Many
Christians, including renewed ones,
would rather be nice and comfortable
than afflicted and suffering. This is
why the gospel of prosperity is so attractive.
But that is a false gospel. The authentic
gospel is the gospel of the cross.
Many brethren lamented our going into
lamentations in 2007. Many now are wary
of the call to redemptive suffering.
But we cannot really know the fullness
of God's call to holiness unless we
go through the purifying fire of suffering.
This is suffering, accepted and embraced
for the sake of Christ, that is redemptive.
And
so, as Bp Slattery says, "Do
not be dismayed that many in the Church
have not yet grasped this point,"
he noted, "and fewer still in the
world will even dare to consider it,
but you know this to be true."
I pray that we indeed know this to be
true
Suffering
Defines Modern Culture, Says Bishop
Celebrates Mass for Benedict
XVI's 5th Anniversary
WASHINGTON,
D.C., APRIL 28, 2010 (Zenit.org).-
The culture of
our modern secular age is defined by
suffering, according to the bishop
of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a Mass celebrating
the fifth anniversary of Benedict XVI's
inauguration.
Bishop
Edward Slattery addressed an overflowing
crowd in the National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington,
D.C. on Saturday in a solemn high Pontifical
Mass.
The
prelate had only recently been asked
to preside over the traditional Latin
Mass, which was celebrated in the extraordinary
form. He was replacing Cardinal Darío
Castrillón Hoyos, retired president
of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia
Dei, who had originally been asked to
celebrate the Mass.
Cardinal
Hoyos came under fire this month when
the French news agency Golias publicized
a 2001 letter in which he expressed
support for a bishop who failed to report
a priest who had sexually abused children.
The
Paulus Institute, which organized Saturday's
event, expressed concern that this scandal
would take center stage and detract
from the "solemnity, reverence
and beauty of the Mass."
The
institute's president, Paul King, noted
that the presence of Cardinal Hoyos
could also give rise to significant
security concerns, which they were unprepared
to handle.
Bishop
Slattery, who has experience celebrating
the traditional Latin Mass, was asked
to step in as the celebrant for the
anniversary event.
Bishop
Slattery acknowledged in his homily
that "we gather together in the
glare of the world's scrutiny to celebrate
the fifth anniversary of the ascension
of Joseph Ratzinger to the throne of
Peter."
Affliction
He
spoke about the "enormous suffering,"
which "is all around us and which
does so much to determine the culture
of our modern age."
"From
the enormous suffering of His Holiness
these past months to the suffering of
the Church's most recent martyrs in
India and Africa, welling up from the
suffering of the poor and the dispossessed
and the undocumented, and gathering
tears from the victims of abuse and
neglect, from women who have been deceived
into believing that abortion was a simple
medical procedure and thus have lost
part of their soul to the greed of the
abortionist, and now flowing with the
heartache of those who suffer from cancer,
diabetes, AIDS, or the emotional diseases
of our age, it
is the sufferings of our people that
defines the culture of our modern secular
age," the bishop said.
He
continued, "Our
pain and anguish could dehumanize us,
for it has the power to close us in
upon ourselves such that we would live
always in chaos and confusion -- if
we do not remember that Christ -- our
hope -- has been raised for our sakes."
The
prelate affirmed that Our
Lord "reveals himself to those
who suffer in Christ, to those who humbly
accept their pain as a personal sharing
in his passion and who are thus obedient
to Christ's command that we take up
our cross and follow him."
He
explained that
suffering, "yours, mine, the Pontiff's,
is at the heart of personal holiness,
because it is our sharing in the obedience
of Jesus which reveals his glory."
"It
is the means by which we are made witnesses
of his suffering and sharers in the
glory to come," Bishop Slattery
added.
"Do
not be dismayed that many in the Church
have not yet grasped this point,"
he noted, "and fewer still in the
world will even dare to consider it,
but you know this to be true."
"And
it is enough," the prelate affirmed,
"for ten men who whisper the truth
speak louder than a hundred million
who lie."
Speaking
about the present situation in the Church,
he concluded that
"we must -- all of us -- become
saints through what we suffer."
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On
the Net:
Full
text:
http://www.dioceseoftulsa.org/article.asp?nID=1451#addComment
"For
to me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain." (Phil 1:21)