Mark Mallett

The Rescuer, by Michael D. O’Brien

THERE are many kinds of “love” in our world, but not all triumph. It is only that love which gives of itself, or rather, dies to itself that carries the seed of redemption.

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. (John 12:24-26)

What I am saying here is not easy—dying to our own will is not easy. Letting go in a certain situation is hard. Seeing our loved ones go down destructive paths is painful. Having to let a situation turn in the opposite direction we think it should go, is a death in itself. It is only through Jesus that we are able to find the power to bear these sufferings, to find the power to give and the power to forgive.

To love with a love that triumphs.

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I think we’ve got the whole "saint thing" wrong in our generation. Many think that becoming a Saint is this extraordinary ideal that only a handful of souls will ever be capable of achieving. That sanctity is a pious thought far out of reach. That as long as one avoids mortal sin and keeps his nose clean, he’ll still "make it" to Heaven—and that is good enough.

But in truth, friends, that is a terrible lie that keeps the children of God in bondage, that keeps souls in a state of unhappiness and dysfunction. It’s as big a lie as telling a goose that it cannot migrate.

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Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. (Rev 3:20)

 
JESUS addressed these words, not to pagans, but to the church in Laodicea. Yes, we the baptized need to open our hearts to Jesus.  And if we do, we can expect two things to happen.

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FEAST OF THE BIRTH OF MARY

LATELY, I have been in a near hand-to-hand combat with a terrible temptation that I don’t have time. Don’t have time to pray, to work, to get done what needs to be done, etc. So I want to share some words from prayer that really impacted me this week. For they address not only my situation, but the entire problem affecting, or rather, infecting the Church today.

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ARE you feeling the weariness of the battle? As my spiritual director often says (who is also a diocesan priest), "Anyone who is trying to be holy today is going through the fire."

Yes, that is true at all times in all periods of the Christian Church. But there is something different about our day. It’s as if the very bowels of hell have been emptied, and the adversary is disturbing not only the nations, but most especially and implacably every soul consecrated to God. Let us be honest and plain, brothers and sisters: the spirit of antichrist is everywhere today, having seeped like smoke even into the cracks in the Church. But where Satan is strong, God is always stronger!

This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world. You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:3-4)

This morning in prayer, the following thoughts came to me:

Take courage, child. To begin again is to be re-immersed in My Sacred Heart, a living flame that consumes all your sin and that which is not of Me. Remain in Me that I may purify and renew you. For to leave the Flames of Love is to enter into the cold of the flesh where every misdeed and evil is conceivable. Is it not simple, child? And yet it is also very difficult, because it demands your full attention; it demands that you resist your evil inclinations and tendencies. It demands a fight—a battle! And so, you must be willing to enter upon the way of the Cross… else you be swept away along the wide and easy road.

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THE heart is a finely tuned instrument. It is also delicate. The "narrow and rough" road of the Gospel, and all the bumps we encounter along the way, can throw the heart out of calibration. Temptations, trials, suffering… they can shake the heart such that we lose focus and direction. Understanding and recognizing this innate weakenss of the soul is half the battle: if you know your heart needs to be recalibrated, then you’re halfway there. But many, if not most professing Christians, don’t even realize their hearts are out of sync. Just as a pacemaker can recalibrate the physical heart, so too we need to apply a spiritual pacemaker to our own hearts, for every human being has "heart trouble" to one degree or another while walking in this world.

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GOD is infinite. He is ever-present. He is all-knowing…. and He is stoppable.

A word came to me in prayer this morning that I feel compelled to share with you:

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THE past 24 hours since writing After the Illumination, the words have been echoing in my heart: Like a thief in the night…

Concerning times and seasons, brothers, you have no need for anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. When people are saying, "Peace and security," then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman,and they will not escape. (1 Thess 5:2-3)

Many have applied these words to the Second Coming of Jesus. Indeed, the Lord will come at an hour that no one but the Father knows. But if we read the above text carefully, St. Paul is speaking about the coming of the "day of the Lord," and what comes suddenly are like "labor pains." In my last writing, I explained how the "day of the Lord" is not a single day or event, but a period of time, according to Sacred Tradition. Thus, that which leads up to and ushers in the Day of the Lord are precisely those labor pains that Jesus spoke of¹ and St. John saw in the vision of The Seven Seals of Revolution.

They too, for many, will come like a thief in the night.

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FOOTNOTES:

1. Matt 24: 6-8; Luke 21:9-11 [↩]

THY Kingdom come…

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"The Nativity", Lorenzo Monaco; 1409

First published December 27th, 2006

Why lies he in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding?  —What Child Is This?,  Christmas Carol

NO retinue of guards. No legion of angels. Not even the welcome mat of the High Priests. God, incarnate in the flesh, is greeted into the world by an ox and ass.

While the early Fathers interpreted these two creatures as symbolic of the Jews and pagans, and thus all of humanity, a further interpretation came to mind at Midnight Mass.

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