Sunday - Catholic Magazine

DO NOT CORRECT THE DECALOGUE

LIDIA DUDKIEWICZ

The interpretation of the teaching of the Church is presented by every pope, the Teaching Office of the Church but not by TV journalists, newspapers, doctors, ecologist, biology professors, politicians or monks or priests rejecting the priestly state, trying to drown the betrayed Church in intellectual and emotional complexes – said bishops Kazimierz Ryczan.

Jasna Góra is a special place on the Polish land, which through its spiritual treasury recalls the traces of the presence of God’s Mother on the holy land of Palestine – in Bethlehem, in Nazareth, in Galilee Cana and the Jerusalem Calvary and the Jerusalem Upper Room of the Pentecost.

Here it is the nearest to Mary

On 15-17 February 2013 there were annual retreats of the Lent for Polish Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre. It became obvious that their place is Jasna Góra; because here it is nearest to Mary…And She is the first witness of salvation mysteries of Christ taking place on the Holy Land. ‘We undertake reflection on Your testimony of Mother of our Redeemer, in order to learn from You how to give our testimony in the Christian everyday life, in the realisation of our vocation of the members of the Knights’ Order of God’s Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. And we, similarly as you, our Mother, want to become blessed through faith, first of all, through faith in the empty Grave of victorious, Risen Christ, Your Son’ – these words were said for the first time by the Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre in the Act of Entrustment to Our Lady in the Chapel of Her Miraculous Image. The Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre, in magnificent robes of the Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre , with the Jerusalem cross on coats, joined pilgrims praying in the sanctuary for three days. Father Łukasz Buzun, the sub-prior of the monastery, greeted them on behalf of Jasna Góra and also Father Zachariasz Jabłoński, the Definitor of the Pauline Order said warm-hearted words.

A diagnosis of the contemporary times

The motto of the retreat were the words: ‘The Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre in the ministry to the new evangelisation’. The commander with a star bishop Kazimierz Ryczan from Kielce, giving the retreat teachings to the Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre in the Year of Faith, he shared what he believes. He was guiding the Order spiritually on the roads of the Lent, in order to stop at the empty Grave through the Paschal Triduum, which is a visible sign of Resurrection. He was reaching back to the roots of faith, also considering the context of our contemporary times, in order to help the listeners realise the fact how necessary the new evangelisation is today. Evaluating the moral condition of the society, he noted a big havoc in consciousness which was done by the communist regime, openly fighting against the Church and any sign of religiousness. Its result was the hypocrisy of citizens, there were crypto- Christian attitudes. People of authority and activists of parties secretly contracted marriages in the Church, secretly baptised their children and took them to different places for the first communion. This duplicity reflected negatively on moral human attitudes. It had its consequences also after the failure of communism, because although religion returned into the public life, a kind of superficiality and caution were noticeable. Bishop Ryczan noted that many present politicians are still going on the ‘path of Judas’, although at the time of the fight of ‘Solidarity’ they were standing near the altar, in order to make themselves believable. Although in our times, the rules of democracy and freedom are significant in the society, when they start to be inconvenient to the authority, there are attempts to replace them with ideologies. At present unwillingness and even hatred towards the Church became fashionable. – Will secularism overcome sacrum – asked the retreat priest? – Conspiracy of the man with satan has existed since the beginning of the world. Therefore we must discover the value of faith anew. So, the new evangelisation is facing great challenges.

Fundaments of faith

Bishop Ryczan was touching deep layers of our faith. He was explaining what it means to believe in God Father. Flipping through the pages of the Bible, he was reading out various father’s roles. He noted how spiritually and psychically children are hurt who are deprived of their fathers – for example rejected children, brought up by single mothers or in orphanages. But first of all he pointed out to the great love of God Father, who gave us his Son, in order to redeem us. God Father always looks for the man, especially when it seems that everybody left him. The priest also undertook a reflection on the question: Who do people recognize the Son of man as? He quoted the words of St. Peter: ‘My Lord and my God’ and he quoted the words of John Paul II who on the occasion of the Jubilee Years 2000 proposed ‘Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer of the world, yesterday, today and for ever’ to mankind (see Is.13.8). And it was reminded by Benedict XVI, on 11 October on the opening of the Year of Faith.

Another issue is our becoming sons, that is, a relation of a son towards his father. The priest emphasized that being a son is built on fatherhood, takes life from the base of patrimony. The will of Father was written on stone tables of the Decalogue. - This task turns out to be updated today, when we meet many people in the world correcting the Church and those who manipulate to blur the tables of the Decalogue or change their contents – said bishop Ryczan. – There appear more and more courageous attempts of rejecting the old tables of the Decalogue, given to the man by God and replace them with new norms established by the man, which are contradictory not only with the God’s Decalogue but also with the natural law which may lead to the self-destruction of mankind.

Fighting satan’s temptations

And what is help for the world? – God Father loves us – said bishop Ryczan. – He sent his Son to people in order to redeem the world. Bishop Ryczan emphasized that the interpretation of the teaching of the Church is presented by every pope, the Teaching Office of the Church but not by TV journalists, newspapers, doctors, ecologist, biology professors, politicians or monks or priests rejecting the priestly state, trying to drown the betrayed Church in intellectual and emotional complexes.

He pointed out to the saints who do not correct the Gospel, but live it. He mentioned Father Maximilian Kolbe, realizing love to the neighbour so much, that he was able to go willingly to the starvation bunker camp and devote his life for Franciszek Gajowniczek – father of family. And priest Jerzy Popiełuszko did not correct the Church or did not change the Gospel at the time of martial law, but he said that ‘evil should be overcome with the good’, as it is written in the Holy Scripture. And he was killed by a man…..And he attained the glory of the altars.

These are the examples which should be followed in order to fight satan’s temptation of correcting Jesus and the Decalogue. Whereas changes should always be started in oneself. Retreats give a chance to put everything in order inside and establish everything anew, that is, in such a way that one can feel he is created son by God Father and one can love the Church anew, which was established by Christ and the man could have a guide to the Heaven – said the priest. And the first member of the Church and an example for us in the pilgrimage of faith is Our Lady. Thanks to Her maternal presence and Her help we can walk on the contemporary roads with the program of the new evangelisation, taking advantage of the time of special grace, which we are experiencing in the Year of Faith, proclaimed by Benedict XVI.

Special intentions

The Lent retreats of Polish Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre also became an occasion for a special prayer for the late cardinal Józef Glemp, a great prior of the Polish Supremacy of the Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre. Since the first investiture, in 1996, he was related with the Order and every year he accepted ladies and gentlemen into its ranks, whose number is over 230 people at present. In 2010 cardinal Glemp sanctified the headquarter of the Polish Supremacy in Miechów.

Another Holy Mass of the retreats was celebrated on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of priesthood and the 20^th anniversary of the bishop’s sacra of the priest presiding the retreats – bishop Kazimierz Ryczan. In his sermon prelate priest Ireneusz Skubiś, a cavalier of the Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre noted that this year’s jubilees of the bishop from Kielce could have taken place earlier if it had not been for the directive of the communist regime, which appeared in his young years. For, he had to take up military service – stop studying in a seminary and move to barracks. But it did not discourage him from priesthood. He met a great bishop of Przemyśl, Ignacy Tokarczuk, steadfast towards the regime, who later became archbishop. As an academic priest, a professor at the Catholic University of Lublin, and also a bishop, he followed the example of the prominent hierarch from Przemyśl, whose words and actions could not been stopped even by communist functionaries. Similarly as his teacher, bishop Ryczan is a definite witness of the Divine truth and clearly calls things by name. Priest Skubiś thanked him for his courage to express an opinion in a difficult situation of the Church and the nation, when we are clashing with the creeping atheisation of the world more and more brutally and the forces of the UNO and the EU are getting stronger against God. On the occasion of jubilees of bishop Ryczan, the superior of the Order in Poland – commander with a star Karol B. Szlenker gave him a souvenir sword in the form of a replica of a sword of the Middle Age, signed with the Jerusalem Cross with the engraved motto of the Bishops and the motto of the Order and "Deus lo vult!” (God wanted so!), from the first Crusade; whereas, the sub-prior of Jasna Góra Father Sebastian Matecki gave the Jubilee bishop a gorget with the image of God the Father on behalf of the Pauline Order.

On last day of the retreats in the Chapel of the Miraculous Image of Our Lady, the Holy Mass was celebrated in the intention of Karol B. Szlenkier, on the occasion of his beginning the second presidency as a superior of the Polish Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre and in the intention of the new Council of Supremacy OESSH in Poland.

In the nearest time, the Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre will have to take up many tasks in relation with the jubilee of the 850^th anniversary of establishment of the first foundation of the Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre on Polish lands. The Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre was established in 1099 in Jerusalem, and it was brought to Poland in 1163 by Jaks from Miechów. At present in Miechów there is the main headquarter of the polish Supremacy of the Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre, near the basilica of God’s Sepulchre.

Care about the Holy Land

‘The past and tradition are like a rope thrown to us from the depth of history, so that we would not lose a relation with the earlier generations and would discover the sense of the fate of the community: faithfulness, courage, sacrifice and resurrection. We, the members of the Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre, feel obliged to continue this line of spirituality and activity of our predecessors. Mary, we rely on Your help, so that we could be strong in this commitment and become witnesses of God’s love in the world’- said priest dr. Jerzy Bielecki, the cavalier of the Order and the main organizer of the retreats, during the Appeal prayer at Jasna Góra on 16 February. On this day, the evening prayer of Poles was, like on every Saturday at Jasna Góra, preceded by a solemn singing Akathistos to adoration of God’s Mother, presided by Father Albert Szustak, in connection with the Rosary prayer for peace on the Holy Land.

Today the main task of the Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre is to help the Holy Land. The Order of Knights of God’s Sepulchre from the whole world subsidizes the budget of the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, keep and run schools on the Holy Land, which children can attend, no matter of what their origin or religion is.

Help given to the Christians is supposed to save their presence in places which are the holiest for believers of Christ. For, the strained social-political situation forces the Christians to leave the Holy Land because of the lack of possibility of further life there. A paradoxical situation may appear, that in the Homeland of Jesus there will not be any of his believers.

(AA)

"Niedziela" 9/2013