The Danger of
Vanity
June 20, 2018. Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Father Walter
Schu, LC
Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18
Jesus said to his disciples: "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you."
Jesus said to his disciples: "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you."
Introductory
Prayer: Lord, I believe in You with a living faith. Though I am so inclined to
sin and weakness, I trust in Your mercy. I want to show my love for You in this
meditation. I long for my recompense to come only from You, not from people’s
applause.
Petition: Lord, help me to
act with greater purity of intention in my life.
1. Who Do You Seek
to Please: In today’s Gospel reading, Christ presents a
difficult challenge and, at the same time, a great consolation. His teaching
can be summed up with a simple phrase: In everything we do, act always before
God alone. At the end of our life, all that will remain is what we have done
for God and our brothers and sisters. Everything else, all of our vanities, our
desires to be esteemed, loved or taken into account will vanish on the last
day, like fog disappears under the rays of the sun. The challenge is clear: to
act before God with absolute purity of intention. But where is the consolation?
Our heavenly Father “sees in secret.” What might never be perceived or
recognized or appreciated by the world will one day be rewarded in heaven.
2. Between You and
God: Mother Theresa echoes the Gospel teaching in a brief poem entitled
“It’s Between You and God.”
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Why?
Because in the final analysis, all of this is between you and God….
It was never between you and them anyway.
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Why?
Because in the final analysis, all of this is between you and God….
It was never between you and them anyway.
3. Our Everlasting
Reward: Christ declares three times that hypocrites who act before others have
already received their reward. One day each of us will stand alone before
Christ. Our eternal destiny will depend upon the outcome of that moment. May we
not discover to our chagrin that our hands are empty because we have secretly
acted to win the applause of men. Rather, may we perform our good deeds in
secret, not letting our left hand know what our right is doing. Then our
heavenly Father, “who sees what is hidden” will repay us.
Conversation with
Christ: Thank You, Lord, for always seeing what is hidden, for always being
ready to reward what is done for You. Your words and the example of holy men
and women inspire me on this point. I wish to live facing You and eternity and
to give up all my vain ambitions and worries about what others think of my
actions.
Resolution: I will renew my
purity of intention in the different activities of the day, doing them out of
love for Christ and to help establish his Kingdom.
Excerpts from the
DIARY of Saint Faustina Kowalska
92 Humiliation is my daily food. I
understand that the bride must herself share in everything that is the groom's;
and so His cloak of mockery must cover me, too. At those times when I suffer
much, I try to remain silent, as I do not trust my tongue which, at such
moments, is inclined to talk for itself, while its duty is to help me praise
God for all the blessings and gifts which He has given me. When I receive Jesus
in Holy Communion, I ask Him fervently to deign to heal my tongue so that I
would offend neither God nor neighbor by it. I want my tongue to praise God
without cease. Great are the faults committed by the tongue. The soul will not
attain sanctity if it does not keep watch over its tongue.
200 O Jesus, how deeply it hurts the soul when it is always
trying to be sincere and they accuse it of hypocrisy and behave with mistrust
toward it. O Jesus, You also suffered like this to make satisfaction to Your
Father.
282 Once the Lord said to me, My
Heart was moved by great mercy towards you, My dearest child, when I saw you
torn to shreds because of the great pain you suffered in repenting for your
sins. I see your love, so pure and true that I give you first place among the
virgins. You are the honor and glory of My Passion. I see every abasement of
your soul, and nothing escapes my attention. I lift up the humble even to my
very throne, because I want it so.
320 Jesus made known to me how very
pleasing to Him were prayers of atonement. He said to me, The prayer of a
humble and loving soul disarms the anger of My Father and draws down an ocean
of blessings. After the adoration, half way to my cell, I was surrounded by
a , pack of huge black dogs who were jumping and howling and trying to tear me
to pieces. I realized that they were not dogs, but demons. One of them spoke up
in a rage, "Because you have snatched so many souls away from us this
night, we will tear you to pieces." I answered, "If that is the will
of the most merciful God, tear me to pieces, for I have justly deserved it,
because I am the most miserable of all sinners, and God is ever holy, just, and
infinitely merciful." To these words all the demons answered as one,
"Let us flee, for she is not alone; the Almighty is with her!" And
they vanished like dust, like the noise of the road, while I continued on my
way to my cell undisturbed, finishing my Te Deum and pondering the infinite and
unfathomable mercy of God.
332
+Thursday. When I started the Holy Hour, I wanted to immerse myself in
the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Olives. Then I heard a voice in my soul:Meditate
on the mystery of the Incarnation . And suddenly the Infant Jesus appeared
before me, radiant with beauty. He told me how much God is pleased with
simplicity in a soul. Although My greatness is beyond understanding, I
commune only with those who are little. I demand of you a childlike spirit.
1306
+ O humility, lovely flower, I see how few souls possess you. Is it
because you are so beautiful and at the same time so difficult to attain? O
yes, it is both the one and the other. Even God takes great pleasure in her.
The floodgates of heaven are open to a humble soul, and a sea of graces flows
down upon her. O how beautiful is a humble soul! From her heart, as from a
censer, rises a varied and most pleasing fragrance which breaks through the
skies and reaches God himself, filling His Most Sacred Heart with joy. God
refuses nothing to such a soul; she is all-powerful and influences the destiny
of the whole world. God raises such a soul up to His very throne, and the more
she humbles herself, the more God stoops down to her, pursuing her with His
graces and accompanying her at every moment with His omnipotence. Such a soul
is most deeply united with God. O humility, strike deep roots in my whole
being. O Virgin most pure, but also most humble, help me to attain deep
humility. Now I understand why there are so few saints; it is because so few
souls are deeply humble.
1579 + It is when I meet with
hypocrisy that I suffer most. Now I understand You, my Savior, for rebuking the
Pharisees so severely for their hypocrisy. You associated more graciously with
hardened sinners when they approached You contritely.
1602 Today the Lord said to me, Daughter,
when you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water
which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles
it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself entirely in My mercy,
with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul.
When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there
for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I myself act in your soul. Here
the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount
of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is
great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate
humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace
turns away from them to humble souls.
1702 Towards the end of the Way of
the Cross which I was making, the Lord Jesus began to complain about the souls
of religious and priests, about the lack of love in chosen souls. I will allow
convents and churches to be destroyed. I answered, "Jesus, but there are
so many souls praising You in convents." The Lord answered, That praise
wounds My Heart, because love has been banished from convents.
Souls without love and without
devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls full of pride and arrogance,
souls full of deceit and hypocrisy, lukewarm souls who have just enough warmth
to keep them alive: My Heart cannot bear this. All the graces that I pour out
upon them flow off them as off the face of a rock. I cannot stand them, because
they are neither good or bad. I called convents into being to sanctify the
world through them. It is from them that a powerful flame of love and sacrifice
should burst forth. And if they do not repent and become enkindled by their
first love, I will deliver them over to the fate of this world...
How can they sit on the promised throne of judgment to judge the world, when their guilt is greater than the guilt of the world? There is neither penance nor atonement. O heart, which received Me in the morning and at noon are all ablaze with hatred against Me, hatred of all sorts! O heart specially chosen by Me, were you chosen for this, to give Me more pain? The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through..
How can they sit on the promised throne of judgment to judge the world, when their guilt is greater than the guilt of the world? There is neither penance nor atonement. O heart, which received Me in the morning and at noon are all ablaze with hatred against Me, hatred of all sorts! O heart specially chosen by Me, were you chosen for this, to give Me more pain? The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through..
1710 May 26, [1938-Feast of the
Ascension]. Today I accompanied the Lord Jesus as He ascended into heaven. It
was about noon. I was overcome by a great longing for God. It is a strange
thing, the more I felt God's presence, the more ardently I desired Him. Then I
saw myself in the midst of a huge crowd of disciples and apostles, together
with the Mother of God. Jesus was telling them to... Go out into the whole
world and teach in My name. He stretched out His hands and blessed them and
disappeared in a cloud. I saw the longing of Our Lady. Her soul yearned for
Jesus with the whole force of Her love. But She was so peaceful and so united
to the will of God that there was not a stir in Her heart but for what God
wanted.
1711 When I was left alone with the Blessed Virgin, She instructed me concerning the interior life. She said, The soul's true greatness is in loving God and in humbling oneself in His presence, completely forgetting oneself and believing oneself to be nothing; because the Lord is great, but He is well pleased only with the humble; He always opposes the proud.
1711 When I was left alone with the Blessed Virgin, She instructed me concerning the interior life. She said, The soul's true greatness is in loving God and in humbling oneself in His presence, completely forgetting oneself and believing oneself to be nothing; because the Lord is great, but He is well pleased only with the humble; He always opposes the proud.
(Diary of
Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-I-92, 200, 282, 320, 332)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-IV-1306)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-IV-1306)
(Diary of
Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-V-1579)
(Diary of
Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-VI-1602, 1702, 1710-1711)
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento