Light (repost)

The following is my post from 12/31/2015.

All this week, the Octave of Christmas, at Mass, we have been hearing one word over and over again, in the 1st Letter of John (which we have been reading from every day this week), in the Alleluia, and in the Gospel of the day.  Let's recap.

Monday 

"God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all."

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another."

Tuesday

"For the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining."

"Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness."

"Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall."

"A light of revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel."

Wednesday

"Today a great light has come upon the Earth."

Thursday

"And this life was the light of the whole human race."

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

"(John) came for testimony, to testify to the light."

"(John) was not the light, but came to testify to the light."

"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."

"Light" is indeed one of many words used in Scripture and Tradition in reference to Our Lord.  Why is it proper to call Him "light"?

1) Light makes things knowable.   We can know Jesus   He knows us.  In Him, can we find and come to know ourselves. Without Jesus, we have no way to know the fullness of Truth about life in general, or ourselves.

2) Light makes something radiant.  When we see something radiant, we think of it as heavenly. Jesus is heavenly, the Second Person the Blessed Trinity. By uniting to Him, we become sharers in His Divine Life, just as by the Incarnation, He became a sharer in our humanity.

3) Light comes from above.  The sun is in the sky and radiates its rays down on us. The Son of God came down like a ray from the sun, spread the light of His Truth while among us, died and rose for us, ascended into heaven, and now shines on us from His Father's side.

4) Light is not matter; it is more spiritual than physical.  Jesus was all about the spirit, more so than the flesh, and we are called to be the same.

5) Light helps us see.   Jesus helps us see things as God sees them.  Without this light, as the Scripture says, we are in darkness, because we only see things from our limited human perspective, which is wounded by sin.

6) Light illuminates the inside of something.  Without light, we cannot see inside anything. We need a match to go in a cave, a surgeon needs a light to see inside a body.  Jesus illuminates our soul.  He also illuminates the soul of the world, allowing us to assess its true condition.

7) Light is of the day.   In Jesus' coming, a new day has dawned.  This day will have no end, because this light cannot be extinguished.  Death found that out the hard way on Easter Sunday.  If death cannot extinguish it, nothing can.

This time of year, when the days are shortest, we depend seemingly more than ever on light, and are grateful perhaps more than we are during other times of the year, for it.  This is the time of year when we treasure lights of all types; Christmas lights, candles, fireworks (especially tonight on New Year's Eve), fireplace fires.  This is a sign of the deeper, ultimate yearning we all have for Christ, the Light of the World.

As we ring in the New Year tonight, let us look at the lights all around us wherever we may be, and think of Christ our Light.  May He light our path forward as we begin 2016.  Let us resolve to never allow the light to be extinguished in us.   Let us keep it burning with prayer, sacrifice, and good works.   May Our Lord shine His face upon all of us in 2016.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

The Holy Family (repost)

Today, 12/30/2016, is the Feast of the Holy Family this year.  (It is not on the Sunday after Christmas this year, as it normally is, because Christmas Day itself, and therefore New Year's Day as well, fall on a Sunday this year.)

The following is my post from Monday, 12/28/2015.

Yesterday was the Feast of the Holy Family.  Each year, on this feast day (almost always the first Sunday after Christmas), the Church widens our gaze from the infant Jesus to His entire family.  Next weekend, in the Feast of the Epiphany, the Church widens our gaze even further to make the point that Christ is the light for all nations, and how all people can now enter "the family of God". 

Family life is not easy and I doubt it ever has been. We have also spoken in this blog before on some of the events in the life of Joseph and Mary and Jesus, and how they involved faith and sacrifice.  One event we have not really discussed was one that was mentioned in yesterday's Gospel (Luke 2:41-52)  and that was an event from Our Lord's adolescent years, the only time Scripture unveils an event from that stage of His life.  Mary and Joseph become separated from Jesus in a caravan on their way home from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and they returned to Jerusalem to find him teaching in the Temple.

Check out this selection from yesterday's Gospel.

After they had completed its days, as they were returning,
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan,
they journeyed for a day
and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
but not finding him,
they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the teachers,
listening to them and asking them questions,
and all who heard him were astounded
at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him,
they were astonished,
and his mother said to him,
“Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them,
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Some of this may make modern parents incredulous! Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and Mary and Joseph did not know it?  They "thought" he was in the caravan and journeyed for a day before deciding to return to Jerusalem?  Then, after returning to Jerusalem, it took them three days to find Him?  For our modern eyes, at first glance, all this sounds ridiculous,  like Joseph and Mary were bad parents.   To me, however, this story gives us several important lessons.

1) This story speaks to the power of extended families and friends.  Mary and Joseph thought Our Lord was simply among their family and friends in the caravan with them.   Larger families are not in existent as much as they have been.  Our circles of not just families, but friends in general, is much smaller than it perhaps has ever been.  In those days, one could trust one's child to roam around because it was safer, we had a bigger safety net.  Parents could trust people to not do harm to their children.  Sadly, that is not the case anymore.

2) It also speaks to the power of trusting our children.  Mary and Joseph could trust Jesus to roam around.  Sometimes parents today wish to obsesses over every detail of their child's life and not give him or her the space and independence to grow into the person they are called by God to be.   There are situations where not giving our children the benefit of the doubt is the right thing to do, but maybe sometimes more often than we think, we should.  This leads to the final point next.

3) It also speaks to the primacy of God's call to everyone.  Our Lord understood that while he loved His earthly mother and father,  He had to do His Father's will first.  Family ties are important. but not absolute.  Each of us has a unique vocation from God, that while indeed nurtured in the family, is given and decided by God, and thus, our priority must be Him first, and our loved ones second.

At the Shrine yesterday, I saw a large family.   There was a mother, and father, and five children.  The family stayed after Mass for several moments to give thanks and spend time with Our Lord while He was still sacramentally present to them in the Body they had just received in Communion.  Large families are so rare these days that when one does so see them, we often cannot help but often stare at them for a few seconds.   How would our world be better, be safer, if we had more large families.  More large families lead to more support structures, more children alive and feeling safe, and thus, a more stable, safe society, one in which our children could more freely roam and explore like Our Lord did.

I eagerly await the Holy Father's Post-Synodal exhortation on the Family due out sometime in 2016.  Family life is tough these days, and sadly as a result, some are not even attempting to start down that road.  We need to encourage people to start families.  To be quite frank, we need more people in the world.  We have spoken before about how we have contracepted and aborted our populations and birthrates down to alarmingly low numbers, and this is part of the reason the world is in the shape it is in.   Strong family life is an antidote to the isolation, loneliness, and fear so prevalent in the modern world.  We need a renewal of family life today.  Let's pray to Our Lord, His Mother, and Saint Joseph, to help us begin that renewal.

Joseph, Head of the Holy Family, pray for us.

The Holy Innocents (repost)

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents.

I composed the following post on 12/29/2015, one day after last year's Feast of the Holy Innocents.


Yesterday was the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  I alluded to this feast day in my post a few days ago.  The Gospel reading for yesterday (Matthew 2: 13-18)  involved our holy patron Joseph.  Here it is:

When the magi had departed, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,
and stay there until I tell you.
Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”
Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night
and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod,
that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,
Out of Egypt I called my son.

When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi,
he became furious.
He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
two years old and under,
in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loud lamentation;
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be consoled,
since they were no more.

Here are a few reflections.

1) This is the second time in the Scripture where Joseph receives instruction in a dream.  I did a post devoted to the subject of dreams back in August.  If interested, you can just click on the "Saint Joseph the Worker Blog"  banner at the top and it should allow you to see all posts, and you can then choose that one, or any other ones from this blog's early days that you may have missed.
2) It was interesting reading some of the commentary in the Catholic blogosphere yesterday.   What would be termed the more "progressive" or "liberal" commentators highlighted how Mary and Joseph were refugees, and that we need to be compassionate towards refugees today.  The more "conservative" or "traditional" highlighted the slaughter of the infants, and how we are still today killing infants via abortion.   The priest at the Shrine yesterday fell into the latter camp.  I felt a certain release in my soul yesterday as I heard his words.  It was so surprising and refreshing to hear a priest speak on the topic.  The topic of abortion seems to be rarely discussed at all from the pulpit.  I am not sure if it because we are trying to be sensitive and do not wish to alienate anyone, or what it is.   I do understand our Holy Father has said we should not be talking about this topic all the time, but we have to sometimes, for several reasons.  We need to try to be saving lives.  We need to make sure we understand that the Church teaches that the taking of innocent life is always a sin.   Finally, we need to try, especially in this Year of Mercy, to make people aware that God's mercy is available for those who have been involved with an abortion(s) in any way.

So, the Gospel for yesterday's Mass can teach us about dreaming, about respect for refugees, and about respect for the little ones.

I want to close this post by addressing those reading who may have had an abortion, or encouraged someone to have one.  

1) Abortion is a sin, and it does need to be repented of before you can have divine life in you in this life and eternal life in the Kingdom of heaven.  Please do not let anyone inside or outside the Church tell you, or try to convince yourself, that it was "OK" with what you did.  It is a sin.
2) I am a sinner as great as you are, and I need to repent myself of the sins I have committed.  I am no better or holier a person than you. 
3) God's Mercy is greater than any of our sins.  He loves you, as He does me, and wants you to share in His Divine Life.   Whether you have had one abortion, or one hundred, His Mercy knows no bounds, no limits, and He is ready and willing to forgive you in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  As I said before, the Shrine offers Confession six days a week.  I am sure a priest nearby you would be happy to hear your confession, as well.
4) If you have already confessed the sin of abortion, God can use what happened for a greater good.  God permits evil and suffering to allow for a greater good.  Christ's awful death opened the pathway to eternal life for everyone who accepts it.  Your suffering, likewise, can open the floodgates of mercy and grace to many others.  You can speak of your experiences, and help spread and build up a Culture of Life, instead of the Culture of Death we see today on the nightly news.  Do not dwell on your sin, God has forgiven it.  In fact, you could say, He has forgotten about it.   Focus on His message of mercy, love, and life that you especially are now called to preach by words and deeds.

Back on August 19, I did a post about Joseph as patron of the unborn.   Again, click on the banner above and you can access that post.   I will re-post here in closing a prayer of healing that can be said by those who have been involved with an abortion. 

O St. Joseph, after your most holy spouse, our Blessed Mother, you were the first to take into your arms and heart the baby Jesus. From the first time you gazed upon him and helped him, your heart and soul were forever bonded to him. You caressed the Holy Child with fatherly love and affection, and you committed yourself always to love, protect, and care for this Son.

Look now with similar love and affection upon this child of mine, who has gone from this world. I place my child, as well as my grief and guilt, into the eternal embrace of your arms. Hold and caress my child for me with the love of my arms and sweetly kiss my child with all the tender affection of my heart.

As God the Father entrusted the care of His most precious Son into your most loving and confident hands, so too do I entrust into your fatherly care this child of mine. Please present him to the merciful hands of Our Lord, so that one day, when I too leave this world, my child may greet me into eternal life. Amen

Joseph, patron of the unborn, pray for us.

Blood and wood (repost)

(From 12/26/2015)

The attached picture is one of the decorations at the Shrine during the Christmas season.  It is the baby Jesus lying in a manger and underneath it, is a cross.   I feel it is very appropriate that both these images were placed together under the lectern.  The lectern is where we proclaim the Word of God.   The message the Church is announcing this season from the Word is the message I have been speaking about in my recent posts.  The message is this; Christ incarnated Himself for us, so that He could be sacrificed for us.  Both elements of that message are symbolized here.

Christmas is indeed a joyous season because of this message, but it should not be a sappy one.  There is blood, sweat, and sacrifice involved every step of the way.  We have spoken of this already.  The Church is aware of this.  Almost as if to prevent Christmas from becoming too sentimentalized, the Church has the Feast of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, today, the day immediately after Christmas.  Two days later, She has the Feast of the Holy Innocents.   Stephen and the Holy Innocents both spilled blood for Our Lord.   What is the color of Christmas?  Red.  What is the color of blood?  Red.  As we see the decorations around us this week, when we see the red, let us remind ourselves that Christmas must be in our blood. 

However, as Archbishop Sheen once said, sin is in the blood, too, and that is why Christ had to bleed for our salvation, and why we have to fight a battle, as well.   There is a war inside us between sin and Christmas, in our blood, and we have no choice but to wage it.   To "reign with Christ", to live in His Kingdom, we have to die to ourselves, and some of us maybe even have to die physically as a martyr.   (We know there are plenty of people dying for the faith throughout the world today, so we should never think it is a remote possibility.)  To accept Christ as King, we have to accept His teachings, His values, and above all, His Holiness, which forces to us to choose things the world may not think highly of, things like loving the sinner, but hating the sin, simplicity, control of our appetites, and so forth.   None of this is easy for anyone to accept or live out.  Therefore, for most of us, it will be an ongoing battle in our blood until the day we die, and some of us may have to spill some blood to achieve final victory.

There is internal struggle, yes.  However, there may be external struggle, as well, like it was for Stephen and the Holy Innocents, whose stories show us that there may be a price to pay for believing in Our Lord.  There are Christians being martyred still today, too, and Our Holy Father prayed for them today.  Many in the word today, including unfortunately some rulers of nations, are like Herod and want to be their own kings and queens, instead of accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and King.  They are making life difficult for people to practice their Faith to various degrees.  We need to pray for them daily, especially on a today such as today, devoted to the first Christian martyr, and during the Christmas season.

Finally, going back to our original picture, there is something else in common between the two components of the scene.  What was the manger made of?  Wood.  What was the Cross made of?  Wood.  The manger scene, the infant Jesus laying in a manger,  is a foreshadowing of Christ giving His life for us, laying on a Cross.   Yes, the manger scene cannot ever be all tender and sappy.  It involves sacrifice, and foretells sacrifice, sacrifice that involves the shedding of blood.  There is nothing sappy about that.

Saint Joseph, Diligent protector of Christ, pray for us.

Go to the Eucharist with Saint Joseph at Christmas

(Much of this post is adapted from two previous posts, 1) "Saint Joseph, the Eucharist, and Christmas" from December 24, 2015, and 2) "Mary, Joseph, and the Eucharist" from August 16, 2015.)


In the last several posts, we have been reflecting on Christmas and its deep connection to the Mass.  Christmas is "Christ's Mass".   In the last post, we specifically mentioned Mary's deep connection with the Eucharist.   This evening, we will discuss how this blog's patron, another key figure in the Christmas story, good Saint Joseph, too has a deep connection with this great gift of God.


As we discussed the other evening, Mary has the dispositions of faith and sacrifice that we need to bring to, and develop in, our celebrations of the Eucharist.


So does Joseph. 


Joseph had his own moment of faith when an angel appeared to him and told him to take Mary as his wife (Matthew 1:20), despite her being with child.  Later on in his life, an angel appeared to him again and told him to take his family and flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:13).  Both these events involved both faith and sacrifice on the part of Joseph.   Finally, he was with Mary at the Presentation when she made her offering of Jesus (Luke 2:22).  Joseph, we can therefore say, shared in the same sacrificial and faith dispositions as the Blessed Mother.  Therefore, he can be a role model and an intercessor to help us have a greater love and devotion for the Eucharist, the Bread of Life.


Here is a quote from a Saint who had great devotion to the Eucharist, Saint Peter Julian Eymard (picture attached), that speaks of Joseph and his relationship with the Eucharist. 


"At Nazareth Joseph's days were filled with work which necessarily took him away at times from his Infant God. During these hours Mary replaced him, but when evening brought him home again, he would pass the entire night in adoration, never tiring, only too happy for the chance to contemplate the hidden riches of Jesus' divinity. For he pierced the rough garments the Child wore, until his faith touched the Sacred Heart. In profound adoration he united himself to the special grace of each one of the events in the life of Jesus. He adored our Lord in His hidden life and in His Passion and Death; he adored in advance the Eucharistic Christ in His tabernacles: there was nothing that our Lord could hide from Saint Joseph. Among the graces which Jesus gave to His foster-father -- and He flooded him with the graces attached to every one of His mysteries -- is that special to an adorer of the Blessed Sacrament. That is the one we must ask of St. Joseph. Have confidence, strong confidence in him. Take him as the patron and the model of your life of adoration."


As with Mary and Jesus, loving Joseph will necessarily lead one to a greater love of the Eucharist, and vice versa.   Through their example, we not only learn to contemplate the Eucharistic Christ at Mass, but also in His Real Presence in the tabernacles throughout the world where He sits and waits for us to visit.  I pray this Christmas season, everyone finds time to do just that.   It is good to spend time with family and friends, but please spend some time visiting Our Lord, as well.  Please go to Mass, and also try to spend some quiet time with him in the Blessed Sacrament.   Remember, He incarnated Himself to offer Himself as a sacrifice, so we could be saved.  That is what this season is all about!  And He remains incarnate in His Real Presence, both at Mass, and outside of Mass in the tabernacle.  Let's show our gratitude for all that by both receiving, and spending a little bit of our time with the Blessed Sacrament this Christmas.


Joseph, diligent protector of Christ, pray for us.

Go to Mass with Mary at Christmas

(This post includes material from a post entitled "Mary, the Eucharist, and Christmas" from December 22, 2015.)

The other day, I spoke of how central the Mass is to a proper understanding of what Christmas is all about because Christmas is "Christ's Mass" . One must go to Mass to experience Christmas in its fullness.

"Mass" is just one of several terms that are used to refer to the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  The Eucharist is so full of inexhaustible meaning that there are many terms used to refer to it ( "Lord's Supper", "Holy Sacrifice"," Memorial", just to name a few).  "Mass" is just one of those terms.   A list of all those terms and their meanings can be found in paragraphs 1328-1332 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  

Eucharist means "thanksgiving" and Mass means "sent forth" (missio).  At Mass, we give thanks by participating in the one sacrifice of Christ for our salvation and because we unite ourselves to Him in that Sacrifice, we also rise with Him into heavenly glory.  We are then sent forth (missio)  from this Sacrifice to live the Paschal Mystery by our dying to self and rising to Him in our daily life, and to announce this Mystery to others, and invite them to experience the realness of it in the Eucharist, where it is experienced in a way it is not anywhere else.


As I said the other day, all this wonderful stuff would not be a reality if Christ did not incarnate Himself among us so He could be sacrificed.   We cannot exclude the reality of the sacrifice on the Cross from our celebration of Christmas, (which Catholics do not because they go to Mass on Christmas). We are not just throwing a birthday party for His birthday.  We are celebrating the reality that He incarnated Himself for us, so He could sacrifice Himself for us.     Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said that Christ was the only person ever born to die.  The rest of us were born for life, but Jesus was born to die.  This is what Christmas is all about, Christ coming down to be sacrificed, His Mass!


The Blessed Mother is another figure we all know is tied intimately with Christmas.  Today's beautiful reading at Mass, in fact, was the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38) , where it was announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary by an angel that she would bear the Son of God.   The angel says that Mary is "full of grace", and has "found favor with God".  The same angel says about Jesus that "he will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”


What a holy moment!  So much grace poured out to the world!


Grace is also poured out in supernatural abundance at every celebration of the Eucharist.  Just like I said the other day regarding Christmas and its Eucharistic symbolism and connection,  I also do not think the Eucharistic character of Mary is fully understood and appreciated.  Back in August of 2015, I wrote a post that discussed a little bit the connection between Mary and the Eucharist.  I feel it fitting to repost a portion of it here.


There is a tremendous connection between Mary and the Eucharist.   Saint John Paul II in 2003 in his Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (Church from the Eucharist)  wrote:

"Mary is present, with the Church and as the Mother of the Church, at each of our celebrations of the Eucharist. If the Church and the Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary and the Eucharist" (n. 57).

The Holy Father pointed out three specific ways there is a connection between the two.


1) The Eucharist in an invitation to obedience in faith, and there is no one better than Mary to help us acquire this disposition.   Mary had to take a leap of faith when the angel told her of her pending giving of birth (Luke 1:30).  She also told the people at the wedding at Cana  "Do whatever he tells you." (John 2:5)  (They were doubting that Our Blessed Lord could provide wine, but she told them to have faith.)   It takes a measure of faith to believe in the Real Presence and Mary can help us with that better than anyone.

2) The Eucharist is a sacrifice, a re-presentation of the Passion, and Mary was more intimately tied to the Passion than anyone.   From the beginning of Our Lord's life, when Mary offered him at the Temple (Luke 2:22) , to being at the foot of the Cross (John 19:19), to being a recipient of Our Lord in Communion at the first Eucharistic celebrations of the apostles, Mary lived a life of sacrificial desire and offering, and she can help us more than anyone to unite ourselves with the Sacrifice of the Mass.  On Calvary, Our Lord told John "Behold, your mother!" (John 19:27) .  Since the Mass is a representation of Calvary, you can say He says the same thing to us at every Mass.

3) The Eucharist means "thanksgiving" and the perfect prayer of thanksgiving is Mary's Magnificat; she can help us with this disposition better than anyone.   The Magnificat refers to that hymn of praise Mary proclaimed at the Visitation (Luke 1:46-55).  It is said every evening by the Church. The most relevant line from that beautiful hymn, in my eyes at least, is "He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty."   What better thing could He fill us with than His Own Body and Blood?

Devotion to Mary, then, will naturally lead one to the Eucharist.   Going to Mass, and participating in the sacrificial offering that is the Eucharist, can only lead one to appreciate Mary more and more.  If anyone says that he or she has a love for one, but not the other, I ask that you be open to the Lord to develop your faith more deeply, or perhaps the faith you have is not authentic and you need to start over down a better path.


If you really want to love Christmas, you must learn to love the Mass.  If you really want to love Mary, you must learn to love the Mass.   Love the Mass, and watch the many other "loves" of your life grow and blossom like they never have before.


Please go to Mass this Christmas!


Joseph, spouse of the Mother of God, pray for us.

Christmas is "Christ's Mass"

First off,  I have a correction to make to my last blog post from Friday evening.  A baby's heartbeat can be detected at six weeks, not six days.   I have corrected that in the post.  I think that only helps the argument I made.

For this post, I am simply sharing a post I did on December 21 of last year, in which I discussed the uniquely Catholic meaning of Christmas.  We are now in the last week of Advent, so now it is appropriate to begin reflections on Christmas.  Up until this point in Advent, we really should have been focusing more on Christ's coming at the end of our lives, and at the end of the world, more so than his coming in Bethlehem 2000 plus years ago.  However, the focus in the liturgy changes now, and ours should, as well.

The best way to celebrate Christmas is by going to Mass.  

Here is that aforementioned post from last December:

Christmas means something for everyone.  It means something for people of all faiths, and no faith.  However, and I apologize if this does not sound ecumenical, but I speak the truth.  If you are not Catholic, or are Catholic and do not practice your faith, you are missing out on the full meaning of Christmas.

Let's take a look at a few things:

 

1) Christmas literally means "Christ's Mass".    If one does not go to Mass at Christmas, he or she misses the center of the entire day.   It would be like visiting a beautiful scene of nature, but on a cloudy day.  There is something there, but there is no light to illuminate the fullness of it.

2) Christ was born in Bethlehem.  Bethlehem literally means "City of Bread".  Christ is the Bread of Life.  He says that whoever does not eat His flesh and drink His blood, has no life in him. (John 6:53).   If one does not consume the Eucharist on Christmas Day, again he or she misses out on the full meaning of the day.

3) Christ was born in a manger.  A manger is where animals eat from.  There is some symbolism to this.  This points to the reality that we are all destined to eat from Our Lord's Body and Blood.  We are called to consume Him.  We are called to the Sacrifice of the Mass.

 

I heard a homily tonight at the Shrine in which the priest politely challenged us to re-think the accuracy of the phrase "Jesus is the reason for the season."   He said that rather, we are the reason for the season.   At first, that sounds a little selfish, but if you think about it, Our Lord became man for us, not for Himself.  He had all His glory.  He desired to share it with us.  We needed Him, He didn't need us, but He loved us anyway, and became man to draw us into His Divine life.  So, really, the season is about us because Our Lord did what He did 2000 years ago for us.

 

So let's go back to the first point above.  Christmas does not mean Christ's birth, it means Christ's Mass.  So, really we are celebrating going to Mass today to honor our Lord's birth, not so much the birth itself.   What happens at Mass?  We go to heaven!  Through the Mass, we enter the glory of the eternal Kingdom, where there is always praise and worship of God.   Through the Mass, the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is represented, and we participate in that Sacrifice.  Our Lord became man so that He could be sacrificed, to pay the price for our sins, and in doing so, raise all human nature to glory. 

Again, Our Lord comes down to become man, and in the Mass, we rise up to His glory! What an exchange!   And really, despite what seems the contrary, it is really the latter we celebrate at Christmas more than the former.  Christmas is Christ's Mass!  Christ's Mass is for us!  Therefore, Christmas is about us!  We, the redeemed by the Blood of Christ, are indeed the reason for the season!

 

In what humility we must recognize this truth.  This is Catholic truth.  Catholic means "universal".  This means this truth is universal for everyone.   Christ becomes bread for us, and we must eat His bread and drink His blood to have life.

 

Come to Mass this Christmas!  

 

Saint Joseph, Protector of Holy Church, pray for us.

Jesus, the just Judge

Recently, a pro-life measure passed in the state of Ohio that bans abortions after 20 weeks.  This measure deserves to be commended as a significant step towards giving more legal protection to those most vulnerable in our society, the unborn.   Hopefully, more states will follow suit, and the days of America allowing abortion for any reason, at any time, will end.

However, there was also a bill proposed that would have banned abortions upon the hearing of a “heartbeat” in the baby.   This generally happens after six weeks.   Thus, the passage of this bill could have spared even more lives than the aforementioned ban after 20 weeks.  The organization Right to Life Ohio, as well as leaders in the Church,  however, actively campaigned against this bill, not because they were opposed to it in principle, but because they feared it would get struck down in the courts, as apparently other “heartbeat” legislation has, from other states.

What truly saddens me here is how fearful we have become at what the “courts” will think.  We are scared of doing the right thing.  In this case, the pro-life leaders of Ohio knew the more just law to pass was the heartbeat bill.   It is a sin to commit an abortion, no matter if it is after 20 weeks, after 6 days, or 6 hours after conception.   Yet, out of fear of what the courts will do, they opted for the “safer”, less “risky” piece of legislation, which while not necessarily an evil thing, it was not as good an act as passing the other one would have been.

This makes me think of other things in the Church we fail to do out of fear, for example, fear of losing our tax-exempt status.  Sometimes, we hesitate to call out evil, out of fear of being classified as “political”.  Morality, however, does not only exist in the private sector only. Right and wrong is right and wrong whether it is in the private or public sphere of society. 

But getting back to my point about fearing the courts, I want to take a moment here to discuss a judge we should truly respect, and yes, truly fear.   We should only fear one judge, not a judge on a state, federal, or even Supreme Court in our nation, or in any other nation.  There is ultimately only one person who can and does pass  true and just judgment on our lives, and that is Our Lord Jesus Christ.

We do not speak often of Jesus as judge.  Especially in this Advent season when we think of our particular and our final judgments (which we spoke of in a recent post), however, we should take some time to think of Our Lord as a judge.   There are numerous references to Jesus as Judge in both the Catechism, and in Scripture.  Let’s start with some references in the Catechism.

#679 Christ is Lord of eternal life.  Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He "acquired" this right by his cross. The Father has given "all judgment to the Son". Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself.  Yes, Our Lord did not come down to Earth to judge (thankfully), but he can and will judge our lives in the end, in glory.  He has that right, given to Him by the Father, out of justice, as we shall see.

#1040 The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God's justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God's love is stronger than death.  Jesus Christ is the Logos, the Wisdom of God.   At the Last Judgment, through this Christ, the mysterious ways of God, in other words, his Wisdom, his Logos, will be revealed.  Since the Son of God is the Logos of God, it is perfectly just and reasonable that he be the judge of our lives.

And now for some Scripture verses:

John 5:22 & 5:27 Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son…And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man.  The Catechism quotation above was based on this verse.   Jesus is the Logos of God.  Everything the Father created was through Him.  That would give him reason enough to be our judge.   However, Our Father, “rich in mercy” willed that His Son be born, suffer, and die for our salvation.  He, the Son, lived among us. That is another reason was he was 100% qualified to be our judge. He is Our God, and our fellow man.  That is why he has been given the right to judge.

John 5:30   I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.   Jesus lived a perfect life.  He fulfilled the Father’s will perfectly, and did so out of love for us.   Therefore, not only does he have a right to judge us, but his judgment will be just.   It will be just because a) he knows better than any of us what a just life is like, and b) he has a heart of mercy, and has resources available should we fall short of that just standard.  He will truly be the just judge.

John 8:15-16 You judge by appearances, but I do not judge anyone.  And even if I should judge, my judgment is valid, because I am not alone, but it is I, and the Father who sent me.   Our Lord did indeed not judge while he was among us in the flesh.   In this verse, he is speaking in the present tense. However, he does allude to the fact that he could judge in the future.  The totality of Scripture and Tradition do teach that he will in fact be our judge.

John 8:26  I have much to say to you in condemnation.  But the One who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.   Other versions translate that first part to say “I have many things to speak and judge concerning you.”   He has the power, because of the truth in him, to judge.  However, as he says here, at that time, he did not judge.   He rather spoke words of truth and mercy, not judgment.   But as is implied, he has the right and the power to judge.

John 9:39  Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.”    Our Lord says to the man born blind whom he healed.   Our Lord, in passing judgment, reveals the truth about ourselves.   Blind people are willing to accept the testimonies of others.   Sighted people like to depend on themselves for final reference.  Our Lord exposes the reality of the matter.   Those who see themselves as the final reference point for all things are not living in truth, and are judged accordingly.  Those humble people, like the blind man, who know their reliance on God and others,  are living in truth, and, too, are judged accordingly.

John 12:47-48  And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.  Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him; the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day.  Other translations say “judge” instead of “condemn”.   I am sure you have heard the phrase, “say what you mean and mean what you say”.   Our Lord lived that motto perfectly.   He speaks only truth.   Our lives will be measured against that truth.   However, lest we be fretful because our lives have not lived up to that truth, let us remember that grace and mercy are a central component of that truth.  We have to ask the Lord to send us rays of mercy to first expose, and then shatter, the sin, the falsehoods of our lives.

Our Lord is indeed merciful.  He is just.   He is a just judge.   He is the only judge that matters, the only one who can judge our lives.   No one, not us, not our parents, not our spouses, not our children, not our friends, not our pastors, not our President, and least of all, not any human judge, can judge us.  Only Our Lord Jesus Christ can judge us.  He will not, however, until immediately after our last breath, or the end of the world, whichever comes first.    Then, he will judge us.   Let us live our lives with that judgment in mind, and no other judgment.   Let us not live in fear of what others may think of us, be they persons in political, legislative, or judicial power.    Let us be courageous followers of Christ.   Let us live so that His life, full of truth, mercy, and beauty, lives in us.   Let us be bold like him.   If we do, then while we will and should always have a reverent fear of judgment, we will need not be fearful of it.

Come Lord Jesus, the just Judge!

Joseph most just, pray for us.

Tough teachings: Death

We are in the Advent season.  Many think Advent is all about preparing for Christmas.  That is a small part of it, but the much more central theme to Advent, especially early in the season like this, is a preparation for something else. That something else is our death.  At our death, as we discussed last post, we will meet Jesus at our particular judgment.  In addition, also as discussed last post, Our Lord will come again at the end of the world and there will be a Last Judgment where our lives will be laid out for all to see.  (The two judgments could be at the same time if we are still alive when the world ends, of course!)  It is these comings of Jesus that is the real focus of Advent.   The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, despite it being an eternal event due to Our Lord’s divinity, has already occurred in the course of history.  We can prepare to celebrate it, and that will be the focus of the final week of Advent.   However, for the majority of the season, the focus is on the coming of Our Lord that will really matter for us eternally, his coming at the end of our own lives, and at the end of the world.

Because death is a time when we will meet Our Lord, it is something we need to think about often.  Saint Benedict said to his monks “Keep death daily before your eyes.”  The Catechism has a lot to say about death in its section on the topic (Part One, Article 11 2).  

1)      Death is a separation of the soul from the body.  Both go on!  The soul goes to judgment and from there to heaven, purgatory, or hell.  The body continues on, as well, in decay, but it does continue.   At the Final Judgment, it will be reunited with the soul.  So, really nothing ends per se at death.

2)      Death is the end of earthly life.    Death is a normal part of the cycle of life as is evident all around us in the rhythm of life.  Therefore, there is something normative or even natural about death.   This alone, the fact that it so natural, so much a part of our reality, leads certain urgency to our lives or at least it should.  We only have a limited time to bring our lives to fulfillment.

3)      Death is a consequence of sin.  God did not create us to die.  It is something that does not seem like it should exist, but it does.  Just like how we hate violence, and feel it should not exist, so too with death.  In the midst of all the beauty in the world, and the desire for life and goodness in us, it does not feel right that we should have to experience death.  However, we all do.   No one this side of the grave can offer a one hundred percent satisfactory explanation why that is the case.  It is, as with other elements of life, a mystery.  However, it is not a question mark.   The Church’s teaching on Original Sin (perhaps a topic for a future post) is the most logical explanation for the reason for death.   Death entered the world on account of man’s sin.  We choose to turn away from God, and bad things happen, death being one of them.

4)      Death is transformed by Christ.  Our Lord suffered death.  He could have avoided it because He was the eternal Son of God, and has rule over life and death. However, he chose not to in act of submission to the Father’s will, out of love for us.   Saint Paul, in his letter to the Romans (5:19-21), reveals that the curse of death is now a blessing because of Our Lord. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.  But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification^, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Death is not entirely a bad thing anymore.

5)      For the Christian, death is a positive thing.  Saint Paul, in his letter to the Philippians (1:21) says, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”   How is death positive?  The Catechism explains in paragraph 1010:  Through Baptism, the Christian has already “died with Christ” sacramentally in order to live a new life, and that if we die in Christ’s grace, physical death is the completion of this “dying with Christ”.  The life of Christ has been in us since we were baptized.  This includes his death!   So, in a sense, even though the senses say one’s natural life ends at death, in a real sense, the believer has already died.  The reign of his natural life ended at Baptism, and the reign of the supernatural life began.  One hears this phrase at funerals a lot, “In Baptism, (this person) died with Christ.  May he also now share in His Resurrection.”   The grace received at Baptism, and nourished by the other Sacraments throughout our lives, is more and more realized as our lives go on, and when we die, we participate in the most definitive self-offering of Our Lord, and with that, the grace of Baptism shines most fully!  This supernatural way of looking at death is not easy, and requires prayer and mortification to really experience, but is the deep true reality for the Christian who is in a state of grace.

6)      In death, God calls man to himself, and therefore, in a sense, we can desire death.  We have to make sure we interpret this the right way.   There are many things in life we can desire, but it does not mean we can seek them out whenever we want, however we want.  We do not want to actively seek death.  In fact, choosing to end one’s life voluntarily on one’s own is a serious sin.  Furthermore, it is not necessarily right to desire something right now, even if it be OK to say we desire it in general.  Desiring death, so we can be with the Lord is a good thought to have.  However, desiring death right now, or pursuing it in a wrong way, is not a good thing.  It means we are pursuing it for selfish reasons, not for the Lord.   For the Christian, though, beyond just being with the Lord, there is other reality about death, which we alluded to before, but did not state explicit. Death is our opportunity to share in the obedience and love of the Father on the part of the Son at his death.  Our Lord showed no greater love than laying down his life.  In a way, we can show no greater love than dying ourselves for a greater good, to win souls, and to indeed, be with the Lord.

7)      Death marks the end of our opportunity to work out our life and determine our eternal destiny.   There is no “reincarnation”.  There is no “do over”.  We have one life to live, and we will live it forever, first here, and then in heaven or hell.  We will not get a second one to live.  Therefore, we should always live our lives with the two realities we spoke of in our last post: that we will be judged on it at our particular judgment, and that it will be laid out for all to see at the Last Judgment.   May we keep this ever in mind, especially during this Advent season.

I believe I have already posted this prayer to Saint Joseph for a happy death in a previous post, but it is appropriate to post here again.   During this Advent season, when we should be thinking about our own death, it would be good to say this prayer often to good Saint Joseph, who is the patron of the dying. 

O Glorious St. Joseph, behold I choose thee today for my special
patron in life and at the hour of my death. Preserve and increase
in me the spirit of prayer and fervor in the service of God.
Remove far from me every kind of sin; obtain for me that my
death may not come upon me unawares, but that I may have
time to confess my sins sacramentally and to bewail them
with a most perfect understanding and a most sincere and
perfect contrition, in order that I may breathe forth my soul
into the hands of Jesus and Mary. Amen

Tough teachings: Judgment

In life, we like drama.  The drama of Game 7 of the recent World Series and the drama of the recent Presidential election are evidence of this.  Both got great TV ratings.  Drama is” an exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances”.    As human beings, we are attracted to drama in any sphere, both in entertainment and in real-life.  I believe this is true whether we believe our own lives have too much drama, or, perhaps more often the case these days, our lives are boring because it seemingly lacks it.

In reality, however, our lives are always dramatic.  We are always making a move towards something or another.   In that sense, it is always exciting and emotional, never static.   In the Catholic worldview, we are always moving towards heaven or hell.  It is not so much, as some make it out to be, that we move forwards or backwards, or towards, or away from something.   We are always moving toward something.   Life is always a progression; one can never “stop the clock”.  The clock is always ticking, the game is always on.   The drama is always there.  The game is never over, and no matter what, we are always “in” the game; it is never won or lost until the final act.

We can say our lives are always dramatic, not just because it is always in motion, but even more some because the outcome is never certain.  When the outcome of something is never certain, it makes it more interesting and exciting, but it can also produce some nerve-wracking, scary moments.  We can never be sure if we will wind up in heaven or hell.  The ending is something we cannot know.   We can indeed have a sure and certain hope that we will be saved, but never a certainty.  (Back in June I discussed the virtue of hope.)  It is this, not being sure of our final outcome, which makes life ultimately, indeed, dramatic.   

So when do we find out the final outcome of our life?  When do we know for sure?  The Church teaches that it is not until the particular judgment that our fate is revealed.  Paragraph 1021 and 1022 of the Catechism say the following:   “Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ…Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately -- or immediate and everlasting damnation.”   So immediately upon death, we are judged and our souls enter purgatory, heaven, or hell.  (I did a post recently on each of them, click on the orange banner above to access them.)

As we know from experience though, those who have departed from this world still have their bodies buried in the Earth.  At the particular judgment, the body is not there.   However, the human person is indeed both body and soul.   If we lived this life with a body and a soul, and our eternal destiny was decided based on the actions, or inactions, of our body, animated by the soul, then it deems to reason that the bodies, far from being just rotted corpses for all eternity, would be glorified, or damned, like our souls.  So when we do the bodies get reunited with the souls?   The Church teaches there is a second judgment, the last judgment.   This will occur when Our Lord returns, as He promised (see Matthew 24 and 25).    The reunification of body and soul will occur just before that in what is called the resurrection of the dead when the following happens which Our Lord speaks of in John 5:28-29, “for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ^and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”   No one stays in the grave forever!  That sounds like good news on the surface, and indeed it can be very good news for some, but not for others.  As I said before, everyone lives forever, it is just a question of where.

So now our bodies and souls are reunited. Then what exactly happens at the last judgment which proceeds immediately after that reunification?  The Church teaches some amazing things in Paragraphs 1039 and 1040.  In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship with God will be laid bare. The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life…The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God's justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God's love is stronger than death.    So no one knows when it will occur (adding to the aforementioned drama).  When it does, our lives will be laid out bare for all to see.   All that stuff we thought was hidden will not be so anymore!  Everything we thought we did alone or hidden, both the good and the bad stuff, will be laid out for all to see.   Finally, we will understand all things we could not before.  The mysterious ways of God, not just in our own lives, but in the whole cosmos, will be laid out for all to see and comprehend.    When all is indeed laid out, those who are in, or bound, for heaven, will rejoice in the goodness, justice, love and mercy of God.  Those who are in, or bound, for hell, will experience pain and regret that goes beyond words as they experience the same attributes of God, but it is a different experience entirely.

So, there are two judgments, the particular, and the last or universal.  Every man and every woman who has lived, are living, or will live, will experience both.   The first is between the individual and God.  The second will be a public judgment for the entire world to see.  This should give us impetus to live always for God’s glory as everything we think is secret now will be revealed to all someday.  Let’s realize that our lives are not decided until judgment.  We can never rest, thinking we have it won.  We can never despair, thinking we have it lost.  We can live good lives, and at the last minute turn from God, and be damned.  Likewise, like the good thief on the Cross (Luke 23:39-43), we can live miserable sinful lives, and at the last minute, turn to God, and be saved.  Our lives are indeed a drama and like all good dramas, it leaves us unsure until the final act.   Like we do with any good drama, let’s be active participants in it, not fall asleep, and stay with it until the end, lest we get careless, lazy, and slide into habits that will take us places we do not want to go.

We indeed never know when our death (and therefore when our particular judgment) will be, and of course, we do not know when the final judgment will be.  However, we do know we will die, even if we do not know when.  Saint Joseph is the patron of the dying.   We will close with a prayer to him for a happy death:

O Glorious St. Joseph, behold I choose thee today for my special
patron in life and at the hour of my death. Preserve and increase
in me the spirit of prayer and fervor in the service of God.
Remove far from me every kind of sin; obtain for me that my
death may not come upon me unawares, but that I may have
time to confess my sins sacramentally and to bewail them
with a most perfect understanding and a most sincere and
perfect contrition, in order that I may breathe forth my soul
into the hands of Jesus and Mary. Amen
perfect contrition, in order that I may breathe forth my soul
into the hands of Jesus and Mary. Amen