POPE PIUS XII’S EASTER MESSAGE

POPE PIUS XII’S EASTER MESSAGE.

This message was delivered during World War II. It was a time of anti-everything. The Germans were anti-Semitic, the Soviets were anti-capitalism, The U.S. was anti-communist/Nazi (making for odd political bed-fellows in that the U.S. and Russia were “allies” ), the … Well, it just goes on and on. Today? I think we live in a similar anti-whatever climate. People talk about climate change. Today might be a good day to pray for a resurrection of solid values, true peace, and an end to anti-fill-in-the-blank.

Pax … Sunday, May 5

The Holy Family with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Gospel John 14:23-29

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”

     In today’s Gospel reading Jesus explains to us how it is that we are to love Him. We love Him, and show it, by being obedient. We will, if we love Him, keep His word. And whether or not we really love Him is proven by our actions. Simply put: Do we keep His word? Do we do what He tells us to do?

     Of course there are some in the world, and you might like to mark the words “in the world”, who claim ignorance. We hear things like: “Oh, there are so many mistakes in the Bible, its been translated and mistranslated so many times who knows what He really said?” ~ or ~ “Its been so long ago, we’re so far removed from Him and His teachings, His followers then didn’t understand what He was talking about half the time so how can we?” And answers to these are not complicated. Its really very simple to refute these. Of course an unwillingness to hear on the part of those governed by self-will is proof against any logical argument. We pray for those folks. But as for the rest, the ones willing to listen to reason, the people who will listen to Jesus, the answer is clear. And He gives it in the next paragraph.

     The Father is going to send the Holy Spirit in Christ‘s name and the Spirit will teach us everything we need to know and remind us of all that Jesus taught. Simple. And we are just about to celebrate this occurrence at Pentecost. Nearly 2,000 years ago Jesus kept His promise, the Holy Spirit came, and that same Spirit has been teaching and reminding through the Church ever since. (For those that might say He said that it would be the Spirit teaching and not any organized “church”, which idea is essentially based on a wrong understanding of the priesthood of the believer, I ask a simple question; Who stood up to teach on the day of Pentecost? The Holy Ghost or Peter? And the answer is Peter, who was filled with the Spirit if God. In this context people need to remember things like, “He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.” Luke 10:16. And much more that I needn’t go into here, you’d be reading all day and I’d wear my fingers off typing. But you get the idea.)

     Whats the result? What happens when we love enough to listen and obey? Peace is the result. Peace might be defined in many ways. Often I, personally, think of peace as a lack of turmoil. Honestly, I don’t think that’s the greatest way to define peace but some days, well, that’s about the best I can muster. Peace. Define it. Not in a worldly way, but in a Heavenly way.

     St. Gregory of Nyssa said, “Peace is defined as harmony among those who are divided. When, therefore, we end the civil war within our nature and cultivate peace within ourselves, we become at peace.” So how do we end this civil war within ourselves?

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. 29 Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. 30 For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.”

     Pax.

I send this out a day early so that … A: You’ll have plenty of time to think about it. B: So I can have a day off. C: I punched the wrong button again. 😉

To choose well all you need to do is to choose well … Thursday, April 4

Bottom line? All Mary ever really did was make right choices. Follow her example. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Rosary Meditation … The Third Joyful Mystery, the Nativity. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of goodwill.” Luke 2:14. Only a person of goodwill would ever truly be able to accept or experience peace. Have you ever noticed how some people, when confronted by a choice between something good and something else will choose the something else? Sometimes the reason may be addictive behavior, other times it may be that the person was taught at an early age that they were unworthy. There are lots of reasons. They are, bottom line, all invalid. The fact is that there is nothing to keep any of us from choosing the good. The only thing necessary is to simply make the right choice. When confronted with good and anything else you don’t need to be deserving, you don’t need to think of yourself as entitled, its not a matter of being good enough or even needing. Its just about choosing the good. That’s all, nothing more. It isn’t complicated. When we will to choose the good we put ourselves in that group the angel mentioned. We become people of good will. And there is a peace in that. That peace stems from the Author of all that is good.

Today … St. Deifer was a Welsh abbot and founder of Bodfare in Clwyd, Wales. He didn’t have to serve God as a monk. He wasn’t obligated to accept the position of abbot. He could have chosen not to found Bodfare. He had choices. All he did was make the right ones. By God’s grace making good choices also makes saints.

Quote … “You have only always to do what is right. It will become easier by practice, and you enjoy in the midst of your trials the pleasure of an approving conscience.” ~ General Robert E. Lee ~