2.7 Commitment
STAGE 2: Awareness of Self
MY HIGHER PURPOSE
LOVING THE GOAL
COMMITMENT
Aim: To affirm in us the spirit of the consecration, in order to live up to our “highest purpose”, Jesus Christ.
Readings
Jesus our Higher Purpose (Eph 3:14-19): For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Jesus our Higher Knowledge (LEW 11-12): “If we wish to have roots of immortality deeply embedded in our heart we must have in our mind knowledge of eternal Wisdom. To know Jesus Christ incarnate Wisdom, is to know all we need. To presume to know everything and not know him is to know nothing at all. Of what use is it for an archer to hit the outer part of a target if he cannot hit the centre? What good will it do us to know all the other branches of knowledge necessary for salvation if we do not learn the only essential one, the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, the centre towards which all the other branches of knowledge must tend?”
Comment
Here Montfort is our best commentator. According to him, the greatest of the “wonderful effects” that the true devotion to Mary produces in the souls is the “transformation into the likeness of Jesus”.
“If Mary, the Tree of Life, is well cultivated in our soul by fidelity to this devotion, she will in due time bring forth her fruit which is none other than Jesus. I have seen many devout souls searching for Jesus in one way or another, and so often when they have worked hard throughout the night, all they can say is, ‘Despite our having worked all night, we have caught nothing’. To them we can say, ‘You have worked hard and gained little; Jesus can only be recognised faintly in you’. But if we follow the immaculate path of Mary, living the devotion that I teach, we will always work in daylight, we will work in a holy place, and we will work but little. There is no darkness in Mary, not even the slightest shadow since there was never any sin in her. She is a holy place, a holy of holies, in which saints are formed and moulded” (TD 218).
“Please note that I say that saints are moulded in Mary. There is a vast difference between carving a statue by blows of hammer and chisel and making a statue by using a mould. Sculptors and statue-makers work hard and need plenty of time to make statues by the first method. But the second method does not involve much work and takes very little time. St. Augustine speaking to our Blessed Lady says, ‘You are worthy to be called the mould of God’. Mary is a mould capable of forming people into the image of the God-man. Anyone who is cast into this divine mould is quickly shaped and moulded into Jesus and Jesus into him. At little cost and in a short time he will become Christ-like since he is cast into the very same mould that fashioned a God-man” (TD 219).
“You may think this is a beautiful and convincing comparison. But how many understand it? I would like you, my dear friend, to understand it. But remember that only molten and liquefied substances may be poured into a mould. That means that you must melt down the old Adam in you if you wish to acquire the likeness of the new Adam in Mary” (TD 221).
Personal Reflection and Sharing
At the end of this second stage, how do I affirm myself on the “journey”, in terms of self-discovery and motivation?
Particularly, how do I intend to commit myself to the “higher purpose” of my Christian faith? In what concrete terms and practices?
[2-7] CALL RESPONSE COMMITMENT PRAYER