 Jesus' goodness- the Mass (c)Mary Matasso, 2011, used with permission
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| October 6, 2011 St. Bruno, Bl. Marie R. Durocher Dear Family of Mary! |
Our Lady continues to drive home her point to us that we need to have a personal relations
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hip with the Father, which we receive through Jesus. She says, "Pray that your hearts may be flooded with the goodness which comes only from my Son, Who is sincere goodness. Only hearts filled with goodness can comprehend and accept God the Father." Her desires for us are strong. She uses very strong words here. She wants our hearts to be flooded with the goodness which comes from her Son, Jesus. Flooded! Inundated! Overcome! Completely washed! She wants us completely filled to the brim with Jesus' goodness!
What can this mean? How can we be filled with Jesus' goodness? One way occurs to me, and that is that we grow to understand how much Jesus loves us, individually. If we could get a glimpse of how much we are loved, we might begin to comprehend how good Jesus is, and how we can participate in that goodness.
Again I turn to Fr. Jean d'Elbée to help illustrate. Fr. Jean writes about the good that Jesus sees in us...which in turn makes Jesus' own goodness more visible:
You must believe in mercy to the point of believing that you are a joy for Jesus. I return to this thought which I have already touched upon, for it is essential. The life of the Christian is a life of love. Can people love one another without knowing that they are a joy for each other?
Ask yourself, "How does Jesus see me?" He sees me as His child since my baptism. He sees me, since my confirmation, filled with the superabundance of the gifts of His Spirit, marked with the indelible character of a soldier of His kingdom. He sees married people bathed in the grace of the sacrament of marriage. And, looking at husband and wife, He thinks of His union with the Church. He sees me as His lamb which has so often let itself be led back to the fold in His arms, purified by absolution. He sees my soul transformed into Himself by Mass and Communion - my soul, where His Father and He have made their dwelling place because, "If anyone love me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and will make our abode with him" (John 14:23). These are the actual realities of sacramental graces!
How many causes of joy for Him there are in us!
What more does He see? All you have done for Him: your prayers, your good impulses, all the acts which in the course of your life, have been determined by your faith, your hope, and your love; your acts of generosity, your acts of charity, especially which you have forgotten in part but which Jesus has not forgotten, because they are engraved in His Heart. On the day of judgment, with what happiness and what approval He will remind you of all that, in detail
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, for His own glory, since He is the author of all that is good, but for yours, also, because you will have believed in His love. "Come, you blessed of My Father" (Matt. 25:34).
And if, in addition to all that, you give Him your many miseries with great humility, but also with great confidence, then you give Him His great joy - His joy of being Savior. Every soul in a state of grace is for Him a Heaven which only that soul could give Him. (Fr. Jean C. J. d'Elbée. I Believe in Love. Sophia Institute Press, 1969. P. 97-98)
Doesn't this flood our souls with joy? Doesn't it send a torrent of goodness into our entire being? Jesus is sooooooooo good! He loves us so much. He shows us the heart of His Father, who is all goodness and love. We are loved by an infinite God who would do anything to bring us to Himself. His joy is our unity with Him. His happiness is our happiness. His hope is that we will say "yes" to Him and accept His love.
"Only hearts filled with goodness can comprehend and accept God the Father."
In Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan
P.S. Please pray for Mary TV as we begin to prepare for the live streaming from Vienna on November 17, 2011 at St. Stephen's Cathedral, with visionaries from Medjugorje. We will keep you updated as to the schedule!
PP.S. Fr. Jean C.J. d'Elbée's book, I believe in Love, is available at www.sophiainstitute.com
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