Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Fra Angelico

Pacino di Bonaguida

Unknown

These images, though historically inaccurate, depict Christ eager to ascend the Cross - even with exultation - to accomplish his greatest work...  

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son ...

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!50 There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!"

My house being now all stilled ...

      One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! - 
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.

       In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
- ah, the sheer grace! - 
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.

       On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.

       This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well - 
there in a place where no one appeared...   
                                                     -John of the Cross

Repeat offenders ...

Why we keep repeating the same sins.

We lack charity - the one thing necessary.  As St. Catherine of Siena reveals to us, we lack self-knowledge.  Getting old and constantly striving to know oneself, gradually unmasks our self-delusion.  It really is a problem of charity.

In knowing yourself, you will come to know better the overflowing generosity of my charity. But if you make no effort to know yourself, [you won’t know me]. Because you don’t know me, you won’t love me. And because you don’t love me, you won’t serve me. As soon as you are deprived of me, you automatically return to your wretched selfish love for yourself, since you cannot live without love….

This is how viciously I am offended by my creatures! - Meditation June 12, 2018

More on Judas

Alain Sportiello as Jacques Fesch*

Pope Benedict describes the betrayer as a sycophant.

"[...] a sycophant who bows down before the anonymous power of changing moods and current fashion." Not a 'master of evil' or some scary, demoniacal figure. - Benedict XVI

I agree.  He goes on to point out that Judas felt let down by Jesus - because he expected something different from him.  This too works in with my meditation from yesterday.

We envy and seek revenge because we don't get what we want - because we are not recognized and appreciated to the degree we imagine we deserve.  I'm like that.

How can I repair?

The cup of salvation I will raise ...

I will call on the Lord's name.

This morning I reminded myself of how St. Francis had many Masses said as he recovered from his illness and went through his conversion.  Conversion is ongoing - it isn't confined to a moment, or an experience, hence we can never rest on those signal graces, thinking of ourselves as having arrived or as something we won, or achieved, even as something which sets us apart.  "From my hidden faults save me!"

Those of us who aren't priests, or may not be able to attend Mass every day, much less able to afford to have Masses offered - we can still participate in the saving action, we can still offer the cup of salvation in atonement and reparation.  We can spiritually unite ourselves to Christ's saving action in the Eucharist - the memorial of his Passion.

We can also offer the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which is analogous to the Holy Sacrifice, since we offer the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ to the Father - incessantly.  That is what takes place at Mass, that is what priests throughout the world do when they offer Mass.  We can participate in that - in our prayer; the Office, Lectio, aspirations which help us to recollect ourselves throughout the day, and very simply, in the prayers of the chaplet.

Then of course, there is Our Lady's rosary.  What if we prayed many rosaries as Our Lady instructed Bl. Francisco Marto to do?  What if we prayed the Divine Mercy chaplet incessantly as our Lord instructed St. Faustina to do?

Today I pray for all the people I've treated unjustly, unkindly, and insincerely - to please 'management' or people I wanted to impress and gain favor with.

"Perhaps he is (Judas) jealous of any intimate relationship Jesus has that does not include him.  This jealousy and revolt against a gentle, loving Jesus pave the way for the devil to enter his heart.  Satan then can take over and inspire Judas to betray Jesus and hand him over." - Jean Vanier

* Jacques Fesch (April 6, 1930, Saint-Germain-en-Laye – October 1, 1957, La Santé Prison, Paris) was the murderer of a French police officer, who became such a devout Roman Catholic while in prison awaiting execution that he has been proposed for canonization as a saint. 

Lead us not into temptation.

Why are we tempted?

One answer, as Pope Benedict points out in his first volume of Jesus of Nazareth: "In order to mature, in order to make real progress on the path leading from a superficial piety into profound oneness with God's will, man needs to be tried.  Just as the juice of the grape needs to ferment in order to produce a fine wine, so too man needs purifications and transformations; they are dangerous for him, because they present an opportunity for him to fall, and yet they are indispensable as paths on which he comes to himself and to God."

For the forgiveness of sins.

"Courage child, your sins are forgiven you." Mt 9: Today's Gospel
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Christ's greatest work is our redemption, the forgiveness of sins - miracles of healing served to prove the greater miracle of the forgiveness of sins: "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins..."  Worrying about our healing of this or that ailment, looking for success or the means to earn a living, even seeking deliverance from some defect is a waste of time unless we repent and seek the forgiveness of our sins.  The forgiveness of sins instills courage and makes all things possible - through the Precious Blood of Christ.
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"Jesus knew what they were thinking" - he knows our thoughts as well. 
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How can we continually and repeatedly judge and condemn one another when we do not even know our own need for mercy and forgiveness?
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Art: Angels collect the Precious Blood of Christ for our Redemption -  by Antonio M. Ruiz

A great silence...

Thoughts between Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday...
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Technically I am offline - meaning I'm not reading the news or other blogs, neither am I posting - I assembled a few photos for Good Friday, but that is all.  Nevertheless, I thought I would jot down a few thoughts from my observance of these Holy Days - just personal reflections, nothing more, nothing important either.
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Holy Thursday I prayed a rosary late, as if I was with him in the garden, and then like the disciples I went to bed.  I was actually awakened 3 or 4 times during the night, and each time my first thought was his prayer, alone, and I united myself to his prayer, wondering about it, until I fell back to sleep.  The last time I woke up it seemed to me Our Lord would have been arrested by then... at least confronted by Judas and the soldiers.  I wondered why the youth who ran off was wearing only a loin cloth, and in my sleepiness, I began to fixate on that question.
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When I got up, my usual prayer, "Show us your face O Lord, and we shall be saved" seemed particularly poignant, recalling how Jesus looked at Peter after he had denied him 3 times... and naturally, I became distracted by the thought of trying to figure out at what time the cock first crows.
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Later, my prayer focused upon the passage from Isaiah on the suffering servant... watching... following... listening in silence.  Throughout the first hours of the day I kept wondering precisely where Jesus would have been at each moment - unable to recall the exact timeline of specific events.
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Somehow, Holy Week, and especially Good Friday, has always been very real for me - when I've observed it I should say - there was a time I wasn't practicing my faith.  These days seem to me to be timeless moments however - the Sacred Triduum that is.  There is no Mass, and I tell myself it is because we are living it as we solemnly commemorate the Passion, hence every moment is a sacrament, every thought of what went on in Jerusalem so many centuries ago, becomes a sort of transport back in time - as the events are re-presented for the soul.  Certainly the Passion is re-presented liturgically, and if one happens to be a mystic, perhaps they are re-enacted actually, but for the ordinary soul who just tries to pray - to be present to Christ in his sufferings - it seems to me time is suspended - and we are somehow there.  But I don't know how that is.
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Thus, even as we go about our daily duties and occupation, amid all the distractions and diversions which comprise our days, sounded by all the debates and conflicts of our times "as we make our rounds of the city" - as soon as we think of him, we glimpse him looking at us, "standing behind our wall... gazing through the windows... peering through the lattices..." 
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Nothing can separate us from his love...  "Stern as death is love, relentless as the nether-world is devotion; it's flames like the blazing fire of his heart...  Oh garden-dweller, my friends are listening for your voice... let me hear it!" * 
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Art:  Christ Carrying His Cross - Giampietrino
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*Scripture adapted from the Song of Songs

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

"Brothers and sisters:  You are God's building." 2nd reading, Romans 3
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Today the Church celebrates the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.  I always associate this feast with the memorial (November 8) of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity.  Not so much due to the fact her celebration precedes today's,  but because - to my mind at any rate - the Carmelite mystic interiorizes an aspect of the meaning and significance of today's feast for the baptized Catholic.  Nevertheless, it is difficult for me to explain how that is or what I mean by that.
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Blessed Elizabeth possessed marvelous awareness that she was the temple of the Most Holy Trinity - as is every baptized person - her entire doctrine is based upon the consciousness of this reality.  It seems to me in this recollection is contemplation  of the most sublime truth in charity, albeit darkly, as in a mirror.  The physical edifice of the Church reflects this reality, while the saints demonstrate it.
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"If I want my interior city to have some similarity and likeness to that 'of the King of eternal ages' and to receive this great illumination from God, I must extinguish every other light and, as in the holy city, the Lamb must be 'its only light.' - Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity
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"No one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely Jesus Christ." - Romans 3
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The readings from today's liturgy define these mysteries for me - but I don't know how to express it or talk about it.  It is like knowing without knowing - it is a great joy - which makes me think immediately of the Blessed Virgin, who is a sign of the Church... and where Our Lady is, there is always joy.
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"[The angel] led me outside by the north gate, and around to the outer gate facing east, where I saw water trickling from the southern side [of the temple]." - 1st reading, Ezekiel 47
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Shortly after my conversion in 1972, I had a dream of brilliantly colored angels - each a different species - constructing a massive church, lifting great stones as if they were dust, flying upwards to enclose a particularly intricate Gothic window frame.  As they were setting the capstone someone told me I was being built into the temple of God.  Immediately I found myself  in a chapel.  Coming from the altar was a stream of water, alongside which were monks clothed in white, bowing profoundly at the Gloria.  I turned to a figure I perceived to be the priest and asked, "When does Mass (the sacrifice) begin?"  I never knew what the dream meant, but I think of it every year since - on this feast day.
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I can't tell you what this feast means, all I can tell you is what it does for me, as the responsorial psalm proclaims:
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"The waters of the river gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High!" - Ps. 46