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| This is a story of when I began to learn this truth--graphically. |
There is a comment at the very end of the comments to an article John Allen wrote on the recently concluded Sexual Abuse Conference at the Gregorian in Rome that triggered this post. John's article concentrated on the estimated financial and personal cost of the crisis in the US. There are some interesting comments from some people with a particular ax to grind, but readers can read those for themselves. I'm interested in commenting on this one comment, because well, just because"
"It is interesting how many comments and stories that surround this scandal never seem to address the real problem: the spiritual battle between God and His enemy (or have we forgotten who that is).
As believers, I believe we continue to fail to comprehend that as we have weakened the liturgy so have we weakened our spiritual armor. As we have weakened our belief in the assistance of Heaven, from the Virgin's protection to Angelic intercession, we have allowed the other side to have a field day with us. How often we hear that no one wants to believe in the prophecy given to Leo XIII, or those to St. Faustina as Jesus says to her:
‘I will allow convents and churches to be destroyed.’
St. Faustina answered, ‘Jesus, but there are so many souls praising You in convents.’
The Lord answered, ‘That praise wounds My Heart, because love has been banished from convents. Souls without love and without devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls full of pride and arrogance, souls full of deceit and hypocrisy, lukewarm souls who have just enough warmth to keep them alive: My Heart cannot bear this!
‘All the graces that I pour out upon them flow off them as off the face of a rock. I cannot stand them, because they are neither good or bad. I called convents into being to sanctify the world through them. It is from them that a powerful flame of love and sacrifice should burst forth.
‘And if they do not repent and become enkindled by their first love, I will deliver them over to the fate of this world … .'
Until our bishops and priests and nuns and laity get this, we will not win this battle.
For the Lord has delivered them for their lukewarmness to the "fate of this world." Only He can bring them back, not more rules and regulations or psychiatric nonsense nor money nor endless statistics.
It is almost Lent. The Novena to the Holy Face of Jesus began Sunday. What will we do? What will we sacrifice to Him for Him to act to end this crime and scandal?
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Since I am taking a real risk I will be accused of engaging in 'psychiatric nonsense' I have some thoughts about Sr. Faustina's alleged interaction with Jesus. First off, I can't help but notice the voice of Jesus sounds suspiciously like he is espousing Faustina's opinion of her own experience and judgments relative to her own spiritual efforts and those of her fellow nuns. I would call this a self fulfilling visionary state. How wonderful for Faustina that Jesus sees things just as she does, and if you read her diary to any length at all, Jesus is always on the same thought track as Sr Faustina. I have not been so lucky or so connected to the Jesus wave length.
My first real encounter with other 'non organic sentient beings' was entirely different. It happened when I was a senior in high school. Our sociology class was on a three day field trip. The first night we spent touring the college I eventually attended. I had applied for admission to this school but had heard nothing from them and so was not expecting what happened. The Admissions Department arranged a little ceremony at which I was singled out and given a full ride scholarship. My head barely got in the bus the next morning as we left for the first real stop on our trip. This was at the State School For The Mentally Retarded. Back in the day things were not so PC as they are now.
This was also in the days before the warehouse style institutions were emptied. There were 1200+ inmates housed here. I use the term inmates because that's what they were. None of us were remotely prepared for what we saw. There were concrete rooms with no furniture that held upwards of 75 adult men, some of whom wore hockey helmets as the 'treatment' for their head banging. We girls had the men all over us, picking at our hair and trying to fondle our breasts. The boys got the same treatment in women's day areas, which were once again, large concrete rooms with no furniture. The smell was overwhelming. After touring four or five of these areas, we were taken to Non Ambulatory ward where we saw the results of Mother Nature gone way wrong.
‘I will allow convents and churches to be destroyed.’
St. Faustina answered, ‘Jesus, but there are so many souls praising You in convents.’
The Lord answered, ‘That praise wounds My Heart, because love has been banished from convents. Souls without love and without devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls full of pride and arrogance, souls full of deceit and hypocrisy, lukewarm souls who have just enough warmth to keep them alive: My Heart cannot bear this!
‘All the graces that I pour out upon them flow off them as off the face of a rock. I cannot stand them, because they are neither good or bad. I called convents into being to sanctify the world through them. It is from them that a powerful flame of love and sacrifice should burst forth.
‘And if they do not repent and become enkindled by their first love, I will deliver them over to the fate of this world … .'
Until our bishops and priests and nuns and laity get this, we will not win this battle.
For the Lord has delivered them for their lukewarmness to the "fate of this world." Only He can bring them back, not more rules and regulations or psychiatric nonsense nor money nor endless statistics.
It is almost Lent. The Novena to the Holy Face of Jesus began Sunday. What will we do? What will we sacrifice to Him for Him to act to end this crime and scandal?
**************************************
Since I am taking a real risk I will be accused of engaging in 'psychiatric nonsense' I have some thoughts about Sr. Faustina's alleged interaction with Jesus. First off, I can't help but notice the voice of Jesus sounds suspiciously like he is espousing Faustina's opinion of her own experience and judgments relative to her own spiritual efforts and those of her fellow nuns. I would call this a self fulfilling visionary state. How wonderful for Faustina that Jesus sees things just as she does, and if you read her diary to any length at all, Jesus is always on the same thought track as Sr Faustina. I have not been so lucky or so connected to the Jesus wave length.
My first real encounter with other 'non organic sentient beings' was entirely different. It happened when I was a senior in high school. Our sociology class was on a three day field trip. The first night we spent touring the college I eventually attended. I had applied for admission to this school but had heard nothing from them and so was not expecting what happened. The Admissions Department arranged a little ceremony at which I was singled out and given a full ride scholarship. My head barely got in the bus the next morning as we left for the first real stop on our trip. This was at the State School For The Mentally Retarded. Back in the day things were not so PC as they are now.
This was also in the days before the warehouse style institutions were emptied. There were 1200+ inmates housed here. I use the term inmates because that's what they were. None of us were remotely prepared for what we saw. There were concrete rooms with no furniture that held upwards of 75 adult men, some of whom wore hockey helmets as the 'treatment' for their head banging. We girls had the men all over us, picking at our hair and trying to fondle our breasts. The boys got the same treatment in women's day areas, which were once again, large concrete rooms with no furniture. The smell was overwhelming. After touring four or five of these areas, we were taken to Non Ambulatory ward where we saw the results of Mother Nature gone way wrong.
There was the hydrocephalic, Sam, who ran the institutions' primitive computer system and was a consultant for the State's much larger system. His head was four times bigger than normal and had to be strapped to his wheel chair because his neck couldn't support the weight. We talked with him for a good half hour as he couldn't believe that somehow this tour of high school kids from a small ranching community was allowed into the back wards. It was for him, such an overwhelming gift he would have to stop himself from crying. We also carried on a conversation with a three year old PKU baby who was as talkative as any three year old, but was 21 inches long and 8.5 pounds. The ward nurse holding her began to cry as she admitted she had fallen in love with her and well, knew that someday soon she would be mourning that love. Love is the operative word here. On those backwards I saw first hand what love for the least of the least really meant. I saw firsthand what lack of outside community interaction really meant. What being way out on the margins really meant. I saw how I knew nothing about real life.
As we all got back on the bus, our tour guide admitted that she had never been given permission to take any one but the State Board of Visitors on that extensive of a tour. We had seen everything there was to see. Most tours lasted an hour, ours had lasted six and a half. She hoped we got something out of it.
I can remember staring out the bus window, wiping off tears and listening to the sobs coming from the other kids. Suddenly I saw a vision of what I recognized as the statistical drawing of a bell curve. I heard a voice ask me where my IQ fit on the curve. I said, "On the edge of the left hand side." The voice then said that for every one of me, there was another human being in the backwards, non ambulatory, mute and completely dependent on the generosity, mercy, and love of their fellow humans. While I stared at that bell curve, letting this information sink in, the voice continued: "God doesn't see any difference in the two data points. Each of you is necessary for the bell curve to be drawn. Neither is more important than the other. Don't ever forget this or that God loves you just as God loves that precious PKU baby, or cherishes Sam for making the most he can of his particular situation. You are not capable of judging, so don't, just learn to love." End of vision.
The first thing that happened was my head deflated. I'm sure my classmates found that a relief. I have spent the rest of my life never forgetting the message of that first vision, continually drawing lessons, learning even more. God does not condemn, threaten, or judge. We do. Our task is not to control others or preen over our particular position on the bell curve, it's to love and to care about the other data points around us because none of us is more important than the other, and all of us are equally necessary for the picture the curve draws--and God loves all of us. Period. Happy Valentine's Day.
