Security

FESTIVITY OF SAINT JOHN THE APOSTLE

27 DECEMBER

J.M.J.

Dear Father Thomas:

In a very cold winter day in New England, two of my friends, Bruce and Maureen Smith, were driving me to the airport. We were continuously looking through the windows wondering if the airplane would take off. It was a dark, gray day, cloudy and so cold that it hailed.

The airplane finally took off and in a few seconds raised above the clouds. The scene was paralyzing. So far as the eyes could see, there were lines and lines of while, undulating clouds nuanced by the radiance of a golden sun.

This, I thought, is what every holy hour should be like. 'I'm the light of the world' (Jn 8:12). Jesus is the light. The Holy Sacrament is Jesus. The Holy Sacrament is the light of the world. The negative and depressive thoughts do not come from Him, but from the adversary.

In every moment that is spent in His presence, it should influence and change our mind from the negative to the positive side. Love is positive. 'God is love' (1 Jn4:8) Jesus is God, therefore, the Holy Sacrament is love. The power of this love is above everything. As the airplane, our thoughts can take us from the dark, cold and cloudy to the warm, clear light of the positive love of God.

How often we hear people saying that such or such person is 'insecure'. We all are insecure. We find our security in the depth of His Eucharistic love. This is the lesson of the feast of today. Saint John saw himself as 'the one who Jesus loved' and he laid on his heart. During the first Eucharist, 'John reclined next to Jesus' (Jn 13:23)

In this way is how we get our security, reclining on the heart of Jesus. When we reclining on ourselves, we see ourselves in the darkness of our fallen nature, and therefore, we're insecure.

Reclining on the heart of Jesus, we see ourselves in the light of His Eucharistic love. Only one drop of water has all the right to feel insecure. That same drop of water, set on a chalice, of the wine that transforms in the precious Blood of Jesus, has an infinite value.

Separated from His love, we're nothing and we should feel insecure. United to His Heart, we have the same infinite value of a water drop that becomes wine and that is transubstantiated in the precious Blood of Jesus.

Pride situates us apart from Christ. Humility shows our infinite value in Christ, redeemed with His blood, protected with His love.

Then, we're secure.

It's not that Jesus loved John more, but John was more receptive to the personal love that Jesus had for him. This is why he saw himself, as 'the one Jesus loved'. He knew, was opened, and valued the personal love of Jesus. In Redemptor Hominis, our Holy Father Saint John II, said that this is what we should do.

Saint John Paul II affirms that our personal love for Jesus ij the Holy Sacrament, should go along with our communal love of the Holy Mass, so our love could be complete. He continues saying that 'the escential endeavor (...) is to constantly preserve and to reach in the Eucharistic life, in the Eucharistic piety, the espiritual development in the climate of the Eucharist'.

In the same way as we cannot be exposed to the sun without receiving its rays, so we couldn't be in the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, without receiving its divine rays and grow spiritually at the light of his love.

One Holy Hour is reclining on the Heart of Jesus.

It's a lecture of our teacher that says that everyone of us is 'That one who Jesus love'.

For this reason, every catholic should vehemently say to every evangelist and fundamentalist: 'I have a personal relationship with Jesus, my Savior'.

How one could develop a personal relationship with someone who is not present? The Holy Sacrament is Jesus in person. 'Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.' (Jn 12:26)

There is a long line of servers with the name of John, that like the loved apostle, is followed where He is in the Holy Sacrament.

Pope John XXlll, in his autobiography The Diary of a Soul, declares that his objective was to do frequents visits to the Holy Sacrament, where he found security. This converted the joyful pope, whom the whole world loved.

Pope John Paul l found his security in the presence of the Holy Sacrament, where he preferred to be, instead of receiving applauses and praises of the world. When he was asked why he smiled so much, he replied, "because Jesus in the Holy Sacrament loves me very much.'

Pope Saint John Paul ll prayer two daily holy hours and according to a cardenal very close to him, he pays at least twenty visits to the Holy Sacrament every day.

Bishop John Magee de Clone, of Ireland, the only one in history that he has been secretary of three popes, established the perpetual adoration in the majority of the parishes of his dioceses and the vocations has been tripled in the last three years. His brother Cahil Magee spreads the perpetual adoration through all Ireland, where there are more than a hundred parishes with perpetual adorations.

Saint John Newman presented the devotion of the forty hours to the priests of Philadelphia. The idea was rejected because it was thought that it'd be dangerous due to the 'no-nothings', a group of men that terrorized to any european immigrant. They thought that the night hours would be too risky.

On week later of the presentation, there was a fire at the bishop's house. His office got completely burned, except for a few papers that left on the floor without being touched by the fire.

The bishop looked at them astonished. There were his plans for the forty hours devotion. After, Jesus spoke: 'If I can save a few papers from the fury of fire, how much would I protect to the people that will come to adore me at the Holy Sacrament?'. As soon as the forty hours devotion sorted to spread, the 'no-nothings' desintegrated.

Father John Randell received the same message from the Lord, while he was making his holy hour against the Holy Sacrament. He opened his Bible in Hageo and Zacharias and read these words: "When you feel jealous of my glory in the sanctuary, then, I will make the streets be secure for my people." Father John interpreted 'Jealousy' as perpetual adoration. he was in a zone plagued by crime in the center of Providence, Rhode Island. People there used to change parishes because of security issues. The bishop thought of closing the parish, when Father John received this message. Now it is a flourishing parish and the neighborhood became a secure place thanks of the perpetual adoration.

The testimony of Father John inspired the bishop Profugio de Lucena to do the same. He gave testimony about that perpetual adoration saved his dioceses from the communism that menaced with destroying it.

The first thing that makes John Mackenzie every morning when he wakes-up is to thank God for the personal love that he has for the Holy Sacrament and for calling him to Manila, to study to be a Missionary of the Holy Sacrament.

Fraternally yours in His Eucharistic Love,

Mgr. Pepe