Catholic Faith and Reflections

The minor Office of None today has a reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb. 10: 35-36) that one needs to reflect on once in a while when prayer turns dry and distracted.

“Do not abandon your faithfulness, for which is reserved a great reward. You have only to be constant in fidelity so that after having done the will of God you might obtain his promises.”

The Lord only asks us to be faithful to the tasks he assigns us. He alone will bring forth the fruit of our fidelity. Blessed Mother Teresa was fond of saying the God doesn’t askfor great successes, only faithfulness.

The Liturgy of the Hours is a great way of expressing our faithfulness in prayer, even if we are lacking in fervor or concentration on any particular day.

I am up extra early this morning. I will be leaving for the office in about 15 minutes, having been up  since 4 AM. 

I strikes me that Lent is about half over now. I wonder if the world has made many changes since its beginning a few weeks ago. Lent is a time of sowing seeds and fertilization of the soil. We have to wait for the sudden eruption of growth that will undoubtedly occur. For us, time is such a linear thing, one day leading to the next and a lifetime being about 75 years, that we tend to think God is slouching, delaying and is chronically late. The truth of the matter is time is ever present in God’s sight and present for all time. The seeds of change sown during Lent will come to fruition and a great harvest will be gathered. We may not be living our earthly lives at that time, but we will see the fruit in the life to come.

The ordination prayer for deacons begins, “Draw near, we pray, Almighty God, giver of every grace, who apportion every order and assign every office; who remain unchanged, but make all things new.” God makes all things new even in his immutability, his perfection, his stability. Newness in the midst of the eternal “now,” the eternal constancy characteristic of God. It is God who gives us our calling, our office, as deacons and who calls us into the workings of his trinitarian life through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit who binds us to his Son, Jesus in his oneness with the Father. Through our ordination, we are given an authority which comes from the Father, the authority of compassion, forming us into the Icon of Jesus the Servant. Our union with Jesus in this way is truly an outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the world, an outpouring which has lasting effects.

May God bless each of you today in a special way.

“… when sin has taken possession of a man, he can no longer see God.” — St. Theophilus of Antioch

I haven’t had an interest in posting about current events for a number of weeks. Maybe it is the whole Lenten experience and thinking about less temporal things at this time. Perhaps it is the fact that I am preaching more frequently on weekends in the past couple of months and thus I am spending more time preparing homilies. Perhaps it is because I am not all that excited about politics nowadays, but terribly interested in the realm of the spirit.

One thing I think is true is that the Church is under attack.  I really don’t like to use that language for it seems we already have way too much fear instilled in us, leading to a loss of hope. Nevertheless, some of the core of what the Church preaches and upholds is increasingly ridiculed in contemporary society: family, marriage, life issues, social justice, peace. Our central belief in the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist is also weakening in the minds and hearts of many. I heard a few days ago, and heard again today, of someone passing out anti-Catholic tracts in Tennessee ridiculing the Eucharist.

Despite this, I marvel at the resurgence in faith of many young people. I marvel in the expressions of faith that show on the faces of the faithful who approach me to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus at Mass. I marvel when a man or woman who had left the Church decides to return, c.f., next Sunday’s Gospel (The Prodigal Son). I marvel at the newness of life in the infant. I am awed by the beauty of creation displaying in such a wonderful way the hand of the Creator. I am moved by the Word that is spoken by my brother deacons and priests in the liturgical assembly.

God is good. He loves us limitlessly. He is always present to us.  He will never abandon us.

Let us remember that faith is not only assent to dogma and teaching of Our Lord and the Church, it is also maintaining relationship with God and Church. Faith is being in relationship with the one Good, the one Holy and the one True Being, revealed to us in Jesus Christ Our Lord whose body is the Church, our spiritual home.

Here are statements made by cardinals who were with Papa Luciani during the 1978 conclave which elected him pope and by an author who recorded another cardinal’s thought about the conclave (my translation).

“I had various opportunities to assist Cardinal Luciani during the conclave that elected him pope. He had a terrible cough during those days and I remember having to especially help him during the nights when he seemed to be without peace and couldn’t sleep. He impressed me as a holy man, a little delicate but very happy. I liked his simplicity. He was always smiling. It came from his simplicity. ‘Eminence (I asked Luciani), where is the bathroom?’ “I don’t know,’ said Luciani. ‘But in a little while you will be the master of this house,’ I said. ‘Are you a prophet?’ he said. After the election, John Paul I said,’You, Eminence, have been the prophet, but my pontificate will be brief.’” — Cardinal Jaime Sin, Manila, Phillipines

“We rose to our feet to applaud, but we couldn’t see him. He was crouched on his chair, making himself small, so small; he wanted to hide. What a shame we cannot recount what we saw, because it would have been much more beautiful than you can immagine.” — Cardinal Vicente Enrique y Taraconcón of Madrid, Spain.

“Cardinal Jean Guyot, archbishop of Toulouse, who was next to Luciani during the conclave, retold with much emotion how Luciani had not yet recovered from a serious illness and it fatigued him just to clothe himself, and how the Patriarch of Venice would remove his shirt and he would have to help him put on the liturgical vestments.” — Jean Chélini, from The Daily Life in the Vatican under John Paul II.

“After the third vote, I would have been pleased to disappear without catching anyone’s attention.” — Pope John Paul I, speaking of his reaction during the conclave in which he was elected pope.

I am off to a short retreat for the diaconate community. Earlier today I was praying the Office of Readings. The scripture reading was of the Ten Commandments and the patristic reading was from St. Ambrose and his discussion of the transcendence of God.

In the scripture, the first commandment is the lengthiest, “I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me…” and then it goes on to emphasize and elaborate.

Is it not true that the first commandment is still the most oft broken of all commandments?  It was true during the history of the Israelites. We don’t usually want to admit this but do we not live as if other things are more important than God? We give our energy, time, admiration, awe and wonder to someone or something other than God?

God is both immanent and transcendent.  In other words, God is present in the intricacies of our daily lives; he can be recognized in his creation. How often though do we forget his utter transcendence, his infinite otherness, his incomprehensibility?

God alone must we adore.

Who or what do you find yourself adoring in your daily life?

“Thank God ahead of time!” — Solanus Casey, OFM Cap.

I have had as a “good website” Catholics Come Home (see the link at the lower right). If you haven’t yet visited it, do so today. It is very well done. I would suggest you view the videos that have made available. I especially like the “Epic” and the “Movie” videos.

They are doing an excellent job using the media to evangelize all of us, especially those who have left the faith for whatever reason, or may be interested in the Catholic faith for the first time.

“…may (I) feel in my heart as far as possible that excess of love by which you, O Son of God, were inflamed to undertake so cruel a suffering for us sinners.”  — St. Francis of Assissi

What glory there is in our hope! It is hope that will bring us to future glory. Our hope in the Cross of Christ.

In today’s Gospel, we hear of Christ’s glory as he is transfigured before the apostles Peter, John and James giving them a glimpse of what lay on the other side of the Cross. Giving them hope, a hope that would sustain them when confronted with the suffering of Christ on the Cross on Good Friday.

Our faith is like a ship. It is what defines us, gives us our shape, our buoyancy. Love is the destination of the ship, but hope is the driving force that propels us through the rough waters, the deep seas of life. We are carried by hope toward the glory of Jesus’ resurrection which we too will share.

Pope John Paul I, the pope that reigned for only 33 days in 1978 and whom we who lived in Rome at that time and were able to speak to him fondly called Papa Luciani, once wrote in his book Illustrissimi, ”We are the amazement of God.” He noted that some in history have said that God is not amazed by our faith because he has left so many signs of his presence even in our natural world that we cannot help but believe; nor is God amazed by our love for we all have hearts of flesh, not stone, and so we are made for love, we cannot help but love. But hope, yes, God is amazed by our hope.

The medieval poet Dante said that hope is waiting with certitude. A waiting rooted in the goodness of God, and the certitude of future glory. 

Any of us who have lived for a length of time have seen the face of death, some of us more directly than others. We have seen the Cross. We have had our bumps and bruises and injuries. We have been through quite of few Lents, just as we are in the midst of one now.

It is hope that has driven us forward toward our destination, the “New Jerusalem” as the Scriptures would say, toward heaven, toward the Resurrection, toward Divine Love.

Abraham was given hope in our first Reading; hope that he would be the father of many nations, that his glory would be in his descendants, of whom we all are. 

St. Paul in today’s second Reading tells us our hope is in the Cross of Christ, and we are the most pitiable of all if we place our hope anywhere else because glory comes after the Cross is endured.

In our Gospel, Jesus clearly shows us that like him, we too will someday be transfigured and he strengthens us to see in the Cross the hope of future glory so we do not become discouraged.

The Transfiguration gives us hope even today that this body of ours will be transfigured also, that our crosses will be transfigured into glory.

Do you know what was the difference between Peter and Judas Iscariot? Both were apostles. Both were called by the Lord. Both committed the same sin: Peter denying our Lord three times on the night he suffered; Judas betraying the Lord for thirty pieces of silver.

Peter had hope; Judas did not.

Peter lived; Judas died.

Let us be like Peter. Let us have hope. Let us choose life.

When life gets tough, cling to hope.

When practicing Lenten penance, have hope in Easter.

When looking at the Cross, see the hope of all humankind.

When faced with death, hope, wait with certitude for the life that is right around the corner.

Jesus knew there was no detour around the Cross — for him or for us. He knew that the Cross was the only route to our destination, that it was the bridge to glory. Hope is what drives us down that road and across that bridge toward:

The glory that is ours.

The glory of the Resurrection.

The glory of the Transfiguration.

Oh, what glory there is in our hope! We are the amazement of God!

I swiped this from Dr. Susan Windley-Daost’s weblog, The Ironic Catholic, www.ironiccatholic.com.  A link is on the lower right of this page, under blogroll. I hope you don’t mind, Dr. Sue.

“It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope.”  – Blessed Pope John XXIII

Here is a suggestion for your meditation tonight and tomorrow in preparation for Sunday’s celebration of the Eucharist.

Contemplate on “The Transfiguration and Hope”.

I will elaborate in next Monday’s post, after I have preached on it at the weekend’s Masses.

There is a radio station that has a local radio celebrity doing the “Lead Balloon Show” every morning. It features a very humorous fellow who is one string of funny jokes after another. The reality is the show goes over very well providing a lot of good cheer to us who listen.

Well, today was my day to provide a lecture to the department in which I work. My talk, entitled, “Powerlessness, Interdependency and Healing,” truly went over like a “lead balloon.” Silence when I finished except for a brief comment by a colleague that lent a bit of support for my efforts, and a quip from another who missed the first half of the talk.

My point was to try to get us thinking of the importance of working together as a team rather than getting so isolated in our practices that we run the risk of “system failure” and potential poor outcomes for our patients, for whom I believe we have mutual responsibility.

O well….. a good lesson in humility for me. God works as he wills in all things.

Congratulations to all the priests, deacons and faithful of the diocese of Ogdensburg, New York. The Holy Father today announced that Msgr. Terry LaValley, a priest of the diocese, is the new bishop-elect.  He will be ordained April 30th and installed as the fourteenth bishop of the northernmost diocese in the State of New York.

To my friend, Deacon Mark Bennett of St. Peter’s parish in Plattsburgh, and to a former classmate Fr. Joe Morgan, I extend my congratulations, as I know you have been waiting for quite some time for a new shepherd.

I spent a little time in the Ogdensburgh diocese a couple of years ago when my sister and her family lived in Plattsburgh. Since then I have kept track - a little bit - of what is going on there. 

May bishop-elect LaValley be everything you have been praying for — for so many months!

Today is the memorial of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, now Izmir, Turkey, and a disciple of St. John the Apostle.  He was also the friend of St. Ignatius of Antioch.  St. Polycarp (whose name means “many good things” in Greek) was revered in the first half of the second century as a Christian leader. He learned the faith directly from the Apostles and is thus called an Apostolic Father.

In 156 A.D., at age 86, Polycarp was taken to a Smryna stadium to be burned alive. There was a movment at the time to get rid of elderly Christians. When they lit the fire, the flames did not harm him, and he was finally killed by a dagger. His martyrdom is one of the first recorded in detail by eyewitnesses.

Because St. Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostles themselves, his writings take on particular importance in the study of Patrology, which is the study of the writings of the early Church Fathers. He wrote and lived before the New Testament was compiled. He, along with St. Ignatius of Antioch, are examples to us today of the importance of Tradition as a source of Truth in our faith, in addition to Scripture and the Magisterium.

Polycarp and Ignatius handed on the faith that they had directly received from the Apostles. Both men were bishops of the Church, representing of what we call the Magisterium, i.e., the teaching authority of the Church.

It is reported that Polycarp said to his executioners: “For 86 years I have served Christ, and he has done me no harm. How can I deny my King, my Savior?”

When called upon to be witnesses of our faith, let us pray for St. Polycarp’s intercession so the Lord may give us the strength to do so bravely.

“Clearly, what God wants above all is our will which we received as a free gift from God in creation and possess as though our own.”  — St. Joseph of Cupertino, OFM Conv.

Great reading from St. Irenaeus in the Office today. He makes the case for humility. An excerpt, my English translation:

“He commands us to follow him, not because he has need of our service, but to give us salvation. To follow the Lord, in fact, is to participate in salvation, just as to follow the light means to be surrounded and infused with brightness/clarity….

“And so it is with our service to God; it adds nothing to God, and on the other hand, God does not have need of the service of men; to those though that serve him and follow  him, he gives life, incorruptibility and eternal glory. He apportions his benefits to those who serve him because they serve him….

“The glory of man consists in persevering in his service. While God has need for nothing, man has need of communion with God.” — St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Lib IV, 13

Attention Deacons! Just in case we start having an ego problem. We are merely the messengers. God gives salvation to his people. We help others follow.

The Holy Father announced today, in a very formal gathering of cardinals at the Vatican, that six individuals will be canonized on October 17, 2010. Among them is Blessed Andre’ Bessette from Canada.

Those of us from Holy Cross Parish in Dakota will remember well our former pastor, Fr. Frisch, often mentioning Blessed Andre.

Alfred Bessette was born in Saint-Gregoire d’Iberville, Quebec, a town about 30 miles from Montreal. His father was a carpenter and his mother educated the children. When Alfred was nine years old, his father was killed in a lumbering accident and his mother died a few years later of tuberculosis. He was sent to live with his sister and husband. Alfred was poor in health and had difficulty doing manual labor. He exhibited early in life an intense spirituality,praying before a crucifix and speaking of the faith with his friends. He imposed penances on himself, drawing the concern of his family members because of his poor health. He left Canada when he was 20 years old, working in the United States, and returned to Canada in 1867.

Alfred joined the Congregation of Holy Cross in Montreal in 1872 and took the name Brother Andre. He was given the task of porter at Notre Dame College in Cote-des-Neiges, Quebec. He was porter for forty years. He had a special devotion to St. Joseph. Many people claimed to have been cured of diseases through the prayers of Brother Andre. His reputation grew and he was known as the miracle worker of Mount-Royal.

Andre Bessette died in 1937, at the age of 91. A million people filed by his coffin and his remains lie in the oratory to St. Joseph that he had arranged to be built. His body is in a tomb below the main chapel, and his heart is preserved in a reliquary in the oratory.

Pope Benedict offered a homily yesterday at the Basilica of St. Sabina on the Aventine hill in Rome. He concluded with these words:

“Dear brothers and sisters, Lent enlarges our horizons, orients us to eternal life. On this earth we are on a pilgrimmage, ‘we do not have here a lasting city, but we go forth in search of the one in in the future’ says the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb. 13:14). Lent makes know to us the passing nature of earthly goods and enables us to renounce what we must and free us to do what is good. We open the earth to the light of Heaven, to the presence of God in our midst. Amen.” (Original in Italian; my English translation.)

If you read Italian, you can read the original at:

http://www.vatican.va/news_sevices/index_news.htm

Follow the links to the news bulletin (Sala Stampa) for Ash Wednesday.

I like that closing thought, i.e., that in renouncing what we must and freely doing good, we open the world to the light of the Divine Presence in our midst.