Generosity and the Role of Our Lady
Summary of Headings
Generosity and Salvation
So dear faithful, today is the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. Please just note that the second collection today is for St. Thomas More Priory in Sanford and that the blessing, if there are any religious articles, I can bless them after this Mass. Please also note that recently Fr. Pagliarani was interviewed with regards to this question about whether, or rather with this encyclical that Pope Leo XIV came out with, Marta Populi Fidelis, in which this title of co-redeemer and Mediatrix of all graces was placed in the question. Leo XIV of course said that it was inappropriate to use and Fr. Pagliarani in his own words says to deny the title of co-redemptrix is tantamount to dethroning the Most Blessed Virgin, since the thing wounds the Catholic soul and what is dearest to it. So for that reason, after this Mass, we will have the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary and also recite the Starbuck Martyr so that we can make reparation for this sort of statement against Our Lady. I believe that the Litany, I can't remember the exact date it ends now, but it ends somewhere in January, and so Fr. Fullerton has encouraged that the faithful, as a sort of crusade, recite that Litany every day for this intention of repairing the soul. So, we are carrying this in reparation, in defending Our Lady. So, the Epistle today, for this 23rd Sunday, the Epistle was taken from St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians. Brethren, be ye followers of me, and observe them who walk, so as you may have our model. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction. Whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our loneliness, made like to the body of His glory, according to the operation whereby also He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and most desired, my joy and my crown. So stand fast and listen. Stand fast and listen, my dearly beloved. So stand fast and listen, my dearly beloved. And I beg of a verdict, and I beseech Sintik to be of one mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, my sincere companion, help those women who have labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement and the rest of my fellow laborers, whose names are in the Book of Life. And the Gospel is taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew. At that time, as Jesus was speaking to the multitudes, behold, a certain ruler came up and adored Him, saying, Lord, my daughter is even now dead, but come, lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus rising up followed her with His disciples. And behold, a woman, who was troubled with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him and touched the hem of His garments. For she said within herself, If I shall touch only His garment, I shall be healed. But Jesus turning and seeing her, said, Be of good heart, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus was come into the house of the ruler, and saw the minstrels and the multitude making a tumult, He said, Give place, for the girl is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to scorn. And when the multitude was put forth, they went in and took her by the hand. He went in and took her by the hand. And the maid arose, and the fame thereof went abroad into all that country. These are the words of today's Holy Gospel. Please be seated. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. And so my dear faithful, for those who were perhaps at the evening Mass last week, I touched a bit on this virtue of generosity, which our Lord wishes that each and every one of us have. And given that we are considering more and more the last day, as we come closer to the end of the liturgy, the liturgical year, we begin to examine the second coming of our Lord, this judgment. And so I've mentioned last time that the closer one draws to our Lord, the more we begin to imitate, to put Him on, and to be some more closely united to Him. And one virtue that He did shine for was His generosity, amongst all the other virtues that He's shown with. Amen. But we can see from the very beginning of His earthly life, His incarnation, His passion, His death for us, these are all acts of generosity on the part of our Lord. And so we too are called to share more and more in this life, and become more generous like Him. We have the words of Saint Paul, not in the Epistle of today, but the Epistle for all souls. Which is that all will rise on the last day, and yet all will not be changed. Which is to say that some will rise in order to receive their bodies again, but it will be to their greater shame and hell, their greater suffering. And that those who will be changed will have the greater glory when they are received into heaven. And so the salvation will make the difference, yes. But precisely it's from the words of our Lord that He who perseveres to the end shall be saved. Which is to say those who are generous will be saved. As the retreat master just said to us when we were on retreat last week, he said, God forbids that we should ever aim for peace. God forbids that we should ever aim for purgatory. Because if we aim for purgatory, and then if we do not reach the goal, there's only one other place that we'll fall into. And what he was trying to say was that it is not the Christian spirit to kind of have this bare minimum idea of trying to scrape by, is this a sin? Or even worse, is this a mortal sin? If it's just a venial sin, it seems that some people are just content with it. It should not be our attitude at all. We are aiming not for purgatory, we are aiming for heaven. We are aiming for heaven which does call for generosity. St. Thomas Aquinas asked a very interesting question. He says, In the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve before they fell, was their merit greater than some of the men, or rather, was their merit greater in general than the merit of men after the fall? And he says, In itself, yes, because he had more charity. He didn't have these obstacles in his way. But proportionally speaking, no. The people afterwards, they merit more, precisely because they have this fallen human nature which they have to work with. They have to be generous, and even more generous than Adam and Eve, in order to bring those things back into our Lord, bring all those things back into Christ. This is generosity, once again, that our Lord is looking for. Father William Doyle gives us this quote, talking about the necessity for generosity, and he says, The one thing I will regret at the end of my life is having given into myself so easily, and having wasted my time, which I could have used for the greater glory of God. It would be my lack of generosity, which I'm going to lament at the end of my life. And we see in the epistle today, what happens when we don't have this generosity, and this perseverance. St. Paul will start by talking in this epistle, he'll say, Be ye followers of me. And he will say, For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you weeping. They were walking in the way of sanctity. They were trying. And then he concludes that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Which is to say, that these people started well. They were Catholics. They were trying. They wanted to get to heaven. But they are enemies of the cross of Christ, precisely because there was no perseverance. There was no generosity. And so they are the enemies of charity, the enemies of generosity, the enemies of heaven. The people who start out, but they never reach Calvary, because they never leave all the things behind them, and follow our Lord. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly. Their glory is in their shame. They gave up halfway. They are enemies of the cross of Christ. And so we can see on the way to Calvary, our Lord falls three times. And I can assure you, we are all probably going to fall more than three times. And yet what is our Lord looking for? He is looking for that generosity. He is looking for that perseverance to keep moving forward, to keep trying and getting back up. And again we come back to that question, is the merit greater after the fall? Yes, in so far as our Lord is looking for that perseverance. He is looking for that generosity. And so we can see that this generosity will be something that will save us one day. At one point or another, we must be generous and push our hearts. And if we continue reading the epistle, we have these very flattering words of Saint Paul to the Philippians. He says, My joy and my crown. These people who are so generous, you are my joy. You are my crown. He will say that our conversation is in heaven. What does he mean? He is talking about what is going to motivate my generosity, which is my hope, which is this conversation which I hold, which is in heaven. And yet by having sanctifying grace in my soul, it is like I already have a foot in heaven. I am already living my life there. And so I must have patience for the present, but I have a hope in the future. This is what is moving me forth. This is the conversation I have in heaven. And so I would like to then spare just a couple of words for Our Lady and her co-redemption, which was her great act of generosity. We can see that in this encyclical that Leo XIV puts out, Father Pagliarani, he read it and he comments that the problem that our Holy Father is encountering is it is almost like Our Lady is an obstacle to our union with our Lord. If I am in a state of grace and I have this love, this life of grace in me, what has Our Lady got to do with anything? Why is she getting between me and God? Why is she posing herself as an obstacle? And that is precisely the very opposite. It is all not true. She is not an obstacle. She is the way to our Lord. And I would even go so far as to say the only way, because she is the Mediatrix of all graces. All the graces pass through her hands. And so that grace that we need to go to our Lord, it passes through her hands. And she is certainly not trying to steal anything from our Lord. She simply is trying to lead us to Him. And so for that, he believes that applying this name, Leo XIV believes applying this name, co-redeemer is taking away some of the redemptions that are in our hands. is to be a son of our Lord. He is the only redeemer. And it is very true. He is the only redeemer. However, we see in this moment where Our Lady is at the foot of the cross, again, she is not trying to take anything away. She is participating in this mission. Her great act of generosity of giving herself to this mission, because we might ask, did she have to stay there? Did she have to remain? When she saw our Lord on the cross, did she have to stay there and suffer? We can see her great generosity here in trying to lead souls to God and suffering for the sake of the world. And so Father Pagliarani will say that, really, if we diminish her role, we begin to lose sight of the fact that we need to enter into this mission of redemption as well. We need to give ourselves over to the redeemer. And she shows us how to enter into this precisely through generosity. Showing us the way of how to be generous with our Lord. And he also concludes with something consoling, which is that she is the refuge of all sinners. Which is to say that if there is ever a time where we are tempted to give up, to despair, it seems that the devil has got his grip on us. It is precisely the time to go to the refuge of sinners. And yet if we diminish her role more and more, how many souls will continue to go to her? And so for that reason, we make this act of generosity, even after this Mass, when we recite those prayers in reparation for this diminishing of her function. We go to her, we have refuge in her. Because as I said last week, if we lose our Lady, we lose everything. We need her in order to show us that way of generosity and eventually show us the way to her divine Son. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 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Summary
And so my dear faithful, for those who were perhaps at the evening Mass last week, I touched a bit on this virtue of generosity, which our Lord wishes that each and every one of us have. And given that we are considering more and more the last day, as we come closer to the end of the liturgy, the liturgical year, we begin to examine the second coming of our Lord, this judgment. And so I've mentioned last time that the closer one draws to our Lord, the more we begin to imitate, to put Him on, and to be some more closely united to Him. And one virtue that He did shine for was His generosity, amongst all the other virtues that He's shown with. Amen. And so I would like to then spare just a couple of words for Our Lady and her co-redemption, which was her great act of generosity. We can see that in this encyclical that Leo XIV puts out, Father Pagliarani, he read it and he comments that the problem that our Holy Father is encountering is it is almost like Our Lady is an obstacle to our union with our Lord. If I am in a state of grace and I have this love, this life of grace in me, what has Our Lady got to do with anything? Why is she getting between me and God? Why is she posing herself as an obstacle? And that is precisely the very opposite. It is all not true. She is not an obstacle. She is the way to our Lord.