Passion Sunday

Today is Passion Sunday, the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover. On the second Sunday of Lent, we read in the Gospel of Luke of Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain. Before His disciples, Peter, James and John of the voice of God from the cloud saying, “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him.” and the appearance of Moses and Elijah representing the Law and the Prophets which Jesus had said he had come, not to abolish but to fulfill. Luke’s Gospel says, “Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory and spoke of His Exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.”

In the Exodus, Moses with God’s favor led the Jews out of Egyptian slavery into the freedom of the sons of God. The Passover was the eating of the male, one year old unblemished lamb which had been ordained by God to be reenacted in the Holy city, and elsewhere each year at this time in perpetual memorial of the Exodus event.

This morning we began the Mass at the door of the church with the reading from the Gospel of Luke also, Jesus has arrived at the gate of Jerusalem. His hour has at last come. Our Passover, the lamb of God, is about to enter into His city where he will be offered up on Friday - His Exodus is about to begin.

The people were spreading their cloaks on the road and waving Palm branches and shouting Hosanna to the Son of David. They praised God for all the mighty deeds they had seen, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.”

The people were hoping for a popular ruler who would restore sovereignty to Israel as in the glory days of King David. They were to be disappointed and subverted by those who received benefits from the Roman occupiers. None of this changed the objective of Jesus who had come to die for all men so that they might be free. And so He could rule the hearts of men from the cross. Even in heaven where he would be raised up on the third day after his death, and would ascend to His Father’s right hand in heaven. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is seen at every instance as having set His face to go to Jerusalem. This was His Father’s Plan.

Today in this liturgy we are the people of Jerusalem who shout Hosanna Son of David and spread palm branches and our cloaks before the Lord. And who later will shout crucify Him and will not lift a finger to save Him out of fear for our own safety and loss of benefits.

The scriptures today, in reference to Christ, are about His humiliation in Isaiah, Psalm 22 speaks of His seeming abandonment, Philippians about Jesus kenosis His emptying of Himself, the Gospel of His being overpowered by His enemies.

In the events of the Gospel we see ourselves in Peter who denied Him thrice, in Judas who betrayed Him, in those who argued about who among them was the greatest, and yet Jesus said, “I am among you as the one who serves.” And while Jesus prayed in the garden and His tears became drops of blood. He went three times to His disciples for solace and found them asleep. Jesus, in this hour of His greatest need was a man alone and forsaken by those He loved. All of which is part of His great passion.

The events of the Triduum, of the Holy week’s invitation will move from the upper room, then across the Kidron valley to the ount of Olives and back again to the Palaces of Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod for the mock trial and scourging and out the via Dolorosa to Calvary, to the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

In the upper room on Holy Thursday Jesus will institute the Holy Eucharist and the sacrament of holy orders, the priesthood – as we pray in the Roman Canon, the Eucharistic prayer number one “you are a priest forever in the order of Melchisidek.”

In the seventy two verses of the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus explains that he Himself is the bread come down from Heaven. That His flesh is food indeed and His blood is drink indeed.

In verse 54 of that 6th chapter of John, Jesus makes this declarative statement, “Amen, Amen I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life and I will raise him up on the last day.”

This great gift of everlasting life is conditioned on living Christ’s life, following Him and carrying the cross without question, by maintaining sanctifying grace in our souls, without which we have no life.

St Paul says in 1Cor:11:27, “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” In other words, to receive the Lord when we are in serious sin will result in our destruction.

Sin is an offence against God’s goodness. When we look upon Christ on the cross in His agony and disfigurement we see sin. For scripture says, “Christ became sin for us.”

If one reads a physicians account of Christ’s passion or reads the record of the inspection of the shroud of Turin, he will get an idea of the extent of Jesus suffering on the cross until He finally expired, being impaled by heavy spikes in the arms and feet and not being able to get His breath over several hours should be enough for each of us to renounce all sin in our lives for as long as we live on earth. If one temporizes or plays games with sin, it will worm its way into the fabric of our very being, venial sin will lead to mortal sin. And so in these days of many week that lie ahead develop empathy with Jesus and commit your life to His cause, which is also your cause and perhaps the unrealized cause of those you love which is the salvation of everyone according to His judgment of us not our judgment of ourselves, “Surrender, therefore, to God and He will do everything for you.”

Jesus reminds us in His Gospel and in the teaching of His church that, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Heaven is our goal but purgatory and hell are also real and have not been eliminated by anyone’s wish to have them disappear.

In Rev. 3:20, we hear the crucified Lord speak to the heart of each of us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door to me, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me. He who overcomes, I will permit him to sit with me upon my throne; as I also have overcome, and have sat with my Father on His throne.”

John Henry Cardinal Newman to be Beatified in September 2010

      
     John  Henry Cardinal  Newman will be Beatified by The Holy Father  in September of this year.  Cardinal Newman was born in 1801  and died at the age of 89 . He had become an Anglican clergyman. In 1845 and through his preaching and his theological writing came to the knowledge that the fullness of truth was to be found in The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and joined her. In  1879 the Holy Father made Newman a Cardinal.

     After his death in 1890 Cardinal Newman was forgotten.  In 1978 a book was published of his sermons under the title, "Newman against the Liberals"   The preface was written by Michael Davies and the introduction by The Rev. Philip Flanagan, D.D.  This blog is dedicated to contesting many positions coming out of the Second Vatican Council referred to as, "The spirt of Vatican II" .

     On page 20 in the introduction to the work of Newman referred to above it says. quoting  Newman, " First was the principle of dogma; my battle was with liberalism. By liberalism I meant the anti-dogmatic principle and its developements." Father Flanagan goes on to quote Newman elsewhere about the principle of the Liberals. "That truth and falsehood in religion are but matter of opinion; that one doctrine is as good as another; that the Governor of the world does not intend that we should gain the truth; that there is no truth; that we are not more acceptable to God by believing this than by believing that; that no one is answerable for his opinions; that they are a matter of necessity or accident; that it is enough if we sincerely hold what we profess; that our merit lies in seeking, not in possessing; that it is a duty to follow what seems to be true, without a fear lest it should not be true; that it may be a gain to succeed, and can be no harm to fail; that we take up and lay down opinions at pleasure; that belief belongs to the mere intellect, not to the heart also; that we may safely trust to ourselves in matters of Faith; and need no other guide_ this is the principle of philosophies and heresies, whch is very weakness."

     Against this liberal mentality Newman based himself  on what he called the dogmatical  principle, "which he describes thus: "That there is a truth then; that there is one truth; that religious error is in itself of an immoral nature; that its maintainers, unless involuntarily such, are guilty in maintaining it, that it is to be dreaded; that the search for truth is not the gratification of curiosity; that its attainment has nothing of the excitement of a discovery; that the mind is below truth, not above it, and is bound not to discant upon it, but to venerate it; that truth and falsehood are set before us for the trial of our hearts; that our choice is an awful  giving forth of lots on which salvation or rejection is inscribed, that before all things it is necessary  to hold the Catholic faith, ' that he who would be saved must thus think ' and not otherwise."

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

population growth in north Texas greatest in nation for 2008 - 2009

    According to Mike Snyder of the Houston Chronicle  the metropolitan areas of the cities of Houston and Dallas led the nation in population growth in the period of July 2008 to July 2009. Dallas was first with Houston second. The increase was 146,530 and 140,784 respectively.  It was about three years ago that the Vatican  made the Diocese of Galveston-Houston an Archdiocese and appointed the new Archbishop as a Cardinal. Three years ago the Diocese of Dallas received a new Bishop in the person of His Excellency Kevin J. Farrell. Last week it was announced that the Holy Father had appointed two Dallas priests as Auxiliary Bishops for the Diocese of Dallas to help the Ordinary with the effects of the growth.

     For the years 2005 through 2010 the Mass attendance figure for the Diocese of Dallas  is twenty nine percent.  For Holy Days it is seven and a half percent. It is believed that these low figures were the same for the years prior to 2005 although this has not been substantiated. It is held also that these low figures are and were  in place for other Dioceses in our country.  The summary of statistics for the Diocese of Dallas as presented by the Texas Catholic Newspaper, ( the diocesan newspaper ) shows the following for 2009.

     Est. Catholic population:  1,127,985
         Registered Catholics -     564,789
         Oct. Mass attendance -   166,117

     The difference between the estimated Catholic population and the registered Catholics is 563,000 or 50% of the estimated Catholic population. The estimated figure is given by the census bureau and is due primarily to Hispanic immigration. The Hispanic people are Catholic for the most part but in the earlier years on coming into this area of the country they did not register or attend Mass in our parish Churches. Will the appointment of two additional Bishops do anything to correct that since it is the Mass attendance of registered Catholics that reveals the 29% figure? If the attendance of regular parishioners is so low perhaps  is it not due to a weakness in catechetics and a reluctance and failure of the clergy, (Bishops and priests) to preach the Catholic faith in its richness and fullness? How will the adding of two new bishops correct that.?

     These thoughts are offered as a public inquiry to the laity as well as to the clergy. We believe the facts are correct and a dialogue might be helpful.

Does the culture follow the Church or does the Church follow the culture?

     The  U.S. House of Representitives late last night passed the senate version of  the universal health care bill. The vote was 219 to 212.  The bill, which will affect the entire population eventually and add trillions to the national debt was approved by a margin of  seven votes. It was not bipartisan as not one Republican voted for it.  Over the past forty years as a people we have lost our way. Our morals and our manners have  been set aside or forgotten altogether.  We won't stand up and speak out for what we individually know instinctively is the truth and the good. We  take the politically correct position hoping to just get along. We no longer recognize that the prince of this world, as Jesus called him, is still the father of lies who wants us to fail our final exam in the school of life. The culture in America has been dumbed down.

     The Catholic Church with Her Sacraments and Her doctrine is the only answer to these problems either individually or collectively as She has ever been throughout history. But She has lowered the barrier as well.  She no longer preaches about eternal life and the means of achieving it. Jesus said in one place, "Not him who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven but only he who does the will of my Father in Heaven  shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven".  The Catholic Church must be the leaven in the battle that lies ahead. She has the tools but She must use them. In St.Paul's letter to the Ephesians 15:10-20 He speaks of, "The Christian Warfare". :Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against the Principalities and the Powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high. Therefore take up the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and stand in all things perfect. Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of justice, and having your feet shod with the readiness of the gospel of peace, in all things taking up the shield of faith, with which you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, that is, the word of God."

     St. Paul's word in Ephesians must be our words as we engage the culture, our culture. Health care for all may be a good but our spiritual welfare is far more urgent. The Lord said to the blind BartImeaus, "What do want me to do for you?" Bartimeaus said. "Lord. that I may see" Jesus replied "Go, your faith has healed you". Bartimeaus, no longer blind, left all he had behind and followed Jesus. (Mk 10:46)

The Catholic Church is necessary for salvation

Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of this penitential season in which we accompany Jesus in His Forty day journey through the desert where he fasted and was tempted by the devil three times! We received ashes and heard the words, “Remember man that thou art dust and to dust you will return.”

These last words remind us of the words of Genesis 2:7 “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. And so man became a living being.” Man received his soul for in Gen 1:27, “God created man in His image; in the divine image he created him, male and female, He created them.”

In Gen. 3 we read of the fall of man, the refusal to obey God’s command, through the temptation of the serpent, the devil, the enemy of man. His friendship with his Maker was severed and he lost his place in paradise wherein was growing the tree of life. God stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword to guard the way there to. This sharing in God’s very being, this life is a spiritual reality. St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord! And our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”

The Old Testament is the story of salvation history of how God dealt with the Israelites to test them, to form them. How they were given the law by Moses after they were freed from bondage in Egypt and finally how they reached the promised land of Canaan. Their relationship with God was erratic. They gave in to their sinfulness and corruption. But through the prophets they learned of God’s plan to send a Savior, a Redeemer, the Messiah. “The virgin shall be with child, and bear a son and shall name him Emmanuel.” God is with us. Is 7:14

This is the realization of the plan of God the Father that His only Son, Jesus Christ, God is with us would come down from Heaven to give Himself up for mankind as the Pascal lamb on the cross, the price of our redemption from which comes the sanctifying grace that makes us holy.

The Israelites although they had received the promise of the friendship of God from Abraham, our common father in faith, did not exercise the faith but relied on the law. “For the law was given by Moses; Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Jn1.

St. Paul in Gal 3:10 says, “For those who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written cursed is everyone who does not hold to all things that are written in the book of the law, to perform them. But that by the law no man is justified before God is evident, because He who is just lives by faith, but the law does not rest on faith. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us…. That the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, that through faith, we might receive the promise of the spirit.”

The promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. He does not say, “And to his offsprings, as of many but as of one. And to thy offspring who is Christ.

St. Paul concludes this section of the promise of God in chapter three of Galatians with these words, “For all you who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor freeman, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, and if you are Christ’s then you are the offspring of Abraham, heirs according to promise.”

On August 6, 2000 the prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith who was Cardinal Ratzinger and who is now Pope Benedict XVI issued a declaration titled “Dominus Iesus” on the unity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church”. It and the approval of Pope John Paul II it came about as a necessity to make clear the Church’s position in the face of many misinterpretations by other religions and other Christian Bodies who took offense the Catholic Church’s claims.”

In section 21 is this statement “It is clear that it would be contrary to the faith to consider that Church as one way of salvation alongside those constituted by the other religions seen as complimentary to the Church or substantiality equivalent to Her even if these are said to be converging with the Church toward the eschatological Kingdom of God.”

Section 22, “With the coming of the Savior Jesus Christ, God has will that the Church founded by Him be the instrument for the salvation of all humanity.” (Acts 17:30~31)

Section 23: In treating the question of the true religion, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council taught: “We believe that this one true religion continues to exist in the Catholic Apostolic Church to which the Lord Jesus entrusted the task of spreading it among all people… Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19~20)

Especially in those things that concern God and His Church, all persons are required to seek the truth, and when they come to know it, to embrace it and hold fast to it.”
We remember that Jesus said to Thomas in Jn. 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. If you had known me, you would also have known my Father. And hence forth you do know Him, and you have seen Him.”

We have said these things to emphasize the Gospel words today of Satan to Jesus “If you are the Son of God” and Jesus reply, the devil tried to induce God to do His bidding. Satan tries to get us to follow Him but our response must be the same as Christ’s, “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him alone shall you serve.”

If we look back to the fourth century we see that a priest named Arius taught that Jesus did not have a divine nature and that he has not the only Son of God. This heresy Aryanisms was adopted by almost the whole world at the time. It lasted for about four hundred years and it has reappears in every age since. It is present in our own time.

The Church was brought forth by the blood and water from Christ’s side as He died on the cross, the sign of baptism and Eucharist. Christ is the head of the Church and those who are baptized into Him by water and the Holy Spirit comprise His mystical body. The Church is militant, suffering and triumphant, those on earth, in purgatory and in heaven. By way of the communion of Saints we all interact through prayer and grace.

The document Dominus Iesus was written for Non-Christians and for Christians of other faiths of whom many are baptized of water and the Holy Spirit. Therefore it follows that since the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church was founded by Jesus Christ. It is necessary for salvation. And has the fullness of all truth within it. And to this unity all people are called.

The promises were made to the Jews but have been subsumed in Christ and they the Jews are called to baptism to make a profession of faith and to confess their sins. As are Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and all other outside Christianity. The church has made known the love of God for every human being and has said that the grace of the cross will be available to touch each person who through no fault of their own does not know Christ. Evangelization and missionary work therefore must continue.

The declaration Dominus Iesus in 21 states this “With respect to the way in which the salvific grace of God which is always given by means of Christ in the spirit and has a mysterious relation to the church comes to individual Non-Christians, the Second Vatican Council limited itself to the statement that God bestows it in ways known to Himself.”

In Closing I give the example of John Henry Cardinal Newman who spent his early life as an Anglican clergyman, his struggled with finding the truth brought him to the Catholic Church in the middle of the nineteenth century. He died at 89 having been made a Cardinal by the Pope our Holy Father has extended an invitation to the Anglican community for any who desire to enter to the Catholic Church. About four hundred thousand have said they are interested. Newman said, “That before all things it is necessary to hold the Catholic faith, that he who would be saved must thus think and not otherwise”

During the Second World War many Jews in Rome were protected by Pope Pius XII, the chief Rabbi of Rome became a Catholic along with his wife. Another case was that of Edith Stein, a member of a large Jewish family in Holland, she and a sister became Carmelite nuns. During the war they were killed in the Ovens of Auscluitz. Edith Stein, sister Benedicta of the cross along with St. Catherine of Sienna and Saint Therese of Lisieux is a patroness if Europe.

These converts all sought baptism in the Catholic Church. The Lord says it is necessary along with faith in Him.

The penitential season of Lent is a time for us to count our blessings to be graceful for our faith in Jesus Christ and to open our hearts to Him who is the way the truth and the life.

Deus Caritas Est

Today in the Gospel Jesus says to His disciples and to us, “As the Father has loved me so I also have loved you. Remain in my love.”

In 1Cor 1:13 St. Paul speaks of love, what it is and what it is not. He speaks also of the theological virtues. He says, “These three remain, faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” He Says love is the more excellent way. He says in effect if I have all things good and have not love I have become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal signifying nothing. Love never fails.”

Jesus says, “I have told you this so my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete"

St. Therese of Lisieux, the little flower, lived only twenty four years and only nine of them in the monastery of the Carmel. She suffered terribly in the last eighteen months of her life from Tuberculosis. She wrote her autobiography, the Story of a Soul, on page154 she writes that she found her vocation in St. Paul’s 1Cor 1:13 that love is the most excellent and shortest way of going to God. She said, “I will be love.” She became what she wanted to be, a Saint and also what she never dreamed of becoming one of the three women doctor’s of the Church in its 2000 year history.

Last Christmas Pope Benedict issued his first encyclical letter titled in Latin “Deus Chritas Est”, “God is love.” It is 25 typed pages divided into two parts. The first is titled “The Unity of love in creation and in salvation history.” The second part is “The practice of love by the Church as a ‘Community of Love’”.

In the first part the Holy Father begins by saying that the word love is misunderstood and that the word love as applied to God is His reality, is His main attribute.

The Greeks used the words Eros and philia in describing their search for unity with the Divine. The latter Christians used the word agape which carries a different meaning.

The one God Yahweh revealed Himself to Abraham and formed a covenant of love. “You will be my people and I will be your God. Your descendants shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky.” The Old Testament tells of the one true God being with His people throughout their history, His love for them. God’s love was constant, forgiving, faithful in spite of their backsliding. In the Song of Songs, The prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Hosea the relationship is seen as personal and even conjugal. The Israelites committed adultery by worshiping other false gods. God’s love was intense and even jealous. “You shall have no other gods before me.”

The Greek word Eros was used to describe the love between a man and a woman. The word philia depicts friendship. The Greek Eros was involved with sex. Agape had not come into use. “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.”

Pope Benedict says in his introduction “In these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life, being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

“God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” St. Augustine said, “Love and do what you will.” And “At the Judgment we will be asked how much and how well did you love?” The first two commandments are: “You shall love God with your whole self” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

We must get the meaning of the word love clear. Love is God and God is love.

We go back to the words for love used by men: Eros; Philia; Agape; Chritas.

The meaning of the word love that stands out for us is the love between a man and a woman, a bodily and a spiritual love in the Christian’s sense. In Genesis are the words “Adam took Eve for his wife” and “She gave some to her husband to eat.”

“This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife and they become one body.”—This is physical, spiritual marriage between a man and woman and is a covenant of love, the love between man and woman in marriage. Eros becomes through a lifetime agape, formed thus by maturity, purification and suffering. The growth in this love Eros into Agape is a growth in the love of God and God’s love for them. “What God has joined let not any man put asunder.”

God’s love for his human bodily creature is made clear in the coming of God as man. Jesus says, “This is my commandment; love one another as I love you.” How does God love us? No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend’s. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Philia, friends; Eros, human love between a man and a woman in marriage and agape, the Christian word that encompasses love in all its forms when brought to its fullness in God.

Love rightly understood and rightly lived is the way to infinity and eternal life, to extacy.It is the more excellent way. God is love, it is in him we live and move and have our being..

And finally we should point to the love between the three members of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father.

God’s love is familial and His love is for His people for whom the Son died. Love is the Christian virtue in its four forms that lead to life. Love is not love if its source and goal is not God. In the vocation of matrimony, Eros is transformed into Agape over time. The purification and suffering that takes place is part of renunciation. Renouncing of the love of self for the sake of the beloved, spouse and offspring.

The God who is love shows that love on the cross in a complete and perfect act of renunciation that leads to the resurrection, infinity and eternal life.

As Eve was brought forth from Adam’s side so was the bride, the Church brought forth from the wound in Christ’s side, as He slept in death. The bridegroom giving up Himself for the sake of His beloved, so she could live, could become holy.

Mankind cannot realize the truth of His being without love, not that which the world calls love but the true love of God.

He says, you have not chosen me but I Have chosen you. We either love or we die. But counterfeit love will not suffice.

The Cross of Christ is the symbol and the reality of God’s love, that love that surpasses all others, And all understanding the more excellent way entails pain and suffering, renunciation of self but they are for a purpose. So that we who love as God loves may bring forth much fruit unto eternal life.

The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel cannot be set aside, however, “If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love.”

Contraception as a handmaiden to abortion

     On July 25, 1968 Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical letter titled Humane Vitae ( Of human life ). The encyclical clearly and with love and compassion points out the Churchs' long held teaching.  In the 1960's with the advent of "the pill" the Holy Father, who then was Pope John XXIII, formed a birth control commission to look into whether or not the Churchs' teaching could be changed.  After Pope Paul VI study of the commission's report  and a rather log delay He decided the teaching could not be reversed. This caused an uproar in Catholic circles with the result that theologians, bishops and priests dissented from it.  The teaching is valid and the consequences that would result from not adhereing to it as stated in the Encyclical have come about.

     In the 1992 Supreme Court case Planned Parenthood vs Casey, Justice O'Connor wrote in the plurality opinion that the right to abortion could not be curtailed "without serious inequity to people who, for two decades of economic and social developements, have organized intimate relationships...in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail."

     On August 12, 1950 The late Pope Pius XII wrote an Encyclical letter titled Humani Generis, (On certain false opinions which threaten to undermine the foundations of Catholic doctrine ). The document said the following about the weight of Papal Encyclical letters: "Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in encyclical letters does not of itself demand consent since in writing such letters the Popes do not exercise supreme power of their teaching authority. For these matters are taught with the ordinary teaching authority, of which it is true to say: " He that heareth you heareth me" (Luke 10:16); and generally what is expounded and inculcated in encyclical letters alrady for other reasons appertains to Catholic doctrine. But if the Supreme Pontiffs in their official documents purposely pass judgement on a matter up to that time under dispute, it is obvious that that matter, according to the mind and will of the same Pontiffs, cannot be any longer considered a question open to discussion among theologians."

     It seems that this question of  the morality of contraception has been settled and that  we should get on with the business of setting the record straight.

Father Corcoran's Catholic Overview: Catholics who accept abortion

Father Corcoran's Catholic Overview: Catholics who accept abortion.

There is an attendant moral problem that leads to abortion and it is contraception. The Church has taught for centuries that artificial birth control or contraception is immoral. On July 25th 1968 Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical entitled, "Humanae Vitae" that gave the Church's position in clear and loving terms. It was immediately dissented from by so called theologians. We will write more on this later.

Catholics who accept abortion

     In this struggle on the part of the Obama administration to have the Catholic Speaker of The House of representitives  find enough votes to pass the  notorius health care bill  we are reminded of a curious and upsetting fact.  That fact is that in past national elections at least fifty three percent of the electorate that is identified as Catholic has voted for candidates who support abortion.   This is true not only of abortion but  of most of the sexual moral issues that are  part of the moral order taught for centuries by the Church. Issues that effect the life of the family and of a civilized society. This is the work of the Bishops and their priests to proclaim the truth from the pulpit on Sundays and Holy days.  We can surmise that this isn't done for fear of offending public officials who hold the federal purse strings.  This leaves only the laity to speak up and they must be encouraged to do so when they see  the teachings of the Pope and the magisterium  being ignored.

Financing of Catholic Church activities by Government, Foundations and Corporations

     This article from the March issue of The Catholic World report:"During its 2007-8 fiscal year, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany received nearly 45 percent of its revenue from government grants and another 41 percent from program-service revenue, including income from gtovernment contracts. Barely 10 percent of the revenues of Catholic Charities came from free-will contributions."

     This is most likely true of most Dioceses.  In the same issue is news of the legalization of same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia. The City Council will require The Archdiocese to comply with all city laws when applying for contracts and grants needed to offer homeless services, mental health services, foster care and more.. Archbishop Donald Wuerl said that Catholic Charities will drop its adoption service because of the new law on same-sex marriage. Heretofore the Church in Washington, D.C. has been receiving  two million dollars annually in city contracts.

     The Catholic Church is reluctant to put forward the moral teaching of the Church in a direct manner from the pulpit  and are reticent about refusing to give Holy Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion in their public life. Can there be a connection with the vast sums of money received  from public agencies?

   

Pope to priests: Go forth and blog

Benedict urges clergy to proclaim the Gospel' with all media tools possible

VANCAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has a new commandment for priests struggling to get their message across: Go forth and blog.

The pope, whose own presence on the Web has gown in recent years, urged priests on Saturday to use all multimedia tools at their disposal to preach the Gospel and engage in dialogue with people of other religions and cultures.

Priests should use cutting-edge technologies to express themselves and lead their communities, Benedict said in a message released by the Vatican.

“The spread of multimedia communications and its rich 'menu of options' might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web,” 'he said, but priests are “challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources.”

The message, prepared for the World Day of Communications, suggests such possibilities as images, videos, animated features and blogs.

Benedict said young priests should become familiar with new media while still in seminary, though he stressed that the use of new technologies must reflect theological and spiritual principles.

"Priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ," he said.

The 82-year-old pope has often been wary of new media, warning about what he has called the tendency of entertainment media, in particular, to trivialize sex and promote violence. But Benedict has also praised new ways of communicating as a "gift to humanity” when used to foster friendship and understanding.

The Vatican has tried hard to stay up to speed with the rapidly changing field.

Last year it opened a YouTube channel as well as a portal dedicated to the pope. The Pope2You site gives news on the pontiff’s trips and speeches and features a Facebook application that allows users to send postcards with photos of Benedict and excerpts from his messages to their friends.

Ariel David,

The Associated Press

Christ and the people in the desert with Moses

This is the third Sunday of Lent—A third of the way through the journey in the desert with Christ who denied Himself all things in readiness for the trial of the Cross on Good Friday. He was hungry, and we too must become hungry for the Word of God and for His Kingdom. He said “My Kingdom is not of this world.” And “I have come not to do away with the law and the prophets but to fulfill them.” “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.”

The whole of the Holy Scriptures, the Old and the New Testament is the revealed Word of God. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two. The Old is a symbol of the New. This is especially true today. The book of Exodus shows us the Hebrews in the desert after being lead out of slavery in Egypt by Moses and the grace of their God. Jesus is in the desert preparing to arrange the release of mankind from the bondage of the slavery of sin. The Jews went through the parted waters of the Red Sea as a form of baptism into Moses. Our entry into freedom and life will be through the waters of baptism into Christ. But this baptism will be effected by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The people in the desert became hungry and thirsty and complained to Moses. God heard them and sent them manna, bread from Heaven, and water from the rock. God told Moses to go with his staff with which he had parted the Red Sea, and strike the rock which I will be standing in front of.” He did so. He struck it twice and water came gushing out. St. Paul tells us that it was Christ who was the rock.

There are three additional things that are present to us today that are meant to lead our minds and hearts to reciprocate the love Jesus shows us.

The first is Jesus is our rock. From which came forth the water of life for the people and for us. When Jesus chose his apostles He chose a fisherman named Simon Bar Jonah, Simon son of Jonah, when he was ready he changed Simon’s name to Petros in Greek, Peter, which means rock. Jesus said: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Jesus said further, “And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

The second is that it was Joseph the youngest and best loved of Jacobs twelve sons, who because of the favor shown to him by his father, was hated by his brothers. They decided to kill him but were unsuccessful. They sold him instead into slavery for twenty pieces of silver and he was taken to Egypt. In Exodus 13:19 we read, “Moses took with him the bones of Joseph, who had put the sons of Israel on Solemn oath, it is sure that God will visit you, he said, and when that day comes you must take my bones from here with you.”

The Jewish people have a heritage as do the Christian people whose heritage is Christ, the Son of God through whom all things were made. Jesus said: “I have come, not to do away with the law and the prophets but to fulfill them.” God’s Plan is to make all things new and to fulfill His plan in the heavenly Jerusalem. Is not therefore the ascension of Christ into heaven and the assumption of His Blessed Mother not foreshadowed by the transport of the bones of Joseph from exile into the promised land?

Third is the name of God given to Moses. “If they ask me what is His name what am I to tell them?” “I am who Am. This is my name forever.” God who is the prime mover, the alpha and the omega, is pure being, that which we have is natural life which is born and dies. We do not have being, except that which we share through Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. And because of Him and only because of Him we, through baptism into Him, share in the life and being of God. We are adopted children, heirs of the kingdom. Of ourselves we can do nothing, all depends on God, on Christ.

And so as in the desert, God today feeds us with His Word in Scripture and brings us food from Heaven in the holy Eucharist in this holy sacrifice of the mass. The mass is the sacrificial offering of Christ, of Himself for our redemption, and it is this sacrifice from which all sanctifying grace flows. It flows through the church which is Christ and which was born from the wound in His side. He is the bridegroom and the church is His bride. The people baptized into Him are the Body of which He is the head, the mystical body of Christ is one in three forms the (Church militant, the Church suffering and the Church triumphant.)

In the Vatican II Document Lumen Gentium there is a chapter titled “The People of God” which is an Old Testament term for the Israelites. It explains that Christ died for all and extends the possibility of His salvation to all with various limitations and conditions. Some may gain the impression that all are automatically saved. Paragraph 14 says this, “The Catholic church is necessary for salvation. Men enter it through baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, who refuses either to enter it, or to remain in it.”

The Gospel verse today is “Repent,” says the Lord, “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
In the Gospel itself Jesus referring to the people who died in the collapse of the tower at Siloam, says “Do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means, if you do not repent you will perish as they did.”

Then Jesus gives the Parable of the fig tree that for three years had given no fruit and the gardener was told to cut it down. He begged the owner of the vineyard to give him one more year to fertilize the ground around the barren tree and to cultivate it and if there is no fruit you can cut it down.” This is a parable about the human soul that is looked for to be holy and to bear fruit. We must be sure we are in sanctifying grace. We must not take the salvation of our souls for granted or that of anyone else. In James 5:19 we read, “My brethren, if anyone of you strays from the truth and someone brings him back, he ought to know that he who causes a sinner to be brought back from his misguided way, will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.”

In St. Paul’s letter this morning he is speaking of the people of the Exodus in the desert with Moses when he says, “yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. … These things happened to them as an example and they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come… Therefore whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.”

When Moses had brought the people after forty years to Mt. Nebo from which he could look across the Jordan River and see the promised land of Canaan. He spoke to them for the last time as related at the end of chapter 30 Of Deuteronomy “I set before you life or death, blessing or curse, choose life then so that you and your descendant may live.” He then tells the people that God had told him, “You shall not cross this Jordan… Because you broke faith with me among the sons of Israel at Meribar.” Moses had not shown the holiness of God when he doubted him in the striking of the rock to secure water. He struck it twice, when with faith, once, would have been enough.

The great law giver Moses was not allowed into the Promised Land.

The fig tree that produced no fruit was given a reprieve of one year before being cut down and throws out.

St. Paul says that of the people of the Exodus, “God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. Therefore, whoever thins he is standing secure should take care not to fall.”

Do not take sanctifying grace in your life for granted but secure it and build on it because it is the life of God within you, without which you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

God bless you and keep you.

Transfiguration

This is the vigil mass for the second Sunday in Lent. The preface and the Gospel are on the transfiguration of our Lord in His glory on the mountain. The theme of the scripture is that God in His love for man, even though he had fallen from grace, wanted him to be saved as he had made man for Himself. There is no happiness, no life, nothing of any lasting value away from and outside of God. The greatest sin is pride and it is pride that keeps us from turning our lives over to God and imploring His help.

In the first reading from Genesis, we see God choosing Abram in the little town of Ur and making a covenant with him to make of his descendents a great nation through whom would be brought forth God’s plan of salvation. The Old Testament – salvation history- the great act of Abram that made what followed possible was faith. “Abram put his faith in the Lord” and humbly followed Him wherever He led.

In the Psalm prayer we say, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear?” Salvation history from Abram to Christ the culmination of God’s plan spans nineteen hundred years. Through slavery in Egypt, the Exodus, the Passover, wondering in the desert, the giving of the law to Moses on Mt Sinai, to Jerusalem and the great kings and the temple, to decline and captivity which came out of disunity, to finally occupation by the Greeks and the Romans. The Jews would go over to other gods and would be back sliders from God’s law, the constant struggle between the goods of the temporal order and the demands of God’s commandments. “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil, for you will most surely die.”

There were three Major Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel who foretold the Advent of the figure of the Messiah plus the Book of the Prophet Daniel and the figure of Elijah. That people began to look for and anticipate the coming of the Messiah.

In the 7th chapter of Isaiah we read, ‘The virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son whom she will call “Immanuel”.’ Immanuel means “God is with us.”

Christ was born. God the Father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sent his only Son who took on our flesh and born of woman came to die as man and God to take upon Himself all the sins of men no matter how terrible in effect to become sin. So that if we accepted Him, believed in Him, and were baptized into Him, we will have eternal life. What a plan! What a gift! What a sacrifice of love! All man had to do was to have faith and obey and to love. He would not have to do these things alone. However, for God’s grace would be with him.

But the same age old problem existed, the struggle between good and evil, between the temporal and the eternal.

Before we move on there is one other element of history that must be spoken of.
The Greeks who preceded the Romans had a highly developed democratized society. In the 4th century B.C. there appeared three great men in close succession who were seekers of wisdom, Sophia, Philosophers, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. These men discovered many things about reality and truth. Their writings are still in existence. They are important because, as the Catholic Church which is the person of Christ gives us revelation which is God’s word, the word which is also Christ, in which we have faith, the faith of Abraham, the philosopher of the Greek 4th century B.C. give us the basis of reason the results of sound reasoning.

God has given us free will and reason the basis for finding the God of revelation.

As the one, holy catholic and apostolic church developed and grew great theologians who were great philosophers came forth, St. Augustine in the 4th century based his theory on Plato and in the 14th century St. Thomas Aquinas formed his on Aristotle.

And so we have the inviolable word of God in revelation, the birth, life and death of Christ the Son of God and the development of western civilization. This could not have come about without the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church as its foundation. That church is the person of Christ who is the way, the truth and the life without whom one does not come to the Father. And Peter is Christ’s vicar on earth for all time. He has the keys to the kingdom of heaven, to lose and to bind, and to forgive man’s sins. “Whatsoever you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in Heaven. And whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.”

The connecting link between the Old Testament and the New and everlasting covenant is the Passover - The sacrifice of a one year old unblemished male lamb and the affixing of its blood to the doorposts of the houses of the Jews and the eating of its flesh, as a prelude for the freedom from slavery in Egypt via the Exodus.

This is the meaning of the passion and death of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, the Lamb of God, as a price for the forgiveness of man’s sins. Jesus hence rose from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven where he intercedes for each one of us “Through his stripes we were healed.”

This time of Lent is penitential – a time to walk with Christ in the dessert for forty days, a time to reevaluate our lives and to look deeply into ourselves to again find the ways to become all His, for there is no happiness, no life, nothing of lasting value away from and outside of God. Through the sacraments of Christ in His church we find strength for the age old struggle between good and evil, the struggle between the earthly and the heavenly.

This is why we should let ourselves be transformed by the transfiguration of Christ on the mountain. In the Gospel, we see the apprehensive Jesus ascending Mt. Tabor with His three closest disciples to pray. This was in anticipation of His ascending Mt. Calvary. They were joined by Moses representing the old law and Elijah the prophets. They came in glory “to speak of His Exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem”.

They were covered by the cloud from whence a voice was heard, the voice of God the Father saying, “This is my Beloved Son, listen to Him.”

What does this mean for me, you may be asking yourself, for you are a child of God and an heir to the kingdom of heaven?

In this age of dissent and secular ideas that confuse our view of the Catholic Church. That propose that one religion, whether it be Christian or some other, is as good as another. You must be confirmed in the knowledge that the Catholic Church is that founded by our Savior Jesus Christ to bring men and women of every age to the fullness of truth and through the living of that truth which is Christ finally to eternal life.

These days of Lent can be grace filled for each of us. We should take the invitation of God to look inside ourselves and to mend that which has become worn or torn. In the coat we wear everyday often time a tear will appear in a sleeve and if we continue to wear it like that, the tear will get worse. Someone who knows how to repair it will take the coat and turn the sleeve inside out and mend the sleeve from the inside. It is the same with our spiritual lives. We are temples of the Holy Spirit wherein dwells the Trinity who alone can mend our souls.

There is no happiness, no life, nothing of lasting value away from and outside of God. Listen to Him.