01 June, 2008 - IX Sunday of the year A
One beautiful Sunny Sunday morning recently, Father having just celebrated Mass at one place and was driving on to the next place when he spotted a farmer sitting on a baler in the field next to the road.
Recognizing the farmer as one of his parishioners, Father immediately pulled over and walked up to the fence. “Hey Bob”, He shouted, “It’s Sunday, shouldn’t you be sitting in church instead of sitting here on this baler?”
Bob slowly turned around and said “Well, Father I was just debating that point in my mind – whether or not it was better for me to be sitting here in the Sun on this baler and thinking about God or should I be sitting in church looking out the window and thinking about baling.”
Now, we all know that in this country you better make Hay while the sun shines or you could miss out on the precious second cut.
However, like Bob, we sometimes get our priorities mixed up.
Sometimes we forget what God requires of us and we tend to put our own needs ahead of God’s commandments.
What does the Lord our God require of us?
In the first reading from Deuteronomy, the Lord, through Moses, is telling us clearly what He the Lord requires of us.
I AM SETTING BEFORE YOU TODAY A BLESSING AND A CURSE.
What does the Lord our God require of us? The Bible tells us to fear the Lord our God …..
What do you think it means – to fear the Lord?
The Bible tells us that we fear the Lord our God by walking in all His ways, by loving Him and serving Him with all our hearts and souls and by keeping all His commandments and decrees. This is how we fear the Lord.
All of this is for our well-being – all of this for our eternal salvation!
The Lord wants us to put these words of His into hearts and souls, to bind them as a sign on our hands, to fix them as an emblem on our foreheads.
No human has ever lived who has walked in all His ways, loved God, served Him with all their heart and soul and kept His commandments like the one Human Being who is above all others save God Himself and that is Jesus’ Mother Mary.
She is the one who leads us to Her Son. She is the one whom God in His great mercy has given us as our adopted Mother to lead us Home. Mary Mother of Jesus – Mary Mother of God. Mary has the reputation of achieving what many believe is simply impossible.
The story is told that once upon a time, the Lord went walking through the streets of heaven, and He saw a lot of people who had no business being in heaven at all. So our Lord went to St. Peter who guarded the gates of heaven.
And the Lord said, "Simon Peter, I'm disappointed in you. There are people
here who shouldn't have been admitted, yet you let them in." "
Lord, it's not my fault. I had nothing to do with it" "Well, who let them in?" "I don't want to tell you, because I'm not sure how you will take it." "You should tell me. I have a right to know."
"All right, if you must know. I tell those folks they can't get in. But then they go around to the back door and your mother lets them in."
Now I don’t think that that is exactly how it happens but there is no doubt that through Mary’s intercession to her Divine Son on our behalf many souls have been saved.
When the Holy Spirit touched the womb of Mary two thousand years ago, the Virgin predicted, "All generations will call me blessed." She was absolutely right. Of all the women who have ever lived, the mother of Jesus Christ is the most celebrated, the most portrayed, the most honored in the naming of girl babies and churches. Even the Moslems honor her, strengthened by the fact she is mentioned thirty-four times in the Koran.
The late twentieth century has become the age of the Marian pilgrim¬age. Examples: Attendance at Lourdes has jumped ten percent to 5.5 mil¬lion annually. Many of these are people twenty-five or younger.
The young ones dance, sing, and praise out loud exuberantly. At Fatima, over 4.5 million pilgrims a year visit. In Czestochowa, Poland, the stream of pilgrims has increased to over five million a year. In Emmitsburg, Maryland, the number has suddenly doubled to over 500,000 a year at their national shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Most astonishing of all, over ten million people flocked to Guadalupe last year to pray to Our Lady.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us about Mary's role in the Church and the history of salvation.
In Mary we behold what the Church is already like during the pilgrimage of faith - and what the Church will become at the end of the journey. Mary is an icon of the Church as well as sign of hope and comfort for all of us.
The church rightly honors Mary with special devotion.
For many years, the late father Patrick Peyton preached the power of the Rosary under the motto "The Family That Prays Together Stays Together." His vibrant devotion to Mary inspired hundreds of thousands of families to turn to Mary to help them with family stability and the acquiring of family values.
The need for family devotion to Mary is greater today than ever. Each time we turn to Mary she brings us closer to Jesus. Two thousand years after the Nativity, the mother is Jesus is more beloved and powerful than ever.
Look again upon the face that most resembles the face of Christ. Only through Mary's brightness can you most prepare to see the face of Jesus.
Here with us today we have the Icon of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Cuba (Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre) may not be as well known in our culture as Our Lady of Guadalupe.
But one can find Our Lady of Charity’s image in churches around the world.
A popular image of Our Lady of Charity includes a banner above her head with the Latin phrase “Mater Caritatis Fluctibus Maris Ambulavit” (Mother of Charity who walked on the road of stormy seas).
Since September, the Knights of Columbus have been spreading this devotion to Our Lady of Charity by bringing the Icon to various parishes. This is done to promote a return to the praying of the Rosary and other Marian devotions. This yearlong, rosary-centered event is being offered for the intentions of Pope Benedict XVI.
The story of Our Lady of Charity is a rather simple one. Like many other Marian apparitions, it occurred in a nameless place and involved ordinary people.
Around the year 1600, three boys were sent to gather salt needed to preserve the meat of the town’s slaughterhouse, which supplied food for the workers and inhabitants at the Spanish copper mines near Santiago, Cuba.
Two of the boys were native Indians and brothers, Rodrigo and Juan de Hoyos, and the third was a 10-year-old black slave, Juan Moreno.
On their way back to Santiago del Prado (modern El Cobre) and halfway across the Bay of Nipe, they encountered a fierce storm that threatened to destroy their frail boat.
Suddenly, the waters calmed. In the distance the boys saw a white bundle floating on a piece of wood that they mistook for a sea bird. In reality, it was a small statue of Mother Mary holding the infant Jesus in her left arm and a gold cross in her right. Inscribed on the wooden board were the words in Spanish “I am the Virgin of Charity”.
The youths brought the statue back to their village, where a chapel was built and the image venerated by all who heard the story. Much like Our Lady of Guadalupe for the Mayan Indians, Our Lady of Charity instantly became a pilgrimage site, a reminder for the underprivileged that their heavenly Mother cared and stood beside them.
As always Mary hears our prayers and is always ready to dispense the graces necessary so that we may always do the will of our Father in Heaven.
Today's Gospel from St. Matthew has Jesus clearly stating what is the will of His Father in heaven.
Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one, who does the will of my Father in heaven.
And, what would you say is the will of the Father in Heaven for you according to the Bible?
Our first clue is when Jesus warns us that at the end many will call Him Lord, Lord and claim that they prophesied in His name, and cast out demons in His name and did many deeds of power in His name.
In other words they worshipped God not as He would have them worship Him in Spirit and truth but rather they worship Him as they insist that He should be worshipped – they follow the false Shepherds who tell them what they want to hear rather than that which they need to hear.
But Jesus will declare to these people, I never knew you. Go away from Me, you evildoers.
As it says in 2 Timothy 2:19 The Lord knows those who are His. God cannot be deceived. What God requires is words plus deeds. There is only one proof of love and that is when we are faithfully obedient just as Mary was and is.
Jesus says, Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise person who built their house on rock.
The Rock is Christ! We read this in 1 Corinthians 3:11, For no other foundation can one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Then the rain of the flesh, the floods of the world, and the winds of the devil cannot harm us.
Whereas the foolish person who builds a house on sand, a person who follows the opinions of the world, a person who dissents from Church teaching in order to make God conform to their own way of thinking, that person is the one who hears the words of Jesus but, does not act on them in accordance with God’s will.
The rain, the floods, and the winds of the world will beat against that house and it will fall, and great, will be its fall!
The Catholic Church teaches what the apostles taught and what the Bible teaches:
That we are saved by grace alone and not by faith alone. Whatever was necessary to make up for human sin, God supplied Himself.
Our task, as those who receive God's unde¬served mercy, forgiveness, and love, is to accept God's free gift in faith just as Mary did.
We lay hold of God's gift of faith. This faith is a personal relationship of trust.
The test of this relationship is in how we live our daily life.
Faith without works is dead. With true faith we are building our house on rock.
When we come to God then and are justified (that is we enter a right relationship with God – and if we have sinned seriously – we can do this through the sacrament of reconciliation) – nothing preceding justification, whether it be works or faith, earns grace.
But then God in His great mercy, plants His love in our hearts and so we should live out our faith by doing acts of love.
Even though only God’s grace enables us to love others, these acts of love please Him, and He promises to reward these acts of love with eternal life.
Thus good works are meritorious. When we first come to God in faith, we have nothing in our hands to offer Him. Then He gives us the grace to obey His commandments.
We do not earn our salvation through good works but our faith in Christ puts us in a special grace filled relationship with God so that our obedience and love, combined with our faith, will be rewarded with eternal life.
As, we pray then, and we ask Mary to intercede for us, that we may do God’s will in our life and not our will in God’s life, let us remember that such prayer is prompted and assisted by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says that no one can say “Jesus is Lord, unless they are under the influence of the Holy Spirit”.
To God the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit - the prayer of the Christian who is living and praying in accordance with God’s will - such prayer is always pleasing to God.
Because of this God knows what the Spirit means and such prayers are always pleasing to Him.
Moses spoke to the people and said “So, now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?
Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and His decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being.
The Baltimore Catechism sums all of this it up by telling us that God made us to Know Him, to Love Him, and to Serve Him in this world so that we might be happy with Him forever in the next.
We must therefore do just as Mary did – we must give our free assent to God’s Holy will in our lives – if we do this – then our eternal destination will be the same as Mary’s. We will rejoice with her and all the saints in heaven for all eternity.
Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre – Pray for us!
Deacon Bernad Ouellette
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
25 MAY 2008 - CORPUS CHRISTI SUNDAY
Deut 8, 2-3. 14-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10, 16-17; John 6, 51-58
"Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day: for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them."
"The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake (share in) one bread."
As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgement against themselves 1 Cor 11:26-29
Eucharist the center of our life
Two Sundays ago we celebrated Pentecost and last Sunday we celebrated the feast of the Blessed Trinity and now we commemorate the Blessed Eucharist. There is a certain logic in this sequence of celebrations.
Pentecost is the Birthday of the Church and on the Feast of the Blessed Trinity we look at the very nature of God himself. Today in the Feast of Corpus Christi we examine how God continues to make himself present to his Church, how he sustains and nourishes us. And he achieves all this principally through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Incoherence, inconsistency of our life
While we cannot judge another person's soul, still we recognize that those involved in certain actions should not come forward for Communion.
You may have heard about bishops admonishing certain politicians not to receive Communion. In this instance the politicians had taken public stands promoting abortion. Since one is Democrat and the other Republican, clearly the bishops are not acting in a partisan manner. Still, the bishops' action surprised some people. What business, they ask, do the bishops have telling someone they should not receive Communion?
The popular perception sees caring liberal bishops welcoming Catholic politicians regardless of their abortion orientation to receive Communion while heartless conservative bishops use confrontation at the altar rail as an opportunity to embarrass and harass political leaders who cross them on their hobbyhorse of opposing a woman's 'right to choose'.
From the earliest days of the Church, receiving Holy Communion unworthily has been forbidden; forbidden out of concern for those who would make such unworthy communions. St. Paul in the eleventh chapter of First Corinthians wrote: "Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord." (1 Cor. 11:27-29)
From this perspective, Bishops who treat Catholic politicians who support abortion as if they were in full communion with the Church are neglecting their pastoral concern and charity for their wayward spiritual children.
………
The November 2007 video shows Cardinal Arinze eliciting much laughter and applause when he made the analogy, "To the person who says, 'Personally I'm against abortion, but if people what to do it, I'll leave them free', you could say, 'You are a member of the senate or the congress, personally I'm not in favour of shooting the whole lot of you, but if somebody else wants to shoot all of you in the Senate, or all of you in Congress, it's just pro-choice for that person, but personally, I'm not in favour.'
Actually, the bishops were acting out of a long tradition. St. Paul told the Corinthians to examine themselves carefully before receiving Communion. Otherwise instead of receiving a blessing they might bring condemnation upon themselves. And St. Paul identified at least one person who should not be part of the Church's communion. St. Paul was not acting on his own. Jesus practiced a similar tough love.
Part of our problem - at least in the United States - is that we have lost the sense of coherence between Communion and the rest of ones life. I would like to mention this Sunday that other acts also exclude a person from Communion. For example, a couple living together without sacramental marriage should not come forward for Communion. If someone has missed Sunday Mass without a sufficient reason, they should not receive Communion until they have gone to confession. At their annual meeting, the American bishops published a document titled "'Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper': On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist." It gives specific guidance on who may receive Communion and when a person should refrain.
The bishops were careful to stress that you and I should not set ourselves as judges of those who come forward for Communion. For example, a couple may not be in a sacramental marriage, but they may have made a special pledge to live as brother and sister. That would between them and their pastor. If one does have a concern about whether someone else should refrain from Communion, the first thing to do is to pray. Maybe you are not the right one to approach that other person. Maybe God will sense someone else on account of your prayer. And maybe he will open a door for you to gently guide the other person. It would be a great act of love.
In today's Sequence, St. Thomas mentions that some receive Communion for salvation, others to their damnation. The greatest thing you can do for another person is to be an instrument setting them on the path to salvation. That is what the bishops were doing when they admonished Catholic politicians who are promoting abortion. We are not here to make people into Democrats or Republicans. We are here to help people become saints. Someday the Republicans and Democrats will be as long forgotten as the Whigs and the Know Nothings. But the saints will shine like unquenchable stars.
This Sunday we celebrate the great gift of Communion. Let's humbly ask the Lord that we may receive him in a way that will lead us to salvation.
The Church is the Body of Christ
For the Child:
Thanksgiving after Receiving Holy Communion
Dear Jesus, I believe that You are present within my heart.
You said, "This is My Body and My Blood."
And I know You love me and want to be with me.
From my heart, I thank You for all You have given to me: my life, my parents, my health, Baptism, protection, and all that I have.
Make me more grateful still.
Generous Lord, I ask for still more: Protect my soul and body.
Be good to those I love. Grant me this special favor. (mention it here)
Watch over me and make me good and happy.
Jesus, I promise to receive You often in Holy Communion.
Remain with me, dear Jesus, today and always.
Never leave me in life and be with me in the hour of my death.
Amen.
Deut 8, 2-3. 14-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10, 16-17; John 6, 51-58
"Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day: for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them."
"The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake (share in) one bread."
As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgement against themselves 1 Cor 11:26-29
Eucharist the center of our life
Two Sundays ago we celebrated Pentecost and last Sunday we celebrated the feast of the Blessed Trinity and now we commemorate the Blessed Eucharist. There is a certain logic in this sequence of celebrations.
Pentecost is the Birthday of the Church and on the Feast of the Blessed Trinity we look at the very nature of God himself. Today in the Feast of Corpus Christi we examine how God continues to make himself present to his Church, how he sustains and nourishes us. And he achieves all this principally through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Incoherence, inconsistency of our life
While we cannot judge another person's soul, still we recognize that those involved in certain actions should not come forward for Communion.
You may have heard about bishops admonishing certain politicians not to receive Communion. In this instance the politicians had taken public stands promoting abortion. Since one is Democrat and the other Republican, clearly the bishops are not acting in a partisan manner. Still, the bishops' action surprised some people. What business, they ask, do the bishops have telling someone they should not receive Communion?
The popular perception sees caring liberal bishops welcoming Catholic politicians regardless of their abortion orientation to receive Communion while heartless conservative bishops use confrontation at the altar rail as an opportunity to embarrass and harass political leaders who cross them on their hobbyhorse of opposing a woman's 'right to choose'.
From the earliest days of the Church, receiving Holy Communion unworthily has been forbidden; forbidden out of concern for those who would make such unworthy communions. St. Paul in the eleventh chapter of First Corinthians wrote: "Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord." (1 Cor. 11:27-29)
From this perspective, Bishops who treat Catholic politicians who support abortion as if they were in full communion with the Church are neglecting their pastoral concern and charity for their wayward spiritual children.
………
The November 2007 video shows Cardinal Arinze eliciting much laughter and applause when he made the analogy, "To the person who says, 'Personally I'm against abortion, but if people what to do it, I'll leave them free', you could say, 'You are a member of the senate or the congress, personally I'm not in favour of shooting the whole lot of you, but if somebody else wants to shoot all of you in the Senate, or all of you in Congress, it's just pro-choice for that person, but personally, I'm not in favour.'
Actually, the bishops were acting out of a long tradition. St. Paul told the Corinthians to examine themselves carefully before receiving Communion. Otherwise instead of receiving a blessing they might bring condemnation upon themselves. And St. Paul identified at least one person who should not be part of the Church's communion. St. Paul was not acting on his own. Jesus practiced a similar tough love.
Part of our problem - at least in the United States - is that we have lost the sense of coherence between Communion and the rest of ones life. I would like to mention this Sunday that other acts also exclude a person from Communion. For example, a couple living together without sacramental marriage should not come forward for Communion. If someone has missed Sunday Mass without a sufficient reason, they should not receive Communion until they have gone to confession. At their annual meeting, the American bishops published a document titled "'Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper': On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist." It gives specific guidance on who may receive Communion and when a person should refrain.
The bishops were careful to stress that you and I should not set ourselves as judges of those who come forward for Communion. For example, a couple may not be in a sacramental marriage, but they may have made a special pledge to live as brother and sister. That would between them and their pastor. If one does have a concern about whether someone else should refrain from Communion, the first thing to do is to pray. Maybe you are not the right one to approach that other person. Maybe God will sense someone else on account of your prayer. And maybe he will open a door for you to gently guide the other person. It would be a great act of love.
In today's Sequence, St. Thomas mentions that some receive Communion for salvation, others to their damnation. The greatest thing you can do for another person is to be an instrument setting them on the path to salvation. That is what the bishops were doing when they admonished Catholic politicians who are promoting abortion. We are not here to make people into Democrats or Republicans. We are here to help people become saints. Someday the Republicans and Democrats will be as long forgotten as the Whigs and the Know Nothings. But the saints will shine like unquenchable stars.
This Sunday we celebrate the great gift of Communion. Let's humbly ask the Lord that we may receive him in a way that will lead us to salvation.
The Church is the Body of Christ
For the Child:
Thanksgiving after Receiving Holy Communion
Dear Jesus, I believe that You are present within my heart.
You said, "This is My Body and My Blood."
And I know You love me and want to be with me.
From my heart, I thank You for all You have given to me: my life, my parents, my health, Baptism, protection, and all that I have.
Make me more grateful still.
Generous Lord, I ask for still more: Protect my soul and body.
Be good to those I love. Grant me this special favor. (mention it here)
Watch over me and make me good and happy.
Jesus, I promise to receive You often in Holy Communion.
Remain with me, dear Jesus, today and always.
Never leave me in life and be with me in the hour of my death.
Amen.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Holy Trinity Sunday - May,18th 2008
Exodus 34, 4-6, 8-9; Daniel 3, 52-56; 2 Cor 13, 11-13; John 3, 16-18
In the Gospel of St. Mark we have the story about Jesus asking his disciples: “Who do people say that I am?”
And his disciples answered and said: “Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah, or other of the old prophets.”
And so Jesus asked them: “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered and said:
"You art the consubstantial Logos, existing in the Father, Who is the pure self subsisting existence and You are His logically no contradictory rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated (but not created), in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and inter-penetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the self existing substance no longer simple."
And Jesus answering, said, "What? Are you OK, Peter?"
******************
The word "Trinity," what does it mean? Does it mean that God is a mystery? No! Is the Blessed Trinity another Person of God? No! Then, what is it? The root of the word "Trinity" originates from the Latin word "trini" which means "three each," or "threefold." "The term has been used as early as the days of Tertullian (200 A.D.) to denote the central doctrine of the Christian religion. God, who is one and unique in His infinite substance or nature, or Godhead, is three really distinct Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of these Persons is truly the same God, and has all His infinite perfections, yet He is really distinct from each of the other Persons. The one and only God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; yet God the Father is not God the Son, but begets the Son eternally, as the Son is eternally begotten. The Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but a distinct Person having His Divine nature from the Father and the Son by eternal procession." (The New Catholic Dictionary, Van Rees Press, NY, Copyright 1929)
In other words, in Jesus dwells the Father and the Holy Spirit. And the same can be said about the Father and the Holy Spirit. In each one dwells the other two Persons of God. This truth is supported by a verse in The Letter of Paul to the Colossians. "In Him (Jesus) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell bodily." [Col. 1:19; 2:9] "All the fullness of God means the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Already this short presentation of the catholic dogmatic teaching about the Holy Trinity shows us how incompetent, inept and even useless or hopeless is our human language. But try please to define or to describe only the human reality of love, the mother’s love of the child, the husband’s love of his spouse, the love between bride and bridegroom. And you will find the same difficulties and problems to express in our human language the reality which is however purely human. So what about the reality of God? Is our human reason and language competent in trying to describe the uncreated reality of GOD?
The story is told of St Augustine of Hippo, who wanted so much to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and to be able to explain it logically. One day as he was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on this, he suddenly saw a little child all alone on the shore. The child made a whole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little shell, filled his shell, came and poured it into the hole he had made in the sand. Back and forth he went to the sea, filled his shell and came and poured it into the hole. Augustine went up to child and said, "Little child, what are doing?" and the child replied, "I am trying to empty the sea into this hole." "How do you think," Augustine asked her, "that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny shell?" To which the child replied, " And you, how do you suppose that with this your small head you can comprehend the immensity of God?" With that the child disappeared.
Like Augustine we may not be able to understand the how of the Trinity but I think it is very important to understand the why. Why did God reveal to us this mystery regarding the very nature of the Supreme Being? The importance of this doctrine lies in this: we are made in the image of God, therefore, the more we understand God the more we can understand ourselves. Experts in religion tell us that people always try to be like the God they worship. People who worship a warrior God tend to be warriors, people who worship a God of pleasure tend to be pleasure-seeking, people who worship a God of wrath tend to be angry people, etc. Like a God, like the worshipers. So the more important question for us to ask today is: What does the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity tell us about the God and what does this say about the kind of people we should be? And here I have tree points to share with you.
1. God does not exist in isolated individualism but in a community of relationships. In other words, God is not a loner or a recluse. This means that a Christian in search of Godliness (Matthew 5:48) must shun every tendency to isolationism and individualism. The ideal Christian spirituality is not that of flight from the world like that of certain Buddhist monastic traditions where the quest for holiness means withdrawal to the Himalayas away from contact with other people and society.
2. True love requires three persons. You remember the old saying "Two is company, three is a crowd." The Trinity shows us that three is community, three is love at its best; three is not a crowd. Taking an example from the human condition we see that when a man is in love he looks for a woman so that together they can create a child, the third person. Father, mother and child — love when it becomes complete becomes a trinity. In this context we can ask: “the abortion, the killing of an unborn child, the third person of the conjugal trinity … is it not an offense to God?”
Over and above that, each one of us becomes fully human only when we are in relationship with God and in relationship with others. In that way our life becomes Trinitarian like that of God. Then we discover that the I-and-I principle preached by Bob Marley and practiced by the society at large leaves much to be desired. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity challenges us to adopt rather an I-and-God-and-neighbor principle. I am a Christian insofar as I live in a relationship of love with God and other people. May the grace of the Holy Trinity help us to banish all traces of selfishness in our lives and to live in love of God and of neighbor.
3. The Eucharist: During the institution of the Lord's Supper, Jesus "took a loaf of bread, and gave it to His disciples, saying, 'This is My Body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.'" [Lk. 22:19] In the mystery of the Consecration of the Bread and Wine, they become the physical Body and Blood of Christ who remains with us today. As Jesus said when departing from this world, "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." [Mt. 28:20b] In the Holy Eucharist is manifested the fullness of the Blessed Trinity. As the Father and the Holy Spirit dwelled in Jesus while He walked the earth, the Father and the Holy Spirit dwell in Jesus in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the fullness of the Blessed Trinity being manifested bodily.
At Confirmation, the archbishop asked the children for a definition of the Holy Trinity. A girl answered very softly, "The Holy Trinity is three Persons in one God." The archbishop, who was almost deaf, replied, "I didn't understand what you said." And the young theologian before him replied, "You are not supposed to. The Trinity is a mystery."
The teaching about the Trinity is one of the most fundamental in our Christian faith. We often refer to it as a 'mystery' and therefore something which can be affirmed but cannot be fully understood, still less fully explained. In the Christian Testament, the word 'mystery' primarily refers not to something which is obscure and difficult to understand but, on the contrary, to something, formerly hidden, which is now being made known to those on the "inside", something which we otherwise would not know.
The Trinity, namely, that God is triune, one in three Persons, is really a mystery in this sense. We could not know about it, if we had not been told. Of course, it is also difficult for us to see how one being can be three persons just as it is difficult for us to understand how Jesus can be both God and a human person (the 'mystery' of the Incarnation).
But we have to ask us some more fundamental questions: Does it really “mystery” contradict or challenge the human reason? Is it not rather our style of life -full of moral contradictions- which truly challenge our reason? The mystery of faith doesn’t contest our human reason. Is it not rather our human cruelty and egoistic style of life which contradict our human reason?
The mystery of faith is not contradicting, offending or opposing our rational faculty but it is rather showing that we have the truly infinite perspectives if only we don’t contradict God’s commandments and God’s love. Human reason is contradicted rather by sin, immorality and pride than by the mystery of faith.
Exodus 34, 4-6, 8-9; Daniel 3, 52-56; 2 Cor 13, 11-13; John 3, 16-18
In the Gospel of St. Mark we have the story about Jesus asking his disciples: “Who do people say that I am?”
And his disciples answered and said: “Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah, or other of the old prophets.”
And so Jesus asked them: “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered and said:
"You art the consubstantial Logos, existing in the Father, Who is the pure self subsisting existence and You are His logically no contradictory rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated (but not created), in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and inter-penetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the self existing substance no longer simple."
And Jesus answering, said, "What? Are you OK, Peter?"
******************
The word "Trinity," what does it mean? Does it mean that God is a mystery? No! Is the Blessed Trinity another Person of God? No! Then, what is it? The root of the word "Trinity" originates from the Latin word "trini" which means "three each," or "threefold." "The term has been used as early as the days of Tertullian (200 A.D.) to denote the central doctrine of the Christian religion. God, who is one and unique in His infinite substance or nature, or Godhead, is three really distinct Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of these Persons is truly the same God, and has all His infinite perfections, yet He is really distinct from each of the other Persons. The one and only God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; yet God the Father is not God the Son, but begets the Son eternally, as the Son is eternally begotten. The Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but a distinct Person having His Divine nature from the Father and the Son by eternal procession." (The New Catholic Dictionary, Van Rees Press, NY, Copyright 1929)
In other words, in Jesus dwells the Father and the Holy Spirit. And the same can be said about the Father and the Holy Spirit. In each one dwells the other two Persons of God. This truth is supported by a verse in The Letter of Paul to the Colossians. "In Him (Jesus) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell bodily." [Col. 1:19; 2:9] "All the fullness of God means the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Already this short presentation of the catholic dogmatic teaching about the Holy Trinity shows us how incompetent, inept and even useless or hopeless is our human language. But try please to define or to describe only the human reality of love, the mother’s love of the child, the husband’s love of his spouse, the love between bride and bridegroom. And you will find the same difficulties and problems to express in our human language the reality which is however purely human. So what about the reality of God? Is our human reason and language competent in trying to describe the uncreated reality of GOD?
The story is told of St Augustine of Hippo, who wanted so much to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and to be able to explain it logically. One day as he was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on this, he suddenly saw a little child all alone on the shore. The child made a whole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little shell, filled his shell, came and poured it into the hole he had made in the sand. Back and forth he went to the sea, filled his shell and came and poured it into the hole. Augustine went up to child and said, "Little child, what are doing?" and the child replied, "I am trying to empty the sea into this hole." "How do you think," Augustine asked her, "that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny shell?" To which the child replied, " And you, how do you suppose that with this your small head you can comprehend the immensity of God?" With that the child disappeared.
Like Augustine we may not be able to understand the how of the Trinity but I think it is very important to understand the why. Why did God reveal to us this mystery regarding the very nature of the Supreme Being? The importance of this doctrine lies in this: we are made in the image of God, therefore, the more we understand God the more we can understand ourselves. Experts in religion tell us that people always try to be like the God they worship. People who worship a warrior God tend to be warriors, people who worship a God of pleasure tend to be pleasure-seeking, people who worship a God of wrath tend to be angry people, etc. Like a God, like the worshipers. So the more important question for us to ask today is: What does the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity tell us about the God and what does this say about the kind of people we should be? And here I have tree points to share with you.
1. God does not exist in isolated individualism but in a community of relationships. In other words, God is not a loner or a recluse. This means that a Christian in search of Godliness (Matthew 5:48) must shun every tendency to isolationism and individualism. The ideal Christian spirituality is not that of flight from the world like that of certain Buddhist monastic traditions where the quest for holiness means withdrawal to the Himalayas away from contact with other people and society.
2. True love requires three persons. You remember the old saying "Two is company, three is a crowd." The Trinity shows us that three is community, three is love at its best; three is not a crowd. Taking an example from the human condition we see that when a man is in love he looks for a woman so that together they can create a child, the third person. Father, mother and child — love when it becomes complete becomes a trinity. In this context we can ask: “the abortion, the killing of an unborn child, the third person of the conjugal trinity … is it not an offense to God?”
Over and above that, each one of us becomes fully human only when we are in relationship with God and in relationship with others. In that way our life becomes Trinitarian like that of God. Then we discover that the I-and-I principle preached by Bob Marley and practiced by the society at large leaves much to be desired. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity challenges us to adopt rather an I-and-God-and-neighbor principle. I am a Christian insofar as I live in a relationship of love with God and other people. May the grace of the Holy Trinity help us to banish all traces of selfishness in our lives and to live in love of God and of neighbor.
3. The Eucharist: During the institution of the Lord's Supper, Jesus "took a loaf of bread, and gave it to His disciples, saying, 'This is My Body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.'" [Lk. 22:19] In the mystery of the Consecration of the Bread and Wine, they become the physical Body and Blood of Christ who remains with us today. As Jesus said when departing from this world, "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." [Mt. 28:20b] In the Holy Eucharist is manifested the fullness of the Blessed Trinity. As the Father and the Holy Spirit dwelled in Jesus while He walked the earth, the Father and the Holy Spirit dwell in Jesus in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the fullness of the Blessed Trinity being manifested bodily.
At Confirmation, the archbishop asked the children for a definition of the Holy Trinity. A girl answered very softly, "The Holy Trinity is three Persons in one God." The archbishop, who was almost deaf, replied, "I didn't understand what you said." And the young theologian before him replied, "You are not supposed to. The Trinity is a mystery."
The teaching about the Trinity is one of the most fundamental in our Christian faith. We often refer to it as a 'mystery' and therefore something which can be affirmed but cannot be fully understood, still less fully explained. In the Christian Testament, the word 'mystery' primarily refers not to something which is obscure and difficult to understand but, on the contrary, to something, formerly hidden, which is now being made known to those on the "inside", something which we otherwise would not know.
The Trinity, namely, that God is triune, one in three Persons, is really a mystery in this sense. We could not know about it, if we had not been told. Of course, it is also difficult for us to see how one being can be three persons just as it is difficult for us to understand how Jesus can be both God and a human person (the 'mystery' of the Incarnation).
But we have to ask us some more fundamental questions: Does it really “mystery” contradict or challenge the human reason? Is it not rather our style of life -full of moral contradictions- which truly challenge our reason? The mystery of faith doesn’t contest our human reason. Is it not rather our human cruelty and egoistic style of life which contradict our human reason?
The mystery of faith is not contradicting, offending or opposing our rational faculty but it is rather showing that we have the truly infinite perspectives if only we don’t contradict God’s commandments and God’s love. Human reason is contradicted rather by sin, immorality and pride than by the mystery of faith.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Pastoral Letter to the People of the Archdiocese of Edmonton
Version for printing
Dear Faithful People in Christ,
In St. Paul’s first letter to the Christian community at Corinth he speaks beautifully of the wonderful diversity of gifts given to the Church for the service of God and His people: “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” (1 Corinthians 12: 4- 6.) We celebrate on Pentecost Sunday the bestowal of the Holy Spirit to the Church and the gifts He instills in the disciples of Jesus Christ. I give God thanks for what is truly a wonderful variety of charisms and good works among the faithful of the Archdiocese of Edmonton. From the Christian witness I have encountered during my first year as your Archbishop, it is clear that many of you have been touched and transformed by the beauty of the Gospel. Through this letter I wish to thank you for your wonderful service to the Church. At the same time I wish to invite you to participate in an important initiative by which we can share with others the joy that we have found in our encounter with Jesus Christ. Our parishes are led by dedicated priests, who are my principal collaborators in my mission as Shepherd of this Archdiocese. From the time of my installation as Archbishop, they have welcomed me warmly and expressed in a variety of ways their readiness to work with me in the service of the Gospel. Called by Christ to collaborate with the Bishop in the teaching, sanctification and governance of God’s holy people, they are entrusted with a task that is both joyful and challenging. I am grateful for their presence and ministry in our local Church.
Many communities of religious women and men serve here in the Archdiocese. Their very presence among us, with their witness of total consecration to Christ and the Church, is a beautiful and necessary sign of the self-emptying love of Christ that brought us life. We recognize with gratitude all that we have received from the self-offering of countless sisters, brothers and priests in religious life. A constant source of encouragement and edification for me is the enthusiasm that many of our lay people have for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout the past twelve months I have been an appreciative eyewitness to the service of lay women and men in our parishes, Archdiocesan offices and consultative bodies, schools, hospitals and associations. In many ways they give convincing witness to their faith in Christ. A particularly effective testimony is offered in the loving care extended to people in need. Through the outreach of our institutions and various parish-based initiatives, Christian love embraces immigrants, the homeless, families in difficulty, people suffering from addictions, troubled youth, women or men in need of protection, prisoners, and the sick. By means of partnership with parishes and associations abroad, we are reaching out to brothers and sisters in other countries who have a particular need for concrete help. A variety of groups serve the cause of life and thereby give wonderful and necessary witness to the dignity and sanctity of human life from its beginning to natural end. An especially exciting gift of God to the Archdiocese at this time in our history is the opportunity to construct a new seminary and theological college. We have been blessed with the responsibility of creating a new home for our seminarians and an educational and formative environment for them and for lay students of theology. Many are involved in this project. The gift of their competence, professionalism and enthusiasm assures me of the success of this endeavour. From the many conversations on this topic, it is clear that the people of this Archdiocese appreciate the great opportunity we have to build something whose beauty will testify to that of our faith for years to come. Please keep this project in your prayers.
We are deeply aware, of course, that Christ is Head of His Church and that, apart from Him we can do nothing (cf. John 15: 5). Therefore let us give thanks to our Lord, who has richly blessed this Archdiocese through the Holy Spirit He sends from the Father. At the same time let us with confidence turn to Him in prayer for the particular gifts we need to face the challenges that lie before us. Our fundamental call and challenge is the proclamation of the Gospel. The good news of Jesus Christ is a message of real hope, since it communicates the truth of God’s all-powerful love, unveils the dignity and destiny of His children, and assures us of the liberating presence of the Lord in the circumstances of our lives. It falls to us to announce that hope to the men and women of our day, who need to hear and appropriate it for the transformation of their lives. For this reason Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have summoned us, together with the whole Church, to a new evangelization. The Church exists to evangelize, that is, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We have done so from the beginning. By “new” is meant the discerning of fresh and effective ways to be renewed in our love and knowledge of the Lord, and to make Jesus known in our day so as to invite others to find in Him the source of real hope and the way to the fullness of life.
That everyone in this Archdiocese might embrace this call with joy and enthusiasm, I am announcing today an initial five-year process for the new evangelization in the Archdiocese of Edmonton. In this time we shall rediscover together the beauty of knowing Jesus Christ and the rich treasury of faith that comes to us from the Apostles. This renewal in the love of Christ and the faith of the Church will, by the grace of God, inspire us to new ways of sharing this good and life-giving news with the men and women of our day.
Beginning this Fall, each of the five years will be devoted to reflection upon a particular dimension of our faith. The centre of it all, of course, will be the Person of Jesus Christ. Our hope and prayer will be to encounter Him anew as Son of God and Saviour. To prepare the way, we shall begin in the first year with reflections upon the mystery of the human person, created by God and saved in Jesus Christ. The second year will then be directed to a new proclamation of Jesus, who alone is the answer to the questions and the fulfillment of the hopes of human life. This will be followed by a year dedicated to the Church, understood and lived as the mystery of communion in Christ. Our fourth year will focus upon the life of grace, that is, life lived as a disciple of Jesus Christ guided by the Holy Spirit. Finally we shall reflect upon the mission of the Church, called to witness before the world to the truth of God’s love revealed in Christ. Speakers and witnesses will be invited to present the doctrine of the Church in all of its radiance and testify before us to the beauty of the life of faith. Everyone in the Archdiocese will have an opportunity to hear these presentations and to consider how the Lord is calling each of us to a rebirth of hope and joy.
The title I have given to this endeavour is “Nothing More Beautiful …” These words are borrowed from Pope Benedict XVI, who, in his homily at the Mass to inaugurate his ministry as the Successor of St. Peter, said: “There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.” My prayer is that, through our reflection together upon the great treasure of our faith, we shall encounter anew the person of Jesus Christ and thus be inspired to share the good news of His love with all in need of hope.
There are many aspects of our society that cry out for this hope. Think, for example, of those uprooted from their families to find employment here at this time of economic growth; of the many people anxious and worried about the lack of affordable housing; or of others caught in the false promises of gambling and other forms of addiction. Never far from our minds and hearts are the many young people, even within our own schools, who do not yet know the Lord and the joy of life in His Church. In order to bring to these and others the good news of the Gospel, we ourselves need to be seized once again by its beauty. Our embracing of the new evangelization, guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit, will make this possible.
More details will be given in the Fall. For now, I invite you to pray often to the Holy Spirit for the success of this project. May He lead us anew to an encounter with Christ, in whom we see the Father and are truly satisfied (cf. John 14: 8-11).
I am deeply grateful to the priests, deacons, religious and lay faithful of this local Church. In many ways I have encountered in you a love for the Lord and His Church that inspires your committed service of God’s people and gives me great hope. From this I am confident that we shall embrace with enthusiasm the call to proclaim anew the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
† Richard W. Smith
Archbishop of Edmonton
Edmonton, Solemnity of Pentecost, May 11, 2008
Version for printing
Dear Faithful People in Christ,
In St. Paul’s first letter to the Christian community at Corinth he speaks beautifully of the wonderful diversity of gifts given to the Church for the service of God and His people: “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” (1 Corinthians 12: 4- 6.) We celebrate on Pentecost Sunday the bestowal of the Holy Spirit to the Church and the gifts He instills in the disciples of Jesus Christ. I give God thanks for what is truly a wonderful variety of charisms and good works among the faithful of the Archdiocese of Edmonton. From the Christian witness I have encountered during my first year as your Archbishop, it is clear that many of you have been touched and transformed by the beauty of the Gospel. Through this letter I wish to thank you for your wonderful service to the Church. At the same time I wish to invite you to participate in an important initiative by which we can share with others the joy that we have found in our encounter with Jesus Christ. Our parishes are led by dedicated priests, who are my principal collaborators in my mission as Shepherd of this Archdiocese. From the time of my installation as Archbishop, they have welcomed me warmly and expressed in a variety of ways their readiness to work with me in the service of the Gospel. Called by Christ to collaborate with the Bishop in the teaching, sanctification and governance of God’s holy people, they are entrusted with a task that is both joyful and challenging. I am grateful for their presence and ministry in our local Church.
Many communities of religious women and men serve here in the Archdiocese. Their very presence among us, with their witness of total consecration to Christ and the Church, is a beautiful and necessary sign of the self-emptying love of Christ that brought us life. We recognize with gratitude all that we have received from the self-offering of countless sisters, brothers and priests in religious life. A constant source of encouragement and edification for me is the enthusiasm that many of our lay people have for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout the past twelve months I have been an appreciative eyewitness to the service of lay women and men in our parishes, Archdiocesan offices and consultative bodies, schools, hospitals and associations. In many ways they give convincing witness to their faith in Christ. A particularly effective testimony is offered in the loving care extended to people in need. Through the outreach of our institutions and various parish-based initiatives, Christian love embraces immigrants, the homeless, families in difficulty, people suffering from addictions, troubled youth, women or men in need of protection, prisoners, and the sick. By means of partnership with parishes and associations abroad, we are reaching out to brothers and sisters in other countries who have a particular need for concrete help. A variety of groups serve the cause of life and thereby give wonderful and necessary witness to the dignity and sanctity of human life from its beginning to natural end. An especially exciting gift of God to the Archdiocese at this time in our history is the opportunity to construct a new seminary and theological college. We have been blessed with the responsibility of creating a new home for our seminarians and an educational and formative environment for them and for lay students of theology. Many are involved in this project. The gift of their competence, professionalism and enthusiasm assures me of the success of this endeavour. From the many conversations on this topic, it is clear that the people of this Archdiocese appreciate the great opportunity we have to build something whose beauty will testify to that of our faith for years to come. Please keep this project in your prayers.
We are deeply aware, of course, that Christ is Head of His Church and that, apart from Him we can do nothing (cf. John 15: 5). Therefore let us give thanks to our Lord, who has richly blessed this Archdiocese through the Holy Spirit He sends from the Father. At the same time let us with confidence turn to Him in prayer for the particular gifts we need to face the challenges that lie before us. Our fundamental call and challenge is the proclamation of the Gospel. The good news of Jesus Christ is a message of real hope, since it communicates the truth of God’s all-powerful love, unveils the dignity and destiny of His children, and assures us of the liberating presence of the Lord in the circumstances of our lives. It falls to us to announce that hope to the men and women of our day, who need to hear and appropriate it for the transformation of their lives. For this reason Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have summoned us, together with the whole Church, to a new evangelization. The Church exists to evangelize, that is, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We have done so from the beginning. By “new” is meant the discerning of fresh and effective ways to be renewed in our love and knowledge of the Lord, and to make Jesus known in our day so as to invite others to find in Him the source of real hope and the way to the fullness of life.
That everyone in this Archdiocese might embrace this call with joy and enthusiasm, I am announcing today an initial five-year process for the new evangelization in the Archdiocese of Edmonton. In this time we shall rediscover together the beauty of knowing Jesus Christ and the rich treasury of faith that comes to us from the Apostles. This renewal in the love of Christ and the faith of the Church will, by the grace of God, inspire us to new ways of sharing this good and life-giving news with the men and women of our day.
Beginning this Fall, each of the five years will be devoted to reflection upon a particular dimension of our faith. The centre of it all, of course, will be the Person of Jesus Christ. Our hope and prayer will be to encounter Him anew as Son of God and Saviour. To prepare the way, we shall begin in the first year with reflections upon the mystery of the human person, created by God and saved in Jesus Christ. The second year will then be directed to a new proclamation of Jesus, who alone is the answer to the questions and the fulfillment of the hopes of human life. This will be followed by a year dedicated to the Church, understood and lived as the mystery of communion in Christ. Our fourth year will focus upon the life of grace, that is, life lived as a disciple of Jesus Christ guided by the Holy Spirit. Finally we shall reflect upon the mission of the Church, called to witness before the world to the truth of God’s love revealed in Christ. Speakers and witnesses will be invited to present the doctrine of the Church in all of its radiance and testify before us to the beauty of the life of faith. Everyone in the Archdiocese will have an opportunity to hear these presentations and to consider how the Lord is calling each of us to a rebirth of hope and joy.
The title I have given to this endeavour is “Nothing More Beautiful …” These words are borrowed from Pope Benedict XVI, who, in his homily at the Mass to inaugurate his ministry as the Successor of St. Peter, said: “There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.” My prayer is that, through our reflection together upon the great treasure of our faith, we shall encounter anew the person of Jesus Christ and thus be inspired to share the good news of His love with all in need of hope.
There are many aspects of our society that cry out for this hope. Think, for example, of those uprooted from their families to find employment here at this time of economic growth; of the many people anxious and worried about the lack of affordable housing; or of others caught in the false promises of gambling and other forms of addiction. Never far from our minds and hearts are the many young people, even within our own schools, who do not yet know the Lord and the joy of life in His Church. In order to bring to these and others the good news of the Gospel, we ourselves need to be seized once again by its beauty. Our embracing of the new evangelization, guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit, will make this possible.
More details will be given in the Fall. For now, I invite you to pray often to the Holy Spirit for the success of this project. May He lead us anew to an encounter with Christ, in whom we see the Father and are truly satisfied (cf. John 14: 8-11).
I am deeply grateful to the priests, deacons, religious and lay faithful of this local Church. In many ways I have encountered in you a love for the Lord and His Church that inspires your committed service of God’s people and gives me great hope. From this I am confident that we shall embrace with enthusiasm the call to proclaim anew the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
† Richard W. Smith
Archbishop of Edmonton
Edmonton, Solemnity of Pentecost, May 11, 2008
Friday, May 02, 2008
03 MAY, 2008 - The Ascension
Version for print here
Today we celebrate Christ's ascension. Let this be clear - there was something very new and wonderful when Jesus returned to His heavenly Father. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity left heaven to take on a human body born of the Virgin Mary and was named Jesus. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity remained in heaven as a member of the Holy Trinity but He also began to live on earth as Jesus, true God and true man. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He, as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, came with His glorified body, the body that hung on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead. He came with His five wounds that would forever serve as trophies of His victory over sin and death. This feast then celebrates Christ's final departure from earth and also His exalted position seated at God's right hand. In the Apostles Creed we pray, "He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father."
In that Creed we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son Of God and that He came to earth being born of the Virgin Mary. He is both Divine and Human. We acknowledge that He is our Lord and Saviour. What we must keep in mind, however, is that Jesus is active in this position. The very fact that He appeared to the apostles over the span of forty days shows this.
While on earth Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit AFTER He had ascended to His Father. This He did after the Ascension. He promised to prepare a place for the apostles so that where He was they would eventually be. He "always lives to make intercession" for "those who draw near to God through Him." He is the one mediator between God and man. Finally Jesus also promised to be with His Church to the end of time . We believe everything that the Scriptures tell us about Him and everything that the Scriptures tell us that He said and did. This is what makes us Catholic Christians and we proudly proclaim the same – meaning every word that we say. It is important therefore that we know what we are saying and we understand what we are saying in the Creed because to be a Christian is to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and Saviour, but to be a Catholic Christian is also to acknowledge that the Catholic Church is the one true Church that Jesus established.
Now my purpose here is not to play the Catholic Church against all other Christian denominations but rather to present to you the argument that to deny the authority of the one Church that Jesus Christ established is to deny the authority of the one who established her – the one who is head of His body the church. And not only deny Jesus’ authority but ultimately His divinity also.
If we deny that the Church has full authority to teach the truth and that all she teaches is the truth – or if we dissent from the teaching of the truth or from the Church’s authority – then ultimately what we are denying is the Divinity of Christ Himself. For as St. Paul says in today’s reading Christ is the Head of His body the Church and He promises to remain with her and protect her until the end of the age. As Catholics we fully accept and understand the fact that Jesus is Divine and that if He is the Son of God as we so proudly proclaim Him to be then we must also acknowledge that He has divine power - to safeguard His One True Church He clearly intended to establish and be with until the end of time.
But safeguard the Church from what and for what?
From the New Testament we learn that Jesus gave special and highly significant emphasis to the word "truth." He tells Pilate that He has come to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37), and He tells His disciples that they will know the truth and the truth will set them free (John 8:32).
On the night of His betrayal He tells His disciples that He will send them the Spirit of Truth who will teach them "all things " remind them of all Jesus has told them (John 14:26) and guide them "into all the truth" (John 16:13). Note that little word "all," repeated three times. Then, in His prayer to His Father, Jesus asks that His disciples be sanctified (made holy) and consecrated (set apart) in the truth. Not in goodness or virtue or love, but in the truth.
The truth matters so much to Jesus that He calls Himself - the Truth. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. In His meeting with the Samaritan woman, He says that His Father seeks "true worshippers" who will worship Him "in spirit and in truth". Not only that, but He calls the devil not the Father of Sin or of Wickedness, but the Father of Lies. To drive the point home Jesus says that Satan "has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him" (John 8:44).
So if the truth is as important as Jesus says it is, and the enemy is not some amateur liar but the very Father of lies, then the battle-lines are clearly drawn and the only question remaining is: does Jesus have what it takes to protect His Church from this enemy?
Scripture gives us two images of the Church that are especially pertinent here. Whether we see the Church as the Bride of Christ and Jesus as the Bridegroom (Eph. 5:25, Rev. 21: 2) (Matt. 9:15) or as the sheepfold and Jesus as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), His role as protector is paramount. His defense of His Bride, His defense of His flock is not abstract or theoretical; it is intensely personal, because the Father of Lies is a real and deadly enemy, whose chief weapon is falsehood.
Jesus takes this threat to His Church personally.
And in His prayer to the Father on the night of His betrayal, right after asking that His disciples be "kept from the evil one"- that is, protected from the Father of Lies - He gives the means by which this protection will be instituted: they are to be sanctified in the truth. So Jesus tells us who the enemy is, and what He as Bridegroom will do to safeguard his Bride: He will send the Holy Spirit of Truth, the one who sanctifies us in the truth. Nowhere does Jesus promise us a Church without sinners or dissenters - on the contrary, as He teaches us in the parable of the wheat and tares – The farmer lets the weeds grow up with the wheat because uprooting the weeds might damage some of the wheat.
The farmer waits until harvest time. Then He will separate the wheat from the weeds, the obedient from the disobedient, and gather the wheat into His barn and then He will cast the weeds into the fire. Jesus promises us a Church which will be without lies, a church guided by the Spirit of Truth. St. Paul must have understood our Lord well, since He refers to the Church as the "pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). Where could he have gotten such a notion except from the one who promised to send the Holy Spirit of Truth?
If we accept the divinity of Christ then we accept His divine capacity to personally defend, protect and preserve His Church from the enemy. If He cannot do that, then He may be a shepherd, but certainly not a divine one; a bridegroom, but only human. If He cannot keep His flock safe from falsehood, then that means the Father of Lies wins and Jesus, whoever He is, is not the Lord. But we believe and we proudly profess together that because Christ is the Divine Bridegroom and the Divine Shepherd, the Catholic Church is exactly what she claims to be and who Sacred Scripture tells us that she is: Christ's beloved Bride, His cherished flock, protected by the Spirit of Truth and therefore infallible in matters of faith and morals. If the Church is not infallible, Jesus is not God, and the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of Truth.
Jesus, as Lord, is also the Lord of History.
Why is this? Well, Jesus promised to be with his Church until the end (Matt. 28:20) and so His divine shepherding takes place in time, as history unfolds. The Father of Lies is and will be a constant threat until the end, until Jesus returns in glory. Now how can Jesus be the Lord of History if the Church did not have the truth from the very beginning ? How can Jesus be the Lord of History if the Church did not have the truth until Luther came along 1500 years later, or Zwingli or Calvin? Or any other person in our time who dissents from the truth or those who teach God’s children to dissent from the truth.
If the Church has not been under the constant vigilant guidance of the Holy Spirit of Truth since day one and remain in the Truth for every second, then Jesus is not the Lord of History, and if He is not the Lord of History, He is not the Lord. Although Jesus did say He came to bring not peace, but the sword of division, we know that the division He speaks of refers not to the Church, but to the separation between the Church and the world. Jesus makes clear that being sanctified in the truth is to be one, as the Father and He are one. Truth and unity go together: there will be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16). Lies, dissent, disobedience and disunity all go together – all are a product of the Father of Lies. Dissenters are not new. They have been with the Church since the beginning. One of their deceptions is that they teach that it is ok to dissent from the teachings of the church or that we are required to dissent.
St. Paul remarked on the connection between false teaching and disunity at the very beginning of the Church: "I hear that there are divisions among you; and I partly believe it, for there must be factions among you so that those who are genuine among you may be recognized" (1 Cor. 11:18-19).
What does St. Paul mean when he says the genuine ones? Who are these "genuine" ones? They are the ones in possession of the truth. And how may we recognize them? They are those who obey the teaching of the apostles, chief of whom is Peter, and their successors, the bishops, chief of whom is the pope.
Vatican II’s Document Lumen Gentium teaches us this :
“Fully incorporated into the Church are those who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of salvation given to the Church together with her entire organization, and who – by the bonds instituted by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and communion – are joined in the visible structure of the Church of Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the Bishops”.
And why do these genuine ones, that is Catholics who are in full communion, freely give their obedience? Full communion means those who fully accept all that the Church teaches. They give their obedience because Jesus is God the Son and He really did what He said He would do: establish his Church on Peter the Rock, and send us the Holy Spirit of Truth to lead the Church into the fullness of truth and protect and preserve her from the Father of Lies.
Therefore just as there are always those who dissent and those who teach dissent there will also always be some who have the fullness of truth and who listen and obey their shepherd for if the sheep can't tell who is teaching the truth, the flock is lost. You can't be just a little bit pregnant. You are either pregnant or you are not. And if the Catholic Church is really the Church established by Jesus who really is Lord, it can't just possess a bit of the truth. It either has all the truth or it does not. When it comes to faith and morals the Catholic Church cannot be right on some things and wrong on others.
Truth is not divisible. It cannot True and False at the same time. Therefore if the Catholic Church is the one true church established by Jesus Christ as we proudly profess when we say the Apostle’s Creed – if the Catholic Church is the Church of Jesus Christ who is it’s head and who protects it from the Father of Lies - then it must always be in possession of the fullness of truth and always teach the truth. If Jesus is Lord, meaning really and truly divine, then everything else follows: the infallibility of the Church, the inerrancy of Scripture, the ex opere operato reality of the sacraments, the papacy, the authority of the church to teach the truth, the doctrine of purgatory, Humane Vitae, the Sanctity of Marriage between one man and one woman, the evil of pornography, the evil of homosexual acts, the evil of abortion and euthanasia, the necessity of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist, the dogmas concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary, "all the truth." Not just part of it.
Since Jesus is the Lord of History, all this truth has come in time, step by step, as the Holy Spirit of Truth has led the Church into the fullness of truth. So the Church established by Jesus cannot go "off the tracks" of the truth, not with the Holy Spirit as its guide, not ever – not for one second. It is one thing to reject the divinity of Jesus, a truth available only to those who have been given the faith by their Heavenly Father. It is another thing entirely to accept the divinity of Jesus but then at the same time to reject the authority of His one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church and the Vicar of Christ on earth – the Holy Father – Our Pope. The person who does this needs to go back and reread the New Testament, and consider what it really means to say that Jesus is Lord, that the enemy is the Father of Lies and that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.
Catholics believe it to mean that Jesus, at every moment throughout these last 2000 years, has always had what it takes to protect his Bride, from her beginning at Pentecost until her Lord returns in glory. He has said that He will be with us until the end of time and He has done so. As Catholics we are called to be defenders of the truth. This means opposing those who are advocates of the Father of Lies. As Catholics we have been given the immense privilege of belonging to Christ’s Mystical body, of having the one true faith and through it knowing the sure means of salvation and holiness.
But as today’s Gospel directs us, we were not given the fullness of truth to keep it to ourselves alone – each one of us has been given the great commission – we have been sent to spread the truth of our faith to all peoples. We are directed to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
Coincidentally this Sunday is also World Communications day and so we are invited to reflect upon the media of social communications (films, radio, television, newspapers, magazines, CD’s and DVD’s) and how these influence our lives both the good and the bad. The church uses the Media to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ - an example of this is the Television Station EWTN. The Eternal Word Television Network which presents good solid Catholic teaching 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. It has an Audience of over 80 million people. It is available to us through both Starchoice and Bell XpressVu – wouldn’t this be a great gift for your Children or Grandchildren. It costs around 4 or 5 $ a month. Check the Bulletin for channel numbers.
My friends, Look up! There is your desired goal ascending to sit at the right hand of His Father. It is a goal which neither poverty, nor hardships, nor death itself can keep you. Follow the truth. The Holy Spirit will assist you. For the treasures that are laid up for you are worth any cost. Follow the truth for the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it even entered into the hearts of men what God has prepared for those who love Him. Christ has ascended to lay up a treasure for you. If you are a doubter, Christ’s ascension is a final proof of His divinity. If you are among the weak, Christ ascended to send the Holy Spirit to strengthen and confirm you. If you are a sinner, Christ is your advocate pleading for your forgiveness before his Father.
As we believe so shall we teach – let us therefore teach the truth – and the truth will set us free.
Version for print here
Today we celebrate Christ's ascension. Let this be clear - there was something very new and wonderful when Jesus returned to His heavenly Father. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity left heaven to take on a human body born of the Virgin Mary and was named Jesus. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity remained in heaven as a member of the Holy Trinity but He also began to live on earth as Jesus, true God and true man. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He, as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, came with His glorified body, the body that hung on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead. He came with His five wounds that would forever serve as trophies of His victory over sin and death. This feast then celebrates Christ's final departure from earth and also His exalted position seated at God's right hand. In the Apostles Creed we pray, "He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father."
In that Creed we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son Of God and that He came to earth being born of the Virgin Mary. He is both Divine and Human. We acknowledge that He is our Lord and Saviour. What we must keep in mind, however, is that Jesus is active in this position. The very fact that He appeared to the apostles over the span of forty days shows this.
While on earth Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit AFTER He had ascended to His Father. This He did after the Ascension. He promised to prepare a place for the apostles so that where He was they would eventually be. He "always lives to make intercession" for "those who draw near to God through Him." He is the one mediator between God and man. Finally Jesus also promised to be with His Church to the end of time . We believe everything that the Scriptures tell us about Him and everything that the Scriptures tell us that He said and did. This is what makes us Catholic Christians and we proudly proclaim the same – meaning every word that we say. It is important therefore that we know what we are saying and we understand what we are saying in the Creed because to be a Christian is to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and Saviour, but to be a Catholic Christian is also to acknowledge that the Catholic Church is the one true Church that Jesus established.
Now my purpose here is not to play the Catholic Church against all other Christian denominations but rather to present to you the argument that to deny the authority of the one Church that Jesus Christ established is to deny the authority of the one who established her – the one who is head of His body the church. And not only deny Jesus’ authority but ultimately His divinity also.
If we deny that the Church has full authority to teach the truth and that all she teaches is the truth – or if we dissent from the teaching of the truth or from the Church’s authority – then ultimately what we are denying is the Divinity of Christ Himself. For as St. Paul says in today’s reading Christ is the Head of His body the Church and He promises to remain with her and protect her until the end of the age. As Catholics we fully accept and understand the fact that Jesus is Divine and that if He is the Son of God as we so proudly proclaim Him to be then we must also acknowledge that He has divine power - to safeguard His One True Church He clearly intended to establish and be with until the end of time.
But safeguard the Church from what and for what?
From the New Testament we learn that Jesus gave special and highly significant emphasis to the word "truth." He tells Pilate that He has come to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37), and He tells His disciples that they will know the truth and the truth will set them free (John 8:32).
On the night of His betrayal He tells His disciples that He will send them the Spirit of Truth who will teach them "all things " remind them of all Jesus has told them (John 14:26) and guide them "into all the truth" (John 16:13). Note that little word "all," repeated three times. Then, in His prayer to His Father, Jesus asks that His disciples be sanctified (made holy) and consecrated (set apart) in the truth. Not in goodness or virtue or love, but in the truth.
The truth matters so much to Jesus that He calls Himself - the Truth. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. In His meeting with the Samaritan woman, He says that His Father seeks "true worshippers" who will worship Him "in spirit and in truth". Not only that, but He calls the devil not the Father of Sin or of Wickedness, but the Father of Lies. To drive the point home Jesus says that Satan "has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him" (John 8:44).
So if the truth is as important as Jesus says it is, and the enemy is not some amateur liar but the very Father of lies, then the battle-lines are clearly drawn and the only question remaining is: does Jesus have what it takes to protect His Church from this enemy?
Scripture gives us two images of the Church that are especially pertinent here. Whether we see the Church as the Bride of Christ and Jesus as the Bridegroom (Eph. 5:25, Rev. 21: 2) (Matt. 9:15) or as the sheepfold and Jesus as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), His role as protector is paramount. His defense of His Bride, His defense of His flock is not abstract or theoretical; it is intensely personal, because the Father of Lies is a real and deadly enemy, whose chief weapon is falsehood.
Jesus takes this threat to His Church personally.
And in His prayer to the Father on the night of His betrayal, right after asking that His disciples be "kept from the evil one"- that is, protected from the Father of Lies - He gives the means by which this protection will be instituted: they are to be sanctified in the truth. So Jesus tells us who the enemy is, and what He as Bridegroom will do to safeguard his Bride: He will send the Holy Spirit of Truth, the one who sanctifies us in the truth. Nowhere does Jesus promise us a Church without sinners or dissenters - on the contrary, as He teaches us in the parable of the wheat and tares – The farmer lets the weeds grow up with the wheat because uprooting the weeds might damage some of the wheat.
The farmer waits until harvest time. Then He will separate the wheat from the weeds, the obedient from the disobedient, and gather the wheat into His barn and then He will cast the weeds into the fire. Jesus promises us a Church which will be without lies, a church guided by the Spirit of Truth. St. Paul must have understood our Lord well, since He refers to the Church as the "pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). Where could he have gotten such a notion except from the one who promised to send the Holy Spirit of Truth?
If we accept the divinity of Christ then we accept His divine capacity to personally defend, protect and preserve His Church from the enemy. If He cannot do that, then He may be a shepherd, but certainly not a divine one; a bridegroom, but only human. If He cannot keep His flock safe from falsehood, then that means the Father of Lies wins and Jesus, whoever He is, is not the Lord. But we believe and we proudly profess together that because Christ is the Divine Bridegroom and the Divine Shepherd, the Catholic Church is exactly what she claims to be and who Sacred Scripture tells us that she is: Christ's beloved Bride, His cherished flock, protected by the Spirit of Truth and therefore infallible in matters of faith and morals. If the Church is not infallible, Jesus is not God, and the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of Truth.
Jesus, as Lord, is also the Lord of History.
Why is this? Well, Jesus promised to be with his Church until the end (Matt. 28:20) and so His divine shepherding takes place in time, as history unfolds. The Father of Lies is and will be a constant threat until the end, until Jesus returns in glory. Now how can Jesus be the Lord of History if the Church did not have the truth from the very beginning ? How can Jesus be the Lord of History if the Church did not have the truth until Luther came along 1500 years later, or Zwingli or Calvin? Or any other person in our time who dissents from the truth or those who teach God’s children to dissent from the truth.
If the Church has not been under the constant vigilant guidance of the Holy Spirit of Truth since day one and remain in the Truth for every second, then Jesus is not the Lord of History, and if He is not the Lord of History, He is not the Lord. Although Jesus did say He came to bring not peace, but the sword of division, we know that the division He speaks of refers not to the Church, but to the separation between the Church and the world. Jesus makes clear that being sanctified in the truth is to be one, as the Father and He are one. Truth and unity go together: there will be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16). Lies, dissent, disobedience and disunity all go together – all are a product of the Father of Lies. Dissenters are not new. They have been with the Church since the beginning. One of their deceptions is that they teach that it is ok to dissent from the teachings of the church or that we are required to dissent.
St. Paul remarked on the connection between false teaching and disunity at the very beginning of the Church: "I hear that there are divisions among you; and I partly believe it, for there must be factions among you so that those who are genuine among you may be recognized" (1 Cor. 11:18-19).
What does St. Paul mean when he says the genuine ones? Who are these "genuine" ones? They are the ones in possession of the truth. And how may we recognize them? They are those who obey the teaching of the apostles, chief of whom is Peter, and their successors, the bishops, chief of whom is the pope.
Vatican II’s Document Lumen Gentium teaches us this :
“Fully incorporated into the Church are those who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of salvation given to the Church together with her entire organization, and who – by the bonds instituted by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and communion – are joined in the visible structure of the Church of Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the Bishops”.
And why do these genuine ones, that is Catholics who are in full communion, freely give their obedience? Full communion means those who fully accept all that the Church teaches. They give their obedience because Jesus is God the Son and He really did what He said He would do: establish his Church on Peter the Rock, and send us the Holy Spirit of Truth to lead the Church into the fullness of truth and protect and preserve her from the Father of Lies.
Therefore just as there are always those who dissent and those who teach dissent there will also always be some who have the fullness of truth and who listen and obey their shepherd for if the sheep can't tell who is teaching the truth, the flock is lost. You can't be just a little bit pregnant. You are either pregnant or you are not. And if the Catholic Church is really the Church established by Jesus who really is Lord, it can't just possess a bit of the truth. It either has all the truth or it does not. When it comes to faith and morals the Catholic Church cannot be right on some things and wrong on others.
Truth is not divisible. It cannot True and False at the same time. Therefore if the Catholic Church is the one true church established by Jesus Christ as we proudly profess when we say the Apostle’s Creed – if the Catholic Church is the Church of Jesus Christ who is it’s head and who protects it from the Father of Lies - then it must always be in possession of the fullness of truth and always teach the truth. If Jesus is Lord, meaning really and truly divine, then everything else follows: the infallibility of the Church, the inerrancy of Scripture, the ex opere operato reality of the sacraments, the papacy, the authority of the church to teach the truth, the doctrine of purgatory, Humane Vitae, the Sanctity of Marriage between one man and one woman, the evil of pornography, the evil of homosexual acts, the evil of abortion and euthanasia, the necessity of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist, the dogmas concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary, "all the truth." Not just part of it.
Since Jesus is the Lord of History, all this truth has come in time, step by step, as the Holy Spirit of Truth has led the Church into the fullness of truth. So the Church established by Jesus cannot go "off the tracks" of the truth, not with the Holy Spirit as its guide, not ever – not for one second. It is one thing to reject the divinity of Jesus, a truth available only to those who have been given the faith by their Heavenly Father. It is another thing entirely to accept the divinity of Jesus but then at the same time to reject the authority of His one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church and the Vicar of Christ on earth – the Holy Father – Our Pope. The person who does this needs to go back and reread the New Testament, and consider what it really means to say that Jesus is Lord, that the enemy is the Father of Lies and that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.
Catholics believe it to mean that Jesus, at every moment throughout these last 2000 years, has always had what it takes to protect his Bride, from her beginning at Pentecost until her Lord returns in glory. He has said that He will be with us until the end of time and He has done so. As Catholics we are called to be defenders of the truth. This means opposing those who are advocates of the Father of Lies. As Catholics we have been given the immense privilege of belonging to Christ’s Mystical body, of having the one true faith and through it knowing the sure means of salvation and holiness.
But as today’s Gospel directs us, we were not given the fullness of truth to keep it to ourselves alone – each one of us has been given the great commission – we have been sent to spread the truth of our faith to all peoples. We are directed to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
Coincidentally this Sunday is also World Communications day and so we are invited to reflect upon the media of social communications (films, radio, television, newspapers, magazines, CD’s and DVD’s) and how these influence our lives both the good and the bad. The church uses the Media to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ - an example of this is the Television Station EWTN. The Eternal Word Television Network which presents good solid Catholic teaching 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. It has an Audience of over 80 million people. It is available to us through both Starchoice and Bell XpressVu – wouldn’t this be a great gift for your Children or Grandchildren. It costs around 4 or 5 $ a month. Check the Bulletin for channel numbers.
My friends, Look up! There is your desired goal ascending to sit at the right hand of His Father. It is a goal which neither poverty, nor hardships, nor death itself can keep you. Follow the truth. The Holy Spirit will assist you. For the treasures that are laid up for you are worth any cost. Follow the truth for the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it even entered into the hearts of men what God has prepared for those who love Him. Christ has ascended to lay up a treasure for you. If you are a doubter, Christ’s ascension is a final proof of His divinity. If you are among the weak, Christ ascended to send the Holy Spirit to strengthen and confirm you. If you are a sinner, Christ is your advocate pleading for your forgiveness before his Father.
As we believe so shall we teach – let us therefore teach the truth – and the truth will set us free.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
6TH EASTER SUNDAY – 26-27 APRIL 2008
Acts 8, 5-8. 14-17; Psalm 66; 1 Peter 3, 15-18; St. John 14, 15-21
Reading 1 Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing. For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!”
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading II 1 Pt 3:15-18
Beloved: Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit.
Gospel Jn 14:15-21
Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
Consistency, integrity or contradiction?
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth”
In today’s Gospel Jesus is talking about two the most fundamental concepts of our life: the love and the truth. In our multicultural and tolerant world both: and love and truth are not only misused but abused and denied. Instead of love we have sex and pornography, instead of truth we are proposed relativism and falsely understood tolerance, where everybody has his own private truth.
And so we can ask a legitimate question: “What is love? What does it mean to love?” Jesus is answering it in the most direct and clearest way: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And so we can continue to question further: “What are the commandments I should keep?” This question was already asked in the Gospel by a young rich man who would like to be a disciple of Christ. (Mk 10:17-20)
Young rich man asked "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered him: “You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.”
Am I able to say together with this young man: “Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy." If not why do I say that I love God?
During his last visit in USA Pope Benedict XVI said:
While it is true that this continent is marked by a genuinely religious spirit, the subtle influence of secularism can nevertheless color the way people allow their faith to influence their behavior.
Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs?
Is it consistent for practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized, to promote sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or to adopt positions that contradict the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death?
Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted. Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel (…)
How can we not be saddened as we observe the sharp decline of the family as a basic element of Church and society?
Divorce and infidelity have increased, and many young men and women are choosing to postpone marriage or to forego it altogether.
To some Catholics, the sacramental bond of marriage seems scarcely distinguishable from a civil bond, or even a purely informal and open-ended arrangement to live with another person.
Hence we have an alarming decrease in the number of Catholic marriages in the North America together with an increase in cohabitation, in which the Christ-like mutual self-giving love (..) is simply absent.
In such circumstances, a deep reflection is arising: “Is my life consistent and integral or rather contradictory? I pretend to love Jesus, but do I keep also His commandments?”
AND THE SECOND CONCEPT OF TODAY’S GOSPEL, THE CONCEPT OF TRUTH.
What does it mean that the Father will send us the SPIRIT OF TRUTH?
We are afraid of the truth.
For many of the contemporary Catholics the truth is very inconvenient, awkward, problematic and tiresome.
Especially if this truth is not going together with my wishes and desires.
Today many live without belief in the existence of truth. Some use the word without understanding its authentic meaning, as if it can denote only a personal opinion, a thing that is "true" only for the individual who holds that idea. This widespread relativism, the system of thought which refuses to affirm that any one idea or law can apply to all persons, is "true", has crept with increasing power like an infection into the body of the Church.
The Church cannot be the Body of Christ unless the Church leads us into all the truth, for Christ is the Truth. The Church cannot teach the truth without the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit of truth, for the human members of the Church are incapable of grasping and remaining faithful to the Word of truth without divine grace. The Lord promised the gift of the Holy Spirit so that man might persevere in the truth and so be saved.
To love Jesus means to trust him. And that means that we trust his radical teaching about an ideal of unselfish love with all –even the most difficult- consequences off this love.
Jesus knows that his teaching seems unpromising and so he sends to those who try to be unselfish an Advocate who is the "Spirit of truth." This divine Spirit will be present to our inmost being and will assure us that the path traced out by Jesus will in fact lead to freedom and joy. This powerful Spirit will also guide us in knowing how to love properly in all the circumstances of our lives. But our obligation and our deepest task is to not put the obstacles to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
How we can recognize that we have the Spirit of Christ and not the spirit of the world?
St Paul in the letter to the Galatians gives us the clear answer:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
But the deeds of the flesh are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, conflicts, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, egoism, and things like these, of which I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:19-23)
And once again the same question is arising: “Is my life consistent and integral or rather contradictory? I pretend to believe Jesus, but do I live according to His Spirit of truth?”
Acts 8, 5-8. 14-17; Psalm 66; 1 Peter 3, 15-18; St. John 14, 15-21
Reading 1 Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing. For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!”
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading II 1 Pt 3:15-18
Beloved: Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit.
Gospel Jn 14:15-21
Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
Consistency, integrity or contradiction?
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth”
In today’s Gospel Jesus is talking about two the most fundamental concepts of our life: the love and the truth. In our multicultural and tolerant world both: and love and truth are not only misused but abused and denied. Instead of love we have sex and pornography, instead of truth we are proposed relativism and falsely understood tolerance, where everybody has his own private truth.
And so we can ask a legitimate question: “What is love? What does it mean to love?” Jesus is answering it in the most direct and clearest way: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And so we can continue to question further: “What are the commandments I should keep?” This question was already asked in the Gospel by a young rich man who would like to be a disciple of Christ. (Mk 10:17-20)
Young rich man asked "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered him: “You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.”
Am I able to say together with this young man: “Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy." If not why do I say that I love God?
During his last visit in USA Pope Benedict XVI said:
While it is true that this continent is marked by a genuinely religious spirit, the subtle influence of secularism can nevertheless color the way people allow their faith to influence their behavior.
Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs?
Is it consistent for practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized, to promote sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or to adopt positions that contradict the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death?
Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted. Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel (…)
How can we not be saddened as we observe the sharp decline of the family as a basic element of Church and society?
Divorce and infidelity have increased, and many young men and women are choosing to postpone marriage or to forego it altogether.
To some Catholics, the sacramental bond of marriage seems scarcely distinguishable from a civil bond, or even a purely informal and open-ended arrangement to live with another person.
Hence we have an alarming decrease in the number of Catholic marriages in the North America together with an increase in cohabitation, in which the Christ-like mutual self-giving love (..) is simply absent.
In such circumstances, a deep reflection is arising: “Is my life consistent and integral or rather contradictory? I pretend to love Jesus, but do I keep also His commandments?”
AND THE SECOND CONCEPT OF TODAY’S GOSPEL, THE CONCEPT OF TRUTH.
What does it mean that the Father will send us the SPIRIT OF TRUTH?
We are afraid of the truth.
For many of the contemporary Catholics the truth is very inconvenient, awkward, problematic and tiresome.
Especially if this truth is not going together with my wishes and desires.
Today many live without belief in the existence of truth. Some use the word without understanding its authentic meaning, as if it can denote only a personal opinion, a thing that is "true" only for the individual who holds that idea. This widespread relativism, the system of thought which refuses to affirm that any one idea or law can apply to all persons, is "true", has crept with increasing power like an infection into the body of the Church.
The Church cannot be the Body of Christ unless the Church leads us into all the truth, for Christ is the Truth. The Church cannot teach the truth without the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit of truth, for the human members of the Church are incapable of grasping and remaining faithful to the Word of truth without divine grace. The Lord promised the gift of the Holy Spirit so that man might persevere in the truth and so be saved.
To love Jesus means to trust him. And that means that we trust his radical teaching about an ideal of unselfish love with all –even the most difficult- consequences off this love.
Jesus knows that his teaching seems unpromising and so he sends to those who try to be unselfish an Advocate who is the "Spirit of truth." This divine Spirit will be present to our inmost being and will assure us that the path traced out by Jesus will in fact lead to freedom and joy. This powerful Spirit will also guide us in knowing how to love properly in all the circumstances of our lives. But our obligation and our deepest task is to not put the obstacles to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
How we can recognize that we have the Spirit of Christ and not the spirit of the world?
St Paul in the letter to the Galatians gives us the clear answer:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
But the deeds of the flesh are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, conflicts, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, egoism, and things like these, of which I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:19-23)
And once again the same question is arising: “Is my life consistent and integral or rather contradictory? I pretend to believe Jesus, but do I live according to His Spirit of truth?”
Sunday, April 20, 2008
5 Easter Sunday – 20 04. 2008
Reading 1 Acts 6:1-7
As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them. The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
R. (22) Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading II 1 Pt 2:4-9
Beloved: Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it says in Scripture: Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame. Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and A stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall. They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny. You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Gospel Jn 14:1-12
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
What is the deepest meaning of these words of Jesus Christ? Why Jesus call Himself the Way, the Truth and the Life. What He would like to tell me by this statement?
"The Way" - Strange words from Christ, calling himself "the way." Not, I can show you the way. Not, here is a guide book to follow. Jesus says, "I am the way."
"The Truth" - and we know that He said also: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jn 8:31-31
but also: “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."” Jn 18:37
"The Life" – “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life” Jn 5:24
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” Jn 6:47
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” Jn 6:54
What does it mean for me that Jesus is my Way, My Truth and my life?
Few days ago I was listening with a certain curiosity a discussion of some of my friends. One of them tried to proof that for us Christians and Catholics Jesus is an option, that we have a choice, that we as priests we shouldn’t press and push the Catholics in their moral and religious decisions.
It was really a peculiar dissertation in the mouths of a priest. Later on I read these words, the words of today’s Gospel: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” and I clearly realized that for me Jesus is not an option, not a choice not a possibility, not an alternative!!!
Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life is for me not an option … He is an obligation with all consequences of this statement!!
Jesus is the only WAY of my life and I shouldn’t have any other paths or passages, which are not in accordance with HIM!
He is the only TRUTH in my life, and I shouldn’t believe any other truths or create my private religious or moral truths!
Jesus is not an option He is my LIFE, because what is the other option besides LIFE ??? The DEATH!!!
Reading 1 Acts 6:1-7
As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them. The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
R. (22) Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading II 1 Pt 2:4-9
Beloved: Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it says in Scripture: Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame. Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and A stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall. They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny. You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Gospel Jn 14:1-12
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
What is the deepest meaning of these words of Jesus Christ? Why Jesus call Himself the Way, the Truth and the Life. What He would like to tell me by this statement?
"The Way" - Strange words from Christ, calling himself "the way." Not, I can show you the way. Not, here is a guide book to follow. Jesus says, "I am the way."
"The Truth" - and we know that He said also: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jn 8:31-31
but also: “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."” Jn 18:37
"The Life" – “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life” Jn 5:24
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” Jn 6:47
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” Jn 6:54
What does it mean for me that Jesus is my Way, My Truth and my life?
Few days ago I was listening with a certain curiosity a discussion of some of my friends. One of them tried to proof that for us Christians and Catholics Jesus is an option, that we have a choice, that we as priests we shouldn’t press and push the Catholics in their moral and religious decisions.
It was really a peculiar dissertation in the mouths of a priest. Later on I read these words, the words of today’s Gospel: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” and I clearly realized that for me Jesus is not an option, not a choice not a possibility, not an alternative!!!
Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life is for me not an option … He is an obligation with all consequences of this statement!!
Jesus is the only WAY of my life and I shouldn’t have any other paths or passages, which are not in accordance with HIM!
He is the only TRUTH in my life, and I shouldn’t believe any other truths or create my private religious or moral truths!
Jesus is not an option He is my LIFE, because what is the other option besides LIFE ??? The DEATH!!!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
4th Sunday of Easter – Good Shepard Sunday – Vocation Sunday
Reading 1 Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed: “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.” He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.
Responsorial Psalm 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Reading II 1 Pt 2:20b-25
Beloved: If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Gospel Jn 10:1-10
Jesus said:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Good Shepherd
“Whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. … he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.
I am the gate for the sheep.
Whoever enters through me will be saved …” (Jn 10:1nn)
These words invite us to meditate this Sunday on the place and the role of guides in our social life. We have plenty of guides and leaders. And we have plenty of imposters, of those who claim to be the guides but in reality they misguide us and lead us astray. I won’t like to talk about them, because it could be imprudent or even unsafe :-)
I prefer rather to talk about the characteristics or attributes of a Goode Shepherd. Jesus Himself gives us these distinctive features which will help us to distinct clearly the one from the others.
God's image as Shepherd did not originate with Jesus. It preceded Him by centuries. One finds the figure of speech strewn throughout the Old Testament like a common pebble. You will discover it in the Books of Zechariah, Isaiah, Ezechiel, and Jeremiah for openers. And don't forget the celebrated 23rd Psalm which is our Responsorial Psalm today: "The Lord is my shepherd."
Already in the Jn 10:11-14 Jesus clearly says: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,”
This kind of attitude is impossible for those who are not pastors, who are impostors and pretenders. This is the most important characteristic of a Good Shepherd. Jesus Christ is the perfect example.
In the book of Sirach (18:11-12) we read: “LORD'S mercy reaches all flesh, reproving, admonishing, teaching, as a shepherd guides his flock …” what is confirmed in 2Tm 4:2: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who as a Good Pastor will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power:
proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.
For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, having itching ears will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths.
But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; always be sober, endure suffering put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry.”
The impostor and pretender don’t seek the good of the sheep especially if it is not popular and well-liked, but the imposters are searching rather their own popularity and esteem.
One of the Canadian bishops used to repeat:
“If I don’t tell you what you want like to hear, you will not listen to what I have to tell you.” And this is the second feature of the Good Shepherd. He is not searching for his own esteem and tells the truth even if sometimes he is politically incorrect, and unpopular. And once again, Jesus is the best example of this.
And the third characteristic: “whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
The Good Shepherd the one who is appointed by Jesus Christ enters through the gate, means through Jesus Christ and the gatekeeper opens the gate for him. Jesus Himself appointed the gatekeeper St. Peter Apostle:
“‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’”
And after Resurrection by the Sea of Tiberias He reconfirmed: “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.”
And this is the fourth feature of a Good Shepherd – love of Jesus.
St Augustine used to repeat:
“I am the Christian and a sinner with you, but I am a pastor for you. Pray for me so that I can be a Good Shepherd for you.”
So let us repeat the features of a Good Shepherd:
1 The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,
2 He is not searching for his own esteem and tells the truth even if sometimes he has to be unpopular,
3 The Good Shepherd is appointed by Jesus Christ and enters through the gate, means through Jesus Christ,
4 Good Shepherd loves Jesus Christ.
Pope Gregory the Great wrote:
“A religious leader should be careful in deciding when to remain silent and be sure to say something useful when deciding to speak. In this way he will avoid saying things that would be better not said, or leaving unsaid things that ought to be said. For, just as thoughtless remarks can lead people into error, so also ill-advised silence can leave people in their error, when they could have been shown where they were wrong. Negligent religious leaders are often afraid to speak freely and say what needs to be said – for fear of losing favour with people. As Truth himself says, they are certainly not guarding their flock with the care expected of a shepherd but are acting like hirelings, because hiding behind a wall of silence is like taking flight at the approach of the wolf.” From The Pastoral Rule of Pope St. Gregory the Great From the office of readings for Sunday week 27
Reading 1 Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed: “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.” He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.
Responsorial Psalm 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Reading II 1 Pt 2:20b-25
Beloved: If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Gospel Jn 10:1-10
Jesus said:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Good Shepherd
“Whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. … he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.
I am the gate for the sheep.
Whoever enters through me will be saved …” (Jn 10:1nn)
These words invite us to meditate this Sunday on the place and the role of guides in our social life. We have plenty of guides and leaders. And we have plenty of imposters, of those who claim to be the guides but in reality they misguide us and lead us astray. I won’t like to talk about them, because it could be imprudent or even unsafe :-)
I prefer rather to talk about the characteristics or attributes of a Goode Shepherd. Jesus Himself gives us these distinctive features which will help us to distinct clearly the one from the others.
God's image as Shepherd did not originate with Jesus. It preceded Him by centuries. One finds the figure of speech strewn throughout the Old Testament like a common pebble. You will discover it in the Books of Zechariah, Isaiah, Ezechiel, and Jeremiah for openers. And don't forget the celebrated 23rd Psalm which is our Responsorial Psalm today: "The Lord is my shepherd."
Already in the Jn 10:11-14 Jesus clearly says: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,”
This kind of attitude is impossible for those who are not pastors, who are impostors and pretenders. This is the most important characteristic of a Good Shepherd. Jesus Christ is the perfect example.
In the book of Sirach (18:11-12) we read: “LORD'S mercy reaches all flesh, reproving, admonishing, teaching, as a shepherd guides his flock …” what is confirmed in 2Tm 4:2: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who as a Good Pastor will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power:
proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.
For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, having itching ears will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths.
But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; always be sober, endure suffering put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry.”
The impostor and pretender don’t seek the good of the sheep especially if it is not popular and well-liked, but the imposters are searching rather their own popularity and esteem.
One of the Canadian bishops used to repeat:
“If I don’t tell you what you want like to hear, you will not listen to what I have to tell you.” And this is the second feature of the Good Shepherd. He is not searching for his own esteem and tells the truth even if sometimes he is politically incorrect, and unpopular. And once again, Jesus is the best example of this.
And the third characteristic: “whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
The Good Shepherd the one who is appointed by Jesus Christ enters through the gate, means through Jesus Christ and the gatekeeper opens the gate for him. Jesus Himself appointed the gatekeeper St. Peter Apostle:
“‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’”
And after Resurrection by the Sea of Tiberias He reconfirmed: “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.”
And this is the fourth feature of a Good Shepherd – love of Jesus.
St Augustine used to repeat:
“I am the Christian and a sinner with you, but I am a pastor for you. Pray for me so that I can be a Good Shepherd for you.”
So let us repeat the features of a Good Shepherd:
1 The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,
2 He is not searching for his own esteem and tells the truth even if sometimes he has to be unpopular,
3 The Good Shepherd is appointed by Jesus Christ and enters through the gate, means through Jesus Christ,
4 Good Shepherd loves Jesus Christ.
Pope Gregory the Great wrote:
“A religious leader should be careful in deciding when to remain silent and be sure to say something useful when deciding to speak. In this way he will avoid saying things that would be better not said, or leaving unsaid things that ought to be said. For, just as thoughtless remarks can lead people into error, so also ill-advised silence can leave people in their error, when they could have been shown where they were wrong. Negligent religious leaders are often afraid to speak freely and say what needs to be said – for fear of losing favour with people. As Truth himself says, they are certainly not guarding their flock with the care expected of a shepherd but are acting like hirelings, because hiding behind a wall of silence is like taking flight at the approach of the wolf.” From The Pastoral Rule of Pope St. Gregory the Great From the office of readings for Sunday week 27
Sunday, April 06, 2008
3rd Easter Sunday - A
Two hippies were walking down the street the other day.
Suddenly coming the opposite way they spotted a Catholic Priest.
They knew he was a priest because he was wearing a white Roman Collar.
The priest had his arm in a cast. As they drew near to each other one of the hippies said “Hey man, what happened to you?” The priest said “I slipped in the bathtub and broke my arm”.
The hippy replied “Sorry to hear that man, have a good day” and they moved on. Suddenly one hippy said to the other “Hey man, what’s a bathtub?” The other hippy replied “How should I know, I’m not Catholic.”
It used to be that you could tell Catholics apart from other people. Maybe when you saw a large family walking together – you thought – they must be Catholic. Or if you saw someone make the sign of the Cross – you immediately thought – they are Catholic. Or if you saw a cross or a scapular around someone’s neck – you thought – they are Catholic.
These things made Catholics easier to spot. Nowadays it is harder to identify a person as a Catholic. Over the past few years we seem to have made a concerted effort to blend in with the rest of society.
This has even carried over into our area of worship.
Let me ask you a question. Why did you come to Mass today? What was the main reason for you to be here? Is it really because you know that it is a sin to deliberately miss Mass and even if you didn’t want to come – you had to come anyway.
Is it because you want to join others and meet your friends at church? Or did you come to participate as best you can in the Mass, listen to the homily and be uplifted as best you can by the beautiful voices of the choir?
It seems over the years our reasons for coming to Mass have changed. In the world we live in today we are conditioned to being entertained. We turn on the TV to watch a show or a game – our primary intent is to be entertained – sometimes to relieve the boredom.
We go to hockey games and football games – again to be entertained. We go to the show, we attend the theatre – again to be entertained. In all of these things – we need to have something in them to appeal to our senses. Otherwise we would be bored.
What happens to us a church if the homily is boring – or if the singing is not the best. Do we leave the church bored or with a feeling of having wasted our time?
We have been conditioned to come to church to be entertained in a way. If our senses are not challenged then we lapse into boredom – even in church.
Let’s just look for a moment at what the Church teaches about why we come to Mass and what we should be doing when we are there.
First of all, the church teaches us that the Mass is the supreme prayer, the supreme act of Adoration. If this is the case then we need to look at what is Adoration. Adoration is praise. Praise is something we give to God – not because he needs it but because we need to give it.
At the Mass there are four types of prayer we need to use in order to properly participate in the Mass.
The first and foremost is Adoration – where we give praise to God.
The second is Contrition – where we review our lives and ask God for forgiveness for the times that we did not love Him or our neighbour.
The third is Thanksgiving where we thank God for the great gift of His Son who died on the Cross for us – while we were still sinners.
And the fourth prayer is our prayer of supplication where we ask God for the things we need – either temporal or spiritual. The graces we need to live holy lives.
You notice in all these prayers – we are directing our attention toward God. We are not sitting there being entertained.
We are actively participating in the Mass by responding to the prayers at the appropriate time as the priest celebrant moves us through the four types of prayer which constitute the Mass.
When we come to Mass do we actively participate in it by praying these four prayers.
If we are waiting to be entertained – we will end up bored. But if we participate in the prayers – in an active way – adoring and praising God through prayer and song, pleading with Him to forgive us our sins, thanking Him for His many gifts and asking Him to give us our daily bread, to heal us and our neighbour and to give us the graces to live good lives.
Are children taught this? Do they understand what is happening at the Mass? Do we recognize what is happening at the Mass. How Jesus comes to us first through His word -
And then through Holy Communion where He actually gives us His body and blood so that we might commune with him. So that we might become one with Him. As Catholics do we believe this? Do we recognize Him at the breaking of the bread?
If we do – how do we approach Him for Holy Communion – is it with reverence and adoration in our hearts – or has communion become for us merely a community meal – a symbol of Jesus – and we eat this meal simply in memory of Him and to express our unity with each other?
As older Catholics don’t we sometimes wonder what has happened to the great wonder and awe with which we used to approach the communion table? We weren’t allowed to touch the Host - only the priest celebrant could do that. We received the Lord on our tongue while kneeling down at the communion rail.
Somebody asked me the other day – when did this all change?
Of course we immediately think of Vatican II. Vatican II - the great council of the church which ended in 1965. A gathering of all the world’s bishops. A council which seems to have changed our Church forever. Or did it?
I grew up in the pre-Vatican II church. I got married just as the Council ended. I honestly don’t remember having any problem with the Latin Mass simply because we had a missal that had Latin on one side and English on the other. And we easily followed and responded.
I do remember that the churches were full and that you didn’t dare sit in a pew that belonged to another family. You could identify a priest or a sister because they wore religious garb.
During an RCIA session in the past someone asked me why do some people stand while others kneel during the consecration and why do some people take communion on the tongue while others receive it in the hand? Which way is the right way? Now, this is a legitimate question especially since this person is new to the faith and wants to know the reasons. How would you answer those questions?
I was about to answer when a Catholic in the group responded with “It’s because Vatican II changed all that”. I thought that was the right answer until I reviewed the documents of Vatican II and I was surprised by all the things we attribute to Vatican II that simply aren’t true.
Yes, many things changed after Vatican II but not all of them as a result of the teachings of Vatican II.
I’ll just briefly review a few of them. I think you may find them enlightening.
Communion on the hand. Where did this come from? Did Vatican II teach us that we should now receive communion in the hand. No, it did not. A dutch priest started to give communion in the hand instead of on the tongue because he felt that the people should receive on the hand like the priest did. The Vatican was shocked and forbade the practice but in open disobedience – the priest continued.
The habit spread like wildfire until the Vatican was forced to issue an indult (that is temporary special permission) which allows a bishop to give permission for communion to be given on the hand after proper catechesis has been given. The Vatican’s concern of course is that small particles of the host, each of which are the whole and complete Christ – would be brushed off the hands and onto the floor instead of being consumed. Even today the universal indult is still in place.
There is a reverent way to receive communion in the hand. You approach the minister - You make a slight reverence such as a bow of the head. You make your hands into a throne by placing them one on top of the other then you gently pick up the host and place it into your mouth. You then check your hands to make sure that no particles of the host remain on them. Is this the way you receive Holy Communion?
So much for the myth that Vatican II changed the way we receive Holy Communion.
Did Vatican II allow individual priests or people to change the liturgy, such as prayers, response, or posture during the Mass no matter what their reasons were?
No, it did not – in fact Vatican II taught the following “ no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority”. So why are some people standing and some people kneeling – I guess that’s a question for the bishops to answer. We all know that some people for health reasons cannot kneel.
So this does not apply to them.
Did Vatican II do away with Latin? No it did not. It in fact recommended that it be kept in parts of the Mass along with the vernacular and most especially in the music. In fact all the Vatican II documents as well as all encyclicals and official documents of the church continue to be distributed in Latin, because Latin is still and will remain the official language of the Church.
Did Vatican II do away with devotions such as Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and praying the Rosary?
No it did not – in fact it promoted and encouraged devotions explaining that devotions are not private things such as an apostolate but rather the prayer of the whole church and are to be greatly encouraged especially those promoted by the Holy See.
Did Vatican II break with the past and start a whole new church? No, it did not.
In fact Pope John the 23rd referred to the continuity and the link between the past councils such as the council of Trent and Vatican I.
Did Vatican II change the role of the laity and the clergy? No, it did not. In fact it went to great lengths to explain the necessary difference and similarities between the two. Interesting to note here that throughout the decree on the laity – there is not one mention of ministry.
Did Vatican II democratize the Church. No, it did not. It reaffirmed the power of the Pope to act on his own. It did explain that Bishops when they are in union with the Pope also take part in the Magesterium. But those Bishops or anyone else who speak on their own without being in union with the Pope have no authority to do so whatsoever.
The council taught the following “The college or body of bishops has for all that no authority unless united with the Roman Pontiff, Peter's successor, as its head, whose primatial authority, let it be added, over all, whether pastors or faithful, remains in its integrity.
For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as the Vicar of Christ, namely, and as pastor of the entire-Church) has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered”. This is the teaching of Vat II.
Doesn’t that make you wonder where some of these dissenting theologians get their authority from? If even a Bishop or group of Bishops has no authority to speak against the church – where do these individual guys get their authority from? It seems that they make themselves into their own magesterium. And Thousands upon thousands of Catholics listen to them, believe them and follow their teachings.
Did Vatican II teach that ordinary people can sometimes reject church teaching and in fact are obliged to do so? No, it did not. The council affirmed that all people owe their obedience to the Pope and the church’s teachings in all cases.
Did Vatican II teach that people must obey their conscience. Yes, It did but it added important provisos that are often conveniently overlooked or ignored by some.
In order to properly form your conscience you must study what the church teaches and what the church teaches must take precedence over everything else that you may read or are told. Conscience is never just a matter of personal opinion or private preference. It never exists in a vacuum of individual sovereignty. It is not a pious alibi for doing what we want or what might be convenient for us. You can’t make yourself into your own magesterium telling yourself what you choose to believe or not believe.
Here's the key to understanding conscience:
Just as John the Baptist demanded conversion, repentance, humility and honesty from ancient Israel, so a right conscience speaks to the individual heart. And always, as Vatican II noted in its Declaration on Religious Liberty, ". . . (I)n forming their consciences, the faithful must pay careful attention to the sacred and certain teaching of the Church.
For the Catholic Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of truth. It is her duty to proclaim and teach with authority (emphasis added) the truth which is Christ and, at the same time, to declare and confirm by her authority the principles of the moral order which spring from human nature" (14).
Vatican II can never be invoked as an alibi for Catholics to ignore the teachings of the church.
A properly formed conscience will never reject the teachings of the church.
Now I ask you - Is Humanae Vitae – the Church’s teaching on birth control – Church teaching or not? By whose authority do we reject it’s teaching?
If we're sincere about our faith, "conscience" can never be used as an excuse for dismissing what the Church teaches by pointing to her theological critics, by listening and believing to dissenting theologians because they are saying what we want to hear, by voter surveys or public opinion polls,, and then doing what we find more convenient. That's dishonest. And God made us for something better than that.
If the council seemed to reaffirm the past then why even call the council? If we are not to break with the past and start anew then what was the real reason for convoking the second Vatican Council.
Maybe Pope John the 23rd’s opening remarks give us a clue.
In calling this vast assembly of bishops, the latest and humble successor to the Prince of the Apostles who is addressing you intends to assert once again the Church's Magisterium [teaching authority], which is unfailing and perdures until the end of time, in order that this Magisterium, taking into account the errors, the requirements, and the opportunities of our time, might be presented in exceptional form to all men throughout the world.
The problem facing us, the Pope pointed out, is the same today as it has ever been: Men stand either with the Church or against Her; and rejection results in bitterness, confusion, and war. These Councils testify to the union of Christ and His Church and promulgate a universal truth to guide individuals in their domestic and social lives.
Pope John XXIII was quite clear about what he wanted the council to accomplish which was the defense and advancement of truth.
The Pope went on to say: “The greatest concern of the ecumenical council is this: “that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously. (effectively)”
Does that sound like a break with the past to you? Does that sound like the Pope wanted a whole new church? And does it sound like we have met that requirement to teach the Catholic faith more effectively since then? I propose that we have effectively done the exact opposite.
In our haste to have an unauthorized break with the past even though the council did not want this to happen, when we threw out the catechisms after Vatican II - even though the council did not direct us to do so, we also threw out the methodology by which we taught our children the faith. We went to concepts instead.
We threw the baby out with the bath water.
The end result is that we are now approaching the 4th generation of uncatechized Catholics – Catholics who do not know their faith and who have no clue what being a Catholic means. And so it is very easy for them to come to church or not – what difference does it make?
Understanding of the Mass and true belief in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist has dipped to new low because the faith has not and is not being taught except in RCIA and RCIC.
As Catholics what are we going to do about it? Do we ourselves believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist? Do we reflect this in the way we receive Him in Holy Communion?
What have we taught our Children and where are they today? We need not only to ask those questions but also to answer them.
If children today are not taught the Catholic faith in our Catholic Schools – who then is going to teach them?
And have their parents been taught their faith well enough to pass it on to their children?
These children will be the potential Catholics of tomorrow. No wonder our church seems to be dying in this part of the world.
Look around you and count the young Catholics among us.
If you didn’t understand the Mass – why would you want to come to a church that seems to have nothing in it for you? Wouldn’t it seem like an exercise in boredom to you? A waste of time? Have you sat next to a kid in church with a scowl on his face because he didn’t want to be there.
I think we recognize this and we want to do something to change it. We wonder why people have stopped coming to church and we do search for ways to bring them back.
But instead of teaching the faith – instead of teaching the truth - we seek to improve the entertainment value.
Something that will get them to come. That will make them want to come. Something that will make them feel welcome.
So we strive to make the music better, we want to make the homilies more relevant and understandable. We make sure we greet people as they come through the door. And we do reach out to fallen away Catholics. And all of this is commendable and to be encouraged but we mustn’t forget about teaching the main reason why we gather for the breaking of the bread.
We mustn’t forget about catechesis. We need to teach the truths of our faith. Children and adults both need to know why we are here. What God expects of us. Why are we here? Where we are going? What is actually happening at Mass?
The old Baltimore Catechisms asked us. Why did God make us?
The answer of course is: God made us to know Him, to Love Him and to serve Him in this world so that we might be happy with Him forever in the next.
The nuns taught me that when I was 6 years old – and I have never forgotten it. How many kids today question why they are here and what reason is there to keep on living.
When they come to Mass do they recognize that it is really and truly the risen Lord who comes to them in the form of Bread and Wine? That He loves them and wants them to come to Him and dine with Him and wants them become part of Him through holy communion. He stands at the door and knocks. We need to answer that door.
This is what makes us different. Yes, Our Lord is present in His Word and also in the Community of Believers but as Vatican II teaches us He is present in a much more substantive way especially in the Eucharist. That is what makes the Catholic Church different. It is the Holy Eucharist.
And Jesus said to them “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them what referred to Him in all the scriptures.
And it happened that, while He was with them at table, He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. Can we say the same?
Deacon Bernard Ouellette
Two hippies were walking down the street the other day.
Suddenly coming the opposite way they spotted a Catholic Priest.
They knew he was a priest because he was wearing a white Roman Collar.
The priest had his arm in a cast. As they drew near to each other one of the hippies said “Hey man, what happened to you?” The priest said “I slipped in the bathtub and broke my arm”.
The hippy replied “Sorry to hear that man, have a good day” and they moved on. Suddenly one hippy said to the other “Hey man, what’s a bathtub?” The other hippy replied “How should I know, I’m not Catholic.”
It used to be that you could tell Catholics apart from other people. Maybe when you saw a large family walking together – you thought – they must be Catholic. Or if you saw someone make the sign of the Cross – you immediately thought – they are Catholic. Or if you saw a cross or a scapular around someone’s neck – you thought – they are Catholic.
These things made Catholics easier to spot. Nowadays it is harder to identify a person as a Catholic. Over the past few years we seem to have made a concerted effort to blend in with the rest of society.
This has even carried over into our area of worship.
Let me ask you a question. Why did you come to Mass today? What was the main reason for you to be here? Is it really because you know that it is a sin to deliberately miss Mass and even if you didn’t want to come – you had to come anyway.
Is it because you want to join others and meet your friends at church? Or did you come to participate as best you can in the Mass, listen to the homily and be uplifted as best you can by the beautiful voices of the choir?
It seems over the years our reasons for coming to Mass have changed. In the world we live in today we are conditioned to being entertained. We turn on the TV to watch a show or a game – our primary intent is to be entertained – sometimes to relieve the boredom.
We go to hockey games and football games – again to be entertained. We go to the show, we attend the theatre – again to be entertained. In all of these things – we need to have something in them to appeal to our senses. Otherwise we would be bored.
What happens to us a church if the homily is boring – or if the singing is not the best. Do we leave the church bored or with a feeling of having wasted our time?
We have been conditioned to come to church to be entertained in a way. If our senses are not challenged then we lapse into boredom – even in church.
Let’s just look for a moment at what the Church teaches about why we come to Mass and what we should be doing when we are there.
First of all, the church teaches us that the Mass is the supreme prayer, the supreme act of Adoration. If this is the case then we need to look at what is Adoration. Adoration is praise. Praise is something we give to God – not because he needs it but because we need to give it.
At the Mass there are four types of prayer we need to use in order to properly participate in the Mass.
The first and foremost is Adoration – where we give praise to God.
The second is Contrition – where we review our lives and ask God for forgiveness for the times that we did not love Him or our neighbour.
The third is Thanksgiving where we thank God for the great gift of His Son who died on the Cross for us – while we were still sinners.
And the fourth prayer is our prayer of supplication where we ask God for the things we need – either temporal or spiritual. The graces we need to live holy lives.
You notice in all these prayers – we are directing our attention toward God. We are not sitting there being entertained.
We are actively participating in the Mass by responding to the prayers at the appropriate time as the priest celebrant moves us through the four types of prayer which constitute the Mass.
When we come to Mass do we actively participate in it by praying these four prayers.
If we are waiting to be entertained – we will end up bored. But if we participate in the prayers – in an active way – adoring and praising God through prayer and song, pleading with Him to forgive us our sins, thanking Him for His many gifts and asking Him to give us our daily bread, to heal us and our neighbour and to give us the graces to live good lives.
Are children taught this? Do they understand what is happening at the Mass? Do we recognize what is happening at the Mass. How Jesus comes to us first through His word -
And then through Holy Communion where He actually gives us His body and blood so that we might commune with him. So that we might become one with Him. As Catholics do we believe this? Do we recognize Him at the breaking of the bread?
If we do – how do we approach Him for Holy Communion – is it with reverence and adoration in our hearts – or has communion become for us merely a community meal – a symbol of Jesus – and we eat this meal simply in memory of Him and to express our unity with each other?
As older Catholics don’t we sometimes wonder what has happened to the great wonder and awe with which we used to approach the communion table? We weren’t allowed to touch the Host - only the priest celebrant could do that. We received the Lord on our tongue while kneeling down at the communion rail.
Somebody asked me the other day – when did this all change?
Of course we immediately think of Vatican II. Vatican II - the great council of the church which ended in 1965. A gathering of all the world’s bishops. A council which seems to have changed our Church forever. Or did it?
I grew up in the pre-Vatican II church. I got married just as the Council ended. I honestly don’t remember having any problem with the Latin Mass simply because we had a missal that had Latin on one side and English on the other. And we easily followed and responded.
I do remember that the churches were full and that you didn’t dare sit in a pew that belonged to another family. You could identify a priest or a sister because they wore religious garb.
During an RCIA session in the past someone asked me why do some people stand while others kneel during the consecration and why do some people take communion on the tongue while others receive it in the hand? Which way is the right way? Now, this is a legitimate question especially since this person is new to the faith and wants to know the reasons. How would you answer those questions?
I was about to answer when a Catholic in the group responded with “It’s because Vatican II changed all that”. I thought that was the right answer until I reviewed the documents of Vatican II and I was surprised by all the things we attribute to Vatican II that simply aren’t true.
Yes, many things changed after Vatican II but not all of them as a result of the teachings of Vatican II.
I’ll just briefly review a few of them. I think you may find them enlightening.
Communion on the hand. Where did this come from? Did Vatican II teach us that we should now receive communion in the hand. No, it did not. A dutch priest started to give communion in the hand instead of on the tongue because he felt that the people should receive on the hand like the priest did. The Vatican was shocked and forbade the practice but in open disobedience – the priest continued.
The habit spread like wildfire until the Vatican was forced to issue an indult (that is temporary special permission) which allows a bishop to give permission for communion to be given on the hand after proper catechesis has been given. The Vatican’s concern of course is that small particles of the host, each of which are the whole and complete Christ – would be brushed off the hands and onto the floor instead of being consumed. Even today the universal indult is still in place.
There is a reverent way to receive communion in the hand. You approach the minister - You make a slight reverence such as a bow of the head. You make your hands into a throne by placing them one on top of the other then you gently pick up the host and place it into your mouth. You then check your hands to make sure that no particles of the host remain on them. Is this the way you receive Holy Communion?
So much for the myth that Vatican II changed the way we receive Holy Communion.
Did Vatican II allow individual priests or people to change the liturgy, such as prayers, response, or posture during the Mass no matter what their reasons were?
No, it did not – in fact Vatican II taught the following “ no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority”. So why are some people standing and some people kneeling – I guess that’s a question for the bishops to answer. We all know that some people for health reasons cannot kneel.
So this does not apply to them.
Did Vatican II do away with Latin? No it did not. It in fact recommended that it be kept in parts of the Mass along with the vernacular and most especially in the music. In fact all the Vatican II documents as well as all encyclicals and official documents of the church continue to be distributed in Latin, because Latin is still and will remain the official language of the Church.
Did Vatican II do away with devotions such as Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and praying the Rosary?
No it did not – in fact it promoted and encouraged devotions explaining that devotions are not private things such as an apostolate but rather the prayer of the whole church and are to be greatly encouraged especially those promoted by the Holy See.
Did Vatican II break with the past and start a whole new church? No, it did not.
In fact Pope John the 23rd referred to the continuity and the link between the past councils such as the council of Trent and Vatican I.
Did Vatican II change the role of the laity and the clergy? No, it did not. In fact it went to great lengths to explain the necessary difference and similarities between the two. Interesting to note here that throughout the decree on the laity – there is not one mention of ministry.
Did Vatican II democratize the Church. No, it did not. It reaffirmed the power of the Pope to act on his own. It did explain that Bishops when they are in union with the Pope also take part in the Magesterium. But those Bishops or anyone else who speak on their own without being in union with the Pope have no authority to do so whatsoever.
The council taught the following “The college or body of bishops has for all that no authority unless united with the Roman Pontiff, Peter's successor, as its head, whose primatial authority, let it be added, over all, whether pastors or faithful, remains in its integrity.
For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as the Vicar of Christ, namely, and as pastor of the entire-Church) has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered”. This is the teaching of Vat II.
Doesn’t that make you wonder where some of these dissenting theologians get their authority from? If even a Bishop or group of Bishops has no authority to speak against the church – where do these individual guys get their authority from? It seems that they make themselves into their own magesterium. And Thousands upon thousands of Catholics listen to them, believe them and follow their teachings.
Did Vatican II teach that ordinary people can sometimes reject church teaching and in fact are obliged to do so? No, it did not. The council affirmed that all people owe their obedience to the Pope and the church’s teachings in all cases.
Did Vatican II teach that people must obey their conscience. Yes, It did but it added important provisos that are often conveniently overlooked or ignored by some.
In order to properly form your conscience you must study what the church teaches and what the church teaches must take precedence over everything else that you may read or are told. Conscience is never just a matter of personal opinion or private preference. It never exists in a vacuum of individual sovereignty. It is not a pious alibi for doing what we want or what might be convenient for us. You can’t make yourself into your own magesterium telling yourself what you choose to believe or not believe.
Here's the key to understanding conscience:
Just as John the Baptist demanded conversion, repentance, humility and honesty from ancient Israel, so a right conscience speaks to the individual heart. And always, as Vatican II noted in its Declaration on Religious Liberty, ". . . (I)n forming their consciences, the faithful must pay careful attention to the sacred and certain teaching of the Church.
For the Catholic Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of truth. It is her duty to proclaim and teach with authority (emphasis added) the truth which is Christ and, at the same time, to declare and confirm by her authority the principles of the moral order which spring from human nature" (14).
Vatican II can never be invoked as an alibi for Catholics to ignore the teachings of the church.
A properly formed conscience will never reject the teachings of the church.
Now I ask you - Is Humanae Vitae – the Church’s teaching on birth control – Church teaching or not? By whose authority do we reject it’s teaching?
If we're sincere about our faith, "conscience" can never be used as an excuse for dismissing what the Church teaches by pointing to her theological critics, by listening and believing to dissenting theologians because they are saying what we want to hear, by voter surveys or public opinion polls,, and then doing what we find more convenient. That's dishonest. And God made us for something better than that.
If the council seemed to reaffirm the past then why even call the council? If we are not to break with the past and start anew then what was the real reason for convoking the second Vatican Council.
Maybe Pope John the 23rd’s opening remarks give us a clue.
In calling this vast assembly of bishops, the latest and humble successor to the Prince of the Apostles who is addressing you intends to assert once again the Church's Magisterium [teaching authority], which is unfailing and perdures until the end of time, in order that this Magisterium, taking into account the errors, the requirements, and the opportunities of our time, might be presented in exceptional form to all men throughout the world.
The problem facing us, the Pope pointed out, is the same today as it has ever been: Men stand either with the Church or against Her; and rejection results in bitterness, confusion, and war. These Councils testify to the union of Christ and His Church and promulgate a universal truth to guide individuals in their domestic and social lives.
Pope John XXIII was quite clear about what he wanted the council to accomplish which was the defense and advancement of truth.
The Pope went on to say: “The greatest concern of the ecumenical council is this: “that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously. (effectively)”
Does that sound like a break with the past to you? Does that sound like the Pope wanted a whole new church? And does it sound like we have met that requirement to teach the Catholic faith more effectively since then? I propose that we have effectively done the exact opposite.
In our haste to have an unauthorized break with the past even though the council did not want this to happen, when we threw out the catechisms after Vatican II - even though the council did not direct us to do so, we also threw out the methodology by which we taught our children the faith. We went to concepts instead.
We threw the baby out with the bath water.
The end result is that we are now approaching the 4th generation of uncatechized Catholics – Catholics who do not know their faith and who have no clue what being a Catholic means. And so it is very easy for them to come to church or not – what difference does it make?
Understanding of the Mass and true belief in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist has dipped to new low because the faith has not and is not being taught except in RCIA and RCIC.
As Catholics what are we going to do about it? Do we ourselves believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist? Do we reflect this in the way we receive Him in Holy Communion?
What have we taught our Children and where are they today? We need not only to ask those questions but also to answer them.
If children today are not taught the Catholic faith in our Catholic Schools – who then is going to teach them?
And have their parents been taught their faith well enough to pass it on to their children?
These children will be the potential Catholics of tomorrow. No wonder our church seems to be dying in this part of the world.
Look around you and count the young Catholics among us.
If you didn’t understand the Mass – why would you want to come to a church that seems to have nothing in it for you? Wouldn’t it seem like an exercise in boredom to you? A waste of time? Have you sat next to a kid in church with a scowl on his face because he didn’t want to be there.
I think we recognize this and we want to do something to change it. We wonder why people have stopped coming to church and we do search for ways to bring them back.
But instead of teaching the faith – instead of teaching the truth - we seek to improve the entertainment value.
Something that will get them to come. That will make them want to come. Something that will make them feel welcome.
So we strive to make the music better, we want to make the homilies more relevant and understandable. We make sure we greet people as they come through the door. And we do reach out to fallen away Catholics. And all of this is commendable and to be encouraged but we mustn’t forget about teaching the main reason why we gather for the breaking of the bread.
We mustn’t forget about catechesis. We need to teach the truths of our faith. Children and adults both need to know why we are here. What God expects of us. Why are we here? Where we are going? What is actually happening at Mass?
The old Baltimore Catechisms asked us. Why did God make us?
The answer of course is: God made us to know Him, to Love Him and to serve Him in this world so that we might be happy with Him forever in the next.
The nuns taught me that when I was 6 years old – and I have never forgotten it. How many kids today question why they are here and what reason is there to keep on living.
When they come to Mass do they recognize that it is really and truly the risen Lord who comes to them in the form of Bread and Wine? That He loves them and wants them to come to Him and dine with Him and wants them become part of Him through holy communion. He stands at the door and knocks. We need to answer that door.
This is what makes us different. Yes, Our Lord is present in His Word and also in the Community of Believers but as Vatican II teaches us He is present in a much more substantive way especially in the Eucharist. That is what makes the Catholic Church different. It is the Holy Eucharist.
And Jesus said to them “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them what referred to Him in all the scriptures.
And it happened that, while He was with them at table, He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. Can we say the same?
Deacon Bernard Ouellette
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