Thou Shall Not Kill

Jesus, I trust in you!

Jesus said to us, his disciples: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors: You shall not kill and whoever kills will be liable to judgment…”  Pope John Paul II said in Evangelium Vitae: “Human life is sacred because from its beginning, it involves ‘the creative action of God’ and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can, in any circumstance, claim for himself the right to destroy directly an innocent human being.”…Donum Vitae sets forth the central content of God’s revelation on the sacredness and inviolability of human life.

“Sacred Scripture in fact, presents the precept ‘You shall not kill’ as a divine commandment…this commandment is found in the Decalogue, at the heart of the Covenant which the Lord makes with his chosen people; but it was already contained in the original covenant between God and humanity after the purifying punishment of the Flood, caused by the spread of sin and violence.

“God proclaims that he is the absolute Lord of the life of man, who is formed in his image and likeness. Human life is thus given a sacred and inviolable (banal, hindi maaring labagin) character, which reflects the inviolability of the Creator himself.  Precisely for this reason God will severely judge every violation of the commandment ‘You shall not kill’…He is the defender of the innocent. God thus shows that he does not delight in the death of the living (Wisdom 1:3). Only Satan can delight therein: for through his envy death entered the world (Wis. 2:24). He who is ‘a murderer from the beginning’, is also ‘a liar and the father of lies.’ By deceiving man he leads him to projects of sin and death, making them appear as goals and fruits of life.

“As explicitly formulated, the precept ‘You shall not kill’ is strongly negative: it indicates the extreme limit which can never be exceeded. However, implicitly it encourages a positive attitude of absolute respect for life; it leads to the promotion of life and to progress along the way of a love that gives, receives, and serves. The people of the Covenant…progressively matured in this way of thinking, and thus prepared for the great proclamation of Jesus that the commandment to love one’s neighbor is like the commandment to love God: ‘on these 2 commandments depend all the law and the prophets.’ St. Paul emphasizes that ‘the commandment ‘You shall not kill’ and any other commandment are summed up in this phrase: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ …The commandment ‘You shall not kill’ stands as an indispensable condition for being able ‘to enter life’. In this same perspective…the Apostle John (says): “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” (1 Jn 3:15)

The Didache, an ancient document of the Church coming from the Apostolic times said: “There are 2 ways, a way of life and a way of death; there is a great difference between them…In accordance with the precept of the teaching ‘You shall not kill’…you shall not put a child to death by abortion nor kill it once it is born…The way of death is this: …they do show no compassion for the poor, they do not suffer with the suffering, they do not acknowledge their Creator, they kill their children and by abortion cause God’s creatures to perish; they drive away the needy, oppress the suffering; they are advocates of the rich and unjust judges of the poor; they are filled with every sin. May you be able to stay ever apart, O children from these sins.

“This should not come as a surprise: to kill a human being, in whom the image of God is present, is a particularly serious sin. Only God is the master of life! (Evangelium Vitae, 53-55.)

The Book of Sirach teaches us: Before man are life and death, good and evil, whatever he chooses shall be given to him.

Let us choose life. Let us choose to stand by the commandments of God, even if we shall be persecuted and mocked for this. (March for life on Saturday, Feb 18 at the Qurino grandstand at 4:30 to 7:00 am) There is no mistake in standing up for life. There is no mistake in standing on the side of the God of life. If you keep the commandments, “they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live.”

O Mary Conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

The Scandalous Mercy of God

The Magdalene who loved much because she was forgiven much

Jesus, I trust in you!

Simon the Pharisee underestimated Jesus for seemingly not knowing the kind of woman who was touching him: “If this man were a prophet, he would know what sort of woman this is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Apparently, many people today are like Simon who thinks that God does not want to be touched by sinners. While it is true that God finds sin repulsive, Jesus today shows us how he allows himself to be touched by the repentance of sinners.

In the first reading, the prophet Nathan reproved David for very grievous sins: adultery with Uriah’s wife and then plotting the same man’s murder. “Why have you spurned the Lord and done evil in his sight ...You have despised me!” The evil nature of David’s sins was enough to separate him from the Lord and yet, when David realized the gravity of his sins, he confessed: “I have sinned against the Lord.” That was all Nathan had to hear in order to assure David of Divine absolution: “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die.”

We often do not understand how God could easily forgive David when in fact his sins were so grave. How could the Lord Jesus allow the woman to touch him in spite of her many sins: “… her many sins have been forgiven.” We do not realize that the mercy of the Lord is really very scandalous. It offends our sense of justice, or rather, our desire for retribution. Shouldn’t David be punished? Shouldn’t the sinful woman be publicly humiliated? Shouldn’t that criminal be hanged? What about the victims? Do we not care that they get justice? Pope John Paul cautioned us about how justice is easily distorted by spite, hate, and cruelty. “In such cases, the desire to annihilate the enemy, limit his freedom, or even force him into total dependence, becomes the fundamental motive for action…It is obvious, in fact, that in the name of (an alleged) justice, the neighbor is sometimes destroyed, killed, deprived of liberty or stripped of fundamental human rights.” (Dives in Misericordia, 7.) Pope John Paul concludes: “The experience of the past and of our own time demonstrates that justice alone is not enough, that it can even lead to the negation and destruction of itself, if that deeper power, which is love, is not allowed to shape human life in its various dimensions.” (Ibid.)

Mercy defines the love of God. “All the subtleties of love become manifest in the Lord’s mercy for those who are his own.” (DM, 4.) God’s mercy is more powerful and more profound than his justice. “Love is ‘greater’ than justice: greater in the sense that it is primary and fundamental. Love conditions justice and justice serves love. The primacy and superiority of love vis-a-vis justice are revealed through mercy.” (Ibid.) Jesus himself said to St. Faustina: “Let the sinner not be afraid to approach me. The flames of mercy are burning me – clamoring to be spent; I want to pour them out upon souls.” (Diary, 50.) Thus, those who were at table with Jesus rightfully asked themselves about Jesus: “Who is this who even forgives sins?” This, indeed, is Jesus: he is the One who forgives sins. He was sent by the Father as expiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).

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

Ash Wednesday in the Year of Mercy

Jesus, I trust in you!

Let us hasten to the Inner Room to meet the Father

We once again open the Lenten season with the celebration of Ash Wednesday. During this season, we engage in acts of penance and piety. We fast, we pray, and we give alms to the poor. We go to Church today in the age-old tradition of receiving ashes on our heads as a sign of sorrow for our sins. In the Old Testament, people wore sack cloth and put ashes on their head as they fasted and prayed. We do the same today. Let us remember that the ashes on our heads are signs of true contrition for our sins. Publicly, we acknowledge that we have sinned and by acts of penance, we want to take responsibility for what we have done as we seek the forgiveness of the Lord.

On this Year of Mercy, let us listen to God’s Word which invites us to return to the Lord: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord your God!” The prophet Joel emphasizes the importance of interior conversion: Rend your hearts, not your garments! Even the Lord Jesus teaches us of the primacy of the heart, that “inner room” where we should go and meet the Father who sees everything in secret.  We do not need to put up a show, to make an elaborate production number to entertain judges. All the Lord wants us to do is to fast in secret, to pray from the heart, and to be sincere in our charity. This is what it means to rend our hearts and not our garments.

But why do we return to the Lord? What is the motive of our interior conversion? We return to the Lord because the Lord has revealed himself to us as a Father who is rich in mercy: “Return to the Lord your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.” St. John Paul II said that when Israel broke her covenant with God by worshiping the golden calf, “The Lord himself triumphed over this act of breaking the covenant when He solemnly declared to Moses that He was a ‘God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.’ It is in this central revelation that the chosen people…will find, every time that they have sinned, the strength and motive for turning to the Lord to remind him of what He exactly revealed about Himself and to beseech His forgiveness.” (Dives in Misericordia, 4.)

This is exactly the reason why turn to him in spite of our sins: the Lord Jesus revealed to us that the Father is rich in mercy. Kaya nga malakas ang loob nating humingi ng awa ay sapagkat sinabi niya na mayaman siya sa awa. Kung walang awa ang Diyos, matatakot tayo at mag-aatubiling lumapit sa kanya. Kung walang awa ang Panginoon, walang sinuman sa atin ang aamin sa kanyang pagkakasala. Kaya nagtago sina Adan at Eba noong sila ay nagkasala ay sapagkat labis silang nahihiya sa kanilang ginawa at hindi nila naisip na kaya at gusto ng Diyos na magpatawad. Lumalapit tayo sa Diyos dahil madali siyang lapitan. Humihingi tayo sa kanya ng awa dahil mayaman siya sa awa.

Let this confidence in the Mercy of God accompany us in our Lenten journey. Let our return to the Lord be done with quick and joyful steps. Let us not walk like convicted men led to their execution. Rather, let us be like children who race to return to the Father’s house. Make your steps light by fasting. Let go of your baggage by alms giving. Let us be quick to enter that inner room to meet the Father who sees everything in secret. He waits for you there. Do not delay your reconciliation to him. Now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!

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

Entering into the Trinitarian Communion

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

In last week’s meditation on the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, we saw that God wills that all his creatures enter into the communion of his Trinitarian life: “The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.” (CCC, 260) He wishes us to have access into his Divine Life which is a Communion of life and love. We may ask: How? How are we to participate into the communal life of the Blessed Trinity. The Lord Jesus answers this in today’s reading: “Just as the living Father sent me, and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” Yes, you heard it right: he wants us to feed on him…to eat his flesh and drink his blood. It might sound odd to you, but do not worry, it also sounded the same way to the Jews who heard him. In fact they quarreled among themselves: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They thought they heard him say that Jesus wanted them to eat his flesh. They just wanted to be sure that they heard him right. And so Jesus confirmed what they heard: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have life in you.” As if it were not enough, he continued: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him on the last day.” Just in case you did not understand him, Jesus reiterated: “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” And so that there would be no further misunderstanding, he repeats: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

The words of Jesus undeniably speak of the mystery of his Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Jesus. In the Eucharist, Jesus is truly present: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Let there be no mistake about this. The Eucharist is the Sacrament of the Presence of Christ. But let it not be forgotten that the purpose of his Presence is to be offered as Sacrifice. At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and said: “This is my Body which will be given up for you.” Likewise, he took the chalice of wine and said: “This is the Chalice of my Blood which will be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  His Body is given up…offered up. His blood is shed…poured out as a libation, a drink offering. And this is why he wishes us to eat and drink his flesh and blood: partaking of sacrificial food brings about the communion of the recipient with the God to whom the sacrifice is being offered. In the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostles forbade the gentile converts from eating meat offered to idols. This is because eating the meat offered to idols would bring about communion between the eater and the false gods to whom the meat was offered. In like manner, eating the flesh of Jesus in Holy Communion brings about our communion with the Blessed Trinity to whom the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered: “Just as …I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” Understand that when we approach the Altar for Holy Communion, we are not receiving ordinary food. We will be eating the Body and Blood of Jesus himself. This is the reason why we kneel for communion. This is why we receive communion with great reverence and devotion. We are approaching Jesus himself truly present in the Holy Sacrament of the altar. And in doing so, we enter into communion with the Most Holy Trinity. Thus St. Pope John Paul said: the Eucharist “is at one and the same time a sacrifice-sacrament, a communion-sacrament, and a presence-sacrament.” (Redemptor Hominis, 20.) In the Holy Eucharist, we have the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus whose body and blood is offered and poured out for our salvation and in doing so, he brings us, the Church, into communion with the Blessed Trinity. “The Eucharist is the sacrament of sacrifice and communion. All of us who participate in it as sacrifice receive it in communion. At the same time, we receive God’s gift of himself in the Holy Spirit, whom Christ merited for us through his passion.” (John Paul II, Homily of Mass for the Sick, June 14, 1987.) 

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

He could not have said it any clearer than this!

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

The Lord could not have given the teaching in clearer terms than he does in today’s reading. He is not talking in some vague, symbolic language. He tells us in plain and simple language: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” His words are so clear that even his enemies murmured among themselves because they understood correctly what he was trying to say: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

The Jews were accustomed to sacred meals which they ate in the presence of the Lord as a sign of Divine favor. But what Jesus is saying is new for them. He goes beyond eating in the presence of God. Jesus gives his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. He himself is the meal. “In the Eucharistic meal, man feeds on God.” (John Paul II, General Audience on June 8, 1983.) The change of bread into his flesh and wine into his blood is not merely a change of perception, that is, a change in the way we look at what is on the altar. The change is ontological, that is, whether we perceive it or not, the bread, by the power of the word of Christ and by the Holy Spirit, becomes the flesh of Christ. In like manner, the wine, by the same power of Christ’s word and by the Holy Spirit, becomes the blood of Christ. It is a real, objective change – regardless of the perception of the onlookers. It is Christ truly present, body and blood, soul and divinity.

Christ is truly present so that the redemptive sacrifice can be made present. Bread and wine becomes his body and blood so that his sacrifice may be sacramentally renewed through the offering made by the ordained priest. And once his sacrifice is made present, the Lord makes accessible to us the fruit of his offering: eternal life. Eternal life is made accessible to us through this sacrificial meal. Eating his body and drinking his blood must not be understood in a metaphorical way for what we eat is truly his body and what we drink is truly his blood. As material food is necessary for the preservation and development of bodily life, so the Eucharist is necessary for the development of the Divine life in us. “Just as the Father who has life sent me and I have life because of the Father, so the man who feeds on me will have life because of me.” “The Father is the first source of life; this life he has given to the Son, who in turn communicates it to mankind. He who feeds on Christ in the Eucharist does not have to wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life; he already possesses it on earth, and in it he possesses the guarantee of the resurrection of the body at the end of the world: ‘He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (Ibid.) Truly, this is the food that does not perish. This is the food that “endures unto everlasting life.” “Wisdom has…dressed her meat and mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table…and calls out from the heights out over the city: ‘Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live, advance in the way of understanding.’”

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

Listening to Christ's word Helps us Recognize Him

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

This Church is seldom filled to capacity but for 3 days this week, it was filled with people not really because of some religious event but because it became an evacuation site for flood victims. We had as much as 1,300 people but today, we are back to the usual little group. I just realized that it is easier to dispose relief goods than to distribute Holy Communion. I personally buy the hosts for the parish and I have been buying the same volume as when I was in Sikatuna. In my former parish, the supply of hosts has to be replenished every 2 weeks. But here, the replenishment of supply takes place every 1 and a half months. It only shows that very few receive Holy Communion here. If I distributed relief goods at every Mass, perhaps the supply has to be replenished every day. Remember the words of Jesus last Sunday: “You look for me not because you have seen signs but because you have eaten and were filled. Do not work for food that does not last. Rather, work for food that lasts unto eternal life.”

Why is it that most people do not appreciate Holy Communion? I think it is because most of us have not really listened to God. In the Holy Gospel, Jesus says: “They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.” “No one can come to me unless the Father draw him and I will raise him on the last day.” A person will not approach Holy Communion not unless he believes that what is being given is Christ’s flesh for the life of the world. But faith can be elicited only as a response to Divine Revelation. No one comes to Jesus without first listening to the Father and learning from him. And no one can have eternal life unless he believes in Jesus. Listening to the word of God enables us to recognize the Lord Jesus who is truly present in the most holy Sacrament of the altar. “In the account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Christ himself intervenes to show, ‘beginning with Moses and all the prophets’, how ‘all the Scriptures’ point to the mystery of his person (cf. Lk 24:27). His words make the hearts of the disciples ‘burn’ within them, drawing them out of the darkness of sorrow and despair, and awakening in them a desire to remain with him: ‘Stay with us, Lord’ (cf. v. 29).” (John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine, 12.)  “It is significant that the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, duly prepared by our Lord's words, recognized him at table through the simple gesture of the ‘breaking of bread’. When minds are enlightened and hearts are enkindled, signs begin to ‘speak’. The Eucharist unfolds in a dynamic context of signs containing a rich and luminous message. Through these signs the mystery in some way opens up before the eyes of the believer.” (MND, 14.)

As the disciples of Emmaus were duly prepared by our Lord’s words to recognize Christ at the breaking of bread, so must we truly listen to God’s word so that we may also recognize the flesh of Jesus which is given to us at Holy Communion. Only by approaching the Lord can we have eternal life. “Whoever eats this bread will live for ever.”

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

John Paul II on the Bread of Life

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

After the miraculous multiplication of the loaves, Christ says to the crowds who were seeking him: “Truly, truly I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give you.” “How difficult it was for Jesus hearers to make this passage from the sign to the mystery it indicates: from the daily bread to ‘the bread which endures to eternal life!’ Nor is it easy for us.” (John Paul II, Homily on May 31, 1997.)

It is clear that Jesus does not eliminate normal concerns and pursuit of daily bread. Man has indeed need of food and drink if he is to live. The human body needs food and drink to live, grow, develop, and work. This is the food of temporal, transient life, which ends with death. But the Lord points out that the real meaning of our earthly existence lies in eternity. In fact, the human soul also has need of food and drink in order to persevere in the journey towards eternal life. Man needs the Bread of life in order to be able to life in eternity the life that comes from God. (cf. Homily on June 13, 1987)

And so Jesus declares with consoling clarity: “My Father gives you the true Bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world…I am the Bread of life, he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall not thirst.” Jesus refers to the manna which God gave to the Jews when they crossed the desert. “We, too, like the people of Israel,…live on earth the experience of Exodus: the ‘promised land’ is Heaven. God, who did not abandon his people in the desert, does not abandon man in his earthly pilgrimage either. He has given him ‘bread’ that is able to sustain him along the way: the ‘bread’ is Christ. He is first of all the food of the soul with revealed truth, and then with his very Person present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.” (Homily on August 5, 1979)

Proclaiming that the Heavenly Father gives us the true bread from heaven, Jesus “bears witness to God, who is not only Creator and Lord of creation, but is, at the same time, Father. And the Father feeds and nourishes his children. He feeds…and nourishes them with the food and drink of eternal life: the Most Holy Eucharist. The Church lives daily from the Eucharist; she lives unceasingly from it.”(Homily on May 29, 1986)

“In the Eucharist is inscribed the most profound thing in the life of every man…Here, the life of man, through the Eucharist, is inscribed in the mystery of the living God. In this mystery – as in the eternal Book of Life – man surpasses the limits of contemporaneity, proceeding towards the hope of eternal life. Here, the Church of the Incarnate Word, through the Eucharist, causes the inhabitants of the eternal Jerusalem to be born.” (Homily on May 22, 1983)

Mindful of Jesus’ promise: “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven”, we ask God our Father before communion: “Give us today our daily bread.” This daily bread is the Body of Christ without which we have no life within us. As children of heaven, we urgently need the bread of heaven. When St. Catherine of Siena was not able to receive holy communion, her body suffered more than if racked by intense pain, and she would pray: “Father, I am hungry. For the love of God, give my soul food!” The Bread from heaven “is not less necessary to the development of the divine life in the faithful than material food is for the preservation and development of bodily life. The Eucharist is not a luxury offered to those who would want to live more intimately united with Christ: the Eucharist is a necessity of Christian life.” (General Audience of June 8, 1983)

Like the people who said to Jesus: “Give us this bread always”, so when we pray to the Father to “give us this day our daily bread”, we ought to ask above all for the living Bread come down from heaven with which the Father feeds his children. “From our first Communion until the day we die, may we have a deep yearning for Christ, the true bread which gives life to the world.” (Homily in Cardiff, June 2, 1982) (John Paul II and the Mystery of the Eucharist, 58-60)

Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for 

John Paul II, the Saints, and Holiness

We have the strange understanding of saints as people who are totally remote from our own experiences: medieval, other worldly, strange – almost fairy tale like. To many, saints are those whose feet are up there in the clouds, residing in their own ivory towers, so far from our daily experiences – they must be people who belonged to some other time, definitely not ours.

That is why at the end of the Great Jubilee 2000, when John Paul II wrote that “all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness” ( John Paul II, Novo Millenio Ineunte, 30.), some people thought that it was simply impractical to still speak of holiness in pastoral plans. It simply did not seem consistent with the language of the times. Can holiness be the foundation of pastoral planning? Shouldn’t we speak in more practical terms?

John Paul II taught that holiness is very much the language of the 2^nd Vatican Council: “It is necessary therefore to rediscover the full practical significance of Chapter 5 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, dedicated to the "universal call to holiness". The Council Fathers laid such stress on this point, not just to embellish ecclesiology with a kind of spiritual veneer, but to make the call to holiness an intrinsic and essential aspect of their teaching on the Church. The rediscovery of the Church as "mystery", or as a people "gathered together by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit",¹⁵ was bound to bring with it a rediscovery of the Church's "holiness", understood in the basic sense of belonging to him who is in essence the Holy One, the "thrice Holy" (cf. Is 6:3). To profess the Church as holy means to point to her as the Bride of Christ, for whom he gave himself precisely in order to make her holy (cf. Eph 5:25-26). This as it were objective gift of holiness is offered to all the baptized.” (Ibid.)

John Paul made it so simple. To him, Holiness is simply “belonging to Him who is…the Holy One.” It means incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. It means abiding in Christ as He abides in us because He is the Vine and we are the branches…we belong to Him. Thus, at baptism, the question asked of the catechumen: “Do you want to be baptized?” actually means “Do you want to be holy?” It is because baptism incorporates us into Christ, makes us belong to Christ. Belonging to Christ is the very essence of holiness. Christian life as a vocation to holiness expresses the radicality of the words of Jesus: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48.)

John Paul canonized and beatified many saints, “among them many lay people who attained holiness in the most ordinary circumstances of life.” (NMI, 31.) He did so in order to teach that the “ideal of perfection must not be misunderstood as if it involved some kind of extraordinary existence, possible only for a few ‘uncommon heroes’ of holiness. The ways of holiness are many, according to the vocation of each individual.” (Ibid.) “The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living.” (Ibid.) Yes, the standards of ordinary Christin living are high. Therefore, “it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity.” (Ibid.) John Paul has always been critical of mediocity. He always reminded us to “cast into the deep.” (Duc in altum.) We should not be satisfied with a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity.

John Paul, who canonized and beatified many saints is himself now a “Beato.” He himself understood that if all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness, the pastor himself must lead by example of holiness. And holy indeed was John Paul – intense in his prayer, exemplar in his ministry, heroic in his suffering. His holiness was rooted in his communion with the Lord and His Blessed Mother. Totus Tuus – his famous motto, expressed his unconditional surrender and consecration to the Blessed Virgin. It was his constant fiat, closely in imitation of the Fiat of Mary that accounted for a truly fruitful ministry. And the fruits are undeniable: the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the death of Communism, the struggle against Moral relativism, the defense of all human life, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Code of Canon Law, the publication of the new liturgical books, the World Youth Days, and the World Meetings of Families. Truly, when one abides in Christ the Vine and Christ abides in him, he bears fruits, fruits that endure.

Blessed John Paul brings the world of saints so close to us. His sanctity isn’t just a story we read in the Roman Martyriology but one which we saw with our own eyes. Our eyes have seen him emerge from the balcony of St. Peter’s at his election to the papacy. Our eyes have seen him traverse the world to preach the Gospel. Our eyes have seen him here, at this very place, when he met with businessmen. Our eyes have seen him meet our clergy, our consecrated persons, our catechists, our youth, and our families. We saw him advance in age, suffer in illness, and die in peace. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of his saintly predecessor: “No pope has left us such a quantity of texts as he had bequeathed to us; no previous pope was able to visit the whole world like him and speak directly to people from all continents. In the end, however, his lot was a journey of suffering and silence…He has left us an interpretation of suffering that is not a theological or philosophical theory but a fruit that matured on his personal path of suffering which he walked, sustained by faith in the Crucified Lord.” (Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, December 22, 2005.)

I am so confident that from heaven, Blessed John Paul looks upon us at this moment. From heaven he continues to challenge us: “Do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power. Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows "what is in man". He alone knows it.” (John Paul II, Homily at the Inauguration of his Pontificate, October 22, 1978.) Let us not be afraid to belong to Christ. Let us not hesitate to surrender all to Him. Let us abandon ourselves totally to His Blessed Mother. His formula for sanctity are two simple words: Totus Tuus. I am all yours, completely yours!

Mary, Mt. Carmel, and the Church

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily. It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise: the glory of Libanus is given to it: the beauty of Carmel, and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God.
(Is. 35:1-2)

Mount Carmel, on account of its proximity to the Mediterranean Sea and by abundant dew, is marked by its luxurious vegetation, aromatic plants, and wild flowers. Its beauty accounts for the meaning of its name: “the garden.” On this mountain the prophet St. Elijah lived, fasted, and prayed. On this mountain the Lord revealed himself to the prophet in a gentle voice. On this mountain, the prophet challenged the priests of Baal to a contest that would prove the God of Israel as the true God. This mountain is sacred to the Lord. It is a privileged place of encounter with the Lord. Even from olden times, Mount Carmel has attracted seekers of God to find him in prayer along its slopes. It is a beautiful garden conducive for this privileged encounter with God – the place where one can be still to know the He the Lord is God.

In a way, we can see that Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is like Mount Carmel. She is the garden enclosed spoken of in the Canticle of Canticles: “Hortus conclusus soror mea, sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons signatus" ("A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.”) (4:12). She is the garden enclosed who is open only to her Divine Spouse who is the Holy Spirit. A beautiful garden she is so that men and women of the Spirit loved to apply to her the name mentioned by the Prophet Isaiah: Décor Carmeli – the Flower of Carmel, the Beauty of Carmel. Made beautiful by the fullness of grace which the Lord bestowed upon her at the first instant of her conception, Mary was the garden untouched – totally reserved for God alone. Her heart was the fitting dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, her womb for God the Son. Hers was the singular dignity of being God’s daughter, God’s spouse, and God’s mother. “Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart” – these words of St. Luke show Mary as the teacher of interiority, teacher of the things of the Spirit. She was already living out what her Son would later on teach: “When you pray, go to your room and close the door and pray to your Father in secret.” Mary does not only pray. She teaches us how to pray. Her greeting disposed Elizabeth for the reception of the Holy Spirit. After the Lord’s ascension, the disciples “gathered in prayer with Mary, the Mother of Jesus.” Like Mount Carmel that disposes hermits to meet the Lord, Mary disposed the disciples to encounter the Holy Spirit.

In this way, Mary is the pattern, the image of the Church. Towards the end of the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, Blessed John Paul pointed out “that all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness.” (Novo Millenio Ineunte, 30.) He spoke of the high standard of ordinary Christian living which cannot settle for “a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity” (NMI, 31.). Training in holiness is an imperative. This training in holiness calls for “a Christian life that is distinguished above all in the art of prayer.” (NMI, 32.) Recognizing the widespread demand for spirituality despite widespread secularization, Blessed John Paul made reference to the great mystical traditions of the Church as our response to this demand. He mentioned in particular the legacies of the great Carmelites St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross. “Our Christian communities must become genuine ‘schools’ of prayer, where the meeting with Christ is expressed not just in imploring help but also in thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening and ardent devotion, until the heart truly ‘falls in love’” (NMI, 33.).

And here is where Mount Carmel, Mary, and the Church meet: they all are genuine schools of prayer. And we are here, at the foot of Mount Carmel, sons and daughters of Our Lady, gathered as Church. We come here as disciples, as learners in the school of the Spirit. We repeat to the Lord the request made of him by his disciples: “Lord, teach us how to pray.” To this request comes the Lord’s response: “When you pray, go to your room and close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” Let us enter the inner room, the enclosed garden. Let us search for him. Let us seek his face. Let us climb the mountain of the Lord.

O Mary, Décor Carmeli, Beauty of Carmel, glory of Libanus, purest of lilies, mystic rose in the flowering gardens of the Church, pray for us.

On Christ's Look of Love

It is also my hope that, after you have made the discernment of the essential and important questions for you youth, for the plan of the whole life that lies before you, you will experience what the Gospel means when it says: "Jesus, looking upon him, loved him". May you experience a look like that! May you experience the truth that he, Christ, looks upon you with love!

He looks with love upon every human being. The Gospel confirms this at every step. One can also say that this "loving look" of Christ contains, as it were, a summary and synthesis of the entire Good News. If we would seek the beginning of this look, we must turn back to the Book of Genesis, to that instant when, after the creation of man "male and female", God saw that "it was very good".(Gen. 1:31) That very first look of the Creator is reflected in the look of Christ which accompanies his conversation with the young man in the Gospel.

We know that Christ will confirm and seal this look with the redemptive Sacrifice of the Cross, because precisely by means of this Sacrifice that "look' reached a particular depth of love. In it is contained an affirmation of man and of humanity such as only he is capable of-Christ the Redeemer and Bridegroom. Only he "knows what is in every man":(cf. John 2:25) he knows man's weakness, but he also and above all knows his dignity.

My wish for each of you is that you may discover this look of Christ, and experience it in all its depth. I do not know at what moment in your life. I think that it will happen when you need it most: perhaps in suffering, perhaps together with the witness of a pure conscience, as in the case of that young man in the Gospel, or perhaps precisely in an opposite situation: together with the sense of guilt, with remorse of conscience. For Christ looked at Peter too in the hour of his fall: when he had three times denied his Master.(cf. Luke 22:61)

Man needs this loving look. He needs to know that he is loved, loved eternally and chosen from eternity.(cf. Eph. 1:4) At the same time, this eternal love of divine election accompanies man during life as Christ's look of love. And perhaps most powerfully at the moment of trial, humiliation, persecution, defeat, when our humanity is as it were blotted out in the eyes of other people, insulted and trampled upon. At that moment the awareness that the Father has always loved us in his Son, that Christ always loves each of us, becomes a solid support for our whole human existence. When everything would make us doubt ourselves and the meaning of our life, then this look of Christ, the awareness of the love that in him has shown itself more powerful than any evil and destruction, this awareness enables us to survive.

My wish for you then is that you may experience what the young man in the Gospel experienced: "Jesus, looking upon him, loved him".

John Paul II, Dilecti Amici, 7.

John Paul II and the Divine Mercy Devotion

Divine Mercy Sunday this year is not an ordinary one because it will be blessed by the beatification of John Paul II. This well loved pope is very much a part of the Divine Mercy devotion. When he was the Archbishop of Krakow, he lifted the ban from the Diary of Sr. Faustina Kowalska. As Pope, he canonized Sr. Faustina and also established the Sunday after Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday and graced this day with indulgences. Thus, it did not surprise us that the Lord called his faithful servant to his rest on the evening of April 2, 2005, which was the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday.

That the Lord should want the Feast of Mercy to be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter already shows us that the Paschal Mystery of the Lord is to be appreciated with the theme of Mercy. On this day, the Lord Jesus invites St. Thomas to probe his wounded hands with his fingers and his side with his hand: “Doubt no longer but believe.” The Sacred Wounds of the Lord remind us of the Cross – that cruel instrument of torture and death which was transformed into an instrument of salvation. Pope John Paul wrote in Dives in Misericordia: “Even in the glorification of the Son of God, the Cross remains, that Cross which…speaks and never ceases to speak of God the Father, who is absolutely faithful in his eternal love for man…Believing in the crucified Son means ‘seeing the Father’, (it) means believing that love is present in the world and that this love is more powerful than any kind of evil in which individuals, humanity, or the world are involved. Believing in this love means believing in mercy. For mercy is an indispensable dimension of love; it is as it were love’s second name…” (Dives in Misericordia, 7) “In the eschatological fulfillment mercy will be revealed as love, while in the temporal phase, in human history, which is at the same time the history of sin and death, love must be revealed above all as mercy and must also be actualized in mercy…It is in the Cross that the revelation of merciful love attains its culmination.” (Ibid.)

“In his resurrection, Christ has revealed the God of merciful love, precisely because he accepted the Cross as the way to the Resurrection. And it is for this reason that – when we recall the Cross of Christ, his Passion and death – our faith and hope are centered on the Risen One; on that Christ who ‘on the evening of that day, the first day of the week,…stood among them’ in the Upper Room, ‘breathes on them and said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ Here is the Son of God, who in his Resurrection experienced in a radical way mercy shown to himself – that is to say the love of the Father which is more powerful than death. And it is also the same Christ, the Son of God…who reveals himself as the inexhaustible source of mercy, of that same love …that is more powerful than sin. The Paschal Christ is the definitive incarnation of mercy, its living sign in salvation history and in eschatology. In the same spirit, the liturgy of Eastertide places on our lips the words of the Psalm: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.” (Ibid.)

Decree on the Cult of Blessed John Paul II

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments published the Decree on the Liturgical Observance of the Cult of (soon to be) Blessed John Paul II. Decree established October 22 as the memorial of (Blessed) John Paul II in the Dioceses of Rome and Poland. The Link: ZENIT - Decree on the Cult of Blessed John Paul II