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Read more about the article Our Father Who Art in Heaven

Our Father Who Art in Heaven

Over the years several Protestant friends have inquired about why Catholics have the body of Christ on the cross in our churches.  Our Protestant brothers and sisters display an empty cross in their churches because Christ resurrected from the dead.  For Catholics though, the cross means nothing without the sacrifice Jesus made for us.  The crucifix (Christ’s body on the cross) is central to our faith because His death saved us from our sins.  The shape of the church itself is a crucifix with the altar and tabernacle containing Christ at the head, and we the faithful sitting in the body. This is the simple answer, but it goes much deeper than this.

Jesus did not only die for our sins so that we could go to Heaven, He left us the gift of the Eucharist so that we could become one with Him and thus become adopted children of God.  We the created become members of His uncreated family. At any Catholic church we are home. All Latin rite churches throughout the world have the same readings and the same prayers each day.  No matter where we are, we can walk into a Catholic church and pray the Mass without knowing the language.  This is the unity of one family.  It reflects the unity of the Trinity as one family. After the Our Father, we exchange the Sign of Peace with our brethren signifying that we forgive one another, which is another sign of unity, before turning to the altar and asking Jesus to forgive us for our own sins in the Lamb of God prayer. In presenting ourselves for Holy Communion we communicate our oneness in belief. When we partake of the Eucharist — the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus — we all become one with one another just as all the branches are part of the same vine.  In the Eucharist, we receive the crucified and risen Christ and become one with Him, receiving a share in His inheritance as sons and daughters of God.

Jesus alludes to this plan when He teaches the disciples to pray “Our Father Who art in Heaven” and when He reveals how this becomes possible in John chapter 6, known as the Bread of Life discourse:

Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day, for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in Me and I in them. Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats Me will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from Heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” (Jn 6:53-58)

His teaching become clear at the Last Supper when He says, “This is My body…This is My blood.”  At the Consecration during the Mass, the priest prays His words from Scripture: “This is My Body which will be given up for you” and “This is the chalice of My Blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.”  When Jesus took human form to fulfill the covenant between God and Man which will stand forever, He did not separate Himself from His divinity. Instead, He humbled Himself to share in our humanity, and He elevated us to share in His divinity.

In the Catholic Mass, which is offered every hour of every day somewhere in the world, Christ’s sacrifice is re-presented in a non-bloody manner.  The priest, who through the sacrament of Holy Orders is in persona Christi1, presents Christ’s sacrifice to the Father on behalf of the whole world.  It is this continual offering of Himself to the Father that brings us the Mercy that sustains our sinful world. After transubstantiation2 the priest stretches out his arms in prayer, in the same position Christ stretched out His arms on the cross, and offers the prayer Jesus taught us calling God “Our Father.”  He stands in persona Christi, arms outstretched, acting as mediator for all of us.  

If the resurrection had not occurred, our faith would be meaningless. As Catholics it is vital for us to attend the sacrifice of the Mass every Sunday because every Sunday is a celebration of His Resurrection. We come together to strengthen our faith and partake in our Eucharistic Lord now for the nourishment of our souls and also that we may be resurrected on the last day, when we will receive glorified bodies just as Christ’s body is glorified.

[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph #1548.

[2] CCC, #1376.

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Read more about the article Remain in Me

Remain in Me

On Ash Wednesday I decided that for Lent I was going to focus on really improving one of my big flaws – and promptly everything that triggers that flaw was thrown at me. By Saturday I was in Confession telling the priest how poorly it was going. The priest gently stated that I was trying to do it myself instead of asking God to accomplish it in me. Oh, right. Message received. I responded, “Well Father, I guess I need to add pride to the list of sins in this confession.”

While praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament afterward, Jesus put the scripture into my heart, “I must decrease and He must increase.” (Jn 3:30)  These were the words of St. John the Baptist, but suddenly I saw how it applied to me personally.  The key for me was to stop trying to depend on myself, and instead become like a child depending completely on God.  The more I got out of the way, the more God could work in me.  I suddenly saw clearly how the saints achieved such holiness.  They did not do it on their own, they instead relied on the Lord.  The more they emptied themselves, the more God filled them. They embraced humility and God did the rest. Then I recalled a story about the humility of St. John Paul the Great.

At a retreat, a priest recounted his experience with Pope John Paul II when he was in seminary visiting Rome.  He had been instructed that the Pope would walk down the line and bless each of them and they weren’t supposed to converse with him because there were so many people and the Pope had limited time (according to them).  However, he had been on the street earlier that day and had met a beggar.  Embarrassed that he had no money to give, he offered to pray for the man.  The beggar then told him that he had been a priest.  The seminarian was so troubled about this that he blurted it out to the Pope when he came to bless him. The Pope instructed him to find the beggar and bring him to his personal office the following day.

The seminarian brought the beggar. The Pope received him and asked everyone else to leave the room.  When the beggar came out of the room, tears were streaming down his face. The seminarian and the priests asked what the Pope said to him.  The beggar responded, “He sat me down in a chair and kneeled in front of me and said, “Father, will you hear my confession?” Because of the humility of this saint, the beggar subsequently returned to his priestly vocation.

We are now at the end of Lent, entering the Holy Triduum. The Lord spoke again to my heart, “Remain in Me and I will remain in you”  — a confirmation of His earlier message. 

Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without Me you can do nothing.  If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples. (Jn 15:5,7-8)

He is calling us to be saints. You think you don’t have what it takes? You are in good company – none of us do – without Him we can do nothing.  Just as the branch relies completely on the vine for strength, sustenance, and life, so too must we rely on Him.  Remain in Him and allow Him to work through us.  If we humble ourselves, God can fill us and He can make us saints.

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Read more about the article You Are The Salt of the Earth

You Are The Salt of the Earth

Salt is an image that has been universally recognized throughout the ages and across all cultures.  As Christians we reflect on every meaning of salt and how we can apply it to our lives.

Salt has the ability to transform the taste of food.  When I eat raw bok choy, I find that with a dash of sea salt, the bitter edge becomes sweet.  The secret to cooking with salt is to use just enough to bring out other flavors; one should not taste the salt.  How many times have we experienced the gift of salt from others?  The people who clean the altar linens at Church for Sunday Mass, parents who do all the prep work for preschool art class or sew costumes for school plays, or the hosts and hostesses who prepare their homes to welcome holiday guests all do much more than we realize.  They are the salt that brings beauty to our lives.

Salt is humble.  It remains in the background not driven by need for recognition.  St. Thérèse of Lisieux is a perfect example. As a cloistered nun, she remained apart from society devoted to a life of prayer.  In her time very few people knew of her existence or the profound effect she would have on Christianity. She died at 24 years of age in 1897.  Her spiritual essays, collectively published as The Story of a Soul in 1898 outline a path to holiness that is so simple a child could grasp it: do all the little things with great love. 

As a mom raising young children I would have loved to say that I rose early every morning to pray a rosary before starting my day, but that was not my reality. My children did not nap and my younger one slept very poorly for years – which meant I slept poorly as well, tumbling into bed at night exhausted and falling asleep during the Apostles’ Creed; I hoarded every minute of sleep as a treasure.  St. Thérèse’s words showed me how to make a prayer out of my ordinary life. Whether I was doing laundry, scrubbing the toilet, or cooking a meal, I could offer these things to God with love and they would no longer be menial tasks, but prayers from the heart. Her advice transformed my perspective not only on what I was doing, but on how I valued myself and my contribution to the world.  I no longer saw myself the way American society views parents who work in the home; I saw myself as someone accomplishing the tasks God wanted me to do for love of Him and my family.  I found meaning in the smallness of my life.

Salt is vital for life. Salt helps regulate the water content in our bodies, helps maintain blood pressure, and assists in nerve and muscle function.  Without salt, we could not survive.  If we are to be this salt, we must understand that without Christ we have no eternal life and neither does anyone else. We are chosen to be witnesses for Him and bring those around us into life in Christ.  We are called to live our Christian faith so that we are a blessing to others. 

Jesus is also writing us a love letter. If we really pay attention to the Scripture, we can read what He means to tell us. Jesus sees our acts of love that no one else sees.  Nothing that we do is unimportant in His eyes. Salt is precious and so are we.  We are the ones with whom He wants to share His eternal life. We are the reason He came to earth, suffered, died, and resurrected. We are the beloved of God.

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Read more about the article And The Word Was Made Flesh

And The Word Was Made Flesh

In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through Him. What has come into being in Him was life, life that was the light of men; and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it. The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone; He was coming into the world. He was in the world that had come into being through Him, and the world did not recognize Him.  But to those who did accept Him He gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in His name who were born not from human stock or human desire or human will but from God Himself. The Word became flesh, He lived among us, and we saw His glory, the glory that He has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:1-5, 9-10, 12-14)

The daily reading for New Year’s Eve is the Gospel of John Chapter 1, which precedes the Feast Day of Mary, Mother of God and the infancy narrative from the Gospel of Luke in which the angels announce the Savior to the shepherds.  Encountering these two readings back to back reveals the sublime truths that John conveys.

Everything was created through The Word, Jesus.  God the Father, Creator, created through the spoken word which is Christ Himself and life was given to creation through the Holy Spirit.  When we read scripture aloud at Mass, we are encountering Jesus as The Word.  When we truly understand that we are not merely reading a book but are meeting with The Lord, our attention shifts and our hearts open to receive Him.  At every Mass, we can be like the shepherds who sought Him in Bethlehem.  Our longing to receive Him is a gift from The Father to prepare our hearts to receive His Son.  We can take hold of the words of scripture and plant them firmly in our hearts to become God’s own children, and share in the inheritance of His Only Begotten Son.  The Word is how Moses, David, the Prophets, and holy men and women in the Old Testament encountered Our Lord.

Even greater blessings come to us because The Word was made flesh. Gabriel the Archangel came and greeted Mary with “Hail, full of grace.” Mary, through Her life of continual prayer, had built a cathedral in Her heart, a cathedral so beautiful that God Himself chose to live there.  Gabriel greets Her as his queen and Mary is so humble that She only asks how God wishes Her to serve Him.

Jesus came to dwell among us as one of us, not by coming in majesty, but by becoming a baby born of a woman and into a family.  He chose to subject Himself to the commandment “Honor thy father and thy mother” because the family is God’s gift to us; it is His plan that parents offer their time and labor for bringing up souls that honor God, and that children honor their parents for these sacrifices.  God gives women the supreme gift of being companions with Him on the intimate journey of the creation and nurturing of human life.  Jesus chose to create His own mother, save Her from the stain of sin at Her Immaculate Conception, and then asked Her if She would be willing to become His mother.  This demonstrates the humility of God, the sacredness of human life, and the value God places on motherhood.  As Catholics, we love Mary because Jesus loves Her and we honor Her because Jesus honors Her.  In all things, we strive to imitate Our Lord.

Jesus came into the world and the world did not recognize Him.  Many today still do not recognize His presence among us.  He is with us, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, in the Eucharist.  Mass is not a social event; it is a divine event.  It is a celebration of God with us, God sharing His divine life with us, nourishing our souls with Himself.  When we understand this and prepare our hearts accordingly, it is then that we too can say that our souls see Him in His glory, the glory that He has from the Father as Only Son of the Father.  What is hidden from world we see in grace and truth.

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