Our Lady Help of Christians 24.5.20 (Sunday after Ascension)
Under this title, Our Lady is Patroness of Australia.
She helps us. I need all the help I can get is a
common phrase, and it is truest of all in the spiritual domain.
We need help to see things the right way up, to resist and
avoid the temptations of the evil one, and keep our footing on the various
slippery slopes we have in our present world.
The lack of support from the general population makes it
harder. We can always hold on to our own faith, but it becomes much harder to
evangelise the whole world when so many have abandoned the faith, or refused to
take it up.
We share the same world as them, and it puts us almost
always in a minority situation.
This is not to complain or admit defeat, but it just shows
how much we need the Help Our Lady promises us.
With her help we can be more like she was in her earthly
life: always fixed on the will of God, never doubting God's providence, all our
thoughts words and deeds in harmony with His holy will.
The Church is always needing to restore and maintain
fervour.
Sometimes we have to be on the defensive, as in apologizing
for child abuse.
The sins of some do not negate the mission of the Church,
however, which remains to go and baptize all nations.
We are on the defensive also, insofar as we try to escape
from persecution.
If we started in the Upper Room it seems we spend a lot of
time in the basement! - trying to survive physically and spiritually.
If we are hiding it does not mean we lack faith, just that
we are looking for ways to overcome all the difficulties.
Mary will help us by her own constancy. She is the beacon, the
star for struggling mariners.
She helps us to believe, to hope, to trust - making us more
confident of the rightness of our position; and more effective in spreading the
Gospel.
The Church was supposed to come out of that Upper Room and
sweep across the whole world. It has not followed that script! We have been
winning some and losing some ever since that first Pentecost.
We need Help to make the gains without losing them again.
We try to keep as high standard in being Our Lord’s
disciples.
In whatever ways we have failed we can set it right. Just as
an individual disciple can be forgiven and eventually break through to a higher
level of holiness, so can the whole Church.
We help each other; the strong should help the weak (Rm 15,1). Sometimes we are the strong, sometimes the
weak.
In all cases we fix our eyes on where the help is coming from.
As one who is trapped will look for the first sign of rescuers
approaching; or one suffering a drought will look hopefully for clouds - we
spend a lot of our time looking for help.
Sometimes the problems are very deep-rooted and we have to
live with them a long time. We can cope with those too.
Either our problems disappear or we are made strong enough
to deal with them.
There is power available for every need. And taking refuge
in Mary will always bring that power into operation.
We call on her under all her titles; she is always available.
It just requires a certain discipline on our part to link with her, and maintain
that link. Our prayer must be continuous not just occasional.
Help of Christians, keep us faithful, purposeful, on track
to Calvary and beyond.
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