Good Friday

What is it about today that could possibly be "good"? Love. Today Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, gives every last drop of his blood for us because it's literally the most he can possibly do to save us. He doesn't just give a little of himself in love - he gives everything. We need to start doing the same for those we journey through life with each day, including the people we absolutely cannot stand. That's just the measure of love.

The Last Supper

Every year, the Church celebrates the "Easter Triduum" as the final three days of the season of Lent and the conclusion of Holy Week. By way of reflection, If you don't mind, I'd like to chime in along the way with a few observations and thoughts that might be beneficial.

"The Last Supper" by Jon McNaughton

It all kicks off with the Mass of the Lord's Supper, commemorating the establishment of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Holy Orders. It was at the Last Supper that Jesus ordained the Apostles to be the first priests (and bishops, for that matter) of the Catholic Church. Furthermore, he gave them the faculties to perform the sacred liturgy from that time on, and to hand down that authority to their successors so that future generations would be able to share in his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

"The Last Supper" by Carl Heinrich Bloch

This is the night when Jesus tells his dearest friends that one of them will betray him. The heads turn - who could it be? I've often wondered how many of the Apostles immediately suspected Judas. John tells us in his gospel of an incident in which Judas objected to Lazarus's sister Mary using expensive perfumed oil to anoint Jesus rather than selling it and giving the money to the poor. John bluntly states that Judas did so not because he cared for the poor, but because he carried the money purse and stole from it regularly (John 12:1-8).

Why would someone so close to the Lord day in and day out do such a thing? More than that, how could he go so far as to betray Jesus into the hands of the authorities? I think it all boils down to this: none of it was playing out the way Judas thought it would. Jesus was not the kind of messiah Judas had imagined and longed for his whole life. When faced with the challenge of changing himself, of truly repenting, Judas instead grew disillusioned, disappointed, and likely filled with dread over the coming persecutions that Christ frequently predicted. In the final analysis, his fall didn't happen in a moment. It spread slowly like a cancer in his soul.

I for one don't want to follow in his footsteps. Does each new day find me following the real Jesus, even when I have difficulty accepting some of the things he says, or rather creating a Jesus that I think I like better? I think this is one of the most difficult challenges we face today when it comes to genuine discipleship. Will I follow the Christ who is, or will I follow the Christ I build up to suit my own desires and plans? Maybe the best way to put it is this: who's in charge? God or me?

Let's take our time, shall we?

I was listening to a lecture the other day in which the professor, Dr. Regis Martin, explored the mystery of this thing we call "time." It was an absolutely fascinating 45 minutes or so, and I just thought I'd share some of the reflections he shared along with a few of my takeaways.

Time can be seemingly our biggest enemy, can't it? I mean most of our modern technology seems to have been created for the primary purpose of getting us some time back. But does it work? Now that we have smartphones, tablets, digital calendars synced everywhere we go, and GPS on every device we own, do we really have MORE time? I know I don't. It's funny, the more feverishly I try to save time, the faster it seems to slip away.
But I think the reason why this is true is right in front of us. It's because time IS what it is. It isn't something we can fashion into something else or control in some way. It's a creature. God made time, and God doesn't make junk. So time IS GOOD. Wow... I can't believe I just typed that because usually I treat time like it's my ultimate arch-nemesis! It is through time, though, that we learn to live, to bear suffering, and to love.

God himself plunged wholeheartedly into time itself through the incarnation. Christ swims through the river of time from the moment of his conception through his crucifixion, descent into the dead, and his ultimate ascension to the right hand of the Father. He has, in a sense, perfected time itself by touching each corner of it with his blessed presence.

What does that mean for you and me? Maybe we shouldn't be in such a rush to skip a step all of the time. Maybe we should slow down a bit, "stop and smell the roses" and try harder to focus on the moment at hand. Perhaps we'll start to catch a more frequent glimpse of Christ's face in the people and circumstances around us, no matter who or what they are. Maybe then we will learn to live fully the life we have been freely given through no merit of our own in thanksgiving and with hope.

What did Jesus teach about that? Let's take a vote!

Much is often made about poll results showing a sometimes staggering percentage of Catholics who disagree with the Church's teaching on human sexuality. Frequently, we are told that because significant numbers of Catholics strongly disagree with the Church's stance on issues like contraception, same-sex marriage, and abortion, the solution can only be for the Church to "tone it down a bit" if not completely change its position and "get with the times."

The more I think and pray about this phenomenon and the more I study it intently, the more I have to scratch my head. At the end of the day, you cannot possibly understand the Catholic Church without understanding that we firmly believe Christ established the Church to proclaim the KINGDOM of God. Christ is the King of Kings. The Church is not a democracy. Now you can certainly make up your mind to reject all of that if you so choose, but what you cannot reasonably do is try to force the Church to completely change its 2,000 year old, well-developed and established understanding of the nature of the mission it received from Christ himself.

"Divine Revelation" is just that - it has been revealed to us. We have absolutely no authority whatsoever to change reality. This is at the core of everything we believe. Confusions happen, difficulties arise to be sure. But to think that the Catholic Church should (or even CAN for that matter) change one iota of the content of the faith left to it by Jesus Christ because members of that Church don't like this teaching or that is just plain absurd. If the God who created everything tells me to my face that a tree is a tree or that a sexual sin is a sin and I sincerely disagree, that doesn't change reality. He's right and I'm wrong!

Now even if we agree that these teachings are difficult and hard to follow, we also should be reasonable enough to admit that the Lord has also given us unbounded mercy through the Church's ministry. There are no sins that Christ will not instantly wipe away if we are truly repentant and turn to him. The problem is that most of us are not humble enough to do so and we never stop looking for ways to justify our sins. Maybe this Lent we'll take a minute and try to give Christ a little more room in our crowded hearts, minds, and wills.

Father Robert Barron has an absolutely fantastic take on some of this in the video below wherein he uses a very strong analogy. Check it out!

http://wordonfire.org/WOF-TV/Commentaries-New/Extreme-Demands,-Extreme-Mercy--A-Commentary-by-Fr.aspx

Pope Francis' Message For Christian Unity At KCM

Just came across this message from Pope Francis which was broadcast at a Kenneth Copeland Ministries event. Filmed on the iPhone of a mutual friend of both Pope Francis and Kenneth Copeland, it is a warm, "heartfelt" greeting and expression of the Holy Father's deepest yearning for unity among all Christians. It is precisely the same desire shared by his predecessors, but it's presented in his own unique way.

This is wonderful, folks. Please check it out!

"Who do you say that I am?"

Feel free to watch the video and comment!

Who's up for some apostolic succession?

What a wonderful morning! We learn today that the Holy Father has appointed Bishop Ronald Gainer of Lexington, KY to be the 11th Bishop of Harrisburg. Bishop Gainer succeeds our beloved Bishop Joseph McFadden who died unexpectedly on May 2, 2013.

It's been a long wait, but many dioceses have to wait much longer than us. I'm particularly excited to get to know our new spiritual shepherd and I will certainly be following the story closely.

If there's one thing that this process always excites me about more than anything else, it's APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION!!! Jesus never indicated that the sole means of transmission of the faith would be through reading the Bible. As Catholics, we deeply revere Sacred Scripture as the inspired Word of God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in paragraph 105 that "God is the author of Sacred Scripture." Saint Jerome says, "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." But remember that so too does Saint Augustine get to the heart of it when he writes, "I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me."

There were three particular "stages" in the "formation of the Gospel" as The Catechism puts it in paragraph 126. 1) The life and teaching of Jesus, 2) the oral tradition, and 3) the written Gospels. The Bible as we know it, compiled in its totality with chapters and verses did not exist for centuries. It was a painstaking process that worked through various Church Councils and, even after the official "canon of scripture" was determined authoritatively, most people wouldn't be able to have their own personal copy for a few more centuries due to dismal literacy rates and limited printing capability. The fact is that Jesus never intended for the faith to be primarily transmitted through the Bible alone ("sola scriptura").

However, it has been the consistent teaching for 2,000 years that Christ first and foremost established a Church - a visible, distinct, universal (i.e. "catholic"), authoritative, teaching Church. He breathed on the apostles (not everyone else mind you) and gave them his authority to forgive sins, drive out demons, and make him physically present in the Eucharist which he commanded them to do routinely for all time. As Saint Paul wrote a few decades later, it is this Church that is the "pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).

Jesus said to apostles, "Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me" (Luke 10:16). He gave them all authority and then sent them out into the world to proclaim the Gospel and to teach. They did this to their last breath - and they passed on that authority to successors who did likewise. This chain is unbroken. It has been deeply tested, strained, stretched, scarred - you name it. There have been many men who have served in this capacity unworthily. But that's just it! It's not THEIR Church - it's Jesus Christ's Church. The Church he established. The Church he swore he would never abandon, and he never has.

Now that Church sends us a successor to our dear Bishop McFadden! May our Blessed Lord watch over Bishop Gainer and bless him with health, a deep and courageous faith, and many years of ministry in the Diocese of Harrisburg.