Fulfilling the Law

“Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished!”

Matthew 5, 17-18

The Mosaic Law was given to the tribes of Israel for a couple of different reasons. The first was to direct them how to live in right relationship with God and with one another. A secondary reason was to set them apart from the rest of the world. This was to keep them from becoming like the world, which ultimately leads away from God. They were meant to be the shining example of how humans were supposed to live. The Law itself did not set the tribes of Israel apart from the world but it was their obedience to God in following the Law that did.

Jesus told his disciples that he did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. Even the most scrupulous Jew, who followed every jot and tittle of the Law, did not fulfill it. What made Jesus’ observation of the Law different?

One of the greatest Hebrew words is hesed. There is no direct translation of the word hesed into English. Words like mercy, love, compassion, grace, and faithfulness relate to the word hesed, but none of these fully grasps the concept. Hesed describes a sense of love and loyalty that inspires merciful and compassionate behavior towards another person. I have heard it said that being hesedic means to do more than the Law requires. To be called hesedic is one of the greatest compliments a Jew can give you.

Yet, Jesus teaches us of an even greater love than hesed. The Greek word used is agape. For Christians, agape is sacrificial love. It is the total giving of self for another. Hesed is the highest form of natural love. Agape is the fulfillment of hesed and is the perfect, supernatural love. God is agape. God is perfect, sacrificial love that knows no bounds.

So how did Jesus fulfill the Law? Jesus was the living Law come down from heaven. Being sacrificial love himself, he did not simply observe the Law but he lived the Law sacrificially. When fulfilled, the Law is not an observation that initiates an inward action. The Law is meant to be the beginning of sacrificial love, not just towards God, but towards all of creation. The Law, when lived inwardly, is useless. As we see in many of the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus time, their hearts were closed to sacrificial love due to their pride of inward observance to the Law. St. Paul is our greatest example of someone puffed up with pride in his scrupulous observance of the Law. He cast it all aside when he learned of agape and the true reason for the Law.

As Christians, we are not called to simply obey the Ten Commandments. We are called to fulfill the Commandments. We fulfill the Commandments the same way Jesus did. We live them sacrificially. To sacrifice for the Law means to put the object of the Law before ourselves. Most of us are casual observers of the Law, obeying what it says when it aligns with our lifestyles.

Take for instance the first commandment – You shall have no other gods before me. Most of us can recognize the command to worship God. How often does this command fall second to sleeping in on Sunday, attending youth sporting events, vacations, skipping Mass because we don’t like the weather, or for fear that we may catch whatever illness is making the rounds? No one expects anyone to put their life at risk by traveling during inclement weather. Keeping people healthy was one of the reasons we were given when Mass was suspended during the covid chaos. But, to follow this commandment sacrificially means we need to be willing to die to worship our God. This is something our brothers and sisters in Africa do every day. They do not hesitate to walk eight or ten miles in all kinds of weather to attend a Mass, that if they were discovered, they would be martyred for their faith. To love God above all other things includes our very lives.

Fulfilling the commands sacrificially also extends to the commands we were given for how we live in right relationship with one another. Thou shall not commit adultery; the six commandment. For someone obeying the Law this means not to cheat on one’s spouse. For someone living sacrificially, we fulfill this command by giving our lives for our spouse. We love them by serving them. We are willing to die for them if necessary. When a spouse is sacrificing for another divorce, is not only not an option, it is not even a thought.

Because he fulfilled the Law through sacrificial love, Jesus was able to boil the whole law down to just two commandments –

“But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22: 34 – 40

We are to love both God and each other with the same love God has for us; agape, complete sacrificial love. This is what it means to fulfill the Law.

Oath to the Death

An African priest was praying before the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel in his small village. A gunman entered the chapel and ordered the priest to his feet.

“Why do you kneel before a piece of bread?” the gunman asked. “Kneel before me instead.” .

“This is not a piece of bread,” the priest responded boldly. “This is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of my Lord Jesus Christ. I will only kneel to him.” .

The gunman laughed. “Do you actually believe that is Jesus?” he chuckled. “I will prove to you that it is just bread. When I shoot it, it will just crumble and break. It will not scream. It will not bleed. If I shoot you, you will scream and bleed and plead for your life.” .

The priest stepped between the Blessed Sacrament and the gunman. “If you must shoot someone, shoot me instead,” the priest begged. .

“Are you willing to die for this piece of bread?” the gunman said in disbelief. .

“When you look at the Blessed Sacrament all you see if a piece of bread. I believe that this is Jesus himself. I believe this because he tells me it is so. I trust Jesus when he says that this is his body and his blood. I believe in my head and I trust in my heart. I love him even more than I love my own mother. He died for me. I am willing to die for him. You think the worst you can do is to take my life from me but in doing so you free me to be with him. I do not fear this. Do what you came here to do.” .

The gunman lowered his rifle and stared at the priest. He stared quizzically for a moment. He shook his head, and turning, he walked out of the chapel and left the village. .

In the Lord’s Prayer we ask the Lord not to lead us into temptation. In Greek, the prayer asks that we not be put to the test. The test we ask not to be put through is the test of Peter. When facing death, will we deny Christ? As bold as we believe ourselves to be, none of us knows how we will answer that question until it is put to us. If a gunman were to walk into Mass and order anyone who believes that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist to stand and be shot for their belief would you be willing to stand when simply sitting would save your life? .

Yet, that is the statement we make when we present ourselves to receive him in Holy Communion. We don’t go to communion just to get something. The Eucharist is a Sacrament and a Sacrament begins with an oath to the death. Before we receive the Lord in the Eucharist we renew our oath to live for him and die for him if necessary. We reaffirm this oath with our “Amen” after the communion minister says, “The body of Christ.” .

There is a desire within the Church today to give the Eucharist to as many people as possible. There are many who support, and even demand, that the Church give the Eucharist to divorced and remarried Catholics, to those who embrace a same-sex lifestyle, to those living together playing house, and those who are transgendering, just to name a few. There are even those who want to open up Holy Communion to those who are not even Catholic. These desires are founded in a false sense of love. We want to be inclusive. To share Jesus with everyone regardless of belief. This is a noble thing but one that lacks understanding of what receiving the Eucharist actually is. .

To receive the Eucharist is to take an oath to the death that one will live for Christ and die for him if necessary. We offer our lives as collateral when we take this oath and when we willfully break this oath we forfeit that collateral. To live for Christ means to follow his commands and his teachings to the best of our ability. We believe that Jesus taught his disciples and that these teachings have been handed down to us through his Church. When someone disagrees with an official Church teaching they do not disagree with the Church. They disagree with Jesus. .

It would be wrong for the Church to demand that anyone take an oath to the death when they either do not understand what that oath requires or they do not believe what the Church teaches. You cannot be in communion with Christ and his Church if you do not believe what they proclaim and teach. .

The Church is currently in the middle of a three-year Eucharistic revival. This is meant to renew our love and reverence for the source and summit of our Catholic faith – Jesus in the Eucharist. This renewal has to begin with a proper understanding for what the Eucharist is and the oath we take when we receive him. We need to receive Jesus on his terms, not ours. Even the manna that came down from heaven to sustain the tribes of Israel had rules for its collection and consumption. The Eucharist is the true bread that comes down from heaven. To receive him properly is to have life within you. We eat to our condemnation every time we receive him improperly. It is false love to allow someone who is not properly disposed to receive Holy Communion. .

We are called to love one another with the same love God has for each of us. We are called to love one another with sacrificial love. True love is not giving someone something that will do them harm. To truly love someone is to keep from them something that will do them hard regardless of how much they want or demand it. .

Remember this the next time you present yourself to receive Holy Communion. Ask yourself, “If I had to be shot after receiving Jesus would I still be in this line?” If the answer to that question is no you shouldn’t be in that line. .

Conduit of Grace

I am not big into crowds. Luckily my favorite grocery store is open twenty-four hours so I can do my shopping during the hours most people are curled up on the couch watching T.V. During one such visit I noticed a man and his son also doing some late-night shopping. It was easy to see that the son was autistic. One thing he liked to do was to go up to the strangers in the aisles and introduce himself. His father tried his best to keep his son away from the other shoppers.

It wasn’t long and our paths would cross. When the son saw me, he immediately made a bee-line straight towards me. The father quickly came around the cart in a vain attempt to intercept his son. I could see the worry in his eyes. I just nodded and said it was ok.

The boy came up to me and stuck his hand out. When I shook his hand, I understood the father’s fear. He had the grip of a bear and the hands to match. He was not only a big boy, but one with great strength. Given his mental capacity he could easily hurt someone without knowing it. I am sure the father’s fear was twofold. First, he was worried about how strangers would react to his son. People can be cruel and I am sure he had seen his share of that cruelty towards both himself and his son. He also had to be worried about what his son might do to someone less than thrilled to make his acquaintance.

The son would take my hand and shake it. Then he would let go for a moment and then grab my hand and shake it again. He kept doing this until his father was able to guide him back to their cart. I asked him his name. It was John. I smiled and told him I was very pleased to meet him. Then I turned to his father and asked his name. He was Russ. I told Russ that he was a good father for caring for his son the way he was.

This would be the first of several encounters I would have with Russ and John. The next time I ran into them John rushed over to shake my hand as if it were the first time. Russ quickly came over to guide his son back. The worry in his eyes went to surprise when I greeted John by his name and asked him how he was doing. His mouth hung open when I turned to him and did the same. He sheepishly looked down and told me that he did not remember my name. I assured him that it was fine; that it was he and his son who made an impact on my life.

Recently, I took communion to a man who had just suffered a severe stroke and was recovering in a rehab facility. I saw the look of sadness in his eyes that I often see in people in his situation. There is a feeling of shame that they have to be cared for by others. This is especially common in men who have provided for the people they love their entire lives. Now they themselves need to be cared for and they feel like a burden on all those around them.

I encouraged the man not to be downhearted. He was not useless. He was not a burden on his wife or the caretakers at the facility he was in. He did not understand that he was serving a very important purpose. People like John and this man, those who require the assistance of others, they act as conduits of God’s grace to flow to those who care for them. God is sacrificial love and love is never wasted with God. God’s favor shines down on those who care for others out of love.

The look in the man’s eyes suddenly changed. I saw a sense of relief come into them. The man realized that his suffering had a purpose and that purpose was to bring God’s grace to the woman he loved the most in this world. This was something he could be thankful for.

We do not suffer for suffering’s sake. Our suffering isn’t without purpose. It is if we hold on to our suffering, refusing to offer it as a gift. The devil wants us to turn our suffering inwards, to keep it as our own. Suffering is the currency of love. Money we keep in a jar under our bed has no value. The value of currency is what we choose to spend it on. The best spent money is the money used for the betterment of another. Like with any other currency, we can offer our suffering for a greater good. When we allow others to care for us in our suffering God’s favor flows through us to them. They receive a blessing for the love they show and we receive a blessing for our cooperation with God’s will.

This is what made Christ’s passion so powerful. Jesus held none of his suffering back for himself. He offered all of his suffering for the love of us. It is through his suffering that the wages of sin were paid, death was conquered, and the blessing of everlasting life flow through him to us.

Jesus gives us the perfect example on how to embrace our suffering with joy, offering it to God so he can use it to deliver his grace to those who care for us with love. It also gives us reason to be joyful and loving caregivers to those in need, especially those who are the most difficult to care for. Both the caretaker and the cared-for receive grace when suffering, the currency of love, is offered for the other.

Go and be a blessing to all those you meet today.

The Reason

“Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are, each one, to take a lamb for themselves, according to the fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; in proportion to what each one should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall completely burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this way: with your garment belted around your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in a hurry—it is the LORD’S Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

Exodus 12: 1-13

The Passover is a holy Jewish holiday that remembers when God freed Israel from their slavery to Egypt. Understanding the Passover is essential to understanding the crucifixion of Jesus and the Catholic Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that followed. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is what sets Catholics apart from the rest of Christianity. If Jesus’ crucifixion truly fulfills the Jewish Passover, then the Catholic Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is essential to Christian salvation and redemption.

Christ’s crucifixion not only fulfills the Jewish Passover, but it also completes the Binding of Isaac. All four of these events, the Binding of Isaac, the Passover, the Crucifixion of Jesus, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, are all sacrifices prescribed by God for the salvation of his people. When Abraham was willing to sacrifice his first born to God, the son God promised to give him in his old age, he demonstrated the faith needed for God to carry out his plan of salvation for the world. Just as an angel held back Abraham’s hand from sacrificing Isaac, God held back the angel of death from taking the first born of anyone who observed the rubrics of the Passover. In the fullness of time, God sent his only begotten son to take the place of Isaac and those spared in the Passover, to complete the sacrifice necessary for salvation. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass makes Christ’s crucifixion present to us in real time so that we may participate in it. If we want to understand the requirements of salvation, we have to understand what a sacrifice is.

A sacrifice is a religious act, by which a visible gift is offered to God by an authorized person and then destroyed in some way, so that God may be worshipped and loved.

First, a visible gift is required. This is something material and tangible. The gift must be something of value. Offering a gift we hold no value in is not truly a gift. The greater the value, the greater the gift.

Second, the gift must be offered up to God. The sacrifice is not so much in the gift but the offering of it. The act is more important than the gift.

Third, the gift must be offered by an authorized person. God has said who is authorized to offer sacrifice on behalf of the people. In the days before Jesus the authorization to offer sacrifice was given to the sons of Aaron, the men from the tribe of Levi. Jesus is the great high priest from before time began. When he established his Church on earth, he gave the authority to offer sacrifice to those he ordained for the task. He did so through the laying on of hands and by breathing into them the Holy Spirit. Christ’s priesthood is not through a bloodline but in the line of Melchizedek, a superior priesthood to the one of the Levites. This authority has been handed down through apostolic succession and resides in the Catholic priesthood today. Jesus did not make us all priests authorized to sacrifice of the behalf of the people. The priesthood we receive at baptism is one that allows us to live a sacrificial life for Christ.

Fourth, the visible gift offered to God by an authorized person must be destroyed in some way. Under the old law animals were slain and burned. Isaac would have been slain and burned. In the Passover a lamb was slain, roasted, and eaten by the people. Anything left over was burnt completely before sunrise. Christ was crucified. In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the hosts, a word meaning victim, are consumed as part of the Sacrifice. The reason why the offering is destroyed, either entirely or partially, is to acknowledge God’s supreme dominion and to worship and love him as the Lord of life and death.

Under the old law, God had prescribed how the sacrifice was to be done, who was authorized to do the sacrifice, and where the sacrifice must take place. When the temple was destroyed, the Jews lost the ability to offer sacrifice to God. In rising from the dead, Jesus rebuilt the temple in himself and authorized a new priesthood to authorize sacrifice on behalf of the entire world. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass makes present to us in our time and place the one and only sacrifice of Christ on the cross at Calvary. His crucifixion is made present to us so that we may participate in it. It is only by being crucified with Christ that we can rise with him in resurrection into salvation.

The angel of death did not pass over any house of any Jew who did not follow the rubrics as commanded by God regardless of how righteous they may have been. Likewise, Jesus was also very clear when he said what was required for salvation.

“Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, the one who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

John 6: 52-58

Jesus did not mean this metaphorically. He did not mean this symbolically. Just as the Jews had to consume the Passover lamb, so too must we consume the Pascal Lamb of God if we do not want the angel of death to have claim to us when we die.

Scripture tells us that many of those who were following Jesus found this statement to be very offensive and difficult to hear. They left Jesus that day. The Twelve did not understand what Jesus meant, but they believed in him and did not leave. Later, at the last supper, Jesus would establish the Sacrament of the Eucharist and institute the priesthood, giving his priests the authority to consecrate bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus.

The only place where we are given Jesus’ body to eat and his blood to drink is at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where a priest, authorized by Jesus through his ordination, consecrates simple bread and wine into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus our high priest in the order of Melchizedek. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Catholic faith. This was the teaching of the Catholic Church for 1500 years.

Then the devil played upon the pride of the fathers of the reformation. He convinced them that it was no longer necessary to eat the flesh of the son of man in order to have eternal life. The first thing Luther did was to remove the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and he changed the Mass from a sacrifice into a service for the instruction of the faithful. Wesley, Calvin, and Knox did similar things when they formed their new churches. Communion became nothing more than a symbolic remembrance of the last supper. The only thing required to enter heaven is a simple profession of faith in Jesus.

The Jews who did not follow the rubrics given to them by God for the Passover woke the following morning to find that the first born of every creature inside their houses had been taken by the angel of death in the darkness of night. Those who refuse to consume the body and blood of Jesus can only rely on his mercy not to pass them over when he returns to judge the living and the dead at the end of this age.

The Eucharist is the reason to become Catholic. The Eucharist is the reason to stay Catholic. The Eucharist is the reason to live as a Catholic.

Which Cross Do You Choose?

“Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him. And He said to her, “What do you desire?” She said to Him, “Say that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine shall sit, one at Your right, and one at Your left.” But Jesus replied, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to Him, “We are able.” He said to them, “My cup you shall drink; but to sit at My right and at My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.” –

Matthew 20: 20-23

I have written on numerous occasions about the supernatural nature of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is said that the Mass is the unbloody re-presentation of Christ’s crucifixion on Calvary. The supernatural reality of the Mass is that the Mass acts as a conduit through time and space making us present at the actual crucifixion of Jesus as it happens. One would ask why God would want us present at that event. St. Paul said it best when he said that he makes up in his body that which is lacking in the crucifixion. What could possibly be lacking in Christ’s crucifixion?

Quite simply, my participation in it.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass makes present in real time the crucifixion of Jesus so that I can participate in it. But how exactly do I participate in his crucifixion? Do I stand at the foot of the cross with our Blessed Mother? Do I stand jeering with the temple priests? Do I sit casting lots with the soldiers?

No, I participate by being crucified with Christ.

When we think of the crucifixion, our focus is on Christ on the cross. Our focus, rightly so, is on the sacrifice being made for us. But the sacrifice does not end with Jesus. We have to look past the cross to finish the sacrifice. When Jesus said, “It is finished” we are presented with a choice.

When reading scripture details matter. The Holy Spirit puts the details we read into scripture so that we can learn something from them. There were two men who were being crucified with Jesus, one to his right and one to his left. Both of these men were receiving the just punishment due for their crimes; death. We know that one of these men mocked Jesus. The other is known as the good thief, for in the end he only ask that Jesus remember him.

As with Jesus bar Abbas, we are presented with a choice. On one cross we have the penitent man. On the other, a man who turns from the Lord. Both men must die for their sins but the penitent man will be with Jesus in his heavenly kingdom. The man who turns away from God goes to hell.

Through our baptisms we die with Christ so that we can rise with him to eternal life.

As part of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we are presented a choice. Which cross do you wish to die upon? God sends no one to hell. If we find ourselves in hell at the end of our lives here on earth it is because we have chosen to die on the cross of the thief who turned his back on God. If we want to live with Jesus in heaven for all eternity we have to choose to die on the cross of the penitent thief. We have to be willing to turn to Jesus and ask him with a humble heart to remember us even though we are deserving of death.

Easter is not just about the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Easter includes the choice we have to make on how we will die; with Christ or without Christ.

Which cross do you choose?

To Eat Meat or not to Eat Meat - That is the Question

“Now He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you; this man went to his house justified rather than the other one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” - Luke 18:11

Once again, the Feast of St. Patrick has fallen on a Friday during Lent. In the weeks leading up to this feast, Catholics wait in hope for a dispensation from the requirement to abstain from meat on this particular Friday of Lent so that they may celebrate in the usual fashion of consuming corned beef. When those dispensations start coming out, 'holier-than-the-Pope' Catholics start voicing disagreement with their bishops about the dispensation. Like the Pharisee, they want people to know that they will still be abstaining and making the sacrifice of not enjoying all that delicious corned beef.

To eat meat or not eat meat; that is the question. What is the right thing to do? As with all things in our faith, it all comes down to the inclination of the heart.

We fast during Lent to strengthen our wills. When we voluntarily deny ourselves earthly pleasures, we strengthen the spirit’s ability to control the will. The more control we have over our wills, the easier it is for us to resist the temptations of the devil. We abstain from meat on Fridays because the Church offers this to God for the universal penance for sin. We remember the day our Lord died by offering a universal penance for sin by refraining from consuming that which most humans enjoy eating, which is meat. This isn’t a requirement for salvation, but a pious practice of being repentant.

The requirement of abstaining from meat is not limited to just the Lenten season. It is a requirement of all Catholics every Friday of the year. Like with the St. Patrick dispensation, a general dispensation has been given for Fridays that fall outside of the season of lent. Abstaining from meat is what is required but a Catholic can eat meat on a Friday if there is a good reason to do so. Simple desire is not a very good reason to take advantage of the dispensation.

The dispensation on St. Patrick’s Day, as well as every Friday that falls outside of the season of lent, comes with a requirement if you want to make use of the dispensation. If you eat meat on these days you are required to offer some other form of penance in its place. This penance has to be something you normally wouldn’t do. For example, if you pray a Rosary every day you can’t just offer your Friday Rosary as your penance. You need to do something on top of this Rosary. If you don’t pray a daily Rosary, you can offer a Rosary on Friday as your penance.

The problem is, many Catholics like taking advantage of the dispensation without fulfilling the requirements of it. They eat their meat and are either unwilling or unaware that they need to offer some other form of penance. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who think any dispensation from this practice is wrong and should not be given. The bishops differ on the subject. Some give the dispensation, some don’t. Those who are shepherd over discoes with large Irish populations usually lean to granting the dispensation.

There is nothing wrong with practicing abstinence regardless of the dispensation. It is a pious practice and, if your heart urges you to observe it, by all means do so. There is no need to voice disagreement with the bishop who grants a dispensation. There is no need to look down on anyone who takes advantage of the dispensation. In doing either you become like the Pharisee who looked own on the publican.

This is what the devil wants you to do. He wants you to think yourself better than the bishop or the common Catholic because you are making a greater sacrifice for God by observing a practice you are not asked to observe. When you do this, you exalt your own perceived holiness. Like with false humility, when you exalt your own holiness you are not being holy. When you do this you no longer make the sacrifice for God but for yourself.

Likewise, if you take advantage of the dispensation and you don’t offer a difference penance in its place you are using the dispensation as an excuse that takes you away from God and not as something that draws you closer. You are using the dispensation as a way of getting out of an obligation you don’t want to do in the first place.

This is where the inclination of the heart comes in. When we meet our obligations for love of God, they are truly a gift to him. When we meet our obligations just because they are obligations they are still gifts to God but ones that don’t have much love attached to them. When we meet our obligations because we want recognition from others they are no longer gifts to God but to ourselves.

When you do something for someone you love, it is never an obligation. The deeper you love someone the more you want to give to them to show your love for them. Love of God is no different. When someone asks what the bare minimum is that they need to do and still be Catholic they are showing a very shallow love for God. The deeper your love for God the more you want to do. The more you do the deeper that love grows. There is no competition with God and he never wants you to compare the love you have for him to the love someone else is showing him. Only God knows the depth of our hearts and none of us can judge the depth of another’s heart. But that is precisely what the devil wants you to do. He separates you from God by getting you to compare yourself to another in the way the Pharisee compared himself to the publican.

So, on this feast day, if you have been given the dispensation, celebrate and eat your corned beef. Just remember to do an addition penance in its place. If you haven’t been given a dispensation, honor that in love. If you are moved to observe the universal penance of abstinence, do so in a way that no one but God knows you’re doing so. What the Lord sees in private he rewards.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Living in a Post Judeo-Christian Age

“In 1787 I'm told
Our founding fathers did agree
To write a list of principles
For keepin' people free

The U.S.A. was just startin' out
A whole brand-new country
And so our people spelled it out
The things that we should be

And they put those principles down on paper and called it the Constitution, and it's been helping us run our country ever since then.”

The Preamble, Schoolhouse Rock, 1975

If you were a kid who grew up on Saturday morning cartoons in the 70’s and 80’s you may have sung the above. If you were born in the new millennium there is a good possibility that, not only have you not heard it, but you don’t even know what it is talking about. Fewer and fewer people today can tell you when our Constitution was ratified. Fewer still can tell you the principles on which the United States was founded or why the articles and amendments of the Constitution are important. When we forget our history, we make it possible for someone to hijack our present and that is where tyranny begins. Our founding fathers would be so disappointed in what we have become that I would give odds that many of them would move back to Britain.

Most people I know just don’t care about any of this stuff. They don’t see how it impacts their day-to-day lives. It has been such a long time that we have had to live with any real oppression that it is a concept we can no longer understand. We feel entitled to our freedom. We keep our liberty only as long as we are willing to fight for it. The truth of the matter is that our liberties have been slowly eroding since the beginning of the progressive movement that began in the early 1900’s. We are frogs slowly being boiled to death and we don’t have a clue. Come on in. The water is nice.

It is no surprise that we are also seeing the eroding of faith-based organizations. Christianity in particular is seeing the number of practicing people decline sharply in the last twenty years. The number of people who claim no religious affiliation has been increasing incrementally year after year. This has church leaders wringing their hands, trying to find ways to bring people back to the faith. I know the Catholic Church has become as accommodating as possible to try to keep people in the pews to no avail. The pandemic has only hastened people's departure.

Why?

People turn to God during hard and challenging times. When times are good God is seldom thought of. Take for example the recent tragedy of Damar Hamlin. Damar was a twenty-four-year-old football player who suffered a cardiac arrest while playing in a Monday night game. While the EMT’s worked to save Damar’s life his entire team knelt around him in prayer. Everyone in that stadium that night and the entire country soon after also joined together in praying for Damar. This is a good thing but it wasn’t that long ago when another football player, Tim Tebow, was roundly mocked when he would take a knee to pray and thank God for his talent. We also saw Joe Kennedy, a high school football coach, lose his job for privately praying on the field after a game.

We talk about the New Evangelization and try to find new and engaging ways to bring the Gospel of the Lord to those who have not heard it. The problem is that there are few, at least in the United States, who have never heard about Jesus. You would almost have to be living off-grid somewhere in the wilds of Alaska to not have heard at least something about Jesus. Many will listen to the stories from the bible in the same way they watch a movie like Star Wars. They are great stories but they have little relevance or impact on their day-to-day lives.

Like with our Constitution, the greatness the Judeo-Christian faith brought to our world is considered common place and we reap the benefits with a sense of entitlement. As I stated in the beginning, when we forget our history, we make it possible for someone to hijack our present and that is where tyranny begins. We are seeing this happen in our society now. As we cast off the tenants of the Judeo-Christian faith, we see a world embracing untruth, chaos, and death. If left unchecked, this will lead to the destruction of our society and we will have to rebuild from the ash of what used to be.

When we look at the history of man, we find that this is precisely the cycle of how things happen. God calls man from chaos. Man becomes prosperous. Man turns from God to do it on his own accord. Man returns to chaos. Man turns to God for salvation. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Those who fail to learn from history and bound to repeat it. Those who do learn from history suffer from it when it is repeated.

Keeping a Watchful Eye

A ship was returning to her home port after a long deployment out to sea. The sailors manned the rails in their dress uniforms. There was an excitement in the air. They were anxious to get home to see their families they had been away from for so long.

The same anxious excitement filled the crowd waiting on the dock for the ship. As it appeared on the horizon the excitement grew. The closer the ship came to shore the more frenzied the crowd became. Then came the words every sailor longs to hear upon returning from a long deployment. “Moored, shift colors”. Jubilant cheers erupted from the families as balloons flew heavenward and the band began to play. The sailors finished tying the ship to the dock and waited for that glorious announcement over the 1MC – “Liberty Call, liberty call”.

Sailors flooded over the brow to the awaiting arms of their loved ones. Spouses reunited; parents snatched their children up in tight hugs. Smiles, laughter, and happy tears were all that could be seen.

But one sailor could not find his wife and son as he looked throughout the crowd. His excitement quickly faded and worry took over his face as the families began to leave the dock and head for home. His family was no where to be found. They were not there. Then a fear gripped the sailor as he hurried to catch a ride to his home.

As the taxi stopped in front of his house, he saw his wife’s car in the drive way. He threw a wad of bills at the driver and leapt from the car. As he approached his front door his fears changed as he grew concerned what he may find inside. He threw open the door and looked inside.

His wife was in the kitchen, cooking at the stove. His son sat on the living room floor building a cabin out of Lincoln logs. His wife turned and looked at him with a big smile on her face. “Welcome home, honey. We have been waiting for you,” his wife said with glee.

A wash of relief flooded the man when he realized his family was safe. A brief glimmer of joy filled his heart to see his wife and son again. That quickly was replaced by a heavy feeling of sorrow. The other families were giddy with anticipation watching with joyful excitement from the dock for their sailors to return to them. His family simply waited at home for him.

There is a difference between watching and waiting. Watching is an expression of love. It is something you actively do. The father of the prodigal son watched without ceasing for his son to return to him. Even when he was a long way off, the father saw his son and ran to meet him with a joy-filled heart. The son’s brother only waited for him and did not know that he had returned until he was told so by one of the father’s servants. Likewise, the five wise virgins watched for their master’s return and also ran to meet him with full lamps when he returned. The five foolish virgins simply waited and let their lamps run dry.

Jesus wants us to be watchful for his return. He wants us to see him even when he is a far way off and run to him with joy-filled hearts. He does not want us to just sit around and wait. Like the ship, Jesus wants to be welcomed back with fan fair, balloons, and singing when he arrives. He doesn’t want to have to come and find us.

The Church gives us the season of Advent to rekindle that fire in our hearts. Advent is a time where we are called from our sleep to have our anticipation renewed. We are called from our waiting to be watchful again. Advent is a time we celebrate Jesus, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. As we prepare to celebrate his nativity at Christmas, we also prepare ourselves for his return. We do this best by recognizing Christ present to us today.

As Catholics, we are not called to live in the spirit of Advent only during the season of Advent. We should have the spirit of Advent in our hearts every time we come to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We start Mass by asking Jesus to come and be present with us. We are joyful at the consecration of the Eucharist because the Lord is here. We end Mass with the assured hope that he will come again. Every Catholic should come to Mass as giddy as a young child staring at all of the brightly wrapped presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Jesus gives us himself, body, blood, soul, and divinity at every Mass. It is the greatest gift that has ever been given. It is the gift of sacrificial love.

Let us return to being watchful people again this Advent. Let us be prepared to run to meet the Lord when we see him approaching from far off. Let him not find us simply waiting for his return.

Why is there suffering?

One of the reasons atheists give for their belief that God does not exist is that if there were a God and God were good, he would never permit evil on the earth. Likewise, people who have fallen away from God after a tragic event happens in their life often say that they cannot believe in a God that would allow their suffering. We are a very myopic people who cannot see past ourselves. We remember the past, often times better or worse than it actually was. We cannot see the future.

In many ways we are like a person who is on the first chapter of the first book in a seven-book series. Something tragic happens to the protagonist and we read on in horror wondering why the author had the event happen in the first place. The author, having already written the entire series, knows why the event had to take place as written. It was part of a much bigger story and the story would not be the same without it.

God exists outside of time and space. More aptly put, time and space exist inside of God. Every moment, from the very first moment of time until the very last moment of time, is the same moment for God. There is no past, present, or future. There is only now. God has written the book. He knows how the story will end. Only he can see the bigger picture. No matter how tragic an event is in our lives, it is all part of God’s great and mysterious plan.

So why is suffering part of God’s plan? Suffering is the currency of love. Without suffering, love could not exist. It is said that God is love. God is not just any type of love. He is the greatest and highest form of love. God is sacrificial or agape love. Sacrificial love always puts the good of the other before self. Sacrificial love is a love freely given without condition or demand for return. There are three rules for love to exist that even God imposes open himself.

The first rule for love to exist is that there has to be a lover and an object to receive that love. This is one of the reasons why God manifests himself as the Trinity of the three persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God did not create us to be the object of his perfect love. If God were dependent upon his creation to exist then there would be something greater than God and he would cease to be God. The three persons of God love each other perfectly which allows for both lover and receiver of that love in the one entirety that is God.

The second rule for love to exist is that love has to be freely given. You cannot be forced to love someone. It is charity, an act done out of love, when I give money to a homeless person. It is not charity when the government forcibly takes money from me in taxes to give to a homeless person. One is done freely, the other by force.

The third rule for love to exist is that there has to be a choice. Just as someone cannot be forced to love, you also cannot be forced to be loved. There is a term for love forced upon another that comes with a jail term. God placed the tree of life in the Garden of Eden to give Adam and Eve a choice so that love could exist. They had a choice to walk with God in the garden for all eternity or they could eat of the fruit of the tree of life and live mortal lives. Like Adam and Eve, we have been given the choice to live in a state of grace or a state of death. We freely choose death when we sin. Sin is taking that which God does not freely give. Sin is what is taken. Grace is what is given.

Suffering is the proof of love. If love required nothing from us it would be easy to love. There really would be no choice in the matter. And without choice there is no love. The amount of love we have for another is measured in the amount we are willing to suffer for them. How much are you willing to suffer for God? Yet, there are things we suffer from that we get no choice over. How is that suffering about love when there is no choice?

When we suffer for something beyond our control, like from a disease or a natural disaster, we are presented with a choice. Do we continue to love God and put our trust in him or do we abandon God and put our trust in ourselves? The best proof of love is trust and someone who truly loves God keeps their trust in him regardless of the suffering they are made to endure.

Why does bad things happen in this world? We’ll just have to read the book to the end to find out. Until then we can trust that everything is part of a greater plan got does not choose to share with us now. We have a God of love who wants nothing but the best for us. If we are made to suffer for a time now it is so we can love him in perfection later.

How May I Direct Your Call?

One thing social media does not lack for is lively discussion on the validity of the Roman Catholic Church. Saying discussion is a bit of a stretch seeing most of it is nothing more than hateful, misinformed, and ignorant statements made by people who have been brought up to believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon. Many of these people cannot even accept historical facts that there should be no discussion on. I try my best not to engage in these discussions because the only fruit that can come from them is my anger and frustration. Yet, I still get baited into them on occasion.

As frustrating as it, reading some of the responses from Catholics trying to counter the misinformation is far worse. The RCC has done a poor job of catechizing her faithful for the past fifty or so years and it shows.

One common attack on the Church is that we pray to Mary and the Saints. Because we pray to them and adorn our sacred places with statues of them we are idolaters and therefore not real Christians. I saw this attack online recently, to which I just rolled my eyes. This again, sigh. Then I read the responses from Catholics and could only shake my head in disbelief. The basic response was, “We don’t pray to Mary or the Saints. We pray to God alone. We only ask Mary and the Saints to intercede for us.”

How exactly do we ask Mary and the Saints to pray for us? Oh yes, through our prayers to them.

Yes, Catholics pray to Mary and the Saints. Where the difference in understanding comes is what we believe prayer to be.

The highest form of worship for a Catholic is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where the unbloodied sacrifice of Jesus on the cross at Calvary is made present to us. It is a sacrifice of thanksgiving. One of the first things Martin Luther did in founding his church was to remove this sacrifice turning it into nothing more than a service for the instruction of the faithful. Without valid orders, non-Catholic ministers cannot offer a sacrifice so all non-Catholic services are just that, services, regardless of how much they resemble a Catholic Mass.

To non-Catholics, the highest form of worship is prayer. If prayer is worship then only God deserves our prayers. With this perspective it is easy to see why they believe Catholics to be idolaters. But to Catholics, prayer is something very different. Prayer is communication. First and foremost it is communication with God. Through God it is also of way of communicating with those are with God.

There are four basic types of prayer.

• Prayers of Blessing and Adoration. We praise God for his great glory. We praise God because he alone is worthy of all praise and adoration. The word ‘bless’ from the Latin ‘bene decire’ means to speak well of.

• Prayers of Petition. Asking God for what we need, including forgiveness.

• Prayers of Intercession. Asking God for what others need.

• Prayers of Thanksgiving. We give God thanks for the many gifts he has given to us and for the things he has done.

Prayers can be mental or verbal. They can be formal or informal. Prayer can be one directional or a dialog. They are our conversations with our creator. All prayers are answered by God in accordance to his Holy Will.

So, if prayer is between us and God what about praying to Mary and the Saints?

To understand this you have to first understand the Catholic understanding of death. Death is not an end, it is a doorway. It is the passing from this life into the next. Souls are immortal. Death does not destroy them. When someone dies they do not disappear. They change zip codes. The ultimate resting place for all of us is either heaven or hell. Most of us destined for heaven will spend time in purgatory first.

We are all one family through God. Our family on earth is referred to as the Church Militant. We are still fighting the good fight. Those in purgatory are called the Church Suffering. They are being purified or purged of their earthly attachments so they can enjoy an eternity in heaven with God and the Church Triumphant, our family who are in heaven with God.

If I were facing a particularly difficult trial I could ask any of my family in the Church Militant to pray for me. This is asking for intercessory prayer. The Church Militant are not the only ones who can pray for me. The Church Triumphant can do so as well. Their intercession is very powerful and effective because they are in heaven with God. They love us perfectly and they wish for nothing more than for us to be with them in heaven.

So how can we ask the Church Triumphant to intercede for us? We pray to them of course. This prayer is not worship. It is communication. Can the Saints hear our prayers to them? Yes, if God permits it. All prayers go through God. He is much like the old time telephone operators. “How can I direct your call?” “I’d like to ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede for me because I need…” If our prayers are in line with God’s will and for our good he will allow the Saint prayed to to hear our prayer.

But why? Why can’t I just pray to God? Scripture tells us that there is only one intercessor and that is Jesus. How can Mary of the Saints intercede for us when Jesus is the only intercessor to God? Any parent with more than one child knows how this type of intercession works. The first child asks for something he wants. He then gets his brothers and sisters to also petition mom and dad to get him that thing. The combined coercion results in the first child getting what he asked for.

Jesus is the only intercessor to God, the Father. He is our greatest advocate. Mary and the Saints intercede for us by interceding to Jesus. They are in heaven with Jesus. They have his ear. What do you think will have more pull – someone asking Jesus for something or his Mother asking him something on someone’s behalf? Jesus would refuse his mother nothing and his mother would never ask him for anything that is not in accord with God’s will. God would not allow Mary to hear a prayer that is not in accord with his will.

In the end, what it all comes down to is that true prayer is always offered in love. Love is never wasted with God. Love only grows the more it is shared. Love is multiplied like the loaves and the fishes every time we pray for each other. This is not limited to just the Church Militant. The love we share through prayer binds us together with our family who is in heaven. Praying to Mary, the Saints, and even the angels is not an idolatress action but one that multiplies the love of God’s family.

Weapons of War

Why do you need a military style weapon with a high capacity magazine?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” – The Declaration of Independence

Regardless of what militant feminist philosophy wishes us to believe about the role of the male in our society today, a man has three primary duties in life. We have a duty to God, first and foremost. We also have a duty to our country and a duty to our family. One of the duties we owe both our country and our family is that of protection. Man holds the responsibility to protect this country and our families against anyone or anything that intends to harm either. This is not some macho, misogynistic idea from a bygone era. Nor is it to say that women are incapable of playing the role of protector. Indeed, women are called to this role to even a greater degree than man, but only at the appropriate time. If the male fails in this duty, either by choice or by ability, the woman becomes the last defense of the innocent. She holds within herself a fury unmatched by any male. It is a power that is meant to be unleashed only as last resort when no other options are available.

God defined the gender roles when he created both male and female. Man had two primary jobs, to till the ground and to protect creation with the primary emphasis on protecting his wife. Woman was made to be a helpmate to man. She was created to nurture. Death entered the world when man failed to protect his wife. When evil came he did not confront it. He did not attempt to stop it. He allowed the devil to tempt woman and then he blamed the woman for his sin and God for placing woman with him to begin with. The original sin was not when woman ate of the tree of life. It was when man allowed it to happen.

When I was seventeen I took the following oath when I enlisted in the United States Navy –

“I, Robert Glenn Collins, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

This was the oath I took to this country before God. It was my pledge that I would give my life in defense of this land, her people, and the principles and ideals on which she was founded. I was not relieved of this oath when my contract of service was fulfilled. I took a similar oath when I became a husband, and later, a father. As such, I am obligated to give my life in defense of my wife and children. These are not just empty words for me. They are founding principles on which I live my life.

A militia, rightly understood, is every able bodied person living within this country. We have been afforded the luxury of living in a country that has not had the threat of invasion from a foreign nation in hundreds of years. The most recent war fought within our borders was the civil war that ended over one hundred and fifty years ago. We have lost the concept, but not the need, for a militia. Our founding fathers understood this better than any. The militia was indispensable during the Revolutionary War and the early days of our country while the proper military defenses were being created. The militia is just as indispensable today as it was during this country’s founding, regardless of how many people no longer believe it is necessary to have one.

Case in point –

In May of 2020 the United States had nation-wide rioting after the death of George Floyd. What was meant to be peaceful protests at what people believed was police brutality were stirred into violent riots by militants who wanted to go to war with the police. Over two billion dollars worth of damage was done to private, public, and government property. At least twenty-five people were killed and thousands were injured on both sides of the line. The police were greatly outnumbered. The governors of the states have use of the National Guard to deal with domestic emergencies such as hurricanes, wild fires, and protests. They were not activated to protect the people during the height of the violence but would later be brought in to surround the White House to protect the President-elect during his inauguration. The people were abandoned in their greatest hour of need and were told to flee and let insurance pay them for what was lost.

We had the same type of event happen during the Rodney King riots in 1991. Like what happened in the George Floyd riots, violent protesters rioted, looted and destroyed personal and public property in Los Angeles. A group of Korean business owners came together to defend their property armed with their personally owned weapons. Their businesses went largely undamaged during the riots.

Because of events like the Boston Massacre, our founding fathers understood the importance of personal defense. The right to keep and bear arms was not originally written into the Constitution. It was assumed by some that people would know and understand that as a free person they had the right to do and own anything they wanted that was not specifically made illegal by law. Some worried that the day would come that people would begin to believe their rights are granted to them by the state and then many of the rights given to us by our Creator would be infringed upon or taken away. The Constitution of the United States could not be ratified until some protection was given to these rights. The first ten amendments, or the Bill of Rights, were added to the Constitution. The amendments are listed in an order of importance.

The First Amendment recognized the right to practice one’s religion first and foremost. Then it recognized the right to free speech, the right of the press, the right to peacefully assemble, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Without these rights you cease to be a free and sovereign citizen and you become a slave subject to the ruling body.

The Second Amendment recognizes that without the ability to defend one’s self any and all other rights can be stripped away from the individual. This is exactly what King George did to the colonists. When they began to protest he stripped them of their ability to defend themselves. When they continued to protest he forcibly imprisoned them and eventually had them killed. The new government of the United States was to be held in check by citizens who were able to overthrow it if it became tyranical. The Second Amendment is ignorantly and intentionally misread and misunderstood by those who want to disarm the population.

Amendment II

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The people who wish to ignore this Amendment focus on the words, “A well regulated Militia” and believe that it applies to our military. By literary rule, everything that comes before the second comma is a qualifier and can be excluded from the sentence. The sentence stands alone without these words. The amendment is quite simply, “The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Our founders knew that for a state to remain free it had to be protected and the ultimate responsibility for protecting it fell to the people who lived there. The first qualifier, “A well regulated Militia”, does not mean a well controlled militia. In this sense it is meant to mean a well supervised militia. The government has the responsibility to train the people on the proper use of weapons. It also has the responsibility to arm those who wish to be armed. A militia of properly trained and armed citizens can then be called to the defense of the nation in the time of crisis or need.

Instead of embracing this responsibility our government has tried to get the population to believe that they are not responsible for the defense of their nation or even their own protection. Many governments, both local and federal, have done everything they can to disarm the population. They want us to believe that we are all safer if lawful citizens did not possess firearms. If only we could rid the country of weapons people of evil intent would have no call to do evil actions. The lions will lay down with the lambs and we would have a utopia of peace and prosperity. We can look to all of human history to see that this has never happened and an unarmed, docile population is always preyed upon and cast into slavery by people who hunger for power over the powerless.

Why do you need a military style weapon with a high capacity magazine?

Because I am a free and responsible citizen who has sworn an oath to defend and protect this country, my family, and myself against all who intend to do us harm. I cannot do that with my charm alone.

Burger King Catholics - The New Face of Protestantism

Jesus instituted the priesthood at the last supper. He gave the keys to his kingdom on earth to St. Peter, our first Pope. He passed his authority over the Church to the Twelve when he breathed on them on Pentecost and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

He gave these first bishops the authority to bind and loosen, forgive sins, cure the sick, raise the dead, and drive out demons. They were tasked with teaching and preserving the faith that was given to them directly from Jesus. They passed this knowledge and authority on to their successors through an unbroken chain of apostolic succession to this day. Our bishops have the sole authority to govern the Church and the solemn duty to preserve and pass on the faith as Christ taught it.

On October 31, 1517 Father Martin Luther, a Catholic priest, posted a list of grievances on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. It was a call for church reform centering mostly around the apparent sale of indulgences which he viewed as an abuse of power by the Church. Luther tried to change the Church from within but when he continued to push his opinion over Sacred Tradition, he was excommunicated in 1521.

Luther is viewed as the father of Protestantism, the third branch of Christianity. What Luther did was uncork a bottle that was ready to explode, which substituted personal opinion over Sacred Tradition that had been taught for 1500 years. Luther lived long enough to see the same thing happen to the church he started as differing opinions began to splinter all of the Protestant churches. Today, we have over 70,000 different denominational and non-denominational churches each teaching what they to believe to be the real truth Jesus taught. This number grows every day.

Meanwhile history is repeating itself in the Catholic Church. Many within the Church, both cleric and lay alike, are making demands that the Church change her teaching on a number of things. Almost all of the demands are for changes the Church has no authority or ability to change. Some examples of this are –

• It is time for the Church to ordain women to all levels of the clergy, including women bishops, and one day, our first woman Pope.

• The Church should give her blessing to all same-sex marriages.

• That the Church allow those who have gotten a civil divorce to remarry within the Church.

• The Church should allow those who are not in a state of grace to receive the Holy Eucharist, such as those living in adultery through civil divorce and remarriage or those who publicly declare the Church teaching on morals is wrong and support grave evils like abortion and euthanasia.

• That the Church authority be handed over to the laity so that they do things like appoint who becomes a bishop through a popular vote.

I dub these the Burger King Catholics; people who want to call themselves Catholic but want their faith their way. They are Catholic Protestants who will lead the Church into her next schism.

This is the reason why Jesus did not set up his Church as a democracy or even a democratic republic. He appointed the Twelve, gave them his authority over the Church. He entrusted to them the deposit of faith and gave them the duty and responsibility to pass this faith on as they had received it, keeping the Church true to his teachings until his return. He gave us his promise that he would be with his Church until the end of time. This is why we believe that the Church cannot fall into error when the magisterium, that is the Pope in union with the bishops, teach on faith and morals. Catholics are required to believe 100% of the Church's teaching on faith and morals. This is not up for debate or change. Those who disagree with the Church disagree with Jesus. Our opinions on these matters do not matter and where we disagree with the Church we need to realize that we are wrong and seek to understand why.

We live in an age of disobedience where all authority is to be ignored. My truth is the correct truth for me. All things revolve around me and my opinion. Where my opinion differs from that of the Church my opinion takes precedence. I am not willing to accept a truth contrary to my belief.

After the miracle of the feeding of the five-thousand through the multiplication of the loaves and fish Jesus gave his teaching on the bread of life and told the people that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood if they wanted to have everlasting life. This teaching was hard for the people to accept and they left him in great numbers. He let them go, Love is always a choice.

Many of the teachings that Jesus gives us through the Church are equally hard for people to accept. Those who walk away from the Church walk away from Jesus in the same way as those who walked away over his teaching on the bread of life. We should not wring our hands and worry about the increasing spaces in our pews. Instead, we need to hold close to the truth and live our faith boldly and joyfully.

Where can we go, Lord. You have the words of eternal life.

HALT!

After his baptism, before his public ministry began, Jesus went out into the desert for forty days to pray and fast. At the end of that time, he found himself tired, hungry, and weak. It was then the devil came to tempt him. Why did the devil tempt our Lord?

God had a plan for the salvation and redemption of man. It was through sacrificial love. Suffering is the currency of love. Love can never be forced. For God to save us through love there had to be a choice. Jesus knew that the path to salvation was to take on the punishment for all sin and the punishment for sin is suffering and death. For Love to take on this punishment for us he had to have an alternative. The temptations of the devil gave him that alternative. Jesus could have accepted the devil’s invitation to worship him and have reign over all of the earth under the devil’s authority. Jesus chose suffering and death out of love for us instead.

Jesus allowed the devil to tempt him so as to teach us how to respond to temptation when we are also tried by the devil. How Jesus responded is very important to understand.

In the first temptation the devil temps Jesus to turn rocks into bread and to satisfy his immense hunger. Jesus responded by telling the devil that man does not live on bread alone but through every word that comes from God. The Gospel of John starts by telling us that the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word came down from heaven and dwelt among us. Jesus answers the first temptation by reminding the devil that he is God.

In the second temptation the devil took Jesus to the top of the temple and dared him to jump off, for if he is truly the Son of God the angels would catch him and allow no harm to come to him. Jesus counted by reminding him that it is written in scripture that you shall not put your God to the test. In the first temptation Jesus reminded the devil that he was God and in this answer he is telling the devil that he cannot tempt him.

In the last temptation the devil takes Jesus to a high mountain and offers Jesus all of the kingdoms of this world if only he would kneel and worship the devil. Jesus counters by quoting the scripture passage that says you shall worship and serve God alone. Being God, it was the devil who was to worship Jesus, who is the rightful king over all in heaven and earth. With that, the devil left him.

Ask any soldier when the best time to attack an enemy is and they will tell you it is when they are at their weakest. The devil is the most cunning of enemies. We are at our most vulnerable to temptation when we are weak. We are at our weakest when we are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired.

H.A.L.T. This should be a warning to us that the enemy is prowling, hoping to capitalize on an opportunity to get us to stray from God. It should be a warning to us that it is time to call for reinforcements. When we find ourselves hungry, angry, lonely, or tired we need to Stop what we are doing, Drop to our knees (even if only in our hearts), and Pray. We pray to God for his grace to make it through the trial. We can pray to our Blessed Mother for intercession to her son on our behalf. We can pray to St. Michael and our guardian angels for protection and assistance in fighting our temptations. We can pray to the Communion of Saints for their intercessions and strength. The important thing to realize that we are weak and seek the help that is available to us through our faith.

When we are weak we are made strong through the grace of God.

Life does not begin at conception.

“Life begins at conception.”

This has been the stance of the Church and prolife groups since the beginning. Yet, this sentence isn’t entirely true. Something not entirely true is 100% false.

"Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1: 4-5

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. That is because each and every one of us has existed in the mind of God since the beginning of existence itself. We are not just a thought or a dream to God. We are as real in his mind as we are on earth and as real as we will be in heaven.

Life does not begin at conception. Life manifests itself at conception. Conception is that point in time where a supernatural life in the mind of God is made manifest when it is joined with its physical form on earth. That life undergoes nine months of development and then it is born. The baby grows to adulthood and then dies. The body and soul are separated for a time and after the final judgement are reunited and proceed to their eternal home, heaven or hell. This is the typical order of progression.

For the last two-thousand years people have wondered when Jesus will return to usher in the new heaven and the new earth. Many have tried to predict the date. Many more look to the current times and believe the end is right around the corner. I believe the end will come once every person alive in the mind of God has been made manifest, that is, has been conceived here on earth.

The devil has done everything in his power to get us to walk away from this awesome gift of co-creating immortal life with God. Once all of the lives in the mind of God have been conceived God can then perfect all of creation and usher in the new heaven and the new earth. The devil is the ruler of this earth. When the new age comes to be he will be cast back into hell for all eternity. The devil has everything to lose when we cooperate with God’s plan for life.

The Pope has taken a lot of heat lately for saying Catholic parents need to return to having children. He was especially beat up for saying that pets should not be considered as children. He said that parents who have few or no children are acting selfishly because they are choosing their lifestyle over creating new life with God. The world sees it differently. The devil has convinced the world that it selfish to have many children, that having many children is a drain on natural resources. Sadly, far too many Catholics have bought this lie from the father of lies.

The family is the nucleus of society. When the family is small, society is weak. A weak society is easily manipulated by those who hunger to dominate others. Those dominated become slaves, losing their individual freedoms, liberties, and choices, eventually losing even their own identities as children of God.

A life that has existed since the beginning of time manifests itself at conception. Conception is that moment in time where God shares with us someone he has intimately known since creation began. Our greatest duty, therefore, is to care for this life God has shared with us. Justice without mercy will be shown to those who willfully destroy this life so precious to him.

A Picture and a Thousand Words

When my wife and I were dating, and things started to get serious, I took her home to meet my family. They wasted no time in breaking out the family photo albums and began to dissect my life picture by picture. There were the cute baby pictures, pictures of the major accomplishments, and more embarrassing photos than I knew existed. One by one my wife got little glimpses into the life of the man she was growing deeper in love with.

Each picture had a story behind it, containing details one could never learn from the picture itself. My family spent hours reminiscing, sharing their memories of good times and bad. By the end of the day my wife had gotten a good look at the person I was and how I grew into the person I currently am. The photos, however good, were not enough to do this. It was only with my family’s memories of the events that a proper understanding could be obtained.

The bible is the photo album of salvation history. The words on the page create the images in the mind that the stories are meant to convey. The album begins with creation itself and follows the journey of mankind through the fall to its salvation and redemption. As with my family, God’s family has reminisced about these stories throughout time. The Jewish oral tradition has meticulously passed down the stories of the Old Testament from one generation to the next. Likewise, the Catholic Church has done the same with both the Old and New Testaments through her Sacred Oral Tradition. Holy Scripture and Sacred Oral Tradition make up the deposit of faith that defines what Catholics believe and why. It is only through the written word and the Sacred Oral Tradition that a complete and accurate understanding of salvation history can be obtained. The story is incomplete and misunderstood if either is missing.

Catholic oral tradition was successfully used to combat the Luther heresies. When Luther decided to cast aside 1500 years of Church teaching to begin his own ecclesial community based upon his personal opinion he did away with Sacred Tradition. He kept only the photo album which he could explain in any way he saw fit to support his opinions. He made the claim that anyone, inspired by the Holy Spirit, could come to the correct understanding of Holy Scripture. That, after all, is what the Jews believed about the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.

Two things would have happened if what Luther claimed were true. The first is that everyone, divinely inspired, would come to the same understanding as what was taught by the Church for 1500 years. Holy Scripture itself says this in 1 Timothy 3:15 –

“…the church (through her magisterium) is the pillar and bulwark of the truth.”

Second, if everyone can come to the correct understanding of Holy Scripture for themselves, we would not have, at last count, over 70,000 different versions of the truth proclaimed by the various denominational and nondenominational Christian churches throughout the world. We all would share the same truth and have the same understanding of what the photos in the photo album mean.

Luther was dubbed the father of the reformation. Revolution would be a more accurate word. If we were to call Luther for what he is truly the father of it would be Christian moral relativism. When he taught that every person could define what the bible means for themselves, he opened the doors for everyone to define what is right and wrong for themselves. The Church ceased to be the pillar and bulwark of the truth, as the bible says, and truth became a matter of person opinion. Now the tens of thousands of churches that exist throughout the world cannot even agree on something as simple and straightforward as the Ten Commandments.

The Church is the pillar and bulwark of the truth, as scripture says it is. It is not just any church or every church but the Church that Jesus himself began. As the creed says that Church is, “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.” It is not just anyone or everyone in that Church, but it is those to whom the authority has been given to lead the Church. That is the Magisterium. The Magisterium is the Pope in union with the bishops and they have been given the duty and responsibility to pass on to us the unchanged teachings of Jesus. When someone disagrees with the Church, they don’t disagree with just the Church, but they disagree with Christ himself.

The bible is a photo album and as such it does not contain everything that has come to pass. Scripture itself tells us this in John 21:25 –

“But there are also many other things which Jesus did, which, if they were written in detail, I expect that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.”

Scripture contains everything we need to know about salvation but scripture alone it not enough to properly understand it. We need both Holy Scripture and Sacred Oral Tradition to get a complete understanding of who Jesus is and the relationship he has with his Church.

God's Great Puzzle

Leaving Mass this weekend I found a white envelope sitting under the windshield wiper on my car. I knew without looking what it was. It was a letter from someone concerned for the salvation of my soul.

The letter begins –

“My Catholic friend; I’m writing you today concerning Roman Catholicism. I have studied the Holy Bible for over 34 years now. I feel compelled to share my findings here with you in a letter.”

What follows is no less than eight pages of scripture passages, single spaced in 8 font, telling me how the Catholic Church got it all wrong. Of course, the letter is anonymous. There is no return address and no means offered if I wanted to learn more. The person claimed to have a wealth of information gleaned from decades of study but didn’t want to talk to me directly about it

. I am reminded of a scene from the Rodney Dangerfield movie, “Back to School.” Thornton Melon had an assignment to do a book report on Kurt Vonnegut. Thornton didn’t understand the book so he hired Kurt Vonnegut himself to write the report on what the book was about. He received a failing grade on the paper because, as the teacher put it, “Whoever wrote the paper didn’t know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut.”

The New Testament of the bible was written by those in the Catholic Church. The Catholic bible, from which all non-Catholic bibles have their source, was compiled by the Catholic Church. The Church has read, preached, and taught on the scriptures for the last two-thousand years. To say that it is the authority on what it wrote, compiled, and taught on for two millennia should go unquestioned. But, if we need to quote scripture about who has the authority we need to look no further than 1 Timothy 3:15 –

“…but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one should act in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

The Church is the pillar and support of the truth, not scripture. I will always take two-thousand years of authority stemming from the very beginning over a thirty-four-year independent study any day.

The bible is God’s great puzzle. Each verse of scripture is a piece in that puzzle. The pieces fit together only one way. One must look at all of the pieces in relation to the whole to see the complete picture portrayed. Looking at pieces individually or in small groups can easily lead one astray as to what the pieces truly mean.

The devil is one of the greatest scripture scholars. He was there when most of it took place. He is very cunning in getting people to look at an individual piece of the puzzle or a group of pieces and see in them something other than their true intended meaning. You can find a scripture verse to support just about any ideology. Scripture has been used and continues to be used to justify great evils.

A common non-Catholic Christian believe is that a person can read the bible and be inspired and guided to it’s true meaning by the spirit. If this were true, we would not have over forty-thousand different understandings of the bible. The statement is partially true, however. A person can read the bible and be guided by a spirit. That does not mean it is the Holy Spirit doing the guiding. The person who wrote me the letter most certainly has been led astray by a spirit other than the Holy Spirit.

Despite popular belief, Catholics are encouraged to read their bibles. They are encouraged to meditate on what they read. We even have a special way of doing this called Lexio Divina. Catholics are encouraged to study the bible alone and in groups. They are read the bible and have the Gospel proclaimed to them at every Mass, along with practical instruction from the clergy on how what was read applies to our lives today.

What a Catholic should not do is to try and interpret the bible for themselves, as the letter writer did. We have the Magisterium whose duty it is to give us the authoritative interpretation of what scripture means. Authority given to the Church by Jesus himself. It is ok to be inspired by scripture as long as the inspiration does not contradict official Church teaching. Where a contradiction occurs, we are to always accept what the Church teaches over personal opinion.

The bible is God’s great puzzle. It’s true beauty can only be seen by looking at it as a whole and not microfocus on any individual piece.

I Hold the Whole World in my Hands

There is one God.

With three distinct and individual persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Father begot the Son and the Holy Spirit precedes from the Father and the Son.

All existence resides within God. Heaven, hell, purgatory, and the entire timeline of existence exists fully within God. For God, every moment of existence is now. Every place in existence is here.

All creation was created for Jesus. All was created through Jesus. He is before all else that is.

The Eucharist is Jesus. It is his body, blood, soul, and divinity. The Eucharist is true presence of Christ. Jesus, being God, has the fullness of all existence within him. Everything that has ever been created, exists now, or will come into creation, every person who has lived, lives now, or will live in the future, and every moment of time from the beginning until the end all exists within Jesus Christ.

When I hold the Eucharist, I literally hold all of existence in my hands. I hold every moment of time, every person, and everything that has or will be created, including myself. When I consume the Eucharist I am taking into my finite body the infinite.

Too great a mystery for my feeble mind to fully comprehend, yet all things are possible for God.

And my sorrow deeps for those who snatch the Eucharist from my hands as if it were nothing more than a Ritz cracker.