 |
| Fr. Luigi Faccenda, OFM Conv |
Homily December 14, 1998
to the Fr. Kolbe Missionaries of the Immaculata
Transcribed and Translated by the Fr. Kolbe Missionaries of the Immaculata
“Your apostolate depends on the
measure in which you live your consecration.”
If Father Kolbe, speaking of the Immaculata, has left within
us a certain conviction and made us dream in some way to see the glories of
Mary, resplendent like the sun, beautiful, strong as an army deployed for
battle, then he must have left in us a sense of trust, hope, comfort. After all,
having the fortune and grace of consecration to the Immaculata, we become
instruments in Her hands, so that She can continue to bring about
salvation.
Why do I say the Immaculata brings about salvation? Why not
Christ? Certainly, it is Christ that
is salvation, but He saves through
Mary. If today, more than ever, we are not able to look upon the beauty of the
Madonna and Her maternal heart, the presence of Christ also fades, because
where there is Mary there also is the Son. It is a vain search – says St.
Bonaventure – if we search for Jesus, keeping Mary in the distance.
This is reason for comfort, hope, and the interior joy that
is capable of calming our turmoil, spiritual darkness, and our superficially
romantic notions. It is capable of eliminating everything inessential to make
us see God in His greatness, the Father in His fatherhood, Christ in His
redemption, and the Spirit in His work of sanctification.
Consecration and
mission.
Consecration to Mary, inserting ourselves fully in the plan of
salvation, places us in the heart of the salvific mission of the Church. It cannot
be reduced to a personal act (a difference between Louis de Montfort and Father
Kolbe) in view of one’s one sanctification, but obligates one to work for the
conversion and sanctification of all people. (Lex credendi, lex orandi, lex
vivendi, lex operandi, and working through Her and with Her for the salvation
of the world.)
On the other hand our battle is
already sure of victory, because She is already sure of victory. “She will
crush your head.” So, why do we not go forward with more trust, more serenity?
Why don’t we better fight the battle, our battle? Why don’t we put ourselves in
Her hands with more fidelity and serenity?
Why do we not place ourselves in Her heart, so that She can carry us and
carry with us the world She desires to save through us?
After humanity was given to Mary
at the foot of the cross, Jesus cried out: “I thirst.” Mary made Her own the
thirst of Her Son, who was thirsting for souls. He desired to communicate this
thirst to His children, from St. John
to the other apostles to all of us. I
thirst. Looking upon the thirst of Jesus, we must not be conditioned by our
own thirst, because there is an unfathomable difference between our thirst and
that of Jesus. The thirst of Jesus is the thirst of someone who wants to bring
all people to eternal salvation, who wants all people to be happy for all
eternity, who does not want any sacrifice to be wasted. Our thirst is often
egotistical, sentimental, and for things that give us a little light for a
moment and then go away. We, perhaps, go back and say: I thirst... for joy,
understanding, love, glory, peace, etc. Our thirst is very limited, and cannot
stand up to the thirst of Jesus.
Mary repeats to us what Jesus said
and is still saying: I thirst. I
thirst for souls. Here we have the reason for the great messages from the
Madonna: in Lourdes, I thirst; in La
Salette, I thirst and cry for the
sins of people; in Rue de Bac, I thirst,
behold your salvation – trust in me; I
thirst, She said in Fatima, Syracruse and in so many others. We should ask
ourselves if we satiate the thirst of Jesus, or if our ego, pride, and our
desire for carnal satisfaction must be abandoned in order to hang on to the
great truth of life eternal and infinite, infinite like God.
This is the new dimension of consecration
that St. Maximiliian intuited and developed from the base of the De Montfort
spirituality. He, in fact, founded all his missionary action and that of the
Militia of the Immaculata upon this dynamic aspect of consecration. Dynamic
aspect, not a stingy aspect, not an aspect in waiting, but the dynamic aspect
of consecration: to work with Mary and through Mary, in Mary, doing all that She
wishes and sending us wherever She wills. For this reason, Father Kolbe began
the journalistic and editorial activity.
Your apostolate depends on the
measure in which you live the consecration, and therefore the work that the
Madonna would accomplish for the good of souls depends on “the measure in which
we do or do not live out our consecration to the Immaculata.” Whenever we take from Mary, and keep
something for ourselves, we frustrate the work of Redemption. It is not for
nothing that St. Paul called out “I make
up for what is lacking in the passion of Christ.” In order for the
redemptive passion of Christ to arrive to all souls, the collaboration and
cooperation of the entire mystical body of Christ is necessary, and therefore, yours
and mine.
When the apostles
are preparing themselves for their defining mission to preach the Pascal
message, where do we find them? With Mary. Upon whom did the Holy Spirit
descend? Upon Mary and the Apostles. What did the Holy Spirit accomplish? He
gave strength to these, an extraordinary force that no one could have imagined...
Certainly the Holy Spirit is still ready to accomplish miracles; this work only
the Spirit can accomplish. He is ready to realize His sanctifying mission, but
I repeat one more time, it will be accomplished in the measure in which we
respond and believe, in which we sanctify ourselves and cooperate in the
salvation of our neighbors and those far away.
No comments:
Post a Comment