Sunday January 13th, Feast of the Holy Family Extraordinary Form.
In today’s Gospel we can wonder how it would be possible for Mary and Joseph to lose Jesus. The answer actually leads us to a deeper understanding of what a healthy family structure in society should look like. And since family is the very foundation of society, and is the domestic Church, its important grow in our understanding of what a healthy family structure should look like.
In the time of Jesus, Mary and Joseph the family in the nation of Israel was understood in a very different way than we understand family today. Family in the
time of the Holy Family was understood in a much broader way. Family was understood in a tribal way. Family was much more than just mom, dad and the kids; family was understood as the whole tribe.
One’s family was made up of aunts, uncles and cousins. In fact in the time of Jesus the Hebrew language didn’t even have a word for cousins; One cousins were considered one’s brother and sisters; hence, the “brothers and sisters” of the Lord. The notion of family also went beyond those who were alive at the time. Family included one’s anscestors and one’s progeny. Members of the family always acted in a way not to bring shame on the ancestors; and actions were measured on how they would affect the members of the family to be born.
Jesus was then able to be lost because Mary and Joseph just assumed he was with the other members of the family; his brothers and sisters, that is the cousins and the rest of the tribe. This tribal notion of family is actually the healthest family structure there is; and societies with this type of stucture are healthy societies. When society starts to fail it is because the tribal family begins to fail. Good Socialogists tell us that the beginning of this failure is for the family to move from a tribal family to a nuclear family structure; that is, to an idea of family merely as mom, dad and the kids; yes cousins and aunts and uncles are there but not they are seperated into their own nuclear family.
History has proven time and time again that once the family becomes a nuclear family it’s only short matter of time before the family collaspes even further. And the last step before the complete breakdown of society is the atomistic family. In this last death gasp of society family becomes merely something for the children to break free of. Mom and dad, especially the dad, are seen as idiots. Children must then break free of such a oppresive structure. Eventually the state tries to take over, even by force, the authority of mom and dad and so the raising and rearing of the children in order to be proper citizens-comrades, party members.
How do we reverse this breakdown of the family structure and so the breakdown of our society that we are witnessing in our own day. Surely now families are more and more moving from the nuclear family to the atomistic family structure (we see this on television-comercials; homor Simpon-dad is portrayed as an idiot and mom not much better. Its clear that in our socity the tribal notion of family died long ago. The Holy Family, of Jesus, Mary and Joseph gives us the lessons and so the answers we need to strengthen our families.
The first lesson and the first in order of importance is that both Our Lady and St. Joseph were open to God's grace and direction in their lives to make everything work out. The Holy Family was a family of prayer, they put the first commandment first--to Love God first and foremost in everything they did. As is always the case with any family “the family the prays together stays together.”
In our age, only families that pray together will survive. Prayer helps the family have a proper order; that is, God and His Will first and foremost in the family’s daily life. By this proper ordering, the husband and wife will have and maintain the mutual respect toward one another and pass this on to their children. The Holy family will help us to pray, to allow our families to enter into a deep union with them and with the child Jesus.
And if this deep union with Jesus is too take place the family must more fully partack of the sacraments of the Church, especially the Holy Eucharist and confession. However, it is confession that I would like to speak on today. As with prayer, couples can only be open to God’s grace and direction in their lives if they are in a state of grace. They realized their failings in loving God and in loving each other and their children and this leads them to seek Gods forgiveness in the Sacrament of forgiveness- confession. Receiving God’s mercy, his forgiveness, his healing, and his grace and help, allows them to forgive each other and themselves for their sins and failures in the family life. A priest must encourage every couple to receive the sacrament of penance, or reconciliation, before their wedding and many, many times after.
How many couples today, because they do not bother with this sacrament of forgiveness, are in mortal sin, beginning on their wedding day; they receive a sacrilegious communion at their wedding Mass; and they go right on for years in mortal sin -- right to the divorce court. They have put up a barrier to God's grace in their individual lives and in their marriage. It is a legal marriage, it is a sacrament, but they don't let Christ work with them. Is it any wonder so many, even "Catholic," marriages are destined to failure, because the door to that marriage is closed to Jesus Christ. Individuals as well as married couples and their children will only be able to practice forgiving one another to the extent they participate in receiving the forgiveness of God in the Sacrament of Confession. Our families are not sinless like the Holy Family, therefore our family life needs the gift of forgiving one another to survive.
The second lesson husbands and wives can learn from Our Lady and St. Joseph, is that of sacrifice for one another and to God in obedience. Neither one of them was forced to go along with God's plan for our redemption; they were obedient to God’s will and law as seen in their going to Jerusalem to fulfill the prescripts of the law. Once they were married, their lives changed drastically. But they were willing to make the sacrifices for one another, and defer to one another when necessary, to make their life together work successfully-they loved and obeyed God and one another.
Too often today, couples don't seem to realize that when they marry, they are called to sacrifice their individual lives, for the good of their relationship and for the good of the family. That's sacrifice for that person were supposed to love more than anyone else. If a person is not willing to make that sacrifice, and many other sacrifices over the years for that other person, a marriage and a family is going to have a lot of difficulties.
And this common life they are undertaking includes children. The couple must sacrifice their individual lives for the sake of children. They must first sacrifice their own desires and wants and be open to all the children that God wishes to bless them with. Marriage was given to us by God, to share in his own life giving love, his own fruitfulness; it is done in obedience with love. Jesus was the center of Mary and Joseph’s lives. Couples that adopt a contraceptive mentality can only damaged themselves individually and collectively by their unwillingness to sacrifice themselves for the sake of children. The contraceptive mentality leads to divorce and family problems and breakups and the contraceptive mentality if it is not reversed, it will go down in history as the cause of the collaspe of Western Civilization.
Finally, St. Joseph and Our Lady must have been each other's best friend. He refused to turn her over to be stoned for adultery. They shared the greatest secret the world has ever known, just between themselves for many years. They were able to wander around Palestine and Egypt alone with their Child for a long time. They were happy to "make do" with what they had, and together be able to adapt to any circumstance. They actually liked one another.
Too often, in marriages based upon romance, when the initial passion fades, the couple realizes that they neither know each other very well, nor like each other very much. Marry your best friend. When a husband and wife are best friends, they are content with one another, and are able to excuse one another's shortcomings and faults. If that marital friendship ever breaks apart, there is still the possibility that it can be repaired, because the foundation upon which that friendship was based is still there. Lots of times best friends fight, sometimes they get so angry with one another that they quit being friends for a time. But if there was once a foundation of friendship, there is always hope for reconciliation. And if a married couple realizes they are not best friends, and never were, with God's grace, and some work on their part, they can learn to become best friends.
And speaking of friendship brings up another point with regards to children. Jesus was obedient to Joseph and Mary. The Son of God became humble and obedient to the very creatures he created, because they were His parents. While husband and wives need to base their relationship on friendship, their relationship with their children must be different. Parents cannot be their children’s friends--their equals, they must be their parents. Children can never repay their parents back for the gift of life and all the sacrifices the parents make for the children, and because of this the children owe their parents respect and admiration. They must learn from Jesus who did not put himself equal with His parents, he was obedient.
But as with the relationship between the husband and wife is nourished by all the things I have already said, so the relationship between the parents and the children must be based on love and mutual respect and be nourished by prayer together and seeking out God’s forgiveness.
While we have much more to learn from the Holy Family these are just a few points although very important ones at that. Openness to God grace through prayer, especially prayer together as a family and confession, Love for each other that demands sacrifice, friendship of the couple with each other, but not with their children in the same sense, these are the lessons we learn today from that very human couple we know as Our Lady and St. Joseph. May their example keep our families strong.
Holy Mary, St. Joseph, pray for us, pray for our families. Child Jesus help us to love you more so that we can love each other more.
(This homily is greatly indebted to Msgr. Petty, R.I.P.)
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Holy Mary, stella Maris, stella orientis—Holy Mary, star of the sea, star of the east pray for us, lead us, and others through us, safely to Jesus. Amen.
Feast of the Epiphany. Sunday January 6th, 2013
Today we continue our Celebration of Christmas—The feast of Hope with the Feast of the Epiphany-the manifestation of God. In this feast, the Nativity of the Lord once again illuminates the darkness that often surrounds our world and our hearts with his light, bringing hope and joy. Where does this light come from? From the stable in Bethlehem, where the shepherds found "Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger" (Lk 2:16). Before this Holy Family, another and deeper question arises: how can the small and weak child have brought such radical novelty to the world to change the course of history? Is there not something mysterious in its origin that goes beyond that stable? (Pope Benedict Angelus Address Jan 1st, 2012)
In this Christmas season, we rejoice in the light, which surrounds Christ’s birth, bringing a hope which transforms our life in this world. Each year our celebration leads us to reflect anew on Jesus’ identity as the only-begotten Son of God, who became man for our salvation. Jesus is truly Emmanuel: "God among us", born of the Virgin Mary. When we profess the mystery of the incarnation in the Creed, we bow our heads in awe and adoration.
(At Christmas,) we acknowledge (anew) that the incarnation is the work of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, brought about through Mary’s free cooperation. The incarnation is the beginning of the new creation. Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is the new Adam who offers humanity rebirth in the waters of Baptism, by which we become sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. (We pray ever more intensely that) during this holy season, we may welcome the Saviour into our hearts, allow God’s power to strengthen and transform our weakness, and bear joyful witness to the dawning of the new creation. (Pope Benedict Angelus Address Jan 1st, 2012)
Today on the feast of Epiphany we ask, who were the wiseman that came to the light and professed in faith that the Christ Child was not only the King of all kings, but God Himself? Were they Astonomers, philosophers, magicians…maybe they were all of these? But whatever else they were, the three wise man were “people of inner unrest, people of hope, people on the lookout for the true star of salvation. They were not just astronomers or philosophers they were wise in the truest sense of the word, they recognized their inner restlessness for something greater than this world and with courage set out to find It, or better yet, Him.”
In a way the Wise men represent all men; and they represent the inner dynamic, the inner desire-restlessness, which can never be fully quenched, of all men toward that which surpasses man; it is a inner search from the heart of man for the true God, not just to know about Him or even to know Him personally but to possess Him and be possessed by Him in love. The wise men represent all of those who would, in every age, come after them and who would be seekers of the truth. This is why the wise men and all “wise” men after them follow the star.
But what was the star of Bethlehem? Was it an astronomical event or was it a supernatural event? There have been many arguments on how the star shown its light to the wise man. What ever the star was physically, the point is, is that “it is not the star that determines the child’s destiny in the manger, it is the child that directs the star.
In other words, Jesus is himself the Star that shines upon the world and determines it’s fate. And so, it also is not the star (or stars) that determine our own destiny, it is the Child that directs our destiny. Human nature now assumed by God—as revealed in God’s only begotten Son—the Christ child in the manger—is greater than all the powers of this material world, greater than the entire universe.
This truth about the Christ Child while a source of hope for us; is also, many times a source of hopeful unrest for us. The wisemen went to Herod to inquire after the newborn “king of the Jews.” We are told Herod was troubled by their questions, and all of Jerusalem was troubled with them.
The birth of the messiah would evitable bring more questioning and eventually bring trial and tribulation to the people of Jerusalem and to the whole world. Who is this Christ Child that was born into our world and causes a disturbance to the supposed peace of this world? The truth is that He is God, the God “who disturbs our comfortable day-to-day existence. Our faith in Him and in His only Begotten Son, is the star of hope-yes; but it can be also a star of disturbance to our daily life, but only to lead us to greater love of Jesus and union with God. This is why Jesus’ kingship goes hand and hand with His Passion (cf. Benedict “The Infancy Narratives, Jesus of Nazareth).
And so the Star even today directs us to the One who gives us hope but does so by disturbing the comfortableness of our daily mediocrity and selfish love; it directs us to the paradox of the cross, the cross which calls us to a daily self-denial and a daily dying to self in order to live for the sake of the other, for love of the other. The other being first, God Himself in Christ Jesus, but then through Him to love our neighbor as Christ loves us.
The Star shines brightly even in our day pointing to our hope—that is, to Jesus and the power of His divinity which helps us to overcome our lack of love and the poverty of our fallen human nature. It reminds us that, “Sometimes, even in the journey and life of faith we can feel our poverty, feel our inadequacy in the face of the witness to offer the world.”
But, the star also reminds us that, God chose a humble woman, in an unknown village, in one of the most distant provinces of the great Roman Empire. Always, even in the midst of the most difficult problems to face, we must trust in God, renewing faith in His presence and action in our history, like in that of Mary. Nothing is impossible with God! With him, our lives always walk on solid ground and are open to a future of firm hope. (Pope Benedict Angelus Address Jan 1st, 2012)
Like the wise men we for our part must come in faith on bended knee and with bended heart and bow down in adoration before the God-Child truly present in the Holy Eucharist; adoring the One who is our holy Hope and placing our complete trust in Him. We must like the wise men bring our gifts and place them before the newborn King.
Just like the wisemen we too are to bring our gifts of gold, incense, and Myrrh. In this case, our gold is the treasures of our heart to be offered to Jesus made present to us in the Eucharist. The Incense we are to offer is the sweet fragrance of our good works, of our little acts of love done each day for the Love of God, our witness to others of our love for God. And what of the Myrrh? The myrrh is the very sacrifice of ourselves, our hearts, all that we have and are, offered to the Heavenly Father as an oblation of love in union with the sacrifice of His only Son made truly present before us.
We like the wisemen also need to turn to the Star of the East, Mary and ask her to help us in our fears and weakness so that in hope and complete trust we may lead others to Jesus in the Eucharist. His True Presence is the antidote for all our anxieties and fears, including pain and death. He is the Bread of Angels that removes our pains, our cares, our worries; He alone brings joy and peace to our soul, he alone satisfies our whole being and gives us true hope. Let us ask Holy Mary who leads us to the Star that is Christ to help us become as stars as well so that our light may lead other men to light of God and His love for them!
Holy Mary, stella Maris, stella orientis—Holy Mary, star of the sea, star of the east pray for us, lead us, and others through us, safely to Jesus. Amen.
Today we continue our Celebration of Christmas—The feast of Hope with the Feast of the Epiphany-the manifestation of God. In this feast, the Nativity of the Lord once again illuminates the darkness that often surrounds our world and our hearts with his light, bringing hope and joy. Where does this light come from? From the stable in Bethlehem, where the shepherds found "Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger" (Lk 2:16). Before this Holy Family, another and deeper question arises: how can the small and weak child have brought such radical novelty to the world to change the course of history? Is there not something mysterious in its origin that goes beyond that stable? (Pope Benedict Angelus Address Jan 1st, 2012)
In this Christmas season, we rejoice in the light, which surrounds Christ’s birth, bringing a hope which transforms our life in this world. Each year our celebration leads us to reflect anew on Jesus’ identity as the only-begotten Son of God, who became man for our salvation. Jesus is truly Emmanuel: "God among us", born of the Virgin Mary. When we profess the mystery of the incarnation in the Creed, we bow our heads in awe and adoration.
(At Christmas,) we acknowledge (anew) that the incarnation is the work of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, brought about through Mary’s free cooperation. The incarnation is the beginning of the new creation. Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is the new Adam who offers humanity rebirth in the waters of Baptism, by which we become sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. (We pray ever more intensely that) during this holy season, we may welcome the Saviour into our hearts, allow God’s power to strengthen and transform our weakness, and bear joyful witness to the dawning of the new creation. (Pope Benedict Angelus Address Jan 1st, 2012)
Today on the feast of Epiphany we ask, who were the wiseman that came to the light and professed in faith that the Christ Child was not only the King of all kings, but God Himself? Were they Astonomers, philosophers, magicians…maybe they were all of these? But whatever else they were, the three wise man were “people of inner unrest, people of hope, people on the lookout for the true star of salvation. They were not just astronomers or philosophers they were wise in the truest sense of the word, they recognized their inner restlessness for something greater than this world and with courage set out to find It, or better yet, Him.”
In a way the Wise men represent all men; and they represent the inner dynamic, the inner desire-restlessness, which can never be fully quenched, of all men toward that which surpasses man; it is a inner search from the heart of man for the true God, not just to know about Him or even to know Him personally but to possess Him and be possessed by Him in love. The wise men represent all of those who would, in every age, come after them and who would be seekers of the truth. This is why the wise men and all “wise” men after them follow the star.
But what was the star of Bethlehem? Was it an astronomical event or was it a supernatural event? There have been many arguments on how the star shown its light to the wise man. What ever the star was physically, the point is, is that “it is not the star that determines the child’s destiny in the manger, it is the child that directs the star.
In other words, Jesus is himself the Star that shines upon the world and determines it’s fate. And so, it also is not the star (or stars) that determine our own destiny, it is the Child that directs our destiny. Human nature now assumed by God—as revealed in God’s only begotten Son—the Christ child in the manger—is greater than all the powers of this material world, greater than the entire universe.
This truth about the Christ Child while a source of hope for us; is also, many times a source of hopeful unrest for us. The wisemen went to Herod to inquire after the newborn “king of the Jews.” We are told Herod was troubled by their questions, and all of Jerusalem was troubled with them.
The birth of the messiah would evitable bring more questioning and eventually bring trial and tribulation to the people of Jerusalem and to the whole world. Who is this Christ Child that was born into our world and causes a disturbance to the supposed peace of this world? The truth is that He is God, the God “who disturbs our comfortable day-to-day existence. Our faith in Him and in His only Begotten Son, is the star of hope-yes; but it can be also a star of disturbance to our daily life, but only to lead us to greater love of Jesus and union with God. This is why Jesus’ kingship goes hand and hand with His Passion (cf. Benedict “The Infancy Narratives, Jesus of Nazareth).
And so the Star even today directs us to the One who gives us hope but does so by disturbing the comfortableness of our daily mediocrity and selfish love; it directs us to the paradox of the cross, the cross which calls us to a daily self-denial and a daily dying to self in order to live for the sake of the other, for love of the other. The other being first, God Himself in Christ Jesus, but then through Him to love our neighbor as Christ loves us.
The Star shines brightly even in our day pointing to our hope—that is, to Jesus and the power of His divinity which helps us to overcome our lack of love and the poverty of our fallen human nature. It reminds us that, “Sometimes, even in the journey and life of faith we can feel our poverty, feel our inadequacy in the face of the witness to offer the world.”
But, the star also reminds us that, God chose a humble woman, in an unknown village, in one of the most distant provinces of the great Roman Empire. Always, even in the midst of the most difficult problems to face, we must trust in God, renewing faith in His presence and action in our history, like in that of Mary. Nothing is impossible with God! With him, our lives always walk on solid ground and are open to a future of firm hope. (Pope Benedict Angelus Address Jan 1st, 2012)
Like the wise men we for our part must come in faith on bended knee and with bended heart and bow down in adoration before the God-Child truly present in the Holy Eucharist; adoring the One who is our holy Hope and placing our complete trust in Him. We must like the wise men bring our gifts and place them before the newborn King.
Just like the wisemen we too are to bring our gifts of gold, incense, and Myrrh. In this case, our gold is the treasures of our heart to be offered to Jesus made present to us in the Eucharist. The Incense we are to offer is the sweet fragrance of our good works, of our little acts of love done each day for the Love of God, our witness to others of our love for God. And what of the Myrrh? The myrrh is the very sacrifice of ourselves, our hearts, all that we have and are, offered to the Heavenly Father as an oblation of love in union with the sacrifice of His only Son made truly present before us.
We like the wisemen also need to turn to the Star of the East, Mary and ask her to help us in our fears and weakness so that in hope and complete trust we may lead others to Jesus in the Eucharist. His True Presence is the antidote for all our anxieties and fears, including pain and death. He is the Bread of Angels that removes our pains, our cares, our worries; He alone brings joy and peace to our soul, he alone satisfies our whole being and gives us true hope. Let us ask Holy Mary who leads us to the Star that is Christ to help us become as stars as well so that our light may lead other men to light of God and His love for them!
Holy Mary, stella Maris, stella orientis—Holy Mary, star of the sea, star of the east pray for us, lead us, and others through us, safely to Jesus. Amen.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
The Heart of our family needs to be the Heart of of the Divine Child!
Sunday within the Octave of Christmas (Feast of the Holy FAmily) December 30th, 2012 Extraordinary Form of the Liturgy
Today we continue celebrating the Great Feast of Hope-Christmas. This Sunday falls within the Octave of Christmas, eight days of solemn and hopeful celebration of the Solemnity of Christmas-this is why the priest wears Gold vestments today. One day is not enough, so for eight days we solemnly celebrate that night when our Hope was born in the flesh, born as one of us, a man in order to be with us always—not just 2,000 years ago, but always; He is truly Emmanuel—God with us.
Last week I shared with you the Holy Father’s wonderful Christmas message; it was truly a message filled with hope for our troubled times. His Holiness Benedict continue this message of hope with his Urbi et Orbi, to the City and to the World, address on Christmas day to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square. In this yearly address, Benedict expressed hope, which springs forth from the birth of Christ; and he called for peace in the regions of the world where there is great conflict.
Benedict said, "In Jesus, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary, kindness and truth do indeed meet; justice and peace have kissed; truth has sprung out of the earth and justice has looked down from heaven."
"God has done everything; he has done the impossible: he was made flesh. His all-powerful love has accomplished something which surpasses all human understanding: the Infinite has become a child, has entered the human family."
The Holy Father continued: "This same God cannot enter my heart unless I open the door to him. Porta fidei! The door of faith! We could be frightened by this, our inverse omnipotence. This human ability to be closed to God can make us fearful. But see the reality which chases away this gloomy thought, the hope that conquers fear: truth has sprung up! God is born!"
Going on to cite the scriptures, Pope Benedict said: "'The earth has yielded its fruits' (Ps 67:7). Yes, there is a good earth, a healthy earth, an earth freed of all selfishness and all lack of openness. In this world there is a good soil which God has prepared, that he might come to dwell among us. A dwelling place for his presence in the world. This good earth exists, and today too, in 2012, from this earth truth has sprung up! Consequently, there is hope in the world, a hope in which we can trust, even at the most difficult times and in the most difficult situations. Truth has sprung up, bringing kindness, justice and peace."
The Holy Father then called for peace in countries torn by conflict, such as Syria, which "does not spare even the defenseless and reaps innocent victims… I appeal for an end to the bloodshed, easier access for the relief of refugees and the displaced, and dialogue in the pursuit of a political solution to the conflict."
As you can see, Our Holy Father is giving us all hope in these times of great immorality and so great unrest, violence and lack of peace. He wants to give hope to our families which are being so attacked in our times; and just like he is calling for peace in countries torn by conflict, he is also indirectly calling for peace within our families, so often torn by conflict, including our parish families.
Speaking of family, today in the ordinary form of the liturgy we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. The more we open our families to the Christ child truly present in the holy Eucharist the more our families are filled with hope and peace because the more they become by God’s grace and power, like the Holy Family of Nazareth. Joseph and Mary were graced with the presence of Hope incarnate. Their gaze was always focused on the Christ Child in their midst; the Sacred Heart of Christ was the Heart of their Holy Family. The Holy Family was a respite of great peace in a un-peaceful world. And it holiness sprung up as hope, justice and peace for the whole world.
WE too, our families are graced to have this same Hope incarnate, this same Hope become Man available to us, present to us through our Parish Family. We need to beg of God’s grace in order to imitate more and more Joseph and Mary and focus our gaze on the Christ Child. The Heart of our family needs to be the Sacred Heart of Jesus as well. Our families can then become as well places from which spring forth peace and justice and hope into our world.
Yes, the Divine Child of the Holy Family has come to give us all hope. And this hope ultimately points to the fact that we are called to share in the joy and peace of His own family. Not just the peace of the Holy family of Nazereth, but the peace of THE HOLY FAMILY, the Most blessed Trinity. As our first reading from Galatians points out: the Heir has become one of us, so that we who were children of this world might be heirs as well; so that we might become adopted children of Jesus’ own Heavenly Father and so members of God’s own Family thus living out already here on earth the hope of our baptism.
This is our hope. Because we are now adopted sons and daughters of the heavenly Father through Jesus Christ His Son, God has now sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying out Abba Father. We are not just servants of the Father but because of Christmas we are sons and so heirs also of the treasures of heaven, the treasures of love, joy and peace through God. What have we to be afraid of? No matter what happens if we keep our gaze on Christ, through Him the Heavenly Father keeps His gaze on us. What else do we need? What else can we hope for or in?
This is the fruit of Adoration of the Holy Eucharist, of keeping our Gaze on the Christ Child in the Holy Eucharist. Our hearts, and if we adore the Holy Eucharist as families, the heart of our family becomes one with the heart of Christ and through the heart of Christ one with the Heart of the Father in the unity and love; joy and peace of the Holy Spirit.
Let us turn to the Holy Family of Nazareth this day to help us, to help our family become like theirs. Let us turn to St. Joseph and Our Lady to help us keep our gaze on the Christ Child, both as individuals but also as families and as a parish family. May we all share more and more in the love of the Holy Family and the peace of the Holy Family. And then especially in this the year of faith which intensifies the call for a new evangelization, may our families become then beacons of love and joy; peace and justice springing forth for the whole world!!!
Let us now as a family turn to the divine crèche to find a refuge beside the HOLY FAMILY, praying in silence and listening to the symphony of angels singing at this Holy Mass, “ GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND AND PEACE ON EARTH TO MEN, (AND TO FAMILIES) ON WHOM GOD’S FAVOR REST, that is on those who adore the Son in the Holy Eucharist and keep their gaze on Him so they may follow Him as adopted sons and daughters and so carry out the Will of His Father and Who is now their Father and become one with Him. Amen.
Today we continue celebrating the Great Feast of Hope-Christmas. This Sunday falls within the Octave of Christmas, eight days of solemn and hopeful celebration of the Solemnity of Christmas-this is why the priest wears Gold vestments today. One day is not enough, so for eight days we solemnly celebrate that night when our Hope was born in the flesh, born as one of us, a man in order to be with us always—not just 2,000 years ago, but always; He is truly Emmanuel—God with us.
Last week I shared with you the Holy Father’s wonderful Christmas message; it was truly a message filled with hope for our troubled times. His Holiness Benedict continue this message of hope with his Urbi et Orbi, to the City and to the World, address on Christmas day to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square. In this yearly address, Benedict expressed hope, which springs forth from the birth of Christ; and he called for peace in the regions of the world where there is great conflict.
Benedict said, "In Jesus, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary, kindness and truth do indeed meet; justice and peace have kissed; truth has sprung out of the earth and justice has looked down from heaven."
"God has done everything; he has done the impossible: he was made flesh. His all-powerful love has accomplished something which surpasses all human understanding: the Infinite has become a child, has entered the human family."
The Holy Father continued: "This same God cannot enter my heart unless I open the door to him. Porta fidei! The door of faith! We could be frightened by this, our inverse omnipotence. This human ability to be closed to God can make us fearful. But see the reality which chases away this gloomy thought, the hope that conquers fear: truth has sprung up! God is born!"
Going on to cite the scriptures, Pope Benedict said: "'The earth has yielded its fruits' (Ps 67:7). Yes, there is a good earth, a healthy earth, an earth freed of all selfishness and all lack of openness. In this world there is a good soil which God has prepared, that he might come to dwell among us. A dwelling place for his presence in the world. This good earth exists, and today too, in 2012, from this earth truth has sprung up! Consequently, there is hope in the world, a hope in which we can trust, even at the most difficult times and in the most difficult situations. Truth has sprung up, bringing kindness, justice and peace."
The Holy Father then called for peace in countries torn by conflict, such as Syria, which "does not spare even the defenseless and reaps innocent victims… I appeal for an end to the bloodshed, easier access for the relief of refugees and the displaced, and dialogue in the pursuit of a political solution to the conflict."
As you can see, Our Holy Father is giving us all hope in these times of great immorality and so great unrest, violence and lack of peace. He wants to give hope to our families which are being so attacked in our times; and just like he is calling for peace in countries torn by conflict, he is also indirectly calling for peace within our families, so often torn by conflict, including our parish families.
Speaking of family, today in the ordinary form of the liturgy we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. The more we open our families to the Christ child truly present in the holy Eucharist the more our families are filled with hope and peace because the more they become by God’s grace and power, like the Holy Family of Nazareth. Joseph and Mary were graced with the presence of Hope incarnate. Their gaze was always focused on the Christ Child in their midst; the Sacred Heart of Christ was the Heart of their Holy Family. The Holy Family was a respite of great peace in a un-peaceful world. And it holiness sprung up as hope, justice and peace for the whole world.
WE too, our families are graced to have this same Hope incarnate, this same Hope become Man available to us, present to us through our Parish Family. We need to beg of God’s grace in order to imitate more and more Joseph and Mary and focus our gaze on the Christ Child. The Heart of our family needs to be the Sacred Heart of Jesus as well. Our families can then become as well places from which spring forth peace and justice and hope into our world.
Yes, the Divine Child of the Holy Family has come to give us all hope. And this hope ultimately points to the fact that we are called to share in the joy and peace of His own family. Not just the peace of the Holy family of Nazereth, but the peace of THE HOLY FAMILY, the Most blessed Trinity. As our first reading from Galatians points out: the Heir has become one of us, so that we who were children of this world might be heirs as well; so that we might become adopted children of Jesus’ own Heavenly Father and so members of God’s own Family thus living out already here on earth the hope of our baptism.
This is our hope. Because we are now adopted sons and daughters of the heavenly Father through Jesus Christ His Son, God has now sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying out Abba Father. We are not just servants of the Father but because of Christmas we are sons and so heirs also of the treasures of heaven, the treasures of love, joy and peace through God. What have we to be afraid of? No matter what happens if we keep our gaze on Christ, through Him the Heavenly Father keeps His gaze on us. What else do we need? What else can we hope for or in?
This is the fruit of Adoration of the Holy Eucharist, of keeping our Gaze on the Christ Child in the Holy Eucharist. Our hearts, and if we adore the Holy Eucharist as families, the heart of our family becomes one with the heart of Christ and through the heart of Christ one with the Heart of the Father in the unity and love; joy and peace of the Holy Spirit.
Let us turn to the Holy Family of Nazareth this day to help us, to help our family become like theirs. Let us turn to St. Joseph and Our Lady to help us keep our gaze on the Christ Child, both as individuals but also as families and as a parish family. May we all share more and more in the love of the Holy Family and the peace of the Holy Family. And then especially in this the year of faith which intensifies the call for a new evangelization, may our families become then beacons of love and joy; peace and justice springing forth for the whole world!!!
Let us now as a family turn to the divine crèche to find a refuge beside the HOLY FAMILY, praying in silence and listening to the symphony of angels singing at this Holy Mass, “ GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND AND PEACE ON EARTH TO MEN, (AND TO FAMILIES) ON WHOM GOD’S FAVOR REST, that is on those who adore the Son in the Holy Eucharist and keep their gaze on Him so they may follow Him as adopted sons and daughters and so carry out the Will of His Father and Who is now their Father and become one with Him. Amen.
Monday, December 24, 2012
May the Blessed Virgin help you and me make this offering of love this Christmas.
Christmas 2012
Tonight is the great celebration of the beginning of the fulfillment of all our hopes and dreams. We have been speaking about hope these last four weeks of Advent and now here we are at Christmas the great feast of hope. Tonight (today) we celebrate, liturgically, the birthday of our Hope, of Hope Himself—Jesus Christ the Christ Child-God become Man, become one of us in order to be intimately and personally with each one of us.
Again and again the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendour of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me. (Pope Benedict Homily at Christmas Eve Mass).
In light of this great truth, this reality, even amidst the darkness of this world, there is so much to hope for, there is so much hope in our world. Jesus Christ was truly born 2,000 years ago; He is again truly reborn anew on our sacred altars at every Holy Mass. He is still truly God with us, as one of us, in our daily lives; and He is truly physically present in every tabernacle of the world where He continually waits for us to come and adore Him so He can fill us with His hope along with His peace and joy.
I find in my priestly life that Children are very open to the truths of our Beautiful Catholic Faith, many times more so than us adults. I find one of the truths to which they are most open is the truth that the Little Christ Child is still on earth truly and physically present in the Holy Eucharist. Because of their littleness and innocence children very quickly catch on to the idea that because of this truth of all truths, they quickly understand that we all must learn to kneel in faith before the Holy Eucharist in Adoration, with hearts full of Contrition, Thanksgiving and Petition.
In light of all the terrible current events we are facing in our world and our country this Christmas we truly want peace restored to our country and to our world. But Christmas reminds us that peace first begins in our own hearts and then in our families and from there it goes out into the world. The source of this Peace is the Christ Child in the Holy Eucharist present in all the tabernacles of the world and on every Altar where a validly ordained Catholic Priest offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. At the Holy Mass, which is Christ’s Mass, by Jesus own words said through the priest, “this is my Body…This is my Blood,” ordinary bread and wine are transformed by the miracle of Transubstantiation into the Christ Child Himself.
This Christ child beckons us to come and Adore Him in the Holy Eucharist in order that He can bless us with His Peace, for He is the Prince of Peace and He offers to each of us a peace that the world cannot give. In the Holy Eucharist Jesus, the Christ Child literally holds out, in his hand, His own Heart beating for love of each one of us. This is His gift to us. The only gift He wants from us is our loving heart in return.
The more we accept His loving heart in the Holy Eucharist through Faith, Hope and Love, the more we offer our heart in return, the more we will find peace in our heart and the more we will become peace makers in our families, parish families, communities and our world. This is what the Angel promise to the shepherds, not just peace to all men, but instead peace only to men of Good Will; that is, Men with whom God is well pleased. This is true peace, the peace of God, and it comes to those who are open to God’s love and who Love God in return, by following His Holy Will, and His commandments, especially His Commandment to Love one another as He has loved us.
The Heart of the Christ Child truly present in the Holy Eucharist is the Source of the Love we need in order to be enabled to love one another as God loves us; The Holy Eucharist is literally the God who IS LOVE and who becomes Man to give us the power of His Love! This Christmas, and at every Holy Mass, Jesus, the Christ Child offers us this Love, which is the gift of His whole heart and being, the gift of His entire Self.
We have prepared our gifts for others this Christmas, but have we prepared our gift to Jesus. He wants only one thing, and that is you—the gift of yourself wrapped in love and in the purity of a good Sacramental Confession. Love, true love that is, is really an exchange of persons, a gift of self to the other. Jesus offers you Himself this Christmas; I pray that the inn of your heart, that your lives be fully open to this gift by the offering of your heart in return. May the Blessed Virgin help you and me make this offering of love this Christmas.
My hope for all you and this parish family is that this Christmas would be a time in which we would all become as little children before the Christ Child newly born in the Manger and adore Him there as the True and Living God become true man. Let us make haste to love Him. "In our case, it is probably not very often that we make haste for the things of God. God does not feature among the things that require haste. The things of God can wait, we think and we say. And yet he is the most important thing, ultimately the one truly important thing" (Pope Benedict, Christmas Eve Homily).
On behalf of Father William and the entire parish staff, I would like to wish all of you and your families, a very blessed and merry Christmas.God bless you all and again Merry Christmas to you and your families and all the families of St. Patrick’s parish!
Tonight is the great celebration of the beginning of the fulfillment of all our hopes and dreams. We have been speaking about hope these last four weeks of Advent and now here we are at Christmas the great feast of hope. Tonight (today) we celebrate, liturgically, the birthday of our Hope, of Hope Himself—Jesus Christ the Christ Child-God become Man, become one of us in order to be intimately and personally with each one of us.
Again and again the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendour of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me. (Pope Benedict Homily at Christmas Eve Mass).
In light of this great truth, this reality, even amidst the darkness of this world, there is so much to hope for, there is so much hope in our world. Jesus Christ was truly born 2,000 years ago; He is again truly reborn anew on our sacred altars at every Holy Mass. He is still truly God with us, as one of us, in our daily lives; and He is truly physically present in every tabernacle of the world where He continually waits for us to come and adore Him so He can fill us with His hope along with His peace and joy.
I find in my priestly life that Children are very open to the truths of our Beautiful Catholic Faith, many times more so than us adults. I find one of the truths to which they are most open is the truth that the Little Christ Child is still on earth truly and physically present in the Holy Eucharist. Because of their littleness and innocence children very quickly catch on to the idea that because of this truth of all truths, they quickly understand that we all must learn to kneel in faith before the Holy Eucharist in Adoration, with hearts full of Contrition, Thanksgiving and Petition.
In light of all the terrible current events we are facing in our world and our country this Christmas we truly want peace restored to our country and to our world. But Christmas reminds us that peace first begins in our own hearts and then in our families and from there it goes out into the world. The source of this Peace is the Christ Child in the Holy Eucharist present in all the tabernacles of the world and on every Altar where a validly ordained Catholic Priest offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. At the Holy Mass, which is Christ’s Mass, by Jesus own words said through the priest, “this is my Body…This is my Blood,” ordinary bread and wine are transformed by the miracle of Transubstantiation into the Christ Child Himself.
This Christ child beckons us to come and Adore Him in the Holy Eucharist in order that He can bless us with His Peace, for He is the Prince of Peace and He offers to each of us a peace that the world cannot give. In the Holy Eucharist Jesus, the Christ Child literally holds out, in his hand, His own Heart beating for love of each one of us. This is His gift to us. The only gift He wants from us is our loving heart in return.
The more we accept His loving heart in the Holy Eucharist through Faith, Hope and Love, the more we offer our heart in return, the more we will find peace in our heart and the more we will become peace makers in our families, parish families, communities and our world. This is what the Angel promise to the shepherds, not just peace to all men, but instead peace only to men of Good Will; that is, Men with whom God is well pleased. This is true peace, the peace of God, and it comes to those who are open to God’s love and who Love God in return, by following His Holy Will, and His commandments, especially His Commandment to Love one another as He has loved us.
The Heart of the Christ Child truly present in the Holy Eucharist is the Source of the Love we need in order to be enabled to love one another as God loves us; The Holy Eucharist is literally the God who IS LOVE and who becomes Man to give us the power of His Love! This Christmas, and at every Holy Mass, Jesus, the Christ Child offers us this Love, which is the gift of His whole heart and being, the gift of His entire Self.
We have prepared our gifts for others this Christmas, but have we prepared our gift to Jesus. He wants only one thing, and that is you—the gift of yourself wrapped in love and in the purity of a good Sacramental Confession. Love, true love that is, is really an exchange of persons, a gift of self to the other. Jesus offers you Himself this Christmas; I pray that the inn of your heart, that your lives be fully open to this gift by the offering of your heart in return. May the Blessed Virgin help you and me make this offering of love this Christmas.
My hope for all you and this parish family is that this Christmas would be a time in which we would all become as little children before the Christ Child newly born in the Manger and adore Him there as the True and Living God become true man. Let us make haste to love Him. "In our case, it is probably not very often that we make haste for the things of God. God does not feature among the things that require haste. The things of God can wait, we think and we say. And yet he is the most important thing, ultimately the one truly important thing" (Pope Benedict, Christmas Eve Homily).
On behalf of Father William and the entire parish staff, I would like to wish all of you and your families, a very blessed and merry Christmas.God bless you all and again Merry Christmas to you and your families and all the families of St. Patrick’s parish!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Our Lady, Mother of our Faith, Mother our Hope, Mother of Charity, cause of our joy
Fourth Sunday in Advent. December 23, 2012. Extraordinary Form of the Liturgy
Our theme for this Advent is again one of Hope. We have been speaking about hope these last three weeks of Advent and now here we are at the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. In just a few days we celebrate, liturgically, the birthday of our Hope, of Hope Himself—Jesus Christ the Christ Child-God become Man, become one of us in order to be intimately and personally with each one of us.
In light of this great truth, this reality, even amidst the darkness of this world, there is so much to hope for, there is so much hope in our world. Jesus Christ was truly born 2,000 years ago; He is again truly reborn anew on our sacred altars at every Holy Mass. He is still truly God with us, as one of us, in our daily lives; and He is truly physically present in every tabernacle of the world where He continually waits for us to come and adore Him so He can fill us with His hope along with His peace and joy.
We have so much to hope for. The theme of hope, although not explicitly mentioned, is found in our Holy Father’s message for this Christmas. In the message, his Holiness, Benedict mentions some of the great events of the past year, events which were signs of great hope in our world; such as His apostolic journeys to Mexico and Cuba which were received with so much enthusiasm and faith. In Mexico we saw people literally kneeling, young people literally kneeling along the pope’s route to receive the blessing of Peter’s Successor. And we saw the offering Holy Mass beside the statue of Christ the King against the backdrop of so many economic problems and violence in Mexico. In Cuba we saw great public liturgical celebrations in which the singing, the praying and the silence made tangibly present the One that the country’s authorities had tried for so long to exclude.
In His message the Holy Father went on to mention other great events of hope in the last year, not excluding the Synod on the New Evangelization which also served as a collective inauguration of the Year of Faith in which we commemorate the opening of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago, seeking to understand it anew and appropriate it anew in the changing circumstances of today. The Second Vatican Councils is even more than ever a great hope and a great light for our current age grasping for both hope and light.
Our Holy Father continues to gives us hope, not only by pointing out the hopeful events of this year but also by coming out again and again with much needed teachings, especially moral teachings, which stand up against the modern lies and errors which are stripping the world of its hope. As one writer pointed out, “He (Benedict) clearly understands that truth on these moral issues must now be boldly preached without any regard for human respect or encountering ridicule or hatred. Benedict is imitating the true Christ and showing the rest of the world’s bishops that they are now obliged to do the same. Bravo for Benedict!”
WE see this boldness in the truth in His Christmas message when after some of the hopeful events we just mention, Benedict courageously and with a most politically incorrect stance goes on in His Christmas message to highlight one of the great threats against our Hope today, which is the modern errant philosophical theory which denies the God given gender of the Human person. This hideous theory has it roots in Marxism, and states as did Karl Marx, that gender does not come from nature and the Creator of nature—God, but it is only a societal or even a self impose construct. In other words this erroneous theory denies the distinction of gender and so denies the very nature of man as male and female created in the image and likeness of God-in this, it is demonic.
Once more this theory strips us of hope because it is an attack against the family; it seeks to redefine the family and so destroy family. And ultimately because it is an attack against the very nature of the human being as male or female created in the image and likeness of God, it is an attack against and a denial of God Himself.
The Holy Father says this gender theory is what is behind the homosexual revolution and the current all out attack on the family. He says, there is no denying the crisis that threatens,” the family “to its foundations – especially in the Western world,”
Crediting the Chief Rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, for the research, Pope Benedict XVI said “the attack we are currently experiencing on the true structure of the family, made up of father, mother, and child, goes much deeper” than was originally believed. “While up to now we regarded a false understanding of the nature of human freedom as one cause of the crisis of the family, it is now becoming clear that the very notion of being – of what being human really means – is being called into question.”
According to “the ‘gender’ philosophy,” explained the Pope, “sex is no longer a given element of nature that man has to accept and personally make sense of: now it is a merely a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society.”
The Holy Father adds: “The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious.”
People now dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, a nature that serves as a defining element of the human being. People now deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.
According to the biblical creation account, being created by God as male and female pertains to the essence of the human creature. This duality is an essential aspect of what being human is all about, as ordained by God. This very duality as something previously given is what is now disputed. The words of the creation account: “male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27) no longer apply-how the devil hates that we were created as male and female. And so, what applies now is this: it was not God who created them male and female – hitherto society did this, now we decide for ourselves whether we are male or female or even a combination of both. With this error, Man and woman as created realities, as the nature of the human being, no longer exist. Man now calls his nature into question. From now on, he is merely spirit and will.
The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he himself is concerned. From now on there is only the abstract human being, who chooses for himself what his nature is to be. Man and woman in their created state as complementary versions of what it means to be human are disputed. But if there is no pre-ordained duality of man and woman in creation, then neither is the family any longer a reality established by creation.
Pope Benedict XVI concluded, “When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker Himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of man’s being. The defense of the family is about man himself. And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man.”
Our Holy Father also says at one point in His Christmas message, “only in self-giving does man find himself, and only by opening himself to the other, to others, to children, to the family, only by letting himself be changed through suffering, does he discover the breadth of his humanity. When such commitment is repudiated, the key figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child – essential elements of the experience of being human are lost.
What a light we have been given in Pope Benedict. Some may think why is he using his Christmas message to speak of such things. Because these attacks on the nature of the human person are so serious to our world and to our civilization, the strip us of hope. Therefore, Benedict’s words are words of hope because they are words of truth and they point to the One that is the truth and who has come into our world as a true man, not as a genderless creature, but as a man, in order to be like us and to be one with us; Benedict points to the One who is our hope, Jesus Christ, He who is the longing of the heart of every man, woman and child whether they realize it or not.
Let us this advent renew our hope, let us in this year of faith commit ourselves more fully to read and study the writings and teachings of this great man, Pope Benedict the Sixteenth, a beacon of hope in our hopeless world. We too can then share his words with others, true words which point to the Christ Child, so they may have an intimate encounter with the Word made flesh and have hope by living in union with the True and Living God. With great expectation and hope, let us seek the Lord who is coming soon; unless we desire him we will never know the Lord, unless we expect him, we will never meet him, unless we seek him, we will never find him (Benedict Angelus Address, fourth Sunday of Advent 2012).
Our Lady, Mother of our Faith, Mother our Hope, Mother of Charity, cause of our joy;
Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, sancta Dei Genetrix;
nostras deprecations ne dispicias in necessitatibus nostris,
sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper,
Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
We fly to your patronage O holy Mother of God;
Despise not our petitions n our necessities,
But deliver us always from all dangers.
O Glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.
Our theme for this Advent is again one of Hope. We have been speaking about hope these last three weeks of Advent and now here we are at the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. In just a few days we celebrate, liturgically, the birthday of our Hope, of Hope Himself—Jesus Christ the Christ Child-God become Man, become one of us in order to be intimately and personally with each one of us.
In light of this great truth, this reality, even amidst the darkness of this world, there is so much to hope for, there is so much hope in our world. Jesus Christ was truly born 2,000 years ago; He is again truly reborn anew on our sacred altars at every Holy Mass. He is still truly God with us, as one of us, in our daily lives; and He is truly physically present in every tabernacle of the world where He continually waits for us to come and adore Him so He can fill us with His hope along with His peace and joy.
We have so much to hope for. The theme of hope, although not explicitly mentioned, is found in our Holy Father’s message for this Christmas. In the message, his Holiness, Benedict mentions some of the great events of the past year, events which were signs of great hope in our world; such as His apostolic journeys to Mexico and Cuba which were received with so much enthusiasm and faith. In Mexico we saw people literally kneeling, young people literally kneeling along the pope’s route to receive the blessing of Peter’s Successor. And we saw the offering Holy Mass beside the statue of Christ the King against the backdrop of so many economic problems and violence in Mexico. In Cuba we saw great public liturgical celebrations in which the singing, the praying and the silence made tangibly present the One that the country’s authorities had tried for so long to exclude.
In His message the Holy Father went on to mention other great events of hope in the last year, not excluding the Synod on the New Evangelization which also served as a collective inauguration of the Year of Faith in which we commemorate the opening of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago, seeking to understand it anew and appropriate it anew in the changing circumstances of today. The Second Vatican Councils is even more than ever a great hope and a great light for our current age grasping for both hope and light.
Our Holy Father continues to gives us hope, not only by pointing out the hopeful events of this year but also by coming out again and again with much needed teachings, especially moral teachings, which stand up against the modern lies and errors which are stripping the world of its hope. As one writer pointed out, “He (Benedict) clearly understands that truth on these moral issues must now be boldly preached without any regard for human respect or encountering ridicule or hatred. Benedict is imitating the true Christ and showing the rest of the world’s bishops that they are now obliged to do the same. Bravo for Benedict!”
WE see this boldness in the truth in His Christmas message when after some of the hopeful events we just mention, Benedict courageously and with a most politically incorrect stance goes on in His Christmas message to highlight one of the great threats against our Hope today, which is the modern errant philosophical theory which denies the God given gender of the Human person. This hideous theory has it roots in Marxism, and states as did Karl Marx, that gender does not come from nature and the Creator of nature—God, but it is only a societal or even a self impose construct. In other words this erroneous theory denies the distinction of gender and so denies the very nature of man as male and female created in the image and likeness of God-in this, it is demonic.
Once more this theory strips us of hope because it is an attack against the family; it seeks to redefine the family and so destroy family. And ultimately because it is an attack against the very nature of the human being as male or female created in the image and likeness of God, it is an attack against and a denial of God Himself.
The Holy Father says this gender theory is what is behind the homosexual revolution and the current all out attack on the family. He says, there is no denying the crisis that threatens,” the family “to its foundations – especially in the Western world,”
Crediting the Chief Rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, for the research, Pope Benedict XVI said “the attack we are currently experiencing on the true structure of the family, made up of father, mother, and child, goes much deeper” than was originally believed. “While up to now we regarded a false understanding of the nature of human freedom as one cause of the crisis of the family, it is now becoming clear that the very notion of being – of what being human really means – is being called into question.”
According to “the ‘gender’ philosophy,” explained the Pope, “sex is no longer a given element of nature that man has to accept and personally make sense of: now it is a merely a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society.”
The Holy Father adds: “The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious.”
People now dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, a nature that serves as a defining element of the human being. People now deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.
According to the biblical creation account, being created by God as male and female pertains to the essence of the human creature. This duality is an essential aspect of what being human is all about, as ordained by God. This very duality as something previously given is what is now disputed. The words of the creation account: “male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27) no longer apply-how the devil hates that we were created as male and female. And so, what applies now is this: it was not God who created them male and female – hitherto society did this, now we decide for ourselves whether we are male or female or even a combination of both. With this error, Man and woman as created realities, as the nature of the human being, no longer exist. Man now calls his nature into question. From now on, he is merely spirit and will.
The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he himself is concerned. From now on there is only the abstract human being, who chooses for himself what his nature is to be. Man and woman in their created state as complementary versions of what it means to be human are disputed. But if there is no pre-ordained duality of man and woman in creation, then neither is the family any longer a reality established by creation.
Pope Benedict XVI concluded, “When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker Himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of man’s being. The defense of the family is about man himself. And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man.”
Our Holy Father also says at one point in His Christmas message, “only in self-giving does man find himself, and only by opening himself to the other, to others, to children, to the family, only by letting himself be changed through suffering, does he discover the breadth of his humanity. When such commitment is repudiated, the key figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child – essential elements of the experience of being human are lost.
What a light we have been given in Pope Benedict. Some may think why is he using his Christmas message to speak of such things. Because these attacks on the nature of the human person are so serious to our world and to our civilization, the strip us of hope. Therefore, Benedict’s words are words of hope because they are words of truth and they point to the One that is the truth and who has come into our world as a true man, not as a genderless creature, but as a man, in order to be like us and to be one with us; Benedict points to the One who is our hope, Jesus Christ, He who is the longing of the heart of every man, woman and child whether they realize it or not.
Let us this advent renew our hope, let us in this year of faith commit ourselves more fully to read and study the writings and teachings of this great man, Pope Benedict the Sixteenth, a beacon of hope in our hopeless world. We too can then share his words with others, true words which point to the Christ Child, so they may have an intimate encounter with the Word made flesh and have hope by living in union with the True and Living God. With great expectation and hope, let us seek the Lord who is coming soon; unless we desire him we will never know the Lord, unless we expect him, we will never meet him, unless we seek him, we will never find him (Benedict Angelus Address, fourth Sunday of Advent 2012).
Our Lady, Mother of our Faith, Mother our Hope, Mother of Charity, cause of our joy;
Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, sancta Dei Genetrix;
nostras deprecations ne dispicias in necessitatibus nostris,
sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper,
Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
We fly to your patronage O holy Mother of God;
Despise not our petitions n our necessities,
But deliver us always from all dangers.
O Glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
...there is still hope...
John 1, 19-28 Gaudete Sunday, Third Sunday in Advent. December 16th, 2012 Extraordinary Form of the Liturgy
We continue this third weekend in Advent our theme of hope. It is after all Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is taken from our first reading, which is from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico gaudete…Rejoice in the Lord always again, I say, rejoice.
In light of the tragic events this week it seems very hard to rejoice this weekend. We are indeed a country in morning. We pray for the families of those who lost their little children in the Elementary shootings in Connecticut as well as for the families of the adults that were killed as well.
For many, their hope has been shaken by the unspeakable horrors of small children being massacred by a deranged individual. After all, it is children who give us hope in this world…they are the hope of the future and we just lost 20 precious little ones. But this advent we are reminded of another little child, a child who is our hope personified. He is Emmanuel God with us…God with us even in the darkest darkness of this world, even in the midst of unspeakable horror and unspeakable sorrow.
Yesterday, I got into a discussion with a very kind lady. We began to speak about the tragic events that unfolded in Connecticut. I said unabashedly, that the cause of this evil was not the lack of gun control; stricter gun laws will not help us even though we will hear this as never before in the coming weeks and months. In fact more gun control will only take away our rights as law abiding Americans to protect and defend ourselves and our families; especially father’s right to protect and defend his family from evil men or even from evil governments. I told this very nice lady that the source of this evil is from the lack of peace in this world coming from the grave injustice of abortion and other crimes against life such as artificial contraception and homosexual acts and so-call Homosexual marriage.
When a country allows the killing of millions upon millions of little children in the womb, it is only a step before the killing of children outside the womb begins to increase. We see this happening more and more from little children being kidnapped and sold into prostitution in other countries, to children being abducted, then molested and killed and their lifeless bodies dumped into the woods, such as just happened to two beautiful girls in Iowa. Evil begets more evil. If we kill little children in the womb and ripped them limb-by-limb out of their mother, what’s to stop other evil from being done to children outside of the womb?
In my conversation yesterday I also pointed out how many times I hear married couples say that they are afraid and so don’t even want to bring children into this world. They say the world is such in such a terrible state that they question whether it would even be right to bring children into such a dark time. But this is the very problem; the problem is, is that we don’t have enough children. We have aborted millions and prevent millions of others from even coming into existence through artificial contraception and overall un-openness to new human life, to new human persons. And we are as a country, accepting more and more homosexual acts and “marriage” which are nothing by life-less acts which in no way can bring new life, new children, new persons, new hope into the world.
Children again are our hope; we need more children a lot more children, not less. And we need holy marriages, which rear these children and teach them the truth about God so that they can love him and adore him in this life and be happy with Him forever in the next. Thank God we have 15 mothers pregnant right now here at the parish—15 new lights of hope about to come into our world. Praise God there is hope!!! Indecently, there is a even greater crisis right now than a crisis of vocations to the priesthood; it’s a crisis of holy marriages which beget children some of who later become our priests and religious and our holy husband and wives who produce more children to adore God with their lives.
In this advent time and during Christmas we hear over and over the words of the angels to the little shepherds out in the field…Peace on earth good will to men. However the problem is, is this is not what the angel said…no, he said instead, “Peace on earth to men of good will.” That is peace on earth only comes to men of good will who promote true justice. And true justice begins with accepting the truth especially the truth about the Human Person made in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the precious blood of the Christ Child.
And so true Justice comes about by always accepting, defending and protecting the littlest and most venerable among us…and who is the most vulnerable if not little children in the womb who can’t escape from the butchers tools of unspeakable evil. Not a gun mind you, but a suction machine, chemicals, a force grip and a scalpel. Guns don’t kill people, any more than suction machines and scalpels kill people—only people kill people. If we want an end to the violence we are currently experiencing in our country and our world, if we want peace, then we must in justice defend life, born and unborn, young or old, sick or healthy, mentally or physically disabled or not disabled, embryonic or completely developed human persons. We must do everything we can to protect the life of all human persons from natural conception to natural death, or we will never have peace…never! We will only have more violence and more war…for
“Abortion is truly the greatest threat to world peace in our world today.” (Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta).
Recently our Holy Father in his Message for World Day of Peace said, “Peacemakers are those who love, defend and promote life in its fullness,” The pope noted that “serious harm to justice and peace” comes from denying the true principles of respect for life and promotion of the “natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”
Pope Benedict XVI, boldly stressed that pro-lifers are the ‘true peacemakers’ and that those who would support abortion promote a “false peace.”
The path to the attainment of the common good and to peace is above all that of respect for human life in all its many aspects, beginning with its conception, through its development and up to its natural end. True peacemakers, then, are those who love, defend and promote human life in all its dimensions, personal, communitarian and transcendent. Life in its fullness is the height of peace. Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life.
Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenseless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offence against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life.
Along with principle of respect for life, the Holy Father spoke of the “need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union; such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.”
He noted that these principles are “not truths of faith,” but “inscribed in human nature itself, accessible to reason and thus common to all humanity.” Efforts to promote them, he said, “are all the more necessary the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, since this constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, with serious harm to justice and peace.”
Other requirements for world peace mentioned by Pope Benedict include:
- “the dismantling of the dictatorship of relativism and of the supposition of a completely autonomous morality which precludes acknowledgement of the ineluctable natural moral law inscribed by God upon the conscience of every man and woman.”
-“for legal systems and the administration of justice to recognize the right to invoke the principle of conscientious objection in the face of laws or government measures that offend against human dignity, such as abortion and euthanasia.”
-“the right of individuals and communities to religious freedom.”
On the last point, the pope lamented the lack of religious freedom, even in Western nations.
“Sadly, even in countries of long-standing Christian tradition, instances of religious intolerance are becoming more numerous, especially in relation to Christianity and those who simply wear identifying signs of their religion,” he stated.
He urged that “at this stage in history, it is becoming increasingly important to promote” religious freedom “not only from the negative point of view, as freedom from – for example, obligations or limitations involving the freedom to choose one’s religion
– but also from the positive point of view, in its various expressions, as freedom for
– for example, bearing witness to one’s religion, making its teachings known, engaging in activities in the educational, benevolent and charitable fields which permit the practice of religious precepts, and existing and acting as social bodies structured in accordance with the proper doctrinal principles and institutional ends of each.”
It is important here to note, that there is still hope for our nation, our society, our families and our world. I ended by discussion yesterday with the nice lady by telling her we can’t lose hope. But hope begins as always in the individual heart, our heart. For hope has a name and is with us now…It is Jesus Christ the Christ Child truly present with us daily both in Spirit and in the Flesh in the Holy Eucharist. This Advent reminds us that Christ has come, but he is coming again, not just at the end of the world but He is coming soon in His Holy Spirit to this world of injustice and sin; but He first wants to possess more fully our hearts.
In His Divine Mercy the Father as set a limit to how far evil can go. That limit is here; it is the final hour of God Mercy before the hour of His divine justice comes. It is not to late for us to become greater instruments of God Mercy so that the Holy Spirit through grace will purify our world. If we, not those out there, but we here present do not allow our Lord to come into our hearts more fully and completely then the Holy Spirit will purify the world by fire. By grace or by fire, either way, the purification of our world is coming and along with it the great era of peace that was promised by our Lady of Fatima, but it is up to us how it will come about.
The message of hope in this year of faith is that in faith, “we begin by speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells us in the Gospels and looking for him in those in need (Pope Benedict tweet) (and performing works of mercy toward them). “Our hope is based on the truth that, “we as believers are never alone. God is the solid rock upon which we build our lives and His love is always faithful.” (Pope Benedict tweet) Daily, “we must offer everything we do to Lord, ask His help in all the circumstances of daily life and remember that He is always with us.” (Pope Benedict tweet)
We can change our world into a world of peace and justice and love; it is not to late; there is still hope. Let us allow the little Christ Child to change the world by first changing us more and more into his own image and likeness; let us do this by consecrating ourselves to Jesus through our lady, giving Him everything through her, and offering Him daily, all our daily spiritual and material duties no matter how small and insignificant so that she can magnify them and make them an acceptable offering to our Lord. Let us in other words, offer Jesus ourselves and all that we are, have and do, all for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, all for the Immaculate heart of Mary, all in union with St. Joseph. Amen.
We continue this third weekend in Advent our theme of hope. It is after all Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is taken from our first reading, which is from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico gaudete…Rejoice in the Lord always again, I say, rejoice.
In light of the tragic events this week it seems very hard to rejoice this weekend. We are indeed a country in morning. We pray for the families of those who lost their little children in the Elementary shootings in Connecticut as well as for the families of the adults that were killed as well.
For many, their hope has been shaken by the unspeakable horrors of small children being massacred by a deranged individual. After all, it is children who give us hope in this world…they are the hope of the future and we just lost 20 precious little ones. But this advent we are reminded of another little child, a child who is our hope personified. He is Emmanuel God with us…God with us even in the darkest darkness of this world, even in the midst of unspeakable horror and unspeakable sorrow.
Yesterday, I got into a discussion with a very kind lady. We began to speak about the tragic events that unfolded in Connecticut. I said unabashedly, that the cause of this evil was not the lack of gun control; stricter gun laws will not help us even though we will hear this as never before in the coming weeks and months. In fact more gun control will only take away our rights as law abiding Americans to protect and defend ourselves and our families; especially father’s right to protect and defend his family from evil men or even from evil governments. I told this very nice lady that the source of this evil is from the lack of peace in this world coming from the grave injustice of abortion and other crimes against life such as artificial contraception and homosexual acts and so-call Homosexual marriage.
When a country allows the killing of millions upon millions of little children in the womb, it is only a step before the killing of children outside the womb begins to increase. We see this happening more and more from little children being kidnapped and sold into prostitution in other countries, to children being abducted, then molested and killed and their lifeless bodies dumped into the woods, such as just happened to two beautiful girls in Iowa. Evil begets more evil. If we kill little children in the womb and ripped them limb-by-limb out of their mother, what’s to stop other evil from being done to children outside of the womb?
In my conversation yesterday I also pointed out how many times I hear married couples say that they are afraid and so don’t even want to bring children into this world. They say the world is such in such a terrible state that they question whether it would even be right to bring children into such a dark time. But this is the very problem; the problem is, is that we don’t have enough children. We have aborted millions and prevent millions of others from even coming into existence through artificial contraception and overall un-openness to new human life, to new human persons. And we are as a country, accepting more and more homosexual acts and “marriage” which are nothing by life-less acts which in no way can bring new life, new children, new persons, new hope into the world.
Children again are our hope; we need more children a lot more children, not less. And we need holy marriages, which rear these children and teach them the truth about God so that they can love him and adore him in this life and be happy with Him forever in the next. Thank God we have 15 mothers pregnant right now here at the parish—15 new lights of hope about to come into our world. Praise God there is hope!!! Indecently, there is a even greater crisis right now than a crisis of vocations to the priesthood; it’s a crisis of holy marriages which beget children some of who later become our priests and religious and our holy husband and wives who produce more children to adore God with their lives.
In this advent time and during Christmas we hear over and over the words of the angels to the little shepherds out in the field…Peace on earth good will to men. However the problem is, is this is not what the angel said…no, he said instead, “Peace on earth to men of good will.” That is peace on earth only comes to men of good will who promote true justice. And true justice begins with accepting the truth especially the truth about the Human Person made in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the precious blood of the Christ Child.
And so true Justice comes about by always accepting, defending and protecting the littlest and most venerable among us…and who is the most vulnerable if not little children in the womb who can’t escape from the butchers tools of unspeakable evil. Not a gun mind you, but a suction machine, chemicals, a force grip and a scalpel. Guns don’t kill people, any more than suction machines and scalpels kill people—only people kill people. If we want an end to the violence we are currently experiencing in our country and our world, if we want peace, then we must in justice defend life, born and unborn, young or old, sick or healthy, mentally or physically disabled or not disabled, embryonic or completely developed human persons. We must do everything we can to protect the life of all human persons from natural conception to natural death, or we will never have peace…never! We will only have more violence and more war…for
“Abortion is truly the greatest threat to world peace in our world today.” (Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta).
Recently our Holy Father in his Message for World Day of Peace said, “Peacemakers are those who love, defend and promote life in its fullness,” The pope noted that “serious harm to justice and peace” comes from denying the true principles of respect for life and promotion of the “natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”
Pope Benedict XVI, boldly stressed that pro-lifers are the ‘true peacemakers’ and that those who would support abortion promote a “false peace.”
The path to the attainment of the common good and to peace is above all that of respect for human life in all its many aspects, beginning with its conception, through its development and up to its natural end. True peacemakers, then, are those who love, defend and promote human life in all its dimensions, personal, communitarian and transcendent. Life in its fullness is the height of peace. Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life.
Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenseless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offence against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life.
Along with principle of respect for life, the Holy Father spoke of the “need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union; such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.”
He noted that these principles are “not truths of faith,” but “inscribed in human nature itself, accessible to reason and thus common to all humanity.” Efforts to promote them, he said, “are all the more necessary the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, since this constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, with serious harm to justice and peace.”
Other requirements for world peace mentioned by Pope Benedict include:
- “the dismantling of the dictatorship of relativism and of the supposition of a completely autonomous morality which precludes acknowledgement of the ineluctable natural moral law inscribed by God upon the conscience of every man and woman.”
-“for legal systems and the administration of justice to recognize the right to invoke the principle of conscientious objection in the face of laws or government measures that offend against human dignity, such as abortion and euthanasia.”
-“the right of individuals and communities to religious freedom.”
On the last point, the pope lamented the lack of religious freedom, even in Western nations.
“Sadly, even in countries of long-standing Christian tradition, instances of religious intolerance are becoming more numerous, especially in relation to Christianity and those who simply wear identifying signs of their religion,” he stated.
He urged that “at this stage in history, it is becoming increasingly important to promote” religious freedom “not only from the negative point of view, as freedom from – for example, obligations or limitations involving the freedom to choose one’s religion
– but also from the positive point of view, in its various expressions, as freedom for
– for example, bearing witness to one’s religion, making its teachings known, engaging in activities in the educational, benevolent and charitable fields which permit the practice of religious precepts, and existing and acting as social bodies structured in accordance with the proper doctrinal principles and institutional ends of each.”
It is important here to note, that there is still hope for our nation, our society, our families and our world. I ended by discussion yesterday with the nice lady by telling her we can’t lose hope. But hope begins as always in the individual heart, our heart. For hope has a name and is with us now…It is Jesus Christ the Christ Child truly present with us daily both in Spirit and in the Flesh in the Holy Eucharist. This Advent reminds us that Christ has come, but he is coming again, not just at the end of the world but He is coming soon in His Holy Spirit to this world of injustice and sin; but He first wants to possess more fully our hearts.
In His Divine Mercy the Father as set a limit to how far evil can go. That limit is here; it is the final hour of God Mercy before the hour of His divine justice comes. It is not to late for us to become greater instruments of God Mercy so that the Holy Spirit through grace will purify our world. If we, not those out there, but we here present do not allow our Lord to come into our hearts more fully and completely then the Holy Spirit will purify the world by fire. By grace or by fire, either way, the purification of our world is coming and along with it the great era of peace that was promised by our Lady of Fatima, but it is up to us how it will come about.
The message of hope in this year of faith is that in faith, “we begin by speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells us in the Gospels and looking for him in those in need (Pope Benedict tweet) (and performing works of mercy toward them). “Our hope is based on the truth that, “we as believers are never alone. God is the solid rock upon which we build our lives and His love is always faithful.” (Pope Benedict tweet) Daily, “we must offer everything we do to Lord, ask His help in all the circumstances of daily life and remember that He is always with us.” (Pope Benedict tweet)
We can change our world into a world of peace and justice and love; it is not to late; there is still hope. Let us allow the little Christ Child to change the world by first changing us more and more into his own image and likeness; let us do this by consecrating ourselves to Jesus through our lady, giving Him everything through her, and offering Him daily, all our daily spiritual and material duties no matter how small and insignificant so that she can magnify them and make them an acceptable offering to our Lord. Let us in other words, offer Jesus ourselves and all that we are, have and do, all for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, all for the Immaculate heart of Mary, all in union with St. Joseph. Amen.
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