(c)Mary TV 2012
Live according to My Son!
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J.M.J.
December 4, 2012
St. John Damascene
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children, with motherly love and motherly patience anew I call you to live according to my Son - to spread His peace and His love - so that, as my apostles, you may accept God's truth with all your heart and pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you. Then you will be able to faithfully serve my Son, and show His love to others with your life. According to the love of my Son and my love, as a mother, I strive to bring all of my strayed children into my motherly embrace and to show them the way of faith. My children, help me in my motherly battle and pray with me that sinners may become aware of their sins and repent sincerely. Pray also for those whom my Son has chosen and consecrated in His name. Thank you." (December 2, 2012 Mirjana)
This beautiful message through Mirjana calls us again "to live according to my Son."She has said this several times. We might ask ourselves what this phrase means. One way to view it is that we try to see things through the eyes of Jesus. We try to understand our lives from Jesus' point of view, and not our own. Because Jesus became man, lived among us, died for us, and is risen to prepare a place for us, and He knows a thing or two about our lives from the inside, Jesus gets our humanity! We should want to know what He knows about us.
Of course, so much of what He knows about us is revealed in the Gospels. Each encounter Jesus had with someone reveals something of His take on things. But I think that we can learn about Jesus' point of view from the Church as well, from her beautiful teachings. We see Jesus' point of view in the Church.
Take, for instance, the Sacrament of Penance that we have been discussing as a response to the November 25, Message in which Our Lady said, "Dear children! In this time of grace, I call all of you to renew prayer. Open yourselves to Holy Confession so that each of you may accept my call with the whole heart..."(November 25, 2012) We have been sharing about Confession and what it means for us, and how to receive it. So much of Jesus' love has shown through this discussion. I am especially struck by Fr. Alfred Wilson's wisdom on Confession. I suppose you can guess, I am going to quote him again. But I think that this quote will show us even more clearly how to live according to Jesus:
Our Divine Savior has obviously done His best to make Confession as fear-proof as possible, so let us not frustrate His merciful designs by introducing unwarranted fears based on ignorance. It is possible to commit a good many sins in the actual act of Confession and yet not nullify the Sacrament. He demands the very minimum. It is not for a moment suggested that we should be content with the minimum. All the same, it is a great advantage to know the minimum requirements of Confession, because such knowledge enables us to appreciate how easy it is to lay the sure foundations; and when we have done that, we can go on tranquilly to raise a noble superstructure, which we cannot do if we spend all our time worrying about the foundation.
Why is Confession so easy? "Because by His bruises we are healed. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all." The blows that were aimed at us fell aslant across His bruised and battered Body and He broke the force of the blows. That is why we get off so lightly. "He took the handwriting that was against us and nailed it to the Cross in His own Body." He made the supreme sacrifice and perfect satisfaction for all the sins of all the world.
Moreover, in the Agony in the Garden, He made a perfect confession and a perfect act of perfect contrition for all the sins of the world. "Him Who knew no sin He hath made sin for us." His confession was absolutely accurate: His contrition, His sadness, was of infinite intensity. Remember that, when you go to Confession. He has already told those very sins you are about to tell, He has sorrowed for them. Your task is to supplement His perfect confession and perfect contrition as best you can.
Naturally, you feel that your effort is hopelessly inadequate. Of course it is. His will supply. Think more of His confession and you won't be so worried about your own. You never approach Confession alone. He is always by your side, ready and anxious to help: and He will never fail you nor allow you to fail Him, if you do your honest best. Remember that Confession is a Sacrament of Mercy and approach it with childlike trust. He wants our trust and is pained when we do not trust Him. And, after Calvary, the Mass and the institution of this Sacrament of Mercy is it surprising? (Fr. Alfred Wilson, C.P. "Pardon and Peace". P. 40-41)
Now, doesn't this help us to live according to Jesus??? Doesn't this show us who He is, and how we are to trust in Him? He is the one who has taken on our sin. We do not carry it alone. We can entrust our Confession to Him. He will be there to forgive us, having already won that forgiveness for us on Calvary. He has done it all!
So, living according to Mary's Son is not so burdensome, is it? Really, it is the best way to live that there ever was!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2012
PS. If you haven't already discovered it, the December 2, 2012 apparition to Mirjana is posted on our home page, beautifully filmed by Josip Zubac! Show your family and friends. One glimpse of an apparition can change someone's life. www.marytv.tv
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