Christ the King, 2010

Jesus Christ is our eternal priest and universal king, and the time is coming when He will submit His kingdom to our Heavenly Father. When that time comes, will we be in alignment with Christ, and be submitted with the rest of creation, or stand outside, grinding and wailing our teeth. This good thief in today's Gospel provides a model - he submits himself to Christ, and while his prayer is to simply be remembered, he finds forgiveness and peace.

Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Humility marks the life of a follower of Christ. It takes humility to admit we are sinners in need of a savior, in the first place. The Lord instructs His followers to not think to much of themselves, to promote themselves to higher honors. When others come, they will make the determination of where they belong. Humility is needed to enter fully into the liturgy, too. We hear the call of the Lord to come to worship Him, and we submit ourselves to Him.

Growth in humility will help in discerning a vocation - we will more honestly see where we stand before God, with all our talents and sins, knowing we are loved and forgiven, the more we will be able to know His will.

Assumption 2010

The Blessed Mother is assumed into Heaven, body and soul. It is only fitting, as the most perfect vessel for the Incarnation of Christ, having been prepared from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception. It is not of her own accord, but rather because she said yes to the Lord.



(Icon of the Dormition - the Eastern Churches' term for the Assumption - calling to mind her 'sleeping' and being taken into Heaven. Note that Christ her Son is at her side, along with the Apostles.)

Sometimes, one considering a vocation, forgets that God not only loves those who follow Him, but He takes care of them. He shows His love of the Blessed Mother by honoring her thus, and he will take care of us, too.

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Following Jesus Christ requires everything: as he has no place to lay His head, we are asked to have detachment from 'stuff'; as He is the author and giver of life, we are asked to leave the dead; and as we follow Him, we are asked to not look back to what we left behind.

Third Sunday of Easter

How quickly we can forget! Today's Gospel Passage begins as Peter announces that he is going to go fishing. After two previous resurrection appearances of Christ, Peter returns to his former life. Despite fishing all night, they catch nothing. Christ appears on the shore, with breakfast prepared (He who had not fished had plenty, those who had tried had nothing). He calls them to cast to the right side. It is as if they will have no success without Christ, and for good reason - they were to be fishers of men. After breakfast, Christ pulls Peter aside, and three times asks him for a profession of love. Peter clearly does not understand until the third time - the three-fold denial is undone by this three-fold profession. Jesus Christ invites him to follow Him.

We might have an experience of Christ, but how quickly we are to return to 'normal'. But if it is of God, we really cannot go back. We are called, just like Peter, to confess our sins and profess our faith, to follow Christ, and to cast our nets wide. When we do, we need to be prepared for the miraculous catch Christ will give us!

First Sunday of Lent

Jesus is tempted after his 40 day fast in the desert. He entered the desert to prepare for His ministry, and in resisting the temptations of the devil, He shows that he is (of course) perfectly united with the will of His Father.

In our Lenten Journey, we also enter the desert so that we can be be configured at a greater level to the mystery of Christ. We too are tempted - nothing disturbs Satan more than a person committed to Christ! Are our wills in union with God's will? If not, we have the gift of the sacraments, the sacramentals, the Scriptures, and the teaching of the Church. We have the example of the saints. Let us be further configured to Christ, asking for the Grace to avoid temptation and evil, and follow God's loving will.

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Blessing or curse - which one we experience is dependent on were we put our faith. If we place it on our current state of things, on our human understanding, we will find that they do not last. If, however, we place our trust in the Lord stretching out to him like a tree's roots grow toward water, we will find hope that endures, and will know the blessings of the Lord.

Those who are discerning a vocation must place their trust in the Lord, not on their human understanding. Too often, many will stop discerning when they consider the low pay, the long hours, the hard study. But one who is able to trust in the Lord is also able to know the blessing of knowing the Lord.

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Who is the greatest? The question we hear being discussed by the apostles in this weekend's Gospel passage is one that still plagues us. We jockey for position, put just enough of a religious spin on it to make it appear that we are trying to live the Gospel out. The question is not who is the greatest, but who are we serving? Are we serving ourselves, our pride, and our own positions? Are we serving others without counting the cost or expecting repayment, simply because it is the right thing to do? We need to examine our motivations and passions and ask the Lard to purify them.

The Blessed Virgin Mary's Role in Celibacy

In a post Ignatius Insight: The Blessed Virgin Mary's Role in the Celibate Priest's Spousal and Paternal Love, the author Carl Olson writes of the role of the Blessed Mother in the celibate priesthood, based on the book of the same title by Fr. John Cihak, STD.

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

What kind of faith do you have? Is it the faith of Jairus, who seeks out Jesus Christ to heal his ailing daughter? The faith of the woman with the 12-year hemorrhage, without assets and long suffering at the hands of doctors? The faith of the apostles, who stand by in awe of Jesus? The faith of the mourners, ridiculing Jesus for His asking for faith? Or perhaps the faith of the daughter of Jairus - dead and apparently lifeless? It seems that no matter the type of faith, Jesus Christ can bring healing. With a strong faith, we are to ask for the healing that we need, like the woman who dares to reach out to touch Jesus' clothing. We are also to ask Jesus to help those who are lying in their faith's deathbeds. May the Lord speak the word that will rouse all of us, allowing us to respond to His voice!

A Random Thought

In the first reading of the Mass this weekend, we hear:

God did not make death,
nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.

Contrast that with the recent news story of the Episcopal priest who stated that God rejoices in abortion.:

Pregnancy-loss prayers, new church calendar proposed
From The Rev. Nina Churchman • Denver, Colorado, Jun 20, 2009
After reading the 3 June article, "Pregnancy-loss Prayers", I found the text for Rachel's Tears online and was sickened to discover that the rite for abortion is couched wholly in terms of sin and transgression. The Episcopal Church, by resolution, has long held that women have the freedom to choose an abortion. It is not considered a sin. That this new rite begins with the words, "I seek God's forgiveness..." and includes "God rejoices that you have come seeking God's merciful forgiveness..." is contrary to the resolution. Women should be able to mourn the loss of an aborted fetus without having to confess anything. God, unlike what the liturgy states, also rejoices that women facing unplanned pregnancies have the freedom to carefully choose the best option - birth, adoption or abortion - for themselves and their families. No woman makes this decision lightly or frivolously. But each needs the non-judgmental and non-coercive support of her faith community to make the best decision for her circumstances.
The wording of this liturgy focuses solely on guilt and sin instead of the grief and healing that may accompany a very difficult but appropriate decision to terminate a pregnancy. If anyone is paying attention at the General Convention, this rite should not be approved.

Pontiff's Message for Vocation Prayer Day

As part of World Day of Prayer for Vocations, His Holiness has released a letter for the day. He has given the letter the name of Faith in the Divine Initiative – the Human Response. In this letter, he urges us to pray for vocations, and that those responding take part in the plan of love and salvation God has for everyone. He encourages prayers and efforts to strengthen families. In contemplating the Eucharist, he reiterates that we can see how our faith in what God has done can lead us to respond. Priests perpetuate this salvific mystery, and every Mass nourishes the faithful and priest to make a response in faith.

Fourth Sunday of Lent

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Perhaps the best known passage in Scripture (flashed at sports games by some rainbow haired men), this passage from today's Gospel tells us how much God loves us. The account of Nicodemus' encounter of Christ is the beginning of Jesus's proclamation of His purpose and ultimate message - salvation and God's love. Nicodemus came hidden in the darkness, but Jesus Christ, the light of the world, reveals the truth to him. God loves the world so much that He sent His Son, the second Person of the Trinity, to save it. But this salvation is not automatic - some may prefer the darkness of sins. Those who believe are not condemned, but their works have to show their belief, living the truth in the light, and our works done in God. There is a tender balance here - between the love of God and our human wills, and between presumption of salvation and forgiveness of sins. Just because God loves us does not mean we can sin with no consequences assuming God will simply save us.

God's love saves us, but we must respond to that love by living our vocations - that call of love in our lives.

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings speak of The Prophet who is to come. The people of Israel did not want to hear the Lord speak to them any longer - they were fearful. They were (at least at the time) listening. In the Gospel, the demoniac cries out begging that the Lord is coming to destroy him. When we hear Christ, we hear God! No longer ought we cower, for He speaks to us in love. May we be willing to hear and respond.

The second reading contains St. Paul's teaching on Christians who are serious in our desire to serve the Lord to remain unmarried - aka celibate. Due to the anxiety and divided desires that having a spouse causes, it seems best to remain celibate. With those considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, we need to seek to serve the Lord with our whole hearts.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

This weekend's readings, we hear of God's will for the Blessed Mother given to her in the message from the Angel Gabriel. She was ready and prepared, aware of her need of a savior. Remember though free from original and actual sin, she was pre-redeemed by Jesus Christ and was still in need of His life, death, and resurrection. Hearing the message of the Angel, she receives it with joy and humility. She willingly allows the will of God to be done. Not fully knowing the 'hows', she knows the why: for the her salvation, and that of the whole world and our souls. She provides the temple for the Son of God to dwell (hence the first reading). Through her, He will be born. She receives the Lord.
In addition to John the Baptist, the Blessed Virgin Mary can provide another way of living Advent. She was ready to receive the Lord! As we count and prepare for these last days before Christmas, we should remember that God has a plan for us, too. We ought to be ready to do His will, and to receive Him with joy.

Cardinal Arinze Presents "Letter to Young Priest"

A new book by Cardinal Arinze, "Letter to Young Priest", was announced by ZENIT news yesterday. The article seems to hit the highlights of the book. He addresses the priestly promises of celibacy, poverty, and obedience. It looks like an excellent book for a priest or seminarian in need of a little encouragement.

Thoughts of the Election

I am writing the following as an individual, and is not an endorsement or rejection of any party or politician.

I am truly disappointed with many in the main stream media. So many are suggesting that those who voted against President-elect Obama are either racist or uninformed. He could not (or would not because it was not politically expedient) say when life began and was afforded rights. He refused to vote for a law that would have required medical care to those born alive in the process of abortion - the difference is that the woman wanted an abortion, not a baby. He supports of abortion on demand and the Freedom of Choice Act enshrining it as a right. He promised to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. He supports federal funding for fetal stem cell research. Because I am an informed Catholic, he removed himself from my support and vote for him as a candidate. It was not the color of his skin that I considered - it was the content of his character. I imagine that there was a fraction of those who did not vote for him primarily because of his ancestry, the same as I would be safe to assume some voted for him simply because of it - both are equally wrong! Dr. Martin Luther King said it best - when it is what is within that matters, not what is only skin deep.

This election was disappointing on the part of the pro-life cause. Measures aimed at limiting abortions, defining the start of human life (and rights) failed, while measures to allow embryonic research and assisted suicide passed. We by-and-large elected a pro-abortion slate into federal offices. The pro-abortion battle will not and cannot win based on logic and civil discourse, so now the politicians will force it upon us.

I 'predict' that under the new administration, access to abortion will be enshrined as a 'right', the limitations of abortion (conscience clauses, limiting federal funding, waiting periods, parental notifications, and partial birth abortion bans; so many gained only in these last years) will be removed. Abortionists and abortion mills will be allowed to relax safety and reporting regulations. Overall, we will see a declining number of reported abortions; it will be seen as a drop in abortions though they will be woefully underreported. The drop will be credited to some expensive and ultimately ineffective program, just as the 'rise' of abortion rates these last 8 years were blamed on the pro-life policies being failures, but not because of the mandatory reporting laws!

We must not be deceived - even if something is legal, it is not automatically moral. Abortion, and support of abortion, is always wrong. Life does begin at conception - it is a scientific fact in addition to being affirmed by the long teaching of the Catholic Church. The pro-life movement will have an uphill battle again, because we grew complacent.

These next years, we have a task to remind our politicians in all parties of the dignity of human life. We need not resign to the fact that abortion is here to stay, anymore than those before us gave up the cause of civil rights, the recognition of women's rights to vote, and the end of slavery. May God bless us with strength to defend the defenseless, and that He would bless our politicians and fellow citizens with the truth that life begins at conception, and that every life is precious in God's eyes.

That being written, we pray for President-Elect Obama. May he see the dignity of life from conception to natural death, and unite the nation for the good of all, not just the born (and wanted).

Feast of All Souls

The feast of All Souls gives us the opportunity to stop and remember those who have died who have not yet been entered into their heavenly rest, but in the fullness of time will - those in purgatory. Purgatory is a state of purification where the soul of those who have died without coming to the full love of Christ are purged from their earthly attachments. Prayers will not help those who, in their sins, rejected God and chose an eternity separated from Him (in Hell), and the prayers are not needed for those who, because of their faith and fullness of Love, have already been admitted to heaven as Saints. But the souls in purgatory are the ones for whom we can, and must, pray. It is a penitent prayer, a prayer of repentance on behalf of those who are there. Even the color specified for use at Mass (violet or black, if available) is one of prayer and penance. While there is a sense of joy, it is assumed, because they know that they are bound for heaven, there is the pain of letting go of their disordered attachments. We pray for them, that they may enter that purification and that we can help express the love of God with our prayers.

For us who are alive, we need to remember that Purgatory is not a goal - only heaven ought to be. We can be come to holiness here in this life, to become living saints. We pray for the grace of conversion in our lives, that we may find freedom from all that is not of God. May we be the saints that God not only has created us to be, but given us the grace to be!

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but to God what is God's? With these words, Jesus evades the trap that the Herodians and Pharisees try to lay for him. In doing so, Jesus calls them on their hypocrisy. They are opposite sides of the political spectrum, the first sign of trap, and the unsolicited compliments are another sign. They ask about the legality (not the politics but the morality) of paying taxes. The Roman empire required this tax of all subjects. The Pharisees saw that the Roman taxes were not legally obligated, though they most likely paid them, and the Herodians of course supported the taxes. If Jesus said no, the Herodians could have reported Him as a revolutionary. If Jesus said yes, He could have been accused of supporting the Roman regime inciting the people who hated the Roman rule. There is another level, here, too. Jesus invites them to show the coin that is used. The fact that they were able to produce the coin is a sign that they were asking a mute question. "Whose image is that..." The image of Tiberius Caesar was against Jewish sensibilities - it was a graven image of a human being, and as such would have been unlawful. Jesus continues "... and whose inscription?" The inscription would have read translated of course, "Tiberius Caesar, Son of Divine Augustus, Son of Augustus", and the back would have read "Pontificus maximus" - The High Priest. This would have been utter heresy - Tiberius' father Augustus proclaimed himself a god, and Tiberius called himself the son of a god, whose high priest he was. The onlookers answer that it is Caesar, and Jesus gives them the answer. In doing so, he is telling them to give to Caesar only what is duly his - the tax. But the glory, praise, honor, and worship belongs to God alone. Whose image, after all, is Tiberius himself in - it is the Image of God. He is not divine or the son of God. But Jesus Christ is, and He deserves the praise and honor due to such an truly August One (the quality, not the month).

Following our vocations, we give to God what is His. When we find the true balance in our vocation we find the balance of living our life for God, while living in the world (in, not of). We also take a more proper role in civic activities as God has called us as individuals.

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus, in this parable of the vineyard, tells that the builder builds it and leaves it in charge of renters so that he can receive the fruits at their proper time. The renters had other ideas, though. They chose to ignore the owner. They became murderous, and in their twisted logic thought that if they kill the messengers and the owner's son, they would inherit the vineyard.

God is the owner, and we are the renters. Unlike the builder of a vineyard who plants for his own sake, God plants the world for the sake of love. God has no 'need' for the fruits as He in perfect. But we need to give Him the fruits. In gratitude, we give Him our service and praise. But we also pay attention to our own attitudes and assumptions. Just as illogical as thinking that we can inherit a son's wealth through his murder, it is illogical to rationalize our behavior and our sins. Yet we all do, some more than others. We think we can get away with continuing to act like we are the makers and owners of truth. We must humble ourselves, though. We bring our fruits to God, and receive from Him the truth. We let Him give us our mission.