Hope: Stones Becoming Beacons of Light

Christ, the Cornerstone of Isaiah, is thrown, not by human hand but the hand of the Father, and strikes the colossus of human pride in the clay feet and reduces it to dust. The Stone, in turn, “became a great mountain filling the whole earth.” Each one of us is called to become Ipse Christus – “living stones” (petroi)– and as such, being “the light of the world.” Becoming other Christs, Christ Himself, - and He being the Light of the World – we experience seeing light by going out of ourselves by which we become light.

The Stone:

First Reading: Dn 2:31-45

Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar:
"In your vision, O king, you saw a statue,
very large and exceedingly bright,
terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.
The head of the statue was pure gold,
its chest and arms were silver,
its belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron,
its feet partly iron and partly tile.
While you looked at the statue,
a stone which was hewn from a mountain
without a hand being put to it,
struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.
The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once,
fine as the chaff on the threshing floor in summer,
and the wind blew them away without leaving a trace.
But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain
and filled the whole earth.

"This was the dream;
the interpretation we shall also give in the king's presence.
You, O king, are the king of kings;
to you the God of heaven
has given dominion and strength, power and glory;
men, wild beasts, and birds of the air, wherever they may dwell,
he has handed over to you, making you ruler over them all;
you are the head of gold.
Another kingdom shall take your place, inferior to yours,
then a third kingdom, of bronze,
which shall rule over the whole earth.
There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron;
it shall break in pieces and subdue all these others,
just as iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything else.
The feet and toes you saw, partly of potter's tile and partly of iron,
mean that it shall be a divided kingdom,
but yet have some of the hardness of iron.
As you saw the iron mixed with clay tile,
and the toes partly iron and partly tile,
the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.
The iron mixed with clay tile
means that they shall seal their alliances by intermarriage,
but they shall not stay united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
In the lifetime of those kings
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people;
rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms
and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever.
That is the meaning of the stone you saw hewn from the mountain
without a hand being put to it,
which broke in pieces the tile, iron, bronze, silver, and gold.
The great God has revealed to the king what shall be in the future;
this is exactly what you dreamed, and its meaning is sure."

The Light:

A treatise of St Augustine on St John's gospel

You will come to the spring and see light itself

We Christians are the light, at least by comparison with unbelievers. Thus the Apostle says: Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk then as sons of the light. And elsewhere he says: The night is far spent, the day is drawing near. Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us walk uprightly as in the day.

  Nevertheless, since the days in which we are now living are still dark compared to the light which we shall see, hear what the apostle Peter says. He speaks of a voice that came from the Supreme Glory and said to the Lord Jesus Christ: You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This voice, he says, we heard coming from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain. Because we ourselves were not present there and did not hear that voice from heaven, Peter says to us: And we possess a more certain prophetic word to which you do well to attend, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

  When, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ comes and, as the apostle Paul says, brings to light things hidden in darkness and makes plain the secrets of the heart, so that everyone may receive his commendation from God, then lamps will no longer be needed. When that day is at hand, the prophet will not be read to us, the book of the Apostle will not be opened, we shall not require the testimony of John, we shall have no need of the Gospel itself. Therefore all Scriptures will be taken away from us, those Scriptures which in the night of this world burned like lamps so that we might not remain in darkness.

  When all these things are removed as no longer necessary for our illumination, and when the men of God by whom they were ministered to us shall themselves together with us behold the true and dear light without such aids, what shall we see? With what shall our minds be nourished? What will give joy to our gaze? Where will that gladness come from, which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, which has not even been conceived by the heart of man? What shall we see?

  I implore you to love with me and, by believing, to run with me; let us long for our heavenly country, let us sigh for our heavenly home, let us truly feel that here we are strangers. What shall we then see? Let the gospel tell us: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. You will come to the fountain, with whose dew you have already been sprinkled. Instead of the ray of light which was sent through slanting and winding ways into the heart of your darkness, you will see the light itself in all its purity and brightness. It is to see and experience this light that you are now being cleansed. Dearly beloved, John himself says, we are the sons of God, and it has not yet been disclosed what we shall be; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

  I feel that your spirits are being raised up with mine to the heavens above; but the body which is corruptible weighs down the soul, and this earthly tent burdens the thoughtful mind. I am about to lay aside this book, and you are soon going away, each to his own business. It has been good for us to share the common light, good to have enjoyed ourselves, good to have been glad together. When we part from one another, let us not depart from him.

The Kingdom of God is a Person: Jesus Christ

  

The Kingdom of God becomes a reality NOW, as each one begins the conversion process away from “self-referentiality” to go to the “peripheries.” The Kingdom is present now in the world insofar as each becomes another Christ by exercising professional work as service.

 “Christ not only proclaimed the kingdom, but in him the kingdom itself became present and was fulfilled. This happened not only through his words and his deeds: "Above all,...the kingdom is made manifest in the very person of Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, who came 'to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many' (Mk 10:45)." The kingdom of God is not a concept, a doctrine, or a program subject to free interpretation, but it is before all else a person with the face and name of Jesus of Nazareth, the image of the invisible God. If the kingdom is separated from Jesus, it is no longer the kingdom of God which he revealed. The result is a distortion of the meaning of the kingdom, which runs the risk of being transformed into a purely human or ideological goal [“a better world through chemisty,” (technology)] and a distortion of the identity of Christ, who no longer appears as the Lord to whom everything must one day be subjected (cf. 1 Cor 15:27).”[1]

 St. Josemaria Escriva:  During Mass and the elevation of the Host on August 7, 1931, he heard the Lord speak the verse of John 12, 32: “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself.” In continuation, he heard: “I say it to you, not in the sense in which Scripture says it; I say it to you in the sense that you put me at the summit of all human activities; that in all the places of the world, there be Christians with a personal and most free dedication, that they be other Christs.”

 The Eschatology and the Epistemology:  Christ lives, not in the past, not in the future, but now. A major point of The Way #584 reads:

“Stir up the fire of your faith! Christ is not a figure of the past. He is not a memory lost in history.

“He lives! ‘Iesus Christus heri et hodie: ipse et in saecula!’ As St. Paul says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today- yes, and forever!”

           

The Kingdom of God is Now: “If I cast out devils by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11, 20). It is present and invisible. It is invisible because the Person of Christ is divine, and therefore is not “part” of the world. The divine “I” of Christ is “in” the world, but not “part” of it. Therefore, the response to John the Baptist who sent the messengers asking “are you He is to come, or shall we look for another” (Mt. 11, 4) was: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead rise, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not scandalized in me” (Mt. 11, 5-6). In a word, God as Creator is so other than the world (his creation) that if the world did not exist, He would not be less; and now that it does exist, He is not more. Hence, since the Word became flesh, He is present in the world but cannot be seen or experienced as “part” of the world. Yet He is in it and present to us in the moment by moment call to serve in our particular state in life. Hence, He can be known only by becoming like Him. Only God knows God (“no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” [Mt. 11, 27]).

The “Realism of the Kingdom”

“Furthermore, the Word of God is the foundation of everything, it is the true reality. And to be realistic, we must rely upon this reality. We must change our idea that matter, solid things, things we can touch, are the more solid, the more certain reality. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount the Lord speaks to us about the two possible foundations for building the house of one's life: sand and rock. The one who builds on sand builds only on visible and tangible things, on success, on career, on money. Apparently these are the true realities. But all this one day will pass away. We can see this now with the fall of large banks: this money disappears, it is nothing. And thus all things, which seem to be the true realities we can count on, are only realities of a secondary order. The one who builds his life on these realities, on matter, on success, on appearances, builds upon sand. Only the Word of God is the foundation of all reality, it is as stable as the heavens and more than the heavens, it is reality. Therefore, we must change our concept of realism. The realist is the one who recognizes the Word of God, in this apparently weak reality, as the foundation of all things. Realist is the one who builds his life on this foundation, which is permanent. Thus the first verses of the Psalm invite us to discover what reality is and how to find the foundation of our life, how to build life.”[2]

            In the recent “Domini Verbum,” Benedict writes: “The word finds expression not primarily in discourse, concepts or rules. Here we are set before the very person of Jesus, His unique and singular history is the definitive word which God speaks to humanity. We can see, then, why ‘being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice of a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event [my underline], a person, which gives life a new horizon and a definitive direction… We are speaking of an unprecedented and humanly inconceivable novelty: ‘the word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (Jn. 1, 14a). These words are no figure of speech; they point to a lived experience! Saint John, an eyewitness, tells us so: ‘We have behold his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (Jn. 1, 14 b). The apostolic faith testifies that the eternal Word became one of us. The divine Word is truly expressed in human words.”

The Concrete Asceticism:

            Escriva heard the cry: “Nolumus hunc regnare super nos” (Lk. 19, 14). “I strove to repeat my own response thousands of times. I even felt the need to jot it down while working. Every page or half-page I wrote down that same strong and loving response we now make by our lives: oportet illum regnare (1 Cor. 15, 25). We want Christ to reign! You’ll find it written on many of my papers. I remember this as if it were yesterday.

            “But we ought to ask ourselves, ‘Where should Christ Jesus reign?’ And we find the answer in the consecration that we renew today in our centers. First of all, he should reign in our hearts. He should reign in our life, because our entire existence must bear witness to love. Despite our mistakes! Don’t worry if you make mistakes; I make them too. Despite our weaknesses! As long as we struggle, they don’t matter. Didn’t the saints on the altar also make mistakes I mean mistakes that come from our human condition. Our Lord must smile at such mistakes…

            “I don’t know about you, my son, but I sense that Our Lord is asking me a very specific question: who do you let me reign in you? I reply that I want him to reign in every corner of my being, but that I need lots of his grace. Only then can my every heartbeat and breath, my least intense glance, my most ordinary word, my most basic feeling, be transformed into a hosanna to Christ my King. But I’m also a man and have to react in a human way, so that you, my God, may imbue my human reaction with supernatural meaning through my life dedicated to your service in the world.

            “Service. How I like that work! Serving my king, Christ Jesus. Serving, always serving. Mother of ours, grant us a spirit of service. Faced with the wonder of God about to become man, you said: ecce ancilla! (Lk. 1, 38). Teach me to serve like that.

            “My mother, if we all knew how to serve…, if each of your children in Opus Dei knew how to serve, how well the others would learn to serve. How much more refined we would be, and how much we would help the others to improve! Isn’t this the right moment, my son, for you to tell Mary in your mind and heart what I’m telling her? Tell her that we want to learn. For you and I teach by example, which is the right way to teach. May I bear witness to serving Christ in the world, by making him the king of all my life’s actions, the ultimate and only reason for my existence. Then, once I’ve borne witness by my example, I’ll be able to instruct others, to provide the theory, just as Jesus did: he bean to do and teach (Acts 1, 1).[3]

Secular Work as the Asceticism  of Building the Kingdom of God in the World: Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation – SCDF –March 22, 1986

The role of the laity 
80. It is not for the pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the political con struction and organization of social life. This task forms part of the vocation of the laity acting on their own initiative with their fellow-citizens.(120) They must fulfil this task conscious of the fact that the purpose of the Church is to spread the Kingdom of Christ so that all men may be saved and that through them the world may be effectively ordered to Christ.(121) The work of salvation is thus seen to be indissolubly linked to the task of improving and raising the conditions of human life in this world. The distinction between the supernatural order of salvation and the temporal order of human life must be seer in the context of God's singular plan to recapitulate all things in Christ. Hence in each of these spheres the layperson, who is at one and the same time a member of the Church and a citizen of his country, must allow himself to be constantly guided by his Christian conscience.(122) Social action, which can involve a number of concrete means, will always be exercised for the common good and in conformity with the Gospel message and the teaching of the Church. It must be ensured that the variety of options does not harm a sense of collaboration, or lead to a paralysis of efforts or produce confusion among the Christian people. The orientation received from the social doctrine of the Church should stimulate an acquisition of the essential technical and scientific skills. The social doctrine of the Church will also stimulate the seeking of moral formation of character and a deepening of the spiritual life. While it offers principles and wise counsels, this doctrine does not dispense from education in the political prudence needed for guiding and running human affairs. 
II. Evangelical requirements for an indepth transformation 
Need for a cultural transformation 
81. Christians working to bring about that "civilization of love" which will include the entire ethical and social heritage of the Gospel are today faced with an unprecedented challenge. This task calls for renewed reflection on what constitutes the relationship between the supreme commandment of love and the social order considered in all its complexity. The immediate aim of this indepth reflection is to work out and set in motion ambitious programmes aimed at the socio-economic liberation of millions of men and women caught in an intolerable situation of economic, social and political oppression. This action must begin with an immense effort at education: education for the civilization of work, education for solidarity, access to culture for all. 
The Gospel of work 
82. The life of Jesus of Nazareth, a real "Gospel of work", offers us the living example and principle of the radical cultural transformation which is essential for solving the grave problems which must be faced by the age in which we live. He, who, though he was God, became like us in all things, devoted the greater part of his earthly life to manual labour.(123) The culture which our age awaits will be marked by the full recognition of the dignity of human work, which appears in all its nobility and fruitfulness in the light of the mysteries of Creation and Redemption.(124) Recognized as a form of the person, work becomes a source of creative meaning and effort. 
A true civilization of work 
83. Thus the solution of most of the serious problems related to poverty is to be found in the promotion of a true civilization of work. In a sense, work is the key to the whole social question.(125) It is therefore in the domain of work that priority must be given to the action of liberation in freedom. Because the relationship between the human person and work is radical and vital, the forms and models according to which this relationship is regulated will exercise a positive influence for the solution of a whole series of social and political problems facing each people. Just work relationships will be a necessary precondition for a system of political community capable of favouring the integral development of every individual. If the system of labour relations put into effect by those directly involved, the workers and employers, with the essential support of the public powers succeeds in bringing into existence a civilization of work, then there will take place a profound and peaceful revolution in people's outlooks and in institutional and political structures.
National and international common good
84. A work culture such as this will necessarily presuppose and put into effect a certain number of essential values. It will acknowledge that the person of the worker is the principle, subject and purpose of work. It will affirm the priority of work over capital and the fact that material goods are meant for all. It will be animated by a sense of solidarity involving not only rights to be defended but also the duties to be performed. It will involve participation, aimed at promoting the national and international common good and not just defending individual or corporate interests. It will assimilate the methods of confrontation and of frank and vigorous dialogue. 
As a result, the political authorities will become more capable of acting with respect for the legitimate freedoms of individuals, families and subsidiary groups; and they will thus create the conditions necessary for man to be able to achieve his authentic and integral welfare, including his spiritual goal.(126)
The value of human work 
85. A culture which recognizes the eminent dignity of the worker will emphasize the subjective dimension of work.(127) The value of any human work does not depend on the kind of work done; it is based on the fact that the one who does it is a person,(128) There we have an ethical criterion whose implications cannot be overlooked. Thus every person has a right to work, and this right must be recognized in a practical way by an effective commitment to resolving the tragic problem of unemployment. The fact that unemployment keeps large sectors of the population and notably the young in a situation of marginalization is intolerable. For this reason the creation of jobs is a primary social task facing individuals and private enterprise, as well as the State. As a general rule, in this as in other matters, the State has a subsidiary function; but often it can be called upon to intervene directly, as in the case of international agreements between different States. Such agreements must respect the rights of immigrants and their families.(129) 
Promoting participation 
86. Wages, which cannot be considered as a mere commodity, must enable the worker and his family to have access to a truly human standard of living in the material, social, cultural and spiritual orders. It is the dignity of the person which constitutes the criterion for judging work, not the other way round. Whatever the type of work, the worker must be able to perform it as an expression of his personality. There follows from this the necessity of a participation which, over and above a sharing in the fruits of work, should involve a truly communitarian dimension at the level of projects, undertakings and responsibilities.(130) 
Priority of work over capital 
87. The priority of work over capital places an obligation in justice upon employers to con sider the welf are of the workers before the increase of profits. They have a moral obligation not to keep capital unproductive and in making investments to think first of the common good. The latter requires a prior effort to consolidate jobs or create new ones in the production of goods that are really useful. The right to private property is inconceivable without responsibilities to the common good. It is subordinated to the higher principle which states that goods are meant for all.(131) 
Indepth reforms 
88. This teaching must inspire reforms before it is too late. Access for everyone to the goods needed for a human, personal and family life worthy of the name is a primary demand of social justice. It requires application in the sphere of industrial work and in a particular way in the area of agricultural work.(132) Indeed, rural peoples, especially in the third world, make up the vast majority of the poor.(133) 
III. Promotion of solidarity 
A new solidarity 

89. Solidarity is a direct requirement of human and supernatural brotherhood. The serious socio-economic problems which occur today cannot be solved unless new fronts of solidarity are created: solidarity of the poor among themselves, solidarity with the poor to which the rich are called, solidarity among the workers and with the workers. Institutions and social organizations at different levels, as well as the State, must share in a general movement of solidarity. When the Church appeals for such solidarity, she is aware that she herself is concerned in a quite special way. 

---

[1] John Paul II,  “Mission of the Redeemer” #18: “Likewise, one may not separate the kingdom from the Church. It is true that the Church is not an end unto herself, since she is ordered toward the kingdom of God of which she is the seed, sign and instrument. Yet, while remaining distinct from Christ and the kingdom, the Church is indissolubly united to both. Christ endowed the Church, his body, with the fullness of the benefits and means of salvation. The Holy Spirit dwells in her, enlivens her with his gifts and charisms, sanctifies, guides and constantly renews her. The result is a unique and special relationship which, while not excluding the action of Christ and the Spirit outside the Church's visible boundaries, confers upon her a specific and necessary role; hence the Church's special connection with the kingdom of God and of Christ, which she has "the mission of announcing and inaugurating among all peoples."

[2] Benedict XVI October 6, 2008: Keynote Address to the Synod on the Word of God.

[3] St. Josemaria Escriva, Meditation, 27 October 1963.

Pope Francis’ Confession

"Priests, too, need confession, even bishops. We are all sinners. Even the pope goes to confession every two weeks because the pope, too, is a sinner," he said. "My confessor hears what I say, offers me advice and forgives me. We all need this."

Guiding the Heart

"Guiding children’s emotions means helping bring it about that what they like coincides with their true good." A new article in the series on the family.

November 06, 2013

PDF: Guiding the Heart 

Parents have the right and duty to guide their children’s upbringing, as the natural consequence of having brought them into the world. One can even say that the child, as a person, is the primary purpose of the love between the spouses in God. Bringing children up well can thus be seen as an extension of the love that gave life to them. The parents seek to give their children the resources needed to be happy, and help them find their right place in life both humanly and supernaturally.

Christian parents see in each child a proof of God’s confidence in them. Bringing their children up well is for parents “the best business in the world,” as St. Josemaria often said. This effort begins at conception and takes its first steps in guiding the child’s emotions and feelings. If the parents truly love each another and see the child as the fruit of their self-giving, they will bring that person up in love and for love. In other words, it falls primarily to parents to guide their children’s emotional life, so that their emotions develop normally, as calm and serene children.

Emotional life develops primarily in childhood. Afterwards, during adolescence, emotional crises can occur, and parents have to help their children to deal with them effectively. If they have been brought up as calm and stable persons from childhood, their children will more readily overcome any difficult moments. Moreover, emotional stability favors the growth of good habits in the intellect and will. Without emotional harmony, it is harder to grow spiritually.

Naturally, an indispensable condition for building a good emotional foundation in each child is that the parents themselves seek to improve their own emotional stability. How can they do this? By improving family harmony, by looking after their union with one another, by prudently showing their affection for each other in their children’s presence. However, at times we might be inclined to think that emotions and feelings lie outside the scope of the family’s educational task, since these can often seem to be responses that “just happen,” that escape our control and cannot be changed. The emotions can even come to be seen in a negative light, since sin has disordered our passions, and these disordered feelings can make it more difficult to act in accord with right reason.

At the root of personality

This passive or even negative view of the emotions, present in many religions and moral traditions, contrasts strongly with God’s words addressed to the prophet Ezekiel: I will give them a heart of flesh, that they may keep my ordinances and obey them.[1] Having a heart of flesh, one capable of loving, is viewed as something we need in order to follow God’s will. Unruly passions are not the result of having “too much” heart, but rather of a “bad”heart that needs healing. Christ himself told us: The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.[2] From the heart come the things that defile a man,[3] but likewise the things that make him good.

We need strong emotions, since they are a powerful spur for our actions. We all tend towards what we truly like. Guiding children’s emotions means helping bring it about that what they like coincides with their true good. Acting passionately in a noble way is a human good. What is more natural than the love of a mother for her child? How often this deep affection leads her to make sacrifices cheerfully! And faced with something that a person finds unpleasant or repugnant, how easy it is to avoid it! In a given moment, perceiving the “ugliness” of an evil deed can be a stronger motive not to do it than a multitude of reasonable arguments.

Obviously this is not meant to confuse morality with our sentiments. It is not a matter of reducing the moral life and our relationship with God to feelings. As always, our model is Christ. In Him, perfect Man, we see how emotions and passions can be a help to acting uprightly. Jesus is deeply moved in the face of death, and he works miracles. In Gethsemane we see the intensity of his feelings when praying. We even see in him the passion of anger, a good anger, when he restores the Temple to its dignity.[4] When we truly love something, it’s only natural that our feelings are enkindled. Doing something only to get it done, without putting our heart into it, is quite unpleasant. Feelings give ardor to reason, and make what is good pleasant; while reason provides light, harmony and unity to feelings.

Facilitating purification of the heart

In our human make-up, the emotions are meant to facilitate a voluntary action rather than blur it or make it difficult. “Moral perfection consists in man’s being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the psalm: ‘My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God’ (Ps 84:2).”[5] Hence it is not a matter of trying to stifle or “control” the emotions, as though they were something bad and needed to be rejected. Even though original sin has introduced disorder into them, they haven’t been ruined, or become totally corrupt and irredeemable. The feelings in the human heart can be guided in a positive direction to seek what is truly good: love for God and others. Hence all those involved in educating children, and first of all the parents, should aim at helping them, as far as possible, to enjoy doing what is good.

Guiding affectivity first and foremost requires helping children to come to know themselves, so their feelings are proportionate to the reality that has given rise to them. This can involve helping them to overcome, to “transcend” a specific feeling until the cause that has provoked it is seen in its true light. The result of this reflection will sometimes be an attempt to modify the cause in a positive way. On other occasions, for instance the death of a loved one or a serious illness, the reality cannot be altered. That will be the moment to teach children to accept events as coming from God’s hand, who loves us as a Father. Other times, for instance, after a reaction of anger, a moment of fear, or dislike for a person or event, the father or mother can speak with the children, helping them to understand, to the extent possible, the reason behind that reaction in such a way that they manage to overcome it. Then children come to know themselves better and are better prepared to place order in the world of their feelings.

Those educating children can also help young people to recognize, both in themselves and in others, a specific feeling or emotion. Stories in literature or movies can be used to teach children to make more measured emotional responses. A story draws in the person who sees, reads or listens to it, stirring their feelings in a specific direction and accustoming them to look at reality in a certain way. Depending on age (the influence can be greater the younger the child is), an adventure story, or one of suspense, or a romantic tale, can help reinforce appropriate reactions in the face of situations that objectively deserve them, such as indignation in the face of injustice, compassion for the disabled, admiration for sacrifice, love for what is beautiful. This will also foster the desire for these sentiments, since they are seen as the source of perfection and nobility.

Well channeled, the appreciation of good stories progressively educates the aesthetic faculty and the capacity to select stories of good quality. This reinforces a proper critical sense and is an effective aid to prevent a lowering of human tone, which can descend into vulgarity and a neglect of modesty. Especially in the so-called “first world” countries, an attitude of “spontaneity” and “naturalness” has become widespread, which frequently leads to a lack of decorum. Whoever becomes accustomed to this kind of atmosphere, whatever their age, ends up lowering their own sensitivity and animalizing (or trivializing) their emotional reactions. Parents need to instill in their children a rejection of vulgarity, even when it is not a matter of directly sensual topics.

On the other hand, it is helpful to point out that the proper guiding of human affectivity is not identical with the guiding of sexuality. The latter is only a part of the emotional realm. When an atmosphere of trust has been achieved in the family, it will certainly be easier for the parents to speak with the children about the greatness and meaning of human love, giving them, little by little, from an early age, the resources to orient themselves adequately in this aspect of life, above all by guiding their emotions and fostering virtues.

A heart to the measure of Christ’s

Ultimately, guiding the emotions tries to foster in children a big heart, capable of truly loving God and people. The young need a heart capable of “sharing the concerns of those around them, able to forgive and understand, ready to sacrifice themselves, with Jesus Christ, for all souls.”[6] A family atmosphere that is calm but also demanding will help give, almost by osmosis, confidence and stability to the complex world of human feelings. If children see that they are loved unconditionally, if they come to realize that their good behavior makes their parents happy and that their mistakes don’t lead to a loss of trust in them, if they are helped to be sincere and to show their feelings, they will grow up with an habitual interior atmosphere of order and calm. Positive feelings such as understanding, cheerfulness and trust will hold sway, while whatever robs them of peace, whether anger, temper tantrums or jealousies, will be seen as invitations to ask others for forgiveness, or to forgive them and show signs of affection.

Young people need hearts in love with what is truly of value, in love above all with God.[7] Nothing helps the emotions to mature better than to center one’s heart in our Lord and in doing his will. To achieve this, as St. Josemaría taught, we need to “keep it locked with seven bolts, one for each capital sin.”[8] Every human heart has affections that should be given exclusively to God, and we suffer pangs of conscience if we direct them to anything else. 

True purity of soul comes through shutting the door to all that implies giving to creatures or to one’s own ego what belongs to Christ alone. It comes through assuring that a person’s capacity to love and to desire is well adjusted and integrated. Hence the image of the seven bolts implies more than the moderation of concupiscence or of the obsessive concern for material well-being. It reminds us that we have to fight against vanity, to control our imagination, to purify our memory, to moderate our appetite at mealtimes, to foster friendly dealings with those we find annoying. Although it might seem a paradox, when we put “shackles”on our heart, we increase our freedom to love with undiminished strength.

The Sacred Humanity of our Lord is the crucible in which we can best refine our heart and its affections. Children need to be taught from an early age to draw close to Jesus Christ and his Mother in the same heartfelt way they show affection for their parents. This will help children, in keeping with their age, to discover the true greatness of their affections and allow our Lord to enter their souls. A heart that keeps itself entirely for God keeps itself whole and is able to give itself completely.

In this perspective the heart becomes a symbol with deep anthropological richness. It is the center of the person, the place where the most intimate and elevated human powers converge, and where each person draws the energy needed to act. It is a motor that has to be educated, cared for, moderated, refined, so that all its strength is aimed in the right direction. In order to educate it in this way, in order to love and to teach others how to love with that strength, “we need to root out of our individual lives everything which is an obstacle to Christ’s life in us: attachment to our own comfort, the temptation to selfishness, the tendency to be the center of everything. Only by reproducing in ourselves Christ’s life can we transmit it to others.”[9]When there is correspondence to grace and personal struggle, the soul becomes divinized and, little by little, the heart becomes magnanimous, capable of dedicating its best efforts to noble and great ideals, to carrying out God’s will.

At times fallen human nature will try to reclaim its lost rights, but emotional maturity, a maturity that in part is independent of age, leads a person to look beyond emotions to discover what has unleashed them and how to react to that reality. We can always count on the shelter offered by our Lord and his Blessed Mother. “Get accustomed to entrusting your poor heart to the Sweet and Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that she may purify it from so much dross, and lead it to the Most Merciful Heart of Jesus.”[10]

 J.M. Martin, J. Verdia

Footnotes:
[1] Ez 11:19-20

[2] Lk 6:45.

[3] Cf. Mk 7:20-23.

[4] Cf. Mk 5:40-43; 14:32 ff; 11:15-17.

[5] Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1770.

[6] Christ is Passing By, no 158.

[7] Cf. Furrow, no. 795.

[8] St. Josemaria, get-together in Valencia, 7 January 1975; in Pedro Rodriguez, Critical-Historical Edition of the Way, Scepter London, p. 372; cf.The Way, no. 188.

[9] Christ is Passing By, no. 158.

[10] Furrow, no. 830.

Daunting Odds Against the Giants. I Say Playoffs!!

Sorry, but the Giants (Probably) Won't Make the Playoffs

Winning Streak Notwithstanding, the Team Faces Too Many Hurdles

JONATHAN CLEGG 

Updated Nov. 20, 2013 9:10 p.m. ET

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—The Giants' win over the Green Bay Packers last weekend didn't merely complete their return to relevance. It has set them up as one of the stories of the NFL season.

After dropping their first six games, the Giants have ripped off four straight wins, leaving them just one and a half games out of the NFC East lead, with a critical game against Dallas coming up. It counts a turnaround that no one saw coming.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin 

Well, almost no one. Back in October, after the Giants beat the Minnesota Vikings for their first win of the season, The Wall Street Journal laid out a 10-point plan outlining exactly how they could reach the playoffs.

Included on the list: running back Andre Brown coming back strong; the Giants beating the Eagles in Philadelphia; and the Cowboys succumbing to a monumental meltdown. (Alright, we didn't exactly need Nostradamus for that one.)

Since then, the season has unfolded precisely as we anticipated. But now that the Giants have climbed back into contention, we've got some bad news for this team and their revitalized fans: They aren't going to make the playoffs.

For reasons that range from a punishing slate of opponents to the precarious condition of key players, the Giants' turnaround appears doomed to fall short. Here are 10 reasons why this team will be sitting at home in January:

Tough sledding. To make up that one-and-a-half-game deficit in the NFC East, the Giants will have to overcome the toughest remaining schedule of any team in the division. Their remaining opponents have a combined .508 winning percentage, and none of their rivals face a slate of teams with combined winning record.

The starting receivers can't score. Hakeem Nicks hasn't scored a touchdown all season. Victor Cruz hasn't reached the end zone since Week 4 and said Wednesday that his salsa dance may soon appear on the back of milk cartons. The Giants have been able to cope by holding their last four opponents to an average of just 12 points a game. But their next six foes are some of the highest-scoring in the league, with a combined average of 25.8 points a game.

The knotty tiebreaker situation. The Giants didn't just dig themselves into a hole by dropping their first six games. By losing to the Eagles and Cowboys during that stretch, they contrived to fill the hole with quicksand. They have an inferior divisional record and stand to lose out on any tiebreakers in the event that they finish with the same record as Dallas and Philadelphia, who face each other in Week 17.

Jon Beason will break down. No one has played a bigger role in the team's turnaround than the linebacker, who arrived in a trade from Carolina early last month. But there's a reason the Giants were able to acquire a three-time Pro Bowler for a late-round draft pick: his health. Beason, who lost 27 games to injuries from 2011-12, has played 177 of the Giants' 179 defensive plays in the past three games. That looks unsustainable.

So will Andre Brown. The only player on the team with a longer injury history than Beason is Brown. He saw his rookie year ended by a torn Achilles, finished last season on injured reserve with a broken fibula, and missed the first nine weeks of this season after suffering the same injury in the preseason. In just two games back, Brown has already become the Giants' leading rusher this season, but his 48 carries raise questions about whether he can hold up.

The quarterback competition heats up. The Giants' four wins have come against Josh Freeman, Matt Barkley, Terrelle Pryor and someone called Scott Tolzien. But from here on out, they'll face a parade of prolific passers, including Matthew Stafford, Tony Romo and Robert Griffin III. And they're not the only quarterbacks the Giants have to worry about. With 16 touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 128.0 through six games, Nick Foles has turned the division-leading Eagles into an offensive juggernaut.

The abysmal AFC. Losers of three straight, the San Diego Chargers are now looking up at the Oakland Raiders in the AFC West. In other words, this team has no business being in the playoffs. But thanks to the general ineptitude of the AFC, the Chargers will be playing with playoff aspirations when they host the Giants on Dec. 8, rather than counting down the days until they can hit the beach.

Covering Calvin is a tall order. The Giants face the Lions on Dec. 22, which will present the team's improving defense with a big problem. Like, 6-foot-5 big. The Giants' defense will have to find a way to cover Calvin Johnson, the NFL's leading receiver, with a diminutive cornerback tandem of Prince Amukamara (6-feet) and Trumaine McBride (5-foot-9.)

Prime-time problems. The Giants have already been flexed out of the Sunday night slot once this season, so they welcomed this week's announcement that their NFC East matchup against the Redskins will remain in prime time. They shouldn't have. Though Eli Manning has a reputation for playing his best in big games, he has a win percentage of just .455 in prime-time games.

The Panthers' streak. The Panthers already roughed up the Giants in Week 3. But their red-hot winning streak counts as another blow. Were Carolina not in contention, Seattle could have all but locked up the NFC's No. 1 seed with a win over New Orleans next weekend. Now the Seahawks will likely still be fighting for homefield advantage when they face the Giants in Week 15. Which means more Russell Wilson and less Tarvaris Jackson at MetLife Stadium.

Write to Jonathan Clegg at jonathan.clegg@wsj.com

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