June 13
The Immaculate Heart of
The Blessed Virgin Mary
St. Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church
3rd Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima
Today's Gospel: Matthew 5:33-37
He cut right through their
performance. The
Pharisees had built an elaborate system of oaths, swearing by heaven, swearing by the
Temple, swearing by Jerusalem. The more impressive the oath, the more seriously
people took your word. Jesus looked at all of it and said, Stop.
Let your yes mean yes and
your no mean no. Anything beyond that comes from the evil one. Just mean what you say and
say what you mean. Your word is either worth something, or it isn't. All your worldly
oaths won't change that.
St. Anthony of Padua said yes
to God with everything he had. He was brilliant, bold, and completely on fire
for souls. He preached with such power that hardened sinners wept and heretics
fell silent. But beneath all that fire was a heart completely surrendered to
Our Lady. He called her the ladder by which God descended to us and by which we
ascend back to God. He died at 35 years old, worn completely out from giving
everything he had. And by all accounts, he went to meet Our Lady face to face
the same way he had lived, with her name close to his heart.
Our Lady's yes was the
simplest and most consequential word ever spoken by a human being. No oath or ceremony
or elaborate promise. Just be it done to me according to your word. And she
meant it completely for the rest of her life, including while standing at the
foot of a cross nobody else could bear to watch.
In 1983, I knelt at an altar
in a little chapel at the Blue Army Shrine in Washington, New Jersey, and made
the most important promise of my life. No fanfare or elaborate ceremony, not
even any pictures, it was private. Just a young man on his knees, saying yes to
Our Lord and Our Lady and meaning every word. I promised I would share the
rosary until my last breath. That was 43 years ago. I have never once wanted that
promise back. “You can have all this world has to offer, its wealth, its
lust, its things. All I want and desire is our Lord, our Lady, and the Rosary.” In
the early 1990s, the children of St. Patrick’s Church in Milford, Pennsylvania, started calling me Rosary Man. I adopted that name immediately and never let it
go. They gave it to me, and I have carried it ever since. It still fits
perfectly. It gives me a chance to share who I am without saying who I am;
there's a certain anonymity about it that I absolutely love and embrace.
Something to sit with today:
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not
pass away." - Matthew 24:35
What is the most important yes you have ever said to God, and are you still keeping it?
Today marks the third
apparition of Our Lady at Fatima, when three simple shepherd children said yes
without reservation. Their lives were never the same.
Everything on this earth
will pass away: wealth, reputation, applause, every achievement you spent your
life building, but our faith, our souls, and our love for Jesus press on into
eternity. What we do now is not just important; it is everything, because it
shapes where we spend our eternity as well. There is a particular tragedy in a
life fully devoted to worldly success, prominence, and the praise of men, a
life carefully constructed, admired by all, only to arrive at the end of this
life, hollow and unprepared to stand before Jesus, having never made room for
the One who was waiting. That, Jesus tells us, is the real poverty in this
world: not the empty wallet, but the empty soul. "What does it profit a
man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36). The world
will honor you for what you accumulate. God will know you by what you
surrendered. Whatever it is we embrace and worship in this life will
ultimately determine our destination in the next.
"I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John
14:6
Surrender your life to
Jesus now, while you still can, so that when you stand before Him, your love
for Jesus will be written all over your soul.
So here is the question: Have you said yes to Jesus,
fully, without reservation, or are you still giving Jesus only what is left
over, or worse, nothing at all?
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.
