Quinquagesima
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Epistle, 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 Gospel, Luke 18:31-43
St.
Matthew records the incident when Christ went out in a boat with His Disciples.
A storm came up and the boat was covered with waves. (Matthew 8: 24) Those waves are like temptations to sin and we
live our lives like little boats in a storm. Waves of temptation will slam into
us all our lives, and we are not totally safe from shipwreck until our lives
end. St. Antony, who retired from the world into the Egyptian desert, was
allowed to see devils passing by in the air, thousands of them, roaming throughout
the world seeking the destruction of souls, as we say in our prayer to St.
Michael after Mass.
Watch
and pray we are told. If we want to please God and save our souls we will meet
two important things that we must understand. First, the large number of devils
who surround us and how eager they are to destroy our soul. The second thing is
how carelessly we live among the waves of temptation we are faced with every
day. Jesus told St. Peter in Gethsemani just before He was arrested, “Watch ye,
and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” (Matthew 28:
41) So what enemies should we watch for and fear the most?
People
who would damage our reputation by slander, those who would steal from us, even
those who try to kill us are not our real enemies. They are tools that God uses
to give us the opportunity to practice humility, meekness, charity and
patience. These people will be the cause of our getting into Heaven if we
accept them in this Christian spirit.
Our
real enemies are those who try to rob our soul of innocence, to kill our soul
in the sight of God and to cast it into hell. We even carry these enemies inside
ourselves. These invisible enemies are the ones we have to avoid the most and
constantly be on guard against. What are
they? Look at how we like to boast about our possessions, how we have more than
other people, or how we boast that our work is better than others’ – we are
overly prideful. Look at how we’re offended when someone makes a joke at our
expense – our self esteem is injured. We have envy, when we are sad that our friend does better
than we. If we are glad when something bad happens to someone we don’t like –
that is hatred. And what about right now
at Mass? We come here to worship God, but how many other things are we thinking
about? Things we have to do later today or during the coming week. These are
some of our secret enemies.
Now
let’s talk about external enemies. Everything has been created by God for our
use and service. All things will point us toward our salvation or to our
damnation depending on what use we make of them. Look at a poor man. His
poverty should get him into heaven. But, instead of offering his poverty and
suffering up to God, he grumbles and complains and envies the rich, calling
them cruel tyrants. Or look at a rich
man. Instead of being thankful to God and using his wealth to help the less
fortunate, he becomes proud and haughty and stingy. He becomes completely
unaware of the needs of his soul. Devils
are always around us. They make use of everything, trying to catch us in their
net.
These
are some of our enemies, both inside and out. If we examine our hearts we will
find more than the few I mention today. All of them can cause our ruin if we do
not suppress them with great care. Our only salvation is to fight them with
prayer and sacrifice, with charity and patience. When we pray, be aware of
carelessness and tiredness. If we meet with suffering, don’t grumble, instead
be thankful that you have this to offer to God in reparation for sin.
What
gives us confidence is that we always have recourse to our Father in heaven,
Who will never permit us to be tempted beyond our strength, and Who will always
help those be victorious who come to Him in prayer and humility. So, this
Lenten season, watch and pray and, like Jesus, you will overcome the world. (John 16: 33)
In addition to fasting this Lent we prepare for
Good Friday by meditating on His Passion. St. Bonaventure wrote that “nothing
produces in the soul such a complete sanctification” as contemplating the
Passion of our Lord. Read the Gospels on His Passion, Death and Resurrection to
see exactly what He went through for us and His glory on Easter Sunday. St.
Paul must have spent a lot of time contemplating our Lord’s Passion because he
said he did not come in loftiness of speech, “For I judged not myself to know
anything . . . but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2) +++
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