GOD-HONOUR-HOMELAND
Fr. IRENEUSZ SKUBIŚ
God – Honour – Homeland – the motto of the Polish Army, written on the flags of Polish military forces, is a very important call, to which every Pole Catholic should be faithful. Certainly, in the first place there is always God, our Creator and Lord, who is Love, in which ‘we move and we are’(see the Acts 17.28)and to whom we are aiming with our whole life. Especially in the Year of Faith we are opening up to God and want to show Him our faithfulness, love and trustfulness. Mary, we want to follow God’s Son Jesus Christ, who redeemed us and showed us how to live. We want to open up to the Holy Spirit – the Third God’s Person – giving God’s gifts so generously.
Our Lady and our Mother, present in this Jasna Góra Image, we want to be vigilant together with you, so that dark powers would not overwhelm this world. We know that You are ‘Full of Grace’, that God included You, Mary, in His God’s plan of salvation. However, sending his Angel, He gave you a free choice. You were enriched with supernaturalism and gave Jesus your beautiful human nature, bringing God closer to us….
Honour is an excellent feature which allows a Christian man to feel his dignity, coming, first of all, from the mystery of the creation act of God who gave a man his image and his, divine similarity. So, honour which is in a man, is something which does not allow for crossing a border, outside which there is only humiliation, a feeling of suffering. A man of honour knows how much he is immersed in God, how his life is clinging to divine life – here there is a kind of similarity to a physical phenomenon of osmosis. Therefore it is good when we are aware that honour is an important and great thing.
Mother of Jesus and the Queen of Poland, our ancestors of honour were learning respect for themselves and other people from you. And this is so till today. These values deserve a recognition, because they have a feature of morality taken from the revelation, from the Gospel. Human dignity includes the signs of revealing God, who glorifies the man, shows him the peaks to achieve, gives strength.
Today this nation, for which a great holiness is also Homeland, is coming to You, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. The nation, which in its history has many heroes, people who fought for a great world of values, who gave their life in the defence of the virtue of honesty, reliability. But we are sorry to admit that there people among us, who do not have this virtue, who are liars, hypocrites, people without honour, not only towards their spouses, their families, but also towards their nation – because, unfortunately, also such people are trying to take over the authority, and take the posts in the parliament. These are people who do not take care about history, who failed to learn the truth, first of all about themselves, who forgot about their faithfulness towards basic values.
Speaking about our patriotism, we cannot omit also these dark cards and people who are responsible towards their country and towards the most important things. We mourn about the fact that our brothers compatriots do not remember about Homeland Mother, that they do not think about their nation. Let’s take examples from the media environment known to me and which can be multiplied: Polish – non- Polish newspapers, journalism which has nothing in common with a journalist’s mission, hypocrisy, and the Catholics supporting, for example, uninteresting newspapers by buying them, lack of Christian solidarity, etc.
This is the reason for our defeats, that many of us are people without honour which is somehow inherent self-love of every man, but confronting with itself in the mirror of the truth.
So, what is advice for us? It is just the return to this soldier’s motto. So, first God. he stands on the guard of our cultural wealth – art, music, literature, architecture, etc. constitutes everything which is great, good and beautiful for us. He preserves, sanctifies this all.
Second – HONOUR, which marks the boundaries to human weaknesses, makes us determined to inner efforts and - what is important – is a contribution of every man.
And finally – HOMELAND . Land, home, mother and father.
These three key words are key recognisable signs, this is a call and a challenge, these are milestones indicating life and the world of values of every Pole.
Holy Mother, the Queen of Poland, take our sacrifice today, readiness which is expressed in the hymn sung for years: ‘Mary, the Queen of Poland, I am by you, I remember about you and I am vigilant!’. Please, support us in the fight for the good of Poland and Poles. And may Good God enrich our inner awareness, our Polish spirit with Honour of divine origin and let Him help us be God’s children as children of their Homeland. Amen.
(AA)
"Niedziela" 17/2013