26 February 2013 2nd Week of Lent -- Tuesday Three miraculous cures On the day Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter to life, he performed three other miracles. The first involved a woman who has been bleeding for twelve years. She had “heard of Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak; for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well’. Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and felt she was healed.” (cf Mk 5:27-9) “As Jesus moved on, two blind men followed, crying out and saying, ‘Have mercy on us, O Son of David’. When he came to the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I can do this to you?’ They answer, ‘Yes, Lord’. Then he touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith be it done unto you’. And their eyes were opened.” (Mt 9:27-30) Soon afterwards, “they brought him a dumb man possessed with a devil”. (Mt 9:32) Suffering from a double affliction and more pitiable because he cannot seek aid for himself. Luckily, charitable persons did this for him. Jesus, without even waiting to be asked, commanded the devil to release his prey. Immediately “the dumb man spoke”. (Mt 9:33) “It will often happen that after framing some pious intention, you will be tempted to abandon it; ... seems to you strange, compromising, dictated by vanity, too difficult, or even impossible. These are snares of the devil; despise them, and go steadily forward.” (St Ignatius of Loyola, “Spiritual Exercises”) Obeying the dictates of human wisdom shall obtain miracles. The example of the two blind men inspires us to seize every opportunity to seek God’s graces and favor. Let us persevere in our prayers though apparently fruitless. Above all, let us make frequent acts of faith in the power and goodness of God. Faith is the condition and measure of his gifts: “According to your faith be it done unto you.” (Mt 9:29) How pitiful are those whom the devil makes dumb in the confessional: in prayer, when duty or charity requires them to speak! Let us take compassion on their misery and try to help them. Especially, let us imitate the readiness of Jesus to assist those hindered by modesty, or any other motive, from asking our help. Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp408-410 On serving others It is impossible to practise charity without humility and a spirit of service. There can be no effectiveness. Without humility there is no holiness. Jesus does not want conceited self-centered friends in his service: “the instruments of God are always humble.” (St John Chrysostom, Homilies on St Matthew, 15) When we strive to be humble we become effective and strong. We must be ever vigilant, because the worst kind of ambition is to seek one’s own exaltation. ‘Pride attacks on all flanks and its victim finds it all around.’ Unless we are humble we become unfit for helping others, for pride infects everything. Where there is a proud person nothing goes right; nobody is treated properly: family, friends, colleagues. He expects and demands special treatment for himself because he considers himself different. He can be over-sensitive. The dogmatic tone of his words, his ironic or sarcastic opinions in any discussion, his tendency to cut short conversations are all signs of a deep-seated egoism. The limited horizons of his life are centered on himself. Humility on the other hand makes us recognize our weaknesses and defects. We are then able to understand the shortcomings of others, and lend a helping hand. We can love and accept them, defects and all. The Blessed Virgin, ‘handmaid of the Lord’, will teach us that to serve others is among the ways of finding joy in this life and one of the shortest routes to Jesus. Ref: Cf Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 2:79-84 Unity Among Christians -- Patient Expectation, Not Inert Acceptance It is important that every Christian man and every Christian woman seek individually in his and her own heart for what might hold back achievement of full union among Christians. Complete unity in faith is still lacking among us and must be won before being able to celebrate the Eucharist together in truth. The very desire for complete unity in faith is itself a gift of the Holy Spirit, and we humbly give thanks to God for it ... Fidelity to the Holy Spirit requires interior conversion and fervent prayer. Let us pray that rightful patience in awaiting God’s hour shall not turn into inert acceptance of the status quo of division in the faith. Through God’s grace, may such patience never take the place of definite and generous response which God demands to his call to perfect unity in Christ ... Let us remember that we have been called to demonstrate ‘utmost fidelity to the Will of Christ’. Let us persevere in asking the Holy Spirit to remove all divisions from our faith, to give us perfect unity in truth and love for which Christ prayed; for which Christ died: to bring together the children of God who were scattered. Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p67 Jesus speaks to us in prayer We find in Christ the fulness of revelation. Thus, St John of the Cross adds, “he who may now wish for some vision or revelation, not only would be wishing something foolish, but would offend God by not turning his eyes totally on Christ, wanting no novelty or any other thing, because God could answer him in this fashion, saying: ‘If I have already spoken to you of these things in my Word, who is my Son, and I have no other, what more can I answer or reveal to you? “Fix your eyes on him alone, for in him I have said and revealed all to you, and in him you will find still more of what you are asking for and seeking ...; hear him, because I have no more faith to reveal nor any more things to make known.” (cf St John of the Cross, “The Ascent of Mount Carmel”, 2,22,5) Let us, therefore, strive to listen to him and follow Mary’s counsel: “Do whatever He tells you.” (Jn 2:5) We must go to our prayer to speak with God and be sensitive to his counsel, his inspirations and Will concerning our work, family and friends, whom we should try to bring closer to him. Our life is to be docile to what Jesus says to us in the intimacy of prayer, in the advice of spiritual direction; through incidents and events that He sends or permits. Our Mother, Mary teaches us to listen to her Son and to ponder things in our heart, just as she did. In her intimacy with God she knew what He wanted of her. Thus, she delved deeper and deeper into the mystery of the Redemption. In prayer the events of her life made sense: the immense and incomparable joy of her vocation, the mission of Joseph, the poverty of Bethlehem, the arrival of the Magi, the hurried flight to Egypt, the sorrowful search for and joyous finding of Jesus when he was twelve years old, and the uneventful days of Nazareth. Our Lady prayed and understood. The same will happen to us if we enter into an intimate dialogue with Jesus. Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 3:333-5 • Our Lady “des Champs”, at Paris, anciently dedicated to Ceres. St Denis, after exorcising the evil sprits, consecrated it to Our Lady. A picture of the Blessed Virgin is still to be seen here, on a small stone, a foot square, which was made after that which St Denis brought to France. This house, which is a Benedictine priory, was afterwards occupied by the Carmelites, who were received there in the year 1604, and founded by Catharine, Princess of Longueville. It was the first occupied by those nuns in France; Mother Anne of Jesus, the associate of St Teresa, was its first superior. — Du Breuil, Theatre des Antiquites, lib. ii. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady of Long Fields, Madrid, Spain (1261). (www.divine will.org/feastofourlady.htm) • Our Lady of the Fields, Paris, France, consecrated by St Denis (250). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html) • Our Lady of the Fields. Paris. St Denis. (250). (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Our Lady of the Fields (Paris). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html) • Blessed Virgin of Meschecia (Russia, 1492)