VERBUM SERAPHICUM

PAX ET BONUM !

MARCH  +  2007 A. D.

AVE MARIA !

"If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor,
. . . and come follow Me." Matthew 19:21

Week I

The Shipwreck of This World

 

It was quipped by, I believe, Henry Cardinal Newman, that if there is one doctrine which is empirically verifiable, it is the doctrine of Original Sin:  because its effects are visible on the front page of the newspaper each day.

 

Murders, Adulteries, Thefts, Scams, Wars, Plagues, Epidemics, Famines, Droughts, Storms, Accidents, Robberies, etc..  These are the daily stuff of newspapers and of the daily news.

 

With so much evil in this world, it is really amazing sometimes that there are so many contemporaries who believe, hope and sacrifice their lives for this world, and for what this world can offer.

 

They blithely deny the existence and effects of original sin to suit themselves.  Because they believe it more convenient and useful to deny that there is good and evil, right or wrong, justice or injustice, unless it somehow benefits or harms their own persuits.

 

This is why the Saints often call this world a shipwreck.  Like a ship, when in a violent storm, which has been dashed upon a reef, spilling its cargo, crew and passengers into the sea, with all the maelstrom of weather, chaos, panic, fear, frenzy that grips them all, it is no wonder that without any means of safety, such as a life raft or preserver or homing beacon, that all are easily lost.

 

And how rarely in the panic and rush of the moments which follow a shipwreck does any man have the sense to keep his cool and do anything about saving others:  all rush in seeking what is necessary for themselves. ŕ

There would be some point to it all, as there is in a shipwreck, if what each sought at least could guarantee their safety:  thus in a shipwreck no one is at fault for swimming towards a life-raft or towards the rescue ship.

 

But in the world, there is much more chaos and confusion.

 

Because there is no salvation in any other than Christ, and no means of salvation but in the Catholic Church: and no way to obtain it but by faith in all that the Church infallibly teaches in faith and morals, and by repentance from all mortal sins and the habits of all mortal sins.

 

But if we consider our manner of daily living, apart from our reception of the sacraments and our life of prayer, then we can also say with confidence that there is no guarantee that we will save our souls, except one:  that guarantee which Christ gave for those who spend their daily life in one profession.

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ declared:

 

There is no one, who has forsaken father, mother, brother and sister, home and property, for My sake and for the sake of the Gospel, who shall not receive in this life a hundred fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and homes, and in the world to come life everlasting.

 

And this profession is the religious life.

 

And so in the shipwreck of this world, so full of sin, vice, wickedness, conspiracy against the good, injustice, fraud, and fakery, there is one sure profession in which the days and hours and weeks and years of our life is most surely, yea, with divine certainty, worth every moment of it, if we but do it for Christ’s sake:  and that is to be a Catholic religious by becoming a brother or sister, a monk or a nun, or what we Franciscans call a Friar.

 

 

Week II

What does God want of me?

 

This is the most important question we can ask ourselves; and it is a great question:  I say “great” not because it is “great” in the sense that the commercial, Tony the Tiger says, “Great!!!”, but in the sense that the question is truly, crucial to our lives and our present and ultimate existence.

 

I wish I could give you to see what God is really like, in Himself, as the blessed see Him in Heaven.  But though words cannot compare to that incomparable and unwithering joy, let me try to at least lay an image of it before you.

 

Each of us when we close our eyes, if we are not standing in the light, sees darkness.  This is the darkness in which we think and conceive all our thoughts, because in that most inner place which we alone experience alone, there is nothing but our own thoughts there.

 

But this darkness and solitude is only temporary.  Because for those who get to Heaven, or those damned, this darkness and solitude is torn away. Though what follows is much different: for the former, joy, for the latter, horrors unspeakable.

 

For the blessed, or those rare saints who have had the grace in life to see God Face to Face in vision, it is as if the veil which, unbeknownst to us, has been the cause of this darkness we each experience in our inmost self, has been at last, and for the first time, raised.

 

What is revealed therein, in the Beatific Vision, is nothing like what we experience in this world.  But it is, if one can describe it with words, as if there is before us a vast and limitless light radiating in all direction, but diminished at no distance.

 

And this light is a Great Light; full not only of warmth, but of peace and to see it is perfect joy, a joy so intense, so profound, so encompassing, so lasting, so memorable, that if one were to see it but for a moment, in this life, by a great grace, one could never forget such a great Beauty, which God is.. ŕ

And to see that Light, is not just to see, but to be filled in one’s entire being, body and soul, with such delight, such love, such longing, such desire, that to merely think and contemplate that Light, seen, is to be launched in an every increasing acceleration of love and desire toward God, with such efficacy and ease and speed, that if a saint were to receive this vision, without the Divine Hand holding him fast in his body, his soul would surely take flight to Heaven, and leave his body to die upon Earth.

 

And this is something like what it is to see God, and in particular, to see God the Father: so full of love, gentleness, goodness, and kindness to all who look upon Him in truth.

 

And if it was that one could see God thus, in contemplating the Father, one would be caught up in the contemplation of the Son, by necessity, because it is in comprehending Him as Father, that we comprehend His Son, who proceeds eternally from Him.  And thus we would see, the Son, full of grace and truth, and this knowledge would be for us such a great delight, such a great cause of enjoyment, that no happiness, gladness, or joy in this world, produced at the sight of anything corporal, can compare:  for we would understand in the Son all the perfections of God, all the perfections of Christ Jesus, all the beauties of the virtues, and every goodness and grace conceived by the Mind of God, and/or bestowed upon creatures.

 

And in the Son, if we contemplated Him thus further, we would of necessity see and behold, as it were most naturally, the Communion of the Saints, like sparks of fire in a great flame, united in a manner one cannot describe, while remaining each individual; for in Christ the Saints were predestined by God to reflect all the perfections He willed to reveal in His Son, Incarnate of the Virgin.

 

And in contemplating the Saints in Heaven we would see and understand that in each of them, in glory, there is the fullness of the Holy Spirit, according to the measure by which God decreed eternally would be theirs.  And such a knowledge would fill us with a unquenchable desire to partake of their company, and thus to follow their lead, howsoever, and howsoever long it took, or whatsoever sacrifices we needed to make to obtain such a blessedness.  And this is what God wants for each of us.

 

 

 

Week III

The Mark of the Devil’s Mischief

  

 

One of the most important spiritual works inspired by the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, which he declared to have been dictated to him by the august Queen of Heaven Herself.

 

In that blessed book, the Saintly founder of the Society of Jesus, offers this incisive observation:  Once a follower of Christ firmly resolves to serve Him, the Devil can only defeat him if the succeeds in convincing him that some thing evil is good, and gets him to pursue it.

 

As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, no man seeks evil under the appearance of evil; by our very nature, which God has given us, we always seek good or evil, under the appearance of some good.

 

We seek the good aright, when we seek it for truly good reasons, and we seek evil always wrongly, because we seek something that only appears to be good, but which in fact is not.

 

And so St. Ignatius urges the followers of Christ to learn the faith, think about what they are to do, and pray to the Lord and to Our Lady for the light of discernment; that is for the grace to know how to recognize the good as good and evil as evil.

 

Another important observation about the tactics, that Satan and his minions use to overthrow souls, is based on a consideration of how Lucifer fell.

 

According to some of the Saints, Lucifer was one of the most superior angels, charged with the duty of overseeing all of creation.  This was entrusted to him before he fell.

 

But it is in the very act by which he fell, that we see how he fell, and consequently how he must forever act.

 

For an Angel is an immortal being, which having made up his mind once, chooses once and for all, all that he will ever or can every choose.  And so an Angel chooses but once.  And what once chooses he is always about.

 

Now in Sacred Scripture we see Lucifer’s act of rebellion put in words:  I shall ascend unto Heaven, I shall be like unto God!  ŕ

And again, Scripture tells us that he declared, I shall not serve!

 

In his office of overseeing creation Lucifer had undoubtedly been given natural gifts commensurate with his mission, and thus had an acute understanding of all natural things.  Indeed, St. Francis of Assisi says that no being understood more about this world than Lucifer.

 

But this knowledge became for him a darkness, because as St. Augustine teaches, Lucifer preferred to delight in his own powers, rather than humble himself, in submitting to God.

 

And thus he was cast down and driven from heaven. And thus is he constrained by his first sin to forever and always do evil in the same way, that is, by delighting in his powers of knowing and governing natural things.

 

And knowing this is a great help in overcoming the temptations of the Devil. Because in modern times, most are unaware of the activities of the Devil in the world, and can no longer recognize the signs of the presence and workings of the fallen angels.

 

But this general rule is true about Satan and his cohorts: that they will ever lead one to rejoice in things of this world, in using things of this world, and in having power in this world.

 

If you do not think that the devils were tempting you to commit any sin on any particular day, then ask yourself and remember when and where you were when your mind delighted in the thought of pursuing or obtaining or enjoying things of this world, whether in a sinful manner or only in an inordinate manner, and lo! then and there was it that you were in the presence of the devils, and they strove to cause you to sin or become more vicious.

 

In such times, let us call upon the Immaculate Virgin Mary, say a Hail Mary, or recite a Marian hymn, or think of Her purity and virtues, and thus we can always overcome the devils, and with Christ’s grace trample upon the powers of darkness.

 

But the fundamental, remedy to temptation is to develop the habit of seeing all things in the light of the Most Holy Trinity, as Mary did, and thus, but keeping one’s heart and mind set on things above, to avoid every occasion of looking downward, as Lucifer did, and fallings as he did, by taking delight in our own powers and what is beneath Heaven.

 

Week IV

The Tide

of Our Lord’s Passion

  

 The Last Sunday of March, 2007, this year, is the Sunday before Palm Sunday, and is traditionally known as Passion Sunday, because with Passion Sunday, the Gospel read at Mass speaks for the first time of how the High Priests and Scribes sought to kill Our Lord.

 

Among English speaking Catholics, the two weeks before Easter are known as Passiontide.  This is a beautiful word, since the –tide which ends the word, though referring to “time”, has in English the alternate meaning of that inundation of the beach by the sea, caused by the Moon.

 

Passiontide is really all about the Tide of Our Lord’s Passion.  In Scripture it says that the Lord descended down into the womb of the Most Blessed Virgin like dew from Heaven.  Now a sea is composed of water, which has fallen down from heaven; and its tides are caused by the influence of the Moon, just as Christ’s Passion could not have been if Our Lady had not given Him a share in our humanity, capable of suffering, and begged Him to redeem the world at Cana, even though He had said:  “It is not yet My hour”.

 

The Hour of Our Lord to redeem the world is neigh.  And the full tide of His Passion is upon us.

 

While there are many very excellent and devout meditations on Our Lord’s Sufferings, which we might consider and meditate upon this Passiontide, one most profitable meditation is often omitted by all Catholics during Passiontide.

 

And this oft omitted mediation is perhaps the most important for one considering religious life, especially for one considering to follow in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi.

 

And it is to ask oneself this Question:  “Of what value has the Tide of Christ’s Passion been in my life?”

 

The Eternal Son of God, Omnipotent, Omniscient, All Perfect, All Good, All Truth, All Blessedness, All Joy, All Light, All Magnificence, descended, humbled himself, lowered himself, bent his neck as it were, condescended to turn His Face as it were, to become a man, to share in our corruptible and transient nature, and to become one of us, and what is more, to live among us, so full of sin, suffering, ignorance, malice and vice. ŕ

And what is even more amazing, to endure reproaches, insults, disagreements, ill words, spit, dirt, whippings, a crown of thorns, mockery, the Cross upon His shoulders, chains upon his wrists, and finally to be crucified, and hung upon the Cross to die by a horrible agony.

 

And what value has all this suffering had in your life?

 

The Tide of Our Lord’s Passion has come upon the world, swept over nations, and raised up civilizations, religious orders, entire nations. The Tide of Our Lord’s Passion has been poured over us in Baptism, been our food and drink in Holy Communion, washed us repeatedly in Confession.

 

But what value as all this suffering had in your life?

 

If one lives no differently, or even only a little differently from one’s unbelieving neighbor, then the immense and infinite value of such an immense and divine Tide, has had very little value in your life. And just as there is no greater waste in earthly terms that to squander a great fortune or large sum of money on nothings, so there is no greater waste in heavenly terms, in eternal terms, than to squander the Tide of Our Lord’s Passion on such small fruits.

 

As Our Lord goes up to Jerusalem to suffer for our salvation, the Gospels relate how he came upon a fig tree, which had many leaves, but no fruit.  Angered by the uselessness of a plant which He created to be so fruitful, He cursed that tree, which thereupon withered and died. Fig trees are known for fruiting almost immediately upon giving forth leaves, and so a fig tree without leaves is an apt symbol of man, whom God made to know, love and serve him, and who can easily do this anytime he wants, with a little grace; but who rejecting God’s graces and inspirations, does nothing but put forth talk and appearances, producing no lasting fruit.

 

Woe.  Woe.  Woe to us, if we are men such as this tree.  Certainly, Our Lord wanted us to know by this event, that we too, if we are such, will be cursed by Him on the day of our death and judgment.  But as the Saints say, if we do not act promptly to respond with fruit to Our Lord’s Sufferings, then we will not only be cursed in the hour of our death and for all eternity, but will merit to be cursed this very day, this very hour.  Let us put forth fruit then, by living like Christ wants us to, in every detail and aspect of our lives, renouncing all and following Him, who did, and said, and suffered so much for us, who have yet done nothing or little to respond to His warnings against sin, His counsels against the love of this world.

 

February 2007 Edition