Category: Deep Church Thoughts

(Hey, Church fans. Busy times here in the Far North. Posts are a bit delayed. Here is the one from the Baptism of the Lord. As always, if you want the joke, you have to watch the vid…or at least the first three minutes of the vid. Enjoy.)

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     Have you ever walked by something that you see all the time and one day you pass by and say, “Wait a minute! That’s doesn’t make sense at all!” There’s a bit of that in the Baptism of the Lord that we celebrate today. We’ve heard the story since childhood and sort of take it at face value. But really, if you think about it, why did Jesus get baptized?  Even John the Baptist thought it was a little out of sorts. At first glance, it doesn’t make sense for a couple of reasons.

       First, John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. But Jesus was without sin. So why did he need to repent? It doesn’t make sense on that level.  Second, baptism as we understand it today involves the washing away of Original Sin and initiation into the Church. Again, Jesus was conceived without Original Sin and at that time, the Church had yet to be founded. It doesn’t make sense on that level either. 

       So how does the Baptism of the Lord make sense? Well, one of the amazing things about Jesus is that whatever he encounters, he transforms. For example, when he entered fully into human existence at the Incarnation, he not only restored all humanity to our original dignity, but raised us to a state even higher than the angels.  Imagine that. At the wedding at Cana, he took the jugs of water and transformed them into the best wine the head steward had ever tasted. At the Last Supper, he took the Passover and transformed it into the Eucharist. The list goes on and on. 

       In the same way, at the Jordan River, Jesus entered into the waters in the baptism and transformed them into the means of sanctifying grace. In baptism Christ encounters us, and we encounter Christ. Thus, when we enter the waters of baptism, we are forever changed. Our sins are washed away in the Blood of the Lamb and we become members of the Mystical Body of Christ. As John the Evangelist says later, “See what favor the Father has bestowed on us by letting us be called children of God.” 

The baptism of the Lord inaugurates the public ministry of Jesus.

From here he will go into the desert for forty days to prepare himself and to be tested.

Then he will give the sermon on the mount. Then he will teach and preach and heal and exhort and suffer and die and be raised and ascend to the Father and send the Holy Spirit to found the Church.

The public life of Jesus began with his baptism.

So too the public life of every Christian begins with our baptism. 

What have you done, what will you do with the grace that has been given to you? 

       For those of you who live in the marvel universe…will you use this power for good or for evil?

May the grace given to each of us in baptism continue to grow and mature.  

       Because at the at the end of this life, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Almighty God, in the presence of all the saints and all the angels and all the heavenly host. 

       And what a marvelous thing it will be, should gaze upon you and say to the celestial multitude in that same voice that came from the heavens on the banks of the Jordan so very long ago:

“This is my beloved son

       This is my beloved

              With whom I am well pleased.” 

Hey, Church fans! Merry Christmas, Day 13! We had lots of fun this weekend with the Magi. The vid and the text are below. As always, if you want to hear the joke, it is in the vid, not the text.

   The magi are interesting characters in Matthew’s infancy narrative. For one, we don’t really know how many of them there were. The sacred text simply doesn’t say. But based on the number of gifts, pious tradition holds that there were three of them. Three is a complete number, so it fits nicely.

   The thing I want to concentrate on is the significance of the gifts themselves. Remember that Matthew was a pious Jew writing his gospel for other Jews to proclaim to them, “This is the guy! This the Messiah!”  True to form, he uses the gifts to of the magi to reinforce his point.

   Most pious Jews would have been familiar with the text from Isaiah 60, that says all the gentile nations would come to pay homage to the Messiah in Israel. One of the signs of the coming of the messiah would be gifts of gold and incense. 

   It helps to remember that in the minds of the people, the Messiah would be a great priest-king who would re-establish true worship in Israel as well as the very political Kingdom of Israel. Gold was the traditional gift given to a king as acknowledgment of his sovereignty and as tribute signifying one’s fealty to him. Incense was proper to the priesthood. Offered by the priest on behalf of the people, it was burned before the Holy of Holies, it represented the prayers of the people rising up to Almighty God as a pleasing fragrance. 

   The addition of the myrrh seems a bit out of place at first. Myrrh was an aromatic spice used to prepare bodies for burial. Matthew emphasizes the presence of the myrrh to signify the saving passion and death of Jesus on the Cross.

   Matthew’s points is at once subtle, but very clear. Jesus is in fact the long awaited Messiah…but his mission and message are far beyond the people’s expectations. He is the great high priest, who offers himself as the acceptable sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. His is not a single, political earthly kingdom.  Rather, as sovereign lord of heaven and earth, Jesus brings into the being the Kingdom of God. The twist is that he did not just conquer the enemies of Israel. But by his own death, he conquered sin and the price of sin, which is Death itself. 

   The fact that these gifts are brought by Gentiles shows that like all previous prophecies, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the great priest-king who brings salvation to all the world.

   Let us pay him homage by the gifts we bring before him. Let us lay before him the most precious gifts; a broken heart, a contrite spirit, an ear that listens to his voice, a hand that gives generously to those in need.

If you did not figure it out from the gospel reading today (or the little sign on the Ambo) the theme from the Gospel today is REPENTANCE.   It reminds me of a story…

In all the gospels there are few figures more compelling than John the Baptist.  He is at once a prophet and a herald.  As the last and greatest of the prophets, he is a bridge to the coming of the Age of Grace, calling people to repentance and faithfulness to God. As herald of the Messiah, he prepares the way of the Lord. This week I’ll concentrate on his role as prophet.  Next week, I will explain his role as herald. 

     Let’s talk about prophets. To be a prophet in Israel was a unique and often difficult task. Their principal task was NOT to predict the future. Rather, their primary role was to be the messenger of God, calling the people to return to the fidelity to the Lord and their covenant with him. 

     As the messenger of the Lord, a prophet had access to the highest levels of civil and religious authority. A true prophet spoke only what the Lord had instructed him. (A false prophet would not, saying what would gain him favor with those in power.) Most often we see the words of the prophets addressed to those in authority, since they were the ones who had been entrusted with the welfare of the people. In this week’s gospel, we see John doing exactly that when he calls the Pharisees and Sadducees to task.  It’s a good reminder for all of us who seek to follow Christ not to get too full of ourselves. God can raise up good Catholics from the very stones. We are in need of repentance. 

How does it work?  Let’s look at the various elements of the Sacrament of Reconciliation to guide our discourse.

1) Conversion,

       This is when we look honesty at our lives, realize that we need to get our lives in order and turn back to God.  It is that moment when you realize that your life is out of whack and you need to get it back in whack.  It is there that we stand at the foot of the cross and say, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner.”

       I spoke about this in great detail on the 32^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time.  You can check it out on Fr. Leo’s Benevolent Blog (https://frleowalsh.com

       In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, this usually takes the form of a good examination of conscience. 

2) Confession – in the confessional or penance service

       No doubt you have heard the question, perhaps you have asked the question: “Why do I have to confess to a priest?  Why can’t I just tell my sins to God and be forgiven?”  This is a very good question and it has a very good answer. 

       First, you can respond by saying, “Yes!  Absolutely, you should tell your sins to God, but that is only the beginning.”

       Why?  Because there is no such thing as a private sin. The scripture that helps us is the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11ff.  Remember, in the story, the son says, “Father, I have sinned against God and against you.”

       Just as the great commandment has two elements, love and God and love of neighbor, so too sin is against God and neighbor.

       St. Paul tells us in 1 Cor 12, “If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts feel its effects.”

       Don’t believe me? Try this little spiritual exercise that you can do in the comfort of your own home: Take off your shoes, stand at one end of your living room, close your eyes, and then walk briskly across the floor.  As your little, pinky toe intersects with the leg of the coffee table and you jump up and down probably saying some things that good Christians should not say, tell me then is not true that if even the smallest part of the body is injured the rest of the body suffers with it. 

       In the same say, there is no such thing as a private sin.  My sin affects you and your sin affects me. 

       The early church had a keen sense of the communal nature of sin and the need for reconciliation with both God and the Church. Confession was done in front of the congregation and the penances were quite strict, sometimes lasting years before one was readmitted to communion. 

       But then in the 7^th century, from the north came the Irish monks.  Now, the Irish being a great and noble race, and also a monastic Church, brought with them the practice of individual confession to the abbe’, the father, the priest.  This made sense because it was the priest who could speak for both Christ and the Church. Indeed, in every sacrament, the priest acts in persona Christi/in the person of Christ and in persona ecclesiae/in the person of the Church. 

       This works in the temporal order as well. This past week we finally closed on the purchase of a house to serve as the rectory.  As pastor, with the authorization of the bishop, I signed the documents and the parish was obligated. 

       In similar way, when the priest says your sins are forgiven, he is speaking on behalf of Christ and on behalf of the parish and the Church universal.

       Confession to the priest allows for both of the offended parties, God and the community of faith.

3) The next part of the rite is some instruction and the giving of a Penance

       A penance is a token act. You can’t earn God’s forgiveness won for you on Cross.  It is a gift.

       You cannot earn it, but you can be grateful. 

       In a way, your penance is like a little thank you card that helps to restore the moral order.  

       One note, it needs to be reasonable. If the priest gives you a penance that is physically or morally impossible for you to complete, you should ask him for another one. 

       I’ve actually had people ask me for more difficult ones and I’m always happy to oblige.

       John Vianney, who would hear confessions for up to sixteen hours a day was once chided by a colleague that he gave out penances that were too easy.  He responded, “Oh, I give them very strict penances, but I only make them say a little part of it, and I say the rest of it later.”  You can see why he is the patron saint of parish priests.

4) Contrition – is the matter of the sacrament. As the confessor, the only thing I need to forgive someone’s sins is that they are sorry.  That finds its ritual expression in and Act of Contrition. There are many versions of it, but they all have these three things in common:

       – sorrow for sins

       – a dependence of God’s grace

       – a resolution to reform one’s life. 

5) Satisfaction. You must perform your penance to receive the fruits of the sacrament. Don’t put this off. Try to do it before leaving the Church. 

Conversion, Confession, Penance, Contrition, and Satisfaction – these are the elements of Reconciliation to God and to one another. 

As prophet, John the Baptist continues to be a compelling figure for us today.  John’s example exhorts us to turn from our sins and return to the Lord in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Please avail yourself of this most precious gift.  The dates and times of all the penances services throughout the Archdiocese are in the Anchor and all those around Anchorage are in the bulletin. Our penance service here will be on December 18^th, at 7:00 PM. At that service there will be at least four other confessors who have NO IDEA who you are.  What a great opportunity to avail yourself of the gift of God’s forgiving grace. 

Next week, we will hear how, as herald, John reminds us that Christ will come in glory at the end of the age. We are a people who await for his coming. As the liturgy says at the end of the Our Father, we await the blessed hope and the coming of our savior Jesus Christ.    

Hey, Church fans! Christ the King this past Sunday. We had a great time here at St. Elizabeth’s. I told the King Spud joke, so if you want to hear that, you can watch the video. The text is below.

 

     It is a very perplexing sort of juxtaposition. On the one hand we are celebrating the Solemnity of Our Lord Christ the King of the Universe. On the other hand, we have this gospel reading from Luke 23:35-43, where Jesus is hanging on the Cross and the good thief asks him to remember him when he comes into his kingdom. Jesus’ answer is “This day you will be with me in paradise.” 

       There’s a lot to unpack here.

       First of all, what does it mean to acknowledge Christ as King? This is difficult for us Americans because we got rid of our monarchy 246 years ago.  It helps to remember that a monarch had dominion. This means he had authority over the land and everything and everyone on it.  But he did not own it.  It was given to him by God to be placed under his care.  At his death a king would be judged on how the land and the people prospered materially, culturally and morally under his care.  He was a steward, not an owner. 

This feast was established relatively recently by Pope Pius XI in 1925. He did so to emphasize that, in the face of the rising secularism of our day, it is Christ who is sovereign over all creation, including every human person. The feast also has an eschatological dimension. At the end of the age, the Kingdom will be established in fullness and Christ shall reign supreme. This is why it is celebrated on the last day of Ordinary Time, on the threshold of Advent, when we contemplate the second coming of Christ in glory.

       Second, dying a brutal death by an incredibly cruel method of execution does not seem to be the way to establish the Kingdom. As we will see in May when Charles III is crowned King of England, it is usually done with great pomp and circumstance and lots of fancy clothes and shiny things. What was it about Jesus that allowed the thief on his right to see who Jesus really was, even in the midst of his own suffering? That is a faith that looks into eternity.  THAT’S the kind of faith that I want! 

       Third, Jesus’ answer to the thief lets us know that the Kingdom is not just some distant, future reality. It is something that we can experience “today.” This is cause for reflection. There is an immediacy to the Kingdom, its benefits, its responsibilities, and our role in helping it unfold in the present day.

       One thing is obvious. The Kingdom of God is very different from any kingdom on this earth. It bears none of the trappings of this world and thus transcends the vagaries of this world. So much so that even a dying, repentant thief could recognize the King of the Universe as he hung upon the Cross.

       What’s the key?  Quite simply, the Kingdom of God is not made of bricks or stone or pomp or circumstance or lots of shiny things.  It is made up of relationships. Relationships with God and with one another.

       Relationships are not rocket science.  If you want a relationship to grow, you give it two things.

       1. Time, and

       2. Attention

If you want your relations with Christ to grow,

       You give it time and attention

       Once again, I say, “If you cannot find ten minutes a day for private prayer with Our Lord, your life is out of control and you need to make adjustments…no excuses.”

If you want your relationship with your spouse, your family, your friends to grow

       You give it time and attention.

Very few relationships end because of conflict

       Conflict is simply a symptom.

Very many relationships die because of neglect.

Here’s a good exercise.  Go back and pull out your high school yearbook from your senior year.

       Count how many people wrote in your book that you would always stay in touch. Think about how many times you wrote that in the yearbooks of others. 

       Where are those people now? 

Very few relationships end because of conflict

Very many relationships die because of neglect.

If you want a relationship to grow, give it time and attention.

If I was the Evil One, I would try to steal your time.

I would fill your life with so many good things.

Not bad things

Good things:

Career, responsibilities, hockey, soccer, volleyball, dance, video games, even volunteering…you name it, so that you would not have time to give attention to the essential relationships….to what really matters. 

The Kingdom of God is built of relationships

       We even describe it in terms of the most intimate relationship that we humans can have with one another,

We call it being in full communion

with God and with one another in the Church

In this holy communion, who I am is intimately joined at the very level of being with who God is

       And who you are as the body of Christ.

This is celebrated in the Eucharist as we celebrate and receive holy communion from this very altar.

       Virtue deepens this communion

       Sin injures or severs this communion

       Reconciliation restores this communion.

In the end, it is not our stuff that we take with us when we leave this earth

       It is the relationship we build while we are here

              Our communion with Christ and with one another.

This is our treasure in heaven.

It’s all about trajectory.

       And it begins now

              The Kingdom of God is close at hand

       Because you and I are close at hand.

Let us build these relationships with Christ and one another

while there is still time

So that we may say today and every day into eternity

       “Thy Kingdom come.”

Greetings, Church Fans! We are nearing the end of Ordinary Time and entering the season of Gratitude and Hope. Vid and text below.

   There is the story of the priest and the rabbi who are standing by a bend in the side of the road with a sign that says, “The End is near!” 

   After a few minutes a big pickup truck drives by at high speed, as it passes the driver says, “You stupid religious nuts! Get off the road!” 

   Shortly after it goes out of sight around the bend, there is the sound of screeching tires and then a big splash.

   The rabbi looks at the priest and says, “Do you think we should have written: ‘The Bridge is Out’? 

   As we near the end of Ordinary Time, the readings shift and the Church asks us to contemplate the end of all time. During the daily and Sunday readings we get eschatological readings such as the one this weekend from Luke. There is a lot going on in this reading. In this column, I’m just going to look at the first part of it.   

   In the first section Jesus tells the people admiring the Temple that soon not one stone will be left upon another. That would have been pretty shocking to his listeners. The Temple was the dwelling place of the Most High God. It represented the eternal covenant with Israel. Destruction of the Temple would be the ultimate disaster. Yet, in 70 A.D., that is exactly what happened when the Roman General Titus brutally put down the Jewish nationalistic revolt and ordered the complete destruction of the Temple. Like all things Roman, they did a completely thorough job.

   In our own day, popular culture is rife with apocalyptic and dystopic books and films and whatnot that depict the collapse of society by forces from without or within. While it is comforting to learn from a well-funded study that Alaska is seen as the most likely place on the earth to survive a zombie apocalypse, such dark and pervasive images in popular our culture tell me that secular humanism has failed our society. There just is not a lot of hope out there.  The end is near.

   How very different from what we Christians believe and profess. For us, the End of the Age and the second coming of Christ represents the fulfillment of all our deepest hopes and desires. We await the blessed hope, not with fear and trembling. Jesus warns that the end times will not be without their trials, but so what? For us the end is not the destruction of all things, but the completion and the perfection of all things. What we await are new heavens and a new earth where all creation, including you and me, truly become what God has intended us to be, perfectly human body and soul. 

   Without question, all churches, from St. Peter’s Basilica to our own little parish church of St. Elizabeth’s will cease to exist…and we will be so happy about it. Exalting in the true and substantial presence of Christ, there will be no more need for his sacramental presence. The Church in all its members will be glorified with him before the Father.         Is the end near? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Nevertheless, for us it represents all that we are now, and all that we hope to be in the resurrection of the dead and life of the world to come. Amen.

Great to be back. This past weekend we celebrated the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. What’s up with that? Thanks to Theresa Austin, digital usher, for the vid. The text is below.

   It was the Year of Our Lord, 312. For the better part of three centuries, Christians in the Roman Empire had undergone a series of persecutions at the hands of various emperors.  Now the Empire was embroiled in a great civil war between the forces of Maxentius and Constantine. Maxentius occupied Rome while Constantine’s army, greatly outnumbered, mustered across the Tiber near the Milvian Bridge, a key access point to the city. The battle for control of the Roman Empire would ensue at dawn the next morning.

   That night, Constantine and his officers had vision in a dream. He found himself looking at the sky. In the clouds he saw a cross and heard the words, In hoc signum vincit! (“With this sign, conquer.”)  The next morning, Constantine ordered that a cross affixed to all of his battle standards.  Then he marched his troops towards the city.

   The two forces met at the Milvian Bridge. In the course of the battle Maxentius’ horse slipped on a rock in the river, throwing him headlong onto the bank. His head struck a rock and he was mortally wounded.  With their leader having fallen, the forces of Maxentius were routed and Constantine entered the imperial city triumphant and secure in his claim to the throne.

   Although not yet a Christian, based on his vision and the unlikely circumstances of his victory, Constantine attributed his victory to the Christian God. In gratitude, he legalized Christianity and soon built four major basilicas to serve the needs of the Church. The first of these was built in an area known as the Lateran. It was dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. Although renovated from time to time throughout the centuries, and sacked more than once, it stands largely the same as it did when it was built in the year 315. Strictly speaking, it is the Cathedral of Rome. 

   As the first church built in Christendom, St. John in the Lateran is the mother church of Christianity. This is where the Church of Rome has gathered for over 1700 years to celebrate the Eucharist and the sacraments. How fitting it is that the whole Church throughout the world pauses on the anniversary of its dedication to give thanks to Almighty God for his generous providence in history in continuing to provide for the needs of the People of God in every time and every circumstance…even here in 99516. 

Buildings are funny things. If you think about it, what makes a house a home?  Is it the location, the style, the furnishings?  Or rather, it is the family that lives there?

In the same way, what makes a building like the Lateran Basilica holy?  It is the history? Is it the age?  The architecture?  Or rather is it the one who dwells there?  

Likewise, what about our own little parish church? What makes this place holy?  Is it the walls, the roof, the windows, the liturgical furnishings? Or rather, is it the one who dwells here and the family of faith that meets here?

This morning our Holy Father likened the Church to a construction site. Having grown up in construction, it is an apt description. Somewhere in the annals of history, there is an unwritten rule that all airports, hospitals and churches must be under construction at all times? I don’t know why, I don’t make the rules.  But I do agree with Benjamin Franklyn who once said, “We shape our buildings and then our buildings shape us.”

Working construction is a marvelously satisfying occupation. When you show up there is a piece of bare ground.  When you leave, there is proof you have been there. How incredibly wonderful when that proof is something beautiful for God, whether in a building or in a life of faith lived therein.

I have worked on many buildings and have guided the construction of at least two church buildings. I have studied at great length and have learned a great deal about what Catholic church buildings have looked like over the centuries and what they are supposed to achieve. One of my greatest experiences was visiting the Cathedral in Cologne, (Koln) Germany for the first time as a seminarian. The building is massive. Construction began in 1248 but it was not completed until 1880, 632 years later. I explored every inch of that building from the highest point in its bell towers to the foundation stones in the basement. 

   It was down there that I had a moment. Now I was a laborer. I was the one who would dig the hole and shoot the grade for foundations stones such as that. I stood there in the basement of that huge cathedral and thought about my brother laborer who was the first one to put a shovel in the ground and turned that first spadeful of dirt so many centuries ago…knowing that he would never see it completed in his life time.  THAT is the kind of faith that I want. That is the kind of faith that we are called to. 

I’ll leave you with the thought of Bishop Kenneth Utner, who wrote the following prayer after the death of St. Oscar Romero, the martyred archbishop of El Salvador. 

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master
builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

[Credit to @litcatholicmemes. Find them on Facebook. These folks are great.]

November is special for many reasons. Oh sure, there is the whole pumpkin spice thing. (No, contrary to the rumor, we are NOT introducing pumpkin spice flavored hosts at communion between now and Thanksgiving.) More importantly for us Catholics is the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed beginning with All Saints Day on November 1^st, then All Souls’ Day on November 2^nd.  Throughout the rest of the month we continue to commend our departed loved ones to the Lord who said, that I should not lose anything of what (the Father) gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. (Jn 6:39)

     It is fitting that we should do so. This year, at the recommendation of the newly formed Liturgy Committee, we will continue to inscribe the names of our departed loved ones in the Book of the Dead. This will be located in the Narthex and will be brought up at the Offertory at every Mass in November. 

     Similarly, the portraits of all members of the parish family who have into eternity this past year will be on display on a table near the Baptismal Font. It is through baptism that we are born into eternal life. It is fitting that they who have passed through the gates of death into eternal life should remind us of our own eternal destiny.  You are encouraged to bring a small (5×7 inch or smaller) framed picture of any of your loved ones who you would like commemorated throughout the month and place it on the table as a sign our communion with the Church Triumphant. 

     As I said, it is fitting that we do so as a family of faith. Christ has promised that he would lose nothing that the Father had given him, but that he would raise it up. It’s essential that we keep this in mind not only in the month of November, but throughout the whole year as well. 

     There is a popular heresy out there that when we die, we become angels. It’s a nice thought, but it limps theologically. Angels are purely spiritual beings. They don’t have a body.  We are human beings. By definition, we have a body and a soul. This is why the Eternal Word of God became flesh, suffered, died and then rose.  Jesus did not come to redeem half of us. He came so that he might raise us up.  Through our own resurrection, we don’t morph into something else.  Rather, we become what God has created us to be – perfectly human, body and soul. 

          The faithful departed, and all of us, await the fulfillment of our hope in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.