Msgr. JoaoScognamiglio Cla Dias EP
This is an excerpt from an article in the October 2010 Magazine of the Heralds of the Gospel. The magazine may be obtained from:
The Heralds of the Gospel
29 Lower Teddington Road, Hampton Wick,
Kingston upon Thames, KT14 EU
Tel & Fax: 02089434159
Blog: http://heraldsgospelsinengland.blogspot.com/E-mail: lumenmaria@aol.com.
--------------------------------------
Egoism brings us bitterness and unhappiness. Like Zacchaeus let us courageously climb the “tree of admiration” of all that is true, good, beautiful, without human respect, to have the joy of receiving Jesus in our soul.
Man Needs To Admire.
The close of the nineteenth century brought to light the riveting story of an American girl who would mark history. Stricken by a serious illness at eighteen months of age, Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968) lost her vision and hearing. She lived in a sad state of isolation, her contact with the outside world being limited to touch, smell, and taste.
Helen might have spent her whole life in this tragic and silent dark night of the mind, had it not been for a providential encounter with a brilliant teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, who taught her sign language, the Braille alphabet and finally, to speak fluently.
Overcoming countless difficulties, Helen mastered French and German and learned to pronounce them well. She attended college, travelled the world giving lectures, and wrote books. Over the years she developed a formidable output of work built on the desire to interact with others- a natural tendency of every human being, endowed with the instinct of sociability.
Just as plants seek the light through heliotropism, soulos must contemplate creatures as a starting point to ascending to the Creator. It was no different with Helen Keller, who asked her teacher countless questions: What makes the sun hot? Where was I before I came to my mother? Little birds and chicks come from an egg. What was the egg before it was an egg? Who made God? Where is God? Did you ever see God?
Such questions show that the soul inevitably aspires to discover the First Cause of things starting with secondary causes. Humans have an innate tendency to seek God - which by analogy, could be called theotropism - leading them to form correlations, transcending from the natural to the supernatural level. St Thomas teaches “When a man knows an effect, and knows that it has a cause, there naturally remains in the man the desire to know about the cause, ‘what it is.’ and this desire is one of wonder and causes inquiry. [ref?]
Since everything in the universe reflects the Creator to some degree, the ordered movements of the soul is to let itself be drawn by reflections of truth, beauty and goodness, in creatures.
Accordingly, we should foster admiration. We should become enchanted with the encounter with whatever is sublime, holy, noble or just, in order to ascend to the supreme cause. This admiration is naturally most fitting with regards to the Man-God, His Mother, and the Holy Church…..
Consider the story of Zacchaeus:Luke 19:1-10.
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Admiration Transforms
In a certain sense, each one of us is a Zacchaeus. In this life of trial, Our Lord can pass before us at any moment, and call us through a reading, conversation, sermon, or even by an interior motion of grace.
How would we respond if, like the Publican, Jesus were to say to us: “make haste and come down, for I must stay at your house today”? “Would we know how to imitate the generosity of Zacchaeus and, in prevision of Our Lord’s reproof, answer Him first, promptly and willingly: ‘Henceforth, I I firmly resolve to sin no more’?”All will depend on our admiration.
The path of conversion for the Publican, narrated in the Gospel passage, began with a feeling of simple curiosity about that Man of whom he had heard so much. However, by the action of grace, it was soon transformed into a desire to know, speak and be with Him, setting in motion a process that changed him into a true “son of Abraham.”
We should respond like Zacchaeus, fleeing the multitudes and climbing the “tree of admiration” to better contemplate the Divine Master. For a person taken by this authentic admiration listens to the word of thhe Lord, follows His precepts and overcomes every obstacle to follow Him to the end.
It would be difficult to calculate the profound consequences of this enthusiastic turning to what is superior, if we did not have St Thomas Aquinas to teach us: “Now the first thing [after attaining the use of reason] that occurs to a man to think about then, is to deliberate about himself. And if he then directs himself to the due end, he will, by means of grace, receive the remission of original sin.” In other words, the same effects of sacramental Baptism would be poured out upon him!”
This daring affirmation of the Angelic Doctor is analysed in -depth by Garrigou-Lagrange according to whom, if an unbaptised child, educated among unbelievers, upon reaching the full use of reason, efficaciously loves “the true good for itself, and more than himself,” he will be justified. “Why? Because in this way, he efficaciously loves God, the author of nature and the supreme good, who is ambiguously known: it is efficacious love, which in a fallen state is not possible without grace, which lifts up and cures.”
Accordingly, through admiration of the good, man becomes similar to the object of his enthusiasm. On the contrary, seeking to find happiness by closing in on himself, he fills his soul with bitterness, sadness and frustration, because it deviates him from his supreme end, which is God. “Thou made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it reposes in Thee,” teaches the great St Augustine.
Through enthusiasm for the reflections of the Creator, and following the example of Mary, Mother of all admiration, we will better unite ourselves with Jesus, the most perfect model for all men. Salvation will enter our house through the door of admiration!
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP, is Honorary Canon of the Papal Basilica Saint Mary Major in Rome, Supernumerary Apostolic Protonotary, Doctor of Canon Law from the Angelicum, Master of Educational Psychology from the Catholic University of Columbia, Doctor Honoris Causa from the Italo-Brazilian University, Member of the Thomas Aquinas International Society (SITA) and of the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculata, Founder and Superior General of three entities of Pontifical Right: International Association of the Faithful, Heralds of the Gospel; Clerical Society of Apostolic Life, Virgo Flos Carmeli; and the Society of Apostolic Life, Regina Virginum.
In a certain sense, each one of us is a Zacchaeus. In this life of trial, Our Lord can pass before us at any moment, and call us through a reading, conversation, sermon, or even by an interior motion of grace.
How would we respond if, like the Publican, Jesus were to say to us: “make haste and come down, for I must stay at your house today”? “Would we know how to imitate the generosity of Zacchaeus and, in prevision of Our Lord’s reproof, answer Him first, promptly and willingly: ‘Henceforth, I I firmly resolve to sin no more’?”All will depend on our admiration.
The path of conversion for the Publican, narrated in the Gospel passage, began with a feeling of simple curiosity about that Man of whom he had heard so much. However, by the action of grace, it was soon transformed into a desire to know, speak and be with Him, setting in motion a process that changed him into a true “son of Abraham.”
We should respond like Zacchaeus, fleeing the multitudes and climbing the “tree of admiration” to better contemplate the Divine Master. For a person taken by this authentic admiration listens to the word of thhe Lord, follows His precepts and overcomes every obstacle to follow Him to the end.
It would be difficult to calculate the profound consequences of this enthusiastic turning to what is superior, if we did not have St Thomas Aquinas to teach us: “Now the first thing [after attaining the use of reason] that occurs to a man to think about then, is to deliberate about himself. And if he then directs himself to the due end, he will, by means of grace, receive the remission of original sin.” In other words, the same effects of sacramental Baptism would be poured out upon him!”
This daring affirmation of the Angelic Doctor is analysed in -depth by Garrigou-Lagrange according to whom, if an unbaptised child, educated among unbelievers, upon reaching the full use of reason, efficaciously loves “the true good for itself, and more than himself,” he will be justified. “Why? Because in this way, he efficaciously loves God, the author of nature and the supreme good, who is ambiguously known: it is efficacious love, which in a fallen state is not possible without grace, which lifts up and cures.”
Accordingly, through admiration of the good, man becomes similar to the object of his enthusiasm. On the contrary, seeking to find happiness by closing in on himself, he fills his soul with bitterness, sadness and frustration, because it deviates him from his supreme end, which is God. “Thou made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it reposes in Thee,” teaches the great St Augustine.
Through enthusiasm for the reflections of the Creator, and following the example of Mary, Mother of all admiration, we will better unite ourselves with Jesus, the most perfect model for all men. Salvation will enter our house through the door of admiration!
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP, is Honorary Canon of the Papal Basilica Saint Mary Major in Rome, Supernumerary Apostolic Protonotary, Doctor of Canon Law from the Angelicum, Master of Educational Psychology from the Catholic University of Columbia, Doctor Honoris Causa from the Italo-Brazilian University, Member of the Thomas Aquinas International Society (SITA) and of the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculata, Founder and Superior General of three entities of Pontifical Right: International Association of the Faithful, Heralds of the Gospel; Clerical Society of Apostolic Life, Virgo Flos Carmeli; and the Society of Apostolic Life, Regina Virginum.
No comments:
Post a Comment