Purifying our Love

From the Catholic Liturgy for the 31^st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Nov. 5, 2017. Matthew 23:1-12.  Theme: Purifying our Love.  An interesting fact about Jesus in the Gospels is that His words and actions are always encouraging, compassionate and even tender…EXCEPT when he is dealing with the religious leaders, the clergy so to speak, of his day.They used their leadership roles to increase their own prestige, power and position with little to no thought for the good of those they were meant to serve. Their selfish behavior corrupted their vocation to be teachers and spiritual fathers to the people. In other words, their choices in life, did not match what they professed to believe.

But if we look at the bigger picture and are honest with ourselves we will see that this is something we are all guilty of.  All of us fall short of having our behavior perfectly match what we profess as Christians. In other words, we don’t always “walk the talk” or “practice what we preach”.   Sure, we profess our belief in God – and we truly mean it. We declare our love for Him and that it must be expressed in love for others, but so often due to our human weakness caused by the nuisance of original sin, we fail in carrying this out. There always seems to be that annoying tug of selfishness that holds us back from really loving God and others as much as we would like. It smears our best of intentions and smudges our sincere desire to do good.  The Bible and the experience of the saints inform us that this struggle between our intentions and our actions will be with us til death.

I think most of us would readily admit that we’re not perfected in love enough to enter right away into Heaven, where Scripture says only the sinless may reside.  But on the other hand, if we lived our lives in a right relationship with God we know that Hell is not our destiny. So where does that leave us? This would present quite a dilemma to us if our only after-earth choices were Heaven or Hell.  And this is exactly why God, in his great love for us, has given us the reality of purgatory. It is a beautiful expression of his mercy. For over 1,000 years we have set aside the month of November as a special time of year to pray for the faithful departed, but I think that many of us are a bit fuzzy on what we mean by purgatory and exactly why we pray for those who have died. So let’s take a quick look at three things we should know.

1. First of all, the experience of purgatory really exists and it is biblical. The Catholic Church just didn’t make up this teaching. We inherited our firm belief in helping the dead by our prayers from our Jewish roots, as expressed in the Old Testament Book of Maccabees. St. Paul also teaches about the reality of purgatory (though he doesn’t use that word) in his First Letter to the Corinthians.  He tells us that after death we will experience cleansing form our sins as if by fire. This is where we get the idea that purgatory has fire…but of course Paul is using fire as a symbol of purification because we all know that a spiritual soul cannot be affected by physical fire. Yet it proves the point that there is the reality of sin being forgiven or cleansed after death.

2. Second, the purification of purgatory is all about love and relationships, not pain and punishment. Sometime you might encounter books or preachers who talk about purgatory as if it is God’s torture chamber where we experience payback time for all our selfishness. Instead of this frightful image, former Pope Benedict XVI used to frequently refer to a marvelous mystic, St. Catherine of Genoa, when it came to teaching on purgatory. She had spiritual experiences of purgatory said that it is all about love and relationships. St. Catherine said that the suffering of purgatory is real but it is a spiritual emotional kind of suffering which she compared to the pain of loss we feel we have to part from a dearly beloved person in our life. We long to be together with them again and we painfully count and await the days until they return and we are reunited.

3. Lastly, it is important for us to never forget that we here on earth can help the souls who are undergoing their purgatory by prayers and Masses offered for them. They are not out of our lives when we walk away from the cemetery. When it comes to praying for the faithful departed, I find it helpful to remember that my prayers are a way of “being there” for someone in their time of need. You know how it is when a friend is going through a difficult time and there’s nothing you can do except to be there, to support and encourage, to keep them company and cheer them on. That’s what our prayers are like for the holy souls in purgatory. Like St. Catherine said, purgatory is all about relationships and death does not end the relationships we have with people. I can still be there and help them out the only way I can. I did not forget them in life and I will not forget them in death.

Vincentians: Living the Great Commandment

From the Catholic Liturgy for the 30^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Oct. 29, 2017. Exodus 20_22-26 and Matthew 22:34-40.  Serving God in our Neighbor. In the Book of Exodus, which was our first reading today, we have the solid assurance of Sacred Scripture that God hears the cry of the poor.  The sufferings and struggles of those who seek basic justice and the satisfying of their human needs does not go unnoticed by God. But the question begs to be asked: how does our God meet these needs? The Pierced Risen Heart of Jesus has such compassion on their plight, but how can he do anything about it from the glory of Heaven? Well, I am sure we all know the answer…the privilege and the duty of relieving the suffering of the poor and needy falls to us, his disciples, we who form the Mystical Body of Christ continuing his mission on planet Earth. As one of the saints put it:

Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world.

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.

Yours are the hands through which he relieves suffering.

Yours is the smile through which he brings joy and hope.

You are his body.

The Catholic Church has taken this responsibility and privilege of being Christ to the poor so seriously over the past 2,000 years that we are, and have been for most of our history, the largest charitable organization on the planet. Even in Mid-eastern and Asian countries where we Catholics make up only 1-5% of the population, we carry out 98% of the charitable works.  We can’t help it…that’s just who we are!

Serving Jesus in the poor does not require special talents or education. Neither does it require wealth or social influence. All you need to have is a personal response to the Great Commandment that we heard in today’s Gospel: to show your love for the God whom you CANNOT see, through loving service to your neighbor, whom you CAN see. 

One awesome and beautiful way to put the Great Commandment into practice is the Society of St. Vincent de Paul whose members are known as Vincentians. You are probably familiar with the downtown San Rafael dining room that bears the same name, but you might not know that the dining room is just one visible sign of a much larger presence of Vincentians serving the poor here in Marin. The vast majority of the works of mercy done by Vincentians are done quietly, without fanfare or attention, by ordinary everyday parishioners. 

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international Catholic association that is over 180 years old. It was started in Parish in 1833 by Blessed Frederic Ozanam, and came to San Francisco in 1860.   St. Sebastian’s is very blessed to have had a parish Conference of Vincentians who have been continuously serving Jesus-in-the-poor for over 40 years.  There are presently about 10 of your fellow parishioners who are Vincentians, who meet together every month and take turns going out every week in pairs to give direct personal service to the poor.  But they need of more members because sadly, the number of those in true need is expanding, not lessening, especially with the new social category of the under-employed.  Without new members, the poor who live within our parish boundaries run the risk of not having their material and spiritual needs met! 

Our parish has always been extremely generous in supporting the good works of the Society through financial contributions and food donations. Thanks to all of you, we have a well-stocked pantry down in the back of the hall. And I confident that this generosity will continue as the number of the poor continues to grow.  But if some of you have a desire for something more, to make the gift of YOURSELF along with the gift of your prayers, donations and food, then think about joining the Society.  You can be an instrument of charity right here in your own parish and make a difference in someone’s life. 

Mother of Perpetual Help

From the Mass and Consecration Ceremony on Oct. 13, 2017, 100^th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. About 40 of us have spent the past 6 weeks reading and watching Fr. Gaitley’s DVD series on consecration to Jesus through Mary, and we’ve been so blest to be able to do so, to live in this era of technology that allows us to learn from among the best of teachers, no matter how far away they may be. Most of our ancestors in the faith were not so fortunate. Most, until recent modern times, could not read and faith formation was not so easily or readily available to them. Thus, passing on the Gospel to mostly illiterate people became the special work of two groups: the clergy in preaching their homilies and artists in their creation of beautiful works. And so, we developed the tradition of statues and stained glass windows in the Roman or Western part of the Church, and of icons in the East, in Greece, the Slavic lands and Russia. 

One of these icons, coming from Greece about 1,000 years ago, has become so popular and loved by the whole Church that it is found in homes, and churches of both the East and the West: the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. We are going to use this icon as our final book on entrustment to Mary, because that is exactly why it was made in the first place. You see, icons follow very strict rules about color, design, posture. This is because they pass on some precious truths about God and our relationship with Him. And those who create icons are not called painters, they are called writers, because the icon takes the place of a book in teaching us about the faith. Every icon has a specific message, it is not meant to be just a pretty decoration. When we examine the rules followed in an icon we can arrive at the spiritual message it conveys. We will look first at the icon in general and then examine each of its detailed parts.

THE ICON IN GENERAL

The central largest figure is Mary. The second largest figure is Jesus. So, this tells us the icon is a lesson about Mary in our relationship with Jesus. There are 2 angels carrying instruments of the Passion and this tells us that what we are going to learn has to do with our salvation. Now, to learn more about the arrangement of these figures and their interaction, we have to know that icons, like the Gospel, can be about real events or be parables, that is, fictitious stories that are meant to convey a particular lesson to us. This icon is a parable told in art-form. And the parable is this: One day Jesus and Mary were outside when suddenly two angels appeared to the Child carrying the instruments of his future Passion. This so frightened him that he ran with great haste to his Mother and jumped up into her arms. He sought in her compassion, comfort and protection. He went to her for help.

1. MARY’S FACE

Mary’s large tender eyes look at you from wherever you are. This tells us she sees all our needs no matter where we are or what kind of situation we are in. they seem to invite us to her, to come to her.

2. MARY’S COLORS

Mary wears a a red dress and a dark blue mantle or veil. The dress is deep red trimmed with gold. This may seem unremarkable to us but in those times clothing wasn’t just for covering the body or enhancing one’s figure. The color and style gave a social message as to a person’s situation and status. Virgins wore red dresses. Married women and mothers had to appear in pubic with dark veils. And only the queen or empress was permitted to wear deep red edged with gold. So, this icon proclaims an awesome mystery: this woman is both Virgin and Mother, as well as a Queen.

 3. MARY’S STAR

There is an 8-pointed star on Mary’s head, which is the form of the Star of Bethlehem. It is there to remind us that Mary leads us to Jesus, just as the star led the Magi to the nativity. It also proclaims two of Mary’s most ancient titles: Star of the Sea that leads us to our destination of Heaven, and Morning Star that announces the rising of the sun, the coming of Jesus.

4. MARY’S HANDS

Notice that while Mary is the main figure of this icon, her right hands is intentionally in the actual center of the image, at the level of the heart. And what is that hand doing? It is holding Jesus’ hands. Furthermore, look how the hand is cupped and pointing to Jesus. This is a traditional icon posture called “pointing out the way” and it is directing our attention to something more important than the central figure. Mary is directing us to Jesus.

5. JESUS’ POSTURE

He is leaning in towards her, seeking protection and comfort. Remember the parable story. He is teaching us to go to her in our struggles, fears and sufferings.

6. JESUS’ HANDS

Jesus’ right hand is clasping Mary’s thumb. He is teaching us to trust confidently in her. Jesus’ left hand is pressed into Mary’s palm. He is teaching us to entrust ourselves to her.

7. JESUS’ SANDAL

Notice how one of the sandals is falling off his foot. Jesus has run to Mary and jumped up into her arms with such speed and anxiousness, displaying for us confidence in her motherly love, protection and help. This is where the icon gets its name: perpetual help.

So, there we have it. The icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. An icon of total consecration. An icon of entrustment and of our covenant relationship with Mary. The ancient Christian message of the icon is very clear: Mary is the Virgin Mother and Queen who points us to the Way, who watches over us wherever we are, and whose help is never ending: it is perpetual. So now the icon asks us to not just admire it but to make a decision: will we entrust ourselves to Mary, just the Child Jesus did, and allow her to mother us? If the answer is yes, then making the Act of Total Consecration to Jesus thorough Mary is an excellent way to express, carry out and live this response in our faith relationship with Jesus.