tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82542722168667370582024-03-19T02:48:23.669-06:00Καθολικός διάκονος<i>Blogito ergo sum!</i> Actually, as N.T. Wright averred, <i>"'Amor, ergo sum:' I am loved, therefore I am."</i> Among other things, I am a Roman Catholic deacon. This is a public cyberspace in which I seek to foster Christian discipleship in the late modern milieu in the <i>diakonia</i> of <i>koinonia</i> and in the recognition that "the Eucharist is the only place of resistance to annihilation of the human subject."Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.comBlogger4060125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-83427604517607448542024-03-18T19:33:00.005-06:002024-03-18T19:47:30.992-06:00Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031824.cfm">Daniel 13:1-9.15-1719-30.33-62; Psalm 23:1-6; John 8:1-11</a></b>
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Whenever I hear Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery, my first question inevitably is, where is her partner? After all, you can’t commit adultery by yourself. He would be just as guilty and, depending on circumstances, if the episode of Susanna is any guide, maybe even more so.
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I think our Psalm this evening, the beautiful and well-known Psalm twenty-three, provides us with a key to our readings for today. This is one of those Psalms that is often slightly off in many English translations. In the revised edition of the New American Bible, which is our American Catholic Bible, the first verse is translated quite accurately: “The L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span> is my shepherd, there is nothing I lack.”<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a>
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The first part of the last verse of Psalm 23, also needs a corrective translation. Often it is translated as “Only goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” A better translation is in the revised New American Bible: “Indeed, goodness and mercy will <i>pursue</i> me all the days of my life” (italics mine).<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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The better translation is important because it gives us a more accurate insight into God’s very nature. God, who is Goodness and who is Mercy, doesn’t just passively follow you. God actively pursues you! This is what a good shepherd does: seek out the lost sheep.
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Tonight, we hear about two women. One, Susanna, is innocent, the unwitting victim of wicked men, while the other, who remains nameless, is by all indications guilty, caught in the very act of adultery.
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The good news we can take away from this is that God not only vindicates the innocent. Through Jesus Christ, even the guilty can be vindicated. God pursues you with no less gentleness, kindness, and mercy than he pursued the woman caught in adultery, arriving on the scene just in time.
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While apostolic credentials of the pericope of Jesus' encounter with the woman taken in adultery is not in question, it was not clear to the Church for some time in which Gospel it belonged. It fits well in John’s Gospel because, like the three Gospels we proclaim for the Scrutiny of the Elect, you can put yourself in the place of the Samaritan woman whom Jesus knew everything about and desired to save all the more, of the blind to whom the Lord gave sight, and Lazarus, who he raised from the dead, it is easy to be the woman caught in adultery.
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Of course, this is not to accuse everyone of adultery. It is merely to point out that we’re all sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. As we read in 1 John: “If we say, ‘We are without sin,’ we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a> Through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit’s power, God is eager to forgive you. This is what the woman’s adulterous partner ran away from.
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What is amazing is that is precisely through our lack that Christ gives us everything. He makes our fall the source of redemption. This may be his greatest miracle of all!
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So badly does God want to forgive you that the first gift the Risen Lord gave to his Church after his resurrection was the Sacrament of Penance.<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a> It is through this sacrament you are reconciled to God and to the Church. It is through this sacrament that Christ says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”<a href="#5" name="top5"><sup>5</sup></a>
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Jesus is always eager to meet you wherever you are. But he is not content to leave you where he found you. The Good Shepherd pursues you through the dark valley, accompanies you through (if you let him), sets a table before you, anoints your head with oil, and fills your cup to overflowing. Jesus+nothing=everything.
<hr width="80%"><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a>Psalm 23:1.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a>Psalm 23:6.</a><a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1john/1?8">1 John 1:8</a>.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a>John 8:11.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="5"><b>5 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/20?19">John 20:19-23</a>.<a href="#top5"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-78461727106326775972024-03-16T19:30:00.003-06:002024-03-18T19:32:43.969-06:00Fifth Sunday of Lent- Third Scrutiny<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031724-YearA.cfm">Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 130:1-8; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45</a></b>
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As English speakers, we tend to conflate “flesh” with “body.” Such a conflation leads to a perversion in the Christian understanding of the human person. This can have devastating practical consequences for those seeking to live a Christian life.
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In Koine Greek, the language in which our uniquely Christian scriptures (i.e., the New Testament) were written, there are distinct words for “body” and “flesh”- <i>soma</i> and <i>sarx</i>, which do not usually refer to the same thing, especially in the authentic writings of Saint Paul.
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<i>Soma</i> is the Greek word for “body,” while <i>sarx</i> is the Greek word Paul uses in our reading from Romans that translates as “flesh.” This is more than just a “Gee whiz” bit of information. Christianity is rooted in the Incarnation of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who is himself “true God from true God.” To be incarnated is to be embodied, to have a body.
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Far from rejecting the body, which is gnostic and antithetical to Christianity, we rejoice in our bodies and in all physical creation, which sacramentally points us to God. Through this Eucharist, for example, we offer ourselves, body, blood, soul, and humanity to the Father, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Getting back to our reading from Romans, our body is dead to sin because, by God’s sanctifying grace given us through the sacraments, we are no longer in the flesh but live in the spirit because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Recall here the words of Jesus to the Samaritan woman from the Gospel for the First Scrutiny: <blockquote>the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a></blockquote> Here is a scrutinizing question: are you determined to worship God in Spirit and truth? Worshipping God in Spirit means worshipping God with your body, which, in its negative aspect, means not using your body to pursue fleshly desires. This is why, as Christians, we practice spiritual disciplines, which you perform with your body.
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Several chapters on in his Letter to the Romans, the apostle exhorts the Christians of ancient Rome: <blockquote>to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a></blockquote> Paul positively describes what it means to live in the spirit. Again, becoming Catholic as an adult should not amount merely to the adoption of a new moniker indicating your religious preference. It is the beginning of your new life, which includes a way of life, one in which you seek to live like Christ in an increasingly indifferent world, a world governed by adherence to the hedonistically existential axiom of getting all you can while you can.
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If the body weren’t central to Christianity, then rather than raise his dead friend Lazarus, Jesus would’ve consoled his sisters with something like, “He’s in heaven with God now.” Well, if you’ve ever lost anyone you loved and to whom you were very close, you know such words are often cold comfort, particularly when uttered while standing at the edge of their grave, a place where grief and doubt abound, which are the conditions for hope as opposed to mere optimism.
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After complaining to Jesus that Lazarus would not have died had he come earlier, Martha is not terribly consoled by his assurance “Your brother will rise.” You can almost hear the terseness of her response: “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.”<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a> So much for pious platitudes!
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Jesus then leads Martha deeper by asking if she believes that he, Jesus, is “the resurrection and the life” and that by believing this she will never die. To which she responds with a profound confession of faith. Similarly, Mary, the contemplative sister, also tells Jesus that if he had come sooner Lazarus would not have died.<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a>
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Seeing Mary’s grief, the Lord is affected and weeps.<a href="#5" name="top5"><sup>5</sup></a> He, too, loves Lazarus as well as Martha and Mary. As Jesus shows signs of grief, some in the crowd ask in a vein similar to the sisters: “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”<a href="#6" name="top6"><sup>6</sup></a> Then, after calling for the removal of the stone that sealed the tomb, and praying to the Father, Jesus, in a loud voice, calls Lazarus forth. He emerges alive.
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This Gospel is the culmination of the scrutinies because just as you are the woman at the well to whom Jesus revealed his true identity by knowing everything about her and loving her anyway, just as you are the blind man to whom Jesus gave true sight by healing him and showing him who he is, you are Lazarus called forth from the grave.
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Jesus Christ has conquered death. This is the Good News! <i>Christus resurrexit, quia Deus caritas est!</i><a href="#7" name="top7"><sup>7</sup></a> Here’s another scrutinizing question: Do you believe this in the way Martha professed it? As a Christian, you must confess, "I believe... in the resurrection of the body."<a href="#8" name="top8"><sup>8</sup></a>
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As then-Father/Professor Josef Ratzinger observed quite a few years ago: <blockquote>This life is not everything. There is an eternity. Today, it is very unmodern to say this, even in theology. To speak of life beyond death looks like a flight from life here on earth. But what if it is true? Can one simply pass it by? Can one dismiss it as mere consolation? Is it not precisely this reality that bestows on life its seriousness, its freedom, its hope?<a href="#9" name="top9"><sup>9</sup></a></blockquote> Christ will demonstrate his mastery over death again when you die, are buried, and rise to new life through the waters of baptism. This is no less a miracle than the one in today’s Gospel or the one from our Gospel for the Second Scrutiny. Eternal life is not the life that begins after physical death. Eternal life begins at baptism. Eternal life, which is life in the Spirit, is now and forever. <i>La vida eterna es por los siglos de los siglos.</i>
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My dear Elect, Jesus Christ calls you forth from the grave of sin, the grave of unbelief, the grave of indifference toward life, from the gray and nagging dissatisfaction of life in the flesh, a life in which too much is never enough, a life that does not satisfy because it cannot satisfy. Fleshly life cannot satisfy because God made you for himself and your heart is restless until it rests in him.<a href="#10" name="to10"><sup>10</sup></a> And so, once again, <blockquote>Awake, O sleeper,<br />
and arise from the dead,<br />
and Christ will give you light<a href="#11" name="top11"><sup>11</sup></a></blockquote>
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/4?23">John 4:23-24</a>.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/romans/12">Romans 12:1-2</a>.</a><a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a>John 11:23-24.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a>John 11:25-27.32-37.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="5"><b>5 </b></a>John 11:35.<a href="#top5"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="6"><b>6 </b></a>John 11:37.</a><a href="#top6"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="7"><b>7 </b></a>Pope Benedict XVI. <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/urbi/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20060416_urbi-easter.html">Easter <i>Urbi et Orbi Message</i></a>. 16 April 2006.<a href="#top6"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="8"><b>8 </b></a><a href="https://catholicherald.org.ng/the-12-articles-of-the-creed/">Apostles Creed, Article 11</a>.</a><a href="#top8"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="9"><b>9 </b></a>Robert Cardinal Sarah. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/He-Gave-Us-So-Much/dp/162164684X"><i>He Gave Us So Much: A Tribute to Benedict XVI</i></a>. Trans. Michael J. Miller, 130-131.<a href="#top9"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="10"><b>10 </b></a>Saint Augustine. <a href="https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/augustine/conf.pdf"><i>Confessions</i></a>. Book I, Chapter 1, Section 1.<a href="#top10"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="11"><b>11 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/5?14">Ephesians 5:14</a>.<a href="#top11"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>
Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-30225112126890724592024-03-11T17:32:00.001-06:002024-03-11T17:32:52.968-06:00Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031124.cfm">Isaiah 65:17-21; Ps 30:2.4-6.11-13; John 4:43-54</a></b>
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We too quickly become accustomed to a debased Christianity, making it a philosophy of life, a culture, or, worse yet, a politics, which can help but be disengaged from Jesus’ teachings in one way or another. We’ve reached that point in Lent where we are confronted with and by Jesus through the readings, particularly the Gospel readings.
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Our Gospel today immediately follows Jesus’ encounter with the woman in Samaria. At the end of that encounter, at the urging of the inhabitants of the Samaritan village, he stayed with them for two days.<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a>
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According to John’s itinerary, Jesus passes through Samaria as he returns to his native Galilee from a trip to Jerusalem. Because Jesus performed no miracles for his fellow Galileans before his journey to Jerusalem but wowed the Galileans who were also in Jerusalem during a major feast with signs and wonders, they gleefully welcomed him back as he entered Cana of Galilee, where, the inspired author reminds us, he turned water into wine at a wedding feast.
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In the fourth Gospel, the miracle at the wedding feast in Cana marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Of course, this miracle is the second Luminous Mystery of the Holy Rosary. This mystery’s fruit is <i>to Jesus through Mary</i>.
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If you remember, the Lord was reluctant to do something to help at the wedding when all the wine had been consumed. He only intervened because of his mother. She forced the issue by telling the servants, with reference to her Son- “Do whatever he tells you.”<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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In today’s Gospel, the lack of belief on the part of his fellow Galileans, indicated by their fickleness, was seen by Jesus for what it was: bad faith, which is no faith at all. Far from being elated by his triumphant return, he seems to be not disappointed as much as disgusted.
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Jesus’ disgust is brought into bold relief when his response to the royal official’s request that he go with him to Capernaum to heal his son, who was close to death, was: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a> Nonetheless, in his mercy, he healed the man's son, saving him from death.
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The Lord’s response stands in contrast to a common misconception about him. This misconception is something like the “Buddy Christ” from Kevin Smith’s movie <i>Dogma</i>. In this film, Buddy Christ is the central feature in what is just an ad campaign, as so many “evangelization” programs tend to be. The name of the campaign is “Catholicism <i>Wow</i>!”
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Cardinal Glick, the driving force behind the ad campaign, played by the late George Carlin, notes that because too many people find the crucifix “wholly depressing,” the Church is retiring it and replacing it with the Buddy Christ. It is a Sacred Heart statue featuring a smiling and winking Jesus, who points at onlookers with one hand while giving the thumbs-up sign with the other.
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As we profess in the Creed, Jesus is “true God from true God.” His divinity is made manifest through his humanity. In his person, humanity and divinity are wholly integrated, making him “the perfect man.”<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a> It is through his very person, in which divinity and humanity perfectly cohere, that he seeks to restore our likeness to God, which is lost through sin.<a href="#5" name="top5"><sup>5</sup></a> Another word for this is “divinization.”
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Because we are not like God, which means we are not yet fully human, we sometimes find Jesus’ words and disposition puzzling. But we can be quite sure that while he certainly performed signs and wonders, Jesus did not come to launch a divine shock and awe campaign that we could call “God <i>Wow</i>!”
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Our Gospel today is a variation on theme which comes to full fruition at the end of the Gospel According to Saint John, when “doubting” Thomas can see and touch the risen Lord: “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”<a href="#6" name="top6"><sup>6</sup></a>
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a>See <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/4">John 4:1-42</a>.</a>.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a>See <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/2">John 2:1-12</a>.</a><a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a>John 4:48.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a>Second Vatican Council. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World [<a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html"><i>Gaudium et Spes</i></a>], sec. 22.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="5"><b>5 </b></a>Ibid.<a href="#top5"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="6"><b>6 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/20?29">John 20:29</a>.</a><a href="#top6"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-7126716470162589902024-03-10T14:00:00.024-06:002024-03-10T14:00:00.136-06:00Fourth Sunday of Lent- Second Scrutiny<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031024-YearA.cfm">1 Samuel 16:1b.6-7.10-13a; Psalm 23:1-6; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41</a></b>
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Today we celebrate <i>Latare</i> Sunday. <i>Latare Sunday</i> is a day of rejoicing within the otherwise austere season of Lent. t all Sundays in Lent remain celebrations of the Lord’s resurrection, which is why, when calculating how long Lent is, you do not count Sundays.
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Today we have a great reason to rejoice: the Second Scrutiny of our Elect. Rather than scrutinize them, we bless and strengthen them to scrutinize themselves. Indeed, for all of us, the season of Lent is a time for self-examination, a time for renewing our practice of the core spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, which should be characteristic of our lives as Christians all the time.
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Our Gospel for the First Scrutiny, which we celebrated last Sunday at the 9:00 AM Mass, was Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. In that encounter, Jesus declared himself forthrightly to be the Messiah, the one for whom the woman was hopefully waiting. I think it is easily lost on us how astounding it is that Jesus, a man whom this woman encounters while he sits by Jacob’s well, the one who engages her in a bit of an enigmatic dialog, is the Messiah, the one who will tell her everything.<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a>
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We easily forget that it was not intuitively obvious to the casual observer in first-century Israel that this guy from Nazareth, Mary and Joseph’s son, was not only the Messiah, God’s anointed, but the only begotten Son of God in the flesh. Something quite similar is at work in our Gospel today. But before coming to that, it bears noting that David is a messianic figure. Our first reading today serves to demonstrate something Saint Paul describes well: <blockquote>God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a></blockquote> Jesus, the unexpected, unassuming, and often unwelcome Messiah, is the exemplar of this divinely revealed truth.
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Apart from Jesus and the healed man, only some of Jesus’ disciples witnessed this unprecedented healing. While it quickly became evident, despite doubts, that something amazing had happened when this man who everyone knew was blind could now see, the divine origin of the power that healed him was called into question. But, when queried, all the man could say, was this Jesus fellow smeared mud on his eyes and now he could see.
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It wasn’t until after his ordeal with the Pharisees that Jesus revealed to the man to whom he gave sight who he is using almost the exact same words he used when revealing his identity to the Samaritan woman. This tells us something deeply important about faith. When the man asks, in response to Jesus’ question about whether he believes in the Son of Man, “who is he that I might believe in him?,” Jesus responded with “You have seen him” and, in so many words, “It is me, one speaking with you.”<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a>
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To see Jesus for who he is is to see reality in a whole new way. Or stated another way, to really see Jesus is to really see. One way to understand the man’s washing his eyes in the Pool of Siloam is as a kind of baptism, washing. To see and believe in Jesus Christ is what it means to have eyes to see. We also must have ears to hear and hearts that love him enough to live according to his words. Hope is the flower of faith and charity is its fruit.
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Someone who is infused with the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love is someone who nurtures these by praying, fasting, and giving alms, thus living as a child of the light. There is no better segue to the third and final scrutiny, the Gospel for which is Jesus calling his dead friend Lazarus forth from the tomb, than the ending of our second reading, which New Testament scholars think was taken from an early Christian baptismal hymn: <blockquote>Awake, O sleeper,<br />
and arise from the dead,<br />
and Christ will give you light<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a></blockquote> You see, Jesus did not just give the man his eyesight. He gave him life!
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Friday afternoon, a friend, who is an educator, texted me asking how I might respond to the question “What are people for?” My answer came quite quickly. I texted him that my answer is the answer to the third question from the old <i>Baltimore Catechism</i>. The first question is, “Who made us?” “Us,” of course, refers to human beings. The third question, which contains the answer to the first, is “God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven.”<a href="#5" name="top5"><sup>5</sup></a>
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Alternatively, I texted, riffing off Saint Irenaeus of Lyons’ insistence that “the glory of God is the living man, and the life of man is the vision of God,” I texted him that what people are for is to show forth God’s glory.”<a href="#6" name="top6"><sup>6</sup></a>
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The man to whom Jesus gave sight didn’t glorify God merely by receiving his sight, though this miracle, as Jesus intimates, was wrought on behalf of this blind man so “the works of God might be made visible through him.”<a href="#7" name="top7"><sup>7</sup></a> He glorified God by confessing his belief in Jesus and then worshipping him.<a href="#8" name="top8"><sup>8</sup></a>
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Mass comes from the Latin word <i>missa</i>, which literally means to be dismissed. <i>Missa</i> is also the root of the word <i>missio</i>, which translates into English as “mission.” And so, at the end of each Mass, all of us are sent forth on mission to proclaim the Gospel.
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Just as the Samaritan woman eagerly told her fellow villagers about Jesus, can you imagine the man who was formerly blind not telling others what Jesus had done for him? Rather than apologetics that traffics in proofs and arguments, telling others what Jesus has done for you what it really means to evangelize, to tell others the Good News.
<hr width="80%"><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a>See <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/4?5">John 4:5-42.</a>.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/1?27">1 Corinthians 1:27-29</a>.</a><a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a>John 9:36-37.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a>Ephesians 5:14.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="5"><b>5 </b></a><a href="https://www.catholicity.com/baltimore-catechism/lesson01.html"><i>Baltimore Catechism</i>. Lesson One. Question 3</a>.<a href="#top5"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="6"><b>6 </b></a>Saint Irenaeus of Lyons. <a href="https://logoslibrary.org/irenaeus/heresies/420.html"><i>Against the Heretics</i>, Book 4, Chapter 20</a>, Section 7.</a><a href="#top6"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="7"><b>7 </b></a>John 9:3.<a href="#top7"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="8"><b>8 </b></a>John 9:38.<a href="#top8"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>
Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-61024572907976714662024-03-04T16:54:00.003-07:002024-03-05T06:46:29.581-07:00Monday of the Third Week of Lent<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030424.cfm">2 Kings 5:1-15ab; Ps 42:2-3; 43:3-4; Luke 4:24-30</a></b>
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A question posed by our readings today is “Are you open to letting Jesus challenge you or do you only look to him for consolation?” Because this question points to an important aspect of repentance, it is relevant to our observance of Lent.
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One risk for those of us who seek to practice our faith daily run is the routinization of our practice. On the one hand, when it comes to practicing spiritual discipline, <i>habitus</i> is necessary. In other words, it is important to observe fixed times for prayer and plan days for fasting, to set aside time for spiritual reading, to practice solitude and silence, to pray the Rosary, do the <i>Examen</i>, or pray the Liturgy of the Hours.
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The risk we need to recognize is becoming content and self-satisfied with your spiritual routine, which amounts to something like the feeling that you’ve domesticated God. When practiced well, these disciplines should open you to the movements of the Holy Spirit, not close you off to what the Spirit might be trying to say, and what changes is the Spirit prompting you to make. Change in response to the word of God is the definition of repentance.
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In the spiritual life, to say that God is infinite, that is, unbounded, means something quite practical. There is <i>always</i> more to God than any of us can perceive at any moment. As Pope Francis taught: <blockquote>The word of God… comes as “a surprise, since our God is the God of surprises: he comes and always does new things. He is newness. The Gospel is newness. Revelation is newness”<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a></blockquote> Hence, you must be careful not to build your spiritual life on the foundation of your preconceptions about God. Of course, we all have preconceptions. But over time, your understanding of God should grow and deepen. To grow in the knowledge of God, which is the end toward which the practice of the spiritual disciplines is the means, leads inevitably to loving God more. Just as inevitably, growing in love of God leads to an increased love of neighbor.
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It is clear in each of the Gospels that Jesus was not the Messiah most Jews of his day expected, he did not conform to their preconceptions, just as Elisha was not the miracle worker Naaman expected. Because of his pride, Naaman almost refused the cure he graciously received from God by heeding the prophet’s directions, which seemed demeaning to him.
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The people of Nazareth, most of whom would’ve been related to Jesus in some way, rejected God’s anointed and even sought to kill him. According to Luke, after marveling at his words indicating he was the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy from the portion of the scroll of Isaiah that he had just read to them in the synagogue, the backlash with which our Gospel reading ends seems to have been prompted by someone then asking, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a> In other words, “We know this guy. How can he be the Messiah?”
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Are you willing to let Jesus, through the power of the Spirit, unsettle you and maybe blow up your expectations? Is your soul still thirsty for God, or do you feel like you’ve drunk your fill?
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a>Pope Francis. <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2014/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20140120_god-of-surprises.html">Daily Meditation for 20 January 2014</a>.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a>Luke 4:22.</a><a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>
Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-60558000636189404992024-03-03T14:53:00.002-07:002024-03-04T16:51:43.103-07:00Third Sunday of Lent- First Scrutiny<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030324-YearA.cfm">Ex 17:3-7; Ps 95:1-2.6-9; Rom 5:1-2.5-8; John 4:5-42</a></b>
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“Stay thirsty,” so we are advised by the most interesting man in the world. It’s better, however, to phrase this as a question before employing it as an exhortation. So, existentially speaking, Are you thirsty? If you are thirsty, what are you thirsty for?
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It isn’t an exaggeration to say that our humanity largely consists of our desire, our longing. We desire, we long for, health, fulfillment, contentment, achievement, love, influence, satisfaction. It’s often the case, to quote the Rolling Stones, despite trying and trying, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” One thing to point out about the list above is that some of the things we long for are at odds with other things we desire.
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Desire is the genesis of hope. Hope is perhaps best defined as desire properly directed. All earthly things fade away: money, possessions, accomplishments, even lovely sunny days at the beach. In his letter to the wealthy widow, Proba, after noting that “so far as this world is concerned, [you are] noble and wealthy, and the mother of such an illustrious family, and, although a widow, not desolate,” Saint Augustine commends her for “wisely” understanding “that in this world and in this life the soul has no sure portion.”<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a>
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In other words, this wealthy Roman widow lived in hope, which flowed from understanding what she truly desired. But to be precise, it is not a what but a who that is the proper object of human desire: Jesus Christ. It is Christ and him alone who provides the living water welling up to eternal life. Eternal life, as Augustine so emphatically points out multiple times in his letter to Proba, is the life that is truly life. It is the life we desire, a life without lack.
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To understand this, to want this, to believe this, and live according to this is what it means to receive the gift of hope, which, along with faith and charity, is a theological virtue. While faith, hope, and charity are gifts from God, you can and should cultivate these virtues, just like you cultivate the natural virtues. One way to cultivate the virtue of hope is to understand that, just as eternal life is fully realized beyond death, hope lies beyond optimism. As statesman, playwright, and philosopher Vaclav Havel observed: <blockquote>Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. It transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a></blockquote> And so, every disappointment, every loss, every sorrow, every moment of emptiness and pain is an opportunity to cultivate the theological virtue of hope as we, Eve’s poor banished children, make our way through what is quite often a valley of tears.
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Immediately preceding the verses from the fifth chapter of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans that comprise our second reading, we hear that, as Christians,<blockquote>we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, endurance proven character, and proven character, hope and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs6iOtyCBMG87HrWw0oKeOHdtvWkAIwbaBSUqVcNNRVzr2TsWOgHXKHI_J0h96smJrFHIeYOV5vxdWBb8CYsWd_2sFRu12woYZ8S5jbdb8GCkAq17Es4lhAqllzgOy8AowpB0BqSB6UjldevqeYg5BTsmO5-MQM6ibFbpjcOlK_XJDm7ZdM5pi-aN2EcOW/s2222/Bloch%20woman%20well.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2222" data-original-width="1588" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs6iOtyCBMG87HrWw0oKeOHdtvWkAIwbaBSUqVcNNRVzr2TsWOgHXKHI_J0h96smJrFHIeYOV5vxdWBb8CYsWd_2sFRu12woYZ8S5jbdb8GCkAq17Es4lhAqllzgOy8AowpB0BqSB6UjldevqeYg5BTsmO5-MQM6ibFbpjcOlK_XJDm7ZdM5pi-aN2EcOW/s400/Bloch%20woman%20well.jpg"/></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i>Woman at the Well</i>, by Carl Bloch, 1865-1879</b></span></div>
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We can safely say that the woman Jesus encountered at the well in Samaria did not lack desire. After all, she had been married five times and was now living with a man to whom she was not married. It seems quite clear that she didn’t lack optimism either! Nonetheless, she was not entirely without hope.
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Her hope is evidenced by her pointing to the coming of the Messiah, who “will tell us everything.”<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a> Imagine her disorientation when she heard Jesus say, “I am he, the one speaking with you.”<a href="#5" name="top5"><sup>5</sup></a> His claim was made plausible by his telling her the truth about her life, telling her things about herself that there was no way he could know because she had never met him before.
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Jesus Christ is our hope. He opens the door to eternal life. He is the one, as Saint Paul writes, “through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand.”<a href="#6" name="top6"><sup>6</sup></a> This “grace in which we stand” is nothing less than God sharing divine life with us.
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God’s primary means of imbuing us with his very life, which is nothing less than his very self, are the sacraments. This is most clearly manifest in the Eucharist, which “is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows.”<a href="#7" name="top7"><sup>7</sup></a>
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Baptism, which is strengthened (i.e., “confirmed”) by confirmation, is the gateway to the Eucharist. In baptism, you don’t merely drink from the well of eternal life, you are immersed in it, it becomes the grace in which you not only stand but in which you live, move, and have your being. To use a metaphor to describe what the great theologian Karl Rahner pointed out in his Meditations on the Sacraments, we swim in grace like fish swim in water.<a href="#8" name="top8"><sup>8</sup></a>
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The difference between you and a fish is that you are capable of living this as a conscious reality, which is what it means to live a graceful life, a hopeful life. Baptism is not just a gaining of the new moniker “Catholic” or “Christian.” It is Jesus calling you forth from the tomb like he called his friend Lazarus, but that is to get ahead of ourselves.
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Through the waters of baptism, as Saint Paul points out in the very next chapter of Romans in a verse that is part of our epistle reading for the Great Easter Vigil, preparation for which is what today’s scrutiny is all about, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you die, are buried, and are raised to new life in Christ. Eternal life is not only the life you hope for after death. Eternal life begins with your sacramental death and resurrection enacted through Baptism.
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In this life, the Christian daily lives the tension between the already and not yet of life eternal. It is the Eucharist, that is, Christ himself, that fills your emptiness and quenches your thirst. So, until the day your hope is fully realized, stay thirsty, which is to say, remain hopeful.
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a>Saint Augustine. <a href="https://leaders.formed.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/St-Augustine_Letter-to-Proba.pdf">Letter to Proba</a>, an2154, 1.1.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a>Vaclav Havel. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Disturbing-Peace-Conversation-Karel-Huizdala/dp/0679734023"><i>Disturbing the Peace</i></a>, pp 181-182.</a><a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/romans/5?3">Romans 5:3-5</a>.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a>John 4:25.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="5"><b>5 </b></a>John 4:26.<a href="#top5"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="6"><b>6 </b></a>Romans 5:2.</a><a href="#top6"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="7"><b>7 </b></a>Second Vatican Council. Dogmatic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy [<a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html"><i>Sacrosanctum Concilium</i></a>], sec. 10.<a href="#top7"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="8"><b>8 </b></a>Karl Rahner. <a href="https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/meditations-on-the-sacraments-9780816403448"><i>Meditations on the Sacraments</i></a>, Introduction.<a href="#top8"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
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Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-75551376500994770462024-02-29T05:15:00.030-07:002024-02-29T05:34:08.667-07:00Leap Year reflection- Lent a time of hope for changeSince 29 February only comes around once every four years, I wanted to seize the day and post something to mark the occasion. Since 29 February falls during the season of Lent, what comes immediately to my mind is Trevor Hudson's observation that each season of the liturgical year is a "time-gift." These seasons are gifts because they "help us participate more fully in what God has done in human history" (<i>Pauses for Lent: 40 Words for 40 Days</i>. Upper Room Books. Kindle Edition, Location 77).
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I receive 29 February as a time-gift. It is the gift of an extra day, not of Lent because even during Leap Year, Lent remains the same length, and not of life because my life is however long it is going to be. It merely adds a day to this year: AD2024. The last Leap Year was in 2020, the time of pandemic panic. It's hard to forget all the lamentations and jokes about, of all years, 2020 being longer.
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Time is a strange thing. Our ways of marking time, while not exactly arbitrary, have nothing of the absolute about them. According to our solar calendar, a year is the amount of time it takes the Earth to do a complete rotation around the sun.
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At its most basic, time is a function of change. If you think about a mechanical clock, one with a second hand, a second is a measurement of how long it takes for the hand to move from one tick mark to the next. This also shows us that space and time, while distinct in a way, are inextricably bound together.
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Isn't Lent also about change?
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One of the few complex philosophical ideas Pope Francis evokes quite regularly is the insistence that "time is greater than space." His reason for doing this is to bring forward the idea that genuine human progress (i.e., change/conversion), our progress towards becoming ever authentically human, is a function of time. Rather than a quantum leap, true conversion is a progression, something that happens over time and through experience. As the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html"><i>Gaudium et spes</i></a> ("Joy and hope"), beautifully articulates, Jesus Christ is the "perfect" human being (sec. 22).
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This brings us back to Lent as a "time-gift." In reality, every day is a time-gift, is it not? Any day and every day can be New Year's Day, a new beginning. Just as most every Friday (solemnities excepted) is a "little" Good Friday and every Sunday, including Sundays of Lent (which don't count against the 40 days), is a "little" Easter, every going to sleep is a "little" death and every awakening is a "little" resurrection. We <i>must</i> reconnect liturgy to life!
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I used to find C.S. Lewis' insistence that "Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done" very discouraging (from <i>Letters to Malcom, Chiefly on Prayer</i>). Then I realized how ridiculous it is, especially given life's dynamism, to think- "Why can't I just put my trust in God and be done with it?" In other words, "Why can't I just stand here and not move?" Time is greater than space.
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In his first encyclical, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20130629_enciclica-lumen-fidei.html"><i>Lumen Fidei</i></a>, a substantial draft of which he inherited from Pope Benedict, we find several Bergoglian interjections. One of those can be found at the end of the letter's fifty-seventh section. This section is a beautiful meditation on the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Its main focus, however, is hope. It deals with how hope integrates faith and love (i.e., <i>caritas</i>, charity). <blockquote>Let us refuse to be robbed of hope, or to allow our hope to be dimmed by facile answers and solutions which block our progress, "fragmenting" time and changing it into space. Time is always much greater than space. Space hardens processes, whereas time propels towards the future and encourages us to go forward in hope</blockquote>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-63327657134508077752024-02-26T16:55:00.002-07:002024-02-26T18:36:21.150-07:00Monday of the Second Week of Lent<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022624.cfm">Daniel 9:4b-10; Psalm 79:8-9.11.13; Luke 6:36-38</a></b>
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Befitting this holy season, our Liturgy of the Word today looks something like a penitential rite. It begins with an acknowledgment of sin: <blockquote>
We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. We have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name…<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a></blockquote> Then, in our Responsorial, we move to something akin to a <i>Kyrie</i>, a plea for God’s mercy: “Lord, do not deal with us according to our sins.”<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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Jesus, in our Gospel reading, gives us the conditions for receiving God’s forgiveness, which is a gift, a grace.
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In our contemporary idiom, <i>karma</i>, a Buddhist term, refers to getting what you deserve. If you spend any time on social media, you read quite a few invocations of <i>karma</i>. As Christians, we are people of grace. I don’t know about you, but I will take grace over <i>karma</i> any day.
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Theologically, grace usually refers to unmerited favor given us by God. In other words, God doesn’t grace us because we deserve it. He graces us because God is God and self-giving constitutes divine nature at its deepest level.<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a>
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If I want to receive God’s grace given in Christ through the Spirit’s power, I must be willing to extend that same grace to others. Among these “others” to whom I must extend grace are not only but especially my enemies.
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In a few moments, gathered around the Lord’s Table, we will pray “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a> If you’re praying this prayer intentionally, you are accepting God’s condition for forgiving you. What you’re praying is something like “God forgive me both on the condition that I forgive others and to the extent that I forgive others.”
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In our Gospel today, Jesus says, “Forgive and you will be forgiven.”<a href="#5" name="top5"><sup>5</sup></a> You know from experience that it is often easier to invoke <i>karma</i> over someone who has wronged you than it is to extend the grace of forgiveness, let alone do what the Lord enjoins in the verse immediately preceding the first verse of our Gospel for today- to love that and do good to that person.<a href="#6" name="top6"><sup>6</sup></a>
<hr width="80%"><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a>Daniel:5-6.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a>Psalm 79:9; Lectionary 230.</a><a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a>See <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/philippians/2?5">Philippians 2:5-11</a>. <a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a><i>Roman Missal</i>. The Order of Mass, The Communion Rite, sec. 124.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="5"><b>5 </b></a>Luke 6:37. <a href="#top5"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="6"><b>5 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/6?35">Luke 6:35</a>.<a href="#top6"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>
Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-15023121167502339822024-02-25T16:42:00.022-07:002024-02-28T19:05:06.999-07:00Christian Metamorphosis<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022524.cfm">Gen 22:1-2.10-13.15-18; Ps 116:10.15-19; Rom 8:31b-34; Mark 9:2-10</a></b>
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Lent is about transformation, that is, metamorphosis.
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The Eucharist is about transformation, that is metamorphosis.
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Eucharistic transformation is <i>not</i> primarily about what we label "transubstantiation."
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Mainly, Eucharistic transformation is about how our reception of Holy Communion makes us the Body of Christ. This is why the most important part of the eucharistic liturgy, the part to which it all builds, is the Communion Rite.
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At the end of the day, the <i>only</i> convincing "proof" (or disproof) that our meager gifts of bread and wine become Christ's body and blood are the lives of those of us who partake of it. Does the change provoke a response?
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Living a eucharistic life, which is living a life of thanksgiving, is to be an evangelist.
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Apologetics is just apologetics. Nonetheless, apologetically speaking, if the Eucharist doesn't produce the effects it claims or any discernible effects at all, then no matter how elegant your theory (theology), how real can it be?
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<i>Metamorphosis</i> is the Greek word translated as "transfigured" in our Gospel for today.
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What if instead of beholding a vision that somehow exists outside of reality, or even outside of time (let's think in a quantum way), Jesus' "transfiguration," his metamorphosis, how Peter, James, and John see him in this encounter, is seeing him as he really is all the time?
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In beholding Jesus on the mountain top, seeing also Moses and Elijah, <i>and</i> hearing the voice of the Father, I assert the three men are having an intense experience of reality, of the world.
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What do I mean by "world" in this context?
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Wittgenstein began his <i>Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus</i> with- <blockquote>1. The world is everything that is the case.<br /> 1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things.<br /> 1.11 The world is determined by the facts, and by these being all the facts.<br /> 1.12 For the totality of facts determines both what is the case, and also all that is not the case<br /> 1.13 The facts in logical space are the world.</blockquote> I agree with Dallas Willard, who was a philosophy professor as well as a great Christian spiritual teacher, when he insisted that not only do we interact with the material world mainly by means of our minds, but that "We bring the reality of God into our lives by making contact with him through our minds." Our actions, in turn, result from that contact (<i>Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23</i>, 8).
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaPQvgwy2Br-5uwZhMeEmM0AsT3gA32J0MQ0_2xmv7mKWrunDmCKbG5NY8k52RmPwGXpvddKtfqdUL8-6URaC9BbSrN1_VtpgnnJE900w1nncSW7nsOab62RYjY3mGnAq0QNs84oGq91H-uhUZlJdxmMY2spg4rpFlLvlZUk6B03goqjqwL0ZWz66CK7qm/s900/d-nollet-the-transfiguration-munir-alawi.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="900" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaPQvgwy2Br-5uwZhMeEmM0AsT3gA32J0MQ0_2xmv7mKWrunDmCKbG5NY8k52RmPwGXpvddKtfqdUL8-6URaC9BbSrN1_VtpgnnJE900w1nncSW7nsOab62RYjY3mGnAq0QNs84oGq91H-uhUZlJdxmMY2spg4rpFlLvlZUk6B03goqjqwL0ZWz66CK7qm/s400/d-nollet-the-transfiguration-munir-alawi.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i>The Transfiguration of the Lord</i>, by D. Nollet, 1694</b></span></div>
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For a Christian, that Jesus is the beloved Son of the Father is a fact, not a myth or merely a nifty-keen way to make sense of the world but only one of several equally viable options. While I suppose Jesus' Lordship is a fact both in the world and about the world, more importantly, it is the fact that constitutes the world.
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To understand Jesus as Messiah is to revere him as Lord. In this pericope, the fact of Jesus' unique and divine Sonship is shown by there not being "anyone but Jesus alone" after the cloud lifted and the divine voice trailed off. This is meant to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah). He is the full revelation of Father.
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Because I don't want to make a mockery of Wittgenstein's careful thinking by quoting him inappropriately, far from acknowledging Jesus as Lord, Wittgenstein, citing Paul's insistence that "no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the holy Spirit" (<a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/12?3">1 Cor 12:3</a>), averred that that claim said "nothing" to him. Why did the philosopher balk at acknowledging Jesus as Lord? "Because I do not believe that he will come to judge me" (<i>Culture and Value</i>, 37).
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Wittgenstein insisted that the idea of Jesus returning to judge the living and the dead, as Christians profess in the Creed, also said nothing to him. Jesus judging him, he continued, "could say something to me, only if I lived completely differently" (Ibid.). This is the crux of the matter, isn't it?
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This metamorphosis that causes you to live completely differently does not result in you being changed into something or someone completely different. Rather, it is to be changed into someone completed. To become who God made and redeemed you to be is what it means to be sanctified.
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The first lesson in what means to rise from the dead is understanding that first you must die.
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"I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice..." (<a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/romans/12">Rom 12:1</a>). It is by so doing, by the grace of God, you start to "be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you might discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" (<a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/romans/12?2">Rom 12:2</a>).
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How else can you offer yourself except through the Eucharist, in which we pray that Christ by the Spirit's power "make of us an eternal offering" to the Father? (Eucharistic Prayer II)
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Taking a cue from Saint Ignatius of Loyola, this transfiguration requires you not only to discern what is good and pleasing and perfect but to endeavor to act on what you discern, no matter what it may be. We don't call Abraham our Father in faith for nothing. Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-2131713415027199252024-02-20T20:00:00.006-07:002024-02-21T05:32:13.692-07:00Praying for Priestly Vocations- 40-hour AdorationIt is appropriate during our parish 40-hour Adoration for Vocations to take a few moments to reflect on the Eucharist and vocation. Being “the source and summit” of our faith, everything we do should start with flow back to the Eucharist.<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a> Another way to say this is that, as Christians, everything we do should start and end with thanksgiving.
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To whom do we give thanks and for what are we thankful? In power of the Holy Spirit, we give thanks to the Father for what he has done for us in and through Christ.
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“It is through the sacraments and the exercise of the virtues that the sacred nature and organic structure of the priestly community is brought into operation.”<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a> The priestly community, here, refers to the Church. What is Adoration if not the virtue of adoring Jesus Christ present in and through this sacrament?
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Adoration, as Fr. Andrzej noted on Sunday, is an extension of the eucharistic liturgy. It flows out from and back to the Holy Mass. Therefore, as we adore Christ on this altar, we need to keep in mind that through our reception of Holy Communion, Christ comes to be present in us in a no less real and no less a powerful way than he is present in the tabernacle and, during Adoration, in the monstrance.
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At the end of each Mass, we are sent forth with one of several dismissals the Roman Missal provides. One of these is “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.”<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a> From Mass, you are sent on a mission to make Christ present wherever you are. This is the call of God's priestly people given in baptism. This is the primary vocation of everyone who is baptized: the Pope, bishops, priests, religious, laity, and even deacons. It is how you become a saint. We are all called to be saints, which is the highest Christian call.
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During these 40 hours, we pray specifically for vocations to the priesthood. Even more specifically, for vocations to the priesthood for the Diocese of Salt Lake City. During this time, it is important to not only to pray for more priests. We must pray for the right priests.
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Who are the right priests? They are those called by Christ to serve, yes, serve God’s people. There is a reason one is a deacon before one becomes a priest- service precedes sacrifice. While the call to be a priest is a call to be a leader, the “right” priest is one who hears and heeds these words of Jesus: <blockquote>You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>3</sup></a></blockquote> Note the shift from “servant” at the beginning to “slave” at the end. In the original Greek, servant is <i>diakonos</i>, which, when translated, is deacon. While a <i>diakonos</i> is a servant, a <i>doulos</i> is a slave.
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In Greek, not only are these words not synonymous, they have quite distinctive meanings. Most languages are not plagued with the ambiguities of modern English. A <i>doulos</i> is someone who belongs to another; a bond-slave, without any ownership rights of his own. By contrast, a <i>diakonos</i> refers to someone who performs a service, or, by Jesus' time, even to an administrator. The “right” priest is both a <i>diakonos</i> and a <i>doulos</i>. In imitation of our Lord, a priest is the servant and the slave of those he leads, not their master.
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As we continue this Forty Hour Devotion, let us implore God for more priests and for the right men to heed Christ’s call. Let us also pray that we receive the grace to
continue to live out the vocations to which God has called each of us.
<hr width="80%"><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a>Second Vatican Council. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church [<a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html"><i>Lumen Gentium</i></a>], sec. 11.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a>Ibid.</a><a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a><i>Roman Missal</i>. The Order of Mass. <a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/20?25">Matthew 20:25-27</a>.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>
Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-20579590181485660312024-02-18T14:00:00.023-07:002024-02-20T19:28:59.952-07:00Year B First Sunday of Lent<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021824.cfm">Genesis 9:8-15; Psalm 25:4-9; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15</a></b>
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Our Lenten journey is predicated on Jesus’ forty days in the desert after his baptism. Rather than as a response to baptism and be declared pleasing by the Father, our Lenten journey is in preparation for baptism. In the Church, Lent began as a time when the Elect (i.e., adult women and men) would undertake intense spiritual preparation for their baptism at the Great Easter Vigil.
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Over time, this forty-day period became a time of preparation for the entire Church, including those already baptized. Hence, while preparing the Elect for baptism and, along with Candidates, for the sacraments of confirmation and Eucharist as well, Lent prepares the rest of us for the renewal of our baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil.
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In what does our preparation consist? It consists of a more intensive and intentional practice of the three fundamental spiritual disciplines taught to us by our Lord himself: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. In reality, the constant practice of these disciplines constitutes Christian life. There is an inextricable bond between these disciplines.
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Fasting links prayer to almsgiving. We practice these not to earn but to perhaps enhance through reality, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. We call these the “theological virtues” because, unlike the natural virtues, such as prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, they are gifts of God and not acquired through our own efforts.
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In a manner like the response of Jesus to his baptism and being declared pleasing to the Father, which was his Spirit-led retreat into the desert and his subsequent and equally Spirit-led proclamation of the kingdom, practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is our response to being imbued with faith, hope, and love.
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Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are how we, as Jesus’ followers, make visible the gifts God so graciously and generously gives us through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Doing these things habituates you to live your life in Christ. It’s how the kingdom of God is incarnated, which we, as the Body of Christ, are called and empowered to do.
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If you were here on Ash Wednesday, at the distribution of ashes, Christ called you to repentance through the Church with words of Jesus from today’s Gospel: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” We need to be careful not to let receiving ashes become nothing more than an empty ritual. In other words, there needs to be a desire and intent to repent.
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While contrition, that is, being sorry for your sins, is part of repentance, it is the beginning, the first step. To repent means to change, to convert. Above all, for a Christian, it means desiring and striving to be more like Christ, opening yourself to the Holy Spirit to be more conformed to Christ’s image.
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Originally, human beings were created in God’s image and likeness. While the <i>imago Dei</i> (i.e., the image of God) is ineradicable- this forms the basis of the Christian understanding of human rights- likeness to God, which is likeness to Christ, is lost through sin. Our likeness to God is restored by grace through the sacraments.
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The sacraments are the inexhaustible spring of God’s grace. Especially during Lent, which is a season of penance, the sacrament of penance is made more available. Uniquely and singularly, you receive through this sacrament the healing and wholeness, the grace you need to repent, to change to live in a more Christlike way. Just as hope joins faith to love, and fasting links prayer and almsgiving, being an extension of baptism, the sacrament of penance links baptism to Eucharist.
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Making these kinds of connections is important for us as Catholics. By virtue of our baptism, our confirmation, our marriage, our ordination, our religious profession, our faithful singleness, and our participation in the Eucharist, we participate in God’s sacramental economy of grace. The Church, which is herself the sacrament of salvation in and for the world, exists primarily for this purpose and is, therefore, indispensable for salvation.
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Fasting is about what you need to give up to fully place your hope in Jesus Christ, and almsgiving is about what you need to take up for others to grow in charity and become more like him.
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The question you need to ask when giving something up for Lent, like chocolate, is how does this aid my conversion to Christ? That said, we could all stand to do more penance. Not only is giving up something you enjoy and that is not bad in and of itself, like meat on Fridays, okay, when done in a penitential spirit, it is good.
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In short, let everything begin with the Lord’s inspiration, continue with his help, and reach perfection under his guidance. This will save you from undertaking an exhaustive program of self-improvement, which is antithetical to the spirit of Lent.
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Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom is the fourth Luminous Mystery of Our Lady’s Holy Rosary. Repentance and trust in God are the fruit of this mystery. It is important to point out that in Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom according to Saint Mark, repenting comes before believing. Being a disciple is like being an apprentice. Like an apprentice, you come to know by doing.
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Being good news, the Gospel isn’t just something you hear or merely read about, it is an experience. “Being Christian,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a>
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In a very real sense, Ash Wednesday to the Saturday after Ash Wednesday, as the clunky liturgical nomenclature dubs it, is a Lenten warm-up. The six weeks of Lent begin in earnest today, the First Sunday of Lent. And so, today is a great time to prayerfully think about this holy season and how, by the grace of God, you need to better incorporate prayer, fasting, and almsgiving into the rhythm of your own life.
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Lent is a gift of time, given to consider very specifically those areas of your life that need healing, those things that need to change for you to be converted more fully to Christ. Through the season of Lent, you repent so that, at Easter, you can credibly profess your belief.
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a>Pope Benedict XVI. Encyclical Letter, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est.html"><i>Deus Caritas Est</i></a> [God is Love], sec. 1.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
</span>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-77188029299552120212024-02-14T14:15:00.002-07:002024-02-20T20:05:54.381-07:00Ash Wednesday<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021424.cfm">Joel 2:12-18; Ps 51:3-6.12-14.17; 2 Cor 5:20-6:2; Matt 6:1-6.16-18</a></b>
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In our well-fed society, Lent is the time we are urged to fast from everything but food. The problem with this is that it breaks the intrinsic connection between the three fundamental spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Why go hungry when you can work hard at not dropping the f-bomb, or watch less TV, or give up chocolate, or alcohol, or whatever?
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It may well be the case that you could stand to watch less TV, clean up your language, eat less chocolate, or drink fewer alcoholic beverages. Maybe abstaining from these things during Lent is something you prayerfully discern you should do. Be careful! Lent is not the time when you try to make yourself uncomfortable in some fiddling but irritating way.
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Traditionally, fasting referred to foregoing food and drink for religious purposes. Hence, fasting is not dieting, though, for those whose health permits them to fast in an extended manner, there are health benefits that come from fasting. The detox your body undergoes during periods of extended fasting is most conducive to prayer, meditation, and contemplation.
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In his Letter to the Philippians, about those he dubs “enemies of the cross of Christ,” Saint Paul states “Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their ‘shame.’ Their minds are occupied with earthly things.”<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a> I take this to mean they live according to the pleasure principle.
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By contrast, the apostle insists that Christians are people of hope, joyfully longing for Christ’s return, when he “will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself.”<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a> Fasting is an act of hope because it is a powerful means of even now letting Christ Jesus subject you to himself.
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Today, along with Good Friday, is a day of fasting and, if you must eat something, a day of abstinence. Hence, if you eat you do not eat the meat of warm-blooded animals. Such days do not require you to eat fish, let alone require you to prepare an elaborate seafood meal. A simple meal with no meat more than suffices.
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Next week, between the First and Second Sundays of Lent, on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, you have the chance to observe Ember Days. While not as stringent as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, these, too, are days of fasting and abstinence. Formerly obligatory, the observance of Ember Days, while encouraged, is now optional but, sadly, little observed.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_bbuldBqatp3iAWmyXyHQmJcxHw-p13hjmRUqUOAZll_h76s5-5CbYbHlj3alqFAuGHCZauSJGVeB4GYnkPIaqSrHPi7lV14H7Gmv2x9EHcKSG5h9-GKtspyacK9T5Ox79vpBGZMZpd3Otz0J2_F_Juv38pUjoUFF_yqOAhwjRY-iGrOK0g94xtemNk_O/s650/P,f,a.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_bbuldBqatp3iAWmyXyHQmJcxHw-p13hjmRUqUOAZll_h76s5-5CbYbHlj3alqFAuGHCZauSJGVeB4GYnkPIaqSrHPi7lV14H7Gmv2x9EHcKSG5h9-GKtspyacK9T5Ox79vpBGZMZpd3Otz0J2_F_Juv38pUjoUFF_yqOAhwjRY-iGrOK0g94xtemNk_O/s400/P,f,a.jpg"/></a></div>
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Ember Days happen four times a year, seasonally. In spring, the first full week of Lent. In summer, the week between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. Fall Ember days are observed the week after the Exaltation of the Cross. The week after the Feast of Saint Lucy is when winter’s Ember Days come around.
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The practice of fasting during Lent and beyond, even if this just means skipping a few meals a week, eating less for your meals, preparing less and simpler food, or trying not to eat between meals, is basic: eat less and give more to the poor. Not only does fasting allow us to be in solidarity with those who daily lack what we take for granted, but it is also an act of penance, a way, by the grace of God, through the merits of Jesus Christ and all the saints, making right, in some small way, those things you did wrong.
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Just as hope joins faith to charity, fasting links prayer to almsgiving. Prayer corresponds to the theological virtue of faith. When practiced by itself, prayer can turn you in on yourself. Almsgiving, which can either be giving money to those in need and/or sacrificial service to others, when done apart from a spirit of prayer and fasting, while certainly good, can easily become humanitarianism. In his encyclical <i>Deus Caritas Est</i>, Pope Benedict XVI noted that <i>caritas</i>, or <i>agape</i>: <blockquote>does not simply offer people material help, but refreshment and care for their souls, something which often is even more necessary than material support. In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of [the human person]: the mistaken notion that [s/he] can live “by bread alone” (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3)—a conviction that demeans [women and men] and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a></blockquote> Hope is the flower of faith and charity is their fruit. It is by practicing these spiritual disciplines that we become what Saint Paul urges us to be: “ambassadors of Christ.”<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a>
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Be careful, lest, like the Pharisees, you turn your practice of these disciplines into ends rather than the means they are intended to be. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are means to the end of loving God and neighbor ever more deeply. Desiring to love God and neighbor better is how you let Christ subject you to himself. Transforming as they do soul, body, and heart, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are means for the conversion we all need to undergo.
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However, practicing these spiritual disciplines won’t bring you closer to God. Only God can bring you closer to Himself. What the practice of these fundamental spiritual disciplines, taught to us by Christ himself, is meant to do is to help you get yourself, your ego, out of the way so you are open to God’s grace.
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My dear friends in Christ, Lent is not a time for programs of radical self-improvement. It is a time of grace. A time to open yourself more fully to God through the integrated practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We do this together in preparation for the renewal of our baptismal promises at the Great Easter Vigil and to prepare us for life eternal.
<hr width="80%"><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/philippians/3?18">Philippians 3:18b-19</a>.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/philippians/3?21">Philippians 3:21</a>.</a><a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a>Pope Benedict XVI. Encyclical Letter. <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est.html"><i>Deus Caritas Est</i></a>, sec. 28b.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a>2 Corinthians 5:20.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-67191462314674076132024-02-12T20:24:00.001-07:002024-02-12T20:24:52.409-07:00Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021224.cfm">James 1:1-11; Psalm 119-67-68.71-72.75-76; Mark 8:11-13</a></b>
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Jesus was ambivalent about his miracles and healings. While they are signs of the in-breaking of God’s kingdom, they are not of primary importance. Being external and somewhat spectacular, signs and wonders can detract from the basic message of the Gospel. Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem was not “the magical mystery tour.” Rather, it is the road to salvation walked through the world.
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As handed on in Mark’s Gospel, when he emerged after forty days from the desert, Jesus proclaimed: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a> So, the Lord’s miracles are meant to demonstrate exteriorly the message each of us must take to heart. Besides, as Dostoevsky noted- “Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from faith.”<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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Our two readings fit nicely together (funny how the lectionary does that!). Any genuine disciple of Jesus understands that being a Christian does not guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen to you. As our reading from James indicates, quite to the contrary. Jesus puts it more succinctly in the Last Supper Discourse in Saint John’s Gospel: “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmz1EiBigLX18USbgtsKrYv3SEHlL4JxKU_C0f6zEJtBsCxoEjCXATV6JEff04Zo-_-WKNhur08e4OyOm__I2kx3tgKvpeofg2r__Fd-B9S_arQt_JTZVXLqBsNbIsqsfhwQpB2OuXrFbEJr9CtRsJTl8IynmBYwQiGCSxKncpJrd7GgZWzDzPQUSTh85K/s746/Pharisees.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="746" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmz1EiBigLX18USbgtsKrYv3SEHlL4JxKU_C0f6zEJtBsCxoEjCXATV6JEff04Zo-_-WKNhur08e4OyOm__I2kx3tgKvpeofg2r__Fd-B9S_arQt_JTZVXLqBsNbIsqsfhwQpB2OuXrFbEJr9CtRsJTl8IynmBYwQiGCSxKncpJrd7GgZWzDzPQUSTh85K/s400/Pharisees.jpg"/></a></div><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees</i>, JamesTissot, 1886-1894</span></b></div></b>
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The beauty of our first reading is that it articulates the role that adversity plays in Christian life. Perseverance is a rare virtue these days. Yet, perseverance is the fruit of the fifth Sorrowful Mystery of Our Lady’s Holy Rosary, which mystery is crucifixion. The fourth sorrowful mystery is Jesus carrying the cross, the fruit of that mystery is patience.
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When bad things happen to you, it is not because you’ve displeased God in some way and as a result, you’re experiencing divine wrath. Scripture turns this immature, warped, worldly, and faithless view on its head: “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials.”<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a>
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To repent means to have a change of mind, a change of heart, to be converted. It can also mean turning around and walking in a different direction. You can’t follow Jesus walking with your head down, your hands in your pockets, dragging your feet.
The day after tomorrow, as you receive the ashes, you will be called, as begin your forty days of preparation for Easter: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”<a href="#5" name="top5"><sup>5</sup></a>
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/1?15">Mark 1:15</a>.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a>Fyodor Dostoevsky. <a href="https://ccel.org/ccel/dostoevsky/brothers/brothers.v.html"><i>The Brothers Karamazov</i>, Part I, Book I, Chapter 5, “The Elders.”</a><a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/16?33">John 16:33</a>.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a>James 1:2.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="5"><b>5 </b></a><i>Roman Missal</i>. Ash Wednesday.<a href="#top5"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-64290548029738223572024-02-11T15:11:00.006-07:002024-02-11T19:35:47.904-07:00Jesus wishes to make you whole<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021124.cfm">Lev 13:1-2.44-46; Ps 32:1-2.5.11; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45</a></b>
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"Lord, I am not worthy...but only say the word and my soul shall be healed." Today's reading is a variation on this theme taken from chapter eight of Saint Matthew's Gospel (see <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/8?5">Matt 8:5-13</a>). We say these words from Sacred Scripture at every Mass just prior to receiving communion. As a much-loved mentor once said to me on the subject of worthiness: "You're not worthy. Get over it!"
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The leperous man in today's Gospel approaches Jesus. He strongly believes Jesus has the power to heal him if he wishes to do so. You see, the leper is uncertain whether Jesus, in contravention of what is clearly laid out in the Law in our first reading, wishes to heal him. Not only does Jesus wish to heal him, he does so by touching him. This touch renders Jesus ritually impure with regard to the Law.
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Being of the tribe of Judah, Jesus is not a priest. After healing the man with leprosy, the Lord sends him to the priests and instructs him to then follow the Law to be declared clean, that is, free from his very visible illness, ritually pure and societally acceptable. There's a sense in which this seems odd in light of the fact that Jesus healed this man by breaking the Law.
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The takeaway is that you are never too unclean for Jesus. In answer to your earnest petition, the Lord <i>always</i> says the healing word, <i>always</i> gives the healing touch. His wish and his will is to heal you, to restore you to wholeness. Frankly, anyone who believes he doesn't need the healing that only God can give <i>cannot</i> be a Christian.
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A point worth pursuing is that there are so many people, so many Christians, who recognize their need for healing and who desire wholeness but hold back. Unlike the leperous man, whose approach to Jesus took courage, the kind of courage born from a deep desire, even from desperation, it is easy for many to hold back thinking things like, "I can't be forgiven for that." Or, "I am ashamed of what I did," letting that become a barrier. While Jesus merely touched the leper, he went to the cross and gave his life for you, even for, especially for, those "big" things, those "shameful" things.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF9YIDxVjGPQvBR7Q9WVXixRq50udqYUx8yr1B-UMC7NwpnYhieyfc6cBa_Sh9avYq9Py5XmsMGWfJhloJJcODcTeEad_kF8pxqOeH3Ek7D7ApW3n8_wUstlMNywCF09Mq2fSdEWqm5UrO67rRgpQB1IOCSus_SqZTafrBB03cIsjKBlzfQOXfhd-SneOO/s900/Rembrandt.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="900" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF9YIDxVjGPQvBR7Q9WVXixRq50udqYUx8yr1B-UMC7NwpnYhieyfc6cBa_Sh9avYq9Py5XmsMGWfJhloJJcODcTeEad_kF8pxqOeH3Ek7D7ApW3n8_wUstlMNywCF09Mq2fSdEWqm5UrO67rRgpQB1IOCSus_SqZTafrBB03cIsjKBlzfQOXfhd-SneOO/s400/Rembrandt.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <b><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Christ heals a leper</i>, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1650</span></b></div></b>
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This is the final Sunday before Lent. Lent is a penitential season. It is a holy time to open yourself to the love of God given through Christ by the power of the Spirit. It is a time to assess your life and earnestly say to Jesus, "If you wish, you can make me clean." Then to hear Jesus say the healing words, "You are forgiven. I love you" and experience his healing touch.
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While we don't hear the rest of the story of the healed man, at least not in its entirety, there can be little doubt that this experience was life-changing for him. In fact, despite being "solemnly" warned by Jesus not to say a word to anyone about what happened, he couldn't help but tell others what Jesus had done for him. It's safe to say, this man underwent a conversion, a profound change.
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Saint Francis of Assisi, who is probably the most Christ-like saint in the Church's history, wrote about the abhorrence in which he held lepers. Then, one day, while riding on horseback, he encountered a man with leprosy. Despite being filled with disgust at the sight of this man, Francis was compelled to dismount and kiss him.
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After giving the man with leprosy a gentle kiss of peace, the leper extended his hand to receive alms. Francis then gave him some money. Once remounted on his horse, Francis looked all around and could not see the man he just kissed and to whom he had given alms. In a moment, it occurred to Francis that he had just kissed Jesus.
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Whether in reference to the evangelistic efforts of the man Jesus healed or Francis' Spirit-driven response to the very sick man he encountered, what else could Saint Paul have meant when, in our reading from his First Letter to the Corinthians, he wrote: "do everything for the glory of God"?Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-52715504510744581582024-02-05T19:30:00.081-07:002024-03-03T17:59:31.401-07:00Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/0205-memorial-agatha.cfm">1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Psalm 31:3-4.6.16-17; Luke 9:23-26</a></b>
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Along with Felicity, Perpetua, Lucy, Cecilia, and Anastasia, Agatha is one of the six women, apart from the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is always invoked in Eucharistic Prayer I. Eucharistic Prayer I is also known as the Roman Canon.<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a>
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Prior to the liturgical uniformity that started at the Council of Trent and reached its apex with the First Vatican Council, the Roman Canon, as you might guess, was only used in Rome. These six women, along with Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian, are all martyrs venerated highly by the Church in Rome.<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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For the Church’s first several centuries, the only saints who were venerated were her martyrs, those who died <i>in Odium Fidei</i>, because of hatred of the faith. Their witness was their shed blood, given, not taken, in unwavering fidelity to Christ.
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In his defense of the faith entitled <i>Apologeticum</i>, the Church Father Tertullian points out: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a> But to paraphrase Oscar Wilde (who converted on his deathbed): just because someone is willing to die for something doesn’t mean it is true. Therefore, what precedes Tertullian's assertion about the blood of the martyrs is <i>very</i> important: <blockquote>We are not a new philosophy but a divine revelation. That's why you can't just exterminate us; the more you kill the more we are<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a></blockquote> In imitation of her Lord, the Church walks the <i>via crucis</i>'- this is today’s Gospel in a nutshell. The worst eras of Church history are those times when the Church was politically powerful and wealthy. That’s when comfort led the Church not only to be complacent but even unfaithful at times. Such situations do not produce martyrs, like Agatha.
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But the Bridegroom is eternally faithful to his Bride. The Church is not holy because her members are holy but because Christ is holy. Whatever sanctity Christians attain comes from, through, and in Christ by the Holy Spirit’s power. It is through the sacraments, which have been called masterworks of the Holy Spirit, that Christ seeks to imbue us with holiness, that is, with his very self.
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Indeed, there are people who willingly forfeit their lives for many causes, some quite significant and some rather trivial. If we’re being honest, Christian martyrs both in ancient Rome and in our own day are often seen as delusional. But if Christianity really is “a divine revelation,” this makes all the difference in the world.
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One must have eyes to see that in a world that is increasingly seen by many as devoid of any transcendent meaning, the Christian martyrs, placing their hope in Christ, stand as beacons for the safe harbor of God’s love, pointing toward the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ. They demonstrate that each and every person is not only created but is redeemed in order to realize her/his destiny, the end for which each of us exists. And so, the martyrs point us to the One who is our origin and our destiny.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQRW8J5Pt3GWQFGYagYe1IwFH25CTXwWO1AeKVjm8Th6vJodNMAUtA2l_1pyVhMXDbOIoCwof8HwU8cO2-sBDq4acz65M5-p75OL7NWV4tlUHsGAqP-ATB7G6_rpmGPuV2Qw83_RXDba4wqasLjAimWfOUgpT4r0tei14VWZmBlJ0Tgk5HGw8ail9BJT-/s1867/Martirio_de_Santa_%C3%81gueda,_por_Sebastiano_del_Piombo.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1416" data-original-width="1867" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQRW8J5Pt3GWQFGYagYe1IwFH25CTXwWO1AeKVjm8Th6vJodNMAUtA2l_1pyVhMXDbOIoCwof8HwU8cO2-sBDq4acz65M5-p75OL7NWV4tlUHsGAqP-ATB7G6_rpmGPuV2Qw83_RXDba4wqasLjAimWfOUgpT4r0tei14VWZmBlJ0Tgk5HGw8ail9BJT-/s400/Martirio_de_Santa_%C3%81gueda,_por_Sebastiano_del_Piombo.jpg"/></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Depiction of Saint Agatha's martyrdom, by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1520</span></b></i></div>
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Born around AD 230, Agatha, who lived on the island of Sicily. Like quite a few women martyrs of the early Church, she died to defend her virginity, something about which many get rankled today. In some instances, this is warranted. Known to be physically attractive, she drew the attention of a high Roman official in Sicily- Quintianus.
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It wasn’t just the case that Agatha was a virgin because she happened to be a young woman with no carnal experience. Heeding Saint Paul’s exhortation that “An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit,” she consecrated herself wholly to Christ, choosing celibacy and virginity.<a href="#5" name="top5"><sup>5</sup></a>
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But Quintianus was persistent in his pursuit of Agatha. She was persistent in spurning him. When the persecution of Christians under the emperor Decius broke out in AD250, Quintianus saw his opportunity. Knowing Agatha was a Christian, he had her arrested and brought a judge. He was the judge.
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Agatha’s choice was simple, marry Quintianus, which meant effectively renouncing Christ through the violation of her complete consecration to him, or be executed for being a Christian. Her reply, as it has come down was: <blockquote>Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil<a href="#6" name="top6"><sup>6</sup></a></blockquote> Agatha saw there was no profit in forfeiting herself to gain the world. After all, to be the wife of a Roman official of high standing would be quite cushy. Instead, she denied herself, took up her cross, and followed Christ. The martyrs show us that hope lies on the other side of optimism. Or, as Saint Paul put it: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.”<a href="#7" name="top7"><sup>7</sup></a>
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Her martyrdom is triumph, not tragedy, which is why we can pray- <i>Sancta Agatha, ora pro nobis</i>.
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a><i>Roman Missal</i>. The Order of Mass. Eucharistic Prayer I, sec. 96.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a>Ibid., sec. 86.<a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a>Tertullian. <a href="https://tertullian.org/works/apologeticum.htm"><i>Apologeticum</i></a>.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a>Ibid.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="5"><b>5 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/7?34">1 Corinthians 1:34</a>.<a href="#top5"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="6"><b>6 </b></a>Catholic Online. <a href="https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=14">“Saint Agatha”</a>.<a href="#top6"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="7"><b>7 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/15?19">1 Corinthians 15:19</a>.<a href="#top7"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-48608621600053855872024-02-04T10:05:00.010-07:002024-02-04T17:15:31.178-07:00Jesus heals Job<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020424.cfm">Job 7:1-4.6-7; Psalm 147:1-6; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19.22-23; Mark 1:29-39</a></b>
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I actually think the title of this post could easily serve as my reflection on the readings for this Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B of the Sunday lectionary cycle.
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Following on the heels of last week, our Gospel for this Sunday starts with the very next verse of the first chapter of Mark. It bears noting, yet again, how dense this chapter is. Also worth noting, is that today's Gospel, narratively speaking, also takes place during the first day of Jesus' public ministry. It is an action-packed day that sees God's kingdom breaking into the world in a dramatic way. One hallmark of the Kingdom is healing and wholeness.
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While our Gospel today conveys the Lord's healing activity in the aggregate, it's important to understand that for each person healed of an affliction, be it physical, psychological, or spiritual this is huge! No doubt, many people whom Jesus healed felt like Job: hopeless to the point of despair. Like Job, many were probably resigned to never seeing happiness again.
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Jesus doesn't just bring hope to those in despair. He is hope itself. For those who, like Paul, have the hope that is Christ Jesus, we can't help sharing our hope, sharing Jesus. We do this after the manner of the apostle by serving others and becoming weak in the understanding that "when I am weak, then I am strong" (<a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2corinthians/12?10">2 Cor 12:10</a>). Hope is healing.
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Like the demon-possessed man in our Gospel for this past Monday, you share Jesus not merely or sometimes not even by telling those in despair "all that the Lord in his pity has done for you" (<a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/5?19">Mark 5:19</a> see also ). Rather, you must take pity, or, to put it more palatably, have compassion for, someone you encounter for whom things seem hopeless and who feel helpless. Thus, you show, not just say, "all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpGgddW0yYgKtxecBiKZASIsxUJ7ufd1yktTbReLbuKHzo1larAlqRNDNWw8sfDYfor9hkYkPM9qwa-pZz9_4-6royZlno7crwiavxRcsEaYiJdUsL4RBj9C9nq_VIxRZAUqvc280AIDE-n8ddjDf2GXkRokaHwrm-Jt131O7FDYws2iHfgOtgWHe3uO1p/s900/jesus-healing-the-sick-kean-collection.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="746" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpGgddW0yYgKtxecBiKZASIsxUJ7ufd1yktTbReLbuKHzo1larAlqRNDNWw8sfDYfor9hkYkPM9qwa-pZz9_4-6royZlno7crwiavxRcsEaYiJdUsL4RBj9C9nq_VIxRZAUqvc280AIDE-n8ddjDf2GXkRokaHwrm-Jt131O7FDYws2iHfgOtgWHe3uO1p/s400/jesus-healing-the-sick-kean-collection.jpg"/></a></div>
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Healing, especially spiritual healing, can happen in a sudden, unmistakable way, or, as is often the case, slowly over time. Along with the anointing of the sick, penance is a sacrament of healing. The Eucharist, which Saint Ignatius of Antioch, in his Letter to the Ephesians, called "the medicine of immortality" and "the antidote to prevent us from dying," has healing properties as well. As the sacrament of sacraments, the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist is a sacrament of initiation, a sacrament of healing, and a sacrament at the service of communion.
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Let's not forget the basic fact that the Eucharist began to be reserved in order to take it to those who were ill. When you bring communion to the sick, you bring Christ in the fourfold way he is present in the Eucharistic celebration. The minister or extraordinary minister represents the assembly and the priest, at whose hands the Lord accepted our sacrifice, you share God's word, and then give Holy Communion.
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It is precisely in these seemingly mundane, ordinary ways that we share Christ. It is by sharing him that the sharer also receives. For someone who may be thinking they've never had the experience with Jesus about which I am writing, service to others in Jesus' name for the sake of God's kingdom is the best way faciliate such encounters.
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In light of this important and often underemphasized healing aspect of the Eucharist, we don't so much need a Eucharistic Revival as we need to let the Eucharist, with assitance from the sacraments of anointing and penance, revive us!Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-41893454876454872992024-01-29T19:30:00.023-07:002024-02-04T10:14:07.799-07:00Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012924.cfm">2 Sam 15:13-14.30; 16:5-13; Ps 3:2-7; Mark 5:1-20</a></b>
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Our readings today are well summed up in an unrelated verse of scripture, one from Job: “the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span> gave and the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span> has taken away. Blessed be the name of the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>.”<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a> Another thought that arises from our first reading is how difficult and, therefore, how rare it is to bear wrongs patiently. How much more difficult it is even still to, like David, see God’s will in those things that require patience and forbearance.
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Let’s not forget that, despite his major failings, David is a Christ-like figure. This only shows how short we all fall when compared to the Lord. This is why the Gospel is good news!
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In our Gospel, Jesus receives much the same treatment from the unclean spirits tormenting the man to the point he was forced to live in the graveyard. Graveyards in the ancient world were not inside cities, towns, and villages. Instead, they were outside due to the potential for contagion from decaying corpses.
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Like David, Jesus turns the taunting, the reviling, the abuse doled by “Legion” to God’s purpose. With his demonstration of power over “Legion,” Jesus leaves the Gentile Gerasenes more than a little uneasy. In fact, in the wake of this demonstration of divine power, they want him to leave.
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Their wanting him to leave isn’t so different from the ancient Israelites, who, after beholding God’s awesome power, wanted Moses to intercede for them with God instead of God dealing with them directly. We live in a time when many seek to domesticate God, reducing him to our measure. But the Gerasenes, having experienced God’s might, react in an understandable way.
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Yet, the man from whom Jesus cast out the unclean spirits very much wants to go with Jesus, to remain with him. This, too, is understandable. Who wouldn’t want to be with their Savior, the one who delivers from evil and certain death?
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpQao2zp-OaJ0uAWRUy1n8IHIUZJArE0kvgasx1SuXsqtYXMLRzHorrW-QYrNl2cINI4xedyyhkXnRnf9hTsryku9K1KQpWfZmrxsFFaKSeOC9OWvxHtgPKgoLK-JYFzqXaFaJcEK2qRjdDnEx-QS-NGhpPv7AHVoFfs-GpYm3YeLt4vdN7fkevOW4B_al/s655/jesus-and-the-demoniac-woodcutting.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="655" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpQao2zp-OaJ0uAWRUy1n8IHIUZJArE0kvgasx1SuXsqtYXMLRzHorrW-QYrNl2cINI4xedyyhkXnRnf9hTsryku9K1KQpWfZmrxsFFaKSeOC9OWvxHtgPKgoLK-JYFzqXaFaJcEK2qRjdDnEx-QS-NGhpPv7AHVoFfs-GpYm3YeLt4vdN7fkevOW4B_al/s400/jesus-and-the-demoniac-woodcutting.jpg"/></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>"Jesus and the Demoniac"</i>- Woodcutting</span></b></div>
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Rather than consenting to the man accompanying him back across the Sea of Galilee, Jesus sends him on a mission, commissions him as an evangelist, urging him to tell others “all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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There was a man in Scotland who regularly spent all his wages on drinking, leaving his wife and children destitute. His wife had to beg to support their family. Then, one day, he went to church with his wife. What he heard caused him to repent, to change his ways, to quit drinking.
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Several months later, now in his right mind like the man in our Gospel- though this guy was plagued by different spirits- on payday, his buddies urged him to go drinking with them. He informed his friends that he no longer drank and that he had had a life-changing encounter with Christ.
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The man's workmates chided him, asking him if really believed all the stuff in the Bible, like healing the sick and casting out demons, and if he believed Jesus turned water into wine. He replied, “I can’t speak to any of that firsthand, but if you come to my house, I can show you how he turned beer into furniture.”
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Evangelization, my friends, is not apologetics. You will never argue anyone into God’s kingdom. A lot of apologetics consists of answering questions no one is asking. First and foremost, evangelizing is telling others “all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/job/1?21">Job 1:21</a>.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a>Mark 5:19.<a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-34430844757850611582024-01-28T13:10:00.003-07:002024-03-03T17:52:28.348-07:00Year B Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012824.cfm">Deut 18:15-20; Ps 95:1-2.6-9; 1 Cor 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28</a></b>
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It seems clear from our Gospel reading that Jesus is the prophet about whom Moses spoke in our first reading, taken from Deuteronomy. As the Son of God and as Messiah, Jesus is priest, prophet, and king. As such, he doesn’t just speak the words of God, he is himself the Word of God eternally spoken by the Father.
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As the Word of God, Jesus doesn’t do anything but speak God’s words. As the founder of the French Oratorians, Pierre de Berulle observed: in and through Jesus, <blockquote>God incomprehensible makes Himself comprehended…God ineffable makes Himself heard in the voice of His Word incarnate, and God invisible makes Himself seen in the flesh that he has united with the essence of eternity, and” above all, through Christ, “God terrible in the magnificence of his <i>grandeur</i> makes Himself felt in His gentleness, in His kindness and in his humanity<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a></blockquote> In Jesus Christ, one might say, referencing our reading from 1 Corinthians, divinity and humanity are married, not only becoming flesh of one’s flesh and bone of one’s bone but united in the single person of Jesus, as we pray in one the Eucharistic Prayers, "become one body" and "one spirit.”<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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What is interesting in our Gospel reading is that the inspired author of Mark does not describe what Jesus taught, only that “he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a> His teaching did provoke an unclean spirit. This provocation allowed Jesus to cast this spirit from the man through whom it spoke. Hence, his authority and the power derived from it is manifested by what he does and not just by what he says- though the latter (speaking) preceded the former (casting out the unclean spirit) and flows from it.
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According to Saint Mark’s chronology, our passage today is the first day of Jesus’ public ministry. Looking back a few verses, the Lord’s public ministry began when he emerged from forty days in the wilderness after his baptism by John. His message, as Mark hands it on is: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a>
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In the section of the very dense first chapter of Saint Mark’s Gospel from which our reading is taken, we are familiarized with the kind of things that the proclamation of God’s kingdom consists of- teaching with authority, demonstrations of the power of this authority, which is “opposition to Satan,” a bit further on, physical healing, and fervent prayer.<a href="#5" name="top5"><sup>5</sup></a>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBaRjBxxQF7nqRVfu-lA1lc3uSAeUMETRd_NBJ98_NLsi56os3CVGq0dpRB2Zasp1WOSZYJm9VkjR_2RNPGckbyYVQBOmrQ_rDA4n4FIQSWOO_3fSQzpLFTrF-P4LUxLoamspLGPucTlRKcbCGdDh-HNxqBf5SMiSPt4sEpYWPtJgxvrli3rWxEFY8-RZw/s1019/Jesus%20unclean%20spirit.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="684" data-original-width="1019" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBaRjBxxQF7nqRVfu-lA1lc3uSAeUMETRd_NBJ98_NLsi56os3CVGq0dpRB2Zasp1WOSZYJm9VkjR_2RNPGckbyYVQBOmrQ_rDA4n4FIQSWOO_3fSQzpLFTrF-P4LUxLoamspLGPucTlRKcbCGdDh-HNxqBf5SMiSPt4sEpYWPtJgxvrli3rWxEFY8-RZw/s400/Jesus%20unclean%20spirit.jpg"/></a></div>
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Because the world is complex and complicated, the coming of God’s kingdom is similarly so. How else can it be established? What this means for us, those who claim Christ’s name, is the recognition of our ongoing need to repent and believe the Gospel. By “repent,” I mean believing it to the point that it shapes, forms, and continually reforms how you live your life.
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Though it is often reduced to contrition (i.e., being sorry for one’s sins), to repent is to change, to commit to changing or at least be open to change. Saint John Henry Newman, in his essay on how Christian doctrine develops, wrote: “In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”<a href="#6" name="top6"><sup>6</sup></a> Commenting on this, Pope Francis accurately noted: “For Newman change was conversion, in other words, interior transformation. Christian life is a journey, a pilgrimage.”<a href="#7" name="top7"><sup>7</sup></a>
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What is interesting in Mark’s Gospel is that this spirit who opposes Jesus recognizes him as “the Holy One of God,” while, despite his “new teaching with authority” accompanied by powerful deeds, his disciples do not, at least fully or finally.<a href="#8" name="top8"><sup>8</sup></a>
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Companion is a compound word derived from two Latin words: <i>com</i>=with + <i>panis</i>= bread. Companions are, literally, those who share bread. By our gathering here together week after week, we are companions, fellow pilgrims, making our way together to what the Letter to the Hebrews calls our sabbath rest.<a href="#9" name="top9"><sup>9</sup></a> At least during her earthly sojourn, a Christian is one who never completely arrives. Like the Israelites of old, she, too, is a pilgrim, a member of the pilgrim people of God.
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The Eucharist is both our cloud by day and our pillar of fire by night.<a href="#10" name="top10"><sup>10</sup></a> As the fathers of the Second Vatican Council put it: <blockquote>On earth, still as pilgrims in a strange land, tracing in trial and in oppression the paths He trod, we are made one with His sufferings like the body is one with the Head, suffering with Him, that with Him we may be glorified<a href="#11" name="top11"><sup>11</sup></a></blockquote> Jesus invites us to journey with him. Following Christ does not mean nothing bad will ever happen to you. How could it? Following him means he is with you, accomanying you through life’s difficulties, hardships, and heartbreaks. To follow Jesus is not just to follow him to the cross (though it is that) but beyond the cross, from death into life, as the hymn goes. But the only way beyond is through.
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“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a>From <i>Works of Berulle</i> cited Hans Urs Von Balthasar in <i>The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics</i>, Vol V, “The Realm of Metaphysics in the Modern Age.” Trans. Oliver Davies, Andrew Louth, Brian McNeil, CRV, John Saward, & Rowan Williams. 120-121.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a><i>Roman Missal</i>. The Order of Mass. Eucharistic Prayer III, sec. 113.<a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a>Mark 1:22.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/1?15">Mark 1:15</a>.<a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="5"><b>5 </b></a>Raymond E. Brown. <i>An Introduction to the New Testament,</i> 129.<a href="#top5"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="6"><b>6 </b></a>John Henry Newman, “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine,” Chapter 1, Section 1, Part 7.<a href="#top6"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="7"><b>7 </b></a>Pope Francis. <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2019/december/documents/papa-francesco_20191221_curia-romana.html">Christmas Greetings to the Roman Curia. 21 December 2019</a>.<a href="#top7"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="8"><b>8 </b></a>Mark 1:24.27.<a href="#top8"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="9"><b>9 </b></a>See <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/hebrews/4">Hebrews 4:1-13</a>.<a href="#top9"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="10"><b>10 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/exodus/13?21">Exodus 13:21-22</a>.<a href="#top10"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="11"><b>11 </b></a>Second Vatican Council. <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html">Dogmatic Constitution on the Church [<i>Lumen Gentium</i>]</a>, sec. 7.<a href="#top11"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-68104308908712520142024-01-21T14:48:00.007-07:002024-01-22T05:48:25.851-07:00Responding to the word of God<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012124.cfm">Jonah 3:1-5.10; Ps 25:4-9; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20</a></b>
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Today is Word of God Sunday. So, as you might expect, our readings are about God's word.
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What's funny, well one funny thing among many funny things in the Book of Jonah, from which our first reading is taken, is that the only one <i>not</i> to receive God's word was the one who was sent to proclaim it: Jonah. In this biblical novella, the reluctant prophet didn't like Ninevites. Their potential destruction sounded good to him but not good enough to go to Nineveh, at least not at first.
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Once he was there, after trying to flee, he dutifully called Nineveh to repentance, no doubt hoping he would be ignored and they would be destroyed. Lo and behold! The people of Nineveh repented, thus avoiding God's wrath. This led Jonah to sit on a hill outside the city sulking.
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Jonah did not receive the saving word that he himself proclaimed!
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Contrast this with Andrew and Peter and James and John. Like the people of Nineveh, upon hearing the saving word, they responded immediately, dropping everything to Jesus, who is the Word.
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One's response depends on one's heart. Is your heart open to God and to others? Or, like Jonah's, is your heart hard and closed either to God (and/)or to others?
Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-76924780326536520722024-01-15T09:36:00.005-07:002024-01-15T09:36:41.448-07:00A few resources for fastingHere are a few helpful resources for fasting:
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<b><a href="https://www.avemariapress.com/products/the-spirituality-of-fasting">The Spirituality of Fasting: Rediscovering a Christian Practice</a></b>
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<a href="https://blog.gccnh.com/benefits-of-spiritual-fasting"><b>5 Benefits of Spiritual Fasting (With Examples From the Bible)</b></a>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGLpNlxCMOG9BRSPrsI7ojLKTf78IddEceyhC-loGI-LMJyO1JOEZdLwHRfPxc-HlN0MVSCrAhYy28Pw_ILAy2PHb3434yDO1pKiywKjUPYFQdUWJn6b5pjqWFMit7kodC7eV-sTudAOwfLfch8iprNq-LwLEf1S7E-khozKWogKJCHvtaqTXAcFKb7Txj/s800/fasting.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGLpNlxCMOG9BRSPrsI7ojLKTf78IddEceyhC-loGI-LMJyO1JOEZdLwHRfPxc-HlN0MVSCrAhYy28Pw_ILAy2PHb3434yDO1pKiywKjUPYFQdUWJn6b5pjqWFMit7kodC7eV-sTudAOwfLfch8iprNq-LwLEf1S7E-khozKWogKJCHvtaqTXAcFKb7Txj/s400/fasting.jpg"/></a></div>
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<a href="https://christianintrovert.com/how-to-prepare-for-your-spiritual-fast/"><b>How to Prepare for Your Spiritual Fast</b></a>
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While it can certainly be beneficial to our physical health when practiced well, spiritual fasting is qualitatively different from dieting. Healthy fasting in some form done on a regular basis is certainly a holistic practice. This is a good thing.Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-25809503178655909552024-01-15T08:56:00.010-07:002024-02-04T17:22:31.540-07:00Year II Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011524.cfm">1 Sam 15:16-23; Ps 50:8-9.16-17.21.23; Mark 2:18-22</a></b>
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Setting aside the terrible thing the prophet Samuel admonished King Saul for not doing in our first reading, the message of our readings today can nonetheless be found in Samuel’s words: “Obedience is better than sacrifice.”<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a> It’s often easier to do anything than the what the Lord asks.
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Saint Ignatius of Loyola identified three approaches to following Christ: postponement, compromise, and freedom. What we have in King Saul is a compromiser. I will do God’s will insofar as it conforms to my own will and desires. This may be a worse disobedience than putting off God’s will altogether.
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This brings us to our Gospel passage, taken from Mark. It is important to recognize that we are those from whom the bridegroom, Christ, has been taken. Of course, not only is he not absent but he’s powerfully present through the Holy Spirit, who is the mode of his presence until he returns. But Jesus is not with us in the same way he was with his companions during his earthly ministry.
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Therefore, as Jesus’ disciples, we are to fast as well as pray and give alms. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are three fundamental spiritual disciplines of a Christian life. These are taught by our Lord himself. Fasting is what links prayers to almsgiving just as hope joins faith to love.
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Of course, there are those for whom fasting is not recommended and may even be dangerous for serious physical reasons or due to age. We are not asked to compromise our physical health. In fact, Saint Ignatius who, in the immediate aftermath of his conversion observed a very strict regimen of fasting for a long time, later warned others and forbade his Jesuits from taking fasting to an extreme.
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Fasting can be done either for a whole day, drinking only water and other light beverages or by skipping a meal or not eating between meals. Historically, what you don’t eat or, in our society, what you save by not eating, is given to the poor. Abstinence, which, in our Roman Catholic context, means not eating the meat of warm-blooded animals, has a hand-in-glove relationship with fasting.
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For those of us who can fast (I think virtually all of us can do this in some small way), it is an important discipline, one to be practiced at a minimum twice a year: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. We should also undertake to fast when the pope or our bishop calls for a day of fasting. Like any spiritual discipline, fasting in some form should be practiced regularly enough that it bears fruit.
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Each Friday that is not a solemnity or in the octave of Christmas or Easter is still to be observed as a day of penance. Even now, the primary way we are supposed to observe Fridays as days of penance is by abstaining from meat. We do this not because eating meat is bad. Rather, it is because it is good, that is, enjoyable and permissible. Hence, we make a small sacrifice.
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In his recent Wednesday catechesis series on vices and virtues, Pope Francis identified gluttony as the worst of the seven deadly sins. The Holy Father said, “Tell me how you eat, and I will tell you what kind of soul you possess. In the way we eat, we reveal our inner selves, our habits, our psychological attitudes.”<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a> Each of the seven deadly sins has a contrary virtue. Fasting is a practice that helps us to realize the virtue than runs contrary to gluttony- temperance, that is, moderation.
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The practice of the spiritual disciplines is how we allow ourselves, open ourselves, to be conformed to the image of Christ. Yet, as James Kushiner, an Orthodox Christian noted: "A discipline won’t bring you closer to God. Only God can bring you closer to Himself. What the discipline is meant to do is to help you get yourself, your ego, out of the way so you are open to His grace."<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a> Getting back to Saint Ignatius' three approaches to doing God's will, the truly free person is the one who discerns God's will and does it.
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Fasting amplifies prayer, thus enhancing our love of God, and, when practiced properly, results in almsgiving, which is love of neighbor.
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a>1 Samuel 15:22.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a>Pope Francis. <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2024/documents/20240110-udienza-generale.html">Wednesday General Audience</a>, 10 January 2024.<a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a>James Kushiner. <i>Mere Orthodoxy</i> blog post during Lent many years ago.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-73525819237803080802024-01-14T10:10:00.011-07:002024-01-14T18:50:29.908-07:00Year B Second Sunday in Ordinary Time<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011424.cfm">1 Sam 3:3b-10.19; Ps 40:2.4.7-10; 1 Cor 6:13c-15a.17-20; John 1:35-42</a></b>
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Where does Jesus stay? Our Gospel today, taken from the first chapter of John’s Gospel, prompts this question. It is the same question asked by two of John the Baptist’s disciples: presumably John and certainly Andrew. It is the question they ask in response to the question Jesus asked them when he said, “What are you looking for?”
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Could it be that these two men were looking for a place to stay, somewhere to live? Or, rather, was it the case they were seeking how to live and with whom to live the life they were longing for? After all, how you live is very much shaped by those with whom you live.
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Where does Jesus stay, where does he live? By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus desires to live in you, to dwell in your heart. From your heart, which governs your actions and words, the Lord longs to be made known to others, to say to them too “Come, and you will see.”
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Believe it or not, Jesus stays with and in his Church, which is the sacrament of salvation in and for the world. In its simplest formulation, a sacrament is a visible and tangible sign of Christ’s presence in and for the world. We even go so far as to say that one of the four “marks” of the Church, in addition to being one, catholic, and apostolic, is that it is “holy.”
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In recent decades it seems to many almost a joke to insist that the Church is holy. Far from being hardhearted or ignorant, many who scoff at such a seemingly outlandish claim do so in light of the Church’s manifest unholiness. It is important, very important, that we understand the Church’s holiness, like any personal holiness we may attain, flows from Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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In the Mass, the Offertory ends with the celebrant inviting those assisting to pray that our meager offerings of bread and wine be accepted by God. In response, all say: <blockquote>May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church<a href="#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a></blockquote> Collectively, it is by, in, and through our participation in the Eucharist that we are made the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. Our reception of this sacrament, especially when received intentionally and with preparation, is an outpouring of God’s grace. Christ is holy. He desires to make us holy. The main and most effective means for imbuing us with grace are the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.
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It has been noted, perhaps <i>ad nauseam</i>: the Eucharist makes the Church, and the Church makes the Eucharist. In his first letter to the Church in ancient Corinth, before writing what we call the “Institution Narrative,” Saint Paul tells these Christians- “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.”<a href="#2" name="top2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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Instituted by Christ himself, the Eucharist makes the Church. The Church’s perpetual observance of what Christ instituted is the Church making the Eucharist. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,” the apostle continues, “you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”<a href="#3" name="top3"><sup>3</sup></a>
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This brings us to the very last part of our Gospel today, where Jesus tells Simon, son of Jonah, that henceforth he would be called “Cephas,” which is Aramaic for rock or stone. The inspired author translates that into the Greek “Petros,” which translates into Peter.
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We know that Peter did not become perfect, that is, all holy in that moment when Jesus renamed him, thus choosing him. In fact, it is toward the end of John’s Gospel that the resurrected Jesus asks a dejected Peter three times with increasing intensity if he loves him. Why three times? Probably because during his Passion, Peter denied him three times.<a href="#4" name="top4"><sup>4</sup></a> We can see this episode as something akin to the Sacrament of Penance, of confession.
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This, my friends, is the pattern of holiness. The late Eugene Peterson beautifully described Christian discipleship by borrowing and baptizing something first written by Frederich Nietzsche: “a long obedience in the same direction.”<a href="#5" name="top5"><sup>5</sup></a> Our direction is where the Lord is staying. Jesus doesn’t just point in that direction, he accompanies us on our journey, just as we are to be companions to one another. Etymologically, “companions” refers to those with whom we share bread. There is a reason we call the Eucharist "food for the journey."
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Where and what the Lord wants each one of us to be is the kingdom of God. Our path is uneven, most of us at times waver, some wander off, and at times we regress or simply stop tired of the journey, which can sometimes seem futile. It is fashionable to quote Tolkein’s line “not all who wander are lost.”<a href="#6" name="top6"><sup>6</sup></a>
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Citing this phrase strikes me as the new version of “My karma ran over your dogma.” I don’t know about you, but I’ll take grace over karma any day. Tolkien’s phrase contains an implication: some who wander do, indeed, get lost, while others remain content to merely wander. Being a Christian means being a pilgrim and a member of a pilgrim people. Being on pilgrimage is not to wander but to have a destination, a destiny.
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Discouragement is not despair. We all get discouraged at times, discouraged with ourselves, with others, with “the Church,” by which we mean the hierarchy. There is a fundamental error in reducing the Church to the hierarchy. The Church of Christ is all of us. This is why it is good news to hear talk these days of “co-responsibility” in and for the Church. Besides, like Peter, our leaders, too, sometimes fail, just as we sometimes fail.
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It is even the case that we can become discouraged with God. This is why we must bear in mind that God’s ways are not our ways. I realize that can be cold comfort at times. But why else would God allow his chosen people not once, but twice, to be conquered and led into exile? Why do the scriptures teach from beginning to end that it was “necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory.”<a href="#7" name="top7"><sup>7</sup></a>
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That all have sinned is a fundamental statement of Christian belief, a dogma, a matter of divine revelation (and also of human and personal experience).<a href="#8" name="top8"><sup>8</sup></a> Is there something, someone greater than our sins? The good news is the answer to this question is an emphatic “Yes!” Jesus Christ, the one who bids you to come and see for yourself and to experience what has been described as “a joy in the journey.”<a href="#9" name="top9"><sup>9</sup></a>
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<a name="1"><b>1 </b></a><i>Roman Missal</i>. The Order of Mass, sec. 29.<a href="#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="2"><b>2 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/11?23">1 Corinthians 11:23-25</a>.<a href="#top2"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="3"><b>3 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/11?26">1 Corinthians 11:26</a>.<a href="#top3"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="4"><b>4 </b></a>See <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/21?15">John 21:15-19</a>.</a><a href="#top4"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="5"><b>5 </b></a>Frederich Nietzsche. <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/nietzsche/1886/beyond-good-evil/ch05.htm"><i>Beyond Good and Evil</i>, Chapter V. “The Natural History of Morals</a>;” Eugene Peterson (book title). <a href="https://www.ivpress.com/a-long-obedience-in-the-same-direction"><i>A Long Obedience in the Same Direction</i></a>.<a href="#top5"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="6"><b>6 </b></a>JRR Tokien. <a href="https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring"><i>The Fellowship of the Ring</i></a>, Book 1, Chapter 10 "Strider" and Book 2, Chapter 2 "The Council of Elrond."<a href="#top6"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="7"><b>7 </b></a>See <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/24?13">Luke 24:13-35</a>.<a href="#top7"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="8"><b>8 </b></a><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/romans/3?23">Romans 3:23</a>.<a href="#top8"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
<a name="9"><b>9 </b></a>Michael Card, <a href="https://youtu.be/GfW61yKyirY?si=KrNxbB3ggVCAiSLh">"There is a Joy in the Journey."</a><a href="#top9"><sup>↩</sup></a><br /></span>Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-56463932795991052132024-01-13T10:38:00.006-07:002024-01-13T10:48:43.715-07:00Stuff I've been watching: a belated Friday traditioGiven my schedule yesterday, it was impossible for me to post a Friday <i>traditio</i>. Even though today is Saturday, I am going with this as a belated Friday <i>traditio</i>. The main reason for this is that I was able to give some thought to what I might post.
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Since the start of 2024, I haven't had much time to read. This is a situation that gets to me in short order. I have had the chance to watch a couple of docu-series on <i>Hulu</i>. The first one I watched was <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/daughters-lebaron-cult-detail-violence-fear-life/story?id=106073158"><i>Daughters of the Cult</i></a>. This tells the stories of some of the children of Ervil LeBaron. LeBaron was the violent leader of a break-way Mormon polygamist cult. He became prominent in the late 1970s after he orchestrated the murder of another polygamist leader, Rulon Allred. In addition to Anna and Celia, who are the main subjects of the series, their brother and one of the women involved in the cult also feature in this retelling of a chilling story.
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For those who do not know, I am a convert to Catholicism from the LDS Church. I have no direct experience of polygamy, except that growing up LDS it was still taught as an eternal principle. It is still taught today though, like a lot of LDS distinctives, greatly deemphasized. Setting aside distinctives began when Gordon B. Hinckley was LDS president. Hinckley was prone not only downplay but outright deny certain teachings in an effort to make the Mormons appear more mainstream (see <a href="https://scottdodge.blogspot.com/2009/03/shall-they-be-gods-because-they-have-no.html">"'Then shall they be gods, because they have no end' (D&C 132:20"</a>).
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One of my great-great grandmothers on my mom's mother's side was more or less forced into a polygamist union with my great-great grandfather, who ran away from a seminary in France where he was studying to be a priest, went to Switzerland where he met and married his first wife and converted to Mormonism before emigrating. She was very much younger than he was and, even by the accounts I heard, never very happy.
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In the past on this blog, I wrote about some of these things (see for example <a href="https://scottdodge.blogspot.com/2015/05/oh-say-what-is-truth-joseph-smith-jr.html">"'Oh, Say What Is Truth?'- Joseph Smith, Jr and polygamy"</a>). Therefore, I don't have much to add. No longer being Mormon and later becoming Catholic were two distinct phases in my life.
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I also watched <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-secrets-of-hillsong-movie-review-2023"><i>The Secrets of Hillsong</i></a>. Watching this I was appalled all over by the use of corporate means and entertainment methods in contemporary U.S. evangelicalism. I also have to say that I was quite bothered by the generous use of Catholic visuals throughout the series. It's difficult for me to imagine a less Catholic group than Hillsong, who are not in any way sacramental or liturgical. I found myself thinking (again), who wants to go to church in a studio, a sound stage? Apparently, a lot of people! Quantitatively, this seems to often be successful. What is succeeding, however, is pretty much a faux Christianity.
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The preaching and theology in these organizations are thin gruel, with a lot of emoting, and fake vulnerability. It strikes me as attenuated prosperity Gospel fluff and b.s. Success, wealth, and good health are God's blessing on the obedient, the chosen, the faithful. This is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not even close. I mean, do these people even read the Bible beyond cherrypicking verses and employing them wildly out of context, using them as a launching pad for a TED talk or motivational speech?
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As the late Joe Strummer said not long before unexpectedly passing away: "It's time to take humanity back into the center of the ring and follow that for a time."
In the person of Jesus Christ, God became human, truly human, as human as you and I- this is what Christmas is (or should be) all about, not a sentimental timewarp adventure to a highly sanitized manger scene. This is the cornerstone AND foundation of Christian theology. Incarnation even comes before Trinity. Jesus of Nazareth was, in the words of the late Rich Mullins, "a man of no reputation, who loved the weak with relentless affection."
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Therefore, our belated Friday <i>traditio</i> is Rich Mullins' "Man of No Reputation"-
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Lord Jesus, make all those who follow you, especially those who lead those who follow you, want to be more like you in this regard. Give us the courage and the strength to want to be nobodies, servants in God's kingdom.Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-48536939434618046222024-01-08T17:03:00.003-07:002024-01-09T05:13:28.265-07:00Feast of the Baptism of the Lord<b>Readings: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010824.cfm">Acts 10:34-38; Ps 29:1-3.9-10; Mark 1:7-11</a></b>
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Christmas is about the Incarnation. It is about the only begotten Son of God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, becoming consubstantial with us through the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As with all liturgical observances, Christmas is not merely a remembrance of things past, of something that happened a long time ago in a land far, far way, in a culture we have difficulty understanding.
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Really, the focus of Christmas is that Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is born in us. Our reading from Acts is what is usually called “the Pentecost of the Gentiles.” The first Christian Pentecost, if you remember, happened in Jerusalem as Jews from throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond gathered in the Temple for the festival of <i>Shavuot</i>.
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Christ born in you and being baptized “with the Holy Spirit” are synonymous, they refer to the same reality. Stated another way, this reality is God sharing divine with us. God sharing divine life with us also serves as a great definition of grace.
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Each of the Church’s sacramental rites features what is called an <i>epiclesis</i>. Put simply, an epiclesis is a “calling down.” What, or, better yet, who is called down is none other than the Holy Spirit. In the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit is called down to transform the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.
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In baptism, there is an <i>epiclesis</i> that occurs in the exorcism that precedes the anointing with the oil of catechumens: “We pray for this child: set him (her)free from original sin, make him (her) a temple of your glory, and send your Holy Spirit to dwell with him (her).” Another one happens when the baptismal water is blessed, when the celebrant, be he bishop, priest, or deacon, puts his hand in the water and says, “We ask you, Father, with your Son to send the Holy Spirit upon the water of this font. May all who are buried with Christ in the death of baptism rise also with him to newness of life.”
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj036QmBq77B3Wb6OoHCa4sQn9uE0LdsTwGEovkcJbWeLj5f7tSAVTUcCnUxNt9FhwomzpRMXtN-m3Ey5Dd5lBL29ki4A9-h_CJAKMYpcRB0MdrhGFsva0c9hdEHw1M1F9V5itdmTLwZacoirskyOUPd9wzOUofN2xgUiBUjTZXIBZtPG3uI8FNJ1UhvSUG/s560/1114baptism-retina.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj036QmBq77B3Wb6OoHCa4sQn9uE0LdsTwGEovkcJbWeLj5f7tSAVTUcCnUxNt9FhwomzpRMXtN-m3Ey5Dd5lBL29ki4A9-h_CJAKMYpcRB0MdrhGFsva0c9hdEHw1M1F9V5itdmTLwZacoirskyOUPd9wzOUofN2xgUiBUjTZXIBZtPG3uI8FNJ1UhvSUG/s400/1114baptism-retina.jpg"/></a></div>
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In the baptism of Jesus, not just the waters but all of creation is blessed, sanctified, and reoriented toward God as Jesus goes down into the water, is immersed, and arises from the river Jordan. As he emerges, the Trinitarian theophany occurs as the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father is heard expressing his pleasure with his Son. This is the Incarnation. This is Emmanuel, God with us!
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Jesus was the Son of God even prior to his baptism by John. There is an ancient heresy known as “adoptionism” that holds that it was through the event of his baptism Jesus became God’s Son. This is important for us too, as we think about our own baptism. Baptism makes explicit what is already implicit in us.
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Human beings are made in God’s image and, at least originally, in his likeness as well. Our likeness to God is lost through sin and restored by grace through baptism. Baptism, not ordination, is the fundamental sacrament of Christian life.
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Our life in Christ is nourished and strengthened by our participation in the Eucharist, which culminates with our reception of communion. This life is restored by grace through the sacrament of penance when have wounded it, weakened it, abused it through sin.
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My dear friends, as we bring this Christmas season to a close, let us recommit ourselves to living the life of grace, the divine life into which you were plunged by baptism, was strengthened by confirmation, and is nourished through this Eucharist.Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-13359772398604577022024-01-07T15:43:00.010-07:002024-01-07T19:41:35.739-07:00Seeking and finding the newborn king<b>Reading: <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010724.cfm">Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-2.7-8.10-13; Ephesians 3:2-3a.5-6; Matthew 2:1-12</a></b>
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This year the Church in the U.S. <i>almost</i> celebrated Epiphany on 6 January. We did if you count last night's Vigil. Close enough, I guess.
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Here in the U.S., we have one more day of the liturgical season of Christmas. We bring this season to a close with tomorrow's celebration of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. I've grown fairly fond of ending Christmas in this quiet way.
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In Matthew's account of the visit of the <i>magi</i>, these <i>magoi</i>, as they are designated in koine Greek, symbolize the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah about people from every nation, not just Israel, "proclaiming the praises of the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>." This, of course, fits nicely with what he heard in our second reading from the Letter to the Ephesians about the Gentiles being "coheirs" and "copartners," through Jesus Christ, in the one covenant God seeks to enter into with human beings- those he made in his own image.
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In order to restore us to God's likeness, the Son, the second person of the Most Holy Trinity, took on our image, that is, entered space and time through the womb of the Blessed Virgin. He did this to reconcile all of creation with God.
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It's interesting to pay attention to the journey of <i>magi</i> as Matthew sets it forth. Following a new star at its rising leads them to Jerusalem, to the court of King Herod. Their reason for following this particular star is that they believed it would not only lead them to "the king of the Jews," but to a "newborn" king.
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It doesn't take much insight to realize a couple of things about their journey to that point. First, their search for the "newborn king of the Jews" had to be prompted by a familiarity with Jewish scriptures and they had to unferstand it rightly. Second, if you go all the way to the penultimate chapter of Saint Matthew's Gospel, after nailing Jesus to the cross, the Romans also nailed a sign with the charge that led to the Lord's crucifixion over his head: "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews" (<a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/27?37">Matthew 27:37</a>). Rather than paying him homage, like the <i>magi</i>, the Romans were chiding the Jews. Unlike Herod, Caesar did not feel threatened by this nobody from Nazareth.
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Following the star to find "the newborn king of the Jews," led the <i>magi</i> to Jerusalem, to the court of King Herod. It was because Herod inquired of the chief priests and scribes that he was able to direct these visitors from the East to Bethlehem. It's tempting to write "Bethlehem of Judea" to sound more biblical but as the oracle cited by Matthew from the prophet Micah indicates, Bethlehem is notable because it is the least of the cities of Judah. Jerusalem is the greatest.
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This brings us to Herod's request that after finding the child and paying him homage, these astrologers would return to Jerusalem and let him know where to find the infant. Of course, far from desiring to pay homage to the newborn king, Herod wanted to kill a potential rival, thus nipping in the bud any potential challenge to his position and his power.
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It was because the <i>magi</i>, apparently sensing something was amiss about Herod and his request, returned home another way, thus avoiding Jerusalem. If we stick with Matthew's narrative, this is what led to the martyrdom of the Holy Innocents. Because Herod did not know who this newborn king was or where to find him, except somewhere in Bethlehem, he ordered the slaughter of male children two years old and younger.
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Herod had no desire to personally encounter this foretold king. In fact, he wanted to obliterate him.
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In its ordinary meaning, an epiphany is a sudden revelation or insight. As such, genuine epiphanies cannot be manufactured or staged. However, like the <i>magi</i> we can attend to the manifest signs and seek the Lord. As Gerard Manley Hopkins insisted in his breathtaking poem <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44389/as-kingfishers-catch-fire"><i>As Kingfishers Catch Fire</i></a>: "for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his. To the Father through the features of men's faces." In other words, the world is full to overflowing with potential epiphanies.
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This brings us back to the <i>magi</i>. They didn't just accidentally stumble upon the newborn king of the Jews. They searched the scriptures and discerned the signs of the times and then deliberately set out to find him. We employ this same intentionality by practicing certain spiritual disciplines, like <a href="https://www.contemplative.org/contemplative-practice/lectio-divina/"><i>lectio divina</i></a> and the <a href="https://www.jesuits.org/spirituality/the-ignatian-examen/"><i>Examen</i></a>. Let's not forget, the fruit of the fifth Joyful Mystery of the Blessed Virgin's Holy Rosary (i.e., finding Jesus in the temple). As scripture elsewhere teaches: "whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.com0