Ss Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels: "In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord."

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

-- Jn 1:47-51

In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the funeral liturgy's In Paradisum deducant te angeli. . .["May the angels lead you into Paradise. . ."]). Moreover, in the "Cherubic Hymn" of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels).
-- CCC 335

Art: Tiziano Vecellio, Archangel Gabriel (detail), polyptych of the Resurrection, 1522.

Saint Wenceslaus: "my life draws near to the nether world"

My couch is among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave

-- Ps 88:2-3, 4-5, 6, 7-8

Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will. The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing.

-- CCC 1009

Ss Cosmas and Damian: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body"

... but cannot kill the soul.

-- Matthew 10:28-33

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord recalls the commandment, "You shall not kill," and adds to it the proscription of anger, hatred, and vengeance. Going further, Christ asks his disciples to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies. He did not defend himself and told Peter to leave his sword in its sheath.

-- CCC 2262

Sunday 26A. "Turn away from sins": God undoes the effects of evil through the healing and new life of forgiving love

"... if he turns from the wickedness he has committed, he does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die."

It takes humility to put God back in the driver's seat. But humility comes only through freedom, the ability to turn ourselves over in trust to another.

The other day I drove my mother to the doctor and, just like most passengers she cannot read my mind and know my thoughts as I make decisions about acceleration and braking. It didn't help her sense of confidence that we passed a couple of accidents along the way. Periodically her hands would go up in simulated self-protection as I braked in a way probably differently than she would have chosen to do had she been driving and had faced a similar situation.

We have all been faced with the challenge of being a passenger. Some of us by becoming, as humorously labeled, "backseat drivers", and called this because we are unable to really turn over the decision-making for the safety and well-being of everyone in the car, including ourselves, to the only one who is really in charge: the man or woman with their hands on the wheel.

This week in Germany we have seen a man, advanced in years, humbly approach a people who are afraid he came into their midst to take away their freedom, their future, their fulfillment. But his humble presence speaks so profoundly of his own sense of freedom and confidence in God that many critics and nay-sayers have not only been silenced but have instead responded with enthusiastic acceptance of him and his message, no longer throwing up their hands in fear that he wants to take over the wheel and reduce their sense of freedom and self-determination.

Who is this simple old man and what is his message? Our German pope, Benedict, who speaks of Jesus Christ and His Church. He has spoken honestly of the way that many people today in fear of God have actually rejected true freedom by seizing the wheel of life's journey away from God in the attempt to control life. Sometimes this need for healing or help, expressed in frustrated attempts at "control" actually takes the form of sin. But we can only accept God and His forgiveness in humility, which is the evidence of authentic freedom, by which we invite God into our lives.

Pope Benedict XVI during his state visit to Germany has also taken on what may be the most daunting and most humbling of all missions: he has used his freedom to spend time visiting people who have been victimized through abuse at the hands of other members of the Church, expressing with whatever compassion he is capable his own wishes and prayers for their healing and peace.

All of us need to seek the healing of the effects of sin, no matter what the sins or whether we ourselves or others may have committed these offenses. In the parable of the two sons, both responded by throwing up their hands in the face of the father. One said "no", at first, and the other said yes but did not mean it. The first son, however, became open to forgiveness and healing humbly changing his "no" into a "yes". To do this he had to go against himself, to change, to humble himself.

True healing comes only through God our Father who sends us out into the vineyard of His world day after day. But our healing God can only truly come into our lives if we let Him, if we give Him permission. This happens through a sincere and regular celebration of the sacramental life and a daily handing over of ourselves to the process of the grace we thus receive, particularly through prayer in freedom before God and in confident assurance that He hears us in love. Humility is needed; the kind of humility that is needed to be a good passenger in a moving car. And the most humbling act is to acknowledge our need for forgiveness.

"The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax collector in the parable: 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' It is a prerequisite for righteous and pure prayer. A trusting humility brings us back into the light of communion between the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and with one another, so that 'we receive from him whatever we ask.' Asking forgiveness is the prerequisite for both the Eucharistic liturgy and personal prayer." (CCC 2631)

Let us ask God for the true freedom by which we will welcome Him as Lord and God into our lives, humbly giving Him permission to be in the driver's seat by His forgiveness of our serious sins in confession and then approaching Him in the Eucharist so that the grace of Baptism and of absolution will grow in authentic freedom and love. God's healing will be ours.

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San Pio of Pietrelcina: "Love is the first ingredient in the relief of suffering"

Texts for use in celebrating the Mass in honor of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

Our Holy Father Benedict teaches, "No suffering, no love".

What the world considers foolishness, the followers of Christ call wisdom. Saint Pio lived the wisdom of suffering and lived the message of Christ's love.

"The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain."

-- San Pio

"Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart."

-- Ps 90

"Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice." Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, "an upright heart", as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.

You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. And man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

-- CCC 30

From Zenit, the Secret Story of Padre Pio's Stigmata.

Sunday 25A. "Are you envious?": we share in the love and joy of God when we imitate His generosity

Often in the early Church people would wait for the end of life to receive Baptism in order to reduce the possibility of losing the gift of salvation through serious sin. Today people often pray that others who have left the Church or lost their faith will have the grace of a "deathbed conversion". These practices and more all presume the love of God and his generous desire to forgive sins through His infinite mercy.

The Gospel story of the hired hands speaks of God's reward for each of us and His indifference as to whether we came early or late to answer His call for work in the vineyard. He gives salvation to all who come to him, whether early and throughout life in perseverance or late, perhaps even in one's last days on earth.

Some of the characters in the story react negatively to the treatment of the late-comers. God responds by naming them "envious" and proclaims Himself "generous". Something is revealed both about God and about us in this parable.

Can someone really have a death bed conversion? Yes: God's mercy is infinite and offered to all. There is no sin He will not forgive and there is no "expiration date" on the "mercy coupon" He offers in generous love to all mankind. One reasonably sees, however, that only with a very heroic cooperation with God's grace would it be possible to turn definitively away from a lifetime of indifference to God and, perhaps, serious sin.

But what does it mean to be a "late-lover" as was Saint Augustine. "Late have I loved thee" he cried out when He discovered the wonderful reality of God's love. Really knowing God, as Saint Augustine finally did later in life, demanded a response: He loved God in return. And true love does not wait. Love gives all if it participates in God's love.

The Lord invites us:

"Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way,
and the wicked his thoughts;
let him turn to the LORD for mercy;
to our God, who is generous in forgiving."

Yes, God's generous response of love is ours whenever we desire it with all our hearts. But one cannot really be said to share in God's love if it doesn't make a difference. That difference is conversion: a life with God. A life with God starts with a converted heart, generous toward Him in a loving response to His generous love for us in Jesus Christ which is evident in practical ways.

Even the temptation to envy in the reactions of some of the hired hands in the parable can be turned aside and transformed into a desire to be like God, to imitate Him. And He answers this human need by giving Jesus Christ His Son.

Jesus Christ is never outdone in His response to His Father's will: on the Cross He gave all He had to give. What does it mean for us to imitate Christ in a generous, lived response to God? This way of loving God in Jesus Christ is to be children of the Church He founded for our salvation.

The precepts of the Church, which apply the Commandments to the practical concerns of daily life, spell out a lived commitment of generous love for God which rejects as inadequate the unsatisfying and presumptuous "deathbed" conversion option.

The Seven Precepts of the Church

I. To attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, and resting from servile works.

II. To observe the days of abstinence and fasting.

III. To confess our sins to a priest, at least once a year.

IV. To receive Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist at least once a year during Easter Season.

V. To contribute to the support of the Church.

VI. To obey the laws of the Church concerning Matrimony.

VII. To participate in the Church's mission of Evangelization of Souls.

The vineyard is the world which is made fruitful through conversion of life and hearts renewed by grace. "Generous hearts" which reflect and give the love of the Father are made possible for those who "break Bread" with the Son here on the Lord's Day and receive the most generous of God's gifts: His only Son who died, once for all, and who gives Himself again on our altars.

"From the beginning the Church has been faithful to the Lord's command. Of the Church of Jerusalem it is written:

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. . . . Day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts." (CCC 1342)

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Most Holy Name of Mary: "et nomen Virginis Mariae"

"Hail, full of grace"
-- Luke 1, 26-38

"God sent forth his Son", but to prepare for him, he wanted the free cooperation of a creature. For this God chose for the mother of his son "a daughter of Israel ... and the virgin's name was Mary."
-- CCC 488