THE LITURGICAL YEAR

Sermons, hymns, meditations and other musings to guide our annual pilgrim's progress through the liturgical year.

Sunday, May 26, 2019

THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD

A SERMON FOR ROGATION SUNDAY


On Thursday, we’ll be celebrating the feast of the Ascension of our Lord into heaven.  This is therefore the last Sunday before the Ascension, and it is fitting that we take a look at our Lord’s last words to his apostles before he left this world to retake his seat on the right hand of his Father.  What was the important message he wanted to leave with us?  His last words are in fact an invitation to prayer.

This was not the first time our Lord had recommended prayer to his disciples. He sometimes even commanded that people pray.  He made every grace and blessing dependent on prayer—even our final perseverance and salvation.  There is no question that our Lord put a great deal of emphasis on prayer, and so today, we should take a look at our own prayer life, and see if we can perhaps make some improvements in the quality and quantity of the time we spend praying before God.

Certainly, our blessed Lord gave us a very clear and strong example.  He prayed always and he prayed everywhere—on the mountains, in the wilderness, and on the waters, in the temple, in the marketplace, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and on the Cross…. We must remember that Christ is God, he can never be separated from his Father in heaven, as they are one, united in the most Holy Trinity.  We can never approach this degree of union with God of course, but we can follow his example by trying to keep ourselves always in the presence of God. And we are always in his presence, because God is everywhere we go.  We have only to turn to him in our mind at any given moment and speak with him in prayer.  He will hear us.

Unfortunately, and this has always been the case with us frail humans, we tend to speak to God only when we want something.  We act like beggars, treating God like a passerby who might or might not throw us a few coins of mercy as we struggle with our problems.  Certainly, begging God for a favor is a form of prayer, and it might even be made from the depths of our being when the problem is a really tough one, but let’s remember that this is the last and least meritorious form of prayer.  Let’s not forget that the highest form of prayer is adoration.  Try uttering the words Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus from time to time, or a Gloria in excelsis Deo, joining with the angels in the humble worship of our Creator.  Acts of adoration like this express our love and reverence for God, and fulfill best of all that first commandment Christ gave us, that we should love God with our whole heart and mind and soul and strength.  Secondly, we should pray with contrition to God, humbly acknowledging our manifold offences against him, and expressing our sorrow for them, our true repentance, and our resolution to sin no more.   And finally, we should thank God constantly for all the graces and blessings we receive from him.  There are so many, and without God we would not even exist. 

So keep the four types of prayer in the right order.  There’s an acronym we often use to remember what they are. It spells out the word ACTS, which stands for Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.  Note—adoration first, your supplications last.  And as far as those supplications go, let’s try not to act like beggars with God.  And certainly, let’s never yield to any sense of entitlement, let’s never imagine that God owes us some favor because we might have done something we’re proud of. God owes us nothing.  We are the ones who owe God—we owe him adoration, contrition and thanksgiving, so don’t neglect these more important aspects of prayer. The supplication part, the petitions we ask of God, let’s take a quick look at what our Lord says about them in today’s Gospel.

“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, he will give it you. Ask, and ye shall receive”  That sounds like a carte blanche declaration that we can get whatever we want from God whenever we want it.  It is not.  The important words to remember here are “in my Name”.  We are called upon to ask for what we need, what we want, in the Name of God’s Son, who died for our salvation.  Our prayers are to end with the words “Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”  Let’s not use the Name of the Lord in vain as we presume to demand from God the vain things of this world—material wealth, good times, pleasurable experiences, whatever.  Let’s use the Name of Jesus always with reverence, imploring God for our true needs, especially our spiritual needs.  Ask God for an increase in the virtue you find you’re deficient in, ask God to deliver you from a difficult temptation, ask God to help you grow in love for him.  As for our physical needs, by all means pray for them too, but note the word “needs”. Not whims, but needs.  And finally, make your petitions mostly on behalf of others, for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for the sick and the dying, for your country, your family, your friends, and don’t forget, your enemies! Now you’re fulfilling the second of the great commandments, to love your neighbor as yourself, with a prayer that is pleasing to God.

Ask in Christ’s Name, and your prayers will be heard by God.  He will hear them.  If you pray fervently and long enough, he may even grant them.  We leave that part up to God, who always know what is best for his children, and certainly far better than we do.  Parents understand this very well—when you take your little boy or girl to the store, you’ll hear the constant refrain “I want this, I want that.”  And sometimes you know they’ll end up eating too much candy and have to go to the dentist, or maybe they’ll hurt somebody with a toy that’s too dangerous for them to handle, and so you don’t buy it for them.  “Father knows best.”  Other times though, you know your child is asking for something he really does need, like medicine when he’s sick, and you wouldn’t dream of not granting his plea for help.  God works in the same way—remember, we’re made in his image and likeness.  But remember too, that he knows everything. And that means he knows when it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to grant something which might seem important, or even critical, to us.  We might not understand why we shouldn’t have what we’re asking for, but God knows when there is more good to be drawn from not granting a prayer.

Always keep in mind that our Lord himself asked his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane to be spared the terrible things that were about to happen.  Like him, we must bow to the will of God and humbly submit to whatever cross we’re given.  God doesn’t mind if we pray to have it taken away, providing our prayer is made in the spirit of submission to his will.  Our Lord taught us how to pray in these cases: “Our Father, who art in heaven, thy will be done!”

God is our Father.  And we are his children.  Let our prayers then be as from a child to his father.  Let us pray, not as beggars, but as devoted children who trust in our Father to take care of us, not because we are deserving of his love and care, but because we are praying in the Name of Christ, who is worthy and deserving. Before God, we have no rights, but our Lord has!  Let’s offer up our prayers now as Mass continues, and let’s offer them “through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

WHEN IS A PERSON NOT A PERSON?

A REFLECTION FOR THE 5TH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER


The past week has seen the passage of two very strong pro-life bills in the respective state governments of Alabama and Missouri.  They both approve a ban on abortions even in the case of rape and incest, and for some reason this has caused a flurry of alarm and even open dissent among otherwise firm pro-life voices.  It is a good example of how political expediency often interferes with common sense and the laws of ethics and morality.

The problem is quite simple to understand—in cases of rape and incest, we’re not dealing with the unwanted result of a deliberately chosen act.  Instead, unfortunately, it’s the unwanted result of an equally unwanted act. The mother is now the victim, while the baby is perceived more as an invader than as the victim of the parents’ inability to control themselves.  How can it be fair to force these women through pregnancy and childbirth and endure the constant reminder of the violation they suffered?

The problem may be easy to understand, but it’s impossible to answer in a way that will please everyone.  Such is the nature of evil.  It has consequences, and some of these we are not going to like.  However, in terms of ethics and moral theology, there is only one valid conclusion.  The legislatures of Alabama and Missouri got it right by saying that a person is a person from the moment of conception not the moment of birth.  Once you accept this premise, everything else must, and I repeat, must follow.

To reach this premise, we must, of course, define personhood.  What exactly is a human being?  What makes us one?  A human being is usually defined as a rational animal.  In other words, we belong to the genus of animals, but are separated from all other animals by our ability to reason.  

However, some might object that this does not include infants and young children who have not yet reached “the age of reason.” So for the sake of those who might be tempted to say that small children are not really human we must include the idea of “potency” in our definition.   Children are already human because they have the potential to reason once their minds are sufficiently developed.  It’s the same as pointing to the unpacked bags of groceries on the table and saying it’s “dinner.”  It will be, once it’s unpacked, prepared and cooked.  Potentially, it’s dinner.

Now, if a small child is a human person, based on its potential to reason, it follows that the unborn child also has that potential.  If nothing is done to disrupt the normal and natural course of events, the “fetus” will one day be delivered into the world and eventually realize its potential as a fully rational being.  Take it back further in time—can we come up with any moment after conception, when it does nothave this potential?  Of course not, and so we must acknowledge that not only is the child in the womb truly a human child—a person—but it has been a person since the moment of its conception.

As noted above, once this premise is acknowledged, everything else necessarily follows.  At the legal level, if the unborn child is a person, then by law, it is accorded all the rights of personhood granted by the United States Constitution.  It may not be arbitrarily put to death at the whim of the mother, any more than a child of three or an adult of twenty-three.  It becomes impossible to argue, either on legal or ethical grounds, that it would be admissible to kill the unborn child, even in rape and incest cases, just because of the unfortunate circumstances of its conception.  We may have compassion for the violated mother who must take her unwanted unborn child to term, but we cannot give her permission to kill the other innocent victim of the crime just to make her feel better.

And yet, so many good people feel so badly about these violated mothers-to-be that they go against their own better instincts, they go against the teachings of their faith, they go against the code of ethics, they go even against logic and common sense.  They give in to their feelings, and say effectively, “Poor thing, that’s too much for you to handle.  We understand.  Just go ahead and murder that innocent human being in your womb, that little boy (or girl) who has done no wrong, who seeks only the nurturing care of you, his mother. That’s okay.  Kill him.”  And these are the pro-life advocates?

I do understand the mentality of their point of view.  It’s prompted by revulsion at the crime, and by sympathy for the victim of the crime.  But it certainly wasn’t that little baby’s fault that his father was a monster, who possibly ruined this woman’s life forever.  No amount of sympathy gives the mother the “right to choose” to end that baby’s life.  How can it?

In the case of some politicians, I wonder if the desire to make exceptions in these cases is also motivated by the desire for votes, as their view is apparently reflected by those of most of their constituents.  Nevertheless, it’s wrong.  As Catholics, we must remember that morality is never determined by majority consensus, but rather by the will of God.  We must not be taken in by the sympathy argument—compassion for one victim must not make us create a second victim.  We must use our heads rather than our hearts on this one, following the teachings of our faith first and foremost, but also the science that confirms what our faith teaches, that life begins at conception—in this case, human life.  

Nor must we ever forget the violated victims who are forced to conceive against their will. There is room for conversation on this topic, and we must investigate all options for caring for them in the physical, psychological and spiritual hardship they are called upon to endure. Meanwhile, though, we need to continue praying that Congress, the Supreme Court, and our fellow-countrymen may one day agree to end this artificial controversy of abortion by defining the unborn as persons, thereby obliging the Constitution to cover the rights of all unborn babies—without exception.  

Sunday, May 19, 2019

HOLY SPIRIT, EVER DWELLING

A HYMN FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER


By Timothy Rees, 1874-1939


1 Holy Spirit, ever dwelling
In the holiest realms of light;
Holy Spirit, ever brooding 
O'er a world of gloom and night;
Holy Spirit, ever raising 
Those of earth to thrones on high;
Living, life-imparting Spirit, 
Thee we praise and magnify.
2 Holy Spirit, ever living
As the Church's very life;
Holy Spirit, ever striving 
Through us in a ceaseless strife;
Holy Spirit, ever forming 
In the Church the mind of Christ;
Thee we praise with endless worship 
For thy gifts and fruits unpriced.

3 Holy Spirit, ever working 
Through the Church's ministry;
Quick'ning, strength'ning, and absolving, 
Setting captive sinners free;
Holy Spirit, ever binding 
Age to age and soul to soul
In communion never ending, 
Thee we worship and extol.

ALL GOOD GIFTS COME FROM ABOVE

A REFLECTION FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER



I've been a bit under the weather this past week, and haven't been able to keep up with the website here as well as I would have liked.  All will be back to normal this coming week, so please hang in there as I pay a little extra attention to my health.

We're reminded in this week's Epistle that all good gifts and all perfect gifts come from above, but have you noticed how slow we are to thank God for them?  And yet we can't wait to blame God for the bad things that come our way.  What terrible children we are of this good Father in heaven, who seeks only good for us.  Nothing could be further from the truth to think that the evils in our live are sent to us by him.

Take illness for example.  We perceive it as an evil, which obviously in a certain sense it is.  It's certainly not a cause for rejoicing.  But is it really all bad, or an opportunity for God, and for ourselves, to draw a greater good from it?

Illness stems from the nature that God created, a good nature, designed especially for us and our physical and spiritual needs.  And illness,while it does not cater so much for those physical needs, it nevertheless can provide a very useful opportunity to draw many spiritual benefits from it.  We can, for example, offer up our pains and sufferings to God in reparation for our sins.  We are encouraged in times of illlness to a higher degree of  patience and perseverance in enduring our sufferings. And we have a little more time to contemplate the important things of life (and death of course), to remind ourselves of what should be our priorities in our otherwise busy lives.

So while we remember to thank God for the good gifts that come from him, let's change our outlook a bit on the bad things.  Some of them aren't so bad after all, and we should give some thought to thanking God for them too.

Sunday, May 12, 2019

HAIL, HOLY QUEEN!

A SERMON FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER


Those of you with functioning memories will remember that we’re in the process of learning the three things necessary for us to save our souls.  Last week, we spoke about the necessity of belonging to the true Church, the Church Christ founded, the only one that teaches in the Spirit of Truth.  

Today, you might expect we would be moving on to the second requirement.  Once we’re members of the Church, what must we do next?  In brief, we must obey the commandments of God and the Church.  The opening of today’s Epistle would have led into this second requirement for salvation very nicely: “Dearly beloved: I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts…”. 

But today is Mothers’ Day.  And on this day, we crown our heavenly Mother as Queen of the Angels, and Queen of All Saints.  We may be tempted to think of this as a distraction from our series of sermons identifying the three keys to salvation.  But let me tell you this:  the Blessed Virgin Mary is never a distraction.  

When the Protestant Revolution tore Christ’s Church apart in the 15- and 1600s, one of the ideas of the new religion was that the Church had become too complex in its structure and its worship.  They wanted to simplify things so that the people would understand their faith better, without being distracted by theological concepts that were difficult to understand, ideas like Transubstantiation, Purgatory, and devotion to the saints.  So they threw it all out and left themselves with nothing but the Bible as their guide.  They then misinterpreted the Bible to suit their simplification strategy, ignoring whatever was in it that supported the traditional position of the Catholic Church and differed from their own.  For example, they criticize us for calling Mary “our blessed Lady” or the “blessed Virgin Mary” even though it’s right there in the Bible, (Luke 1:48) where she prophesied in her Magnificatthat henceforth “all generations shall call me blessed”.  

No.  Our Lady is not a distraction from God.  She is the means that God chose to use for our Redemption. She is the means without which that Redemption would never have taken place.  She was chosen from before all time, or ever the earth was, to be the Mother of the Saviour, the Mother of the Son of God, the Mother ofGod.  No greater privilege than this was ever granted to any other woman.  Nor to any man for that matter, nor to any Angel even. This mere mortal woman was given the privilege of being conceived without inheriting the stain of original sin passed down to all the other offspring of Adam and Eve.  She was given the privilege of not seeing bodily corruption at the end of her life, but being raised body and soul into her Son’s kingdom.  And once in her rightful place in heaven next to her Son, she was given the privilege of being crowned by him as Queen of heaven and earth.

The title of “Queen” implies royal power.  Our Lady has been given authority over us.  And why? What was the reason she was endowed with such authority over men and angels?  Because this was the same Blessed Virgin who had been given the parentalauthority of “mother” over God himself in his human form.  This power over the Son of God was bestowed from the moment he allowed himself to be imprisoned in her womb at the Incarnation.  For as we are all too aware these days, women have the power over their unborn to either protect and care for them, or to neglect, and even destroy them!  Then, after his Nativity, like any child, he was dependent on her, and obeyed her wishes.  Holy Scripture even tells us that, after being lost and found in the Temple of Jerusalem, he returned to Nazareth with her and St. Joseph, and was “subject to them.”   Even as a grown man, at the wedding feast of Cana our Lord obeyed his Mother’s wishes and turned water into wine.  If Christ himself honored and obeyed her like this, who are we to regard her as a mere distraction, or to relegate her to the role of just one of the characters in the Christmas pageant?

At the end of our Lord’s life, he looked down from the Cross and told St. John “Behold, thy Mother.”  She went from being Mother of his dying physical body to being the Mother of his everlasting Mystical Body, which is the Church.  Then at the end of her own life, our Lord beheld again his Mother, now  assumed into heaven, and he confirmed her with the authority that goes with motherhood, giving her the title of Queen.

When we crown her image today, we are not, as the Protestants imagine, worshiping a statue. That’s the kind of fake news we see so much of in today’s politics.  If I deliberately misinterpret your intentions, it’s just a way of promoting my agenda at the expense of yours.  But it’s based on a lie, a lie about your internal motivations, and you are the collateral damage in my wish to promote my own ideas.  In this case, it is we Catholics who are the collateral damage resulting from the false accusation of idol worship.  We don’t worship idols.  To be fair, we don’t even worship our Lady.  Worship in its truest form is reserved for God alone.  Our true motive today is simply to acknowledge the authority our blessed Lady has over us, and to subject ourselves to it.  And why not?  Why shouldn’t we bow to her wishes?  What are those wishes anyway?  Will she lead us astray, does anyone really think?  What is the one command she gives in Scripture?  It’s when she orders the stewards at Cana “Whatsoever he saith, do it!” In other words, obey God.  She does not wield power like some arrogant despot, she wields it with absolute humility, her only command being to obey not her, but her Son.

And that is why today’s Coronation of Our Lady is no distraction from our three keys to salvation. For the second key is precisely to follow this command of our Lady, “whatsoever he saith, do it.”  In other words obey the commandments of God.  We’ll be going into this in a bit more detail shortly, but today, let’s just bear in mind what our Lord said to that certain woman in the crowd who cried out “Blessed is the womb that bare thee.”  “Yea, rather, blessed,” he replied, “are they that hear the Word of God and keep it.”  For us, that means that God will bless us if we keep his Word—his commandments.  For our blessed Lady, the repercussions of hearing and keeping the Word of God were so much more—blessed is she that heard the Word of God, and because she heard it and agreed to it, that Word of God became the Word made Flesh, and dwelt amongst us. No one ever heard and kept the commandments of God with such a profound and far-reaching result as this Blessed Virgin of Nazareth, who first heard them when she was conceived without original sin, and went on to live and die without the stain of sin.

A distraction from God?  Hardly. As members of Christ’s Mystical Body the Church, we share with Christ his Mother—the Mother of his Mystical Body the Church, the blessed and immaculate Virgin-Mother.  Like any Mother, she guides us.  As the perfect Mother, she is the perfect guide, the Star of the Sea lighting our way to the Church first of all, and then, with that same bright light of her good example, taking us on our second step, obedience to God and his commandments, and the in-dwelling of God in our hearts through grace.  As the Holy Ghost overshadowed her and the Word made Flesh was contained physically in her womb, so too shall the same Holy Ghost dwell in our souls as his temple.  And he will remain there for as long as we are free from serious sin and in the state of grace.  Today we pray to our beloved Mother, our Queen of Heaven, to preserve us in that grace, to protect us from the dangers of temptation, keep us free from sin, and help us when we fall.  Hail ,Mary! Hail, Queen of Heaven!  Ora pro nobis!

SHALL WE NOT LOVE THEE, MOTHER DEAR

A HYMN FOR MOTHERS' DAY


By Sir Henry Williams Baker, 1868


Shall we not love thee, Mother dear,
Whom Jesus loves so well,
And to his glory, year by year
Thy praise and honour tell?

Thee did he choose from whom to take
True flesh, his flesh to be;
In it to suffer for our sake,
And by it make us free.

O wondrous depth of love divine,
That he should bend so low;
And, Mary, O what joy was thine
The Saviour's love to know.


Joy to be mother of the Lord,
Yet thine the truer bliss,
In ev'ry thought and deed and word
To be for ever his.


Now in the realm of life above
Close to thy Son thou art,
While on thy soul glad streams of love
Flow from his Sacred Heart.


Jesu, the Virgin's holy Son,
Praise we thy Mother blest;
Grant when our earthly course is run,
Life with the saints at rest.





ON THIS DAY, O BEAUTIFUL MOTHER

A REFLECTION FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER


Today is our annual reminder that our mothers are real people.  We fall so often into a sense of entitlement when it comes to Mom. Since the day we were conceived, she has led her life around us, our needs and our demands.  When we were unborn infants, she gave up smoking and drinking, when we were born she gave up many of her pastimes and hobbies.  When we were children, she realized our dependence on her, and gave up her time, her energy, her whole life really, to making sure we were fed, clothed, educated and entertained.  Most importantly of all, she devoted her chief energies to ensuring we were brought up to know, love and serve God.

And then we grew up. How did we repay her?  In so many tragic cases, our young people turn away from the faith.  Remember, it’s not just the “Faith of our Fathers.”  Even more so, it’s the Faith of our Mothers, who so tenderly held our little hands and taught them to make the sign of the Cross, who repeated prayers over and over again so that our innocent minds would absorb the things of God. 

But now, you say, I’m 18.  I don’t need that mumbo-jumbo any more.  I have other things to do, pleasures to enjoy, avenues to explore that take me away from that God I can’t see and who means nothing to me.  But you know what, it still means something to your mother.  She didn’t teach you the faith so you could lose your soul.  Every time you miss Sunday Mass or declare your hostility to the things of God, you plunge a dagger into your mother’s heart, and she weeps for you, terrified you will never see heaven, and with the dreadful guilt that maybe she did something wrong and is a failure as a mother.

So yes, your mother is a real person and has feelings too, and by falling away from your religious duties you have chosen to ignore and even despise those feelings.  So out of love for your mother, if for no other reason, do not abandon the things she holds so dear, especially her aspirations that when she dies, you will one day be with her again in Paradise.

Sunday, May 5, 2019

SHEEP OF HIS PASTURE

A SERMON FOR THE 2ND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER


What are we doing here today?  Why did we come to Mass?  Wasn’t there something else we’d rather be doing?  Sleeping in, perhaps, taking part in sports activities, going out to breakfast, visiting family?  Look around. Are we all here?  I regret to say there are absentees this morning.  Some among them, no doubt, have a very good and valid reason for not being able to come.  But sadly, there are probably some who have deliberately chosen to stay away from Mass today.  And while we’re not going to admonish anyone by name this morning I will say this, that we do have a judge, one who has told us in no uncertain terms that those who do not obey his commandments will be not only admonished, but condemned.  They condemn themselves, I’m afraid, so they don’t need me to rub it in.  Unless these folks come to me and ask for my opinion, I’m going to leave it to Our Blessed Lord to separate the sheep from the goats.

Sheep and goats.  Two species of animal by which our Lord represents two kinds of people:  those who go to heaven and those who go to hell.  There’s no third option.  Our Lord doesn’t mention any other animals for this great division.  There are only sheep who obey God’s commandments and go to heaven, and goats who don’t obey and go to hell.  There aren’t any jolly panda bears who are very nice, likable, cuddly folks who go through life sinning happily and then go to heaven when they die.  There are no super-smart golden retrievers who come up with all kinds of clever reasons for refusing to accept the Church that Christ founded, but then expect to go to heaven anyway.  There’s none of that.  Just sheep and goats.  Certainly, no sloths who, even as we sit here now, are blissfully asleep in their beds instead of being here at Mass.

When we die, that’s when Christ himself will divide us into these two folds, one containing his sheep and the other the goats.  He is the Good Shepherd.  He knows his sheep.  He knows them very well, and will easily recognize them on the Day of Judgment.  He will know them by their fruits.  Their good works.  Their willingness to follow his commandments.

He will know them, and they will know him.  How will they know him?  Because they have taken the time and the effort to get to know him.  Through prayer, meditation, spiritual reading. Through penance, diligent attendance at Sunday Mass, through their attentive involvement in the Church’s mysteries and feastdays.   The more they immerse themselves in the things of God, the better they will know him.   And the better they know him, the more they will love him.  Their love for him will show itself in their willingness to obey his commandments.  Because they love they will serve.  So you see, it’s just one big cycle—if we get to know God we will love God, and if we love God we will surely serve him.  And because we are his servants, God will recognize us as his own. 

We start out on this path to salvation with Baptism, the sacrament by which we are made members of Christ’s Church, the pasture of our Good Shepherd. In the Breviary we read every morning at the very start of the day’s office, “He is the Lord our God; and we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”  Step one, then, is to make sure we’re in the right pasture, the Church Christ founded.  Unfortunately, there are many who refuse to take this first step.  Christ founded the Church to teach us in the Spirit of Truth. Those who refuse to accept his Church are in effect refusing to accept the truths he revealed.   They can’t know God properly, because they are missing some or all of the truths taught by the Church, and only by the Church he established for that very purpose.  

And if they refuse to know God properly, how can they possibly claim to love him?  How can they love someone they don’t know?  Sure, they probably have some emotive-type “feelings” of love for God, and certainly many good Protestant and Jewish and Muslim people do love God in this superficial and insufficient way that has no basis in truth and reality.  They love a God of their own invention, not the same God who revealed himself through not only Scripture but also the continual and infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost.  Theirs, alas, is not the same God we love, but one that fits their own erroneous view of who he is and what he teaches.  This cannot be true love.  And because they love him not, they turn their faces to him and say, like Lucifer once declared before them, “I will not serve.” “I will not accept your true teachings, O God, I will not submit to the Church you gave us, I will refuse the sacraments you provided for our salvation.”  That’s what non-Catholic people are really saying.  And even Catholics—oh dear!  Catholics who claim to be true sons and daughters of the Church, what are they saying about their love of God when they lie asleep in their beds, or idling their time on some trivial hobby this Sunday morning?

It’s an appropriate time to remind you that we have a “little thing” called Easter Duty coming up.  If you haven’t received Holy Communion since Easter, you have until Trinity Sunday to do so. This year, Trinity falls on June 16, which gives you about six weeks.  You must receive Holy Communion during Paschal Time, or you are, in effect, openly refusing to submit to the Church’s law, you’re defiantly claiming your place outside the safety of Christ’s pasture, out there with the goats who know Christ not.  Keep it in mind.  And parents, use a bit of tough love if necessary!  Yesterday was the feast of St. Monica; follow her example and do whatever you can, whatever you have to, for the salvation of your children’s souls, no matter how old they are.  Their place is here on Sunday morning!

You see, we have to belong to the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church if we want to save our souls.  In fact, it’s one of the infallible dogmas of the Church that “Outside the Church there is no salvation.”  To refuse to belong to Christ’s Church is a direct refusal to obey Christ himself. Our Lord didn’t establish a church for no reason.  It was to provide us with an institution we could belong to, where we would be taught the truths of the faith carefully passed down through the ages by good shepherds like himself.  It was so we could receive valid sacraments, instruments of grace, by which we could save our souls.   It was so we could be protected from the wolves outside the Church, who seek to lead us astray with their errors and their lies. The Church is truly a safe place to be, and we can expect from her, if we belong to her, that she will give us every means we need by which to save our souls.  But that “belonging” to the Church is a serious condition, upon which our salvation does depend.

It used to be so easy, didn’t it.  We knew which churches were Catholic and which weren’t.  Christ’s pasture was clearly marked by a sign outside and a multitude of uniquely Catholic symbols inside – the altar facing east, the tabernacle on the altar and the sanctuary lamp indicating the Real Presence; statues, stations of the cross.  Today, it’s not so easy.  How do we know whether we’re “inside” the true Church and not “outside?”  These days we’re forced to go back to the basics in order to recognize the Church.  Remember the catechism, and how we know where to find the true Church of God—it’s through the four marks of the Church.  One, holy, catholic and apostolic.  If our doctrine is “one” with the teachings of Holy Scripture and Tradition, the same as it has always been taught; if we are taught to follow a “holy” moral code that has likewise not changed; if we worship God everywhere, universally, with the same fundamental Sacrifice of the Mass; and if we have valid sacraments passed down in an unbroken chain from the apostles, then the four marks of the Church are present. 

Vatican II changed all these four things.  A pack of wolves hopped over the Vatican walls and infiltrated the institution of the Church.  We’re faced with so-called Catholic churches that no longer teach the true faith completely, that no longer offer Christ’s Holy Sacrifice, that no longer provide us with certainly valid sacraments.  “Beware of these false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”  They don’t pass the test—where is their true teaching, their accurate presentation of morality, their certainly valid sacraments?  They have changed everything so that it is no longer recognizable as having the four marks of the true Church.  And when you see the abomination of desolation in the holy place, saith our Lord, “flee ye to the hills.”  Flee ye to Urbana, to Lebanon, to places where you will be safe. Survive!

The day we’re judged, Christ will recognize us as his own only if we are active members of the Church he established here on earth.  Not of the church wechoose, but because we are convinced—and I mean convinced—that it is the Church Christ founded, and that it provides us with the only sure path to salvation.  Find the right Church, the true Church, and then cling to it like a drowning man to a life raft.  Your chapel may not be a grand cruise liner like the Queen Mary, but neither is it the Titanic.  So cling to it every Sunday, and remember, it’s the only thing keeping you afloat. 

THY HAND, O GOD, HAS GUIDED

A HYMN FOR THE 2ND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER


By E.H. Plumptre, 1864

Thy hand, O God, has guided thy flock from age to age;
The wondrous tale is written full clear on every page;
Our fathers owned Thy goodness, and we their deeds record;
And both of this bear witness, One church, one faith, one Lord.
Thy heralds brought glad tidings to greatest as to least;
They bade men rise and hasten to share the great King’s feast:
And this was all their teaching, in every deed and word,
To all alike proclaiming One church, one faith, one Lord.
When shadows thick were falling, and all seemed sunk in night,
Thou, Lord, did send Thy servants, Thy chosen sons of light.
On them and on Thy people Thy plenteous grace was poured,
And this was still their message: One church, one faith, one Lord.
Thy mercy will not fail us, nor leave Thy work undone;
With Thy right hand to help us, the vict’ry shall be won;
And then by men and angels Thy name shall be adored,
And this shall be their anthem: One church, one faith, one Lord.

I KNOW MY SHEEP

A REFLECTION FOR THE 2ND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER


"He is the Lord our God, and we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 94 : 7).

“I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep” (John 10 : 14).

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25 : 31-32).

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be taking a closer look at these quotations, and the one important truth that unites them.  The common factor is that we are Christ’s sheep and that he is our shepherd. He knows his sheep, and it is imperative for our salvation that on the Day of Judgment he recognizes us as his sheep.

It is the most essential thing that we must do, therefore, as Christians, to make sure of three basics:  

1) That we belong to Christ’s pasture, and not any other; in other words, that we belong to the Church he founded.

2) That we do not stray from that pasture through grave sin, heresy, schism or apostasy.

3) That we take the food Christ gives us in his pasture, that is, that we receive Holy Communion as Christ commanded, thus providing for our future union with God in heaven.

These are the three essentials foundations of our salvation.  If we meet these standards, our Blessed Lord and Judge will know us as his sheep.  If we fail to meet even one of these standards, he will not.  Failure means damnation.  The stakes are that high!

Today, our focus is on belonging to the true Church of Christ. Let each of us look to our own conscience, and be certain that we can identify the church we attend as belonging to that same Church Christ founded on the rock of St. Peter.