The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away

On Friday I fell into sin. Immediately after, I lost my wallet. I accepted this as just punishment for what I had done (I'm usually not that spiritually mature). On Sunday, I did something kind for someone. Immediately after, I found my wallet.

No one in this world knew about both actions and wallet, but perhaps Someone elsewhere thought I needed stronger guidance than usual. I believe that all the events of our lives can contribute to our sanctification. Usually the connection is subtler than this, though.

As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord, all-wise, all-loving, all-merciful, all-just, all-holy.

Kenosis

He must increase, but I must decrease. [John 3:30]

Take from us, O Lord:
all greed, all envy, all malice;
all anger, all lust, all pride;
all preoccupation with this world
and all timorous fear of becoming holy.
Take from us our heart of stone
and breath into us the living Spirit,
clean and fruitful,
animating us us with a kindly charity and hope,
so that we may say with the apostle:
"And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me."

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Pray for us, Spirit-filled baptizer of our Lord,
that our contrition and conversion
may be sincere and thorough
and that we may persevere
through the trials of this life,
acknowledging our faults, doing penance,
and following the way of the Lord faithfully.

We ask this in the name of thy holy kinsman
Jesus our Lord,
Who has lifted thee and all the saints to Heaven,
where He reigns with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Ghost,
blessing all who dwell there
with gifts of joy and understanding.

Amen.

Water into Wine

On this Sunday we remember the wedding at Cana. This event includes the first recorded miracle of our Lord and the last recorded words of our Lady.

On the third day of his public ministry, Jesus and his disciples were invited to a wedding. Mary His mother was there too. When they ran short of wine, she spoke with her son, and at her intercession, He turned water into wine. As with the miracles that followed, this was no random magic trick, but was an exercise of Divine power that revealed something of the Divine plan.

Above all, it is a foreshadowing of his last miracle, also a miracle of "good wine", the third cup of the passover meal which He celebrated with His disciples, the cup of redemption that held no ordinary wine, but by God's mercy held the Precious Blood shed for our salvation.

At every Mass, the chalice holds the Precious Blood, a gift freely given, so that we might be unified in Christ, and raised to a greater dignity than we now display, raised so high as to even share in the Divine life and enter heaven at the end of our days.

The miracle of the Mass is a miracle of water and wine, recalling the water and the blood that flowed from our Lord's side at his crucifixion. The priest adds a drop of water to the cup of wine about to be consecrated. Saint Thomas says that the wine signifies Christ's blood, and the water, the people (ST III, q 74, art. 6). In a sense, the water is changed to wine in the cup. It is still present, but it has become one with the wine, and cannot be separated from it. May we be so joined to the True Vine [John 15:5], Christ our Lord, and give forth fruit abundantly. [Galatians 5:22-23, also Romans 1:13 and Colossians 1:6]

In marriage, man and a woman are inseparably joined for life. Choosing a wedding as the setting for His first miracle emphasized the unfailing, self-sacrificing love the Lord has for His chosen bride Israel [Mark 2:19, Ephesians 5:22-33]. His presence at the wedding also sanctioned marriage as a holy and honorable institution.

In the Bible, seven is the number of perfection and covenant, and one less than that is the number of imperfection. Some people note that six empty jars were filled, and consider that a symbol of the imperfection of the old law, and the emptiness it left in God's people, which is filled up beyond all expectations by the new wine of Christ.

However imperfect the materials at hand were, the Lord did not reject them, but worked with them and through them and filled them to the brim with His gift to bring joy to people who needed his help.

At that time, then, Jesus made of water wine, and both then and now He ceases not to change our weak and unstable wills. For there are, yes, there are men who in nothing differ from water, so cold, and weak, and unsettled. But let us bring those of such disposition to the Lord, that He may change their will to the quality of wine, so that they be no longer washy, but have body, and be the cause of gladness in themselves and others. But who can these cold ones be? They are those who give their minds to the fleeting things of this present life...
Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 22

To strengthen the association of the wedding on the third day with our Lord's passion, it could be noted that the very next event described in the Gospel of Saint John is the cleansing of the temple, where a three day period is again mentioned, this time explicitly linked to our Lord's death and resurrection.

The positive response of Jesus to our Lady's intercession should increase our confidence that her prayers can help us, too.

Finally, it might be noted that while His disciples' faith was strengthened by His miracle, most of those in attendance at the wedding were not followers of the Lord. But all benefitted, for God loves all, and sends rain for the just and unjust alike [Matthew 5:45].

(Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4).
(As I was finishing this post, I discovered an excellent series of excerpts on this same subject from Fulton Sheen's Life of Christ, posted by the Happy Catholic: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)


I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Isaiah 55:1

The wedding at Cana is one of the new luminous mysteries of the Rosary in the expanded version of the Rosary introduced by Pope John Paul II, and is also one of the meditations in the now rarely prayed Eastern Orthodox rosary.

Learning Christ

Intending to go somewhere else, this morning, when I turned on the computer, I went straight to this bookstore's website and this prayer:

Teach me, my Lord,
to be sweet and gentle
in all the events of life -
in disappointments,
in the thoughtlessness of others,
in the insincerity of those I trusted,
in the unfaithfulness of those on whom I relied.

Let me put myself aside,
to think of the happiness of others
to hide my little pains and heartaches,
so that I may be the only one to suffer from them.

Teach me to profit by the suffering
that comes across my path.
Let me so use it that it may mellow me,
not harden nor embitter me;
that it may make me more patient,
not irritable.
That it may make me broad in my forgiveness,
not narrow, haughty and overbearing.

May no one be less good
for having come within my influence.
No one less pure, less true, less kind, less noble
for having been a fellow-traveler
in our journey toward ETERNAL LIFE.

As I go my rounds
from one distraction to another,
let me whisper from time to time,
a word of love to Thee.

May my life be lived in the supernatural,
full of power for good,
and strong in its purpose of sanctity.

Fasting from Anger

Being a lover of meekness no less than of wisdom, I determined within myself to spend some days without yielding to anger; just as I might have bound myself to abstain from drunkenness and wine, as is the custom in certain feasts, where the use of this drink is forbidden. I next continued to exert special efforts for one or two months, and made short trials of my strength. Thus, in course of time, I came to bear with greater troubles and annoyances, being able to maintain my mastery over myself, so as to remain calm, gentle, and devoid of all anger. By these means I kept myself unstained by evil words, debasing actions, and the shameless lusts which, for a passing gratification, leave the soul pierced through and through with deep remorse and poignant regrets.

- Plutarch (as quoted by Fr. John Baptist Scaramelli, S.J.)

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In my own eccentric and wavering path towards perfection, I hope to use Plutarch's example as a model; anger is my predominant fault and sin. When the anger of my heart is tamed, I hope next to cultivate a greater gratitude towards the Lord for the good things He has given me.

I went to confession today. I never mentioned ingratitude as a problem, but the priest taught me a little prayer for patience that included thanksgiving. I was pleased to see my current goal and next goal thus tied together, and the gift of that prayer in itself helped me a little towards gratitude.

Being not necessarily the sharpest tack in the box, I immediately forgot the prayer, but I remember the general idea.

Thank you God; I'm sorry for my sins. Please help me more.

+++

I hope the Holy Ghost guides you gently but irresistibly towards becoming the saint that you are meant to be, good reader.

What is essential is invisible to the eye

Posted by Diogenes in Off the Record:

... But worshiping the body of Jesus under the species of bread also coaches us in a particular disconnect between appearance and reality, where the underlying reality is infinitely more precious than the surface appearance. Now it's comparatively easy to minister to poor people when they're cooperative and grateful and make the minister feel a sense of accomplishment. But sometimes, we're told, they're cantankerous to the point of being positively repellent. That's the point at which the self-congratulatory do-gooders quit and go home and where the real charity kicks in. That's the point at which it's impossible to see the face of Jesus in the destitute (or sick, or deranged) except as a pure act of faith. And that's the point at which it matters whether Jesus is divine or not, because belief in the repulsively disguised spark of divinity is the only reason to keep on giving love in exchange for contempt.

Persevere in running the race

Today's reading:

Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him Jesus endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.

The Letter to the Hebrews continues:

And you have forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? —

‘My son,
do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
or lose heart when you are punished by Him;
for the Lord disciplines him whom He loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.’

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled.

In this long wait for the restoration of the Traditional Mass, grant us, O Lord, patient and peaceful hearts.