The father speaks to his children, Part 34
In the Father’s message it says:
“In order to be able to give you true happiness in this life and the life beyond, I want you to do everything that I ask of you in this light. Time is precious, use it and do not miss the love that is now so tangibly offered to your heart. I ask all of you to use Holy Mass as a means of doing so and to celebrate it according to the liturgy. This is very close to my heart…. The essential thing is that you honor me as I have said and establish a feast in my honor and that you serve me in the simplicity of true children of God – me, your Father, Creator and Redeemer of the human race.”
First of all, we are reminded that we use the grace offered to us in the Father’s message. And it is true that when we engage with the words of the heavenly Father, our heart gets a deeper touch with his love.
Let us remember the words of Jesus when he wept over Jerusalem (cf. Lk 19,41-42). He lamented that his people did not recognize the hour of grace that was connected with his coming. There is this special hour of grace that we can call with the Greek word Kairos. It is certain that from the coming of Jesus to the end of time we live in the “hour of grace” in which conversion is offered to all people. But within this great period of time there are always special moments of grace that are offered to us by God. On a personal level, this can be a decisive step to take in order to recognize or deepen one’s vocation. Also on the path of discipleship there are such moments in which the Lord leads us to a certain point from which – if we seize this moment of the Kairos – we can make progress in our spiritual life.
But these moments are not only in personal life, but also in the life of humanity and especially in the Church. These moments can be linked even to the most difficult circumstances, such as the current plague of the pandemic. It can become a catalyst of conversion for people to turn to God and for the Church to focus on its core task of proclaiming the Gospel to people. However, this will only be possible if one gains a correct view of the present plague and understands that God calls for conversion of people and does not primarily refer to natural circumstances.
In relation to the Father’s message, the great grace is offered to know God as He is and for the believers to deepen their relationship with God. The value of such a process is immeasurable, both for the growth of the personal spiritual life and for the apostolate. It is easy to understand this: The more God gains space in our lives, the more we collaborate with his grace, the more we experience an interior transformation through the Holy Spirit, the more all our works will acquire a supernatural character and therefore experience a different quality of fruitfulness, apart from the joy we give our Father in responding to his love.
As an essential means of receiving this offered grace, the Lord recommends the celebration of Holy Mass. To write about this at the moment makes my heart heavy when I think that in recent months so many people have been excluded from the regular celebration of Holy Mass. And in some cases they still are, and are exposed to circumstances which often enough seem very strange, to say it softly. It pains me especially that in most services in Europe and the Americas people have receive only hand communion. This is not neither covered by canon law nor is there any real need for it in terms of the risk of infection, as serious doctors have proved. For quite a few believers this is a burden and for some even a matter of conscience.
If they participate in Holy Mass nevertheless, God will give them the grace that He would otherwise have given them when receiving Holy Communion. But in order to make this painful circumstance fruitful, especially when access to Holy Mass is not even possible, it is good to offer it to the Lord for the renewal of the Church. We can have the hope that the Church will emerge purified from this process of purification and that the value of Holy Mass will shine out all the more brightly. To this end it must be freed from all kinds of abuses! This includes not least liturgical abuses and banalizations. In this context, it would also be important to have in future an unrestricted and supported access to the Tridentine Mass.