Salt & Light

Catholic Liturgy for the 5^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 9, 2020. Gospel of St. Matthew 5:13-16.  Theme: Salt & Light

In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses two very basic things from everyday life to drive home a central point of his teaching: that inviting others to encounter him and thus experience transformation of their hearts and lives is best accomplished by the example of our lives as Christians.  He calls us to reflect upon such basic things as salt and light and to see in them an inspiration to be, as St. Catherine of Siena put it, who we were created to be, in order to set the world on fire with love for God and neighbor. He reminds us that our lives, lived as he taught us, are the single most powerful and convincing way to give witness to him and awaken in others the desire to enter into a personal relationship with God.

Let’s first take a look at salt. We all know what salt does: it brings out the best in food and makes it more appealing. That’s what we are all supposed to do by our lives. Our Catholic Christian faith is meant to bring out the best in us.  It is meant to show those with whom we live and work and socialize that God is good and that a relationship with him can make us the best version of ourselves that we can be.  Our lifestyle and choices should show people that Christianity is an appealing religion and one that serves the needs of the human family as history itself attests and confirms.

Now what does Jesus mean when he says that we have to be careful to not lose our saltiness? I think this means that if we are just like everyone else in how we treat others and how we live, if the values of our materialistic consumer-mentality society are as much in us as in everyone else, then we have lost the spice of Christianity. Our witness will be no different than anyone else.  And so, we become useless for carrying out the mission of witnessing to Jesus. We will not be able to introduce Christ to others if our very lives will cause some to wonder if we even know him ourselves!

Moving on to the example of light, we all know how vital is to our everyday living!  Among other things, it keeps us safe and helps us to avoid dangerous situations. If you are over 40, then you probably know that the ridiculously small print on our prescription meds suddenly becomes clearer and much easier to read when placed directly under a bright light!  We are able to take them properly and avoid a potentially dangerous situation. In the same way, the more people examine our behavior enlightened by Christ, the clearer it can become for them to see the Gospel as a pathway to real love and respect for others as well as a positive influence in life.  They can sense our inner peace and strength even in the midst of difficulties. Then this might encourage them to investigate a relationship with Jesus Christ for themselves.

But the salt and light of Christianity can do even more than change the individual person. It can - and indeed has - changed entire cultures and societies! Western culture as we know it, along with the many human rights and freedoms it affords us, would not be ours to enjoy today had it not been for the Catholic Church sprinkling the salt of the Gospel and diffusing the light of Christ throughout the known world for the past 2,000 years. This is not just Catholic self-promotion or Christian chauvinism but solid verifiable historical fact.  And it is something we must not forget nor be reticent to talk about.  

I do not have enough time to go into the many details about the various ways that this salt and light of the Gospel have shaped our culture and influenced our history. But there is a great short easy-read book by Mike Aquilina titled, Yours Is The Church, that does the job marvelously and accurately.  I strongly recommend this book especially today when Christians have become open targets in the social and political realms and when Christianity’s influence is being ignored or falsely denied.  In a nut-shell this book reminds us that:

·       Christianity’s salt and light fueled so many scientists to make vital discoveries in their fields such as Copernicus, the priest who discovered that the sun is the center of the universe; the Jesuit priest George Lemaitre who came up with the Big Bang theory of the universe’s origin; Gregor Mendel, a monk who gave birth to modern genetics; and Louis Pasteur, the inventor of pasteurization and pioneer of infectious disease control.

·       Christianity’s salt and light gave inspiration and encouragement to the classic works of the fine arts such as Michelangelo & Leonardo DaVinci in painting, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart & Johann Sebastian Bach in music, Dante Allighieri & J.R. Tolkien in literature.

·        Christianity’s salt and light moved heroic figures to stand up on behalf of women, children, the dying and the disabled. They are way too numerous to mention by name but before Christianity arrived in so many countries throughout history, women were given with the same status and rights as a man’s life-stock; children were regarded not much better than slaves; the dying were abandoned in the wilderness; and the disabled were killed for being thought of as cursed. But Christianity brought to these cultures the sanctity of marriage and protection of the family, respectful care of the sick in hospitals, and defense of the human dignity and rights of all people, no matter what their mental or physical condition.

·       Christianity’s salt and light gave impetus and determination to the political struggles of great human rights activists in America such as the slavery abolitionists Frederick Douglass (a Methodist minister) and Harriet Tubman, mother of the famous Underground Railroad to freedom; St. Katherine Drexel who gave her whole life as well as her 1/3 share of her family’s billion-dollar fortune to the education and social promotion of Black and Native Americans; and of course, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and champion of the Civil rights movement.

So, inspired by devout Christians such as these, let’s ask Jesus for the grace to never lose our saltiness; for the grace to never cease to be light in the darkness of this world. These heroes and heroines of our faith were human beings like us in every way, but they show us what the Gospel can do when it is truly lived out in flesh and blood reality. Their witness gives us absolutely amazing stories about how both people and places can be transformed by coming in contact with the salt and light of Christ flowing out of our own lives. 

Priestly People

The Catholic Liturgy for the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, Feb. 2, 2020. Gospel of St. Luke 2:22-40. Theme: Priestly People

Today’s feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem is an ancient celebration that is full of meaning for us as God’s people. After the Roman Empire stopped persecuting Christians and our ancestors were able to worship openly without fearing for their lives, it quickly became a popular liturgy celebrated with candles and processions. I think this happened because the Presentation of Jesus says something very important, not just about Christ, but about each one of us as well.  

In today’s gospel, we encounter Jesus being brought by Mary and Joseph to a religious ceremony in which he is offered and consecrated to God.  And this is so very similar to what happened to most of us on our baptism day.   Our parents carried us to the parish church where we were consecrated to God by the water that was poured over us in the Name of the Blessed Trinity.  Then, after the pouring of water, our foreheads were anointed with special holy oil, called Chrism, and through this sacred action we were consecrated in Christ as servants of God.  As a matter of fact, this is precisely why we are called Christians which literally means “the Anointed Ones”.

It’s very important to keep in mind that this consecration or dedication was not an empty ritual. It wasn’t just a formal ceremony to be captured in pictures and noted in a sacramental record book. When someone is consecrated to God it means that they are set apart, set aside, as God’s own special possession. They are dedicated to all that is sacred and holy. You see, our baptism makes us a priestly people consecrated for the task of offering God the worship of our lives, lived out of love for him and our neighbor.  We are called to be a prayerful people making intercession to God on behalf of not just ourselves, but the entire human race.

There is a special term that is used to describe this unique baptismal relationship we have with God.  It’s called the “priesthood of the faithful”.  This means that every single baptized Christian is truly a priest, that is, someone who is officially consecrated or dedicated and set apart to offer worship and sacrifice to God.  And it is only because of this baptismal priesthood that some men can later on in life be called to ordination as Priests in the sense that we usually use and understand the word. The two types of priesthood are indeed distinct but they are also very much inter-related.

And this relationship between the two is why your personal presence is so important for every celebration of the Eucharist and why the Church requires Catholics to attend Mass every Sunday. It’s because the Eucharist is to be offered by all of God’s people and not just by those who have received the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Yes, it is true that we need an ordained priest to preside at Mass so that the bread and wine can be transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. 

But soon after this is transformation takes place during Mass, the ministers at the altar hold up the Host and Chalice, offering them to God in the Name of Jesus.  And have you ever noticed that these sacred items are not put back down on the altar until you, the priestly people, have said Amen to the offering? This is because your Amen means that each one of you, the priestly people, have given your “yes”, your approval, to what has been done. It is such an important “Amen” in the Mass that it is quite often usually sung and not just said.

Many Catholics have never heard about this baptismal priesthood, but it is the solid teaching of the New Testament (see 1 Peter 2:5, Romans 12:1, Revelation 5:10).  It has also always been the solid teaching of the Catholic Church.  But apart from what is done at Mass, the fact that we are a priestly people means that everything we do – everything – can be offered up to God as a sacrifice of praise and worship. Everything and anything we do – prayers, works, joys and sufferings – can become a means for calling down God’s blessings upon us and others in intercession.  This is where we Catholics get the phrase that you may have heard to “offer it up” when we go through tough experiences.

We say this because for the Christian, there is no longer such a thing as “wasted pain” or “senseless suffering”.  All of it can be transformed and made useful, by, with and in Jesus, because of our baptismal priesthood.  By uniting what we must endure in this life with what Jesus endured on the Cross, the “bad news” of suffering can be thus become the “good news” of blessings for others because of the victory and power of Christ’s Resurrection.  All of this can become a reality in our lives and bring us both deep meaning and consoling purpose if we just say “yes” and to our best to live out the baptismal priesthood we received when we, like Jesus, were first presented to God in the temple of our parish church.

Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ

The Catholic Liturgy for Word of God Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. Gospel of Matthew 4:12-23. Theme: Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ

This Sunday, for the first time ever in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church, we are observing a brand-new liturgical celebration, Word of God Sunday.  Pope Francis intentionally announced this last Sept. 30, which is the feast-day of St. Jerome who lived in the 4^th century AD. St. Jerome was very important to Christianity because he was an extraordinary Scripture scholar. But he wasn’t always such a devoted fan of the Bible.  He was at first, to be kind to his memory, only a half-hearted Christian.

When he was an academically-gifted but hedonistically-promiscuous college student in Rome, Jerome contracted a life-threatening disease. Up to this point in his life his practice of Catholicism was done mostly out of a sense of guilt after nights of partying.  But during his sickness he had a dream in which he found himself before the judgment seat of Christ. Trying to put his best foot forward, Jerome confidently declared to Jesus that he was baptized and so should be let into Heaven. Our Lord replied to Jerome that he ought to think twice about that statement.  He informed him that simply going through outward religious rituals without them affecting one’s life is of little to no value when it comes to where he would spend eternity!

Jesus’ words shook Jerome out of his spiritual apathy and he experienced a Holy Spirit “aha!” moment. He saw that he was not an authentic Christian because he didn’t know Christ. And he didn’t know Christ because he didn’t know the Scriptures! From that point on, Jerome embraced his faith wholeheartedly and made the decision to devote the rest of his life to the study of the Word of God. The most famous quote we have from St. Jerome comes from this experience and it goes like this: “ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”.

Pope Francis has instituted Word of God Sunday precisely to help us to avoid – or get out of - of that kind of ignorance. He wants us to realize the place that the Bible must have in the life of every Catholic Christian. He is hoping that, like St. Jerome, we will come to really encounter Christ up close and personal through Scripture.  But for this to happen, we have to approach the Sacred Scriptures very differently than we do any other writings.  We need to accept them as they truly are: the Word of God and not simply the words of human beings.

Sure, we can find other writings that are more beautifully composed or even more personally inspirational to us than some books of the Bible.  But their advice and lessons rest upon fallible human experience and limited knowledge. The power of the Scriptures, on the other hand, is not in their literary composition or beautiful imagery. The power of the Bible is in the Holy Spirit who interacts with us through the Word of God!

The uniqueness of the Bible is that it originates in mind of God, so to speak. He inspired the various authors of the Scriptures to write down only those things that he wanted to share with us concerning himself, concerning our lives as human beings and how we should live in this world in order to be with him forever in the next. Unlike ordinary human writings, God’s Word has the power to touch the heart, to heal the soul, to enlighten the mind and to strengthen the will to do good and avoid evil.

But it seems to me that if a person is going to accept all this as true about the Bible, then there remains one vital question that must be asked and answered: how can we know that the Scriptures are truly the inspired Word of God? We can’t simply say that the Bible says it’s so! That’s just a circular argument. There is quite honestly only one sure reply and it is the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  In other words, the physical historical Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead proves his Divinity because no one who is just a human being can die and then rise up from the grave on his own power.

You see, the Resurrection shows us that Jesus was not just a man, but that he was also fully God. And God does not fool or deceive us. So, the reality of the Resurrection confirms for us the reality of the Sacred Scriptures.  As St. Paul teaches in his letters: if the Resurrection is not true then everything we have been taught and believe is not true, and that includes the Scriptures as the inspired Word of God.  In other words, the degree to which we accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God is equal to the degree in which we accept and believe that Jesus is truly risen from the dead as Son of God and Savior.

With this in mind it seems to me that one of the best things Word of God Sunday can do for us is to send each one of us to the Bible so that we can come to this conviction about the reality of the Resurrection for ourselves.   We need to find a quiet place where we will not be disturbed for a short time. Then take up the New Testament and turn to one of the four Gospels. The eye-witness accounts of the Resurrection can be found towards the end of each of them. Read thoughtfully. Think about it carefully. Pray sincerely from the heart. Ask the Holy Spirit who dwells within you to enlighten your mind.

I am totally confident that the person who perseveres in doing this will come to see that the Word of God is a shining light that disperses spiritual darkness and gloom from our lives, as Isaiah prophesied in today’s first reading.  And I believe that the person who sincerely commits to this prayer-time will come to experience Jesus up close and personal and will be strengthened to respond to Jesus’ call in today’s gospel to repent. “Repent” means to change direction in one’s life; to turn around and take up a new way of thinking, a new way of acting, a new way of living.  It is a renewed life that is fueled by the Word of God which enlightens us and leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven.