Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother and Teacher

INTRODUCTION

On 1^st January 2002, marking the Solemnity of the Mary, Mother of God, Pope John Paul II in his homily had said, “If Jesus is Life, Mary is the Mother of Life. If Jesus is Hope, Mary is the Mother of Hope. If Jesus is Peace, Mary is the Mother of Peace, Mother of the Prince of Peace… Let us ask her to give us Jesus, ‘our full Blessing, in whom the Father blessed all history once and for all’, making it become the history of salvation.”

The above statement of Pope John Paul II succinctly depicts the relationship between Mary and Christ, which is the crux of the salvation of human race. Jesus is God-made-man and Mary is the Woman that God made to be the Mother of His Son here on earth. She is given to us as Mother at the foot of the Cross “…this is your mother” [St. John 19:27], and she is the ‘Mother of all believers’ as Lumen Gentium calls her and in fact she is the Mother of entire human race.

Expounding on that above exhortation of Jesus from the Cross [St. Jn. 19:27], our former Rector Major Fr. Egidio Vigano in his first letter to the Salesian Family, titled as “Mary is renewing the Salesian Family of Don Bosco”, had said, “… we [Salesian Family] need to re-examine closely the reality of Mary’s Spiritual Motherhood and live again the attitude and resolve of that disciple… we must make the evangelist’s [St. John] affirmation our own program of renewal, viz. ‘make a place for Our Lady in our home’”.

The events of the Annunciation, the Visitation and the Birth of Child Jesus and other narratives as mentioned in the Gospels speak volumes of her faith and confidence in the Lord. In this article I would like to delineate on the event of the ‘Wedding feast at Cana’ where her unwavering faith is highly remarkable in the Lord, of whom she spoke, ‘My soul glorifies the Lord…” and beautifully places her ‘pride’ in the human history saying, “hence forth all generations call me blessed…”. This claim of our Blessed Mother has been marvelously true over 2000 years.

Our father and founder Don Bosco himself fondly took her as ‘Mother and Teacher’ from the time of his dream at the age of nine and throughout his life implored her intercession as ‘Immaculate Help of Christians’. Through the event of the ‘Wedding feast at Cana’, she teaches us her sons and daughters to become ardent disciples of the Lord in our faith-journey.

WEDDING FEAST AT CANA – A TEACHER, HELPER AND INTERCESSOR

The event of ‘Wedding Feast at Cana’ [in St. Jn. 2] signifies the unique role of Mother Mary, as Helper, Intercessor and Teacher. The Gospel text goes along five themes:

I.                    The Place that Mother Mary has:

The text says, “There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.”

We notice that Mary seems to dominate the scene in the wedding feast at Cana, and the presence of Jesus is mentioned only as second. St. Thomas Aquinas, noting this says that at Cana Mary is acting as the “go-between” in arranging a mystical marriage (Cf. Commentary on John, 98; and 2,1, n.336, 338, and 343, 151-152). Hence in a way she almost dominates the scene, and, once the Marriage is arranged, steps back, her final words to us being, “Do whatever he tells you.”

II.                  The Prayer that Mother Mary makes:

The text says, “When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’”

We notice another central role that Mary has: she is interceding here, she is praying for others to her Son. Three significant qualities exemplify her prayer:

·         Her discernment - She notices the problem, probably even before the bridegroom and the marriage party. Indeed mothers often notice the needs of their children before they do. But why didn’t Jesus notice? Perhaps he did, and surely as God he knew. But he waits for us to ask. Yes, God waits and expects us to ask. In such expectation and pleading God teaches us that we must learn to depend on Him and learn habitually to bring Him our many needs. The Book of James says, “You have not, because you ask not” [James 4:2].

·         Her diligence – It is explicitly clear that Mary is actually praying to her Son. Rather than fret and be anxious she goes straightway to her Son out of love for the couple ( and us as well) and trust in her Son. She sees the need and gets right to the work of praying, of beseeching her Son.

·         Her deference - Mary does not tell Jesus what to do per se, but simply notes the need: “They have no wine.” She is not directive, as if to say, “Here is my agenda and solution for this problem, follow my plans exactly, just sing here at the bottom of my plan for action.” Rather she simply observes the problem and places it before her Son in confidence. He knows what to do and will decide the best way to handle things.

Thus Mary is a model of prayer for us. The Scriptures teach that Mary is the quintessential woman of prayer, a model of prayer. She not only intercedes for us, she teaches us how to pray.

III.                The Portrait of Mother Mary:

The text says, Woman, how does this concern of yours affect me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”

We need to notice three things about this brief dialogue between Mary and Jesus.

·         The Title of Mary - Jesus calls her “Woman.” In Jewish culture a man could well respectfully call a woman “Woman,” but it was unheard of for a Son to call his mother “Woman.” In fact, in the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus always calls his Mother, “Woman” and this in fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 which says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head, while you strike at his heel.” And thus Jesus is saying that Mary is the woman who is prophesied. Jesus is actually exalting her: You are the woman who was prophesied. You are she from whose “seed” comes forth the Son destined to destroy the power of Satan.

·         Mary is the new Eve. For Jesus also calls her “Woman” at the foot of the Cross wherein He is the New Adam, Mary is the New Eve, and the tree this time is the Cross. And thus, just as we got into trouble by a man, a woman and tree, so now we get out of trouble by the same path. Adam’s “no” and sin is reversed by Jesus who saves us by his, “Yes.” Eve’s “No” is reversed by Mary’s “yes”.

·         The Tenacity of Mary - Jesus says to his mother, “What to me and to thee, Woman?” It appears that Jesus is expressing resistance over His mother striving to involve Him in this matter. But Mary does not seem to interpret it as resistance of Jesus, but stays in conversation with Jesus and overcomes the ‘tension’ and we notice her tenacity.

To be tenacious means to hold fast in spite of obstacles or discouragements. It is clear that Mother Mary does not give up, and that she confidently expects the Lord to answer her favorably, “Do whatever he tells you.”

·         The Trust of Mary - She simply departs, telling the stewards, “Do whatever he tells you.” She does not hover. She does not come back and check on the progress of things. She does not seek to control or manipulate the outcome. She simply leaves the scene and leaves it all to Jesus.

IV.               The power of Mary’s prayer:

Whatever his initial concerns regarding Mother Mary’s request, Jesus now goes to work:

Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it… “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.”

From the Gospel narration it appears that Jesus produced almost 150 gallons of the best wine. Mary’s prayer and tenacity have produced abundant results. Sometimes the Lord says wait, only to grant further abundance [Cf. Isaiah 40:31]. Mary is not merely an intercessor for us but also a model for us. We should persevere in prayer and go to the Lord with confident expectation of His abundant response. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much “[James 5:16].

V.                 The product of Mary’s prayer:

 The text says, Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory and his disciples began to believe in him.

The narration in the Gospel mentions towards the end that many began to believe in the Lord this day on account of this miracle. Mary’s essential role is to lead many souls to a deeper union with her Son. And having led us, she instructs us, “Do whatever he tells you.” She continued to hold up Christ for us to see throughout her life and at the foot of the Cross after He is taken down.

Mary has a special role in helping to initiate our faith and in helping by God’s grace to enable Christ to be born in us and continues to assist us as the ‘Help of Christians’.

CONCLUSION

Immaculate Mary, the Help of Christians:

 “Immaculate Help of Christians” is the title with which Don Bosco continually honored our Blessed Mother Mary. This is the feast we shall be soon celebrating on 24^th May. Don Bosco expressed it to Fr. Cagliero, "the Madonna wishes us to honour her under the title of "Help of Christians"; the times are so sad that we have real need of the most holy Virgin's assistance in preserving and defending the Christian faith". He affirms emphatically of the motherly intervention of Mary at the beginning and early development of our Congregation and it continues throughout human history.

In the letter of AGC-414, written by our beloved Rector Major, Rev. Fr. Pascual Chavez in August 2012, we read that he outlines the disturbing problems, evil and the ‘culture of death’ present in the contemporary society and poses serious threat to the Church and to Salesian Mission as well. He underscores that Mother Mary, as a woman stands out as shining example. He explicates that ‘Mary Immaculate Help of Christians’ shows us the field of our mission and continues to guide and support us in carrying it out.  He poses a question, “what would Don Bosco do today?” and he suggests the answer of Don Bosco himself, “If you have loved me in the past, continue to love me in the future by the exact observance of our Constitutions". In Article 8 we read, “…we believe that Mary is present among us and continues her mission as Mother of the Church and Help of Christians, we entrust ourselves to her, the humble servant in whom the Lord has done great things, that we may become witnesses to the young of her Son’s boundless love”.

It is worth to reflect on the words of our Blessed Mother in her Magnificat, "… henceforth all generations will call me blessed" [Lk. 1:48]. Commenting on this phrase from the Magnificat, Pope Benedict XVI writes eloquently,

“The Church invented nothing new of her own when she began to extol Mary; the Church does what she must; she carries out the task assigned her from the beginning. While writing this text [Lk. 1:48], Luke the Evangelist was already among the second generation of Christianity, where Jews had been joined by that of the Gentiles, who had been incorporated into the Church of Jesus Christ. The expression "all generations, all families" was beginning to be filled with historical reality. The Evangelist would certainly not have transmitted Mary's prophecy if it had seemed to him an indifferent or obsolete item. He wished in his Gospel to record "with care" what "the eyewitnesses and ministers of the word" (Lk 1:2-3) had handed on from the beginning, in order to give the faith of Christianity, which was then striding onto the stage of world history, a reliable guide for its future course.”

We turn to Mary, our Mother because the Lord had done most wonderful things in her life. She fully trusted God and took pride in it as she said, “hence forth all generations will call me Blessed”. As we turn to her and place ourselves under her Maternal Protection, she teaches us as true mother, out of her own exemplary life as evinced in the ‘Wedding Feast at Cana’.

In the same letter of AGC-414 of August 2012, our Rector Major, refers to her beautifully:

“Mary, as Mother and Teacher, not only reminds us of the dream at nine years of age and her presence in the life of Don Bosco, but goes much further… refers to the fundamental mission of Mary as Mother and Teacher of Jesus, the Son of God made man. Just as Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit brought to the light the Saviour, so also she brings to the light each one of us by the power of the same Spirit, as educators and pastors of the young.”

Yes, she is the ‘Help of all Christians’, Mother of all believers and her maternal protection and intercession is extended to all who seek her with a sincere heart.

Thank you,

Papireddy

14^th May 2013

Let us challenge the myth of 'Catholic Decline'

Yes, let’s challenge this myth.

For quite some time now, there has been a deranged thinking among the media, the secularists and even among the general public that the Catholic Church is in decline. This touched its peak speculations during those days ensuing Pope Benedict’s resignation and the conclave that followed it, that the successor of Benedict XVI will preside over a continually shrinking membership. This assumption is the justification for questions about celibacy, homosexuality, contraception, and the perennial challenge to the Church to ‘modernize’ or die.

Pointing out the short-sighted and locally-focused assumptions of those who assert Catholic decline as a given, David Brooks, writing in the Atlantic Monthly in 2003, wrote that “a great Niagara of religious fervor is cascading down around them, while they stand obtuse and dry in the little cave of their own parochialism.”

‘Parochialism’ is exactly the right word. The Church in Western Europe and the eastern seaboard of the United States is not representative. Viewed globally the Church experienced a spectacular growth over the twentieth century which shows little sign of slowing.

Strong, sometimes spectacular growth:

In 1900 there were roughly 266 million Catholics in the world. This rose to 1,045 million by 2000. By 2010 there were 1,197 million, according to the 2012 edition of the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae, the ‘Statistical Yearbook of the Church’. Over the last forty years, Catholics have consistently made up between 17% and 18% of the world’s population; having been steadily about 17.3% in recent years, they now are probably about 17.5%.

Critics of the Church habitually dismiss evidence for global growth by saying such growth is “only in the south”. Aside from the racist undertones to such comments, which seem to imply that it’s only ‘the West’ that matters, they ignore the crucial fact that global growth in general over the twentieth century was highest in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. To say that the Church is only growing in ‘the South’ is to say only that the Church is growing where the population is growing.

LATIN AMERICA:

Latin America could fairly be described as the heartland of modern Catholicism, with more than 40% of the world’s Catholic population coming from that continent — and that figure is even higher if we include the Latino populations of the US and Canada.

Even though the proportion of professing Catholics to the general population has dropped in recent decades, absolute growth has continued across the continent. Over the course of the twentieth century, the population of Latin America and the Caribbean rose from about 60 million to 561 million, while the number of Catholics there rose from 53 million to about 449 million.

Pentecostalism has made strong inroads, partly a consequence of the low numbers of priests to population (one priest per 8,000 Catholics). But seminary enrolment is on the rise, according to John Allen’s Future Church, increasing 440% between 1984 and 2009. (The number of seminarians in Bolivia, for example, rose from 49 to 714 between 1972 and 2001, while the number in Honduras rose from 40 to 170 between 1989 and 2007.)

AFRICA:

Catholicism has grown more dramatically in Africa than anywhere else in the world over the last century. In 1900, there were fewer than two million Catholics in sub-Saharan Africa, whereas by 2000, there were more than 130 million; this, as John Allen points out in The Future Church, represents a staggering growth rate of more than 6,000 per cent. Current estimates reckon that there are about 160 million Catholics in Africa, though even these estimates may be too low; the Church in Africa lacks the institutional framework to track growth accurately, and if the Gallup World Poll can be trusted, there may already be almost 200 million Africans claiming to be Catholic. Either way, growth in Africa’s Catholic population is far higher than among the general population.

This spectacular growth is a truly indigenous phenomenon. The number of Western missionaries active in Africa has been declining since the mid-1960s, while the African Church has produced vast numbers of priests. Interviewed by John Allen in 2005, the then Archbishop on Nairobi said that among his biggest problems was an excess of vocations, such that “seminaries built for one hundred now have almost two hundred.” In Nigeria, where there are about 20 million Catholics, one seminary alone has more than a thousand students. This may be the biggest seminary in the world, but even then the Nigerian Church is overstretched, as, in Allen’s words, “Africans are being baptized even more rapidly than they’re being ordained.”

As one would expect in this situation, local control has increasingly become the norm. Under a quarter of Tanzania’s bishops were native Africans in 1965, for instance, whereas by 1996 local men headed every diocese; there are currently 18 African cardinals, 11 of whom have participated in the recent papal conclave.

ASIA:

If Africa ended 2010 with 765 more clergy than in 2009, Asia did even better; the latest edition of Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae records that Asia was the continent which saw the most growth in priest and deacon numbers during that period, resulting in 1,695 more clergy in Asia in 2010 than in 2009. In Asia overall, the proportion of Catholics more than doubled over the course of the twentieth century (just 1.2% of Asians were Catholic in 1900, but 3.0% of Asians were in 2000). This growth has taken place not only in traditional Catholic countries such as the Philippines — the third largest Catholic country in the world, where there were more Catholic baptisms in 2000 than in France, Spain, Italy, and Poland combined — but in mission countries such as South Korea, where the number of Catholics doubled to more than five million people between 1985 and 2005; as well as India, whose Catholic population rose from two million to more than 17 million over the course of the twentieth century.

The Chinese government says there are about six million Catholics in China, out of 25 million Christians of all denominations — a massive growth from the million or so Christians there in 1970. There is far more to the story than this, as most Chinese Christians – Catholic or otherwise – are not registered as such with the state, and worship clandestinely. The World Christian Database estimates that there are more than 120 million Christians in China; Philip Jenkins, author of 1999’s The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, thinks it more likely that there are about 65 million at present. Either way, it seems unlikely that there are fewer than 15 million Catholics in China, and there may be – and will be – far more.

CLERGY NUMBERS:

It’s clear that the popular narrative of Catholic decline isn’t supported by the facts: the global story of modern Catholicism is one of growth. In so far as there’s any truth to it at all, that truth is increasingly out of date.

It is undeniable, for instance, that the number of priests worldwide declined dramatically in the 1970s: there were almost 420,000 priests in 1970, which had dropped to 403,000 by 1985. Since 1985, however, the number of priests has grown, slowly reaching 406,000 in 2005, and then leaping to more than 412,000 in 2010. If there’s a real vocations story in the Church, it’s not a story of decline, but of recovery.

Worldwide, the annual number of new diocesan priestly ordinations increased spectacularly under Pope John Paul II: 1975 saw just 4,150 men being ordained to the diocesan priesthood, but ordinations have been consistently in the region of 6,500 a year since the mid-nineties, with the number of graduate-level seminarians having steadily risen between 1985 to 2005 from more than 43,000 to about 58,500.

Western Europe & the US: crisis & recovery

It has been a very different story in Western Europe and North America, home to most of the media — which is why the western experience has shaped the standard media narrative of Catholic decline.

Between 1975 and 2005, the annual number of priestly ordinations in the United States dropped from 771 to 454, while the number of graduate-level seminarians dropped from 8,325 in 1965 to 3,172 in 1995. This sharp drop, especially in the 1970s-80s, corresponds to the period of most clerical sex abuse of minors, sexual laxity in seminaries, and the departure of very large numbers of priests to marry. Most church historians and commentators would regard this period as a time of crisis, both institutionally and of faith. (The claims about Cardinal O’Brien’s behaviour, for example, date from this period.)

Since then, however, things have stabilized and begun to turn. In the U.S. there were 442 ordinations in 2000, 454 in 2005, and 480 in 2010; over the same period, the number of graduate-level seminarians has risen to 3,723. Pope Benedict’s papacy saw a surge of applications to American seminaries, such that the dioceses aren’t afraid to turn unsuitable applicants away.

A similar story can be seen in the UK:

A general decline in ordinations to the diocesan priesthood set in began during the 1980s (although it was offset and even disguised to some degree by an influx of formerly Anglican clergy in the 1990s). Numbers collapsed from 84 in 1999 to 33 in 2000, continuing to drop until 2008, when only 15 men were ordained to the diocesan priesthood.

Yet even this low figure needs to be put in context: it was significantly higher than the rate of ordinations in the 1930s and comparable to the rate in the 1940s. Since 2008, in any case, numbers have steadily risen: about 30 diocesan priests were ordained last year, and almost 40 are expected to be ordained this year. The UK — especially dioceses such as Westminster and Southwark — boast priest:people ratios that would be the envy of the vibrant Catholic communities of Africa and South America.

Likewise, seminary entry figures show that a mere 22 men entered seminary in 2001, but 40 or so did so during each year of Benedict’s papacy, 49 doing so in 2011. This growth has continued, with the number of seminarians in the archdiocese of Southwark alone rising from 11 in 2011 to 26 in 2012. Seminarians are not only increasing in number, but are getting younger, reversing a trend in previous decades.

These figures understate the reality in other ways too. They do not include, for example, the 84 priests and seminarians who are members of the newly-formed Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham; nor do they include members of religious orders, amongst which there are also clear signs of growth: only 13 men entered formation in religious congregations in 2004, but twice as many did so in 2009.

Although ordinations in England and Wales are on the rise as a result of the so-called ‘Benedict Bounce’ that followed the 2010 papal visit, it cannot honestly be said that the Church here is in rude health. Neither, however, should we exaggerate the Church’s problems. Baptisms of children under the age of seven may have dropped by 0.1pc from 2009 to 2010, but over the same period the number of adults entering into full communion in the Church rose by 10.7%.

Even with Mass attendance having declined over the past two decades, it seems that somewhere in the region of a million Catholics attend Mass in Britain every week, more than any other religious congregation. Given that Catholicism in the UK has evolved from a faith shaped by convention — not least through association with the Irish diaspora — to a faith of conviction, this is a significant figure. People are at Mass out of choice.

Indeed, it looks as though the decline bottomed out in 2005, and may have started to reverse – 915,556 attended Mass on a weekly basis in 2007, with 918,844 doing so in 2008. To put this into context, roughly 700,000 people attend a Premier League, Championship, or League football match every week.

As Benita Hewitt put it in the ‘Guardian’:

“It’s time to believe that the church in this country [UK] is no longer in decline. The latest statistics coming from various denominations are clearly showing stability in church attendance and even signs of growth. This news may come as a surprise to many people who believe that the church is a dying institution.”

Of course what matters are not numbers but the strength and authenticity of faith — the quality, not the quantity. Where numbers are low or declining, there may be evidence of a Church that is smaller, but purer, emerging. And where numbers are high, and the institution strong, trouble may be brewing, for success can disguise a lack of fidelity.

But one thing is clear. The Catholic Church is not in crisis, and it is not declining. As Pope Benedict said, ‘the barque is not mine, it’s not ours, it is Christ’s. He will not let it sink…’ He wants it to continue to be ‘the light to the world’ and witness to His Truth in this world.

Troubles may arise just as He himself was hated for no reason whatsoever, but His affirmation, ‘I am with you till the end of the ages’ is promising. He attracts to Himself people of every generation. Take any century or generation, He was the top most agenda of discussion. The point is simple – Truth is attractive, Beauty is attractive and Goodness is attractive. Christ is the Truth, the Beauty and the Goodness.

In the book of Edward Gibbons ‘Decline and Fall of Roman Empire’, we learn that the Roman Empire is not dead, it continues to conquer… only the name changed and it is ‘Roman Catholic Church’.

Finally, let’s remember the words of Pope Francis, “it is impossible to find Jesus Christ outside His Church – One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’. No wonder why the media and the secularists are now beginning to exclaim, “oh! He [Pope Francis] is also a Catholic”.

Thank you,

 Papireddy

[May 4^th 2013]

Sources:

 www.cara.georgetown.edu 

www.vatican.va

www.thetablet.co.uk

www.christiancentury.org

www.sconews.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Sermons - May 2013

6th Sunday of Easter—May 5, 2013

Theme:

‘Not as the World Gives’

This Sunday’s Gospel captures the heart of the Christian faith: “We will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”  Christianity is not a law-based religion or one that uses strict moral bookkeeping as its indicator of spiritual progress.  Christian holiness is a matter of something entirely new—a matter of becoming wholly united with God as he dwells in and through each of his followers, thereby forming that “one Christ” which is his Body, his Church.

Readings:

[Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 ● Rv. 21:10-14, 22-23 ● Jn. 14:23-29]

Homily:

The first generation of Christians needed some time to figure out the “newness” of their recently-begotten faith.  This time of decision making was not without its tensions and struggles.  Yet, the Holy Spirit led the Apostles to set the faith in the way God intended and, foremost in this new founding, was the Apostle Paul.  St. Paul was so open to the Spirit, he refused to allow communities to revert back into their desire to put the Jewish law at the center of their new life in Christ.  For the first Christians wanted to keep a hold of the law because it was unambiguous, achievable, and certain.  This temptation to put plans above people, and actions over being, is perennial.  Why so?  The law is easy: we remain in charge of our lives and we determine how we stand with the divine.  Love is a new way, a way that demands not our determination so much as our receptivity, not so much our exertion as our vulnerability.  Love is terrifying (how often we hear the Lord tell us, “Do not be afraid”) precisely for that reason, we are no longer at the center of our lives, but now are called to find our welfare in the heart of another.  Love demands that we let go of the illusion of self-centeredness and thus become participants in the life of another, in the divine life of God.

This is why even the liturgy is new for the Christian people: no longer a matter of determining and enacting the rituals precisely so as to curry the quasi-magical favor of the divine, but now a means of personally appropriating liturgical rites and symbols.  Notice what John is doing in Revelation.  He demands that the new temple is not a place but a person, not the edifice Jews longed to see in the heart of their ancient city Jerusalem, but it is the Lord’s very person.  Even paradise is now something new: no longer a distant destination but a living relationship.  Heaven is now, ultimately, Christ’s divine humanity here, eternally presented in terms of light and the Lamb who was slain, but who now rules forever.  The glory of God is now this invitation for all to approach and to see his life and labors through temples and created things (e.g., sun and moon).

Again, it is St. Paul who expresses this theology first: we are the new and living temples of God (cf. 1 Cor 6:19).  This enjoys a long pedigree in Christian thought. Ignatius of Antioch insisted that he was Theophorus, the God-bearer. Origen taught that the true heavens were the Christian people gathered in worship. St. Augustine knew that liturgical accoutrements mattered only when they became assumed and appropriated by Christ’s followers: “Imitate what you celebrate and become what you praise” (sermon 345.5), “Be what you proclaim” (sermon 34.6).  This is where the spirituality of all the great saints and mystics converge: they know they have been chosen so as to allow Christ to dwell not only in and through them, but as them.  This is essential to understand if our congregations are ever going to embrace and live the faith fully. Christ did not come to live a mere 33 years on this earth, but to dwell in and through every baptized member of his body.  He not only came, he comes, even now, in the way we choose to live his life.  He can come in glory and light, joy and integrity; or, he can come impaired and less than recognizable when we choose to lead sinful lives, unworthy of those who bear his name. How could we, today, forge a greater connection between what people say and see at Mass, and who they are becoming?  Images abound: becoming God’s light in the world, his Word to those with whom we are in conversation, his Eucharist to those who hunger for more.

So, as we either build up to the Gospel in our homily today, or choose to focus singularly on it alone, we should stress two main points: (1) humanity’s love of God means keeping his word; and (2) God’s love for humanity means his coming to dwell within us.  First, to keep God’s word is not simply a matter of textual adherence, but a way of living, that consistently closes the places in our lives where an obvious gap exists between who we are called to be as saints, and where we find ourselves today. Perhaps, we could invite our congregation to an examination of conscience: “Where do you hold on to God’s word?  Where in your life do you think and act like Christ?  Where do you still put your own opinions and desires first?  Where do you expect God to agree with you, and not the other way around?”  Second, use the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and the supreme moment of Holy Communion, as the great instance of how God hungers to dwell in his creatures.  He loves us more than we love ourselves and, just as bread utilizes many grains of wheat—ground, kneaded and baked—to make one loaf of bread, the Lord longs to unite us as one in the same way. He “grinds” us by destroying our self-centeredness; he “kneads” us by adding to our souls the waters of baptism; and he “bakes” us in the fire of his Holy Spirit.  We are to become his presence so the world may know that, even though he has ascended to the Father, his adopted brothers and sisters, his Mystical Body, make the presence of the Eucharist real by becoming Jesus’ hands and eyes, his feet and his words in this world.  Here, is the peace the world can never know: that in our living outside of ourselves, we find freedom; in dying to the false comforts and familiarities of sin, we become fully alive; in keeping God’s word, we inherit eternal life.

Suggested Readings from the Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC]: 478, 575, 598, 616, and 2666

Ascension of the Lord—May 12, 2013

Theme:

Looking Backwards, So As to Live Above

If Christ has truly ascended into heaven, so have Christians. We are no longer meant only for this world but, on this day, have also been made heavenly beings, the children of God.  Today, we can stress how the restless heart will never be content resting in creatures, and that the discomforts of living in this world are not signs of failure but of grace, reminders that we are made for heaven.

Readings:

 Acts 1:1-11 ● Eph 1:17-23 / Heb 9:24-28; 10:10-23 ● Lk 24:46-53

Homily:

Some in the Church will celebrate the Ascension today; others will celebrate it on the coming Sunday. Either way, we begin with St. Luke’s opening of the Acts of the Apostles.  Addressed to Theophilus, a name meaning “Lover of God,” this work is thus given to all who constitute Christ’s body, intended as a record for all those who love the Lord.  At the onset, Luke begins by reporting how Christ ascended to the Father, after a relatively lengthy discourse on reading the “signs of the times,” and on our need to receive the Holy Spirit, if we are going to be able to carry out our vocation to evangelize.  What is intriguing here is how the “power” of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, does not give us extra-human telepathic powers to know the future, but something even better, the grace to become his witnesses throughout the whole of the earth.

Here, perhaps, we could get those at Mass to see how the spiritual life is one primarily of retrospection.  As C.S. Lewis suggests, “The doors of the spiritual life open only backwards.” 

That is, we grow in holiness as we come to embrace more truly all that God has done for us.  We grow in our trust of God by seeing how God has never really abandoned us, and to see how the Lord has been present, in one way or another, in every scene of our life up to this point.  The future is not something the Lord ever offers us: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons … But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.”  How do we examine our consciences in gratitude at the end of each day?  How do we see God’s blessings throughout our lives?  Do we take the time for daily reflection, perhaps for an annual retreat?  Could we ourselves use part of today’s homily to show our people how to examine their consciences?

If so, perhaps we could take them through the five main points of the Examen, as Ignatius of Loyola conceived of it. Settle into a comfortable place and recall how you are, right now, in the presence of a loving and providential God. Review the past 24 hours, giving thanks to God, our Lord, for all the many benefits received.

Now, ask for the Holy Spirit to descend into you, allowing you to see the actions that stand out to you from this day, as the Holy Spirit sees them.  Ask for the grace to know your intentions and what it was you were trying to accomplish in those events that come back to you.

Review one or two of those scenes from the day.  Take the time to “walk- around” what prevailing emotion or experience emerges that day.  Why am I feeling stressed?  Why did I act that way with that person with whom I am normally quite happy to see?  Why do I have this unexplained sense of joy or peace today?  And so on.

End by simply talking to Jesus about what just happened, and what you are facing the next day.  Offer him your stress or joy, your co-workers or families, whatever it was you spent time walking around just minutes before.  Ask him to bless and to consecrate these very real and very concrete circumstances of your everyday life.  Now, simply pray for light come tomorrow.  Some like to pray over the next day’s calendar and meetings.  Ignatius then suggests one ends with an Our Father or Hail Mary.

Jesus never promises us details about the future, but simply invites us to “come and see.”  No destinations, no Google Maps, simply the trust offered those who are humble enough to allow him to lead.

From here we could expound accordingly on the virtue of hope (Ephesians) as the virtue of the traveler forced to live, day-to-day, in a world of temporal uncertainty.  Hope affords those of us on pilgrimage the serene assurance that the destination has already been provided, and now one must simply allow oneself to be led by the Spirit.  If Hebrews is selected as the second reading, one could frame the Ascension of Christ as God’s invitation to see how the sacrifice of Calvary is now completed, as the Son and the Father are reunited in heaven.  This sacrifice, which has transformed all things, continues in this Mass, where we are elevated to the Father as his children.

Finally, the Gospel provides, of course, the definitive scene of Christ’s being “taken up to heaven.”  This could provide the crescendo of our reflections: in Christ, we are no longer merely terrestrial beings.  We constitute a body whose head is now in heaven and, therefore, we are no longer to think like mere mortals, to act like self-centered horrors, and to seek satisfaction in things that are ultimately dust. 

Do we take the care needed to foster such a sense of heaven in our lives?  Do we insist on prayerful contemplation each day?  Do we carve out room for intentional silence each day so as to hear better the call of Christ from heaven?  Do we think of heavenly or earthly things, watch “heavenly” or “earthly” shows, visit internet sites worthy of eternity or not?  There is a real opportunity this day to get people to understand the trials and woes of this world, not as places where they are failing necessarily, but as places where God is, indeed, calling them higher. He is calling them out of thinking they are to live for only 70 or 80 years; calling them out of self-loathing and internal division, out of their despair, loneliness and the temptation to think that this world is all there is.

Suggested Readings from the Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC]: 572, 601, 652, 2177, 2625, 2763

7th Sunday of Easter—May 12 (if the Ascension was celebrated on Thursday, May 9)

Theme:

The Unifying Power of Love

Love is a unifying power (vis unitiva) in that it unites otherwise separate, if not disparate, others.  By looking up to heaven, both Stephen and Jesus, aim to catch others up into their gazing upon the Father.  Both are today represented as “martyrs,” witnesses, to the Father’s love.  These readings thus aim to bring our parishioners into a greater understanding of how they, too, are to be caught up in this great movement of love, from the Father, to the Son, to his Church.

Readings:

[ Acts 7:55-60 ● Rv. 22:12-14,16-17, 20 ● Jn. 17:20-26]

Homily:

The readings, today, begin with a mad rush, but end with a gentle prayer: from Stephen’s stoning to Christ’s intimacy with the Father, we see how “unworldly” Christian love really is.  Jerusalem’s Sanhedrin could not stand hearing what they considered to be blasphemous, Stephen’s equating Jesus with their one true God (“the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”).  Such an incarnational theology brought God to close, and seemed to multiply divinities, challenging both the transcendence, and the monotheism, upon which Judaism is rightly built.  God is wholly other, and there is only one God.  What these religious leaders could not, however, fathom was the consubstantiality of Father and Son (with the Holy Spirit uniting them equally).  How often do we use our perceptions of error to act on our own pent-up frustrations and hatreds?  How long must these men have hated Stephen?

The word “martyr” is used over 400 times in the New Testament, truly a central image for the early Christians’ description of what it means to belong to Christ.  What did such witnessing entail?  First, there was a close and dear knowledge of the Lord’s life and ways within oneself, which was a kind of incessant awareness transforming our moment to moment existence.  Second, this interiority led to external courage, and the desire to make Christ known in whatever way his Spirit was bidding at that time.  At some moments, it may mean patiently and prayerfully waiting, at other times, it may mean speaking boldly even to the point of death.

But, martyrdom is not an end in and of itself.  St. Augustine knew it was the cause, not the pain that made the martyr (causa non poena martyrum fecit), and the readings today reflect this.  We end not with Stephen’s death, but move on to John’s vision of the Church.  “Come, Lord Jesus”— Maranatha—”Come, come to your bride, the Church, our souls, and give us your very life!”  This is precisely what Jesus does in the Gospel: he comes to us and, simultaneously, brings us into his own communion with the Father.  The Church is the extension of Christ’s own body and, therefore, the only place of holy communion.  We must, therefore, exhort others to see that martyrdom is never an isolated act, but a communal giving of self.  The Christian is never alone, never acts in seclusion.  Can we get people today to see that they are never alone, never separate from one another, the saints, the Trinity?  Loneliness is the greatest illusion the enemy uses today to try to convince people they don’t matter, that they have to work everything out for themselves.

Against such a lie, we must get others to see that only by handing themselves over to Christ and to his body, can they find true freedom and security.  On this Sunday, we might get our congregations to think alongside spiritual master, Jean Pierre de Caussade, in his book, Abandonment to Divine Providence.  This work provides guidelines by which one can grow in sensing God’s direction throughout the day, as well as how to unite boldly one’s own will with God’s desires.  The first point is in trusting that nothing is done, nothing happens, which God has not foreseen from all eternity.  Everything in my life happens because God has directly willed or, at least, passively permitted it.  Would not our lives change dramatically if we would believe that everything that happens to each of us is, in fact, an invitation from God showing how he neither wills nor permits anything to happen in each person’s life, other than what will draw each one of us closer to him?  All things in my life are a result of the Father’s love, and his glory in Christ, for all those who love him in return.  Once this trust has been established in my life, I can move on to seek true freedom and joy.  How so?  According to de Caussade, we should hand ourselves over to God in every circumstance of our lives.  We do this, not only by seeing all things in our lives as God’s invitation toward greater union with him and the saints (passive submission), but also to seek actively God’s will for us in each moment of our day (active abandonment).  We must begin to see ourselves as those in whom God labors, longing to love those he intentionally puts into our day.  We are the God-bearers whose only ultimate vocation in life is to become Christ to the world.

This will not be easy; it will take martyrdom.  John of the Cross realizes that “The divine awakening produces in the soul of the perfect, a flame of love which participates in that living flame, the Holy Spirit himself … this is the operation of the Holy Spirit in the soul that is transformed in love, that his interior actions cause it to send out flames … This flame wounds the soul as it is given, but the wound is tender, and, instead of causing death, it increases life; for the soul is holiest that is most wounded by love” (The Dark Night of the Soul).  Invite others this day to see where they do trust Christ, and have handed themselves over but, also, ask them where they are still unwilling to suffer the tender death of abandonment.  Where are they already one with Christ, and where do they still resist the unifying power of love?

Suggested Readings from the Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC]: 877, 1258, 2473

Pentecost Sunday—May 19, 2013

Theme:

Fiery Flesh

Pentecost was first celebrated, obviously, in Jerusalem, as we read in Acts 2 today, soon becoming one of the more important liturgical feasts in our Church.  Why so?  Pentecost is to the Holy Spirit what Christmas is to the Son: a divine person’s definitive break into the created order, now inviting other (created) persons into greater life-giving communion.

Readings:

[Acts 2:1-11 ● 1 Cor. 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Rom 8:8-17 ● Jn. 20:19-23 or Jn. 14:15-16, 23b-26]

Homily:

The Spirit has never been missing from creation.  He is first noticed hovering over the primal waters in Genesis; we see how he came to the patriarchs, the priests and the prophets of Israel, dwelling in such diverse figures as Samson and King David.  Yet, today, there is something new, something more personal, reciprocal.  It is one thing to be inspired, even “taken over” by God. But, it is something altogether different to have God’s Spirit dwelling personally within our souls, enabling us to unite our intellects and wills freely to him throughout each moment of the day.

This is one way to approach these festal readings today: the Spirit comes today as the Son, who, likewise, was never really absent from his people. He comes at his nativity, in a new and definitively “enfleshed” manner.  Yet, the Spirit’s “incarnation” is not manifest in one man, but in the Church.  Whereas, the Son “hypostatically” united himself to one human nature in the womb of Our Lady, the Spirit comes to one mystical body, Christ’s Church.  “Where the Church is, there is also the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.24.1).  The Spirit is the love poured into the hearts (cf. Rom 5:5) of those he adopts as children of the Father, making us other Christs by grafting us as branches onto the great Vine.  The Spirit is thus the one who extends and continues the Body of Christ throughout all time, and into every corner of the globe (cf. Acts 1:8).  As any great protagonist’s arrival, the Spirit’s entrance, today, is marked by fire and by wind, by these “symbols” of ardency, lissomness, and movement, outwards and upwards.  Here, the followers of Christ truly become Catholic, universal, as they are now sent to all peoples.  There is now one body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12), infinitely greater than the geography of Israel; the New Covenant is for all, “whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free” (1 Cor 12:13).

That is why Paul also reminds the Romans that before God broke into this world personally and irrevocably, humanity suffered under the Law because without the grace of Christ, without being able to realize God as one’s own loving Abba (cf. Rom 8:15), we were craving sin, still “debtors to the flesh” (Rom 8:12).  The Spirit liberates us from these fallen desires by uniting us, not only to God, but to God’s people.  In this, I refer to the efficacy of the Holy Spirit as the “three C’s”: communion, conviction, and conversion.  First, the Spirit is the one who eternally unites the Father and the Son in the Love who is the Trinity; therefore, in time (in what theologians call, the “economy” of salvation) it is fitting that the Spirit continues this same sort of uniting.  Whereas the Spirit is the infinite communion between divine persons, in time, he connects human persons to divine persons, as well as to other human persons.  This is the Church: a people bound in love to God, and to one another.  Second, the Spirit never condemns us of our sins but, instead, convicts us (cf. Jn 16:8) showing us where God is not yet done with us, and where his love is burning all the more ardently.  If our people ever feel mocked or belittled by their sins, this is not coming from the Holy Spirit but the enemy; the Spirit’s pricking of conscience is always done in hope and in love.  Finally, the Spirit is given to the members of Christ’s body, not simply for their own personal sake, but for their courage to convert the nations. The good Spirit is always the Spirit of constant conversion, of speaking boldly to ourselves, and to others in the world, that they are made for holiness, created for Christ!

All these themes are contained in the beautiful Sequence for today’s feast: Veni, Sancte Spiritus.  Let us not rush over this.  The Holy Spirit comes (“Veni“) into our very selves so that we experience the Father anew, and render our lives sweetened by his presence.  The Spirit is, therefore, our light, our comfort, our solace, our innermost selves.  He is the divine breath which Christ imparts upon us, giving all the power to loose and to bind sins, sending all throughout the world.  Jesus gives us his Spirit, not only to ensure his love, but to assure us of his love; we now have the same communion with the Father, the same “Advocate” which Christ enjoyed while he preached and prayed on earth.  We are made other Christs in this Spirit, for we now enjoy the same divine gifts and power.  So, if we do not choose to preach directly on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, perhaps we could run a brief catechesis in our parish bulletins this week on the “sevenfold gift” mentioned in the Sequence: fear of the Lord (timor Domini), piety (pietas), knowledge (scientia), fortitude (fortitudo), counsel (consilium), intelligence (intellectus), and wisdom (sapientia).  We could describe what each gift is, or perhaps more importantly, show that through Christ’s imparting of his Spirit into each one of us and onto his Church, he longs to share his own divine life with all.  This is the good news: we no longer have to live merely as fallen, wayward humans.  We have been given God’s own Spirit, a spirit of adoption and filial boldness.  In the same Spirit, we have been brought into divine communion, convicted that we can indeed be saints, and converted outward for the salvation of the world.  Come, Holy Spirit!

Suggested Readings from the Catechism [CCC]: 731-32, 1287, 1830-32, 2632

The Most Holy Trinity Sunday—May 26, 2013

Theme:

The Inner Life of Our Maker

The movement of the liturgical year comes to its crescendo today.  We prepare for Christ’s coming in Advent, celebrate his appearance at Christmas, go out with him in the desert during Lent, are with him in his abandonment during the holy Triduum, rise with him on Easter, go up with him on the Ascension, let the Holy Spirit come down upon us at Pentecost, and now, today, rejoice in this “three-persons” God, who, we now understand, has been at work all along.

Readings:

[Prov. 8:22-31 ● Rom. 5:1-5 ● Jn. 16:12-15]

Homily:

We begin every prayer, and every liturgy, by revealing the inner-life of our Maker—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We remind ourselves of his presence as we pass every Catholic Church and tabernacle. We pray this threefold life at the beginning of every rosary, every hour of our breviaries, and at the close of each day.  This is our life, this is our God: perfect love manifest as life-giving unity between persons.  But, how can we get the average parishioner to appreciate the infinite profundity and beauty of the Most Holy Trinity?  Try this.

Ask how many people are present in the parish today?  At any given Mass, how many people are in attendance?  500?  1000?  Now ask how many “humans” are present.  Laughter, and then the same number repeated.  Stop and ask, how many persons are God?  Three.  But how many Gods are there?  One.  See the hitch?  You and I have our own humanity, and if I do not like this homily, or if I do not like you, I can “pick up” my humanity, and go home.  You and I have an autonomy which, in our American way of thinking, might appear, at first blush, to be a good thing.  Don’t you and I usually equate autonomy with perfection?  The more proficient I become at this or that, the less I need others to show me what to do.  The more individually wealthy I become, the less I need to rely on others for help.  And so on.  Yet, it is not that way in God: the Father has a unique identity as Father only because he has a Son.  The Father does not have his “own” divinity, but shares the divine nature, godliness, while perfectly in communion with the Son, and the Spirit.  The nature of God is not exclusive to any one person, with the result that the persons of the Trinity have a unique identity, not because of their substance (divinity), but because of their relationship with one another.  The Father is identifiable as Father only vis-a-vis the Son, the Son vis-a-vis the Father, and the Spirit receives his particular identity only as the Love between them, the Gift uniting Giver (Begetter) and Receiver (Begotten).

If we can convey such a mystery, we can then invite our congregation to imagine how they understand perfection.  Most of us instinctually think of perfection as autonomy, not as dependence.  We think of perfection as moving away from others, standing out. But, it is not that way with God.  Divine perfection is revealed today as reliance on the other, as the need for relationship in order to understand fully who I am.  This is the Christian paradox: the self is made only for gift, and one cannot truly know oneself, cannot truly flourish as a person, until one learns how to make oneself gift (cf., Gaudium et Spes §22).  Today, we could thus emphasize the Church as the place where one learns to make oneself a gift for others, in service, through intercessory prayer and Mass attendance, through acts of charity at home and throughout our communities.

Sin arises in most of us when we feel that we are unable to make ourselves gift.  We fearfully hold on to our petty little selves because, at least, there we will not be open to the risk of loving.  C.S. Lewis is unmatchable here: “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket— safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy or, at least, to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven, where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love, is Hell” (The Four Loves).

Use the homily to focus a few minutes on the security and confidence the Gospel is meant to convey this day: all that the Father is belongs by nature to Christ, and all that he is and has, is now ours by grace.  We can never be taken from the Lord’s hands. When we realize this more and more, we can quit trying to define ourselves, make ourselves determine our own way.  We are to be led into the vulnerability of Christ, first and foremost, by realizing that our welfare is not something discoverable within our little selves, but is found in the well-being of another.  This is the movement of true love, not only outward, but upward as well.  When we risk the “dangers and perturbations” of love, we risk losing our illusion of self-rule and autonomy.  Like the Trinity, you and I are made for eternal communion, to come to know and find ourselves only through a sincere gift of self.  Truer strength could not be given.

Suggested Readings from the Catechism [CCC]: 232-37, 2205, 2655

Thank you,

David Vincent Maconi, SJ

[20^th April 2013]