Voce mea ad Dominum

For further reading...

2007-09-15T02:49:00.000-05:00

I have more to talk about, but you have to go here.

Of his own accord

2007-06-25T23:24:00.000-05:00

There has been a lot of talk over the last several months about an impending Motu Proprio from Pope Benedict XVI which would relax the restriction placed on the Mass as it was said prior to the Second Vatican Council (i.e. according to the 1962 Missale Romanum). This Mass is the Mass promulgated by Pope Pius V in 1570 (called the Tridentine Mass these days because it was promulgated after the Council of Trent) and used in the Roman Church until 1962. The current Mass of Pope Paul VI became the norm in 1970.

I would never have thought I would have had an interest in this matter, but about a year and a half ago, I attended a Tridentine Mass at St. Patrick's Church in New Orleans. To my surprise, I was profoundly affected by it. The quiet reverence, the chanting voices of the choir, the clouds of incense filling the Church with the aroma of jasmine, the unbelievable focus of the ministers at the altar and the congregation; the whole experience was overwhelmingly beautiful. I have never seen attending Mass in the same light since. I am also keenly aware of abuses which occur in the Mass of Pope Paul VI.

Case in point: at our parish, the beginning of Mass is not heralded by the ringing of a bell to which the choir begins chanting the Introit as the priest and servers process in. It is heralded by a "commentator" saying, "Welcome to Our Lady of the Lake. Today is the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Our Celebrant is ______ and our Deacon is ________. If you wish to follow the readings they can be found on page _____. " Why do I have issue with this? Because it is unnecessary. If you are sitting in the pew and hear this, it is unlikely that you will suddenly come to the realization that, "What?! I thought this was First Baptist!" If you must know what Sunday it is in the liturgical calendar, look in the bulletin.

I suppose I have most issue with the next two statements. First, we have come to encounter Christ, not Fr. _____ and Deacon _______. When the name of the priest and deacon are announced, Christ becomes secondary to Fr. ______ and Deacon ________. As far as announcing where you must turn to follow the readings, this is not the way our faith has been handed on. The readings are proclaimed from the ambo. They are meant to be received by your ear because the spoken word is alive. The written word is merely a symbolic representation of the spoken word on paper. It is the human voice which brings it to life. When we read along as it is being proclaimed, our brains are doing two things at one time, so we cannot be fully focused on the word being proclaimed. We are distracted.

The commentator shows up again after the general intercessions to announce who is bringing up the gifts. Why? The gifts are not the property of the people who are bringing them. The gifts belong to the entire congregation present, and those bearing the gifts to the priest are representing everyone present not just themselves. It is not necessary to stop the flow of the liturgy to bring recognition to them. Then our parish puts the announcements (by the commentator) in the most odd place, after holy communion but before the post-communion prayer. This should be a time of silent reflection and thanksgiving for the great gift of the Eucharist. Instead, we are hearing about the parish blood drive and CCD registration.

I am a cantor at my parish, and occasionally I am asked by the music director to sing from the cantor stand which is at the front of the church. This has become immensely uncomfortable for me because I have come to realize that I distract from the liturgy. I understand the desire is to encourage people to sing, but in reality people sing what they are familiar with, and if they are not familiar with it, they don't, and no matter how much waving of my arms like an orangutan I do, all this does is provide one more distraction for the congregation (not to mention I look like a goof-ball waving my arms about).

So, I have come to realize that what I truly love about the Tridentine Mass is not the Latin language. It is simply Jesus Christ. The incense, the chanting of the choir, the posture of the priests and altar servers, and the long periods of sacred silence all serve to focus attention on the Lord Jesus truly present in the liturgy. Sometimes I find in the Mass as it is celebrated in my parish that people are so busy doing their own thing that His presence is merely an afterthought, and I really struggle with that.

Father will often reiterate in his homily that Christ is truly present on our altar under the appearance of bread and wine. "The actual body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ our God is right there on the altar!" he will exclaim. I can't help but think that while these words are good and obviously true, their effect is dulled by unnecessary distractions. Christ should be our focus from the moment we enter the church, and everything that happens in the liturgy should serve to magnify Him truly present among us.

"Shall I commend you in this?"

2007-06-14T22:34:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I really struggle at work to maintain charity when it comes to matters of faith. The latest thing to cause me to have to bite my tongue involved one of my nurses discussing taking communion at her (evangelical) church. She said, "Sometimes if I am really hungry, I will take a bigger piece of bread from the loaf." What?! Then she went on to tell me that there were a couple of options for communion in their church. Those who wanted to take communion could take either grape juice or wine or flat bread or a regular French loaf. "It's whatever you feel you need to do." What?!

Ugh.

Has it really gotten this bad? Has receiving communion become (in this evangelical protestant church) akin to lunching at the Piccadilly? (I'll take the large fish with hushpuppies and tartar since I am really hungry.) And why must everything be about what pleases you? What about pleasing the Lord? Can people not sacrifice themselves even in something so simple as partaking of the Lord's Supper?

"When you meet together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not." - 1 Corinthians 11:20-22

The Way of Redemption

2007-06-01T22:56:00.000-05:00

Dr. Jack Kevorkian got out of prison today. I noticed this news was followed by the usual "death with dignity" posts on one of the message boards I frequent. The argument goes something like this: we should be in control of our destiny so that if we are put into a situation whereby we are suffering greatly we should have the right to end our suffering by suicide if necessary because death by suicide is more dignified than suffering.

I don't buy it. Here's why. I am a Christian, and as a Christian I must believe in the redemptive power of suffering. Suffering is a result of the sin of our first parents. When they turned away from God in disobedience, Adam and Eve learned the hard way that life without communion with God is hard and painful. They suffered sickness and death. But God chose to take suffering and use it to our benefit by making it redemptive.

As I was praying before the Blessed Sacrament last night I contemplated how God worked suffering into the plan of salvation. I happened to glance at the picture on the front of a book which I brought with me to the chapel, and on it was an image of Christ after the Resurrection showing St. Thomas the gash in his side. I also noticed that the holes in his hands and feet were clearly visible. In his resurrected glorified body, Christ still retains the marks of his suffering, but through those marks and that suffering Christ has revealed the way to redemption, and that way is to embrace our suffering, unite it with his suffering on the cross, and offer it to God the Father. Christ's wounds left by the instruments of his suffering are now his glory, and through our suffering (since we are the body of Christ) we are glorified with Christ. This sacrificing of the self is an image of love, the love of the Blessed Trinity.

Suicide, on the other hand, rejects suffering as evil and unnecessary. With suicide, the sin of our first parents is revisited because God's plan of salvation is rejected for the plan of a human being, i.e. man knows better than God. It is the utmost example of selfishness and the complete antithesis of love. It is evil and mocks the dignity of man. It is never justifiable.

St. Paul tells us to persevere in faith, to run the race so that we may be worthy to win the prize, our heavenly inheritance. But in order to gain our inheritance, we must "suffer with Christ so that we may also be glorified with him." May we reject the wisdom of the world which rejects God's eternal plan of salvation. May we embrace the wisdom of God revealed through his Son.

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. - Romans 8:18

St. Justin Martyr, pray for us.

The Divine Wind

2007-05-27T13:43:00.001-05:00

And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. - Acts 2:2-4

The day of Pentecost points my mind to a couple of Old Testament subjects, the divine wind of Genesis 1:1 and the tower of Babel of Genesis 11.

The spirit of the Lord, the "mighty wind" which hovered over the waters is the same wind that rushed into the upper room where the disciples and Our Lady were gathered. As the divine wind brought order to the chaos of the primordial universe heralding the new creation, so the mighty wind at Pentecost brought power and courage to the apostles which heralded the creation of the Church, the new Jerusalem and the renewal of a fallen creation through the promise of Christ.

The disciples were filled with the spirit which enabled them to speak in languages unknown to them creating an image of the church as Catholic, one which embraces all time, languages, peoples, and cultures. That image of the Church is fulfilled today since the body of Christ, the universal Church united in faith proclaims the same faith in numerous languages.

Pentecost was a restoration of the world order prior to the tower of Babel where all peoples spoke one language. The problem back then was that in our fallen state, we took advantage of that single language in order to build a name for ourselves (signified as the tower of Babel). In other words, man in his pride was attempting a power grab from God. In response, God confounded them in their pride by creating a multitude of languages. Humanity became a divided race.

At Pentecost, God rectified the situation by sending his spirit to the Church who united all peoples in one faith despite the multiplicity of languages. Ironically the power that humanity had attempted to grab as described in the book of Genesis was freely given to them at Pentecost. The difference? In the second case, the power from on high was a gift from God the Father through his Son, Jesus Christ.

He ascended into heaven

2007-05-20T20:17:00.000-05:00

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." - Acts 1:10-11

When I hear this passage from the Acts of the Apostles proclaimed, I always wonder if the disciples were startled at the sight of two men dressed in white conversing with them. I suppose at this point nothing would startle them after all they have been witnesses to the resurrected Christ, perhaps the most startling yet joyous thing imaginable.

I also used to think that this passage was basically angels saying, "Hey! Chop chop! Get to work!" Now I have expanded on that. It is normal for us to get caught up in the heavenly realm because that is our ultimate home, but the reality is that we must be firmly grounded in carrying out the Lord's work in our world as is his command.

It is because we know that humanity has been raised up and now sits at the right hand of God the Father in Christ Jesus that we can joyfully work in his vineyard.

Bridget

2007-05-16T23:26:00.000-05:00

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth! Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted by the mouth of babes and infants, thou hast founded a bulwark because of thy foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. - Psalms 8:1-2

Today I had the privilege of visiting with a precocious two year old who loves books, speaks very clearly, and most interestingly prays five to six times a day! FIVE TO SIX TIMES A DAY! I was floored! Her mother even informed me that at times she will wake in the middle of the night and then come into their room and pray with them. What innocence and trust! What grace!

I told her parents, "Now I am in trouble. I will be contemplating this all day!" And here I am blogging. You just never know when or in what manner the Lord will visit you, do you?

"Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." - Mark 10:14b-15

Anger to agape

2007-05-14T22:46:00.000-05:00

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

God allows you to make a fool of yourself to teach you a lesson. I became acutely aware of this today, and I won't go into great detail, but suffice it to say that I lost my temper and hurt a very good friend of mine. In my anger over a completely minuscule thing, I turned inward and in a selfish tirade lashed out at a person who was only looking for my help. He wasn't trying to inconvenience me or take advantage of our friendship. He was only looking for help. God offered me the perfect opportunity to be selfless, and I failed.

I am ashamed.

As I prayed tonight before my icons, I contemplated the words of St. Paul. Had I put charity or agape first none of this would have happened. I realize that putting charity first is not going to always be the easiest thing in the world, and so once again I come to the reality that only by being open to God's grace will I be able to even attempt to be charitable. But I have no other choice. I have to be charitable for Christ requires it, and I have to rely on grace.

I discussed my issues of anger with my wife, Kriesha, and asked for her advice. I took Kriesha's advice tonight and prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet and prayed for the grace to overcome selfish anger.

St. Paul, pray for me. St. Faustina, pray for me.

Whistle, I am sorry.

The Soft Gospel

2007-05-06T23:30:00.000-05:00

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings,
and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. - 2 Timothy 4:3-4

I was reading the combox of another blog today, and this verse from St. Paul's letter to St. Timothy was quoted by a person who has left the Catholic Church as one of the reasons he left. I was quite puzzled as to how this could possibly be the case. So I thought for a few minutes about the practices of the Catholic Church that people who leave find most distressing, and there are many, but I think it would suffice to just discuss three: 1) Confession of sins to a priest 2) prohibition of the use artificial contraception and 3) the Papacy.

1) Confession of sins to a priest. Now, I don't know many people who have "itching ears" to hear, "Ok, if you sin grievously against the Lord, you must (i.e. you have to do it) go to your priest and relate this in detail so that you may receive absolution." By relate in detail they mean you must tell the priest exactly what you did, and how many times you did it. That's the rule. What do non-Catholic Christians say? "I will only confess my sins to God!" Usually this means something like, "Lord, I have sinned against you. I am sorry. Please forgive me. Amen." Given the choice, I would probably choose the general confession to the Almighty Himself over the detailed account of my ugliest sins to a fellow human being even though he has been ordained with authority from Christ and will never repeat to another person those sins.

2) Prohibition of the use of artificial contraception. Yes, I want to be told that I cannot use artificial means to regulate the number of children my wife and I conceive. That suits my liking just fine what with the lack of sleep plus the added expenses. Forget ever spending quality alone time with my wife! Who needs that?! Potty training alone is the joy that makes me want to follow a church which creates just such a doctrine. The Catholic Church remains the only church who forbids the use of artificial contraception in any form. Do many Catholics not adhere to this teaching? Yes. But who is wrong, those individuals or the Church? Does the lack of adherence implicate the teaching as invalid, or does the teaching merely convict one of sin which sends the Catholic back to the confessional (which I have already discussed)?

3) The Papacy. The visible sign of unity in the Catholic Church is the Bishop of Rome. He has the role of upholding his brethren in the faith. Part of that role is guarding the faith from misinterpretation by individuals. Ironically, what non-Catholic Christians do when they disagree with the teachings promulgated by the Pope is simply make themselves their own Pope charged with promulgating the truth "as they see it." Naturally what I would want to do is follow a church which teaches that there is an infallible authority to whom I must fully assent even if I do not like what he is saying, like not using artificial contraception.

The hard truth of the matter is that there is nothing exceptionally easy about following Christ. There are several episodes mentioned in the gospels which support this statement (the entire sixth chapter of St. John's gospel just to name one). What I find honestly to be the case is not that the Catholic Church creates doctrines to suit the needs of people, but rather people who leave the Catholic Church reject her sound doctrines for those which are easier to follow. They reject the tough gospel proclaimed by the Catholic Church for a soft gospel.

How St. John Saved Me

2007-04-22T22:45:00.000-05:00

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” - John 21:15

I can still remember the question, "Are y'all Catholic?" I had no idea what a Catholic was. We had recently moved to a small town in central Louisiana from a small town in east central Alabama. Needless to say there were few Catholics in that part of Alabama, but Louisiana was a different situation altogether. About three-quarters of the town I lived in was Catholic, so the question asked by a new neighbor of mine was a legitimate one. I simply said, "I don't think so." And that was that.

Until Lent rolled around. Same neighbor in the cafeteria line wanted fish, and the server in the line asked him, "Are you Catholic?" I thought, "Does that matter?" Evidently it did because when I was asked and said no, I was given a hamburger with no option for fish.

When I experienced my first Mass, I noticed a couple of similarities. First, the creed was familiar, although in the small United Methodist Church we attended, the Nicene Creed was only rarely recited. More often Apostle's Creed was recited, sans "he descended into hell" of course. And the Lord's Prayer was familiar except they didn't do the closing doxology the way we did it. Otherwise, I noticed there was a lot of movement: genuflection, making the sign of the cross, crossing the forehead, lips and chest at the gospel, and stand, sit and kneel. These Catholics really put their entire selves into worship!

But I was drawn to the Catholic liturgy. It was beautiful and solemn compared to the services of the United Methodist Church. The sermon was not the center of worship. It was more prayerful and less boring. Yet, my friends who were Catholic lamented going to Mass every Sunday and complained how boring it was. I was always shocked by this because nothing was as boring as four walls and a sermon.

Fast forward to college. I began attending a small Episcopal Church on my college campus. They had all the liturgical benefits without the "Romish" doctrines of Mary, Purgatory, etc. But there was still something that gnawed at me. Was it enough to worship like Catholics while still not being a Catholic. Oh, the Anglicans will say that they are Anglo-Catholic, but I knew deep down that this was like those people who wear the "Kiss me I'm Irish" pins on St. Patrick's Day but were really of French or German descent. So I prayed for God to lead me to truth.

And then one day as I was reading the bible, I turned to John 21 and came across the above passage. By God's grace I was able to see clearly St. Peter's place in the grand scheme of things, and to boot it was St. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, who was affirming St. Peter's role as leader of the disciples. It was obvious to me that St. John could not have meant stuff related to fishing when he quotes Jesus as asking, "Do you love me more than these?" The these had to ultimately mean "these other disciples" because Jesus then responds to St. Peter's affirmative reply, "Feed my lambs." The Catholics were right! Jesus had indeed left St. Peter in charge of the Church on earth. With this realization alone everything else fell into place, and I fully believed that the Catholic Church was indeed the Church founded by Christ on St. Peter the Apostle and to remain outside of the Church was tantamount to not being honest with myself.

And so, while I recognize God's grace leading me to the Catholic faith from a fairly early age, I credit St. John for pushing me into the Tiber River as I gazed at St. Peter's from the opposite shore. I like the view from inside much better.

It's in the details

2007-04-09T22:34:00.000-05:00

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. - St. John 20:6-9

There are those who question the gospel accounts of the Resurrection. How on earth would a man who was executed outside the city wall as a common criminal be allocated a burial place? Some say that his body would have been left on the cross. Others say that he was buried in a shallow grave unmarked and unknown by all. The problem with most of these accounts is that they are merely speculative and use as evidence that this is simply how the bodies of criminals executed in first century Palestine were treated.

Here is the problem with this circumstantial evidence: the gospels say otherwise. Jesus was not unknown to the people of Jerusalem, and even gospels say that Jesus had followers amongst the Jewish authorities. Two that are mentioned are Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, and it is documented in all four canonical gospels (written at different times and for different communities) that Joseph of Arimathea asked Pontius Pilate for the body of Jesus. The gospels go on to say that Joseph laid the body in his own new tomb.

But aside from that I find the detail with which St. John describes the tomb striking. He describes Peter going into the tomb first, and then himself entering the tomb. He sees the burial cloths separated from the napkin which covered the head of the Lord. The napkin is described as rolled up and in a place by itself. How people can brush this off as mere fantasy is mind-boggling.

Yet, what I find most saddening is that those who go to great lengths to speculate what happened to the body of Jesus discount these written accounts altogether as unreliable mainly because they were written by men of faith for the Church.

They seem to forget that this Jesus who was executed as a common criminal is also the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Son of God. And they seem to forget that he is risen from the dead. Alleluia.

Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus, alleluia: itaque epulemur in azymis sinceritatis et veritatis, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Where I am going you cannot come.

2007-04-06T12:44:00.000-05:00

Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, `Where I am going you cannot come.' - John 13:33

One of the things I have found most comforting as a Catholic is that even when a church building is empty of people, it is alive because of the Eucharistic presence of Christ in the tabernacle. When this is most comforting are those times when you need to actually be in the presence of the Lord. I don't mean this in a "spiritual" sense; of course we can be in the presence of Christ's spirit anywhere, but because we are incarnate beings we have the need to experience the Lord in a concrete and incarnate manner. There are times where I quite literally need to be with Christ.

For those of us with faith, we experience the risen Lord in the consecrated bread and wine which has been transformed into his body and blood. This is a substantial and real presence where we experience the risen Lord. Many churches in our archdiocese (including my own) have chapels of perpetual adoration (a place where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, usually in a monstrance) where you will find someone present in prayer 24 hours a day throughout the year, so I spend at least one hour a week in prayer before Christ present in the most holy Eucharist.

However, there have been times of special need when I have just popped into the chapel to pray outside of my scheduled holy hour. One such time was yesterday at about 2:00 pm. I had some time, so I figured I would use it to do my assigned penance from confession earlier in the day. My penance was to pray the rosary for our pastor, Fr. John Talamo. Easy enough. Since it was Lent, I chose to meditate on the sorrowful mysteries. As I contemplated the final mystery, the crucifixion, I thought how the disciples and Our Lady must have felt so abandoned and alone after Christ's death. Their friend and teacher was suddenly taken from them in a most violent manner. They must have been so afraid and wondered, "What are we going to do now? He's gone."

Then I realized something. In an hour, the chapel was going to be closed for the Triduum celebration. We would celebrate the Mass of Maundy Thursday soon, and afterwards the Blessed Sacrament would be removed from the Church, reposed on a special altar until midnight, and then completely unavailable for adoration for 3 days. The only experience we would have would be Holy Communion on Good Friday, but immediately afterward, he would be taken away once again. In a very small manner, I experienced a sense of sadness knowing that for a time Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament will not be there. For a time, all of the Church will feel a longing for the Lord's sacramental presence, but he will be gone.

For this period of loneliness, I am truly thankful to God, for it made me realize the grace bestowed on me by Him through the gift of the Eucharist which is truly the gift of his son at Calvary.

Hosanna filio David!

2007-04-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass. - Zechariah 9:9

If there is a common theme in the life of Christ it is humility, and he best expressed that humility through obedience to his Father's will. Born in a cave and laid in a manger. Submitting to baptism by St. John the Baptist. Triumphantly riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Washing the feet of his disciples at the last supper. Enduring agony in Gethsemene, scourging, crowning with thorns, and crucifixion. The scandal of it all is quite a stumbling block, even to this day.

Such is the mystery of God's love, that the greatest power of the universe humbly submits to the judgment of his creatures. Reviled, spat upon, mocked, and utterly rejected, he is lifted up on the cross and draws all mankind to himself. Through his humble death we all have abundant life.

Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.
Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, et dedit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen.

It's not about me

2007-03-20T23:26:00.000-05:00

We had an interesting discussion at lunch today. One of my nurses, who is a Catholic, happened to mention that she and her family had been attending services at a local evangelical Protestant church (in addition to their weekly obligation to attend Mass, of course). I asked what she thought about it, and she said, "It's too Hollywood for me, but my kids like it."

So the discussion of course went around the table as to what drew people to worship at their respective churches, and invariably the answer was the same, that people wanted, actually expected to be satisfied and "fed" while they were at church. They want to be moved by the music and uplifted by the preacher. All of this is fine I suppose, but at its core, it would appear that those talking at lunch today have expectations which are fairly self-centered when they go to Church to worship the Ancient of Days, i.e. what is God going to do for me today?

Of course, the subject came up of how boring Mass is, and how it is almost unbearable for people to sit through Mass, especially if the priest is boring. "How many times can one person look at their watch," one person wondered? Another complained that she was offended that the Catholic Church had guidelines for the worthy reception of Holy Communion which were printed right there in the front of the misalette for everyone to see. "How dare they exclude people?" she exclaimed. Part of me was irritated by this, but another part of me found it pitiable.

I realized that I don't need flashy music or light shows or fiery preaching or any other entertainment when I go to church. Church does not have to be therapeutic for me. I don't go to Church with the expectation that I will be raised to the heights by the choir or the sermon. I don't feel that the Church owes me anything, and I don't think that receiving the Eucharist is my right as a Catholic, and if I am not worthy, I exclude myself from receiving the sacrament. Who am I to make demands of God?

I can honestly say that I never get bored at Church, and it is because I go to Church for the simple reason that the living God is present in the tabernacle, and he is worthy of adoration simply because he is. No expectation on my part whatsoever. That is enough for me, and if I am moved by the sermon or music, that's good. But if not, I walk away fulfilled with the knowledge that I have had an intimate encounter with the Lord Jesus. What can top that?

Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created. - Revelation 4:11

Cantate Domino

2007-03-19T23:43:00.000-05:00

So this weekend I finally got to do some Gregorian Chant at Mass. It was Laetare Sunday which is the midway point of Lent, and it is so called because of the Introit which begins "Laetare Ierusalem, et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam." (Rejoice Jerusalem, and come together all you who love her.) What I have realized about chanting is that it is difficult not because the notes are tough, but because it flows without a real rhythm almost as a feather dropped from a high point drifts to the ground. It was very gratifying, though, I have to admit.

I found myself becoming nervous that the congregation would be frustrated with sitting while we chanted Psalm verses in Latin, all the while not being able to sing, because after all, singing is one of the joys of being a Christian. But in reality, there are parts of the Mass that are not meant for congregational singing, like the gradual, the offertory, and the communion chant. Unfortunately, we have lost the sense of who has what role in the Mass. What used to be clearly defined roles of priest, server, choir, and congregation often is now simply priest and congregation, while the choir really serves only to lead the congregation in singing. I even see the old ladies sitting in the front pew saying the Eucharistic prayer along with Father, so it would appear that even in some cases the role of priest and congregation is being blurred.

So, what I plan on doing the next time we chant (which will be this coming Sunday) is making sure the congregation is familiar with the chants of the ordinary (Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Pater Noster), the gospel acclamation, and the memorial acclamation in the Eucharistic prayer. Given time and practice, it should become second nature for the people, and I know they can chant because they do wonderfully with the two chants they are most familiar with (the Our Father and the Agnus Dei).

Pope Benedict has called on us to once again put Gregorian Chant back into its rightful place of honor in Mass. The way I look at it, what we are doing is mandated from the top, so what do I have to worry about?

Cantate Domino canticum novum;
Cantate Domino omnis terra.
Cantate Domino benedicite nomini eius;
Adnuntiate diem de die salutare eius. - Psalm 95 (96):1-2

Dominica I Quadragesima

2007-02-25T20:38:00.000-06:00

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil. - Luke 4:1-2a

As Lent begins I was contemplating the gospel today as it was being proclaimed, and here are my thoughts on the temptations of Christ in the desert by the devil.

First, the devil says to Christ, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." Jesus replied, "Man does not live on bread alone." Indeed, man does not truly live on bread alone, and Jesus attests to this fact in the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel. The fathers of the Hebrews ate manna in the desert and still died. In St. Matthew's gospel Jesus finishes this part of his conversation with the devil by saying, "but by every word which comes from the mouth of God." The theological ideas being expressed in this part of the discourse basically stem from the fact that Jesus is the Word from the mouth God, and in the Eucharist he alone is the bread by which we live.

Next, the devil "took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, 'I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.'" To which Jesus replies, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.” It occurred to me that at the time Jesus was being tempted the Kingdoms which existed in the world were Rome, Greece, Persia, etc. These great earthly kingdoms have for the most part faded into history, and today they are but shadows of their former glory. Yet Christ's kingdom, the Church, the kingdom of heaven, despite attacks from the persecutions of ancient Rome to today's secular relativism, has flourished and outlived all of those earthly kingdoms.

Finally, the devil "led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” This I found the most intriguing of all the temptations for in reality, Jesus, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, indeed threw himself down in humility from the highest heaven, took on human flesh, pitched his tent among us, proclaimed the kingdom of God, suffered the torture and agony of the passion, and died arms outstretched on a cross. He did this not to put God to the test, (after all, Jesus was aware that he was the Son of God) but out of obedience to the Father's will. Because of this (as St. Paul writes to the Philippians), "God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name" and raised him once again to the highest heaven where he has dominion over all.

In all of these things satan could only offer Christ promises of fleeting earthly glory. By being obedient to the Father's will, Christ was truly glorified eternally. Turns out satan's promises were truly empty.

Do you reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises?

I do.

Holy Windows

2007-01-20T23:01:00.001-06:00

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. - Colossians 1:15

I pray with icons. Icons are religious images which are "windows to the divine." What exactly is a window to the divine? It is an image which reveals a transcendent reality, an image in which the subject is portrayed as transformed by grace so that it has an other worldly character. In other words, through the icon in a profound and real way, I come in contact with God and his transforming power which is manifested in the subject of the icon as well as the color scheme.

And so it is with Christ. It is through Christ that we have intimate contact with God. Christ reveals the nature of God through his words and actions, the same words and actions expressed through art in the icons I have. So what about icons of the Mother of God, the Angels and the Saints? Well, they bear witness to Christ and are sanctified by him. Their images therefore reflect the glory of the Lord in the same manner that their lives reflect Christ's glory. And we are called to do the same. We are called to be living icons, living windows to the divine life revealed to us by Christ.

So, why use icons in prayer? It boils down to this: Christ, the image of the invisible God, was the first icon, and since all subsequent icons are manifestations of his glory, we can be transformed by his grace which is an inherent quality of these "windows to the divine."

Anticipation

2006-12-09T21:40:00.000-06:00

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, then we thought we were dreaming. Our mouths were filled with laughter; our tongues sang for joy. - Psalm 126:1-2a

I am a cantor at my church, Our Lady of the Lake. Part of what I do is to chant the Psalm of the day which is between the reading from the Old Testament and the Epistle. Actually it is my favorite part of being a cantor. As Catholics, our worship is often antiphonal, and this is the case with the Psalms. The way it works is the cantor proclaims an antiphon, the congregation repeats it, and the cantor chants verses of the Psalm. The congregation responds to each verse of the Psalm with the antiphon. Done in the proper way, it is really quite beautiful.

Todays antiphon for the congregation is "The Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy." So, as is usual, I led the Psalm. And as is almost always typical, the congregation weakly responded. When I finished the Psalm and returned to my seat, I commented to my friend Loretta who was sitting next to me, "They didn't sound like they were filled with joy."

The joy of the season of Advent is that of anticipating. Children anticipate the joy of the coming of Santa. Parents anticipate the joy of their children's faces when Christmas morning arrives. When December 25 rolls around, the hours of daylight begin to increase, and we begin to anticipate spring. All of these events find the source of their joy in the birth of Christ in the manger in Bethlehem. Without Christ, what is there to anticipate?

So, although the congregation may not seem to be filled with joy while singing the response to the Psalm at Mass, I find consolation that joy is there nonetheless. How can it not be? The Lord is coming!

You are the joy of every human heart, king of all the nations. Lord Jesus! Come!

1 + 1 = 1

2006-10-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate. - Mark 10:7-9

Marriage is one of the seven sacraments of the Church whereby a man and a woman enter into a covenant with each other and God. It is frequently used in scripture as a sign of God's love and affection for his people. The Revelation of St. John presents the relationship between Christ and the Church as that of a bride and bridegroom at a great wedding feast. It is obviously not something God takes lightly.

The Church following the example of her Lord likewise takes the covenant of marriage very seriously. It takes it so seriously that it sees in marriage an image of the Blessed Trinity itself. For this reason, a sacramental marriage, one filled with God's grace, cannot be dissolved no matter what people do.

These days people file for divorce at an incredible rate for various and sundry reasons. Now we even have "no fault" divorces. So when the Church refuses to acknowledge the validity of civil divorce, it is not suprising that people are quick to call the Church rigid and unbending. When the Church says that a person who divorces and remarries commits adultery, rather than that person being concerned for his or her soul, they typically lash out at the Church.

Annulments are a sore subject with people. The idea that the Church can declare a marriage null and void, that a marriage never existed, is confusing to people. Questions like, "Are my children illegitimate, then?" often arise. The answer to these questions is really simple and can be found in the last section of the above verse: what God has joined together, man must not separate. The legal character of the marriage is not being addressed, and this is what determines legitimacy of children. The sacramental character is what the Church is judging. Was the union joined by God who knows and sees all? That is what the Church, the Body of Christ, must investigate and decide.

So the simple truth is that a man and woman in a marriage are joined by God. Who are we mere mortals to think that we can dissolve the union?

Our Defenders

2006-09-29T13:33:00.000-05:00

War broke out in heaven;
Michael and his angels battled against the dragon.
The dragon and its angels fought back,
but they did not prevail
and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
The huge dragon, the ancient serpent,
who is called the Devil and Satan,
who deceived the whole world,
was thrown down to earth,
and its angels were thrown down with it - Revelation 12:7-9

Sometimes you hear the question asked, "How many angels can you fit on the head of a pin?" The correct answer? WHO CARES?! The important thing is that they are quite the formidable force to be reckoned with in the battle between good and evil as can be seen in this passage from the Revelation of St. John.

There is good news and bad news in all of this. The good news is that satan and his angels have been defeated and have been cast out of heaven. The bad news? They were thrown down to earth to be a menace to human beings. Oh, and they are really pissed off, too.

Tradition tells us that the devil and his legions were cast out in the primordial battle, a battle which was waged against God after the incarnation of the Son of God was revealed to them. Satan would have no worshipping of flesh, so he rebelled fully aware of the repercussions of his rejection of the incarnation. He is jealous of God's love for us revealed most perfectly in the person of Jesus, and his mission in this world is to tempt us and accuse us before God when we falter.

On the other hand, there are myriads of angels in heaven who are our defenders. They are messengers who reveal God's plan of salvation in time, a plan that was established even before time. These attendants at the throne of God like all of the saints in heaven are constantly interceding for us for protection and divine guidance throughout our journey of faith. They reveal to us one more aspect of what Christ meant when he said to his apostles prior to the ascension, "I will not leave you as orphans," because in Christ we have all the heavenly host with us.

I for one am glad that St. Michael is there to defend us. He has won the battle for all eternity. The devil will never prevail. Even though we are acting out the drama in time, satan's fate has been decided, and for this we can thank St. Michael for his perfect loyalty to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which led to the devil's defeat.

Through the intercession of St. Michael and all angels, may Christ our God have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Burning Grace

2006-09-28T00:31:00.000-05:00

The wicked say:
Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training. - Wisdom 2:12

This passage from Wisdom speaks prophetically of Christ, the just one, who was condemned by the Jewish authorities because he was a threat, a thorn in their side. Christ held those priests, scribes, and pharisees to the task of practicing what they preached, the Law of Moses. Because Christ was the fulfillment of that Law in the flesh, he spoke with authority against those whose task was to uphold the Law yet made it a burden. For this he was beset and killed.

As this reading was being proclaimed at Mass this past weekend, it occurred to me that this is exactly how the world responds when the Church stands up for truth. The Church proclaims with authority the teachings of her Lord Jesus which are often at odds with the prevailing zeitgeist. Rather than the world listening and reflecting on the truth of the Gospel, most often it fights back with zeal calling the Church intolerant, stifling, and at times downright bigoted.

Christ never promised a primrose path, on the contrary he promised that the Church would be hated on his account. And just why is this the case? Because Christ expects us to live up to the high standards of the Gospel and this is very hard, actually impossible without God's grace, and God's grace burns and "sets itself against our doings." In other words, it convicts people of their wrongdoing and makes them aware of their imperfection before his majesty. It puts them out of their comfort zone, and when people are put out of their comfort zone, more often than not, they get defensive and set themselves in opposition to God's grace. But by cooperating with God's grace through repentance and conversion, that same burning love becomes a source of pure joy which leads to eternal life.

If only the world would open its heart to the love of God.

St. Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Tradition

2006-09-04T22:18:00.000-05:00

This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. - Mark 7:6b-7

Tradition is probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Catholic faith. First of all there is Sacred Tradition, and then there are traditions. What is the difference?

I will start with traditions. These are things like the use of holy water to bless yourself on entering the Church, or genuflecting to the tabernacle prior to entering your pew to pray, or bowing at the words et incarnatus est during the recitation of the creed, or making the sign of the cross before or after receiving holy communion. The number of traditions in the Catholic Church is very large. They are acts of piety which have developed over the 2 millenia since the foundation of the Church in the Upper Room at Pentecost, and they are different in the Eastern Catholic Churches from the Western (or Roman) Catholic Church. They are not doctrines or dogmas in that they are not a necessity to the faith. They merely are reverent ways that Catholics express their love for the Lord.

Sacred Tradition is another thing altogether. It is by its nature essential to the faith and is part of the deposit of the faith which was given to the disciples by the Lord himself. Sacred scripture is part of Sacred Tradition, but even further our understanding of Sacred Scripture (i.e. its interpretation) is evident only in light of that Tradition. How then is Sacred Tradition understood and applied?

Here are some examples of how the Church applies its Sacred Tradition. When the Church was faced with the issue of gentiles first becoming Jews through circumcision prior to becoming Christians, the apostles convened a council at Jerusalem and evaluated the issue by reflecting on the teachings handed on to them by the Lord Jesus. They then made a definitive proclamation that this was not necessary. Likewise centuries later when a bishop named Arius was teaching that Jesus was a creature and not divine, the Church bishops convened a council once again this time at Nicea and reflected on what had been handed to them by the apostles and their successors, and they proclaimed that Jesus was begotten of the Father and consubstantial with him as well thus squelching the heresy of Arianism once and for all. With each successive challenge to the faith, the Church met in council and as the apostles did in Jerusalem, faced these challenges head on using the teachings handed to them from the Lord himself in order to resolve them.

While traditions can be rattled off like a grocery list, Sacred Tradition cannot. There is no list of Sacred Traditions that are not mentioned in the scriptures because Sacred Tradition encompasses the entire faith including the scriptures and may be understood as the standard by which all matters of faith are judged. The reason for this is rather straightforward. Traditions (by this I mean traditions) find their origin in human piety. Sacred Tradition originates from God himself.

The whole one unity

2006-07-30T22:25:00.000-05:00

Brothers and sisters: I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. - Ephesians 4:1-6

I have always been somewhat frustrated when I am confronted by a Protestant who says, "The church is never called Catholic in the bible." I have never been able to have an answer to this which was satisfactory for me, until the last few months. Despite the fact that I have been lax at putting my thoughts into writing, the truth is I have continued to be just as contemplative as ever.

At Mass today, the gospel reading was the beginning of chapter 6 from St. John's gospel, the Bread of Life discourse. However, in between the gospel reading and the Old Testament reading from 1 Kings (where Elisha multiplies the loaves) was this reading from St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians. The theme of this particular passage is something that I have come to realize is central to St. Paul's theological discourses, and it permeates all of his writings.

St. Paul's writings are full of references to unity or oneness. (Another example may be found in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.) What is the significance of this? It is that St. Paul understood the Church to be not so much a group of individuals who went about doing their own thing. Rather, each individual member was united with every other member in a sacred bond which resulted in a whole entity which was meant to carry on Christ's work of salvation for all time, the Mystical Body of Christ. This mystical body preserved the fullness of divine revelation which it received from the Lord himself.

Because we are united with one another in such a sacred bond, our very lives become incorporated into this whole. When we are filled with joy, the Church shares this joy. Likewise, when one of the members suffers, the entire Church suffers. In the matter of sin, when we sin, because we are so intimately connected, our sin has a ripple effect which injures not only our relationship with God but also our relationship with the whole body of Christ.

So what does this have to do with the Church never being called Catholic in the bible? Well, the term Catholic may not be used, but even from the beginning the Church was Catholic. You see, the Greek term Καθολικός means "pertaining to the whole" or "universal", and the Church from the very beginning contained the whole truth and was complete despite being limited to the Mediterranean region of the earth. You see, Catholic is not so much a designation of space but of spirit, and that spirit is the Holy Spirit which unifies us and keeps us whole. St. Paul was describing the Church as Catholic in all of his letters, he just wasn't using the term Catholic.

Oddly enough, it seems the term Catholic is used in the bible in a tiny snippet from Acts 9:31--εκκλησιαι καθ ολης, which is translated as "the Church throughout all." Of course, this is geographical so it doesn't really help my argument, but still it is interesting trivia.

Martha and Mary

2006-07-29T23:11:00.000-05:00

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” - Luke 10:41-42

My wife always marvels at the story of Martha and Mary. She says that Jesus should have told Mary to go and help Martha with the serving. I always disagree and say, "I think Jesus knew what he was doing." So what was he doing?

First of all, Jesus is teaching a woman in Palestine of the first century. She is sitting at the feet of the Master just as the disciples did. This was something unheard of at the time. It affirms Jesus' respect for women. Second, he is telling Martha that the task of serving is distracting her from what is important, that of sitting and learning from the teacher.

So is Jesus saying that Martha's choice is less important than Mary's? Yes. Because Mary's choice is focused on Christ while Martha's is focused on herself. Jesus admonishes us to choose as Mary did and follow him rather than be distracted by the cares of the world which bring us burdens.

St. Martha, pray for us.

The things you realize with prayer

2006-05-19T22:46:00.000-05:00

Even the friend who had my trust, who shared my table, has scorned me. -Psalm 41:10

I have a method to my prayer. The Church has made it rather easy for us to pray by using what is called The Divine Office or The Liturgy of the Hours. It is an ancient method of praying using the Psalms and canticles from the Old and New Testaments in a four week cycle and consists of Morning Prayer (Lauds), daytime prayer (broken into midmorning (Terce), noon (Sext), and midafternoon (None)), Evening Prayer (Vespers), the Office of Readings (Matins), and Night Prayer (Compline). Since I am not a monk living in a monastery, I don't usually manage to pray every hour every day, but most days I generally pray Lauds, Matins, Vespers, and Compline along with the Rosary. That is not to say that I don't offer spontaneous prayers to the Lord because I do, but liturgical prayer is very fulfilling.

Tonight as I was praying Vespers, Psalm 41 was the first Psalm prayed. The Psalms were written by David and are the songbook of the Jewish faith. Psalm 41 is a thanksgiving for rescue from an illness. David speaks of a friend who betrayed him, one who even ate from his table. Every time I have prayed this Psalm, I read it as though Jesus is speaking, and at verse 10 I think of Judas at the last supper. Even St. John supports this idea in his gospel (John 13:18).

Tonight as I was contemplating this verse, I suddenly realized that anyone who sins is guilty of the same thing, including me. I have eaten at the table of the Lord and myself have been guilty of betraying him through my sinful actions. So, tonight, I will examine my conscience and tomorrow present myself in the confessional and beg for mercy. That way I will be able to approach the Lord's altar with clean hands and a pure heart.

Receiving such insight is why I find praying the Divine Office so fulfilling. God's grace is a wonderful thing.

Personal Revelation

2006-05-15T23:16:00.000-05:00

“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” - John 14:21

This passage from St. John's gospel looks like a mathematical equation. You know, like the transitive property if a=b and b=c then a=c. St. John is showing us that Jesus spells out quite plainly the truth about those who love him and the results of that love.

I am most interested in the part that says, "and reveal myself to him." How does Christ do this? Some say through scripture, some say through other Christians, and still some say through prayer and the sacraments. Truth is that he reveals himself in all of these ways, but above all Christ reveals himself through his Church. Think about it. How else would we know anything about the Lord? It is through the Church that all three of those conditions are met in one place. The scriptures are a product of the Church (and not vice versa), and the Church itself is the family of believers who are united in prayer and the sacramental life. Simply put, without the Church, his body, Christ would never be known to anyone.

For this reason, I always look with a raised eyebrow at people who say, "I don't need to belong to the Church to have a relationship with Jesus." That is silly. It is like saying I don't have to be a part of my family to have a relationship with my mother. The simple reality is that the only way to have a relationship with Jesus is through the Church because that is how Jesus wants it. It is a personal relationship because we come to know Jesus personally when he reveals himself to us, but all revelation about Jesus comes through the Church.

So let us continue to read the scriptures, pray, receive the sacraments and gather together as God's family, for this is how Jesus reveals himself to us, and more importantly, this is how we learn that Jesus loves us.

St. Isidore, pray for us.

To receive or not receive, that is the question.

2006-04-30T22:55:00.000-05:00

The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread. - Luke 24:35

Today I think I am going to follow the lead of my pastor, Fr. John Talamo, and discuss a somewhat touchy subject, and that is why people who are not Catholic cannot receive Holy Communion in a Catholic Mass.

First of all, I am a convert to the Catholic faith. (I was received through confirmation on April 2, 1988.) I was baptized Presbyterian, attended a Methodist Church for much of my early years because the town I lived in did not have Presbyterian Church, and attended an Episcopal Church in college because the nearest Methodist Church was about a mile away, but the Episcopal Church was on campus. I have always been a Christian, and so it puzzled me that as a Christian, I was not allowed to receive Holy Communion when I attended Mass with my then girlfriend (now wife), Kriesha. All the churches I attended openly invited "anyone who was a baptized Christian to the table of the Lord." What made the Catholic Church different? I used to think, "What arrogance!" I even wrote a letter at age 18 to Pope John Paul II, and believe it or not he answered it, albeit through Jude Speyrer, the Bishop of Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was through meditating on his response and the scriptures that I came to the conclusion that not only was the Catholic Church not arrogant, but she was (gasp!) right in the practice of reserving reception of Holy Communion to her members, and the only thing that was preventing me from receiving Holy Communion in the Catholic Church was, well, me.

This is nothing new. Let me quote St. Justin Martyr who was born about the year 100 A.D., converted to Christianity about 130 A.D., and was martyred about the year 165 A.D.:

No one may share the eucharist with us unless he believes that what we teach is true, unless he is washed in the regenerating waters of baptism for the remission of his sins, and unless he lives in accordance with the principles given us by Christ. We do not consume the eucharistic bread as if it were ordinary food and drink, for we have been taught that as Jesus Christ our Savior became a man of flesh and blood by the power of the Word of God, so also the food that our flesh and blood assimilates for its nourishment becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus by the power of his own words contained in the prayer of thanksgiving.

In other words, according to St. Justin Martyr, three criteria must be met in order to receive the Eucharist: believe the teaching on the Eucharist (that it is not ordinary bread and wine but the body and blood of the risen Lord), be baptized, and live a life according to teachings given by Christ to the Church. Those three criteria are the same today as they were in the second century.

Catholics believe that when we receive Holy Communion, we are partaking in the most sacred thing imaginable, the body and blood of the Lord himself. This is not a medieval Catholic invention, it has been believed since the beginning according to the teaching of the Lord himself. It is not merely partaking bread and wine and remembering fondly the last supper like we remember eating Christmas dinner at grandma's house back in the day. As a matter of fact, after it is consecrated, the bread and wine are no longer even there, the only thing present is the Lord. The bread and wine through the power of the Holy Spirit have undergone a transformation, and through this transformation, the sacrifice at Golgotha on the cross is brought forward in time so that we can participate in it. Now, our senses tell us that it smells and tastes like bread and wine, but our faith tells us, "this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." It is not just a symbol, it is really Jesus.

Non-Catholic Christians do not hold this belief, although it is puzzling to me as to why they do not. All churches which can trace their roots to the Apostolic era (the Catholic Church and the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches) all hold the same belief in the real presence of Jesus in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar. Beginning with Martin Luther, this belief was watered down to the point that many evangelicals today reject sacramental theology completely and, therefore, the Catholic Church's teaching on the real presence. This is the main reason that non-Catholics are not to receive Holy Communion in the Catholic Church.

A second reason is that it is through the Eucharist that all Catholics become unified as one body. To receive Holy Communion while denying the belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist implies a unity that does not exist. Furthermore, St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians warns people about receiving the body unworthily which includes not discerning the body, for when they do they eat and drink judgment on themselves (1 Cor 11:28-29). To deny that the bread and wine have become the body and blood of the Lord means that you have not discerned or recognized the risen Lord in the sacramental food that you are eating.

Now, having said all of this, Catholics are required to examine ourselves and decide if we are worthy to partake of something so holy. This is discernment as well, because if you truly recognize the sacredness of the Eucharist and partake when not in a state of grace, then you eat and drink condemnation on yourself by profaning the body and blood of the Lord. If you are not in a state of grace, then you must resolve your grievance with the Lord and his Church through reconciliation prior to reception of Holy Communion. Sadly (for all involved), this is something neglected by many Catholics.

So, how do I respond to a person who says that the Catholic Church excludes them from receiving Holy Communion? Simple. I say, "Why do you exclude yourself?" Because the reality is, all that the Catholic Church requires of us is what she received from the Lord, to profess our belief in the Holy Eucharist, be baptized, and live according to the teachings given to us by the Lord through the Church, and as long as we stubbornly reject these teachings, then we have only ourselves to blame for not participating in the Eucharist.

Coercing the Good News

2006-04-25T22:52:00.000-05:00

Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. - Mark 16:15-16

I have always wondered if the second part of this passage was part of the first. Here is what I mean: in proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, is it necessary to say, "Oh, and by the way, if you don't believe you will be condemned." Let me take it apart for a few minutes and then come to a conclusion.

The Gospel is the Good News that God has saved mankind through his Son, Jesus. God has become one with humanity through his becoming incarnate of the Virgin Mary and he has taken the sin of humanity onto his incarnate self, suffered, died, was buried, but he has overcome death in the resurrection. He has fulfilled the law and the prophets in his flesh and established a new and everlasting covenant which makes a path for all people to return to him and live eternally. That is indeed good news.

But if you don't believe, then you are condemned. That's not good news, and to be honest, if you use this statement when you are proclaiming the good news, are you allowing people to freely believe the good news? Are you not coercing them through scare tactics into believing something not because it is good but because of the dire consequences of not believing it?

I don't think Jesus is admonishing the apostles to threaten people with condemnation if they don't accept his message. On the contrary, his message is life giving. I think the statement, "those who do not believe will be condemned" is Jesus' way of telling the apostles, "Let me tell you how important this message is..." In other words, "Don't let me down. Work tirelessly for the gospel so that all people will believe. Never lose heart if you are ridiculed or if people do not accept your words or even if you have to die for the good news."

The Gospel is not something we possess. It is something we proclaim. God's grace is a powerful gift that all are free to reject. Those of us who have accepted the Gospel freely have no right to force acceptance of the Gospel under duress. That is not how Christ would have it. That is not how I will proclaim it.

Holy Father Mark, pray for us.

Attending Mass on the Road to Emmaus

2006-04-19T22:54:00.000-05:00

With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. - Luke 24:31

The story of the two disciples of Jesus on the Road to Emmaus is one of my favorite accounts of the experience of the resurrected Lord in the gospels. Since it was the gospel reading proclaimed at today's Mass, I would like to discuss some things about it.

First of all, Luke says that it is two disciples of Jesus, however, it is not two of the twelve. He only mentions one of them by name, Cleopas. I think Luke uses disciples other than the twelve to create a sense of timelessness to the story, so that we can insert even ourselves in place of Cleopas and the other disciple on our journey of faith.

Secondly, Jesus walks up to them, and Luke says not so much that they didn't recognize him but that their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. This says to me that the failure to recognize Jesus is not from a physical standpoint alone. Notice in the next verses, they describe Jesus as a "prophet mighty in word and deed." They do not respond as St. Peter did, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." So not only did they not recognize Jesus physically, but they also did not recognize who he was and is, the eternal Son of the Father.

Next Jesus opens the words of the law and prophets and reveals how he is the key to understanding the scriptures of Israel. It is in this way that the Church received the fullness of the Truth which it hands on. It is not a written word but a living Word spoken by the master himself to the apostles, and through the apostles to their successors, the bishops, it is still spoken to us today. This is the Sacred Tradition of the Church. The written words of the scripture come to life through the Sacred Tradition of the Church. It is the means by which we can fully understand the meaning of the written word. Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition can never oppose one another, and one can never stand alone without the other, and even if they stand together they lose some of their meaning if viewed outside the Church.

Then, after Jesus has opened their eyes to the scriptures, he leaves them with the most important thing of all. As he is making to leave them, they invite him in to eat with them since the day is nearly over. Jesus, as he did on the night before he died, took bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them. It was only after Jesus broke bread with them that their eyes were opened and they recognized him. It was not in his words alone that he was made known to them. Notice, even after he explained everything written about him in the law and prophets, their eyes still were not opened. It was only after breaking bread that they knew Jesus was in their midst.

The Road to Emmaus story means so much to me because it is the very heart and soul of Catholic worship. This is Luke's rendition of the Mass. We are all on a journey to meet the risen Lord. We gather together, hear the word of God proclaimed and explained in the Tradition of the Church, and when the priest utters the Lord's words of blessing over simple gifts of bread and wine, suddenly our eyes are no longer prevented from recognizing him. In the breaking of bread there within our midst is Jesus, and we know he is alive.

Alleluia! Surrexit Christus! Alleluia!

Mary!

2006-04-18T21:25:00.000-05:00

She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. - John 20:13b-14

In the resurrection narrative of the Gospel according to St. John we see the real St. Mary Magdalene, a woman devoted and faithful to her Lord to the end. She was not married to Jesus, and she certainly didn't bear his children as is portrayed in a popular piece of modern fiction.

The scene here is first and foremost the resurrection of the Lord, but there is an interesting subplot going on as well. St. Mary Magdalene is at the tomb to annoint the body of Jesus when she finds the empty tomb, and she weeps in despair that he is gone. She even turns around and sees him standing there but doesn't recognize him. All of that changes when Jesus says one simple word, "Mary!"

St. Mary Magdalene recognizes Jesus when he calls her by name. She then clings to him in joy and adoration. Jesus admonishes her to not cling to him but to go to the disciples and tell them all that she has seen. She is transformed from a follower of Christ to the first witness of the resurrection. She is the first to receive the commission to spread the good news that the tomb is empty and the Lord is risen.

All Christians experience this scene. We truly recognize Jesus only when he calls our name. In our initial joy we want to stay put and bask in the warmth of the experience of the risen Lord, but he admonishes us to go and spread the good news. This is the great commission which comes to us from the Lord through the Church who received this from the Apostles who received it from a simple woman named Mary.

Alleluia! Surrexit Christus! Alleluia!

Two Gardens

2006-04-12T17:09:00.001-05:00

Then they came to a place named Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be troubled and distressed. Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch.” He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass by him; he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.” - Mark 14:32-33, 35-36

This account from St. Mark's gospel is what we Catholics call "The Agony in the Garden". Christ has just celebrated the institution of the Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders at the Last Supper, and he and the disciples have left the Upper Room and gone to the foot of the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemene. It is appropriate that this scene plays out in a garden, and this is why.

Adam was the Son of God. So is Jesus. Adam was tempted by Satan in the Garden of Eden. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the Garden of Gethsemene. It is at this point that the similarities end. Through his choice in the Garden of Eden, Adam rebelled against God and embraced his own will and brought suffering into the world. On the other hand, Jesus rebelled against his own natural tendency to flee suffering and embraced the will of the Father and thus brought redemption through the suffering brought about by Adam's rebellion. In this manner, God has made right Adam's wrong and brought strayed humanity back to himself.

We must suffer and die because of Adam's choice, but through faith in Christ, that same suffering and death is not in vain. It brings us life. The paradox of the cross. The Father has shown us The Way. The Way home. Thanks be to Him.

Gloria, Laus et Honor

2006-04-09T21:24:00.000-05:00

Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked. - Mark 14:51-52

Today, Palm Sunday, begins the holiest week of the Christian liturgical year. It begins with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey and ends with his death and burial. Imagine the shock and dismay of the disciples as they see the one who they believed to be the Christ arrested and led off to be executed as a common criminal.

The above verses are peculiar to St. Mark's account of the passion of Jesus. After Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemene, all of his disciples fled for fear of their lives. However, there is this mention of a young man who followed behind them, but when seized, he ran away as well, and he was naked.

Any of us could be that young man clothed in a linen cloth. Linen is pure and white. We are purified when we are baptized into Christ's suffering and raised to new life. When placed in situations which are frightening and lead to suffering, it is common for us to rebel and to run away from that which would unite us with the suffering of the Lord. This leaves us vulnerable to sin and despair. It leaves us naked.

If Jesus' passion taught us anything it is that love overcomes death. In hindsight we know how the story ends as we celebrate on Easter the glorious resurrection of the Lord. In all honesty, it is more understandable that the disciples flee out of fear than it is for those of us who believe in the resurrection yet still run away in fear. We have the benefit of hindsight, the knowledge that Christ is risen from the dead, so what is there for us to fear? But we fear anyway. Fear suffering, fear death.

I am often reminded of something that I read about Pope John Paul II. The theme of his papacy was "Do not be afraid." He was not afraid for one reason, and it is a reason which should comfort all people. He was not afraid because the worst thing that could possibly happen in the universe has happened. God died. But he rose from the dead and in doing so conquered death. There is nothing worse that can happen.

So, back to that young man. Tradition says that it was St. Mark himself, and he inserted himself into the passion account as a way of humbling himself. A constant and eternal reminder of his weakness in the face of fear. A reminder of his lack of trust in the Lord, a lack of trust which rendered him naked in the face of great evil.

Hosanna filio David!
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
Rex Israel, hosanna in excelsis!

Heaven on earth

2006-04-02T23:17:00.000-05:00

"And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself."- John 12:32

I had a new experience of this verse in St. John's gospel today. I attended a Tridentine Latin Mass at
St. Patrick's Church in New Orleans today. This is the Order of Mass put forth by the Council of Trent, and which was used in the Catholic Church prior to the order instituted by Pope Paul VI which is currently in use. It is completely in Latin with the exception of the homily and some of the songs sung which were in English.

A few things remained quite a while with me after I left the church. First of all was the fact that the priest and deacons faced the altar. In the Pauline Mass, the priest faces the people. Now, the proponents of the Pauline Mass over the Tridentine Mass say that the priest should not turn his back to the people. After attending this Mass, I am of the opinion that the priest is not so much turning his back on the people as he is facing the altar of God and Christ truly present in the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle. He is focusing on Christ and indirectly is asking us to do likewise through his posture, so I found myself not focusing on the priest in the Mass, but rather focusing on what he was focusing on, i.e. the Lord.

Second. Much of the Mass was chanted and the chants were ethereal. The choir was in a loft in the back of the church, but I never once turned around to see how many there were or who they were. The singing and chanting served only to focus my attention more on Christ, so there was no need to see who was doing the singing because that was irrelevant. What was important was that the voices were giving glory to God and calling me to do likewise.

Third. Many of the prayers said by the priest were done silently and ended with a loud per omnia saecula saeculorum to which the people respond Amen. The image in my mind was that of Moses in the Holy of Holies conversing with God on behalf of the People of Israel, and this led me to think of Christ conversing with the Father in the true Holy of Holies in heaven on behalf of the Church. Suddenly, the term in persona Christi took on a vivid reality in a way that is not as evident in the Pauline Mass. The priest is conversing with God at His altar on earth as Christ is conversing with the Father at the altar in heaven.

Fourth. There was a lot of silence in this Mass, but it was sacred silence. It was time to realize that you were in the presence of holiness. There was nothing awkward about it like that silence you experience when there is a lull in a conversation. This was beautiful silence in the presence of God.

And lastly, I was completely unaware of time passing during the Mass. In a subtle way, I had sort of stepped out of time for a brief moment to experience eternity in the Eucharist only to have to walk out of Church and return to the world. For all I knew, 2 hours had passed, but in reality only about 45 minutes had passed.

So what does this have to do with Jesus' quote in St. John's gospel? Throughout the Mass, all focus was on Christ. From the opening Asperges me to the closing Ite missa est, all present were drawn to him and away from themselves. We were in heaven on earth.

Joannes Paulus PP. II, ora pro nobis.

The Golden Calf

2006-03-30T23:39:00.000-06:00

The LORD said to Moses,“Go down at once to your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved. They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it, sacrificing to it and crying out,‘This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!" - Exodus 32:7-9

Moses had left the Israelites with Aaron and climbed to the summit of Mt. Sinai to meet with God, but after and extended stay away from them, (I believe it was 40 days.) the Israelites became antsy and began to press Aaron to do something about it, so Aaron had them take all of their gold jewelry, and then he fashioned a golden calf which they acclaimed by saying, "This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!"

So, was the big deal that Israel was worshipping a calf? I don't think so. I think the Israelite's had more sense than that (although God didn't seem to have a lot of faith in them as he was on the verge of annihilating them). Israel was worshipping God but transferring that worship of the unseen God to an image, the image of a cow. It would seem that the sin in this is fairly self-evident, but it is in reality a bit more insidious.

Moses was gone for too long. The people became restless. "Ach! Where is he, that scoundrel?! He shoulda been back by NOW!" By this point in time, the Israelites are well aware of the close relationship between Moses and God, so they know that he is up on Mt. Sinai talking with the Almighty. Instead of patiently waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain to relate God's message, the Israelites decided they couldn't and wouldn't wait for God any longer.

So, they fetched him. They essentially said, "Well if God won't come to us, we'll go and get him. Hey Aaron! Make us a statue!" That acclamation reveals that they were not worshipping a bull, but using that bull to worship God. It was their image of God, something which God had forbidden. This returns us to the Garden of Eden in that the Israelites caved to pride and suited their own need for God's presence by making an image and bringing God to them rather than patiently waiting for God to come to them.

So how is this different from sacred art which we find in our churches? Simple. The Israelites had no image of God, so the golden calf was their own desire for an image of God. It wasn't that images per se were the problem. Notice, the Israelites were allowed to put Cherubim on the ark of the Covenant which faced each other. This is because God revealed that image to them. Christians have something better than the cherubim. We have an image of God himself through his Son, Jesus, because Jesus according to St. Paul, is the image of the invisible God. He is God's own self-revelation of Love.

Faith and corporal acts of mercy

2006-03-26T23:56:00.000-06:00

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

This verse is typically one that I hear about whenever I am discussing the role of works in the greater picture of salvation with Protestants. For Protestants we are saved by faith alone, or as Luther called it sola fide. The problem is that this position doesn't really jive with the Letter of St. James which says that faith without works is dead. How is it that the scriptures appear to contradict each other? How do we reconcile this passage from the letter of St. Paul to the Church at Ephesus and the catholic letter of St. James?

We have to keep in mind one essential thing. The Church has its origin in Jesus Christ, a Jew ("salvation comes from the Jews"). His teachings were revealed in the context of the Jewish synagogue. As a matter of fact, St. Paul's letters were written at a time when Christians still worshipped in the synagogue, worship which was ultimately oriented toward the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple in Jerusalem was the sign of unity for all the Jews.

In the Temple, animal sacrifices were offered to God for atonement in accordance with the Law of Moses. The Christians believed that Christ's sacrifice on the cross was the ultimate and eternal (everlasting) sacrifice which made the Temple in Jerusalem obsolete. His sacrifice became the center of the Christian's worship, and this sacrifice was made present again in the Eucharistic sacrifice which was instituted in the Upper Room on the night before Christ's passion. (Notice, Christ is not resacrificed, rather his eternal, i.e. timeless, sacrifice is brought forward in time for all Christians to participate in it.) Through this sacrifice, Christ's body became the new Temple (which was raised in 3 days).

So Christians would participate in the Jewish liturgy of the word, which consisted of readings from the Torah and Prophets as well as Psalms and prayers, but when the sacrifice was offered, they would leave because the animal sacrifice was irrelevant and unnecessary for them since Christ had fulfilled the Law and the need for animal sacrifice was gone. To celebrate the eternal and life giving sacrifice of Christ, on the first day of the week, they would gather as a community and celebrate the Eucharist (or "the breaking of the bread" as it is called in Acts). So St. Paul is speaking to people who prayed with Israel, but then participated in the Eucharistic sacrifice of Christ's body and blood (remember the new Temple...our worship is oriented to Christ's body) as a sign of their unity.

This is significant because the Jews who had not accepted the faith were still following the ceremonial Law of Moses. For them, salvation was wrapped up in works of the Law as outlined in the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Leviticus, so that it was through these works that they believed they found favor with God. Christ fulfilled that Law in his body which was sacrificed on the cross, so therefore, Christians were no longer bound to "works of the Law" because of their faith in the saving power of Christ. This is what St. Paul is talking about. He is not talking about corporal acts of mercy which we nowadays call "good works."

Good works are the fruits of faith, they are not a way to gain salvation. The Catholic Church has consistently taught this since the beginning. However, as St. James has pointed out, to proclaim your faith without putting it in action is not really having faith. That faith must bear fruit in order to be living. Good works must accompany faith and the two are as inseperable as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Now we get to the question of how to reconcile St. Paul with St. James. I give you the next verse from the letter to the Ephesians: "For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them." Here we have St. Paul saying that we are created in Christ for good works, works that make our faith in Christ alive. That is how we reconcile the two Apostles, because in reality they taught and believed the same thing. Faith without good works is totally lifeless.

In nomine Patris, et filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

The Great Commandment

2006-03-24T23:48:00.000-06:00

And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. - Mark 12:33

Jesus has just summed up the law for the scribe in this section of St. Mark's gospel. The scribe has affirmed a truth of our faith, that love is worth more to God than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

The truth is that love in its very essense is sacrificial for it denies the self for the sake of the beloved. While the law prescribes that Israel offer animal sacrifices, they were never meant to be a permanent fixture in the plan of salvation. Animal sacrifice was substitutional in that the innocent animal be it lamb, goat, dove, etc., took on the sin of the person who offerred it. This pointed to and prepared us for Christ's true offering of love on the cross, the innocent victim for the sins of all humanity.

So when offer God praise, and when we realize that we do so out of love for God which spills over to our neighbor then we are offering a sacrifice which is united with Christ's sacrifice of love on the cross. This is why it is worth more than all the burnt offerings. This is why Christ says, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."

Venite exultemus

2006-03-23T23:35:00.000-06:00

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.” - Psalms 95:8-9

Psalm 95 is known as the Invitatory to those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours. It is the first prayer I say every day. It is an invitation to sing praise to God our salvation. Toward the end of the Psalm, the above verses are proclaimed which tell of Israel's lack of faith at Meribah and Massah.

After the Israelites had been freed from bondage in Egypt, they travelled for years in the desert. At one point in their travels, they camped at a place called Rephidim where there was no water, so the Israelites grumbled and complained against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt only to make us, our children and our livestock, die of thirst?" At this Moses asked God for help, to which God replied by sending Moses to a rock. Moses struck the rock with his staff as God had commanded and water flowed from the rock. Moses named the place Meribah and Massah which mean "dispute" and "temptation", for it was at this place that the Israelites, despite seeing all God had done for them, disputed the presence of God and tempted him.

In the Psalm, these verses are a call to repentance, to return to God. They call us to be open to the Lord, to trust in him who has led us through our lives. During times of trial and distress, we are to move forward always trusting in God's guiding hand. As Israel had to fight the urge to return to their former lives of bondage in Egypt, something that was familiar to them as opposed to wandering in the emptiness of the desert in an attempt to reach an unknown destination, so we must fight the temptation to return to our former lives, lives which though familiar hold no promise for us. The promise, our hope, lies in the future, a future that is vast and unknown, sort of like a desert.

The verses immediately before the ones listed above say, "For he is our God and we are his people, the flock he shepherds." If God is our shepherd, we must trust him to provide what we need and have faith that he will lead us along the right path. As with Israel, we will wander and lose faith, so Lent is a time to reflect on our path. It is a time to turn to God, to repent, and this will assure us of the right path which will lead us straight to the promise of the future which is hope.

St. Turibius of Mongrovejo, pray for us.

Seven times to infinity

2006-03-21T23:28:00.000-06:00

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,“Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times." - Matthew 18:21-22

The mercy of God is infinite simply because God is infinite. We though created in the image of God are not infinite, however, Jesus in these verses teaches us that our mercy must be infinite.

Here's why. God rules everything. For us to sin against his infinite majesty is no small thing, but in his mercy, he forgives us and sets aside the infinite punishment that is due us. We, on the other hand, rule nothing, so when someone sins against us, it is not nearly as great an offense. So if God can forgive us our sins against him which are infinitely offensive, why shouldn't we forgive our brothers and sisters who have sinned against us because the discrepancy between our sin against God and those who sin against us is incalculable.

To illustrate this point Jesus tells the parable of the King who forgives the huge debt of one of his servants who had no way of paying it back. This is a great gift from the King. But the servant then goes out and comes across another a fellow servant who owed him a much smaller amount, yet demanded that it be paid in full and when the fellow servant could not pay it, the first servant had him thrown in prison. When the king found out of the first servant's behavior, he had the servant thrown to the torturers until he should pay back the entire debt.

So during this time of Lent, a time of reflection and penance, I choose to consider the people who have caused me pain, and to forgive them from my heart. Sometimes not the easiest thing to do but according to the Master, absolutely necessary.

Paradoxical wisdom

2006-03-19T22:55:00.000-06:00

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. - 1 Corinthians 1:22-24

St. Paul begins this verse with generalizations about Jews and Greeks, nonetheless, they are accurate. How often did the Jews seek a sign while they were wandering in the desert during the Exodus? God provided the signs: the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, quail, and a spring of water from a stone. Jesus laments that "this evil generation demands a sign." In a similar fashion, the Greeks wanted something logical. They wanted something that would rest on philosophical axioms as "proof" of its genuineness.

It is only human for us to want proof to back up the truth of a message whether it is in the miraculous or the philosophical. So what proof does the Church provide? Christ crucified! I can just hear the response of the Greeks and the Jews, "Huh?!" The cross is an impediment to the Jews because their Messiah is a political figure who will overcome the earth's political dynasties and rule the kingdom of Israel. It is foolishness to the Greeks because it is completely illogical for Christ to have as his mission crucifixion. The problem with proof comes when we use the evidence provided as a reason to not believe.

But to those who receive God's grace, Christ crucified becomes all the proof we need, for in this paradoxical fashion, God reveals his wisdom and strength through the depths of his love for us in the sacrifice of his Son.

He runs to meet US!

2006-03-18T21:40:00.000-06:00

So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. - Luke 15:20

The parable of the prodigal son was proclaimed at Mass today. I have never met a person who said, "You know. I can't STAND the story of the prodigal son." I think it is because we can all see a bit of ourselves in that story, some of us more than others. If you want to read the entire parable, you can find it here.

The verse mentioned above really stood out to me as I was contemplating things tonight. In the first part of the verse, we see the first thing that is necessary for us to return to God. The prodigal son decides at his lowest point, that of desiring to eat hog slop, to return home to his father and hope for the best. Catholics experience this in a unique way. We first have an inward conversion, a turning from sin. And we know the way back home is through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We have to go to confession. That is the "hoping for the best" part because, as most Catholics will tell you, going to confession after living a life of sin is a daunting and scary prospect.

But, in the second part of the verse, Jesus reveals to us the nature of God, that of compassion and mercy. The prodigal son is still far away when the father sees him in the distance and has compassion. He doesn't stop in his tracks and wait for the son to get to him, no he runs to the son, embraces him, and kisses him. And when his son says to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son." the father says, "Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him!" This is the reality we discover when we leave the confessional.

In this parable, while Jesus is teaching something about each of us as individuals, he is also teaching something about humanity in general. We see the image of the fall of man and expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the subsequent return home and reconciliation of mankind as a whole. When the father says, "Quickly, bring the finest robe" the Greek wording (as I learned from reading a book by Pope Benedict) is "Quickly, bring the first robe." In other words, to quote the Holy Father:

"The first robe is the robe in which Adam was created and which he lost after he had grasped at likeness to God. All the clothes subsequently worn by man are only a poor substitute for the light of God coming from within, which was Adam's true "robe". The man who in faith returns home receives back the first "robe", is clothed again in the mercy and love of God, which are his true beauty."

After reading this interpretation, I have just one more reason to love the parable of the prodigal son.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, pray for us.

Judgment and forgiveness

2006-03-14T23:24:00.000-06:00

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven." - Luke 6:36-37

These verses from St. Luke's gospel are among the first tossed around when the Church makes a stand against the decadence of modern secular society. "Who are you to judge me? The bible says 'Judge not lest ye be judged!'" How do you respond to that? That is what Jesus says in the bible. Does this mean that anything goes, and we are to sit idly by and say nothing?

What does it mean "to judge?" It means to form an opinion or estimation of after careful consideration. One who makes estimates as to worth, quality, or fitness. Here is the difference for the follower of Christ. To Christians, all people by virtue of their being created in the image of God have an inherent dignity and nobility. It is worth that is given them by God and cannot be diminished in any way by another person. When we judge a person, we are not making a comment about his or her actions, rather we are coming to a conclusion about their person, who they are, based on our knowledge of their actions. That is an assault on their dignity.

So, are we as Christians to sit idly by and say nothing of immoral behavior? Of course not. Christ calls us to discern the will of the Father and inform our consciences. The Church puts forth the teachings of the Apostles as given to them by Jesus himself and these are our guide to living good and holy lives. When one of our brothers and sisters sins against the Church, it is our duty as Christians to inform them of the nature of their actions. This is not judging them but teaching them, for if you were really to judge them unworthy, it is doubtful that you would care enough about them to have concern for their souls.

The key to all of this is found in the first sentence, "Be merciful as your Father is merciful." While we may not like what another person is doing, we must always remember that they are created in the image of God, God who is merciful, God who treats all with the dignity and love of a first born son. When you think about it, that means that when we judge someone who is created in God's image, we are judging God, and that is a big no no. It is important to remember that in judging someone we seek to diminish their dignity, which in turn diminishes ours, i.e. we are judged. This is what Jesus means when he says, "Stop judging and you will not be judged."

So we must correct with love and compassion. We must be patient. And above all, we must be merciful and forgiving.

The ram in the thorns

2006-03-12T20:35:00.000-06:00

As Abraham looked about, he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son. - Genesis 22:13

In the story of Abraham and Isaac, God instructs Abraham to take his son Isaac to the top of Mt. Moriah and sacrifice him to the Lord. You can only imagine the distress this must have caused Abraham. But Abraham was faithful to God, and he obliged. As he and Isaac were walking up the mountain, Isaac carrying the firewood and Abraham carrying the fire and the knife, Isaac asks Abraham, "Where is the sheep for the holocaust?" Abraham responds, "God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust."

I have always thought it was interesting that Abraham responded, "God himself will provide the sheep." Why didn't he say simply, "God will provide the sheep?" And how did he know that God would provide the sheep?

Christians have long viewed this passage from Genesis as a foreshadowing of the Passion of Christ, for Christ, the beloved Son of God, walked up the via dolorosa to Golgotha carrying the wood for the holocaust, the cross. It was his blood spilled from the altar which was the cross. He stretched out his arms in the image of a priest offering sacrifice, and he offered the most holy and perfect sacrifice possible. And indeed, God did provide the lamb for the sacrifice. He provided himself as the lamb of sacrifice, the lamb whose head was caught in a crown of thorns as the ram was caught in the thicket.

So that brings me back to the question, how did Abraham know? Because Abraham was a man of faith. He trusted that God would take care of him. He knew that God would provide.

Exit and return

2006-03-07T23:48:00.000-06:00

Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. - Isaiah 55:10-11

In this passage from the book of the prophet, Isaiah, we see an image of the giving by God and the returning to God (or as Pope Benedict calls it in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, an example of exitus and reditus). The rain and snow come from heaven to do what they are meant to do and then return to heaven from whence they came. In a like manner, the word of God will come forth, do what it is intended to do, then return to God.

The word of God is that through which the universe came into being; that's the entire universe mind you which includes you and me and paramecia and cats and sand crabs and dust mites, etc. It was all willed into exitence by God as is described in Genesis, "And God said let there be___ and there was ___." Jesus is the incarnation of that word, the person through whom God willed all things into being, or as the preface to the Second Eucharistic Prayer says, "he is the Word through whom you made the universe." Even more simply put, God willed himself, the uncaused cause, into our nature. Infinite intermingled with finite, the eternal with the temporal, God with man.

Why? To do the will of the Father, the one who sent the Son (exitus). And when the Son, the Word of the Father, achieved the end for which he was sent, he returned to the Father (reditus). So, what was the will of the Father? That all might be saved. With the Fall of man, we accepted the exitus, but in our pride we refused the reditus because we turned away from God (a privilege of our freedom to reject God) and sought to do our will rather than God's, and in the process lost our way, and once lost we could not find the way back to God on our own. We needed someone to come and get us and bring us back to God. The only one who could do that was the one who sent us in the first place, God himself who came to us as a man. But he didn't just show us the way. He is the way.

Father, it is our duty and salvation always and everywhere to give you thanks through your beloved Son Jesus Christ. He is the Word through whom you made the universe, the Savior you sent to redeem us. By the power of the Holy Spirit he took flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. For our sake he opened his arms on the cross, he put an end to death and revealed the resurrection. In this he fulfilled your will and won for you a holy people. And so we join the angels and the saints in proclaiming your glory as we sing, "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might! Heaven and earth are full of your glory! Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!"

Saints Perpetua and Felicity, pray for us.

Flooded with grace

2006-03-05T22:37:00.000-06:00

This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him. - 1 Peter 3:21-22

Todays Old Testament reading from Genesis regarding Noah and the flood is reflected upon in the Epistle reading from St. Peter's first letter to all Christians. What the waters of the flood did was wash away the sin and corruption which had overtaken the world. Through the flood, the earth was regenerated. All was made new.

St. Peter's letter gives insight into the way the Church has viewed the story of the flood as an image whereby we are delivered from sin and death through the waters of baptism. The ark is an image of the Church in which Noah and his family were delivered from death through the waters of the flood. It is through the family of Noah that all the earth will be renewed.

It is interesting to me that some people still deny the saving power of baptism despite the scriptures being fairly straightforward saying that baptism saves. Through the waters of baptism, we are regenerated and made new creations much like the earth after the flood. We die to our former life of sin and are born again to our new life in the Spirit.

Being born again is not simply a vague conversion experience. It is a real act whereby the Church gives birth to her children at the baptismal font. As each of us is born into our human families through water (or amniotic fluid as the case may be), so we are born (again) into our divine family, the Church, through water (and the Spirit). We cannot enter God's family without being "born" any more than we can enter our human families without being "born." It just so happens that we enter our human families first, and we are reborn into God's.

I am truly thankful for the regeneration we experience through the waters of baptism, a regeneration forshadowed by Noah and his family as they were delivered from the sin and death of their former world through the waters of the flood.

The Call of Sinners

2006-03-04T22:58:00.000-06:00

Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.” - Luke 5:31-32

In this passage Jesus calls the tax collector, Levi, to follow him, which of course he does. (Levi is called Matthew in the gospel according to St. Matthew.) After his acceptance of the call, Jesus attends a banquet at Levi's house where there are tax collectors and other sinners. (I have always liked how in the bible there were tax collectors and then all of the rest of the sinners.) The Pharisees look with disdain to Jesus for dining with such people. Jesus replies with the above statement.

It is really a rather clever statement to be honest. It would appear that Jesus has come to be a thorn in the side of the Pharisees who certainly saw themselves as "the righteous." If he had come to call the sinner to repentance, what role would the Pharisees have in his kingdom?

Well, that is the real irony in the situation because the truth is that all are sinners, even the Pharisees. The Pharisees posed a question to Jesus, and in reply, Jesus gave them an invitation to repentance, the same invitation that he gave to Levi and the other disciples, the same invitation that he gives to all of us. The real question then is, will we be convinced of our righteousness or will we be aware of our sinfulness and need for redemption?

St. Casimir, pray for us.

Every day

2006-03-03T23:00:00.000-06:00

If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. - Luke 9:23

Jesus is teaching the disciples about the demands of folowing him. In the verses which follow this one, Jesus says, "but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." This gives a hint to the disciples of what to expect for their devotion to Christ. Many of them were martyred.

I have read this verse over and over, but I have never paid much attention to the word "daily." It is almost like my mind just sort of ran right over it, not to mention that in the gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, the word "daily" is not mentioned. This simple word adds a new dimension to the thought Jesus was putting forward.

We must daily make the commitment to deny ourselves and follow Christ, not merely make a one time profession of faith. The world around us poses unique challenges to us every day. These challenges can come in the form of temptation to sin, or they may be opportunities which will arise which could lead us to perform acts of mercy and charity for those who are in need. Either way, we must commit to serve Christ in our denial of ourselves through rejection of temptation and through service to others. As St. Luke quotes Christ, we must do this daily.

It is only appropriate that this day we remember St. Katharine Drexel. St. Katharine was an heiress, born in Philadelphia, who gave up her fortune to serve African Americans and Native Americans through the foundation of schools, including Xavier University in New Orleans. Through her example, we see one who daily denied herself for the benefit of others. Mother Drexel, pray for us.

Happy Birthday, Padre.

The glory of these forty days...

2006-03-01T23:10:00.000-06:00

In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. - 2 Corinthians 6:2

Today we begin Lent, the forty days of preparation that the Church observes prior to the Paschal feast. It is a time where the Church in her wisdom prescribes acts of penance meant to purify us and to help us grow in charity. The three acts of penance prescribed are fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. These are meant to detach us from worldly things and raise our hearts to God.

That got me to thinking about salvation and eternal life. I have had some discussions with many Christians of different traditions, and it would appear that the way I understand salvation and eternal life is somewhat different than others. Most would say that salvation/eternal life is something that begins when you die and enter heaven. I would agree with that. But what about now? Is eternal life/salvation attainable to me while I am on earth? The above verse from St. Paul's second letter to the Church at Corinth says yes indeed!

Salvation and eternal life are defined as the pure and endless joy which occurs when we are in communion with God. Eternal life is not merely some far off future event which we hope for, it is experienced whenever we unite our wills with that of God who is love. It is pure joy and happiness which is not bound to a particular time but to a particular experience which may occur in time but not necessarily. Eternity cannot have a future because eternity is forever now, and for that reason we can experience eternity in our everyday lives through our relationship with the God who is.

Lent calls us to perform acts which draw our focus away from ourselves and the world which is passing away. We grow in holiness through our self-denial because we become imitators of Christ who denied himself all the way to the cross. Through our self-denial we are united with Christ who is united with God. Thus it is through Christ that we achieve eternal life, and we achieve it now.

Riches and goodness

2006-02-28T23:23:00.000-06:00

Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." - Mark 10:18

This statement is a prelude for Jesus' teaching to the rich young man. The young man comes to Jesus and asks, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Some have said that Jesus is repudiating the young man for calling him good, but I think that what Jesus is doing is subtly telling him something different.

When Jesus spoke, he spoke with authority. He did not teach superficially but taught with the fullest possible meaning to his words. On the surface it would appear that this scripture verse would repudiate the long held Tradition that Jesus is God in flesh. As a matter of fact, I was cornered on this by a Muslim who was at the time better versed in the gospel of St. Mark than I was, and embarrassingly I was not able to defend my belief in the divinity of Jesus with anything that was remotely convincing.

That was about ten years ago. In all honesty, I should thank Dr. Ibrahim because were it not partially for his nudging, I would not have contemplated this much, and I would still not be able to answer convincingly, and not so much for him but for myself. If I do believe in the divinity of Jesus (which I do), how do I reconcile his words addressed to the rich young man? Knowing what I do now, I wish I could go back ten years and discuss this charitably with him again.

"Why do you call me good? Only God is good." Indeed this is truth. Only God is good. But if you simply read the words on the page, you only get half of the truth that Jesus is revealing, and that is "only God is good." A little bit of contemplation will reveal the fullness of his meaning. Applying the transitive property to the discourse, what we get is this: rich young man calls Jesus good. Jesus says, "Only God is good." Therefore, Jesus is God as revealed by the rich young man. Jesus is merely posing this question: "Are you really aware of the truth you are revealing about me when you call me good? Only God is good. Do you really recognize who I am? And if you do recognize me, do you know my true nature?"

That is why Jesus presses the man further...keeping the commandments. "I have kept all of those!" the man smugly replies. Jesus then tells the man that in order to inherit eternal life, to be united with God, he must sell all of his possessions. This proves to be too difficult for the man, and he walks away sad. But this is God's justice. To be united with God means to give completely, not holding anything back.

Then Jesus makes the statement that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. The disciples are astonished and say, "Well who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For men it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God." There is the counterpart to God's justice, that of God's mercy.

In this dialog we see Jesus revealing God's true nature of justice and mercy, for the reality is that we cannot do anything to inherit eternal life. We can only rely on God to be saved. So the point Jesus is making when he says, "Only God is good" is that it is only through the goodness and mercy of God that we can inherit eternal life, the goodness and mercy which is fully revealed in the passion, death and resurrection of the Son.

Worth his salt

2006-02-23T23:20:00.000-06:00

"Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is a good thing, but if salt has become insipid, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another." - Mark 9:49-50

Salt. We take it for granted, but at one time, it was as valuable as gold is to us. Its importance as a preservative led to the foundation of civilization since it allowed for food to be stored for long journeys. Roman soldiers were paid with salt (in part), something called salarium, hence the English term salary. Its worth would have been well known to the people of first century Palestine.

Jesus has just finished his teaching to the apostles which would have a person who just picks up the bible and reads it wondering if heaven is filled with maimed souls. "Pluck out your eye, cut off your hand, cut off your foot!" Jesus says, "if it causes you to sin. It is better to enter heaven with one eye or one hand or one foot than to end up in Gehenna with an intact body." Christians realize that Jesus is telling us to avoid sin at all cost.

But then he brings up salt. Besides being a preservative, salt is a seasoning and a purifying agent. So when Jesus says we will be salted with fire, he is saying we will be seasoned and purified through our sacrifices and sufferings, a purifying or seasoning fire much like the fire which refines gold or silver. By "cutting off our hand" to avoid sin (an allusion to suffering), we become purified and pleasing sacrifices to God. If we remain pure, we will be at peace with God and one another.

Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Polycarp of Smyrna. He was taught by St. John the Evangelist and was the bishop of the Church in Smyrna (yes the same one mentioned in the Book of Revelation). He was also a friend of St. Ignatius of Antioch. At the age of 87 he was martyred for his faith in Christ by being stabbed, and his corpse was burned at the stake. It is written that on the pyre "surrounded by the fire, his body was like bread that is baked, or gold and silver white-hot in a furnace, not like flesh that has been burnt", a literal image of what Christ calls being "salted by fire."

May the intercession of St. Polycarp give us the courage to share with him the cup of suffering and help us to seek Christ with all our hearts.

Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam

2006-02-22T23:01:00.000-06:00

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. - Matthew 16:18

Today is the feast of the Chair of St. Peter.

Few verses of scripture elicit heated debate in such a manner as Matthew 16:18. For Catholics, this verse defines the role of St. Peter as chief of the apostles. Jesus asks the disciples who they say he is, and Simon speaks up and says that Jesus is the "Messiah, the Son of the living God." For his faith, Jesus gives Simon the new name "Peter" which is translated from Greek as "rock" or "stone".

Catholics say that St. Peter's faith in Christ and his confession is the "rock" on which the Church is built. Orthodox and Protestants will agree that the "rock" is the faith which is the foundation of the Church. Where we disagree is that Catholics say that St. Peter himself is the personification of that faith in Christ, and because St. Peter was given the keys to the kingdom of Heaven, keys which are symbolic of the dynastic authority which is to be handed on to his successors, the Bishops of Rome, they will therefore hold the keys as well and will become the personification of that faith in Christ, living symbols of the faith of the Church.

Jesus himself defines the source of the Church's faith when he says, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father." (Matthew 16:17) The faith of which St. Peter is the personification comes from above, and since it is derived from God, it is without error. Therefore, when the Pope, the successor to St. Peter as Bishop of the Church in Rome, speaks on matters concerning this inerrant faith, his words are protected from error as well. This does not mean that the Pope is incapable of making a mistake (because even the Pope goes to confession). It means that God is incapable of making a mistake.

When we profess our faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Christ calls each of us blessed as well and reveals to us that the Father is the source of that profession of faith. The faith which all Catholics profess and which unites us is most visible in the man who sits in the Chair of St. Peter, the man who confirms his brothers and sisters in that faith, the man chosen by Christ to tend his flock, the man who holds the keys to Christ's kingdom. While our faith is the "rock", we are not. That title is reserved for him who holds the keys. This is what we celebrate today.

Holy Father Peter, pray for us.

Effective prayer

2006-02-20T23:10:00.000-06:00

Jesus, on seeing a crowd rapidly gathering, rebuked the unclean spirit and said to it, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!” Shouting and throwing the boy into convulsions, it came out. - Mark 9:25-26a

As Jesus descended the Mount of Transfiguration with Sts. Peter, James and John, he comes upon a crowd gathered. It is made known to him that the remaining disciples have attempted to drive out a demon from a man's daughter without success. Jesus scolds them ("O faithless generation, how long will I endure you?") and proceeds to drive the demon from the girl. This prompts the disciples to ask why they were not able to drive the demon from the girl to which Jesus responds, "This kind can only come out through prayer."

A couple of things came to mind when I contemplated this passage from St. Mark's gospel. First of all, Jesus scolds the disciples for their lack of faith. This is why they could not cast the demon out. This is why Jesus tells them that "this kind can only come out through prayer." It is only through their faith in God manifested through prayer that they will be able to drive out the demon. Prayer is communicating with God and therefore being united with him. The disciples learned a valuable lesson in that they were taught that they have the authority to remove demons only through their communion with God through prayer. It is not a power that they possess of themselves.

The second thing is that Jesus merely speaks the word, and the demon is dispelled. Christ's words are efficacious. They always produce the effect that he desires because of the authority that his words command. The gospel writers use this authority and effectiveness as evidence of the divinity of Christ. We can see that this is a characteristic of divinity from the very first chapter of the book of Genesis when God says, "Let there be _____ (fill in the blank) and there was _____ (again, fill in the blank)." God's word effects what he intends, and Jesus, God's only begotten Son and one in being with the Father, carries that same effectiveness when he speaks.

Lord Jesus, may your words effect in us true faith, hope and charity.

Peering through the divine window

2006-02-19T19:02:00.000-06:00

It is good to give thanks to Yahweh,
to make music to your name, Most High,
to proclaim your faithful love at daybreak,
and your constancy all through the night,
on the lyre, the ten-stringed lyre,
to the murmur of the harp. - Psalms 92:1-3

I am going to digress a bit from the weekly readings proclaimed at Mass since I have already cogitated about this week's gospel reading from St. Mark
here. (Although that particular day the rendering from St. Luke's gospel of the paralyzed man was proclaimed, but with the synoptics, the message quite often is the same.)

Today I was thinking about music in the worship of the church. I have come to a new understanding of its role in worship through my private and family prayer at home. I have started praying before icons in a corner of my home specifically set aside as holy space. (If anyone is interested in seeing what I am talking about, go here.) What I have come to realize is that the images that I have hanging lift my mind and heart to God. I do not worship the images, but through them, I am made acutely aware of God's salvific plan manifested through his Son, Jesus and the subsequent roles played by Mary, the Mother of God and the saints. Through prayer with the aid of the icons, God comes more into focus for me. The icons truly become what their definition is, a "window to the divine."

So, what does that have to do with music? Prior to 1965, the Mass was completely in Latin (except for the Kyrie eleison which is Greek). With the second Vatican Council and through the leadership of Pope Paul VI, the vernacular was re-introduced. Suddenly there was an influx of all sorts of music into the liturgy. Some of it was good, some bad. But to a large extent, the Latin music used in liturgy prior was relegated to the history books and replaced with music in the vernacular. People could finally understand what they were singing, although I seriously doubt they were completely in the dark prior to 1965.

Unfortunately, in the beginning there was a free for all, so that anything and everything was allowed to be sung in the liturgy. (Case in point, I went to a wedding where the offertory hymn was Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." I still shudder at that one.) This led to the music being catered to the tastes of those who were in charge of the music programs or to certain groups within the church like the teens or the charismatics. In a sense, people would go to certain Masses because they liked the music better.

What I now know is that I do not go to Mass for any purpose other than to worship God. The music, the readings, the decor, the vestments, all of this is meant to draw my focus away from myself and the world around me and toward the Lord in the Eucharist, the heavenly banquet in which we are participating. All of this is not meant to entertain me or anyone else for that matter. What does this all have to do with my icons? Well, I now see all aspects of worship become icons, and above all the music. The music should not draw attention to itself, rather it should make us aware of our communion with the divine, and through the Eucharist, our communion with one another.

Contemplating resurrection

2006-02-18T23:54:00.000-06:00

As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. - Mark 9:9

The Transfiguration of Christ is a big event in the gospels. Jesus goes to a high mountain, traditionally thought to be Mt. Tabor, and before the eyes of St. Peter, St. James, and St. John his glory is revealed to them. Moses and Elijah converse with Christ (a symbol that Christ is the fulfillment of the law and prophets), and a cloud settles over them like in the old testament accounts of the cloud surrounding the tent of meeting or the temple at its dedication (symbolic of God's presence among his people), and the voice of the Father is heard instructing them to listen to the Son. Quite the drama!

Simply put, the Transfiguration reveals that Christ is the fullness of the presence of God. He is the law and the prophets and he has taken on flesh to be united with his people in the most intimate way possible. Of course, the disciples didn't get it. We have St. Peter wanting to set up tents for the three of them. Honestly, you can't really fault them. If put in a similar situation, I doubt any of us would really know what to say.

But I was mostly intrigued with the above statement, that Jesus does not want them to tell anyone what they had seen until after he had risen from the dead. I don't think it is because Jesus wants the disciples to be tight lipped about it because of its sheer incredibleness. I think it is because they would not be able to begin to understand its significance until after the resurrection. It is not about Jesus wanting to keep things hidden, rather it is about Jesus wanting things to be revealed in the proper time.

Another thing. The disciples contemplated what rising from the dead meant. When I first read that I thought, "Wow. What a difference hindsight makes. We know what he was talking about." But after I thought about it for a while, I realized, the only difference between me and the disciples in this passage is where they are in time in relation to the resurrection. The audacity of me to think I understand what it means to rise from the dead because I most certainly don't!

The concept of resurrection was not unfamiliar with the Jews of the time, however, we have the knowledge that it has actually happened with Christ, although how it happens, and what we will be like when it happens remains a mystery. This mystery of the mechanism of the resurrection remained even after Jesus revealed himself to the twelve after he rose as is evidenced in the first letter of St. John, "Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2)

So, even in this post-resurrection age, we contemplate what it means to rise from the dead just as the apostles did when they descended from the mountain with Christ after the Transfiguration.

St. Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem and martyr, pray for us.

Who do you say that I am?

2006-02-16T23:19:00.000-06:00

At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” - Mark 8:33

"Who do people say that I am?" This is a question posed to the disciples by Jesus on the road to Caesarea Philippi, and their answers vary from John the Baptist to Elijah to one of the prophets. "But who do you say that I am?" Jesus then asks. St. Peter is quick to proclaim, "You are the Messiah." Jesus then begins to teach openly of his coming rejection by the Jews, his passion, death and resurrection. St. Peter then took Jesus aside and rebuked him for this to which Jesus turned and rebuked St. Peter with the above statement. In this passage of scripture we see the dichotomy of human beings, that of humility versus pride.

First we see St. Peter proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah. St. Matthew goes as far as quoting Jesus as saying that St. Peter was blessed for this proclamation because this was a revelation from God alone. It is only by God's grace that we can know that Jesus is the Christ. It is not possible to come to this conclusion through human faculties alone.

In the second part we see Jesus rebuking St. Peter and calling him Satan. Is it because suddenly St. Peter has become evil? No. It is because St. Peter is using his human faculties and understanding to rebuke Jesus for talking about his passion, death, and resurrection and thus rejecting God's plan for salvation. St. Peter is no longer relying on God's grace for understanding but attempting to understand using human reasoning, and this human reasoning leads him to logically reject the suffering of the Lord, his friend.

Jesus asks each and every one of us the same questions: Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am? The answer seems simple enough for us today, however, the answer still requires us to respond to God's grace. It requires discernment. If we are attuned to God's grace, we can then and only then answer truthfully, "You are the Christ! The Son of the living God!"

A pinch of yeast ferments the whole batch.

2006-02-14T23:40:00.000-06:00

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” - Mark 8:14-15

The setting for this discourse by the Lord with disciples comes after Jesus multiplies the loaves for the crowd and after he has the "give me a sign" run in with the Pharisees. Jesus left the Pharisees and crossed to the other shore by boat with his disciples. While they were crossing, the disciples noticed they had forgotten to bring some bread with them. At this point, Jesus pops off the warning to the disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

Now, I can only imagine the frame of mind that Jesus was in at this point, and I can only imagine what the disciples were thinking as well. Jesus is their leader, and he has just told off the Pharisees who were regarded very highly in the Jewish faith. We have all been in this position before, when say our supervisor and his boss exchange words in front of us, and we are left in an awkward and uncomfortable position. Then the supervisor pipes up with some statement that makes things only more awkward. This is what is happening here with Jesus and his disciples, so when Jesus warns them about the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, I am sure that they were thinking, "Huh? What is this leaven he is talking about? Is it because we didn't bring any bread?"

Jesus then becomes even more flustered because it would seem that the disciples have completely missed the significance of all the events that they have just witnessed. As Jesus says to them, "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not understand, still not realize? Are your minds closed? Have you eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear?" The disciples are focused on the materialistic aspects of the miracles, that of bread and fish rather than the compassion of Christ and his feeding of the hungry crowd with multiple baskets of bread left over, an image of the overflowing nature of God's love and mercy.

So what of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod? Leaven or yeast has a corrupting action on bread due to fermentation which makes the bread rise. In the process, the bread becomes more palatable and easier to digest. When Jesus speaks of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, he is speaking of the corruption of God's truth which would make it easier for the listener to accept. So, the leaven of Herod would be that of the decadent hedonistic world in which prudence and sound judgment are thrown to the wind, and the desires of the flesh are put above all else. But the leaven of the Pharisees is perhaps more dangerous because it is the outward show of holiness which serves the self before God or others, i.e. hypocrisy. Both of these scenarios are at odds with the gospel which is love that is selfless and sacrificial in nature.

This is the point that Jesus is trying to drive home with the disciples. It is the same lesson that he teaches to all generations. Thank heaven he is patient with our ignorance!

Through the intercession of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, may Christ our God have mercy on us and save us.

Sighs and signs

2006-02-13T23:42:00.000-06:00

He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” - Mark 8:12

The Pharisees were always trying to test Jesus, and it is obvious in this verse from St. Mark's gospel that it sometimes got to him. We don't often hear that Jesus sighed from the depth of his spirit, but it would be a sure sign that he is frustrated. In this case, they were looking for a sign from heaven which would verify his claim of having come from God, proof that he was who he said he was.

Even today people seek signs from above, although more often than not they do not have the same motives as the Pharisees did with Jesus. Most often today, people who seek signs are looking for hope rather than proof. What we need to realize is that God is not some magician who is going to perform when we ask him to. The problem is not a lack of signs but a lack of discernment. The signs are there. The question then becomes are we too blind to recognize them?

Today and everyday our challenge becomes to not put God to the test, but rather to read the signs around us and have true faith and hope.

Lawful or Beneficial?

2006-02-12T23:44:00.000-06:00

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. - 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

St. Paul was questioned by the Church at Corinth about many things, and in this case he is responding to their question about eating meat offerred in sacrifice to pagan idols. It would appear that the Christians at Corinth had questioned whether certain meats offered in the market or at the homes of pagans would be lawful to eat. St. Paul says that in good conscience, if you buy meat in the market place or eat meat at a pagan's house and you were not informed that the meat was from a sacrifice to an idol, then it is lawful because all things belong to God in the first place. However, if they were specifically told that the meat had been offered to a pagan idol, that was a completely different circumstance. Take home message? It ain't the meat that is the problem, it is who is offering it and for what purpose.

But I was most interested in the summary that St. Paul offers at the end of chapter 10. It is a summary of what it means to follow Christ. We should not fight and bicker with one another. We should not offend anyone, but we should always consider the other person and what is in their best interest in all that we do. When we act in this manner, then everything that we do will give glory to God the Father through his Son, Jesus Christ.

Put simply, St. Paul is appealing for us to be imitators of Christ by imitating him. And even more profound, St. Paul is entreating us to love, because love always puts the needs of the beloved above our own needs. This love that St. Paul describes is the virtue of Christian Charity which means that we will seek the benefit of all, even those with whom we are at odds (such as the Jews and the pagans or the guy at work or school who is on our last nerve). After all, isn't this exactly what Christ did for us while we were yet sinners?

You are what you eat

2006-02-11T23:36:00.000-06:00

Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and began handing them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them among the crowd. - Mark 8:6

This passage of scripture recounts the second miracle of the loaves found in St. Mark's gospel. In this account, Jesus is moved to pity for the crowd (four thousand people in this account) which had been following him for three days because they had nothing to eat. He did not want to send them away hungry, so he asked the disciples what provisions they had with them which turned out to be seven loaves of bread and a few fish. Jesus took the bread and fish, said a blessing, and had them distributed. All were satisfied.

The miracles of the loaves have a deep eucharistic significance. Those who are attentive at Mass will see the parallels which are steeped in the ritual which plays out every Sunday in our churches. We who follow Jesus gather at a place which is typically deserted of people except for set times. We listen to the Lord as he speaks to us through the words of the scriptures. The words of scripture spoken by Christ through the lector, cantor, deacon or priest leave us longing for communion with him.

Jesus knows our hearts are hungry for the nourishment which only he can provide, so he asks what food do we have. And we bring up gifts of bread and wine which the priest takes and blesses and through the power of the Holy Spirit and Christ's words of institution ("Take this all of you and eat it. This is my body which will be given up for you." "Take this all of you and drink from it. This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins might be forgiven. Do this in memory of me.") the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Jesus then gives his Body and Blood to his disciples (priests and deacons as well as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion) who then bring it to the waiting crowd who eat and are satisfied. The disciples then gather what is left over, enshrine what is left of the Lord's Body and Blood in the tabernacle so that it may be both adored and brought to the sick, and purify the remaining vessels in the same manner that the disciples collected the scraps of bread and fish which were left over after the crowd had been fed.

As Jesus sent the crowd on its way that day, he dismisses us to go into the world and proclaim his power and might which is manifested in the feeding of the many on a single loaf and a single cup which was transformed into his Body and Blood and therefore, has transformed us into his Body and Blood. After all, you are what you eat.

Our Lady of Lourdes, come to our aid. Through your intercession, may Christ our God have mercy on us and save us.

Children and Dogs

2006-02-09T23:24:00.000-06:00

He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”- Mark 7:27

It would appear that Jesus was insulting this Greek woman who had come to him asking him to drive out a demon from her daughter. What we are actually seeing here is a witty exchange between the Gentile woman and Jesus. Jesus is aware of her need, but the message he is attempting to get across to her is that his ministry is first to the children of Israel, the Jews. He is "the food of the children" not meant to be thrown to "the dogs" which was a derogatory term the Jews had for the gentiles. The woman in return says, "But even the dogs under the table get to eat the children's scraps!" Jesus rewards her faith which is manifested in her quick wit by driving the demon from her daughter.

The lesson to be learned from this exchange is fairly simple. Jesus rewards people for their faith in him, not for their status. While it is true that Jesus came to minister first to the Jews, his ministry was not to be limited to them. Through Jesus, all people will be brought to salvation. All nations will be fed. All will become "the children" so that there will be no dogs to eat the scraps under the table that fall from the children.

But even more interesting is the context of this story and its place in St. Mark's gospel. Just yesterday we read about Jesus declaring all foods clean, a new teaching for the Jews, and today we hear about Jesus giving to this Gentile woman the food for the children for her faith in him. It is another prediction about the coming kingdom that Jesus will found, a kingdom founded on faith and not ritual law, a kingdom that would include the gentiles who heretofore had been referred to as "dogs."

So, in reality, Jesus was not attempting to insult the woman, but trying to ascertain her faith in him.

Will the real defilement please stand?

2006-02-08T23:50:00.000-06:00

“Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”- Mark 7:14b-15

When Christians read this verse of scripture from St. Mark's gospel, we are apt to think, "Duh!" But we read on to find that the Apostles apparently were dumb struck by the comment. Keep in mind, they were faithful Jews who adhered to the Law of Moses which said that certain foods were unclean, so for Jesus to say that things ingested are not unclean was something foreign to their way of thinking.

This teaching had huge implications for religious practice. Slowly but surely, Jesus is revealing that he is freeing them from the enslavement to the Mosaic Code, a freedom which was completed with his death and resurrection. Jesus is revealing that it is not possible for us to climb to highest heaven to meet God through adherence to written laws. God must come to us in order for us to have communion with him. It is now revealed that what makes us unworthy or unclean is not something from outside but a misguided heart which is the source of all sin, and the truth is that the only thing that can cleanse us from this inner filthiness is God himself, who has stooped down to offer us a way to achieve holiness through his Son Jesus. However, because God is love, he will only wash us clean if we let him. He certainly will not force us because force is not love.

Now I see Psalm 51 in an entirely new light, and I rejoice that God has stooped down to me so that I can have communion with him, and in stooping down, he has released me from the chains of the law which once bound all men. He has made me clean.

Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure;
wash me, make me whiter than snow.
For you do not desire sacrifice;
a burnt offering you would not accept.
My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit;
God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.
- Psalm 51: 7,16-17

Tradition and traditions

2006-02-07T23:33:00.000-06:00

He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.' You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." -Mark 7:6-8

Jesus was rather harsh with the Pharisees. He would refer to them with titles like "hypocrites" or "blind guides" or "unseen graves", and he lamented their strict adherence to traditions because those traditions often imposed a heavy burden on people. This got me to thinking about my own faith.

For Catholics, traditions play a role in our everyday journey of faith. We abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent, we have a celibate priesthood, we light candles and pray before icons, we bless ourselves when entering the Church with holy water, and we genuflect to the Blessed Sacrament prior to entering our pews. Does this mean that Jesus would frown on these traditions of ours as he did on those of the Pharisees?

I don't think so, and here is why. The traditions which I have just outlined are not imposed upon us as doctrines. They are disciplines which aid our growth in holiness. They are ways that we show piety toward God and thus give him glory. This is the big difference between our tradition and the Pharasaical traditions. When the Pharisees observed a tradition, they did not do it to give glory to God. They did it for personal gain even if it meant burdening others.

These traditions are not to be confused with Sacred Tradition which is something quite different. Sacred Tradition is that which was given to the Apostles by Jesus and is a deposit of the faith. The Scriptures are part of Sacred Tradition in that the correct way to read them is in light of the teaching of the Apostles. Sacred Tradition is not human tradition, rather it is divine revelation, and since it is revealed by God, it must be believed by all. For example, that God is triune yet one is Sacred Tradition.

So long as our traditions aid in our understanding of God and growth in holiness, they are appropriate. However, when these traditions become more important than the Lord himself, they will cease to be effective ways of growing in holiness. At this point, we will become "hypocrites", "fools", and "blind guides."

Tangible grace

2006-02-06T22:48:00.000-06:00

Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed. - Mark 6:56

The above verse from St. Mark's gospel is pretty much self-explanatory. Wherever Jesus went, crowds of people would recognize him and would bring him their sick to be healed. Pope John Paul II used to attract crowds as well, and many people lamented the fact that he was like a rock star because wherever he went, stadiums were filled to capacity. I suppose there are people who want the Pope to be holed up in the Vatican out of sight, much the same way that the Pharisees wanted Jesus to be out of sight.

But on to other things. The people who were brought to Jesus in order to be healed only had to so much as touch his tassel in order for their afflictions to be cured. Of course, it wasn't the tassel that did the healing but their faith in Christ, but it is interesting that this passage of the gospel doesn't say, "Many people were brought to Jesus, and because they had faith alone they were healed." No, it says that the people wanted to touch the tassel and if they did, they were cured. It was necessary for their faith to be made manifest in the touching of Jesus' tassel in order for the healing to take place. It was necessary to put that faith into action in order for it to be realized.

We Catholics get a bit of grief from people who say that faith alone is necessary for salvation, for we believe that salvation can only come about through faith working in love. As St. James says in his letter, "You now see that it is by deeds, and not only by believing, that someone is justified...As a body without a spirit is dead, so is faith without deeds." (James 2:24,26) The above passage from St. Mark's gospel reveals just such a situation, for the faith of the sick did not result in healing until they touched the tassel of the Master; it had to be put into action to bear fruit. With contemplation we come to realize that the faith and the act are as inseperable as the three persons of the Blessed Trinity.

God knows that we are people who are bound to our five senses. God communicates spiritual reality to us through our own physical reality. Therefore, in order to fully experience God's grace it is necessary for us to experience it through tangible signs. These tangible signs are not magical visions or warm and fuzzy feelings, on the contrary, they are simple gifts. And God uses exceptionally common things in order to reveal to us that we have been graced: water, bread, wine, oil. We can feel, taste, see, smell and hear these physical realities, and through the eyes of faith we can know that something miraculous has occurred, that God's grace, his Divine love has been given to us. While the fact that God's grace is given to us is a miracle in and of itself, it is also miraculous that such a powerful thing can be given to us under the sign of something which seems so insignificant.

St. Paul Miki, you and your companions who were martyred by crucifixion, pray for us.

Faith and understanding

2006-02-05T23:54:00.000-06:00

Job spoke, saying: Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery? Are not his days those of hirelings? He is a slave who longs for the shade, a hireling who waits for his wages. So I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted to me. - Job 7:1-3

The book of Job is a book of wisdom. God allows Satan to test Job to see if he will remain faithful to God despite great misfortune. He loses his possessions and his children but remains faithful. Then he is stricken with physical ailments which are painful and repulsive, yet he remains faithful despite calls from his wife and friends to curse God and die. A couple of things come to mind when I ponder the book of Job.

First, it is interesting that God allows Satan to test Job. This tells me that God is ultimately in control of Satan. Furthermore, Satan is called the accuser and what happens to Job gives us insight into his nature. In a sense, Satan is like a prosecuting attorney in a trial where God is the judge. Situations (even situations which Satan himself has conceived) which result in us tripping up and falling have Satan accusing us before God as inferior creatures not worthy of God's mercy. So often we hear the phrase, "The devil made me do it." In reality, the devil doesn't have that kind of power over our wills. If we have done anything wrong, it is by freely chosing to do so. Satan merely uses our wrongdoing to humiliate us and spotlight our weakness. In a way, it is the nastiest of evils, exploiting our weakness for his gain and ridiculing us when we fall. This is why it is imperative that we inform our consciences well so that we will be able to make wise choices while resisting those choices which may seem good but end up being not so wise in the end.

Secondly, Job, through all of his suffering does the one thing that is only natural and human. He seeks to understand. Here is a man who is righteous, who serves God with all his heart, and yet suffers greatly. While his friends tell him that his suffering is certainly due to guilt of sin, Job maintains his innocence, and while he is certain of his innocence, he is puzzled as to why his innocence would be so rewarded. He turns to God for answers but gets nothing at first, yet rather than turning away from God, he continues to trust. God finally does answer him by revealing how impenetrable is the depth of who he is and how unfathomable are his designs. As God was silent while Job questioned, now Job is silent as God answers. Job understands that he will not always understand.

The final theme? Our faith in God must not be shaken by a lack of understanding, even if that means that we must suffer. The book of Job paves the way for the revelation of the redemptive character of suffering which is manifested through the passion of the Lord, for Jesus trusted despite great suffering and even death, and for this faith he was rewarded by being raised to eternal life.

Lost Sheep

2006-02-04T22:36:00.000-06:00

When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. - Mark 6:34

I was thinking about our priests today as I pondered the gospel reading at Mass this morning. The Apostles had gathered and were telling Jesus about all that they had done and taught and Jesus replied, "Ok. Let's go away to a deserted place to rest." But word got out that they were going to said "place", and there was a crowd waiting for them when they got there. I can imagine that most people would have been exhausted and rather dismayed to see such a crowd waiting for them as they were preparing for a much needed rest. It must have been like going on a vacation that you are looking forward to only to find out that your office has relocated to the place you are vacationing!

But Jesus saw the crowd and was moved to pity because he knew their hearts, and he knew that they were hungering for God. Jesus who was never one to put his needs above anything else recognized their great need and despite his need for rest, sat and taught the crowds. Like the Good Shepherd that he was, he tended his sheep who were in need.

I witness a similar event in the life of my own parish. People are so in need of spiritual guidance that the priests are seldom given the opportunity to just stop and recharge. And the most awesome thing is that they, like Jesus, are usually quick to recognize the needs of the people whom they serve and are willing to stop and spend time teaching and ministering to their flock, often times putting their own plans on hold even if just for a few minutes to do the Lord's work.

I am no different from those people who sought the Lord and the Apostles back in first century Palestine, and I am one of those parishoners who will stop to chat with the priests looking for some little morsel of spiritual nourishment to help me through the day. So, in this blog entry, I would like to say that I am grateful to God for the shepherds that he has sent to our parish. Father John and Father Kenny, both of you are truly an inspiration and a shining example of Christian charity. May Our Lady keep you close to her heart, and through her intercession, may God bless you and save you.

Presentation

2006-02-02T23:33:00.000-06:00

They [Mary and Joseph] took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. - Luke 2:22b-24

Today is the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple by Our Lady and St. Joseph. The ritual law of Israel required that 40 days after the birth of a child, a period of time in which the mother would be legally impure and unable to touch anything sacred, that every child born be presented to the Lord, and as part of that presentation, the mother of the child was to offer a year-old lamb and a turtledove in sacrifice as an expiation of sin. If the woman could not afford a lamb, then she was to offer two turtledoves instead.

This brings a couple of things to the forefront of my mind. First of all, the Blessed Mother offers two turtledoves instead of a year-old lamb. This means that Our Lady was a woman of modest means, she was a "lowly handmaid" of the Lord. In her lowliness, the Mother of God was full of God's grace, she was aware of her complete dependence on God, and she proclaimed his greatness in the Magnificat. In a sense, her poverty is all the more impressive because in spite of it, she is the most blessed of all women, blessed in that she was completely and humbly accepting of her role in salvation history, and therefore, blessed by God.

The second thing is the idea of the Blessed Mother offering a sacrifice to God for the expiation of sin. The constant Tradition of the Church has taught that Our Lady was without sin from the moment of her conception. There are those who would say that because she offered the two turtledoves, she must therefore have sinned in some fashion. I believe, on the contrary, that she was being obedient to the Law of Moses to which she was bound, and had she not made the offering of two turtledoves, she very well would have sinned, the sin of disobedience to the command of the Lord. It is along the same lines as what Christ did on the cross, not exactly the same, but along the same lines. Even though he was without sin, Christ obediently offered himself in sacrifice to the Father for the expiation of sin, being obedient to the point that he allowed himself to be cursed (by being hung from a tree), yet no one would dare say that Christ had sinned and as proof of his sinfulness, he offered himself in sacrifice for those sins.

So, let us follow the example of humility and charity which is the Blessed Virgin Mary: always obedient, always leading us to her Son, always immaculate.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, have mercy on us and save us!

The Hometown Crowd

2006-02-01T23:35:00.000-06:00

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. - Mark 6:4-6

A few things come to mind when I contemplate the beginning of the 6th chapter of St. Mark's gospel. Jesus is back in his hometown amongst people who know him, and he is teaching in the synagogue. To their amazement, Jesus teaches with great authority, and they are astonished by this. They ask, "Isn't this the son of Mary? Aren't his brothers and sisters here? Where on earth did he get this wisdom?" Then the gospel goes on to say, "And they took offense at him." (Some say "And they did not accept him.")

First of all, the people of Nazareth are intimately familiar with Jesus and his work as a carpenter. For him to show up as a teacher in synagogue, and one who appears to know what he is talking about at that, obviously sets people aback. This is the sin of pride. It is one which we often encounter when we become jealous of the special talents of someone with whom we are familiar, especially if there is no prior witness of the talents. It is fairly easy to see what the people in the synagogue were aiming to do. Because they were familiar with him, they were attempting to denigrate Jesus by saying, "What's so special about him? That's just Mary's boy, the carpenter."

God is always offering to us all that we need, however, we are free to reject his gifts, and if we reject them, what can they do for us? Similarly, Jesus offers much to the people of Nazareth, but in their rejection of him, he is not able to do much for them. While this rejection prevents "mighty deeds" from being witnessed, it is not because of a lack of the ability of Jesus to do so, rather it is out of love because Jesus will not force upon anyone something that they themselves are not willing to accept. To do otherwise would be self-centered, something that is foreign to God.

I really liked the last sentence: "He was amazed at their lack of faith." What a paradox! The people in the synagogue were amazed at the wisdom which Jesus displayed and at the works he had done, yet despite this, they resented the Lord. Just as Jesus was familiar to the people and this led to them being offended by him, so the people were familiar to Jesus, and rather than being unaffected by their response to him, he is amazed, amazed that people whom he loves so well, whom he would serve so willingly would be so quick to reject him.

Be free of anxiety

2006-01-29T23:13:00.000-06:00

I should like you to be free of anxieties.
I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction. - 1 Corinthians 7:32a,35

St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians was partly written to address questions posed by the Church there. In Chapter 7 marriage is discussed. It would appear that the Church in Corinth was advocating asceticism in matters of sexuality. In and of itself this is not a bad thing, but the Church at Corinth was distorting it in such as way as to make it the only good thing. This was causing some distress to some of the members of the Church at Corinth, and St. Paul took this opportunity to clarify things.

St. Paul mentions that unmarried people have anxiety about pleasing the Lord, while married people have anxiety about pleasing their spouses. This is not meant to say that an unmarried state is somehow better than a married one. The point lies in the word "anxiety." St. Paul is making the point that there should be no anxiety over pleasing the Lord or the spouse. Anxiety over right behavior should not take precedence over serving the Lord. Christ should be the center of the lives of those who are married and those who are unmarried. The anxiety over adhering to some custom only serves to distract people from the Lord causing them to focus on that custom rather than on the Christ and his teachings.

St. Paul is therefore saying regardless of the state you are in (married or unmarried), do not let anything distract you from Jesus. We are to keep in mind that the gospel of Jesus does not put restraints on people but frees them from anxiety and grounds them in love.

Stormy weather

2006-01-28T23:24:00.000-06:00

He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” - Mark 4:39-40

After teaching the crowds, Jesus and the disciples get into a boat and cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus falls asleep in the stern of the boat, and as they cross, a fierce storm suddenly overtakes them and puts the disciples in a panic. Waves are crashing over the bow of the boat, and the disciples cry out to Jesus for help. (“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”) Now, with the benefit of hindsight, many people these days would see the disciples as begging for divine intervention from Jesus. In reality, the disciples were probably more perturbed that while they were perilously taking on water, Jesus was sound asleep. They were most likely saying, "Hey Jesus! Are you going to just lay there sleeping while we sink, or are you going to help us get rid of this water?" To their astonishment, he divinely intervenes and stops the storm. Not quite what they expected, but hey, it worked.

Nowadays we experience our own "storms" which overwhelm us, but unlike the disciples we are more likely to be astonished if Jesus does not divinely intervene the way we want. Our faith in Christ does not mean that he will intervene as we want, rather that we will rely on Christ to intervene as he knows best. Sometimes this can be a tough and painful lesson for us to learn, but that lesson will lead us to become less self-centered, and this in turn will allow us to grow in holiness. Is this not what God's plan for us is in the first place?

Sometimes when Jesus says, "Quiet! Be still!" he is not talking to the storm, but to us, calling on us to stop focusing on the storms of life around us and place our focus squarely on him. It is only then that he can effectively help us and calm the raging tempest.

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

The seed which produces a kingdom

2006-01-27T23:45:00.000-06:00

Jesus said to the crowds, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the harvest has come." - Mark 4:26-29

I was intrigued with this passage because I am familiar with much of the gospels, but not this parable, so I thought I would contemplate it for today. It appears to be pretty straightforward. Jesus likens the kingdom to a man who plants seed, and with time the seed sprouts and grows, the mechanism behind this growth he cannot explain. Without any help from the man (other than sowing the seed) the land brings forth in its own prescribed manner the fruit of the seed, and when the time is right the man comes and harvests what he has sown and the earth has produced.

So, here is my take on it. This seed is the Word. The Word, by the way, is not the same thing as the scriptures although the scriptures are part of it. The Word is the Verbum Dei, or Jesus, the eternal Word of God. This is not merely the printed word on the pages of the bible, but the living Word of God as proclaimed by the Church which was given to her by her Lord. Jesus, the eternal Word, cannot be confined to words printed in a book.

Jesus teaches the twelve, and they go out and spread those teachings, the Gospel, to all the earth. The seed, God's word, has been scattered. It will grow of its own intrinsic power, a power present in humanity through the Holy Spirit, although how it works is not altogether understood by men. It is a mystery. The fruit which is produced is really two-fold. First of all, the Word effects a conversion in the individual which leads to spiritual maturity at which time it will be harvested, and the individual will be united with God in heaven. Secondly, the Word will lead to the foundation of the kingdom through its spread. It starts with Jesus and the twelve and on its own will take root throughout the world. This is exactly what the Church has done in both cases.

I suppose what makes this interesting is how people define the "kingdom of God." A lot of people I know say that it is heaven. That is part of it, but the kingdom of God that Jesus is referring to is the Church on earth as well. The Church started off with a small group of followers who safeguarded the seed, the Word which was taught them, and has grown into a mature and highly complex living thing just as Jesus said, which is guided and protected by the power of the Holy Spirit. The key to all of this is that the Church is a living thing. What gives it life is the Holy Spirit. What safeguards it from error is the Holy Spirit. What assures that it will achieve its full development is the power of the Holy Spirit.

Man will continue to spread the Word, the seed which bears much fruit. Indeed, the seed already has produced much fruit and from this fruit, more seed will be sown and more fruit will be produced, and the kingdom will never end. Blessed be God forever!

Power from above

2006-01-26T23:40:00.000-06:00

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God. - 2 Timothy 1:7-8

In his second letter to St. Timothy, St. Paul is admonishing St. Timothy to nurture the charism which he received through the laying on of hands. God's gift of the Holy Spirit imparted to St. Timothy through ordination was not to be neglected but fueled and fanned into a flame through the aid of the Holy Spirit so that St. Timothy would be emboldened to face the hardships which most certainly would face him in the coming years.

This hearkens back to the birth of the Church at Pentecost. On that day, the Apostles had met together when suddenly there was the sound of a violent rushing wind and tongues as of fire came to rest on the head of each of them and they were emboldened to proclaim the Gospel to all people. Here was a group of men who just a few weeks before were frightened out of their minds for fear that they would end up on a cross like Jesus now standing up and openly proclaiming him as Messiah in the synagogues.

Cowardice is defined as ignoble fear in the face of danger or pain. Ignoble is the key; completely lacking nobility in character. It is through the Holy Spirit that human beings are filled with dignity, a nobility that comes as a gift from God. Cowardice is not the natural state of human beings filled with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit bestows dignity and nobility to us. It is not that we will never be afraid, but through the Holy Spirit, that fear can be overcome. This will give us power over fear, power to love freely without fear of repercussion.

As St. Paul calls St. Timothy to proclaim the Gospel unashamedly, so he calls each of us to do the same. This does not mean to stand up arrogantly for the Gospel but humbly and lovingly letting the Spirit lead us. We also must be prepared for rejection or mistreatment, but by surrendering ourselves to God, we will be able to face any hardship which may come our way with courage and strength.

St. Timothy and St. Titus, pray for us.

Conversion

2006-01-25T22:15:00.000-06:00

"The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice; for you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard. Now, why delay? Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away, calling upon his name." - Acts 22:14-16

These are the words of the righteous man, Ananias, to St. Paul after his conversion to the faith on the road to Damascus. St. Paul is on his way to gather up followers of "the Way" and bring them back in chains to be punished for their adherance to the teachings of Christ when he is suddenly enveloped by a bright light, and he hears the voice of Jesus. Interestingly, in one account the companions of St. Paul hear the voice but see no one (Acts 9), and in another, they see the light but do not hear the voice (Acts 22). I have kind of contemplated why this discrepancy exists, and I have come up with a couple of ideas.

The first is that the importance of the event had little to do with the supporting players and their experience, rather it was about St. Paul's experience, for in each account, St. Paul's experience is exactly the same. The other thing I considered is that the fullness of the experience of the risen Christ, that of seeing the light and hearing the voice, was reserved for St. Paul since he was to lead the Church, and his companions were given incomplete signs; theologically, you can almost envision Moses in the tent of meeting conversing with God while the Israelites outside saw the theophany and knew God was present but didn't experience God in the same personal manner that Moses did.

The total blindness of Saul experienced on the road to Damascus and the restoration of his sight by the words of Ananias reveal to us an image of Saul's religious blindness as a Pharisee which is cured when St. Paul hears the Word from the mouth of Ananias. Sure, St. Paul's conversion experience was quite dramatic, but our own coversion experiences along our journey of faith, our own roads to Damascus, can be symbolized with images of blindness and restoring of sight. How often is the truth right before our very eyes, and we are completely blind to it, only to have our eyes opened through the power of the Holy Spirit working through another person. In our own way, each of us is a "St. Paul" who finds our way through an "Ananias."

If nothing else, St. Paul's conversion is a testamony to the power of God's grace. If a murderous hit man whose goal in life was to persecute Christ and his Church can end up spreading the Gospel and dying for the faith as one of its greatest apostles, I dare say it is quite true that anything is possible with God.

Holy Father Paul, I love you. Pray for us all that we may experience true conversion.

The Relatives of God

2006-01-24T22:59:00.000-06:00

And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” - Mark 3:33-35

Jesus used every opportunity to make a point. In this particular passage from St. Mark's gospel, Jesus was teaching when his relatives arrived, and a message was passed through the crowds informing Jesus of their arrival. Jesus saw this as a perfect time to teach and therefore announced that anyone who does the will of God is his true kinsman.

There are some who would say that Jesus was distancing himself from his relatives, most specifically, his mother. Now, Jesus was born under the Law, and since he was Jewish he would be obedient to the Mosaic Law. We all know that he would have honored his mother. Jesus therefore would not have used this opportunity to belittle his mother in front of a crowd of people. He was most certainly attempting to make a point with his lesson to the crowds.

And that lesson is this. When we are baptized, we are born again as members of the Body of Christ. As such, we are called to participate in the Great Commission in bringing the Gospel to all people. As Our Lady gave birth to Jesus and through this birth revealed him to the world, we have the power through the grace of the Holy Spirit and through our living the Gospel to reveal him to the world around us, to give birth to Christ, to be his mother. We are called to bring people to the waters of baptism where they will be born from above and become a new creation in Christ.

Rather than Christ chastising his mother, he was using her as an example, revealing to all those present a means for them to be able to participate in the salvific work which was begun with her fiat mihi. What a wonderful image for Christians to ponder.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

What's good is good, and what's evil is evil.

2006-01-23T22:59:00.000-06:00

Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin. - Mark 3:28-29

As I pondered this passage from the Gospel according to St. Mark, a couple of things came to my mind. First of all was Jesus' use of the term Amen. It is an interesting little word that is the response of the people at the end of a prayer through which we affirm with all our heart that the prayer just spoken is our own prayer; in essence we are saying "Ditto."

When Jesus used the term Amen before he spoke, he was saying, "Listen carefully because this is crucial." (Or as we used to say in college and medical school, "This is going to be on the test.") Jesus was solemnly assuring us that what he was about to say held such importance that it must be adhered to in order for someone to be his follower. It was a verbal underlining or asterisk. Get the picture?

So, when Jesus spoke of blasphemy, he was very specific about what was serious blasphemy. Blasphemy of any kind would be forgiven, but not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit because such blasphemy was an everlasting sin. Now, most people have this idea that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is to not believe in God. This could very well fall under the definition, but I believe that the blasphemy about which Jesus speaks is something much more insidious than a glaring rejection of God by not acknowledging his existence.

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in its ugliest and most insidious form can be deciphered by understanding Jesus' comment in the context of the discussion going on at the time. The scribes were accusing Jesus of being posessed by Beelzebul, and they proclaimed that it was through the prince of darkness that Jesus drove out demons. Jesus counters with the "a house divided against itself can never stand" argument, and then makes the statement about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The key to understanding what Jesus meant by that statement is based on this.

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is simply reversing the roles of good and evil so that what is good is seen as evil and what is evil is seen as good. When you contemplate this, it is easy to realize why Jesus says that it is an "everlasting sin" because if you accept as good that which is really evil, you will never know to repent! How could you? You think it is good! And if you are convinced what is truly good is evil, you will always reject it because you are convinced it is evil (when in reality it is good). This is why it is so insidious, and why we must be open to God's truth for to close ourselves to it is to render as evil that which is good.

When we understand this concept, it is kind of scary to think of how much in today's secular world fits into this category. I mean, the obvious things are heinous evils like abortion, but more insidious is something like artificial contraception which the Church has always taught is intrinsically evil. In today's world, artificial contraception is touted as the answer to poverty and world hunger which has come about due to overpopulation. It is seen by the world as a good thing, and the Church is seen as evil for rejecting such a good thing as evil.

Ultimately we need to see blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as the perversion of the truth that it is. In today's secular world, the truth is relative to the individual. It is in this culture of relativism that we have been born, and it is only through understanding of the teachings of Christ, the eternal Word of God, that we can know the real truth and fight the perversion of that truth which is so rampant in our world today.

Heeding the call

2006-01-22T23:00:00.000-06:00

And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. - Jonah 3:5

I love the book of Jonah.

A not necessarily quick refresher. Jonah was called by God to proclaim to the city of Nineveh that they had become so wicked that he was going to have to intervene with destruction. Jonah, instead of being obedient to the Lord, ran away boarding a ship to Tarshish. While he was on the ship, the Lord stirred up a hurricane which put the ship in great peril. While the crew was emptying cargo to lighten the load of the ship in hopes of preventing its destruction, Jonah was asleep down in the hold. He was awakened, and he and the crew cast lots as to whom was to blame for their current state of distress. Lo and behold, the lot fell to Jonah.

The crew asked Jonah who he was, where he was from, and what was his business. He replied that he was a Hebrew who worshipped the Lord. The sailors were frightened because Jonah also revealed that he was fleeing from the Lord, so Jonah volunteered to be thrown overboard to calm the tempest, which of course is exactly what happened. Oh, and he was eaten by a great fish and remained in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. While in the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord that "the vow I have made I shall fulfil!" and the fish vomited Jonah onto the dry land.

So, the Lord spoke to Jonah again, and this time Jonah was obedient. He told the Ninevites that they would be overthrown. Now, keep in mind that Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, a great enemy of the Hebrews, so when they heeded the call to repentance, and God relented and did not bring disaster to Nineveh, Jonah was sort of irritated. Well, he was very irritated, irritated to the point that he asked God to take his life, to which God replied, "Are you right to be angry?"

So Jonah left the city, sat down under a shelter he made, and waited to see what would happen. God took this opportunity to teach Jonah a lesson. He caused a plant to spring up that gave Jonah shade and calmed his temper, which made Jonah very happy. Then God caused a worm to attack the plant, and it withered placing Jonah at the mercy of the scorching heat which caused him to feel faint and beg for death. Again God asks Jonah, "Are you right to be angry about the plant?" To which Jonah replied, "YES! I have every right to be very angry!" And God said, "Wait, you mean to tell me you are concerned about a plant that just popped up one night and died the next, but I can't be concerned for Nineveh, a city of over 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from their left, not to mention all the animals?"

What I find fascinating is that Jonah heard the call of God and ran away in fear. It took a near death experience for Jonah to repent of his disobedience to the call of God, yet God was merciful. On the other hand, the Ninevites, the mortal enemies of the Jews, heard the call of God to repentence and in fear of the Lord did not run away, but rather, they heeded the call and were shown the same mercy, for much to Jonah's chagrin, God loved the Ninevites as well. That is the theme of Jonah, mercy to those who heed God's call to walk in his path.

God calls us all to repentance through the sacrament of reconciliation which is a source of his great mercy administered through the Church. When God calls us to come home to the Church and be reconciled, the real question becomes are we going to be like Jonah and run away, or are we going to be like the Ninevites and heed the call?

I love the book of Jonah.

Welcome to the world, Walker Williams McCay.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

2006-01-19T22:21:00.000-06:00

Saul discussed his intention of killing David with his son Jonathan and with all his servants. But Saul’s son Jonathan, who was very fond of David, told him: “My father Saul is trying to kill you. Therefore, please be on your guard tomorrow morning; get out of sight and remain in hiding." 1 Samuel 19:1-2

The first reading for today's Mass from 1 Samuel (here for reference) deals with two themes which are complete opposites of one another. The first involves King Saul. Saul and David have returned to Israel after David slayed the Philistine, Goliath. Upon their return, the women of Israel are rejoicing over the victory over the Philistines and sing a song “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” (1 Samuel 18:7) Upon hearing this, Saul becomes intensely jealous of David, after all, it is Saul who is King of Israel, he should receive the greater glory. His jealousy is so intense that he plans to kill David. This jealousy is a result of turning inward and serving the self. It is the opposite of Charity.

Now, there are those who are quick to point out that even the Holy Scriptures describe God as "jealous" in the first commandment:

For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments. - Exodus 20:5b-6

Unfortunately, human beings must use words to (inadequately) describe God, and in light of this understanding, we must realize that God is not "jealous" in the sense that human beings are. When we are jealous, we desire someone else's advantages. Well, everything that is is God's, so there is nothing more advantageous than that. Baal and Astarte are not. Money is not. Nothing is more advantageous. But God wants us to realize that there is nothing more advantageous because God knows and wants what is best for us, so he demands total fidelity, not because he needs it, but because we do. Fidelity to God results in true freedom. Infidelity to God results in slavery to what we put in God's place and the resulting punishment for rejecting God. So even God's "jealousy" serves the purpose of bettering humanity through charity. This brings us to point two.

Jonathan is the son of Saul, to whom Saul has revealed his plan to kill David. Jonathan is very fond of David, so he risks his relationship with Saul to inform David of Saul's plan. Now, keep in mind that Saul is King of Israel, so Jonathan stands to gain quite a bit by supporting his father. However, for love of David, who has been anointed by God, Jonathan tells David about Saul's plan to kill him. Jonathan even risks his position as heir to the throne to assure that David is being fairly and justly treated. This is an image of the theological virtue of charity in that Jonathan sacrifices his own good for the benefit of David. It is a characteristic of the inner life of the Holy Trinity which is imaged by human beings willing to give of themselves for the benefit of another.

So in the two characters of Saul and Jonathan are revealed two images of man. That of Adam, prideful and intensely jealous of God's supreme rule over the universe to the point of rebellion which led to death, and that of Christ, the new Adam, who emptied himself in submission to God's will, giving even his own life for the benefit of all humanity which leads to life. In Christ, God reveals his true nature, that of giving all for all. God reveals in Christ that he indeed is love.

Appearances can be deceiving

2006-01-17T23:08:00.000-06:00

But the LORD said to Samuel: “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because he sees the appearance, but the LORD looks into the heart.” - 1 Samuel 16:7

The lesson the Lord teaches Samuel is one that is lost to our modern secular society. The longing for physical perfection has resulted in a boom of both medical (Botox) and surgical procedures (We all know what I mean; I don't have to spell it out.) geared toward sculpting the "perfect" body. Through this quest we see the outward appearance of the body as defining the person. God sees otherwise. He sees the person as defining the person. In other words, God sees who we are and altering our outward appearance does not change the essence of who we are, of what defines us in God's eyes.

Samuel has been given the order to go to Bethlehem to visit Jesse in order to annoint one of his sons as the new king of Israel to replace Saul. Recall Saul had failed to live up to God's commands, and therefore God stripped him of his kingship. He sees Jesse's sons, one by one, and one by one he rejects them as king of Israel until he gets to David, the youngest, who is out tending the sheep. This is who God chooses. Not exactly what Samuel and Jesse were expecting, but nonetheless God's chosen ruler of Israel.

God challenges us all to see as he does in our encounters with one another every day. We have to try hard to not let physical appearance define dignity in those we meet. Underneath that exterior, be it handsome or homely, lies the person created in God's image, an image of transcendant beauty. An image which God himself will reveal to us if we allow ourselves to see with the eyes of wisdom.

Just a side thought: can you imagine David's surprise? He wakes up that morning to tend the flocks, but by that evening he is King of Israel!

“I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him,
That my hand may be always with him,
and that my arm may make him strong.” - Psalms 89:21-22

St. Anthony the Abbot, pray for us.

Obedient Sacrifice

2006-01-16T22:27:00.000-06:00

But Samuel said: “Does the LORD so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the LORD? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams." - 1 Samuel 15:22

God instructed Saul to go and destroy Amalek in a war of extermination. All things both man and beast are to be destroyed, so Saul went to Amalek and destroyed all people and beasts except Agag, the king of Amalek, and the best of the fat sheep, oxen, and lambs which Saul intended to offer as a sacrifice to God. Upon his return, Samuel chastises Saul for his disobedience to God's command, disobedience that Saul has completely denied. This disobedience is so displeasing to God that Saul is rejected as king of Israel.

In the Psalms, Prophets, and the Gospels, this theme of obedience over sacrifice is played out again and again. In and of itself, sacrifice is not a bad thing but is a sign of a covenant forged between God and his people. The problem arises when God's people attempt to please him through performing a sacrifice while being disobedient to his covenant, as though they can barter for God's favor. Offering sacrifice while being disobedient is insulting because it is reaffirming a covenant in which one party (the one offering the sacrifice) has been unfaithful.

Truth be known, being obedient to the will of God is a kind of sacrifice itself, the sacrifice of a humble heart. So what God desires is a sacrifice of humility which is obedient to him. This obedience is a sacrifice of self. For this reason, Christ's sacrifice is the perfect sacrifice. It is the humble and total giving of self in complete obedience to God's will.

Being obedient to the command of Jesus, the Church continues to offer this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving which is the Body and Blood of Christ instituted in the Last Supper, the Holy Eucharist (which comes from the Greek word eukharistia or "thanksgiving"). When we eat Christ's Body and drink his Blood, we participate in that total giving of self which is the sacrifice of Christ that is brought forward in time. Christ's obedient sacrifice on Golgotha is made present to us through the Eucharistic sacrifice, and through this sacrifice, we offer ourselves to the Father along with Christ, uniting our sacrifice with his. We give our very lives to the Father along with the Lord Jesus.

This is the obedient sacrifice that God delights in.

Let thanksgiving be your sacrifice to God,
fulfil the vows you make to the Most High;
then if you call to me in time of trouble
I will rescue you and you will honor me. - Psalms 50:14-15

The Summons

2006-01-15T21:22:00.000-06:00

When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” - 1 Samuel 3:9b-10

John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,“Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” -which translated means Teacher-,“where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” - John 1:35-39a

Samuel was called by the Lord, but initially, Samuel thought that the one calling him was Eli. After a couple of episodes of Samuel waking Eli with the response, "Here I am. You called me?" Eli realizes that the Lord had done the calling, and so he directs Samuel to respond to the Lord, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

God ultimately makes the call for all of us to follow him, however, listening to the call is not enough. We must respond, we must take action to fulfill the purpose God has for us in our lives. Samuel has opened the lines of communication with God, and has taken the first step in answering the call.

In a similar way, St. Andrew heard the call of the Lord to repentance and followed St. John the Baptist. Like Eli does with Samuel, the Baptist directs St. Andrew to the true source of the call, Jesus, the Lamb of God. St. Andrew and his brother Simon answer the call by giving up their former lives and following Christ, an image of Israel leaving its former life in Egypt and following Moses to the Promised Land. This surrendering of their former lives was especially notable for Simon, whose faith was so great that Jesus even changed his name to Kephas or "Rock". Of course, we know him as St. Peter, the chief of the Apostles, whose calling was to confirm his brothers in faith, a calling which St. Peter carried out until his martyrdom in Rome.

God calls to us all everyday. He calls us to repentance. He calls us to holiness. He calls some to the priesthood or religious life; others he calls to the vocation of marriage and family. Our challenge is to discern his call which sometimes may be fairly easy (repentance from sin) and other times more difficult (ordained ministry). Whether it is fairly easy or rather difficult, it will entail surrendering our former lives (the kingdom of this world) for something greater (the Kingdom of God). It will require leaving Egypt in order to reach the Promised Land.

Your wish is my command

2006-01-13T23:44:00.000-06:00

The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel’s warning and said, “Not so! There must be a king over us. We too must be like other nations, with a king to rule us and to lead us in warfare and fight our battles.” When Samuel had listened to all the people had to say, he repeated it to the LORD, who then said to him,“Grant their request and appoint a king to rule them.” - 1 Samuel 8:18-22a

Samuel was judge over Israel, but when he grew old, he appointed his sons as judges. His sons turned out to be corrupt, and this led to the elders of Israel meeting and calling upon Samuel to replace his sons with a king to judge them "like the other nations." Samuel was perturbed by this because he felt it was wrong, but nevertheless he assented since God told him to obey the wishes of the elders. However, God gave a warning that spelled out the disadvantages of having a monarchy like the other nations. I say disadvantages, but in reality it was more like hardships which would result in Israel crying out to God for relief.

Well, here is the problem. Israel already had a king in Yahweh, their God, but as Israel had done time and again, they rejected him and sought refuge in other gods. They wanted to be like the other nations which surrounded them who worshipped these false gods as well.

God's plan to bring humanity back to him was such that Israel, his chosen people, were to be examples of righteousness for the nations. Through this (in an ideal world), the nations would seek the source of this righteousness and be drawn to God. But Israel rebelled and wanted to imitate the nations surrounding them, the Gentiles. The problem was not in monarchy per se, rather it was in monarchy based on "the other nations." In rejecting God, their true king, Israel was thwarting God's plan for salvation for humanity, but since God is just, he allowed Israel to follow its own desire, but he fully warned Israel by saying something along the lines of, "Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it."

Like Israel of old, we are placed in similar situations in our daily lives. As Israel rejected God over and over after the exodus by turning to the false gods of their neighbors, so we too reject God after our exodus (through the waters of baptism) by turning to "false gods," but instead of turning to Baal, Dagon, or Astarte, we turn to money, alcohol, or power. As difficult as it may be at times, we must fight the urge to serve these false gods and strive to make God our king. The consequences of what or whom we allow to rule our world are as different as night and day. If our desire is to place anything above God in our lives, we have to remember, God is just and will comply with our wish, but in the same way that he warned Israel, he warns us: Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it.

St. Hilary of Poitiers, pray for us.

Peace and Solitude

2006-01-11T23:51:00.000-06:00

Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. - Mark 1:35

This particular verse of scripture stood out to me as it was being proclaimed by the priest at Mass this evening. How often do we think about the prayer life of the Son of God? Most of the time when we think of Jesus praying, it is publically, but occasionally the Gospels give us brief insight into the Lord's private prayer, his intimate communication with his Father in heaven.

The first thing that is apparent is that Jesus prayed when it was dark outside. The second thing is that Jesus prayed when no one else was around. Both of these insights would affirm that Jesus, when he was praying alone, wanted as few distractions as possible. When it is dark the world is calm. There is no hustle and bustle of people tending to their daily duties. There is simply quiet, peace. It is at times like this that the quiet whisper of God's voice can be heard because there is little to draw our focus away from him. Similarly, when you are alone, all of your thoughts can be lifted to heaven without distraction. The focus of prayer is God rather than God plus the people around you.

How did Jesus pray? The Lord's Prayer gives us some idea of the contents of the prayers of Jesus: the holiness of the heavenly Father, daily nourishment, and protection from the time of trial. I also believe that Jesus prayed the Psalms, Israel's prayer book, and this is the reason behind the praying of the Hours in the Church today. Another example of the Church following the lead of her Lord and Savior.

So, while the communal prayer of the Church is vital to the welfare of all Christians, private prayer in quiet solitude fosters a sense of devotion to the Blessed Trinity which in turn leads to greater love of and participation in the communal prayer of the Church. It is a circle of positive feedback.

In the daytime God sends his faithful love,
and even at night;
the song it inspires in me
is a prayer to my living God. - Psalms 42:8

Exalting the humble and meek

2006-01-10T23:04:00.000-06:00

“The bows of the mighty are broken,
while the tottering gird on strength.
The well-fed hire themselves out for bread,
while the hungry batten on spoil.
The barren wife bears seven sons,
while the mother of many languishes.” - 1 Samuel 2:4-5

The song of Hannah is in response to her bearing a son despite her prior sterility. This is a common theme found throughout the bible, a woman who is thought to be incapable of bearing children conceives and bears a son. Sarah and Abraham, Hannah and Elkanah, Elizabeth and Zechariah, all were thought barren, yet God in his mercy and love blessed them with sons who played a prominent role in salvation history. Hannah's song is a song of thanksgiving and love for God, and it reveals that God exalts those who are humble and put their faith in him while he humbles those who are exalted by the world. He seats the lowly with princes and in this way shows his justice and mercy, for in God's eyes, we are all on a level playing field.

This song is also along the same lines as Our Lady's Magnificat, in that through the conception of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Mother has experienced blessing much the same way as Hannah did, and she gives glory to the Lord for his favor. Both Hannah and Our Lady gave birth to sons who sought to instill in the people of Israel the depth of their sinfulness and to lead them to repentance, a change of heart. Samuel can be seen as a forerunner (or type) of Christ. Perhaps Our Lady was familiar with Hannah's song and her son Samuel, and because of the similarities of their situation sang the Magnificat as an honor to them both and to God her savior.

He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever. - Luke 1:51-55

Epiphany

2006-01-08T23:52:00.000-06:00

Look! though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples, on you Yahweh is rising and over you his glory can be seen. The nations will come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness. - Isaiah 60:2-3

After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, "Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage." - Matthew 2:1-2

I love watching those shows on Discovery Channel, History Channel and The National Geographic Channel which have snappy titles like "Science of the Bible" or "History of the Bible" or "The Story of Jesus," but not for the reasons you might think. These are those programs that will take the stories found in the Gospels and piece by piece using modern techniques and interviews with all numbers of talking heads from the ivory towers of Princeton, Harvard, and Yale Schools of Divinity (I find irony in that) dismantle the stories, and then rewrite them according to what really happened. They seem to be quite proud of themselves for having gotten to the bottom of things as they really are, once again proving that Christ and the Church's teachings about him are all a big sham. Do I get irritated? I suppose on some level I do, but on a higher level I find humor in their ill fated attempts to rock my faith.

The star of Bethlehem is one such story that gets attention every year at this time. Some scholars will go out of their way to decry the myth behind the story saying it is absolutely preposterous that a star would behave in the manner described by St. Matthew, while others will actually attempt to explain it through some natural phenomenon such as a supernova or an allignment of planets or a comet or some other such hooey, while still others will explain it as a Christian answer to the Roman emporer Octavian Augustus who called himself divi filius (or son of god) and fashioned a star on coins with his image (these may actually be on to something, by the way). Regardless, they all for the most part miss the point.

Here is the point. For centuries the prophets had been proclaiming that the Gentiles would come to know and worship the true God, and they did this by using images of light and darkness. Darkness covered the earth in the sense that nations meandered with no clear cut path, for to the ancient Gentiles, time was seen as a circle, and history moved aimlessly like people who walk in the dark. It had no beginning or end. However to the Jews, time was a progressing line of history, a path with a beginning and an end, and God shed light to guide the people of Israel on the path. The passage from Isaiah shows that the glory of God is a light which shines on the people of Israel and will intrigue the nations (another word for the Gentiles) drawing their kings to its brightness.

St. Matthew picks up on this prophecy, for to him, Jesus is the light that arises from Israel and intrigues the Gentiles, and through Jesus, all people will be drawn to Yahweh, the God of the Jews, the only God there is. He uses the image of wise men from "the east" (which is somewhere near Timbuktu, i.e. vaguely distant) who were drawn to the infant King of the Jews by the rising of his star. Truth is, Jesus is the star, for he is the light which has guided Israel thus far and then intrigued and drew the Gentiles (represented by the three wise men from "the east") to himself, the Son of God. Why does the star come to rest over Bethlehem? Simple. Because that is where tradition says that Jesus was born (get it? the dawning or rising of the star over Bethlehem = the birth of the savior in Bethlehem who is the light of the world).

So, when seen in this light (pun intended), the people who make those programs like "Science of the Bible" end up looking rather blind or ignorant in their quest to disprove the historical accuracy of the stories of the bible. Whether the star was a supernova or a comet or not even a celestial event at all is irrelevant. Those of us who see with the eyes of faith get it. We know that the glory of the Lord has been revealed, and all flesh has seen it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Amen.

While outward signs the star displays,
An inward light the Lord conveys,
And urges them, with force benign,
To seek the Giver of the sign.

Of Weddings, Water, and Wine

2006-01-07T22:01:00.000-06:00

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited. And they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the feast had all been used, and the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." Jesus said, "Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." - John 2:1-5

This scene, the wedding at Cana, is full of stuff to talk about. First of all, isn't it interesting how St. John never refers to the Blessed Mother by her given name. She is called "the mother of Jesus" in this setting and also at the crucifixion. ("Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala." - John 19:25) Some would perhaps see this as a way of casting her off as unimportant, so much so that her name is never mentioned. However, I feel most likely this is done as a sign of respect and honor, much the same way that we do not refer to our mothers or our friend's mothers by their given names. To be honest, I find it quite difficult myself to refer to her as "Mary" alone, and generally I refer to her by titles given to her by the Church such as the Blessed Mother, the Mother of God, or Our Lady. But it is interesting that St. John mentions her presence along with the disciples, and were she not important (as some are so quick to point out), I dare say her presence would not have been mentioned at all.

When Our Lady mentions to Jesus that they have run out of wine, Jesus answers her by addressing her as "Woman." Now, this is a polite and normal form of address, but not typically one a person would use to address his mother. The meaning behind his use of this term is not particularly clear until Jesus uses this form of address for his mother again when he is on the cross. ("Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, "Woman, this is your son." - John 19:26) Now the point Jesus is making becomes more apparent, especially in the context of Genesis 3:15. ("I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will bruise your head, and you will strike his heel.") The Blessed Mother is the woman being described here, and Jesus is her offspring. In this manner, Jesus, in addressing his mother as "Woman," is referring to her as the new Eve, mother of all the living.

Now Our Lady has come to Jesus with a request, and Jesus knew full well what she was getting at. An interesting image was brought out at Mass this morning during the homily when our priest, Fr. Kenny Allen, said that this scene gives us wonderful insight into the interaction between Jesus and his mother. I mean, we all have been in the situation where our mothers put us on the spot and ask us to do something out of the ordinary, so Jesus, responding as most of us would have, says, "Well, what would you have me do? It's not my time." Our Lady's response almost seems to show her respectfully disregarding Jesus (as we have all had our mothers do to us by saying something like, "that's nice, dear.") when she quickly tells the disciples to "do whatever he tells you." (Jesus, according to Fr. Kenny, because he was without sin did not roll his eyes at the request.) Interestingly, this is pretty much what God the Father says from the "bright cloud" at the Transfiguration, "This is my Son, the beloved; he enjoys my favor. Listen to him." (Matthew 17:5)

The story goes on to say that Jesus had the disciples fill six stone jars with water, draw some out and take it to the headwaiter, upon which it was noted that the water had been changed to wine (and not the bad wine, but the good!). Jesus chose the setting of a wedding to first reveal his glory at the request of his mother (a sign of her intercessory power, perhaps?). This is a prefiguring of the Holy Eucharist, the great wedding feast between Christ and his bride, the Church. It is also at this point that marriage is elevated to the dignity of a sacrament in that it is a sign of the love that exists between Christ and his Church and the love that is the Holy Trinity.

This was the first of Jesus' signs: it was at Cana in Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. - John 2:11

Ecce Agnus Dei!

2006-01-04T23:45:00.000-06:00

John was standing with two of his disciples,
and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God.” - John 1:35-36

St. John in his writings often refers to Jesus as the "Lamb of God." St. John wants to use images of the Jewish Passover to define who Jesus is, and for this reason, Jesus is seen as the lamb without blemish who is sacrificed for the sins of the world. If you really think about it, the image of Jesus as a lamb fits well in the paradoxical scheme of things which is the life of Christ. After all, a lamb is meek and will not put up a fight. It is weak. Similarly, Jesus is meek and accepts his fate without putting up a fight. He appears to be weak, but through his sacrifice, we realize that the appearance is deceptive. In completely emptying himself, Jesus accomplished in one sacrifice something which could never be accomplished through the multitude of animal sacrifices which had been performed for millenia. In his perfect sacrifice, Jesus shows us an inner strength which is transforming, transforming weakness into strength, shame into honor, death into life. Through this single transforming sacrifice, Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world.

This also is a segue from the Baptist's call for conversion which leads to forgiveness of sins to Jesus' actually accomplishing this forgiveness through his death on the cross. St. John the Baptist directs two of his disciples to follow Jesus, the salvation of humanity, and in so doing, he fulfills his role of preparing the way for the Lord. He provides the reason for his decreasing while Christ increases: that Jesus is the Lamb of God. May we all heed the Baptist's call for conversion and listen to him as he reveals to us the "Lamb of God."

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us.

Adversaries and Opponents

2006-01-02T22:40:00.000-06:00

Who is the liar?
Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.
Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist.
Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father,
but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well. - 1 John 2:22-23

The term "antichrist" gets a lot of usage these days, especially in certain Christian fictional works about the last days. Truth be known, we have been in the "last days" since the Resurrection of Christ, and St. John reveals to us in his first letter to the universal Church how we may identify the antichrist. The antichrist is anyone who denies the Father and the Son. Simple enough, right? Perhaps. But I like to think about things such as this. For one thing, the antichrist can be viewed as the opponent of Christ or as the adversary, one who actively works against the mission of Christ and his body the Church in bringing salvation to the world. To that end, there have been any number of antichrists throughout history from the Roman emperors who demanded to be worshipped and adored, a prerogative of God alone, to the Gnostics who denied that Jesus was the Christ, to Arius who denied that the Son was one with the Father in divinity, to modern day antichrists such as secular humanists who attack Christ and the Church with great zeal. All of these denied the Father and the Son and as such were adversaries of Christ.

But I would like to delve even deeper. Who else is he that denies the Father and the Son? In the broadest sense, it is someone who rejects the will of God, someone who refuses to follow the Lord with their whole heart but rather turns inward to themselves and follows their own will. This is the same thing that Adam and Eve did in the beginning which led to the fall of man, and it should be painfully clear to all of us that this is the way which leads to ruin. When we sin, in a very real way, we become Christ's adversaries or opponents, and we interfere with his mission to spread the kingdom. We become antichrists. Shocking as it is, we find ourselves in the same position as the Roman emperors and the Gnostics of the past or the secular humanists of today.

The paradox of the cross is that Christ emptied himself of everything and became total giving, and while it appeared that through this giving, this sacrifice, that Christ was ruined through his death, the truth is that through his giving of self he was lifted up to eternal life. He who seeks to save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life will save it. This is the will of the Father as revealed by the Son. (Notice how St. John emphasizes the unity of the Father and the Son; they are like a "group package", you can't have one without the other.) If we follow this plan of giving of self, we further the kingdom and fight the adversary.

Through the intercession of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, may Christ have mercy on us and save us.

Theotokos

2006-01-01T23:30:00.000-06:00

Brothers and sisters: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. - Galatians 4:4-5

The ark of the covenant conjures up visions of Indiana Jones these days. To the ancient Hebrews, the ark of the covenant contained their very identity as a people. The ark was a wooden chest which was overlaid with gold and topped off with two cherubim. In the ark were found the the word of God (the law) which was inscribed on stone tablets, a container which contained the manna from heaven which fed the Israelites on their journey through the desert during the exodus, and Aaron's staff which was symbolic of his priestly office. The ark was kept behind the veil of the sanctuary.

Interestingly, the ark was but an image or type which pointed Israel to another ark, the ark of the new covenant, Mary, the Mother of God. Let's think about this for a minute. Whereas the word of God was inscribed on stone tablets in the first ark of the covenant, the Word of God revealed in the person of Jesus was enfleshed in the new ark of the covenant, Our Lady. The first ark of the covenant contained manna from above which nourished the Israelites but despite its ability to nourish they still died, but the new ark of the covenant, Mary most holy, contained the bread which came down from heaven which if eaten will lead to eternal life. The first ark of the covenant contained a staff which was symbolic of Aaron's priestly office, the new ark of the covenant, the Blessed Mother, contained the high priest himself who would offer the perfect sacrifice on Golgotha. Our Lady, the new ark of the covenant, contained not just the identity of Israel, but the glorious hope of the entire human race.

A few other parallels between the ark of the covenant and the Blessed Mother. From the tent of meeting, the smoke from sacrificial offerings would descend and cover the ark which was symbolic of God being amongst the people. At the Annunciation, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Our Lady, and she conceived Emmanuel, God with us. As King David set out into the Judean countryside with the ark of the covenant, so the Blessed Mother set out to the Judean countryside to visit St. Elizabeth. As King David lept and danced around the ark, so St. John the Baptist lept in his mother's womb when Our Lady greeted St. Elizabeth.

And finally, in the Book of Revelation Chapter 11:19 we read, "Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm." This must have caused a stir to the first century Jewish Christians because the ark of the covenant had gone missing centuries earlier. But St. John clarifies his vision with the next description, Revelation 12:1-2,5, "A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod." Some would argue that the "woman clothed with the sun" is a symbolic image of the Church since the Church delivers Christ to the world, and I would agree, but I would also say that Our Lady is the personification of the Church herself since in her very womb she bore Christ, and through his birth, she delivered him to the world.

All of these images proclaim Holy Mary to be the ark of the new covenant. The new covenant is a person, Jesus the eternal Son, true God and true man. It is only fitting that the Blessed Mother, whose very being is centered in her son, Jesus, would have the title Theotokos, "God-bearer" or "Mother of God." This title was dogmatized at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431, thus revealing for all history that Christ's two natures, divine and human, are inseparable, and thus Our Lady could not be merely the mother of the human and not the divine. Since Jesus is God, Holy Mary is the Mother of God.

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph

2005-12-30T23:46:00.000-06:00

God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself from them. When he prays, he is heard; he stores up riches who reveres his mother. Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children, and, when he prays, is heard. Whoever reveres his father will live a long life; he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother. - Sirach 3:2-7

In the above passage from the Book of Sirach, we see that in the eyes of God, the human family is very good. Perhaps the main reason for this is that through the human family we see so much of the power of God. Human beings united in love bring forth life to the world, and that life brings joy and happiness to the parents. Wisdom rests in the parents, and as such the children should honor their parents, and through that honor, they will learn wisdom as well. Furthermore, this passage not only gives us an image of our relationship with God, our heavenly Father, but also with the Church, our spiritual mother which is personified in Mary, the Mother of God. To honor the Father brings happiness and peace to the Mother, for we all know that Jesus honored his Father and Mother, and we all can learn from his example, and in honoring God our Father, we bring comfort to Mary our Mother. This is truly good.

So, today we honor the earthly family of the Redeemer. Jesus lived his early life in Nazareth where he was obedient to Holy Mary, his mother, and St. Joseph, his earthly Father. In the Holy Family on earth we see a reflection of the Godhead, that of the obedient Son united in love with his Father, the Blessed Trinity, God. This is what our families are called to do, image the Holy Trinity as a communion of life and love, and if we look at the character of the Holy Family, we find that it is truly filled with the virtue of charity, and thus the Holy Family images the true family, the Holy Trinity. St. Joseph loved Mary and Jesus so much that he sacrificed begetting his own children so that he could take care of Jesus. Our Lady loved the Lord so much that she was willing to bear the shame of being an unwed woman who was pregnant so that the world could behold its savior. And Jesus, the eternal God, loved his Mother and earthly Father so much that he completely emptied himself for the salvation of them and for all. That is family, complete unconditional giving of self for the beloved. Come to think of it, that is God as well, and we are back to the beginning, because God in his deepest mystery is family.

Jesus, in the family at Nazareth you grew in wisdom, age, and grace before God and men, help us to grow in all things toward you.

The Holy Innocents

2005-12-28T23:23:00.000-06:00

A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more. - Matthew 2:18

Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents, those infants and toddlers who according to St. Matthew's gospel were massacred by King Herod in and around Bethlehem in his mad rage against the prophesied newborn King of Israel. Our Lady and St. Joseph were warned of the danger and fled into Egypt in exile. In truth, there is deeper drama going on here than just a crazed king out to slaughter innocent children to destroy the infant Jesus. St. Matthew, who wrote his gospel for the Hebrew Christians, is making a parallel between Jesus and Moses, for the tradition is that Pharoah was warned of the impending birth of him who would lead Israel from bondage in Egypt, so Pharoah makes plans to kill the infant Moses to prevent Israel from being freed, and so he orders the killing of all Hebrew infant and toddler boys. In this manner St. Matthew, who writes for a Jewish audience, draws parallels between the life of Jesus and the life of Moses.

In our world today, we have our own "Holy Innocents": the victims of abortion, and we have a multitude of "Herod's" in the people who would view an innocent child in the womb as a risk to their control of their kingdoms. The innocent victims of abortion cry out for justice in a world where people feel that they must be in absolute control of their own destiny and an infant is a threat, just as Herod felt a threat to his destiny by the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem. The innocent unborn are unique creatures created in the image of God and filled with dignity. They are not evidence of the failure of birth control pills nor are they inconveniences to our level of comfort nor are they strains on our bank accounts. They are not a threat to our "kingdoms", rather, like the infant Jesus which we celebrate in the Incarnation, they are blessings which bring meaning and purpose to our lives.

Let us pray for an end to the tragedy of abortion, for until it is ended the Church, the mother of the faithful, like Rachel cries out in sobbing and loud lamentation for her children, and she will not be consoled, since they are no more.

Through the intercession of the Holy Innocents may God in his mercy protect the sanctity of all human life.

Beloved of Jesus

2005-12-27T23:47:00.000-06:00

Then the other disciple (the disciple whom Jesus loved) also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. - John 20:8

St. John was perhaps the youngest of all the disciples of Jesus, and he was also the last to die. There are several books of scripture attributed to him or at least to his followers who would most certainly have been speaking what they had learned at the feet of St. John, these books being the Gospel of John, the 3 epistles of John, and the Apocalypse (The Revelation). When John first is called by Jesus he is probably no more than a teenager, full of energy, quick tempered, and quite the zealot. These characteristics are noticeable in St. John when we see him asking for a place of honor in the kingdom, however, St. John matures into a man with great humility. This humility is evidenced by the fact that he allowed St. Peter, the chief of the Apostles appointed by Christ, to enter the tomb first even though St. John had arrived at the tomb first.

John is referred to as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." St. John was particularly beloved by Jesus and vice versa. This is evidenced by the fact that St. John was the only one of the twelve present at the crucifixion. It is also St. John who is given charge of the care of the Blessed Mother by Jesus as he is dying on the cross. Our Lady lived with St. John in Ephesus until her death and Assumption.

But if we take a close look at the Gospel of St. John, we are able to find that we are the "beloved disciple" as well. We, in reading the Passion narratives in the gospels are present with Jesus all the way to the crucifixion. Jesus looks down from the cross and gives his mother to us as well, so it is up to us to open our hearts to receive her as Jesus wished. And when we first read the account of St. John and St. Peter running to the tomb, and we find it is empty with the burial cloths still there, we believe. Today, thank God for the gift that is the beloved disciple, and pray for the grace to live for Jesus according to St. John's example.

Holy Father John, pray for us.

He had the face of an angel

2005-12-26T20:45:00.000-06:00

But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said,“Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. - Acts 7:55-58a

St. Stephen was among the first group of what we in the Catholic Church refer to as deacons. The role of the deacon is to assist the bishop and priests in service to the Church for the poor and needy, and also to preach the gospel. St. Stephen was a man of great wisdom who was filled with the Holy Spirit and like Jesus, performed many signs and wonders, and like Jesus, his preaching outraged the Jews. His wisdom was such that he became a thorn in the side of the Jews (sound familiar?), and because of his faith in the Gospel, he was accused of blasphemy. Like Jesus, St. Stephen was dragged before the Sanhedrin, and through the use of false witnesses, he was accused of blaspheming the name of Moses and of God, essentially treason against the House of Israel. When St. Stephen points out that the House of Israel even rejected those whom God had sent before, and then he has a vision of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God, they are infuriated to the point of grinding their teeth. At this point, they seize him and begin to stone him, all the while St. Stephen prays for those who murder him. Until the end, St. Stephen lives as Christ, giving even his life for God, the ultimate sacrifice.

Christians today are still faced with similar circumstances for their faith in Christ and his teachings which are put forth through his body, the Church. Although it is not often that Christians are put in a position to be put to death for their faith in Christ, Jesus tells us to be prepared to give all for our faith in him because it may come down to that. More often we find ourselves ridiculed for our devotion to the Lord and his teachings. In this day where people are "enlightened", darkness seems to prevail. People will do like the Jews in the day of St. Stephen and stop their ears and scream and yell to voice their disagreement with the teachings of Christ. Acts of holiness and public piety are frowned upon, such as the example our priest gave during his homily this evening of hesitating when blessing ourselves with the sign of the cross while at a public restaurant in thanksgiving for the food which we are about to eat lest we be frowned upon. What we need to realize is that it is through our acts of piety and devotion to the Lord that the heavens are opened, and we see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God, and when seen in this light, we will be much less likely to hesitate in proclaiming our devotion to the Lord.

It is at times like this that we can learn from the example of St. Stephen, who was persecuted yet remained angelic in his appearance confident in the knowledge of the saving grace of Jesus. We can learn from St. Stephen the way to proclaim the Truth with peace in our hearts and to pray for the grace of God to sustain us and help us to hold our tempers when we are ridiculed, to have the countenance of an angel. We can know like St. Stephen that no matter what, nothing, not even humiliation and death, will ever separate us from the love of God that is revealed to us through His Son.

Through the intercession of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, may Christ have mercy on us and save us.

Et verbum caro factum est

2005-12-25T00:00:00.000-06:00

Today, the twenty-fifth day of December, unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens and the earth and then formed man and woman in his own image. Several thousand years after the flood when God made the rainbow shine forth as a sign of the covenant. Twenty-one centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah; thirteen centuries after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt. Eleven hundred years from the time of Ruth and the Judges; one thousand years from the annointing of David as king; in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel. In the one hundred ninety-fourth Olympiad; the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome. The forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus; the whole world being at peace, Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming, being conceived by the Holy Spirit, and nine months having passed since his conception, was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary.

Today is the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

And with these words, the Incarnation is proclaimed, and Christ becomes the center point of history as important events both sacred and secular are recounted in time in relation to his birth. Jew and Gentile histories are proclaimed, and the two are symbolically linked, and it is revealed that Christ comes not merely to save the House of Israel but as the sanctifier and savior of all people. This is the true Spirit of Christmas, a tangible and glorious event, the birth of the eternal God, an event which changed history forever. O Come, let us adore him!

Alleluia! Born today our justice and our mercy, God in flesh among us! Lord Jesus Christ! Alleluia!

O Emmanuel

2005-12-23T23:48:00.000-06:00

O Emmanuel, God with us, our King and lawgiver, the expected of the nations and their Savior: come to save us, O Lord our God.

When Israel was being led from Egypt through the desert, God was with them in a pilar of fire and smoke that showed the way. God also was present in the tent of meeting in the Holy of Holies. This is where he spoke with Moses. As time passed, David wished to build God a magnificent Temple, a house for God. We read in the scriptures that God protested, not because he was too awesome to be confined to the grandeur of a Temple, but because he wished to pitch his tent with us, he wanted to be with and among his people. Isaiah prophetically reiterates this when he says, "the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel."

Emmanuel, God is with us, reveals to us the most personal title of all of the Old Testament titles for Jesus. Now, not only will God be with and among us, he will take flesh and be one of us. Israel had prayed so long to see the face of the Almighty, to reveal to them his true nature, and he did so by being born in the manger in Bethlehem. God's desire is not for us to seek him confined in the concrete and plastered walls of a Temple. God wants us to seek him as he truly is, love beyond all telling. Love so immense that he is willing to stoop down, shed his glory, take on flesh, and live among us as one of us. It is only by becoming one with us that he can teach us to love as he loves. It is only by becoming the Son of Man that he can lead us to life and right the wrong of Adam which led to death. Only problem is that God went so far in revealing himself that he was rejected because it was unfathomable that God would take on flesh! This is the scandal of the Incarnation, scandalous yet wondrous, that God in his infinite love would take on our flesh in order to save us. What a wonderful paradox

So, we come to the end of the O Antiphons. There is a word play that the Latin words make when you combine the first letters starting with Emmanuel and going back to Sapientia which is lost in English translations (Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia). Ero cras in Latin means "Tomorrow, I will be here." In the medieval mind, this pointed Christians to the Vigil Mass of the Nativity of Our Lord that was and continues to be celebrated at midnight on December the 25th throughout the world.

You are Lord, our justice and our mercy. Show us how to live. Lord Jesus, come!

O Rex Gentium

2005-12-22T22:12:00.000-06:00

O King of the Gentiles and the Desired of all, you are the cornerstone that binds two into one. Come, and save man whom you fashioned out of clay.

After the fall of man in the beginning, God allowed us to follow our own path and desires, and as a result we wandered in the desert, our judgment clouded. But God was determined to bring us back to himself. So, little by little, God made contact with his fallen creatures through making covenants with them. A covenant entailed a sacrifice and a sacred meal and the swearing of an oath to be faithful, and with each successive covenant, God increased his family. First was Adam and Eve, a simple covenant of marriage between one man and one woman and their children. Next was Noah through whom God enlarged his family by making it more than the nuclear family, it was an extended family. Next was Abraham through whom God enlarged the family even further by including not only blood relatives but also servants and slaves, a tribe or clan. Next was Moses through whom God enlarged his family by uniting the tribes under one law and creating a holy nation. Next was David, through whom God enlarged his family by uniting surrounding nations thus creating a kingdom, a dynasty. So it was through his covenants with mankind that God worked to undo the damage that was done at the fall and revealed a path that mankind could take which would bring us back to him. The Jews for the most part had returned to the Almighty, yet through inheriting Adam's fault (by which I mean spiritual defect), the original sin, the Jews quite often were unfaithful to the covenants they forged with God, but God was forever faithful. To rectify this, God had one final plan up his eternal sleeve.

The bible says, "in the fullness of time" when it refers to God's final and everlasting covenant. This means, when it was the right time, when the world was ready. When the world was ready, God revealed his plan for mankind, which was hinted at with each of the prior covenants. God took flesh through the Virgin Mary and became fully man while remaining fully God in the God-man, Jesus. In this way, God was able to forge a covenant with mankind yet do so in a way that God himself was the guarantor of the covenant, and since God is always faithful, Jesus, the Son of God, the God-man, would remain faithful. But the interesting thing is that it is no accident that Jesus was judged and condemned by not only by the Sanhedrin, a Jewish Court, but also by Pilate, a Gentile Judge, for as such, the blood of the sacrificial Lamb of God was on the hands of both the Jews and the Gentiles, essentially, the blood was sprinkled on representatives of all humanity. Therefore, through the new and everlasting covenant, God enlarges his family once again, but this time he unites the Jews and the Gentiles through the sacrifice of his own Son, thus swearing the oath with himself, and instituting a sacred meal, the Holy Eucharist. It is Christ who binds together the hearts of all human beings, both Jew and Gentile, and through this binding, the universal human family becomes the family of God. God's universal family is the Catholic Church of which Christ is the cornerstone.

Alleluia! You are the joy of every human heart, king of all the nations! Lord Jesus, come! Alleluia!

O Oriens

2005-12-21T22:10:00.000-06:00

O Rising Dawn, Radiance of the Light eternal and Sun of Justice: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

When I was a kid, I remember going to bed on Christmas Eve filled with anticipation of what the morning would bring. It was difficult to sleep, and the night seemed to go on forever. The anticipation was incredible, that feeling that you would bust if morning didn't get here soon. But finally, the dawn arrived, and with it came the sheer joy of the many gifts under the Christmas tree and the stockings filled with candies, fruits, and fireworks (that is what my parents gave us). For a kid it was overwhelming to receive so much.

In Judea at the time of Augustus Caesar, there was just such an anticipation. The feeling that God would redeem his people and send the long awaited Messiah was palpable. The world which lay in darkness longed for the dawn to break which would reveal the path to liberation from sin and death. This is what the world anticipated prior to the great gift which is God's Incarnation. The night which seemed to last forever was coming to an end with the dawning of the Son of the Most High. In a similar fashion, we await Christ, the dawn from on high, whose first dawning which we celebrate at Christmas shattered the dark night of sin and death and bathed the world in the warm radiance of heavenly light and thus brought salvation and pure joy to a weary world which longed for redemption. Christ's coming revealed a focal point from which light shone and illuminated the path to freedom for all who sat in enslaved in darkness. Through our Advent preparations may we focus on Christ our Light so that we may be found awake and ready to greet him with the same joy when he comes again in glory.

Eternal Light and Sun of Justice shine in all our darkness!

Saint Peter Canisius, pray for us.

O Clavis David

2005-12-20T23:50:00.000-06:00

O Key of David and Scepter of the House of Israel; you open and no man closes; you close and no man opens. Come, and deliver from the chains of prison those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Since the earliest days of the Church, Jesus has been viewed as the heir to the throne of David, thus his kingdom restored the Davidic dynasty of the House of Israel. For this reason, the Church is ruled as the Davidic Kingdom was ruled, with Christ as priest and king, and all authority and power in heaven and on earth at his disposal. Jesus himself used the idea of keys as symbols of authority and power when he said to St. Peter, "And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." He could give St. Peter that authority because it was his to give. This authority has been passed in succession to all of those who occupy the Chair of St. Peter in the Diocese of Rome. Christ gives the Pope the authority to shepherd his flock on earth. This is why the Petrine ministry of the Pope has keys as its symbol.

But even deeper is this. Jesus is the key and the scepter himself. A key is necessary to unlock something, be it a door, or the correct answers to a test, or to reveal some mystery that is hidden. Christ unlocks the door to heaven. He is the answer to everything in heaven and on earth. He is the key to unlocking the mysteries hidden in the Old Testament. It is Christ the Key of David who opens and closes, for without Christ, the door remains locked, and the answers elude us. Without Christ, we are left in darkness unable to find our way. Without Christ we remain bound in our own prison, enslaved to sin and death.

So we pray, Christ, come to us. Be for us the key that unlocks the chains which bind and imprison us in the darkness which is sin and death. Save us by your power and might, and open for us the door which leads to peace.

Eternal light and sun of justice shine in all our darkness. Lord Jesus, come!

O Radix Jesse

2005-12-19T20:52:00.000-06:00

O Root of Jesse, you stand as a sign for the peoples; before you kings shall keep silence and to you all nations shall have recourse. Come, save us, and do not delay.

From Jesse was born David, a man after God's own heart. David united the nation of Israel and formed Israel into a Kingdom, a dynasty. But following his death, David's kingdom was divided and ultimately this great dynasty which held so much promise was reduced to ruins, ultimately being decimated by the Assyrians or exiled to Babylon. However, the Lord was in control, and a small group remained faithful to the law. A root remained.

When the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that God would become incarnate through her, he also revealed that the kingdom of David would be restored. It would flower forth from this remaining root. Gabriel tells Our Lady, "The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be without end." (Luke 1:32-33) The restoration of the Davidic dynasty will not be a political entity, rather it will be divinely instituted as a kingdom which will transcend political realities and will encompass all people from the most simple peasant to the greatest king. It will be universal. It will be Catholic. It will extend salvation to all people for all time, and it will never end. All will stand in silent awe at the majesty of Christ, the root of Jesse. All will turn to him for refuge and security.

Emmanuel, the joy of all nations, come to us and save us!

O Adonai

2005-12-18T12:40:00.000-06:00

O Lord and Ruler the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms.

Adonai is the term that the Jews used to refer to God in place of YHWH, God's personal name, which they found too sacred to pronounce. It is translated as LORD and reveals God as "he who is" and the transcendent ruler of all that is. It is the God "who is" that makes covenants with his people: with Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Through these covenants God agrees to guard his people and save them. He first reveals himself to Moses as a fire clothed in the branches of a thorn bush which did not consume the thorn bush. It was through Moses that he led the house of Israel from bondage to Pharoah in Egypt through the Red Sea into the desert where he revealed the law to Moses on Sinai. He redeemed them from slavery with outstretched arms and led them to the promised land.

All of this was merely a foreshadowing of the everlasting covenant that God would forge with his people through his Son, Jesus. All of the other figures who entered into covenants with God throughout history, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, these were all types of Christ. They were images who pointed to the ultimate man, Jesus, who would fulfill all the other covenants with a new and everlasting covenant and ratify it with his blood. Yet, where God revealed himself through theophanies, lightning, and thunder to the house of Israel, he now reveals himself to us as a newborn infant born in humble circumstances to a virgin named Mary. Where to Moses God clothed himself with the burning bush, to us he clothes himself with human flesh. As God led Israel from bondage in Egypt through the desert to the promised land with outstretched arm, Christ, the eternal Son of God redeems us from bondage to sin and death and leads us to the promised land, our heavenly home, with arms outstretched, but this time on a cross. This is the Lord we welcome at Christmas. This is the Lord whose coming in glory we await.

Come, Lord Jesus, and do not delay.

O Sapientia

2005-12-17T09:24:00.000-06:00

O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence.

Today begins the final stretch of Advent, at the end of which we will welcome Christ born in Bethlehem. In the liturgical prayer of the Church, the "O Antiphons" are recited prior to and after the Magnificat during Vespers, and each one addresses Jesus in terms of his Old Testament titles.

Wisdom is more than just knowledge. It is not something gained merely from experience and age because some of the oldest and smartest people I know lack wisdom. Wisdom in its purest form is perfected through faith. It is a human characteristic which originates in the fear of the Lord, which is to say in the realization that we are nothing without him who called us into existence, and when we realize this, we stand in awe of the majesty of the Creator. We realize our lowliness, humbly bow in love, and desire to understand our world through seeking God. This is wisdom: desiring knowledge through love of and seeking the Lord.

The wisdom from the mouth of the Lord is Jesus himself. He is the Logos or the meaning/reason/Word through whom all things came to be. Without Jesus nothing would exist, for he is the eternal Word of the Father present from all eternity. God spoke and through him all that is came into existence and order was brought to the chaos which was in the beginning. It is through Christ that the material universe, things visible and invisible, are ordered mightily yet gently. God knows our need for order in our lives, both individually and as a society. Wisdom shows us the way to order things with conviction and strength while at the same time showing concern for the good of the individual or society. This is the wisdom which is Christ. He has absolute power yet cares for his people like a shepherd cares for his sheep.

The focus of the antiphon is summed up in the concept of prudence. Prudence is an act whereby we choose what is good rather than simply avoiding what is not. It is through the grace of God and his wisdom that we are able to recognize those things that will help us to salvation while avoiding those things which put our relationship with God in peril. It is a function of the theological concept of Charity where we put love of God before all else. So we beg Christ to come and to teach us the way to choose wisely so that our lives will be ordered toward God.

Father, all-powerful God,
your eternal Word took flesh on our earth
when the Virgin Mary placed her life
at the service of your plan.
Lift our minds in watchful hope
to hear the voice which announces his glory
and open our minds to receive the Spirit
who prepares us for his coming.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

And his bride is prepared to welcome him

2005-12-15T22:54:00.000-06:00

For he who has become your husband is your Maker;
his name is the LORD of hosts;
Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,
called God of all the earth. - Isaiah 54:5

In Isaiah Chapter 54, the prophet is speaking of Israel's return to Jerusalem after being in bondage in Babylon. It is for Israel's unfaithfulness that God "forsakes" her for a brief moment in his anger, he gives her up. However, God is forever faithful and when Israel repents, he is quick to take her back with great tenderness and mercy. So, the prophet calls for Jerusalem to raise a glad cry at the return of her children, to make room for her innumerable children who are the returning exiles.

In a larger sense, Isaiah 54 speaks to the Gentiles as well, specifically the Gentiles who are brought into the family of God through Christ. After the fall, humanity spiralled away from the one God, and worshiped in his place idols which are created things. The only group left to worship the true God was a small nomadic group of Hebrews which were surrounded by a sea of pagans. It was left to the Hebrews to reveal God to the world, so that through them, all the world may return to God. God enters a successive number of covenants with his people, Israel, the Hebrews, which they fail to keep thus incurring the curses which are inherent to those who do not keep their covenant oath. The result, Israel often wandered and suffered as an unfaithful wife who was left by her faithful husband.

With the coming of Christ, the Son of the living God, a new and everlasting covenant is forged, but this time, God himself swears the oath on behalf of mankind (through the God-Man, Jesus), and since God is always faithful, this covenant will never be broken and fulfills the requirements of all the other covenants. So when we revisit Isaiah 54 in light of the new and everlasting covenant, we see the deserted wife is an image of the Gentiles who were forsaken by God for a "brief moment" after the fall of Adam and Eve, but now are to be incorporated through Christ into the "new Israel" which is the Church, the bride of Christ.

As we approach the coming of the Lord, let us be mindful that God has wedded himself to us through his Son by the incarnation. He is the bridegroom, we are the bride. May he find us faithful when he comes again in glory.

The circle will be unbroken

2005-12-14T23:24:00.000-06:00

I am the LORD, there is no other;
I form the light, and create the darkness,
I make well-being and create woe;
I, the LORD, do all these things.
Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above,
like gentle rain let the skies drop it down.
Let the earth open and salvation bud forth;
let justice also spring up!
I, the LORD, have created this. - Isaiah 45:6c-8

Through Isaiah, God speaks not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles, for the Gentiles worshipped a multitude of gods, and the Jews, the small band of people "hand picked" by God to make himself known, were apt to fall into the bad habits of their neighbors if they weren't careful (and many was the time that they weren't). Therefore, in the first place there is but one God and there is no other. In the second place, all that is, visible and invisible was created by him, and thus, he is in absolute control. Period. The end.

The concepts of justice and salvation flow from the fact that there is but one God. Justice takes a multitude of definitions, and quite often I will scratch my head and wonder just what does "justice" mean? I think simply put, justice is Truth, moral rightness. God alots to each of us what is rightfully ours, and since God is in control he knows what is best for each of us, and in his justice, he gives to each of us in fairness. Now, it doesn't always seem that way to us, and I will give an example of what I mean. I am privileged to know and work with a nurse who is absolutely one of the most delightful people I have ever met. She is the mother of a mentally retarded young man. As I was discussing the concept of God's justice with her today, she mentioned, "How is it fair and just to me that I have a retarded child?" In one of those moments of absolute clarity, the Holy Spirit led me to say, "What about justice for your son? Would you not say that your son's justice is such that God made you his mother?" She smiled and said, "I like the way you put it." You see, since there is but one God, and he is in absolute control, situations which make little sense to our limited minds take on a whole new dimension when we allow God to open our eyes to his justice.

As God's justice rains down from the heavens as dew or gentle showers upon the earth, so salvation will burst forth. Salvation is another one of those concepts that often has me scratching my head saying, "what does it all mean?!" I have been asked before "what are we being saved from?" That is a fair question, but I don't think it is only that we are saved from something, although that is part of it. Salvation is being freed from the bonds of sin which leads to spiritual death (in a sense, we are sort of saved from ourselves), but it is also sharing in the life of the triune God, so we are not only saved from something, but we are also saved for something, saved from sin and death for grace and life. This is a function of God's justice, for when we respond to God's justice, we are incorporated into the life which is God himself, we are saved. We become like God and therefore we are able to put his justice in action, which is why Isaiah says, "let justice also spring up!" Justice leads to salvation which leads to justice. It is a nice circle.

The ultimate justice of God is his Son, Jesus. He came down from heaven "like gentle showers" and taught us of God's goodness. The earth opened and salvation budded forth through the birth of the Church as a response to God's justice. Likewise justice now springs forth from the earth through the Church, the body of Christ. Now the last statement in the above passage from Isaiah, (I, the LORD, have created this.) kind of puzzled me because if Christ is God's ultimate justice, and we believe that Christ was begotten but not created, how could God have "created this?" So, I contemplated it for a while and realized, it all goes back to "God is in absolute control." It is not that God created Christ, rather God created the environment wherein his justice leads to salvation and subsequent justice. Therefore, by creating a means for fallen man to choose to share in the life of God, God's justice is revealed all over again, and the circle goes unbroken.

St. John of the Cross, pray for us.