15 March 2013 4th Week of Lent -- Friday The despair and death of Judas “When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders ...” (cf Mt 27:3) When Judas agreed to betray his Master, he expected that, being God as well as man, Jesus would evade his enemies as he had often done. Finding that Jesus surrendered and was about to suffer death, Judas was horrified at the thought of his crime. The ‘blood’ money weighed on his conscience. Cursing, he returned it. Such is the ordinary effect of sin. Before sinning, we only see the pleasant side, blind to its consequences. Once the harm is done, come remorse and shame. Instead of enjoyment, there is only misery and regret. Saying, ‘I have sinned in betraying innocent blood’. When Judas confessed his sin to the chief priests, a sin they had tempted him to commit, he hoped to find comfort or at least interest. Instead, he received the scornful words, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” (Mt 27:4) On hearing these words, his despair was total. Never expect favor, sympathy, or even esteem, from whomever we have served against our conscience. Outwardly, they might praise or flatter us; but interiorly, will condemn us for our weakness and cowardice. “And casting down the pieces of silver in the Temple, he departed, and went and hanged himself.” (Mt 27:5) The despair of Judas surpassed all his sins. Convinced that his crime was beyond pardon, he virtually disbelieved in God. If he had been humble and contrite like St Peter, Jesus would also have pardoned him. We are all human, all liable to fall very low. If we unhappily commit sin, let us at once banish any thought of despair, and imitate the humble repentance of Peter, trusting, as he did, in the omnipotent mercy of God. In times of temptation, recall St Augustine’s words: ‘If you feel afraid of God, throw yourself into his bosom.’ Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp119-121 Conversion Is, Above All, Acceptance “Return to me ... I will return to you.” (Zech 1:3) Here is another invocation from the Lenten liturgy, introducing us to the whole reality of conversion. We convert to God, who awaits us. He awaits in order to turn to us, ‘to convert’ us. We journey toward God, He desires to come to meet us. Let us open up to God, who desires to open to us. Conversion is not a one-way process, unilateral ... Being converted means believing in God who loved us first, who has loved us eternally in His Son; and through His Son gives us grace and truth in the Holy Spirit. That Son was crucified, so as to speak to us with His arms spread as widely as God is open to us. How incessantly God ‘converts to us’, through the Cross of His Son! Our conversion is in this way not a unilateral aspiration at all. It is not only an effort on the part of the human will, understanding and heart. It is not only a commitment to directing our humanity upwards, when it so heavily tends downwards. ‘Conversion is’ above all ‘acceptance’. It is the effort to accept God in all the wealth of his ‘conversion’ (‘convertar’: ‘I shall be converted’) to man. This conversion is a Grace. An effort of understanding, of heart and of will, is also indispensable for accepting Grace. It is indispensable for not losing the Divine dimension of life in the human dimension; for persevering in it. Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p132 The malice of venial sin The effort of personal conversion which the Lord asks of us is an action for each day of our lives. However, in certain situations, as in Lent, we receive special graces which we must avail of. Lent is an extraordinary opportunity for a maximum struggle against sin and to increase in ourselves the life of grace with good works. To understand better the malice of sin we must recall what Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. “We can very well say that the Passion which the Jews made Christ suffer was almost nothing compared with what Christians make him undergo with their insults of mortal sins ... what horror there will be when [he] shows us the things for which we have abandoned him!” (St Jean Mary Vianney [The ‘Curé d’Ars’], “Sermon on Sin”) Our Lord has called us to holiness, to love with deeds. How we regard deliberate venial sin will determine our progress in interior life. Failure to struggle against venial sins or if contrition for them is not enough, grievously damaged the soul. Lukewarmness sets in. These venial sins make the soul insensitive to the inspirations and motions of the Holy Spirit. Practise of the virtues becomes more difficult. Furthermore, venial sins weaken the life of grace, and incline one towards mortal sin. “How sad you make me feel when you are not sorry for your venial sins! For until you are, you will not begin to live a real interior life.” (Dom Benedict Baur, “In Silence with God”) Let us ask Our Lady to grant us a loathing not only for mortal sin, but also for deliberate venial sin. Ref: Cf Francis Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:103-5 Entering into Ourselves The essential work of Lent — conversion — is performed in such interior intimacy with God. Words resound in that interior privacy and intimacy with God himself, in all the truth of one’s own heart and conscience. Words such as those of the Psalmist, one of the profoundest confessions which man had ever made to God: “Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. For I acknowledge my offense and my sin is before me always: Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” (Ps 51:1-6) Let us recite these purifying words often during Lent. Let us above all seek to renew this spirit which enlivens them; that interior breath of life which has linked the power of conversion exactly with these words. ... Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p140 Our Lady -- “To Jesus we always go, and to him we always return, through Mary.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 495) “Have confidence: Return. Invoke our Lady and you’ll be faithful.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 514) • In the year 911, the city of Chartres was miraculously delivered from the siege laid to it by Rollo or Raoul, Duke of the Normans; for as he was on the point of taking the city, Gaucelin, the forty-seventh Bishop of Chartres, mounted on the top of the ramparts, holding a relic of Our Lady as an ensign, “which struck such terror in the enemy’s camp, that all retreated in disorder ; in memory of this fact, the meadows of the Drouaise gate are called, to this day, the meadows of the Repulsed (des Recules) —(Sebastien Rouillard, Parthenie, c. 7, n. 5.) “Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar (http://www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady of the Underground (Notre-Dame de Sous Terre; Our Lady of the Crypt). One of three venerated statues of Mary in the Chartres cathedral, in a subterranean chapel. Picture of the "Black Madonna" statue, probably of Celtic Druid origin; the original was burned during the French Revolution. Fraternity. Spanish I-Ching discussion. History. Medieval pilgrimage site. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Our Lady of the Underground, Chartres, France (911) (http://www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html) • Miraculous deliverance of Chartres by Our Lady (911AD). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)