{"id":43161,"date":"2024-06-19T00:29:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T04:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=43161"},"modified":"2024-06-20T02:14:35","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T06:14:35","slug":"the-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gift","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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In my reflection On Radical Traditionalism<\/a>, <\/em>I ultimately pointed toward a spirit of rebellion in both the so-called “extreme conservative” as well as “progressive” in the Church. In the former, they only accept a narrow theological view of the Catholic Church while rejecting the fullness of the Faith. On the other hand, the progressive attempts to alter or add to the “deposit of faith.” Neither is borne of the Spirit of truth; neither is in keeping with Sacred Tradition (despite their protests).<\/p>\n

I have been pondering what the Catholic will look like in the Era of Peace. And the answer is that he or she will be someone who embraces the entire<\/em> Faith and all her dimensions and gifts. It is someone who will be open to everything Jesus bequeathed His Bride; a People who will not reject or alter the inheritance Christ purchased for them on the Cross. They will be open to drawing from every wellspring that the Father has gifted them in order that the Bride be fully prepared to meet her Bridegroom at the end of time…<\/p>\n

First published Christmas Day, 2020…<\/em><\/p>\n

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“THE<\/strong> age of ministries is ending.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Those words that rang in my heart several years ago were strange but also clear: we are coming to the end, not of ministry per se;<\/em> rather, many of the means and methods and structures that the modern Church has become accustomed to that have ultimately individualized, weakened, and even divided the Body of Christ are ending<\/em>. This is a necessary “death” of the Church that must come in order for her to experience a new resurrection<\/a>, a new blossoming of Christ’s life, power, and sanctity in an all new manner.  <\/p>\n

God himself had provided to bring about that \u201cnew and divine\u201d holiness with which the Holy Spirit wishes to enrich Christians at the dawn of the third millennium, in order to \u201cmake Christ the heart of the world.\u201d<\/strong><\/span> \u2014POPE JOHN PAUL II, <\/span>Address to the Rogationist Fathers, <\/em><\/span>n. 6, <\/span>www.vatican.va<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But you cannot put new wine into an old wine skin. Hence, the “signs of the times” clearly indicate, not only that God is ready to pour out a new wine… but that the old wine skin has dried up, is leaking, and unfit for a new Pentecost<\/em>. <\/p>\n

We are at the end of Christendom… Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending \u2014 we\u2019ve seen it die. Look at the symptoms: the breakup of the family, divorce, abortion, immorality, general dishonesty… Only those who live by faith really know what is happening in the world. The great masses without faith are unconscious of the destructive processes going on. <\/strong><\/span>\u2014Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895 – 1979), Jan. 26, 1947 broadcast; cf. <\/span>ncregister.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jesus likened these destructive processes to “labor pains<\/a>” because what follows them will be a new birth…<\/p>\n

When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. (John 16:21)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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WE WILL HAVE EVERYTHING<\/p>\n

Here, we are not speaking of a mere renewal. Rather, it is the climax of salvation history, the crown and completion of a long journey of the People of God \u2014 and thus, also the Clash of Two Kingdoms<\/a><\/em>. It is the very fruition and purpose of Redemption: the sanctification of the Bride of Christ for the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Rev 19:8). Hence, all that God has revealed through Christ will become the possession of all<\/em> His children in a unified, single flock. As Jesus said to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta,<\/p>\n

To one group of people he has shown the way to get to his palace; to a second group he has pointed out the door; to the third he has shown the staircase; to the fourth the first rooms; and to the last group he has opened all the rooms\u2026 <\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u2014Jesus to Luisa, Vol. XIV, November 6th, 1922, <\/span>Saints in the Divine Will <\/em><\/span>by Fr. Sergio Pellegrini, with the approval of the Archbishop of Trani, Giovan Battista Pichierri, p. 23-24<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That is not the case today in most quarters of the Church. If modernists have pushed away devotion and the sacred, ultra-traditionalists have often resisted the charismatic and prophetic. If intellect and reason have been given precedence in the hierarchy over mysticism, on the one hand, often the laity have neglected prayer and formation on the other. The Church today has never been richer, but also, never poorer. She has the wealth of numerous graces and knowledge accumulated over thousands of years… but most of it is either locked away by fear and apathy, or hidden beneath the ashes of sin, corruption, and dysfunction. The tension between the institutional and charismatic aspects of the Church will cease in the coming Era.<\/p>\n

The institutional and charismatic aspects are co-essential as it were to the Church\u2019s constitution. They contribute, although differently, to the life, renewal and sanctification of God\u2019s People<\/strong><\/span>. \u2014Speech to the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities, <\/span>www.vatican.va<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But what a tempest is needed to unlock these gifts! What a Storm is needed to blow away this suffocating debris! <\/p>\n

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So, the People of God in the coming Era of Peace will be as it were fully<\/em> Catholic. Think of a droplet of rain hitting a pond. From the point of entering the water, co-centric ripples spread in every direction. Today, the Church is scattered about these rings of grace, going off, therefore, in different directions precisely because the beginning <\/em>is not God’s but man’s perceived center. You have some who embrace the works of social justice, but neglect the truth. Others cling to the truth but without charity. Many are those who embrace the sacraments and liturgy yet reject the charisms and gifts of the Spirit. Others imbibe theology and intellectual formation while disregarding the mystical and the interior life, and yet others embrace the prophetic and supernatural while neglecting wisdom and reason. How Christ longs for His Church to be fully Catholic, fully adorned, fully alive! <\/p>\n

Thus, the Risen Church to come will emerge from the very center<\/em> of Divine Providence and will spread to the ends of the earth with every<\/em> grace, every<\/em> charism, and every<\/em> gift that the Trinity destined for man from the moment of Adam’s birth to the present “as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come”<\/em> (Matt 24:14). What was lost will be recovered; what has decayed will be restored; what is budding will, then, fully blossom. <\/p>\n

And that means, most especially, the “Gift of living in the Divine Will.”<\/p>\n

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THE VERY CENTER<\/p>\n

The very smallest point, the very center of the Church’s life is the Divine Will. And by this, I do not mean a mere “To do” list. Rather, the Divine Will is the very interior life and power of God expressed in the “fiats” of Creation, Redemption, and now, Sanctification. Jesus said to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:<\/p>\n

My descent upon earth, taking on human flesh, was precisely this \u2014 to lift up humanity again and give to my Divine Will the rights to reign in this humanity, because by reigning in my Humanity, the rights of both sides, human and divine, were placed in force again.<\/em><\/strong><\/span> \u2014Jesus to Luisa, Feb. 24th, 1933; The Crown of Sanctity: On the Revelations of Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta (p. 182). Kindle Edition, Daniel. O\u2019Connor<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This was the entire purpose of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection: that what was done in Him <\/em>may now be done in us. <\/em>This is \"\"
\nthe key to understanding the “Our Father”:<\/p>\n

It would not be inconsistent with the truth to understand the words, <\/strong><\/span><\/span>\u201cThy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span> to mean: \u201cin the Church as in our Lord Jesus Christ himself\u201d; or \u201cin the Bride who has been betrothed, just as in the Bridegroom who has accomplished the will of the Father.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/span> \u2014<\/span>Catechism of the Catholic Church, <\/em><\/span>n. 2827<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This has not yet been accomplished in time and the bounds of history.<\/p>\n

For the mysteries of Jesus are not yet completely perfected and fulfilled. They are complete, indeed, in the person of Jesus, but not in us, who are his members, nor in the Church, which is his mystical body.<\/b><\/span><\/span>\u2014St. John Eudes, treatise \u201cOn the Kingdom of Jesus\u201d,<\/span><\/span> <\/span>Liturgy of the Hours<\/i><\/span>, Vol IV, p 559<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hence, we are now living through the labor pains that are necessary to purify the Church in order to place her in the infinite<\/em> center of the Divine Will so that she may be crowned with the Gift of Living in the Divine Will… the Kingdom of the Divine Will. In this way, the “rights” of man lost in the Garden of Eden will be restored as well as the harmony<\/em> of man with both God and creation which is “groaning in labor pains even until now.”[1]<\/sup><\/a>Rom 8:22<\/span><\/span>