The Temptation of Fear. Of Despair.

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

“At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” This is the beginning of this famous passage that we know well, but the Gospel of St Luke ends his account with an ominous note. In the Gospel of St Luke, at the end of this, it says, “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” He departed from him until an opportune time. The Ignatius Study Bible, speaking about this passage says, “satan will attack Jesus especially,” – so think when is it especially? It says, “especially in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His arrest.” And those of you who have been with us on Holy Thursdays – afterwards, we after Mass, we read that passage from Maria Valtorta’s work, which relates the way the devil attacked Jesus during His agony. And it says it’s a different temptation than these temptations. It’s a temptation to fear, to despair. And so that’s a temptation that also we are very exposed to, the temptation to fear and despair. So, I wanted to reflect on that today with a message that the Lord gave Sister. This was during covid. So, this was in 2021, May 14, and it was given for the Amici Christi. So, during covid, because with covid, there was this whole campaign of fear trying to make people fearful, and the more and moreevidence that’s been coming out makes that more clear. They wanted everyone isolated, stuck in their houses, fearful, because fear is a very powerful way to manipulate people. Tyrannies have always used fear as ways to get the people to do what they wanted.And so that was a time in which all over the whole world, there was this whole campaign to induce fear, to paralyze people by fear. So, this was a message given during that time from our Blessed Mother. It said, “My beloved little children, I love you and I thank you for your love and for all your efforts to be faithful to my son, to our Jesus. So many are abandoning Him, forgetting Him, in the midst of so much fear, the fear being multiplied by my enemy to cause despair, to separate you from my son, to separate you from our love, from eternal life. My children do not give in to fear. Fear is sterile. Fear is deadly to the soul. Fight this fear within yourselves and in other hearts with the words we have given you, so many; that the light of our words may vanquish all fear. With fear enters distrust, then despair. How many of my children are on the brink of despair? Fight for them, my children. Surround them with your faith, your trust, your abandonment to us. When my Jesus was in the garden of Olives,” the Garden of Gethsemane, “on that dark, dark night, He fought for each of you. He tasted the bitterness of desolation, fear, despair that you might be spared it, that the pain of His children might not be in vain. Now He asks you to go into this garden with Him to help Him to fight with Him. Never has the spirit of despair been so strong, so powerful, enveloping so many souls. You see, my children, we are not idle. We fight with the only weapon that is capable of destroying darkness and despair – faith, humility, obedience.  And how painful, how difficult these can become, but infinitely powerful and infinitely fruitful. My children, you are in my heart, in my arms, and I bless you with all my love, my mantle is over you and over your families, and I ask you to help me extend it further and further until it covers every soul. Yes, it already does. But when you help me, your will and your love united to mine, make this mantle impenetrable. I love you, my little, most beloved children, your heavenly mother, Mary, most holy.” So that’s the message. It’s a brief message. So, I wanted to go over some of the passages with you. And so first of all, about fear. There’s different kinds of fear. There’s normal, healthy, natural fears that make us alert to real dangers. And there is even a supernatural, holy fear of which Scripture speaks, the fear of the Lord. But there is also an exaggerated fear that comes from the evil one to paralyze us and keep us from doing God’s will. And so, we hear so often in Scripture, do not be afraid. And if we hear it so often, that means that we need to hear it that often. And so, our Blessed Mother in the message, said, “the fear being multiplied by my enemy.” So, it’s not just something coming from, as I said, often human authorities. Human tyrants often use fear, but this is saying that the ultimate source of this is the evil one himself, beyond the human those who are using us humanly, it’s the action of the evil one. And so, she’s already awakening. I mean, it’s interesting, because you read so many accounts of experts talking about this and that, and they talk about this cause and that cause, and there’s some truth to it, but they, the experts, rarely get to the real ultimate cause of this much evil, which is the enemy. So, “the fear being multiplied by my enemy.” So, behind this campaign of fear is the spirit of evil. And why? It’s not to warn people, it’s not to keep people safe. It’s to cause despair, “to separate you from my son;” so to distract us from our faith, and to lead us into despair. “My children do not give in to fear. Fear is sterile. Fear is deadly to the soul. Fight this fear.” So, she’s calling us to fight, and she’s telling us that we can fight it. “Fight this fear within yourselves and in other hearts.” And so how are we supposed to fight this fear? So she tells us something very concrete, which we see in the Gospel today. She says, “fight this fear with the words we have given you – so many – that the light of our words may vanquish all fear.” You notice in the temptations of the Gospel, Jesus responds with the Word of God. And so here again, she’s saying with this temptation to fear, fight it with the words we have given. And at the end of this little homily, I’m going to share some examples of that, of those words of God. But she says, with fear, enters distrust, distrust and even distrust of God. And then she says, “Then despair. How many of My children are on the brink of despair. Fight for them. My children surround them with your faith, your trust, your abandonment to us.” So, calling us to fight for those, pray for those who despair. “And then when my Jesus was in the garden of olives on that dark, dark night, He fought for each of you.” So that time in the Garden of Gethsemane was Jesus in this battle for each one of us. “He tasted the bitterness of desolation, fear, despair.” And I would encourage you to read that passage. as I say, of the passage we read every Holy Thursday of Maria Valtorta, it’s very strong.  Like at one point, He talks about how His own prayers, Heaven seemed closed. So, His own prayers, instead of being this warm embrace of the Father, felt like stones falling back on Him and the devil tempting Him that God had abandoned Him on this path. And so, she says, “He tasted the bitterness of desolation, fear, despair that you might be spared it.” So, it doesn’t mean that we’re spared it completely, but we don’t know how much we have been spared by His sacrifice. And then she also says “that the pain of His children might not be in vain”. And so, because we also can experience that desolation, fear, despair, the sense of abandonment, and so it’s to help us in that. And then she says, “now He asks you to go into this garden with Him.” Now he asks you to go into this garden with Him, to help Him. Remember, that’s what Jesus said to His apostles, asking them to pray with Him that night. And so, we have the opportunity to help Him, to accompany Him. And then she says, to fight with Him, because it is a battle. It is a battle here, not against human forces, but against this powers of darkness. And she is saying, when we do that, we are fighting with Him, against these spirits. Then she says, “Never has the spirit of despair been so strong, so powerful, enveloping so many souls.” So that’s a light that only heaven can say – that never has the spirit of despair been so strong, because the spirit of evil – so many of the protections that God has given to His Church, to His people, have been abandoned. For instance, just take one example, the prayer that St. Leo wanted prayed after every Mass, the prayer to St. Mikael, which we do here, but that’s been abandoned in most Catholic Churches. It’s just one example of so many, so many ways in which the helps God has given to His Church have been abandoned. “Never has the spirit of despair have been so strong, so powerful, enveloping so many souls. You see, my children, we are not idle. We fight with the only weapons capable of destroying darkness and despair.” So, what are these weapons capable of? This, she says, the only ones capable of destroying darkness and despair, and she’s got to name three. So, these are very important in this battle, to know what are the weapons that can help us. And she says, “Faith, humility, obedience,” faith, humility, obedience.  Many years ago – a lot of you are familiar with this – many years ago, when we were trying to discern what were the main virtues that the Lord wanted our community to focus on. those were the three He led us to: faith, humility and obedience. And then she says, “and  how painful, how difficult these can become.” So, they’re not easy, they can be so painful. Faith, humility, obedience. But then she says, “but infinitely powerful and infinitely fruitful.” So, the trials of faith, of humility, of obeying God can become so difficult, painful, but so powerful and fruitful. She doesn’t say so powerful. She says, infinitely powerful and infinitely fruitful, because they’re connecting us to God, uniting us to God. She says, “my mantle is over you and over your families.” And the scapular, the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a sacramental which reminds us of the grace of this mantle of our Blessed Mother. She says, “and I ask you to help me extend it further and further until it covers every soul.” So, she says, my mantle is over you and over your families, the people we’re especially praying for. But then she says, “But I ask you to help me extend it, not just to you and your families, but so that it covers every soul.” Then she says, “yes, it already does. But when you help me, your will and your love united to mine make this mantle impenetrable.” So that she wants to extend her mantle to all her children. But the more we cooperate, the more powerful is that protection. And so, I’ll just conclude now with Sister Amapola, when she read after that passage where our Blessed Mother said, fight with the words from heaven – so Sister Amapola writes, “there are so many in Scripture and in the different messages that the Lord has given throughout history, especially the ones particularly addressed to us, like this very message.” But she said,”Isensed in particular the following passages.” And here she gave six of them. And for instance, one is the whole 17th chapter of St John; Jesus’ great prayer at the Last Supper. So, John 17. Another is from the first letter of St John chapter four. And I’ll give the verses so that, if you want, you can find it by listening to this later on.  This is the part where John speaks of God is love. So, it’s the first letter of John, chapter 4:15 to 18. And then I’ll read you the other four examples now. And if you want to, you can close your eyes.There’s two from the gospel, and then there’s one from St Paul, and then there’s one from Our Lady of Guadalupe. So, this first from the gospel St Luke, Chapter 12. “I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Which of you, by being anxious, can add a cubit to a span of life. If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you so anxious about the rest? Fear not little flock, for it has pleased your father to give you His kingdom.” And then this one is from John 16 at the Last Supper. “I have said these things to you that you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulations, but do not be afraid, for I have conquered the world.” And then this is from St Paul to the Romans Chapter eight, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword? For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.” And here’s a last one from our Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, to Juan Diego;who Juan Diego was concerned about his uncle, who was near death. “Listen, place it in your heart, my littlest son, that which frightened you, afflicted you is nothing. Let neither your face nor your heart be troubled. Do not fear this, nor any other illness, nor any other piercing afflicting thing. Am I not here? I who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the fountain of your joy? Are you not in the fold of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything else? Let nothing else afflict you or perturb you.”  Amen. 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Matthew 4:1-11