Residência Nssa. Sra. de Fátima 14 November, 2008 XXXVIII:3
Trav. Carlos Portes, 171
62.900-000 Russas, Ceará e-mail: [email protected]
BRASIL
Dear Family, Benefactors, and Friends,
Repetition is essential to salvation! Almighty God knows it and we need it. We generally need to be told more than once, both collectively and individually, what the Almighty is calling us to do. This problem has been with us for centuries, even millennia. Jesus Christ’s first vicar, St. Peter received the brilliant point of revelation that his Master is the Messiah. Christ lauded him for this. However Peter then, immediately put his foot into his mouth by telling, not asking, Christ not even to consider the brutal end to which that Messianic vocation would lead. Jesus dutifully rebuked Peter publicly as being “Satan”; quite an interchange between two friends.
Saint Paul, the last of the original Apostles, had a “thorn of Satan” which tormented him. Three times he asked God to free him of this thorn. Three times he got the same answer from God;…”No!”; and the last time he received and apparently unexpected explanation; “My grace is sufficient for you!”
Yours truly has been anything but immune to such spiritual lethargy. For an assortment of reasons, covering various phases of my life both before and after becoming a Religious, I placed before God the question of pursuing doctoral studies on my part. Three times He responded with the same answer:…”No!”, and the third time I received a very unexpected codicil: “Do not ask again!”
Repetition on the part of the Creator seems to be necessary not so much because we are evil (which essentially we are NOT), but on the very obvious point that we are spiritually “DENSE”. Most of us require repetition in order to grasp any immortal or eternal truth. This probably reflects something of our limits on all fronts including a certain timidity specific to us as a species. We can easily be confused especially in the immediacy of temptation. A tempter (Satan or any other demon) knows this. In fact some point of confusion is necessary at any time that we fall into temptation and then into sin. Our tendency is to discern whatever is calling or moving us, an excellent start to objectivity. Obscuring that objectivity however is our capacity to become fixed in or on anything that attracts us. Almighty God knows this. He does not seem to enjoy repeating Himself, yet mercifully does so up to and including his physical visit among us as one of us.
We celebrate His first visit as the Savior, Jesus Christ, each year in various traditions, feasts and solemnities during the Advent-Christmas-New Years Season; a visit quietly initiated over 2000 years past. That visit however was and is nothing in isolation. At its end, Jesus promised a return in Glory as Judge at a time kept well secret from us but being distinctly signaled to us. Be alert! Be prepared! Be aware as you celebrate a:
Most Joyful Christmas and Blessed New Year of 2009!
Yours faithfully in Christ
Ed Benya, S.J.