WEDNESDAY REFLECTION
Midweek Reflection
25th August 2021
It occurs to me that I would never have made it as a soldier or a marine. Those who know me, are aware that while I never sun-bathe, I do not like the cold. During their training, soldiers and marines always seem to be kept, cold, wet, hungry and tired. I think the notion is that if we sap our personal will, it tests our resilience and resolve more thoroughly.
St Josemaria Escriva was a great advocate of taking on little mortifications each day….just little things that no one else would notice. Voluntary mortifications, like Lenten penances, have a two-fold purpose. They teach us the value of self-discipline and unite us with the sufferings of Christ on the Cross. I think they also help us to formulate for ourselves, a better plan of life. A better way of approaching the little difficulties of life. The moment Pope Benedict XVI was elected to be the Supreme Pontiff and Vicar of Christ, he was attacked as the Panzer Kardinal and the Rotweiler Pope.
Nothing could be further from the truth. For example, he did not impose his own will in correcting skewed liturgical reform. Rather, he encouraged a more worthy celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in both the older and more recent forms of the Roman Rite. It achieved a peaceful liturgical coexistence. The Rotweiler Pope was in truth, a gentle and fatherly teacher who proved to be generous to those of differing views. Maybe we need to realise that the best way to win souls is by teaching and exampleand having respect for those who differ from us. The Church is blessed by many young saints like Carlo Acutis and Rosalia of Palermo but possibly most of us have to grow old to realise that it is always God’s will that is important and not my own.
We are complex creatures and maybe, like the soldiers and marines, there is a purpose in being cold, wet, hungry and tired. For then we can think of Eternity. Then we know that the earthly song will stop and the dance will come to an end.
Monsignor Monaghan
