Friends in Christ, since the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and the wandering state of humanity ever since –
through the centuries, mankind awaited the Messiah who would come.
Today’s gospel presents us with the stirring scene in the synagogue in Nazareth.
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To the people, it was an ordinary day, when Jesus stood up to read. But breaking through the ordinariness, the words they heard were striking. Jesus reads the prophecy about the coming Savior, and then he says: ‘Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing it.’ The people were stunned. Effectively, he has just claimed to be the Messiah.
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Why did the Messiah come? He read it from the scroll:
‘To bring Good News to the poor.
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to let the oppressed go free.’
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He has come to set sinners free from their bondage, from their guilt, from their depression and despair and hopelessness – to bring Good News – ‘you are forgiven, you are free, and you will even conquer death in the resurrection.’
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This is the tender compassion that God has for sinners![i] This is what makes Jesus say that he is a shepherd, seeking the lost sheep. This is what makes him say, that he stands at the door of our heart, and knocks; although driven away from the soul by sin, the Lord does not abandon us, but places himself outside the door of the heart and knocks, awaiting admittance.
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But Christ has a clear motive in forgiving, especially very bad sinners, because once freed from their despair and bondage, they are ever-grateful, and fall in love with God more than could otherwise ever have happened.
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The moment she repented he forgave Mary Magdalene, and changed her into a saint. St. Paul, who was murdering Christians, when forgiven, he poured out his life for Christ. Mary of Egypt, a prostitute, upon meeting the mercy of God, served the Lord with all her heart. Margaret of Cortona who spent many years in sin – his mercy changed her.
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St. Margaret of Cortona one day said, ‘Lord, how is it that you lavish so many graces on me? Have you forgotten the sins I have committed? And God answered: ‘Margaret, do you not know what I told you? When a person repents of their faults and follows me, I no longer remember any sins.’
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Our past sins do not prevent us from becoming saints. Jesus came to bring Good News to we poor sinners, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year of favor of the Lord.
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[i] See also ‘Incarnation, Birth, and Infancy of Jesus Christ, St. Alphonsus, p. 67-71
Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. André Bessette.
André was born near Montreal, Canada in 1845. He was so frail at birth, that the priest immediately baptized him. His father died early, and when he was 12 he lost his mother. Later he would say, “I rarely prayed FOR my mother, more often I prayed to her.
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He was sent to live with his uncle, who helped him find some work, but the boy’s frail health made this difficult. For 13 years he went from job to job, his health always hindering him. He became a farmhand, he tried being a shoemaker, then a baker, a tin-smith, a factory worker, a blacksmith, a wagon-driver – all failures. He was barely able to write his name or read his prayer book.
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But the Pastor of his parish saw goodness in him. So he presented him to the Congregation of the Holy Cross. He wrote to the superior: “In this young man, I am sending you a saint.”
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After a year in the novitiate however, they found out the same thing as everyone else: his health did not permit him to do much work. But the bishop intervened, and they accepted Andre.
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He was given the humble job of being the doorkeeper. Later, he would jokingly say: “When I joined this community, they showed me the door!’
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For forty years, he worked just there – at the door. His other duties were also simple: washing floors and windows, laundry worker, and cleaning lamps. In his little room near the door, he spent much of the night on his knees praying. On his windowsill was a statue of Saint Joseph, to whom he had a great devotion since childhood.
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When he heard someone was ill, he visited, to cheer them up and to pray with the sick person. Healings began to happen. Many people began to go to Brother Andre. But he kept saying, “I do not cure anyone, it is St. Joseph who cures.” In the end he needed four secretaries to handle the 80,000 letters he received each year.
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Some say, ‘A Monsignor is high up in the Church, or a Cardinal is a very high person in the Church. But this is not God’s thinking. Greatness in the Church is measured by holiness. For this reason, a simple doorkeeper like André Bessette, who did the simple things of life, totally for Christ – such as these are the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Friends in Christ, today in these days of Epiphany, Mother Church gives us the feast day of a special, American saint, St. John Neumann.
St. John was born in present-day Czechoslovakia; he was a quiet, shy boy who was kind of a bookworm. His hobbies were botany and astronomy, and he hoped to become a scientist. At 20 years old, he was torn between the idea of becoming a doctor, and the thought that God was calling him to be a priest. His mother suggested he give the priesthood a try.
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In the seminary, John had a knack for learning languages, he learned six languages, including English. By the time of his ordination, the bishop became quite ill, and so his ordination was put off indefinitely. Now John knew of the great need of the immigrants in America for priests, and so he wrote letters to bishops offering his assistance; finally, the bishop in New York agreed to ordain him.
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He left his home forever and traveled across the ocean to a new land. He was sent to a parish of 900 square miles in western New York full of mosquito infested swamp land; he had to travel on foot 10 to 20 miles per day, carrying his Mass kit and offering Mass wherever he could.
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He had a special love for children, and kept his pockets full of candy which he used to induce children to learn their catechism. Once he was almost hanged by some bandits, he was shot at by a drunken mule skinner, and was once so exhausted that he passed out in the woods.
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At age 31, needing the friendship of other priests and community life, he joined the Redemptorists, and after 11 years, he was made Bishop of Philadelphia. By this time he knew 12 languages, which helped him to hear many confessions of people among the immigrant population. An old Irish lady went to confession to him and confessed in Gaelic. She left confession exclaiming, ‘We finally have an Irish bishop!’
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John’s passion however, was education, and it was St. John Neumann who mapped out a plan for Catholic education for the United States. When he was named bishop, there were only 2 Catholic schools in his diocese; 8 years later there were one hundred. Having done so much, John Neumann died at only the age of 48.
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We can learn from his example, a simple faith and trust in God, which can carry us along to do things we would never have dreamed of. St. John Neumann used to day: ‘Nothing is going to happen to me today Lord, that you and I together can’t handle.’
Latin Mass: The Most Holy Name of Jesus
Beloved in Christ, today we commemorate the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, and so the very short Gospel recalls the naming of Jesus, the Name first given by the Angel.
The name Jesus, means ‘God saves,’ and this is what we just celebrated at Christmas, God himself has come down from heaven to save us. That Child on the straw, is God Incarnate.
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The introit for the Mass today says that God has so exalted this name, that at the name of Jesus every knee must bend. Knees bend in order to worship. St. Paul is saying, that Jesus must be worshiped, adored.
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In two days we will celebrate Epiphany in the Tridentine calendar; in the Novus Ordo it is moved to today, Sunday, and I see upstairs in the crib, the Wise Men have arrived!
Those 3 Magi traveled so far – it says they traveled for one reason: to adore. And so this is our subject today, adoration.
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The life of modern man, we may say, has in many ways become distant from God, but thankfully, Jesus Christ still has faithful followers such as ourselves.
We pray every day, we know this is critical to being a disciple – We pray upon rising, asking God’s help, and before bed. We pray for our family members, for the sick, for the world, the Pope, our bishop, the Church – many intentions, and our own needs and health as well.
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But I dare say that one thing we do not do enough of, is to adore the Lord, to extol him, to glorify Christ Jesus, and praise him. I think we are lacking in this, this spirit of adoration. Yet we are told that ‘every knee must bend’ at the Name of Jesus.
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God has put into the heart of man a need to adore our Creator, the need to praise and worship God; the NEED – to adore. This is part of the natural need of a human being. And yet for us sinners, how can we not adore, this Jesus who has fastened all our sins to the cross with is own hands?
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In the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 5, there is that famous scene where Christ encounters the woman at the well. She is going to the well because she is thirsty for water, but Jesus is there because he is thirsty for hearts. He says to her: ‘God is seeking adorers, who will worship in spirit and in truth.’ God looks down from heaven, and looks for adorers, he is seeking for them. Jesus, really present in our midst, is seeking adorers.
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Now there is no doubt that we adore the Lord Jesus, we praise him, in the prayers at Holy Mass; we adore the Lord implicitly in our devotions; and if we are doing our work for Christ, we are praising and adoring him even by the actions of life.
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But the Lord desires – and we need – to bring more into our life EXPLICIT expressions of adoration and praise, on our lips. These we call ‘Aspirations,’ which the saints made hundreds of times a day.
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I said, it is not just that God desires this, as if he needs our worship, no – it is because we need it.
Let’s speak today of 3 reasons that we need to be adorers of the Lord.
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1. The first reason is that adoration of God helps me keep my perspective. We have problems in life, we worry, our problems seem sometimes insoluble. If we become consumed with our problem, it seems enormous. But notice, the more that we adore and praise God, the smaller our problem seems.
Making aspirations, saying: ‘Lord, I praise you, I love you, I adore you. You are all-powerful, you have created the universe and the great planets and you made me and I exult you, I bless you, I glorify you! And you made heaven, that waits for me. Well…..
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Reminded of the kind of Lord we have, our problem shrinks. Psalm 46: God is my refuge and my strength, he is an ever-present help in distress…. ‘Cease striving,’ he says, ‘and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.’
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So when our problems seem too big, glorify God: ‘You are the Lord, there is no other.’ Adore the Lord on our walk, in our car, and in the kitchen. Praise God on our lips, with our words, in whispers: ‘Lord, you are greater than my problems, you are greater than this disappointment.’ So that is reason number 1 to praise and adore the Lord, it helps me keep my perspective.
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2. The 2nd reason to adore and glorify God, is to maintain a spirit of gratitude. There are times when we forget who made us, how we got here; we are unhappy and ungrateful, because we did not get what we wanted for Christmas, or the job we sought; he did not ask me to marry him. But when we praise God, adore him, and bless him, for his mercy, for our life, for all that we are, there is a change that happens inside of us. The darkness turns to light.
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It is easy to fall into sadness and ingratitude, but if we praise God, we will enter his presence. The Holy Scriptures say: ‘Enter his gates with thanksgiving.’ Are we to enter the presence of God as an ungrateful curmudgeon? no, we are to enter his gates with thanksgiving. St. Paul says, ‘Give thanks in all circumstances, this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’ – 1 Thess 5:18
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So we are adorers of the Lord because:
1. It helps us keep our problems in perspective.
2. It maintains in us a spirit of gratitude.
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The 3rd reason to adore, to extol the Lord, is that if we do, Jesus Christ will mobilize his army of angels to fight for us.
In case after case in the scriptures, we see that when the People of God worshipped and honored him, the Lord mobilized his army to fight for them. In their battles with the Philistines and Amalikites and the Greeks, and others; God gave them victories against all odds, because they were faithful. Of course these earthly victories are recorded to point to the spiritual: the battles and victories in our own, personal spiritual life.
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Let us adore, and praise, and exult the Lord every day of our life. If we do, it will
1. Help us keep our perspective, so that our problems do not overwhelm us.
2. It will help us to maintain a spirit of gratitude.
3. The Lord will mobilize his army to assist us in our needs.
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May the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for us every day, that on our lips will always be the praise and adoration of Our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. John of God]
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Epiphany
Beloved in the Lord Jesus, today we celebrate Epiphany.
We read today of these 3 Kings, or Magi. They had made a long journey, coming from the East; they were pagans, Gentiles – they did not follow or even know the teachings of Moses, or Abraham, or the Old Testament – nothing.
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Yet they were given, by means of a Star, a certain gift of Faith; and so they traveled a long way, to Bethlehem – for what purpose?
Well, it says what their purpose was; when they arrived they said: ‘We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.’ So their entire purpose in this journey, was to adore the Newborn Savior, to do him homage. And so this is our subject today, adoration.
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The life of modern man, we may say, has in many ways become distant from God, but thankfully, Jesus Christ still has faithful followers such as ourselves. We pray every day, we know this is critical to being a disciple – We pray upon rising, asking God’s help, and before bed. We pray for our family members, for the sick, for the world, the Pope, our bishop, the Church – many intentions, and our own needs and health as well.
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But I dare say that one thing we do not do enough of, is to adore the Lord, to extol him, to glorify Christ Jesus, and praise him. I think we are lacking in this, this spirit of adoration. But this is why the Magi traveled so very far, to adore Him.
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God has put into the heart of man a need to adore our Creator, the need to praise and worship God; the NEED – to adore. This is part of the natural need of a human being. And yet for us sinners, how can we not adore, this Jesus who has fastened all our sins to the cross with is own hands?
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In the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 5, there is that famous scene where Christ encounters the woman at the well. She is going to the well because she is thirsty for water, but Jesus is there because he is thirsty for hearts. He says to her: ‘God is seeking adorers, who will worship in spirit and in truth.’
God looks down from heaven, and looks for adorers, he is seeking for them. Jesus, present in our tabernacle, at Mass, in our chapel – is seeking adorers.
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Now there is no doubt that we adore the Lord Jesus, we praise him, in the prayers at Holy Mass; we adore the Lord implicitly in our devotions; and if we are doing our work for Christ, we are praising and adoring him even by the actions of life.
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But the Lord desires – and we need – to bring more into our life EXPLICIT expressions of adoration and praise, on our lips. These we call ‘Aspirations,’ which the saints made hundreds of times a day.
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Jesus is seeking adorers. It’s not as if he needs our worship, no – it is because WE need it.
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Let’s speak today of 3 reasons that we need to be, like the Magi, adorers of the Lord.
1. The first reason is that adoration of God helps me keep my perspective. We have problems in life, we worry, our problems seem sometimes insoluble. If we become consumed with our problem, it seems enormous.
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But notice, the more that we adore and praise God, the smaller our problem seems. Making aspirations, saying: ‘Lord, I praise you, I love you, I adore you. You are all-powerful, you have created the universe and the great planets and you made me and I exult you, I bless you, I glorify you! And you made heaven, that waits for me. Well…..
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If we remind ourself of the kind of Lord we have, our problem shrinks. Psalm 46: God is my refuge and my strength, he is an ever-present help in distress…. ‘Cease striving,’ he says, ‘and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.’
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So when our problems seem too big, glorify God: ‘You are the Lord, there is no other.’ Adore the Lord on our walk, in our car, and in the kitchen. Praise God on our lips, with our words, in whispers: ‘Lord, you are greater than my problem, you are greater than this disappointment.’ So that is reason number 1 to praise and adore the Lord, it helps me keep my perspective.
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2. The 2nd reason to adore and glorify God, is to maintain a spirit of gratitude. There are times when we forget who made us, how we got here; we are unhappy and ungrateful, because we did not get what we wanted for Christmas, or the job we sought; he did not ask me to marry him.
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But when we praise God, adore him, and bless him, for his mercy, for our life, for all that we are, there is a change that happens inside of us. The darkness turns to light.
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It is easy to fall into sadness and ingratitude, but if we praise God, we will enter his presence. The Holy Scriptures say: ‘Enter his gates with thanksgiving.’ Are we to enter the presence of God as an ungrateful curmudgeon? no, we are to enter his gates with thanksgiving. St. Paul says, ‘Give thanks in all circumstances, this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’ – 1 Thess 5:18
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So we are adorers of the Lord because:
1. It helps us keep our problems in perspective.
2. It maintains in us a spirit of gratitude.
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The 3rd reason to adore, to extol the Lord, is that if we do, Jesus Christ will mobilize his army of angels to fight for us.
In case after case in the scriptures, we see that when the People of God worshipped and honored him, the Lord mobilized his army to fight for them. Against all odds, God’s people were victorious against the Midianites, the Philistines, the Amalekites, the Greeks, and so many others, because in praising and glorifying God – in trusting in Him rather than in their own power – the Lord would fight for them and they would succeed.
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Yes, those things were written about worldly battles and successes, but they are symbolic of spiritual and personal struggles.
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We see those simple Magi, who put their trust in Jesus, who came for one purpose: to adore him – the Lord protected them from Herod who had sought to kill them, and guided them to return by a safer route.
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Let us adore, and praise, and exult the Lord every day of our life. If we do, it will
1. Help us keep our perspective, so that our problems do not overwhelm us.
2. It will help us to maintain a spirit of gratitude.
3. The Lord will mobilize his army to assist us in our needs.
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May the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for us every day, that on our lips will always be the praise and adoration of Our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. John of God]
Friends in Christ, today is the feast of St Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen.
St. Gregory, called the “Theologian” by the Greeks, was born at Nazianz in Cappadocia in 339. He was one of the “Three Lights,” the 3 great saints from Cappadocia. Gregory was educated at the famous schools of his time, in the cities of Caesarea, Alexandria, and Athens. It was at Athens that he formed the famous friendship with St. Basil. It was a true and great friendship in Christ. Gregory was still full of this youthful enthusiasm and love for his friend, when he gave the funeral homily for Basil in 381.
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St. Gregory was baptized in 360, and for a while he lived the quiet life of a monk, like his friend Basil. If you ever go to Turkey, go inland to the region of Cappadocia; when I was there with some seminarians, I saw in the distance on the side of a mountain, all kind of black dots. ‘What are those, I asked the guide? ‘Those are caves!’ he said. It was a monastery in a mountain, made up of caves. As we walked through these caves, many were cells of the monks, but others were very large, made into chapels, with paintings on the walls and ceiling.
So, St Gregory the monk.
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But the needs of the times would take him from his monastery. In 372 he was reluctantly consecrated a bishop. He did not want it. In 381 he accepted the see of Constantinople, but the terrible Arian heresy was raging at that time. The controversies and stress led Gregory to return to the monastic life which he cherished so much.
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He was certainly one of the greatest orators of Christian antiquity. But he longed for solitude, yet the situation of the times called him repeatedly to do pastoral work and to participate in the battle for the truth of our faith.
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We ourselves may sometimes feel like St. Gregory: we wish to live a serene life, but then the demands of the world press us. The demands of the faith sometimes.
We MUST have that discussion with our teenage son, we need to step in to heal a family squabble.
We are ON at the workplace for explaining the Catholic faith YET AGAin.
I have to take a stand with my peers.
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We wish for peace, but the Lord says, ‘Keep going!’ ‘You will have peace when you reach heaven.’
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St. Gregory tried to do what God wanted, whether in the active life or the contemplative, but it wasn’t easy for him. His writings on the faith are some of the most beautiful, and for this reason he is considered a “Doctor of the Church.”
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
Friends in Christ, today we begin the New Year.
In the history of the Church, this day has been commemorated in different ways through the centuries. For the early Church in Rome, this feast day honored Mary as the Mother of God; but by the 7th century, influence from the Eastern Church led us to emphasize more the other Marian feasts, and following the practice in Spain and France, this day began to commemorate Jesus’ infancy and Circumcision. Nevertheless, the prayers of the Mass retained the theme of the Motherhood of Mary.[ii]
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The feast of the “Maternity of the Blessed Virgin” came to be celebrated in Portugal on October 11th; this was extended to the entire Church in 1931, and in 1969, in the reform of the calendar, it was restored to the more ancient practice of January 1st, which we have today.
And so it is a perfect way for us to begin the New Year by honoring Mary, the Mother of God, and our Mother.
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This Divine Mother, who cradles the new-born Jesus in her arms in this Christmas season – she also remains solicitous for her other children – us.
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St. Ambose, speaking of Jesus in the womb of Mary, says that virtually, we were all there with him. And God revealed to St. Bridget in a vision that although Jesus was Mary’s first-born Son in the flesh, all of mankind are her other children according to the Spirit.
So, Jesus’ Mother is our own Mother, and she really wants to help us.
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We’ve just completed 2014; looking back, there were certainly blessings we can point to, but also challenges or troubles that happened. No one knows what 2015 will hold, only God knows, but challenges always come: whether they be worrisome, practical problems, or temptations or even failures or discouragement. Troubles come in daily life that sometimes seem insolvable, and worry only makes them worse.
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I remember growing up, you can get a knot in a shoestring or in a drawstring; it seems impossible to ever untangle it. But then we go to mom; ‘Here, I can’t get it!’ And it’s not long, that somehow mom is able to get it all undone and every knot untangled.
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Now the dear Blessed Virgin has been called, the ‘Untier of Knots.’ There is a famous painting by Johann Georg Schmidtner from around 1700 which shows this. It was commissioned by a man whose prayer was answered by Mary – an answer to a very difficult problem.
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Mary as the Untier of knots originated with St. Irenaeus back in the 2nd century; he said that “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary.” Mary undid the knot, that Eve had gotten us into.
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A Fr. Jorge Bergoglio was studying in Germany and came to love this image; he brought a copy of this painting back with him, to Argentina. The devotion spread. Today, not only Germany, but also in Argentina and Brazil one finds widespread devotion to Mary, Untier of Knots. The painting shows Mary calmly undoing the knots in a long rope, and this is the patient Mother who wishes to help us with all the knots – the troubles in our own life.
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Sin has a way of complicating everything. Sinful habits tangle up our heart and make it seem impossible to regain our happiness and freedom. The fall into a mortal sin, or so many other problems of life, can lead us to despair, just as a knot pulled tighter and tighter becomes harder to untie. But Mary can do it.
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A certain man in Germany had committed a great sin, and he was ashamed to confess it; on the other hand, he could not endure the guilt that he felt and he went to cast himself into the river; but just as he was on the point of doing so, he stopped, and bursting into tears he prayed for help, and went home.
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That night in his sleep, he felt someone waking him and heard a gentle woman’s voice say: ‘Go and make your confession.’ He went to the church, but yet did not confess. A second night he heard the same voice, and again went to the Church, but he said he would rather die than confess that sin. He was about to return home when he stopped before an image of Mary and asked her help. Hardly had he knelt down before he felt himself entirely changed. He rose, called for a priest, and made a full and sincere confession. Later he would always say that on that day he felt happier than if he had gained all the gold in the world.
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Mary can help us untie the knots in our life, if we let her, none are too difficult.
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We make many resolutions for the new year.
Let’s make one resolution, that no matter the challenges, we will follow Jesus Christ in our life no matter what.
And for the other resolution: let us never fail to call on our Mother in heaven to help us do it.
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ii. For this reason, the Traditional Latin Mass when offered today, still retains this official theme of the Circumcision of the Lord, although the prayers of the Mass continue the ancient theme of Mary, the Mother of God.
Friends in the Lord, today we read this magnificent beginning of the gospel of St. John. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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‘In the beginning was the Word.’ Here we see that the Son of God is called the ‘Word,’ capital W. He is the Word, as if spoken by the Father. This teaches us that the Son is Divine, co-equal with the Father, consubstantial with the Father as we say in the Creed.
And then we read: ‘The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.’ The Eternal Son of God has taken on our human nature, he has united himself to humanity. St. Paul says, ‘Though he was by nature God, he emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave.’ Its because of this marvelous mystery, that Mother Church urges us to say the Angelus each day, preferably at Noon. The Angelus reminds us of this mystery, that God became Man, and that he is living with us, in us.
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And so we can speak of the Hypostatic Union. The union in Jesus Christ of two natures, human and divine, in one Person: Jesus is not a human person plus a divine person, but rather one Divine Person, uniting in himself, heaven and earth.
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Now, knowing this about our Savior, that he is one Person, in two natures, what does this mean for us? Well, Jesus was not just ‘one man who lived long ago.’ It is different than that. It is more. – because there is the ‘Whole Christ.’ The Whole Christ must include his entire Mystical Body. The Church, the Christian people, are called ‘The Mystical Body of Christ.’
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The Lord truly continues to live in us, to dwell in us. We do not live and act, and think and pray, or suffer, alone. Never. For Christ is in and with us, he has joined himself to us. This is the beautiful mystery of Christmas, and it is summed up for us each time we pray the Angelus.
Friends in Christ, we read today of Anna, the Prophetess who was night and day praying in the temple. She was granted, along with Simeon, a great gift: the ability to identify the Redeemer when he came.
St. John today, writes of those living in Christ, who have an ability to know God.
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Essential to this is the supernatural Gift called Understanding. This is one of the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit. St. Thomas Aquinas explains that man has by nature a power to penetrate into the meaning of things. This is the natural power of the mind. But one needs more than natural intellect to understand the purpose for which he exists, and the means of achieving heaven. For this one requires the supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit called Understanding.
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Though Faith is still necessary in this life, the Gift of Understanding allows one to know the mysteries of Faith more surely. Understanding permits the mind with ease, to grasp teachings of the Faith, and have an instinct for Faith.
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Even those who are not very bright in the natural realm, by the Gift of Understanding, are instructed in those things necessary for salvation. With regard to those things necessary for salvation, the Gift of Understanding never withdraws from a holy person, but in order to prevent pride, it may withdraw sometimes with regard to other things, so that the mind is unable to penetrate all things clearly.
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This Gift is not our doing, it is infused into our soul at Baptism, it comes alive when acted upon, and remains as long as we are in the state of grace. Without the state of grace, no one has this Gift. If lost, it is recovered when mortal sins are confessed and the state of grace is regained.
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The opposing vice, St. Thomas calls ‘dullness of mind,’ and here a person, in regard to heavenly things, requires many explanations and still has difficulty arriving at the truth of the thing. Dullness of mind denotes a certain weakness of the mind regarding spiritual goods.
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St. John warns us not to love worldly things; the world is full of lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. To follow these ways leads to dullness of mind.
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St. Thomas says that the Gift of Understanding corresponds to the 6th Beatitude: ‘Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.
By Christ’s coming into the world, the Lord enables us to participate in the Divine Life, and prepare for union with God in the world to come. The Gift of Understanding really helps us on the way there.
Friends in Christ, today is the feast of St. Thomas Becket, of England.
As we know, there has been a long history of oppression of the Church in England. To this day, it is illegal for any Catholic to become king or Queen of England. This all goes back to Henry VIII starting his own church, the Church of England, so that he could marry another woman – and another, and another…
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In those days, Catholics held secret Masses, risking their lives, such as St. Margaret Clitherow who gave her life for Christ so that the holy Mass could be said in her home. This is the reason that England has always been even to modern times, mostly all Anglican. It is interesting to note that today, more Catholics go to Church in England than Anglicans, so our persistence is paying off!
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But pressure against the Catholic Church actually did not begin just with Henry VIII in 1530. If we go back to 1160, we find St. Thomas Becket, our saint for today. He was chancellor of England, and he had to resist pressure that the king was putting on the Church. So the king sent his executioners to dispatch Thomas.
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When they came to the Church, many tried to defend him, but Thomas opened the church door himself saying: I gladly face death for the Church of God. He commended his flock and himself to God, and bowed for execution where he died by the sword.
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Here in the United States, most people don’t imagine there could be persecution against the Church, but it is beginning now in the form of government and legal pressures to conform to the secular mindset.
– Laws forcing the Church to pay for medical procedures we morally oppose.
– When a person is dismissed from working for the Church because of their sinful lifestyle, the newspapers cry ‘discrimination,’ and the lawsuits begin.
– Laws against the consciences of doctors, nurses and pharmacists,
– the ridicule of those who oppose same-sex marriage, the list goes on.
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Cardinal George once remarked: ‘The way things are going, I will die in my bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.’
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When Christ was born, Simeon prophesied: this child is set for the fall and rise of many and a sign that will be contradicted. It was this way with Jesus, but also for his followers.
The Church is most glorious when persecuted, because persecution weeds out those who are not really faithful, and makes the rest prove their metal. Let us therefore follow St. Thomas Becket in faithfulness, regardless of what they say.
