Retreat Conference No. 3 - THE LIFE

Retreat Conference was done by Fr. Deacon Edward Kleinguetl.

 

RETREAT CONFERENCE NO. 3

The Life

 

“My words are spirit and life.”

(John 6:63)

“The world within you is what matters. God is so far away, and yet there is nothing closer to man than God.” ^[1]

(Elder Arsenie Papacioc)

 “I have a single burning desire: to change the world by changing a single person—myself.”

 (St. Sophrony Sakharov of Essex)

 

 

Reflection

            St. Mary Magdalene from a Homily by St. Gregory the Great:

When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and did not find the Lord’s body, she thought it had been taken away and so informed the disciples. After they came and saw the tomb, they too believed what Mary had told them. The text then says: ‘The disciples went back home,’ and it added: ‘but Mary wept and remained standing outside the tomb.’

We should reflect on Mary’s attitude and the great love she had for Christ; for though the disciples had left the tomb, she remained. She was still seeking the one she had not found, and while she sought, she wept; burning with the fire of love, she longed for him whom she thought had been taken away. And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see him. For perseverance is essential to any good deed as the voice of truth tells us: ‘Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.’

At first, she sought but did not find Jesus, but when she persevered, it happened that she found what she was looking for. When our desires are not satisfied, they grow stronger, and becoming stronger, they take hold of their object. Holy desires likewise grow with anticipation, and if they do not grow, they are not really desires. Anyone who succeeds in gaining the truth has burned with such a love. As David said: ‘My soul has thirsted for the living God.’ And ‘When shall I come and appear before the face of God?’ And so also in the Song of Songs, the Church says, ‘I was wounded by love;’ and again, ‘My soul is melted with love.’

‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?’ She is asked why she is sorrowing so that her desire might be strengthened; for when she mentions whom she is seeking, her love kindled all the more ardently.

Jesus says to her, ‘Mary.’ Jesus is not recognized when he calls her ‘woman,’ so he calls her by name, as though he were saying, ‘Recognize me as I recognize you; for I do not know you as I know the others; I know you as yourself.’ And so Mary, once addressed by name, recognizes who is speaking. She immediately calls him ‘rabboni,’ that is to say, ‘teacher,’ because the one whom she sought outwardly was the one who inwardly taught her to keep on searching.[2]

            St. Mary Magdalene provides us with an example of holy desire: a deep-seated longing, a heart enflamed with love for Christ. She had a childlike trust in Jesus, the one he taught her inwardly to seek. She persevered when the others did not, thus becoming the first disciple to see the Risen Jesus and proclaim the Resurrection. This is the spiritual disposition we need to gain the abundant life—consumed with love for Christ and holy desire, a properly ordered desire centered on Christ and the not the world.[3] According to what our Savior sees within us, he will reward us according to our desire and love.[4] As a Passionist nun advised: “Let us hasten to submerge ourselves in this infinite ocean (of God’s love) and not wait for eternity, because we can do it now. Love surrounds us always; it is in us; it is the movement that gives life to our being.”[5]

 

Reflection Question

Spend time with the following question:

1. What do I desire in life and how do I prioritize this? Do I express my desires to Christ?

 

[1]Alpetri, Eternity in the Moment, 234.

[2]St. Gregory the Great, Homily 25. Taken from The Liturgy of the Hours, vol. 3 (New York, NY: Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 1975), 1543-4.

[3]See Col. 3:1-2. “Seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.”

[4]See St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, A Gathering of Spiritual Riches, 347. “The Christian needs to live piously, humbly, lovingly, meekly, and patiently on earth if he wishes to enter the kingdom of heaven. This way is narrow and humble, but safe, and it leads into the kingdom of God.”

[5]Venerable Mary Magdalen of Jesus in the Eucharist, CP, “Apostle to the Apostles, Apostle of Love,” Magnificat 25(5) July (2023), 326-7.