BLESSING OF MARCH 1ST 2008. FIRST SATURDAY OF MONTH.
AT PRADO NUEVO OF EL ESCORIAL (MADRID)
OUR LADY
"Raise all your
objects… all of them will be blessed for poor dying people...
I bless you as the Father blesses
you, through the Son and with the Holy Spirit."
COMMENTARY
ON MESSAGES
May 1st, 1983
"My daughter,
I am your Mother, my children. I come full of sorrow. But I also come full of
mercy. My children, ask for graces, anybody who whishes to do so, because I’ll
pour out on their hearts all graces needed to reach God’s Kingdom. My children,
be pure, my children, cover your body modestly. Hell, my daughter is full of
sins of impurity. Yes, my children, if your eye makes you sin, tear it out and
throw it away. If your arm makes you sin, tear it out and throw it away; as for
your tongue, do the same “(Our Lady)”
Taking
these last words to start with, we are going to comment on something that
concerns us all, so that we should think about it. The contents of the message
are based on the Gospel, where Jesus warns us: “If your right warns eye causes
you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of
your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna” (Mt, 5, 29-30)
By means
of these oriental and hyperbolic words, our Lord means to point out the
necessity of avoiding any chance of sin, and so does our Lady through her
words. Naturally, we mustn’t understand this in its literal and material sense,
because it wouldn’t please Our Lord. What Jesus Christ points out is that we
need precaution, watchfulness and heroism, in order to surmount any temporal
scandal and avoid everlasting perdition. As Our Lady is our mother, She wants
us to wake from our lethargy to every temptation that lies in wait for us, so
that we avoid commiting sin and offending God, in order to “reach God’s
Kingdom”.
Among all
the members that can be used to commit sin, the message points out the tongue.
We are going to deal with this subject because we all commit sins with our tongue,
in some way or other. On the contrary, it can be said that somebody walks
through the path of sanctity if he is master of his tongue, as St. James tells
us in his third letter: “If anyone does not fall short in speech, he is a
perfect man, able to bridle his whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths
of horses to make them obey us, we also guide their whole bodies. It is the
same with ships: even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they
are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination wishes. In
the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions.
Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a
fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body
(…).
For every kind of beast and bird, of
reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species,
but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly
poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings
who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and
cursing. This need not be so, my brothers. Does a spring gush forth from the
same mouth come blessing and cursing. This need not be so, my brothers. Does a
spring gush forth from the same opening both pure and brackish water? Can a fig
tree, my brothers, produce olives dries
or a grapeuine figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh (Jas 3 26 – 12). We are
going to try to explain this interesting topic in order to use our tongue to glorify
God and not to offend Him.
There is no doubt that among all sins, the
ones committed with the tongue are the most frequent and the most difficult to
avoid. Controlling one's tongue is a sign of sanctity and self - control. When
doing so, the soul is ready to face temptations successfully. Mastering one’s
tongue is one of the most difficult tasks. The person who tries hard to avoid
these sins, will take firm steps in the fight towards perfection. As a trespass
of an only commandment meant a sin against the Law – “for whoever keeps the
whole law, but falls short in one particular, has become guilty in respect to
all of it”. (Jas 2,10) -, in the same way, the mastering of one’s tongue will
help to control the whole body.
We are going to enumerate some of these
sins in order to know the different types and avoid them:
.
Gossip or slander is an untrue spoken statement about somebody who is not
present.”We won’t talk about the absent whenever he isn’t present”, says Luz
Amparo. This bad custom steals people’s good reputation, destroys friendship,
multiplies enemies, spreads discord…
. Detraction is an unfair deprivation of a
person’s reputation making known without a reason unknown faults that somebody
has committed. We can read in the Proverbs “like a club, or a sword, or a sharp
arrow, is the man who bears false witness against his neighbour” (Prv. 25,18).
. Calumny is a slanderous statement about a
person, which isn’t true. When it is said to the authorities it is called
“false accusation”. Jesus’s enemies accused Him slanderously of stirring up a
revolt among the people, forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar. (Lk 23, 2)
.Insult or abuse means showing a person
contempt towards him or her. It is the same as Shimei did when he insulted King
David, calling him:” murderous and wicked man” (2 Sm, 16,7)
We can also include here the scandalmonger
who spreads discords amarg friends; or the mocker who ridicules everybody with
his mockery. Let’s always speak good words about everybody.
Lying means saying the reverse of what you
think to fool somebody. This is against the truth. Saint John Climaco explains:
“the liar is like a false coin, he looks one thing but is another”. We can read
in the Ecclesiasticus:”the liar’s way leads to dishonour, his shame remains
ever with him” (Sir 20, 26). Let’s keep away from lying. It brings a lot of
misfortune.
. Flattery means praising ting somebody,
exaggerating on purpose to get some profit.
Saint Bernard says:” the flatterer, who
has already ruined his soul, tries to ruin yours”. In the Proverbs book it is
written: “The man who flatters his neighbour is spreading a net under his feet
(Prv. 29, 5)
. Hypocrisy or simulation means hiding
your bad intentions by means of good words or deeds. Saint Paul talks about men
who “make a pretense of religion but deny its power. Reject them (2 Tm 3,5)
. Purposes in order not to commit the sins
of the tongue:
1st.
Let’s meditate on these sins and their
consequences, begging God for the grace we need not to commit them.
2nd.
Let’s never talk “without reflecting first, praying to the Holy Ghost everyone
should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” ( Jas 1,19)
3rd.
Let’s consider that “we will render an account for every careless word we
speak” (Mt. 12,36)
4th.Let’s
take Our Lady as a model and ask for her intercession, the faithful and prudent
Virgin