Friday of the Third Week of Lent
“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
FRIDAY, March 12th Mk. 12: 28-34 “Jesus replied, ‘The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.’”
Part`1: The love of Jesus for each one of us! By Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Part 2: GOD’S INFINITE LOVE FOR YOU AND FOR ME! By Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
PART 1: The love of Jesus for each one of us! By Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Jesus wants me to tell you again how much love He has for each of one of you – beyond all you can imagine! I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus – one to one – you and Jesus alone. We may spend time in chapel – but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love?
Do you really know the living Jesus – not from books but from being with Him in your heart? Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you? Ask for the grace; He is longing to give it. Until you can hear Jesus in the silence of you own heart, you will not be able to hear Him saying, “I thirst” in the hearts of the poor.
Never give up this daily intimate contact with Jesus as the real living Person – not just the idea. How can we last even one day without hearing Jesus say, “I love you” – impossible! Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe the air. If not, prayer is dead – meditation only thinking. Jesus wants you each to hear Him – speaking in the silence of your heart. Be careful of all that can block that personal contact with the living Jesus. The devil may try to use the hurts of life, and sometimes our own mistakes – to make you feel it is impossible that Jesus really loves you, is really cleaving to you.
This is a danger for all of us. And so sad, because it is completely opposite of what Jesus is really wanting, waiting to tell you. Not only that He loves you, but even more – He longs for you. He misses you when you don’t come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don’t feel worthy. When not accepted by others, even by yourself sometimes – He is the one who always accepts you.
My children, you don’t have to be different for Jesus to love you. Only believe you are precious to Him. Bring all you are suffering to His feet – only open your heart to be loved by Him as you are. He will do the rest.
PART 2: GOD’S INFINITE LOVE FOR YOU AND FOR ME! By Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
One of the principal reasons why we commit sin is because we do not really understand the love that God has for each and every one of us. Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen defines love in these simple but profound words: Sin is hurting the one you love. This is a very personal definition. That is to say, sin is hurting and damaging your relationship with God, and maybe even rupturing it to the point of severing the relationship. The primary question that each of us should ask ourselves in the depths of our hearts is this: do you really believe that God loves you personally, permanently, unreservedly, and infinitely? This brief essay is aimed at helping us to be convinced of God’s infinite love for us. Consequently, it will be much easier when confronted with temptations to sin to reject them. And the reason is because I do not want to hurt God who loves me so much. In other words, serious sin is not simply breaking a commandment, but breaking the Heart of God!
How then do we know that God really loves us with an infinite love? The following are some reasons.
1. ORIGINAL SIN AND THE INCARNATION.
A very consoling truth in the Catholic faith is that God allows evil so that He can bring greater good out of evil. Saint Paul asserts: “Where sin abounds, the grace of God abounds all the more.” (Rom 5: 20) If you like, God can turn a tremendous tragedy into a glorious victory! One of the clearest and most penetrating manifestations of this truth is the reality of Original Sin and consequently the Incarnation. God gave Adam and Eve freedom which they abused by committing Original Sin. However, God intervened by sending His only-begotten Son, Jesus, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to save us. As we sing in the Easter Vigil Mass in the Exultet: O happy fault, O happy fault that brought us so great a Savior. Therefore, the Incarnation of Jesus, the Son of God made man, was done for love of you and me. How great God’s love is for us, in that He sent Jesus to save us from the devil, slavery to sin, and eternal damnation!
2. THE LIFE OF JESUS AS A MODEL FOR ALL OF US.
Another sign of God’s infinite love for us is the Person, Pattern and Model of Perfection that Jesus is for all of us. As to living out the truth, we are not like blind men, or men living in caves, or a man running around like a chicken with its head cut off—far from it! How we are to act, what are we to say, who we are called to become—all of these questions can be responded to in one word, and that WORD is the Word of God, the Logos—JESUS THE LORD! Our whole existence should be a constant study of the Person, Life, Words, and Actions of Jesus. For Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.
3. THE PASSION, SUFFERING AND DEATH OF JESUS!
In the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in the 3rd Week of the month retreat, the topic for meditation or contemplation is the Passion, suffering and death of Jesus. The retreatant is invited to enter into the very life of Jesus, to enter into the very Heart of Jesus, and beg for the grace to suffer with Jesus—not an easy grace to beg for! Moreover, Saint Ignatius emphasizes this extraordinary truth: Jesus suffered all of His Passion and death for love of you. Indeed, if you were the only person in the whole created universe, Jesus would have gone through all those excruciating pains and tortures for love of you. His sweating Blood, His scourging, His crowning with thorns, His carrying of the cross and falling under its heavy weight, His crucifixion, His prolonged agony on the cross those three hours, His shedding every drop of His Precious Blood, His breathing forth His spirit into the hands of the Heavenly Father, and even the piercing of His Sacred Heart after He was already dead—all this, all His intense and indescribable suffering, He went through because of His infinite love for you and your eternal salvation. Stop to meditate upon this profound truth and tell the Lord Jesus how thankful you are. Beg Jesus for the grace right now to truly love Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength!
4. THE CHURCH AND THE SACRAMENTS.
Jesus promised that He would not leave us orphans, but that He would send us the Consoler, the Paraclete, that is to say, the HOLY SPIRIT. Still more, Jesus left us until the end of time His constant and perpetual PRESENCE in His ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC and APOSTOLIC CHURCH. However, of supreme importance is the institution and reality of the greatest of all of the Sacraments and that is the most Holy Eucharist. Jesus loves us so much and continues to love us until the end of time and forever in heaven. On earth this love is present to all who believe in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in which the sublime fruit is the Eucharist, which reaches its climax in the reception of Holy Communion. We must remind ourselves over and over again of the sublime and ineffable truth that Holy Communion is Jesus loving us! Holy Communion is really and substantially Jesus in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Indeed, Jesus loves us so much that He wants to come and live in us, abide in us, be part of us. Jesus wants His Body to be part of our body. Jesus wants His Precious Blood to circulate and flow through our veins and enter into our very heart. Jesus wants His mind to be our mind; as Saint Paul says: “Put on the mind of Christ… you have the mind of Christ.” (1Cor 2:16) Jesus wants His very soul to enter into our soul to sanctify and strengthen our soul. All of this truly becomes a reality every time that we receive Holy Communion worthily, with faith, devotion, love and a burning heart. How much Jesus really loves us in all times and in all places! Understanding the immense and personal love of Jesus through His Mystical Body the Church, and especially through the most sublime Sacrament of the Eucharist, motivates us to renounce sin when it is knocking at the door of our hearts. We do not want to hurt Jesus who loves us so much!
5. JESUS’ PRECIOUS GIFT TO US FROM THE CROSS!
The love that Jesus has for you continues and will continue always, even into eternity! As He hung on the cross in painful agony and abandonment, Jesus gave to the whole world, but to you individually the great gift of His Mother to be your mother. The words of Jesus were addressed to you and to me: “Woman, behold thy son; son, behold thy Mother; from that moment the beloved disciple took Mary into his home.” (Jn. 19: 26-27) Jesus loves you so much that from all eternity He willed to leave for your peace, joy, consolation, and love, the gift of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the person of Saint John, in giving Mary to him, Jesus was also giving Mary to you, to be your tender, loving, meek and humble, and compassionate Mother. You can turn to Mary as your Mother in all times, places, circumstances, and contradictions of life. Mary is always present and willing to listen to you, console you, comfort you, and love you with the heart of the most loving of mothers.
Therefore, when temptation to sin knocks at the door of our hearts, we should call to mind the Incarnation of Jesus, the Son of God made man, His life on earth, His Passion and death that He suffered for love of each one of us; the Church, especially the Eucharist, that He left us to console and strengthen us for the journey; and lastly, the gift of Mary as our loving Mother. Keenly convinced of these truths, we can more easily say NO to sin and YES to love and to a deep friendship with Jesus, the faithful Friend who will never fail us!
