REMEMBER WHEN THE TIME COMES

 A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF ASCENSION

How easy it is to dismiss the reading of the Gospel.  Sure, it’s the life of Christ, his words, his warnings to his apostles.  But it’s also ancient history.  Christ has ascended into heaven, his apostles are long since dead, and we are left to live our lives the best way we can in whatever happen to be the circumstances of the day.  Yet we know our Lord didn’t just speak to the people of his own generation; he intended his teachings to be passed down even unto the end of the world.  So let’s just take a look at the last sentence of today’s Gospel and see how they apply to us: “These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.”

A couple of things before we get into what exactly he told us.  First of all, let’s make sure we understand who our Lord is referring to when he says “you”.  “These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.”  We know that he was speaking to the apostles.  But this was the Son of God speaking, he who knows all future events that await mankind.  When he speaks to his disciples, he is in fact also speaking to us, today, and if we think of his words in this way, we stand to benefit a bit more from them.

So then, what are these things he is telling us, so that when the time comes, we will indeed remember what he told us?  He mentions two things here, and only two things: “They shall put you out of the synagogues”, that’s the first, and “yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”  The synagogues our Lord is talking about refers to the houses of worship of the chosen people of his day.  Their modern equivalent are the houses of worship, or churches, of today’s chosen people, the members of his Mystical Body, the Catholic Church.  We don’t have to think too hard to realize the fulfillment of our Lord’s prophecy since Vatican II.  We who follow the traditional faith, the traditional Mass, the traditional commandments of the Church—all given to us by God himself—are no longer allowed to worship in our local “Catholic” churches.  We priests are not permitted to say Mass as it was said for two thousand years.  The last conciliar pope tried to allow it, but somehow he was replaced by the current tyrant, a latter-day Nero, who is hell-bent on abolishing the traditional Mass and sacraments once and for all.  And so we are put out of our “synagogues”, our beloved Catholic churches, built with the enthusiasm of a faith now long suppressed, built by Catholic faithful who knew the value of having the tabernacle of the Most High God as the focal point of their community. The descendants of these faithful must now stand by and watch in horror as their now empty churches are transformed into mosques, bowling alleys, apartment buildings, and worst of all, into houses of sacrilegious worship perpetrated by the conciliar Church and known as the “New” Mass.  The New and Improved Mass.  And while we watch this mockery of God openly promoted by the leaders of the Church, we are “put out of the churches.”

“When the time shall come,” said our Lord, we should remember that he warned us about such things as this.  The time has come, so it is time to remember.  The comforting thing about our Lord’s warning is that it is a prophecy fulfilled.  From all time, God knew these things would happen, and he is allowing them to happen for a purpose.  We who are caught up in the events of our times must now recognize that we have been chosen by God to play our part in his plan.  We don’t yet know what our role might be, we don’t even know what God’s purpose is, but we can be assured that he is working that purpose out, and that we are being prepared by our weekly attendance at Mass, by our frequent reception of the divine Eucharist, so that eventually we may give honor and glory to God by accepting whatever befalls us.

How far the persecutions of the Church will go, no one but God knows.  But when the next words of our Lord warn us that “whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service,” we should be prepared, I think, for the worst.  Violence is the ultimate method that the liberal progressives of the world long to use to rid the planet of people who don’t embrace their own woke agenda.  They have already begun their threats against Catholic churches, threats we should take seriously as we await the longed-for Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade.  Things could easily escalate, and we should certainly pray that they don’t.  But again, let’s be prepared, and remember that we were warned.

Why will these evil men do such things to us?  Why do these pagan progressives hate Catholics?  And why do so many so-called Catholics hate traditional Catholics?  Again, our Lord gives us the answer—"these things they will do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.”  They know not the Light of the World and have thus become the children of darkness.  Whether they are mass murderers who shoot little children like Salvador Ramos in Texas, or worse still, mass murderers like Nancy Pelosi and Joseph Biden, who are responsible for the slaughter of millions of children in the womb, or perhaps worst of all, like Jorge Bergoglio, mass-murderer of souls, who seeks to take away our Mass and sacraments, the sources of grace by which those souls may be saved.  All these sons and daughters of Satan want nothing but to crucify anew our Blessed Lord—they know not the Father and know not our Lord Jesus Christ.  If they will do such things to the innocent, we can be assured that they are all ready and prepared to launch their assault on the faithful.

St. Peter advises us on in today’s Epistle what should be our response.  “Be ye sober, and watch unto prayer.”  Prayer is no longer the idle cliché that we offer for those we feel sorry for.  Prayer is now real, prayer is our only defense against what surely awaits us if we do not pray.  Today we remember what Christ warned us would happen: the first half of his prophecy already has happened, and we have been put out of our synagogues; we see that we are on the verge of the second half also being fulfilled, where the children of darkness will kill us and think they’re doing a good thing.  Is it time, perhaps, to get on our knees and beg God’s mercy?  Is it time now to heed our Lady’s warnings at Fatima, and get out our Rosary and plead for her intercession?  And above all things, as St. Peter says, isn’t it time finally to “have fervent charity among ourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins?”  Never has it been more imperative to recognize that life is too short for our trivial arguments and misplaced anger.  Let’s strive to replace them with that fervent charity that will help make restitution for our multitude of sins.  And let’s not waste any more time, for it seems the time has come for us to remember what Christ told us.

HAIL THE DAY THAT SEES HIM RISE

 A HYMN FOR ASCENSIONTIDE

By Charles Wesley, 1739

 

Hail the day that sees Him rise, Alleluia!
To His throne above the skies, Alleluia!
Christ, awhile to mortals given, Alleluia!
Reascends His native heaven, Alleluia!

There the glorious triumph waits, Alleluia!
Lift your heads, eternal gates, Alleluia!
Christ hath conquered death and sin, Alleluia!
Take the King of glory in, Alleluia!

Circled round with angel powers, Alleluia!
Their triumphant Lord, and ours, Alleluia!
Conqueror over death and sin, Alleluia!
“Take the King of glory in! Alleluia!”

Him though highest Heav’n receives, Alleluia!
Still He loves the earth He leaves, Alleluia!
Though returning to His throne, Alleluia!
Still He calls mankind His own, Alleluia!

See! He lifts His hands above, Alleluia!
See! He shows the prints of love, Alleluia!
Hark! His gracious lips bestow, Alleluia!
Blessings on His church below, Alleluia!

Still for us His death He pleads, Alleluia!
Prevalent He intercedes, Alleluia!
Near Himself prepares our place, Alleluia!
Harbinger of human race, Alleluia!

Master, (will we ever say), Alleluia!
Taken from our head to day, Alleluia!
See Thy faithful servants, see, Alleluia!
Ever gazing up to Thee, Alleluia!

Grant, though parted from our sight, Alleluia!
Far above yon azure height, Alleluia!
Grant our hearts may thither rise, Alleluia!
Seeking Thee beyond the skies, Alleluia!

Ever upward let us move, Alleluia!
Wafted on the wings of love, Alleluia!
Looking when our Lord shall come, Alleluia!
Longing, gasping after home, Alleluia!

There we shall with Thee remain, Alleluia!
Partners of Thy endless reign, Alleluia!
There Thy face unclouded see, Alleluia!
Find our heaven of heavens in Thee, Alleluia!

HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN

 A REFLECTION FOR ASCENTIONTIDE

“It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord holy Father almighty, everlasting God:  through Christ our Lord.  Who, after his most glorious Resurrection, manifestly appeared to all his Apostles, and in their sight ascended up into heaven, to prepare a place for us; that where he is, thither we might also ascend, and reign with him in glory.”

Our Lord prepared himself for his public ministry by fasting in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights.  We follow his example and prepare ourselves for our Redemption through his Passion and Death, by observing the same fast of forty days and forty nights from Ash Wednesday until noon on Holy Saturday.  If we accept the traditional time of the Resurrection as 7:00am (dawn) on Easter Sunday, we can calculate there were forty hours from the time of his death at 3:00pm on Good Friday until his rising.  Just as God purged the world from its sins by the Great Flood of forty days and forty nights, another forty days and forty nights have now passed between Easter Sunday and Ascension Day, a period of rejoicing that the bonds of death have been broken and that mankind has been restored to grace.

But now this time of joy is coming to an end, and we approach the bittersweet glory of our Lord’s Ascension into heaven.  For mankind undoubtedly there is an element of sadness at this important event:  the Son of God had walked in our midst for thirty-year years, teaching, healing, and sanctifying.  These years were surely the highlight of human history.  But now he warns his Apostles that he must leave them, and it seems that our time of living in the real presence of our Saviour must be over.  And yet, there is a promise of comfort in our Lord’s words: “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” Naturally, the Apostles were curious to know what this meant and so they questioned him further.  And without giving them any specific explanation, our Lord repeated his message that his departure should not be the cause of despair: “Ye shall weep and lament… but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." 

We could interpret our Lord’s words solely in the light of his future Second Coming.  After all, when our Lord disappeared into the clouds, two Angels appeared to the Apostles to confirm this explanation: “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”  And yet our Lord seems to be alluding to something more than this, and that God’s presence would return to mankind even before the world’s end.  “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.”[1]  We know of course that soon after his Ascension into heaven, the Saviour would send down the Holy Ghost at Pentecost:  “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth.” But it is not a stretch to apply our Lord’s words of comfort not only to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, but also to his Real Presence hidden under the form of bread in the Holy Eucharist, “whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

WAITING FOR GOD

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF ASCENSION

On Thursday, we celebrated the Ascension of our Lord into heaven.  We saw how the apostles accompanied their Master one last time as he took them up the Mount of Olives.  There they saw him rise up into the air, leaving them behind to gaze up after him into the clouds.  They must have been feeling lost at that moment, maybe even abandoned.  It took two men in white, angels sent from God, to shock them back into reality, reminding them that “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”  And they remembered that our Lord had commanded them “that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.”  Don’t leave Jerusalem, he told them, but wait!

And so on this Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension, we find the Apostles waiting.  They’re back in the familiar surroundings of the Upper Room where they had enjoyed the Last Supper with our Lord, where he had ordained them priests, where they had hidden themselves during the Crucifixion, and where our Lord had first appeared to them after his Resurrection.  Its familiarity was comforting for them—so many memories—and they were further consoled by the presence of our Lord’s blessed Mother, who joined them there to wait with them.

With the benefit of hindsight we know now that they had to wait nine days for the arrival of the real Comforter, the Holy Ghost, at Pentecost.  At the time, of course, they did not know how long it was going to be, but with the encouragement of our blessed Lady, they spent the time in prayer, waiting patiently for our Lord’s promise to be fulfilled.  Nine long days of waiting.  It was the origin of the Novena, where we pray with patience for nine days for God to answer our prayers.  Our Lady and the Apostles taught us well that God likes us to be persistent in our prayers and steadfast in our faith.  For our own good, he teaches us that we have to wait!

With the first sin of Adam and Eve, the world was turned into one big waiting room.  We started by waiting four thousand years for a Saviour to be born who would re-open the gates of heaven.  That’s a long time!  And we human beings don’t like to wait.  Americans, especially, have a reputation for not liking to wait.   Amazon Prime delivers packages faster than it takes to get in the car and pick something at the local store.  It’s not enough to have whatever we want—we have to have it NOW!  Even if we can’t afford something, we just put it on a credit card and pay later.  If we’re hungry, we won’t wait for dinner, we’ll just reach out for the snack box and feed our faces.  This is not the way of God.  There’s no longer any sense of patiently waiting for mealtimes, of waiting for marriage before we indulge those other appetites, of saving money to buy something when we can afford it.  It’s all about grabbing what we want whenever we want it.

Please try not to let yourselves fall into this way of thinking.  Today we’re all waiting impatiently for things to get back to normal after the pandemic.  For stores to re-open, for the baseball season to start, for the kids to go back to school, for those lovely days spent drinking at the local tavern.  We just can’t wait for it all to come back.  Well, yes we can wait.  We can and we must wait—with patience if you please.  Because God likes it that way.  Patience is a virtue, and it’s one that can only be practiced and perfected by waiting for the things we want.  It’s one of the reasons we fast before going to Holy Communion—so we have to wait for those pancakes and bacon till after Mass.  First things first.  Wait for the money to buy that nice new dress you want.  Wait for Christmas to come.  Wait for your wedding night.  Understand God when he says “Not yet!”

There’s one thing we’re all waiting for that we should be more impatient than anything else to have.  It’s the greatest and most important thing that we could possibly want.  So you’d think we’d be chomping at the bit to get it, wouldn’t you?  This object of our desire is eternal life in heaven and the end of all our earthly woes.  And yet (and how ironic is this?), we not only try to put off having it, we actually dread it!  We are fearful of opening the door of death, and walking through that doorway to an eternity of unalloyed bliss.  We humans are truly strange creatures.  I suppose this fear of death must have been instilled into our nature by God so we don’t all jump off a cliff to be with him sooner.  We might find it hard to believe as we sit here comfortably, but there may come a time when we are ready to die, when we actually look forward to it.  Perhaps we’re in terrible pain with a terminal disease, maybe we’ve lost a loved one and feel we can’t go on without them, or maybe we’re just 110 years old and tired of the food in the nursing home.  No matter what, though, we can’t hasten the process.  We must wait patiently until God calls us.

Like the Apostles waiting for the Holy Ghost, we usually don’t know how long we have to wait for something.   How long will it be till I can get back to work?  Till the right girl comes along?  Till I die?  There’s no little voice in our ear telling us “Your estimated wait time is 3 hours and 45 minutes” like we get when we call Cincinnati Bell.  So we just have to put ourselves “on hold” and carry on with whatever useful things we can find to do until our turn comes.  The last thing the Apostles asked our Lord before he ascended into heaven was “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel?”  You see?  Impatient to the very end.  Will you do it now, Lord?  And his reply says it all: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”  He didn’t say “Never!”  He just doesn’t say when!  “But ye shall receive power,” he says, “after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”  And they waited and prayed for nine days, and the prophecy was fulfilled.

So pray, pray and pray for the things you need, the things you feel you must have.  Don’t ever think God doesn’t hear your prayer just because he doesn’t grant it right away.  Keep praying, keep waiting, and trust in God that if it’s in your best interests, he will answer your prayer in his own good time.  Meanwhile, be patient!

COME HOLY GHOST, CREATOR BLEST

A HYMN FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF ASCENSION

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,

Vouchsafe within our souls to rest;

Come with thy grace and heavenly aid,

And fill the hearts which thou hast made.

To thee, the Paraclete, we cry,

To thee, the Gift of God most high,

The Fount of life, the Fire of love,

The soul's Anointing from above.

The sevenfold gifts of grace are thine,

O Finger of the Hand Divine;

True Promise of the Father thou,

Who dost the tongue with speech endow.

Thy light to every sense impart,

And shed thy love in every heart;

Thine own unfailing might supply

To strengthen our infirmity.

Drive far away our ghostly foe,

And thine abiding peace bestow;

If thou be our preventing Guide,

No evil can our steps betide.

Make thou to us the Father known,

Teach us the eternal Son to own,

Be this our neverchanging creed,

That thou dost from them both proceed.

All praise be thine, O risen Lord,

From death to endless life restored;

Whom with the Father we adore,

And Holy Ghost, for evermore.  Amen.

THEY WILL PUT YOU OUT OF THE SYNAGOGUES

A REFLECTION FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF ASCENSION

We’ve been through a lot lately.  It all started with the realization that the very unpleasant situation that had been playing out in Wuhan, China, had made its way to our own shores and was going to become a major element in our daily lives.  As stories began to appear on our TVs of elderly people dying in Washington nursing homes, then the quarantine of New Rochelle in New York, enforced by the National Guard, we started to wonder how bad this was going to get.  It didn’t take long to find out.  Our fears of the virus itself were soon overtaken by other concerns, as food shortages and school closures eventually gave way to massive unemployment and financial mayhem as businesses closed and the stock market plummeted.

Not a very happy time, to be sure.  And the disaster was compounded by the behavior of many political leaders, who forced us to “stay-at-home” and practice “social distancing” with all the psychological and health effects that ensued—loneliness, stress, domestic abuse, addiction, and even suicide.  It was not easy being separated from our families, especially from those who really needed us, the elderly in their nursing homes who were suffering the most.  If ever in the course of human history there was a time when people felt the need for God, this was it.

But where was God to be found?  Most churches were forced to close.  We shouldn’t expect anything else from the Democrats, who mostly hate God, religion, and anyone who prays.  That is evident from their enthusiasm in flaunting God’s most basic laws (think abortion and same-sex marriage for starters).  What was more distressing was the action of so-called Catholic bishops who not only cooperated with, but exceeded the extent of the civil law, by closing all their churches and putting a complete stop to the public celebration of Mass.  I personally know of a bishop who forbade one of his priests from administering the Last Rites to a dying woman.  Admittedly, the wholesale abolition of invalid sacraments may be a good thing in the eyes of God, but it was nevertheless an alarming precedent.  To deprive the faithful of their ability to worship publicly was a new low for the pastors of the new Church.  It was somewhat consoling to see the ensuing rebellion of many new-order priests, as they organized drive-by confessions, drive-in Masses, and other innovative ways of bringing their sacraments to the faithful.  Hopefully, the latest presidential announcement will restore our right to worship without restriction.

There are those who fear this whole situation may be a dry-run for something more drastic in the coming months, and there are those who are confident of the return to a more stable future.  But we should all recognize that these last couple of months have been a grim reminder of our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel:  “They shall put you out of the synagogues… and these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father, nor me.”  These enemies of God, and there are many, still don’t know their divine Creator, and are certain to continue their assault on his Church.  So let’s prepare for an uncertain future by keeping today’s message stored in our minds: “These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.”

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!”

HAIL, QUEEN OF HEAVEN!

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF ASCENSION

In this season of Ascensiontide, when we celebrate the return of our blessed Lord to his Father in heaven, we acknowledge at the same time the kingship of Christ over the Church, our world, our nation, our family and our own hearts. From his heavenly throne he rules over his creation, not with a rod of iron, but with the gentle benevolence that he granted to us with the use of our free will.  He asks for our loyalty, but does not enforce it.  We are free to be loyal to him and to receive his graces, and ultimately his heavenly reward.  We are equally free, in a certain sense, to refuse to be loyal, to disobey his commandments whenever we feel like it, and to choose loyalty to ourselves rather than our king.

This freedom, while it is real enough, has the power to delude us.  It is a mirage, placing before us the imagined notion that happiness is to be found in sources other than the source of all goodness, God himself.  If we choose to misuse our free will, then our future is, alas, certain, and inevitable. Christ is King, and we are his servants. It is our duty to obey, even though we might have the impression he is turning a blind eye to our failures in that regard.  After all, when we sin, there is no thunderbolt, no sudden death or misery to befall us, that would give us warning that God is enforcing his laws.  Our warning is clear enough, nevertheless, and is found in God’s holy Word. That alone should be sufficient.  Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.  It is clear we shall die, we know that we shall be judged. We fear hell.  But what about heaven?  Do we want heaven?  Really want it?  Are we afraid of losing it?  Or do we simply presume that we’re good people and will go there no matter what? If so, we’re in for a big surprise!

This year, Mothers’ Day falls on this Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension. As we crown our blessed Lord as King, it is fitting then, that we should at the same time crown his Mother as Queen. And why?  Because the mother of a king is always a queen.  She who gives birth to the king holds a very special place in the homage of a nation.  Some of you will remember the reverence with which the Queen Mother was held in England. And yet, there is a difference between a dowager Queen who is the mother of the king, and a Sovereign Queen, such as we have in England today, who is the head of state and rules over the nation. This is where our blessed Lady differs from these earthly queens.  She is at the same time both the mother of the King, and yet at the same time she is the Queen who rules over us all.

Look at her litany, and you’ll see invocation after invocation to her as Queen.  Queen of Angels, Queen of Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, Queen of All Saints.  Over all the angels and saints, she is the one who occupies the highest place.  The good angels who did not rebel submit to her rule and are happy to do so.  The bad angels who did rebel, did so because they could not abide the thought of a mortal woman being given greater homage than they demanded for themselves.  And so now, this same mortal woman stands above them, “clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet”, as St. John tells us in his prophecy of the Apocalypse.  And she is crowned.  “Crowned with a crown of twelve stars.”  And she crushes the head of the rebellious angel with her heel.  

She who was prophesied in the first book of the Bible after the fall of man, is prophesied in the last book of the Bible after the restoration of man to his heavenly destiny.  She occupies a place in the story of our Redemption that stretches from the first Joyful Mystery of the Rosary to the last Glorious Mystery, and for this reason we hail her as Queen of the Most Holy Rosary.  We hail our Lady as did St. Gabriel at the Annunciation, as “full of grace”.  We hail her as did her cousin Elizabeth with the words “Blessed art thou among women.” We voice our assent to her own words that “all generations shall call me blessed,” because she is indeed blessed. Blessed to be the Mother of Christ, blessed to be the Mother of a King. Blessed to be assumed into heaven, there to be crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Any denial of her royal prerogatives is to blaspheme Christ himself, for how could a king be born of a commoner?  Queens are chosen from royalty, and royal marriages were always arranged between the crowned heads of the European nations in order to preserve the royal bloodline of those families.  Christ chose our blessed Lady from the royal house of David.  She gave birth to him in David’s royal city, Bethlehem.  And if that were not enough, she had been granted the unique privilege of being conceived without the stain of original sin. When she died, her body was assumed into heaven along with her immortal soul, there to be crowned and to reign over all the angels and saints, and over us all.

When Christ, in his final moments on the Cross, gave her to St. John to be his Mother and ours, he gave us the great privilege of having a Queen for our Mother.  We were to be permitted a share in the royalty of Christ.  We are all the Children of Mary.  Today, one of us is given yet another honor of being chosen to crown our Blessed Lady as our Queen. We are all children of Mary, but it is surely it is our actual children who are the most like her in innocence, purity and goodness. This is why it is the tradition that a young girl should crown our Lady, and what an amazing honor it is to be chosen.  I know a lady who wanted to crown our Lady when she was a little girl.  She prayed very, very hard that she would be chosen, so hard in fact that when the day came, God guided the nuns to pick her for the honor.  She told me that this was the happiest day of her life, and one that has stayed in her memory to give her courage and comfort through all the hardships that she later endured.

Finally, let’s remember that this blessed Mother is the patron of all mothers everywhere, whose special day is celebrated today.  Each of you mothers should follow in the footsteps of St. Mary, ruling over your household as queen, and venerated by your obedient and humble children as their queen and mother.  Your crown may not be given you in this world, but I assure you, there is a special place in heaven for those who have shown such love and sacrifice that only a mother knows.  God bless you all this day!

CROWN HIM WITH MANY CROWNS

A HYMN FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF ASCENSION

1 Crown him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon his throne.
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing
of him who died for thee,
and hail him as thy matchless king
through all eternity.

2 Crown him the Lord of life,
who triumphed o'er the grave,
and rose victorious in the strife
for those he came to save;
his glories now we sing
who died and rose on high,
who died eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die.

3 Crown him the Lord of love;
behold his hands and side,
rich wounds, yet visible above,
in beauty glorified;
no angels in the sky
can fully bear that sight,
but downward bends their burning eye
at mysteries so bright.

4 Crown him the Lord of years,
the potentate of time,
creator of the rolling spheres,
ineffably sublime.
All hail, Redeemer, hail!
for thou hast died for me;
thy praise shall never, never fail
throughout eternity.

By Matthew Bridges, 1851

SPEAK AS THE ORACLES OF GOD

A MESSAGE FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF ASCENSION

We can’t wait to open our mouths and join in the conversations that go on around us.  Conversations about current events, deep theological matters, moral dilemmas, political controversies, even the most banal of subjects.  Sometimes we indulge in gossip, reluctantly perhaps, or maybe not. Our words are sometimes truthful, sometimes exaggerated, at other times, downright lies.  We talk to show off what we know, to pass the time, to keep others company, to get to know someone better.  We talk to the people we are with, and now with the help of technology, we talk to people on our cell phones, via Skype, or often simply by texting. We express our likes and dislikes, our opinions, our hopes and fears, our beliefs, our love and our hatred.

Considering that we were given two ears but only one mouth, it might seem that we give that mouth an inordinate amount of exercise.  Our first pope, St. Peter, in today’s Epistle, admonishes us that ifwe open our mouths to speak, we should speak “as the oracles of God.”  It would be most appropriate for us in our nightly examination of conscience to consider the words we have spoken during the course of the day, comparing them to the exhortation of St. Peter.  Has our speech been constantly as the oracles of God?  I think that if we were diligent in this examination, the lines for confession would be a lot longer on Sunday morning.

We might wonder what it is to speak “as the oracles of God.”  We could go into many details and distinctions on our tone of voice, our depth of meaning, the foundation of our words in charity and truth, our motivation for speaking to someone and the kindness with which our words are uttered.  But it all boils down to one thing: that when we speak, we do so with “the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord. This does not mean that every single conversation should be aboutGod specifically.  But it does mean that our every word should reflect something of God’s love, and never anything that would draw our hearer away from Him.  To do so would be true scandal, and would not be befitting for a Catholic gentleman or lady.

So let’s think before we open our mouths.  What is our motivation for speaking?  Do we have anything worthwhile to say?  Do we know that what we say is true and charitable?  This pause before you speak is worth more than all the words you are about to spew forth, so take the time to make that pause, and only then, let your words be as the oracles of God.

THE LIGHT GOES OUT

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF ASCENSION

I’m not sure exactly when the earth was created.  I don’t think anyone is really, although some might claim to know.  There is the famous Protestant bishop, for example, James Ussher, who supposedly calculated that God created the earth in the year 4004 BC, on October 23, at twelve o’clock in the afternoon.  It might be interesting to know, I suppose, but one thing is certain in the greater schemes of things concerning our eternal salvation, and that is, that it doesn’t really matter.

The division of time, you see, into centuries and years, is really nothing more than a useful tool for historians and farmers.  That the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066 might be important to me if I’m a contestant on Jeopardy, but otherwise I’d be no better or worse off if it happened a hundred years earlier or later.  There are some events in our history, however, that are so important for our salvation that we mark them on our calendars every year.  We make a point of celebrating such anniversaries with solemnity and festiveness, reminding ourselves that this indeed is a day in history that must never be forgotten.

Often these events are commemorated by some special ceremony.  On Armistice Day in Europe, for example, it is still common practice to mark the end of hostilities in World War I by two minutes’ silence.  And if our deliverance from the hands of the Germans is something to be remembered, with what solemnity should we commemorate our deliverance from sin and death by the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ?

In the whole span of human history the lifetime of Christ takes up a mere 33 years.  Thirty of these years took place in relative obscurity, from the moment of the Incarnation, to Christ’s birth in the stable, and then to the beginning of his public ministry.  Another three years and the time came for the Passion, Death and Resurrection.  And after that a mere forty days before he would leave this earth, ascending into heaven.

And what great ceremony takes place on Ascension Day to mark this extraordinary anniversary of the departure of the physical presence of God from his people?  It’s actually a very brief and simple ceremony.  You might easily miss it if you’re not paying attention.  It happens at only one of the Masses held in a church on this holyday of obligation, at the principal Mass held that day.  It’s not a big, lavish ceremony--immediately after the Gospel, one of the altar boys extinguishes the Paschal Candle.  That’s it.  No pomp, no solemn drumroll, no fireworks.  Just the simple snuffing out of a candle.

But think for a moment of the deep significance of that little action.  It represents the difference between light and darkness.  In the beginning, when God created the heaven and the earth, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  Darkness.  But then unto us a child was born, unto us a son was given.  This was the light of men, “and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.”  And because his own received him not, because from the beginning mankind had preferred to live sinfully according to their own pleasures rather than by doing the will of the their Creator, this light of men, whom they received not, whom they comprehended not, had to suffer death on the Cross.  He was nailed to that cross at midday, and the world was plunged again into darkness.  A darkness it had now known since its very beginning.  And “from the sixth hour,” according to the Gospel of St. Matthew, “there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.”  And in the church on Maundy Thursday, we extinguish all the candles and lights, stripping the altar, and leaving the house of God derelict and dark.

And then the Resurrection.  We light fire at the Easter vigil and bring that light into the church, with the announcement that it is the Lumen Christi, the light of Christ.  With great pomp and ceremony, the Paschal Candle is then lit, and one of the most solemn of the Church’s prayers, the Exsultet, is sung by the deacon to announce the significance of our vigil watch.  For the next forty days, the Paschal Candle is lit at Mass and solemn Vespers, and we rejoice throughout our Eastertide, in a world illuminated once again by the presence of our Lord and Saviour.

But on Ascension Thursday, something changes.  Christ departs this earth and returns to his heavenly Father.  It is not an unhappy occasion.  On the contrary.  But Ascension Day marks that moment in all of history, when Christ ceased to walk among us, no longer teaching, healing, forgiving, and redeeming.  His legacy we still have in the form of the Church, the Holy Scriptures, the Sacraments, and so forth—all the sacred truths and traditions of Holy Mother Church.  But even these, wonderful and priceless as they are, are can never make us feel the same as being in the physical presence of Christ in his visible human form.  We are like soldiers on the battlefield.  Now and again we may be comforted by a “letter from home”.  But that’s a far cry from being there, with those you love.

And thus, our Paschal Candle burns no more.  No longer does its bright flame shine forth its light, the “light of Christ” among us.  We must be content for a while with those “letters from home”, those reflections of the glory everlasting.  But the day will come, if we remain true and loyal to our faith and the love it teaches us, when our Father in heaven will allow us to follow his Son beyond the clouds into his kingdom.  There he will illuminate us with the light of glory, enabling us to behold him face to face, for ever.