16 June 2010: Obedience of the Heart of Jesus

‘Submission to his Father’

Obedience is the first-fruit of humility. Jesus is “humble of heart”; therefore, he is docile and obedient of heart. He makes the will of his Heavenly Father his own. “Father ... not my will, but yours be done.” (Lk 22:42)

And that he submits and conforms himself to it in everything: “I do always the things that please him.” (cf Jn 14:31) And this even in things most repugnant to nature such as his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

His obedience was perfect, because the foundation on which it rested was perfect. He did the will of his Father because it was the will of his Father.

What an excellent example for our imitation! Have we followed it by trying to make the will of God our own? By accepting all the various circumstances of our life, whether agreeable to us or not, with an entire submission of heart to the will of God, without whose permission nothing can befall us in this world?

Have we obeyed always in a spirit of faith and love?

Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp324-5

The effects of Communion on the soul

Communion sustains the life of the soul as food sustains the body. The reception of the Holy Eucharist keeps Catholics in God’s grace, since the soul recovers its energies from the continual ‘wear and tear’ it suffers through the wounds of original sin and of personal sins.

It maintains the life of God in the soul, freeing it from lukewarmness; and it helps us to avoid mortal sin and struggle effectively against venial sins. It makes supernatural life grow and develop.

Finally, the grace we receive in each Communion delights the person who receives with good dispositions. Nothing can be compared to the joy of the Holy Eucharist, to the friendship and nearness of Jesus, present within us.

Among all the practices of piety there is none whose sanctifying effectiveness can be compared to the worthy reception of this sacrament. In it, not only do we receive grace, but the Source and Fountainhead from which all grace flows. All the sacraments are ordained towards the Holy Eucharist: it is the pivotal sacrament. (St Thomas, “Summa Theologiae”, III, q65, a3)

We ask Our Lady to help us go to Communion every day with better dispositions.

Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:409-10

The Most Holy Eucharist, the Sacrifice of Humanity

By extending the application of the work of redemption to humanity, the Eucharistic sacrifice contributes to the building ‘of the Church’. On Calvary, Christ merited salvation not only for every single man but also for the whole community. His oblation obtained the grace of reunification of mankind in the Body of the Church.

The Eucharist tends to realize this objective by daily building up the ecclesial community. The sacrifice of the altar reinforces the Church’s holiness and favoring her expansion in the world. In this sense the Eucharistic celebration is always a missionary act. It invisibly obtains a greater force of penetration for the Church into all human environments.

Building up the Church means, in addition, consolidating unity more and more. It was no accident that, at the last Supper Jesus prayed for his disciples to be united. So we can understand how, in every Eucharistic celebration, the Church follows the example of the Master by praying that unity may be evermore real and perfect.

In this way, the Eucharist causes ecumenical rapprochement among all Christians to make progress and, within the Catholic Church, tends to tighten the bonds uniting the faithful, above and beyond legitimate differences existing among them. By cooperating responsibly in such a unifying dynamics, Christians will show the world that their Master did not suffer in vain for the unity of mankind.

Ref: cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, p236-7

Taking the Most Holy Eucharist into the World

As we reflect on the mystery, how much we comprehend the jealous love with which the Church guards this treasure of inestimable value! How logical and natural in the course of their history, that Christians have felt the need to give expression ‘in the external world as well’ to their joy and gratitude at the reality of such a great gift.

They grew aware of the fact that celebration of this divine mystery could not be reduced to being kept within the walls of a church, however large and artistic it might be; but that it was necessary to take it out ‘along the streets of the world’, for He whom the frail specie of the host conceals came to earth so as really to be “the life of the world” (Jn 6:52).

That is how the 'Corpus Christi' procession came about. The Church has celebrated it for many centuries now with quite particular solemnity and joy. We, too shall set off shortly in procession through the streets of our city. We shall go forward with hymns and prayers, bearing the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord with us. We shall go among houses, schools, workshops, offices ... where the life of mankind is bubbling ... where its conflicts explode ...

Ref: cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, p238-9

Mother of Mercy

“The motherhood of Mary in the order of grace, as the Second Vatican Council explains, lasts without interruption from the consent which she faithfully gave at the Anunciation and which she sustained without hesitation under the Cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect.

"In fact, being assumed into heaven she has not laid aside this office of salvation; but by her manifold intercession she continues to obtain for us the graces of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she takes care of the brethren of her Son who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their blessed home.” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church “Lumen Gentium”, 62: AAS 57 [1965], p63)

Ref: “Dives in Misericordia”, Encyclical Letter of Pope John Paul II, 1980, 50-51

Our Lady of ‘Aix-la-Chapelle’, built by Charlemagne, and consecrated by Leo III, in the year 804, where there were assembled three-hundred and fifty prelates. Charlemagne gave to this church two tunics of Our Lady, in the year 810, from which Charles the Bald took one, sixty-five years afterward, to give it to the church of Chartres. — Ferreolus Locrius, lib. v., Mariae, Aug., c. 17. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)

Our Lady of ‘Aix la Chapelle’ (Germany, 804). (http://www.divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm); (http://www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)