Vol 8 Issue 39 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
September 26, 2015 ~ Saint Isaac Jogues and Companions, opn!
1.Baptism: Means of Salvation (35)
2. Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
3. Sts. Cosmas & Damian
4. Christ in the Home (10)
5. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:
One of section of the Newsletter contains a Saint that is celebrated during the week—usually the same Sunday. Reading the lives of the Saints is to give us the inspiration to live a more Christ-like life as one meditates upon their particular virtue or virtues, even if it meant willing to suffer for Christ through martyrdom. The Saints that are introduced today, Saints Cosmas and Damian, provide both the charity and the suffering for Christ. They did so in the context of faith. When one reads of the early martyrs, there was no political agenda they were striving for, but rather a bringing to Christ those who observed their love and living a life that corresponded to the imitation of Christ. Rather, when one is presented with secular political figures or those who introduce a movement that is specifically used to politicize a social agenda or who obtain popularity but do not persevere (one thinks of a Tertullian or an Origen) in that call but apostatize to another religion (Zen Buddhism) and not the original fervor of Christian monasticism there seems to be a disconnect. Today is celebrated Saint Isaac Jogues, martyred in the attempt to bring the pagan natives of America to Christ. December 22 is Saint Frances Cabrini, who did so much in working with the immigrants. Instead, one hears of those applauded by the world but who scandalized faithful Catholics (Doris Day perhaps not intentionally, but there is no excuse for Thomas Merton and his escapades during and after Vatican II). They are not role models to sanctity, to imitation of Christ, to virtue but an adaptation of joining those who reject Christ and making Christ a socialist or Buddhist. It may be objected that the presentation is to non-Catholics anyway and so it must correspond to their secularism. If Christ conformed to the Pharisees or Peter to the Jews or Paul to the Greeks there would not be Catholicism and there is not Catholicism now today because the Conciliar Church has conformed to the Protestants, Secularists, Atheists, Buddhists, Mohammedans and lost Catholic identity. Once more, reading the Lives of the Saints allows one to identify with Catholicism and the living of Catholicism and thereby shake the dust of the world from ones footsteps in this world. Saint Isaac Jogues and Companions, pray for us! St. Frances Cabrini, pray for us!
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit.—The Editor
____________________
Baptism
Means of Salvation
Sacrament of Baptism
Baptism Commanded by Christ
When Christ instituted Baptism, it was not something unknown nor something not prefigured and therefore its imposition would not be a disturbing command. It may be well, then, here to cover the pre-figurements to realize baptism would be something expected when the Saviour established His Kingdom.
Water is necessary for physical life and where there is water (pure) there is also life. This connection is already made apparent when one reads in Gensis: And the spirit of God moved over the waters. And God said: Be light made. And light was made. (Gen. 1:2-3) Water is what is used for cleansing, and thus God uses it to cleanse the earth of sin as is read in the account of Noe, and thus God uses it to cleanse the earth of sin as is read in the account of Noe: Behold I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, under heaven. All things that are in the earth shall be consumed. (Gen. 6:17) with the haunting revelation by Peter that a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water and compares it to baptism: Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now saveth you also (1 Peter 3:20, 21). This last passage from Peter does not give total despair of the lost of those drowned in the flood, for Christ is presented as announcing salvation even to those who were incredulous until the flood, at which time they repented and found themselves waiting for the redemption: In which also coming he [Christ after His death] preached to those spirits that were in prison: which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe(ibid. 3:19-20)
With man again turning from God, God sets aside a people, the offspring of Abraham fulfilled by a promise, not of flesh and to be kept together by the casting off of flesh (circumcision) on the eighth day: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father’ s house, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed. . . . This is my covenant which you shall observe, between me and you, and thy seed after thee: All the male kind of you shall be circumcised (12:1-3, 17:10) As eight souls renew creation, so on the eighth day the child was to become a new creature, just as in baptism the baptized were to renew the earth as new creatures: In Him, too, you have been circumcised with a circumcision not wrought by hand, but through the putting off the body of the flesh, a circumcision which is of Christ (Col. 2:11).
Agar, as a type of holy mother Church, saves her children (cf. Gen. 21:18) through water: And God opened her eyes: and she saw a well of water, and went and filled the bottle, and gave the boy to drink. And God was with him: and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became a young man . . . (ibid. 21:18-20). It is was to become known as Bersebee: Therefore that place was called Bersabee: because there both of them [Abraham—Father of a nation—and Abimelech—my Father is king] did swear; and they made a league for the well of oath (ibid. 21:31-32) for which Abraham paid seven lambs (cf. v. 30). This foreshadows the Jewish leaders (But one of them, named Caiphas, being the high priest that year, said to them: You know nothing. Neither do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not [John 11:49-50; cf. 18:14]); handing over the perfect (7) Lamb to the Roman Governor (We have no King but Caesar[ibid. 19:15]) for salvation obtained through water.
It has already been mentioned about the well of Jacob in speaking of Christ at the well in Samaria (cf. ibid. 4:5ff). Joseph is a pre-figurement of Christ. He is loved above all his brethren by the father: Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had him in his old age: and he made him a coat of divers colours. And his brethren seeing that he was loved by his father, more than all his sons, hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. (Gen. 37:3-4; in 2 Peter 1:17 reference is made to the Transfiguration [cf. Matt. 17:5; cf. also the Baptism of Christ 3:17, Mark 1:11 and Luke 3:22] in which Peter explains: For he received from God the Father, honour and glory: this voice coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.) Omitting all the comparisons, finally Joseph saves his brothers by their passing through the river (Nile, Hebrew the River—הַיְאֹֽר) to receive the bread of life.
After the Hebrews are enslaved (cf. Exod. 1:10), the male child is condemned to death (ibid. 1:16). The mother of Moses places her child in a basket (תבַתֵּ֣—ark in Hebrew הבָ֑תֵּהַ the ark [cf. Gen. 7:1]) which, as Noe and his family, saves him through the water. The deliverance of the Israelites is passing through the Red Sea (cf. Exod. xiv; Paul, 1 Cor. 10:1-2: For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea.) While in the wilderness, Moses takes the tree (symbolic of the Cross) and puts it into the water:
And they came into Mara, and they could not drink the waters of Mara, because they were bitter: whereupon he gave a name also agreeable to the place, calling it Mara, that is, bitterness. And the people murmured against Moses, saying: What shall we drink? But he cried to the Lord, and he shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, they were turned into sweetness. (Exod. 15:23-25)
Josue, the saviour after Moses (Josue or Jesus, is Hebrew for saviour) brings the Israelites into the Promised Land by passing through the Jordan (Jos. 3:11ff). The men entered without circumcision, which was accomplished afterwards (ibid. 5:2-9) as a testimony to the faith in the promise of a future Saviour not an earthly kingdom as though the Promised Land was the end goal rather than a sign that God would be faithful to His promise to send the future Redeemer.
Later one reads of Naaman in the time of the Prophets, who contracts leprosy (symbolic of sin) is cleansed in the Jordan. Naaman is informed by an Israelite maid that if he went to the Prophet he would be saved:
And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thee shalt be clean. Naaman was angry and went away, saying: I thought he would have come out to me, and standing would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me. Are not the Abana, and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean? So as he turned, and was going away with indignation, his servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, surely thou shouldst have done it: how much rather what he now hath said to thee: Wash, and thou shalt he clean? Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times: according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child, and he was made clean. (4 Kings 5:11-14)
Approaching nearer the time of the Messias, with the loss of the Ark of the Covenant (cf. Jer. 3:16: And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that be done any more;and 2 Maccabees 2:4-8: . . . And when Jeremias came thither he found a hollow cave and he carried in thither the tabernacle and the ark and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door. Then some of them that followed him, came up to mark the place; but they could not find it. . . .) and the captivity in Babylon (4 Kings 24-25), the Prophets directed the Israelites toward the coming of the Christ. Isaias cries out, All you that thirst, come to the waters (55:1) when presenting the future Church. Ezechiel uses the idyllic fertility of the Dead Sea to express the giving of life through water that flows from the Temple (the Church).
And he brought me again to the gate of the house, and behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the house toward the east: for the forefront, of the house looked toward the east: but the waters came down to the right side of the temple to the south part of the altar. And he led me out by the way of the north gate, and he caused me to turn to the way without the outward gate to the way that looked toward the east: and behold there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had the line in his hand went out towards the east, he measured a thousand cubits: and he brought me through the water up to the ankles. And again he measured a thousand, and he brought me through the water up to the knees. And he measured a thousand, and he brought me through the water up to the loins. And he measured a thousand, and it was a torrent, which I could not pass over: for the waters were risen so as to make a deep torrent, which could not be passed over. . . And he said to me: These waters that issue forth toward the hillocks of sand to the east, and go down to the plains of the desert, shall go into the sea, and shall go out, and the waters shall be healed. And every living creature that creepeth whithersoever the torrent shall come, shall live: and there shall be fishes in abundance after these waters shall come thither, and they shall be healed, and all things shall live to which the torrent shall come. And the fishers shall stand over these waters, from Engaddi even to Engallim there shall be drying of nets: there shall be many sorts of the fishes thereof, as the fishes of the great sea, a very great multitude. . . . (47:1-10)
The commentary for this passage in the Douay-Rheims Challoner has this explanation:
These waters are not to be understood literally (for there were none such that flowed from the temple); but mystically, of the baptism of Christ, and of his doctrine and his grace: the trees that grow on the banks are Christian virtues: the fishes are Christians [One may remember Tertullian’s use of this word in his work On Baptism, cap. 1.] that spiritually live in and by these holy waters, the fishermen are the apostles, and apostolic preachers: the fenny places, where there is no health, are such as by being out of the church are separated from these waters of life.
There is also Zacharias, who prophesies, In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: for the washing of the sinner (Zach. 13:1).
With such a foundation, no wonder, in answer when the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to him, to ask him: Who art thou? John the Baptist’s immediate response was this: I am not the Christ (John 1:19, 20).
(To be continued)
————————–
Week of Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
Spiritual consolations
- The Apostle admits with great satisfaction: “Nothing is wanting to you in any grace” (Epistle). There are extraordinary spiritual gifts, the so-called charisms, which were found in abundance in the young community of Corinth (1 Cor., chap. 12). There are also certain ordinary gifts of God which are necessary and useful for all of us, the so-called spiritual gifts and spiritual consolations, which are given to us as precious helps on the way to our eternal home. “You are made rich in Him” (Epistle).
- “Nothing is wanting to you in any grace.” There is no lack of anything in God. He gives the necessary help and grace to each of us according to his needs. He gives us, moreover, many consolations and favors of sensible devotion as an incentive and support to our efforts. These are all graces of God, signs of His love for us, by which we receive a deeper knowledge of Him and of Christ. They give us the strength to overcome the devil and all worldliness. They lighten the hardships of our profession and the bitterness of our difficulties. They enliven our charity, strengthen us in temptation, give us confidence in God, increase our faith, and make us a consolation to our brethren. Should we not give thanks for these graces also?
The fruits of the spiritual gifts are great and useful. They calm our distracted and worldly thoughts and reveal a wealth and plenitude of divine gifts which we had not heretofore conceived. Acts of virtue are no longer painful and difficult, but come spontaneously and easily. Conquering our temptations, external and internal, no longer presents any great difficulty. On the contrary we overcome them with an ease and assurance unknown before. The conflict between the flesh and the spirit suddenly subsides. We feel the results: The spirit again regains the mastery over the rebellious movements of fallen nature. “In all things you are made rich.”
- With grateful hearts we confess, “In all things you are made rich.” Nothing is wanting to us. The Lord has left nothing undone. He sowed His seed with generous hands. If the seed has fallen upon good ground, it should yield fruit a hundredfold (Luke 8:8).
“The Gentiles shall fear Thy name, O Lord” (Alleluia verse). We, the Gentiles, “are made rich . . . in all things.” The Lord has given us the riches of His graces through His divine mercy. “Nothing is wanting to you in any grace” (Epistle). So with confidence we await the return of the Lord. He “will confirm you unto the end” (Epistle). He will crown His graces and consolations with the grace of final perseverance. We shall lose what we have, but we expect with confidence that He “will confirm [us] unto the end.” We are joyfully confident that “we shall go into the house of the Lord” (Introit). Heaven is open to us.
“Give peace, O Lord, to them that patiently wait for Thee” (Introit), to us who are waiting for Thy return now in the celebration of the Mass and at Holy Communion, and likewise at the hour of our death. “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord” (Introit).
PRAYER
Let the operation of Thy mercy, we beseech Thee, O Lord, direct our hearts; for without Thee we cannot please Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The grace of final perseverance
- “Nothing is wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who also will confirm you unto the end without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Epistle). The grace of God is given to us in Christ. God will also complete what He has commenced in us; He will give us the greatest of all graces, the grace of perseverance until the end, the grace to enter eternal life through a happy death. “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord” (Introit).
- He “will confirm you unto the end” (Epistle). We have received rich graces from God. The ecclesiastical year that is slowly drawing to an end has been a year of blessing to us. May we expect further graces from God in spite of our abuse, neglect, and misuse of many graces? May we count on perseverance unto the end? Must not the word of the Apostle fill us with fear: “He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall” (I Cor. 10: 12)? And again, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showed mercy” (Rom. 9: 15 f.). It would be futile to try to learn whether or not we should persevere without crime unto the end. We need not worry about the future; let us provide for the present. We cannot merit the grace of final perseverance, although we may with good reason expect that God in His mercy will give us the grace of counsel, which will lead us safely through the temptations of life. The more faithfully we cooperate with grace, the more assurance we have that God will give us more effectual graces and helps. Do we, then, doubt His providence? Did not the Son of God die for each one of us? Would not He be willing to relive His difficult life on earth and suffer His passion once more for us only to save us? “He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things?” (Rom. 8:32.) We may well believe: “He will confirm you unto the end.” “For I know whom I have believed” (II Tim. 1:12). “Who will have all men to be saved” (I Tim. 2:4).
“But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved” (Matt. 10:22). Perseverance to the end is an unmeritable grace of God. However, we can and we must work for this most precious of all God’s graces. The first means for obtaining the grace of final perseverance is continual prayer for this favor. We pray for it in the Our Father: “Deliver us from evil,” from an unhappy death. It is as if we prayed, “Give us the grace to continue in grace unto the end.” The second means is the faithful performance of our religious duties, especially the devout assistance at Mass. A life of prayer makes our days rich and full; it gives us strength and light, and keeps us well disposed; therefore it is of the essence of perseverance. If we perform our religious duties irregularly and unfaithfully, then our spiritual stability and perseverance are in grave danger. Another means for obtaining the grace of perseverance is the practice of zeal and earnestness in overcoming sin, even the slightest sin and infidelity. To secure perseverance we have to avoid the occasions of sin and keep a close watch over our thoughts and senses. A fourth means for obtaining perseverance is the regular and devout use of the sacraments of penance and Holy Communion. Our interior development, our progress in virtue, our eternal salvation, and our perseverance to the end are conditioned to a great extent by our use of the sacraments, which are a source of grace.
- “Nothing is wanting to you in any grace. . . . [Christ] will confirm you unto the end.” “For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, return ye and live” (Ezech. 18:32). We believe in His mercy and in His charity. “And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy: Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee” (Gospel). Will He act differently with us if we believe in Him, trust Him, and perform our duties faithfully?
“Give peace, O Lord, to them that patiently wait for Thee” (Introit). Give them the grace of a happy death, the grace of perseverance. We cannot merit it even though we are most faithful. We can obtain it only from Thy mercy. We “wait for Thee” and Thy grace.
The blessed arrival of the Lord at Mass and Holy Communion is the sign of His merciful return at the hour of our death. This is His promise: He “will confirm you unto the end” (Epistle). “Bring up sacrifices and come into His courts” (Communion) at the celebration of the Mass, and come into the dwellings of heaven. “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.”
PRAYER
Let the operation of Thy mercy, we beseech Thee, O Lord, direct our hearts; for without Thee we cannot please Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
____________________________________________
SEPTEMBER 27
Sts. Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs
- Tradition tells us that Sts. Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers of good Christian family, who worked as physicians in Sicily. It is said that they would accept no fees from the poor and that they healed more often by means of the sign of the Cross than by means of medicine. Furthermore, they were interested in the spiritual well-being of their patients and often used their medical skill to open the way for conversion of heathen patients. Their success in thus healing souls soon brought down upon them the wrath of the pagans, whose complaints to the governor resulted in their being condemned and tortured. The Lord kept them miraculously from harm, however, until at last they were beheaded. In the Eastern Church, Sts. Cosmas and Damian were honored as early as the beginning of the fifth century. In the following century many churches bearing their names were to be found in Rome. The Introit of today’s Mass was composed in 530 for the dedication of the Basilica of Sts. Cosmas and Damian near the Roman Forum. The names of these saints occur in the canon of the Mass.
- “All the multitude was eager to touch him, because power went out from him, and healed them all” (Gospel). Jesus had often healed the sick by driving out the evil spirits that were afflicting them; now He was sharing His power over sickness with the holy physicians, and they gratefully used it in the cause of Christ-like charity. “When you did it to one of the least of my brethren here, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40). Cosmas and Damian accounted themselves as poor by the fact that they put their trust in Christ, who said: “Blessed are you who are poor; the kingdom of God is yours.” Those who are poor in the sense that our Lord had in mind stand no longer in the domain of created things and earthly values; freed from the dominion of these things, they are able to open their souls to the light from above, to the graces God wants to pour on them. “Blessed are you who are hungry now; you will have your fill,” These holy physicians understood our Lord’s promise well; in order to relieve the sick they sacrificed their time, and their own health; they endured hunger in order to satisfy the hunger of the needy. This is true Christianity, true charity; and God blessed their sacrifices.
“Blessed are you, when men hate you, and cast you off and revile you, when they reject your name as something evil, for the Son of man’s sake,” that is, because you believe in Christ and live for Him. True charity helps to destroy the kingdom of Satan, and the evil one fights back. When the brothers were subjected to torture they remembered that “it is the just that will live forever,” and that “a rich reward awaits you in heaven.” And, “How glorious is that kingdom, how beautiful that crown, which the Lord will bestow on them!” (Lesson.) “Roused by the cry of the innocent, the Lord sets them free from all their afflictions. So near is the Lord to patient hearts, so ready to defend the humbled spirit” (Gradual). Today we think of Sts. Cosmas and Damian as being honored by God in heaven: “When that day comes, rejoice and exult over it; for behold, a rich reward awaits you in heaven” (Gospel). After short-lived pain comes an everlasting reward, an eternal plenitude of life with honor, every gladness, everything.
- In the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian we recognize ourselves. Our Lord says to us: “Blessed are you who are poor; the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are hungry now; you will have your fill. Blessed are you who weep now; you will laugh for joy” (Gospel).
As we unite ourselves with the priest and our brethren in offering this Holy Sacrifice, we want Christ to make us sharers in His sacrifice to the Father; we want to be sacrificed with Christ, and we are prepared to be one with Him in His life of poverty, humiliation, and self-denial. “Woe upon you who are rich; you have your comfort already. Woe upon you who are filled full; you shall be hungry. Woe upon you who laugh now; you shall mourn and weep. Woe upon you, when all men speak well of you” (Luke 6:24-26).
Collect: Grant, we pray Thee, almighty God, that we who are celebrating the birthday of Thy holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian, may by their intercession be preserved from all the ills that threaten us. Amen.
CHRIST IN THE HOME
BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J.
(1951)
MARRIAGE
LOVING EACH OTHER IN GOD
WE HAVE already seen that it is essential to advance as quickly as possible from a purely natural love to a supernatural love, from a passionate love to a virtuous love.
That is clear. No matter how perfect the partners in marriage may be, each has limitations; we can foresee immediately that at the point where the limitations of the one contact the limitations of the other, sparks will easily fly; misunderstandings, oppositions, and disagreements will arise.
No matter how much effort one puts forth to manifest only virtues, one does not have only virtues. And when one lives in constant contact with another, his faults appear quickly; “No man is great to his valet,” says the proverb. Sometimes it is the very virtue of an individual which seems to annoy another. One would have liked more discretion; one is, as it were, eclipsed. Two find their self-love irritated, in conflict.
Or perhaps virtues no longer appear as virtues by reason of being so constantly manifested. Others become accustomed to seeing them and look upon them as merely natural traits. “There is nothing more than that missing for him or her to be different.” It is like the sun or the light; people no longer notice them. Bread by reason of its being daily bread loses its character of “good bread.”
Daily intercourse which was a joy in the beginning no longer seems such a special delight; it becomes monotonous. Husband and wife remain together by habit, common interests, honor, even a certain attachment of will, but do they continue to be bound together by love in the deepest sense of the word?
If things go on in this way, they will soon cease to be much concerned about each other; they may preserve a mutual dry esteem which habit will render still drier. Where formerly there existed a mutual ardor, nothing more remains than proper form; where formerly there was never anything more than a delicate remonstrance, there now exists depressing wrangling or a still more depressing coldness.
Married persons must come to the help of weak human nature and try to understand what supernatural love is in order to infuse it into their lives as soon as possible.
Is not the doctrine of the Church on marriage too often forgotten? How many ever reread the epistle of the Nuptial Mass? Meditate on it? In any case, how many husbands and wives read it together? Meditate on it together? That would forearm them against the invasion of worrisome misunderstandings. Why not have recourse to the well-springs of wisdom?
There are not only the epistles. There is the whole gospel. The example of Joseph and Mary at Nazareth is enlightening. What obedience and cordial simplicity in Mary! What deference and exquisite charity in Saint Joseph! And between the two what openness of heart, what elevated dealings! Jesus was the bond between Mary, the Mother, and Joseph, the foster-father.
In Christian marriage, Jesus is still the unbreakable bond—prayer together, Holy Mass and Holy Communion together.
Not only should there be prayer with each other, beside each other, but prayer for each other.
SUPERNATURAL LOVE
SOME persons imagine that the endeavor to transform their natural love into supernatural love will make them awkward, make them lose their spontaneity, their naturalness.
Indeed, nothing is farther from the truth, if supernatural love is rightly understood.
What does it really require? First of all, does it not require us to fulfill the perfections of natural love? Supernatural love, far from suppressing natural love, makes it more tender, more attentive, more generous; it intensifies the sentiments of affection, esteem, admiration, gratitude, respect, and devotion which constitute the essence of true love.
Supernatural love takes away one thing only from natural and spontaneous love—selfishness, the arch-enemy of love. It demands that everything, from the greatest obligation to the simplest, be done as perfectly as possible. Then by elevating simple human love to the level of true charity, it ennobles the greatest powers of that love. It suppresses nothing. It enriches everything. Better still, it provides in advance against the danger of a diminution in human love. It pardons weaknesses, deficiencies, faults. Not that it is blind to them, but it does not become agitated by them. It bears with them, handles them tactfully, helps to overcome them. It is capable of bestowing love where all is not lovable. Penetrating beyond the exterior, it can peer into the soul and see the image of God behind a silhouette which has become less pleasing.
That is the whole secret. Supernatural love in us seeks to love in the manner and according to the desire of God; it requires us therefore to love God in those we love and then to love the good qualities He has given them and bear with the absence of those He has not given or with the characteristics He has permitted them to acquire.
Loving without any advertence to self, supernatural love is patient and constant in spite of the faults of those it loves. The Little Sister of the Poor loves her old folk despite their coughing, their unpleasant mannerisms, their varying moods. The Missionaries who care for the lepers love them in spite of their loathsome sores.
Unselfish as it is, supernatural love inspires the one who is animated by it to seek the temporal and above all the spiritual good of the one he loves before his own. Delicately it calls the attention of the loved one to his faults, not to reproach him, but to help him correct them. It does not give in to irritability or moodiness; it is quick humbly to beg pardon and to make reparation, should it ever fail. And when there has been a little outburst, how comforting it is, in the intimate converse of the evening, to acknowledge one’s failings, to express sorrow, and to promise to do better in the future with the other’s help!
But all this presupposes prayer and a true desire for union with God.
For those who purchase through Amazon, please help support the work here at Saint Joseph’s by going through this link:
http://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-2855162
———————–
…
[Message clipped] View entire message