AMDG
A CLOUD OF WITNESSES
 |
| Mary is overshadowed
by the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation made by the Archangel Gabriel who God
sent as His personal messenger (Painting by Philippe de Champaigne, 1644). March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation.
The
2018 annual Men’s Conference featured Mike Aquilina, a prolific author and
nationally known speaker who appeared on EWTN global television a number of
times and spoke at numerous conferences.
His morning talk, titled
“The Strength of Heaven”, showed how
the angels were effective witnesses.
Before the creation of our world, the lights in the heavens were beings
of great intelligence, the angels. God
gave them some kind of test and a third of them rejected Him and were cast into
hell.
Angels appear throughout the Old Testament. Sarah dealt harshly with Hagar, but an angel
rescued her and promised that she would have a son, Ishmael. An angel was involved in the judgment of
Sodom. An angel intervened in the sacrifice
of Isaac by Abraham. Jacob wrestled with
an angel and dreamt of a stairs to Heaven with angels. An angel touched the lips of Isaia with a
burning coal and changed his life. An
angel accompanied Tobias. Angels
disciplined the prophets.
God used angels to communicate to people as at the
Annunciation when Mary gave her fiat or yes to the great mission of being the
mother of the second person of the Holy Trinity. A chorus of angels announced the birth of
the Savior to the shepherds. Angels
guided the Magi as the light of the star.
An angel ministered to Christ in the desert during the temptations of
the devil. Another comforted our Lord
during His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Angels were at the empty tomb and at the Ascension. An angel unshackled Peter from prison and
gently put his cloak over him.
Each one of us has a guardian angel (a gift from God) whose
job is to help us to get to Heaven, to keep us on the right path although
suffering is the ordinary means to grow in the spiritual life. God expects us to use him by calling upon his/her
guardian angel for help. We can even
pray to the guardian angel of a friend in trouble. Aquilina recommended that we frequently pray
the Guardian Angel Prayer.
St.
Augustine further developed our understanding of angels. There is no obstacle to a relationship with saints
and angels. We share in God’s nature
since we are created according to His image and likeness. God does not force us to do anything.
In the right photo
there is a cloud of witnesses above and below……angels and saints from the early
Church through the centuries to today. Hopefully
we are also included because of our own personal witness.
In the afternoon talk,
Mr. Aquilina focused on the witness of the early Church martyrs in teaching us
to be witnesses today. The Roman
historian Tacitus described Nero who burnt Rome to create space for
redevelopment and a big palace. Nero
enjoyed the spectacle and the people were angry. He blamed the Christians for the fire. To appease the people, he gave them spectacles
of gladiators killing each other, animals killing Christians, crucifying them
and burning them alive.
The early Christians promulgated as part of the Mass the
teaching of the apostles, the breaking of the bread, communion, and prayer. The Eucharist had a central role then as
now. The Romans destroyed books and only
a few early writings remain. The
Christians were the only ones who helped the marginalized; the Roman Government
did nothing for them. Typical was to
take a collection at Mass to help the poor.
The
meaning of martyr is witness and there were many
who refused to deny their faith. The
early Christians saw martyrdom as sacrifice.
Among the Early Church Fathers, St. Ignatius of Antioch was taken to
Rome to face martyrdom and brought before the people of each city on the
way. When the aged St. Polycarp was
burnt at the stake, he did not give off the stench of a burnt body, but an odor
of incense and freshly baked bread as he gave himself to God. St. Irenaeus saw his martyrdom as
eucharist……..in the sense of self giving to God.
The
Eucharist is God’s total gift of Himself to
us……bread & wine, body & blood, soul & divinity. Martyrdom was total gift of self to God. There was 250 years of persecution before
peace came under the Emperor Constantine.
There is always martyrdom since it is not only flesh and blood, but also
verbal attacks and prison. Good men and
women often give themselves to others as Christ gave Himself to us on the cross
and continues to do so in the Eucharist.
We
have become partakers in Christ’s divinity.
God the Father and God the Son love each other so intensely that the
product is God the Holy Spirit. Christ
gave His all to us on the cross and in the Eucharist and we should give ourselves,
even our bodies and blood, to Him in return.
Upon receiving the Eucharist, we say “Amen” or “yes, I believe” and “I
give myself to Christ”. At a shrine we
pray; at a temple we offer sacrifice.
Strictly speaking our church is a temple.
By Baptism we share in the
priesthood of Christ.
Every day we give of self, we sacrifice, make reparation, and should
have the discipline to possess ourselves and give of ourselves to others. Mass is the sacrifice of Christ, the
Eucharist to the Father for us. In our
priesthood we offer ourselves and the world to Christ.
According
to St. Irenaeus the Eucharist is our way of thinking and conversely, our way of
thinking is the Eucharist. The early
Christians centered everything around the Eucharist. Mike Aquilina emphasized: “The
work of a father is sacrificial”…….to give all to family, play with the
kids, etc. Our vocation is martyrdom,
i.e., wisdom. “Your life shows the
limits of self-control in giving of self to neighbor. Even a smile is witness. Our life should be a sacrament of who we
are.”
In the Penance Service
Fr. Tim Kozak opened up his homily with: “Welcome fellow sinners. If you follow God’s will, you are set up for
temptation and attack. The devil attacks
your weakness. Prepare yourself to be
attacked.”
Bishop Monforton’s homily
was on the Prodigal Son, the compassion of a father to a son. “To be a good Christian father is a
challenge. We are called to man up……to
have mercy, forgiveness, compassion.”
The feedback on last year’s Men’s
Conference was excellent.
Note the comments of Bruce Davison in the Appendix.
APPENDIX
Comments
of Bruce Davison on the 2018 Steubenville Diocesan Men’s Conference
Note: Bruce Davison is a U.S. Army Airborne Ranger Vietnam
combat veteran. He was a Rambo type that
underwent a conversion from his go through the motions Catholicism after his
older brother died in an automobile accident.
Since then he has been on fire as a respected leader in the parish and a
former grand knight of the local Knights of Columbus council. It was through his initiative that St. Louis
Church Gallipolis, Ohio has a monthly all Sunday afternoon Adoration before the
Blessed Sacrament. He stays the entire
time. During all night adoration on the
Feast of the Immaculate Conception, he would stay all night. Davison currently has a green house from
where he sells plants and often evangelizes his customers.
Paul Sebastian asked what I thought about the Men’s Conference that was held on March 3rd. I told him that I would collect my thoughts and then jot them down. Well here goes: For me going to these events is almost always a sacrifice…..initially. The day was a Saturday, sunny, nice, and I thought of many things I could be doing. However, it quickly turned into multiple blessings. For one it was a First Saturday. So I was able to fulfill a desire of my dear heavenly Mother who has asked each of us to do the Five First Saturdays Devotion for peace in the world.
Next
the speaker, Mike Aquilina spoke about the angels and martyrs so passionately
and clearly that we were actually right there beside them, hearing them, seeing
them, knowing them. We vividly felt the
love of the angels. The bravery of the
martyrs amid suffering was only exceeded by their love of Jesus. They had a truly real and personal
relationship with Him.
We
were able to go to confession and have an hour of adoration with my dearest
friend, Jesus.
Then
comes the high point, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, celebrated by the Lord’s anointed
successor to the apostles. Bishop Monforton
concelebrated with some other priests.
The great moment of my salvation was at hand and I watch spellbound, the
drama unfolding before my eves.
I
waited with my usual impatience until it was time to receive my Lord, my God ,
my all. The day was complete; I was
sated; I lacked for nothing; I wanted nothing.
“I
had communion with my savior and with the rest of the men who were there. They were fighting men, strong men, men who
left family work, play, and all……in other words men who would lay down their
lives for Jesus. These men put on the
armor of Christ, picked up their weapons, which are prayer, penance, confession,
and the most powerful of all, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
My
heart swelled with joy and thanksgiving as I stood shoulder to shoulder with
these brave men who were willing to take on the current culture and win it back
for Christ.
They
prayed and sang, full throated, not holding back, giving all to God. Their deep baritone voices shook the
timbers. As they sang “Holy, Holy, Holy”,
you could feel the divine spirit in that place of prayer.
Well
Paul, you asked for it. Those are my
thoughts and the only thing I can add is “Deo Gracias”.
Additional
Comments. The 2018 Men’s Conference,
Day of Renbewal was most definitely a spiritual day of renewal for me. Once again we attended Mass, had adoration,
and were able to go to confession.
The
talk by Mike Aquilina on angels and martyrs was spellbinding. He gave us a glimpse at the relationship that
angels have with God and us. For
example, in Genesis Chapter 1 when God said “Let there be light”, the light was
the angels and then God separated the light from the darkness. The darkness was the rebel angels. Mr. Aquilina quoted from the Church Fathers
and went through the Bible explaining the various ineractions that the angels
have with us, such as when the angel freed St. Peter from the jail and gently
put Peter’s cloak around him so he wouldn’t be cold. There was so much more and he was such a
dynamic speaker.
The
talk on martyrs was no less exciting and he described in Eucharistic terms how
these people saw their lives. They
willingly gave everything back to Jesus that they had, their body and their
blood…..just as Jesus does for them.
He
then related their sacrifice to the 20th Century martyrs and even to
us who are sacrificing our small duties such as caring for our families,
neighbors, etc. even at the cost of time, talent, and treasure.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment