The Heart of the Matter

A Boulder Pastor Bids Good-bye to His Flock (Letter # 3)

This is now the third letter in a series, reflecting on our 12 years together.  And what a dozen years they have been!  Shortly after I became your pastor in June of 2001, the terrorist events of 9/11 happened; and now just before I leave you this June, we just had our second terrorist event with the events in Boston.  These events will always be, at least in my mind as the years go by, as the bookends of my Boulder years.

Pope Francis recently had a profound reflection on the Gospel account from the end of John, Chapter 6, about the end of Jesus' dialogue with the crowd of 5000 who experienced His miraculously feeding them with 5 loaves and 2 fish.  During the miracle the crowd wanted to make Jesus King, but the next day after He explained how He is the Bread of Life, and "unless you eat my Flesh and drink My Blood, you will have no life within you." This is Jesus directly teaching us about the Real Presence of the Eucharist which many Christians, even to this day, find it to be a teaching too hard to accept.

In Pope Francis's reflection about almost everyone's deserting Jesus except for the 12 apostles, the Holy Father says that there are certain teachings of Jesus that people find it too difficult to accept and they can withdraw from Jesus because they want a more "common sense" approach than the real teachings of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  

At the end of John, Chapter 6, many disciples truly believe what Jesus is teaching about the Eucharist, but they whisper, are shocked and eventually leave the Master: "These people have turned away, they are gone; they say, 'this man is a bit strange, he says things that are hard.  It's too big a risk to go down this road.  We have common sense, eh? Let's go back a little and not be so close to Him.'  These people had, perhaps, a certain admiration for Jesus, but little, from afar."  

In other words, let's not get too close to Jesus. He might ask too much of us.

In my position of leadership with you over these past 12 years there have been two issues of my leadership that have not been born of common sense, indeed have caused many to withdraw.  These issues, however, come from fidelity to the Lord Jesus and are hard truths.

One has been to embrace the words of Jesus on how we will be judged at the end of our lives.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 that we will be judged on how we have responded to the poor: "When I was hungry, you fed me; when I was thirsty you gave me to drink; . . . when I was a stranger, you welcomed me."  

Our parish is now at least 40% Hispanic.  Not all of them are poor.  Not all of them are immigrants.  But many of them are.  It has been on my heart to lead all of our parishioners to love our immigrants, see them as full members of our parish, and indeed to make every effort to educate them in our school and in our religious education programs.  I am very grateful that our Latinos know it in their bones that they are fully accepted in our parish.  

The other issue has been the leadership I have given on the Catholic understanding of marriage, particularly in regards to what we want to communicate in our Catholic school.  This stand is not a "common sense" stand.  It isn't common sense to uphold Catholic teaching about marriage in a time when society is redefining society's definition in such a way as to make our belief appear to be ludicrous.  It would be much easier to "go along so as to get along."  However, our call as Catholic educators is to teach what Jesus teaches.   

 All of the baptized are called to undergo an ongoing conversion of heart, to be more and more faithful to the Gospel. Not easy in a time of great moral confusion, eh?

A Pastor Bids His Boulder Flock Goodbye (Letter # 2)

This is the second in a series of letters reflecting on the 12 years we have spent together with me as your pastor.  My topic this time is the dramatic change we have all lived through during these past 12 years.  If there is any one word to describe the era in which we all live, it has to be "change".  Think of the changes ushered in by 9/11.  Or the two wars our nation has gotten into during these years.  Or concepts of what is right and what is wrong.  Or how much, though slowly, we have become more aware of the need for all of humanity to be better stewards of the earth and more conscious of how our choices impact the planet.

 

 

From a specifically Catholic point of view I find there to be a major change happening that is profoundly affecting all of us.  It's the shift from being a Counter-Reformation kind of Catholic Church to becoming a Gospel-Centered kind of Catholic Church.

 

When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the church door back in 1517, the religious revolution that was started (called the Reformation), the Catholic Church, which was indeed in need of being reformed, slowly began to address the issues the Reformation raised.  "Slowly" might be a good word to describe how the Catholic Church tends to deal with things.  The council of bishops that was called together (the Council of Trent, 1545 to 1563) took 18 years to accomplish their review of what needed to be corrected.  Compare that to the 3 years it took to accomplish the Second Vatican Council (1962 to 1965).  It was a tumultuous time and the threat to the Catholic Church was seen as so severe that the process begun after Trent came to be called the Counter-Reformation.  It was a process that "battened down the hatches" and set up strict rules on what could be taught, what could be done and what could not be done, and very strict measures of ensuring compliance.  This produced a style of church that emphasized close adherence to doctrine, obedience to the rules, regular confession of sins, personal piety, memorization of catechism answers to religious questions, a very popular embrace of religious life vocations, and a zeal that produced the greatest expansion of the church through a missionary movement to all parts of the globe.  

 

This Counter-Reformation style of church lasted until it began to break down in the 1960's.  As that style began to collapse, much confusion began to reign, religious sisters and priests and brothers abandoned their teaching ministries, and religious education became a victim of this confusion.  The very basics of the Catholic faith were not adequately passed on to new generations.  The loss of faith has been stunning.  Grievously complicating it was that during that very unsettling time of confusion most of the sexual abuse cases were happening, the extent of which did not come to light until 2002.  This era of scandal had an even more stunning impact on the faith of Catholics who had been taught to live by the rules and not to question authority.

 

However, during these 12 years you and I have journeyed together towards the Kingdom of God, there has been some very good news, despite how bleak the condition of the Catholic Church seemed.  Perhaps we can say that the Lord, knowing what kind of secularization was going to come upon the world, provided us with the Second Vatican Council to correct us even more than the Council of Trent corrected the medieval church.  The depths of the correction needed was such that it would take years for us to begin to understand what God has done through Vatican II.

 

Most of us who grew up in the Counter-Reformation church did not know the Bible, really, at all.  But for 50 years now, we have heard the Word of God proclaimed every Sunday; and if we have attended weekday Mass then over a three year cycle we have heard almost the entire Bible.  Slowly (remember how "slowly" typifies how God works with us) we are becoming more and more attuned to the Word of God, particularly the Gospel.  

 

As the Counter-Reformation church passes away, we are slowly moving into a Gospel-Centered kind of Catholic Church.  No longer focused on doing things just because of the rules, we are more and more focused on being in relationship with Christ, being in love with Christ, knowing Christ as friend as well as Master and Lord.  During the Counter-Reformation era, the relationship with Christ was presumed.  It should not have been, because to many people being Catholic was all about the rules.

 

To put it succinctly, rules no longer keep us Catholic.  Head knowledge, as necessary as it is, no longer satisfies.  "Shoulds" and "should nots" no longer motivate people to be virtuous and to stay faithful to the Gospel. Only a lively relationship with the Lord Jesus convinces people today. Only a strong love relationship with Christ can give us the courage to be faithful to Christ and truly live the values and teachings of Jesus Christ.

 

So, my friends, what we have embarked on in our 12 year odyssey towards the Kingdom of God has been a slow maturation of us into a Church of the New Evangelization, a Gospel-based church, a church of being faithful to Jesus Christ because we want to be faithful to the One whom our heart loves.

 

For more on this shift away from the Counter-Reformation style of Church, read George Weigle's new book, Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st Century.

More to come . . . 

A Pastor Bids His Boulder Flock Goodbye (Letter #1)

 

  

 

Since my term of office will be ending in June, I thought I would do a series of letters reflecting with you on our journey together over the past 12 years.

My first reflection is on the experience of sharing life in Boulder together.  Living here in the heart of Boulder has been my favorite place, ever, to live.  

 

  

 

It’s my favorite place to live for many reasons: 

• it’s beautiful;
• it has a defined downtown with a lot of trees and I have the honor of living in downtown; 
• it pulses with life mostly because of the 30,000 university students and educators who add to our summer population of 100,000; 
• aside from the students and professors, it’s a highly educated community of venture capitalists, technology inventors and specialists, and otherwise highly educated people;
• it’s a happenin’ place with things to do, places to go, mountains to climb, nature to enjoy, events to witness and restaurants offering every kind of food;
• it’s a world class running capital where marathoners and Olympians come to train for their sport;
• and the streets daily see a parade of cyclists, runners, walkers and lately strollers with babies on board.  (There must be a baby boom in Boulder!)
• And there are the trails!  Oh, the trails!  Walking, running, cycling.  This has to be the healthiest town in America!

 

Yet, there are drawbacks to living in Boulder.  On Easter Sunday the newspaper had an article about a Gallup poll, indicating that Boulder is the second least religious city in the country.  I remember going to meet a new Protestant pastor in town and I asked him if he had a read yet on the religious sentiment of Boulder.  He said, "Yes, I found out already that Jesus is not welcome in this town!"  

 

Nestled at the mouth of Boulder Canyon, Boulder stands at the geological shift between the slow rise of the rather flat High Plains and the abrupt and dramatic rise of the mountain range that is the spine between the Pacific and Atlantic basins.  Boulder also stands at the shifting point between the way things used to be and the dramatic rise of a new culture that leaves God out of the equation.

 

Probably the most frequent difficulty parishioners have shared with me over my 12 years here has been the hostility they face at work, or among friends and neighbors, or even among family members, at the very fact of their being Catholic.  Sadly many of us have been muffled into silence about our faith when faced with such prejudice.

 

All the more do I treasure the fidelity of our faithful parishioners here in our Sacred Heart of Jesus community.  Thank you!  More importantly, thank God for His grace that enables us to believe in an environment of unbelief.

 

More to come . . . 

Homily for Sunday, September 9, 2012

Did you notice that in the Gospel today, Jesus was in pagan territory, in the district of Tyre and Sidon, in today’s Lebanon, and then left there to go into the district of the Decapolis?  The Decapolis was a region of 10 cities also in pagan territory, east of the Sea of Galilee.  Pagan territory.  

On the other hand, there is the Holy Land, which was not pagan territory.  What’s the difference between holy land, or holy ground and pagan land?  Do you remember the story of Naaman the Syrian who had leprosy during the time of the OT prophet Elijah?  He came to the Holy Land to seek a healing of his leprosy from the man of God; and when he was healed he took back with him to Syria a load of soil from the Holy Land so he could lay out the soil, bow down on it and pray to the God of Israel.  It was truly holy ground.  He had been healed in the Holy Land.

In Jesus’ day, the territory surrounding the Holy Land was pagan territory.  What did that mean then, and what does it mean to us today?  

The Holy Land was the land of grace, the land where God became man, the land where God in the flesh healed the sick, forgave the sinner, and even raised the dead.  And though the people of the Holy Land did not recognize the Word made flesh in their midst, they were a people who were accustomed to the grace of God at work in their lives.

Grace is the action of God, the gift of God’s self, most perfectly enfleshed in Jesus Himself.  So, in today’s Gospel Jesus goes to bring grace, the gift of God’s self, to the pagan territory that did not know God’s grace.  And in doing so he cured a man who was both deaf and mute: unable to hear and unable to speak.

Our land today, indeed our whole world, is becoming more and more a pagan territory, a land unaccustomed to the grace of God.

Let me describe what a pagan territory looks like in the words of Fr. Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest who was killed by the Nazis in WWII.  He calls pagan territory living “without grace.”  It’s to live gracelessly.  To live as if God does not matter and has nothing to do with our lives.  It’s to live without prayer, that avenue to allow grace to enter our lives.  Living gracelessly, living a pagan life, is to live without having the ears that hear the Word of God ushering into our souls the grace and love and mercy of God.  Living in pagan territory stifles our voice so we are mute and unable, and unwilling, to give God praise, because God is not a big thought in our minds.  That’s living without grace.  

What does living without grace produce?  A graceless life makes us live a pitiless life, leaving us little or no concern for those who are poor in the world because our preoccupation has become our own self, our own triumphs, our own pleasures, surrendering ourselves to our own whims and following our basic instincts.  This is indeed pagan territory, a grace-less way of life, a way of life that is not concerned about the common good, a self-centered life.  It also produces, Fr. Delp says, “an age of inexorable fate, a time of horror and violence, of worthless life and senseless death.”

In our pagan territory of today Jesus comes to open our ears to hear the Word in a new way.  He says to each of us, “Ephaphatha!  Be opened!”  Be open to the God whom you cannot see.  Be open to hear the mission this God of love is calling you to.  Be open to see life differently.  And when your heart has been touched by the Word of God, let your lips speak out His praise in such a way that the words on our lips match the passion of our love for our God who is so good to us.

Be open to bringing others to Him.  Be open to getting over our reticence that keeps us from speaking of Him, or speaking about our faith, as if our concern about what others think of us is more important than what we think of ourselves before God.  Let’s turn a new page in our relations with others; let’s be open to letting this God of love to work through us to reach the hearts of others who are deaf to the Word of God and mute in giving God praise.

A graceless world, a pagan world, cries out for the Lord to come into our territory and speak to us a word of life and love and mercy and compassion.  In our pagan word of divisiveness and bitterness and hostility and fear, the Lord Jesus is willing to come into the lives of all His people to bring them hope.  And He wants to use our ears to hear the cry in the hearts of His people, and our voices to speak to them of the grace to be found in Christ.  But first He says to us: Be open!

Homily for Sunday, August 19, 2012

“The days are evil,” says St. Paul to the Ephesians and to us.  Yet we are invited to live in wisdom, “trying to understand what is the will of the Lord.”

How can we know the will of God today?  It is searingly difficult to discover God’s will today mainly because the whole world seems to have forgotten that we are all born into the human condition which is seriously flawed.  We call this flawed condition the doctrine of “original sin:” we are all inclined toward selfishness, even at the expense of others.  

To paraphrase Ross Douthat in his book, “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics,” we have turned the old sin of pride into “healthy self-esteem,” and vanity into “self-improvement,” adultery into “following your heart,” and greed and gluttony into “living the American dream.”

We have detached ourselves from our moral foundations and together we seem adrift upon a sea of limitless possibilities. As Psalm 11 says, “Foundations once destroyed, what can the just do?”  With our moral foundations destroyed, we seem to live today without a hint of even desiring to try to understand what is the will of the Lord.

Today I’d like to share with you the Gospel’s secret weapon in spiritual warfare so as to be able to discern the will of God.  This secret weapon is available to Catholics; I only know that this works for Catholics.  I don’t know about others.  It’s this:

If you, a Catholic who has been initiated into the Eucharist, find yourself wanting to miss Mass, if you see in your soul an absence of passion about receiving Holy Communion, then this is the secret weapon to alert you that you are falling away from the will of God.  In other words, you can tell you are getting into spiritual trouble if the sacrament of the Eucharist does not beckon to you and call out to from the heights of your soul.  

When this lack of passion for Holy Communion happens, it is a sign that the soul is so diminished that it cannot hear the Lord from within crying out, “Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding."

Of course, it may be that even a Catholic never did believe the word of Jesus: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”  

If you never did believe what the Catholic Church believes and teaches about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, then this fail-safe, secret weapon does not apply.  It really only applies to those who know the Lord, love the Lord, and clearly understand and believe that Christ’s flesh is true food, and his blood is true drink.

It’s all about love.  If our soul is in love with God, then surely we want to do His will, and surely we will crave His Eucharist.  Such love has brought us to the point where we have learned to trust that God always wants our happiness, that God can be trusted, that no difficulty in life can undo us because He is with us to guide us and help us find His will. 

The Eucharist is all about love.  God loves us; God desires us; God desires such intimacy with us that we can “take and eat, for this is my body.”  “Take and drink because this cup is my love poured out for you.”  Can you not see that finding something else, anything else, to be more important than the Eucharist, is like a red flag to the soul?  Remember, my friends, the Mass is the prayer of Jesus, it is the perfect prayer because it is His prayer.  And you cannot improve on perfection.

 

Homily for Sunday, July 8, 2012

Our reading from Second Corinthians today is one of my favorite pieces of Scripture.  I can’t tell you how often I have given it as a penance for someone in confession.  It is so full of hope!  It is such a radical invitation to think differently!

Just before these verses in Second Corinthians St. Paul has been telling us here about his extraordinary mystical experiences.  Now he picks up with his line about the thorn in the flesh to keep him humble: a mysterious ailment, or vicious experience of opposition, or some kind of struggle that left him begging the Lord to take it away.  

But the Lord’s answer to his request was a firm, “No.”  The Lord further says to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."

Oh, what an insight into understanding that God does indeed sometimes say “No” to our requests!  This is a powerful Scripture for someone who says that God has not heard their prayers.  Not so!  God’s answer may be, “Not yet,” or a flat out, “No.”

Here is where the virtue of humility needs to come into play.  In humility we must remember that we cannot think that God must do what we tell Him to do.  After all, He is God.  We are not.

This takes humility.  So what is humility?  True humility, the humility of Jesus, ultimately leads to the point where we could say with St. Paul that we are content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, and persecutions.  Who in his right mind would be content with these things?

There are phases or steps to becoming truly humble.  No one is going to be full of himself and want to incur things like weakness, insults, hardships and persecutions.  On the other hand, if we empty ourselves of self and become full of Christ, then we will do as Christ has done, and then suddenly, or not so suddenly, we will see negative things as not so negative.

Let’s begin with baby steps into humility.  Assuming we are at least of the age of reason, we begin to learn humility when we think this way: not for all the money in the world, not for all the fame and honor possible, not for all the power I could have, would I ever consent to do anything to break off my relationship with God.  This takes humility because most people want to dicker with God on what is permissible and what is not.  The more our rearing makes us think we are entitled to everything we have or could have, the more we are reared in stoking the flames of a good self-esteem, no matter what we do, the less we will see the need for humility.  The less we will see that anything could actually be forbidden to us.  The less we will think that there just might be things we do that, in fact, alienate us from God.  We call these choices, actions and decisions mortal sins.  

So, the first step into humility says that there is no way on earth that I will ever do that.  This step is essential for salvation.  If we fail in this first kind of humility, it's time to go to confession!

The second phase of humility is where my love of the Lord has grown so much that I now realize that I don’t want even to do the least thing against God’s will.  I want to think and act as Christ does.  Therefore, I don’t want to commit even a venial sin.

Now the third phase of humility is the one Paul talks about when he says he is content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, and persecutions.  

Being content with hardships and weakness and insults seems masochistic, doesn't it?  So, since God obviously doesn't want to be masochistic, then there must be something else in this more perfect form of humility, don't you think?  What would that be?

Try this on for size and see what this does for you:

If my love for the Lord has grown so much, if the truth of the Incarnation dawns on me, then I see God in other people. I especially see God in suffering people.  It's as if Jesus has come back to earth and is on the other side of town, appearing in the form of someone who is weak, someone who is insulted, someone who is facing tremendous hardships, in someone who is being persecuted. And because I love Him, I want to be where He is.  And I don’t care what anyone thinks of my preference for the outcast.

I no longer want to be counted among the beautiful set, I no longer want to be numbered among the powerful or influential or wealthy or popular.  No, I now have come to see how vapid things like fame and wealth and power are, and now I want to identify with the lost, the confused, the sinner, the helpless, the forgotten, the very ones Jesus promises to be with.  And maybe, just maybe, He has chosen me to be His presence to those who are most in need of His mercy.  This is what true humility looks like.  

 

Homily for Sunday July 1, 2012

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Let me play with you a little bit to show how we let a frame of reference in our minds, and our presuppositions, color our entire view of reality.  Let’s look at today’s Gospel and let’s say some Republicans and Democrats from today are actually there in this Gospel story.  The Republicans’ world view might lead them to say to Jesus, “Those Democrats want you to refrain from curing both the dying little girl and the woman with the hemorrhages, because the Democrats’ attitude is to let the government take care of them!”

         “Oh, yeah,” say the Democrats, “Well the Republicans want you to let the little old lady and the little, dying girl fall through the safety net and just fall where they may.”

          Do you see that our presuppositions and preconceived opinions impact our view of everything?

          Today’s Scriptures suggest to me that we think about one of the most fundamental questions in life and take note of our presuppositions.

          The fundamental question is this: If God did not make death, who did make it?  Who or what made suffering?  Who or what made sickness and pain and injustice and sorrow?  If “God does not rejoice in the destruction of the living,” then why does it happen?  Why does a 12 year old have to die?  Or why does a woman have to suffer from hemorrhages  for 12 years and have no relief?

          The presupposition that our society makes today is that God is irrelevant to these questions.  Secularist thought would say that Biblical faith has no more to offer on these sorts of issues for thinking people, because the Bible has been found to be out of touch with the scientific world and has nothing accurate to say about our origins, or the origins of evil, or suffering or death.  Secularist thought has also tossed aside all the doctrine of the Church, so, the attitude now is: let’s instead find our own way to answer these puzzles in life.  And this frequently enough means that we simply avoid these questions as imponderable.

          Avoiding these questions, however, leaves us yielding to a diminished humanity, lacking in substance, living the precious gift of life on a superficial level.  

         So, let’s dig in to ask, “If God did not make death, who did?”  Who  or what caused the 12 year old girl to die?  Who or what caused the 

widow to be plagued as she was for 12 years?  Where did all this suffering come from?

        The classical Christian answer has been that original sin is the cause of all suffering, including death.  The doctrine of original sin says that before the sin of Adam and Eve humanity was in Paradise with no disease, no suffering and no death.  When God made human beings He made us good and He gave us free will.  It is the misuse of that free will that has caused all the suffering in the world.

         How, you might ask, can things like famine and earthquakes and  wildfires be caused by the misuse of human freedom?  But alas, we do not tend to think of the history of the human race to be as long as it has been.  If just recent generations have caused such havoc as to change the climate of the earth, what would 60,000 years of human misuse of freewill have produced?

         Many people today do not accept the doctrine of original sin.  Death, they say, pre-existed the human race.  Long before the human race appeared, all life forms had cycles of birth and death and rebirth.  One generation of dinosaurs died and another replaced it until they were all extinguished.  One generation of plants lives and then dies and another generation replaces it.  So, the thinking goes, human life simply lives out the same cycle as the rest of the biological world.  And so the presuppositions build, that human life is just like any other form of life.  In this worldview there is no room to see humanity as the gory of God’s creative power.   And there is no room for the doctrine of a first sin.

           These presuppositions leave the human race with a very unsatisfactory result: that the human race is fundamentally flawed, that human beings are inherently contradictory so that everyone carries good and evil within themselves, that holiness is not possible or desirable.  

           We Catholics do not see the world or the human race in this way.  We know that we are fundamentally good, that we were made by the one and only source of all that exists, and that God is good, and that in Him there is no evil. For God made us in His own image.  He made us good; and even when we have misused our freedom and caused great havoc, He comes to save us. And still does today.  Just as He cured the afflicted woman and raised the dead 12 year old girl, so the Lord has given us the bright promise of redemption and immortality, such is His love for us!

 

The Body and Blood of Christ 6/10/2012

I made a decision this week that I’d like to share with you.

First some background. For a long time I have been feeling very defensive. I don’t feel defensive with you, but always, it seems, someone else has something negative or nasty to say about the church, or about priests, or about our doctrines, or our stances on this or that.

I’m really tired of it. I’m tired of feeling put on the spot and made to feel like I, and we Catholics, are always being attacked.

A year and a half ago I had my close brush with death and in the months since then, I have been evaluating what really is important and what is not. Being defensive is not only in the category of “not important,” it is in fact very harmful to one’s spiritual health.

Therefore, I decided that I will not be defensive any more. Instead, I decided that I want to spend my energy on showing the beauty of what our Catholic vision of reality is like. If other people don’t like it, then, fine; they should go and find a vision that works for them. My energy will be devoted to teaching and preaching the beauty of what we believe.

Today’s celebration of Corpus Christi is an exquisite weekend to start this new chapter of my life. You see, we Catholics have a vastly different view of reality than most other people. Our worldview is jam-packed with God. God is no distant creator who started things off and left us to our own devices. No, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is actively engaged with us whether we are journeying through the desert, worshiping at Mt. Sinai, or at the Second Temple in Jerusalem, or at the First Mass in the Upper Room, or gathered here at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Boulder, Colorado.

Our view of reality is that God became a human being for us, died for us on the cross and remains with us, especially in the Eucharist. This God, whom we would be willing to die for, is concerned about every little element of our own particular lives and also about the wellbeing of all of humanity.

This God who became the Bread of Life for us to eat, and the Blood of salvation for us to drink, is no stranger to the condition of our lives. And by our weekly celebration of the Eucharist, we too join with Christ in “the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted. These are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”*  By frequent Holy Communion we grow into ever greater solidarity with other human beings. “Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in our hearts.”*  This is how He sustains us on our journey through life, always by our side, always willing to forgive those who turn to Him in our need, always calling us to share in the lot of those who suffer.

The beauty of Corpus Christi is that the Eucharist is the promise and foretaste of what is to come. While the world languishes and dances with despair, we abide in hope. While the world values only what is seen, we take on great meaning from what is unseen. While modern people are alienated from the self and from other people, we set our hearts on community. While the world is locked in an isolation imposed by an excessive individualism devoid of God, we crave communion, with each other and with God. Indeed we call this “Holy Communion.”

The beauty of our Catholic faith is that the very human instinct to recognize the sacred has not been extinguished in our hearts. We know that our lives are crammed with heaven. We know that our Eucharistic Companion in life’s journey not only nourishes us, but always prepares us to become saints, to be ready for heaven when this life’s journey is concluded. And so, we hunger for the Body and Blood of Christ for we have come to know God in the flesh. This is the beauty of our Catholic faith.

* Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, I, 1

[Picture: Pope Benedict XVI in Corpus Christi Procession in Rome, 6/7/2012]

Pentecost 2012

What a scene that first Pentecost must have been.  The Holy Spirit came upon them in such a powerful way that the huddled group of scared disciples of Jesus were suddenly breaking out of their hiding place and boldly going out into the streets and plazas of Jerusalem to fearless proclaim that Jesus Christ was indeed Lord and Savior and that, though he had been killed by crucifixion, he had risen from the dead, and that there is salvation in no other Name.

Oh for the same kind of release of the Holy Sprit in our day!  Oh for the same fearless proclamation today!  Oh that today’s world would be transformed by one generation of believers as was that generation of the Apostles!

Historically, however, the Spirit’s action has been more subtle than explosive.  Take for instance our own personal Pentecost, when we received the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Chances are it was not explosive.  Chances are that it was a subtle transformation, like the change that happens in the Holy Eucharist.  Before the consecration the host and wine look as they are, just as after the consecration they look no different but by then they are the Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior.

Just before the consecration, the priest holds his hands over the bread and wine and prays, “Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Like the dewfall.”  Have you ever seen the dew fall?  It happens slowly and invisibly, as does the transformation of the one who is confirmed.  In most cases, then, one’s own personal Pentecost is not so much like the first Pentecost, but is much more “like the dewfall.”

It helps, however, to know what gifts the Holy Spirit gives us when we are confirmed.  Remember them?  The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.  You’ll most probably recognize them when I list them for you, but what exactly are these gifts of wisdom and understanding, right judgment and courage, knowledge and reverence and wonder and awe in God’s presence.

Let me unwrap them so that we may better grasp them and incorporate them in our daily lives:

Wonder and awe in God’s presence, also known as the fear of the Lord.  This gift of the Spirit does not make us afraid of hell, but makes so in love with God that we are appropriately afraid of ever doing anything that would separate us from God.

Reverence, also known as piety.  This gift leads us to see God in all the persons the Lord puts in our lives, and respect them just as we respect and love God.  Or, in the words of Scripture: “How can you say you love and God and do not love your brother or sister?”

Courage, also known as Fortitude.  This gift strengthens us against natural fear and imparts to our will an impulse to undertake without hesitancy the most arduous tasks, to face dangers, trample underfoot human respect, and to endure without complaint even prolonged tribulation.

Knowledge.  This gift enables us to evaluate created things at their true worth in their relation to God.  Knowledge unmasks pretenses, reveals emptiness and helps us put firth things first, and prize friendship with God above all else.

Understanding.  With this gift, the Holy Spirit helps us grasp the truths of our Catholic faith, and by understanding them, we are enabled to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truths and through them we are quickened to a newness of life.  With Understanding our faith ceases to be sterile and inactive.  Instead our mode of life bears eloquent testimony to the faith that is within us.

Right Judgment, also known as Counsel.  With this gift the soul is endowed with supernatural prudence, enabling us to judge rightly and promptly what must be done.  Right Judgment is supernatural common sense, a priceless treasure, when faced with the innumerable concrete cases that face us in our daily affairs.

Lastly, Wisdom, the most perfect of the gifts of the Spirit.  Wisdom is the gift of discernment, enabling us to sort through the subtleties of the various movements within our souls, with an eye to picking up on very subtle deceptions of an evil spirit that would deceive us by pretending to be an angel of light. 

These are the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us in Confirmation.  Let us ask our Lord open them up and magnify them in our lives, whether suddenly or like the dewfall.

Pentecost 2012

What a scene that first Pentecost must have been.  The Holy Spirit came upon them in such a powerful way that the huddled group of scared disciples of Jesus were suddenly breaking out of their hiding place and boldly going out into the streets and plazas of Jerusalem to fearless proclaim that Jesus Christ was indeed Lord and Savior and that, though he had been killed by crucifixion, he had risen from the dead, and that there is salvation in no other Name.

Oh for the same kind of release of the Holy Sprit in our day!  Oh for the same fearless proclamation today!  Oh that today’s world would be transformed by one generation of believers as was that generation of the Apostles!

Historically, however, the Spirit’s action has been more subtle than explosive.  Take for instance our own personal Pentecost, when we received the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Chances are it was not explosive.  Chances are that it was a subtle transformation, like the change that happens in the Holy Eucharist.  Before the consecration the host and wine look as they are, just as after the consecration they look no different but by then they are the Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior.

Just before the consecration, the priest holds his hands over the bread and wine and prays, “Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Like the dewfall.”  Have you ever seen the dew fall?  It happens slowly and invisibly, as does the transformation of the one who is confirmed.  In most cases, then, one’s own personal Pentecost is not so much like the first Pentecost, but is much more “like the dewfall.”

It helps, however, to know what gifts the Holy Spirit gives us when we are confirmed.  Remember them?  The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.  You’ll most probably recognize them when I list them for you, but what exactly are these gifts of wisdom and understanding, right judgment and courage, knowledge and reverence and wonder and awe in God’s presence.

Let me unwrap them so that we may better grasp them and incorporate them in our daily lives:

Wonder and awe in God’s presence, also known as the fear of the Lord.  This gift of the Spirit does not make us afraid of hell, but makes so in love with God that we are appropriately afraid of ever doing anything that would separate us from God.

Reverence, also known as piety.  This gift leads us to see God in all the persons the Lord puts in our lives, and respect them just as we respect and love God.  Or, in the words of Scripture: “How can you say you love and God and do not love your brother or sister?”

Courage, also known as Fortitude.  This gift strengthens us against natural fear and imparts to our will an impulse to undertake without hesitancy the most arduous tasks, to face dangers, trample underfoot human respect, and to endure without complaint even prolonged tribulation.

Knowledge.  This gift enables us to evaluate created things at their true worth in their relation to God.  Knowledge unmasks pretenses, reveals emptiness and helps us put firth things first, and prize friendship with God above all else.

Understanding.  With this gift, the Holy Spirit helps us grasp the truths of our Catholic faith, and by understanding them, we are enabled to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truths and through them we are quickened to a newness of life.  With Understanding our faith ceases to be sterile and inactive.  Instead our mode of life bears eloquent testimony to the faith that is within us.

Right Judgment, also known as Counsel.  With this gift the soul is endowed with supernatural prudence, enabling us to judge rightly and promptly what must be done.  Right Judgment is supernatural common sense, a priceless treasure, when faced with the innumerable concrete cases that face us in our daily affairs.

Lastly, Wisdom, the most perfect of the gifts of the Spirit.  Wisdom is the gift of discernment, enabling us to sort through the subtleties of the various movements within our souls, with an eye to picking up on very subtle deceptions of an evil spirit that would deceive us by pretending to be an angel of light. 

These are the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us in Confirmation.  Let us ask our Lord open them up and magnify them in our lives, whether suddenly or like the dewfall.