading from the Old Testament, from the book of Exodus, reveals God’s mercy and desire to save his people from their suffering and earthly slavery; while Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel makes serious demands upon us that we repent of our sins and faults before it is too late, and threatens severe punishment if we do not heed his warning in time.

Jesus gives three examples today, and all three have the same point: Repent and change your ways before it is too late. His third example about the fig tree is the most compassionate of the three, for he gives the tree another chance to bear fruit before cutting it down. He gives it two more years. If it does not bear fruit within that time, it will be cut down. Here then we see that although Jesus is compassionate and gives us time and all that we need, nonetheless he makes demands upon us, and if we do not fulfill them, there will be serious consequences—we will be cut down. Now then is our time of trial and testing. Now we still have the opportunity to repent and change our ways. Now is the time to become aware of our sins and of even our smallest imperfections, and repent of them and perfect ourselves in one thing after another. Now is the time of conversion, transformation, repentance, and sanctification. Jesus will give us all that we need to succeed on this path, just as the vinedresser dug about the tree and put manure around it.

And what does God want of us? What kind of a life does he expect of us? He wants us to live for him. He wants us to strive to enter by the narrow door. Those who do so will be saved. Those who do not will find the door shut in their faces; and they will not be able to get in. “Strive to enter by the narrow door,” Jesus tells us; “for many I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able” (Lk 13:24). And when the door is shut, the Lord will say to us, “I do not know where you come from…depart from me all you workers of iniquity!” (Lk 13:25,27).

What is this life of the narrow door? That is the question that is posed to each one of us. How am I to live in order to live a life which passes through the narrow door and takes the steep and hard way; not the broad way of perdition, which is the way of the majority (Mt 7:13-14)? The narrow way, on the other hand, is the way that only a few find—strive to find it!

This is the way which serves only one Master; not two masters, not many masters (Mt 6:24). This is the way of having only one treasure, and that in heaven; not two treasures, not many treasures, for where your treasure is, Jesus tells us, there too will your heart be (Mt 6:19-21). And Jesus wants our heart with him, not elsewhere; and not both with him and also elsewhere. He wants all of our heart. He wants our whole heart. He wants an undivided heart, a heart in which he and he alone rules, and rules supreme, without competition. He wants a heart that he can dwell in without having to compete with anything else for our complete attention.

76

He therefore wants to see in us an undivided way of life that seeks its joy and happiness only in God. He wants us, therefore, to leave all else for him, as did the first disciples who left all to follow him. He wants us, therefore, to live for him alone, to live only for him, and to renounce all that is an impediment to this. This is the narrow way of life that few find, which he calls us to. This is the kind of repentance, conversion, and transformation that he is calling us to.

For our past failures to do this, Jesus has been sent by the Father to win for us the Father’s forgiveness by means of his saving death. His death is the sacrifice that saves us. We are saved by Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, for, as Hebrews says, “he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb 9:26).

We have been forgiven for our sinful and imperfect past by the blood of Christ offered to the Father for us (Rom 3:25; Heb 9:14). That is his part. Our part is to repent and change our way of life, to seek the narrow path of life. If we do not repent, we will perish, Jesus tells us today, like those Galileans “whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices” (Lk 13:1). Something similar will happen to us. Let us, therefore, seek the narrow path of life and of total commitment to God alone.

OBEDIENCE TO THE WILL OF GOD, AND OUR NEW LIFE IN CHRIST

Wednesday, 3rd Week of Lent Dt 4:1,5-9; Ps 147; Mt 5:17-19

Today’s readings speak to us of the great privilege we have of knowing the will of God. To do God’s will is to live, is to have God’s life flowing within us and to be inserted into the stream of God’s love, which is the refulgent river of divine love that flows between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us that he will dwell in a new and special way in those who obey his word (Jn 14:23). Jesus will then be loving his Father from within our hearts, and the stream of divine love that flows between the Father and the Son will then flow through us like rivers of living water (Jn 7:37-39). It is this stream of divine love which divinizes us, inserting the splendor of God into us for our transformation. But the key to this is obedience to God’s will, to his word, which is what today’s readings underline.

The Book of Deuteronomy tells us today to give heed to God’s will and to do it, that we might live. In this obedience is our life. It is to live with the luminous life of God within us; it is to live in the light, as Jesus himself says, “he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). We see in this saying again the connection between obedience and walking in the light. “He who follows me”—this is obedience, “will have the light of life”—this is the result. He who is obedient to the will of God will walk in the light. About the decrees of God’s will, Deuteronomy says today, “Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples” (Dt 4:6).

77

Christ came to bring the Old Testament law to fulfillment, and to deepen it. We are to keep the law as Jesus has fulfilled it and passed it on to his followers. We are to live totally for Christ, without any false gods. This is the first commandment (Mk 12:29-30). He who keeps this commandment truly loves God, and will be loved by him. Jesus said, “He who has my commandments and keeps them, is the one who loves me; and he who loves me, will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him” (Jn 14:21).

We are justified by faith, not by works; and once made righteous by the merits of Christ’s death, and illumined by the splendor of his Resurrection, we are to walk in his love in the “newness of life” (Rom 6:4) by living a risen life in the Risen Lord, obedient to his will and word.

JESUS OVERCOMES THE POWER OF SATAN, SIN, AND DARKNESS Thursday, 3rd Week of Lent

Jer 7:23-28; Ps 94; Lk 11:14-23 Christ has the power to conquer evil within us. He can overcome the strong man, Satan, bind him, take away his armor, and divide his spoil. Jesus is the stronger man who overcomes the power of the strong man, Satan, and sets us free. We are under the power of Satan, the strong man, when we disobey God. There are different degrees of being under Satan’s power, but even to be slightly under it is a sad affair. Then joy goes out of our life, and our heart is pained, hurt, and saddened. This coming under Satan’s power is caused by sin, by disobeying the will of God for us, by not doing what he wants us to do, or by doing what he does not want us to do. We can come into this pain and sadness even through small imperfections.

The Lord says through the mouth of Jeremiah today, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you. But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own councils and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backwards and not forward” (Jer 7:23-24).

How important it is to do the will of God for us, to live for God alone through serving others, to obey him perfectly, even in the smallest details, to seek our joy only in him, to live mortified, sacrificial lives, offered to God in love. The good news is that Jesus has been sent from the Father to free us from the grip of Satan, to break his power, and set us free. Jesus’ casting out of demons is a sign of his power over Satan, and is a sign of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. He can free us from the sad and depressing clutches of Satan.

Christ propitiates the Father for our sins by his sacrificial death on the cross, and he illumines us by his glorious Resurrection. Thus he sets us free and brings us into the light of his Kingdom. What joy there is to be freed from the pain of our guilt for not perfectly obeying the Lord. Even very small imperfections can cause us this pain of heart, for Christ dims his light within us when we disobey him. Christ frees us from all this dimness and pain by the merits of his saving death and by the glory of his Resurrection which illumines us, and in the light of which we have a new and risen life, filled with the

78

joy of the Holy Spirit. The sacrament of reconciliation in particular channels this forgiveness of sin and imperfection for us. We must ever repent anew whenever we fall out of this light even by a small imperfection. Thus by his casting out of Satan within us, we know that the Kingdom of God has come upon us.

GOD IN CHRIST WISHES TO FILL US WITH THE SPLENDOR OF HIS DIVINITY

Saturday, 3rd Week of Lent

Hos 6:1-6; Ps 50; Lk 18:9-14 Hosea speaks to us today about the unfaithfulness of Israel, for which God has rent her like a lion rends, and has then gone away, leaving her wounded and suffering. “For I will be like a lion to Ephraim…,” says the Lord, “even I will rend and go away” (Hos 5:14). The Lord will leave us thus wounded and suffering until we finally recognize our wrong way of living, and repent. He says through Hosea: “I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress they seek me saying, ‘Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him’” (Hos 5:15 – 6:2).

Truly we suffer for our sins or imperfections which distance us from the Lord and rob us of his peace. But there is hope. God does not want to leave us this way. He wants to raise us up. He wants us to live before him in joy, light, and jubilation of spirit. Yes, says Hosea today, “his going forth is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (Hos 6:3).

This is our hope, and it is fulfilled in Christ. If we are truly repentant, as is the tax collector in today’s Gospel, repenting of our wrong ways, humbling ourselves before Christ in faith, he will justify us, and remove from us the pain of our guilt. Jesus says today of this tax collector, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other” (Lk 18:14). It is Christ who justifies the humble person, the person of faith, the person who finally repents of his sins and changes his way of life ways. The merits of Christ’s saving death then justify us through faith, and the splendor of his Resurrection illumines us, filling us with light and joy.

To experience this light and joy, we must do two things: 1) Repent and change our ways, and 2) Wait on the Lord in faith and humility. Then the Lord will come to us like the dawn and turn his anger aside from us. He will no longer tear and rend our hearts like a lion, but will heal us and bind us up, revive us, and raise us up to walk in his presence, justified by Christ with a clean and happy conscience, to walk in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), living a risen life in the Risen Lord.

79

That we might repent, he has hewn us by the prophets (Hos 6:5). But he does not wish to always show us his anger. He waits for us to return to him so that he might fill us with the splendor of his divinizing love.

RECONCILED WITH GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST

4th Sunday of Lent

Joshua 5:9,10-12; Ps 33; 2 Cor 5:17-21; Lk 15:1-3,11-32 Today is “Laetare Sunday,” or the Sunday of rejoicing in the Lord because we are now close to Easter and to the celebration of our redemption in Christ. We rejoice because in Christ our sins and guilt are taken away. Christ takes away our guilt, sadness, and depression for having sinned and for having offended God. Even small imperfections cause pain in our heart. But the good news is that Christ came to take all this from us and to heal our hearts, making them resplendent, new, and beautiful, with a clean conscience. Only God can do this; and he does so in Christ. And not only this, but he also came to fill us with his own light and joy. He came to fill us with his love, so that the same splendorous love which flows between the Father and the Son might flow also through us (Jn 17:23,26), so that Christ dwelling in our hearts might love his Father from within us in the Holy Spirit. And this is a real transformation.

This is the new creation which Christ came to inaugurate, as St. Paul says today, “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). We are now this new creation in Christ, with our sins forgiven through our faith in him. It is the merits of his death which take away our sins and make us resplendent and happy before God. And it is his Resurrection which illumines us. Therefore we rejoice today with the entrance antiphon, “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; that you may suck and be satisfied with her consoling breasts; that you may drink deeply with delight from the abundance of her glory” (Is 66:10-11).

Christ came for our salvation, forgiveness, and purification, so that he might dwell within our heart and shine in it. Therefore the father of the prodigal son in today’s Gospel rejoices over his repentant son and clothes him with the best robe and puts a ring on his finger and makes merry. This father is God. God does this to us through Christ. Only the merits of the death of Christ can take away from our heart the pain of sin or imperfection. We ourselves cannot do this.

A Christian should overcome sin (1 Jn 3:6,9: 5:18), but it is very difficult to eliminate every imperfection from our life, although we should try. Therefore if we fall into a new imperfection, which causes us pain of heart, we should invoke the merits of the saving death of Jesus Christ on the cross and the light that streams from his Resurrection, which are for us. Above all in the sacrament of reconciliation (Jn 20:22-23; Mt 18:18) these merits are channeled for us, and clean and renew us, giving us a pure, clean, and happy conscience, full of light. Thus can Christ shine in our heart with even more illumination than before, rejoicing us with his love.

80

What the father of the prodigal son said to his elder son, God can say about us, “It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found” (Lk 15:32). We were dead through our sin and alienation from God. We were sad and depressed because of our guilt. We had become lost to God in the world. And now, through the merits of Jesus Christ, we have revived and have been found. Our sadness for having sinned has changed into jubilation of spirit; and our depression and sense of guilt have changed into illumination through Christ. Christ really changes us. There is nothing fictitious about this. Even imperfections, which do not kill us, but only diminish the light of Christ in us, are conquered by the sacrificial and propitiatory death of Jesus Christ on the cross. And after this, we are illumined by his Resurrection. Every time we fall into an imperfection, the merits of Christ are there for us, and the sacrament of reconciliation can channel them to us, so that we might walk in the light in jubilation of spirit.

Christ assumed our sins and died for them so that his justice might become ours, as St. Paul says today, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). Through the death of Christ, the righteousness of God comes to us, justifying us, making us just in the eyes of God, and just in reality—“new creatures,” as St. Paul says today (2 Cor 5:17). It is clear that this is not something that we could have done for ourselves. It is a gift of God; and he gives it in his Son Jesus Christ to those who believe in him. And afterwards, we should walk in the light, in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), burying our past life (Rom 6:4). And “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18), St. Paul says today.

ST. JOSEPH, AN EXAMPLE OF A LIFE DIVINIZED BY JESUS CHRIST

Solemnity of St. Joseph, March 19 2 Sam 7:4-5,12-14,16; Ps 88; Rom 4:13,16-18,22; Mt 1:16,18-21,24

Today we honor St. Joseph, the chaste husband of the Virgin Mary and the putative father of Jesus Christ. St. Joseph lived in silence, guarding the Virgin Mary and the Son of God. He was so close to these mysteries of the conception, incarnation, and birth in the world of the only Son of God. He was sanctified by his proximity, with faith, to these mysteries. He contemplated, with the Virgin Mary, the light of the world in the silence of the night in the cave of Bethlehem. He lived in this silence so full of God. He lived in the joy of the Lord a life of perfection and prayer in great simplicity and plainness.

His life was an austere and beautiful life, lived in the presence of God, on the edge of the desert, in the stable of Bethlehem, where the Son God wanted to be born. Far from the adornments, pleasures, and noise of the world, he lived with God in contemplation and silence. He lived with the only Son of God. He adored, embraced, and cared for him. His life was a life of prayer and silence, a life of evangelical poverty, full of divine light and happiness in the Lord.

He was, with the Virgin Mary, a witness to the incarnation of God on earth. He was there when the Son of God assumed our human flesh to transform and divinize it. The

81

Son of God divinized all that he assumed, and thus put his divinity into our humanity, so that we might be full of a light not of this world.

This was the beginning of the renewal of the human race. If we live like St. Joseph in simplicity, faith, and plainness, this light will grow in us, illuminating our life from within, because the Son of God has justified us, making us just before God, virtuous and perfect in his eyes, resplendent on earth with God’s new life in us.

We remain in the love of Christ (Jn 15:9), contemplating his glory, which transforms us into the image of the divine Son himself through the action of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18). It is this contemplation of the glory of Christ which glorifies us. And St. Joseph knew this contemplation of the glory of God in Jesus Christ—he was a saint—and Christ shined in his heart, illuminating it with the knowledge and love of God (2 Cor 4:6).

St. Joseph lived only for Jesus Christ, fulfilling his responsibilities as a husband and a father of a family. He left everything else for this, and was illumined and divinized. He was a saint, sanctified by the light of the world, whom he fed and protected. He guarded the Son of God and was himself made an adopted son of God in his own son. He lived then like a son of God, a child of God, calling God “Abba!” with the intimacy of a son (Gal 4:6; Rom 8:14-15).

St. Joseph remained in the splendid love of Christ (Jn 15:9), the Trinitarian love which flows between the Father and the Son. This divine love was flowing from this child, from his manger to his Father in heaven, passing through the heart of St. Joseph who was embracing him. Thus St. Joseph remained in Christ (Jn 15:4) and Christ in him (Jn 17:21), divinizing him, filling him with splendor.

Thus St. Joseph grew in perfection (Mt 5:48), perfecting himself ever more in the light. Thus he was transformed ever more in the image of the Son by the work of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18; Rom 8:29). He clothed himself with Christ (Gal 3:27; Rom 13:14), having left behind the old man (Eph 4:22), and thus became a temple of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 6:16). Having clothed himself in Christ his son, he was full of Christ and thus participated in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), living with God in love.

His poverty and simplicity greatly helped him, because thus he stripped himself of everything else, to live only for God, fulfilling his duties as a father of a family. Thus he lived the mystery which he saw—that of the incarnation. His humanity could thus be illuminated from within by the divinizing divinity of his son, for in his son the divine Person of the eternal Word was divinizing all human flesh in principle. It lacked only a faith and a life such as those of St. Joseph to activate this divinization in an individual.

St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary are the first persons to be so transformed by their proximity to Jesus Christ. They are thus examples for all to follow in their footsteps. Theirs are lives of faith, prayer, and total self-gift to the Son of God who lived in their home.

THE MONASTIC LIFE, A LIFE IN THE LIGHT

Transitus of St. Benedict, March 21 Sir 3:17-25; Phil 3:8-14; Mt 19:27-29

82

Today we celebrate the Transitus or Passing of St. Benedict, the Father Western monasticism. St. Benedict lived today’s readings. As St. Paul in the second reading, so St. Benedict counted whatever gain he had as loss for the sake of Christ (Phil 3:7); and we see in the life of St. Benedict the pattern of the monastic life, which is a life which leaves behind the gains of this world, and counts them as loss for the love of Christ. In fact, only those who do this will profoundly experience the new and divinizing life of Jesus Christ in their hearts, making them new men, illumined in him. This is the way, known by few, and chosen by fewer still, which renews us interiorly in Christ. This narrow way (Mt 7:13-14) of counting the pleasures of this world as loss for the sake of Christ is the foundation of the monastic life, which St. Benedict lived and organized.

St. Benedict discovered the happiness of Christ shining in his heart (2 Cor 4:6), justifying him, making him really just in the eyes of God. He knew that this great happiness was not the result of his own works or merits, but a gift of Jesus Christ who had communicated to him his own justice and perfection (2 Cor 5:21). Then Benedict wanted from then on to live only for Christ, who so loved and illumined him. Therefore he chose the luminous way of henceforth living only for Christ, being justified by him, with him shining in his heart, that he “may know him and the power of his resurrection” (Phil 3:9), leaving behind everything else for the love of him. And so he became a monk, leaving the world to live in the solitude of Subiaco, and afterwards in Monte Casino.

St. Benedict discovered the secret that few know, which is: In losing all for Christ, we find all in him, and with abundance. He knew that it is necessary to cleanse ourselves of all earthly delights and delicacies to experience union with God in light. Those who look here and there among the pleasures of this world, trying to satisfy themselves in this way, never arrive at perceiving and experiencing this divinizing light of Christ, because they lack an undivided heart, reserved for him alone. Therefore monks leave the world and its delicacies to live an austere life in the desert, in solitude, a life of prayer and silence, of perpetual fasting and work, an illumined and divinized life, a life in the light, justified and sanctified by Jesus Christ through the merits of his death, accepted in faith, a life which walks in the splendor and happiness of his Resurrection.

Thus St. Benedict and his monks did what St. Paul did, counting everything that was to them gain as loss. “Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection” (Phil 3:8-10).

This is what we also have to do if we want to follow in the footsteps St. Benedict: Live only for Christ, leaving and renouncing all the delights of this world. To the degree that we can do this, to that degree normally will we perceive and rejoice in the light of Christ which divinizes and rejoices us. That is, we have to make ourselves like Christ in his death through mortification to arrive at the glory of his Resurrection—a glory which we experience in this life, and afterwards in completion (Phil 3:10-11). The likeness to his death brings us to his Resurrection in the light. St. Paul says today that he wants “to share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:10-11).

83

Jesus says the same thing in today’s Gospel, saying that anyone who has left houses and family “for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29). And this “hundredfold” is in this life; and then after this life, we will inherit eternal life. This is the life of St. Benedict, the monastic life, the life which leaves everything of this world for the love of Christ. Christ should be our only pleasure in this life. He who lives like this, will live in the light. He has emptied his heart; and Christ will fill it with himself. He has made himself like unto the death of Christ, to arrive at his Resurrection. The monastic life is founded on this principle. It is a life of prayer and constant fasting in the desert or in the mountains, far from the world and its delicacies and delights, lived only for God in everything. Thus monastic life is a life justified and divinized by Christ, a life lived in his light and happiness.

THE SUFFERING OF THE SERVANT OF THE LORD

Saturday, 4th Week of Lent Jer 11:18-20; Ps 7; Jn 7:40-53

We see that the time is now approaching when Jesus will be arrested and put to death. Yesterday, officers were sent by the Pharisees “to arrest him” (Jn 7:32), but they did not bring him in, and they said, “No man ever spoke like this man!” (Jn 7:46). In today’s first reading, Jeremiah is a type of Christ. The men of his own village of Anathoth threaten him with death for his preaching, saying, “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand” (Jer 11:21). Thus do they treat their prophet. They do not want to be challenged by the truth, or by the word of the Lord. They do not want to hear the prophetic word of Jeremiah. They are like the men who say to Isaiah and “who say to the seers, ‘See not’; and to the prophets, ‘Prophesy not to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel’” (Is 30:10-12).

Such is the experience of Jesus now in these last days of his life. For the good he has done for them, they repay him with evil. Because their hearts are inclined toward evil, they do not want to hear the truth, and they hate the light. Truly, “the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (Jn 3:19-20).

Such is the plan of God. He sent prophets to his people, and his people rejected them. He sent his only Son, and they did the same to him. Those who are inclined to evil cannot tolerate a good and just man because they see in his mere manner of living a constant reproach against themselves which makes them feel bad and guilty; and so they attack and kill the just men God sends them. But God protects and blesses the just.

84

Christ rose, and those who suffer as he did and for his sake will also rise in him to live a new, illumined, and risen life now in this world, and will inherit eternal life here after.

Yesterday we heard how the wicked treat the just man. They live a life of pleasure, and say that the just man “is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training… He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange” (Wisdom 2:12,14-15). The just man is unacceptable to them. They cannot tolerate either his words or his way of living.

Thus they treated Jesus; and thus they will treat us if we follow in his footsteps. But as God raised Jesus, he will raise us also for our faith in him and for our fidelity to the truth.

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS BY FAITH

5th Sunday of Lent

Is 43:16-21; Ps 125; Phil 3:8-14; Jn 8:1-11 Our readings today speak to us about the mercy of God. We instinctively know that God is just, because our consciences attack us when we have sinned or fallen into an imperfection. Our consciences trouble us when we disobey God, and thus God teaches us his will with ever greater precision, and in this way we grow in virtue and holiness. God’s punishments purify us of our sins or imperfections, deter us from committing them again in the future, and instruct us more exactly concerning his will for us. Therefore when he punishes us in our conscience and makes us feel guilty, he is helping us in his love for us. This is the justice of God.

But God is also merciful, and has sent his only Son to propitiate (1 Jn 2:2) for our sins, offering himself in sacrifice to the Father, thus interceding for us with the Father (Rom 8:34). But the mercy of God does not cancel his justice. He does not violate his own justice when he forgives us. Although God forgives us, even so, he always remains just. He forgives us justly, paying himself the just price for our redemption; and thus our sins are justly propitiated, paid for, expiated, and forgiven.

Christ made just satisfaction for our sins with the sacrifice of himself to the Father on the cross. How just is this divine mercy! And how merciful is his justice, paying himself the price for our forgiveness, suffering himself the punishment due for our sins (Mk 10:45; Is 53:5)! Christ is our propitiation in his blood, offered in sacrifice to the Father on the cross (1 Jn 2:2; Heb 9:12-14). Thus the Son propitiated the Father for our sins (1 Jn 2:2; Rom 3:25); and the Father can therefore forgive us justly. Justice is maintained, not violated; and at the same time our sins are forgiven if we invoke the sacrifice of Christ in faith.

Thus by our faith we are made just before God. St. Paul speaks about this today in the second reading, and Jesus gives an example of his mercy in the Gospel. It is a great liberation. It is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah which we heard in the first reading.

85

St. Paul says today, I want to “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection” (Phil 3:9-10). St. Paul knows the excellence of the justice of Christ, and knows that is it much better than his own justice, and knows that this justice does not come from his own good works, but from the merits of Christ, and that it is accepted by faith. He wants the justice “which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil 3:9). And this is not his own justice which is based on law (Phil 3:9), that is, on good works.

The adulterous woman in today’s Gospel did not have her own justice. She did not have the justice which is based on law and on good works. She was a sinner, without merits, surprised in the very act of adultery. She was in mortal sin, separated from God, and under the wrath of God. What can she do? She can only invoke and wait for the justice of God which comes through faith in Christ. She cannot put her hope in her own justice which is based on law (Phil 3:9). She does not have this justice based on the law. She does not have her own justice. She lost it. This is the condition of man in the state of sin.

But today’s readings teach us that she does have hope. She can hope to be made righteous again, and not with her own righteousness, but with a better righteousness, that of God, that of Christ, which is a gift given to the repentant through the just merits of Jesus Christ sacrificed on the cross, and received through faith. His sacrificial death on the cross absolves us of our sins. The merits of his sacrifice cancel the just wrath of God against us, and make us truly just, transformed from sinners into just men, into new men (Eph 4:22-24). And we attain the glory of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, with him shinning anew in our hearts, making us resplendent in his sight, new in reality, truly new men in Christ.

We are just with the beautiful justice of Christ, not with our own justice which is based on the law and on our good works. Once reconstituted as just through faith in Christ, having repented of our sins, we begin to live a new and risen life in the light, a life full of good works, and thus begin to grow in sanctity and virtue.

Christ gave us a very important sacrament, the sacrament of reconciliation when he said, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven” (Jn 20:23) and “whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 18:18). This sacrament channels for us the merits of the sacrifice of Christ, and restores to us the splendor of his resurrection. We see the effects of this sacrament in the forgiveness which Jesus gives today to the adulterous woman.

THE INCARNATION OF GOD ON EARTH FOR OUR SALVATION

Solemnity of the Annunciation, March 25 Is 7:10-14; Ps 39; Heb 10:4-10; Lk 1:26-38

Today we celebrate the incarnation on earth of God the eternal Word, the only-begotten Son of the Father from all eternity. Today the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is

86

conceived as a man in the womb of the Virgin Mary for our salvation. Thus this divine Person is born, lives, and dies as a man to redeem us from sin.

He is God in two natures, in a divine nature and in a human nature. He is thus truly God and truly man. But he is only one Person, a divine Person, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, not two persons, not a divine Person and a human person (which is the heresy of Nestorianism, condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431). Hence all that he experiences as a man is experienced by his one divine Person, namely: conception, birth in a stable in Bethlehem, the crowning with thorns, the scourging at the pillar, the crucifixion, and his death on the cross. All this happened to the one divine Person Jesus in his human nature.

Thus God, who in his divine nature cannot be conceived or be born of a woman or suffer or die, now in a human nature is conceived and is born, suffers and dies. It is not God the Father who is born and dies, but God the Son who is conceived and born of Mary so that Mary is truly the Mother of God, as Christians believe (“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners”). Yet God the Son is equal to God the Father in divinity, and always existed with him. Hence God experiences birth, and Mary is truly his mother, and not just the mother of the man Jesus or the mother of only his human nature. She is truly the Mother of God, that is, of the one person Jesus, who is a divine Person, and only a divine Person.

Jesus who is truly man because he had a human nature is also truly God with a divine nature, but he is not two persons. In the Trinity there are three divine Persons (three hypostases) in one divine nature; but in Jesus there is only one Person (a divine Person; only one hypostasis) united hypostatically to two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. So while in Jesus there is only one Person in two natures, in the Trinity itself, in itself, there are three Persons in only one nature, one divine nature, shared equally by the three divine Persons. This is the defined faith of the Church.

Since Jesus is only one Person, a divine Person, the Second Person of the Trinity, and not both a divine Person and a human person (which, as I said, is the Nestorian heresy, condemned in 431 A.D.)—although he is true God and true man—all that Jesus experiences is experienced by his one divine Person: conception, birth, life on earth, death on the cross, and Resurrection. Thus Mary is the Mother of God, and in Mary God is born as a man on earth; just as on the cross God dies, that is his divine Person with its two natures is temporarily separated from his body for three days. This is why the birth, death, and Resurrection of Jesus justify, save, and divinize us, precisely because it is the birth of God the Son in our humanity, illumining it from within, filling it with divine splendor, divinizing it; and it is the death of God the Son making perfect satisfaction for our sins before the Father, thus justifying us. When we are baptized and believe in Jesus, we activate this divinization and justification for ourselves and are justified and begin to be divinized. This does not mean that we become God; but it does mean that we are filled with God in a transformative way.

Jesus’ death on the cross justifies us because it is the death of God the Son in his human nature. God the Son is fully God, equal in divinity with the Father. His death is not just the death of Jesus’ human nature or of just his human soul and body. It is not just the death of the man Jesus. It is not just the separation of his human soul from his human body, but it is the death of his divine Person, of his one and only Person, which is a

87

divine Person. It is the death of the person Jesus who is a divine Person, for there is but one single Person in Jesus, and it is a divine Person, equal to the Father.

There is no human person in Jesus. Jesus “has” no human person. Jesus is not a human person—although he is truly man. Jesus is only a divine Person, with a human nature, and it is this divine Person, hypostatically united to a human nature, which dies on the cross, justifying us. His divine Person separates for three days from his body. This is his death, the death of God. But his divine Person never ceases to exist. And on the third day his divine Person reunites again to his body, now glorified, for our illumination, so that we might rise with him now (Col 3:1-3) and live a new and risen life, divinized and illuminated by the splendor of his Resurrection.

Thus Jesus’ incarnation, birth, life, death, and Resurrection are a true incarnation, birth, life, death, and Resurrection of God on earth, of the divine Son of God, a divine Person, fully equal in divinity with God the Father. Thus Jesus truly maintains the universe in existence; and in his birth and death, it is God who is born in Bethlehem and dies on the cross for our divinization, justification, and salvation. This is the Christian faith, an astonishing faith indeed, for God truly became man!

JESUS IS ONE WITH THE FATHER

Friday, 5th Week of Lent Jer 20:10-13; Ps 17; Jn 10:31-42

We are now approaching Holy Week, and we see how the opposition against Jesus is growing. Jesus says today, “the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (Jn 10:38). For having said this, “Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands” (Jn 10:39). This is the great mystery of the being of Jesus, namely that God the Father is in him, and Jesus is in the Father, with the result that the two are one, one single being, one single supreme being, only one God; not two Gods.

Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30). When he said this, the Jews understood him very well, and their response was, “The Jews took up stones again to stone him” (Jn 10:31). They wanted to stone him for blasphemy, “because you,” they said, “being a man, make yourself God” (Jn 10:33). They understood him correctly. Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Son of God in the sense that he was the only Son of God, the only one born of God, and therefore God like his Father, equal in divinity with his Father. Therefore they wanted to kill him for blasphemy, for having declared himself to be God.

But Jesus is not the only-begotten Son of God in exactly the same way that a man is the only-begotten son of his father, because among men, the son is a separate, different, and distinct being from his father. The son is not in his father, nor is the father in his son forming a single being with him, sharing but a single mind and a single will with him, as is the case of the Son of God in his divine nature with his Father, for Jesus in his divine

88

nature has but a single mind and a single will with his Father and with the Holy Spirit. But yes, Jesus is God because his Father is God. In this last point, yes, Jesus is the only-begotten Son of his Father as a man is the only-begotten son of his father. A son is a man because his father is a man; while in the case of Jesus, the Son is God because his Father is God; but unlike men, Jesus and his Father are one being in their divine nature. The result is that if we see Jesus, we see the Father, as Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father… Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” (Jn 14:9-10). This is the doctrine of perichoresis, coinherence, or mutual compenetration.

This is the mystery of the being of Jesus. He came into the world to unite us to God, being a visible man like ourselves, for his mother was a human being. Thus uniting ourselves to Jesus, whom we see and hear, we unite ourselves to the God whom we cannot see or hear. For teaching this, they killed him for blasphemy, for making himself God, understanding correctly what he was trying to say, but not believing it. Thus the Son of God, equal in divinity with his Father, God like his Father, died in his human nature for our redemption, that is his divine Person separated from his human body for three days.

ONE MAN SHOULD DIE FOR THE PEOPLE

Saturday, 5th Week of Lent Ez 37:21-28; Jer 31; Jn 11:45-56

Today we hear a prophecy of Ezekiel, and in today’s Gospel we hear how it will be fulfilled. The prophecy is: “I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ez 37:23). The Lord promises us that he will cleanse and save us from all our faults and disobedience, which make us suffer from guilt; and he himself will cleanse us. And more still, “My servant David shall be king over them… They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes” (Ez 37:24). He will not only cleanse us, but will make us obedient, that is, renewed and transformed persons. His servant David is the Messiah, who will reign over us forever: “and David my servant shall be their prince for ever” (Ez 37:25).

It will be the Kingdom of God on earth and in the heart of each person, cleansing, saving, and making him new and obedient. “And I will make a covenant of peace with them…and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore” (Ez 37:26). We will live with God in a new covenant, a New Testament of perpetual and heavenly peace, a peace not of this world, with the Messiah reigning over us forever.

This is what Christ came to bring to the earth, an everlasting heavenly peace in the hearts of those who believe in him and are saved by him from all their disobedience. And

89

today the high priest prophesies this, saying, “it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish” (Jn 11:50).

Jesus truly died for us. His death on the cross freed us from our sins, saved us from all our backslidings, and cleansed us. And this is not something which we merited by our good works. It is a free gift of God. It is the gift of the Savior who renews us through our faith in him without having done anything ourselves. He transformed us, making us just and obedient by the sacrifice of himself on the cross; and when we believe in him, this is actualized for us.

We are transformed by his cross; and by his Resurrection he illumines and divinizes us, giving us the mantle of his own justice as our adornment (Is 61:10). He makes us resplendent, shining himself within our hearts, illuminating us from within (2 Cor 4:6), putting his sanctuary in our midst forever (Ez 37:26). He establishes an everlasting Kingdom of peace within us (Ez 37:26), making a new covenant with us, his New Testament.

This renewal of our spirit is given to us when we believe in him without our own works or merits, for “to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom 4:5). Through our faith in his sacrifice on the cross we are constituted just; and in his Resurrection we walk in his light, living a new and obedient life in him.

THE PASSION AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST GIVE US A NEW LIFE IN THE LIGHT

Palm Sunday

Is 50:4-7; Ps 21; Phil 2:6-11; Lk 22:14 – 23:56 We begin Holy Week today and the solemn and joyful celebration of the death and Resurrection of the Lord. We die in him, and we rise in him. He was sent from the Father to bring us a new, glorious, happy, and luminous life. He did this through his incarnation, death, and Resurrection. He was born in our human flesh, inserting his splendid divinity into it. He clothes himself in our flesh, divinizing it, for all that he assumed, he divinized. Then he died in our flesh, that is, our flesh, clothing him, died on the cross when he died in it. Then our flesh rose when he rose new and glorified. Our flesh was renewed and glorified in his Resurrection. And we inherit it back renewed through our faith in him plus baptism.

And still more, by his death on the cross in our flesh, he justifies us. His merits make us just. His obedience unto death constitutes us as just. He propitiated (Rom 3:25; 1 Jn 2:2) the Father with his death for our sins, beginning with Original Sin, which separated us from God, and thus he reconciled us with God, making us really just.

We receive this reconciliation through faith; not through our works. It is the gift of the justice of Christ given to all who believe in him. This is not something which we can merit through our works. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19). “Then as one

90

man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men” (Rom 5:18).

We are made just in Christ by the merits of his death, and this is activated for us by our faith, and channeled to us through the sacraments, especially through baptism, reconciliation, and the Eucharist. His divine life enters into us, and our guilt is removed, leaving us clean, illumined, and happy in his sight and in reality. Our conscience is cleansed, and we live in the light. Then we rise with him to walk in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), to live in the splendor of his Resurrection.

Our past, sinful, guilty, and sad life died with him on the cross to be raised with him renewed on the third day in the glory of his Resurrection. Thus what he began with his incarnation in our flesh, filling it with his divinity, is realized in his Resurrection, by way of his propitiatory death on the cross.

Thus we are constituted new and righteous, divinized and illuminated. Our flesh is renewed and restored, like that of Adam and Eve before the fall. Our sins are propitiated (Rom 3:25; 1 Jn 2:2) and forgiven through the merits of the death of Christ; and we are illumined by his Resurrection; and this we receive through faith, channeled to us through the sacraments. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph 2:8-9). “For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law” (Rom 3:28). This is because “to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom 4:5). For “While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6).

We are, therefore, made just and transformed by the justice of Christ. His justice becomes our justice; and we are changed from unjust into just through faith. It is his merits channeled to us through the sacraments and accepted by faith which make us just. His birth divinizes us, his death justifies us, and his Resurrection illumines us. His death took away our sins, and his Resurrection constitutes us as just in his justice. Therefore we honor Christ today, “who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25).

We now, therefore, have a justice which is not ours, but that of Christ, a justice which shines in our hearts, with Christ himself shinning in them (2 Cor 4:6). Thus I am like Paul, “not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection” (Phil 3:9-10). This righteousness fills us with happiness and light because Christ is shining within us (2 Cor 4:6), transforming us “from glory to glory” in his own image through the work of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18). Let us live, therefore, a new life in the light.

THE SACRIFICE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Holy Thursday Ex 12:1-8,11-14; Ps 115; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15

91

This evening we commemorate the Passover supper of the Jews. This supper was for them a memorial meal of their redemption from Egypt through the blood of the paschal lamb, which saved them from the plague of the death of the firstborn. Thus their firstborn did not die as did those of the Egyptians. They were saved by the blood of the paschal lambs placed “on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them” (Ex 12:7).

On the night before his death, Jesus celebrated this same Passover meal with his disciples, during which he gave them bread and wine, saying that these are his body and blood. Over the cup he said, “this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28). Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29), as John the Baptist said. He is the fulfillment of the paschal lamb of the Israelites. The action of Jesus on the following day, sacrificing himself to the Father in love on the cross to propitiate for the sins of the world and expiate them, fulfilled the redemption of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt.

The Lamb of God redeemed us from the slavery of sin, sadness, and distance from God. His sacrifice gained for us the forgiveness of the Father, freed us from darkness and from the suffering of sin and guilt, and justified us, giving us freely his own justice, without our good works. All this we appropriate through faith which makes us truly just in the eyes of God and in reality. Truly “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

We are justified by the merits of Jesus Christ on the cross, and not by our works; and these merits are communicated to us through faith. Thus it is as St. Paul says, “that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified” (Gal 2:16).

Who could think that he could put himself into this light by his own works, or merit it by his works? This is not a human justice (Phil 3:9), it is not a human work, or the result of human achievement, but rather divine justice which Christ gained for us through his death on the cross. If we want to be clothed in the mantle of divine justice, there is only one way to achieve it, the way of faith in Christ. Then we can rejoice in the justice of Christ, using the words of the prophecy of Isaiah, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the mantle of righteousness” (Is 61:10).

This liberation from sin came through the sacrifice of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29), and it is received through faith, not through our works. And this one sacrifice of the cross is made present for us in the Eucharist; or we can also say that by means of the Eucharist we are made present on Calvary at the moment when, for our salvation, the only Son of God sacrificed himself in love to the Father.

Thus, as the Passover supper was a memorial meal commemorating the redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt through the blood of the paschal lamb, in a similar manner the Eucharist is a memorial meal commemorating the redemption of the human race from the slavery of sin and guilt through the blood of the new paschal Lamb, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). The wine drunk at this Eucharistic meal becomes “my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the

92

forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28), that is, it becomes Christ’s blood poured out in sacrifice for us.

Christ’s blood is poured out in redemptive sacrifice on the cross; but this wine is transformed into his blood “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28). That is, this very meal is his sacrifice, not because there are two sacrifices, since the sacrifice of Christ is but one single sacrifice (Heb 10:10), but because these two actions (the last supper, and the death on the cross) are but one single sacrifice, that is: the sacrifice of the cross, which the Lord’s supper actualizes for us. The Eucharist makes the one and only sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross present for us. The Eucharist is a sacrifice not because it is in itself a distinct sacrifice, but because it makes the only sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross present for us.

Thus in this way we can participate in the one sacrifice of the cross by participating in the Eucharist, offering ourselves together with Christ in sacrifice to his Father in love. Thus, as St. Paul says, we can complete with our sacrifice of ourselves “what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col 1:24). This is the sacrifice of the New Testament. This is our cult whereby we worship God, that is, this is where we offer ourselves in sacrifice with the Son to the Father in love in the Holy Spirit; and where we receive from God the fruits of this sacrifice, the body and blood of Christ which divinize us and fill us with God.

THE DEATH OF GOD

Good Friday Is 52:13 – 53:12; Ps 30; Heb 4:14-16; Jn 18:1 – 19:42

Today we celebrate Good Friday. Today we celebrate the death of God. Today is a great day, because on this day God died. He died for us to redeem us from our sins and to justify us.

We all know that God in himself, in his divine nature, cannot be born, nor suffer, nor die. But to save us, the only Son of God incarnated himself, that is, he assumed a human nature, without losing his divine nature, and in this human nature, he was born as a man, and as a true man he also suffered and died. Thus the Virgin Mary is the true Mother of God, as we believe (“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners”). She was not just the mother of the man Jesus, nor was she only the mother of Christ, but she was also the Mother of God, that is, the mother of the divine Person of Jesus Christ, and his Person is only one, and it is God, the only-begotten Son of God, who is fully God, equal in divinity with the Father. And because there is only one Person in Jesus, the Person of the Son of God, Mary is truly the mother of this Person, the mother of the Son of God, the Mother of God.

93

In Jesus, God suffered, bled on the cross, and finally died. Jesus died as we die. His human soul separated from his body, but his divine Person—and his human soul united to his divine Person—did not cease to exist, anymore than our soul ceases to exist when we die; rather it only separates from our body.

Thus did God redeem us from sin. Our sin is too much for us. It is too great for us. We cannot bear it or repair it. We cannot restore our good relationship with God because God is infinitely greater than us. Thus God sent his own Son to satisfy for our sins with his death offered to the Father in love on the cross. But it is man who needs this reparation, and therefore the Son of God incarnated himself and was born as a man with the capacity to suffer and die, so that he could offer the sacrifice of himself. Therefore it is a man who offers this sacrifice of satisfaction for all men; and this sacrifice has the power to make this reparation because this man Jesus is also God.

From all eternity the Son offers himself in filial love to his Father, and pleases him infinitely, but the novelty is that he now does this as a man and for the sake of all men who believe in him, and he does it dramatically by suffering and dying in sacrifice in his human nature. And the Father, perfectly and infinitely pleased by this sacrifice, pours out his Spirit upon all human flesh which believes in his Son.

Thus Jesus is our “high priest,” that is, one who offers sacrifice, as the second reading today says (Heb 4:14). His sacrifice on the cross saved us. God died for us, and his death saved us. Jesus told us, “the Son of man also came not to be served by to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). In him, the God who cannot suffer or die, suffered and died to offer himself as a perfect sacrifice in love to his Father for us. The divine Son of God died on the cross, sacrificing himself to the Father in love for our redemption. St. Augustine says, “God’s only Son, co-eternal with the Father, was not content only to be born as man from human stock but even died at the hands of the men he had created” (Breviary, Monday of Holy Week).

The Letter to the Hebrews speaks much of the only saving sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our redemption from sin. It says that Christ “entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb 9:12-14). Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb 9:26). “…so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many…” (Heb 9:28). “…we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10). “…when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12; see also Heb 7:25,27). What clearer statement could we want that the death of Jesus was a sacrifice which freed us from our sins?

Truly Christ, in his death, fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, “Surely he has borne our griefs” (Is 53:4). How just is the mercy of God, demanding such a price! And how merciful is his justice, paying it himself!

We see here how the Son intercedes with the Father for us (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25). And thus he did. He intercedes by offering himself in love to his Father on the cross for us. So “Who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the

94

dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?” (Rom 8:34), “Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25).

Thus the sacrifice of the Son in love to the Father on the cross profoundly and personally affected the Father, and won for us eternal salvation and justification.

A NEW LIFE IN THE LIGHT WITH THE RISEN CHRIST

Easter Vigil This is the night in which Christ rose victoriously over death to shine in the hearts of those who believe in him (2 Cor 4:6). He died to free us from sin and guilt. He paid the price of our redemption with his death. He sacrificed himself in love to his Father on the cross. He descended into Hades to free the just and to open for them the closed gates of paradise. And now, “on the first day of the week, at early dawn” (Lk 24:1), he rose from the dead, “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:20). This is the beginning of a new life for the human race, for those who believe in him and are born anew in him by faith. As Adam was our first father, and we inherit death and sin from him, so from Christ, our new father, comes Resurrection and a new life in God (1 Cor 15:21).

We have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. The merits of his sacrificial and propitiatory death have changed our life, have taken away our guilt and pain of spirit. The price which we could not pay has been paid by him. The good relationship with God, which we could not repair, has been repaired by him; and through faith in him, we are reconciled with God and renewed. We have received mercy at the foot of the cross. His merits have flowed into our soul and have cleansed it. And now we stand before his Resurrection.

Christ is the first to rise, never to die again. Lazarus and the others in the Old Testament who rose had to die a second time. But Christ dies no more. His Resurrection is different. Unlike Lazarus, Christ raised himself, lives a glorified life, and dies no more. The Risen Christ only appeared once in a while to his disciples for forty days after his Resurrection because he was already in glory and could not live with them as before. He entered where they were, passing through locked doors and walls (Jn 20:19). He appears and disappears at will, as he did with the disciples in Emmaus (Lk 24:31). He is risen in glory. At the end of forty days of appearances, he ascended to sit at the right hand of his Father in glory (Heb 10:12). And now he can shine in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6) and live within us (Gal 2:20; Col 1:27).

95

Christ’s death freed us from sin and from the pain of guilt. We receive this liberation when we believe in him and receive the fruits of the merits of his passion, especially in the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist. His Resurrection then fills us with splendor, illumines us, and puts us in his light.

Christ became incarnate to divinize us, and now, redeemed by his death, we are justified and illuminated by his Resurrection. He “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25). His Resurrection clothes us with the robe of divine justice (Is 61:10). It adorns us “as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Is 61:10).

Therefore this night of his Resurrection is full of light, and trumpets announce salvation. The earth rejoices, “illumined with such resplendence” (Exultet). This night the earth is “radiant with the refulgence of the eternal king” (Ibid.) The Church rejoices “adorned with so brilliant a light” (Ibid.). We are freed and illumined if we take refuge in him and live for him alone. He illumines us with his Resurrection. “He has paid for us to the eternal Father the debt of Adam, and has erased with his immaculate blood the condemnation of the ancient sin” (Ibid.). We are free and new in him, cleansed by him, saved, redeemed, and in his Resurrection, divinized and illumined. If we obey him, this new life can develop and grow within us. If we crucify ourselves with him to our past life, if we bury with him our worldly life and our seeking after worldly pleasure, if we set our minds on the things that are above, and not on those of this world (Col 3:1-2), we will live in this splendorous river of divine love which eternally unites the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit in ineffable glory.

God is love because he always loves; but to love oneself is not true love. Before the creation of the world, the Father loved the Son, “you have loved me from before the foundation of the world” (Jn 17:24). The Father loves the Son, and the Son has always loved the Father; and now in his Resurrection, he inserts us into this river of divine love, into this splendor of the love of the Father for the Son and of the Son for the Father in the Holy Spirit. Those who believe in the Son are cleansed and made new and righteous, and those who seek him, and no longer the delights of this world, walk profoundly in this love. “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col 3:2), says St. Paul. Yes, we are to live for Christ alone. Thus will we walk “in the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), in “the newness of the Spirit” (Rom 7:6).

“This is the night which roots out of all who believe in Christ the vices of the world and the darkness of sin, restores them to grace, and joins them to the company of the saints” (Exultet). Truly “every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43), and are constituted righteous through his Resurrection (Rom 4:25). We have risen with Christ (Col 3:1). Let us then grow in this spiritual Resurrection by seeking with him the things that are above, and no longer those of the earth (Col 3:2). Thus will we be illumined and sanctified.

THE SPLENDOR OF THE RISEN CHRIST

Easter Sunday, Mass of the Day Acts 10:34,37-43; Ps 117; Col 3:1-4; Jn 20:1-9

96

Today we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. “The splendor of Christ risen from the dead has shone on the people redeemed by his blood” (antiphon at lauds). Today the purpose of the incarnation is completed, that is, our divinization. God sent his only-begotten Son into the world to divinize us, to introduce us into the splendor in which the Father and the Son live eternally in ineffable love in the Holy Spirit. For this reason Christ assumed our flesh: to divinize it, to fill it with light and splendor through his contact with it. The divinity of his divine Person divinized his own humanity through the link of hypostatic union between the eternal Word and the humanity of Jesus Christ; and in divinizing the flesh of Jesus Christ, he divinized all human flesh in principle. Those who are baptized and believe in Christ actualize this divinization for themselves. They then grow in the light by imitating the life of Christ.

By his death Christ took away our sins because he is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29). His sacrifice as the Lamb of sacrifice on the cross erased our sins; and his Resurrection gave us a new life in him, a life in his light.

Those who believe in him receive “forgiveness of sins in his name” (Acts 10:43). Through him, God gave “repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31) so that we could live in his light, introduced thus into the splendid river of divine love which flows between the Father and the Son. By his death our sins are forgiven, and by his Resurrection we are constituted just (Rom 4:25) to walk in the splendor of Christ risen from the dead. Thus he gave us an illumined life, a new life, dead to sin, but alive to God (Rom 6:11).

All that man could not do under the law is now done for him by Jesus Christ. We are justified from our sins in him and are divinized by the light of his Resurrection. “Let it be known to you therefore, brethren,” said St. Paul, “that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone that believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39). That which was formerly impossible, is now possible, since Christ is risen; and thus we can have a new life in him, a life in the splendor of Christ risen from the dead, a life in the light, a divinized life, lived in the Trinitarian love between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Thus the purpose of the incarnation, which is our divinization, is completed in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. And it will be brought to perfection in our resurrection on the last day. Thus what was impossible under the law, is now possible in the risen Christ. Forgiven through his death, we are illumined by his Resurrection.

“I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose” (Gal 2:21), “for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law” (Gal 3:21). But this is not the case, for justification is by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by the law, nor by our good works. The reality is that Christ “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25).

Christ is he who “dying, destroyed our death, and rising, restored our life” (Preface I of Easter). We are freed from the death of the guilt of sin by his sacrifice, and filled with divine life in his victory over sin and death. In his Resurrection the humanity of Christ has been fully divinized, and shines now, illuminating and divinizing us. “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps 117:24). “The stone which

97

the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (Ps 117:22-23).

We also, says St. Paul today, have been raised with Christ, and therefore we should live a new type of life in him, a risen life, which seeks no more the delights of this world, but only wants to live with Christ in God. “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col 3:1-3). This is truly a new way of living. This is the life of the saints and the mystics. It is a life in God, a life full of joy and divine light, a risen and divinized life, a life lived in the love of the Father for the Son (Jn 17:23,26), a life which remains in the love of Christ (Jn 15:9), a life lived in the splendor Christ risen from the dead.

HAVE NO FEAR, NOR BE TROUBLED

Easter Thursday

Acts 3:11-26; Ps 8; Lk 24:35-48 We are now in the Easter Octave, reflecting on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He rose to give us a new life, a risen and illumined life, a life lived in the splendor of his Resurrection. We should rise with Christ to walk now in the light, in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4), in “the newness of the spirit” (Rom 7:6), made a new creation in him (2 Cor 5:17), transformed and divinized, having been forgiven all our sins by believing in him.

As the cripple in the first reading was healed, so also Christ wants to heal us of all our sins, illuminating us with the light of his Resurrection, so that we might live with a clean and happy conscience. This cripple is a symbol of this for us. “…the faith which is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all” (Acts 3:16).

What then should we do? St. Peter gives us our answer today, “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you” (Acts 3:19-20).

The Risen Christ says the same thing in today’s Gospel, “that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things” (Lk 24:46-48).

This is the new life which we receive from Christ, a life forgiven and full of God, a life full of his love and light through our faith in his Son who died to propitiate and make satisfaction for all our sins, and to remove our alienation from God caused by Original Sin. Thus, by Christ’s death, God forgives us, and by his Resurrection to glory he justifies and illumines us. He “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25).

To walk and grow in this light and happiness, we have to believe in Christ and the power of his sacrifice, confess our sins, perfectly obey his will, and live only for him in everything. We can, of course, live only for Christ by serving him in others as did Mother Theresa.

98

Then you will be among the chosen, “a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9; communion antiphon). Then we do not have to fear anyone or anything. God will be with us, and we will be happy in him. “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is right? But even if you do suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled” (1 Peter 3:13-14; reading at vigils).

CHRIST HAS RISEN, AND WE WITH HIM ALLELUIA

Easter Friday Acts 4:1-12; Ps 117; Jn 21:1-14

We continue reflecting on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead during these days of the Easter Octave. How important is his Resurrection! It confirmed the truth of all his teaching; but more than that, it has great importance for the salvation of the world. Christ did not rise as did Lazarus, only to die again a little while later. Christ rose in another way. He rose as all the dead will rise on the last day—he rose in glory, glorified, never to die again.

But the unexpected and surprising thing was that his Resurrection in glory, never to die again, this eschatological Resurrection, took place not on the last day, but now, in the middle of history. Thus his Resurrection marked the beginning of the last days now, already, in the middle of history, for those who believe in him. That is, his Resurrection marks the inauguration of the eschatological Kingdom of God on earth, the renewal of the world and of the human race. Those who believe in him are a new strain, which will renew the human race, they are the beginning of the new creation, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal 6:15).

Therefore St. Peter says today, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Those, therefore, who reject Christ, reject the cornerstone. And this is what happened, as St. Peter says today, “This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, but which has become the head of the corner” (Acts 4:11).

The death of Christ, by our faith in it, ransoms us from the darkness of sin and guilt, forgives us, and makes us righteous and resplendent in the eyes of God and in reality; and his Resurrection illumines us from within, with Christ, risen in glory, shining in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6).

Thus his Resurrection completes the work of his incarnation. He assumed our flesh, our humanity, to insert into it his splendor, the splendor of his divinity, to make it resplendent, to divinize it. If we are baptized, believe in him, perfectly do his will, living only for him, imitating his life, this divinization will be actualized for us; and with his Resurrection, he will shine resplendent in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6), thus perfecting the

99

divinizing work of his incarnation. Thus he makes us a new creation (2 Cor 5, 17), assimilating us to himself in glory, with a clean conscience, to walk with him in light. In Christ we put on the new man (Eph 4:23-24), we clothe ourselves with Jesus Christ himself (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27). Truly, Christ has risen, and we with him, alleluia.

GO INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE

Easter Saturday

Acts 4:13-21; Ps 117; Mk 16:9-15 “The whole world overflows with joy” (Easter Preface) in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, because in his Resurrection all things are renewed. “Behold,” said the Risen Christ, “I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). Therefore we pray in the entrance antiphon today, “The Lord freed his people and filled them with joy; his chosen ones he filled with jubilation. Alleluia” (Ps 104:43). We are all jubilant in his Resurrection, because his eschatological Resurrection from the dead is the resurrection of our spirit. It puts us into light, and completes the work of our divinization, begun in the incarnation and birth in human flesh of the Son of God.

How could we not be happy when we remain in the splendid love of Christ, which is the same love in which the Son lives eternally with the Father in the glory of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; remain in my love” (Jn 15:9)? And if his love, in which we remain, is the same splendorous river of light which flows between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, we are inserted into the love of the Most Holy Trinity. And Jesus says, “remain in my love” (Jn 15, 9). Is this not a jubilant message? He wants us to live and remain in this splendorous river of light, which is his love, which he shares with his Father. This river of light is the source of light for the whole universe; and he wants us to remain in it. Is this not a message of jubilation?

The Magi came from the ends of the earth seeking this light, led by the light of a special star. They found it incarnated in the babe laid in the manger in the cave of Bethlehem. And now we walk in the light of his eschatological Resurrection into glory. The light of his Resurrection shines resplendent upon us the people redeemed by his blood, and illumines us. And Christ says that he wants us to remain in his light, in his love. Those who believe in Christ and obey him can walk with him in this light. He wants to purify us of everything else so that we can experience this.

100

This is a message which should be preached “to every creature,” as the Risen Christ says today (Mk 16:15); and this is what the apostles did, although the high priests tried to prevent them from preaching. But the apostles could not stop sharing what they had experienced, and they responded today, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20). For the apostles, the command of the risen Jesus was stronger than that of the high priests. And the command of Jesus we have heard today: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). We should preach to all the possibility of being clothed with the Risen Christ in light and of remaining in his love, for truly, “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal 3:27, communion antiphon).

SET YOUR MINDS ON THE THINGS THAT ARE ABOVE,

NOT ON THINGS THAT ARE ON EARTH

2nd Sunday of Easter Acts 5:12-16; Ps 117; Rev 1:9-11,12-13,17-19; Jn 20:19-31

Jesus has risen. John saw him on the island of Patmos with his face resplendent as the sun. “…and his face was like the sun shining in full strength” (Rev 1:16). Christ has risen in glory, and now lives in inaccessible light with the Father (1 Tim 6:16). His face shines, as the disciples saw it on the mount of transfiguration: “and his face shone like the sun” (Mt 17:2), as St. Matthew says. Thus will all the just be on the last day: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43). Those who believe in Christ and do his will already experience something of this light now in this life. Jesus said, “he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).

Truly in Jesus, by faith in him, we walk in the light. In him is the forgiveness of our sins, and in his Resurrection is our illumination. The risen Christ says today, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven” (Jn 20:23). By his cross our sins are expiated. Christ propitiated the Father for our sins with the merits of the sacrifice of himself on the cross in love. He thus perfected us. Thus, “when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God… For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb 10:12,14). By the merits of Christ on the cross and by our faith in him, we have been made “perfect” and “sanctified” (Heb 10:14). What power our faith has! What power this sacrifice has! It gives us already a participation in his glory, in his light. We have clothed ourselves with Christ (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27), and we have risen with him (Col 2:12; 3:1) to live a new life (Rom 6:4), a resplendent life (2 Cor 3:18), a life in the light (Eph 5:8). He remade and perfected us. He sanctified and illumined us. Thus we are made sons of light (1 Thess 5:5). “…once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (Eph 5:8). “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:13).

101

What should we, therefore, do? How should we then live? We should live like citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20), like those who have risen with Christ (Col 2:12), seeking “the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col 3:1), as St. Paul says, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col 3:1-2).

Truly we have been raised with Christ to live a risen life. You “were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col 2:12). We now live in his light. His Resurrection is our enlightenment. We are illumined by his refulgence, by the clarity of his Resurrection, and by his new life in glory. We now have a participation in this glory and in his divinity (2 Peter 1:4).

The humanity of Christ is perfectly divinized, glorified, and illumined in his Resurrection, and it affects us who believe in him, divinizing, transforming, glorifying, and illuminating us. Thus he shines in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6), and we clothe ourselves with the risen Christ (Gal 3:27).

We should, therefore, live a risen life, which is a life which seeks “the things that are above, where Christ is” (Col 3:1). We should seek and live in his light and in his love. We should live only for him, not for our pleasures in this world if we want him to shine with all his radiance in our hearts. “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col 3:2). The pleasures of this world blind us so that Christ does not shine in our hearts with the illumination of the knowledge and truth of God (2 Cor 4:4). We should not imitate those who love the delights of this world if truly we want to walk in this light. How much better it is to imitate the saints and mystics who renounced all for Christ, no longer seeking their happiness in the things of the earth (Col 3:2)! Those whose heart is empty, reserved only for Christ, are those who will be illumined. The new risen and illumined life of Christ can flourish in their souls, illuminating them from within. Their divinization can advance without difficulty because their hearts are undivided, not divided among the delights of this world. “If then you have been raised with Christ… Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col 3:2).

THE FATHER LOVES THE SON FROM ALL ETERNITY

Thursday, 2nd Week of Easter Acts 5:27-33; Ps 33; Jn 3:31-36

Today we hear these words in the Gospel of St. John, “the Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand” (Jn 3:35). We hear various times in this Gospel that the Father loves the Son (Jn 5:20; 15:9; 17:23-24). What does this mean? Does it only mean that God loves the man Jesus as a man in his humanity, as God loves every man? No! There is more than that involved here. To be sure, God loves the man Jesus, but the novelty here for us is that the Father, who is God, loves his only Son, who is also God, the same one God, and has loved him from before the Son became man, from before the

102

incarnation, from before the foundation of the word, from before Jesus was born in the world. In the night of eternity and from all eternity, the Father loved the Son, and the Son loved the Father in the bond of the Holy Spirit.

And how do we know this? We know this because Christ revealed it to us when he said, “Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world” (Jn 17:24). Jesus says that the Father has loved him “before the foundation of the world” (Jn 17:24), that is, before the incarnation, before the humanity of Christ existed, before Jesus was born as a man.

This is an important revelation about God. It shows us that God is not monolithic, is not alone, is not just the creator who created the world and loved it, and who created man and loved him. There is more than this in God. God in himself is love (1 Jn 4:16), all by himself, without man, before the creation of man, because he loves. And whom did he love before the creation of man and of the universe, when he alone existed?

Within God there are three subjects, three Persons. The Father always loved his Son. And the Holy Spirit is this splendorous bond of love which flows from all eternity in waves of splendid light and ineffable joy between the Father and the Son. This splendor covered the Son with glory in the bosom of the Father from all eternity.

This is our God as he has revealed himself to us. He is three in one, eternally and ineffably loving each other. God is three subjects loving each other from all eternity, in the night of eternity, “in inaccessible light” (1 Tim 6:16), in ineffable splendor; and this love is the light of the world. Such is our God. “God is love” (1 Jn 4:16), as St. John says.

Then the Son was sent from the Father to the earth, incarnated as a man, to give us a participation in this glory, so that we might contemplate it, and in contemplating it, be transformed into what we contemplate, that is, into the glorious image of the Son, and thus be transformed “from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18; Jn 17:22,24).

And how do we know this? We know it because Jesus and St. Paul revealed it to us, saying, “The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them” (Jn 17:22), “so that they might contemplate my glory which thou hast given me” (Jn 17:24). Thus, as St. Paul says, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into his image from glory to glory; for this comes from the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18), that is, through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Let us, therefore, live in this love, in this glory (Jn 15:9).

THE MYSTICISM OF THE CROSS AND OF SUFFERING FOR CHRIST

Friday, 2nd Week of Easter Acts 5:34-42; Ps 26; Jn 6:1-15

In the first reading today we see how the apostles suffered for Christ, for their obedience to him, and we also see how joyful they were suffering dishonor for their Lord. After being beaten for preaching Christ, “they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day in the temple

103

and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:41-42). We note that after being charged “not to speak in the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:40), they left the council and “did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:42), thus obeying “God rather than men” (Acts 5:29), even though the men in this case were the chief priests. We repeat again that this persecution did not depress them, but rather they were joyful to be able to suffer for Christ.

This is the life of the apostles, a courageous life and one radically obedient to God, a life which gets into conflicts for the sake of its obedience to God rather than men, but a joyful life, protected by God because it is a life which pleases God.

This should be our life too, a life courageous in doing good, and radically obedient to God, a life persecuted for doing good, but a joyful life, made joyful and happy by the Holy Spirit, rewarding us for our obedience to the will of God.

Therefore the same St. Peter who suffered these things, says, “rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:13-14). And Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake… Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you…falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad” (Mt 5:10-12).

God consoles us when we suffer for him. The cross is our joy in all its forms, whether it be persecution or mortification—all turns out joyful for our spirit. If you want to get out of depression and be joyful in your spirit, take up your cross daily and follow Christ, mortifying yourself, living only for him, and accepting whatever persecution may come your way for living this way. You may be a spectacle, but this is the apostolic life, a joyful life: “For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men…we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things” (1 Cor 4:9,13). This is the mysticism of the cross of Christ which saves us and shows us how to live.

THE IMPORTANCE FOR THE CHURCH OF THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

Saturday, 2nd Week of Easter Acts 6:1-7; Ps 32; Jn 6:16-21

Today we get a glimpse at the divinity of Jesus, when he walks upon the sea. In his actions and sayings he revealed himself little by little to his disciples, and thus they gradually began to understand that he was a divine Person, incarnate on the earth for our salvation. He fed five thousand men with five loaves of barley bread (Jn 6:10,9), he changed a great quantity of water into wine (Jn 2:1-12), he cured the sick, he said that he would come in glory to judge the nations (Mt 25:31), and that he would come in glory in the clouds on the last day “and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call” (Mt 24:31), he said that he is the only-begotten Son of God (Mt 21:37), and today he walks on the sea. Finally, he will rise from the dead.

104

Jesus assumed our flesh, our human nature, to renew it, to divinize it, to fill it with light by the presence of his divinity in it. Thus he illuminates it from within with his divinity. His divine Person divinized his human nature, and us as well, through our contact with his divinized humanity in faith. Thus his splendor rubs off onto us through our contact with his humanity divinized by his divine Person. Through faith, this is actualized in us. If then we live as new persons, according to his will, this change in us will develop, and we will be transformed in his image (2 Cor 3:18), in the image of the Son. It is the Holy Spirit that works this transformation in us when we believe (2 Cor 3:18). When we obey him, our divinization is realized.

How important it is that this message of faith and salvation be preached everywhere, so that all might understand it and be changed and saved, divinized and illumined! From the very beginnings of the Church, as we see in today’s first reading, the Church has always greatly appreciated the importance of “the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:2). It was a specialization from the very beginning, and the apostles said, “It is not right that we should leave the word of God to serve tables” (Acts 6:2). Therefore they decided that the community should choose seven men, “whom we may appoint to this duty” (Acts 6:3), “to serve tables” (Acts 6:2). “But we,” they continued, “will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). And so they did.

Thus the body of Christ, which is the Church, has various members. Not all are the eye or the mouth. There are various gifts and specializations. There are different charisms. “Are all apostles?” St. Paul asks. “Are all prophets? Are all teachers?” (1 Cor 12:29). Therefore let each one exercise his gift: “He who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who presides, with solicitude” (Rom 12:8). Each specialization, each charism, is necessary for the body, which is the Church. Each member has his role to play for the well-being of the body. And thus the word will also be preached by the preachers and the ministers of the word.

SPEAK TO THE PEOPLE ALL THE WORDS OF THIS LIFE

3rd Sunday of Easter Acts 5:27-32,40-41; Ps 29; Rev 5:11-14; Jn 21:1-19

Today the apostles are teaching in the temple, because “at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors,” where they were, “and brought them out and said, ‘Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life’” (Acts 5:19-20).

And what were these “words of this Life”? We have an example of them today when Peter said to the Jewish council, “The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:30-32).

The apostles were witnesses of “the words of this Life.” They were put into jail for preaching them, but were miraculously freed and sent to continue preaching “all the words of this Life” (Acts 5:20). When they were reprehended for having preached them, they said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). They could not stop

105

preaching “the words of this Life.” And when they were persecuted and beaten for preaching them, they rejoiced and continued preaching them all the more. St. Luke tells us this, saying, “they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:40-42).

Truly, the words of the apostles are words of life, because they give us the opportunity to know and believe in Jesus Christ, and in the power of this death on the cross. These “words of this Life” give us “repentance…and forgiveness of sins,” as St. Peter says today (Acts 5:31). They give us new life. They give us resurrection from the death of guilt and sadness. They make us conquerors of death and of darkness, conquerors of depression and discouragement. They give us new life, new happiness, and new hope. They cleanse and justify us. They make us new and just before God. They sanctify us if we believe in them.

Then, if we live like new men, obeying from now on all the words and indications of the will of God, we will be truly sanctified and resplendent in this world, capable of helping the rest, showing them the way of faith and life, and teaching them how they should live as new men, as a new creation, as illuminated and divinized persons. That is, they should live uniquely for the Lord in every aspect of their life, and with all their heart.

Thus we are reborn, born again of water and the Spirit (Jn 3:5) through our faith in Jesus Christ. Then we begin to live a new life, different than before, and thus we are witnesses in the world of the novelty and beauty of this new life. We are, as were the apostles, full of “all the words of this Life” (Acts 5:20), and it is our desire to live them and share them with others.

If we continue obedient to the will of God, if we live only for him in everything, and if he is our only pleasure and happiness, then, in due time, we will be purified to be able to live in his light, illumined from within by the splendor of his divinity, deified by Christ, who assumed our flesh to make it splendid by inserting his divinity into it. Thus we will be a light in the darkness to show the way of new life to those who are wandering about lost in the shadows. We will then be, as St. Paul says, “blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life” (Phil 2:15-16).

The change which Jesus Christ makes in us through our faith in him is real, and it is in the most intimate part of our being, from which it radiates outward, transforming our whole life, renewing it, and changing our style and way of living, making us just and observers of the commandments of God to thus remain in God’s love in happiness and light. Thus does Jesus say to us, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (Jn 15:10-11). Thus shall we rise joyful with Christ and live with the Risen Lord, which is his will for us. Thus we will live a new, risen, transformed, and illumined life.

PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE

106

Feast of St. Mark, April 25

1 Peter 5:5-14; Ps 88; Mk 16:15-20 Today is the feast of St. Mark. St. Mark was an evangelist, both in the sense of preaching the Gospel of salvation in Christ, and in the sense of writing the Gospel which bears his name.

In the part of the Gospel which we read today, we hear these words of the Risen Christ, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mk 16:15). After saying this—St. Mark tells us—Christ “was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere” (Mk 16:19).

There is salvation in Jesus Christ if we believe in him and are baptized. The Father justifies us through the sacrifice of his Son; he cleanses us of all sin, fills us with light and new life, raises us with the Risen Christ, and gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit for our sanctification and divinization. Our divinization is the work of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, making us temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19). The Holy Spirit forms us in the glorious image of the Son (2 Cor 3:18), making us new men (Eph 4:22-24), a new creation (2 Cor 5:17).

Our salvation is realized when Christ is seated in glory with his glorified humanity at the right hand of God. And what does Christ do, seated at the right hand of the Father? He intercedes there for us before the Father. He offers the Father his blood in heaven on our behalf (Heb 9:11-14). He is our eternal high priest and intercessor before the Father for our salvation, because he is he “who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us” (Rom 8:34). And we need this intercession because it is the merits of his sacrifice on the cross which justify us, making us just, pure, and holy before God.

We see here how the divine Persons interact with each other, the Son pleasing the Father with his sacrifice in love, and the Father pouring out the Holy Spirit upon his Son as a recompense, raising him from the dead, and pouring it out also upon all who share human flesh with the Son if only they believe in him.

Through the merits of the death of Christ, received though faith, we are forgiven for all our sins; and through his Resurrection, we are made new and resplendent before God. Truly, the risen and glorified Christ is now our intercessor before God, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, “For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb 9:24).

Christ is seated in glory at the right hand of his Father, covered with splendor, and also glorifying his Father (Jn 17:4-5; 13:31-32). And what is this splendor, this glory? It is the Holy Spirit, the same gift which God gives us. There, in glory, Christ continues interceding for us before the Father, showing him his wounds, the marks of his sacrifice, which so pleased the Father for our salvation. That is, Christ is in “heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb 9:24). He always intercedes for us before the Father, as Hebrews says, saying, “Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25). Therefore, as we hear in today’s Gospel, “he who believes and is

107

baptized will be saved” (Mk 16:16). And St. Peter preaches, saying, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

What more must we then do? The answer, we hear from St. Peter in the first reading: “Be sober and vigilant” (1 Peter 5:8). We should, as new men, live a new and risen life, a life obedient to the will of God, a sober life, which is always vigilant. St. Peter also says, “The end of all things is at hand; therefore keep sane and sober for your prayers” (1 Peter 4:7). We should not be led astray by the worldliness of the world. We should “be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast… You also must be ready” (Lk 12:36,40). “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning” (Lk 12:35).

We are made new in Christ. The Holy Spirit is reforming, transforming, and divinizing us; but our part is to be sober, and always vigilant to live a life in the light, and share it with others, preaching the Gospel of salvation in Christ to every creature (Mk 167:15).

REMAIN IN MY LOVE

Friday, 3rd Week of Easter Acts 9:1-20; Ps 116; Jn 6:52-59

Jesus says today, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:54). Christ came to the earth so that we might have divine life in us, which is eternal life; and therefore he will raise us up on the last day. This divine life, which he gives us when we eat his flesh and drink his blood, is the Trinitarian life. It is a participation in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

In addition, Christ also says today, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (Jn 6:56). This is because he will be in us, and we in him. To have Christ inhabiting us is a very great and important thing. It unites us with God, because the Son is by nature in the Father, and the Father in the him (Jn 17:23; 14:10) as one single being. If Christ then inhabits us, not by nature but as a participation in his divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), we are united with God and are inserted in the splendorous river of divine love flowing between the Father and the Son, which is the Holy Spirit. It is, therefore, a life in the Spirit (Rom 8:9), a life full of God and illumined, a life truly divinized, that we have been given by Christ indwelling us.

We should, therefore, live in a way worthy of this insertion into the Spirit of God. We will thus live a life in the Spirit (Rom 8:9), which is a life in the light. Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; remain in my love” (Jn 15:9). He wants us to remain in the splendor of this love which he has given us, which is the love with which the Father loves him in the Holy Spirit. We remain in the splendor of his love by obeying him, as Jesus told us, saying, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love” (Jn 15:10).

Then we shall live because of him, as Jesus also says today, saying, “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of

108

me” (Jn 6:57). Christ is our life, our love, our happiness, our light, our splendor. We live because of him, that is, through him. We live because of him as he lives because of his Father, that is, through his Father. Truly, as he said, “because I live, you will live also” (Jn 14:19). We live because he lives. He is the source of our new life of faith, of our new life in God. So St. John told us, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 Jn 4:9), that is, because of him. Let us remain then in his love by obeying him, as Jesus wishes, “remain in my love” (Jn 15:9), he says.

JESUS ALWAYS EXISTED

Saturday, 3rd Week of Easter Acts 9:31-42; Ps 115; Jn 6:60-69

In today’s Gospel, we hear this sentence of Jesus, “Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before?” (Jn 6:62). What does this mean? Does it mean that Jesus, who is speaking, was in heaven before he was born here on earth? There are those who believe that the name “Jesus” only signifies the man Jesus who lived on the earth, and not the eternal Son of God who always existed. But this is not true. There are not two Jesuses! There are not two Sons! There are not four persons in the Trinity: The Father, the eternal Son, the Son Jesus on the earth, and the Holy Spirit! There are only three Persons in the Blessed Trinity. There is only one Son. The Son is only one Person, not two persons. Jesus is only one Person, not two persons. The Person of Jesus is only one; not two. The only Person of Jesus always existed, from all eternity, as Jesus affirms today when he speaks about where he was first, in heaven, before being born here on earth. Jesus always existed. His Person is eternal and always existed with God as his Son. And in his ascension, he returned to where he was before. The Person of the Son of Man always existed, as Jesus says, “Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before?” (Jn 6:62).

Jesus also said, “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man” (Jn 3:13). That is, the Son of Man was in heaven previously, and descended afterwards. His Person was in heaven first.

And St. John the Baptist said of him, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me became before me, for he was before me’” (Jn 1:15,27,30). In fact, John the Baptist was born before Jesus and presented himself to Israel before Jesus. In what sense, then, did Jesus become before him and was before him? Jesus became before John the Baptist and was before him in the sense that, unlike John, Jesus existed in heaven before he was born on earth; that is: The Person of Jesus (and he has only one Person, which is divine, not human) is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who always lived in splendor in the bosom of the Father. The Person of Jesus created the world. The Person of Jesus lived in inaccessible light with the Father (1 Tim 6:16), covered in glory, full of the Holy Spirit, from before the foundation of the world (“and now, Father, glorify

109

thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made” Jn 17:5; “thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” Jn 17:24). Thus Jesus was before John the Baptist. Jesus was also even before Abraham, as he himself affirms, saying, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad…Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (Jn 8:56,58). Jesus is eternal. He always existed.

THE RECOMPENSE OF THE JUST, PERSECUTED FOR THEIR FAITH

4th Sunday of Easter Acts 13:14.43-52; Ps 99; Rev 7:9,14-17; Jn 10:27-30

The disciples of the Lord will not have an easy time of it in this World. We see persecution in all three readings today. But we also see the glory of a life of faith. It is a life in which one washes his robes and makes them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). On the last day, those who have believed in Christ and have lived faithfully according to his will will stand “before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Rev 7:9). But even now, we begin to experience this if we believe in Christ, are justified by him, and live only for him, obeying his will no matter how difficult it may be to obey. We begin even now to enjoy these blessings which will be completed on the last day. Christ will make us white, like our robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:9).

At times it is difficult to obey the will of God which he reveals to us; and at times we will be the only ones in our group, in our environment, who obey it in a particular matter, and for that reason we can experience the rejection and persecution of our companions for not following their behavior when we know that God is calling us in a different way. But if we overcome the social pressure and obey him, we will be recompensed by God, as were the martyrs in the second reading, who are now “before the throne of God and serve him day and night…and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more… For the Lamb…will guide them to springs of living water” (Rev 7:15-17).

And this consolation, I say, begins now for those who believe. They are justified by the cross of Christ and illuminated by his resurrection. Their sins are forgiven and their robes and souls made white in the blood of the Lamb. Their days are full of light, and they are divinized by Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, who develops the saving work of Christ within us, sanctifying and rewarding us interiorly for all that we have suffered for our testimony to Christ before men.

Did not Christ say, “every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:32)? There is a recompense for

110

those who obey Christ and confess him in their behavior before men. Instead of being deformed by the worldliness of the world around us, we should be reformed and transformed through the renewal of our minds in Christ (Rom 12, 2).

Paul and Barnabas, after preaching Christ today in the first reading in Antioch of Pisidia, were driven out of the district by the Jews (Acts 13:50). “But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:50-52). But many gentiles believed, “And the word of the Lord spread throughout all the region” (Acts 13:48-49), and “the Gentiles…were glad and glorified the word of God” (Acts 13:48).

We see that in the midst of persecution for their obedience in living and preaching the word of the Lord, they rejoiced and glorified the Lord. And so shall it be with us. But in order to be able to rejoice in the truth, first we have to believe in Christ with all our heart, live only and completely for him, and obey him, no matter how difficult or how much persecution it may cost us. Then, he will guide us to the springs of living water (Rev 7:17). We will shake the dust from our feet, and continue preaching Christ in other places, and many will rejoice at hearing the word of salvation in Christ.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to us, “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30), and for having said this, “The Jews took up stones again to stone him” (Jn 10:31). The Jews understood him perfectly, and said, “you, being a man, make yourself God” (Jn 10:33). Jesus says that he and the Father are one thing, that is, one single essence or substance; that is, that the Son is equal in divinity with the Father, but that they are two distinct divine Persons who are one thing, one God. He did not say, “I and the Father am one,” denying the difference of persons in God, that is, he did not say that the Son is the Father, but that we, namely, I and the Father, are one, that is: we are two persons who are one single thing, one single being, one single God. And for saying and proclaiming this truth which divinizes us, he was persecuted, but he lived in the joy and light of his Father, glorified by him and glorifying him (Jn 17:4-5).

We should follow his example and live and proclaim the truth of our faith in Christ. Thus, even if we are persecuted, we will rejoice in his salvation and light.

THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT DIVINIZES US

Feast of the Holy Apostles Philip and James, May 3 1 Cor 15:1-8; Ps 18; Jn 14:6-14

Today is the feast of the holy apostles Philip and James. At the last supper, Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.” And Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” (Jn 14:8-10). We hear these words of Philip and Jesus in today’s Gospel.

With these words, Jesus reveals to us the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Jesus is not the Father; nor is the Father Jesus. These two are distinct and different Persons, but they are at the same time completely united in love. And the breath of their mutual love,

111

which these two mutually breathe into each other is holy, is the Holy Spirit, which is, moreover, divine and itself God. The Holy Spirit unites the Father to the Son in an eternal embrace of love, and the splendid and ineffable light of this eternal embrace illumines the universe.

It is this holy breath which the Father gives us through Jesus Christ after his Resurrection to deify us. This gift unites us with the Son and transforms us into the glorious image of the Son, illuminating us, so that, united to the Son, whom we contact in his supremely divinized humanity, we might breathe this same breath of light with the Father. Thus we are ever more illuminated and transformed into the image of the Son. This is the process of our divinization, effected in us by the Holy Spirit.

If we are united to Christ by faith and the sacraments, then he unites us with his Father, because he himself is perfectly united to his Father in an embrace of love and interpenetration. The one interpenetrates the other in love. The one is within the other in love, and they are thus one, one thing, one being, one God, but in three distinct Persons, the Father and the Son embraced in unimaginable love, and their mutual breath of love being the Holy Spirit, who is the same gift which the Father gives to us through the Son for our illumination and divinization. In this way the divine Persons wish us to be illuminated by a participation in their divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

It is the humanity, supremely divinized and full of divinity of Jesus Christ, which is our point of contact with the Most Holy Trinity, and through Christ we receive the holy breath of love of the Trinity, which is the Trinitarian love, the Holy Spirit, for our transformation. This is a love of Persons in relation and union. It is a divine and divinizing love. It comes to us through our contact with the visible humanity of Jesus when we believe in him. The divine Person of Jesus deifies his own humanity, filling it with light and divinity. Our contact then with his divinized humanity gives us the opportunity to be divinized, because this splendor of his divinity passes from him to us, rubbing off on us, and, through the power of the gift of the Holy Spirit, transforms us into the glorious image of the divine Son (2 Cor 3:18).

This is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. He divinizes us, transforming us into the image of the Son when we contemplate the glory of the Son, as St. Paul says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding [contemplating] the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into his image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18). The presence of the Holy Spirit in us, which is the holy breath of love between the Father and the Son, then divinizes us.

But we also have to do our part to be transformed. We have to follow Christ. He is the way and the life, as he says today (Jn 14:6). We have to walk by this way to enjoy this life. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). If we want to have this light of life—and Christ is the life, and this light is the light of Christ—we have to follow him, that is, obey him in everything, even in the smallest details. Thus does the light grow in us.

In contemplating the glory of the Lord and in obeying him, we grow in the light, and the light illumines us with the illumination of the divinity of Christ in us. And because Christ is in the Father by nature, and the Father in him, then we are united to the Father if we are united to Christ in his visible humanity.

Christ assumed our humanity in his incarnation and divinized it, filling it with divinity, thus filling it with splendor. It is our baptism and faith which activate this

112

divinization in us, and it is our obedience, living only for him in everything, which makes it grow in us.

Christ is our life, and our way to union with the Father. He introduces us into the holy divine breath of love between him and his Father, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have this holy and divinizing breath in us.

CHRIST WANTS US TO PARTICIPATE IN HIS GLORIOUS RELATION WITH HIS FATHER

Friday, 4th Week of Easter

Acts 13:26-33; Ps 2; Jn 14:1-6 Jesus wants us to be where he is. He says today, “when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (Jn 14:3). He wants us to be with him in the glory which he has with his Father in the Holy Spirit. For this reason he came into the world. Now he is returning again to this glory, and he wants us to follow him, because, as he says today, “you know where I am going and you know the way” (Jn 14:4). He himself is the way which brings us to where he is going. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me,” he says (Jn 14:6).

Christ wants us to see his glory and to share in it with him; and his glory is the love which runs between the Father and him in the Holy Spirit. His glory is the Holy Spirit which covers him with splendor and ineffable love in the bosom of his Father from all eternity. He wants, as he says, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17:26). He wants us to share in this love.

Christ came to give us this love because this love is in him, and when he loves us, he loves us with the same love with which he himself is loved by his Father, and he wants us to live and remain in this divine love. He says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; remain in my love” (Jn 15:9). He wants us to remain in the splendor of the love between himself and his Father; and if we perfectly obey him, we will.

Jesus also says, “Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold [contemplate] my glory which thou hast given me, for thou hast loved me from before foundation of the world” (Jn 17:26). He wants us to contemplate and experience this glorious love, which is the Holy Spirit, in which he always lived with the Father from before the foundation of the world. Thus does he want us to share in this love with him. He came to give us a participation in this Trinitarian love (2 Peter 1:4).

113

Jesus himself is the way to arrive at this glory, which we can begin to experience now if we believe in him, live only for him, and obey him in everything. He is the way because he assumed our humanity to divinize it, and because he is the carrier of the Holy Spirit, and gives him to us. By his sacrificial and propitiatory death on the cross, he made perfect satisfaction before the Father for our sins, and by his Resurrection he illumines us with his new life. Also the example of his cross teaches us how we should live, sacrificing everything for him, offering ourselves in sacrifice to the Father with him in the Holy Spirit.

JESUS REVEALS GOD TO US

Saturday, 4th Week of Easter Acts 13:44-52; Ps 97; Jn 14:7-14

No one has seen God, except the Son who lives in the bosom of the Father in glory. Only he has seen God, and he came into the world to reveal him to us. St. John tells us, “No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (Jn 1:18). St. Paul tells us that Christ is the “icon of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). What cannot be seen is visible only through Jesus Christ, who is God the Son with a human nature, the revelation of God for man. And Jesus said, “Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father” (Jn 6:46). And about his Father Jesus said, “I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me” (Jn 7:29). And to his Father, Jesus said, “O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee” (Jn 17:25). And to Philip Jesus says today, “He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” (Jn 14:9-10). God is, in the words of St. Paul, “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen” (1 Tim 6:16).

We see God through Jesus Christ, who is God present in us through our faith. He lives and is present in us through our faith in him. He is present in us with his light which he has with his Father. He is present in us with his justice with which he justifies us, making us what we were not, that is, just and new, and resplendent before God. He is present in us with his forgiveness through his propitiatory death on the cross. This forgiveness frees us from all sense of guilt and gives us a pure and happy conscience and jubilation of spirit. And if we live uniquely for him, renouncing all else, we will be divinized by his presence in us through the action of the Spirit which the Father gives us through him. Seeing him and these his great benefits of justification, divinization, and illumination, we see in him the invisible God. Moreover, his cross is our example, showing us how we should live, namely, a life sacrificed and mortified to all else in this world, and lived only for him in love and sacrifice of itself to the Father with the Son in

114

the Holy Spirit. Seeing Jesus present in us through faith and following him with obedience is truly to see God. It is the only way that we can see the invisible God, whom no one has ever seen. Jesus reveals him to us. Jesus, with his benefits, is God visible for us.

THE DIVINIZATION OF THE HUMAN RACE

5th Sunday of Easter Acts 14:21-27; Ps 144; Rev 21:1-5; Jn 13:31-33,34-35

Jesus speaks today of his glory, which is the glory which he had with his Father before being born in the World, and says that the time is now drawing near for him to return to this glory. It is a glory in which the Father glorifies him, and he glorifies the Father. And this movement of glory between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. Thus the Father and the Son lived together in inaccessible light (1 Tim 6:16) and ineffable splendor, the one loving the other, and the breath of love uniting them is the Spirit of God, the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

So now Jesus with his passion and death will once again enter into this splendor, accompanied this time by his human body, which will be glorified by his death and Resurrection. He longs for this splendor which covered him with glory in the bosom of his Father, and he longs for the hour of his return to the right hand of the Father, and this time he will enter with his glorified humanity.

The glory he longs for is that which the Father gives him. It is a glory which comes to him through his relation of love with his Father. It is a glory of persons in relation, the one with the other. The Son glorifies the Father, and the Father basks in the splendor of the Son; and the Father glorifies the Son, and the Son basks in the splendor of the Father. And this glory and splendor with which each illumines the other is the divine Spirit, the Spirit of divinity, the Spirit of divine love, the Spirit of God, the loving breath of God, the Holy Spirit, which is the same gift which the Father gives us through the Son to transform us into the image of the Son “from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18).

The glory of the Son comes from the Father. It is the Father who illumines the Son; and it is the Son who illumines the Father. And the Holy Spirit is this glorious illumination. Each one is inflated and illumined by the glory of the other, and reflects it; and the Holy Spirit is this inflation. Jesus says to his Father, “Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee” (Jn 17:1). It is a mutual glory, the glory of persons in communion and interrelation; and it is splendorous. It is the light of the universe.

So lived Jesus before the foundation of the world (Jn 17:5), for the one and only Person of Jesus always existed (Jn 6:62; 3:13; 1:15; 17:5,24; 8:56,58). Before being born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus lived in ineffable splendor with the Father; and now he is preparing to return to this splendor from which he departed to incarnate himself on earth to illumine and divinize us. He will return to this glory through his passion, which he calls his glorification. He says, “now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made” (Jn 17:5). It is Jesus who is

115

praying like this. He was there in glory in the bosom of his Father from all eternity (Jn 6:62; 3:13); and now he wants to return to where he was.

And what was it like with those two in glory before the creation of the world? St. John reveals this to us, saying, “In the beginning was the Word” (Jn 1:1), who is the Person of Jesus (his only Person), “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (Jn 1:1-2).

This is the glory, to which Jesus is referring in today’s Gospel, saying, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified” (Jn 13:31). The Father glorifies and illumines the Son with his own divine splendor; and the Son then glorifies and illumines the Father with his splendorous love. Thus each one illumines the other, and each one is illuminated by the other. And Jesus continues, saying, “if God is glorified in him,” that is, in the Son, “God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once” (Jn 13:31-32).

Christ was sent by the Father to the earth to divinize the human race, to renew, illumine, and transform it with his own glory, with the same mutual glory which illumines the Father and the Son, which is the Holy Spirit. Therefore Christ gave us the Spirit. The Spirit transforms us into the glorious image of the Son (2 Cor 3:18) because it is the Spirit of sonship or filiation: “you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:15-16). Thus we enter into the same relation with the Father and the Spirit which Jesus has. We are thus glorified by the Father in the Spirit, and we glorify the Father united to Christ in the Spirit.

Jesus himself told us that he gave us this glory and that he wants us to contemplate it. He said, Father, “The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them” (Jn 17:22), and “Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold [or contemplate] my glory which thou hast given me” (Jn 17:24).

By faith, baptism, contemplation of this glory, and imitation of Christ, we are glorified and divinized through the work of the Holy Spirit, that is, effectively transformed into the glorious image of the Son by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18). Thus the Father illumines us with his love for his Son, whom he sees in us.

And what should we then do? Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, “that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (Jn 13:34). And St. John says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn 4:11). We should pour out our life, serving our neighbor in love, each one using his particular gift or charism for the edification of the new humanity, contributing thus to the deification of the human race. Thus Christ came to the earth to make us new, as he says in the second reading, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). And thus we advance the divinization of the human race, pouring ourselves out in love and service for our neighbor.

CHRIST IS PRESENT IN US THROUGH OUR FAITH

Thursday, 5th Week of Easter Acts 15:7-21; Ps 95; Jn 15:9-11

116

In the first reading the apostles are gathered in Jerusalem to investigate whether it is necessary for the Gentiles to observe the Mosaic law when they convert to Christ. In this meeting St. Peter says, “And God who knows the heart bore witness to them [the Gentiles], giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will” (Acts 15:8-11). This council decided not to impose the Mosaic law on the Gentile converts, because they saw that when Peter preached to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius in Caesarea, they also received the gift of the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, extolling God (Acts 10:44-46). So Peter baptized them at once (Acts 15:48) even though they knew nothing of the law of Moses.

This was the great proof that salvation, justification, and the gift of the Holy Spirit come directly from Christ in the heart which believes in him without works and without the law of Moses. Truly, God “cleansed their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9), as St. Peter said. It is by grace that we are saved, and not by our works. God visited the Gentiles “to take out of them a people for his name” (Acts 15:14), as St. James said. They were made into a people who were just and justified without works, without the law, only by faith. Therefore James decided “that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God” (Acts 15:19), imposing on them the law of Moses.

Truly, as St. Paul says, “if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with his heart and so is justified, and confesses with his lips and so is saved… For every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:9-10,13).

It is true that Christ puts his justice into us and absorbs our sin and guilt (2 Cor 5:21). Christ is present in us through our faith, giving us an alien justice and an alien life, which are his, not ours; and in the future we shall live through him (1 Jn 4:9), and it will be his life and his justice that shine in us (2 Cor 4:6), for he is our life and lives in us (Gal 2:20).

To remain and grow in this alien justice, in this new and alien life of Christ in us, we have to obey the will of God for us in everything as he reveals it to us in our conscience. If not, we will fall out of the splendor of his justice and life. Jesus tells us all this today, saying, “remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love” (Jn 15:9-10). His justice and his life, which justify us, come from Christ present within us through faith; and we remain and grow in this splendor by obeying him perfectly, doing the things which he directs us to do, living only for him in everything, and renouncing everything else in the way in which he inspires us to do so, and the more radically we can do so, the better.

GREATER LOVE HAS NO ONE THAN THIS, THAN TO LAY DOWN ONE’S LIFE FOR ONE’S FRIENDS

Friday, 5th Week of Easter

117

Acts 15:22-31; Ps 56; Jn 15:12-17 Today Jesus gives us his commandment to love one another. This is not the first commandment, which is to love God “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mk 12:30); but it is the second commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:31). Jesus gives us this second commandment today, saying, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:12-13).

Our life can be divided into two parts: 1) serving God directly, and 2) serving our neighbor for the love of God. Actually, though, all is for God, because we serve our neighbor as a way to serve God. We love our neighbor as a way to love God. We cannot see God, but we can see our neighbor, and thus we can love and serve God through loving and serving our neighbor whom we can see.

God loved us with an infinite love. How can we return this love? How can we express our love for him? We do so by loving our neighbor; and God accepts this as love for himself, as St. John says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us” (1 Jn 4:11-12). And “If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother…whom he has seen, [he] cannot love God whom he has not seen…he who loves God should love his brother also” (1 Jn 4:20-21). And St. John also says, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn 3:16).

Therefore, we should pray and serve God directly; but we should also serve and love him in serving and loving our neighbor. We do this primarily in our heart, by not hating him, even if he attacks us and has rejected us and hates us. In our heart we should forgive and love him. We should love and pray for our enemies (Mt 5:44).

Then we should serve our neighbor, using our gifts, talents, and charism, as Jesus said, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (Jn 13:14). Through our word, our example, and even by writing we should try to help our neighbor and direct him to God. We should direct our work to the good of our neighbor. If we lay down our life in this way for our neighbor, as did the Good Shepherd (Jn 10:11,15,17,18), we will be his friends, and not his servants. “You are my friends,” he said, “if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants” (Jn 15:14-15). In laying down our life in this way for our neighbor, we become the friends of Christ.

THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND PERSECUTION

Saturday, 5th Week of Easter Acts 16:1-10; Ps 99; Jn 15:18-21

Today, in the first reading, we see how the Holy Spirit directs the saints. He guides them very clearly and strongly, prohibiting them from doing certain good things. When Paul

118

and Silas went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia” (Acts 16:6). They knew interiorly that they were not to preach in the province of Asia, and therefore they obeyed the Holy Spirit, and did not do so. “And when they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithinia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (Acts 16:7). Do you see how clearly and strongly the Spirit guides them? Preaching the word is a good work, but the Holy Spirit did not permit it, because he wanted them to do another good work. And they obeyed this interior guidance which was very clear and strong in them.

The Holy Spirit continues to guide the saints today also in the same clear and strong way, prohibiting them from doing certain good things, because he wants them to do something else. A monk, for example, can be prohibited by the Holy Spirit from exercising a certain active ministry, because the Spirit wants him to live in deep silence with God.

But the world, and those who think like the world, do not understand this guidance because they have never experienced this kind of prohibition by the Holy Spirit, and therefore they criticize and condemn the saints for following this guidance of the Holy Spirit. The world does not understand that the Holy Spirit can inspire the saints to leave off doing certain good things which in the world are normal and expected. The world does not understand that the Holy Spirit is guiding them to do something else, and therefore the world persecutes the saints. Jesus speaks about this persecution today, saying, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Jn 15:18-19).

The world will hate us as it hated Christ, that is, because we are not of the world any more than he was of the world (Jn 17:14,16). Our ways are different from those of the world. Our ways are guided by the Holy Spirit, who can even prohibit us from doing certain good things, normal in the world, and which the world always does, so that we might do something else. The Holy Spirit can, for example, prohibit us from speaking or communicating with other people in certain places and at certain times so that we might live in deep silence and solitude with God in prayer and contemplation in these places and times. But the world, which has not experienced this type of strong, clear, and personal guidance by the Holy Spirit, will persecute us for following it, as it persecuted Jesus. And when this happens, we should rejoice, because our “reward is great in heaven; for so [they] did to the prophets” (Lk 6:23). Therefore “Blessed are you when men hate you…rejoice in that day, and leap for joy” (Lk 6:22-23).

THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST IN US GIVES US TRUE FREEDOM

6th Sunday of Easter Acts 15:1-2,22-29; Ps 66; Rev 21:10-14,22-23; Jn 14:23-29

Today the apostles meet in Jerusalem and decide that they should not trouble the gentiles who convert to God, by putting on their neck the yoke of the law of Moses, because we are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, and not by the observance of the law. St. Peter

119

said, “we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will” (Acts 15:11).

Truly, salvation comes from Jesus Christ through our faith in him, and not through our works according to the law. We do not justify ourselves. We do not forgive ourselves. We do not illumine ourselves. We do not free ourselves from guilt, and we do not give ourselves heavenly peace, “the peace of God, which passes all understanding” (Phil 4:7). This peace comes to us through the presence of Christ in us, justifying and illumining us. The Father makes us temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16) and of God (2 Cor 6:16). It is through Christ that the Father gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit who transforms us “from glory to glory” in the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18), and it is Christ who shines in our hearts, illumining and filling them with heavenly light and peace (2 Cor 4:6).

It is Christ who gives us freedom from sin and makes us free in Christ. “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1). “…For you were called to freedom, brethren” (Gal 5:13). We are free in Christ, freed from sin and from guilt. His presence in us gives us this liberation and this illumination; not we ourselves. Therefore the apostles decided not to force the gentiles to observe the law of Moses “because we are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus”, as St. Peter says today (Acts 15:11). “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed,” said Jesus (Jn 8:36). We live then in the joy and freedom of the sons of God. We live in the Spirit of God, and, as St. Paul says, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17), freedom from all that oppresses us.

If we are free in Christ, we are now free from the law of Moses, which never justified anyone. And knowing “that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified” (Gal 2:16). Our salvation and liberation from sin come from God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, and we participate in this gift through the gift of the Holy Spirit who was given to us. St. Paul says, “even when we were dead through our trespasses [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:5). This is an alien justice; not our own. It is the justice of Christ which has been given to us through our faith in him. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph 2:8-9).

How could someone, dead in sin, give himself this illumination? Only God can do this, and he does it through the death of Christ on the cross and by the light shining from his Resurrection, for he “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25). And we are “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24). “For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law” (Rom 3:28). “…the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal 3:24). Therefore “to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom 4:5). “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose” (Gal 2:21).

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1), and it is in this peace that we now live, a peace not of this world, a heavenly peace, which is the gift of Christ. Thus we are like St. Paul who said

120

that he was “found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil 3:9).

Only God can give us this peace “which passes all understanding” (Phil 4:7). Christ tells us today, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (Jn 14:27). And St. Paul says, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). Through the presence of Christ within us, filling us with his light, we are made temples of the Spirit (1 Cor 3:16) and temples of God (2 Cor 6:16), filled with God, filled with light and heavenly peace, a peace not of this world, a light and peace which illumine, transform and divinize us.

To remain in this light and peace, we have to obey Christ perfectly in everything, always doing his will for us, as he inspires us in our conscience as to how we should act and live. Thus we will remain in his love. “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love” (Jn 15:10).

A WITNESS OF THE RESURRECTION AND OF THE GLORY OF GOD

Feast of St. Matthias, May 14 Acts 1:15-17,20-26; Ps 112; Jn 15:9-17

Today is the feast of the apostle St. Matthias, who was elected to take the place of Judas and be a witness of the Resurrection. He will be one of the apostles, and his work will be to testify to this new life which we now have in Jesus Christ.

Christ came from the Father, where he lived from all eternity with the Father covered in splendor in an embrace of infinite and ineffable love, which is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. This relationship of love is the ultimate reality of the universe. God himself is love (“God is love” 1 Jn 4:16) and lives in love from before the creation of the world. To truly love, one needs someone whom he can love. God is not alone. He has someone whom he has always loved; he has his Son who is also God, equal to the Father in divinity and one with him, one thing with him. These two are completely united in an ineffable love to the point that they are one single being, one in mind and one in will, two in one, two Persons in one being, one single God. The two interpenetrate each other through coinherence. Thus God is a community of distinct Persons in communion and relationship, united in unimaginable and splendorous love. Thus the ultimate reality of the universe is love and relationship in love because God is not alone: the Father has the Son, and the Son has the Father. And their mutual love produces the Holy Spirit.

Christ, the Son, was sent by God to the earth so that we might ascend and enter into this Trinitarian relationship. And in today’s Gospel this Son tells us, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; remain in my love” (Jn 15:9). He became incarnate so that we might be divinized. He humanized himself so that we might be divinized. He assumed our human flesh and filled it with the divinity of his own Person, and his Person is the Person of the eternal Word, the eternal Son, the Logos. The presence of the Logos

121

in human flesh divinized it and filled it with his own divinity, even though the flesh of Christ remained human, created, and a creature. But even so, it was filled with divinity and became the bearer of divinity for us. Thus Christ put his divinity within humanity to illumine it from within and divinize it, filling it with splendor and restoring the intimacy with God which Adam and Eve had and lost.

Christ first of all divinized his own humanity, and secondarily our humanity, because all that he assumed he divinized so that we might be recreated in the image of the Son, who is the image of God. This recreation is done by the Holy Spirit working within us (2 Cor 3:18). Thus remade in the image of the Son (Rom 8:29), we are, as he is, sons of God—adopted sons, sons in the only divine Son. And as sons in the only divine Son, we enter into the same Trinitarian relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit which the Son has, which is a relationship of ineffable love, the eternal love between the Father and the Son in the splendor of the Holy Spirit.

Christ wants us to remain in this love, as he says today, “remain in my love” (Jn 15:9). This is the same splendorous love which unites the Father to the Son in the Holy Spirit, it is the primordial love of the universe which illumines the universe. It is the glory in which the Son lives eternally with the Father. This glory, Christ was sent to the earth to bring to us. “The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them” (Jn 17:22). He wants us to live in this glory, to grow ever more in it, and to experience it ever more.

By purifying ourselves from other things, from other pleasures, other lights, we can achieve this and begin to experience this glory. Through our faith and by imitating Christ, by loving him above all things, and by living only for him we can, little by little, appropriate, activate and experience the splendor of this divinization.

Our participation in the life of God (2 Peter 1:4) reached its perfection in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, because in his Resurrection it was our human flesh which rose gloriously in him. By faith, baptism, and a life of purification we can live a spiritually risen and divinized life and begin to experience this glory and this Trinitarian love. All this will be completed at the Parousia and in the life after this life, but we can, by faith and through purification, begin to live and experience this divinized life even now, and thus remain in this glory, in this splendor, in the love between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.

St. Matthias was a witness of all this, a witness of the Resurrection of Jesus into eschatological glory. He preached and invited all to repent and believe in the Gospel, and begin to live this life of God on earth. He shared with all what God had given him.

THE ASCENDED LIFE

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord Acts 1:1-11; Ps 46; Eph 1:17-23; Lk 24:46-53

Christ came to the earth from the splendor of the Father in the glory of the Holy Spirit to kindle our hearts with love for him. And having completed his mission on earth, he returned again to the bosom of the Father, ascending with the humanity, which he

122

assumed to divinize us, now risen and glorified. Now he is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, interceding with the Father for us (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 9:24; 1 Jn 2:1).

Christ wounded us with the wound of love for him by his presence among us in the world. He wounded us with love for him by his incarnation and birth in the illuminated cave of Bethlehem, adored by angels, shepherds, and Magi in the manger between the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. He wounded our hearts with love for him by his life, example, and teaching; and he wounded us with love for him by his sacrificial death for us on the cross. He rejoiced us with his glorious Resurrection; and today he physically departs from us and ascends, returning to where he came from, having gained our hearts and our love for him. Therefore when he was lifted up into heaven in his now glorified human body, his disciples stood there gazing up into the sky.

This is our position and situation today. We are wounded with love for him, and long to see him again. We long to go where he went, but we cannot go for now. Nonetheless, although he physically left us, he did not abandon us as orphans, because in another way he remains with us. Thus he told us, saying, “Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also” (Jn 14:19). He lives; and we live because he lives. He is our life. He lives in us (Gal 2:20; Col 1:27; Jn 14:20). We live through him (1 Jn 4:9). He remains with us always. He said, “lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20).

He is seated in glory now in the bosom of his Father, but at the same time he remains with us in another form through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes him present to us. We also should rise up with him and live in heaven, in spirit, with him. We should live a risen (Col 3:1; Rom 6:4) and even ascended life with him (Eph 2:6), seeking the things that are above, and no longer those of the earth (Col 3:1-2).

We should live a completely new type of life leaving the good for the better, renouncing the goods of this creation to better possess those of the new creation, sacrificing the visible for the invisible and the spiritual, leaving the old man to clothe ourselves better in the new man (Eph 4:22-24), sacrificing the delights of this world for those of the Kingdom of God and of the spirit, leaving the pleasures of the world for a deeper, more experienced and more illuminated life with Christ. This is the new life, radically lived. It is a life spiritually risen with the Risen Christ, and even already ascended with the ascended Christ.

Thus we live with Christ the mystery of his Ascension, living with our heart in heaven, living in heaven in spirit, and thus living a completely new type of life here on earth, a life already ascended with Christ, the love of our heart, leaving our former form, manner, and style of living. Thus as he is in heaven, yet even so remains with us, in a similar way we, although we are here on earth, are nonetheless with him in heaven in our hearts. Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20). We should then live a completely new type of life, a truly new and heavenly life here on earth, a life of the new man (Eph 4:22-24), clothed with Christ (Gal 3:27; Rom 13:14), as new creatures (Rev 21:5; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15). And the more radically we can do this, the better.

This is the mystery of the Ascension. It is a mystery for everyone, but monks especially love and try to live this mystery in a very special and radical way in this world, leaving the worldliness of the world and its conventions for a heavenly life, leaving the spectacles of this world for a life full of light and divine love.

123

Let us then live with Christ this mystery of his Ascension with our hearts placed in heaven with him, and our bodies living a new, risen, and ascended life here on earth for love of him.

JESUS RETURNS TO THE GLORY OF HIS FATHER

Saturday, 6th Week of Easter Acts 18:23-28; Ps 46; Jn 16:23-28

Jesus came from the Father, and now returns to his Father. He says today, “I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father” (Jn 16:28). We have celebrated the Ascension of the Lord, that is, his return to his Father. Before he was born of the Virgin Mary, he lived forever with the Father in glory (Jn 1:1; 6:62), and now he returns to it with his humanity.

He came here so that we could be where he is now, to see, share, and contemplate this glory. In the communion antiphon we hear, “Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to contemplate my glory which thou hast given me” (Jn 17:24). Christ is now in heaven in the bosom of the Father covered with glory in the Holy Spirit. He wants us to be where he is. Therefore he came here: to prepare a way for us to arrive there. He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (Jn 14:6). Through him we can arrive where this glory is, where he is. He is the way to arrive there. He transforms and divinizes us by his incarnation so that we might be perfected with him in the splendor and glory of his Father.

But the contemplation and experience of this glory begins here for those who have faith in him and who have purified themselves from this world to be able to perceive this glory. This is a process of transformation and illumination. It is a restoration of the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27) in us which allows him to shine resplendent in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6). The more perfectly we can discern his will for us and faithfully do it even in the smallest details, the more we will live in this light and glory which he came from the regions of light to bring us. Little by little he teaches us his way and his truth, so that we might experience and enjoy ever more his life and light. This is the process of divinization, which makes us godlike, resplendent in his eyes, full of light.

This process is his gift, given to us through the union of the divine Word with human flesh in the incarnation, thus inserting divinity into his and our humanity, illuminating and divinizing in this way, in principle, all human flesh. But we have to do our part also through faith, baptism, and purification, to activate and develop this gift. Then you will

124

be “God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9; entrance antiphon).

Let us purify ourselves then and discern better his will for us, to know better how he wants us to live, and what it is which he wants us to do in each situation, so that living thus, we might enjoy this glory, contemplate it, live in it, and be every day more transformed and divinized by this light. Thus we can better avoid the sins, imperfections, and errors of judgment in our behavior which diminish this glory in us.

THAT THEY MAY BE ONE, EVEN AS WE ARE ONE

7th Sunday of Easter Acts 7:55-60; Ps 96; Rev 22:12-14,16-17,20; Jn 17:20-26

God calls us to unity and love with himself, and to love and unity with our brothers. We hear this in today’s Gospel.

But we also hear today in the first reading that we are not always united, and we see that the Holy Spirit also causes division (Mt 10:34). We see this in the murder of Stephen. This lack of union happened because Stephen followed very exactly the guidance of the Holy Spirit in his life, while the members of the council did not understand this guidance of the Spirit which Stephen was following with such fidelity; and therefore they attacked and killed him. And so Stephen is honored as the first martyr. Even Jesus taught us that he came to bring division and dissension among men: “Do not think,” he says, “that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mt 10:34).

Stephen preached the truth, and the members of the council, “when they heard these things…were furious, and they ground their teeth against him…they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him” (Acts 7:54,57-58). Not everyone understands the movement of the Spirit, and so they turn against the saints and attack them, as the council attacked Stephen today because it did not understand Stephen nor did it know that in fact Stephen was following the Holy Spirit who inspired him to preach Christ in the powerful manner in which he preached him.

We see the same thing happening today. The Spirit can inspire people to act in a certain way, and a person can follow this inspiration, as Stephen did, and for doing this, other people can become furious with him because they do not understand this guidance of the Spirit, as the members of the council did not understand Stephen today. If this should happen to us, we should not think that we have lost the way or have made a mistake. No! This is the way, the way of the cross which brings us to glory, as it brought Stephen to glory when he was killed by the council today. If this should happen to us, we should take courage and be confident, for God will glorify us as he glorified Stephen today.

125

At the same time, Christ calls us to communion and unity, as we hear in today’s Gospel. If we respect the guidance of the Holy Spirit in other people, we will live in the unity which Christ brought us. Today Jesus prays “that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be in us” (Jn 17:21).

Christ unites us with the Father by inhabiting us, because he is one by nature with the Father. He is one being with the Father, and therefore if he is in us by grace, the Father also, who is one with him by nature, will be in us, filling us with love and light, which make us one with God. And if we are all one in Christ—and through Christ are one with the Father—then we have a great bond of union between us, namely, the love of God, his light, and the presence of Christ inhabiting us.

Christ gave us his own glory, which the Father gave him (Jn 17:22), so that we might contemplate it (Jn 17:24). This glory is another source of union which unites us with one another, as Jesus says today, “The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast…loved them even as thou hast loved me” (Jn 17:22-23). If the glory of Christ, which I have shining in my heart, is also in the heart of my brother—or could potentially be in his heart—then this glory of Christ is another powerful bond of unity and communion among ourselves, and with God.

This is the glory which Jesus had with the Father in ineffable splendor before the creation of the world (Jn 17:5). He was glorified by the Father, and he illumined the Father. The Father lived in the glory, illumination, and splendor of the Son; and the Son lived in the love, light, and glory of the Father. And this glory, splendor, and illumination is the Holy Spirit.

And Christ was sent to us to make us participants in this glory, splendor, and illumination. He gave us this glory (“The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them” Jn 17:22) for our illumination and union with God and with our brethren.

Christ inhabits our hearts, illumining the Father from within our hearts; and he also receives the illumination of the Father from within our hearts, an illumination which passes through us, illuminating us as well on its way between the Father and the Son, uniting us to God and to one another.

GOD’S TRANSFORMING LOVE AND GLORY

Thursday, 7th Week of Easter Acts 22:30; 23:6-11; Ps 15; Jn 17:20-26

Today we hear one of the most beautiful texts of the entire Bible. First of all Jesus tells us that the Father loved him from before the foundation of the world, that is, from all eternity. He says, Father “you have loved me from before the foundation of the world” (Jn 17:24). This verse is very important because it reveals to us what the Blessed Trinity is like. Although in God there is but one single mind and one single will shared by the three divine Persons, even so, the three distinct Persons—being one single being—can and do know and love each other. And we see here that the Father did not love his Son only after he was a man with a human mind and a human will, well separated from the

126

Father, but that he loved him “from before the foundation of the world” (Jn 17:24), that is, from before the incarnation, when the Father and the Son lived together in glory (Jn 17:5). Not only did they live together in glory, but also in love “because you have loved me from before the foundation of the world” (Jn 17:24). Although the mind and the will of the Father were the same mind and the same will which the Son also had before the incarnation, even so, they knew and loved each other. Such is the Blessed Trinity.

We conclude, therefore, that fundamentally God is relation and love. God is fundamentally Persons in relation, Persons in the relationship of love, although they are not persons in the same sense that we are persons as different individuals and different beings, because the divine Persons are one single being, each one living within the other (Jn 10:38).

In the Blessed Trinity there are, therefore, three subjects who are reciprocally conscious of each other through this single divine mind and single divine will, which the three subjects possess in common, each one in his own way. God is, therefore, a triple subject (Cardinal Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ; New York: Crossroads, 1986, p. 289).

God is love (1 Jn 4:16). The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and the kiss and breath of mutual love between these two is the Holy Spirit; and this love is splendor and glory. Therefore Jesus says, “now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made” (Jn 17:5). Jesus wants to return now with his humanity to this glory. And, moreover, he gives us this glory (Jn 17:22), that we might contemplate it (Jn 17:24), and in contemplating it be transformed into the same glory and image of the Son whom we are contemplating (2 Cor 3:18). Thus we are transformed “from glory to glory” by this contemplation—that is, we are transformed into the glorious image of the Son (2 Cor 3:18). He wants us to live in this glory. Therefore he says today, “The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them” (Jn 17:22).

And this kiss and breath of this splendorous love of the Father for the Son and of the Son for the Father, which is the Holy Spirit, has been given to us (Rom 5:5), so that this same splendid love might be in us also (Rom 5:5), as Jesus says today, saying, Father, thou “hast loved them even as thou hast loved me” (Jn 17:23), and “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them” (Jn 17:26). Jesus, who is the divine and proper recipient of the divine love of the Father, shares with us this same love, saying, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; remain in my love” (Jn 15:9). This divine love in us works our transformation and illumination. It is the gift of God’s transforming love and glory.

WITNESSES OF CHRIST IN THE WORLD

Friday, 7th Week of Easter Acts 25:13-21; Ps 102; Jn 21:14-29

We see in the first reading today how much we have to suffer for our faith and for our witness to Jesus Christ. We see how St. Paul had to defend himself many times before

127

the authorities against the accusations of the Jews. He defended himself before the governor Felix and his successor Porcius Festus, before the king Agrippa and the queen Bernice, and finally before Caesar in Rome. And what crime did he commit? What fault did he have? His fault and crime were that he preached Christ powerfully and with courage, and that his life backed up his preaching. Even the Roman governor did not find anything in him deserving of punishment or death, and this governor, Festus, said to King Agrippa today, “they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed; but they had certain points of dispute with him about their own superstition and about one Jesus, who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive” (Acts 25:18-19).

So shall it also be with us if we do what St. Paul did, that is, if we preach Christ with power and conviction and if we live and practice what we preach. This combination of the word of truth of God combined with the example of our life which backs up our preaching is very powerful. We saw the reaction against St. Stephen when he acted like this, and we saw how many times St. Peter was put in prison for preaching and living in this way. We have also seen how many times St. Paul was expelled, jailed, judged, persecuted, beaten, and stoned for living and acting in this way, and we saw how many times he had to defend himself against the accusations of the Jews for living and preaching like this.

The way of the saints is not easy. There is much opposition against them in the world. But even all this advances the Gospel and the Kingdom of God in the world. This persecution and these legal trials gave the saints the opportunity to give public witness to Jesus Christ before councils and governors; and in due time many hearts were changed.

We also are called to live this way for Jesus Christ in this world. We are called to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Our message is not an easy one for those who live a life according to the so-called “wisdom” of this world. Our message is a great challenge to them to change their direction, orientation, and accustomed style and way of living and acting. We present a call to a completely new way of life and to a new kind of behavior. We present a call to a simple, sacrificial, ascetic, poor, and prayerful life, to a silent and recollected life, to a life of love for Jesus Christ, to a life which renounces everything else of this world for him, so that he might be the center of everything for us and our only happiness, to the degree that this is possible. We present a great challenge, and we will be, as was St. Paul, rejected and accused for living like this, but we will live in the love of Christ with him shining in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6) if we accept to live this life of the saints.

HE WHO HAS EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR

Saturday, 7th Week of Easter Acts 28:16-20; Ps 10; Jn 21:20-25

Today we see St. Paul when he arrived in Rome as a prisoner for having preached Jesus Christ. And what is the first thing which he did while he was awaiting his trial and judgment for having preached Christ? He continues preaching Christ! Three days after arriving, “he called together the local leaders of the Jews” to tell them that “it is because

128

of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain” (Acts 28:17,20). That is, he wanted to speak with them about the hope of Israel, which is the Messiah, the Christ. The leaders of the Jews appointed a day for him, and on that day “they came to him at his lodging in great numbers. And he expounded the matter to them from morning till evening, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets” (Acts 28:23).

What a marvel! The spirit of St. Paul is not broken by all the rejection he experienced, not in the least! On the contrary, he is stronger than ever. He continues doing that for which he was arrested. Even as he is awaiting his trial, he continues doing the same thing, preaching Christ.

He is like the apostles Peter and John who were beaten by the council for having preached Jesus, and were warned not to speak again in that name, who, when “they left the presence of the council,” rejoiced “that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:40-42).

The apostles Peter and John, as also St. Paul, could not keep silent. They could not stop speaking the truth of God for the salvation of the world. They did not stop doing what they were arrested for; nor should we when we are in a similar situation.

And after St. Paul had spoken “from morning till evening” (Acts 28:23), “some were convinced by what he said, while others disbelieved” (Acts 28:24). Such is the preaching of Christ and of this new life. Some will be convinced, others will not. But the preacher cannot stop speaking of what he has seen and heard (Acts 4:20). This is his vocation, his contribution to the well-being of the world. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mt 11:15). And it will be for the preacher today as it was for the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, as Isaiah, whom Paul cites here, says, namely, he will find himself preaching to a people who do not understand: “You shall indeed hear but never understand,” said Isaiah, “and you shall indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull” (Acts 28:26-27; see Isaiah 6:9-10 LXX). But Isaiah continued preaching, and he preaches until today and does much good, as well as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and St. Paul. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mt 11:15).

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

Solemnity of Pentecost Acts 2:1-11; Ps 103; 1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13; Jn 20:19-23

Today we celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. We are all sent into the world by Jesus Christ, as he was sent into the world by the Father (Jn 20:21; 17:18). And we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit for our mission in the world (Jn 20:21-22). The Spirit gives to each one the gifts needed for his or her particular

129

mission (1 Cor 12:4). “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor 12:7).

We should live a life in the Spirit, each one living in the way the Spirit directs him or her. We should not live according to the flesh and its desires. These desires have to be controlled by our intelligence, guided by the Holy Spirit. Thus we live according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and not according to the desires of the flesh, as St. Paul teaches us. Yes, we have to take care of the flesh, feeding it, sleeping enough, protecting it from cold and heat, etc, but also denying it many of its desires for pleasure.

Many desires and pleasures of the flesh are sins, such as fornication, adultery, gluttony, pornography, etc.; but if we live according to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will also guide us to renounce in addition many pleasures of the flesh which are not sins, such as the pleasures of food and other entertainments, such as movies, pleasure trips, banquets, etc., not because these things are evil or sins, but in order to live more totally for God alone with an undivided and undistracted heart, making God the only pleasure of our life, to the degree that this is possible, so that we might enter into a deeper union with him and experience him more profoundly in light.

Therefore the Desert Fathers and other strict monks, during the most fervent periods of their history, lived very simply and austerely, eating only very basic simple food, without seasoning except salt, nothing fried, and not even eating white bread (considered a delicacy), as they lived in the times of St. Bernard (see his first letter), dressing in habits, and living in enclosures. They lived according to the Holy Spirit, and not according to the flesh. They were in the Spirit, and not in the flesh. They lived thus because “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom 8:6). “…for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live” (Rom 8:13).

We are thus called to a life in the Holy Spirit, and not to a life according to the flesh and its desires. St. Paul says, “walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other” (Gal 5:16-17). “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:24-25).

This is a completely new kind of life, life according to the Holy Spirit, life in the Spirit, a way of living almost completely unknown to many people, even Christians. It is a life born again of Spirit and water (Jn 3:5) in the death and Resurrection of Christ to walk in the newness of life (Rom 6:4), risen with Christ and illuminated by his Spirit which sanctifies and renews us. It is a bath of regeneration in the Holy Spirit which we have received and in which we live (Titus 3:5-6). Bathed and inspired thus by the Spirit, we should now live a completely new kind of life, leaving behind our former way of living, stripping ourselves of the old man and of our former worldly ways (Eph 4:22-24).

Each one will be shown by the Spirit his or her own way of living this new life, but in this variety, all should follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and not the ways, desires, fashions, and conventions of the world and of the flesh. This is a calling to live in simplicity and poverty, in love and service, in silence and prayer, in spiritual reading and study. The work of each one will follow his or her own gifts and inspirations, but one’s style of living should always be like this, that is, according to the Spirit, and not according to the desires and pleasures of the flesh. The style of this new life should be

130

that of the new man, living in the new creation, and should no longer be a worldly style according to worldly conventions.

The Holy Spirit was given today to the Church so that we might be filled with the Spirit, and thus united to God and transformed in Christ in light. It is the Spirit which transforms us into the image of the Son, filling us with divine light and transfiguring us “from glory to glory” in the image of the Son (2 Cor 3:18). It is the Holy Spirit which fills our hearts with the love of God (Rom 5:5), and it is the Holy Spirit which communicates to us the justification gained by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Titus 3:5). It is the Spirit which unites the Father to the Son in an eternal embrace of love, and it is the Spirit which Jesus gives to us from the Father so that our sins might be forgiven (Jn 20:22-23) and that we might live in the splendor of his divine love. Thus we live a new life in the Spirit, an illumined life, full of the love of God, risen, and already ascended, an angelic life on earth. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, given to us today.

LEAVING ALL, WE FIND ALL

Tuesday, 8th Week of the Year Sir 35:1-15; Ps 49; Mk 10:28-31

Today we hear a Gospel that has made many saints. Peter says today, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you” (Mk 10:28). In Matthew’s version, Peter then adds, “What then shall we have?” (Mt 19:27). Jesus’ answer is that all who have left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for his sake and for the gospel will receive back a hundredfold now in this time—with persecutions—and in the age to come, will inherit eternal life (Mk 10:29-30). He then adds, saying, “many that are first will be last, and the last first” (Mk 10:31), that is, many who are first now in this world will be last in the Kingdom, and many who are last now in this world will be first in the Kingdom.

This is the great equation—so simple, and yet so profound—the great equation for happiness, blessing, union with God, and an illumined life, and in the age to come, eternal life. Last week Fr. James told us about Albert Einstein who spent his whole life looking for simple and profound equations that unify reality. And he found one. In the realm of the spirit, this is one such equation: Leaving all to find all.

Leaving all, we find all. We are now reading Fr. Michael Casey’s Strangers to the City at Midday prayer. The chapter we are presently reading is on monastic asceticism and its fundamental importance. Fr. Casey says that asceticism is the unification of our person. Instead of dispersing ourselves among many unnecessary luxuries and pleasures, monks, he says, practice asceticism and renunciation of these unnecessary pleasures for the love of God, to devote themselves to God with an undivided heart; and as a result, they find and experience God more deeply. Once we are purified of these many distracting influences, we can unite ourselves to God in a more experienced and luminous way. Such purification takes time, usually years, but, as Jesus says today, it yields a hundredfold reward in this present life.

Jesus says strong things along these lines, encouraging us to live for him alone with our whole heart. In leaving all for him, we find all. Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father, mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters,

131

yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26). And he says, “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:33). These are Jesus’ words. The monastic life seeks to do this in a radical way, to love God with an undivided heart. We are today promised a hundredfold reward in this life for doing so.

On the other hand, as Jesus said yesterday, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God… It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:24-25). It is so hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom because their lives are surrounded with the pleasures of this world, and so it is much harder for them to renounce them to serve only one master, and not two, or three, or many, not “God and mammon” (Mt 6:24). “No one can serve two masters,” Jesus says (Mt 6:24).

We must have but one treasure only, and that in heaven, if we wish to find God more deeply. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:19-21), Jesus said. Christ is the buried treasure. To find and experience him in the light, we must first sell all else to buy the field and claim possession of that treasure (Mt 13:44-45). There are degrees of doing this. The more radically we can do so, the better.

HE GAVE HIS LIFE TO RANSOM US FROM OUR SINS

Wednesday, 8th Week of the Year Sir 36:1-2,5-6,13-19; Ps 78; Mk 10:32-45

Jesus has come into the world to give his life for us, to ransom us from sin for God. He says so today in the key final verse of today’s Gospel, “the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). He came into the world for this purpose, to be a propitiation for our sins (Rom 3:25; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10; Heb 2:17), to offer his life in sacrifice to the Father in love for our redemption from sin (Rom 3:25; Heb 9:12-14,24-26,28; 10:10), and thus become our intercessor before the Father (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 9:24; 1 Jn 2:1), seated at the Father’s right hand (Heb 10:10), evermore appearing before him on our behalf as our advocate (1 Jn 2:1). The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us this very clearly, saying, “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God… For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb 10:12,14). And Hebrews also says, “Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25).

The Son pleases the Father by his filial submission to him in love as his Son. This, I think, we can understand as something that has eternally been the case, the Father and the Son loving each other in this filial-paternal way from all eternity in the splendor of the Holy Spirit, which is the ineffable breath of love which they eternally breathe into each other, or which the Father, infinitely pleased by the Son’s filial love and devotion, eternally pours out upon him.

132

But then, in the fullness of time, the Father sends the Son into the world to incarnate himself in human flesh capable of suffering and dying, so that he could now offer himself up in a painful, loving sacrifice of self-emptying and self-donation in love to the Father for the sake of all human flesh. He infinitely pleases the Father in doing so by his loving self-gift in sacrifice on the cross, winning from him our eternal redemption from sin, and opening for us the doors of paradise, closed by Adam’s sin. Thus the Son repeats in incarnate form what he has always been doing in offering himself to the Father in filial submission and love. The Father then pours out his Holy Spirit upon him, as he has always done, only this time raising him from the dead, and, then, through the risen Son, he also pours out this same Spirit upon all those who share a common human nature with his Son, if only they believe in him and are baptized, thus granting them the gift of eternal salvation.

We then must also imitate the Son’s humility and drink with him his cup of suffering and share in the baptism of his passion (Mk 10:38) to be able to sit with him in his glory (Mk 10:37).

WE TOO CAN BE TRANSFORMED

Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, May 31 Zeph 3:14-18; Is 12:2-6; Lk 1:39-56

Today we rejoice with Mary as she carries the Son of the eternal Father in her womb and travels with joyful haste into the hill country of Judah to greet Elizabeth. As Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, John the Baptist, in Elizabeth’s womb, leaped for joy. “…behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy” (Lk 1:44), said Elizabeth. What was this joy but the joy of the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Angel Gabriel to John’s father, Zechariah, who said, “and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Lk 1:15). Elizabeth also at this moment was filled with the Holy Spirit, as St. Luke tells us, saying, “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!’” (Lk 1:41-42). And Mary also rejoices in the Lord at this same moment, saying, “my spirit rejoices in God my savior” (Lk 1:47).

What was the source of their joy, a joy in the deepest part of their spirit? It was the presence of the divine Logos, the eternal Word, the only-begotten Son of the Father, God of God, light of light, consubstantial with the Father (Creed), now united hypostatically to a human nature and animating human flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is the first and only time in history that this ever happened. The divine Person of the Son of God assumed human flesh and animated it to divinize it, and all human flesh, in principle. This was the purpose of the incarnation. God became incarnate to put his splendor into our humanity, to light it up from within, to illumine and divinize it, starting with the humanity of Jesus himself in Mary’s womb, and, though our contact with his divinized humanity, to become divinized ourselves and made into godlike beings, filled with heavenly light. We activate this transformation through our faith, through baptism, and through living only for him with all our heart, with an undivided heart. The more radically we can do this, the better.

133

In the incarnation of Christ in Mary’s womb, divinity invaded humanity for its transformation and illumination. Is it any wonder then that Mary, Elizabeth, and even John the Baptist in Elizabeth’s womb were filled with joy in the Holy Spirit? They were affected by their proximity to this mystery. Their contact with Jesus’ divinized humanity enabled the divine splendor which filled Jesus’ flesh and which transformed his own humanity, to rub off onto them too and fill them also with the same divine splendor.

Jesus’ flesh and humanity remained human, but it was filled with transforming divinity from the divine Person of the Logos who was now his own Person and animating principle. In a similar but lesser way all who come into contact with Christ’s divinity-bearing, divinized, and divinizing humanity are also illumined, transformed, and divinized by this contact, if they activate it by faith, baptism, and a life of imitation of Christ. As Jesus’ humanity remained human but was made godlike by his divine Person, so we too, of course, remain human but are transformed and filled with God by our contact with the mystery of the incarnation, the mystery of God made man to make man godlike.

Mary was the first human person to benefit from this contact with the incarnation. She became the mother of God and the spouse of the Holy Spirit, and she bore the Son of the eternal Father. She has a special nuptial relationship with God that makes her godlike. She thus fulfills the Song of Songs in her love relationship with God which transforms and illumines her.

She is the one who, in the imagery of the Canticle of Canticles, sleeps on a flowering bed (Ct 1:16) in a house with beams of cedar and rafters of pine (Ct 1:17) with the Lord like a bag of myrrh lying between her breasts (Ct 1:13), on a mountain of myrrh and a hill of frankincense (Ct 4:6). She is ravished by love, and feeds on apples and raisins (Ct 2:5). She seeks solitude to be alone with the Lord in Lebanon, on the peaks of Amana, Senir, and Hermon, amid the dens of lions and the mountains of leopards (Ct 4:8). She seeks him alone in the desert, and comes up from her encounter with him like a column of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense and with all the fragrant powders of the merchant (Ct 3:6). And her breath has the scent of apples (Ct 7:8) and her garments the scent of Lebanon (Ct 4:11), for her lover is like a stag on the mountains of spices (Ct 8:14).

We too can share this divinization and transformation with her. God calls us all to it.

ARE OUR HEARTS IN THE RIGHT PLACE?

Saturday, 8th Week of the Year Sir 51:17-27; Ps 18; Mk 11:27-33

We see today the source of Jesus’ authority to cleanse the temple and to drive out the money changers, and we also see why the Jewish leaders did not accept him. The chief priests, scribes, and elders challenge Jesus today for acting in such an abrupt and authoritative manner, and want him to make a public statement that he really is sent by God to do this, so that they can then accuse him of blasphemy and of making himself the Son of God. So they ask him on what authority he does these things.

134

Jesus, of course, does have full divine authority to do all that he is doing. He, of course, is God, the divine Person of the Word, the Logos, equal to the Father in divinity, who from all eternity has been in the bosom of the Father in glory. He is now incarnate on earth, united hypostatically to human flesh as the animating principle or Person of Jesus Christ for the renewal of all human flesh which believes in him. This is the real and full truth of Jesus and of his authority for acting in the way he does, cleansing the temple, overturning the tables of the money changers, and driving them out with a whip. He is the only-begotten Son of the eternal Father made man, to live and die and rise again for our salvation.

The chief priests, having already heard much of his teaching and having seen his miracles, now want to draw him out into the open, and make him make clear public claims about himself, so that they can make clear accusations against him; but Jesus evades them, and instead turns the people against them. He shows them, without saying so in so many words, that his authority is in the same line as that of John the Baptist, that is, that its source is God. As John was sent by God, so too Jesus, in a far deeper way, was sent by God.

The chief priests, in fact, rejected both John and Jesus, whereas the common people accepted and followed both. So Jesus aligns himself with John, with God, and with the common people; and publicly puts the chief priests in opposition to God, John, and himself. He does this by asking them where John’s authority comes from. The obvious answer, which everyone knows, is that it comes from God, as does his own authority, which is understood in his question, without him saying so publicly, thus evading their accusations of blasphemy.

Why can’t they answer such a simple question, the answer to which everyone knows? It is because their hearts are not in the right place. Their hearts are not right with God. That is why they reject both John and Jesus, whereas the common people, the vast crowds, whose hearts are in the right place, accept both John and Jesus. The chief priests are thus publicly struck dumb and have to say that they don’t know where John’s authority came from. How stupid they must have looked in everyone’s eyes! And their rejection of Jesus is also well known, so their response makes them look foolish for that too. So instead of putting Jesus on the spot and accusing him, they end up putting themselves on the spot and accusing themselves of not having their hearts in the right place.

How important it is then to have our heart in the right place with God, and to receive both John and Jesus, who have been sent by God.

PERSONS IN RELATION

Trinity Sunday Proverbs 8:22-31; Ps 8; Rom 5:5; Jn 16:12-15

Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. The Trinity, along with Christology, is the main mystery of our faith, and one which theologians historically have had the most difficulty

135

in coming to terms with, a difficulty which continues to the present day, although not in as virulent a form as in the first centuries of the Church.

Due to the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ, all efforts were henceforth marshaled to demonstrate the equality in divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit with the Father, and, in the West, following St. Augustine, to demonstrate the unity and oneness of the Godhead. These efforts were spectacularly successful, and completely destroyed Arianism. Their great success, however, caused other problems, in that, out of fear of Arian misinterpretation, other important aspects of the Trinity were left underdeveloped, aspects such as the perfect obedience, adoration, filial submission in love of the Son to the Father, and his intercession before the Father for us (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 9:24; 1 Jn 2:1), all of which might have been misunderstood in an Arian subordinationist sense that the Son was not fully God or not equal in divinity with the Father.

Hence today further reflection is needed on these important but underdeveloped areas of the doctrine of the Trinity. Another neglected area, in much need of development today in the West, due to its stress on the unity of the Godhead, is that of the interrelation of the three divine Persons in mutual love.

Reflecting on the Trinity as Persons in relation was particularly neglected in the West because of the stress placed on the fact that in the Godhead there is but one divine mind and one divine will. This stress wonderfully solved the problem of the divine unity, but made it difficult to think of the divine Persons as relating to or influencing each other, since they had but one mind and one will between them.

We know that in God there is only one divine mind and one divine will shared by all three divine Persons because Christ, who was a divine but not a human person (that Christ was also a human person was condemned as the heresy of Nestorianism in 431 by the ecumenical Council of Ephesus), had both a human mind and a human will as well as a divine mind and a divine will. But if he “had” no human person, to what then did his human mind and human will pertain, except to his human nature? The same thing must then also be true of his divine mind and divine will. They must in like manner pertain to his divine nature, rather than to his divine Person. If this is true in Jesus, then it must also be true of the other two persons of the Blessed Trinity. That is, their divine mind and divine will must also pertain in a similar way to their divine nature, and not to their Persons. But in God there is only one nature. Hence there is only one divine mind and one divine will to be shared by all three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

So, do you see the problem we are faced with today? It is easy to understand with this schema how the Trinity is a unity—having only one mind and one will—but it is not so easy to see how the three Persons can interact and interrelate with each other if between them there is but a single divine mind and a single divine will which pertain to their common nature and in which all three Persons share.

Yet when we return to the Scriptures, we see that the three divine Persons very much do know, love, interrelate with, and influence each other. Jesus prays, for example, to his Father, saying, “Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world” (Jn 17:24). We see in this Scripture that Jesus can talk to his Father and that the Father and the Son both knew and loved each other before the

136

incarnation. The Son also intercedes for us with the Father, as many other Scripture texts tell us (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 9:24; 1 Jn 2:1).

So theologians today are trying to understand how the divine Persons can know, love, interact with, and influence each other if they form only one being with only one mind and one will among them. Cardinal Walter Kasper, for example, a close friend of our present Pope, has written as follows on this problem, saying, “It is impossible to accept three consciousnesses in God… We may say that the one divine consciousness subsists in a triple mode… This means that a triple…subject of the one consciousness must be accepted and at the same time, that the three subjects cannot be simply unconscious but are conscious of themselves by means of the one consciousness… We have no choice, then, but to say that in the Trinity, we are dealing with three subjects who are reciprocally conscious of each other by reason of one and the same consciousness which the three subjects ‘possess,’ each in his own proper way” (Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ; New York: Crossroads, 1986, p. 288-289). The divine Persons, Kasper continues, are thus “infinitely more dialogical than human persons are” and in God “there is also an infinitely greater inter-relationality and interpersonality than in human inter-personal relations” (p. 290).

Hence in the Trinity we are dealing with Persons in relation, Persons in the relationship of love, even though the divine Persons are not persons in exactly the same way that we are persons as separate individuals with our own independent mind and will. In God, the three Persons form but one single being, and they are intimately united, one in mind and will. They are more perfectly united than man and wife in a perfect marriage where they are one in mind, will, and heart.

Jesus was then sent from the Father to initiate and introduce us into this splendor of the divine love between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, who is the bond which unites these two. And this same Holy Spirit was given to us to pour into our hearts the divine love between the Father and the Son, as St. Paul tells us in today’s second reading (Rom 5:5).

Jesus does this, that is, he saves us, both through his incarnation and his death and Resurrection. How?

He saves us by his incarnation, as Saint Irenaeus and especially Saint Athanasius love to point out, by divinizing all that he assumed. He assumed our human nature and flesh, clothing his divine Person in it, uniting it hypostatically to his divine Person in the moment of incarnation, and thus inserted his splendorous divinity into our humanity for its transformation, illumination, and divinization. He became what we are, as Saints Irenaeus, Athanasius and many other Fathers say, to make us what he is, that is, to divinize and illuminate us. This then is activated for us as individual persons by baptism, faith, and the imitation of Christ. We remain human and are divinized by grace, not by nature, but nonetheless are really changed, transformed, enlightened, and made godlike.

This salvation by incarnation is completed through Jesus’ death and Resurrection. The Son from all eternity had a filial relation of love, submission (1 Cor 15:28), and perfect obedience (Jn 6:38) to his Father, which infinitely pleased his Father, who sent upon the Son the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of his love.

The Father then sent his Son to become incarnate and continue this same filial relation of love, submission, and obedience within a human nature, capable of suffering

137

and dying, so that he could now truly sacrifice himself in love to his Father. This, Jesus did in love and self-donation, infinitely pleasing the Father on our behalf. See then how the divine Persons interact, affect, and influence each other as Persons in relation in love? As a result, the Father poured out the Holy Spirit upon his Son, raising him from the dead; and he also poured it out through the Son upon all human flesh who believe in him and are baptized, so that we might be saved with all our sins forgiven by the infinite merits of this sacrifice, and rise spiritually with Christ (Col 3:1-2) to walk with him in the splendor of his Resurrection (Rom 6:4).

May God be praised: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

LIVING IN THE SPLENDOR OF DIVINE LOVE

Thursday, 9th Week of the Year Tobit 6:10-11; 7:1,9-17; 8:4-9; Ps 127; Mk 12:28-34

Today we hear the first two commandments of love for God with all one’s heart, all one’s mind, all one’s soul, and all one’s strength; and of love for one’s neighbor as oneself.

Before saying this, though, Jesus said, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Mk 12:29; Dt 6:4). Although God is one, God himself is the first one to follow this commandment of love, because God is love (1 Jn 4:16). And whom did God love? God, who is one nature, one single being, is, at the same time, three Persons who love each other perfectly and splendorously. God is a community of Persons in relation, in love. The Father has loved the Son from all eternity (Jn 17:24: “thou hast loved me from before the foundation of the world”). Jesus always lived in this love, obedience (Jn 6:38), and perfect submission to his Father (1 Cor 15:28); and this love is the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5:5).

Jesus wants us to live in this splendor (Jn 8:12; 15:9; 1 Peter 2:9). He himself is our model in this, because he lived in this glory, loving his Father with all his heart. He did not come to earth for any other reason than to love and obey his Father, and introduce us into this same love, dying in obedience, submission, adoration, and love for his Father, sacrificing himself in love for us, for our redemption, so that we might enter into and dwell in this same love.

Whoever loves God with all his heart, following Jesus as his model, renounces all else to serve him alone, to serve but one single master (Mt 6:24) and to have but one treasure, and that in heaven (Mt 6:19-21). In addition, he leaves everything else for love of him to have an undivided heart in his love for him. He leaves houses, father, mother, wife, children, etc. (Mk 10:29), and as a result, he receives a hundred times more now in the present time (Mk 10:30) in a life filled with light and lived in the splendor of divine love. Leaving all like this (Lk 5:11; Mk 1:18,20; 2:14), one loves God with all one’s heart, with an undivided heart, with all one’s mind, and with all one’s strength. Doing

138

this, one begins to be a disciple (Lk 14:33,26), and begins to walk in the light of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom 6:4; 1 Jn 1:4-7).

Monks and religious try to follow this teaching in a very literal and radical way, and if they are successful in following it, they will walk more in this light of God. No one is excluded from this invitation. Each one will be given the grace necessary to follow it in his own way, according to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. This is nothing less than an invitation to enter into the happiness of the love between the Father and the Son in the splendor of the Holy Spirit. But we have to empty our heart first, and live only for him with all our heart.

THE CHRIST WILL NOT ONLY BE THE SON OF DAVID, BUT THE SON OF GOD

Friday, 9th Week of the Year

Tobit 11:5-17; Ps 145; Mk 12:35-37 Today Jesus tries to deepen the understanding of the Jews about the Messiah or the Christ. They believed that the Christ would be the son of David; but Jesus tells them today that David himself called him “Lord,” that is, someone superior to himself. Therefore to merely think that the Christ will be the son of David is completely insufficient. Yes, he will be a descendent of King David and will inherit his kingdom, as the angel Gabriel told Mary, “the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David” (Lk 1:32). The Messiah will be a new David, ruling over his kingdom; but he will reign for ever over an eternal kingdom, as the angel Gabriel announced to Mary, “and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1:32-33). He will fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah, who said, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom” (Is 9:7).

But far more important than being the son of David is that the Christ will be the only-begotten divine Son of God (Mk 12:6-8; 13:32), virginally born, as the angel announced to Mary, he “will be called the Son of the Most High” and “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:32,35). As the only Son of God, he will be conceived from the Holy Spirit, not from man.

He will be the Son of God by nature, and will therefore be God himself, equal to the Father, having the same divine nature as the Father: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:1,14). And since there is only one God, he will be one single being with God. The Father will be in him, and he in the Father: “I and the Father are one…the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (Jn 10:30,38).

139

Being one single being with the Father, of his same divine nature and living within the Father and the Father within him by circuminsession, mutual compenetration, or, in Greek, perichoresis, he shares the same divine mind and the same divine will with the Father and the Holy Spirit, except that each divine Person possesses them in his own way. His only Person is that of the divine Word, the Logos, because he is God, being the only-begotten Son of God.

The Christ will sit at the right hand of God, as the psalm Jesus cites today says, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet” (Mk 12:36; Ps 109:1). And the Letter to the Hebrews says the same, “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12). He has always sat at the right hand of the Father in glory. St. John speaks of “the only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father” (Jn 1:18). And Jesus himself refers to this, saying, “and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made” (Jn 17:5).

All of this is far more than simply being the son of David.

A STUDY IN CONTRAST

Saturday, 9th Week of the Year Tobit 12:1,5-15,20; Tobit 13; Mk 12:38-44

Today’s Gospel is a study in contrast. On the one hand we see the scribes who live luxurious lives but present themselves as pious men, and on the other hand we see a poor and humble widow who put into the treasury only two copper coins, the smallest coin there is. Seeing this, Jesus said that this poor widow put in more than all the rest for “she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living” (Mk 12:44).

She doubtlessly lived a very simple, poor, humble, lowly, and austere life, a life without adornment; and since she gave her whole livelihood as alms, we see that she was also a truly pious person who lived for God alone. How different is such a person from the scribes, gadding about here and there, wearing long robes to appear pious, going from banquet to banquet, living a life of luxury, devouring delicacies, running from one pleasure to the next, from one entertainment to another!

Here we have a true study in contrast between, on the one hand, a worldly life of pleasure, seeking its happiness here below in the things, pleasures, and honors of this world, and, on the other hand, a poor, simple, detached, humble life, sincerely dedicated to God, and far from the pleasures of this world, a life of prayer and fasting, of silence and solitude, a life full of God, and full of heavenly light and deep interior peace.

To the extent that we live this second kind of life, to that degree will we experience this interior light and the presence of the love of God shining in our heart. It is up to us to choose the kind of life we want. If we want true happiness and God’s illumination in our heart, we will choose the second kind of life. If we want only external pleasures which do not really make us happy in the depths of our spirit, we will choose the first kind of life, that of the scribes. The choice is ours. It is up to us to decide.

If we live for ourselves, in the worldly sense, like the scribes here described, there will be no room for God to make himself known to us, because we will be full of other

140

things and entertainments, distracted and dissipated, incapable of perceiving the subtlety of his sweetness and presence and of his interior light.

But if we choose the simple life of prayer and fasting, of silence and voluntary poverty, and of the renunciation of the delicacies and delights of this world, in due time we will be purified and be able to experience God in our heart, and we will live in a new kind of tranquility, light, and interior peace.

What a contrast there is between this blessed life on the one hand, and the life of the scribes on the other hand, gadding about from one worldly pleasure to another, from banquet to banquet, from one entertainment to the next, from one spectacle to another, from curiosity to curiosity, experiencing nothing in their hearts, far from the interior peace and heavenly light God wants to give them.

THE DEIFICATION OF MAN THROUGH THE EUCHARIST

Solemnity of Corpus Christi Gen 14:18-20; Ps 109; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Lk 9:11-17

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. The body and blood of Christ, that is, his flesh, contain the Person of the eternal Word of the Father, the Logos, the only-begotten Son of God, equal to the Father in divinity, who lives with him in an eternal embrace of ineffable love, covered with splendor and glory.

This Son, who always existed, incarnated himself in the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, who overshadowed her (Lk 1:35). He who was born of her was therefore the very eternal Word of the Father, God from God, light from light, hypostatically united with human flesh. The Logos, therefore, was the Person who animated the one who was born of the Virgin Mary. The Logos was his Person, the Person of Jesus Christ. And so the Logos was born as flesh from the Virgin Mary.

The Logos was the only Person of Jesus Christ—he had no other person—and for this reason the Person of Jesus Christ was divine, not human. Therefore, Jesus Christ is a divine, but not a human person. This is because he “has” no human person, but rather only a divine Person, the Person of the Logos, which animates him, even though Christ was also truly man because he had a human nature—with a human soul, a human mind and a human will—united hypostatically to his one divine Person. It is this one divine Person, therefore, who animates Christ’s flesh.

The Person of Jesus Christ, therefore, was not human, but only divine. His Person was none other than the unique, only-begotten Son of God, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. In other words, the divine Son himself was the animating principle, or Person, of Jesus Christ, and therefore the body of Jesus was the body of the only-begotten Son of God, that is, it was his own personal body.

141

The body and blood of Jesus Christ were, therefore, animated by the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. His body and blood literally contain God, clothe God in human flesh, and are therefore man’s contact point with God. Jesus Christ is, therefore, man’s visible contact point with the invisible God.

But why did Jesus Christ do this? Why did he incarnate himself like this? He did it in order to divinize us, to raise us to his level and insert into us the splendor of his divinity for our own interior illumination and transformation into new, godlike beings. He adopted us into himself as adopted sons of God in him, the only true Son of God.

Jesus Christ was never created. The Person of Jesus Christ was never created, but rather generated or begotten by the Father from all eternity, and therefore it is of the same nature and substance as the Father, and is one single being with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is by nature in the Father, and the Father and the Holy Spirit are by nature in him, because there is but one divine nature, one divine being, and this being is one and completely united. Therefore the Persons of the Blessed Trinity are not separated persons, different beings, or different individuals as we are, but rather the three divine Persons form but one single being, each one indwelling within the other by nature, by circuminsession, or coinherence (perichoresis, in Greek).

And how did Jesus Christ divinize us? He did it by incarnating himself in our flesh, thus transforming, in principle, all human flesh, divinizing it, making it resplendent, full of God, full of divine splendor, full of light, full of divinity, if only we believe in him and live only for him in everything, purifying ourselves of all else.

He divinized us also by offering himself in sacrifice to the Father, the first and only perfect and adequate sacrifice ever offered in this world, perfectly pleasing to the Father—being a sacrifice of infinite worth—and therefore our salvation was won by it from the Father through the outpouring of the gift of the Holy Spirit into our hearts.

This supreme sacrifice was the filial submission in love of the Son in human flesh to his Father to the point of death on behalf of all who share with him this same human flesh, and thus he won from the Father for us eternal redemption.

In addition to this, Christ left us the Eucharist, his divinity-bearing body and blood, the bearers of his divine Person. He left us the Eucharist for two reasons: The first reason is so that we might continue to offer this his one, unique and perfect sacrifice to the Father with him in the Holy Spirit, as our perfect worship, adoration, offering, and act of cult to God, for this is the only perfect sacrifice which perfectly pleases the Father and which was offered but once for all time for all mankind.

We do not repeat his one sacrifice when we offer it, but we make his one sacrifice on the cross present for ourselves each time we offer it, and thus we are made present at Calvary at the moment of its offering, and are thus made participants and beneficiaries of this one supreme and adequate sacrifice for the life of the world.

The second reason for which he left us his body and blood is so that we might eat and drink it as a communion sacrifice after offering it. Thus we ingest the body and blood, that is, the human flesh of the divine Son of God. His body contains his Person, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

In offering and eating his body and blood, we accomplish two things: 1) We participate in the sacrifice of the cross which takes away our sins and justifies us, making us just, holy, and perfect; and 2) We eat and drink the living body and blood of God, with

142

his Person still present in them. We do not eat dead flesh, but rather a living body, and therefore we consume his divine Person, which is God.

Therefore, after communicating, we literally have God present within us. His now sacramentalized body and blood contain the eternal Son of God, and communicate him to us for our transformation.

His very body and blood are also singularly divinized through the presence in them of the eternal Word, and this contact of ours with his God-bearing, divinized, and divinizing body and blood transforms us. Their splendor rubs off on us. In addition, his hypostasis, or very Person, enters into us—because it in incarnated in his now sacramentalized body—and transforms and illumines us, filling us with God, spiritual delight, and heavenly light, if only we communicate worthily, that is, believing in him and living for him alone in every aspect of our life. Thus are we deified.

LET US BE PURIFIED FOR THE ILLUMINATION OF JESUS CHRIST

Thursday, 10th Week of the Year

2 Cor 3:15 – 4:1,3-6; Ps 84; Mt 5:20-26 Today St. Paul tells us that we are now in a process of transformation “from glory to glory” into the very image of the Son of God by the work of the Holy Spirit, and that this transformation takes place through contemplating the glory of Christ. The words of St. Paul are as follows: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18).

The contemplation of the glory of Christ is transformative. It has an effect on us. It changes us into the glory which we contemplate, it glorifies us, and makes us glorious, full of glory, of the very glory of Christ, and it is a glory which grows day by day, “from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18), that is, from one degree of glory to another. And all this transformation is realized in us by the Holy Spirit inhabiting us, because he is the Spirit of Christ, making us ever more like Christ, ever more conformed to his image, ever more glorious—“from glory to glory.” We “are being transformed into the same image (of the Son) from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (the Holy Spirit)” (2 Cor 3:18).

And when do we behold this glory of the Lord, this glory of Christ “with unveiled face...as in a mirror?” We behold it in contemplation, in silent prayer, when the Lord grants us the gift to be able to see this glory. It is an experience of glory and heavenly peace. It is a gift of God, an illumination of our spirit, and normally we have to be prepared and purified of the delights and entertainments, of the noise and conversations

143

of the world to experience this glory. This glory is experienced in much silence, as much interior as exterior.

Without this preparation and purification, we are blinded by the god of this world, and the pleasures of life, which drown out this experience of light, glory, and heavenly peace, as St. Paul himself affirms today. Speaking of those who are lost in the world with its attractions and distractions, he says today that these are they “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Cor 4:4).

Those who are lost in the delights of the world are like the seed that “fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Lk 8:14). They are blinded by “the god of this age” (2 Cor 4:4), by the “pleasures of life” (Lk 8:14), “lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…should shine on them” (2 Cor 4:4).

But the will of God for us is that we contemplate this light and that we be in a process of transformation “from glory to glory” by means of this illuminated and transformative contemplation, “For it is,” says St. Paul today, “the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). All this glory is “in the face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6) for those who are not blinded by “the god of this age” (2 Cor 4:4) nor “choked by the…pleasures of life” (Lk 8:14).

Let us then be purified for this illumination. THE LOVE OF GOD

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Ez 34:11-16; Ps 22; Rom 5:5-11; Lk 15:3-7 Today, on this solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we celebrate the love of God. Love is what unites the divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity. Yes, they are united by sharing together a common nature or substance, and they are also united in that the Son and the Holy Spirit originate from the Father, and they are united too by being each one within the other by circuminsession or mutual compenetration (perichoresis, in Greek). But also, and very importantly, they are united by love. They are so much in love with each other that they are but a single being with a single mind and a single will, although each Person posses this common mind and common will each in his own way, and so in God there are three conscious subjects, all by means of this one divine consciousness, each conscious of and loving the other in this way. But the wonder of it all is that they form but a single being—three Persons so united in ineffable love that they are but one, one divine being. Thus God is love (1 Jn 4:16). He contains his beloved within himself even before the creation of the world: The three Persons in God mutually love each other, and this divine love is the light of the world, the splendor of the universe.

In their love, the three divine Persons decided to create the universe, the world, angels, and men, to share their love with both angels and men. And when man sinned and separated himself from divine love, God made a plan to save him, coming himself to the earth in human form—that is, the Father sent his Son to the earth to be born of a Virgin, teaching us by his way of life and by his words, and dying in sacrifice for us.

144

So the eternal Son became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin, thus assuming human flesh to divinize, in principle, all human flesh which believes in him and follows his example, living for him alone. Then he completed our salvation by offering himself in love to the Father unto death on the cross, thus showing us the greatness of the love which he has for us. And thus infinitely pleasing the Father by this loving sacrifice, the Father poured out upon him the Holy Spirit, raising him from the dead (Rom 8:11), so that we might walk with the Risen Christ in the splendor of his Resurrection. In addition, the Father sent this same Holy Spirit, through the Risen Christ, upon all human flesh which believes in him, so that we might live a new life in the Spirit, and no longer according to the flesh (Rom 8:9).

The human heart of Jesus Christ is full of love for us. We can take refuge in his human heart now risen and glorified at the right hand of the Father in splendor and glory. In this heart, in this love, we find the fulfillment of our being. In his love for us, he forgives our sins, making us resplendent in his sight, new men (Eph 4:22-24), a new creation (2 Cor 5:17; Rev 21:5; Gal 6:15).

We should live out of the splendor of God in the divine love of the three divine Persons. God wants us to share in this love. The Father wants to love us with the same love with which he loves his own Son (Jn 15:9; 17:23,26), seated now in his bosom covered with glory (Heb 10:12). Christ told us, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; remain in my love” (Jn 15:9). Christ loves us with the same love with which he himself is loved by his Father. Therefore Christ breathed upon his disciples after his Resurrection and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22). He wants us to live in the splendor of the divine love which his Spirit communicates to us. The holy breath of his own Holy Spirit communicates to us his Trinitarian love, that is, the Holy Spirit communicates to us the love which flows between the Father and the Son in inaccessible light.

We should enter into this splendid love of the Father for the Son in the Holy Spirit through contemplation and by the reception of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. His body and blood contain his divine Person which always exists in the union of love and in loving communication with the Father in the holy breath and in the fire of the Holy Spirit. The Eucharist initiates us into this love, into this holy breath, into this fire. Thus we are divinized, if only we live for him alone in everything. The sweetness of the Son, full of love, is present in us, sacramentalized in the Eucharist for our participation in the Trinitarian life and for our progressive transformation “from glory to glory” in the image of the Son (2 Cor 3:18). Then, in contemplation, when God grants us this gift, we sink into this transforming splendor, and are transformed by it.

LIVING ONLY FOR CHRIST

Saturday, 10th Week of the Year 2 Cor 5:14-21; Ps 102; Mt 5:33-37

Today we hear these words of St. Paul: “he (Christ) died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2

145

Cor 5:15). The death of Christ reconciled us with the Father because it was a sacrifice of love in which the Son offered himself in total filial submission, perfect obedience, and complete adoration to the Father in the Holy Spirit. It was a donation of himself, made in love, that so pleased the Father that it won from him for us eternal redemption. We are, therefore, different now, not as before, and as a result we should live from now on in a new and different way, that is, no longer for ourselves, nor for our own pleasures, honor, or power, but for him alone who died and rose for us to reconcile us with God. “…he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15).

The death and Resurrection of Christ have changed us for ever. By his death we are reconciled with God. His death, as the death on the cross of the eternal Son, won from the Father for us our reconciliation with the Father. The eternal Son gave his life “as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). He “gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity” (Titus 2:14). He “gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:2). He “gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:6). Thus “by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb 10:14).

Christ thus reconciled us with the Father, winning from him the forgiveness of our sins by his death; and by his Resurrection he justified us (Rom 4:25). We should, therefore, from now on live for him alone, and no longer for ourselves, nor for our own pleasures. We should rather henceforth live only for him as new men (Eph 4:22-24), as a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), that is, “that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). This is because we now belong to Christ and are redeemed and reconciled with God, and thus, as St. Paul says to the Romans, “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:7-8).

This is why the first disciples left all and followed him (Mk 1:17-18,20; Lk 5:11; Lk 5:27-28). They left homes, parents, brothers and sisters, spouses, and children (Mk 10:29) to live from then on uniquely and totally for him alone who saved them. Thus they had undivided hearts in their love for the Lord, and thus the Lord could fill them completely with himself. The saints of every age have lived like this.

WE ENTER INTO THE HAPPINESS OF GOD THROUGH THE FORGIVENESS OF OUR SINS

11th Sunday of the Year

2 Sam 12:7-10,13; Ps 31; Gal 2:16,19-21; Lk 7:36 – 8:3 In today’s readings we see the suffering which sin causes us, and the great happiness of spirit which comes from being forgiven for our sins.

There are sinners who do not recognize their sins. They do not acknowledge that they have sinned or that their actions are sinful, nor do they admit it if they are living in constant sin or in a state of sin. But even so, these people experience grave interior suffering. They are depressed and unhappy in their spirit. They live in darkness and

146

depression. The cause of their suffering is their sin and their sense of guilt, even though they do not recognize that they are suffering from guilt and do not admit it. They only know that they are indeed suffering greatly interiorly; and some of them think that such is everyone’s life, or that such is the life of a person who loves—as they sometimes say, but without admitting either their sin or their guilt. And there are even those who actually believe that even God himself suffers like this all the time “because he too loves as they do”—as they say.

Such persons are mistaken, confused, and wrongly oriented. This is not God’s plan for us. God wants us to love him and our neighbor correctly, not sinfully, not with a divided heart; and he wants us to be happy in our love of him and of our neighbor, not depressed and in spiritual darkness.

God, in fact, is the first to love correctly, because God is love (1 Jn 4:16), and he is supremely happy. And he wants us to share in his love and happiness. For that reason he sent us his Son.

God is three Persons who love one another perfectly in splendor and ineffable light. The Father sent the Son to the earth to breathe on us, to give us the Holy Spirit (Jn 20:22), the Spirit of divine love, the love between the Father and the Son. And the Holy Spirit was also sent to forgive us our sins (Jn 20:22-23).

Such is God’s true plan for our salvation and happiness in love. He wants the same love which flows between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit to flow also in us (Jn 15:9; 17:23,26) like rivers of living water (Jn 7:37-39).

The problem is our sins, which block this divine love. But the good news is that Christ was sent from the Father to offer himself to the Father in love and loving self-donation, in human form, on the cross, for all those who share human nature with him. This sacrifice of the Son to the Father in love perfectly and infinitely pleased the Father. Thus Christ suffered for us during his human life on earth, and offered himself one single time for all times for us all to win from the Father for us the forgiveness of our sins. Thus he was and is the propitiation for our sins before the Father through his death on the cross (1 Jn 2:2; Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 4:10). And this death of the Son of God influenced the Father to the point that it won for us from him our eternal redemption and the gift of the Holy Spirit which the Father poured out through the Son over us, raising the Son from the dead (Rom 8:11), and giving us a new spiritually risen life in the risen Son, a new life in the Spirit (Rom 8:9), so that we might walk in the newness of life (Rom 6:4), and in the newness of the Spirit (Rom 7:6).

We see in today’s Gospel the interior suffering of a sinful woman who wept at the feet of Jesus, wetting them with her tears, wiping them with her hair, kissing them, and anointing them with ointment. She was seeking from Jesus the forgiveness of her many serious public sins which saddened and darkened her spirit and heart, filling her with inner suffering. And because of her great love, Jesus forgave her her many sins, saying, “I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much” (Lk 7:47).

How happy she must have been at that moment! She now knew very well that her former sadness and inner suffering were caused by her sins. And now that she was absolved, she is happy in her spirit, full of divine love, forgiven and justified by Jesus Christ through her faith in and love of him. He who loves much in this correct sense is forgiven much and truly rejoices. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,” says today’s psalm (Ps 31:1). “Many are the pangs of the wicked; but steadfast love surrounds

147

him who trusts in the Lord” (Ps 31:10). Therefore “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” (Ps 31:11).

He who repents of his sins, leaving them behind, renouncing and confessing them, will be forgiven, and will be filled with spiritual happiness. Christ was sent for this purpose, to be our propitiation before the Father (1 Jn 2:2; Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 4:10). And he is now and for ever seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, interceding for us before the Father (Heb 10:12; Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 9:24; 1 Jn 2:1), influencing him for our welfare. Christ by his death influences the Father on our behalf and thus justifies us through our faith in him.

WE SHOULD LIVE AS WE PRAY

Thursday, 11th Week of the Year 2 Cor 11:1-11; Ps 110; Mt 6:7-15

Today we hear the prayer that Jesus himself taught us. Yes, he taught us how we should pray. We all want to pray well; therefore it is very important to know how Jesus himself taught us to pray.

The first thing is that we should pray to the Father, calling him “Father.” The Father is the origin of the Blessed Trinity, and because Jesus has made us adopted sons of God by uniting us to himself, we can and should now address God as “Father,” using the same name which Jesus himself used when he prayed. Because of our baptism and rebirth in Christ, God is now our Father because we are now his adopted sons in the only-begotten Son.

Next we pray that his name be made holy by us. This should be the conscious end and purpose of our whole life, that is, the sanctification and honor of God. We should live only for this, for the glory of God; not for our own glory. This is the only way that we will be happy and fulfill our nature, for for this we were made—to glorify God by our way of life and in all that we do without exception. We remind ourselves of this when we pray, “Hallowed be thy name.”

Next we pray that the longed-for universal and peaceful reign of God over all the earth may come in our days, that we might begin to live in its heavenly peace and light which the prophets foretold, and which God sent his only son into our midst in incarnate form to bring about. And so we say, “Thy kingdom come.”

We next pray, “Thy will be done.” In this petition we pray for the discernment and the courage that we need to know clearly his will for us and to be able to do it with exactitude and courage. In Ps 118:4-5 we pray, “Thou hast commanded thy precepts to be kept diligently. O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping thy statutes!” Jesus told us, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21). Those who do this will be like the man who built his house upon the rock (Mt 7:24).

Next we pray for “our daily bread,” that is, for the basic, simple, and necessary things of life—like bread; not for luxuries, riches, and delights.

148

Then we pray to be forgiven for our sins, faults, and debts. Without this no one can be happy. Only he who has a clean conscience—who has been forgiven—can be happy before God. And he will forgive us in the measure that we forgive those who have offended or hurt us. Jesus taught us that we should forgive as many as “seventy times seven” times (Mt 18:22), and that if we do not forgive, we ourselves will not be forgiven (Mt 6:15; 18:35).

And finally we pray to be delivered from evil. Those who confide in the Lord and do his will will be protected from all evil, and the Lord will transform apparently negative events in their lives into blessings for them. Therefore Sirach says, “No evil will befall the man who fears the Lord, but in trial he will deliver him again and again” (Sir 33:1). And Proverbs 12:21 says, “no ill befalls the righteous, but the wicked are filled with trouble,” and St. Paul says, “the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from evil” (2 Thess 3:3). This is how God treats those who fear him and do his will with exactitude. He protects them from all evil.

This then is how the Christian should pray and live.

DO NOT LAY UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES ON EARTH

Friday, 11th Week of the Year 2 Cor 11:18,21-30; Ps 33; Mt 6:19-23

We should have our treasure in heaven; not here on earth. We should not live in the delights of this world; but rather we should live for but one treasure only, and that in heaven. Our only treasure should be Christ. Only by living in this way can we be happy with the true happiness of God in the depths of our spirit. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21), Jesus teaches us today.

Jesus, therefore, says today, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Mt 6:19-20). The more we have our treasure, our pleasure, here below, in the things of this world, the less room we will have for God in our heart, and normally the less will we experience him. This is why those who want to live in the love, light, and happiness of God are very careful to leave him room in their heart. They empty their heart of all else to have but one treasure only, and that in heaven, eliminating earthly treasures, the delights of this world. Thus God will have much room in our heart, which is reserved for him alone, and thus he will be able to reign sovereignly in our heart and fill it with his light.

But he who has many other treasures as well is preoccupied with them, and his heart cannot focus on God, nor does God dwell abundantly in such a divided heart. St. James, therefore, says to the rich, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you… You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter” (James 5:1,5). And concerning the rich,

149

Jesus says, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mt 19:24).

But “If you would be perfect,” he says, “go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Mt 19:21). Jesus’ grand conclusion about earthly treasures is the following saying of his, “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:33). Truly Jesus wants us to have but one treasure only, and that in heaven.

Those who try to have two treasures, one here below in the pleasures of this world, and, at the same time, the other in heaven are like the man who tried to serve two masters. And this—Jesus tells us—is impossible. “No one can serve two masters…,” he says. “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6:24).

St. Paul, in today’s first reading about all his sufferings for the sake of Christ, is an inspiring example of this teaching for us all. Christ was his only treasure, for the sake of which he renounced everything else; and as a result, he knew the true happiness of God.

I REJOICE IN WEAKNESSES, INSULTS, AND PERSECUTIONS

Saturday, 11th Week of the Year 2 Cor 12:1-10; Ps 33; Mt 6:24-34

Today St. Paul says, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). It seems that these sufferings are the thorn in the flesh, about which St. Paul also speaks today, saying, “And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated” (2 Cor 12:7). St. Paul also heard the following words of the Lord, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). St. Paul, therefore, concluded, saying, “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor 12:9).

In reading the letters of St. Paul, we see that he suffered much in his apostolate. He suffered shipwreck, beatings, and imprisonments; he was stoned, rejected, mocked, and expelled from many cities. But in all this Paul was united to Christ, and suffered these things as a participation in the cross of Christ (Col 1:24; 2 Cor 4:10). His sufferings united him to Christ, and thus he could offer himself to the Father as a sacrifice of love and self-donation together with Christ in the bond of the Holy Spirit, and experience as a result the power of God working in his human weakness (2 Cor 1:5).

Instead of following common sense, as the majority do, St. Paul followed the will of God for him, and often it seemed like foolishness to men (1 Cor 1:23,25). He did the

150

right thing, and suffered as a consequence at the hands of men. But in doing so, he experienced the grace of God and the power of God (2 Cor 12:10,9); and in his weakness and persecution for having done what was correct and right, he knew the consolation of God in his heart, and lived in his light (2 Cor 1:5). About this experience St. Paul wrote, “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor 1:5). If we suffer insult for the sake of Christ, he will console us, blessing us with his light and grace. And, truly, it is much better to live thus with the light and true joy of Christ shining in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6) than to live in luxury and worldly pleasures without this light and interior joy of Jesus Christ in our heart.

St. Paul, therefore, chose the way of obeying the will of God for him even though this caused him many conflicts in this world and much rejection on the part of men. But in the midst of all this suffering, he rejoiced in the Lord (2 Cor 12:10). Therefore he says that for the sake of Christ he is content with weaknesses, insults, persecutions, etc., because when he is weak, then he is strong in Christ (2 Cor 12:10). Thus he glories in his weaknesses, so that the power of Christ might rest upon him (2 Cor 12:9)

THE DESERT LIFE

Nativity of St. John the Baptist, June 24 Is 49:1-6; Ps 138; Acts 13:22-26; Lk 1:57-66,80

Today we celebrate the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. John was called from the womb of his mother to be a prophet of the Lord and to prepare his way (Lk 1:16-17). From the womb of his mother he was filled with the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:15,41,44). Many rejoiced at his birth (Lk 1:14,58), and “he was in desert places till the day of his manifestation to Israel” (Lk 1:80).

At his birth, his father Zechariah prophesied about him, saying, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways” (Lk 1:76). John is the one about whom Malachi prophesied, saying, “Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me” (Mal 3:1; Lk 7:27). And John himself, once an adult, said to the priests, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said” (Jn 1:23; Is 40:3). John, in short, was the precursor of the Messiah.

And what exactly did Isaiah prophesy about him? He said, “The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Lk 3:4-5; Is 40:3-5). God will be seen in the desert by those who are prepared; therefore, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

151

John was this voice crying out in the desert. It seems that he lived in the desert since his youth (Lk 1:80) for he was there when he heard the word of the Lord which indicated to him the beginning of his mission to Israel. St. Luke tells us this, saying, “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert” (Lk 3:2). He was already in the desert before hearing this word of the Lord. There he lived, preparing himself for his mission. And once he heard this word, he began “preaching in the desert of Judea” (Mt 3:1), preparing in the desert the way of the Lord.

And what did John do in the desert? The angel Gabriel told his father Zechariah that John “will go before the Lord…to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Lk 1:17). For the sake of this preparation, John prepared himself first by living in the desert. And what kind of a life can one live in the desert? An austere life, to be sure! Someone who wants a delicate life of the pleasures of this world does not go to the desert. Even Jesus told us as much, saying about John, “What then did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, those who are gorgeously appareled and live in delights are in kings’ courts. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee’” (Lk 7:25-27; Ex 23:20; Mal 3:1).

John was clearly not a delicate man who lived in delights. About his clothing, St. Mark says, “John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a leather girdle around his waist” (Mk 1:6) like the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 1:8), in whose spirit and power he went forth (Lk 1:17). And what about his food? He “ate locusts and wild honey” (Mk 1:6), St. Mark says. There can be no doubt that John’s life in the desert was an austere one.

John thus prepared himself by living a solitary and austere life in the desert, a life of prayer and fasting, far from the world and its ways, pleasures, and delicacies, to prepare there another way, that of the Lord. Living like this, John is the prototype of the monastic life, which also is an austere life in the desert, far from the ways and delights of the world, a life of silence, separated from the noise and conversations of the world, a life of solitude and prayer, of simplicity and voluntary poverty, a life full of God, full of the Holy Spirit, a life which leaves the pleasures of this world for those of the kingdom of God, a life which leaves all to find all. The monastic life, in short, is a life with God, a life lived in the splendor of the divine love which flows between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.

The life of John in the desert was a life lived for God alone, renouncing all other pleasures to have a completely undivided heart in its love for him. Such a life does not want to have a heart divided between the pleasures of this world on the one hand, and the love of its Creator on the other hand. On the contrary, it wants to offer itself completely to the Lord, and to him alone, to be completely full of him. It literally and radically wants the Lord, and only the Lord, to be its only pleasure, to the degree that this is possible.

John, therefore, lived in the desert, or, as St. Luke tells us, “he was in desert places till the day of his manifestation to Israel” (Lk 1:80). He lived in earthly aridity, but experienced heavenly manifestations. Those who seek a life of light and heavenly peace, as was his, do the same, and follow the pattern of his life, the monastic life. The more one can follow this pattern, the better!

Prepared at last by his life with God in the desert, far from the worldliness of the world with its endless quest for pleasures here below, John now began his mission as a

152

prophet to Israel, and was also given—as Isaiah prophesies—“as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Is 49:6). As a prophet, John had to speak the truth which God gave him, and preach it to all without fear. Thus he was set, as was the prophet Jeremiah, “over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer 1:10). Thus was John sent for the renewal of Israel. His life is an example for us all.

WE DEVELOP OUR JUSTIFICATION BY DOING THE WILL OF GOD

Thursday, 12th Week of the Year Gen 16:1-12,15-16; Ps 105; Mt 7:21-29

Today’s Gospel is very important. It teaches us how important it is to do the will of God. Jesus tells us today, “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21).

We are justified by our faith in Christ. Then the presence of Christ in us transforms us into a new creature (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15; Rev 21:5) that we might walk in good works (Eph 2:10); and at the end of the world Christ will return “and then he will repay each one according to his works” (Mt 16:27). Our good works show what kind of person we are, whether we are of Christ or not, whether we are a new creation in him or not, whether we have been transformed and justified or not. “…you will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:20), Jesus said. If we are a good tree, justified, renewed, and saved by Christ, our good fruits should show this. If we do not produce good fruits by doing the will of God, then our faith is dead (James 2:17) and our justification by faith remains undeveloped; and on the last day the Lord will declare to us, “I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers” (Mt 7:23).

Those who do the will of God are like the man who built his house upon the rock, and it did not fall when the storm came (Mt 7:24-25). On the contrary, to hear the word of God without doing it is like building the house of our life upon the sand, without a foundation. This house will fall when the storm comes (Mt 7:26-27).

Jesus himself is the first in obeying the will of his Father, and in this he gives us an example to follow. He said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me” (Jn 6:38). He also said concerning his own obedience, “he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him” (Jn 8:29). And he said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34). He taught us to pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10), and in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, thy will be done” (Mt 26:42). Finally, when “he was told, ‘Your mother and your brethren are standing outside, desiring to see you’…he said to them, ‘My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it’” (Lk 8:20-21).

How important it is then to hear the word of God and do it! The saints are those who hear, perceive, and do the will of God to a heroic degree, in spite of every persecution and every kind of suffering which they might have to endure for doing it. They are the

153

ones who are truly transformed and divinized, because they have developed their justification through their works.

IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST IS OUR LIFE AND OUR GLORY

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29 Acts 12:1-11; Ps 33; 2 Tim 4:6-8,17-18; Mt 16:13-19

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, apostles and pillars of the Church. St. Peter was the rock upon which the Church was built, while St. Paul was “the illustrious expositor of its mysteries” (Preface). It is to St. Peter that Jesus gave the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and it is St. Paul who proclaimed the saving death of Jesus Christ on the cross and his glorious Resurrection which justify us by our faith in him. St. Paul gloried in the cross of Christ and did not want to know anything else but Christ and him crucified, saying, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2), and to the Galatians he wrote, “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). Our faith is founded on the doctrine of St. Paul; while the successors of St. Peter assure its orthodoxy in every age. Thus theologians can build upon this double foundation of Peter and Paul. The one is our guide; the other, our mystagogue.

The cross of Christ is the center of everything. From it comes our justification and sanctification, as St. Paul proclaimed; and St. Peter was himself crucified upside down in Rome for the faith he professed. St. Paul also lived the mystery of the cross which he preached, being stoned, beaten, and imprisoned countless times, and finally martyred for his faith.

In the cross is life and Resurrection. Through the sacrifice of the Son of God we receive salvation, the forgiveness of our sins, and a new life in him. Through faith in his saving death we are made just—justified—and through his Resurrection we have been given new splendor, together with a life that is risen and even already ascended in the only Son of God, now risen and ascended.

The cross saved us, and therefore St. Paul did not want to know anything “except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). This was his glory. Through the cross, Paul is dead—or even more, crucified—to the world, and the world to him (Gal 6:14), to no longer live according to its criteria and judgments, but rather only for Jesus Christ who died and rose for him (2 Cor 5:14-15). The sacrifice of the only Son of God in love and self-donation to his Father for us won for us from the Father the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the splendor of divine love, the remission of our sins, and a new and risen life in Christ.

The death of Christ won for us a new kind of life, one which imitates the cross, a life of detachment, stripping off, and renunciation of this world for the love of Christ, so that we too might live the sacrifice of the cross, sacrificing ourselves in love and self-donation together with Christ in his perfect sacrifice and adoration of his Father in the Holy Spirit, who fills us with divine love (Rom 5:5). Thus we too live lives which are crucified to

154

this world, and the world to us, pouring ourselves out in this way in love and sacrifice to the Father. The Holy Spirit is, furthermore, abundantly poured out into our hearts (Rom 5:5) when we imitate in this way the very cross which saved us.

St. Peter teaches us the same thing, that is, that we should follow in the footsteps of Christ crucified. He said, “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). He taught us that we should glory in our sufferings which we endure for the sake of Christ, for thus “the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:13-14). This life of the cross is a life of love, a life of sacrifice, a joyous life, because it is a life already risen and lived in union with the risen Christ for the glory of God the Father in the bond of the Holy Spirit.

These two pillars of the Church—St. Peter and St. Paul—give a powerful testimony through their preaching, through their lives, and through their martyrdom, to this mystery of our new life in the cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Although they were weak in the beginning, Peter denying Christ three times out of fear of a maidservant, and Paul persecuting the Church out of ignorance, by the grace of God, by the profession and proclamation of their faith, and by their dedicated lives and martyrdom, these two apostles have become the pillars of the Church, Peter the rock upon which it is built, and Paul the illustrious expositor of its doctrines.

GOD REVEALS HIMSELF AS A COMMUNITY OF THREE IN ONE

Saturday, 12th Week of the Year Gen 18:1-15; Lk 1; Mt 8:5-17

In today’s first reading we have an episode as beautiful as it is mysterious, in which Yahweh God reveals himself to Abraham as a community of three persons which appear to be interchangeable for one person, who at times speaks with the verb in the singular—and in this case the text tells us that it is Yahweh who is speaking—and who at times speaks with the verb in the plural, as though three persons were speaking in unison. This scene gives the impression that we have here three persons in one, which theologians, speaking of the Blessed Trinity, call circuminsession, coinherence, mutual compenetration, or in Greek, perichoresis. That is, they change from three into one, and from one into three, and interpenetrate one another. Many Fathers of the Church have seen in this episode an early and beautiful glimpse into the mystery of the Trinity, that is, that God, although one, one being, one God, contains within himself, or is composed of, three distinct divine Persons who love each other, but who speak and act in unison as a single being, and who, in fact, comprise but one single being. I believe that we should understand this text in this way, as an early revelation of this mystery.

The text introduces this apparition by saying, “And Yahweh appeared to him (to Abraham) by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him” (Gen 18:1-2). At first Abraham speaks to them in the singular as to but one being, saying, “My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy [singular] sight, pass not away, I pray thee [singular], from thy [singular] servant” (Gen 18:3). Abraham then changes and refers to

155

them in the plural (which is much more obvious in Hebrew than in English), as to three persons, saying, “Let a little water, I pray you [plural], be fetched, and wash your [plural] feet and rest yourselves [plural] under the tree” (Gen 18:4). The conversation continues in this way, changing back and forth from singular to plural in the Hebrew verbs, pronouns, and adjectives (not nearly as noticeable in English as in Hebrew). These three men seem to be one, and three, at the same time (perichoresis, circuminsession, intercompenetration)—as one God, Yahweh, in three Persons, as an early and mysterious revelation of the mystery revealed with clarity only in the New Testament, that is, that God is indeed three Persons in one, three Persons which interpenetrate one another, but which are united as a single being, as one God.

The text then says that after eating, “the men rose up [verb in plural] from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide [singular] from Abraham that thing which I do [Singular]?” (Gen 18:16-17). These three Persons are Yahweh himself who spoke to Abraham, with the verb at times in the singular, at times in the plural (“And Yahweh said [singular verb]” Gen 18:17; or “And they said [plural verb] unto him” Gen 18:9), that is, Yahweh spoke with Abraham at times as a single being, and at other times as three distinct persons speaking to him in unison. It seems that the sacred author wants to say that Yahweh is these three persons, these three men, and that they can speak as three persons in unison, or as a single being, Yahweh, with the verb in the singular, without any problem.

The Blessed Trinity is not clearly revealed until the New Testament, but even so, if God really is three in one, then, why can’t we see this reality mysteriously revealing itself here? It seems that the text presents these three men as Yahweh revealing himself to Abraham. They, for example, ask Abraham, “Why did Sara laugh?” (Gen 18:13). While it is the three men who ask, the text says that Yahweh asked, using the verb in the singular, and “Yahweh” as the subject.

Truly the God whom we worship is a community of three Persons united in one. This Scripture gives us a glimpse into this mystery today. It is the marvelous mystery that God is a community of love among three distinct divine Persons, whose love among themselves is the light of the universe. And Christ came to introduce us into the splendor of their mutual love.

LET US WALK BY THE SPIRIT, AND NOT BY THE DESIRES OF THE FLESH

13th Sunday of the Year

1 Kings 19:16,19-21; Ps 15; Gal 5:1,13-18; Lk 9:51-62 Today’s readings are very strong and challenging. In the first reading Elijah calls Elisha to be his successor, casting his mantle upon him; but Elisha asks permission to first go back and say goodby to his father and mother. After doing so, Elisha slew two yokes of oxen, and “boiled their flesh with the yokes of oxen, and gave it to the people and they ate” (1 Kings 19:21). Burning the yokes in this way, Elisha indicated that he had definitively left his former way of life and his occupation. He could no longer return to it

156

now that he had burned the yokes, the tools of his trade. He burned his bridges behind him so that he could no longer turn back.

In today’s Gospel Jesus calls various disciples, demanding of them the same determination, and even more, for when someone wanted to follow him, saying, “let me first say farewell to those at my home” (Lk 9:61), while Elijah said to Elisha in this same circumstance, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” (1 Kings 19:20), Jesus says, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk 9:62).

The point is that Jesus’ call is complete and radical. It causes a total break with the ways of the world, with our past, and with our former way of life. It is like a man who leaves his home to follow Jesus without even saying goodby to his parents and family. So complete and radical should be our break with the ways and styles of this world.

And truly such is a deeply Christian life. It is a life which leaves all, without looking back. If we follow Jesus radically, we will lose all that we have in this world, and we will set out on a new path. Jesus blesses everyone who leaves houses, brothers and sisters, parents, wife, children, and lands, saying that they will receive a hundred times more in this life, and will inherit eternal life (Mt 19:29). If we want the buried treasure, we first have to sell everything we have (Mt 13:44). The buried treasure is a more complete possession of Christ.

The monastic life seeks to do this in a very radical way, renouncing marriage and the freedom to travel about in the world, living always within a cloister, without movies, television, or radio, in order to live a life of prayer and fasting in the desert, far from the world and its pleasures, distractions, attractions, and temptations, to gradually cleanse our heart, so that God might live in it sovereignly, filling it with heavenly light and peace. The monastic life is a life of purification, in which we purify ourselves of the delights of this world, for the sake of those of the Kingdom of God. Therefore monks eat very simply and austerely and in general live a life which renounces the delights and unnecessary pleasures of this world. Thus they purify themselves to better experience the love of God shining in their hearts. They want to have an undivided heart in their following of the Lord, not a heart divided between him and the delights of this world.

We can also understand today’s second reading within this same context of Christ’s radical call to leave all and follow him alone. St. Paul tells us today, “walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would” (Gal 6:16-17). The desires of the flesh are many and of many kinds, not only sexual desires. The natural man is guided by these desires; but if we have received the Spirit of Christ, we should not allow ourselves to be carried away or guided any more by carnal desires or by the pleasures of this world. We should rather live in the Spirit, because, as St. Paul says, “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). So then, “If we live by the Spirit,” says St. Paul, “let us also walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:25).

St. Paul says that “we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). But he has given up living for the pleasures of the body and of the flesh, and lives now in the Spirit of Christ, “for if you live according to the flesh you will die,” says St. Paul, “but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live” (Rom 8:13). For “To set the

157

mind on the flesh,” he says, “is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom 8:6).

Living according to the flesh, as I said, does not refer exclusively to sexual sins. There are many ways in which we can live according to the flesh and, as a result, die spiritually. A life of worldly pleasure, even if it is not sinful, kills the spirit and divides and dissipates the heart; in fact, such a life blinds the minds of the unbelievers, “to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor 4:4).

Those who want to live in the light of Christ and be divinized, living a life in the Spirit, do not live any more according to the desires of the flesh, but rather they let the Spirit of Christ guide them. Therefore “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom 13:14). “Mortify therefore your members which are upon earth” (Col 3:5).

WITHOUT HAVING SEEN HIM, WE LOVE HIM AND REJOICE IN HIM

Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle, July 3 Eph 2:19-22; Ps 116; Jn 20:24-29

Today we see in this feast of St. Thomas the importance and the joy there is in believing in Jesus Christ without seeing him. Thomas did not believe until he saw with his own eyes the Savior, risen and glorified. Having seen his death on the cross, or having at least heard of his horrible death by crucifixion, now, after eight days, he sees him risen and alive, and still more, with a glorified body that can go through closed doors, because on this occasion, “The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, ‘Peace be with you’” (Jn 20:26).

St. Thomas saw much more than simply a man like any other man. He saw a man whom he knew was dead, and he saw him entering through the walls or through closed doors with a glorified body; and the man whom he saw was the same Jesus Christ he knew before because he saw him with the wounds of his crucifixion in his hands and in his side, and was even invited to put his fingers and his hand into these wounds. He saw much, and he believed.

We can be sure that he actually saw these things because this account is not something the Church would have invented. Who would invent a story about an apostle who did not believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ? The apostles were revered figures in the early Church. If this account were not true, who would have dared to invent it? And how could the Church have received and accepted such an account if it were not true? It is clear that no one would have dared to invent such a story in which a revered apostle would say, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my

158

finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe” (Jn 20:25).

This doubting apostle ended up, though, being the apostle who gave the greatest testimony of them all about Jesus Christ, saying at last when he saw him risen and glorified with his wounds: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28). He believed at last, and he did not just believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but more still that he actually was God! This is one of the greatest and most developed testimonies in the whole New Testament. St. Thomas now believes that Jesus is God, the Son of the Father, and that he has always lived together with the Father, because if he is God, he has always existed together with God the Father.

Upon this faith of St. Thomas, we can build our own faith, our faith in the Blessed Trinity, that is, that God is three, united in one, that God does not exist alone, but rather always lives in union with two other divine Persons, his Son and the Holy Spirit. This great revelation teaches us that God really is love (1 Jn 4:16). And whom does God love? He loves his Son; and the splendor of this love is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sent the Son to the earth to breathe upon us, so that we might have this same splendid divine love, which always flows in God, flowing also in us. Therefore he poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5:5).

Unlike St. Thomas, we have not seen with our own eyes Jesus Christ after his death, with his wounds, risen and glorified, passing through walls, and inviting us to put our hand into his wounds; but even so, we can still believe in him just as the apostles did, and believing, we rejoice just as they did. St. Peter tells us this, saying about Jesus Christ, “Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy” (1 Peter 1:8). What Jesus said to St. Thomas is true, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn 20:29). We are those people, and Jesus blesses us, saying that we are “fortunate” and “happy.” It is this faith of ours which gives us such happiness and joy of spirit.

Such is the Christian life. Just because we do not see Jesus does not mean that we do not experience him. On the contrary, we love him, and we “rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy” (1 Peter 1:8) just as did the apostles who saw him with their eyes. This is because for us, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7). Our life is a life with Christ, a life of faith, not of sight; but this life of faith has much peace, joy, and love, as St. Peter affirms. Therefore Jesus, before he died, prayed for us who would believe in him afterwards, saying, “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word” (Jn 17:20). We are those people who have not seen him as did St. Thomas, but who have nonetheless believed in him and loved him; and in this love is all our joy; and we “rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy” (1 Peter 1:8). Faith, and an integral life of faith, is the foundation of this “unutterable and exalted joy.” Truly “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn 20:29).

WE SHOULD NOT GO BACK

Friday, 13th Week of the Year Gen 23:1-4,19; 24:1-8,62-27; Ps 105; Mt 9:9-13

159

In the first reading today, Abraham sends his servant to Mesopotamia, to the land of Abraham’s origin, to take from there, from his kindred, a wife for his son Isaac. It is very important to Abraham that his son Isaac himself never return to the land from which Abraham came. For this reason Abraham sends his servant, rather than Isaac himself.

The servant then asks Abraham, saying, “‘Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land; must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?’ Abraham said to him, ‘See to it that you do not take my son back there… But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there’” (Gen 24:5-6,8).

Why was it so important to Abraham that his son not return there? It is because, as Abraham said, “Yahweh, the God of heaven,…took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and…spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your descendants I will give this land’” (Gen 24:7). Abraham is now dwelling, as a foreigner, in the promised land, which God gave him. But if he were to return to the land of his kindred and family, it would be too difficult for him not to also return to their way of believing, thinking, and living. The social pressure would be too great for him. But here, in this new land, where he is living as a foreigner, he can live a new life with new beliefs, practices, and customs, which God is now teaching him.

God called Abraham from his own land and revealed himself to him, saying, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). Living in this new land was for Abraham a vocation given to him by God; it was part and parcel of his call to leave the false gods of his kindred, and from now on to serve only Yahweh with all his heart. Only in this new land could he do this well. The land itself, that is, the place in which he was now living, was an integral part of his calling, of his vocation. To return to his father’s house and to the land of his kindred would be to go back on his vocation. It would be to put his hand to the plow and look back (Lk 9:62), for his kindred do not believe, think, and live as he now believes, thinks, and lives; and if he were to return there, they would force him to return again to his old ways and beliefs, i.e. to return again to their way of living. To return like this to his family would be too strong of a temptation for him to also return to his own former ways of believing, thinking, and living. Even for his son Isaac to return there would be like returning to the world from which God had called Abraham and his descendants.

Jesus also calls us in a similar way with a radical call, and he has given us a new way of believing, thinking, and living—especially in the monastic vocation—which we should follow without turning back, without returning to where we came from, without returning to the world from which he called us, and without returning to the pagan or worldly customs from which he has called us. He does not want us, once having put our hand to the plow, to look back (Lk 9:62).

Truly, as Abraham, once he had left Mesopotamia, could not return there again, so we too, once we have left the world and its ways, customs, practices, and pleasures, cannot and should not go, or even look, back. We should not return to where we came from. We should not go back on our vocation, nor should we return to the world, nor to a worldly life. We should not return to its customs, ways, practices, and pleasures, but rather we should be as St. Mathew, whom Jesus calls today. And Jesus “said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him” (Mt 9:9).

160

Thus did Abraham. Thus should we also do. God has called us to a new life, to a new land, and we should not go, or even look, back (Lk 9:62). It is like the vocation of a monk, who now lives in his desert, in his mountain, in his monastery, and should not return again to where he came from, nor should he return again to the practices which he left behind.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF MARRIAGE, AND THE STILL GREATER EXCELLENCE

OF CELIBACY FOR THE KINGDOM

Saturday, 13th Week of the Year Gen 27:1-5,14-29; Ps 134; Mt 9:14-17

Every day this week at vespers we have been hearing read to us chapter seven of St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, comparing marriage to celibacy, and last night we heard the key passage where St. Paul says, “I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and he is divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord” (1 Cor 7:32-35).

What are we to make of this passage and its teaching that the unmarried or celibate man or woman, who is celibate for the Kingdom, spends his or her whole life pleasing the Lord with an undivided heart, whereas the married man or woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife or her husband and so he or she is divided? This text is the strongest Biblical basis for the traditional teaching of the Church concerning the superiority of celibacy for the Kingdom to marriage.

The reading last night then concluded with the clinching verse of 1 Cor 7:38: “So that he who marries his virgin does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better.” Whether this virgin is the man’s virgin daughter or virgin fiancé, scholars debate, but the point is the same in either case, namely, that in marrying her to another or to oneself one does well, but in refraining from marrying her off or marrying her oneself one does better. In other words, marriage is good, but celibacy is better, according to St. Paul.

These readings are quite clear and unambiguous in their meaning, namely, that marriage is good, but celibacy is better because it allows one to more readily serve God alone with an undivided heart, with all one’s heart, a heart in which all one’s affective energy goes only in one direction, namely, to God, for the heart is not divided by the love of a human spouse.

The problem, however, arises from the fact that many Catholics today, even quite well-educated Catholics, think that Vatican II did away with all this traditional teaching that marriage is blessed, but celibacy is still more excellent because it better enables one to renounce all things and to live for God alone with an undivided heart in a more literal

161

and radical way. Many think that Vatican II and the Magisterium since Vatican II did away with all this, and taught that all states of life are equal.

The fact is, however, that a study of the relevant texts of Vatican II and of the subsequent Magisterium on this point shows that Vatican II and the Magisterium teach the exact opposite of what many people today think they teach. Vatican II and the subsequent Magisterium, in fact, support and expand the traditional teaching about the goodness of marriage, speaking of it as a genuine Christian vocation, but also support and expand the traditional teaching about the objective superiority of celibacy for the Kingdom to marriage.

The problem is that this current ignorance of the teaching of Vatican II and of the subsequent Magisterium on this point is, I believe, having a seriously detrimental effect on vocations to the consecrated, religious, monastic, and priestly life today. Vocations have indeed drastically fallen off over the past forty years. It would be good, then, I believe, to quote a few key texts from Vatican II and the Magisterium since Vatican II on this point of vital importance to the Church today. I therefore present a few quotations below.

Speaking of celibacy, Pope John Paul II writes, “The Church, throughout her history, has always defended the superiority of this charism [that of celibacy] to that of marriage, by reason of the wholly singular link which it has with the Kingdom of God” (Familiaris consortio 16). In Vita Consecrata, Pope John Paul II writes, “His [Christ’s] way of living in chastity, poverty and obedience appears as the most radical way of living the Gospel on this earth…This is why Christian tradition has always spoken of the objective superiority of the consecrated life” (Vita Consecrata 18). He also writes in Vita Consecrata, “As a way of showing forth the Church’s holiness, it is to be recognized that the consecrated life, which mirrors Christ’s own way of life, has an objective superiority. Precisely for this reason, it is an especially rich manifestation of Gospel values and a more complete expression of the Church’s purpose… The Church has always taught the pre-eminence of perfect chastity for the sake of the Kingdom” (Vita Consecrata 32).

In Vatican II’s decree on the Church (Lumen Gentium 42), we read, “An eminent position among these [among the evangelical counsels] is held by virginity or the celibate state. This is a precious gift of divine grace given by the Father to certain souls, whereby they may devote themselves to God alone the more easily, due to an undivided heart. This perfect continency, out of desire for the kingdom of heaven, has always been held in particular honor in the Church.”

There are many more passages we could quote, but let this suffice to make our point, namely, that Vatican II and the teaching of the Magisterium since Vatican II has not abolished the traditional teaching of the Church about the goodness of marriage and about the even greater excellence of the consecrated life in which one seeks to love God alone with an undivided heart. If this teaching were better known, I believe it would contribute to the solution of our present vocational problem.

THE CROSS OF CHRIST BRINGS IN THE NEW CREATION

14th Sunday of the Year

162

Is 66:10-14; Ps 65; Gal 6:14-18; Lk 10:1-12,17-20 Today we hear the well-known words of St. Paul about the cross being his only glory, and how he, Paul, is crucified to the world. Then in the next verse St. Paul talks about being a new creation. I believe there is a connection between these two verses which follow one upon the other in sequence. Here are St. Paul’s words which we heard today: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal 6:14-15).

What then is the connection between the cross and the new creation? It is precisely that the cross brings in the new creation. It makes all things new. It frees us from the burden and pain of our guilt and sin. It liberates our spirit (Gal 5:1,13), and makes us new, a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), a new creature (Gal 6:15), a new man (Eph 4:24). It gives us new life (Rom 6:4).

The cross is, of course, first of all, the death of Jesus Christ. But this is no ordinary death of an ordinary man. This is rather the sacrificial death and self-donation in love to the Father of the only-begotten Son of God, equal to the Father in divinity. Now that is something mighty special! The cross is, therefore, a unique event in the history of the world and in terms of its effect on man. The cross is also a unique event in the history of God. It is a unique event in the history of the Trinity. It is, in fact, a key intratrinitarian event affecting the Godhead.

On the cross, the Father offers his only-begotten Son for us; and the only-begotten Son offers himself in loving sacrifice to his Father for us. Truly then this is an event of crucial importance in the life of the Trinity. Never before has this happened; and never will it happen again. The Father is profoundly affected by his Son’s love as he offers himself unto death in a sacrifice of self-oblation and filial love to his Father on the cross.

Yet, in another sense, I believe that this pattern of acting on the part of the Trinity has been going on for a long time, long before Jesus was even born in Bethlehem; in fact, it has, I believe, been going on from all eternity. The Son, who always existed and who always was with his Father from all eternity, in the night of eternity, even from before the creation of the world, has always been offering himself according to this pattern to his Father.

First of all, he was always a Son, and the Father always had a Son. The Son was born from the Father, but there was never a time before he was born. There was never a time when he was not; and so the Father was also always a Father who always had a Son. There was never a time when he did not have a Son, and so there was never a time when he was not a Father. These two divine Persons always existed in this eternal relationship of Son to Father, and Father to Son, a perfect filial-paternal relationship.

I believe that the Son always related like this in a filial way towards his Father as a perfect Son in love, in adoration, in obedience, and in perfect submission to his Father, even though he was fully equal in divinity with his Father.

So, I believe that what Jesus did in incarnate form on the cross is really what he has always been doing in a non-incarnate way, even before he was born in Bethlehem, even before the creation of the world, that is, from all eternity, namely, that he was always offering himself to the Father in perfect filial love and submission, in obedience, and in adoration as the perfect Son in a perfect Son-Father relationship.

163

If there is anything at all that we can say with certainty about the Persons of the Trinity, it is that they are relational. Theologians tells that they are pure relation—“subsistent relations”—pure relation of Father to Son, and of Son to Father; pure filial relation of Son to Father, and pure paternal relation of Father to Son. And the relation itself which glues them together in perfect love is relationality itself, namely, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of their relation of mutual love.

And so the Father was always infinitely pleased by this self-offering in filial self-gift of love of his only-begotten Son. And as a result, the Father has always been pouring out upon his beloved Son the Spirit of his own divine love, that is, the Holy Spirit, which covered the Son with splendor and glory. So the Son has always been living in the splendor and glory of the Father. The Father has always been illuminating the Son; and the Son, in turn, has always been returning this same loving breath of the Holy Spirit to his Father, illuminating the Father with the Son’s own splendor and glory. So each has always lived thus, each in the splendor and light of the other, each one illuminating and being illuminated by the other. And so they lived from all eternity in the bond of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of their mutual love.

But then, in the fullness of time, the Father, in his love, sent the Son to become incarnate in human flesh. So now then, in human flesh, the Son continues this same eternal pattern of self-offering to his Father in perfect filial love, obedience, submission, and adoration, but this time there is a difference. This time he can really offer himself as a true sacrifice unto death, because now, for the first time, he can suffer and die. So he does so on the cross, following the same pattern of loving self-donation and submission whereby he has always offered himself.

As a result, the Father is so pleased—infinitely pleased in fact—that he, as usual, pours out upon his Son his Holy Spirit, which this time causes him to rise from the dead; and then, through the Son and together with the Son, he breathes out this same Holy Spirit upon all who share a common human nature with the beloved Son and believe in him.

This then is the Messianic outpouring of the Holy Spirit, prophesied by the prophets (Joel 2:28-29). It pours God’s love into our hearts (Rom 5:5), makes us adopted sons of God in the only-begotten Son (Rom 8:14-15), and wins for us the total forgiveness of our sins, and eternal life with God, which was lost through the sin of Adam. This then is the new creation brought to us by the cross of Christ (2 Cor 5:17; Rev 21:5).

WE MUST TEACH, FIRST BY THE EXAMPLE OF OUR OWN LIVES

Tuesday, 14th Week of the Year Gen 32:22-32; Ps 16; Mt 9:32-38

Today we hear these words in the Gospel, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’” (Mt 9:36-38).

164

Many indeed there are who need the pastoral care of a shepherd who can teach them and lead them in the sure ways of Christ, and show them where they can find good pasture and clear water. Without such a steady and sure shepherd as their guide, they will indeed by weary, helpless, and scattered about, not knowing the true path to life or how to live to find the happiness and peace God wants to give them. The opportunity for pastoral service is great, the need is great, but how few, Jesus laments today, are the pastors who can provide what the sheep really need: “The harvest is plentiful,” he says, “but the laborers are few” (Mt 9:37). Surely anyone who was alive and aware forty years ago will hear this verse with special poignancy when he remembers how plentiful were priestly and religious vocations then compared to their drastic fall off now: Indeed, “the laborers are few” today!

But on a still deeper level, we must ask—if the work is so promising, with such great need, and such a big harvest—why the laborers are so few? I think the answer is that pastoral work is personally very demanding, even though not always physically demanding. Why is that? It is because it demands that we live ourselves first what we preach to others, for otherwise our work will be powerless and ineffective.

We heard yesterday at vigils how St. Thomas More described Jesus’ way of teaching first by his personal example, and then by his words. And St. Thomas More set this forth as a model to be imitated by today’s bishops, priests, and pastoral workers. He said that Jesus taught fasting by first fasting himself for forty days in the desert, and then he taught it by his words. He taught prayer by first going to pass the night in prayer on the mountain or in the desert, and then by teaching them the Our Father. He taught evangelical poverty by first living poorly and simply himself, and then by his words, inviting his followers to leave all to follow him alone.

Only this kind of worker will be an effective minister of the Gospel; and Jesus himself laments how few such workers there are. Our culture today, Fr. Michael Casey is teaching us everyday at midday prayer, is focused on entertainment and pleasure, not on God alone in poverty, simplicity, fasting, prayer, and asceticism. And so, out of this culture of entertainment and pleasure, few laborers for the harvest come forward who, by doing first themselves what they teach others to do, are really capable of feeding the sheep and guiding them to the truth and happiness that God wants to give them.

A LIFE OF PRAYER AND FASTING EXCLUSIVELY DEDICATED TO THE LORD

Solemnity of St. Benedict, July 11

Prov 2:1-9; Phil 3:8-14; Mt 19:27-29 Today we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism. St. Benedict left the world to live exclusively for God. Thus we pray in the opening prayer of the Mass, Father, “grant that, following the example of St. Benedict, we might seek you alone.” St. Benedict left everything of this world making himself poor in the eyes of men, but rich in the sight of God, his Lord, the only Master of his life, and the only one he served (Mt 6:24).

165

St. Benedict wanted to be one of the blessed poor in spirit who will inherit the Kingdom of God (Mt 5:3), for he learned that those who have left all receive a hundredfold reward in this life (Mt 19:29); and so he dedicated himself to live as a hermit and monk, leaving all else behind. Thus he made himself one of the least of this world, in order to be among the first in the Kingdom of God (Mt 19:30).

St. Benedict did not want to be encumbered with the riches of this life nor be surrounded by its entertainments and pleasures, because he knew that “it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:23), knowing that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mt 19:24). Therefore he made himself poor, and stripped himself of the entertainments and pleasures of this world to find his happiness in God alone, and thus grow all the more deeply in his relationship with him.

St. Benedict abandoned a culture like our own, dedicated to entertainment, for an austere and silent life of fasting, mortification, prayer, and spiritual reading; and he began his new life by leaving the world and living in a cave in Subiaco for three years (St. Gregory the Great, Dialogue II.1). St. Benedict, as St. Paul, was crucified to the world, and the world to him through his union with the cross of Christ (Gal 6:14).

Thus St. Benedict began a new type of life, which has but one treasure, and that in heaven, because he knew that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21). Therefore he served but one Master, knowing that it is impossible to serve both God and mammon (Mt 6:24).

Thus St. Benedict chose the narrow gate and the hard way of life, knowing that “wide is the gate and easy the way that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many” (Mt 7:13), but “narrow is the gate and hard the way that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt 7:14). He wanted to be among the few who find life, and therefore he chose the hard way and the narrow gate.

St. Benedict wanted to live for Christ with all his heart, with an undivided heart in his love of him (1 Cor 7:32-25), not a heart divided among the entertainments and pleasures of this world. Only in this way can one truly live in the light and peace of Christ, which the entertainments of this world drown out, as the thorns choke the seed sown among them (Lk 8:14). St. Benedict did not want to be choked by this world. In addition, he wanted Christ to be the only spouse of his heart (2 Cor 11:2), desiring to live for him alone in an exclusive nuptial relationship; and so he renounced marriage to live a celibate life, which he knew to be the better choice (1 Cor 7:32-35,38).

St. Benedict learned that “whoever would save his life will lose it” and whoever loses his life for the sake of Christ and the Gospel will save it (Mk 8:35). Saving his life in this world did not attract him, and so he decided to lose his life for Christ, sacrificing his life in this world, offering himself up in love to the Father with Christ, who “loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:2).

Thus St. Benedict was like the man who discovered a treasure hidden in a field, and went, as did that man, and sold all that he had in this world to obtain that treasure, which is the Kingdom of God in his soul (Mt 13:44). Christ is the pearl of great price, which is only obtained at the price of everything else (Mt 13:45-46), and so St. Benedict was ready to lose everything, as was the merchant in search of fine pearls, to obtain it and rejoice with the true happiness of Christ.

166

St. Benedict wanted to be a true disciple, serving Christ, and him alone, with all the love of his heart, with a pure and undivided heart, not divided by the things of this world, not even divided by the love of a human spouse in Christian matrimony, and so he fulfilled the saying of Jesus: “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:33). For St. Benedict, as for St. Paul, losing everything, he considered himself the winner, estimating all that he lost for Christ as nothing more than loss and refuse in comparison with what he gained thereby (Phil 3:7-8).

St. Benedict wrote a rule for his followers, the monks, giving them a new and austere, but balanced way of life, a life of fasting (they never ate breakfast, and ate but once a day six months of the year), and of prayer (his office for vigils contained twelve psalms). Yes, an austere life, there can be no doubt about that, and a silent one too, a life far from the world, and dedicated exclusively to the Lord in prayer, silent work, and spiritual reading. This is the life which our father St. Benedict bequeathed to us, the monks of the West.

HOW THE CHRISTIAN MISSION EXPANDS

Thursday, 14th Week of the Year Gen 44:18-21,23-29; 45:1-5; Ps 104; Mt 10:7-15

Today Jesus sends his twelve apostles out on a missionary journey to preach that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, and to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons. They are to go forth with the power of Jesus, and extend his kingdom. Then he tells them—just before sending them out—that there will also be persecutions, saying, “And if any one will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town” (Mt 10:14-15). Then follows a long description of the persecutions that will come upon them, lest they be surprised or shaken when it happens. His teaching about these future persecutions comes to a climax when he says, “and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10:22).

In the first reading we hear the story of the patriarch Joseph, whose life illustrates this teaching of Jesus. We see how he was sold into slavery in Egypt by his own brothers for speaking to them about the dreams sent to him by God. Then in Egypt, he was falsely accused by the wife of Potiphar and thrown into prison. But he is not defeated by these things. Rather he continues on, doing good, first in Potiphar’s house, then in the prison. Finally he is released and put into Pharaoh’s service, and becomes governor of the whole land of Egypt, where he is now in a position to forgive and save his brothers and his

167

whole people, the people of God. His persecution, in fact, enabled him to get into this position to be able to do such great good for the people of God. He did what Jesus told his apostles they should do in persecution. He simply shook the dust off his feet and continued doing good.

When Jesus sent out the seventy-two, a little while later, he told them—in addition to shaking off the dust—to actually say to the people, “even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you; nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near” (Lk 10:11). In other words, the preacher of the Gospel is not to be discouraged or defeated by such bad reception. He is rather to expect it, for he preaches a message that challenges people, often more than they want to be challenged. He is simply to go on to another place and preach the Gospel there too, as did St. Paul time and time again; and we know what great effect he had. Thank God he did not become discouraged by his many persecutions.

St. Paul, at least once, even did literally what Jesus here recommends. When the Jews incited the Gentiles in Antioch of Pisidia to drive him out of their district, Paul and Barnabas, St. Luke tells us, “Shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Iconium. And,” St Luke continues, “the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:51-52). This persecution, in fact, worked to the advantage of the Church’s mission, for it forced Paul to turn to the Gentiles. It should do the same to us. God may be calling us thereby to extend our mission to a wider world.

DO NOT DENY CHRIST TO AVOID PERSECUTION

Saturday, 14th Week of the Year Gen 49:29-32; 50:15-26; Ps 104; Mt 10:24-33

We should not fear persecution, nor wrongly change our behavior to avoid it. Rather we should expect persecution if we are following Christ and are doing God’s will. This is the message of today’s readings. Jesus tells us today that a disciple is not above his teacher. He should rather be content to be like his teacher, that is, to be persecuted for doing God’s will, as was his teacher, for Jesus says today, “If they have called the Master of the house (namely, Jesus) Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. So have no fear of them” (Mt 10:25-26). And in John’s Gospel Jesus says, “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (Jn 15:20), and “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (Jn 15:18).

We should not let the modern world intimidate us into forgetfulness of God or into imitation of its ways in order to avoid persecution. Jesus says today, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell” (Mt 10:28). Yes, the world can “kill the body,” can persecute us for being different from it, for not following its ways, for rightly being countercultural, and for correctly swimming against its current, but it cannot destroy our soul.

Imitating the worldliness of the world, however, can destroy our soul. It is this we must fear and avoid at all costs, even at the cost of martyrdom. We should, therefore,

168

fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And remember that Jesus says today, “every one who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33). We deny Jesus before men when we imitate the worldliness of the world in order to avoid its persecution of us.

Nor should we feel ashamed to obey God in the sight of men, for Jesus also says, “whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mk 8:38). So we should not be “conformed” to this world, but “transformed” in our minds (Rom 12:2), as St. Paul says. Instead of being afraid to proclaim Christ by our lives in the midst of the world, we should rather preach the truth of Christ from the rooftops, as Jesus tells us today (Mt 10:27).

In the first reading we see what persecution for following God’s will did to the patriarch Joseph. His brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt for telling them the dreams God gave him. Then in Egypt, his refusing the advances of the wife of Potiphar caused her, out of anger and revenge, to falsely accuse him, and he was thrown into prison; but in that prison he made the contacts that would later enable him to enter into Pharaoh’s service, and become the Lord of all Egypt, and so be able to save the people of God, as he says today in the key verse of the Joseph story: “As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive” (Gen 50:20). His being persecuted for his goodness got him into a position in which he was able to save God’s people. It will do the same for us, so we should not fear it or wrongly deflect our course to avoid it.

Do not deny Christ to avoid persecution. Persecution will enable you to get into a position to be able to save many.

CHOOSE LIFE, THAT YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS MAY LIVE

15th Sunday of the Year Dt 30:10-14; Sal 68; Col 1:15-20; Lk 10:25-37

Today we hear the two great commandments that Jesus gave us, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Lk 10:27). These two commandments provide us with the key to enter into the life and happiness which God wants to give us. The whole Old Testament was but a preparation for this new life in the light which we now have in Christ, who “has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, and who has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:12-14). This is a new world, a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), and we are new men in Jesus Christ (Eph 4:24), forgiven for our sins by his blood and renewed to live a new life with him in the light.

But all this, even though it is a free gift of God, depends also on our faith and our life of faith; it depends on our cooperation with his grace. It depends on our following the

169

two greatest commandments. In the first reading, God tells us that he will give us all his blessings if only we turn to him with all our heart. This life of blessings will be yours, “if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes…if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Dt 30:10).

Even though we had lost all by disobeying him, if we repent and turn to him again in genuine conversion with all our heart, he will take us back and bless us again, and even more than before. If we obey him and love him with all our heart, doing his will in everything he asks of us, then he will fill us with his goodness and blessings. “But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you this day,” says the Lord, “that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess” (Dt 30:17-18). The choice is ours, either life or death; the outcome depends on our obedience to the will of God. If we follow the false and deceitful ways of the world, living a life of entertainment and pleasure, we will perish and will be cast out into the darkness. It is up to us to choose. “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse,” says the Lord; “therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days…” (Dt 30:19-20).

All this blessing comes to us as God’s gift through the merits of Jesus Christ when we believe in him; but we have to cooperate with this new life, with this divine life, by loving him with all our heart and obeying him. To obey him is to love him. Our obedience puts our love into action (Jn 14:21,23,24; 15:10,14). He who does not obey him, does not love him. Therefore if we cooperate with his justifying action, loving him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, he will circumcise our heart (Dt 30:6), and then his blessings will follow: “The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground; for the Lord will again take delight in prospering you” (Dt 30:9).

But to enter into these blessings, we have to be converted to him with all our heart, love him with all our heart, and obey him in everything. Therefore the Lord says, when you “return to the Lord your God…and obey his voice in all that I command you this day, with all your heart and with all your soul; then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes, and have compassion upon you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples” (Dt 30:2-3). If we return to him and repent, he will choose us again and bless us and show us his face.

And this “is not too hard for you, neither is it far off” (Dt 30:11). It is something very close to us so that we can fulfill it and enter into God’s blessings. Thus we will participate “in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:12), and we will be “transferred…to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:13). This is not something difficult, but it will change our whole way of living.

We live in a culture of entertainment and pleasure, as Fr. Michael Casey is teaching us every day at midday prayer. Yes, it is not difficult, but if we live for God alone, loving him with all our heart and obeying him in everything he asks of us, this will completely alter the direction of our life. We will not be the same; we will not live in the same way as before. We will live only for God and for the service of our neighbor.

170

We will live a life of fasting and asceticism, of prayer and voluntary poverty, of simplicity and silence, a life of recollection and love, a life, in short, quite different from the style of our culture of entertainment and pleasure. Our pleasure and happiness will be only in God, in his love, in his light, in spiritual reading, in doing his will, and in living in union with him. The entertainments of this world are only a distraction from all that is real and authentic, from all that really rejoices the heart.

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse,” says the Lord; “therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you…” (Dt 30:19-20).

MY YOKE IS EASY, AND MY BURDEN LIGHT

Thursday, 15th Week of the Year Ex 3:13-20; Ps 104; Mt 11:28-30

Today Jesus says that he wants to give us rest and relief from our labors and burdens; and that instead of carrying them, he will give us his own yoke, which he says is easy and light; and he says that if we carry it with humility, following his example, we will find rest for our souls. His words are as follows: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt 11:28-30).

This is the doctrine of the anawim, the poor of Yahweh of the Old Testament. They are those who have lost everything of this world, except God, and who depend on him alone for everything. They have been humiliated by the events of history, and now lack the dignity which comes from possessions. They are the poor and humble of the earth, but they have learned to carry the yoke of the Torah (the law of God) and to follow God’s law and will completely, and in this they have found all their happiness, which they have discovered is greater than that which they lost.

Jesus presents himself now as one of them. “Learn from me,” he says; “for I am meek and lowly of heart” (Mt 11:29). When he entered the Holy City, he entered as one of them, one of those blessed anawim of Yahweh, as Zechariah prophesied, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass” (Mt 21:5; see Zech 9:9). These words of Jesus are necessary and welcome indeed, words to receive with joy, words which heal hearts that are weighed down and burdened. If the yoke of the Torah could save the souls of the Old Testament, how much more will the light and easy yoke of Jesus Christ.

The yoke of Jesus is the cross, which he invites us to carry with him every day (Lk 9:23). The cross will make us the anawim of the New Testament, the fulfillment of those of the Old Testament. On the cross, which we carry as our yoke, we sacrifice ourselves to God, sacrificing everything of this world, as the new poor of the Lord, living, as they did, for the Lord alone in every aspect of our life, and discovering that it is better this way, and that we are happier like this, discovering, in fact, that to live like this is heaven on earth, if we obey God. To find all our joy in this way, in God alone, fills us

171

completely; and with this blessed yoke of Jesus Christ, we find rest for our souls. Only in God is our soul at rest. Only in him is our happiness. This is the yoke which we have been seeking, a yoke that is easy, and a burden that is light.

THE SON OF MAN IS LORD OF THE SABBATH

Friday, 15th Week of the Year Ex 11:10 – 12:14; Ps 115; Mt 12:1-8

Today we see that Jesus Christ has authority even to interpret the law of Moses, which is the law of God. He can interpret what is permitted to do on the Sabbath because he is “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mt 12:8). The law of Moses only prohibited work on the Sabbath (Ex 20:8-11; Dt 5:12-15). The rabbis prohibited harvesting on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees interpreted the action of Jesus’ disciples as harvesting, and therefore as something prohibited on the Sabbath. But Jesus, who is “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mt 12:8), gives his own interpretation, contrary to that of the rabbis and of the Pharisees, permitting his disciples “to pluck ears of grain and to eat” on the Sabbath (Mt 12:1). Jesus has authority to contradict the Pharisaic and rabbinic interpretation of the law of Moses because he is the Messiah and only-begotten Son of God. He is, as he says here, “greater than the temple” (Mt 12:6). And he is not only “greater than the temple” (Mt 12, 6), but also “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mt 12:8), “greater than Jonah” (Mt 12:41) and “greater than Solomon” (Mt 12:42), as he says.

There is more involved here than simply a liberal rabbi, as Pope Benedict XVI points out in his new book, Jesus of Nazareth. There is more involved here than simply liberalism, than the desire to relax the rules to make things easier for people. Here it is rather a question of authority. Jesus has the authority to do and to teach what he does and teaches. Therefore this passage is Christological; it is about who Jesus of Nazareth is. We see here then how the only-begotten Son of God, equal to the Father, living incarnate here on earth, acts. He came to interpret and fulfill the law of God itself. He is “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mt 12:8) and “greater than the temple” (Mt 12:6). He is nothing less than the Lord of the law of God.

He is also the fulfillment of the paschal lamb of the first reading. He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). As the blood of the paschal lamb saved the Israelites from the plague of the death of the first born, so the blood of the Lamb of God, who is Jesus Christ, offered in sacrifice to the Father, saves us from the death of sin and frees us from slavery, not from Egypt, but from sin and eternal death.

Jesus Christ, as the Lamb of God, shows us that, although he is one single being with the Father, nevertheless, he can relate to the Father as to a distinct Person, and, even more, can sacrifice himself to him in love, infinitely pleasing him, and thus winning from him for us eternal redemption.

The only-begotten Son of God and Messiah is the new interpreter of the law of Moses, is “Lord of the Sabbath” and Lord of the law of God. He is the Lamb of God whose blood redeems and saves us. Thus he has authority to teach his followers how they are to observe the law of Moses.

172

A MEMORIAL MEAL OF OUR REDEMPTION

Saturday, 15th Week of the Year Ex 12:37-42; Ps 135; Mt 12:14-21

Today’s first reading is about the redemption of Israel. It speaks of the night of their liberation from their slavery in Egypt. This night, says this Scripture, “was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations” (Ex 12:42). That is, they should remember this night each year as the anniversary of their redemption. It “is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations” (Ex 12:42).

On this night, says this Scripture, “they baked unleavened cakes of dough which they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened…” (Ex 12:39). They are to repeat this each year, that is, eat unleavened bread for seven days, in memory of the unleavened bread which their fathers ate the night they left Egypt. In the future, each father is to recount to his son on the night of this commemoration that they too are eating unleavened bread in memory of their exodus from Egypt and in memory of the night in which God saved them. “And you shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes… You shall therefore keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year” (Ex 13:8-10).

It was during this commemoration that Jesus gave to his disciples a new memorial meal of their definitive redemption from sin and death, giving them unleavened bread, saying that it was his body sacrificed for them. This ultimate redemption of Jesus Christ and its memorial meal were the fulfillment of the redemption of the Jews and their commemorative feast of unleavened bread. Thus we are in continuity with the Jews, commemorating our redemption with a memorial meal, eating unleavened bread, which the words of consecration transform into the sacrificed body of Christ, a commemoration and actualization for us of his saving death on the cross.

It is this death on the cross, in which the Son offers himself in love unto death in sacrifice and adoration to his Father, which infinitely pleased the Father on our behalf and released the Holy Spirit, causing him to be poured out upon us in a Messianic outpouring. This Messianic outpouring of the Spirit renews us (Jn 7:37-39), giving us a participation in the divine life and in the splendor of the Blessed Trinity. It makes us new men, created anew in the image of the Son by the working of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18). To nourish ourselves on this mystery, we eat the Lord’s Supper in memory of his act which redeemed us.

THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE IS A SILENT AND PEACEFUL LIFE

173

16th Sunday of the Year Gen 18:1-10; Ps 14; Col 1:24-28; Lk 10:38-42

Today’s readings speak to us of the happiness of the contemplative life, a life full of God, a life which fulfills the commandments of God, and lives illumined by the love of God shining in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6). Today Jesus visits Martha and Mary, and takes the side of Mary when Martha complains that she has left her to serve alone while Mary is seated at the feet of Jesus, listening to his word (Lk 10:39). In response to Martha’s complaint, Jesus says to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her” (Lk 10:41-42).

There is a division of labor here. Yes, it is necessary that someone cook, but it is also necessary that someone listen to the word of God and dedicate himself to an attentive and prolonged hearing of this word. There is a need for persons who dedicate themselves to a silent and solitary life, a recollected and peaceful life, a life detached from the turmoil, noise, distraction, and dissipation of the world, an ascetic life, which renounces the entertainments and pleasures of the world, a life dedicated to study and reflection, and which occupies itself in prayer, reading, and writing, to share with others the riches of the love of God and of the mystery of Christ indwelling within us and illumining us, which they discover in this type of life. Yes, this kind of silent and recollected life is as necessary as that of Martha, and it enriches many.

This contemplative life is the life of Mary, which Jesus defends today against the accusations of Martha, who thinks that Mary is not doing anything of importance or value, but is only wasting her time. Yes, the work of Martha is necessary. Who doubts that? No one! And the majority will always dedicate themselves to this more active type of life—in fact, almost to the complete oblivion of the other type of life. But in every group, in every community, there will always be a few quiet and tranquil souls, contemplative souls like Mary; and theirs is indeed the good part, the better part, actually. The life of Mary, in reality, contributes much to the well-being of the world, even though its results do not appear as clearly as do those of Martha’s kind of life.

It is not that Mary is unoccupied. She is very occupied, but in her occupation, she is recollected and turned toward the interior. She is quiet and silent, tranquil and peaceful, lost in God, and often inundated with divine love. She is occupied with something very important indeed, but occupied in a different way than Martha. Mary needs silence and solitude. She has to be quiet and live a peaceful life, alone, in stillness and tranquility, far from the noise of the world and its worldly conversations, its entertainments and preoccupations, to be free and available for the Lord.

Such is the contemplative life, a life full of God, full of light, a life which raises the spiritual level of the entire world. To live this contemplative life is like living in heaven on earth, if God calls us this way, and if we live in everything according to his will for us. He reveals his will to us in the depths of our conscience, and we will hear it if we listen attentively and with good discernment, following the classic and authorized teaching of the great masters of the contemplative life, masters like St. John Cassian and St. John of the Cross. We need a sensitive and instructed heart to clearly perceive and correctly discern this voice of the Lord, among other voices.

174

Then, if we fulfill this divine will, to the degree that we correctly fulfill it, our life becomes, in reality, heaven on earth. It is recollected, and is rejoiced by the interior working of the Holy Spirit, transforming us into the image of the eternal Son of the Father (2 Cor 3:18). In this silent and obedient life, in this contemplative life, Christ himself shines within our hearts, filling them with love and knowledge of God (2 Cor 4:6). Such is the life of Mary of Bethany, the contemplative life, faithfully lived. Its joy is the cross of Christ, by which it is crucified to the world, and the world to it (Gal 6:14), sacrificed to the Father with Christ in the Holy Spirit, in a sacrifice of love (Col 1:24).

St. Paul speaks to us today of the great mystery of the contemplative life, the mystery of Christ indwelling within us, rejoicing us, and illumining us. In reality, Christ is divinizing us, filling us with his divinity, which transforms us. This is, as St. Paul says today, “the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now made manifest to his saints…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:26-27). This indeed is the great mystery of contemplatives, Christ dwelling within us.

Abraham, in today’s first reading, welcomed the Blessed Trinity in the form of three men who ate with him “by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day” (Gen 18:1). This Scripture says, “And Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre… He (Abraham) lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him” (Gen 18:1-2). This is a glimpse into the contemplative life of Abraham. Abraham welcomed the Trinity, God under the form of three persons, three men. God is one. There is only one God, but he exists in three Persons, and they visited Abraham under the form of three men.

Contemplatives, like Abraham, live with the Blessed Trinity. They contemplate the Trinity, and the Trinity dwells within their hearts. Their life is a life with God, a Trinitarian life, a quiet, silent, reposed, and peaceful life. God in three Persons is their guest. Abraham is thus an image of the contemplative life in his welcoming of the Blessed Trinity.

THE APOSTOLIC LIFE, A LIFE CRUCIFIED FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Feast of St. James, July 25 2 Cor 4:7-15; Ps 125; Mt 20:2-28

Today we celebrate the feast of St. James, Apostle, brother of John, and son of Zebedee, one of Jesus’ three most intimate disciples—Peter, James, and John—and the first apostle to be martyred. Today’s readings speak of his suffering as a martyr. According to his example, if we want to be glorified with Christ, we have to drink of the cup of Christ’s sufferings (Mt 20:22), and if we want to be the first, we have to be the servant of all (Mt 20:27), just as Jesus Christ “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28).

Our life should also follow this pattern if we want to be glorified with Christ. Our glory as Christians is in the cross of Christ (Gal 6:14). We should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and be truly crucified to the world, and the world to us (Gal 6:14). Such is the pattern of the apostolic life, of the profoundly Christian life. Our glory is in

175

offering ourselves as a holocaust to God in love, as Christ himself, who “loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:2). He “gave himself up” for us (Eph 5:25), and we should do the same. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn 4:11).

Our life should also be a life offered to God with Christ in the Holy Spirit by offering ourselves in the service of our brothers and sisters through the type of service which God has given us. Each one has his own gift. One is a preacher or writer, another gives retreats, another serves the sick. Each one has his service, his work, in which he can offer himself to the Father with Christ on the cross, full of the Holy Spirit. Our happiness in this world is in thus detaching ourselves, in living in this way for God alone in serving our brothers and sisters in love, pouring out our life for them, to share with them the riches of Christ.

This is the life of the cross. By living in this way, we will do what St. Paul did when he always carried “in the body the death of Jesus, so that,” as he says, “the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Cor 4:10). If we want the life of Jesus to be manifested in our bodies, this is the path: to be “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus” (2 Cor 4:10). His death, the pattern of his death, the pattern of his crucifixion, is the way to glory. This is the way of detaching ourselves in love from all things to live for the love of him alone.

This is also the ideal of the monastic life. This is why the first monks went to the desert. They went to live in uninhabited regions in order to detach themselves from this world with its pleasures and distractions, to live for God alone in everything. They went to the desert to live a life of love, with a heart detached from all the attachments of this world, all the better to attach themselves all the more completely to Christ alone with an undivided heart. They went to the desert to be united with Christ in his very cross, offering themselves with him in love to the Father, full of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of divine love. Thus lived the first monks in the desert in the splendor of God, but the way to arrive at this splendor is that of the cross, of asceticism, and of the renunciation of the pleasures of this world, so that God might be our only pleasure, our only happiness. Then, carrying always the death of Jesus, his glory will also be manifested in us (2 Cor 4:10).

Since St. Paul lived this way, he could write that he and the other apostles appear to the world as unknown and dying, as punished and sad, as poor, and having nothing (2 Cor 6:9-11); but in reality they are just the opposite. They are well known and truly alive; they are always rejoicing, enriching many, and possessing all things (2 Cor 6:9-11).

Truly the apostolic life, which we are invited to live, is like “a spectacle to the world” (1 Cor 4:9); and the apostles are like the “offscouring of all things” (1 Cor 4:13). They seem in the eyes of the world to be suffering, but in reality their suffering is their glory, because they suffer for the love of Christ, and are, therefore, glorified in him with the splendor of divine love. Truly, as St. Paul says, “I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake” (1 Cor 4:9-10). “…we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things” (1 Cor 4:13).

Such is the apostolic life, our life, the life of the cross, crucified for the love of God, but a life of glory.

176

THE CALL TO PERFECTION: SERVE GOD ALONE

Friday, 16th Week of the Year Ex 20:1-12; Ps 18; Mt 13:18-23

Today we hear the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ interpretation of the parable of the sower. We hear that God is a jealous God and does not want us to honor other gods: “You shall have no other gods before me…you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God” (Ex 20:3,5).

For us, this means not putting anything before God in our lives, nor giving to anything the place of God in our heart. And what is the place of God in our heart? For a person trying to live a life of perfection, this means, to live only for God. For a monk, this means, not to seek any more the things below, but only those above, where Christ is, because we have been raised with him for a new and risen life (Col 3:1-2).

This means that Christ should be the center of our life, and that we should find all our joy only in him. It is for this reason that monks live lives of prayer and fasting, of simplicity, austerity, and poverty in the desert, far from the world. It is because they want to live only for God in the most radical and literal way possible, having only one treasure, and that in heaven (Mt 6:19-21), and serving only one Lord, and that, Jesus Christ, and none other (Mt 6:24).

They do not want to put anything in the place of God in their lives. They do not want to divide their heart in any way; but rather they want to preserve it whole and entire, undivided (1 Cor 7:32-34) and reserved only for the Lord, the only spouse of their soul (2 Cor 11:2), and not divided among other pleasures of this world. They want only one pleasure in their life, and do not seek any other. And their only pleasure is God. “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3).

And the Gospel today speaks of the seed, and warns us of the danger of thorns, which are the pleasures and riches of this world. These thorns are our strange gods which choke us and keep us from bearing fruit. In St. Luke’s version, we read, “And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Lk 8:14).

It is for this reason that Jesus warns us, saying, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mt 19:23-24). A rich man is surrounded by riches and pleasures, that is, he is surrounded by alien gods (Ex 20, 3) and thorns (Mt 13:22). He easily loses his way and is choked by thorns, so as not to bear fruit. His heart is easily divided.

Thus we can understand why monks fled to the desert to live a life of prayer and fasting, far from the world. They were fleeing the thorns (Lk 8:14) and the alien gods (Ex 20:3), in order to serve only the Lord (Mt 6:24) with all their heart (Mk 12:30), with an undivided heart (1 Cor 7:32-34), not divided among the pleasures of this world, nor serving alien gods, nor choked by thorns. They wanted to bear much fruit for God.

177

LET US ENDURE WITH PATIENCE UNTIL THE FINAL HARVEST

Saturday, 16th Week of the Year Ex 24:3-8; Ps 49; Mt 13:24-30

We are now approaching the time of the final harvest at the end of the world, and are awaiting its results, the reward of the just and the punishment of the wicked. The fruits of the earth are also ripening now, and we are gathering them in and eating them fresh. This only increases our desire to see the final harvest and the ingathering of all the fruits of the earth.

We hear a parable today about all of this, that of the wheat and the weeds. Now is still the time of waiting for the final harvest, but we already see thorns, thistles, and weeds in our field. This parable gives us one method of dealing with this problem, the method that God uses in dealing with the harvest of the world, namely, to let the weeds grow together with the wheat until the final harvest.

So we see many weeds in the world, which are “the sons of the evil one” (Mt 13:38). Such is God’s plan: not to punish them definitively now, but rather at the end of the world, at the time of the final harvest, when the Son of Man will send out his angels, the reapers, to reap the harvest of the earth, and “they will gather out of his kingdom” all the wicked, all the weeds, and will “throw them into the furnace of fire” (Mt 13:41-42). “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43). We are now awaiting this day of judgment and reward, this day of justice.

While we await this day, we should ourselves be already shining in anticipation of that final day, awaiting with patience the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God and of his justice on earth.

But what exactly is the point of this parable and of its explanation which Jesus gives? It is, I believe, that we need to be patient now, because our field is not yet as it should be. It is not pure wheat. There are still many weeds in it, which spoil its beauty. But instead of being scandalized, or of losing hope, or becoming negative, we should hope for the final harvest and the correction of all evil in the final judgment, when the angles will uproot the wicked, and when the just will be rewarded in the Kingdom of their Father, where they “will shine like the sun” (Mt 13:43).

These are words of Jesus, his sure promise, something which we can believe in and trust, and in which we can hope. Thus will it be. Justice will be done on earth, and the good will be rewarded. We should not lose hope, but rather continue faithfully along the straight and difficult path of life, which few find. We hope for the final trumpet and the reward of the righteous, putting up with the wicked until the last day of the great harvest and the final ingathering of all the fruits of the earth.

THE JUST ARE THE RENEWAL OF THE EARTH AND THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD

178

17th Sunday of the Year Gen 18:20-32; Ps 137; Col 2:12-14; Lk 11:1-13

Today’s readings teach us three things: 1) that in Christ we have buried our former life to rise with him to live a new and risen life, 2) that by our new risen lives in Christ we save the world from the wrath of God, and 3) that what we ask for in prayer with perseverance, we will receive, or if we do not receive exactly what we asked for, we will receive something better still.

I believe that there is a connection between these three points. What is the connection? The connection, I believe, is that Christ has given us a new life, a risen (Col 2:12; 3:1) and even ascended (Eph 2:6) life, in which we live already, ahead of time, in spirit, in heaven, in the heavenly places (Eph 2:6). It is a life in which Christ lives within us (Col 1:27), illumining us from within with his divine love, which is the ineffable and splendorous love which he has with his Father in the bond of the Holy Spirit. Living in this new state by faith and by the grace of God in Christ, we are ever more transformed by the interior working of the Holy Spirit into the glorious image of the Son (2 Cor 3:18).

We are thus God’s new creation in Christ through the Holy Spirit in the midst of this old world, which continues living as the old creation in sin and sadness. In the midst of it, we are luminaries (Phil 2:15), to save it from the wrath of God for its sins. For the sake of us, his new creation, God does not destroy the rest, that is, those who have not been reborn in Christ, because he does not want to destroy us together with them. Thus through being born anew, we save the world from the wrath of God.

God revealed this to Abraham today when Abraham asked God whether he was going to destroy Sodom if he could find fifty just men in it, and God answered, saying, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake” (Gen 18:26). That is, the just save the world from destruction; they are the salvation of the earth. The world exists for them, for this new creation which Christ is forming in the midst of the old world by the working of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God the Father. How then could God destroy the world, destroying the good along with the bad, if he maintains the world in existence precisely for the sake of those just ones in Christ who are his new creation (2 Cor 5:17).

God sent his only Son to renew the human race, to regenerate it with a new strain, with the seed of immortality, to make those who have been born anew in Christ luminaries in the world, so that they might shine within it (Phil 2:15). The righteous are now the community of those reborn in Christ through the Spirit, the community of those who have been born anew by water and the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:5) for the glory of God the Father, having buried their former life with Christ and having risen with him from the dead to live already ahead of time a risen life in him (Col 2:12), in the light (Jn 8:12).

How could God then destroy the world while these righteous ones live in its midst? It would be impossible for him to destroy these righteous ones together with the wicked. God would have spared even Sodom had he found in it ten just men (Gen 18:32), that is, in order not to destroy those ten just men along with the wicked, he would have spared the whole place, even Sodom. And Jeremiah says that if God could have found in Jerusalem even one righteous man, he would not have destroyed it for the sake of this single just man. He says, “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take

179

note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth; that I may pardon her” (Jer 5:1).

Truly the righteous, those reborn in Christ, those who walk in the newness of life (Rom 6:4), in the newness of the Spirit (Rom 7:6), and who live a life in the Spirit are the salvation of the world. The world exists for them, for this new seed, for this new strain of a new creation of regenerated humanity. It is for their sake that God will not destroy the world. How important then for the world are Christians who are reborn in Christ by water and the Holy Spirit! They are its salvation from the wrath of God, at least until the last day and the definitive end of the world.

Our third point is that we will receive from God what we ask for with perseverance, and if we do not receive exactly what we asked for, we will receive something still better for having asked for it. This is true for those who are born anew in Christ. Ask them, and they will tell you that this has been true in their experience. And why? It is because God takes care of his own, he takes care of those redeemed by his Son, he takes care of those who are filled with his own Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and who live for the glory of the Father.

They know how to pray and what they should ask for, and God wants to give them what they ask for because they are living a life in the Spirit, because they are living in the love of the Trinity; and even circumstances which at the time appear negative, he changes for them into positive ones; and they, because they live in God, live in peace and love and share the happiness of the Trinity. Therefore for them, because they pray, each problem is changed into an opportunity to serve God better, to extend his Kingdom further, to preach the Gospel in ever new places and circumstances, and to make the love of God better known.

Therefore, born anew in Christ, we are the renewal of the world, and its protection from the wrath of God, and we will receive what we ask for, or something still better, for the glory of God the Father. Amen.

HOW TO BE A GOOD FISH ON THE LAST DAY

Thursday, 17th Week of the Year Ex 40:16-21,34-38; Ps 83; Mt 13:47-53

God takes care of us, his people, if we faithfully obey and follow him. We see this today in the first reading, namely, how God guides the Israelites in the desert, protecting them with a cloud over the tabernacle, showing them in this way when they are to move and when they are to remain in the camp. The cloud represents the glory of the Lord which accompanied them at all times. “Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would go onward; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go onward till the day that it was taken up” (Ex 40:36-37).

So does God also take care of us each day. The problem is that we are not always with him. When we sin, or when we do not perfectly carry out his will, he allows us our freedom, and lets us do as we wish, but then we are outside of this cloud of his glory and

180

intimate presence and protection, and thus we fall into darkness and sadness of spirit. But if we repent, he will forgive us, and we will once again be under his protection, and the cloud of his glory will again be with us. It is our faults which destroy this protection and this cloud of glory in which we could live.

The psalmist gives us the same message, saying, “If any one fears the Lord he will show him the path he should choose. His soul will live in happiness and his children shall possess the land. The Lord’s friendship is for those who revere him; to them he reveals his covenant” (Ps 24:12-14). If we fear the Lord and radically obey him, he will show us the path of life, and we will live in his happiness.

How then can we live in this cloud of the glory of the Lord and know his glory in our life? We can do so by observing very carefully what he shows us is his will for us, and then do it exactly, regardless of how difficult it is. He wants us to focus on him so that he be our only happiness, and that we sacrifice many other things to center our life uniquely on him. How many sacrifices will be necessary to do this! How many changes will we have to make in our life to align it perfectly with his most perfect will for us! And remember that his will for us is that we be saints. He is always teaching us new aspects of his will for us, things that we did not see or understand before; and if we want to keep growing, we have to follow these new revelations of his will for us; and in doing so, we will remain in his peace and in the cloud of his glory and protection.

If he sees that we are trying to obey him in everything, he will continue teaching us still more new things so that we keep growing and changing, always modifying our way of living to comply ever more perfectly with his will which he continues to reveal to us with ever greater clarity and precision.

Thus we will be good fish on the last day when “The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous” (Mt 13:49), as Jesus tells us today.

A PROPHET IS NOT ACCEPTED

Friday, 17th Week of the Year Lev 23:1,4-11,15-16,27,34-37; Ps 80; Mt 13:54-58

Today Jesus experiences rejection in his own country, in Nazareth, and among his own people. He taught them in their synagogue, and they “were astonished” at his doctrine, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?… Where then did this man get all this? And they took offense at him” (Mt 13:54,57).

And truly it was the same with the prophets of Israel and Judah. They were not accepted by the people. They were not received well. And this was because their message was always difficult and demanding. They spoke of the will of God, and of the worship of only one God, Yahweh, and not of strange and false gods, and they spoke of the justice which God wants to see in them. They also spoke of the future hope of the nation and of the consolation of God and their future salvation. But it was their challenging message which made the people reject their prophets. They did not want to hear these challenges. They did not want to abandon their worship of other gods. They

181

did not want to serve only Yahweh, nor did they want to do his will, nor live only for him with all their heart; and therefore the people threatened and rejected their prophets.

Jesus’ doctrine was also challenging, like that of the prophets of old. He called himself the Son of God, making himself equal to the Father, and proclaimed the poor blessed. He cursed the rich and the full and those who laugh now, because they have already received their consolation; and he predicted that they would hunger and mourn and weep (Lk 6:24-25). He spoke like a prophet, with authority, and not like the scribes and Pharisees. He proclaimed a new kind of life in this world, and invited his hearers to leave all to follow him, as did his first disciples (Mk 1:16-20), as did the man who discovered the buried treasure (Mt 13:44), as did the merchant in search of fine pearls when he found a pearl of great price (Mt 13:45-46), and as he invited the rich young man to do (Mt 19:21). And he also said, “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:33).

Who could accept teaching like this in those days, or now? Therefore they rejected him, just as the majority do today, who simply ignore him, and continue living as they wish, like everyone else, for their own pleasures and strange gods; and therefore they do not find life in him, nor do they obtain the pearl of great price, nor the buried treasure, nor do they arrive at a life of perfection.

Jesus Christ wants our obedience; but he experiences our rejection. He came to give us a new kind of life; but the majority do not accept it. He came to make us sons of God; but the majority do not accept his gift, his challenge. They are scandalized by his teaching, his simplicity, and his poverty. But this is the call to life, the call to perfection. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Mt 13:43). Jesus was a prophet, and as a prophet, he was not accepted, neither in his time, nor now, by the majority.

TO BE SAINTS, WE HAVE TO CONQUER HUMAN RESPECT

Saturday, 17th Week of the Year Lev 25:1,8-17; Ps 66; Mt 14:1-12

Today, in the beheading of John the Baptist, we see two important things: 1) the courage of John in proclaiming the truth, telling the tetrarch Herod that it is not lawful for him to have Herodias as his wife since she was the wife of his brother Philip; and 2) we see that Herod follows human respect in ordering John to be beheaded in prison. We are presented here with a study in contrast between the courage of John on the one hand, and the cowardice of Herod on the other hand.

Anyone who preaches the truth, as John did, will have enemies, because there are always people, like Herod and Herodias, who do not want to hear the truth, who do not want to be challenged, who do not want to do the will of God, who do not want to do what is right, and who do not want to change their life or their way of living. Therefore the job of a preacher is always dangerous, and he will always have enemies who oppose him, and who at times attack and try to destroy him. Therefore John is a model for those who preach, a model for his courage in speaking the truth which the tetrarch and his wife do not want to hear. And John suffered for his courage: he was imprisoned, and later

182

martyred. How we need this kind of courage to preach the truth of God which people need to hear, even when they do not want to hear it!

The second thing we see in today’s Gospel is human respect, which is the opposite of this courage. It is cowardice. Herod, in his behavior today, is an example of this. Herod was afraid to break his rash oath to the daughter of Herodias that he would give her whatever she requested as a reward for her dance which so pleased him; and when she requested the head of John, Herod was more afraid of his guests at the table than of God, and ordered John to be beheaded in prison.

How hard it is at times to do what is right, especially when it seems that everyone else is doing something else! Will I be the only one who does not conform here? we can ask ourselves. What will they think of me if I do not do as everyone else is doing, or if I do not do as they expect me to do? What will they do to me? How stupid I will look if I do not behave like the rest! But if it is a question of the truth or of the will of God, then not to do his will for fear of being different is the sin of acting out of human respect, rather than in accord with the truth or in line with the will of God.

The saints, like John, are those who always rejected human respect in order to do the will of God. Those who are weak, on the other hand, are like Herod, and choose the easier broader path of conformity to human respect, and leave off doing the will of God. If we want to be saints, we know whom we must imitate in this: John; not Herod.

THE WAY OF TRUE HAPPINESS

18th Sunday of the Year Qoheleth 1:2; 2:21-23; Ps 89; Col 3:1-5,9-11; Lk 12:13-21

In today’s book of Qoheleth we hear this verse, “For to the man who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God” (Qoheleth 2:26). What a difference there is here! The man who pleases God is happy in the depths of his spirit, even though he does not heap up riches; while the sinner who does not please God is not given this joy in his heart, and his days pass by laboriously in heaping up riches in order to give them to the one who pleases God (Qoh 2:26). The sinner will be the servant who provides goods for the just, who will use them with a joy of heart which the sinner does not know. Such is the justice of God. The good who obey him, keep his commandments, and do his will are his friends. To the degree that they keep his will, they are happy. The psalmist tells us that they are happy or blessed. “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways” (Ps 118:1-3).

Those who believe that riches or the abundance of goods or good food and drink or entertainments or trips will make them happy in the depths of their spirit are mistaken. One can have all this exterior happiness, but if his conscience attacks him, he is not happy. One can be a king, covered with glory, but if he does not obey God, if he does not do his will, he will not be happy, but depressed. He will suffer from spiritual depression, caused by his sins and faults, for his failure to obey the will of God.

183

Christ was sent into the world to cure us of this spiritual depression, caused by our sins and the resulting sense of guilt which causes us remorse and darkens our spirit. We should use this cure in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Jn 20:23) in order to live the happiness which he wants to give us.

The way of true happiness is not to live any more for the pleasures of here below, but for those from above, “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col 3:1). St. Paul teaches us this today, saying, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col 3:1-3). This is the only truly happy life in this world, because, as Jesus says today, “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Lk 12:15). Those who seek their happiness by heaping up riches and pleasures are mistaken. They will heap up riches and goods only to give them to the man who pleases God, and only he will rejoice in them, using them with moderation according to his basic needs.

Therefore the man who is tearing down his barns to build larger ones is a fool. He is tiring himself out in vain. True riches are not found in this way. Concerning this type of fool, the book of Job says, “Though he heap up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay; he may pile it up, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver” (Job 27:16-17). He accumulates; but he will not find happiness in what he accumulates. Rather it is the just man who will use these goods with happiness of heart, as Proverbs says, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous” (Prov 13:22).

Our treasure should be in heaven, not here on earth. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…,” Jesus says, “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Mt 6:19-20). Of what importance is it if our life does not have many achievements in the things which the world appreciates, as long as we radically obey the will of God and live a risen life with the risen Christ, remade by him, forgiven and divinized, living only for him in everything, and are happy with God in the depths of our spirit? What importance does our lack of achievements in this world have if our heart is in heaven, and we have our treasure there?

Which is better, to live an unhappy life among the pleasures, trips, and riches of this world; or to be happy, serving only one Lord (Mt 6:24), and having but one treasure, and that in heaven (Mt 6:20)? Or, to put it more simply, which is better, to be happy or to be unhappy? Is it not better to be happy? Why then do so many choose the deceptive way of unhappiness, surrounded by the goods and honors of this world which do not really rejoice the spirit? The only way to true happiness is to be justified by Jesus Christ and to live according to the will of God, living only for him and for our neighbor; not for our own pleasure or honor.

It is Jesus Christ who enables us to live this way in the light, forgiving us our sins, healing our heart of the pain and sadness of guilt, filling us with the Holy Spirit, and revealing to us the way of his will so that we might walk in it with him in the light.

CHRIST CAME FOR OUR ILLUMINATION

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, August 6 Dan 7:9-10,13-14; Ps 96; Lk 9:28-36

184

Today, in the Transfiguration of the Lord, we see the splendor and glory of the Son of God. This was a physical experience for the apostles, who saw his glory with the eyes of their body. This was for them, and through them for us also, a revelation of who Jesus Christ really is. He is the eternal Son of the Father who has always lived in splendor and glory in the bosom of the Father (Jn 1:18), full of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of the love which the Father has for his Son, and which the Son has for his Father. God is more splendid than the sun in a clear blue sky, and more glorious than a crystal illuminated by the midday sun; and the Son is the image of this splendor, “being the splendor of his glory, and the very image of his substance” (Heb 1:3).

The eternal Son was sent from the Father into the world to introduce us into this same splendor. He came to shine in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6) with the illumination of God, to reveal to us this glory, to illumine us, so that we might live in this same splendor. It is not a splendor which is seen with the eyes of the body, but which is perceived by a spirit illumined by Christ. Christ came to dwell within us, and because he is always one with the Father in love, Christ introduces us into the heart of the Trinity. We are placed by Christ in the “pure river of the water of life, resplendent as crystal,” which flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev 22:1), and through Christ we have this same river of the water of life flowing within our hearts, which is the Holy spirit (Jn 7:37-39), rejoicing us in the splendor of God. It is “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14). This is the new life of God which the eternal Son was sent by the Father to bring us; and it will remain in us like a fountain of illumination.

Thus God, through his Holy Spirit, pours out into our hearts his own love (Rom 5:5), the splendid Trinitarian love, to shine within us, as the apostles saw it shine on the face of Christ on Mount Tabor.

We live by faith, but we can see the splendor of Jesus Christ shining in our hearts, illumining, transforming, and divinizing us. This interior splendor of the love of Christ transforms us “from glory to glory” in the very image of the Son by the interior working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts (2 Cor 3:18). Thus we contemplate him in his splendor, and are made splendid in him, which is the purpose of his coming to the earth—our transformation in him, our transformation in glory.

“…once you were darkness,” says St. Paul, “but now you are light in the Lord” (Eph 5:8). And Christ tells us that if we follow him, we will walk in his light. “I have come as light into the world,” he says, “that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness” (Jn 12:46). We “have seen his glory” (Jn 1:14), “and from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16). He is our illumination. We walk in his splendor. He “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). It is the Father “who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:12). It is he who “has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:13). Christ truly is “the light of men” (Jn 1:4).

Today we celebrate this transforming and divinizing light, and we live in this splendor. This is why Jesus Christ came into the world, to illumine us, to shine in our hearts with the splendor of his love for his Father which he wants to share with us, making us also resplendent. He who always lives in glory in the bosom of the Father (Jn 1:18) came so that we also might live with him in the bosom of the Father covered with glory in the Holy Spirit.

185

But we need faith, so that all of this happens; we need obedience to the will of God, and purification from the world and its pleasures. We need to live for God alone in everything, and reserve our heart for him. The saints and mystics are our models in this. They lived in his light, illuminated by Christ, by his splendid love.

THE SACRIFICIAL LIFE IS THE ONLY HAPPY LIFE

Feast of St. Lawrence, August 10 2 Cor 9:6-9; Ps 111; Jn 12:24-26

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Lawrence, “one of the most venerated of the Roman martyrs” (Roman Missal), who died in 258, slowly roasted on a grill. St. Lawrence repeated the pattern of Christ’s life in his own life, living in love, offering his life to God in a sacrifice of love and immolation of himself. St. Paul says that we should do the same, making of our life a similar sacrifice of love. “And walk in love,” he says, “as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:2). This is the ultimate meaning of life, to make our life a sacrifice of love, immolating ourselves in love with Christ to the Father, full of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of divine love. Thus will we remain in Christ’s love (Jn 15:9).

This is the pattern of the life of the eternal Son within the Blessed Trinity, always offering himself in love, perfect submission, and adoration to the Father, always giving himself to him and thus always infinitely pleasing him. So has he done from all eternity, and so did he do as a man on the cross, thus winning from the Father the gift of the Holy Spirit—always in eternity—and messianically on the cross for all human flesh which believes in him. His sacrifice saves us and teaches us how we should live from now on, imitating in our life the pattern of his cross, of his sacrificial love.

This is what St. Lawrence did, slowly roasted on a grill. Thus did he complete his martyrdom. He sowed generously, giving himself first in his service to the poor, and ultimately in a sacrifice of love on a grill. Truly, “he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Cor 9:6), as St. Paul tells us today.

Each person should sow generously, each one in his own way. St. Lawrence was a deacon. His ministry was to give alms to the poor. The apostles and preachers of the word dedicated themselves to the word of God, to the prayers, and to the preaching of the word (Acts 6:4), as we heard at vigils today, for, as the apostles said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables” (Acts 6:2). Therefore the community chose seven deacons for this service of the poor (Acts 6:3).

Each person, according to his gift and in his own way, should do what St. Lawrence did and distribute the riches of the Church among the poor, with his word, with his writings, with his sermons, in his ministry, in his acts of charity, etc. And it is true that if we distribute generously, we will also reap generously. This is as true of the ministry of the word as it is of the daily distribution of food among the poor. He who shares the word generously, will be enriched by God.

186

Such is the greatness of the ministry of the word generously exercised. It is as great as the physical ministry of giving bread to the poor. “One man gives freely,” says Proverbs, “yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. A liberal man will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered” (Prov 11:24-25). How important it is then to teach a doctrine which is both orthodox and authentically spiritual, that is, a word which gives life, for in this way we will reap generously.

Finally, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:25). St. Lawrence did not love his life in this world. He hated it and lost it (Mk 8:35); he sacrificed it in love, immolating it, and thus he won the crown of martyrdom. This is the way our life as Christians should be, hating (Jn 12:25) and losing (Mk 8:35) our life in this world for the love of Christ, living simply and austerely, renouncing the unnecessary pleasures of this world, sacrificing ourselves in love to God, by fulfilling our mission in the world, our service, our ministry to the poor, as did St. Lawrence. We should be as a seed which dies to give fruit. “Truly, truly, I say to you,” Jesus tells us today, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (Jn 12:24). Only by losing—only by hating—our life in this world for the love of Christ, will we save our life for God, as did St. Lawrence, making himself, like Christ, “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:2). Only in this way will we live happily with the true happiness which God wants to give us.

EVANGELICAL AND VOLUNTARY POVERTY—SAINT CLARE

Memorial of St. Clare, August 11 Phil 3:8-14; Ps 15; Mt 19:27-29

Today we commemorate St. Clare, follower of St. Francis of Assisi. She was eleven years his junior, and at the age of 18 she began to follow him in his way of evangelical and voluntary poverty, although she came from a wealthy family. It was the ideal of evangelical poverty which attracted these two saints and their many followers, although St. Francis for his part came from a middle class family. They did not want to have anything in this world except Christ and his love. They understood that this was the teaching of Jesus, at least for those who were seeking a life of perfection.

The principle of poverty is for every believer, according to the possibilities of each one and following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but St. Francis and St. Clare and their followers wanted to follow this ideal in the most radical and literal way possible. For this reason they made Jesus’ teaching on evangelical poverty the whole project of their lives.

They understood that the key to entering into the Kingdom of God is to leave everything of this world, as Jesus teaches us in the parable of the buried treasure. This buried treasure is the Kingdom of God, and Jesus teaches us that one can only obtain it by first selling everything he has, as did the man in the parable (Mt 13:44). Only in this way could he buy the field and obtain possession of the treasure. The Kingdom of God is the presence of Christ in our life, shining in our heart (2 Cor 4:6). This presence is the pearl

187

of great price. But the only one who is going to obtain it is the one who first sells everything he possesses (Mt 13:45-46), because only in this way can a person be a disciple, as Jesus teaches us when he says, “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:33).

Although this is true for everyone in one way or another, St. Clare, following St. Francis, wanted to live it radically, and experience its results with all the more radicalism. In this way she lost her life for Christ; and in this way she found it in Christ.

On the other hand, he who tries to save his life in a worldly way will lose it for God (Mt 16:25). It is only he who loses his life for Christ, as did St. Clare, who will save it for God (Mt 16:25). Jesus teaches us today that whoever has left father or mother or brothers or sisters or home for the name of Christ will receive a hundred times more in this life (Mt 19:29). In this way one loses his life to save it in God.

St. Clare reserved her heart uniquely for Christ. She did not want to divide the love of her heart with anything else. She wanted a heart completely undivided for the love of Christ. Therefore, as did St. Paul, she considered as loss her former wealth, for she lost everything for the love of Christ, and considered it as rubbish to gain Christ, as St. Paul says today (Phil 3:8). She, therefore, as much as St. Paul, was crucified to the world and its pleasures; and the world was crucified to her (Gal 6:14). So should we live if we are seeking perfection in a life with Jesus Christ living and shining within our heart.

WATCH, FOR YOU DO NOT KNOW THE HOUR OF YOUR LORD’S COMING

19th Sunday of the Year Wis 18:6-9; Ps 32; Heb 11:1-2,8-19; Lk 12:32-48

When reading St. Luke’s gospel, as we do in Year C, which we are in now, we have a special treat—for those who appreciate it—of hearing the eschatological passages of the gospel three times, for St. Luke, groups these sayings about watchfulness and the end of the world into three different chapters, each separated from the others, namely in chapters 12, 17, and 21, whereas St. Matthew puts them all together in chapters 24 and 25 of his gospel, and St. Mark does likewise in chapter 13 of his gospel. So St. Luke’s eschatological material is more spread out, and we, therefore, keep running into it when reading his gospel, instead of hearing it all at once near the end, as in Matthew and Mark; and we a hear a little of it today in the middle of summer, at early harvest time, which reminds us of the final harvest at the end of the world; and we will also hear it again during the later harvest time, at the end of the year. For many, as I said, this will be a special midsummer treat, while for others it may be a special burden. I myself have always liked this aspect of the Gospel, and so I hope I can communicate to you some of my enthusiasm for these eschatological texts.

These texts, which speak about the end of the world and the second coming of Christ, can, and I believe should, jolt us out of our ordinary way of thinking, into a new and much richer way of thinking and living. Strangely enough, this is the way Jesus actually wants his followers to live, namely, in continual preparedness and constant expectation, always looking toward the future, a happy future, happier than the present, but one which

188

will only be happy if we are prepared for it now in the present. Jesus wants us to live in constant expectation of his coming to transform the world into the Kingdom of God; and we ought to be transforming it now by our new lives in Christ, by our new life of faith and hope, and above all by our new life of love of God and neighbor. We are at work, transforming it now, as yeast raising the loaf.

But if this world is to be transformed into something else, into something that it is not yet, into something radically new and better, for which we are now waiting, or of which we are its first fruits, then we should feel like “strangers and exiles” (Heb 11:13; 1 Peter 1:1; 2:11) in this present old world, which is what our second reading today is all about. We live by faith, and we are looking for a better “homeland” (Heb 11:14,16), a heavenly homeland, which we have seen and greeted from afar (Heb 11:13), “for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14). We are these “strangers and exiles,” looking for a better city, a better homeland.

Hence our treasure is in heaven (Lk 12:33), “For where your treasure is,” Jesus says today, “there will your heart be also” (Lk 12:34). We live in spirit in heaven, where our treasure is, where our heart is with our treasure; and we are awaiting our Lord’s return. Don’t say, ‘we have been waiting a long time for this, and so it is not likely that he will be coming in our day.’ This may be the common sense attitude; but it is not the attitude Jesus wants his followers to have. He wants us to go beyond common sense, and to live as a new creation in the midst of this old one, to be a new strain, the new seed of a regenerated humanity, people living in hope and real expectation. Even if the literal fulfillment of our expectation may be far off, its spiritual fulfillment is with us now if we live expectantly, vigilantly, soberly, and in constant expectation and preparation for the coming of the Lord. Yes, this is how Jesus wants us to live so that he may come to us and transform us now, making us the agents of the world’s transformation into the Kingdom of God.

So Jesus tells us today: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom he finds keeping watch when he comes… You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Lk 12:35-37,40).

“But take heed to yourselves,” Jesus says, “lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly, like a snare… But watch at all times, praying that you may have strength…to stand before the Son of man” (Lk 21:34,36). And St. Peter says, “Therefore gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). “The end of all things is at hand,” St. Peter continues; “therefore be sober and vigilant in prayer” (1 Peter 4:7). And St. Paul says, “So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us be vigilant and sober” (1 Thess 5:6).

St. Paul also prays that Jesus Christ “may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the parousia of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thess 3:13). It is for this great day of his parousia, or second coming, with all his saints that we are now preparing, so that our hearts may be pure and blameless when he comes; for otherwise we would not appreciate his coming. If we are vigilant and focused on him, then when he comes, in whatever way he comes, we will rejoice at his presence and be transformed by it, becoming thereby all the more effective agents of the world’s

189

transformation. So, in St. Paul’s words, “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23).

We do not know when the Lord is coming, and I think that is deliberate. It is so that we will always be watching and preparing for him. “Watch therefore, says Jesus, “for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming... Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Mt 24:42,44; Gospel acclamation).

THEY WILL RUN LIKE SPARKS THROUGH THE STUBBLE

Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, August 14 Wis 3:1-9; Ps 115; Jn 15:12-16

Today we commemorate St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan priest who died in a starvation bunker in Auschwitz during the Second World War. He volunteered to take the place of another man and die in his place. We heard at vigils an eyewitness account of how he spent his final days in priestly ministry to his fellow prisoners, and how he died through an injection of poison in his arm, with a radiant face.

He gave his life for others, poured it out in sacrifice for the love of God. He knew the joy of a clean conscience and the peace that comes from offering one’s life in loving service to others. His life was a sacrifice, an offering, an oblation, a holocaust of love. He did what Christ did, Christ “the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep” (Jn 10:11). He imitated Christ, who said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again” (Jn 10:17).

Indeed St. Paul tells us that we should imitate Christ in making our life a sacrifice of love offered to the Father for the benefit of others. St. Paul says, “walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:2). St. John tells us the same, saying, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn 3:16). In other words, like St. Maximilian Kolbe, we should do what Christ did, making our life an offering and a holocaust to God in love, for the good of others. “Beloved,” St. John writes, “if God so loved us, we ought to love one another” (1 Jn 4:11). And Jesus himself tells us today that “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13).

This St. Maximilian did in a most striking way. He showed us that one can live a life of love even in such appalling circumstances, that one can have a clean and happy conscience and offer his life to God as a sacrifice of love for the good of his fellow sufferers even in a starvation bunker in Auschwitz!

“Though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope is full of immortality… In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks though the stubble. They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them for ever” (Wis 3: 7-8). At the judgment, Jesus says, “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43).

190

THE ASCENDED LIFE

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15 Rev 11:19; 12:1-610; Ps 44; 1 Cor 15:20-27; Lk 1:39-56

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary body and soul into heaven. It is a day of rejoicing in her beauty which we contemplate. She is the “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1). “Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?” (Ct 6:10).

She was assumed into heaven, and there she continues to live. She lives an ascended life with Christ. In this she is our example and model, because in Christ we also are risen and even ascended (Col 3:1-2; Eph 1:3; 2:6). But in Mary we see more clearly our vocation to live an ascended life, because she was assumed physically, while we must await the final day for our physical resurrection and assumption. But what we celebrate today in Mary in a physical sense is the same mystery which we are called to live now spiritually in our new and risen life with Christ.

We have died in Christ to our former life and have buried it with him, to also rise with him to walk in the splendor of his resurrection (Col 2:12). This is our new life. We are justified by Christ through our faith, forgiven for our sins, and we have received a new, risen, and even ascended life in Christ (Rom 6:4; Eph 2:6). St. Paul tells us that “even when we were dead through our trespasses [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:5-6).

Thus we should live now ahead of time a new, risen, and ascended life here on earth—and we see all of this symbolized in Mary, assumed today in body and soul into heaven; and we celebrate it in her.

And how can we live an ascended life already ahead of time on earth? We can do so by the grace of Christ, which makes us righteous through our faith in him and which gives us a new way of living in good works (Eph 2:10). It is above all a life of love, love of the Triune God. We live for the love of him, as did the Virgin Mary, and as she continues to do.

The ascended life is also a life of radical obedience to the will of God, as he reveals it to us in our conscience and by the law of God and of the Church. Only if we live as God wants us to live will we be happy and will we live a risen and ascended life, a life transformed and illuminated by the splendor of Christ shining in our heart. Christ divinizes us when we believe in him and live as Mary did, according to his will in everything.

The ascended life is at the same time a life with an undivided heart. The monastic life is set up to help us live this way, with all the love of our heart reserved only for God. All are called to this, as they are able, according to their state in life, but surely this is a specialization of monks which gives to their lives the aspect of an ascended life, a heavenly life here on earth ahead of time. We thus reserve all the love of our heart for God. This is the best way to experience God in his splendor.

191

So did Mary live with her divine lover on her “mountain of myrrh” and “hill of frankincense” (Ct 4:6), passing her nights with him like “bag of myrrh” lying between her breasts (Ct 1:13), on a “bed of flowers” (Ct 1:16), in a house with beams of cedar and rafters of pine (Ct 1:17).

Solitude and silence are also important for everyone who wants to live an ascended life, and for this reason the spouse in the Canticle went to the remotest places to be alone with her divine lover. We see symbolized in this the silence and solitude of the Virgin Mary. Her divine lover calls her to go with him “from Lebanon…from the peak of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards” (Ct 4:8). This is why the scent of her garments “is like the scent of Lebanon” (Ct 4:11).

Such is the ascended life. It is a life lived only for God and for one’s neighbor for the love of God. It is a life which serves only one Lord (Mt 6:24). Such also is the monastic life. It is an ascended life already in this world. It is a life which lives here on earth the mystery of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

HOW TO BE FREED FROM THE AGONY OF GUILT FEELINGS

Thursday, 19th Week of the Year Joshua 3:7-10,11,13-17; Ps 113; Mt 18:21 - 19:1

Today Jesus teaches us the great importance of forgiveness of our brothers for any harm they do to us. The point of the parable Jesus tells us today is that if we want to be forgiven for our sins, we must in turn forgive our brother when he sins against us. If we do not, our own forgiveness will either be held off or revoked, and our sins will continue to be remembered against us.

Guilt is one of the greatest of human sufferings. In fact, I think it is the greatest of all human sufferings. Anything else we can learn to endure well, but who can endure well the broken spirit that comes from guilt feelings? Proverbs says, “a man’s spirit will endure sickness; but a broken spirit who can bear?” (Prov 18:14). Any priest who has heard many confessions knows how people are tormented by guilt for their sins, and how they seek for some way of relief.

This is, in fact, the principle reason for God’s sending us his only Son, as St. John tells us, saying, God “loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn 4:10-11). See how St. John links God’s sending of Jesus to propitiate our sins, on the one hand, with our own love of others, on the other hand, which includes forgiving them when they sin against us, as today’s parable teaches us.

How much we need and long for God’s forgiveness, for relief from our guilt feelings which depress and cripple our spirit; and how grateful we are when we truly feel forgiven and free at last from all guilt feelings. To win this forgiveness for ourselves, and to keep

192

it once we receive it, we must forgive others when they hurt us or do us an injustice. “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged,” said Jesus, “and the measure you give will be the measure you get” (Mt 7:2). And he says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7). And most important of all, Jesus teaches us, “if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mt 6:14-15).

So here Jesus gives us a way to be freed from the suffering of guilt feelings for our faults and sins. It is to forgive those who hurt us and sin against us. If we forgive, we will be forgiven and have a glad heart; and, as Proverbs says, “A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken” (Prov 15:13). Let us then be quick to forgive, and so, in turn, to be forgiven.

PUTTING ASIDE FALSE GODS, AND SERVING THE LORD ALONE

Saturday, 19th Week of the Year Joshua 24:14-29; Ps 15; Mt 19:13-14

Today’s first reading is about the great covenant renewal ceremony which Joshua held at Shechem after the conquest of Canaan, at the end of his life. The whole point of Joshua’s speech is that the Israelites are now to decide once and for all whom they will serve, whether it will be the Lord who brought them out of Egypt with so many signs and wonders, or other foreign gods which they had been serving in Egypt, and which their fathers served in Mesopotamia.

While we are no longer tempted to serve foreign gods, we do put other things in the place of God in our lives, things which divide our hearts and our interests from the undivided devotion God wants from us. He wants us to love him with an undivided heart (1 Cor 7:32-35). This, of course, is especially true of monks, who have left all to follow him alone with an undivided heart, so as to live in all the deeper communion with him. It is therefore very good for us to hear this Scripture today which speaks to our own hearts and way of life as much as it did to the Israelites of Joshua’s day.

What is it that divides your heart from an undivided love of the Lord your God? What competes with the Lord in your heart for your attention? What have you put into the place which only God should occupy in your heart? Whom else are you serving besides the Lord your God? What other treasure are you laying up for yourself here on earth, when Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth” (Mt 6:19) and “No one can serve two masters…you cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6:24)?

193

So what are we to do? “Put away the gods which your fathers served,” says the word of God to us today (Jos 24:14). “…choose this day whom you will serve…” (Jos 24:15), and serve him alone. All that we do should be directed to God and his service. Our focus should not be divided. Our heart should not be divided, but reserved for the Lord alone if we wish to live deeply in union with him and experience his love and light in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6). This is why monks live in simplicity an austerity, all the more to be focused on the Lord alone and live in his light and love. “Then put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel” (Jos 24:23), says the word to us today. May our response to this word be that of the Israelites: “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey” (Jos 24:24).

PEACE IN THE MIDST OF PERSECUTION

20th Sunday of the Year Jer 38:4-6,8-10; Ps 39; Heb 13:1-4; Lk 12:49-53

Today we see that Christians do not always have a life without conflicts, and that indeed at times they have many of them. We should not think that Christ came to bring us this kind of exterior peace. Yes, we do hope and work for it, but in the meantime we must often live with many conflicts. In fact, it is Christ himself who causes many of these conflicts. That is what Jesus teaches us today, saying, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three…” (Lk 12:51-52). This will be so because the word of faith and of the Gospel which Christ’s followers proclaim will challenge people, calling them to conversion, to change, and to live uniquely for God and the service of their neighbor in love and self-gift. This word of Christ calls us to live like him. It calls us to a life of sacrifice, a life in which we offer ourselves to the Father with the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Now how many people do you think want to hear such a message? How many want to sacrifice themselves in love, renouncing the delights of this world, and live only for God and his love and his joy, and thus grow in his love? Certainly not everyone wants to hear this, nor does everyone want to change or live this way. Not everyone wants to be challenged by the word of God. Not everyone wants to hear the truth.

And what will these people do who do not want to hear these Gospel challenges? They will begin by hating the preachers and prophets, they will reject their preaching and their message, and will attack those who preach the Gospel. They will try to defame them, gossiping about them, and even directly insulting them. Yes, a preacher has to put up with all this. This is his cross which will sanctify him. In this way a faithful preacher will lose his life for Christ, in order to find it in God (Mk 8:35).

What happened to Jeremiah in the first reading is a good example of all of this. Jeremiah spoke and preached the truth which many did not want to hear; and the princes, on hearing it, said to the king, “Let this man be put to death, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them” (Jer 38:4). And so they lowered Jeremiah into a cistern, “and

194

Jeremiah sank in the mire” (Jer 38:6). But when the king heard about this, he rescued Jeremiah from the cistern and freed him from the hands of his persecutors.

Such is the life of faith. If we are looking for a life without enemies who attack us, we will not find it as faithful followers of Christ—look at the life of St. Paul, or at the life of Jesus himself. Christ did not come to the earth to bring us this kind of external peace. At least not right away. But he did come to bring us an interior peace which can coexist with these exterior conflicts.

In fact, it is the very proclamation of the Gospel itself which causes many of these conflicts. Those who do not want to be challenged by the Gospel attack those who proclaim it, as they did Jeremiah. And this can go on to the point that everyone hates us, as Jesus said, “and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10:22).

And what kind of peace did Jesus Christ give us? He told us, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27). His peace is a new and interior peace which rejoices the heart in the Holy Spirit, and which can coexist with these conflicts which we have in the world for living according to God’s will and for preaching the Gospel with its challenges. We will have our peace in him, not in the world. “I have said this to you,” Jesus says, “that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).

The world hates faithful Christians and saints because they are not of the world; yet the saints live in peace in the midst of those who hate them. So it was with Jesus Christ himself, and so it shall be with us if we faithfully follow him. “If the world hates you,” Jesus said, “know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Jn 15:18-19).

But this hatred of the world is a blessing for the saints, and so it is experienced by them. “Blessed are you,” Jesus said, “when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets” (Lk 6:22-23). And St. John sums it all up, saying, “Do not wonder brethren, that the world hates you” (1 Jn 3:13). St. Paul says the same, saying, “Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12). But in Christ we have peace in the midst of all this.

THE TROUBADOUR OF GOD—ST. BERNARD Solemnity of St. Bernard, August 20

Sir 15:1-6; Ps 118; Phil 3:7-14; Jn 17:20-26 Today we celebrate the Solemnity of our father St. Bernard, well known for his beautiful sermons on the Song of Songs and for his great love of God, about which he wrote much. He entered the New Monastery of Citeaux in 1113 with thirty companions at the age of 22, and three years later, at the age of 25, was sent as the founder and first abbot of

195

Clairvaux, where he spent the rest of his life, living a monastic life, making numerous new foundations, and fulfilling various missions for the Church.

St. Bernard was a great monk and an inspiration for all who want to live a monastic life. He left everything to live for God alone and to give his life serving the Lord and his brothers in the monastic life, which is an austere life of prayer, spiritual reading, fasting, work, obedience, and community, lived for the love of God in the desert, far from the worldliness of the world. It is a life of love, spent in silence, singing the praises of the Lord, solemnly celebrating the divine office in choir, and lived within an enclosure. It is a life which tries to serve the Lord with an undivided heart, reserved for the Lord alone (1 Cor 7:32-35). It is a life which leaves the pleasures of this world and of this old creation for those of the Kingdom of God and of the new creation. Thus the monastic life is a life of radical obedience to the will of God, a life which lives in the glory of God.

Christ tells us in today’s Gospel that he gave us his glory, in which he lives with his Father (Jn 17:22), so that we might contemplate it (Jn 17:24) and be filled with its splendor. Christ wants us to participate in his own glory, and to live and remain in the splendor in which he lives with his Father (Jn 15:9). For this reason he came into the world, to enable us to participate in his own splendor and glory. St. Bernard wrote much about the glory of the Father and the Son, which is the Holy Spirit, and lived in their Trinitarian love.

At vigils we heard a reading from the Song of Songs. These are songs of love, which have always been interpreted as songs of the love of God for his people, and of the love of God for the human soul, and, at times, also as the love of God for the Virgin Mary. Today, on the Solemnity of St. Bernard, we can read the Song of Songs as a song about the divine love in which St. Bernard lived, and in which he invites us to live with him.

The Song of Songs speaks of a “mountain of myrrh” and a “hill of frankincense” (Ct 4:6) to which the divine lover goes to encounter a human soul and pass the night with her in love amidst the aromatic trees, whose aromas are wafted abroad by the gentle breezes. The Lord says, “Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will hie me to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense” (Ct 4:6). There he reveals to us his love, which is the same love in which he lives with his Father in the Holy Spirit, as Jesus teaches us, saying, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; remain in my love” (Jn 15:9). Here then, on this “mountain of myrrh” and “hill of frankincense” we have a place of encounter with the Lord; and when he so wishes, he can fill us with the sweetness of the Holy Spirit.

What is this “mountain of myrrh” and “hill of frankincense” where we pass the night with the Lord amidst the aromatic trees? Is it not our room, where we pray to the Father in secret, and where he reveals himself to us (Mt 6:6)? Is it not our cell? And our room is also built of old and aromatic wood. “The beams of our house are cedar,” says the Canticle, and “our rafters are pine” (Ct 1:17). Although it is only a poor and solitary cell, built on a “mountain of myrrh” and a “hill of frankincense,” the presence of the Lord of the universe in it makes it, to the eyes of love, seem like a stately mansion of cedar and cypress.

And the bed of our prayer and encounter is made of wood so green that it blossoms with flowers! “…our bed is of flowers,” says the Canticle (Ct 1:16). So it is when the Lord visits us with his love, for it leaves a fragrance in our heart like that of flowers.

196

The Canticle also speaks of the desert, a place well loved by monks as a privileged place of encounter with the Lord in contemplation, far from the noise, distraction, and temptation of the world. There in the desert, we are a column of smoke from aromatic trees, perfumed from our loving encounter in silence and solitude with the Lord. “Who is this,” asks the Canticle, “coming up from the desert, like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?” (Ct 3:6). It is us, when we come up from the divine encounter in the desert, all perfumed with his aromas.

St. Bernard is the great troubadour of these experiences and images of the Canticle.

THE NEW JERUSALEM, CITY OF GOLD AND LIGHT

Feast of St. Bartholomew, August 24 Rev 21:9-14; Ps 144; Jn 1:45-51

Today we celebrate the feast of the apostle St. Bartholomew, who is also called Nathanael. In the first reading we hear the beautiful description of the new Jerusalem, city of gold and light, object of all our hope, a city of light and splendor in which we can live in spirit even now, while we continue to walk toward it each day, purifying ourselves ever more to walk in its glory. This city has “twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev 21:14). The name of St. Bartholomew is written on one of them.

How beautiful is this city of our hope, the goal of our journey and of our life! But it is a city in which the saints, who are now alive in this old world, live already ahead of time, in spirit, because it is a city where the splendor of God and of the Lamb shines. They are its only light (Rev 21:23; 22:5).

In this holy dwelling of God among men, the Lord is its splendor and everlasting light, and the saints are illumined by this light and made themselves resplendent by the splendor of the Lamb. The whole city shines like a crystal filled with the light of the sun because it has “the glory of God. And its radiance is like a most rare jewel, like jasper, diaphanous as crystal” (Rev 21:11).

God illumines it, together with all those who dwell in it. The Lord is the illumination of all the dwellers of this holy city of light. Therefore “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev 21:23). The glory of God kindles the hearts of the saints who live in it, providing them with interior illumination. “And night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light” (Rev 22:5).

Isaiah prophesied about this city filled with the glory of God, in which the saints live even now ahead of time. He said, “The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory” (Is 60:19). The saints do not depend on the sun for their interior illumination. This comes from the Lord, because they walk in his splendor, and he is their illumination. They have another sun which shines within them. It is the Lord, in whose light they spend their lives in obedience and love.

197

And this light of the Lord is better than the sun itself, as Isaiah prophesied, saying, “Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light” (Is 60:20). Thus God illumines the hearts of the saints with his presence and love, with his protection and guidance, with his grace and salvation. He is their life, their happiness, and their light. And they walk in his splendor.

The apostles followed the Lord. St. Bartholomew was one of them. They lived in this splendor, and announced the Gospel of salvation in Christ unto the ends of the earth. The psalmist prophesied about this, saying, “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Ps 97:3). The Gospel, which the apostles preached, carried this light of Christ unto the ends of the earth, so that he might shine in the hearts of all who believe in him (2 Cor 4:6).

By their faith, they are justified, forgiven, and made just and new. They die to their former life in the death of Christ, to rise with him to a new life in the Spirit, to walk with him in the “newness of life” (Rom 6:4) and in the “newness of the Spirit” (Rom 7:6).

In obeying the Lord, in living only for him in everything (Mt 6:24), they live in his light, they live already ahead of time in the new Jerusalem, in this city, diaphanous as a crystal (Rev 21:11), where all is made new (Rev 21:5), where the city itself shines, because “the city was pure gold, clear as glass” (Rev 21:18) “and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass” (Rev 21:21).

The saints live near “the clear river of the water of life, resplendent as crystal, which flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev 22:1). And this river of the water of life renews and rejuvenates them, being within them as “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14).

And in this city, God is always near, and for this reason there is no temple in it, “for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev 21:22). All the nations will walk by its light (Rev 21:24) because in it is the light which illumines all. “…come, let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Is 2:5).

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH

Saturday, 20th Week of the Year Ruth 2:1-3,8-11; 4:13-17; Ps 127; Mt 23:1-12

Today Jesus teaches us something very important for our Christian life, that is, the evil of hypocrisy. He says, “practice and observe whatever they [the scribes and Pharisees] tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice” (Mt 23:3). We should do what they say, says Jesus, because “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat” (Mt 23:2). They have authority to teach, and the people should follow their teachings. But the problem is that they themselves destroy the whole thing by not living according to what they teach others. They do not practice what they preach.

How important it is then for us also to avoid hypocrisy today, especially among professional religious, that is, among monks, religious, and priests! We are a model placed before the people. If we are priests, we preach, and we have the authority to do

198

so, but, truly, our best sermon will be our life. Someone who radically lives what he preaches to others will have a great effect for the good on his community.

He who preaches that we should live only for God and mortify ourselves in everything else—if he also lives this way, he will make a big impression for the good in his community and environment. He will change his community for the better, and help its members to be better Christians, better religious, better monks. But if our sermons are only words without actions, they will be weak and have little effect.

A priest who is a monk should live the principles which he preaches to others, he should live a life of sacrifice, simplicity, austerity, and renunciation of the delights of this old world, for those of the new creation and of the Kingdom of God. He should follow the hard and straight way of life, of the few, not the wide way of the many which leads to destruction (Mt 7:13-14). He should leave all to obtain the buried treasure and the pearl of great price (Mt 13:44-46). He should serve but one Lord (Mt 6:24), and have but one treasure (Mt 6:19-21).

A monk should live an austere life of prayer and fasting, of silence and spiritual reading, working quietly and recollectedly in the desert, in his enclosure, far from the world. Only thus will he see the fruits of his life; and in this way help many. And if he also preaches, his sermons will have power for the good of many.

St. Paul says, “you then who teach others, will you not teach yourself?” (Rom 2:21). And the prophet Malachi says, “the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord” (Mal 2:7-8). We should avoid this, this hypocrisy.

Rather we should preach true doctrine, true spirituality, and live and practice it first ourselves. Only thus will we fulfill our vocation and help others. We should preach the truth, and practice what we preach.

A GLIMPSE OF THE GLORY OF GOD

21st Sunday of the Year Is 66:18-21; Ps 116; Heb 12:5-7,11-13; Lk 13:22-30

Today’s message of is one of hope. We should not become discouraged by the Lord’s discipline, as the epistle to the Hebrews teaches us today. When we sin or offend God in some way, he punishes and disciplines us for our own good, just as our parents disciplined us. Hebrews says today, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Heb 12:5; Prov 3:11). God punishes us in our conscience for our faults, making us feel bad and guilty when we do something which does not please him. Thus does he teach us with greater precision and clarity the way of perfection. We should not become discouraged then when we experience the discipline and punishment of the Lord. We should rather repent and wait until we feel forgiven. Thus does God teach us, just as a father teaches his children.

199

We are now on our way to something better. We are on our way to glory, a glory which is already dawning. Every day we should make further progress in this march to glory. And this future glory is, furthermore, something which we experience now. We experience its first glimmers, so that we might walk in its splendor, making further progress each day.

But if we want to see this glory, we have to enter by the narrow gate, as Jesus teaches us today, because many will try to enter into this glory, but will not be able to. It is only the narrow gate which will allow us to live in this glory now and walk towards its full splendor which will manifest itself in the future. So does Jesus teach us today, saying, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Lk 13:24). If we do not enter by the narrow gate now, on the last day, the day of judgment, the Lord will say to us, “I tell you, I do not know where you come from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!” (Lk 13:27).

On this great day of happiness for the just, we will see “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God…And they will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God” (Lk 13:28-29). It is this happiness which the righteous who have chosen the narrow way, already begin to experience now in the joy of their heart. They live now in the splendor of this eschatological banquet, which rejoices their heart, because they have chosen the difficult way of life rather than the broad way of the many, which leads to perdition.

But truly there are few who walk along this straight way, and there are few who find it. The majority always prefers the broad way of the delights of this old world to those of the new creation and of the Kingdom of God. For that reason they do not glimpse the splendor of the eschatological banquet which the few who walk the narrow way of life have already begun to see.

The few who choose the narrow gate of life live already in this interior splendor, and head toward its future fulfillment. But because in this old world they are few, they are normally the least in this world. They are the sons of the new world, the sons of the new creation, which is now dawning; but here below they are the least and are despised, as Jesus teaches us today, saying, “And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Lk 13:30).

The “last who will be first” are the few who walk along the narrow way of life now. They will be the first in the Kingdom of God, although they are the least in this world. And the “first who will be last” are those who now walk by the wide way of the many, the way of the pleasures of this world. They will be the last as far as the Kingdom of God is concerned, or—more clearly stated—they will not enter the Kingdom of God. Thus we have to be like children in this world, walking along the narrow way of life, because “Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:4).

“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt 7:13-14). If we want to be among these few, we have to live a sacrificial life, a life which is an offering and an oblation offered to God with a sweet fragrance (Eph 5:2), a holocaust of love, offered with Christ to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

200

Only in this way, by taking the narrow way of life, the way of the few, will we be among those who “will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 8:11). Only thus will we be among “the righteous [who] will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43). Only in this way will we see, even now, the glory of God shining in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6). This glory is now dawning for those few who are taking the straight and narrow way of life. Let us walk then in this light; let us glimpse this glory.

BE PREPARED FOR THE PAROUSIA OF THE SON OF MAN

Thursday, 21st Week of the Year 1 Thess 3:7-13; Ps 89; Mt 24:42-51

Now is the time for watchfulness. We are now entering the final part of the liturgical year, the time in which we prepare ourselves for the Parousia or second coming of the Lord, the day on which “The Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each one according to his works” (Mt 16:27).

If initial justification is a free gift of God, given to those who believe in his Son and in the efficacy of his propitiatory sacrifice on the cross, our sanctification and final salvation depend very much upon our works, on how we live our life of faith (Mt 16:27). That is, we should prepare ourselves now for his coming.

Since we do not know when the Son of Man will come, we have to be watchful at all times, for he will come “as a thief in the night” (1 Thess 5:2), when we least expect it, when everyone thinks that they now have “peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them” (1 Thess 5:3). If we knew when the Son of Man was coming, we could be watchful at that time. But since we do not know the hour of his coming, we have to be watchful at all times.

Both readings treat of this today. Today’s Gospel tells us, “Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming… Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Mt 24:42,44).

And who is this Son of Man? It is Jesus Christ himself at his second and glorious coming. What other figure could it be? He is the only-begotten Son of the Father, the judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). He will be, at his Parousia, the fulfillment of the figure of the Son of Man, about whom Daniel prophesied, saying, “behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man… And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom…his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away” (Dan 7:13-14).

St. Paul tells us today that we should be prepared now for the Parousia of the Lord. That is, you should sanctify yourselves now by living a vigilant life, not a negligent one, a life which has a pure and undivided heart, as St. John Cassian teaches us, and with compunction you should confess your faults to be and remain purified by the grace of Jesus Christ, “so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the parousia of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thess 3:l3).

201

Brethren, “Establish your hearts, for the parousia of the Lord is near” (James 5:8). Then the Son of Man will come to gather out of his kingdom the weeds, and tie them into bundles and cast them into the furnace of fire (Mt 13:41-42). The day of the final trumpet blast is now approaching, when the Son of Man “will send out his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mt 24:31), and “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the blast of the trumpet of God” (1 Thess 4:16). Be watchful, therefore, for the Parousia of the Son of Man will be as in the days of Noah (Mt 24:37). When they least expected it, “the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Mt 24:39).

BE HOLY IN YOUR WHOLE WAY OF LIVING

Friday, 21st Week of the Year 1 Thess 4:1-8; Ps 96; Mt 25:1-13

The Christian life, the life of faith, can be long, and we can fall asleep as we await the return of the Son of Man in his glory, as did the ten virgins in today’s Gospel. Yet even so, we should be always prepared for his Parousia, always living holy lives, with our hearts focused only on him, in prayer, reading, and work; in silence and fasting; far from the world in its worldliness, awaiting him, while we work quietly, preparing his way. St. Paul tells us today that “the will of God is your sanctification” (1 Thess 4:3), “For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness” (1 Thess 4:7).

Today’s Gospel is the parable of the ten virgins who awaited the bridegroom, to enter into the marriage feast with him. But when he was delayed, they fell asleep as they awaited him. Five of them were wise and prepared, having brought with them flasks of oil. “But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’” (Mt 25:6). And “the bridegroom came, and those who were prepared went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut” (Mt 25:10).

But when the foolish virgins arrived back from the market, where they had gone to buy oil, for they had not brought flasks of oil with them, they found the door shut; and although they cried out, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us!” (Mt 25:11), the door remained shut; and the bridegroom said to them, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you” (Mt 25:12). At the end of the parable, Jesus gives us its moral, saying, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Mt 25:13).

This is a parable about the Christian life. If we are not prepared now, we will be like the foolish virgins who did not fulfill the will of God in its details and various practices in their daily life. They did not do as they should have done, they did not live as they should have lived in sanctity and vigilance—this is the meaning of their not bringing flasks of oil with them. We should rather live a holy life now, and one well prepared, a life quite different from that of the foolish who live only according to the world’s criteria, and for whom the door to the marriage feast will be shut. We should have our loins girded and our lamps burning now, and “be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks” (Lk 12:35-36).

202

Are we prepared now? Have we brought flasks of oil with us? Are we living a vigilant life, or a negligent one, a holy and pure life, or a worldly one, according to the desires and criteria of this world? Now is the time to convert and change our way of living, so that it be only for God in everything. If we have failed in something, now is the time to repent and rectify it, so that we may not be like the foolish virgins, but rather like the wise ones. Therefore “watch, keep vigil, and pray,” says Jesus; “because you do not know when the time will come” (Mk 13:33). We should be living a life of constant preparation and eager expectation for the glorious return of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven with all his saints (1 Thess 3:13). And “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly,” as St. Paul prays; “and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23). “…as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct” (1 Pd 1:15).

EACH ONE WILL BE REPAID ACCORDING TO HIS WORKS

Saturday, 21st Week of the Year 1 Thess 4:9-11; Ps 97; Mt 25:14-30

We continue reading Jesus’ eschatological discourse, and today we hear the parable of the talents. This man who entrusted his goods to his servants, and “after a long time” returned to “settle accounts with them,” repaying each one for his work in using well the talents given to him is a figure of Christ going to his Father after having given us various gifts and talents to use until the day of his return, which is his Parousia, when “he will repay each one according to his works” (Mt 16:27), as we see in today’s parable.

St. Paul teaches us that we are justified by faith, and not by our works (Rom 3:28; Gal 2:16). Truly, we are made just and forgiven for all our sins by the merits of the sacrificial and propitiatory death of Jesus Christ on the cross, when we believe in him and invoke the saving merits of his death.

But St. Paul also teaches us that, having died to sin and risen to a new life in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom 6:6), we should consider ourselves now “dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11). And to maintain this new condition and continue to grow in it, we have to make a real effort and actively cooperate with the grace of Christ. Therefore St. Paul tells us: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness” (Rom 6:12-13).

Thus St. Paul follows the teaching of Jesus in today’s parable, that is, that we must use the talents which God has given us. And at the end of the world each one will be repaid “according to his works” (Mt 16:27), as Jesus says, saying, “the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each one according to his works” (Mt 16:27).

Each one of us has received his own special gift, his charism, his talent, which he should use well and with vigilance until the Parousia of the Lord. Then, on that final day, Christ will “settle accounts” with us and repay each one according to his works, as Jesus teaches us today in the parable of the talents. He who received five talents, and trading

203

with them, made five talents more was congratulated by his master when he returned, and was invited to enter into the joy of his master (Mt 25:21). But the one who did not use his talent to trade with to make more was cast “into the outer darkness” where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 25:30).

Concerning these talents or gifts, which each of us has received, St. Paul says that we should use them to promote the Kingdom of God. He says, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us; let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness” (Rom 12:6-8).

We have been given various gifts and talents which we should use with diligence and vigilance to promote the Kingdom of God in this world until the Parousia of the Son of Man in his glory, when he will “repay each one according to his works” (Mt 16:27). May we use our talents well for the Kingdom of God!

THE HUMBLE WILL LIVE IN THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM

22nd Sunday of the Year Eclo 3:19-21,30-31; Ps 67; Heb 12:18-19,22-24; Lk 14:1,7-14

Today’s readings speak to us about humility and its heavenly reward. Jesus tells us today that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 14:11). To illustrate this Jesus gives the example of a banquet. If we take the last place, then he who invited us may come and invite us to go up higher. “…then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you” (Lk 14:10). This is only an example to illustrate a point, that is, that humility will be rewarded. It is not that we should seek human glory by sitting in the last place; but rather that God will reward us for our humility. God is the one who will exalt us. We should not seek a human reward.

This is why we should not give banquets or suppers for our friends, brethren, or relatives (Lk 14:12), who can repay us by returning the favor. Rather, if we have to give banquets or suppers for others, we should give them only for the poor, the maimed, and the lame, who cannot humanly repay us (Lk 14:13). Only thus will we be repaid by God. Jesus says that if you act in this way, “you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Lk 14:14).

Giving banquets for our friends and relatives is something worldly, and we will be repaid in a worldly way by being invited in turn by those whom we invite; but he who invites the poor and prepares good things for them will not be repaid in a worldly way by other banquets, but “will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Lk 14:14).

Which kind of repayment would you prefer? And remember that you must choose. The heavenly recompense, moreover, begins now, in that we begin already to live with God in his love and in the joy which he gives those who do his will, when we empty ourselves of the delights of this world, when we pour out our life for the needy who cannot repay us.

204

The principle involved here does not only concern banquets, but applies to all kinds of service which God inspires and directs us to give to the poor, including writing sermons or books for them, or doing whatever kind of ministry or service he gives us. If we do our work to be praised and honored here on the earth, seeking human and worldly recompense, we will lose the only recompense which has true value, that which God gives.

Thus we should serve the poor and the needy honestly, making ourselves small in this world, as did the prophets. They preached the truth. Jeremiah, for example, preached the truth which the people needed to hear, and his repayment was that he was put in jail and hated, because the princes did not want to hear the message which God gave him for them. Jeremiah did not seek human honor and human repayment for his prophesying, which was the work which God gave him to do. He rather humbled himself and preached the truth. His recompense was with God. We should do the same.

In this matter we also have the example of Jesus and St. Paul. What was their recompense for their preaching? They crucified Jesus, and decapitated St. Paul, after many beatings, expulsions, and imprisonments. Their recompense was with God. In this world they humbled themselves. But for their fidelity in doing God’s will, they were truly repaid with a true reward.

Our reward for living in this way is that we approach the heavenly Jerusalem. Therefore “The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord” (Sir 3:18), as the first reading tells us. Let us, therefore, make our life a life of humble service, “even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). Each one has his service, his ministry. Let him exercise it humbly for the needy; and not for his own worldly glory.

Only in this way will we see, even now, our heavenly recompense, because “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in festal array” (Heb 12:22). We note that Hebrews tells us that “you have come to Mount Zion” (Heb 12:22). It is something in the past and present, not only in the future. We have already come to the heavenly Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem, the city of gold and light, in which the saints live. We therefore have an anticipation of our future recompense in the heavenly peace and light of Christ in which the Christian can live even now. This reward is reserved for those who humble themselves in this world to serve those who cannot repay them in a worldly way. Their recompense is to live in the city of gold and light, in the heavenly Jerusalem, by way of anticipation now, and definitively in the future.

HOW TO REMAIN IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST

Thursday, 22nd Week of the Year Col 1:9-14; Ps 97; Lk 5:1-11

Today we see clearly what Jesus Christ has done for us, and what we must do to retain and grow more in what he has given us. What then has he done for us? St. Paul tells us

205

today, saying, he “has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:12). He wants us to walk in this light. This is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise when he told us, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). Jesus Christ was sent by his Father from the regions of light, to introduce us into this same light, the light of the spirit; and today St. Paul tells us that he has fulfilled this promise, for now we participate “in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:12).

What is this light like? It is the light of our spirit, in which we can walk when we know and obey God’s will. St. Paul also explains this today when he says that he prays for us, asking that you “may be filled with the knowledge of his will” (Col 1:9), “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him” (Col 1:10). By living this way, always doing God’s will and always pleasing him in everything, we can remain in this light.

This light is a gift of God, a work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, rejoicing us in God when we believe in his Son and receive his redemption and life, and the forgiveness of our sins (Col 1:14). When we please God, doing his will, we are happy, we have peace in our heart, and we walk, as he wishes, in his light (Jn 8:12). Jesus also tells us this, saying, “remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love” (Jn 15:9-10).

This is the great secret of human happiness. By living in this way, we can walk in and remain in his light, participating “in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:12), as he wishes us to. Thus “He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:13), as St. Paul tells us today.

Today’s Gospel then shows us what St. Peter did to remain in this light. St. Luke tells us that “when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:11). Peter will later ask Jesus, saying, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?” (Mt 19:27). Answering him, Jesus tells him that he “will receive a hundredfold” (Mt 19:29). This hundredfold includes remaining in his light. Why? Because in leaving everything for Christ, Peter is doing God’s will perfectly, living only for him, renouncing the pleasures of this world, and thus purifying his heart so that Christ can shine in it and indwell it (2 Cor 4:6). Thus will Peter remain in the light; and so will we.

WHY DO CHRISTIANS FAST?

Friday, 22nd Week of the Year Col 1:15-20; Ps 99; Lk 5:33-39

Today the Pharisees grumble about the disciples of Jesus because they do not fast like themselves. In response, Jesus says to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days” (Lk 5:34-35).

Jesus calls himself the bridegroom, as he also does in the parable of the ten virgins, when “at midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him’”

206

(Mt 25:6). The Messiah is the bridegroom of his people (Jn 3:29). St. Paul says, “I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure virgin to her one husband” (2 Cor 11:2).

The time in which Jesus Christ lived here on this earth was the time of his wedding with his people. And during a wedding, who fasts? A wedding is not an appropriate time for fasting. If one wants to always fast, he does not attend weddings. But there is also an appropriate time for fasting, and it is after the wedding, as Jesus teaches us today, saying, “The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days” (Lk 5:35).

Those times, in which our bridegroom has been taken away from us, are our times now. We live now then in the times in which fasting is appropriate; and from the earliest days of the Church, Christians have fasted. When Saul (who would become St. Paul) was chosen and sent out on his first missionary journey, the community was “worshiping the Lord and fasting” (Acts 13:2), and in every church where he appointed elders, “with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord” (Acts 14:23).

Why do Christians fast? They fast because their bridegroom is absent. They fast because they live now only for him, and no more for the pleasures of this world. For this same reason monks have traditionally fasted and practice other austerities as well: They live in enclosures, far from the world; they dress in habits, having renounced secular dress; they live in much silence; they are celibate; and they have renounced the entertainments of the world. Why do they live like this? Is it not because they want to live only for God? They do not want to divide their hearts with other loves, with other relationships, or with other unnecessary pleasures of this world. They are like a wife, separated for a time from her husband, who awaits him anxiously, reserving herself for him alone in many ways.

Christ is our bridegroom. We are called to leave all for him, as did the first disciples. St. Luke told us yesterday that “when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:11), and next Sunday we will hear these words of Jesus, “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:33). Fasting is a way of doing this. By fasting we renounce the pleasures of this world to belong more integrally to Christ alone with an undivided heart.

BEAUTIFIED BY THE LOVE OF GOD

Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8 Micah 5:1-4; Ps 12; Mt 1:1-6,18-23

We honor the Blessed Virgin Mary today on this the feast of her birth. Traditionally, the divine office has drawn on the Song of Songs on feasts of the Virgin Mary for its antiphons, responsories, and readings, because the Song of Songs are poems of love which have always been interpreted as symbols of the love between God and his people, or between God and the soul. And there is no one who has had a more amorous relationship with God than the Blessed Virgin Mary, who carried the Son of the eternal Father and conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. She is, therefore, the ultimate

207

fulfillment of the bride of the Song of Songs, and in her we see the best example of the loving relationship which we also desire to have with God.

She is “the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys” (Ct 2:1), an exceedingly beautiful woman, beautified in the extreme by her loving relationship with God. She lives in great solitude and in a silence full of divine love. She lives in a luminous spell of the love of God. It is as though she lived in the most remote regions, far from the worldliness of the world—among the “dens of lions” or on “the mountains of leopards” (Ct 4:8); on “the peak of Amana” or on the “peak of Senir and Hermon” (Ct 4:8).

What place is there more beautiful, more solitary, more remote than these? And what place is there more full of God? Here she occupies herself with the spouse of her soul in quiet, peaceful work, living a tranquil and serene life, in the shadow of her beloved, enjoying his beauty and splendor. Here no one disturbs her or breaks the spell in which she lives, with God shining in her heart (2 Cor 4:6). Here she sleeps on a “bed of flowers” (Ct 1:16), with her beloved near her heart as a “bag of myrrh, that lies between my breasts,” as she says (Ct 1:13).

God wants us to live in intimacy with him like this; and so lived the Virgin Mary with God, the beloved of her heart, and with her divine Son in her own home as though she were living in a house built on a “mountain of myrrh” and “a hill of frankincense” (Ct 4:6), as though it had beams of cedar and rafters of pine (Ct 1:17). Truly, she says, “my beloved is mine, and I am his” (Ct 2:16). And here she eats apples and raisons, because she is “sick with love” (Ct 2:5), for this light and sweet food harmonizes with her enamored state.

She was beautified by the love of her beloved, and he notes this beauty, saying, “Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely” (Ct 4:3). And, he continues, “How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O daughter of the prince!” (Ct 7:1).

And because she eats apples (Ct 2:5) and also because her beloved is “like an apple tree among the trees of the wood” (Ct 2:3), he notes that “the scent of your breath (is) like apples” (Ct 7:8).

He also comments on the fragrance of her clothing, saying, “the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon” (Ct 4:11). Doubtless this last quality comes from her frequent visits to the pine forests of Lebanon where she lived among the cedars, sleeping in a house of cedar and cypress (Ct 1:17), on a “mountain of myrrh” and on a “hill of frankincense” (Ct 4:6), amid the aromatic trees, whose aromas were wafted abroad by the gentle breezes.

She has been beautified by God, to the point that he says of her, “Your lips distil nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue” (Ct 4:11). She is “like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon” (Ct 1:5), dark, but beautiful and desirable.

She has been placed in the innermost chambers of the king (Ct 1:4). Therefore we rejoice with her (Ct 1:4) on this her feast day. We also want to be with her in these intimate chambers of the king, enjoying his love with her.

She was free from all sin, and therefore had a perfectly clean conscience. And nothing rejoices the heart more than a clean conscience. She furthermore gave birth to him who would save us from our sins, so that we too might be transformed and divinized as she was by the love of God.

208

God wants to beautify us too and fill us with his fruits, as he did the Virgin Mary. Those who, like Mary, strive to be obedient to his will in all things and who live for him alone will share with her in this great love.

THE SECRET OF OUR NEW LIFE IN GOD

23rd Sunday of the Year Wis 9:13-19; Ps 89; Philemon 9-10,12-17; Lk 14:25-33

Today Jesus explains to us the secret of the new life which he came to give us, a life full of the love of the Father, and which illumines the world. The secret is to leave all for him, and to live only for him. Only by living in this way will we be detached and liberated to enjoy the true freedom of the sons of God (Rom 8:21). The reason is that this is the way God has made us. He made us for this, to live completely for him, making whatever sacrifice is necessary to fulfill his will. At times, doing his will is not easy. But if we make the effort to fulfill it and if we sacrifice all that is necessary to live faithfully according to his will, we will experience a great freedom, because doing this, we will be living according to his plan for us.

And what does Jesus say today about this great secret, known by few, and followed and lived by fewer still? Today Jesus speaks to everyone, not only to the twelve, but rather, as St. Luke tells us, to “great multitudes” (Lk 14:25): “Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, ‘If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple… So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple’” (Lk 14:25-27,33).

The first thing that we note here is that these words are addressed to “great multitudes” (Lk 14:25), that is, to everyone, not just to a special group of apostles who have literally left everything to follow him (Lk 5:11). Concerning the apostles, St. Luke tells us that, “when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:11). And Levi, upon hearing the call of Jesus, “left everything, and rose and followed him” (Lk 5:28). But today Jesus is speaking to everyone, to “great multitudes” (Lk 14:25), calling them to leave everything to follow him.

How can we understand this? I believe that the solution is that Jesus, speaking in such a radical way to the “great multitudes” (Lk 14:25), is teaching general and radical principles of the new life in him which he came to bring us, principles which are applicable to everyone, but each one has to discern how to live them according to his own specific vocation. All have to live according to these principles if they want to be disciples of Christ and live this new life which he gave us, but not everyone will live them in the same way. It is to be taken for granted that it is better to live them in the most radical and literal manner possible; and this is what he wants and teaches here.

A priest, a religious, or a monk, for example, can and does renounce even marriage itself and the having of children, and thus can be freer of family ties, to have a heart more radically and literally undivided and reserved uniquely for Christ, and he can more easily live a very simple life-style, eat plain, austere food, have few possessions, travel little, or

209

not at all, and thus concentrate his life physically only on Christ, and thus be a true disciple. He can make his whole life a cross, a sacrifice of love, in which he offers himself to God with Christ in the joy of the Holy Spirit. And the more we give, the more we receive. Losing our life like this for God, we find our life anew and more abundantly in him (Mk 8:35). Truly, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:25). This is the joyful life in the Spirit which crucifies itself to the world, and the world to it (Gal 6:14).

This is how Jesus teaches the “great multitudes” (Lk 14:25) today, presenting his teaching in its most radical form. Then each one can measure himself and figure out how he in particular can live in this new way and by these new principles; and there is more than one way to live them. But the solution should not be an easy one, but rather a new and radical following, a truly sacrificial and ascetic life, and the more radically we can live this way, the better.

Thus one offers himself to God in love, one sacrifices himself, renouncing the pleasures of this world, carrying his cross in love, hating his life in this world (Jn 12:25), leaving all for Christ. It may be that many will not understand us if we live like this, and their lack of understanding will be another cross which we will have to bear. God reveals his will to us little by little, and thus we gradually understand it better and hence can live it better and more radically. Thus do we grow spiritually. If we fail in something, he will punish us in our conscience to teach us his will more accurately, and thus we learn his will better and can live it more integrally in the future. He forgives us when he sees our repentance, and restores to us again the joy of the children of God. Let us live then in this freedom, sacrifice, and love. This is the secret of the new life which he has given us.

If we follow these principles, we will have the favor of God with us; if we do not follow them, we will experience his enmity, because “A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil devices he condemns” (Prov 12:2).

FORGIVE AND LOVE THOSE WHO ATTACK YOU

Thursday, 23rd Week of the Year Col 3:12-17; Ps 150; Lk 6:27-38

Both readings today harmonize perfectly and teach us what we should do when we are persecuted. The normal human reaction is to attack the one who attacked us; but Jesus Christ has taught us something new. He has forgiven us our sins and imperfections, and expects that we will also forgive those who have offended or attacked us. It does not matter whether the attack was just or unjust. Jesus teaches us how a Christian should react. He says, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also” (Lk 6:27-29). And he continues, saying, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them” (Lk 6:32). “But love your enemies” (Lk 6:35).

We know how important love is, but Jesus teaches us the type of love which he most wants to see in us. And this is not only the love of friends or spouses or for our family,

210

which even sinners practice, but it is, above all, the love of enemies. This latter type is the love most distinctive of Christians.

How we long to feel forgiven for our many sins or imperfections! How we desire to feel forgiven and loved by God! And God has given us a way to be forgiven, and this is to forgive those who hate and attack us, “if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you” (Mt 6:14). “…forgive, and you will be forgiven,” Jesus says today. “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned” (Lk 6:37).

But how difficult it is to turn the other cheek, rather than to seek revenge! Yet this is the teaching of Jesus Christ today: “To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also” (Lk 6:29). We need to repent for all the times when we did not do this, and we need to reverse our behavior now, to align it better with the teaching of Jesus Christ.

This is the teaching of perfection. In the gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus tells us that we are to be “perfect” in precisely this context of loving our enemies, that is, in the context of love for those who persecute and attack us. He says, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?... You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:46,48).

And St. Paul directs the same message to us today. In the first reading he says that we should be patient, “forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Col 3:13).

THE CROSS IS OUR ONLY SALVATION, AND THE PATTERN FOR OUR NEW LIFE IN CHRIST

Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14

Phil 2:6-11; Ps 77; Jn 3:13-17 Today we celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, on which hung the salvation of the world. When Jesus Christ was lifted up above the earth on the cross, he drew all to himself (Jn 12:32). The cross represents the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man. On the holy cross he sacrificed himself in love to his Father for the salvation of the world. God wanted to reconcile us with himself in this way through the cross of his Son.

In our agony, caused by our sins and imperfections and our sense of guilt and failure in our attempt to reach perfection (Mt 5:48), we can invoke the merits of Jesus Christ on the cross—especially in confession—to be freed from this suffering. On the cross is the salvation from our sins or imperfections, which overwhelm and torment us. On the cross is the freedom of the sons of God (Rom 8:21), the freedom from all condemnation (Rom 8:1). “Wretched man that I am!” we can cry out with St. Paul. “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24). Who will free me from the pain of guilt caused by my sins or imperfections? “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:25). He has freed me, and now, once again, he shines within my heart (2 Cor 4:6).

As one grows spiritually, his sins become smaller and smaller, until they are more slight imperfections than actual sins, very small things in the eyes of the world; but things

211

which overwhelm and torment us more and more as we grow more, because we are more sensitive now. Things which previously did not bother us, now cause us great agony and depression of spirit. This is why the great saints, such as St. Teresa of Avila, considered themselves to be great sinners. It is because very small faults tormented their now purified and very sensitive souls.

In this sense, we can understand the struggle of St. Paul against sin, when he said, “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do… Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:19,24). We should not think that a great saint like St. Paul is still committing grave and mortal sins, but rather that he is struggling against the remainder of sin which is still in him, that is: he is struggling against the very slight imperfections which now overwhelm and torment his purified and sensitive soul. Falling into these small imperfections, which would not even have risen to the level of being venial sins, caused him great agony and suffering of conscience, because he was so sanctified and sensitive.

But then St. Paul also experienced forgiveness, in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, for the imperfections which wounded his spirit. Therefore he says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:1-2). We experience this freedom when Christ, through the merits of his death on the cross, frees us from all sin, fault, or imperfection, and restores his peace and love to our soul, cleansing it and making it resplendent with his own splendor (2 Cor 4:6).

The Christian life, the holy and sanctified life of the great saints, has these two aspects. They saw themselves as great sinners (Rom 7:14), but also as persons illuminated by the splendor of Jesus Christ shining in their hearts (2 Cor 4:6). Daily they fought against the imperfections which still remained in them, tormenting them; and daily they experienced the freedom and forgiveness which Christ gained and brought to us by his death on the cross.

We also join with the saints and with St. Paul in this double experience of being still a sinner, but redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. Daily, then, we experience the battle against imperfection; and daily we experience the triumph of Jesus Christ over our sins or imperfections. We experience the struggle and agony which St. Paul describes in Romans 7:14-25 when we still fall into imperfections, in which we do not want to fall, and when we are wounded in our spirit for having fallen into them; but we also experience daily—especially in the sacrament of reconciliation—the victory of Jesus Christ, forgiving our imperfections, freeing us from depression and sadness, and filling us anew with the joy of the sons of God (Rom 8:21).

There are those who cannot accept that St. Paul is still suffering in this way in his struggle against imperfection; and so they believe that he is not speaking about himself in Romans 7:12-25, but rather about the Jews, or non-Christians, or immature Christians, or perhaps about his own earlier pre-Christian experience. But this doubt in not necessary if we are honest with ourselves and observe well our own experience. In Romans 7:14-25, St. Paul describes well the Christian experience, the life and daily struggle of the great saints in their attempt to reach perfection (Mt 5:48).

Christ, with his cross and resurrection, is our only hope and salvation. He is the medicine which cures the wound in our soul, caused by our imperfections. Today we celebrate his victory, the triumph of the cross. In Christ, and only in him, is our victory;

212

and we grow daily in his victory, eliminating every day more faults and imperfections from our life, growing thus day by day in holiness.

Then, the pattern of the cross should become the pattern of our own new life in Christ, a life detached, stripped, and separated from the attachments and pleasures of this world, and lived only for Christ, only for God, in simplicity and austerity, a life in which we find all our joy only in God, sacrificing all else, offering ourselves with Christ to the Father in the Holy Spirit as a sweet-smelling sacrifice (Eph 5:2). This is the Christian life, the crucified life (Gal 6:14), the life of the saints.

CARRYING OUR CROSS WITH JESUS, IN UNION WITH MARY

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, September 15

Heb 5:7-9; Ps 30; Lk 2:33-35 Today we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. Simeon prophesied to her, saying, “a sword will pierce through your own soul also, that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:35). The Virgin Mary was free from all sin, which is the greatest human suffering; but she suffered in other ways, above all in seeing how her son was mistreated. Thus we see that the cross is not only for Jesus Christ, but that it is also for his mother, and for all who follow him. Jesus said, “If any one would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23).

The cross of Christ was the opposition of the Jews against him and against his teaching. He suffered for preaching the truth, and Mary suffered with him. She had compassion on him. Therefore his sufferings were also hers. How did she feel when she saw her son rejected and mistreated? She suffered with him.

Our life also is full of suffering. Yesterday we spoke of the suffering which our sins or imperfections cause us; but today we focus on other types of suffering, because neither Jesus Christ nor the Virgin Mary knew the suffering that comes from having sinned.

Their suffering was mostly caused by the opposition of other people and by persecution. But this kind of suffering we can bear well, and can and should even rejoice in our spirit for it and during it. Jesus told us that we are blessed when they revile us and persecute us and utter all kinds of evil against us falsely on his account (Mt 5:11). And what should we do in such a situation? “Rejoice and be glad,” says Jesus, “for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Mt 5:12). And today at vigils we heard how they lowered the prophet Jeremiah into a cistern, and how he sank in the mud (Jer 38:6). This happened because the princes did not want to hear the message which he preached.

So shall our life be if we follow Jesus with consistency and integrity. We will have enemies. But this is a type of suffering which we can bear well and even with a joyful spirit, as did the apostles after being beaten for their preaching. “Then they left the presence of the council,” St. Luke tells us, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41).

213

Renunciation of the pleasures of the world, mortification, and asceticism are other ways of participating in the cross of Christ. They are other ways of offering ourselves with him to the Father in love as a sacrifice in the Holy Spirit; and these are things which we can do with joy of spirit.

Let us unite ourselves then with Mary today in her suffering, offering ourselves thus with Christ, bearing our cross with him.

THE WRATH AND THE MERCY OF GOD

24th Sunday of the Year Ex 32:7-11,13-14; Ps 50; 1 Tim 1:12-17; Lk 15:1-32

Today’s readings teach us something important about God. First of all we see his wrath against sin in the first reading from the book of Exodus. When the Israelites made a golden calf in the desert, the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them” (Ex 32:9-10).

These past weeks we have been hearing the book of Jeremiah at vigils, and in it we see clearly the wrath of God against the sin of his people, and how he warns them, saying that he will punish them, and that they should give up their idolatry and repent. And yesterday at vigils we heard a reading by Jean Daniélou about the meaning and importance of the wrath of God, which he describes as the intensity of the divine being against everything that is sin. Daniélou said that if we stop believing in the wrath of God, we will reduce him to a philosophical abstraction, without life, without reality, and without intensity. He would no longer be the God of the Bible who revealed himself to us, and in whom we believe.

And this is not only the teaching of the Old Testament. We see the wrath of God also in the New Testament, when Jesus cursed the cities which did not receive him (Mt 11:20-24), and when he described the final judgment, when the wicked will go to “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41).

But we also see in the first reading how Moses intercedes for his people with God, and how God repented of the evil which he was going to inflict on his people. Moses said to God, “O Lord, why does thy wrath burn hot against thy people, whom thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt…” (Ex 32:11). Then we hear that “the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people” (Ex 32:14). How important was Moses’ intercession! And he often interceded with God in his way.

Our God, as Christians, is the same. He becomes personally angry with us as individuals because of our sins, and he punishes us individually and personally in our conscience, making us feel bad, guilty, and depressed when we sin. But we also have an intercessor with God, Jesus Christ, his only Son, and therefore when we repent, leave our sins, and invoke the merits of the sacrificial and propitiatory death of Jesus Christ on the cross—especially in the sacrament of reconciliation—our sins are forgiven, and God abandons his wrath against us, and stops punishing us in our conscience.

214

It is the Father himself who initiates this, in that it was he who sent us Jesus Christ as our intercessor (Rom 8:32,34), to propitiate his divine wrath and thus justly expiate our sins, that is, without faulting justice. But how merciful is this divine justice! He sent his own son to die on the cross to satisfy this justice, and thus justly forgive our sins.

St. Paul, therefore, tells us in the second reading today, “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15). This is the work of Christ, our intercessor with God, whom St. Paul tells us “is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us” (Rom 8:34).

It is Jesus Christ himself, our intercessor with the Father, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29), who teaches us today the parable of the prodigal son. This Lamb of God is the lamb of sacrifice, whose propitiatory death on the cross propitiated the Father, that is, propitiated divine justice, and through his intercession, God repented of his wrath against us, and forgave our sins, when he saw our sincere repentance.

Thus God is like the father in the parable. After his younger son had squandered his goods, living a disorderly life, this same prodigal son repented, saying to himself, “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants’ and he arose and came to his father” (Lk 15:18-20).

Now, therefore, Jesus, our intercessor with the Father (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 1 Jn 2:1), reveals to us how the Father will receive us when we come to him repentant like this prodigal son. The prodigal son only expected to be made into a hired servant of his father; he no longer expected to be treated as a son. But this old man, who is God, ran to receive him, and kissed him. What a surprise: an old man running like this! But such is God with us, because of the intercession of Jesus Christ.

The older son’s reaction was more normal. What was unexpected was the father’s reaction. The older son reacted according to the criteria of normal human justice. He was surprised to see the good reception his father gave to this prodigal son, something which, according to normal human criteria, did not seem to him to be just.

But Jesus teaches us something new here which is greater than human justice and even greater than human mercy. Jesus Christ himself is our intercessor with the Father (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 1 Jn 2:1) and therefore can reveal to us what the divine justice is like, which he was sent to propitiate in regard to our sins, so that they might be justly forgiven, that is, according to divine justice, which is infinitely merciful, in that the Father gave his own Son to satisfy this justice. And what he tells us is that the Father will deal with us as does the father in the parable.

The conclusion is that we should have great confidence in being warmly welcomed by God after we have sinned in something and felt the wrath of God punishing us in our conscience, because when we repent and invoke the merits of the sacrificial and propitiatory death of Jesus Christ on the cross, we will be received and forgiven by the Father, just as was this prodigal son.

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, AND THE MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST

215

Thursday, 24th Week of the Year

1 Tim 4:12-16; Ps 110; Lk 7:36-50 Today Jesus shows us how to receive forgiveness for our sins. It is by loving much, as did the sinful woman in today’s Gospel who “wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment” (Lk 7:38). Concerning her, Jesus said, “her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much” (Lk 7:47). Love won for her this forgiveness of her sins. Her insistence and determination in loving Jesus, surely imploring his forgiveness, won for her this forgiveness of her sins and freedom from her guilt. So should we approach Jesus when we have sinned or fallen into some imperfection which robs us of our peace. Christ is waiting for us; he is waiting for our love and prayer. He wants to see our contrite and repentant spirit. He wants us to invoke him with faith, like this woman.

Then, after being and feeling forgiven, he also expects to see an expression of our love in gratitude for his forgiveness, because he who is forgiven much loves much, “but he who is forgiven little, loves little” (Lk 7:47).

Once we have been forgiven, we are to be ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the first reading, St. Paul, writing to his young disciple, Timothy, paints for us a beautiful picture of the dedication and commitment of a true minister of the Gospel. Timothy was an ordained minister, but I believe that everyone can find in this picture something which applies to him.

First of all, a minister of the Gospel should be an example for his flock in his way of living. This is his first and most important sermon. “…be an example to the believers,” says St. Paul today, “in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim 4:12). How important is our way of living, our behavior, our conduct, our lifestyle! It is a living testimony against the current of a worldly culture, it is an alternative way of living, giving testimony to alternative values, that is, to values not of this world, but of the Kingdom of God, of the new creation (2 Cor 5:17). St. Augustine, in the Office of Readings today, tells us that the pastor who lives evilly in front of his flock kills the sheep by the bad example of his life. This, we must avoid at all costs.

Then, St. Paul says, “Till I come occupy yourself with reading, exhortation, and teaching. Do not neglect the charism which is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the elders. Cultivate these things; devote yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all” (1 Tim 4:13-15). Then, he repeats for emphasis, “Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; persist in them” (1 Tim 4:16), that is, “in reading, in exhortation, and teaching” (1 Tim 4:13).

This is a vocation in which one should spend all his time, his life, his dedication, his work, his total commitment, that is, in the reading and study of the word of God and in preaching and teaching these things, always studying and exhorting, his own life being a model and example of his faith, thus edifying the Church. This is the work and the vocation of a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and the ordained minister should be the first to live this way.

216

THERE IS ALWAYS NEW HOPE IN JESUS CHRIST

Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, September 21 Eph 4:1-7,11-13; Ps 18; Mt 9:9-13

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Matthew, apostle and evangelist. Matthew was a publican, a tax collector for the Romans, and was thus rejected and hated by his fellow Jews. Tax collectors were regarded as public sinners. And here we see Jesus Christ calling him to be his follower and one of his twelve apostles. How is it possible that Jesus would call a person like Matthew to be his follower and part of the foundation of his Church? We would think that he would call people of good reputation for such an important spiritual position. But no! Jesus calls a tax collector! And more surprising still is Matthew’s immediate and total response. Jesus said to him, “‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him” (Mt 9:9). St. Luke says, “and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he left everything, and rose and followed him” (Lk 5:27-28).

What is more surprising: the call of such an unlikely person, or his immediate and total response? Not only are we surprised to see Jesus calling Matthew. Doubtlessly, Matthew himself was even more surprised to be called by Jesus. He probably saw himself as a lost person, someone without hope in this world, living a life without meaning, full of sin, riddled with guilt.

He had probably heard about Jesus, perhaps had listened to some of his teaching, but he never thought that he would have a chance to be called by him to be a part of his inner circle. Perhaps he wished to do something better with his life, but saw no way of doing so, and so in despair continued doing the only thing he knew in order to win his bread and sustain himself. And so he lived without hope.

Then suddenly Jesus came and stood in front of his tax booth, looked at him, and called him personally. Matthew probably saw this call as a unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to at last escape from his slavery to sin, guilt, and despair. If he were to let this opportunity pass, he would not likely have another. He reflected rapidly, and decided to respond positively, and he followed him. “And he left everything, and rose and followed him” (Lk 5:27-28), says St. Luke.

Can we put ourselves in the spiritual situation of St. Matthew? Do we not at times feel as he did, as though our life lacked something, or needed something more, as though we were not doing enough, or were not doing all that we could for God? Do we not feel at times as though we were failing, or that our work lacks sufficient quality, or that it is insufficient, or not accepted, or rejected? Do we not at times feel unworthy, like sinners, always doing something wrong, always offending God in something, always falling into some imperfection or other, and thus feeling guilty before God, useless in this world, useless for God and for Jesus Christ, unworthy to be called by him?

Then suddenly Jesus calls us anew, and reflecting rapidly, we respond positively, and, leaving everything, we follow him, truly dedicating ourselves this time to his call, to the vocation which he has given us, to the work which he wants us to do for him, to promote his Kingdom in the world. Although it seems like we are not doing anything for him, we resolve to begin anew and do all that we can with the gifts we have for his glory. Our contribution does not have to be as great or of as high a quality as that of certain other people, nor does it have to be first class work, but rather it should be what we can do

217

according to our gifts. Thus it will be our own distinctive contribution, which God wants from us. And he will accept it as such. Thus we shall have done what we could. And this is what he wants from us.

St. Peter also felt unworthy in the beginning in the presence of Jesus, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Lk 5:8). And how did Jesus respond to him? He said, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men” (Lk 5:10). And what did Peter do upon hearing this? St. Luke tells us that “when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:11). This is the same response that Matthew made.

And how do we respond when we feel unworthy and useless for doing something beautiful for God? If we follow him and do what we can, doing our small part, he will accept us into his service, into the service of the Kingdom, as he accepted Matthew as an apostle and evangelist. We should follow Matthew’s radical and total response.

Although he was a sinner and was despised, he did something which few do. He left everything and followed Jesus Christ. This is the secret of the saints. A saint is someone who lives totally and solely for God, someone who has left everything else. Only thus will we have an undivided heart in our love for God, a pure heart in which Christ can reign and remain.

Then, in the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church, each one will have his part, his role, to play. Not all are apostles, but each one has his part. St. Paul tells us today that some are prophets, others apostles, others evangelists, others pastors, others teachers (Eph 4:11). And there are many other services too in the body of Christ. If we do our own service well, the one which God gave us, according to our gift, we will fulfill his will. If we are a foot in the body of Christ, we should not want to be an eye (1 Cor 12:15-16). All the members of the body are necessary. Let each one do what he can, living only for God, and thus fulfilling his vocation, as did St. Matthew, apostle and evangelist.

LET US AVOID THE THORNS TO BE PREPARED FOR THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

Saturday, 24th Week of the Year 1 Tim 6:13-16; Ps 99; Lk 8:4-15

Saint Paul reminds us today that we are awaiting the epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ; and Jesus today in the parable of the sower warns us to be prepared as a good field to receive the seed and bear fruit while we await his coming. Paul tells us that we should “keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim 6:14). And how are we to keep his commandment “unstained and free from reproach” (1 Tim 6:14)? We will do so by avoiding the thorns of this world which choke us and divide our heart with other interests, desires, pleasures, or loves so that we do not have an undivided and pure heart, reserved only for the Lord. Jesus today describes these thorns like this: “as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Lk 8:14). Such seed does not bear fruit

218

for God because it is choked by the thorns. These unfruitful seeds have been carried away by the “pleasures of life,” and they are divided.

We should rather be vigilant, living sober, pious, and just lives in this world, renouncing worldly desires (Titus 2:12), and “awaiting our blessed hope, the epiphany of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

And what will we be like if we are prepared like this? We will avoid the thorns, that is, above all, the pleasures of life, to be able “to stand before the Son of man” (Lk 21:36) when he comes in his glory. Jesus warns us of the danger of the pleasures of life for those who want to be vigilant and prepared for the Parousia of the Lord. He speaks especially of gluttony. He says, “take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with gluttony and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth” (Lk 21:34-35). And St. Paul says, “Let us walk properly as in the day, not in gluttony and drunkenness” (Rom 13:13).

If we do not keep watch over ourselves, we will be choked by these thorns, which are the pleasures of life, and we will not be prepared for the coming of the Lord, to await it with eager expectation; but will rather be like the rich glutton in hell, to whom Abraham said, “Son, remember that you received your goods in your life” (Lk 16:25), that is, you have already received your reward, and there will be nothing more for you. To the rich who live in the pleasures of this life, Jesus said, “woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Lk 6:24), that is, they have no need to expect more in the future. They have already received all that they are going to get.

And where do we wish to have our consolation and reward: here in the pleasures of life, or in Jesus Christ? And we must choose! Therefore Jesus says that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mt 19:24).

Let us rather be prepared and vigilant, awaiting the epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ, and avoiding the thorns of this world.

NO SERVANT CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS

25th Sunday of the Year Amos 8:4-7; Ps 112; 1 Tim 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13

Today we hear the parable of the dishonest steward, which always causes us to think anew, first of all trying to figure out this complicated parable, and secondly trying to apply it to our life, adjusting our attitude and behavior to better align them with the parable’s teaching.

I believe that we can find the key to this parable in these words of Jesus, “the sons of this age are more shrewd in their own generation than the sons of light” (Lk 16:8). This steward was not a “son of the light,” but rather a “son of this age.” Certainly we are not to imitate everything he did. He was a dishonest and “wicked man” (Lk 16:8). What then is the point of the parable? What should we learn? We should imitate his shrewdness in using well the riches of this world to help other people and win friends.

219

Surely we should not imitate his injustice. The point of the parable is this: “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations” (Lk 16:9).

And what did this dishonest steward do? We do not know what he did previously to cause his master to dismiss him from his stewardship. We only know what he is doing now in order to secure his future, so that when his stewardship is taken away from him, there will be people who will welcome him into their homes. He helps his master’s debtors with their debts, diminishing what they have to pay. To the first debtor he says, “‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take you bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty’” (Lk 16:5-6).

Who was cheated, the master or the steward? Some believe that the master was cheated out of his interest, while others believe that the steward deliberately cheated himself of his own commission. I believe that the steward cheated his master, because the one who loans out his goods to get interest is the master, the owner of the goods. Therefore the steward is unjust here in his action, but we see that his master praises him anyway, while at the same time dismissing him from his stewardship for his unjust actions in dissipating his goods. But yes, he does praise him for his shrewdness. Jesus says, “The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in their own generation than the sons of light” (Lk 16:8). The steward used the material goods of his master to help other people in their need and thus gain friends who would in turn later help him.

And what is the teaching of this parable for us? It is that we too should use well material goods and riches to help other people and thus win friends who will receive us “into the eternal habitations” (Lk 16:9), instead of using material goods for our own pleasure.

It is very important to use our material goods well: money, food, clothing, etc. We should not use them for our own pleasure, but to provide ourselves with the necessities of life in a simple and austere way, and for the service of the Lord. To use them for more than this is to be a slave of these material goods and to serve them as our master. And Jesus concludes his teaching today, saying, “No servant can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16:13).

To serve material goods as our master is to live a life of pleasure, using our money, food, clothing, etc. not only to feed and clothe ourselves simply and austerely, living thus only for one Lord, but to use them for our own pleasure. If this is what we are doing, we are trying to serve two masters—God and mammon—and we are using wrongly our material goods. We are not living only for God, only for one Lord, if this is what we are doing. We are rather divided. We are the sons of this age, and not of the light, and we do not have an undivided heart.

Jesus says today, “He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much” (Lk 16:10). If we are not faithful in these exterior things, such as material goods, how will we be faithful in spiritual things? Our exterior behavior in small things such as money, food, our way of dressing, and how we help other people is very important. Our religion is not just an interior matter without connection to our external behavior. If we are unfaithful in these small exterior things, we are unfaithful also in the things of the spirit, because our whole orientation is mistaken. It is incorrect. We are incorrectly oriented both physically and

220

spiritually if we are not faithful in material goods. In fact, we will not receive spiritual favors if we are not faithful in material goods, as Jesus says today, saying, “If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches?” (Lk 16:11). They will not be entrusted to us! And the true riches are the things of the spirit.

“And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s,” continues Jesus, “who will give you that which is your own?” (Lk 16:12). That which will be our own are the spiritual riches which fill our spirit with the love of God. But to receive these spiritual riches we have to first fulfill the condition which Jesus gives us, which is to be faithful “in that which is another’s.” And “that which is another’s” are material goods. Only thus will we receive true spiritual riches, which will be truly ours. Let us then use well and correctly the material things of our life, and not try to serve them as our master. Let us live simply and austerely, using material goods for the service of the Lord; and not for our own unnecessary pleasure.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DOING THE WILL OF GOD

Tuesday, 25th Week of the Year Esra 6:7-8,12,14-20; Ps 121; Lk 8:19-21

We know from St. Paul that we are justified before God by our faith; not by our works (Rom 3:28; Gal 2:16). It is the merits of Jesus propitiatory and sacrificial death on the cross that justify us and save us from our sins, that we might be pure and holy in God’s sight. But then, as we hear in today’s Gospel, it is also necessary to keep Jesus’ word in order to remain in God’s love and favor, and grow in virtue. When told that his mother and brethren wanted to see him, Jesus says today, “My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Lk 8:21); and when a little later a woman says, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” Jesus answers her, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk 11:28). So if we hear and do the word of God, we will be as close to Jesus as were his mother and brethren!

The problem, though, as St. John Cassian points out in his twenty-third conference, is that as we grow spiritually, it becomes ever harder to keep God’s word and feel justified and sinless in his sight, for the sins and imperfections that trip us up and trouble us become ever smaller, slighter, and more minute, things which the average person would not even recognize as imperfections, much less sins, and would in no way be troubled by. But, as Cassian points out, as we grow more and more, smaller and smaller imperfections trouble us more and more. And so we have the phenomenon that the greatest saints considered themselves to be the greatest sinners, although their sins were minuscule

221

indeed; yet they were troubled by them, as was the great Saint Paul, when he said, “what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (Rom 7:15); and we should consider that it was a very slight matter indeed that troubled St. Paul.

Yet, this is what spiritual growth is all about: receiving the justification of Christ by faith in his saving merits on the cross, and then struggling to live according to his will. When we fail, we have Christ’s merits to put us right again with God, especially in the sacrament of reconciliation; and then we struggle once again to hear and do his word and will, ever reducing our sins and imperfections to smaller and smaller matters, for “My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Lk 8:21), as Jesus tells us today. Our effort, therefore, must be not only to hear this word, but also to do it, for, as Jesus says, “Whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock… But everyone who hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand” (Mt 7:24,26), and we all know what happened to his house.

THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF THE PREACHED WORD

Wednesday, 25th Week of the Year Esra 9:5-9; Tobit 13; Lk 9:1-6

Today Jesus associates his twelve apostles with himself in his own work of preaching the Kingdom of God, healing sicknesses, and casting out evil spirits. This is significant because it shows us that he gives them a share in his own personal ministry and mission. They are to be the extension of his own preaching and healing mission in the world, a mission which is to transform the world into the Kingdom of God. The preaching of the Gospel brings salvation. St. Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith” (Rom 1:16-17).

Even at this early stage in the ministry of Jesus, the word of the Gospel had great power. Many were brought by it to repentance and a new life. Others were delivered from the power of sin and evil spirits. Others were healed. The apostles were to take nothing for their journey. Their only tool was to be the good news of the present inbreaking with power into the world of the Kingdom of God in the arrival of Jesus the Messiah and Son of God.

When his followers wanted to keep Jesus from departing from them, he said, “‘I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent!’ And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee” (Lk 4:43-44). And so, St. Luke tells us, “It came to pass, afterward, that he went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God” (Lk 8:1).

This was a time of joy. “How beautiful upon the mountains,” prophesied Isaiah, “are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good” (Is 52:7). “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!” says St. Paul (Rom 10:15), their feet bringing them from here to there upon the mountains to proclaim the message of salvation, for faith comes from hearing the preached word. For

222

“how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?” asks St. Paul. “And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom 10:14-15). And so, after his temptation in the desert, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of him went through all the surrounding region. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all” (Lk 4:14).

Jesus and his apostles preached repentance, for the kingdom of God was at hand. His first sermon is recorded by St. Mark. He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:14).

We too have been given a share in this ministry of salvation. We preach the good news of being made right with God through faith in Christ. Though faith in the merits of his saving death on the cross in propitiatory sacrifice to the Father, who sent him for this purpose (Rom 8:32), we are set right with God, our guilt is removed, and we are transformed and sanctified.

Of all the services which people render to one another, this ministry of preaching the Gospel is the greatest and the deepest, because it brings inner transformation. It brings the one who responds in faith out of darkness and into the light (Col 1:12-13), and fills his heart with the illumination of Christ (2 Cor 4:6).

Jesus associates us today with his preaching, healing ministry. We are sent in him for the justification and transformation of many. So we hear today that Jesus “called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal” (Lk 9:1-2). This is our mission too.

THE DISCIPLE IS TO SHARE THE MASTER’S FATE

Thursday, 25th Week of the Year Haggai 1:1-8; Ps 149; Lk 9:7-9

Today we see that Jesus has come to the attention of Herod the tetrarch, and that both Herod and his advisors are comparing Jesus with John the Baptist, whom Herod beheaded. This comparison puts Jesus in danger. Coming to the notice of a ruler like this is dangerous for Jesus, especially since he is being seen in the same light as the man whom this ruler has already put to death. It intimates that a similar fate may be in store for Jesus too. Some even told Herod that Jesus was none other than John who had been raised from the dead. According to Mark, Herod says, “John whom I beheaded has been raised” (Mk 6:16); and according to Matthew, Herod says, “This is John the Baptist, he has been raised from the dead; that is why these powers are at work in him” (Mt 14:2). If Herod actually thinks that the very same man whom he executed has been raised from the dead, might he not want to have him executed again?

So we see that Jesus’ life is not an easy one. He has powerful enemies who oppose him. And, in fact, Jesus’ fate will be the same as that of John the Baptist, and so also will be the fate of his followers. Little by little Jesus makes this clear to them. A little after this, Jesus will say, “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Lk

223

9:22). And in the following verse, Jesus makes it clear that his followers would also suffer the same fate, for he says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it” (Lk 9:23-24).

This, then, is to be our life as Jesus’ followers. He prepares us well for this ahead of time, so that we might consider it well, before we decide to be his followers. We do not follow Jesus to seek a comfortable life without enemies in this world, nor do we follow him in search of a smooth life of worldly pleasures. Just the opposite of these two things awaits us as his followers. Jesus told us that “a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me they will persecute you” (Jn 15:20). Rather “it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Mt 10:25). And he said “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (Jn 15: 18).

Are we ready for all this? Are we ready to live in such a way that we lose our life to find it? We should not let such things discourage us. Jesus strengthens us, assuring us that in experiencing these things we show ourselves to be truly his followers, for we share with him the same fate, and the same glory.

THE MONASTIC LIFE IS THE ANGELIC LIFE

Feast of Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels, September 29 Daniel 7:9-10,13-14; Ps 137; Jn 1:47-51

Today we celebrate a well-loved feast, that of the Holy Angels, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, and all the holy angels who serve God, ever contemplating his majesty and beauty, living in his holy splendor, passing their contemplation down through the various hierarchies of angels. We honor them also as the holy ministers of God, sent by him as his messengers to men such Jacob, Tobias, and Joseph; and to women such as Mary at the annunciation, and the myrrh-bearing women at the empty tomb of the risen Jesus on the day of his Resurrection. Today the full splendor and beauty of the mystery of God comes alive for us in his angels and saints.

The angels minister before God, contemplating his splendor. In Daniel’s vision of the ancient of days, whose “raiment was white as snow,” and the hair of whose head was “like pure wool” and whose “throne was fiery flames” (Dan 7:9), he was ministered to by “a thousand thousands…and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him” (Dan 7:10). These are the angels who serve him, illumined by his splendor as by the first rays of the morning sun. This was before the birth of Christ, and so the souls of men and women had not yet reached his holy presence. This text, therefore, refers to the angels.

224

St. John in the Apocalypse also had a vision of heaven and of the throne of God, and around the throne he heard “the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands” (Rev 5:11). They were worshiping and honoring the Lamb that was slain to save us from our sins. This is the main function of the angels—contemplation, as well as being sent as God’s messengers to earth. But unlike us, they never fall out of their divine contemplation. They remain in it, even when communicating it to others, which is the Dominican ideal, which we were reminded of last night by the presence of our guest speaker, a Dominican, Fr. John. The angels communicate the fruits of their contemplation to men.

The monastic life has often been called the angelic life, an imitation of the contemplative life of the angels. In this regard, monks are eschatological signs, reminding everyone of their own final destiny to be like the angels in heaven, with pure and undivided hearts, honoring and contemplating God, rejoicing in his presence, filled with his love, illumined and transformed by his splendor. The monastic life is the angelic life because we begin to live the contemplative life of the angels even now, here on earth, ahead of time.

Jesus points out that celibacy is one of the main characteristics of the angelic life, for only “the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage” (Lk 20:34), he tells us in the parable about the woman who had seven husbands. “…but,” he continues, “those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage…because they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Lk 20:35-36). Hence monastic, religious, and priestly celibacy also makes us like the angels, giving us radically undivided hearts, reserved for the Lord alone, like the angels.

In this, then, monks, who are seeking to live the angelic life already ahead of time in this world, are a sign to the whole Church, reminding it of its own final destiny, for all who are accounted worthy to attain to the world of the resurrection, will one day be like the angels, neither marrying nor being given in marriage, but wholly focused on the Lord with completely undivided hearts in their love and wholehearted devotion to him.

The letter to the Hebrews speaks of the heavenly Jerusalem to which we have already come, and in which we already live in spirit by our faith. The author says, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in festal array” (Heb 12:22). In our liturgy, in our office, we join the myriads of angels in festal array in contemplating God and serving him, and then also in being his messengers, bringing the fruits of our contemplation to others.

The angels communicate the splendor of God to us on earth, as did the angelic herald who appeared to the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem. And when he appeared, “the glory of the Lord shone round about them” (Lk 2:9). The angels communicated God’s splendor to them. We should imitate the angels in this also.

We also await the final trumpet blast which the angelic herald will sound on the last day before the glorious coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven with all his angels and saints. Let us be ready so that that day does not catch us unawares. For then “they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other” (Mt 24:30-31).

225

The angels too are our models, as are the saints, for we too are called to a life of contemplation, and to bringing the splendor of our contemplation to others as do the angels.

WHAT KIND OF LIFE SHOULD WE LIVE IN THIS WORLD?

26th Sunday of the Year Amos 6:1,4-7; Ps 145; 1 Tim 6:11-16; Lk 16:19-31

What kind of a life should we live in this world in order to please God? Today’s readings treat this question. The first reading gives us a picture of the life of the rich who pass their time in delights and pleasures. Today’s Gospel then presents us with a contrast between a rich man and a poor man. The rich man “was clothed in purple and fine linen and…feasted sumptuously every day” (Lk 16:19). When he died, he went to hell and was tormented in the flames. There was also a poor man in today’s Gospel, and when he died, he “was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom” (Lk 16:22).

What does Jesus teach us about these two types of life? He warns us saying, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Lk 6:20). And to the rich, he says, “But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Lk 6:24). And he also says, “No servant can serve two masters. You…cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16:13).

We are not to live for ourselves (2 Cor 5:15), and for our pleasures. We should live for God with a pure and undivided heart (1 Cor 7:32-35), not with a heart divided among the pleasures of this world. Our heart should be reserved only for the Lord, and not be distracted by the pleasures of life, which can distract us to the point that we forget God.

Jesus teaches us that we should be sober and vigilant. He says, “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth” (Lk 21:34-35). A rich life, lived among pleasures, can easily be like this. Therefore Jesus says, “It will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven… it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mt 19:23,24.).

The life of the rich who feast “sumptuously every day” (Lk 16:19), like the rich man in today’s Gospel, is a very dangerous life, because it is easily choked by these pleasures, and does not bear fruit for God, like the seed that “fell among the thorns” and was choked (Lk 8:14). About them, Jesus said, “as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Lk 8:14). Therefore James says, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you… You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter” (James 5:1,5).

The Biblical picture of the rich who live a life of pleasure like this is not very favorable. Jesus says that they have already had their reward (Lk 6:24), and therefore their future is dark. “...woe to you that are rich,” Jesus says, “for you have received your consolation” (Lk 6:24). And what does the first reading say about the life of pleasure of

226

many rich? Amos says today in the first reading, “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria… Woe to those who lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the midst of the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David invent for themselves instruments of music; who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first of those to go into exile, and those who recline at banquets shall be removed” (Amos 6:1,4-7).

They are trying to serve two masters, God and mammon (Lk 16:13). But this is not possible. They are rather choked by the thorns, which are the pleasures of life, and they do not bear fruit (Lk 8:14). They have already had their consolation (Lk 6:24). There is northing more waiting for them in the future. They have already had their reward here below in the delights of this present life.

And what does Abraham say to the rich man in hell in today’s parable, who feasted “sumptuously every day” (Lk 16:19)? He said to him, “Son, remember that you in your life received your good things” (Lk 16:25). He said this because now, after his death, he has no more good things. He already had them when he was alive in this world; and now he is tormented in the flames of hell. But Lazarus, the poor man in today’s Gospel, has his reward after his death in the bosom of Abraham. So Abraham also said to the rich man in hell, “and Lazarus in like manner [received] evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are tormented” (Lk 16:25).

What, therefore, is the teaching of these readings for us? It is that we should not live for ourselves and for our pleasures, as St. Paul tells us, saying, Christ “died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). We should, then, live for God, and not for two masters. We should have a pure and undivided heart, not a heart divided among the pleasures of this life, to the forgetfulness of God. The first disciples left everything to follow Jesus (Lk 5:11,28), and they are our models. We should live a simple, austere life, a life of sacrifice, love, work, and prayer, serving others with our gifts.

ST. FRANCIS AND EVANGELICAL POVERTY

Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, October 4 Gal 6:14-18; Sal 15; Mt 11:25-30

Today we commemorate the poor man of Assisi, St. Francis, the great lover of evangelical poverty. He discovered the secret which few know, namely the privileged way of approaching God, which is the way of evangelical poverty, renouncing everything of this world to gain the Kingdom of God. He lived this evangelical mystery, and he knew by his own experience the truth of the numerous teachings of Jesus and St. Paul on this subject, words such as: “there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life” (Lk 18:29-30). It is an exchange of riches. We exchange material riches and worldly and corporal pleasures for the riches of

227

the Kingdom of God and of the new creation. We leave all—the life of pleasure here below—to obtain the buried treasure and true riches.

Jesus Christ himself taught us this lesson, namely, that the Kingdom of God is like a buried treasure which can only be obtained at the price of everything else. The man in the parable who sold all that he had, obtained it (Mt 13:44). St. Francis wanted to obtain this treasure, and so he decided to leave all that he had in this world, choosing to live a life of voluntary poverty. Truly, those who do this, who voluntarily renounce the pleasures of this world, are happy and blessed, and know the truth of these words of Jesus: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3).

God’s deepest wisdom is hidden from the wise and learned and revealed to babes (Mt 11:25-26). Jesus, therefore, invites us to imitate his own poverty and humility, saying, “learn from me; for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:29).

St. Francis chose to be poor—Christ being his only wealth. Jesus Christ himself chose to be born poor, outside and in a stable. For this reason Christmas is the indescribably beautiful and touching festival that it is, one well loved by St. Francis, who was the first to celebrate it in so graphic a way, with live animals and a stable. Christ lived poor, and he died poor, stripped of everything, on a cross, to save us, and give us an example to follow (1 Peter 2:21), saying that we should deny ourselves and take up our cross “each day” and follow him (Lk 9:23) down this same poor, humble, and stripped, but glorious way.

Along this way of evangelical poverty, we can love God with all our heart, with an undivided heart, and offer our life for the good of our neighbor.

St. Paul also found his glory in the cross of Jesus Christ, and said, “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). So lived St. Francis, crucified to the world and its pleasures, to live unattached, stripped, and unencumbered, for the Lord alone with all his heart, with a completely undivided heart, offering his life for the good of his neighbor.

THE PERSONAL, HOLY, AND RIGHTEOUS WRATH OF GOD

Friday, 26th Week of the Year Baruch 1:15-22; Sal 78; Lk 10:13-16

Today we hear about something that many people do not want to hear about; we hear about the wrath of God connected to the first reading, in the psalm, and in today’s Gospel. The problem, I believe, is that in us wrath is very different from the pure, holy, and righteous wrath of God. In human beings wrath is very often joined to hatred. Thus a person can hate and become angry at a good person because he feels reproached and reprehended by his good example. This type of wrath is completely foreign to God, and is unknown in him.

The wrath of God, on the other hand, which we see in all parts of the Bible, is completely pure, holy, and righteous; and in God there is no loss of control of self; rather,

228

his wrath represents the intensity of his divine being against all that is sin. We recently heard a reading by Jean Danielou at vigils about the wrath of God and its importance. He said that if we do not believe in the wrath of God against sin, we reduce God to a philosophical abstraction, without power, without intensity; and this abstraction, he said, is no longer the God who revealed himself in the Bible.

In the verses immediately preceding today’s first reading from Baruch, the prophet says, “we have sinned against the Lord our God, and to this day the anger of the Lord and his wrath have not turned away from us” (Baruch 1:13). And in today’s psalm we hear: “How long, O Lord? Wilt thou be angry for ever? Will thy jealous wrath burn like fire?” (Ps 78:5). The righteous and holy wrath of God is against our sins, which he punishes personally, especially in our conscience, causing us to suffer from guilt, to better teach us his will, and to purify and sanctify us. Thus his wrath helps us. The intensity of his divine being against our sins helps us.

And in today’s Gospel we hear about the wrath of Jesus against the cities which saw and heard him, but which rejected and refused to believe in him. “And you, Capernaum,” he said, “will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades” (Lk 10:15). And St. Paul tells us that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth” (Rom 1:18). And he also says, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Eph 5:6). Thus we see that this righteous and holy wrath of God is personal, and is personally and individually directed to us as individuals, to each one of us when we sin.

But the good news is that God sent his Son to satisfy his own righteous wrath. Christ suffered the punishment justly due to our sins, so that we might go free from the wrath of God with the righteousness of Jesus Christ himself imputed to us. God makes us righteous by the merits of Christ’s propitiatory and sacrificial death on the cross. This imputation of his justice to us comes when we believe in him and invoke the merits of his death, especially in the sacrament of reconciliation. Thus Christ saves us from the righteous, holy, and personal wrath of God, because God himself satisfies his own righteous wrath in the person of his Son so that we can go free to live in the freedom of the sons of God, justified, made righteous and holy by the merits of Jesus Christ, with his righteousness shining in our hearts.

ST BRUNO, HERMIT OF THE DESERT OF THE GRAND CHARTREUSE

Memorial of St. Bruno, October 6 Phil 3:8-14; Ps 1; Lk 9:57-62

Today we have the joy of commemorating St. Bruno, the founder of the Carthusians, a very strict monastic order, recently documented in a popular film, “Into Great Silence.” It is an order where the monks live an eremitic life in the silence of their cells, but where they also celebrate each day together in choir vigils, lauds, the Eucharist, and vespers. The other liturgical hours they pray in their cells, at their oratory, at the same time, at the sound of the tower bell. It is an order which places great emphasis on separation from the

229

world, silence, solitude, and austerity of life. They renounce the pleasures of this life for those of the Kingdom of God, knowing well that “whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:25).

St. Bruno lost his life for Christ. He was a celebrated professor of Sacred Scripture in the school of Reims (France). But after twenty years of teaching, he opposed his bishop, a man unworthy of his office, and after this conflict, although many wanted Bruno to become the new bishop, he decided to leave the world radically and definitively, in order to live in silence and renunciation, in the desert, with a few companions. After a brief time with the Benedictines, he went with his companions to establish himself in the desert of the Grand Chartreuse, near Grenoble, France, in 1084, under the supervision of St. Hugh, the bishop of Grenoble, with the intention of living there an eremitic life, but also with some communitarian aspects. This was the beginning of the Carthusian order.

Thus did St. Bruno lose his life to find it anew in Christ, instead of trying to save it according to the mentality of the world (Mt 16:22). Truly, he hated his life in this world (Jn 12:25), leaving its pleasures and honors, to live in the desert, in silence and solitude, in constant fasting, in study, and in prayer. Losing his life in this way for the love of Christ, he found it anew in Christ. He did not want to divide his heart amid the noise and pleasures of this life, but rather he reserved himself completely for Christ. He sold all to gain all, namely, the pearl of great price (Mt 13:45-46). He put his hand to the plow, and did not look back (Lk 9:62). He left his family and home to follow Christ in the solitude and silence of his cell in the desert, and there he discovered riches unknown to the world.

St. Bruno wanted to grow in Christ, not having a justice of his own—as St. Paul says today—but rather that of Christ, which is an alien and imputed justice, the gift of Jesus Christ himself, which justifies us by our faith. Thus Christ makes us new, new creatures (2 Cor 5:17), giving us a participation in his death and sufferings, thus making us like himself, giving us in this way a participation also in the splendor of his resurrection. It is the merits of the death of Christ which have done all this for us, gaining us this new access to God and this new likeness to him.

Therefore St. Bruno, like St. Paul, lost his life in this world for the excellence of the knowledge and love of Christ; and considered what he lost as refuse in comparison with what he thereby gained (Phil 3:7-8). He could say with St. Paul, “For his (Christ’s) sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on Faith” (Phil 3:8-9).

FAITH IN THE MERITS OF JESUS CHRIST SAVES US FROM SIN AND GUILT

27th Sunday of the Year

Habacuc 1:2-3; 2:2-4; Ps 94; 2 Tim 1:6-8,13-14; Lk 17:5-10 The readings this Sunday speak to us about faith. We are now approaching the end of the year, which is always characterized by the theme of hope in the final coming of the Lord

230

in all his glory with his angels and saints. But to live in this beautiful hope, we need faith. We need to live a life of faith so that this hope may come alive for us. The first reading today from the book of Habacuc speaks to us of this aspect of faith, that is, faith in its connection with the future and with our ultimate hope for God’s final salvation. Habacuc says, “For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay…the righteous shall life by his faith” (Hab 2:3-4).

We are now in the time between the beginning of the Kingdom of God in the world and its final consummation in glory. We live “between the times” in faith and hope. We have a vision of the end, of the Savior, who will come to bring to completion the good work which he began in us, because, as St. Paul says, “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). He will not leave us incomplete and suffering. He will complete the good work which he began in us when he justified us and gave us the righteousness of Jesus Christ, removing our guilt from us.

With his coming he will fill us with glory. This is the vision of hope which we have. And this vision, even if it delays for a time, will be realized and come to perfection in us; for even now, as we await its complete realization, “it hastens to its end—it will not lie” (Hab 2:3). This Savior, we must await in hope, because without doubt he will come, and will not delay (Hab 2:3). And while we await him, we should live by faith, as Habacuc says, “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab 2:4).

In living by faith, we are told that we shall live, that is, our spirit will truly live in God. Without this faith in the Savior, our spirit will not have life. Only those who live by faith truly live. The rest live in darkness and sadness. Faith is the answer to all our problems and sadness. And the faith, by which our spirit lives, is not only faith in the return of the Lord, but is also a living faith which revives us now in the present.

Through faith in Jesus Christ, the guilt which darkens our soul, and which is caused by our sins and imperfections, is taken away. And not only this, but God also imputes to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ himself, who died and rose to pay the price of our redemption. He suffered in our place so that we might go free from sin and guilt, having himself paid our price and born our punishment in his death on the cross. And then he also imputes to us his own righteousness, which we do not deserve by our own merits; rather his merits are transmitted to us by means of our faith in him, especially in the sacrament of reconciliation. Thus if we believe this and invoke the Savior, we will become righteous, justified, free from guilt, and living by faith, as Habacuc says, “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab 2:4).

How happy we are to be freed from the weight of our guilt, caused even by very small imperfections, for we know that the saints are tormented by extremely small imperfections, things which the majority does not even recognize as imperfections, and certainly not as sins. There is no suffering greater than that of guilt; and there is no happiness greater that being justified by Jesus Christ, having his justice imputed to us by our faith in him, especially through the sacrament of reconciliation.

But to live in this righteousness, freedom, and happiness, we need faith. Even though we have to wait a little while to feel forgiven again and fully justified, if we persevere a little while, we will see truly great and significant results. We will live with the love of God shining in our heart (2 Cor 4:6), in the freedom of the sons of God (Gal 5:1:13), in the “newness of life” (Rom 6:4), and in the “newness of the Spirit” (Rom 7:6). We will

231

live a truly new life and a new kind of life in Christ, free from guilt and filled with the righteousness of God which comes to us from the merits of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. We will live a new life in the splendor of his resurrection, being raised now ahead of time with him (Rom 6:4).

So powerful is this faith that Jesus says today, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, ‘Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Lk 17:6). We need faith to see these great results. We need to believe in the power of Jesus Christ to justify us, and we need to receive in faith his gift of justification, especially in the sacrament of reconciliation.

THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL RISE

Thursday, 27th Week of the Year Malachi 3:13 – 4:2; Ps 1; Lk 11:5-13

We should ask for what we need, and it will be given to us, Jesus tells us today. “Ask and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Lk 11:9); and “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Lk 11:13). We ask because we need the Holy Spirit, who renews and sanctifies us. We know our own evil and need. We know how far we are from God and how much we need his help. Without him and without his constant help, we are nothing. And today he assures us that if we persevere in our petition, we will be given all we need.

And what is it that we most need? It is the gift of justification, salvation, and sanctification from God, given to us through Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection when we believe in him and invoke his merits with importunity and insistence. He will not leave us waiting long with empty hands. “Ask and it will be given you,” (Lk 11:9) he tells us today. And this is a word which we can trust.

It is true. Our experience in the past will assure us that it will be so today also, and that we can trust this promise. He will fill us anew with his own righteousness which will shine within us like the sun of righteousness which will rise for us, as the prophet Malachi tells us today, saying, “But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall” (Mal 4:2). We live for this hope, which is not only a hope, but also a present reality, which we experience now when we believe.

When we lose this experience of salvation, this joy in the Lord, by sinning or falling into some imperfection which robs us of our peace, we have to persevere in prayer and petition to God, asking constantly that he again send us his Holy Spirit to rejuvenate us anew in his presence, forgiving us all our errors and offenses, and filling us again with his illuminating Spirit. “But for you who fear my name,” says the prophet today, “the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings” (Mal 4:2).

What is this sun of righteousness promised today by the prophet? Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of this prophecy. He will shine in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6) if we invoke him with faith and importunity, with constancy, insistence, and perseverance. We, who are so

232

unrighteous, so far from perfection, will thus be filled again with Jesus Christ’s own righteousness through the merits of his death on the cross; and we will rise with him from the death of sin, to walk in “the newness of life” (Rom 6:4) in the splendor of his resurrection. Thus we shall live “for the praise of his glory” (Eph 1:12), in the “newness of the Spirit” (Rom 7:6). This means that we shall live now already ahead of time an anticipation of the splendor of the last day, when “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43).

THE STARS WILL FALL AS LEAVES FALL FROM THE VINE

Friday, 27th Week of the Year Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2; Ps 9; Lk 11:15-26

As the days grow shorter and colder now and the leaves begin to turn and fall, the liturgy increasingly reminds us of the signs in the heavens that will accompany the final days and the coming of the Lord in glory. This is the time in which we prepare ourselves to see the Lord, repentant of our wickedness and newly dedicated to his will. Hence the prophet Joel tells us today, “Gird on sackcloth and lament… Go in, pass the night in sackcloth… Sanctify a fast…and cry to the Lord. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes… Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain...for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!” (Joel 1:13,14,15; 2:1,2).

This is the message that the prophet addresses to us today. We are now in the last days of the world, awaiting the coming of the Lord and the destruction and transformation of all things. It is the time to change our life, says the prophet, the time of fasting and wearing a hair shirt, the time of penance and repentance. It is the time to live for the Lord, and to await his coming.

Joel and the other prophets, as well as Jesus himself, announced to us that “there will be signs in sun and moon and stars…for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Lk 21:25,26-27). And Joel tells us, “the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining… The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:10,31-32).

As we watch the leaves turn and fall from the trees, we hear the words of the prophet Isaiah, saying that “All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree” (Is 34:4). And John, in the Apocalypse, had a similar vision of this final day, and told us that he saw that “the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale; the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up” (Rev 6:13-14). Jesus himself prophesied about this terrifying day which will precede his coming in glory, saying that “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven” (Mt 24:29).

233

In the face of all this, what are we to do? It is the time—and we have already entered into it—to change our life. We are to live in expectation of these things and be prepared for them, converted and committed to living from now on for the Lord, and to doing his will in everything, asking his forgiveness for our errors of the past. The seasons are changing; our life too should change.

THE MOUNTAINS SHALL DRIP SWEET WINE, AND THE HILLS SHALL FLOW WITH MILK

Saturday, 27th Week of the Year Joel 4:12-21; Ps 96; Lk 11:27-28

Today we hear from the prophet Joel a word of hope. He says, “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk” (Joel 4:18). How we need to hear a message like this to awaken us to hope, and to strengthen our convictions that we are not living only for things that are seen, but rather for the Kingdom of God which is coming upon the world! We can, moreover, begin even now to live a life of hope, and thus become a people of hope, a people of the promise, people who walk in the light of the promise which is now realizing itself in the world. Thus can we participate in its realization, living in the silence of God, recollected in the mystery of divine love, and radiating this to others, pouring our life out for their conversion and transformation, using the gifts that God has given us.

And what is this sweet wine which is dripping down the mountains? And how is it that the hills are flowing with milk? Joel is prophesying about a future time of great abundance and joy, the time of the fulfillment of prophecy, the messianic times. Even the mountains in those days will be sown with vines whose grapes will be so large and numerous that the mountains themselves will drip with their juice in process of fermentation; and so will they drip sweetness—new wine—while the air will waft its sweet fragrance abroad. And more still, the cows in those days will be so filled with milk that the very hills where they pasture will flow with it. All this represents the abundance of love and justice, forgiveness and salvation, and peace and joy of the messianic times, which have in fact already begun for those who have faith.

And what should we do to live within the spell of this hope for the coming of the Kingdom of God into the world? We should believe in Jesus Christ for the remission of our sins and the imputation of his righteousness. Then we should make it our greatest endeavor to walk according to his will in all things, and to avoid even the occasions which tempt us to do otherwise. Hence we will be doing as he himself tells us in today’s Gospel, when in response to the woman who said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” (Lk 11:27) he responded, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Lk 11:28).

Once justified by the merits of Jesus Christ through our faith in him, it should be our determined effort to live according to his will, as best we can, by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, for in this way “the mountains shall drip sweet wine” for us,

234

“and the hills shall flow with milk” (Joel 4:18), and we shall live within the enchantment of this hope.

GIVING THANKS TO GOD ALWAYS AND FOR EVERYTHING

28th Sunday of the Year 2 Kings 5:14-17; Ps 97; 2 Tim 2:8-13; Lk 17:11-19

The season of autumn is now beginning. Here in Georgia it will be with us longer than in the more northerly states from which many of us come; and surely if you are like me, it will remind you of our beloved celebration of Thanksgiving. I mention this because today’s readings are the same readings which are usually used on Thanksgiving Day, about Namaan returning to Elisha to give thanks for God’s cleansing him of leprosy, and the Gospel about the ten lepers who were cleansed by Jesus, and about the one, who was a Samaritan, who returned to give him thanks. And so Jesus remarked, “Were not the ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” (Lk 17:17-18).

So today we are reminded of the importance of something which we may have forgotten about, namely giving thanks to God for our blessings—for everything really—both positive, and seemingly negative things, such as sickness, or circumstances which do not seem favorable to us, etc. This is the way to transform our thinking, to convert it actually, into a new and Christian way of thinking. It opens our eyes to see that God is working in all things for our good, and so if he gives us something, it must be for our good; and if it is for our good, we should thank him for it. So we start thanking him, and little by little we begin to discover the ways in which this thing, which at first seemed negative, is indeed good for us. St. Paul tells us, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess 5:18). And this is the acclamation before the Gospel today. Give thanks in all circumstances.

Giving thanks for everything and in all circumstances reminds me of the Blessed Maria Gabriella, a beatified Trappestine sister from the community of Vitorquiano, Italy, who died in her mid twenties of tuberculosis in the early part of the twentieth century. After some hesitation, she learned the secret of giving thanks for her sickness. “Every cough, every pain is my treasure,” she said, “which I do not want to share with anyone. It is God’s gift to me.” Her sickness was the means by which she gave God thanks and praise. It was her altar of self-offering, her way of giving herself to God in love, her way of becoming a sacrificial victim soul, immolating herself in love to God. And so she thanked God continually for her sickness, from which she died in less than two years.

Indeed, as St. Paul says, “God works all things to the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28). Giving thanks for things that at first seem unfortunate is the key that opens the door to entering into a new way of thinking, seeing, and experiencing reality. St. Paul says that we should give thanks in “all circumstances,” not just in seemingly positive ones. “...give thanks in all circumstances” he says; “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess 5:18). How often do we do this? Today is a good day to be reminded of this.

235

Giving thanks helps us to see and discover the positive side of what may at first have seemed only negative to us. This, of course, reduces our stress and makes us happier, happy with the happiness of God, realizing and acknowledging that he is the giver of all we have received. And if it is God who has given us these things, these seemingly unfortunate circumstances, then they are truly gifts, and they are, therefore, for our good, and hence we should give thanks for them. Indeed, as Paul says, “God works all things for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28). So we need to love him, and show and grow in our love for him by thanking him for all that he has given us. This opens up our attitude to perceive the goodness that he is doing to us, even in things that do not at first seem good.

Perhaps it will be easier to thank him for things that seem negative if we start by thanking him for all the positive things he has done for us, things for which we are truly thankful, but may have forgotten about, or forgotten to keep thanking him for. Each one here could probably list about ten things for which he would like to thank God. And we can take our inspiration from the dramatic way in which the cleansed leper in today’s Gospel gives thanks for his healing. St. Luke tells us, “Then one of them, when he saw that we was healed, turned back praising God with a loud voice; and fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks” (Lk 17:15-16).

In preparing this homily, I listed twelve things for which I was deeply thankful to God. I suggest that you also reflect on the things you are most thankful for, and thank God for them. “…give thanks in all things,” says St. Paul, “For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess 5:18). As we approach Thanksgiving and enter into the season that reminds of us of Thanksgiving, with its turning and falling leaves and soft and mellow golden colors, let us also grow in our own spirit of thanksgiving, seeing God’s good hand in everything. “And do not get drunk with wine,” St. Paul says, “for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Eph 5:18-20).

EVANGELIZATION TRANSFORMS THE WORLD INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Feast of St. Luke, October 18

2 Tim 4:9-17; Ps 144; Lk 10:1-9 Preaching the Gospel, the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ, brings the light of Christ to the ends of the earth, to give to all a new opportunity to be freed from darkness and transferred to the light of Christ (Col 1:13-14). Christ wants all to walk in his light (Jn 8:12). He is the light of the world.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Luke, the evangelist. He preached Christ through his writing. Today we have new ways of writing and publishing, especially using the Internet. Thus we can imitate St. Luke not only orally, but also by our hands, using e-mail attachments, Websites, and even “blogs.” All these means of publication can be

236

used today to spread the joyful news of Jesus Christ and of the new and happy life in the light that we can have in him.

Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Lk 10:2). Luke was one of those laborers who called his hearers in all parts of the world to believe in God’s incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, because through faith in him, God “has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:12). This is the invitation which an evangelist, a preacher of the good news, presents to the world. And who would not want to live in this light if he could? Jesus Christ shows us the way to walk in his light. “I am the light of the world,” he says; “he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). He enables us to walk in his light when we believe in the good news of the preachers of the Gospel.

Christ came for our illumination, in order to irradiate us with the brilliance of his divinity. Through faith in the Son of God, the Father “has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:13-14).

How beautiful, then, is this occupation of preaching the Gospel, not only by word of mouth but also through writing, as did St. Luke, and for us by using even the Internet: e-mail, “blogs,” and Websites! How beautiful is the occupation of an evangelist and preacher of salvation!

Isaiah said about these preachers: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good, who publishes salvation” (Is 52:7). How beautiful are the feet of the evangelists which carry them over the mountains to bring the message of salvation in Jesus Christ unto the ends of the earth!

Since there were preachers like St. Luke, the prophetic words of the psalmist have come true, namely, that “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Ps 97:3). Today’s preachers can preach internationally in writing, reaching their audience on the same day, and without ever leaving their homes, by using the Internet; and in this way we can imitate the international ministry of St. Paul and St. Luke, and fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah about his servant, when he said, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Is 49:6).

We should not be ashamed of the Gospel, as St. Paul was not ashamed of it, and said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who believes” (Rom 1:16). And Jesus also warned us not be to be ashamed of the Gospel, saying, “whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed, when comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mk 8:38). We are not to be ashamed that the Gospel of salvation is based on faith, and that only by faith can we know it and benefit from it. Such is God’s plan for our salvation.

And on the positive side, Jesus tells us, “every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:32).

There are many who want to hear the joyful news, but few who preach it. Preaching the Gospel is an essential vocation, it is the enrichment of the world. It is necessary that

237

there be preachers, for “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ” (Rom 10:17). “And how are they to hear without a preacher?” (Rom 10:14).

Today we rejoice over evangelizers, preachers of the Gospel, because evangelization transforms the world into the Kingdom of God, and gives people the new opportunity to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be transformed.

The time of salvation has drawn near. Now is the time to repent and believe in the Gospel for your salvation. “…repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).

THE NARROW AND HARD WAY OF LIFE

Memorial of St. John de Brebeuf and St. Isaac Jogues, October 19, 2007 2 Cor 4:7-15; Ps 125; Mt 28:16-20

An evangelist and preacher of the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ will suffer much in this world, but will be consoled by God. We see this in today’s memorial of St. John de Brebeuf, St. Isaac Jogues, and their six companions, all French Jesuits and missionaries who preached faith in Christ to the Hurons and Iroquois of New York and Canada, and who were martyred by them between 1642 and 1649, after suffering extraordinary torments. And before their death they suffered many depravations and difficulties in evangelizing these peoples of North America. In them we have a beautiful picture illustrating for us what the life of a preacher of the joyful message of Jesus Christ is like.

Jesus said to us, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). In today’s saints we see what happens when we follow this command of Jesus. St. Paul gives us a summary of their life, saying, “I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like those sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men” (1 Cor 4:9). And “we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things” (1 Cor 4:13). These preachers of Christ were rejected by those whom they tried to save and direct along the ways of the new life in Jesus Christ. They tried to open up to them the new world of faith in the revelation which God has made to the world in his Son. And to do so they chose a life of depravation, persecution, and mistreatment for the love of Christ as their way of sacrificing themselves for love of him, and of bearing with him their cross.

While many prefer a comfortable life, filled with comforts and entertainments, these missionaries chose and followed another path, that of suffering for the love of Christ, sacrificing their lives for love of him, offering themselves in sacrifice with him to the Father in the Holy Spirit. St. Paul ironically describes the contrast between these two ways of life thus: “We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute” (1 Cor 4:10). Concerning the comfortable way, he says, “Already you are filled! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings!” (1 Cor 4:8). And “So death is at work in us, but life in you” (2 Cor 4:12).

238

St. Paul and these missionaries, however, chose the way of the death of Jesus, the way of not being satiated with the delights of this world, knowing that “as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor 1:5). Hence St. Paul and these preachers of the Gospel are “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Cor 4:10). This latter path is the way of life, because “whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mk 8:35). These missionaries are, therefore, models for us in how we should live in choosing the narrow and hard way of life, leaving aside the broad and spacious way of perdition (Mt 7:13-14).

THE LORD WHOM YOU SEEK WILL SUDDENLY COME

Saturday, 28th Week of the Year Rom 4:13,16-18; Ps 104; Lk 12:8-12

We are now approaching the end of the year, and the perspective of the liturgy more and more focuses us on the end of the world, and the need to prepare ourselves for the second coming of Christ in glory on the clouds of heaven. In the Office of Readings today we read, “and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple…behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like a fullers’ soap… For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch” (Mal 3:1,2: 4:1).

Now, in the plan of Christ, is the time of preparation for this great day, which can come at any moment. And woe to those who are not prepared! So has Jesus told us, saying, “Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come” (Mk 13:33). No one knows when the final trumpet will blow (Mt 24:31), when the angels “will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire” (Mt 13:41-42), and when “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43). But we do know that he will come suddenly (Mal 3:1), when we least expect it (Mt 24:44), like a thief in the night (Mt 24:43). And those who are prepared will enter with him into the Kingdom of God (Mt 25:10), while those who are not prepared will remain outside with the door closed (Mt 25:11-12).

What should we then do? Believe and pray! St. Paul tells us today that the promise was given to Abraham through faith (Rom 4:13). Abraham is a model for us, because by believing, we will be justified and prepared with the very righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, freely given to us by the merits of Christ. Then we have to pray constantly that God sanctify us. “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Mt 7:7). We should ask for our sanctification, and it will be given to us for having believed and asked with insistence. It is God who will sanctify us when we believe in his Son and ask constantly that our “spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23).

239

Another thing which we should also do is help others so that they too might be prepared and sanctified for the coming of the Lord. Thus we assist in the transformation of the world by Jesus Christ. We help others by giving testimony to Christ, as Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, saying, “every one who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God” (Lk 12:8-9).

There is no greater happiness, I believe, than to be sanctified by the merits of Jesus Christ through faith, praying constantly for this, and waiting with joy for his coming in glory, while preaching these riches to others for their preparation and transformation.

CONSTANT PRAYER

29th Sunday of the Year Ex 17:8-13; Ps 120; 2 Tim 3:14 – 4:2; Lk 18:1-8

We should pray constantly, asking for what we need. This is the teaching of this Sunday. What is it that you most want? Is it to be righteous before God with a clean and happy conscience, free from the suffering of guilt, and illumined? If you pray for this constantly day and night, it will be given to you. Or if there is also some other important thing in your life which you need, such as to be healed of a disease, for example, or whatever other thing it may be, you should pray for this thing day and night with perseverance in the name of Jesus Christ, and then rest assured that it will be given to you; or if not, something better still. And if you are not going to get what you asked for, but rather something better still, why worry any more about it? So should we pray, and then rest assured in peace and tranquility that God will take care of us in all our needs. If we pray, asking constantly for what we need, God will give us the best thing for us. Knowing this, we need worry no further; but rather live in peace and confidence in God.

And truly, very often we do not know what would really be the best thing for us. At times, for example, he does not want to give us a cure for a disease because he knows that living with a disease would be better for us. And if we pray for a cure and do not get it, we will then know without doubt that the disease is indeed his will for us, and is the best thing for us; and knowing this and having prayed about it, we can rest in peace and security, knowing that we now posses the best thing for us, through which God will bless us most abundantly.

Hence, St. Paul tells us, “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7). If we make known our petitions to God, “the peace of God which passes all understanding” will invade our hearts; and moreover we know that we will receive the best thing for having prayed. Thus we can live in peace.

If God is taking such good care of us, we need worry no further, but only make our petitions constantly known to him, and then live according to his will. What more could

240

we want than this “peace of God which passes all understanding,” which will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7)? And this is his promise to us.

And what does Jesus say about all this in today’s Gospel? He says that if the unjust judge vindicated the widow for her constancy in making her petition, then God, who is good, will also vindicate us for our perseverance in prayer. Therefore, we should pray day and night for what we need, and then live in peace, and without worry, because “will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you he will vindicate them speedily” (Lk 18:7-8), says Jesus as the conclusion to today’s parable.

What is the point of this parable? It is that we should pray day and night for what we need, as did this widow. She is for us an example and model of the constant prayer which receives a favorable response.

There is another widow in the Gospel of St. Luke who is also a model for us of constant prayer, the prophetess Ana, who was present in the temple when Joseph and Mary presented the child Jesus. St. Luke describes her, saying that she lived “as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day” (Lk 2:37). What a beautiful picture! She lived for God alone, living in the temple day and night in constant fasting and prayer. So should we too live if we want to please God and be happy, that is, we should live totally for God in every aspect of our life.

St. Paul also describes in the same way the life of the true widow, whom the Church supports financially. She, says Paul, is a person “not less than sixty years of age” (1 Tim 5:9), and he adds that “She who is a real widow, and is left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day” (1 Tim 5:5).

We can model our Christian life on these widows. They have passed their lives working in their families, and now, having reached an advanced age and remaining alone, they dedicate themselves to a contemplative life, and are supported by the Church. They are its contemplative branch. They pass what remains of their earthly life in constant prayer and fasting. They fulfill for the whole Church the teaching of St. Paul when he wrote, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Tim 5, 17), and be “constant in prayer:” (Rom 12:12).

A Christian, says St. Paul, should “pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Eph 6:18). Today we focus on this life of constant fasting and prayer; and the Scriptures assure us that we will be heard.

THE NEW LIFE OF PEACE WITH GOD AND HAPPINESS IN HIM

Thursday, 29th Week of the Year Rom 6:19-23; Ps 1; Lk 12:49-53

The readings today present us with a completely new kind of life. St. Paul gives us today a contrast between, on the one hand, the old way of living in uncleanness and impurity, a life which was a form of slavery, enslaving us to those things which we served, producing as fruit, death; and, on the other hand, the new way of living, being liberated

241

from all that, and made slaves of God, a life which has as its fruit, sanctification, and as its end, eternal life.

Who would want to be a slave of sin and death? Such a life is miserable, and those who live this way are miserable and unhappy, although for the moment, they experience pleasure in the flesh when they sin. But the rest of their life is a hell of sadness, darkness, depression, and guilt. They are infected with a fatal disease of the soul which poisons them and robs them of their peace and happiness.

But Christ came to show us the way of peace with God; and not only that, but he also came to free us from our slavery to sin, to be free in God, or servants and slaves of God. He freed us by dying for our sins on the cross, which is the sacrifice which reestablishes our peace with God. On the cross he was “wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed” (Is 53:5). He suffered our punishment for our sins to free us from punishment, so that we might go free from punishment, and from guilt, depression, darkness, and sadness, to live this new kind of life with God.

So then, “having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:18), to live now for holiness. “For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification” (Rom 6:19). St. Peter says that Christ “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Christ gave us a new life in which we can live in peace with God if we renounce all forms of sin, so that we might be freed from that disease of the spirit as we repent and invoke him with faith. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication… For God has not called us for uncleanness but in holiness” (1 Thess 4:3,7).

And Jesus today shows us what a great revolution this new life will cause in us, and that many, even our own families, will not understand us. He says that he came to bring division into the family (Lk 12:52-53) between those who accept him and his new life of holiness, and those who continue with their old way of life, seeking their pleasures here below, dividing their hearts, and forgetting God. And if they also live in sin, their spirit will be poisoned, miserable, and darkened.

IN CHRIST, WE HAVE DIED TO SIN

Friday, 29th Week of the Year Rom 7:18-25; Ps 118; Lk 12:54-59

Who is speaking in today’s first reading when we hear, “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Rom 7:18-19)? Who is this “I” who is speaking here? Could St. Paul really be speaking about himself in this great conflict with sin, in which sin is victorious, and St. Paul is the slave of sin?

Is this the same St. Paul who in the previous chapter (Rom 6) just said, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom 6:2)? and who said, “our old man was crucified

242

with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom 6:6), and who said, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11), and “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions” (Rom 6:12), and “having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:18), and “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification” (Rom 6:22).

It is clear from these texts that the mature Christian, such as St. Paul, has died with Christ to sin and risen in him to a new and risen life. The mature Christian, such as St. Paul, furthermore lives in the Spirit, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in his heart, giving him the power to do what he could not do under the old regime of the law. Hence in the following chapter (Rom 8) St. Paul will say, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2).

In other words, we live now, if we are mature Christians, in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit; and thus what was impossible for the flesh in that it was weak, is now possible, and we can walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Rom 8:3-4) by the power of the indwelling Spirit. Or, as St. Paul puts it, “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:3-4). St. John also tells us that we live in the Spirit and not in the flesh, because, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn 3:6).

Who then is this “I” who is speaking here, who lives according to the flesh? St. Paul is here impersonating an immature Christian. The “I” which he uses here does not represent the mature Christian, and certainly not himself. It is a Christian, but one who is still enslaved to the flesh and to sin. He does not yet live in the power and splendor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is not yet living a new and risen life, and does not yet live a life in the Spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This “I” is the impersonation of an immature Christian, who has not yet gotten to the point of having died to sin in Christ (Rom 6:2).

A mature Christian often falls into imperfections which trouble him greatly the more he grows spiritually, for God thus teaches him his will more fully and exactly, and thus helps him to grow in virtue, but in Christ he has died to sin. The conflict of Romans seven is not that of the mature Christian.

243

OBEYING THE MORAL LAW

IS NOT THE GROUND OF OUR JUSTIFICATION, BUT ITS FRUIT

Saturday, 29th Week of the Year Rom 8:1-11; Ps 23; Lk 13:1-9

Today Jesus tells us that if we do not repent, we will perish, saying, “unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Lk 13:3). That is, we have to obey the moral law, which is the will of God, if we want to live; if we do not obey it, we will perish.

And St. Paul explains to us today how we can obey the moral law of God. What an immature Christian lacks is the Holy Spirit, which dwells within us, empowering us to obey the moral law and the will of God. The essence of sanctification is obeying the moral law of God and obeying his will. And in Christ, having died with him to sin (Rom 6:11) and risen with him (Col 3:1-2) and walking in the splendor of his resurrection, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to now be able to do what we previously could not do. St. Paul tells us today that “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:3-4).

This means that we are now in a new salvation-historical situation. What was previously impossible (obeying the moral law of God) is now possible through the gift of the Holy Spirit messianically poured out on us through the coming, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and only Son of God.

What is this “just requirement of the law” that can now be fulfilled in us? It is first of all the just punishment of sin and of the sinner, because sin has to be punished. By sending his Son, this “just requirement of the law” was fulfilled in his death on the cross. He suffered this punishment for us. Hence St. Paul says today, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). There is now no condemnation for us for our sins because Christ bore this condemnation for us, being punished for us, in our place, on the cross. We are, therefore, now free from this condemnation.

But this “just requirement of the law” (Rom 8:4) is even more strikingly fulfilled in us because we now have a new power to obey it, which is the Holy Spirit. And obeying the law, its just requirement is fulfilled in us. Thus obeying the law is not the ground of our justification, but its fruit, the fruit of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us; and this fruit is the very meaning of sanctification. Therefore St. Paul adds that this “just requirement of the law” is fulfilled in us, “who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:4). When we live according to the Spirit, instead of according to the flesh, we fulfill and obey the law. Its “just requirement” is fulfilled in us and by us.

Hence we can now fulfill the “just requirement of the law” by obeying it, thus walking no longer according to the flesh, but according the Spirit, who is our new gift from God, empowering us to obey the moral law. Thus we do not merit our new status of being just before God by obeying the moral law, but we bear fruit for sanctity by obeying

244

it. In this way the Spirit conquers the flesh, divine justice is satisfied, and we are sanctified.

In this way we repent so that we do not perish.

THE SALVATION AND PEACE WITH GOD THAT WE ALL LONG FOR

30th Sunday of the Year Sir 35:15-17; Ps 33; 2 Tim 4:6-8,16-18; Lk 18:9-14

Today’s Gospel presents us with two kinds of righteousness, that of the Pharisees, which is a self-righteousness or self-justification based on one’s own good works, in which the Pharisee boasts; and the other kind of righteousness is that of the publican, who, “standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” (Lk 18:13).

The Pharisee destroyed everything by his pride. Moreover the righteousness of the Pharisee is the righteousness of works, while that of the publican is the righteousness which is a free gift of God given to him through faith. And what is Jesus’ conclusion? It is: “I tell you, this man (the publican) went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 18:14).

This parable of the Pharisee and the publican should be a great consolation and help to us, and also a warning not to boast about our good works. The Pharisee boasted that he was not a sinner like the publican; while the publican recognized himself as a sinner and was full of sadness and guilt; but instead of exalting himself, he humbled himself, admitting that he was a sinner and begging God’s mercy. And God granted it to him for his humility and faith.

How often can we identify with this publican! How often are we sad and feel unworthy like him! How many persons live in loneliness and sadness, far from God, not knowing the peace of God in their hearts! But the good news is that God has given us a way out of this pit, to be saved, to receive the forgiveness of our sins, and the love of Christ shining in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6). And this way out is that of faith in the Son of God, who was sent into the world to save us from all this and make us anew, new men (Eph 4:22-24), a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), justified and righteous before God, although we were sinners and unworthy of his love. He justifies us freely when we invoke him with faith. St. Paul says, “if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved. The Scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame’… For, ‘every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Rom 10:9-11,13).

Christ himself, by his obedience to God, merited for us this status of being righteous before God. He is the only righteous man who is righteous in himself, and his merits gained for us this same status of being righteous before God with all our sins annihilated and totally forgiven, so that we can live before God free of all that, freed from our past in

245

the freedom of the sons of God, only for having believed in him and invoked him, the only Son of the Father.

At the same time, those who in their pride glory in their own righteousness through their works will return home unjustified before God because no one can be so righteous that he can merit this status of righteousness by his own efforts. Although this Pharisee did not commit adultery, nor was a thief, and fasted twice a week and gave alms, this is not enough to be truly righteous and clean before God. He would need an observance that was perfect in everything to merit this status by his own works. And no one has been able to do that. Only Christ was that righteous, and the Virgin Mary, through the merits of Christ. Only Christ merited for us this state of happiness, heavenly peace, and light when we call upon him in faith. If we do this, in a short time he will enter into us to indwell us (Jn 14:23), shining in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6), making us righteous by his merits.

This is what St. Paul is talking about when he says that the “Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law did not succeed in fulfilling that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it through faith, but as if it were based on works… For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Rom 9:30-32; 10:3).

If you are suffering now, feeling far from God, a sinner, far from his justice, there is a way of salvation for you. Your salvation is in the Savior whom God has sent into the world to save sinners, so that that which no one has been able to reach by his own efforts, can now be reached through the merits of Christ, through faith in him and by invoking his name and repenting of their sins, promising him that they will begin a new life with the power of the Spirit. Perhaps you will have to wait some hours, but in a short time Christ will lift you up, and you will return home justified and happy like the publican in today’s parable.

Thus we shall be like St. Paul who even if he could have attained his own righteousness through works of the law, did not want to, but rather only wanted the righteousness of God which is by faith, which is much better. He wanted to be found in Christ, he says, “not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil 3:9).

THE SAINTS LIVE A NEW KIND OF LIFE IN THIS WORLD

Solemnity of All Saints, November 1 Rev 7:2-4,9-14; Ps 23; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12

Today we rejoice with all the saints who lived for God with all their heart, rejecting sin and living in obedience to his will. The psalms of the divine office today are filled with sentiments which can help us to understand the lives of the saints, whom we try to imitate. I would like to reflect on a few of these verses today.

Psalm 14 says, “O Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tent? Who shall dwell on thy holy mountain? He who walks blamelessly, and does what is right, and speaks truth from his

246

heart; who does not slander with his tongue, and does no evil to his friend, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor” (Ps 14:1-3). The one who will dwell on the mountain of the Lord is one who lives well, according to the will of God, one who rejects sin, and lives in integrity.

Christ justified us by the merits of his death and resurrection, by means of faith, not by our works. It is a free gift of God who erases our sins and fills us with his light and splendor when we believe in him and invoke his name. But if we sin, we lose or diminish all of this. The saint is someone who grows in holiness through confessing his sins, repenting and renouncing them, and seeking God with all his heart. He is the one who will find him, as Jeremiah says, “You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord” (Jer 29:13).

The saints live a new life in Christ and walk in the splendor of his resurrection because they live in integrity. On the last day the saints “will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43). And, to tell the truth, they begin to shine even now in this life because they purify themselves and live uniquely for the Lord in every aspect of their lives. They live in voluntary poverty—“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). They live in simplicity and austerity, a life of prayer and fasting, because they really want God to be their only pleasure. This is not just a theory with them, but a new way of living in this world. Thus they try to eliminate all other unnecessary pleasure from their life, to live for God alone—body and soul—with all their heart. They believe in God not only with their minds and souls, but also with their bodies, as complete persons, in all that they do, in every aspect of their life. Thus they also deprive their bodies in fasting and mortification to live for God alone, to rejoice in him alone, and thus enter into union with him and live in his light. Hence their bodies as well as their minds pray. They pray as whole persons.

So lived the Desert Fathers—austere lives of constant fasting and prayer, lives of great simplicity and voluntary poverty, new and risen lives in the splendor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, lives lived in the light, far from the entertainments of this world. They purified both their body and spirit to live in the light. They rejected sin, which they recognized as the death of the spirit. They are, therefore, the pure of heart whom Jesus proclaims “Blessed” in today’s Gospel: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8).

The saints are also persecuted for the sake of justice and for their manner of living, but they rejoice in their persecutions which make them even more like Christ and increase their joy. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake…” says Jesus today. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Mt 5:10,12).

We shall see God, says St. John today. “…we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 Jn 3:2-3). This is the preoccupation of the saints. They purify themselves to be more like Christ. And “he appeared to take away sins,” says St. John, “and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins” (1 Jn 3:5-6). Christ came to free us from sin; and he wants us to renounce sin. Yes, we fall into imperfections, but we try to purify ourselves from these also. But sin is something which we should renounce to purify ourselves, to see God and be like him, to enter into union with him.

“The eyes of the Lord,” says the psalmist, “are toward the righteous, and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of

247

them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles” (Ps 33:15-17). Those who do evil, who sin, will experience God’s wrath; but the saints who obey him with all their heart will be protected by God. He hears them and protects them; and they walk in his light. “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them… O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no want!” (Ps 33:7,9). When we obey him, we will live in his protection and light. The saints are those who lived thus, and show us the way.

The saints allow themselves to be divinized by their faith and their obedient life. They praise God as much with their bodies as with their minds, as much in their actions as in their prayers, as much in their way of living as in their way of thinking, as much in their obedience as in their faith. They praise the Lord as much in the holiness of their life and behavior as in their good ideas and good thoughts. Their religion is more than faith, more than an idea or an attitude or a theory; it is a way of living with the body, a new way of living in this world. Their religion is a life obedient to the will of God. “The Lord loves those who hate evil,” says the psalmist; “he preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart” (Ps 96:10-11).

GRANT THEM ETERNAL REST, O LORD, AND MAY ETERNAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM

All Souls Day, November 2

Is 25:6-9; Rom 14:7-12; Jn 11:32-45 Today is the day on which we go to the cemetery to pray for all the faithful departed and visit their graves; and today priests may celebrate three Masses for the faithful departed that they might be forgiven and purified of all their sins and thus be able to enter into the fullness of God’s Kingdom.

Today we remember that we will all die and that we do not live only for this present life, but rather were created for something better, a life with God, full of happiness and divine love. But our sins and imperfections are the obstacles which block us along this way and deprive us of the light and happiness which God wants to give us. Therefore we pray today for our departed relatives and friends that God may forgive them for their sins and purify them so that they might enter into his glory.

We are not to live for ourselves, but rather for the Lord, for him who died and rose for us. Only by living in this way will we fulfill our being in God’s plan for us. St. Paul tells us this today, saying, “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:7-8). We are to live for the Lord; not for our own pleasure. We are to die to ourselves to live for him, and no longer for ourselves.

We will be happy only if we die to ourselves in a life of mortification and asceticism, offering ourselves as a sacrifice of love to him who died and rose for us. He is to be our only Lord and Master (Mt 6:24), our only treasure (Mt 6:19-21), the buried treasure, for which we sell all else (Mt 13:44). “For to this end,” says St. Paul today, “Christ died and

248

lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom 14:9). And to the Corinthians St. Paul wrote, saying, “He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). If he died for us, we also ought to die for him, that is, die to ourselves, to live from now on for him who died and rose for us.

To live for Christ is eternal life, because he has the power to raise the dead. He who today cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” (Jn 11:43) will say the same thing to the faithful departed, and to us also on the last day. Our hope for eternal life is in him for whom we live. The more we live for him and not for ourselves, all the surer is our hope to live eternally with him through his power. Thus today we pray for those who have already died, that they might be cleansed of their sins and imperfections to be able to enter into the fullness of the Kingdom of God and rejoice at the messianic banquet on the Lord’s holy mountain (Is 25:6).

ASCETICISM: THE HUMBLING OF OURSELVES BEFORE GOD, TO BE EXALTED BY HIM

Saturday, 30th Week of the Year

Rom 11:1-2,11-12,25-29; Ps 93; Lk 14:1,7-11 The wonderful talk of our guest speaker last night reminded our monastic community of the importance of asceticism, and told us that if large sectors of the Church today reject asceticism in principle, people will turn elsewhere to find ascetical teaching and expression, for the need for ascetical living is deeply rooted in our nature. He also told us that today we are going through a phase of Church history in which asceticism is being rejected in many sectors of the Church, including his own Orthodox Church. This rejection is surely part of the secularization of Christianity in general, and of Catholicism in particular, presently going on in both Europe and the United States, resulting, among other things, in the current drastic fall off of vocations to the priesthood and religious life, which are traditionally ascetical ways of living.

Today’s readings can give us some insight into the meaning of asceticism and into the problem of its rejection in many sectors of the Church today. Today’s Gospel shows us the inner meaning of Christian asceticism when Jesus says, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 14:11). Asceticism is the humbling of ourselves before God. It is a humbling in action, whereby we act out our self-humbling before God, expressing our belief that God alone is worth living for and totally devoting ourselves to. Hence we deny ourselves to exalt God, not ourselves. We humble ourselves before him by acknowledging him alone as our Master, him alone as our goal in life, for whom we will henceforth live. An ascetic wants God alone to be his treasure, his only treasure for which he will live (Mt 6:19-21), his only Lord, whom he will serve (Mt 6:24). He humbles himself before God by renouncing all else to serve him alone.

God is the hidden treasure which we can only attain by renouncing all else, as did the man in the parable who discovered a buried treasure, or a pearl of great price (Mt 13:44-

249

46). He could only attain possession of this treasure or pearl at the price of renouncing all else he had, all other treasures, all other pearls. This is humbling himself before God, to be exalted by him, to find him and rejoice in him. But this finding of God comes at a price, at the price of renouncing all else, at the price of living an ascetical life, at the price of living for God alone, at the price of humbling ourselves before God in this way, to be exalted by him (Lk 14:11).

Asceticism is reducing our pleasures in other things to find our joy in life increasingly in God alone, and thus finding and gaining possession of this pearl of great price (Mt 13:45-46) and of this buried treasure (Mt 13:44), which is the Kingdom of God within us. Thus do we seek God with all our heart, with an undivided heart. This is why Jesus blesses the one who renounces home, possessions, etc. for his sake (Lk 18:29).

Today’s first reading can also help us in this reflection, for it tells us that when the Jews turned away from Christ, this opened up the Gentile mission. What the Jews rejected henceforth flourished among the Gentiles, just as asceticism, so fundamental to our nature, though rejected today in many sectors of the Church, is now flourishing outside the Church. How much better, though, would it flourish if it had the Church’s guidance.

BE PREPARED FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD

31st Sunday of the Year Wisdom 11:22 - 12:2; Ps 144; 2 Thess 1:11 – 2:2; Lk 19:1-10

We have now reached the 31st Sunday of the Year. This advanced number, the growing hours of darkness, the cold, and the weather outside all remind us of the liturgical season we are now in. This is the last month of the liturgical year, whose recurring theme is the coming of the Lord. Today’s second reading keeps this dominant theme of the present liturgical season in view, for Paul speaks in it “concerning the Parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him” (2 Thess 2:1). In fact, some were living in such great expectation that they even thought that the day of the Lord had already come! So Paul has to remind them of the various other things that must come first, before the day of the Lord finally dawns.

These are days, then, when we should be living in this kind of eager expectation for the Lord’s coming, when he himself “will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God” (1 Thess 4:16). We should therefore be ever preparing ourselves, and be always ready, for no one knows the hour of his coming. “For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thess 5:2), St. Paul tells us.

Today’s Gospel about the chief tax collector of Jericho, Zacchaeus, should help us in our reflections on how we can prepare ourselves for the Day of the Lord, so that “sudden destruction” does not overtake us, and there “be no escape” (1 Thess 5:3). We need to be always prepared, ever preparing ourselves more for that day, which is already extending its light upon us.

250

Jeremiah tells us, “You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord (Jer 29:13-14). Here is the real key to our preparation for meeting the Lord. If we want to come into union with God, this is what we must do. We must seek him with all our heart, with an undivided heart, as those who serve only one Master (Mt 6:24).

St. John Cassian speaks of purity of heart as the goal of the monastic life, that is, a heart which lives for God alone, which seeks its joy only in him, and renounces all else. All the renunciations and purifications of the monastic life are ordered to this end, namely, purity of heart, in order to come into union with God in a life of contemplation. All else is preparation for this. All the renunciations of the good things of this world are for the sake of attaining purity of heart, a heart focused uniquely on the Lord, an undivided heart, a heart that serves but one Master only, and in him finds all its delight.

So now when Jesus invites this wealthy chief tax collector to come down from the sycamore tree and welcome him into his home so that he might lodge there for the night, we can well imagine the gasps of surprise and shock that ran through the crowd. “And when they saw it they all murmured, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner’” (Lk 19:7). The crowd knew that Jesus was a holy man, a prophet, a man of God, a man with a pure and undivided heart. How then could he go in to be the guest of a man like Zacchaeus who didn’t live by any of these values? They were scandalized that Jesus should be his guest.

But then comes the surprising conclusion. Zacchaeus is converted by Jesus’ attention towards him. And what does Zacchaeus do? He immediately promises to divest himself of half of his wealth and to make fourfold restitution for anything he has gained by fraud. Jesus takes him at his word, and proclaims him saved that very day—a man who was, up until then, lost. “Today salvation has come to this house,” he says, “…For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Lk 19:9-10).

This man who was lost is now found. He voluntarily divests himself of his possessions, knowing instinctively that this is what he must do in response to Jesus’ acceptance of him. And so salvation can enter his heart. He can now grow towards purity of heart and be prepared for God’s coming to him. Perhaps he had already heard about what Jesus had just said to the rich young man, namely, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Lk 18:24-25). In any case, Zacchaeus knows immediately what he must do if he is to repent and believe in Jesus and become a new man, a person living in constant readiness for the coming of the Lord, a person with a pure and undivided heart.

So he strips himself of much of his wealth. He unclutters his way of life and his heart. He renounces the worldly joys he once lived for. He is ready now to live for the Lord. And so he receives the salvation freely given to him by Jesus, as it will be freely given to us when we invoke him in faith and repentance for our sins. We will then grow in holiness as we divest ourselves to live for him alone.

So we can follow Zacchaeus’ example, seeking to live totally for God with all our heart. Thus do we prepare ourselves by purity of heart to come into union with God; and thus can we await with eager expectation for the day when there “will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven…and [we] will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet

251

call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mt 24:30-31).

MAY WE LIVE FOR THE LORD, AND THUS REMAIN IN HIS LOVE

Thursday, 31st Week of the Year Rom 14:7-12; Ps 26; Lk 15:1-10

Jesus Christ came into the world to call sinners. He therefore receives them and eats with them, saying, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mk 2:17). And today Jesus shows us what joy there is in heaven over one sinner who repents. He says, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Lk 15:7).

And we too, when we repent and beg God’s forgiveness through the merits of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross—we too feel this joy in our soul when God grants us this forgiveness for which we have asked. There is, I believe, no greater and realer joy than this. It is peace in the depths of the heart which unites us to God and illumines us from within. And with this joy, we can endure every other kind of suffering.

But we must ask in faith in Jesus Christ for this forgiveness, this peace, this restoration of God’s favor in our soul; and then we must wait a bit until God gives it to us and we feel it in the depths of our heart. Then we can rejoice with the angels of God who are rejoicing over our conversion.

It should then be our greatest endeavor to try to remain in this love by obeying God’s will in everything, so that he does not have to punish us again for having offended him anew. But if we fall out of his favor again, then we have to ask him again for his forgiveness, and wait until we receive it. We may have to do this often.

And how should we then live to remain in God’s favor and grow in this splendor? St. Paul gives us our answer today in the first reading, saying, “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom 14:7-9). That is, we are to live for him, and no longer for ourselves.

This is why monks fast, do not eat meat, live in enclosures, and deprive themselves of the pleasures of this world, living austere lives of silence, renunciation, and prayer. It is because they do not want to live for themselves, but for the Lord. They live like this to live only for the Lord with an undivided heart, reserved exclusively for him, and only for him. This is also why monks are celibate; that is, to reserve their heart for him alone. The Lord should be our only Lord (Mt 6:24), our only treasure (Mt 6:19-21). And to the Corinthians, St. Paul wrote, “he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). Living like this, for the Lord, and no longer for ourselves, we can live in the joy of the angels over one sinner who repents.

252

And Jesus also says, “remain in my love” (Jn 15:9). He wants us to live in and remain in this love and joy of being reconciled and at peace with God. For this reason he came into the world, to reconcile us with God, so that we might live for him and remain in his love, living henceforth for him, and no longer for ourselves, nor for our pleasures. The more we renounce the pleasures of this world, the more we will rejoice with the true joy of Jesus Christ in our heart, and remain in his love.

THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM, CITY OF GOLD AND LIGHT

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, November 9

1 Cor 3:9-11,16-17; Ps 45; Jn 2:13-22 Today we celebrate the dedication on this day in the year 324 of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, constructed by the emperor Constantine. This dedication is significant for us because the Lateran Basilica, being the Pope’s cathedral, is a symbol of the unity and university of the Church, a unity which is not yet complete, but which we ever pray for.

The universal Church, extending through all parts of the world, is in itself for its part also “a temporal sign of the heavenly Jerusalem,” as the prayer after communion today says; and we cannot celebrate this feast without remembering this, especially during the month of November when we are increasingly meditating on the end of all things and our final goal, which is to live in the heavenly Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem has no temple in it, says St. John in the Apocalypse, “for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev 21:22). Hence John said, “I saw no temple in the city” (Rev 21:22). The city itself is a temple, the dwelling of God.

This city is the light in our darkness which illumines our path through the murky mist of this world. This city which shines out from afar and in which we will see God face to face, “as he is” (1 Jn 3:2) beckons us on to continue our journey toward it through this world so filled with darkness.

We also are temples of God, as St. Paul teaches us today, saying, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are” (1 Cor 3:16-17). If we are temples of God, we should look like a temple, clean, forgiven of our sins by the merits of Jesus Christ through faith, and illumined by him, shining within us with his new life (2 Cor 4:6).

We are, hence, on a journey toward the heavenly Jerusalem, the city which contains the glory of God, and which is clear as Crystal (Rev 21:11), whose radiance is like jasper (Rev 21:11), while the city itself is of “pure gold, clear as glass” (Rev 21:18). And in the vision of St. John, he also saw that “the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass” (Rev 21:21).

How splendid is the heavenly Jerusalem! During our journey toward it, drawn by its splendor which we see shining through the murky mist of this present life, we ourselves ought to be in a process of personal transformation in its image. And thus we too will be lights shining in the mist for the rest (Phil 2:15), showing them the path toward the goal

253

of our common journey. Thus being transformed, we shall be temples of Christ, who dwells within our hearts, shining in them (2 Cor 4:6); and we will also be temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16-17).

Christ transforms and fills us with light, making us “lights in the world” “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,” in which we shine (Phil 2:15). Thus we are to live ahead of time, in spirit, in the heavenly Jerusalem, even in the midst of this old world. This is because “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20); and we can live in spirit where we have our citizenship, in this illumined city which “has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the lamb” (Rev 21:23).

As Jesus today cleanses the temple in Jerusalem, he also wants to cleanse us, so that we might be pure and illumined temples of God in the midst of the world, lights in the mist of this life, showing to the rest, by means of our testimony, the way to the heavenly Jerusalem.

DO YOU WANT TO HAVE THE LIGHT AND THE PEACE OF CHRIST IN YOUR HEART?

Saturday, 31st Week of the Year

Rom 16:3-9,16,22-27; Ps 144; Lk 16:9-15 Jesus teaches us today how we are to conduct ourselves towards material goods, money, and the riches of this world. The principle involved in all of this is that we cannot serve two masters; and if we try to serve both God and mammon, we will end up in a disaster.

Jesus says today, “No servant can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16:13). Rather, we are to use our wealth to help others and to do good in this world, trying to improve it, and not for our own pleasures, because “every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 18:14). One exalts himself by living for himself, instead of living for the Lord; and St. Paul teaches us that “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord” (Rom 14:7-8).

It is true that those who try to live for themselves are the unhappiest and most miserable of all; while those who live for the Lord and use their talents and goods to truly help others are the happiest of all with the true happiness of God in the depths of their heart. This is because these latter are living correctly, that is, according to God’s will.

Therefore Jesus tells us today, “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations” (Lk 16:9). Yes, we are to use our money, but for the good of our neighbor out of love for God; and not for our own material pleasure, which would be to live for ourselves and try to serve two masters.

Jesus also says today, “He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in a very little is unjust also in much” (Lk 16:10). The very little are material goods. If we are not faithful with them, then surely we will also be unfaithful in more important things, which are spiritual goods. Therefore someone who uses material goods (money, food, drink, clothing, etc.) abusively, that is, for his own pleasure,

254

exalting himself with them, will not make much progress spiritually, that is, will make little progress in the important things. He will abuse them too. Thus being unjust in the very little, he is also unjust in much (Lk 16:10). He will be a disaster before God, a disaster spiritually, and unhappy inside—he will be miserable, in fact—because he is not living according to God’s will. He is not living as God made him to live.

In fact, if we do not behave correctly with material goods, we will not have spiritual goods, because God will not give them to us. This is what Jesus tells us next, saying, “If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches?” (Lk 16:11). And the true riches are the spiritual goods, that is, the light of Jesus Christ shining in our heart, rejoicing us in the depths of our being. We will not receive these spiritual riches if we do not behave correctly toward material goods. We will be spiritually poor and unhappy.

Jesus also says today, “And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?” (Lk 16:12). That which is another’s is exterior wealth and material goods. That which is our own will be the light and the peace of Christ rejoicing our hearts. If we are not faithful with material goods, we will not receive spiritual goods. So we see that our behavior towards material goods, that is, that which another’s, will determine whether or not we receive spiritual goods, that is, that which is our own. The choice is ours. The life of our spirit depends on how we behave towards material goods.

THEY ARE EQUAL TO ANGELS, BEING SONS OF THE RESURRECTION

32nd Sunday of the Year

2 Maccabees 7:1-2,9-14; Ps 16; 2 Thess 2:16 - 3:5; Lk 20:27-38 We are now well into November, the month of the dead, and the last month of the liturgical year. The theme of the next life and of the resurrection of the dead comes now ever more to the fore. Today we are presented with the martyrdom of the seven brothers and their mother for the sake of God’s laws, and we see how they all died willingly rather than violate the law of God by eating unlawful swine’s flesh. In their torture, being mutilated, scalped, and fried alive, they were sustained by their hope in the resurrection. And in today’s Gospel about another seven brothers who each in turn married the same woman, each one dying and leaving her to the next, we are taught by Jesus something about what the resurrection life will be like. It will be very different from this present life in which people marry and beget children. About that life Jesus says today, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Lk 20:34-36).

Both these readings focus our sights today on the life of the world of the resurrection, and hence focus our attention and meditation on the future, in keeping with the dominant theme of our present liturgical season. The resurrection will take place not when we die, but on the last day when the bodies of the dead shall rise, when the Lord will return on

255

the clouds of heaven in great glory and majesty and when the archangel will sound the final trumpet blast and gather in the elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other (Mt 24:30-31). On that day the dead shall rise, and those who are still living at the time will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye, putting on immortality to live with God forever (1 Cor 15:50-53).

There will, however, be a double resurrection, one to glory, and the other to damnation, as Daniel teaches us, saying, “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever” (Dan 12:2-3).

We hear these things to help and encourage us to prepare ourselves now so that we might be a part of the resurrection to everlasting life with God, so that we might even anticipate this final state now in some way, living in the light of Christ, always prepared, always preparing, ever watching, ever vigilant, seeking to devote ourselves always to the Lord with as undivided a heart as possible.

Jesus too tells us that there will be a double resurrection. The rich man and Lazarus each went to different places, one to the bosom of Abraham (Lk 16:22), while the other was tormented in flames (Lk 16:23-24). The sheep and the goats will then finally be separated, the former will be put at Jesus’ right hand, while the goats are placed at his left (Mt 25:33). To those on his right Jesus will say, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34); while to those on his left he will say, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41). About this day of double resurrection Jesus also says, “the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (Jn 5, 28-29).

And finally Jesus tells us about the harvest at the end of the age when the angels will be the reapers, saying, “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there they shall weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:40-43).

The seven brothers together with their mother who were all put to death for not eating swine’s flesh were sustained in their sufferings by their hope of the resurrection. This hope was a thing of the present for them, giving them the strength and the courage they needed to do what was right, even through it meant that they would suffer greatly in this world. “We are ready to die,” said the first brother, “rather than transgress the laws of our fathers” (2 Macc 7:2). Rather than violate God’s will, they faced death in the hopes of the resurrection. “You dismiss us from this present life,” said the second brother, “but the King of the Universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life because we have died for his laws” (2 Macc 7:9).

We are to do the same. Sustained by the glorious hope of the resurrection, we are to despise all torment and persecution, and resolutely remain faithful to doing God’s will. We will be persecuted, as were these seven brothers and their mother, but this only makes all the more certain the hope laid out for us. And for doing his will, the Lord will shine upon us.

256

Finally, we note, concerning those other seven brothers who all married the same woman, that Jesus tells us today that there will be no difficulty at all in knowing whose wife she will be in the world of the resurrection, for in the resurrection life, marriage will no longer exist. All will be celibate.

We see in this that those who are celibate now in this life perform an important service for the whole Church, reminding it of what all who reach the world of the resurrection will be like. Celibates, monks, live already ahead of time an anticipation of the life of the resurrection, living solely for God with a completely undivided heart, in which all their affection is focused on the Lord alone. This is the ultimate goal of all. In the world of the resurrection, Jesus says, all “are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Lk 20:36). That is why the monastic life has traditionally often been called “the angelic life,” for monks seek to live now in this world the life of the angels, in focusing only on God; and thus they are eschatological signs for the sake of the whole Church.

Let us, therefore, have the courage of the seven brothers who were martyred for their faithfulness to God’s will, being strengthened, as they were, by our hope in the resurrection, where we will be like the angels of heaven, with hearts totally undivided in our love of the Lord. Let us try to anticipate that angelic life now, each in his own way, according to his vocation.

THEY LEFT ALL TO OBTAIN THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

Feast of All Saints of the Benedictine Family, November 13 1 Cor 7:25-35; Mt 19:27-29

Today we celebrate all the saints of the Benedictine Family, all those who have left all to follow Jesus, hoping thereby to have treasure in heaven in exchange for the earthly treasure they left behind, for Jesus said to the rich young man, “go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me” (Mk 10:21).

Today’s saints sanctified themselves as monks, as those who have left this world behind to follow Christ with all their heart, with an undivided heart (1 Cor 7:32-35). They made themselves the last in this world; and have become the first before God (Mt 19:30). They are the ones who received the hundredfold reward now in this life because of their sacrifice, and who are now enjoying eternal life in glory with Christ (Mk 10:29-30), for Jesus said, “there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time…” (Mk 10:29-30).

These are those who, knowing how hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, have made themselves poor in this world for the love of Christ. They knew Jesus’ teaching that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Mt 19:24), and desiring to enter that kingdom, they left everything else behind and followed Jesus’ invitation, which the rich young man turned down (Mt 19:22). They are those who lost their lives in this world for Christ, and thus

257

truly found their life in Christ, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:25).

Those who try to save their life by filling themselves with the good things of this world, lose their lives with God; while those who renounce the good things of this life to be able to love God with a still more undivided heart and undivided attention are those who save their lives with God, and receive the hundredfold reward now in this life, together with persecutions (Mk 10:29-30).

Hence these monastic saints renounced their lives in this world to live a life of prayer and fasting in the desert, in silence and solitude, far from the world. They hated their lives in this world, and so sanctified themselves before God and kept their lives for eternal life, knowing that those who love their lives in a worldly way will lose their lives before God; for Jesus said, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:25).

These monastic saints lived for one treasure only, and their treasure was Christ. They renounced all earthly treasure as dividing their heart and their interests. They wanted to be single-minded in their pursuit of their heavenly goal, knowing that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21). In this they followed Jesus’ teaching when he said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven…” (Mt 6:19-20).

In this way they served one Master only, knowing Jesus’ teaching that no one can serve two masters, especially if one of them is mammon, that is worldly wealth and worldly pleasures, for, as Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and mammon” and “No one can serve two masters” (Mt 6:24).

How true this is, for when we try to serve our own bodily pleasures, our hearts become divided, as do our desires and interests, and God is the loser in our hearts. He has to compete with these other things for our attention, which he does not want to do. He wants all of our heart for himself. He wants all of our attention in an undivided heart, reserved as exclusively as possible for him alone.

These monastic saints responded to this desire of God in a radical way in order to give him unique free rein in their hearts. They even left their families to live for him alone, knowing Jesus’ saying, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26). They also remembered Jesus’ saying, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead” (Mt 8:22). They therefore tried to keep nothing back, knowing that Jesus said, “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:33).

These monastic saints were also celibate for the love of Christ. Knowing that all who reach the world of the resurrection will be celibate and like the angels of God, neither marrying nor given in marriage (Lk 20:34-36), they wanted to live that heavenly, angelic life now ahead of time on this earth, focusing themselves with all the love of their heart only on Christ, thus being a constant reminder to the whole Church of her own final end—to be celibate in the world of the resurrection. They thus performed this service of being a reminder to the whole Church of her own end.

258

These saints gained possession of the buried treasure and pearl of great price by renouncing all they had, to obtain it (Mt 13:44-46). May we be enlightened on our path by their example.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU

Thursday, 32nd Week of the Year Wisdom 7:22 - 8:1; Ps 118; Lk 17:20-25

Today we hear these striking words of Jesus: “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17:20-21). The word translated “within you” could also be translated “in the midst of you,” as the RSV translates it. The King James and the New King James versions translate it “within you.” Or we can take it as intending to mean both, for it does mean both. The Kingdom of God, then, is here, in the midst of us, and it is within us. Yet not all observe it, or are aware of it, or see it, or experience it. And if we fall into sin, it is covered over for us, or our inner spiritual eyes are covered over so that we do not perceive it as clearly.

It is for this Kingdom within and in our midst that Jesus came, so that our eyes might be opened to see and perceive things which they do not otherwise see. He came to fill us with his own righteousness and light, with his own splendor, which he has as the image and word of God. He came so that we might live in this Kingdom and experience its presence within our hearts, so that our hearts might be filled with light, divine love, and heavenly peace.

Jesus is the wisdom and word of God. The first reading describes divine wisdom. This is what Jesus is with the Father, and for us. He is “a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty” (Wisdom 7:25), “a reflection of eternal light” (Wisdom 7:26), which comes into our darkness to burn away our sin and fill us with light, so that we might perceive the Kingdom of God within and all around us, the Kingdom in our midst.

Jesus also says today, “For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day” (Lk 17:24). In Matthew’s version this saying reads, “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the Parousia of the Son of Man” (Mt 24:27). From one end of the heavens to the other, from the east as far as the west, a light will shine and light up the heavens at the Parousia of the Son of Man. On that day the Kingdom will finally be manifest. It will no longer only be within us, illumining us from within, but invisible to unbelievers. On that day, at his Parousia, or second coming, it will be seen by all, for on that day “the powers of the heavens will be shaken” and “then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven” (Mt 24:29-30).

If we do not perceive his Kingdom within us now, we will not be prepared for it when he comes in glory. Now, then, is the time of preparation, so that we may both perceive his Kingdom now, and be ready to greet him when he returns in glory.

259

AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH, SO WILL IT BE IN THE DAYS OF THE SON OF MAN

Friday, 32nd Week of the Year

Wisdom 13:1-9; Ps 18; Lk 17:26-37 We are warned by Jesus today to prepare for his coming, and not be like the generation of Noah’s day, eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, right up until the day the flood came and swept them all away, unprepared and unrepentant (Lk 17:27). For “As it was in the days of Noah,” says Jesus today, “so will it be in the days of the Son of Man” (Lk 17:26).

How easy it is just to go along with the times, with the culture, with the trends, with what everybody else is doing, regardless of whether it is good or bad in itself, spiritual or worldly. The things mentioned here by Jesus are not bad in themselves. The fault of these people was that this is all that they were doing, and they were doing it for the wrong reasons and the wrong motives. They were simply living for their own pleasures, entertainments, work, and interests, dividing their hearts in many directions, losing themselves completely in the world and its concerns, joys, loves, and interests. They lived without God; and as a result fell into great sins.

We perhaps have been successful in avoiding great sins, but we shouldn’t put our confidence in that if we are living a purely worldly life, living for the common pleasures of this world, like everybody else.

Here is how Jesus described their situation: “Likewise as it was in the days of Lot—they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Lk 17:28-30).

Something more than this is demanded of us. Because they lived only for this, they fell into great sins, and God destroyed them all suddenly, leaving them no opportunity to repent. Now is the time to reflect and repent. Now is the time to change our direction and orientation in life. Now is the time to change our style of living. Now is the time to begin to live for the Lord alone with all our heart, and give up all the rest, all the worldly pleasures of food and drink, and other useless worldly pastimes, and begin truly to focus on the Lord. The end will come quickly. Two will be in one bed. One will be taken, the other will be left (Lk 17:34).

We are to live in the presence of the Lord, in a state of constant preparedness and readiness, with our heart focused on him, and no longer divided among the good things of this world, as were the hearts of the generations of Noah and Lot. We should be ready for the Lord’s coming at any moment, so that we do not have to turn back.

260

WHILE GENTLE SILENCE ENVELOPED ALL THINGS,

AND NIGHT IN HER SWIFT COURSE WAS NOW HALF SPENT

Saturday, 32nd Week of the Year Wisdom 18:14-16; 19:6-9; Ps 104; Lk 18:1-8

Today we hear one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture. It reads: “For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in her swift course was now half spent, thy all-mighty word leaped down from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed” (Wisdom 18:14-15). Night is the time of peace, the time of sleep, when our body is restored and healed. It is a time of silence and contemplation. And, in the plan of God, it was also the time of salvation.

The plague of the death of the first-born in Egypt took place at midnight, and at that very hour Pharaoh expelled Israel from its slavery in the land of Egypt. “It was a night of watching by the Lord,” says Scripture, “to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations” (Ex 12:42). This is so, for “At midnight,” says Scripture, “the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon” (Ex 12:29). This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the mouth of Moses, saying, “Thus says the Lord: About midnight I will go forth in the midst of Egypt; and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die” (Ex 11:4-5).

Then the Lord divided the waters of the sea by night: “and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night,” says Scripture, “and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided” (Ex 14:21). This was God’s greatest act of salvation for Israel; and it took place at night, when all was silent.

Then, in the fullness of time, Mary “brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger” (Lk 2:7). And this too took place at night, for it was first announced by the angelic herald to the shepherds of Bethlehem by night, for “there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them” (Lk 2:8-9).

This was the hour when, in the stillness of the night, on the edge of the desert, in the cave of Bethlehem, “while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in her swift course was now half spent,” that “thy all-mighty word leaped down from heaven, from the royal throne, into the land that was doomed” (Wisdom 18:14-15). God’s word came as a man at night, outdoors, in a stable, lying in a manger, announced by angels singing, and adored by shepherds.

He took on our flesh to transform and redeem it, to illumine and divinize it, to save us from our sins, and to grant us a participation in the splendor of God’s own life.

261

WHO CAN ENDURE THE DAY OF HIS COMING?

33rd Sunday of the Year Malachi 4:1-2 (3:19-20); Ps 97; 2 Thess 3:7-12; Lk 21:5-19

Before the liturgical reform, this was the last Sunday of the year, with the readings about the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of the world, and the second and glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ on the clouds of heaven. Now the last Sunday is next Sunday, which is the Solemnity of Christ the King. Today, then, we see summarized the dominant theme of this season, namely, the hope for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today’s Gospel speaks of the signs which will accompany and indicate that the end is near (Lk 21:7). They are wars, great signs in the heavens (Lk 21:11), and persecutions. “This will be a time for you to bear testimony,” Jesus says (Lk 21:13). And we are to give witness to our faith by doing God’s will in spite of the persecution of men, for “every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,” said Jesus (Mt 10:32). And truly, he says today, “you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Lk 21:17-19). We have this confidence that God will protect us if we remain faithful to him in the sight of men.

And then the end will come, for which we are to prepare ourselves now, soberly watching at all times, to be able “to stand before the Son of man” when he comes (Lk 21:36). It is good for us to hear these things. They inspire us to be vigilant and ever prepared, living in hope for the coming of the Lord. This is how Jesus wants us always to live, and for this reason he did not tell us when he would come. “Take heed, watch and pray,” he said; “for you do not know when the time will come” (Mk 13:33).

“And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations” (Lk 21:25), “and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Mt 24:29). And “All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree” (Is 34:4). The leaves that are now turning and falling here in Georgia are a constant reminder during this season of that day.

That day is always near, and so should we imagine it, and prepare ourselves for it. St. John saw all of this in a vision, and said that he saw that “the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up” (Rev 6:14). And Isaiah prophesied that on that day the skies will roll up like a scroll (Is 34:4). And John also says that he saw that “the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale” (Rev 6:13). And Jesus says that “there will be signs in sun and moon and stars” (Lk 21:25), and that “the stars will fall from heaven” (Mt 24:29).

In light of all this, what shall we then do? How shall we live? “...when these things begin to take place,” Jesus said, “look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Lk 21:28; acclamation before the Gospel). And, moreover, he says, “Take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with gluttony and

262

drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth” (Lk 21:34-35).

We are to live soberly and with an undivided heart, not weighed down by gluttony and excess (Lk 21:34). We are to live a life of prayer and fasting with our heart reserved for the Lord alone, not divided by the delicacies of this world. In sobriety we are to hope and wait and prepare ourselves for his coming. This is how Christ wants us to live, and to prepare ourselves for that day.

“And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Lk 21:27). And his coming will be like the lightning that “flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other” (Lk 17:24). And then he “he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mt 24:31).

“But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap” (Malachi 3:2). On that day all the wicked of the earth will be burned up in a devouring fire, as the first reading says, “For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch” (Mal 4:1).

But for the just, it will be a day of glory, because on that day “they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble” (Wisdom 3:7). And Daniel says that on that day, “those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever” (Dan 12:3). And Jesus says about that day, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43). For them “the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings” (Mal 4:1).

But now is the time of preparation for all this, so that what happened in the days of Noah will not happen to us, namely, in his day no one was prepared except Noah and his family, for “As it was in the days of Noah,” said Jesus, “so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Lk 17:26-27) . Destruction will come suddenly, as a thief in the night (1 Thess 5:2), and there will be no time to prepare ourselves. Let us not be like that generation, unaware and unconcerned; and they all perished.

Rather, let us prepare ourselves now, for “in that night,” said Jesus, “there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken, and the other left. There will be two women grinding together; one will be taken, and the other left” (Lk 17:34-35). Now then is the time to prepare ourselves so that on that day our whole being, “spirit and soul and body, be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23).

THE LORD YOUR GOD IS BRINGING YOU INTO A GOOD LAND

Thanksgiving Day Sir 50:22-24; Col 3:12-17; Lk 17:11-19

263

Today is Thanksgiving Day, a beloved day for all Americans. It is a day of feasting, friendship, family love, and rejoicing for all; but it is also a day of giving thanks to God for all his blessings to us, both as individuals and as a nation. It is a day on which we remember our Pilgrim Fathers who came to this land as if out of a wilderness in search of religious freedom. They came to this land to live as a God-fearing people, a covenant people, a pure and holy people of God in a new land where they would be free to worship God as they saw fit and live a simple, holy, and God-fearing life, renouncing the worldliness of the life of Europe. They came to establish the Kingdom of God here in America, a peaceable Kingdom of a people obedient to God’s laws and will.

This Pilgrim and Puritan dream of a new and godly community here in this new and rich land continues to live in this country and in its people. We are the spiritual children of our Pilgrim Fathers who came here and established a colony in Plymouth. We still live by their founding ideals, and every Thanksgiving Day we act out again their first Thanksgiving meal and celebration with the Indians after their first good harvest, a day on which we jointly and explicitly thank God for all his blessings, and recommit ourselves to our own founding ideals of doing God’s will in all things.

The eighth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy makes particularly rich and meaningful reading for us on this day when we put everything else aside to give thanks to God from the bottom of our hearts for all the blessings he has given us, for this good and rich land, for its wealth and prosperity, for its beauty and variety, and for the great development God has enabled us to bring about in it. The key to everything, though, is that we remain as the Pilgrims were, an obedient people, seeking above all else to always do God’s will, both as individuals and as a people. Our Pilgrim Fathers did not have our wealth and prosperity. About half of them died from hunger and exposure their first winter in America. They were poor, but they were dedicated to obeying God’s will and being his people in this new and free land.

As God, through the mouth of Moses, told the Israelites on the plains of Moab on the eve of their entry into the promised land, so God told our Pilgrim Fathers through his word, and so he tells us: Behold, “The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper” (Dt 8:7-9).

This is the land we have been given by God. This is the rich land our Pilgrim Fathers came to, to be God’s holy and obedient people, his Kingdom in America. But we must never forget that all these blessings are God’s gifts to us, lest now that we are no longer poor like our Pilgrim Fathers, we become proud and think that all our present wealth, development, power, and prosperity are due to ourselves alone and to our own efforts, for if we begin to think like this, we shall surely perish from off this rich land.

So, today, as a nation, we give thanks to God. We eat of the rich produce of the land, Turkey, squash, sweet potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkins, and we raise our minds, hearts, and voices to God in thanksgiving and humble acknowledgment that all that we now have is based on his gifts and bounteous blessings to us.

Today, then, we hear God’s word speaking to us through the mouth of Moses, saying, “And you shall eat and be full” (Dt 8:10). That we will indeed dutifully do this day with

264

great joy and a heart filled with thanksgiving and praise to God for his gifts to us. “…and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you” (Dt 8:10). Even if this is the only day of the year on which we consciously do this as a nation, we will knowingly do so today.

But take heed, says God’s word to us, “lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God… Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth” (Dt 8:12-14,17-18).

This is our great national temptation, now that we are so prosperous and have grown so rich and powerful, that we take it all to ourselves and think that our prosperity is due only to our own goodness, efforts, and hard work, and forget the basis of it all, which are God’s bounteous gifts to us. If we forget this, we will surely perish.

And so today, as a nation, we stop everything and give thanks to God for our land and all its rich produce, variety, beauty, wealth, and goodness. And we should also this day recommit ourselves, as the children of our Pilgrim Fathers, to doing God’s will in all things, for “if you forget the Lord your God,” says Moses, “and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you this day that you shall surely perish…because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God” (Dt 8:19-20).

So let us this day thank God from the depths of our hearts, and recommit ourselves to doing his will in everything, and to being his holy and obedient people here in America, who live for him alone.

THEY LIGHTED THE LAMPS WHICH ILLUMINATED THE TEMPLE

Friday, 33rd Week of the Year 1 Maccabees 4:36-37,52-29; 1 Chronicles 29; Lk 19:45-48

Today Jesus purifies the temple; and in the first reading Judas Maccabeus also purifies the same temple, and this purification of Judas is the basis of the Jewish celebration of Chanukah, or “Dedication,” or “the Feast of Lights,” which the Jews celebrate to the present day near Christmas time, that is, for eight days from the 25th of Chislev, or from the 15th until the 23rd of December. In the Jewish stores in New York City, a little before Christmas, one can see the decorations and representations of this purification of the temple, after the gentiles had profaned it on this same day (on the 25th of Chislev) three years previously.

With what joy they celebrated this dedication of the temple, especially when we remember that only a few years previously, Mattathias and his sons refused to offer pagan sacrifices in Modein and fled to the mountains after killing the king’s officer who was forcing them to sacrifice! All this was in yesterday’s first reading, when Mattathias publicly spoke out these challenging words to the king’s officer: “Even if all the nations that live under the rule of the king obey him, and have chosen to do his commandments, departing each one from the religion of his fathers, yet I and my sons and my brothers

265

will live by the covenant of our fathers. Far be it from us to desert the law and the ordinances. We will not obey the king’s words by turning aside from our religion to the right hand or to the left” (1 Maccabees 2:19-22).

After destroying the pagan altar and killing the king’s officer, Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice saying, “‘Let everyone who is zealous for the law and supports the covenant come out with me!’ And he and his sons fled to the hills and left all that they had in the city. Then many who were seeking righteousness and justice went down to the wilderness to dwell there” (1 Maccabees 2:27-29). They considered that is was better to live in the mountains or in the desert than to violate their consciences by disobeying the law and will of God. They knew that remaining faithful to God, he would remain faithful to them and console them. But they also knew that if, in order to live comfortably in the city, they were to disobey the law of God, that God would abandon them and that they would fall into darkness and sadness far from him.

So now, a few years later, Judas, the son of Mattathias, Judas’ brothers, and all Israel dedicated the temple with lights and rejoicing. God had helped them and had remained with them, illumining and strengthening them; and now they celebrated their victory with joy. For their faithfulness in time of affliction and persecution, they could now celebrate their victory over the gentiles.

Such is the life of faith. Victory and true joy is for those who defend their faith and remain faithful to God’s will even when everyone else abandons it and joins the ways of the world. They had to flee to the mountains or to the desert during those years of persecution and some of them were martyred for their faith and fidelity to the law and will of God, but God was with them in their afflictions. He did not abandon them. And now they can celebrate with lights and songs the dedication of the temple, and they still celebrate this feast each year to the present day.

“…they burned incense on the altar and lighted the lamps on the lampstand, and these gave light in the temple” (1 Maccabees 4:50). “At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals” (1 Maccabees 4:54). “There was very great gladness among the people and the reproach of the Gentiles was removed” (1 Maccabees 4:58).

We too need to remain faithful to God’s will, especially when everyone around us seems to be abandoning it and just going along with the ways of the world which surrounds us.

THE LIFE OF THE ANGELS

Saturday, 33rd Week of the Year 1 Maccabees 6:1-13; Ps 9; Lk 20:27-40

In keeping with the dominant theme of this month, today’s two readings are about

death and the life after death. In the first reading we hear about the death of the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes, who

died in “deep grief” because things had not turned out for him as he had planned (1 Maccabees 6:8-9). And so, “He took to his bed and became sick from grief… He lay

266

there for many days, because deep grief continually gripped him, and he concluded that he was dying” (1 Maccabees 6:9). After reflection, he came to the conclusion that his “deep grief,” out of which he could not extricate himself, was caused by his mistreatment of the Jews. He was, in effect, dying of guilt, and he said, “now I remember the evils I did in Jerusalem. I seized all her vessels of silver and gold; and I sent to destroy the inhabitants of Judah without good reason. I know that it is because of this that these evils have come upon me; and behold, I am perishing of deep grief in a strange land” (1 Maccabees 6:12-13).

His death from grief and guilt is a warning to us all of the power of guilt, which can even cause the death of a king. There is no worse suffering, I think, than that of an evil conscience, which causes us constant remorse for the evil we have done. It is to free us from this that Christ came and died, sacrificing himself for our redemption from sin and guilt. He rose so that we might walk in the splendor of his resurrection in the “newness of life” (Rom 6:4), now dead to sin, repentant and converted, and alive for God, to walk in the Spirit, and no longer according to the flesh (Rom 8). But at least we see that this tyrant died repentant and contrite; and this is a good sign.

In today’s Gospel we hear once again about the woman who had seven husbands, but in the world of the Resurrection would not be the wife of any of them, because marriage pertains only to this present life; not to the world of the Resurrection. Those who reach the world of the Resurrection will not be married, but will be like the angels, with completely undivided hearts in their love and devotion to God alone. Jesus says today, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Lk 20:34-36).

In this reading we see that the life of the world of the Resurrection will be totally focused on God in love, praise, and luminous and joyous contemplation, without division of heart, and without even a human spouse. All the love of our heart will go to God from a completely undivided heart (1 Cor 7:32-35).

It is for this reason that monks do not marry even now in this present life here on earth (1 Cor 7:32-35). It is to imitate the life of the angels, to live an angelic life even now with an undivided heart, focused exclusively on God. Thus monks are an eschatological sign, that is, a sign to remind the whole Church of its ultimate destiny, which is to live like the angels with completely undivided hearts, focused totally on God.

HIS THRONE IS LIKE THE SUN BEFORE ME —JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE

Solemnity of Christ the King, Last Sunday of the Year

2 Sam 5:1-3; Ps 121; Col 1:12-20; Lk 23:35-43 We have now finally arrived at the last Sunday of the liturgical year, the Solemnity of Christ the King. Today’s Gospel is about the crucifixion of Jesus and the mockery of the soldiers, saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” (Lk 23:37), and it is

267

about the inscription over him which said, “This is the King of the Jews” (Lk 23:38), and about the request of one of the thieves crucified with him, who said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk 23:42).

We see in all of this that Jesus, during his lifetime, presented himself as a king, and now, at the hour of his death, many mocked him for this claim. Even the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” (Jn 18:33). And Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn 18:33). And Pilate said, “So you are a king?” And Jesus answered, “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world” (Jn 18:36-37). And the soldiers who struck him said to him, “Hail! King of the Jews” (Jn 19:3). And bringing Jesus out to the crowds, Pilate said, “Here is your King!” And “Shall I crucify your King?” (Jn 19:14,15).

When Christ came for the first time, he came in this state of humility and humiliation, even though he was the King of the Jews and the King of the Universe; but when he comes for the second time, it will be in glory, as he himself explained, saying, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats… Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’” (Mt 25:32-32,34).

Now, at the end of the year and on this the last Sunday of the year, it is this glorious Christ, the King of the Universe, whom we focus on and await in hope, when he will come with power and great glory on the clouds of heaven to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). Now, then, is the time to prepare ourselves and be vigilant, to confess our sins and imperfections, to be able to welcome him when he comes. We should live, especially at this time, in great and joyful expectation, which colors all that we do and are, our whole way of living. We should want to remain in this state of eager expectation and of being prepared, having a pure and happy conscience, so that we might properly welcome him when he comes. This is how Jesus wants us to live in the present.

The beautiful images of this feast help us to prepare ourselves for his second and glorious coming. We await the call of the final trumpet of the archangel, and hope for the ingathering of the fruits of the earth, the final harvest, and for the day when the Son of Man will appear like lightning which “comes from the east and shines as far as the west” (Mt 24:27). We wait in hope for that day when the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and when we will see him “coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mt 24:30), when “he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mt 24:31).

At the same time, we want to live in this Kingdom of God now, for “the kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17:21). And we want to be within it, and to perceive it within ourselves with a pure and happy conscience, with Christ, the King of the Universe, shining in our hearts (2 Cor 4:6), illumining and rejoicing us, as he wants to do. But for this to happen, we have to obey him perfectly and do his will, following all his inspirations, and avoiding all that he inspires us to avoid, so that we might live for him in everything, with all the concentration and love of our heart.

Jesus said, “he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). If we want to live in the splendor of the glory of Jesus Christ, the King of

268

the Universe, and with him illumining our hearts from within (2 Cor 4:6), we have to follow him, which means, obey him perfectly in everything. In this way he will dwell in our hearts, rejoicing us. Hence we must keep his word and do his will with care, for he said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (Jn 14:23).

This is the King of Peace, the “Prince of Peace” (Is 9:6), whom Isaiah foretold, saying, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom” (Is 9:7). He is the shoot from the stump of Jesse (Is 11:1), in whose days, “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb” (Is 11:6), and the peoples “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4). These days of peace can exist even now in our hearts through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and through the splendor of his resurrection from the dead.

His kingdom is the stone “cut out by no human hand” which became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Dan 2:34,35). It is “a kingdom which shall never be destroyed…and it shall stand for ever” (Dan 2:44). He is the one whom Micah foretold, saying, “he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And this one shall be peace” (Micah 5:4-5).

We can live in this Kingdom now if we receive the righteousness and salvation of Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, as we prepare ourselves for his full manifestation in the future. The psalmist foretold that in his days “righteousness shall flourish and peace abound, til the moon be no more!” (Ps 71:7). Let us then live in this Kingdom of peace now, where “he shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth!” (Ps 71:8).

God himself swore to David, saying, “I will build up your throne for all generations… I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the river… And I will make him the first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love I will keep for him for ever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his line for ever and his throne as the days of the heavens… His line shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me” (Ps 88:4,25,27-29,36).

All this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the son of David, the King of the Universe, and we live now in the beginning of these days of glory, hoping for and preparing ourselves for its complete fulfillment in the future, that is, if his Kingdom is within us now through faith in Christ and through our obedience to his will.

LOOK UP AND RAISE YOUR HEADS, BECAUSE YOUR REDEMPTION IS DRAWING NEAR

Thursday, 34th Week of the year

Dan 6:12-28; Dan 3; Lk 21:20-28

Today we are confronted with the last things. Jesus prophesies, in today’s Gospel, about the fall of Jerusalem, which is a prelude and anticipation of the end of the world and the second and glorious coming of Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven with his holy angels. As the Jews had to be prepared for the fall of Jerusalem, so we have to be vigilant at all

269

times for the end of the world and the return of the Son of Man, who can come at any time, and we do not know when this coming will be. This is the way in which Jesus wants his disciples and believers to live—in a constant state of eager expectation and vigilance, always preparing themselves because they do not know when the time will come. “…watch at all times,” Jesus says, “praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man” (Lk 21:36).

Jesus’ teaching about the fall of Jerusalem helps us to live in this new state of the new man in Jesus Christ, which is a state of continual vigilance, always watching and praying, always separating ourselves more from the worldliness of this world which surrounds us. Thus we will have an undivided heart, reserved uniquely for the Lord (Jn 17:14,16; Gal 5:16-17; 6:8; Rom 8:13). We are to guard ourselves, lest our “hearts be weighed down with gluttony and drunkenness and cares of this life” (Lk 21:34), and that day come upon us suddenly (Lk 21:34) and catch us unprepared and still sunk in the delights which divide our heart. Truly, “the form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor 7:31), and we are not to be conformed to this age, but to be transformed (Rom 12:2).

I think that nothing can help us more to develop this new attitude of constant vigilance, which Jesus always wants to see in us, than meditation on the last things, namely, on the end of the world and the second and glorious coming of Jesus Christ in great light, when “he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mt 24:31). On that day, he will appear as lightning, illumining the whole heavens from one side to the other (Lk 17:24), and those who live for him alone, reserving their hearts for him, will rejoice to receive him.

They have lived their lives in the light of that day, which we now await. They have changed their form of living, adopting a style of life appropriate for day which is to dawn, and thus have lived as witnesses of the light in this old age, “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation” (Phil 2:15), being “lights in the world” (Phil 2:15).

There are many ways of doing this. Not all are monks. Not all physically flee the world. We are each called in different ways, but these basic principles apply to all, and one is to live them as generously as possible, according to the responsibilities of his state in life.

IMMEDIATELY THEY LEFT THEIR NETS AND FOLLOWED HIM

Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle, November 30 Rom 10:9-18; Ps 18; Mt 4:18-22

Today we honor one of the apostles of Jesus, St. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter; and in today’s Gospel we hear his call. He left everything to follow Jesus. In this, St. Andrew did the same thing that Peter, James, and John did. Simon and Andrew left their nets to follow Jesus. James and his brother John, sons of Zebedee, in addition left their boat and their father Zebedee to follow Jesus. This is the radical discipleship of the first followers of Jesus.

270

Is it necessary that everyone follow this example? In principle, yes, because Jesus said, “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:33). And we remember that the rich young man refused this same invitation to leave all to follow Jesus, and “went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions” (Mt 19:22). Jesus’ response in that situation was, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mt 19:23-24).

The Holy Spirit leads people differently; and we also are different in the degree of generosity with which we respond to his call to perfection. There are those who use their wealth to help the poor, or the Church, or to promote some work for the Lord; while on the other hand there are those who use their means for entertainments and corporal pleasures. And there is a great difference here.

Today the Gospel presents us with an example of radical renunciation for the Kingdom of God. It is a radial call on the part of Jesus, and an equally radical response on the part of these four men. We can measure our response by comparing ourselves with them, and then examining ourselves to see where we are in this. The most important thing here are the principles and purity of heart. Are we really living for Christ, or for ourselves? And we remember that Christ “died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). According to St. Paul, we should live for Christ, and not for ourselves. This is clear. He who lives for Christ can no longer live for himself in a life of entertainment and pleasure. The Christian ideal is clear, and it is this: “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:7-8).

Renunciation is the basis of true discipleship, and the more radically we can live a life of renunciation (with discretion), the better. In renouncing all for Christ, we receive all in return. In this way we empty and purify our heart and our senses. We renounce even the desire for the things and delights of this world which we give up for the love of Christ in order to present him with an undivided heart reserved for him alone; and thus we grow in holiness, living only for him. The most perfect life is the life which does this most literally and most radically.

And what does today’s Gospel say? It says, “As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him” (Mt 4:18-20). From then on, they will be fishers of men.

We need to catch the spirit of what they did. Peter could still fish if he wanted to, and he still had at least the use of a net and a boat to fish whenever he wanted to, because after the Resurrection, Simon said, “I am going fishing” (Jn 21:3). And his companions said to him, “‘We will go with you’. They went out and got into the boat” (Jn 21:3). And Jesus, standing on the beach, said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat” (Jn 21:6). So they had at least the use of a net and a boat when they wanted them, which is what they needed to fish.

But the spirit of their renunciation is that they truly left everything, they gave up fishing, and followed Jesus wherever he went, and they followed him with all their heart.

271

They left their former way of life, and adopted a new style of living, for the Lord alone in everything. And so we also should do.

If we are monks, this means living a simple and frugal life in everything, with simple and basic food, without adornments or delicacies, renouncing the entertainments of the world, leaving all for the love of Christ, living for him alone with an undivided heart, so that he might be our only pleasure and happiness. In doing this, if we follow his will with faith, he will fill our heart with his love and light, and we will have found what few find, but which everyone seeks and longs for: true human happiness which fills the heart.

The majority choose the wide and comfortable path of this world and its delights, and leave aside the straight and hard path of life (Mt 7:13-14). May we be among those few who find the hard path of life. Let us, then, follow the example of St. Andrew.

TAKE HEED TO YOURSELVES LEST YOUR HEARTS BE WEIGHED DOWN WITH GLUTTONY

Saturday, 34th Week of the Year, Last Day of the Year

Dan 7:15-27; Dan 3; Lk 21:34-36

Today is the last day of the liturgical year. This evening we will chant first vespers of the First Sunday of Advent. We end the year today meditating on the end of the world and the second coming of Christ on the clouds of heaven in great light. This is the day we are all longing for, and for which we are now preparing ourselves. Its light, in fact, already illumines us now in the present. Those who have faith live already an anticipation of this last day of glory. This is how Jesus wants us to live, and for this reason he did not tell us when it would come, so that we might always be prepared, always living in eager expectation, always guarding ourselves in sobriety and vigilance, and renouncing worldly desires. Jesus Christ came into the world and taught us to live in this way. St. Paul told us the same thing, saying that Christ came, “training us to renounce irreligion and worldly desires, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:12-13).

And what does Jesus say in today’s Gospel? He says, “take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with gluttony and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth” (Lk 21:34-35). Truly, gluttony is a great enemy of the spirit. When we stuff ourselves with food, the Holy Spirit has little room to run through our interior like rivers of living water, rejoicing our spirit (Jn 7:37-39), or to well up within us like a “spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14), delighting us in the Lord. We are rather weighed down and heavy, filled with the delights of this world; and our prayers do not rise.

To live in the Spirit, we have to be light, and live in simplicity and austerity. We have to be purified and prepared. This is the meaning of leaving everything for the love of Christ and having an undivided heart, reserved only for him; not divided by gluttony and the delights of this world. This is the reason for living soberly and being vigilant.

272

Otherwise, we would be like the seed that fell among thorns. And of them Jesus said, “as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and they do not bear fruit” (Lk 8:14). Therefore St. Paul writes, “the night is far spent, the day is at hand… Let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in gluttony and drunkenness… But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom 13:12-14).

If we want to bear fruit, we have to avoid the thorns, that is, gluttony and the endless quest for pleasure; and live simply and austerely in eager expectation for the coming of the Lord, simplifying our life, and adopting a new style of living, appropriate for the sons of the day, with hearts that are light and not weighed down.

273

274

275

276

277

278