31 October 2012 The reception of the prodigal son Passion teaches and makes us look into ourselves. The prodigal, examining himself, understood how sinful and miserable he had been to abandon his father. He began to feel remorse; the moment of grace for him. He corresponded with it by pondering what he must do to save his failing life. He could see one only. “I will return to my father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned against God and you; I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands.’” (cf Lk 15:18-9) What does Jesus mean for us to learn from this episode? 1. That the contradictions, humiliations, and troubles of conscience which we sometimes must endure are God’s ways to make us look into ourselves, and to help us to rise out of the miserable state of our soul. 2. That in these moments, far from giving way to distrust and discouragement, and thus making our condition worse, we ought rather to consider the means of escaping, and take practical resolutions. 3. That we may be sure to obtain from God strength and perseverance to execute them, we should go to him as our Father. To call him ‘Father’ disarms divine justice, and brings back confidence into our hearts. This good and tender father Jesus meant no other than the Lord our God, our true Father. How wrong we are, then, when we unnecessarily torment ourselves, and hurt God by giving way so often to servile fear. When we close our hearts, or doubt our pardon, as if we were the slaves of a harsh and vindictive master! In this third point, Jesus completes the picture of his Heavenly Father in the father in this parable. After having given his penitent son a full pardon and forgotten the past, he reinstates him in all his rights as a son. “The father called his servants and told them, ‘Quick! Bring out the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. Get the fatted calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’” (cf Lk 15:22-4) God was not contented with forgiving everything; but gave him back all he had lost: the ‘robe’ of baptismal innocence; the ‘ring’, or pledge of his friendship; the ‘shoes’, that he might walk firmly in the way of grace to persevere; and the right to sit at the eucharistic banquet, where he could be filled with untold blessings. Let us redouble our love and generosity for a God who is so good, so liberal. Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, 685-7 We Are All “Elder Sons” The parable of the prodigal son is above all the story of the inexpressible love of a Father -- God -- who offers to his son, when he comes back to him, the gift of full reconciliation. But when the parable evokes, in the figure of the elder son, the selfishness which divides brothers, it also becomes the story of the human family: It describes our situation and shows the path to be followed. The prodigal son represents those who are aware of the existence in their inmost hearts of a longing for reconciliation at all levels and without reserve. They realize with an inner certainty that this reconciliation is possible only if it derives from a first and fundamental reconciliation -- one which brings a person back from distant separation to filial friendship with God, whose infinite mercy is clearly known. If, however, the parable is read from the point of view of the other son, it portrays the situation of the human family, divided by forms of selfishness. It throws light on the difficulty involved in satisfying the desire and longing for one reconciled and united family. It, therefore, reminds us of the need for a profound transformation of hearts through the rediscovery of the father’s mercy and through victory over misunderstanding and over hostility among brothers and sisters. Ref: Cf “Pope John Paul II, Breakfast with the Pope”, 1984, 10 The Meaning of Consecration to Mary Consecrating oneself to Mary means helping Her to offer ourselves and mankind to Him Who is Holy, infinitely holy; it means letting oneself be aided by her -- by having recourse to her Mother’s Heart, opened beneath the cross to love for every person, for the whole world -- to offer the world, and man, and mankind, and all nations, to Him Who is infinitely holy. God’s holiness was manifested in the redemption of man, of the world, of the whole of mankind, of the nations: a redemption which occurred through the sacrifice of the Cross. “I consecrate myself for their sakes”, Jesus said (cf Jn 17:19). The world and man ‘were consecrated through the power of the redemption’. They were consecrated to Him who is infinitely holy. They were offered and confided to Love himself, to the merciful Love. The Mother of Christ summons us and invites us to join with the Church of the living God ‘in this consecration of the world’, in this entrustment whereby the world, mankind, the nations, all individual people are offered to the Eternal Father through the power of the Redemption of Christ. They are offered up in the Heart of the Redeemer pierced on the Cross. The Mother of the Redeemer calls us, asks us and aids us to join in this consecration in our entrustment of the world. Then indeed do we find ourselves as near as possible to the heart of Christ pierced on the Cross. Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, 1984, p196 To the honor of Mary, the great Mother of God, for a perpetual remembrance of the prayer for her protection offered among all nations throughout the month of October to her Most Pure Heart; as an enduring testimony of the unbounded trust which we put in our most loving Mother, and in order that we may day by day more and more obtain her favorable aid; we will and decree that in the Litany of Loreto, after the invocation, ‘Queen conceived without original sin’, shall be added the suffrage, ‘Queen of the most Holy Rosary, pray for us.’ -- Pope Leo XIII (“The Glories of Mary.” In “Documentation Service”, V:325) • In the year 1116, an altar boy having fallen into the well of St Fort, which is in the church of Chartres, was saved by Our Lady. All the time that he was in the well, he heard the angels answering the public prayers which were chanted in the church; whence the custom arose at Chartres that the choir never answer aloud to the ‘Dominus Vobiscum’, chanted at high mass and canonical hours. — Sebastian Rouillard, Parthen., c. 6, n. 14. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady saved a choir boy who fell into the well of Saint Fort in 1116. This is in the Church of Our Lady of Chartres. They heard the angels answering the public prayers, so it is a custom in this church never to answer the responses. (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html) • Church of Our Lady of Chartres - Our Lady saved a choir boy who fell into the well of Saint Fort 1116. (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html) • Miracle at St. Fort, Chartres, France (1116). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Pope Pius XII Consecrates the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (1942). (http://www/mariedenazareth.com)