November 1: All Saints Day!

In honor of All Saints Day, part of a sermon by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, as found in the Office of Readings (Liturgy of the Hours, 1970) for today.  (Text taken from Universalis.com)

Why should our praise and glorification, or even the celebration of this feast day mean anything to the saints? What do they care about earthly honours when their heavenly Father honours them by fulfilling the faithful promise of the Son? What does our commendation mean to them? The saints have no need of honour from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning. 

  Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself. We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs, the ranks of the prophets, the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs, the noble company of confessors and the choir of virgins. In short, we long to be united in happiness with all the saints. But our dispositions change. The Church of all the first followers of Christ awaits us, but we do nothing about it. The saints want us to be with them, and we are indifferent. The souls of the just await us, and we ignore them. 

  Come, brothers, let us at length spur ourselves on. We must rise again with Christ, we must seek the world which is above and set our mind on the things of heaven. Let us long for those who are longing for us, hasten to those who are waiting for us, and ask those who look for our coming to intercede for us. We should not only want to be with the saints, we should also hope to possess their happiness. While we desire to be in their company, we must also earnestly seek to share in their glory. Do not imagine that there is anything harmful in such an ambition as this; there is no danger in setting our hearts on such glory. 

  When we commemorate the saints we are inflamed with another yearning: that Christ our life may also appear to us as he appeared to them and that we may one day share in his glory. Until then we see him, not as he is, but as he became for our sake. He is our head, crowned, not with glory, but with the thorns of our sins. As members of that head, crowned with thorns, we should be ashamed to live in luxury; his purple robes are a mockery rather than an honour. When Christ comes again, his death shall no longer be proclaimed, and we shall know that we also have died, and that our life is hidden with him. The glorious head of the Church will appear and his glorified members will shine in splendour with him, when he forms this lowly body anew into such glory as belongs to himself, its head. 

  Therefore, we should aim at attaining this glory with a wholehearted and prudent desire. That we may rightly hope and strive for such blessedness, we must above all seek the prayers of the saints. Thus, what is beyond our own powers to obtain will be granted through their intercession.

 As has been said in the past....what we now are, they once were; and what they are now, we hope to be!

A blessed Feast of All Saints to one and all!

Mark your Calendars: Big Feasts Coming Up!

Big Feasts on the Horizon!

• Tuesday, November 1, is All Saints Day, a Holy Day of Obligation**! 

On this day, we commemorate all our brothers and sisters in the Faith who have gone to glory--the Saints whom we know to be in heaven because of their merits in this life, and by the proved efficacy of their intercession from the next life.  What a beautiful day to come together as one People of Faith and worship our God in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where all three branches of the Church (on earth, in purgatory, and in Heaven) come together and praise the Lord with one voice!

Read more about it here.  In answer to why we pray to the Saints, check out this brief explanation.

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** “But Father, Father, what do you mean by ‘obligation’?  I thought we had a choice now.” 

We always have a choice—the choice to follow the precepts of God and the Church, or not to.  It’s called free will.  However, not to fulfill one’s obligations to God and His Holy Church (apart from situations where to do so is impossible and beyond our control due to a “grave reason”) constitutes a mortal sin which must be absolved through sacramental Confession.  Those who are unable to attend Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation due to a grave reason (illness, caring for the sick or for children, work commitments; sports practices do not count as ‘grave’), may fulfill their obligation of observing the Feast by spending an appropriate time in prayer, either individually or as a family, or in a small group (canon 1247 §2).

·      “The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life. The obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the very necessary minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor:  The first precept—“You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor”—requires the faithful to sanctify the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord as well as the principal liturgical feasts honoring the mysteries of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints; in the first place, by participating in the Eucharistic celebration, in which the Christian community is gathered, and by resting from those works and activities which could impede such a sanctification of these days.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [1997], §§ 2041-2042)

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• Wednesday, November 2, is All Souls Day, a Holy Day of Opportunity!

This is a tremendous opportunity to pray for the souls of our deceased loved ones, that they may be freed from the bonds of Purgatory and enter into the eternal bliss of God’s Heavenly Kingdom, to join with the Saints in everlasting glory.  Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.  May they rest in peace!
 
For further information on why we pray for our dead, see this post and this post!  Happy reading!

Authentic Christian Love...and Jaws!: Homily for the XXX Sunday of Ordinary Time

As I read the passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians thispast Sunday, I found myself taken back to a scene from my childhood...or more accurately, a scene I saw in a movie when I was a child.  There’s a very poignant and touching scene in the movie Jaws that has always stood out to me.  In the midst of all the bloodshed and carnage, there’s a beautiful, touching scene where Chief Brody sits in silence at his kitchen table.  He’s dealing with a man-eating shark, the prospect of destroying the local economy, townspeople up in arms, and a mayor breathing down his neck.  He seems to be at rock-bottom.  And he sits silently at his kitchen table with his hands folded, almost as if he is praying.  He glances up and sees that his son, Sean, is doing the same thing.  So Chief Brody wiggles his fingers a little bit, and Sean copies him.  And this little game of monkey-see, monkey-do goes on for a few seconds.  It’s a beautiful, touching, and heart-warming scene in the midst of what is otherwise a masterfully-filmed bloodbath! 

Why does Sean imitate Chief Brody?  Because he is his father.  Because he loves and respects him.  Because he admires him, and sees his father as worthy of imitation.  So, too, does Paul exhort the Thessalonians—and, indeed, all of us—to be imitators of Christ!

Turning our attention to the Gospel reading, the Pharisees are once again trying to trap Jesus with His own words.  This time, a scholar of the law approaches Jesus and asks him which is the greatest of the commandments.  Now, this scholar fully expects that Jesus will name one of the commandments of the Decalogue, thus incurring the wrath of the Pharisees who will claim that he rejects part of the Law.  But Jesus is more clever than this and He responds with the following: 

“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.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

At first glance, Jesus is merely answering the question.  But what he really is doing is giving us a very simple, yet effective, exposition on the nature of authentic Christian love!  He starts by quoting the great commandment, the Shema Israel: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  The operative word in this statement is all.  We are not called to love God with most of our heart, mind, and soul, but all.  100%!  A logical question then is, how am I to love anything else if I love God with my entire capacity to love?  This is where it gets a little more involved. 

You see, Jesus says that the second commandment is “like” the first.  Indeed, he uses this word “like” as if to say that the one commandment is not subordinated to the other, but that they are comparable, equal, and truly necessary for one another.  So, how do we love our neighbor as ourselves (or how do we even love ourselves, for that matter) if all of our love is given to God.  We don’t! 

We are not called to love our neighbor, because when we love someone for themselves, we are not really loving them.  How many people have said at one point in time that they love someone?  Ask yourself: what do you love about them?  The answers are always, “She’s beautiful,” or “He makes me laugh,” or “I like being around her,” or “I’m comfortable around him.”  But all of these statements only refer to the attributes of another person.  You are not loving the person himself (or herself). 

To love another person authentically, we must understand that every human person has inherent worth, inherent value.  Each person has that value because we are all created in the imagine and likeness of God.  And so, to love another person truly and authentically is not to love the attributes of an individual.  To love another person authentically is to love God through the other person.  Our job as Christians is to seek to find God in every living person, and to make them an instrument through which we love God! 

But love is a two-way street, isn’t it?  We give love.  But we also want to receive love.  If others are to love God through us, then we have some work to do!  After all, it’s really hard to love a jerk isn’t it?  And it’s really difficult to see God in someone who is a real pain in the neck!  We, then, have to be imitators of Christ so as to help others to love God through us! 

This is why St. Paul talks about the Thessalonians being imitators of Christ and of himself.  This is why we, as Christians, look to the examples of the lives of the Saints and the Fathers of the Church—holy men and women who made it so easy to love God through them!  This is how we are called to be: lovers of God through others, and conduits of God’s love for others to see Him! 

We cannot authentically love our neighbors without the love of God.  Similarly, we cannot love God completely without loving our neighbors!

May God give us the grace to seek to be imitators of Christ, the courage to seek to love God through others, and the strength to be witnesses of God’s love for all the world to see! 

End of the World is Imminent...supposedly

Apparently, tomorrow is going to be the end of the world. At least, according to these people.

I'm guessing they didn't get this memo from Matthew 25:13.

But just in case, here's a little ditty to get us in the mood for the Apocalypse!!!

That is all.

Good Citizens in the Society of Heaven: Homily for the XXIX Sunday of Ordinary Time

An amended rendering of this past Sunday's homily.

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Today's Gospel gives us a scene that we often don't see outside of the latter part of the season of Lent.  The Pharisees are actively trying to trap Jesus with his own words so that they can arrest him and eliminate him from the public consciousness.  Matthew tells us that they bring with them "the Herodians," a pro-Roman group who favored the Roman occupation of Judea--something that many of Jesus' disciples  were adamantly opposed to.  We mustn't forget that many of Jesus' disciples fell under the commonly-held belief that the Messiah would be a warrior-king sent to free the Jewish people from their temporal enemies.  Believing that Jesus was the Messiah, there was somewhat of an expectation that his sentiments would be vehemently anti-Roman.

So the Pharisees are effectively trying to get Jesus to alienate himself from one group or the other, and be the cause of what would undoubtedly turn into an ugly--and possibly bloody--riot (as was so often the case in those days).  And Jesus' response baffles them completely: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar, and to God what is God's."  In a way, it seems as though he is equivocating and attempting to placate both sides without causing offense.  But, deep down, this simple--and oft-misinterpreted--phrase has great meaning.

How many of us file our taxes every year?  How many of us obey traffic laws, etc.?  We do our civic duty because it is what civil society expects of us.  And in giving "to Caesar what is Caesar's"we avoid the penalties, punishments, and sanctions imposed by "Caesar" for disobeying the laws.

But how often do we truly give to God what is God's?  Just as we are members of secular society, we, as the Christian Faithful, are members of a far more important society--the Christian society, the Church, the Kingdom of God on earth!  St. Paul reminds us that "Our citizenship is in heaven," and while this is often used to remind us that we need not be overburdened by the trappings of this life, it also calls to mind the fact that we have a greater citizenship, and one which demands far greater things of us.  This citizenship in the Kingdom of God on earth requires of us the same civic duties and responsibilities as our secular citizenship.

Now, at this point, many people (usually people who, for some reason, are very unhappy individuals--I haven't figured out why, and I won't speculate) become very irritated at hearing that being a good Christian involves obligation.  Their first reaction is often: "Well, I didn't agree to that," or "I was baptized when I was a baby.  I didn't make that decision for myself."  These same criticisms are parroted by our Protestant brethren on a regular basis.

Yet in today's first reading, Isaiah makes it very clear to Cyrus that God doesn't necessarily wait for a person to consciously and actively seek Him before being called!  God, through Isaiah, tells Cyrus: "I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not."  And, similarly, Jeremiah tells of his calling by God: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I consecrated you a prophet to the nations."  God chooses us to serve Him!  The decision to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God on earth--the Church--is ours to make.  But it is God who calls us to serve Him.  It is God who gives us a place in His Kingdom!

So, how do we become good citizens in this Kingdom?  By doing exactly what makes us good citizens in secular society--by following the laws and precepts set forth by God, and intended for our own spiritual well-being.  Giving to God what is God's requires us to give of ourselves--for indeed, we are His!  We give to God of our Time, Talent, and Treasure.  We follow God's Commandments, the precepts of the Church; and we conform our lives to all that God has commanded of us.  This is what it means to be a good and faithful citizen of the Kingdom of God, and this is what it means to give to God what is God's.

My friends, we all should take time to reflect on just how often we give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but how rarely we truly give to God what is God's.  What is the source of this discrepancy?  After all, we are equal citizens of both.  Perhaps the punishments of secular society--fines, imprisonment, etc.--are more readily perceivable.  But, we must never lose sight of what awaits those of us who refuse to take on the responsibilities and obligations of citizenship in His Kingdom.

May God give us the grace and strength to be more willing to give of ourselves to God as He expects, in joyful anticipation of sharing in His life in the Kingdom He has prepared for us.  We are citizens of Heaven.  Wouldn't it be nice if we all actually ended up there?!

God, the Great Gift Giver: Homily for the XXVIII Sunday in Ordinary Time

The following is a shortened, Reader's Digest version of my homily for October 9, the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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After reading the Gospel from this Sunday, I recalled a humorous diatribe of one of my favorite sitcom characters, Sheldon Cooper, from The Big Bang Theory.  He gives a very interesting, albeit cynical, explanation of the human practice of gift giving (to see the video below, you may have to go to this link here).

The type of gift giving that Sheldon describes above is very human, very utilitarian.  It lacks any sort of meaning, and yet that is so often how we approach giving...as a reciprocal act from which no one actually benefits.  

God, on the other hand, is complete.  He has no need of anything that we can give Him.  And so He gives without the expectation of reciprocity, not unlike the King in today's Gospel, who throws a lavish wedding feast for his son.  But what happens?  When the invited guests refuse to show up (usually because they have better things to do), the King punishes the wicked guests and invites others--anyone and everyone!  This is because the King isn't nearly as concerned with who exactly comes, just so long as they are receptive of the gift that he offers!

But what happens when he finds someone not in a wedding garment?  He casts him out into the darkness!  This doesn't seem like the act of an all-loving, all-merciful God.  And yet, there is most assuredly a reason for this.  

The gift which God gives us is the Faith of the Church...the Word of God, the Sacraments, the whole she-bang!  And he offers this gift gratuitously to all of humanity.  Yet, we know very well that not all of humanity accepts this gift of Faith.  

For those of us who squander the gift of Faith, effectively refusing the invitation, we see what the King shall do to us...  After all, "many are called, but few are chosen."  

Similarly, what happens to the guest who attends the banquet without a wedding garment?  This lack of preparation has, for us, many meanings.  At its essence, though, the meaning is quite simple: we must be spiritually prepared to receive that gift.  The gift of God is not something casual, but requires our most sincere and fervent spiritual preparation.  This white wedding garment, then, is the soul of the Christian, washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, but continuously stained through our own transgressions.  Through Sacramental Confession, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and good works, we ensure that on the day that we are called to share in the great wedding feast of Heaven, our wedding garment is clean, thus permitting us entry to the Feast.

We know that God gives all good things to His children.  But we also know from today's Gospel that "many are called, but few are chosen."  May we be given the strength and courage to do that which is necessary to ensure that we are prepared to enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb when we are called, that our white wedding garment is cleansed from all stain, and that we are spiritually ready to come to the Feast!

Why NOT to leave Mass early!

A friend of mine sent this to me via email, and I couldn't help but post it.  The fact is, the Mass does not end until the priest says "The Mass is ended.  Go in peace."  (or something to that effect).  And yet, even in my own parish, I see countless people leaving after Communion!  I'll spare everyone my own rant on why this is not just improper, but also rude, except to say that the Christian Faithful should count themselves very lucky that more priests and bishops don't take a page out of this cardinal's book!

Stick around.  More to come, soon...

October 7: Our Lady of Victory

On October 7, Holy Mother Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, also called Our Lady of Victory.  The Feast was established after the European victory over the Ottoman Turks on October 7, 1571--a victory in which a greatly out-numbered European force was victorious through the intercession of The Blessed Virgin Mary.  This victory is attributed to Our Lady because of the exhortation of Pope St. Pius V, who instructed all Catholics to pray the Rosary for the intention of victory against the Turkish invaders.  

During this month of October, which is dedicated to Our Lady, it behooves all of us as Catholics and Christians never to lose sight of the tremendous sacrifice that so many have made so that we might continue to practice our Faith, and to practice it freely.  And we entrust to the intercession of the Mother of God our fellow Christians throughout the world who do not enjoy such freedoms.  May Our Lady of Victory give them victory over their oppressors, that they may be free to worship as Catholics without fear of persecution!

Our Lady of Victory, pray for us!

October 7: Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary

Today, Holy Mother Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, or Our Lady of Victory.  As posted earlier in the week, this feast commemorates Our Lady under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary, but also serves to mark the anniversary of the glorious victory of western Christendom over the invading Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto.  

It is true that the Rosary is probably the single most identifiable mark of a Catholic.  For Catholics, it is a devotion steeped in tradition as we meditate on the great mysteries of the life of Christ and His Blessed Mother.  For non-Catholics, it is often seen as a stumbling block or a point of ridicule, used by some polemicists to attack the Church as being nothing more than a Marian cult or a medieval relic.  

The history of the Rosary is, in itself, something that few people take the time to learn.  I post below a brief history of the Holy Rosary, as found at PersonalizedRosaries.com:

The traditional story of the rosary was that Mary herself appeared to Saint Dominic in the twelfth century. At that time, tradition says she gave him the rosary and promised Dominic that if he spread devotion to the rosary, his religious order would flourish. It is quite true that Dominic was quite devoted to the Blessed Mother, but no one knows for sure if Our Lady herself gave Dominic the rosary. If she did, it is quite certain that she did not give him a rosary that looks like the one we have today. 

Originally the rosary had 150 beads, the same number of psalms in the Bible. In the twelfth century, religious orders recited together the 150 Psalms as a way to mark the hours of the day and the days of the week. Those people who didn’t know how to read wanted to share in this practice, so praying on a string of 150 beads or knots began as a parallel to praying the psalms. It was a way that the illiterate could remember the Lord and his mother throughout the day. The “Divine Office”; the official prayer of the church; is the recitation of the psalms over a four week period, and is still prayed today.

Mantegna's "Madonna della Vittoria"

This first rosary was prayed as we do today, a person would pass their fingers over each bead and say a prayer, usually the “Our Father”. The “Hail Mary” as we know it wasn’t even around at that time. 

The Hail Mary owes its origin to the rosary. When people said the rosary in the twelfth century, Gabrielle’s greeting “Hail Mary, full or grace, the Lord is with thee” was often said along with the Our Father. Later, Elizabeth’s greeting ”blessed are you among women” was added. It was not until the sixteenth century that the words “Holy Mary., Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death” were added. 

Various people have added other things to the rosary over the centuries. In the fifteenth century, a Carthusian monk divided the rosary into fifteen brackets (or decades) and a Dominican assigned mysteries to each of the decades. These mysteries were events in the life of  Jesus as written in the gospels. By meditating on these events even the illiterate could  know the stories in the Bible. These decades were the same as ours except for the last two Glorious mysteries. In those two, the Coronation and the Assumption together made up the fourteenth decade and the fifteenth decade was the Last Judgment...

Despite all the additions and changes, the important core of the rosary has always remained the same. It is a way for God’s people to make holy the day, and to remember the life of Jesus and his mother. May these humble origins always be with us each time we pray the rosary. 

On this special day in honor of Our Lady, take the time to pray the Rosary, and to thank Our Lady for the manifold graces of God that she wins for us on a daily basis by her unceasing intercession for humanity.

For those who want a beautiful spiritual reflection on Our Lady of the Rosary, check out Word on Fire.

And for those who don't know how to pray the Rosary and would like to learn, here's a guide for you from The Rosary Confraternity, run by the Dominican Friars.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!
Our Lady of Victory, pray for us!

Where the Wild Things Lead Us: XXVII Sunday in Ordinary Time

This weekend’s readings call to mind the immortal words of The Troggs: “Wild thing, you make my heart sing.  You make everything groovy.  Wild thing, I think I love you.”

Have you ever noticed that we are attracted to things that are wild…things that are untamed, uncultivated, maybe a bit risky or even dangerous?  These wild things are exciting, they get our hearts racing and our blood pumping.  It’s the risk that makes them fun, right?  Of course!

Today we hear Isaiah talking about a man who plants a vineyard.  When the crop comes in, though, he finds that the grapes are wild.  They have a sour taste and are no good for making wine.  Despite his best efforts to cultivate the vines and produce a good harvest, the wildness has taken over and make his grapes unpalatable.  And so what does he do?  He destroys the vineyard. The wild grapes are not worth saving. 

Similarly, in the Gospel today, Jesus tells a parable of a man who puts his vineyard in the hands of tenants.  These tenants become greedy and wicked—wild, if you will—and their iniquity has the vineyard taken from them.  As Jesus tells us in the Gospel, this vineyard is the Kingdom of God, which will be taken from wicked tenants and given to tenants who will yield fruit.

The wildness of our hearts—our sinful nature—compels us to be wicked tenants at times.  We get sucked into every sort of wildness.  And yet both of these readings make it very clear to us that God has no tolerance for the wild grapes of sin and wickedness, and our choosing to bear wild fruit will ultimately forfeit our rightful place in the Kingdom of Heaven as God’s children. 

The Troggs were wrong, I’m sorry to say.  These wild things that compel us to sin, that lead us away from the vineyard of the Lord and into the wilderness, do not make everything groovy.  On the contrary, they force us to destroy the very covenant that God has made with His People. 

And so how do we avoid becoming wild?  Or how do we reverse the transformation into wild grapes?  St. Paul gives us the answer in his Letter to the Philippians.  He tells us to seek out those things which are good and true, those things which are pure and excellent, and worthy of praise.  These are the things with which we should concern ourselves with, the things which we should contemplate and seek out—the things of God.  He tells us not to look toward novelty, but to cling to that which we have received through Faith, that which we already know to be right and just. 

These are the things of Faith, the things of God.  And it is these things—not the wild things of the Troggs—that make everything groovy.  The things of God are what make our hearts truly sing—sing His praises with the Saints in glory!  And it is these things which we are called to know and love.  May God give us the strength to shy away from the wild things of sin and death, and to seek out the things of purity and virtue, through which we will inherit the vineyard of the Lord and truly be able to yield a good harvest for our Lord and Master in this life, and in the life to come.