Every page of the Gospels bears witness to this trait. “I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep.” (Jn 10:11) Again: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! ... How often would I have gathered your children, yet you refused.” (Mt 23:37) And to Judas in his very act of betrayal: “Friend, do what you came for.” (Mt 26:50) “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Lk 22:48) Above all, he prayed on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk 23:34)
‘If from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks’, how do our hearts compare with our Saviour’s? We are so harsh in judging others or exaggerate their faults.
Jesus answers with such meekness when unjustly accused. And we react with sarcasm when told of our real faults. Jesus finds an excuse for his executioners. We are angry even if the perceived hurt is justified.
Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp327-8
The need for vigilance
The power of the Holy Spirit is unlimited. We must want to be saints, but we also have to take into account that “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain” (Ps 126:1). Humility leads us to always count on God’s grace to which we add our efforts to acquire virtues and continuously practise them.
Our apostolic zeal and desire for personal holiness should not ignore others or be indifferent to charity: that would be contradictory. Also, there is our desire to be with Christ on the Cross, to be mortified, not rejecting sacrifice in small things and, if need be, in big things.
We should be forewarned about approaching God with reservations and without renunciation, trying to make the love of God compatible with what is not pleasing to him. We must be alert to developing our desires for holiness continually through prayer, by asking God for the ability to struggle and discover where our love is growing cold.
Desire for holiness is real when acts of piety are punctually fulfilled. “The soul truly in love with God never fails through laziness to do all in its power to seek God’s Son, the Beloved. And having done all it could it is still not satisfied as it thinks it has done nothing.” (cf St John of the Cross, “The Spiritual Canticle”, 3, 1)
The virtue of humility enables us to avoid a sense of self-satisfaction with what we have done, not to be content with impotent desires. It lets us see how we can do more to show the sincerity of our desires with deeds of love, ensuring that our sins and negligences don’t frustrate our expectations.
Humility doesn’t clip the wings of our desires, but helps us understand the need to resort to God to realize them. With God’s grace we can make virtue grow in our soul by removing obstacles and fleeing from occasions of sin.
Our thirst for God is compatible with our defects and falls because saints are not those who never sinned, but those who always bounced back and persisted. “Feeling easily deflated and lying down under adversity is characteristic of cowardly souls lacking the firm virtue of trusting in God’s promises.” (St Basil, “Homily on Joy”)
Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:431-3
Listening for God’s Call
God calls me and sends me forth as a laborer in his vineyard. He calls me and sends me forth to work for the coming of his kingdom in history ...
From eternity God has thought of us and has loved us as unique individuals. Everyone of us he called as the Good Shepherd “calls his sheep by name” (cf Jn 10:3). However, only in the unfolding of our lives in the events of history is the eternal plan of God revealed to each of us. Therefore, it is a gradual process, in a sense, one that happens day by day.
To be able to discover the actual will of the Lord in our lives always involves: a receptive listening to the word of God and the church, fervent and constant prayer, recourse to a wise and loving spiritual guide, and a faithful discernment of the gifts and talents given by God; as well as the diverse social situations in which one lives ...
No one must forget that the Lord, as master of the laborers in the vineyard, calls at every hour of life so as to make his holy will more precisely and explicitly known. Therefore, the fundamental and continuous attitude of the disciple should be one of vigilance, a conscious attentiveness to God’s voice.
Ref: John Paul II, “Breakfast With the Pope”, 1995, 20
Interior Conversion, Essential for Ecumenism
As Christians today strive to be sources of reconciliation in the world, they feel the need, perhaps more urgently than ever, to be fully reconciled among themselves. For ‘the sin of disunity among Christians’, which has been with us for centuries, ‘weighs heavily upon the Church’.
The gravity of this sin was clearly shown at the Second Vatican Council: “Without doubt, this discord openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the good news to every creature.”
Restoration of unity among Christians is one of the main concerns of the Church in the last part of the 20th century. And this task is for all of us. No one can claim exemption from this responsibility. Indeed everyone can make some contribution, however small it may seem, and all are called to that interior conversion which is the condition for ecumenism.
As the Second Vatican Council taught: “This change of heart and holiness of life along with public and private prayer for the unity of Christians, should be regarded as the soul of the whole ecumenical movement, and can rightly be called spiritual ecumenism.”
Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, 1984, pp226-7
Our Lady -- “Mother, do not leave me! Let me seek your Son, let me find your Son, let me love your Son -- with my whole being. Remember me, my Lady, remember me.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 157)
• In the year 431, the Council of Ephesus declared that the Blessed Virgin must be called “Mother of God”. — Acts of Council. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Council of Ephesus declares Mary to be the Mother of God, the "Theotokos". 341. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Council of Ephesus declared Mary to be the “Mother of God”. (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
• Divine Motherhood of Our Lady, declared at the Council of Ephesus in 431. (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
• The Divine Motherhood of Our Lady. (http://mariedenazareth.com)
• Our Lady Queen of Peace. (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
• Our Lady of Peace. (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html)
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