Sexagesima Sunday
23 February 2014
“To you it is given to know the
mystery of the Kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables, that ‘Seeing they
may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’”Lk. 8:10
As we learned last week, in these three Sundays before Lent, the texts of the Liturgy help us recognize ourselves as weak sinners who need
to repent in preparation for Lenten and Paschal mysteries. With this in mind, we can understand the explanation Jesus gave to the Apostles
about why He spoke in parables. It is
not to confuse people, but to make them search more into their own hearts in
order to understand what Jesus teaches
in His parables. Dom Gueranger in his book, The Liturgical Year Vol. 4,
Septuagesima, comments on today’s liturgy:
“The Church offers to our
consideration, during this week of Sexagesima, the history of Noah and the
deluge... This awful chastisement of the human race by the deluge was a fresh
consequence of sin. This time, however, there
was found just one man; and it was through him and his family that the world
was restored. Having once more mercifully renewed His covenant with His
creatures, God allows the earth to be repeopled, and makes the three sons of
Noah become the fathers of the three great families of the human race....This
is the mystery of the Divine Office during the week of Sexagesima. The mystery
expressed in today’s Mass is full of greater importance. The earth is deluged by sin and heresy. But
the word of God, the seed of life, is ever producing a new generation: a race
of men, who like Noah, fear God. It is the word of God that produces those
happy children, of whom the beloved disciple speaks, saying: ‘They are born not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ Jn. 1:13 ...What we have
to do, during these days of Septuagesima, is to escape from the deluge of
worldliness, and take shelter in the Ark of salvation; we have to become that
good soil, which yields a hundredfold from the heavenly seed. Let us flee from the wrath to come, lest we
perish with the enemies of God: let us hunger after the word of God, which
converteth and giveth life to souls” (cf. Ps. 18). Gueranger, p. 148-150. We can see how many fail to produce fruit
from the word of God in today’s Gospel
(Luke 8:4-15) where Jesus tells the people the Parable of the Sower
where three out of the four types of souls do not bear fruit. The fourth type of soil is the good ground which will
yield fruit “a hundredfold.” St. Paul in today’s Epistle (II Cor. 11: 19-33;
12:1-9) shows how he has yielded much fruit in all the sufferings he underwent for the
gospel.
St.
Paul, a true Apostle
Nowhere in all of the epistles of St. Paul do we find so
many examples of what he had to endure to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
St. Paul is not boasting, but he wants to show his followers what he has
endured for them and the gospel. He first reminds them “For you gladly put up with
fools, because you are wise yourselves! For you suffer it if a man enslaves
you, if a man devours you, if a man takes from you, if a man is arrogant, if a
man slaps your face!” I Cor. 11: 19-20.
These “pseudo- apostles,” and “ministers
of Satan” (II Cor. 11:13-5)--- “those brethren from Jerusalem ... had come to Corinth boasting of their pure-blooded
Judaism and casting suspicions on St.
Paul’ Apostolic Mission. It is only the need of his Corinthian flock that
drives the Apostle to that boasting of his origin and his work—which in other
circumstances he would have despised, and even now in his heart regards as
foolish. ” Msgr. Patrick Boylan, “The
Sunday Epistle and Gospels,” p. 135. “Are
they ministers of Christ? I—to speak as
a fool—am more: many labours, in prisons more frequently, in lashes above
measure, often exposed to death. From the Jews five times I received forty
lashes less one. Thrice I was scourged, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered
shipwreck, a night and day I was adrift on the sea, in journeyings often, in
perils from floods, in perils from robbers, in perils from my own nation....”
II Cor. 12:23-26 The litany of his sufferings continued as
St. Paul wanted to prove how much he was a true apostle to refute his
adversaries. No one can read the summary of his sufferings without being
impressed by the many trials
he endured for preaching the gospel. Later, he mentions that the Lord
sent him “a thorn in the flesh, messenger
from Satan, to buffet me.” ( II Cor.
12:7) lest he puffed up with
pride. Like a true Apostle, he will
suffer it for the Lord: “Gladly therefore I will glory in my
infirmities, that the strength of Christ may dwell in me.” II Cor. 12:
9 St. Paul’s life yielded fruit not just
a hundredfold but a thousandfold and more than a thousandfold.
Souls without fruit
In today’s parable
of “The Sower,” we see that those who do
not bear fruit are represented by three of the four types of ground in which the seed is sown. The seed is good, but the fruit it bears is dependent on the place where it
is sown. “The hard ground: souls that
are frivolous, dissipated, open to all distractions, rumors, and curiosity;
admitting all kinds of creatures and earthly affections. The word of God hardly reaches their heart
when the enemy (the devil), having free access, carries it off, thus preventing
it from taking root. The stony ground: superficial souls with
only a shallow layer of good earth, which will be rapidly blown away, along
with the good seed, by the winds of passion. These souls easily grow
enthusiastic, but do not persevere and ‘in
time of temptation fall away.’ (Lk. 8:13) They are unstable, because they
have not the courage to embrace renunciation and to make the sacrifices which
are necessary if one wishes to remain faithful to the word of God and to put it
into practice in all circumstances. Their fervor is a straw fire which dies
down and goes out in the face of the slightest difficulty. The
ground covered with thorns: souls
that are preoccupied with worldly things, pleasures, material interests and
affairs. The seed takes root, but the thorns soon choke it by depriving it of
air and light. Excessive solicitude for temporal things eventually stifles the
rights of the spirit.” Fr. Gabriel, OCD, Divine Intimacy, p.
249
“And other seed fell upon good
ground, and sprang up and yielded fruit a hundredfold.” Lk. 8:8
“Lastly,
the good ground is compared by Jesus to those who, ‘with a right and good heart, having heard the word, hold it fast, and bear fruit in
patience.’ Lk. 8:15 The good and
upright heart is the one which always gives first place to God, which seeks
before everything else the kingdom of God and His justice. The seed of the divine word will bear
abundant fruit in proportion to the good dispositions it finds in us:
recollection, a serious and profound interior life, detachment, sincere seeing
for the things of God above and beyond
all earthly things, and finally perseverance without which the word of God
cannot bear its fruit in us.” Divine
Intimacy, p. 249 Those “with
a right and good heart” (Lk. 8:15) will yield fruit a hundredfold as God’s grace is always fruitful: “And
other seed fell upon good ground, and sprang up and yielded fruit a
hundredfold.” Lk. 8: 8. All we
have to do is to look at the lives of the saints, like St. Paul in today’s II
Epistle to the Corinthians, and we can see God’s grace bear fruit even
beyond a hundredfold to a thousandfold and even more.
Who are saved?
If we apply the message
of today’s Gospel to our world, we might not see a pretty picture. Things have not changed with human
nature. Jesus knew what kind of men his
listeners were. So too today! The vast majority of souls are those who are
represented by the seed on the wayside path, the rocky ground, and thorny
bushes. They are not interested in God’s
word. If they do have some interest, the cares of the
world and pleasures of riches distract
them. In his treatise, “The
Little Number of Those Who Are Saved,”
St. Leonard of Port Maurice*** quotes St. Augustine: “The ark (Noah’s Ark) was the figure of the Church. And these eight
people who were saved signify that very few Christians are saved, because there
are very few who sincerely renounce the world, and those who renounce it only
in words do not belong to the mystery represented by that ark.” p. 5 Were it not for the grace of God which comes
to us through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and through the hands of our Immaculate Mother, there would be little hope
for all of humanity. This is why Our
Lady at Fatima in 1917 asked us to pray
and sacrifice because she said that “many
souls go to hell because no one prays and sacrifices for them.” This is why Our Lady begged us to pray the
Rosary. Let us pray the Holy Rosary in
the family and make sacrifices, and then many souls, especially in our
families, will be saved and go to
heaven.
*** This treatise of St. Leonard’s
is in our repository. Or contact lanhernefriars@talktalk.net
“Could
you not, then, watch one hour with Me?” Mt. 26:40
Last week, in the Sunday Bulletin, we quoted
St. Ambrose on how Jesus is the leaven to change the whole world. We have Jesus
as true leaven and the Bread of Life in the Blessed Sacrament. Go to Jesus in the Sacred Host and ask Him to
take over your life. “Therefore, if the
Lord is wheat (as He Himself says in John 12:24), the Lord is the leaven, too,
since leaven is usually made only of wheaten flour. Therefore, the Lord is
rightly compared to leaven for when He was in the form of man, made small by
humility and despised for His weakness, He contained within Himself such power
of wisdom that the world itself could scarcely contain His doctrine. When He
began to diffuse Himself throughout the world by virtue of His divinity, He
immediately drew the entire human race into His substance by His power so that
He might place the yoke of His Holy Spirit upon all of them, that is, make all
Christians to be what Christ is....so Christ (like leaven) is broken up and
dissolved by His various sufferings, and His moisture, that is, His precious
blood, was poured out for our salvation, that it might by mingling itself with the whole human race, consolidate
that race, which lay scattered abroad.” St.
Ambrose in Cornelius A Lapide, Commentary on John’s Gospel, p.
29-30
Mission of the Immaculate Mediatrix (MIM) 1 March 2014
On the First Saturday of every month,
we will have our monthly formation program for those who interested in
affiliating themselves with the Marian Spirituality of the Franciscan Friars of
the Immaculate. The day begins at 9:30 AM and goes until 4 PM and includes two
conferences, Holy Mass, adoration and the rosary. (see flyer on door)
This spirituality is Marian and Franciscan
and includes the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Maximilian Kolbe and other Franciscan
saints. “The fundamental aim of the MIM
is the fulfilment of God’s plan for the salvation and sanctification of all
souls through the maternal mediation of the Immaculate to the supreme glory of
the Most Holy Trinity.” (Article 2:
Statute)
It is most important at
this time in our world to come together and learn about Our Lady and her
messages especially Fatima. Pope John Paul II: On
November 9, 1976 said in the USA as Karol Cardinal Wojtyla: “We are now standing in face
of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that the wide circles of
American society or the wide circles of
the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation
between the Church and the Anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-gospel.”
We hope that all of you will consider joining the MIM and work for
your own sanctification and the sanctification of so many souls who are in danger of being lost
for all eternity in hell as Our Lady said at Fatima.
The First Saturday: 1 March 2014
Our Lady told Sr. Lucia in 1925 “…I promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces
necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five
consecutive months go to confession and receive Holy Communion, recite five
decades of the Rosary and keep me company for a quarter of an hour while
meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making
reparation to me." If only we
would do what Our Lady asks, we would be assured of eternal salvation. Our Lady promises us all the graces necessary
for our salvation if we keep The Five First Saturdays!