WHEN CHARITY IS LACKING
Last week I overheard a man in the church speaking harshly to a woman and her children. He was sharply accusing her of being distracting. Before correcting him, I went straight to her to apologize for the way she had been treated. She smiled gently, with the resilience and understanding of a strong mother. Nevertheless, if you experience unnecessary harshness in the church, please let me know.
To those of you who may find it difficult to be patient with your neighbor, remember that no one is perfect, but neither is anyone exempt from the law of charity. In the words of the old schoolmaster, “Make mistakes in dictation, but don’t lie and don’t bully.”
A CAUTION ABOUT EXORCISTS
You may have noticed a growing interest in some Catholic circles in the ways of the diabolic. Venturing into that territory, however, can be unsettling by eclipsing our attention to Christ. This is not an anti-Halloween commentary, but if we become obsessed with avoiding evil by studying it, we risk remaining in a posture of fear before it all throughout the year.
Even priests who have gained notoriety by speaking publicly and frequently about their experiences with the exorcism ritual run a similar risk: they can begin to forget that Christian discipleship is characterized first and foremost by being taken up into the loving gaze of Christ. It is His perfect love that casts out fear, and He is infinitely more interested in us than in the devil.
FIRST SATURDAYS
Still, we are not pacifists, and the Holy Spirit gives us many ways of overcoming evil in our lives. One of His surest means of driving out demons is the love of Our Lady. Saint Louis de Montfort teaches, in substance, that the devil fears the humility of the Blessed Virgin, for while God can crush his head by might, she, a mere creature, crushes him with lowliness, which is more humiliating. Humility overcomes evil, for it is of God. The descent of the Holy Spirit humbles the pride of any evil spirit that would rise up in opposition to God.
To that end, let us remember the invitation of Our Lady to us: that we would come together in the house of the church on the first Saturday of every month to unite ourselves with her in prayer. Who are we that the Mother of Our Lord would come to us?
OUR LADY’S BELOVED SON
And yet she comes to us to model this humility, just as she hastened to the home of her cousin Elizabeth. At that visit, John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth’s womb at the presence of Christ, and her presence can have the same effect on us today, for she always comes bearing her Son. Pope Saint John Paul II understood this, which is why, after his mother died, he said to Our Lady, “You must be my mother now.”
Throughout his life and in all things, she made haste to help him. He truly was, as his papal motto declared, Totally Yours, O Mary. And he inspired the Church to renew its devotion to her, even giving us the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. In this way, he seemed to magnify Our Lady, even as she magnifies the Lord.
When a gunman tried to assassinate him in 1981, on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, the Holy Father said, “One hand pulled the trigger; another guided the bullet.” The bullet entered into his chest cavity but somehow went around his heart. The following year, he placed that bullet in the crown of Our Lady of Fatima to thank her. This is how he was able to say to us during one of the bloodiest centuries in history, “Be not afraid!” He was so close to the one whose great love causes even the devil to shudder. +