School of Suffering, Part 2

Learning the prerequisite of involuntary suffering

02/22/2024

We take our seats now in the school of suffering, and you may feel some suffering in how long this homily is. We have said the school of suffering, commonly called the school of hard knocks, offers three courses, namely, (1) involuntary suffering, (2) voluntary suffering, and (3) Christian suffering. Think of this first course of involuntary suffering like a prerequisite to study the second and third courses. That is, only if we can find sense in suffering that is entirely unavoidable can we hope to discover any meaning in suffering that is voluntary and Christian. Only if we can first count 1, 2, 3 can we hope to perform the higher math of algebra, and perhaps even one day take a stab at quantum mechanics. You cannot take the MCAT to enter medical school until you demonstrate proficiency in prerequisite subjects like anatomy and chemistry. So, first we will try to make sense of involuntary, unavoidable, necessary suffering.

The first thing we notice about involuntary suffering is its universal scope. No matter how hard we try to shield our loved ones, or ourselves, from pain and hurt, the long hand of suffering eventually reaches out and lays a finger on each man, woman, child, and even priest. Every week I visit people who are seriously sick in the hospital. I used to feel very sorry for such people, but lately I feel less so. Why? It is not because I am losing compassion or empathy for them. Rather, I am growing in awareness that I will one day be in their hospital gown. That is, I, too, will become seriously sick, and end up in the hospital, and finally die. It is not a matter of if but of when. I don’t feel sorry for the sick, I feel a deep solidarity with them.

If you ever travel to Rome, I encourage you to visit the Bone Church as it is commonly called. Inside this Capuchin Franciscan church the furniture – tables, chairs, chandeliers, even altars – are constructed from the bones of deceased friars. Only crazy Catholics could cook up such a church. There is a prominent plaque which reads in three different languages, as if the bones themselves were speaking: “Where you are, we once were. Where we now are, you one day will be.” Those deceased Franciscan friars are encouraging their visitors not only to have solidarity with the sick, but solidarity with the dead. When we realize that in some shape or form suffering and finally death will lay its cold hand upon each and every one of us, we not only feel the first pang of solidarity with the sick and dying, but we also feel a need to make some sense out of involuntary suffering. Why do we die?

The best analysis I have read on the topic of unavoidable suffering, especially death, is the 1969 classic titled, On Death and Dying, by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. A psychiatrist by training, Dr. Kübler-Ross interviewed two hundred dying patients and discovered that they uniformly experienced five stages of grief. What’s more, she taught that if they could successfully navigate the road of suffering and death – by following this roadmap of five stages – they could not only endure the experience but also find a profound peace. By the way, I have found that these five stages of grief are a handy roadmap for any unavoidable suffering we meet: the loss of a job, a divorce, moving from one country to another, the death of a child, a mid-life crisis, and so forth. You will need this roadmap long before you lie on your deathbed. In other words, if there were one textbook for this preliminary course of involuntary pain and suffering, it would be On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

The first stage of grief is “denial and isolation.” For example, a patient feels shock and numbness at the news they have cancer and only a few years to live. The patient exclaims, “No, not me, it cannot be true” (On Death and Dying, 37). But Kübler-Ross also provides a positive reason for this denial, adding: “Denial functions as a buffer after unexpected shocking news, allows the patient to collect himself, and, with time, mobilize other, less radical defenses” (On Death and Dying, 38). That is, denial is not all bad. It provides a much needed emotional respite from the rude reality of extreme suffering in order to continue functioning and take care of the business of still living. We have just passed the first mile-marker on the rocky road of dealing with the involuntary suffering called death, namely, denial and isolation. Knowing you are on the right road and moving forward is half the battle of reaching the right destination.

The second stage of dealing with death and dying is “anger.” We look for someone to blame for my pain and loss, and if I cannot find a human culprit, I will blame God. Nonetheless, Kübler-Ross reminds us that anger also serves an important function in dealing with suffering, namely, asserting that the patient is still alive. She elaborates: “He will raise his voice, he will make demands, he will complain and ask to be given attention, perhaps as the last loud cry, ‘I am alive, don’t forget that. You can hear my voice, I am not dead yet!’” (On Death and Dying, 51). Here I might add that even if we are not the patient, as their family and friends, we can also feel anger in the face of intense pain, loss, or suffering that is vicarious. As the British poet Dylan Thomas eloquently expressed it: “Do not go gentle into that good night, / Old age should burn and rave against close of day; / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” In other words, the rage and anger is not only a sign of life and vitality – “I am not dead yet!” – in the person who is terminally ill, but also another mile-marker of progress on the road of dealing with involuntary suffering for everyone who suffers. The persecuted person is drawing one stage closer to peace.

The third stage is called “bargaining.” Kübler-Ross recognizes that bargaining usually brings God more squarely into the picture. She explains: "Most bargains are usually made with God and are usually kept a secret or mentioned between the lines or in a chaplain’s private office. In our individual interviews without an audience we have been impressed by the number of patients who promise ‘a life dedicated to God,’ or ‘a life in the service of the church’ in exchange for some additional time” (On Death and Dying, 81). In other words, there is a child-like quality to bargaining because children try to bargain with their parents for what they want or to get out of trouble. Again, the point at this stage is not to discourage the bargaining but to acknowledge it, and give the person some space to express himself. Notice how we are at a new stage of dealing with involuntary suffering. We are passing the third mile-marker on the road to peace.

The fourth stage of dealing with death and dying is “depression.” By the way, one popular definition I heard of depression is that it is anger turned inward. That is, we blame ourselves for our misfortune and become sad and melancholy. Kübler-Ross offers some surprising advice for the family and friends of the dying person: "The patient should not be encouraged to look at the sunny side of things, as this would mean he should not contemplate his death. It would be counter-indicated to tell him not to be sad, since all of us are sad when we lose one beloved person. The patient is in the process of losing everything and everybody he loves” (On Death and Dying, 85). So what should the dying patient’s family do? Dr. Kübler-Ross suggests: “There is no or little need for words. It is much more a feeling that can be mutually expressed and is often done better with a touch of a hand, a stroking of the hair, or just a silent sitting together” (On Death and Dying, 85). That is, whether the patient feels anger projected outward, or depression as anger turned inward, the best approach is to provide a safe space for the patient to express their feelings. They are showing progress, precisely in their sadness and depression, that they are passing the fourth mile-marker on the road of involuntary suffering. Some depressions are healthy.

Dr. Kübler-Ross terms the fifth and final stage “peace and acceptance.” She observes: “If the patient has had enough time and has been given some help in working through the previously described stages…he will contemplate his coming end with a certain degree of quiet expectation” (On Death and Dying, 109-10). I love her phrase “quiet expectation.” The tricky part of this stage is that it almost looks like the person is giving up or being a coward because they accept their fate. But it is the proper attitude of peace, and I would add, also trust in God. It is like that “trust game” where one person falls backward into the arms of another person whom they cannot see. Only if the seriously sick person has successfully navigated denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, can they fall into the arms of a loving God, and know he will not drop them, but embrace them lovingly forever.

My friends, sooner or later, we all face some suffering that is involuntary, we wish we could avoid them, but we cannot. And one day we will all face the ultimate suffering called death. That sounds scary and so we can resort to extreme measures to avoid it. Have you heard of the tech billionaire named Bryan Johnson, who started taking daily plasma transfusions from his seventeen-year old son, Talmage, to reverse the aging process? His project is simply called “Don’t Die.” If we try to figure out where Bryan Johnson is on Dr. Kübler-Ross’ roadmap, we might say he is still at the first stage of denial. That is, Johnson refuses to take this prerequisite course and is spending his fortune to avoid the unavoidable. I wish Mr. Johnson luck with his new venture. Meanwhile, back on earth, I suggest you learn the ropes of this first course in the school of hard knocks called involuntary suffering.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

School of Suffering

Trying to make sense out of suffering

02/20/2024

Since we have begun the season of suffering, also known as Lent, I would like to share with you a series of homilies on the topic of suffering. Now, admittedly, we Catholics perform lots of strange practices in our religion, but nothing seems as other-worldly as voluntary suffering: abstaining from meat on Fridays of lent, fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, giving up watching television, video games, social media, donating more to help the poor, etc. Why do we do such outlandish acts that make others, even other Christians, scratch their heads in bewilderment? Isn’t there enough suffering in the world; why go looking for more? The simple answer is because Jesus said so in Mt 16:24, paraphrasing our Lord: “Pick up your cross and follow me, if you would my disciple be.”

Now, that is a helpful answer for Catholic Christians, but we can ask the same question regarding the rest of the world. In particular why do the innocent suffer? Yesterday, I had the funeral of a premature baby who died shortly after birth. How do the parents of that little baby boy make sense of the suffering of their innocent child? What could be more senseless? And this is no theoretical or academic inquiry because human suffering is undoubtedly the strongest argument against the existence of a good God. Who has not cried out in anguish in a moment of acute pain: “How could God let this happen to me? If God is supposed to be good, how can he stand by and let the innocent suffer?”

C. S. Lewis put this case against God in its starkest possible terms in his book The Problem of Pain. While Lewis was still an atheist, he believed: “[Human ] history is largely a record of crime, war, disease, and terror, with just sufficient happiness interposed to give [people], while it lasts, an agonised (sic) apprehension of losing it, and, when it is lost, the poignant misery of remembering it” (p. 2). And then speaking of the human race collectively, he argues: “The [human] race is doomed…for the universe, they tell us, is running down, and will sometime be a uniform infinity of homogenous matter at low temperature. All stories will come to nothing; all life will turn out in the end to have been a transitory and senseless contortion upon the idiotic face of infinite matter” (p. 3). Or, as Wesley said to Princess Buttercup in the movie, “The Princess Bride,” “Life is pain, your highness. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.” That is, atheists would argue there is no sense in suffering. Anyone who says so is using it as a marketing gimmick to make money.

Over and against that perspective I would like to look at pain and suffering from three different angles to find some sense in it. First we will explore unavoidable suffering, especially the ultimate suffering called death. I like to say: “No one is getting out of here alive.” Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen once described our voluntary sacrifices as little deaths or dress rehearsals for the final act of our lives, namely, death. When we suffer we practice our lines until we say them perfectly, before we go on stage and take our final breath. Second, we will consider sufferings that are not necessary but voluntary. Some pains we pick. I mean suffering like exercise, eating salads, sleeping sufficiently, drinking more water and less soft drinks, piano lessons, football practice, etc. M. Scott Peck, opened his classic The Road Less Traveled with these memorable lines: “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths” (p. 15). Incidentally, Peck puts a footnote at the end of that sentence and elaborates: “The first of the ‘Four Noble Truths’ which Buddha taught was ‘Life is suffering'.” Some suffering we seek.

Thirdly, I want to examine more closely Christian suffering per se, that is, as a form of imitatio Christi, the imitation of Christ. St. Paul put it eloquently to the Colossians, writing: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Col 1:24). Of course, this understanding of Christian suffering flies in the face of the so-called “health and wealth gospel.” Have you heard of this new trend in Christianity, more importantly, do you subtly subscribe to it? It is the belief that God only wants us to be rich and happy. But if that is true, then God’s own Son was the most cursed man who lived since he lived and died penniless and persecuted. C. S. Lewis puts the record straight by quoting George MacDonald, who taught: “The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their suffering might be like His” (The Problem of Pain, vii). That is, Jesus did not come to make us rich and famous. He came to make us holy and humble. That goal requires all three kinds of suffering: involuntary, voluntary, and Christian.

Let me share with you a particularly painful episode in my life that taught me the inestimable value of suffering. The summer of 1991 I was enrolled in the Clinical Pastoral Education program (CPE for short) for chaplains at U.A.M.S. in Little Rock. Part of that program involved group therapy sessions, which I hated. Basically, everyone was expected to share their deepest, darkest secrets, whether you wanted to or not. The session typically began with everyone seated in chairs in a large circle, and a long awkward silence ensued. Eventually someone would crack and speak or ask a question. Immediately all eyes would turn to them, and they would find themselves on the hot seat. People would pepper them with questions probing and poking their feelings until they finally shared something especially personal and intimate. I usually kept my hands in my pockets where I could feel my rosary beads and prayed for the whole grueling hour.

One day it was my turn in front of the firing squad of interrogators. I tried to keep my sharing surface-level and sweet. But they would not have it. I don’t remember their exact questions, but they stripped away all my protective layers and walls, until someone finally asked me, “Why do you want to become a priest?” And on the verge of tears, I blurted out, half-sobbing, “Because I love the Church!” And then the dam broke, and the tears flowed freely. For the first time in my life I admitted something I had believed deeply but had never noticed or articulated. I love the Catholic Church, and I would die for her. To this day I am still in shock how my answer surprised me, embarrassed me, and yet also made me proud. But I am convinced that self-discovery would not have been possible without the emotional pain and suffering, the awkwardness and the anguish, of feeling like a frog spread naked and dissected in a high school anatomy class. And I am forever grateful for that excruciating experience that taught me the truth about my vocation.

There are two ways to learn something. We can read about other people’s experiences in books, at a safe distance, but that is not the best way. Or, we can learn things in the school of hard knocks, the school of suffering. The lessons we learn there – where pain is our professor – we will never forget. And those will be the most important lessons in life. C. S. Lewis reminisces over the death of his wife, Joy Grisham, and the unendurable pain he felt, writing: “Nothing less will shake a man – or at any rate a man like me – out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself” (A Grief Observed, 38). It took CPE to knock me silly so I could come to my senses about how much I loved the Church. I was finally enrolled in the school of hard-knocks, the school of suffering. And this school offers a curriculum of three courses: (1) involuntary suffering, (2) voluntary suffering, and (3) Christian suffering. And our only professor will be pain.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

The Bride of Christ, Part 3

Exploring the model of the bride of Christ

02/19/2024

When Fr. Daniel asked me to teach some classes on the Church – ecclesiology is the technical term for the study of the Church – he suggested I use Cardinal Avery Dulles’ book Models of the Church. That was an excellent suggestion because Dulles highlights five different models or ways we understand the Church. Think about each model as a facet of the diamond of the Church. As we explore each model we are, in effect, turning this brilliant diamond in our hand and admiring it from different sides as the light of faith refracts off it and deepens our understanding. Those five sides or facets are: (1) an institution, (2) a mystical communion, (3) a sacrament, (4) a herald, and (5) a servant.

But as I read through Dulles’ exposition, one model of the Church was conspicuously absent, namely, as the bride of Christ. Still, I became hopeful when I saw Dulles included an appendix called, “The ecclesiology of Pope John Paul II.” I thought: “Surely, there he will discuss the church as the bride of Christ,” one of John Paul’s favorite descriptors for the Church. But sadly, he only made a brief passing remark, noting: “In this receptive aspect, the Church may be understood as bride” (p. 228). That was all the attention Dulles accorded the Church as the bride of Christ, and in my opinion, that was a glaring oversight. So, before we begin to admire these five facets of the diamond of the Church as institution, mystical communion, sacrament, herald, and servant, I want to give adequate attention to the Church as bride of Christ, which, I believe (and sorry for changing metaphors), stands like the Himalayan mountains next to the peaks of the Ozarks, which would be these other models.

Before going further let me head off a potential objection to seeing the Church as bride. Some modern feminists might feel that image or model belittles or denigrates the Church and places it in a subservient role. After all, didn’t St. Paul teach, “let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands” (Ep 5:24)? But I found a helpful balance to St. Paul’s perspective in G. K. Chesterton. He made this astounding observation about the meaning of wearing a skirt or dress. Chesterton points out: "It is quite certain that the skirt means female dignity, not female submission; it can be proven by the simplest of all tests…[W]hen men wish to be safely impressive as judges, priests, or kings, they do wear skirts, the long trailing robes of female dignity. The whole world is under petticoat government; for even men wear petticoats when they wish to govern.” And we witness this female monarchy operative in the animal kingdom, too, where among ants and bees the queen rules and the males are the subjects. In other words, when we regard the Church under the aspect of the bride of Christ – as a woman who wears a skirt – that model in no way lowers her status in society or even in the great chain of being, but rather elevates her to the highest rung of that social ladder. And I believe even St. Paul would agree with this assessment, as we will see shortly.

I would like to consider two sources that can teach us about the Church as bride, first in the liturgy, and second in the Scriptures. Have you ever noticed the pronoun we use at Mass when we refer to the whole Church? We use the feminine singular “she” or “her.” We do not employ “he” or much less “it.” And I believe that is both very deliberate and very significant. For example, in Eucharistic Prayer II, you will recall the priest saying: “Remember, Lord, your Church, spread throughout the world, and bring HER to the fullness of charity…” (emphasis added). In our modern culture of gender fluidity – he/she/they – there is nothing fluid about the use of the feminine singular to refer to the Church. that humble fixed pronoun reveals the Church’s deepest identity as the bride of Christ.

Even our roles as participants in the liturgy reinforce this image of the Church as bride. How so? In the Catholic Church only men are ordained as priests. That male-only priesthood is not an indication that Catholics are just old fashioned and cannot get with the times. That rule reflects, rather, the deeper reality of who Christ is and who we are corporately in relation to him, that is, a bride. In other words, just as Jesus’ masculinity (in his human nature) is constitutive of his identity as the Son of God, so the Church’s femininity is essential to her identity as the bride of Christ. To disregard her femininity would be an affront not only to the Church but also to her Savior, and her Spouse. The two go hand-in-hand. C. S. Lewis touched on these irreversible roles in the liturgy remarking: “[I]t is an old saying in the army that you salute the uniform and not the wearer. Only one wearing the masculine uniform can (provisionally and until the Parousia) represent the Lord to the Church: for we are all corporately and individually feminine to Him” (God in the Dock, 239). That is, one reason – perhaps the chief reason – we do not have women priests is because it would blur the true identity not only of Christ but also of his Church.

The second source from which we can explore this model of the Church as the bride of Christ is Sacred Scripture, the foundation of all Christian faith and life. The two inspired authors who most frequently employed the image of the bride of Christ for the Church were St. Paul and St. John. Combined, they penned eighteen of the twenty-seven books (roughly two-thirds) of the New Testament. So their perspective permeates and even predominates the New Testament. One particularly noteworthy episode in John’s gospel is John the Baptist’s final testimony about Jesus. In Jn 2:29, we read: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend (or best man) of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full.” Notice John the Baptist’s extended analogy, where he describes Jesus as the Bridegroom, the Church as his bride, and himself as the friend or best man! I was the best man at my brother’s wedding, and in a sense, I am the liturgical equivalent to a best man at every wedding I celebrate because I rejoice to see Jesus symbolically present in every human bridegroom, and the Church represented by every human bride. Like John the Baptist my “joy is made full” at every wedding, where I get a front row seat to a preview of the end of the world. How so? St. John again uses this analogy in the book of Revelation, writing: “Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb’” (Rv 21:9). In other words, the best way to describe the end of the world is as a cosmic wedding, where Jesus is the eternal Groom, and the Church is his eternal Bride.

St. Paul develops the model of the Church as the bride of Christ in a profound way in Ephesians 5. There he advises husbands to love their wives like Jesus loves us: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her” (Ep 5:25). That is, men called to Christian marriage should love their wives sacrificially, like Jesus who died on the cross for us, his bride. After exploring this analogy in terms of Baptism – how Jesus washes the Church – and Eucharistic themes – how Jesus feeds and nourishes his Church – St. Paul concludes: “This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church” (Ep 5:31). One of the most touching gestures at the wedding reception is when a bride and groom feed each other the first piece of wedding cake. St. Paul picks up on that gesture and compares it to the Eucharist. In other words, at every Mass when you come forward for Holy Communion it is Jesus in the priest who is feeding you wedding cake in that Holy Wafer. By the way, this is why the traditional way of receiving Holy Communion was directly on the tongue. The bride at the wedding reception does not say: “Give me the cake; I’ll put it in my own mouth. I’ve got better aim.” Please don’t misunderstand, you are welcome to receive Holy Communion on the hand, I just wanted to explain the scriptural origin of receiving on the tongue. In other words, receiving Holy Communion on the tongue emphasizes who the Church truly is, namely, the bride of Christ. And perhaps this is why the Eucharist is best described as a wedding banquet. To return to St. John’s Revelation, we read: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rv 19:9).

I would suggest to you that it is not only John and Paul who are preoccupied with this model of the Church as the bride of Christ. But in a real sense, this image or model can be traced like a golden thread running through virtually every page of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. Pope St. John Paul II with good reason, therefore, called marriage “the primordial sacrament,” because it was present in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, it is embodied in every human marriage like each of yours, and it will be fully manifested in the eternal marriage of Jesus the Bridegroom and the Church the bride of Christ at the end of time. This is why I am convinced that to miss the model of the Church as the bride of Christ is to miss virtually the overriding message of the liturgy and the Bible. That is, we risk missing who Jesus truly is, and who we are as his Church. And hence the Second Vatican Council taught: “Christ…fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (Gaudium et Spes, 22). And I would only add that our “supreme calling” is to be the bride of Christ.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Desert of Doctrine

Entering the desert in order to find Jesus

02/18/2024

Mk 1:12-15 The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

Some parishioners regularly send me jokes that I might use in my homilies. Do you think they’re trying to tell me my homilies are to serious and I need to lighten things up? So, here’s a little humor to lighten the mood today. The Baptist minister had been summoned to the beside of a Presbyterian woman who was quite ill. As he went up the sidewalk to her house, he met the little daughter of the woman. He said to her, “I am very glad your mother remembered me in her illness. Is your own minister out of town?” The child answered, “Oh, no. He’s at home. But we thought this disease might be something contagious, so we didn’t want to expose him to it.” And now you know why I send Fr. Bala to the hospital all the time – just kidding!

I mention that joke because sooner or later in our own journey with Jesus we will have to go where we don’t feel comfortable, that is, into a kind of desert experience. Why? Well because that is where Jesus goes in the gospel today. In Mark’s rather condensed gospel account, we read: “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts and angels ministered to him.” That is, just like the Baptist minister was called to the beside of a woman who was suffering from some contagious disease, so Jesus is drive into the desert, an unwelcoming and inhospitable place, to raise the flag of faith. In other words, if we are going to be called followers of Christ, we, too, must venture into the desert behind the Lord.

My friends, we have begun our forty days of Lent with the penitential practices prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. And those are great. But may I invite you to experience a different kind of desert this Lent? Even though we are all doing our best to be Catholic, no one is quite 100% Catholic, not even the guy talking to you. That is, there are certain doctrines that hit us the wrong way, and we doubt them or even deny their truth. They make us feel uncomfortable, almost like being in a dry, arid, even hostile desert. Let me mention four different deserts of doctrine and invite you to enter them this Lent.

The first doctrine that makes some Catholics feel like they are in the desert is prolife and the unconditional protection of the unborn. That is, they feel that access to abortion is the best solution for women in crisis and unplanned pregnancies. If the prolife issue feels like a parched and dry desert to you, this Lent let me urge you to read what the Church teaches regarding the sacredness of human life from womb to tomb in the Catechism, and in statements from the United States bishops. If you are a pro-choice Catholic, then venture into the pro-life desert this Lent.

A second doctrine that some Catholics wince at and even reject is welcoming the stranger, and especially the immigrant stranger. If you feel that way, this Lent read Mt 2:13-15, where the Holy Family had to emigrate to Egypt to save the Baby Jesus from Herod. Today immigrants are also fleeing for their lives and it is incumbent on us to welcome them. Why? Because Jesus will teach later in Mt 25:35 one of the criterion to be saved is: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me.” In other words, it is Jesus and the Holy Family standing at the southern border. Can you enter the doctrinal desert of welcoming the immigrant this Lent?

A third doctrine that might make these forty days feel more like Lent for some Catholics is lovingly welcoming those who categorize themselves as LGBTQ+. Clearly, Catholic doctrine about marriage and sexuality is not up for discussion. Nonetheless, what are some ways we can make all people feel welcome and not as second-class citizens in the Church? Perhaps you can read the Vatican statement Fiducia Supplicans on the pastoral meaning of giving an informal, spontaneous blessing to all people, even those of the LGBTQ+ persuasion. You might also want to read to listen to three homilies I gave on that same topic called “The Blessing Bombshell.” Don’t you just love shameless self-promotion?

A fourth, but hardly final, desert of doctrine is the common practice of contraception in many Christian marriages. Indeed, it is so commonplace that many Catholic couples are surprised the Church still teaches it. Folks, the Catholic Church has consistently and unwaveringly taught the immorality of contraception even though most Protestant churches accept is as morally licit. I would especially encourage you to read Pope St. John Paul II’s extraordinary teaching called “the theology of the body.” I also gave some homilies on the theology of the body which are also available on our church website. In other words, could contraception be the desert of doctrine the Spirit is driving you into this Lent?

They taught us in the seminary that a good sermon should “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Well, I hope the joke at the beginning of this homily sort of “comforted you” and helped you to relax. But the rest of this homily may have “afflicted you” and challenged you, showing you that sometimes Catholic doctrine can feel like a desert when we disagree with them. When we have the courage to enter these deserts of doctrine, we will experience what Jesus did: temptations by Satan to reject the faith, wild beasts of challenging Church teaching, angels who minister to us and inspire us, and most importantly, we will find Jesus himself. And obviously, I need more jokes in my homilies.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

  

Triple Fast

Learning the triple entendre of the word fast

02/14/2023

Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Jesus said to his disciples: "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. "When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you."

Do you know what a double entendre is? It is a word or phrase that has a double meaning. For example Scott Hahn recently wrote a book about death and the resurrection entitled “Hope to Die.” Can you hear the double entendre – the double meanings – in that title? Well, today I want to teach you a triple entendre, that is, a word with three meaning, namely, “fast.” What are the three meanings of the word “fast”?

First, fast can mean a speed, like fast or slow. For instance, my dog Apollo can run super fast, whereas I run super slow. By the way, I recently challenged the students in our elementary school to a race, and I beat all of them! How big does a man’s ego have to be to need to beat 5th graders in a race to feel good? So that is one meaning of the word “fast” – Fr. John is fast on his feet.

A second definition of “fast” is the way Jesus uses it in the gospel today. Our Lord teaches: “When you fast do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.” This secondary meaning of fast refers obviously to food. Let me review the rules about fasting from food for Catholics. Catholics who are 14 or older abstain from meat, which, by the way, includes alligators and frog-legs (for those of you from Louisiana). And those who are 18 to 59 should fast by eating one normal meal and two small meals today. I like to say if it didn’t hurt a little, you didn’t do it right. So, the second meaning of fast is to fast from food.

The third meaning – the triple entendre – of fast I found from Pope Francis. He recommends that this Lent we fast from feelings that are not healthy or holy. He urged: “Fast from hurting words and say kind words. Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude. Fast from anger and be filled with patience. Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope. Fast from worries and have trust in God.”

He continued: “Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity. Fast from bitterness and fill your hearts with joy. Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others. Fast from grudes and be reconciled. Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.” In other words, the third kind of fasting is from negative feelings.

On Ash Wednesday, we see people practicing all three meanings of fast. How so? Well, everyone uses their feet and comes fast to Mass. No one misses Mass on Ash Wednesday. I even saw a mother and daughter running fast to Mass this morning while I was walking Apollo. They had fast feet. Today we hear in the Bible how Jesus tells us to fast from food with a smile, that is, not to look gloomy.

And third, Pope Francis encourages us to fast from feelings of hurt, sadness, anger, pessimism, worries, complaints, pressures, bitterness, selfishness, and grudges. And even if we do not have fast feet or fast from food every day, we can still fast from negative feelings not only at Lent but even for our whole life. And that is how you can be triple fast!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

The Bride of Christ, Part 2

How the house don't fall when the bones are good

02/13/2024

Today we pick up again the subject of the nature of the true Church. Yesterday we began to see the Catholic Church more clearly when we held it up next to Protestant churches in general, sort of juxtaposing them side-by-side as people decided to leave one and enter the other. Today we must address another preliminary matter, namely, did Jesus want to establish a church in the first place? If we find that Jesus had no intention of founding a formal church with some specific structure and a stated purpose, we can end this study, close our Bibles, and go home. It is popular to ask: WWJD, meaning, What Would Jesus Do? in this or that specific situation. We too want to base our understanding of the Church on our Lord’s intentions regarding the Church. In other words, just like we want to do what Jesus would do today, so too we want to build on the foundation (if any) he laid 2,000 years ago. And so it is incumbent that we ask: did Jesus lay any foundation for a church at all?

One would think the matter was settled once and for all as soon as we read Mt 16:18, the famous dialogue at Caesarea Phillipi. There Jesus plainly declared his intention about his Church to his first pope: “And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” What could be more clear and unassailable than that Jesus’ intention was to create a Church so stalwart and enduring that not even Hades could defeat it? And yet this is precisely what people cast doubt on and some even deny. How do they question what seems Jesus’ manifest intention? Some Christians create a false dichotomy between a spiritual and invisible church (on the one hand) and a structural and visible church (on the other hand), and further insist Jesus came to establish the first but not the second. Sometimes you hear an echo of this thinking when people say: “What difference does it make what church you attend as long as you still believe in Jesus? After all, we are all worshiping the same God.” Have you heard people say that, or maybe expressed that opinion yourself?

I can sympathize with people who hold that view, especially Catholic parents who raised their children Catholic, but who now attend non-denominational churches. But notice what they are implicitly asserting about Jesus’ desire in Mt 16:18: Jesus did not come to establish a structural, visible, hierarchical, even juridical church, but rather a fellowship or spiritual community of believers whose primary source of unity is faith in Jesus. But this same fellowship of believers could be dramatically divergent – even contradictory – on other matters. In other words, just like we ask today WWJD, so we must ask retroactively, what did Jesus do in Mt 16:18? Did our Lord establish, as Cardinal Avery Dulles put it in his quickly-becoming classic Models of the Church: “a formally organized or structured society [or] an informal or interpersonal community (p. 39). This unhealthy bifurcation between society and community, at least in part, explains the exponential growth in so-called non-denominational churches like Community Bible, Fellowship Bible, and Life Church, etc. Please don’t misunderstand me. I have no doubt there are countless genuine and zealous Christians filling the seats in those churches. And in noteworthy ways their faith puts Roman Catholics to shame. Scott Hahn once said that Protestants do more with what little they have than most Catholics do with the fullness of faith that we possess. So, Catholics have no cause for boasting.

Nonetheless, are those spiritual, invisible, fellowships and community churches what Jesus intended to establish in Mt 16:18 when he said, “on this rock I will build my Church”? I believe the correct answer is “Yes” but with the caveat that Jesus intended more than that. That is, our Lord desired both a spiritual community but also a structural society, an invisible fellowship but one supported by a visible institution, people filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit but also governed by canon laws, or again as Avery Dulles articulates it: “a community of men primarily interior but also expressed by external bonds of creed, worship, and ecclesiastical fellowship” (p. 48). Perhaps a comparison to the human body would be helpful. Just like you need a strong skeletal system (bones) to provide a rigid structure to support the muscles and organs so that a person can run and jump, dance and sing, so the spiritual side of the church needs the structural, formal side to support it. They work in tandem and in unison, not in opposition or competition. Indeed, they are symbiotic and cannot stand alone. As Maren Morris sang, “The house don’t fall when the bones are good.” She was talking about her loving relationship with her husband and comparing it to a house that stands strong because of a solid deep commitment that is the supporting structure, the bones. That combination of love and laws, of both the spiritual and the structural, is the Church that Jesus intended to establish in Mt 16:18.

May I just point out the four pillars or the structural bones of the house of the Church that Jesus constructed? This is how the four basic sections of the Catechism of the Catholic Church are often described. Are you familiar with how the Catechism is divided into four parts or pillars, or I would say bones? The first pillar or bone of the house of the Church is “The Profession of Faith,” the Creed we recite every Sunday. Jesus started outlining this Creed in Jn 14:1, where he asserted: “Believe in God; believe also in me.” The second pillar or bone is “The Celebration of the Christian Mystery,” which is essentially the seven sacraments. Jesus manifests his intention regarding celebrating the sacraments starkly in Jn 6:54 about the Eucharist, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” The third pillar or bone is called “Life in Christ,” which consists of the Ten Commandments and the Christian moral code. Jesus’ intention regarding Christian conduct is explicit in Mt 5:27-28, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And the fourth pillar or bone is “Christian Prayer,” which entails the long tradition of prayer modeled by numerous saints and mystics but all pouring forth from the fountainhead of the Lord’s own prayer, the Our Father. Jesus intentions and teaching about the Lord’s Prayer can be found in Mt 6:5-15, and in particular verse 9: “This is how you are to pray.”

These are the four pillar or structural bones upon which Jesus first erected his Church. Again, this formal, structural, and visible church is in no way set in opposition to or competition with the informal, spiritual, and invisible fellowship and community of believers. Both are held in a healthy and holy tension, one as necessary as the other, and that is why Jesus included both of them in his Church from the beginning. “The house don’t fall when the bones are good.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

The Bride of Christ, Part 1

Understanding the true nature of the Catholic Church

02/12/2024

Three years ago our former associate pastor, Fr. Daniel Velasco, asked me to give some talks on the Catholic Church to a class of candidates for spiritual direction. He said the classes would stretch over three years, one class per weekend, from 2022 through 2025. I asked him, “When is the last possible date I can give that class?” he answered: “Spring of 2025.’ I said: “Okay, sign me up for that date, and maybe Jesus will come back in glory before then and I can get out of that commitment.” The way things are going these days, his speedy return does not seem out of the question. But just in case the Good Lord stays in heaven longer, I want to share those reflections on the true nature of the Catholic Church. Today we will consider one preliminary point, namely, what joining the Catholic Church can teach us about the true Church.

The moment when many people notice the unique nature of the Catholic Church is when they decide to change churches. Some Catholics become disgruntled with all the rules and regulations of being Catholic so they leave and join another denomination. Some of my Episcopalian friends joke: “We are Catholic Lite.” That is, just like you have regular beer and light beer, so some find Catholicism like regular beer, and Protestantism like light beer: fewer calories but also less Christ. But no one can deny that it is remarkably easier to join a Protestant denomination than to become Roman Catholic. All you have to do to join a Protestant Church, as far as I am aware, is fill out a membership form, and you’re in. There are no intrusive investigations about your marital history, no queries about whether or not you have already been baptized (and then produce a certificate to prove it!), no need for an annulment for previous marriages, no parading people to the front of the sanctuary to make them state their intention publicly, etc.

Basically, it looks like Protestants have cut through all the theological red tape and focused on the essential core of Christianity: a personal faith in Jesus Christ. Hence, the one and only relevant question in order to become a Protestant: “Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?” If you can answer affirmatively, you are automatically a Protestant Christian and therefore assured of your eternal salvation. Or, if you respond negatively, then come to a Protestant church as soon as possible in order to learn why that question – and its affirmative answer – are so urgent. It doesn’t take a doctorate degree to see how tempting, and even theologically plausible, it appears to jump ship out of the Bark of Peter (the ancient symbol of the Catholic Church) and join any number of local, or now even online, Protestant churches. I have often heard the statistic that the largest single Christian denomination in the United States is Roman Catholic. The second largest denomination is ex-Catholics. And when you consider how easy it is to go from Catholicism to Protestantism, you can well believe that stat, and suddenly the true nature of the Roman Catholic Church starts to emerge and come into full relief.

This same insight can be gained not only by those who leave the Catholic Church, but also by those who desire to join the Catholic Church. Invariably, Protestants, and even non-Christians, are surprised (shocked may be more accurate) at how long and arduous the process is to become Catholic, called RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Recently, on November 17, 2021 the United States bishops renamed that process as OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. I am still getting used to that change, so forgive me if I revert back to RCIA, and don’t report me to Bishop Taylor. But RCIA, or OCIA, is approximately a nine-month program to become Catholic. People interested in Catholicism attend weekly classes – here at Immaculate Conception we meet on Tuesday evenings – to learn about all the multi-dimensional aspects of Roman Catholicism. It is a crash-course in Catholicism, where we teach about the Holy Trinity, church history, the sacraments, Mary and the saints, deacons, priests and bishops, church architecture, relics and statues, incense and bells, etc. They hear the A-Z of being a Catholic. Last week two people came to talk to me about becoming Catholic. They said they have started to come to Mass, but sit quietly in the back and just watch our Catholic calisthenics: our standing, kneeling, and sitting.

But RCIA is not merely “head knowledge.” It is also, and principally, a transformation of the heart called conversion. Conversion means a turning toward Jesus in all aspects of our life, where we hold nothing back from him. We do not cultivate little gardens in the back of our hearts that we reserve for ourselves, which Jesus cannot touch. Hence we ask about previous marriages and getting an annulment if necessary. We inquire whether the candidate has been baptized, and if so, we do not require them to be re-baptized. We explain our Catholic commitment to help the poor, to protect the unborn, to welcome the stranger and immigrant, and to save the environment. As a result, becoming Catholic is not a matter of finding a “conservative church” or a “liberal church. “ It is far more about finding the “true church.” Roman Catholicism transcends cultural categories like liberal or conservative. The Church Jesus established is too big to fit inside such small-minded boxes. It is like a child trying to pour the ocean into his little bucket sitting by the seashore. If you are coming to the Catholic Church to hear preaching about political views – like our comfortable little echo chambers – you will be disappointed. When you begin to explore the Roman Catholic Church, you always find more than you bargained for. In other words, our faith is bigger than us, and that is the way true faith should be if it really comes from God and is not a product of our own imagination.

So, the real question is: if it is so easy to become a Protestant and so Herculean to become a Catholic, why on earth would anyone bother to do it? The main reason is because people hear God’s voice whispering in their heart to consider Catholicism, like those two people who came to talk to me last week. In fact, their families are adamantly against their decision, and so these brave people will have to overcome both internal and external pressure. But people have been converting to Christ and his Church with enormous personal cost since the saints and martyrs of the early Church. Just think of the men and women, and even teenagers, like Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Joan of Arc, who were willing to die before leaving the Church. These heroic souls cling to the Church, because they have found the Truth, the truth about who Jesus is, and the truth about who they are. They could just as soon walk away from the Catholic Church as walk away from themselves.

Scott Hahn, who was a Presbyterian minister and became Catholic in 1986, paying a great personal and professional price, made this memorable analogy. He said imagine all the people in the world are in a swimming race in the middle of the ocean. Everyone has to swim to the finish line, the only difference is that Catholics are in a speed boat. And that is why, even though it is easy to leave the Church, and feels hard if not impossible, to join the Church, people are still climbing onboard the Bark of St. Peter, the Roman Catholic Church.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Touching Your Face

Seeing the significance of the human face

02/09/2024

Mk 7:31-37 Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!") And immediately the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, "He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

In the gospel today did you notice how Jesus performed an extremely intimate gesture? He touches a man’s face with his hand. If you have ever touched someone else’s face, or someone has touched your face, you know how intimate it is: almost like a kiss. Jesus reaches out and touches a man’s ears and his tongue so that he is cured of his deafness and muteness. As a result, the man can hear and speak perfectly.

By the way, have you seen how priests and deacons imitate that exact gesture at baptisms? We put one finger on the baby’s ears, and another on his lips, and pray the baby’s ears will open to hear God’s word, and his lips will someday profess the Christian faith. Jesus’s gesture invites us to meditate on the human face. Let me draw out five fun facts about touching your face.

First, you can control the look on your face. You can choose to smile or frown, you are free to look surprised or angry, you can convey frustration or fear. One day President Abraham Lincoln was interview people for a cabinet position. One person came in with impeccable credentials and lots of recommendations. After the interview the president said he would not hire the man.

The aide asked surprised, “Why not? He was the ideal candidate!” Lincoln replied, “I didn’t like the look on the man’s face.” The aide continued: “You didn’t hire him just because of the look on his face?” Lincoln explained: “Every man over 40 is responsible for the look on his face.” In other words, the look on your face is the first impression you make on others. Make a good first impression and smile when you meet someone, especially the president.

A second fun fact: we should avoid touching our own face. Did you see the movie “Contagion” with Kate Winslet and Jude Law? It came out before the COVID pandemic. She says that the average person touches their face between 2,000 to 3,000 times a day. In the movie that’s one of the key ways a world-wide virus spreads. Teenagers know that touching your own face is also what contributes to acne. Why? Well, because you put the oil from your fingers on your face and produces pimples. Today, pay attention to how many times you inadvertently touch your face, and try to avoid it.

A third fun fact: when you have a conversation with someone, where do you look? I don’t know about your but I usually look at a person’s mouth because that’s the part of their face that is moving. But where should you look when you talk to someone? In their eyes. Why? Well because the eyes are the windows of the soul. When you look someone in the eyes, you don’t stop on the surface but look deep inside them. The third fun fact, therefore, is to look at each person you meet straight in the eyes, and then you will see more than meets the eyes.

Fourth fun fact: some people try to maintain a perpetual Poker face. Have you ever heard of that? That means they try to hide their true feelings by not showing any emotion on their face, as if nothing ever bothered them. Poker players try to look cool, calm, and confident. But really good poker players know that everyone has a “tell” – a sign or signal that betrays how they really feel. If they are holding four Aces, or are bluffing with a bum hand.

But what’s good in poker is not good for dealing daily with people. That is, let others see how you feel by the expression on your face. I tell engaged couples who come to me for marriage preparation, “The worst thing that can happen to you on your wedding day is that you marry a stranger.” That is, if you try to keep a poker face all the time, no one will really get to know the real you. You will remain a stranger to others, and maybe even to yourself.

And fifth, pay close attention to the look other people have on their face, and react with kindness and sensitivity. If someone looks sad, then try to comfort to sympathize with them. If someone looks nervous or afraid, try to reassure them or befriend them. If someone looks stressed or exhausted, try to give them some space or help them to relax.

This is called non-verbal communication and it is a very important skill to develop. I love the song by Neal McCoy called “That Wink.” It’s all about the non-verbal communication of winking. Here are a couple of verses: “I woke up this morning my head felt dense/ I splashed it with water trying to make it make sense / I stumbled to the kitchen she was standing at the sink / All she had to do was just give me that wink.” The refrain goes: “And slam-bam I’m feelin alright / Troubles take a hike in the wink of an eye / Don’t need to psychoanalyze or have a stiff drink / All she’s gotta do is just give me that wink.” Sometimes what we don’t say can be more powerful than an avalanche of words.

Boys and girls, this coming Wednesday is February 14 and thus Valentine’s Day. I don’t know if you have a sweetheart or not, but keep this homily handy. One of the most intimate things you can do is touch someone’s face, especially the face of your beloved. If you learn these five fun facts about touching the human face, perhaps this Valentine’s Day your sweetheart will touch your face with a kiss, and not with a slap.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Blessing Bombshell, yet again

Seeing similarities between blessings and sacramental

02/06/2024

I hope you are able to tolerate yet another homily on the subject of the Blessing Bombshell. I want to revisit the Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans allowing Catholic clergy to spontaneously bless everyone, regardless of their moral uprightness or marital status. Fiducia Supplicans, as you may recall, was promulgated on December 18, 2023, and its subtitle was “On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings.” This homily will continue to explore that “pastoral meaning” and try to show it is not new or unorthodox. In the month of February we celebrate special liturgies that offer us fresh insights into the nature of blessings because the Church employs the frequent use of sacramentals. How do sacramentals help us better understand blessings? Just as we distinguish between big-B Blessings from small-b blessings – that is, between formal, liturgical Blessings and informal, spontaneous blessings – so the Church draws a similar distinction between big-S Sacraments and the small-s sacramentals, like holy water, blessed candles, etc.

Before we go any further, are you familiar with the sacramentals? Think of sacramentals like mini-sacraments. They are like the sacraments because they use some visible sign to communicate God’s love, mercy, and grace, but they are unlike the sacraments because they do not reach the same degree of efficacy as one of the seven sacraments. For example, holy water is a sacramental, and we use it to bless ourselves every time we walk into church. Notice how the use of the sacramental of holy water allows someone to bless themselves without the involvement of a priest or deacon. Another sacramental is the blessing of throats with blessed candles on the feast of St. Blase, which is imparted by both clergy and lay ministers. And another wildly popular sacramental employed around February is the distribution of ashes on Ash Wednesday. Incidentally, no one misses Mass on Ash Wednesday! It’s like that church billboard that said emphatically: “It’s Ash Wednesday: get your ash in church!”

Now, here is the critical difference between a sacrament and a sacramental. A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ; whereas, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sacramentals “are sacred signs instituted by the Church” (Catechism, 1677). The sacraments come straight from Christ, the Head, while the sacramentals are creations of the Church, his Body. In a sense, sacramentals have a derivative value insofar as they are smaller and simpler expressions of the seven principal sacraments properly so-called. And further, every sacramental should inspire people to a fuller and more faithful celebration of the major sacraments themselves. We might compare sacramentals to appetizers that make us hungry for the main course of the seven sacraments. For example, blessing ourselves with holy water should remind us of Baptism and being born again as children of God by water and the Holy Spirit. Ashes on the forehead remind us to repent of our sins and the need to receive the absolution of a priest in sacramental confession. That is, sacramentals are not intended to be substitutes for the sacraments but rather should serve as a segue to a more robust participation in the sacraments.

The point at which sacramentals begin to overlap with blessings is in the sense that they have a universal application, that is, they can be received by absolutely anyone, even non-Catholics. Sometimes on Ash Wednesday I turn on the television to watch the national news. Some news anchors appear on live television with ashes displayed on their foreheads. Growing up I thought that must mean they are Catholic. But not necessarily. They may simply find that sacramental of ashes especially meaningful as a Protestant, or even as a non-Christian. Canon 1170 of the Code of Canon Law reads: “Blessings, which are to be imparted first of all to Catholics, can also be given to catechumens (those in RCIA) and even to non-Catholics unless there is a prohibition of the Church to the contrary.” Fiducia Supplicans is making it clear that there is no such “prohibition to the contrary.”

In other words, nothing prohibits a non-Catholic from receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday, as long as they respect the spiritual significance of the sacramental as a sign of repentance and a reminder of our mortality. In this same vein, therefore, couples who are divorced and remarried and even same sex couples could receive these sacramentals – ashes, holy water, blessing of throats, etc. – as long as they respect the inherent meaning imbedded in them, namely, drawing closer to God (conversion) and loving our neighbor as ourselves. This is why we blessed throats after Masses on the weekend of February 3, the feast of St. Blase. Everyone in church, from baby to octogenarian, from renowned saint to wretched sinner, could all come forward to be blessed by this powerful sacramental.

So, how do sacramentals help us understand blessings better? I think we can detect three ways. First, we see the same stark line of demarcation between big-B Blessings and small-b blessings also delineating big-S Sacraments and small-s sacramentals. Interestingly, the Code of Canon Law treats of blessings in the subsection called “Sacramentals.” That is, blessings and sacramentals are the same species of animal in the canon law jungle. Second, we discovered that big-B Blessings, like big-S Sacraments, require the administration of qualified clergy who distribute them exclusively to Catholics properly disposed to receive them. On the other hand, small-b blessings, like small-s sacramentals, are the prerogative not only of the clergy but also of the laity. Small blessings and likewise sacramentals do not require the power of ordination. And third, small-b blessings, like sacramentals, have a wide reach, spilling over the borders of the Catholic Church, and even the farthest corners of Christianity, to embrace the whole world. That is, while the seven sacraments have a rather limited distribution list, the sacramentals have no distribution list at all. They are for everyone everywhere.

In other words, the spirit in which the Church treats sacramentals is the correct lens through which we should understand the Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans. Try to see blessings like we deal with sacramentals, and you will appreciate the pope’s pastoral perspective, which is simply his exercise of the Petrine ministry of interpreting and applying the deposit of faith.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

High School Sweetheart

Appreciating our Catholic high schools in Arkansas

02/04/2024

Mk 1:29-39 On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them. When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him. Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you." He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come." So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

In 1986 Robert Fulghum wrote a very popular book entitled, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Well, I don’t remember much from my kindergarten days but I could certainly say: “all I really need to know I learned in high school.” And this is the reason every year I want to designate one Sunday to recognize and celebrate Catholic high schools in Arkansas. Why? Well, because during high school is when we finally are awake and aware enough to learn some of life’s most crucial lessons.

Today, some representatives from both Subiaco and Ozark Catholic Academy will share the amazing things going on in those two tremendous Catholic high schools. They are both within driving distance, and they both provide transportation which students from I.C. are taking advantage of. And this makes a fitting conclusion to Catholic Schools Week which we began last Sunday celebrating our Catholic elementary schools.

We all remember fondly where we went to high school, after all that’s when we fell in love with our high school sweetheart! It’s funny how later when we look back, our high school itself feels like our sweetheart, our “glory days” as Bruce Springsteen sang. So, let me share some of the life lessons I learned from my high school sweet heart, like Robert Fulghum shared lessons from kindergarten.

I attended an all-boys school, and we freshmen took our sex education classes from Fr. George Tribou. Now, notice the irony of that: a celibate priest taught teenage boys about sex. One thing I remember vividly was what Fr. Tribou said about kissing. He remarked: “French kissing a girl is like using someone else’s toothbrush.” No wonder I started thinking about becoming a priest in high school! By the way, you parents are welcome to use that line.

Another lesson I learned from Fr. Tribou was that the punishment should always fit the crime. I heard about one boys who was fond of slamming doors whenever he entered or exited a classroom. The teachers tried everything to stop this disruptive behavior, all to no avail. They finally sent the boy to the principal’s office. Fr. Tribou said to the young man: “So, you like doors, do you?” His punishment was to carry a heavy classroom door everywhere he went in school for a week. The boy was miraculously cured of the slamming door disease.

Fr. Tribou also taught us boys how to bluff not in poker but in life. One Saturday night some boys decided it would be a good idea to climb up and swim in a water tower. On Monday morning after Fr. Tribou delivered the usual announcements, he added: “Now I understand that seven boys had a little extracurricular activity over the weekend swimming in a water tower. I have five names. And I can assure you the punishment will be more lenient if you voluntarily come to the office than if I have to come to get you.” And in a few minutes nine boys showed up in the office. To this day no one knows if Fr. Tribou had any names at all.

But the most important lesson Fr. Tribou and Catholic High taught us is that there is a God. It’s like that old bumper sticker that declared: “There is a God and you are not him.” Fr. Tribou had a very effective way of inspiring our faith. Back in the 1980’s while I was at Catholic, the school did not have any air conditioning. But Fr. Tribou did install air conditioning in the chapel and the library. How do you get teenage boys to pray and study? You air condition the chapel and library, and make the rest of the school hot as hell. In the gospel today, Jesus ha to drive out demons and cure diseases for people to believe in him. Fr. Tribou just turned off the air conditioning.

I will never forget when Fr. Tribou taught us what we do when we come to Mass. It forever changed how I go to Mass. He said: “When you come to Mass, you come to give something, not to get something. You come here to give some of your time, to give some of your love, to give some of your attention. Don’t come to Mass empty-handed, but come with the intention to offer yourself. I never want to hear you say, ‘I didn’t get anything out of the Mass.’ That is not what you are here for.” Fr. Tribou sort of “turned the tables” – or better turned the altar – at Mass. I am not here to ask something of God; I am here so God can ask something of me.

My friends, I am convinced that faith is the central lesson of all Catholic high schools is because we are living in an increasingly atheistic culture. Modern society is not just ignorant of Christianity, it is inimical to Christianity. It mistakenly believes we are the enemy. It’s like that old adage: “Don’t saw off the branch you are sitting on.” Modern culture is slowly but steadily sawing humanity off the Tree of Life, namely, Jesus, the Son of God. The Second Vatican Council warned: “When God is forgotten, however, the creature itself grows unintelligible” (Gaudium et spes, 36).

In other words, every Catholic school, and especially Catholic high schools, teach us that when we lose touch with God, we lose touch with our humanity. On the other hand, when we find God, we likewise touch our humanity. The first and best lesson that we learn in a Catholic high school is the lesson of faith. There is a God and we teenagers are not him. And that is why we always need Catholic high schools, and why we need them today more than ever. 

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Brothers in Arms, Part 4

Understanding the devil's true end-game

01/30/2024

Now that we have gazed through the eyes of the good angels, we don the eyes of the fallen angels and dare to see their wicked world. In particular, I want to say a word about the practice of exorcisms and Satan’s real strategy toward human beings. Rv 12:9 explains that the devil is “the deceiver of the whole world,” and one of his best deceptions is not using satanic possessions that require an exorcism. But that is typically how we believe the devil routinely deals with us, and that is exactly what he wants us to think. In other words, the devil deceives us by making us think one thing while he does something different. Let me explain the devil’s true mindset. I saw a funny little meme some time ago that observed: “Everyone makes fun of the Catholic Church until they have a demon in their house.” Besides its value as humor, this meme also conveys an important truth, namely, demonic possessions drive people closer to God and to his Church.

Have you ever seen the movie “The Exorcist”? How did you feel after seeing that movie? Most sane people feel an intense desire to find the first Catholic priest they can, make a sincere confession, and start attending daily Mass, right? Now, if that is the effect left on people who experience a demonic possession – make them fly to God – do you think the devil is really that dumb to use possession that often? No. Demonic possession is not the devil’s first or best trick; it is his desperate, last resort. It is like trying to put out an oil fire by using dynamite. The explosion from the dynamite will either completely extinguish the fire or it will cause it to rage entirely out of control. Satan take a great risk when he tries to possess a person.

Every week we receive at least one or two phone calls at the church office from random people who want a priest to come bless their house because they believe it has evil spirits. Or, people want to see a priest and receive an exorcism because they feel they are personally possessed by a demon. Now, I have no doubt that the devil sometimes possesses people and evil spirits can inhabit homes. Such instances are clearly recorded in the Scriptures. Furthermore, every diocese designates one priest as the official diocesan exorcist to deal precisely with such situations. But again, I am confident this is not the devil’s first – or even frequent – move on the chessboard of life to conquer our souls. After all, these people (mostly not Catholic) who believe they are possessed just called the Catholic Church for help. If herding people to the Church is the devil’s best move, it has just backfired on him.

So, my advice to people who feel they may possibly be possessed is to rule out natural causes first. This is a principle called “Occam’s Razor” developed in the Middle Ages which advocates the simplest solution is the more likely answer, rather than moving immediately to more complex explanations. That is, you should rule out natural causes for symptoms of a demonic possession, like psychosomatic illnesses, paranoia, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc., before jumping to the spiritual or supernatural causes like the devil. So, I normally recommend a visit to the primary care physician or to the Emergency Room. Let’s rule out any physical or psychic anomalies first before we explore possible spiritual ones.

My second suggestion is to avail themselves of the already existing and enormously powerful sacramental remedies the Church offers. That is, if you are not Catholic, learn about Catholicism through the RCIA classes and receive the sacraments of initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist). Then start living a life of virtue, prayer, and love of the poor. These sacraments and spiritual exercises are the nuclear weapons in a Christian’s arsenal against the devil. No demon stands a chance against such a supernatural onslaught. But there is a good reason television commercials constantly woo customers with a new diet pill or thirty-day program to help them lose weight, whereas every respectable doctor will insist that healthy weight loss is a matter of diet and exercise. We all seek the shortcut rather than travel the long, hard road. In other words, what lies at the root of an exorcism or demonic possession is not some magic incantation with holy water and Latin prayers that automatically drives the devil away. The real heart of the matter is the choice a human being makes to serve God and neighbor or to turn to the service of Satan and become his slave. That willing slavery is the devil’s real end-game and therefore possessing people unwillingly is counter-productive.

In 1942, C. S. Lewis composed one of his most creative and popular books called The Screwtape Letters. Every chapter is essentially one letter written by a senior devil named “Screwtape” to a younger demon-in-training, named “Wormwood,” who also happens to be Screwtape’s nephew. In his Preface, Lewis reveals the devil’s deepest intentions, writing: There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight (The Screwtape Letters, ix). In other words, a balanced Christian perspective would avoid treating an exorcism as a cure-all for every ache and pain we suffer. On the other hand, it would not forget that at times even the devil can get desperate and employ a frontal attack instead of sneaking into the fortress unnoticed, like the famous Trojan Horse, hiding enemy soldiers inside. Just like the Trojan Horse was the only way to successfully attack the impregnable city of Troy, so the devil uses deception and a back door to enter our lives.

May I share with you Satan’s far more successful strategy to enslave us? It is to tempt us with money, sex, and power. Have you ever felt the allure and fallen to the temptation of money, sex, and power? Don’t worry, I have too. And so too did the Israelites in Exodus 32:4. The Israelites were encamped at the foot of Mt. Sinai while Moses had gone up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. But being long delayed, the people became impatient and demanded that Aaron fashion another god for them. We read: “[Aaron] received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf.” In other words, this golden calf symbolized money in its gold, sex in its youthful virility, and power because it was a bull. To be sure, money, sex, and power are good in themselves. But Satan’s real play is to entice us to use these goods either to excess or defect and thereby make us addicted to them and ultimately to him. Screwtape teaches this particular lesson to Wormwood in Letter 9 instructing: Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure [such as money, sex, or power] in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s [God’s] grounds…All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees which He has forbidden (The Screwtape Letters, 44). That is, Satan catches far more human fish when he baits his hook with disordered pleasures than with demonic possessions.

By way of conclusion, perhaps we can summarize our findings in this brief study on the angels. We began with an explanation of how angels originally ranked higher than humans on the hierarchy of being. But we also addressed the stubborn objection raised by scientism and materialism which are like blinders that are helpful for horses, but harmful for humans. Second, we reviewed the ranking of angels, how they are created simultaneously as soldiers but also singers, and how a civil war caused the loss of a third of the angels to Satan’s camp. Third, we watched how this angelic civil war engulfed mankind, and how the Christ event not only freed us from slavery but catapulted us to the status of divine sonship. And fourth we tried to unmask Satan’s real strategy with regard to humans, not as demonic possessions primarily, but rather in the world’s oldest profession, a euphemism for prostitution, one of the three temptations hidden inside the devil’s Trojan Horse. Satan’s success rate is far higher when he uses money, sex, and power than Hollywood stunts like a demonic possession. Once we look at reality through the eyes of the angels – the good and the bad – we can see more clearly how God fashioned his creation (both the visible and the invisible), what were his high hopes for man and woman (to be sons not slaves), and how the good angels serve us while the evil angels deceive us. And all this begins by getting out of bed at 4 a.m. because our guardian angel wakes us up.

Praised be Jesus Christ!