THE LITURGICAL YEAR

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

Sunday, June 30, 2019

BENEATH THE MERCY SEAT

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF SACRED HEART


Last week we completed our review of the three requirements necessary for salvation.  We confirmed that this life is nothing more than a test to see if we will be allowed to move on to eternal happiness in the next life.  We saw how it’s a threefold test.  How we must be members of the Catholic Church; how we must avoid sin and die in the state of grace; and how we must receive our Lord in Holy Communion.  A threefold test, and yet one in its objective, three in one, like the Holy Trinity.  The one objective is to be one with God, in this life as well as the next, by fulfilling those three requirements:  by becoming one with Christ’s Mystical Body the Church through Baptism; by becoming spiritually one with God through grace, remaining temples of the Holy Ghost through the sacraments of Baptism and Penance; and thirdly, by uniting with God in a real and physical manner through the sacrament of Holy Communion. Pass these tests and we will save our souls.  On the other hand, if we happen to fail any of one of these tests, what then awaits us is likely to be a fate too dreadful to contemplate.  Our blessed Lord described on many occasions what that alternative is.

Fortunately though, our Creator is a merciful Creator.  Our Judge is a merciful Judge.  He is none other than the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose feast we celebrated on Friday and will continue to celebrate during the Octave that follows. This Sacred Heart is All-Just, and will mete out justice in a way far more perfect than the wisest judges of this world.  He will judge, not according to the letter of the law, but according to its spirit. When he forgave Mary Magdalene her sins, he said these memorable words: “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much.”  And St. Peter, in his Epistle, confirmed that “love covers a multitude of sins”.  What the Sacred Heart is looking for, then, when he judges, is love.  To what degree was love our motivation for passing those three tests, or were we driven more by self-interest?  Do we go to Confession and have our sins forgiven “because we dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell?  Or do we go because we are heartbroken that we have offended God, “who art all good and deserving of all my… love.”  Do we trudge to Mass on Sundays because it’s an obligation, because the Church tells us we must?  Or do we go with longing in our hearts to receive our Lord in Holy Communion? 

The Sacred Heart of Jesus will judge us by the love we have in our own hearts as we plough our way through life trying to be good Catholics.  That leads us to question how strong our love is.  And we already know the answer, don’t we?  Not very strong!  And so we turn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and we beg for mercy. There are three requirements for salvation, three tests, and so three reasons for asking for mercy.  And so we ask three times.  Kyrie eleison, three times.  Christe eleison, three times.  Kyrie eleison, again three times.  Three times to each of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.  And at the end of Mass, as we turn with love and confidence to the Second Person of that Trinity, now present within us in Holy Communion, our very last prayer is “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy upon us,” three times.  Three tests, three pleas for mercy.  

And our Lord IS merciful. He always has been.  And his mercy is our last resort.  What happens to those who are NOT baptized into the Church? Are they necessarily damned? No.  We believe in the baptism of desire, whereby it is up to God to make the final decision whether this person or that is a member of the Church in some way other than by baptism.  What happens if we commit a mortal sin and don’t have access to a priest for confession? We make an act of perfect contrition for the time being, repenting our sins out of love of God, and not because we fear hell.  We place our sins in God’s hands with sorrowful repentance, hoping it will be sufficient for him to forgive us.  And if we can’t receive Holy Communion, we make an act of spiritual communion instead, uniting ourselves at least spiritually with our Lord.  In short, we sometimes have to leave it up to the Sacred Heart to bend the rules for us when it’s impossible for us to follow them. Whether he will or not, though, depends on the extent of our love of God.  And that we can never presume!

Even in the Old Testament, he gave to his chosen people the three things they would need to get them to the Promised Land.  He gave them the Levitical priesthood who would perform sacrifices to God on their behalf.  He gave them the Ten Commandments by which they would know how to behave.  And he gave them manna in the desert, food and nourishment for their long journey.  The Jews very carefully preserved these three things, the staff of Aaron, representing the priesthood, the tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments, and a sample of the manna.  They kept them in the Ark of the Covenant, the holiest relic of the Jewish faith.  

Lo and behold, these three artefacts contained in the Ark of the Covenant are plainly the foreshadowing of the three requirements for salvation.  The Staff of Aaron represents the Church founded on St. Peter, our first priest and pope; the Commandments are now fulfilled by the new law of Christ, to love God above all things by obeying his commandments and remaining free from mortal sin; and the Manna, of course, points to the new Bread of Life, the Holy Eucharist containing Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.  

When the Sacred Heart of Jesus returns to judge the quick and the dead, he will do so seated upon his throne of judgment.  This judgment seat is none other than the Ark of the Covenant, the lid of which is shaped like a throne, and which the children of Israel referred to as the Mercy Seat.  On Judgment Day, he will speak to us, judging us according to the three things contained beneath him, the three gifts he gave us to help us pass his test.  We will have before our eyes the very things we needed for salvation, and we will realize before the words of judgment are even uttered whether we are fit to pass the test or not.  At that moment, all we can do is fall on our knees before Christ on his Mercy Seat and cry out for that mercy.  Lord, have mercy upon us, Christ, have mercy upon us, Lord, have mercy upon us.  And then it is up to the Sacred Heart to tell us whether our faith in the teachings of his Church has been strong enough, whether our struggles to avoid sin have been sincere enough, and whether our longing for the Sacrament of Communion has been fervent enough.  In short, whether we have loved him enough.  And that, my dear friends, is our ultimate test!  The rest is in God’s hands.

GREAT MAKER OF THE WORLD, AND BLEST

A HYMN IN HONOR OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS


From the Office of Matins for the
Feast of the Sacred Heart 

Great Maker of the world, and blest,
The Saviour-Christ by man confessed,
True God of God and Light of Light,
Who art the Father's Image bright:

By love constrained thou hast assumed
Our mortal flesh which Adam doomed;
And all that he had lost of yore,
As Second Adam, didst restore.

Thy love made thee a Maker be―
It made thee make earth, stars, and sea,
And then for men, deliverance,
When sin marred such magnificence.

That mighty love can ne'er depart
From thy so wondrous-loving Heart;
To man a fount whose healing flow
Hath grace for every sin and woe.

For this thy Heart the spear did pierce,
Already torn by dolours fierce―
For this the blood and water came―
To cleanse man from his sin and shame.
We give thee praise, who dost impart
Such grace, O Jesu, from thy Heart;
Whom with the Father we adore,
And Holy Ghost, for evermore.  Amen.

THE THREE PRAYERS BEFORE COMMUNION

A REFLECTION FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF SACRED HEART


Today I wish to offer one last confirmation of those three requirements for salvation that are demanded of all of us.  On this feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we would do well to take a look at the three prayers said in silence by the priest at Mass in the seconds before he receives Holy Communion.

Look at them with new eyes, and behold! You will find that in these three prayers the priest is asking, in the name of all of us, that we may fulfill the same three requirements of 1) having the true faith through our membership of Christ’s Church; 2) keeping the commandments and remaining in the state of grace; and 3) receiving and uniting with our Lord in holy Communion.

O Lord Jesu Christ, who saidst to thine Apostles:  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: regard not my sins, but the faith of thy Church: and grant her that peace and unity which is agreeable to thy will:  Who livest and reignest, God, world without end.  Amen.

O Lord Jesu Christ, Son of the living God, whom the Father with the Holy Ghost hath willed by death to make the world to live: by this most holy Body and Blood of thine, set me free from all my sins, and from all evil things: and make me in such wise ever to abide in thy commandmentsthat I may never be separated  from thee: Who with the same God the Father, and Holy Ghost, livest and reignest, One God, world without end.  Amen.

O Lord Jesu Christ, I, thine unworthy servant, do presume to take thy Body: but let not this act be unto my judgment and damnation: rather, of thy mercy let it ward me in body and soul, and shew thy healing forth in me: Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.  Amen.

We pray for these three things so that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ.  The three prayers coincide perfectly with the three contents of the Ark of the Covenant, the holist artefact of the Old Testament.  May the Staff of Aaron lead us into the Church and into the way of truth!  May the Ten Commandments be our unfailing guide in our struggle to stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to salvation!  And may the Manna of the New Testament, the Bread of Life that is Christ himself, strengthen, nourish and protect us in our journey towards our Promised Land!  Above all, may each of them join us to God in this world, so that we may be ready to be one with him in heaven.  One with Christ’s Mystical Body the Church, temples of the Holy Spirit in the state of grace, and supremely united to Christ, spiritually, physically and mystically in the Blessed Sacrament of Unity.    May God grant us these three most needful things!

Sunday, June 23, 2019

I PRAY THEE, HAVE ME EXCUSED

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI


The Gospel story today tells us of a noble lord who carefully prepares a great supper.  But when those he invites fail to show up, a crisis ensues.  The noble lord is highly offended and decides to fill up his house with a new set of invitees—the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind, until finally the homeless who live in the highways and the hedges are brought in.  Not exactly the cream of society, and yet, the lord prefers them to those ungrateful others who had come up with every excuse under the sun for refusing his generosity.

The meaning is quite clear.  The noble lord represents God.  The great supper is none other than the continuation of the Last Supper—Holy Mass and the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  The people who refuse the invitation to come to the supper are all those countless thousands of people who don’t come to Mass.  And they have equally an equally countless number of excuses why they shouldn’t.  The excuses are too many to mention, but a couple of examples will suffice: there are the non-Catholics who don’t believe in the Real Presence or the Sacraments. They claim to love God, but when he invites them, and even commands them to eat his Body and drink his Blood, they suddenly have a hard time believing the words of Scripture, and have only one thing to say: “I pray thee, have me excused.”  Then there are those who claim to be Catholic, and yet who prefer the Novus Ordo Mass, either ignorant or indifferent that it’s probably invalid, and that the Communion they receive is probably nothing more than mere bread.  We all have family and friends, I’m sure, with whom we’ve had this conversation.  We try to persuade them to return to the Mass of the apostles, but the answers are always the same, “It’s more convenient, it’s better now that it’s in English, it’s shorter, it’s friendlier, it’s more suited to the modern world.  I pray thee, have me excused.”

As for those unworthy rascals that have been dragged in from the highways and hedges, I’m afraid that’s us!  Unworthy though we may be, we have been brought in to fill the house of God and replace those who, with one excuse or another, have refused to come.  We should thank God often and intensely that we have been given the grace to answer his invitation when so many of our family and friends have not.

Most sadly of all, there are those who attend Mass without receiving Holy Communion.  They too present their excuses, but the bottom line is that they offend the loving God who invited them.  Let’s remember that there are very few valid reasons why we should not be at the communion rail every Sunday:  Are we not baptized Catholics? Are we public sinners?  Are we fasting?  Are we sick? Are we in the state of mortal sin? None of these need be permanent problems.  Each one can be fixed.

It is our divine Creator himself who has prepared this great feast that we are attending this morning.  He began his preparations by creating the entire universe, along with everything and eventually everyone in it.  After we showed our ingratitude by our disobedience in the Garden of Eden and many times after that, even so, his Only-Begotten Son was ready to die a terrible death on the cross for us.  Despite our manifold offences against him, he chose to re-open the gates of heaven so that we poor sinners, when we die, can be united with him in heaven forever.  And he gave us this incredible gift of the Blessed Sacrament so that we can unite with him in this life and receive the infinite graces that cost him every drop of his Most Precious Blood.  So we must have very cold hearts indeed if we’re to callously refuse his most generous loving-kindness in giving us this means of salvation.

As I’ve been explaining recently, there are three requirements for us to save our souls.  The first is that we are members of the True Church.  The second is that we are temples of the Holy Ghost, free from mortal sin and in the state of grace, at least at the moment of death. And today, we learn the third requirement—that we MUST attend the great supper of the Lord.  We MUST obey God’s invitation to eat his Body and drink his Blood by receiving him in Holy Communion.  If we do not, we have it from the mouth of the Saviour himself, that “none of those men which were bidden, shall taste of my supper.”  If we do not answer his invitation now in this life, and receive Holy Communion as he commanded us so solemnly to do, then we need not bother hoping for Eternal Life.  There will be none for us.  I’m not making this up, these are the words of Christ himself:  “Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Unite with God in this life through Holy Communion, and he will allow us to unite with him in the next life.  It’s simple, it’s straightforward, there is no ambiguity, and it’s the third requirement essential for our salvation.

You see, it’s all about the love of God.  It’s the natural end of love to unite with the object of our love.  In vulgar terms, if we love bacon and eggs, it’s not enough to just think nice thoughts about bacon and eggs—we want to unite with those bacon and eggs over at the diner after Mass!  Or in the case of the love of friendship, we want to spend time with our friends, go on vacations with them, invite them over to the Sunday barbecue.  When we “fall in love” we want to marry that person and spend our whole life with them.  Marital love is the highest natural form of love there is, which is why the abuse of it is such an offence against God.

Higher even than the natural love between man and wife is the supernatural love between ourselves and God.  Alas, so often, it is a love that travels in only one direction, from God to us.  So many of us fail to respond by loving God in return.  And even when we do, our own lukewarm love is so very inadequate to give to a God who has given us so much.  And it’s true, we’ll never be “good enough” to deserve heaven through our own merits.  But here, in Holy Communion, our Lord himself makes up the difference for this inability to love God enough.  By our own means, we can never love God literally with all our heart and mind and soul and strength.  We simply can’t approach the kind of love for our Lord that would allow us to unite with him.  We are so totally unworthy.  And so he comes to us.  If union with God is outside our grasp, he reaches down to us instead, coming to us in Holy Communion, uniting his body and blood, soul and divinity with our own body and blood, soul and humanity.  He raises that humanity to his divinity and we are one.  We know our unworthiness, and yet we obey God’s command to receive him.  Domine, non sum dignus, “O Lord, I am not worthy… say but the word, and my soul shall be healed!”  We should be filled with awe at such tremendous humility on the part of our Lord, and at the unbelievable gift he has given us.  We should be uncontrollable in our desire to come to Mass and receive Holy Communion as often as we can.

And yet, how often, when it comes time for Communion, do we complacently mouth those terrible words, “I pray thee, have me excused.  I cannot come.”  If we do happen to have a valid reason, we should be filled with disappointment and grief at our inability to receive our Lord, promising to make up to him by some act of kindness or extra prayers.  We should at the very least make a spiritual communion, and that’s something we can even do during the week when we can’t get to daily Mass.  Let’s never miss an opportunity again of uniting ourselves if not with the Real Presence, then at least with the Supernatural Presence of God within us.  Whatever we’re doing, however busy we may be, let’s never forget God’s greatest gift, the Holy Eucharist, constantly reminding ourselves that the only reason we exist is to be one with him!

THE MIRACLE OF BOLSENA

A REFLECTION FOR THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI


Whenever I used to make the journey between Rome and my former home in the medieval mountain village of Panicale, one of my favorite places to stop on the way was in the cathedral town of Orvieto.  Towering above the Autostrada del Sole, the main highway connecting the north of Italy with the south, this hilltop town is visible for miles in both directions, with its cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin dominating the skyline.

The Cathedral was ordered to be built by Pope Urban IV in the 13thcentury to house the renowned Corporal of Bolsena.  A German priest, Fr. Peter of Prague, had stopped at the village of Bolsena during a pilgrimage to Rome.  Despite being a devout priest, he had doubts about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  While saying Mass in Bolsena, as soon as he had completed the words of consecration, he was astonished to see blood seeping from the Host and spreading over his hands before falling in droplets on to the corporal laid out on the altar.

He interrupted the Mass and rushed to the papal palace in nearby Orvieto, recounting the incident to Pope Urban IV, who instituted an immediate investigation.  The Host and Corporal were carried in procession from Bolsena to Orvieto, where they were met with great pomp and ceremony by the Pope, accompanied by bishops, cardinals and other Church dignitaries.  Eventually, the linen corporal, still stained with the drops of blood, was enshrined in a special chapel of the cathedral, where it remains to this day.

Prompted by this miracle, Pope Urban commissioned St. Thomas Aquinas to compose a proper Mass and Office honoring the Holy Eucharist as the Body of Christ. A year later, the same pope introduced this new Mass and Office into the Missal and Breviary, and wrote a papal bull instituting a new feast to be called Corpus Christi.

If you go to Orvieto on the Feast of Corpus Christi, you can still witness the traditional solemn procession of the Blessed Sacrament from the cathedral through the streets of the city.  Accompanying the sacred Host, proudly carried high in this annual veneration, is the miraculous Corporal, which to this day continues to bear witness to the Real Presence of our Lord in the sacred species at Mass.  

LET ALL MORTAL FLESH KEEP SILENCE

A HYMN FOR CORPUS CHRISTI 


By Gerard Moultrie, 1864


Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descending
Comes our homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
Comes the powers of hell to vanquish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!


Sunday, June 16, 2019

IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD

A SERMON FOR TRINITY SUNDAY


It’s a well-known fact, drummed into us by those dear nuns back in grade school, that we are made in the image and likeness of God.  They also made us aware that this similarity we have with God is chiefly in the soul.  Today being Trinity Sunday, it’s a good time to take a look at soul and indeed the whole of God’s creation, and examine this likeness to God in whose image not just man, but all things were created.

Truly, all things were created in God’s image and likeness.  God is everywhere, and if we look closely at the things around us, we will see him.  Or at least we will see his image and likeness in those things around us. God made it this way on purpose, so that we can never forget him!

It all began, naturally enough, in the beginning.   In the work of creation, Holy Scripture describes the work of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity, the Father who is the Creator, the Son by whose Word all things were made, and the Spirit who moved upon the face of the deep.  And it is in this Trinity that the image and likeness of God can be seen immediately from the first moment of creation.  You’ll remember that the very first thing God created was light.  As soon as this light first shone forth, it did so at what we call the speed of light—186,000 miles per second.  Note the phrasing “miles per second”.  In other words, miles began to exist, and we call that space.  And seconds began to exist, and that is what we call time.

Time and space.  Each of them reflect the Most Holy Trinity.  Just as God is Three Persons united in one holy and undivided Trinity, Time has three components—past, present and future—that together make up the completeness of Time itself.  Any event that ever takes place must either have done so in the past, be doing so now in the present, or will do so at some point in the future.  And what about Space?  Whatever takes up space can be measured in the three dimensions of length, width, and height.  Nothing exists outside these dimensions.  Even the smallest atom, can be measured in “nanometers”, millions of times smaller than the width of a human hair.  At the opposite extreme, the universe itself, if you think about it, could be measured (if we had the technology to do so) by multiplying the number of seconds that have transpired since light was created by 186,000.  This would give us the number of miles that light has traveled since Creation, giving us the limits that still separate us from the void that hasn’t yet been illuminated.  The universe is expanding at the speed of light.  It always will, at least, until God switches off the light at the end of time.

When God went on to create other things on the ensuing five days of Creation, the light he made on the first day was reflected off those things, or in some cases like the sun and the stars was actually emitted by those things.  That gave us what we call color.  Did you ever make the connection between color and the Blessed Trinity?  There are lots and lots of colors after all, maybe an infinite number, but it’s not in that infinite potential that the resemblance of color to the Trinity exists. Every single color you can think of or imagine is made up of some combination of red, yellow and blue.  There exist only three Primary colors.  If you don’t believe me, take a look at the cartridges in your printer—red, yellow and blue.  With these three colors you can print out the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel if you want—any color picture imaginable.  The color black, by the way, which is the other cartridge, is actually nothing more than red, yellow and blue combined.  I remember once reading a science fiction story in which someone on another planet was amazed by the existence of a whole new color that did not have its origin in any of these three primary colors.  I racked my brain for weeks trying to imagine what it could look like, but of course, it’s impossible.  God created color in his own image and likeness.  Three colors there are, and even Michelangelo had to make do with just these.  We shouldn’t feel “limited” in any way, because together they make up the completeness of color, just as past, present and future make up the completeness of time, or Father, Son and Holy Ghost represent the complete simplicity of a triune God.

What else did God create on those six days of Creation?  Every single material thing God made falls into one of three categories:  animal, vegetable or mineral.  Or if you prefer, we can divide material things according to the form in which they exist—solid, liquid or gas.  The point is, wherever we look we see the number three to remind us that God is everywhere.  We could belabor the point and keep going:  music is made up of melody, harmony and rhythm for example. Even God’s church is made of the three branches of Church Militant, Suffering and Triumphant. We sin in thought, word and deed. And on the reverse side, let’s not forget Faith, Hope and Charity.  

But what’s the point of all this?  Why did God make all things in his image and likeness?  Surely, it’s this simple—he doesn’t want us to forget him. He wants to remind us of his presence by all the things around us.  He wants us to love him at all times, and that means that we should always be thinking about him, or at least some aspect of him.  And truly, we are always thinking about some aspect of God if we see his reflection in all we do.  Every moment that goes by was once in the future, then is for single moment, before becoming part of our memories in the past.  So every time I plan something, do something, or remember something, the reflection of God is before me to remind me of the Creator of time.  Whenever I lift my little finger, it moves through the three dimensions of up, down and sideways, and the Trinity is there for me to behold.  We might know, in some vague metaphysical sense, that God is everywhere, but the way God created the universe, when he made us and everything else, he actually gave us a constant and omnipresent means of keeping his presence ever before us. 

St. Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Trinity to the heathens.  He could have used anything!  Today’s great Feast of the Most Holy Trinity is our annual opportunity to remember and instill more firmly in our conscious minds, the great plan of God’s Creation. Let us open our eyes, and see, by the Light he created, not only the wonderful things that God made, but the very reflection of God himself, present amongst us.

HIS WAYS PAST FINDING OUT

A REFLECTION FOR TRINITY SUNDAY


“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” exclaims St. Paul in today’s Epistle.  It is said that we know less about the deepest part of the world’s oceans than we do about the farthest reaches of outer space, and it seems that the same is true about God.  We know his heights, that he is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-just, all-merciful, all-loving, everlasting without beginning or end.  But the depth of his knowledge, the depth of his love, and all these other infinite attributes of the Divine Being?  These are unknown to us and must remain so.

The reason we do not and never can know these depths is apparent.  Our limited ‘finite’ minds can never comprehend the unlimited and ‘infinite’.  It’s quite simply impossible.  Even the greatest scholars and saints, like St. Paul, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine and others, had to content themselves with the knowledge that they would never begin to approach the depths of God’s being.  “Who hath known the mind of the Lord?” asks St. Paul rhetorically.

We must not feel cheated by our lack of knowledge.  We must never think we are being deprived of something we’re entitled to.  On the contrary, we must know our place.  For our own humility, our knowledge of God has its limits.  If it did not, we would beGod!   Our Creator wants us to be content with the place to which he has assigned us, and, as the Psalmist says, “O Lord,mine heart is not exalted; I have no proud looks.  I do not exercise myself in great matters which are too high for me. But I refrain my soul, and keep it low” (Ps. 130:1-3).

We should note that it is only the matters that are “too high for me” that’s we’re forbidden to explore, not the depths of God insofar as we are able. Otherwise, we would never have had theologians or doctors of the Church, who have tried their best to understand and teach the ways of God.  But we must know our place.  We must remember, for instance, that it was forbidden for lay people before Vatican II to publish theological works that had not been thoroughly vetted by the diocesan censor and given an approval by the bishop.  Those words Nihil Obstatand Imprimaturmeant something in those days!

Today, alas, between Rome’s “Anything Goes” attitude and the development of the Internet, there is no end to the rubbish spouted by people (including the more pretentious clergy) about things theological.  While we might legitimately explore the bounds of what we know, we may never claim to expand those limits without Church approval.  Some things are “past finding out” and we must know our place!

Sunday, June 9, 2019

IF YE LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS

A SERMON FOR WHITSUNDAY


We’re here this morning for one single purpose.  That purpose is to save our souls.  We may have come here this morning perhaps out of habit.  That’s okay, because it’s a good habit, in other words a virtue.  It’s also okay if we came there today out of fear, because we don’t want to put our souls in danger by disobeying God’s commandment.  It’s okay because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The point is, we’re here.  Ideally, we’re here because we love God, because we want to do his will more than anything else, because we want to unite with him in Holy Communion, because he is our chief priority and focus in life.  Ideally.  But if our motives are less perfect than that, we can at least reassure ourselves that we are here.  We have obeyed the Third Commandment of God and the First Precept of the Church, and we are at Sunday Mass.  We’re in the right place at the right time, and if the world ends in the next few minutes, there is nowhere else we’d rather be than here in the presence of our Creator and Redeemer.

On the first Pentecost Sunday, the Apostles felt the same way.  They could have made some half-hearted attempts to “move on with their lives” after our Lord had ascended into heaven.  They would probably have gone fishing, or returned to their families and settled down.  But they had received a mission from God, that they should go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  And they had no idea how to do that.  All they knew is that the last thing Christ had commanded was that they should remain in Jerusalem and wait for the coming of the Spirit of Truth.  And so they obeyed.  Just as you who came to Mass this morning have obeyed, they did what they were told, following our Lord’s instructions to the letter, so that when the time came for the Holy Ghost to descend upon them, he found them exactly where they were supposed to be, waiting and praying.  

My concern isn’t so much the reason why you’re here today.   The point is that you’re here.  My concern is for those who have not obeyed the voice of their God this morning, that they should keep holy the sabbath day, those who have not obeyed the voice of Holy Mother Church that they should attend Mass on Sunday. We should all be very, very concerned for the many who have not bothered to be here today, either here or at some other true and traditional Mass.  Their souls are in peril if they have deliberately chosen not to obey God and his Church.

The same goes for any other act of defiance against the commandments.  To disobey is to commit a sin, to offend God. If the disobedience is serious, then the sin is mortal.  If the sin is mortal and God chooses to take us before we truly repent and (if possible) confess our sins, then our souls will be damned.  

And that brings me back to the three things necessary for us to save our souls. We began speaking about them a few weeks ago, and we continue today with the second requirement.  The first, as I hope you remember, is that we must belong to the right Church.  You all do because here you are, so I’m not going to spend time with that today, other than to remind ourselves that today is the birthday of that Church.  The Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles signifies the beginning of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and it was from this moment when the tongues of fire appeared on their heads that the Apostles knew what they had to do and how to do it.  Without the Holy Ghost there would have been no Church, and Christ would have founded it in vain.  With the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, we can find that necessary comfort that everything the Church teaches is taught with the authority of God himself, and that it is the guarantee of this Spirit of Truth that enables us to relax and accept whatever is told us by a Church that is infallible.  Today’s feast of Pentecost, in other words, confirms what I have been telling you about the necessity of belonging to this Church, which alone, is the source of all the truths about God that we need to save our souls.  We are confirmed in our faith by the Holy Ghost, and specifically we are confirmed through the Sacrament of Confirmation.

So much for the first requirement for salvation—here we are, members of the True Church.  So make sure you never leave the true Church, as those who followed the Protestant revolution have done, as those who now follow the Modernist revolution are still doing.  Keep the faith.  The faith of our fathers.  The faith of the Apostles.  The Catholic faith.  

However, faith isn’t enough.  We need more than just faith to save our souls, we need faith AND morals.  And that’s why we need to obey God’s commandments. It’s easy to know what those commandments are, the Church teaches them to us infallibly, as we’ve already explained.  But free will “allows” us to disobey them.  Just remember that the option to choose evil is not a real option in the eyes of God. There are no real options here, no weighing up in our head whether we should go to Mass on Sunday or do something else, whether we should use contraception or not, whether same-sex relationships are okay in this new modern age, (and the same thing goes for every other commandment).  We MUST obey all the commandments of God and the Church.  If we don’t, we can have enough faith so as to move mountains, but if we have not charity—that is if we don’t love God enough to obey his commandments—then we are as a tinkling cymbal, and it profiteth us nothing.  Don’t forget, the Devil has the Faith!  He believes full well in God!  And if we behave as the Devil, we’ll end up spending eternity with the Devil.

So the second requirement for salvation is that once we belong to the true Church, we must submit to all the divine and ecclesiastical laws that the Church teaches.   It’s a simple enough statement to make, it’s Religion 101.  But not so easy to keep to.  And again, that’s where the Holy Ghost comes in.  When we’re baptized into the Church the Holy Ghost dwells within our souls, we become the Temples of the Holy Ghost.  When we sin mortally, we drive him out and tell him we prefer our own pleasures to doing God’s will.  But as soon as we repent, as soon as our sins are absolved, he returns to make us his temple once again.  And he strengthens us with his presence, he confirms us, not with tongues of fire this time, but with his hidden divine presence within our souls.  

Let’s take note of this apparent coincidence that the Holy Ghost is directly and intimately connected with both requirements for our salvation!  If we must belong to the true Church, it is because that Church is guided by the Spirit of Truth, leading us infallibly along our path towards God and our salvation.  And secondly, that Spirit of Truth allows us to know what is right and what is wrong so that we can keep our souls free from sin and temples of that same Holy Spirit. We must unite ourselves first with the Holy Spirit within Christ’s Mystical Body, and then allow Christ’s Holy Spirit to unite with our own body and soul through our obedience to the infallible laws taught by that Holy Spirit.  Does that sound complicated?  It isn’t.  On the contrary, salvation is so very simple to understand.  It’s a perfect circle of simplicity.  I could express it in ten thousand different ways, but somehow, putting it into words turns something so extremely simple into something that sounds complicated.  So let’s keep it simple and stop with this resolution—belong to the Church of God, obey the commandments of God. Do this and you’re two-thirds of the way to salvation.  Just remember though that while “two out of three ain’t bad”, it’s still not enough! There’s still one more thing missing from our final success in achieving salvation.  So in a couple of weeks, I’ll introduce you to the third and last requirement, and then, hopefully, you’ll know all you need to know to save your souls. 

COME, THOU HOLY SPIRIT, COME

A HYMN FOR WHITSUNDAY

BY FR. EDWARD CASWALL, 1849

1 Come, thou Holy Spirit, come,
and from thy celestial home
shed a ray of light divine;
come, thou Father of the poor,
come, thou source of all our store,
come, within our hearts to shine.
2 Thou of comforters the best,
thou the soul's most welcome guest,
sweet refreshment here below;
in our labour rest most sweet,
grateful coolness in the heat,
solace in the midst of woe.
3 O most blessèd Light divine,
shine within these hearts of thine,
and our inmost being fill;
where thou art not, man hath naught,
nothing good in deed or thought,
nothing free from taint of ill.
4 Heal our wounds; our strength renew;
on our dryness pour thy dew;
wash the stains of guilt away;
bend the stubborn heart and will;
melt the frozen, warm the chill;
guide the steps that go astray.
5 On the faithful, who adore
and confess thee, evermore
in thy sevenfold gifts descend:
Give them virtue's sure reward,
give them thy salvation, Lord,
give them joys that never end.

OUR GUIDE TO THE TRUTH

A REFLECTION FOR WHITSUNDAY


Amidst all the fiery tongues of Pentecost and the fanfare that accompanied the descent of the Holy Ghost on the apostles, we tend to forget that this event, so important that it is one of the great Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, was also the birthday of the Catholic Church. Until this fiftieth day after the Resurrection of our Lord, the Church had been promised to St. Peter, but did not yet actually exist.  When our Lord ascended into heaven, he left the apostles in a state of anxiety. Fortunately, they did as they were commanded, remaining in Jerusalem, waiting and praying for the promised Comforter who would guide them in the Spirit of Truth.

On this Whitsunday, almost two thousand years ago, the Blessed Mother was present for the rebirth of her Son in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.  This time, God came to dwell amongst us, not in the form of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, with a physical Body, but as the Third Person of that Trinity, to establish the Mystical Body of Christ.

Throughout the ages, men have rebelled against this Body, leaving it to follow the various heresies and schisms that the Devil has inspired to try and destroy her unity.  Whether they have followed Luther and his Protestants, Karl Marx and his Socialists, or John XXIII and his Modernists, history has been one long rebellion against the Lord and his anointed.  Today, our plight is all the more confusing as in order to follow Christ and his Church, we have been forced to turn our back on those who pretend to lead it.  We do so in good conscience, however, because to follow the Church of Vatican II would be to contradict and therefore reject what the Church has taught since that first Pentecost, guided by the Spirit of Truth.

That God has chosen so few of us to keep the faith should not puff us up with pride, but reduce us to tears of humility, as we recognize our own unworthiness to have been chosen in this way.  And we have other tears to shed, yet, for those of our brethren, our children, our family and friends, as they stubborrnly persist in rejecting the Spirit of Truth, some losing the faith altogether, others trying to find it amongst those who have long ago rejected it.

Our role is to preserve the integrity of the faith as best we can, inspiring those around us with the same love for the truth of the Gospels displayed by our Lord’s first disciples at the birth of his Mystical Body on that long-ago Whitsun morning.

Sunday, June 2, 2019

WHEN THE COMFORTER IS COME

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE ASCENSION OCTAVE


Our Lord gives two names to the Holy Ghost today.  The first name is ‘the Comforter’ and the second is the ‘Spirit of truth.’

Let’s remember first of all that our Lord is describing here not just some vague fuzzy ‘spirit’, but the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity.  He is describing God.  Or to put it another way, he is describing himself, for he too is God.  ‘Comforter’ and ‘Spirit of truth.’  If the Holy Ghost is both of these, then we must recognize that these two terms cannot be in contradiction with each other.  There can be no contradiction in God.  Even when we speak about God as being all-just and yet all-merciful, these are not contradictory terms, and it is de fide(of the faith) that God possesses the fullness of both mercy and justice.  We will come to understand exactly howon the Day of Judgment. But the terms ‘Comforter’ and ‘Spirit of truth’ are not even problematic for us.  We can readily understand, I hope, that it is in ‘Truth’ that we shall find ‘Comfort’.

As I said, our Lord is describing himself here in a certain sense.  He once said that he is ‘the Way, the Truth, and the Life’ after all.  He didn’t say that he spoke the truth, he said he is the Truth.  And the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of Truth.

Now, before we start yawning at these simple explanations of our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel, let’s pause for a moment and see how it relates to us. Because it does.  He’s speaking in the future tense to the Apostles because the Holy Spirit of truth had not yet come.  At this time between our Lord’s Ascension and the feast of Pentecost, nine days must elapse during which the Apostles prayed and waited.  We, on the other hand, are not waiting in that sense. The Holy Spirit of Truth has already descended two thousand years ago, and now, if we are in the state of grace, dwells within us.

We have been told since we were children that we are temples of the Holy Ghost, that God makes his dwelling place in our soul.  This is not true of all people.  When we deliberately commit a sin that is mortal in nature, it is an event which defies description as to its gravity and horror.  Because to sin mortally is to say to the Holy Ghost “Get out! I don’t want you here anymore, you have no place here.  I prefer the Devil and his works.  I prefer to offend you, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love.  So get out, and let me enjoy myself!”  That, my dear people, is a mortal sin.

Every mortal sin is a lie.  It’s a lie we tell ourselves, namely, that it’s better to choose evil than to choose good. The devil lies to us all the time. The world lies to us all the time. And our fallen human nature joins with them in trying to persuade us of something which is a lie, that it is better to do what we want than what God wants.  And so we sin.  And what then?  We feel guilty, because after all, we are essentially good children of God who didn’t really mean to offend him.  And like even good children, sometimes we are naughty children.  And so we return to God, our faces downcast in shame, and we confess our sin, we repent of having committed it, and we resolve not to do so again.  And our dear loving God, the Spirit of truth, returns to our soul and all is well.  And we are comforted.

We will never find comfort unless we repent our sins and resolve to do better. The Comforter will never find a home in our soul unless we choose good over evil, unless we choose to believe the truths of God, rather than the lies we’re told by others.  It is imperative that we understand that the devil, the world, and our fallen human nature are constantly warring against us, lying to us, with the terrible, yet enticing lie that we should do what we want whenever we want.  This is Satan’s simplest yet cleverest trick, and it is diametrically opposed to the Truth. Believe him and you will lose the Spirit of Truth within you.  Fight him and his temptations and the Spirit of Truth will continue to dwell in your souls and to comfort you.

When Christ was born, the herald angels sang of peace to men of good will. Do you have that inner peace in your soul today?  That inner peace is God’s gift to you through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit of Truth. If you do not have that inner peace, it isn’t a therapist you’re in need of, it’s simply the sacrament of Confession. Make a good confession, be truly sorry you have offended the Spirit of Truth by believing the lies of Satan, the world and your own fallen human nature.  And resolve to do better.  Your sins will be absolved and your soul will be cleansed, ready to become once again the home of the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter.

THE HEAD THAT ONCE WAS CROWNED WITH THORNS

A HYMN FOR ASCENSIONTIDE


By Thomas Kelly, 1820


The head that once was crowned with thorns
Is crowned with glory now;
A royal diadem adorns
The mighty victor’s brow.
The highest place that Heav’n affords
Belongs to Him by right;
The King of kings and Lord of lords,
And Heaven’s eternal Light.
The joy of all who dwell above,
The joy of all below,
To whom He manifests His love,
And grants His name to know.
To them the cross with all its shame,
With all its grace, is given;
Their name an everlasting name,
Their joy the joy of Heaven.
They suffer with their Lord below;
They reign with Him above;
Their profit and their joy to know
The mystery of His love.
The cross He bore is life and health,
Though shame and death to Him,
His people’s hope, His people’s wealth,
Their everlasting theme.


THE KING AND THE QUEEN MOTHER

A REFLECTION FOR ASCENSIONTIDE


This week’s bulletin hymn for Ascension begins with the words: “The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now.”  It reminds us that Christ, having completed his earthly mission of redemption, has now returned to his rightful place on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  Here, the crown of glory is replaced on his head.  Why?  Because he is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

This King has a Father, who is the Most High Omnipotent Creator of all.  Let’s not forget that, as a human, he also has a mother, the most blessed Virgin Mary.   Like earthly kings, whose mothers have the title of Queen, it is perfectly fitting that our Lady also should bear this title.  And thus, immediately after her own Assumption into heaven, she received the royal crown of glory from the hands of her divine Son.  This year, it so happens that the very day after we observe Christ’s Ascension into heaven, we immediately celebrate the Coronation of our Lady and Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Christ is King, and his Mother Mary is Queen.  Together they form heaven’s Royal Family, and to them we owe our allegiance.  We should remember the homage paid to earthly queens, and offer the same reverence to the Queen of Heaven, replacing our earthly worship with the special veneration of hyperdulia, given only to the Mother of God…. I, N., do become your liege man of life and limb,and of earthly worship;and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to live and die, against all manner of folks.  So help me God.”

Our democratic system here in the United States emphasizes the equality of men. However, this is not the way God made us, and it is one of the regrettable effects of democracy that we tend to lose our sense of respect for those placed in authority over us.  To bow before a king or queen and offer them our reverent homage and allegiance is not only natural, but a part of the virtue of filial piety.  We often fail to remember this when it comes to our political leaders, and of course it is all the more difficult when these leaders fail to recognize that noblesse oblige, that nobility or power comes with obligations towards those they govern.

When it comes to the Queen of heaven, however, we never have to fear that she will fail in her responsibilities towards us her willing, loving subjects.  She is our protector, our guide and our Mother.  “Hail, holy Queen!”