Hear And Keep

Those who hear God's Word and who do it are blessed.  Persons who accept what they are called to do in each and every moment are blessed.  We are reminded of these truths in today's Gospel, where we hear that 

It happened that as Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, "Blessed the womb that bore You and the breasts that fed You!"  But He replied, "More blessed still are those who hear The Word of God and keep it!"*  

As Saint Augustine has noted, Our Blessed Mother Mary is blessed moreso because she heard The Word of God and kept it, rather than just because she carried Jesus in Her womb.  Our Blessed Mother Mary assented to the will of God that she would conceive through the power of the Holy Spirit, and bear the Son whom she would name Jesus.  In response to the angel Gabriel informing her that this would come to pass, she declared to the angel Gabriel, "Let it happen to me as you have said."**  Our Blessed Mother Mary heard The Word she was to bear, and welcomed Him into her womb, and, more deeply, into her heart.  She was so blessed because she heard the will of God and acquiesced to it.  

In how she lived her life while she walked on this earth, Our Blessed Mother Mary gave us a hint of the message she would come back to give in her apparitions to Saint Jacinta, Saint Francisco, and Servant of God Lucia.  When she appeared to these peasant children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, she told them that we are called to pray much and make sacrifices, since many souls go to Hell since they have no one to pray for them.  Later Jesus told Lucia that the sacrifices demanded of each of us are the performance of the duties of our state in life.  

In our lives, we are constantly called to do our duties.  As the author of "The Cloud Of Unknowing" notes, we will be called to account for every fraction of time that has been given to us.  We are always being called to attend to the duty of the present moment, as the Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade described.  In every little moment, we can make little sacrifices of love of our neighbor, as Saint Therese of Lisieux demonstrated.  

In each little instant of time, the duty of the present moment calls us to perform little acts of love for our neighbor.  Where each one of us happens to be, there we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, just as Jesus taught us to do.***  Wherever each of us finds ourselves, there we are to love others and thus do the will of God, just as the situation calls us to do.  

For Our Blessed Mother Mary, in the moment when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would bear the Son whom she would name Jesus, her duty was to give her consent to bear the Son of God in her womb.  In accepting the duty presented to her, she accepted the Son of God not only into her womb, but also into her heart.  She heard The Word proclaimed to her, that she would bear Jesus, and she accepted This Word and carried The Word out.  She was so blessed since she heard The Word of God and submitted to it.  

Those who obey the will of God are blessed.  People who hear The Word of God, and who do what The Word calls them to do, are blessed.  If you wish to be blessed, do what the state of your life calls you to do.  Amen.  

* Luke 11:27-28 
** Luke 1:31-38 
*** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Seek Her Intercession

October 13, 1917.  The town of Fatima.  Portugal.  The night before, it had rained torrentially; on October 13, the people there and the ground there were thoroughly soaked.  Seventy thousand people gathered in Fatima on October 13, 1917; they had heard that three little children had seen apparitions of a Lady there that year.  The Lady had promised that a miracle would take place when she appeared there on October 13.  

There, in Fatima, exactly one hundred years ago on this date, before 70,000 people, the sun danced back and forth in the sky, defying cosmic laws.  It fell toward the earth.  When the sun returned to its usual location and remained in its place, all the people there were completely dry, even though just a short time earlier, they had been drenched.  The ground too was dry, even though it had just been saturated.  

On October 13, the Lady identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary.  The three little children were Servant of God Lucia, Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco.  

In her apparitions to them at Fatima, Our Blessed Mother Mary told them to pray the rosary everyday for world peace and for an end to the first world war.  She explained to them that Jesus wished to establish devotion to her Immaculate Heart.  

As we show devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother Mary, we welcome Jesus into our hearts, and thus are returning home to Our Heavenly Father.  When we pray seeking the intercession of Our Blessed Mother Mary, we are asking her to assist us in returning home to God.  She supports us in doing as Jesus told us to do because she loves her Son, because she loves God.  

Our Blessed Mother Mary, who is so kind and sweet and loving, who cares for us so tenderly, helps us to welcome Jesus into our hearts.  Just as she told the servants at the wedding feast in Cana, so she tells us about Jesus, "Do whatever He tells you."*  

If we beg Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus for us, we request what we need to be able to do what Jesus commands us to do.  When we ask Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus for us, we ask her to beseech Him that we may have all we need to do God's will.  Through her Spouse, The Holy Spirit, we are empowered to do the will of God.  Through her assistance, we are given the grace we need to do the will of Our Heavenly Father.  

Let us pour out our hearts to Our Blessed Mother Mary.  Let us implore her to come to our aid.  She loves us so tenderly and sweetly--indeed her will is love, since her will is the will of God, and we know that God is love**--that she will surely love us with great love.  

Knowing that Our Blessed Mother Mary loves us so much, we come to realize that we are tremendously aided in coming home to God, who is love, when we seek her intercession.  If we wish to return home to God, we have a powerful intercessor in Our Blessed Mother Mary to help us draw back to God.  Let us entrust ourselves to the loving care of Our Blessed Mother Mary, consecrate ourselves to her, and, greatly supported by her, thus return home to God.  Amen.  

* John 2:5 
** 1 John 4:8,16 

Blessed With Faith

To have faith is to be blessed.  You are blessed when you have the gift of faith from God, for you are not relying on yourself.  With faith, you become more than yourself.  If you are moved by faith, you trust in God.  As faith lives in you, God breathes in you and speaks through you.  If you have faith, although God has already tremendously blessed you, God gives still more by using your faith to reshape the world.  

Today as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, we are reminded how God rewards those with faith.  In today's Gospel reading, we hear of such faith and how those with faith are so blessed.  There we hear that 

Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."

And Mary said:

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever."

Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.*  

Saint Elizabeth said to Our Blessed Mother Mary, "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."  Our Blessed Mother Mary believed what the angel Gabriel had told her, that through the power of the Holy Spirit she would conceive and bear The Son who would save His people from their sins.**  She had faith that the promise made to her would be fulfilled.  Our Blessed Mother Mary is so blessed because God gave her a gift of great faith.  

And so Saint Elizabeth said to Our Blessed Mother Mary, "Blessed are you among women."  And so Catholics praying the rosary proclaim to Our Blessed Mother, "Blessed are you among women."  

Catholics pray the rosary because Our Blessed Mother is such an effective intercessor.  We have such an effective advocate in Our Blessed Mother because she prays for us with great faith.  Faith is power.  Through faith, we are empowered to do the will of God.  With faith, we can confidently pray, believing that our petitions according to the will of God will be granted.  Our Blessed Mother desired the will of God, so filled with faith she was.  Our Blessed Mother comes so efficiently to our aid, interceding with her Son Jesus because of her abounding faith.  

We can be considerably comforted to remember the power of faith.  When events in the world appear to go awry, and when circumstances in our personal lives seem amiss, through our faith we can call upon great power in our prayer when we might mistakenly believe we are lost.  When Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to Saint Francisco, Saint Jacinta and Servant of God Lucia at Fatima in Portugal in 1917, she told them to pray the rosary for world peace.  We can achieve peace through prayer.  Faith brings peace in hearts by leading to dependence on God.  Through the power of faith, prayer can bring peace in the world.  

If we recognize that God has given us a gift by giving us faith, it follows that we are to accept this gift and use it well.  In gratitude to God, we can offer this faith to Him through our prayer.  In response to our prayer, God transforms the world.  When we accept the invitation from God to let Him transform the world through us, we are blessed that He uses us as vessels of change.  Like Our Blessed Mother Mary, if we welcome the gift of faith that God seeks to give us, we too can be instruments of the change God seeks to work in the world.  Let us welcome the gift of faith from God, and so allow the world to be transformed.  Amen.  

* Luke 1:39-56 
** Luke 1:31-35

Presently Prayerfully Loving

Today is the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.  Today we also celebrate the feast day of Edith Stein, a nun martyred in Auschwitz.  One could think that these commemorations have nothing to do with how today I sat and talked with a recent college graduate.  Yet in all of these opportunities rests the duty of the present moment.  In every moment we are called by God.   
As we remember how a plutonium bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki exactly 72 years ago on August 9, 1945, killing tens of thousands of people, some of us might wonder what we can do to avert war.  I am convinced that in seeking world peace, the most effective step we can take is to pray.  I also strongly believe that we can take efficacious measures for world peace by praying the rosary.  One hundred years ago, at Fatima in Portugal, our Blessed Mother Mary instructed us to pray the rosary for world peace.  Had more people ardently implored our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus, the second world war would not have happened.  We fulfill the duty of the present moment when we pray.  

We also carry out the duty of the present moment, as was described in the eighteenth century by the Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade, when we seek to do God's will.  Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, previously known as Edith Stein, was raised Jewish.  However, after voraciously reading the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila late into the night, she not only became Catholic, but eventually also became a Carmelite nun.  Due to her Jewish heritage, the Nazis arrested her and sent her to Auschwitz, where she died in a gas chamber, probably exactly 75 years ago, on August 9, 1942.  She said that we surely may pray to be spared, but that certainly we should add the additional prayer to God, "Not my will be done, but Thy will be done."*  We find God's will in the present moment, so when we submit to the present moment and what it demands of us, we obey God's will.  Wherever we are in the present, there may God's will be done.  Where we find ourselves, there we pray.  

Today I found myself sitting at the kitchen table here in the Catholic Worker House with a young woman who I heard speak at Mass this past weekend.  At the end of Mass she got up and spoke briefly about how she is devoting her efforts to helping other young people who have fallen away from their faith.  She indicated she would be happy to speak with anyone who would like to hear more about her work.  After Mass, I asked her to contact me.  We arranged for her to come here to the Catholic Worker House.  

In relating to me how she aims to get to know the persons she seeks to help, I felt indirectly guided in what she said.  It seemed to me that the Holy Spirit was speaking through her.  It occurred to me that perhaps Jesus was telling me that I must get to know the homeless people and other impoverished persons I aspire to serve as a Catholic Worker.  I believe that in hearing her story, I was being told how I am to live my life, how I am to love my neighbor as myself.**  I would want someone to care enough about me to get to know me, so as to understand me; thus I should get to know others so I can better understand them.  In better understanding others, I can more easily be compassionate towards them, and thus love them as I love myself.  When I find myself in the present moment, I am to listen as best I can to my neighbor.  In giving my neighbor my full attention, and learning about her, I love my neighbor, and thus I fulfill my duty to the present moment.  

We embrace the present moment when we love our neighbor.  We carry out the duty of the present when we pray.  We open our hearts to the present when we do the will of God.  No matter how disparate the circumstances, no matter what is happening, we are called to pray and to love our neighbor, and thus do our duty right now, and thus do the will of God.  Let us open our hearts, and love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength,*** and our neighbor as ourselves, and thus do God's will.  Amen.  

* Matthew 26:39,42
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
*** Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 

Wonders Through Littleness

We have not been left alone.  We have our guides, companions, protectors and advocates with us, now and always.  They come unto us to tell us The Truth, so that we may remain on The Way, so that we may have The Life,* and so that we may have it to the full.**  

Jesus is gone from our bodily sight, yet He is with us always.***  Jesus further said He would not leave us orphans, but that He would send us another advocate, namely, the Holy Spirit, Who would lead us into all truth.****  

And from the Cross, Jesus entrusted us to His mother, to Our Blessed Mother Mary.  In the Gospel according to Saint John, we hear that when Jesus was on the Cross, 

Seeing His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing near Her, Jesus said to His mother, 'Woman, this is your son.'  Then to the disciple He said, 'This is your Mother.'  And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.*****  

From the Cross, Jesus told His Blessed Mother Mary that Saint John was her son.  As He was on the Cross, Jesus told Saint John the Apostle that His Blessed Mother Mary was his Mother.  
Yet Jesus looked beyond Saint John both as someone for whom His mother would care and as someone to care for His mother.  Jesus was announcing to His Blessed Mother Mary that she was becoming the Mother of all the faithful.  Jesus was telling every human being that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of all the faithful.  

We are to pray the rosary and beseech Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus on our behalf.  We are to humbly seek the aid of Our Blessed Mother Mary, for through her intercession, by her tremendously effective prayers for us, we will be protected.  

As Pope Francis declared today about Our Blessed Mother Mary, "We have a Mother!"  We have a merciful, loving, sweet, kind, gracious advocate in Our Blessed Mother Mary.  

What more can we say in describing Our Blessed Mother Mary?  We can look to when she appeared to the three peasant children Servant of God Lucia, Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco in Fatima in Portugal exactly one hundred years ago, on May 13, 1917, and when she appeared to them later that year.  These Fatima seers said she is beautiful.  Saint Jacinta was so overjoyed that she later exclaimed to her mother, "Today I saw Our Lady!"  

We can also recall when Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette of Lourdes.  Someone suggested to Saint Bernadette that she offer pen and paper to The Lady who had been appearing to her, who turned out to be Our Blessed Mother Mary.  When Saint Bernadette suggested to Our Blessed Mother Mary that she write what she wanted, Our Blessed Mother laughed!  Now I would like to see Our Blessed Mother Mary laugh!  There would truly be a joyous sight.  

A glorious reward among many in Heaven will it be when we will see Our Blessed Mother Mary!  As Pope Francis said earlier today, we will have all eternity to gaze upon Our Blessed Mother Mary!  

And how are we to get to Heaven?  How are to conduct ourselves so that we welcome the guidance we need to get there, so that we invoke the protection we need?  

On our way, as Pope Francis has advised, "We can take as our examples Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta, whom the Virgin Mary introduced into the immense ocean of God's light and whom she taught to adore Him."  As Pope Francis further noted today during the Mass in which he canonized them, "That was the source of their strength in overcoming opposition and suffering.  God's presence became constant in their lives, as is evident from their insistent prayers for sinners and their desire to remain ever near 'the hidden Jesus' in the tabernacle."  

Who were Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta?  He was eight and she was seven when Our Blessed Mother Mary first appeared to them.  They were very young peasants, poor, uneducated and simple.  Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta were humbled by the circumstances of their lives.  How can we humble ourselves?  How can we become like little children?  

Anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.******  Someone who makes himself as little as a little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.*******  

We become like little children toward God when we totally rely on God, just like little children completely depending on their parents for all they need.  We humble ourselves when we pray.  When we pray, we admit we cannot get where we are going on our own.  As we are praying, we are acknowledging that we need God's help.  

There is no way we can get to Heaven solely on our own merits.  We all are in need of God's mercy.  

God is love.********  Love is mercy.  Thus, the name of God is mercy, as Pope Francis has told us.  Similarly, Saint Faustina has told us that Jesus told her that He is love and mercy itself.  

If people ever wonder why I am looking forward so much to the next life, there is much I can say.  I know that I will enter Heaven because I will throw myself at the mercy of God's great love.  I know that God will forgive me, for God is infinitely merciful.  And on the day I enter into Heaven, you can imagine me telling you, "Today I saw Our Lady!"  I will have all eternity to bask in the unspeakably marvelous warm glow of the love and glory of God, largely thanks to the immense mercy of Our Blessed Mother Mary, for in her great kindness she has greatly aided me, for she has secured grace for me through her intercession on my behalf.  

How can we get to Heaven?  Be like little children, who greatly respected and honored Our Blessed Mother Mary, Who, in her great humility, did as she was told.  And in turn, she tells us of her Son Jesus, "Do whatever He tells you."*********  

When we have the humility to do as God directs us to do, through us God performs miracles.  Even though we are but little children, God will work wonders through us.  And in the end, God will raise us up, so that we may be with Him for all eternity, in His glory.  Amen.  

* John 14:6 
** John 10:10 
*** Matthew 28:20 
**** John 14:16-18; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:13 
***** John 19:26-27 
****** Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14 
******* Matthew 18:4 
******** 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16 
********* John 2:5 

Stop Trading Arms

Why do I protest?  I protest partly out of obedience to the Catholic Church.  

In a speech Pope Francis delivered to a joint session of Congress, the Pope told us, "It is our duty to stop the arms trade."  Therefore, I must do something to do my part to try to stop the arms trade.  I need not protest, but I must do something to try to stop the production, sale and transfer of armaments.  I try to fulfill my duty to stop the arms trade partly by protesting.  

Thus this morning other Catholic Workers and I protested on a street corner near the facilities of a prime producer of armaments here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  This particular manufacturer has developed intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as air-to-air missiles.  On the street corner, I was holding a sign which said 

IT IS OUR DUTY TO STOP THE ARMS TRADE 
- Pope Francis 

In standing on street corners outside the facilities of a major arms manufacturer, as Catholic Workers we seek to afflict the comfortable.  We aim to nudge out of their comfort zone those who are numb to the consequences of their producing armaments.  We invite those involved in the production of armaments to question the work they are doing, why they are doing it, who they are affecting and how they are affecting them.  

Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker movement in 1933 along with Peter Maurin, sought to afflict the comfortable in addition to comforting the afflicted.  She fed hungry impoverished people who stood in the breadline outside the Catholic Worker House in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City.  

As Catholic Workers we work for justice by feeding those who are hungry.  Pope Paul VI said, "If you want peace, work for justice."   Catholic Workers offer food and housing to those who are indigent, helping to respect these persons' basic human rights.  Catholic Workers labor for justice by striving to ensure that all of our brothers and sisters are treated with dignity.  In so working for justice, we work for peace.  

Yet we also realize peace by choosing peace rather than violence.  When the chief priests and Pharisees and guards arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, Saint Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant.  Jesus told Saint Peter to put his sword back in its scabbard.*  At that point, Jesus taught against resorting to violence, warning, "All who draw the sword will die by the sword."**  

Jesus told Saint Peter, the man who was to become the rock upon which His church was going to be founded, to put away his sword.  In so directing him, and in His coming, Jesus fulfilled the words of the prophets.  The prophet Isaiah prophesied 

In days to come, 
The mountain of the Lord's house 
shall be established as the highest mountain 
and raised above the hills.  
All nations shall stream toward it.  
Many peoples shall come and say: 
"Come, let us go up to the Lord's mountain, 
to the house of the God of Jacob, 
That he may instruct us in His ways, 
and we may walk in His paths."  
For from Zion shall go forth instruction, 
and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, 
and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares 
and their spears into pruning hooks; 
One nation shall not raise the sword against another 
nor shall they train for war again.***  

Today we can beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.  Today we can convert our spending on the development of missiles into spending on the development of the capabilities of human beings.  As a Christian, and as a Catholic, I am compelled to speak out against immense budgetary outlays for military spending.  When we have so many homeless people sleeping in bushes, we are not seeing justice realized, and thus we are endangering peace.  Rather than spending $582,000,000,000 on defense in 2015,**** in the United States we could have re-allocated some of that gigantic sum toward building low-income housing and to providing more mental health services and drug rehabilitation programs to care for our poor brothers and sisters.  Jesus has described that after we die, He will say, "In truth I tell you, insofar as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."*****  By redirecting our funds from stockpiling armaments to caring for our poor neighbor, we turn our attention and energies to Jesus Himself.  

We are either caring for those who are poor or we are taking steps to make life more insecure for them.  Similarly, we are either directing our energies toward peace, or we are doing something to bring the world closer to war.  We bring the world closer to either peace or war through our deeds, our words, and our thoughts.  When Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to the children Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, she urged them to pray the rosary everyday for world peace.   

We are either doing what we can to strive for peace or to work for war.  As Albert Einstein noted, "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."  

When we stockpile weapons, we act out of fear.  In love there is no room for fear.******  When we truly have faith in God, we do not fear, for we trust in God.  With faith in God, we have sure confidence in Him.  Trusting God, we choose love rather than fear.  

With true faith, it is easy to have the imagination necessary to envision a better world.  Seeing what lies ahead for us, we know that we must love our neighbor, to care for those who are least among us.  

Then we are aware that we need not worry about protecting ourselves at the expense of loving our neighbor; if we were to choose to try to protect ourselves, we would harm both ourselves and our neighbor.  In choosing not to love our neighbor, we become less than what we have always been meant to be.  We harm ourselves when we refuse to love, for we deny our true potential.  

With faith, we open ourselves to the creativity God wishes to unleash on the world through us.  If we wish to be truly bold, we choose to love when others are not doing so.  If we want to be truly courageous, we will lead on the path of love when no one else appears willing to follow.  

If we would be profoundly brave, we would give up our defenses.  Then we let God work through us.  To have the humility to make ourselves completely vulnerable at the hands of God, to totally trust in God: that is true courage, the most heroic act one can possibly make in this lifetime, and one which will be richly rewarded in the next life.  

* John 18:3, 10-11; Matthew 26:50-51 
** Matthew 26:52 
*** Isaiah 2:2-4 
**** "The Federal Budget in 2015: An Infographic," The Congressional Budget Office 
***** Matthew 25:40 
****** 1 John 4:18