The Church on the offensive

Mark Shea has a great piece over at the National Catholic Register on the infallibility of the pope and on the Sacred Tradition of the Church. If you have time to read it I highly recommend it.

A time to retreat

In our modern world when we hear the word “retreat” we usually think of defeat. When two armies meet on the field of battle, the won that retreats is generally looked at as the loser. What we often forget, however, is that no single battle decides an entire war.  The same can be said for our spiritual battle.  At times the best thing we can do when we are tired and worn out from fighting the good fight is to pull back and regroup, retreat.  As a man I think there is something especially challenging about this idea of a retreat.  I somehow see it as a direct affront to my macho self-image. I prefer the idea that I am unstoppable, unbeatable, and generally all around awesome.  I don’t need to retreat because nothing could ever stand against me.  When reality sinks in (as it usually does) I realize that nothing could be farther from the truth. I do need help. I need to retreat. I need to pull back and make sure that I haven’t allowed my ego to balloon up and obscure my relationship with God.  I recently had just such an experience, and it wasn’t even planned. I took some time off to attend a wedding in St. Louis and while I was there a number of different things happened in my life. I had the opportunity to visit several amazing churches, one of which was the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.  While I was there, I was reminded of several things that somehow, somewhere along the line I had forgotten; things that made me extremely proud to be Catholic. One of which was how seriously Catholics take liturgy and worship. I love my protestant brothers and sisters, but they have really missed the boat on this one. While I have seen some of their churches that I would call pretty, I have yet to see one that is jaw dropping, eye bulgingly beautiful. The kind of place where as soon as you walk in the door you just want to fall to your knees because you know you are in the presence of God. You know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this place is sacred. The statues, the mosaics, the altar, the domed ceiling, everything screams worship, and it gave me some food for thought.  Jesus Christ wasn’t any more present in a fancy basilica than He is here in St. Joseph’s.  The Eucharist is the Eucharist, no matter where we go or what we are doing. It doesn’t matter if the sermon is good or bad, the music is chant or contemporary, and the language is English, Spanish, or Latin. Jesus is still Jesus, and that is what is important. I was glad for the opportunity to step back and experience a side of Catholicism that I rarely see anymore. The more formal side that sends shivers up my spine. It made me think of how we get to participate in something that has been going on for thousands of years.  The mosaics of the Saints of old preaching the Gospel and frequently laying down their lives for their convictions left me feeling very inadequate.  It made me stop and really think about whether or not I am really giving my all for the kingdom of God.  When I got back to Wenatchee I felt extremely refreshed and ready to enter into the battle once again. A retreat isn’t a sign of defeat, only a sign that we are all weak and in need of God’s mercy and strength.

When Jesus said love your enemies, I think He meant rejoice in their death.

I doubt very much that there is anyone in the United States who has not by this time heard that Osama Bin Laden is dead.  My brother called me to share the news the night it happened because he knows I don’t have TV and he thought I might want to see what was going on in the world. He was, of course, quite correct. What I saw was more or less what I expected to see, but not always where I expected to see it.  I don’t know how many people posted status updates on facebook saying things like, “rot in Hell you…” or “ding dong Osama’s gone.”  I find it rather interesting that so many people are taking such joy in the death of another human being.   When we look at what it truly means to be Catholic, one of the first things that has always stood out to me is God’s mercy and forgiveness.   Now I don’t say this to advocate an attitude of “sin as much as you want because God will forgive you,” but rather because I see so many people saying that Osama is not worthy of God’s forgiveness.  I read one blog that compared Osama to the unrepentant thief on the cross next to Christ. The author commented about how the thief was not worthy of God’s mercy and would no doubt be in Hell. The same, he said, applies to Osama. I understand where the author and many other Americans are coming from on this. Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist organizations killed thousands of people, many of them Americans and we finally feel like we have gotten our revenge. Or have we?  Is his death really going to make a difference in our hearts?  One of the things I have discovered about hatred is that it is not so easily satisfied. Once the object of our hatred and anger is gone, we simply find another. It eats at our soul and can destroy our lives.  Is Good Friday already so far gone from our minds and our hearts that we have forgotten how Jesus Christ suffered and died for ALL sinners, not just those of us living our comfortable suburban lives?  The Vatican spoke out and said “Faced with the death of a man, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibility of each and every one of us before God and before man, and hopes and commits himself so that no event is an opportunity for further growth of hatred, but for peace.”  Yet the Vatican spokesman was criticized by some for not rejoicing in the death of a fellow human being. To me, this is the great tragedy. We must not let hatred for the actions of a man, no matter how evil they may be, stop us from praying for his conversion. I find it ironic that news of this death would arrive on our shores on Divine Mercy Sunday, yet so many would deny that mercy to one who needs it most. The death of any man who has declared himself an enemy of God and His Church is not a cause to rejoice. Rather it is a cause for weeping over a potentially lost soul. We should increase or prayers for Osama Bin Laden’s soul and pray that we might someday call him brother in Heaven. I know that I stand with the minority on this one, but I don’t want to see anyone suffer Hell. To say that he deserves Hell would be true. To say that we all deserve Hell would be a better way to put it. We all need Christ, that is why He came. Instead of rejoicing in his death, maybe we should have a Mass said for Osama bi Laden's soul instead.

“Rejoice not when your enemy falls, and when he stumbles, let not your heart exult”

Prov 24: 18

Good Friday veneration of the Cross

I just got home from Good Friday Veneration of the cross. I was unable to attend Mass last night because I was traveling with my family. I was disappointed to have missed Mass, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it, so I was really looking forward to tonight and the veneration. Unfortunately my joy and hopes were crushed. I have never walked out of a liturgical celebration until tonight. The homily, which should have focused on the passion and suffering of Christ did exactly the opposite. Instead it stripped the Passion of all pain and suffering, because it apparently turns people off and makes them feel uncomfortable. instead we just focus on how Jesus looks lovingly and forgivingly down from the cross on all mankind. I felt bad about walking out, but I figured it was better than yelling or saying something stupid during the homily. What happened to the wild and passionate God who swooped in and saved His people time after time in the Old Testament? Where was the Christ who loved His bride so much that He would let nothing come between them? Where was the knight in shining armor of holiness who sweat blood in the garden, was beaten and crowned with thorns, forced to carry the instrument of his own death up the hill and then brutally killed? I don't know where he was, but I know he was never mentioned during the homily. All we got was the watered down happy Jesus who joyfully died a happy death full of peace and forgiveness on the cross.

The Romantic Mysteries of the Rosary

I have had at least half a dozen topics run through my mind over the last couple of days as I tried to decide what I wanted to write about for the upcoming Holy Week.  None of which actually made it down onto paper and were thus forgotten within minutes of their amazing conception. One thing I want to do is say welcome to our new Bishop, Joseph Tyson.  If you somehow missed it he is coming over from the archdiocese of Seattle and will be installed as our new Bishop at the end of May.  My thanks also to Bishop Sevilla for all the time and energy he has given to our diocese during his time here. Now back to my topic for today, the Romantic Mysteries of the Rosary. The Romantic mysteries are as follows:

1. The Agony in the Garden.

2. The Scourging at the Pillar.

3. The Crowning of Thorns.

4. The Carrying of the Cross.

5. The Crucifixion of Christ. 

Look familiar?  They should. They are also the Sorrowful mysteries.  I wish I could claim credit for referring to them as the Romantic Mysteries, but in truth I learned it from my wife and am putting my own thoughts down on it.  It makes sense if we look at it. In Ephesians 5 men are told to love their wives as Christ loved His Church, laying down His life for her.  If you look at it in that light, how could they be anything less than romantic?  The fair maiden trapped and imprisoned. Deceived by the enemy and sold into slavery which in the end will mean certain death and permanent separation from her beloved. No matter what she does she cannot escape. The enemy is too powerful for her.  Her beloved, however, is not powerless. He is faithful. He is a man among men who sees his beloved fall into captivity and knows that only he can rescue her.  He calls to her time and time again, but every time the seductive and deceitful voice of the enemy lures her back away from her true love.  Finally the hero has had enough. He knows that the only way to get his beloved back is to march into the enemy and take her by force. He knows that to do so will cost him his life, but that is a small price to pay for the one he loves. And so he goes. He sweats blood as He pours out his prayers for her in the Garden. He allows himself to be stripped and beaten, crowned with thorns that scratch the very bone of his scull as they are smashed onto his head. Then He carries the instrument of His own death up the hill and is crucified.  At that moment his beloved is finally free.  As we approach this Holy Week, I encourage every single member of our parish to join us as we walk through the most romantic of days. Let us walk with our Lord, our knight in shining armor. Let us pray with Him in the garden and follow him up the hill to Calvary. In the end, let  us stand with the beloved disciple at the foot of the cross and thank Him for our Freedom.

Intolerant tollerance

Why is it when someone wears a pro-life shirt around and people get upset, we are told to be tolerant of their opinions. After all, this is America. We are built on the idea that all opinions have equal weight and value (so they say). If is perfectly acceptable and encouraged to loudly and publicly disagree with almost any socially conservative or traditional values. In fact if you don't disagree with at least a few you are probably going to be labeled as narrow minded and unable to think for yourself.  However, if you choose to disagree with any of the more "progressive" values, like pro-abortion or gay marriage you instantly fall into the same category with an added smattering of the intolerance label thrown on just for good measure. Why is it you can't disagree with a lifestyle someone chooses to live without being looked at as if you are crazy? I find it extremely ironic that the people who scream loudest for tolerance are, in fact, some of the least tolerant people I have ever met. 

Modern misguided morality

I recently watched a short movie with my middle school youth group. The movie was called Most and was a European film done in Czech with English subtitles. If you ever have the opportunity I recommend seeing it. You can catch the shortened version on YouTube, it is The Bridge. It is about a man who works on a railroad drawbridge and one day his son convinces him to take him with him to work. Unfortunately a train fails to stop when the bridge is open for a boat. The son tries to pull the emergency release lever on the bridge because his dad doesn’t see the train coming. Unfortunately he slips and falls down into the machinery that runs the bridge. The dad sees the train and sees his son fall into the bridge. He knows if he closes the bridge to the train can go over, he will crush his son. If he leaves it up everyone on the train will die. He chooses to sacrifice his son in order to save everyone on the train. The point of the movie is to show how everyone on the train is from different walks of life. You have joyful college students, abandoned boyfriends, drug addicts, elderly people, and young children. All of humanity is represented. The Father sacrificed his Son to save everyone. After we watched the movie I did an explanation and then began to answer questions. However, one of the predominate questions and attitudes was one that completely blindsided me. I expected anger and frustration that the little boy had to die in order to save everyone on the train. What I didn’t expect was the hostility towards some of the trains passengers, at least not the passengers I expected. Far and above the most hated group on the train was the happy go lucky college students who were having a smoke and enjoying each others company. Not the drug users, prostitutes, or soldiers but the smokers. “How could he have killed his son to save a smoker” someone asked. “Smokers all deserve to die anyway. They are killing themselves and us already” said another. I was floored. I guessed I missed the point in our culture where smoking suddenly became a sin so grievous and unnatural that it put one beyond the salvation of God, or somehow made one less of a person. Someone that deserved to die. I am not trying to enter the debate on whether smoking is good or bad, right or wrong (I don’t think most people would care for my thoughts on that anyway) but simply that we have made it a cultural sin of momentous proportions. How we can hate tobacco this much and want to legalize marijuana is beyond me or logic. On the flip side I am constantly saddened by how many people support abortion. Why does our culture present something that is merely unhealthy as worse than something that kills one innocent human being and mentally scars another for life, resulting in higher rates of depression and suicide? When middle school students think that smokers deserve to die and go to Hell, while abortion deserves to be protected as a basic human right I think we have serious problems in our schools. This Christmas pray for the conversion of these souls. Pray for the light of Christ in their lives. “A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope.” ~ Mother Theresa