The Queenship of Mary celebrates life

Pius XII established the feast of the Queenship of Mary in 1954. The feast is a logical follow-up to the Assumption and is now celebrated on the octave day of that feast. In his encyclical To the Queen of Heaven, Pius XII points out that Mary deserves the title because she is Mother of God, because she is closely associated as the New Eve with Jesus’ redemptive work, because of her preeminent perfection and because of her intercessory power.

Mary brought life, the Son of God, into the world at great cost to her.  Maryprovides a great witness to all mothers today.  Her witness is urgently needed to counteract the confusion about motherhood and families.   

I recently watched a video from the US council of Catholic Bishops titled Made for Life.  The introduction to the viewers’ guide says the following:  “The vocation of marriage is a unique call to an adventure of love and life, where love is life-giving in a matchless way.  Marriage, in its inmost essence as the union of husband and wife, is open to the child.  The love between husband and wife – what we call authentic spousal love – is never self-enclosed but remains open to life.  Married love is different than any other kind of love or bond between two persons.  In an utterly unique way, the bond between a man and a woman as husband and wife is made of life, made for fruitful love, especially for the possibility of receiving the gift of life and becoming stewards of it.”

Marriage is meant to be an adventure of love and life with married love being life-giving.  For Mary, her openness to life resulted in birth of the Messiah, our salvation, and the establishment of the Church.  Imagine what our world might be like if Mary were not open to life.  So, today we celebrate her queenship as the mother of the Messiah.

As married couples, our openness to life is part of our marriage covenant.  During the marriage rite, the priest or deacon asks the couple the question:  “Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?”  The couple’s answer to this question is important not only for their future family, but also for the Church, the nation, and the world.  If we are going to answer that question with a resounding “Yes”, we must believe that children are a gift and are not a burden to the married couple and to society. 

So today, let us reflect upon Mary’s openness to life and the sacrifices which she made for us.  And let us commit to supporting life from conception to natural death by our words and our actions.  And, if we aren’t sure about our position on this most critical issue, let us resolve to study and to embrace the teachings of the Church, especially the writings of Pope John Paul II, on this issue. 

The battle lines have been drawn on the issue of life and we cannot stand on the sidelines.  Let us pray that all Catholics will follow Mary and the inspired teachings of the Church.  It is truly a matter of life and death.

The Holy Family as a dysfuncional family

Last week I attended a conference on Marriage and Family.  This conference gave me hope because those attending were proclaiming the truth about God’s plan for marriage and family.  One of the speakers talked about the Holy Family.  He commented that the story of the Holy Family is our story.  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph would be considered a dysfunctional family today.  Mary was fourteen or fifteen when she married Joseph who was a much older man.  Then, she got pregnant, even before they started living together.  It was common in those times for a couple to get married and then to return to the homes of their parents so that the man could prepare a place where he could live with his bride.  That’s why Mary and Joseph were married but not yet living together.  Imagine Joseph’s surprise when he realized that Mary was pregnant.  But he didn’t rant about it but planned, as was the custom at the time, to divorce her quietly.   Then an angel came to Joseph to tell him that Mary was to give birth to the Messiah.  Joseph accepted this shocking news and lived a chaste life with Mary.

Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem for a census and gave birth to Jesus in a cave.  In today’s terms, they were homeless.  After Jesus’ birth, an angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod who was killing the young boys.  So, they were forced to go to a foreign land as immigrants until Herod died and this threat passed.

When Jesus was twelve, they took him to the temple as was the custom at the time.  But, Mary and Joseph both left without Jesus.  Jesus was lost for three days in the temple of the big city of Jerusalem.  Imagine how Mary and Joseph felt in losing not only their son, but the Son of God.

Joseph died sometime after this before Jesus began his public ministry.  So, Mary was a single mother.  She watched as Jesus was tortured and died a brutal death on the cross.  As a mother, she kept all these things in her heart.

August 15th is the feast of the Assumption, when Mary is raised body and soul into heaven.  She is now in heaven as our model, our mother, our inspiration, and our hope.  All of us hope to be in heaven one day with God the Father, as she is.  All of us have experienced some difficulties in our life, especially in our marriages and our families.  But, I’m sure none of us have experienced the same level of difficulties that Mary experienced.  She carried her cross every day as she kept all these things in her heart.  She was obedient and constantly followed God’s will, even when it brought her times of suffering.

So, today, as we celebrate the feast of the Assumption, let us give thanks for the trials in our lives.  Let us take up the cross that God has given us and follow Him as Mary did along the road of Golgotha.  Let us not measure our success based upon dollars, or upon power, or recognition.  Instead, let us measure our successes based upon our willingness to follow God’s plan for our lives.  Let us celebrate our gifts of marriage and family, even the gifts which bring us pain and suffering.  And let us carry and even rejoice in our cross knowing that each step along the path of life with our cross brings us closer to our heavenly destiny when we will be in heaven, body and soul with Mary and our heavenly Father.

A reflection on divorce and Jesus' teachings

In today’s Gospel, some Pharisees ask Jesus if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife.  Jesus replied that what God has joined together man must not separate.  He also commented that Moses allowed divorce because of the hardness of their hearts. 

This teaching is difficult for many to accept because of the many divorces which we see in our society today.  Clearly, marriage is under attack with many young couples living together before they get married and others deciding not to marry at all.  Sometimes it seems like marriage is becoming obsolete.  And some are even trying to redefine marriage to include same sex relationships.  So, Jesus words to us today are very timely as he says:  “From the beginning, the Creator made them male and female.  For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 

Today, those of us who are married must witness by our words and our actions to our marriage covenant.  Our young people need to know that a marriage which lasts forever is not only possible, but is part of God’s plan for most of us.  If we follow that plan and abide by the teachings of his Church, our  marriages will be an image of Jesus’ love for each one of us.

Last week I attended the National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers conference.  There were about 400 people at the conference including 4 bishops, 10 priests, and about 30 deacons.  It was an inspiring and an informative conference for me.  There were speakers and vendors at the conference who focused on every aspect of marriage including marriage preparation, making good marriages better, saving troubled marriages, dealing with divorce, and meeting the needs of widows and widowers.  In these times when marriages are under attack, it was great to meet so many talented and holy people who are focusing their efforts in this area.  Everyone that I met reaffirmed the Church’s teaching on marriage and family.  At times, in our confused world, it can seem like all is lost and that the devil has won the war for the hearts and minds of our young families.  But, attending a conference like this one and finding so many people who are proclaiming the truth regarding marriage and family in their parish or their diocese, gives me hope that there are many hearts and minds yet to be won in this battle.

After attending this conference, I have access to lots of resources concerning marriage and family life.  If you or someone you know is struggling in this area, come see me and I’ll try to point you towards someone or something which might be of assistance.

Pope John Paul II tells us that "The family finds in the plan of God the Creator and Redeemer not only its identity, what it is, but also its mission, what it can and should do."   Our mission, as husbands and wives, is, first and foremost, to build our domestic Church, to build the kingdom of God on earth.  As our families go, so goes our nation, our Church, and our world.  Please join me in praying for families and marriages during these confusing times.

The Rule of St Benedict for families

The following post includes excerpts from Listen My Son - St Benedict for Fathers, by Dwight Longenecker.

On this feast day of St Benedict, it is good for us to reflect on his Rule.  The sixth-century Rule of St Benedict is a code written for the foundation and maintenance of a Christian monastery.  It has been in use for the last fifteen hundred years as the basis for every Benedictine monastery and convent and for many other religious orders.  Benedict’s Rule is full of practical wisdom and principles of human relationship which can be applied to almost any situation where people work together. 

Benedict calls us to make an act of the will – to make a decision to follow the path of God’s commandments.   Throughout the Rule, the three Benedictine vows of Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life provide a driving force.  Benedict sees spiritual maturity as something which is the product of a certain type of life.  It can be accomplished only through a lifetime of wholeness.  This wholeness consists of finding our proper place in the world and giving glory to God by finding our peace in His will.  Once of the ways to find this place of simplicity and wholeness is by pursuing stability of life.

The emphasis on stability is vital in our personal lives and in our Christian homes.  In a fast-changing world where mobility is taken for granted, it is all too easy to move house, church, or job simply because we are bored or restless and think things will be better somewhere else.    

Christian husbands and wives are forced into stability by their marriage vows and by the need to provide this stability for their family.  We can either rebel against these enforced enclosures or we can see them as the crucible of our own spiritual refinement.  The constraints of family life can either be the chains that bind us or the force of stability which gives us true freedom.  Stability reminds us that we may run away from others, but we cannot run away from ourselves.

Obedience is the second of the Benedictine vows.  If we take our marriage vows seriously, then we have the basis for a life of obedience.  Obedience is being in a constant attitude of self-sacrificial love towards our spouse and our children.  The family life demands a regular sacrifice of our will and our desire to the good of others.  Benedict never pretends that obedience is easy.  Of the three vows, this is perhaps the most difficult one to attain on our own. 

The last Benedictine vow is a vow of conversion of life.  One of the ways to prepare for and co-operate with this conversion is to develop a constant awareness of God’s presence.  Throughout the Rule, Benedict reminds the monks to be awake, to be alert, and watchful for the Lord’s presence.  This watchful awareness of God is a humble state of dependence on the heavenly Father.  To nurture this awareness of God is to nurture our humility because an awareness of God reveals our own frail condition.  We are called by our baptism to prefer nothing to the love of Christ.  We are called to cooperate with God’s grace and to prepare the ground for that work which he is pleased to do within us.  The demands of our marriage and family life are more than enough to lead us to that total conversion which God provides through Jesus Christ.

Today, on the feast of St Benedict, let us give thanks for this great saint and for his Rule.  And let us pray for stability, for obedience, and for conversion of life especially in our marriages and in our families.      

Homily from Jeff and Heather's wedding

Last Saturday, I presided at the wedding of Jeff LIndsey and Heather Sanders.  It was the first wedding for me as a deacon.  It was a scary but blessed time for me.  This was the homily that I gave at the wedding.

I find it very rewarding, as a fairly new deacon, is to be on the altar during mass.  As I look out into the congregation on a Sunday, I see so many couples, especially young couples, like Jeff and Heather.  Often, I know their stories, since I have been a member of this parish for many years.  I marvel that we at St Francis De Sales, have so many good young families.  It may create a lot of noise at the 11 o’clock mass on Sunday, but this noise is very joyful.  I am very happy to have been part of Jeff and Heather’s life.  I look forward to looking seeing them at 11 o’clock mass on Sunday for many, many years.  Also, I am excited to be baptizing Dimitri at 12:30 tomorrow.

A few months ago, I met with them to select the readings for today.  After they selected the first reading, which is from the book of Tobit, I told them the story of Tobiah and Sarah prior to their wedding night.  In this reading, we hear the prayer that Sarah and Tobiah said on their wedding night which is a fitting prayer to read during a marriage.  But, it can have much more meaning for us, if we understand the circumstances under which Sarah and Tobiah were praying that night.  So, I will briefly summarize the events which led up to this prayer. 

Tobiah’s father Tobit was blinded and had cataracts on his eyes.  Tobit had deposited a great sum of money in Media and he asked his son Tobiah to travel to Media and collect this money.  Tobiah didn’t know the way there so he looked for someone who could travel with him.  He found Raphael to go with him.  Raphael was an angel but Tobiah wasn’t aware of this.

Along the way, Tobiah and Raphael made camp beside a river and a large fish leaped out of the water and tried to swallow Tobiah’s foot.  Raphael told Tobiah to take hold of the fish, to cut it up and take out the gall, heart, and liver since these were useful medicines.  Then, they broiled and ate the rest of the fish.

When they arrived at Media, Raphael told Tobiah that they must stay with Raguel, a relative.  Raguel had a daughter named Sarah who Tobiah was entitled to marry and who was sensible, courageous, and very beautiful.  But, Tobiah objected because he had heard that Sarah had been married seven times and that each time her husband had died on the wedding night in the bridal chambers.  Raphael told him to burn the fish’s liver and heart in the bridal chamber.  Then, the demon would smell the odor and leave.

So, Tobiah, went to Raguel’s house and claimed Sarah as his bride.  Sarah’s father Raguel and his wife  gave Sarah in marriage to Tobiah.  After eating and drinking, Tobiah and Sarah retired into the wedding chamber.  Once there, Tobiah burned the fish’s liver and heart as Raphael had instructed.  This repelled the demon.  Then, Tobiah and Sarah began to pray the wedding prayer in our first reading.  Clearly, they had reason to praise God as they prayed that God would allow them to live together to a happy old age.

During the night, Sarah’s father, summoned some servants to dig a grave for Tobiah.  He didn’t want to be subject to ridicule if Tobiah should die during the night.  In the morning, he sent one of the maids into the wedding chamber to see if Tobiah was alive or dead.  When she told him that Tobiah was alive, Raguel prayed: “Blessed are you who have made me glad, what I feared did not happen.”  Then he told the servants to fill in the grave.

What lessons can this story teach us about marriage?  First, it teaches us about the importance of prayer.  It is very important for all married couples to pray and especially to pray together as a couple.  Marriages and families today are under attack.  It is very difficult for couples to stay married and to live their marriage as God intended them to.   Almost all of the messages that married couples get from our society tend to divide them instead of encouraging and helping them as a couple.  Without God’s grace and without regular prayer, a successful, life-long marriage can seem almost impossible.

Secondly, this story tells us the importance of following God’s will and his Church’s direction for our lives and for our marriage, even when we don’t fully understand why we need to do what the Church is telling us.  As He told us in the Our Father, it’s all about building His Kingdom and doing His will.  If we try to follow our will, in the end, we will often be disappointed with the results.  Imagine if Tobiah had decided that the smell of the burning fish would be too much for the wedding chamber and decided to skip burning it.  Clearly, he would have been buried in the grave that Raguel had dug. 

Finally, this story tells us how important it is to bring God into our marriage.  Marriage is much more than a legal contract between two persons.  Marriage is a covenant between husband, wife, and God.  In a few minutes, Jeff and Heather will declare their love for each other before all of us and before God.  They will declare that their love will be forever, that it will be fruitful, that they will be faithful to each other, and that it will be total and exclusive.  This covenant mirrors the love that Jesus has for all of us.  And, through his grace and through the grace of his sacraments, he will help Jeff and Heather along the difficult but rewarding journey of married life.

In our marriages, God asks us to pray, to follow his will, to bring him into our life and even into our bedroom and to sacrifice.  When we do this, we become members of his kingdom on earth as we build this kingdom and join others who are also following his will.  This brings peace, joy and happiness to our marriages, to our families and to society. 

Earlier I mentioned about the many young families that I see each week at mass.  These mothers and fathers are an inspiration to me as I see the joy, peace and happiness in their families. Clearly, they are living God’s will and are building his kingdom on earth through the everyday struggles in their families.  Today, Jeff and Heather are a inspiration for all of us here.  By their love and their commitment to their marriage covenant, they renew our faith in marriage and in family. 

So today, let us give thanks for the gift of marriage and for Jeff and Heather.  And let us pray that they like Sara and Tobiah will follow God’s will and will be rewarded with a long and fruitful marriage.

Our faith is built on the solid foundation of truth

Last week, we were getting a deck installed at our vacation home near Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  This deck is about six inches off of the ground.  The fellow installing the deck, Matthew Brown, used 45 bags of concrete as footers of this deck.   Matthew is convinced that the foundation of the deck is the most important part of the deck since it supports the rest of the structure.   So, our new deck is solid.  It doesn’t bounce, even if you jump on it.  In fact, I think the house will collapse before the deck ever does.

Yesterday, the feast of Pentecost, is the birthday of our Church.  When you consider our Church, its foundation is also critical.  The foundation of our Church is Peter, and his successors.  Jesus himself said: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” 

The saint whose feast is tonight, Saint Anthony of Padua, a doctor of the Church, was born in 1195 and died in 1231.  St Anthony provided simple and resounding teaching on the Catholic faith, so that the most unlettered and innocent might understand it.  He is called the “hammer of the heretics.”  When St Anthony of Padua found he was preaching the true Gospel of the Church to heretics who would not listen to him, he then went out and preached it to the fishes. This was not for the instruction of the fishes, but rather for the glory of God, the delight of the angels, and the easing of his own heart. St. Anthony wanted to profess the Catholic faith with his mind and his heart, at every moment.

Today, there are some in our Church who could merit the title of the hammer of the heretics.  One would certainly be our current pope, Benedict XVI, who preaches the truth continuously, sometimes to audiences who reject it.    This unchanging truth, this solid foundation is required in our times of moral relativism.  Many would tell us that their truth isn’t the same as our truth.  When we hear this, we might be tempted to be silent and to let them go their way.  But out of Christian charity, we must continue to hammer away at the truth.  We must continue to hate the sin and to love the sinner.  If we continue to preach the simple and resounding teaching of the Catholic faith, we can be confident that we are following in the footsteps of Saint Anthony of Padua.

Like my deck in Gatlinburg, our faith is built on the solid foundation of the truth.  It would not stand for long if it were built on the sand of moral relativism.  Certainly, our faith requires time and study since we cannot rely on our own inclinations and whims to find this truth.  We must study the teachings of our church as handed down through the centuries from doctors of the church, like the hammer of the heretics, St. Anthony of Padua.   Only after we do this can we confidently proclaim this truth as it has been passed down to us by others who are far wiser than we are.

So tonight, let us give thanks for the unchanging truth of our faith and for the doctors of our Church, such as St Anthony of Padua who have proclaimed and clarified this truth for us and for future generations.

God's love and our conscience

This reflection is based upon John chapter 21 verses 15 to 19.  In this Gospel reading, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him.  Each time Peter replies that he does.  Jesus might be asking this question three times to counteract Peter’s denying him three times.  Or it could be that Jesus is just emphasizing the point that Peter must love him.  Then, Jesus tells Peter a parable about old age.  He tells Peter that when he grows old someone else will dress him and will lead him where he doesn’t want to go.  This could be a reference to Peter’s eventual death on a cross.  Finally, Jesus tells Peter to follow him.  This sequence emphasizes Peter’s role in the Church.  As the head of the Church, as its rock, it is critical that Peter love Jesus and that he follow him. We see in Acts of the Apostles, that Peter does follow the footsteps of Jesus; that he works miracles and proclaims the message of Jesus.  Eventually, he dies on the cross as Jesus did.  It is said that Peter requested that he be crucified upside down because he wasn’t worthy to die the same type of death that Jesus did. 

Today, Jesus is telling us the same things that he told Peter.  He is constantly asking us if we love him and then telling us to feed his sheep.  Of course, our role isn’t nearly as important as Peter’s role was.  But, each of us is important in spreading the faith to those that we meet.  Imagine what our lives would be like if we didn’t have the gift of faith.  And for most of us, this wasn’t a conscious choice that we made but a free gift from our parents.  And we won’t have to suffer the death of a martyr in order to spread the faith to those we meet.  We just have to be a good example to others and to be able and willing to proclaim the faith when the opportunity presents itself.

The question, do you love Jesus, is an appropriate response from our conscience, after we sin.  And it is good for us to hear that question deep within ourselves.  When we hear this, it tells us that we aren’t so accustomed to sin that it doesn’t bother us.  Like Peter, we must quickly tell the Lord that we love him and, then, once again, follow him.

Paragraph 1783 of the Catechism tells us: “Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened.  A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful.  If formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator.  The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teaching.”

Pope Benedict recently said that Europe is doomed if conscience isn’t rediscovered when he said: 

“If, in keeping with the prevailing modern idea, conscience is reduced to the subjective field to which religion and morality have been banished, then the crisis of the West has no remedy and Europe is destined to collapse in on itself.  If, on the other hand, conscience is rediscovered as the place in which to listen to truth and good, the place of responsibility before God and before fellow human beings – in other words, the bulwark against all forms of tyranny – then there is hope for the future.”

Is there hope for the future here in Lebanon, Ohio?  Or have we also reduced conscience to a subjective thing?  The stakes are high.  The survival of society here is also dependent upon us, individually and as a society, listening to that voice within us which tells us to do good and to avoid evil.   Are we listening and are we following him or are we doing our own thing?