Bulletin insert this past Sunday at the Cathedral in Austin Texas
April 2015
In recent months, our nation has been debating the merits and legality of same-sex marriage. We present to you a simple explanation of the Church’s teaching on same-sex marriage.
The justices will consider two questions in April 2015 — whether the 14th Amendment to the Constitution requires states to license marriages between same-sex couples, and whether it requires states to recognize such marriages when licensed by other states.
A DIALOGUE ON SO-CALLED GAY MARRIAGE
Puzzled: Why is the Church against homosexual marriage? Don’t all sexual orientations deserve equal treatment?
Mother Church: All people suffer temptation, and all should be treated with compassion. But we have to make reasonable distinctions among different kinds of sexual desire.
Puzzled: Why? Isn’t all sexual desire the same?
Mother Church: Not at all. The sexual desire that a husband and wife experience toward each other is good, but would you say it is good for a man to experience sexual desire for children, or for the wives of other men?
Puzzled: No, but who gets to say which kind of desire for sex is good and which kind isn’t?
Mother Church: Think of another kind of desire – say, desire for food. Suppose I said we shouldn’t eat food in excess, or eat food that makes us sick. Would you protest, “Who gets to say which kind of desire for food is good and which kind isn’t?”
Puzzled: No, but that’s different. Those things aren’t what eating is for. It’s for nourishment.
Mother Church: So you’re saying that good desire for food harmonizes with what eating is for, and bad desire for food is out of harmony with what eating is for?
Puzzled: I guess that is what I’m saying.
Mother Church: Well, the Church says the same thing about sex. Good sexual desire harmonizes with what sexual intercourse is for, and bad sexual desire is out of harmony with what sexual intercourse is for.
Puzzled: So what is sexual intercourse for?
Mother Church: What do you think? What does it bring about that nothing else can bring about?
Puzzled: Children, obviously. So you’re saying the purpose is procreation?
Mother Church: Yes, if you understand that term the right way. It means making families, turning the wheel of the generations. And one of the elements in turning that wheel is uniting husbands and wives in the special kind of love that helps them become mothers and fathers. The Church calls these two good things the “procreative good” and the “unitive good.”
Puzzled: I get your point that same-sex intercourse isn’t procreative. But you also mentioned love. Can’t two people of the same sex love each other?
Mother Church: Sure. Don’t you have any friends of the same sex?
Puzzled: That’s not what I meant. I meant sexual love.
Mother Church: Aren’t you assuming that sexual intercourse makes all love better?
Puzzled: Doesn’t it?
Mother Church: You tell me. Do you think it improves the love between a father and his daughter, or between a teacher and his student, or between two brothers?
Puzzled: No. I think it distorts and injures those loves.
Mother Church: The Church thinks so too. It distorts and injures those loves because it introduces a motive that doesn’t belong in them. But that motive does belong in the love of the husband and wife, because procreative partnership is what their love is all about.
Puzzled: So you’re saying that the love of the husband and wife is the only kind of love that becomes better and more complete through sexual intercourse.
Mother Church: That’s exactly what I’m saying.
Puzzled: Well, I guess I can see that. But still, if two men or two women want to get married, what business is it of anyone else? Why shouldn’t the law let them?
Mother Church: Would you agree with me that the law shouldn’t lie? Calling a same-sex relationship a marriage is a lie, because it’s impossible for it ever to be procreative.
Puzzled: I see that too -- but still, if two people want to call their relationship a marriage even if it isn’t one, what’s the harm? Who does it hurt?
Mother Church: To answer that question I have to ask you another. Why does the law take an interest in marriage in the first place?
Puzzled: For the sake of families. Mostly to safeguard the interests of children.
Mother Church: I agree. But what principle would the law teach if it offered the legal status of so-called marriage to relationships which are incapable of generating families?
Puzzled: I guess it would teach that marriage and family have nothing to do with each other.
Mother Church: Do you think that would that be good for families?
Puzzled: Why, I think it would be terrible for them.
Mother Church: There you go.
To learn more about the Church’s teaching on same-sex marriage, visit www.usccb.org.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Saturday, April 18, 2015
In the Holy Eucharist, “Dominus Est”…It is truly the Risen Lord we are dealing with.
Although it is two weeks after Easter, we continue to celebrate the Historical Resurrection of the Lord. Reading accounts of the Resurrection for three weeks in a row may seem a bit excessive; however, Holy Mother the Church to strengthen our faith and hope, wants to tell us clearly, that the Resurrection truly occurred and that it is the most important historical event in the history of mankind. It is the one event that gives every human life meaning. It is the one historic event that gives meaning to every event in our own individual lives, and that especially gives meaning, hope and dare I say, even Joy to human suffering and human death.
Suffering and death are all around us; we hear about them every day. It seems in our modern day we hear of suffering and death more than ever before. Perhaps, some of us are suffering right now, maybe even facing the possibility of our own death soon or suffering from the loss of someone we loved. Maybe there is someone here right now who has lost hope. Well, the antidote to loss of hope is faith; faith in the Resurrection. In fact, faith in the Resurrection is the only thing that gives us hope; it renews the whole world in hope.
Our Gospel today from the Gospel of St. Luke is about this faith in the resurrection and the resulting hope. We continue the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples had recognized Jesus in the “Breaking of the Bread”; which was always a euphemism in the early Church for the Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist. It was never about just a meal of fellowship were we “break bread together and enjoy one another’s friendship, chatting with one another about the things of this world. No, Breaking Bread always referred to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Sacred Priesthood, makes truly present in time, the passion, death, and resurrection of the Risen Lord; and so, which also makes present His very person, in His resurrected body, in our midst in the Holy Eucharist so we may have hope.
We see this in the Gospel today. After the disciples on the Road to Emmaus recognize Jesus in the breaking of the Bread, in other words, after they recognize Him in the Holy Eucharist, the disciples run back to give witness to hope. Jesus is truly alive “We have seen the Lord in the Holy Eucharist.” The Holy Eucharist is our hope.
In midst of trying to explain what had happened to them, Jesus suddenly appears to them all. And He says to them “Peace be with you.” Jesus knew how troubled and afraid they were. The door was locked; was it just the door to the room that was locked, or was the lock door a symbol of their closed minds and hearts to faith in the resurrection. After all, they did not know if they would be next to die a cruel death. The images of Jesus crucified were still too horrible to think about; their feelings of grief and sadness stifling, the darkness overwhelming; they were at the point of despair. And then in the midst of all of this, Jesus appears to them to strengthen their faith and their hope.
Notice the realism of all the Gospel passages after the Resurrection. The Evangelists take great pains to point out that what they encounter was not a ghost, was not a phantom, was not some spiritual resurrection in their hearts and minds, but it was real, physical, bodily, historical Resurrection. The body that appear to the disciples, now living, was the same body identical body they saw tortured, hanging dead on the cross and place lifeless in the sepulcher.
Jesus appears and shows them all his terrible wounds; he too has passed through the dark night of anguished and suffering. Even more he has passed through the dark valley of death itself. He calms their fears and he corrects their error in which they thought were seeing a ghost, for he has passed through death and is now alive; no ghost this One. By the simple acts of allowing the disciples to touch him and to see him do ordinary things like eating shows how much mercy Jesus had for them and for us. He was leading them in a gentle way to exercise the gift of faith they had received from Him.
Jesus then taught them the truth in order to put their minds at ease. He tells them that His suffering and death was in order to conquer sin and so conquer suffering and death. He teaches them that all these things had to come to pass according to the Scriptures, that the Scriptures are reliable for they point to His victory, the victory of Love. These words of Jesus, and His resurrected body truly standing before them, strengthens their faith. Jesus goes on to tell them they will all be his witnesses.
The disciples believed, each one of them cried out; I believe now help my unbelief. The disciples were literally transformed by their assent to the gift of faith offered to them by the resurrected Jesus before them. They accepted what Jesus was telling them and began to witness to their faith once they had received the gift of the power from on high, the great gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. So strong was their faith in the Resurrection of Jesus that most of them went on to witness to the fact of it, with their very lives, rather than deny it.
Jesus today, as he did for the disciples, offers us the gift of an increase of faith and so an increase of hope in the very midst of our fears and struggles. We need this help for the world tries to still our hope by attacking our faith. While the disciples of Jesus in all ages face attacks on their faith in Jesus and their faith in His historical resurrection, in our day more than ever we face fierce attacks on our faith. Hardly a day goes by when an article in the newspaper or a television program doesn’t attack our Christian faith; especially our Catholic Christian faith.
The current post modern man, who now thinks he knows more than any man that ever lived, says proudly the ancient stories of our faith are myths and should be dismissed as only for the weak, the truths of our faith are unscientific. Only poor, unintelligent, ignorant people accept these silly and unreasonable myths and so-called truths and try to impose their morality on other (even though these same people try to impose their reality on us). They try to convince us that our morality, our stand against gay lifestyle and unions, embryonic stem cell research, abortion and euthanasia, are all the result of bigotry, intolerance and bias.
All of these attacks have an effect on us. I don’t think we sometimes realize how detrimental they can be to our faith. It’s easy to say to ourselves “Oh it doesn’t affect me; I have been going to church all my life.” Yet the truth is, these attacks do affect us; they are part of a fierce spiritual war going on, and if we don’t take steps to strengthen our faith, by using our intellect, by studying our faith, the teachings of the Church we will not be able to defend ourselves against these insidious attacks on our Catholic Faith and we will lose our faith; guaranteed. And the worst part about losing your faith is you’re the last person to realize you lost it; and once you’ve lost it, you’ve lost your hope as well.
The only way the early disciples of Jesus survived the attacks on their faith was by allowing Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist in His resurrected body to nourish their faith, had it did in the upper room. They were able to practice their faith with all their strength because they recognized Him in the “Breaking of the Bread.” In other words, they saw him in faith in the Holy Eucharist and lived that faith. They not only went to Holy Mass every Sunday but even every day. And not only that, they spent time with the Resurrection Jesus in the Holy Eucharist every chance they could. It’s been said that the early persecuted Christians, hiding in the Catacombs, used to sleep in the Presence of the Eucharist Lord so that they would receive the nourishment they needed from his true presence to maintain their hope and to resist and stand up to the attacks of against their faith which would come in the form of torture and death.
In this Easter Season, the Church reminds us that Easter is not a day to be celebrated and then forgotten; Easter has to be celebrated always in order to keep our hope alive. Again this is why we celebrated Holy Mass every Sunday, every Sunday is an Easter Sunday!!!
At this Holy Mass and every Mass, our Lord continues to appear in our midst through His true presence in the Holy Eucharist to strengthen our faith, to renew our hope, and to give us peace in our hearts, so that we too can endure the struggles and suffering in our own life. It is a real, physical, bodily appearance, hidden from our sight but no less real then the post-resurrection accounts we hear in the Gospels. In the Holy Eucharist, “Dominus Est”…It is truly the Risen Lord we are dealing with.
In faith, may we always recognize Him in the “Breaking of the Bread.” Then our Lord’s resurrection will be to us the ultimate that His love is victorious, not only in the world but in our hearts. The Resurrection will not just be something that happened in history, but a real event that continues to happen in this Sacrament of love. The Holy Mass makes present the power of the Resurrection and the hope it brings available to us in the here and now; we who are so frighten and afraid and so weak in the here and now.
May we accept the Holy Eucharist in faith, and may its power of love, the victory of love, truly envelope us today and transform us. And with the help of our Heavenly Mother, may we witness to, even unto death, to the hope we hold in our hearts, by our faithful living out our faith in the Resurrection, by living faithfully our beautiful Catholic Faith.
Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! Christ is Risen! He is Truly Risen! And He is truly present in His resurrected body for us in the Holy Eucharist!!!
.
Suffering and death are all around us; we hear about them every day. It seems in our modern day we hear of suffering and death more than ever before. Perhaps, some of us are suffering right now, maybe even facing the possibility of our own death soon or suffering from the loss of someone we loved. Maybe there is someone here right now who has lost hope. Well, the antidote to loss of hope is faith; faith in the Resurrection. In fact, faith in the Resurrection is the only thing that gives us hope; it renews the whole world in hope.
Our Gospel today from the Gospel of St. Luke is about this faith in the resurrection and the resulting hope. We continue the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples had recognized Jesus in the “Breaking of the Bread”; which was always a euphemism in the early Church for the Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist. It was never about just a meal of fellowship were we “break bread together and enjoy one another’s friendship, chatting with one another about the things of this world. No, Breaking Bread always referred to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Sacred Priesthood, makes truly present in time, the passion, death, and resurrection of the Risen Lord; and so, which also makes present His very person, in His resurrected body, in our midst in the Holy Eucharist so we may have hope.
We see this in the Gospel today. After the disciples on the Road to Emmaus recognize Jesus in the breaking of the Bread, in other words, after they recognize Him in the Holy Eucharist, the disciples run back to give witness to hope. Jesus is truly alive “We have seen the Lord in the Holy Eucharist.” The Holy Eucharist is our hope.
In midst of trying to explain what had happened to them, Jesus suddenly appears to them all. And He says to them “Peace be with you.” Jesus knew how troubled and afraid they were. The door was locked; was it just the door to the room that was locked, or was the lock door a symbol of their closed minds and hearts to faith in the resurrection. After all, they did not know if they would be next to die a cruel death. The images of Jesus crucified were still too horrible to think about; their feelings of grief and sadness stifling, the darkness overwhelming; they were at the point of despair. And then in the midst of all of this, Jesus appears to them to strengthen their faith and their hope.
Notice the realism of all the Gospel passages after the Resurrection. The Evangelists take great pains to point out that what they encounter was not a ghost, was not a phantom, was not some spiritual resurrection in their hearts and minds, but it was real, physical, bodily, historical Resurrection. The body that appear to the disciples, now living, was the same body identical body they saw tortured, hanging dead on the cross and place lifeless in the sepulcher.
Jesus appears and shows them all his terrible wounds; he too has passed through the dark night of anguished and suffering. Even more he has passed through the dark valley of death itself. He calms their fears and he corrects their error in which they thought were seeing a ghost, for he has passed through death and is now alive; no ghost this One. By the simple acts of allowing the disciples to touch him and to see him do ordinary things like eating shows how much mercy Jesus had for them and for us. He was leading them in a gentle way to exercise the gift of faith they had received from Him.
Jesus then taught them the truth in order to put their minds at ease. He tells them that His suffering and death was in order to conquer sin and so conquer suffering and death. He teaches them that all these things had to come to pass according to the Scriptures, that the Scriptures are reliable for they point to His victory, the victory of Love. These words of Jesus, and His resurrected body truly standing before them, strengthens their faith. Jesus goes on to tell them they will all be his witnesses.
The disciples believed, each one of them cried out; I believe now help my unbelief. The disciples were literally transformed by their assent to the gift of faith offered to them by the resurrected Jesus before them. They accepted what Jesus was telling them and began to witness to their faith once they had received the gift of the power from on high, the great gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. So strong was their faith in the Resurrection of Jesus that most of them went on to witness to the fact of it, with their very lives, rather than deny it.
Jesus today, as he did for the disciples, offers us the gift of an increase of faith and so an increase of hope in the very midst of our fears and struggles. We need this help for the world tries to still our hope by attacking our faith. While the disciples of Jesus in all ages face attacks on their faith in Jesus and their faith in His historical resurrection, in our day more than ever we face fierce attacks on our faith. Hardly a day goes by when an article in the newspaper or a television program doesn’t attack our Christian faith; especially our Catholic Christian faith.
The current post modern man, who now thinks he knows more than any man that ever lived, says proudly the ancient stories of our faith are myths and should be dismissed as only for the weak, the truths of our faith are unscientific. Only poor, unintelligent, ignorant people accept these silly and unreasonable myths and so-called truths and try to impose their morality on other (even though these same people try to impose their reality on us). They try to convince us that our morality, our stand against gay lifestyle and unions, embryonic stem cell research, abortion and euthanasia, are all the result of bigotry, intolerance and bias.
All of these attacks have an effect on us. I don’t think we sometimes realize how detrimental they can be to our faith. It’s easy to say to ourselves “Oh it doesn’t affect me; I have been going to church all my life.” Yet the truth is, these attacks do affect us; they are part of a fierce spiritual war going on, and if we don’t take steps to strengthen our faith, by using our intellect, by studying our faith, the teachings of the Church we will not be able to defend ourselves against these insidious attacks on our Catholic Faith and we will lose our faith; guaranteed. And the worst part about losing your faith is you’re the last person to realize you lost it; and once you’ve lost it, you’ve lost your hope as well.
The only way the early disciples of Jesus survived the attacks on their faith was by allowing Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist in His resurrected body to nourish their faith, had it did in the upper room. They were able to practice their faith with all their strength because they recognized Him in the “Breaking of the Bread.” In other words, they saw him in faith in the Holy Eucharist and lived that faith. They not only went to Holy Mass every Sunday but even every day. And not only that, they spent time with the Resurrection Jesus in the Holy Eucharist every chance they could. It’s been said that the early persecuted Christians, hiding in the Catacombs, used to sleep in the Presence of the Eucharist Lord so that they would receive the nourishment they needed from his true presence to maintain their hope and to resist and stand up to the attacks of against their faith which would come in the form of torture and death.
In this Easter Season, the Church reminds us that Easter is not a day to be celebrated and then forgotten; Easter has to be celebrated always in order to keep our hope alive. Again this is why we celebrated Holy Mass every Sunday, every Sunday is an Easter Sunday!!!
At this Holy Mass and every Mass, our Lord continues to appear in our midst through His true presence in the Holy Eucharist to strengthen our faith, to renew our hope, and to give us peace in our hearts, so that we too can endure the struggles and suffering in our own life. It is a real, physical, bodily appearance, hidden from our sight but no less real then the post-resurrection accounts we hear in the Gospels. In the Holy Eucharist, “Dominus Est”…It is truly the Risen Lord we are dealing with.
In faith, may we always recognize Him in the “Breaking of the Bread.” Then our Lord’s resurrection will be to us the ultimate that His love is victorious, not only in the world but in our hearts. The Resurrection will not just be something that happened in history, but a real event that continues to happen in this Sacrament of love. The Holy Mass makes present the power of the Resurrection and the hope it brings available to us in the here and now; we who are so frighten and afraid and so weak in the here and now.
May we accept the Holy Eucharist in faith, and may its power of love, the victory of love, truly envelope us today and transform us. And with the help of our Heavenly Mother, may we witness to, even unto death, to the hope we hold in our hearts, by our faithful living out our faith in the Resurrection, by living faithfully our beautiful Catholic Faith.
Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! Christ is Risen! He is Truly Risen! And He is truly present in His resurrected body for us in the Holy Eucharist!!!
.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Let us pray for the repose of Cardinal George. May he rest in peace!
“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” (Cardinal George)
“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” (Cardinal George)
Newman can also help us “read” the post–Vatican II situation in which the Church finds herself because he knew, in the late nineteenth century, that trouble was brewing: “The trials that lie before us,” he preached in 1873, “are such as would appall and make dizzy even such courageous hearts as St. Athanasius, St. Gregory I, or St. Gregory VII.” Why? Because a world tone-deaf to the supernatural—which Newman saw coming—would be a world in which Catholics were seen as “the enemies . . . of civil liberties and of human progress.”
Sound familiar? (From a article in "First Things" entitle NEWMAN AND VATICAN II by George Weigel
Sound familiar? (From a article in "First Things" entitle NEWMAN AND VATICAN II by George Weigel
Sunday, April 12, 2015
In the Holy Eucharist, Mercy Himself, give us Himself--Mercy!
Today as many of you know we celebrate one of the newest feasts in the Church…today we celebrate the “Feast of Divine Mercy.” This is the day that Jesus promised, through his private revelations to St. Faustina, to open the flood gates of His mercy to repentant sinners. And on this years feast of mercy, there is an extraordinary proclamation. Pope Francis has announced a “Holy Year of Mercy,” which will begin on December 8th, of this year. An unfathomable grace just when the world needs it most.
Celebrating God’s mercy on this first Sunday after Easter is not a new ideal however; this Sunday has always been centered on God’s Mercy, for “His mercy endures forever!” The longer I am a priest the more deeply I am convinced that we are all in need of God’s mercy, from the greatest sinner to the greatest saint. We can, none of us, heal ourselves--save ourselves…it is all the mercy of God, nobody is good enough!!! Only with the Mercy of God can we be victorious over the world.
The Mercy of God is indeed offered to all, but not all receive the Mercy of God. Only those who realized they are need of the Mercy of God can receive it; that is, only those who recognized they are sinners in great need of mercy and so confess their sins. And additionally, only those who are willing to give mercy to others can receive mercy…This is what we pray for in the Our Father…to receive forgiveness, that is mercy, to the extant we forgive, that is show mercy to others; and showing mercy to others by carrying out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and treating all with justice and so mercy. Having received the Mercy of God ourselves, we are called to be instruments of God’s Divine Mercy to others.
Jesus, our Risen Savior, is present to us now, not as Divine Judge, but as Divine Mercy. Later, at the end of our lives and at the end of the world He will comes as Divine Judge but now He is only Merciful Savior. To often, I think, many treat Him as a divine judge and so are afraid or unwilling to turn to His mercy. Others have convinced themselves they are no longer in need of God’s mercy, that is only for those “others” who they thank God they are not like. But now is the time of mercy; the time of justice is coming so let us be open to God’s mercy now and so repent and seek His forgiveness for our sins with sorrow and a firm purpose of amendment to change our lives, with His help of course.
To be open too and to receive the mercy of God is really too be open to and receive the love of God. This requires of course that we respond to this Love of God by believing in Him and His only Son Jesus. This faith in Jesus as the only Son of the Father is not however, just believing that He exists, but it is also living out what we believe by faithfully following His Commandments with the help of His grace.
Faith is really believing in all of the teachings of His Holy Church and striving, again with the help of grace, to live those teachings out with charity in our daily lives. And His Commandments, the teachings of His Holy Church, are not burdensome, for those who are begotten of God, for those who love God…for His yoke is easy and His burden light.
Our Holy Gospel, and our Catholic Faith, reminds us that ultimately the Mercy of God is not a thing, but a Divine Person. Mercy has a name and that name is Jesus!!! Jesus, Himself is the Mercy of God incarnate in the flesh…He is the Mercy of God come to earth; and His is the Mercy of God still on earth in the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is then the Mercy of God; It is not a something, but a Someone—Jesus-Mercy…and so to open ourselves to God’s Mercy is to open ourselves up, in faith, to Jesus’ true presence in the Holy Eucharist…this is ultimately what it means to believe in the Father’s only begotten Son; it is to believe that the Holy Eucharist is Him—Jesus, the Divine Mercy of the Father and so the source of all mercy.
The image of Divine Mercy that Jesus ask to painted is one of the most popular images of Jesus in the Church today…but again it is not a new Image…It is the same image as the image of the Sacred of Heart of Jesus. Both of these images of Jesus, “Divine Mercy” and the “Sacred Heart,” are really an image of the Holy Eucharist…that is what Jesus looks like in the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist contains the Resurrected Body of the Lord, a wounded body that still bears the nails in the hands and the pierce side and heart, wounded for our transgressions.
Of course, if we really could see what Jesus fully looks like in the Holy Eucharist we would die of Joy, for it would to be see what Jesus looks like in heaven…it would be to see the very face of God…the Beatific Vision, our Ultimate Goal….After St. Faustina, had the image painted of what Jesus first showed her, she was greatly disappointed. But she realized that it was the best that we could portray on this earth. What she saw was so much more, beautiful. Yet even what she saw was merely as minuscule peak into that which “eye has not seen nor ear heard…;” namely, Jesus in His glorified human body with the glory of His Human soul and His divine nature shining through. We actually look on this Sacred Beauty whenever we look at the Holy Eucharist; this is why it must be veiled under the appearances of bread and wine, for we could not fully look upon Jesus present there and live.
Our feast today reveals to us the love, and so the mercy of our God. A love and mercy that is still with us, still available to us, in and through the Sacraments of the Church; especially, the Most Blessed of All sacraments the Holy Eucharist. In all the Great Sacraments God continues to touch us with His mercy…;but in the Holy Eucharist, Mercy Himself, give us Himself--Mercy!
Baptism gives us the capacity to receive God’s mercy in all of the other sacraments…In confession we are healed of the times we rejected God’s commandments and so failed to love Him and neighbor. And healed by confession, with our baptismal grace restored and strengthened, we can receive more fully Mercy in the flesh in Holy Eucharist and so be empowered with Divine Power so as to Love more perfectly, dare I say divinely. In the Sacraments we can, if we are properly disposed in faith, receive the divine strength to live the Commandments more faithfully; especially the greatest Commandment, to love God and one another with the very Love that God has for each one of us-to mercy to others.
When we behold the Mercy of God in just a little while as the Holy Eucharist is held up for us let us, like St. Thomas, cry out, “My Lord and My God!” Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is literally God standing in our midst and offering us His Peace…a Peace not that the world can give but only that the Holy Eucharist can give. Let us not be unbelieving but believing. For blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.
And finally this Sunday, let us remember to pray for the dispensers of God’s Mercy—His priests…those on whom He continues to breathe the Holy Spirit in order, “whose sins they forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins they retain are retained,” in the Sacrament of Confession. Let us pray for the priests who bring us the Holy Eucharist, the very Mercy of the Father, by offering the Holy Mass through the power of the same Holy Spirit given to them on the day of their Ordination.
And let us pray for all souls, especially those sinners who are in most need of God’s mercy…O God in whom Mercy is endless and the treasury of Compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase your Mercy in us, that I difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to You Holy Will, Which is love and Mercy itself. Jesus I trust in Thee….Jesus I trust in Thee….Jesus I trust in Thee.. Let us invoke the intercession of Our Lady who held in her arms; the Mercy of God made man…(Pope Francis. Angelus address St Peter’s Square. 17 March 2013). May she, the Mother of the Holy Eucharist, help us to understand God wants to use us to bring His Mercy into our sinful world. Dear Holy Mother help us to offer ourselves fully at this Holy Mass so that we may be transformed into instruments and images of God’s Divine Mercy for our families, neighbors and our world….
Celebrating God’s mercy on this first Sunday after Easter is not a new ideal however; this Sunday has always been centered on God’s Mercy, for “His mercy endures forever!” The longer I am a priest the more deeply I am convinced that we are all in need of God’s mercy, from the greatest sinner to the greatest saint. We can, none of us, heal ourselves--save ourselves…it is all the mercy of God, nobody is good enough!!! Only with the Mercy of God can we be victorious over the world.
The Mercy of God is indeed offered to all, but not all receive the Mercy of God. Only those who realized they are need of the Mercy of God can receive it; that is, only those who recognized they are sinners in great need of mercy and so confess their sins. And additionally, only those who are willing to give mercy to others can receive mercy…This is what we pray for in the Our Father…to receive forgiveness, that is mercy, to the extant we forgive, that is show mercy to others; and showing mercy to others by carrying out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and treating all with justice and so mercy. Having received the Mercy of God ourselves, we are called to be instruments of God’s Divine Mercy to others.
Jesus, our Risen Savior, is present to us now, not as Divine Judge, but as Divine Mercy. Later, at the end of our lives and at the end of the world He will comes as Divine Judge but now He is only Merciful Savior. To often, I think, many treat Him as a divine judge and so are afraid or unwilling to turn to His mercy. Others have convinced themselves they are no longer in need of God’s mercy, that is only for those “others” who they thank God they are not like. But now is the time of mercy; the time of justice is coming so let us be open to God’s mercy now and so repent and seek His forgiveness for our sins with sorrow and a firm purpose of amendment to change our lives, with His help of course.
To be open too and to receive the mercy of God is really too be open to and receive the love of God. This requires of course that we respond to this Love of God by believing in Him and His only Son Jesus. This faith in Jesus as the only Son of the Father is not however, just believing that He exists, but it is also living out what we believe by faithfully following His Commandments with the help of His grace.
Faith is really believing in all of the teachings of His Holy Church and striving, again with the help of grace, to live those teachings out with charity in our daily lives. And His Commandments, the teachings of His Holy Church, are not burdensome, for those who are begotten of God, for those who love God…for His yoke is easy and His burden light.
Our Holy Gospel, and our Catholic Faith, reminds us that ultimately the Mercy of God is not a thing, but a Divine Person. Mercy has a name and that name is Jesus!!! Jesus, Himself is the Mercy of God incarnate in the flesh…He is the Mercy of God come to earth; and His is the Mercy of God still on earth in the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is then the Mercy of God; It is not a something, but a Someone—Jesus-Mercy…and so to open ourselves to God’s Mercy is to open ourselves up, in faith, to Jesus’ true presence in the Holy Eucharist…this is ultimately what it means to believe in the Father’s only begotten Son; it is to believe that the Holy Eucharist is Him—Jesus, the Divine Mercy of the Father and so the source of all mercy.
The image of Divine Mercy that Jesus ask to painted is one of the most popular images of Jesus in the Church today…but again it is not a new Image…It is the same image as the image of the Sacred of Heart of Jesus. Both of these images of Jesus, “Divine Mercy” and the “Sacred Heart,” are really an image of the Holy Eucharist…that is what Jesus looks like in the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist contains the Resurrected Body of the Lord, a wounded body that still bears the nails in the hands and the pierce side and heart, wounded for our transgressions.
Of course, if we really could see what Jesus fully looks like in the Holy Eucharist we would die of Joy, for it would to be see what Jesus looks like in heaven…it would be to see the very face of God…the Beatific Vision, our Ultimate Goal….After St. Faustina, had the image painted of what Jesus first showed her, she was greatly disappointed. But she realized that it was the best that we could portray on this earth. What she saw was so much more, beautiful. Yet even what she saw was merely as minuscule peak into that which “eye has not seen nor ear heard…;” namely, Jesus in His glorified human body with the glory of His Human soul and His divine nature shining through. We actually look on this Sacred Beauty whenever we look at the Holy Eucharist; this is why it must be veiled under the appearances of bread and wine, for we could not fully look upon Jesus present there and live.
Our feast today reveals to us the love, and so the mercy of our God. A love and mercy that is still with us, still available to us, in and through the Sacraments of the Church; especially, the Most Blessed of All sacraments the Holy Eucharist. In all the Great Sacraments God continues to touch us with His mercy…;but in the Holy Eucharist, Mercy Himself, give us Himself--Mercy!
Baptism gives us the capacity to receive God’s mercy in all of the other sacraments…In confession we are healed of the times we rejected God’s commandments and so failed to love Him and neighbor. And healed by confession, with our baptismal grace restored and strengthened, we can receive more fully Mercy in the flesh in Holy Eucharist and so be empowered with Divine Power so as to Love more perfectly, dare I say divinely. In the Sacraments we can, if we are properly disposed in faith, receive the divine strength to live the Commandments more faithfully; especially the greatest Commandment, to love God and one another with the very Love that God has for each one of us-to mercy to others.
When we behold the Mercy of God in just a little while as the Holy Eucharist is held up for us let us, like St. Thomas, cry out, “My Lord and My God!” Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is literally God standing in our midst and offering us His Peace…a Peace not that the world can give but only that the Holy Eucharist can give. Let us not be unbelieving but believing. For blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.
And finally this Sunday, let us remember to pray for the dispensers of God’s Mercy—His priests…those on whom He continues to breathe the Holy Spirit in order, “whose sins they forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins they retain are retained,” in the Sacrament of Confession. Let us pray for the priests who bring us the Holy Eucharist, the very Mercy of the Father, by offering the Holy Mass through the power of the same Holy Spirit given to them on the day of their Ordination.
And let us pray for all souls, especially those sinners who are in most need of God’s mercy…O God in whom Mercy is endless and the treasury of Compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase your Mercy in us, that I difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to You Holy Will, Which is love and Mercy itself. Jesus I trust in Thee….Jesus I trust in Thee….Jesus I trust in Thee.. Let us invoke the intercession of Our Lady who held in her arms; the Mercy of God made man…(Pope Francis. Angelus address St Peter’s Square. 17 March 2013). May she, the Mother of the Holy Eucharist, help us to understand God wants to use us to bring His Mercy into our sinful world. Dear Holy Mother help us to offer ourselves fully at this Holy Mass so that we may be transformed into instruments and images of God’s Divine Mercy for our families, neighbors and our world….
Thursday, April 2, 2015
On Holy Thursday, also known as Maundy Thursday because of Christ's command (mandatum in Latin) that we should love one another with a demanding, even a demeaning love, as crouching to wash the feet of faithless friends who will abandon you in your darkest hour. But there is much more to the washing of the feet than just our love for one another in service. The washing of the feet is all about the priesthood of Jesus Christ and those whom He has called to share in that priesthood in order to continue Jesus’ healing and salvific work in the world.
It's important to know that Priests in the Old Testament were ordained by the pouring of a special oil, over the head and the hands; the oil contained the power of God in order to make ordinary men, priest of the most high God. Each time they enter into the temple area reserved for priest, because it had the Altar of Holocaust, they had to washed. Only priests could offer the sacrifices of the Old Covenant and only priests that washed, purified, could enter into the temple area where the sacrifices were offered.
As Jesus washed the feet of the twelve, they understood that something more than just a gesture of humility was going on. It was humility yes, Divine Humility; but even more so, Jesus was about to take his first twelve "seminarians" and teach them how to offer Holy Mass. And by the Laying on of His Hands, Jesus was to make them His priests during the first Holy Mass offered in that upper room during this night, Holy Thursday night. By doing so, Jesus, gave them His own divine power to make truly present Jesus and His sacrifice throughout the ages in order to lead men and woman into communion with the Blessed Trinity.
Jesus would now confer the Sacraments of the New Covenant on God’s people by, through and with the hands of the Priest. This is by the way, Peter says to Jesus, why stop at our feet, why not wash our heads and hands as well. Peter understood this washing of the feet to be connected to the priesthood. He knew that Jesus was about to make them priests of the New Covenant. (This why only men should have their feet washed and why we should encourage our young boys to serve at the altar).
So today is the day that we celebrate Jesus instituting those whose feet he washed, as priests of New Covenant, giving them His own divine power in order to change ordinary bread and wine, through the miracle of Transubstantiation, into His own Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity—is very self. Jesus also gave them the power, His own power to offer anew to His Father throughout the ages, His once and for all saving sacrifice which He was about to undergo in Jerusalem.
By saying to His Apostles, "Do this in commemoration of me," and by the laying on of the hands, Jesus instituted the Holy priesthood, without which there can be no Eucharist and so no possibility of us reaching heaven—“unless you eat my body…!” The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass literally represents, that is make present again and again, in a sacramental way (that is really present under the appearance of sacramental signs), the once and for all sin-forgiving and life-giving Sacrifice of Christ and its power to save us. We for our part must have faith in order to receive its life-saving grace.
This is the deepest meaning of service that Jesus spoke to the twelve. They as the new priests of the new and everlasting covenant, along with the priests to come, were to serve the people of God by providing them with the very Sacrament of salvation—The Holy Mass. It is the Holy Mass which makes present truly before and for the people of God, Jesus own self-same sacrifice of Calvary and His truly body, blood, soul and divinity. More than just offering the Holy Mass, the first twelve priest and every one ordained after them were supposed to, in imitation of the Master, lay down their lives in order for Jesus to continue His work of redemption through them.
And so every priest must identify himself with Jesus as he offers such a sublime sacrifice. Every priest must be willing to walk the way of sorrows with Jesus; every priest must be willing to be hung on that cross, if he is to share in the fruits of the sacrifice of Jesus that he offers on a daily basis. How weak we priest are; how can we walk beside Jesus; how can we avoid leaving his side on his path to Calvary as the twelve did, except for John. For sure every priest needs the prayers, the support and the love of his people in order to follow the great High Priest, Jesus Christ to the cross in order to save His people.
If a priest does this with great love and holiness he will suffer at the hands of the faithless just as did the Great High Priest Jesus Christ, for the servant is not greater than the master (comment on our Holy Father's persecution). And sadly, and this is the great mystery of each priest and his personal, intimate, and mystical connection with the suffering and crucified Christ, he, the priest, will suffer at the hands of his own, for his own. The priest, if he is faithful, will suffer by the Church, for the Church. As Jesus came among His own and His own received Him not, so to the faithful priest. Oh how we need to pray for the priest.
While not all are called to the priesthood, all are called to live their live in imitation of Jesus, the Master. And so every person that attends Mass, must along with the priest, Sacrifice of himself in union with the Sacrifice of Jesus; every person must to must be willing to offer himself in sacrifice as well. This is the meaning of the service that Jesus speaks…No greater love is there than this….than a man lay down his life AT THE MASS for the sake of his friends. This is the true call of the laity of the Second Vatican Council.
In order to help us offer ourselves in love, Jesus continues to offer Himself to us and to give us Himself for our food. Jesus continues through the Sacred Priesthood to offer his life for us; Through the Sacred Priesthood He continues to feed us with his flesh and blood, to fill us and consume us with His love so that we can possess and be possessed by the God who is Love, becoming one with Him at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb which is the Holy Mass. We then can carry out our service to lead others, to evangelize others to Jesus Christ the head who comes to us in in the person of the Priest (in persona Christi et capitis).
Let us, tonight on Holy Thursday, thank God for the inseparable gifts of the Eucharist and the priesthood. Without the Eucharist there would be no priesthood and without the priesthood there would be no Eucharist; and without the Eucharist there could be no salvation.
The Eucharist is not a thing, “Dominus Est” “It is the Lord.” Let us Adore our Lord truly present in the Blessed Sacrament as He is carried in solemn procession, from the altar of repose to the place reposition which is the Garden of Gethsemane. Let us hear the Lord say to us as he said to his friends, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me." Let us spend time with Him truly present in the tabernacle on the eve of his passion and death—And when he says to us“ Could you not spend one hour with me?” Let us say in return, “Yes we can Lord, with the help of your grace for we love you truly present in the Holy Eucharist the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar!”
If we give Jesus our yes, our whole selves in love, even through we pass by way of the cross, we too will surely share in the victory and the Joy of His Resurrection.
Holy Mary, Mother of all priests, Mother of the Holy Eucharist, pray for us, pray for me....
It's important to know that Priests in the Old Testament were ordained by the pouring of a special oil, over the head and the hands; the oil contained the power of God in order to make ordinary men, priest of the most high God. Each time they enter into the temple area reserved for priest, because it had the Altar of Holocaust, they had to washed. Only priests could offer the sacrifices of the Old Covenant and only priests that washed, purified, could enter into the temple area where the sacrifices were offered.
As Jesus washed the feet of the twelve, they understood that something more than just a gesture of humility was going on. It was humility yes, Divine Humility; but even more so, Jesus was about to take his first twelve "seminarians" and teach them how to offer Holy Mass. And by the Laying on of His Hands, Jesus was to make them His priests during the first Holy Mass offered in that upper room during this night, Holy Thursday night. By doing so, Jesus, gave them His own divine power to make truly present Jesus and His sacrifice throughout the ages in order to lead men and woman into communion with the Blessed Trinity.
Jesus would now confer the Sacraments of the New Covenant on God’s people by, through and with the hands of the Priest. This is by the way, Peter says to Jesus, why stop at our feet, why not wash our heads and hands as well. Peter understood this washing of the feet to be connected to the priesthood. He knew that Jesus was about to make them priests of the New Covenant. (This why only men should have their feet washed and why we should encourage our young boys to serve at the altar).
So today is the day that we celebrate Jesus instituting those whose feet he washed, as priests of New Covenant, giving them His own divine power in order to change ordinary bread and wine, through the miracle of Transubstantiation, into His own Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity—is very self. Jesus also gave them the power, His own power to offer anew to His Father throughout the ages, His once and for all saving sacrifice which He was about to undergo in Jerusalem.
By saying to His Apostles, "Do this in commemoration of me," and by the laying on of the hands, Jesus instituted the Holy priesthood, without which there can be no Eucharist and so no possibility of us reaching heaven—“unless you eat my body…!” The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass literally represents, that is make present again and again, in a sacramental way (that is really present under the appearance of sacramental signs), the once and for all sin-forgiving and life-giving Sacrifice of Christ and its power to save us. We for our part must have faith in order to receive its life-saving grace.
This is the deepest meaning of service that Jesus spoke to the twelve. They as the new priests of the new and everlasting covenant, along with the priests to come, were to serve the people of God by providing them with the very Sacrament of salvation—The Holy Mass. It is the Holy Mass which makes present truly before and for the people of God, Jesus own self-same sacrifice of Calvary and His truly body, blood, soul and divinity. More than just offering the Holy Mass, the first twelve priest and every one ordained after them were supposed to, in imitation of the Master, lay down their lives in order for Jesus to continue His work of redemption through them.
And so every priest must identify himself with Jesus as he offers such a sublime sacrifice. Every priest must be willing to walk the way of sorrows with Jesus; every priest must be willing to be hung on that cross, if he is to share in the fruits of the sacrifice of Jesus that he offers on a daily basis. How weak we priest are; how can we walk beside Jesus; how can we avoid leaving his side on his path to Calvary as the twelve did, except for John. For sure every priest needs the prayers, the support and the love of his people in order to follow the great High Priest, Jesus Christ to the cross in order to save His people.
If a priest does this with great love and holiness he will suffer at the hands of the faithless just as did the Great High Priest Jesus Christ, for the servant is not greater than the master (comment on our Holy Father's persecution). And sadly, and this is the great mystery of each priest and his personal, intimate, and mystical connection with the suffering and crucified Christ, he, the priest, will suffer at the hands of his own, for his own. The priest, if he is faithful, will suffer by the Church, for the Church. As Jesus came among His own and His own received Him not, so to the faithful priest. Oh how we need to pray for the priest.
While not all are called to the priesthood, all are called to live their live in imitation of Jesus, the Master. And so every person that attends Mass, must along with the priest, Sacrifice of himself in union with the Sacrifice of Jesus; every person must to must be willing to offer himself in sacrifice as well. This is the meaning of the service that Jesus speaks…No greater love is there than this….than a man lay down his life AT THE MASS for the sake of his friends. This is the true call of the laity of the Second Vatican Council.
In order to help us offer ourselves in love, Jesus continues to offer Himself to us and to give us Himself for our food. Jesus continues through the Sacred Priesthood to offer his life for us; Through the Sacred Priesthood He continues to feed us with his flesh and blood, to fill us and consume us with His love so that we can possess and be possessed by the God who is Love, becoming one with Him at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb which is the Holy Mass. We then can carry out our service to lead others, to evangelize others to Jesus Christ the head who comes to us in in the person of the Priest (in persona Christi et capitis).
Let us, tonight on Holy Thursday, thank God for the inseparable gifts of the Eucharist and the priesthood. Without the Eucharist there would be no priesthood and without the priesthood there would be no Eucharist; and without the Eucharist there could be no salvation.
The Eucharist is not a thing, “Dominus Est” “It is the Lord.” Let us Adore our Lord truly present in the Blessed Sacrament as He is carried in solemn procession, from the altar of repose to the place reposition which is the Garden of Gethsemane. Let us hear the Lord say to us as he said to his friends, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me." Let us spend time with Him truly present in the tabernacle on the eve of his passion and death—And when he says to us“ Could you not spend one hour with me?” Let us say in return, “Yes we can Lord, with the help of your grace for we love you truly present in the Holy Eucharist the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar!”
If we give Jesus our yes, our whole selves in love, even through we pass by way of the cross, we too will surely share in the victory and the Joy of His Resurrection.
Holy Mary, Mother of all priests, Mother of the Holy Eucharist, pray for us, pray for me....
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