St. John Bosco
One
St. John Bosco had a future vision of the battles we would face in the Church today.
He saw an immense sea battle between two opposing armadas. One represented the Church; the other, the forces that seek to destroy faith in God. On the ship representing the Church, he saw a captain who was the Pope. Many smaller ships surrounded that ship and defended it from the opposing fleet trying to destroy the main ship. Bosco then relates what he saw, “As the battle raged two mighty columns of great height arose out of the sea, a short distance one from the other. On the top of one, stood the Immaculate Virgin Mary; on the other, which was much higher and bigger, stood the Eucharist.”
The Pope steered the ship representing the Church between the two columns of Mary and the Eucharist. As long as it remained anchored to those columns it was safe from the forces seeking to destroy her. Then Don Bosco Explains, “The enemy ships are persecutions. The most serious trials for the Church are near at hand. What we have faced thus far is almost nothing in comparison to what will come… Only two means are left to save the Church amidst so much confusion: DEVOTION TO MARY MOST HOLY and FREQUENT COMMUNION, making use of every means and doing our best to practice them and having them practiced everywhere and by everybody.”
As long as we stay united to the Captain of the ship, that is the Pope, and place ourselves between the Eucharist and the Rosary we are safe.
Two
The first means that God has given us in the midst of so much confusion is frequent communion, to receive Jesus often in the Eucharist.
There are many benefits to receiving Jesus in the Eucharist. Holy Communion increases our union with Jesus. Jesus said, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.”
Holy Communion separates us from sin. The Eucharist cannot unite us to Christ without at the same time cleansing us from past sins and preserving us from future sins. Receiving the Eucharist wipes away venial sins and preserves us from future mortal sins.
As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity which tends to be weakened by dealing with difficult and annoying people. But just when the attacks of Satan have grown the boldest, we stopped going to receive the strength of Jesus daily.
Come, come my friends, and find refuge, strength, and healing in the Eucharist, the Sacred Heart of Jesus at daily Mass.
Three
The second means that God has given us in the midst of so much confusion is the power of Our Lady and the Rosary.
When the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both bombing sites experienced miracles associated with the rosary. When Hiroshima was bombed on August 6, 1945, an entire house of Jesuits survived, completely unaffected by the bomb. The Jesuit house was located only eight blocks from where the atomic bomb went off and should have been completely annihilated. A church attached to the Jesuit house and everything else around it for miles was obliterated, but the house with the Jesuits in it survived largely intact. Furthermore, none of the Jesuits suffered any ill effects from radiation or loss of hearing whatsoever. In fact, all eight Jesuits lived healthy lives for years after the event. One of the survivors, Fr. Hubert Schiffer, SJ, gave public testimony more than 200 times about what had miraculously happened to him and his confreres. He testified that he firmly believed that they were spared because they prayed the rosary every day in that house in response to the request of Our Lady at Fatima.
Four
The third means that God has given us in the midst of so much confusion is the Pope.
In the vision of St. John Bosco, the Pope is the captain of the ship which is the Church.
Jesus made Peter his visible representative on earth. That is what it means to be the Vicar of Christ. When Peter and his successor, that is the Pope, teach officially it is Jesus teaching through them and Jesus can never teach something that is wrong, false, or untrue.
This is the gift of infallibility. That when the Pope is teaching officially on matters of faith and morals, meaning what the Word of God teaches about who God is, what He has done, and how He wants us to live, Jesus will not let him teach error.
The Pope can have many opinions about things that go beyond faith and morals. He is not infallible in those areas. And the Pope can say many things over a cup of cappuccino in a restaurant or an interview on a plane. Those statements are not official teaching. The normal way we find the official teachings of the Pope and the Church are the Catechism, encyclicals, and councils.
Why is this important? Because the two weapons Satan is using to deceive the world are confusion and division. Follow the official teachings of the Pope and the Church and you will never be confused or divided from Christ and the Church. Follow news headlines or religious or political analysts and commentators, you will find nothing but confusion.
Reject the Pope and declare yourself or someone else the authority and you will find yourself separated from the Church. You will have thrown yourself off the ship of Christ.
Five
The fourth means that God has given us in the midst of so much confusion is friendship.
Proverbs 18:19 says, “A brother helped by brother is a fortress, friends are like the bars of a keep.”
In times past, a walled city, a fortress, and the keep were the places of refuge during a battle. We are experiencing a spiritual battle in the world today and we need a place of refuge, a fortress, a shelter. That fortress, as Scripture says, is friendship.
One of the most devastating realities today is isolation and loneliness, what I call friendship deficit syndrome. What our world needs is real friendship. In fact, I read an article today that said researchers have pinpointed one type of exercise that makes people live longer – and that exercise is friendship.
There is a very simple method to pursue friendship. Invite the people in your life to come together regularly. By this, I mean once a week. God gave us Sunday, the day of no work for this very reason. So that we would invite family and friends to get together to share a meal or some good activity. Then be genuinely interested in them by asking good questions. And most importantly, delight in them. Commit to this and make it a priority every week. Then over time, when you see the time is right, invite those people to the next right step for them spiritually. Ask them if there is anything you can pray for. Or invite them to pray themselves. Or invite them to learn more about God or go to Mass or pray the Rosary or come on a retreat or a pilgrimage with you. But it all hinges on friendship. Live friendship every week and God will open up avenues you never imagined!