Angelus News | March 15, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 10

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ANGELUS March 15, 2019 | Vol.4 • No. 10 3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241 (213) 637-7360 • FAX (213) 637-6360 — Published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles by The Tidings (a corporation), established 1895. Publisher ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ Vice Chancellor for Communications DAVID SCOTT Editor PABLO KAY pkay@angelusnews.com Multimedia Editor TAMARA LONG-GARCIA ttirado@angelusnews.com Production Coordinator OSVALDO CISTERNAS oecisternas@angelusnews.com Features Editor R.W. DELLINGER bdellinger@angelusnews.com Photo Editor VICTOR ALEMÁN valeman@angelusnews.com Managing Editor RICHARD G. BEEMER rbeemer@angelusnews.com Assistant Editor HANNAH SWENSON hswenson@angelusnews.com Circulation CHRIS KRAUSE ckrause@angelusnews.com Sales PATTY BROOKS pabrooks@angelusnews.com MARY CASARES mcasares@angelusnews.com JOE MANZA jmanza@angelusnews.com CHUCK MILAN cmilan@angelusnews.com ANGELUS is published weekly except at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas and semiweekly in July and August by The Tidings (a corporation), established 1895. Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, California. One-year subscriptions (44 issues), $30.00; single copies, $1.00 © 2019 ANGELUS (2473-2699). No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Events and products advertised in ANGELUS do not carry the implicit endorsement of The Tidings Corporation or the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: ANGELUS, PO Box 306, Congers, NY 10920-0306. For Subscription and Delivery information, please call (844) 245-6630 (Mon - Fri, 7 am-4 pm PT). 2 • ANGELUS • March 15, 2019 facebook.com/ AngelusNews POPE WATCH Blessed certainty At a time of mounting anti-Christian persecution around the world, Pope Francis celebrated on March 10 the memory of nine seminarians killed during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s by revolutionary miners who had occupied the city of Oviedo, Spain. Francis noted that Angelo Cuartas Cristóbal and eight other seminarians were beatified (the final step before sainthood) that same day in Orvieto, which entitles them to be referred to as “blessed.” “These young aspirants to the priesthood loved the Lord to the point of following him on the path of the cross,” the pope said. “May their heroic testimony help seminarians, priests, and bishops to remain limpid and generous, in order to faithfully serve the Lord and the people of God.” Francis recognized Cuartas and his companions as martyrs killed in “odium fidei,” meaning “in hatred of the faith,” in November 2018. Cuartas was killed in 1934, the others in 1936-37. A sainthood cause for the seminarians was introduced in 1993. Francis’ remarks came during his regular noontime Angelus address on Sunday, March 3. Since his election to the papacy almost six years ago, Francis has commented frequently on the “new martyrs,” noting that more Christians are killed today for their faith than in the early centuries of the Church. Meeting with members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre info@ angelusnews.com www.angelusnews.com Angelus News FOLLOW US of Jerusalem in November 2018, the pope said that “the tragic situations of Christians who are persecuted and killed in ever-increasing numbers” is plain to see, even if the world “too often turns and looks away.” Christians face not only “martyrdom in blood” in countries where they are persecuted and killed for the faith, he said, but also a “white martyrdom” in democratic countries that try more subtly to stifle religious freedom and expression. Earlier in his Angelus address, Francis reflected on Sunday’s Gospel reading describing the temptations of Jesus in the desert. The pope said they “indicate the three paths that the world always proposes, promising great success, three paths that deceive us”: greed for possessions, human glory, and the “instrumentalization of God.” “These are the paths put in front of us, with the illusion of being able to obtain success and happiness,” Francis said. “But, in reality, they’re extraneous to God’s way of acting; indeed, they separate us from God, because they’re works of Satan,” the pope said. The remedies that Jesus indicates to us to fight these temptations, Francis said, are “interior life, faith in God, and the certainty of his love, that God loves us as a father. “With that certainty we can overcome any trial,” he said. Courtesy John L. Allen Jr., editor of Crux. Papal Prayer Intentions for March: That Christian communities, especially those who are persecuted, feel that they are close to Christ and have their rights respected. @Angelus News www.la-archdiocese.org @Angelus News
NEW WORLD OF FAITH BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ Mercy for the merciful In these columns during Lent, we are trying to return to the Gospels, praying to be transformed into the person we meet in those pages. Through our prayer and reading, we want to reflect on important aspects of our Lord’s human personality and how we can grow in our likeness to him. Last week we looked at Jesus’ humility of heart. This week we reflect on his tender mercies and kindness to those who have fallen. Always, there is a transparency in Jesus, his words and actions revealing the depths of his heart. We remember his gentle affection for the woman, presumably a prostitute, who bathed his feet with her tears of repentance while he was at dinner in the home of a Pharisee. He did not push sinners away or set up litmus tests or preconditions they had to meet. He called to them, often by name. Sinners came to be near him and to hear him. And the righteous were scandalized. Criticized by the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus explained himself in parables. He tells three in a row in chapter 15 of St. Luke’s Gospel. A man goes out after his lost sheep and brings it back on his shoulder. A woman lights a lamp and searches her dark house until she finds a lost coin. A father sees his lost son when he is still far off and runs out to embrace him. When they find what is lost, all three celebrate with a great feast. This is a sign of God’s joy in heaven when sinners repent and return to him, Jesus explains. To be a follower of Jesus, we must imitate his mercy and forgiveness: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” There are no excuses or exceptions to this command. If we do not show mercy, God will not show us mercy. If we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us. These are the terms of our salvation. This principle is so important that Jesus makes it part of the prayer that identifies us as Christians. Every time we pray, we promise to forgive others as we ask God to forgive us. Often today we see a different spirit at work in our society, and even in the Church. We seem to be losing the quality of mercy, along with any inclination to distinguish sinners from their sins. In every corner, we see outrage and condemnation, people holding their adversaries in contempt — as if they could never be worthy of a second chance, as if they could never be redeemed or find pardon. In the face of grave sins, injustices, and crimes, this way of thinking is understandable. But it is not the mind of Christ. Jesus never excused anyone’s sins. The Samaritan woman cannot receive the water that Jesus promises unless she first confesses her sins. Jesus tells the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you, go and do not sin again.” And Jesus never asks us to pretend that the sins of others do not do real damage. When he tells us, “Judge not, that you be not judged,” he is not preaching moral relativism or indifference. He is not telling us we should excuse injustice or tolerate what should never be tolerated. He is telling us that it is not for us to decide who is deserving of mercy. And we cannot justify ourselves by pointing out that those we condemn are worse sinners than we are. The prayer of the Pharisee — “God, I thank thee that I am not like others, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” — is not a prayer at all. The only honest prayer any of us can make is this: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” In being merciful, Jesus is being true to who he is. In calling us to be merciful, he is asking us to be honest about who we are. We are called to be witnesses and apostles, not judges. In showing mercy to others, we bear witness to God’s mercy in our own lives, to the forgiveness he has shown to us. We have been bought with a price. Out of love, Jesus paid in blood for you and for me. And he died on the cross for even the most horrible sinner. He loved all of us while we were still “enemies.” On the cross he was praying for us: “Father, forgive them.” Jesus calls us to forgive as we have been forgiven. Not seven times, but seventy times seven times. In other words, every time. And we cannot be stingy or grudging in our mercy. The measure we give is the measure we will get back. As we continue in this Lenten season, keep praying for me, and I will keep praying for you. And let us ask our Blessed Mother Mary to help us to grow in mercy, that we may become more and more like her Son. To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com. March 15, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3
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Page 11 and 12: IN EXILE BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER
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Page 23 and 24: Save the Date Thursday, May 30, 201
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Page 31 and 32: Angelus contributor Heather King in

Angelus News | March 15, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 10

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