I am the man on the train.

I want to share a story the Reverend Know-it-All told on Father Simon Says this morning.

There was a man who worked for the local train company. His sole job was to make sure a train bridge that spanned a large river was down when there was a train coming and up when there wasn’t so ships could traverse the river.  One day he brought his only son to work with him. It was his son’s four year birthday. He showed his son off to everyone in the station before heading out to bridge house.

At the bridge house he was playing with his son down by the bank of the river when he heard the whistle on the approaching train. He ran to the control room and got ready to pull the lever to lower the bridge. He looked for his son but he was nowhere in sight. In a panic his eyes darted around the landscape looking for his son. He saw his son climbing into the gearing of the bridge. He didn’t have time to go get his son and still get the bridge lowered in time for the train to cross.

He did the only thing he could do. He pulled the lever and lowered the bridge. He felt his heart being torn from his chest as the bridge came down and crushed his son. Tears streamed down his face as the train rambled by the control room. Inside sat people drinking their coffee, reading their papers, or just staring out of the window, totally oblivious to the price that had just been paid to save their lives.

We are the people on the train. We go through our lives totally oblivious to the price that was paid for our salvation.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

This is one of the most quoted verses from the bible. You can find it just about anywhere you go. Yet it seems to be one of the least understood verses judging by the way people live their lives. Jesus gave his life for me and therefore I am obligated to live mine for him. I no longer have the right to go through this life with myself at the center. I am to be Jesus to others.

Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Oh most Holy heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore you, I love you, and with lively sorrow for my sins I offer you this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure, and wholly obedient to your will. Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in you and for you. Protect me in the midst of danger. Comfort me in my afflictions. Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Amen.

Temple or Tent?

I remember once when I was home on leave from the Navy. My father asked to see my wallet. As he shuffled through it I knew what he was looking for.

“Where are they?” he asked.

“I don’t carry them.” I replied.

“Why not?” he asked with a quizative look on his face.

“Because I haven’t had a need.” I said as I saw his expression turn to one of disappointment.

He was referring to condoms. My father was like many fathers I suspect. They have a hope that their sons will score with as many women as they can as often as possible. Many of the same dads expect their daughters to go untouched until they are married and ready to bring forth grandchildren. It is probably one of the oldest double standards we have in our society.

Sex has been overemphasized in our culture and virginity has lost its significance. Virgins are often mercilessly teased, ridiculed, and made fun of. Men often look to women as objects to be conquered or things to be dominated. I had friends on the ship who were virgins and vowed to stay such until they got married. They were the “goodie” people who were great friends but not someone you wanted to hit a foreign port with.

We have lost sight of what it truly important in life simply because we have given in to our carnal desires. Sex is one of the greatest gifts God gave to man. He has included us in his ability to create life. This is a gift he didn’t give the angels. It is a gift given not for our own pleasure but to give glory to God. This so infuriates the devil that he has done everything he can to get us to abuse this gift, make a mockery of it, and turn our backs on it. He has done everything in his power to convince us that sex is only meant for our selfish pleasure and use.

Sex has two purposes. The first is procreative. God wants to populate heaven. We are commanded to be fruitful and multiply. We are to accept life as God sees fit to give it and not on our terms. We are to trust God and know that he won’t give us more than we can handle.

The second purpose of sex is unitive. For this purpose man leaves his mother and clings to his wife and the two become one flesh. Sex is to be shared only in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. Sex is not for recreation. Sex is not for the self. Sex is to be used to unite man and wife and bring about the next generation. Any other use for sex is a perversion and abuse of this great gift we have been given.

Virginity, therefore, becomes the greatest gift one spouse can give another. It is a gift only spouses can give. It cannot be bought. It cannot be faked. It cannot be returned. It is not something to be mocked, ridiculed, or made fun of. Virginity is sacred. It is a sacred gift for a sacred sacrament.

I have a newfound respect for my shipmates who remained virgin amid one of the most difficult situations to do so. They loved their future spouse enough to remain chaste when surrounded by temptation. They knew the value of their sacrifice while many of us threw it away the first chance we got.

I have heard many claim that the solution to our priest shortage is to allow them to marry so they can enjoy sex like the rest of us. I am sure there are some who have refused their calling because they want to be a husband and a father. I am one of those. I highly doubt that there are men out there who turn their backs on God’s call simply because they need to have sex. Those who have do not understand the true nature of sex. Men and women who take a vow of chastity for religious life aren’t losing out on something. They are gaining a deeper understanding of the value of the human body. They recognize the sacredness of their gift of virginity and the value of that gift when given to God. We all can learn from them.

God made people to be loved and things to be used. When we reverse that order bad things happen. Virginity is the single greatest gift one spouse can give another. We need to teach our children that their bodies aren’t play things for their own amusement. We  need to restore the sacredness of human sexuality to what it was meant to be. Our bodies are temples of the Lord and not tents for dirty hobos.

Pass the Marshmallows

A father and son were enjoying a nice fire while out camping on a warm summer’s night. When it was time for bed the father called the son over and showed him how to separate the burning wood so the pieces were isolated from one another. The fire quickly died down and only glowing embers were left smoldering. In the morning the father showed the son that all but three embers had died during the night. The three that remain were also almost out but had just a bit of life left in them.

The father gathered all of the dead embers together in a pile and placed the three lit ones on top. On those he placed a handful of dry twigs. The father began to blow on the embers which turned red and got hotter with each breath. On the second breath wisps of white smoke began to rise. On the third breath the pile burst into flames and the morning fire was started.

Two-thousand years ago there were eleven embers huddled together in the upper room. They were barely lit as they feared for their lives. The Lord gathered them together and breathed the Holy Breath (From the Greek work pneuma meaning wind, breath, or spirit) upon them and they burst into flames with the fire of desire to serve God. This is the way church works. Those with faith come together to form an everlasting fire of love for God. As a church we burn brightly.

But like the father in the story the devil tries to extinguish that fire by separating the individual embers. The individual embers can burn for a while but none can burn as brightly or give as much warmth as what they do together. Eventually individual embers will fade away and die out. This is what the devil wants to do – extinguish the fire of God’s love burning in each one of us. This is why it is so important that we assemble together in our churches. God will send the Holy Breath upon us to feed the growing fire in each of us so we can properly radiate his love and light.

For those who believe that they do not need a church, that they can be spiritual anywhere, that it is just them and Jesus – they are smoldering embers that will eventually die out. We need to show them the importance of being part of God’s bonfire (bon is French for good). We are so much more when they are with us. Throw another log on the fire. Bring a smoldering ember to church with you.

Gift of Today

John decided to treat his family to a surprise trip to Disney World. He didn’t tell them where they were going. They just loaded up the car and started the twelve hour drive to Florida. John was swamped with questions that streamed in every twenty to thirty miles.

“Where are we going to eat?” his wife would ask.

“Where are we going? How long are we going to be gone? What do I tell my friends?” Mary, the eldest daughter, would ask.

“Are we there yet? How much longer? I have to pee!” Billy, the six year old, would proclaim.

Katherine, John’s two year old, just sat in her car seat signing to herself while watching the scenery pass by.

This is how we are. The older we get the more we worry about the journey we are on. What will we eat? Where are we going? What will tomorrow bring.

In today’s reading we are reminded that tomorrow is promised to no one. Today is a gift to be lived to the fullest. We have a choice on how we spend our time. It is our most precious commodity. Once gone we can never get it back. Money cannot buy us another day. Do we appreciate the life we have been given? Have we thanked God for bringing us on this trip?

“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” – Mark 10:15

We are called to be like Katherine. She didn’t worry about where she was at or where she was going. She didn’t worry about how long she would be away. She trusted completely that her parents would feed her that day, love her, and keep her warm. She did not worry and just enjoyed the journey.

This is what God wants us to be like. He will provide all that we need for today. Sometimes he will give us exactly what we need. Sometimes he will give us an abundance. When we are given more than what we need God provides us to someone else in need. We are to share what we have with them and not hoard for tomorrow. Tomorrow may never come and if it does God will provide for that day as well.

This world has more than enough food that no one should go to bed hungry. There is more than enough clean water so no one has to thirst. There is more than enough love so that every person can feel valued and dignified. This world is hurting but that isn’t because God hasn’t given us what we need for today. We haven’t shared the abundance with all. We hoard for tomorrow or for personal gain.

Tomorrow is promised to no one. Give God thanks and praise for the gift of today. Love as if you will never get another chance to do so. If you wake tomorrow it is because God has decided to provide you to someone in need. Be that gift.

Idle Hands and Idol Thoughts

Catholics are often accused by Reformed Christians of removing the commandment on creating graven images so we can worship and pray to our statues and paintings. This misunderstanding stems from the different ways the different faith traditions number the commandments. When the Catholic Church compiled what is now the bible into a single book there wasn’t chapter and verse. They were simply a collection of books and letters that were being read at Mass in every church. The Church complied a canon or measure of accepted books so that the same scripture readings were read in every church.

During the middle ages people were not literate for the most part. Before the invention of the printing press books were expensive and hard to come by. Bibles and Holy Scripture in written form was pretty much restricted to churches and the rich. It wasn’t until the 13^th century that the bible was divided by chapter. We had to wait until the 16^th century to see it further broken down by verse. The Protestant Reformation brought about different schools of theology and a differing set of commandments. Different religious traditions number the commandment verses in Exodus and the parallel verses in Deuteronomy differently. It is thought that the number 10 was used as an aid to memorization and not as a theology. There are eight different ways the Ten Commandments are numbered based upon the different faith traditions.

The first big difference between the Catholic numbering and the Reformed Christian numbering starts with the second commandment. The second commandment for a Catholic is;

                Thou shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.

This is the third commandment for a Reformed Christian. The second commandment for a Reformed Christian is,

                Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image.

For a Catholic this is part of the first commandment. The trouble comes in because we have shortened all of the verses of scripture to make the commandments easier to memorize. When you ask a Catholic what the first commandment is they should respond with,

                “I am the Lord your God. You shall not have other gods before me.”

 All faith traditions do this to make it easier to teach children the Ten Commandments. Reformed Christians falsely use this to make the claim that Catholics worship idols because our churches are full of statues and paintings. If this were true, and the Catholic Church removed this verse in Holy Scripture so we could worship idols, you would not find it in a Catholic bible. Pick up any Catholic or Protestant bible and you will find the following:

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”  - Exodus 20, 4-6

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ‘You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” – Deuteronomy 5, 8-10

               

So what about the claim that Catholic’s worship idols? The confusion here is with the words idol and icon. An idol is an object that an action is directed to. An icon is an object an action is directed through. Do Catholics worship idols? Absolutely not. Worship is reserved for God and God alone. Do Catholics use icons (statues, paintings, pictures) to focus our attention and direct our thoughts and prayers through to the person the icon represents? Indeed we do.

Let’s take a statue of Mary as an example. Why do Catholics kneel and pray before a statue of Mary? Are we worshiping the statue? Nope, not at all. Contrary to popular anti-Catholic belief we do not worship Mary. We venerate her because she is the mother of Jesus. Jesus loves and honors his mother, just as the fourth commandment tells him to, and so should we. The statute is an icon of the Holy Mother. We use it as a conduit to pass our veneration and prayer through to Mary.

See, to a Catholic a Saint is not a dead person but one who is alive and living with God. Saints include the angels. Just as I can ask you, dear reader, to pray for me or to pray for someone else I can also ask any of the Saints in heaven to pray for me as well. They are in direct contact with Jesus and their intercession with him on our behalf is powerful. There is nothing Jesus would deny his mother. Her intercession to her son is the greatest intercession we can get.

God alone can hear (silent) prayers. No one in heaven can hear our prayers directly. When we pray to Mary or one of the Saints God receives that prayer. He then permits the person we are praying to, to hear that prayer so they may also intercede on our behalf. We are all one big family who loves and prays for each other. Love is a beautiful thing.

We use icons to focus our attention and to remind us of who they represent. They are in essence the same thing as the pictures of my wife and children I carry in my wallet. I do not worship a statue any more than I worship a picture of my family. I have no doubt that those who accuse Catholics of worshiping idols have pictures of loved ones in their wallets and on the walls of their homes. Many put out nativity scenes at Christmas to remind them of the birth of Jesus. They are not worshiping an idol when they do so and Catholics do not worship idols by having statues in our churches.

Worship is reserved for God and God alone.

This is Your Captain Speaking....

In 1943 Brigadier General Robert Lee Scott Jr. published his autobiography God is My Co-pilot about his adventures in World War II with the Flying Tigers and then the Army Air Corps over China and Burma. General Scott was one of the first aces in WWII and was one of the Army Air Corps finest.

The title of his book resonated within Christian circles. Who wouldn’t want God sitting beside them through all of life’s adventures? Well, God for one. God doesn’t want to be in the right hand seat. He doesn’t want to be the co-pilot. A pilot is the one who controls the plane. A co-pilot assists. He flies the plane only when the pilot wants a break.

My wife is scared to death to fly. He fear stems mainly from the fact that she has no control over what the plane does. Her life is in the hands of someone else. She’d rather drive everywhere where she had the illusion of control. This is how many Christians approach life. They want the illusion of control and they want God to be nothing more than a copilot.

God has called me to serve him in a greater capacity most of my life. And for the majority of that time I have said no to God. That’s nice Lord, but I am in control here and that’s not what I want to do with my life. With every no came increased difficulty in life - strained relationships, financial difficulty, failing health. Every aspect of my life continued to worsen the longer I resisted my call. It took being put on death’s doorstep before I finally relented and said yes to God.

The moment I agreed to follow the path God had laid out for me was the moment life started to change. Although I didn’t come into riches money wasn’t so tight. A quintuple bypass gave me a new lease on life. I am surrounded by people who are true blessings to me, my wife and my children, my mentors, my brothers in diaconate formation. All challenge me to be a better man, to be the man God has called me to be.

I have found a great sense of peace and happiness when I let go of the stick and let God fly the plane. Working in the church, ministering to people, and learning with my brothers makes me happy and gives me peace, a peace that has eluded me most of my life.

Yet I struggle in my home life. I always seem to be angry, frustrated, or depressed. It is like I am two different people, happy away, sad at home. My work has been putting a great deal of stress on my lately but that isn’t the sole cause of the grief. I have an idea in my mind of what the perfect family looks like. I have values and lessons and memories I want to pass on to my children. I want to be the dominant influence in their lives and not the society or the culture. Life moves fast and I only get a limited amount of time to make a difference in the people they will become. I want to be in control.

I ask God daily to grant me the grace of patience with my family. I ask him to fill me with peace and to guide me in being the husband and father my family deserve and not the one they get stuck with. Usually he just provides ample opportunity to be patient and loving and I always seem to fail. On occasion he will speak loud enough that I can hear him over the ramblings of my mind. Today was one of those days.

God told me that I only had the illusion of control. He invited me to let go and let him fly the plane. Trust him to guide my children as he has guided me. My family may not be perfect in my eyes but it is perfect in his. He invited me to close my eyes and see them as he does.

If I have learned anything in the past three years I have learned not to argue when God asks something of me. Lord Jesus I trust in you. The left hand seat is yours.

The Apostasy that Isn't

The best way to prepare for a debate is to know your opponent’s arguments better than they do. As a Catholic evangelist it helps me to know what other faith traditions are claiming. I probably spend too much time reading opposing views than what I should be. There is no shortage of anti-Catholic thought in this world today.  The common thread among all of it is a great misunderstanding of the actual teaching of the Catholic Church. Misconceptions and falsehoods both abound and remain even when the light of truth shines brightly. For those who hate the Catholic Church there is not enough proof to sway them. Those open and seeking the truth always find their way home to this Church. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said it best.

 

“There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”

As a Catholic apologist I am obligated to know and pass on only the true teachings of the Church. I do not have the right to pass on my opinion as official teaching. Indeed, all Catholics are required to believe all official doctrine of the Church. This faith is not a strawberry field where we get to pick and choose the fruit that is most pleasing to us. That doesn’t mean that we can’t question what we are taught. Questioning a teaching is good because it shows our desire to understand. We are called to accept and seek to understand and not reject because it doesn’t jive with my personal thought.

I also spent a great deal of time reading other Catholic writers. There is some great stuff out there and a wealth of knowledge and insight. The more I can expose myself to the truth the deeper it ingrains within me. The problem is that among the wheat there is an increasing amount of chaff. The number of anti-catholic Catholics seems to be on the rise. It is bad enough when a Catholic stands up in Mass and says, “I believe…” and then gets to the parking lot and says, “But the Church is wrong on…” It is much worse when a Catholic apologist starts spewing his or her personal anti-catholic opinion as Church teaching.

There are wolves among the flock that do their best to divide and conquer. I am sure in their hearts they truly believe that they are trying to save the Church. I also believe Martin Luther thought the exact same thing. The Church that Jesus created has lost her way and it takes the personal revelation of the individual to bring her back on course. This is the apostasy that wasn’t.

My question to all of the anti-Catholic Catholics is this: Do you love Jesus? Do you trust him to be true to his word? Church teaching on this is very clear and is not open to debate or to personal choice. If you do not accept this teaching you are not Catholic no matter what you call yourself or what Mass you attend on Sunday.

1: Jesus started the Catholic Church.

2: He appointed the Twelve as the official leaders of that Church. These men became the original bishops of the Church.

3: He appointed one of the Twelve to lead the rest. His name was Peter and he was the first Pope.

4: He passed on the authority the Father gave to him to these men who in turn passed it on to their replacements. This became the Magisterium.

5: He promised to be with his Church until the end of the age and that even the gates of Hell would not prevail over her.

6: Because of that promise we believe that he guides the Church through everything she does and will not allow her to fall into apostasy.

Let me repeat that – We believe that Jesus will not allow his Church to fall into apostasy.

When you form an opinion contrary to official Church teaching examine closely where the inspiration for that opinion came from. I will guarantee you that it did not come from Jesus. The alpha wolf is hard at work. Don’t allow yourself to be separated from the flock that the good shepherd has given his life for.

One Down...

The first year of diaconate formation is officially in the books. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. It feels like only yesterday that I received my acceptance letter. I am surrounded by a great group of guys, each bringing a special gift to our group. I feel truly blessed to be among them. The knowledge and insight they bring to the party is incredible. Brother Brian summed up the experience for himself in one word – humbling. I think he correctly reflected the feeling we all share.

This year has been a whirlwind of classes on subjects like intros into theology and philosophy. We learned a bit on evangelization and stewardship. There were classes on spirituality, morality, and the types of prayer. We got an introduction on how to properly interpret the bible and took a deeper dive into the Old Testament. Some of the classes were light hearted and fun. Some left our heads hurting from the depth of information we received. All the classes I would compare to a great steak dinner – we were left thoroughly satisfied but longing for more.

One thing that became more and more apparent with every class is the depth of beauty and sheer genius of the Catholic faith, indeed, the entire human design. To be able to look at the internal working of life and not be able to see the hand of the divine creator constantly at work boggles my mind. To be able to see the hand of God at work boggles my mind even more. I can only equate it to what it must be like for a new born baby opening his eyes for the first time. Welcome to a much bigger world. We have so much to learn.

I am so humbled and thankful for not only my brothers I travel this road with but all of our wives who are the bedrock of support for us. We could not do this without you. We are especially thankful for Betsy who can support Bill and all of us in ways no one else can. Please pray for us, our formation, and our spiritual welfare as we continue this journey together.

Rockford Diocese Diaconate Formation Class of 2020 - now in Aspirancy 2

Rockford Diocese Office where we have classes

True Food

The Jews used animal sacrifice to atone for their sins. In this sacrifice wood would be placed on the altar. The animal to be sacrificed was slaughtered and placed on the wood. The wood was then set on fire. The aroma of the cooking food would rise to heaven and was pleasing to God. Blood is considered sacred because it contains life. The blood of the animal was sprinkled on the altar. If God found favor with the sacrifice his grace would descend down upon the animal. The animal was consumed by the people offering sacrifice and they shared a meal with God. This shared meal was the bond for the atonement. Animal sacrifice was never enough to atone for all sin for all times so the sacrifice had to be repeated as often as necessary.

The greatest sacrifice the Israelites offered to God was the Passover. When the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians Pharaoh ordered all new born male Israelites to be put to death. This kept the male population down and made the Israelites easier to control. The tenth and last plague God sent down upon Egypt was in kind. God would take the life of the first born male of every creature in Egypt, both human and animal.

The Israelites were warned of this coming plague and were told how to be delivered from it. Each household had to sacrifice a lamb or goat without blemish and then that sacrifice had to be consumed by the entire family the night of the plague in a very specific manner. The blood from the sacrifice had to be put on and over the doorposts. When the angel of death descended upon Egypt any family who sacrificed properly was passed over and the first born male of that family was not killed.

Jesus Christ is the new Passover. The altar he was sacrificed on was the cross and his holy blood saturated the wood. He was not offered up as a burnt sacrifice but his sacrifice did atone for all sins of all people who participate in the sacrifice for all time. How does one participate in the sacrifice of Christ? The same way the Jewish people participated in the sacrifices of atonement and of Passover - by consuming the flesh of the sacrifice and sealing the bond with a holy meal with God. Does this mean we have to eat the flesh of Christ to receive the blessing of atonement for our sins? That is exactly what Jesus told us we must do.

“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. “He 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. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”  - John 6, 52-56

 

How does Christ make this possible for all people through all time?

“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”  - 1 Corinthians 11, 23 – 26

At the last supper Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In his earthly body he could only be in one place at one time. After he ascended to the Father he was able to come down into the Eucharist when a priest consecrates it. This allows Jesus to be everywhere at all times until the end of time. Jesus is truly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the form of bread and wine in a consecrated host.

Why must it be a priest? Jesus passed this authority on to the Twelve and only the Twelve. The Twelve passed this authority on to their successors, which became the bishops of the Catholic Church. Because bishops cannot be in every parish every day they have passed this authority on to their priests to act as their proxy. It is an unbroken line of apostolic authority from Jesus, through the Twelve, to the bishops, to the priests.

I thought Christ was sacrificed once for all. Doesn’t the Catholic Mass sacrifice him over and over again?

No, there was only one sacrifice for all. The Mass does not re-sacrifice Christ. It re-presents it. Mass acts as a conduit between time and space transporting those taking part in the Mass back to the original sacrifice, the crucifixion of Jesus. Our sacrifice does not re-sacrifice Christ but makes us present to the one sacrifice. If human eyes could see the supernatural glory taking part at the Mass we would be able to see Christ in his glory on the cross surrounded by all of the heavenly hosts and the Saints giving worship to the Lord our Pascal sacrifice, the Lamb of God without blemish. We are connected to the greatest event that will ever happen. But human eyes can only see the world in which we live and not the truth that surrounds us.

As Catholics we believe that Jesus descends down into the host during the words of consecration and that the Eucharist becomes the actual body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. We consume the Eucharist, eating the flesh of Jesus himself completing his sacrifice on our behalf. We do as he commanded and eat his flesh and drink his blood and believe we have his everlasting life within us.

This presents a problem for non-Catholic Christians who view communion as nothing more than a symbol of the last supper. For 1500 years Christianity took part in Jesus’ sacrifice and honestly believed they were actually eating the body and blood of Christ as he had instructed them to. Then along came Luther who thought himself smarter than the Church and began to teach his opinion over what the Church had always taught. He let the genie out of the bottle and people started creating churches that taught what they believed truth should be over that which Christ had passed on to his Church. Mass ceased being a sacrifice and became nothing more than an opportunity to instruct the faithful.

By Jewish understanding of the sacrificial laws passed down from God when Christians ceased eating the actual body and blood of Jesus they also ceased to participate in his sacrifice of atonement for sin. It is written in Holy Scripture that he was sacrificed for many, not all, who believe in him. It also says that not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only God knows who is saved and not saved. I have to take Jesus at his word and be part of the only Church that can offer me his real body and blood as my holy food. I don’t want symbolic salvation, I want to really be saved.

Do you think that the angel of death would have passed over a Jewish house the night of the tenth plague if they had coated their doorposts with red paint symbolizing blood? If the life of your firstborn son were at stake would you have chanced it?

When Jesus told those following him that if they wanted eternal life they would have to eat his flesh they fled from him in droves thinking him crazy. He didn’t chase after them telling them he was only speaking of symbolically eating his flesh. Instead he turned to his disciples and asked if they were going to leave him too.

Where can I go Lord? Only you have the words of eternal life. If you tell me I have to eat your flesh and drink your blood to have this life within me then that is what I will do.

Take this and eat. This is my body that will be given up for you….

 

Brother, let me be your servant.

Every year droves of people leave organized religion behind. They do this because organized religion has lost its relevance in their lives. Even the great gubernator Jesse, The Body, Ventura referred to organized religion as a crutch for the weak minded. Who can blame them for feeling this way? Whose fault is it that church has lost relevance in so many lives? Can we blame the devil? How about the culture? No, the blame falls squarely on our shoulders.

Each and every one of us has been given a cross that we must carry in this life. For some of us, that cross is more than we can bear. God will always provide. Sometimes he provides exactly what is needed. Sometimes he provides more than what is needed. When he provides you with more than what you need he expects that you will provide the extra to someone else in need. He is providing you to that person. Too many of us keep the extra for ourselves or fail to recognize the abundance that we have been blessed with. We let others go without so we can have more.

Organized religion is not a crutch that weak minded people lean on for help. Jesus’ own example shows us what we are to do. Jesus could not physically bear the weight of his cross on the way to his crucifixion. Simon of Cyrene was pulled from the crowd and made to help Jesus carry his cross. That is what Jesus has done for us. He has provided us with a church to help bear the weight of the crosses in our own lives. We are to be Simon to each other.

Pope Francis has referred to the Church as a field hospital after battle. We must love the wounded and heal their wounds. As the Pope so eloquently states, “It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds.”

People are leaving the Church in droves every year because they are tired of carrying their crosses alone. They are tired of hurting or being judged by those who are only supposed to love them. Whether they know it or not they go in search of Simon. They go in search of a cross bearer. Many times what they encounter instead is Satan disguised as Simon. He convinces them to drop their cross and embrace the self. God doesn’t want you to suffer under the weight of that wood. He made you this way so it is good. Embrace who you are and what you want. We all know where that road ends.

If we want to make church relevant in people’s lives again we have to start by becoming cross bearers. We have to be Simon. We have to minister to the injured and wounded. We have to see the person first and treat him or her with the dignity God gave them. We have to live beauty, joy, and love. Just as a light draws in the moth so too does a joy filled church draw in the sinner.

The Servant Song

Will you let me be your servant
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too

We are pilgrims on the journey
We are brothers on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load

I will hold the Christ light for you
In the night time of your fear
I will hold my hand out to you

Speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping
When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you
I will share your joy and sorrow

Till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven
We shall find such harmony
Born to all we’ve known together
Of Christ’s love and agony

Will you let me be your servant? Will you be my servant too?

How do you eat an elephant?

Question: How do you eat an elephant?

Artwork courtesy of Sean Gallo @ https://seangallo.com

Answer: One small bite at a time over a long period of time.

If a person had to eat an elephant in one big bite or all at one sitting it couldn’t be done. If you take small enough bites over a long period of time you could eat an entire elephant without even knowing it. This is exactly the tactic the devil uses to change a culture for the worse. He knows that if he were to introduce his plan all at once it would be outright rejected even by the most ungodly of us as being too extreme. But, if he introduces his plan in gradual steps people would accept it with little effort.

After gastric bypass surgery the stomach is left very small. A person having this surgery can only eat small amounts of food. With the drastic decrease in caloric intake the person loses weight quickly. This surgery only addresses the symptom, the added weight the person has. It does not address the real problem which is the fact that the person has an eating disorder where they eat more than they need. If the root cause of the problem is not addressed the surgery will only provide a temporary solution to the problem. The person will begin to eat just a little bit more, not enough to kill them but enough to stretch the stomach just a little. Now the person’s stomach can hold more so they eat a little more stretching the stomach just a little bit more again. Given enough time the stomach will return to its original size and the person will gain the weight they lost back and more.

Satan wishes to corrupt society and turn it away from God. He wants us to eat the elephant. He convinces the culture to push the limit of what is acceptable. Stretch that line just a little. When we have accepted and even embraced the change he gets us to stretch it some more. Given enough time something that was once considered morally reprehensible can become the norm to the point of being considered a human right. Take abortion as an example. At one point in our history no one would have supported killing an innocent baby growing in the womb. Now in our backward time it is considered a choice and even a woman’s reproductive right to do this horrid abomination.

How many people, even the avid prochoicers, would be on board with this if Satan had just come out at the beginning and said, “Sacrifice your children to me! Eat that elephant!" No way Jack. But when spoon fed one small bite over forty plus years half our population has eaten that elephant. A stomach once stretched can never return to its original size without drastic, long lasting change.

Not all change is bad. Any change that more deeply recognizes and respects a person’s dignity is indeed good and required. Any change that goes against the natural design God intended should be strongly fought and always resisted.

Don’t eat the elephant.

Walk the Talk, Pro-lifer

How many people who call themselves pro-life have limited themselves to just one or two children? How many use some form of contraception? How many pro-lifers visit the sick or those in hospitals? How many know what the inside of a nursing home looks like? How many pro-lifers sought vengeance after the World Trade Center fell and how many support capital punishment?


There is more to being pro-life than just being against abortion. Being against abortion is a good thing. Conception is when life begins and needs to be protected from that point forward. Conception is not where pro-life begins however. Pro-life begins by recognizing the dignity in all people. All people have dignity because each and every person has been created in the image and likeness of God. Dignity is like God's fingerprint on the soul. Pro-life continues by being open to life as God sees fit to provide it. Many pro-lifers are only willing to be pro-life when it is on their terms.


When most people hear the term pro-life they automatically associate it with those who protest abortions. Life runs from conception to natural death. True pro-lifers support all life. Womb to tomb. The elderly living in a nursing home are just as important and just as much a life as an unborn baby. We often forget about those at that end of the spectrum. Nursing homes and care centers are full of people who were left there to die. They go on basically forgotten. Many never receive a visitor outside of their care givers.


To be truly pro-life also means to love and care for those who hate you. They are still created in the image and likeness of God and they all have the same dignity as we do. We are called to love, not hate, our enemy. To love means to will the best for someone. Jesus loved his scourgers even as they flayed his flesh with their whips. If Jesus could do that we surely can love those who wish us dead.


Being pro-life means to hold all life sacred, not just life that is dear to us. Being pro-life means to see the sacred in even the worst among us. Can you see the dignity in the serial killer on death row? Can you love him enough to pray for his soul and not rejoice when they execute him? If that serial killer murdered someone close to you are you pro-life enough to forgive him? That is what Jesus asks us to do.


My heart is full because the tomb is empty.

Blind Faith

You Catholics are stupid you know? You mindlessly believe whatever the Church tells you to and do whatever the Pope tells you to do. You are sheeple.

I cannot tell you how often I hear something along these lines. Are we required to believe whatever the Church tells us? Well, as with most things with our faith the answer is a mix between yes and no.

Catholics are required to believe 100% of what the Church teaches on faith and morals. This is a nonnegotiable. You cannot believe something contrary to what the Church teaches in these areas and still be Catholic no matter what you call yourself. We believe this because we believe the promise Jesus made to this Church, his Church, that he would be with us until the end of the age and that even the gates of the underworld would not prevail against us. We believe that the Church is infallible in these matters because Jesus would not allow her to enter into error.

Infallible is a word that means without error. We believe that our Pope, by his appointed position as head disciple of the disciples, is infallible. Does this mean that we believe that the Pope is without error in all things? Absolutely not. The Pope’s infallibility only extends to his official teaching done from the Chair of Peter in union with his bishops on matters of faith or morals. When it comes to something like the sanctity of human marriage he cannot be wrong. When it comes to something like what flavor of ice cream is best, what color papal robe to wear to bed after Labor Day,  or in the case of Pope Francis, global warming, he is subject to the same possibility of being wrong as any of us.

The Church has never changed a single one of her teachings in the area of faith and morals, ever. What Jesus taught the twelve is the exact same thing the Church teaches today. A truth is a truth and, like God, is not subject to change. The Church may use different words today and may have clarified teachings but the teachings themselves are the same. Words and definitions of words change with the culture and so the Church must always update her teachings with each generation. An author who marries himself to a generation will be widowed in the next.

As Catholics we are required to believe 100% of what the Church teaches. That does not mean we cannot question those teachings. Indeed, the path to understanding comes through question, through seeking to understand. The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary that she was to conceive Jesus. She did not blindly say ok. She asked how. How can this be? How, why, and who are all valid questions anyone who is seeking knowledge should ask but we do not start with rejection. We start by accepting a statement and then seek to understand it. God is good. Ok. Why is God good?

Unfortunately in the culture in which we live in today, especially in America, everyone is their own pope. Everyone is an expert in every subject even if they know absolutely nothing about the subject at hand. It must be true; I read it on the internet. Instead of seeking to understand a truth we form our own opinion on it based upon what is most desirable to us. Then our opinion becomes fact for us and nothing sways us from it, even the truth. We have an entire generation of people who now stand up and say “I believe” in Mass on Sunday but then get to the parking lot and say “But the Church is wrong on…”

Are we called to have blind faith? Not at all. The truth is out there. We just have to open ourselves up to it. Not only does the Church teach what Christ passed down to us but she goes to extremes to teach the hows and the whys. Many people don’t want to know the whys because then they wouldn’t have an excuse to disbelieve. The more I learn about this faith the more beautiful and brilliantly genius it becomes. The more I learn the more it becomes abundantly clear that it was the hand of God who designed this faith. I want to proclaim from the mountain tops so everyone can find what I have found.

Instead, what I encounter most of the time are closed minded people who have already determined for themselves what truth is and will not seek to understand. Who really has the blind faith?

My heart is full because the tomb is empty.

Angels Among Us

In 2008 doctors found one small block in an artery of my heart. It was too small to fix. In 2012 I started to have increased symptoms of a blocked ticker. I tried to get in to been seen by the VA but was only ignored. Two years later the symptoms got bad enough that I finally went back to my civilian doctor. He put me straight in for an angiogram. We expected that the one block had gotten bad enough that it could now be ballooned open. As expected it had become 80% closed. What was not expected was that the other two arterial branches were also blocked at 90 – 95%. My heart was a time bomb with little time left on it. There was no option but to have open heart bypass.

As I was wheeled off to recovery the doctor went out to talk to my wife. She did not take the news well. It filled her with fear and worry and she was a mess of uncontrollable emotion. Then at her side appeared a man. He was shabby in appearance, almost looking homeless. He was holding a bible in his hand. He told my wife not to worry, that everything was going to be alright.  Then he asked if he could pray with her for a while. When she wasn’t looking the man slipped away and she never saw him again.

True to his word my surgery went without a hitch. I was up and walking in the ICU just hours after leaving recovery. Everyone was amazed how the life returned to my face.  I healed quickly and without complication. I was given a reprieve, a second chance at living past fifty.

The man in the waiting room, I have no doubt that he was an angel. An angel, by definition, is nothing more than a messenger. In celestial form an angel is a servant of God. They are pure spirits who occasionally are allowed to take human form to perform a task. We are assured by Holy Scripture that each of us has a guardian angel whose job it is to watch over us and guide our way to heaven. So was this guy a celestial angel sent to calm my wife or just a good guy with nothing better to do than hang around a hospital waiting room looking for someone to comfort? You can decide that for yourself. As for me, he provided my wife the comforting words she needed to hear and that makes him a gift from God either way.

Masculinized Feminism

We have never had a true feminist movement in America. A true feminist movement would extol and celebrate the traits that make a woman strong and unique. Instead, what masquerades as a feminist movement are masculinist women who believe the only way they are considered equal is if they can say and do everything a man can. The extremes in this movement wish to minimalize or completely remove the male of the species from as many things as possible. This has nothing to do with praising femininity, which most, if not all, of the hardcore feminists view as weakness, and more about control and power.

The word hierarchy is the English translation of the Latin for holy order. When God created he created everything with a specific purpose, function, and holy order. When things happen according to their designed purpose it is said that they are ordered. When things happen contrary to their designed purpose they are disordered. When things are ordered they lead to happiness and disorders lead away from happiness. This is God’s design for everything.

At the top of the hierarchical order is, of course, God. But even for God there is a hierarchy. We have one God that contains three unique and divine persons. We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Son answers to the Father and the Holy Spirit answers to both the Father and the Son. There will never be division among the three because all wills conform to that of the Father. They are equal but different with different functions. The Father is the head of all creation. The Son sits to the right of the Father and all rule and authority of creation has been given to him. The Holy Spirit carries action forth from the Father and the Son. All are God. All are equal but all have a different purpose. Each performs their purpose perfectly so God is always perfectly ordered. God is the Order from which all order flows.

After the Trinity the next in line of the Holy Order is not the Pope as many might think. The next in line is woman. Woman holds the highest position in God’s hierarchy for the human person. To woman God gave the greatest honor he has bestowed upon any of his creation. He made woman the Tokos, the life bearer. Therefore woman is the most exalted among all of God’s creation. The most exalted among the exalted would then be the Theotokos or the mother of God. We know her as Mary, the woman who conceived and bore the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus. She is the greatest human person who will ever live and that is why Catholics venerate and honor her.

And then comes the Pope right? Um, no. Next in line after woman is another “woman”, the Holy Catholic Church. The Holy Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus founded and promised he would be with until the completion of time. In poetic speech the Church is the bride of Christ. Jesus is the bridegroom. The book of Revelation, commonly believed to be about the end of the world, is in reality the story of the wedding celebration between Jesus and his Church. If you want to know what heaven will be like attend a Catholic Mass. It will be like that only with every creature in heaven worshiping together at once. Words do not exist to describe the magnitude of that celebration.

Last in the hierarchy is man. We are the bottom rung in God’s Holy Order, not the top as so many of us believe ourselves to be. So where does that put the Pope? Don’t worry, we won’t forget poor Cardinal Bergolio, now Francis.

Everything was made in an order and for a purpose. The designed purpose for woman was to be the tokos, the life bearer and to ektrephó or nourish. Woman was given the ability to bring forth life and to bring it to full maturity. Man’s designed purpose is to protect and provide for woman and her offspring and to “till the garden” or care for the rest of God’s creation. Everything that we do as men is supposed to be towards those two ends. It was never intended that we lord over or dominate anything.

The Pope, the bishops, the priests, and the deacons are under a separate hierarchal order, the order of servitude. Their designed purpose is to serve the Church Jesus started and all of human kind. The order of servitude is not a chain of command like you would find in a military organization. This Holy Order is upside down. The Pope is on the bottom rung of the ladder and has the responsibility of lifting up all those above him. He does this in unity with his bishops who then serve the priests and the deacons above them who, in turn, serve the Church and all of humanity. The Pope is a bishop who leads the college of bishops. He has the responsibility of every living soul on this planet on his shoulders. Bishops are both the head priest and the head deacon in their diocese and have the responsibility for every soul living within their diocese. Priests and deacons are different arms of the bishop. Priests are the right hand and responsible for sacrifice. They are responsible for each and every soul in their parish. The deacon is the left hand of the bishop and is responsible for being the servant to a servant church.

The devil is a very cunning creature. He has successfully convinced many women that their value is tied to being equal to a man. They are only truly equal if they can do everything a man can do. Feminism convinces women to lower themselves, to be less than what they were created to be, to become the inferior of the race. He gets them to mock the very thing that makes them unique and most favored among all of God’s creation. He gets them to willfully turn their backs on the gift God shared only with them.

With woman stepping down to fill the man’s role man has stepped away all together. We no longer have to be the protector and provider. We no longer have to care for the garden. All of God’s creation suffers when we do not fully assume this role for which we were made. The family is the building block on which all human society is based. The father is the head of the family. A beheaded family has no life within it. When the family ceases to live all of society crumbles.

A mother’s job is to nourish the family. If the mother concentrates her time in trying to be equal to the father by being like the father the family does not get the nourishment it needs and it does not mature properly. When the family fails society fails and the devil triumphs.

True feminism extols the virtues of womanhood, the virtues of the tokos and the ektrephós. Mothers should be exalted yet most are demonized as accepting something less. When you see a mother with three, four, or more children desperately trying to keep chaos at bay thank her for embracing her womanhood and her yes to God’s design. The future of mankind depends on it.

My heart is full because the tomb is empty.

Barabbas - The Choice is Yours.

Barabbas, the man chosen for release by the crowds during the trial of Jesus. Was Barabbas just a character in the story or did his presence have deeper meaning? This event happened two thousand years ago and eye witnesses are hard to come by these days. One day we will be able to ask Jesus himself but for now we can only speculate based on what the scriptures tell us…..or no longer tell us.

Some of the oldest copies of the Gospel of Matthew list Barabbas’ full name – Yeshua bar-Abbas or Jesus Barabbas. Early Church Father Origen was deeply troubled by this. He thought it was impossible that a criminal like Barabbas would share such a holy name with our Lord and concluded that it must have been added by a heretic. In those days they did not have printing presses. Each copy of Holy Scripture was hand copied, one from another. From that day forward the name Yeshua bar-Abbas was simply written as Barabbas.

I am not one to disagree with a Church Father but there are some things about our Lord that I do not think people fully comprehend. I do not think people fully grasp how much God became like us in all things. This is exactly why the Jewish people do not believe that the Messiah has come yet. This is precisely the reason why Judas betrayed our Lord. They both expected a great king to come, a military leader who would kick the Romans out of the lands of Israel and restore the Jewish people to their rightful place as the chosen people of God. Judas expected Jesus to do this very thing and expected to be put in a place of power after Jesus reestablished the throne. When Jesus didn’t show any interest in doing this Judas thought his betrayal would force Jesus’ hand and get him going on conquest.

We all know that Jesus is the greatest king who will ever rule and his rule will be forever. Before his name every knee shall bend and every head shall bow. This is not how Jesus entered into the world. Jesus was born an innocent, fragile, helpless baby. He was not born into a rich and prestigious family. He was born in a barn and slept in a hay bunk. His parents were poor. His foster father was a tektōn, a day laborer, a carpenter. Saint Joseph’s only claim to fame was that he and his wife, Mary, were distant relatives to the once great King David.

Yeshua a holy name? Maybe after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven to become the greatest king ever. When he walked the earth the names Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were among the most common names in use. Jesus not only became like us in all things but he became like the most common and lowly of us in all things. Before he started his public ministry it would have been difficult to pick these three out of a crowd of three. Jesus did not live an earthly kingship. Instead he ascended from the lowest of human kind. He came up from the very bottom so that no one was below him in anything. A rising tide lifts all boats. This is what Jesus did for humanity.

Yeshua - one of the most common names in use. As ordinary as they come. Translations of this name include Joshua and Jesus.

Barabbas - this one gets interesting. The early texts list this name as bar-Abbas. Bar means “son of” and abba is commonly translated as “father”.  Abba actually has a deeper and more intimate meaning than father. A more precise translation of abba is “daddy”.

So the Jewish people were presented with the following choice; whom do you want, Jesus, son of the father or Jesus, the Christ? We know who the people chose. But why is this even in scripture? What purpose does it serve? The true reason is not known to us but much speculation exists. This is mine.

Jesus, son of Mary, is the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. I believe Jesus Barabbas was the incarnation Satan, the visible image of the invisible devil. The people were given the choice between keeping good or evil. We chose evil and Satan rejoiced. We chose to put God to death and the devil danced in glee for he was victorious.

But Jesus was more than just innocent. He was divine. He was tortured and his divine blood was shed. This not only satisfied the price of death but the price of death for all humanity. Death could no longer hold Christ and it could no longer hold anyone in Sheol, the land of the dead, who accepted Jesus as king and followed him out of the netherworld.

In the midst of his victory the devil was defeated and lost hold of all under his authority. Now the devil only has authority over those that choose themselves over God. Satan only has authority over those who choose Barabbas instead of Christ.

Barabbas is not only the choice given to the Jewish people by Pilot but is the choice each and every person must make on their own. It is the question we all must answer. Do you stand and scream "Barabbas!" or do you live for Christ?

My heart is full because the tomb is empty.