POWER OF TRUE DEVOTION

SAINT LOUIS MARIE GRIGNOION DE MONTFORT  

Act 4:23-31; Ps 2:1-9; Jn 3:1-8

Born from Above

Nobody can impede the objective will of God, for all things obey the divine will. But for man, the free will God gave to him is a privilege to choose and learn to be like God. As we have noted many times, the essence of our free will is to choose to consecrate ourselves to the ultimate Good we call God. Hence, it is the deception of the devil to think that we have some other option for freedom except in God, who is the end of man. The serpent gave the false option to Adam and Eve in the beginning as a bait which they fell for, and enslaved their seeds to the devil. The Son of God assumed our nature to make the right choice for God on our behalf. His choice of God for man provided a new principle of life for all men henceforth to be free in God. In Christ, all men now have another opportunity to be born of God and spiritually. The discussion between Jesus Christ and Nicodemus focussed on this subject. “I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said, ‘How can a grown man be born? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” To believe in Jesus is to be born anew, for faith in his resurrection offers us a new principle of living: The Holy Spirit, the source of immortality.

By believing in the resurrection and receiving baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, we chose God, different from that of Adam and Eve and every natural man. By that choice and subsequent profession of faith in Jesus Christ, our lives draw from the Holy Spirit, who dwells within as a source of spiritual life. God lives in us by our decision to consecrate ourselves to following Jesus Christ the Consecrated One. We become indestructible by this alignment with God’s will. Everything can only serve our purpose, which is now aligned with God’s will. This indestructibility is what we witnessed in the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, who dedicated himself to doing the will of the Father. Since no creature can thwart the will of the Father, no creature could prevent the Son of Man from achieving the Father’s will. When we live in conformity with the Father’s will, our lives share in its immortality. Our Lord cleared Nicodemus on this when he said: “What is born of the flesh is flesh; what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised when I say: you must be born from above. The wind blows wherever it pleases; you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” Baptism is a handing over of our lives to God for total control. We must grow in our faith to understand that the Father uses everything in our lives, good and bad, to achieve our salvation in Jesus Christ.

The disciples prayed to God after they heard the threats of the ruling families and elders in Jerusalem to desist from proclaiming faith in the risen Lord. They referred to the psalm where God laughs at the plots and threats of the nations. “Why this arrogance among the nations, these futile plots among the peoples? Kings on earth setting out to war, princes making alliance, against the Lord and against his Anointed.” Emboldened by this scriptural reassurance, they proclaimed the Good News without fear everywhere. The understanding of what total consecration to God’s will achieves in our lives gives us the apostles’ boldness and faith. Saint Marie de Montfort laboured to enrich our understanding with the meaning of true devotion or consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary. He was born to a poor family in 1673 at Montfort-La-Cane in Brittany and was ordained a priest at 27. His deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary led him to write The Secret of the Rosary, teaching how to pray the rosary and the graces to gain therein. His major spiritual treatise is The True Devotion to Mary, where he taught how to consecrate ourselves to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, through the Blessed Virgin Mary. He considered this path a perfect path leading back to the paradise of God, who followed the same to us. The Spirit of true devotion to Mary helps us to make ourselves slaves of Mary to belong to Jesus Christ our Lord in all things and to better achieve the will of the Father in our lives

Let us pray: O God, who willed to direct the steps of the Priest Saint Louis along the way of salvation and of the love of Christ, in the company of the Blessed Virgin, grant us, by his example, that, meditating on the mysteries of your love, we may strive tirelessly for the building up of your Church. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.