The Blessing Bombshell Again

Understanding how blessings are directed by intentions

01/07/2024

One of my personal rules for preaching is never to repeat my old homilies. I may recycle stories or jokes, but not the whole homily. But many years ago I broke that rule. It was Christmas time and I was super busy. The readings at Mass were similar to the same Sunday a year earlier and so in desperation I pulled up the same homily. I figured: “Everyone sleeps through the homily, anyway, and surely no one would remember what I said a whole year later!” Thus, I delivered exactly the same homily a year later. But after Mass one parishioner walked by with a big smile and said, “Father, that homily sure sounded familiar…” I was so embarrassed that even my face turned red.

Well, today I am not going to break that personal rule about preaching but sort of bend it by bringing up the hot-button topic of blessings that the Vatican has permitted for people in irregular situations. Have you heard about this? I would be surprised if you hadn’t. These blessings are so controversial they don’t just have lay people confused and up in arms, but even theologians, bishops, and cardinals have crossed swords over it. The disagreement has become so vehement that some fear it may lead to schism or people leaving the Church. Today is the feast of the Epiphany and the word Epiphany comes from “epiphainen” a Greek verb which means “to shine upon,” or “to manifest,” or “to make known". It seems apropos, therefore, to revisit blessings today because blessings shine God’s grace and goodness on the world, “especially those most in need of Thy mercy” as we pray in the rosary.

Back on December 19, I delivered a homily called “The Blessing Bombshell.” I had read the Vatican declaration on blessings and in that homily I admitted that I did not find anything innovative, controversial, and certainly nothing heretical, about giving a simple blessing when someone spontaneously requests one. In fact, at Mass I even invite people to come forward at Communion to receive a blessing when they cannot receive Communion. When I bestow a blessing upon random people in the Communion line, I do not check their credentials to be able to receive a blessing. Indeed, it is precisely their disqualification from receiving Communion – because of mortal sin, or being non-Catholic, etc. – that fully qualifies them to receive a blessing. In other words, a blessing is exactly what you should get when you should not get Holy Communion. That generosity in bestowing blessings – to shine God’s goodness, epiphainen – upon those who cannot receive Holy Communion, I suggested in that homily, was the true spirit of that Vatican declaration called Fiducia Supplicans.

Even with that homiletic explanation, however, there was still a hole in my homily that I would now like to fill. Critics of the declaration said priests and deacons were being asked in effect to bless sin, especially when it comes to couples who may be divorced and remarried (without an annulment) or even civilly married same-sex couples. I can understand why some people object in this manner, and there is always the risk of scandal which should always be removed. But I believe they overlook a critical part of every blessing and this is far more true of the sacraments, namely, the intention of the priest or deacon. It is the all-important intention of the ordained clergy that directs a blessing to a given target, and not to another target.

For example, at Mass we always pour wine into the chalice, but sometimes we leave the cruet (the small glass container) with the rest of the wine on the altar. This happens often at daily Mass without an altar server. Let me ask you: what causes the wine in the chalice to become the Blood of Christ, but not the wine in the cruet? After all, both are sitting on the altar. It is simply and solely the intention of the priest-celebrant that transubstantiates one and not the other. Or, more broadly, why does only the bread on the altar get transubstantiated into the Body of Christ but not all the bread in church, for instance sitting in the sacristy cupboard? Again, it is simply and solely due to the intention of the priest.

Now let’s consider what happens when someone spontaneously seeks a priest’s blessing, and this time involves couples who are divorced and remarried or even same-sex couples. On January 4, the Vatican issued a press-release to try to address that thorny topic. It even provided a sample formula of blessing, in which the priest or deacon might say: “Lord, look at these children of yours, grant them health, work, peace and mutual help. Free them from everything that contradicts your Gospel and allow them to live according to your will. Amen.” Notice in the wording of that suggested blessing how the priest or deacon’s intention is to bless whatever is good in these people’s lives – their health, work, for peace, mutual help. But the priest does not bless whatever is disordered or evil in their lives.

In other words, the intention directs the blessing, like a laser-guided missile, to its precise target, and it never misses. Indeed, it is impossible for a blessing to hit the wrong target. Why? Well because grace and sin are mutually incompatible, like fire and ice. Even if a priest were to intend to bless the same-sex marriage of two men – and some have tried unfortunately – the blessing would be rendered impotent, like a dud torpedo bouncing harmlessly off the side of a ship. At most, there would only be felt the placebo effect, you know, just a good feeling in the minds of those who tried to receive such a blessing but nothing really happened. Put differently, no one can hijack the intention of a priest or deacon who desires to bless only what is good.

As a matter of fact, not even the priest or deacon himself can hijack it if he tried to bless a same-sex couple! Now why is that? Well, the sacraments of the Church, and analogously the blessings offered by ordained clergy, are ultimately actions of Jesus Christ, not the work of a merely human priest. And no one – absolutely no one – can move Christ’s hand to bless what is evil. Changing metaphors for a moment, Jesus is the true musician and the clergy are merely his instruments. When it comes to administering sacraments and blessings, these musical instruments cannot play themselves. Priestly flutes do not play themselves because Jesus the musician must breathe the wind of the Holy Spirit through them. People who think they can manipulate the instruments of God’s grace are like Pilate during Jesus’ trial who asserted foolishly, “Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” (Jn 19:10). Jesus answered him coolly: “You have no power over me” (Jn 19:11). This feeble and fickle world has no power over the Church because it is the Body of Christ.

Thus, for two reasons – like a redundancy or a fail-safe mechanism preventing the launching of nuclear missiles – Fiducia Supplicans is not granting priests or deacons authorization to bless the marriages of the divorced and remarried nor of same-sex couples. First, because what aims a blessing to its given target is the intention of the clergy who blesses. And second, even if the aim or intention of the priest or deacon is misguided – like it sometimes is today – Christ’s intention will override the priest’s poor judgment and produce nothing more than a dud missile or the placebo effect. On the Feast of the Epiphany may God’s grace shine upon the whole world through the blessings of Christ’s Church. As it says in the Prologue of John’s gospel: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1:5).

Praised be Jesus Christ!