Month: November 2018

Posted on

01 Christ the King

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

 

Catholic parish church of St. Matthäus in Alfter, relief at the high altar: Jesus washes his disciples' feet.
St. Matthäus in Alfter, relief at the high altar: Jesus washes his disciples’ feet.

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe 

Reading 1 – Daniel 7:13-14 
Psalm – Psalm 93:1, 1-2, 5 
Reading 2 – Revelation 1:5-8 
Gospel –John 18:33-37 

Today we celebrate the solemnity of Christ the King. This marks the end of our liturgical year. Can you believe it? Another year has come and gone and Adventis knocking on our doors! So how did this year go for you? A lot has changed for my family and me this year, but I have to ask myself, have I grown in discipleship? How has my faith grown? Well personally, I think my experience this year has mixed results. How about you?

Now, you might ask yourself, so what? Why should I invest any time or effort or energy in today’s readings?

Well,that’s a fair question. Let’s try jump into the Gospel and try to sort this all out. All the readings today tie together and they tell testify to the Kingship of Jesus Christ. So let’s focus on today’s Gospel.

Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

This is an important question for Pilate. You see, Pilate is concerned about any Jewish messianic claim. Pilate can only understand kingship through the lens of the secular world. For him, any Jewish king represents a threat to Caesar and a threat to the Empire. So Pilate wants to know just who Jesus is.

Now Pilate is not alone in this reasoning. Judas probably betrays Jesus because he was assuming Jesus would usher in some sort of temporal kingdom. Judas was incharge of the ministry’s money, so Judas probably had some interesting delusions about his role in an earthly kingdom. James and John ask Jesus in Mark’s Gospel if one of them can sit and Jesus’ right hand when he ushers in his kingdom.Again, they are thinking in temporal terms about a brick-and-mortar kingdom.

But Jesus answered Pilate, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” He goes on to tell Pilate, “For this I was bornand for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”

What is the truth?

Well, the truth is all of it – all salvation history! And the climax of salvation history is that God saved humanity through the blood of his son, Jesus. That’s the extent of God’s generosity. He will give everything to save you and to save me. The crucifixion is what kingship for Jesus means. Rather than sitting on a throne and lording it over us, he takes his place on the cross, stretches his arms out wide as if to embrace us all, and gives his life for you and for me.

We are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. That is Good News!

But what does it mean to follow Jesus? We are called to be disciples of the Kingdom. That’s why we need to spend some time with these readings – to grow in discipleship. What’s a disciple? Three things: a disciple is someone who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and savior; someone who tries to deepen their relationship with Jesus by learning more about Him; and someone who shares the Good News with others – to be what Pope Francis calls a “missionary disciple”.

To whom should we go? We go to the unbelievers – those who serve the prince of this world, (John 12:31, Ephesians 2:2). We are supposed to go to those who are caught “in the snare of the devil” (2 Timothy 2:26).

How do we share the Good News? First, by sharing our lives and our love with them – by letting them see that we are different because of Jesus in our lives. That starts with the people immediately around us – our family and friends, of course, as well as all the people we encounter in our everyday lives, from the knucklehead who cuts us off in traffic, or the (insert colorful metaphor here) who pushes out of the way as we try to board public transportation, or the cashier who frustrates the everliving tar out of us! If we can’t love these people, then somethings wrong in our faith life.

Is this easy? Is it easy to live in the Kingdom? No, it’s not. When sin touches us, (and it will, perhaps every single day!), we will falter. If that’s the case, how can we carry on?

My brothers and sisters, I have good news! Jesus exercises his kingship not by lording it over us, but by giving us what we need! Scripture tells us that Jesus gave us the church to help form us and to guide us in His name. Scripture tells us that Jesus equipped the church with the Sacraments to strengthen us. The Sacraments, especially Reconciliation and Eucharist, can, through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus Christ, heal us and nourish us. That’s how we carry on – by regular participation in the mass and by regularly availing ourselves of the sacraments.

We grow with the tools Jesus gave us so that we can better serve Him – so that we can be better subjects of Christ’s kingdom. We grow in Christ so that like Him we can give ourselves by going out into a dark world that desperately needs to hear a message of hope –the message of the Good News.

Homework!

My brothers and sisters, nourished by Christ in the Word proclaimed and the Eucharist we share, I ask you to reflect on these two questions:

  1. How did I spend this last year? Did I grow in discipleship?
  2. What concrete things am I going to do this next year to grow my faith? Can I attend mass every weekend? Can I go to confession one more time than I did last year? Is there a Bible study or adult formation class offered at my parish or through acredible program online I can join?

I think by doing our homework, (reflecting on our life this past year and coming up with concrete ways we can develop discipleship in ourlives), we will better equipped to begin this season of Advent – this season ofpreparation as we look forward to the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ the King.

Do you got it? Do you get it? Are you going to do it? Good! May each of us come to know the peace and the love of Jesus Christ. +Amen!

Additional Reading:

  1. Quas Primas, On the Feast of Christ the King 
  2. On Church, CCC 751-780: 
  3. Price of this world, CCC 2846-2854: But Deliver Us from Evil 

Posted on

Feast of All Saints

All-Saints

Today, we celebrate All Saints Day.

Why do we celebrate this day? Why is it important? Do Catholics worship saints? And why is it a holy day of obligation? Good questions! Let’s try to sort things out.

First, and this is important, the saints don’t need us.

Preaching in the 12th century, St. Bernard said, “The saints have no need of honor from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them.1

Second, it’s not about the saints, not really.

It’s about Jesus Christ – period. I don’t mean to oversimplify things, but the stories of the lives of the saints offer us insight into ways in which we can live out our call to holiness in the circumstances and states of life we find ourselves – clergy, consecrated religious, man, woman, child, whatever your state in life, there is a saint out there who’s life might help you see through the darkness and find Jesus Christ. This is why it’s important to remember and to honor the saints – especially on All Saints Day. It’s not for the saints’ benefit. It’s to help us grow in holiness and love for Jesus Christ.

Ok, so what is a saint?

The Catholic Church believes that saints are ordinary and typical human beings who made it into heaven. How does the Church come to believe they are in heaven? Well, the Church teaches that we cannot know for sure who is in hell, but the Church insists that we can come to know who is in heaven. We call these people saints.

So how does the Church come to believe someone in particular is in heaven? Well, the Church employs a process called canonization which analyzes various kinds of evidence; reliable testimony to the person’s extraordinary holiness in this life; indications that the person’s life has drawn others closer to God; and carefully documented miracles occurring after the person’s intercession has been sought. Miracles provide evidence that the person can offer assistance because he or she is now with God in heaven.

How is that even possible?

By His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ conquered death. Death no longer has the power to separate those who are in Christ from one another. For this reason, we the living can help those in purgatory through our prayers and sacrifices. Also, those in heaven can help us on earth through their prayers. St. Paul tells us that, “we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ,” (Eph 4:13). We are one body, the body of Christ. So the intercession of the saints is just one way in which Christ’s body reaches out in love: from the living to the living; from the living to the dead; and from the dead, specifically the saints, to the living.

Do Catholics worship saints? Absolutely not! Catholics venerate the saints.

Adoration, from a Christian perspective, is the act of giving ourselves to God as the One to whom we owe the source of our existence. It is an act of absolute submission to Him. He alone, then, is to be adored, to be worshiped.

Veneration is paying honor to a creature of God who deserves such honor. We remember the saints. We honor the saints. But we do not worship saints. Period.

Showing honor is a normal part of human life. We honor the founders of our countries. We name cities after them, we write books about them, we make statues of them and place them in public spaces. We paint and print pictures of them. We speak reverently and gratefully of them on patriotic holidays.

We also honor great scientists, leaders of social movements, artists and musicians. Why? Because it’s a matter of justice to recognize their gifts and contributions to our society, to our culture. These are examples of ways we venerate people in our various communities. Is it really shocking that the Catholic Church venerates the great heroes of our Faith?

Do other cultures honor saints? The short answer is yes. The journalist, Kenneth L. Woodward, points out in his book, Making Saints, that other cultures honor people not unlike Catholics. “The Buddhists venerate their arahants and their bodhisattvas, and, (among Tibetans) their lamas. Hindus revere a bewildering range of divinely human an humanly divine figures, including their personal gurus or spiritual teachers. Muslims have their awliyā’ Allāh (close friends of God) and their revered Sufi masters. Even in Judaism, whos rabbinic leaders have never encouraged veneration of human beings, alive or dead, one finds popular devotion to figures such as Abraham and Moses, assorted martyrs, beloved rabbis, and other tsaddikim, (“just men”), (15-16), (italics and spelling his).2

Why is today a holy day of obligation?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that a holy day of obligation is a day set apart by the Church to worship God. Sundays are holy days of obligation, but there are other days as well, like today (CCC 2185).

So on holy days, we are called to refrain from work and distractions so that we can focus on worship. You know, that idea of slowing down a bit is wildly important more now than ever, I think. On a holy day, the Church is asking us to get off the hamster wheel for a little while: to think about the things we have done wrong and ask forgiveness; to worship God to whom we owe everything; to celebrate the gifts we have, beginning with His Word and His Eucharistic presence; and to share the gifts we have received with other people.

Does that sound familiar? In business, how often do we stop and ask ourselves: what was our goal; how did we do; what do we need to do to execute our goal; and then we go do it. A similar model is at the heart of Christian life. We use words like “examination of conscience” and “discernment” to describe this process, but it is essentially the same. That’s why it’s important to honor all holy days of obligation beginning with participating in the mass every weekend.

I hope this provides a basic idea about All Saints Day, sainthood and holy days of obligation.

Let us pray. Loving and generous Father, the lives of your saints have given testimony to your Son, Jesus Christ. Through their example may we draw closer to him. We ask this with loving hearts and in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. +Amen!

Notes

  1. Saint Bernard, abbot, sermon (Sermo 2: Opera omnia, Edit. Cisterc. 5 [1968], 364-368).
  2. Woodward, Kenneth L. Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesnt, and Why. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Related Posts:
Memorial of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr