Index of Articles on Theology Fr Mere Dominique Philippe O.° Tn the Beginning God eed Mn and Woman ba Father "The Rejection of Goa he Father “The Soggles ofthe Church The last Week "Te Cetin Fry and Religious Friiy ‘On Saint Therese of souk = The Ac of Ofeing = (chapter 3) ‘Grain Therese of sou ~ The Ac of Ofaring = (Chapter ‘On Soin Therese a Usleux= The Ac of Offering i= (chapter) ‘Ga Saint Terese of sour = The Wado ofthe Gross~ (Chapter 6) ‘Veta Splendor "The Chisan Family andthe Rago Far athe Ronan ‘Biers ofthe Question and Answers Sesion between Father Philppe and young PeOpTe "The immaculate Concipton ‘Hemly a Saint aha Lateran forthe Fal Vows ofa Brother ‘omy at Mass oF Al Sant (Gospel mESTAza) Tomy at Mass for Simple Professions at Sant Peter (Gospel Mt S-i20) “Alealedtopolnes™ ‘Cesta mnt baa naw bith Yor each one of ur ‘iloF us are Oboes ‘Wary, Woman ofthe Earhart “The unity of being a Gh according to Thomas Aquinas The Aisumplonin he Sptal Fe Father Mare Daminique Pilppe Putt the Guesion 2 3 a 33 o 8 101 103 am 3, wa ms 9 337“The Seven Great Visions of Christin the Apoeahpae “The Revelation ofthe Paraaete ‘rcrpts ofthe Queiion and Answers Sesion between Father Philipps and young people Trey and Divine Government ‘Mary and Mystery of Crisis “ng by our “rat ove” Grou aderation Faith ond the Fam ow does Chistian ath equi Mtaphvses Divine Hope, the dams of our Ives The Resurecion: Mystay of Fath ‘Gar ohannine Vocation: "To Follow the Lamb Wherever He Goes™ ‘ornmentary onthe opel oF aha: Living by Jesus Presence Religious ie and the Mystery of Marys Divine Motherhood The Word fos, word ofthe Father ‘Ou fe, Our Sweetness, Our Hope Fetreat for St Toss (atret fora the ay menbers ofthe Corny oF SUOhA oily at Saint Mary War “The Priestiood of Coat Receiving Mary “The Three Covenants “The Fst Moment of Gods Fatherhood us 153 159 165 aw # & 8 23 a a a7 265 am 218 283 2 299From "At the Heart of Love” Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, 0.P. In The Beginning... God Created... Man and Woman The Creétion of Man and Woman Father, would you speak to us about what the Bi ‘man and woman? What is God's design for the couple? ‘says concerning the union of ‘without doubt you want to specify what the union of man and woman represents, the couple, in the vision of God, from God's standpoint. "Design" would mean that God fs an artist, thet He ‘would have a plan to carry cut ike ® sculptor or an architect, or an administrator. God is @ Father, He creates us with love! and at the summit ofall creation of this physical universe is the appearance of man and woman. Tels very significant when you consider the two narratives (of creation. Without stopping at the exegetical polnt of view on the origin of the two 2; this is unimportant-we are sure that God wanted--the Church Is somehow there 95.8 ‘uarantor of God's wil-thase two narratives of men and woman's creation to be. ‘According to the fist narrative, after the creation of the physical universe and the communication of life to the diverse kinds of living belngs, there Is something liko a ‘momentary pause. It ls quite Impressive, As if God begins to “reflect” momentary, £0 much the’ passage from animal to man is something great In God's wisdom; God wants us to understand the abyss existing between the ‘creation of all these living belngs and this ‘masterwork of God which ls the creation of man and woman. "Let us make man in our own Image and likeness" 3. And according to this fst narrative, God makes them man and woman simultaneously, In order to show how, In God's eyes, man and woman have a deep equality of frder, Twas going fo say, of life, In the order of spit; and God creates them in His own image ‘nd likeness. ‘According to the second narrative, which Is completely eliferent-it appears primitive and It's ‘almost hidden by the fist~-God ‘creates man first. He creates him immediately after the Greation of matter 4. Then He creates all that surrounds man; his vital rlleu; for him He Creates an Eden, But, alone In the midst of this marvellous, luxurant garden that God gives fhm, men does not appear happy. God explans to us why: man is alone" Is not good for ‘man fo be alone” 5. Then there Is ths narrative, so primitive and so extraordinary from the point of view of symbolism, of woman's creation, God plunges man ino a slaep and becomes 8 “surgeon’ in order to make woman from man. He uses a man's rib (after having plunged him In torpor) to make woman from man, so that she might realy be his prolongation ane at the Sametime his complement. It js God Himself who presents woman to man; then man expresses his joy: "This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” 6, Its very important for us to compare these two narratives. The frst one is much more perfect from order's point of view: itis the narative which shows us that God creates everything with wisdom; In’ vision of wiséom, man and woman are at the summit, the Whole physical Universe being for them. Since it Ise vision of wisdom, God insists on unity, the equality of both one and the other, ‘The second narrative expresses even more so the love of God-God creates by wiscom and God creates by love; one can even say: God creates by love and this love Implles a whole reflection, a vision of wisdom, In the second narrative you very clearly see @ much deeper inwimacy. Te shows us fist God's gesture fashioning man's body (the gesture ofthe potter) in order to show God's proximity to man, It is as if through matter, through the bedy, God wanted to show His proximity: an artist, 2 potter is close to the clay he Is fashioning; Somehow, the potter extends himself in the cay. The clay fashioned by the pater is que fll 1of & certain intelligibility coming from the Intention of the potter. Thus, God shows His proximity ta man's body. Man's body Is good because It is kneaded by God, according to the {ep intentions of God. Father, you rely on a narrative which is nonetheless mythical; to what extent are the narratives of Genesis true? What can they bring to the believer? ‘These narratives make us believe that we can grasp this mystery only by approaching it ostically end symbolically. The Holy Spin, the principal author of Serpture, uses ancient Feligious trations while purtying them; all n fat, seek to evoke under & symbolic form the ‘great mystery of the creation of man and woman. The religious tradivons have a symbolic form, because the deepest secrets of the religious soul can enly be sald in this way. Isnt symbolic knowledge the most primitive, and at the same time the most ultmate? We know ‘ary well that precise, logical, scentiic knowledge cannot express the deep things of the heart; as soon az one loves, one becomes © pact: one expresses is love according to @ poetic Tanguage evan more than according to 8 logical language. if Gad wants us to understand all the love that He has for His creatures, for man and woman who are His masterpiece, He ‘employs this poetic, symbolic form. 1 is true thet this narrative fs symbolic and mythical: Ifthe philosopher or the grammarian, the literary person come to these frst chapters of Genesis, they will ome to them as they did ‘tm the great religious traditions; all of them express ercation according to a symbolic and imythical language, since we were not present there. We only have ite very embryonic bits of Knowledge which we try to unify Insofar as we cant In realty, we Ignore what the origin ofthe World was. God knows fe well, but He does not want to give us an explct, clear knowledge of ‘the creation ofthe worl, of the creation of man and woman; He simply wants to stress that man was looked on by God from a standpoint of love, and that the whole universe had been Created for him. This is true for man as for woman; ahd if In the second narrative God seems {to have forgotten woman (His frst glance seems to be entirely for man) Its perhaps to make Us better understand how man and wornan, In the thought of God, imply at the same time an ‘equality from the point of view of the spiritual (substantia ) soul, and a great complementarity in the order of love. They are not created according to an equality in the sense thet one may Understand it today, but ina very much more profound equality: both of them are masterpieces for God, they are God's masterpieces and they are loved by God In a unique love. However, each of them expresses something of God's goodness, and they are given to ‘one another in @ complementarity of love ‘This symbole and mystical language is therefore a language of divine symbolism--one can almost speak of a “divine myth." In other words, It must be understood, beyond the symbol land mythic form, that God wants to tll us something true, which escapes all our human knowledge: the scholar and the pilesopher wil never be able to explain how man and woman have appeared in the universe. In certain way the erst can evoke it more easily than either the scientist or the philosopher. For the artist knows a litle how, ater having made numerous sketches, he Instantly caries out his masterpiece; the masterpiece Is particularly Interesting to him: a the rest seems to get around, to faint away before his masterplece. It I that which God wants to make us understand in these completely primitive narratives: what really Interests Him beyond everything is neither the Immense grandeur of our physical universe nor the variety ofall the animals: all tis interests God since He wanted , but what Interests Him ‘and wit touches Him “in depth" Is His masterpiece: the creation of man and woman. And to make us better understand His'love-just because love is always personal: love cannot be ‘global, love cannot envelop two beings atthe same time; even when you love twins, you love ach of them in'a unique way, and the mather of two twins always recognizes them, even if the thers confuse them—God wanted to make two beings, two persons who have thelr autonomy and thelr own cnaracter, He wanted also to indicate that these two beings In thelr versity are nevertheless called to @ very great unity, to.a complementary In the order of bologial life, In view of procreation; this 18 extended in psychology, for all that regards human things 7. That ls why God first 2makes this gesture of man's formation, ané then brings man to an awareness of his poverty, Of his iolaton, even if He gives him quantites of material things and living beings; man 1s not fable to atisy himse by that. God thus makes man understand right away that there isin him 8 dimension which surpasses the universe, which goes very much further: man seeks someone wwnom he can lover and when ths someone fs not present, whom he cannot Immediately love, man has some sadness inside himself, an unsatisfied call. That makes us understand ths moment when God lefe man alone. And ven He Himself says: “Its not good that man should be alone,” God wants us to understand that He has indeed created him while placing in him an Important calling, <0 that he should love someone who should be both close and different from him The entira creation of woman shows it well: God wanted to show at the same time that he is close to mane="Bane of my bones, flesh of my flesh--ane different: she is the one who Shall be man's complement, before al in the order of love, while taking love realy in the Strong sense, that is @ love whieh seizes all being; woman wil be a complement in all her Eenaltvity, in all her being. She willbe relative to man. The Hebrale term expresses that wel! Fehehahy” which is "woman," fs the feminine of "sh," "man," In order that one should understand this unity and this relativity of woman regarding man 8. She Is the one who Is ‘completely given to him. God Himself presents her to man. Relative to mon? We have to understand (we actuslly know how man wil call attention to hie birthright considering that he has some rights over women and that he ought to dominate her; row this is not at all te thought of God). In God's thought, woman Is a complement in the Strong sence: she isthe ai, that is the one who should or must to help man to discover love-= ‘woman has this power to awaken fove in men’s heart--and she is alse the one who Is going to Allow an accomplishment: In a certain way, everything 's accomplished in woman's hear, who Feceives this man’ lave n order to be abe to dedicate herself fo him and to enable tis love to fake ts entre dimension and Rs entire fulness. God wanted them to be bwo, and to be one 3. ‘This duality and this unty Is what makes us understand the “design” of God for man and woman, the profound look of God on man and woman. It is the love look which makes us Atscover this complementarity, and this weight of love put there by God in man's heart for his wife, woman. This weight of love s In @ receptivity and a response from woman's heart to man's (response because their mutual love is filed), so that both, by loving, should become 9 source of ie, @ source of love, since God glves them this order: "Multiply" 10. Tt Is al this ‘reat mystery, evoked from the staring point, from the union of man and of woman, in love, for fecundity. Do you mean that God created man and woman in view of frultfulness? He created them for themselves, since otherwise this would net be a work of love which would terminate at-men. It is possibly the reason for which God wanted this second creation Narrative to plainly show that the creative act terminates with man (and there is another Creative act which terminates with woman). Its the personal look of God's love on man and fon woman. But at the same time, and this deals with their complementarity and also with the Intensity of love which ought to manifest self between man and woman, God wanted thelr Tove to be a source of frultulness, to be a point of departure for a new being. This Is evoked in 2 very hidden way at the beginning of Genesis, but if we are attentive to the entire evelopment of Scripture, we notice well how God wanted the frst covenant existing between Him, the Creator, and man and woman, His small creature, t9 be this covenant of frutfulness, In felt love lnk both: love and futfulness, in a full ove which willbe realized, which wal blossom In a frultfuiness. Here is where we grasp this frst covenant of man and: woman between them and with God, It \e God's wil of wisdom that establishes this covenant, That Immediately helps us to understand (and we will have the opportunity to come back here once {again} that this mystery of procreation ts basi: we touch something sacred, since we touch af ‘express wil of Ged for man and woman. 1s there something sacred in procreation? Yes, procreation has something sacred, It Is not to be understood uniquely from an ethical Derspectve, If we understand byethical” the relationships of man to man, If we consider the 3responsibilty of man concerning man 11. There Is something more profound: an overreaching of human responsibilty. Tr Is tue: man receives woman from God; and that Is in order for them to realize @ Work which surpasses them, of which they are responsible, trustees; this work is te family, whichis golng tobe realized by procreation. Would you please clarify @ point? You sald that man is the masterplece of the universe. What does that mean? Why do you say that? 1 say that according to all the great traditions. 1 know well that certain modern people are Violently oppased to this great vision of the Church Fathers on Genesis, But we can say that the Holy Father in the first teaching of his pontifiate took up the chapters of Genesis again to ehemently insist, following the guidelines of the Church Fathers, on the fact that man and woman are the universe's masterpiece, We are Influenced by an entirely modern Vision, of 2 Certain “philosophy'-t is not actually scent, but instead philosophical or rather positst~ Which says in 2 quite terrible way, while relying on the progress of modern sclence, that man is ne longer the universe's masterpiece: as the earth Is no longer the canter of the world, man {and woman appear as @ moment of evolution and, according to Freud, the Oedipus complex is at the most intimate in man's heart. AS @ masterplece, Ie snot very Successfull If man really Comes down fo the Osdipus complex, wnat'a masterpiece! ite ratner the “gargoyle” of oa’ ‘rasterplece! It is this kind of total fling back of man on himself instead of bang truly Inthe mage and in the Ikeness of Gog, he becomes almost the antithesis. Let us not Insist, we shall Demis come back to It later; but that Is par--it is nevertheless very important to notice It at fhe starting point-of the entre pseudo-sclentific, pseudo-philosophical elimete in which, Certainly, we lve, So, when we say that man and woman are the masterpiece of God, that they are at the summit of the entire creation of the physical world, one resists a litle, one oes not adhere to it ight away. Its quite normal in our climate, and I did it deliberately £0 that you can underine this problem, whichis very important. Tamm placing myself in a purely theological perspective, the believer's perspective. Ina philosophical perspective, this would be Somewhat different, that is to say much shorter, much quicker: T would not be able to say uch! Notes (2) ct Gen. 2-2, 4 [21 6t Gen, 234-25, [3] Gen. 1:26. [i] "in the day that the Lord made the earth and the heavens, when no plant ofthe field was yet on earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up-for the Lord God had not caused It to Tain upon the earth, and there wes no man to til the ground; but a mist went up from the farth and watered the whole face ofthe ground~then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostri the breath of life; and man became a ving being (Gen. 2:4-7) [5] Gen. 2:16, {61 Gen. 2:23, 17] Let us note, as we will say it, that man and woman specially have the same spiritual Soul; the spiital soul of one and the other is therefore specifialy the same, even if from the Point of view of exercise there is a diversity and a complementarity. From a psychological point of view, the love of man and that of woman can appear as speciisly diferent in reality, they fare not [8] "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh. of my flesh; she shall be called Woman (ishshah), because she wes taken out of man (Ish)" (Gen. 2:23). [9] "Therefore @ man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become fone flesh” (Gen. 2:24), [10] “And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fulful and multiply, and fil the earth and subdue ft." (Gen. 1:28). [11] ‘Can't we actually distinguish somehow three levels of responsibilty and therefore of moral activity? The Interpersonel human. level; the level which explicity. implies. the Falationship wth the Creator: and the level which implies dependence with regard to Christ the Savior. Human ethics (we will sometimes cal i "lay" ethics), religious ethics, Christian ethics. 4Abba, Father Father Merie-Dominique Philippe, 0.P. When we cry “Abba” it is the Spirit Himselt.... We enter here into a great mystery. For Saint Thomas this passage from the Letter to the Romans expresses the most profound and the most Intimate experience of our Christian ie, the summit of mystical Ite When under the breath of the Holy Spr we can say with Jesus "Abba, Father*—not only with ‘ur lips but Inthe silence of love, as a cry-we have @ divine experience of our sonship, of our Birth to divine life. We enter Into thie eternal generation ofthe Word of God (the Logos), of the ‘San wo isn the basom of the Father (1]. We afe grasped by Christ, seized by Him (this is the proper of our Chistian if) o that He might take possession of our inmost Heart, of aur wil Eo that we might have the same sentiments [2] as Him, the same cry as Him, and say in al truth, “abba, Pater. It's this we are going to try to consider. We can say that its atthe point of departure and at the term of all that we have. previously consigered regarding the ferent aspects. of fatherhood. At the point of departure and atthe term because It going to remain eternally; this ry wll remain eternally. In heaven we wil eternally, unceasingly say "Father," ané we wil ay fe ln the ight of the beatif vision, gazing upon the Father and understanding that there Is ‘thing areater than Him. And we wil say “Father in the light that Jesus gives us, this ght that comes from the Son, “Light from Light." We will say tn His light, and we will discover eternally wnat we glimpse already as ofthis earth, In the obscurty of fith ana in love. We wil Siscover eternally that there i nothing greater than saying “Father.” We wil discover that the tternal Word, the Son, who isin the bosom of the Father, also eternally gazes upon the Father ‘nd that the Holy Spit also eternally gazes upon the Father and that the Father Is eternally thelr source of ight and love \We wil then understand that the mystery of the Incarnation is thereto reveal the Father tous. We will understand that the Holy Spit Is glven to us that we might discover the Father and ‘that all Seripture is given fo us that we might understand the Father's gaze of love upon us and His attraction of love. All of Serpture is there that we might enter info this attraction of Tove. In heaven we will understand this in full ight; here, on earth, itis in the obscurity of {alth. But we know that saying "Father" is truly what Is greatest If Jesus isthe Bridegroom, it 15 s0 that we might be able to say, with Him, "Father.” If the Holy Spirit is given to us and eenvelops us with Hs ove, Its so that, with Him, we might be able to say "Father." {tls for this reason that In our orison, our silent Interior prayer, we must constantly come back to this. We must ask the Holy Spin t give us this experiance. We must ask Him to help Us grasp this filation of love which we find in ourselves. We are In it. We must ask the Holy ‘Spint to enlighten us and to let us understand that this 's the essential thing In our Christian Ife and that, In the end, this is our Christian fe. It is from this flan of love and in it that all the rest is enlightened. We must ask for th, for Its a grace. The Holy Split wants to glve us this experience of love, He wants us to unerstand this more deeply than we have understood Ie unt nov. He wants to lead us into this mystery of filaton so that we might In all truth say “Father,” In Church and also in istening to preaching. 1 am obliged to speak to You; you have the privilege of being sllent; itis more contemplative. You can contemplate and you must contemplate and’ you must contemplate In saying “Father.” You must enter Into. this Contemplation of love understanding that He is there and that He gives you His light and He {communicates to you His love so that you might be able to look upon Him in all truth and say, “abba, Father, Pater.” Let us reread the passage from the Letter to the Roman! 1‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the Law of the Spit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done ‘what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of Sinful flesh end for sin, he condemned sin Inthe flesh, in order thatthe just requirement ofthe Taw might be futile in us, who walked not according to the flesh but according to the Spirt. For thove who live according to the flesh set thelr minds on the things of the flesh, Dut those wha live according to the Spirit set thelr minds en the things of the Split. To set the mind on {the flesh fs death, but fo set the mind on the Spin is Ife and peace. For the mind that Is set ‘onthe flesh is hostile to God It dows not submit to Goe's law, indeed It cart; and those whe fre in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, you are In the Spirit, If in fact the Spint of God dwells in you [Anyone vho does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodles are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. Ifthe Spit of him who ralsed Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give if to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells In you. ‘So then, Bretnren, we are deotors, not tothe Nes, :o Ive according 10 the lesh--or Ifyou ive ‘according tothe flesh you wil de, but if by the Split who put to death the deeds ofthe body ‘you wil five, For all who are led by the Split of God are sons of God. For you dié not receive the spirit of slavery to fll back into fear, but you eve received the spirit of sonship. When we ‘ry, sAbbal Father” It's the Spint himself Dearing witness with our spire that we are children ‘of Goa, and if children then heirs, heltsof God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer ‘with hi in order that we may also be glorified with hire [3] ‘Saint Paul begins by showing the diference between the Spirt and the law and then he shows. Us that this Spits given to us. It Is not a Spit of fear but a Spin of lal adoption, and this Sprit of adoption is the Spit of God whichis given to us, which is communicated to us and Which enables us to say inal truth, "Abba, Father." Tt isthe Spirit who bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God. This is the common work of our effort and ofthe Holy Spit, Hence there Is sort of "knot." When we say "Abba, Father," It ls the work of the Holy Spirit {nd of our own wil, our good wil There is another place (we must always put these two places in parallel) where this mystery is shown to us ‘But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, barn under the am, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And DDecause you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father" So through God you are no longer a slave but a'son, and fa son then an hel [4]. Here we find again the same theme: the freedom of the children of God before slavery. In today's word its very important to understand iberation from slavery. A son ls free; and we ‘an only dlscover the Father In ths freedom of love, ta father is tyrant he creates slaves, fad slaves do not say, "Abbe, Father” Iris free children who can say “Abbe, Father" and the free child fe an hele. ‘There Is a third place, There are only three; exegetes have noted it well. Those who are Interested in this word “Abba"~-which is nota Greek but an Aramaic term expressing Intimacy- know itis the aquivalant of "Daddy." "Father" Is already a bit more solemn. "Daddy" Is simpler. We should translate "Daddy." This Aramalc word Is not found In the Old Testament and we only encounter it three times in the New Testament (the Latter to the Romans, the Letter to the Galetians, and undoubtedly the ist time in Mark). Ibis at Gethsemane. Jesus has st sald, "My soul is very sorrowful even to death, remain here, and watch.” Mark continues, nd going a lite farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, i i were possible, the houright pass from him. And he sald, “Abba, Father cup trom me™ [5]. al things are possible to thee; remove this It is indeed the Holy Sprit (the principle author of Seripture as Saint Thomas says) who has allowed this threefold revelation of "Abba, Father.” So if we want to anter ino this mystery that Saint Thomas tells us is the most profound of our Christan life, we must be very attentive to the paths that the Holy SpintIndleates. Now the Hely Spirit indicates three. When the Holy Spirit does things, itis always In a Trinitarian way. We would most Ikely take the fur cardinal Points oF the five dimensions of our sensations and our knowledge or, if we are very spiritual, fhe seven gifts of the Holy Spin. That le why we have had seven conferences thc year! But beyond seven, there Is sort of leap into the Holy Tanty. ‘The Secret of Jesus in the Agony It is Jesus who first revealed what He said to the Father, how He addressed the Father. And it is Jesus in the mystery of the Agony, and the moment where He can no longer go on, atthe ‘moment when His soul Is sorrowful even unto death, and when He asks His apostles to remain with Him. This is marvelous: Jesus wanted to need the presence of His apostles, thereby Knowing! perfectly the weakness of the heart of man. We are_all Ike this. We, with the generosity that we have, are the apostles. Nonetheless they followed Jesus three years! Should they nat have understood Him? But no, three years of novitiate with Jesus and they do ot understand. They are stil the same. We wil remain the same until tne end of our ie, When Jesus asks us to accompany Him and to pray, we say to Him, “1 am too tre.” Nevertheless we want to hear Jesus revealing to us what Is most profound in His heart--His intimate bond with the Father-because we sense in our faith that It Is this which Is most profound in the heart of Christ, Otherwise it Is not what fs most profound In us, itis not our heart in its mest Intimate and most divine aspect. Te Would stil be exterior surface things. What we call “depth psychology” attain to something other than what we are talking about here, whichis finaly, dare we say, nothing but the dapth ofthe heart of Jesus in us. Ie is this ‘that we must try to grasp In order to penetrate of It this mystery of "Abba, Father.” It is what Is most profound In aur heart its the heart of Jesus that takes hold of our heart and makes it ‘one with His; tis the desire of Chest. ‘The hese of Christ, the wounded heart of the Lamb is more present to our heart than our heart, transformed by grace, ls present to itself. We must try to orasp this every day in our prayer. For this indeed is orion. Its Ivng this profound intimacy, this unity withthe heart of Crist. We must not seek anything else; we must always come back to this This is our place of prayer. We must understand (f we want) this intimacy between our heart and the heart of Jesus, an Intimacy such thatthe haart of Christ is more present to our heart than our heart ie present to ise, n the order of grace. ‘What Is mast present in the heart of Christ? What is deepest in His heart? It is His bond with the Father. Here Tam speaking of the human heart of Christ, and not of tie mystery of the Word of Gad. The Word, the Son, Is "in the bosom of the Father" [6], and by the mystery of the Incarnation, the wounded heart of the Lamb Is in the basom of the Father because the Word assumes human nature in such a way that human nature becomes one with the Word of Goa (@ mystery of personal unity that theologians call the "Hypestatic union") If than what is most secret In the Word s being in the bosom ofthe Father then wat ls mast Intimate and deepest in the heart ofthe Lamb, In the heart of Jesus, is belng in the bosom of the Father. It here that Jesus calls His Father Its here that He says, "Abba, Daddy." The Feather Is always intimately present tothe heart of Jesus. He never leaves it. Nevertheless, the heatt of Jesus must eal to Him. And He calls to Him at the moment when He experiences the Greatest sadness, the greatest distress, the greatest soltude, an isolation with respect to Hie posts and with respect to all men~"I looked fer pity but there was none; and for comforters and T feund none" [7]. It Is at tis moment that, under the breath of the Holy Soir, Jesus ‘sys, "Father, into your hands I commend my sprit” [8]; Jesus says, "My God, my God, why 3hast thou forsaken me" [9]. And at the Agony He says, "Abbe, Father.” We must put in paralat these two texte in order to better understand the mystery of abandonment which Jesus knows inthe Agony and at the Cross in order to penetrate what Is most Intimate In this mystery, In fonder to discover what is most vulnerable inthe heart of lesus. ‘Where 2esus is most vulnerable n His heart Is where there is the most love, The more we love, the more we are vulnerable. And where Is'there the most love in the heart of Jesus? In His bond with the Father, tls inmate bond lived in sinu Patri. What does this Indicate to us? {In commenting upon this verse in Sint John, Saint Thomes tells us that in sin Patris indicates ‘what Is most intimate in the very simpicty of the Father. The simply of the Father makes ‘verything intimate in the Father; this ls what ls marvels, Hle paternity is unfamiliar with dsraction. For a moment, think of @ child who Is close to his father while his father works. The ‘hid knaws thot he isnot In the Intimacy of his father. He tugs on his father's sleeve and says to him, "Here | am. Look at me," or Ne says things to catch the attention of his father because he wants his father to Took at Rim. Indeed, In a father there are "many dvaling places," many ‘and varied dwellings for he is oczupled with his work or such and Such a thing... And the child Immediately senses that the father (s pot entirely present, and that what is greatest In his father isnot entirely turned towards hr God, on the other hand, i simple. In Him there are not many dwelling places. When Jesus says that there are mary dwelings in the house of His Father (10), He Indeed says “in the house of the Father" and not "in sinu Petits," in the bosom of the Father. The house of the Father Is the heavenly Jerusalem ‘The Father, because He is simple, because He is love, gives Himsa in plenitude tothe Son. It is's0 as to express this fll git that Saint John says that the Son isin the “bosom of the Father," to show the great intimacy, to show that atthe very moment (If we may venture to say) when the Father gives Himself totaly, the Word, the Son, abides In this fecundity of the Father. The Fether gives Himself at the moment (s0 to speak) when His whole selfs if and the Word abides in this plenitude of gift. He receives everything and abides inthis plenitude of the ait. What is true ofthe Word Is true~all proportions maintained-for the humanity and the heart of Jesus. The heart of Jesus subsists In the Word, Ie therefore receives all the ght of the Word, all the love of the Word. Tt receives the plenitude of light and lave. And Ifthe heart of the {Lamb is wounded, itis so that we might understand the intensity oF Hs love forthe one who Is. the unique source from which comes all ight, all if, and all love. The heart of Jesus Is bound to the Father, Ils bound in the very Spirit of the Father who le one with His Spine. They have the same Spin of love, And the heart of Jesus, ints love is bound tothe Father in tis Spit In faith we can, and we must never forget this, hear Jesus saying in His heart, “Abba, Father.” Wie must always come back to this Because It's Jesus who teaches us how to gaze upon the Feather and to love Him, and to say, "AbSa, Father.” We must therefore hear it from Jesus. It concerns living ft with Jesus and therefore of grasping what i so great when Jesus, in'2 cry, says, "Abba, Daddy.” Jesus knows that the Father Is constant attentive, that He is never distracted. He knows that the Father is Vere, present, The Father is always there. But He calls and eres out to Him in His human heart, In His heart as Son, in His heart as priest; He erles out to Him in His heart as 2 Victim of love. He demands the presence of His Father: "Abba"! He demands the gaze of His Father. He demands thatthe Father be entirely for Him: "Abba"! ‘When Jesus on the Cross says, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me"? he does not say "Abba" but “My God." It is very Important s0'that we might grasp what was lived In the ‘Feat intimacy of the Agony. The Agony is Indeed a mystery of great intimacy. Itis'a mystery Of contemplation, Itis the mystery of the Beloved Son before the Father. The Cross is s0 2 4iystery of intimacy but Its nat only this. It fs also a mystery which lived in front of everyone. We know ths well and that Is why Its so dificult. [At the Cross Jesus says, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me"? Its the humility of Jesus that ie adoressing the Father. It Desus as man adoring and addressing His God. Tt is Jesus who addresses the omnipotence of the Father ana who recognizes the absence of this omnipotence. The Father lets man seek vengeance on Jesus out of jealousy. The Father keeps Aulet; there Is great silence here Of the seven words of Christ on the Cross, the one closest to the "Abba" of the Agony is Lndoubtealy the “I thirst." For when Jesus says “Abba,” He wishes to express the greatest desire of His heart, and the greatest desire of His heart is that for the love of the Father, and that of being entirely lave for the Father. Here (between “My God, my God" and “Abbat) there fs-a contrast which fe very eloquent for us and which enables us to enter into this mysterious Intimacy. What is most vulnerable inthe heart of Jesus, what (5 mast loving and most Burning Fs this bond with the Father. He isthe Beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased (11]. Tt fs the Father Himself who sa/s this, "He isthe Son, the Beloved.” He ls the very complaisance, the pleasure of the Father, that I, the Father loves Him with unique love. all he love that He {oul give to ns Beloved Son, all te love Unok Me tould ye lo Une Word Une Falier gives to Sesus, to the holy humanity of Jesus, Otherwise He would not be abla to tay that Jesus is His Son, the Beloved, the One in whom He Is well pleased, upon whom rests His favour. In order {or Fim to be abla fo =ay this, al the love that He has for the Word, for His Beloved Son, must bbe communicated in plenitude to the heart of Jesus, who remains the Beloved $00, ‘What is the response of Jesus? At the Baptism and at the Transfiguration He Iss at the Agony there is this cry, "Father." This is the response. Let us try to understand a bit what is contained in this “Abba” of the Beloved Son. It is love, ‘obviously. els 2 response to the covenant thatthe Father has made with His Beloved Son, the ‘Agapetos in whom He is well pleased, the Beloved, the Unique, the One whom "His heart Toves" [12]. And Jesus calls, cries out. Out of love Jesus opens His heart, saying, "Abba, Pater." This is the response’ of Jesus; His response in love. His response has been made Immeciately atthe Baptism, but in sence. Here, tis given for us so that we might understand the Intensity ofthe love that Jesus has for the Father His response is given at the moment of the Agony. This is important because Its only the ‘moment when we suffer in 8 particulary strong way, when the welght of sorrow Is particularly intense, that we can divulge certain secrets, reveal certain secrets-this we know Well. It If with the weight of the suffering of the Agony-—'My soul is sorrowful even unto deeth'=that Jesus says, “Abba,” that Jesus gazes upon the Father asa litle child When @ person suffers intensely, when his soul is sorrowful even unto death, when he is faced with defeat, with the defeat of his whole ie, he experiences extreme fragity. Now, humanly speaking, what Jesus lived at the Agony was the most total defeat. It was a defeat that was ‘not only human, ie was the defeat ef the One sent by the Father, of the One who wants to Glorfy the Father and to save us. For Christ's heart, the mystery of the Cross is terrible because it Is an apparent defeat. And he experiences the weakness of men. He knows how ifficult iis for man to go beyond appearence and therefore to go beyond what Is an exterior ‘defeat 20 as to discover deeper truth Jesus knows allthis, and itis for this reason that It i so dificult and so heavy~for Him who ‘comes to save us, to show us the path, Him who comes to carry the flag of the Beloved Son ‘nd indicate to us where the Father le. Here there is a mystery of great sadness, of divine sadness. Let us not stop at anguish. The ‘Agony is a mystery. Anguish is nota mystery, we know this well. The Agony of Christ assumes. anguish, yes, but we do not understand and cannot understand the great mystery of the ‘Agony if we remain ot the level of enguish because it ls paychological. If we remain at te 5lo psychological level, we no longer understand the mystery of Christ, because the mystery of ist i always lived at the level ofthe Beloved Son linked tothe Father What is true is that He bears the anguish of men, the sadness of men, all their misfortune. “This He bore totaly, tothe end, but He bore it n love and I ls for this reason that itis @ divine sadness, a mystery. At this moment Jesus experiences in His soul something new, 8n ‘experience that He has not yet Known: the experience of agony, the experience of sadness, of Solltde-1 was going to say, ofthe abandonment of men. And this experience i lived in love. Tels for this reason that He Says, "Father, Abba' The words of e cil “The more we suffer the more we become again like lite children In @ twofold fagity: Fragity| that comes from love whieh is vulnerability and, here, the fragt of one who must bear the sadness of the word, the anguish of the world. In this mystery of Gethsemane there is an ‘abyss in the heart of Jesus, an abyss of sadness, of fragilty: "Father, Abba." Lat us try ‘eepen this further, understanding that this call Is the cal ofthe poor on; forthe lite child fs poor. Jesus does not return to the creche, that i obvious. It isnot a psychological return to litleness. In the Agony Jesus \s smaller in His human experience, in the experience of His heart He knows a greater itieness than that which He knew at Bethlehem, [At Bethlehem, He knows the Itleness of a child who Is totally placed into the hands of his parents. At Gethsemane, He knows the Itleness of one who eaters into a unique paverty, Imo Sivine poverty: the absolute divestment of one who no longer has any rights, In no time, all that He has done i, es it were, abandoned, burned, destroyed. He has nothing left but the Father. Certainly the Father ls everything for Him but in Fis human’ soul He no longer has anything But th Father. ‘To better understand the cry of the child who says "Father" let us consider other cries In the Old Testament. They wil help us to better understand ft. There i fist the cry of ite Ishmael, which is s0 extraordinary. Indeed, the cry of litle Ishmael Is addressed to his mother, fer his father Abraham hes abandoned him. Poor Abraham! He perhaps hearé the cry ofthe chid in ‘the depths of his heart... Nevertheless, there is this ery of Ile Ishmael and the mother tires of hearing thls ery (because she can do nothing about it), and so she stances herself from the child 30 a t0.n0 longer hear i and itis at this moment tat God hears the cry of the child, The cty of the child is indeed "Abba." Everything ls contained inthis word ite ery. Tt the cry of poor ehitd ‘who thirsts, who cannet continue, who Is close to death, who falls Into agony. This ehild Is in ‘agony; he is going to dle, and the Father hears bir... “There is also the cry of Ite Isaac (Abraham heard these two cries): "Father." Lite Isaac, hea he Is close to Mount Moriah on the last day ofthe journey (wa can see the weight), says, “Father.” But there is something completely clfferent, Is not ® cry of distress; itis the cry of 2 child who senses 2 great mystery. Children often sense certain things thet adults no longer sense unless they have the heert of @ chid of God. A child immediately senses when a situaton is abnormal and whon iti grave, It 's for this reason that there is this cry which seeks to awaken the father os father. Isaac wants to awaken what Is most affective, what is most loving, what is deepest in the heart of his father. His father seems so absent! He seems so plunged into his Ideas, into his sadness. Here the child does not bear the sadness ofthe father but he senses that there fs something grave land he questions. For when child senses something grave, he cannot bear it by himself. He Is ‘obliged to say it. So there Is this cry. ‘There fs also the silence of Benjamin at the moment he must leave his father. Scripture does not tellus anything. Teis the father who speaks, but Benjamin is listening [13]. What we must ‘understands that if Jesus says, “Abba,” Its tO express a desire, a desire of love. Lat us ask ‘ourselves the question, "What Is the desire of love that allows us to understand the Intensity of {this cal: “Abba”? When we call upon our Father, we call Upon Him as the one we love, as the 6‘one in whom we have complete trust (otherwise It would net be a bond of filation), the one Sipon whom we can rely knowing that He will never leave us even ifothers abandon us (14) ‘All of this isin the cry "abba." Tels an ultimate call, final call nthe sense that we are sure of finding bere someone upon whem we can rely, that nothing, absolutely nothing can take away, ‘and which founds in Us ebsolute trust, unshakeable hope. ‘This Is Indeed what Is shown to usin the Gospel of Saint Mark when Jesus says to His Father, “Aba.” He expresses an intense cesire="All things are possible for thee"--what Is possible to the Father as Father, not to God as Creator. Ils truly here that we grasp the absolute trust of 2 child, of the Beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased, who can lean upon His Father because His Father Is nothing but love. "Father, all things are possible to thee, remove tis cup from me.” There must have been @ great silence at this moment, "yet not what I will but what thou willis.” Al this expresses what this cry "Abba" Is, If we want to understand It Jesus therefore expresses an intimate desire that He can only say tothe Father; for there are desires hat we can only say to our Father, there are prayers that we can only say to Him who is the "Daddy" in whom we have complet trust. ‘What is this desire? It sa desire that oly the Father can understand. We cannot understand it by ourselves, with our inteligence eioney Kis someting much too secret. Hut, co the degree ‘hat, with Jesve, we eay to the Father the same word "Abba," we can then penetrate Into tis mystery. For, at that moment, Christ, more present to our heart in grace than we are to ‘urselves, can lead us to dscover what Is mast Intimate and deepest In His heart as Son. But ibis in the great intimacy of prayer, and only In the Intimacy of prayer. Certain secrets can ‘only be communicated in the inumacy of prayer. Mary Let us ask the question: In the Intimacy of prayer, what is this secret? We know, according to Saint Luke [15], that the consoler Angel comes close to Jesus and that this angel, ‘2ccording to the Fathers of the Church, Is Gabriel. 1s this angel not Gabreel, the one sent to the Holy Virgin? There is something very Intimate, an intimate bond with Mary. Each time Jesus ‘addresses the Father as Father, inthe deepest aspect of His paternity, of Hc fatherhood, there is.a bond with Mary. I cannot be otherwise because the divine maternity of Mary manifests His fatherhood; itis for us, as itwere, Its echo. Tt seems to me that Its here that we can discover what this deep desire of the heart of the Beloved Son is. For what is most Intimate in the Gesite ofthe heart of Christ meets up with the desires of the Father: i is indeed the desire of the Beloved Son as Beloved Son who places in the Father al His pleasure “The Father gava Him Mary to be Mis mother, and Jesus, the One sent by the Father, must be the guardian of her whom the Father has given Him as mother. Jesus Is responsible for her before the Father, for thase bonds ara inevitably lrevocable. Mary gave everything and was @ Ite servant in her divine motherhood; but Jesus was immediately the One who, in His royal priesthood, took on the responsiblity of the most beloved ewe, tre eve that He bore on HIS Shoulders, the ewe that He pressed against His heart, the ewe that was everything for Him. Jesus knows wet Is going to happen. He knows that the arrest Is going to take place a few ‘moments later. He knows that Mary I going to be present atthe Crass, Jesus knows the words othe elder Simeon: "A'sword wll perce through your own soul also" [16]. Consequently, in His prayer as Beloved Son addressing His Father inthe greatest intimacy, is there not, at shat moment, great trust which remains hidden but wiih if we so desire, can be ‘vealed to us? Jesus knows thatthe sacrifice of the Cross sufices forthe fll satisfaction of all, the faults of humanity. He knows thatthe saciie ef the Cross suffices to give the plenitude of ‘grace to the whole Church, starting with Mary. if this suffices, why then must His suffering Superebound in the heart of Mary? Why must the woman be present at tne Cross and suffer What Jesus must sufer? For a noble and magnanimous heart, fora royal heart tis nothing to suffer. What is teribe is {0 be a source of suffering for those whom we love and, in particular, for one's mother. For the hheart of Jesus, this is intolerable. 1s thls not expressed inthis "Abba"? When saying "ADA {an so in asking with the greatest trust, the greatest intimacy with the Father) He expresses 7 hia wat He hed not yet expressed: why not be the only one to suffer? Why not be the only one to bear the weight of the Cross? Why must Mary be there and have a violated heart, a wounded heart? Why must the sword plerce her soul? "Father, all things are possible to thee, remove this cup from me." ‘The cup expresses the mystery of the Cross in ts plenitude. Jesus does not say remove death but the cup, the plenitude of the mystery of the Cross, that i, the Cross taking hold of the heart of Mary, taking bold of the Church. Jesus beseeched the Father, He said, “Abba.” Jesus ‘addresses what Is most intimate and deepest In the Father and asks to be the only scapegoat, {0 be the only One who bears everything. In saying “Abba,” Jesus asks that Mary be spared, fond that the church be spared, and that we be spared, Jesus asks this for us by saying, “Abba.” He says this tothe Father asthe intimate desir of alte child who knows thet he caf ‘sk unbellevable things, which is why He Immeclately ades, "yet nat what I wil but what thou Wi." Il this is contained In this cal, In ths ery of love towards the Father. This Is what Is Fevealed to us. True, we must interpret, we must try to understand, we must go as far as possible, but fe contained in the Gospel. And co, Wwe better understand why Jesus says, abba." We better understand why, so that Jesus might say everyting, there Is this great and profound bond of intimacy. Why Suffering? Let us restate that the grestest sufering is being the source of suffering for those whom we Jove. Jesus draws Mary into the mystery ofthe Cross; and in His agony, the fact that He draws His mother into the mystery of the Cross is certainly what js most paatul for Jesus--al the ‘more as the mystery of the Cross suffices to save humanity fully and to totally realize the ‘mission of salvation thet the Father hes entrusted to His Son, If the Father wants Mary to suffer the mystery ofthe Cross, that Mary Ive the mystery of the ‘Compassion, and if, with Mary and by her, ft ls the entire Churen (and so each one of us) who Is-drawn into this sarne mystery, Its important, for itis this that enables Us to understand the vy of all our suffering. In the ené, nothing ese can explain our suffering. Tt 1S in ight of the “abba, Father.” This is very important for us Because, as long as we have net grasped I, We will always be scandalized by evi, by suffenng, by everything that wounds our heart and Impedes us from going further. Indeed, we will always be wounded, but we can surpass Our \wounds; they can be positive and not negative. A nagative wound engenders gangrene, and the wound then gains ground. And a wound that gains ground, instead of elevating Us, lowers us; Itbecomes a terible weight. Whereas a wound that is borne in love that Is transformed by love, Is already glorious, all the while remaining a wound. Ta glory It will remain as a fully lorious wound. But even as ofthis earth, because we are Bound to the Risen Christ, a wound Earred in Tove is victorious. This is even the proper of @ Christian, This Is the witness that We must bear 25 Christians in @ world labored by suffering and injustce. The proper of a Christian Is not to claim rights. Leave that to those who say or who want to be renbelievers because they cannot do atherwise. Lt them claim thelr rights as the only way out, ‘The Christin must go further because he Is not based upon justice. From time to time before poltclans he might be obliged to claim his rights, but he knows in those moments why. he ‘does it--he does It for other men and not for Rimself; he does It as @ representative of other men, which is something completely diferent. And so he does It without violent passion, he ‘does it in alight of divine wisdom. Because they are engaged In the world, Christians at certain moments must “hit the streets." Tt Is necessary; It cannot be otherwise because this Is often the only thing that people understand today. This I sad. This proves that men are no longer Inteligent, they only understand large demonstrations. They no longer understand rian in his spintual destiny, and ft is no longer anything but eficiency whlen counts. The Christian can land must st certain moments, manifest in this way that he s one with olher men and cannot abalcate ths soisarty, I he is @ hermit or even simply a religious iti different. He then has a diferent attitude. As a hermit or religious he is demonstrating all the time. By wearing the habit, we manifest all thetime, 1 isnot always amusing! We "hit the streets." We unceasinaly demonstrate that we do not agree with many things (and I s Because we are afraid of this that we no longer wear the habit; els because we are afraid to manifest al the time that we hide ourselves). religious 23 Such shows that a Chestan must love, that he must bear all wounds in love with Jesus, and in the light of "Abba, Father.” ‘We must understand thot this fs the great light ofthe wisdom of God for us. Its. @ summit, 2 ‘great ight that is glen to us."That Is why 1 am Inssting upon it. Through the Word of God, the Floly Spirit ecucates us, For ths reason, It ls not insignificant that the first time the word Abbe" appears In Serpture and the only time that Jesus pronounces its at the moment ofthe ‘Agony. Tels the moment wien Jesus would lke to spare His mother. He then uses the most Intimate term, the most familar term, to touch the heart of the Father, so thatthe heart ofthe Father be close to His, Ie aways is of coUrsel But that It be so “affectvely” (might I say), 50 ‘hat the Father hear His request, "Abbe, remove this cup.” Tt is beautiful to see this. Jesus cid not say "Abba" for Hime ut for Mary. ‘See the fraternal charky of the heart of Jesus: tis not for Himself For Kimself, He has fly ‘accepted the Cross, Its forthe Woman, and for the Church, and for us, because He knows our ‘Son towards something thet Is greater. Its, again, “Abba" who does this. Tbs the Father in His tenderness for His Son. Jesus, who isthe Son In the bosom of the Father reveals this to us by calling the Father "Abba," tat is, by wanting to attain to that which Is most vulnerable in the Father, What ig most vulnerable in the Father? Tt Is the Father as Father, the Father as source of fecundity. Te is always inasmuch as we are source of fecunalty that we are most vulnerable. ‘We see this with e Women. I is Inasmuch as she Is source of fecundity that she Is. most ‘ulnerable. 1's for this reason that the cevl attacks her when she Is glving bith [17]. The ‘dev understands that Its her greatest vulnerablty Jésus, under the breath of the Holy Spr, knows that the greatest vulnerability ofthe Father Is ‘hat of being Father. By saying "Abba" He addresses the Father as Father, source of fecundity, and He asks Him to remove the chalice, to remove the cup as IIs preserted to Him; He as that Mary be spared, that the Church Be spared, that we be spared. But the Father, "Abba the One who can ask everything of His Son wants something else. To elite chld a father can ‘ask everything, Inasmuch as he Is "daddy" for the ite child, he can ask him everything, ‘And so the Father, therefore, asks the Son to accept. He asks him this in silence. It Is not an Corder; for the One who Is "Abba" does not glve orders (this Is what is very particular with Him). God gives orders. God gives the law whereas the Father as such, in the most profound aspect af his fatherhood, does not give orders. He asks a "going beyond!” In love; He asks to {90 further in ove. This is the proper language of the Father. He helps us to understand His {otal trust: "You are my Beloved Son In witom I am well pleased." Ths le indeed what happens ‘at the Agony and we find this again In tha Gospel of John with the trumphant entry. Into Jerusalem. "Father, save me from this hour. No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glosfy thy nama,’ Then came a volce from heaven, I have glonfied it and I wil glonfy iagain® (18) When Jesus says “Able,” the Father demands of Him that He go al the way, to the end of His trust, fo the end of love. To go tothe end of love Isto ask that His mother be intimately unites to the mystery of His Cross, to ask her to lve the mystery of the Cross in a mystery of Compassion. it's the mystery of the Compassion thet Me asks of Jesus. Jesus must be the source of this mystery, frely, for Mary, for the Church, and for us. Jesus must draw Mary. "When 1am lited up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself (19) IIs the attraction af the Father [20]. which passes through the wounded heart of the Son and its Jesus who draws His mother: When He was on the wood, Jesus drew His mother in a way more powerful than at Bethlehem, more powerful than In Fis entire Nden life, and yet the lite child Jesus must have drawn His mother so much! A lithe child draws his'mother Ina prodigious way. A litle 9Ile Child, when he is intetigent, knows how to get everything he wants from his mather. When he ‘grows up, ies diferent, but when he is @ litte child he can ask everything from his mother Because hei tle and he has all her trust. Jesus at the Cross is smaller and poorer than at Bethlehem; and He draws His mother, He ‘draws her because the Father wants it.I s “Abbe,” Its the Father, who menifests Himself at this moment through the greatest mystery of Jesus crucified drawing His mother. And Mary, In this attraction, offers herself totally, and through Mary fe isthe entire Churen, Iti ourselves Notes (yan. a8. [2] Phi 2:5. [3] Rom 8:1-17, [a] Gal. 4:47. [5] mk. 14:34°36, {6} 3n. 1:18. (7) pe. 69:32. fs} Le. 23:46, 18) Mt. 27:46; mk, 15:34, [roy 9a 1422. [1a] Mt, 3:47, 17:55 Mk. 1:23; Uk. 3:22. [12] cf: Song’t:7, 314-4 [13] Gen, 21:14 f [13] Gr Isa 49:15; Ps. 27:20, [15] Uk 22:83. [16] Uk. 2:35; [17] ct. Rev. 22:15 [18] 9n. 12:27-28, [13] 9n. 12:32, {20} 3n. 6:44,The Rejection of God the Father Father Mari Dominique Philippe, 0. Fr. M.D. Philippe: If we want to understand the very special temptations of the devil on {today's peoples believe that fe would be Important to realize that all ths has largely been Prepared. It ls nat something Which suddenly happens. It is very true that Tt shines forth {oday: the visible manifestations ofthe devil, of the tempter, come about in many ways today. But that was largely prepared in advance: it's one of the things which struck me very much, as a philosopher studying the Ways in which philosophy, for 150 years, has deteriorated so uch formeriy piilosophers were wise men who reminded people of thelr finality, who feminded poopie of the profound sense of thelr life, which showed people where thelr true happiness as to be found, while trying to push ther aside from all seductions. Today, we have seen the birth of diverse forms of athest ideologies which have somehow put shadows Iino our contemporary philesophical culture. When people, using & philosophical clalectc, reject God and affirm: "God does not exist", they want by the same fact to exalt themselves ‘nd thay do itn averse ways to exalt themselves In thelr wrong paths; if people forget God, If they reject God, they exalt themselves and pretend that they are the masters ofall, the tdominstors, Therefore they dont want to look for happiness autside of themselves, or" in'3 collective way, Ina massive way, while losing thelr own personally If we truly wanted to understand what happens. in today's world, to understand this secularization of our culture, It would be very Interesting to see these dverse forms of atheist Ideologies which, always Imperatvely reject the existence of Christ, of a Savior, and the existence of @ Creator: God no longer exists, God has never been, God has been dreamed of by us who projected in the beyond something of our desires. For thar, the human being in fact cught to look at himself and to understand that there is like a certain infniteness in him. Feuerbach, one philosopher who very geeply marked this research of atheist ideology, Is the frst one to show tat te human belng Is made for the Inflite; when he pretends that there Is. an infinite being, infinitely good, Infinitely iteliget, its in reality he himself who possesses Such Infinity. There have been other forms of athelct ideologies: one is the atheist ideology eveloped by Freud who has also so much Impressed upon our world because he shows that the human being Is indeed not realy very much. While folding back in thelr unconscious, people become Incapasle of knowting the reason why they have been made. There Is also thelet postiviem which reacts God, but stil wants people toe religious, in 9 religion which Is Solely at the service of mankind. If we look carefully at these atheist ideologies, we can order them within seven great. modalities. What impresses me as 9 Christian’ and not as, Dhilosopner, is to see that these seven athelst Ideologies ore ike anti-chrstantty, ant Beatitudes. All of them go againet the great message of Christ: the Evongelical Beatitudes. Christ tells people that they can have happiness on earth, a happiness of peace, of oy, of ‘mercy. There is indeed a marvelous happiness In being merciful and good for men who are the Hest, the poorest, in being attentive to the miserable, attentive to thase who can no longer fendure. tn front of these Evangelical Beabludes, we can sey that Uhere ere like seven great forms of anti-chrstianty. And these seven great forms of anti-Christianity ere present in these seven athelsms which strted in the last century, and which flourish in today’s word. Lam only looking at some of them, because I don't have the time to develop these seven forms of athelsm, but Ie 1S quite impressive to study them. Today the human being is exalted by Science, by a sciente research which seeks to respond to all his questions. If we cannot yet heal men of all his sickness, scientists will say that it's because science is not advanced enough, but that very soon, It wll be able to achieve It. Science wants to dominate human life: birth, even conception, and then death. There Is another form of human exaltation in Nietzsche: to him, thanks to thelr creativity, people ought to make @ new world which wil be their word, which wil no longer be the world of the Creator, Nietesche says that with great forcefuiness: when we find ourselves facing the desert, facing the sea, the ocean, facing the ‘mountain, we say: "God", we think ofthe Creator, we instinctively think ofthe Creator, we are Impressed by the silence. When we are in'a town, then we always say: “man, because ine Creator is hidden by this world shaped by us, hidden by technique, by our sclence, by an art ‘which isnot always what leads toward God and which often leads us back to our own drama, 116 and sometimes even leads us to despair, God is absent from this culture in which we are. We tften speak today of the pollition of the atmosphere, and itis true, In certain towns, that pollution ean even become tragic. The other day, 1 was going to Geneva, and they told me that Geneva is one ofthe most polluted towns of Europe, This is net astonishing sines Geneva is In 2 basin, with an enormous human density. Some people start even asking themselves if it Tight be necessary to stop all car, In order to decrease pollen. But there [s a really more Serious pollution then that ti the pollution of our culture. Today's culture fs polluted, since It fe longer allows people to discover what Is greatest in’ them: this religious attitude, this Imystery of adoration by which they are carried towards God, by which they are oriented towards God, and recognize His presence. Our whole culture leads the human being towerds Himself; but’ it ls a human being who Is mutilated, who is not In his full development. I ‘appreciate that there are stil places where culture remalns what it should be, where there is Sil something very great, and we will come back to thls. But, In general, we feel very well that ‘ur culture dovsn't manifest the human being In al his dimensions. I is easier to communicate fo people dramaz, murders, the whole nogatve aspect of evil, hen to communicate all that is positive in their eat, thelr need of happiness, their prayer. We are in a world which Is more land more polluted in’ its culture in relation to what g00d, love, religion, represent in thelr profound sense. Our culture shows us grimaces ofall these positive aspects, which constantly Sbatruct us ond make R very aici for us to rediscover the source, #9 go beck fo this source from where we come, that isto rediscover the mystery of the Father and the mystery of the Creator. I belleve that there are like two great breakdowns In today's culture. The splitting up With respect to the Father s easy to understand: Freudian psychology has not ceased showing thet the father, to the extent that he exercises authorty, Is someone who hinders the child from developing. He is @ hinderer, someone who pulls the chila away from his mother, this source which would be able to make him bloom. He is as the one who, because of Kis Authority, comes'to make ruptures. We have confused authority and power, and we have Confused the father source of love, withthe father exercising his authority on the model of the famous pater fama. Fr. John-Mary: Father, can I ask you a question? You are about to speak of the many ways by which we try today fo free ourselves, in @ certain way, from God, But ft t normal for us Today to feel tis necessity to proclaim cur liberty, our dignity, because we have often been told of God as of someone who Was dominating us end was an obstacle to our freedom. Fr. M.D. Philippe: Surely and, as T already sald, It Is really necessary to understand that atheist ideclogles were net spontaneously bora. athelst Ideologies are Ike a‘sor of mysticism Which wants to free people. You see that today - freedom of woman, freedom of man ~as we want to free the human being tn all his cimenclons. It is very true that there has been 2 whole Understonding of the mystery of God which put power first’ and forgot about his paternal authority. We have not discovered the true face ofthe Father; I belleve that this caused the breakages that Freud showed us, and which have a certain foundation in realty. Freud has not Invented that al lone; he saw that there could be terible turnings back arisen from our fst tducation, when the father had not appeared in all Hs tenderness and in all his love. This ‘appears perhaps much more In America than In Europe. In Europe, It is really necessary to say that the father, heir ofthe Latin, Roman pater Tamils, stil fen appears as the one who has authority and who wishes to impose himsel Freud was not born In America, he was born In Europe, and therefore he reflects this background. If we had time, it would be worthwhile ‘Getting into all ths. 1s clear thatthe image of God that we have been given has often been {an image of an a: powerful God. Because of thet, we have confused - even the theologians, which has struck me very much - power and authority. Some years ago, 1 had to give a lite talk on authority; Thad not enough time to prepare Rt, and T hed hurried through dictonaries Of Catholic theology. Under the item "Authority", there was nothing: but under Power, there Was everything. So I told myself: "that's the way Iti; it's Unrealisti, It doesnt say anything ‘bout authority and puts everything under power". This confusion dates from the 14th Century, and theologians repeated it. That seems to be of small Importance, Dut Is terrible, Docause authority Is a service. The father who loves his child ls there to help him. Therefore he shows his trust and his tenderness, he constantly helps his child, and isnt going to Impose himself. Power, an the contrary, imposes iso Is exercised from the exterior, and is only ‘exercised because it has an efficacy. There again Its effeacy which has gone frst and which 2has put aside love. It Is there that you see what evil Is. I am looking at these atheist Ideologies, because they manifest evil But iI look at where these athelst ideologies come trom, I can see that they arse from & philosophy which was born = It must really be said ~ from’ decadent scholasicem where the philosephy fad no longer kept any reallsm. It had become kind of idealism in facta false Idealism; It had some models which were no longer Felated to the realty. As such, the fether has earned a model for himself, The mother has Perhaps remained closer to her chil, she has less exercised this power, she has remained ‘loter to him because of her love. There has been like a separation at the very heart of the family, for which we pay today the consequences. This is therefore something which 1 believe, is quite tertble, because these theologians have projected the power of man on God. They haven't seen enough the mystery of the Father, athough Jesus came, in the fist place, to speak to us of the Father. Because of thelr confusion between authority and power, the Creator hes, by the same token, no longer been looked at In his true light. They have looked at Creation above all 25 2 manifestation of eficeciousness, a3 an artistic realization, and they fended up tying to explain creation on a purely scientific basis. They forgot that creation was & work of love, and that, If God created, it was by pure love, and In pure freedom. TE is not therefore only the scientifc approach which can speak to Us of creation. Creation is something ‘much greater, something which goes much farther. It Is only love In Its over-abundance; tis nly love in ite frneness which can make us enter ints tha mystery of Creation. tbelleve that these are the two great breakages which exist today, and which completely hide the mystery of God from our human standpoint: We have hidden the Fatner while reducing him to power, land we have reduced the Creator to an artst. We have only looked at the all-powertulness of God, without looking at Wisdom and of his Love, Fr. John-Mary: But how Is it that we can speak of the mystery of Creation, with all that sclence Brings Us today on the origin ofthe universe, ofthe human being and of ie? Fr. M.D. Philippe: We touch there an extremely Interesting and Important problem. Tam not able to fully study R becouse fis not directly the subject. But its vary fine to evoke it Tele Very true that ts dicut to speak today, in a correct way, of Creation. For that reason, many theologians no longer want to speak of I such an attitude Is Indeed the easiest one, but they ont have the right to do that, because Believers, in their Credo, say that they believe in & {Creator God. Its even the first affirmation of our traditional Credo. ‘We believe in God, the Creator of the visible and invisible world. So, what coes that mean? I think that It is necessary to.come back to the source and have @ new look on the Creator. We ought not to be too Impressed by what sclence can tell us, because science will never be able to tll us about this absolute beginning in ime, which creation fs. Science remains in conditioning, sclence remains In becoming, science remains linked to time. Now, to be able to speak of Creation, itis necessary 10 understand that creation comes from God; it does ot come from men. Tt is therefore net an evolution theory which wil be able to speak of creation, because evolution remains all the time in the order of becoming, In the order of the conditioning of human lf, {Creation begins with God. I ls therefore necessary to have a look on God, on his Wisdom, on his Love, to be able to speak of Creation, 1n today's world, we soe very well that God has been put very fer away; there ls no longer any place for him, in our culture. We push him aside. There is 8 silence of God which Is indeed Quite extraordinary. So, if we no longer speak of God, we are na lenger going to uly speak of Ereation; but peopie fool however that there must really have been a beginning, that our Universe’ is not infinite, but limited; therefore it ought to have @ beginning. So they try Sclentiealy to give @ sense to ths beginning: the Big Bang Is such a modem attempt. If we Took closely, such a theory tres to give @ meaning tothe Beginning of becoming, But not to the Beginning of the absolute, not to the beginning of spire and of being. Therefore, we can Say thatthe problem of creation Is completely spolled: theologians re afrad to speak oft because Of scientists, but sclentists can only speak of It n thele own way; they cannot do Ie otherwise. So there is ike an emptiness which explains why, in today’s worla, adoration is very ite lived by Christians. We no longer recognize this basic, radical link of our dependence on God. We Bare afraid to rocognize this dependence because we see this dependence as suppressing our liberty, 25 making us tied up beings. Infact, this dependence on the Creator, as We wil ry to 3 iF1B Understand it 1s the source of @ true liberty, because It Is the source of a true love. It Is the souree of 8 knowledge which ought to go even farther. God created our spirit; our sprit comes directly from God and itis made to go even farther in the research ofthe truth; our spins especally mage to discover that there Is in us something which goes beyond all Knowledge. We are capable of loving, of loving 2 human being who is ‘ose t2 us, whom we have chosen, of loving al other peop, and we are especialy capable of Adoring. Adoration Ts an act of love; Its not firstly an act of dependence, While recognizing this dependence, aur love can blossom out. This fs something whlch Is extraordinary deep Int lst there isn Us something which Is @ resemblance with God. From there we can rediscover hhow man isthe image of God.The Struggles of the Church Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, 0.P Fr, M.D, Philippe: Iti dificult to present oneself, especially when It has to be done very Auickly, bur wll o it since you ask fort Frat of all, I must thank Bishop Rene Gracida, Bishop of Corpus Crist, fr allowing me to do this broadcast. T also very special thank the Cathalle Tlecommunications Center of Corpus Chest. Fr, 20M. Foster: Thank you very much, Father for your presence here with us. Would you fist Introduce yourslf tous? 1am 2 Dominican, as you can see: I do not have the same habit as our dear father who Is at ‘my side. I entered the Dominicans In France, in the Provinee of Paris, in 1930. T am therefore ‘Becoming an old religious, but, In my hear, 1 Believe that Tam stil young, and want to be as love ae poseible to all the young poeple whom Isa and with whom Tlve. Re 9 Dominican, | ‘nas very quickly appointed professor of philosophy st the Pontifical University of Friboura, Switzerlane, say “Pontifical Unversity"; in reality itis the state university of the canton of Frioourg, which cepends on Rome. I remained there from 1545, Immediately after the war, tl 12961, teaching pilesophy at Fribourg and also at our great College of Le Sauchotr, France, for some ten years. [At Fribourg I knew students of many different nationalities - ! belive of 40 to 45 nationalities ~ ‘and, one fine day, adout 15 years ago, same French students asked me to take care of ther In ' special way, Act only from @ philosophical point of view, but also in a spiritual way. This Small group of Freneh students asked me to help them and to form thems on a spiritual level. {his small seed progressively became wnat we call today the Community of Saint John. If Tam here today, Its not because I was professor of philosophy at Frbourg ~ don't worry, Tam not oing to give a course of philosophy ~ but because I vas at the beginning of this new community, the Community of St. John, which has recertly came to Laredo three years ago. Since somé students from the United States had joined this Community, it was normal that after their formation, they could return to the United States. One of them was from Texas, land, as a matter of fact, the frst American foundation started in Texas, at the request of the Bichop of Corpus Christ, If am here today, its because the brothers of Laredo asked me to make this program, and I am very happy to do it.I believe Its very Important to speak of Jesus as the witness of God, fas the One mito reveals the mystery of God fo us. This \s 2 dfcult moment not oniy tn the Church, but in the whole of mankind; we never cease saying it, but t remains true al the same: the Twentieth Century 1s coming to Its close and, a3 the Holy Father loves to say, "we ‘ought to prepare ourselves for the third millennium’. The Twentieth Century, historians will Say, is perhaps the century which has known the greatest changes, the greatest mutation, ‘The Chureh now stuggles with an intensity that it has no doubt never known before. We always are tempted to think that the mlitant Church, the earthly Church, has always known ‘very great struggles, and that the struggles that we now know are not perhaps as strong as the ones of the Fourteenth Century, or those at ite beginning. The Church of Christ was Born struggling, through the great struggle of the Cross, wnien was truly the maximum ofa poseible struggles. An hictorian, who looks at that from the outside, might say: "Yes, that Was 2 great struggle, a great tearing apart ofthe people of Israel, but i isthe death of a founder.” For a believer, itis much more than that: I (6 the mystery ofthe Passion, the mystery of the Cross, which remains a summit in the struggles of our humanity. The Church was born in a ‘Struggle, and the Church always knows struggles, exterior as well as interior ons. 1 was struck very much by what the Pope sald during his fst stay In France, almost 8 years ‘ago in Paris, at Notre Dame Cathedral. The Holy Father wanted to see the French bishops in & 1 K20 ‘special closed session; I would have liked to hve attended, but It was 2 dosed session. 1 rushed to see the texts of the session, and found @ passage which struck me very much. The Holy Father, as everybody krows, had been professor of philosophy at the University of Lublin in Poland. That brought me very cose to him, thank God, enabling me to meet im before he ‘Was Pope, when he was Cardinal. Meeting him was easier then. It was at an International ‘Thomist Congress, one. of the major ‘Congresses celebrating the. Eighth Centenary of ‘SeThomas Aquinas, What the Holy Father said to the bishops struck me very much: the Church is actualy living a. metatemptation; in the philosophical language of the Pope, @ metatemptation is a temptation which goes beyond al the temptatons which might have been ‘encountered before. The Holy Father does not hesitate to say that the temptation whieh the Church ts undergoing today ts stronger than ever. Ha explains that this metatemptation IS 8 kind of temptation "par excellence, a temptation which gives meaning to all the other ones. People in today's world would like to bypass Gad and be saved by themselves. They reject Jesus as Savior, and they believe that, thanks to the progress of science and technology, they ‘will be able to save themselves, and henes wil no longer need a Savior. Something like that row exists at an international level, and is very Impressive. When we look at the beginning of Jesus! life, he who was born in Bethlehem, the text of Itdie town of Bethlehem, the town of David." All the descendants of David had to come for the ‘census, but there was no longer any room for Jesus. Obliged to go outside of Bethiehem, Mary ‘and Joseph took shelter in a stable, a place Where animals spend the right. Tt was i this Stable that Jesus came Into our world; for us, belevers, he is the Son of God who was incarnated and who came to show us how much God loves us, to reveal to us the great mystery of God's love, Israel ignored this marvelous gift of God, even though God had for 2000 years prepared a people to receive the Messiah. Because God hid himself, nobody knew the profound sense ofthis birth, except Mary, Ellzabeth her cousin, Zachariah and Joseph. The people of Taree ignored ital. Jesus wanted to come into our Word, I wes elmost going to ay, ‘while surprising us: there, was no place for him in Bethlehem, even though he was the descendant "par excellence" of David. The whole progeny of David takes its full meaning in the birth of Jesus, but there was no longer any place for him: ‘Something similar today impresses me very much. For almost 2000 years, we have prepared ‘ourselves for the end of these 2000 years, But through philosophers, thelr philosophers, thelr Sages, people now no longer fave any place for God in their heart and in thelr Inteligence ‘They want to acquire a sort of autonomy, of self-sufficiency so that they can be saved by themselves, This can occur in different ways. Religious tradiions which played 3. very Important role in ancient elvilzations, (for the fst philosophers of our western culture, the Greeks) ~ al these religious tractons which have played a rele at the beginning ofthe coming ‘of Jesus - all are relegated to the background. We consider them myths which undoubtedly allowed humanity to emerge, to have @ certain culture; but we no longer need them: Hey are ‘myths of an ancient, primtive culture, but mankind now evolves through great, rapid, Constanty accolerating progress. ‘Speed Is one ofthe special characteristics of today’s culture; accelerated change has increased to the point that some wise men nave become alarmed, for they believe that people can no longer fully assimilate all that their precursors have discovered or follow the poce of this acceleration. Ina scientific culture, such acceleration sets the pace of everything. Technology, ‘which finds practical applications to these discoveries, Inreasinaly ereates 8 culture centered ‘round efficiency. This might be well-intentioned: I allows people to live better, allows them to ‘gain more control over themselves, and attain a greater well-being. But there isa danger: We must ask ourselves whether thie new culture, this great progress of science and technology, really serves people; or is it on the contrary using them? It is a question which, as 4 Bhilosopher, - I taught philesophy for many years 1 ask myself from time to time: does scientific progress truly serve mankind, or Is i man who serves scientific and technological progress? I ike to stress this question, and I believe that we basically find ourselves faced with this great temptation: can we save ourselves? Are. we capable, by our science, by OU techniques, which are so marvelous, of saving ourselves? It s clear that I do use technology: 1came here in a plane, and very rapidly: thank God, there was no accident, no delay; technology ts marvelous, it helps us enormously. Think of what the Pope does for the whole world through his pigrimages: without technology, t could not be done. Thanks to technology, thanks tothe progress of medical sclence, re was saved a fist ime, and now he continues his life as Pastor of the entre world. Compared with the Ife of Jesus, there is astonishing contrast Jesus remained in Palestine, remained around Jerusalem, around Galle. When we make pilgrimages into Israel, we see how marvelous this small land is where the Son of God lived, lwhere his footprints in the desert stil remaln Jesus remained in Gell for thirty years. In three years of his papacy, the pope has traveled throughout the. entre. world. This {development of technalogy & marvelous, but can i give us happiness? (One of my frends, who is dead now, was @ dlscple of Freud; still pursuing his psychological studies, he had been invited to London to study the case of children who were murderer. During this year, he and Seven other doctors saw Tour hundred cases. They were meeting regulary to try to understand what Is happening in today’s world, and asked themselves: how {eit that these children kil, how is It that they are so aggressive and do not hesitate to wound their brothers, thelr ssters, thelr Iitle companions or even kil them? And these doctors, looking for the cause, said: "These children lacked love”; we would have been able to say it tnt sway! but with Chem Wt came ose more scentie conclusion en e9 auch Ie was more ‘ommunieable! These children were lacking love, and they added: “Today's world Is in great heed of love” 1 believe tnat they touched something which Is very true: prodigious efficiency and speed have ever before reached such astonishing leve's, scan be seen for example, with planes. In one Sense there is areal progress, but in another one we no longer respect man, his profound life, all his dimensions, People are swept along, in spte of themselves, when thay don't folow the Sclentiic current. If we do not join In scientific and technological progress, we quickly become ‘merginal; we no longer can follow Its movement, and, by that fact suffer a sort of atrophy of ‘UF heart In which we can no longer love as much as before. Love Is lacking In today's word, fond ~ here I speak 28 Christian -, the devil takes advantage of it. Tha only thing which ‘makes him affaid fs fove, love which comes from the Savior, which comes from Chvst. AS Spon as there Is no longer any love, our Imagination takes over and extends itself with terrible force and intensity; the devil then uses this imaginary world. Today, he doesn't even hesitate to show himself openly. He Is the prince of pride, Ue prince of the Imaginary; he can hide himself, as he can unmask himself, He pushes people to scorn love and to try to dominate ‘whichever ways. He tries to make us belleve that true happiness lies in immediate pleasure {and domination. Christians, these who know that the only Savior is Christ find themselves Confronted with this terrble temptation, a temptation of pre, a temptation of domination, & temptation of pleasure, ‘Then the question arses: what can we do In such a situation? 1 belleve thet this Is a question ‘nt only forthe Christian, but for anyone whe reflects on all the dimensions which exist in the human heart. We are crested not only to earn money, bat to be happy with a true happiness In ‘ur soul and in our heart. We were created to reach those wi are close to us and to truly love them In a reciprocal love of friendship which can find here on earth authente fullment and a true joy. Fr. 3.M. Foster: Father, may 1 ask you a question? You have talked about some of the most profound problems of today's worle and of the Church, which ought to be the representative of Jesus Christ in our midst. ORen ie seems that the Church, whieh somehow belongs to this ‘worl, is so diferent from the very simple end pure Church that Jesus Christ founded. How can Wwe see in today's Church this presence of Jesus Christ, this presence of the Holy Spirt, which Was 80 evident atthe beginning of the Church? Fr. M.D. Philippe: 1 belleve that this will be the central question of these different programs: to ty to understand that the Church is not en obstacle, but that If ought to be'a kind of dlspostion which leeds us to Christ. alawThe Last Week Father Matie-Dominigue Philippe, 0.P. Let us understand that today we are living something very important In the world, and in the Church, We are In the presence of a springtime In the Church, of renewal inthe Church, yet in the midst of 2 world whose structure ls crumbling. What wes once a Christian culture i falling ‘part, cleappearing, And so we must be very attentive to the way we are living. Tt is remarkable to see how attentive the Holy Father Isto this renewal. And 50 let us try, during these few days, to look at Scripture, and especially at Jesus, Mary, fend Saint John, Let us try to understand this last week as Saint John desenbes It in mis Gospel, the last week of Jesus on earth. The Church has to go through her last week also. It could be understood literally as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... But this Is net what we are looking at Rather, we look atthe last step inthe life of the Church. I think that the Church has to live on tearth something analogous to the last week of Jesus, If we look atthe last week as Saint John Gescries it, It realy corresponds to the grace of Lent. Our Lent is tue only If ne look really and fully described for Us this last week of Jesus, 1 remember how during the Council, went to Rome only @ day before an encyclical letter was to be published, There was a great deal of turmoil for many people were asking themselves, “Is the Holy Father allowed to write an encyclical during the Council? Ts it net the duty of the Holy Father f0 be silent in order to let the Fathers of the Council speak? But some were saying, "No. When there is a danger, the Holy Father has to speak." In fact itis only the Second solution which stands. During a coun the Holy Father is not on vacation, ane not ony does the meaning of a council come from the presence of the Holy Father, but the Holy Father {s usually present ata the meetings. This is what happened during the frst Vatican Counc ‘The Holy Father was not always present during the second Vatican Council, but he locked at everything afterwards. John XXIII did tls, to some extent, out of hurnlty; people asked him viny. He responded that because the previous Pope had acted this way, It would be better to Continue In that way. I knew the theologian whom the Holy Father, Paul VI, Invited each night fe review with him al the declsions of the Council Fathers. He would read attentively to the Holy Father each one of the documents In order to be sure that ncthing would be in opposition to the Tradition of the Church. Tt was thls theologian who mentioned this to me. He was a Dominican, and @ little bit harsh. The Holy Father had chosen im on that account, and thereby showed how much he wanted to make sure that nothing would go against the ‘Tradition of the Church, that nothing would be understood In an erroneous way. 1 remember having gone to Rome on another occasion. Among the French Bishops there was tone T knew very well He was the Bishop of the foreigners In Pars. He was somebody whom T eeply loved and knew very well. When he saw me he told me that there was something bothering him. He said that curing this Counel nabedy was condemning, yet there Was 0 much to be condemned. "How fet that this Councl ld not condemn anyoody"? 1 said to him, "Tunderstand your fear, but Ifthe Church enters Into her last week with this Council it ie normal? Ifyou look at the Gospel of Saint John, you see that In the last week Jesus no longer ‘condemns anybody. He accepts to bear the iigulty ofthe world In order to be crucied. 1 the Church enters her last week, analogicaly speaking, it ls normal that she, too, no longer orders anybody. She accept t be onthe cross in order tobe with es ring ti est We discussed this together a great deal. had been studying the last week fora long time, and it deeply impressed me for it deseibes the last steps of Jesus on earth, When I told this to tls Bishop he sald, "Now T understand.” I was very enlightened to see this Bishop attempting tO lock at Vatican'I In this light.So, you wish, we can together look at His ast week In the Gospel of Saint John. I starts with chapter twelve, Unt the last week Jesus i the one leading the events: He is the one deciding. But what strikes me a8 being charscterstie ofthe last week is that Jesus no longer leads, First there is the gesture of Mary in Bethany, a gosture which manifests 2 madness of love ‘She shows an increible lack of prudence when you consider the situation in Jerusalem at that moment. Perhaps the sisters of Lazarus did not know what some of te Jews were planning at the time; or I she did know Jesus nevertheless allowed her to perform thls gesture. ‘This second gesture, like one of madness, isthe triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Here again is'a gesture manifesting 9 madness of love as saan in the initatives of the people of Jerusalem. Jesus responds to these initiatives which do not come from Him. The first initlative ‘hat Jesus takes i, Infact, the washing ofthe fet. Even if we must go very fast, I would at least lke to try and understand these things which ‘surround this last week. Here, following the great Vision of Isaiah, we are truly facing the Lamb ted to slaughter. In the midst ofthis passivity of the Lamb, Intietives are nevertheless taken by aouue Ligh Brace The mystery ofthe last woek ls the mystary nf the vctimal state of Tare ‘and of Jesus High Priest. Infact, Ie isthe seme mystery. Whet ls Impressive is thatthe mystery ‘Of the Lamb envelops the mystery ofthe Pres. Tes essential that we understand ths. We talk today about the royal priesthood of the faithful, and since the Council we have been {alidng about Ita great deal. People were not speaking about it much before. It isthe mystery ‘of the Lamb. Mary Is the frst one to live by particpation in this mystery ofthe royal priesthood Of the faithful, and she lives iin unity with Jesus Lamb. The whole Church Is going to lve by {this mystery of Jesus Lamb. I think this Is what deeply moves todey's Church. It's what Jesus demands of His little ones, and this leads Him to take initiatives as the High Priest. The Priesthood of Jesus is the Priesthood of the Son. Tt is @ priesthood of love such that the Intlatves ofthe High Priest and the passivity ofthe Lamb are one. 1 Is clear that this last week, from the anointing at Bethany to the plercing of the Heart ‘demonstrates the poverty of the Lamb. Its only as Lamb that Jesus can say the words He pronounced before Judas: "Poor people, you wil avays have them, but you wll not always fave me." These words only Rave meaning because Jesus Is Lamb. Tt would otherwise be 8 lack of justice itt would be as f Jesus were demanding that we make a separation between Him and the poor. In fact, Jesus came for them and shows that He ls "the poor The mystery of the Lamb isthe mystery of the poor; It is the poverty of Lave. This poverty Is manifested In fan ultimate way with the wound of the heart whieh fe really the canter of this last week. We ‘ould stop here, for here we see the real poverty of the last week; we must understand that the ultimate manifestation of Jesus. is His manifestation as’ Lamb. Indeed, the fst proclamation of John the Baptist according to the Gospel of Saint John Is, "This is the Lamb of ‘God who bears the iniquity of the wort Let us now read chapter twelve together. The starting point of this ast week, "Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.” leas certainly tok this initativa to come to Bethany, but infact t was only @ response. to-an invitation. Iti obvious that the two sisters of Lazarus had prepared everything, Jesus didn't come as'a thet. So it was, in fact, the two sisters of Lazarus who had taken the Initiative. They gave a dinner for Him, and it was not an improvisation. Martha was serving Lazarus was one of those recining at fable with Hm. See the Importance of Lazarus. The two sisters are there to thank Jesus for the resurrection of Lazarus. It Is a meal of thanksgiving ‘This meal of thanksgiving is very unique as Lazarus was there honoring Mis guests. This meal was 2 gesture of thanksgiving to Jesus who had raised him from the dead. 1 dont know I the twelve used to often go to Bethany. I don’ think so. I think that It was rather a place of silence reserved for Jesus, Peter, James and John want to Bethany winen the Ascension took place, You see how the wisdom of God always makes a distinction and hates confusion. Bethany is & place of friendship; It sa place of thanksgiving. 2‘mary took 2 liter of costly perfumed oll made from genuine aromatic nard end anointed the fect of Jesus and dred them with her halt. The Rouse was flee with the fragrance of ol" We see Immediately what gives the character to this meal of thanksgiving: Ita gesture of pure Gratuity In which Mary tekes the infeative. Tt lz probably on her Intative that Jesus was Invited. 1 think so. She must have told Martha, "We cannot but invite Jesus to thank Him." Such isthe delicacy of Mary, Martha wae very happy. The more activity requested of her, the happier she wasi Such Is the generosity of Martha. Martha Is generosity, while Mary Is tiseretion, but a discretion which can go very far thanksgiving. This is shown In her gesture Mary gives Him litre of cost perfumed of made from genuine aromatic nara. Mary had keot some astonishing reserves: one litre of costly perfumed ol, the secret reserve of Mary. We will {sk har in heaven what i wast I have a small hypothess: if Mary isthe converted sinner~and itis very possible that Mary was indeed thls converted sinner~she most probably had many costly perfumes. And when she converted, she most probably got rid of har perfumes... but She Kept this one. Thet is marvelous, @ very feminine behavicur; she kept the perfume that the loved most. She kept it not for herself, but In order to mantfest her love for Jesus, You see the dalicacy of Mary. Martha Would have Sold everything. Mary kept this perfume and Martha ‘was not aware of I, for Martha would not have Understocd. So Mary kept this costly perfume for Jesus, one ire Mary understood the tragedy that this last week represented. In the depth of her heart she knew that this was the last week. She knew of the tension that then existed; the Jews had cided to kill Jesus, and Mary surely knew i. This enables Us to understana why, under the motion ofthe Holy Spe, she wanted to show Jesus, In slience, how much she loved Him, how ‘much she wanted to thank Him for everything, not ony forthe resurrection of Lazarus but for ‘much more. The resurrection of Lazarus was only an opportunity. There Is something much Greater in the heart of Mary. Tt is her response to the love ofthe Heart of Jesus, Jesus loved her in a nique way, and she wanted to manifest her thanks In a gesture of gratitude. Perfume expresses this very well, This costly perfume expresses in a Symbolic way all the tenderness, all the thanksgiving of her love for Jesus. She knew that it wes her tears after the death of Lazarus which had moved the Heart of Jesus, and she thanked Jesus for this, Jesus received het tears and had answered in a royal way, as only the Son of God could respond. We have to be very attentive to this, Fist, she had ancinted the feet of Jesus and had dried them with her thar; these were the gestures ofa sinner: erying and drying. They are the gestures of one wo ‘Knows ow much Jesus loves her In order to show Jesus that she fs stil the sinner, the loved sinner, the one who ts forgiven, Iti not at alls flashback of the psychological type. Mary in fact uses her condition as sinner in order to better manifest her love. See the two extreme situations. She dried the feet of Jesus with her halr and poured this costly perfume, ‘manifesting at the same time extreme poverty and superabundance. This is very important ‘She could simply have poured her costly perfume on the feet of Jesus. That would have been enough. No, she also wanted to envelop Him with her own poverty, with her own misery. The whole house was filed with the fagrance of ol. This shows the guaity of the perfume she Used; the whole house wae filed! Her gratitade fe very realistic, and she performs this gesture in order to manifest her love for Jesus. 1 think that at that moment all those. present Understood what she was doing. There must have been a great silence, When a gesture of love |S done with such gratitude ané magnificence, everybody is moved by this love. One cannot But be moved by ths great gotitde end ths magnifies of love, especaly coming from & woman, a woman thet Jesus loves. 1 think that Judas, according tothe Gospel of Saint John, betrayed out of jealousy. I believe he was unable to accept the ove that Jesus had for John, This is my own Interpretation. But when T'iook at the Gospel of John, I'see that fe ls here that the attitude of udas is shown most fexplicty, tis important for us to undarstand that the peak moments of the struggle were due to jealousy. It is.a complex of jealousies that we must look at: the Jealousy of Judas and the Jealousy of the High Priest. Its a cooperation among these jealousies which provoked the Condemnation and the death of Jesus, John underlines this here: “Judas Iscariot, one of Mis Glciples and the one who had Betrayed him sald, "Why was this ci not sold for 300 ays" wages and glven to the poor”? I believe Judas Iscariot was expressing, through these words, the anger he felt on account ofthis gesture of love, @ gesture which reminded him of the [ove of Jesus for John. 3 2526 We know the extent to which the devil has gone in attacking the Fatherhood during the past century, At times he even attacks ‘motherhood Jn order to get at fatherhood, for the ‘motherhood of Mary has no other alm than to help us dlscover fatherhood. Mary is an dmirable mother, and therefore an extremely poor mother; @ mother who Is totally given In frder to help us enter Into the Fatherhood of the Father. That Is why in our prayer of Consecration to Mary we Immediately look at her as daughter of the Father. Its this daughter of the Father who wants to alp us enter Into the deepest of her secrets. Now what Is deepest inthe heart of Mary is her bong with the Father. The Father has given her His Son so that she ‘might enter more deeply inte His Fatherhood. she is associated in a way to His Fatherhood. In the wisdom of God, her whole mothernood has no other end than to manifest to us this Fatherhood. Thot is why the two major attacks of the devil concern the motherhood of Mary ‘and fatherhood. The ldeology of Freud has attacked fatherhood, net God's Fatherhood directly, but human fatherhood. One of Freua's disciples who wanted to be more Freudian than Freud himself has even gone so far In an attack on motherhood as to say that itis what Is most perverted In the heart of man and woman. But we have to be able to use the devil. We are not allowed to say that we are not Interested in what he does, especialy when he Is very nolsy. We must do all we can to understand the dv Now we know that he Is constant angry at the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity and ft the mystery of the Redemption. His anger must help Us to better understand the secret of the wisdom of God, 2 secret prepared for us which the devil dass not know. He ls ignorant off. ‘and Is curious. ‘Today's Church i ving a struggle which goas very deep. As I was telling you, when you look at the Freudian Ideology, you see that Its in opposition to the beattude of the peaceful, the Peacemakers. This ideology continues the Freudian analysis and tries to take fe further. In Going so, It attacks the human dispositions which alow for the beatitude ofthe peaceful ‘Mary Mother and Queen: Mary disposes us in such 2 way that the grace of Christ can fully root ‘tse in our hears. That fs why, when we look at ths attack of the devil against fatherhood ‘and motherhood, we can say we are In the presence of something ultimate. 1 think that we ‘must be very attentive to these attacks of the devil, especially during ths time of Lent. On the first Sunday of Lent Jesus goes to the desert and is tempted, The Gospel of Saint John tells Us that Jesus ls tempted for us. Jesus does not need to be tempted: temptations. do not strangthon Him as they can for us. Jesus accepts to be tempted which, for the Son of God Is fan abnormal situation. Hels the Prince of Peace. Yet the Prince of Peace accepts to be tempted inthe desert for us, The desert is the Church because I isthe pice of adoration. Martha Robin Toved to say thatthe desert of God is Mary because, In the Church, the place of adoration Is in the Heart of Jesus end the Heart of Mary. “The Scriptures say that Jesus went to the desert in order to be tempted, but we must be careful to understand that to be tempted was not His finality. If Jesus goes to the desert, its fut of love for us and in order to show us that we should not Be afraid of the desert, even though we know that we can be sure that temptations will be stronger ere. Jesus wanted t0 live all these temptations out of love for us so that we could be victorious over all temptations, ‘with Him and in Him, 2o that we could live them In love and 2o that we might not be aed of them any longer. The goal Is not to lock for temptations, but we know that if we 90 to the desert order to adore, the devil wil be behind us. He Is always following us wen we try tO be alone with God, and this because we want to be alone with God. We ean only adore when ‘we get rid ofall within us that we look at as quality, all that is atthe level of our conditioning {and that glorifies us. We have to get rid ofall ths; the Book of Revelation shows that we must ‘98t rid of our crowns. We can only adore God when we get rid of our crowns and, therefore, ‘ccept to be a very small and fragile creature, ‘Adoration strengthens us for It leads us beck to the source: God our Creator, Gut atthe same time adoration Is @ source of fragility in us, because It puts us in the presence of our nothingness as @ small creature who totaly depends on God. Our only strength Is tn this Poverty, the poverty ofa small creature totaly relative to Sod. 4‘To go to the desert with Jesus Isto accept to face struggles. The whole time of Lent isa time Of desert and of struggles, the struggles of the Church. Not only are these struggles very ‘Special to those who are trying to grow closer to Jesus, But they aa the struggles of the winole Church. We must be novices of the Holy Spirit during our whole life. If you have not yet Understood this, {hope you will understana It this year: Lent is @ novitiate for each one of Us. ‘That is wny itis usualy 60 poorly lived; we do not like at all to be novices of the Holy Spin. ‘We like to have strong, slleforieatons, so that we can appear strong. The strength of ai that We have sequited becomes our strength. We lke to be lke stars, but the Holy Spirit demands that we be lke litle children, the small David facing Gollath, ‘This ls another type of desert, which Is 2 prefguration ofthe desert of Jesus. We see there the small David facing Golath who had been scourging the people of israel: Goliath represents today’s culture based on technique and efficiency. Today's mankind is enslaved by technique and selence. When people look at the Church and the Papacy 2s things that were anly good for the Middle Ages, the Holy Father Is hurt. Ihave heard scientists saying, "Yes, the Church and the Holy Father were cood for the Middle Ages, but now they are olc-fashioned.” It is @ supreme Insult to say that somebody is surpassed by sclence and technology: ‘As a result ofthis modern attitude, scientists refuse to listen to what the Chutch is saying on ‘matters which concern the human person, Everything that she has sald is rejected as having been good solely for the Middle Ages, Today It has been totally surpassed. They believe thet, today, the truth is Increasingly dependent Upon selence and therefore has to change according to sclence:"This is todays culture. Ie s the struggle between the small David and Gollath all over again. Now when David wanted to fight against Goliath, the King of Israel gave him his ‘wn armor, The small David trled to use the armor, but he was not at ease with. He finally ejected it and faced Goliath without any armor at all. Goliath considered this as the supreme Ing, for he himself counted on his armor, while David counted only on the help of God and very poor wespon. We know how God gave him the victory, and how David put his practical inteligence atthe service of his love, David looked at the fragility of Gollath, his vulnerailty, ‘and that is where he attacked fim. 1 think that the way we live In today's society Is very similar to the great struggle waged ‘agalnat Golath, Goliath was very powerful and very aware ofthe power of his techniques and Of scence. Today's man believes he no longer needs a Savior. The Holy Father has expressly Said It. The frst Une he went to Paris, he gathered all the French bishops together and told them that the Chureh was facing @ kind of meta-temptation, one she had never faced before. tis totaly diferent type of temptation. The Holy Father explained that this new temptation is 2 radial one, totally beyond eny other type of temptation: man, having reached the age of adulthood believes that he no longer needs a Savior. Man wants to save himself by himself, ‘There is no longer any room for Jesus as Savior In today’s culture. No Holy Father has sale this before: that is very impressive, What Impresses me more than that, however, is that 10 Bishop repeated It afterwards, even though it was realy the major word glven by the Holy Feather to al the French Bishops at that time. ‘Today people are afraé to admit that they are in an ultimate struggle. It might very well be a preparation for a marvelous renewal, or It might be the preparation for an ultimate spring In the Church which ends in the return of Christ, We do not know. You do not know and 1 do not know elther. But we must look ati and try to understand. Christ came to earth In the womb of Mary; He had a small shelter. Mary received Him with love and carried Him with love. Yet when He was to be bor, and thereby take His place among mankind, He was told that there was no longer any room for Him In Bethlehem. This was sold in Bethlehem by the offspring of Devi, and hence by these who represented what was best In Israel. Now Jesus was the most noble ‘among this offspring, yet there was no room for Him, This is sad, According to the Gospel of Saint John, the High Priest sald, "We have only one king, Caesar." They refused the Kingship Of Christ because Me came as the Lamb of Ged. The King was the Lamb. He was the one who Socopted to cary the iniquity of the world in His heart, and He wae rejected wivle choosing to be responsible fr the entre ChurchaR ‘The Holy Father proclaims that there Is no longer any room for a Savior In today's world, Those words are 0 powerful for they enable Us to understand the depth of the struggle through ‘which we are living. Alone, we are Incapable of knowing exactly at which point we are in the ‘Struggle, for we are in ies midst. Instnetively we try to avoid the struggle by saying that, in ny ease, I has always existed; and although we are ighting In the Church, we are afraid to face whet fs happening, We shouldn': be afraid. We should look upon what (s happening with the eyes of Jesus and Mary, and we should try to Understand these words of the Holy Father. ‘You know that in his fst encyclical letter the Holy Father underlined something which is very Important, He seid that although our small planet has been made habitable by mankind's victory over wid and restrictive animals, nevertheless, because of his desire to dominate, man hae used his intaligence for the construction of increasingly dangerous arms, arms more dangerous than any wild animal. Animals always have good hearts, It was even true when they were wild, They have 2. good heart, so we just have to be good with them in order to allow thelr goodness to become apparent. Animas attack us when we attack them. In eastem ‘Africa where iis not permitted t hunt, animals get very close to you, even the good lions. AS tong as you do net get close to them when they are hungry, everything is fine. You can sit with them at the same table. for dessert, not for the meat! So animals really have an essential ‘goodness, while arms do not. Arms are continualy being designed in order to kil, terminate, ‘Sha estoy with greater omicency. We know tat man possesses @ power of destruction, We Clearly see how this situation is like having a sword hanging above our heads. Its a source of ‘anguish inthe heart of man. In the Scriptures, anguish is presented as the ultimate sign forecasting the return of the ‘Savior, the return of Christ I 1S not War; Its anguish. We find this In the Book of Revelation, ‘as well as in the whole of Scripture. We see how present this anguish is today, and how it Is increasing. The Holy Father asked himself the question, “Does man have the courage to co beyond what he hag realized in those arms? Will man have the courage to go beyond this ‘apa! of power and destruction that he has created"? Animals are not created by man as ‘rms are created by man. [eis always very dificult to achieve a work and then go beyond itn 2 holocaust of love. I think that the Rrst encyclical letter ofthe Holy Father, which has been forgotten, is very important, Allover the world we are living in @ state of extreme angulsh, Now the Book of Revelation undertines how this anguish will be worldwide. Man everywhere sees it in his fellow man. Tt isthe fragilty, the fundamental vulnerability of today's man. But We should not be afraid of it, for we are children of God and we know that in Jesus our Father loves us. ‘We must rediscover fatherhood In what is most radical. God allows this Increase of anguish. He permits man to make more dangerous arms. Thanks to this man can manifest his power. 1h the most Intimate depths of our heart God wants anguish to be overcome by the gift of fear ‘This Is the beainning of wisdom. When we see oursalves facing this anguish, we have to Understand that the Holy Spins within our Reart with His divine eapeaty to transform, We an unite ourselves to the Heart af Jesus with the gift of fear and so use this anguish in order to open up to’ deeper abandonment to the Divine One. We must put curseives totally in the hands of God and become more and more like Ite children, like sons of the Father. 1 thik that this is the great grace corresponding to what we are living today. This has to be the greatest grace during this time of Lent. Enter ever more deeply Into‘an abandonment of love, So that you might realy place yourselves Inthe hands ofthe Father. Understand how much the Fether loves us. We are His beloved children We are now going through a time of greater fraglity than that experienced during the beginning ofthe century of during the previous century. Our world is so fragile today for itis wholly given into the hangs of men. Now we know that there will not be another food. On His ‘on, God does not want to put an end to mankiné. He promised Noah that He would never ‘again send such a flood. Now In saying that, God gave man responsiblity over himsef ‘Therefore, God wil not stop giving men Mis fatherly protection, even if man makes the worst possible mistakes through pride, Mis Gesie to dominate, or his dese to gain power over Ife land death. God has left man free to choose. Therefore, we must ask ourselves the question, “How far will God allow us to go"? We don't know. We cannot tell God, *God, you cannot allow 6tus to go any further.” We know thet God leaves the responsiblity for man to man himself. This |S something very special, and it may be what we are living today. The Holy Father speaks of 2 ‘meta-temptaton. The Holy Father Knows and says that the Church has never gone through this type of temptation. It would seem thatthe Holy Father wants us to be attentive to this, for he draws our attention to ft But we cannot do much. We cannot say, for example, that we ‘Should stop al scien research. Considering the power thet man has to destroy mankind, we Cannot do anything at that level either. It i as i our feet and hands were ted. Furthermore, nobody is listening to the Church. Peopie now listen to sclentsts and technicians, but no longer to the Chureh, and the Church knows it, This is the Holy Fathers greatest source of suffering. 15 this weight he cares, Man wonts to reach edulthood on his own. He no longer takes into ‘ccount the fact that the Father has given man His beloved Son as man's only Savior. Man {oes not want to look at this anymore. Again, this |s the deepest suffering of the Holy Father, fd iis also the deepest suffering of today's Christian; It is what we have to lve in today's ‘world. We must ask the Virgin Mary for her peace and for her awareness: Mary does not went Us to enter a state of anguish, Yet she Wants us to be fully aware of what Is happening in today’s world in order that we might cary Te with her, In order that we might carry I through @ Victory of love, in a Pentecost of love linked to the mystery of the Assumption and the great Vietory ef love fiowing from the Cross. ‘Ths great victory of love is shown to us, manifested to us, withthe mystery ofthe Assumption cof Mary. Everything In Mary is the Assumption manifesting this victory of loveanThe Christian Family and the Religious Family Father Marie-Dominique Pillppe, 0.P. Monday, October 31, 1994 Final Conference in Rome During the audience that he so kindly granted us the Holy Father spoke to us about both the Community of Seint John and the family. This ls important, and we must understand that the oly Famiy is the one and the same model for the Christian family ahd the religious fal. “Thus for the earthly family as well as for the religious family, the renewal can be made only through the Holy Family. It's something radical. Everything began with the Holy Family, and teverything has Been renewed by fin an admirable way. And the Christian family Is part of the Holy Family through the sacrament of marriage. The Christian femily is not only sacred; tis something divine, and the sacrament of mariage requires holiness. Thus itis not surprising that fe ls not easy to be a Christan family, and thet fe constantly demands going beyond ourselves, It does not mean taking the easy way out! Someone told me one day: "In marriage, everything is allowed” No, everything fa not allowed! According to the wisdom of God, Svervthing hae to be lived inthe family tn light ofthe Holy Family {A for religious Ife, we know gulte well that everything Is not allowed. The three vows are not ‘exactly easy to live, Viewed from a Freudian perspective, religious life goes In precisely the ‘opposite direction, The spin of virginity to which the vow of chastity commits us can only be kept thanks to contemplation. We make a commitment to the spet of abedience for our entire Ife, and for Freud obedience isnot exactly a blossoming! And in the Freudian perspective, the spirit of poverty Is not a profound development elther! Thus itis a mystery. The Christan family is 2 mystery since kis sacrament, and religious life is @ mystery. That is why some Very easily oppese domestic life and raligius life at a. psychological level, but ths fs & human peychologieal perspective. It is true that the difcites are totaly diferent: the struggles re hot the same, yet the finaly i the same. If we no longer look atthe fnality we only see the ‘oppositions, yet the finality is indeed the same since these are two paths toward holiness. We ‘must grasp this very firmiy. The Church isa great living being, and in the Church the Christin family has @ place that Is fundamental, and religious Ife also has a place that ts uitimate. The ‘wo have been somewhat separated because people have forgotten the finality, and when they Torget the finality they *formallze they fll Into formalism. Religious life's easily formalized; people separate the Christian family and religious life or place them in opposition, instead of Understanding that there is'a common finally. Tt is the same thing for the Christian famly fone can fall_Into formalism and easily set the family and the demands of the Church In ‘Opposition. Some go so far as fo say that the Church does not have the right to speak about the family! Some say, among other things, that the Church has no right to make a pronouncement on the “morning afer pil." What? The Church ls Christ, and Chvst is God, and CChyst reminds us of the fundamental law of marrage, Poverty and Gratultousness. Cristian marriage Is not simply a demand of moral ie, Its @ demand of Christian fe, and thus raquires from the wil a constant striving towards holiness. What the Church asks Us is €o strive for holiness, and this isnot something to be acquired overnight. Just asin religious life: It takes years to acquire religious mores and to understand what they mean. This takes tim the Lord knows this well, and therefore He never accuses us. He forgives us all te time, If We hhave @ poor heart. Tt seams to me that itis the spirit of poverty that effects the fundamental tunity between the Christan family and the relgious family. Because the epi of poverty (the first of beatiuides) Is the same for both. In the Middle Ages, Saint Dominke was atthe origin of 2 renewal of apostolic monastic Ife from the standpoint of paverty. Saint Domini, who Was ‘eek and good, cursed in advance those of his brothers who would no longer be poor, Who would start building convents that would be palooas; for he knew quite well that even if each ‘monk Is poor, the community can be rich~even more so then the family, because i Is larger! ‘The community must remain poor, and each religious must live by the spirit of poverty. For thelr part, Christian familes must lve by the spirit of poverty. This does not mean that they32 need to become "stingy"! This Is not at all the spirit of poverty. The spirit of poverty, on the contrary, renders us magnanimous since everything that we have is for God, for Christ, for those thet we love, and for the poor. This Is what Is great. ‘This has happened on our pligrimage. There are Christian families that have enabled so many religious to come. This ig something we must tell you: we religious would never have been able {fo afford this trp. You could have pald for three chaplains and said: “That ts enough." However, you have had extracrdinary generosity and I thank yau very much for this. God falene knows the sacrifices that you had to make, and I know that for some It has truly been the widow's mie: It was not taken from an abundance; it was taken from what was necessary (Gf. Mk. 12:44). And you have come with your children. Yeu saw how very happy the Holy Father was about this. TMs ls what gave him the greatest joy. He was like Jesus at the ‘audience: "Let the children come to me" (Mt. 19:14; Mk. 10:14, Lk. 18:16). He pad far more ‘attention to the children than ta the religious, and I am net jealous about this! On the contrary Tam very happy, because in the depths of my heart, this is what I was hoping... He welcomed all the cildren, while be was net able to lt all the brothers and the sisters come to him, Here Wwe have seen his heart uniting the religious famiy and the Christian fay. And ths shows us {that when the Christian family and the religous family are united, the Christin family teaches {he religious family! Let us be. poor. Everything Is. gratuitous, let us live everything. i9 ‘gratultousness. This Is what I belleve made all of us so happy: to see that everyone was living In the gratultousness of love. What You have glven you have given generously, what we have received we have received gratultousy. Living as a Christian {All of you here are in the "Family of Saint John". There are oblates, and there are those who have partispated for the fist time in a Saint John pligrimege. I am very happy about ths, because we do fot set limits on the "Family of Sant John.” We have only one desire: that it Spread. The Holy Father has asked this of me. When we came for one of his Holy Tuesday Masses he told me at the end, "Go throughout the entire world; 1 am sending you.” That is ‘why wo turn our gaze to the entire world snd we go wherever we ara received. If we are not Fecoived, Jesus tells us to leave, just as In the Gospel (c. ME. 10:14; Mk. 6:11; Uk. 10:10-11), {and we leave. Some cry over our departure, but others no ionger want us because we are @ “Sign of contragietion® (Le. 2:34) to them. When we left Fibourg because I stopped teaching at the University (Thad reached the age limi) and the fst 80 brothers returned to France, Someone sald to me, "Father, you give a counter witness." I sald, "What do you mean"?--at Such times, we must appear as stupid as possible. He replied, "You are proving that there are Stil vocations." To which T replied, "That is evangellcall "Pray to the Lord of the harvest that He Send harvesters; the harvest Is many and laborers are few (Cf. Mt. 937-38, Lk. 10:2). Do you he replied, "But some say that there are po ‘ore vocations because priests do not marry." Then I answered, "We are religious) thus It is not the same thing. There wil always be religious; It is stronger than anything. Thats Il You See plants that grow in cement, making crack and growing over i: ths is religous life. There is no point in laying concrete, building turnpikes, organizing everything independently. of religious; It keeps growing back! Providence finds places where it car grow. This may frighten some people, but that is the way Its" ‘Siilarty, there will avays be Christian familes. Sometimes people look at them and say, Five children lea lt"! r, “Seven children? That is incredible; you are medieval? Better thar that, we along fo the era of Christ! This Is what we must say, "Ido nat belong tothe 20'th century '; 1am Christian, I try to live as a Christian, and hence I am bound to Christ. 1 know that economically T belong to the 20" century, but T do not Ie at this level" Indeed we respect those who have economic responsibilities, and we pray for them we have "Saint Josephs" to whom we ona a great deall Yet none of us live atthe economic level If we are Chistian; we live 2t 2 Christian level while respecting the economie point of view. This is Cristian life. 11s lived in marriage, and there are Christian parents who are more profoundly holy than some religious. 1 do not hesitate to say this. My mother was @ saint, and 1 know Christian mothers today who are holler than many religious. But they have s vocation os 2Christian mothers, while others have a religious vocation. If these less holy religious were in the world, I do not know whet they would be! Religious if isa place of mercy for some. Tt ‘does not embarrass me to say thls, Decause i Is true. Religious Ife can be and is @ place of mercy: one hes the suppert of nes brothers; whoreas If some rligious were in the world they "Would perhaps be poor beggars. We are Poor Religious life Is not reserved for an elite, and it does not necessarily represent Christan nobility. Not at all Religious life Is meant for the poor. And if we are truly poor, Jesus gives us ‘everything. Thetis what Is wonderfUl. In religous fe we sometimes want to Say, “Sust think ‘about mothers who wake up several times every night, when their small chidren cal them and ing to them saying, ‘Dont leave me, Moromy’*t This is true heroism and Ieis @ great winess faiven by Christan Ife today. 1 greatly admire this, and T admire what is happening in the ommunity of Saint John. In particular I'am thinking of the General Chapters of the Congregation of Brothers, when the priors and those who have great responsibilities gather together. Those who have been entrusted with @ foundation are sometimes Revol... I could tell you many stores; the “foreti" of the Community of Seint John ought to be’ written, teecauca somatimes there ste small miracasi T dare say the Holy Spint aes ie not to ston too much to what is said here and there but to listen to Him, and sk Him to be there and help Us to conduct ourselves in @ manner that truly comes from Him and Mary. Many say to us, ‘ou ere not prudent." But this was also said of Solnt Dominic... Thanks be to God, Saint Dominique did not want to hoard the good grain, Sy sanding his brothers to start foundations while they were stil young and not so numerous, he said, “Hoarded, good arain rots; thrown to the wing, It bears frult* We do not hoard good grain In the Community of Saint John. We are told, “Its folly.” Yes, I agree iti folly; Buti isthe folly ofthe Cross (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18-31; 2:14:23) 3:29; 4:10), and we stck to ths: T would rather be considered crazy-with the folly of the Cross-than be called wise and prudent In the sense of worldly prudence. We prefer to fallow the chythm of the Holy Spirt, as much as we can, We can make mistakes; we are not infallible! Only the Pope is infalbie'when he speaks at the level of dogma and at the moral level. Thus when he speeks about the Christian farmly-~just as nhen he speaks about religious Ifer-hisInfalibity Is Involved because he is the guardian of the Christian family and the religious family Love Truth ‘The Holy Father has explicity asked us to be In the renewal of apostolic and contemplative monastic lf, and he has asked us to go to the end in the demands of truth. That Is why we Confidently emphasize studies and require newcomers to go through six months of darkness, in a "tunne!," soto speak. During this time they have the impression that they do not understand ‘anything’ at all, Because it takes at least sx months to get nid ef the old man in our Inealigence, Le, to fee our intoligence from ts overly rational exercise and from the Imaginary. This requires. considerable time. To no longer go to the cinema every week (of perhaps every day) creates a terrible deprivation, a “lack.” Thare are drugs that are Visible, but there are also hidden drugs; time is needed to get rid of al ofthis. That Is why you must pray a lt forthe Community of Saint John. T ask this of you now that you know Ita bit, that Yyou have seen it at work. 1 hope that It has not scardalized you! During 2 pilgrimage, when we lve together fora few days, we see the faults of brothers and sisters better than when there Is 2 Cister! This is wonderful since this fosters @ deep bond. I am very happy about this because It is evangelical. Ae the end of Saint Dominic's lfe people did not cid not say of him that he was a contemplative or an aposte; they said: vir evangelicus, an evangelical man. It ls beautifull Our contemplative sisters must be evangelical just as Mary was, and our apostole sisters as well All Brothers, whether priests or not, must be evangelical men. Then there wil fo longer be this type of apposition between contemplative and apostolic: we want to follow Jesus and be faithful to the grace that the Lord gives us and to what He asks us. And the CChureh asks us to take means which allow us to preserve as much as possible this total, exclusive git to Jesus. This Is evangelical. This is what Mary did. Mary followed Jesus in Fis ‘postolic fe, for the Apostes, and especialy for John. She dis not know it explcy, Bute was 334 for John. And when Jesus gave her John as her son (cf. n. 19:26-27), she understood that She had lived this apostolic novitiate for John. Our contemplative sisters are or our apostolic life, that oftheir brothers and that of thelr istars; Uhey must carry it. T edie tls Very much, as i admire the brothers life and the life of our epostlc sisters, as @ grandfather admires his Grandchildren. For a grandfather or grandmother the grandchildren who are growing up are Wonderful they are the most Beautiful in the whole world Tt isthe same for me... Sometimes people say to me: "Whan you talk about the Community of Saint Jahn, you only see the good Side." This is tue... Bt Ido s0 as God does, because God always looks at our good side, and fever the bad. The demon sivays looks at the bad In us; he isthe ‘accuser of our brothers (Rev. 12:10), of each of us. Ae s00n 0s we do something he thinks Is wrong, he pounies and proclaime it/(he is fond of this). Then Instead of being joyful we are sad’ (this Is what he Wants); he does this all the thme. The demon Is terrible; he always wants to divide. But we Want unity and we pray for unity. Joy demands unity, and God wants to see great joy In Us. “Think of the joy In large familias; It ls something vary great. During the last farly reunion vihich I attended, we were 170 direct descendants! Perhaps tis Is also why Tike so much to be in ths large Family of Saint Jonn that untes all of us in light and in love. Let us lve that fully-thanking all these who made & possible and who organized everything. ‘To conclude, we will speak a bt about Mary and John, Mary and Peter, Mary and Joseph. It is so beautiful to consider these three great bonds. With the novices, during an entire year, we looked at Mary's bond with Joseph. The Hely Family Is so great! It ls the patriarchal fel Ten't Joseph Invoked as “light of the patriarchs" (cf. Litany of Saint Joseph)? And Mary, his betrothed (It. 1:18; Lk. 3:27), his wife (ME. 1:20), le the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God. Saint Thomas does not hesitate to say that there was a very great friendship between Mary land Joseph. Never in the world has there been as strong and great @ friendship as that Which existed between Joseph and Mary, unique inlimpidty and strength. Mary and John Mary and John: this isa very great secret. We can have a discussion as to whom must we love the most: John or Joseph? Tremember having once said that it was John, of course. But Father Dehau, who was there, replied: "Bo careful, not so fast! Joseph was very great." have nat forgotten this. We spontaneously look at Joti, the bord between the rather and her beloved son; yer there Is also the bond between husbend and wife. These are two different qualities of Tove. what we can say is that there has never been greater supernatural cherty than the charity between Mary and John. With Mary and Joseph ere is 8 human friendship Between husband and wife, sanctified by grace, of course, yet 8 human friendship: Joseph chose Mary. ‘nd we can say that he is the patron of those who have good taste! When T see a young man Wwho has chosen his flancée well, I tell im: "Saint Jeseph was surely there since you have chosen well” The choice between flancées, between husband and wife, 1s something very ‘reat, because even though tris Indeed @ human cholee, its also 8 choice that comes from God! Did not God Himself present Eve to Adam? And Adam sang the first Magnificat: "Here is bone of my Bone, flesh of my flesh" (Gen. 2:23), It is God who hes chosen, before the spouses. Tt Is God who made the choles, since He blesses the choice of husband and wife, since Christ sancifis this through the sacrament of marriage “Therefore this bond between Mary and Joseph Is very great. The bond between Mary and John 's more mysterious, because Itis more divine. Tt began with a divine choles, and this dlvine cholce was then Incamnated In a very great, very divine human faendship, And Mary was truly the mother of the heart of John, the mother of the priest. Ths Is why we must love John and Joseph so much, to discover and enter Into the heart of Mary. Mary and Peter ‘There is also Mary and Peter. We do not know much about this bond; Its cuous. Inthe New ‘Testament, we never see Mary in the presence of Peter. At the Cross, Mary didnot try to see 4whether Peter was present. Mary Magdalene surely did this, and she must have beon furious because Peter was not there. Thare are sometimes in the Church Mary Magdalenes who correct their priest: What are you doing? This is not worthy of you, Father"! Mary Magdalene must have Said that to Peter: What are you doing"? While Mary, Mother of Jesus, kept quiet and prayed for him. Ifyou carefully look et the Gospel of John, You see that Mary Magdalene, efter {he ross, went to John's houser "So she ran and went to Simon-Petar ana the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and sald to them." On. 20:2). Peter, after having shed & few tears, perhaps went to John's house and there he found Mary. Nothing is sald about this, however... Mary-Magdeiene went to John's house and there she found Peter, and John put Peter very close to Mary, his mother. Mary hed deep respect and great affection for Peter. He ‘was the one whom Jesus had chosen to exerese authority, to pasture His own sheep (ct 3. 24:35-17), and John was the one chosen by Jesus to be the Beloved son of Mary s0 that she ‘might entrust ai the secrets of the Heart of Jesus to him. This dstinelon and unfy is curious-a fistinction thet God Himself makes and 2 unity that He preserves, without separation. Mary is the mother of the Christan home and of the religious family. And Mary carries Peter. In the last ‘days, Mary envelops Peter-the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception (1854) and the ‘Assumption (1950) envelop the mystery of Peter, the infaliblty of Peter (1870). Isnt it ‘Surprising to see this? We are living something very great In the history of the Church and humanity, We did not cheoe this: Gormetimes we conjecture: "Ohy It lived at tha ma oF Jesus"! The time of Jesus was the daybreak, and perhaps we are lving at dusk, Now dusk is ‘always stormier; there is all the heat ofthe day that weighs heavy. (ef. ME 20:12). ‘The Two Major Attacks of the Demon 1 o not know whare we are in the life of the Church, but there are very strong signs, and Jesus asked us quite expliity to be attentive to signs (cf. Lk. 21:25 ff, Mt. 24:32 f). Now the areatest signs are attacks of the devil concarning the two great fundamental covenants of man ‘with the Creator (See M.D. Philippe, Les trois sagesses, pp. 426-431): one at the level of the Inteligence:-the human Ineligence is capable of discovering God--and the other at the level of procreation, the family. The two major attacks of the devil focus on these two covenants. ‘Today the evil attacks the Christian family in @ very partlular way and shakes it up by attacking the mother; and he attacks the children when the mother hides behind Mary. This must be seid: the devil attacks Ue children of Christian famies. But we must not Be afald, ‘and the mother must hide in the heart of Mary. Psychologists say thatthe fist three years of ‘education are capital. When these fist three years are Christan, It remains for eternity. Even If there are struggles and setbacks during the difcult years, the first three years remain of paramount importance. A mother who has prayed with her child, a father who hs prayed with his child; this s something which remaina for eternity. Even ia man or @ woman have been ‘corrupted by the environment In which they have lived, what was done during the early years Femains If they were Chrstin. God loves Christan mothers because they safeguard the frst three, four or six years, Unt First Communion, It is'a bond that remains eternally. 1 emphasize this point so that Christan mothers understand that their gif Is something very ‘reat that remains eternally. And what Is true for mothers is true Tor Fathers. A father who Sees to the Christian formation of his child until he ie ten or twelve years old and who Continues to give an example is something very great. A father who kneels down to recite ‘evening prayer is something very great forthe child who suddenly sees his father become as ‘Small as he. Tis the same sehen @ mother or a father erries his or her sma child while going {© Communion: the child sees the priest glve Holy Communion to his father or to his mother, {and the priest traces a small cross on the forehead of the chil... this is beautiful. This is part of Chisan education wich s mc senger than we think Because I port of te mystery of mary, Let us remain beside her, since tls she who united us Monday, October 31, 1994 Final Conference in RomeoyOn Saint Therese of Lisieux Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, ©.P. Chapter 3 Let us speak of the Lite Flower, but where does one begin? She Is so simple and so limpid, ‘and we are often less lmpid. She should be the one to tellus how best to enter into the secret of her heer. 1s through Marthe Robin that I most deeply discovered Therese. It wasn't so much through books but through Martha, Ie was @ ite path that the Lord was eiving me, a very direct path ich helped me 2 great desl. Marthe had the privlege of receiving tle vist from Therese ‘Therese would come to communicate to her spin. Now, the most important aspect of the message that Therese left for the 20th Century, and especially the end of the 20th Century, is the act of offering to merciful Love. We are, therefore, going to bogin with this and re-reed it £0 a8 to try to live It for ff aot @ question Of recting but of perscnaly committing ourselves. Let us first re-read the words recounted in the yellow notebook by Mather Agnes, a5 she had ‘asked her ite sister to "recount what had occurred after her offering to Love. After having foted that she had done so the very day of her offering but that Mother Agnes "had not pald Bttention” Therese continues! 1 began my stations of the Cross and, behold, all of a sudden I was seized by such violent love for the Lord that T cannot explain i, except by saying that it was, as It were, like being plunged completely into fire. Oh, what fire and what gentleness at the same time! Twas burning with love, and I felt that I could not bear this ardor nother minute or another second without dying. I then understood what the salnts Say about these states which they experienced 0. often. As for me, I only experienced It once and for a single moment, and then F fell back into my customary dryness. Here we touch the humlty of Therese, She speaks the truth. It only lasted a moment but it ‘marked her entire life. One thinks of St, Bernadette who was so marked by the gaze of Mary, he sought t het whole life..andso when we are granted a burning contact with God, & Contact of fire with Jesus, with the Father, this marks us even more. It marks our soul in its Seepest aspect, and it is indelible. One’ cannot change I. In theology we say that the Ghorecter" of Beptsm (the mark vpon our soul") ls Indellie, but the sacrament in ize I= something less deep than sanctfying grace to which itis ordered. Baptism is with a view to Sanctifying grace. I's $0 to have us live this direct contact with God, this partilpatin in the very life of God. The character of Baptism ls, therefore, only perfectly in actin this intimacy With the three dvine persons. We must all ask the Holy Spin to take hold of usin this feshion So that the mark of Ged upen our soul might be living. We all need the Holy Spirit to have us effectively live this participation In the life of God. This is what allows us to be faithful. For we fare faithful to Lovey and when we have Deen taken hold of deeply by someone who is our God, when our soul has been seized by Him, Itiasts, It remains. Not that we are always conscious of IR.'Therese herself soon fell back into her customary dryness; but in faith It remains, Therese ds, From the age of 14, 1 also had these Intense moments of love. Oh, how I loved the Lord! But it was nothing like after my offering to Love. Tt was not.a true flame that was burning me. ‘She recognized, therefore, that everything before her act of offering was a disposition and that, ater this act, something marked her soul in such a way that, thenceforth, despite and beyond the dryness, there was something that lasted. We must always recall this when we want to do this act of fering with her. We must understand it to be the direc frult of the 138 faction of the Holy Spit upon our souls, our wil, our hearts. This act is not something "Composed." It is something thot comes directly from the Holy Spirit» for Therese and forthe whole Church. One might even say that as regards the Holy Spirit guiding the Church here Is ‘Something new. I we were truly attentive to this, we would understand thet we can no longer live a8 before We all know the text of this offering but it is good to re-read It, for a retreat Is not for the purpose of Inventing new things but to re-actuate our love with respect to the three divine Persons, through Mary. We are, therefore, going to try to see successively all that is entalled in this act of offering soto discover through Ie the great secret of Therese: “Oh, my God, Blessed “Trinity! T desire to love you and to have you loved.” From the age of 14, she is seized by a desire to love that will not leave her rest. Even before she had the desire fo ave herself entirely to the Lord, and here she does not say, "I love you but “Idesire to love you. Itis very powerful. As St. Augustine says, "One wo desires to love loves." We are net sufficiently convinced of this end very often we remain atthe consciousness that we have of loving, at what we feel, yet the last teaching thet Christ gives us, "I thirst” expresses this wel, Jesus himself does not stop at the “intririy lived experlence” of his love forthe Father. He goes beyond it: “I thirst, because he always wants to go further. Catharine of Siena says, very powerfuly, that the greatest thing on earth Is desire, the desire to love, Which i, a8 I€ were, the common frult of felt, hope, and charity, and the divine exercise of the gifts of wisdom ané fear. Ths desire is with respect to a person for we can only spiritually love's person . Here, the desire Is with respect to tree persons In the urity of the Tialy. ‘A desire to love you and have you loved, (here is revealed the apostolic soul of Therese) to work for the glorification of the Church by saving souls on earth and delivering those who suffer In purgatory. \When we love the Trinity in and through the heart of Jesus, cur Savior, who Is the Savior ofall men, our fove necessarily takes on this dimension. We cannot stop at ourseives nor at a Timited horizon. I desire to accomplish perfectly your will and to arrive at the degree of glory that you have prepared for me In your Kingdom. ‘After desiring to love there Is a “desire to perfectly accomplish His wil.” This Is for hope. ‘Obedience Is food for hope. It allows It to grow. We should all have the desire to make our hope grov. This desire which is linked to that of accomplishing perfectly the wil ofthe Father has us aspire to the degree of glory he has prepared for us in his Kingdom. In a word, I desire to be a saint, but I feel my powerlessness and I ask you, © my ‘God, to be yourself, that you yourself be my holiness. Everything Is contained here: "Christ Is our holiness." But so that he be our holiness we must desire to be a saint. And desiring to be a sant, Is desiring to accomplish fully, to the end, the will ofthe Father, through everything. This Is what matters, and we are certain thet We Will receive grace for this. My grace suffices. How God leads us is very demanding. God wishes to act directly and he wishes to act as God, that Is, with the absolute of God. We must not relativize or diminish the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity by reducing them to our prudence. Prudence is us; the theolegical Virtues is God in us. And God does nat ike when we reduce the theological vies to our virtue Of prudence, for it would be ke trying to crive with the parking brake on... one can imagine the results. When we try to start and drive without releasing the brake, we do not move. Why do so many Christians not move? Because thay are not concerned with having thelr fait, Rope 2‘and charity grow. They leave the parking brake on, that is," must be prudent," "I must do as ‘everyone else does" ate. The theological vitues, howaver, place us alone before God as Moses before the one wh revealed himself to be Iam In the very act of flth, hope, and charity we are alone before Jesus who Says to us: "I Am." "I am the bread of life." “I am the Good ‘Shepherd.""l am the Resurrection" Because you have loved me to the point of giving me your Only Son to be my Savior ‘and my Bridegroom. The Infinite treasures of his merits belong to me. Toffer them to ‘you with happiness, begging you to gaze upon me only through the face of Jesus and In bis heart burning with love. Here we understand why she wished to be called "Therese ofthe Holy Face." It is through the face of Jesus that she wishes the Father to gaze upon her, and she knows that He only gazes Upon her in this way, What she says here is very cored, for the Father predestines us through the face of Jesus, through the wound in his heart. He enly gazes upon us, therefore, in Jesus and through his wounded heart. L therefore, offer to you all the merits of the salnts (those who are in heaven and on carth) their acts of love and those of the angels. Finally, I offer you, O Blessed Srinity, the love and the merits of the Blessed Virgin, my beloved mother. It Is to her that 1 abandon my offering, beseeching her to present it to you. We first see here the littieness of Therese and then the place that Mary has In her life. Here, Therese says (probably without knowing It for she never read him) the same thing 2¢ Saint Lous Marie Grignion de Monfort, She Is conscious that she ‘cannot do this act If It is not presented to God by Mary. She is conscious that she ‘cannot do this actif it were not through the face of Jesus. The two mediations are resent: that of the unique Mediator, and that of Mary, Mediatrix ofall graces. Her divine Son, my beloved Spouse, during the days of his mortal life sald to us: "All that you ak of the Father In my name, He will give you." 1 2m, therefore, certain ‘that you will fufil my desires. T know it, O my God: the more you wish to give, the ‘more you arouse desire. 1 feel in my heart immense desires, and itis with trust that I ‘ask you to come take possession of my soul. “immense desires." We know that Therese had writen “infinite desires," but that in response to her desire to have her text reviewed by a theologian, Father Lemonnier had asked that nfinte" be replaced by “immense.” One tnderstands the concern of the theologian, but it remains true to say thet she had infinite desires; for grace, our sanctifying grace inked to the Dlenitude of grace in Jesus, gives us quasiinfinite destes. Our grace in ise fs not fie, but to the degree that we let ourselves be "animated by the sprit of God” who dvells In us, we can, moved by Him, do acts which completly surpass nat only our human capacities but even the “ordinary” exercise of charity. We then have “Infinite desires to belong to Jesus and to ive by his own holiness and ta live by the holiness of Mary. Therese continues, “Ah, T cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desta but, Lord, are you not Almighty? Remain in me as Inthe Tabernacle, Do not distance yourslf from your lite wafer.” ‘Therese was aware that the Sacraments, In particular that ofthe Eucharist, act as a remedy to cour fragility and our distractions. The Eucharist gives us the actual presence of Jesus under this particular mode known 98 "sacramental. Ie normal when we love Intensely and when we desire to love always more, to desire that the one we ove be present. Now Jesus is present In the Eucharist. He is really, substantially present. And yet the "how does not matter (the ‘ede, a8 they say in tedlogy). When one loves, that Is of Ute consequence, To mest Somedne we love ina beautiful foom or n'a cold cave ls of Itle consequence. ‘The essential thing is that we be with him, that there be nobody else, and that we be tranquil. When there are animals present, It is @ little bothersome. When there are thieves, it is even more bothersome. Wen there are other persons who are listening, itis even more bothersome, 3 Be40 Here, we see the distinction that Therese makes between desiring to love and the means. If there is cesire to love then we take any possible means, or we use any means to Intensify this love Such le desire: intanslying love. The love that I currently have T wish fo make grow. [And for this I need mean. Loving Jesus and the Tenlty is truly awesome; ard it must grow. ‘Now there is a means given by God himself: the Eucharist. When Therese communicates, she knows that after a few minutes the hast dlssolves and, consequent, the Eucharistic presence isappears. Buk the sacramental presence Is ordered to the growth ofthe prasonce of grace. If the sacramental presence disappears, therfore, (els s0 that the deep, substantial presence of Sanctifying grace inerease, and that thls “transubstantiaton’ of which St. Augustine speaks, ome about: "It is not you who change me Into you as food for your flesh. Ibis T who change You into me.” Therese sald," We are also the wafer that Jesus wishes to change into himself.” Bat we do not lve the sacrament of the Eucharist perfectly enough, that is why we always need to. communicate, &9 recelve Communion. Therese fet this very strongly. Hence, the expression of her "cesire." We must recognize that from a theological point of view (tis @ bit curious, Certain theologians have commented upon ths. But one must understand. the language of this ite cil. It Is not cola, theological language. Its language burning withthe fire with which she Is animated. Since this act of offering is done in this fire that bums her, we Understand thatthe fire remained in her (even when she does not fee It). wish to console you for the ingratitude of the mean, and I beg you to remove from ime the freedom to displease You. If out of weakness I sometimes fall, may your divine gaze as quickly purity my soul consuming all of my Imperfections as fire which transforms everything into itself. If we wish to take note of all the excesses of the Little Flower (which would be very Interesting), we would underscore a second one here. The “excesses” of Therese are excesses of fervor, and fervor, as St. Thomas says, Is lke water when It bolls and raises the ld of the Casserole. In other words, fervor Is love surpassing limits. Therese, therefore, sees the limits fof the sacrament of the Eucharist, mits Inherent to a sacrament (which imply 2 sensible reality) and she is distraught at not being the tabernacle for the Eucharist. She is also istraught at being abie to de distracted. Belng distracted 1s unbearable. Not always being Selzed by the presence of Jesus and being able to give one's attention to a really that Is not Him is unbearable. Hence this second excess with respect to human conditioning: "t beg you to femove the freedom to cisplease you, to offend you." These excesses can unnerve certain theologians because they are not the language of sdentfc theology, Ie, @ rigorous language which uses “proper” terms. One must understand, however, the state In which Therese is. One ‘does not speak in the same manner when comfortably seated in a chal, and when one is burning with fre. When one burns with fire, one eres is love (t gives courage) and one cals ‘Therese eres for love. Her excesses are cris and cals, I thank you, © my God, for all the graces that you have granted me. In particular, for hhaving had me pass through the crucible of suffering. We will return to ths, for one cannot speak about the Lite Flower without speaking about suffering and without showing the place of suffering witarespact to love. It Is with joy that I will contemplate you at the last day bearing the scepter of the Cross. Because you have deigned give me 2 share in this precious Cross, I wish to resemble you In heaven and see shining, on your glorified body, the sacred stigmata of your Passion. ‘Therese was not stigmatized, but she had this ardent desire to be eternally stigmatized, and she is; for everything that she desired the Father gave to her as to his beloved child ‘After this exile on earth, 1 hope to rejoice in you and the Homeland. But I do not wish to accumulate merits for heaven. I wish to only work for your love, with the unique ‘goa! of pleasing you, of consoling your sacred heart and of saving souls that will love you eternally. 4At the evening of this life, I will appear before you with empty hands for I dare not ‘ask you, Lord, to count my works. All of our Justices bear stains before your eyes. 1, therefore, wish to clothe myself with Your Justice and receive from your love the ‘eternal possession of you. I wih to have no other throne and crown but you, O my beloved.4On Saint Therese of Lisieux Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, 0.P. Chapter 4 “The Act of Offering (21) How limp isthe act of offering ofthe itl flower. In this act we see what purity ofthe heart is: purty of hear isthe fut ofthe git of understanding. Hence its truly Thérese who does this act. She does not say that she received an llumination, that the Holy Spirit spoke to her, that this act of offering wae dictated to her by God; she does not say "God sald this to me," of "The Holy Spire Inspired me.” Such Is her realism: itis she withthe Holy Spr. tis the work ofthe git of wisdom and understanding in the depths of her heart. fut, for her, the Holy Spirit wanted the charlsm called sermo saplentiae, "words of wisdom.” “This gift enabled her to communicate to others what the Holy Spir lead Rer to understand and live In her inmost heart. Inthe first Epistle to the Corinthians, St, Paul lsts the charisms. The first, and the most important of them, is sermo saplentlae, which is transmitting to others with reat limpiaty, simplisty, and objectivty--without publicizing self-the secrets that the Holy Spin places in the intimacy of one's het. The act of offering to merciful love that Thérése left for us is Indeee the work of sermo soplentise. She could have kept silent, but the Holy Spirit wanted her to communicate this act to all those who were to lve the struggles and diieulties ofthe twentieth-century. The twentleth-century Is the century where the struggles fare the most intense. The Holy Father indicated ths Clearly In saying that humanity is Iving the greatest of temptations, Let us be lucid, that is, let us understand that we are living extreme struggles that directly attack the food for our faith. The devil cannot directly attack Talth, but he can attack the miley in which we lve and impede us from being blessed In fat: "Blessed are those who believe without seeing” (Jn. 20:29), To be "biessed" we must be bound ‘to Mary, She was "blessed" in her faith; and through her, her children are blessed in faith. The Litle Flower was blessed In her faith (for us); and she communicates the secret to us. Let us consider the act of offering, but it Is Important to know that one cannot understand anything about St. Thérése If one does not do this act himself. The same holds true for the gospel of John-if one does not lve It or atleast have a desire to live it, one cannot understand IE. The act of Thérese is something to be lived, oF at least desired deeply, as sho herself desired ft. And the day, because of the temptations in whch we find ourselves, we say "ICIS ot for me,* we will recall that we did the act et least onceS, ‘A Dominican confrére once shared with me: "When I was a young novice, 1 thought St ‘Thérége was wonderful. But now, she has no appeal." So asked him fin falth, there was stil some “appeal.” "Yes," he responded, “It stil has a certain appeal in faith, but its meaningless in terme of my seneitvty." I responded, "Wonderful, that proves that you have matured." AS ‘St. Paul says, the Holy” Spit frst gives milk, maternal milk, because we would not bear ‘anything else. Later, he glves solid food. In the old days, when children were taught how to write, they were fist taught straight lines, then curves, then dirces, etc. The Holy Spit leads us in this fashion. He first has us draw straight lines, and then suddenly has Us draw curves. Having learned how to draw straight lines, however, we wish fo continue drawing straight lines. But the Holy Spit never wants Us 10 be able to say, "Now T know how to doit" He always stops before, so that we not become 3 Pharisee, ‘The Holy Spirit hetes Pharseeism. He would rather have us struggle than be & Pharisee. We, however, say "T have been drawing straight ines for five years, ten years. Now I know how to'draw them, ané am very proud. The Holy Spit should continue having me do 50 unti get to heaven. The Holy Spirit wishes for us to progress, and drawing curves is not the same as drawing straight lines. In passing from one to the other, one Is disoriented and uprooted. And each time we are uprooted, we can be sure itis the action of the Holy Spit; ‘whereas when things continue "as theyve always been,” tis not always the action ofthe Holy 144 Spirit. It Is rather the “old horse” in us accustomed to the same path, and very content in following the same path. One can pull on the reins, but he does not want to change direction fs though the nder were the one making a mistake and he “knows” ang, therefore, wil not Change recon. Lat us admit thet we are sometimes like this. It is\nat easy to allow ourselves tobe led by the Holy Spt. "Go towards 2 forelgn land"~-such |s what God sald to Abraham. Tt Is very disorienting and ‘uprooting to go towards the land of Canaan. Leave your home, leave all that is connatural to you. The text of the Vulgate le very Beautiful. It shows all that mast be left behing: egredere {Se cognatione tua. One Is uprocted a st time, a second time, a third time, and one concludes that Ie suficesS not so. The Holy Spint uproots us a fourth time, a fith ime. He uproots us a the time. At 75 years of age, when bishops are asked to retire, Abraham Is on the road: "Leave everything behind." Is this net extraordinary? One does not uproot old trees without them banging a ot of earth with them. Mere, God is good. Abraham brings with him Sara, Lot, and all his vestock; but he must, nevertheless, leave everything to go tb a foreign land. Total UUprooting Is what faith brings about. ‘There Is a curious thing to note: just the opposite occurs with Moses. This is often how the that is, like '@ donkey who prefers the same path day in and day aut. Hence the Holy Spit gives Us two examples which are totally different: the vocation of Abraham and the vocation of Moses. Moses is certainly uprooted with respect to his mother. But his mother is nevertheless present. Then he is raised in the household of the Pharaoh, the highest school that existed at the time. Itis there that Moses Is prepared for his mission (perfect inculturation). In his heat, however, grace and fath remain; such that, although he. was well raised, the day he. finds himself before an Egyptian insulting a Hebrew he Is unable to retain hime. Instantaneously, In order fo defend the Hebrew, he kil the Egyptian and buries him inthe sand, hoping that no ‘one wil sae him. The incuturation of Moses is, therefore, rather curious, Thore Is something in fhm that does not stem from the mores of Pharaoh but from the mores of the Holy Spit. And, as he was perfectly adapted to the Egyptian culture and knew its workings, the Holy Spirit ‘uproots him all the more. How curious are the mores ofthe Holy Spit. We see this very often regarding vocations. Inthe same family, the Holy Sprit chooses one child and leads him to the Feligious life, whereas the child next to him, who received the same education, no longer believes. Let us now consider how the Holy Spit led Thérdse In the act of offering. First, It is Indeed an act of offering. One offers everything to God, that is, nothing belongs to us. Tt passes from our hhands and from our heart to the heart of Christ and to the almighty hands of God. This fs an act of offering. We often more readlly speak of acts of consecration. What is the diference between consecration and en act of offering? Why does Therese not speak of "an act of consecration to merciful Love," but rather an_act of offering. We speak of consecration to the Virgin Mary, but do not speak of an act of ofering. Who is wrong? Thérise or us? None of Us ‘would dare say Its her. Why then does she speak of “offering"? An act of offering expresses what consecration is. Consecration requires of us @ gif: one offers everything. Are we aware: enough of the fact that every act of consecration must be an offering? “Consecration” can Imply greater passivity. In consecrating myself to God, I await the fre of heaven to descand tupon me; whereas with an act of offering, 1 go towards God. "But now I am coming to you" Gn. 37:43), And I go towards God in calling upon him, “The Spit and the bride say, CECome* ‘Ammen! Come, Lord Jesus"! (Rev. 22:17,20}. This is Indeed an offering—one goes towards the fire that burns us, one goes towards the Holy pint who takes hold of us, Offering Is born ofthe desire to love. It isa desire to love. Nothing Is more active than desire, When we no longer desire, we sit, and we await the storm to pass. When we have a desire, We dive ourselves totaly. This Is Indeed the deep intention of Thérése, under the inspiration ofthe Holy Spine: "A desire to love you and have you be loved.”How great its to unite immediately contemplation and fraternal cherity In this offering. Te is inceed rough fraternal charity that we have God be loved. Our apastolic Ife rests upon trateral charty. Both are intimately connected. And Thérése knows that desire, if tis tue, is Ineamated in work: "Working for the glorfation of the Chureh.” But what isthe gloriftation of the Church? To glorify the Church isto allow her to lve always the victory of love. Tt would be helpful here to seek the meaning of glory through the ‘Scriptures, Tt is Important, especially as regards unity with our Christan brethren of the Eastern Church who are very much turned towards glory. We do not speak a lot of “glorfying the church," and yet eis a deep realty. It ls nat a question of advertising In newspapers, of ebiizing the media te speak of tha Church. The glorifeaton of the Church t= not a question ‘of exterior glory. Tes Interior glory. It stems from the Holy Spin; and it's so that the Church might live fly the victory of love, Now, the Church Is Us, each one of us, no matter what our place may be inthe Church. The Chureh is our Ives offered to Jesus and lived with Jesus. The Church fe the mystical body ‘of Christ; end the glotfcation of the mystical body is the ‘lorfication of Jesus himself through his members-hence the desire of Thérése to "save seule Let us consider the great realism of Thérése's intention: desire linked to work, Desire atone ‘does not suffice; one must get to work. The theological vues must be incarnated In our ‘whole life and, no matter waat we Go, we must have the "mores of workers." We must be ‘workers. The gospel shows us what these mores are, and iti Important to understand, for we fare called to wrk In the vineyard ofthe Lord. Some of us are workers of te “eleventh hour.” We were converted at 70 years of age or converted at the last minute on our death bed. All the batter, lt iz'2 grace, There are aiso those who have been workers since thelr youth; ths ‘also is a grace. What is important Is not to "peek," that is, to be curious regarding others, ‘Those who are older must not peek at those who are younger, and vice versa, 10 not judge based upon appearances’ (In. 7:24), Jesus says. Judging based upon appearances is Judging based upon results, and we have no right to judge based upon results. Jezus forbids it, When the evil one sows weeds or bad grain, we must net, Jesus again says, ‘wish to uproot the weeds immediately. He does not say this zo as to favor laziness Dut so that ‘we might understand that Its not up to us to discern In others good from evi. Judging based Upon appearances is taking the place of Jesus, the High Priest. He never judges based upon ‘appearances. It can happen that we see someone who ls fragile and weak, who seems to be Sloning. Indeed he seems to be sinning; but we cannot know If this person is sinning. God ‘lone knows, he who searches minds and hearts; we cannot know and itis not for us to know, ‘When we see someone who seems to be "misbehaving," 2 fragile person who finds him or herself in dificult conditions, let us rot judge. Let us do as Thérdse and help bear the cross ‘with this person, This Is what i sometimes is to work forthe gloriieation of the Church. When We belong to a community aiso, we must work to glorify the Church in this small church, Le, the community. If we work thus to bring about the victory of love within @ community, we ‘canna judge it, we cannot erteze I. The moment we see its faglties, we must hurry to help. tna family it works like ths (9 Christion family Is indeed part ofthe glory of the Church). If we do not work fer the glory of a community, for the glory of the Church, we judge it Murmuring arises and destroys everything. Thérése is flece as regards this. She cannot bear ‘that we Judge one ancther. We always Judge In reference to ourselves, she notes. ‘She also pave no atention to judgments regarding her “This intention ofthe Litle lower is very demanding. It truly stems from the beatitude of the pure in heart. she summarizes quite simply In saying thet she desires to be a saint In ‘ccomplishing fully and "perfectly" the wil ofthe Father. It ls always a question of seeking the Will of the Father and accomplishing It in our lives. The will of the Father is what Is most Concrete for us. Let us not fist seek effects or doings, or deeds--this is true Christian poverty {and Reliness. If Thérdse does this act of offering Its soto go towards holiness, and for nothing ‘else, But she does not bring about this holiness. She receives the very holiness of Chis.We see the first demand for living ths-holiness and the first way to receive it: Thérdse begs the Father to always gaze upon her through the face of Christ, the face of Jesus. This is also 3 lesson for us, Ite only n this ight that we ought to consider the Church, the community In which we live, the family to which we Belong, and ourselves. All unhealthy curiosity must tisappaar. Our way of seeing things, which Imposes itself so easily, wil élsappear if we fook at ‘one another "through the Face of Jesus and in his Heart burning with Love." This is tremendous, for it entalla placing our intellect at the service of civine wisdom. Chestan ‘wisdom consists In considering everything “through the Face of Jesus." We are also "of the Holy Face” If we consider everything n Christ's gaze, and not with our own way of seeing and Understanding things. This Is what allows Thértse to offer to God the holiness of Christ, to offer the "infinite treasures of his mers," In other words, the sacrifice ofthe Cross. And let us ‘ask ourselves here: When we attend Mass, do we offer to the Father the sacrifice of Christin ‘order to offer ourselves to him? Our prayer Is indeed fragile and weak, but we are united to Jesus. We can then (and this fs whet i greatest In our prayer), offer the prayer of Jesus, the merits of Jesus crudlied and of his hfe. Ths fs what Therese does in her act of offering. She flea offers the love of the Virgin Mary, for Mary is prt of the mystical body and she is our mather. Mary is glven to us and we must offer her. Our offering thereby acquires a “weight” that completely surpasses us; and It becomes “catholic.” Jesus, Mary, all the saints, all the ‘angels, everything i offered in oraer to glomy the Father through losus, with Jesus, and in Jesus. We previously underscored two very particular aspects ofthe desires of the Litle Flower: one ‘concerning the Eucharist, and the other concerning her freedom. She knows that her desire ‘concerning the Eucharist is "insane." She says itis “infinite”: that Jesus always be present in her as he s present In the Tabernacle. If one were to consider this desire "iterally," one would say itis excessive and flea. If however, we consider it deeply, then itis true. The Sacrament ‘ofthe Eucharist is a sign, a symbol of the love of God for us, but a eine sign, that Is, which Fealizes what It signifies, Sesus gives himself to usin the formh of bread and he remains in our midst. We must, therefore, understand the meaning ofthis sign, that for the sake of which itis ‘ven, Jesus wishes to be slways present in us "ae" he is present in the Tabernacle. He wishes, ‘each time we are able, for us to communicate secramentaly, and really recelve his body and his blood so as to Iie Increasingly the mystery of Fis presence In us through grace, The Eucharist |g given to us for this: so that al of our activites might become communion, so that ‘even our work become communion: "WorkS for the food that remains unto fe everlasting" (¢ Sn. 6:27), The Eucharist leads us to understand that Jesus unceasingly gives himself to us and is present to us through this gif, and that he wishes for us to live in oneness wth Pim, and in ‘oneness with all those whom he places close to us, In the great prayer of Chapter 37 of John's ‘Gospel, which can be called the prayer of the Beloved Son, Jesus Fequests this oneness rom his Father: "May they be one as we are one” (In. 17:11,21,22). The offering that Thérese Fequests is, therefore, an offering of the entire mystical body. It is very audacious. Further on, Thérése thanks Jesus for having united her to his suffering. Here we have 2 great inystery, characteristic of the Christan mystery which she lived with extraordinary lucidity. Christian love, this love which comes trom the wounded heart of Jesus, is always linked %0 suffering. "Do not think that you can love without suffering," Thérdse wrote to Celine. And to Sister Mary of the Trinty she says, “offering oneself as victim of love Is offering oneself to suffering.” The love we have for Christ crucfed is necessarily Inked to sufering and, trough Suffering, to glory. Thérdoa coes not want to euler for suifering’s sake, nor suffer In order to “explate," as was common at the time. She wishes to work to glonfy the Father in glortying the Church. And, in order to be glorified, the Church must pass through the cross as did Christ, whose mission she continues, There are always these two sides to Therese: glorification and Suffering, which we must never separate. We must reflect upon these thing fortis surly one of the more charscterste aspects of Thérdse--as of Martha Robin. We know how much the hheart of each of them was labored--the difference being that Therese lived a shor Ife, and Martha remained on earth along time. The suffering of the Little Flower was very interior; Whereas Martha's suffering had a visible, charismatic aspect: her stigmata and the fact Chat She lived without ever eating,1 can recall a student in mecicine from Paris who had heard about Martha and had wished to see her. The only way to see Martha wos to attend a retreat at Chateauneuf; and so 1 Convinced her to attand the retreat thet 1 Was going to preach. She, therefore, came with 2 Seal that perhaps didnot stem from the purity of the Holy Spirit, but which was legitimate. As She nas afral, she asked me to secompany her, which aecapted, happy to be able to see Martha once more. On the way, she caected Rowers from the meadow and thus arrived with a big bouguet of flowers to offer to Martha. She would thus have something to do. It was easier to arrive and say. “Martha, here Is bouquet for you," than to sey trom the outset "Martha, Wrst must 1 do: And 20 Martha sold to her, “Place them on the bed." Then this young git, 8 Student in medicine, asked Martna about what most struck her: “Martha, fst true that you eat ‘othing?” Martha responded, "tis God's wil for me.” The student then exciaimed, "It must be marvelous not to have to eat~-you save Ue,” To which Martha responded, “Oh, do you really Believe so?" Here we encounter Martho's reels. Indeed, its relaxing to eat-even i religious lite where we listen ta a reading or eat in slence, Because we are so accustomed to eating, we ‘ne longer realize the relaxation that it brings. Never to eat, to be always before Christ crucied fone cannot Imagine what Martha lived. Her remark was very beautful nits simplity: “Oh, do You really belleve so?” Martha did not gle @ lesson to this oung woman. She didnot say, “My {hig you do not know what you are talking about.” She simply sald, ‘Do you believe so?" ‘Beyond this basic realism, there was with Martha, as with Thérdse, the realism of divine love whlch has us recognize that beyond suffering there is jy. Why? Because beyond suffering and through suffering, tere is love, Sufering can be @ purification which allows love to be more perfect and, therefore, to fl with joy. The fz what the act of offering of Therese aves to us. Might we not say that Martha brings Thérése to completion? Marthe is indeed an act of offering lived In the very suffering of the cross. In the perspective of God's wisdom, we cannot separate Thérése trom Martha. They are both given to us na very special way. Martha lived the act of offeringit was Therdse who gave itto her. The litte child Thérése, Gead af such @ Young age, was to give it to one who was to live ta Tong time and with such intensity. Martha ‘sed to say to Fr. Finet that each week she needed a new act of fortitude (the divine ferttude ‘of martyrdom) to enter Into the passion of Christ. She used to say that one never grows ‘ccustomed to suffering; that It's always Violent. Thérése says things regarding suffering that fare very powerful, for she also suffered with great acuteness. "It Is necessary,” she says in ‘August of 1897, "that the good Lord be good In order for me to be able to bear all that {am suffering. I never thought that T would be able t suffer so much." But she does not wish to Suffer lass nor less long--she says this once again a few moments before dying. In her realism she never wished to ask God to suffer more, nor does she ask to suffer less. The only thing She desires Is to love more, and if suffering Is a divine means, then It is fine; may God give it te her and grant her tolve tn order to be consummated in Lave. One sees how rmuch this act, Of offering 's inked to the wisdom of the Cross (we will come back to ths). Thérése says it herself in thanksgiving: “I thank you, © my God, for all the graces you have granted me, in particular, for hhaving had me pass through the crucible of suffering.” ‘Thérdse knows that the Holy Spirit purifies our heart and our intellect ony through the ercible of suffering; that ie why we should not suppress it or try to avoid I “It Is with joy that 1 will contemplate you at the last day bearing the scepter of the Cross because you have deigned to give me a share in this precious cross. I hope to resemble you in heaven and see shining on my glorified Body the sacred stigmata of ‘your Passion.” Martha, who was so close to Thérése, bore this external stigmata for years, united to the cross ‘of Christ In order to live all of Jesus, to become entirely Jesus. Notice how much Thérése, In her act of offering, connects the “crucible of suffering” with the joy of contemplating Christ ‘crucified and glorified, contemplating im face to face inthe glory of heaven, for she will have50. been intimetely united (contemplation Is not a spectacle) to his glrieation upon the Cross. "Father, the hour has come. Glorfy your Son thatthe Son might glorify thee." “I thank you for having had me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy that I will contemplate you ‘The soul of Thérése purified as gold in the crucible, ripened in the crucble of interior and exterior trialsSralses her head. Like St. Polycarp, atthe moment of his martyrdom, she gives thanks for having been found worthy to pass through the crucible of suffering, worthy to partake of the cup of Christ. Quite early on, she understood that in order to offer oneself, one ‘must surpass oneself, We do not offer ourealves in the imminence of our vecu, that's, from laithin the interior of our psyche. One rust go beyond this in order to be entirely grasped by love, othernise there is no offering of suffering, and then suffering eats away at us and renders us bitter and has us turn in-on ourselves. Divine jove must be present and must burn everything, so that there be this surpessing, so that there be the interior freedom of the chidran of God. In saying that Jesus gave her @ share In his cross, Thérése shows us that the CChurch maintains, in act the mission of Christ, and continues to live It. Now, the Church, the ‘mystical body, is each ‘member united to the Head and all the members in oneness. I {eretore, we are called (out of pure gratultousness) to conkinve te mission of Jesus, we Must ‘maintain in our hearts, in the midst of difiuity, struggle, and anlety, the Joy that Jesus Wishes to place In us, that fy ls joy. Such Joy Is not necessarily felt or immediatoly experienced, but lt must always be present, The victory of love i source of al joy. This victory Gives joy. J0y has a more essential, more direct connection with love, with agape, than does Suffering, Love le directly and essentially source of joy (we must never forge this). The Uitte Flower connects, in'a vary powerful fashion, love and suffering, but without confusing sufering (a means). Did not Christ have to sUfer 20 ae to enter Into his glory ith love (the end)? Its Because suffering allows her to love more, to love "as God loves, that is, in surpassing herself entirely, that she can say, "Mere on earth, everything tires me, everything is heavy. There Is ‘nly one joy that have, that is, to suffer for Jesus, but this unelt jy fs beyond al Joys." IF Thérése asks to suffer, if she asks for suffering, Its because she bears it In love and uses it te love more. Her vocation "ls love." And because God is greater than our hearts, Therese wishes to "eniarge the space of her tent." Therese reminds us that ‘ove fs the vocation of every Christian and that this fove i source of Joy. A Chistian must bear ll suffering in love and, therefore, In Joy. We must discover and Ive this--not only Intelectally, but n.@ practical fashion. ft is vital to do so. The old saying "A saint who is sad Is a sad saint” expresses something very proper to the Christin life, Christian Ife implies joy, Jesus’ said to Nis liscples: "IIs good for you that Igo.” IF ts good then its source of joy for us, because Ils source of love, "After this ele on earth, T hope to enjoy you In the homeland (she does not hesitate to say "enjoy you"; she aspires fo this oy), but I do not wish to accumulate merits for hheaven. I wish to work only for your love..." ‘This is also the frult ofthe gift of wisdom andl ofthe gift of understanding. At the human level, If we worked "only for love," we would lose the realism of work, one of the great aspects of thurman life. We can work, however, "only for love of Christ” withthe realism of our body which ‘bears what Jesus bore In his Passion and at the Cross. in the realism of divine love--which takes hold of our bodles"-we can offer everything, we can give everything as the Lamb Who Dears the Iriquity ofthe worl--this isthe reallsm of divine ove. Divine love alone is perectiy conerete; all the rest is a bit abstract. Why? Because, as St AUgustine sald, "God is the Reality, he Is; and God is love.” And the Holy Spin, who binds us to this Trinitarian Love (Chant Sin Usa partspaton inthe Holy Spr), wines that we goa fares possible in vine “I wish to work for your love alone, with the unique goal of pleasing you," ‘This demand of working only for love of God reiterates the constant concern Thérése had to please” the Father, to “please” Jesus. D9 we think enough about pleasing Christ? ‘about 6pleasing the Father? We "please" the Father wien we have @ single desir: to love and to work nly for his love “In the evening ofthis life I will appear before you with my hands empty." How limpid is Thérése's intention in this offering: It Is only Jesus in a complete surpassing of herself We see how ecstatic love ls, how much it places us inthe other and has us lve what Is ‘reatest and deepest and mest loving in him ‘I42On Saint Therese of Lisieux Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, 0. Chapter 5 “The Act of offer 19 (aE) ‘The act of offering has us discover the fundamental secret of the Lite Flower. Our retreat resolution shouldbe to lve ths act of offering, to make it our own, and to receive It 35 @ great ff from God for toéay's word, for humanity I the 20th century. “After the exile of this earth, I wish to enjoy you in the homeland, but 1 do not wish to accumulate merits for heaven. I wish to work for your love alone, with the unique 902! of pleasing you.” Here we see the purity of Thérise's gaze, the purity of @ heart which wishes only to love, to ova "with tha unique goal of pleasing.” it tz not "mart? that intarets her, for mart is sil Something that belongs to us. The same holds true regarding the desire for perfection. There are persons who wish to be perfect and who belave that they must be perfect before entering Ino intimacy with. God. “They ere entirely mistaken, Being perfect stil regards us. A philosopher understands that morality implies perfection, and that is fine. But the Christan fe Is'beyond law, although It does not suppress law. Law remains. Law teaches us to be vitwous. Ils given to Us so that we might be virtuous. That is why not an iota of the law will sappeer. GGod wishes that we be somewnat viruous~at least for those who are near to ust For if we are flways In @ bad mood, tis vety tiresome for our neighbor. A person who fs always in'a bad ‘cod, who always seems to be bearing the welght of the world on his shoulders, a person out ‘of whom we can never get a smile, Is very trying. Bad moods stem from lack of virtue. We ‘must, therefore, be virtuaus as much as possible, But ths snot what Jesus asks of us ist What Jesus asks of us Isto love God and to love neighbor. And in order for this love to be limpid, there must be something more: seeking to please God. Seeking to please not in order to seduce or In order to be thought of wel, to be ncticad. Seeking to “please,” as Thérése speaks off, Is wenting to do what pleases God, to do what is pleasing to him; and this is not easy. I ls Something to be sought, When we love someone deeply, when we love deeply ‘Someone who surpasses us completely, who i greater than us, we sometimes have ciffeulty discovering what exactly pleases him. A fancé dcovers what pleases the heart of his flancéa, ‘whose heart he wishes to conquer’ that is why he is so-charming. One would lke him © Femain ike this always--so kind~-but after the marriage he becomes sccustomed, he gets Used ‘tis spouse. Becoming accustomed Is what Is herible sometimes In communal if. Becoming accustomed is cantrary to love. Love never becomes accustomed. Lave can only be love if there is renewal and unceasing discovery. Humanly speaking, Imagination can have & role £2 play in such renewal and can be useful, but In the supernatural order the Maly Spit renews. ‘The Holy spint has us dlscover what pleases the Father, Ure good wil nd pleasure of the Father, and that of Jesus. And discovering ther good will and pleasure i @ particular quality of "test lve.” Fist love is inventive, ‘What is marvelous with the Litle Flower Is that the first love is always present. The firs love Is not always expressed or felt; t does not necessarily have psychical repercussions. But the frst tove is present, and It sllows her to bear suffering and to transform suffering. Suffering ls then lived with greeter intensity, but it becomes ight. There is suffering that beats us, and there Is suffering walch, on the contrary, strengthens Us. Only the frst love allows us to be victorious ‘ver sutering. Why? Because the first love ts @ great desir, a great desir to love. With fist love, one Is in the state of wishing to conquer; hence a great desir; whereas wishing tO possess Is something terrible for love. There is an intemal contradiction hetween possessing and loving. When one loves, one respects the other so much that he does not wish to take him te ones, to reduce him to oneself; whereas when one possesses, one takes to oneselt This 154 may seem subtle, but when one loves one can understand and see It. When one takes to ‘oneself, one isin conquered territory; whereas when one loves deeply, when one loves with first lover there is both great desire and great respect. With such love, one does not wish to possess; one fully respects the other. Fully respecting the other is also discovering what pleases him. Ite loving which entals wishing to give tothe other what pleases him most. Lave then reaches ful strength and also Keeps ts lightness, its gratutousness-in other words, al {that Is proper to love, The act of offering of Thérése reveals the desire of her heart: she wishes to maintain all that is proper to love. She wishes, all the while progressing In love so es to go ‘always further, to keep the qualty of first love: Its deicateness, its finesse, its gratutousness, “At the evening of this life I will appear before you with my hands empty. I dare not ask you, Lord, fo count my works.’ ‘Thérése understood that one must never look at results, for if one looks at results, one eventually scqulres a posttvstic intellect which remains fed to results. And someone with such an intellect only looks at the awards he receives or the approval of his results ond ro longer progresses. If we wish to progress, we must not look at results. Let others be concerned with results, “~All of our justices have stains before your eyes. Justice consists in rendering to each his due. Its the virtue which allows us to respect others. iis one of the fundamental virtues for every community. ‘The foundation of every human community Is justice. The end, oF fnalty, of @ community is mutual love, concord, trust, but these ental justice (there can be no communal Ife without a certain justice). IF Justice, therefore, consists in rendering to each his due, what can be sald regarding God since man ‘owes everything to God? As the psalm says, "What can I render the Lord forall that he has ‘given me” (Psalm 115, vs, 3). That is why the Just man, fearful of God, as the Scriptures say, 'S'one who adores God and who entrusts himself to his mercy "~All of our justices have stains before your eyes. Why? Because there Is always a certain self-interest when it comes to justice. Someone who i= content with justice offen seeks a certain self-interest. There is. io superabundance with Justis. Whe pays thor taxes superebundanty? Paying taxes stems from justice, and here one |s not at ll at the level of superabundance. On the contrary, one asks advice from clever persons, "how can I reduce my taxes without getting caught?* When we love, however, We love always superabundartly. This ls proper to love. One can never say he loves enough, and lone cannot fx a limit to love fr love Implies superabundanece. “°F therefore wish to clothe myself with your justice and receive from your love the eternal possession of you.” ‘The justice of God is linked to love--Thérdse says it quite often. Human justice is distinct from love. And the justice of the devil is opposed to lave, The devil sometimes pleads justice (it may Sometimes be a subtie temptation for us), but he pleads hardened justice, because i is justice without love. Thérése distinguishes well human Justice from the justice of God. "T wish to Clothe myself with your justice and receive from your love the eternal possession of you.” We: ‘do not possess love but we poseass, In a certain sense, the source of love, which is Person who gives Himself to us. Its said with great clarity, "I wish no ather thrane or crown Eu YOU, © my Beloved. “To your eyes, time Is nothing. A single day Is like a thousand years. You can, ‘therefore, prepare me in an Inetant to appear before you. What Thérase says here Is very Important, for it shows the value, in God's eyes, of intense prayer: a single glance towards him, which takes hold of everything In us, ls worth a thousand 2‘years. We must also, in prayer, be able to glve time. Let us never say, "Tm going to spend @ halrhour in prayer Such expressions have no meaning, for prayer, cannet be measured. We should rather say: "Tm going to spend a hal-hour trying to pray.” “My God 1 consecrate 2 hahour to you; I burn it for you." Or, “I spent fve days on retreat; I burned them for you." ‘And during the retreat there may be moments of great fervorSthe eagle passes by. The Holy Spin isthe eagle, and he pesses by and grabs hold of us. When we let ourselves be taken by the eagle, by the Holy Spr, a single day, a single moment, he has us touch eternity and gives Us new strength, for we are cose to the Source. Under the inspiration of the Holy Sprit, we rex fscend to the souree of al love, Thérase ends her act with what is proper to the act of offering (everything that preceded prepared the act. "so as to live in an act of perfect Love, I offer myself as a holocaust victim to your merciful ove.” ‘So that" refers tothe finality. This offering of love Is witha view to living "in an act of perfect Love, that ls, to mest the very mystery of God, to touch the Souree, and to lase onesef In ‘Thérése shows us that the greatast thing we can do fs offer ourselves, “I offer myself as a holocaust victim. It isthe Lamb, Jesu, who, atthe Crose, offers his whle fe, offers himsat, gives himself completely. "offer myself,” says Thérése, “in order to live this act, in order that the Holy Spiet might take hold of me end eliminete ell obstaces." In offering herself to ‘mercifl Lova, she wishes to ellminate al obstacles In order to let the divine eagle take Reld of fer. She offers herself as a "holocaust vitim,” that i, In a sacrifice wherein everything Is ‘Burned--as the Greek etymology of the term indicates. One asks that everything be burned by the divine fre. For this reason Theérése can say, after having done this act, that she was, as It Were, “entirely plunged int fie. “I offer myself as 2 holocaust victim to your merciful Love begging you to consummate me unceasingly allowing to overfiow in my soul the torrent of Infinite tenderness enclosed In you and that I thus become a martyr of your love, © my God.” "A martyr of your love": this is indeed what Mary lived at the Cross, where she is queen of martyrs. Why? Because, at the Cross, she offered everything to Jesus and became one with him in his sacrifice. And at the Cross, Jesus sends her the Paraciete. We can say that It mas the first: moment of Pentecost, that 1s, the fst glft of the Paraciete;.and It was for Mary a particular ‘giving ofthe Hely Spit to Mary. The second momant Is the giving of the Holy Spirit fo the apostles after the Resurrection. and the third moment Is for the entire Church, in the Upper Room, at, Pentecost, properly speaking (Acts 2:1-4). It is important to consider these three Pentecosts of love, and not to forget the one the Little Flower understood so well and asked for hersell, If she asks this act of perfect love for herself In order to be entirely Consummated In the fire of love, In order to be taken by the “adored Eagle,” the “eternal Eagle,” tS because she knows that Mary lived it, and that Mary lived it for her. She, therefore, can live it. "That I thus become a martyr of your love, O my God." How is one @ mertyr of the love of Christ's heart? By being with him at the Cross and living ‘with him his holocaust. Chris is the Lamb who bears the iniuity of the werd. He acceptod to Present himself before the Father as the only one responsible for sinful humanity, He took everything upon himsel so that, In and through him, we might recelve te merciful love of the Father. In trying to grasp the cepths of Therése's act of offering to merciful Love, we truly find ourselves in the presence of the mystery of Mary at the foot of the cross, of Mary and her Cooperation with Christ at the Cross. Ths [= what the Lite Flower wishes to live: the mystery ‘of the compassion in its most powerful and ukmate espect. What she says reveals what Mary lived. She ean reveal I because she lives It To us, children of the twentieth-century, who have the privilege of receiving the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption, it wes granted the blessing of hearing Pope John Paul It broclaim a Pentecost of love, Martha Robin had such © desire that the Holy Father prociaim 2 Pentecost of love. The Pope proclaimed it In Czestochowa, Poland, on August 15, 2994, on the5h solemnity of the Assumption, so that we might understand that the most wonderful fut ofthe Pentecost of love is Mary in her Assumption Thértse shows us how we can anticipate this mystery: through her act of offering. The mystery of the Assumption ts what the Holy Spin wishes to give us In ths act of offering to love. And wien the Pope officially says on the day of the Assumption that we are in the presence of a Pentecost of love, is he not suggesting thet we are entering the last stages of fhe pilgrimage ofthe Church? What is certain i that this new Pentecost-which passes through the heart of Mary, 2 heart which “co-suffered” at the Cross end which, af that mament, Knows and lives the glory of Christis for us, “Begging you to consummate me unceasingly, allowing to overflow in my soul the torrent of divine tenderness enclosed In you that I thus become 9 martyr of Your love, 0 my God...May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before you, have me finally die, and may my soul fly without hesitation Into the eternal @mbrace of your mercitul Love.” “hie act, which allowe her to enter into the eternal embrace of the Trinity, haz har anticipate lary. "I wish, 0 my beloved, with each beat of my heart, to renew this offering an Infinite number of times until, the shadows having disappeared, I can restate my love in an ‘eternal face-to-face.” What alsposes, In the most powerful fashion to this entry tothe Beatfic Vision, to this eternal face-to-face, is Indeed this ect of offering to mereiul Lave. And (once again) its the act of Mary at the Cross, living the mystery of Jesus who offers himself to the Father in order to florfy him and to save us. The Little Flower lived thie under the inspiration of the Holy Spir. What Mary lived at the Cross--the last act of Christ on this earths the very act of Jesus offering hs life to the Father inthe holocaust ofthe Cross, hi ery of thirst, and the complete Commending of himself into the hands of the Father. After the Cross, Mary can live nothing But this last act ofthe ife of Jesus-until ahe herself lives her last act of love in the obscurity of faith and the poverty of Rope. Mary cannet ve any ather act, for iis a peak, 2 summit. She |S entirely relative to Jesus and, at the Cross, she Ives, under the inspiration ofthe Holy Spit, the incredible attrection exercised by Christ crucified. "When Tam ited up from the earth, ‘ill draw ell to myself" John 22:32). Under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, she is drawn to Jesus, drawn by his ery of thirst and the wound of his heart. Mary lives this mystery to the end of her earthly pilgrimage, for she cannot live anything greater than this. “The Lite Flower grasped this mystery in a very surprising fashion. Marthe Robin aso lived Christ's ry of thirst when she suffered the passion with Mary. Al of this for us in @ century of secularization. “When the Son of Man comes" what will he find on earth? Will he not find instead “the aborsination of the desolation on the wing of the temple" (Daniel 9:27). Are We not witnessing this, if we are abit clairvoyant, and If we try to see what Is happening around Us? This Is not pessimism, but rather great hope. In the midst of suffering there is an élan, there is the prodigious attraction of Jesus on the Cross, that Is, if we have the courage, as did ‘Thérdse, to consider the wisdom ofthe Cross? Tt is sometning great, for it's the secret of our Cristian life. The Eucharist reminds us dally of tis wisdom, for the Eucharst is given to us $0 that the mystery of the Cross might be actual in aur lives, s0 that we might Ive ths mystery a5 much 9s possible, When Thérése says, “I wish, © my Beloved, with each beat of my heart, to renew this offering,” shows that she knows that this offering is a summit, and that fe must conetanty be Fenewad. It is not repeating, But renewing the act, constantly reliving i in order to meet up withthe act of full love that Mary lived. How beautiful tis to see this ite child revealing to us the secrets of her Mather. A mother Is always silent. The children reveal the secret. And the Lite Flower reveals this great secret of ary. She reveals itn her act of offering, in being completely burned ke Mary at te foot of the Cross for Mary remained standing. We rust not 4believe the paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries which depict Mary fallen, fanting end Swooning atthe foot ofthe Cross. John tes us stabat mater; she was standing. Why? Because he iz strong with love that comes direc from Jesus. She ls strong with a fire that seizes and fakes hold of her, The Lite Flower has this same strength, and she renews this offering an Infinite numer of times, like Mery, in the footsteps of Mary, and with Mary untl the eternal face-to-face. swith each beat of my heart” signifies siz thet this love Is lived by Thérése through her heart land her body. She wishes to use her body to renew this offering, for she wishes to belong to Jesus entirely. It isnot in a dieincarnete feshion, but through her body that she loves Jesus, that she wishes to burn with love and desire for him. Offering oneself to merciful Love is an act of love in an dian, that Is, In @ desire. And the ‘martyrdom that this offering entalis isnot only dying to cur desires in order to have only one Gesire, that of being’ drawn to Jesus; It Is living this attraction. This attraction Is the very datiraction the Father exereses upon the human will of Christ entirely trensformed by his Dlenitude of charty, and which lenés him to offer himself upon tne Cross asa holocaust vet, In order to better understand this offering It good to reread certain enlightening nascages from Story of a Soul, Shorty after offering herself, Therése understands the greatness of this fact that she was moved to do the day of the feast of the Trnfty. Indeed itis beautiful that it was on the feast of the Trinity, for the Cross, the wisdom of the Cross is indeed the great ‘evolation of the Trnlky. At the Cross there i, as It were, an icon of the Holy Ty “This year, the 9th of June, feast of the Holy Trinity, I recelved the grace to understand, more than ever, how much Jesus desires to be loved.” Hence this act of offering. This act isto manifest to Jesus that she loves him. And we saw how Jesus, a few days after, gives her a sign (@ passing, sensible experience, but powerful ‘nevertheless In order to show that, beyond all sensible graces, he has completely taken her to bimset, "I was thinking about the souls that offer themselves as victims to the justice of God In order to draw to themselves punishment reserved for the guilty. What we have here Is a spirituality (that of lightning rods which seek to attract the lightning of divine justice) which Is not very popular today but which existed at one time. With great Charity Thérése shows that this ls not what she bears In her heart, and she opens the door to Something in much greater conformity with what the Holy Spite is asking of us. In this sense, she is truly @ source of renewal. "Such an offering seemed great and generous, but I was far from sensing that I was to do it. 0, my God, Z cried from the depths of my heart, is it only your Justice that will receive souls immotating themselves as victim?" “The attraction of justice isnot as powerful asthe attraction of mercy. Jesus does not like when we stop at Justice too much, for he isthe only one who can exercise it perfectly. Theological, this we must state. Hence one can never advise someone to offer himself to the Justice of God. ‘Theologialy, we must say that locus could offer Himsa as a victim (of love) tothe justice of the Father, for he was and isthe only one able to bear ths Justice. Thérése saw correcty. And the merciful love of Jesus to which she offers herself in holocaust 2s 2 victim of love, 50 Penetrates her soul that there Is no longer "any trace of sin,” such that she no longer "Tears Purgatory." She alsa understands that Jebus cannot desire fr us useless suffering, and that he Eannet inspire the desires that she feels If were not to full them. There is great doctrinal precision here which shows how much Thérése ls moved by the gits of the Holy Spint and Truly received the chariem of sermo saplentise. oF58 "0; how sweet the path of love. How I wish to apply myself to accomplishing, with ever greater abandonment, the will of the Lord." ‘Thérése herself recognizes this es the most precious frut of the act of offering: total conformity with the will of the Father and ebendonment Into his hands. Before her epens 2 frorizon other than that of justice which she mentioned before, a path which surpasses justice. ‘She does not reject justice, for she knows that the Justice of God is eternal and insepareble from his love. However, Ie is 9 tue Surpassing Which, as it were, places her beyond Justice. We ‘must grasp whet she says. She is rigorously theological and she wonderfully shows what might bbe a mystical theology which contemplates the mystery of God through his merciful love: seeing the attributes of God-his simplicity, his Irfinty, his Justice, his providence, ete.-- {through his mereiful love, Sdentie theology, that Is, the theological perspective with the (greatest rigor, sees everything through the simplicity of God (this is the fist perspective of ‘Thomas Aquinas on God contemplated In his unity). tn mystical theology, everything Is seen {through merciful love--includingJustice--in order to maintain an order of wisdom. [AS we said before, the devil sometimes pleads justice, that is, pushes us to say sometimes: "God Is not just. God is unjust." Today, many persons are scandalizea by what appears to be Linjuct by Gog and they eay that tha grestect obstacia for tham, shay impedes them fram balieving’in the existence of God, is al the suffering seen in the world, Already Thomas [Aquines, in the Middle Ages, said that one ofthe greatest obstacles to the discovery of God Is Suffering, the dsorder that exists In suffering (suering always brings with ita disorder). For ‘many Jews, 98 well, the great obstacle to recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, as the Emissary of {God to us; isthe disorder that reigns In the world, "If Jesus were truly the Emissary of God, there would be peace in the universe. Because such peace does not exist, because suffering Continues to exist and injustice is stil present, Jesus Is not the true Messiah." This temptation Comes from the devil; the order of justice belng taken as an absolute. Tt can be found with persons who refuse certan aspects of the Church, who refuse the guidance ofthe Church. The evil is very clever in his temptations. He separates justice from rercy and from love. Justice 's order and order then becomes an absolute, In s0 doing, we separate it and give ita very formal character. In so doing, Justice is opposed to the Holy spirits guidance of the Chureh= hich is guidance regarding persons. When we focus on order, we do not consider parsons Drimariy; order is placed above everything. Considering order a greatest Is a temptation that exists today. In realty, order Is not what Is greatest; what Is greatest, Is mercy and love. The {uidance of the Holy Spint Is guidance in love and in mercy Fegarding persons. For the Holy Spirit there is not a common good beyond persons (as claim those who place poltesl order above everything), forthe holiness of each person is what is absolutes regards the guidance oF God, This passage from Story of a Soul alludes tothe end, "How wil this story ofa Ite white flower lend?" It is good to reread in parallel this passage from Mother Agnes dated Thursday, the 30th ‘of September, the day of Thérise’s precious death, for ie helps us to understand haw Therese lived abandonment until the end, It Indeed the act of abandonment which sheds ight on her last day. Precious In the eyes of the Lord isthe death of his saints. Until the end, God willed suffering, anit, and the dryness of faith for her s0 that love might be victorious over everything. We ‘must Consider this passage (beautiful nts slmpllcty and truth) inthe light ofthe Holy Face, in the light of Christ cuciied, in order fo see how God wills the connection between love and suffering. Such isthe wisdom of the Cross, ane this ts what moved Thérese to her offering tO merciful Love. Thanks to this offering to merciful Love, she wos able to lve suffering to the tnd. Only merciful Love can assume human suffering, leaving ts acuteness, but transforming Terom within so that It might Be entiraly ordered to love, as wood or hay allow the fire to Burn more, to consume everyining, ‘The mystery of the wisdom of the Cross is the only response that we can give to those for whom present suffering proves that Jesus is not the Emissary of the Father, This suffering Continues In the heart of Mary, It continues Inthe hearts ofthe saints, inthe heart ofthe Ute 6Flower, nd in our hearts. At the Agony, Jesus asked the Father to remove the cup and, atthe ame time, fully accepted what the Father willed: "Not my will but your will The Father wile that the chalice, the cup, bring about unty between the hearts of Jesus and Mary, between the hearts ofthe Lite Flower and Mary. The Father wills this so that merciful Love might go to the end: 5960On Saint Therese of Lisieux Father Marle-Dominique Philippe, O. Chapter 6 The Wis Jom of the Cross Let us ask the Holy Spirit to take hold of us increasingly, and lead us to the desert, close to Mary, inorder to adore and love. Through edoretion we approach the heart of Jesus and the heart of the Father in the most truful manner. At the Cross, where he adores forall of humanity, Jesus Invites us f9 adore with him. Through adoration we become the "desert of God, that fs, al that might impede us from being ina crect relationship with God 's set aside. ‘Through grace we enter into direct contact with Gad and we call upon the Holy Spit. We beg the Holy Spirt for his help, asking thet he bring us closer to the gaze of God, the gaze of the Father and the gaze of Jesus, and that he Keep us from ever turning away, This we must ask from the Vigin Mary. ‘Therese of the Chilé Jesus and Martha Robin are, 8s It were, big sisters who lead us. And the more we touch our misery and our weakness, experiencing how fragile we are, the more we need thelr help, In order to meet, wth them, the ful the demands of grace, by going beyond ‘Ourselves always and by begging the Holy Spit to draw us. The mare we progress in the knowledge of wnat the Litie Flower has to offer us, the more we diszover the constant call to love. The vocation of a Christan consists in loving |With the Little Flower, the Christian vacation occurs through suffering. She comes back to this {act constantly. We ought to gather all the places where she mentions the role of suffering in her if, for It would help us grasp how much she Understood {early on) tie mystery of the ‘Wisdom ofthe Cross, Lat us consider a passage from a letter to har sister Cline, Let us neglect nothing of what pleases Jesus. Ah, let us bathe In the sun of his love. This sun te burning..let us be consummated with love. St. Francis de Sales says: "when the fire of love is In a heart, all the furniture fles out the window.” 0, let us leave nothing but Jesus in our hearts. Let us not think that we can love without Suffering, without suffering much. Love, and love alone, gives meaning to our life. And regarding love, what Therese calls "pleasing," which is her primary concern, gives meaning to our life. Let us not believe that we can love without suffering much. Such Is our poor nature, ‘and she can't help it. Our nature ls our wealth, It Is so precious that Jesus has Intentionally come to earth to possess It. Let us suffer with bitterness, without ‘courage, Jesus suffered with sadness. Without sadness, does the soul surfer? And we Wish to suffer generously, greatly? Celine, what an illusion. One sees to what interior poverty leads this manner of loving which assumes suffering. We must accept to suffer “with bitterness, without courage.” But understand well: if we were tO ‘Separate this phrase from its context, we would find ourselves before the spirituality “of one ‘who craw"; in other words, far from what Therese means, On earth, love is accomponied by Suffering; and suffering is always hard to bear. To say that suffering flight and easy, Is Incorrect; such suffering isnot true suffering, for true suffering always wounds us. Ifthe love (of Godt were not there when we suffer, we would crawl, we Would stop, we would despatr. ‘There fs another error to avoid: believing that suffering "finalizes" Therese, thet suffering is an absolute and an end for her (suffering for sufering’s sake). Suffering is never an end, suffering never "inalizes.” Regarding certain expressions of hers- especialy taken out of conitext--one Sometimes does have the impression that Therese has suffering go before love, for example, 12 ‘when she speaks of seeking suffering as the most precious treasure, or when she says that her happiness is only In suffering. She in fact does not. In orcer to understand this, we must read her writings in the light of the Gospal, In the light of the wisdom of the Cross. It Is very Important, fr Its surely one ofthe great secrets of the Little Flower. Why ig Jesus our Savior by means of the Cross? Thomas Aquinas poses the question, Jesus came to save us, But he could have done so by means of his hidden life, He could have saved tos By means of hie obedience to Mary and Joseph, oF by means of his adoration of the Father inthe sence of Nazareth. He could have been our Savior by means of his gestures of mercy han he healed the sie, atthe poo! of Bethsalda, for example, where he saved the poor man, Tying there for 38 years, watching everyone else go before him. By means of these gestures of rmerey Jesus could have been the Savior forall who are il, as was the man. at the pool of Bethsaida. He also could have saved us by means of his teaching--for example, the teaching fon the bread of Ife transmitted in Chapter 6 of John's gospel. He could have saved us by ‘means of his diferent encounters with persons who represent humanity: spouses (Cana), the Vendors in the temple (humanity seduced by money), Nicodemus, (the theologian), the Samaritan’ woman (woman who no longer knows how to love), the royal afflcer (a father whose child agonizes), ate. But the Father wills to save us by means of the sacrifice of the ross, athough he could have saved Us in different way. It therefore stems from a divine choice, 2 cholee of divine wisdom, regarding us. “The entire life of Christ is with vlew to “his hour.” The hour of Jesus is the hour when he fully ‘accomplishes his mission, which Is to glorify the Father and save us. Tt is fer this reason that fhe came. "Behold why T have come to this hour, Father, glory your name." (John 12:27-28) "Father, the hour has come, Glory your Son that your Son might glorify you.” He came tO clarify the Father and to save us. Its the mystery ofthe Cross which unites this contemplative faze (glonfying te Father) with tha apostolic work par excellence (saving us). Its the wil of the Father that this be realized by means ofthe suffering ofthe Cross, and Une suffering of the [Agony where there ls sadness (there is no true suffering without the Interior sadness of the 50ul, Therese tell us), sadness such thet Jesus could have cied from it, "My soul fs sad to the Point of death." This sadness-- which takes hold of Christ's entire soul-is sadness caused by the weight of sin, by the horror of sin whereby man turns from God and tums in on himselt the sin of personal pre and/or the sin of collective pride (symbolized by the tower of Babel). “The mystery of the Cross begins with the Agony and continues to Golgotha, Between the two there ts the scourging st the pilar, the carrying af the cross, and the various forms of suering that Jesus experienced because ofthe Cruciixion, Why did God, in his wisdom, wish to unite, n the mystery of the Cross, love in its greatest, ‘mest powerful and purest aspect with suffering, with sadness? Its because of the wisdom of the Crose that the’ Little Flower unites so osely and constantly love and suffering in an extremely practical and simple fashion. If we wish to understand Therese, therefore, we must ask the question: Why does the Father—who sends his Son to glorify and save us establish a Connection between love and suffering, extreme suffering, that, suffering which leads to and Imples death. Why does the Father unite love and the deadly sadness of the Agony? Why Is ‘this? Tt would have been more normal to unite love with joy, with success, Jesus would have been capable of succeeding. He would have been able to briag salvation to humanity with the triumphal entry Into Jerusalem, or with the amazing procession shown in Chapter six of John's gespal, when Jesus Is folowed by 2 crowd of 5,000 men, not including the women and Children. Salvation could have been given there. Indeed, none ofthese things are extrinsic #9 ‘salvation, but they are not Jesus" "hour, the moment for which he came, His hour la an act of love realized by means of the sadness ofthe Agony, the sufering of the Cross and the offering (of his earthly life, in obedience to the Father. {ts through love liked to obedience that Jesus saves us. This ls perhaps the key for us. The ‘Son wishes to manifest to us his love for the Father. And in manifesting his love forthe Father he glorifies him (the manifestation prciaims his love for the Father). In order to manifest his love for the Father, Jesus must incarnate this love, In complete obedience, obedience which entails the offering of his Ife. It is, therefore, radical obedience. All ofthe other ects of the life 2of Jesus are done in obedience to the Father, but none were chosen by the Father inorder for Jesus to manifest all hs love for him and to glorify him. The Cross was chosen. It was an ‘absolutely tree cholce on the part ofthe Father, which is very impressive. The Father chooses the Cross 20 tat love might be more manifest, so that love might be perfectly lived, perfectly Incamated, and concretized through the whole of Jesus’ humanity, tough the wile of his hhuman nature, Ia obedience entaling the offering of his if. Each time we obey, we offer Something in cur life: our capactes, or simply our thme. Ths offering is proper to obedience, ‘whereby we cooperste with one who has authority. ‘Now, what has the devil done since the beginning ofthe twentieth-century? He has attacked, ina very particular fashion, paternal authority. He has done it in a very clever feshion by showing’ all the defects of Such authority. Paternal authority has, in fac not always been exercised as 2 true service but as power, Because of the confusion between authorty and power, paternal authorty has become something horrible. has therefore been rejected and, by the same token, obedience has been rejected. How difficult Its for us-to obey nowadays. ‘We must admit kr ‘obeying ts what is most difelt for us, given our sense of autonomy. But Jesus shows us that the Father's willis that his act of obedience take possession of his whole ‘el, that It be radical and "substantial" obedience which expresses his love: “If you love me,’ Toate save to hie apocting, “ya will keep my commandments.” "If you love me." And tust before the Passion he says, “The world must know that I love the Faber ard that f accomplish What the Father commands." These words refer to the amazing cooperation between Jesus and the Father at the Cross! obedience of the Beloved Son, wholly loving obedience. In order that this obedience be complete, there need be the offering of his lfe-even though obedience is never adequate to love, Love is always source of obedience. Each time obedience becomes dificult for us, itis beceuse we do net love enough, For the human intellect, obeying Is horrible. Wnen one reaches a certain age, adulthoed, one is capable of directing himself, one ‘acquires prudence, one hae experience. And when one knows oneself 9 bit is stupid and Fevolting to have to obey someone who commands us and who knows us less well than we do ourselves Jesus obeys as Beloved Son and, because of this love, his obedience is complete. Love bears ‘obedience, not the opposite. Obedience concretizes love in an efficacious manner. In obedience the efficaciousness and strength of love ls realized. Hence, at the Agony and at the Cross, Jesus manifests how much his love for the Father isan absolute. For him, love for the Father Is ‘everything and, thanks to tis love, he can offer his soul which bears the iniquity ofthe worl. ‘Thanks to this fove he can bear the scourging at the pillar end condemnation to death as a slave with no rights, Thanks to this love he can de upon the Cross with all the suffering feiails, After the Cross, there Is stil the cry of thirst, as though the great work of the Cross the greatest work that ever existed on our earth, the greatest ac, the accomplishment. par cexcelence-did not sufce. The ery of thirst reveals to us that tis work, great as It may be, Is ‘Inadequate for love, that love goes further and cannot be reduced to results, £2 work, to efficiency. How great this Is. Love always goes further. And ths is part of the contemplative lucidity of Christ crucified, hicldty in the midst of suffering, in the midst ofthe offering of his entire fe. Jesus shows us that beyond his sacrifice there is love for the Father which surpasses All. We sce to what degree the mystery ofthe Agony and the Cross are bore by love and In fove, [And so we begin to understand why salvation was wrought through the mystery ofthe Cross— ‘or we at least begin to guess, for only In heaven, In the Beate Vision will we fully understand, Here on earth, itremains a mystery; yet we must do all we can to 90 2s fer es possible in our contemplation of the mystery in order to live it, in order that it shed light on our life. The great light for our Christian life is the mystery of the Cross. Such is the message of Therese of the Child Jesus. She leaves us her act of offering to prepare us for It and so that we might Understand that all must be brought to completion and finds its meaning in the Cross Love therefore bears suffering; but why not joy? Does not love blossom In joy? If Jesus so loves our human nature, should he not have manifested his supreme love, the love whereby he'is Saviour, in and through joy? Te would have been more connatural to us. Jesus could have 3b+ ‘given us complete joy as of this earth. The ful “success” of love would then have been the Blossoming of our being and this joy, for foy always entails blossoming. When there Is no longer any blossoming, there is sadness, there ls brokenness, brokennass that can become unbearable, We then um in an ourselves and there is no longer the ecstatic aspect of love Lot us understand that the Cross, with all the’ suffering It entalls, is @ passage whose end is {oy, Its end Is not sadness, ts end is not suffering (that is why suffering does not finalize). Its {nu is love that blossom in joy. This blossoming isthe mystery of the Resurrecton. "If Christ iS not risen, vain le our faith” (1 Cor. 15:17). Exterory, the Cross Is a fallure, the most homble faire that aver existod on earth: amongst the 12 disciples of Jesus there is a traitor, fone whom Jesus chase to be his successor who betrays him, and the others fle...save one, Only one of 12, John, Is present et the Crass, What would be sald of a Novice Master whe had formed 12 novices amongst whom only one remained falthful? We would pity him: "Poor novice master. What an idiot; he understocd nothing.” Exterioly, the Cross is 8 horrible failure, and the devils convinced it is his great victory. In really, the Cross is the victory of love, & hidden victory: the grain of wheat must fal fo the earth to bear much frut. Here, one touches the frultfuness of love'~ not only fove, but the frutfulness of love. So that there be this frutfulness of fove, we must pass through the Cross, a difficult passege which Jesus Ineleates for uo, but enty 2 poczage, whece and le the Resurrection Many persons do not grasp the mysterious covenant between love and sadness, sadness ‘caused by sin, by a lack of love, by pride. Out of pride such persons do not accept to pass UUrough the Cross anc, therefore, do not accept the full cemands of love. One must pass tUiough the Crose for there to be this radieal purification of our heart, of our wil, of our intellect so that love might take hold of everything In us. Suffering and sadness place us In 2 horrible state of fragility, e sometimes unbearable state of fraglity. When we suffer too much, wwe can no longer co anything. When we let ourseives be overwhelmed by sadness, we are ‘nnihilated, like the aposties whom Jesus, at the Agony, finds "asleep with sadness" (Luke 22:45). Love ts victorious over the sadness and suffering of the Cross, but the victory i= hidden, a vietory which will blossom only in the hereafter. God the Father demands of us an act of fat that goes tothe end. According to appearance (which Is why one rust never judge ‘cording to appearance), the Cross is a fallure. And when one lives afalure lke the Cross In Iie, one needs divine hope and great love to get beyond it, to avoid being reduced to nothingness by the weight of the sadness and suffering, How great isthe trust the Father demands of the Son, and of us. Ifthe Father wills this, ts so {that cur hearts might be purfied and be able to receive divine love In its most powerful end ‘most absolute aspect. Ir the Father gives us the wisdom of the Cross it to purty vs radically ‘of what St. John calls the three “concuplscences” (that of the flesh, that ofthe eyes, and that Of if) and to have us understand the deep demand of love. Joy would not be able to bring this About. Joy is only a passage. The danger of joy is that It tempts us to stop, to “pitch three tents” (Matthew 17:4, Mark 9:5, Luke 9:33), whereas we nover have the temptation to stop at suffering. On the contrary, we wish for suffering to pass a5 quickly as possible. Even Therese sighs for @ moment, "Ist not the agony yet? Am Inot going fo dle?, but Just as quickly states otherwise, "T do not wish to suffer les long.” When.one suffers too much and love is not strong enough the temptation to sucide Is great. In order to eliminate the suffering, one yields to the temptation “This covenant which God wished to realize between love and suffering remains a mystery for the human intellect, Ifthe Holy Spint and the Father had asked our advice, we would certainly not have told them to save the world by means of the Agony and the Crass. We would have ‘said, "save the world by means of Cana” (the transformation of water into wine in an “atmosphere of festivity is joyous). Or we would have said, "Save the world through teaching” (teaching is great). Or, “Save the world through acts of mercy towards the sick” We ourselves must rather accept to be ilknot on an operating table, dut on the Cress, allowing the Holy ‘Sprit fo go as far as the plercing with the lance, where Jesus Is vetim of love in an ultimate fashion. Therese grasped this In an astonishing fashlon--and ies for us,‘The mystery ofthe Cross of Christ could have led us back to earthly paradise, Eden, entirely freed of all the consequences of sin. Is this not, in a certain sense, what Christ asked in his raver at the agony, "Father, if tls possible, take this cup from me.” Jesus does not say, FTake the Cross from me," of Take death from me,” but “take ths cup from me". What does this symbolic language mean? Ie refers to the Cup of sufering, and Jesus asks, "Father, if (Cis possible, take th cup from me, Take this particular manner ar made in which you wish to Seve humanity and be glorifed." The mode fs that of Mary present at the Cross. It is that of ‘Therese of the Chid Jesus present at the Crass, A child that suffers, 2 fragile being that Suffers, someone who le completely unarmed Is the scandal of which Abert camus speaks. ‘Therese ls 2 cile. During his Agony, Jeous oaks the Father fo take the cup. He accepts to dle, but he bege the Father to be the only one to suffer; and at the same time he surrenders ‘everything to the Father: "Not wat T will but what yeu wil.” Yet he dees ask tb be the only ‘one to suffer, for he knows Us, he knows haw fragile and weak we are, he knows how dificult IRs for us t9 suffer and to aie to ourselves. The Father could have permitted that he be the ‘only one to suffer, for Jesus Is the one who saves. He Is the Savior, nat Mary. Mary is ‘Superabundance. Jesus therefore asks the Father to be the only to suffer, but the Father wills that Mary be present, and thet John be present, that there be an icon of the Trinky at the Cross: Jesus, Mary and Johre- the Christan Icon of the Holy Trinity. Jesus takes the place of the Fetter, he la source of new life. Mary, ike the Son, roeelvss everything snd giver everything. And the common frult ofthe love between Jesus and Mary is John, the Church, us. “The presence of Mary {= not necessary. Jesus suffices for everything. Why, then, does the Father wil that Mary be there? In order that she be more united to Jesus; in order that the ‘mystery ofthe Cross which Jesus lives-the covenant between love and suffering be lived by her in the mystery of the Compassion. And with Mary is John. AE the Cross, Mary i given as Mather to John. She, therefore, gives her treasure to John, and to each ane of us, for in belng aiven to John she is given to the enre Churen. Let us never forget when we suffer much that Jesus prayed to the Father that we be spared the suffering and sadness, for he knows our ‘weakness, Jesus knowe that when we have a litte Bit of jey, everything is fine, but the moment there Is suffering and brokenness (oF when things simply do not go our way), we are tempted by despair, the ferble temptation to turn In on ourselves and no longer Ive the "fst love Jesus knows, and regarding this temptation he prayed at the Agony, But the Father twshes to goto the end of mercy. To go the end of mercy ist allow those saved by the Cross to be united to Jesus to the point of becoming Savior with him. This, Therese so ardently desired, If Mary had not been present at the Cross, if Mary had not lived the mystery of the Compassion, she would have been less united to Jesus, for she would not have lived what Jesus lived. The covenant between Bridegroom and bride, which, from the prophet Hosea to the Song of Songs, is at the heart ofall the covenants of the Ol Testament, Is at the heart of the new Covenant where iis fully realized. Jesus ls the Bridegroom of the Church and Mary, a the Cross, ls the bride of his heart. The covenent between Bridegroom and bride would not have been realized i Mary had not been present at the Coss. AnG it would note realized for 1 if we had not been bound to the Cross of Christ and to his Agony. We would remain Servants, we would not be spouses. A spouse lives the secrets of her spouse, and she does the Same "work" as her spouse, otherwise she woulé not be spouse. Mary does the same work as Christin faith, hope and love and, in ths sense, she brings to completion the mystery of the Gross; and through Mary, John does; and through Mary and John, Therese does, we do... Let us ask the Lite Flower who lived this with such great acuteness and depth and, above all, simply, to help us to receive this secret and to lve ItVeritatis Splendor Dominique Philippe, 0. ‘The announces top for this conference Is Vertatis Splendor, the splendour ofthe truth, Ly Jesus, but under this porticular aspect of truth. The Holy Father was very courageous ih publishing this encyclical; one can say this when one is somewhat familiar with theological Grces. Actually, many theologians no longer accept to be under the control of the bishops and {he Holy Father when they teach In a university. They want to be "judged by ther peers," a5 they 80, he, by university professors. In other words, they consider their university rank to be more than the faith, and that their theological conclusions are more than the faith, Actually, the theologian, who Is at the service of God's word, is subject to the faith and the current teaching of the Churen. Thomas Aquinas~and this is quite proper to him-affims tht theology is-2 science, he,, that fe has great rigor in Its reasonings, but a science “subordinate to the science of the saints," le, the Beatine vision. Who are the “saints"?—those who are oriented towards the beatife vision. We are all called to this sanctity and our entie life of falth is ‘ordered to the beatific vision. One day We will see God face to face, such as He is (1 J. 3:2). All our life here below takes its signification starting from this point, and contemplative Ife Is preset in Ure Church tv remind al! Cvistions that flth orients us direct towards God that ‘be Saint Paul says, "Chest ves in our hearts through fat” (Eph. 3:17), and that He fs there, present, in the depth of our heart. The mystery of the Eucharist reminds us of this presence. More than ever iti important today to understand that the Christian, through his faith, has 3 ‘vine noblty, that he fs of @ divine race, and thus that there is Something in him which Surpasses all the conclusions of theologians. He respecte these conclusions, yet the Work of theologians is there forthe growth of felth, so that Crristians may always go further in this direct contact with Goo which is alt, that they may always go much farther in intimacy with ‘Goa. For we are made for this wrogress of Science and Mor Conscience ‘The Holy Father knows that moral theology has been through great upheavals due to the regress of science, due to the numerous problems which aid not arse at the time of Saint Fromas and which arise in our time. And he knows that we always have the temptation £0 believe thet itis the progress of science which determines our moral conscience as man and Christin. A scientist like Monod, who was @ Nobel Prize winner, declared twenty years ago at the Intemational Meeting In Geneva that human morality must be modified according to the progress of science; thus he considered that the progress of sclence determines, human morality. And some theologians, without saying so In such an offical way, are convinced that the traditional morality of the Church ls completely outdated. Some say this openly. Quite recentiy a rather important person did not hesitate to say that John Paul I! understood nothing ‘bout scientine progress. As ifthe role of the Pope wear to bear witness to scientie progress! He is much more than this. He i, as Saint Catherine of Sienna says, "the sweet vicar of Christ upon the earth"; he Is the frend of Jesus and Mis witness. Now, for half a century, moral ‘theology has been in a state of upheaval on a practical level, to the extent that Rome hs been ‘obliged to intervene in instances where the theologians should have intervened. For the role of the theologian is to point out the profound direction that the Christian must folow to be faithful to the Gospel and the teaching of Christ. Everything is contained in the teaching of CChrist, yet sometimes in a vitual way, Le., In an implicit and hidden way; the role of the theologian is precisely to explain itso that We Understand, when confronted with present day situations, what the Gospel Is saying to us ‘The Holy Father has the courage to denounce all these errors. If he was a martyr In 1981, martyr in his body-and even now he stil suffers the consequences of I-he Is now, even more profoundly, @ marty in his sou, In his Inteligence and in his heart as good shepherd, as father Fall believers and of al men, Inthe footsteps of Christ ana Peter. {A Morality of Love These who have read the encyclical Veritatis Splendor have immediately Understood that the first partis for all of us, The Holy Father reminds us of what Christian 1 868 morality Is, how Christian morality surpasses what the ten "commandments of God" represent. tis the meeting with Chest, presented by means ofthis passage of the Gospel which the Holy Father loves 30 much: the meeting of Jesus and the rich young man (Mt. 19:16-22) Mk 30:17-22; Uk. 18-18-23). Jesus clearly says to tis young man that one must go beyond the aw is order to follow Him, Jesus. Christian morality is linked to @ person: I Is not abstract. ‘Sometimes theologians make it litle abstract, yet in itself It Is not abstract. It's 2 personal ‘covenant with @ person, and this person isthe Incarnate Word, the beloved Son of the Father, ‘who assumed a nature similar to ours from Mary under the action of the Holy spin. Fully son ‘of Mary, of the woman, fully ur brother, He ls atthe seme time the One wha reveals to us ‘and glves us His inumate life as beloved Son of the Father. Christian morality is 2 moray, ‘yes, but a morality entialy of love. Jesus does not hesitate to say tis: fwe are Christian, we ‘Cannot be content with observing a human moray. Following Jesus demands that one go much further, since the ‘demands of the Heart of Christ are nat written In stone like the Commandments of God. Our morality, and its deepest demands, can only be understood in light of the plerced Heart of Jesus. They are written in the heart of Christ, in this wounded Heart which is at the same time so loving, so gentle, and so demanding; for its the Heart of ‘the beloved Son ofthe Father and of Mary that wants to lead us to sanctity .., to fl ution bt love for God and neighbour. Christian morality thus goes much further than the ten commandments of God. These commandments represent a religious morality that Is very beautiful and very great, but there is something thet goes further. Todey we Must understend that there are, as were, three levels of morality, three levels of responsibilty. There is frst of all a human morality, pertaining to all men, even to those who do not beleve, to those who subscribe to an absolute Taiism, It is @ moral of justice and friendship, of humen friendship. Then there Is a religious morality which remains profoundly human since suppression of the religious aspect of the hhumen heart Is @ mutation of man. This relglous morality, which Is developed from the ‘mament man dlszovers the existance of God, Is based upen aderation. Finally there is Christan ‘morality, which no longer solely concerns God as Creator, as Father of our inteligence and wil, buts the One who ordained the mystery of the Incarnation in view of the Redemption and thus In view of the mystery of the Cross, since itis at the Cross that the Redemption Is brought about Christian morality, which Is revealed at the Cross, Is thus @ morality which goes much further because Its a bond of friendship and because its what goes furthest in friendship. It's the ‘morality which was already foretold in the Od Testament, in the Song of Songs, and which reaches Its perfect realization at the Cross, It ls 8 morality which requires a total gift of ‘ourselves; itis a morality of love. Ana here Ido not make a dstinction between Christians who live in the world and religious. There Is not a particular morality for religious. There are particular requirements for them in the sense that the evangelical counsels ‘become an Immeciate demand for the religious -we will have the opportunity to return to this, Yet the ‘evangelical counsels are given to everyone. And today, ‘since the Lord allows man to Ive longer-many of us would perhaps already be dead if we had not made such progress In medicine and surgery--people Ive much longer, and I always wonder whether itis aot God ‘who wants in this way to "catch up" with the eldery, so to speak. They are the closest to God Bll those who are older than eighty are, according to the psalm (Ps, 90:10; "The time of our ‘oars is sixty-five years, seventy-five years for the stronger"), the feats of God. Can we not think here that God Is "catching up"? T have always been amazed to see that God chose ‘Abraham when he was seventy-five-rat the age when we send bishops into retirement. ‘And why do we do this? Might this not be to remind bishops that their vocation fsa vocation of perfection in love, and thus contemplation? And this is also true for households. Once you have reached the age of seventy-five, grandmothers and grandfathers, be saints, understand that Jesus demands a much more profound Christian if from you. YoU have the time for this. This is why T always dream--you must alow me to dream 0 itle-of 9 truly Christian university, for philosophy and theology, for older people who have the time to give to the Lord and who five, Ina certain way, a Ife consecrated to God, Is this nat why God allows us to live longer? So that we might Be those who have the greatest audacity of fove in the Christin Ife? Actually, 2When one reaches a respectable age one can be very eudacious. To youth we say, "Listen; do rot burn everything too quickly"! But when one is past seventy-five one certainly has the cht to bum everything and to give oncalf tothe very core. I think that ths is what the Holy Spit teks of ue~and Tsay “of us" since fam inluded, CChristion morality is thus @ moralty of holiness, of total love, of covenant with Jesus. It Is 3 true covenant with Jesus, a covenant of bride and bridegroom. Jesus glves us His body as ‘ood; He gives us His heart so that our heart may be transformed into His Heart. This i indeed the profound signification of the Eucharist; Saint Augustine sald this ("I am indeed the food of, the great: grow and you will eat Me, Yet you wll not chenge Me into you like food for your bodys itis you wh wil ba changed into Me,” (Confessions, Vil, X, 16}), and he would say It ‘even more forcefully teday. If Jesus gives Himself to us under the appearances of bread and ‘wine, Iels to allow us to understand that He Is the servant par excellence. We make the most Use of bread and wine since we are helped Dy them In such a way that we transferm them Into ‘urseives-this is the substantial service of food. Now the Father, through His beloved Son who ie Incarnate, wants us to understand that He gives Himself tos In this unique way, that He Wants to transform us Into being His beloved sons although we are poor litle creatures, fragile, sinful, slowwitted, and not very Intelligent! We who are so poor are made to have 8 heart of hid of God, to have the capacity to love as eld uf Gud. The fs something infinitely great in this. Iti the testament of Christ which Is forthe present moment. Jesus ‘asks everybody, and especially those who have the most time, to devote themselves to thelr Betrothal to Him, to this Intimacy with Him. Jesus asks this of all Christians. ‘Love for the Truth ‘This morality of love that is Christian morality demands @ great love for the truth, We must never forget this. In the big family of the Church we have chosen Saint John, and the Chureh has recognized us as the "Community of Saint John, "Congregation of Saint John.” If we have this privilege Ie is not because of our merits, and certainly aot because of our holiness! Nor isi because of our inteligence. It ls gratutously given to us. ean affirm to you that T was able to ‘ive the name ‘Saint John to this new community In a very gratutous way. Tt is indeed ‘gratutously {I insist upon this) that we were granted the grace of belng in the Church this amily that Keeps the ultimate revealed truth In its heart. The ultimate revealed truth fs the Gospel. of Saint John. And the Gospel of Saint John is completed by this icon of the Most Blessed Trinity which presents Jesus, Mary, and John at the Cross. The Old Testament Is lhumined at tts beginning by an con ofthe Blessed Trinity: the anrunciation made to Abraham ‘at the cak of Mamre-the three young men who are one and who come to Abraham to Announce to him the birth of Isaac. And the New Testament Is brought to completion in the ican of Most Slassad Trinity which is even greater stil (we cannot 99 any further)-the icon of the Cross, At the Cross the pierced heart of the Lamb is glven to us, and Mary carries the ‘ictimal state of Jesus; she receives the fragility, the weakness, the poverty of the Crucified One. Only 2 wornan and a mother can recelve the Immolated Lamb. She Is its Holy of Holles; she ie His temple, And it at the moment when she lives this unity with Jesus that she is Given to lohn to allow us to understand that John is the one who 1s tO reveal to us the mysteries of the plerced heart of tre Lamb, the most inmate mysteries of Jesus and thus of CChestian morality. The Old Testament is surpassed thet we might clscover, In the wounded heart of lesus, the single commenument: "Love one another, as 1 have loved you" (in. 13:38; 45:12); in other words, “Love ane another in light ofthe love that ou have for the Father, for the Soa, and forthe Holy Spirit." It is John who reveals to us ths ultimate moment of love. Jesus came for this, and John Is designated by the Holy Spirit and by Jesus to communicate this treasure to us.'He does this in his Gospel. And since we are the “family of Saint John" (obiotes, frends, brothers and sisters, we form a single familly), we receive Mary folewing John-"Behold your mother"“Mary wi ‘carries the Lam, Mary wo lives In unity with Jesus offering Himself to the Father. Mary is given to us, and we must be for Jesus and for the Father what John was for Jesus and for the Father at the end of this twentieth century when the Church isin such upheaval. In no time at all, n very Chvistan countries where there was fan enormous percentage of practicing Christians, there Is now but a “lle remnant” (Isa 10:20-22; Ise, 37:31-32; ef. 2 Kings 19:30-31), but this small remnant has an extraordinary 3fervor, and this is what unceasingly revives the great torch of hope. When so many young families 20 profoundly Chvition ore gathered here with their small children, united with this new relgious family of brothers, contemplative sisters, and apostolic sisters, where there iS $0 much ardor, one cannot fil to find comfort. ‘The Three Wisdoms ‘To took at the mystery of the Cross and to lve by It Isto understand the demand of truth, ‘since whenever one consciously accepts an error-.e., whenever one does not Submit totally to ‘the teaching of the ChUFeY and prefers instead one's own theological opinion~one diminishes love. The iteligence, in Rs greatest aspect, Isat the service of love, In order tO go as far as possible in love, This is why to live by this Icon ofthe Most Blessed Trinity requires a great love for truth, And the Holy Father, atthe end of the encyclical Vertatis Splendor, emphasizes that the Church is presently undergoing a terrible crisis of truth. This crisis of truth les outside the Church, yet unfortunately fe contaminates many Christians who let themselves be led astray because they think that they must speak the language of man. No: we must first of all spaak the language of Christ and inthe light ofthe language of Christ correct the language of men Instead of reducing the language of God, of Christ, to the language of men, As a Christian we Bre bound to the Cross of Christ and to His Resurrection, and Ie is this which is always for us the presence of truth. IIs for this reason thatthe Community of Sain John--and itis the Holy Father who asked for thi-ls particularly atentve to the search for tth, and that we always desire to go as far as possible n tis search for trith, In full docllty 0 the Holy Spit, and to really take 2s the structure of our lives the three wiscoms of which Thomas Aguinas speaks: Philosophical wisdom, today demolished; theological wisdom, also so offen demolished; and ‘mystical wisdom which comes from the Holy Spin Uwrough the gift of wisdom, a git that we all have received at baptism with Christan grate. The Holy Father asks us to be particularly bound to this search for truth, to these three wisdoms. \When I used to speak ofthese three wisdoms to Marthe Robin, our tle saint at this end ofthe ‘wenteth century, $0 close to litte Therese, she would tell’me, "That is wonderful e puts everything In order." Now Marthe was the daughter ofa fermer in the diocese of Valence, at Chateauneuf. She had not studied philosophy, yet she hed this amazing realism of country people, and ancther realism even greater, the realism ofa Itle child ofthe Holy Spin. And 1 an say that ifthe Community of Saint John exists Is thanks to her preyer, because she took FR immediately into her heart. When the fist seven, who were students at Fribourg, asked me to responsible for them, it was very dificult for me to respond. Besides, I wes not so young anymore... So I asked Pierthe Robin to pray to know whether 1 should accept, and Marthe, with @ entirely divine simplicity, told me, "Father, itis lear; you must take care of them; you ‘ust receive them.” This was 6 very great source of strength for me, to know thet the prayer of Marthe wae there. Whenever God permits crises in the Church and in humanity its for @ greater mercy: we must Never forget this. Whenever God permits evi, tke right now in Rwanda, It Is for a greater mercy. We must believe this. That God should permit this is the mystery of the Cross made Visible for us. The history ofthe Church has always been marked by crosses ke this one, yet Today perhaps this attains an ultimate dimension of cruelty, of violence. That God should Permit this fora greater love ls dificult to Understand! Yeti fs certain; this we know. And Its {or ths reeson that we must have such a great love for truth such a great concer for seeking ‘uth, to go as far a¢ possible in the search for love. Having taught philosophy almost my entire fe, In search for truth and wisdom, I asked myself, while reading the Gospel of Saint John--which is the Gospel of personal encounters of Jesus with meni tere was a place inthis Gospel where Jesus speaks a5 philosopher. And T found it: ie when Jesus speaks to Plate, Pilate wae © pagan, a Roman, a cultivated man whose philosophy was Stoic since it was the Stolc philosophy which was taught et Rome at that time. Moreover, as Caesar's representative, his philosophy was surely stole. What does Jesus say to him? “1 came to bear witness to the truth’ (In, 18:37). Thus we must 25k ‘urseives what a Christian mast do today confronted by @ world which Is, most ofthe time, led 4by les, By erroneous myths, People invent myths by the dozens. Consider, for example, the ‘calabrations for the bicentennial ofthe storming of the Bastile: they were extraordinary, @ feturn to paganism and myth. This even (rluenced liturgical celebrations: thus at the time of the Feast ofthe Three Kings, when everybody buys a King Cake in which there isa "bean," in many cakes there Wasa litle medal bearing the message, "Bicentennial ofthe storming of the Bactil't Taw I; that is why Tsay thls. Ths bicentonrial was a return to paganism in full force. Someone who was required to participate in it said that It was disgusting, appaling, What do they want to show in such celebrations? That after two centuries of Christiaity tts only a fallure? Just es some Journalists today say thet "the Pope's last book reveals a total faite." Zant that what they said to Jesus? Confronted by a world which no longer seeks the truth, we must seek truth and wisdom with al our heart with 2 view towards greater love, with a view to going further in love. Let us maintain the search for the truth on all levels, including our language, for les always come from the devi. In the Gospel of Saint John (ef, Jn. 8:38-44) Jasus says thatthe devil is the father of lies. He is, if may venture to say, the Tant-father," and this s why he isthe father of lies. Confronted by this le which penetfates all levels~one never knows where the truth Vies-we must be witnesses of the truth following Christ. Thus we must seek the truth atthe Understand that this Is realy what Is required of us. Ts t not true that our only way of responding to the encycical of the Pope Is to go to the end in the demends of truth, of ‘wisdom, to understand that Jesus Is the master of truth, the father of truth, and the One who ‘communicates this truth to us by dying on the Cross out of love for us? "There s no greater Tove than to glve one’s if for the one whom he loves" (Jn. 15:13). This Is Indeed divine practical truth. Tt indeed the final and ultimate demand of fraternal charity. Jesus gave His lite for each one of us, and He asks us to recolve this gift with an ardene desire to place our Inteligence atthe service of fath and love. To be inteligent for one's brothers by loving them. ‘To be inteligent for the Church by seeing end discerning all the confusions that come from the Evil One, To be italigant for all humanity to thet i will not be led astray by fallacious myths, songs of siens, seductions which are very powerful and which go very far. For thls we must hhave great moral strength. Sometimes We are ebliged to be silent: but one is silent without consenting to ev, without consenting wo efor, and as soon as we can we intervene to rectly fe, because one does not have the right to remain silent when truth is rejected, falsified in & Volant way against Jesus. We must have en ever more profound senso of truth; and for us Cristiane i is the conformity of all our thoughts to the wisdom of Chris, to the very mystery fof Jesus, to His teaching-ond also to the current teaching of the Church, since the Holy Father has not hesitated to say thet the mission of the Church Is the mission of Christ which Is prolonged for us. Thus if Christ comes to give us the full truth, the Church continues to carry this truth in order to give it to us end to allow us to be witnesses ofthis truth by being faithful to Her teaching “This i what we must as for today. This will be the best way to prepere forthe meeting with the Holy Father, God wailing. Yet in any case there is a meeting with him in the depths of our heart and with al the sais in heaven during these days when we celebrate thelr sanctity. And in the midst of these salnts there isthe ane who 's Mother of wisdom, the ane who Is given to US tobe our mother and to be In us the guardian of truth and ofthe witness of truth. Sunday, October 30, 1994 ‘Second Conference in Romea‘The Christian Family and the Religious Family Father Marie-Dominique Phillipe, OP. Daring the audience that he so kindly granted us, the Holy Father spoke tous about ‘both the Community of Sant John and the family. Tiss important, and we must ‘understand tha the Holy Family is the one and the same model for the Chistian family and the religions family. Thus for the earthly family as well s forthe religious family, the renewal ean be made only through the Holy Family. Its something radical, Everything began with the Holy Family, and everything has been renewed by it in an admirable way. And the Christian family i par of the Holy Family through the sacrament of marriage. The Christian family is not only sacred; it is something divine, and the sacrament of marriage requires holines. Thus it isnot surprising that itis nat easy tobe a Christian family, and that itconstantly demands going beyond ourselves. It does not mean taking the easy way out! Someone told me one day: "in martage, everything i allowed.” No, everything is not allowed! According to the wisdom af God, everything has tobe lived in the family in light of the Holy Family, ‘As for religious lf, we know quite wel that everything is not allowed. The three vows are not exactly easy to live, Viewed from a Freudian perspective, religious life goes in precisely the opposite direction. The spirit of virginity to which the vow of chastity ‘commits us can only be kept thanks to contemplation, We make a commitment to the spirit of obedience for our entice life, and for Freud obedience isnot exactly a blossoming! And in the Freudian perspective, the spirit of poverty is nota profound evelopment ether! Thus itis a mystery. The Christian family is amystery since it is sacrament, and religious life isa mystery. That is why some very easly oppose domestic life and religious life ata psychological level: but tis is a human psychological perspective. Iti true thatthe difficulties ae totally different; the struggles arenot the same, yet the finality isthe same. If we no longer look atthe finality we only see the oppositions, yet the finality is indeed the same since these ace two paths toward holiness. We must grasp this very firmly. The Church is a great living, being, and in the Church the Christan family has a place that is fundamental, and religious life also has a place that i ultimate, The two have been somewhat separated because people have forgotten the frality, and when they forget the finality they “formalize they fall into formalism, Religious life is easly formalized; people separate the Christian family and religious life or place them in opposition instead of ‘understanding that there is a common finality. Is the same thing forthe Christian amily: one can fall nto formalism and easily set the family and the demands ofthe ‘Church in opposition. Some go so far as to say that the Church oes not have the right Oo 8cra to peak sbout the family! Some say, among other things thatthe Church has no night to make a pronouncement onthe "morning aftr pil.” What? The Church is Chis, and (Christ is God, and Christ reminds us of the fundamental law of mariage. Poverty and Gratuitousnest (Christian marciage is not simply a demand of moral life. tis a demand of Christin lie, and thus requires from the will a constant striving towards holiness. What the Church asks usis to strive for holiness, and this is not something to be acquired overnight Just ‘as in religious life: it takes years to acquire eligious mores and to understand what they ‘mean, This takes time; the Lord knows this wel, and therefore He never accuses us. He {orgives us all he time, ifwe have a poor heart. Itseems to me that itis the spirit of poverty that effects the fundamental unity between the Christian family and the religious family. Because the spirit of poverty (the ttt of Beatitudes) s the same for Doth. In the Middle Ages, Saint Dominic was atthe origin of a renewal of apostolic ‘monastic ife from the standpoint of poverty. Saint Dominic, who was meek and good, cursed in advance those of his brothers who would no longer be poor, who would start building convents that would be palaces; for he knew quite well that even ifeach monk 4s poor, the community can be rich-even moreso than the family, because itis larger! ‘The community must remain poor, and each religious must live by the spist of poverty. For their part, Christian families must live by the spirit of poverty. This does not mean that they need to become "stingy"! This is not at al the sprit of poverty. he sprit of poverty, on the contrary, renders us magnanimous since everything that we haves for God, for Christ, fr those that we love, and forthe poor. Thsis what is great ‘This has happened on our plgeimage. There re Christan families that have enabled 80 ‘many religious to come, This is something we must tell you: we religious Would never have been able to afford this trip. You could have paid for tree chaplains and sald “That is enough.” However, ou have had extraordinary generosity and I thank you ‘very much for this. God alone knows the sacrifices that you had to make, and [know ‘that for some thas truly been the widow's mit: it was not taken from an abundance; It ‘was taken from what was necessary (cf. Mk. 124), And you have come with your children. You saw hovr very happy the Holy Father was about this, This s what gave hhim the greatest joy, He was like Jesus at the audience: "Let the children come to me’ (Mt, 19:14; Mk, 1014, Uk 18:16). He patd far more attention tothe children than tothe religious, and I am not jealous sbout this! On the contrary Tam very happy, because in the depths of my heart this s what Iwas hoping... He welcomed all the children, while hhe was not able to lt all the brothers and the eiters come to him, Here we have seen his hear uniting the religious family and the Christan family. And this shows us that ‘when the Christian family andthe religious family are united, the Christian family teaches the religious family! Letus be poor. Everything is gratuitous let us live everything in gratitousness, This s what I believe made al of us so happy: tosee that Oeeveryone as living in the gratuitousness of love. What you have given you have given ‘generously; what we have received we have received gratuitously. Livingas a Christian All of you here are in the ‘Family of Saint John”. There are oblates, and there are those ‘who have participated forthe fist time in a Saint John pilgrimage. 1am very happy bout this, because we do not set limits onthe "Femily of Saint John." We have only one ‘desire: that it spread. The Holy Father has asked this of me. When we eame for one of his Holy Tuesday Masses he told me at the end, “Go throughout the entire world; am sending you.” That is why we turn our gaze tothe entre world and we go wherever we are received. If we are not received, Jesus tells us to leave, just as in the Gospel (cf. Mt 10:14; Mk. 6:11; Lk. 1010-11), and we leave. Some ery over our departure but others no longer want us because we area sign of contradiction” (Lk. 2:34) to them. When we eft Fribourg because I stopped teaching atthe University I had reached the age limit) and the frst 80 brothers returned to France, someone said to me, "Father, you give a counter-witness”Isaid, ‘What do you mean"?~at such times, we must appear as stupid as possible, He replied, “You are proving that there are stil vocations” To which 1 replied, “That i evangelical! Pray tothe Lord of the harvest that He send harvesters; the harvests many and laborers are few’ (ef. Mt. 937-38, Lk. 102). Do you pray that there no longer be vocations"?~"No,”he replied, "But some say that there are no more ‘vocations because priests do not marry Then I answered, "We ae religious thus its rot the same thing. There will sways be religious i is stronger than anything. That's life! You see plants that grow in cement, making it eack and growing over it: this is sligious life. There is no pointin laying concrete, building tumpikes, organizing ‘everything independently of religious it keeps growing back! Providence finds places where it an grow. This may frighten some people, but that i the way iis! ‘Simiatly, there will aways be Christian families. Sometimes people look at them and say, "Five children is alot! Or, "Seven children? Thats incredible; you are medieval’! Better than that, we belong tothe era of Christ! This s what we must say, "I do not Delong to the 04h century ; Tam Christian, I try to live as a Cristian, and hence am ‘bound to Christ. know that economically T belong to the 20th century, but Ido not live at this level." Indeed we respect those who have economic responsibilities, and we pray for them; we have “Sant Josephs’ to whom we owe a great deal! Yet none of us live at the economic level if we are Chistian; we live at a Chistian level while respecting the ‘economic point of view. ‘This is Christian lif. Iti lived in marviage, and there are Christan parents who are ‘more profoundly holy than some religious I do not hesitate to say this, My mother was ‘saint, and [know Christian mothers today who are holier than many religious. ut they have a vocation as Christian mothers, while others have a religious vocation, If ow 3Ga these les holy religious were in the world, Ido not know what they would be! Religious life isa place of mercy fo some. It does not embarrass me o say this, Because {tis trae, Religios life can be and is pace of mercy: one has the support of one's ‘brothers; whereas if some religious were in the world they would perhaps be poor Ddeggars. We are Poor Religious fe is not reserved for an elite, and it does not necessarily represent Christian nobility. Nota al! Religious life is meant forthe poor. And if we aze truly poor, Jesus gives us everything, That is what is wonderful In elgious life we sometimes want to sy, "Just think about mothers who wake up several times every night when ther small children call them and cling to them saying, ‘Don'tleave me, Mommy" This is true heroism and itis a great witnes given by Christan life today. 1 greatly admire this, and ‘admire what is happening inthe Community of Saint John. In particular Tam thinking, ofthe General Chapters of the Congregation of Brothers, when the priors and those ‘who have great responsibilities gather together. Those who have been entrusted with a foundation are sometimes heroic... could tell you many stories; the iret of the Community of Saint John ought tobe written, because sometimes there are small ‘miracles! Tare say the Holy Spirit asks us not to listen too much to whats said here and there butts tn to Him, and ask Him to be there and help us to conduct ourselves jva manner that truly comes from Him and Mary. Many say tous, "You are not prudent.” But this was also said of Saint Dominic... Thanks be to God, Saint Dominique did not want to hoard the good grain. By sending his brothers to star foundations ‘hile they were stil young and not so numerous, he sald, "Hoard, good grain rots; thrown tothe wind, itbears fru.” We do not hoard good gran i the Community of Saint John, We are told, "tis folly." Yes, Tagree its folly; but it is the folly ofthe Cross (€.1 Cor. 11831; 214-25;3:19; £10), and we stick to this. [would rather be considered crazy withthe folly of the Cross-than be called wise and prudent inthe sense of worldly prudence. We prefer to follow the shythm of the Holy Sprit, as much as we can, We can make mistakes; we are not infallible! Only the Pope i infallible when he speak atthe level of dogma and at the moral level. Thus when he speaks about the (Christian family-just as when he speaks about religious life-hisinfalkbiity is involved Decause he isthe guardian ofthe Christian family and the religious fly Love Truth ‘The Holy Father has explicitly asked us tobe in the renewal of apostolic and contemplative monastic life, and he has asked us to goto the end in the demands of truth, That is why we confidently emphasize studies and require newcomers £0 through six months of darkness, in a "tunnel," so to speak. During this time they have the impression that they do not understand anything at all, because i takes at least six ©‘months to get rid ofthe old man in our intelligence ic, to free our intelligence from its ‘very rational exercise and from the imaginary. This requires considerable time, To no longer go to the cinema every week (or perhaps every day) ceates a terrible deprivation, a lack” There are drugs that are visible, but there are also hidden drugs; time is needed to get rid of al ofthis. That is why you must pray alot forthe ‘Comununty of Saint John. I ak this of you now that you know it abit that you have seen it at work, [hope that it has not scandalized you! During a pilgrimage, when we live together fr a few days, we soe the faults of brothers and sisters beter than when ‘there isa cloistet! This is wonderful, since this fosters a deep bond. Iam very happy about this because itis evangelical. At the end of Saint Dominic's life people did not did rot say of him that he was a contemplative or an apostle; they said: vir evangelicus, an ‘evangelical man. Tes beautifull Our contemplative sisters must be evangelical just as Mary was, and our apostolic sisters as wel. ll brothers, whether priests or not, must ‘be evangelical men. Then there will no longer be this type of opposition between ‘contemplative and apostolic: we want t follow Jesus and be faithful tothe grace that the Lord gives us and to what He asks us. And the Church asks us to take means which allow us to preserve as much as possible tis total, exclusive gift to Jesus. This is ‘evangelical. This is what Mary did. Mary fllowed Jesus in His apostolic if, for the ‘Apostles, and especialy for John. She did not know it explicitly, but it was for John, "And when Jesus gave her John as her son (cf. 19:26:27), she understood that she had lived this apostolic novitiate for John, Our contemplative sisters are for our apostolic life, that oftheir brothers and that of ther sisters; they must carry it. Ladmie this very ‘much, as ladmire the brothers’ life and the life of our apostolic sisters, asa grandfather ‘admires his grandchildren, Fora grandfather or grandmother the grandchildren who are growing up are wonderful: they are the most beautiful in the whole world! isthe ‘same for me... Sometimes people say tome: ‘When you talk about the Community of Saint John, you only se the good side.” Tis is true.. but Ido s0as God does, because God always looks at our good side, and never the bad. The demon always looks at the ‘bad in us; he isthe ‘accuser of our brothers’ (Rev. 12:10) ofeach of us. As soon as we do something he thins is wrong, he pounces and proclaims i (he i fond of this). Then {instead of being joyful we are sad (this is what he wants); he does this ll the time. The ‘demon sterile; he always wants to divide, But we want unity and we pray for unity Joy demands unity, and God wants to see great joy in us. Think ofthe oy in large {azllies tis something very great. During the last family reunion which Iatended, we ‘were 170 direct descendants! Pechaps this is also why Llike 29 much tobe inthis large Family of Saint John that unites all of us in light and in love Let us live that fly thanking all those who made it possible and who organized everything Mary and Joseph Of waR ‘To conclude, we will speak abit about Mary and Joh, Mary and Peter, Mary and Joseph. tis so beatifl to consider these three great bonds. With the novices, during an entire year, we looked at Mary's bond with Joseph. The Holy Family isso great! Its the ‘plriarchal family. sn Joseph invoked a light of the patriarchs” (Litany of Saint Joseph)? And Mary, his betrothed (Me. 1:18; Lk. 1:27) his wife (Mt. 1.20), isthe Mother ‘of Jesus, the Mother of God. Saint Thomas does not hesitate to say that there was a very ‘reat friendship between Mary and Joseph. Never inthe world has there been as strong, land great a friendship as that which existed between Joseph and Mary, unique in limpidity and strength, ‘Mary and John ‘Mary and John: this is a very great secret. We can have a discussion as to whom must ‘we love the most: John or Joseph? [remember having once said that it was Johny of course. But Father Dehauy, who was there, replied: "Be careful; not so fast! Joseph was very great” [have not forgotten this. We spontaneously look at john, the bond between the mother and her beloved son; yet there is also the bond between husband and wife. These are two different qualities of love, What we can say is that there has never been greater supernatural charity than the charity between Mary and John. With Mary and Joseph there isa human friendship between husband and wif, sanctified by grace, of course, yet human friendship: Joseph chose Mary. And we can say that hes the patron of those who have good taste! When I see a young man who has chosen his fiancée wel tell him "Saint Joseph was surely there since you have chosen well.’ The choice between flanoées, between husband and wife, s something very great, Because leven though itis indeed a human choice, tis also a choice that comes from God! Did ‘not God Himself present Eve to Adam? And Adam sang the first Magnificat: "Here is Done of my bone, flesh of my flesh’ (Gen. 2:23). tis God who has chosen, before the spouses. Its God who made the choice, since He blesses the choice of husband and wife, since Christ sancifies this through the sacrament of macriage ‘Therefore this bond between Mary and Joseph is very great. The bond between Mary and John is more mysterious, because it is more divine. It began witha divine choice, and this divine choice was then incarnated in a very great, very divine human friendship. And Mary was traly the mother ofthe heart of John, the mother ofthe priest. This is why we must love John and Joseph so much, to discover and enter into the hear of Mary. Mary and Peter ‘There is also Mary and Peter. We do not know much about this bond; itis curious. In the New Testament, we never see Mary inthe presence of Peter. At the Cross, Mary did not try to see whether Peter was present. Mary Magdalene surely did this, and she must have been furious because Peter was not there, There are sometimes in the Church oeMary Magdalenes who correct their priest: What are you doing? This is not worthy of you, Father’! Mary Magdalene must have sad tha to Peter. ‘What are you doing’? While Mary, Mother of Jesus, kept quiet and prayed for him. Ifyou carefully ook a the Gospel of John, you see that Mary Magdalene, ater the Cross, went to John's house: So she ran and went to Simon-Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them.” Gn. 202), Peter after having shed afew tears, perhaps went to John's house and there he found Mary. Nothing is said about this, however... Mary “Magdalene went to John's house and there she found Peter, and John put Peter very close to Mary his mother. Mary had deep respect and great affection for Peter. He was the ane whom Jesus had chosen to exercise authority, to pasture His own sheep (cf Jr 21:15-17), and John was the one chosen by Jesus tobe the Beloved son of Mary so that she might entrust all the secrets of the Heart of Jesus to him. This distinction and unity {is eurious-a distinction that God Himself makes and a unity that He preserves, without separation. Mary isthe mother ofthe Christian home and ofthe religious family. And “Mary caries Peter. Inthe lat days, Mary envelops Peter the dogmas ofthe Immaculate Conception (1884) and the Assumption (1950) envelop the mystery of Peter, the {nallibity of Peter (1870). sntit surprising to se this? We are living something very sreat inthe history ofthe Church and humanity. We did not chose this Sometimes we conjecture: ‘Oh, if Lived atthe time of Jesus The time of esus was the daybreak, and perhaps we are living at dusk. Now dusk i always stormicr there sal the heat ofthe ay that weighs heavily. (cf. Mt. 20:2) ‘The Two Major Attacks of the Demon 1 do not know where we ae in the life ofthe Church, bt there are very strong signs and Jesus asked us quite explicitly tobe attentive to signs (cf Lk. 21:25 f; Mt. 24:32 [Now the greatest signs are attacks of the devil concerning the two great fundamental covenant of man with the Creator (se M.D. Philippe Les trois sagesses, pp. 426-431) tone atthe level of the intelligence-the human intelligence is capable of discovering GGod--and the other at the level of procreation, the family. The two major attacks of the devil focus on these two covenants. Today the devi attacks the Christan family in a ‘very particular way and shakes it up by atacking the mother; and he attacks the children when the mother hides behind Mary. This must be said: the devil attacks the children of Christian families. But we mast not be afraid, and the mother must hie in the heart of Mary. Psychologist say thatthe first three years of education are capital When these first thre years are Christian it remains for eternity Even ifthere are struggles and setbacks during the difficult years, the fist three years remain of paramount importance. A mother who has prayed with her child, a father who has prayed with his child; this is something wihich remains for eternity. Even ifa man ora ‘woman have been corrupted by the environment in which they have lived, what was done during the ealy years remains if they were Chvistian. God loves Christian80 smothers because they safeguard the firs three, four or six years, until Fest Communion, Itis a bond that remains eternally | emphasize this point so that Christian mothers understand that thelr gift is something very great that remains etemally. And what i true for mothers is tue for fathers. A father who sees to the Chelstan formation of his child until he is tenor twelve years old and who continues to give an example is something very great A father who kneels down to recite evening prayer is something very great for the child who suddenly sees his father become as small ase, Tt s the same when a mother or a father carries his or her smal child while going to Communion: the child sees the priest give laly ‘Communion to his father orto his mother, and the priest traces a small cross on the forehead of the child... this i beautiful. This is part of Christin education whichis mich stronger than we think because its par of the mystery of Mary. Let us remain beside he, since its she who united us. Monday, Octaber 31, 1994 Final Conference in RomeConiht © Corum of SJ 2009 (On the Rosary: An Interview with Father Marie Dominique Philippe, O.P., ‘March 302003 (Rimoat) Father, the place he Charch ives to th Rosary is arising ont praying the Rosary abit outed for ow tines? ‘The stages today are ging stronger and sronger, andthe mos sub are ns elated to ‘ne inteligence. Nowadeys, plop, which sould bo sling us end towards God sd shoal be {minding ut of our radical dependence on God, i ised foes comely oan nd the indica not the person. Sach a pilsophylesds to seeking imate joys but ot te ‘sppinse—Sindehip beeen perons, Because of thi, there is greater snd eter animosity and