Daily Mass Readings, January 25, 2003 - Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul

Paul addressed the people in these words:
"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia,
but brought up in this city.
At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law
and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.
I persecuted this Way to death,
binding both men and women and delivering them to prison.
Even the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify on my behalf.
For from them I even received letters to the brothers
and set out for Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem
in chains for punishment those there as well.

"On that journey as I drew near to Damascus,
about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me.
I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me,
‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'
I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?'
And he said to me,
‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.'
My companions saw the light
but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me.
I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?'
The Lord answered me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus,
and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do.'
Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light,
I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus.

"A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law,
and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,
came to me and stood there and said,
‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.'
And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him.
Then he said,
‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will,
to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice;
for you will be his witness before all
to what you have seen and heard.
Now, why delay?
Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away,
calling upon his name.'"

Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord,
went to the high priest and asked him
for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that,
if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way,
he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.
On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus,
a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,
"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
He said, "Who are you, sir?"
The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do."
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless,
for they heard the voice but could see no one.
Saul got up from the ground,
but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing;
so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.
For three days he was unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank.

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias,
and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias."
He answered, "Here I am, Lord."
The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight
and ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul.
He is there praying,
and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias
come in and lay his hands on him,
that he may regain his sight."
But Ananias replied,
"Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man,
what evil things he has done to your holy ones in Jerusalem.
And here he has authority from the chief priests
to imprison all who call upon your name."
But the Lord said to him,
"Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine
to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel,
and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name."
So Ananias went and entered the house;
laying his hands on him, he said,
"Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me,
Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came,
that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight.
He got up and was baptized,
and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength.

He stayed some days with the disciples in Damascus,
and he began at once to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues,
that he is the Son of God.
All who heard him were astounded and said,
"Is not this the man who in Jerusalem
ravaged those who call upon this name,
and came here expressly to take them back in chains
to the chief priests?"
But Saul grew all the stronger
and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus,
proving that this is the Christ.

R (Mark 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R Alleluia, alleluia.

For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the Lord endures forever.

R (Mark 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
"Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Daily Word:

From: Acts 9:1-22

Saul on His Way to Damascus

1-3. Roman authorities recognized the moral authority of the Sanhedrin and even permitted it to exercise a certain jurisdiction over members of Jewish communities outside Palestine--as was the case with Damascus. The Sanhedrin even had the right to extradite Jews to Palestine (cf. I Maccabees 15:21).

Damascus was about 230-250 kilometers (150 miles) from Jerusalem, depending on which route one took. Saul and his associates, who would probably have been mounted, would have had no difficulty in doing the journey in under a week. This apparition took place towards the end of the journey, when they were near Damascus.

2. "The Way": the corresponding word in Hebrew also means religious behavior. Here it refers to both Christian lifestyle and the Gospel itself; indirectly it means all the early followers of Jesus (cf. Acts 18:25ff; 19:9, 23; 22:4) and all those who come after them and are on the way to Heaven; it reminds us of Jesus' words, "The gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:14).

3-19. This is the first of the three accounts of the calling of Saul--occurring probably between the years 34 and 36--that are given in the Acts of the Apostles (cf. Acts 22:5-16; 26:10-18); where important events are concerned, St. Luke does not mind repeating himself. Once again the Light shines in the darkness (cf. John 1:5). It does so here in a spectacular way and, as in every conversion, it makes the convert see God, himself and others in a new way.

However, the episode on the road to Damascus is not only a conversion. It marks the beginning of St. Paul's vocation: "What amazes you seems natural to me: that God has sought you out in the practice of your profession!

"This is how He sought the first, Peter and Andrew, James and John, beside their nets, and Matthew, sitting in the custom-house.

"And--wonder of wonders!--Paul, in his eagerness to destroy the seed of the Christians" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 799).

The background to St. Luke's concise account is easy to fill in. There would have been no Hellenist Christians left in Jerusalem: they had fled the city, some going as far afield as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. Many had sought refuge in Damascus, and Saul must have realized that their evangelizing zeal would win many converts among faithful Jews in that city. Saul genuinely wanted to serve God, which explains his readiness to respond to grace. Like most Jews of his time, he saw the Messiah as a political liberator, a warrior-king, a half-Heavenly, half-earthly figure such as described in the apocryphal "Book of Enoch", 46: "It is impossible to imagine how even his glance terrifies his enemies. Wherever he turns, everything trembles; wherever his voice reaches everything is overwhelmed and those who hear it are dissolved as wax in fire." A hero of this type does not fall into the power of his enemies, much less let them crucify him; on the contrary, he is a victor, he annihilates his enemies and establishes an everlasting kingdom of peace and justice. For Saul, Jesus' death on a cross was a clear proof that He was a false messiah; and the whole notion of a brotherhood of Jews and Gentiles was inconceivable.

He has almost reached Damascus when a light flashes; he is thrown onto the ground and hears a voice from Heaven calling his name twice, in a tone of sad complaint.

Saul surrenders unconditionally and places himself at the Lord's service. He does not bemoan his past life; he is ready to start anew. No longer is the Cross a "scandal": it has become for him a sign of salvation, the "power of God", a throne of victory, whose praises he will sing in his epistles. Soon St. Paul will learn more about this Way and about all that Jesus did and taught, but from this moment onwards, the moment of his calling, he realizes that Jesus is the risen Messiah, in whom the prophecies find fulfillment; he believes in the divinity of Christ: he sees how different his idea of the Messiah was from the glorified, pre-existing and eternal Son of God; he understands Christ's mystical presence in His followers: "Why do you persecute ME?" In other words, he realizes that he has been chosen by God, called by God, and immediately places himself at his service.

4. This identification of Christ and Christians is something which the Apostle will later elaborate on when he speaks of the Mystical Body of Christ (cf. Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22f).

St. Bede comments as follows: "Jesus does not say, `Why do you persecute My members?', but, `Why do you persecute Me?', because He Himself still suffers affronts in His body, which is the Church. Similarly Christ will take account of the good actions done to His members, for He said, `I was hungry and you gave Me food...' (Matthew 25:35), and explaining these words He added `As you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me' (Matthew 25:40)" ("Super Act. Expositio, ad loc.").

5-6. In the Vulgate and in many other translations these words are added between the end of verse 5 and the start of verse 6: "It is hard for thee to kick against the goad. And he, trembling and astonished, said: "Lord, what will Thou have me to do? And the Lord said to him". These words do not seem to be part of the original sacred text but rather a later explanatory gloss; for this reason the New Vulgate omits them. (The first part of the addition comes from Paul's address in Acts 26:14).

6. The calling of Saul was exceptional as regards the manner in which God called him; but the effect it had on him was the same as what happens when God gives a specific calling to the apostolate to certain individual Christians, inviting them to follow Him more closely. Paul's immediate response is a model of how those who receive these specific callings should act (all Christians, of course, have a common calling to holiness and apostolate that comes with Baptism).

[Pope] Paul VI describes in this way the effects of this specific kind of vocation in a person's soul: "The apostolate is [...] an inner voice, which makes one both restless and serene, a voice that is both gentle and imperious, troublesome and affectionate, a voice which comes unexpectedly and with great events and then, at a particular point, exercises a strong attraction, as it were revealing to us our life and our destiny. It speaks prophetically and almost in a tone of victory, which eventually dispels all uncertainty, all timidity and all fear, and which facilitates--making it easy, desirable and pleasant--the response of our whole personality, when we pronounce that word which reveals the supreme secret of love: Yes; Yes, Lord, tell what I must do and I will try to do it, I will do it. Like St. Paul, thrown to the ground at the gates of Damascus: What would You have me do?

"The roots of the apostolate run deep: the apostolate is vocation, election, interior encounter with Christ, abandonment of one's personal autonomy to His will, to His invisible presence; it is a kind of substitution of our poor, restless heart, inconstant and at times unfaithful yet hungry for love, for His heart, the heart of Christ which is beginning to pulsate in the one who has been chosen. And then comes the second act in the psychological drama of the apostolate: the need to spread, to do, to give, to speak, to pass on to others one's own treasure, one's own fire. [...]

"The apostolate becomes a continuous expansion of one's soul, the exuberance of a personality taken over by Christ and animated by His Spirit; it becomes a need to hasten, to work, to do everything one can to spread the Kingdom of God, to save other souls, to save all souls" ("Homily", 14 October 1968).

8-11. Straight Street runs through Damascus from east to west and can still be identified today.

13. Ananias refers to Christ's followers as "saints"; this was the word normally used to describe the disciples, first in Palestine and then in the world at large. God is THE Holy One (cf. Isaiah 6:3); as the Old Testament repeatedly says, those who approach God and keep His commandments share in this holiness: "The Lord said to Moses, `Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy'" (Leviticus 19:1-2).

The use of this term is an example of the spiritual sensitivity of our first brothers and sisters in the faith: "What a moving name--saints!--the early Christians used to address each other!...

"Learn to be a brother to your brothers" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 469).

15-16. Our Lord calls St. Paul His "vessel of election", which is a Hebraicism equivalent to "chosen instrument", and He tells Ananias how much the Apostle will have to suffer on His account. A Christian called to the apostolate is also, by virtue of this divine vocation, an instrument in the hands of God; to be effective he must be docile: he must let God use him and must do what God tells him.

The task God has given him is far beyond Paul's ability--"to carry My name before the Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel". In Acts we will see how Paul fulfills his mission, with the help of God's grace and suffering a great deal on account of His name. Down through the centuries, in diverse circumstance, those whom the Lord elects to carry out specific missions will also be able to perform them if they are good instruments who allow grace to act in them and who are ready to suffer for their ideals.

19. In spite of the exceptional manner in which God called St. Paul, He desired him to mature in the normal way--to be instructed by others and learn God's will through them. In this case he chose Ananias to confer Baptism on Paul and teach him the basics of the Christian faith.

In Ananias we can see a trace of the role of the spiritual director or guide in Christian asceticism. There is a principle which states that "no one can be a good judge in his own case, because everyone judges according to his own inclinations" (cf. Cassian, "Collationes", XVI, 11). A person guiding a soul has a special "grace of state" to make God's will known to him; and even if the guide makes a mistake, the person who is being guided will--if obedient--always do the right thing, always do God's will. In this connection St. Vincent Ferrer says: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, without whom we can do nothing, will not give His grace to him who, though he has access to an expert guide, rejects this precious means of sanctification, thinking that he can look after on his own everything that touches on his salvation. He who has a director, whom he obeys in everything, will reach his goal more easily and more quickly than if he had acted as his own guide, even if he be very intelligent and have the very best of spiritual books" ("Treatise on the Spiritual Life", 2, 1).

On the spiritual guidance of ordinary Christians, who seek holiness and carry out apostolate in the context of everyday life, Monsignor Escriva, writes: "A Director. You need one. So that you can give yourself to God, and give yourself fully...by obedience. A director who understands your apostolate, who knows what God wants: that way he will second the work of the Holy Spirit in your soul, without taking you from your place, filling you with peace, and teaching you how to make your work fruitful" ("The Way", 62).

20-23. In his letter to the Galatians (cf. Galatians 1:16f) St. Paul tells of how he went into Arabia after his conversion and then returned to Damascus. He spent almost three years away, and it was on his return that he preached the divinity of Jesus, using all his energy and learning, now placed at the service of Christ. This surprised and confounded the Jews, who immediately began to take action against him.

Daily Word (Gospel):

From: Mark 16:15-18

The Apostle's Mission

15. This verse contains what is called the "universal apostolic mandate" (paralleled by Matthew 28:19-20 and Luke 24:46-48). This is an imperative command from Christ to His Apostles to preach the Gospel to the whole world. This same apostolic mission applies, especially, to the Apostles' successors, the bishops in communion with Peter's successor, the Pope.

But this mission extends further: the whole "Church was founded to spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the Earth for the glory of God the Father, to make all men partakers in redemption and salvation....Every activity of the Mystical Body with this in view goes by the name of `apostolate'; the Church exercises it through all its members, though in various ways. In fact, the Christian vocation is, of its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well. In the organism of a living body no member plays a purely passive part, sharing in the life of the body it shares at the same time in its activity. The same is true for the body of Christ, the Church: `the whole body achieves full growth in dependence on the full functioning of each part' (Ephesians 4:16). Between the members of this body there exists, further, such a unity and solidarity (cf. Ephesians 4:16) that a member who does not work at the growth of the body to the extent of his possibilities must be considered useless both to the Church and to himself.

"In the Church there is diversity of ministry but unity of mission. To the Apostles and their successors Christ has entrusted the office of teaching, sanctifying and governing in His name and by His power. But the laity are made to share in the priestly, prophetical and kingly office of Christ; they have therefore, in the Church and in the world, their own assignment in the mission of the whole people of God" (Vatican II, "Apostolicam Actuositatem", 2).

It is true that God acts directly on each person's soul through grace, but it must also be said that it is Christ's will (expressed here and elsewhere) that men should be an instrument or vehicle of salvation for others.

Vatican II also teaches this: "On all Christians, accordingly, rests the noble obligation of working to bring all men throughout the wholeworld to hear and accept the divine message of salvation" ("ibid"., 3).

16. This verse teaches that, as a consequence of the proclamation of the Good News, faith and Baptism are indispensable pre-requisites for attaining salvation. Conversion to the faith of Jesus Christ should lead directly to Baptism, which confers on us "the first sanctifying grace, by which original sin is forgiven, and which also forgives any actual sins there may be; it remits all punishment due for these sins; it impresses on the soul the mark of the Christian; it makes us children of God, members of the Church and heirs to Heaven, and enables us to receive the other sacraments" ("St. Pius X Catechism", 553).

Baptism is absolutely necessary for salvation, as we can see from these words of the Lord. But physical impossibility of receiving the rite of Baptism can be replaced by either martyrdom (called, therefore "baptism of blood") or by a perfect act of love of God and of contrition, together with an at least implicit desire to be baptized: this is called "baptism of desire" (cf. "ibid"., 567-568).

Regarding infant Baptism, St. Augustine taught that "the custom of our Mother the Church of infant Baptism is in no way to be rejected or considered unnecessary; on the contrary, it is to be believed on the ground that it is a tradition from the Apostles" ("De Gen. ad litt"., 10, 23, 39). The new "Code of Canon Law" also stresses the need to baptize infants: "Parents are obliged to see that their infants are baptized within the first few weeks. As soon as possible after the birth, indeed even before it, they are to approach the parish priest to ask for the sacrament for their child, and to be themselves duly prepare for it" (Canon 867).

Another consequence of the proclamation of the Gospel, closely linked with the previous one, is that "the Church is necessary", as Vatican II declares: "Christ is the one mediator and way of salvation; He is present to us in His body which is the Church. He Himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5), and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse to enter it, or to remain in it" ("Lumen Gentium", 14; cf. "Presbyterorum Ordinis", 4; "Ad Gentes", 1-3; "Dignitatis Humanae", 11).

17-18. In the early days of the Church, public miracles of this kind happened frequently. There are numerous historical records of these events in the New Testament (cf., e.g., Acts 3:1-11; 28:3-6) and in other ancient Christian writings. It was very fitting that this should be so, for it gave visible proof or the truth of Christianity. Miracles of this type still occur, but much more seldom; they are very exceptional. This, too, is fitting because, on the one hand, the truth of Christianity has been attested to enough; and, on the other, it leaves room for us to merit through faith. St. Jerome comments: "Miracles were necessary at the beginning to confirm people in the faith. But, once the faith of the Church is confirmed, miracles are not necessary" ("Comm. in Marcum, in loc."). However, God still works miracles through saints in every generation, including our own.

Quotes from Hans Urs von Balthasar:

"... When [Christ] rises from the dead and goes back to the Father, he sends the Holy Spirit from the Father. This Holy Spirit is the one, whole, personal manifestation and confirmation of this baffling unity between Father and Son, the divine 'We' that is more than the mere 'I' and 'Thou.' It leads beyond the endless process of counting up, of supplementary definitions, to the reality of mutual presence and indwelling, without causing Father and Son to submerge the Spirit. The Spirit comes to the aid of our helplessness in the face of the unity of opposites so clearly expressed in the gospel. He rewards us for not trying to resolve this apparent contradiction by our own efforts."

***

"So, in the distinction between the Father and Son, we discern simultaneously the unity of the divine essence, and, within it, the possibility of uniting those qualities that seem to us irreconcilable. The famous Catholic 'and' -- Scripture 'and' Tradition, etc. -- which is the object of Protestant criticism, has its true origin here, and here alone."

***

"The believer knows that, on the cross, Jesus 'took away the sins of the world.' Guilt cannot simply be blown away; it must be expiated; it must be dissolved in the pain of sorrow for sin and the confession of guilt. We have an embryonic grasp of this, even if what happens on the cross remains infinitely mysterious and can only be accepted in faith."

***

"It can happen that an individual possesses the objective holiness of mission and authority and yet has no subjective holiness. This is a grave misfortune, dangerously obscuring the Church's mission. But the Church as a whole can never fail to possess both gifts at the same time. This equally applies to the Church in its visible aspect. Consequently it will not do to divide the Catholic Church into two churches: an empirical Church with her authority and her ascertainable membership, and an invisible Church of saints, whose number is known only to God. Augustine saw very clearly that the visible bearer of the power of the keys cannot receive a sinner back into the Communio Sanctorum without the forgiveness of the Church of the saints, which the Song of Songs calls the 'one dove.' But he does not draw the same conclusion as that Augustinian friar, Luther, namely, that only the Church of the saints with its 'priesthood of all believers' has the true power of the keys. In Augustine the tension persists: Christ's Church has objective and subjective holiness, but they coincide perfectly only in Christ, the Church's head."

***

"It is only because the Church's internal structure has authority and an official dimension that she can admonish and encourage the imperfect Christian to pursue his own special mission. Of course it is important for the 'official' side of the Church to react with understanding to the distress, difficulties and helplessness of Christians, but it is even more important that the Christian should continually aspire to the authoritatively presented norm that is mediated and rendered concrete in everyday life by manifold Church practices. (Nowadays, the tendency is to loosen, abolish, or spiritualize a large part of these mediatory practices. The question is: Does this not cause the gospel norm to become abstract, remote from daily life, and ultimately forgotten?)... In this respect, the 'institution' is a 'necessary evil' (but could this not be said of Christ's cross too?), since human nature, crawling on the ground, needs to be held up by a trellis if it is to bear fruit."

***

"The post-Christian state will continue, for a time, to be supported by the religiosity and ethics of its Christian citizens. If their strength fails, the institution society needs lest it sink into anarchy will become iron-plating, leaving the individual no room to breathe as a person. It makes no difference to the enslaved person whether the institution is totalitarian at a national or international level. In regions such as this the institution of the Church, insofar as it still has any room to maneuver, becomes an island of freedom."

***

"Faith is a movement of the entire person away from himself, through the gift of grace; thereby he lays hold of the mercy of God given to him in Christ--in the form of the forgiveness of sins, justification, and sanctification. In this movement away from himself man has done all that he, through grace, can do; he has done all that God requires of him. Since his intention is to leave himself, without reservation, and hand himself over entirely, this movement implicitly contains all the 'works' that he will eventually do. They are not some second entity beside faith; if they are performed in a Christian spirit, they are only forms in which faith expresses itself."

***

"The mediocre Christian allots himself a measure that seems appropriate to him and considers anyone who gives more to be a professional saint. It is important to realize that the genuine saint never sees his offer to God as something beyond the norm, as a work beyond what is required."

***

"Even if a man were fully justified through God's grace in Christ, this would still not tell us how far he was also sanctified, to what extent he had overcome his resistance to the Holy Spirit, who had been given him."

***

"The Petrine principle is the sole or decisive principle of unity in the Catholica... And the more worldwide the Church becomes, the more threatened she is in the modern states with their fascism of the right and of the left, the more she is called upon to incarnate herself in the most diverse, non-Mediterranean cultures, and the wider theological and episcopal pluralism she contains, the more indispensable this reference-point becomes. Anyone who denies this is either a fanatic or an irrational sentimentalist."

***

"Religion is the world in its journey toward God. Christianity is God journeying toward the world, and people who believe in him taking the same direction as he. Catholicism is Christianity which, with utmost seriousness, allows God in his fullness, the whole God, to pursue this destination right up to the bitter end -- and ultimately to the end of blessedness. The other forms of Christianity become anxious about this degree of radicality. At some point or other they come to a full stop; at the religious and sacral level (the Eastern Churches) or in a mixture of spiritualism, which remains in its lofty elevation about material things, and secularism, which refuses to accept God's sanctification of matter (like the churches of the Reformation)."

***

"The objection to the Catholic priest's celibacy is that it is very difficult to maintain. The spiritual resolve has to descend again and again into the rebellious body and become incarnate. Day by day, year by year, the decision to follow the virginal Christ, to cling to the equally virginal (and hence maternal) Church, must show itself stronger than the most plausible objections of sensual man. This is truly a following of Christ in the act of incarnation, and hence also a following of the 'lowly handmaid' who, right down to her least spiritual faculties, is at God's disposal and is rendered fruitful by him. And as for celibacy's aspect of 'rule,' it is this: a person is privileged to make an irrevocable decision to follow Christ, just as the Son's choosing to become incarnate remains irrevocable."

***

"In Jesus Christ, God has engraved his name upon matter; he has inscribed it so deeply that it cannot be erased, for matter took him into its innermost self... It was surely a Catholic instinct that caused Christian generations to cut their name in stone, building huge cathedrals that, with their immense prodigality, mock modern man's obsession with utility... But it would be even more Catholic if Christians tried to inscribe the name of Jesus Christ into the formless matter of human society, even at the risk of seeing the inscription dissipate in its ceaseless swell."

Link

Our Lady Of Perpetual Help Icon

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you do I come; before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.

Look at the copy of the picture. Frightened by the vision of two angels showing Him the instruments of the Passion, the Christ Child has run to His Mother, almost losing, in His haste, one of the tiny sandals. Mary holds Him in her arms reassuringly, lovingly. But notice her eyes. They look not at Jesus, but at us. Is this not a touch of genius? How better express Our Lady's plea to us to avoid sin and love her Son?

Christ's little Hands, too, are pressed into Mary's as a reminder to us that, just as on earth He placed Himself entirely in her hands for protection, so now in Heaven He has given into her hands all graces, to distribute to those who ask Her. This is the principal message of the picture. A Byzantine icon, however, it is replete with other symbols. Here are some of them:

Star on Our Lady's veil. She is the Star Of the Sea, who brought the light of Christ to the darkened world . The star that leads us to the safe port of Heaven.

Greek Initials for "Mother of God" (to the right an left of the crown)

Golden Crown placed on the original picture by order of the Holy See in 1867 It is a token of the many miracles wrought by Our Lady invoked under the title of "Perpetual Help."

Greek Initial for St. Michael the Archangel " He is depicted holding the lance and gall-sop of Christ's Passion (above angel on left side)

Mary's Mouth is small for silent recollection. She speaks little.

Mary's Eyes are large for all our troubles They are turned toward us always.

Red Tunic the color worn by virgins at the time of Christ.

Greek Initials for "Jesus Christ." (below angel on right)

Greek Initial for "St. Gabriel the Archangel." He holds the Cross and the nails. (below angel on right)

Dark Blue Mantle the color worn by mothers in Palestine. Mary is both Virgin and Mother.

Mary's Left Hand supporting Christ possessively: She is his Mother. It is a comforting hand for everyone who calls on Her.

Christ's Hands turned palms down into His Mother's indicate that the Graces of Redemption are in Her keeping.

Falling Sandal Perhaps, the symbol of a soul clinging to Christ by one last thread -- devotion to Mary.

The entire background is golden symbolic of Heaven where Jesus and Mary are now enthroned. The gold also shines through their clothing showing the heavenly joy. They can bring to tired human hearts.

A Strict Account Will Have To Be Rendered"

"The Other Side of Christ" (issue 26)
by Fr.Robert D.Smith (deceased)

St.Augustine (354-430), one of the greatest theological writers in Church history, was also a superb preacher. Huge crowds came to hear him, and he went on, as he admitted often, at great length in his sermons. Sometimes, after a long discourse, he paused so his hearers could go out to eat; then, right after eating, they would come back for another long discourse. When he sent them out for food, it was not that they looked tired. "Go out and take some refreshment, not for your spirits-for your spirits are, I notice, indefagitable; but go out and give some little refreshment to your bodies, the servants of your souls, so that they may continue to minister to you; and when you are refreshed, then come back to your real food." (Ennar 1,20 on Ps.88, cited in "St. Augustine of Hippo", by Hugh Pope-p162).

In accordance with a permitted custom at the time, people often applauded him enthusiastically in church while he was preaching. This made him afraid. "Do you not realize that I....indeed, all of us,...will have to render a strict account to God for your applause? You surely do not imagine that such praise does any honor to me? It is a burden, not an honor. A very strict account indeed will have to be rendered for it. For I am afraid lest when Christ comes to judge, He may say:'You wicked servants! Gladly did you accept the praises of my people, while holding your tongues about things that meant death to them.' "(PL 46,874-81-St.Augustine of Hippo)

This runs completely contrary to a modern concept. It is often thought that if a clergyman omits all mention of certain sins, he may be facing trouble on Judgment Day, but that the people themselves are excused from those sins on the ground that they were never warned about them, not even by their own religious teachers. But in the case of serious sins against the law of God, written in the heart of every man on Earth, there is no excuse either for the clergyman or for those who hear him.

There is another variation of this idea among modern preachers of false religion; that if they omit these teachings they are saving the souls of their hearers, whom they presume to be in ignorance and in good faith. They say to themselves,"These people who hear me surely will be saved because of these charitable omissions of mine." They are wrong on both counts. The salvation of their hearers, if they violate unmentioned Commandments, is very far from being assured, and the preacher's own charity is only an illusion. Even on a personal level, one to one, this same rule applies to all. If someone were to so come up to you and spontaneously announce that he had just de- cided to imitate the young Graham Greene by playing Russian roulette five different times(Graham Greene, A Sort of Life-pp128-132), whoever he was, it would be wrong to remain silent or to nod in benevolent agreement. You would have to say something in strong disagreement, still phrased charitably and with a charitable purpose.

Yet, our society expects us to remain benevolently silent when someone comes up to us and, unasked, starts telling us that he never goes to church, is divorced and re-married, or has helped in procuring an abortion. Silence is not the proper answer! Something should be said, and not just that this or that is not such a good idea. Something about the deadliness of the sin must be mentioned in some way. These are more certainly deadly to the soul than playing Russian roulette is to the body. There is in Russian roulette a mathematical chance that, at the end of the experiment, as with Graham Greene, the man playing it could still be alive!

Granted, there are times when we might not have a chance to say something. It may often happen that we do not have the chance. But, if we do have the chance and the time, something must be said....with both charity and emphasis.If we are silent when we have a chance to speak, or if we nod in benevolent agreement, we shall be praised for it in this world....but not in the next!

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