Tag: Pope Francis

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ATC 5 Caring for Creation

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You’re listening to All Things Catholic

Welcome to another edition of All Things Catholic. I’m your host, Deacon Rudy Villarreal and I’m so glad you’re here! Together we are going to explore what it means to be Catholic. Today as we prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the 5th anniversary of Laudato Si’, we’re going to begin a discussion about what it means to be a Christian living in right relation with God and his creation. By the way, if there’s a topic you’re interested in learning more about, please let me know. Send me an email to rudy@deaconrudysnotes.org or by using the comment form on the website www.deaconrudysnotes.org.

I’ve got to tell you, I’m still glowing from a pilgrimage to Lourdes and a most excellent birthday weekend in London. We all need downtime. The Gospels give us many examples of Jesus going away from the crowds that followed him, often with a small group of his closest disciples, to get away for prayer and rest. If you haven’t been on a spiritual retreat or pilgrimage, I highly encourage you to consider it. There are many reputable retreat and pilgrimage opportunities out there that range from highly visible faith leaders on the world stage who draw from large, national audience, to locally organized events. Check with your parish office to learn how you can find out more about retreats in your area and pilgrimages being organized from your area.

So, why this topic? Well, a few months ago, I really stepped into it on Twitter @deaconrudy. A priest had made comment that his diocese was really pushing all parish religious education classes to study Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, but to his disappointment many of the students didn’t know the most basic prayers of our faith tradition. He suggested that we should be spending more time with learning our prayers.

My reply was that while that it is a tragedy that so many children are not being taught their prayers at home, for the Catholic it’s not either or – it’s not either prayers or creation, it’s both/and. In other words, living out our faith is the real testimony of our academic knowledge.

Well, one of his other followers did not agree with me. She replied that global warming, the global environmental crisis is simply not true. I don’t want to misstate what she said, but the gist was something along the lines that it is wrong for the Church to get politically involved especially in such a fiction.

My reply back to her was that for the believer, it’s not really about global warming. It’s about living out our faith every hour, every minute every second of the day in a way that is consistent with what we say we believe.

And this went on for a little bit – some back-and-forth comments and comments of support that I received from others in the Twitterverse. But that really started me thinking that I personally need to do more with trying to help bridge this gap. The Church isn’t about one perspective or another, and it’s not about saying I like pious types of activities so I’m going to do that or I like social justice so I’m going to do that. It’s all of that together. It’s about experiencing the Catholic faith intellectually, spiritually and practically. So I need to do more about connecting those dots and that’s where this idea for this particular episode came from and I suspect that we’ll do several more over the course of this next year as we mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the 5th anniversary of Laudato Si’.

Before we jump into theological waters, it’s important to not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the subject. It’s like trying to think about the national debt where you live. It’s really easy to be overwhelmed by the problem and convince yourself there’s nothing you can do about it, and so you do nothing. Pope Francis warns us that merely focusing on the accumulation of data can lead to overload and confusion and that can lead to inaction, (LS, 47). There’s nothing I can do on my own about it, right? Ok, hold on to this idea for just a second.

Next, I want you to think your relationship with the people around you – your spouse, if you’re married, your children, your roommates, your coworkers, people who share your commute. Don’t we expect to be treated with respect and for those around us to share with us whether it’s a spot on the train or space on the highway, or in our personal relationships, don’t we expect some level of sharing? In the spousal relationship, for example, therapist will tell us its unhealthy to place conditions on the relationship or extort our partner in some way. We expect our children to share with their siblings and with other children on the playground or in the classroom. You get the idea, right?

So, how do we get from the idea of sharing to the idea that it’s ok to litter or after we change the oil in our cars, that we can dump the old oil in the stream behind our house? Exploiting nature isn’t really consistent with the way we try to live and the way we try to raise our children – setting aside products we use or the energy or water we consume. So, if we expect more from our spouses and children, and neighbors, and friends and coworkers and even complete strangers, then we can expect more of how the way we live impacts the environment.

Here’s an example from my home in Texas. Single use plastic grocery store bags were causing problems for ranchers in West Texas and fishery operators on the coast. Now the problem wasn’t about global warming and it wasn’t about petroleum and it wasn’t about landfills. The problem was that these bags were ending up in and around livestock – in feeders, clogging up machinery, etc. Worse, some of the livestock would eat the bags which could harm them. These communities began to ban single use plastic bags. It was a simple solution to a real problem that within the realm of what these communities could do.

Unfortunately, the State of Texas has made it illegal for local communities to initiate such ordinances in its current un-Christian and un-Catholic war against local governance. That’s a-whole-nother story that we will revisit in a future episode, but here’s my point. It doesn’t take some global calamity for us to recognize an injustice, like harming livestock, considering viable solutions for that specific problem and implementing solutions and of course evaluating the solution and mitigating against unintended consequences. That’s normal problem solving at the community level.

But there’s a catch. It requires action on our part. Pope Francis points out that the way self-destructive vices work in our lives is that we tend to try to not see them. Maybe we pretend these vices aren’t happening or we pretend these vices are not so bad and that nothing will happen because of this vice, (LS, 59). But vices do have an effect on us, right? The righteous pursuit of justice is a process of conversion.

As we prepare to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the 5th anniversary of Laudato Si’, we need to remember that justice takes some time and some commitment. That’s part of what it means to live in right relation with God and his creation.

What do you think? Post a comment on the website, www.deaconrudysnotes.org.

For those of you who’ve been listening to the weekend edition of deacon rudy’s notes, you know I’m a huge fan of homework. So, I’d like to begin adding some homework to All Things Catholic. Your homework is to read this weekend’s readings before you get to mass. It’s helpful to read them through at least once. That not only helps us pay better attention to the readings as they are proclaimed, but it also prepares us to listen to the homily.

There are many free resources out there that organize the readings for you, but if you’re not sure where to go, you can check out the free resource offered by the US Catholic bishops. If you enter “USCCB readings” into your favorite browser, you find a link to their webpage that includes a calendar. You can pick the day and then see the readings for that mass. I’ll include a link in the podcast notes. So now you have no excuse – your homework is to go check out the readings for the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! Now go make disciples! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!

I’m Deacon Rudy Villarreal and next time on All Things Catholic, at the request of one of our faithful listeners in Switzerland and in the light of the Pope’s post-synodal exhortation on the Amazon, “Querida Amazonia”, we’re going to talk about change. The Second Vatican Council’s document, Gaudium et spes, calls on the laity and the Church to “recognize the signs of the time,” (4). What does that mean and how exactly does that work?

You’re listening to All Things Catholic.

This episode was produced by deacon rudy’s notes. Our theme music was composed by Silent Partner. You can find all sorts of helpful information on the website at www.deaconrudysnotes.org. I’m your host, Deacon Rudy Villarreal. Join us again next time and don’t forget to watch for the weekend edition where we break open the Word. Peace!

References:

  1. Francis. Laudato Si’. Accessed 20 February 2020. Vatican.va. http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.
  2. The Bible: A Study Bible freshly translated by Nicholas King. Buxhall, Suffolk UK: Kevin Mayhew, 2013.

Catechism Links: Easily search the Catechism at http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

  1. Respect for the goodness of every creature, 339.
  2. Interdependence of creatures, 340.
  3. Human dignity, 357.

Resources:

  1. Catholic Climate Covenant: https://catholicclimatecovenant.org/
  2. Marianist Environmental Education Center (MEEC): https://meec.center/
  3. Readings for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022320.cfm
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Discipleship and the Word

woman hands in prayer over the Bible with the word the Disciple and God's Word next to her

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Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Mass Readings

First Reading: Isaiah 8:23-9:3
Responsorial: Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
Gospel: Matthew 4:12-23

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012620.cfm
https://www.deaconrudysnotes.org/

My brothers and sisters, in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls the first disciples outside his family. Remember, Mary and John the Baptist already had accepted the Truth and were believers. In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls Peter and his brother Andrew.

What a fascinating scene! Scripture doesn’t tell us specifically that Peter and Andrew had ever listened to Jesus preach. We don’t know how or why they were drawn to Jesus. We don’t know poor Zebedee’s reaction who presumably watched as his sons walked away from their family business. All we see in this Scripture passage are disjointed facts. But there is no doubt that there was something about Jesus that drew Peter and Andrew to him.

And their lives were never the same…

But their lives were not perfect. They weren’t not instantly prosperous because of their faith in Christ Jesus and their lives were not free of hardships. Nonetheless, the apostles and the disciples faced life – both the good and the bad.

By our baptism, we are each called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. But sometimes I feel as if don’t embrace my call – as if it’s that part of my life over there, but it has nothing to do with this part of my life over here. Do you ever feel that way? Let’s try to get our arms around the challenge before us.

To be a disciple means that we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. This means that Jesus is must be first and foremost the most important person in our lives. We can test this by asking ourselves what we value most in this life.

To be a disciple means that we want to deepen our relationship with Jesus – to get to know him better. I’ll speak more about this in just a minute.

And to be a disciple means that we go out into the world to share the Good News of Jesus Christ beginning with the people we encounter each and every day, like our friends and family and the other people – acquaintances and strangers. That can be a tall order. So many of us strongly dislike looking foolish in front of other people. So, to be an effective disciple means that part of deepening our relationship with Jesus is to learn as much as we can about him, so that, for example, we don’t look foolish when we talk about him.

Ok let’s revisit the second point of discipleship: deepening our relationship with Jesus Christ. How can we deepen our relationship with Jesus? Well, let me ask you, how do you deepen your relationship with anyone? If you’ve ever been in a relationship, like your spouse, how did your relationship develop?

Well, generally we try to get to know them, right? We want to learn everything we can about the other person. We want to learn about their family and friends. We want to learn their likes and dislikes. We want to learn about their hopes and dreams.

So, how do we get to know Jesus? One of the first and best places to learn more about Jesus is to turn to Scripture itself. That’s part of the reason I think that Pope Francis asked us to set aside this third Sunday in Ordinary Time to turn our attention to Scripture. He tells us that we should never take Scripture for granted, “but instead to let ourselves be nourished by it, in order to acknowledge and live fully our relationship with Him and with our brothers and sisters.” <1>

My brothers and sisters, we use the occasion of this Sunday to begin a new or to continue our habit of reading a little piece of Scripture every day. Indeed, reading and reflecting on Scripture can challenge our spiritual growth, and that leads us to homework.

Homework! After having been nourished by the Word of God proclaimed and, in the Eucharist, I encourage you to reflect on the following two questions this week.

  1. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. What do I need to leave behind to follow Jesus? To what is God calling me?
  2. He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people. How do I put my faith in action in my daily life? How can I serve those around me?

I think doing by our homework this week, it will deepen our sense of discipleship by helping us get to know Jesus a little better. Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! Now go make disciples! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!

Notes:
<1> “Pope establishes Sunday of the Word of God.” Vatican News. 30 September 2019. Accessed 26 January 2020. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-09/pope-motu-proprio-sunday-word-of-god.html.

References:

  1. Lectio Divina Of The Gospels. Washington, D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2019.
  2. Mitch, Curtis and Edward Sri. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2010.
  3. Montague, George T., SM. First Corinthians. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2011.

Catechism Links: Easily search the Catechism at http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

  1. Unity of charity, 814-15
  2. Ecclesial ministry, 878
  3. Baptism, sacrament of initiation, 1212
  4. Ordinary+ ministers, 1256
  5. Christ the physician, 1503
  6. Christian beatitude, 1720
  7. Justification, 1989

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 67
Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012620.cfm
First Reading
Isaiah 8:23—9:3
First the Lord degraded the land of Zebulun
and the land of Naphtali;
but in the end he has glorified the seaward road,
the land west of the Jordan,
the District of the Gentiles.

Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness:
for there is no gloom where but now there was distress.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing,
as they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as people make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
and the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.

Responsorial
Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14
R. (1a) The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Second Reading
1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree in what you say,
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.
For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters,
by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you.
I mean that each of you is saying,
“I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,”
or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel,
and not with the wisdom of human eloquence,
so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.

Alleluia
Matthew 4:23
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel
Matthew 4:12-23 OR 4:12-17
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,
he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,
casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father
and followed him.
He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.

or

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,
he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

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Happy Reformation Day: Ecclesia semper reformanda est

Luther95theses

Happy Reformation Day!1 Happy Reformation Day? While we might consider the rupture of Western Christianity as a great tragedy, this date reminds us that the task of disciple of Jesus is renewal, or to put it another way, reformation.

The Church calls all of us to spiritual renewal all the time – think examination of conscience and discernment. While my salvation is complete when I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior, my conversion is ongoing. Every morning begins a new day not only of blessings, but also of temptations – temptations that might cause me to stumble. It’s easy to say the Christian life is too hard and walk away. But the disciple gets up and runs back to Jesus. We heard that in the Gospel this weekend, right? In Mark 10:46-52 about Bartimaeus leaps up from his place, throws off his cloak and runs to Jesus.

But this call to renewal is not limited to us as individuals. Renewal is also meant for the Church. In some ways we give Martin Luther too much credit, because “The Reformation”, that is to say, reforms in the Church, began well before Luther and continued well after him. But today is a good day to pause and to reflect on renewal.

Can reform be good? Yes! St. John Paul II said, “The latest ecumenical councils — Trent, Vatican I, Vatican II — applied themselves to clarifying the mystery of the faith and undertook the necessary reforms for the good of the Church, solicitous for the continuity with the apostolic tradition.”2

Reform does not mean changing our nature or changing our identity. Reform means to return to the truth that might have become distorted over time. As the Second Vatican Council taught us, “Christ summons the Church to continual reformation as she sojourns here on earth. The Church is always in need of this, in so far as she is an institution of men here on earth.”3

So where do we begin? Well, we begin with Jesus Christ.

St. John Paul II said, “It is necessary to awaken again in believers a full relationship with Christ, mankind’s only Savior. Only from a personal relationship with Jesus can an effective evangelization develop.”4

Pope Benedict XVI never tired of repeating, Christianity does not begin with an idea or a program but with a person: the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who walks along the Emmaus Roads of this century and invites all into the fellowship of his friends.

Pope Francis constantly says that Christians are called to a mission of leading others to an encounter with Jesus Christ, in order that every person might grow in his or her individual call to holiness.

So reform begins with Jesus.

Where do we start? Well, I suggest we could start with our discipleship. Discipleship means three things: that we accept Jesus Christ as our lord and savior; that we seek to learn more about Jesus and grow in relationship with him; and that we spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. I believe that brief description of discipleship holds the key. It is the simplest and perhaps most straightforward metric to evaluate our own lives and Church.

At every level of the Church, every leadership body, whether directly empowered or advisory, could use the metric of discipleship to evaluate the progress of a pastoral plan, an annual plan, or any organization or initiative.

How does this work, this product, this initiative, this goal:

  • Facilitate an encounter with Jesus Christ?
  • Help people grow in their relationship with Jesus?
  • Help spread the Good News of Jesus Christ?

I understand that this is a simple metric, but if we are to approach our faith with the faith of child, then shouldn’t we try to keep our practical theology easy to understand and actually something which could be implemented?

It could be argued that if any program, goal, plan of the Church at any level (international, national conference, diocese, parish, apostolate) does not in some way foster discipleship, then perhaps it is not a worthy endeavor of the Church or a worthy use of Church resources.

I think this idea that needs more development, perhaps now more than ever, but for now we mark this day and we remember.

Good and gracious God, thank you for this gift of remembering the Reformation. Please forgive me for the times when I take my faith for granted. Thank you for the many blessings in my life. May I use these many gifts to reform my life, to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and to bring others close to you and your church. I ask this with the loving heart of a child, and in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. +Amen!

  1. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther sent the Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg a document protesting the sale of indulgences. This text came to be known as the 95 Theses. Ecclesia semper reformanda est is often attributed to St. Augustine.
  2. St. John Paul, II, Discourse, Oct. 22, 1998.
  3. Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio .
  4. St. John Paul II, speech to bishops of Southern Germany, Dec. 4, 1992, L’Osservatore Romano (English ed.), Dec. 23/30, 1992, pp. 5-6.