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J.M.J.T.
+ Pax Christi
DISCALCED CARMELITE FRIARS -
Monastery of the Espousals
166 Foster Street, Brighton, MA 02135-3902 (617) 787-5056
Great Jubilee Christmas
2000
Dear Friends,
Well, (shades of President
Reagan) finally the Third Millennium is less than a month away. All during the year 2000 I kept seeing
statements that we had already entered the third millennium on January 1st
of this current year, and each time I would wonder how people could make that
mistake. Since there are a thousand
years in a millennium, and we begin counting with the number one (1), it should
be evident that all one thousand years have to be complete to make up the
millennium. That means that the year
1000 was the last year of the first millennium, since 999 plus 1 equals one
thousand. So, adding another thousand
years (a millennium) to the year 1000, the last year of the first millennium we
get the year 2000 as the final year of the second millennium. Well, I hope I haven’t bored you with my
paranoia. I guess I should be
philosophical and say, if it makes people happy to think that the 3rd
millennium has already begun, God bless them!
Heavens! What’s one year out of
a thousand??
As usual, I read over my Christmas
letter of last year before beginning this one, and I was surprised to see
that I had used up so much space talking about myself that I had only a couple
of paragraphs left at the end of it in which to try to get in some spiritual
thoughts pertaining to the great solemnity of Christmas. It occurred to me that this time I ought to
try to reverse the situation. But
since it is much easier to talk about oneself rather than to find something
worth pondering concerning the mystery of God’s Love for us, as manifested
in the Incarnation, I am not surprised that I took the easy route. With the help of God I’ll try to achieve a
better balance with this letter.
Now that I think about it
the entire tenor of last year’s letter suggests a theme. In it I spoke so much about the physical
problems that I had experienced during 1999, that it would seem I was overly
concerned (hopefully not morbidly) with my own mortality. I did mention at one point the thought that
had occurred to me concerning the evidence of my incipient physical breakdown
with age: If my body doesn’t break
down, my soul will remain trapped in time.
Taking a hint from that, now it occurs to me that our solemn celebration
of the Incarnation of the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity is also a
celebration of Jesus’ mortality. That
is because, had He not become mortal that is, capable of dying, the
mortality of our bodies would mean that, when finally our spiritual,
imperishable souls were released from this earthly life, they, too, would
experience death, a death that would never end. They would, in a word, experience an eternal hell.
We don’t often think about
what it is for our souls to live, that is, what constitutes life for our
souls. I am convinced that our souls
are only alive when their three faculties of (1) intellect, (2) imagination and
memory and (3) will, are in possession of their proper objects. You see, the intellect was created by God to
subsist on truth, the imagination and memory to subsist on beauty and
orderliness, and the will to subsist on goodness. While we are in the body here on earth, through the
instrumentality of our sense, our intellects do get to experience and thrive on
some snippets of truth, our memories and imaginations on some snippets of
beauty and orderliness, and our will on some snippets of goodness. The reason I say snippets is because
the material creatures that feed the three faculties of our souls, possess in
themselves only a very tiny created participation in the uncreated and infinite
and eternal Truth, Beauty and Orderliness, and Goodness, which is God. But it is only while the human soul subsists
in these mortal bodies of ours that we say it is alive in the sense just
mentioned.
At death, the soul no longer
has access to those material snippets of truth, beauty and orderliness, and
goodness in which perishable creatures participate, and unless it happens to be
in possession of truth, beauty and orderliness, and goodness mediated through
avenues other than the physical senses, the human soul is starved, and
really dies, even though, being spiritual, the soul continues to exist without
life.
Thus, we celebrate the
mortality of Jesus’ Humanity, which Humanity is exactly like ours in every
respect except sin, because by His physical death He reconciled us to God,
whose friendship our first parents, Adam and Eve, lost for us when they
rejected the participation in Divine Life that Our Gracious God had conferred
upon their souls at their creation.
Before their disobedience, the faculties of soul of Adam and Eve had
been elevated above nature by a special grace that enabled them to enjoy God,
and have their souls live on God, as Supreme, Eternal Truth in their intellect,
on God as Supreme, Eternal Beauty and Orderliness in their imagination and
memory, and on God as Supreme, Eternal Goodness in their will. By their disobedience, they chose error over
truth, disorder over order, and evil over goodness, and thus they lost the
supernatural capacity to enjoy and live on God as He is in Himself.
So when Jesus had completely
accepted the ignominious death on a cross in obedience to the command God His
Father had given Him when sending Him into the world as one of us, He obtained
for us anew the supernatural favor of having restored to us, provided we want
it, the capacity to feed the faculties of our souls on God Himself, and so
enjoy, even here on earth, a share, albeit created and finite, in God’s very
own Life. Thus, now, we need not fear
the separation of body and soul in death.
Now, if our souls leave our bodies already living a Divine Life through
the supernatural, theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, that
participation in God’s life continues forever.
So, we can really say that the statement: Harrah! [Alleluia!], God the Son has become Man! Is the
exact equivalent of Hurrah! God the Son has become mortal! And let us not forget to add: Harrah! For the Blessed ever-Virgin Mary!
Without her, we would never have
had the Divine Person Jesus, Incarnate, and Mortal God, as one of us. We just can’t thank Our Blessed Mother or
honor her enough!!
* * * ** * * * *
Well now, let me bring you
up to date with what has transpired in my life during the great Jubilee
2000. My official duties have remained
the same, namely, I continue to serve our Province of Discalced Carmelite friars
as Mission Procurator, and I still serve six of our secular Order Communities
as spiritual assistant, weather and my Mission Appeal schedule permitting. Again I was able to spend some time with my
relatives and some long time friends in Rochester, NY, where I was born and
raised. While in Rochester I
participated in the 3rd Annual Outdoor Mass and Picnic at Greece,
NY, Canal Park, the number of participants of which seems to be increasing each
year. The probate matter in which I am
assisting one of our Friars to execute the will of a cousin of his is nearing
closure, but I found myself getting involved in two more probate matters. In one of them I am assisting the nephew of
a dear, deceased Secular Carmelite friend to serve, as executor of her
will. In the other, I have filed on my
own behalf; having agreed before she died recently, with another dear departed
Secular Carmelite, to be the executor of her will.
Nothing happened this year
that was quite as memorable as assisting last year at services honoring the
relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, although just to be able to live
during the celebration of the great Jubilee Year 2000 is itself a privilege and
a grace. And now that I think of it,
truly memorable was the pilgrimage of the Discalced Carmelite Secular Order
Community of Vermont, in which I took part, to commemorate, and obtain the
indulgences of, the Jubilee year. We
went as a group to the Shrine of St. Anne on Isle LaMotte in Lake Champlain. There we had Mass, the outdoor Stations of
the Cross, and a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the Shrine
Chapel. Very memorable, indeed.
Only three things occurred
that were not pleasant. One was the
surprise (if not shock) of finding myself driving through about 40 miles of
blizzard conditions in New Hampshire, on my way to Vermont. That occurred on the 29th of
October, and was really scary!! The
others, alas were the death of a very dear boyhood friend and neighbor of mine
in mid-November, and the death of another dear lady, with whom a lasting
friendship developed following our participation in a Cursillo together back in
1966, myself as spiritual director, and she as one of the candidates.
As far as my health is
concerned, it has been good, basically, though I did come down with a very
severe cold on November 13, and I still feel its effects, in some respects, 28
days later.
Yesterday I visited my
primary care physician. Based on what I
told him, he has scheduled me for a stress test on a treadmill, and has
arranged for me to have a bone-density scan.
Dearest friends, it has been
great visiting with you this way. I
conclude with Hurrah! It’s
Christmas time, the Solemnity of the Nativity of Jesus! Hurrah!
because the season requires me to remember you all with sincere fraternal
affection. The Lord is so good
to grace me with your friendship.
Please God each and every one of you has no trouble coming up with
innumerable reasons to feel just as blessed by Our Most Gracious God.
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