115: The Angels and the Word of God

We imagine the invisible world as having God (the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) and the Saints. Seeing the Saints as friends, filled with the love of Jesus, we understand that their friendship, prayer and help doesn't stop with their death.

Sometimes we tend to forget the existence of the Angels, with all their grades, while in fact they have a very important and constant role to play in our life and salvation. If you want to remove the Angels, then not only will you have to remove large portions of the Scriptures and Tradition, but as well, many things will be lacking.

We think that during our prayer the interaction is only about God and us. Our understanding of prayer and “intimacy” with God is thought of as something of a silent and empty world, which only God and us inhabit. Significantly, however, Zachariah was at Prayer when God sent him his Messenger, GABRIEL. Similarly Mary was very probably at Prayer when God sent her his Messenger, GABRIEL.

Intimacy with God is often seen as something exclusive. However, Saint John of the Cross gives us an important answer to this question (in the Spiritual Canticle):

1- The Angels will always continue to be present in our lives, from day one, till the last day, so it is better to pay attention to this spiritual Friend, sent by God to help us and protect us. If you doubt this, you can contemplate Jesus himself, who is in His Human Nature Holy, the Holiest, and see how the Angels are present ans serve and help him (when He is tempted in the Desert, and when He prays in the Garden before his Passion). Are we better than Jesus? Stronger than Jesus? More intimate with God the Father than the Son Incarnate? So, keep this in mind, you will have them and need them. Your Master did, as a man, so you will have to.. with all the more reason.

2- Saint John of the Cross says (in the Spiritual Canticle) that the Angels play an important role in the long first stage of Spiritual Life Growth. They Transmit to us God's Messages, God's Word. Do you have doubts about this? Well remember what Gabriel says about himself and what Elisabeth says about Mary:

“I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.” (Luke 1:19-20)

“Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfilment of those things [words] which were told her from the Lord.” (Luke 1:45)

We see, then, that a Messenger is a being who transmits a Message, in our case, a Word from God. He carries something that doesn't belong to him, something sacred. This is what you see in the first quote from St Luke: Gabriel makes it clear: he is not doing something on his own, of his own personal private initiative: He is Standing in Front of God. No games, no tricks, this is SERIOUS. He is not doing or transmitting anything that is not From God, willingly sent by God himself. So the respect you owe to the Sender (God) is the same respect you owe to the Message his messenger is sending according to His order. This is why St Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, says that this is the way God governs the world: He sends orders, He sends Messengers, and they execute his orders. He uses myriads of Angels to govern the world. So, there is nothing wrong in considering that the Angels are God's Messengers, God's Transmitters. This is the meaning of the word Angel: messenger.

“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For My Angel will go before you […].” (Exodus 23:20-23)

But, when the spiritual person is growing, you reach a point where two things happen at the same time: one may confuse the messenger with the Sender, and the Message itself needed is becoming of greater significance. This is why St John of the Cross says to God at that spiritual juncture: “stop sending me Messengers of your beauty, the one I need is you Jesus”. It doesn't mean that from day one the Messengers are not serving this purpose. Not at all. It means only that the growth of the Soul, and the possible confusion this produces, make the Soul become wider and wider, more thirsty, and make her shout loudly: I want more, and the One I want is you Jesus.

As we said above, this doesn't mean that the person, now reaching a new step in her growth, will then forget completely about the Angels; no. It is just means a huge step forward is being taken. Remember as well, in order to be faithful to St John of the Cross, he thought that he was asking God not only to stop “fooling” him with smaller “messengers of his beauty” like Angels, but he mentions as well Nature, as a Messenger of God's beauty. You can apply this distinction and desire for Christ himself and His entirety to everything (think of the small things we stop to look at sometimes in the Bible, while at a certain point the soul is that purified and ready that its thirst for Christ becomes huge: thirst for Christ in a new way, i.e. in His entirety).

Small words (like crumbs) now are not enough, the soul wants THE WORD of GOD Incarnate: Jesus.

Now, let us remain in the long first stage of spiritual life (in the majority of persons is takes sadly years, and very few cross it, not that God doesn't want this to happen, but the “engines” that push for growth aren not well known and used): God Messengers are conveying to us His Word. Of course with the Holy Spirit.

Don't you think that like the word of God we have words that are not from God? The Word of God carries Divine Life, the Holy Spirit. The words that don't come from God, are carrying death, the reduction/shrinking, of our being. These words exist. There are hardly any neutral words. And if there are, they reduce our being to a small object of consideration. Take Science for example: Science is science, it is rampant, it doesn't fly to God. It needs God to open our soul, so that Science becomes the sign of a bigger Being. Science then belongs to a different level of contemplation! One has to go from it, and be elevated by God, in order to be able to see the beauty of God in it. This is illustrates the neutral words one can meet in one's life.

What about the rest of the words that nourish our mind, will, heart and freedom everyday? What about the words that shape our decisions everyday? From where do they come? Are they all from God?

Let us remember that we have three sources of words that are NOT Divine Life and Holy Spirit. Those sources are very well present to us, often unconsciously, but very well acting in us.

1- The world, 2- the flesh, and 3- the Devil/Satan and his angels. The three of them convey to us words, constantly, often unconsciously, but efficiently, and bear their fruits in us, through us.

These are three messengers, carriers, of words that are not Life and Spirit, Divine Life, and Holy Spirit.

As we acknowledge the existence of Angels, as Messengers of God, daily carriers of His Words, we have to acknowledge the existence of three other carriers, who carry other words, that are very bad, carrying death, death of our mind, death of our will, making us shrink more and more, and fall into darker areas. Mind you, sometimes we are so used to those words coming from the world, the flesh, and the devil, that we are not aware anymore about what the Light is and what difference it makes. We get used to the darkness and to its light. It is like when you go out dancing: you are in a big room, that is dark, full of loud noise, and you spend hours there, and you are not aware at all of what is happening to you. On the contrary, you call this life, fun, entertainment! Well, for a while!

So, let us become more aware of these different messengers, and let us become aware of the words they send us. Let us open our minds to a deeper and more differentiated way to understand the word: “words”. What is that food that we feed our souls with? Are they good or poisonous? It is exactly like certain things we eat: we find the taste delicious but when we read about the ingredients, we find that a lot of will power is needed to decide to overcome that fake artificial taste and attraction to it, in order to refrain from that “rubbish” that you are eating and “liking”.

Yes it requires awareness, Grace of God, to stop eating dead words, and turn to God, and listen to His Messengers, and to the Message, Divine Word, they carry to you.

I am sure “you are with me”! Let us pray for each other, let us choose our friends, let the choice fall on the ones who took the determined decision to seek the Divine Words, that give Divine Life. Are you ProDivineLife? Are you ProDivineWords?

Let us pray for each other, let us ask the Prayers of the Angels, let us be attentive to their Constant Presence and service to our soul, searching our Good all the time, always available to help and rejoicing when we turn, determined, to God, and God's Words.

St. Padre Pio

Prayer to the Guardian Angel

"O Holy Guardian Angel,
take care of my soul and my body.

Enlighten my mind to know the Lord better

and love Him with all my heart.

Assist me in my prayers to do not fall into distractions

but you keep the greatest attention.

Help me with your advice, to recognise the good and perform it with generosity.

Rescue me from the snares of the infernal enemy
and uphold me in temptations to always win them.

Replace me in my coldness while worshipping of the Lord:

not cease to attend to my custody

until you will bring me to Paradise,

where together we will praise the Good Lord for all eternity."

52: P Pio, the Stigmata and Jesus' Passion

Two days ago I was watching a film on P Pio. P Pio is the first Priest to receive the Lord's Stigmata (His 5 physical wounds: 2 hands, 2 feet, and the side) . For 50 years, he lived what in fact was lived by the Lord during few hours: His Holy Passion.

What a mystery! Jesus comes amongst us, in us, through us, and lives again and again His Unique and unrepeatable Passion.

The amazing thing with P Pio is that what was very common during the first 3 Centuries of Christianity, but lived for only few hours or maybe few days, he lived it for 50 years! I mean by that what the Martyrs went through: participating into the Passion of the Lord, or better said, as the accounts of the Martyrs point it out: Jesus comes in the Martyr and suffers again and again, in His "Mystical Body", His Passion (please do delve in the early accounts of the Christian Martyrs). Martyrs are the Passion of Jesus extended in time.

Some might think that these things are a bit “too much”, or a “catholic deviation”. Well, not really. Remember that saint Luke, in his second work, the Act of the Apostles, when he mentions the first Martyr (Stephen), he takes great care of showing him following the steps of Jesus, almost dying like Jesus (Acts chapter 7): being persecuted, martyred to death, and forgiving his murderers. Saint Luke shows us that if Jesus is seated that the Right Hand of the Father, He is in His "Mystical Body" as well, on earth, continuing his suffering, His Passion and His work of salvation. Salvation has been done once and for ever on the Cross. But this unique Passion has to reach people and in order to do so, Jesus wants us to help Him, to give Him space and time (give Him our existence), so He can come in us, and continue to live His Mystery and His Salvation. There are no two (or more) salvations, there is only one. But this only one needs to reach all humans; and this relies on us. This is why Jesus says (see John 15): be in Me and Me in you, so you can “do” something. The only “action” of the Lord is “to save”. So, in order to let Him save through us, we need to dwell in Him and Him in us.

P Pio is just an example of what should be normal for us. I don't mean that we all have to receive the visible stigmata, but there is plenty to delve in as for "sufferings" in order to help Jesus. Some might still doubt that and would like to allow it only for few exceptions. This is wrong. You may go back to the series of 11 diagrams describing the total length of our Spiritual Journey of growth (please click here). You'll notice that, in the end of our journey, in the descending curve, all of us are invited to “participate to the Passion of the Lord". Note that there is another moment, much before this one, where we meet and benefit from the Passion of the Lord, in order to be purified: this would be in the ascending curve (see the Diagram).

Remember saint Paul, and please consider carefully what he says, because he went through the same journey: “I do not live, but Jesus lives in me”, “I complete in my flesh what lacks in the Passion of Jesus, for the Church His body”, and as well: “I carry in my body the stigmata of Jesus” (Ga 6:17).

I am sure you noticed that powerful expression: “the stigmata of Jesus” (in Greek saint Paul says: “Stigmata”). For people who still doubt that, let us read this long passage of saint Paul. Please do read it, having in mind P Pio, all his life, the 50 years baring the Stigmata of Jesus:

“But we have this Treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing Power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

We always carry around in our body the Death of Jesus, so that the Life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but Life is at work in you.

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.” (2 Co 7,7-15)

This passage in itself deserves a long commentary. Don't you think?

23: “Fortitude” and “Sacred Threshold”

Yesterday I was at Mass, and, in his homily, the priest commented on saint Thomas More. It is always very poignant to see any human being, young or old, going through trials and ordeals with strength. 'Martyrdom' and 'the way to martyrdom' are something fascinating and emotional. Well I speak for myself at least.

Martyrdom is the highest grace one can receive in a lifetime, it is as well the highest rank in holiness. The closest to Christ himself, THE MARTYR par excellence!

Experience, knowledge and discernment tell us that we can see and understand “martyrdom” in a human way, as if it was a matter of personal strength. A bit like an athlete (and the image is used by saint Paul see Acts 20:24; Gal 2:2; Ph 3,12-14; 1^st Tim 4:7; 1Tm 4:8; 1^stCo 9:24-27) who prepares himself for years and years. Olympics are close now and remind us of the values of “effort”, “perseverance”, “professionalism”, “achievement”, and hopefully the “Gold medal”.

We can read and interpret the Strength we observe in the Martyr as “something of another class”.

Pope John XXIII once said that when he read for the first time saint Thérèse's writings ("The Story of a soul") he felt he was reading not the story of the “little Flower of Lisieux” but the story of “a steel bar”. Her own sister, Céline, the one who became Sister Geneviève, said that the most prominent “virtue” in Thérèse was: “Fortitude” (la Force).

Hummm, that leaves us no better informed.

Saint Teresa of Avila speaks a lot about “determination”. Remember her famous expression “determinada determinación” (determined determination). She mentions how this steel determination is important in order to grow in spiritual life. She even dares to say that the trials the “contemplative” people (read: monks, cloistered nuns) face are infinitely greater than the ones the “active” ones face. Would you believe it? How many times I heard people saying: "ah these nuns, how happy life they lead – the cloistered ones!" "They are always so smiling!" Do they know that these “refined metals” are prepared in a very though “melting pot”?

I do read as well these words of Jesus: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force” (Mt 11,12).

What is this "violence"? what is the “Violence” required in order to “enter the kingdom”? A “violence” that will make us cross the threshold of the “kingdom”. I remember as well that there is a “threshold”, a “door”, a “narrow door”: “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:20) I hope you'll remember that the righteousness of the Pharisees in putting into practice Moses' Law was already impressive and very “athletic”: see how saint Paul describes himself as “Pharisee, son of Pharisees” (Acts 23:6), “being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers” (Gal 1:14).

What is this sacred “threshold”?

We need to become like children in order to enter in the “kingdom”; to go through the eye of the needle. Mt 18:13: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”.

To change, and become like little children, is an adult choice. The most difficult. We don't have toward God the trust and the capacity of abandonment that a child has. We lost it while going through teenage time, and early adulthood. The tough world of adults made us tough. But, in fact, it is a weakness, not a strength. Not being able to make a total act of trust, of abandonment and not being able of entrusting ourselves to God, this is a sign of weakness. Wouldn't you agree?

When Jesus puts clearly, in black and white, the conditions to follow Him, we feel we reach a dead end. Remember the rich young man: (well, if you look carefully, we are all “rich” and “young”, at least “rich” by our desires) Jesus shows him the “threshold”: “Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Mk 10:21)

What happens to the young man?
“At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” 

It doesn't stop here, what comes after is the most enlightening teaching ever: “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again: “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”” This is his way to say: it is simply impossible. “The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

“difficult” or “impossible”?

At this junction one has to pay great attention. It is not “difficult” to enter the kingdom, it is simply “impossible”. Our last richness we have to sell is our “ego” (being attached to oneself). Can we get rid of this huge mountain? Move it? Remove it? The reaction of the disciples is really a huge light that crosses the whole Gospel, because the threshold, the entrance door, that allows us to enter in the Trinity, is simply crossing the whole Gospel. It is a central matter in Jesus' teaching on “how to enter the kingdom”.

“who then (with these conditions) can be saved”, who can enter the kingdom? Who can have that Strength, that Fortitude, these “muscles”, that training that would allow him to enter the kingdom?

I LOVE Jesus' answer: “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.””

The day we understand that Christianity is not only “an amazing religion” (as Gandhi said it, and many others from other religions who read the Sermon on the Mount for instance), “with very high ideal” (think of: “love your enemy”, “pray for him/her”, and “do them good”), not only “a very difficult religion”, but simply an “impossible religion” to put into practice, then we start to become Christians.

It is simply “impossible” to become Christian, to be Christian! I mean by that: it is impossible for our own forces to live really by the Sermon on the Mount (read Matthew 5-7). Don't dream of that, don't fool yourself. If you say it is “difficult”, then your understanding of “Fortitude”, “the Fortitude of the saints”, “the Fortitude of the Martyrs” is not there yet, you are not getting it. You just see it humanly.

Do we see the conditions to “enter the kingdom” AS they are? Do we give them some “make up”, or “paint brushing”, or “photoshop retouch” in order to adapt them to us, to our aesthetic views or to our understanding? Do we see that they are not only “tough”, “difficult” but mostly and simply: impossible to us, to our own forces? Do we see the difference between : “difficult” and “impossible”?

- “difficult” means: that with “a lot of effort, perseverance, and inner strength” we will get there. “difficult” means as well sometimes, in our popular understanding of holiness that some are “born saints” (some think of that about saints, like P Pio) and others not.

- “impossible” means what? “impossible” means that one needs to let go, one needs to decide, with a virile strength, to rely on God (like a child) and ask for His Holy Spirit: because He wants to give us His Holy Spirit.

“Ask you'll receive”. We know that “proverb” very well. These are not just an English Proverb, they are Jesus' words, they open us the Kingdom, they help us, as adults, “become like children”. It looks very simple, “too simple” that we are not used to it. We prefer to pay our own bills, with our own money, earned by the sweat of our own brow. We don't know that “new language” of “asking in order to receive”. It is so alien to us, that it costs us an arm and a leg to get to do it, and to transform it into a new habit. We prefer to deserve what we receive. We are not used to “free things”, not used to “receive freely”, and less to “ask for it”, yes, just “ask for it”. Heaven is right above our head, but is might be closed from years. We can't imagine it that close and in fact: opened, wide opened, waiting for us to just: ask.

Are we decided and determined for the “impossible” religion?

Or, are we still fooling ourselves with a “fantastic religion”... that is really never put into practice? It is not by going to Church every Sunday that we become Catholic, or remain Catholic. So sorry to say that. It requires simply the whole Gospel to be put into practice, it requires the “impossible religion”, the fantastic but impossible “conditions of Christ” to become reality in us. Are we ready for that challenge? Let us just go back to the fundamentals: Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5 through to 7.

One more step

- What is the most difficult task Jesus' disciples had to go through during their lives?

- To follow Jesus in His Passion.

The strong, generous, fervent Peter, the one who was ready to die for Jesus (see John 13), didn't really make it (see John 18). The strongest person on earth in this very tough, dark, dramatic moment is simply a woman: Mary, the mother of Jesus, his first disciple, the New Eve.

“Mary, give us your heart, your docile heart, so we can “ask and receive”, so we can be docile to Jesus, to His impossible words. You are the one who believed that all what He says is possible to God, that if Jesus-God says something it is totally possible, by the Holy Spirit, to put it into practice. Mary, show us the Way, transform, with your prayers for us, the “heart of stone” into a “heart of flesh”, at the image of yours, you the Archetype of the Disciple, the Mother of the Martyr, Martyr yourself in your Heart. Then, learning to be docile, like you, we'll be filled by the Holy Spirit, the Love of God, and then we'll be able to follow Jesus, as you did, with Fortitude.”