The necessity of Marriage as service to one another and the Kingdom of God

“But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh.” So much can be spoken and written about this topic since 95% of all Christians have heard these words as the conclusion to the vows that they made with God and his Church. However, I will be drawing some of my insight today from the actual Gospel passage.

There are two aspects in general that are unique in Jesus’ response to the Pharisees, namely how he doesn’t just debate from the standpoint of the male as was required in the law, but from the whole person, including the female who is man’s equal from the creation of the world. The second point in today’s scriptures is how Jesus brings in a child to further the discussion. As we saw a few weeks ago, the Aramaic word for “child” and “servant” are the same. Therefore, we see the shift from one distinctively about marriage between a man and woman to that of marriage in service to the kingdom of God.

Our doctrinal focus today on marriage and divorce comes from the gospel teaching of Jesus when he was asked by the Pharisees about the traditional rabbinical interpretation of divorce as permitted by Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). Instead of answering on their terms – that is, engaging in legalistic disputation regarding divorce – Jesus shifts the discussion to God’s purpose in creation, the lasting union of husband and wife. Jesus portrays the Mosaic Law as a concession to human weakness (verse 5), but then quotes Genesis in support of his assertion that the divine will is for a lasting union between spouses. After this teaching to the crowds, Jesus speaks to his disciples “in the house” (a clue that Mark’s text is now applying that teaching to its own situation). Mark’s text has Jesus speak of the possibility of a woman divorcing her husband, an option not available within Judaism. This evidence that the Evangelist is writing to a Greco-Roman audience where such an option did exist gives us a glimpse into how the early Christian communities struggled to remain faithful to yet apply the teaching of Jesus to their own, somewhat different, situations. Matthew’s Gospel (5:32, 19:9) allows for divorce on grounds of adultery, while Paul offered the Corinthian Church yet another understanding of what is permissible when only one spouse was Christian. Despite these different ways of interpreting and applying the Master’s teaching, there is unanimity in the tradition that Jesus pointed to the divine institution of marriage as sacred, and that fidelity to one’s spouse is the Creator’s wish for humankind.

The second point is that marriage conveys a sacred character of a sacrament because it serves as sign pointing the way to the eternal marriage of the Lamb. The first book of the Bible begins with the creation of man and woman, each meant for the good of the other (Genesis 1:26-27). The final book of the Bible concludes by presenting a soaring vision of the wedding feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7). Scripture thus emphasizes how we are founded in this partnership and how our ultimate goal in Christ is imaged in it. The marriage of the Lamb is Christ, the bridegroom and we the church as his bride. This is an eternal marriage where divorce is not possible once entered into. One cannot leave heaven once one has entered it. (Not that anyone could desire that!) The marriage of divinity within humanity is meant to be entirely creative. Yet sin is the enemy of this creativity.

Sin is symbolized by what Jesus refers to as “hardness of your hearts.” A hard heart (a sinful heart) is one that completely blocks God from bringing forth his desire to love us completely and creatively. Anything that would keep us from experiencing union with the Holy Spirit individually or collectively as a couple or church constitutes this hard-heartedness. In today’s Gospel, the discussion would’ve been concerning men dismissing their wives due to adultery. But Jesus includes the women. In the male dominated society, only men could bring forth the bill of divorce as their right. But Jesus equates women with men as it was in the beginning. However, the true emphasis isn’t on divorce, but on fidelity. “What God has joined, men must not divide.” And he also equates divorce and remarriage with sin, namely, adultery to one’s spouse if one divorces and remarries another.

Culturally, they dealt with the same issues that our culture deals with today. However, its one thing to fight on a legal level, its quite another to return to the level of original creation, prior to original sin and human weakness. This allows us to understand not through human weakness but God’s ultimate plan and human restoration through Jesus. He is not imposing the commandment against adultery as a punishment but as a foundational norm: we shouldn’t desire to be unfaithful or to seek divorce in the first place. This happens due to the weakness of human nature. But if we are to understand God’s restorative plan we need to embrace a vision that includes the end result, namely our union with Jesus, He as our head and bridegroom and we as his body, the bride.

If heaven is the final goal, then marriage is the sign pointing to it. The goal of each man and woman in marriage is to lead each other and their children to heaven. This is what makes marriage vows not restrictive, but transformative. Each day is another opportunity to creatively accomplish this. This is the desire of the human heart that God originally placed there. And when choosing a spouse and discerning a life partner, the question should never be “what this person does for me, but what can I do for them.” In other words, like a child or servant, “not how can this person serve me but how, through Christ may I be able to serve the other.” This vision requires a permanent solution which only the Sacrament of Marriage can point.

Connect the dots: Proposition 8 and the State of Connecticutt

Many people have heard me rant and rave about the contraditictions involved in the state of CA recent ballot initiative, namely proposition 8 which was voted down by the people in the most recent election.  The problem is that instead of yielding to the “vote of the people” in the same way that everyone else must adhere to, many people, who are in favor of this political movement have branded those who oppose them as “hate-mongers” or “homo-phobes.”  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  In the state of Connecticutt, another initiative was secretly proposed which sparked outrage among the citizens, in particular, the Catholic Church for whom the legislation was proposed.  Isn’t the government supposed to protect religious liberties?  I am going to attempt to write about both of these through the prism of Roman Catholic teachings so as to educate Catholics on why these two legal issues are important to them.

In regard to the first issue of proposition 8, some would attempt to make the argument that organized religion is attempting to suppress Gay persons.  In all honesty, that’s not what is taking place.  What is taking place is the battle for “re-defining” marriage.  Does the government need a Constitutional Amendment or can the individual states govern themselves.  This is an honest discussion.  What is not honest, is the purpose behind the need to re-define in the first place.

The Catholic Church has always maintained and taught that the institution of “Marriage” is from God.  We didn’t create the concept!  God did.  And human beings are not free to “re-define” what by definition is from God.  They may reject the teaching, but they cannot redefine it.  And for Catholic Christians and numerous other denominations as well, marriage is defined as a union between 1 man and 1 woman.  This is where the battle line is drawn.  But before I launch into the battle, allow me to explain from the position of Catholic teaching why we believe and uphold the sanctity of marriage and its definition as given to us by God.

In the book of Genesis, we read, “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.  God blessed them, saying, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.  Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all living things that move on the earth. (Gen. 1: 27 – 28).  And in another passage from Genesis, “So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man.  When he brought her to the man, the man said, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.  That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.”  (Gen. 2: 21-24)

It is God who is the Creator of all.  It is God who set His plan into motion.  It is God who defined who and what human beings were to creation, themselves, and God.  It was human beings, influenced by Satan that made choices contrary to this divine plan and perfect order.

Getting back to defining marriage then, the Church relies upon the words of God:  “What God has joined, let no man put asunder.”  God joined the original man and woman in the Garden of Eden or perfection.  Every sin under the sun and every disordered relationship occurs not through God’s will but through mankinds hardness of heart.  “We are only bitter towards God’s Law when we desire to break God’s Law.”

God is the author of human sexuality.  God created human beings to be compatible with each other.  The generative nature of human beings was the original blessing of God.  And yet today, it is seen as the original curse through the lack of trust in God when it comes to our fertility and the use of birth control methods to take creative measure into our own hands.

Human sexual intercourse between a man and a woman, united by God takes on the act of a virtue.  Sexual intercourse is the body’s language of “renewing the wedding vows.”  Catholics make four promises in three commitments when they marry each other at the altar of God.

1) Do you come here (freely) and without reservation (totally) to give yourselves to each other in marriage?  The couple answers, we do!

2) Do you promise to love each other has husband and wife until death do you part? (Fidelity)  The couple answers, we do!

3) Do you promise to accept children lovingly from God and to raise them according to the life of Christ and his Church? (Fruitful fertility) The couple answers, we do!

In sexual intercourse, a couple is taking these four concepts of free, total, faithful, and fruitful love and speaking this language with their bodies, as God intended.  They are renewing their wedding vows.

On the contrary, when any form of contraception is introduced, it is the equivalent of taking the “I do’s” of the wedding vows and replacing it with “I do not.“  Think about it, Free:  Contraception was not invented to prevent pregnancy!  We already had a 100% safe, 100% reliable way of doing that, namely abstinence.  Total:  Contracepted intercourse says, “I give myself to you totally… no I don’t.  (You are withholding the original blessings attached to fertility.)  Faithful:  How can we speak of fidelity when we’re violating freedom, total self-giving, and openness to children?

When we unite these concepts to Christ we get the fuller picture:  Christ gives his body freely: “No one takes my life from me, I lay it down of my own accord. (Jn. 10:18).  He gives his body totally, without reservation, condition, or selfish calculation: “He loved them to the last”(Jn. 13:1).  He gives his body faithfully: “I am with you always” (Mt. 28:20).  He gives his body fruitfully: “I came that they might have life.” (Jn. 10:10).  If men and women are to avoid the pitfalls of counterfeit love, their union must express the same free, total, faithful, and fruitful love of Christ.

Because our bodies are created to reveal truths of God, they can also speak a lie.  The body “speaks” in numerous ways.  When it “speaks,” it can tell the truth or lie.  A used-car salesman who knowingly sells you a lemon and shakes your hand has lied with his body.  Judas lied with his body when he kissed Jesus in the garden.  Couples who have sex but do not give themselves freely, totally, faithfully, and fruitfully, also lie with their bodies.

Now let us return to Proposition 8.  The Gay community would argue that marriage would make them more “part of the community as a whole.”  Fact:  Gay persons have always existed within the culture of human kind.  The only thing that they cannot have is the title of being married since the culture has always adopted the European definition of marriage to be between a man and a woman.  However, as a human being, they have all the rights and priviledges of any Heterosexual person.  In fact, many Gay people contribute to the society as a whole in many noble ways.

The Gay community, in wanting to define marriage, want the language of law to be more inclusive to include “the union of any two persons.”  The problem with this is that if this wording becomes the law, then it would technically be “illegal” for any Church body to teach the tennants that marriage is between one man and one woman.  It would be considered hate speech.  Church’s could be challenged and any tax exempt status that they now enjoy could be stripped away.  Church minister’s could be sued and perhaps thrown in jail.  Of course, you don’t hear that point of view from the Gay community.  They say that they’re only interested in their own rights to be expanded.  If you need any further proof that this is a lie, just look up what took place in the state of Connecticutt recently.

A few senators introduced legislation that in essence would strip the Catholic Church alone of all it’s independent financial control of their parishes and turn it over to an “elected group” within each parish.  This would remove the pastor and the bishop from being able to run their particular parish entities.  This may have arisen due to the fiscal irresponsibility of a single pastor, but to attempt to sneak legislation into law was even more irresponsibile.  Public outrage took place and the senators recanted their position, and their legislature, “tabled the issue for now.”  Very clever language… it will come back at a later date.

If the mere definition of marriage were to succeed in California, other states would quickly follow and the Catholic Church would be under attack; at least indirectly harassed through legal channels.  If the Connecticutt law were to be enacted, the Catholic Church would be under attack, at least structurally and hierarchially speaking.

I am the strongest proponent of the separation of Church and State.  I do not ever want the government to dictate how I should proclaim the Gospels and the truths of Jesus Christ.  And personally, I envy the African American Churches that are allowed to speak politically within their presentation of the Gospel, without any fear of state interference.  You never hear of an African American Church being sensored for mentioning or supporting a political  perspective.  That is due to the fact that there are certain exemptions from the Church and State debate.  This particular culture and their politics grew up side by side throughout their historical years of slavery and oppresion.  But keep this in mind:  an attack on one church will soon lead to an attack on all Churches.  The attacks on one groups “philosophical and theological beliefs” will lead to similar attacks on other religious groups.

America’s greatness was that she guaranteed religious liberty to all.  And now, slowly but surely we are seeing legislation that is being created under false pretenses, such as “civil liberties” in the case of the Gay community and “fiscal responsibility” in the case of the Connecticutt legislature.  Where will it stop?  When will it stop?  For these questions, I have no answers.

But thanks be to God that many within our culture still adhere to principles and have the personal integrity and desire to fight for them and pray to further develop them.  The Catholic faith does not hate Gay people.  Nor does it militate against lawful assemblies that serve the common good.  But if we don’t understand “why” religion teaches what it does, then tragically we may slowly lose our ways with God and with our neighbors… if it hasn’t already taken place.

For those who may want to study further the Catholic thought on Marriage, Christian Vocation, and Sexuality, please seek to read, “Theology of the Body” by Pope John Paul II.  Christopher West has also done remarkable work at bringing this wonderful teaching to the masses.  His resources, which I use heavily and quoted from in this blog can be found at www.AscensionPress.com

Ethics and Ethos of Commandments

It’s been a few weeks since my last post. Here’s the lastest.

Last week in the Scriptures we saw the elements necessary in establishing and living our covenant with God as shown through Abraham. Trust, obedience, and sacrifice not only are the elements that lead us to true worship and transfiguration, but are also the elements that lead us to personal transformation; conversion of the heart. If we remove our trust in God, then we perceive him as a “tyrant” and no longer worthy of our trust. We then will fight instead of obey and sacrifice or worship will be replaced by selfishness and idolatry.

In this week’s readings we are presented with the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ desire to purify the temple area. He goes on to make reference to his body by saying, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” He was speaking prophetically about the temple of his body, and for that matter, the bodies, minds, and souls of us all. It was a prophetic statement of his suffering, death, and resurrection; and again of ours. It is precisely this reflection on the theologies of our bodies that holds the key to understanding the Ten Commandments and properly re-orients our hearts toward conversion and proper sacrifice and worship.  Much of the following comes from the writings of Pope John Paul II and the work of Christopher West.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt. 5: 27-28). The heart is our deeper interior self where we experience the forces of good and evil fighting and competing against each other. Christ’s words are not so much a condemnation of the human heart, but a calling; they show “how deep down it is necessary to go” to fulfill the law of the Gospel. Are we to fear the severity of [Christ’s] words, or rather have confidence in their power to save? The heritage of our hearts “is deeper than the sinfulness inherited, deeper than lust. … The words of Christ … reactivate that deeper heritage and give it real power in our life” (TOB 168). His words “demand, so to speak, that we enter our full image” (TOB 107). We “must perceive anew the lost fullness of our humanity and want to regain it” (TOB 159). A person cannot rise again until he/she realizes that they have fallen and are in need of a savior.

Pope John Paul II develops this thought with reflections upon Ethics and Ethos. “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:20). “You blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean” (Mt. 23:26). We all know it is possible to follow rules without ever attaining holiness. It’s called “legalism” or “moralism.” “Ethos” refers to a person’s inner world of values; what attracts and repulses him. In effect, Christ’s teaching about lust expresses this: You’ve heard the objective law and what it calls you to externally. Now I tell you what this means subjectively – what it calls you to internally. In other words, “You’ve heard the ethic. Now I tell you the ethos.” In the new “ethos of redemption,” through ongoing conversion of heart, the subjective desires of the heart gradually come in harmony with the objective norm. “It is impossible to keep the Lord’s commandments by imitating the divine model from outside; there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart,” namely mercy (CCC. 2842). Laws are for disordered hearts; once in conformity there is no longer need for the law.

“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them” (Mt. 5:17). If “you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18). Christ did not come to give us more “rules” to follow, but to change our hearts so that we could “fulfill the law.” In effect Christ says, “You’ve heard the commandment not to commit adultery, but the problem is you desire to commit adultery.” The goal is to interiorly discover freedom of our desires. In the Sermon on the Mount “the Spirit of the Lord gives new form to our desires, those inner movements that animate our lives (CCC 2764).
As I stated above, when God is conceived as a jealous tyrant, we are goaded to do battle against Him so as not be to enslaved. Faith leads to “receptivity” before God; lack of faith leads to “grasping.” Humanity has two dispositions before God: receptivity or grasping.

“Questioning in our hearts the deepest meaning of the donation, that is, love as the specific motive of the creation and of the original covenant, we turns our back on God-love, on ‘the Father.” In a way, he cast Him out of his heart (TOB 111). John Paul II states that “This is truly the key for interpreting reality … Original sin, then, attempts to abolish fatherhood” (Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p 228). “Christ, through the revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love, fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear”(Gaudium et Spes 22). If original sin is the denial of the gift, “faith, in its deepest essence, is the openness of the human heart to the gift: to God’s self-communication in the Holy Spirit” (Dominum et Vivificantem, n. 51). It is Original sin and its consequences in our lives that precisely continue to break down the body from within. Jesus saw this in the money changers in the temple and sees it today in us. This is what causes Jesus’ righteous indignation and invitation. Restore the concepts of trust, obedience and sacrifice and we will find ourselves living not just the letter of the law spelled out in the commandments but in a true “God-given” ethos that leads us to liberation and in right relationship before God. This is precisely what God covenanted with us in His Son Jesus Christ and is the very heart of true worship.

Confession and Healing

Since I will be away for a week, I have written a blog entry based upon next weeks Scriptures.  The readings of next week offer to us the “great exchange:” Christ’s life for ours as symbolized by the man with leprosy.  In the first reading of the book of Leviticus, the Lord is laying down rules for people who contract this contagious skin disease.  Ultimately, since there was no known cure except through some miracle, one who contracted this disease was destined to live “outside” the camp (community) while constantly declaring him/her unclean as a warning to all who might approach.  In a sense it seems cruel treatment for such a person.  However, there is a sense of charity in that the person doesn’t wish another to contract their disease.  But it is this sense of being “outside” the community that is important for our discussion.

 

What we see in the Gospel of Mark is a leper who realizing his fate risked breaking the rules of the community in the hope of being cured by Jesus.  “A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, ‘If you wish, you can make me clean.’  Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, ‘I do will it.  Be made clean.’”  Jesus was aware that the man was contagious and that he risked contracting the disease himself but still dared to reach out and touch this man.  Jesus realized the faith involved in the moment and acknowledged it with a healing.  The result is interesting:  the man’s health is restored as is his place “within” the community.  Jesus on the other hand now has to reside “outside of the community” not because he contracted the disease but because everyone would press him for his healing and miracles giving him no peace.  Jesus warned the man not to publicize the event so that he wouldn’t have to resort to “staying outside” of the community.  However, the man in his excitement couldn’t contain himself.  And so Jesus was destined to remain outside the community in deserted places where people would come to him for healing.  This continued until such time at the end of Mark’s Gospel when they no longer would come to him there but only crucify him “outside” of the city or communities boundaries.

 

Jesus entered our human community but saved us by being forced out of it.  The cross of Christ is not merely two beams of wood used to crucify our savior, but is symbolic of the boundaries of human existence.  The leper realized this and dared to come to the boundary between Christ and himself; between heaven and earth.  His alternative was a lifetime of isolation which was unbearable.  His miracle was a future of spiritual cleanliness and wholeness within the community.  It was the risk he was willing to take, even if it meant that Jesus would take on the real and symbolic separation to accomplish it.

 

This is what takes place in the sacrament of reconciliation.  Christ, through the ministry of the priest is willing to take upon himself all the sins of the world as confessed by the lips of those who dare to come to the cross (crossroads) between heaven and earth in order to discover spiritual healing, wholeness, and an opportunity to live within the Catholic Christian community in a more vibrant way.  And yet, like many of the other lepers, who would not or could not bring themselves to such a moment, we find ourselves choosing to remain apart from the community, spiritually speaking.  True, many of us will still go to church on Sundays and receive the Eucharist, mindful that we have given up on or refuse to accept the beautiful legacy of healing offered to us by Christ himself in this great sacrament.  But Saint Paul exhorts the faithful saying, “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’  In the same way also the cup, 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 death of the Lord until he comes. 

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.  A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.  That is why many among you are ill and infirmed and a considerable number are dying.  If we discerned ourselves, we would not be under judgment; but since we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” 

As far as symbolism is concerned, a modern day confessional is much like being “outside” of the community:  very few persons want to venture into that area.  Ironically, it’s as if the community views the priest-servant of Christ as the leper and no one wants to catch what he has.  However, we all need what Christ offers through his ministry!  The truth is that our personal and communal sins are the modern day leprosy and Christ through his priests are the only ones who can offer the healing prescribed.  So the question is, “who is really outside or within the community?”

Some conscience issues concerning abortion

Believe it or not, the concept of “Separation of Church and State” is truly at the heart of the abortion issue.  We are in times when we are seeing the efforts of some to remove God from anything that has to do with our country, even to removing all mention of Him from our Constitution and even the Pledge of Allegiance.  What abortion really comes down to is culture’s desire to separate the unitive and procreative aspects of sexual intercourse given to human nature by God, our Creator.  Therefore, what society is attempting to do is to deny that God is the ultimate Creator and replace him with our personal choices.  In essence, make ourselves God.

Imagine a world where there is no God?  John Lennon did and isn’t it interesting that many of his generation are the one’s attempting to overturn all the Pro-Life Legislation today?  The current condition of life in the world today is the result of a “godless society” and its chief components are a world at war, terrorism, poverty, abuse, and basically a morally decadent  society.  We are living in times when we are experiencing the results of decisions that people made without God.

Unfortunately, those who do accept and desire to live by a moral code are ostracized and meant to feel like alien freaks who refuse to play with all the other kids.  The word alien is important for a Christian since a Christian world-view is not limited to the hedonistic here and now.  Have we come full circle only to arrive at the ancient Roman Empire?  And for those who grasp history better than I, what caused that society, perhaps one of the greatest known to mankind, to fall?  Christianity and the moral life it proposed!  If Christ was the remedy to the world 2000 years ago, you can still believe that He is the remedy now.  When politicians say that our best days are ahead of us, they speak some glimmer of the truth.  One thing we can be certain of:  a world without its Creator is destined for destruction.

Human beings were created to become “CO-CREATORS” with God.  We can do this willingly or unwillingly; knowingly or unknowingly.  Just because we make choices not to include Him in our sexual expressions does not necessarily make Him non-existent.  A life that is conceived in love is similar to a life conceived through lust.  It is the process that generates life; it is one’s participation with God that creates love and the life with all its potential that flows from it.

Pretending that God is non-existent to us is like a two year old placing his hands over his own eyes and declaring, “you can’t see me!”  For a two year old, we can joyfully join in the game.  For adults, we engage in a dangerous enterprise.  There is no living creature in the universe that lacks the ability to perpetuate itself.  In fact, only human beings possess the ability to abort themselves and reverse the very first law and gift given to his creation:  “God blessed them saying, ‘Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.  Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth…’”  It seems like we certainly take the second part of the blessing seriously; we  definitely are using our dominion over all other living things that move on the earth, including its resources!  But about being fertile and multiplying?  Seems like we just ignore that part of the blessing.  Even with Sacred Scripture we are separating and dividing.  Think about this:  aren’t we creating a lifestyle of idolatry even in the name of religion?  Don’t we “pick and choose” the “god” that we want?  Seems like the Israelites dabbled in this type of divine experimentation also when Moses went up onto the mountain of Horeb for the 10 commandments.  There was reveling and partying and decadence right up to the moment that the earth opened and swallowed all who would not follow Yahweh.  The old addage is true:  if we forget history, we are doomed to repeat it.  In this case, history is not limited to the United States of America.  God is at the center of human history.  And it seems as if we are no different today than the ancients.  What makes us think that we will have a better fate than they?

Let me return to the abortion issue if I may.  Human beings who choose to separate the life-giving dimension from the unitive dimensions of sexual intercourse (Planned Parenthood and the promotion of Contraception) are the same people who will choose to view new life solely as a by-product of human self-indulgence.  Not only is this not love, it is the antithesis of it.  Two people who use each other for their own pleasure can’t possibly understand what real love is and the beauty that flows from such love.  And so any new life that comes from such a licentious world-view will most likely agree that an “unwanted pregnacy” is their personal problem and that abortion is its solution.  It may seem like the best here and now solution but life will go on and so will the consequences of the choice.

On the other hand, are the people who have a moral compass that serve as a guidance to them.  They may not necessarily follow that compass all the time, but when difficult situations come to bear they are more willing to seek advice, pray, and follow God’s design for their lives.  If God is the Co-creator of this child, is He able to help a mother either raise it or have the woman bring it to new life and give her child as a gift to another couple who is desperately seeking a child of their own but are unable to have one due to their own physical limitations?

I know a person who is unable to have a child of her own due to her medical conditions.  She said, “abortion denies me the family that I desire.”  I was profoundly struck by this.  She could’ve been bitter against God for not being able to have a child of her own.  But has focused her life in other creatives ways.  But it pains her and her husband greatly to hear so much about abortion and the legislative wranglings that come from it.  If every mother would have their children, then there could be a win-win situation.  Think about it… nine months is a long period to be carrying an unwanted pregnancy.  But it is nothing to the lifetime of mental anguish and torment that many men and women carry when making the decision for an quick solution such as abortion when they could’ve chosen life; not only for the child within the womb but for couples deperately seeking an opportunity for a family.

God is the author of all life!  We can choose to cooperate or not with his plan.  His plan is always life-giving and creative.  This is the image that we carry within ourselves.  I couldn’t help but think of the real and genuine power that women have right now in our society.  Others would quickly question me and think me crazy, since the measure of this statement is usually met in regards to “equal pay for equal work” which I agree with wholeheartedly.  But that is not the power that I am referring too.

Marching for life in Washington, D.C. 0n January 22nd, I noticed that many of the marchers were teenaged and college-aged young women.  The power that they have is their femininity!  It is their ability to be wives and mothers.  Women are natural nurturers.  They are also natural leaders and honestly, most men will follow such a leader, particularly if that leader be as beautiful as women are!  I could equally point out the characteristics and qualities that describe men but my point is this:  when women embrace God, they embrace their true femininity and quite honestly, vice versa.  When it comes to pro-creation and life, men will follow them.  It might scare the life out of a man, but when his wife wishes to have a child, they most likely will conceive.  When marching in Washington, D.C., I thought  about these things as we walked together up to the Capitol Building.  I also pondered privately, the other side:  wondering to myself whether or not all these young women will still choose life if confronted with their passions or lust if they are not able to allow chastity to lead them unto marriage.  Life isn’t easy, nor are any of its decisions.  But a life lived well can be beautiful; but beauty needs a chance to live.  Please give life a chance.  With God’s help and intervention, let our country and world become beautiful and life-giving once again!

Do You believe in Green?

Believe in Green!  That’s the slogan of the day and of the season.  Many people come to church during the football season and say, “Father, are you wearing Green for the Eagles?”  My answer is always the same, “I love the Eagles, but I’m wearing the color green to celebrate Ordinary Time in the Church.”  Most people are kind and just dismiss me saying, “Ok, but it also could be for the Eagles.”  I thought to myself this week how fortuitous it is for the Philadelphia Eagles to be playing for the NFC Championship game this weekend at the same time that the Church is moving from the Christmas season into Ordinary Time.  And similarly, both experience the same problems from time to time, namely, we take it for granted.

 

Many commentators are saying, “Don’t take the Cardinal’s for granted.  They are a different team than when we first played them on Thanksgiving Day.”  Perhaps the same warning should be said for the Church, namely, “don’t take the season for granted.  A different element of God’s plan unfolds every week during Ordinary Time.”  And still these two realities carry yet another similarity: they both serve as “bridges” toward another reality.  An Eagles win will lead them to the Super Bowl and the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time functions as a bridge in the liturgical cycle between the Christmas season, just completed with the Baptism of the Lord, and the season of Ordinary Time.  Today’s Gospel is always taken from John, and connects in some way with the mystery of the Incarnation.  Yet it also looks forward to the life and ministry of Jesus, a story that develops in subsequent Sundays through the unique perspective of one of the synoptic evangelists, this year it is Mark.

 

Scripturally speaking, there are two events that serve as metaphoric bridges if you will to helping us to understand our identity as baptized members in the body of Christ and our divine call to live that identity in the world.  For the young Samuel, the bridge was God distinctly calling the youth’s name.  Each time, so convinced of the call, the boy obediently went to his teacher Eli, but was told to go back to sleep since Eli hadn’t called him.  Eventually, it was symbolic of the training necessary to discern God’s calling in life.  In the John’s Gospel, the bridge is in the act of “following.”  “John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’  The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.  Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi – which translated means Teacher – , ‘where are you staying?’  He said to them, ‘Come, and you will see.’”  As John the Baptist was the last prophet bridging the two dispensations of the Old and New Testaments, helping people to focus no longer on visions and dreams, but on reality in the person of Christ, his disciples go in search of the real; in search of Truth Himself!

 

We are all called in a sense to be “bridges” for each other.  Many of us embark on journeys that will take us to many places and experience many things.  However, what is it that empowers or drives us to taking these journeys?  Many of us choose a way of life and spend the rest of our lives trying to unite it with Christ and the Church.  Some will choose Christ and attempt to discern the next step for our journey.  In both instances, we are one people facing each other from opposite sides of the divide; looking hopefully upon a bridge that will allow us all to discover Christ in and through each other. 

 

The Sacrament of Baptism is also a bridge.  This is a spiritual bridge that connects heaven and earth.  Jesus is the bridge through his birth in Bethlehem and baptism is his sign.  We hear this same imagery when Jesus is referred to as the Good Shepherd.  “No one can come to the Father except through me.”  Obtaining eternal life means crossing not just over this bridge but by actually becoming a part of the bridge for others to cross.  So believing in Green, whether it be for the Eagles or Ordinary Time both serve as one of life’s bridges:  we must not only cross it but be part of it in order to safely travel back and forth; the Eagles to a hopeful Super Bowl and all Christians as we discern God’s calling to bridge the divide between heaven and earth; extra-ordinary events!

Fight FOCA

With the approval of the U.S. Bishops at their November 2008 general meeting, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment are co-sponsoring the “FIGHT FOCA POSTCARD CAMPAIGN.” The target day for this event is the weekend of January 24-25, 2009.

Why the “Fight FOCA Postcard Campaign” is needed?

The “Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA) is a radical piece of legislation that creates a “fundamental right” to abortion throughout the nine months of pregnancy. No governmental body at any level – federal, state, or local – would be able to “deny or interfere with” this right, or to “discriminate” against its exercise “in the regulation or provision of benefits, services, or information.” For the first time, abortion would become an entitlement the government must fund and promote.

FOCA goes far beyond the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade abortion decision of 1973. A broad range of laws currently allowed under Roe would be eliminated – informed consent laws; parental involvement laws; laws promoting maternal health; abortion clinic regulations; government programs and facilities that support childbirth and other healthcare without subsidizing abortion; conscience protection laws; laws prohibiting a particular abortion procedure (e.g. partial-birth abortion); laws requiring that abortions only be performed by a licensed physician; and so on. No other piece of legislation would have such a destructive impact on society’s ability to limit or regulate abortion. FOCA would impose an extreme abortion regimen on our country. Despite its misleading name, it would deprive the American people of the freedom they now have to set at least some limits on the abortion industry.

Pro-abortion groups have been trying to pass FOCA since 1989 – and now we have a Congress more disposed than any in recent years to pass the bill and a President who has said he will sign it into law.

FOCA embodies the public policy goals of pro-abortion groups. These groups will promote the bill’s passage directly, and also advance its agenda by working to reverse pro-life laws one at a time – for example, by overturning existing federal laws against funding and promoting abortion.

The “Fight FOCA Postcard Campaign” sends the message to Congress that the radical policies of FOCA are out of step with the most basic values of the American people and should not become part of our nation’s laws in any way.

The postcard signing event gives parishioners, as individuals and as a body, an opportunity to give public witness to their beliefs in the sanctity of human life. People remember signing the cards, and public officials understand that the postcards represent concerned constituents.

As your pastor, I feel that it my solemn obligation to do all that I can to get behind this project with both prayer and action. As you have read this proposed legislation will attempt to abolish everything that Pro-Life groups have fought for since 1973! As I have stated many times, abortion is the one issue that divides our country down the middle. I hear many voices in the media calling out for a shift in attitudes that are more welcoming and accepting, particularly toward our next President of the United States. I couldn’t agree more! However, FOCA is not the product of such thinking. In fact, it will only be more polarizing. Whatever happened to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?” FOCA might placate half of our population but it will alienate the other half, not to mention our future. Who speaks for the unborn? God does. Speaking and acting against the unborn is speaking acting against God. We can choose to become either a “Culture of Death” or a “Culture of Life.” This issue is more than political or religious…it is culturally fundamental. Regardless of which political party you have voted for, please pray to God that our leaders may act in a bi-partisan way and every man and women of good will may see it in their hearts to “Fight FOCA.” Human life depends upon it!

More Info can be found at the following links:

http://www.prolifedallas.org/pages/Civic_Action_FOCA_Fact_Page

In God We Trust?

It’s printed on our money and technically we are reminded of it at all time particularly when spending.  But in all actuality, it’s probably the most difficult thing to do.  Christmas reminds us of how God went about creating a family.  He initiated and carried out a plan.  We do it by chance.  But in both accounts, one of the most overlooked virtues necessary for a family is trust.  Did God help us in creating our family or did we do it on our own?  The answer to this question will show us who we trust more?

For instance, I could ask the bold and general question, “Do we trust God?”  Most people would answer yes readily.  Following questions could follow… do we trust our lives, our spouses, our children, our livelihood, our neighbors, society and world?  What we begin to see is a “weakening” of our yes.  How about young parents or newly married… do we trust our fertility to God?  Now the yes just about disappears.  Why?  Perhaps it is due to the fact that when it comes down to it, we don’t really understand the concept of trust.  Ever wonder when Mass attendance began to drastically drop?  Probably just after July, 1968 with the Vatican’s promulgation of Humanae Vitae.

This document translated means “On Human Life” but instead of wrestling with the truths contained in the document, and trusting that God, who is the author of life and who invites all parents to participate in this divine process of procreation, most people lost heart and decided to go for the great lie proposed by the medical profession.  Forty years later and the culture is still divided on this issue and so are many within the Church, even though the teaching has become so much clearer through Pope John Paul II.

However, let me return to the word trust for a moment.  What is it?  It is a concept where we believe that the person making a statement, leading us, or promoting something has our best interest at heart, loves us and is worthy of our assent.  So, we trust in God because we believe that He is trustworthy.  And the same applies to each other.  If we believe that someone is trustworthy, we are willing to listen and follow.

If we trust in God, then why do we find so much of our world, both personal and societal in chaos?  The only logical answer is that our “trust” in God and each other wanes from time to time.  At 9/11, Fr. Benedict Groeschel  wrote in his book a comment from one of the family members who lost a loved one:  “Right now, I need a God with flesh and bones.”  We are all like this in some way or another.

But isn’t that exactly what the Incarnation of Christ was?  Our God with flesh and bones.  And it was through Mary’s “trust” and “assent” to the angel that allowed her being to be flooded by the grace of the Holy Spirit allowing her to become the mother of God.  She provided the flesh for this miracle to occur.

This is an important reality to think about this past week when we hear the story of Abraham and Sarah.  His whole life became one of trust in the messenger who represented God and His promises.  He wasn’t perfect in his trust as he and Sarah became older.  He trusted that God would provide for him his own offspring, but age was a barrier, at least in Abraham’s eyes.

He thougth that perhaps God wanted him to take matters into his own hands and have a child through Hagar, the servant girl.  But when he did this, God reprimanded him for not trusting.  The promise was in and through his marriage to Sarah.  Eventually, as the story went, Sarah was promised a son by the three visitors to Abraham.  When they said that she would conceive in her old age, she laughed.  The messengers of God said, “you laughed.”  Sarah said, “no, I didn’t.”  But the messengers said, “yes, you did. And you will see at this time next year, you will have a son.”  His name was Isaac, which means, “God’s laughter.”

It was trust in the promise, no matter how long it took and impossible it seemed for the promise to come true.  Even later in the story as Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, who was the bearer of the promise, that this time Abraham, trusting in God and believing that he has a plan, was willing to do even this.  He became a symbol of God the Father willing to sacrifice his only Son.  But the foundational virtue was trust.

Simeon trusted that he would not die until he saw the Lord’s anointed.  Anna the prophetess also trusted that she would see Him.  Mary and Joseph trusted in their annunciations.  Christmas teaches us that the impossible happens when we’re willing to trust that is could happen.

Parents cooperating with God through prayer and sacrifice in the development of their families is perhaps the ultimate trust in God.  If God is the author of human life and marriage, and he has a plan for all of his children, then it only makes sense that he be at the center of the family creating process!  But like Abraham, we sometimes allow doubt to creep in and slowly begin to forfeit our trust in God, settling for a plan that is less than what God desires for us.  In a word, we can call this “dysfunction.” 

All families have it and we need to ask ourselves why?  Perhaps the answer is that due to our own limited humanity, our lives cannot be helped but to be colored by our fragile following of God.  We are not able to do this perfectly.  Therefore, a divine solution is needed.

If God created us, we can be sure that he will not abandon us.  If he has a plan for us, then even if we’ve frustrated the plan, it can be re-written daily if we allow the author of life to re-create us by trusting ourselves, our families, our neighbors, and society, culture and world to him.  As Billy Joel penned in a famous song, “It’s always been a matter of trust.”

Christmas symbolism

Star of Bethlehem, manger, wise men, shepherds, angels, travel to Bethlehem and then Nazareth; these are all elements of the Christmas story.  But what is their relevance for believers today?

I have a 7 year old girl and her brother of 12 years of age in the RCIA.  Two weeks ago, during Advent, realizing that we wouldn’t be meeting on Christmas day, decided to bring up to them the story of Christmas and have them retell it to me.  And as we went along, I would pick off the details and explain them to the children, as well as their mother.  And so as a blog entry, I decided to do the same thing for my readers.

It begins with the Annunciation from the Angel Gabriel to Mary that she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus.  How does modern folks deal with the reality of Angels?  We most probably don’t even think about them.  Perhaps because we feebly try to figure out what they look like.  And so angels become winged creatures who fly about doing the Lord’s work and protecting people.  Perhaps it would help us if we were to look at angels as messengers and protectors?  But not just ordinary messengers but miraculous ones.  And the only way to tap into their existence was through faith?  After all, its the same reality with miracles… you either believe or you don’t.  Faith is a key that opens many doors, fact, for the believer, opens all doors.

A non-believer won’t even continue reading.  A skeptical believer may say, “I want to believe but I’m not sure how to… where’s the proof?”  (That kind of defeats the necessity of faith.)  But real faith is believing in the impossible.  At Mary’s Annunciation, she simply asked the angel (messenger) “How can this be since I do not know a man?”  Her faith allowed her to enter into a dialogue and through it the message became clearer.  Not knowing how the Holy Spirit would accomplish a physical pregnancy within her womb, she didn’t answer as a skeptic, but as a believer and said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord.  Let it be done to me as you have said.” 

This is also the faith of you who are parents.  Many times you are confronted with situations which seem impossible and have no immediate solution.  But it is your faith in God and in each other that sees you through it.  And perhaps, if it isn’t faith, then it is your love for each other and your children that brings you hope.  So the question here would be, “who are your “angels or messengers” bringing God’s answers to you?

Joseph had a similar revelation from an angel which was to lead and guide this human/divine family.  We hear the angel saying to Joseph, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.  She has conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and the child to be born will be named Jesus, Son of God.” (paraphrased)

What do we learn from Joseph?  As with Mary, obedience and faith.  They put their trust in God to overcome the fear that comes with beginning a journey of unknowning.  Joseph takes Mary and they travel to Bethlehem.  No reservations, only meager food accommodations for the journey to Bethlehem.  Upon their arrival, they find rejection, and the pressure of birth about to take place.  What do we learn?  We still need to trust in God because He is trustworthy!  He provides them lodging, not at a 5 star hotel but in a barn.  What does this symbolize?  Poverty.  And the imagery goes deeper.  We know that animals live in a barn.  And because of that fact, the place wasn’t very sanitary and smelled pretty badly.  But love can create everything out of anything.  Keep that thought in the back of your minds while you attempt to understand what Christmas is all about!

Mary gives birth to Jesus.  Here is an interesting point to ponder.  Hollywood would have us believe that this took place in the usual way just like any other woman giving birth.  However, what was normal about this whole process to begin with?  A miraculous annunciation, the power of the Holy Spirit conceiving Christ, the guidance of angels directing them to Bethlehem;  so why would Jesus’ birth be normal?  In fact, in the book of Genesis, the pain associated with child-bearing comes as a result of Original Sin.  Since Mary was sinless, she was exempt from these consequences.  Therefore the question arises, “how did she give birth?”  We have no scientific facts of this account.  However, we may be able to take the Christmas Gospel from St. John that tell us “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.  What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; that light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Perhaps Mary’s delivery of Jesus had something to do with “WHO” he was?  Since Jesus is the “Light of the World” and has come into this world in a miraculous way, perhaps the delivery was one of a combination of faith, love, contemplation, and light; all happening in one eternal moment where the birth was miraculous before it became physical.  In simpler terms, Jesus arrives via angels miraculously coming from Mary’s womb into her arms; quite different than all other births?  I have no proof of this other than our faith tells us that Mary was without sin and since she was a vowed virgin, (ever-virgin Mary).  And since the pains of childbearing was the results of sin, she would necessarily have an experience different than other women.  And Jesus’ birth wouldn’t violate Mary’s commitment of perpetual virginity.

I realize that to the modern mind this concept is a difficult one to embrace.  But what is love but a divine embrace imaged by marriage?  In another blog we can talk about the dual vocations within the marriage of Joseph and Mary.

The Star of Bethlehem is an interesting phenomenon that historians grapple with at this time every year.  Some theologians put it off as a biblical myth.  But if a star is basically a “sun” which is our only life and light source, and Jesus came as the light of the world, one could stretch your imagination to see the symbolism of the star as representative of Christ.  The brightest light in the sky for the Light of the world?  And as a wise old Jesuit priest that I had in the seminary once said, “If God could create the universe and everything in it, I can’t see why he couldn’t rearrange a few stars to announce the coming of His Son?”  From that point forward, I never doubted the presence of the star again.  In fact, I believe that it was probably one of the greatest astrological phenonmenons that the world has ever known.  But to each their own!

The manger is where tradition has Jesus sleeping.  The traditional Christmas songs have Jesus “asleep on the hay.”  Pious Christians each year take pieces of the new straw used in the mangers scenes and carry it with them throughout the year.  But what is the root of the word “manger?”  Italians use the word, “mange” to mean eat!  Jesus as an adult would lay down his life for us all by instituting the Eucharist that would make real his death and resurrection each time we receive it.  And so Jesus being born in a manger could mean that he was sent to be our “daily bread.”  As animals feed from a manger, Jesus, being placed in a manger is symbolic for how we his children are called to be nourished by him in the Eucharist! The fact that this takes place at his infancy is a connection of faith for the whole of his life and ours. 

We tend to segment the events of Christ’s life, but in fact, his entire journey from God where he eternally lived to his coming among us in the incarnation to his life, death, and resurrection are all connected as one eternal and life giving mystery that we all share everytime “when we eat THIS bread and drink THIS cup we proclaim your death Lord Jesus until you come again in glory.”  This is one of the Memorial acclamations that we recite at Mass.  The Eucharist is the real body and blood of the Eternal Son of the Father, the baby in the manger, the Teacher and Healer within the Sacred Scriptures, the man who hung dying on the cross, and the one who rose from the dead.  Any questions of why attending Mass is so important and why we need to continually prepare our hearts for his presence?

And finally to make another connection between God’s “presence” in Eucharist and “presents” that we give to one another at Christmas?  Jesus’ living, earthly presence is the greatest gift that the world has or will ever know.  We can accept or reject this premise.  However, why do we give gifts to each other at Christmas if we don’t believe that God the Father, our creator, first gave us His greatest gift:  His very self in Jesus Christ.  For a non-christian, human beings are the greatest gift and creation.  But for you who are parents, the very fact that your love can generate and co-create with God offspring witnesses to the fact that the Father is the true gift-giver and Jesus, imitating his Father, gave himself to us to be our eternal food and salvation.  We are mere travellers and participants in this divine journey from heaven to earth and back again someday!  And it all begins by faith that “nothing is impossible with God!”

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Fr. Bob

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