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We're here on loan because Christ gave us a new lease on life.

      In today's editorial we tap the great treasury God has made available to us of which He encourages us to invest in, especially during this special time of Lent. We're reminded that we possess nothing for we are all here on loan from God but by living up to the rules set forth in the agreement with Him, He helps us by providing the spiritual funds to repay our debt to Him for dying on the Cross. No greater price could anyone ask for than to die for us and through His graces we are able to afford the payment Jesus asks of us. For today's commentary entitled The past tense of lend is Lent!, click on CATHOLIC PewPOINT.

The past tense of lend is Lent!

      Here we are, a day after the Ides of March and on the downward side of Lent heading toward the Passion and Death of Jesus and His glorious Resurrection, the apex of our faith journey liturgically. The phrase "Neither a lender nor a borrower be" hits home during this time of year when we are reminded of our nothingness. Think back to the beginning of this liturgical season when the priest placed the ashes on our head. It was a reminder of the commonly known fact that we are all here on this earth on loan. We can't call our life our own because we don't own our bodies. Hopefully abortion sympathists will take note of that fact! In fact, we don't own anything, nada! So how can we lend something or pay back something borrowed if we don't own anything? Without God we can't! It's that simple. We owe it to ourselves to realize that we don't own anything but we do owe plenty. Our biggest debt is to the Man Who has paid for our eternal existence - Jesus Christ.

      So how then do we repay the Son of God if we don't own anything? One way is to build up dividends in His "Bank" - in the great Deposit of Faith which is the sum of public revelation and tradition entrusted to Holy Mother Church. All we need is a willingness to do God's Will. He does the rest because He owns us. He created us, and therefore possession is His. Though His adversaries - the fallen angels - try to possess us insidiously by enticing us with possessions that are not ours. Consider what happened to Adam and Eve who sought something which was not theirs. God's possessions can never be ours if we are to be true investors of Heavenly dividends. But if we keep our souls safely in the safe deposit box of sanctifying grace, we cannot be canceled or bounced. Oh, satan will write as many bad checks as he can, mess with our spiritual credit rating, and even offer us unrealistic savings. But the only saving to be done is by the Almighty Banker, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.

      That brings us back to our original thought of Lent. The ashes three weeks ago reminded us of our nothingness and the words pronounced "Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thous shalt return" are a reminder of our needed bankruptcy to things of this world and that everything but God is fleeting. As the great Lender, God gives us more time to make reparation and even designates a special grace period each year for this life-long process. That period, of course, is Lent...a time to practice what we preach, what the Mother of God has been advocating through her Medjugorje Messages for nearly 18 years and what Our Lady has conveyed from Rue de Bac on over the past two centuries; what the Church has been imparting for nearly 2000 years. By complying with all Heaven is asking we will only strengthen our reserve in filling the coffers of our eternal account.

      One of the things that is feasible is to lend an ear to all Jesus says through His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and then offer all our inconveniences, all the setbacks, all the headaches and heartaches to Jesus during this time of Lent. It is a time when Spring teases us only to hide behind another cold-front, but we can be warmed with the consolation that all we offer during Lent will be the virtues and good that spurred Our Lord on when, in the Garden of Gethsemane He wept bitterly. His tears of blood were for all those sins over the centuries that would pain Him immeasurably, another lash, another scourge. It would have been enough to prompt Him to chuck the whole effort because of the evident apathy and antipathy against Him, but He persevered, aided by the good that we all do which He could see there in that Garden of Olives while His apostles slept. He asks us to stay awake and pray with Him for just an hour. But how many of us can't even do that once a week at Mass? Never mind if the homily prompts drowsiness, remember it's Lent. Offer it up. Truth be known we should spend at least an hour a day with Him; at Daily Mass if possible and in prayer with the devotions handed down to us in the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and other prayers such as the Morning Offering, the Angelus, etc. It's all part and parcel of Lent; it's all part and parcel of our faith journey which tends to slow down about this time every Lent. In the rear-view mirror we can see Ash Wednesday in the distant past and Easter Sunday still three weeks plus away. The buds are starting to bloom but the blossoms are still hiding. Anticipation is in the air and we grow impatient waiting for the Easter Tridiuum which will usher in the glorious Resurrection. It is symbolic of the chastisements and purification that must come before Our Lady's Immaculate Heart triumphs ushering in the glorious Age of Peace - the Reign of the Sacred Heart - the New Pentecost - the Second Advent.

      So, for the next three weeks we will be tested to persevere, to toe the line even when Spring fever teases us to disgard our responsibilities and penances and go for the brass ring that, in truth, corrodes. But there's a price to pay for anything worth having and Heaven is definitely worth having. Consider that God provides the spiritual funds to help us repay our debt to Him. All we have to do is spend wisely. Possessions are not ours to have; remember we don't own anything. All we have is on loan from God. These borrowed attributes we can translate into great dividends if we can leave everything at the foot of the cross and do that with no strings attached. If we can do that we'll be readily assured that before our ashes are swept into the wind, the great Provider will carefully sweep us into His embrace and preserve us from eternal harm in the spotless, dust-free vaults of Heaven. But this can happen only if we give all to Him, and learn to borrow with care and prudence, putting the virtues into action. That is the reason for Lent. If we can practice this, we won't need to look back to get past the tense times in our lives. The future is ours to determine by how we live with the present He has given us - our presence in the present. He is the great Lender Who exacts a payment of obedience from His borrowers. That's called our new lease on life - everlasting life which Christ paid for with His life. So, we have to refute the great bard William Shakespeare and rephrase his line "Either a borrower or a lender be." The future is ours to determine how we live with the present He has given us - our presence in the present. We can look ahead to our Heavenly windfall; we can look back in gratitude for Our Lord's sacrifice for though we live in the present, it was Christ's actions in the past that makes our future possible. That's another reason why it's important to remember that the past tense of lend is Lent!

Michael Cain, editor

For Pope Pius II the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray

      The more things change, the more they stay the same. Such was the case when Pope Pius II succeeded Pope Callistus III on August 19, 1458. His grandiose plan to reunify Christian Europe was met with resistance because of political turmoil and rejections. The plans for a crusade that Callistus wanted so badly and Pius was determined to carry on fell on apathetic ears. Stubborn, yet astute and scholarly, Pius, like his predecessors alienated more than he won and the Church suffered because of it, opening the door for a growing resistance to Rome that would erupt less than a century later with the Reformation. For the ninety-ninth installment titled Pope Pius II: The task of reunifying Christian Europe begins , click on THE HISTORY OF THE MASS AND HOLY MOTHER CHURCH.

Pope Pius II: The task of reunifying Christian Europe begins

      Following the death of Pope Callistux III, it was no secret when the conclave met in August of 1458 that one of the cardinals was lobbying hard for the prestigious position as Sovereign Pontiff. That man was Cardinal Enea Silvio Piccolomini, a prolific writer and orator who had run the gamut on life's pleasures and vices before becoming a priest. After quickly rising through the ranks he changed allegiances several times during the schism, first opposing Pope Eugene IV and then passionately supporting him after a reconciliation between the two. Piccolomini was the consummate politician and negotiator as he had proven time and again in dealing with the Germon emperor Frederick III and other monarchs and leaders. Besides lobbying for himself, he had several supporters and his election on August 19, 1458 was a given for the College of Cardinals realized this man could right the wrongs of his predecessors and bring stability back to the Church because Piccolomini was only 53 years-old.

      He chose the name Pope Pius II, the first Pius in over 1300 years since Pope Saint Pius I in 142. His first order of business was to continue the campaign that Callistus had begun but botched badly - a crusade to fend off the Turks. On October of the same year he issued a Bull calling for the crusade and called for a Congress in Mantua for all Christian rulers. It convened on June 1, 1459. Like with Callistus, Pius faced opposition from Duke Rene I of Anjou who had been rejected by Pius in favor of Alfonso's son Ferdinand I. This did not sit well with the French. Add to this the Germans waffled on committing troops and thereafter, like a domino effect, the effort fell apart. Just prior to the council Pius had published another Papal Bull forming a new order of knights to be called the Knights of Our Lady of Bethlehem, but because everything fizzled out, so, too, did the Order. Pius took it personally and issued another Papal Bull Execrabilis on January 18, 1460 a document diminishing the prestige and power of councils, and decreeing that the Roman Pontiff could no longer be pressured by Council Fathers to convene a council at their whim. It would have to start and end with the Pope.

      Upon returning from Mantua, Pius was faced with a marked aggression in southern Italy as the French dug in to aid Rene and the Anjou line against Ferdinand and his Spanish sympathizers. Thus it came down to France against Spain in his own back yard of Italy. All the skirmishing did was resurrect the bitter battles between Pope Boniface VIII and France's King Philip IV from nearly two centuries before. The French monarch King Louis XI took power in 1461 and immediately rejected Pius' overtures for peace, decreeing that France would return to the old standards whereby the French monarch dictated ecclesial matters of the French clergy and once again "investiture" raised its ugly head. Pius was helpless to counter it for he was so embroiled with the war and keeping the Germans at bay.

      Pius II had so wanted to unify Christian Europe and instead things seemed to get worse. Pius had no choice but to excommunicate Duke Sigismund of Tirol who had so rebelled against the Pope's reform program and had tried at every chance to undermine Pius' efforts, even appealing to the Council Fathers. Because of the Papal Bull of January 1460 the Council's hands were tied. Pius next handed an interdict to Archbishop Diether von Isenburg of Mainz who sought to foment rebellion with Bohemia's King George of Podebrady against Frederick III and Pius II. Isenburg was one of the thorniest problems for Pius for he wielded great influence and played a major role in defeating the Holy Father's resolve to form a crusade. It all stemmed back to the Council of Basle which the Archbishop could still not agree to the events and decisions that were passed. Stubbornly both Isenburg and George refused to accept the inevitable and, gaining an ally in the Hussites, chose another direction after being handed the bell, book and candle by Pius II. It all contributed to the growing, festering boil that would break into the cancerous reformation less than a century later.

      Like his predecessors, what Pius had so hoped to accomplish never materialized. He had grandiose plans to reunite Europe for God, but man stood in his way. Such an idealist was Pius II that he decided, despite all the cards stacked against him, that he would pursue the crusade concept. He even believed the Turk's Sultan Mehmet II could be converted and drafted a letter to him to abandon the Islamic faith and convert to Catholicism, thus winning back the Eastern Empire without violence. It was an ambitious and unrealistic plan but Pius was hell-bent to do it. Yet, according to most historians, for some reason the letter was never delivered by his envoy. Whether Pius realized this or not is not known, but it is suspected he assumed it had been brought to the Sultan and rejected since the Sultan showed no signs of reconciliation. Thus, when he was able to muster some commitments from Venice and Hungary in October 1463, the crusade was on again. By now, however, the burdens of the office had taken their toll on Pius, and, like his predecessors, illness and aging set in. Though only 58 years-old he had become quite sick but stubbornly forged on, traveling to Ancona where the crusaders were to depart for Turkey. It was there that Pius died, waiting at the shore for the Venetian ships. Though the Venetian galleys arrived to find him dead and, because of the confusion and sadness, stalled there on the east coast of Italy on the Adriatic Sea. His supporters in Ancona asked the coroner if he could remain in Ancona and the latter compromised, removing his heart to be buried there while the rest of his body was interred back in Rome.

      Pius II left a plethora of writings to the Vatican library and much of the history recorded for this time can be attributed to Enea Silvio Piccolomini whose 59 years were full of ambition and accomplishments, though he felt he failed as he laid dying on the docks at Ancona on August 15, 1464. Pius was a man of stubborn pride and was very independent, dismissing many cardinals he didn't trust in favor of family members, which in turn alienated others just as his predecessors had done. Yet, Pius II's dream of reconquering the Eastern Empire for Christianity spurred him on to hold out hope even to his dying breath. His successor Pope Paul II would be almost a carbon copy of Pius as the Church continued to navigate the ruts in the road.

Next issue: Pope Paul II: A compromise crusade and the return of the Renaissance

     This is what the Blessed Virgin Mary affirms to all her children in Message #436 on the feast of Saint Francis Xavier early December of 1993. Our Lady entreats all to her little ones to return to her Divine Son Jesus and live humility, a way to defeat satan and by observing First Fridays and First Saturday devotions which help ensure the Font of Divine Mercy to flow out to more of God's children. She prefaces this message i and form Eucharistic refuges - in communities, in parishes, in homes where God is first and foremost. She prefaces this in her 435th Message to the Hidden Flower of the Immaculate Heart a week earlier by reminding all of the importance of Advent in preparation for His coming. For Message #435 and #436, click on "I SOLEMNLY TELL YOU..."

Messages 435 and 436

      Beloved Hidden Flower, peace I give you. Please tell all my children that I beseech them to open their hearts to receive my messages, which lead all to my Divine Son. I beseech all to go beyond curiosity in reading the messages, and to live them in every aspect of their life. Never has living the messages been of such great importance. You must believe and trust this, for I, the Mother of the Second Advent, solemnly tell you the hour comes when my Divine Son shall reclaim His Kingdom.

      Let Advent prepare you. Pray and live the messages, and you will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

      I love and bless you. Thank you for responding to my Call!

      Beloved Hidden Flower, I bless you. Offer all your sufferings to my Divine Son's Passion, and all will be infinite fruit.

      I say now to all of my children: The time of severe trial has come. You must heed my motherly call and return fully to my Divine Son. You must not postpone the conversion of your heart. And to all who have received the conversion of their heart, I beseech you to pray ceaselessly for the gift of humility. Without humility you cannot be obedient to the Will of Almighty God. In truth, without humility you are prey to Lucifer's sin - Pride! And so cunning is the evil one he will deceive you by allowing pride to choke your conscience and you will believe you are little and humble when you are swollen by maggot-filled pride.

      Little ones, the First Friday devotions are of utmost importance and I remind you again to renew your devotion to the First Fridays and make reparation to my Son's Most Wounded Sacred Heart. Then, little children, come to your Heavenly Mother on the First Saturdays; I, your Mother, intercede ceaselessly for you, who are truly meant for Heaven. Make reparation to my Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, and in this way my Divine Son's Sacred Heart is again consoled and Mercy is poured forth on the world.

      Now, little children, is the time for Mercy and Mercy comes through your acts of faith, hope and love. Will to make these acts. Will to live holy lives. Will to obey God, and listen to Him, for He talks to each of you. Prepare! Do not let one moment escape you in your daily life. Let my places of refuge be built by generous souls. Let the simple, true monastic life be lived. Let all hearts be opened and believe. I am your Heavenly Mother and I will guide you. But you must abandon the world and all your attachments to it if you would persevere. Know God loves you.

      Prepare to receive my Divine Son, for He comes again, and I, the Mother of the Second Advent call you to receive Him. Behold, the signs come. I am the Woman clothed with the Sun. Come home, dear children. Pray! Pray! Pray!

      Thank you for responding to my Call!

SIMPLY SHEEN: Finding the perfect balance

      They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the words of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen have been known to launch a thousand images in one's mind, one of the ways this late luminary did so much to evangelize the faith. Because of the urgency of the times and because few there are today who possess the wisdom, simplicity and insight than the late Archbishop who touched millions, we are bringing you daily gems from his writings. The good bishop makes it so simple that we have dubbed this daily series: "SIMPLY SHEEN".

"Only on the principle of giving can the inequalities of the human race be adjusted, can the strong help the weak, and social peace reign among men."

Events Today in Church History

      On this day in 1517 Pope Leo X officially closed the Fifth Lateran Council also called the 18th Ecumenical Council which lasted for five years. Many believed it was the straw that broke the camel's back for though it enacted reforms, the horses were already out of the barn and Leo had no clue how to offer a remedy to counteract the dangerous schism fomented by Martin Luther. For other pertinent events that are memorable in Church history today, click on MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES

Historical Events in Church Annals for March 16:

• 1037 A.D.
  
• Death of Saint Heribert, abbot . Canonized by Pope Gregory VII in 1074.

• 1494 A.D.
  
• The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I marries Bianca Sforza, the daughter of Italian powerbroker Francesco Sforza

• 1517 A.D.
  
• Close of the Fifth Lateran Council by Pope Leo X where the Council Fathers declared nul and void the Council of Pisa. Events in the aftermath of this council and Leo's actions led to Martin Luther's revolt.

• 1521 A.D.
  
• Ferdinand Magellan discovers the Philippines and declares them for Portugal and Holy Mother Church. The faith has remained strong in these islands on the northern edge of Oceania.

• 1561 A.D.
  
• Martyrdom of Jesuit missionaries in East Africa.

     Today is the Fourth Tuesday of Lent with tomorrow being both the Fourth Wednesday of Lent and the optional Feast of Saint Patrick, Bishop and Apostle of Ireland. For the readings, liturgies, meditations and vignette on St. Patrick, click on DAILY LITURGY.

Tuesday March 16:
Lenten Weekday

Purple or violet vestments

First Reading: Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12
Psalms: Psalm 46: 2-3, 5-6, 8-9
Gospel Reading: John 5: 1-3, 5-16

Wednesday March 17:
Lenten Weekday and
Optional Feast of Saint Patrick, Bishop and Apostle of Ireland

Purple or violet vestments

First Reading: Isaiah 49: 8-15
Psalms: Psalm 145: 8-9, 13-14, 17-18
Gospel Reading: John 5: 17-30

     Though the Season of Lent often preempts this patron saint of Ireland, he is credited with bringing the emerald isle to Catholicism. Born of Roman and Scottish origin, Patrick was sold into bondage and brought to Ireland in the early 400's. His experiences prompted him to always turn to God for intercession and it was this faith that motivated him toward becoming an apostle for Christ in this land he grew to love. His piety and wisdom, as well as his genuine love and caring for the Celtic people, produced mass conversions throughout Irish soil. He is often depicted holding the Church in his hands as well as a shamrock which he used to explain the Blessed Trinity as having three leaves but one plant. He is also shown driving out the snakes. Though history does not record reptiles being on the island, it represents bringing the Gospel to Ireland and driving away the evil spirits of paganism. His holy work spawned generation upon generations of priests and nuns and holy, practicing Catholics up to our present century which are responsible for so many conversions the world-over, especially in America.

      Below is another increment of a special prayer for Fasting and Giving Alms from the USCC:

      Blessed are You, Lord, God of all creation. No one lives on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

      For the Lenten Way of the Cross, click on either the graphics Daily Way of the Cross or the text-only Daily Way of the Cross or the Meditative Lessons on the Way to Calvary

    Dear children! Also today I am with you in a special way contemplating and living the passion of Jesus in my heart. Little children, open your hearts and give me everything that is in them: joys, sorrows and each, even the smallest, pain, that I may offer them to Jesus; so that with His immeasurable love, He may burn and transform your sorrows into the joy of His resurrection. That is why, I now call you in a special way, little children, for your hearts to open to prayer, so that through prayer you may become friends of Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call.
For more on Medjugorje, click on MEDJUGORJE AND MORE

Click here to go to SECTION TWO or click here to return to the graphics front page of this issue.

March 16, 1999 volume 10, no. 52   DAILY CATHOLIC