Window to Truth

If these Consagrados are not together in prayer, if they are not pursuing contemplative prayer, the Missions will fail.

Father Pablo Straub, 2006

Father Straub relates,

Saint Alphonsus, after leaving his legal profession at the age of 24 --he had graduated at the age of 16, as a civil and canon lawyer-- he left the practice of law and at the age of 28 was ordained as a priest in the Archdiocese of Naples. From then on, until the age of 34, he gave missions in the streets of the slums of Naples, preaching the great truths of the Faith, preaching all the truths necessary for salvation.

In the year 1730 when he was 34 years old --he had been born in 1696-- his health was entirely broken. He was going to live until he was 91, but at the age of 34 it looked like he was dying.

His doctor said, ‘You have to rest. I have a little house in the mountains, in the port town of Scala.’ (South of Naples on the East Coast of Italy.) The doctor said, ‘Father Alphonsus, you need to rest, or you are going to die.’

So Alphonsus gets on a boat going south of Naples down to Scala. He makes his way up the hillside. He is barely settled in the doctor’s house when the hill people from behind Scala crowd around his house.

‘There’s a priest in the doctor’s house?’ they ask.

Alphonsus greets them. ‘Children, have you said your prayers?’ And he makes the Sign of the Cross. But they don’t know how to make the Sign of the Cross. They don’t know the words to any of the prayers.

Now, they would never fail to baptize a baby. But no Eucharist, no Confession. They don’t know how to say the Hail Mary. These people are really abandoned. They are goat herders. The men would have a goat on their shoulders, paws on either side of them.

Alphonsus told them, ‘Come back tonight and I’ll say a sermon.’ (He was an accomplished preacher.) And that night he said Mass on the balcony of the house. And he began his mission, preaching to the poorest of the poor, the most marginalized, the most abandoned.

When he returned to Naples, the doctor asked: ‘Have you rested?’ Of course, he hadn’t.

But when a man finds his life’s work, it tends to improve his health.

Alphonsus consulted with the best priests he knew. He would not make a move without ecclesiastical approval. On December 9, 1732, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists. Dedicated to the perfect love of God in the hearts of all.

Two thoughts: What do we do in our community life to really love God perfectly? What do we do to evangelize the poor?

Father Straub was asked, Why did you found the new Orders, Los Consagrados del Santisimo Salvador?

He replied,

Existentially, the question is ‘does God want this?’ I had to pray about that. It took two or three years to learn that God wanted it.

Does God want it? It’s not a question of need. Any person with apostolic zeal can see there is a tremendous need. So the question really is not, ‘Why would I do this’ or ‘Why would this sinner embark on such a thing?’ The only thing that would enable it is that God does want a new Order.

The Apostles planted the Gospel and the Church throughout the known world by means of preaching. There is in the world a terrible lack of preaching: preaching of the Gospel without embellishments, without shying away from what is not popular, without fear of ridicule, without fear of irrelevance (because the Savior is never irrelevant), without fear of martyrdom. There is a terrible need of preaching that is beautiful and powerful and true. For lack of such preaching civilization is in the throes of destruction. That is why I founded the Orders. To preach the Saving Truth. All I needed to be sure that God wanted the two new Orders was the approval of the Church that Jesus founded, and I went ahead without looking back.

We are looking for character, personality in the right sense of the word. We’re looking for people who are willing to follow the call to be holy and to evangelize.

Father Straub said,

Salvation means to be saved by God from all deceit and self-deceit. It means to cast off and leave behind all types of counterfeit happiness and accept the one and only Source for true happiness, which is God.

To be saved means to set aside all the evil things that separate a human being from God, and to receive and live in His Saving Grace.

Asked for his thoughts on Pope John Paul II’s 2002 letter on Proclaiming the Gospel on the Internet, Father Straub replied: “I have studied the letter very, very carefully. I had to absorb it into my soul, make it my own. The Holy Father is connecting this intimately to an act of evangelization prompted by the Holy Spirit. He writes that we must act with full conviction of truth. Everything we do on the Internet has to be done with conviction. We have to learn how to speak on the Internet.

I am impressed by this question the Holy Father asks: ‘Will the face of Christ be seen and the voice of Christ be heard?’ The whole letter is very, very good, but I keep coming back to these words. I have been meditating upon them. He is asking us. It is up to us to do it. The Web site has to answer this question: ‘Will the face of Christ be seen and the voice of Christ be heard?’

The voice of Christ. What are the words of Christ? I think of three quotes. ‘Come to Me, all ye who are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest...I am the Truth...Come follow Me.’… For the person who has no practical contact with Christ, hasn’t heard of him --and is afraid to even try-- feeling empty, abandoned as so many millions do....’Come to me all who are heavy burdened...I am the Truth...Come follow Me.’

Our Internet site should be an integral presentation of the glad tidings of our redemption. This is what evangelization is all about...We must attempt, little by little, or in segments, an integral presentation of the whole Gospel...present as much as we can, and give them access to other presentations, a full catechismal presentation. This clearly should be our aim. We should reflect on the subject, the concept of integral presentation. We have to come as close as we can, in detail. We must be ready to answer truthfully questions that will arise. And to enter peaceably any conflict that may arise.

I’m impressed by these words in his letter: the new technology ‘if used with competence’....We cannot take for granted that we are competent. We must be very purposeful, very thoughtful. If we are not thoughtful, we’re not allowed to do anything.

The Holy Father has written that the Internet is most likely to be something initial, stirring an interest, an initial contact. He is speaking of personal witness. It has to be very personal, as human, as direct as possible. We must bring the people to the Table. We should try to help the non-Catholic person to search out a Catholic person to take them to Mass. Everything we do --writing on the Internet, presentations on the Internet-- must be done with a high level of competence. The conclusion must lead to the Holy Table.

The letter states, Can the Internet serve the cause of peace? John Paul II writes, ‘The Church believes it can...’ The Church uses the word ‘believe’ very deliberately...’The Church believes it can’…

Again, he writes, ‘...from this Galaxy of Sight and Sound, will the face of Christ be seen and the voice of Christ be heard?’....he writes that for many people, especially the young, the Internet is their ‘window to the world’....Window to the World...Window to Truth...this is our evangelical mission in cyberspace.