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The Gospel of St. Luke tells us that, in the family of Nazareth, Jesus “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40). Our Lady does just this for us, she helps us to grow as human beings and in the faith, to be strong and never to fall into the temptation of being human beings and Christians in a superficial way, but to live responsibly, to strive ever higher.
Natural suffering necessarily requires rest; supernatural suffering, even when rest is willfully neglected, will multiply one’s strength for the glory of God, a glory which will someday delight the spirit of the suffering person. From childhood, Padre Pio had the special grace of understanding that life is pain, so he transformed it by exalting pain. He said to a spiritual son, in the confessional, “My son, life is primarily suffering and pain; we must love and appreciate it, especially because our Lord has given it to us.”
In the Upper Room, on the night before he died, Jesus kept telling his disciples that he had to leave them and would send them the Advocate, another name for the Holy Spirit. In fact, he told them, “But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you” (John 16:7). The Holy Spirit, fully revealed at Pentecost, comes to the apostles in the Upper Room only because of Jesus’s departure.
O gracious Parent! Elevate our souls, and give us access to thy sublime throne, that stable seat of pure delight! All earth-born cares remove; dispel the mists of sense; and with a ray from heaven illumine our darkened minds. Allow us to see thy light; let us view the source of good unveiled; and fix, O ever fix, our eyes on thee. –Roman Boethius,
My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You! I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You.
The words of this prayer given to the young visionaries of Fatima may seem simple. But the words outline our responsibilities as Christians—to believe, to adore, to hope, and to love God. As well, to ask pardon for those who do not act in this way. And further, to beg pardon for them. We should make reparation for their sins too.
Pope St. John Paul II said that we don’t find ourselves until we lose ourselves in Christ. In other words, true happiness only comes from commitment and self-sacrifice. Throughout the Bible, we see what is a contradiction by the world’s standard spelled out over and over again. When we lose our life for love’s sake, we gain it back tenfold. That’s the heart of the Christian message, and it’s the only way we will reach our true destination: heaven.
By embracing our human condition—in everything but sin—Jesus revealed the new dignity and the surpassing worth of our human condition and the need in love to care for the human person. He tied and linked himself to us forever—to each one of us—by taking on our human flesh. He ennobled the human condition and raised it to the level of his divinity.
