Rejoicing with Mary

When you think of someone who is really holy, what are some of the characteristics that come to mind? Do you think of a monk off in a cave in the middle of the desert fasting and praying constantly? What about the parents of five kids doing their best to raise faithful children by teaching them how to pray and coming to church? What about a sister working in the inner city of a major metropolitan area teaching poor students? What do their faces look like? Are they joyful?

Today is traditionally called “Gaudate Sunday” from the latin phrase, “Let us rejoice.” We get this phrase from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians that is the opening antiphon to today’s mass, though we hear it just as strongly in the second reading today from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Paul says to us, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” This joy is a constitutive element of Christianity. We are to rejoice always. Our prayer is filled with rejoicing for the God who has accomplished so much in Christ Jesus. This means that we joyfully give thanks, which is another way of saying the word Eucharist. We cannot live dour lives if we are faithfully giving thanks for what God has accomplished in Christ Jesus. This is a distinctive feature of Christianity. Atheism leads to futility, frustration, and lack of meaning. Hedonism, or love of pleasure, cannot find joy in suffering and pain. Christianity, on the other hand, leads us to a profound sense of thankfulness and can even see through the pain of this world to the joy we will have in our everlasting home in heaven.

But St. Paul is no Pollyanna; He’s a saint. He recognizes three things that can take away the joy of faith. First he says, “Do not quench the Spirit.Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good. Refrain from every kind of evil.” Let’s face it, along our journey, there are people with different gifts. Some people are better at things than we are and, for some of us, there seems to be a lot of people that are better at things than we are. I can almost guarantee that all of you are better at science and math than I am. That’s not the way that my brain works. The danger is when someone is good at living the holy life. We can get jealous of them and their spirituality. This may lead us to try and prove the hypocrisy of them or we may try to copy their spirituality and find that it is not ours. This is why we are to try it out. If it draws you to God then it is good. If not, then don’t do it. This wisdom also governs the church’s attitude to private revelation. In other words, when people see an image of Mary or receive an appearance of Mary somewhere, the church never mandates belief in that because it is a personal, private experience that helps them grow in faith. If it helps other people to draw closer to God, then we tell them to retain it. If it doesn’t, then refrain from it.

So, living a joyful life means that we are called to live a life of holiness. Paul says, “May the God of peace make you perfectly holyand may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This life of holiness to which we are called is the definition of a joyful life. Sin is what brings about sadness. In our Eucharistic Prayer, it says, “Your Spirit is at work when understanding puts an end to strife, when hatred is quenched by mercy, and vengeance gives way to forgiveness.”Yet, the life of holiness itself can seem like a frustration. Oftentimes, in trying to rid ourselves of sin, we can become so fixated on our inadequacies that we can lose light of the forgiveness of God. There are people who become so fixated on this that they will confess the same sin over and over again. Others, in their frustration, simply stop trying to live the life of holiness and indulge in sensuality. This is why Paul prays “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it.” We cannot become frustrated in our sins and lose sight of the forgiveness of God and the forgiveness of the church. This Tuesday we will celebrate the last of our communal reconciliation liturgies, which is a sacramental way to celebrate God’s forgiveness. But, this Eucharist itself, forgives the minor sins that we commit and draws us closer into the body of Christ. It enflames our heart with the joy of Mary who’s joyful hymn was sung during the responsorial psalm, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked upon his lowly servant.” Let us rejoice with Mary this Sunday.

sede vaticansists

I've recently become re-aquainted with a group of people that believe there has been no legitimate pope since John XXIII. They found my email address somehow and were sending me evil material attempting to subvert my love of the pope and bishops.

It's sad. They have nothing positive to add to the conversation. They just complain about how everything has changed and is, therefore, bad. Because of their own ignorance and obstinence, they lead others away. They do incredible damage to the unity of the church and are, in many ways, acting as the anti-christ. I pray for them constantly in the hopes that they will realize that they not only don't have a leg to stand on but are being Judas. After all, Judas thought that, in betraying the Lord, he was saving the movement. These people think that they know more about what the truth of the faith is than the pope and can, therefore, betray him. Someday they will have to look God in the face and see how they are ripping apart the body of Christ, the church.

Pray for them, not only for the leadership but for the lost sheep that believe what these false prophets teach.

Limbo

Here's a great article about how John Paul II and Benedict have eliminated the concept of Limbo and a little bit about why. I love the line "...people should not think the changed focus is a lightweight embrace of warm, fuzzy feelings." See, that's why I don't hug!

Immaculate Conception

Since the death of John Paul II, I've felt very close to his spirituality. He felt a very close connection to Mary, an aspect of my own spirituality that I'd never felt before. He even attributed being saved from death to Mary.

I see this Immaculate Conception as a beginning of this spirituality in my life. I heard in the reading Mary's powerful role in reconciliation today. Her statement, "May it be done to me according to your word." undoes Adam and Eve's evasive statement's. Mary's trust in God is the example to all of us that, despite the difficutlties, we must we willing to submit to the will of God.

J P II loves you...shouldn't we too?

I read other catholic blogs to get an idea of what is being written. Some of the priests tend to be more conspiracy theorist than I am but I they almost always have somthing that I'd have missed otherwise. Here's one great example

JPII article

Now, I will admit that I am probably a little biased in this matter. I feel a special connection to John Paul the great, perhaps more after death than during his life. I've been reading his autobiography and some of his writings and I find them to be profoundly rooted in prayer. But even if I didn't believe that, I can't believe that people think that, since John Paul didn't do their pet project, he wasn't holy.

Gay Priests and LIES

I've been reticent to comment on the new document from the Congregation for Catholic Education because I was waiting to hear what "commentators" would say about it. I've heard the common misconceptions. People like William F. Buckley think priests need to have sex in order to be healthy...as long as it's heterosexual sex. Some give the relativist, "I don't believe that" attitude. Some believe the church is putting it's foot down on the sexual abuse crisis or call gay people evil. All of this is wrong and I'll show you why.

The vatican, in it's typical way, didn't root this in politics or sociology or anything secular. The vatican said, "By means of the sacrament of orders, the Holy Spirit configures the candidate to Jesus Christ in a new and specific way: the priest, in fact, sacramentally represents Christ, the head, shepherd and spouse of the Church...The candidate to the ordained ministry, therefore, must reach affective maturity. Such maturity will allow him to relate correctly to both men and women, developing in him a true sense of spiritual fatherhood towards the Church community that will be entrusted to him."

Further, "In the light of such teaching, this dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture.' Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women."

The argument, as far as I can tell, could be briefly stated in the following statements;
1. A priest is configured to Christ and must, therefore, mirror Christ.
2. Christ was not gay.
3. A priest cannot be gay.

This has nothing to do with married priests. This has nothing to do with the sexual abuse crisis. This has to do with the unique notion of priests "in personae Christi" (in the person of Christ). That's all.