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Sunday (9/28): "The tax collectors and harlots
go into the kingdom of God before you"
Scripture: Matthew 21:28-32
28 "What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first
and said, `Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' 29 And he answered,
`I will not'; but afterward he repented and went. 30 And he went to the
second and said the same; and he answered, `I go, sir,' but did not go.
31 Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first."
Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the
harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you
in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax
collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you
did not afterward repent and believe him.
Meditation: What kind of future are you preparing for? Jesus
encourages us to think – to think about the consequences of our choices,
especially the choices and decisions that will count not just for now
but for eternity as well. The choices we make now will affect and shape
our future, both our future on earth as well as in the life of the age
to come.
Jesus tells a simple story of two imperfect sons to illustrate the
way of God's kingdom. The father amply provided for his sons food,
lodging, and everything they needed. Everything the father had belonged
to them as well. The father also rewarded his sons with excellent work
in his own vineyard. He expected them to show him gratitude, loyalty,
and honor by doing their fair share of the daily work. The "rebellious"
son told his father to his face that he would not work for him. But
afterwards he changed his mind and did what his father commanded him.
The "good" son said he would work for his father, but didn't carry
through. He did his own pleasure contrary to his father's will. Now who
was really the good son? Both sons disobeyed their father; but one
repented and then did what the father told him.
Jesus makes his point clear: Good intentions are not enough. And
promises don't count unless they are performed. God wants to change our
hearts so that we will show by our speech and by our actions that we
respect his will and we are ready to do what he commands. God offers
each of us the greatest treasure possible – unending peace, joy,
happiness, and life with him in his kingdom. We can lose that treasure
if we refuse the grace God offers us to follow in his way of truth and
righteousness. Do you respect the will of your Father in heaven?
"Lord Jesus, change my heart that I may truly desire that which is
pleasing to you. Help me to respect your will and give me the strength,
joy and perseverance to carry it out wholeheartedly."
Psalm 25:4-9
4 Make me to know thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.
5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my
salvation; for thee I wait all the day long.
6 Be mindful of thy mercy, O LORD, and of thy steadfast love, for they
have been from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth, or my transgressions; according to
thy steadfast love remember me, for thy goodness' sake, O LORD!
8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the
way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
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The History and Nature of Devotion to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary
The
following article by Fr. Louis Verheylezoon, S.J., represents a
classical treatment of the history and nature of devotion to Our Lady’s
most Immaculate Heart. – Asst. Ed.
(continued)
Motives for Practicing the Devotion
Treating of the ends and practice of the devotion, we have seen how fit
and proper it is that we should honor, love, invoke, imitate the Heart
of Mary, and console it by our compassion and reparation.
It is
obvious that this is also agreeable to God, to Jesus and to Mary. They
have, moreover, clearly shown it, and still show it, by the priceless
and innumerable graces, particularly by the many often remarkable and
unexpected conversions, obtained by invoking the Heart of Mary. The
Manuel of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and
the Annales of Notre-Dame des Victoires are an eloquent proof of
it.
Besides, the Blessed Virgin repeatedly made the declaration in her
apparitions at Fatima. "Jesus," she said in the second apparition,
"demands the establishment in the world of the devotion to my Immaculate
Heart." Again: "No, my daughter, I shall never abandon you. My Heart
will be your refuge and the way that leads you to God." Thereupon the
children perceived "before the right hand of the Apparition a Heart,
surrounded with thorns which pierced it through and through." They
understood that they contemplated the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
afflicted by the sins of men. In the third apparition, she said: "Our
Lord wishes to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate
Heart, in order to convert sinners ... I shall ask the Consecration of
Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the practice of the Communion of
Reparation on the First Saturdays. My Immaculate Heart will triumph in
the end. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me."
The
devout clients of the Heart of Jesus have, moreover, a special motive
for practicing devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the close
relations which unite the two Hearts.
The
Heart of Mary is the living replica of the Heart of Jesus. Is it
possible to love the Heart of Jesus and not to love the Heart of Mary?
No
other heart has ever loved Jesus like that of Mary. Nor has any heart
loved Mary like that of Jesus. How could we separate both Hearts in our
love?
It is
to Mary that we owe the Heart of Jesus. Thanks to her consent, Jesus
could, within her, take to Himself a human heart. But it is to Jesus
that we owe the Heart of Mary. He it is who formed it, enriched and
adorned it with His graces. He it is who imparted to it its love for us,
and made it the masterpiece of His love and His power. Is it not
natural, therefore, that we should closely join both Hearts in our
worship and love?
That
is what the first apostles of the Devotion to the Heart of Jesus have
understood and put into practice.
We
have seen that both St. John Eudes, "the author of the liturgical cult
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus," and Fr. de Galliffet, the writer of the
masterly work De l’excellence de la dévotion au Coeur adorable de
Jésus-Christ were also apostles of the devotion to the Heart of
Mary.
It
was Jesus in person who instructed St. Margaret Mary to make His Heart
and that of His Holy Mother the double object of her homage and
devotion. One day, He showed her her heart in the midst of His own Heart
and of that of Mary, and said to her: "Thus it is that My pure love
unites these three hearts for ever." (9)
During the Advent of 1685, she recommends her novices the following
practices: "You will offer five times to the Eternal Father the
sacrifices which the Sacred Heart of His Divine Son offers Him by Its
ardent charity on the altar of the Heart of His Mother, asking of Him
that all hearts may return to Him and devote themselves to His love. You
will make this aspiration as often as possible: 'I adore and love Thee,
O Divine Heart of Jesus living in the Heart of Mary; I conjure Thee to
live and reign in all hearts, and to consume them in Thy pure love.'"
(10) And repeatedly she urges Fr. Croiset to insert in his book on the
Devotion to the Sacred Heart the Litany of the most pure Heart of Mary.
(11)
Bl.
Claude de la Colombière, in his Retreat-journal, ends one
of his meditations as follows:
O
Hearts, really deserving to possess all hearts, to rule over all hearts
of Angels and of men! You will henceforth be my rule, and in similar
situations, I shall try to make Your sentiments my own. It is my will
that henceforth my heart should only be in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,
or that the Hearts of Jesus and of Mary should be in mine, that They may
impart to it Their feelings, and that it be only moved in conformity
with the impressions which it receives from these Hearts.
And
Fr. Croiset indicates devotion to the Heart of Mary as the most
efficacious means of arriving at the love of Jesus. "For," he says, "the
sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary are too much alike and too much united
for one to have access to the one and not to the other, with this
difference, however, that the Heart of Jesus admits only extremely pure
souls, and that the Heart of Mary purifies, by the graces which she
obtains for them, those that are not pure, and enables them to be
received in the Heart of Jesus." (12)
Through the Heart of Mary, then, to the Heart of Jesus!
Who
is more able to make us love this Heart, than She who, better than any
one else, knows Its infinite lovableness and boundless charity; She who
loves this Heart as no one else has loved or will love It, and who longs
for nothing so much as to see It loved by all?
Who
is more able to obtain for us to be loved in our turn by this Heart,
than She who has such a powerful influence over this Heart, and who
could not wish or procure anything better for us, her children, than to
be loved by her Divine Son?
Who,
finally, is more able to open to us the infinite treasures of this Heart
and to allow us to draw from this store at will, than She who has been
appointed by Jesus Himself, the Mediatrix and Dispenser of all graces?
(13)
This article was excerpted from Devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus: Object, Ends, Practice, Motives, Tan, 1978.
Notes
(1) De
Galliffet, The Devotion to the Adorable Heart of Jesus Christ,
Book III, chap. IV.
(2)
Formerly it was called "Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary."
(3)
AAS, November 23rd, 1942, p. 346.
(4)
AAS vol. XXXVIII, p. 50.
(5) Cf.
Nilles, Memoriale, Liber II, cap. iv.
(6)
Theologians call it "cultus hyperduliae," whereas the cult rendered to
the other Saints is termed "cultus duliae."
(7) On
the Consecration to the Heart of Mary, see St. Grignon de Montfort,
Traité sur la véritable dévotion à la très Sainte Vierge.
(8)
Decree of June 13, 1912. Cf. AAS September 30, 1912. See also
Preces et pia opera, n. 335.
(9)
Vie et Oeuvres, vol. II, Ecrits par ordre de la Mère de Saumaise, n.
55, p. 166.
(10)
Ibid., vol. II, Défis et instructions, pp. 750-51.
(11)
Ibid., vol. II, pp. 538, 554, 617.
(12)
Croiset, S.J., La dévotion au sacré Coeur de Jésus, pt. II, chap.
IV, § v.
(13) On
the Devotion to the Heart of Mary, see St. John Eudes, Le Coeur
admirable de la très Sainte Mère de Dieu; Pinamonti, S.J., Il
sacro Cuore di Maria; de Galliffet, S.J., De l'excellence de
la devotion au Coeur adorable de Jésus-Christ, Book III, chap, IV;
Nilles, S.J., De ratione festorum Beatissimi Cordis Jesu et purissimi
Cordis Mariae; de Franciosi, S.J., La devotion au sacré
Coeur de Jesus et au saint Coeur de Marie; Terrien, S.J., La
dévotion au sacré Coeur de Jesus, Book IV, chap, IV; Nix, S.J.,
Cultus SS. Cordis Jesu cum additamento de cultu purissimi Cordis B.
Mariae Virginis; Bainvel, S.J., Le saint Coeur de Marie;
Pujobras, C.M.F., Cultus purissimi Cordis B. Mariae Virginis
(1943); Sinibaldi, Il Cuore della Madre di amore. II
Cuore immaculato di Maria. Corso di conferenze (1946); Dublanchy,
Dévotion au Coeur de Marie in Dictionnaire de theologie
catholique; Sauve, Le culte du Coeur de Marie; Lebesconte,
Le Coeur de Marie, d'apres Saint Jean Eudes.
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