My dear Catecumens:
Your desire to become members of the Catholic Church is to seek salvation. You stated this desire in the rite of welcoming. How are we going to achieve salvation? Is it something that we can work out by ourselves with our good wishes alone or is it something that only God can do for us? Is a combination of both actually.
The first condition for our salvation is that God freely has willed it for us, freely and out of love, undeservedly. This means that there is nothing we have done that has actually earned us that right, neither we, nor our generation nor any human being before ahs ever done anything that could merit God’s love for us.
The second condition is really simple (or is it?): We must respond to that same call of Love.
Our consent initiates in us a process that God begun and that will eventually end up in Him, this process is called “sanctification”.
God calls you to live happily with Him in eternity but God can’t make you do it nor want it, this is something in which you must collaborate with Him, how? Byresponding to his call and transform your life in accordance with His will for you. This requires love for God and love for His law, it requires strength of character and firmness of intention.
This three requirements are very difficult for anybody to do just on his own, they are too high for us, and even though we are not just fully “bad” and we have a capacity for the good, a capacity that comes from God having created us in His image and likeness, still we can’t arrive to the infinite or accomplish the infinite and the perfect on our own because we are limited and imperfect: we need help.
This help comes to us in many ways. The first one is in the gift of the Holy Spirt at baptism which will bring that holiness of God into our souls, and will imprint us with god’s seal. We then have at our disposal the sacraments of the Catholic church, sacraments that have been instituted by Christ precisely to continue on nourishing us on our way to heaven, to give us strength, guidance, comfort, reconciliation, etc. in a ord; Grace, the grace of Christ.. We will always have god himself at the ready even befor we ask for anything, and that is why prayer is another means of staying in the way. By prayer we draw close to God and constantly can have access to his love, power and help. We have also one another to make us strong and help each other, support one another not pnly on our most immediate physical needsbut also on thos that are deeper than just food and shelter: A kind word, an advice, astern warning at the right time, a shoulder, an ear, a friend.
Think about this fact, the fact that god has called all mankind to himself, but sadly not everyone recognizes His voice. Think about all the multitude of people that are living in confusuion, in fear, in hatred and in desperate need of finding meaning in their lives. We all feel the call, but who will help them realize it? Who will go and bring to them the good news of Chirst?
Think also now of those people that during the last 2,000 years have felt the call and who at their own time had trials of their own, had limitations, struggles, and sins; sins of all colors and names. Many were complacent with life and lived in rich palaces, others were common folk, some were uneducated, some were not. These people were people not unlike you and me in any way. They had to get up in the morning, they had to eat, work, make it for the day. But these re;atively few took that one step I am mentioning here. At one moment in their lives their everything changed as a result of hearing withing them the call of God and realized that they were made for so much more than this crue and olain materialistic existence. They realized that they needed the true life that only God can give, and they realized more than many other men their own mortality, their oen sinfuklness and their own low stated in comparison to a might All powerful God who being Holy, and only he being holy, is so infinitely other than what we are. This humbling experience could have been devastating, and in fact it was for the prophets of the old testament and for jews today who when they think of God can only do so in such terms. These men however, unlike the old testament prophets had one advantage, they were told that God had come to earth in His only Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ had come to the world to make the Ftaher known to all men, to bring the kingdom of god into our hearts. He came to deliver the message that god wants us for himself and that he loves us so much that he is willing to forgive all of our sins. They learned, just like you do today, that this Jesus, the son of god died on the cross as a one time for all sacrifice for all men, for our sins. When they learned that Jesus had bought them for Himself with his own blood there was no other response possible in their hearts than a tremendous realization that no matter how terrible and awe inspiring this All-might God, He was also a love of god and mercy who gave up His only Son so we could live, and moved by this realization they loved him, some instantly and some little by little but they all felt that love in their hearts for Him who chose to take our nature and take flesh, to become also our brother.
These men and women still had to live in the world, didn’t they? Of course they did. Their lives changed definitely but essentially they were, and still are regular men and women. They lived their lives in a different fashion, they freely gavce themselves fully to God, they emptied themselves and offered all their deeds, all their acts to god, they kept his commandments. These men we call the saints, some of them we know and we honor them declaring that they indeed lived holy lives. The church assigns them a feast day and authorizes and encourages our devotion to them, that we may imitate and learn from them how they lead their lives, and in so doing we can find our own calling to the God who called them as well. Many others have never been known, and a multitude of others will only be known on the last day. One thing is certain; No one who is not s Saint will ever enter heaven. These saints are infellowship with us, they pray for us and they hope for us as well. That is why we call it the “communion of Saints".
We are called to be Saints, to walk in the world but not being really a part of the world, and when this earthly life passes away, to live happy in eternity with God.
You have been called...
Are your reay?
Go for it!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Santa Maria de Guadalupe.
12/12/2008
What does it mean for us Catholics that today is the memorial of our Lady of Guadalupe? Surprisingly many catholics don't lnow how to adress this question. To many this is simply a cultural icon for Hispanic or latinos in the USA, and to some sadly: A gang-related symbol.
But who ever relates the face of the virgin of Guadalupe to the always virgin Mary mother of God? Can it be that Mary, "the" Holy Mary was in Mexico? The answer is yes.
In those days the proud Aztec civilization had just been brought to its knees by Hernan Cortes and his many Tlaxcaltecan allies. The great Tenochtitlan with all its great temples leveled to the ground. The Aztecs saw themselves before this events as the inherently superior rulers of their know world and now they had been reduced to the lowly state of defeat and servitude. Their world was shattered by strange white bearbed people who brought with them the sign of a cross. This cross meant for them something very different than it did for the Spaniards who were triying to evangelize them. The Spaniards brought from Spain friars, priests and preachers to convert this people to Catholicism but the message was not sticking. To the Aztecs it was treason to deny their gods for an alien god who had crucified, apparently defeated and humiliated. These foreigners claimed that this was a God of love and peace but yet the way they brought him and presented Him to them was far from what they claimed he was; how to accept such an imposition?
God in His wisdom and in his mercy acts in ways that to us humans seem contradictory and sometimes downright hard to understand but He also brings good out of what seems to be bad.
Who better than the same Mary mother of God, the same woman who saw Her divine Son die on that same cross and who for the love of God endured so many sorrows to fix the injustice?
And to whom did she come? Not to the lofty ones, not to the proud ones, not to the nobles or the conquistadors, but the least one of them all, to Juan Diego, a poor Aztec who was one of the firsts to be baptized and believe in the gospel. The Aztec name of juan Diego "Cuauhtlatoatzin" means "speaking eagle".
The virgin Mary appeared to him on the Hill of Tepeyac just outside of Mexico City as he was going to daily mass. He suddenly heard a femenine voice speaking to him in nahuatl, his mother tongue. This Lady identified herself as the "tecoatlaxopeuh" which in Nahuatl meant, she who destroys the serpent. She asked him to go to the bishop and request Him that a Church be built in her honor so that the river of love and mercy flowed for all her children from there, fromTepeyac. When Juan Diego was received by the bishop Juan de Zumarraga, and he heard the story, his mind immediately went to what he knew: That this lady was the virgin of Guadalupe, which is in Caceres in Extremadura, Spain. Zumarraga didn't speak nahuatl! but this name stuck and is how we know her today. Later we know the rest of the story, the bishop asked for a proof and Juan Diego (today Saint Juan Diego) came back with freshly picked roses from the top of the Tepeyac (in december!?) which as they fell to the floor when Juan Diego showed them, revelaed the image of this lady in Juand Diego's rough cactus fiber tunic (his tilma). This is the image we see today perfectly preserved. The tilma is in perfect state of conservation after 500 years and the original colors have not faded at all (only the additions they made to her later have decayed).
What is astonishing to me, at least, is that Juan Diego didn't know about the virgin of Guadalupe in Spain and that She told him that she was the virgin Mary who destroyed the serpent, in his own language. Juan Diego didn't tell the bishop that she was the one who had crushed the serpent but simple stated that she was "Mary tecoatlaxoupeh" which passed completely inadverted to the bishop and to many people from that generation. Juan de Zumarraga simply reported later that it was our Lady of Guadalupe (the one he knew) that ahd appeared in Mexico.
What does this all mean to us? not only that miracles are far from over, but that our Lady really and genuinely cares fos us in every age and place, and there where sin abounds grace abounded even the more. For a great historical tragedy: an even greater miracolous intervention. It was finally through our Lady in Tepeyac that Mexico became the vibrant, pious, and faithful Catholic nation it is today. The same nation that John Paul II the great in his first visit outside of Rome, and right under the feet of the morenita, called: "Mexico siempre fiel" (mexico, always faithful)
Of course the Virgin of Guadalupe is not exclusive to us, since his message of Love goes to all the world, to all the church of all times and places, but she is also the patroness of the Americas and that includes here us, the USA.
As a Mexican that I am, I am conscious of the great historical responsibility that we have as being a direct recipient of God's mercy. The responsibility we have to defend the church, and to defend life. Shouldn't we be all? All, I mean especially all Americans from Alaska to Argentina to be faithful and to listen to the message of the morenita of tepeyac:
"Cuix amo nican, nica Nimonantzin"?
Am I not here that am your mother? Are you not under my protection? Are you not under my mantle, under the hollow of my hands? Do you need anything more?
Santa Maria, ora por nosotros,
Holy Mary, pray for us.
12/12/2008
What does it mean for us Catholics that today is the memorial of our Lady of Guadalupe? Surprisingly many catholics don't lnow how to adress this question. To many this is simply a cultural icon for Hispanic or latinos in the USA, and to some sadly: A gang-related symbol.
But who ever relates the face of the virgin of Guadalupe to the always virgin Mary mother of God? Can it be that Mary, "the" Holy Mary was in Mexico? The answer is yes.
In those days the proud Aztec civilization had just been brought to its knees by Hernan Cortes and his many Tlaxcaltecan allies. The great Tenochtitlan with all its great temples leveled to the ground. The Aztecs saw themselves before this events as the inherently superior rulers of their know world and now they had been reduced to the lowly state of defeat and servitude. Their world was shattered by strange white bearbed people who brought with them the sign of a cross. This cross meant for them something very different than it did for the Spaniards who were triying to evangelize them. The Spaniards brought from Spain friars, priests and preachers to convert this people to Catholicism but the message was not sticking. To the Aztecs it was treason to deny their gods for an alien god who had crucified, apparently defeated and humiliated. These foreigners claimed that this was a God of love and peace but yet the way they brought him and presented Him to them was far from what they claimed he was; how to accept such an imposition?
God in His wisdom and in his mercy acts in ways that to us humans seem contradictory and sometimes downright hard to understand but He also brings good out of what seems to be bad.
Who better than the same Mary mother of God, the same woman who saw Her divine Son die on that same cross and who for the love of God endured so many sorrows to fix the injustice?
And to whom did she come? Not to the lofty ones, not to the proud ones, not to the nobles or the conquistadors, but the least one of them all, to Juan Diego, a poor Aztec who was one of the firsts to be baptized and believe in the gospel. The Aztec name of juan Diego "Cuauhtlatoatzin" means "speaking eagle".
The virgin Mary appeared to him on the Hill of Tepeyac just outside of Mexico City as he was going to daily mass. He suddenly heard a femenine voice speaking to him in nahuatl, his mother tongue. This Lady identified herself as the "tecoatlaxopeuh" which in Nahuatl meant, she who destroys the serpent. She asked him to go to the bishop and request Him that a Church be built in her honor so that the river of love and mercy flowed for all her children from there, fromTepeyac. When Juan Diego was received by the bishop Juan de Zumarraga, and he heard the story, his mind immediately went to what he knew: That this lady was the virgin of Guadalupe, which is in Caceres in Extremadura, Spain. Zumarraga didn't speak nahuatl! but this name stuck and is how we know her today. Later we know the rest of the story, the bishop asked for a proof and Juan Diego (today Saint Juan Diego) came back with freshly picked roses from the top of the Tepeyac (in december!?) which as they fell to the floor when Juan Diego showed them, revelaed the image of this lady in Juand Diego's rough cactus fiber tunic (his tilma). This is the image we see today perfectly preserved. The tilma is in perfect state of conservation after 500 years and the original colors have not faded at all (only the additions they made to her later have decayed).
What is astonishing to me, at least, is that Juan Diego didn't know about the virgin of Guadalupe in Spain and that She told him that she was the virgin Mary who destroyed the serpent, in his own language. Juan Diego didn't tell the bishop that she was the one who had crushed the serpent but simple stated that she was "Mary tecoatlaxoupeh" which passed completely inadverted to the bishop and to many people from that generation. Juan de Zumarraga simply reported later that it was our Lady of Guadalupe (the one he knew) that ahd appeared in Mexico.
What does this all mean to us? not only that miracles are far from over, but that our Lady really and genuinely cares fos us in every age and place, and there where sin abounds grace abounded even the more. For a great historical tragedy: an even greater miracolous intervention. It was finally through our Lady in Tepeyac that Mexico became the vibrant, pious, and faithful Catholic nation it is today. The same nation that John Paul II the great in his first visit outside of Rome, and right under the feet of the morenita, called: "Mexico siempre fiel" (mexico, always faithful)
Of course the Virgin of Guadalupe is not exclusive to us, since his message of Love goes to all the world, to all the church of all times and places, but she is also the patroness of the Americas and that includes here us, the USA.
As a Mexican that I am, I am conscious of the great historical responsibility that we have as being a direct recipient of God's mercy. The responsibility we have to defend the church, and to defend life. Shouldn't we be all? All, I mean especially all Americans from Alaska to Argentina to be faithful and to listen to the message of the morenita of tepeyac:
"Cuix amo nican, nica Nimonantzin"?
Am I not here that am your mother? Are you not under my protection? Are you not under my mantle, under the hollow of my hands? Do you need anything more?
Santa Maria, ora por nosotros,
Holy Mary, pray for us.
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