Caiphas, triumphant at having condemned Jesus, retired for the day. He left his captive to the insolence of his servants and soldiers who immediately dragged him into an underground prison for criminals. The hatred they knew their masters had for Jesus fired them up. They tried to outdo one another in ridicule, scorn, blasphemy, curses on him.
This horror lasted all night. Try to imagine our Lord’s suffering and humiliation; and our difficulties will be nothing. The days we spent among vulgar, ungrateful, and ill-tempered people will be less unbearable.
“Then did they spit on his face.” (Mt 27:30) If this were not in the Gospel, we could not believe that men could be so brutal and cruel. Or that God-made-man could have allowed and borne such an insult. But our Lord allowed it repeatedly, silently, as Isaiah had prophesied: ‘I have not turned away my face from them that spat upon me.’
And yet men often complain and long to take revenge when injured even if they deserve it. We ought to fall at the feet of Jesus and cry out with St Bernard, ‘What, shall my Master and King be insulted and spat upon by his vilest subjects, and shall I be honored, who have deserved for my sins to be cast with the refuse of the human race to the bottom of hell? No, never! Let me rather be forgotten and despised, that I may obtain mercy in eternity.’
In grief and silence we will contemplate the King of Glory seated on a block of wood -- blindfolded, hands bound, surrounded by coarse, half-intoxicated men, who alternately strike him on the face and cry out, “Prophesy, who is it that struck thee?” (Mk 14:65; Mt 26:58)
When we meditate on the three degrees of humility [read 5 September], we resolve that we be despised and thought nothing of by the world with our Master, rather than be esteemed and highly exalted before men.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp110-111
On serving others
It is impossible to practise charity without humility and a spirit of service. There can be no effectiveness. Without humility there is no holiness. Jesus does not want conceited self-centered friends in his service: “... the instruments of God are always humble.” (St John Chrysostom, "Homilies on St Matthew", 15)
When we strive to be humble we become effective and strong. We must be ever vigilant, because the worst kind of ambition is to seek one’s own exaltation. ‘Pride attacks on all flanks and its victim finds it all around.’
Unless we are humble we become unfit for helping others, for pride infects everything. Where there is a proud person nothing goes right; nobody is treated properly: family, friends, colleagues. He expects and demands special treatment for himself because he considers himself different. He can be over-sensitive.
The dogmatic tone of his words, his ironic or sarcastic opinions in any discussion, his tendency to cut short conversations are all signs of a deep-seated egoism. The limited horizons of his life are centered on himself.
Humility on the other hand makes us recognize our weaknesses and defects. We are then able to understand the shortcomings of others, and lend a helping hand. We can love and accept them, defects and all.
The Blessed Virgin, ‘handmaid of the Lord’, will teach us that to serve others is among the ways of finding joy in this life and one of the shortest routes to Jesus.
Ref: cf Francis Fernandez, "In Conversation with God", 2:79-84
The Guiding Influence of the Holy Spirit
A correct understanding of the teaching of Jesus makes us react in a creative and co-operative fashion to the challenges that face us in life, without fear of acting mistakenly and alone, but under the guiding influence of his own Holy Spirit at every moment, in every circumstance, great or small.
This extraordinary divine assistance is guaranteed to all who offer their lives to Jesus. God the Father’s plan of salvation embraces all mankind; his one same Holy Spirit is sent as gift to all who are open to receive him in faith. We each form a part of God’s overall plan.
‘An exclusively personal and private attitude to salvation is not Christian’ and is born of a fundamentally mistaken mentality. Consequently, your lives cannot be lived in isolation, and even ‘in deciding your future you must always keep in mind your responsibility’ as a Christian towards others.
There is no place in your lives for apathy or indifference to the world around you. Selfishness has no place in the Church. You must show a conscientious concern that the standards of society fit the plan of God.
Christ counts on you, so the effects of his Holy Spirit may radiate from you to others, and thus permeate every aspect of public and private sectors of national life. To each person the Spirit’s manifestation is given for the common good. (1 Cor 12:7)
Do not let the sight of the world in turmoil shake your confidence in Jesus. Not even the threat of nuclear war. Follow the example of Our Blessed Lady, the perfect model of trust in God and wholehearted cooperation in his divine plan for salvation of mankind.
Keep in mind the advice she gave servants at Cana: “Do whatever he [Jesus] tells you.” (Jn 2:5) Jesus changed the water into wine for his Mother on that occasion. Through her intercession he will transform your lives.
Ref: cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, pp215-6
Our Lady
Love our Lady. And she will obtain abundant grace to help you conquer in your daily struggle. And the enemy will gain nothing by those perversities that seem to boil up continually within you, trying to engulf in their fragrant corruption the high ideals, those sublime commands that Christ himself has placed in your heart. ‘Serviam!’ -- “I will serve!” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 493)
Our Lady of the Empress, at Rome. A tradition records that this image spoke to St Gregory the Great in the year 593. — Antonius Yepez, ad ann. 84, divi Benedicti. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (http://www/divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html);
(www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment