May 28, 2006
Posted in Homilies
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The Ascension, Year B, May 28th, 2006
On this feast of the Ascension we celebrate the day that Jesus ascended into heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus has gone before us into heaven, but He has not left us orphans. In one sense, He has stayed behind on earth in the Eucharist, and He has also left us many gifts to help us become saints, to reach “maturity,” the “full stature of Christ,” as St. Paul writes in the Second Reading.
Jesus has left us many gifts to help us on the path of holiness: He has left us His peace and joy, the Holy Spirit, and the Church with its apostles, prophets and evangelists, pastors and teachers. Two gifts I would like to highlight today are: Mary and the Eucharist.
Last week I spoke of true devotion and consecration to Mary. Since we have just returned from an inspiring pilgrimage that included Canada’s greatest Marian shrine at Cap-de-la-Madeleine, I would like to say a few words on Mary’s role as Mother. Why, in Catholic devotion, do we call Mary our Mother? . . . Because Jesus told us to! As Jesus was dying on the Cross, He looked down upon His Mother and the beloved disciple standing there, and said to the disciple, “Behold your mother” (John). A great mystery is hidden in these three words.
The beloved disciple represents all Christians, and Jesus intended these words for all Christians. If this were a secret entrusted only to the beloved disciple, Jesus could have whispered these words and the evangelist would not have recorded them. They are written in the Bible because they are intended for all of us. Jesus is pointing to Mary and saying to all Christians, “behold your mother.”
Jesus gives us Mary to be our Mother just as she was a Mother to Him. Jesus was formed in the womb and the home and the school of Mary, who gave birth to Him, nursed Him, and with the help of St. Joseph, educated him and raised him to maturity. Mystically speaking, we Christians reach “maturity” and the “full stature of Christ” by also being formed in the womb and the home and the school of Mary.
This may be a difficult mystery for people to grasp. Perhaps we can better appreciate the mystical Motherhood of Mary in the Church by comparing it to the more logical fatherhood of St. Paul. St. Paul once told the Corinthians, “I became your father through the Gospel” – by preaching the Gospel, he gave spiritual birth to Christians. And St. Paul’s mission of spiritual fatherhood continues until the end of the world, because he continues to give spiritual birth to Christians who read his words. For example, St. Augustine was converted in the 4th century by reading St. Paul.
If St. Paul is important for our spiritual formation because he wrote the Word of God, how much more important is Mary who gave birth to the Word of God – in this world and in our souls. And Mary’s mission of spiritual motherhood, of forming Christ in the souls of Christians, continues until the end of the world. “Behold your mother.” All the saints we encountered on our pilgrimage to Quebec, Blessed Frederic Jansonne, Blessed Francois de Laval, Blessed Catherine of St. Augustine, Blessed Marie of the Incarnation, had a devotion to Mary our Mother who helped them reach the full stature of Christ.
I have less time than I expected to say a few words on the Eucharist. Jesus has ascended into heaven, our true home. Yet He has also remained on earth in the Eucharist. “Behold, I am with you always, even until the end of the world.” These words of Jesus are often applied to His Eucharistic Presence. The more we recognize and love Jesus in the Eucharist here on earth, the closer we come to heaven. Christ is formed in us, and we come to spiritual maturity as Christians not only by doing logical things like reading the Bible, but by mystically participating in the life of Christ through devotion to Mary and by eating His Body and drinking His Blood.
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May 21, 2006
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B, May 21st, 2006
Since we are still in May, the month of Mary, I would like to talk about devotion to Mary as explained by S1. Louis de Montfort.
St. Louis de Montfort lived in early 18th century France and is known as the “Apostle of Mary.” He wrote perhaps the classic on Marian devotion called True Devotion to Mary, in which he teaches that the easiest, shortest and most perfect and secure way to perfection is union with Jesus Christ through consecration to Mary (footnote #1). I first read it in the mid 90′s and went through the consecration to Mary in 1997. This consecration is not a necessity for a Christian, but it has been a great blessing for me, and I feel that the pastor of a parish dedicated to our Lady should mention true devotion at least once.
Some critics have accused S1. Louis de Montfort, and the Catholic Church, of an exaggerated Marianism, as if we worship Mary. Other critics, like Dan Brown and friends, claim that the patriarchal Church has repressed the “sacred feminine.” So: our critics maintain that we worship Mary AND repress the sacred feminine. How can we do both? Our accusers contradict themselves.
St. Louis de Montfort is the first to admit, in Chapter 1 of his book, that Mary, in comparison with God, is “nothing at all” (#14). So other Christians must know once and for all that we do not worship Mary or the saints. If anyone were ever to worship Mary as if she were some sort of goddess, Mary herself would immediately say what Peter said in the first reading when Cornelius worshiped him, “Stand up; I am only a mortal.”
Yet she is also the Mother of God, the Holy and Immortal One. The second reading states, “God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.” As in all the Scriptures, whenever Jesus is mentioned, Mary is present, but hidden. “God sent His Son into the world” – through Mary, His Mother. We fail to appreciate Mary as we should because we fail to fully understand the meaning of the Incarnation, of God becoming a human being. If Jesus were simply a holy man or a great prophet, as people like Dan Brown suggest, ar.j as Muslims and Jews believe, then we would not honour Mary at all. But she is the Mother of God.
Think about it for a minute. Before the universe was created, before there were any galaxies or stars or planets, before space and time even existed, all that existed was the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, one God. After billions of years and the creation of Earth and the human race, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, was sent by the Father and born of a woman on the third planet of our solar system. God would not choose just any woman!
It is an accepted rule of the spiritual life that God always gives his servants the grace to fulfill their mission. The Holy Trinity chose her to be the Mother of the Son. For such a unique, extraordinary and unrepeatable mission, God would give more grace to Mary that to any other creature ever. “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and among all Cherubim and Seraphim and all creatures for all eternity.”
Jesus did not have to come into the world through Mary, but He chose to come to us through her, and He continues to do so. What He chose in history, He has chosen for all eternity. He came into the world through Mary in His human body; now He continues to come to us through Mary in the form of the graces we receive from Him through her hands.
This is one of the divine secrets that the Miraculous Medal is meant to communicate visibly. There is a profound theological meaning to the beams of light pouring out from our Lady’s hands, that even children can understand: All graces come to us from God through the hands of Mary. She is the Mediatrix of all graces.
Therefore, although we do not worship the Virgin Mary, the more Christian we become in understanding the meaning of the Incarnation, of God becoming a human being, the more we come to intimately know Jesus Christ as God, and how He comes to us today, the more we will appreciate, love, and venerate His Mother Mary.
St. Louis de Montfort also refers to consecration to Mary as “a perfect renewal of the vows of holy baptism.” Interesting, isn’t it? . . . What does true devotion to Mary and baptism have in common? . . . It’s basically the same vow. St. Louis writes that in baptism “we renounce. . . the devil, the world, sin and self; and we give ourselves entirely to Jesus Christ,” and in consecration to Mary we add: “by the hands of Mary” (#126).
I find this fascinating, because St. Louis is teaching Catholics in the 18th century how to be “born-again Christians!” He commented that there were so many lukewarm Christians because most people never ratified the contract they made with God through their sponsors at baptism (#127). So Catholics can become born-again Christians not by becoming less but more Catholic! You don’t have to leave the Catholic Church and join an evangelical sect and be re-baptized with the mudpouts in the Castor River, but simply renew the promises of your baptism through the hands of Mary.
Certainly there are other ways to renew the vows of our baptism, but consecration to Mary is one way recommended by the Church through the saints such as St. Louis de Montfort and most recently, John Paul II, who was consecrated to Mary according to the teachings of St. Louis. When John Paul wrote of Mary, he based his reflections on the Bible, for example, in his encyclical, The Mother of the Redeemer, while at the same time, in his private life, he lived a fervent, tender, and childlike devotion to Mary. I would recommend consecration to Mary to all those who feel called to it and feel some stirring in their hearts at these words.
As we prepare to celebrate the Eucharist, we recall that Mary is present with us, and that we receive Jesus through her. So let us ask her to help us receive Jesus more worthily. When St. Catherine Laboure, who received the revelations of the Miraculous Medal, was questioned, “What are the graces for which people forget to ask?” she replied, “people should ask the blessed Virgin for the grace to love God as she did when she was their age.” For this grace, and the others we need, we pray: “Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”
Footnote #1 “All our perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ. . . and therefore the most perfect of all devotions is . . . that which the most perfectly conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ. Now, Mary being the most conformed of all creatures to Jesus Christ, it follows that, of all devotions, that which most consecrates and conforms the soul to our Lord is devotion to His holy Mother” (#120).
Footnote #2 The more we become like Mary, the more Jesus will live in us. Consider for a moment who produced Jesus Christ on earth. . . It was the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. So if we want Jesus to live in our souls, then we also need both the Holy Spirit and Mary. As St. Louis puts it, “the more (the Holy Spirit) finds Mary, his dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty he becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul” (#20).
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May 14, 2006
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B, May 14th (Pro-life Sunday)
At the end of the diocesan week for life, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about pro-life. I recommend you take the time to read the bulletin insert with a reflection on the right to life by a man suffering from MS. I will be focusing on the right to life of unborn children.
I don’t know if you have heard the sad news about Canada’s future. Dan Gardner has written two articles about it in the Citizen in the past two weeks, the (Canadian) Catholic Organization for Life and Family has released a statement (on the bulletin board) and even our Pope has been speaking about it – the crisis of the decline in birthrates in developed countries.
The average number of children born to a woman in order to maintain a population is 2.1 (I think to account for infant mortality). The fertility rate in Canada in 1955 was almost 4, in 1975, 2, and today? What is the average number of children born to Canadian women today? . . . 1.5. Significantly below the average needed to renew our population. And as Dan Gardner put it, “unless the decline in Canadian birth rates is reversed quickly, we will soon see the beginning of a long slide in our standard of living” (Ottawa Citizen May 5, 2006).
Benedict XVI has also commented on the pressing problem of a declining birthrate in developed countries.1 Governments are getting seriously worried – in Germany, Japan, and now in Canada too. Policy makers have been trying to raise fertility rates with day care programs, tax credits or “baby bonus” payments – but unsuccessfully (Dan Gardner, Ottawa Citizen, May 8, 2006). What is the solution? What can we do? . . . No public policy is going to change people’s hearts. As one commentator put it, “This is the “great task of the Church, because only the proclamation of Christ can reawaken to life a society that is sliding inexorably toward death” (Riccardo Cascioli, President of Italy’s European Center of Studies on Population at Zenit.org Date: 2006-05-05)
“Apart from me, you can do nothing,” Christ reminds us in today’s Gospel. Apart from Christ we are nothing. He is the vine. We are the branches. When we cut ourselves off from the vine, we wither and die; we are thrown into the fire and burned. We are the branch, but we are also sitting on the branch that we ourselves are busily sawing off, seemingly oblivious to the fate that awaits us once the branch has been completely cut. In our secular society in Canada, we have been methodically cutting ourselves off from Christ for the past 30-40 years, through the abuse of sexuality, the breakdown of marriage and easy divorce, contraception, and the legal and institutionalized murder of innocent children in their mothers’ wombs – over 100 000 per year in Canada alone.
I find it odd that government officials and media pundits who are worried about our fertility rates will examine every possible angle and solution while ignoring the most obvious fact – we are missing almost 3 million people in Canada since 1970 because they were murdered before they were born. If we want to increase the average fertility rate of Canadian women, why not stop killing our children? That would help.
“Only the proclamation of Christ can reawaken to life a society that is sliding inexorably toward death.” The proclamation of Christ includes honesty about the horrifying sins against life being committed daily in our society, AND trust in the infinite mercy of God and the power of Christ to change individuals and society.
Consider the example of Saul from the first reading. The disciples were afraid of him because he had been persecuting them. St. Paul has even been called a murderer, because he was an accomplice in the stoning death of St. Stephen (Acts 8:1). But Saul was converted when Jesus appeared to him and asked him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Why are you trying to kill me?” In persecuting Christians, Saul was persecuting Christ. We must remember that whatever we do to the least of the brothers and sisters of Jesus, we do to him.
Every day in Canada, there are 300 tiny, helpless babies who cry out to their mothers, fathers, and doctors, “why are you killing me? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. What have I done to you? I did not want to take away your freedom. I was only asking for your love.”
God is infinitely merciful. We trust that all these murdered children have a place in heaven with the Holy Innocents and all the other martyrs of Christ. And just as God forgave Saul and raised him up to be a great saint, He will also forgive and raise up all those mothers, fathers, and doctors who are accomplices in the termination of pregnancies and the murder of the innocent – if they repent and trust in His infinite mercy.
No public policy is going to change people’s hearts. “Only the proclamation of Christ can reawaken to life a society that is sliding inexorably toward death.” All of us are called to proclaim Christ our life in our culture of death. And I’d like to thank all those families who are already proclaiming Christ by their deeds, who abide in Christ and bear much fruit by having more than the national average 1.5 children.
We also proclaim Christ by our words, advice and encouragement. Each one of us here, as Christians, must be a pro-life resource to friends and acquaintances. So that when you encounter someone with an unplanned pregnancy, YOU and I can help them choose life, we can tell them about the loving option of adoption, and refer them to local help agencies such as Miriam Centre, Birthright, First Place Pregnancy Centre, Marguerite Centre, the Holy Family Centre, Alliance for Life Helpline, Youville Centre, and so on (on the bulletin board at the back and website?).
God is merciful and he understands the tremendous pressure on women faced with an unplanned pregnancy, how they can feel afraid, isolated, trapped especially those who are unmarried and abandoned by their immature, cowardly boyfriends (it may sound harsh, but it’s true). Today’s is Mother’s Day. The overwhelming majority of pregnant mothers would never consider murdering their child IF they had the support of their boyfriends, husbands, families, society. We as Christians, while we pray and fight for the pro-life cause, must also love and support these women, so that they too might choose life, abide in Christ and bear much fruit.
I’d like to end with this prayer to Mary for Canada, copies of which will be available at the entrance next week.
O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, at this most critical time, we entrust our country to your loving care.
Most Holy Mother, we beg you to reclaim this land for the glory of your Son. Overwhelmed by the burden of the sins of our nation, we cry to you from the depths of our hearts and seek refuge in your motherly protection.
Look down with mercy upon us and touch the hearts of our people. Open our minds to the worth of human life and to the responsibilities that accompany human freedom.
Free us from the falsehoods that lead to (the murder of unborn children) and the breakdown of family life. Grant us the wisdom to know and proclaim that this nation was founded on God’s law and that He alone is the True Source of our cherished rights and freedoms.
Guide and protect this land from every evil and from the attacks of the powers of darkness.
O Merciful Mother, give us the courage to reject the culture of death and the strength to build a new culture of life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Ultimate roots
The papal message acknowledges that the situation “is the result of multiple and complex causes — often of an economic, social and cultural character.”
“But its ultimate roots can be seen as moral and spiritual; they are linked to a disturbing deficit of faith, hope and, indeed, love,” Benedict XVI writes.
According to the Bishop of Rome, “To bring children into the world calls for self-centered eros to be fulfilled in a creative agape rooted in generosity and marked by trust and hope in the future. By its nature, love looks to the eternal,” he says, quoting his encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est.”
“Perhaps the lack of such creative and forward-looking love is the reason why many couples today choose not to marry, why so many marriages fail, and why birthrates have significantly diminished,” the Holy Father states. (Zenit.org Date: 2006-04-28).
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May 7, 2006
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Fourth Sunday of Easter, May 7, 2006, Year B
On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, I will be speaking briefly and specifically about vocations to the priesthood, and Tom Stephenson about the diaconate after Communion.
This Sunday is a reminder to all parishes to pray for vocations, to all families to nurture and encourage vocations, and for young men and women to seriously consider following Christ more closely in poverty, chastity and obedience.
I’ll begin with some good news – we may have up to four men from Ottawa going to the Seminary this fall. I’ve been on the Vocations Committee for the Archdiocese of Ottawa for 3 years, (and by the way we have meetings the third Friday of every month for young men considering priesthood) and it is so encouraging to see that the prayers, sufferings, and sacrifices of many people are starting to bear fruit.
I know that there are young men in this parish called to be priests. Unfortunately, in our culture, many obstacles stand in the way of hearing and responding to the call. One is the busy-ness of modern life and a lack of prayer. In the Gospel, Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd, and that his sheep listen to His voice (John 10:16). Earlier in the same chapter, Jesus explains that the Good Shepherd “calls his own sheep by name” and they “recognize his voice” (3-4). As I mentioned last week, we as Christians need to learn to recognize the voice of Jesus speaking to us personally in our hearts.
The television network A&E recently broadcast a program called “God or the Girl” following four men in their 20′s who were discerning a call to priesthood. I haven’t seen it, but I plan on ordering a copy of the show when it is available in July. But I’d like to read you an excerpt from an interview with a priest on the show, Father Bashista, the vocation director of Arlington (Virginia?)
Q: What are the most common struggles that young men have today in discerning their vocation to the priesthood or marriage?
Father Bashista: In general, many of our youth have not built the habit of prayer through which the Lord disposes them to hear and respond to his vocation invitation. Most just “happen” into the married life without being sincerely open to the possibility that Christ might be inviting them to follow him as a priest or consecrated religious. Without prayer, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to receive the grace one needs to realize and embrace their vocation with trusting faith and reasonable conviction.
Some young men in this parish are being called by name by Jesus Christ, to follow him as priests. But can they hear His voice? Will they say “yes”? We can help them, not only by our prayers, but also by filling out this form (Called by Name). Please try to think of at least one person whom you feel might have a vocation, (not only to priesthood but also religious life or the diaconate) and fill out this form. You can put it in the collection basket this week or next week.
Some young men are afraid because they think that the life of a priest is too difficult or lonely. I mention in passing a recent survey in the States that asked priests to agree or disagree with this statement, ‘Overall, I am happy as a priest.” Guess what percent agreed? . . . 90.5%! (The Joy of Priesthood by Fr. Stephen J. Rossetti, p. 24). Do not be afraid. The call to priesthood is also a call to happiness in doing God’s will.
People still have so many mistaken notions about the life of a priest. At the high school, for instance, they ask me questions such as, “How much money do you make?” and “Why can’t you get married” or “What’s the worst thing you’ve done?” or “What planet are you from?” And so on. So I try to explain to them that we’re not in it for the money, that I truly consider celibacy a gift – a call to intimacy with Christ, and that I’m from the planet Earth. So each night I don’t go back to the Mother ship, because I live in a house in Russell – I’m a normal person!
So to you young men who may be called to the priesthood – you can be yourself and still be a priest. In fact, you may even find yourself as a priest, in fulfillment of those words of Jesus who said, “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” If you are called to be a priest, then you will find fulfillment as a human being by saying “yes” to the call.
In this month of May, we also turn to Mary the Mother of God and our Mother, to consider her example and ask for her help. She was also called by name, by God, to be the Mother of the Messiah. She had to listen to God’s voice in order to hear His call (which was finalized in the message of the angel). She also had to trust that God was not calling her in order to condemn her to a life of suffering, but that He was calling her to a life of joy in the midst of suffering and sacrifice. Let us frequently ask her intercession saying, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee,” that she may help all young people to listen to the voice of Jesus in discerning their vocation in life.
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