The New Joy of the Bridegroom
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Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
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Father Walter Schu, LC
Mark 2:18-22
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to him and objected, "Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins." Introductory Prayer: Jesus, what a joy and what a gift to have this time to be alone with You! I want to know You more deeply. I want to hope in You more firmly. I want to love You with greater constancy in my daily life. Only You can give me these gifts. Only You can make me a bold and joyful apostle of Your Kingdom. Petition: Lord, help me to experience the new joy that comes from carrying the cross alongside You. 1. The Joy of the Bridegroom: The Old Testament prophets, especially Hosea and Isaiah, describe the relationship between Israel and Yahweh as a marriage covenant. Israel is the bride, often an unfaithful one, and Yahweh is the bridegroom. When Christ refers to himself as the bridegroom, he is appropriating a title that had been reserved to God alone. Clearly, Jesus is much more than an ordinary rabbi. What experience do we most associate with a bridegroom and the wedding feast? Joy! “Although it is true that the cross is never absent from an authentically Christian life, it is equally true that the God who meets us on that cross is the same God who created the heavens and the earth, the oceans and the mountains, laughter, sunlight, and every earthly delight” (John Bartunek, LC, The Better Part, p. 365). Christ came to bring us joy, a joy that would last into eternity. 2. Should Christians Fast? Christ says that when the bridegroom is taken away, then his disciples will fast. This is his first reference in the Gospel of Mark to his coming passion. Fasting is a way of sharing in Christ’s sufferings. Fasting, sacrifices, and acts of self-denial are also means to detach ourselves from earthly goods in order to cling more firmly to Christ himself. They make us aware of how much we need God. But these ways of sharing Christ’s cross should not make us glum followers. “Some Christians give the impression that following Christ is a somber affair, or that the Christian life consists above all of dour sacrifices and boring obligations. Joyless, dreary, dull. No wonder their friends want to stay as far away from Christianity as possible!... If our friendship with Christ does not fill us with contagious enthusiasm, we’re probably being a half-hearted friend” (John Bartunek, LC, The Better Part, p. 365). 3. “Behold, I Make All Things New.” The movie The Passion of the Christ puts this phrase from Revelation on Christ’s lips when he meets his mother Mary as he carries the cross to Calvary. Christ’s “narrow gate” of the cross leads to a radically new way of life. It brings an abundance of joy, a new vigor, interior peace. The new wine of the life of grace that Christ pours out on his followers must change not only their way of life, but even their internal attitudes and consciousness. As St. Teresa of Avila once put it, “A sad saint is a bad saint.” What obstacles in my life do I need to overcome in order to follow Christ with greater joy and to radiate that joy to others? Conversation with Christ: Thank You, Lord, for the new life You came to bring — Your own divine life of grace inside me and each of Your followers who is faithful to You. Help me to share that joy with others. I long to be a true apostle of Your joy. Resolution: Today I will forget about myself and seek only to help make those around me joyful.
Excerpts from the
DIARY of Saint Faustina Kowalska
482 O my God, I am conscious of my
mission in the Holy Church. It is my constant endeavor to plead for me mercy
for the world. I unite myself closely with Jesus and stand before Him as an
atoning sacrifice on behalf of the world. God will refuse me nothing when I
entreat Him with the voice of His Son. My sacrifice is nothing in itself, but
when I join it to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it becomes all-powerful and
has the power to appease divine wrath. God loves us in His Son; the painful
Passion of the Son of God constantly turns aside the wrath of God.
483 O God, how I desire that souls
come to know You and to see that You have created them because of Your
unfathomable love. O my Creator and Lord, I feel that I am going to remove
the veil of heaven so that earth will not doubt Your goodness.
Make of me, Jesus, a pure and agreeable offering before the Face of Your Father. Jesus, transform me, miserable and sinful as I am, into Your own self (for You can do all things), and give me to Your Eternal Father. I want t become a sacrificial host before You, but an ordinary wafer to people. I want the fragrance of my sacrifice be known to You alone. O Eternal God, an unquenchable fire of supplication for Your mercy burns within me. I know and understand that this is my task here and in eternity. You yourself have told me to speak about this great mercy and about Your goodness.
485 I accept joy or suffering,
praise or humiliation with the same disposition. I remember that one and the
other are passing. What does it matter to me what people say about me? I have
long ago given up everything that concerns my person. My name is host-or
sacrifice, not in words but in deeds, in the emptying of myself and in
becoming like You on the Cross, O good Jesus, my Master!
507 I desire, O my Jesus, to
suffer and burn with the flame of Your love in all the circumstances of my
life. I am Yours, completely Yours, and I wish to disappear in You, O Jesus,
I wish to be lost in Your divine beauty. You pursue me with Your love, O
Lord; You penetrate my soul like a ray of the sun and change its darkness
into Your light. I feel very vividly that I am living in You as one small
spark swallowed up by the incomprehensible fire with which You burn, O
inconceivable Trinity! No greater joy is to be found than that of loving God.
Already here on earth we can taste the happiness of those in heaven by an
intimate union with God, a union that is extraordinary and often quite
incomprehensible to us. One can attain this very grace through simple
faithfulness of soul.
509 In the adversities that I
experience, I remind myself that the time for doing battle has not yet come
to an end. I arm myself with patience, and in this way I defeat my assailant.
530 To the Glory of the Holy
Trinity.
I asked Mother Superior [Borgia] to permit me to make a forty-day fast, taking once a day a piece of bread and a glass of water. However, following the advice of my confessor [Father Sopocko], Mother Superior did not agree to forty days, but to seven. "I cannot take you away from your duties completely, Sister, because of the other sisters who might notice something. I give you my permission to devote yourself to prayer and to note down some of these things, but it will be very difficult for me to protect you as regards the fasting. Really, I can think of no solution to this," and she said, "Go now, Sister, and perhaps some light will come to me." On Sunday morning, I understood that when Mother Superior assigned me as portress during mealtime, she was doing so with the thought of giving me the opportunity to fast. In the morning, I did not go to breakfast, but, a little while later, I went to Mother Superior and asked her whether I had been assigned as portress in view of making it possible for me to fast unnoticed. Mother replied, "When I assigned you, [106] Sister, it was with this in mind." I then saw that this was the same thought that I had had interiorly.
531 November 24, 1935. Sunday,
first day. I went at once before the Blessed Sacrament and offered myself
with Jesus, present in the Most Holy Sacrament, to the Everlasting Father.
Then I heard these words in my soul: Your purpose and that of your
companions is to unite yourselves with Me as closely as possible; through
love You will reconcile earth with heaven, you will soften the just anger of
God, and you will plead for mercy for the world. I place in your care two
pearls very precious to My Heart: these are the souls of priests and
religious. You will pray particularly for them; their power will come from
your diminishment. You will join prayers, fasts, mortifications, labors and
all sufferings to My prayer, fasting, mortification, labors and sufferings
and then they will have power before My Father.
538 There will be no distinction
between the sisters, no mothers,[107] no reverends, no venerable, but all will
be equal, even though there might be great differences in their parentage. We
know who Jesus was, and yet how He humbled himself and with whom He
associated. Their habit will be like that worn by Jesus during His Passion,
and they will not simply wear the robe [He wore]; they must also seal
themselves with the marks He bore: suffering and scorn. Each one will strive
for the greatest self-denial and have a love of humility, and she who will
distinguish herself most in this latter virtue will be the one who is capable
of leading the others.
540 In the evening when I was
writing, I heard a voice in my cell which said, "Do not leave this
Congregation; have mercy upon yourself, such great sufferings are in store
for you." When I looked in the direction of the voice, I saw nothing,
and I continued to write. Suddenly I heard a noise and the words: "When
you leave, we will destroy you. Do not torture us." I glanced around and
saw many ugly monsters. So I mentally made the sign of the Cross and they
disappeared immediately. How terribly ugly Satan is! The poor damned souls
that have to keep him company! Just the sight of him is more disgusting than
all the torments of hell.
546 Meals. We will have no meat.
Our meals shall be such that not even the poor will have any reason to envy
us. Still, feast days may differ slightly from regular days. The sisters will
eat three times a day. Fasts, especially the two great ones, will be observed
strictly, according to the original spirit. The food should be the same for
all the nuns without exception so that communal life may be kept pure. This
refers not only to food but to clothing and the furnishing of cells as well. However,
if a sister should fall ill, she should receive every consideration.
571 O my Jesus, Eternal Truth, I
fear nothing, neither hardships nor sufferings; I fear only one thing, and
that is to offend You. My Jesus, I would rather not exist than make You sad.
Jesus, You know that my love knows no one but You. My soul is absorbed in
You.
572 Oh, how great should be the
ardor of every soul who will live in that convent, since God desires to come
and live with us! Let everyone remember that if we religious do not intercede
before God, who will? Each of us should burn like a pure sacrifice before the
majesty of God, but to be pleasing to God, each one should unite herself
closely to Jesus. It is only with Him, in Him and through Him that we can be
pleasing to God.
573 December 21, 1935. One day my
confessor [Father Sopocko] told me to go and look at a certain house to see
whether it was the same house I had seen in my vision. When I went with my
confessor to see that house, or rather those ruins, at a glance I recognized
that they were the same as I had seen in my vision. The moment I touched the
boards which had been nailed together in place of the doors, a strength
pervaded my soul like a flash, giving me unshakable certitude. I went away
quickly from that place, my heart full of joy, for it seemed to me that there
was a certain force chaining me to that place.
I am very happy to see that everything agrees perfectly with what I saw in the vision. When the confessor spoke to me about the arrangement of the cells and other things, I recognized everything to be the same as had been told to me by Jesus. I am delighted that God is acting in this way through my confessor, but I am not surprised that God is giving him so much light; since God, who is Light itself, lives in a pure and humble heart, and all sufferings and adversities serve but to reveal the soul's holiness. When I returned home, I went immediately to our chapel to rest a while. Then suddenly I heard these words in my soul: Do not fear anything. I am with you. These matters are in My hands and I will bring them to fruition according to My mercy, for nothing can oppose My will.
575 Midnight Mass. During Holy
Mass, I again saw the little Infant Jesus, extremely beautiful, joyfully
stretching out His little arms to me. After Holy Communion, I heard the
words: I am always in your heart; not only when you receive Me in Holy
Communion, but always. I spent these holydays in great joy.
576 O Holy Trinity, Eternal God,
my spirit is drowned in Your beauty. The ages are as nothing in Your sight.
You are always the same. Oh, how great is Your majesty. Jesus, why do You
conceal Your majesty, why have You left Your heavenly throne and dwelt among
us? The Lord answered me, My daughter, love has brought Me here, and love
keeps Me here. My daughter, if you knew what great merit and reward is earned
by one act of pure love for Me, you would die of joy. I am saying this that
you may constantly unite yourself with Me through love, for this is the goal
of the life of your soul. This act is an act of the will. Know that a pure
soul is humble. When you lower and empty yourself before My majesty, I then
pursue you with My graces and make use of My omnipotence to exalt you.
593 O my Jesus, nothing is better
for the soul than humiliations. In contempt is the secret of happiness, when
the soul recognizes that, of itself, it is only wretchedness and nothingness,
and that whatever it possesses of good is a gift of God. When the soul sees
that everything is given it freely and that the only thing it has of itself
is its own misery, this is what sustains it in a continual act of humble
prostration before the majesty of God. And God, seeing the soul in such a
disposition, pursues it with His graces. As the soul continues to immerse itself
more deeply into the abyss of its nothingness and need, God uses His
omnipotence to exalt it. If there is a truly happy soul upon earth, it can
only be a truly humble soul. At first, one's self-love suffers greatly on
this account, but after a soul has struggled courageously, God grants it much
light by which it sees how wretched and full of deception everything is. God
alone is in its heart. A humble soul does not trust itself, but places all
its confidence in God. God defends the humble soul and lets Himself into its
secrets, and the soul abides in unsurpassable happiness which no one can
comprehend.
605 O Holy Trinity, Eternal God, I
thank You for allowing me to know the greatness and the various degrees of
glory to which souls attain. Oh, what a great difference of depth in the
knowledge of God there is between one degree and another! Oh, if people could
only know this! O my God, if I were thereby able to attain one more degree, I
would gladly suffer all the torments of the martyrs put together. Truly, all
those torments seem as nothing to me compared with the glory that is awaiting
us for all eternity. O Lord, immerse my soul in the ocean of Your divinity
and grant me the grace of knowing You; for the better I know You, the more I
desire You, and the more my love for You grows. I feel in my soul an
unfathomable abyss which only God can fill. I lose myself in Him as a drop
does in the ocean. The Lord has inclined himself to my misery like a ray of
the sun upon a barren and rocky desert. And yet, under the influence of His
rays, my soul has become covered with verdure, flowers, and fruit, and has
become a beautiful garden for His repose.
606 My Jesus, despite Your graces,
I see and feel all my misery. I begin my day with battle and end it with
battle. As soon as I conquer one obstacle, ten more appear to take its place.
But I am not worried, because I know that this is the time of struggle, not
peace. When the burden of the battle becomes too much for me, I throw myself
like a child into the arms of the heavenly Father and trust I will not
perish. O my Jesus, how prone I am to evil, and this forces me to be
constantly vigilant. But I do not lose heart. I trust God's grace, which
abounds in the worst misery.
607 In the midst of the worst
difficulties and adversities, I do not lose inner peace or exterior balance,
and this discourages my adversaries. Patience in adversity gives power to the
soul.
611 O my Jesus, I implore You by
the goodness of Your most sweet Heart, let Your anger diminish and show us Your
mercy. May Your wounds be our shield against Your Father's justice. I have
come to know You, O God, as the source of mercy that vivifies and nourishes
every soul. Oh, how great is the mercy of the Lord; it surpasses all His
other qualities! Mercy is the greatest attribute of God; everything that
surrounds me speaks to me of this. Mercy is the life of souls; His compassion
is inexhaustible. O Lord, look on us and deal with us according to Your
countless mercies, according to Your great mercy.
615 March 1, 1936. Today during
Holy Mass I experienced a strange force and urge to start realizing God's
wishes. I had such a clear understanding of the things the Lord was asking of
me that truly if I were to say that I do not understand what God is demanding
from me, I would be lying, because the Lord is making His will known to me so
clearly and distinctly that I do not have the least shadow of a doubt about
them. I realized that it would be the greatest ingratitude to delay any
longer this undertaking which the Lord wishes to bring to fulfillment for His
glory and the benefit of a great number of souls. And He is using me as a
miserable tool through which to realize His eternal plans of mercy. Truly,
how ungrateful my soul would be to resist God's will any longer. Nothing will
stop me any longer, be it persecution, sufferings, sneers, threats,
entreaties, hunger, cold, flattery, friendships, adversities, friends or
enemies; be it things I am experiencing now or things that will come in the
future or even the hatred of hellnothing will deter me from doing the will of
God.
I am not counting on my own strength, but on His omnipotence for, as he gave me the grace of knowing His holy will, He will also grant me the grace of fulfilling it. I cannot fail to mention how much my own lower nature resists this thing, manifesting its own desires, and there results within my soul a great struggle, like that of Jesus in the Garden of Olives. And so I too cry out to God, the Eternal Father, "If it is possible, take this cup from me, but, nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done, O Lord; may Your will be done." What I am about to go through is no secret to me, but with full knowledge I accept whatever You send me, O Lord. I trust in You, O merciful God, and I wish to be the first to manifest to You that confidence which You demand of souls. O Eternal Truth, help me and enlighten me along the roadways of life, and grant that Your will be accomplished in me. My God, I desire nothing but the fulfillment of Your will. It does not matter whether it will be easy or difficult. I feel an extraordinary force driving me to action. One thing alone holds me back, and that is holy obedience. O my Jesus, You urge me on the one hand and hold me back and restrain me on the other. In this, too, O my Jesus, may Your holy will be done. I continued in this state, without a break, for many days. My physical strength declined, and though I did not speak to anyone about it, nevertheless Mother Superior [Borgia] noticed my pain and remarked that I had changed in appearance and was very pale. She told me to go to bed earlier and to sleep longer, and she had a cup of hot milk brought to me in the evening. She had a motherly heart, full of care, and tried to help me. But in the case of spiritual sufferings, external things have no influence, and they do not bring much relief. It was from the confessional that I drew my strength and the consolation of knowing that it would not be long before I could begin to act.
633 I am greatly surprised at how
one can be so jealous. When I see someone else's good, I rejoice at it as if
it were mine. The joy of others is my joy, and the suffering of others is my
suffering, for otherwise I would not dare to commune with the Lord Jesus. The
spirit of Jesus is always simple, meek, sincere; all malice, envy, and
unkindness disguised under a smile of good will are clever little devils. A
severe word flowing from sincere love does not wound the heart.
638 Jesus, drive away from me the
thoughts that are not in accord with Your will. I know that nothing now binds
me to this earth but this work of mercy.
639 Thursday. During the evening
adoration, I saw Jesus scourged and tortured. He said to me, My daughter,
I desire that even in the smallest things, you rely on your confessor. Your
greatest sacrifices do not please Me if you practice them without the
confessor's permission; on the other hand, the smallest sacrifice finds great
value in My eyes, if it is done with his permission. The greatest works are
worthless in My eyes if they are done out of self-will, and often they are
not in accord with My will and merit punishment rather than reward. And on
the other hand, even the smallest of your acts, done with the confessor's
permission is pleasing in My eyes and very dear to Me. Hold firmly to this
always. Be constantly on the watch, for many souls will turn back from the
gates of hell and worship My mercy. But fear nothing, as I am with you. Know
that of yourself you can do nothing.
642 Palm Sunday. This Sunday, I
experienced in a special way the sentiments of the most sweet Heart of Jesus.
My spirit was there where Jesus was. I saw Jesus riding on a donkey's foal,
and the disciples and a great multitude with branches in their hands joyfully
accompanying the Lord Jesus. Some strewed them before His feet where He was
riding, while others raised their branches in the air, leaping and jumping
before the Lord and not knowing what to do for joy. And I saw another crowd
which came out to meet Jesus, likewise with joyful faces and with branches in
their hands, and they were crying out unceasingly with joy. There were little
children there also. But Jesus was very grave, and the Lord gave me to know
how much He was suffering at the time. And at that moment, I saw nothing but
only Jesus, whose Heart was saturated with ingratitude.
644 When I left the confessional,
a multitude of thoughts oppressed my soul. Why be sincere? What I have told
is no sin, so I have no duty to tell it to the confessor. And again, what a
relief that I do not have to heed my interior any more as long as things are
all right on the outside. I do not have to pay attention to anything or to
follow the inner voices that have often cost me so much humiliation. From now
on, I will be free. And again, a strange pain seized my soul: can I not,
then, commune with the One whom I desire so greatly? The One who is the whole
strength of my soul? I began to cry out, "To whom shall I go, O
Jesus?" But from the moment of the confessor's prohibition, great
darkness fell upon my soul. I feared lest I hear some inner voice, which
would occasion the breaking of my confessor's prohibition. And then again, I
die of longing for God. My interior is torn asunder, not having any will of
its own, since it has been turned over completely to God.
That was on Wednesday of Holy Week. The suffering intensified on Holy Thursday. When I came to make my meditation, I entered into a kind of agony. I did not feel the presence of God, but all the justice of God weighed heavily upon me. I saw myself as if knocked down for the sins of the world. Satan began to mock me, "See, now you will no longer strive to win souls; look how you've been paid! Nobody will believe you that Jesus demands this. See how much you are suffering now, and how much more you are going to suffer! After all, the confessor has now released you from all these things." Now I can live as I like, as long as things are all right outwardly. These dreadful thoughts tormented me throughout the whole hour. When it was almost time for Holy Mass, my heart was seized with pain; am I, then, to leave the Congregation? And since Father has told me that this is a kind of heresy, am I to fall away from the Church? I cried out to the Lord with a sorrowful interior cry, "Jesus, save me!" Still, not a single ray of light entered my soul, and I felt my strength failing, as if the body were separating itself from the soul. I submitted to the will of God and repeated, "O God, let whatever You have decided upon happen to me. Nothing in me is any longer my own." Then, suddenly, God's presence enveloped me and penetrated me through and through. This was just as I was receiving Holy Communion. A moment after Holy Communion, I lost all awareness of everything around me and of my whereabouts.
645 Then I saw the Lord Jesus, as
He is represented in the image, and He said to me, Tell the confessor that
this work is Mine and that I am using you as a lowly instrument. And I
said, "Jesus, I can no longer do anything You command me to do, because
my confessor has told me that all this is an illusion, and that I am not
allowed to obey any of Your commands. I will do nothing that You will tell me
to do now. I am sorry, my Lord, but I am not allowed to do anything, and I
must obey my confessor. Jesus, I most earnestly ask Your pardon. You know how
much I suffer because of this, but it can't be helped, Jesus. The confessor
has forbidden me to follow Your orders." Jesus listened to my arguments
and complaints with kindness and satisfaction. I thought the Lord Jesus would
be grievously offended but, on the contrary, He was pleased and said to me
kindly, Always tell your confessor about everything I say to you and
command you to do, and do only that for which you obtain permission. Do not
be upset, and fear nothing; I am with you. My soul was filled with joy,
and all those oppressive thoughts vanished. Certitude and courage entered my
soul.
646 But after a short while, I
entered into the sufferings which Jesus underwent in the Garden of Olives.
This lasted until Friday morning. On Friday, I experienced the Passion of
Jesus but, this time, in a different way. On that day, Father Bukowski came
from Derdy. Some strange power pushed me to go to confession and tell him
about everything that had happened to me and about what Jesus had said to me.
When I told Father, he was quite different and he said to me, "Sister,
don't be afraid of anything; you will come to no harm, for the ' Lord Jesus
will not allow it. If you are obedient and persevere in this disposition, you
need not worry about anything. God will find a way to bring about His work.
You should always have this simplicity and sincerity and tell everything to
Mother General. What I said to ; you was said as a warning, because illusions
may afflict even holy persons, and Satan's insinuations may play a part in
this, and sometimes this comes from our own selves, so one has to be careful.
And so continue as you have thus far. You can see, Sister, that the Lord is
not angered by this. And Sister, you can repeat these things that have
happened to you at present to your regular confessor [Father Sopocko]."
648 Good Friday. At three o'clock,
I saw the Lord Jesus, crucified, who looked at me and said, I thirst.
Then I saw two rays issue from His side, just as they appear in the image. I
then felt in my soul the desire to save souls and to empty myself for the
sake of poor sinners. I offered myself, together with the dying Jesus, to the
Eternal Father, for the salvation of the whole world. With Jesus, through
Jesus and in Jesus is my communion with You, Eternal Father. On Good Friday,
Jesus suffered in His soul in a way which was different from [His suffering
on] Holy Thursday.
650 O my Jesus, my Master and
Director, strengthen and enlighten me in these difficult moments of my life.
I expect no help from people; all my hope is in You. I feel alone in the face
of Your demands, O Lord. Despite the fears and qualms of my nature, I am
fulfilling Your holy will and desire to fulfill it as faithfully as possible
throughout my life and in my death. Jesus, with You I can do all things. Do
with me as You please; only give me Your merciful Heart and that is enough
for me.
O Jesus my Lord, help me. Let what You have planned before all ages happen to me. I am ready at each beckoning of Your holy will. Enlighten my mind that I may know Your will. O God, You who pervade my soul, You know that I desire nothing but Your glory. O Divine Will, You are the delight of my heart, the food of my soul, the light of my intellect, the omnipotent strength of my will; for when I unite myself with Your will, O Lord, Your power works through me and takes the place of my feeble will. Each day, I seek to carry out God's wishes.
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-I-482-483, 485, 507, 509)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-II-530-531, 538, 540, 546, 571-573, 575)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-II-576, 593, 605-607, 611, 615, 633,
638)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-II-639-642, 644-646, 648, 650
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