The Indestructible Temple
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November 9, 2017. Feast
of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
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Father Steven Reilly, LC
John
2: 13-22
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus
went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep,
and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of
cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle.
He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their
tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out
of here! Stop making my Father´s house a marketplace!" His disciples
remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume
me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for
doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "This temple
has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in
three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was
raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and
they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe that You are here with me, and I hope in Your
boundless mercy and love. Thank You for watching over me and keeping me in
Your friendship. Thank You for the precious gift of our Mother, the Church.
Petition: Lord, increase my zeal!
1. The Indestructible Temple: Today we celebrate the dedication of St.
John Lateran Basilica, known as the “mother and head of all the churches.”
Going to Rome and visiting this wonderful church, now some seventeen
centuries old, one gets a sense of the durability of Catholicism. The
Catholic Church has been around for a long time, and it will be around for a
lot longer — until judgment day, to be exact. No matter how hard the world
has tried, it hasn’t been able to destroy the temple of the Church. This
should give us a deep confidence that the Lord is with us as we journey
through history.
2. Purification: Being indestructible doesn’t mean, however,
that the Catholic Church does not need constant purification. When our Lord
arrived to the temple in Jerusalem, he found many things that marred the
spirit of prayer and devotion that was to characterize that sacred building.
His vigorous reaction serves to underline the high vocation of holiness that
God had given to the Chosen People. We Catholics have inherited that call;
yet all too often, the ways of the world creep into our souls. Each one of us
needs to submit to the Lord’s purification. He will challenge us in our
conscience, and sometimes that will sting like the whip of cords. But if we
are sincere in our desires, we accept this with humility, aware that our
souls must be living temples of God’s presence.
3. Consuming Zeal: When the apostles contemplated our Lord’s
action in the temple, “zeal” was the word that summed it all up. Jesus is
zealous because he doesn’t accept the status quo of entrenched mediocrity.
The day he arrives it is no longer business as usual: His Father’s house WILL
be respected. Too often we let the barnacles of laziness and the accretions
of apathy weigh down and extinguish our zeal. Every day we must pray that the
Lord will once again “enkindle in our hearts the fire of his love.” Our zeal
in living the faith is part of the way God works to make this temple of his
Church indestructible. Don’t we want to cooperate with his love, so that the
“gates of hell will not prevail?”
Conversation with Christ: Lord, I love Your Church. I thank You for the priceless gift
of my Catholic faith. Protect the Church from all her enemies and help me to
be an effective apostle filled with authentic zeal.
Resolution: I will offer myself to collaborate in a
parish ministry or other Catholic apostolate out of love for the Church.
Excerpts from the DIARY of Saint Faustina
Kowalska
38 In order to purify a soul, Jesus uses
whatever instruments He likes. My soul underwent a complete abandonment on
the part of creatures; often my best intentions were misinterpreted by the
sisters,[26] a type of suffering which is most painful; but God allows it,
and we must accept it because in this way we become more like Jesus. There
was one thing which I could not understand for a long time: Jesus ordered me
to tell everything to my Superiors, but my Superiors did not believe what I
said and treated me with pity as though I were being deluded or were
imagining things.
Because of this, believing myself to be
deluded, I resolved to avoid God interiorly for fear of these illusions. But
the grace of God pursued me at every step, and God spoke to me when I least
expected it.
95 +A Deeper Knowledge of God and the
Terror of the Soul.
In the beginning, God lets himself be known
as Holiness, Justice, Goodness - that is to say, Mercy. The soul does not
come to know this all at once, but piecemeal, in flashes; that is to say,
when God draws near. And this does not last for long, because the soul could
not bear such light. During prayer the soul experiences flashes of this light
which make it impossible to pray as before. Try as it may to force itself to
pray as it did before, all is in vain; it becomes completely impossible for
it to continue to pray as it did before it received this light. This light
which has touched the soul is alive within it, and nothing can either quench
or diminish it. This flash of the knowledge of God draws the soul and
enkindles its love for Him.
But this same flash, at the same time,
allows the soul to know itself as it is; the soul sees its whole interior in
a superior light, and it rises up alarmed and terrified. Still, it does not
remain under the effects of terror, but it begins to purify itself, to humble
and abase itself before the Lord. These lights become stronger and more
frequent; the more the soul is crystallized, the more these lights penetrate
it. However, if the soul has responded faithfully and courageously to these
first graces, God fills it with His consolations and gives himself to it in a
perceptible manner. At certain moments, the soul, as it were, enters into
intimacy with God and greatly rejoices in this; it believes that it has
already reached the degree of perfection destined for it, because its defects
and faults are asleep within it, and this makes it think that they no longer
exist. Nothing seems difficult for it; it is ready for everything. It begins
to plunge itself into God and taste the divine delights. It is carried along
by grace and does not take account of the fact that the time of trial and
testing may come. And, in fact, this state does not last long. Other moments
will soon come. I should add here, however, that the soul will respond more
faithfully to divine grace if it has a well - informed confessor to whom it
can confide everything.
178 Today we are beginning the third
probation. All three of us met at Mother Margaret's, as the other sisters
were having their probation in the novitiate. Mother Margaret began with a
prayer, explained to us what the third probation consists of, and then spoke
on how great is the grace of the perpetual vows. Suddenly I began to cry out
loud. In an instant all God's graces appeared before the eyes of my soul, and
I saw myself so wretched and ungrateful toward God. The sisters began to
rebuke me, saying, "Why did she break out crying?" But Mother
Margaret came to my defense, saying that she was not surprised.
At the end of the hour, I went before the
Blessed Sacrament and, like the greatest and most miserable of wretches, I
begged for His mercy that He might heal and purify my poor soul. Then I heard
these words, My daughter, all your
miseries have been consumed in the flame of My love, like a little twig
thrown into a roaring fire. By humbling yourself in this way, you draw upon
yourself and upon other souls an entire sea of My mercy. I answered,
"Jesus, mold my poor heart according to Your divine delight."
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For the Greater Glory of God.
The
Eight-day Retreat before Perpetual Vows.
218 I am beginning the retreat today.
Jesus, my Master, guide me. Govern me according to Your will, purify my love
that it may be worthy of You, do with me as Your most merciful Heart desires.
Jesus, there will be just the two of us during these days until the moment of
our union. Keep me, Jesus, in a recollected spirit!
1611 + When the chaplain [Father Theodore]
brings me the Lord Jesus, there are moments when I am pervaded with a very
vivid presence of God, and the Lord gives me to know His holiness. At such
times, I see the smallest speck on my soul, and I would like to purify my
soul before every Holy Communion. When I asked the confessor, he said there
was no need to confess before every Holy Communion. Holy Communion takes away
these tiny things and it is a temptation to think about confession when
receiving Holy Communion. I did not go on to explain the condition of my soul
in any greater detail, because he was not my director, but the confessor.237
This knowledge does not take up my time, because it is faster than lightning;
it enkindles my love, leaving me with a knowledge of myself...
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-I-38, 95, 178, 218)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-VI-1611)
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Nobyembre 09, 2017
The Indestructible Temple-Divine Mercy Miracles Meditations
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