Church = Hospital

It has been said that the Church is not a museum for saints, but rather a hospital for sinners. I have lately been chewing on this image in depth because I think there's more here than meets the eye.

What I find particularly interesting is just how fitting the image is for us today. Think about it. What if this Church which so many people in our world accuse of being an out of touch institution bent on controlling the masses and robbing them of freedom is something quite different entirely? What if She is actually our Mother and we are, in fact, mad with a fever that causes wild hallucinations that we are convinced are reality?

To return to the hospital imagery, what if we took a good look around today - who would we see? How about the patients running around like madmen, hiding from the nurses and doctors because they are convinced these lifesavers are trying to poison them?

Or how about the patients who are so sure that they don't need treatment that they don scrubs and other medical apparel so they can walk about the hospital as if doctors distributing "medicine" to the other patients?

Would we be scandalized to see some medical professionals, charged with the care of these desperate patients, instead setting aside their responsibilities and hoarding medicine for illegal sale or personal use?

And what of other patients who, in their right minds have been given the appropriate prescriptions but, for whatever reason, decide to only take 1/4 or 1/3 of the prescribed dosage? We would probably hear them say something like, "What does Dr. 'So-and-so' know, anyway? I know what's best for me!"

This hospital scene is the Church, isn't it? We don't have to look too far to see all of these patients around us. We quickly find our brothers and sisters who simply are convinced that the pope, bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful are dangerous, antiquated fools who are determined to poison peoples' minds.

We see the self-coronated "experts" and "theologians" who have, as a wise man I greatly respect has put it, educated themselves into insanity. They have traded a humble and lifelong  personal encounter with the God who is love for academic tenure and the trappings of pomp and circumstance. I'm reminded of the old joke about the theologian who died and was given the choice of either heaven or a lecture on heaven and chose the lecture. These friends of ours have convinced themselves that they're not sick - how dangerous indeed.

Then there is the sad reality of some of our leaders and shepherds who are discovered to be spending the treasury of grace on themselves and their confreres. These authority figures, charged with our spiritual care by Christ himself, face perhaps the strongest condemnation of all if they do not repent and start living the Gospel.

So too do we find those who have grown up in the bosom of the Church and yet, at some point, fall in love with "no." They cast off this teaching and that doctrine and this piece of revelation. Sooner or later the dominoes begin to fall as they grow more enamored of Satan's famous words, "Non serviam!"..."I will not serve!" These are our brothers and sisters who cannot wait to dive into all of the serious issues they have with countless Church teachings and, ironically, they are usually the ones who end up being interviewed by a media who dub them to be "faithful Catholics" - the Catholics who really "get it."

But what I wonder is why anyone should be so quick to judge the faith or the Church herself based on the opinions of this latter group who have, by their own admission, already refused whichever part of the faith they don't understand or that doesn't conform with their lifestyle? Since when does one judge a medicine's effectiveness by astutely analyzing someone who doesn't take it as directed? Formulating an "informed opinion" on the efficaciousness of the Catholic faith based on the experiences of those who don't practice it seems to me like hating chocolate ice cream because your second cousin doesn't like waffles.

The Church is filled with sinners - She's packed with them. She always has been and always will be until Her Groom returns. I pray so deeply that we may all, together as one, resist the temptation to condemn the entire hospital just because there are some really, really sick people inside. After all, I'm one of them... and so are you!

A Soldier's Patron

On this Veterans Day, I offer my sincerest thanks to all of those who have served our nation. In a particular way, I thank all of the men and women with whom I have been so honored to serve in one form or another over this past decade or so.

I highly recommend taking a moment to read this brief biography of a truly inspiring man whom the Catholic Church honors today, Saint Martin of Tours. He was a Roman soldier who became a priest and later a bishop. But above all, he was a man who had a deep and uncomprimising love for Jesus Christ. 

Saint Martin of Tours, help me to love Christ like you do!


From Lives of the Saints For Every Day of the Year by Rev. Hugo Hoever, S.O.Cist., Ph.D:

ST. MARTIN OF TOURS, Bishop

November 11 - Patron of Soldiers

This great and renowned Saint was born in Pannonia (Hungary) about 317. The son of pagan parents, he early became a catechumen and served in the Roman army until, after he had given half his cloak to a beggar at Amiens, a vision of Christ (about 339) impelled him to Baptism and the religious life.

He was ordained an exorcist by St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, and spent the ensuing years in various places, for some time leading the life of a hermit off the Italian coast. He had the happiness of converting his mother and also was flogged for offering public opposition to the Arians. Upon St. Hilary's return from exile, St. Martin rejoined him and built a monastery at Ligugé where he lived until being chosen Bishop of Tours in 371.

In his new dignity he continued to lead the same humble and mortified life as before. At first he lived in a little cell near the church, but he afterward laid the foundations of the celebrated monastery of Marmoutier, which then consisted only of a series of grottoes in the rock, or of wooden cells, in which the holy Bishop and his disciples dwelt and performed their exercises of piety. A number of disciples flocked to his monastic standard, and he thus became the founder of monasticism in Gaul, as St. Anthony had been in Egypt and St. Hilarion in Palestine. This monastery also became a nursery of Bishops, such was the reputation of the disciples of St. Martin.

The zealous labors of the Saint succeeded in extirpating idolatry from the diocese of Tours and the neighboring parts of Gaul. Although in the midst of the heresies of his time, he was a staunch adherent of the Catholic Faith. He, as well as St. Ambrose, energetically protested against those who would put heretics to death. The life of this great Saint was one of constant prayer. His virtues were also rewarded by an extraordinary gift of miracles. After a long life of more than eighty years, he died peacefully in the year 397.

PRAYER   God, Your Bishop St. Martin glorified You by both his life and his death. Renew in us Your grace, so that neither death nor life can separate us from Your love. Amen.

The Love of the Trinity

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."                                                                   - 1 Corinthians 13:7-8

"So," we ask, "what exactly is this 'love' St. Paul is describing?" How can we live according to true love? Quite often we ponder how we can know real love when we see it. Questions always arise, for curiosity is one of our most common attributes. Our intellect is meant to be tickled by curiosity. It is an inherent yearning, not merely for knowledge, but for understanding.

It has been said that our yearnings speak of an age long forgotten, a world of which all men and women have an inkling of knowledge but one which no one has ever seen. It is from this other world, this forgotten homeland that the occasional beckoning music of true love is heard as a whisper in the ear of a curious and ever wandering being.

It seems strange to us, for though we seem to constantly ponder love, to speak and sing of it and to restlessly seek it, we do not seem to truly know just what it is. "God  is love," said St. John (1 John 4:16), "and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him." But many people are not satisfied by this, pointing both to how many different "gods" are acknowledged in the world as well as to how many evil things have been perpetrated in "God's" name.

St. Justin Martyr wrote that, "'God' is not a name, but the intuition implanted in human nature of an inexpressible reality" (2 Apology 6). This reality is the home to which we all long to return from our first moments. It is, however, not so much a place as it is a Person with whom we deeply desire to grow in relationship. This reality, "God," is not one person, but three Persons who exist in an inseparable exchange of infinite devotion and self-giving. This immortal, transcendent exchange of mutual selflessness is characterized in each Person's unending gift of Himself to the others. We know this reality by the appellation "love."

When St. Paul wrote of all that characterizes love in his first letter to the Corinthians, this is what he described. The Trinity, the eternal exchange and gift of self - GOD, is patient, kind, He is neither jealous nor pompous. He is not inflated, rude, self-seeking, quick-tempered, nor does He hold grudges. He does not rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. And precisely because He is infinite, Love can never cease to give all that He is to His beloved. This is why "love never fails."

How are we, then, to love as Love loves? The good news is, we need not grow weary in a frenzied and scrupulous pursuit of God's ultimate plan for our lives. We need only recall that He said, "If you love me, you will obey my commandments" (John 14:15). If we love Him, we will do as He does - we will try each day to be more like He is. To do His great will we need only do good and conquer one temptation at a time. Perhaps St. Augustine put it most succinctly: "Love, and do what you will."

Abraham : Idol Shop as Bull : China Shop

An ancient Midrash legend tells of Abraham in his early life, living in Ur of the Chaldees in Mesopotamia, "the land between two rivers" (Tigris & Euphrates).

Abraham was the son of Terah, a man who earned his living as an idol maker. Day in and day out, Terah worked diligently crafting "gods" of stone and wood. The rich pantheon of the ancient gods made it so there was no shortage of work for Terah. But his son did not share his worldview or his enthusiasm for idol worship, even at a young age.

It happened one day that Terah needed to go on a journey. Understandably desiring that his business not be interrupted during his absence, he left the shop in the hands of his son Abraham.

Before long, a man entered and began to peruse the multitude of idols on display. Big gods, small gods, gods as big as your head... masculine gods, feminine goddesses, gods for the sun, the stars, the sea, war, fertility, fortune...

"How old are you?" came a question from the young boy running the shop.

"Fifty," came the reply. Abraham smiled and shook his head. 

"How sad indeed that a man of fifty years wants to bow down to a one-day-old idol." 

Utterly shocked and embarrassed, the man promptly left the shop.

And so it continued for a good while. A woman entered at one point with a basket of bread. She presented it to Abraham saying, "Take this and offer it to the gods."

The boy immediately sprang to his feet, grabbed the nearest hammer, and to the horror of the woman, he went about the shop smashing every idol but one to smithereens. Once he had finished the monumental demolition, he paced over to the remaining idol - it was the largest. Placing the hammer into its hand, he grinned and awaited his father's return.

Terah, as we can imagine, stood frozen in a near catatonic state the moment he shadowed the door of his beloved idol shop. Shattered pieces of stone and splintered wood lay in heaps over every square inch of the place. Everything was destroyed - everything but the largest idol of all. Next to it stood his son Abraham, looking unfazed and rather calm.

Enraged, Terah lit into the boy. "Who did this?" he shouted. "Was it you?!"

Abraham said in a cool and collected reply, "Father, how could I ever hide anything from you? Not long after you left, a woman entered the shop with bread for an offering to the gods. I in turn brought her generous gift before all of them and each one said, 'I shall eat first!' Then, suddenly, the biggest and most powerful one of all leaped forward, clutched the hammer in his hand and set about shattering all of the others to pieces!"

"Are you out of your mind?!" Terah howled back. "Do they have minds? They're made of stone and wood!"

Abraham smiled at his father as the point sank in.

Let's get to work, shall we?

The idols of the nations are silver and gold,

the work of human hands.

They have mouths but do not speak;

they have eyes but do not see;

They have ears but do not hear;

nor is there breath in their mouths.

Their makers will become like them,

and anyone who trusts in them.

Psalm 135:15-18