What greater grief can afflict a mother violently parted from an only son? What must have been the depth of Mary’s grief during the interval between the burial and resurrection of Jesus! How long must the time have felt to this most loving Mother, sighing for the Son so cruelly snatched from her, ardently longing to behold him again!
Do I, an exile from the sensible presence of my Lord, sigh for the moment when I shall behold his glorified humanity, and be eternally united to him in heaven? Alas, no! And why? Because I know and love him so little; because I am so attached to earth and creatures.
Imagine the joy of a mother who unexpectedly sees the son she has believed dead, and for whom she has long wept. We will then have a faint idea of our Lady’s joy when Jesus appeared to her after his glorious resurrection. Her joy was in proportion to her grief and to the glory she was to share with her Son in heaven.
To her applies the words of King David, “According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Thy comforts have given joy to my soul” (Psalm).
Here we find powerful motives for rejoicing in slights and crosses suffered for our Lord, for self-sacrifice and continual mortification. These things are naturally hard and bitter; but the joys of the resurrection will enable us to bear them and will make them sweet and easy.
Let us remember the words of the Apostle, verified in our blessed Mother, “As you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation” (2 Cor 1:7).
Beyond doubt our Lord who appeared so often to his apostles, appeared still oftener to his Mother, always filling her heart with fresh joy by his presence. But these appearances were brief, leaving a void in her loving heart. Thus, during the forty days between the Resurrection and Ascension, Our Lady experienced alternating joys and sorrows.
Our Lord treats his servants in like manner. Sometimes he overwhelms them with consolation and sweeetness of his presence. Then leaves, their mind and heart dry.
We, too frequently experience such cycles. Let us learn to profit by them, to grow strong; and advance in service and love of God as advised by all masters of spiritual life. How has my conduct been in conforming to such teaching?
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp198-200
The Holy Spirit, the Gift of Holiness
We must now reflect on the fact that Pentecost began ‘on the very evening of the Resurrection’ when the Risen Lord breathed on those in the Cenacle and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them.’
This is the Easter gift whereby, according to a relationship of causality even before that of chronology, ‘Christ gave the Holy Spirit to the Church’ as the divine gift; and as the incessant and inexhaustible ‘fount of sanctification’.
‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ ... And sanctification begins with remission of sins. First there is ‘Baptism’, the sacrament of total cancellation of sins; then ‘Penance’, the sacrament of reconciliation with God and the Church; then the ‘Anointing of the Sick’. But this work of sanctification always attains its culmination in the ‘Eucharist’, the sacrament of the fulness of holiness and grace.
In this marvellous flow of supernatural life, what place is due to ‘Confirmation’? The same sanctification is expressed in reinforcement of it as well, that is, in ‘Confirmation’. In it, too, is the superabundant fulness of the Holy, sanctifying Spirit, operating in a special dynamism, the efficacy of inner-inspired and directed action.
The nature of the Sacrament of Confirmation flows out in this ‘conferring strength’, communicated to each of the baptized, to make him or her a perfect Christian and soldier of Christ, ready to testify courageously to his resurrection and its redemptive power: ‘Then you are to be my witnesses ...’
Ref: cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, p218
Personal holiness
As soon as the Apostles began with courage and daring to teach the truth about Christ, the obstacles also began to arise. Eventually, persecution and martyrdom followed. However, soon belief in Christ had extended beyond Palestine, arriving in Asia Minor, Greece and Italy; reaching men of every culture, social position and race.
We, too can expect to meet with misunderstanding, a sure sign of divine disposition, certain we are following the footsteps of Our Lord, because “a disciple is not above his teacher” (Mt 10:24). We accept our setbacks joyfully as being permitted by God for our own good.
We welcome them as opportunities to enliven our faith and hope and love. They help us to persevere in our prayer and mortification, confident that prayer and sacrifice always produce fruit (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 694-7) because “the Lord’s chosen ones will not labour in vain" (cf Isaiah 65:23).
And we always treat other people well, with understanding, “drowning evil in abundance of good” (cf Rom 12:21). It should not be surprising that very often, we have to go against the current.
In this world that seems to distance itself every day more and more from God, material well-being is its goal, giving no importance to spiritual values or simply relegating them to a low-priority. Along with the deep and disordered attraction to material goods, there is the added unfortunate bad example of some Christians.
Thus, “when religious education is neglected, doctrine misleadingly expounded or shortcomings made evident in religious, moral and social life of believers, then we must admit the true face of God and of religion is veiled rather than revealed" (Second Vatican Council, “Gaudium et spes”, 19). As in the early Christians, “what is truly important is to deal with souls one by one ...” (Alvaro del Portillo, “Letter”, 25 December 1985, 9)
Holy Mary, ‘Queen of Apostles’, will set us aflame with faith, hope and love for her Son so we may effectively contribute in and from our environment, to christianization of today’s world as the Pope encourages us to do.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:331-5
Apparition of Our Lady to the Blessed Jane of Mantua. — See her Life. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Our Lady of Mantua. Apparition: Mary to Blessed Jane of Mantua. 1640. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
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