Sermon, 2nd Sunday after Easter, April 22, 2012

Second Sunday after Easter, April 22, 2012

Good Shepherd Sunday

(John 10: 11-16)

            Our Lord tells us in today’s Gospel, “I am the good shepherd,” and in the next sentence He tells us what makes Him so: “The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.” Jesus is the Good Shepherd by His nature. We are called upon to imitate Him to become good shepherds. When we marry, for example, we give up our independence. When we have children, we give up our time and money to raise them. Our spouse and children are our sheep. When we give up something for their benefit, we are Good Shepherds, giving up a part of our lives for them.

                                                                                                                                                                              

  Today is very important to Christians. Jesus knew that He would return to His Father, but He would not abandon the children that He was going to die for. So today our Lord and Master begins His work of establishing and consolidating His Church by calling Himself the Good Shepherd. He would later give it the pastor, Peter the Rock, the shepherd who would govern it until the end of time. is work of establishing and consolidHLet's go to the city of Caesarea Philippi, at Matthew 16: 18 where Jesus asked His Disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” Various answers were given, but Simon said, “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus blessed him , “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona,” because He knew His Father had revealed this to him, and Christ immediately told him that from that time forward he was not to be Simon, but Peter, which means the rock. In Aramaic the word is Cephas, in Greek Petros, in Latin Petrus, in English Peter – and they all mean “rock.”  St. Paul acknowledges Cephas in Galatians and Corinthians. Peter is not a name without meaning. Cephas, Petros, Petrus, Peter – in all languages means the rock. So Jesus was telling St. Peter “Thou art the rock, and upon this rock I will build My church.”

Going back 800 years before Christ, Isaias spoke of Christ under the name of a Rock, a Cornerstone:  “Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will lay a stone in the foundation of Sion, a tried stone, a corner-stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation.” (Isaias 28: 16) When Jesus conferred on Simon his title of the Rock, the cornerstone, Jesus is telling us and Peter the Rock that he was to have something in common with Himself, something that the other Apostles were not to have. Because right after He blessed Simon, He said, “You are Peter, you are the rock; and upon this rock I will build my church.” Christians acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the foundation stone of the Church, but here is Jesus, the Son of God, telling Simon that he is the rock and upon this rock, Peter the rock, He will build His Church. To build a church on earth is to build an organization that operates within, of, by and for mankind. In all organizations of men, someone must be in charge. This is true even in those religious sects that do not recognize priests or ministers; someone, or some group, is always in charge. In the Church that Jesus was going to build, Peter is that person who is placed in charge. “Thou art Peter, the rock, and upon this rock I will build my Church,” – this is Peter’s appointment as the leader of the Apostles. The other Apostles that day drank this in. They did not question it, Judas perhaps excepted. Further, if “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” then upon the death of Peter, someone else had to be chosen to be the leader of Christ’s Church, the person in charge, the person with the final authority.

Our Lord continues, telling Peter, “And I will give to thee the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” In the language of the Jews of that day “keys” signify the power of governing. (Isaias 22: 22 - Speaking of Sobna, scribe of King Ezechias, and in charge of the Temple, that he, Sobna, will be replaced by Eliacim, Isaias say, “And I will lay the key to the house of David upon his shoulder . . .” Eliacim was appointed master over all servants in the palace. Such is the nature of the keys given to Peter, the chief servant.)  From the Catholic Encyclopedia, under Kingdom of God, is a discussion of the Kingdom of Heaven. “As men grew to understand the Divinity of Christ they grew to see that the kingdom of God was also that of Christ — it was here that the faith of the good thief excelled: ‘Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom.’ So, too, as men realized that this kingdom stood for a certain tone of mind, and saw that this peculiar spirit was enshrined in the Church, they began to speak of the Church as ‘the kingdom of God’; (Colossians 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; Apocalypse 1:6-9 and 5:10) The kingdom was regarded as Christ's and He presents it to the Father; (1 Corinthians 15: 23-28; 2 Timothy 4:1). The kingdom of God means, then, the ruling of God in our hearts; it means those principles which separate us from the kingdom of the world and the devil; it means the benign sway of grace; it means the Church as that Divine institution whereby we may make sure of attaining the spirit of Christ and so win the ultimate kingdom of God. See Matthew 13 where, in a series of parables Jesus describes the “kingdom of heaven” as His Church. So by saying to Peter, “I will give to thee the keys to the kingdom of heaven,” Like Eliacim, Peter is made chief servant, under Christ the King, and in charge of Christ’s Church.

            After Jesus had been crucified and rose from the dead the time came for Him to make good on that promise to build His Church. So we jump forward to the time near the end when Jesus appeared to the Apostles on the shores of the Lake of Tiberias, the Sea of Galilee. He provides them with dinner and after eating He says to Peter, “Simon, son of John, lovest thou me?”  (John 21: 15-17) Jesus did not call him Peter, but Simon, so the other Apostles would note the transition between the earlier promise of establishing this Rock as the foundation of His Church, and the actual fulfillment of that promise. Peter, with his usual eagerness answers, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.” Jesus commands him, “Feed my lambs.” Then He repeats the question, “Simon, Son of John, lovest thou me?” Again Peter gives the same answer. The others are respectfully listening to this dialog and see plainly that Peter is again made an object of Jesus' partiality, and that he is receiving something which they are not receiving. They remember what happened at Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus said to him, “Thou art the rock, and upon this rock I will build my church.” A third time then, Jesus asks Peter, “Simon, son of John, lovest thou me?” Peters answers again, perhaps more humbly, “Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.” Then, making Peter's authority complete, Jesus pronounces these imposing words: “Feed my sheep.” Peter is made shepherd by Him Who calls Himself the Good Shepherd. Giving Peter twice the command to “Feed my lambs” did not make him the complete shepherd, but when Christ tells Peter to “Feed my sheep,” the whole flock is then subjected to Peter's authority.

The time of Jesus' visible presence on Earth is coming to an end, and there on the shores of the Lake of Tiberias Peter is proclaimed the visible head of Christ's Church. Is the Church a building? Peter is the foundation-stone. Is the Church a kingdom? Peter has the keys, the authority to rule it. Is the Church a fold? Peter is the shepherd, the chief servant.

Now we come back to today's Gospel, which ends with the words: “and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” These are Christ's words, the words of God, so we know that if His Church is to be one fold it must have one supreme shepherd. Although it is popular today to claim that the Church of Christ is composed of all the Christian churches, this claim simply doesn't stand up to an examination of the Bible and of the history that followed.

The Figure of the Good Shepherd is the most perfect human image given to us of the whole divine plan of our restoration to God by means of the Word Incarnate. It is the most complete, the most tender and the most authoritative image since it is given to us by God Himself. We live today in an Age of Disobedience, so it is important for priests and laymen alike to “stand fast in the Lord,” as St. Paul expressed to the Thessalonians. The ancient Jews, when disobedient to God's Word, “went aside after their own inventions.” (Psalm 105: 39) That is what we see happening so in the world today with Catholics who aren’t Catholics and thousands of Christian sects each with its own shepherd. +++

In his City of God, St. Augustine makes these remarks about the Catholic Church:

“Here we notice three incredible things. (1) It is incredible that Christ rose from the dead, (2) that this was believed around the world and (3) that a small number of men from the lower rungs of society persuaded even wise men of the truth of the Resurrection. Many refuse to believe the first; they see the worldwide spread of the Church and they can only account for it by admitting the third, that obscure and ignorant men were responsible for its spread. If Christ’s Resurrection is too incredible to believe, why does the world believe it? Those people who will not believe that the Apostles performed miracles in testimony of His Resurrection ask us to believe in an even greater miracle – that the whole world did believe without a miracle.”

We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, Low Sunday, April 15, 2012

 Low Sunday, April 15, 2012

John 20: 19-31

            Today is the Octave of the New Pasch, the day of light, which is Easter Sunday. Our Lord’s Resurrection on a Sunday takes the place of the Jewish Sabbath, and from that day on the first day of the week is to be kept holy. Christ’s second appearance to His Apostles was also on a Sunday, and is the subject of today’s Gospel. Later, the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles and the women in the upper room on Pentecost Sunday, which is the birthday of the Church. Today, Jesus wins the perfect faith of His Apostles; especially in His dealing with the one we call “Doubting Thomas.”

Thomas is so much like today's rationalists who think that human reason is the final authority in all matters. What faith Thomas had was a scientific deduction and not a generous longing after God and supernatural truth. People of this faith are afraid of believing too much and are satisfied with little fragments of Truth. Psalm 11 describes them well when it says: “Truths are decayed from among the children of men.”

            Contrast Thomas with St. John at the grave of Jesus on Easter morning.  John allowed Peter to enter first. [John 20: 8] “Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulcher [John]: and he saw, and believed.” All the Apostles should have believed from the moment they heard that Christ's body was not in the tomb. They lived with Him for three years. They had seen the undeniable miracles He performed. He told them shortly before His Passion that He was about to be taken, that He would be scourged, spit upon and put to death. He told them that He would rise on the third day. But it is one of the consequences of the original sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, that we hesitate to give ourselves over to perfect faith. So God makes further advances to us out of His love for us.

            Thomas had heard the events told by Magdalene and Peter and the other Apostles and the two disciples who met Christ on the Road to Emmaus, but he would not change his opinion. We have no problem accepting the testimony of a trustworthy witness in a court of law. But if someone gives testimony touching on the supernatural, then we find a hundred objections! Jesus told all of them that “. . . in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world.” [John 16: 33] Thomas had not yet “overcome the world” and its way of thinking, because he had not faith. St. John reminds us of the power and potential of faith in his First Epistle: “For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith.” (1 John 5: 4] Thomas’ punishment for his sin of disbelief was merciful, but severe. His punishment was to have these words said to him: “Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.” (John 20: 29)

            When Mary Magdalene and the other women told the Apostles what had happened at the tomb, they treated them as women whose imagination had gotten the better of their judgment. Jesus had to come in person and show Himself to these obstinate men, whose pride had gotten the better of their judgment. Pride is the great obstacle to Faith. If a man were humble, he would have faith enough to move a mountain. (Matthew 17: 20, Mark 11: 23) By His appearance to the Apostles today, Christ wins the perfect faith of His disciples because it’s impossible not to recognize God in the patience, the majesty and the charity of Him Who stood before them.

            After Thomas affirmed his faith in saying, “My Lord and my God,” it was then for the instruction of persons of the rationalist class, like so many people of today, that our Lord spoke the words to Thomas: “Blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed.” Thomas sinned in not having the readiness of mind to believe. We are in danger of committing that same sin unless our faith allows us to see everything with the eye of faith. When faith becomes our daily bread, our lives are changed for the good – in our jobs, with our friends and family - and they are changed forever.  God then provides us with a superabundance of understanding and joy. We can then look at everything that happens to us every day, both good and bad, and know that the entire universe is a miracle.

            Christ has died for us. Christ has risen, giving us the promise of eternal life if we do as He commands. Let’s learn from St. Paul how we can do that: “The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy: But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ . . .” (Romans: 13: 12-14) Our present life is full of trials, but Jesus said I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

            We can ask about today's Gospel reading, how is it possible that Jesus entered into the room  with the doors shut as if He were a ghost, yet Thomas was able to touch Him? Is this so impossible for Him Who rose from the dead, and for Him who ate food with the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, and for Him who was born of a virgin? If you say you believe in God, then your faith is terribly weak if you still believe that human reason can provide all the answers. There would be nothing to wonder at in this Divine universe if all things could be grasped by reason alone.

            Today is the Octave of the Pasch, or the eighth day after Easter. The origin of the term Low Sunday is uncertain, but it is thought to indicate the contrast between today and the High Feast of Easter.  Today is also called Quasi modo Sunday, from the first words in the Introit,   “As new-born babes: [you should] desire the rational milk without guile.”The Church uses the words “as new-born” in reference to mankind’s renovation through the Resurrection, where now, as St. Paul tells us, we can “put on the new man.” (Ephesians 4: 24)

We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass

Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012

                                                                            (Mark 16: 1-8)

We are now in Paschal Time, the Lenten fast having ended yesterday at noon. Jesus told us, (John 10: 10) “I have come that [you] may have life and may have it more abundantly.” Those who fasted have received a growth in God’s grace and will show this more abundant life in the principles they live by and in their conduct.

 During Easter season no fasting is permitted in the Church. It’s a time of celebration. Even Christmas is celebrated in anticipation of the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead. His resurrection is the link between the Old Covenant with the promise of a Messiah, and the New Covenant established by the Messiah for all peoples. Easter is called the Feast of Feasts in the same manner that the most sacred part of the old Temple was called the Holy of Holies.

Yesterday, Saturday, was the Sabbath day under the Old Covenant. It was the day set aside for rest from our labors, and it was right that our Lord should rest in the tomb from the labor of our Redemption. But we Christians seek the eight day, the day beyond the measure of time, the day of eternity. Easter is that day. It is on Easter Sunday that the Son of God attains His goal – mankind is raised up from his fall and regains what he had lost by Adam’s sin. As St. Paul describes it: (1 Corinthians: 15: 21, 22) “By a man came death, and by a Man the Resurrection of the dead [that] as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” We have good reason to rejoice!

We can continue to rejoice throughout the year and throughout our lives. The Collect Prayer from this coming Tuesday tells us how: “Grant to thy servants, O God, that they may keep up, by their manner of living, the Mystery they have received by believing” in Christ and His Resurrection. So it is by our manner of living that we continue to rejoice in Easter. Jesus ascended to Heaven but left upon us the impress of His Resurrection, and why should we not retain this in our lives? As Dom Guéranger writes: “Are not all the mysteries of our divine Master ours also? From His very first coming in the Flesh, He has made us sharers in everything He has done. He was born in Bethlehem: we were born together with Him. He was crucified: our ‘old man was crucified with Him.’ (Romans 6: 6) He was buried: ‘we were buried with Him.’ (Romans 6: 4) And therefore, when He rose from the grave, we also received the grace that we should ‘walk in the newness of life.’” (Romans 6: 4) In explaining Baptism in Romans 6, St. Paul also showed us what it means to be one with Christ.

How can we illustrate life before Christ came and life after He came? One small example is found in John 9:7. Jesus told a man who was blind from birth to go wash in the pool of Siloe, or Siloam as some interpret it. The fountain of Siloe was at the walls of Jerusalem and the water collected in a pool or reservoir for the use of those who lived there. At certain times the sick would gather at the pool and an angel would come down from heaven and move the still waters. When that happened, the first person that stepped into the pool was cured of his or her infirmity.  In the Old Covenant, one person stepping into the pool of Siloe exhausted the grace from Heaven. Under the New Covenant, millions can step into the pool of Baptism and never exhaust Heaven’s grace.

 The rolling back of the stone in today’s Gospel suggests the unlocking of the Mysteries of Christ, which were concealed by the covering of the Law of Moses.  The Law of Moses was written on stone. The stone of this Law was great enough in size to shut in and cover the body of the Creator of the world. But Christ moved the Law of Moses aside for the New Covenant that He established in His Church for all people, with Himself as the cornerstone of His one and true Church.

Let us thank God this Easter for our lives, our families, our friends and our faith. Especially let us thank our Lord for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where every day at an  altar priests recreate in an unbloody manner the Passion and Death of our Lord, Jesus Christ. +++

We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, Palm Sunday, Apr 1, 2012 & Seven Dolours of Mary, Mar 30, 2012

Palm Sunday, April 1, 2012

Seven Dolours of Mary, March 30, 2012

            Today we begin Holy Week, but before we concentrate on our Lord’s Passion I want to say a few words about the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, which was this past Friday. On that day the Church directed Her devotion to the special sorrow of Mary standing at the foot of the Cross of Jesus. Three times Mary was called on to take part in what God Himself did for the Redemption of Man. The first was the Incarnation where Jesus would not take flesh in her womb until she consented to become His mother. The second time was at the foot of the Cross where she stood to take part in the expiatory sacrifice in atonement for the sins of all of us, and the third was on Pentecost where she, along with the Apostles, received the Holy Ghost in order that she also might effectively labor to establish our Lord’s Church that He promised to build upon the rock of Peter.

            When the Christ Child was presented at the temple, Simeon told Mary, “And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thought may be revealed.” (Luke 2: 35) From then until the arrest of Jesus, Mary carried these words in her heart. She suffered through her Son’s arrest, being beaten up and scourged. She followed Him to Calvary as He carried His Cross. Modernists deny this but if there ever was a valiant woman, such as described in Proverbs 31: 10-31, it was Mary, and we are sure that in her strength and love she was with Jesus throughout His suffering. Each hammer blow that drove the nails through her Son’s hands and feet was like a sword piercing her heart.

            We must ask why God asked Mary to be there and to suffer through the death of Jesus. Why did He not take her sooner like he took Joseph? As God would not give Jesus to her until she said yes, He would not take Him away from her unless she gave Him back. “It was not God’s justice that took him from her,” Dom Guéranger writes, “it is she herself that gives Him up. But, in return, she is raised to a degree of greatness, which her humility could never have suspected was to be hers: an ineffable union is made to exist between the two offerings, that of the Incarnate Word, and that of Mary; the Blood of the divine Victim, and the tears of the Mother, flowing together for the redemption of mankind.” St. Ambrose said Mary stood at the foot of the cross “not waiting for her Jesus to die, but [waiting] for the world to be saved.”

            Dom Guéranger helps us to understand more fully when he wrote:  Thus this Mother of Sorrows, standing at the foot of the Cross, blessed us who did not deserve it. She sacrificed her Son for our salvation. In spite of all the love in her heart for her Son, Jesus, she gave back to God the Father the Eternal Treasure he had given her for safekeeping. The sword pierced through her soul, but we were saved, and she, a mere human, cooperated with the Son of God in the work of our salvation. We needn’t wonder this is the moment Jesus chose to make Mary the Mother of all of us in the person of the Apostle John. When the sword pierced her heart we gained admission to it. Now, and through eternity, Mary will extend to us the love she has for her Son because she just heard Him say that we are her children.

The Prophet Zacharias, 500 years before the Lord's day,  foretold today's triumphal entrance into Jerusalem by the Messiah: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy King will come to thee; the Just and the Savior. He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.” (Zacharias 9: 9) The streets of Jerusalem echoed with the voices of children singing, “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” The Roman soldiers stood by, silent under the banner of their Imperial Eagle. The scribes and Pharisees stood by in silent rage.

            The ass he led behind Him represented the Jewish nation, which had been long under the yoke of the Law. The colt, upon which no man had yet sat, represents the Gentile world. The future of these two people will be decided in a few days – the Jewish nation, under their title as the Chosen People, will be rejected for refusing to acknowledge the Messiah, and the Redemption brought by Jesus will then be offered to all peoples, Jew and Gentile alike.

            In our Lord's day the state of the Jew's religion under the scribes and Pharisees was corrupt, much like the Catholic Church is corrupted today by the Modernist heresy. In our Lord's day many thousands of Jews came to know, to understand,  to love and  to accept Jesus Christ, the Messiah.  Over the centuries probably millions of Jews have come to know Him.

            Today also the remnant of those holding fast to  Christ’s  True Faith is growing. These pray with Psalm 118, v. 66: “Teach me goodness, and discipline, and knowledge; for I have believed thy commandments.” And with Verses 3-8: “For they that work iniquity, have not walked in his ways. Thou hast commanded thy commandments to be kept most diligently. O! That my ways may be directed to keep thy justifications. Then shall I not be confounded, when I shall look into all thy commandments. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned the judgments of thy justice. I will keep thy justifications: O! do not thou utterly forsake me.”

            When He was born Three Kings came to adore Him because they knew Him. These were the Gentiles, the Magi. On the first Palm Sunday, under the prompting of the Holy Ghost, thousands of Jews turned out to welcome their King. Even the Roman Procurator, Pilate, recognized Jesus in a way, when he had nailed to the cross a placard reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

Maintain the Lenten fast for six more days. You will be glad you did. +++