Strength in Suffering

It is the incomprehensible fact of God entering into history; that he stepped into our law, into our space, into our existence -- and not only like one of us, but as one of us. That is the thrill and the incomprehensibility of this event.

History now becomes the Son's mode of existence; historical destiny becomes his destiny. He is to be encountered on our streets. In the darkest cellars and the loneliest prisons of life, we will meet him. And that is already the first blessing and consecration of the burden: that he is to be met under its weight.

Along with the first blessing, there is a second: All those hauling the same load feel it when a new, powerful shoulder places itself under the burden and joins in carrying.

And let the third blessing be spoken simultaneously with the other two: ever since that Holy Night, the divine-human life became the primordial model of existence, according to which all life will be formed by God, if we do not resist this formation. The strength for mastery of life grows through the influx of divine life among those to whom Christ has made himself known, among the greater human community as well as small groups brought together by circumstance.

We will be better able to cope with life, more efficient and capable of life, if we open ourselves to the instructions of this coming night. Let us hike and journey onward, neither avoiding nor shunning the streets and terror of life. Something new has been born in us, and we do not want to tire of believing the star of the promises and acknowledging the singing angels' Gloria -- even if it is sometimes through tears. Our distress has truly become transformed, because we have been raised above it.

--Fr. Alfred Delp, S.J. (died 1945) was condemned to death in Germany during WWII.

Mary's Magnificat

The soul of Mary magnifies the Lord because she herself is magnified by the Lord. For unless she were first magnified by the Lord, Mary's soul could not magnify the Lord. Therefore she magnifies him by whom she is magnified, magnifies him not only by the speech of her lips, not only by the holiness of her body, but the unequaled quality of her love...

How do you magnify him? Do you make greater him whose magnificence has no end? Great is the Lord, says the Psalmist, and greatly to be praised. Great he is, and so great that his greatness has neither comparison nor measure. How then do you magnify one whom you cannot from small make great nor from great greater? But you magnify because you praise, you magnify because amid the darkness of the world, being brighter than the sun, lovelier than the moon, more fragrant than the rose, whiter than snow, you spread abroad the splendor of the knowledge of God. You magnify him therefore not by increasing his surpassing greatness but by bringing the unknown radiance of the true deity to the world's darkness...

Your soul stretches so far through its longing for love that it reaches the very word of God. For you are Moses' basket, you are the vessel containing the Word, you are the storehouse of the new wine by which the soberness of believers becomes inebriated. You are the Mother of God, the limit set to sin, by whom men rise from the depths of vice and reach the delights of angels.

--Fr. Adam of Perseigne (died c. 1221) was an abbot in a monastery in France and a counselor to nuns, priests, and kings.

Secret Greatness

Jesus in the praetorium is the image of man who has "given God's power back to him." He expiated all the abuse we have made and continue to make of our freedom; this freedom we want no one to touch and which is nothing other than slavery to ourselves. We must impress this episode of Jesus in the praetorium well into our hearts, because the day will come when we will also find ourselves in this state, either due to man or to age, and then only Jesus will be able to help us understand and sing, amid tears, our new-found freedom. There is an intimacy with Jesus that can only be obtained by staying close to him, cheek to cheek, in the hour of his and our ignominy, we too bearing "his abuse" (see Heb 13:13). Many people have been condemned by illness or a disability to a helplessness similar to Christ's in the praetorium and have to spend their lives in wheelchairs, or in bed. Jesus reveals the secret greatness hidden in these lives if lived in union with him.

--Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M.Cap.

Purgatory

I would go so far as to say that if there was no purgatory, then we would have to invent it, for who would dare say of himself that he was able to stand directly before God. And yet we don't want to be, to use an image from Scripture, "a pot that turned out wrong," that has to be thrown away; we want to be able to be put right. Purgatory basically means that God can put the pieces back together again. That he can cleanse us in such a way that we are able to be with him and can stand there in the fullness of life. Purgatory strips off from one person what is unbearable and from another the inability to bear certain things, so that in each of them a pure heart is revealed, and we can see that we all belong together in one enormous symphony of being.
--Pope Benedict XVI

The Fruit of Sorrows

The tragedies of this world take on their full meaning when one looks at life from a realistic point of view... We should not struggle against what has been decided by God. Men are only instruments, and if this seems obscure to those living in the world, it is not so for those who must share in this work of mercy. Certainly, it is not easy, and we must endure a very painful ordeal, but with the trial come graces, and then sadness is turned into joy.

Believe me, Mama, there is no injustice willingly accepted that does not bear fruit a hundredfold, and receive its just reward, prodigal beyond our comprehension. Do not think that all the sorrows that have overwhelmed our family in recent years are useless. On the contrary, they are necessary, in order that just reparation may be made, and that through this the love of Christ may be given us in all its fullness. The law of life is that some pay for others, young branches full of sap are cut back and old, unproductive boughs left in their place. This seems unjust, and it would be, if compensation far outweighing anything life could offer were not given to these victims, who are by the very fact privileged. Joy, then, not sadness! If life is worth living and if you feel weary and exhausted to the point of death, it is because your soul is famished for the life-giving nourishment which will yield unending joy.

It is only recently that I have come to understand the meaning of the cross. It is at once prodigious and atrocious: prodigious because it gives us life, and atrocious because if we do not accept to be crucified all life is denied us. This is a great mystery, and blessed are the persecuted.

--Jacques Fesch

Renew the Face of the Earth

There is a saying: "Send forth your Spirit and all things will be created and you shall renew the face of the earth." Do you realize that that is true--that he can come like a gentle breath "blowing where it listens and you hear the sound thereof but cannot tell whence it comes, and where it goes," and that he can touch your soul and make everything different? What was real before still remains, yet everything has been renewed. Then you become aware that you have a heart and that you, too, have received the ability to love, and things are filled with a gentle and holy meaning, and you know that everything is good and that it is worthwhile--divinely worthwhile--to be alive and to persevere.

--Monsignor Romano Guardini

To Thirst

Christ, the source of life, addressed his clear call to all generations: "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink." Only one condition is laid down: to thirst.
--Fr. M.M. Philipon, O.P.

God as a Surgeon

Working within us like a surgeon, God condemns and cuts away whatever in us is infected by sin, cleansing us from corruption with the knife of affliction.
--Bl. Ogerius of Locedio

Respect for the Poor

"Assistance to the unfortunate honors when it treats the poor man with respect, not only as an equal, but as a superior--since he is suffering what perhaps we are incapable of suffering; since he is a messenger of God to us, sent to prove our justice and charity, and to save us by our works."

--Frederick Ozanam, quoted by James Patrick Derum in Apostle in a Top Hat

Separation of Church and State

The rightful autonomy of the political or civil sphere from that of religion and the Church--but not from morality--is a value that has been recognized by the Catholic Church and belongs to the inheritance of contemporary civilization.

--quoted in The Teaching of Ethics by François Primeau, MD

God's Instruments

Physicians and medical researchers must understand that they are the instruments through which a loving God cares for His creation. They must always be mindful that their hands are those of Jesus, who cured the sick with compassion, generosity, and understanding.

--William V. Williams, M.D.; Ethics in Clinical Research

Moral courage in the practice of medicine

You are probably not being called to the martyrdom of blood, but you are all being called to holiness, and this entails taking up your daily cross. Courageous men and women do not consider their own advantage, their own well-being, their own survival as greater values than their fidelity to the Gospel. Despite all evident weakness, they vigorously resist evil. In their fragility, the power of faith and of God's grace shines forth....

Fortitude goes hand in hand with the willingness to sacrifice oneself in the imitation of Christ. The age of martyrdom has not passed....

What the first community of believers asked of God in times of trial was neither protection nor vengeance. Rather, they asked for the gift of being able to "proclaim in all boldness" -- to proclaim courageously -- the Word of God (cf. Acts 4:29).

Canada's Catholic physicians can ask the Lord for nothing less: the moral courage to act always with an upright conscience, to stand up for the truth of the moral order regardless of the cost, in the service of life and of its Author.

 --J. Michael Miller, CSB; Courage and the Physician

Combat the Deception

Physicians in particular have a serious duty to combat the deception of those who believe that abortion is the solution to health, family, financial and social problems. In a health-care background frequently marked by the eclipse of the sense of the inherent dignity of life, Pope Benedict reminds us that

special fortitude is demanded of doctors so that they may continue to assert that abortion resolves nothing but kills the child, destroys the woman and blinds the conscience of the child's father, all too often ruining family life. This duty, however, does not only concern the medical profession and health-care workers. The whole of society must defend the right to life of the child conceived and the true good of the woman who will never, in any circumstance, be able to find fulfillment in the decision of abortion.

 --J. Michael Miller, CSB; Courage and the Physician 

Natural Law

Obeying the natural law does not mean submitting to an external law imposed from the outside, but rather "welcoming the law of one's own being." It expresses what is best for us, if we wish to act in an authentically human way.

 --J. Michael Miller, CSB; Courage and the Physician

Bear witness to God's love

As Catholic doctors, you know well that there is a very close bond between the quality of your professional practice and the virtue of charity to which Christ calls you. It is precisely in doing your work well that you bear witness of God's love for the world. Charity manifests itself in a particularly meaningful way through your care of the sick and suffering.

--J. Michael Miller, CSB; Courage and the Physician

Christus Medicus

Throughout the story of Catholicism, we find an uncounted number of extraordinary men and women who dedicated themselves to the relief of the sufferings of their neighbors, not only doing good to those who suffer (which may be simply altruistic or the expression of fellow-feeling) but also assisting the suffering to do good with their pains by finding meaning in them in relation to the sufferings of Christ, to use the words of Pope John Paul II.

--Fr. John G. Horgan, STL; Christus Medicus

Companion: Bread-with-Us

The root of human wretchedness is loneliness, the absence of love--the fact that our personal existence is not embraced by a love that makes our existence "necessary." Our misery arises when we live without a love strong enough to justify our existence no matter how much pain and limitation go along with it. What our heart is crying out for is a true companion in whose love we experience how truly necessary and invaluable our existence is.

The very word companion derives from the two Latin words cum, meaning "with," and panis, which means "bread." A companion is literally "bread-with-us"--in other words, everything we need. This literally is the Eucharist! The Eucharist proclaims that God is not a distant fact toward which human beings strive with great effort. "Rather he is Someone who has joined man on his path, who has become his companion" (L. Guissani).

--Father Peter John Cameron, O.P.

The Sabbath

The Sunday obligation for all the faithful [is] a wellspring of authentic freedom enabling them to live each day in accordance with what they celebrated on "the Lord's Day." The life of faith is endangered when we lose the desire to share in the celebration of the Eucharist and its commemoration of the paschal victory. Participating in the Sunday liturgical assembly with all our brothers and sisters, with whom we form one body in Jesus Christ, is demanded by our Christian conscience and at the same time it forms that conscience. To lose a sense of Sunday as the Lord's Day, a day to be sanctified, is symptomatic of the loss of an authentic sense of Christian freedom, the freedom of the children of God . . . Sunday thus appears as the primordial holy day, when all believers, wherever they are found, can become heralds and guardians of the true meaning of time. It gives rise to the Christian meaning of life and a new way of experiencing time, relationships, work, life, and death. On the Lord's Day, then, it is fitting that Church groups should organize, around Sunday Mass, the activities of the Christian community: social gatherings, programs for the faith formation of children, young people and adults, pilgrimages, charitable works, and different moments of prayer. For the sake of these important values... we need to remember that it is Sunday itself that is meant to be kept holy, lest it end up as a day "empty of God."

--Pope Benedict XVI

Memoria and History

 “The Holy Spirit is always somewhat ‘the unknown’ of the faith...Even now, many Christians do not know who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit is. And you sometimes hear: ‘But I get on well enough with the Father and with Son, because I pray the Our Father to the Father, I have communion with the Son, but I do not know what to do with the Holy Spirit. . .' Or people say, ‘The Holy Spirit is the dove, the one that gives us the seven gifts.’ But in this way the poor Holy Spirit always comes last and finds no place in our lives.

"[Holy Spirit is] God active in us, God who helps us remember, [who] awakens our memory... A Christian without memory is not a true Christian: he or she is a prisoner of circumstance, of the moment, a man or woman who has no history. He or she does have a history, but does not how to enter into history. It is the Spirit that teaches us how to enter into history. Historical memory ... When in the Letter to the Hebrews, the author says: ‘Remember your fathers in the faith’ – memory; ‘remember the early days of your faith, how you were courageous’ - memory. A memory of our life, of our history, a memory of the moment when we had the grace of meeting Jesus, the memory of all that Jesus has told us...That memory that comes from the heart, that is a grace of the Holy Spirit... [Remembering] also means remembering one’s own misery, that which makes us slaves, and together with them, the grace of God that redeems us from our miseries.

"Our God is moving forward on the road with us, He is among us, He walks with us. He saves us. He makes history with us. Be mindful of all that, and life becomes more fruitful, with the grace of memory.”
--Pope Francis, Homily on May 13, 2013
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-at-mass-the-holy-spirit-and-historical-memory

The Holy Spirit: Unity and Multiplicity

[T]he Holy Spirit would appear to create disorder in the Church, since he brings the diversity of charisms and gifts; yet all this, by his working, is a great source of wealth, for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of unity, which does not mean uniformity, but which leads everything back to harmony. In the Church, it is the Holy Spirit who creates harmony. One of Fathers of the Church has an expression which I love: the Holy Spirit himself is harmony – “Ipse harmonia est”. Only the Spirit can awaken diversity, plurality and multiplicity, while at the same time building unity. Here too, when we are the ones who try to create diversity and close ourselves up in what makes us different and other, we bring division. When we are the ones who want to build unity in accordance with our human plans, we end up creating uniformity, standardization. But if instead we let ourselves be guided by the Spirit, richness, variety and diversity never become a source of conflict, because he impels us to experience variety within the communion of the Church. Journeying together in the Church, under the guidance of her pastors who possess a special charism and ministry, is a sign of the working of the Holy Spirit. Having a sense of the Church is something fundamental for every Christian, every community and every movement. It is the Church which brings Christ to me, and me to Christ; parallel journeys are dangerous! When we venture beyond (proagon) the Church’s teaching and community, and do not remain in them, we are not one with the God of Jesus Christ (cf. 2 Jn 9). So let us ask ourselves: Am I open to the harmony of the Holy Spirit, overcoming every form of exclusivity? Do I let myself be guided by him, living in the Church and with the Church?
--Pope Francis, Homily on Pentecost 2013
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-at-pentecost-newness-harmony-and-mission

God's Surprises

Newness always makes us a bit fearful, because we feel more secure if we have everything under control, if we are the ones who build, programme and plan our lives in accordance with our own ideas, our own comfort, our own preferences. This is also the case when it comes to God. Often we follow him, we accept him, but only up to a certain point. It is hard to abandon ourselves to him with complete trust, allowing the Holy Spirit to be the soul and guide of our lives in our every decision. We fear that God may force us to strike out on new paths and leave behind our all too narrow, closed and selfish horizons in order to become open to his own. Yet throughout the history of salvation, whenever God reveals himself, he brings newness and change, and demands our complete trust: Noah, mocked by all, builds an ark and is saved; Abram leaves his land with only a promise in hand; Moses stands up to the might of Pharaoh and leads his people to freedom; the apostles, huddled fearfully in the Upper Room, go forth with courage to proclaim the Gospel. This is not a question of novelty for novelty’s sake, the search for something new to relieve our boredom, as is so often the case in our own day. The newness which God brings into our life is something that actually brings fulfilment, that gives true joy, true serenity, because God loves us and desires only our good. Let us ask ourselves: Are we open to “God’s surprises”? Or are we closed and fearful before the newness of the Holy Spirit? Do we have the courage to strike out along the new paths which God’s newness sets before us, or do we resist, barricaded in transient structures which have lost their capacity for openness to what is new?
--Pope Francis, Homily at Pentecost 2013
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-at-pentecost-newness-harmony-and-mission

The Law of the Spirit

"The hour of the law’s fulfillment, is when the law reaches its maturity when it becomes the law of the Spirit. Moving forward on this road is somewhat risky, but it is the only road to maturity, to leave behind the times in which we are not mature. Part of the law’s journey to maturity, which comes with preaching Jesus, always involves fear; fear of the freedom that the Spirit gives us. The law of the Spirit makes us free! This freedom frightens us a little, because we are afraid we will confuse the freedom of the Spirit with human freedom. "
--Pope Francis, Homily on June 12, 2013
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-at-mass-true-progress-is-in-trusting-the-spir