Wednesday in the Octave of the Assumption
WOODSTOCK 1969
1 Maccabees, Chapter 7, Verse 18
This verse is referring to
Alcimus who was a descendant of the Biblical Aaron, brother of Moses, but not
in the high-priestly line; and being ambitious for the office of
high priest, he traveled to Antioch to secure the assistance of the Seleucid
king Demetrius I Soter, who had just overthrown
Antiochus. Alcimus was of the Hellenizing party, and therefore bitterly opposed
by the Maccabees. Demetrius sent an army under Bacchides to establish Alcimus
in the high priesthood at Jerusalem. The favor with which Alcimus was received
by the Jews at Jerusalem on account of his Aaronic descent was soon turned to
hate by his cruelties. When Bacchides and his army returned to Antioch, the
Hasmonean Judah Maccabee attacked and overcame Alcimus, and drove him also to
Syria. There he secured from Demetrius another army, led by Nicanor, who, failing to overcome Judah by
treachery, attacked him directly, but was defeated and killed. A third and
greater army, under Bacchides again, was dispatched to reinstall Alcimus. Judah
was defeated and killed, Alcimus established as high priest and a strong
garrison left in Jerusalem to maintain him. But he did not long enjoy his
triumph, since he died soon after, while he was pulling down the wall of the temple
that divided the court of the Gentiles from that of the Israelites.[1]
Strife
breeds Strife-Love breed’s love therefore,
be
always open to forgiving injuries.
Christ tells us
to love our enemy which is much easier to say than to do. Yet as much as possible
we are to not fear them but strive to love them. Often, we find it difficult to
love even our family and neighbors let alone our enemies. In fact, the opposite
of fear is not courage but love. Paul
illustrates for us the following
ways of living to demonstrate true love or charity. (Hebrews, Chapter 13, Verse’ 1-6)
·
In all that you do be an agent of
hospitality. That is to be generous. Even the poor can be rich in their
praise and love of others. Share not only your time, talent and treasure but
truly give of yourself to others of your intellect, emotional support, and
physical presence. A good guide is the spiritual works of mercy: instruct
the ignorant; counsel the doubtful; admonish sinners; bear wrongs
patiently; forgive offences willingly; comfort the
afflicted; pray for the living and the dead.
·
Do what you can to free others of their
prisons whether these are self-imposed i.e., addictions or through
ignorance. A good guide is the corporal works of mercy: feed the hungry; give
drink to the thirsty; clothe the naked; harbor the harbor-less; visit the sick;
ransom the captive; bury the dead.
·
Marriage is the physical reality of our soul’s
marriage to God through the Holy Spirit; therefore. If married love
and honor your wife; be chase in spirit whether married or single knowing that
marriage is the physical sign of your union with God. Disdain any kind of sexual
defilement.
· Avoid the love of money. Seek simplicity and contentment. Treat all the wealth you have as if it were Gods; on loan to you to build the Kingdom; which it is. You can do this if you know, and trust God will never forsake you or abandon you.
The proper meaning of love is to seek the good of the other as other.
Not Holding a
Grudge[2]
St. John Gualbert was the
son of a noble Florentine, who had only one other and older son, Hugh. When
Hugh was murdered by a man supposed to be his friend, John swore vengeance and,
in spite of the warnings and sorrow of his father, he set out to destroy him.
Well might his father sorrow more over John than over his murdered son, for the
motive of revenge is not excusable even in the punishment of a murderer. Still
less is it acceptable before God to try to right one injury with another or one
murder with another. By chance one day John met his enemy in a very narrow
passage and, having the advantage, drew his sword to run him through. The
enemy, knowing he had no chance to save himself, fell to his knees, crossed his
hands over his breast (let us hope he made a good act of contrition) and
awaited the death blow. John advanced in a fury — halted and remembered Christ
had prayed for His murderers as He hung on the cross. He put up
his sword, gave his enemy his hand and, drawing him to his feet, embraced him.
They parted in peace.
As he went down the road,
filled with contrition for the terrible deed he had intended to do, he came to
the monastery of San Miniato, entered it, and kneeling before the Crucifix he
poured out his heart in contrition. As he prayed, the Crucifix miraculously
bowed its head as though to bless John's victory over revenge and John was
filled with the desire to serve only Christ. He went to the abbot to ask
permission to wear the habit, and, when the abbot hesitated for several days
for fear of the displeasure of John's
father, John hacked off his hair and put on a borrowed habit. This convinced
Father Abbot that the young penitent was a serious prospect and he received him
into the community.
Woodstock
1969-Anti Fatima Event[3]
On August 15–17, 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held on a 600-acre dairy farm near Bethel, New York. It helped usher in a period of moral devastation. The event enshrined free love as acceptable in the national psyche. It created the idea that life should be dominated by the maxim, “if it feels good, do it.”
However, the worst part of
Woodstock was its role in creating the spiritual desolation of imagining a
utopian society without religion or the Catholic Faith. Woodstock presented
itself as a mystical experience with its own dark spiritual message. It was
almost a liturgical act of an anti-religion of the unbridled passions that
denied a moral law.
Reflection About Another
Field
Reflecting upon Woodstock,
it is hard not to recall another event held on a large field that gathered
together a huge crowd. This gathering also changed history. The two events
could not be more contrary to each other, and yet the parallels and contrasts
are striking. They both happened amid a terrible crisis inside society. However,
each proposed a radically different solution. The second event took place in a
tiny village in the backwater of Portugal called Fatima. The date was October
13, 1917. What attracted people there was no less than the Queen of Heaven. Our
Lady had appeared to three young shepherd children and promised to perform a
great miracle so that people might have faith and change their lives.
Contrast on the Two Fields
At both events, everything
that could have gone wrong did go wrong. At Woodstock, nearly 400,000 people
appeared at the farm where they crashed the gates and entered the field. The
organizers were overwhelmed by the crowds. The highways were clogged with cars
trying to get to the event. At Fatima, some 80,000 faithful came from all over
Portugal. They had heard about the apparitions by word of mouth. There were no
organizers since it was a spontaneous movement of grace that called people to
the site. Nevertheless, they clogged the highways and byways of the small
nation to get to the event. Both events prompted government action. When order
broke down in Woodstock, the government stepped in by sending nearby Air Force
personnel to the concert to prevent chaos and fly in stranded performers. At
Fatima, the secular anti-Catholic government played an opposite role. It sent
soldiers with fixed bayonets to prevent pilgrims from entering the huge field.
When the masses of pilgrims overwhelmed the small number of soldiers, people
then managed to join the orderly crowd that patiently waited with great
expectation, prayer and faith. Heavy rains came down in torrents at both events
creating seas of mud. At Woodstock, the mud mixed with the nudity, promiscuity
and drugs to the point that the crowd became one with the quagmire of
immorality and muck. Singer John Fogerty described an early morning scene as “sort of like a painting of a Dante
scene, just bodies from hell, all intertwined and asleep, covered with mud.”
At Fatima, the rains
also lashed out against the crowds and turned the field into a great muddy
mess. However, the crowds accepted the rain and mire as part of the suffering
and penance that would mark the Fatima Message. Many knelt in the mud in
prayer.
Historical Contexts
While the circumstances of
the open fields at Fatima and Woodstock are important, the context of these
gathering must also be considered. The historical context of Fatima was a world
in the process of abandoning the Church and Christian civilization. Europe was
engaged in the bloody World War I, which would soon end. The people still had faith
but were in danger of losing it. Our Lady came to deliver a message of tragedy
and hope, inviting humanity to conversion and amendment of life. Woodstock took
place 52 years later in the context of a Sexual Revolution that would devastate
what remained of Christian morals in society. America was divided, engaged in a
brutal war against communism in Vietnam. The Church was also in a state of
turmoil. Woodstock was an event that would celebrate a world without restraint
that would soon become mainstream.
What Happened in Fatima
The events that took place
in these two fields are what made them so important. At Fatima, the crowd
gathered in an ordered fashion as they awaited the appearance of the Mother of
God. They were to behold a marvelous yet terrifying scene, which was the most
witnessed miracle in modern history. Some 80,000 pilgrims of every age,
educational level and social class were there. Believers and non-believers vied
for places to see the promised miracle. Our Lady provided it. The clouds opened
up and the sun appeared as an immense silver disk. It shone with great
intensity yet was not blinding. The enormous ball then started to “dance” across the sky, spinning rapidly
scattering red flames. The bright light reflected on the ground, trees, bushes,
clothing and faces. After going three times across sky, the globe of fire then
appeared to tremble, shake and plunge toward the terrified crowd who thought
the world was coming to an end. However, the sun soon zigzagged back to its
place and shone benevolently upon the crowd. Many converted and believed. The
people noticed that their sodden clothes were both dry and clean.
What Happened at Woodstock
The events at Woodstock
stand in stark contraposition. There were no miracles there, but there was an aura
that produced an eerie feeling around the event. The bad weather, food
shortages and poor sanitation created a climate of generalized chaos. Witnesses
reported an atmosphere of free love and nudity that shocked many unaccustomed
to seeing such things in public. Drug use was also rampant, especially the use
of marijuana and LSD. Thus, many were out of their minds as the music blared
from the stage throughout the night. Carlos Santana later recalled how he hallucinated throughout his
performance because he was high on the mescaline he obtained from Jerry Garcia.
Meanwhile, backstage, The Who singer Roger Daltrey reported that “Woodstock wasn’t peace and love. There was an
awful lot of shouting and screaming going on. By the time it all ended, the
worst sides of our nature had come out.” The
scenes of partying, chaos and sin created a surreal and bizarre spectacle. It
was a whimsical space without rules or law where you could “do your own thing” without consequence or risk. Some
thought a new age was dawning, both inebriating and terrifying, where the
unbridled passions driven by psychedelic drugs would liberate everyone from the
staid constraints of the establishment. On the trash-littered fields of
Woodstock, a self-centered generation embraced an anything-goes culture of sex,
drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. America would leave the
Woodstock mud fest with sullied innocence.
Two Messages in Conflict
Both fields also produced
messages that are still in conflict today. The Fatima message was very clear
and precise. Our Lady said: “Let
them offend Our Lord no more, for He is already much offended.” Thus, Fatima called upon the world
to repent by having recourse to prayer, sacrifice and amendment of life. If
humanity did not repent, Our Lady spoke of a great chastisement, symbolized by
the Miracle of the Sun. The Fatima message denounced the decadence of the
modern world, the sins of the flesh and the abandonment of God and the Church. Woodstock
proclaimed an anti-Fatima message. It was an invitation to sin, indulge and
offend God. In the name of peace and love, it called upon youth to “imagine” a perfect world where they might
live together in harmony without property, Christian morals or God. Woodstock
projected an empty world without meaning and purpose that seeks only extreme
gratification and pleasures. The clash between Fatima and Woodstock continues.
Many Catholics have remained faithful to the Fatima message despite the great
pressure to conform to the culture. Others have been mugged by the terrible
reality that the Woodstock dream of sexual freedom was an appalling nightmare
that left behind a trail of dead, unborn babies, broken relationships and
shattered communities. It is therefore not fitting to celebrate the concert’s anniversary but rather to reject
all that it symbolizes and represents. Instead, let us embrace Fatima’s saving message of prayer,
repentance and amendment of life as the essential solution to a world gone
awry.
Every Wednesday is
Dedicated to St. Joseph
The Italian culture has
always had a close association with St. Joseph perhaps you could make
Wednesdays centered around Jesus’s Papa. Plan an Italian dinner of pizza or
spaghetti after attending Mass as most parishes have a Wednesday evening Mass.
You could even do carry out to help restaurants. If you are adventurous, you
could do the Universal Man Plan: St. Joseph style. Make the evening a family
night perhaps it could be a game night. Whatever you do make the day special.
·
Devotion to the 7 Joys and Sorrows of St.
Joseph
·
Do the St.
Joseph Universal Man Plan.
Daily
Devotions
·
Have a glass of wine
in honor of St. Joseph
·
Litany of the Most
Precious Blood of Jesus
·
Total Consecration
to St. Joseph Day 16
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[3]https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/woodstock-at-50-the-anti-fatima-event-that-should-not-be-celebrated
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