The Greatest Love

There is nothing we can do in and of ourselves to merit God’s love, or earn our own salvation. The purpose of seeking spiritual growth is only so that we can better serve the One who has earned our salvation for us, Jesus Christ. He was lifted up upon the Cross, so that we can be lifted up to heaven. He was broken so that we can be made whole.

The lesson is to be learned at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ; namely, that even though we are sinful and fall short of the glory of God, in spite of it all, God loves us with that yearning, passionate love which led Him to give Himself to be lifted up for us. And because of that, our hearts cannot help but be broken open to receive the Greatest Love, the Love which knows no rest and which never tires until it has found us, and has brought us to our true home in Christ’s kingdom.

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Painting: "Crucifixion"

by Gabriel Wüger (1829–1892)

The Works of Mercy

In an effort to organize ourselves, we sometimes make lists of “things to do,” things we have perhaps put off doing, and we get a real sense of accomplishment as we are able to check them off as being done. The Church, also, gives us such a list which is based upon the teaching of Christ. This list is known as the "corporal and spiritual works of mercy."

The corporal works are: to feed the hungry; to give drink to the thirsty; to clothe the naked; to shelter the homeless; to visit the sick; to visit those in prison; to bury the dead.

The spiritual works are: to convert the sinner; to instruct the ignorant; to counsel the doubtful; to comfort the sorrowful; to bear wrongs patiently; to forgive injuries; to pray for the living and the dead.

Out of our love for Christ, and because of our faith in Him, we should keep before us this list of “things to do,” and although in this life there is always more to do, it is in the doing that we show our love for the God Who loves us.

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Pictured: "The Seven Acts of Mercy"

by Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564-1636)

A Sign of God's Mercy

The LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live."

- Numbers 21:8

God had no more rescued the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt before they started to complain because the journey was difficult, and they didn’t like the food, the manna, which God provided for them. As a result of their sin they were afflicted with serpents in the wilderness. But God showed mercy, and He instructed Moses: "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

The visible sign of the "fiery bronze serpent" being lifted up in the sight of the people reminded them of two important facts: that sin leads to death, but repentance leads to God's mercy and healing. And, of course, the lifting up of the bronze serpent on a wooden pole points to Jesus Christ being lifted up on the wooden cross at Calvary where He took our sins upon Himself to make atonement to the Father on our behalf.

The sacrifice of Jesus' life on the cross is the ultimate proof of God's love for us. The cross broke the curse of sin and death and won pardon, healing, and everlasting life for all who believe in Jesus, the Son of God and Saviour of the world.

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Pictured: "The Brazen Serpent"

by James Tissot (1836-1902)

False Witness

It’s upsetting to most people if they find out that others have been talking about them in a bad or false way. When lies are spread around about us, it’s one of the most difficult and devastating things that can happen. It has been rightly said that “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its boots on.”

At Mass on Monday in the fifth week of Lent we hear the story of Susanna, from the Book of Daniel. Susanna was a woman who loved God. She was unjustly accused of adultery by two elder judges who had tried to force themselves on her. Since adultery was a serious offense punishable by stoning to death, the law of Moses required at least two witnesses, rather than one, to convict a person. Susanna knew she had no hope of clearing her good reputation and escaping death unless God Himself intervened. God in His mercy heard the plea of Susanna, and Daniel was the instrument God used, resulting in punishment for the two elders who had given false witness.

When we consider the great damage that can be done, either by telling outright lies, or by spinning things to make someone look bad, it’s apparent just how sinful that kind of behaviour is. When it comes to saying anything about anybody, we need to think very carefully before speaking, and often it’s better not to say anything at all.

St. James in his epistle says that the tongue is only a small part of the body, but then he reminds us that a very small flame can set a whole forest on fire. That’s something for us to consider seriously when it comes to our conversations.

Don’t abuse others with your words. Don’t pass along to others what seem to be juicy tidbits about someone. That little feeling of dark pleasure which so often accompanies your judgement on someone else will return as God’s judgement upon you.

St. John Baptist de La Salle

St. John Baptist de La Salle was born at Rheims in 1651, became a member of the cathedral chapter at Rheims when he was sixteen, and was ordained a priest in 1678. Soon after ordination he was put in charge of a girls' school, and in 1679 he met Adrian Nyel, a layman who wanted to open a school for boys. Two schools were started, and Canon de la Salle became interested in the work of education. He took an interest in the teachers, eventually invited them to live in his own house, and tried to train them in the educational system that was forming in his mind. This first group ultimately left, unable to grasp what the saint had in mind; others, however, joined him, and the beginnings of the Brothers of the Christian Schools were begun.

Seeing a unique opportunity for good, Canon de La Salle resigned his canonry, gave his inheritance to the poor, and began to organize his teachers into a religious congregation. Soon, boys from his schools began to ask for admission to the Brothers, and the founder set up a juniorate to prepare them for their life as religious teachers. At the request of many pastors, he also set up a training school for teachers, first at Rheims, then at Paris, and finally at St.-Denis. Realizing that he was breaking entirely new ground in the education of the young, John Baptist de la Salle wrote books on his system of education, opened schools for tradesmen, and even founded a school for the nobility, at the request of King James II of England.

The congregation had a tumultuous history, and the setbacks that the founder had to face were many; but the work was begun, and he guided it with rare wisdom. In Lent of 1719, he grew weak, met with a serious accident, and died on Good Friday. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1900, and Pope Pius XII proclaimed him patron of schoolteachers.

O God, who for the Christian education of the poor, and for the confirmation of the young in the way of truth, didst raise up the holy Confessor John Baptist de la Salle, and through him didst gather a new family in the Church: graciously grant that by his intercession and example we, being kindled with zeal for thy glory in the salvation of souls, may be enabled to be made partakers of his crown in heaven; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Justice and Mercy

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.

- St. John 8:3-6

If you are a parent, or if you deal with children in any way, you know this dilemma: when they do something wrong, how do you discipline them in a way that’s serious enough to teach them the lesson they need to learn, but which isn’t so harsh that it discourages them or just makes them rebel against the discipline? How do you make them understand that there are certain things that are always wrong, and yet still allow for the fact that we all make mistakes? Often it is a difficult call – we want to be gentle and loving and merciful, but we don’t want them to fall into the danger of confusing what is objectively right and wrong.

For guidance we can look to the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His encounter with the woman taken in adultery we see our Lord dealing with someone breaking God’s Law, and yet He balanced His response with a wonderful combination of justice and mercy.

This was the situation: a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery was dragged by the scribes and Pharisees into the presence of Christ. This wasn’t accidental – they had timed this confrontation very carefully. Jesus had just spent the whole night before in prayer on the Mount of Olives. At dawn He returned to the temple, and as usual, the people crowded around Him to hear His teaching. Christ’s popularity was a very upsetting thing to the scribes and Pharisees. Repeatedly they have tried to destroy His reputation, or to catch Him in some breach of the Law, so that they could show the crowds that He was a phony, and so get the people to stop listening to Him. But every time they tried, they failed. They just can’t seem to get rid of Him.

But this time, the whole situation seems to be in their favour. This time, they’re sure they’re going to succeed, because the circumstances provided a perfect trap for them to spring on Him.

They bring the woman to Him. They pretend to be respectful by addressing Him as “Teacher.” “Teacher,” they say, “this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” It is the perfect trap. They would force Jesus either to obey or disobey the law of Moses in full view of people. The scribes and Pharisees are certain they’re going to win this round, because they don’t see how He can possibly win, no matter which choice He makes. If He goes along with the punishment of stoning, He’s contradicting the message of mercy which He had been preaching, and which was a large cause of His popularity. But if He rejects the penalty of stoning, then He’s disobeying the law, and they’ll be able to bring Him up before the authorities as a law-breaker. This is a moment of high drama, and it looks like the whole ministry of Christ is hanging in the balance.

So what does He do? By all appearances, nothing. In fact, He doesn’t seem to show very much interest at all in what the scribes and Pharisees have said. Instead, He bends down and traces with His finger on the ground. But the scribes and Pharisees aren’t going to be put off that easily. They press for an answer. So He gives them an answer: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

It is the perfect answer – not because it’s clever, not because it puts the scribes and Pharisees in their places – no, it is perfect because not only does Jesus not reject the law or disobey any part of it, but the answer gives the law its real meaning. Until this point the law had been used as a way of lording it over others; it had been turned into something that divided people between those who kept the law, and those who didn’t. But Jesus lifts the law up to the level of carrying out God’s plan for each person. He’s making the point that to break God’s law doesn’t hurt the law; rather, when we break God’s law we’re really hurting ourselves. When Jesus said to the woman, “Go, and do not sin again,” He wasn’t dismissing the sin; rather, He was dismissing those who were trying to use the occasion of someone’s sin as a way of making themselves appear to be holier than they really were.

This event tells us something important about our own relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We can know that if we commit a serious sin, we shouldn’t feel like outcasts or second-rate Christians; rather, we can go to Christ with a repentant heart and ask for His forgiveness. And as soon as the thorn of sin is extracted, Christ the Great Physician of our souls, will heal the wound. And we can count on that – that’s the promise Christ makes, that if we come to Him with repentance and confess our sins, He’ll always forgive and heal us.

And that’s the way we must act towards those who have wronged us. All too often, people have the heart of the scribes and Pharisees, finding it hard to forget the sins of others, always dredging them up, almost as a way of feeling better about themselves. But Christ shows us how wrong that is, and in fact it’s an echo of what we hear from the prophet Isaiah, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” To refrain from throwing someone’s sin in their face isn’t sweeping things under the carpet – it’s not a lessening of the seriousness of sin – rather, it’s a way of putting things back into their proper place. If only we were half as merciful towards others as we want God to be toward us!

When it comes to sin and repentance, Christ wants broken hearts from us, not broken hopes. When He hung on the cross, He prayed for His enemies who were filled with hatred towards Him, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Even then, with death close by, Christ showed mercy towards those who had brought Him to the hill and who had nailed Him to the cross.

If we’re supposed to be Christ’s ambassadors in the world, then we certainly must show something of Christ’s mercy in our own attitudes towards others. It is a far greater victory for Christ if His enemies are converted to His truth, than it would be for Him to deliver them over to eternal punishment.

Every single day we pray in the Mass that God will deliver us from eternal damnation and number us in the fold of the elect. We’ve all done evil in God’s sight; we’re all deserving of death. But in His mercy, and by our repentance, He forgives us – not only once; not only seven times; but seventy times seven and even beyond that.

It is a wicked thing to be as the scribes and Pharisees were, to judge and condemn others. We’ve been shown God’s mercy, and we need to show it to others. That’s what it is to have the mind of Christ in us. It is in showing His mercy towards others that will make us more like Christ. That’s what will win people over to Him: to speak the truth and then to show mercy, just as each one of us knows the truth, and still has been shown mercy.

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Painting: "The Woman taken in Adultery"

by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666)

St. Vincent Ferrer

St. Vincent Ferrer is the patron saint of builders because of his fame for "building up" and strengthening the Church, through his preaching, missionary work, in his teachings, as confessor and adviser.

Born in 1357, when he was eighteen years old he entered the Order of St. Dominic. He was a brilliant student, and soon after his profession he was commissioned to deliver lectures on philosophy while continuing his studies, and eventually he received his doctorate, all the while growing in his spiritual life. 

In 1390, he entered the service of Cardinal Pedro de Luna, and this developed into a very difficult situation, because this was the time when a claim was made by Cardinal de Luna that he was the legitimate pope. St. Vincent felt a loyalty to his friend the Cardinal, but he realized that truth was more important than mere human friendship, and he felt obliged to go against his friend.

He then began those labours that made him the most famous missionary of the fourteenth century. He evangelized nearly every province of Spain, and preached in France, Italy, Germany, Flanders, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Many conversions followed his preaching, which God Himself assisted by the gift of miracles. 

Though the Church was then divided by the great schism, the saint was honorably received in the districts subject to the two claimants to the Papacy. He was even went to Granada, which was under the rule of Islam, and he preached the gospel with much success. He lived to see the end of the great schism and the election of Pope Martin V. Finally, having given his life to the preaching of the Faith, he died April 5, 1419.

O God, who didst vouchsafe to illumine thy Church by the merits and preaching of blessed Vincent thy Confessor: grant to us thy servants; that we may both be instructed by his example, and by his advocacy be delivered from all adversities; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

St. Isidore of Seville

St. Isidore of Seville was born into a family of saints in Spain in the sixth century. Two of his brothers, Leander and Fulgentius, and one of his sisters, Florentina, are revered as saints in Spain. His two brothers served as bishops and his sister was an abbess.

But it’s not always easy to live with saints. In fact, although Isidore’s brother Leander is venerated as a saint today, the way he treated his younger brother Isidore was shocking, even to people who lived at that time. Leander, who was much older than Isidore, took over Isidore's education and Leander’s idea of education involved force and and lots of punishment. We know from Isidore's later accomplishments that he was very intelligent and hard-working, so it’s difficult to understand why Leander thought abuse would work instead of patience. 

One day, the young Isidore couldn't take any more. He was frustrated by his inability to learn as fast as his brother wanted him to, and he was hurt by his brother's treatment, so Isidore ran away. As he stopped to rest, he noticed water dripping on a rock near where he sat. He noticed that the small drops of water that were falling weren’t very forceful, and seemed to have no effect on the solid stone. And yet he saw that over time, the water drops had worn holes in the rock.

He took this as an important lesson. Isidore realized that if he kept working at his studies, bit by bit his small efforts would eventually pay off in great learning. He also wanted his brother Leander to see that he was really trying, so he went back. When he returned home, his brother wasn’t any more understanding or any more kind than he had ever been, and in fact Leander sent Isidore off to a monastery where he was confined to a cell so he wouldn’t run away again, and there he was to continue his studies.

Either there must have been a loving side to this fraternal relationship, or Isidore was remarkably forgiving even for a saint, because later he would work side by side with his brother and after Leander's death, Isidore took his place as the bishop of Seville, and would complete many of the projects his brother had started.

In a time where everybody wants to blame the past hurts for their present problems, Isidore didn’t fall into that trap. He was able to separate the abusive way he was taught from the joy of learning. He didn't run from learning after he left his brother but embraced education and made it his life's work. Isidore rose above his past to become known as the greatest teacher in Spain.

His love of learning made him promote the establishment of a seminary in every diocese of Spain. He didn't limit his own studies, nor did he want limitations on others. In a unique move, he made sure that all branches of knowledge including the arts and medicine were taught in the seminaries.

His encyclopedia of knowledge, the Etymologies, was a popular textbook for nine centuries. He also wrote books on grammar, astronomy, geography, history, and biography as well as theology. In fact, the great breadth of Isidore’s learning meant that Pope John Paul II named him Patron of the Internet.

He lived until almost 80. As he was dying his house was filled with crowds of poor to whom he was giving aid and alms. One of his last acts was to give all his possessions to the poor. When he died in 636, this Doctor of the Church had done more than his brother had ever hoped; the light of his learning caught fire in Spanish minds and held back barbarism from Spain. But even greater than his outstanding mind must have been the genius of his heart that allowed him to see beyond rejection and discouragement to joy and possibility.

O God, by whose providence blessed Isidore was sent to guide thy people in the way of everlasting salvation: grant, we beseech thee; that as we have learned of him the doctrine of life on earth, so we may be found worthy to have him for our advocate in heaven; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.