Our Love for the Church

Concilium Allocutio November 2012
By Fr. Bede McGregor O.P.
Spiritual Director to the Legion of Mary
Our Love for the Church

“The Legion of Mary presents the true face of the Catholic Church.” These words of Blessed Pope John XXIII gave immense joy and encouragement to our founder Frank Duff. He was deeply in love with the Church and totally dedicated to its interests. He loved the Church especially in the image of her as the mystical Body of Christ. He espoused everything that was authentically Catholic. He wanted the Legion to be immersed in the heart of the Church. The reasons for his love for the Church were simple and profound. He loved and served the Church with his whole being because the Church is a Person: the Risen Christ living and acting in and through the members of His Body, the Church. Our Lord was the central reality and love of his life. And it is Mary that led him to Jesus and a deeper understanding and love of the Church. She is as much the Mother of the Church as she is the Mother of Christ Himself. Indeed, she is the Church at its deepest, its loveliest, and at its most heroic and holy. The Legion following the example of its founder seeks to be rooted in and share in Our Lady’s love of Christ and the Church.

The recent Synod of Bishops on Evangelisation gives us reasons for loving the Church that the Legion would spontaneously recognise and appreciate. The message of the Bishops reads: “The Church is the space offered by Christ in history where we can encounter him, because he entrusted to her his Word, the Baptism that makes us God’s children, his Body and his Blood, the grace of forgiveness of sins above all in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the experience of communion that reflects the very mystery of the Holy Trinity and the strength of the Holy Spirit that generates charity to all.” It would be impossible for us to exaggerate the gift of the Church to mankind and the privilege of being made members of her by Baptism. The Legion must be outstanding in its love for the Church and promote this love among all the people she meets in the course of its apostolate.

Why am I reflecting on these truths of our faith in the month of November? Well in this month we remember some essential dimensions of the Church that can easily slip into the background during the rest of the year. We pilgrim members of the Church do not make up the whole Church. First we have the Communion of Saints. The saints are organically united to us in Christ as members of his Body the Church. In the Book of Revelation we read: “Then I saw the heavens opened ... After that I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. They shouted aloud, ‘Victory to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!’” This is a tremendous truth about the Church - there is a huge number, impossible to count, of members of our Church, interceding for us, pointing the way for us to heaven. Frank Duff had the lovely habit of praying throughout the day to the saints of the day as a practical way of living the reality of the communion of saints. The saints help us to keep an eye on eternity.

The Apocalypse was written for Christians during a time of massive persecutions and it presented the triumphant dimension of the Church as a source of immense encouragement. The demonic is no less visible in our period of history and we need to reflect on the total reality of the Church so as not to give in to any form of discouragement. It would be naivety to underestimate the demonic in our time and place but it would be tragic foolishness to think the Church the Body of the Risen Christ alive amongst us will not be finally victorious. We legionaries especially have stamped on our souls the words of Genesis that give us such great hope: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, between her seed and your seed and She will crush your head.’ Because of what the Lord has done by his death and resurrection and because of Mary all Christians and especially we legionaries are in the business of bringing hope to our world despite all the negativity around us.

The next dimension of the Mystical Body of Christ that is emphasised during November is the truth about the Holy Souls in Purgatory. They are precious members of the Church. It is true that outside of those already in heaven the souls in Purgatory are happier than anyone else. The reason being that they are absolutely certain that the time will come when they will enjoy God for all eternity and the communion of the Church. But in the meanwhile they need the support of our prayer and intercession. It is good for us to seek not only to be helped by the Holy Souls but to also be helpers to them. So the 17th Chapter of the Handbook: ‘The Souls of our Departed Legionaries’ which reflects so well the teaching of the Universal Catechism, should be read and put into practice especially during the month of November.

It is surely a great consolation for legionaries to remember that when they depart this life, millions of legionaries will be praying for them. First on a daily basis in the Concluding Prayer of the Tessera but also every praesidium throughout the Legion world will have a Mass offered for them in the month of November. The devotion of legionaries to the holy souls in Purgatory is based on the conviction that they are our brothers and sisters in the Mystical Body of Christ and that Mary is the Queen and Mother of Purgatory too. We seek to share in her love for them.