The Queen, the Ninevites and Me
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October 15, 2018. Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin, Doctor of the Church
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Father
Daniel Ray, LC
Luke
11: 29-32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here."
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe that You are present here as I turn to You in
prayer. I trust and have confidence in Your desire to give me every grace I
need to receive today. Thank You for Your love, thank You for Your immense
generosity toward me. I give You my life and my love in return.
Petition: Lord, help me to recognize the signs of Your presence in my
life.
1. Three Days in the Fish: When Jonah is swallowed by the whale he
dies, and when he is spit out onto the shore, he comes to life again. This is
the only sign that Christ promises to his listeners who seek a sign. Christ
will be seen by them as truly dead, swallowed by the tomb of the earth. Then,
after three days, he will come to life again in the Resurrection. As Jonah
preached conversion to the Ninevites after coming back from the dead, so
Christ would bring conversion and peace to some of the very ones who
abandoned him or cried out for his crucifixion. Even in rebuking the “evil
generation”, Christ promises them a sign that will bring hope to any of them
who—like the Ninevites—later repent. If later in life they realize their
evilness, Christ himself will be there to guide them back to friendship with
his Father.
2. Even the Queen Came: Christ is reminding his unbelieving
listeners that the Queen of Sheba traveled from afar to hear Solomon’s
wisdom. The distance from the Kingdom of Sheba in southern Arabia to
Jerusalem would have taken weeks to traverse. It would have been an
exhausting and expensive journey, especially considering the entourage that
would have accompanied the Queen. She recognized the gift of God in him and
relished the pearls of divine wisdom that he shared with her. We need to
reflect on how often we avail ourselves of all that God offers us that is not
a journey of weeks away, but is just a few miles away: Christ in the
Eucharist. Closer still, the Bible on the shelf is filled with Christ’s
message of love. All this is within easy reach and is much more than anything
Solomon could share with us.
3. Greater than Jonah: The whale was greater than Jonah. It
swallowed him whole. Yet that violent death and subsequent resurrection was
the key moment in Jonah’s life and mission. It was necessary not only for Jonah’s
own salvation (he had been running from God), but it also was necessary for
the salvation of the whole city of Nineveh. Christ makes this reference to
Jonah as a forewarning to his listeners: He is greater than Jonah. He is
greater than the death that would swallow him. This should inspire our faith
and confidence in Christ. There is nothing greater than he. There is no
greater prophet; no greater event can consume him. All things are under his
dominion except one: our free will. That he doesn’t force; that he doesn’t
conquer. He leaves it perfectly intact, so that we might respond freely to
his call to ongoing conversion, just like the citizens of Nineveh.
Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, the sign of love that You give
is Your willingness to die a cruel and humiliating death. Yet that is not
everything: You give me Your Word in the Gospel. You give me Your Body and
Blood in the Eucharist. Help me to appreciate these great gifts and to make
the most of every opportunity to receive them.
Resolution: At some point today I will offer a prayer of
thanksgiving, thanking Christ for the blessings received over the past few
days.
Excerpts from the
DIARY of Saint Faustina Kowalska
303 Great love can change small
things into great ones, and it is only love which lends value to our actions.
And the purer our love becomes, the less there will be within us for the
flames of suffering to feed upon, and the suffering will cease to be a
suffering for us; it will become a delight! By the grace of God, I have received
such a disposition of heart that I am never so happy as when I suffer for
Jesus, whom I love with every beat of my heart.
Once when I was suffering greatly, I left my work and escaped to Jesus and asked Him to give me His strength. After a very short prayer I returned to my work filled with enthusiasm and joy. Then, one of the sisters [probably Sister Justine] said to me, "You must have many consolations today, Sister; you look so radiant. Surely, God is giving you no suffering, but only consolations." "You are greatly mistaken, Sister," I answered, "for it is precisely when I suffer much that my joy is greater; and when I suffer less, my joy also is less." However, that soul was letting me recognize that she does not understand what I was saying. I tried to explain to her that when we suffer much we have a great chance to show God that we love Him; but when we suffer little we have less occasion to show God our love; and when we do not suffer at all, our love is then neither great nor pure. By the grace of God, we can attain a point where suffering will become a delight to us, for love can work such things in pure souls.
324 The next day, I felt very
weak, but experienced no further suffering. After Holy Communion, I saw the
Lord Jesus just as I had seen Him during one adoration. The Lord's gaze
pierced my soul through and through, and not even the least speck of dust
escaped His notice. And I said to Jesus, "Jesus, I thought You were
going to take me. "And Jesus answered, My will has not yet been fully
accomplished in you; you will still remain on earth, but not for long. I am
well pleased with your trust, but your love should be more ardent. Pure love
gives the soul strength at the very moment of dying. When I was dying on the
cross, I was not thinking about Myself, but about poor sinners, and I prayed
for them to My Father. I want your last moments to be completely similar to
Mine on the cross. There is but one price at which souls are bought, and that
is suffering united to My suffering on the cross. Pure love understands these
words; carnal love will never understand them.
328 O purest Love, rule in all
Your plenitude in my heart and help me to do Your holy will most faithfully!
343 True love is measured by the
thermometer of suffering. Jesus, I thank You for the little daily crosses,
for opposition to my endeavors, for the hardships of communal life, for the
misinterpretation of my intentions, for humiliations at the hands of others,
for the harsh way in which we are treated, for false suspicions, for poor
health and loss of strength, for self-denial, for dying to myself, for lack
of recognition in everything, for the upsetting of all my plans.
Thank You, Jesus, for interior sufferings, for dryness of spirit, for terrors, fears and incertitudes, for the darkness and the deep interior night, for temptations and various ordeals, for torments too difficult to describe, especially for those which no one will understand, for the hour of death with its fierce struggle and all its bitterness. I thank You, Jesus, You who first drank the cup of bitterness before You gave it to me, in a much milder form. I put my lips to this cup of Your holy will. Let all be done according to Your good pleasure; let that which Your wisdom ordained before the ages be done to me. I want to drink the cup to its last drop, and not seek to know the reason why. In bitterness is my joy, in hopelessness is my trust. In You, O Lord, all is good, all is a gift of Your paternal Heart. I do not prefer consolations over bitterness or bitterness over consolations, but thank You, O Jesus, for everything! It is my delight to fix my gaze upon You, O incomprehensible God! My spirit abides in these mysterious dwelling places, and there I am at home. I know very well the dwelling place of my Spouse. I feel there is not a single drop of blood in me that does not burn with love for You. O Uncreated Beauty, whoever comes to know You once cannot love anything else. I can feel the bottomless abyss of my soul, and nothing will fill it but God himself. I feel that I am drowned in Him like a single grain of sand in a bottomless ocean.
371 Jesus, King of Mercy, again
the time has come when I am alone with You. Therefore I beg You, by all the
love with which Your Heart burns, to destroy completely within me my
self-love and, on the other hand, to enkindle in my heart the fire of Your
purest love.
389 Love must be reciprocal. If
Jesus tasted the fullness of bitterness for me, then I, His bride, will
accept all bitterness as proof of my love for Him.
502 Only love
has meaning; it raises up our smallest actions into infinity.
513 Love is flooding my soul; I am
plunged into an ocean of love. I feel that I am swooning and becoming
completely lost in Him.
589 Love casts out fear. Since I
came to love God with my whole being and with all the strength of my heart,
fear has left me. Even if I were to hear the most terrifying things about
God's justice, I would not fear Him at all, because I have come to know Him
well. God is love, and His Spirit is peace. I see now that my deeds which
have flowed from love are more perfect than those which I have done out of
fear. I have placed my trust in God and fear nothing. I have given myself
over to His holy will; let Him do with me as He wishes, and I will still love
Him.
890 Love is a mystery that
transforms everything it touches into things beautiful and pleasing to God.
The love of God makes a soul free. She is like a queen; she knows no slavish
compulsion; she sets about everything with great freedom of soul, because the
love which dwells in her incites her to action. Everything that surrounds her
makes her know that only God himself is worthy of her love. A soul in love
with God and immersed in Him approaches her duties with the same dispositions
as she does Holy Communion and carries out the simplest tasks with great
care, under the loving gaze of God. She is not troubled if, after some time,
something turns out to be less successful. She remains calm, because at the
time of the action she had done what was in her power. When it happens that
the living presence of God, which she enjoys almost constantly, leaves her,
she then tries to continue living in lively faith. Her soul understands that
there are periods of rest and periods of battle. Through her will, she is always
with God. Her soul, like a knight, is well trained in battle; from afar it
sees where the foe is hiding and is ready for battle. She knows she is not
alone-God is her strength.
947 Sometimes there are whole
hours when my soul is lost in wonder at seeing the infinite majesty of God
abasing Itself to the level of my soul. Unending is my interior astonishment
that the Most High Lord is pleased in me and tells me so Himself. And I
immerse myself even deeper in my nothingness, because I know what I am of
myself. Still I must say that I, in return, love my Creator to folly with
every beat of my heart and with every nerve; my soul unconsciously drowns,
drowns... in Him. I feel that nothing will separate me from the Lord, neither
heaven nor earth, neither the present nor the future. Everything may change,
but love never, never; it is always the same. He, the Immortal Mighty One,
makes His will known to me that I may love Him very specially, and He himself
makes my soul capable of the kind of love with which He wants me to love Him.
I bury myself more and more in Him, and I fear nothing.
Love has overtaken my whole heart, and even if I were to be told of God's justice and of how even the pure spirits tremble and cover their faces before Him, saying endlessly, "Holy," which would seem to suggest that my familiarity with God would be to the detriment of His honor and majesty, [I would reply,] "O no, no, and once again, no!" In pure love, there is room for everything: the highest praise and the deepest adoration, yet the soul is immersed in Him in deepest peace through love; and the words of people, speaking from the exterior, have no effect upon that soul. What they tell the soul about God is but a pale shadow in comparison to its own experience of Him; and it is often surprised how other people can be struck with admiration at what someone else says about God when, for this soul, it is nothing special, as it knows that what can be put into words is not yet that great. So this soul listens to everything with respect, but has its own special life in God.
989 My Lord and my God, You know
that it is You alone whom my soul has come to love. My soul is entirely
drowned in You, O Lord. Even if I did not accomplish any of the things that
You have made known to me, O Lord, I would be completely at peace because I would
have done what I could.
990 I know well, O Lord, that You
have no need of our works; You demand love. Love, love and once again, love
of God-there is nothing greater in heaven or on earth. The greatest greatness
is to love God; true greatness is in loving God; real wisdom is to love God.
All that is great and beautiful is in God; there is no beauty or greatness
outside of Him. O you sages of the world and you great minds, recognize that
true greatness is in loving God! Oh, how astonished I am that some people
deceive themselves, saying: There is no eternity!
1030 + O my Jesus, give me wisdom,
give me a mind great and enlightened by Your light, and this only, that I may
know You better, O Lord. For the better I get to know You, the more ardently
will I love You, the sole object of my love. In You my soul drowns, in You my
heart dissolves. I know not how to love partially, but only with the full
strength of my soul and the total ardor of my heart. You yourself, O Lord,
have enkindled this love of mine for You; in You my heart has drowned
forever.
1685 During Holy Hour today, I
asked the Lord Jesus if He would deign to teach me about the spiritual life.
Jesus answered me, My daughter, faithfully live up to the words which I
speak to you. Do not value any external thing too highly, even if it were to
seem very precious to you. Let go of yourself, and abide with Me continually.
Entrust everything to Me and do nothing on your own, and you will always have
great freedom of spirit. No circumstances or events will ever be able to
upset you. Set little store on what people say. Let everyone judge you as
they like. Do not make excuses for yourself; it will do you no harm. Give
away everything at the first sign of a demand, even if they were the most
necessary things. Do not ask for anything without consulting Me. Allow them
to take away even what is due you-respect, your good name-let your spirit
rise above all that. And so, set free from everything, rest close to My Heart,
not allowing your peace to be disturbed by anything. My pupil, consider the
words which I have spoken to you.
1686 O my Love, my eternal Master,
how good it is to obey; because when obedience infuses the soul, it brings
with it power and strength to act.
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...
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-I-303, 324, 328, 343, 371, 389)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-II-502, 513, 589-590, 947, 989-990)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-III-1030)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-VI-1685-1686, 1702)
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