October 2012 Continued
This week we continue to pray for children and young people
suffering from spiritual poverty.
How many mothers have wept holy tears for their children who have fallen away from the ways of God and the practicing of their faith. St. Monica is a prime example of this. Blessed Mother Teresa in her essential writings states that "poverty of spirit is the worst kind of poverty".
Spiritual poverty is a turning away from the love of God.
God's love: agape and eros
The term agape, which appears many times in the New Testament, indicates the self-giving love of one who looks exclusively for the good of the other. The word eros, on the other hand, denotes the love of one who desires to possess what he or she lacks and yearns for union with the beloved. The love with which God surrounds us is undoubtedly agape. Indeed, can man give to God some good that he does not already possess? All that the human creature is and has is divine gift. It is the creature, then who is in need of God in everything. But God's love is also eros. In the Old Testament, the Creator of the universe manifests toward the people whom he has chosen as his own a predilection that transcends every human motivation.
The prophet Hosea expresses this divine passion with daring images such as the love of a man for an adulterous woman (cf. 3:1-3). For his part, Ezekiel, speaking of God's relationship with the people of Israel, is not afraid to use strong and passionate language (Cf. 16: 1-22). These biblical texts indicate that eros is part of God's very Heart: the almighty awaits the "yes" of his creatures as a young bridegroom that of his bride. Unfortunately, from its very origins, mankind, seduced by the lies of the Evil one, rejected God's love in the illusion of a self-sufficiency that is impossible (cf. Gn. 3:-7).
Turning in on himself, Adam withdrew from that source of life who is God himself, and became the first of "those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage" (Heb 2:15). God, however, did not give up. On the contrary, man's "no" was the decisive impulse that moved him to manifest his love in all of its redeeming strength.
"Him whom they have pierced"
Dear brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced on the Cross! He is the unsurpassing revelation of God's love, a love in which eros and agape, far from being opposed, enlighten each other. On the Cross, it is God himself who begs the love of his creature: He is thirsty for the love of every one of us. The Apostle Thomas recognised Jesus as "Lord and God" when he put his hand into the wound of his side. Not surprisingly, many of the saints found in the Heart of Jesus the deepest expression of this mystery of love. One could rightly say that the revelation of God's eros toward man is, in reality, the supreme expression of his agape. In truth, only the love that unites the free gift of oneself with the impassioned desire for reciprocity instils a joy which eases the heaviest of burdens. Jesus said: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself" (Jn 12:32). The response the Lord ardently desires of us is above all that we welcome his love and allow ourselves to be drawn to him. Accepting his love, however, is not enough. We need to respond to such love and devote ourselves to communicating it to others. Christ "draws me to himself" in order to unite himself to me, so that I learn to love the brothers with his own love.
Extracts from the Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2007 "They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced". (Jn 19:37)
"God, however, did not give up. On the contrary, Man's "no" was the decisive impulse that moved him to manifest his love in all of its redeeming strength".
Let us ponder on these words which are filled with hope. St. Monica knew this hope and she believed in the love of God. It was her faith filled prayers that saved her son St. Augustine from falling away from God. Let our prayer be a prayer filled with hope and trust in God's loving mercy.
In her Diary, Saint Faustina writes:
I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment.
After a while, Jesus said to me; "Paint an image according to the model you see, with the motto below: Jesus I trust in You. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world" (47).
"I promise that the soul that venerates this image will not perish. I also promise victory over its enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory" (48).
Jesus said to St. Faustina: "Let no sinner be afraid to approach Me." In Faustina's Diary, "Jesus invites each one of us to yeild to His infinite mercy, to trust in His compassion and forgiveness.
Great graces are promised to those who proclaim His great mercy. "I shall protect them Myself at the hour of death, as My own glory. And even if the sins of the soul are as dark as night when the sinner turns to My mercy, he renders Me the greatest praise, and becomes the glory of My Passion. When a soul praises My goodness, Satan trembles before it and flees to the very bottom of Hell" (Diary, 378).
"Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
Augustine of Hippo, The confessions of Saint Augustine
Please pray that all God's children may rest in Him alone.