HOM retreat. Notes IV

The following are the last notes I took on the retreat.

Sin is not the breaking of a rule, but the breaking of a heart. The heart we break is The Heart. The Father's heart, the Son's heart, and the Holy Ghost's Charitable heart. Some would think, "Oh well, I've already sinned once. I might as well do it again before I go to confession." NO! We are not just breaking a rule! It is really like, "Oh well, I have already struck Him across the BACK with a cat-of-nine-tails. Might as well strike Him again." It would do us well to to picture the Roman overseer in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. When we mortally sin it is like saying "Satis..." He then makes the sad gesture to flip the Body that has gone through so much. We say Enough, roll Him over and begin again on His FRONT.
Without sincere purpose of amendment we turn over Our Lord and begin again flailing His fresh skin. We do not just break a law again.

Like an adulterous spouse, we are like an adulterous people to our Bridegroom. All our actions are frivolous and dangerous if they are not derived from the Passion.
Agon is a Greek word that means a contest, a struggle, to combat. Christ was a spiritual athlete from the Agony in the Garden. He teaches us how to live, how to win by suffering. Jesus Christ was reduced to a wreck. He was racked with anguish in the Shadow of the Cross. Sts. Peter, James, and John fell asleep on him. THREE TIMES. How many times have we fallen asleep on Him? The translation in the Gospels does not do it justice. He had extreme fear and anguish. The savior was troubled unto death.
"Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me" writes St. Luke.
The Soul begins to conform...
"Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." records St. Matthew
Then, the final time acceptance...
"And he cometh the third time, and saith to them...It is enough: the hour is come...Rise up, let us go." St. Mark tells us.

His aloneness would keep us awake. We should keep Him company in the Garden when so many will not. Christ sweats blood. He must have been a scared wreck. Be there for Him. The phenomenon has been noted to happen with gladiators, while they wait their turn to go into the arena.
God's pack with his people is fulfilled. The vail is no longer necessary, Christ's death breaks the shroud. There are no more secrets. He will trade His heart of flesh for our hearts of stone. We just have to ask for it. (And again be cautious, for if you beg for Jesus's Sacred Heart, you will get it.)
In the Garden, there were two cups some say. There was the cup that Jesus asked for God to let pass. The cup of bitterness. Full to the brim with scourging, crucifixion, the knowledge that his sacrifice would be useless for most souls. But there was also a cup of consolation, that many would lie down our lives with Him. Be a part of that cup. Use the gift of your imagination. Stretch it and implore God to allow you to know what it was like to prostrate in the Garden of Gethsemani. If His disciples were asleep, you will be there awake with Our Lord, suffering with Him. Ask the Holy Ghost to take you to just one point of the Passion. Meditate on that thought in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Ask for a heart of flesh.

Love is not about feeling. Love is about knowledge. Love is about being there for your lover. 95% of sin originates from loneliness, for self consolation is futile. No one knows loneliness better than the Christ. He did not say we wouldn't suffer, but we that we would not be alone.

Let us unite ourselves to Christ on the Cross as Our Lady has, and may the peace of the Lord be with you.

St. Peter, pray for us.
St. James, pray for us.
St. John the beloved, pray for us.