10/03/2023

The Bible is filled with characters that have great personal charisma. They are the ones chosen by God. The powers that ruled the pagan Middle East were also filled with leaders of great charisma. The world is still ruled by leaders who have great charisma. Our children throughout much of the World are captivated by the "stars" who have great personal charisma.

Charisma arises out of the self confidence that is displayed to the world and is close to the self-love that is the Pride that precedes a Fall. In the history of mankind there has been one man whose Charisma is the reality of his Being. All the preceding Prophets, Princes and Patriarchs were not fit to buckle his shoe and this was realised in the same way as Joseph's brothers recognised  their brother's Charisma. Jesus' contemporary Priests and Pharisees realised that they were as nothing if this Galilean remined on this earth.

God walked the earth so that the weak, the poor and the pitiful might know that even though we do not display any gifts that might single us out, Father, Son and Holy Spirit knows and loves each one  of us. It is not necessary to be given "a coat with long sleeves", or even "of many colours" to know that we are loved by God. Jesus teaches us that he has chosen "the humble to shame the proud". There has never been anything more poor and pitiful than the corpse abandoned on the Cross.  Blessed are we not in riches or Charisma but in the sincere humility that allows us to accept the unsurpassable gift of life and use it to return God's love. The love shown by the Marys and John at the foot of the Cross is the reason our  Institutional Church can survive all her scandals and failures in her worldly leadership.

Dear Lord may we let our lives be guided by humility. We need to have your self-sacrifice as our guiding light and abandon the self that is captivated by the lures offered by Satan even to the "little ones of  this world" May Mary and all the Saints for whom there is now no time plead for our souls and those of the suffering in Purgatory. Send your Holy Spirit to return the quest for Holiness to the heart of the Church you built on Peter.