Holy Family, Year B

This past week we celebrated Christmas, today we celebrate the Holy Family. At Christmas the attention is placed upon the birth of Jesus. And Jesus was born into a family. By this fact, we are able to see the value that God places upon the family and his desire to sanctify it. The Holy Family is the example of what families should be. The Holy Family is also the exemplar. In philosophy, there is a distinction made between an example and an exemplar. An example is a template with which we can measure other things. An exemplar is the formal cause in which particular examples participate. As an example, the Holy Family shows us what the family should look like. And if we measure our families by this example, we learn not only what our family lacks, but also we see the greatness of what a family is. As an exemplar, the mystery of the Holy Family becomes the source from which all families draw the graces necessary to be sanctified. And so, the Holy Family is, at the same time, an example of what the family ought to be and the fount of graces which are necessary for its sanctification.

Our first reading gives us an understanding of the graces which flow from familial relations when they are properly ordered. God places the father in honor over his children, and the mother has authority over them. God did this also with Jesus. The one who honors his father cleanses himself from sins and preserves himself from them. His prayers are heard, he brings comfort to his mother, he is blessed with joy in his own children - and the Lord will not forget him. Now, in the Holy Family we have St. Joseph, the just man, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, who was immaculately conceived, and Jesus, who is God. How can our families even begin to measure up to this example? St. Paul gives us a description of what it looks like to live according to this example. "Heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness." "And above all these virtues, have love, which is the bond of perfection." The first list is brought to completion in this last element: love. The family needs love more than anything else.

Perhaps the Holy Family knows nothing about our problems. All the graces, and special graces, make the Holy Family different than the normal family. This is true, for our families are stained with sin in each member - parents and children alike. But the Holy Family does know our difficulties. The Holy Family had to flee from their own country. They became strangers in a foreign land. Tradition tells us the St. Joseph was a carpenter. He taught his trade to Jesus. And so they know what it is like to work hard with their hands. The Holy Family understands poverty, also. Tradition also tells us the St. Joseph died very early, at least before the public ministry of Jesus. And so Jesus understands what it is like to lose a parent. Mary understands what it is like to be a widow. Jesus knows how it feels to see his mother suffer, when she was standing at the foot of his Cross. Mary knows how it feels to lose a son, including watching him die at the hands of cruel soldiers. The members of the Holy Family were not the cause of sins, but the were not exempt from the effect of sin in their lives. Because of the grace and holiness of this family, they feel the corruption and ugliness of sin more profoundly than we do.

The Holy Family was not excluded from the difficulties of life. The understand our problems. But they had above all, love, the bond of perfection, which triumphs over every difficulty. And God wants us to participate in the Mystery of the Holy Family so that our own families may be sanctified. "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem us, who were under the law, in order that we might receive the adoption of sons." "And, therefore, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, as many as have been incorporated to Christ by baptism, you have put on Christ ... And if you belong to Christ, you also are descendants of Abraham and the inheritance that God promised him, belongs to you." If we are sons in the only-begotten Son, then we belong also to the Holy Family. May we draw forth from the Mystery of the life of Jesus with the Holy Family, all the graces necessary to heal and sanctify our own family.

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La semana pasada hemos celebrado la Navidad, hoy celebramos la Sagrada Familia. La atención en la Navidad es el nacimiento de Jesús. Jesús nació en una familia. Por este hecho, vemos el valor que Dios pone sobre la familia y su deseo para santificarla. La Sagrada Familia es el ejemplo de lo que las familias están destinados a ser. La Sagrada Familia es también el ejemplar. In philosophia hay diferencia entre el ejemplo y el ejemplar. Un ejemplo es una plantilla con el que medir otra cosas. Un ejemplar es la causa formal en el que ejemplos particulares participan. A modo de ejemplo, la Sagrada Familia nos muestra la que la familia está destinado a ser. Y si medimos nuestras propias familias por este ejemplo, aprendemos no sólo que falta a nuestra familia, pero también la grandeza de la familia. Como un ejemplar, el misterio de la Sagrada Familia se convierte en la fuente de la que todas las familias dibujan las gracias necesarias para ser santificadas. Así que la Sagrada Familia es al mismo tiempo un ejemplo de lo que debe ser una familia y la fuente de las gracias necesarias para ser santificada.

Nuestra primera lectura nos da una comprensión de las gracias que fluyen de las relaciones familiares adecuadamente ordenadas. Dios pone el padre en honor sobre sus hijos y la madre tienen autoridad sobre sus hijos. Él hizo esto con Jesús, también. El que honra a su padre se limpia de pecados y preserva a sí mismo de ellos. Sus oraciones son escuchadas, trae consuelo a su madre, él es bendecido con alegría en sus propios hijos - y el Señor no lo olvidará. Aún así, en la Sagrada Familia que tenemos a José, el hombre justo, la Santísima Virgen María, la Madre inmaculadamente concebido de Dios, y Jesús, que es Dios. ¿Cómo pueden nuestras familias comienzan a medir hasta este ejemplo? San Pablo nos da una descripción de cómo se ve a vivir según este ejemplo. "Sean compasivos, magnánimos, humildes, afables y pacientes. Sopórtense mutuamente y perdónense cuando tengan quejas contra otro, como el Señor los ha perdonado a ustedes". "Y sobre todas estas virtudes, tengan amor , que es el vínculo de la perfecta unión." La lista anterior se llevó a término en este último elemento: el amor. La familia necesita el amor sobre todas las cosas.

Tal vez la Sagrada Familia no sabe nada de nuestros problemas. Todas las gracias, y también gracias especiales, hacen la Sagrada Familia diferente de la familia normal. Esto es cierto, en la medida en que nuestras familias están manchadas con el pecado en cada miembro de la familia - padres y niños por igual. Pero la Sagrada Familia conoce nuestras dificultades. La Sagrada Familia tuvo que huir de su país. Ellos se convirtió en extraños en una tierra extranjera.. La tradición nos dice que San José era carpintero. San José enseñó a Jesús. Ellos sabían cómo trabajar duro con sus manos. La Sagrada Familia conoció la pobreza, también. La tradición nos dice que José murió bastante temprano, al menos antes de que el ministerio público de Jesús. Así que Jesús sabe lo que es perder a un padre. María entiende lo que significa ser una viuda. Jesús sabe lo que se siente al ver a su madre sufre, ya que ella estaba al pie de la Cruz. María sabe lo que se siente al perder a su hijo, incluso a verlo morir a manos de soldados crueles. Los miembros de la Sagrada Familia no fueron la causa de los pecados, pero no estaban exentos de los efectos del pecado en sus vidas. A causa de la gracia y de la santidad de la esta familia, sentían la corrupción y la fealdad del pecado más profundamente que nosotros.

La sagrada familia no está excluida de las dificultades de la vida. Ellos comprenden nuestros problemas. Pero ellos tienen sobre todo, el amor, el vínculo de la perfección, que triunfa sobre todas las dificultades. Y Dios nos quiere participar en el misterio de la Sagrada Familia a fin de que nuestras familias puedan ser santificados. "Al llegar la plenitud de los tiempos, envió Dios a su Hijo, nacido de una mujer, nacido bajo la ley, para rescatar a los que estábamos bajo la ley, a fin de hacernos hijos suyos." (Gal 4 : 4-5) "Así pues, todos ustedes son hijos de Dios por la fe in Cristo Jesús, pues, cuantos han sido incorporados a Cristo por medio del bautismo, se han revistido de Cristo. ... Y si ustedes son de Cristo, son también descendientes de Abraham y la herencia que Dios le prometió les corresponde a ustedes." Y si somos hijos en el Hijo unigénito nosotros pertenecemos también a su Sagrada Familia. Dibujemos desde el misterio de la vida de Jesús con la Sagrada Familia todas las gracias necesarias para sanar y santificar nuestra propria familia.

The Nativity of the Lord MMXIV

Merry Christmas! A Child is born for us! There are many reasons to rejoice today. Most of us will spend time with family. Most of us will have presents to give and presents to open. Christmas is finally here. To rejoice in Christmas we should look at two things that we find in the name of this solemnity: Christ and Mass. Christmas is the Mass of Christ. We hear the slogan today to keep Christ in Christmas. The world has turned Christmas into something else than the celebration of the birth of our Savior. It is has forgotten that Christ is the reason we have this celebration at all. But it has equally forgotten to keep the Mass in Christmas.

Why is it important to keep Christ in Christmas? Christmas is about a Person and not just an event or a season. The invisible God is made manifest in visible flesh. Divinity is united to creation, not by intention, or will or power or from afar, but by the Person of the Eternal Word, in reality and nearness. God becomes one of us. Our society has forgotten this truth. Even when it is said, the world does not understand the meaning of it. This Child of Mary is God in the flesh. God is revealed to us in him. The world passes by this reality without a second thought. But this makes this Christmas much like the very first Christmas. How many were there in that time that would have recognized the Creator of the world when they looked upon this babe in a manger? The angels proclaimed him, shepherds adored him. But most of the world, on that night, just like tonight, will go about doing whatever it is that they normally do. For untold millions, this night is no different than any other. God has come into their midst, and hardly anyone knows. It is by the gift of faith that we share in the grace of so great a mystery.

God has taken up our frailty to himself. A dignity beyond anything else in the whole of creation is bestowed upon our frail humanity. God did not come as an angel but as a human. The gift he give to us is to know that what we are he became – out of his ineffable love for us, he lowers himself to share in our state. He gives to humanity his own Divinity. The prayers of the Church call this a holy exchange. What is it that we give to him? He takes from us mortal flesh. The God who is impassible becomes passible, that is, he fashions for himself the means by which the Crucifixion becomes a possibility. In return for the grace of sharing in his divinity, he asks only to share in our frailty and mortality. O holy exchange! A birth destined for a death – and resurrection. Keeping Christ in Christmas means remembering the reason for which Jesus was born. Christmas is something more than sentimentality, though there should be affection and tenderness when we put before our minds and hearts the scene of our Savior being born into the world. In Christmas the beginning of our redemption is made manifest. Jesus was born for the Cross, for his burial in the tomb, his resurrection from the dead and his glorious ascension into heaven. His flesh is our salvation. His human flesh and human soul are at the right hand of God in glory. Since he has a human nature like ours and his sacred humanity is in heaven, heaven becomes a possibility for each of us. We are invited to be born again in Christ and so to share eternal blessedness with him in heaven. Such a gift merits more than just this day. It deserves more than just sentiment.

How do we partake of the mystery of Christmas which is placed before us today through faith? By keeping the Mass in Christmas. When the deacon prepares the chalice at the altar he says, “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” In this liturgical rite the Mystery of the Nativity is referenced in signs. The wine symbolizes the fullness of the gift of his divinity to us. The water, just a drop, symbolizes our humanity. At the consecration the host becomes his Sacred Body and the wine becomes his Precious Blood. These separate consecrations sacramentally, that is, mystically make really present the death of our Lord. During the sign of peace, the priest will take a small part of the host and place it in the chalice saying, “May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.” This liturgical ritual symbolizes the resurrection and ascension. How do we celebrate Christmas? By offering the Paschal Mystery: the death, resurrection and ascension in worship of our heavenly Father. We stand in awe of the love of God for us and offer back to him as our thanksgiving the Body and Blood of his Son. O wondrous exchange! We are given divinity in exchange for our humanity. In this Child is already present the mysteries of our redemption. His mysteries are ours. If we wish to profit from this marvelous exchange, nothing less than our life for his life is sufficient. Not on just one day, but every day of our lives. Not just Christmas but every day of the year. We must partake of his life with our life. To keep Christmas, it is necessary to keep it with the whole person: heart, mind, soul and body.

The Eternal Son of the Father gave himself completely to us. He didn’t leave aside some portion of his life for himself but gave us the whole of himself. In order to receive this gift in full, it is necessary to return a gift in kind: the whole of ourselves. Christianity is not something that we can do only on Christmas, or Easter, or even just on Sundays. Either our whole existence is grounded in this mystery of God in the flesh, or we are just fooling ourselves with our occasional religiosity. Christianity is not something that is merely thought. “I believe” is not properly translated as “I think.” Nor is Christianity something that is merely felt. The religious experience of feeling good is not the goal. Nor is Christianity something to be done. Christianity is not exhausted by being nice, or tolerant, or by charity and generosity. Christianity is received. Christianity is something done in us and for us, for when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem those under the law, so that we might receive the adoption of sons. Christmas is kept by holding fast to Christ and to his Mass. All that is left is for us to accept it, or at least not to refuse it. Let us receive the Christ-child in our hearts, contemplating him with Mary, and allow his mysteries to be made manifest in our own life by his grace so that we are finally able to keep Christmas. Only then will the birth of our Savior have effect in our lives and the celebration of this mystery be kept in full.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

To help us understand the connections between our first reading and our Gospel, we will need to know a little about the Ark of the Covenant. During the Exodus from Egypt, Moses received the 10 Commandments and other laws at Mount Sinai. Among these other laws were the directions for the construction of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was the special presence of God among his people Israel. From the Letter to the Hebrews, we find out that inside the Ark were several items: the tablets containing the ten commandments (the decalogue or ten words), a golden container of manna from the desert, and rod of Aaron, the high priest, which had budded. The Ark was carried before the army of Israel when Jericho fell and many other times into battle. It was later placed into the inner sanctuary of the Temple which Solomon, the son of David built, called the Holy of Holies, which the high priest entered only once a year.

David’s impulse is a good one. “Here I am living in luxury. And the Ark is kept in ordinary surroundings.” He goes to the prophet Nathan to get a blessing for his plan to build a house for God. God’s reply isn’t no, at first, but rather a question: “Should you build me a house to dwell in?” Remember, where you came from and all the things I have done for you. You’re going to build me a house? I will build you a house.

We should not rest on what we think we can do for God. The works of the Lord are great and, yes, he even does his works through us. The impulse to do something for the Lord is a good one, when it arises from sincere love and does not forget that what we do is a return, a giving back, a response for what the Lord has done for us. It is not we who do favors for the Lord, but the Lord who does favors for us. It is not we who will build a better world for God, but God who, coming into the world, saves the world and makes it new. We receive from him. We see this most clearly in our Gospel today. Mary is the model of how we Christians are meant to stand before God and receive from him. “May it be done to me according to your word.” It is the Lord who does these great things. We can dispose ourselves by faith and obedience – but do not forget that this is his grace working in us, too. There is nothing that we can do apart from him.

The Israelites built an Ark according to God’s instructions. David planned to build a Temple and his son completed it. But God built Mary. From the first moment of her existence, he kept her free from any stain of sin. The Lord builds perfectly. The precision of God’s instructions to the Israelites for the building of the Ark demonstrate the importance and holiness of his dwelling place. Likewise, the Temple is built as a sign of God’s magnificence. Everything about the arrangements speaks of the glory and holiness of God and how that is to be reflected in what is dedicated for his service and worship. In Mary’s womb we have not just the ten words, but the Eternal Word; not just a symbol of the Eucharist like manna but the Bread of Life himself; not just the high priest’s staff, but the Eternal High Priest the shoot which blossoms from the stump of Jesse. Indeed, all of God’s works are perfect. But our works are flawed, they are riddled with our incompetency and sinfulness. Eventually, through sin, the Israelites will lose the privilege of maintaining the place of the Ark, and it becomes lost to them. Also because of their sins, the Temple will be destroyed, rebuilt and again destroyed.

On the contrary, the works of the Lord are perfect in every way. They are often difficult for us to understand and we do not know the reasons for all the preparations. In the end, we discover the grandeur of God’s plans, how much better his designs are than ours. In Jesus, we have not only a place where the power and presence of God are shown to us. Jesus is God himself: True God and True Man. And although he allows his body to be ravaged by our sins, he is raised again in glory. He is never lost to us, never to be destroyed. Only our refusal to allow God to work in us keeps us from him.

We are just a few days from the solemnity of Christmas. Have we prepared to receive him during this Advent? Perhaps we have not done such a great job of joyful preparation for this feast. Perhaps we have not allowed God to work in us by his grace so that he can move us towards his perfection. All is not lost. We have these next few days to open ourselves to God’s work in us. He desires to adorn us with his graces and make his dwelling in our hearts. We become as it were, miniature arks of his covenant. Open your hearts to him. Pray a little extra. Ask for forgiveness from anyone you have harmed. Give forgiveness to anyone who has harmed you, ask God for help in letting it go. Be a bit more generous with the poor, make a gift to St. Vincent de Paul’s. Join Bishop Olmstead outside Planned Parenthood on Christmas Eve praying for the unborn, the mothers and all involved. Let God’s grace direct you these next few days. Be a little more aware of God’s presence in your life and let him prepare you, in whatever way, according to his will, to receive his Son with joy this coming Christmas.

Gaudete Sunday, Year B

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.” Why on this day should we rejoice? This is the Third Sunday of Advent, also called Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete means rejoice. It is the plural imperative, that is, it is a command and it is addressed to all of us. So what do we have to rejoice about?

The reading from Isaiah is fulfilled in the person of Jesus. God knows our difficulties. We are poor, brokenhearted and captive, especially because of our sins and often even because of the memory of our sins and mistakes. Just the knowledge that God sees our need is enough to lighten our hearts – we are not alone in our distress. And to hear this promise that God will save us gives us great hope because we can trust his word. And we know that not only did he keep his promise but he gave us his only begotten Son. Rejoice, again I say, rejoice! In a mere 11 days we will be keeping the Solemnity of the Birth of our Lord. He who is the source of all riches came into our poverty. The font of life gives his life to cure us of our infirmities. He heals the brokenhearted and free us from captivity. He was not satisfied to know us from afar, nor to work his wonderful deeds through others. No, he drew near to us on account of his great love.

John the Baptist was the greatest prophet ever known. Jesus says that among those born of a woman, there has arisen no one greater the John the Baptist. (Mt. 11:11; Lk 7:28) And what does John say? That he is unworthy to untie the strap of the sandal of the one who is coming after him. Jesus, the Christ, is more than a prophet. He is God in our midst. John also says to the priests and Levites of Jerusalem: “there is one among you whom you do not recognize.” And he could say the same thing today.

Advent is a time of preparation, with devout and expectant delight, to celebrate the birth of Jesus and to await his coming into the world again. But there are two other advents which are important.

He comes daily upon our altars in the appearances of bread and wine. The same sacred humanity which Mary bore in her womb, which she wrapped in swaddling clothes; the sacred humanity which hung upon the Cross for us, which was buried in the tomb and rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, is made present right here in our midst. And yet many will not recognize him. They will see the host held aloft in adoration and see only the sign, know only the bread. “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world,” the priest will say, echoing St. John. But many will not believe. They will see the symbols only and will not look deeply with faith. For those with faith, however, there is rejoicing for, indeed, the Lord is near.

It is sometimes the case that we should not approach the altar for communion for a variety of reasons. Either we have not yet made our first communion, or we are unprepared to receive him, or our circumstances of life preclude it. Yet, all of us may look and see. We can behold God in our midst, the one whom we are preparing to rejoice over at Christmas. We can long for his coming with devout and expectant delight. And this also is cause for rejoicing. Before our eyes, though veiled in the Most Holy Sacrament, we look upon our Lord: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. His adorable Person is before us.

He not only comes daily upon our altars, he also comes daily to our souls. He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks and begs to enter. Our Divine Savior wishes to dwell with us. Us, with all of our poverty, and brokenheartedness, with our captivity and weakness, our mistakes and sins, all the messiness which is human lives. He longs to enrich our poverty, to console our broken hearts, to free us from captivity, strengthen our weakness, forgive and heal our mistakes and sins, to cleanse and purify the messiness of our lives. Rejoice, for the God who draws so near to us, does so because he loves us. Why do we rejoice? How can we not?

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“Estén siempre alegres en el Señor, les repito, estén alegres. El Señor está cerca.” ¿Por qué en este día debemos alegrarnos? Este es el tercer domingo de Adviento, también llamado Domingo de Gaudete. Gaudete significa alégrense!. Es el imperativo plural, es decir, es una orden y se dirige a todos nosotros. ¿Por qué nos alegramos?

La lectura de Isaías se cumplió en la persona de Jesús. Dios conoce nuestras dificultades. Somos pobres, quebrantados de corazón y cautivos, especialmente a causa de nuestros pecados y, a menudo, incluso por la memoria de nuestros pecados y errores. el conocimiento de que Dios la ve nuestra necesidad es suficiente para alumbrar nuestros corazones - que no estamos solos en nuestra angustia. Y al oír esta promesa que Dios salvará a nosotros nos da una gran esperanza porque podemos confiar en su palabra. Y sabemos que no sólo él cumplió su promesa, pero él nos dio a su Hijo unigénito. Alégrense, otra vez digo: ¡Alégrense! En once días vamos a celebrar la Solemnidad de la Natividad de Nuestro Señor. Aquel que es la fuente de toda riqueza entró en nuestra pobreza. La fuente de la vida da su vida para curarnos de nuestras enfermedades. Él sana a los quebrantados de corazón y nos libera del cautiverio. No estaba satisfecho a conocernos desde lejos, ni para trabajar sus maravillas a través de otros. No, él se acercó a nosotros a causa de su gran amor.

Juan el Bautista fue el profeta más grande jamás conocido. Jesús dijo, “que no ha surgido entre los hijos de una mujer ninguno más grande que Juan el Bautista”. (Mt. 11:11; Lc 07:28) ¿Y qué dijo Juan? “No soy digno de desatarle las correas de sus sandalias.” Jesucristo es más que un profeta. Él es Dios en medio de nosotros. Juan también dijo a los sacerdotes y levitas de Jerusalén: "en medio de ustedes hay uno, al que ustedes no conocen." Estas últimas palabras siguen siendo ciertas tambien en nuestro tiempo.

El Adviento es un tiempo de preparación, de alegría devoto y expectante, para celebrar el nacimiento de Jesús y esperar su venida al mundo de nuevo. Pero hay otras dos venidas que son importantes.

Él viene todos los días a nuestro altar en las especies del pan y del vino. La misma humanidad sagrada que María llevaba en su seno, que se envolvió en pañales; la humanidad sagrada que pendía de la cruz por nosotros, que fue sepultado en la tumba y resucitó al tercer día y ascendió a los cielos, se hace presente aquí en medio de nosotros. Y sin embargo, muchos no lo reconocerán. Ellos verán la hostia en alto para la adoración y ven sólo el signo, sólo conocen el pan. "Este es el Cordero de Dios, que quita el pecado del mundo," el sacerdote dirá, haciéndose eco de San Juan Bautista. Pero muchos no creen. Ellos sólo ven los símbolos y no miran profundamente con la fe. Para los que tienen fe, sin embargo, hay alegría porque, en realidad, el Señor está cerca.

A veces es el caso que no debemos acercarnos al altar para la comunión. O bien todavía no hemos hecho nuestra primera comunión, o no están preparados para recibirlo, o nuestras circunstancias de vida se oponen recepción. Sin embargo, todos nosotros podemos mirar y ver. Podemos contemplar a Dios en medio de nosotros, aquel a quien nos estamos preparando para alegrarse por la Navidad. Podemos desear para su venida con alegría devoto y expectante. Delante de nuestros ojos, aunque velado en el Santísimo Sacramento, miramos a nuestro Señor: Cuerpo, Sangre, Alma y Divinidad. Su adorable persona está delante de nosotros. Y esto también es un motivo de alegría.

Él no sólo viene a diario en nuestros altares, él también viene todos los días a nuestras almas. Él está a la puerta de nuestro corazón y golpes y le ruega para entrar. Nuestro Divino Salvador desea morar con nosotros. Nosotros, con toda nuestra pobreza, y quebranto, con nuestro cautiverio y debilidad, nuestros errores y pecados, todo el desorden que es la vida humana. Él anhela para enriquecer nuestra pobreza, para consolar nuestros corazones rotos, para liberarnos del cautiverio, fortalecer nuestra debilidad, perdonar y sanar nuestros errores y pecados, para limpiar y purificar el desorden de nuestras vidas. Alégrense, por el Dios que se acerca a nosotros, lo hace porque nos ama. ¿Por qué nos alegramos? ¿Cómo no?

First Sunday of Advent, Year B

The Catholic liturgical year begins today. The rest of our society will begin celebrating the Christmas Season. And once they have exchanged gifts, they will take down their decorations and soon forget what has passed. If they look forward to anything, it will be New Years Day that they eagerly await. Growing up, this used to mean Santa Claus and reindeer, Rudolph and claymation movies, a snowman that comes back to life and promises to return someday, Christmas carols and candy canes. Usually mixed in with it there was a nativity scene and renditions of O Holy Night, Silent Night, and other songs of a religious nature. Houses were adorned with lights and Christmas scenes. Everyone wished each other Merry Christmas, even those who did not believe. Perhaps our society missed the most essential element of the coming celebration: Christmas is really Christ’s Mass, the Mass of Christ. Still, something of the wonder of this time was marked by the joy with which we kept the season, even if we had forgotten the reason. Today, it is Season’s Greetings or Happy Holidays (this last one means Happy Holy Days, but don’t tell them. Let them keep saying it, maybe it’ll sink in).

I know we are an Easter people. And I love Holy Week and the Easter Vigil. But I have always been a Christmas Catholic. I love Christmas. I love Christmas Carols and not just the religious ones. Something about Frosty and Rudolph and the North Pole still makes me smile. Hidden in these things is a longing for the real Christmas. An expression of the best things about being human: the giving of gifts and singing of joyful songs. The problem with secular Christmas is not the feeling of joy, or the increase of generosity. It’s not even the stories of elves, flying reindeer or a gentle, kind and merry man whose belly jiggles when he laughs. Remember Santa Claus is another way of saying Saint Claus, short for Saint Nicholas. These stories capture something of the spirit of man towards his fellow men during these joyous days. We could do with a bit more rather than a bit less of this spirit. Still, like all big days, such as weddings and ordinations, births and baptisms, there is the necessity of preparation and the building excitement as the day approaches. If we give ourselves over the exterior trappings of this Christmas Season, we should give ourselves with even more abandon to our interior preparations to receive the Christ-Child in our souls.

This begins with remembering like Isaiah, that our God is our Father and Redeemer forever. It takes place by acknowledging that we have strayed and are in need of renewing the love and joy that is proper to Christianity in our hearts. We must plead with him in joyful anticipation for the coming of our Lord. “Rend the heavens and come down!” “Rouse your power,” O Lord, “and come to save us.” “Give us new life, and we will call upon your name.” “Let us see your face and we shall be saved.” We can apply these pleadings to three things: historically, Isaiah calls upon God to send the Messiah. And faith tells us that God has done so. We join our voices to this plea, begging the Lord to come again. And faith gives us the hope to believe that it will be. We also sing out to God, that his Son may come into our hearts now. That he may be born again in us. “Come now and save me, Lord. Let me see your face now. Rend my heart now and come into it.”

Jesus tells us to be watchful, to be alert and watch. We do not know when he will come. As we look forward to celebrating the birth of the babe in Bethlehem, we have preparations to make. Is there room in my heart for him? Is my soul adorned with the same care that I decorate my home? Will I be awake when he knocks on the door of my heart and begs to enter? Leave room for him. In all the other things that will happen this Christmas Season, the singing and decorating, the shopping and present wrapping, the family gatherings and daily doings, don’t let any of these things stay in your mind and heart without leaving room for the One whom our joy awaits. If you prefer to wait for the celebrations, to avoid listening to Christmas songs and decorating and all such things, you do well – if you are preparing to receive him and not merely refusing to participate in the joyfulness and generosity around you. I must confess, I will be unable to contain myself. I’ve already put up my tree. It is disguised as an Advent tree, with purple lights and purple ornaments but there is already a bit of Christmas in my heart. I will be unable to resist the allure of Christmas music. Soon, I will decorate my car with reindeer antlers and a Rudolph nose. But I shall not tire of Christmas, I think there should be more Christmas and more Christmas spirit in the world. In whatever way we keep this season, let there be prayer and thanksgiving to God, so that our lives be enriched in every way and may we share the riches of grace bestowed on us by God in Christ Jesus. May we be filled with the Christmas spirit and as we long for that most holy of days, may we prepare ourselves to receive our Lord and King.

Última Semana: Viernes / Friday 34th Week in Ordinary Time

Hay una traducción muy interesante en nuestro salmo responsorial. La respuesta dice: "Dichosos los que viven en tu casa." Pero el Latín dice: "Ecce tabernaculum Dei cum hominibus." Literalmente, significa: ¡Mira! el tabernáculo de Dios con los hombres. Tabernáculo significa morada. "Ecce" significa mira pero también aquí o allá o esta. La respuesta es del libro del Apocalipsis del apóstol san Juan: "Esta es la morada de Dios con los Hombres; vivira con ellos como su Dios y ellos seran su pueblo." La "esta" de este versiculo es la ciudad santa, la nueva Jerusalén, engalanda como una novia que va a desposarse con su prometido." Deseo señalar tres cosas que podemos aplicar este versículo.

Primero. ¿Cómo se llama el lugar en el que nos reservamos el Santísimo Sacramento? El Tabernáculo. Cuando Dios vino en carne humana, él hizo su morada con nosotros. Y para que no nos vemos privados de su presencia hasta que venga otra vez, él nos da esta misma carne para santificarnos y para mostrarnos su amor. Si Dios vino a vivir entre los hombres y nos dejó este Santísimo Sacramento, lo dejó como una promesa que iba a regresar otra vez y llevarnos a sí mismo.

Segundo. La Iglesia Católica es el lugar de su presencia. Los miembros de su Iglesia por el bautismo son el cuerpo místico de Cristo. Por eso oramos en nuestra plegaria eucarística, “para que, fortalecidos con el Cuerpo y la Sangre de Cristo y llenos de su Espíritu Santo, formemos en Cristo un solo cuerpo y un solo espíritu. Que El nos transforme en ofrenda permanente, para que gocemos de tu heredad junto con tus elegidos.” ¿Dónde? En la nueva Jerusalén que San Juan vio, que es la Iglesia Católica.

Tercero. Esto sólo sucede si contemplamos a Cristo en el Santísimo Sacramento y tratamos de imitarlo en nuestras vidas. Nuestras almas son tabernáculos del Altísimo. Y no sólo nosotros, sino también a toda alma. Necesitamos buscar a Cristo en cada lugar y en cada alma. Primero lo reconocemos en la Eucaristía, a continuación, le invitamos a entrar en nuestro corazón. Y donde quiera que no lo encontramos en el mundo, debemos llevarlo con nosotros. Sí, Dichosos los que viven en su casa. Porque ahora se regocijan en su Señor, mientras esperan su regreso.

***

There is an interesting Spanish translation in the responsorial psalm, today. The response says. "Blessed are those who live in your house." But the Latin says, "Ecce tabernaculum Dei cum hominibus." Literally it means, "Behold! The tabernacle of God with mankind." Tabernacle means dwelling place. "Ecce" means behold but also look, see, here, there, or this. The response is from the book of Revelation of the Apostle St. John: "Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people." The "behold" is referenced to the holy city, the new Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." I want to point out three things to which we can apply this verse.

First. What do we call the place in which we reserve the Most Holy Sacrament? The Tabernacle. When God came in human flesh, he made his dwelling place with us. And so that we would not be deprived of his presence until he come again, he gave to us this same flesh to sanctify us and to show us his love. If God came to live among the human race and left us this Most Holy Sacrament, he left it as a promise that we would return again and bring us to himself.

Second. The Catholic Church is the place of his presence. The members of his Church by baptism are the mystical body of Christ. For this reason we pray in our Eucharistic Prayer, "grant thate we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ. May he make of us an eternal offering to you, so that we may obtain and inheritance with your elect." Where? In the new Jerusalem which St. John saw, which is the Catholic Church.

Third. This only happens if we contemplate Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament and try to imitate him in our lives. Our souls are tabernacles of the Most High. And not only us, but also every soul. We need to seek Christ in every place and en every person. First, we recognize him in the Eucharist, then, we invite him to enter into our heart. And where ever we do not find him in the world, we should bring him with us. Yes, blessed are those who live in his house. Because now they rejoice in their Lord, while they await his return.

First Friday, October 3, 2014

We, you and I, are fearfully, wonderfully made. What is it that makes us wonderful? It is that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Typically, this is taken by theologians to indicate the faculties of the intellect and will. This is not to exclude other reflections of God's image in man but rather to zero in on the way in which man is most like God: the capacity to love. One cannot choose something or some act of which one is not aware. Specifically, it is impossible to love what is unknown. So the very idea of the possibility of love requires both that something of the object is known and that we are free to choose. As we discuss freedom, it may be helpful to untangle this word and concept from modern misunderstandings.

The liberum arbitrium or free will is what we call the power of choosing or freedom of choice. This liberty consists in two things: libertas a coactione, freedom from external compulsion; and libertas a necessitate, freedom from internal necessity. Free will embraces both of these categories. Theologians, generally, make several distinctions when talking about free will: 1) libertas contradictionis, which is the liberty to act or not to act; 2) libertas specificationis, which is the liberty to specify acts of the same kind; 3) libertas contrarietatis, which is the liberty to choose between contraries: love and hate, good and evil. This third distinction is applicable only to humans in the wayfaring state. It is not applicable to God, to the Saints or to the Angels. It is actually a defect rather than a constitutive part of freedom. God and the heavenly courts are eminently free.

We must always be cautious of this distinction in our minds when we speak about freedom. Freedom must never be confused with license or licentiousness. Libertas is always marked by restraint and moderation, whereas licentia is marked by arbitrariness. The modern idea of freedom is excessively influenced by its confusion with license. Ironically, there is nothing particularly modern about this conception of freedom. Tacitus remarked on it saying, "Licentia quam stulti libertatem vocant." (License, which the foolish call liberty). And John Milton wrote, "None can love freedom heartily but good men; the rest love not freedom but license." Pope St. John Paul II adds: "Finally, true freedom is not advanced in the permissive society, which confuses freedom with license to do anything whatever and which in the name of freedom proclaims a kind of general amorality. It is a caricature of freedom to claim that people are free to organize their lives with no reference to moral values, and to say that society does no have to ensure the protection and advancement of ethical values. Such an attitude is destructive of freedom, such as the elimination of human life by legalized or generally accepted abortion."

Cicero once wrote. "legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus." (We are servants of the laws so that we are able to be free). There is, also, a ubiquitous motto, often attributed to St. Augustine, which reads "Cui servire est regnare." (Whom to serve is to reign.) The Anglican Book of Common Prayer makes use of a freer translation: "Whose service is perfect freedom." So, with apologies to Cicero, we Christians would say: Dei servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus. We are servants of God so that we are able to be free. The freedom for which we are searching is not merely a freedom from compulsion but a freedom for choosing what is true, good, and beautiful.

There is much that we simply do not have the power to change, but "even in the most unfavorable outward circumstances we possess within ourselves a space of freedom, that nobody can take away, because God is its source and guarantee." (Jacque Philippe, Interior Freedom) The place of freedom is interior. It is only secondarily concerned with exterior realities. This space is the core of the human heart created to be filled and fulfilled by the presence of God alone. The longing for or presence of anything which is not God or does not lead to God, creates a relationship of slavery because it cannot provide for the deepest desire of the human heart. Licentiousness and vice become their own punishment, robbing the person not only of their strength and freedom in choosing the good, but becoming a compulsion of habit, also robbing them of their relationship with God, the life of grace, and the One who truly satisfies and never passes away.

In our Alleluia verse from Psalm 95 we heard, "If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts." This psalme is the traditonal psalm of the invitatory for the breviary. The Latin is nuanced and give wonderful expression to the sentiment: "Utinam hodie vocem eius audiatis, "Nolite obdurare corda vestra." It is more a plea than a statement of what one ought to do is one happens to hear God's voice today. "Oh, if only you would listen to his voice today." What would you hear? You would hear him saying, "harden not your hearts!" In our Gospel, Jesus uses language which sounds rather strong when he chastises several villages: "Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! And as for you Capernaum!" These, too, are pleas. If we do not respond with love for the love which God has manifested for us, we risk losing it all. We need to increase this space of interior freedom in our hearts so that, cooperating with grace, we can begin to make a response.

As Jacque Philippe puts it, "We find confinement unbearable, simply because we were created in the image of God, and we have within us an unquenchable need for the absolute and the infinite. That is our greatness and sometimes our misfortune. We have this great thirst for freedom because our most fundamental aspiration is for happiness; and we sense that there is no happiness without love, and no love without freedom. ... man cannot live without loving. The problem is that our love often goes in the wrong direction: we love ourselves, selfishly, and end up frustrated, because only genuine love can fulfill us. Only love, then can satisfy us; and there is no love without freedom. ... Love is neither taken nor bought. There is true love, and therefore happiness, only between people who freely yield possession of the self in order to give themselves to one another."

There. The Cross. This Eucharist. Jesus hands himself over for us. He yields possession in order to give himself to us. In his Sacred Heart, he has made room for our entrance because he consented in freedom that at the last, even his heart should be pierced.

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

As the liturgical year draws to a close, the Church in her wisdom reminds us about the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. The first reading gives us the example of the woman whose value is greater than pearls. Why? Because she brings good things and not evil, all the days of her life. She works with loving hands. She cares for the poor and the needy. For this reason, she will receive a reward for her labors and her works will praise her at the gates of the city.

The woman is an image of the soul. The holy soul, like the good woman, receives a reward for its labors. The holy soul is praised by its works. But, as our Gospel tells us, every soul receives the fruit of its handiwork. The good soul receives praise from the Lord: "Well done, my good and faithful servant. ... Come, share your master's joy." What about the soul which is like the last servant? The Lord speaks the saddest words ever heard to this soul: "You wicked, lazy servant! ... Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth." The responsorial psalm  says: "Blessed are you who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork." But, how sad the soul who does not walk in the ways of the Lord, because this soul, too, shall eat the fruit of it's handiwork.

The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that eternal life is what begins immediately after death. This life has no end. It will be preceded for each by a particular judgment on the part of Christ, the judge of the living and the dead, and it will be ratified in the final judgment. (207) The particular judgment is a judgment of immediate retribution, which, at the moment of death, each one receives from God in their immortal soul, in relation to their faith and their works. This retribution consists in access to the happiness of heaven, either immediately or after an adequate purification, or it consists in eternal condemnation to hell. (208)

This is the meaning of the words of Jesus: "For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Those who walk in the way of the Lord, by his grace, are able to lay down at his feet the good fruit of their lives. And they will receive eternal blessedness and share in the joy of their Master. Those, however, who are before Jesus in the judgment and do not have good fruit, they will lose not only what was given to them but also the joy of the Master. They will share only in the darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

Brother and sisters, we will have to give an account of our lives before the Lord. We will have to give an account of each moment, each thought, each word, and each action. What will be the fruit of our lives? Will it be good fruit or not? And St. Paul tells us that the day of our judgment, the day of the Lord, will come like a thief in the night. We need to be prepared each and every day because we do not know when the Lord will call us to give an account of our lives.

Remember, Christian soul, that thou hast this day, and every day of thy life:

God to glorify,

Jesus to imitate,

The Blessed Virgin and the Saints to venerate,

The Angels to invoke,

The soul to save,

The body to mortify,

Virtues from God to beseech,

Sins to expiate,

Heaven to gain,

Hell to avoid,

Eternity to consider,

Time well to apply,

Neighbors to edify,

The world to fear

Demons to fight,

Passions to subdue,

Death always to expect

And yourself for judgment to prepare.

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Today is the feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica. Most people think of St. Peter’s Basilica when they think of Rome and the Pope. However, it is the Lateran Basilica which is the Cathedral of the Pope. The full name of the Lateran Basilica is Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris et Sanctorum Ioannes Baptista et Evangelista in Laterno which translates as the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist at the Lateran. The site was first dedicated by Pope Sylvester I in 324 A.D. It was then rededicated to St. John the Baptist at the dedication of a new baptistry in the 10th century by Pope Sergius III and again dedicated to St. John the Evangelist by Pope Lucius II in the 12th century, which is how it received its full name. It may at first seem odd that we are celebrating the feast of the dedication of the Cathedral in Rome.

The prayers of the liturgy and the readings help us to understand the full meaning of this particular feast. The prayers continually reference the people of God as living stones, the temple of grace and the Holy Spirit. St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians writes, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” He says that we are “God’s building” and that our foundation is Jesus Christ. While we do celebrate the dedication of a building, we do so because of the meaning of the visible building which our Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer tells us are types, images or signs of the Church, the Bride of Christ.

The scriptural images of the new heavenly Jerusalem and its temple are less about the descent of a city or building made of stones than it is about the living building of the people of God made perfect, sanctified and glorified by their participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. When Jesus became man in his incarnation, his visible human flesh became the holy place of God’s dwelling among us. His crucified and resurrected flesh communicates this holiness to his people. His humanity is the means by which, through baptism into his death, we, too, become dwelling places of the Most High God. What he is by Divine Nature, we are able to share by participation because he condescended to become a sharer in our human nature. Jesus identifies himself in the Gospel with the temple: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. ... He was speaking about the temple of his body.”

The physical and visible is not unimportant because it is a sign for us. God, in his Divine Nature, is accessible everywhere and at all times, because the Divine Nature is not material or physical but spiritual and so is not confined to being in any place at all. But the means of our salvation is the very real and physical humanity of Christ. Church buildings have a real impact on us. Their physicality is something that we can experience with the senses. Their architecture and art tell us something about the faith. The beauty and magnificence of church buildings vary. I used to visit regularly the Basilica of St. Mark’s in Venice when I lived in Italy. I still think it one of the most beautiful and breathtaking places of worship I have ever been in. I have also served Holy Mass for Fr. Paul Sullivan in mud huts with tin roofs in aldeas near Comayagua, Honduras. The living stones of those churches had a simplicity and beauty as well. I do think that where we have the means we should build magnificent and beautiful churches that really express the transcendent glory of God, as much as it can be expressed. I also think the people deserve to have the visible reminders and the instruction that proper church buildings can give us. And I think that the beauty of the church building is helpful in encountering God in the contemplation of his presence during prayer and in the celebration of the liturgy.

Still, we are not less than members of the Church or of our parish when we are away from this building, whether we are at work or in our homes. We are members of the body of Christ wherever we might be. But the fullest meaning of being Church has its greatest sign value and most profound reason when we are here, gathered together and participating as one in the worship and sacrifice of our head, Jesus Christ. At the Holy Mass we join our joys and sorrows, our thanksgiving and needs with the prayer of our Most High Priest. And here he makes present his humanity; he himself becomes present here under the visible signs of bread and wine. And when we participate in this prayer by our songs of worship, contemplating the Sacred Scriptures, and especially in taking part in the prayers through our responses and in communion, whether through spiritual communion or sacramental communion, we join our hearts and voices together with all the Angels and Saints.

At the heart of it, this is what this feast is about. The visible building of the Lateran Basilica reminds us that we belong to a communion of the members of the Mystical Body of Christ. The Second Vatican Council taught in Lumen Gentium 4 that the Church is “a people made one with the unity of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” This unity is not simply in intention but is a real visible and physical union, together with our bishop, a successor of the Apostles, and the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. Again the Second Vatican Council in the same document (23) taught that “The Roman Pontiff, as the successor of Peter, is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity of both the bishops and of the faithful. The individual bishops, however, are the visible principle and foundation of unity in their particular churches, fashioned after the model of the universal Church, in and from which churches comes into being the one and only Catholic Church. For this reason the individual bishops represent each his own church, but all of them together and with the Pope represent the entire Church in the bond of peace, love and unity.” This is a good feast for us to reflect upon our relationship with the universal church and the manner in which we keep one another, our local bishop, and the Pope in our hearts and our prayers.

Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed - All Souls

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, more commonly known as All Souls, was celebrated this year on Sunday. In the liturgical calendar it follows upon the celebration of the Solemnity of All Saints. Holy Mother Church celebrates the saints because they are further proof of God’s love. They show us that God is capable of taking mere fallible humans from every race and nation and turning them into creatures that shine like the stars because they participate in his own divine life and love. On the very next day, Holy Mother Church presents us with the offering of the Mass for those souls in purgatory who will enjoy such participation but do not currently do so. The liturgy itself takes its readings from the funeral liturgy. The preface to the eucharistic prayer is the preface for the dead. Even when November 2nd falls on a Sunday, as it did this year, this liturgical commemoration takes precedence over the usual Sunday liturgy. And so the singing of the Gloria is omitted on this day. The liturgy celebrated is essentially a memorial Mass for the dead. It is a timely reminder for us of our obligation to pray for the dead and of the traditional doctrine of purgatory.

It is not uncommon today to hear it said that “Funerals are for the living.” After all why should the dead care, really, what music is played or how we remember them? But death does matter and so do the dead. Funerals are precisely about those who have died and the obligations that the living have towards the mortal remains and towards the immortal soul. Funerals are for the living, but only because of their connection with the dead. It is also common to immediately opine that so-and-so are in a better place now (presumably, it is meant that they are assuredly in heaven) and their long suffering is finally at an end. Funerals, we are told, are to be happy affairs where the dead are remembered only in pleasant terms, with a degree of saccharine sentimentality, and all too often in a way which makes the deceased rather unrecognizable to those who knew and loved them. If ever anyone listened to the prayers of the Church on behalf of the dead it must come as a surprise that she begs mercy for their sins. The  prayers for All Souls Day asks God to “look mercifully on your departed servants,” and to “wash away, we pray, in the Blood of Christ, the sins of your departed servants,” and “humbly implores” the Lord that they may be “cleansed by the paschal mysteries.” Holy Mother Church, it seems, has quite a different approach than that of the modern culture, especially in American society.

Our society has emptied out from its memories not only the Christian doctrine of purgatory but also, the very human, and very Christian, notion that we bear any sort of responsibility towards the dead. To quote Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman: “What is the world's religion now? It has taken the brighter side of the Gospel,—its tidings of comfort, its precepts of love; all darker, deeper views of man's condition and prospects being comparatively forgotten. This is the religion natural to a civilized age, and well has Satan dressed and completed it into an idol of the Truth. ... then disappear also, in the creed of the day, those fearful images of Divine wrath with which the Scriptures abound. They are explained away. Every thing is bright and cheerful. Religion is pleasant and easy; benevolence is the chief virtue; intolerance, bigotry, excess of zeal, are the first of sins.” Of course, Blessed Newman was writing in an age where he could still say that the world had taken something of the Gospel. Our world has moved on. In his time, they kept some inklings of the Gospel where kindness and niceties are concerned – we may still find in our churches, regardless of denomination, those who are inclined to this kind of a reduced Christianity. They refuse to make a place for Divine wrath which would be manifest if only they could bear to gaze upon the Holy Cross. In their refusal, they transform heaven into the doctors waiting room, where there is only superficial politeness and boredom. They wish to enter into Heaven without any punishment for their sins. They want to remain unchanged, exactly as they are, defects and all. Just imagine the residents of heaven with all their foibles, or at least the marring effects of their sins upon their souls, spending their time in utter boredom being pleasant and tolerant towards one another. I could hardly imagine a less heavenly image. The radiant Beauty of God, his Divine Majesty, and his transcendent Glory will not allow this to be the case.

St. Catherine of Siena says that the fires which torment the souls in hell is in reality the fire of God’s love, which the obstinate sinner experiences as wrath. St. Augustine says something similar: Hell is where God’s constant and unending love licks at the souls of the damned which refuse to melt. The saint has been purified from every defect, from the stain of every sin, and so becomes radiant with God’s love and shines like the stars. Those who die in God’s friendship, yet with the effects of their sins still upon their souls are as yet incapable of resting in the blazing fire of God’s love. There are parts of their souls which do not yet reflect properly the Beauty, Majesty and Glory of God. The soul when it meets its Creator after death is for the first time fully aware of the depths of their own deformity and the heights of God’s perfections. It is not as if God wishes merely to overlook their imperfections and simply engage in that superficial tolerance and polite pleasantness which the world has come to value. He desires the soul to share as fully as possible in his own gifts. If this is punishment for our faults, it is also a great mercy on God’s behalf. For how could we ever enjoy his presence and be enraptured with his Beauty, if we were at the same time only more aware of our own faults in the brilliant light of the Truth?

Just as the saints intercede for us so that we might one day enjoy the sight of God just as he is, we pray for the holy souls in purgatory – holy because they are in God’s friendship and so destined for heaven. Our prayers are like love letters for the souls of the dead, urging them on in this process of purification. We, in some manner, relieve them of their distress since they have glimpsed the radiance of God and know most intimately their own unworthiness. God has no need of our help in this matter. Our prayers do not increase his generosity or his mercy. But it is his will that we love one another just as his Son has loved us, and love does not cease with death. In our devotions for the dead, our prayers, and other pious acts, we give help to our loved ones, even the souls unknown to us. This act of love also helps our own purification here in this world. The souls in purgatory and ourselves are being made perfect so that we might praise God with the saints forever in the life of the world to come.

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Our first reading is from the Book of Exodus. The Lord gave to his people Israel the Ten Commandments and lists of lesser laws. In the section we read, the Lord tells them that they should not trouble or oppress foreigners because they themselves were once strangers in a foreign land. They should have mercy on and not wrong widows, orphans and the poor. Why? The Lord had mercy on the Israelites and, therefore, they are to have mercy on others. The Lord has shown them love and, therefore, they are obliged to love others. We, too, are strangers in a foreign land. Heaven is our true home. After our first parents were expelled from the Garden of Eden, all their descendants have been wandering through the world estranged from the Paradise which God intended for humanity.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel that all of the laws and prophets depend on two commandments: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Our first debt of gratitude is to God. “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10” We are all sinners. Yes, we are estranged from Paradise because of the sin of our first parents, but we are also strangers to God because of our own sins. God loves us too much to leave us in our sins. He was not obliged to tell us the way out from slavery to sin. But he did even more than this. He loved us too much to leave us to our own devices to see if we might escape. He sent his Son to deliver us by his death and resurrection.

Just as he led Israel through the Red Sea, parting the waves to provide a path to freedom and crushing the pursuing enemy by closing the waters upon them, so too, by the waters of baptism he both parts the waters so that we can pass over to the freedom and grace of the sons of God. Then, he closes the waters upon our sins which pursue us. Much like Israel, we also find ourselves grumbling against the commandments of God and falling back into our previous life, back into our sins. The heavenly Jerusalem is still off in the distance and we wander in the desert of this life. The Israelites had the Ark of the Covenant and the glory of God present in their midst while they journeyed towards Jerusalem. We, too, have the presence of God on our altars and his holy words in our sacred books. For these reasons and more, the case is not that we have loved God and therefore he has loved us back. The contrary is true: God has proved his love for us and therefore we ought to return his love by loving him with all our heart, soul and mind.

But Jesus says the second commandment is like to the first. How can our obligation to love God, which is not merely an external or legal obligation but an interior necessity of the human heart, be compared in any way to an obligation to love our neighbor? First, because if we love God then we must love what he loves. “Beloved, we love God because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 1:19-21)” Second, we who have come to know the love of God have also learned that life not lived in that same love is dreary and leads to no good place. I don’t mean to say that the Catholic life is easy. We certainly struggle in living faithfully the life of virtue. But we have the true words of God to guard to us, to shine the light upon the way so that we can at least see the path that leads to eternal happiness. We have the sacraments to strengthen us, to heal us from every weakness so that it becomes a real possibility to walk that path with the help of grace.

But what does this command to love our neighbor include? Does it mean to simply accept wherever they happen to be? Does it mean to condone the sin in their life? Does it mean that we should put to the side our own Catholic beliefs, or at least not mention them so that we don’t offend anyone? Does it mean that we cannot bring the truth revealed by God into the public sphere? No. G.K. Chesterton remarked about patriotism: “My country, right or wrong,” is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, “My mother, drunk or sober.” A patriot loves his country and so hopes that his compatriots and government will live up to the great ideal and all the things that are best about his country. A patriot is embarrassed when his country falls short of those ideals and works tirelessly to remove those things which are not in keeping with the good that he loves. Similarly, true love for neighbor is incompatible with the idea that while our life might be the better for our relationship with God, for our reception of the holy sacraments and our membership in his Mystical Body, the Holy Catholic Church, perhaps our neighbor is incapable of all these good things. Perhaps the life of virtue, and the undoubted struggles and difficulties that will ensue on account of weakness is too much and really won’t bring happiness to others. Nonsense. If we truly believe that, then neither does our Catholic Faith bring us happiness and freedom. It is not love to leave another in the poverty of unbelief, nor the loneliness of being widowed, nor the abandonment of the orphanage. We, all of us, need God. We desperately need the experience of his love and we just as desperately need to love him back.

I’m not suggesting that we run about beating people with revealed truth or shaking our fingers and wagging our heads as we tell them what is wrong with them or their lives. I am suggesting that we meet each person and see their transcendent dignity: they are made in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the blood of the Cross. Let us love them, because God loves them even if they don’t know it yet. He isn’t waiting for them to be perfect before he begins to love them – he already loves them just as they are. He also calls them, just as he calls us, to completion and perfection by sharing in his divine life. He wants them to be free from slavery to sin and live forever in paradise with him. We want that for ourselves, we should want it for others too. But it may take some time just loving them where they are at before they are able to receive God’s love and move to where he is calling them to be. And that should be no surprise to us: isn’t that how we are meeting God, too?

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Last Sunday, we heard Jesus tell the parable of the Wedding Feast. The Pharisees knew that they were those who refused the invitation or those who mistreated and killed the servants of the king. For that reason, the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. They don’t go to Jesus themselves. Instead they send their disciples together with the Herodians. These disciples and the Herodians ask Jesus: “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” But listen to how they ask him: “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”

They call him “Teacher,” put they are not his disciples (disciple means student). In reality, they do not care what he is going to say, since they only want to trap him. If he says, “Yes, it is lawful to pay the tribute,” they will accuse him to the people, saying that he is not the Messiah, since he does not wish for Israel to be free from foreign domination. If he says, “No, it is not lawful,” then they will accuse him to Herod and the Romans as an imperial traitor. They are trying desperately to curry favor with Jesus by flattery, hoping that he will let his guard down and take them into his confidence: “we know that you are a truthful man and teach the way of God.” But, knowing their malice, Jesus says, “Show me the coin” and “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they reply.

Roman money had an image and an inscription on it, just like our money does. Our quarter of a dollar has the face of George Washington on it. The inscriptions read: “Liberty” and “In God we trust” on the front. And on the back it says, “E pluribus unum” (Out of many people, one). The money for the tribute had the face of Tiberius Caesar on it. And the inscription read, “Tiberius Caesar Divi Augusti Filius Augustus.” which means Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Son of the Divine Augustus. The Pharisees and the Herodians had seen or heard of the deeds, miracles and teachings of Jesus. All of his works and miracles and even his teachings, had the image of God on them. His deeds and words bore the image of God, because He is the image of the invisible God.

St. Paul writes in his letter the Colossians (1:15-20): “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born  of all creation. For in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and in him. And he is before all, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he may hold the primacy: Because in him, it hath well pleased the Father, that all fullness should dwell; And through him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven.”

We are made in the image and likeness of God. God said: Let us make man in our image and likeness ... and God created man in his image ... man and woman he created them. (Gen. 1:26-27) And in our baptism, the image of the only Son of God is sealed in us. We are so united to the Son, that we form only one body and one Spirit with him. All that the Son has, he has offered to the Father in order to redeem us from slavery to sin. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ: As he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in his sight in charity. Who has predestined us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto himself: according to the purpose of his will: Unto the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has graced us in his beloved son.” (Eph. 1:1-6)

Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, says Jesus. We do have to pay taxes. We should be good citizens. We have to follow the laws, unless those laws are contrary to the truths of God. But now, look at your life. Look into your soul. “Whose image is it?” Is it the image of the approval of the world? Are you more conformed to the image of Caesar, that is the image of this world or is your life conformed to the image of the Only Begotten Son of God? What is the difference between your life and the lives of those who do not belong to Christ and his Church? Jesus also says, “Give to God what belongs to God.” And to God belongs not only my money, my possessions, my loyalty but also and above all: my heart, my mind, my body, my soul. Today there is no longer a Roman Empire nor a Roman Emperor. “Sic transit gloria mundi – Thus passes the glory of the world!” And one day, this world also, will vanish. But God remains forever, his glory is forever! “Give to the Lord, you families of nations, give to the Lord glory and praise; give to the Lord the glory due his name!”

“O God, almighty Father, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.”

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

“And from the throne came a voice crying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.” Then I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, like the voice of many waters and like the voice of mighty thunders, crying, “Alleluia! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” (Rev 19:5-9)

In our first reading from the prophet Isaiah, God promises to prepare a feast for his people. What sort of feast is it? The Sacred Scriptures, over and over again, use nuptial imagery to describe the relationship between God and his people. “You shall no longer be called Forsaken, and your land shall no more be called Desolate; but you shall be called My delight is in her, and your land Espoused; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” (Is. 62:4-5) The feast is a wedding feast. The Lord said through the prophet Hosea: “And I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.” (2:19-20).

When God led Israel out of slavery in Egypt, he had them slay a lamb, paint their doorposts with the blood of the lamb using hyssop and then eat the lamb. At the foot of Mt. Sinai, God proposes to them that he would be their God and they would be his own possession, that is, they would belong to each other. The bride in the Song of Songs says, “My Beloved is mine and I am His. (2:16).” God tells Moses to consecrate the people and to tell them to wash their garments, that is adorn themselves for a wedding, and to be ready on the third day (Ex. 19:10). It is in this context that they receive the Ten Commandments and other laws as bridal gifts. Among the laws is to remember the events by which God saved them from slavery and therefore to celebrate the Passover feast and the seven days of unleavened bread as remembrance of their God who had betrothed Himself to them. The Passover includes a number of cups of wine. There is one at the introductory rites, a second at the remembrance of the redemption of Israel from Egypt, a third at the eating of the meal (the cup of blessing), then hymns are sung (Psalms 113-118) and finally a last cup of wine.

Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a wedding feast that a king prepared for his son. The King is God the Father, Jesus is the Son. In the Gospel according to St. Luke, Jesus says to his disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” (Lk 22:15) On the day before he was to suffer, Jesus took bread and giving thanks, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “This is my Body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, said the blessing, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “This is the chalice of my Blood.” St. Luke tells us that after this cup, Jesus says that he will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes. (Lk. 22:18) But St. Mark tells us that after the cup of blessing, Jesus and the Apostles sang the hymn and then went out to the Mt. of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane. (Mk 14:24-26) If we look back at what we learned from the Old Testament we will see that something is missing. There should be the cup of blessing, then singing of psalms, then another cup. Where is this last cup? What is it that Jesus prays when he enters the Garden of Gethsemane? “Father, if you will, take away this cup from me: yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Lk 22:44) There’s the cup. And where does Jesus drink from the cup? “Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst. Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar (sour wine). And they (the soldiers), putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, put it to his mouth. Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar said: It is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.” (Jn. 19:28-30) On the Cross and at the Supper, Jesus hands over his body for his Bride, the Church. On the Cross, the Supper is brought to completion. The Passover Sacrifice is finished.

Jesus rises on the third day and ascends into heaven where the book of Hebrews tells us that he lives always to make intercession for us (7:25). And how does he appear? St. John writes in the Book of Revelation (5:6): “I saw: and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the ancients, a lamb standing as though it had been slain.” In his resurrected and glorified body, Jesus still bears the open wounds of his crucifixion and death. The last piece missing from this heavenly Wedding Feast of the Lamb is our participation in it.

At every Holy Mass, directly before communion, the priest shows the consecrated host and says: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” In this gift, he offers us the opportunity to partake in the reality now, although hidden under signs, the same reality which is prepared for us in heaven. While we are still here on earth, we taste the mysteries of heaven. This is the sacramental and liturgical foretaste of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

Jesus tells us in our parable today that many will refuse to come to the wedding feast, although the Father will have invited them. Some will come to the feast unprepared, but they will be cast out into the darkness. We must be properly dressed in a wedding garment, the white robes of the Saints, who, in their baptism, have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. We should not refuse the invitation to be consecrated and sanctified, to enter into this intimate encounter with the Lord. But we should be prepared to receive him through confession of our sins and by prayers of affection and devotion. If we truly understood this great mystery, then we would give everything to partake of it. If we really understood the Mass, says St. John Vianney, we would die of joy.

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

The Old Testament often uses the imagery of the vineyard to describe the people with whom the Lord made a covenant. “The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Judah is his pleasant offshoot.” The image of the vineyard expresses God’s care for Israel. Taking care of a vineyard is time intensive. The field must be cleared, tilled, planted, and watered. The vine must be pruned, trained and protected against pests, mold and bad weather. Psalm 80:8-9 from our Responsorial Psalm speaks about how the Lord established Israel as his vineyard: “A vine from Egypt you transplanted; you drove away the nations and planted it.” What care the Lord took for his people, centuries upon centuries in his plan to save the whole world! And for a time, Israel flourished. The Psalm continues: “It put forth its foliage to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.” The prophet Hosea (10:1) says: “Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit.”

But then the prophet continues: “The more his fruit increased the more altars he built; as his country improved he improved his pillars.  Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt.” The more successful Israel became the more Israel turned to idolatry by building altars and pillars to false gods. Israel gave itself over to every sort of sin. The prophet Jeremiah says: “Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, says the Lord God (2:21-22).” And so the Lord hands over his precious vineyard to the nations around it, sending his people into exile, as the prophet Ezekiel says: “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (15.6)” Israel was supposed to be a light to the nations by their holiness, showing others the beauty of God.

Jesus uses this same imagery in the parable we heard today. Israel is the vineyard, God is the landowner. The servants are the prophets, the tenants are people of Israel, specifically the chief priests and elders. Jesus is the Son whom the land owner sent at the last to obtain his produce.  Jesus will later tell his disciples at the Last Supper: “I am the true vine (John 15:1).” Jesus does what Israel could not do for itself. He is the true vine that bears eternal fruit. Jesus says: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:1-5)”

The question we are left with is whether we are bearing fruit or not. The Song of Songs says, “but, my own vineyard I have not kept. (Song of Songs 1:6)” Unless we are joined to Jesus heart and soul, we cannot bear good fruit. Like Israel, we become corrupted by our sins. But the Lord, if we allow him, will  still take care of his vineyard. If we refuse his grace and are unwilling to be transformed to the image of his Son, Jesus tells us that his Father will take us away from the vine. If we accept his grace, it will not be an easy thing to transform our lives: he will prune the branches, literally cleanse and purify us, so that we will bear more good fruit. This process will have its joys certainly, and the peace that comes with following the Lord. But it will also be uncomfortable. Yet, St. Paul tells us not to have anxiety. Trust the Lord and his peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. He tells us to meditate on whatever is honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent and praiseworthy. Then he says, not just the feeling of peace, but the God of peace will be with us.

Our Lady of Sorrows, September 15th

Today we celebrate the Memorial of our Lady of Sorrows. As it happens the memorial, which has a proper Gospel, coincides this year with the reading from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians wherein he writes them concerning the Lord’s Supper. He has just finished chiding them for their behavior when they gathered together. Now he reminds them of what it is that is being done. He rehearses the account of the Last Supper by beginning, “For I received from the Lord what I also handed over to you.” The point is that the Eucharist is not something which the Church or the community or the Apostles came up with. It is something that Jesus instituted and which he commanded the Apostles to continue: “Do this in remembrance of me.” Then St. Paul says something rather shocking, although we have heard it so many times that we may hardly pay attention to it at all: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”

Our Gospel relates the presence of the mother of Jesus at the foot of the cross. On the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows it seems appropriate to proclaim this little section. This, of course, must have been the moment of her greatest sorrow. But the coincidence of these two readings: St. Paul’s teaching on the Last Supper and the Gospel account of what transpired between Jesus and his mother at the Cross, help remind us of the connection between the Supper and the Cross. And this connection is an excellent thing to reflect on.

In the upper room, on the day before he was to suffer, Jesus made an irrevocable offering of his body and blood to the Father for the remission of sins. The manner of this offering was as a solemn liturgical, sacramental and ritual sacrifice. In anticipation of his sacrifice upon the cross, he made that sacrifice-to-come present sacramentally under the signs of bread and wine and he made it really present. This is what he commanded his apostles to do as a remembrance of him.
And in order for there to be a sacrifice, there has to be a victim. A mere sign will not do. It would be one thing to ritualize the memory of what was done for us through the use of only symbolic signs, but that would not amount to a sacrifice in the proper and strict sense. In that case we would be offering to God something else than the one true sacrifice of Christ, namely, we would be offering our memory of his sacrifice. Now, that’s not a bad thing at all, but our memory of something is not the thing itself. But as with all ritual and liturgical ceremonies, a sacrifice must be carried out through signs – such is the nature of man – but it will need something greater than simply signs in order also to have the reality itself. This is the nature of sacraments. They are signs which pertain to divine realities and make effective what they signify.

We have reason to believe that such is the nature of the sacrament of the Eucharist. As St. Thomas so beautifully wrote in his hymn Adoro Te Devote: Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur; sed auditu solo tuto creditur. Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius: nil hoc verbo Veritatis verius. “Sight, touch, taste are each in Thee deceived; but by hearing only can it safely be believed. I believe whatever the Son of God has said: Nothing is more true than this word of the Truth Himself.” Only the approach of faith makes sense of our Lord’s demonstrative use of the words: “This is my Body” and “This is my Blood.” Remember, in the Gospel of John chapter 6, our Lord uses increasingly stronger language and repeats the literal sense of his words, even to the point of letting some of his disciples reject his teaching and cease to follow him. He did not let them go away because they misunderstood him, but because they understood him quite well but found the teaching too hard. But in order to have this same one true sacrifice present, the same victim had to be present, which Jesus provided for in the institution of the Eucharist.

Because the Eucharist contains the same Victim and the one who offers is the same: the sacrifice of the cross and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one and the same sacrifice. Here St. Thomas is quite helpful for us to begin to understand the depth of this Sacrament which Christ has left for us. In the Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas answers the question of whether it was fitting that Christ instituted the sacrifice at the Last Supper (ST III, q.73, a.5): “Firstly, because . . . Christ Himself is contained in the Eucharist sacramentally. Consequently, when Christ was going to leave His disciples in His proper species, He left Himself with them under the sacramental species; as the Emperor's image is set up to be reverenced in his absence. Hence Eusebius says: "Since He was going to withdraw His assumed body from their eyes, and bear it away to the stars, it was needful that on the day of the supper He should consecrate the sacrament of His body and blood for our sakes, in order that what was once offered up for our ransom should be fittingly worshiped in a mystery."

Secondly, because without faith in the Passion there could never be any salvation, according to Romans 3:25: "Whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood." It was necessary accordingly that there should be at all times among men something to show forth our Lord's Passion; the chief sacrament of which in the old Law was the Paschal Lamb. Hence the Apostle says (1 Corinthians 5:7): "Christ our Pasch is sacrificed." But its successor under the New Testament is the sacrament of the Eucharist, which is a remembrance of the Passion now past, just as the other was figurative of the Passion to come. And so it was fitting that when the hour of the Passion was come, Christ should institute a new Sacrament after celebrating the old, as Pope Leo I says (Serm. lviii).

Thirdly, because last words, chiefly such as are spoken by departing friends, are committed most deeply to memory; since then especially affection for friends is more enkindled, and the things which affect us most are impressed the deepest in the soul. Consequently, since, as Pope Alexander I says, "among sacrifices there can be none greater than the body and blood of Christ, nor any more powerful oblation"; our Lord instituted this sacrament at His last parting with His disciples, in order that it might be held in the greater veneration. And this is what Augustine says (Respons. ad Januar. i): "In order to commend more earnestly the death of this mystery, our Saviour willed this last act to be fixed in the hearts and memories of the disciples whom He was about to quit for the Passion."

St. Thomas puts it more succinctly in his famous text called O Sacrum Convivium: O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus sumitur: recolitur memoria passionis eius, mens impletur gratia, et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur. O sacred banquet, in which Christ is received, the memory of his passion is renewed, the soul is filled with grace, and the pledge of future glory is given to us. This only just begins to mark out the wonderful depths of the Eucharist. But until we begin to understand this connection of the Eucharist to passion and death of our Lord, we will miss much of its meaning for us.

And here we turn not only to doctrine and theological expositions of the Catholic faith, but to Mary. Mary is the woman “who kept all these things in her heart.” She knew docility to the Holy Spirit in immaculate receptivity to the Wisdom of God. She contemplated the Annunciation, she was filled with knowledge of sacred scriptures, as the references in the Magnificat demonstrate, She contemplated the Birth and hidden life of her Son. She contemplated him in his ministry to preach the Kingdom of God. She contemplated his healing power and the grace and authority with which he spoke. And she contemplated him from the foot of the Cross. Here, where our Savior suffered, where he consummated the sacrifice which he had offered in the upper room and left for his disciples in the future to perpetuate his sacrifice across the centuries, our Savior had another gift to give us. He gave us Mary for our mother, Mary standing at the foot of the cross – contemplating him in sorrow with a mother’s love. Mary’s knowledge of his sacrifice exceeds that of any other creature, human or angelic.

How many times and with what depth of love did the Mother of God contemplate all these things and especially his death on the cross, when she adored him in the Holy Eucharist at the Sacred Liturgy? Our Lord gave his mother into the keeping of the disciple whom he loved, in whose person we are all indicated, so that, we might contemplate his mysteries together with her who contemplated him from the beginning and has never ceased in her loving contemplation. He gave us to her as to our own mother so that with a mother’s love she might instruct us concerning the affection, tenderness and adoration which we ought to offer to her Son in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Seek the guidance of Mary as you contemplate her Son, hidden in the Eucharist. She will teach you to stand faithfully at the foot of the Cross, offering to him your own sufferings for the sake of the Church, in order to make up in yourself what was lacking to the sufferings of Christ. If we imitate her faith, we too, shall one day contemplate him, not hidden under the veil of the Eucharist but face to face.

Iesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio, Oro fiat illud quod tam sitio; Ut te revelata cernens facie, Visu sim beatus tuae gloriae.

O Jesus, whom veiled I now look upon, I pray grant that for which I so thirst; That seeing Thee with Thy countenance revealed, I may be blessed by the sight of Thy glory.


Amen.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

God manifests his almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy. In the Book of Daniel (Dn. 3) we read: “All that you have done to us, O Lord, you have done with true judgment, for we have sinned against you and not obeyed your commandments. But give glory to your name and deal with us according to the bounty of your mercy.” This is the best we can really hope for isn’t it? If we are honest with ourselves, the last thing we want is for God to judge us with strict justice: that is, giving to us precisely what we are due. And yet he has given us a solemn promise through his Son. Better than just the idea that he sent us a message given to his Son to be given to us, God gave us his Son. Jesus is the promise.

The first reading brings out the difficulty in complaining to God about fairness in his judgments. As the Lord tells us through the prophet, it is not he who is unfair to us, but rather we who are unfair to him. Even if we are currently walking in the way of virtue and righteousness, how can we be sure that we will remain in it? Apart from the grace of God, it is impossible for us to please him, to remain steadfast in our good purposes. The moment we begin to rely on ourselves for our righteousness, we lose touch with the grace which makes it possible. That’s why the Psalmist says: “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.” We need God to show us the truth about our sinfulness. We need God to be our savior, to save us from the paths that we will inevitably walk without him.

This is the story of Israel, the story of the history of salvation. This is the constant theme of the prophets and of Jesus and of the Catholic Church. Turn to God and be saved. Turn away from your sin and trust in him. Repent and believe. If we say we trust in him, if we profess that we believe: that is an excellent first step. It is a necessary step, one taken, by the way, only through the impulse of grace and not something that we do for ourselves. Believing and trusting in God comes as a result of the reception of his grace. In this reception, a relationship is forged which requires a response on our part. If we fail to respond, then we cannot receive the relationship in full, nor can we live out that relationship with fidelity.

This is the case for the second son of the parable who says “Yes,” but will not go out into the vineyard of his father. It appears that he has responded appropriately but it is in reality only a facade. Whereas, the second son, who fails to respond appropriately and appears to be in open rebellion, then changes his mind (the Greek word means that he repents) and goes into the vineyard. Jesus says likewise, it is not the chief priests and elders who do the Father’s will with their “yes” but do not live fully from that relationship by conforming their hearts, minds and deeds to their affirmation. It is the tax collectors and prostitutes, who having said “no” to the invitation, later change their hearts, minds and deeds. The latter are living by grace upon dependency from their Father in heaven. And so they are entering the kingdom of God.

We may find ourselves in both situations. I sometimes say “yes” but fail to go. I sometimes say “no” and then repenting of my refusal seek the mercy of God. There are two important words for mercy in our Psalm today. “Remember that your compassion, O Lord, and your love are from of old.” The first word for mercy is translated here as compassion. It is a word related to the word for a mother’s womb, with all the associations of affection, tenderness, compassion, pity and mercy. We read in Isaiah (49:15): “Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet I will not forget you.”

God’s steadfast love, his covenanted love, arise from who he is. This is the second word for mercy, translated in the psalm as love, but also meaning kindness, loyalty, steadfastness, faithfulness, goodness and mercy. He is the Beautiful One, Goodness Itself. Although we, who are sinners, have merited nothing but to be forgotten, God will never forget us. God has not forgotten us: in Jesus, his Only Begotten Son, the covenant was kept, the promise fulfilled, grace made possible. We are invited to share not just the results of the faithfulness of Jesus. We are invited to share in the relationship of Jesus with his Father. We are given a participation in the Spirit, says St. Paul. And so, St. Paul also exhorts us to be of the same attitude, that is, mind and heart that was in Jesus. The life of grace is offered to us. But it requires us to be conformed to Jesus, the Son who both said “yes” and went. Because of him, God does not remember the sins of our youth, or even of yesterday, nor any of our transgressions. When we make memory here upon the altar of the death and resurrection of our Lord, the Father in his kindness remembers us, because of his goodness, tenderness and sweetness. He has not forgotten us. Let us not forget him.