Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart!

Sermon of the Solemn Mass

celebrated at

Holy Spirit Church

for the

Alliance ot the Two Hearts

(Friday October 6th)

Dear Brethren,

Here is the great Revelation of the Heart of Jesus: "I am meek and humble of heart." Meekness and humility are the two great characteristics of Our Lord and they appear to be the foundation of His magisterial authority. “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.”

Christ doesn’t say: learn from me because I am intelligent and omniscient, but “because I am meek and humble of heart.” We usually don’t expect to see such virtues in a teacher. We don’t often hear a University professor begin his class by saying: “Now, listen to me! I am going to teach you because I am meek and humble of heart.” I would be skeptical and quite suspicious of him if he did.

But Our Lord is not just any teacher or any professor. And He doesn’t give just any old teaching as other teachers do. He tells us in John VII,16: “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me.” The truth is, that Jesus Christ is the Word of His Father who reveals Him. His doctrine is all about the knowledge of the Father and He teaches us the way we must go in order to get to the Father.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, true God and true Man. It is what we call, the Mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus is one Divine Person and has two natures. Now, we, his disciples, have to confess this truth and announce it to all the Nations, so that they may know God, convert their hearts to Him and love Him. The stakes are high, to say the least: this is for the glory of God and the salvation of souls!

The purpose of the Incarnation is this: Jesus Christ came into the world to redeem it. The Incarnation is for the Redemption of souls, which is another truth taught by Jesus and confessed by the Holy Catholic Church in Her Creed. Saint Maxim the Confessor echoes this truth of Faith in one of his letters:

“The preachers of the truth, who are officiants of the Divine Grace, have been teaching us from the beginning until today, that God wants our salvation. They tell us that He loves and desires nothing else than to see men turn to Him through a true conversion.
The Divine Word of God the Father wanted to show that this desire is more divine than any other. He is Himself the first and incomparable testimony of infinite goodness. By a humiliation in our favor, He condescended to share our life through the Incarnation. By His acts, His sufferings, His words, adapted to our condition, He has reconciled us with God the Father when we were the enemies at war against Him. When we were exiled from the blessed life, He brought us back to it.
In fact, he didn’t content Himself with healing our diseases by His miracles and taking on Him our sufferings and weakness. He didn’t only pay our debt by accepting death, He who is without sins, and He didn’t only free us from our numerous faults, but He also instructs us so that we can have goodness like His, and He invites us to a perfect mutual love.”

The work of Redemption is certainly the greatest work of God who displays in it such a great Love. Indeed, Creation cost Him nothing, but what about Redemption? Look at Jesus on the cross, naked, insulted, pierced, scourged, offering all His blood to His Father for all those who are His persecutors. The fact is, that we are one of them every time we commit a sin, even one of those that we unjustly call “little sins” under the fallacious pretext that they are not mortal. But Jesus Christ died for all sins, so, even for our venial sins.
And it is precisely because we are sinners that He came into the world to save us. What a paradox and what a lesson! It is the lesson of the greatest Master who teaches from an unusual chair: the Cross! As His disciples, we have no choice but to accept His Cross. It is absolutely impossible to accept Jesus-Christ without His Cross. As Saint Paul, we should “know anything but Jesus-Christ, and Him crucified.” We are saved by Jesus and through His Cross. It is precisely on the Cross that the Apostle Saint John saw the Heart of his beloved Master. From this Heart, a spring of water spurts out with the Precious Blood of our Redeemer. This is the water of Divine grace which cleans and purifies us. But we still have to go to this fountain in order to collect it. Jesus Christ offers the water of purification and the blood of salvation to everybody but only those who receive and accept them are purified and saved.

Believing that all are saved because Christ died for all is a terrible error which could only bring about the end of the Catholic Church if it were possible. The purpose of the Church, founded by Jesus and sanctified by His Blood is the salvation of souls which brings glory to God. In fact, the mission of the Church is nothing else but to pursue and complete the temporal mission of Jesus on earth. Thus, the beautiful definition of the Church given by Bossuet receives its all meaning: the Church is Jesus-Christ diffused and communicated.

Just before returning to His Father, Jesus gave a mission to His disciples: “Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.”

You see, the Church is missionary and it cannot be otherwise. Her mission has never changed even though many of Her shepherds teach a new gospel today. Men cannot change the teaching and the mission of Jesus-Christ, and if they do it, they are wolves introduced into the sheepfold but not his disciples.

Dear Brethren, listen to Jesus: “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart!” We have only one Master. This is the Master we have to serve, to follow and to love. He is the way and the truth and the life. He teaches us the truth through His Church whose word resounds all over the world, especially through the voice of the Holy Father, Her visible Head. He gives us the life – His life – through the Sacraments. He shows us the way by His life on earth which was the embodiment of meekness and humility.

Dear Brethren, it is now the time to follow Him and to accept Him in our life. This night is a wonderful occasion to meet Him, to clean our souls and to renew our charity. You will have the possibility to confess your sins after this Mass and to remain in silence with Our Lord during the Adoration of the Holy Sacrament. Jesus is waiting for you. Don’t deceive Him.
May Our Lady encourage us to love and serve Her Son. May she help us to obtain a heart like Jesus, a heart full of meekness and humility.
Amen