READY … STEADY … GO

These three words remind me of my childhood days, when we used to participate in athletics, all ready for the 100-metre race. I used to calm down, control my nerves, brace up with determination for the way ahead. I had full confidence in myself, looking back at all the training I had undergone.

Thinking about the Apostles, who received their ‘Ready, steady, go’, only after the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. They became men of determination, they knew what they had to do after their three-year preparation under the tutorship of Jesus personally. They recalled what the Prophet Joel had prophesied years before: ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.’

The Holy Spirit enables believers to understand the mystery of Christ and His teachings. As the Spirit was active in the initial stages  of the Church, so now He is at work in each and every preacher, teacher of the Gospel, once he is open to His guidance. The Spirit suggests to the minds of the teachers or preachers such words as He alone can inspire, at the same time disposing the hearts of their hearers to accept the Gospel message and the Proclamation of the Kingdom.

No preacher, not even the very best, can be a substitute for the hidden working of the Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit no amount of preparation and study on the side of the preacher is of any avail, and the clearest reasoning is powerless to persuade the human heart unless the Spirit has prompted it. All expertise and study is worthless if the power of the Spirit does not accompany them.

As we can see the initiative in spreading the Gospel belongs to the Holy Spirit. It is He who prompts and prepares the listeners’ heart to understand and accept the Word of Salvation. The Spirit brings the new creation into being. He alone fashions that new humanity which must be the aim of all evangelization. Once you are READY in your preparation, and STEADY in your belief, you will GO a long way with the help of the HOLY SPIRIT.

WE’LL MEET AGAIN, AND I KNOW WHEN

No, these are not the original lyrics of the renowned World War II song, interpreted by Vera Lynn. The original goes like this: “We’ll meet again, I don’t know when, some sunny day.” It was a ‘good-bye’ song dedicated to the soldiers, their families and the sweethearts left behind. The message masks the ‘heartbreak’ with a ‘smile’.

But, you might ask, how is it related to next Sunday’s Gospel: Christ’s Ascension into Heaven? Yes, it is closely related. I have always wondered ‘why’ when reading this text, the closing of the curtain on St.Mark’s Gospel. If you look up chapter 16, verse 14, we read that Jesus ‘upbraided them with their disbelief and hardness of heart’, a fact. Next they were sent on their mission, after being given their terms of reference. Then follows Christ’s Ascension into heaven. In verse 20 we read: “But they went forth preaching everywhere ….”

And here comes in Vera Lynn. I mean how was it humanly possible that not even a hint of a ‘goodbye’ was even mentioned. Having spent three whole years with a friend; sharing meals with Him, facing the same problems, experiencing the success and the disappointments of the daily life, and the rest, then comes the moment of parting. Away He went, but no sign of regret. At His parting, no sign of ‘goodbye’  was expressed, from the side of the Apostles.

The Vera Lynn song does say that ‘we’ll meet again, I don’t know when’, a thought which we cannot apply to Jesus, for He knows ‘when we shall meet again’. But I still feel that there is no sense of heartbreak at the parting of the Master. This must mean one thing; that the Apostles, not withstanding the fact that they were upbraided by the Master, or, because of it, might have realised through the power of the Spirit, and their eyes were opened.

If we do not realise this fact, it is not cold-heartedness from the side of the Apostles, but only a sign of lack of ‘faith’, on our side. The world in general has been influenced by materialism. We are living in a society that depends wholly, totally on man’s powers, achievements and emotions.

Man might still believe that God does exist, but also that His place is in the Heavens, His realm; the rest belongs, and depends, solely on man. This is the crux of the problem. Many do think that Christ ascended into heaven, as His angel told the women at the tomb, and that He has left for good. Many do not realise that Christ, ascended into the Heavens with His Body together with our redeemed  body. He ascended into heaven, but, is still on earth spiritually joined to men, He is one with their body redeemed by Him. He is not in the world (excepting the Holy Eucharist), but the world is completely His, being redeemed by Him, under the watchful eyes of His all-merciful Father and, embraced with the fullness of love of His Holy Spirit.

As Georges Bernanos wisely says: “After the Ascension of Christ it is we Christians who represent His physical body on earth, but alas, we, very often, give a wrong impression of the Risen Christ.” (liberal translation). The reason is simply because we are subjected, and surrounded by the materialism around us. We are influenced by the culture that man IS everything; man has power and wealth and is in control of world affairs.

But, alas, man is NOT immortal, the day, THAT day will surely come, when we have to say, “Goodbye”, “So long, farewell.”but not the one sung by Vera Lynn nor by the Von Trapp family, but accompanied  by the sombre notes of Chopin’s Funeral March. BUT, if I believe and behave as Christ’s Witness, there will be joy in heaven.

       

IS POMPEI FAMOUS FOR THE VESUVIUS ???

“Vesuvius is the only active volcano in mainland Europe, and has produced some of the continent's largest volcanic eruptions. It overlooks the Bay and City of Naples and sits in the crater of the ancient Somma volcano. Vesuvius is most famous for the 79 A.D. eruption which destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

So runs an advert aimed at catching the attention of tourists to visit Naples. Pompeii ending with a double ‘ii’, was a Roman city and together with Herculaneum, were completely destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius. To add insult to injury in 1659, when the city of Pompei seemed to be taking a new life, it was struck with “malaria”. Very few inhabitants escaped this epidemy.

Let’s leave Pompei aside for the time being. In 1841 a baby boy was born to an upper class couple, the father being a doctor and the mother a fervent Catholic. Bartolo, the baby, grew up as a lively and spirited boy. In his teenage days he contacted an ‘occult’ medium. But this was one solitary occasion. For a time he used to take part in anti-Catholic demonstrations. The demonic ‘spirit’, to whom Bartolo submitted his entire life, caused his health and sanity to decline under the spirit’s influence.

But the flame of ‘faith’ in Bartolo was not dead. Doing voluntary work in a hospital for the incurable, he discovered through the ill patients the true love of God. In 1872 Bartolo was on a business trip to Pompei, and that trip was God-send. As he himself declared: ‘Providence took me by the hand, as one would guide the blind and children.’ One day he felt someone whispering in his ears: ‘If you want to save yourself, be a devotee of the Holy Rosary.’

He started raising funds to build anew the abandoned church of Pompei. He managed to obtain an old painting of Our Lady of the Rosary (now better known as ‘Our Lady of Pompei’), but the way ahead was so difficult … until one day. One day, through the intercession of Our Lady, things changed completely.

A young girl, called Fortuna Allegri, from Naples, had for long years suffered from an incurable disease, notwithstanding the visits to many doctors. Fortuna prayed to Our Lady of the Rosary, and on the 16^th February of 1884, Fortuna, together with her family started a novena of Rosary. Our Lady appeared to her and told Fortuna that her Son was pleased with the girl, as she had addressed His Mother as the Queen of the Holy Rosary. She was completely cured from her illness.

The result was that Bartolo’s work was deeply appreciated, not by God alone but by all the inhabitants of Pompei. The great Basilica, still existing to this day, is the work of Bartolo Longo as a homage to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. Saint John Paul II beatified Bartolo and hailed him as “The Man of the Rosary” or better still “The Apostle of the Rosary”. THIS is the reason why, today Pompei is ‘famous’.