26 April 2011: Mother of Good Counsel

‘Mater Boni Consilii.’ You who profess a special devotion to the Mother of God may you obtain help and comfort from her for your renewed resolves to tighten the bonds of the common life and, exactly by reason of that interior strengthening of roots, to project that life to the whole Church.

May we above all obtain from her that higher ‘counsel’ which is discernment and sagacity in decisions, but even more the individualization of the increased spiritual needs of our age, vision of social and human reality in the light of the Gospel, and consequently courage to give adequate responses to these needs and that vision.

O Mother of Jasna Gora, I am, O Mother, all yours, and everything mine is yours! All that is mine, so also my homeland, my nation.

O Mother, I have been called to serve the Universal Church on the Chair of St Peter at Rome. Thinking of this universal service, I constantly repeat, ‘Totus tuus -- wholly yours’. I desire to be the servant of all!

Mother, everything that is mine is yours! What more can I say to you? In what other way entrust this land, this people, this heritage, to You? I confide them to you just as I can.

You are the Mother. You will understand and will accept.

Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, p170

The fruits of difficulties

After the martyrdom of St Stephen there arose a persecution against the Christians of Jerusalem which caused them to scatter throughout other areas of the Middle East. (Acts 8:1-8) Providence made use of that circumstance to carry the seed of the faith to other places which otherwise would have taken longer to get to know Christ.

Our Lord always has more complete plans. What seemed the end of the primitive Church in fact led to its strengthening and expansion. So those who persecuted the Church, whose objective was to stifle the recently-born seed of faith, were the indirect cause why so many more people, otherwise unreachable because of their dwelling in faraway places, got to know the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

The Christians expressed their apostolic spirit during times of peace, which were the majority, and in times of calumny and persecution. They never ceased to announce the Good News which they had in their hearts, convinced the doctrine of Jesus Christ is the only one that can make this world a more just and humane place.

Trials and difficulties can differ considerably. Some may be due to a materialist and anti-christian environment which opposes Christ’s reign in the world: calumnies, professional discrimination, anti-Catholic fanaticism. Or Our Lord permits sickness, financial disaster, failures, fruitless apostolic enterprise after much effort or lack of understanding.

Whatever, we should understand that God is very close to us. He helps us, with more graces, to mature in virtue and to bear fruit in the apostolate. God wants to purify us like gold in the furnace, cleansing our soul of its dross, leaving it more refined and valuable.

Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:399-400

The communion of graces

The doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ shows the profound unity among Christians due to union with their head, Christ. “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.” (1 Cor 12:26)

This stable union of the faithful with one another led St Paul to ask for prayers from the first Christians at Rome. He always felt very united with his brothers in the Faith, whom he always addressed as ‘saints’ in his letters. (cf Phil 1:1) From the beginning of the Church, Christians have professed among the principal truths of faith in the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in the Communion of Saints.”

It is a community of spiritual qualities from which everyone benefits. It is not a sharing of material, cultural or artistic favors, but of imperishable goods. Offering Our Lord our work, prayer, joy and difficulties brings an immense good to people who are far from us and to the entire Church.

St Teresa, aware of the damage caused by Protestant errors in the Church, knew also of this desirable mutual support. “The things of God’s service are so bad that those of us who do serve Him have to stand back to back in order to make progress at all.” (St Teresa, “Life”, 7-8) This doctrine was always practised throughout Church history. (cf St Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Ephesians”, 2, 2-5; St Cyprian, “Letter 60”; St Clement of Rome, “Letter to the Corinthians” 36, 1 ff; St Ambrose, “Treatise on Cain and Abel”, 1 ff)

What does the Communion of Saints mean for us in practise? “... that all of us who are united in Christ, the saints in heaven, the souls in purgatory, and we on earth -- must be mindful of the needs of one another ... The saints ‘must’ love the souls whom God loves. The love the blessed in heaven have for the Souls in Purgatory and the souls on earth is not a passive love. ... [but] an active, ‘hungry’ love. The saints long to help onward to heaven all souls ... And if the prayer of a good man on earth has power with God, there is no estimating the power of prayers which the saints offer for us. ...” (Leo Trese, “The Faith Explained”, p146)

Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:411-3

Fortitude and Its Rewards

This virtue can become rare in the pleasure-loving and success-hungry environment where most of us live. Religious convictions can easily be suppressed by fear of being criticized, belittled or even ridiculed.

About fortitude, Fr Leo J Trese said it is hard not to laugh at the obscene joke, especially if the teller happens to be the boss or a good customer. When the malicious gossip starts, it is hard to insist on changing the conversation or to speak up in defense of the person under attack -- particularly when the subject really is a stinker. It is hard to make the boyfriend behave when everybody says a little loving never hurt anyone; especially when boyfriends are rare.

Our world of work and recreation may frequently be uynsympathetic to virtue. Businessmen often find under-the-table deals as standard operating procedure. Risqué shows are bandied about as hilarious entertainment. It is consoling to find that fortitude also brings rewards. The courage of the man born blind in glorifying Jesus before the council was magnificently rewarded.

“Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he said to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Sir’, the man replied, ‘tell me who he is so that I may believe in him’. Jesus said, ‘You are looking at him; he is speaking to you’. The man said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped him.” (Jn 9:35-8 ) Before, sight was restored to his eyes. Now, sight was given to his soul.

Christians who stand by their conscience inevitably discover that they have grown in stature in the eyes of other people. Initially, they might have been somewhat afraid they would lose their friends. Afterwards, they realize they have gained respect as well as affection. Their friends find in them a reassuring source of strength.

Ref: Cf Fr M Guzman, “Encounters With Christ”, 1990, pp109-10

• Our Lady of Naiera, in Navarre. This image was found miraculously in the year 1048; Dom Garcias de Naïera, King of Navarre, built a church for it, which several kings of Navarre visited. — Andre Favin, liv. iii.. Hist. de Navarre. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Our Lady of Naïera, Navarre (1048). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
• Our Lady of Naïera (Navarre, France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
• Our Lady of Good Counsel. (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
• Mother of Good Counsel. (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
• Mother / Our Lady of Good Counsel. Detailed history. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• “Nuestra Señora de Salera”. Aliaga, Nueva Ecija. (“The 1997 Catholic Directory of the Philippines”, p51)