Devotion and Gratitude

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

“If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner,” so said Simon the Pharisee to himself. And so he is right…the Lord knew who and what kind of woman this was who washed his feet with ointment. After all, Jesus is more than a prophet. He is God who alone is able to read the human heart. He is so much unlike us who are only able to judge by appearance. He is able to “see in secret”. Nothing can be hidden from him. He alone understands the complexity of the human heart. Such is what the Lord capable of doing that he did not only read the heart of the weeping woman. He read the heart of the Pharisee himself. Thus, the Lord gave Simon the lesson of the debtors who were both forgiven by the creditor in order to the drive the point that the one who is forgiven of greater sins is the one who is able to love more. The devotion which the woman showed the Lord was the sign that she was indeed a sinful woman – a woman who was forgiven much that is why she is now able to love much.

Oftentimes, our acts of devotion and piety are judged as hypocritical because they give people the impression that we love to make a public display for our righteousness. Apparently, such pious acts are frowned upon as practices of people with a holier-than-thou attitude. Thus, in the fear of being judged as such, we become very calculating in the expression of our devotion. We hesitate to show piety for fear of being labeled as “banal na aso, santong kabayo.” But anyone who makes an effort to look into our acts of devotion would realize that such are not displays of self-proclaimed righteousness. Rather, these acts of devotion are actually expressions of love and gratitude on account of the mercy which the Lord has shown us sinners. Take a typical novena, for example. Let us look at the popular novena to the Sacred Heart, and what do you read? You would read words like: “I admit that I am unworthy of your favors, but this is not a reason for me to be discouraged. You are the God of mercy, and you will not refuse a contrite heart. Cast upon me a look of mercy…and your kind heart will find in my miseries and weaknesses a reason for granting my prayer.” Never have I encountered a devotional act that arrogantly demands of the Lord what is asked for on account of the devotion undertaken. Never have I heard any prayer that said: Lord, I am doing this for you and so you better give me what I want…or else! The humble petition in spite of our lack of worthy is the stuff that devotions are made of. We dare approach the Lord not because we think we are worthy (we know we never are) but because we know that He is merciful: “Sacred Heart of Jesus, I know that there is but one thing impossible to you: to be without pity for those who are suffering or in distress…” It is the confidence in the tender mercy of the Lord that encourages us to keep on returning to him. We approach him even in spite of our sinful selves. The Lord knows this. We cannot hide anything from him. He knows who we are and because of what he knows, he allows us to draw near to him to touch him. He knows that we need him. He knows that we need his mercy very badly.   

Thus, it is not those who show devotion who are hypocrites but the worldly who accuse them project their hypocrisy to pious people. I say that they project their hypocrisy on the devout because they see themselves as having no need of the Lord’s mercy: I can do it on my own…I don’t need Divine help, thank you very much. This self-reliance is the new hypocrisy. It is the new pride. It is the new idolatry for it dares to extol the self in the place of God. It dares to substitute the reliance on Divine Mercy with self-reliance. It is lacking in authentic love for it dares not love anyone else but the self. But as for ourselves, let us continue to show devotion and piety, even in spite of what we are accused of. Let us make the words of the Psalmist our own: “For in sacrifice you take no delight, burnt offering from me you would refuse, my sacrifice, a contrite spirit. A humbled contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.”

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

The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit vs. Demonic Possession

As we are in the Octave of Pentecost, it is good to continue meditating on the Indwelling of the Holy

Spirit. We said that God could not have made another way to be closer to us than what he does in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He does not come to stand above or below us. Nor does he stand before nor behind us nor beside us. he dwells in us.

As we talk about the Holy Spirit, we have to clarify what we mean by "spirit". Ordinarily, people associate "spirit" with ghosts. And we can partly agree with this for in former times, we used to refer to the 3rd Person of the Trinity as "Holy Ghost." But on account of the fact that English is a living language, the nuance of "ghost" has changed for the frightening. And so we now say "Holy Spirit".

But what do we mean by "spirit"?  A spirit is a disembodied being that knows and wills. Angels and demons are spirits. The Holy Spirit is obviously a spirit. The difference between them is that angels and demons are created spirits (they are creatures) while the Holy Spirit is uncreated (He is God). The difference between angels and demons is that the angelic mind is oriented towards the Truth while the demonic mind is oriented towards a Lie. The angelic will is inclined towards the Good while the demonic will is inclined towards evil. Of course, the Holy Spirit's mind is the Truth (He is the Spirit of Truth) and His will is the Good (He is Holy). 

The Holy Spirit dwells in our souls. We received him on the day of our Baptism. He dwells in our souls to transform our minds and orient them to the Truth (who is God). He dwells in our souls to transform our will and orient it to the Good (who is God). 

On the other hand, in a demonic possession, the demon takes over (dwells) in the human body and not in the soul. His objective is very simple...he wants to kill and destroy. The father of the possessed boy said to Jesus: "It has often thrown him into fire and water to kill him." (Mk. 9 - Monday 7th Wk in Ord Time). But of course, while the devil can make the body of the possessed his plaything, he cannot enter the soul where the Holy Spirit dwells unless...the person opens the door of the soul and lets the devil enter. The devil is like a roaring lion in search for someone to devour. But he stays outside the heart until the door is opened from within and he is invited to enter. This happens in the person's willful cooperation with the devil in mortal sin. And when the door of the soul is opened to let the devil in, the person closes his heart to the Holy Spirit and rejects Him. Jesus himself said, "No one can serve two masters. He will love one and despise the other..." In mortal sin, the person loses the indwelling of the Holy Spirit whom he rejects and drives away. Losing the Holy Spirit who is the Giver of Life, the soul dies. Thus, the plan of the devil is accomplished because he came to kill and destroy. This is the reason why mortal sin is called "mortal" - it kills the soul.

The only way to revive the dead soul is by the sacrament of Confession. In the Sacrament of Confession, the Holy Spirit returns to his dwelling in response to the contrition of the penitent. the Holy Spirit brings about the forgiveness of sins and also he infuses the Divine Life into the soul. Thus, He restores what sin has taken away and once again He transform the person's mind and heart unto the mind and heart of Christ.

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is God's most precious gift to us. Let us take care of this gift. Let us preserve the Divine Life in us through regular confession and frequent communion.

The Weapons Against Evil

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for 40 days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry…” It was at the moment when the Lord was hungry due to fasting that the devil decided to approach and tempt him. Perhaps, he thought that the hunger would make the Lord physically weak and so, it would be easier for him to fall into temptation. However, the devil was badly mistaken. He misunderstood the dynamics between flesh and spirit which are opposed to each other. The flesh struggles against the spirit and the spirit struggles against the flesh. That is why, the weaker the flesh is, the stronger the spirit and the stronger the flesh, the weaker the spirit. It was easy to tempt Adam and Eve. After all, they were in the midst of so much comfort in the garden of Eden. Their bodies were pampered. There was so much food to eat. The will of the soul weakens when the body is very comfortable. But the Lord was in the desert and he ate nothing for 40 days. He deliberately ate nothing…is that not training in self-mastery? He could eat but he did not – and the Lord sustained this resolution for 40 days. The devil should have seen it as a sign of a very firm and resolute will. It was a will that would withstand temptations.

It would not come as a surprise that the Lord would triumph. It is not just because he is God, but his human will was firm and resolute to do the Father’s will. He has so decided to be concerned with his Father’s affairs, as he declared in the temple when he was but a boy of 12. The firmness of his will is the manifestation of self-mastery. And means to this were prayer and fasting. “Why is there so much evil in the world today? Because people have thrown away their most reliable weapon, the all-victorious weapon with which every evil, every sin, and every demon are assuredly vanquished on all battlefields. And this weapon is fasting and prayer.” (St. Justin Popovich) The Lord went into the desert to fight the devil. And he came with his weapons: the Holy Spirit, prayer, and fasting. Against such weapons, the devil did not stand a chance.

And true enough, we know why we are constantly defeated in the spiritual warfare: we have been feasting and playing instead of fasting and praying! Feasting and playing around make us vulnerable targets of the devil. He dangles before us bread, power and glory. And we easily fall for these temptations. Not setting our hearts on higher and sublime things, we settle for bread that does not satisfy, power that flees, and glory that fades. We easily forget that we are meant for greater things to which the Holy Spirit dwelling is us testifies.

We should strive to win the spiritual battle for we are soldiers of Christ. And in this struggle against sin, the first battlefield is found in ourselves. We must master ourselves. We must dominate ourselves by learning to say “no” to what we want. And the weapons we need are but within our reach: “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart – that is, the word of faith…” Prayer and fasting are means offered to us. The Holy Spirit dwells in us. Let us arise in battle, for “no one who puts his belief in him will be put to shame.”

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

Silence to Hear (23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time B)

Our Lady of Solitude: Model of Silence

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

In the very talkative world that we live in, much of the ideas that are expressed are shallow and meaningless. Much of what is communicated is unclear, almost gibberish. That is why the man who was brought to Jesus for healing today may best describe most of us today. He had a speech impediment. His words were unclear simply because he was deaf. I say that this man describes us because our incapability to communicate clearly to others the truth is due to our failure to listen well. In teaching, I notice that many of our students do not learn because they do not listen well. They talk with each other as the teacher teaches.  When asked about their ideas on religion, they give out shallow and unclear ones. This only shows that they do not think before they talk.

In order to heal the man, Jesus took him off away from the crowd. Before he opens the ears of the deaf, he separates the man from the crowd. Some sort of “distance” is needed in order to open one’s self to God’s word. For us to be able to listen well to God’s word, we need to distance ourselves from the noises around us. We need to set apart time to listen, to search, to study the truths of the faith. We need to give God our full attention to hear what he has to say.

In the Psalms, we hear the invitation: “Come children and hear me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” (Ps. 34:11) In the Book of Job, it is written: “Be silent and I will teach you wisdom” (Job 33:33). Silence is necessary to give God our full attention. Our ears will not hear the Lord speak unless we keep silent. When we listen intently and understand God’s word, our mouths become capable of speaking clearly and profoundly. We always say: “Silent waters run deep.” Profundity is marked by silence. Profundity is the sign of real wisdom.

“Today, there is a need for stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization in order to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith.” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 7.) We will regain the enthusiasm for communicating the faith when we have rediscovered the joy of believing. This rediscovery of faith can only happen when we listen intently to the Word of God. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). We cannot preach the Gospel unless we hear it first.

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

Need for Holiness in the Priesthood

The Feast of the Sacred Heart is the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of the Clergy. This feast gives us the occasion to speak about the relationship between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the holiness that is demanded of the clergy and of the entire People of God as well.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart allows us to look into the interior life of Christ. The image of the Sacred Heart shows us an exposed human heart – something which seems strange as all of us know that the heart is an internal organ. The iconography of the Sacred Heart thus teaches us that Jesus is the Master, the Teacher of the Interior life. As priests and religious, it is only right that we should concern ourselves with the interior life. It is our task to imitate the beloved apostle who leaned towards the breast of the Lord to learn the secrets of his Heart. It is also our task to testify, like the same beloved apostle, to the gushing forth of blood and water from the opened Heart of the Redeemer. These images of the beloved disciple and the Lord are truly intimate images expressive of the intimate friendship which we priests should enjoy with the Lord. To me, the priest is first and foremost a friend of the Lord. Before all our pastoral duties, we ourselves must first “draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation,” “be strengthened through his Spirit in the inner self,”   and “comprehend…what is the breadth which surpasses knowledge.” In other words, we who share in the priesthood of Christ must lead lives of profound interiority. We must be men who constantly go to our inner rooms to pray to our Father in secret. The Holy Father has time and again reminded us of the necessity of retreating from activity in order to sit at the feet of our Lord and be truly his disciples.

The letter coming from the Congregation of the Clergy reminds us of this: “The expression found in Scripture ‘This is the will of God: your holiness!’ (1 Thess 4:3), though addressed to all Christians, refers to us priests in particular, for we have accepted the invitation to ‘sanctify ourselves’ and to become ‘ministers of sanctification’ for our brothers. In our case, this ‘will of God’ is, so to speak, doubled and multiplied to infinity, and we must obey it in everything we do. This is our wonderful destiny: we cannot be sanctified without working on the holiness of our brothers, and we cannot work on the holiness of our brothers unless we have first worked on and continue to work on our own holiness.” The Sacrament of Holy Orders configures us to Christ. We must acquire not only the mind of Christ, but his Heart as well. If St. Augustine calls the priesthood as amoris officium (Sacramentum Caritatis, 23.), then it is very clear that we must acquire the Heart of Christ. The flock of Christ deserves to be loved by nothing less than the love of the Lord. Thus, the responsory of the Litany of the Sacred Heart should truly be a priest’s prayer: “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine!” This conversion of our hearts into the Heart of Christ cannot be made possible drawing close to his opened Heart to learn its inscrutable riches. It cannot be made possible without looking upon him whom we have pierced.

St. Claude de la Columbiere, SJ, the spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary, lived in the friendship of Christ’s Sacred Heart. It would be good to end our meditation with his prayer: “My Jesus, You are my true Friend. My only Friend. You take part in all my misfortunes. You know how to turn them into blessings. You listen to me with great kindness when I tell you all my troubles, and You always have something with which to heal my wounds. I find You at any time of the day or night, for I find You wherever I happen to be.  You never leave me. If I change my dwelling place, I find You wherever I go. You never weary of listening to me. I am certain of being loved by You, if I but love You. My worldly goods are of no value to you, but by bestowing Yours on me You never grow the poorer. However miserable I may be, no one more noble, more clever, or even more holy, can come between You and me and deprive me of Your friendship. And death, which tears us away from all other friends will unite me forever to You. All the humiliations attached to old age or the loss of honor will never separate You from me; On the contrary, I shall never enjoy You more fully and You will never be closer to me than when everything seems to conspire against me and cast me down. You bear with all my faults with extreme patience. Even my lack of fidelity and my ingratitude do not wound You to such a degree as to make You unwilling to receive me back when I return to You. O Jesus, grant that I may die loving You and that I may die for love of You.   Amen.”

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine!

On Spiritual Warfare

On this Feast of St.Michael the Archangel, our thoughts are raised towards the reality of spiritual warfare. St. Teresa of Jesus has this to say:

"I am certain that those who seek perfection do not ask the Lord to free them from trials or temptations or persecutions or struggles. This is another very great and certain effect of the contemplation and the favors His Majesty gives and of the Lord's Spirit rather than of an illusion...These persons desire, ask for, and love trials. They are like soldiers who are happier when there are more wars because they then hope to earn more. If there is no war, they receive their wages but realize they won't get rich.

"Believe, sisters, that the soldiers of Christ, those who experience contemplation and engage in prayer, are very eager to fight. They never fear public enemies very much; they already recognize them and know that their enemies have no power against the strength the Lord gives and that they themselves always come out victors and with much gain. They never turn from these enemies. Those whom they fear...are the traitorous enemies, the devils who transfigure themselves into angels of light, who come disguised. Not until they have done much harm to the soul do they allow themselves to be recognized. They suck away our blood and destroy our virtues, and we go about in the midst of the same temptation but do not know it. With regard to these enemies, let us ask and often beg the Lord in the Our Father to free us and not let us walk into temptation, so that they will not draw us into error or hide the light and truth from us, that the poison will be discovered...

"Consider, daughters, the many ways these enemies can cause harm. Don't think that they do so only by making us suppose that the delights and consolations they can feign in us are from God. This seems to me the least harm...they can cause: rather it could be that by means of this they will make one advance more quickly. For, in being fed on that delight, such a person will spend more hours in prayer. Since he doesn't know that the delight is from the devil and since he sees he is unworthy of these consolations, he doesn't stop thanking God. He will feel greater obligation to serve Him and, thinking the favors came from the hand of the Lord, he will strive to dispose himself so that God will grant him more.

"Strive always, sisters, for humility and to see that you are unworthy of these favors; do not seek them. I hold that the devil loses many souls who strive for this humility. He thinks he is going to bring them to perdition, but the Lord draws good from the evil the devil aims at. His Majesty looks at our intention, which is to please and serve Him and remain with Him in prayer; and the Lord is faithful. It's good to be on one's guard lest there be a break in humility, or some vainglory emerge. If you bessech the Lord to free you from this, do not fear that His Majesty will allow you to be favored very much by anyone other than Himself.

"The way the devil can do a great deal of harm, without our realizing it, is to make us believe we have virtues when we do not. This is a pestilence. In regard to the delights and consolations, it seems merely that we are receiving and that we have the greater obligation to serve. In regard to our thinking we are virtuous, it seems we are serving and giving and that the Lord is obliged to pay. Thus little by little this latter notion does great harm. On the one hand, it weakens humility, and on the other hand, we grow careless about acquiring that virtue which we think we have already acquired. Well, what is the remedy, sisters? That which seems best to me is what our Master teaches us: prayer and supplication to the Eternal Father not to let us enter into temptation.

St. Teresa of Jesus, The Way of Perfection, XXXVII, 1-5.

On Reading and Prayer

St. Isidore of Seville

"Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. Both are good when both are possible. Otherwise, prayer is better than reading.

"If a man wants to be always in God's company, he must pray regularly and read regularly. When we pray, we talk to God; when we read, God talks to us.

"All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection. By reading we learn what we do not know; by reflection we retain what we have learned.

"Reading the Holy Scripture confers two benefits: it trains the mind to understand them; it turns man's attention from the follies of the world and leads him to the love of God.

"Two kinds of study are called for here. We must first learn how the Scriptures are to be understood, and then see how to expound them with profit and in a manner worthy of them. A man must first be eager to understand what he is reading before he is fit to proclaim what he has learned.

"The conscientious reader will be more concerned to carry out what he has read than merely to acquire knowledge of it. For it is a less serious fault to be ignorant of an objective than it is to fail to carry out what we do know. In reading we aim at knowing, but we must put into practice what we have learned in our course of study.

"No one can understand holy Scripture without constant reading, according to the words: Love her and she will exalt you. Embrace her and she will glorify you.

"The more you devote yourself to a study of the sacred utterances, the richer will be your understanding of them, just as the more the soil is tilled, the richer the harvest.

"Some people have great mental powers but cannot be bothered with reading; what reading could have taught them is devalued by their neglect. Others have a desire to know but are hampered by their slow mental processes; yet application to reading will teach themthings that the clever fail to learn through laziness.

"The man who is slow to grasp things but who really tries hard is rewarded; equally he who does not cultivate his God-given intellectual ability is condemned for despising his gifts and sinning by sloth.

"Learning unsupported by grace may get into our ears; it never reaches the heart. It makes a great noise outside but serves no inner purpose. But when God's grace touches out innermost minds to bring understanding, his word which has been received by the ear sinks deep into the heart."

St. Isidore of Seville, Lib. 3, 8-10:

PL 83, 679-682.

On the absence of fasting in Lent

Christ in the desert

Moretto de Brescia

"...on that day, they will fast."

Lent is a season of fasting. Many today do not realize that fasting of essential to this season of penitence. However, the forty day preparation for Easter finds its origin with the desire of Christians to imitate Christ our Lord in his forty day fast in the desert. Thus, Lent has suffered much when the discipline of its fast has been relaxed and reduced to those of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. What is Lent without its fast? It is like a dog that barks but cannot bite. Ask around the impact of Lent on the lives of many ordinary Catholics. Sure, people came to church to receive ashes on their foreheads but that was all there was to it. Lent has simply become an occasion to sing "sad songs" in church, a time for priests to wear purple vestments and for us to engage in stations of the cross. But without the fast, would Lent truly be what it was intended to be: an imitation of Christ's forty day fast in the desert?

Let us return to the this revered discipline of the Lenten fast. Ramadan continues to be the holiest time of the Islamic year because of its fast. Modernity has not at all affected their fast but we have allowed it to affect ours. And this is unfortunate. For what we have done has not only taken the tooth out of Lent, it has also lessened our anticipation of Easter.

On Lent and Confession

"Behold, now is the appointed time, in which you must confess your sins to God, and to the priest, and by prayer and by fasting, by tears and almsgiving, wipe them away. Why should a sinner be ashamed to make known his sins, since they are already known and manifest to God, and to His angels, and even to the blessed in heaven? Confession delivers the soul from death. Confession opens the door to heaven. Confession brings us hope of salvation. Because of this the Scripture says: First tell thy iniquities, that you may be justified (Is. xliii, 26). Here we are shown that the man will not be saved who, during his life, does not confess his sins. Neither will that confession deliver you which is made without true repentance. For true repentance is grief of heart and sorrow of soul because of the evils a man has committed. True repentance causes us to grieve over our offenses, and to grieve over them with the firm intention of never committing them again."

St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor