The Joy of the Gospel

Jesus, I trust in you!

There is a sense of urgency in the sending of the disciples to preach about the coming of the Kingdom of God: Go on your way, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. By commanding the disciples to bring neither money bag, nor sack, nor sandals, the Lord wanted them to travel light. “Greet no one along the way” so that nothing can delay them from fulfilling their task. Perhaps you have seen those trucks that bore the signs “Government project: do not delay.” The mission to evangelize is something like that. Each of us is sent to evangelize: God’s project: do not delay.”

I suppose that this sense of urgency springs from the importance of the message we are supposed to bring to others: “The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.” The coming of the Kingdom of God is indeed important because it is the means by which God gives all men access to his divine life. The Father wants all of us to share in his divine life. That is why he gathers men around his Son and this gathering is the Church which on earth is the beginning of the Kingdom of God. The Lord wants to gather us all in the Church so that we might have life: “Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts! For thus says the Lord: Lo, I will spread prosperity over Jerusalem like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent. As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms, and fondled in her lap; as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort.” The Lord uses the tender image of a mother nursing her child in order to reveal to us the tenderness of his love which desires nothing but goodness for all of us. The Lord comforts us through the Church which is the new Jerusalem. We should always consider the Church as our mother.  (Because of the popularity of receiving communion by the hand, the reception of communion on the tongue is unappreciated by many. I find this unfortunate because receiving Communion on the tongue reminds us of the time when as little children, we were fed by the hand of our mothers. This manner of receiving Communion expresses the motherly gesture of the Church.)

The tenderness of a mother’s love always brings delight. It brings joy because it is life giving. A person who experienced a mother’s love grows and finds fulfillment. In the same way, we who experienced the love of God through the Church grow to maturity and eventually we seek means to fulfillment. The challenge to go and evangelize gives us the opportunity to find real fulfillment. “The Gospel offers us the chance to live life on a higher plane: ‘Life grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life the most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others.’ When the Church summons Christians to take up the task of evangelization, she is simply pointing to the source of authentic fulfillment. For ‘here we discover a profound law of reality: that life is attained and matures in the measure that it is offered up in order to give life to others. This is certainly what mission means.’” (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 10.) A loving mother gives life to loving children. Eventually her children become parents themselves. They who have been given life by their mother eventually desire to give life to others. This is precisely what evangelization is all about: it is about the passing on of a life-giving tradition. I have been given life. Now, I want to give life to others. I have been given joy. Now, I want to pass on this joy to others. “Consequently, an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral! Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that ‘delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow…And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes in anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ.’” (Ibid.)

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. 

Prayer of St. Francis Xavier

St. Francis Xavier, Patron of the Missions

At the end of the Ramadan, I would like to invite you to pray this prayer by St. Francis Xavier, Patron of the Missions:

O God, the everlasting Creator of all things, remember that the souls of unbelievers we made by Thee and formed in Thine own image and likeness.

Remember that Jesus, Thy Son, endured a most bitter death for their salvation.

Permit not, I beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thy Son should be any longer despised by unbelievers, but do Thou graciously accept the prayers of holy men and of the Church, the Spouse of Thy most holy Son, and be mindful of Thy mercy.

Forget their idolatry and unbelief, and grant that they too may some day know Him whom Thou hast sent, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Salvation, our Life and Resurrection, by whom we have been saved and delivered, to whom be glory for endless ages. Amen.

Misa de Aguinaldo December 23, 2013: Your Sons and Daughters Will Prophesy

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

St. John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord, is born and at his circumcision, the tongue of his father Zechariah was loosened when he insisted that the name John was to be given to the child. Remember that Zechariah was made dumb at the apparition of the angel and his ability to speak will only return when all that was told him would come to pass. And true to the angel’s word, his speech was restored. Zechariah’s silence before the birth of John portrayed the silence of God because for many years, no prophet was sent to Israel. John’s birth broke the silence not only of Zechariah but of God as well. God once again sends a prophet and after the prophet, his Son. First, the voice and then followed the Word.

But it is not only John who will prophesy. Zechariah will prophesy as well. Here we see the signs of the day of the Lord: “In the last days, God says,  I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions,  your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17. To prophesy is not to predict the future. To prophesy is to speak in the name of the Lord. And the Spirit poured out on all people on the day of the Lord will make of us visionaries, dreamers, and prophets.

Pope Francis wrote: “In all the baptized, from first to last, the sanctifying power of the Spirit is at work, impelling us to evangelization.” [Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 119.] “In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples (cf. Mt 28:19). All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients. The new evangelization calls for personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized. Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love. Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are ‘disciples’ and ‘missionaries’, but rather that we are always ‘missionary disciples’.” [EG, 120.]

“…each of us should find ways to communicate Jesus wherever we are. All of us are called to offer others an explicit witness to the saving love of the Lord, who despite our imperfections offers us his closeness, his word and his strength, and gives meaning to our lives. In your heart you know that it is not the same to live without him; what you have come to realize, what has helped you to live and given you hope, is what you also need to communicate to others. Our falling short of perfection should be no excuse; on the contrary, mission is a constant stimulus not to remain mired in mediocrity but to continue growing. The witness of faith that each Christian is called to offer leads us to say with Saint Paul: “Not that I have already obtained this, or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Phil 3:12-13).” [EG, 121.]

 Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

The Means to Renew the Face of the Earth

The Lord said, I have come to light a fire on the earth and how I wish it were blazing. How can priests light the world with the fire of the Holy Spirit and so be instruments in renewing the face of the earth? St. Anthony Claret has this to say:

"The prophet asked the Lord: Emitte Spiritum tuum, et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae. Lord, send your spirit upon your priests, and they, filled with this Holy Spirit, will hasten everywhere, like the apostles, and the face of the earth will be changed completely. For the moral earth does the same thing that the physical earth does: if it is well cultivated it yields abundant fruits, but if it is not cultivated it yield nothing but weeds and thorns. Thus people, if they are well cultivated, produce choice fruits of virtue, but if they are abandoned to themselves, they produce nothing but errors and vices. Hence we must work to form good clergy, who are the laborers in the Lord's fields, and we must ask the good Lord of the harvest to send good laborers to his inheritance.

The means assigned to change the face of the earth promptly and easily are the following:

The 1st means is to form good, virtuous, and well-educated priests, and we have no doubt that this will be achieved if we put into practice the means indicated in the present little work.

The 2nd means are missions, which should be repeated every three years in parishes great and small, lasting for a varying number of days, according to the needs of the people.

The 3rd means is that on all Sundays and Feast days of the year, the pastors should preach or read some talk, and teach Christian doctrine and the way to make mental and vocal prayer.

The 4th means is instructing girls and boys in catechism, morals, and religion. Radical reform must begin with the children.

The 5th means is not to allow boys and girls to receive the Eucharist without making a First Communion, preceded by a preparatory retreat, and followed by enrollment in a confraternity, so that they may continue receiving the sacraments monthly or every 2 or 3 months.

The 6th means is to revive those confraternities that are already established in parishes but have fallen off, and have them fulfill their statutes exactly, beginning with a few good and more fervent souls.

The 7th means is to keep Sundays and Feast days holy, not only because God commands it, but also that they may be devoted to spiritual gatherings, frequenting the sacraments and pious reading, so that everyone may keep God's law and pray.

The 8th means is to strive to spread good books.

The 9th means is to practice the 14 works of charity or mercy.

The 10th means is to exhort those who can do so to attend Mass daily, to say a 3rd part of the Rosary, to direct all they do to the greater glory of God, to suffer all afflictions with patience, to walk always in the presence of God, and to receive the holy Sacraments frequently.

St. Anthony Claret, The Well-Instructed Seminarian, Vol 11, Chap. III, 5.

Missionary Zeal

Eternal Love, I want all the souls You have created to come to know You. I would like to be a priest, for then I would speak without cease about Your mercy to sinful souls drowned in despair. I would like to be a missionary and carry the light of faith to savage nations in order to make You known to souls, and to be completely consumed for them and to die a martyr's death, just as You died for them and for me. O Jesus, I know only too well that I can be a priest, a missionary, a preacher, and that I can die a martyr's death by completely emptying myself and denying myself for love of You, O Jesus, and of immortal souls.

St. Faustina, Diary, 302.

How we wish that such ardent missionary desire would still be present in Catholic souls! If only we would have that desire to make the Merciful Jesus known to many souls drowned in despair! Here is the solution to the problem of suicide the world over: Make the Divine Mercy known and loved to all the world!