1. The desert.
St. Thomas of Aquinas, in commenting on the Gospel of St. Luke, wrote that the desert was the symbol of ‘the Catholic Church.’ Referring to the words; ‘the word of the Lord was spoken to John son of Zechariah ‘in the desert.’ God talks directly to souls that are in the ‘mystical’ desert, the Church.
John was preaching in the desert. And people who wanted to learn from John went to him in the desert. The classroom seems to be the desert, the Church.
The Jewish people when they were slaves in Egypt was brought by God to the desert. Prophets were usually living in the desert. Christ, Himself, frequented the desert and His 30 years of hidden life was described as a desert experience.
In the New Testament, while Christ was living His hidden life, John was living in the desert and preached in the desert. Both the ‘hidden life’ of Christ at home and Johns life in the desert were considered as ‘living in the desert.’
The first Christian communities of the New Testament were found either in the desert, the forests, in an island or on top of a mountain. In any way, they were isolated as if in a desert. And the word ‘mystical desert’ have been used to describe that experience. The Church was ‘the desert.’
2. What is the ‘Mystical desert?’
It is a place where the baptism of repentance is accomplished in preparation for the forgiveness of sin; the forgiveness occurs upon receiving the supernatural virtue of Faith that makes a soul a Catholic. The baptism of repentance preached by St. John did not forgive sins. It led to the forgiveness of sins; which is accomplished by the virtue of Faith. So it is Faith that forgives sins, of which repentance is the preparation.
In the New Testament, both the baptism of repentance and the Faith which forgives sins are accomplished within the Catholic Church or within ‘the desert.’ Repentance is the preparation while Faith is the entrance into the Church. Both repentance and Faith continue towards their perfection within the desert or within the Catholic Church. The life of repentance and the life of Faith continues towards the perfection of Charity.
3. The ‘Mystical desert’ is the monastic life.
In Patristic spirituality, the life of repentance leading to the life of Faith is often referred to as the beginning of the monastic life. And this life leads towards the perfection of Charity in the eremitical life. In fact, this is how things were in the early Christian times. Candidates to the Catholic religion entered a monastic community for their catechumenate where they proceed towards the life of Faith until they reach Charity. Monasticism was not invented by monks. It is none other than the process of baptism of repentance that leads to the forgiveness of sin and initiation into the Catholic Church.
In short, monasticism is the process by which persons enter the Catholic Church.
Sadly, this is not what is happening today. Souls do not enter the Catholic Church through the monastic experience, which is the proper doorway that leads to the sheepfold. They enter through other doors which are not the proper doors.
And monasteries are no longer doorways that lead to the sheepfold but doorways that lead to the wide road that leads somewhere else. Instead of being a desert apart from the world by which repentance and the virtue of Faith is attained, monasteries had become worldly traps where vices accumulate.
4. The desert, like monasteries, were places where souls make ready the way for the Lord.
Within the desert or monasteries crooked ways are straighten, valleys are filled, hills are leveled. In short, it is in monasteries that virtues are developed and vices are removed. This work is easier accomplished in the perfect ambiance of the monastery; it is impossible in the world. It is possible, only, within the Catholic Church. It is impossible outside the Church.
In previous posts we have seen the importance of knowing whether we are inside or outside the Church. And we shall, still, continue to dwell in this important topic since the Advent season is showing us the importance of being in the desert like John the Baptist.
5. All men ‘in the desert’ shall see the salvation of God,’ the Gospel ends. So, it is easier to see the salvation of God within a good monastery than any where else. Today it is still difficult to accomplish this in monasteries because this knowledge of monastic spirituality is no longer available in most monasteries. . St. Augustine had taught it well. St. Benedict taught it well. But though the Rule of St. Benedict was considered for beginners, many monasteries have found it too difficult to put into practice.
6. St. Bonaventure’s ‘new monasticism.’
St. Bonaventure wrote about the ‘new monasticism.’ For him ‘new monasticism’ is the way to prepare for the second coming of Christ. It is the the same monasticism introduced by St. John the Baptist and St. Benedict. It is living in the desert wherewith the Word of God can come to the soul. These words in the Gospel wherein ‘the Word was spoken to John’ is the ‘new evangelization’ in preparation for the second coming of Christ. This is pre-figured during Advent.
7. The two comings of Christ. Learning from preachers and learning directly from God.
The classical evangelization as taught in the Gospel of St. Matthew and as connected with the first coming of Christ, we see men preaching to men. So we see prophets teaching the Chosen people in the Old Testament. When Christ came the first time during Christmas Day, He chose 12 apostles so men can continue to preach to men.
The ‘new evangelization’ pre-figured by St. John is when God directly teaches men who are staying in the desert. Unlike the ‘classical’ where men teach men; the ‘new’ is when God teaches men. In the ‘new’ evangelization’ of John Paul II and Benedict XVI the Word of God is spoken by God to souls in the desert as it occurred to John. Pope Benedict had rightly called it contemplation.
8, The ‘new evangelization’ of John Paul II and Benedict XVI is this.
today, like St. John the Baptist, souls will be led by the Holy Spirit (through actual grace) to go to the ‘mystical’ desert (like the privacy of one’s private room). There God, Himself, will come to this soul through the Word. The Word will teach the soul in the desert the baptism of repentance. And as the soul puts into practice the life of repentance, the Word will bestow on him the gift of Faith that will forgive all their past sins.
Upon learning all the commands of Christ through the Word, he will begin to go around the region of his own Jordan to preach what he had learned from the Word. So people would be going to him as people went to John in the desert. It is by teaching the baptism of repentance in the desert to people who are going to the desert that the soul grows in the virtue of Charity thus becoming a perfect Catholic.
In effect, the soul goes to the desert; upon attaining the baptism of repentance that leads to the forgiveness of sins, he will occasionally leave the desert to go to the world of unbelievers to invite them to go to the desert to listen to preachers with the spirit of John the Baptist. These unbelievers upon listening from the ‘new’ Johns will in turn live in the desert to put into the practice the baptism of repentance. This will make them worthy to receive the gift of Faith that will forgive all their past sins. And the process of the ‘new’ evangeliation continues.
9. This is the Advent spirit in the ‘new evangelization’ of John Paul II and Benedict XVI which nobody seems to know. The Bishop’s Synod of 2012 was supposed to discuss this so the bishops can master it, but instead they omitted the topic to the surprise of Pope Benedict.
10. Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Therese of Lisieux.
Both our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Therese are the patroness and co-patroness of the ‘new’ evangelization. They are, also, the symbols of the Church now in the desert. Both did what St. John the Baptist did.
St. Therese was a Carmelite nun who entered the monastic life (the desert) where she learned so much, not from human teachers but directly from the Word. Thus she became a contemplative after she had entered the monastic desert experience. Then, she never physically left the desert or monastery. From inside she preached to those outside in the world and invited them to, likewise, leave the world and enter the desert to learn the baptism of repentance of St. John that is a preparation for the forgiveness of past sins. St. Therese was an excellent example of the ‘new evangelization’ in that she was a contemplative who preached to the world without having to leave the monastic life.
Our Lady of Guadalupe better represents the idea of the Catholic Church in the desert. This is described in the Apocalypse with the the Great Sign in the Sky, a Woman clothed with the Sun. Note that she was once in the world. And then, God gives her two giant wings. With these she leaves the world and flies to the desert in a place specially prepared by God for her and her children.
Take note of the Gospel about the vineyard where God dissatisfied with the unfaithful tenants take away the vineyard from them and gave it to others who would better take care of it. The Church is taken away from unfaithful tenants ( priests, bishops, cardinals) and will given to others. To whom?
To the contemplatives of the ‘new’ evangelization.
Our Lady of Guadalupe (the Great Sign of the Apocalypse) and St. Therese are personifications of the Catholic Church, who like John the Baptist in the Advent Gospels, left the world and went to the desert (the contemplative life through the ‘new’ monasticism of Bonaventure) where the Word of God came directly to them giving them perfect knowledge on how to receive the baptism of repentance leading to receiving Faith, the consequence of which is the forgiveness of all their past sins without the possibility of committing those sins again.
11. The last battle begins.
With the devil controlling the world and the Catholic Church in the desert with the Woman, the last battle begins. The devil is trying to drown the woman in the desert by flooding it with worldliness. But God opens the desert floor to swallow the waters of worldliness.
By this time the lines had been drawn; the left and the right. The angels are in between sorting out each soul. The time of polarization is going on right now. The angels are approaching each souls binding them up according as whether they are cockles or wheat. All signs are showing that it is separating time. Where are the angels putting each one of us? The latin work of St. Robert Bellarmine has just been timely translated into English. It is entitled the 15 notes of the True Church. It is an enhanced explanation of the four visible signs of the true Church enumerated in the Nicene Creed, expanded into 15 signs. They are the signs that we are inside the Catholic Church; the signs that we are in the desert with John the Baptist, with St. Therese and Our Lady of Guadalupe (the personification of the Woman of the Apocalypse). Using the 15 Marks of St. Robert Bellarmine, we must all find out where we stand; inside or outside the Catholic Church. Because on this will depend our salvation or damnation.