Healthy Spirituality

Today will see another writing from St. Alberto Hurtado.  Here he speaks about what represents a healthy spirituality.  He was perhaps even ahead of his time a bit, as today many people look in all kinds of direction for spirituality, but fail to look at the right place: the Scriptures!  This hypothesis of mine was confirmed by the most recent Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini #86: "The Word of God is at the basis of all authentic Christian spirituality."

What did St. Alberto have to say?  I think what he says is brilliant and true.  Here is what he wrote:

A Healthy Spirituality

Those who are concerned about the spiritual life are not numerous and unfortunately, among them, not all are on a sure path.  How many have made their meditation and their spiritual reading for dozens of years without much benefit?  How many are more concerned about following a method rather than the Holy Spirit?  How many wish to literally imitate the practices of one saint or another?  How many aspire to extraordinary states, to the wonderful, to sensible graces?  How many forget that they are part of suffering humanity and create an egotistic religion that does not remember these brothers and sisters?  How many read and reread the manuals, or search for recipes without ever really understanding the Gospel, without ever remembering Paul? 

For others, the spiritual life is confused with pious practices: spiritual reading, prayer, examen.  The active life comes to be like a band-aid that is applied but is not a prolongation or a preparation for the interior life.  The concerns of ordinary life, the difficulties to be overcome, the duties of our state in life are kept out of prayer: it seems unworthy to mix God with these banalities. 

In this fashion a complicated and artificial spiritual life is forged.  Instead of searching for God in the circumstances where He has placed us, in the profound needs of our own personality, in the circumstances of our temporal and local milieu, we prefer to act as though we were in the abstract.  God and real life never appear together in the same area of thought and of love.  We struggle to maintain an affective sentimentalism toward the divine and with enormous effort we maintain our gaze fixed on God to sublimate ourselves intensely, or, on the contrary, we content ourselves with sugary formulas taken from so called pious books.  All this brings to mind the comment of Pascal: man is neither angel nor beast but he who wishes to be like an angel, acts like a beast.

Even more serious: priests, men of study, who work with the supernatural, preachers who spend their days dedicated to the miseries of their brothers, in aiding them, will try to disassociate themselves from the memory of the poor while they assist at Mass.  Apostles overwhelmed with responsibilities for the Kingdom of God will consider it almost a fault to find themselves distracted by their concerns and anxieties. 

As though all our life should not be oriented toward God, as though thinking about everything for God, weren’t the same as thinking in God; or as if we could liberate ourselves by our own free will from the concerns that God Himself has put before us.  On the other hand, it is so easy, so necessary, to raise ourselves to God, to lose ourselves in Him starting from our own misery, our failures, our great desires.  Why then would we try to cast them from us instead of using them as a springboard? Then let us throw down the bridge of faith, hope and love between our soul and God. 

A healthy spirituality gives all spiritual methods their relative importance but not the exaggerated importance given by some.  A healthy spirituality is one that accommodates itself to individuals and personalities.  It adapts itself to temperaments, to education, culture, experiences, means, states, circumstances, generosity. It takes each one as he is, in his full human life, in the midst of temptation, in his work, in all his obligations.  The Spirit blows wherever it pleases;  you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going (cf. Jn 3,8); it uses each one for its divine ends respecting the personal development of each, for the construction of the great collective work that is the Church.  Every person serves a purpose in this march of humanity towards God; all find their tasks in the construction of the Church; the work of each one, which is dear to God, will be revealed in the circumstances in which God has placed them and by the light given to them at each moment.  The only spirituality that suits us is the one which introduces us into the divine plan, in accord with our own dimensions, in order to realize this plan in total obedience.   

Any method that is too rigid, any direction that is too absolute, any substitution of the letter for the spirit, any failure to take into account one’s individual reality, will achieve nothing more than to decrease one’s progress toward God.

Any method imposed with uniformity will prove to be false.  Likewise will prove false all those methods that pretend to lead us to God by making us forget our brothers and sisters; all that causes us to shut our eyes to anything beyond the universe instead of teaching us to open them in order to elevate all to the Creator of all being; all those that make us egoists, folded back upon ourselves; all those that pretend to frame our lives from the outside without penetrating us interiorly in order to transform us; all those that give humans the advantage over God . 

When we compare the Gospel to the lives of the majority of us, we as Christians feel uncomfortable. The majority of us have forgotten that we are the salt of the earth, the light on the candlestick, the yeast in the mass (cf. Mt 5, 13-15).  The breath of the Spirit does not animate many Christians; rather a spirit of mediocrity consumes us.  There are among us active people, too active, perhaps agitated is a better word; however the causes that consume us are not the cause of Christianity.  

After looking at oneself over and over and at what one finds around oneself, I take the Gospel, turn to St. Paul and here I find a Christianity that is all fire, all life, all conquering; a true Christianity that takes all of a person, that rectifies all of life, that exhausts all activity.  It is like an incandescent river of burning lava that gushes from the very depths of religion.

Surrender to the Creator! In every devout spiritual path there is always the beginnings of the gift of oneself.  If we multiply the readings, the prayers, the examens without arriving finally at the gift of oneself, this is a sign that we have failed. Before any practice, method or exercise a generous and universal offering of one’s entire being, all that one has and possesses is demanded.  The secret of all progress is in this complete offering of oneself, an act of the spirit and of the will, whereby we are brought into contact with God in faith and love.

St. Alberto Hurtado

I find it difficult to believe that an entire week has gone by without me posting anything, but the date on my previous post doesn't lie!!!  Anyway, I have been fairly busy, because a French Passionist priest friend of mine from Lourdes is here visiting in Rome.  I have been attempting to help him around and visit a few sites with him.  I know... excuses, excuses.  As it is attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux as saying: "Hell is paved with good intentions."  Therefore, no more excuses!

Today, in my studies, I randomly came across a saint of whom I was very unfamiliar: St. Alberto Hurtado.  I fell in love with the man very quickly reading some of his writings.  He was a Chilean Jesuit who died in 1952.  I would like to share with you today one of those writings which I read.  Let us beware of the erroneous ways of imitating Christ.

"Our Imitation of Christ

Talk given to professors and students at a 1940 conference at Catholic University.

All sanctification consists in knowing Christ and in imitating him. The entire Gospel and all the saints are filled with this ideal, which is the Christian ideal par excellence. To live in Christ; to be transformed into Christ… St. Paul tells us: “I had no thought of bringing you any other knowledge than that of Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1Cor 2,2)… “I live now not I but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2,20).  The task of all the saints is to achieve the Pauline ideal to live the life of Christ, in the measure of their capabilities and in accord with the graces given to each. To imitate Christ, meditate on his life and follow his example… The most popular book in the Church after the Gospels is the Imitation of Christ, but in how many different ways this imitation has been understood!

A. Erroneous ways of imitating Christ

1. For some, the imitation of Christ is reduced to a study of the historical Jesus.  They search for the historical Christ and stay with this. They study him. They read the Gospel, investigate the chronology, study the customs of the Jewish people… And their study, more scientific than spiritual, is cold and inert. The imitation of Christ for them is reduced to a literal copy of his life. But it is not this. No: “The spirit is life giving; the letter kills” (2Cor 3,6).

2. For others, the imitation of Christ is rather a speculative affair. They see in Jesus a great legislator; one who solves all the human problems, the sociologist par excellence; the artist who delights in nature, who is pleased to be with the little ones… For some, he is an artist, a philosopher, a reformer, a sociologist and they contemplate him, admire him but do not change their lives because of him. Christ remains only in their intelligence and in their sensitivity, but has not pervaded their lives. 

3. Another group, believing that they imitate him, concern themselves only with the observance of his commandments, being faithfully observant of divine and ecclesiastical law. They are scrupulous in the practice of fasting and abstinence. They contemplate the life of Christ as a prolonged duty and our lives as a duty that prolongs that of Christ. To the laws given by Christ, they add others to fill the voids in such a way that all life becomes a continuous set of obligations and duties, a rule of perfection in total ignorance of liberty of spirit.  

The focus of their attention is not Christ but sin. The essential sacrament of the Church is not the Eucharist, nor baptism but confession. Their only concern is to flee sin.  For them, the imitation of Christ means to escape bad thoughts, to escape all danger, limit the liberty of the world and be suspicious of evil intentions in all the events of life. No, this is not the imitation of Christ that we propose.  This could well be the attitude of the Pharisees but not that of Christ.

4. For yet others, the imitation of Christ is apostolic activism, a multiplication of efforts to give direction to the apostolate, a continuous movement to create ever more works, to multiply meetings and associations. Some situate the triumph of Catholicism purely in political attitudes.  For others, the accent is on torchlight processions, monster meetings, the founding of a periodical… I say that these things are not necessarily the answer. All things are necessary but these are not what is essential to Catholicism. 

B. The True Solution   

In the first place, our religion does not consist in a reconstruction of the historical Christ; nor a purely metaphysical, sociological or political Christ; nor is it only a cold and sterile struggle against sin; nor is it primarily an attitude of conquest. Neither does it consist in doing what Christ did, our civilization and conditions of life are so different!

Our imitation of Christ consists in living the life of Christ, in having this inner and outer attitude that in all things we are conformed to Christ, doing what Christ would do if he were in my place.

The first thing essential if we are to imitate Christ is to be assimilated into him by grace, which is participation in the divine life. Consequently, one should esteem above all else baptism, which initiates us into divine life, the Eucharist, which sustains it and gives us Christ and penance for its recovery when lost. 

Possessing this life, we must endeavor to put it into action in all the circumstances of life through the practice of all the virtues which Christ practiced, in particular charity, the virtue most loved by Christ. 

The historical incarnation necessarily restricted Christ and his divine-human life to a limited space and time. The mystical incarnation which is the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, does away with all restrictions and amplifies itself to include all times and places where there are baptized. The divine life appears throughout the world. The historical Christ was a Jew and lived in Palestine in the time of the Roman Empire. The mystical Christ is Chilean, French, German, African… and lives in the 20^th century… He is a teacher, a merchant, an engineer, lawyer, worker, prisoner or a king… He is all Christians who live in the grace of God, aspire to integrate their lives in the norms of the life of Christ, in their most secret aspirations. And to aspire always to do whatever one does as Christ would do it were he in one’s place. To teach engineering, the law… as Christ would do it… to perform surgery with the delicacy of Christ…, to treat one’s students with the gentle, loving and respectful firmness of Christ, to interest oneself in them as Christ would were he in one’s place. To travel as Christ would travel, to pray as Christ used to pray, to behave in politics, economy, in your domestic life as Christ would.

This supposes a knowledge of the Gospels and of Church tradition and a struggle against sin, it includes metaphysics, esthetics, sociology, and an ardent spirit of conquest… but not a primal dependence on them.  If one fails, humanly speaking, if success does not crown the apostolate, one must not grow impatient.  The only defeat consists in failing to be Christ because of apostasy or sin.

This is the Catholicism of a Francis of Assisi, of Ignatius and Xavier and of so many young and not so young who live their daily lives as married couples, teachers, single men and women, students, religious, athletes, politicians, with the criterion of being Christ. These are the beacons that convert souls and save nations."

I found this to be an astute evaluation of Christianity today, even though it was written 70 years ago!  May we become the saints God wants us to become: the beacons that convert souls and save nations!

Immaculate Conception

Feast Day

Today is the beautiful feast of the Immaculate Conception.  It was on this day 9 years ago that the Mission Society of Mandeville was founded in Bull Savannah by Bishop Boyle.  What a memorable day that was!  May the Blessed Virgin Mary continue to guide our little religious family there where Her Son wants us to be!  May we always be faithful sons of the Church and devoted servants of Her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.  Please pray for the Mission Society, for vocations to the Society, and for the holiness of its members.

Seeing their faith!

Is 35, 1-10, Ps 84, Lk 5, 17-26

What I found extremely interesting about today's gospel (and, for some reason, this had never really struck me before) is that Jesus tells the paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven after "seeing their faith", i.e., the faith of those who were carrying him on his cot.  In other words, it seems that Luke is trying to say that people's sins can be forgiven by God after seeing the faith of others.  This is another great sign of hope.  By our simple acts of faith, as simple as helping someone in their illness, we can help move God to forgive others their sins.  Jesus had said that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains... certainly the forgiveness of sins by God is much greater than moving mountains.  Let us ask daily for an increase of faith!

Gift giving!

Readings for 2nd Sunday of Advent: Is 11:1-10, Ps 71, Rm 15:4-9, Mt 3, 1-12
Of course, Italy has little meditation books for everyday of the week like Magnificat which exists in France and the US.  I liked the thought behind the meditation book which I have.  It talks about gift giving.  You, like myself, might think it kind of strange to be talking about giving gifts on the 2nd Sunday of Advent, but I liked the thought.  Here is a kind of summary of what is written in "Messa Meditazione".

When we think about giving gifts, we are forced to think about the person to whom we want to give the gift.  We want to please that person, so we choose something we think he/she likes and/or needs.  In order for this gift to "function", a couple of things have to happen.  First, the giver must know the other person in order to think of just the right gift.  Secondly, the receiver has to be disposed to receive/accept the gift.  This happens also in our meetings with God.  His desire to give Himself to us must be met with our readiness to accept His gift.  This readiness, in today's gospel, is called "conversion".  The Greek term "metanoia" evokes a "change of mind" or "change of perspective".  The change to which we are called is to accept that the gift of the love of God isn't won or merited, but must be received and welcomed by us.

Therefore, let us welcome the love of God as He presents Himself to us in our day-to-day lives: in our struggles, our joys... in everything.  Let us think of one aspect of our life that needs much "conversion".  Let's ask God to help us change this aspect for the better so that we can love Him more and serve Him better.

"Oh God, I Love You"

Since today is the memorial of St. Francis Xavier, co-patron of the Missions, I thought it would be a good idea to share this video with my readers. My we learn to love God like Francis did and may our love carry us to bring that message of love to the ends of the earth. O God, increase our love for you. O Mary, you who love your Son the most, teach me to love God with your maternal love and care.

Advent reading

As my readers may have noticed, I have trying to comment on the daily Scripture readings for Advent.  Today, however, I would just like to recommend a little Advent "penance".  Why don't we all take up the latest Apostolic Exhortation on the Word of God, "Verbum Domini" and try to complete it during this Advent season.  Perhaps it will be an eye-opener for some of us, for others, an occasion to become more familiar with their Bibles, and, for others, a simple rediscovery of their Christian roots.  Happy Advent reading to all!

Compassion for all

Dec. 1 (Is 25: 6-10 and Mt 15: 29-37)

I find that there is a link between today's readings and a topic that we recently looked at in our Sacraments class: that of the fate of unbaptized children who die without receiving baptism.  Isaiah says, "Look, this is our God, in him we put our hope that he should save us, this is Yahweh, we put our hope in him.  Let us exult and rejoice since he has saved us."  Jesus says in today's gospel, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat..."  In 2007, the International Theological Commission made a fairly lengthly study on this topic of the fate of unbaptized infants who die without being baptized. The end result of the report is that we cannot say with any certainty what happens.  However, there are grounds for great hope that there is a way in which God can also save these infants... even perhaps aborted fetuses.

In looking at this issue, it is necessary to keep in mind 2 great guiding principles: 1. the necessity of baptism - "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." (Jn 3:5) and 2. the infinite mercy of God - in today's gospel, compassion comes from a Greek word which literally means "innards" or "intestines".  The people of that age felt, and quite correctly so, that true compassion and mercy is something we feel stirring inside us.  When we stop to think about it, if we, who are humans and so frail, can oftentimes muster up compassion in the face of situations which we believe to be unjust or intolerable, how much more can God who is infinitely just and compassionate!  There lies our hope.  "In him, we put our hope that he should save us!"  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, in #389, that the "doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the 'reverse side' of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need salvation, and that salvation is offered to all through Christ.  The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ."  So, this document gives a few possible ways one might conceive of circumventing the first guiding principle I mentioned above, the necessity of baptism.  I don't have time here to go through all the possible solutions, but just wanted to offer that great virtue of hope to all who might be tempted to despair in the face of troubling situations.  The Church always asks us to pray and ask for God's infinite mercy.  May we continue to be a people of hope when we bring all these souls to the altar at Mass!