Congratulations, Diocese of El Paso!

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Deacon Bob

At noon, Rome time, today, the Holy Father named Bishop Mark J. Seitz bishop of El Paso, Texas. Bishop Seitz until now had been auxiliary bishop of Dallas.

Bishop Seitz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1954, studied at the University of Dallas in Texas and St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He then studied bioethics at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.

He held many diocesan positions as a priest. He was named auxiliary bishop of Dallas in 2010, being ordained bishop on April 27, 2010.

Congratulations, Diocese of El Paso!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Deacon Bob

“Oh! If we could but peep into eternity occasionally during our existence, as the soul does when it separates fromt the body, how different would be our ‘Appreciation’.” — Venerable Solanus Casey, OFM Cap.

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Quote for the Day

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Deacon Bob

“Some people go to Paradise by train, others in a carriage and others on foot. The latter, though, have more merit than the others and a place of greater glory in Paradise.” St. Pio of Pietrelcina, OFM Cap.

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Chrism Mass 2013

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Here is a very nice video produced by my diocese featuring the Chrism Mass at the Basilica of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Winona. It is not just a taping of the Mass, but rather of the homily by Bishop Quinn, with video of key moments during the Liturgy. Take a look.

Log on to: http://youtu.be/hg5equ-BPvY

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Quote for the Day

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Deacon Bob

“One fully clothed cannot wrestle with one who is disrobed because he who wears something that can be seized is more quickly thrown to the ground. You cannot live in luxury on earth and reign with Christ in heaven.” — St. Clare of Assisi

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What’s piety got to do with it, got to do with it (sanctity)?

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Tuesday evening I did something I swore in 2004 I would never do again: I watched Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ. All of it except for the scourging scene (it’s too graphic).

When the movie came out, I, like millions of others, waited in line to see the film. I walked out saying, “Good movie, but I will never watch it again.” Violence bothers me, and this movie is violent.

Then last night as I was driving to town to assist at Mass, Tina Turner was singing What’s Love Got To Do With It? Immediately, my homily for the evening began to form in quick fashion.

Tuesday evening I turned off the DVD player and was left with the thought, “There is a big difference between piety and sanctity.” Mind you, there is a relationship, but Gibson’s movie left me realizing there is a difference. The film had nothing I could pick up of piety. Piety, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit, often is thought of by many as the performance of religious actions, rituals, behaviors, and the wearing of medals, scapulars, beads, etc. Yes, all of these are fine in their proper place, and hopefully we all express our piety with these symbols, rituals and prayers for they are to nurture and express our faith in and affection for God. They also create a Catholic culture we value highly.

As I said, the film had no piety in it that I can recall.

But it depicted sanctity in its purest form. It depicted Jesus’ complete unity with the will of the Father.

The film drove home to me that sanctity often doesn’t look very pious. In fact, sanctity may look ugly. Sanctity requires that I listen to God’s will for me, that I say “yes” to that will, and then I face the consequences.

Jesus sweated drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. He, in his humanity, groaned in his bending to the will of the Father. His sanctity was his union with his Father. His sanctity was perfect for he was one with the Father even in his fears as a man. He knew holiness comes from the union of wills and decisive choices.

So many of the saints witness to this sanctity. All the martyrs. Teresa of Calcutta. Yes, even Blessed John Paul II.

I think our new Pope Francis is pointing us in this direction also. He is centered on the person of Jesus and he is moving away from what distracts him and perhaps us from the reality that it is all about Jesus Christ, one with the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s all about sanctity.

So what’s piety got to do with it? Piety is a normative and cultural expression of sanctity. At its foundation is an experience of the person of Jesus Christ whom we love and with whom we wish to be united and never to be parted. We perform our pious acts out of an ever more purified love and affection for Jesus and those who lead us to him, most especially our Blessed Mother (who, by the way, is beautifully depicted in the movie as one united in heart and mind with her Son and is constantly pointed to Him in her love for him).

Piety should always be evidently directed to Jesus Christ. When people see us doing holy things in other words, their attention should drawn to Jesus, and not to us.

“Be holy, as I am holy!” Jesus said. For us, this means be one with the will of God in your life.

It is the only way to the Resurrection and eternal Life.

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Jesus and the Church are Inseparable

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Deacon Bob

In follow up to my last post regarding salvation through Jesus Christ and the Church, I read this morning excerpts from Pope Francis’ homily for today, the memorial of St. George, the pope’s name day (Jorge translates George in English).

The pope said,

“It is not possible to find Jesus outside the church…. The great Paul VI said it is ‘an absurd dichotomy’ to want to live with Jesus without the church, to follow Jesus outside the church, to love Jesus without the church.”

He also said that Christian identity is not a bureaucratic state, but it is

“belonging to the church…. the mother church, because it is not possible to find Jesus outside the church…. It is the mother church who gives us Jesus, gives us identity.”

I hope no one takes surprise with his words. He is simply reiterating what has been constant Church teaching throughout its history. It is defined dogma, actually.

No, this does not mean that grandmother is condemned because she is not Catholic. As the Council Fathers during the Second Vatican Council said, belonging to the church may not be necessarily defined as enrolled in the Roman Catholic Church, for other Christian churches and communities share, though not fully, in the truth of the Gospel and the Father’s revelation of himself in Jesus his Son. If, by no fault of their own, men and women sincerely seek the truth and follow it but never come to know formal membership in the Catholic Church, they can and often are saved. This is what I believe Pope Francis meant when he said Christian identity is not a “bureaucratic state” but rather a “belonging” to the church.

Yes, Christian identity is bound to the Christian community, i.e., the Catholic Church. We cannot rightfully call ourselves “Christian” without the Christian community, i.e., the Church. One’s journey of faith and the road to salvation are intimately connected to the Body of Christ which is the Church.

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The Trivialization of Evil and the Denial of a Good God

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Benedict XVI wrote in his book, Jesus of Nazareth, 

 

“The idea that God allowed the forgiveness of guilt, the healing of man from within, to cost him the death of his Son has come to seem quite alien to us today….. Militating against this, on one side, is the trivialization of evil in which we take refuge despite the fact that at the very same time we treat the horrors of human history, especially of the most recent human history, as an irrefutable pretext for denying the existence of a good God…”

 

I couldn’t help but think of this today as I was talking with a couple of very good friends of mine about the source of salvation for humankind and indeed for each individual human person. In what must have been a very clumsy manner on my part, I tried to articulate that all human beings are saved by Jesus Christ and him alone, and that without the grace won for us by him by his death and resurrection, no one can be saved. Additionally, it is through the Church alone, which in fact is the Body of Christ, that the saving grace of Jesus is now dispensed to all men and women, and thus it is one’s relationship to the Church which provides the manner and means by which salvation in obtained. Finally, I tried to say that one does not necessarily have to be a full member of the Church to be saved, if by no fault of one’s own such membership is not realized, for those men and women who sincerely seek the truth and follow it can be saved.

Perhaps Benedict has said it much better that I was able.

Salvation, as we know, results from the forgiveness of our sins, the removal of our guilt, by the giving of God’s Son over to death for our sake. To be related to the Lord Jesus in his death and resurrection, to be a member of his body which is the Church, brings each of us as individuals into the life of grace which is a life lived in obedience to the will of God. As Benedict said, the idea that someone would sacrifice himself for the sake of someone else in this manner is a rather alien thing today, for we are so caught up in our personal experiences that we find it hard to understand how important it is to be identified with a body of people, with a community, with the Church. Instead, to protect ourselves (since we often do not have the protection of the community in our quest for individual experience and faith) we resort to the “trivialization” of evil one hand, and the denial of a good God on the other.

Isn’t this true? Do we not often deny the potency of evil, its proximity to us in our lives, the guilt that it conveys and then couple that with a denial that a good God exists when the effects of evil are seen and felt?

When we do this, the only real options we have are despair or the making of ourselves into individual gods. We despair that the world can be a place of love and justice and we set ourselves up as the definers of truth, i.e., we cut ourselves off from our identities as  members of the Body of Christ and we then deny God’s benevolence, his justice and his love.

Just as Jesus was completely identified with his Father and the Father’s will, for he and the Father were two persons sharing in one common divine nature as one God, so too we are more and more to become identified with Jesus and his Body the Church and his will. Just as the Father raised Jesus from the dead, so too, by the grace of Jesus’ sacrifice and through our relationship with him and the Church which is his Mystical Body, we will be raised up to life eternal.

We dare not trivialize evil, because Jesus gave his life to defeat it, nor dare we deny the reality of a good God who removes our guilt, for He gave his very Son to save us.

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Humility to the Detriment of Authority?

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Deacon Bob

On March 28, on the the website, www.atlantico.fr Jacques-Charles Gaffiot published an article entitled, “Humilty Alert: What the Church would lose by renouncing decorum and her traditions.” In the article, it is reported (I do not read French, thus I am going by what the website www.dici,org is reporting) he comments on Pope Francis’ new style of humility and proximity to the people. He essentially asks whether Francis’ style of governance undermines his authority.

It seems that many who find comfort in the extra-ordinary form of the Mass are worried that  Pope Francis embrace of mixing with the people, his comments about the necessity of being proximate to the people, the Church not closing in on herself behind closed walls, and his more simple attire and living arrangements…. all of this in some way will erode the authority of the papal office and the Church as a whole.

I find that a curious concern. I cannot figure out how being humble diminishes authority. I suppose that depends on one’s definition of authority.

Authority is rooted in truth. Real authority, that is. Of course, many men have taken “authority” based on lies and ruled over people with horrendous consequences. I recently watched a You-Tube video on the Roman emperor Caligula which drove this point home. I would submit, though, that such “authority” is not authority at all; rather it is power, i.e., the ability to make something different. True authority, I say, is conveyance of the truth in word and deed. A man who has authority has been given the truth which he then transmits to others.

You remember, of course, Pontius Pilate quizzing Jesus with the question, “What is truth?” Jesus had full authority both in heaven and earth, and his power (which Pilate feared and misunderstood) was rooted in it. Jesus’ authority derived from his Trinitarian relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. It was derived from truth. Because his authority was completely rooted in truth, it was all-powerful.

So, back to Gaffiot’s concern. Will Pope Francis’ humble, proximate and simple style erode papal authority?

I don’t think so….. unless you mistakenly equate authority with power. The papal office has great authority for it is rooted in Christ’s promise to never mislead the Church, and his giving of the keys to Peter. That will not change.

I will make a bold statement here…. I don’t think the papacy has much power at all. It has only full authority. Whatever power flows from the Petrine ministry comes directly from God himself.

I welcome your thoughts.

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Congratulations, Diocese of Grand Rapids!

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Deacon Bob

The Holy Father has appointed Father David J. Walkowiak, a priest from the diocese of Cleveland, to be the next bishop of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Rev. David J. Walkowiak was born on June 18, 1953 in Cleveland, and studied theology at St. Mary Seminary at Wickliffe. He was ordained a priest on June 9, 1979 and later obtained a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Catholic University of American in Washington, D.C.

Congratulations, Diocese of Grand Rapids!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Deacon Bob

“The more the graces and favors of Jesus grow in your soul, the more you should humble yourself, always keeping the humility of our heavenly Mother, who, the instant she became the Mother of God, declared herself the handmaid of this self-same God.” — St. Padre Pio

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Fr. Emil Kapaun, Medal of Honor Recipient

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Deacon Bob

President Obama recently gave the Medal of Honor to Capt. Fr. Emil Kapaun 60 years after his death in a North Korean POW camp. Fr. Kapaun was an Army chaplain and his story is absolutely remarkable. The Church has named him a “Servant of God” which starts the process of canonization, and now our country has given him its highest award for valor in the U.S. military. Some of the men who were in the POW camp with him survive and were present for the ceremony, as were his family. Of particular note, the man Fr. Kapaun saved from execution by a Chinese soldier was there also.

You can read CNN’s account of the award at:

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/10/soldier-priest-to-get-ultimate-medal/?hpt=hp_c3

It is worth your time to read. You can see a video of the presentation of the award at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yhCM_4sMI1M

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily for this weekend. May God bless each of you!

Audio:  Third Sunday of Easter – Cycle C, 2013

Text:

Third Sunday of Easter – Cycle C

Acts 5: 27-32, 40B-41; Rev. 5: 11-14; John 21: 1-19

April 13/14, 2013

“It was already dawn,” we hear in the Gospel.  The light had come and darkness was giving way to the light. The obscurity and confusion of the long night were receding. Things were getting a little clearer.  You know how it is in the early morning hours, i.e., you think you see something, but then maybe not.

Peter and others had been fishing. They had caught nothing. The Resurrection had happened. The Tomb had been found empty. Jesus had appeared to them in the upper room. He had passed through their walls of fear. This was to be the third time Jesus would reveal himself to them, but they were unprepared.  They were still trying to make sense of it all, so they resorted to their former way of making a living: they went fishing. They understood fishing. They had done it a thousand times.

And it would be the fish that would open their eyes to Jesus. It would be the catch that made the difference. Jesus didn’t scold them for not clearly seeing him. Instead, Jesus told them, “Try fishing again. You failed the first time; try a second. You will catch something.” And so they did. They took the second chance that was given to them by Jesus, a second chance to see and believe.

Jesus took a second chance with Peter, didn’t he? Peter had let Jesus down badly during the Passion, but Jesus founded the Church upon the “rock” who was to be Peter. He had faith in Peter. Do you remember last week’s Gospel? St. Thomas refused to believe the first time, and Jesus gave him a second chance to see and believe. “Put your finger in the nail marks of my hands and your hand in my side, and do not persist in your unbelief, but believe.” “My Lord and my God” Thomas exclaimed.

Yes, second chances: Sometimes we are given them and sometimes we have to take them. Sometimes we get second chances in life, in love, in relationships, in our spiritual lives.

To give someone a second chance requires courage and faith in that person. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen this in marriage counseling, someone having the courage to love again, the willingness to take the risk, to have faith again in someone.

To take a second chance in someone requires we be willing to forgive and take a great risk in trusting once again – our wives or husbands, our neighbors or our friends – yes, even as Jesus said, our enemies.

To be given a second chance is a gift of faith that someone offers to us, and it places upon us a debt of gratitude that can only be repaid when we offer that same faith to others.

There will come a time though when second chances will cease. A time of finality that will endure forever, a time when all will be defined and closed, a time of death from this life and either life eternally with God in heaven or eternally separated from him in darkness, pain and loneliness which we call hell but as long as we live in this world God continually gives us second chances. He freely forgives us when we sincerely ask for forgiveness. Each time we sin, each time we stumble, each time we deny him like Peter denied him, he gives us another chance to stand up, say we are sorry, and renew our love for him. He then renews his faith in us. He says. “I am faithful. I will trust you to carry on my work in this world. Now, you must feed my sheep!”

When we sin, when we deny him, his question to us always is, “Do you love me?” If we say, “Yes, Lord! You know I love you,” then he will command us, “Feed my sheep.”

“Feed my sheep!” We cannot love God if we don’t love God’s people, each other. When we receive his forgiveness, then God tells us we must go forth and care for those he has entrusted to us – our wives and husbands, our children and parents, our grandparents and elders, our parish and our community. In other words, we are to forgive them and love them and give them another chance in life, just as Jesus has done for us.

It is already dawn in our lives. Light has come and darkness is giving way. We have celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the dead. He truly has risen, and the tomb was in fact empty. This is no fairy tale. It is fact. All we need to do now is recognize him when he asks us to “go fishing,” in other words to go about our daily lives. We will recognize him in the work we do, in the harvest we reap, in the catch, in the fruit of our work. We will recognize him when we love and forgive others. We will even find him when we fail to love him because he will so freely forgive us and renew his trust in us.

My friends, the Lord has risen! He is alive! He is present now among us! Let us feed the sheep! Let us renew our faith in each other! Let us trust in God’s faith in us!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Deacon Bob

“Look, brothers, at the humility of God and pour out your hearts before Him! Humble yourselves, as well, that you may be exalted by Him.” — St. Francis of Asissi

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Congratulations, Diocese of Fargo!

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Deacon Bob

Yesterday the Holy Father appointed bishop of Fargo, North Dakota, Father John T. Folda, a priest from the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska. Bishop-elect Folda is 51 years old, born in Omaha. He studied at St. Charles Borromeo seminary in Pennsylvania, and later at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome. He was ordained a priest for the diocese of Lincoln in 1989.

Congratulations, Diocese of Fargo!

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