Nov062019

Life and Fate

I have been watching a Russian television miniseries ‘Life and Fate’, based on the novel of the same title written by Vasily Grossman. Researching the story, I came across a review which stressed the brilliance of the story being the concentration given to the minute details of the individuals within the epic. During the great battle of WWII, the overwhelming clashing of Nazi forces against the Soviet defense of Russian land, the story of individuals became prominent. Within the greater conflict, individual conflict takes precedent. The cares, concerns, beauty, and filthiness of individuals, those made in the image and likeness of God, stood above the magnitude of their time. Acts of kindness, insight, and the awareness of something greater touching the lives of individuals provides a depth necessary to understand the wisdom of God giving to us His own individual story through the life and death of His only begotten son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ. God knows our individual stories, observing with tremendous love and mercy, while possessing the ultimate wisdom of necessary justice—proper judgement and the finality of eternity. Timelessness comprehending the burdens of time and space, reaching out, offering salvation. This farewell letter from a main character’s mother embodies the illumination of love, compassion, and understanding—the immensity of life and the depth of a single human life. The mother, a Russian Jew, writes from a German concentration camp. She prepares for her death, aware this is her final communication with her son. It reminds me of a line associated with ‘Life and Fate’, a reflection upon the importance of kindness in life. Kindness, an act of kindness, the sacrifice of volunteering to enter the gas chamber in order to hold the hand of a frightfully crying child so that child does not have to die alone, or the sacrificing of One’s Son, or as simple as smiling at a brother or sister while walking past.

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Nov052019

Distant words of aspiration

In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.

O LORD, my heart is not proud,
nor are my eyes haughty;
I busy not myself with great things,
nor with things too sublime for me.

In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.

Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap,
so is my soul within me.

In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.

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Nov042019

Queen of Heaven speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda

My daughter, the greatest happiness, which can befall any soul in this mortal life, is that the Almighty call her to his house consecrated to his service. For by this benefit He rescues the soul from a dangerous slavery and relieves her of the vile servitude of the world, where, deprived of true liberty, she eats her bread in the sweat of her brow. Who is so dull and insipid as not to know the dangers of the worldly life, which is hampered by all the abominable and most wicked laws and customs introduced by the astuteness of the devil and the perversity of men? The better part is religious life and retirement; in it is found security, outside is a torment and a stormy sea, full of sorrow and unhappiness. Through the hardness of their heart and the total forgetfulness of themselves men do not know this truth and are not attracted by its blessings. But thou, O soul, be not deaf to the voice of the Most High, attend and correspond to it in thy actions: I wish to remind thee, that one of the greatest snares of the demon is to counteract the call of the Lord, whenever he seeks to attract and incline the soul to a life of perfection in his service.  –‘The Mystical City of God’ Sister Mary of Agreda

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Nov012019

Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum

As St Bernard so lovingly put it, if he had called her “Mother,” she would have been just His mother and no one else’s. In order to indicate she is now becoming the mother of all men whom He now redeems, He endows her with the title of universal motherhood: “Woman.” Then indicating with a gesture of His head the presence of His beloved disciple, He added: “Behold thy son.” He does not call him John, for if he did, John would only have been the son of Zebedee; He left him unnamed that he might stand for all humanity.

Our Lord was equivalently saying to His mother: “You already have one son and I am He. You cannot have another. All the other sons will be in me and I in him. Hence I say not: ‘Behold another son!’ but ‘Behold Me in John and John in Me.’”

It was a kind of testament. At the Last Supper He willed to mankind His Body and Blood. “This is My body! This is My blood!” Now He is willing His mother: “Behold thy Mother!.”

–Bishop Fulton J. Sheen ‘Seven Words of Jesus and Mary’

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Oct282019

View from a plane

Freedom to be a child, once again weary and torn,
A restraint removed, crossing a threshold, oblivious,
The surrender of will, returning a gift to the Creator,
That which is granted is given back, troubled, unaware,
Prodigal soul perceiving the ever-present hold,
Omniscient, forgiving, omnipotent, defining true love,
Authentic on a level Divine, surpassing the fears,
Surpassing the temporal mind, the immaturity,
The ego desperately needing, hell bent upon identity,
One amongst the many, lonely, singular and blind,
Within a crowd distant and unkind, bitter and cynical,
Studying theology, possessing no capability of loving mankind,
The smell of rotten breath, a disgusting taste left upon a tainted tongue,
Passionately trying, abandoning intuition, too much exertion,
Effort hostile, effort broken and breaking, external and internal, the aftermath
All is good, all is grace, after Mass, the despairing whole-hearted remains,
Seeking, knocking, crying to Our Holy Mother, marveling,
The omnipresent mercy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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Oct272019

Setting a primary GOAL in life

Let no my abandonment and my sorrow and my bereavement go to waste. Gather up the fragments, and as the drop of water is absorbed by the wine at the offertory of the Mass, let my life be absorbed in thine; let my little cross be entwined with the great cross so that I may purchase the joys of everlasting happiness in union with thee.

Consecrate these trial of my life which would go unrewarded unless united with thee; transubstantiate me so that like bread which is now thy body, and wine which is now thy blood, I too my be wholly thine. I care not if the species remain, or that, like the bread and the wine I seem to all earthly eyes the same as before. My station in life, my routine duties, my work, my family — all these are but the species of my life which remain unchanged; but the substance of my life: my soul, my mind, my will, my heart – transubstantiate them, transform them wholly into thy service, so that through me all may know how sweet is the life of Christ.  Amen  –Bishop Fulton J Sheen ‘Calvary and the Mass’

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Oct262019

“Freedom is ours to give away”

Obviously, some give their freedom away and become slaves in the most disastrous sense of the term, An alcoholic became such by a free act of choice multiplied a thousandfold. Finally came the surrender, and he became the “slave of drink.” He sold his choice, but in a way to destroy his personality. Now take another example in which one gives away freedom of choice to attain a true spiritual freedom. The husband in love with his wife, acquired by a free choice on the part of both, is an example of the highest kind of liberty in the order of affection. True spiritual liberty exists when two essential values are acquired by a free choice on the part of both is an example of the highest kind of liberty in the order of human affection. True liberty exists when two essential values are acquired: self-mastery, by which one is liberated from external constraint such as excessive drinking or smoking; and the complete and total gift of self to justice, truth, and love, which are rooted in God. Such are those who dedicate themselves to the person of Christ in serving lepers to make reparations for sins. Others use their free choice to attain what is to them the maximum of spiritual liberty. As Kafka wrote, “Christ is such an abyss of light that before Him one must close his eyes to avoid throwing oneself to Him in total dedication.” At this peak of freedom, one has quite surpassed the first stage of freedom which is identified with the power to choose evil as well as good; one enters into the spontaneity of love in full clarity. The truth is that man is not so much free as freeable; he makes himself free by choosing those goals which give his spirit the maximum room for joy. –Bishop Fulton J Sheen ‘On Being Human’

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