Saint Bakhita
Hebrews, Chapter 13,
Verse 6
Thus we may say with
confidence: “The Lord is my helper, [and] I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”
Most of us at times have a lack of confidence. Unlike
the Fonz on “Happy Days” we just lack that childlike confidence that we can do
it all. Yet, in reality we can be much more like the Fonz when we know that the
Lord has our back.
The “little ones” who have
surrendered themselves to love, living here below in the arms of Jesus, on His
Heart, will find Themselves, at the moment of death, in His arms, on His Heart.
It is then that we must push confidence to the extreme limits. These trials are
graces, because they are occasions for pure faith. Pure love is realized in
pure faith, and pure faith is realized in darkness in the same way as “strength
is perfected in weakness.”Profit from these dark hours when your nature
grieves, when your heart is cold, when you believe, wrongly, that Jesus is very
far from you and even, perhaps, that He is turning His eyes away from you,
because you see yourself to be so imperfect and wretched; profit from them to
make heroic acts of faith and confidence out of pure will. These are the most
precious acts—they have immense merit because in those times they are acts of
pure faith, without consolation and without sensible aid. That is the moment to
say to Jesus, “You may sleep in my boat; I shall not awaken You. You are hiding
Yourself, but I know well where You are hidden: You are in my heart. I do not
feel it, but I know it. I believe in Your love for me and I believe in my love
for You.” And at death? It is said that at the time of death Hell is let loose.
Jesus can permit it. But is He not near us then, much nearer than Satan? Is not
Mary there, supporting this soul which is the stake of the Redemption, with a
motherly solicitude?
And St. Joseph is there, who knew
the sweetness of dying in the arms of Jesus and Mary. Their hearts bend over
the dying with an unparalleled saving power at this decisive hour. “Not a
single soul falls into Hell that has not torn itself out of my arms,” said our
Lord to a holy soul. If, according to the Curé of Ars, “It is not the sinner
who comes back to God to ask His pardon, but God Himself who runs after the
sinner and who brings Him back to Himself,” it is certainly so at the hour of
death. Confidence is the heart of the doctrine of St. Thérèse of the Child
Jesus since, “it is confidence and nothing but confidence which will lead us to
love,” and love is everything. Engrave this in your souls and hearts in letters
of gold and fire: immense confidence, unshakeable confidence in this King of
Love, who is called Jesus—Savior.
·
"If
I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured
me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, I would not
be a Christian and Religious today... The Lord has loved me so much: we must
love everyone... we must be compassionate!" ~ Josephine Bakhita
·
"Seeing
the sun, the moon and the stars, I said to myself, 'Who could be the Master of
these beautiful things?' I felt a great desire to see him, to know him and to
pay him homage." ~ Josephine Bakhita
·
"The
Lord has loved me so much: we must love everyone...we must be
compassionate!" ~ Josephine Bakhita
·
"O
Lord, if I could fly to my people and tell them of your goodness at the top of
my voice, oh how many souls would be won!" ~ Josephine Bakhita
Simon Peter and the other fishermen
are astonished at the catch that reveals Jesus as Lord. Jesus’response to Simon
Peter is reassuring: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men”. Once
again, the fisherman of Galilee places his trust in the words of Jesus and
leaves everything tofollow Him. James and John also do the same; from now on,
they will be ‘fishers of men’. Jesus invites them to share in His mission, the
mission of the Church. As baptized, we all partake in the mission of Jesus
Christ, priest, prophet, and king. As married men and women, the calling is
lived out in a concrete home and family. How does your life as a couple, asparents,
as godparents, or in another way, touch the lives of your family? How are you witnesses
and bearers of the Gospel?
Marriage
is a lifelong partnership of the whole of life, of mutual and exclusive
fidelity, established by mutual consent between a man and a woman, and ordered
towards the good of the spouses and the procreation of offspring. As the Second
Vatican Council reminds us, marriage is not a purely human institution: the
intimate partnership of life and the love which constitutes the married state
has been established by the creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws.
. .. For God himself is the author of marriage. Moreover, God has endowed
marriage with certain essential attributes, without which marriage cannot exist
as he intends. The Church has taught through the ages that marriage is an
exclusive relationship between one man and one woman. This union, once validly
entered and consummated, gives rise to a bond that cannot be dissolved by the
will of the spouses. Marriage thus created is a faithful, privileged sphere of
intimacy between the spouses that lasts until death. Marriage is not merely a
private institution, however. It is the foundation for the family, where
children learn the values and virtues that will make good Christians as well as
good citizens. The importance of marriage for children and for the upbringing
of the next generation highlights the importance of marriage for all society.
Conjugal love, the love proper to marriage, is present in the commitment to the
complete and total gift of self between husband and wife. Conjugal love
establishes a unique communion of persons through the relationship of mutual self-giving
and receiving between husband and wife, a relationship by which ―a man leaves
his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one
body [flesh]‖(Gn 2:24).The Second Vatican Council speaks about conjugal love in
words of great beauty: The Lord, wishing to bestow special gifts of grace and
divine love on married love, has restored, perfected, and elevated it. A love
like that, bringing together the human and the divine, leads the partners to a
free and mutual self-giving, experienced in tenderness and action, and
permeating their entire lives; this love is actually developed and increased by
its generous exercise in conjugal love one can see something of how Christ
loves his Church (Eph 5:25).
Resources
➢On marriages in
crisis –For Your Marriage list of ministries that help married couples in
difficulty or crisis
➢On healthy
sexuality within marriage –Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae,1968.
➢On divorce –USCCB,
Divorce and the Church’s Healing Ministry, 2010.
➢On lust and
pornography –USCCB: Create in Me a Clean Heart: A Pastoral Response toPornography,
2015 and Clean Heart series of pamphlets, 2016.
➢Pope Francis’s Catechesis
on the Family, January 7, 2015 –November 18, 2015.
➢USCCB, Pastoral
Letter Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan, 2009.
➢USCCB, For Your
Marriagewebsite: foryourmarriage.org.
➢USCCB, Por Tu
Matrimonio website: portumatrimonio.org.
If you realize that
those sufferings — of body or soul — mean purification and merit, bless them.
Daily Devotions
[1]d'Elbée, Jean C.J.. I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat
Based on the Teaching of St. Therese of Lisieux
[2]https://www.azquotes.com/author/28504-Josephine_Bakhita
[5]http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/the_way-point-1.htm
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