14 December 2010: Refuge of sinners

The greatest good that we can do to our friends

Taking them to the Sacrament of Penance. “Arouse our hearts, Lord, to make the way for your Son. Despite all our sins, let your merciful grace hasten the work of our redemption.” (“Prayer”, Mass for Thursday in the First Week of Advent) This prayer speaks of proclaiming the coming of Jesus by asking pardon for sins.

The Messiah is very close to us. During these days of Advent we must be ready to receive him in a new way on Christmas day. Jesus says in a special way, “Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees; and say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage do not be afraid!’” (cf Is 35:3-4)

Daily we meet friends, relatives who have lost what is most essential to their life; and feel hopeless. Unable to go to Our Lord, we must show them the way to the cave in Bethlehem. There they will find the meaning of their lives. We must know the way by having an interior life; and strive to improve in the very things our friends need to do better.

‘Our hope in the supernatural means must be firm.’ Usually, bringing our friends closer to Christ means taking them to receive the sacrament of Penance, one of the greatest treasures Our Lord has left to his Church. A great way to help is making it easy for them to go to Confession.

Sometimes we will have to help them, with tact and kindness, make a good examination of conscience. Or accompany them to the place where confessions are being heard. At other times, an encouraging word and affection will suffice with a brief instruction about the nature and value of the sacrament.

What joy each time we get a relative, a colleague, a friend, to receive the sacrament of divine mercy! This same joy is shared in heaven by our Father God and by all the blessed. (cf Lk 15:7) Our Mother Mary will have compassion on them, and on us.

Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:65-6, 70-71

‘Refuge of sinners. Pray for us.’

On the Divine Attributes -- The providence, justice, and mercy of God

When we call God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, we acknowledge His providence: care for all His creatures, man most particularly, made in His own image; and for a supernatural end. No earthly father could be indifferent to his children’s welfare.

Holy Scripture thus speaks of God’s paternal tenderness: “Behold, I have graven thee in My hands; thy walls always before My eyes. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.”

The justice and mercy of God are not contradictory. One, a necessary consequence of His sanctity which obliges him to punish sin and reward virtue. The other, consequent to his goodness which we instinctively acknowledge when we call Him the good God.

This goodness is seen as patience or longanimity awaiting the penitent, as mercy in the sinner’s pardon. “He is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and merciful.” As infinite God, so are His justice and mercy, rewarding the just with everlasting glory, the wicked with eternal punishment.

“But he delays not His promises”, writes St Peter, “as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance.” Recall the pardon extended to the good thief, and to so many other well-known penitents.

Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp789-91

Filipino spirituality, Mary and St John of the Cross

‘The Filipinos are natural contemplatives (V Marasigan)’. This gift of the Lord has not been made to yield returns relative to using our Christian ‘values’, drawn from such a ‘vision’, to provide us the ‘valor’ to fight the onslaughts of consumerism and materialism. We need to see and live the ‘glory’ of the Cross.

Why are we called ‘Juan de la Cruz’? The phrase ‘de la Cruz’ truly defines our being, the potential for greatness of our people; and makes St John of the Cross our angel-spirit. As Pope Paul VI said, our national vocation is to ‘be a beacon of light of truth in Asia’ and that ‘The Philippines is the salvation of Asia’. The latter testimony was firmly re-asserted by Pope John Paul II.

The Philippines is like Mary, Mother of all mankind, longing for Christ to be born, to BE. Mary as Mother of the Church must remain at the foot of the Cross; for the Church anywhere, is being born from the pierced side of the Mystical Christ crucified. It is also from us, as ‘alter-Christus’ on the cross, that the Church in Asia will be, and will grow to the fullness of Christ as God wills, and as He alone can make possible.

Reviewing our history, our endurance as a people primarily through faith and a gut desire to survive, plus a sense of humor and a zeal to celebrate the goodness of God, we can truly say we have faithfully lived the Spirit of Mary at the foot of the Cross. Mary’s ‘Fiat’ at the Annunciation summarizes her self-renunciation.

This is what is being asked of us now. As the only Christian country in Asia, if we say 'Yes' to the vocation of the cross, in love, with God’s mercy and grace, like Mary, we too can sing her ‘Magnificat’. Let us make the Almighty work His marvels for us; and He will if we have faith and we cooperate with grace.

Ref: Susana Jose, “San Juan de la Cruz Today”, 1990, pp4, 7-8

St John of the Cross, priest and Doctor of the Church

He had a marked devotion toward the Blessed Virgin. (Rev Hugo Hoever, SOCist, PhD, “Lives of the Saints”, pp507-8)

St Theresa of Jesus (Avila) persuaded him to lead the reform of his Order. He suffered many tribulations. A renowned mystic, he wrote much on the mystery of the Cross. (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, 1989, p1715)

Our Lady of ‘Alba Regia’, in Hungary, was built by St Stephen, King of Hungary, who had given his kingdom to the Blessed Virgin. — John Bonifacius, Historia Virginis, lib. ii., c. i. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).

Our Lady of ‘Alba Royale’, Hungary (1005). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).