Fr. Voigt, "Miracles As Parables"
He was on His way to Jerusalem when He hungered for the fruit of the fig tree but as they approached the poor fig they found no fruit only leaves. Jesus cursed the tree and it withered. What is the point? Jesus sought fruit from the Jewish nation which had received all the privileges that God could give and they produced no fruit. Like Lucifer who was granted the highest of intellects and was supposed to give as "it had been given to him"; he
grasped at equality with God. The miracles of God surround us in the world we see and the Word of God which we have heard. These miracles help us penetrate the meaning of God's creative and redemptive Love.
Today a young man has died and is passing through the gate of the city with his widowed mother and a crowd of mourners. Our Lord looks on with compassion and stops the procession. With a simple word "Young man I say to thee, arise,"
the boy sits up and begins to speak and is given back to his mother. Seems so straightforward but there is a meaning in the miracle that goes right to our hearts which sin has hardened. The young man is our soul. The gate represents the senses through which sin enters our soul and kills it. It may be the use of the tongue in detraction; or the hand that reaches out to take another man's property; or the lust that comes from the eye looking at a beautiful girl. You name it the senses become the gate that can kill the divine presence in a soul.
Now the death of sin is an eternal death and has repercussions that go beyond the physical. David ravished Bathsheba; Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. Sin kills but Christ redeems the soul through the word of forgiveness. When that word reaches our spiritually dead soul we rejoice with Job and say: "My Redeemer lives." Yes, He lives and we are enriched by the forgiveness that He has purchased through His Precious Blood.
Consider the miracles of resurrection that are recorded in the Gospels. Jesus raised the synagogue leader's little girl in her house. Jesus raised the only son of the widow of Naim and Jesus raised his friend, Lazarus. In each situation we have the progression that mortal sin takes in the life of the faithful. First, the little girl dies in the home indicates that within
the simple soul there is born a desire for something of the flesh. A delight in the world captures our soul's pleasure principle. The sin of thought begins the process of death in all who will not think, speak and act for the Glory of God and the salvation of souls. Then the sin progresses to the son of the widow for he is being carried out which tells us that
the desire for sin produces the action of sin. Hence the need to mortify the senses, deny the heart and humble the intellect. Finally, Lazarus is dead four days and he stinks. When the habit of mortal sin takes over the soul then the rot of that sin causes a saint like Philip Neri to recognize a stench in the sinner's soul.
Summarizing the steps: first, sin enters the mind through the senses and creates a desire. The intellect and reason are neglected and the emotions take over. Second, the desire produces the act. Third, the act repeated forms the habit and hence the soul is in dire need of its Redeemer. Applies this pattern to the Church and world at large. The position of God has been usurped and man has taken over. The desire of mankind grew proportionately to deny the very existence of the Creator. Man no longer looked upon his life as a test of love but rather now as a test of science which seeks to kill the notion and the revelation of God. Next came the action of man to reject common sense and begin to exalt their mind (Idealist). The more man could separate himself from the creation around him the more
he could replace God with his own selfish thought. Now man is in the habit of living in a virtual reality that makes no eternal sense. Society and the Church of the New Advent are dying like the fig tree of all they are fruitless and receive the curse of God.
Pray and do penance for the time has come to leave all behind and grasp the hand of our mother. We do not care to embrace a world in sin but rather the Redeemer and His Mystical Body the Church. The modern Church and the modern pope have forsaken the teaching and the person of Jesus and so He has given them up to their own ways. Our faith is our treasure and it does not change. It is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Follow this precious faith and you will be the fruit of holiness in your daily life. May God lift us up beyond the world and grant us always the great desire for our heavenly city. Meditate upon death daily and you will never die through sin.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt
TradCatKnight Radio: "Fr. Voigt, Obstacles to Holiness"