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What does it mean to ransom the captives? Like the other works of mercy, ransoming the captives has a strong Biblical foundation and there are several different ways to apply this work of mercy. We can work to free religious and political prisoners and those who are being held unjustly, and work to reform the criminal justice system to make it more just, help people get due process and a real chance to defend themselves, work to free people being held in other types of bondage, such as slavery and human trafficking, and visit people who are in prison, justly or unjustly.
When the Israelites were enslaved in Israel the Lord send Moses to free them to serve the Lord. Then, again, when they were exiled in Babylon the Lord freed them from captivity so they could return to the Promised Land, rebuild the Temple, and worship the Lord as He commanded. The purpose of freeing the people from their bondage was to enable them to serve the Lord and live as God wants us to live. When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt and held captive in Babylon, they were unable to fully follow the Law of God. God did’t hold that against them, but it’s better to live like God wants us to live. Therefore, setting people free from unjust captivity, or visiting them in prison, can equip them to worship God as He deserves and to follow His laws and commandments. We can do that by getting people in touch with Churches, giving them Bibles, Rosaries, and other prayer materials, and praying for and encouraging them in the faith. They were also influenced by the customs of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and other peoples they lived among, especially the pagan idol worship that they engaged in. When the people asked Aaron to make them a golden calf to worship, he didn’t ask why they came to him, he knew exactly what to do. Why do you think that is? It took centuries to teach the people to worship God alone. In prison and other forms of captivity people are often influenced by the people around them, pick up their bad habits, and are reinforced in a bad lifestyle. It’s not enough to free people from captivity, we should also work to build up habits of freedom, such as prayer, growth in virtue, education, reading, and the value of work. Finally, in the Gospels we read how Jesus came to free us not from physical bondage but from slavery to sin. He Himself was the ransom that set us free, “But he was wounded for our infirmities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5), and “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1). What is that yoke of slavery? “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal 5:14-16). Ransoming the captives is a Christ-like action. Jesus Christ gave His very life to free us from sin and death through the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we spend our time, attention, and efforts to free those unjustly imprisoned, reform the justice system, and visit the justly imprisoned, we should remember what we are ransoming them for. “Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:19-25). Visiting and caring for the sick is difficult, distressing, and can even be dangerous. We already tend towards sin, so it’s even more difficult to act charitably when it costs us something. We come up with all kinds of excuses, but the one that most applies to visiting the sick goes something like this, “I can’t fix it anyway, so it’s pointless to even try.” This relies on the truth that we ought not to worry about things that we can’t do anything about, but it takes it to the extreme. However, it’s not true that we can’t do anything about it: we can pray, we can comfort, by our presence, those who are ill or suffering, we may even be able to relieve some or all of their physical discomfort and suffering, even if we can’t bring them complete healing.
For example, many people complain about abstaining from meat on Fridays of Lent, since it’s not that much of a sacrifice, especially here in south Louisiana where the seafood is so good. Therefore, this sacrifice doesn’t mean anything, so I won’t do it. This is true; it’s not that much of a sacrifice to abstain from meat on Fridays of Lent, especially where we have access to really good seafood. However, it doesn’t follow that the sacrifice doesn’t mean anything or that there’s no sacrifice that we can make to grow in union with the Cross of Christ. Some years ago, on a Friday of Lent, a guy sitting near me at a restaurant told the waitress that he was ordering a hamburger because giving up meat on Fridays isn’t really a sacrifice. The waitress told him that her son says the same thing, so he also gives up seafood on Fridays of Lent. We ought to do the good that we can, where we are, even if it’s difficult, and then pray and trust that God will take care of the rest. Even the Lord follows this principle. He healed many sick people, cured many lepers, and even brought some people back from the dead. However, He didn’t heal all of the sick people, cure all of the lepers, or bring everyone back from the dead, nor did He abolish sickness and death, although He will at the end of time when He returns to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire. Why didn’t He? We can’t answer that question completely, but we can say that He didn’t do it at that time because that wasn’t His mission and purpose for being here. He came to free us from the illness of sin and the death of the soul. The physical healings and raisings from the dead were signs of that greater, spiritual work. In the same way, we ought to ask ourselves what God has sent us to do. God hasn’t given you every spiritual gift or sent you to do every good work. Instead, He has spread them throughout the Body of Christ, which is the Church. So, what gifts has God given you and what work has He sent you to do? Focus on doing the good you can when you can, for you are only one member of the Church. However, remember that you are a member of the Church, so don’t neglect the gifts and works that God has given you to do. Now that I’ve made that point, I want to temper it some. Visiting and caring for the sick is certainly a gift that some people have and are called to make use of. However, we all have family and friends and loved ones, and it’s inevitable that some of them will get sick or suffer injuries. So, this is one corporal work of mercy that almost everyone is called to at one time or another. So, here are some tips from my experience. First, your presence with someone, even if you feel like you’re not doing enough, is meaningful, because it shows your care for that person. Quality time is nice, but quantity has a quality all it’s own. Second, it can be very draining for the caregiver, so don’t be afraid to take time to recharge or ask other family and friends for help. If you are the family or friend of a caregiver, offer to help, since sometimes it difficult for people to ask for it. Third, be prepared to deal with disgusting smells and disturbing sights, and try not to be visibly put off by them. It’s part of the territory, so offer it up and focus on the person in front of you. Our Lord spent a lot of time with the sick and injured and had a lot of compassion for them. Compassion isn’t just something that some people have and others lack, it’s a grace and a virtue, so pray for it and exercise it, and your capacity for compassion will increase. Lenten Mission 2025 - A Culture of Life TALK 3 - Marriage: God’s Design of Marriage and Family Life4/3/2025
 The third night of our Lenten Mission is on God’s institution of marriage and family life as a reflection and sign of His love for us. We look at some of the demonic attacks on marriage, the family, and children and show the connection between the marriage of Adam and Eve in Genesis, the wedding at Cana, the Crucifixion of the Lord, and the Book of Revelation. 
Lenten Mission 2025 - A Culture of Life TALK 2 - Anthropology: God’s Design of the Human Person4/2/2025
 The talk for the second night of the Lenten Mission is on the nature of the human person made in the image of God. We shouldn’t see ourselves as Animalistic Man, Psychological Man, or Technological man, but we describe ourselves as Homo Sapiens, Wise Man. The Bible teaches us what it means to seek wisdom.
 This year, I’m giving the Lenten Mission at St. Cletus Catholic Church; it’s a three night mission with the theme A Culture of Life: That You May Have Life and Have it More Abundantly. The talk for the first night is Creation: God’s Design of the Cosmos. Here’s an audio recording of that talk with links to the prayers that we used at the beginning and end.
After food and water, clothing and shelter are the next priorities for the preservation of our physical lives and wellbeing. In most environments people can’t live very long when they are exposed to the weather, wild animals, insects, and germs. In addition, clothing and shelter give us stability, so that we don’t have to constantly worry about the basic necessities. Shelter make it much easier to collect resources and tools, have a place to relax, and to plan for the future. Clothing helps us to live with dignity, so that we aren’t constantly exposed to ridicule. Access to adequate clothing and shelter increase our health and wellbeing and the quality of our lives.
As a work of mercy, giving someone food and water covers their immediate needs, but helping someone to get clothing and shelter can help prepare them to provide for their own needs. This may involve helping someone to get their legal documents in order, so they can apply for assistance, housing, or even jobs. It could involve helping someone to get into school or get vocational training, and helping them find work so they can continue to pay for these things. Then again, it may be as simple as finding someone a change of clothes or a place to stay for a few days until they can get their feet back on the ground. Christians are sometimes suspicious of the idea of helping someone pay for their own needs and livelihood; we don’t want people to think that they’re a burden to us or that we’re trying to get them out of our hair. We can feel as if we have an obligation in charity to continue to support someone. However, remember what St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “If any man will not work, neither let him eat (2 Thes 3:10).” Work is a good and dignified thing. In the Garden of Eden, God gave man work to do, to tend and keep the garden and to name the animals, and that was before the fall, so it’s not a result of original sin. Rather, work, both mental and physical, helps us to participate in the creative work of God. In the words of Pope St. John Paul II, “Work is, as has been said, an obligation, that is to say, a duty, on the part of man. This is true in all the many meanings of the word. Man must work, both because the Creator has commanded it and because of his own humanity, which requires work in order to be maintained and developed. Man must work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he belongs to, the country of which he is a child, and the whole human family of which he is a member, since he is the heir to the work of generations and at the same time a sharer in building the future of those who will come after him in the succession of history” (Laborem Exercens, 16). It is good, then, to help someone find good and noble work, work that is not demeaning to their human dignity, both for their own good and for the good of others. Clothing, shelter, and work are goods that express human dignity and help us to live in a dignified way. However, they are also geared towards the family. Clearly, permanent shelter makes it possible to have and raise a family, and it would be irresponsible to found a family without access to shelter. However, the presence of a family turns a shelter into a home, which then becomes the center of the life of the family, allowing them to grow as human beings. However, Pope St. John Paul II also connects the family and work, “In a way, work is a condition for making it possible to found a family, since the family requires the means of subsistence which man normally gains through work. Work and industriousness also influence the whole process of education in the family, for the very reason that everyone "becomes a human being" through, among other things, work, and becoming a human being is precisely the main purpose of the whole process of education” (Laborem Exercens, 10). Since the family is the school of love and the school of faith, the Church in the home, husbands and wives learn to love in a Christlike and sacrificial way and children grow into Christian men and women, we should all work to make it possible to people to form families, and one way to do that is to help them gain clothing, shelter, and work. Among the Corporal Works of Mercy feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty are listed first and could be considered the most important, or at least the most urgent. Food and drink are necessities of life, and you can’t live without them for very long. There are many reasons that someone might find themselves without sufficient food or drink. Perhaps they haven’t been able to find sufficient work or raise enough money, they’re unable to work due to illness, injury, or age, or no one will sell food to them. There’s more than enough food being produced to feed everyone, but still many people die of starvation and thirst every year. It’s estimated that 800-900 million people die of starvation every year, but progress is being made. In 1990 over 1 billion people died of starvation, so less people and an even smaller percent of the population (since the world population has grown by over 2 billion people in those 35 years) are dying of starvation every year.
Many Catholic theologians and moral philosophers have concluded that a person who is in real danger of starvation can even take food from someone who has more than enough if they have no other reasonable way of getting food. It’s not even considered theft, because we have a right to the food and drink necessary to survive. In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, “Nevertheless, if the need be so manifest and urgent, that it is evident that the present need must be remedied by whatever means be at hand (for instance when a person is in some imminent danger, and there is no other possible remedy), then it is lawful for a man to succor his own need by means of another's property, by taking it either openly or secretly: nor is this properly speaking theft or robbery” (ST, II-II, Q. 66, a. 7). Although it’s not a sin, it’s probably still a crime, and there may be serious consequences, so this is not so much a solution as a move of desperation. There are many ways to work on this problem, and all of them could be considered works of mercy. We need farmers to continue raising our food and getting it to market, especially since fewer and fewer people are capable of raising their own food. During World War II many nations needed to ration food, but a significant portion of the population of Great Britain, Canada, and the United States were able to plant Victory Gardens to supplement their rations. I don’t think many people would be able to do that today. We also need people to continue finding new techniques and technologies to grow and raise food more efficiently, to bring these techniques to poor areas of the world, and provide the possibility for people to support themselves and their families. We need people working in the economy, charities, and educational institutions to bring people out of poverty. Another major driver of poverty and hunger in the world is war. War causes poverty and hunger directly, and it also causes it indirectly, since there are less people working, growing crops, and raising animals and it’s more difficult to move food to where it needs to go. So, we also need people working to promote peace in the world. According to World Bank, in 1981 68.6% of the world population was living on less than the equivalent of US $5.50 per day, and in 2022 that number was down to 44.9%. We’ve made a great deal of progress, but there’s still a lot of work to do. However, we also need to directly feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty. We need to do it for them and for us. Being in poverty doesn’t make someone a bad person or remove their human dignity. Interacting with, talking to, and personally helping people in need, either by ourselves or with charitable organization, soup kitchens, and the like, helps us to learn to see Christ in them, to love them as Christ loves them, and to let them see Christ in us. The mission of the Church, found in the Great Commission in the Gospel of Matthew, is to “make disciples of all nations (Mt. 28:19),” but from the beginning of her founding the Church has known that she has a special calling to care for the poor as a witness to the love and mercy of God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
In its various forms - material deprivation, unjust oppression, physical and psychological illness and death - human misery is the obvious sign of the inherited condition of frailty and need for salvation in which man finds himself as a consequence of original sin. This misery elicited the compassion of Christ the Savior, who willingly took it upon himself and identified himself with the least of his brethren. Hence, those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church which, since her origin and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and liberation through numerous works of charity which remain indispensable always and everywhere. (CCC 2448) The Lord taught us, also in Matthew, that when the Lord comes again He will divide the sheep and the goats based on whether or not they have shown Him love and mercy. When they ask when they have shown Him or failed in mercy, He answers, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). Obviously, if the Lord, the King of the Universe, were to somehow find Himself in need, people would be tripping over themselves to help him. So, is this some sort of test to see if we’ll help people who are very definitely in need, or is it more than that? In the Acts of the Apostles we learn of Saul the Pharisee, a persecutor of the Church, who, while on a journey to Damascus to arrest Christians, has a remarkable experience of the Lord. The sky flashed around him and he heard the voice of the Lord, “‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ He said, ‘Who are you, sir?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’” (Acts 9:4-5). When we persecute the Church we persecute the Lord, because the Lord identifies Himself with His people. Reflecting on this allows St. Paul to say, “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:12-13). As all the faithful receive the Spirit of the Lord in Baptism, partake of the Body of the Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and are united in the Church, so Christ is in us and we are in Christ. This gives a new meaning to the command of the Lord to love one another as He has loved us. What about all of those people who aren’t baptized? We ought to treat them as potential brothers and sisters in Christ, potential members of the Body of Christ whom we are commanded to share the Gospel with and bring into the Church. Our faith in Christ and in His Holy Spirit allows us to see Christ in one another. The bond, though invisible to the eyes of the body, is visible through the eyes of faith. Traditionally, the Church has enumerated the seven Corporal (feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, ransom the captives, and bury the dead) and seven Spiritual Works (instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, admonish sinners, bears wrongs patiently, forgive offenses willingly, comfort the afflicted, pray for the living and the dead) of Mercy. In the next few articles we’ll reflect on each of these works, although some of them may be grouped together. The Book of Proverbs (9:10) says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We often struggle with the idea that we ought to fear the Lord, so we don’t talk about it very often, but it’s one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, so it must be a good thing, something that we ought to be grateful for. Rev. Adolphe Tanquerey, S.S., D.D., in his book, The Spiritual Life, wrote, “It is not a question here of that fear of God which, caused by the remembrance of our sins, disturbs, saddens, and troubles us. Nor is it a question of the fear of hell, which suffices to bring about a conversion, but not to achieve our sanctification. Here it is a question of a filial and reverential fear, which causes us to dread every offense against God.”
There ought to be a progression in the spiritual life, so that we grow in maturity in our relationship with God. St. Paul tells the Corinthians that he had to feed them with milk because they were not ready for food, but that they were now ready, showing that they had grown in maturity (1 Cor 3:2). So, when we first start out in the spiritual life and our faith is immature we may avoid sin through the fear of hell and punishment due for our sins. This is why we teach children to memorize the Ten Commandments. However, this is an imperfect motivation for avoiding sin, because it’s still at least a little bit self-centered. As we grow in the faith we may begin to be ashamed of our sins, as we understand why they’re wrong, the harm they cause, and the offense against our dignity as human beings and children of God. When we think of our sins in this way they sadden and trouble us. This is a better motivation and shows that we’re growing in our understanding of the ways of God. However, shame can only take us so far, and we can react to feelings of shame in a few ways, one bad and two good. First, shame can help us to avoid sin in the first place, as we tell ourselves that we don’t want to be that type of person or have to admit to it in confession. On the other hand, we can tell ourselves, in our shame, that we’re bad, worthless, a lost cause, and that even God could never forgive us. Those are lies from the devil. Instead, we need to remind ourselves that sin is bad and worthless, but that God loves us and will never stop loving us, so we need to rush to Him and beg Him to renew us, restore us to His grace, and make us into the people we were created to be. We must become like little children who, having been scolded by their mother or father, rush forward to embrace them. As we continue to mature in the faith, we see that God is our Father Who has adopted us as His spiritual children, members of His family and brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ. The love and respect that we have for God as our Father causes us to flee from sin for fear of doing anything that would offend God and lead us away from Him. Young children, having done something wrong, are often warned to wait until their father gets home. The fear of his wrath and punishment can help to keep children in line, but it will only get you so far. As children grow in maturity, their relationship with their parents may grow into the sort of friendship that can develop between parents and their adult children. This parent/child friendship based on respect, love, and affection causes the children to want to imitate the virtues of their parents, practice the principles they taught them, and never do anything that would disappoint them. They know that their parents will never stop loving them, but they also know that their own behavior could threaten that precious friendship, and so they rightly fear, not their parents, but the very behaviors that would threaten their relationship with them. This filial fear is perfected in our relationship with God because He is the source of all our blessings, is perfectly good, and always gives us help when we ask. One of the reasons to respect our parents is that they gave us life and sacrificed to raise us. God is the source of all life and the giver of all good gifts, and He died for our salvation. Since we owe God everything, an offense against Him is that much worse. Since He is perfectly good the least sin falls infinitely short of His holiness. We know that we don’t have to power to completely avoid sin and grow towards perfection, however, God always gives grace to those who ask for His help. God pours out that grace upon us through prayer and the Sacraments, “good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom” (Lk 6:38).  The season of Lent is meant to be a time of preparation for the Paschal Triduum of the Cross and Resurrection of the Lord. Lent is 40 days long, and the number 40 represents renewal and preparation for new life in the Bible. There are several stories in the Bible about the number 40, and in each of these stories God is preparing humanity to enter into a new sort of life in communion with Him. These stories can show us how God wants to use the 40 days of Lent to prepare us to enter into a new sort of life by being consecrated to Him through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit.
In the time of Noah it rained for 40 days and 40 nights to renew the earth and prepare it for new life through Noah and his family. The 40 days and nights of rain washed away the old way of life that was marked by murder and warfare. God called on Noah to build an ark, a refuge for life, and Noah was obedient to the commandments of the Lord. Eventually, the water began to disperse. Therefore, Noah sent out a dove, and when the dove returned with a leafy branch he knew that life was returning to the world. The dove, then, was the sign of new life. This new life began with prayers and sacrifices to the Lord and the swearing of a new covenant between God and humanity. In our times, God has established the Church as the Ark of the New Covenant as a refuge of life to prepare us for the new life of the kingdom of heaven. After the Exodus from Egypt, Moses stayed on Mt. Sinai for 40 days to receive the Tablets of the Law on which the 10 Commandments were written, which was a sign of the new life that God was calling them to as a people consecrated to Him. The people were told to prepare themselves to be consecrated to the Lord with prayers and abstinence. The consecration was sealed with prayers and sacrifices and a new covenant between God and His people. The people needed another 40 years in the desert to learn how to life as the covenant people before they could cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land. That covenant shows us how living by the law of the Lord leads to freedom and life in the Promised Land, which is a sign of the eternal Promised Land of heaven. Finally, our Lord Himself began His public ministry with His baptism in the Jordan River, showing that He was a new Joshua (which, in Hebrew, is the same name as Jesus) who had been sent to lead the people of God into a new Promised Land. This new life was marked by the Holy Spirit who descended on Jesus in the form of a dove. Then, the Lord went out into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, where He prepared Himself through prayer and fasting to give a new law and a new covenant, to consecrate a people holy to the Lord. During this Lent, let us prepare ourselves to be consecrated to new life of Jesus at Easter. However, if we want to rise to new life, the old life must be put to death. As St. Paul said, “We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. For a dead person has been absolved from sin. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Rm 6:6-8), and as our Lord said, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:24-25). We do that through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Dedicate yourself to prayer this Lent by reading and reflecting on the accounts of the Passion of the Lord in the Gospels, attending the Stations of the Cross on Fridays of Lent at 7 PM, and taking some time every day for prayer. Look for ways to practice almsgiving this Lent by giving to the poor and needy, contributing to good and worthy charities, and looking for ways to help people, especially anonymously. Do not neglect fasting, either. You are called to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday by having no more than one meal during the day and possibly two snacks, and to abstain from meat of mammals and birds on those days and every Friday of Lent. However, you should also look for other ways to fast or make sacrifices that are specific to you; ask the Lord to reveal to you what He wants you to give up. Then, the time and money you save from your fasting can be reinvested into prayer and almsgiving. |
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