Wash yourselves clean!
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil; learn to do good.
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil; learn to do good.
Readings for the day
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
God Illumines the Church of Her Sinfulness During Lent to Wash Her in the Blood of the Lamb
Readings for the day
Monday, February 25, 2013
Glory and Sorrow, Success and Failure, Consolation and Affliction, Tabor and Calvary - All Can Lead to the Father
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
and his clothing became dazzling white.
Listen to my homily for the Second Sunday of Lent:
If you have trouble listening, click here.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Latin Mass Homily: the Five Ways of Penance in Lent According to St John Chrysostom
Listen to my homily for the Feria Sexta Post Cineres:
If you have trouble listening, click here.
By fasting, the body is subjected to the soul. By prayer, the soul is united to God. By charity, man is united to man, and through man to God. "As long as you did it for one of these, the least of My brethren, you did it for Me" (Matt. 25:40). Without charity to our fellow men, neither fasting nor prayer is acceptable to God. Fasting and prayer must issue in a kindness and sympathy that reach not only to our closest associate but also to the most distant sufferer.
INTROIT Ps. 29:11
The Lord heard me and had pity on me; the Lord became my helper.
Ps. 29:2. I will extol You, O Lord, for You have upheld me, and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
V. Glory be . . .
COLLECT
Watch over the fast we have undertaken, O Lord, and let this bodily penance also be a truly spiritual exercise to make us strong. Through Our Lord . . .
EPISTLE Isa. 58:1-9
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous ordinances, they delight to draw near unto God. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure, and exact all your labours.
Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rearward. Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. For, I, the Lord your God, am merciful.
GRADUAL Ps. 26:4
One thing I have asked of the Lord; this will I seek after: to dwell in the house of the Lord.
V. That I may behold the joy of the Lord and be sheltered by His holy temple.
TRACT Ps. 102:10O Lord, repay us not according to the sins we have committed, nor according to our iniquities. V. O Lord, remember not our iniquities of the past; let Your mercy come quickly to us, for we are being brought very low.(All Kneel.) V. Help us, O God our Savior, and for the glory of Your name, O Lord, deliver us; and pardon us our sins for Your names sake.
GOSPEL Matt. 5:43-48; 6:1-4
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples, "Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same? Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven. When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee."
OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Ps. 118:154, 125
O Lord, give me life according to Your promise, that I may know Your degrees.
SECRET
O Lord, may the offering of our lenten sacrifice make our souls more pleasing to You, and help us to be more prompt in self-denial. Through our Lord . . .
COMMUNION ANTIPHON Ps. 2:11-12
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling before Him. Embrace discipline that you perish not from the way of virtue.
POSTCOMMUNION
Fill our hearts with the spirit of Your love, O Lord. May we who have been nourished with the one bread of Heaven also be of one mind. Through our Lord . . .
Friday, February 15, 2013
Acknowledging One's Sins, Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving are All Necessary for Healing and True Worship
Listen to my homily for today, the Friday after Ash Wednesday:
If you have trouble listening, click here.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
ASH WEDNESDAY HOMILY: I'm Giving Up My Beloved Pope For Lent, But God Will Give Me A New One
This homily appeared on Catholic Online today.
Return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Listen to my homily:
If you have trouble listening, click here.
One fine morning ten years ago in St Peter's square in the Vatican I saw a man in a black cassock walk across the square. He had white hair and the build of a famous cardinal I knew. "That can't be. It is!" I walked up to him and asked him, "Are you Cardinal Ratzinger?" With a very warm smile he said, "Yes I am!"
Any intelligent premeditated question I had prepared for that moment went out of my mind and I felt like a total idiot staring in face of one of the brightest theological minds of third millennium.
He must have seen my awkwardness because he joked about how young I was when he visited my hometown of St Paul, Minnesota.
I like many have been touched by this gentle soul, this humble worker in the Lord's vineyard, this utterly amazing Pope.
For Lent, God is taking my Pope away.
In the middle of Lent I am getting a new Pope.
Believing in charity calls forth charity.
This is the Lenten message my Pope has asked me to think about, the Lenten interior and spiritual plan for the whole Church.
I believe in God. I believe God. I believe God's plan is to bring about the maximum charity in my soul and the souls of all the faithful. I believe God's plan for me to believe in charity and thus to bring it about is to not be shaken by receiving a new Pope in Lent.
As I am grateful for the gifts and blessings of Pope Benedict XVI, the awesome spiritual bombs the B16 has dropped and the explosive ripples of grace have blessed this generation, I am also truly grateful, sincerely and totally thankful IN ADVANCE for the next Pope.
I don't know who it will be, but I know that God is good and that he is leading the Church. He is the unseen head of the Church and that his goodness will demand an amazing Pope for our times.
Of course, the traditional practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that we hear about in the Gospel today, Ash Wednesday, are very important to help us all believe in charity so to call it forth.
These are not just traditional forms of Lenten penance, but three gifts which so coherently and perfectly respond to the three wounds that we have.
Sin has caused a treble wound of a break in the relationship between God, others, and ourselves. Prayer mends the relationship with God; almsgiving the relationship with others; fasting with our own being, especially our flesh.
In this sense the Gospel for Ash Wednesday is perfect for every year because it is the unchanging spiritual program for every Lent.
We won't ever change out of the ways that we are broken or the ways in which we personally and collectively need to repent. However, every year the Holy Spirit asks of us something new. The Lenten message of the Holy Father is always the place to look for what is unique to this year's Lent. So - the Holy Father has given us a spiritual program of papal transition.
I suggest we follow it.
These are the two things that will bring us through Lent this year from the Holy Father's message: faith and charity. This Pope has been the Pontiff of faith, hope, and charity, as he has written a major encyclical about each of the theological virtues.
Here are the Holy Father's words for us this Lent about faith and charity:
"The relationship between these two virtues resembles that between the two fundamental sacraments of the Church: Baptism and Eucharist. Baptism (sacramentum fidei) precedes the Eucharist (sacramentum caritatis), but is ordered to it, the Eucharist being the fullness of the Christian journey. In a similar way, faith precedes charity, but faith is genuine only if crowned by charity. Everything begins from the humble acceptance of faith ("knowing that one is loved by God"), but has to arrive at the truth of charity ("knowing how to love God and neighbor"), which remains for ever, as the fulfillment of all the virtues (cf. 1 Cor 13:13).
"Dear brothers and sisters, in this season of Lent, as we prepare to celebrate the event of the Cross and Resurrection - in which the love of God redeemed the world and shone its light upon history - I express my wish that all of you may spend this precious time rekindling your faith in Jesus Christ, so as to enter with him into the dynamic of love for the Father and for every brother and sister that we encounter in our lives. For this intention, I raise my prayer to God, and I invoke the Lord's blessing upon each individual and upon every community!"
Monday, February 11, 2013
Consecration to Jesus through Mary: Making the Act of Consecration (the Big Day)
Congratulations!
You made it.
How to Make Your Consecration
At the end of three weeks, we should go to Confession and Holy Communion with the intention
of giving ourselves to Jesus Christ in the quality of slaves of love, by the hands of Mary. After
Communion, we should recite the consecration prayer, we ought to write it, or have it written
and sign it the same day the consecration is made. It would be well that on this day, we should
pay some tribute to Jesus Christ and our Blessed Lady, either as a penance for our past
unfaithfulness to the vows of Baptism, or as a testimony of dependence on the dominion of Jesus
and Mary. This tribute should be one in accordance with your fervor, such as a fast, a
mortification or an alms, or a candle. If but a pin is given in homage, and given with a good
heart, it will be enough for Jesus Who loves only the good will.
Once a year at least, and on the same day we should renew this consecration, observing the same
practices during the three weeks.
The Godless Culture of Desacralization Needs Saints - Prophets of Holiness
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Listen to my homily for the 5th Sunday in the Church's Year:
If you have trouble listening click here.
Here is the excerpt of the pastoral letter of Archbishop Peter Smith that I read in my homily. Read the full text.
Here is the excerpt of the pastoral letter of Archbishop Peter Smith that I read in my homily. Read the full text.
So as we begin Lent, we should all be asking the question, “What shall we do?” Lent is a time when we are called to repentance, and to put God more consciously at the very centre of our lives once again. The traditional ways of repentance are prayer, fasting and almsgiving...In order to do as the Lord asks of us, our hearts must be united with his heart; we must come to know him, and abide with him ever more deeply and with ever greater commitment, day by day. Lent is a “favourable time” for me to ask myself some pertinent questions about where I stand with God, and how I am responding to the commission he has given us. I cannot do that fruitfully unless I become more attentive to the word of God in the scriptures and through spending some time each day in quiet prayer. I cannot, from my own resources, produce the fruit that will last, unless I allow the living word of God to nurture my faith and trust in God who loves me unconditionally and with a steadfast love, and who looks on me in my weakness with great mercy and compassion. That living word of God not only informs my mind and heart, so that I come to know him, but is also able to transform my life so that I can indeed become “the light of the world”, “salt of the earth.”
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
The Gospel of Failure
This appeared as an article on Catholic Online
"I tell you plainly: there is no way to be saved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies and all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who have sought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians themselves" -St Paul Miki
St Francis converted Assissi. St Francis de Sales converted Geneva. St Jean Vianney - Ars. Jesus? He did not convert Nazareth. And as for St Paul Miki? He did not convert Osaka, Japan.
Today, again in the readings we hear the Gospel of failure. In the Gospel for today we hear that Jesus went to Nazareth and he was obstructed. We read later that they even chased him out and threatened to throw him off the cliff. He did not sway those that he lived with for 30 years that he was the promised One, the Messiah, the Lord.
We are in particular need of knowing that Jesus failed and that he sanctified failure.
Did he say, blessed are the rich? Blessed are the successful? Blessed are those with no opposition?
Exactly the opposite.
Why?
We find ourselves today surrounded by the powerful regime of the totalitarian, relativistic, successful mignons of this world. It is scary. It is enough to take the heart out of you sometimes.
But Jesus was an underdog. He died as a failure - abandoned by his closest followers, denied by the one he set as visible head of his Church, misunderstood by the religious leaders of the time, seen as a threat by the political leaders of the time.
Don't get me wrong. Jesus was not afraid of success or power, and neither should we be. He was not afraid of glory, but just knew that glory in this world most of the time appears very differently.
Faith does not depend on success. It is not based on worldly power or odds in our favor. Faith is the conviction of one's inmost heart set like flint on the face of God - God who is eternal, immutable, unchanging, impassible, and undeniably attentive to the cry of the poor.
In this year of faith, expect failure according to the world's standards. Why? So that the power of God may be revealed in our weakness, our powerlessness, our littleness. For God is glorified in the humble, the contrite of heart, the little ones who depend upon him. This is sometimes the only way that faith may increase and that the Church grow.
St Paul Miki, whose feast day we celebrate today, had his greatest moment, according to the eyes of the world, during the moment of failure. He gave his greatest witness and preached his greatest homily from the pulpit of his dying moments on the Cross, embracing crucifixion like Jesus.
He said, "As I come to this supreme moment of my life, I am sure none of you would suppose I want to deceive you. And so I tell you plainly: there is no way to be saved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies and all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who have sought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians themselves."
He spoke clearly and plainly. This was exactly why he was dying upon the cross, because he was not afraid of the consequences of his actions. He was not afraid of failure in the eyes of the world. He had within him, the fear of the Lord, which is the perfect Christ-centered love that casts out every other fear.
Where are those who are not afraid to look bad in the eyes of this world? Where are the heroes? Where are the saints of our times that are not afraid of human respect?
May the prayers of Our Lady, who was considered at one moment, the mother of a failure, pray for us and obtain for us true faith in the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our victorious and glorious Lord, who often hides his action in the failures of this life.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Christ Speaks to the Little Girl in Each Woman, "I Say to You, Arise!"
Listen to my homily for the Feast of St Agatha:
Thursday, January 31, 2013
St John Bosco Teaches Us How to Shepherd Wolves to Become Lambs
Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?
Listen to my homily on the Feast of St John Bosco:
If you have trouble listening, click here.
St. John Bosco (Italian: Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco; 16 August 1815[3] – 31 January 1888[4][5]), known as Don Bosco, was an Italian Roman Catholic priest, educator and writer of the 19th century, who put into practice the convictions of his religion, dedicating his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth and employing teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method known as the Salesian Preventive System.[6] A follower of the spirituality and philosophy of Saint Francis de Sales, Bosco dedicated his works to him when he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco.[7]Together with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, he founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a religious congregation of nuns dedicated to the care and education of poor girls. In 1876 Bosco founded a movement of laity, the Association of Salesian Cooperators, with the same educational mission to the poor.[8] In 1875 he published the Salesian Bulletin.[9][10] The Bulletin has remained in continuous publication, and is currently published in 50 different editions and 30 languages.[9]
Bosco established a network of organizations and centres to carry on his work. Following his beatification in 1929, he was canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Pius XI in 1934.
Monday, January 28, 2013
The Church Needs to Lead Man in a Rediscovery of the Law of God, Written on Each Heart
Listen to my homily for the 3rd Sunday of the Church's Year:
If you have trouble listening, click here.
The Israelites came back from Babylon, only to find that they had forsaken the Law of God. When they rediscovered the book of Deuteronomy, there was great mourning that it had been forgotten and great rejoicing that it had been found. All the people committed to living it by saying, "AMEN!" and prostrating themselves on the ground before the Lord.
We need this rediscovery of the Law of God that is written on each human heart. We need this terribly and we need it now. The governments of our time are purporting to redefine the natural law, something they have no right doing, but unless we all stand up for what is right, they will succeed in manipulating human life in a direction that could be ultimately very destructive.
Since the family is the basic unit of society, the cell of society's body, if it attacked, the foundations upon which society stands will be shaken. Marriage can only be a one-man, one-woman union. Any attempt to redefine it will ultimately cause our downfall.
We are politically responsible to defend marriage and defend family life. If we do not, we may not be ready to face the dire consequences. Let us pray that we may be given the moral courage to stand up for what is good, right, true, and just, and that righteousness may prevail.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Stretch Out Your Hands to What is Holy
This article appeared on Catholic Online
Listen to my homily for Wednesday of the 2nd Week of the Church's Year:
If you have trouble listening click here.
"Then the Priest, with hands extended, says the Collect prayer, at the end of which the people acclaim: Amen."
This is what the rubrics say about the priest at Mass, any time he prays the celebrant prayers like the opening collect, the preface, the closing collect, but most especially when he prays the Eucharistic prayer - he prays with hands extended.
He does so to call to mind the hands that Jesus extended on cross to brings us the gift of redemption. This extending of hands is a sign of priestly prayer.
In the Gospel for today, when Jesus told the man with the withered hand, "Stretch out your hand," he was asking him more than just to follow his instructions for healing. He was asking him before the educated and elite class of Jews, the Pharisees, who were commenting on the Sabbath. The Sabbath for Jews was the day above all the other days of the week for a priestly prayer of the covenant.
Every time we celebrate Mass, the priest is extending his hands in the act of swearing a priestly covenant oath, or sacramentum, to invoke the covenant of God. Jesus telling the man to stretch out his hand is in fact, telling him to live once again in the covenant of the Lord, to be reconciled to living as a member of the priestly people of Israel.
Today Jesus tells Catholics the same thing.
Many Catholics no longer attend Mass. They are not living as the priestly, covenanted people that God has called them to be. As a result, many live withered lives, with hands stretching out not to live the covenant of the Lord, but instead stretching out their hands to deeds of darkness.
We only need think of how many Catholics go along with the vile practices of our day of abortion, euthanasia, same-sex "marriages," and so on. Why?
Where are the bishops and priests who ought to speak about these things, stretching out their episcopal and priestly hands to feed the people of God with the necessary courage and wisdom to live their faith as priestly people in a time when the world desperately needs their witness? Jesus needs to heal his Church, all of it. Don't get me wrong. There are many who do speak out, but they are not the majority. The Bishops and priests have a solemn duty to help the faithful stretch out their hands to what is good and holy.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in Paragraph #1785, "In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path,54 we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church."
Christ working through the Church is eager to help the faithful "stretch out their hands" to what is good, and to be "the light of the world and the salt of the earth" (Cf. Matthew 5:13-16).
May Our Lady intercede for the Church, that a priestly people may once again stretch out their hands to pray for the world, to oppose evil, to do good, and to be holy as God is holy.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
God's Covenant Faithfulness Outweighs our Unfaithfulness
Listen to my homily for Tuesday of the 2nd Week of the Year:
God Helps You Get a Hold of Yourself and Be at Peace
Listen to my homily for Friday, January 18th, 2013, given at St Anselm's Secondary School in Canterbury, UK.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Jesus is Revealed as our Peace amidst Trials
This article appeared on Catholic Online.
On the way out the door of the House for Priests and International Seminary of John Paul II here in the village of St John Marie Vianney, there is a sign up sheet for those who are going to the "Manifestation in Paris," the demonstration at the nations capital to protest the government's passing of same-sex "marriage" legislation that will take place this Sunday, January 13, 2013.
The sign up sheet is full.
Most likely, even if good people stand up against the error of attempting to redefine the one-man, one-woman, covenanted union of marriage, those in power will proceed down this dark and twisted path.
It is terrifying. It is something that can rock your world.
To know that those in power have shifted from being amoral, that is, not having any morals, to aggressively and systematically attacking the divine institution of marriage that is inscribed on the human heart and felt as one of the demands of human love - this is something which is like a turbulent storm in human history.
What will happen next? Are they going to dust off the guillotine, and start beheading faithful and priests who oppose this? It may not be too terribly unlikely.
Like the disciples in the Gospel for today, in which the boat was rocked by the stormy sea, we wait for The Lord to show up.
"If you're out there God, show me! Can you just give me some sign that you're real, that you're listening to me?"
Who hasn't, at some point amidst the trials and sufferings of this life, spoken these words to God asking for some kind of Epiphany, or revelation, of the Lord's presence and power?
This week after the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord in the Church's year is a kind of revelation week, in which we contemplate the manifestations of God to us. Last week we were still basking in the glow of the newborn infant and this week it as if we are asking like the popular Christmas song, "What child is this?" Who is this little baby, before even the kings of the earth fall prostrate?
Every day in the mass readings there is a gift that shows who this Infant God is.
Today we discover him as our peace amidst trial. In the Gospel for today he comes walking toward us atop the stormy seas, defying nature and we hear his voice first reach out to us and calm us down and then quiet the storm.
Does his presence in our lives not defy our stormy human nature, giving us peace through trials that ought naturally obstruct calm? Yet not as the world gives does Emmanuel give peace.
He IS love itself, as first reading says. Can love himself stop loving us? It is not possible for him to cease loving us because he is pure love. The discovery of this kind of love that is not based on human nature, whether stormy or calm, but founded in the eternal and rock solid Being of almighty God, is what gives a Catholic true moral courage.
Divine love is the only real basis for this courage. It is what casts out all fear and gives a person the resolve to stand up for moral truth, "though an army encamp against me, I will not fear even the terror of death, for The Lord God is my rampart and shield"!
More and more, the Catholic faithful need this encounter with divine love. Where does it happen? In the Most Holy Eucharist, divine Love himself touches us - as if he grabs our hand, lets us feel his rock solid hand on our shoulder, or simply stands us with us through trial. We need his Eucharistic encouragement intensely and frequently.
Why then stay away from he who casts out all fear. Run to the Eucharistic Jesus! Permit him to strengthen and calm you.
May Our Lady, Queen of peace, whose lap was a gentle throne for the divine Infant who is our peace, obtain from him true and serene courage.
On the way out the door of the House for Priests and International Seminary of John Paul II here in the village of St John Marie Vianney, there is a sign up sheet for those who are going to the "Manifestation in Paris," the demonstration at the nations capital to protest the government's passing of same-sex "marriage" legislation that will take place this Sunday, January 13, 2013.
The sign up sheet is full.
Most likely, even if good people stand up against the error of attempting to redefine the one-man, one-woman, covenanted union of marriage, those in power will proceed down this dark and twisted path.
It is terrifying. It is something that can rock your world.
To know that those in power have shifted from being amoral, that is, not having any morals, to aggressively and systematically attacking the divine institution of marriage that is inscribed on the human heart and felt as one of the demands of human love - this is something which is like a turbulent storm in human history.
What will happen next? Are they going to dust off the guillotine, and start beheading faithful and priests who oppose this? It may not be too terribly unlikely.
Like the disciples in the Gospel for today, in which the boat was rocked by the stormy sea, we wait for The Lord to show up.
"If you're out there God, show me! Can you just give me some sign that you're real, that you're listening to me?"
Who hasn't, at some point amidst the trials and sufferings of this life, spoken these words to God asking for some kind of Epiphany, or revelation, of the Lord's presence and power?
This week after the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord in the Church's year is a kind of revelation week, in which we contemplate the manifestations of God to us. Last week we were still basking in the glow of the newborn infant and this week it as if we are asking like the popular Christmas song, "What child is this?" Who is this little baby, before even the kings of the earth fall prostrate?
Every day in the mass readings there is a gift that shows who this Infant God is.
Today we discover him as our peace amidst trial. In the Gospel for today he comes walking toward us atop the stormy seas, defying nature and we hear his voice first reach out to us and calm us down and then quiet the storm.
Does his presence in our lives not defy our stormy human nature, giving us peace through trials that ought naturally obstruct calm? Yet not as the world gives does Emmanuel give peace.
He IS love itself, as first reading says. Can love himself stop loving us? It is not possible for him to cease loving us because he is pure love. The discovery of this kind of love that is not based on human nature, whether stormy or calm, but founded in the eternal and rock solid Being of almighty God, is what gives a Catholic true moral courage.
Divine love is the only real basis for this courage. It is what casts out all fear and gives a person the resolve to stand up for moral truth, "though an army encamp against me, I will not fear even the terror of death, for The Lord God is my rampart and shield"!
More and more, the Catholic faithful need this encounter with divine love. Where does it happen? In the Most Holy Eucharist, divine Love himself touches us - as if he grabs our hand, lets us feel his rock solid hand on our shoulder, or simply stands us with us through trial. We need his Eucharistic encouragement intensely and frequently.
Why then stay away from he who casts out all fear. Run to the Eucharistic Jesus! Permit him to strengthen and calm you.
May Our Lady, Queen of peace, whose lap was a gentle throne for the divine Infant who is our peace, obtain from him true and serene courage.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Infertility and God
This post appeared on Catholic Online
 |
| The Archangel Gabriel appears to Zechariah in the temple, speaking of his wife's new baby, although she is long past child bearing years. |
"Father, I have been healed!"
Believe it or not, this is not an uncommon thing for me to hear. As a priest there are a lot of people who talk about the mighty things the Lord has done for them - healings from cancer, from emotional trauma, from addiction, or from some kind of brokenness that God reveals his love through their healing. However it seems that one of the most common miracles are with regard to bearing the issue of human life: childbirth among complications, healthy pregnancy amidst difficult prenatal diagnosis, and even fertility despite bareness.
It is so common that when any gloriously reputed and renowned doctor tells a woman, "Oh no, you shouldn't get pregnant," or "you'll never have children," or "it would be better if you never exercise any fertility," I always advise to get a third or fifth opinion. It seems there is no greater temptation for those in the medical field to play God than with regard to matters of life, sometimes pronouncing with all their "omnipotent" knowledge a definitive decree about a certain woman's uterine condition.
Don't get me wrong. Doctors are great. They just seem to overstep their bounds the most in this area, an area which God too seems to overstep the physical laws and intervene with supernatural healing. If a doctor has used his medical authority to prophetically declare to you that "thou shalt never have children again," please don't hesitate to find another opinion.
In today's mass, we find the Lord addressing the area of infertility. Life comes where there was only death. Manoah's barren wife bears Samson. Saint Elizabeth, who is beyond child-bearing years bears Saint John the Baptist. At Christmas, the Virgin Mary bears miraculously the Son of the Eternal Father, conceived not by man but by the Holy Spirit. All of these are an icon of man, who has been rendered lifeless and infertile by sin, yet in the coming of Christ eternal Life Himself is in man's very midst.
Infertility is a mystery. It is not easy and for many couples is very painful. Nowadays more than ever many couples are reporting to be infertile. There are many reasons for this. Sometimes it is because the woman damaged her fertility through oral contraceptives, which besides having a 12-17% rate in causing breast and cervical cancer, diminishing libido, and can even permanently disrupt a woman's menstrual cycle, also have the effect of causing high rates of infertility. Another reason is the introduction of estrogen and progestins into certain process meats such as beef and chicken to keep them soft and supple, are ingested by men, whose reproductive organs are adversely affected. And at other times, there doesn't seem to be any medical explanation for it, but just a trial that is endured.
As a result some people turn to the immoral practice of In-Vitro Fertilization, which not only removes the life-giving act of conception from the love making act, but also is illicit in the fact that fertilized embryos are wontonly destroyed. AND HERE IS THE CRAZY PART: only one in five attempts are successful - 20%. Yet 80% of all couples who try to conceive using Natural Family Planning, are successful, a method which is not only moral and right in the eyes of God, but also helps the couple to inculcate a high degree of respect and marital intimacy in the level of communication and the depth of what is communicated. The other astonishing fact here is that the divorce rate of contraception and IVF is well over 50%, while those who practice Natural Family Planning according to the mind of the Church have a divorce rate of %0.02 (for more info visit http://nfpandmore.org)
"Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. The act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another, but one that 'entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person.'"
There are two things we need to take away from today's Mass. First, don't contracept and don't IVF. It's not only bad but a life and love killer. Second, is to know that amidst a spiritual desert or spiritual infertility, God will intrude and bring forth abundant life. Also for those couples who may never know the joy of having their own children, we must remember the glory of adoption. It is by adoption that every soul brought into heaven is adopted into the Son of God through baptism, and that this is a very real and wondrous mystery of giving a child a second chance at a beautiful life. If a couple opts not to adopt they must also remember that their marital love bears within it a certain fruitfulness in the apostolate of helping the sick, the poor, the friendless, and any in need of love.
May the prayers and intercession of the ever-Virgin Mary, who miraculously bore the Eternal Son of God, pray for all couples who have felt the pain of infertility, that they may know the God who brings life amidst barrenness.
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