Silent Tear

 

Never too Late

Katharine Hepburn once said, "Life is hard. After all, it kills you." And it can kill you early if you don't figure out how to change. Let me explain.

The expression "turning over a new leaf" refers to turning pages of a book. Just as the plot of a novel changes from page to page, people, too, can change their lives. Indeed they have to if they are to live well.

I enjoy reading about ancient cultures. And it occurs to me that most of the old civilizations are gone. Some have left little behind except ruins and rubble. What happened? Where are the people, their music and ideas? Why are they nothing more today than a collection of stones visited by tourists and curious historians?

The answer, of course, is not the same the world over. But Arnold Toynbee, in his work The Study of History (1987), says that the great lesson of history is this: civilizations that changed when confronted with challenges thrived. Those that did not change died. In other words, when life got hard, it killed off those who didn't make needed changes. The key to survival is often about "change."

And what about us? What about you and me? It's good to accept ourselves as we are, but when an unhealthy attitude or a destructive behavior gets in the way, when we wish we could change something about ourselves, we had better change. People who embrace change thrive; those who resist it die.

If you have been waiting for a sign to make that needed change, this may be it. I am convinced that it is never too late to be the person you might have been. It's never too late to be happy. It's never too late to do something different or to do something better. It's never too late to change a habit. It's never too late to live.

Begin making that necessary change today. Then tomorrow, and every tomorrow thereafter, can truly be different.

Macree

A veterinarian, had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish wolfhound named Macree. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were very attached to Macree and they were hoping for a miracle.

She examined Macree and found he was dying of cancer. She told the family there were no miracles left for Macree, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home. As they made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told the doctor they thought it would be good for the four-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, the doctor felt that familiar catch in her throat as Macree’s family surrounded her. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that she wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Macree slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Macree's transition without any difficulty or confusion.

As they sat together for a while after Macree's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, "I know why."

Startled, they all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned them. They had never heard a more comforting explanation.

He said, "People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?" The four-year-old continued, "Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply, Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

3rd Sunday of Lent

For the next three Sundays the Gospel readings focus on three of the major themes of Lent: repentance (today), reconciliation (4th Sunday of Lent) and forgiveness (5th Sunday of Lent). The call to repentance, a recurring subject in Jesus’ preaching, appears throughout the Gospels: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel"(Mark 1: 15). And when Jesus talks about repentance he means absolute and total conversion.

In today’s Gospel, Luke 13: 1-9, Jesus confronts the question, why do bad things happen to people? Why did Pilate kill and desecrate Jews from Galilee? Jesus counters with the question “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?” What about “the eighteen people who died when the tower Siloam fell on them”? He tells his questioners “if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did”! At first reading Jesus’ response seems very harsh. All of us are going to die. Does Jesus mean that if we do not repent that some calamity will happen to us?

No, Jesus reminds us through these two tragic examples and the parable of the fig tree that God does not judge us on how we die. Rather, God judges us on how we live. A barren fig tree is useless in God’s eyes. However, under the care of a good gardener and with cultivation and fertilizer it has the potential to bear fruit. God wants us to weed out our sinfulness, prune away our bad behavior and free ourselves from anything that might strangle the roots that help us grow in his love. God call us to repent so that we can become productive citizens of the Kingdom. All of us are sinners. Our only hope is repentance, total conversion to new life, through the good news of salvation offered to us by the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the reason we have to repent now is, as St. Matthew reminds us " you do not know on which day your Lord will come…. be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” (Matt. 24: 42, 44). Lord, help us realize that the cost of being your disciple is big, but the cost of not being one is bigger still.

Patient God, we are reluctant and slow to make the change of heart we need. 

 Give us the time to understand the extent of your mercy and your love, 

 which your Son Jesus showed us in its fullness in his suffering and death. 

 Recognize your own Son in us and accept us in our poverty. 

 Raise us up, and change us, so we may proclaim your persistent love, 

 through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

 Amen.

Favorite Prayers

Here are some favorite prayers:

Help.
Please.
Show me.
Guide me.
Change me.
Are you there?
Thank you.

Today, I will tell God what I want to tell God, and listen for God’s answer. I will remember that I can trust God.

St. Joseph, Our Patron of a Happy Death

Man’s necessities and sufferings on earth are many and manifold. One such trial is the lot of all. We all belong to the confraternity of death, just as we all are subject to sin. Death is the sad penalty of sin; no one escapes it.

Death is a hard and bitter lot for our poor nature. Above all it is the end of our corporal, physical life. The intimate union of soul and body that conditions and constitutes our earthly life is dissolved by death. The separation is violent and painful because the body, through weakness and dissolution, abandons the soul and forces it to leave its crumbling dwelling place.

The separation is furthermore a humiliating one because it is a punishment of sin, a sort of execution that separates body and soul, the two guilty associates in sin. The soul is handed over to eternity, the body to the earth, where by degrees it crumbles to dust and becomes something without a name. Death, then, is a bitter trial, a profound humiliation, the most stubborn of struggles, and the keenest of sufferings.

Death, moreover, is not only the end of our earthly life but also the beginning of the life beyond, the entrance into eternity and the commencement of our everlasting, unchangeable destiny, of the nature, greatness, and immensity of which, as regards punishments as well as rewards, we have no adequate concept. Death, finally, is the occasion of our meeting with God, before whom we must appear to be judged, punished or rewarded, justly, strictly, irrevocably, for all eternity.

In a word, to die is a lonely, helpless, and joyless thing. No one of our loved ones can help us. No human hand can penetrate into the inner sanctuary where the last, desperate struggle is being waged. We are alone, all alone. Only Heaven can come to our assistance.

Need For a Patron

At such an hour it is truly an important matter to have a kind patron who will aid and console us, and who can furnish us the means to die a good, edifying, peaceful, and holy death. Hardly a better patron than Saint Joseph could be found, for what deathbed was ever as beautiful as his must have been? All the conditions necessary to render his departure from earth a most happy and consoling one were united there.

The past showed the saint a life of innocence and purity; a life of the most genuine and sublime virtue; a life of untold merit in the service of Jesus, of Mary, of the Church, and of the whole of mankind; a life of labor, fatigue, and suffering, borne in the spirit of patience, of faith, and with the noblest love. This retrospect gave him no cause for regret or fear, but all was full of hope. We learn from his life what his death was. Does not everything combine to render his death not only good, but consoling and even joyful?

Joseph died in the arms of Jesus, his Son and God, and in the arms of Mary; both, especially at that moment, compensated all his endeavors for them with unheard of graces. They were helpers and consolers who not only supported his frail body, but who with powerful, soothing graces refreshed and rejoiced the heart and soul of the dying saint, while the Holy Spirit replenished him with a Heaven of consolation and joy.

The glimpse into the future reveals to our saint his happy meeting with his gloriously risen Son after a short stay in the quiet abode of Limbo, where the saintly souls of the Old Testament awaited their transfiguration; he sees the kingdom of eternal joy, where the Heavenly Father receives his worthy representative and faithful administrator, ministers to him, and sets him over all His treasures (Luke 12:37).

There was something extraordinarily grand and majestic in his departure from life, like the quiet effulgence of the setting sun, which at the end of a day’s work gazes back with rapturous joy on all it has accomplished and quietly sinks to rest in the bosom of God. There exists no more precious masterpiece of grace, no incense more fragrant before the Lord, than the death of a saint (Ps. 115:15).

Seeing Death Anew

Saint Joseph’s death is also a touching and desirable example for us. He can help us to make our death similarly beautiful, and that in a threefold way. First, the example of his passing encourages us not to fear a death in Christ and with Christ, full of faith, hope, and love of Him. The holy protecting powers that hovered near the saint’s deathbed and consoled him are at our command also in the means of grace given us by Mother Church, among these being Christ Himself in holy Viaticum. It was in the shadow of death that Christ had His Cross erected, and now He Himself comes to assist us mightily in our last struggle. With Him and in Him we are to make the last, hard sacrifices. He accepts them mercifully and unites them to His.

Secondly, Saint Joseph helps us to prepare for a good and consoling death by the example of his holy life, which teaches us the proper preparation for dying happily. The last act of our lives must be prepared just as carefully as any other work. Nothing is more certain than death and nothing more important, since at that moment our eternity is decided. Hence it must be prepared for in life and by means of our lives.

Death is not merely the end of life, but the echo of life. Indeed we should not only prepare for death, but should be always in a state of preparation; for death comes soon, quickly, and unexpectedly, and only once. The beautiful life of our saint, his freedom from sin; his pious, devout life; his constant, meritorious self-denial, filled with love for Jesus and Mary, teaches us in what this preparation consists.

Thirdly, Saint Joseph obtains for us a happy, trustful, consoling death by our devotion to him. These pious practices in his honor are so many compacts formed, indeed, in life, but having their efficacious reward and blessing at the hour of death.

Hence, it is well for us frequently to recommend our last hour to Saint Joseph. He will not be wanting in his clients on that important occasion. How happy we shall be to have Saint Joseph close our eyes in death (see Gen. 46:4)!

This article is from a chapter in The Truth About Saint Joseph by Fr. Maurice Meschler

2nd Sunday of Lent

Our Lenten journey together towards hope continues as we leave the desert, temptation and the devil behind and climb a mountain with Jesus, Peter, James and John. Jesus "went up the mountain to pray" (Luke 9:28). While praying, his “face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white” (Luke 9:29). Then Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus and St. Luke implies that they confirmed Jesus’ earlier prediction about his Passion, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22). This is the "exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem"(Luke 9:31). The Transfiguration gave Peter, James and John a glimpse of Jesus’ glory after His passion and resurrection. They actually heard the voice of God say, "This is my chosen Son; listen to him" (Luke 9:35).

For us, reading about the Transfiguration 2000 years after the event, is old news. It is something we take for granted. For Peter, James and John, the Transfiguration was an astounding revelation, one they could not begin to understand. They found the experience so overwhelming that they could not "tell anyone what they had seen" (Luke 9:36). It was only after the death and resurrection of Jesus and the experience of Pentecost that they began to comprehend what took place.

Peter, James and John had a valid excuse for not acting immediately on what they saw and heard. They did not know what was to come. We have the advantage of history. We know the end of the story. We know that Jesus was crucified and we know that three days later he was resurrected in glory and that he joined his Father in Heaven. We also know that by becoming human and by freely suffering death and resurrection, Jesus assured us freedom from sin, the possibility of sanctification and finally, eternal life (Romans 6:22). The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that " the Transfiguration 'is the sacrament of the second regeneration': our own Resurrection. From now on we share in the Lord's Resurrection through the Spirit who acts in the sacraments of the Body of Christ" (CCC 556). St. Paul tells us in today's second reading from Philippians 3:17-4:1, “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a message of hope. Pope Francis tells us in his 2025 Lenten Message for Lent, “sisters and brothers, thanks to God’s love in Jesus Christ, we are sustained in the hope that does not disappoint.”

Great and faithful God,

your presence fills us with awe;

your word gives us unshakable hope.

Fix in our hearts

the image of your Son in glory,

that, sustained on the path of discipleship,

we may pass over with him to newness of life.

Grant this through Christ, our deliverance and hope,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.

AMEN