Watchword for 2024: Do violence to ourselves
Wish: Holiness
The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and only the violent bear it away.[1]
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of the Mother of God. Amen.
Good Heavenly Father, as this new year dawns, we offer You our best wishes. Today better than yesterday, and even more tomorrow, we wish to glorify and honor You. Receive, good Heavenly Father, this disposition of Your children, as the finest wish we can offer You, as the thing that will delight You the most.
Jesus Christ, Thou alone art Holy
This year, dear brothers, dear sisters, dear friends, I offer you a wish that is far too extensive and yet contains EVERYTHING. I wish you holiness. At first glance, this wish seems far too extensive, for God alone is Holy, as we sing in our French Masses: Car c’est Vous le seul Saint – For Thou alone art holy, Thou alone art the Lord, Thou alone, O Jesus Christ, art Most High, with the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the Father. We also sing the Gloria in Latin, but in French it is easier to understand: Vous êtes le seul Saint – Thou alone art holy.
In the liturgy we have just read, the Church wishes to honor the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing…[2]
So, in wishing you holiness, I wish you to be like Jesus Christ, to be what He expects each one of you to be. This is the will of God, that you be holy,[3] says Saint Paul. My brothers, my sisters, the more your life conforms to the will of God, to His expectations, the more you identify with Jesus, with His example, His will, the more you will be holy and glorify our good Heavenly Father. But how do we attain holiness?
Do not be surprised if, this year, We give you the watchword to do violence to yourselves, precisely in order to conform to this expectation of God, to identify yourselves with Our Lord Jesus Christ. You will all agree that it is not by taking it easy that we conform to Our Lord Jesus Christ. He says to us, The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and only the violent bear it away. In giving you this watchword, it is this word of the Gospel that I want to emphasize.
His kingdom come!
Year after year, we talk about the kingdom of God. How many good souls – not only among us, but all over the world – long for the kingdom of God to come! How many sigh, even suffer, that God does not reign on this earth! And even more suffer because they think things are not going well in the world, without really knowing why. We comment on the news, on events that are not very good, not very positive. It is not bad to be a little informed, but what is the point of commenting on them if we do not take the means to bring about the kingdom of God? Is there anything greater that can happen on this earth than the kingdom of God? We want Jesus to reign, we desire it, most of us passionately. This desire to see the coming of the kingdom of God consumes us.
Jesus said it like this: The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and only the violent bear it away. To do violence to ourselves, in a word, means to go against ourselves, against our ego, our whims, our passions, our vanities, our independence. I am speaking directly to you, my brothers, you, my sisters, you, dear friends of this Community: do violence to yourselves, in order to conform to God in the details of your life, as Jesus Himself taught us: He who is faithful in the little things shall also be faithful in the great ones.[4]
Throughout the History of the Church, from the very beginning, so many Saints have shed their blood for the faith! They went even to the point of martyrdom. How is it possible to be ready to die for the kingdom of God? The first Christians and all the Saints that came after them were ready to shed their blood if need be. They did not back away from martyrdom. Sometimes it was done rather quickly. Getting your head cut off is quick. Other times it was long.
We read the narrative of certain martyrs. l am thinking of Gabriel Perboyre, of Theophane Venard who was held for months in a cage made of rushes. He could not even stretch or lie down to sleep. He was pricked with pointed instruments and tortured: “Apostatize. Deny your Jesus.” Where did these Saints get their strength of soul? It was no longer them, it was God’s grace at work in them. And why did they have this grace? They did violence to themselves in the little things, and God was faithful, sustaining them with His grace. Through these Saints, the faith was preserved and spread over all the earth.
We complain: “Things are going badly. There is no more faith.” It is true, there is no more faith; it is unfortunate. Even so, what is the point of pointing fingers at one another? Should we not rather say to ourselves: “My God, my God, what a coward I am!” Why are we so afraid of these renouncements, of doing violence to ourselves, of going against our nature? In our soul we are afraid. The devil is a specialist in frightening souls, conjuring up dreadful phantoms. Inside ourselves we are afraid, afraid of everything. We are afraid of suffering. We are afraid of being held in contempt. We are afraid of how people evaluate us. We are afraid of what others will think, of what people will say, or just of hurting in our body, in our soul. What suffering might the future bring?
When you have such fears, ask yourself, “Do I have faith?” When you are afraid of doing violence to yourself in order to remain faithful and follow Jesus, do you have faith? Do you believe in Jesus’ words: My yoke is sweet and My burden light[5]? Our Lord speaks of a yoke and a burden, of a load, of things that are hard to bear. Doing violence to oneself is hard, yet Jesus tells us that it is sweet and light.
The freedom of the children of God
Most people, even good ones, believe that God imposes Himself a little too much in their life. He imposes His commandments, the precepts of the Gospel, His law, our conscience: there is no way out. Some say it directly, others do not dare to admit it, but it annoys them. “My God, give us a little space. Cut us a little slack, give us a little breathing room.” Most humans think they will have more freedom by throwing off the yoke of the Gospel. They think they will have more latitude by following the world with its worldliness, by following their whims, their appetites, pleasures and vanities.
Beware, for these ideas can manifest themselves in the life of any Christian, any disciple of Jesus who neglects to do violence to himself in order to follow his Master. When we begin to neglect ourselves and follow the world, its vanities, its way of life, its style, its manners, its thinking, it is not long before the world imposes itself. We see it, the world imposes itself.
God invites us: “Will you, My child? The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and only the violent bear it away.” Jesus tells us no more, no less: If you want to establish My kingdom on earth, do violence to yourself. If you would be My disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross each day, and follow Me.[6] That is an invitation. And the more we do what contradicts our nature, the sweeter the yoke becomes.
The world does the opposite: it lures you, seduces you. You adopt its thinking, and eventually you are caught under its yoke. You have to follow it. And the more you follow it, the less choice you have. You have to adopt its manner, its styles, its thinking, its folly. Although the world says that following God is folly, real folly is rampant on the earth today. And the world goes even further, eventually imposing itself upon you with violence. If you do not want to follow its folly, it will persecute you. They will start by giving you a fine, and they may even put you in prison. It can go very far, and the trend is developing steadily.
What is the remedy for this violence of the world imposing its diabolical, destructive folly which is contrary to God, and even increasingly contrary to humanity? The kingdom of God must come to this earth. In order for Him to reign, says Jesus, The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and only the violent bear it away. This is the reason for the watchword I give you.
I repeat what I have been saying to you for the past two years, my brothers and sisters: Do it graciously. It sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? But it is the reality. Do violence to yourselves graciously, that is, in such a way that you do not burden your neighbor. It is not to your brother or sister that you do violence. You do violence to yourself, to go against everything that might divert you from the will of God, from His expectation.
We humans are so earthbound, subject to the law of gravity. Our dear Father John Gregory liked to make this comparison: We are a bit like toads that God has asked to fly. If the toad were endowed with reason and freedom, it would only have to yield and say, “God asks it, I do it,” instead of beginning to say: “But I am not made for that, I am full of warts, I am made to be on my belly, to crawl on the ground. When I jump, I can barely lift myself off the ground and then fall back on my belly. That is the way I am made. My God, do not ask me for anything else.”
God asks us poor sinners to identify with His will, with the holiness of our Heavenly Father. Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.[7] We have only one thing to do: do violence to ourselves to attain it – but do it graciously, without burdening our neighbor. We want so much to be pleasing to our good Heavenly Father. Under His divine gaze we languish, as it were, in the innermost depths of our being, to try to charm Him, touch Him, by accepting all the providential circumstances that make us suffer and that detach us from the earth.
Instead of complaining publicly about all our little sufferings, let us do to ourselves the violence of remaining silent about the trials that visit us. As much as we can, let us maintain a certain gracious manner, first to charm our Heavenly Father, and eventually also to be pleasing to our neighbor. Be pleasing to our neighbor in order to attract him, without even speaking, towards this path of self-denial. Oh, may we have this thought of God!
My yoke is sweet and My burden light[8] for the one who does violence to himself. The Gospel is one. It cannot be divided, it cannot be separated. We try to overlook the pages that do not suit us. This one is all right, but that other one is too hard. No, we have to take the whole Gospel, without overlooking any pages.
8th centennial of the stigmata of Saint Francis
We have just celebrated the 8th centennial of the representation of the manger inaugurated by Saint Francis of Assisi. In September of this year, 2024, we will be commemorating the 800th anniversary of the impression of his stigmata. Historians believe that it was on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14, 1224, that Saint Francis received the stigmata. The Church has established this feast on September 17.
In the wild solitude of Mount La Verna, north of Assisi, Saint Francis and a few of his Brothers had built little huts out of branches to prepare for the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel by observing a Lent of fasting, prayer and penance. It was there that a Seraph appeared to him and imprinted the five wounds of Christ on his body: his hands and feet were pierced, along with his side.
Before his conversion, young Francis was a pleasure-seeker. All of Assisi knew this worldly son of a wealthy cloth merchant. He was rolling in his father’s money and took advantage of it to party with his friends. And that boy was converted. He embraced a leper and even kissed his cheek. Now that is doing violence to oneself! But Francis did violence to himself so graciously that he attracted some of the youth of Assisi to follow him, and even a few older people. They followed Francis, who had adopted the Gospel in the purest, strictest, most austere spirit, the most violent, to employ Our Lord’s expression.
By going against all that was worldly, Saint Francis caused a scandal, even among the clergy of his day. He embraced the spirit of the Gospel, following that path with all the perfection that God inspired in him.
Holiness according to one’s state
Holiness is the work of God. God does not intend the same path for every soul. All souls, however, must manifest within themselves a reflection of God’s holiness. And to attain this, He asks us to deny ourselves. Self-denial is synonymous with doing violence to oneself. Jesus says to us, If you would be My disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross each day and follow Me. To do violence to oneself, to deny oneself, to take up one’s cross, are all the same thing. And that is how God makes saints. And it takes saints. There is no shortage of commentaries on current events. What is lacking on earth are saints.
It takes saints like Saint Francis of Assisi. At the very beginning of his conversion he embraced a leper, because in him he perceived the image of the suffering Jesus. He said to himself: This man is a living, tangible manifestation of Jesus scourged, ascending Calvary, all bloody, covered in spittle and filth. When he embraced this leper, he saw only Jesus. The thought of Jesus’ Passion, of His sufferings, nourished his soul, nourished his prayer, nourished his contemplation, nourished his thought. He was so permeated by the Passion of Jesus that God imprinted the stigmata upon his flesh.
Jesus told us at the very beginning of the Community: “Stand in spirit unceasingly at the foot of the crucifix, at the foot of the Cross where I, your Saviour, am nailed. Meditate continually on My Passion and you will not be so cowardly.” Contemplate, meditate on My Passion, My sufferings, the ignominies, the scorns I endured, and you will not be so cowardly.
The Franciscans have the Shrine of La Verna in Italy where Saint Francis received the stigmata. Here at the Monastery, we have the mountain dedicated to Saint Francis, sanctified by the visit of this Saint who manifested himself there to our Father John Gregory, with Jesus suffering His Passion. Father John himself suffered the Passion there. Saint Francis called us my little brothers of the earth. This year, to mark the 800th anniversary of the stigmata of Saint Francis, we will be honoring our heavenly brother in a special way in this place that Heaven itself designated for us.
Every Friday since the beginning of the Community, one of our Fathers has invariably made the Way of the Cross on the mountain. Some of our Sisters have also been doing so for several years. My brothers, this year we will be making a very practical gesture. More of us will be going to the mountain every week to make the Way of the Cross, in small delegated groups.
Jesus, our model
At Christmas we saw Jesus, the Word of God, come down from His Heaven to take on human form. The Almighty left Heaven to come to an animal food trough, a foul-smelling stable. That is where He was born. Was that not doing violence to Himself? I like to remind you of the story of Caesar, acting as if he were almighty, ordering a census of the entire known world. And God, the true Almighty, inspired Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary to obey that proud emperor. The Almighty manifests Himself to us at that moment. By obeying, He begins our salvation, our redemption.
My brothers, my sisters, one good way of doing violence to ourselves – easy and accessible, but so costly to our nature – is to obey. Obedience is the wonderful way to do violence to ourselves. Joseph and Mary obeyed a pagan emperor far away in Rome. The Almighty comes in obedience, and that is how He manifests Himself, in the helplessness of a newborn child.
But I hear your heart when someone speaks to you this way. You say: “Father, I have been a religious for five years, thirty years, fifty years, and I have been working at it. I renew this desire in me to do violence to myself.” Despite your efforts, you seem to be getting nowhere. Your heart is aching. Every day, my brother, my sister, my dear friend, every day, take up your cross and follow Jesus.
God fills the hungry with good things
In the depths of your heart, my brothers and sisters, desire, prefer the will of God, prefer this violence against yourself and all that is contrary to God. I know you suffer, my brothers and sisters, from not being successful in doing this. To Jesus, to our good Heavenly Father, say in your heart: “My Jesus, my God, I want this. I desire it. I want to do violence to myself, deny myself. I want to conform to Your will. I want Your kingdom to come on the earth. I believe in Your word, that the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and that there is no other way for it to happen in me. I believe it, my God, I believe it.” Desire it with violence, with vehemence, with intensity.
According to the book of Wisdom,[9] the beginning of holiness – of the love of God, of that perfection to which God invites us – is to have a true and violent desire to obtain it. Have this violent desire, now, as you listen to these poor, somewhat austere words, so that the kingdom of God may finally be established. May we not be so foolish as to increase the lot of human folly on earth, but may we be fools with the folly of God, who is true Understanding and true Wisdom.
On the subject of these difficult times, we could again quote the Gospel, which says to us: Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice… In the Gospel, justice is synonymous with holiness. The Gospel says of Saint Joseph that he was a just man, meaning that he was holy. Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all the rest will be given you besides.[10] Wanting to establish the kingdom of God on earth and working to sanctify yourself go together, they cannot be separated. The rest will be given you besides. Things are going badly in the world, and there seems to be no solution. God is taking care of it. There will be hard times, and frankly, worse than you think. Do not be preoccupied with it. Do not be troubled over it. Jesus says to us: Seek the kingdom of God and His justice, holiness. The rest will take care of itself.
Jesus also said: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be satisfied.[11] I repeat, justice is holiness. The Virgin Mary sings in Her canticle of the Magnificat: He fills the hungry with good things.[12] Are you hungry? Do you really want what God expects of you, yet find yourself too cowardly to do violence to yourself and accomplish what is costly to your nature? He fills the hungry with good things. Develop that hunger, that thirst. Suffer over it! O blessed suffering! O beautiful, O good suffering!
In the Gospel, we read the story of Zaccheus.[13] Having heard about Jesus, he wants to see Him. Being short in stature, he climbs a tree. He separates himself from the crowd. He only wants to see Jesus. God had put this desire in him. That is how He begins His work in us. But we have to follow this attraction that God puts in our heart, in our soul. Little Zaccheus makes the effort to climb, which is more difficult for short legs. He separates himself from everyone else. He isolates himself, as it were, to see Jesus better, to contemplate Him better, to be more attentive. He makes an effort, he does violence to himself because he wants to see Jesus, to know Him. When Jesus passes, He looks up at Zaccheus. Seeing this man’s sincere desire, He forgets all about the crowd surrounding Him and says, “Zaccheus, I am going to your house.”
You know the rest of the story. Zaccheus, the leader of the Publicans, acknowledges his faults: “If I have wronged anyone, I repay him fourfold.” He wants to correct his entire past. By acknowledging his wrongs and wanting to repair them, he is already on the path to holiness. He actually became a saint. By a sincere desire of his heart, he followed God’s lead and set out upon the road to holiness. It is not complicated, but we must do violence to ourselves.
I would also like to remind you of the parable of the ten virgins.[14] I find it so eloquent. Punctual in their arrival, the ten virgins waited outside the wedding hall, whereas the bridegroom was late, as the Gospel specifies. When the bridegroom’s arrival was announced, five of the virgins had run out of oil in their lamps. They said to the other five: “Give us some of your oil. We do not have enough to go to the wedding feast.” They refused, saying: “There will not be enough for us and for you. Go buy some and come back.”
Jesus says that while the five had gone to get some oil, the five wise virgins entered the wedding hall with the bridegroom and the doors were closed. The other virgins arrived long afterwards. “Lord, Lord,” they cried, “open the door for us!” But the bridegroom replied, “Amen I say to you, I do not know you.”
When you read this text, it almost seems as though the bridegroom is being unfair, because he was the one who was late. But with this parable, Jesus wants us to understand something very important. It is important to enter the wedding hall with Him. It is not secondary, it is not optional. The purpose of our life is to arrive with Him in His kingdom. I like to repeat: the lack of oil means that those foolish virgins were not ready for more. Some people make up their own little agenda: “I’m going to do this much and no more. That is enough for me to become a saint, to ensure my salvation. My program is made, let no one ask any more of me. I will not exceed a certain measure.” It does not work that way with God. It does not work like that, so much so that we run the great risk of stalling in front of the closed door of the kingdom of God. That is the Gospel: There was no oil in their lamps. They were not ready to go any further than the appointed hour.
According to this parable, not to be ready for even more – that is, ready for anything to accomplish what God asks of us – is folly in His eyes, and the door to Heaven closes.
Look at what the world asks of its followers. We have truly reached the height of human folly. You may say to yourself: “But I am a poor sinner.” Dear friends, a poor sinner who has this disposition in his heart is a true wise man: “I am disposed to do whatever You want of me, my God. Come to my assistance, I am only a little child. My God, help me, rescue me! I ask Your forgiveness for all that is not perfect under Your divine gaze, but I want what You want from me.” Then he applies himself and does violence to himself.
My dear friends, let us ask God for this disposition of the heart, each one according to his state, to be ready for anything for God – anything, without any limits. That is wisdom. God does not like those who set limits. That is what this parable teaches us. I do not know you. And yet, the foolish virgins had also been invited.
4th Centennial of the Consecration of Canada to Saint Joseph
This year there is another centennial I would like to mention. Canada was consecrated to Saint Joseph 400 years ago. In 1624, Father Le Caron, a Franciscan, consecrated Canada to Saint Joseph in the presence of a few of his colleagues in religion, of Samuel de Champlain, the governor of New France, and of a few French and Aboriginal people. This took place on the banks of the St. Charles River in Quebec City, at the beginning of the colony.
We declare 2024 a holy year to mark the 800th anniversary of the stigmata of Saint Francis and the 400th anniversary of the consecration of Canada to Saint Joseph. We make it a holy year not by formulas, but by this desire, this application, this gracious violence – which may seem contradictory – to accomplish the expectation of God in the life of each one of us. Let each one do this under the eye of God, without looking at his neighbor. The superiors must be attentive and encourage you: “Brother, haven’t you been neglecting yourself a little? Haven’t you been straying from your ideal of perfection?” However, let the brother not look at his brother, let the sister not look at her sister. Each one of you must look at God’s expectation upon yourself. Do it graciously. This is the grace I wish for you.
We are going to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, asking God to increase your desire, this vehement desire. May He put in you an aching desire to conform to Him. Jesus will console you. You will experience the sweetness of His yoke. That is the grace I wish for you. That is the intention I will have during this first Mass of the year, for you, my brothers, my sisters, for all souls of good will. I ask God to put in your hearts this hunger and thirst to conform to Him, and to take the means that are painful to our nature. I wish for you this hunger, this thirst. You will be satisfied. The word of Jesus is infallible.
Remember well that the Mass is the Sacrifice of Calvary. Nothing more violent has ever happened on this earth. The Sacrifice of Calvary will now be renewed for the first time this year on this altar. Let us be attentive to it. We can obtain anything we want through the Mass. I offer it for all of you.
Happy feast day to our Heavenly Mother also, for She is the Daughter of the Eternal Father and the Spouse of Saint Joseph. Virgin Mary Immaculate, Mother of God and our Mother, sustain us!
[1]St. Matthew 11:12.
[2]Cf. Ephesians 1:3.
[3]I Thessalonians 4:3.
[4]St. Luke 16:10.
[5]St. Matthew 11:30.
[6]Cf. St. Luke 9:23.
[7]St. Matthew 5:48.
[8]St. Matthew 11:30.
[9]Cf. Wisdom 7:7 – I wished, and understanding was given me.
[10]St. Matthew 6:33.
[11]St. Matthew 5:6.
[12]St. Luke 1:53.
[13]St. Luke 19:1-10.
[14]Cf. St. Matthew 25:1-13.
