6th Sunday after Pentecost - July 24, 2011

6th Sunday after Pentecost – July 24, 2011

(Gospel Mark. 8: 1-9)

(Epistle Romans 6: 3-11)

In his Epistle today, St. Paul speaks of how Baptism changes our lives through the forgiveness of sins, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [Jesus] that the body of sin may be destroyed, and that we may serve sin no longer,” so that we also reckon ourselves “to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God.”

Three thousand years ago King David was established for us as a type of confession and repentance and of a person being “dead to sin, but alive to God.” After his sin with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband Uriah David was confronted with these sins by Nathan the Prophet. Despite his high position, despite all his wealth and power, David did not resent Nathan for chastising him, rather, he made an immediate and complete confession of his sins and wept with sorrow for what he did. There is a saying still in use today: How far the mighty fall. But it is not the might and wealth that makes great men fall, it is their pride that makes them fall so far. King David rejected that false pride and made a humble and complete confession and repentance of his sins. What we admire today of David is not his wealth and power but rather his humility of heart and love of God. That has survived these past three thousand years, and will continue to survive into the future. David’s wealth and power died with him as it does with all of us.

Today’s Gospel reading tells us of the miraculous multiplication of seven loaves and a few fish. A similar miracle occurred some time previous to this as reported by St. Matthew (Mt. 14: 13-21) and involved five loaves of bread and two fish. Our Lord didn’t always feed people through miracles. If He had, people would have followed Him for the sake of the food and not for what He had to say. In today’s reading we know He saw these people were in danger, because He said, “If I shall send them away fasting to their home, they will faint in the way; for some of them came from afar off,” and so He fed them.

The Apostles still were hesitant to believe in His power, even after the miracles He performed previous to this. And so they asked Him, “From whence can any one fill them with bread here in the wilderness?” Jesus did not rebuke them for their unbelief, and by not rebuking them He teaches us today that we should not rebuke those who are ignorant of the Truth or those who do not understand. Instead He asked his disciples, “How many loaves have ye?” 

After having the people sit down Jesus took the few loaves of bread and gave thanks to His Father – thereby teaching us to give thanks for our daily bread. After giving thanks He did not give the bread to the people Himself, but gave it to His Apostles to distribute, and the same with the fish. In doing this, our Lord shows us that His gifts, the Sacraments and especially the Eucharist, are to be dispensed by his priests, as His Apostles were later to become.

There is a fundamental lesson in today’s Gospel about who Jesus Christ is. He says to His Disciples,” I have compassion on the multitude.” In this statement we see the sympathy and pity of human tenderness that shows us Jesus was fully human. And in the miracle of feeding thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and a few fish we see our Lord’s Divinity. Today’s Gospel is a clear presentation of the truth that Jesus Christ has two natures, one human and one Divine.

Both miracles of the multiplication of loaves and fishes, the one reported by St. Matthew and the one from today’s Gospel, took place on a mountain. Seven hundred fifty years before these events Isaias the Prophet described the coming Messiah saying “the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains.” (Isaias. 2: 2) So long before the Messiah appeared his lofty bearing was described for us.

Who are those our Lord speaks of who “came from afar off?” Certainly some came from a great physical distance, but mystically, the meaning refers to those who after sins of the flesh, and sins of lying, thieving, murdering and whatever, have now repented and come to the service of the Lord. For the more a man sins, the further away from God he is. Those Jews who knew Jesus to be the Messiah came to Him from close at hand, because they had learned of Him through the Law and the Prophets. But the Gentiles who believed Christ, in a manner of speaking came from afar because no sacred writings from their past had prepared them to believe in Him.

A miracle is a supernatural event caused by God, but there are many so-called Modernists in the Church today who reject these miraculous occurrences.  I don’t know why we call them Modernists because there is nothing modern about a lack of faith. The world has suffered from these people throughout its history. Let us call them instead modern-errorists. They don’t believe  in miracles so they want to redefine the word “miracle,” and  tell us that the “miracle” that occurred on these mountains was really an act of sharing, that these people saw that Jesus and His disciples were willing to share whatever they had and so the people also opened their purses and shared the food they had and that’s how all the people were fed. That’s baloney!

This miraculous event is very clearly described for us in the Bible. But what if this event happened the way the Modern-errorists claim,? Then that means the Bible is in error. If the Bible is in error, then it is not the revealed Word of God, and if the Bible is not the revealed Word of God, then it is a short step to saying that Jesus Christ is a fraud and a liar. This shows us what happens when we depart from the faith given to us by Jesus Christ, and handed down to us by those appointed by Him, His Apostles and their successors, the true bishops and priests. When we depart from the True Faith we only end up worshiping ourselves as gods, false gods that is, because we have lost our faith in the true God.

Perhaps these modern-errorists proceed from good faith, or perhaps they want to deliberately destroy the True Faith. In either event, it is a peculiar form of madness when people start thinking they can contradict God, Who cannot be contradicted. +++

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, Sun within Octave of Sacred Heart & 3rd Sun after Pentecost

3rd Sunday after Pentecost – July 3, 2011

Sunday Within the Octave of the Sacred Heart

(Luke 15: 1-10)

            Last Friday was the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. When our Lord appeared on earth mankind had forgotten how to love because he had forgotten what true beauty is. Human hearts were caught up in a false love of earthly possessions. Into this world the Holy Ghost brought the Heart of Jesus, which is like a ladder between man and God. It is the way we ascend to God and God descends to us. Jesus saves us because He loves His Church. His human heart could not love His Church without His Divine Heart being moved to mercy, and here we have the doctrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The devotion is as old as the Church because it rests on the truth that Christ is the Spouse and the Church is his bride.

            The Gospel reading for the Feast tell how a soldier opened Jesus’ side with a spear, not that he wounded Him or stabbed Him, but opened His side.  Christ’s side was like the door of life. Out of His side poured the Sacraments (the Mysteries) of the Church. This event was prefigured by the door that Noe was commanded to make in the side of the Ark. Into the door of the Ark went every living creature which was not to be destroyed by the flood, and the Sacraments that come out of Christ’s side lead, not to destruction, but to life.

            In today’s Gospel reading for the 3^rd Sunday after Pentecost, the publicans and sinners drew near to Jesus to hear Him. These are people who knew they were sinners and who worried about their eternal salvation. The Pharisees and scribes were unrepentant sinners. They murmured against Christ, saying he receives sinners and eats with them. This shows us that Jesus Christ, who is true justice, feels compassion, but the false justice of the scribes and Pharisees shows only scorn. Why do the scribes and Pharisees represent false justice? Because they perverted the Law of Moses and the Commandments, twisting them to enrich themselves with worldly possessions. The accumulation of wealth is not the reason we were created.

            The scribes and Pharisees were so sick with sin that they didn’t even know they were ill, but Jesus as the Heavenly Physician treats them with a soothing ointment in the form of the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. The number 100 represents all the rational creatures subject to God. The one that was lost is mankind; the 99 left behind are all the choirs of angels. The 99 were not in need of repentance and salvation, but mankind was.

            When the Shepherd finds the lost sheep, He doesn’t punish it; He places it on His shoulders, as Christ placed the burden of our sins upon His shoulders. Upon returning home, which is to Heaven, He calls together His friends and neighbors, meaning all the choirs of Heaven, to, “Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost.” Today foolish people might change that to read: “Rejoice with the sheep that has been found,” but this creates a false religion that makes mankind into a false God. The sheep are subject to the shepherd, just as we are subject to God. But when the sheep starts thinking he is the Shepherd, he is truly lost.

            In the second parable, the woman lost a coin, on which an image was impressed. God tells us in the Book of Genesis that we are made in the image and likeness of God, hence the coin represents mankind.  But in the Garden of Eden our first parents fall for the temptation of the devil. Adam and Eve, who are the sheep, start thinking they are the Shepherd. This original sin closed the Garden of Eden to them and closed the Gates of Heaven to all men until in the fullness of time the promised Messiah came.

            The woman in the second parable is the Church, whose task it is to search out those who are lost and when found, to place them on her shoulders and bring them Home. The Church through the sacraments shows us the way back home to Paradise. The road to Paradise, however, is narrow, and when we sin, we fall into the ditch along the road. If we are blessed with humility, we repent of our sins, and through the Sacraments find our way back onto the road.

            The parables in today’s Gospel reading end with our Lord saying that there will be joy among the angels of God when one sinner does penance, and I want to talk about the angels now. We know from Scripture that there are nine orders of angels. The tenth order of rational creatures is man. The nine orders of angels are Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Dominations, Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim.

            Before discussing the nine orders, a word about the fallen angels. The Prophet Ezechiel says to Lucifer, the angel who was first created, “Thou wast the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.” He doesn’t say, “Made in the likeness of God,” but rather “the seal of resemblance” because the purer his nature, the clearer was the image of God stamped upon him. Ezechiel then goes on to describe Lucifer’s beauty: “Every precious stone was thy covering; the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, and the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, and the carbuncle and the emerald.” The naming of these nine precious stones also relates to the nine orders of angels.

            Ezechiel continues in telling Lucifer that, “Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation, until iniquity was found in thee.” And, “thy heart was lifted up with thy beauty,” which is a reference to Lucifer’s vanity, and continuing, “thou hast lost thy wisdom in thy beauty, I have cast thee to the ground,” and “I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, to devour thee, and I will make thee as ashes upon the earth in the sight of all that see thee.” This is the position of Lucifer, reduced from the most beautiful of all angels to a pile of ashes. See Ezechiel 28: 12-18 for these remarks which on the surface were directed to the king of Tyre, who was a prideful man, but it is generally agreed they are directed at Lucifer, the king over all children of pride.

            The orders of angels are given their names by the work they do. An Angel is one who announces lesser things; an Archangel is one who announces things of greater importance. The Virtues are those through whom signs and wonder are seen from time to time. The Powers have received this gift but more powerfully than the Virtues, so that hostile Virtues are curbed and shall not tempt the hearts of men. Principalities are placed over the good angels, ordering the tasks that angels are given to do. Principality means to stand first among the rest. Dominations are given powers that surpass the powers of Principalities. Dominations means to have powers that surpass all the others, therefore Dominations is that order of angels to whom all the rest are subject. Thrones are those upon whom God is forever seated to give judgment. They are so filled with the grace of Divinity that the Lord is seated upon them, and through them makes known His judgments. Cherubim means fullness of knowledge. Contemplating more closely the glory of God, Cherubim are filled with a more perfect knowledge of Him. The closer they draw near God by reason of their rank the more they know all things. Finally, those choirs of holy spirits who because of their special closeness to the Creator burn with an incomparable love are called Seraphim. The closer they are to Him the more vivid is their perception of the glory of the Divinity and the more ardently do they burn with His love.

            The order among mankind closely corresponds to the order among these citizens of Heaven. Those who understand small things yet never cease from devoutly announcing these to their brethren correspond to Angels. Those who understand and speak of the highest heavenly secrets correspond to the Archangels. Those people who work miracles and perform great signs and wonders correspond to the Virtues. Those who drive out devils from the possessed correspond to the Powers. Those who receive so many graces as to surpass even the elect and are placed over them correspond to the Principalities. And those who have so overcome vices within themselves that by the merit of their purity they are called gods among men in the sense that Moses was appointed “the god of Pharaoh” (Exodus 7: 1), these correspond to the order of Dominations. Those who rule themselves with watchful care, holding fast to their fear of God, receive as a reward their ability to judge others justly. God rests upon them as upon a throne while He examines the actions of men, and from where He orders all things. These people are numbered among the order called the Thrones of God. There are some men so filled with the love of God and neighbor that they rank among the Cherubim. Lastly, there are some who are set on fire by heavenly contemplation. They breathe in only the love of God and cast away the things of this life. When they speak, they inflame others to burn with the love of God, and these rank with the Seraphim.

            Let us then reflect upon the gifts we have received and let our hearts long for a share of the love of God. Let us grieve if we see nothing in ourselves of the grace of these gifts. If we lack a share of these gifts, remember that they are available to us if we love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. This is nothing other than being obedient to God and to His Church. +++                       

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, Sunday Within Octave of Corpus Christi, June 26, 2011

Sunday Within Octave of Corpus Christi – June 26, 2011

(2^nd Sunday after Pentecost)

(Luke 14: 16-24)

            Last Thursday was the Feast of Corpus Christi. The term means Body of Christ. This feast was first urged by St. Juliana of Belgium who had a great love of the Eucharist and wanted a feast day for It. The feast was first established by the Bishop of Liége in 1247 and made a universal feast throughout the Church by Pope Urban IV in 1264. In the Gospel reading for that day Jesus says that He is “the bread that came down from Heaven.” and “He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.” (John 6: 56-59) Jesus, in His life and death, has united all mankind in Himself. He is God and Man and High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. Jesus is the glue of that holy religion that fastens all things to the Creator in the unity of one same act of homage to God, and that is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Jesus gave us the miracle of the Eucharist so that we may continue His sacrifice of Himself to his Father forever. Let’s talk about that sacrifice so we can better understand how it is continued in the Church.

            God has a right to His creature’s  homage – our homage. A king on earth can demand from his subjects that they recognize his sovereignty, that is, his right to rule over everything. The homage that we as subjects give our Lord God implies that whatever rights or property we have come from our Lord. So when we subject ourselves to the Creator we acknowledge Him as the Lord of all things and the author of life. Moreover, if we violate His rules and we deserve death as a punishment, yet we continue to live, then we must acknowledge our guilt and the justice of his punishment because it is only through His mercy that we continue to live.

This is the true notion of sacrifice and it can only be offered to the one true God. It is the acknowledgement of the Creator’s sovereign dominion and of the glory that belongs to Him. It is essential to religion, because religion, whose object is the worship due to God, demands sacrifice. How do we know this? Jesus, Who was without sin, carried on His shoulders all the sins of the world and then offered Himself on our behalf to God His Father. In the Garden of Eden the sacrifice would have been adoration and thanksgiving, and the physical part would have been the fruits of the garden. When man fell, then sacrifice became the only means of making God favorably disposed towards us. Luther and the false reformers excluded sacrifice from religion and took away its very basis.

“It is by sacrifice that God attains the end He had in view by creation, that is, His own glory.” But in order that the universe might offer a homage in keeping with the magnificence of its Creator, what was needed was one leader who would represent all creation in his person, and then offer all of creation along with himself to the Lord God. And this is what God has done for us. He gave us His Son. The homage of the inferior nature of mankind takes to itself the dignity of God in the Person of Jesus Christ, who is both God and Man. He makes the offering, and the honor He pays to His Father then becomes truly worthy of the supreme Majesty of God. From a universe made out of nothing God has joined His Son Jesus with human nature and produced a fruit of infinite worth. Without the Eucharist at the altar our homage is too poor to be offered to God’s Majesty, but when we join it with the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, it puts on the dignity of Christ Himself.

Many today say that there is no need to attend Mass. They tell us they pray every day privately and that is sufficient. They eventually ignore the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which contains the very essence of religion. It is by the Sacrifice of the Mass that we understand that our true social life, our family, our jobs, our politics, our economy, is founded upon God. What brings all the parts of society together by bringing them back to their Creator? It is religion. And Sacrifice is the fundamental act of religion. It is Jesus, the God-Man who offered to His Father the perfect sacrifice on Calvary, and just before He did this, He showed us how to continue offering this perfect sacrifice in every true Mass. This is so important to our personal salvation that the Church has ordered us to attend Mass every Sunday.   

I  want to read a description of the Mass given by St. Justin Martyr. He was born in 100 A.D. At 30 years of age he converted, and died a Martyr at age 65. He writes: “And on the day called Sunday all . . . come together at one place, and the Memories (Gospels) of the Apostles, or the writings of the Prophets, are read. Then when the Reader has ceased he who presides instructs us by word and exhorts us to the imitation of these beautiful things. Then we rise together and pray, and when our prayer is ended, bread and wine mingled with water is brought, and he who presides, with all fervour, offers up prayers and thanksgiving, and the people present say, Amen. And then there is a distribution to each one . . . For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these: but . . . we have been taught, that the food which is consecrated by the prayer of His words, and by which our own flesh and blood . . . is nourished, is the Flesh and Blood of that Jesus Who became Flesh and Blood.” That was the Mass 2,000 years ago. It is the same Mass we have here today in this little chapel, the unbloody re-creation of the sacrifice of our Lord. It is heartbreaking that with the false mass of Paul VI, Rome has thrown away the Body of Christ and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and replaced them with a community meal and a plain piece of bread.  

            How can the piece of bread and cup of wine on the altar become the Body and Blood of Christ?

Doesn’t human reason have a right to find fault with what looks like the wishes of our hearts causing us to fool ourselves? Let us see. Every living being thirsts for happiness and this thirst causes creatures to reach out for all the good that they are capable of. We can be fully happy only if we have all the good we are capable of. We are the only creature on Earth which can conceive of God, and we want to possess Him in His own substance. We want to see His Face, to enjoy life with Him Who alone can satisfy all our desires.

            If human reason alone judges this talk of seeing God, of living with God, of a Divine Banquet at Mass at which God Himself is the food we eat, reason says this is our fanciful imagination because there is a deep separation between God and man. What is there in man, who was once nothing, that would induce God to stoop so low as to allow a union between man and God? That is the language of human reason.

            But Who was it that made the heart of man so ambitious that no creature on Earth can fill it? A dog can realize all the happiness it is capable of, and a bird and a fish, too. Is man to be the only creature destined to failure because he cannot fulfill his highest ambition? That is not reasonable. “God is love,” St. John tells us, and love is a knot that human reason cannot untie. Human reason cannot solve the problem of man’s desire for the Infinite. The wonder in all this is not our longing for God, but that God should have loved us first, for we at one time were nothing. At the Eucharist here this morning we join Christ in His continuing perfect sacrifice to God, and He makes His abode in us. God is love and love must have union. It is union that makes the one like the other. That is our happiness. +++

               

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, Trinity Sunday, June 19, 2011

Trinity Sunday, June 19, 2011

Matthew 28: 18-20

There is much to be learned from today’s reading, which is taken from the last three verses of Matthew’s Gospel. Christ tells eleven disciples to baptize people “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” This is the clearest statement of the Trinity in Scriptures. We are told in Deuteronomy 6: 4, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,” but we begin to see the Trinity in Genesis 1: 26, “Let Us make man to Our image and likeness.” Together these two statements clearly indicate there is more than One Person in One God.  

It is with the appearance on earth of the promised Messiah, Jesus the Christ, that we have the key to understanding these Scriptures. Where is the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament?  Solomon uses grand expressions in speaking of Him who is Eternal Wisdom, and the divine essence of this Wisdom. Isaias heard the voices of the Seraphim around the throne of God singing, “Holy! Holy! Holy! Is the Lord.” (Isaias 6: 3) The world did not understand these passages until the Father sent His Son to teach us Who this Eternal Wisdom is, and why the triple Sanctus, Holy, Holy, Holy. Today the meaning of these Old Testament Scriptures is clear: there is a Father, there is a Son and there is the Holy Ghost – and the name of this Trinity is “One God.”

“All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28: 18) All power comes from God through Christ, Who is both man and God. In virtue of His power, Christ commissions His Apostles and their successors, to teach all nations and to baptize them. This is a stumbling block to some Jews, who thought that the Messiah would come for their salvation only. Notice also that our Lord gives his Apostles an order of doing things: first, teach all nations; second, baptize them; and third, teach them all things they must do in obedience to Christ. To teach is to teach the faith. If we say, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty,” that is an act of faith, but if we go to Mass on Sundays, that is what we must do. Attending Mass is an act of obedience to a rule given us by our Lord’s Church.

Some may infer from the words “teach all nations” that faith alone is sufficient. But Christ continues His instructions, telling the Apostles to teach “them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” This is a command to teach people what they must do to live a holy life. And among all the things we must do to live a holy life is charity, good works, which St. Paul tells us is foremost: “And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians 13: 13)

The Lord also tells His Apostles, “Behold I am with you, even unto the consummation of the world,” These instructions must be extended to their lawful successors then until the end of the world. Jesus makes good His promise by always dwelling in the hearts of the faithful, by His presence in the Eucharist and by His care and protection of the Church.

Bishop Bossuet of France (1627 - 1704) wrote that today's reading clearly demonstrates the infallibility and indefectibility of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. These two big words mean pure and lasting and incapable of finding error in faith and morals. If ever a doctrine is changed, if ever holiness of life is not present in the Church, then it can be said that Christ has abandoned those who have abandoned Him.

There are many heresies seen today and many within the Catholic Church, both in the so-called Vatican II churches and in traditional chapels and societies. In the 4^th Century the Arian heresy took control of most of the church dioceses in the East and many in the West, but the true Catholic Church and the True Faith survived the power of the Arians, just as it will survive the fleeting power of today’s so-called Modernist heretics. Pope Pius IX called Modernism the “synthesis of all heresies.”

Christ has abandoned today’s heretics, as He abandoned His Chosen People, to “their own inventions.” (Psalm 80: 12, 13. KJV 81) The Jews referred to in Psalm 80 were disobedient and refused to listen to God’s counsel, but they remained His Chosen People even though God withdrew His grace from them. It is the same today. Baptized Catholics remain Catholics, even if they abandon the True Faith and follow Modernist heresies.

Our Lord's words at the end of Matthew's Gospel tell us that Jesus will live forever and that He will never abandon those who believe in Him and, further, that there will always be those who are worthy of being a fit and holy place where God will take up His abode.

In the Gospel for the First Sunday after Pentecost, which is also today, our Lord says, “Forgive and you shall be forgiven. Give and it shall be given to you.” (Luke 6: 37, 38) St. Augustine says these are the two works of mercy which free us. “Give and it shall be given to you” is the promise of receiving God’s favor. “Forgive, and you shall be forgiven” is the promise of pardon. We have all hurt others and would like to be forgiven for what we did, and we have all been hurt by others, and we gladly forgive that.

With regard to God’s favors, think of people who beg from us. When we pray, we are beggars to God. What does a beggar ask of us?  Bread. And what do we ask of God but that Christ, who is the Living Bread that came down from heaven, to take up His abode in us. If you wish to be forgiven, then forgive. If you wish to be pardoned, then pardon. If you wish to receive, then give and it shall be given unto you. +++

 (Thanks to St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Bede, Bp. Bossuet, Dom Guéranger,

Dr. Robert Witham of Douai, Estius, and Rhabanus Maurus for today’s sermon.)

We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass: The Mass of the Ages