24 April 2012: ‘... into the whole world’

Our Lord’s Resurrection is a call to apostolate. Each of his appearances ends with an apostolic command. To Mary Magdalene, Jesus says: “Go to my brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and to your Father' (Jn 20:17); and to the other women, 'Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and that they shall see me there'” (Mt 28:10).
The disciples of Emmaus reported that same night that Jesus is alive. (cf Lk 24:35) “Afterwards he appeared to the eleven as they sat at table ... he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation’”(cf Mk 16:14-5).
The Apostles began to preach “repentance and forgiveness of sins ...” (cf Lk 24:44-7)
What they preach and testify to, are not mere speculations but salvific facts they have personally witnessed.
The death of Judas brought the need to complete the number of twelve apostles. One condition is the candidate must be a witness to the Resurrection. (cf Acts 1:21-2)
“The Christian vocation is by its very nature a vocation to the apostolate” (Second Vatican Council, “Apostolicam actuositatem”, 2) and “all the faithful, from the Pope to the child who has just been baptized, share one and the same vocation, the same faith, the same Spirit, the same grace ... They all have an active and appropriate share in the single mission of Christ and of the Church.” (cf A Del Portillo, “Faithful and Laity in the Church”)
We cannot be prevented from exercising the right in fulfilling this duty. Nor can we remain silent.
So much ignorance is around; error, too. Numerous people go through life lost and confused because they don’t know Christ. We must communicate daily to all, the doctrine and the faith.
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all ... Let your light shine before men, so they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (cf Mt 5:15-6)
“At the end of his time on earth, Christ commanded: go out and teach. He wants his light to shine in the words and behaviour of his disciples, and in yours, too.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 930)
Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:329-31

The Resurrection Points to the Real Humanism
Why did Christ speak of remission of sins immediately after the words, “Receive the Holy Spirit”? He said, “If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound” (Jn 20:23).
Remission of sins supposes knowledge and confession of sins. Both signify ‘effort to live in truth and love’. It means the action of ‘the power of truth and love’, which forms the new man and transforms the world.
The contradiction is ‘falsification’ of the truth and ‘simulation’ of love. Contradiction is removing the line of demarcation between good and evil; calling humanism what is actually ‘sin’.
It would be very easy, unfortunately, to cite examples. Terrorism is rightly condemned as an attack upon and violation of elementary rights of man. Killing of man is condemned as something manifestly contrary to man’s very existence.
At the same time, however, depriving a human being ‘not yet born’ of life is called ‘humanism’; a ‘proof of progress’, emancipation; conforming with human dignity!
Let us not deceive ourselves! We must all denounce such contradictions. Remember, only “the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32).
Only the truth has power to transform the world towards authentic progress and real ‘humanism’. And let us not call the demands of truth, conscience and dignity a purely ‘political’ choice. Man may not renounce them.
Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, 1984, pp172-3

The disciples constrain Our Lord to remain
“When they drew close to the town they were going, he made as though he would go farther.” (Lk 24:28)
Our Lord fully intended to confer on these disciples the wonderful privilege of becoming their guest, and of making himself known to them that very day. He however, desired that this favor should be granted only at their pressing invitation.
God willingly comes and enters into our soul and manifests his presence by heavenly graces and favors. ‘My delights are to be with the children of men’; but he will be sought for and invited with fervor and perseverance.
If he seems far, and our soul is void of those movements of grace his presence creates, could tepidity towards him be the cause?
The disciples, whose hearts had burned during the discourse of the unknown pilgrim, begged him not to leave them. “Stay with us because it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent.” Adding action to word, “they constrained him. And he went in with them.” (Lk 24:29)
The practical conclusion here is -- if we wish to draw our Lord and his sensible graces into our souls, we must use a sort of holy violence towards him. At certain occasions, we increase our devout practices and mortifications, till, like the disciples, we constrain him to yield to our desires.
Like them, we may urge ‘that it is now towards evening’, and ‘that the day’ (of our life) ‘is now far spent’ and tending, perhaps without our suspecting it, towards its decline.
The pleas of the disciples, and their gentle violence towards him, pleased their Divine Lord. He yielded, and went in with them. Joyful, they did their best to be hospitable though still they knew not the dignity of their guest. What would they have done had they known?
I know the guest whom I receive into my heart at Holy Communion. How must I receive him?
Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp218-20

Last Things
“Listen to me you who are up to your neck in science: your science cannot deny the reality of diabolic activities. My Mother, the holy Church, for many years -- and it is also a praiseworthy private devotion -- required the priests each day at the foot of the altar to invoke St Michael -- ‘against the wickedness and snares of the devil’.”
Ref: Cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”

Our Lady
492 “The love of our Mother will be the breath that kindles into a living flame the embers of virtue that are hidden under the ashes of your indifference.”

504 “The holy Virgin Mary, Mother of fair love, will bring relief to your heart, when it feels as if it’s made of flesh, if you have recourse to her with confidence.”
Ref: Cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”

• Dedication of Our Lady of Reparation, at Florence, by Eugenius IV., in the year 1436.—(Balingham on the Calendar.) (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Our Lady of Bonaria. Sardinia 1370. (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html)
• Our Lady of Bonaria (Sardinia). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
• Our Lady of Bonaria, Island of Sardinia (1370). Declared Patron of Sardinia in 1908. (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
• “Madonna della Bonaria”. Sardinia, Italy. 1370. Mary is declared Patron of Sardinia in 1908. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Our Lady of Salera. Aliaga, Nueva Ecija PHL. (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html)
• Our Lady of Lujan (Argentina) (http://mariedenazareth.com)