Matthew, Chapter,
Verse 9
Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let
it be done for you according to your faith.”
If we accept the call we will be empowered according to our faith and prepared for our work from on high with wisdom and understanding and fear of
the Lord. In fact the Church has traditionally enumerated seven gifts of the
spirit: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of
the Lord. Fear of the Lord enamors the soul with an intense respect for the
Church and the commandments of God. This reverence frees the soul and lightens
a person’s worldly fears and concerns. This is what happens to the happy soul
that accepts the “Yoke” of Christ. 29"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew
11:29-30)
It is essential that we pass through worldly fear
to grow to Godly fear; getting to the point where we love the Lord so much we
desire to prove our love to him by keeping his commandments. 23Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep
My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our
abode with him. (John 14: 23) Saint John
Paul II wrote “Doctrine of the gifts of the Holy Spirit [is] a very useful
teaching of the spiritual life [And] when applied to the Christian soul, it
teaches us the fundamental moments in the … interior life: to understand (wisdom, knowledge, and understanding);
to decide (counsel and fortitude); to remain and grow in a
personal relationship with God, in the life of prayer and in an upright life
according to the Gospel (piety and fear of the Lord).” Piety and fear of
Lord are given to those who are blessed to be a person poor in spirit. [1]
Blessed
are the Poor in Spirit[2]
We
say how blessed we are as individuals or as a nation when we have wealth. He
says no, you are blessed when you are poor. Poor not only in your bank account,
but even more than that, not less, poor down to the depths of your heart, poor
in spirit, detached from riches, whether you are physically rich or poor. When
Harvard University invited Mother Teresa to give a commencement address, she
shocked them by taking issue with the gracious invitation they sent to her, as
"the most famous person in one of the world's poorest nations, to address
the world's richest nation." She said no, "India is not a poor
nation; India is a very rich nation. She has a wealth of riches, true spiritual
riches. And America is not a rich nation. She is a poor nation, in fact, a
desperately poor nation. She slaughters her own unborn children." Why?
Because the mother fears those children will be poor, or will make her poor.
The mother fears that she will not be able to afford to have these children, as
if children are like cars or computers, calculable items in the household's
economy, consumer goods rather than consumers, objects rather than subjects,
part of the circle rather than the center of the circle. The supposed insanity
of Christ's saying thus turns out to be an illusion of perspective. In a lunatic
asylum, from the lunatics' point of view, it is the sane outsider who is
insane. How useful to have a continual supply of outsiders, the saints, to
remind us of where we live: east of Eden, in a lunatic asylum. Christ gives us
a map to show how far east of Eden we are. The poor in spirit, of course, are
not the weak-spirited; they are exactly the opposite. They are strong enough to
be detached from riches, that is, from the whole world. They are those who are
strong enough not to be enslaved to their desires for the things of this world.
Blessed are Those who Mourn
Well,
what could Christ possibly mean by his second beatitude? Weeping and mourning
is certainly not an expression of contentment, of the painless state that we
all long for as part of happiness. Yet Christ tells us that those who mourn are
blessed. How ridiculous for some Bible translations to translate makarios
by 'happy' in this verse, in a society that means by 'happy' simply
subjectively satisfied or content. That translation would make Christ say,
"Those who weep are content," which is not a meaningful paradox, but
a meaningless self-contradiction. Mourning is the expression of inner
discontent, of the gap between desire and satisfaction, that is, of suffering.
Buddha founded an entire religion on the problem of suffering, or dukkha,
and its cause, tanha, or greed, and its cure, the Noble Eightfold Path
leading to nirvana, the abolition of both suffering and its source. Unlike
Buddha, Christ came not to free us from suffering, but to transform its
meaning, to make it salvific. He came to save us from sin, and he did so
precisely by embracing the suffering and death that are the result of sin. It must sound as absurd to a Buddhist to
say that suffering is redemptive, as it would sound to a Christian to say that
sin is redemptive. Each religion must
accuse the other of the most radical practical error: confusing the problem
with the solution. The reason Christ gave for declaring mourners blessed is
that they shall be comforted. For in hope this future is made present. It's
true that "one foot up and one foot down, that's the way to London
Town," whether one is going to London to be crowned king or to be hanged
on Traitor's Gate. But the future destiny of the journey makes everything in
the journey itself different, not just accidentally, but essentially, and not
just extrinsically, but intrinsically. A journey to be hanged is tragic, even
if it is in a comfortable coach. A journey to be crowned, even if it is in an
uncomfortable wagon, is glorious. St. Teresa said, "Looked at from the
viewpoint of heaven, the most horribly painful earthly life will turn out to be
no more than one night in an inconvenient hotel." And Christ has the
viewpoint of heaven. Christ is the viewpoint of heaven. Christ is heaven. In
giving us himself, he gives us heaven, and its viewpoint, that is, his.
Blessed are the Meek
The
meek who will inherit the earth, whom Christ calls blessed — who are they? They
are not well-known. They do not thirst for honor, fame or glory, and do not
usually have it. We all want to be known. But God, who is supremely blessed, is
anonymous. He works by nature most of the time. He hides instead of constantly
showing his glory. He came as a baby, and died as an executed criminal, and
lets himself be ignored. He lets himself be eaten daily, as what looks like a
little piece of bread. He is utterly meek, and utterly blessed. If we are
utterly meek, we will be utterly blessed. If we are half meek, we will be half
blessed. If we are not meek, we will not be blessed, for God is the source of
all blessedness, and God is meek. And the effect cannot be the opposite of the
cause. The meekness that Christ calls blessed in his third Beatitude is indeed
in sharp contrast to the desire to conquer nature that Francis Bacon declared
to be the new summum bonum, the new meaning of life on earth, and to the
desire to conquer fortune that was Machiavelli's new summum bonum. But
it is not the contrast that the world thinks. It is not a blessing on wimps,
sissies, dishrags, wallflowers, shrinking violets, worry-warts, Uriah Heeps,
nebbishes, nerds or geeks. The meek are those who do not harm, who do not see
life as competitive, because they understand the two premises from which this
conclusion logically follows. First, that the best things in life are spiritual
things, not material things. That life's meaning is to be found in wisdom and
love and creativity, in understanding and sanctity and beauty, rather than in
money or power or fame or land or military or athletic conquest. And they
understand the second principle, too, that spiritual things are not
competitive. That they multiply when shared, while material things are divided
when shared. Since happiness depends on understanding the best things in life,
and since the best things in life are spiritual, and since spiritual things do
not diminish when shared, and since what does not diminish when shared cannot
be obtained by competition, and since competition is the alternative to
meekness, therefore meekness makes for happiness. We should not be surprised
that Christ the Logos is at least as logical as Socrates. Or that we are
not. That's why his pure reason sounds outrageously paradoxical to us. As
Chesterton said (it's impossible to stop quoting Chesterton; that's like stopping
eating potato chips), "It is because we are standing on our heads that
Christ's philosophy seems upside down." We are looking at the earth and
kicking up in rebellion against the heavens.
Let us pray for the lives of the young and unborn and encourage catholic women to have the heart of Mary. Recognizing as Catholics we mourn that many Catholics in public office have by their support of abortion killed many more children then Herod ever did.
COURAGE FOR THE MODERN WORLD 2017 #2017CALENDAR
Authored by Mr. Richard H. Havermale Jr.This book is the continuation of my first book based on more than 365 references in the Bible to fear, dread, and that in fact our God encourages us to "BE NOT AFRAID". To do this we must be in the presence of our Lord and talk to Him. I recommend you develop the habit of spending 10-15 minutes a day with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel or if that is not available some other quiet place where you can be in the presence of our Lord. Read the daily entry and reflect on it asking our Lord and His mother to talk to your heart and reveal to you the will of the Father and then Do it. The layout of this book is to list and reflect on the books of the bible Sirach through Revelations. In the early part of September my search of the verses dealing with fear and being afraid was completed; so I asked the Lord what do I, do now. After some reflection I realize that the fruit of fear in the Lord is the Theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Love which ultimately results in Peace of the Lord. As a consequence the month of September will deal with Peace, October with Love and the month of November will be reflections on Faith and Hope. After Thanksgiving for the season of Advent and Christmas this work uses a multitude of references that reflect the Christmas season. There are many theologians who state that the eighth deadly sin is fear itself. It is fear and its natural animal reaction to fight or flight that is the root cause of our failings to create a Kingdom of God on earth. Saint John Paul II in his writings and talks also tells us to BE NOT AFRAID. In fear or anger we walk away from God. Our Lord, Jesus Christ taught us how to walk back toward God in His sermon on the mount through the Beatitudes. Each of the beatitudes is the antidote for the opposite deadly sins.
[1] Saint John Paul II, A Catechesis on the Creed: The
Spirit, Giver of Life and Love, entry of April 3, 1991.
[2]http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/philosophy/part-two-happiness-the-first-three-beatitudes.html
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