Pastor's Desk Archive (March 2007)

Reaffirming Basic Catholic Beliefs (3/4/2007)
God Wants to Give Each of Us A Clean Heart (3/11/2007)
Awake, O Sleeper, Arise From The Dead And Christ Will Give You Light (3/18/2007)
War And Peace (3/25/2007)

Reaffirming Basic Catholic Beliefs (3/4/2007)

Lent would seem a very appropriate time to reaffirm some of our most fundamental Catholic beliefs:

• Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Mary. As such He is truly divine and truly human.
• He proclaimed the Good News of Salvation and performed many signs and wonders as God’s anointed one—the Messiah, the Christ.
• He suffered and died on the cross as a sacrificial offering for our sins and was buried in a tomb.
• On the Third Day He rose from the dead and opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all who love Him and keep His commandments.
• He gave His authority to the 12 apostles and told them to go into the whole world teaching and baptizing all the nations of the world.
• The Church was built on the testimony of the apostles and is the Body of Christ on earth. This Body is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
• Jesus designated Simon Peter as the head of the apostles and gave to him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.
• Because Peter was martyred in Rome, his successors continue his unique ministry in the church as Popes.
• All of the other bishops are, collectively, the successors of the 12 apostles, and with Peter—the Pope—as their head, they govern, teach, and sanctify the Church. Their principal task is to pass on to people of all generations the true faith that comes to us from the apostles.
• The Church teaches that there is but one source of authentic revelation—God—who makes Himself known to us through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
• Christ continues to minister to the members of his body through the ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons who teach, govern, and sanctify us.
• There are Seven Sacraments rooted in the ministry of Christ through which we are sanctified: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony, and Holy Orders.
• The truth taught by Jesus Christ in the Church sets us free from sin, provides meaning to suffering, and delivers us from everlasting death. Sin and un-redemptive suffering exist as the consequence of making choices influenced by the Evil One who seeks to convince us that wrong is right, false is true, and bad is good.

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God Wants to Give Each of Us A Clean Heart (3/11/2007)

Frequently during Lent we ask God to create in us a clean heart. Doesn’t this imply that God is sort of a Divine Cardiologist? We need His help because our hearts can be hardened not with plaque but with sin. While all human beings sin, some know enough to bring it out into the light through confession, while others prefer to keep their sins hidden in the inner recesses of their hearts. But God is the searcher of hearts and sees clearly all that is hidden. He knows all of our best kept secrets and stands ready to free us from all our offenses. Lent is the season, par excellence, for us to allow—even invite—God to cleanse and renew our hearts. But how?

We can reveal our desire for clean hearts through our conscious contact with God through various forms of prayer and meditation. In prayer we speak to God either through words of our own choosing or through any of the great prayers that have been handed on to us from our Catholic heritage. We can also call upon the intercession of our Blessed Mother, St. Andrew, or one of the other saints. We can absolutely count upon them to come to our aid. There is no sin too great or too painful that is beyond the reach of the healing power of God.

In meditation we listen for the still, small voice of God. The Lord has many ways in which He can communicate His loving will to us and, sometimes, it will even come in the form of understandable words spoken through another person. Remember, the Holy Spirit dwells within the members of Christ’s body, able to speak the truth to us in love. We can also seek the grace to recognize the voice of God in the concrete circumstances of our lives. Meditation, in whatever form it takes, requires some silence. In this noisy culture of ours this can be hard to come by and a little scary.

It’s not too late to set aside even a little time each day for a little prayer and a little meditation. The reward can be a renewed and clean heart.

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Awake, O Sleeper, Arise From The Dead And Christ Will Give You Light (3/18/2007)

To participate fully, actively, and consciously in the Eucharist is all about making the dying & rising of Christ the central focus of our lives. Unfortunately, many people don’t see this because they aren’t sufficiently awake. A lot of folks miss out on the most important realities of life because they are sleep walking through it. Conscious enough to be engaged by the most prominent features of the popular culture, but not conscious enough to see the forest for the trees.

The man born blind in today’s Gospel had been asleep for a long time until Jesus awakened him at the pool of Siloam. When he woke up he could see clearly. Unfortunately, he learned that being awake brought with it a great deal of trouble. The religious officials who were still asleep to the presence of God’s anointed one in their midst, didn’t want to deal with a miracle worker not under their control. Since we can’t see when we are sleeping, we miss out on a lot. Awakened by the light of Christ, the man born blind was ready to place his faith in Him. Still locked in a deep sleep, the religious officials are exposed by Christ as being the real blind ones.

Are you experiencing the power of Christ’s dying and rising in the Eucharistic Celebration? Do you notice the pain involved in straining to hear God’s word in the scripture lessons? How about the suffering involved in offering our gifts at the altar? Do you experience joy when you lift up your heart to give thanks and praise to God? Are you exhilarated when what looks like bread and wine are held before us as the true Body and Blood of Christ? Does it involve joy or suffering when invited to join hands for the Lord’s Prayer and to exchange a greeting of peace with people we hardly know? Do you acknowledge the dying to self that is called for when you partake of Holy Communion?

Lent is a season intended to arouse us from our sleep so that we can live as people who have died and risen with Christ in baptism. This is the greatest challenge of our lives. If we rise to the occasion, it will make all the difference in the world. The difference between allowing God to make us saints and resisting it.

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War And Peace (3/25/2007)

The 4th anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom provides the occasion for this reflection. Some suggest that “true Christians” must always oppose war because it always results in the killing and maiming of non-combatants and brings great hardships upon all—civilians and soldiers alike. Some go as far as to claim that since Christ is The Prince of Peace who loves all mankind, supporting war means opposing Christ. With all due respect for those who hold such views, they do not accurately reflect the teachings of the Catholic Church. The two most recent Popes have made highly critical statements about the present war in Iraq and have prayed that it may come to an end. They do so on the basis of their belief that this particular conflict does not qualify as a just war. The theory of a just war dates back to the middle ages when wars of all kinds resulted in complete havoc for ordinary people. The aim of such a theory was to limit such wars. The theory is also predicated on the notion that there is a supreme authority—the Church—that must be the final judge of such matters. Needless to say, we no longer live in a world in which civil rulers fear the threats of religious authorities. Rather, each nation prosecutes wars on the basis of what is perceived to be in their best interest. In the modern era, then, all wars are greatly influenced by political considerations.

President Bush obviously holds a firm and unwavering conviction that this war is the present central focus of the war on terror. He further believes that the future stability of the Middle East rests on the successful achievement of a politically viable Iraq which is allied with us against terrorist barbarians and religious extremists. Other political leaders insist that the war represents failed national policy and has no chance of achieving such ends. The latter claim the support of the American people as reflected in the 2006 elections. The whole matter has become extremely divisive.

What do you suppose the chances are of our getting peace by just ending the war? I believe they are slim to none. I understand the strong dislike of seeing further casualties, but directing military operations and foreign policy via public opinion polls does not strike me as a good idea. Our enemies are not wearing uniforms. They believe we are godless materialists and that we deserve to be annihilated. Many of them are willing to blow themselves to kingdom come if it means killing a bunch of us in the process. How are they likely to interpret our withdrawing from Iraq without achieving our goals? In my view, this enemy is barbaric, hidden, and determined. They are not likely to be impressed with our cries of “Give peace a chance.”

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