He will sit and refine and purify the silver, purify the sons of Levi Mal 3,3

Posted on 21. December 2024 by Peter Prochac

And here we are. We are at the end of Advent, reading the last prophetic book of the Old Testament and soon entering the New Testament. At this critical moment, the prophet Malachi uses the image of a craftsman working with silver to describe how God wants to purify his priests (“the sons of Levi”) so that they can “offer to the Lord sacrifices in righteousness” (3:3).

And for us now, two days before Christmas, God wants to do the same. He wants to purify us so that we can receive Jesus even more deeply this Christmas. Do you know how silver is purified? The silversmith must put it in a special crucible and then hold it in the middle of the fire, in the hottest place, so that all the impurities, all the “dross” are burned out and come to the surface. It is a meticulous and demanding job: the silversmith sits all the time by the fire, waiting for the right moment to take the silver out of the furnace.

Our heavenly Father holds us with the same watchful and caring care as we are being purified. He knows what impurities will surface, and he has a plan to remove them. Perhaps he must remove from our envy of a neighbor who can give his family generous gifts. Or the irritability we react to when we are exhausted from holiday preparations. Or our long-standing bitterness that shows during family gatherings. Or any other “impurity.” Whatever it is, God desires to cleanse you of it. So trust in his deep love for you. Imagine the joy he feels when he foresees the freedom, hope, and love you will experience after the dross has been burned out of you. Just as a silversmith knows what refined silver looks like when he sees himself in a mirror, so God knows what your refined self looks like when he sees himself in it as in a mirror. So, in these last days before Christmas, permit Him to continue His work. Let Him transform you more and more day by day into pure silver reflecting His image.

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Your voice is sweet, and your face is beautiful.

Posted on 20. December 2024 by Peter Prochac

Do you feel like you are in the middle of a romance novel with this passage? Song of Songs is a collection of love poems. And God is mentioned in them only once, and even then only indirectly (see Pies 8, 6)! Many have already asked why this book was included in the Bible. One of the answers that biblical scholars give to this question is that the passionate love between man and woman in this book symbolizes the love between God and his people. This may sound strange at first hearing, but the Scriptures often use conjugal, romantic love as an analogy to our union with God (Is 62:5; Jer 2:2; Mt 25:1-13).

We tend to think about God rather than our Father, who guides us and loves us mercifully as a parent loves his child. But using romantic love as an analogy to God’s love can open new horizons. Anyone who has been in love knows how excited and joyful he was. He wanted to be with his beloved, enjoy his beauty, and do extraordinary things for him. God’s love for you is just like that, even more incredible. It is more profound, potent, and purer than any romantic love you can ever experience. And in just a few days, we will celebrate one of the most wonderful expressions of this love: that the Son of God became man to win our love again.

When we think about the time Jesus spent among us, we tend to focus on his suffering. He endured poverty, rejection, and ridicule and suffered a painful death. Well, when you imagine Jesus as a man in love from today’s first reading, another side of this story emerges: he is like a young man jumping over hills and hills to be with you. He sees your sins and struggles, the beauty of God’s image in you, and your potential holiness. His love for you is not platonic. It brims outward like the sun rising from behind a distant mountain. It flows to the surface like a rushing river. And this love is meant for you. As Christmas approaches, remember that Jesus eagerly runs to you with a heart full of love. He will never stop looking for you.

 
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Achaz and Mary.

Posted on 19. December 2024 by Peter Prochac

King Ahaz of Judah and Mary, a poor girl from Nazareth, are separated by seven centuries, but they have something in common: both come from the dynasty of David, are heirs to God’s great promises, and must pass the test of faith and courage. King Ahaz of Judah had fallen away from God and even sacrificed his son to Moloch by burning him (2 Kings 16:3). When the armies of Syria and Ephraim invaded Judah to dethrone him, the frightened king sent a message to Tiglath-Pileser, the powerful ruler of Assyria. He handed over the treasures of the Jerusalem temple with a request that sounded like a blasphemous prayer: “I am your servant and your son. Come and save me … ”(2 Kings 16:7).

The prophet Isaiah wants to encourage Ahaz in faith, so he tells him: “Ask a sign from the Lord your God. Ask him whether in the depths of the underworld or on high.” I will not tempt the Lord, was Ahaz’s diplomatic excuse. The king does not want to listen to God. Nevertheless, the prophet announces to him: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call his name Immanuel. God’s faithfulness surpasses his unfaithfulness, and he receives a sign. The house of David will not fall. It is fulfilled: “If we are faithless, God remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:13).

This sign has two meanings.

The first was fulfilled with the birth of Ahaz’s son Hezekiah. For the Jews, Hezekiah became a messianic figure, a symbol of God’s affection for his people—and a call for the people to be faithful to God. This prophecy of Isaiah also foreshadows Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah. He was born of a virgin and was called Immanuel, “God with us.” He came to save people from something more significant than conquerors. He came to free us from sin and death.

Seven centuries later, the Virgin Mary is expecting a child, although she has not yet lived with her husband, Joseph, and they have not entered a relationship. Unlike Ahaz, Mary has received a sign. She answered not to a prophet but an angel: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” God has fully fulfilled what he promised. And he continues to fulfill the sign. Jesus assured us that he would be with us always, until the end of time, and through the Eucharist, he fulfilled his promise (Mt 28:20). He is faithful, always “God with us.”

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Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C Luke 1,39-45

Posted on 18. December 2024 by Peter Prochac

Preparations for Christmas are at their peak, and everyone, according to their means, procures what is needed for the Christmas table, under the tree, or in the apartment to celebrate the Lord’s birth as dignified as possible.

During this rush, the Church gives us the Gospel of how Mary visited her relative. Elizabeth lived in a small town in mountainous Judea, 130 km from Nazareth. As the evangelist writes, this journey was hurried and lasted three days. Subsequently, he describes the meeting of the two women, which contains probably the most beautiful sentences uttered by Elizabeth to Mary: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your life. What did I do to deserve the mother of my Lord coming to me? As soon as your greeting sounded in my ears, the child in my womb trembled with joy. And blessed is she who believed that what the Lord had told her would be fulfilled.

It is generally assumed that Elizabeth meant the opposite case with this statement when the angel announced to her husband Zacharias that he, too, would have a son, but he did not believe him. For this reason, he pronounced God’s punishment on him when he announced to him: I am Gabriel. I stand before God and am sent to speak to you and tell you this glad tidying. But you will be dumb and unable to speak until the day this happens because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. Elizabeth must have been thinking of her husband’s unbelief, of the angel’s voice when he praises Mary, who reacted differently from him: Blessed is she who believed that what the Lord had told her would be fulfilled. Then Mary, filled with unspeakable joy, exclaimed: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior because he looked at the humiliation of his servant. Behold, from now on, all generations will bless me.

Just before Christmas, it is necessary to listen to the Gospel, proclaiming that the blessed is the person with faith. This is because, at that time, people’s hearts were overloaded with pre-Christmas worries when they forgot the most important thing: to prepare them for the birth of the Lord and renew their faith. A look at Mary shows us how. She believed in God. Attention! Not that she just believed in him, but believed in him! She believed long ago that God exists, Zacharias also believed in it, because otherwise he would not have prayed so fervently. Believing in God is not difficult. Too many people believe it exists because if they think with common sense, they know that the vast universe, called cosmos – order, must have been planned, realized, and organized by someone wise, infinite, and omnipotent. They call him God and believe in his existence. However, our point is not to renew our faith in God before Christmas, but to do what Zacharias and Mary could not do – to believe in him.

Trusting God is much more difficult because it requires believing that everything He has announced to us will come true. Mary thought that the Son of God would become a man in her virgin womb because he needed a human body: a mouth to speak about his Father; he needed human hands so that he could help heal and open the eyes of the blind, touch the ears of the deaf, the tongue of the dumb and raise the dead. He requires a human back to be whipped by people and a human head to have a crown of thorns stuck into it. He requires a human body to be nailed to the cross, and he also needs a human heart to be pierced with a spear and thus shed the last drop of blood. The team proves obedience to the Father even unto death and elevates people to be sons and daughters of God.

This is what we should be trying to do before Christmas so that, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, we believe that the heavenly Father loves us so much that he gave his Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Blessed is everyone who believes in God, like Mary, and unhappy will be everyone who does not believe in him, like Zechariah.

In Lermontov’s poem Demon, the devil promised the beautiful girl Tamara that she would get better if she kissed him, that she would no longer seduce people and lead them to destruction. Tamara believes she wants to save a lot of people like this, but she dies because the devil’s embrace is deadly. Nevertheless, she is saved because she had a good intention. The devil deceives a person, but when he has a good intention, he has a love of goodness that sanctifies his actions.

Before Christmas, let’s ask Mary, with a request that is dearest to her, that we love only God, and we ask her to help us believe in him as she does. In this faith, let us expect the joyful birth of His Son in our hearts.

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The announcement of the birth of Samson.

Posted on 18. December 2024 by Peter Prochac


The command to cut one’s hair meant the renunciation of pagan cults. The surrounding pagan nations practiced hairstyling and cutting in their religious services. God’s messenger imposed the duties of the initiate and his mother: she was not allowed to touch wine or anything impure. When Samson grew up, he began to liberate his people, who had suffered forty years under the rule of the Philistines.

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Lifelong Advent as a Lifestyle.

Posted on 17. December 2024 by Peter Prochac

We need moments for ourselves, sitting in silence and the dim light of candles like salt.

 The most significant Christian holiday, Easter, was preceded by a preparation period called Lent. A similar model was considered before the feast of the birth of Jesus Christ. The period called Advent saw the light of day relatively early, in the 5th century, in Ravenna. However, its introduction throughout the world took several more centuries.

Advent varied in length, eventually settling on four weeks, except in Orthodox churches, the Archdiocese of Milan, and other areas, where Advent still lasts six weeks today.

The perception of Advent was also different. It went from a penitential period similar to Lent to joyful anticipation. Today, Advent is a symbiosis of both.

Lifestyle

When a senior citizen who lived alone in an apartment building was asked what he did all day, he replied: “I wait one day for the lady with the pension and thirty days for the lady with the scythe.”

Everyone is waiting for someone or something. For a day of peace, healing, a new job, reconciliation, finding a partner… But also for a Friday concert, a visit from friends we haven’t seen in a long time, a party… Even those who feel like they have everything and don’t have to wait for anything are waiting to feel better and be happy.

The several-week pre-Christmas Advent, which means both arrival and waiting for it, thus turns into a lifelong epoch. And suddenly, it is no longer just a short preparatory period. It is, so to speak, a lifestyle.

Waiting

Waiting has a passive quality. It reminds us of a sad look out the window, a nervous walk through an airport, or tears when parents have no idea where their children are.

Even the pre-Christmas Advent is presented as a period of inactivity. But we need moments for ourselves, sitting in silence and the dim light of candles like salt. These are opportunities to synchronize the busy body with the restless soul for many new beginnings and active waiting.

We don’t have to wait for many things with folded arms. What we are waiting for can often be met; sometimes, it won’t even come without our activity.

If we are waiting to meet our life partner, we can do something about it. We can come out of our shells if we are waiting for reconciliation. If we are looking for relationship improvement, we can start with ourselves. Advent is also a symbiosis of peace and stirring up dust, contemplation and action, passivity and activity.

Simply put, we can wait for what we get under the tree or become someone’s Christmas present.

Time of hope

Waiting is necessarily accompanied by hope. “The world will belong to the one who can offer it the greatest hope,” says Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Many messiahs appear today, offering mountains and valleys, and many people believe them.

When the visions of the messiahs turn out to be, at best, dead ends, the people who believed them cling to new hope. Hope is what keeps us alive.

Christians believed that Jesus and his message brought them hope. However, if we look at this from the express perspective, we will find that Jesus did not offer a weightless life. Nor did he provide answers and solutions to all questions and problems—quite the opposite.

“The Advent cry, ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ means that the whole of Christian history must be lived in deliberate emptiness, in deliberate fulfillment. Perfect fullness is yet to come, and we are not to demand it now,” writes Richard Rohr, somewhat surprisingly. And he explains: “This keeps our lives open to grace and a future created by God, not by us.” And this is precisely the hope of Christians.

It is a hope that does not even look like hope because it does not expect a solution or fullness here and now. However, it leaves room for God, who knows best how to fulfill this hope.

Advent allows us all to slow down so we can speed up in life and realize that if we don’t have everything, we have a place within us that God can fill.

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17.Dez. Gen 49, 1-10

Posted on 14. December 2024 by Peter Prochac

In this passage, we hear the words of patriarch Jacob, who, before his death, calls together his dearest ones—his twelve sons—and prophesies their future to them and their descendants. This passage, given below, is supplemented by those sons skipped in the epistle (verses 3-7)

Then Jacob called his sons and said: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what will happen to you in the coming days. Come and listen, you sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength, the beginning of my fruitfulness, overflowing with pride and power. You are fierce like water, but you cannot overflow your banks. You entered my father’s tent; you defiled my bed. Simeon and Levi, two brothers, their knives are instruments of violence. My soul will not enter thei; myunsel, my glory will not be united with their assembly! They killed men in anger, they wantonly mutilated oxen. Cursed be the fierceness of their anger and the cruelty of their hatred. I will divide them in Jacob, I will scatter them in Israel. Judah, your brothers will bless you: your hand will be on the neck of your enemies, your father’s sons will bow down to you. Judah is a lion’s whelp; you have risen from the prey, my son. He couched, he couched as a lion’s whelp, he is like a young lion, who will dare to rouse him? “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the government from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; to him the obedience of the peoples will belong. (Gen 49:1-10) He

Then, he prophesies the future for the other eight sons. Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, Benjamin. With these last words, he blessed them. He blessed each one with a special blessing. This is how the Old Testament patriarch said goodbye to his sons before he was laid to rest with his ancestors. This prophecy was written in the time of Isaiah, i.e. the 8th-7th century BC. The prophecy for Judah points to the importance of his lineage, from which the Lord’s Anointed One would come. He would bring salvation to all humanity. The beginning of the Bible states: The Lord brought man into paradise, where he was to live forever. But after the grave sin of the first people – “you will be like God” – the Lord expelled man from paradise. The first hint of the Redeemer is in the words: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.” (Genesis 3:15).

In today’s passage, there is another hint of the Redeemer: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a ruler from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and unto him shall the obedience of the nations be.” The righteous of the Old Testament bore with great sorrow the thought that they must die and wait for the Redeemer. Jacob did not want to die, for he was to be gathered with the others in the so-called Sheol. But how the righteous rejoiced when the Savior Jesus Christ Himself visited them in Sheol after His most grievous suffering, terrible death, and glorious resurrection, and announced to them His victory over sin and death, and communicated the deliverance to the souls of the righteous, that they were delivered from Sheol and paradise was open to them. They had waited for the heavenly paradise to open to them for four thousand years, and they would be free.

What about us? Do we appreciate that God calls us to live in this time, that we do not have to wait for a Redeemer? After a good, virtuous life, can we come to heavenly glory after death? Let us be grateful to the Lord God for our life, for helping us at work and in the household, for giving us children to care for, that we can raise them, that we can set them up for life, that we can help our neighbors and that we do not have to endure the suffering that our predecessors experienced during the protectorate and under totalitarian regimes. With great respect, hope, and love, let us rejoice and accept the Son of God. Let us take him into our hearts so that he may always be present in us and so that we can bring him into our workplaces, families, and nation.

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I can see him, but not now, I’m looking at him, but not up close. A star rises from Jacob, a scepter rises from Israel | Nm 24, 17.

Posted on 13. December 2024 by Peter Prochac

Already in the books of the Old Testament, the arrival of the Savior who will come out of the chosen nation was heralded. It is already mentioned in one of the books of Moses, where we hear a word from the book of Numbers: I see him, but not now; I look at him, but not close. The star rises from Jacob, and the wand rises from Israel. The entire Jewish nation recognized this word and eagerly awaited its fulfillment. Another powerful promise that the Savior who will come to this earth will rule with a scepter of iron comes from King David, who prophesied in Psalm 110 with the words: The Lord will extend the power of your scepter from Zion: rule among your enemies. From the day of your birth, the reign in sacred splendor belongs to you. I begot you like the dew before the rising of the pupil. (Vs. 2-3)

Years passed, and the Israelites expected the arrival of a mighty ruler with a sword and an iron scepter. Still, God comes in the secret of the house of Nazareth to the Virgin promised to Joseph, where with the words of an angel, he fulfills all the Old Testament prophecies: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s family forever, and his kingdom will have no end. (Lk 1, 31-33)

The promised Messiah came, who was not born into the luxury and wealth of this world but into the stench and poverty of the Bethlehem barn, where no one had prepared a festive welcome for His arrival. The time is coming when we, too, prepare for the birth of the world’s Savior. A characteristic feature of this period is that we are often absorbed in buying gifts and slavishly cleaning and decorating our homes, which usually brings more nervousness than joy. And when we finally sit at the Christmas dinner table, we are exhausted. Jesus gives us instructions on how to fully experience Christmas when every year he is born and waits for your embrace.

Prayer: Lord, we ask that we live this time with our eyes fixed on the simple crib. Let our homes not become an exhibition of wreaths and Christmas decorations, but a place ready for the arrival of the King. Amen.

Questions: Are you ready to embrace the coming Jesus?

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St. John of the Cross

Posted on 12. December 2024 by Peter Prochac

 

John of the Cross, Presb and the doctor Eccl.

December 14, commemoration
Position: Priest and church teacher, OCD mystic
Death: 1591
Attributes: Carmelite, book, cross, pen

CURRICULUM VITAE

He came from a poor Spanish family. At 21, he entered the Carmelite order in Medina del Campo. After meeting Teresa of Avila and with the consent of the superiors, he participated with her in spreading the reformed Carmel. He had to endure many hardships, but in suffering, he achieved a profound union with God and the pinnacle of mystical life. He held several positions, but according to his wish, he ended up freed from them and the glory associated with recognition. Likewise, he died after great suffering. The spiritual writings he left behind testify to his wisdom.

A MYSTIC THEOLOGIST ON THE JOYFUL WAY OF THE CROSS

He was born in 1542 in the small village of Fontiveros in Castile as the third son of Gonzalo de Yepes, who a family of wealthy merchants disinherited after the death of his parents. She did not like that he chose poor Catalina Alvarez, an orphan, as his wife. John’s ancestors on his father’s side were supposedly noblemen. His father died after a long illness when John was about two years old. Poverty and worries about how to provide the children with the most necessary things prompted his mother to set out with Francisco and little John (son Alois died before John was born) over a long distance to their uncle. The painful journey of begging did not fulfill expectations. When they were back in Fontiveros, five-year-old John (pronounced Spanish Juan) almost drowned in a lake. The incident is said to have been accompanied by a vision of Mother Mary, who was reaching out her hand to him, but he did not give her his out of respect for her so as not to soil it. Then, a peasant pulled him out. (He felt the protection of Mother Mary for the second time somewhat later when he fell into the well.)

In 1548, mother Catalina moved with her sons to Arévalo, but the family’s poverty did not decrease. In 1551, another move followed to the commercial town of Medina del Campo (today Valladolid). There, his mother placed John in a group for poor orphans, where he was educated for 8 years. He did well in his studies, but his attempts at tailoring, woodcarving, or painting were unsuccessful. From 17, he worked as a nurse in a hospital. He went around begging for alms for poor patients. With a desire to study, he spent several hours a day in the Jesuit college and more at night overbooks. He finished his humanistic studies with the Jesuits in 1563 when he entered the Carmelite monastery of St. Anne in Medina. After a year’s novitiate, he took vows and, under the name John of St. Methods, was sent to study at the University of Salamanca, where in 1567, he was ordained a priest. He had his primogeniture in Medina. Due to his desire for a stricter life, he considered transferring to the Cartesian order. Still, he met Teresa of Jesus, learned about her reform, and finally agreed to cooperate. He had not yet completed his studies. On August 15, 1568, he participated in founding a monastery in Valladolid, where Teresa introduced him to the life they began to live according to the original rules, including the method and meaning of their so-called recreation.

In Duruelo near Avila, he was given a house as a gift, which he repaired. Teresa called it Bethlehem and obtained permission from the provincial. John and two others, the prior of Medina, Father Anthony, and the deacon Joseph, took new vows there on the first Sunday of Advent, in the presence of the provincial, regarding the reform of the order. John’s new name was “John of the Cross,” and Anthony had “of Jesus” added. Thus, the first male community of the “Barefoot” was founded. The Reformed were called so because they walked barefoot, unlike the other Carmelites. The division into barefoot and shod took hold and persists.

John of the Cross was put in charge of the education of the novices. On 11 June 1570, the convent moved from Duruelo to Mancera de Abajo, near Salamanca. In the autumn of the same year, John went to Pastrana, where there were more novices. However, on 25 January 1571, he had already founded a monastery of Displaced Carmelites in Alba de Tormes. In April, he became rector of the College of Discalced Carmelites in Alcalá de Henares.

In the Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila, Teresa of Jesus became prioress in October and, through the visitor, requested John of the Cross as confessor and advisor for her convent for the following year. John stayed in Avila, with minor breaks, from May 1572 to the beginning of December 1577, when he was captured on the night of December 4 and secretly transported to the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in Toledo. There, he was illegally tried as a seditionist despite all the credentials he had received from the nuncio and the apostolic visitor. They also offered him many benefits if he withdrew from the reform. In vain. Therefore, they imprisoned him in a small, windowless room with a stool and a breviary. They took away his hooded scapular so that he would suffer the cold, and they gave him only bread and water for food. They only dared to commit evil deeds after the late nuncio Ormanet was replaced by Felipe Seg, who no longer favored reform.

John endured suffering with patience and responded to evil with love. He also gave the guard a wooden cross that he wore on his heart. He filled his time with prayer and composed mystical poems. However, his body did not want to endure the conditions in prison. When John felt his life was at stake, he escaped. He did not know where his prison was located. The tied blanket with the robe, with which he lowered himself from the prison, was supposedly tied to a loop that would not usually have been able to bear the weight of it. There was more than two meters to the bottom. After jumping down, he discovered he was in greater danger in the yard. He had to get up from there to a niche behind the wall. Finally, he managed to get to the Discalced Carmelites at dawn. He was in such a state that he could only eat porridge made from boiled pears. He soon took refuge in the monastery of “El Calvario” in Andalusia in southern Spain, where he became abbot in the autumn.

He started in Baez on July 14, 1579, as rector of the college of “Our Lady of Carmel,” which he led until the beginning of 1582. In the meantime, in March 1581, he participated in the provincial chapter in Alcalá de Henares because Pope Gregory XIII had consented the previous year to establish his province of the Discalced.

From January 1582, John of the Cross was stationed in Granada, and in October 1585, he became provincial vicar in Andalusia. After two years, he returned to the priory of the Granada Convent of the Martyrs. He was a sought-after confessor and wrote about prayer and the spiritual journey. During his time in Granada, he not only rebuilt the monastery, but also managed to write the book The Ascent of Mount Carmel, considered his best work. He also made many journeys, drawing strength from prayer.

As a vicar in Andalusia, he founded other monasteries. In April 1586 in Cordoba at the chapel of St. Roch, in June another in Seville and later that year in La Manchuela. That year, a wall fell while a house was being rebuilt, crushing his room and him. Onlookers thought he had not survived, but then they saw his smile and heard him attribute protection to the Virgin Mary.

Pope Sixtus V. 10. 7. 1587 Bosý authorized a vicar general subject to the superior general. In the first chapter in Madrid on 18. 6. 1588, John of the Cross was elected the first general definitor. When the vicar general M. Doria introduced a new form of governance, he appointed John the third councilor. The council seat was in Segovia in the middle of the following year. John also became the principal of the community there.

At the extraordinary Madrid chapter in 1590, he tried to mitigate the extreme measures that Doris had begun. At the next regular chapter a year later, John was stripped of all his functions, and with humility and inner peace, he left for the Andalusian province. After a month in the hermit convent of La Peñuela, he fell ill. He suffered from inflammation of his right leg and, therefore, went to the convent in used for treatment. He arrived with a high fever and underwent a serious operation without anesthesia. From December 7, his fever rose dangerously, and on December 11, he received the sacraments for the journey to eternity. Shortly after midnight on December 14, when he kissed the cross with the words: “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit” – he died.

He was beatified in 1675 and canonized in 1726. In 1926, he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI. Through his writings, he teaches the path to union with God and complete transformation into the Beloved.

In writing The Flame of Love…, he asks: “Why are you impatient, my soul, when from now on you can love God completely in your heart?”

RESOLUTION, PRAYER

From John’s example, I will learn to respond to evil with love. On this “divine path” to accept crosses with love for the conversion of others and to ascend “Mount Carmel” – where “the glory and honor of God dwells” – with a joyful flame of love in my heart.

O God, who gave to Saint John of the Cross a great love for the crucified Christ and the ability to adhere entirely to You; grant that we may follow him in this and attain the vision of Your glory. Through Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, a world without end.

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Rebuke to the hardened people.

Posted on 12. December 2024 by Peter Prochac

 Whether God fulfilled his promises to the chosen people arose during the Babylonian captivity. The answer to this question is today’s first reading. The Old Testament prophet presents God as the Redeemer who will defeat the Babylonians. God speaks to his people with a statement already known from the books of the Law: I am the Lord, your God. In other words, the same God of the Fathers is at work here, and he has already proven himself several times in the history of the Old Testament people of God. He presents himself as one who teaches and guides the people. Then comes the reproach. They would have been saved if the people had obeyed God’s commands. So, God is not to blame for his promises not being fulfilled. The people themselves are to blame for their unfaithfulness.

As God taught the people in the Old Testament, so did Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus also reproaches his contemporaries for being moody and unstable. They are like children playing in the square at a wedding and a funeral simultaneously, spoiling each other’s play. Jesus’ rebuke to his contemporaries, Jesus applies their attitude to John the Baptist and himself. John the Baptist lived a life of repentance, and he did not suit them, so they accused him of being possessed by the devil. Jesus was with sinners, which seemed to them to be worldly; therefore, they did not accept him. Then Jesus makes a statement: Well, wisdom is justified by works. God’s wisdom manifested in John the Baptist’s acts of repentance. God’s wisdom was also manifested in Jesus and his dining with sinners. Both did works of God’s wisdom. You need to observe and evaluate the surrounding deeds in the spirit of faith. After all, God shapes each person differently according to their life circumstances. Therefore, we should not adopt superficial slander and name-calling of other people. Naturally, when someone is impure, he also judges others according to himself. Immersed in things, events, and people, he will keep us on the path Jesus leads us on. Whoever follows Jesus will have the light of life.

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