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St. John Neumann
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His Legacy

Posted by Mark Mallett

EVERY year, we see and hear again the familiar motto, “Keep Christ in Christmas!” as a counter to the political correctness that has neutered Christmas store displays, school plays, and public speeches. But one could be forgiven for wondering if the Church herself has not lost her focus and “raison d’être”? After all, what does keeping Christ in Christmas mean? Making sure we say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”? Putting up a manger as well as a tree? Going to midnight Mass? The words of Blessed Cardinal Newman have been lingering in my mind for several weeks:

Satan may adopt the more alarming weapons of deceit—he may hide himself—he may attempt to seduce us in little things, and so to move the Church, not all at once, but by little and little from her true position. I do believe he has done much in this way in the course of the last few centuries… It is his policy to split us up and divide us, to dislodge us gradually from our rock of strength. —Blessed John Henry Newman, Sermon IV: The Persecution of Antichrist

As I ponder the Synod on the Family that concluded this Fall, we spoke of the “pastoral care” of the family in unorthodox situations. Important questions. But when did we speak about the “salvation” of the family?

Vatican officials suddenly became emboldened and courageous this year, but not so much in becoming “fools for Christ”, but “fools for climate change.”

As the “Year of Mercy” began in Vatican Square on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, it was not images of the Divine Mercy, the Sacred Heart, or the Blessed Mother that were beamed onto St. Peter’s facade, but wild animals replete with grunts and growls.

This was followed by a Vatican Commission on “Relations with the Jews”, which concluded that the Church no longer “conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews” —a contradiction to 2000 years of biblical approach finding its roots in St. Paul. [1]

And as Catholic churches suddenly filled to the brim on Christmas Eve with “parishioners” filing up for their yearly Communion (or bi-yearly, if Easter is included), one must ask the question: do we remember why we are even here? Why does the Church exist?

WHY DO WE EXIST?

Pope Paul VI answered the question succinctly:

[The Church] exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection. —Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 14; vatican.va

There is something frequently missing from our dialogue these days. And that is the name of Jesus. The year has been filled with debates on pastoral care, global warming, the Pope’s appointees, the Pope’s interviews, the cultural wars, politics, and on and on… but where does the salvation of souls enter in and the mission of the Redeemer? While many were dismayed that Pope Francis would dare say that some are “obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently”,[2] the past year has often proven those words to be more true than not. When I speak to crowds of people, I often remind them that if our morning unfolds without any one of us giving thought to the salvation of others, whether through our witness, sacrifices, and prayers, then our priorities are off—our hearts are no longer beating in unison with the Savior’s heart. After all, we heard the Angel Gabriel announce to Mary that she was to name Him Jesus “because he will save his people from their sins.” [3] His mission is ours.

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. (John 12:26)

That’s the meaning of Christmas. The purpose of the Church. The motivation of this website: to release the world from the grip of sin that has the power to eternally separate us from our Creator.[4]

MISSION OF MERCY

It is also true that we must avoid a common twofold fundamentalist response: either a limited concern for the “soul” and “salvation” of the other while neglecting their needs and wounds; or, on the other hand, to relegate faith to the private sphere. As Pope Benedict asked:

How could the idea have developed that Jesus’s message is narrowly individualistic and aimed only at each person singly? How did we arrive at this interpretation of the “salvation of the soul” as a flight from responsibility for the whole, and how did we come to conceive the Christian project as a selfish search for salvation which rejects the idea of serving others? —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Spe Salvi (Saved In Hope), n. 16

In this regard, Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium continues to provide a lucid and challenging blueprint for evangelization in 2016. In a world where near out-of-control advancements in technology are creating an unparalleled anthropological earthquake, it is imperative that we remind ourselves over and over again of why we are here, who we are, and who we shall become.

Francis has hewn a path understood by few in the Church and misunderstood by many: it is the path for maximum attraction to the Gospel, a path that Jesus Himself trod at a time when “the people were in darkness.”[5] And what is this path? Mercy. It scandalized the “religious” 2000 years ago, and it scandalizes the religious again today. [6] Why? Because while not neglecting the reality of sin, Mercy does not make sin its initial focus. Rather, it makes the manifestation of “love of the other” the first initiative. St. Thomas Aquinas explained that “The foundation of the New Law is in the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is manifested in the faith which works through love.” [7]

In itself mercy is the greatest of the virtues, since all the others revolve around it and, more than this, it makes up for their deficiencies. —St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 30, a. 4; cf. Evangelii Gaudium, n. 37

Francis has explained in paragraphs 34-39 of Evangelii Gaudium [8]precisely what he is up to: a re-ordering of the priorities of contemporary evangelization that while not neglecting the moral truths, re-places them in their proper “hierarchy.”

All revealed truths derive from the same divine source and are to be believed with the same faith, yet some of them are more important for giving direct expression to the heart of the Gospel. In this basic core, what shines forth is the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead. —POPE FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium, n. 36; vatican.va

In a word, the Church needs to urgently recover the essence of the Gospel:

The essence of Christianity is not an idea but a Person. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, spontaneous speech to the clergy of Rome; Zenit, May 20th, 2005

KNOWING

Yet, how can we be witnesses of mercy if we have not encountered He who is Mercy? How can we speak of One whom we do not know? Brothers and sisters, if the essence of Christianity is not an idea, a list of rules, or even a certain way of life, but a Person, then being a Christian is to know this Person: Jesus Christ. And to know Him is not to know about Him, but to know Him in the way a husband knows a wife. In fact, the biblical term for “know” in the Old Testament means to “have intercourse with”. Thus, for Noah to “know” his wife was to make love to her.

“For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife,and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. (Eph 5:31-32)

This is a simple, accessible, but profound analogy of the spiritual intimacy that God desires to have with each of us.

Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us… God thirsts that we may thirst for him. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2560

When we enter into the “thirst” of God and begin to thirst for Him, to “seek, knock, and ask” for Him, then Jesus says:

‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’ He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. (John 7:38-39)

With the supernatural help and grace of the Holy Spirit, all other questions, problems, and challenges can be faced in a new and uncreated light, which is Wisdom itself. Thus,

It is necessary to enter into real friendship with Jesus in a personal relationship with him and not to know who Jesus is only from others or from books, but to live an ever deeper personal relationship with Jesus, where we can begin to understand what he is asking of us… Knowing God is not enough. For a true encounter with him one must also love him. Knowledge must become love. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Meeting with the youth of Rome, April 6th, 2006; vatican.va

However, if Jesus remains distant; if God remains a theological concept; if Mass becomes a mere ritual, prayer a litany of words, and Christmas, Easter, and the like mere nostalgia… then Christianity will lose its power in those places, and even disappear. This is precisely what is happening in vast portions of the world at the present moment. It is not a crisis in morality so much as a crisis of the heart. We, the Church, have forgotten who we are. We have lost our first love,[9] who is Jesus, and once foundations are lost, the whole edifice begins to collapse. Indeed, “unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build”. [10]

For the power of the Holy Spirit flows through a personal relationship as much as sap flows only through those branches connected to the vine. The Church’s mission is accomplished ultimately not through edicts and ideas but through a transformed people, through a holy people, through a docile and humble people. Rarely is she transformed through theologians, scholars, and canon lawyers—unless their duties are undertaken upon their knees. The idea of a personal relationship with Our Savior is not an innovation of the Southern Baptist Convention or Billy Graham. It lies at the very roots of Christianity when Mary took Jesus into her arms; when Jesus Himself took children into His arms; when Our Lord gathered Twelve companions; when St. John lay his head on the Savior’s breast; when Joseph of Arimathea wrapped His body in linen; when Thomas placed his fingers into the wounds of Christ; when St. Paul expended his every word for love of His God. A personal and profound relationship marks the lives of every Saint, of the mystical writings of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila and others that describe the nuptial love and blessings of union with God. Yes, the very heart of the Church’s liturgical and private prayer comes down to this: a personal relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Man, himself created in the “image of God” [is] called to a personal relationship with God… prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father… —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 299, 2565

What could possibly be more intimate than receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus physically within us at the Holy Eucharist? Ah, how profound a mystery! But how many souls are not even aware of it!

As the New Year begins, the words from today’s Mass on this Solemnity of the Mother of God take us back to the heart of the Gospel:

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. As proof that you are sons,  God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,  crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son,  and if a son then also an heir, through God. (Gal 4:4-7)

There you have the essence of Christian conversion—one who realizes that he or she is not orphaned, but now has a Father, a Brother, a Wonderful Counsellor—and yes, a Mother. A Holy Family. So how do we come to this place of literally crying out “Abba, Father!”? It is not automatic. It is a decision of the will, a choice to enter into a real and living relationship with God. I decided to court my wife, to betroth her, and to give myself totally to her in order for our marriage to bear fruit. And the fruit today is eight children, and now a grandchild on the way (yes, you heard me right!).

The Lord did not save us to only save us, but to make us His very friends.

I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. (John 15:15)

On this Solemnity of the Mother of God, ask her—she who formed the first personal relationship with Jesus—how to love Him as she did. And then invite Jesus into your heart in your own words… I suppose the way you would invite anyone out of the cold into your home. Yes, we can keep Jesus on the outskirts of our lives in a cold stable—in sterile religious exercise or intellectual vanity—or we can make room for Him in the Inn of our hearts. Therein lies the whole heart of the Gospel—and who we are, and are to become.

I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. How good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to forgive one another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew. Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards! —POPE FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium, n. 3; vatican.va

RELATED READING

Knowing Jesus

The Center of Truth

The Popes on a Personal Relationship With Jesus

Understanding Francis

Misunderstanding Francis

The Scandal of Mercy

20 C + M + B 15
May Christ bless this House…
All who dwell and pray in it…
And All Whom they Welcome in His Name

BLESSING OF A HOME AT EPIPHANY

Epiphany, the 12th day after Christmas, celebrates the visit of the three kings or wise men to the Christ Child, signifying the extension of salvation to the Gentiles.  Epiphany is traditionally celebrated on January 6th.

V. On entering the house the Magi found the child Jesus with Mary his mother.

R. They did him homage and presented to Jesus symbolic gifts: gold to the great king, incense to the true God, and myrrh as a foreshadowing of his suffering and death. Let us pray, God, our Father, by the guidance of a star, you revealed your only Son as the Savior of all nations. Grant that we who already know you by faith, may be brought to the contemplation of your glory in our heavenly home. We ask this through Christ your Son Our Lord. Amen.

All may recite the Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary (The MAGNIFICAT) by which Mary praised God at the time of her Visitation to the house of Elizabeth. St. Luke’s Gospel Chapter 1, verses 46-55.

My soul glorifies the Lord, 
my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.
He looks on His servant in her lowliness;
henceforth all ages will call me Blessed. 

The Almightly works marvels for me.
Holy is His Name!
His Mercy is from age to age,
on those who fear Him.

He puts forth His arm in strength
and scatters the proud-hearted.
He casts the mighty from their thrones
and raises the lowly.

He fills the starving with good things,
sends the rich away empty.

He protects Israel, His servant,
remembering His Mercy,
the Mercy promised to our fathers,
to Abraham and his sons forever. 

V. Be enlightened, O Jerusalem, and shine forth for your light has come.
R. And upon you is risen the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary. V. All nations shall walk in your light and kings in the splendor of your birth.
R. And upon you is risen the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary.

Reading of the Gospel for the Solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord. St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 2, verses 1 to 12

V. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, has appeared and been revealed to the nations. R. The prophets foretold his coming, and the angels and shepherds adored him.
V. The Magi rejoiced to find him and they lay their treasures before him.
R. All you nations and peoples, come and adore him.

All recite the OUR FATHER as the rooms of the house are sprinkled with holy water.

Let us pray.
Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have received all benefits.

Come, visit and bless + this house so that it may be a shelter of health, chastity, self-conquest, humility, goodness, mildness, obedience to the Commandments, – and thanksgiving to God, – The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.

May the love and blessings of God, + The Father, and + The Son, and + The Holy Spirit, descend upon this house, all those who reside within it, and upon all those whom they welcome in the Name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And may God’s grace and peace remain with all of them forever. Amen.

The initials of the names ascribed by tradition to the Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar), and the numerals of the current year are written with the blessed chalk upon the entry doors of the house in the following manner:

20 C + M + B 15

Some interpret the letters to stand for Christus Mansioni Benedicat! May Christ bless this house! 

…let us resolve to read from the Writings of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta  every day

Our Lord:   …in these times so stormy and with a vertiginous race in evil, I could not give Greater Grace than making known that I want to give the Great Gift of the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat. And as a confirmation of this, I am preparing It within you (the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta) with so many Knowledges and Gifts, so that nothing may be lacking to the Triumph of My Will. Therefore, be attentive on the deposit of this Kingdom which I am making in you (Luisa).”

Volume 19 – September 9, 1926

September 9, 1926
When Jesus speaks, He gives the good which His word encloses. In the Divine Will there will be neither slaves, nor rebels, nor laws, nor commands.

I was thinking: “How much Power, how many Goods are enclosed in the Holy Divine Will. How everything is Peace in It, everything is Happiness, nor does one need commands in order to operate, but one’s own nature feels so much strength of Good within itself that it cannot help doing it. What Happiness, to feel one’s own nature converted into Good, into Sanctity, into Strength. So, in the Kingdom of the Supreme Will there will be no laws, but everything will be Love, and one’s nature will be converted into Divine Law, in such a way that, of its own, it will want to do what the Supreme Fiat wants it to do.”

Now, while I was thinking of this, my always lovable Jesus, with His usual light which He sent forth from His intelligence, told me: “My daughter, everything I have told you about My Will has been gifts that I have given you. Knowledge is not enough if one does not possess the good which that very knowledge contains. If it were not so, the Knowledge would render you unhappy, because knowing a Good and not possessing it is always a sorrow. More so, since I do not know how to leave things half-done, but only fully complete; therefore, first I dispose the soul, I expand her capacity, and then I give the knowledge together with the good it contains. And since the Knowledges about My Will are Divine, this is why her nature remains endowed with the likeness of the Divine Nature and, more than a daughter, she does not wait for a command but, without being told, feels honored to do what her Father wants.

“Laws and commands are for servants, for slaves, for rebels. In the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat there will be no servants, no slaves, no rebels, but one will be the Will – that of God and that of the creature – and therefore one will be the Life. This is also the reason why I am saying so much and so many things about My Will – to abound in Gifts, not only for you, but for any soul who wants to come to Live in My Kingdom, so that she may lack nothing, need nothing, but possess the Source of Goods within herself. I would not act as the God that I am – Great, Powerful, Rich, Magnanimous – if in having to constitute the Kingdom of My Will I did not Endow those who must Live in It with the Prerogatives and Qualities that My very Will possesses. Even more, You Must Know that just as all things have come out of that Single Act of God, so must everything return to that Single Act which has no succession of acts. But only the one who leaves everything to Live only of My Will can return to that Single Act, because as the soul Lives in It, everything she does converts into Light, and her acts are naturally incorporated and identified with the Eternal Light of the Sun of My Will, and, as a consequence, they become one Single Act with the single act of It. On the other hand, in one who operates outside of It one can see, not Light, but each of the materials that her work contains, which cannot be incorporated with the Light of the Single Act of God, and therefore it will show immediately that it is not Our thing – that it does not belong to Us. So, anything which is not done by virtue of the Divine Fiat will not be recognized by God.

“Suppose you wanted to unite light and darkness, copper and gold, rocks and earth: would one not distinguish with clarity the light from the darkness, the copper from the gold, the rocks from the earth? And this, because these are materials, one different from the other. But if you united, all together, light with light, darkness with darkness, gold with gold, you would not be able to distinguish nor separate the first light from the second, the first darkness from the second, the first mass of gold from the second. So it is with My Will: what It Itself does in the creature is Light, and it is no wonder that it becomes incorporated in the Single Act of Its Eternal Light. Therefore, in these times so stormy and with a vertiginous race in evil, I could not give Greater Grace than making known that I want to give the Great Gift of the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat. And as a confirmation of this, I am preparing It within you (the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta) with so many Knowledges and Gifts, so that nothing may be lacking to the Triumph of My Will. Therefore, be attentive on the deposit of this Kingdom which I am making in you (Luisa).”

After this, I felt concerned because holy obedience had imposed on me not to neglect even one word of that which my sweet Jesus might say to me, while I easily leave them out because I am convinced that it is not necessary to write and to entrust to the paper certain intimate things, certain outpourings that Jesus makes to my poor soul, but that they should remain in the depths of the heart. So I was praying that He would give me the Grace not to fail the obedience. And Jesus, moving in my interior, told me: “My daughter, if the one who guides you and directs you gives you this obedience, it means that he has understood that it is I who speaks to you, as well as the Value that even a single word of Mine contains. My Word is Light, and is Full of Life, and one who possesses Life can give it; more so, since My Word contains the Creative Strength, and therefore a single Word of Mine can create innumerable Lives of Grace, Lives of Love, Lives of Light, Lives of My Will within souls. You yourself will not be able to comprehend the long way that a single Word of Mine can cover. Those who have ears will listen; those who have heart will be wounded. So, the one who guides you is right in giving you this obedience. Ah! you do not know how I assist him and remain around him while he reads My Writings and yours about My Will, so as to make him comprehend all the Strength of the Truths and of the Great Good contained in them. And he turns around My Will, and by Virtue of the Light that he feels, he is sending you this obedience. Therefore, be attentive, and I will help you and facilitate that which seems difficult to you.

You Must Know that My Heart is swollen, It agonizes and sighs because I want to make known the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat, the Great Goods which are in It, and the Great Good which those who will possess It will receive. It is precisely in my Heart that I keep It, and I feel My Heart explode for I want to let It out. Don’t you want, then, to give Me this relief, so that, by letting It out, My Heart may deflate, and so It will not have to agonize and sigh with sorrowful sighs any more? And you will do this by making known what I manifest to you about My Will, because when you do this, you give Me the field in order to open the ways and prepare the place in which I must lay the Kingdom of My Will. And if you do not manifest what I say to you, you close these ways and My Heart swells even more. Therefore, let Me do, and you – follow Me and do not be concerned.”

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