Dear Friends and Benefactors,
What is it about
the New Year which prompts us to make such wonderful resolutions?
And why is it
that we do not keep them for the subsequent twelve months?
The first minute of the New Year we rejoice and make
merry, we congratulate our family, friends, and neighbours, and ...
we start to forget our good resolutions! And yet, on the very first
day of the year, while we feast and celebrate, Mother Church sobers
us with the salutary thought of the first blood and first suffering
of the Holy Child, the Feast of the Circumcision; and, in the same
vein, the liturgy of the following week presents us with the
tribulations of the Holy Family. What a contrast!.
No matter how simple our New Year's resolutions may be,
we have become experts at formulating every possible pretext to make
exceptions: "The family Rosary? Oh, yes, it can wait until tomorrow,
we are all so tired this evening anyway"; "But of course, you
must smoke a last cigarette on such an important day"; "And,
by Jove, why shouldn't she have just one more pint to
celebrate the arrival of the new year? It may be her last!" It seems
like there is always one final-last-time yet to come. Tomorrow –we
say– we shall start tomorrow... for tomorrow never comes. We make
so many excuses. But the truth remains, implacable: we lack spirit
of sacrifice, and we lack perseverance, our good resolutions often
remaining a Christmas dream with a residual feeling of slight guilt.
The problem is that we modern men dislike sacrifice and
perseverance. We happily avoid them when they relate to the matters
of the soul. But we are ready and even eager to go through long and
often painful practices when the gain achieved is merely a human
one. Think of how much certain people are ready to suffer in order
to obtain success in business, triumph in sports, honours, influence
or power, academic accomplishments, or think of those heroic diets
to lose excessive weight, and who knows how many other endeavours
which require constant efforts and determination. For the world,
everything; for God's glory and for our sanctification, so very
little... Worldly people, engaged in pursuing purely natural ends,
sometimes put us Catholics to shame.
So what should be done in order to overcome our
weakness? I don't know of a general cure, but I can propose
something: let us try to understand the value and the beauty of
mortification, at the light of Jesus Christ crucified, our perfect
model.
St. Paul himself coined the word mortification,
tracing an analogy between
Christ dying and rising to an immortal life, and His followers who
renounce their past life of sin and rise through grace to a new life
of holiness. If you live after the flesh you shall die, but if
through the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall
live (Rom. VIII, 13).
From this original use of the term, we see that mortification,
though under one aspect it is a law of death, under another and more
fundamental aspect it is a law of life, and does not destroy but
elevates our nature. What it slays is the disease of the soul, and
by slaying this it restores and invigorates the soul's true life. It
makes us truly happy in God's service!
Mortification destroys and prevents
sin, the one mortal disease of the soul, impelling us to penitence.
It overcomes temptations by inducing the will to accept hardships,
however grave, rather than yield to the evil inspirations of the
world, the devil, and the flesh. It purifies our soul as well by
atoning for our past sins, and it satisfies for the temporal
punishment which otherwise should be paid for in Purgatory.
Furthermore, regular practice of mortification cures bad habits and
implants good ones, thus helping us to achieve that relative
perfection to which we are all called. It is not so difficult.
Those apparently small sacrifices of every day are in fact very
precious and much needed for our sanctification. As my old spiritual
director in the Seminary used to repeat, "only saints go to Heaven,"
and we must become saints here on earth by the daily practice of
mortification; the only alternative being a painful stay in
Purgatory. The reward is worth the effort! So, be faithful to your
resolutions for the New Year!
Maybe we fail in keeping them because we forget an essential
element: grace. What is peculiar to
Christian mortification is that it relies on
the aid of divine grace, and not so much on our efforts. A fruitful
mortification must be accompanied by an intense prayer life, always
in union with Our Lord crucified. Sometimes the mortifications
practiced by devout persons do not procure any apparent effect,
other than a painful and disagreeable exercise from which they get
quickly tired; maybe they forgot to purify and strengthen their
intention in the pure waters of God's holy grace. It is in prayer
and in the reception of the Sacraments that we will acquire the
incentive and the reason to practice and even to love mortification.
This is why we should all learn by heart the beautiful prayer that
Our Lady herself taught the children at Fatima, to be said every
time we make a sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of Thee, for
the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed
against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We
will also be encouraged to make sacrifices if we assign them a
special intention: the conversion of a dear one, vocations to the
priesthood and the religious life, relief and deliverance for the
Poor Souls, the exaltation of the Faith, the consecration of Russia
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the end of the iniquitous abortion
laws, praying for the Holy Father, and so many, many other
intentions which will keep our enthusiasm alive.
And how about making a retreat this year? We will preach one for
women here in Dublin, from March 1st to the 5th
. It is a great yearly opportunity which you should not miss.
May 2004 be a year of great blessings for our dear Country, for the
world, and for the Holy
Church. We can make it happen
with our fidelity, prayers, and sacrifice.
Enclosed the most recent letter of His Lordship Bishop Bernard
Fellay, to be read and meditated, and to pass on to others.
Please keep praying for us and helping financially the apostolate of
our Priestly Society in Ireland. Your four priests at Dun Laoghaire
bless you and love you.
In
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, truly grateful,
Father Ramón
Anglés
