DEVOTION TO JESUS CHRIST

SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO, BISHOP

Phil 2:12-18; Ps 27:1,4,13-14; Lk 14:25-33

Operations and Cooperations of God

We should always remember that our Christian vocation is more spiritual than physical. What defines it is the fact that God, who calls us, is spiritual. We must shift our awareness to the spiritual, to be more spiritual than physical.  As a spiritual vocation, we must develop our spiritual faculties to hear and respond to God’s revelation of his divine will. As we mentioned yesterday, God uses the physical as sacraments of his presence and communication to us. Our training in spiritual life involves deepening our spiritual awareness of God’s presence and discerning his will that he communicates to us through various means each moment. God gave his people the Decalogue when he brought them out from Egypt, where they were enslaved, to keep their attention riveted on his presence among them. The Son of Man revised the Commandments into two precepts of love for the same purpose: to keep our minds and hearts on God always. These two are spiritual faculties by which we dwell in the spiritual realm. Whatever occupies our minds and fills our hearts holds our attention and controls us. So, our Lord says to the crowd and to us: “If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple.” This is another way of telling us to remain in his company daily.

We explained earlier in our reflection that our greatest means of spiritual battle or warfare is remaining in the presence of the Lord. In the presence of the Son of Man, the Eternal Word of God, we receive spiritual life and light. Equipped with these two, the forces of darkness and evil cannot overcome us. The lies of the father of lies, which is his greatest weapon against us, poor and blind children of Adam, cannot pass the shield of light and truth of the word of God about us. Hence, the Lord explained that we cannot engage the forces of darkness and the world without arming ourselves properly with the whole armour of the Saviour. “What king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who advanced against him with twenty thousand?” Numerically and physically, the forces of evil and their regiments seem formidable. But the spiritual man sees through the delusions and illusions of Satan. To know and fall in love with the Son of Man is to see the Father’s will everywhere and in all things. But to be endowed with the mind and vision of the Son of Man, we must ascend to the Saviour’s mountain; we must build a tower of the word of God within us, from where we can penetrate every façade of the devil and his cohorts. The psalmist sings of this tower within. “The Lord is my light and my help; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; before whom shall I shrink?”

God wills to build us up as his strong towers. He commits every heavenly grace and resource to this project of making us sons in his Son. God’s operations in and about us await our cooperation to attain the desired end of our salvation. Saint Paul urges us to cooperate with the grace of God already operative in us. “It is God, for his own loving purpose, who puts both the will and the action into you. Do all that has to be done without complaining or arguing and then you will be innocent and genuine, perfect children of God among a deceitful and underhand brood, and you will shine in the world like bright stars because you are offering it the word of life.” When we live in the presence of the Saviour, we see and understand the Father’s will and cooperate with him for our salvation and the salvation of others.

Saint Charles Borromeo was a man imbued with spiritual insight and understanding that enabled him to aid the Church during the Reformation. He was born in a castle on the shores of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, to a powerful family. As the second son, Charles was destined for a career in the Church. He had a doctorate in civil and canon law. His uncle, Pope Pius IV, made him a cardinal in 1559 and the administrator of the diocese of Milan. He played a key role in the reopening of the Council of Trent in 1562. He was ordained a priest in 1563 and consecrated the Archbishop of Milan. He worked on the catechism, the Missal, and the Breviary. He also reformed his own diocese from Rome through trusted deputies. Charles took up residence in Milan after the Pope and started the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine to teach the Catholic faith to children, which commenced the Sunday School movement. He cared for the poor and the sick with his own resources during famine and plague. He suffered opposition from the lax priests and religious in the Church and from the rich in the world. He remained indomitable because of his spiritual attachment to Jesus Christ. He died on 3 November 1584 at 46. May his prayers aid us to cooperate with God in our lives.

Let us pray: Preserve in the midst of your people, we ask, O Lord, the spirit with which you filled the Bishop Saint Charles Borromeo, that your Church may be constantly renewed and, by conforming herself to the likeness of Christ, may show his face to the world. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.