The Church begins the Lenten imposing the ashes to the faithful. With this, wants to remind us of our mortal condition ed invitarci alla penitenza. La meditazione proposta è tratta da un'opera di P. Gaston Courtois (1897-1970) sui tempi liturgici. Sebbene l'Autore, sacerdote di profonda preghiera, si rivolga principalmente alle religiose, questi semplici e vibranti pensieri sono indirizzati a qualunque battezzato che senta la necessità di sostare in silenzio per incontrare e dialogare con il Maestro. ***
La santa Quaresima, che richiama i quaranta giorni di Gesù nel deserto, ci prepara ad associarci più profondamente alle sofferenze redentrici della Passione di Cristo, in vista di farci partecipare più abbondantemente alle gioie della Resurrezione durante il tempo di Pasqua.
La Grazia particolare di questo tempo di Quaresima, è l'aumento in noi dello spirito di penitenza.
Potremo raggrupare le nostre riflessioni intorno a queste tre idee:
1° Gesù ha praticato lo spirito di penitenza.
2° Gesù l'ha domandato a tutti coloro che l'amavano.
3° Gesù ce lo chiede.
1. - Gesù ha praticato lo spirito di penitenza Prima di predicare la penitenza al mondo, Gesù ha voluto darci l'esempio. Ha incominciato a fare, prima di insegnare.
Coepit facere et docere (Atti 1, 1).
Una frase di S. Paolo riassume la sua attitudine profonda:
Christus non sibi placuit (Rom. 15,3). "Il Christ himself never sought. "
So he appeared
a) In his private life.
b) In his public life.
c) In his life suffering.
a) in his private life
Contempliamolo mystery of the Incarnation in and adoration. As God, without all the limitations imposed on the creature and every subject matter, he agrees to become flesh,
et Verbum caro factum est to take a soul and a body like ours in the virginal womb of a woman.
The Te Deum
expresses this in terms that are almost impossible to translate: Tu Rex
Glori æ
Christe: not horruisti Virginis uterum ; e la liturgia indirizzandosi a Maria sottolinea il contrasto: Colui che i cieli non possono contenere, tu l'hai tenuto chiuso in te stessa.
Quem c æ
li capere non poterant, tuo gremio contulisti. San Paolo approfondisce maggiormente quando scrive: (Fil. 2, 6-7) "Egli che era di condizione divina, non si è rivalso della sua parità con Dio. Egli si è annientato prendendo condizione di servitore e facendosi simile agli uomini". Egli era tutto, e si ridusse allo stato di niente,
Exinanivit semetipsum , condividendo i disagi e le necessità della natura umana, accettando di essere sottomesso da bambino, da giovanetto, da apprendista e da operaio che guadagna la sua vita materiale col sudore della fronte.
Egli avrebbe potuto nascere almeno come la maggior parte degli uomini, un una casa normale; invece è in una stalla, in pieno inverno e nella notte ch'Egli nasce e la sua piccola infanzia è quella d'un proscritto, d'uno "spostato" in un paese straniero.
A Nazareth, Egli avrebbe potuto avere una vita più facile. La sua intelligenza, che dopo il Suo pellegrinaggio a Gerusalemme stupì i dottori della legge, avrebbe potuto fornirgli una situazione privilegiata. Ma Egli ha voluto condurre, prima dei trent'anni una vita dura, povera, oscura,
Christus non sibi placuit . "Cristo non ha ricercato se stesso".
b) NELLA SUA VITA PUBBLICA
Finally, comes the hour when he can leave his village and announce to the crowd this time the word of God, is the apostolic life, with joy elated, with the miracles that multiply the loaves, heal sick, raise the dead. There are so many bodies from gurire, many souls to be lit, so many hearts to be purified! "Come quickly Lord, look at all these people who needs to see you, to listen, occarVi. Well! No, he begins his public life by asking to John the Baptist's baptism with repentance and go into the desert for forty days of silence, prayer and fasting.
Postei esuriit , says S. Matthew (Matthew 4, 2). What a wonderful thing!
After many weeks of fasting, he experienced true hunger, that this searing pain that gnaws and torments, that from the bottom of the intestines contracts, hunger cries during the day. This hunger had to be very strong, because he admitted the later (because how could they know if the apostles had said so himself bib?) And to top it all, he accepts the humiliation of being tried three times since devil.
Finally he begins his preaching, but his days are terrible burden! He has just time to eat and he often spends the night in prayer, the mountain alone. Walking along the countryside of Judea and Galilee. He knows from experience the exhausting labors of the apostolate. It 's so tired that some days he sleeps in the boat with his fists and despite the storm, in Samaria, he sits exhausted on the edge of Jacob's well.
But what is more painful for him to hunger, fatigue or thirst, is the hardness of hearts, the versatility of the crowd, the imcomprensione suoim of the growing hostility of those who should be more aid to restore the kingdom of God , ie the priests and Israelites conformists of the time.
c) in his suffering life
Especially the suffering spreads her life, in all its dimensions, its spirit of penance.
The first is the penance of the heart betrayed by one of the twelve from He himself had chosen and dearly beloved
Amice, quid to come? , before which he had knelt to wash his feet, which after having sold for thirty pieces of silver, it will indicate to the soldiers with a kiss. Renegade
three times that Peter had established as head of the apostolic group, had proclaimed to Peter that "even when all others abandon you, I will never leave you" and solemnly declared in the courtyard of the high priest, "Truly I say to you not even heard of that man! " (And you might as well list the cries of the Sanhedrin "to death, he cursed," the mockery of the court of Herod, who treats him as insane, the feeble Pilate's hesitation, the screams of the crowd who prefer Barabbas to him and that marks the cry of hate "to be crucified").
Penance of the soul crushed by the weight of all the sins of the world, and took charge of atonement before the Father, tormented by the thought that his suffering will be eternally useless for a number of people who freely reject His love. "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me," "Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me?".
Penance of the body and here you should list all the brutality of which is made subsequent to the spitting and the blows of the servants of Caiaphas, to the painful blows of flogging, which reduced his body to a single wound bleeding from head to toe, from the grotesque coronha thorns stuck in my head, until the nails sunk in the hands and feet. And finally, the terrifying three-hour agony on the Cross:
Consummatum east. "It is finished". I have done my duty to you now the fulfillment of your.
2. - Jesus has asked all those who love a) to his mother.
b) to his apostles.
c) To all the saints.
a) A MOTHER
No other son will love as Jesus loved his mother Mary. And therefore, asked to practice the spirit of penance so that it was most closely shared in His work redemptive.
When we pray the rosary, we contemplate the sorrowful mysteries, but also the joyful mysteries involving an element of sacrifice, so much so that here on earth, the greatest joys have always been a shadow of a thorn.
look, for example, the Annunciation. The angel announced to Mary that will be the Mother of the Saviour. Mary is troubled: it is restless because he has taken a vow of virginity. "How can this happen if I do not know man?" but they also crowd (after being assured on this point) because he knows the prophecy of Isaiah and Psalm 21, which shows the suffering of the expected Messiah. She knows how her pregnancy will be painful, and it is an act of humility that gives his answer:
Ecce ... Fiat , which seems to be the prelude of 'Ecce
and
Fiat of Calvary.
And Visitation? Definitely great is the joy of Mary, glad to see implemented on the prediction of the angel next maternity of her cousin Elizabeth and this joy explodes in triumphant song of thanksgiving that this is the Magnificat. But back, as intimate and silent suffering anxiety as a legitimate front of St. Joseph!
The Nativity? The angels sing the joy of divine birth and Mary consoles. The shepherds and the wise men first then huddle around the little baby.
Mary is especially happy to be able to squeeze between his arms as he who loves his God, and who can love like His Son. But how much worry and pain cause unexpected journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, looking anxious and useless of suitable accommodation for the night, the inconvenience of the cave which served as a stable and nauseating, already in the distance, the profile of the massacre of the Holy Innocents and the hasty departure for Egypt.
and the Presentation in the Temple? Surely it is the great joy of Mary in the present on the steps of the Temple, his blessed Son, but this baby is pure and immaculate Host, which will be offered in a bloody day for the redemption of Israel and the whole world, Simeon is there to remind the giovane madre che una spada trapasserà il suo cuore.
E il ritrovamento di Gesù? Grande è la gioia nel ritrovare chi era perduto, ma dopo quali ore di angoscia: "Tuo padre ed io, addolorati, ti cercavamo" (Luca 2, 48).
Certamente, la dolce intimità del focolare di Nazareth compensava tutte le tristezze di una famiglia povera e laboriosa. Ma venne il giorno in cui fu necessario rinunciare a questa intimità, quando Gesù cominciò la sua vita pubblica dedicandosi agli "affari" del Padre.
In disparte e discretamente, Maria seguì i pellegrinaggi del Figlio, ma solo epr partecipare nel suo cuore ai successi apostolici di Gesù e soffrire con Lui alle risposte talvolta deludenti della libertà to calls from the human and divine tenderness.
During the Passion, she was there, courageous lover in her grief at the first turn of the path that led to Calvary.
She was there standing at the foot of the Cross, to participate in all the pain of the crucifixion, the horrors of agony:
Stabat Mater Dolorosa. She was there to receive the arms the mangled body of one who, more than any man for his mother, was very flesh of his flesh.
Finally, it was Easter morning, she found her son in the glory of the Resurrection. Hoped to him no matter what, but Jesus asks her to stay a few more years on this earth of exile, to watch over the cradle of the early Church, as he had protected the days of his childhood.
And his answer is always the same: "
Ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum .
b) HIS APOSTLES
The apostles were very proud to have been chosen by the young master, so beautiful, so compelling. Jesus spoke so well, was so great miracles, commanded the winds and the storm, and had communicated to them something of his power over the devil. And then the case was to hope that one day, he would have driven the current authorities, would inaugurate the kingdom of Israel and, on that day, thought to have a good charge in the government of the country. Justice was, after everything after being with him in pain, honors with him
Waits Jesus will soon disillusioned: "My kingdom is not of this world." Oh! Jesus will work hard to make them understand his thoughts, re-arranging things at the right point, he does not mumbles words: "If anyone wants to be my disciple, to renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16, 24). "If you do not repent you will all perish" (Luke 13, 5). "Blessed be you, when you are persecuted for my sake" (Matthew 5, 11).
Only after Pentecost, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles understood, and then were the first to rejoice When, suffered from the the name of Jesus (Acts 5, 41).
The texts of the letters of St. Peter and St. James show effectively the spirit of the early Christians
"You exult with joy, the same great joy, even if you aflitti by various trials" (1 Peter 1, 6).
'E' to please God and about Him that we must endure various tests that are being imposed unfairly "(1 Peter 2, 19).
"Do not you see, my brothers, but a source of joy in the various tests that can happen to you" (James 1, 2).
While Saul, after being landed on the road to Damascus, has taken refuge in the house of Judah in the way of "The Straight", the Lord warns Ananias and responds to concerns legality of its faithful knew that the spirit and zeal of the persecutors, 'Go, because he is a tool I chose to carry my name before the nations, and kings and the sons of Israel, I will show it, how much penalty he must suffer for My name "(Acts 9, 15, 16).
Indeed, Saint Paul made the announcement and it is He who expresses, for future generations, the formulas decisive of the Christian spirit of penance.
"Those who are sunk in the pursuit of pleasure, can not please God" (Romans 8, 8).
"Those who are with Christ, crucified the flesh with all its desires" (Gal. 5: 24).
"Pursuing the mortification of Christ in our flesh, made manifest in our body His living presence "(2 Cor. 4, 10).
" subject my body and bring it into subjection, lest after having preached to others, and I lay condemned "( 1 Cor. 9, 27).
"I urge you, brethren, by the divine mercy, to offer your bodies as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God" (Rom. 12, 1).
"Put to death, then, your members "(Col. 3, 5).
c) ALL SAINTS
All the apostles, martyrs all echoed with their life and their death in these strong words.
Sant'Andrea before the cross, she throws herself on her knees and exclaimed:
"Oh, blessed Cross, long desired, and now raised to fulfill all my desires, I come to you in peace and joy. Uphold me, yourself, nell'allegrezza, since the Master was nailed to the wood."
(6th Lesson of Matins, 30 November)
St. Ignatius of Antioch condemned to be devoured by wild beasts, he rejoiced in being torn from their teeth and thus become "the ferment of Christ ".
All Saints, All Saints, has practiced, in particular, a definite virtue, but no one has any or, at the same time, forgotten the spirit of penance. For
Santa Caterina da Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Jane de Chantal, St. Margaret Mary, Saint Madeleine-Sophie Barat, the spirit of repentance is an essential element of spiritual life. And it would be sufficient to read the "Story of a Soul", to perceive that Santa Teresa of the Child Jesus, was that manly mind, since his childhood he practiced in a heroic sacrifice.
The history of the founders and their writings are true messages that illustrate the different eras and different forms of religious life, the Holy delivery of the Savior: "Penance, health condition and apostolate."
3. - Jesus asks us
1) For ourselves
2) For the souls that We are reliable;
3) For himself.
1) FOR OURSELVES
a) As a scapegoat for our past sins.
b) As a preventive measure against future temptations.
c) As a condition of rejoicing for what God has put us in better.
a) as scapegoats for our past sins.
A first admit that hard truth is that we are all sinners. But even if by the grace of the Lord, we have avoided the "sins of rupture," which are mortal sins, there are still many indelicacy in our lives to him. When one reflects the holiness and transcendence, the infinite love of a God who so loved us, and when we think back to our deafness to his calls and the times in which we have neglected its service, we have no reason to be proud, especially since we should not judge the sins only by the categories of moral casuistry.
Every sin is an offense against God, but we must distinguish between what might be called the fault of the material and the insult from the heart. There are, of course, of great sinners who commit sins huge, but they are often more formal material because it does not make you never fully realize the gravity of what we commit,
remember the words of Jesus on Calvary: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do. "
The excuse there and only the Lord knows them: heavy legacy, bad education, scandals that have marked the young child, bad example, bad advice, etc..
why we never right to throw the stone on others and believing superior.
I wonder if they, in our place, with all the graces we have received, with all the kindness that the heart of Jesus has bestowed on us, would not have been better than us.
And who knows if we in their place, with all that has influenced them to evil, we would be superior to them!
We are privileged and have received much more than any other man. We should not glorify us, but humble, because we got more and more the Lord is right to expect from us and our indelicacy about him, wound him most of the great sin of a poor man who does not realize what it does: that we have researched every Voltas us themselves, in the absence of zeal, humility or charity, we have grieved His heart divine.
Sure, the offense is completely erased, destroyed by the forgiveness of Jesus turned to the soul.
When God forgives our sins no longer exist in front of him, but if the acquittal remove this offense, but does not eliminate the need to compensate with the penance of disrupted ourselves research that produced it. Already penance sacramentale anche se consiste solo in una breve preghiera, costituisce un primo mezzo per riparare i torti fatti a Dio e alla comunità cristiana, inserendo il nostro sforzo nell'espiazione di Cristo e della Sua Chiesa.
Ma è tutta la nostra vita che deve completare quets'opera di riparazione, poichè ciò che noi non possiamo espiare quaggiù al prezzo della misericordia, dovremo più tardi pagarlo in Purgatorio al prezzo della Giustizia. Donec reddas novissimum quadrantem . "Finchè non avrai pagato l'ultimo centesimo" (Matteo 5, 26).
E' dunque nel nostro interesse, rispondere con amore, fin da ora, all'invito misericordioso del Divin Maestro.
b) A titolo preventivo against future temptations.
long as we are on earth, we are confirmed in grace.
Whatever our desires to do well, our current good provisions and also the purity and innocence of our lives, we must be on guard (1 Cor. 10, 12).
remember the words of the full experience of St. Peter in his letter - words that the Church does pray every night at Compline: Sober estote et supervised - "Be sober, be vigilant to ensure that you have an adversary, the devil, who turns around you like a roaring lion, seeking to devour: Resist the force of your will resting on faith "(1 Peter 5, 8, 9). There is no
who has not, for a moment, experienced the temptation. This is not going crazy or frightened: it is to know and take into account. At times, it can also take the form of a feverish obsession. Of course, we will never be so tempted beyond our strength and grace to win today, there will, but if we did not take the "fold" to sacrifice, we risk not correspond to this grace. Large
moral victories, can not be improvised: they are the fruit of a dark mutitudine small victories gained in various moments of everyday life.
When you are not trained to take mortification when, little by little, we let ourselves be charmed by the taste of wealth or search of comfort and when you multiply the left instead of cowardice Small small efforts that the Lord asks us, to weaken the will. It is at the mercy of the caprices of the imagination, impulses.
who is not master of himself, can become a slave to what is less good in him. We remember this golden rule: To be ready to refuse a forbidden pleasure, you know, from time to time, to be deprived of a pleasure permission.
He who does not refuse anything that does not practice penance, will risk the moment the decision to take the path of easy slope.
c) As a condition of rejoicing for what God has better in us
If the sacrifice is a consequence of the spirit of penance, it is never the goal, the real purpose is to love. Like Father Plus
says: "The sacrifice does not diminish the man, he rises, as it removes all that prevents the climb, and work to replace the" I "selfish with" Christ "is not to reduce his life, but multiply forever. "
Happiness is not the blind satisfaction of every desire that can emerge in our consciousness, but in collaboration with Grace to enlarge Quesi all hidden values, which are the fruit of the virtues necessary, to develop the germs of living faith, hope burning and burning charity, that God has placed in us in baptism, and to achieve the admirable plan of love that has established creating us and calling us to religious life.
2) FOR OTHER
That is, for all those souls, known and unknown that God has entrusted to us.
We must practice the spirit of penance in their favor:
a) In order to fix their mistakes;
b) As evidence of authenticity of our message;
c) As a condition of development dell'aspostolato missionary.
a) In order to fix their mistakes
our brotherly love to get to the point of asking ourselves the sacrifices that can serve as an atonement for the their sins, thus reducing the weight more or less of the overwhelming suffering that is the consequence for everyone, because every peccayo is a social sin which increases the amount of suffering humanity. Salary mors sins - "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6, 23).
Through the mystery of the communion of saints we can atone for others to help bring down the display of pride, selfishness, impurity, which prevents the rays of grace to go and touch the leather.
b) As evidence of authenticity of our message
Sacrifice atone. It gives the religious a moral authority that allows it to wisely advise the souls that are difficult or painful moments in the trust.
How to get from this young girl or the sacrifice that is imposed if it is not used to the humiliation? Let us have no illusions: if intuition to feel the souls of our lives, even hidden, a testament to our thought.
How to help a mother to carry her burden of Christian concerns, fatigue and sometimes terrible trials, if we are content with an easy life, which prevents us from even understanding of what actually may be the suffering of others and then to understand it?
In those moments the words used for any occasion can do more harm than good, it would be better to remain silent. "We are wounds that can be touched only with hands passed by the nails, "said Father Plus Only those who are accustomed to the surrender, they can unite and become one with those who suffer.
c) As a condition of development of the missionary
The apostolic effectiveness does not follow the rules of the productivity of human affairs. Fine words, large organizations, parties, works, institutions, are all good things, but if it is not Jesus, and Jesus crucified, speaks through our lips, that love through our heart, which is given through our devotion, our work could not continue to act nor in depth.
On the other hand, there are islands of resistance that can only be achieved with blows of penance. The Lord himself has come true: "There are kinds of evil that can only be driven out by fasting and prayer" (Matthew, 17, 21).
One day, the brothers close to the Cure of Ars, went to visit him and said: "We do not know what to do: we have tried everything to improve the state of our parishes. We have multiplied the catechism classes, offices, sermons but the parishes continue to be bad, there are still places where people behave badly, and so on. How did you make your Christian village that was one of the most evil? " And the Cure of Ars said to them: "You fasted, made sacrifices? You have humiliated? ".
E 'through the Cross that Jesus saved the world, it is always through the Cross that can save souls. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it bears no fruit. The prayer request, but the penance get.
The ministry lived with sacrifice is the most effective missionary apostolate.
3) FOR JESUS \u200b\u200b'THAT
a) As a proof of love;
b) to participate in the His redemptive work;
c) As a condition of intimacy with Him
a) As evidence of love for Him who so loved
We reflected how far we have been loved by him and not everyone in general, but each of them separately?
There is no proof of greater love than to lay down his life for those who love us, and He loved us up to that point.
Each of us can hear the word of Angela of Foligno places on his lips: "It's not a joke that I loved you."
Our sacrifice Jesus tells our true love.
b) way of participation in His redemptive work
We must take our share in the redemption of the world. Certainly Jesus, as it is God has given to His sacrifice of infinite value.
He fixed everything, but now it is applied to the souls of every generation the fruits of this redemption.
The price of atonement of Christ gives value to our sacrifice to the extent that we are united to him, but it compensates. With infinite delicacy, the Savior wanted to depend on our freedom input, the actual effectiveness of His Passion.
St Paul had understood, he summarizes in the Epistle to the Colossians that the whole doctrine of participation in this redemptive work: "I perform in my flesh what is lacking wing His Passion through His Body, the Church "(Col. 1, 24).
c) As a condition of intimacy with Him The more we are conformed to Christ with a true love and sacrifice that goes up to more can penetrate the secret of divine love, whose highest expression is the Calvary.
There is no exchange of love that you are alone on the Cross and penance is the deepest secret of the favors of the Savior. The Lord does not let himself never beat generosity. When he sees a soul really happy to take advantage of every opportunity, big or small, to give up on itself, he drew her to him. Divine Intimacy is the reward of those who are in the disposition not to refuse anything.
"I will give much more often because of deep union with Me, if you will be mortified souls," said our Lord to St. Margaret Mary. Far from obfuscation
our soul, lo spirito di penitenza attira il Signore e ci fa partecipare fin da ora alla Sua gioia in attesa della gloria eterna.
