A Homecoming Story

Yesterday, I wrote a short piece on death. The reason death was on my mind was because after I wrote the piece I drove to my old parish church to a funeral for a dear lady named Emily. You would have liked Emily, everybody did. She was a fixture at Our Lady of Humility Church.  She had a smile for everyone and invested her life in the service of others. Her passing ended an era at my old church and it would not have been right for me not to take notice of her passing.  So, my wife and I drove the half hour that took us to our old parish and in some respects back in time and back home. 

For me, although my current parish is as comfortable for me as an old pair of bluejeans, it was like stepping back into time. When I moved with my friend Jim into Beach Park Illinois back in the 1980's I owned and operated the Bonzi Maru which was my green Toyota Corolla. The car was purchased used and had all of the amenities.  A super powered AM radio, Crank 'em up manual windows and locks and the popular 460 model air conditioning system which was simple to operate.  Roll down all four windows and do 60 miles per hour to cool down your car on those hot summer days.  It was a car not for the faint of heart.  It hated making left-hand turns for some reason.  Often, when you turned left, the car would sputter and die.  I got very good at dropping the Maru into neutral and getting the engine back online and completing the turn as if this is how a car was supposed to work. I did try and plan my trips to include the fewest number of left-hand turns possible.  I could get to Our Lady of Humility and get home again by making all right-hand turns.  The other church in the area required at least two left-hand turns to get to so it was OLH for me. 

When I walked into this country-style church, I remembered that someone greeted me and made me feel welcome, something that had never happened at St. Andrew's church in the city where over ten years I got to know exactly zero parishioners.  When I entered OLH to say goodbye to Emily I remembered the altar had once been in the south and the pews were upholstered in  McDonalds Orange.  This was the church where Mary and I had our civil union blessed and made into a sacrament.  It is where Mary and I exercised our ministry bringing communion to the cancer patients in the hospital in Zion.  Where I was the leader of the Bible study for several years and where Mary and I met.  Then, of course, there were the people.  We are all older now, but the personalities are still there. It was truly a homecoming.  

This is the church that taught me what Church was.  The church is so much more than a place to worship, or at least I think it should be. A church is an oasis in the desert where Christians can find refreshment and encouragement from the magisterium in the form of your pastor and from one another.  It is here that we hear the Word of God preached to us and we learn practical ways to take it from the pew to the world that needs what we have.  

So, for me, this funeral was something of a homecoming. I felt welcome and comfortable in this place.  But I knew that it was no longer my home.  My home now is St. Mary of Vernon parish in Indian Creek Illinois.  But what I have brought to my new home was instilled in me at my old home and for that, I am forever grateful. 

To all my friends at OLH thank you for the warm welcome you gave me yesterday. When I was with you, you shared your strength, your love, your power with me. Whatever I am today in this One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, it was the energy and love that you shared with me that got me started.  I will always be with you in my heart and I thank you for all that you have done for me. 

Death

I have death on my mind today. No great learning here today, no lectures about the differences in beliefs. No, just the musing of a man who is closer to that moment than he was thirty years ago. 

The reason I have death on my mind today is simple.  It seems to be all around us of late. Personally, I am remembering my wife's sister who passed away two years ago, the death of a long-time parishioner at my old parish, the respective deaths of my father and mother and of course contemplating my own departure.  I also look to the news.  My ancestral home, Brighton Park in Chicago has become infested with gang violence. Her once peaceful streets are now the turf of gangs whose bullets kill innocent children as the lowlifes shed blood amongst each other.  

I think the saddest part of death, at least the part that makes me the saddest is that on that day when I am taking my last breaths here on earth, no one in the world will alter what they are doing because of what is going on with me. That is just how it is for all of us.  With the exception of close family, of which I am bereft, which is another story, everyone in the world will be going about their business without giving a thought that the world is about to lose Michael the Lesser.  I guess the fact that life continues in spite of death is worrisome to me. The fact that in the end no matter how many are around us, we face our departure alone.  This aloneness makes the time of departure scary. During my whole life, I have always had someone to share these singular and often scary moments with me.  My mother took me to the first day of school.  My father held my hand as we approached my grandmother's casket in my first view of death.  My parents both saw me off at the airport when I left to join the monastery, and my father was there to pick me up when this adventure ended.  With death, there is a unique aloneness that affects no other part of life.  When we are born we begin the journey alone and arrive among the smiling faces of our kind.  With the journey of death, we begin the journey quite alone. 

Does death scare me?  The answer to that is both yes and no.  I am afraid of this step into the unknown.  I also have learned to trust in Jesus and it is this trust  and His love that I am depending upon to smooth the transition from a carbon-based creature to a creature of pure spirit. 

What will it be like to be a creature of pure spirit?  I can imagine that the experience will be amazing.  I cannot imagine what heaven will be like.  I do know that I will want to look up a few of the saints that have helped me over the years.  I would love to speak to St. Michael the Archangel, St. Joseph, and of course St. Francis of Assisi. I believe that that the new world will be a world of great wonder and much happiness.   

Of death, I will leave it at this.  At my wife's sisters funeral, a priest told the assembled mourners that when Marion was born, she was crying and others were laughing.  On the day she died, Marion was laughing and we left on earth were crying.  I think that this is a good way to look at it, don't you?

Humility

Quote from C.S. Lewis

Humility is one of the most misunderstood virtues in the Christian arsenal. When we speak of a person who does not come from money we say, "He is a person that came from humble beginnings." By that, we mean the person did not have the opulence that some people had when they were young.  We call an unpretentious home a humble dwelling. We call a person without much money a person of humble means.  It would seem that we consider humble to be a synonym for the word poor.  Our common definition of the word seems to make being humble akin to being unfortunate. I do not think anything could be further from the truth. 

Humility for a Christian is acting upon the knowledge that we depend on God for everything. Everything we have in this life is a gift to us from God.  But, I hear you say, "I worked hard for (insert name of possession.)  True, but the very work you did was a gift from God.  

Humility is also the knowledge that everything we have is ours on a temporary basis. Everything you have will someday belong to another person.  Perhaps the knowledge that you cannot take it with you is the thing we need to remember to foster humility in our lives.

To be humble does not mean that we should forever turn down compliments. Humility is to accept and to thank the person that is complimenting you for your extra effort. Humility is to accept help when help is needed.  All of us, someday, will be in a position where we will need someone to help us do things we formerly could do on our own.  Pride will tell us to resist. Humility will allow us for someone to help us. 

Finally, humility is the realization that what we are is what we are in God's eyes, not how our friends and enemies view us.  We are exactly as God sees us and nothing more or nothing less. 

The Holy Spirit

As a member of my church's choir, today, I am going to have the honor of singing at the Mass where fifty-eight of our young people will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. This will complete their initiation into the Catholic Church and instill in them the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The gifts are seven in number. 

Wisdom - This gift allows us to value the things of God over the things of this world.

Understanding - This gift empowers us to grasp more fully the truths of God.

Counsel - Through this gift, we are able to know, almost by instinct what is right and to stand up for the truths of our Faith. 

Fortitude - This gift we act on what we learn to be true and have the courage of our convictions and strength to defend them. 

Knowledge -  Through this gift, we attain the ability albeit, in a limited way, the power to see the circumstances of our life as God sees them. This helps us to determine what God wants us to do in life.

Piety - This gift empowers us to go beyond the feeling that we are to obey because we are told so.  Piety allows us to see the good of God's law and we want to obey because it is good. 

Fear of the Lord - This gift gives us the ability to respect God and to not want to offend Him.  It also places in us the certainty that God will supply the graces we need so that we will not offend Him. 

I still remember the night I was confirmed.  At that time, things were a little different. The ceremony was very similar to what the young men and women will experience today.  One thing they will not experience is the slap. In my day the bishop would administer a slap to the face of each person he confirmed.  This slap was to remind you that you would suffer persecution for your faith and that through this sacrament you were now a soldier for Christ. 

Imagine that!  On that one night, I went from being just a snotty young seventh grader to a soldier in the army of God.  What did I feel on that glorious day?  To be honest, not a whole lot.  When I left the church I could only think of the pizza we were going to have when we got home.  Does this mean that the sacrament was but a sham?  Does it mean that it had no effect on me?  Certainly not.  

That day I did become a soldier of Christ and I did receive the seven gifts, and I did become in God's eyes a spiritual adult and one of His ambassadors. It would take time and the gentle prodding of the Holy Spirit over the long yet swiftly running years between that Thursday evening and today.  There would be times when I went my own way and would find myself in a foreign land among aliens who did not know and did not want to know my Father.  There were times when I was angry at my Father and let Him know so in no uncertain terms. He responded by gently calling my name one afternoon when I poured out my heart in the confessional at St. Peter's Church in downtown Chicago where the priest welcomed me, the prodigal son, back again.

Over the years I have been blessed because I have always felt the presence of God in my life.  I have experienced no black night of the soul because my Father knows that I would perish without his Presence.  Over the years, He has led me, step by step, as we faced together one fault or another.  He has been with me in times that tried my soul to its limit when I buried my mother and then my father. He has comforted me in the sorrow and loneliness I feel because the family I grew up with have turned their backs on me and abandoned me. He has shared the great joy I feel when I contemplate the blessing he bestowed on me by giving me Mary my wife of twenty-four years (so far.) 

I guess what I am trying to say here is that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to all who are confirmed.  These gifts do not manifest themselves all at once. I think they are there as a treasury of power to be drawn upon when needed.  

Our young people who will be confirmed today will walk away from church changed forever, yet they might not realize it for some time.  May they receive these gifts and may they prove as useful to them as they did to me.   

Come, Holy Spirit, Come. 

Light our hearts that we may bear the cross of life and carry it with courage as we share the Word of God with those who so desperately need it.  Amen. 

A Friday Prayer

Dear Jesus, 

It is Friday, the day we remember, 

We remember how you suffered and died for us. 

If I never said thank you before, I say it now.

I dedicate all of my works, pleasures, 

troubles and thoughts to you today. 

I pray for the Poor Souls in purgatory, 

Lord, they have proven themselves. 

They are your friends.  Give them 

comfort and raise them up to be with you 

in heaven. And Lord I am a poor sinner, 

have mercy on me and help me to sin no more. 

Amen. 

Catholics vs Protestants - A Game That Should Been Played

I have to apologize for two things before we start.  First, I know that January is over and Christian Unity Month is in the past and this post is about Christian Unity.  Secondly, to all my Protestant friends, I know that I have a picture of Pope Francis, looking very happy with a most pleasant expression on his face while Martin Luther has a face that looks like he just drank a glass of warm lemon juice. I really scoured the internet for a jovial looking Luther but believe it or not this was the best one I would find.  I am sure he must have smiled or laughed once in his life. I think that those who sought to capture his likeness wanted to portray the serious Martin Luther, thus the dour expression on all of the available pictures. 

This is Super Bowl Sunday for most of the world.  For me, it is just Sunday.  I do not follow sports because many years ago my doctor advised me to stop watching sports because it was raising my blood pressure.  I used to throw things at the TV when things went bad for the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls, or the Chicago Bears.  I was born on the south side of Chicago so the Cubs were never thought of as being worthy of attention by me or my friends.  

One of the saddest things that ever happened in this world happened in the 1500's. The Church of Christ was split in two and from that day on things would never be the same.  A Catholic monk tacked up 95 complaints to the door of the local church and as time went on the Church and Martin Luther fought and Luther left the Church and formed ( or as he saw it reformed) his own church. One could say that Martin had no choice as the Church had excommunicated him. But excommunication is not irreversible, it is not a spiritual death sentence.  Rather, it is a judicial instrument that is supposed to give the one under it time to reflect his or her position and to repent and return to the Church. Martin Luther was aware of this fact and he elected to commit spiritual suicide and revolted against the Catholic Church and setting up a new church with himself as its head. 

Did the Church need to be reformed?  Oh, without any doubt there were things that needed attention.  The straw that broke the camel's back was the sale of indulgences.  An indulgence is the remission of temporal punishment as a result of sin. The Church believed then and still believes today, that every sin we commit, even when forgiven in confession has its consequences in the afterlife. These consequences can be made up in this life through penitential practices, such as prayer and fasting, or they can be made up after death in purgatory.  At the time, penances for sins were rough.   For example, after confession and receiving forgiveness a penitent might be assigned six months of wearing sackcloth and ashes and begging forgiveness of those who passed him on the street.  During this time the penitent would not be allowed the sacraments Indulgences were and still are remission of these penances either partially or in full.  At the time they were expressed in the number of days of penance they remitted for a pious act committed.  So, the days were not time off time in purgatory where time does not exist, it was time taken off the penance assigned here on earth.  Martin Luther had no problem with the indulgences. He understood that they fell within the Church's authority to grant.  He became offended when some priests, without the authority or consent of the Pope in Rome decided that people who donated money could receive an indulgence. Quite rightly, Luther saw this as a bad idea.  The fight escalated and eventually, Martin was excommunicated from the Church.  This is when he really went off of the deep end and ended up outside of what Christ wanted for His Church.  Martin Luther set up his own Church and all hell broke loose! 

Once he stepped outside of the authority of the Church, Martin Luther came up with new, novel, ideas that would form the centerpiece of his church.  All of these new ideas took years to form because at the start of his excursion his church was not too much different than the Church.  Some of the new ideas which he taught were sola scriptura, a teaching which says that if it is not in the Bible, it should not be taught, he also said we are justified by faith alone, not faith and works.  There are other things too, but this post is not a criticism of his teachings, it is a discussion about the hatchet job he did on the Church and its effect on millions of souls over the intervening years. 

Jesus on the night before he died did something wonderful.  He prayed to His Father, out loud, in the presence of His apostles.  Can you imagine being privy to a conversation between God the Father and God the Son?  The apostles had to be awestruck.  In this prayer, Jesus says that he wanted His followers to be one as He and the Father were one.  When the Church was cut into two pieces, into the Roman Catholic (Universal) Church and the Lutheran Church, the person who caused this division stepped outside the will of God as expressed by Jesus.  

But, couldn't we say that the new church founded by Martin Luther only formed because of the will of God?  Isn't the founding of this church a sign that the Church that Jesus had founded had gone astray, fell into apostasy and this was God's way of repairing it?  No, I am sorry but this scenario does not work simply because Holy Scripture clearly says differently in Matthew chapter 16 verse 18, where Jesus, the Son of God, says, "Thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my charge and the gates of hell shall not prevail it."  To tear down the Roman Catholic Church and replace it with the church of Luther (and the other reformers) you would first have to make null and void the words of Christ and state that the gates of hell did prevail against the Church.  Then, if the gates of hell did prevail against the Church in spite of what Jesus said then He was wrong and if he was wrong about such an important institution that He calls His Church then He was nothing more than a spellbinding pious fake. We know that this is not true, we know that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior who came to earth and saved us from our sins.  It follows, therefore, that Luther and by association the other reformers were wrong in splitting the Church asunder. Once it started, it never stopped. If we assume that the Holy Spirit spoke the truth to Martin Luther, then why did John Calvin feel it necessary to break away from him?  If Calvin heard the word from the Holy Spirit then why did Knox form his own church? Why did Wesley find it necessary to create a church in his own image?  On and on it goes until today we have at least thirty thousand Christian denominations. Wikipedia lists forty-one different Lutheran church bodies in America alone!  Which one of the forty-one has the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Christian unity is called for by Paul as well in First Corinthians Chapter 1 verse 10, "I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgement." It seems we have failed to be even close to the ideal required by Jesus and requested by Paul  

Can Christianity be salvaged?  Can we truly become one in Christ like we are supposed to?  I do not know.   In his wonderful book "If Protestantism is True" Devin Rose says this, and I do not think I could say it any better: 

"What will it take for us to answer Paul's appeal and be reunited?  Firstly, it will take humility on the part of every Christian. Secondly, it will require mutual respect for one another. Finally it will take an honest examination of our beliefs, their origins, and the reason behind them, and a willingness to be shown something more fully true than what we currently believe..."

Pride is what got Luther into trouble.  Pride is what caused the Church to abandon all hope in reasoning with Martin Luther and excommunicating him. Pride afflicted all of the reformers up until this very day. Pride is what caused Adam and Eve to sin.  Humility and the love we bear for one another under Christ the Lord is the only thing that will take this mish mosh of churches and return it to be the one True Church that Christ prayed for before He died. Remember, it is not the Popes Church or Luther's Church.  Jesus said He would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. 

God bless.  Please, leave a comment.  I would love to know what your thoughts are on this topic.  Feel free to leave a question if you have one. 

Things Protestants Don't Understand About The Church - The Bible

The Bible is the written, inspired, and inerrant Word of God. 

Roman Catholics have always believed this and have always revered this collection of holy books with awe. What my Protestant friends fail to understand is the Bible was built by the Church and not the other way around. This collection of holy books contains every kind of literature known to mankind. It has in it many wonderful stories and lessons for us to learn what the will of God is for His children. It is through this marvelous collection of tales, history, and parables that we learn how God has been with His people through the ages.

The book has been divided into two sections which we call the Old and the New Testaments. The Old Testament reveals stories that include our creation and subsequent disobedience. After the disobedience, we are told that God Himself will make things right again and will send us the Messiah. It tells us a bit about the first family and how Cain killed Abel. This wonderful book relates the story of the Exodus, the Flood, King David and his Psalms all the way up to the Book of Revelation where we are shown the celebration that takes place in heaven.

The Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible are not quite the same. Catholics have forty-six Old Testament books while the Protestant denominations recognize thirty-nine. The New Testament books for both Catholics and Protestants are the same. The reasons for this difference are kind of complex but it boils down to the fact that the reformers accepted the shorter list of books in use by the Jewish community in the first century while the Roman Catholics used the canon of scripture that included these missing books because works from the earliest times included quotations from these seven books deleted by the reformers. Modern Protestant scholarship is coming around to the view that these books are indeed inspired works.


The Bible did not just fall out of the skies. The Holy Spirit inspired the individual authors to write what they wrote but we cannot say that He dictated it to the writers. But just who decided what books belong in the Bible and what books do not? Why is the Gospel of Mark included in the New Testament while the Gospel of Thomas is not? The Church had quite a job on their hands because there were writings a-plenty circulating in the early Church. The Church had to decide which books were inspired and which books were not. It did so under her teaching authority. The oldest record we have is that the canon was approved under Pope Damasus in 382AD and subsequently, the list was confirmed in 392AD at the Synod of Hippo and the Third Council of Carthage in 397AD. The Council of Trent on April 8, 1546, declares as "sacred and canonical all the books of the Old and New Testament contained in the Vulgate." The Vulgate? What is that? The Vulgate is a late fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was the translation of St. Jerome who was commissioned by Pope Damascus I to revise the "Old Latin" collection then in use by the Church. So we can see that the Canon of Scripture was decided upon early on. It was only later the "reformers" threw out the Old Testament books found in Catholic Bibles. We can see that the Roman Catholic Church took (and takes) a lively interest in Holy Scripture. It is her mission to keep Scripture pure. To make sure that only books that can be demonstrated to be inspired by the Holy Spirit make their way in between the covers of this great collection.


The Catholic Church surely had a hand in carrying the Bible and passing it down through the generations assuring that only the inspired word is found in its pages. But the question is why are some Catholic beliefs not found in the Bible? Protestants believe that the Bible is the whole rule of what a Christian should believe and do. We Protestants believe in Sola Scriptura and we believe that the Church is in error because it uses human traditions as part of the belief system it follows.


The Roman Catholic Church believes that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. As such is takes a prominent place in her life of faith. It is part of every sacrament she dispenses, it is in her prayer life, it is in the Mass where we are fed both by Holy Scripture and by the Sacred Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. The "traditions" you speak of are not mere human traditions. One of the Traditions of the Church is the Bible! Sacred Tradition is the act of passing down the belief from one generation to the next. The process began in the first century and continues to this very day.


The pillar and foundations of the Church are not the Bible. Heresy? I think not. We read in 1st Timothy Chapter 3 verse 15, "I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God the pillar and foundation of truth."


Look as hard as you want, sola scriptura is not a principle you will find that is taught in the Bible. The verse often quoted in defense of sola scriptura is 2nd Timothy, Chapter 3, Verse 16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." There is not a Catholic living on earth or happy in heaven that would dare to disagree with this passage. It just doesn't say that the Scriptures are the only way to do these things, it states that it is just a way that can be used.




Let's look at Sacred Tradition. In my household, we have a tradition of putting up and decorating a Christmas tree every year. The people next door have a tradition of going to visit their relatives at Thanksgiving time. Both of these things are traditions, but they are not Sacred Traditions. Bobby may go to church to pray the rosary daily, that is his tradition, but it is not a Sacred Tradition. If we were to suddenly say that Sola Scriptura was the way to go, we would have a problem in supporting that position. The first century there were no written Bibles. So, how was the Word of God preached to the first century Christians? It was shared by word of mouth. The letters of Paul were read to the people and they carried them in their heart. They did not get a copy of them to take home and ponder. They relied, unknowingly, on Sacred Tradition. Sacred Tradition is the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. It has nothing to do with human traditions. The Church is protected from teaching error by the Holy Spirit. This Sacred Tradition is how the church has moved year by year and century by century teaching her unchanging doctrine.




Roman Catholics often are scolded for a lack of Biblical knowledge. This is true, some of us have not taken the time to study the Word of God as we should. It is going to be hard to stand before the Lord when he asks, "Did you read my book?" Here you are standing by God and what can you say, "Seventy-eight years was not enough time, I was busy." I don't think that will wash. The Church has always revered the scripture. In the twentieth century, Catholics were taught scripture through catechisms such as the Baltimore Catechism. It taught Biblical principles and relied on the Bible for the truth it taught but it did not give us the familiarity of the Bible that Protestants have. This being said, it should not be thought that Catholics were being starved to death for want of the4 Word of God. We Catholics are obligated under pain of sin, to attend Church every Sunday. At our worship service, called the Mass, we are served up heaping helpings of Scripture, including a reading from the Old Testament, A Psalm, a reading from the Epistles, and finally a reading from the Gospels as the main course. As a matter of fact, the Catholic who attends Mass daily will hear most of the Bible read to him over the course of three years.




Our last topic is who can interpret the scriptures? The reformers said the Word of God conveys such a simple message that any man with the help of the Holy Spirit can interpret scripture. I don't think so. If this was true, then why are there so many different interpretations of so many different passages of scripture? Is the Holy Spirit the spirit of confusion? Would he tell one person one truth regarding a passage of scripture and another person a different interpretation of it? The church Luther split because of the interpretation of scripture. At the time of that first split whose interpretation of scripture was each side relying upon? It would seem that the Holy Spirit had gone schizoid because he changed His story. No, the Holy Spirit is not nuts. People take it upon themselves to make scripture fit the way they think. Because of this, instead of one Church, we have the Church and thousands upon thousands of denominations who interpret the Bible differently. Scripture was never meant to be interpreted in such a manner. I am very fortunate that as a Roman Catholic I can rely on authoritative interpretations from the organization who has handed the Book of Books unsullied down through the generations. The Authority of the Church is guaranteed by Christ to be without error.




The Bible is the paramount bastion of where we should get our plan of life. God has given us a great gift in this work of inerrant inspiration. I call upon my fellow Catholics to accept the church's invitation to immerse yourself in the Word of God. If you do not know the Bible, you do not know Christ. To my Protestant brothers and sisters, keep up your studies, the truth will set you free! Let each one of us pray for the unity that Christ wants for his children on earth.