“The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast which a woman took and buried into three measures of flour until the whole mass of dough began to rise.” (Mt 13:33)
This parable can be applied to the precious Blood of Jesus Christ which is given to us in Holy Communion as a sacred leaven. It enters within us, raises us above our weaknesses, gives supernatural strength to the three powers of our soul, transforms us in a wonderful manner into Jesus Christ, in his words, “he that drinks my Blood abides in me, and I in him” (Jn 6:58).
We must take great care in preparing ourselves well to receive within our breast this heavenly leaven. What wonders it will work in us! Gives us a supernatural strength; and makes us invincible, men after the heart of God: spiritual and heavenly.
“The kingdom is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.” (Mt 13:44)
The fervent Christian can easily perceive the meaning of this parable. He knows that the hidden treasure is Christian perfection, concealed from the eyes of the world. He is the happy mortal who has taken possession of this wonderful treasure.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp496-7
The Catholic Church is Universal in Time
She has been in existence from Pentecost Sunday and will last until the end of time. She has had a continuous existence of almost two-thousand years, and she is the only church of which this is true.
The oldest non-Catholic church is the Greek Orthodox church which was born in the ninth century, when the Greek emperor separated Greece from union with Rome. The oldest Protestant church, the Lutheran church, began with the revolt of Martin Luther in the sixteenth century -- almost 1,500 years after Christ.
During Luther’s time, conditions did exist in the Church, especially in Germany, which needed correcting. But Martin Luther’s defection was like the action of a man who cuts off his head to cure a headache.
After Luther came many other divisions of Christendom. The original Protestant churches later splintered into hundreds of different sects; and continues.
Fr Leo J Trese raised a few questions that are meant to make sincere inquirers, searching for the true Church of Christ among the many modern religions, seriously think. He said: The point is that all of these churches -- the Greek Orthodox and the Protestant churches -- came into existence hundreds of years after Christ ascended into heaven.
During all those centuries there was only one Christian church: the Catholic Church. What about all the people who lived and died during those centuries? Are we to suppose that Jesus permitted them to live and die in error?
And did the world have to wait for Martin Luther, one-thousand five-hundred years after Christ, to find out the real meaning of Christ’s teaching? The facts of history offer unanswerable proof that the Catholic Church is Christ’s own.
The Catholic Church is universal in doctrine. She is the only church which teaches all the truths taught by Christ, as he taught them. She teaches the same doctrine everywhere to all nations. She does not discover new doctrines today that she did not teach in the past.
When the Church teaches a doctrine that may seem new, she is only making clear to her members a truth that she held from the beginning, but which had not been clarified.
May we, the members of the Catholic Church take seriously a mission we received at Baptism -- to bear witness to Christ and to draw men and women to the faith.
Ref: cf Fr M Guzman, “Encounters with Christ”, 1990, pp13-6
Union with Christ makes us apostles
To act as ferment, we must be united to Christ. Our love for the Lord is the interior strength which drives our apostolate. We can not allow it to weaken. The Christian wastes away when he yields to lukewarmness: a disdain for the things of God and a preoccupation with self. A Christian acts as leaven when his faith is proved by deeds.
Love for Christ, the source of all apostolate, is what makes the Christian into leaven. We have to continually foster this love through personal prayer and frequent reception of the sacraments.
“It is necessary that you be a ‘man of God’, a man of interior life, a man of prayer and of sacrifice. Your apostolate must be the overflow of your life ‘within’.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 961)
“The perfect example of this type of spiritual and apostolic life is the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles, who while leading the life common to all here on earth, one filled with family concerns and labours, was always intimately united with her Son and in an entirely unique way cooperated in the work of the Saviour.” (Second Vatican Council Decree “Apostolicam actuositatem”, 4)
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 4:247-8
Our vocation is of immense value
The treasure signifies that abundance of gifts which one receives with a vocation: grace, to overcome obstacles, to grow daily in fidelity, to do apostolate.
The greatest event of our life is our receiving the calling from our Lord, just as it was for those he called on the lake shores. Yet to follow Christ wholeheartedly is never easy. With the divine vocation Christ challenges us to undergo a profound change in our daily conduct.
God asks for everything. Christ himself says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (Jn 15:16). The Lord calls and invites, but He will not force our will.
St Joseph, our Father and Lord, found the treasure of his life in his mission of watching over Jesus and Mary here on earth. Today we ask him to help us live up to whatever God wants of us, and to do so with generosity and joy. Nothing is more worthwhile than fulfilment of one’s proper vocation.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, op cit, 255-6, 259-260
Our Lady of Schiedam, in Holland. The chronicle relates that a merchant, who had stolen this image, having embarked with the intention of selling it at the fair at Antwerp, could never get away from the port. Alarmed at this prodigy, he restored the image which he had taken away, and it was solemnly translated to the church of St John the Baptist, where St Ludwina used to pass whole nights in prayer. — John Berchman, Minorita. “Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar (http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
Our Lady of Schiedam. Netherlands. 15th Century. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
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