The New Joy of the Bridegroom
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January 16, 2017. 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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Enero 16, 2017
The New Joy of the Bridegroom-Divine Mercy Miracles Meditations
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