Mystic, Patristic Reading,
COMMENT:
Luisa Piccarreta, Book of Heaven Volume 1m pp.
113-166.
The Holy Mass Effects excerpt illuminates our completed Redemption
...
In this Eastertide, beside the mystic quotation, it is re-enforced by the patristic Ascension Reading from St. Augustine, 'Two Kinds of Life'.
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The
Holy Mass and Its Effects.
In particular, the Bodily Resurrection of the Dead.
I
can now say that while
I was listening attentively
to the Divine Sacrifice, Jesus made me understand that the Mass, in the depth of the Mystery that unfolds, encompasses all the mysteries of our religion. Yes, the Mass enables us to observe everything;
and it silently speaks to the heart of the
infinite Love of God with unheard-of developments
given for the good of man. It always reviews our completed Redemption and makes us remember each part of the sufferings that Jesus bore for
us who are ungrateful for his Love. Thanks to the institution of this permanent
Sacrifice, He makes us understand that He, not satisfied with dying just once
on the Cross for us, wants
to diffuse Himself in his immense Love, and
continue his status as Victim in the Holy Eucharist.
Jesus
made me understand that the Mass and
the Holy Eucharist are a perennial remembrance of his Death and Resurrection, and that they communicate the antidote
for our mortal life. The Mass and
Eucharist tell us that our disintegrated bodies, which will decay and be
reduced to ashes through death, will be resurrected on the last day, to
immortal life. For the good, it will be glorious; but for the wicked, it
will end in torment. Those that have not lived with Christ will not resurrect in Him; but the good
who have been intimate with Christ during their lifetime, will have a
resurrection similar to that of Jesus .
He made me understand well that
the most consoling thing contained in the Sacrifice of the Mass is Jesus in the Sacrament of his Resurrection. It is superior to any of the other mysteries of our holy religion. This, together with his Passion and Death, is mystically renewed on our altars whenever the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated. Under the veil of unleavened Sacramental Bread,
Jesus actually gives Himself to the
communicants so as to be their companion along life's pilgrimage of mortal
existence. By means of his grace that comes
from the Bosom of the Holy Trinity, He gives everlasting life to those that participate, with soul and body, in this
Sacrament. These mysteries are so profound that only in our immortal life will we fully understand. However, now in the Sacrament, Jesus gives
us, in many ways-almost tangibly-a foretaste of what He will give us in Heaven.
Foremost, the Mass
disposes us to meditation on the Life, Passion and Death of
Jesus, who has been gloriously resurrected. Christ's Humanity, through
the vicissitudes of life, was accomplished in
thirty-three years; whereas in the Mass,
mystically, and in a brief period of
time, it is all renewed in a state of true annihilation, in which the sacramental
species contain Jesus, living and real, up to the time they are consumed.
Afterwards, his real presence no longer exists Sacramentally in our hearts. He
returns to the bosom of his Divine Father, just as He did when He arose from
the dead. Then, consecrated anew in the Mass,
under the forms of bread and wine, He descends to assume the Victim state of
peace and propitiating love.
His "Sacramental state" is renewed for our good as wayfarers, and for
the glory and satisfaction of his Eternal Father.
Thus, in the Sacrament, He reminds us of the resurrection of our
own bodies into glory. Just as He resides in the bosom of his Father when He
ceases his Sacramental state, so too will we pass to our eternal residence in
the bosom of God when we cease to exist in our present life. Our bodies will be
consumed like the Sacramental forms that seem to exist no longer. Then, on the universal Day of
Resurrection, by the miracle of God's Omnipotence, our bodies will acquire
"life"; and joined to our souls, will go to enjoy the eternal
beatitude of God. Others, to the contrary, will go away from God to
suffer atrocious, eternal torments.
If these marvellous effects flow from the limpid and unobscured Sacrifice of the Mass, why do Christians not accustom themselves to profit from it?
For a soul that loves God, can there be anything more consoling and beneficent? In
the Sacrament, He nourishes a soul so that it can be worthy of Heaven; and He
gives the body the privilege of becoming
beatified in the Eternal Will of God.
It seems to me that on that great day, a supernatural event will
occur like the natural event that takes place after we have contemplated the starry heavens-and the sun appears. What happens? The sun, in its
dazzling light, absorbs the light of the stars and, even though they disappear
from the observer's sight, each star keeps its light, and stays in place. When
the sun sets, the stars receive new light and shine in the firmament.
Like the stars, the souls that find themselves in front of the
Universal Judgment in the Valley of Jehosophat as it was before the arrival of
Jesus, will be able to observe other souls. The light acquired and communicated by the Most Holy
Sacrifice and Sacrament of Love will
be observable to each soul. But when Jesus, the Judge and Eternal Sun of Justice, appears in
his great light, He will absorb into Himself, all the blessed souls that shine
like stars. He will allow them to exist always, to swim in the
immense sea of God's perfection.
And what will happen to souls deprived of this Divine Light? If
I wanted to answer this question, I could write indefinitely. But if the Lord
wishes, I shall reserve this for another time and say something else about the
object of his Love. He had me understand, simply, that the bodies that are re-united to the souls with resplendent light, will be eternally
united with God. On the
other hand, other souls, because of the lack of light from not wishing to
participate in the Sacrifice and Sacrament of Love, will be thrown into the
depths of the thickest darkness; and because of their ingratitude, knowingly
committed against so great a Giver, they will be placed in the slavery of
Lucifer, the prince of darkness. They will be eternally tormented by terrible and terrifying remorse.
000
God has given us a new birth into living hope, alleluia.
– By raising Jesus Christ from the dead, alleluia.
FIRST READING
From the first letter of the apostle John
3:11-17
Love one another
RESPONSORY
1 John 3:16, 14
By this we have come to know the meaning of God’s love:
Christ laid down his life for us,
– and we should lay down our lives for our brothers, alleluia.
We know that we have passed from death to life,
because we love our brothers.
– And we should lay down our lives for our brothers, alleluia.
SECOND READING
From the treatise on John by Saint Augustine, bishop
(Tract. 124, 5, 7: CCL 36, 685-687)
Two kinds of life
The Church recognizes two kinds of life as having been commended to her by God. One is a life of faith, the other a life of vision; one is a life passed on pilgrimage in time, the other in a dwelling place in eternity; one is a life of toil, the other of repose; one is spent on the road, the other in our homeland; one is active, involving labor, the other contemplative, the reward of labor.
The first kind of life is symbolized by the apostle Peter, the second by John. All of the first life is lived in this world, and it will come to an end with this world. The second life will be imperfect till the end of this world, but it will have no end in the next world. And so Christ says to Peter: Follow me; but of John he says: If I wish him to remain until I come, what is that to you? Your duty is to follow me.
You are to follow me by imitating my endurance of transient evils; John is to remain until my coming, when I will bring eternal blessings. A way of saying this more clearly might be: Your active life will be perfect if you follow the example of my passion, but to attain its full perfection John’s life of contemplation must wait until I come.
Perfect patience is to follow Christ faithfully, even to death, but for perfect knowledge we must await his coming. Here, in the land of the dying, the sufferings of the world must be endured; there, in the land of the living, shall be seen the good things of the Lord.
Christ’s words, I wish him to remain until I come, should not be taken to imply that John was to remain on earth until Christ’s coming, but rather that he was to wait because it is not now but only when Christ comes that the life he symbolizes will find fulfillment. On the other hand, Christ says to Peter: Your duty is to follow me, because the life Peter symbolizes can attain its goal only by action here and now.
Yet we should make no mental separation between these great apostles. Both lived the life symbolized by Peter; both were to attain the life symbolized by John. Symbolically, one followed, the other remained, but living by faith they both endured the sufferings of this present life of sorrow and they both longed for the joys of the future life of happiness.
Nor were they alone in this. They were one with the whole Church, the bride of Christ, which will in time be delivered from the trials of this life and live for ever in the joy of the next. These two kinds of life were represented respectively by Peter and John, yet both apostles lived by faith in this present, passing life and in eternal life both have the joy of vision.
And so for the sake of all the saints inseparably united to the body of Christ, to guide them through the storms of this life, Peter, the chief of the apostles, received the keys of the kingdom of heaven with the power to bind and loose sins; and for the sake of those same saints, to plumb the depths of that other, hidden life, John the evangelist reclined on the breast of Christ.
For it is not only Peter but the whole Church that binds and looses from sin; and as for the sublime teaching of John about the Word, who in the beginning was God with God, and everything else he told us about Christ’s divinity, and about the trinity and unity of the Godhead, which now, until the Lord comes, is all like a faint reflection in a mirror, but which will be seen face to face in the kingdom of heaven—it was not only John who drank in this teaching that came forth from the Lord’s breast as from a fountain. All who belong to the Lord are to drink it in, each according to his capacity, and this is why the Lord himself has spread John’s gospel throughout the world.
RESPONSORY
1 Peter 5:10; 2 Corinthians 4:14
The God of all grace has called us to glory in Christ Jesus.
– He will restore, support and strengthen us
after we have suffered for a little while, alleluia.
He who raised Jesus from the dead
will also raise us up with Jesus.
– He will restore, support and strengthen us
after we have suffered for a little while, alleluia.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Let us pray.
Father,
at your Son’s ascension into heaven
you promised to send the Holy Spirit on your apostles.
You filled them with heavenly wisdom:
fill us also with the gift of your Spirit.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.
Or:
Icon of St. Pachomius the Great receiving the tradition of the monastic habit and coenobitic rule from an Angel