FREEDOM
“The thought
of hell … must not create anxiety or despair,
but it is a necessary and healthy reminder
of freedom.”
(John Paul II,
4 Aug 1999)
POWER OF
INTELLIGENT CHOICE
“Freedom is
the power rooted in reason and will
to act or not to act [freedom of exercise],
to do this or that [freedom of
specification],
and so to
perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility.” (CCC 1731)
[Two erroneous
notions of freedom:
(i) full spontaneity, with no need for a
motive
(ii) automatic adhesion to a perceived good]
FREEDOM
ESSENTIALLY RESTRICTS US
“When
Michelangelo chipped the block of marble,
a possibility died with every chip,
but bit by bit the Pietà was born.
If he had not
chipped at the marble block
it would have lain to the end of time,
full of possibilities but empty of
fulfillment.
A good choice
means growth,
but it also means narrowing.
To grow into
one possibility,
I must die to others.
Unlike the
marble block,
it is I myself who must freely choose to die
to all but one,
or my freedom
for all possibilities will become a trap for all my freedom.
So long as I
try to hold out several possibilities
none becomes a reality.
We are slow to
relinquish our options on our lives,
but if we could see with the values of God
we would see in this narrowing not
impoverishment but enrichment.
The things we
give up for the kingdom,
like position, ambition, marriage and money,
God is removing from our grasp
like a father removing the toys from the
hand of a child
tired out with distraction
so that he may rest more peacefully and
securely.
It is our own
nervous clutter of possessions
which renders us unfree,
which shackles us.”
(G McGinnity,
Christmen: Experience of Priesthood Today, 63)
MASTERS OF OUR
FATE
“By free will
one shapes one’s own life. …
Freedom
attains its perfection when directed toward God….” (CCC 1731)
“As long as
freedom has not bound itself definitively
to its ultimate good which is God,
there is the possibility of choosing between
good and evil,
and thus of growing in perfection or of
failing and sinning.” (CCC 1732)
“DO YOU LOVE
ME?”
“At the
evening of our life, we shall be judged on our love.”
(St John of
the Cross)
But his love
is offered freely
and has to be freely received
and freely reciprocated.
“Simon,
Bar-Iona, amas me?” (Jn
21:15,16,17)
Are you with
me?
Are you on my
side?
One of the
most frustrating things about hell is that
it is a creation of our possibility to
choose,
it is an offshoot of a defective freedom,
a choice gone wrong.
Because we did
not choose the Good, we are left with evil:
the will is confronted with frustration and
anger;
the intellect with falsehoods and lies;
the memory with the most awful
reminiscences;
the imagination with nightmares;
the sight with the most repulsive, hideous,
frightful scenes;
the hearing with cacophony, shouting and a
babel of voices
(there everyone sings out of tune and out
of beat,
simply because they don’t listen and
wouldn’t listen to one another]
the touch with extremes of pain and heat and
cold;
the taste with disgust;
the smell with stench.
SELF-IMPOSED
Hell “is not a
punishment imposed externally by God
but a development of premises already set by
people in this life….
It is the
creature who closes himself to [God’s] love. …
God’s judgment
ratifies this state.” (John Paul II, 28 July 1999)
THE
UNCERTAINTY
Asked whether
she knew whether she was in God’s grace or not, St Joan of Arc replied:
“If I am not,
may it please God to put me in it;
if I am, may
it please God to keep me there.”
This is
because “grace escapes our experience” (CCC 2005).
SONNET TO OUR
LORD ON THE CROSS
“O God, I love thee not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
Nor yet because who love thee not
Are lost eternally.
Thou, O my Jesus, thou didst me
Upon the cross embrace;
For me didst bear the nails and spear
And manifold disgrace;
And griefs and torments numberless,
And sweat of agony;
e’en death itself—and all for me
Who was thine enemy.
Then why, O blessed Jesu Christ,
Should I not love thee well?
Not for the sake of winning heaven,
Nor of escaping hell;
Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Not seeking a reward;
But, as thyself hast loved me,
O ever-loving Lord?
Even so I love thee, and will love,
And in thy praise will sing;
Solely because thou art my God
And my most loving King.”
(St Francis Xavier. From the Marian Daily Missal, rev. SP Juergens)
GATHERING DAILY MERITS
“I invite you to gather throughout the day—
with your mortification, with
acts of love and of surrender to our Lord—
milligrams of gold, diamond
dust and dust from rubies and emeralds.
You will find them along the way, in little things.
Gather them
to store up treasure in heaven,
because with milligrams of
gold,
one can build up grams and
kilograms of it;
and with the fragments of
precious stones
you will be able to fashion
magnificent diamonds, huge
rubies, and splendid emeralds.”
(St Josemaría, 176)
IN THE MASS
“Father, accept this offering from your whole family,
grant us your peace in this life,
save us from final damnation,
and count us among those you have chosen.” (Eucharistic Prayer I)
Holy Mary,
Refuge of Sinners,
Help of Christians
pray for us who have recourse to you.
C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\jmom RETREAT\crt_06Hell&Purgatory.rtf
Revised 24 March 2005