The Priest as Sanctifier

Holy God, Holy Mighty One,

Holy Immortal One, Have Mercy…

The Holy Father’s address at the General Audience of 5 May 2010, continuing his series of reflections on the specific tasks of priests, which, according to tradition, are essentially three: to teach, to sanctify, to govern, was devoted to the second task the priest has, that of sanctifying, above all through the sacraments and the worship of the Church.

Pope Benedict said to those gathered in St. Peter’s Square, “… to sanctify a person means to put him in contact with God, with … light, truth, pure love. It is obvious that this contact transforms the person. … Without a minimum contact with God, man cannot live. Truth, goodness, love are fundamental conditions of his being.” [Translation by ZENIT]

The Holy Father points out that contemporary emphasis on the priest’s role as a preacher of the word has perhaps been at the expense of the priest’s role as sanctifier in and through the sacraments.  More specifically the Pope says: “It is necessary to reflect if in some cases this undervaluing of the faithful exercise of the munus sanctificandi did not represent, perhaps, a weakening of the faith itself in the salvific efficacy of the sacraments and, in short, in the present action of Christ and of his Spirit, through the Church, in the world.” The key word to understanding Pope Benedict’s message (at least for my purposes here) is undervaluing: it would be hard to resist the argument that the casual, the conversational, the flighty and whatever might be thoughtlessly borrowed from the everyday not only tends to but does indeed undervalue the exercise of the sanctifying task of the priest and, yes, it weakens the faith of the priest, first of all, but also of God’s People. We are not far from describing here what is meant in the Gospel admonition condemning those who “scandalize God’s little ones”.

At the heart of the task of sanctifying the Holy Father places the celebration of two sacraments in particular: the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist, which he exhorts priests to celebrate and live with intensity. Thereby the priest can show forth the infinite mercy and tenderness of God. Pope Benedict renews once again his invitation to priests to aspire to moral perfection and thereby provide an example of faith and witness of sanctity for the building up of the People of God.

While such words always present a challenge to me as a priest, I find no small encouragement in these words as well. They strengthen my conviction concerning the urgency of a recovery of a sense of the sacred in worship. You might rightly accuse me of being less “down to earth” than the Holy Father, especially as regards the Sacrament of Penance, where he is basically pleading concretely/pragmatically for the availability of the priest in the confessional and the restoration of the confessional as the rightful place for the celebration of this great sacrament of God’s forgiveness. His message even includes an invitation for the priest to simply spend time in there (there being the “box”).

Indeed, the Holy Father makes the confessional a true place of encounter with the mercy of God by fixing its proper ambience, rightfully situated in church and in the sight of Our Lord in the Tabernacle. Penance in the confessional channels or forms the experience of this sacrament, really transporting the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation beyond the limits of a mere human exchange in everyday surroundings, whether they be as simple and unadorned as your back step or as grandiose as a seaside at sunset or a mountaintop confession to a best friend. We people who confess regularly in a church setting know what a difference it makes to be able to come out into the silence of the church and place ourselves in the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We’re moving beyond the barebones affirmation of the efficacy of the sacrament which, all things being equal, anywhere and everywhere forgives sins. We intend to make a statement about ambience and obedience to Church law as a sure antidote to the kind of undervaluing which can take place … “weakening … the faith itself in the salvific efficacy of the sacraments and, in short, in the present action of Christ and of his Spirit, through the Church, in the world.”

 Much the same commentary can be made on the Holy Father’s repeated invitations to celebrate and live with intensity the Eucharist. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass rightly celebrated bends or binds my focus in such a way that our habitual cry becomes that of the psalm refrain “…not to us, not to us, O Lord, but to Your Name give the glory”. A careless celebration of the Eucharist certainly has its hidden effect through grace but when the source and summit of Christian existence is properly brought to completion, it offers that much more not only as a plus but as a duty yoked to the priest’s and the Church’s task in the Name of the Lord “… to sanctify a person … to put him in contact with God, with … light, truth, pure love.”

Pope Benedict rightly calls priests to a profound change of heart. His invitation to priests to aspire to moral perfection and thereby provide an example of faith and witness of sanctity for the building up of the People of God is not breath wasted. The Holy Father wields the two-edged sword of God’s Word here and lovingly calls us all to account. He speaks in faith, confident that God’s Word will not return to Him without achieving that for which He sent it out.

As I say, the goal is the recovery of the sacred in every parish church. Some ask how such a recovery is possible, such a cleansing of the temple, casting out all the folly which around the world holds so much church space hostage. Personally, I think of every Adoration Chapel as a bridgehead and the necessary assurance to any fainthearted priest that he has allies for recapturing the body of the church and holding it secure for silence, for recollection, for genuine worship in spirit and in truth. The body of witness for what is possible, what has already been achieved in the parish next door, if you will, is truly impressive and challenges every priest to review his choices and, if need be, change his way of celebrating such that those who come in search of the living God might truly find Him.

Munus sanctificandi, ZENIT translates munus with task; duty, Father, isn’t far off either. In any case, it is all about what you were created for by the Church’s prayer and the laying on of hands: for to sanctify is to put yourself and others “in contact with God, with … light, truth, pure love.” Rabble-rousing and cheer-leading are not part of the job description.

The Sublime is Attainable

Today’s Family Feud

            “We hear that some of our members have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds. They acted without any authority from us, and so we have decided unanimously to elect delegates and to send them to you with Barnabas and Paul, men we highly respect who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ… It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves…” (Acts 15 – first reading of the Sixth Sunday of Easter)

          “In the spirit, the angel took me to the top of an enormous high mountain and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven. It had all the radiant glory of God…” (Apocalypse 21:10ff.)

          Sigrid Undset, in her book “Catherine of Siena”, provides insight into the climate of violence which held Siena and many other mediaeval cities and towns in Italy in its grip at the time of St. Catherine. She explains how not even monasteries and cloisters were exempt from the bloody family feuds so characteristic of a period of transition where one social order had given way and no other had yet replaced it. No one is spared and we are indeed creatures of our times. I was reminded of the unfounded criticism leveled by a very Catholic journalist friend of mine, who insists that Church leadership must be above the shortcomings of its own day, must by definition be visionary/prophetic. This type of criticism, mixed no doubt with chauvinism or naïveté, berates the Church for not having been the first in every way e.g. to condemn slavery and long before the 1800’s, when economics finally granted space and reason to the righteous. In our day, this same sort of chauvinism shrieks out its sense of betrayal over bishops especially, who behaved like men of their time (1950-95) instead of as enlightened rulers of the 21^st Century in dealing with the whole pallet of abusive behavior directed against minors (in the church, school and family settings), behavior which had always been considered wrong, yes criminal, but is only now beginning to be faced resolutely and openly.

          My object in this essay is not to address the problem of the abuse of minors nor to defend short-sighted leaders but rather to ask what could possibly be meant by the now and not yet of referring to the Church as Christ’s Bride. The problematic character for some folks today of the words used by the Council of Jerusalem to formulate its decision regarding the requirements of Mosaic Law to be imposed on new Christians of Gentile origin:  “It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves…” must be faced by all within the Church, whether they feel betrayed by those in leadership or not. This is not a new problem, but I fear that the reticence on the part of many when it comes to confessing Christ present and acting in His Church and the failure to embrace the doctrine that the one Church of Jesus Christ subsists in the Catholic Church may be as all-pervasive today as the violence of St. Catherine’s day and with even more tragic consequences for the younger generations in search of the Face of God.

          I was surprised to discover that my Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary does not even contain the world “triumphalism”. Wikipedia without quoting sources, however, does: “Triumphalism is the attitude or belief that a particular doctrine, religion, culture, or social system is superior to and should triumph over all others. Triumphalism is not an articulated doctrine  but rather a term that is used to characterize certain attitudes or belief systems by parties such as political commentators and historians.” Very simply, triumphalism is something you might be accused of by others who claim to know better. One man’s healthy pride or simply his humble adherence to the truth as it comes to him from God is another man’s pretence. Pilate asked Jesus, without expecting an answer, “What is truth?” and that is where much of society stands today, questioning while expecting no answer. What is odd and even frightening about this refusal on the part of some people who make themselves outsiders to truth and for many bishops, priests, religious and laity “committed” to the Church as they see it is that while labeling the claim to possess the truth that comes from God as triumphalism, they indulge in a sort of protagonism which leads them to nothing short of despair in the face of problems or issues beyond ordinary human capabilities. They are more apt to believe the “Iron Man Saga” than that “It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves…”

          While I am more than ready along with Sigrid Undset to accept the credentials of a radical like St. Catherine of Siena, immersed as she was in the ocean of God’s love, I guess I have to face the reality as Catherine did of a Church where one monk might blacken another’s eye or knock out his front teeth for love of a brother on the outside whose fabric store had been vandalized by the confrere’s relatives seeking a larger share of the market. Even a child prodigy of holiness like Catherine was born into a family which has no other saints of the canonized variety to show for itself besides herself, Italy’s patroness and Siena’s pride.

          Speaking recently on the topic of vocations promotion to our conference of bishops, I laid the problem of too few vocations at the door of a crisis of faith within the community of the Church. Besides good preaching and catechesis, I made a plea at this historic juncture in time for creating a better ambience within the Church. I recommended especially at this juncture in time to do so by profiting from the publication of the New English Translation of the Roman Missal as a way to address squarely the issue of liturgical abuse. I implored the bishops to strive for a dignified cathedral liturgy and to seek to convince all of their priests to renounce caprice and adhere to the rubrics. We have at this point in time a “second chance”, if you will, to catch the runaway train and recover the possibility of worship in spirit and in truth. If each and every church and chapel were truly a place of encounter with the Lord, if the hectic and the willfulness were cast out of our Sunday celebrations, perhaps more children would perceive that it is indeed the God Who is near us Who calls. Success is as close as a little change of heart on the part of priests, liturgists and those who call themselves church musicians: that they might turn again and begin to receive instruction from legitimate authority as it is and must be given in matters of Divine Worship, “It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves…”

          For my friends who may be wondering: at over nine months into celebrating Mass daily ad Orientem I assure you I am even more convinced that this minor change when possible (without a building drive or major financial outlay), along with a newfound attentiveness to the official directives of the competent authority ordering divine worship would free most priests of that ugly temptation to protagonism. Why would I ever want to stand over and against my people in something as important as the renewal of the Sacrifice of the Cross? The Lord God and the Lamb are the temple and the light of the holy city. What is my “light” or my leadership by comparison?

One day soon, I am going to try and express my thoughts on the liturgical training I received in the seminary where we were urged as “presiders” to seek eye contact, apart from technique in homiletics or public speaking… My reflection is not yet ripe, but the question is posed: “What does eye contact have to do with worship of the living God?” It is not that simple, but the question must be posed and dealt with.

          The call to obedience or conformity with existing liturgical law in the Church, the plea for decorum in worship and the stripping away of a whole series of unfounded accretions, which like all attempts at improvisation are condemned to remain in the backwaters of bad taste and superficiality, may have an aesthetic dimension, but I think the real motivation is rooted in the words of the Gospel:

          “Those who do not love me do not keep my words… I have said these things to you while still with you; but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.” (John 14)

Let me repeat my refrain:

Come Thou, Holy Spirit, Come!

          And from Thy Celestial Home

          Shed a Ray of Light Divine…

Bend the Stubborn Heart and Will

Melt the Frozen, Warm the Chill

Guide the Steps that Go Astray…

In the Power of the Holy Spirit

His Glory is our Ransom from Death

My more avid readers may remember some time back when I recommended to you a book I had found on Kindle by the soon to be beatified Servant of God John Henry Cardinal Newman entitled: Loss and Gain: The Story of a Convert. Well, I’ve found another jewel in Newman’s crown to recommend to you entitled: Callista: a Tale of the Third Century.

          This one is set in North Africa and tells the remarkable story of a young woman martyred for the faith at Sicca during the Decian persecution. The Cardinal is really a wordsmith and enriches the narrative with some beautiful descriptions of the North African countryside. It’s a very grownup book in the sense that it describes in great detail a number of characters in their search for faith. Callista, a young woman in her late teens, is indeed noble in her bearing as a pagan and more so in her search for faith; Agellius could as well be a young man of our day and time, noble in his own way, but awkward enough for any young man to be able to identify with him; the salvation of Agellius’ brother Juba for good deeds done despite his folly is in sharp contrast to Callista’s poor brother Aristo who rejects completely his sister’s choice of everlasting life over passing pleasures. The book is as enjoyable as it is thought-provoking. It is a challenge to men and women of good will to grow in the faith of their baptism.

          Apart from the rich food for thought provided by these character descriptions and Newman’s assessment of pagan society (at its best and at its worst), I think that what held my attention more than anything was the notion that the Decian persecution was not provoked by the Church’s vitality but by the Empire’s own debility and its search for a scapegoat. Decius’ edict pursued a Church for the most part already prostrate and on the verge of extinction under the weight of its own decadence after fifty years of tolerance by civil authorities. Agellius, baptized at his own request as a six year old, experienced Eucharist for the first time in his life as a young adult in the refuge in the hills above Sicca. He had memories of an elderly bishop, but had basically grown up without the sacraments or the community of faith, saying his night prayers at home and trying to live according to Gospel precepts. His brother Juba had remained a rebellious catechumen, scorning his stepmother’s paganism but unwilling to move forward for all of his young life.

          In his novel, Callista: a Tale of the Third Century, Newman has crafted a hymn to hope and the power of God, the grace of the Holy Spirit. That Callista should come to faith and baptism through the good example of a slave girl, from casual conversations with Agellius, and after a hasty exchange about everlasting life with St. Cyprian, who entrusted a scroll of Luke’s Gospel to her which she then read in prison, would be cause for wonderment for anyone who does not have the faith. For convinced and practicing Catholics it provides a beautiful illustration of what Jesus meant by His promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church.

          By accident this week I ran across a YouTube channel entitled: RealCatholicTV. Despite my skepticism over the name, I took the time for one and then to watch several videos in a series the man calls “The Vortex”. I found him as clear-headed as I am, even if perhaps a bit more youthfully pugnacious and only slightly grating as he rejoices in the proximate demise of my generation. Oh well! Having Newman and the “Real Catholic” side by side provoked a thought about the reform and renewal of the Church in my own day and time (or what’s left of it before my demise, sir!) that kept me searching to the end of Newman’s novel. I found my connection close to the end of the book, from which I’d like to quote this paragraph:

“This wonderful deliverance was but the beginning of the miracles which followed the martyrdom of St. Callista. It may be said to have been the resurrection of the Church at Sicca. In not many months Decius was killed, and the persecution ceased there. Castus was appointed bishop, and numbers began to pour into the fold. The lapsed asked for peace, or at least such blessings as they could have. Heathens sought to be received. When asked for their reason, they could only say that Callista’s history and death had affected them with constraining force, and that they could not help following her steps. Increasing in boldness, as well as numbers, the Christians cowed both magistrates and mob. The spirit of the populace had been already broken; and the continual change of masters, and measures with them, in the imperial government, inflicted a chronic timidity on the magistracy. A handsome church was soon built, to which Callista’s body was brought, and which remained till the time of the Diocletian persecution.” (Callista: a Tale of the Third Century, by John Henry Cardinal Newman, Kindle edition - Highlight Loc. 5102-9)

Many sophisticates out there would probably scorn the prosperity and rapid increase which seemed to have come the Church’s way in the Easter period of the Acts of the Apostles and again in the Fourth Century when Constantine made peace. They would most likely say that the roots were never that deep because in another couple centuries the barbarians invading North Africa would so weaken the Church that it was easy pickings for Islam, disappearing almost without a trace under the sands of time. Wherein lies the victory amidst the ruins of North African Catholicism? What is so special about the succeeding waves of apostles who have re-conquered Europe or parts thereof for the faith? Is it just in that ability to bounce back when one least expects? What is supernatural of a survival marked by flight from one continent to another?

One news commentator claimed this week that the media frenzy over the whole abuse scandal within the Catholic Church will be the ultimate “bullet-to-the-head” of European Catholicism, that Europe’s “cultural” Catholics will finally cut their nominal ties once and for all and that the Catholic Church’s gravitational center will shift once and for all to south of the Equator… Personally, I don’t believe it. There are still lots of Cyprians, Agelliuses and Callistas around in the northern hemisphere. God is still the Lord of history and His Will, laid out with a garden east of Eden and then renewed and brought to perfection in the fullness of time upon the Tree of the Cross, is still that we, and not just a few, would walk with Him in Light for all time.

          Just as St. Cyprian helps Agellius through penance back to the fullness of Catholic faith, so may we find today bishops and priests to help us mend the ruptures and purge our sins on the way back to fullness of life with Christ, our Savior and our Lord!

Let’s succumb to the temptation and start a little early, shall we?

          Come Thou, Holy Spirit, Come!

          And from Thy Celestial Home

          Shed a Ray of Light Divine…

Bend the Stubborn Heart and Will

Melt the Frozen, Warm the Chill

Guide the Steps that Go Astray…

A Priest's Representational Role

Mass of Thanksgiving – Ordination Class of 1985

Chapel of the Regional Seminary

of St. John Vianney and the Uganda Martyrs

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Acts 12:24-13:5

II Cor. 4:7-15

John 12:44-50

            “One day while they were offering worship to the Lord and keeping a fast, the Holy Spirit said, ‘I want Barnabas and Saul set apart for the work to which I have called them.’ So it was that after fasting and prayer they laid their hands on them and sent them off.”

            It is almost legendary what is recounted about how Pope John Paul II fasted and prayed in preparation for ordinations at his hands. The rector of the North American College in my days was then Bishop and later Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, DC, James A. Hickey; he too fasted in preparation for ordinations. I haven’t as yet ordained anyone in my five+ years of Episcopate, but I probably would fast too out of the awareness that I am sending someone out in the name of the Holy Spirit. There may have been times in history when people set value on being ordained to an estate, a class or a caste, but mission, sending out in the name of the Holy Spirit is the thread that connects us over time going back to Christ Himself.

            We’re joining the Class of 1985 in saying “Thank you, Lord” for 25 years of being “sent out in the name of the Holy Spirit” as men called and consecrated to share in the priesthood and the mission which sets it and them apart.

Excuse me a stray thought at this point, but what is all this business about priests in recent years suffering from an identity crisis? How can you have doubts about who you are when in the process of solemnly creating you, the Church has fasted and prayed and laid hands on your head unto priesthood? Through the laying on of hands by a successor of the Apostles we confer a clearly delineated mission in the name of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God, we know who we are and what we are about. It has ever been so and so it will be until the end of time.

Although it may be somewhat inappropriate to speak about each priestly ordination as a risk or an investment, there is a sense in which the Church from the days of the Acts of the Apostles has certainly treated ordination and especially unto priesthood as just that. Priesthood is not a point of arrival, a decoration for somebody’s lapel; it is a point of departure. Hence the prayer and fasting by which we turn over to the Lord our choice and the man upon whom we lay our hands! The Church continues after ordination day to accompany him with our prayers as well. Priesthood is a life-long adventure and although we are never “home free” this side of the grave, there is certainly a sense in which after 25 years we can rejoice in the yield of the harvest, so to speak. We thank the Lord for these men and all the good which has come to the Church in the region at their hands. In well-founded hope, we pray that the next 25 years will be even more fruitful to the greater honor and glory of God. Life for a priest only gets better as you enter deeper into the mystery of fulfilling God’s Will and of cooperating with the grace bestowed.

            Pope Benedict XVI sums up very nicely in his address at the Wednesday Audience of April 14^th what we are about as priests. He formulates it under the heading of a series of talks he has started on the tria munera, teaching, governing and sanctifying, to be delivered as the Year of the Priest draws to a close:

“Hence, the priest, who acts "in persona Christi Capitis" and in representation of the Lord, never acts in the name of someone who is absent, but in the very Person of the Risen Christ, who makes himself present with his truly effective action. He really acts and does what the priest could not do: the consecration of the wine and the bread so that they will really be the presence of the Lord, [and] the absolution of sins. The Lord makes present his own action in the person who carries out such gestures. These three tasks of the priest -- which Tradition has identified in the different mission words of the Lord: teach, sanctify, govern -- in their distinction and in their profound unity, are a specification of this effective representation. They are in reality the three actions of the Risen Christ, the same one who today teaches in the Church and in the world and thus creates faith, gathers his people, creates the presence of truth and really builds the communion of the universal Church; and sanctifies and guides.” {ZENIT translation}

            These days I’m reading a novel by John Henry Cardinal Newman, whom the Holy Father will beatify in September during his visit to Great Britain. The Newman novel I am reading is entitled: “Callista, A Tale of The Third Century”. The author does a fabulous job of describing the character of a young Christian, Agellius, baptized at age 6, orphaned and entrusted to the care of pagan relatives. Now a young adult contemplating his future, in the midst of a Church which has literally rotted away around him, Agellius by the grace of God comes to terms with the principal temptations of his young life and makes an adult choice in favor of the faith of his baptism. Skeptics might ask how Cardinal Newman dare speak about the life and psychology of a young man back in the third century. That is not the point, now is it? The Cardinal has written something universal about youth in uncertain times: third century North Africa, his own day and time in England or today here in our region; you choose! The point is that by the grace of God youth endangered (most certainly), but youth noble in its aspirations and search for God, triumphs. Ideals, timeless values, truth triumph in and through the Risen Christ. Has it gotten any harder today than it was 25 years and more ago for you to respond to God’s call? Is there any reason to despair of God’s will to raise up priests today as well after the heart of His only Son? I think not.

            We have a special Second Reading, not assigned for today but chosen for the occasion: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us… For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”  As priests especially we are “Christophers”, “Christ-bearers” not for our own sake but for your joy, in order that you might better give thanks to God.

            The Holy Father explains how this works in his same audience talk, with reference to our Gospel for today:

“This fact -- that the priest does not invent, does not create and does not proclaim one's own ideas inasmuch as the doctrine he proclaims is not his, but Christ's -- does not mean, on the other hand, that he is neutral, almost like a spokesman who reads a text which, perhaps, he does not appropriate. Also in this regard Christ's example is applicable, who said: I am not of myself and I do not live for myself, but I come from the Father and I live for the Father. That is why, in this profound identification, the doctrine of Christ is that of the Father and he himself is one with the Father. The priest who proclaims the word of Christ, the faith of the Church and not his own ideas, must also say: I do not live from myself and for myself, but I live with Christ and from Christ and because of this all that Christ has said to us becomes my word, even if it is not mine. The life of the priest must be identified with Christ and, in this way, the word that is not his own becomes, however, a profoundly personal word. On this topic, St. Augustine said, speaking of priests: "And we, what are we? Ministers (of Christ), his servants, because all that we contribute to you is not ours, but we bring it out from his storeroom. And we also live from it, because we are servants like you".”

There is a moment in the blessing found in the rite of infant baptism where the priest speaks to and about the parents and the mother in particular as giving thanks for the gift of her child. Our jubilarians give thanks for the gift of their priesthood of 25 years. They talk in the world about “self-made men” (Rockefellers and the like), but there are no self-made priests. Thankfulness is not and cannot be for us a pharisaical pat on the back; thankfulness from the bottom of our hearts is pointed to the other, to the Church who called us and set us apart, to Christ Who lives and works in us. I can remember that one of the hallmarks of my own father’s faith when he was alive was a healthy pride in his family, yes, but more than that a profound gratitude to God for the gift of his wife and children, a gift he was convinced he had not merited. To the extent that I as a priest am not entirely my own man, I too give thanks just like a believing husband or father in his quiet and pensive moments gives thanks for his wife and children, who complete him and are really the only worthy source to claim for his joy in life. Fair or not, I think we priests, completed as we are by Him in Whom we live and move and have our being, have even more reason to give thanks. Our gratitude, profound gratitude for the representational role bestowed upon us in union with Christ, is certainly mysterious but not esoteric. Believing folks have appreciation for what this means and how important priesthood is both for the Church and for the life of the world. If parents of small children don’t dream about a son of theirs becoming a priest they don’t have the faith; they have somehow missed out on where joy lies this side of heaven.

A homily is not meant to be the last word on anything. Let us be today like the beloved disciple was for Peter in the boat on the lake. Let us point and say “It is the Lord” and be happy. Thanks be to God for 25 years of priesthood, for 25 years of standing in the place of the Risen Christ, the only true Mediator between God and men! May the Lord grant you many more years in His service! May we fulfill our sacred trust and open our arms to receive a new generation of men called to teach, govern and sanctify in the Name of the Lord!

World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Yes, He is the Good Shepherd,

Who never leaves His Flock untended!

          “I, John, saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands… These are the people who have been through the great persecution… and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them… and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Apocalypse – II Reading for the 4^th Sunday of Easter)

            Apart from its being an obvious choice, I don’t think a better Sunday could have been chosen for the annual world day of prayer for vocations. Beyond the intention “Lord, grant us more and better vocations to the priesthood and religious life”, inspired by Jesus’ own words about the harvest being great, the laborers scarce, and his command to pray the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into His vineyard, there is so much consolation in the image of the Good Shepherd, Who never leaves His flock untended. This just had to be the Sunday; it is the only Sunday optimal to provide the backdrop for this prayer commanded by Jesus Himself.

            Many people today speak gravely of an insufficiency of vocations, one which goes beyond the shortage mentioned in Jesus’ command to pray the Lord of the Harvest to send workers. In some places in our world an atmosphere of panic or despair seems to hold sway. Is the Lord indeed in charge and what is His will for His Church? Scholarly authors often write about how consoling the Book of Revelation, The Apocalypse, was to the early Church in times of persecution. I find it to be so today as well. Besides holding out hope for eternity in the face of an “in-time” which is anything but consoling, the Apocalypse shows us the ultimate implications of the glory foretold by Jesus of Himself and seen by His disciples, the glory of the Risen Christ tangible in His Exaltation upon the Cross. Life this side of heaven is truly washed and saved in the Blood of the Lamb. “Unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain who build it.” No one but no one is going to steal the sheep out of the hands of the Shepherd to whom the Father has entrusted them. Our prayer for vocations finds its perspective in our expectation of the Dawn from on high which will break upon us. In a sense then, it almost seems folly to speak of a vocations crisis. A given person or generation may be marked by faithlessness, and thereby by a certain sterility or lack of fruitfulness, but the Lord continues to gather to Himself those who hear His voice and obey Him, even in adversity.

A territory is never evangelized once and for all time. I can remember years ago hearing from Franciscans in the Holy Land of their gratitude to the King and the Royal Family of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which had permitted and even supported the archaeological digs that uncovered countless mosaic pavements from early Christian churches buried under the sands of time throughout that land. The king was willing to allow an early chapter in the history of his territory to come to light and to be shared with the majority Moslem population of today. He was willing to find ways to avow Christianity as a part of Jordan’s national heritage. Thanks to his magnanimity the Christian minority was allowed to marvel at the glory, in a sense, which was once theirs. Monuments and milestones, however, are not what make the Church. In no sense would it be reasonable to rebuild all those churches and provide each one with a priest if there are no communities of Catholics to benefit from the reconstruction and from this ministry. You can’t measure the need or scarcity of vocations by the number of square feet of once sacred ground no longer occupied. It reminds me of a pilgrimage stop our bus group made in Galilee at Naim at the little Franciscan shrine recalling Jesus’ raising from the dead of the only son of a widowed mother of that town, a town where no Christians at all lived when we visited and where the empty little church was usually kept locked. Thinking of our First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas understood clearly, as has the Church in every day and time, what it means to fulfill the Lords command: “I have made you a light for the nations, so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.” There is something fortuitous or Spirit-driven about the way the faith sprouts and grows. We can turn our backs on rocky soil and weed-choked plots, while rejoicing in the rich soil attentive to God’s word and command.

“I, John, saw a huge number, impossible to count…” The bottom line is always the same, namely to bring everyone we can before the throne and before the Lamb. We want as many as possible to share the Lord’s joy. Faith might flag for a time in a given territory or even throughout extensive parts of the world, but the seed planted grows even while the farmer sleeps. Nonetheless, we cannot remain idle. Priests and priestly vocations are a sign of the vitality of the faith; where they are lacking, so unfortunately is faith, so is the hunger for truth. St. Monica spent her whole life trying to bring her son, St. Augustine, to the saving waters of baptism. The Lord heard her prayers and granted also her husband’s conversion before his death. Her faith brought forth an abundant harvest. As much as we have a right to lament the shortages, we have a call to pray the Lord of the Harvest. May He touch hearts and lives, may those destined to be saved be drawn to our number and by the grace of God persevere!

I’m beginning to dread willfulness, that stubborn refusal to be led by God, more than any other defect. Coaches for team sports lord it over their charges and in the course of hard practices and much shouting, sort of like in the drilling of soldiers, mold a group into a team which functions as one man, as a fine-tuned instrument. There is something to be said for that kind of esprit du corps within the Church. I won’t use that image, however, because while adequate to describing the route to winning and achievement, it lacks all of the subtlety and care, the nurturing implied by the figure of the Good Shepherd. We could go on about all the shepherd does for the good of the flock, but just as important is the way he fosters the life of each and every single one of his charges.

We pray today for an increase in vocations; we do so with unbounded confidence in the Good Shepherd, Who never leaves His flock untended.

Why such a Storm?

An Hypothesis

          Regardless of one’s attitude toward the Catholic Church, interested or disinterested, family, friend or foe, there are questions which come to mind these days: “Why such a storm of protest or critique and directed so insistently against our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI? Why so many awful revelations from different countries, lots of them (as in the case of the United States) raked up from the past and not without rancor? Why now, why in Holy Week, why at Easter?

          I have read some explanations by authors of a scientific bent who attribute the whole stir to a phenomenon they classify as “moral panic”, which they say occurs more often in our media-driven age and is fed by the machinations and hatred of God’s enemies, the traditional enemies of His Church. Others would say that things are finally coming to a head and they would blame this mess on an unprecedented level of corruption in the Church. This corruption stems mostly from a bunch of folks who have held The Second Vatican Council and the Church hostage for over 40 years with all their “spin” on what they call the “spirit of Vatican II”. I won’t throw my lot entirely with either one of these hypotheses, but the atmosphere does seem to be poisoned and something is radically wrong. There are days when one even wonders if we don’t find ourselves again in a period comparable to that on the eve of the appearance of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic, where by the mercy of our God reaching out and touching these two young men in particular the Church was pulled from the jaws of Hell almost by itinerant bands of poor, mendicant friars.

          Why so much anger and emotion these days? Obviously we are too close to the situation to be able to do other than hazard a guess and, given the rapid evolution of some situations, perhaps we might be the wiser within a generation. That is to say, I may or may not live to see better times. I may or may not live to read the historian who offers a definitive interpretive key to the ambiguity all around. I do not think just anyone today has the words either to explain away the crisis or to cast light in all of the dark corners which still might need to be swept clean, not by, but after the storm.

          Why were so many atrocious things shoved under the rug, if you will, up until not all that long ago? My closest attempt at an explanation comes from a look at modern warfare and its consequences for the lives of the returning veterans of the various conflicts. World War I is probably the best example for the point I would like to make, but it is too far in the past. Distant as it is, perhaps more folks remember the phenomenon of the suffering Vietnam veterans. Apart from physical damage done by “agent orange” or other chemical weapons, countless veterans of that conflict were scarred psychologically or spiritually because of what they witnessed or because of the role they were forced to play in the atrocities of that war. I can remember in the midst of a nation’s soul-searching asking myself why so much of this was coming out, seemingly for the very first time in the history of armed conflict. We didn’t have to wait long for an answer to a question which was not to the point, as the process of working through Vietnam empowered veterans of the Korean War to speak of their desolation in the face of moral quandaries and more, which had been churning within them without release for decades. Subsequently, we learned that veterans of World War II were carrying more than their battle scars as well.

          Did all these youngsters and young adults now grown up, old and older only discover their problems with soldiering in retrospect? Did they really come home serene from battle and only subsequently suffer from memories of things which have brought them nightmares over the course of a lifetime? Did they truly feel absolved as young returnees from war by the reassurance that they were only following orders? I think that most of them had their inner conflicts and unresolved issues from day one, but felt alone and somehow ashamed. More than anything else, even when they had the courage to ask why, I think they were confounded by the inadequacy of the responses from their elders to their questions, both hypothetical and personal. Most of those who were Catholic either distanced themselves from the institutional Church or carved out a niche for themselves with the help of folk on the fringe, even priests and nuns, who sought to level the playing field, to be morally non-intrusive or “open” in the sense of anything goes. In the case of WWII and Korea, nobody seemed ready to deal with them, least of all Father in his blue jeans and flannel shirt who insisted you call him Jimmy. Most of these veterans got their “hug-for-the-day” but precious little else to free them from their anguish and despair.

          Whether we are talking about the consequences of armed conflict, of various forms of domestic violence or of the abuse of minors by members of the clergy, it is clear that these are hurts which do not go away like that skinned knee which Mommy could kiss and make all better. Another world which is long since history knew that too and seemingly sought refuge in silence and in turning away. Are we any better today for wading into these problems instead of saying I don’t have an answer and I don’t know how to make the nightmare go away? Neither approach yields much this side of Heaven.

          Let me return to those couple hypotheses mentioned at the beginning. There is something to be said for the “moral panic” theory. Why all of a sudden now are we coming out in the open with some of these atrocities, especially those committed by priests? Forms of abuse have been around for most of the Church’s history. Our church furnishings, most notably the confessional in its traditional form, tell us this. For almost as long as individual confessions have been heard in the form popularized by the missionary monks from Ireland, who brought the faith back to continental Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire and the devastation of the civilized world by the various barbarian invasions, confessionals with a grate to separate the priest from female penitents have been in use. Men’s confessions normally were heard up front in church and in the open where all could see the priest and the penitent. Caution is always born of prudence and the hard lessons won from unfortunate experiences. Have we simply failed to use the precautions of a bygone era? In part we certainly have, but the death-dealing fruit borne by the rancor and the angry sense of betrayal also draw sap from a major faith crisis in our day and time.

          The people are not sustained by what often amounts to no more than a caricature of the great Ecumenical Council and seeks to pass itself off as its “spirit” and continuation. Even yet today you’ll find faith-filled lay people embarrassed by the Church’s refusal to regulate precisely their penitential practice. You are more apt to run into nominal Catholics, who don’t go to Mass with any regularity, who observe fasts and fish days which haven’t been on the official calendar for fifty years. The Sunday Mass goers, on the other hand, have been deprived of their penances with vague exhortations to do something constructive for the poor. This year during Lent I heard all sorts of talk about “carbon fasting”, which sounds weird, has nothing to do with a voluntarily assumed penance, and certainly cannot be limited to just healthy adults.

           I am convinced that the rancor and the angry sense of betrayal over the abuse of minors in particular also have roots in a major faith crisis in our day and time. While a great ignorance of the faith is evident straight across the board in people less than fifty years of age and the various catechumenal programs have rightly intuited that the issue is not purely intellectual, I would insist that the scandal which feeds this faith crisis is crass disregard yes for God’s Law starting with the Ten Commandments and the Precepts of the Church, but perhaps even more experientially stemming from the de facto elimination of the Divine from worship. If we do not quickly reform the “renewed liturgy” and bring it back into continuity with the Mass of all times, we will be guilty of depriving the storm-tossed faithful of a port in the storm. Arbitrariness and frivolity, informality and continuing experimentation with new forms and expressions expose what must be a construct and which cannot come from God. Victims of pre-Conciliar times, both of the devastation of war or abuse at the hands of those to whose care we are entrusted, could indeed turn to God. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was not something “made up”; it was handed down to us. Where do you turn today when your parish church and Sunday Mass seem to have been delivered into the hands of frustrated artistes looking for a stage? “Moral panic” also sets in when you feel very much abandoned.

          Those are brutal, fighting words really. I think they strike at the heart of the problem. If every priest and bishop would sit down quietly with the missal, make an examination of conscience concerning the liberties he has taken with the liturgy, and proceed to learn the rubrics and put them conscientiously into practice, the recovery through an act of humility on his part would already be begun. In those churches where the return to ad Orientem worship can be done without another round of iconoclastic interventions (capricious in the 1970’s and not to be repeated simply out of willfulness), the priest himself would be liberated from a goodly part of the temptation he feels to perform on the altar.

          Turning to the Lord in worship will not solve the abuse problem. The abuse problem and its history must be dealt with in other ways. I think that we need to give back to people in the Church their home with God. We need to give people a place to turn with weighty problems not easily resolved or healed. Counselors and psychiatrists can only do so much.

Within the community of the Church, I think we have to respond to God’s invitation to St. Francis: “Francis, rebuild my Church!” The multipurpose building fad passed as quickly as it appeared on the scene. Space for God is space for me amidst all my joys, hopes, sorrows and pains. A new age of temple builders, not in brick and mortar, but after the heart of St. Francis is needed to draw people back to God or to enable them to gain access to His footstool. Sobriety in worship in conformity with the priceless tradition handed down within the community of the Church is more than a start.

Go figure, but this year on Easter Sunday the prophet Joel comes to mind:

“Who knows if he will not turn again, will not relent, will not leave a blessing as he passes, oblation and libation for the Lord your God?”

Alleluia! He is Risen!

Holy Saturday – The Easter Vigil

3 April 2010 – Rosary Monastery, St. Ann’s

Vigil Readings from the Old Testament

Romans 6:3-11

Luke 24:1-12

Part of the prayer which is said as the Easter Candle is prepared for lighting goes as follows:

“By his holy and glorious wounds

may Christ our Lord guard us and keep us.”

            I think it was way back when among the old Fathers of the Desert in Egypt where they reminded the monks and hermits to look attentively at the figure should they think they were seeing a vision of the Risen Christ. They just like St. Thomas the Apostle, who said …unless I can put my finger into the nail marks in his hands and put my hand into His side, I will not believe…, were admonished by their teachers in the spiritual life to look for His holy and glorious wounds before trusting the vision. You and I may not have such concerns, but the lesson from the Desert Fathers is a key one. The mystery of faith, as proclaimed in the words “Lord, by your Cross and Resurrection, you have set us free. You are the Savior of the world,” is just so: we can only know Christ in His resurrected Glory if we recognize Him in His suffering and death.

            This is the whole point of the passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans assigned for tonight: “When we were baptized in Christ Jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life.”

            Alleluia! How do you wish somebody “Happy Easter”? What do you say? How do you mean it? Maybe the focus on His holy and glorious wounds provides that sure anchor to keep us from reeling off into space somewhere? For as much as Easter eggs, Easter bunnies and baby chicks dyed pink with your choice of harmless food coloring might be part of the symbolism, what warms or lightens hearts on this great feast is something which goes beyond the best of feelings that can be inspired by thoughts of the kite flying competition scheduled for tomorrow on the Savannah.

Jesus, the Lamb once slain who lives forever, is the only one who counts and can give our Easter Greeting its proper content. “I find God in nature” she says! “Great!” I say, “I have it easier. I look on the face of Christ; I see His hands and His side pierced through for my deliverance; I share His victory!” A pink or a yellow poui, a perfect sunset, and on and on are all His handiwork, but give me Jesus Himself! Give me Jesus first and foremost! Give me the Risen One! Springtime in the temperate zones and the first great rains after a hard dry season in the tropics always work their wonders (green, what a wonderful color!), but I have been baptized into the death of God’s only Son and I rise with Him to Glory. I rise with Him to Glory, not to sprout new leaves, not to bloom and grow, not for a season, but for always, unto everlasting life, happiness and peace.

            So let’s say it with all the meaning and weight intended! Let’s say it with the only sense which counts!

Alleluia! Happy Easter! He is risen as He said and goes before us!

“By his holy and glorious wounds

may Christ our Lord guard us and keep us.”