12 days ‒ Emptying oneself of the spirit of the world - Day 12
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
O Holy Spirit, inspire me. God’s love, engulf me. Holy Mary, my Mother, guide me in the right ways, look at me, and together with Jesus, bless me. Keep me from all evil, from all delusions and all threats. Mary, The Spouse of the Holy Spirit, obtain for me the grace of living through persecutions for righteousness’ sake with dignity. Amen!
The Word of God
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:10).
Meditation
Life in Paradise was free of suffering. The man was immersed in God’s glory and love. The torment appeared only after the sin was committed and people left Paradise. Since the beginning, man has tried to cope with the torments of the soul and body. The spirit of the world provides us with various lessons on pain, starting with blaming God for it, through negation and different misleading philosophies that attempt to harness it to complete denial. No matter how the man tries to deal with suffering, it 70 EMPTYING ONESELF OF THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD always returns. And the world we live in teaches us to value our comfort. The spirit of the world wants us to be able to pay a lot to feel comfortable. This is what the consumerism is based on. It lures us with lies: you must have this or that, then your life will be better. Anything, not to think about suffering. It also means paying any price for the comfort.
Different matters we care about will always cost us. Today, we want to ask ourselves: what do I want to pay for and what price am I ready to pay? The world also teaches us that we need to pay, but eventually, we bear the cost of what doesn’t lead us to true life.
In the Old Testament, people were ready to lay their lives for not losing their faith and not eating food sacrificed to other gods. What would be the harm to eat it? After all, it is so little. They would be able to keep their life. Isn’t that exaggerating? The Greek text of the Scripture describes all pagan deities as daimonia—demons. Israelites knew that except for God and the world of angels, all pagan deities were demonic emanations. Therefore, with such clarity, they practised their faith in one God.
Nowadays, when the world says that all religions are equal and it doesn’t matter what you believe in and when people are not sensitive to pagan influences in culture, we need to regain the original spiritual sensitivity. We think with awe and respect about thousands of Christians who are persecuted in different countries around the world. They die for the faith, but they don’t leave Christ. They are truly blessed. Jesus promised that if we live in unity with Him, the world won’t understand us. If the world persecutes me, is it because it sees my unity with Jesus? Or am I afraid of persecution, so I make compromises because of the valuable “peace of mind”?
At the same time, this blessing is often misunderstood, and people use it to explain things that have nothing to do with it. Some excuse their quirks or obstinance by appealing to this blessing. People who fulfil various religious practices but don’t convert their hearts may succumb to such a temptation to ex- D 12 71 cuse, even to quote the Scripture, but simultaneously, they neglect to fight with the spirit of the world and their egoism. We will discuss it later in the next weeks’ materials.
One of many examples may be a wife who attends prayer meetings while her husband stays at home. She has a growing sense of incomprehension, as her husband doesn’t accompany her, so she fervently prays for his conversion, and when she comes home, she reproaches him. From the husband’s perspective, the situation looks like God took away his wife, and after the prayer meetings, she is even more scathing, so he takes an even greater dislike to the faith. If he told her that, she could think she was being persecuted for righteousness’ sake since she was so close to God and her husband didn’t understand her. And she may even fall deeper into obstinacy, adding to it the pious motivation that she reunites in this suffering with Jesus. But it doesn’t work like that.
Being persecuted for righteousness’ sake is about understanding first what righteousness is in the eyes of the Lord. God’s righteousness was revealed on the cross. It is right to get everybody back to God, and Christ did it through the cross. Not only is the question of whether I want to fight important, but also the question of how I want to fight for it. Am I persecuted for righteousness’ sake because I want to get everybody back to God? We may fight with the world in a worldly manner (through demonstrations, marches, pushing acts and bills that will “force through” our view), in an egoistic manner (persuading others that I am right) or in a God’s manner (by learning from Jesus how He experienced it and by leaving space for the Holy Spirit so that He could act in a way that surpasses my understanding). There are no guidelines here, but we have the encouragement that Mary got when she asked: how can this be? The answer is to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us.
Mary’s suffering in Magnificat: “He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he 72 EMPTYING ONESELF OF THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD made to our ancestors” (Lk 1:54‒55). As the one who was faithful to God and conceived without sin, Mary could be free of suffering; however, her life, from Nazareth to Calvary, was marked with suffering. Joseph’s lack of understanding, circumstances of giving birth to Jesus, lack of security related to the flight into Egypt, Simeon’s prophecy, misunderstanding of Jesus, confusion, distress after Jesus left home when she was the widow after Joseph’s death—all of this was marked with suffering. Eventually, it results in giving birth to her spiritual children in pain and participating in Christ’s suffering. The sword of sorrow pierces her Immaculate Heart, and her maternal love doesn’t let her feel at peace because her children go to an eternal death. Mary, who loves, agrees to suffer, which is her part in God’s plan of salvation. She knows that God doesn’t take away our pain but gives it the meaning. From the perspective of her whole life, we may clearly see that the kingdom of heaven belongs to her—she was taken to the heavens and crowned as the Queen of heaven and earth.
The struggle of standing up to evil: what does it consist in? There is a great battle for how we go through the suffering. Christ showed us the way of the cross, which, by being obedient to God and fulfilling His will in our life, leads us to victory. There are different dimensions of suffering. We must trust God anew, accept the daily cross and follow Christ. Running away from pain and seeking only our comfort, we will get into the illusion. Only trust in God gives us peace and strength to bear the suffering.
Spiritual reading
“My dear brothers and sisters, there are two companies that appear before you each day: the followers of Christ and the followers of the world.
Our dear Saviour’s company is on the right, climbing up a narrow road, made all the narrower by the world’s immorality. Our Master leads the way, barefooted, crowned with thorns, cov- D 12 73 ered with blood, and laden with a heavy cross. Those who follow him, though most valiant, are only a handful, either because his quiet voice is not heard amid the tumult of the world, or because people lack the courage to follow him in his poverty, sufferings, humiliations and other crosses which his servants must carry all the days of their life. (…)
‘Have confidence,’ they say to each other. If God is on our side, within us and before us, who can be against us? He who is within us is stronger than the one who is in the world. The servant is not greater than his master. This slight and temporary distress we suffer will bring us a tremendous and everlasting glory. The number of those who will be saved is not as great as some people imagine. It is only the brave and the daring who take heaven by storm, where only those are crowned who strive to live according to the law of the Gospel and not according to the maxims of the world. Let us fight with all our strength, let us run with all speed, that we may attain our goal and win the crown. Such are some of the heavenly counsels with which the Friends of the Cross inspire each other.”
St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross, 7 and 9
“Consider the lively examples set us by the saints, who possessed the light of true perfection and religion, and you will see how little, how nearly nothing, we do. What, alas, is our life, compared with theirs? The saints and friends of Christ served the Lord in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, in work and fatigue, in vigils and fasts, in prayers and holy meditations, in persecutions and many afflictions.”
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 18, 1
Homework
I will ask Mary to teach me how to accept with trust every incomprehensible suffering and discomfort that happens to me.
Prayer of consecration
I am all Yours, and all that I have is Yours, O most loving Christ, through Mary, Your most holy Mother. Amen!