The Man Possessed by Legion

We see this man in the Gospel reading today, this man who was possessed by Legion and lived among the tombs and on the hillsides, screaming out and gnashing himself all day and night. Isn’t it interesting that, of all the people, he is the first one that the Lord sends out on a mission to go and preach the Gospel?

…Now this can give us great hope in one form or another. If the world tends to reject us because of the way we are living our lives (as long as we are not doing something that is utterly foolish) then if it is because of faith that we do what we do, it is pleasing to God and it is fully acceptable in the sight of God. We do not need to be doing great things; we do not need to be extraordinary…

At the same time, what we can also do is look back at our own lives and we can see the sinfulness of our lives. And we can wonder, as so often we do, whether God could even have mercy on such a rotten sinner as ourselves...“Why would God ever want such a horrible person like me to be doing anything good for Him? Why would He want it?” Precisely because we are such horrible sinners. Can any of us suggest that we are possessed by hundreds of demons, living among the tombs and gnashing ourselves day and night? Yet this is the man that God sent to preach the Gospel to the pagans. And it is precisely because they all knew who he was. They saw him in his possessed form. They knew that he could not be bound and chained even with the strongest chains and that nothing could hold this man down. Now that he had been healed, once again, nothing could hold him down – not physically anymore, but spiritually; he was going to preach the Gospel no matter what it cost...

So if we look at our own sinfulness and we wonder what God would want with somebody like us, it is to live and to preach the Gospel precisely because if other people knew what a horrible life we have lived, then how can they reject the message of the Lord when they see that we are trying now to live a life of faith, that we have been healed by Jesus Christ? If, on the other hand, we have lived a holy life and by faith God has drawn us aside and made us a little bit odd according to the ways of the world and different in the eyes of those around us, praise God! That means the world is not worthy of you, but God has found you worthy; and it is a purification as He prepares you for the ultimate resurrection and for the glory of Heaven.

Regardless of our situation, what we need to do is stop fighting with God and accept the fact that He has chosen us. He has chosen to heal us and now He is simply asking us to do His Will. We need to ask Him what His Will is for us and we need to seek to do it. When we see the examples that we hear of in the readings today, we realize that, one way or the other, not only are we no different from these people on one level, but we cannot even compare with them on either end of the spectrum. And so if that is the case, and God could choose these people, He can choose us as well. And He has. So it is time that we stop questioning God and it is time that we stop fighting with Him, and instead that we accept His choice, His call, and that we respond with our whole heart and seek to do His Will and to live and to preach the Gospel to others.
--Fr. Robert Altier

On Faith

“Faith is contact with the mystery of God,” to quote Pope John Paul II because “to believe means ‘to abandon oneself’ to the truth of the word of the living God, knowing and humbly recognizing ‘how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.’” Faith is the gift, given to us in Baptism, which makes our encounter with God possible. God is hidden in mystery; to claim to understand him would mean to want to confine him within our thinking and knowing and consequently to lose him irremediably. With faith, however, we can open up a way through concepts, even theological concepts, and can “touch” the living God. And God, once touched, immediately gives us his power. When we abandon ourselves to the living God, when in humility of mind we have recourse to him, a kind of hidden stream of divine life pervades us. How important it is to believe in the power of faith, in its capacity to establish a close bond with the living God! We must give great attention to the development of our faith, so that it truly pervades all our attitudes, thoughts, actions and intentions. Faith has a place, not only in our state of soul and religious experiences, but above all in thought and action, in everyday work, in the struggle against ourselves, in community life and in the apostolate, because it ensures that our life is pervaded by the power of God himself. Faith can always bring us back to God even when our sin leads us astray.

--Pope Benedict XVI, May 2006

On Silence

"Luke’s Gospel account of the Christmas event is full of activity…And yet, in the middle of the frenetic action, here is this woman wrapped in mystical silence…She demonstrates the necessity of a quiet place within ourselves at Christmastime—that place where we are most ourselves in relation to God.

It is a place of silence, not because it is untouched by all the activity of our lives, but because it is capable of wonder. Every prayer begins with silent wonder before it turns to words. Our first response to God is dumbstruck awe at who he is and what he has done for us."

—William Freburger

Memorial of St. John of the Cross

If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark.

—St. John of the Cross

Memorial of St. Lucy

"Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory so that it can discern the star of hope…It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope."

—Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 1986

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

It is the clear and unanimous opinion of the Fathers that the most glorious Virgin, for whom "he who is mighty has done great things," was resplendent with such an abundance of heavenly gifts, with such a fullness of grace and with such innocence, that she is an unspeakable miracle of God—indeed, the crown of all miracles and truly the Mother of God; that she approaches as near to God himself as is possible for a created being; and that she is above all men and angels in glory. Hence, to demonstrate the original innocence and sanctity of the Mother of God, not only did they frequently compare her to Eve while yet a virgin, while yet innocence, while yet incorrupt, while not yet deceived by the deadly snares of the most treacherous serpent; but they have also exalted her above Eve with a wonderful variety of expressions. Eve listened to the serpent with lamentable consequences; she fell from original innocence and became his slave. The most Blessed Virgin, on the contrary, ever increased her original gift, and not only never lent an ear to the serpent, but by divinely given power she utterly destroyed the force and dominion of the evil one.

Let all the children of the Catholic Church, who are so very dear to us, hear these words of ours. With a still more ardent zeal for piety, religion and love, let them continue to venerate, invoke and pray to the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived without original sin. Let them fly with utter confidence to this most sweet Mother of mercy and grace in all dangers, difficulties, needs, doubts and fears. Under her guidance, under her patronage, under her kindness and protection, nothing is to be feared; nothing is hopeless. Because, while bearing toward us a truly motherly affection and having in her care the work of our salvation, she is solicitous about the whole human race. And since she has been appointed by God to be the Queen of heaven and earth, and is exalted above all the choirs of angels and saints, and even stands at the right hand of her only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, she presents our petitions in a most efficacious manner. What she asks, she obtains. Her pleas can never be unheard.
—Pope Pius IX, Apostolic Constitution on the Immaculate Conception

Memorial of St. Ambrose

The Lord Jesus Himself proclaims: "This is My Body." Before the blessing of the heavenly words another nature is spoken of, after the consecration the Body is signified. He Himself speaks of His Blood. Before the consecration it has another name, after it is called Blood. And you say, Amen, that is, It is true. Let the heart within confess what the mouth utters, let the soul feel what the voice speaks.

Christ, then, feeds His Church with these sacraments, by means of which the substance of the soul is strengthened, and seeing the continual progress of her grace, He rightly says to her: "How comely are thy breasts, my sister, my spouse, how comely they are made by wine, and the smell of thy garments is above all spices. A dropping honeycomb are thy lips, my spouse, honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the smell of thy garments is as the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed." By which He signifies that the mystery ought to remain sealed up with you, that it be not violated by the deeds of an evil life, and pollution of chastity, that it be not made known to thou, for whom it is not fitting, nor by garrulous talkativeness it be spread abroad amongst unbelievers. Your guardianship of the faith ought therefore to be good, that integrity of life and silence may endure unblemished.--St. Ambrose

Advent

Archbishop Wuerl of Washington, in recent public comments, made the humorous observation that “one knows it’s time for Halloween when the Christmas decorations come out” in the stores. This sad commentary on the power of merchandising over the proper and meaningful celebration of the seasons of life and the mysteries of our Faith is all too true. We are reminded of this every year as we observe once again the clash of colors between Advent violet in our churches and Christmas red splashed liberally beyond the doors of our places of worship. And, again, the temptation arises for some to complain about the situation or to see this phenomenon as another in a growing list of reasons to turn away from the world.
Advent, the season of preparation in the Church, provides a dramatic counterpoint over against a world that ends the celebration of the Savior’s birth precisely on the day it should begin, having begun it months prematurely. Such superficial “cheer” spurs us all the more to love and embrace the yet unredeemed world that stills lacks, and waits unknowingly, for what it most truly needs.
Advent, with its very name, “the coming," is a yearly season of the Church’s life that invites us to explore once again the important virtue of patience accompanied by prayer. For the faithful there is not a simple “waiting” but rather an active anticipation by prayer, penance and almsgiving. The Lord engages with the world through His Body to work out the salvation of all creation. The Holy Spirit, our companion on the way of faith, is the Divine person who “inspires” us to return again and again to the truth that salvation is not something for which we passively wait in this world, but a reality that has begun already for us in the Church.

--Fr. Cusick

If I want only pure water, what does it matter to me whether it be brought in a vase of gold or of glass? What is it to me whether the will of God be presented to me in tribulation or consolation, since I desire and seek only the Divine will?
–St. Francis de Sales

On the Sacred Heart

The Heart of the Incarnate Word is deservedly and rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that threefold love with which the divine Redeemer unceasingly loves His eternal Father and all mankind. It is a symbol of that divine love which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit but which He, the Word made flesh, alone manifests through a weak and perishable body, since "in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily." It is, besides, the symbol of that burning love which, infused into His soul, enriches the human will of Christ and enlightens and governs its acts by the most perfect knowledge derived both from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused. And finally - and this in a more natural and direct way - it is the symbol also of sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so than any other human body.

--Haurietias Aquas (On Devotion to the Sacred Heart)

Feast of St. Andrew

When Andrew was led to the place of martyrdom, on beholding the cross from a distance he cried out: "O good Cross, so long desired and now set up for my longing soul I confident and rejoicing come to you; exultingly receive me, a disciple of Him who hung on you." Forthwith he was nailed to the cross. For two days he hung there alive, unceasingly proclaiming the doctrine of Christ until he passed on to Him whose likeness in death he had so vehemently desired. The legendary account of our saint's martyrdom has this value: it presents to us the mysticism of the Cross of later times.
–The Church’s Year of Grace

Sow Happiness

“Act in such a way that all who come in contact with you will go away joyful. Sow happiness about you because you have received much from God; give, then, generously to others. They should take leave of you with their hearts filled with joy, even if they have no more than touched the hem of your garment. Keep well in mind the words I am telling you right now.”
—From the Diary of St. Maria Faustina

Memorial of the Presentation of Mary

God’s love always requires a continuous preparation of freedom on the part of the human being who receives it and today’s feast emphatically shows this preparation. The Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the one who makes the greatest response to the greatest invitation of grace in the history of the world is brought to the Temple by her parents at the age of three. They promised God if they could conceive that they would dedicate their child to the Lord, but they waited to this age before presenting her lest she miss her family.

The Presentation of Mary in the Temple is a most fitting feast to show our thanksgiving, solidarity and support for the cloistered life because all these important themes are united together in her presentation. She goes apart into the enclosure as it were to prepare herself in spousal love to be the Bride of Christ and the Mother of the Redeemer. She spends her time in contemplation nurturing the life of grace with which God will invite her to the singular response of being his mother. She prepares herself for a life long encounter with her Son and begins the long process of keeping everything and pondering them in her heart.

***

In the wonderment of her splendid intuition, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus declares: ‘I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was ablaze with love. I understood that Love alone enabled the Church’s members to act . . . Yes, I found my place in the Church . . . at the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be Love’. (Verbi Sponsa, 7)
Cloistered religious are the heart of the Church because they truly show us the complete surrender and concentration of love. They are enclosed not because they have lost something, but because they have found Him.
On this feast of the Presentation of Mary, each member of the Church should look to the contemplatives to see an example of this spousal love for Christ after the example of Our Lady. Like her, we should open the door for Christ knocking there, invite Him to our house and rightly spend each day rejoicing in His presence.
--Fr. Brian Mullady, OP

Read some chapter of a devout book....It is very easy and most necessary, for just as you speak to God when at prayer, God speaks to you when you read.
-- St. Vincent de Paul

Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Hungary

“Adoration. This is a word from heaven. It seems to me that it could be defined as an ecstasy of love. It is love overwhelmed by the beauty, the strength, the immense grandeur of the Beloved. It falls into sort of a swoon, into a full deep silence, the silence that David spoke of when he cried out 'silence is thy praise.' And it is the most beautiful of all praise that is sung eternally in the bosom of the unchanging Trinity, and it is also the last effort of the soul as it overflows and can say no more."
—St. Elizabeth of Hungary

The Vocation of Marriage

The fundamental vocation of Christian married partners is to love one another as Christ has loved them. In the words of Lacordaire, they must each aim to be the other's "particular Christ." Their love, sealed by the sign of the Cross, looks to Christ on the Cross. Not only do they find here the model of the love they are called to have for one another; they are also made capable, by the crucified Christ himself, of having that love for each other, and of persevering in it through all difficulties and renewing it in spite of all failures. Their vocation is at the same time a wider one. Christ's love reaches out to all, and so the love of husband and wife reaches out to their children and beyond their children to their children's children and to the community. They become channels of Christ's love. The special vocation of married people is to show how the world can be made new by Christ's new commandment: "love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12).
—Love is for Life: Pastoral Letter of the Irish Bishops, 1985

The more we pray, the more we wish to pray. Like a fish which at first swims on the surface of the water, and afterwards plunges down, and is always going deeper; the soul plunges, dives, and loses itself in the sweetness of conversing with God.
-- St. John Vianney

“From the moment of our baptism, God has a special plan for each of us. God calls us to life in Christ, in order that, with Christ, we may offer our whole life in love of God and our neighbor. At our confirmation, God strengthens and increases the life of the Holy Spirit within us, so that we will have the inspiration and strength to respond to God’s call. We are called to follow Christ in holiness of life. This is our vocation. We are called to follow Christ as a married person, a dedicated single person, a consecrated person or an ordained priest. These are the vocations by which we respond to the universal vocation to holiness of life. Whether God calls us to the married life, the dedicated single life, the consecrated life or the priesthood, He asks us to make the gift of our whole life. Others see Christ in us, most of all, through our faithful response to our vocation in life.”—Archbishop Burke, January 2005

Memorial of St. Francis Xavier Cabrini

There is a “diaspora,” a dispersion, even within ourselves. If Jesus were to ask me, as He did that poor demonic in the Gospel: “What is your name?” I too would have to reply: “My name is legion, for there are many of us. There are many of us as there are desires, plans and regrets which we harbor, each one different from and contrary to others which pull us in opposite directions. They literally dis-tract us, drag us apart. Virginity is a powerful aid to progress toward interior unity, in virtue of the fact that it enables us to live united to the Lord, and able to devote ourselves to Him “without distractions.” St. Augustine has written: “Through continence, in fact, we are gathered in and returned to the One, from which we have flowed out into many. For he loves You less who loves something else along with You, which he does not love for Your sake.”
This unity is what Jesus calls “purity of heart,” and it is realized most of all at the level of the will. It consists in wanting fewer and fewer things, until eventually one wants “one thing only”…that one thing being God.
--Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap

On a Mission

“At the end of the Mass the deacon, or in his absence the priest, says to us 'Ite, Missa Est.' Our celebration is over. Go now to live and share with other people what we have received, heard, sung, meditated and prayed. The Mass sends us on mission.
The first duty which the Eucharistic celebration enjoins on us is to live the faith and share it with other people. Evangelization in the express form of proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ is a priority. We must share with other people 'the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus.' Every Catholic — priest, consecrated person or lay faithful — will do this according to that person's vocation and mission in the Church and in the world.
In the Eucharistic mystery our beloved Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is giving us the inestimable gift of himself. He asks for our response. Shall we refuse to pay him back with love? May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary obtain for us the grace to respond with generosity, with constant faith, with heartfelt adoration and with apostolic dynamism.”
—Cardinal Arinze, Address at Westminster Cathedral, April 2006