Year IV, Number 23

Moving on from the infancy and the hidden life in Nazareth to the public life of Jesus, our contemplation brings us to those mysteries which may be called in a special way “mysteries of light”. Certainly the whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of light. He is the “light of the world” (Jn 8:12). Yet this truth emerges in a special way during the years of his public life, when he proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom. In proposing to the Christian community five significant moments – “luminous” mysteries – during this phase of Christ's life, I think that the following can be fittingly singled out: (1) his Baptism in the Jordan, (2) his self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana, (3) his proclamation of the Kingdom of God, with his call to conversion, (4) his Transfiguration, and finally, (5) his institution of the Eucharist, as the sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery.

In these mysteries, apart from the miracle at Cana, the presence of Mary remains in the background. The Gospels make only the briefest reference to her occasional presence at one moment or other during the preaching of Jesus (cf. Mk 3:31-5; Jn 2:12), and they give no indication that she was present at the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. Yet the role she assumed at Cana in some way accompanies Christ throughout his ministry. The revelation made directly by the Father at the Baptism in the Jordan and echoed by John the Baptist is placed upon Mary's lips at Cana, and it becomes the great maternal counsel which Mary addresses to the Church of every age: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). This counsel is a fitting introduction to the words and signs of Christ's public ministry and it forms the Marian foundation of all the “mysteries of light”.

Q. Dear Fr Anthony,

I am a senior in high school. I have found a very good spiritual director. I am very attracted to the priesthood. I don’t feel a very strong calling to marriage, although some of my best friends are women (girls). I am extremely attracted to the priestly grace-filled abilities of absolution and consecration (of the Eucharist). I will begin college in the fall, planning on a major in psychology. I am part of a very strong group of Catholic teens (a Life Teen group), who are ever ready to give me support in the direction of a priestly vocation. I am willing to go in full pursuit of a vocation in the priesthood, but I’m afraid that in doing so, I may become so focused that I miss heavenly hints to another vocation (marriage). Also, I don’t know much about priestly duties outside of Mass and offering sacraments, nor do I know much about all the different religious orders that exist. Should I go full steam ahead in a priestly pursuit or take some time to learn more about the religious life before I dive in that direction? Thank you for your time.

- Brendan

A. Dear Brendan,

Your spiritual director is going to be able to give you much more pertinent advise to you since he knows you much better than I do.

Let me just tell you a general principle I go by: if you are interested in the priesthood, have the opportunity of following the call, and a prudent advisor does not see anything missing that you have to work on before being accepted into the seminary, then it is time to move, putting aside the other distractions and possibilities. (There will always be dozens of other good things to do, so don’t let that be the reason you do not follow your vocation.)

For example: you mention that you don’t feel a strong calling to marriage, yet you get on well with women. But you are only finishing high school, and you are probably better off at this stage not feeling that strong call - because it usually comes very strong when there is somebody in mind, and if you have to wait, it can be an enormous distraction and burden. So you can still be a normal teenager and not feel an overwhelming attraction to marriage at this stage of your life. But if a young person is unsure of his identity and for that reason doesn’t have the normal attraction to marriage, then this is something he would have to sort out before taking a step into the seminary.

Another point to keep in mind is that if you go to college, you will in all likelihood start running up debts that will afterwards make it more difficult for you to enter seminary.

It would be a very good idea for you to look into some religious order you may have heard of and to get the ball rolling. Early summer is a good time to do this, but make sure to enroll in college as well so as not to be caught in the fall without one or the other. God bless.

- Fr Anthony

Q. Dear Fr Anthony,

I am a woman in my later 30s. Approximately four years ago my plans for my life were to get married, have a family, and to continue working in my profession. However, I discovered that God had other plans for me, and I believe I was called to a religious life. I was not happy about this at first, but through prayer, daily Mass, and visits before the Blessed Sacrament I have developed a clearer picture of God’s will for me. I am now very grateful for his call, since I realize His love and mercy toward such an imperfect being as myself. What now remains is to find out where I am serving him best. I believe very strongly that the U.S. is a country hard hit with moral and spiritual decay, and also a country that sets an example (i.e. movies, TV) for the rest of the world. Therefore, I believe that the U.S. is in great need of healing, which can only occur with an awareness of and a turning towards God. I am trying to figure out if I can best help in a contemplative order (i.e.- through prayer in reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus), or through a more active apostolate (i.e.- actively spreading the Gospel message in the U.S.). I am torn. Do you have any insight on this? Thank you, and God bless you.

- MaryAnn

A. Dear MaryAnn,

I believe thoroughly in what you say about both the spiritual needs and global importance of the U.S. The impact of the U.S. in the world, the “culture” we export, makes it most urgent that we heal ourselves at home, renewing everything we are with the light of Christ in his Gospel - and that is the light we should project. A shining city on a hill.

That is going to take a lot of work by a lot of people on many levels: the prayer and sacrifice of contemplatives; the active work of religious, from the compassionate healing of those who care for the sick and infected to the dedication of those who educate; the priest in the confessional and priests and laity who spread the word of God; the personal commitment of parents to the formation of each one of their children; and the commitment of lay Catholics in all walks of society to conduct themselves first and foremost as followers of Christ.

Where you will fit in is a very personal discovery. Christ already has it in mind, but you have to discover it. The only way to do that is to start from where you are. Both of the needs you see are real, so you are not going to be able to figure it out by just asking which is best to take care of. Pray to the Holy Spirit for light. Tell him you don’t want what is easier for you but what he leads you to. You really do need the help of a spiritual director. And you need to visit the places you are thinking about in order to give the Holy Spirit a chance to speak more directly and clearly to your soul.

God bless.

- Fr Anthony

Look to the heights, and rise up from the mud of this earth with your hearts focused solely on what is noble and holy. Scale the peaks and you will command a broader view. Climb higher, and as you do, the virtues of the Heart of Christ will increase in you. Your charity, humility, obedience, a life of prayer and union with God ..., will all grow. The enormous valleys that separate us from our divine Model will be filled in. We will be able to be close to God, fill ourselves with him, and give him to souls, building his Realm of love.

I wish I was able like an eagle to teach my children to soar to the heavens, to reach the zenith and gaze directly at the Divine Sun, so as to fill themselves with its light and then radiate it throughout the world. Yes, I want only saints and more saints in our Institute because only saints can do something for Christ. We need many, so many saints, because only saints love Jesus, and I want to see him greatly loved and glorified by countless numbers of you.

My boiling passion to see him reign drives me desperately to want all of you, and all the generations to come, to be holy. The mission we are called to, the expectations of Holy Mother Church, the hopes that Christ and people have placed in us, drive me to pray without ceasing, imploring almighty God to make you truly holy; they oblige me to beseech you in the name of the very love of Christ who chose us for such a high calling, to give yourselves without any reservation to the task of becoming holy.

Gospel: Mt 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Introductory Prayer: Lord, help me to accept you as you are with an open mind and an open heart. Give me the grace to respond to your voice in my life, so that I can be a servant in your plan to transmit your message to my brothers and sisters.

Petition: My Father in Heaven and my God, give me the gift of faith in the resurrection of your Son, Jesus the Christ, who goes to plead for me at your right hand.

1. Galilean Faith

The disciples go to Galilee; what is the meaning of Galilee? “Those who lived in darkness have seen a great light,” it is said of this place in Scripture. A world that tries to be an end in itself apart from its Creator is also a dead end. The world is terrorized by death and refusal to obey or believe, because it has closed itself to God, and man has no hope without him. By rejecting God man rejects the supernatural finality of his life. Christ has come to bring light to those who live in this darkness. The disciples are learning, since each of the appearances of our Lord has led to faith. This faith has tremendous demands and consequences for the eleven disciples in this passage and also for us.

2. Resurrection – The New Challenge

The disciples are tried by the radical fact of the resurrection. Some hesitate, as is mentioned again and again in the biblical accounts of Easter Sunday. Some, the Gospel says, refuse to believe on hearing. It was beyond the possibility of the natural that Jesus rise from the dead. It is in a sense impossible. In hearing that Christ had risen, the disciples are asked to believe in an entirely new reality, a reality that can be seen only with the assistance of faith. But faith also requires humility of openness to what I can’t personally know and requires faith in the one who announces the message. To believe is to experience what the witness testifies to.

3. Jesus, Adam, and I

To go make disciples of the nations, to teach, to baptize, and to have them observe all that was commanded by Our Lord. To know the truth requires us to live up to it with authenticity, with responsibility. In the realm of faith, the truth about Our Lord’s divinity leads us to proclaim it because this is what he has commanded. Spiritual maturity - coherence between what we say, what we believe and what we do about it - is a duty for an adult Christian. The first Adam was asked to do obey and to work in the garden that God made for him. His sin shows incoherence between what he knew himself to be and what he did. Christ sends us out to renew the world by announcing to men the reality of God and his death and resurrection for us in the only Son. It can be very tempting to do nothing. If we do nothing, we do not believe, because if we believe, we believe in and heed the command that was given.

Dialogue:

Lord, give me a faith that is active. So many times I walk in darkness because I live for myself and not your Kingdom. Transform me into your messenger to the world, as you did with the eleven disciples. Enlighten my interior so that though I walk in the valley of darkness I fear no evil, for you are with me. You are within me through this indwelling of the Holy Spirit; grant me the light to know your will.

Questionnaire:

1. Am I capable of seeing the signs that God sends into my life? How supernatural of an outlookdo I have? Is it one that puts me in God’s loving providence?

2. How often do I excercise my faith so as to see in the men and women around me the Creator’s image? Do I realize the importance of their getting to Heaven?

3. What have I done to follow Jesus' command of teaching the whole world?

Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it , and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:34-39)

Many people find this passage scandalous and confusing. Isn’t Christ the Prince of Peace? Didn’t the angels announce and sing Peace on Earth at his birth? So how come this contradiction? Doesn’t he want us to be happy? Isn’t Christian living a thing of joy, of resurrection? Then how come these dire predictions?

To have some chance of understanding what Christ says here we have to go back to the core of his message in the Beatitudes.

In the Beatitudes (you’ll find them in Matthew 5:1-12) we have Christ’s formula for happiness, and reading them leaves us in no doubt that his way of thinking is very different from the world’s. The world says we have to have things, be on top, be filled, have it easy if we are to be happy. Christ speaks about poverty and persecution as the keys to happiness.

Obviously he approaches things differently than the world, and that is the case too, when he speaks here about peace and war.

In the passage we have quoted, Christ is speaking about the real consequences that would take place when people started to follow him. He is telling us that there is a true peace and there is a false peace. The true peace is to be found in him and in paying the price necessary to possess him; the false peace is when we put him aside in order to have peaceful coexistence with our families and fellow men.

So in this passage Christ not only repeats what is said in the one from Luke - that we cannot have him if we put something else in first place, he also tells us that in doing that consistently we are going to have a certain amount of problems with those around us who don’t take kindly to our choices.

But in our fidelity to him we will find our peace.

Upcoming Events & Retreats

(( Listed here are retreats directed by the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi members. For a listing of diocesan activities and other events, click here to go to the vocation.com website ))

LEGIONARIES OF CHRIST

Cheshire, CT, June 5-16, 2003, Local Candidacy for Young Men. Contact Br Branigan Sherman at vocation@legionaries.org or (800) 420-5409 for more information.

Pasadena, CA, June 5-16, 2003, Local Candidacy for Young Men. Contact Fr Thomas Maher at tmaher@legionaries.org or (626) 792-0447 for more information.

Cheshire, CT, June 27-29, 2003, Test Your Call Retreat. Ages 16-30. Contact Br Branigan Sherman at vocation@legionaries.org or at (800) 420-5409. Price: none.

Cornwall, ONT, June 27-29, 2003, Test Your Call Retreat. Ages 16-30. Contact Fr William Slattery at wslattery@legionaries.org or at (613) 931-1920. Price: none.

REGNUM CHRISTI consecrated women

Washington DC, July 1, 2003, Young Women's Spiritual Growth Retreat. Ages 17-30. Contact Lucy Honnor at lhonnor@inteducators.org or (301) 536-6931.

REGNUM CHRISTI consecrated men

Call Tony McDonnell for more information, (301) 365-3205. amacdonnell@arcol.org.

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