11 January 2013 The Magi return to their country We cannot imagine the happiness and spiritual delight that the Magi experienced with the Infant Jesus. How they would have loved to live there! But they had to leave, with great regret -- thanking him with all their hearts; begging his blessing; devoting entirely to his interests and glory; desiring to make him known and loved by all men. Thus must we be on leaving the real Presence of Jesus Christ each time we visit him in the Blessed Sacrament or receive him in Holy Communion. Do we leave with strange coldness, even abruptly? Perhaps, because we were insincere or with too weak a faith? “Having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country.” (Mt 1:12) Probably, more animated with a perfect love, a desire to work and suffer, for Jesus. Such ought to be our affections and resolutions with God in prayer -- at Mass, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and especially in Holy Communions. Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp31-2 Our supernatural growth In the growth of Jesus, Divine Wisdom required that the Redeemer should be like us in all things. (St Cyril of Alexandria, “One in Christ”) Our maturity in years must be accompanied by a commensurate progressive increase in human virtue and the supernatural life. The growth the Lord requires of us is unique: to renew and refresh our youth instead of leaving it. In the supernatural life, the Christian never grows old. We can always turn towards “God Who gives joy to my youth” (Ps 42:4) even in old age. God keeps young those who love Him. We might have known saintly people who, although old in years, have had great interior youthfulness of spirit due to a faithful relationship to Christ as manifested in all their acts. This supernatural growth comes from grace, obtained especially through the Sacraments and continual practice of the virtues. Grace, deposited in our hearts like a seed (cf 1 Jn 3:9), struggles to grow and brings us to its fulness (cf Eph 4:13). “The obstacle it contends with is sin -- ... a diminution of the human person -- which prevents a man reaching his fullness of spirit.” (Second Vatican Council, “Gaudium et spes”, 13) The spiritual man acts through the impulse of the Holy Spirit (cf Eph 3:16) by practising the virtues; and reaches his fulness of being with the help of the gifts of this same Holy Spirit, whose mission is to perfect the supernatural life by means of the yet imperfect theological virtues. These gifts are found in every soul in a state of grace. Both human and supernatural maturity is a daily task of many minor successes gained by responding to grace in small things. By habitually practising the virtues and with an eye for detail we fashion a true character -- docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, a will fixed on God and on the needs of others for God’s sake. Our supernatural growth must accompany our human growth to maturity. The natural virtues are the foundation of the supernatural. One’s true vocation is to be found embodied within one’s supernatural Christian vocation. “When a soul strives to cultivate the human virtues, the heart is already very close to God. The Christian sees that the theological virtues -- faith, hope and charity -- and all the other things that bring with them the grace of God, impel him never to be neglectful of the good qualities that he shares with so many other men.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Friends of God”, 91) Maturity makes one realistic and objective besides requiring the tenacity to continue a work, once begun, to completion despite any difficulty. Our Blessed Mother Mary, “the model and living school of all the virtues”, (St Ambrose, “Treatise on Virginity”, 2) will “help us to reach a perfect maturity according to Christ Jesus” (Eph 4:13). Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:369-73 Our Temptations The number and manifold character of our temptations have their basis in that 3-fold concupiscence: “For nothing that the world affords comes from the Father. Carnal allurements, enticement for the eye, and life of empty show -- all these are from the world.” (1 Jn 2:16) As is well known, the ‘world’ from which the Christian should keep away is not creation, the work of God which was entrusted to the dominion of man; but the symbol and sign of everything which is the opposite of ‘God’s kingdom’. There are three aspects of the world from which the Christian should keep his distance, so as to be faithful to Jesus’ message. These ‘three concupiscences’ are sensual appetites, excessive hunger for earthly goods and prideful self-sufficiency in regard to God ... three great temptations to which the Christian will be subjected during his earthly life. But behind this threefold temptation, we find the earliest and all-embracing temptation that Satan addressed directly to our first parents: “You will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad” (cf Gen 3:5). The first Adam chose himself instead of God. He yielded and became poor, weak, ‘naked’, ‘the slave of sin’ (cf Jn 8:34). Christ, the second Adam, confirmed the fundamental dependence of man upon God against Satan. Christ tells us that man is not humiliated, but is exalted in his own dignity whenever he prostrates himself and adores the Infinite Being, his Creator and Father: “You shall do homage to the Lord your God; him alone shall you adore.” (Mt 4:10) Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, pp117-8 Prayer for Patience · “O God, Who by the patience of Thine only-begotten Son has crushed the pride of the old enemy, give unto us, we beseech Thee, ever devoutly to have in mind what He with love endured for us, and thus, after His example, to bear with long suffering the troubles which come upon us. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Very Rev Charles J Callan, OP, STM and Very Rev John A McHugh, OP, STM, “Blessed Be God”, 1925, p490) • Our Lady beyond the Tiber, at Rome. This church was built by Calixtus I in the year 224. (Bethlehem Observer Historical Calendar) • Our Lady beyond the Tiber. Rome. 224. Built by St. Calixtus I. [DeLigney here cites Baronius in apparatu ad annales et in Annales ad Ann. 224.] (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Our Lady beyond the Tiber (Rome). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html) • Our Lady of Beyond the Tiber, Rome / Our Lady of Clemency, or Mercy of Absam, near Innsbruck, Austria (1797). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html) • Our Lady of Beyond the Tiber, Rome. www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html • Our Lady of Clemency. Innsbruck, Austria. 1797. Ancient icon in Rome. Shrine in Philadelphia. In “Salve mater redemptoris” motet. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Our Lady of Clemency, or Mercy of Absam, near Innsbruck, Austria (1797). www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html • Our Lady of Bessiere (Limousin, France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html); (http://mariedenazareth.com.)