Solemnity of OL of the Rosary -20 th Sunday After the Pentecost (10/6/2024) 

 

   In the 13th century, we received from heaven one of our most precious gifts: the Holy Rosary. The Blessed Virgin Mary gave it to us through Her servant, St Dominic of Guzman. The Holy Rosary defeated the Albigensian heresy, which was wreaking havoc in the Catholic Church at that time.

 

   Since then, saints will attribute their holiness to this remedy from heaven. In Lepanto and in many parts of the world, Our Lady defeated heresies and armies of infidels to protect Her faithful children. The actual date of the feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, 7th of October, is the date of a very famous miraculous naval battle, the victory of which was obtained through Our Lady of the Rosary, also known as Our Lady of Victories. 

   Now, the Church is in a state of crisis and Her enemies, as St Pius X said, are not outside but within the Church Herself. That is why the Blessed Virgin Mary insists that now, more than ever, we have to devoutly pray the Rosary, and obtain for Holy Mother Church the victory She needs against Her enemies. 

   However, in this crisis, we also need the Holy Rosary not only to obtain victory but also to cure the sickness of Christian society today. If the faithful are deprived of doctrinal truths, if they are deprived of our Lord’s sanctifying grace, it is inevitable that people will fall sick —not in their bodies but in their souls— because the truth is that we totally depend on God. 

   So what are these sicknesses that are afflicting many catholics now, sometimes without even their realizing it? 

1) Aversion towards work and towards simple or humble living.

 

   How many catholics today loathe discipline? How many catholics today refuse to strive to be successful? “But, Father, I’m a catholic and I do practice discipline and I do want to be successful. Is that wrong?” No, it’s not wrong. Sacred Scripture teaches us to love discipline. And Our Lord 

teaches us not only to use but to fructify the talents and abilities we have received from Him, under penalty of eternal damnation. 

   What is wrong is the purpose or intention of many catholics today in wanting to be successful. Some catholics work hard, strive to be successful either to be famous, or to to be rich and comfortable, or both since usually no one can be famous without being rich and luxuriously comfortable. 

   It is sad that many catholics nowadays have forgotten why God wants us to work: it is not principally to earn money and be rich but God wants us to work, endure discipline so that we can use our God-given talents for His service, doing good to other people, acquiring and practicing virtues, 

growing in holiness by imitating Our Lord and the Holy Family. In this way we and our neighbors can help each other save our souls. When we do God’s will with respect to work, only then do we become worthy of monetary or economic compensation in accordance with our responsibilities. 

   In our work, should we strive to be famous? Only to be known in God’s eyes. To be rich? In virtues and holiness, yes. How about being famous and rich in this world? That is for God to decide, if it is useful for His service, for His greater glory, and if that will help in the salvation of souls—our souls and those of our neighbor. 

   It is sad to see that in the hearts of many catholics, the “idols” —of Kpop, for example— have taken the place of the Holy Family. 

2) Repugnance and horror towards suffering. 

   Christian society used to be a society of those who carry the Cross in this life to enjoy everlasting comfort in the next life. Now, what used to be Christian society is now a society living in the cult or worship of comfort and pleasure. The world is being run by an industry of comfort and pleasure, which constantly entices —and even commands— us to consume this, to enjoy that. The seemingly universal rules seems to be: “It is forbidden for you to feel bad, and to make others feel bad” and “Life is not worth living if it is not for constantly enjoying”. 

   It should not surprise us that catholics no longer have the Crucifix in their homes or in their work-desks. There are still catholics who acknowledge that the Cross is our redemption, that humiliations, suffering and sacrifice is the way to heaven. But when God manifests that it is His will that we endure them, then these catholics abandon the Crucifix for a risen Christ; many even abandon Christ Himself and His Church! 

   Is it wrong to avoid suffering like, for exampling in staying healthy and avoiding sickness, or in planning to avoid misfortune? No, of course not. The 5th Commandment of God obliges us to take care of our health; to avoid foreseeable misfortunes is simply being prudent; God even wants us to have honest recreations and amusements. However, if to maintain one’s health or to avoid a misfortune we have to abandon virtue and break God’s Laws, if we have to prefer our pleasure to God’s good pleasure, then we are abandoning or even rejecting the Cross. 

   A catholic who cannot accept the Cross, much less live according to it, is a living contradiction. 

3) Forgetfulness or ignorance of eternal things.

   If we think that courtship, marriage, raising a family, choosing a career, acquiring a property, traveling, friendships, can be defined or pursued or rejected according to the comfort or benefit or advantages that they can bring us in this life, then there’s a big chance we are already sick with 

forgetfulness of eternal things. 

   If we refuse to live a life with less honor or with less comfort or with less money or with less health than what we have presently, or if we are disposed to rethink our life so as not to give to God too much of our time or too much of our attention to the detriment of all the happiness that we deserve in this life, then it’s quite possible that we are already sick of ignorance of eternal things. 

   Catholics who think or live this way may still believe that heaven exists, but they have already sought it in this life. Catholics who think or live this way may still believe that there is life everlasting and infinite happiness, but they have already sought them in this life. And if we already expect in this 

life God’s promises for the next life, then what will await us in the next life? If we’ve already taken heaven in advance for this life then what would be left for us in the next would only be hell, like the rich man and Lazarus in the Gospel. 

   A catholic who spends his life seeking heaven here on earth and expecting to still find heaven after this life is a living contradiction. 

   What can be the remedy to these three illnesses? It is the Holy Rosary. How? 

   The Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, when we pray, meditate and imitate the examples presented to us there, these mysteries become the remedy to Aversion towards work and towards simple or humble living.

   The Joyful Mysteries contain the Holy Family, the holiest Persons — St. Joseph, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lord Jesus Christ— to ever walk this earth but at the same time the most imitable, or the easiest to imitate for everyone. 

   The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, when we pray, meditate and imitate the examples presented to us there, these mysteries become the remedy to Repugnance and horror towards suffering. 

   It is easy to hang the Crucifix on the wall or around our neck. But we have to suffer like Our Lord and with Our Lord. Every human being on this earth will have to suffer something at some point. St Pius X said that “… to suffer much is proper of Christians”. However, only good catholics can be free of the tyrannical power of suffering, only good catholics can benefit from suffering, only good catholics can attain happiness through suffering. Why is this? Because only good catholics are given power over suffering by the precious Body and Blood of Our Lord, which we receive in Holy 

Communion, which was offered as a Victim on the Cross, and again offered as a Victim in each Holy Mass. Only good catholics can be united to the Divine Victim of the Cross so intimately that they can also turn defeat into a victory.. 

   The Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, when we pray, meditate and imitate the examples presented to us there, these mysteries become the remedy to Forgetfulness or ignorance of Eternal things.

   Our legitimate needs of material things, our legitimate need of some necessary but passing joys in this life in order for us to persevere, these legitimate necessities can distract our attention from Our Lord and His promises of an eternity of joys. The Glorious Mysteries are there so that we won’t prefer to accumulate material treasures in this passing life over imperishable treasures in eternal life because “… where your treasure is, that is where your heart is as well”. 

   The Joyful Mysteries must be the source of our ideals, the Sorrowful Mysteries must be our consolations in times of trial, the Glorious Mysteries must be the purpose or the guiding light while we are still here in this valley of tears. 

   Our children may expect wisdom from us and we must show them wisdom m the Holy Rosary. They will expect from us good examples and we must show them the good examples we have acquired from the Holy Rosary. 

   In our troubled times it is indeed a misfortune to realize that we are infected with these sicknesses. however, it is a greater misfortune still not to realize what we are sick if we are indeed sick. We cannot lose hope, however, if each time we pray the Rosary we say with all simplicity and humility: “… grant we beseech Thee that by meditating upon these mysteries in the most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ, Our Lord. Amen

Fr.  Ferrer