*****
“I am experienced in being brought low, yet I know what it is to have an abundance. I have learned how to cope with every circumstance: how to eat well or go hungry and how to be well provided for or to do without.”
How did St. Paul manage to deal with the ups and downs of life in such a centered, balanced and confident manner? More importantly, how can we manage to deal with the ups and downs of our own lives in such a centered, balanced and confident manner?
Among other things, we need a solid, profound trust in God. We need the kind of trust that enables us to see the hand of God in both good times and bad times alike.
Francis de Sales offered some great advice for how to roll with the punches on life in a letter he wrote in 1603:
“You should be like a little child who, while it knows that its mother is holding its sleeve, walks boldly and runs all around without being distressed at a little fall or stumble; after all, it is as yet rather unsteady on its legs. In the same way, as long as you realize that God is holding on to you by your will and resolution to serve him, go on boldly and do not be upset by your little set-backs and falls; there is no need to be put out by this provided that you throw yourself into God's arms from time to time and kiss God with the kiss of charity. Go on joyfully and with your heart as open and wisely trustful as possible; and if you cannot always be joyful, at least be brave and confident.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, pages 45 - 46.)
In another letter, Francis offered the following observation regarding our trust in God and our ability to deal with adversity in life:
“It is far better to lift up our eyes to the hills whence help shall come to us, to hope in the Lord and willingly glory in our infirmities so that the strength of Christ may dwell in us……For those who put their trust in the Lord shall take wings like the eagle; but whoever loses heart shall come to nothing and vanish like smoke. The soldier who leaves the field trembling with fear no doubt finds rest but no greater safety than the one who goes on fighting.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, page 121)
There are many experiences in life that may leave us fearful, or at least, frustrated. What distinguishes happy, healthy and holy people from people who just try to get through life is the ability and willingness to trust that God loves us in all the ups and downs of life. In the words of Job, those who trust in the Lord know that while the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, always blessed is the name of the Lord.
And blessed, always, are all those who trust - and believe - in God……no matter what.
*****
~ PROPER READINGS ~
A Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians
If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory. Rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others.
Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm
“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.”
Blessed those whose way is blameless,
who walk by the law of the LORD.
Blessed those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with all their heart.
“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.”
You have given them the command
to observe your precepts with care.
May my ways be firm
in the observance of your statutes!
“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.”
I delight in your commandments,
which I dearly love.
I lift up my hands to your commandments.
I study your statutes, which I love.
“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.”
A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to John
“I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me
that does not bear fruit,
and everyone that does he prunes,
so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because
of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
Just as a branch cannot
bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the vine,
so, neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him
will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
will be thrown out like a branch and wither;
people will gather them and throw them
into a fire and they will be burned.
If you remain in me
and my words remain in you,
ask for whatever you want
and it will be done for you.
By this is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit
and become my disciples.
As the Father loves me,
so, I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments,
you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept
my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that
my joy may be in you
and your joy may be complete.”
Gospel of the Lord.
~ SUGGESTED REFLECTION ~
In her book, Heart Speaks to Heart: The Salesian Tradition, Wendy Wright quotes Fr. Brisson regarding the challenge to “Reprint the Gospel” in all aspects of life. We read:
There are any number of ways in which God may ask us to reprint the Gospel: in prayer, work, preaching and sacrifice. Are you ready? Are you willing? How can you reprint the Gospel today?
*****
“Stand firm: do not submit again to the yolk of slavery…”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“Our free will is never so free as when it is a slave to God’s will, just as it is never so servile as when it serves our own will. It never has so much life as when it dies to self, and never so much death as when it lives to itself. We have the liberty to do good and evil, but to choose evil is not to use but to abuse this liberty. Let us renounce such wretched liberty and subject forever our free will to the rule of heavenly love. Let us become slaves to dilection, whose serfs are happier than kings. If our souls should ever will to use their liberty against our resolutions to serve God eternally and without reserve, Oh, then, for love of God, let us sacrifice our free will and make it die to itself so that it may live in God! A man who out of self-love wishes to keep his freedom in this world shall lose it in the next world, and he who shall lose it in this world for the love of God shall keep it for that same love in the next world. He who keeps his liberty in this world shall find it a serf and a slave in the other world, whereas he who makes it serve the cross in this world shall have it free in the other world. For there, when he is absorbed in enjoyment of God’s goodness, his liberty will be converted into love and love into liberty, a liberty infinitely sweet. Without effort, without pain, and without any struggle we shall unchangingly and forever love the Creator and Savior of our souls.” (Treatise 12: 10, pp- 277-278)
The Salesian tradition understands the essence of liberty as the freedom that comes from knowing – from believing – that God loves us. The Salesian tradition also understands that to substitute anything for God’s love for us – regardless of how attractive or promising it may appear and/or present itself to be – leads to a life of enslavement.
Today – just today – you can live free or you can live enslaved.
Which do you choose?
*****
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit...”
So, if we live in the Spirit, how do we know that we are following the Spirit? The Letter to the Galatians makes it clear what we should look for, and what others should look for in us. Namely:
· Love
· Joy
· Peace
· Patience
· Kindness
· Generosity
· Faithfulness
· Gentleness
· Self-control
How does this get played out on a down-to-earth, daily basis? In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“The Apostle means that divine love gives us inward joy and consolation, together with a great peace of heart, which is preserved in adversity by patience. It makes us kind and gracious in helping our neighbor by a heartfelt goodness towards him. Such goodness is not fickle; it is constant and persevering and gives us enduring courage by which we are rendered mild, pleasant and considerate to all others. We put up with their moods and imperfections. We keep perfect faith with them, as we thus testify to a simplicity accompanied with trust in both in our words and in our actions. We live modestly and humbly, leaving aside what is luxurious and improper in food and drink, clothing, sleep, play, recreation and other such desires and pleasures. We master the inclinations and rebellions of the flesh by a constant chastity…” (TLG, Part Book XI, Chapter 19, pp. 251-252)
Today how might God be calling you to live in the Spirit – and to follow the Spirit – in your interactions with others? What will others see – and experience – in your efforts to do that?
*****
“In Christ we have redemption by his Blood, the forgiveness of transgressions in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us…”
Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Teresa of Avila. In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell observes:
“Every day – all day long – God pours his grace upon the world. Those who accept it – who cooperate with God’s will – draw closer to the Lord, as in the case of St. Teresa of Avila, the patron of souls in need of divine grace. The easygoing life of the Carmelite convent she entered was not conducive to the contemplative life. So, she began planning a new branch of the Carmelites, one that would bring nuns (and friars) back to the order’s original commitment to a life of austerity and deep prayer…St. Teresa’s legacy is her collection of spiritual writings, She was the first Catholic woman to write systematically about prayer and the interior life. In 1970, upon naming her a Doctor of the Church, Pope Paul VI praised Teresa as ‘a teacher of remarkable depth.’”
Insofar as Teresa died in 1582, her writings were well known by the “Gentleman Saint”. In a letter to Madame de Chantal (1605), Francis de Sales wrote:
“The practice of the presence of God taught by Mother Teresa in chapters 29 and 30 of The Way of Perfection is excellent, and I think it amounts to the same as I explained to you when I wrote that God was in our spirit as though he were the heart of our spirit and in our heart as the spirit which breathes life into it, and that David called God: the God of his heart. Use this boldly and often for it is most useful. May God be the soul and spirit of our heart forever….” (Stopp, Selected Letters, pp. 160 – 161)
We are all in need of God’s grace. We are all in need of recognizing – and experiencing – the divine activity within us that makes everything clean and good for us: the God whose spirit breathes life into us, the God who is the heart of our spirit and the God who is the God of our hearts.
In what ways might we need to be redeemed by God’s grace? How might we be instruments of that same redeeming grace in the lives of others?
Today!
*****
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more.”
Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell observes:
“At the age of nine, Margaret Mary Alacoque contracted polio. She spent the next six years confined to her bed as an invalid. When she was fifteen it is said that she had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon emerging from her ecstasy, she discovered that she had been healed of her infirmities. During those six years Margaret Mary had developed a rather deep prayer life. When she subsequently joined the Sisters of the Visitation at Paray le Monial, she found the form of meditation prescribed for the novices rudimentary to the point of being tedious. Notwithstanding this source of frustration, Margaret Mary persevered and professed final vows.”
“In 1675 she had a vision of Christ while praying in the monastery chapel. He told Margaret Mary that he wanted her to be his messenger, spreading throughout the world devotion to his Sacred heart that, he told Margaret Mary, was ‘burning with divine love’ for the human family. Christ asked that the Church institute a new feast day in honor of his Sacred Heart and that, for love of him, Catholics should attend Mass and receive Communion on the First Friday of each month. He promised to save all faithful Catholics who honored him by displaying an image of his sacred heart in their homes or going to Mass and Communion every First Friday of the month for nine successive months.”
“Margaret Mary Alacoque encountered a great deal of skepticism when she began to tell the other sisters in the monastery about her visions. The nuns accused her of lying and questioned her sanity, while the local clergy dismissed her visions, saying that the Sacred Heart devotion went too far in humanizing Christ and thus diminished his divinity. The Jesuits, however – and the monastery’s chaplain Father Claude de la Colombiere, SJ – argued successfully that Margaret Mary’s revelations put fresh emphasis on the perfectly orthodox principle of confidence in God’s infinite love. Today veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a mainstay in Catholic devotional life.”
Cloistered though she was, God chose Margaret Mary to be a herald of the redemptive power of the Heart of Jesus. She was charges with sharing with the world how deeply Christ yearns to lavish us with love and forgive us our sins.
How might we be heralds of that same redemptive Sacred Heart in the lives of others today?
*****
“May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call…”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
Inseparable from hope is yet another virtue greatly admired by “The Gentleman Saint” – aspiration. In the same chapter in which the quote above was taken, Francis describes both how hope and aspiration are distinct as well as how the two intimately work together.
“Between hoping and aspiring, the sole difference is this: we hope for such things that we expect to gain by the aid of another, whereas we aspire for such things that we expect to gain by our own resources and by ourselves…Aspiration is the offspring of hope, just as our cooperation is the offspring of grace. Just as people who would hope without aspiring would be rejected as cowardly and irresponsible, so, too, those who would aspire without hope would be considered rash, insolent and presumptuous. When hope is accompanied by aspiration – when we aspire with hope and hope with aspiration – hope is changed into courageous determination, while aspiration is changed into hope into humble striving.” (TLG, BK II, Chapter 16, pp. 144 – 145)
In the Salesian tradition, hope is not helplessness. Hope certainly is not the same as mere wishful thinking. Rather, hope gives us the strength to remain calm and collected even as we do our part to obtain our greatest good – life on high with Jesus Christ. In the meantime, in the day-to-day ebb and flow of life, hopeful aspiration and aspiring hope help us in our daily efforts to know when we must rely on the grace of God as well as to know when we must rely on the grace of our own hard work.
These two virtues are – in fact – two sides of an invaluable spiritual coin.
Today, how much must I rely upon God to become the best version of myself? Today, how much must I reply upon myself (with the encouragement of others) to become the best version of myself?
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