September 10, 2021 Reflection – Be a reflection of my love for those who do not love…

September 10, 2021

Dear Family of Mary!

In the August 25, 2021 message Our Lady challenged us to something that seemed to me impossible. It was this:

“It is time, little children, that you be a reflection of my love for all those who do not love and whose hearts hatred has conquered…”

She challenged us to be a reflection of her love! That alone is difficult, since she is the Queen of love, the Queen of compassion and goodness and tenderness. But she carried it further, she challenged us to become a reflection of her love for “those who do not love and whose hearts hatred has conquered.”

I have not yet been able to rectify myself to this challenge. I am too weak. I can’t feel love for those who hate. It is not humanly possible.

And yet, she said “It is time…” She is not waiting any longer for me to love with the love of Her Son. It is time.

Then I found this little meditation in the September Magnificat – the Meditation for September 9. It is by Saint Claude La Colombiere. St. Claude finally showed me the way I could attempt such a love, even taking into account my weak humanness:

Saint Claude wrote:

I have often pondered with joy and admiration over the extreme care Jesus took to urge us to love others. In the Gospel we read that he commanded it above all things. Love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another. Another time he tells us that no reason either of interest or of honor allows us to hate another; he will not acknowledge us and he ranks us with pagans and infidels if we do not love our enemies, if we will not pray for them and serve them when occasion offers. In fact, it seems as though the whole Christian code were reduced to this point. It is the summing up of all the commandments. Saint Paul tells us this: Love is the fulfilling of the law.

My God, how sweet and humane this commandment seems! How worthy of the goodness and wisdom of God! It is but reasonable that men who have the same nature, the same religion, the same Father, men who are obliged to live together, who are fellow travelers, and who are to be together for all eternity in heaven, should begin to love each other here and should render each other mutual services such as they would wish themselves to receive.

As for feelings of resentment, I can only say one thing: anything which is not voluntary is not sin, and great charity may exist simultaneously with strong indeliberate feelings of hatred and revenge. All that is required is that in spite of them you do not give up praying for the people for whom you feel an aversion; that you speak and act toward them as if you liked them, and that in the depths of your heart you desire to have all the charity that God wishes those who really love him to have.

Thank you, St. Claude, for helping me to find a way to respond to Our Lady’s call without utter discouragement. Yes, we can will to love, even when everything in us rebels. We can will to love!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
Mary TV 2021