We honor and respect our parents, give reverence to the angels and saints, and give highest reverence to the Blessed Virgin Mary, but we worship God alone. What is worship and why is it reserved for God? The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines worship as “adoration and honor given to God, which is the first act of the virtue of religion. Public worship is given to God in the Church by the celebration of the Paschal Mystery of Christ in the liturgy.” We can adore and even honor other people besides God, and we can gather in Church for other things besides worship of God, and the liturgy is any public prayer that follows a set ritual. So, worship has something to do with all of these things: adoring and honoring God, especially in the person of Jesus Christ, in union with the Church in the liturgy that God has entrusted to her. God has told us how He wants us to worship Him. In the Bible, God commands us to “do this in commemoration of me” (Lk 22:19), and so we do what He did in the celebration of the Mass, using the same words that He used at the Last Supper. He commanded us to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). He told us that the sacrifice that pleases God is a contrite and humble heart (Ps 51:19) and the sacrifice of praise (PS 44:8) and thanksgiving (PS 50:23), and so we ask forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession and praise and thank God in the Eucharist, which is Greek for “thanksgiving.” He called down the Holy Spirit on the Apostles (Jn 20:22), and so they called down the Holy Spirit on others (Acts 8:17), and the bishops continue to do so in the Sacrament of Confirmation. He taught us to serve one another as He has served us (Jn 13:15), and we continue to be called to the Sacraments at the Service of Communion, Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony. He sent the Apostles out to heal the sick, and St. James told us to call on the priests of the Church to anoint the sick (Jm 5:14-15), that they may be saved and raised up. Through the Sacraments we enter into the Paschal Mystery of the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ and continue to ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Worship happens in the liturgy (the public prayer of the Church), the Paschal Mystery is the content and substance of the liturgy (especially the Mass), and the sacraments (especially the Eucharist) draw us into the Paschal Mystery and release the grace of God into our lives. “The Spirit and the Church cooperate to manifest Christ and his work of salvation in the liturgy. Primarily in the Eucharist, and by analogy in the other sacraments, the liturgy is the memorial of the mystery of salvation” (CCC 1099). Jesus Christ saved us through His Cross and Resurrection, but He could have drawn us into the mystery of salvation any way He wanted to. He chose to draw us to Himself through worship, the liturgy, and the sacraments. Just like there is a pattern to the life of any home, the liturgy and the sacraments make up the pattern of the life of the Church in union with God the Father through His Son and in the Holy Spirit. “The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the Body of Christ, and, finally, to give worship to God. Because they are signs the also instruct. They not only presuppose the faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it. That is why they are called ‘sacraments of faith’” (CCC 1123). We ought to worship God because He created us, holds us in existence, and redeemed us, but they act of worshipping God doesn’t benefit God; worship of God benefits us, because through worship we set our sights on God as the final end, or goal, of our lives. Worship also strengthens the unity of the Church as we all look towards God together. Finally, worship nourishes and strengthens our faith by strengthening our relationship with God. As the Catechism says, “Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify. They are efficacious because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies. The Father always hears the prayer of his Son’s Church which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit. As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power” (CCC 1127). We don’t get to choose how we worship God, because He has told us how He wants us to worship Him, and it is for our own good. Worship is about entering into a relationship with God as the highest good (summum bonum); we encounter God in the liturgy and sacraments. God has given the Church the authority to regulate the liturgy and sacraments, but the Church is the steward of the mysteries, not the owner of them. If we change the liturgy to reflect ourselves we’ll end up looking into a mirror and staring back out at ourselves. When we celebrate the liturgy with faithfulness to the Church we enter into Communion with the Body of Christ. Have you ever felt discouraged in the spiritual life? Have you ever felt like you’re not making any progress, not growing closer to God, committing the same sins over and over again, and unable to move forward? We know that there are many obstacles to growth in virtue and holiness. Our passions cause us to desire things that are contrary to God’s will, our bad habits incline us to continue choosing those things, and often the people, circumstances, and culture around us make it difficult to change. The virtue of prudence, which St. Thomas Aquinas called “right reason in action,” helps us to what is good and figure out how to achieve it. The Cathechism says, “Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it” (CCC 1806).
There is a type of worldly prudence that is only concerned with achieving one’s goal but doesn’t care whether that goal is good or bad. We often see this type of prudence in the criminal world. The thief who very carefully plans out his robbery of a jewelry store and the mafia boss who knows how to maximize profits while minimizing the danger to himself display this sort of prudence. However, even perfectly legal activities can fall into this trap, such as Ebenezer Scrooge, who is a very successful businessman but has aimed his entire life at the wrong goal. Our faith tells us that the highest good, the source of all lesser goods, is God Himself, and the ultimate aim of our lives is union with God in heaven. Christian prudence helps us to achieve that goal by giving us clarity about how to live, the goods that we should be pursuing, the evils that we should be avoiding, and how to apply all of this to the choices we make every day. Prudence regulates all of the details of life. It regulates our thoughts by directing us to think of things that are good, as St. Paul said, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8). As an archer keeps his eye on the target, so we ought to aim our thoughts at our target. It also regulates our motives, or intentions, since our motive should reflect our goal. It regulates our affections and sentiments, our emotions, since these are like a tide pushing us to one side or another of the river. It’s possible to swim agains the tide of emotions, but its much easier to swim with it. You may say that it’s impossible to control our emotions, but that’s only partially true; we can regulate our emotions by regulating our thoughts, motives, and actions. Finally, it regulates our choices and decisions by applying reasoning to them. We ought to make decisions based on right reason, rather than emotion, since emotions, like the tide, can change. Prudence can be broken down into a process with three stages: deliberation, judgement, and execution. First, we need to know when to act urgently and when we have the space to spend more time thinking things through. Experience will teach you how to spend that appropriate amount of time in deliberation. You probably shouldn’t spend hours deciding whether to wear this shirt or that one to go jogging, and you also probably shouldn’t decide to marry someone after knowing them for only five minutes. When you’re thinking something through, consider the past, present, and future. Is there anything in your own experience that can shed some light on this issue? If there anything in history that can help? It can be especially helpful to study the life of Christ, the Bible, and the lives of the saints, since they’re a sure guide to achieving our ultimate goal of union with God in heaven. Think about the present situation and anything going on that might affect it. Think about the circumstances and people who might affect your decision. Finally, think about the future. How will this choice affect yourself and other people in the future? What consequences will the different options have? Remember to exercise caution, since we can never predict the future perfectly. It can often be helpful to seek counsel, or advice, when making a difficult or important decision. Try to find a wise, trustworthy person to talk to who has experience that is relevant to the problem at hand or who can at least help you think things through thoroughly. Also remember to bring it to prayer, asking for God’s help and guidance. Talk through the issue with the Lord and ask Him to lead you to the right choice. There’s nothing to small to pray about, since the Lord cares about even the smallest parts of our lives. Then, you have to make a judgement. In thinking the situation through, you’ll be presented with several directions you can go. Make the best choice you can based on your deliberations, counsel, and prayer, and then put it into action. Remember the motto of St. Ignatius of Loyola, ad majorem Dei gloriam, to the greater glory of God. Don’t just pick a good, but the best possible good, to give the most glory to God. Although there are other virtues that are superior to it, humility is the foundation of the virtuous life. Humility is opposed to pride. Pride causes us to take credit for good things about ourselves that really came from God, to see ourselves as better than we truly are, and to desire to place ourselves above others. Humility allows us to know the truth about ourselves, which leads us to depend more and more on God and His grace, to pray for His help, and to be grateful for the many gifts God has given us.
Fr. Adolphe Tanquerey, in his book The Spiritual Life, writes, “Humility empties the soul of self-love and vain-glory, and thus creates there a vast capacity for grace, which God is ready to fill; for as St. Bernard says there is a close affinity between grace and humility: ‘The virtue of humility is always found closely associated with Divine grace.’” Self-love causes us to think too much of ourselves and to think of ourselves too much, and vain-glory is an attempt to elevate ourselves, while humility causes us to lower ourselves and depend on God to lift us up. Humility allows us to see the truth about ourselves. Humble people don’t deny the gifts, graces, and virtues that they have; that’s false humility which leads to despair. True humility shows us that all of these good things come from God, so we can’t take the credit for them. It also shows us our many vices and defects and that these come from ourselves. Once I know that all the bad in me come from myself and all the good comes from God, then I’ll naturally desire to draw close to Christ and to become more Christlike. The more humble we are the more we’ll strive to imitate Christ in our lives. Humility allows us to be honest about our sins and ask forgiveness from God and other people. Pride prevents us from asking for forgiveness. We either ignore our sins, fear admitting them and being humiliated, or despise humbling ourselves before someone else. Humility helps us to admit the truth about ourselves and our actions and to place God and neighbor ahead of ourselves. Regularly going to Confession helps us to grow in humility, as it requires us to examine our consciences, admit to our faults out loud, and ask forgiveness from God. The Catechism says, “Humility is the foundation of prayer,” and “contemplative prayer is a gift that can only be accepted in humility and poverty” (CCC 2559 and 2713). The most basic and common form of prayer is the prayer of petition, but it takes humility to ask God for His help. As we advance in the prayer life, we learn to desire to follow God’s will more than our own will, as we pray in the Our Father, “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” but that takes humility. Finally, the highest forms of prayer, like contemplative prayer, come from a complete surrender to God which allows the Holy Spirit to take the lead, which requires great humility and love. Daily prayer, especially thinking about the life of Christ and His Cross and Resurrection, helps us to grow in humility before God. Humility isn’t only about our relationship with God, but we should also show humility before other people. We often exaggerate our own goodness and focus on the defects of our neighbor. Instead, we should try to see all of the good in other people, to overlook their faults as much as possible, and to consider others as better than ourselves. What about when I seem to have more virtue than someone else? In that case, think about ways that they’re more virtuous than you, consider that they might have hidden virtues that you don’t know about, remember that you can’t really take credit for those virtues, since they’re the work of God. Those who are responsible for teaching, preaching, or correcting others should especially pray for humility, since these things can be a great temptation to pride. What can we do to grow in humility? First, pray for it. Ask God to help you to be humble. Be obedient to God and try to keep the 10 Commandments. Be obedient to people who have authority over you out of love for God, such as your parents, teachers, law enforcement, and government officials, always remembering that obedience to God comes first. In addition to obedience, be patient. Be patient with your superiors, even when they tell you to do something ridiculous. Be patient with those under your authority, even when they’re disobedient. Accept setbacks, annoyances, and aggravations calmly and patiently. Practice modesty; don’t try to stand out or insist on getting credit for your good work, but be content with doing good for the sake of God. Be reserved in speech and let other people talk first. Really listen to them; don’t just wait for an opportunity to speak. St. James wrote, “‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of double mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you” (Jm 4:6-10). When we think of the moral teachings of the Church, most of us think of the 10 Commandments, which are about giving God and our neighbor what is owed to them. The first three Commandments deal with our relationship with God and our need to worship and revere Him, while the last 7 deal with our relationships with other people and, for the most part, what we ought not to be doing to them. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ calls us to greater moral perfection in the Beatitudes, which are a path for following Christ in holiness of life. Anyone who’s tried to live out the Commandments and Beatitudes knows just how difficult it is. In fact, it’s not just difficult, it’s humanly impossible. Human nature is basically good, because it was created by God, but it is fallen, and one way that we experience that fallenness is through concupiscence.
Concupiscence is the tendency towards sin. When you’re driving a car, if you look at something happening on the left side of the road the car starts to drift to the left unless you consciously keep yourself driving straight or you have a lot of practice at it. So, we tend to drift into those sins that are most attractive to us; we find it easy to give in to those temptations and difficult to deny them or any to look away. The virtuous person is the person who is practiced in doing what is good. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in number 1803, says, “A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends towards the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God.” Through the grace of God, which builds on nature, we acquire the habit of doing what is good. It becomes second nature to us, a part of our character and disposition. If concupiscence causes us to tend, or drift, towards sin, then the virtues help us to tend, or drift, towards the good. They don’t take away our freedom, but they do help us to do what we truly want, because they help us to think about, desire, and do what is good. In Christian tradition, we talk about the four Cardinal and three Theological Virtues. All of the other virtues fall under one of these seven. The Cardinal Virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, and the Theological Virtues are faith, hope, and charity. The Catechism describes the Cardinal Virtues as Human Virtues and says this about them, “Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good. The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love” (CCC 1804). By repeated choosing to do what is good, we imbed those actions into our habits and character, so that it becomes easier and easier to go the good. Even though these virtues are acquired by human actions, we still needs God’s help, so the Catechism reminds us to ask for God’s help, “Christ’s gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow his calls to love what is good and shun evil” (CCC 1811). The Theological Virtues help us to live in a relationship with God, so we can’t attain them by purely human action. They come from God and lead us back to Him. The Catechism says, “The dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object… They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being” (CCC 1812-13). They are given to us by God, so that we may freely answer His invitation to love and friendship and be, like Christ, children of God. On this Fourth of July, as we celebrate the founding of our nation with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, let’s wade into the debate about the Unites States’ identity as a Christian Nation. Is the United States a Christian nation or is it not? What are the two sides of this argument?
In one corner are those who, rightly, point out that the bill of rights prohibits the government from establishing an official religion. The First Amendment says, in part, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This, in affect, prohibits the government from establishing an official religion for the nation. So, the United States is not a Christian Nation in the sense that Vatican City is a Catholic nation or Cambodia is a Buddhist nation, as they have legally declared those religions the official religion of the nation. Nor can the Unites States favor any one particular religion, as Russia gives favored status to Russian Orthodoxy over other religions. In the United States, everyone is free to practice their own religion, and the government is legally prevented from favoring one over the others or preventing people from exercising their religions. It makes sense for some nations to have an established or favored religion because of their circumstances or history, but, so the argument goes, for pluralistic nations like the United States freedom of religion is far better. A Catholic, arguing for this position, may say that forced conversion isn’t real conversion. So, while we want everyone to be Christian, and even Catholic, because it’s the true religion and the path to salvation, we want to convince them to convert of their own free will. On the other side of the argument are those who point out, again, rightly, that the United States, even though it doesn’t have an official religion, was founded mostly by Christians, on Christian principles, and that God was explicitly invoked in official ways. The Declaration of Independence appeals to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” and states that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” People are often sworn in to public office or as witnesses in a trial with their hand placed on a Bible. We also have a National Day of Prayer, which took place on May 2 this year. At the least we can say that the United States has not been officially hostile to religion, and is at least partially founded on Christian principles learned by reflecting on Revelation. One of those principals is our equality before God (Romans 2:10-11), based on the belief that we are all made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26); that was revealed to us by God, not discovered through human reason. Another Christian principal that is at the core the US Constitution is the reality of sin. Since all men are prone to sin (Proverbs 24:16 & Romans 3:23), no one can be fully trusted with power over others; this understanding lead the founding fathers to implement the system of checks and balances in the US Constitution. The benefit of this position, from the perspective of the Church, is that the laws of the land can make us more or less disposed to the Church. There’s no such thing as a morally neutral law; the law always encourages some things and discourages others. Therefore, we ought to support laws and policies that flow from the teachings of Christ and encourage people in Christian virtue. What makes a nation Christian? A Christian Nation is a nation that is enlivened by Christian principles and makes it easy to pursue the goals of Christianity. The goal, or mission, of the Church is to make disciples for Christ (Matthew 28:19), to care for the poor and those in need (Matthew 25:40), and to follow Christ (Matthew 16:24). Does this country, and the culture we live in, make it easy or difficult to follow Christ? Is it easy or difficult to act with charity towards those in need? Is it easy or difficult to live and preach the Gospel? The Declaration of Independence says that we have the God-given right to the pursuit of happiness, but happiness is not found in possessions or worldly honors. True happiness is found only in God. To the extent that we’ve put the pursuit of money (mammon) or power or pleasure or comfort (Matthew 6:24), over the pursuit of God, we have ceased to be a Christian nation. We can make the United States a Christian nation by truly following our Lord Jesus Christ and encouraging others to do so. St. Ignatius of Antioch, who died sometime between 98 and 117 AD, wrote to the Ephesians, “Take heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His praise. For when you assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith. Nothing is more precious than peace, by which all war, both in heaven and earth, is brought to an end.” From the earliest days that Christian community used to come together in one place to worship God and to give Him thanks. Remember that the Greek word eucharistia, where the English word “Eucharist” comes from, means giving of thanks. We can either give thanks to God for the spiritual gifts that He gives or give thanks to Satan for the worldly gifts that he offers (although his promise is empty). Giving thanks to God, through the Eucharist, brings about peace, while giving thanks to Satan, because of selfishness, leads to division and destruction.
In his letter to the Philadelphians, St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote, “Take heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth] the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants: that so, whatsoever you do, you may do it according to [the will of] God.” In an early Christian work called the Didache, there is a description of the Mass, “But every Lord’s day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that is at variance with his fellows come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: in every place offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations.” Finally, the first detailed account of the Mass in the early Church comes from St. Justin Martyr, who would eventually die for the faith. He wrote several works defending the faith. One of these, The First Apology, was addressed to the Emperor Titus Aelius Adrianus Antoninus Pius Augustus Caesar, who reigned from 138-161 AD. “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succors the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead” (St. Justin Martyr, The First Apology, chapter 67). This description is remarkably similar to what the Church is still doing today. They gathered specifically on Sunday. They have readings from the Old and New Testaments, although they weren’t called that yet, and then the “president,” or presider, instructs and exhorts the people, reflecting on the readings. Then they rise and pray, bread and wine and water are brought up, and the presider prays over them and distributes them to the people, and the deacon takes some to those who are absent. Then a collection is taken up, so we can see that the collection is actually an ancient tradition of the Church. About the Eucharist, St. Justin Martyr clarifies, “For not as common bread and wine do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Savior, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh” (chapter 66). These early Christian writings show their faith in the Eucharist as the body and blood of Christ, which unites us as one body in Christ. Even St. Paul scolds the Corinthians (1 Cor 11:20-22) for divisions when they come together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. May we always approach the Eucharist with faith, giving thanks to God, that we may grow in Communion with Christ and His Church. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you. – Matthew 5:11-12
The final beatitude is for those who are persecuted for the sake of Christ, which is the summit of all blessings in this life. At the canonization of the Martyrs of Uganda, Pope St. Paul VI said, “Who could have predicted to the famous African confessors and martyrs such as Cyprian, Felicity, Perpetua and — the greatest of all — Augustine, that we would one day add names so dear to us as Charles Lwanga and Matthias Mulumba Kalemba and their 20 companions? Nor must we forget those members of the Anglican Church who also died for the name of Christ. These African martyrs herald the dawn of a new age. If only the mind of man might be directed not toward persecutions and religious conflicts but toward a rebirth of Christianity and civilization! Africa has been washed by the blood of these latest martyrs, the first of this new age (and, God willing, let them be the last, although such a holocaust is precious indeed).” The Holy Father sets the Catholic attitude towards persecution and martyrdom by praying that persecutions might end while, at the same time, seeing them as a gift from God for the life of the Church. We are blessed when we are persecuted for the sake of Christ, but only when we are reviled falsely. It may be that the accusations against us are true, or that we’re persecuted for some other reason and not for the sake of Christ. This blessing is reserved for those who are accused, reviled, and persecuted falsely for faith in Christ. Members of the Church are falsely accused of many horrible things, including being spies or traitors because of our allegiance to the pope. The term papist (from papacy) was originally an anti-Catholic slur (one that we can proudly make our own). To those who are being persecuted St. Gregory the Great says, “What hurt can you receive when men detract from you, though you have no defense but only your own conscience? But as we ought not to stir up willfully the tongues of slanderers, lest they perish for their slander, yet when their own malice has instigated them, we should endure it with equanimity, that our merit may be added to.” First, remember that insults, persecution, and even physical violence cannot hurt your soul, nor rob you of the grace God, nor deprive you of salvation. Only you can do those things to yourself. Second, be concerned for your persecutor and pray for them, because their sins do hurt their own souls and their hope of salvation. Finally, endure it with patience. Try not to complain or to give in to it. When St. Joan of Arc gave in under extreme torture, she retracted it as soon as she returned to her right mind. St. Gregory adds, “Yet ought we sometimes to check our defamers, lest by spreading evil reports of us, they corrupt the innocent hearts of those who might hear good from us.” That is, to defend not so much ourselves and our own reputation but the Church and the Church’s reputation, so that people don’t have justification to think that the Church is inherently corrupt. About the blessing awaiting those who are persecuted, St. Augustine said, “Do not suppose that by heaven here is meant the upper regions of the sky of this visible world, for your reward is not to be placed in things that are seen, but by ‘in heaven’ understand the spiritual firmament, where everlasting righteousness dwells. Those then whose joy is in things spiritual will even here have some foretaste of that reward; but it will be made perfect in every part when this mortal shall have put on immortality.” Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:10
Now, we’re getting to the end of the Beatitudes, and the last two beatitudes are on persecution. First, those who are persecuted for the sake of justice, or righteousness, and then those who are persecuted for Jesus’ sake. Persecution can take many forms, from being socially excluded to being tortured or killed. However, we shouldn’t take pride in our persecution or brag about being persecuted more than someone else, as if that makes us better than them. Rather, we should persevere in doing the good and speaking the truth regardless of any persecution that comes. The blessings of God are greater than any persecution. St. Jerome wrote, “For righteousness’ sake He adds expressly, for many suffer persecution for their sins, and are not therefore righteous.” We are not blessed simply because we are persecuted. We may deserve what happens to us, in which case it is just punishment, or we may have brought it upon ourselves by our own actions. A Catholic apologist, Trent Horn, often says that people shouldn’t get upset because of the way that we present the faith, but because of the content of the faith. In other words, if I present the faith in a rude or insulting way, then I shouldn’t be surprised when people don’t want to listen to me. However, if I’ve presented the faith charitably and clearly, and people still get upset, then I have at least done the best that I can. The way in which we speak the truth and pursue the good matters. After all, doing a good thing in the wrong way or for the wrong reason can still be a sin. St. John Chrysostom said, “Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake, that is for virtue, for defending others, for piety, for all these things spoken of under the title of righteousness. This follows the beatitude upon the peacemakers, that we may not be led to suppose that it is good to seek peace at all times.” The Lord blesses those who are persecuted for seeking any good thing, not just for the faith, because all good things come from God. This beatitude includes anyone who is persecuted for trying to live a virtuous life, for defending the innocent, for promoting the truth, for doing good. Remember that the Lord said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” and “God alone is good.” Everyone who seeks goodness and truth is, in some way, seeking God, because all truth and goodness come from God and lead back to Him. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, number 1260, says, “Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.” Those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel can still be saved by genuinely seeking the truth and living it through the grace of God. How should we react to persecution? St. Paul said, “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them” (Rm 12:14), and the Lord said, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:44). It is very difficult to pray for our persecutors and those who’ve harmed us. First, pray for yourself, that you will be able to forgive them and that you won’t wish harm to come to anyone. Then, pray for them, that they will repent and come to conversion. Praying for someone doesn’t mean we have to accept their actions; it means we love them anyway, just as the Lord loves us even though we continue to sin against Him. Remember that forgiveness is not feeling good about someone or forgetting what they did. Forgiveness means loving them anyway and acting for their good. The Third year of the Eucharistic Revival in the United States begins today, on Corpus Christi Sunday, and continues through Corpus Christi next year. The Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ, who is really and sacramentally present. Therefore, the way we approach the Eucharist is the way that we approach God. If we approach the Eucharist with love, reverence, and faith, then we are approaching God with love, reverence, and faith, and vice versa. The Catholic bishops of the United States saw a need for a Eucharistic Revival to remind Catholics of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and encourage us to approach the Eucharist with reverence and faith that we may grow in love for God through the Eucharist. We’re all invited to participate in a novena of prayer to kick of the year of Eucharistic Revival.
The novena is an ancient Catholic tradition of prayer by which we dedicate nine days (either consecutively or the same day of nine weeks or months) to prayer. A novena can be prayed either for the living or the dead. There are novenas of mourning, or preparation, and of petition. There are novenas directly to the Lord and novenas through the intercession of the Blessed Mother and the angels and saints. Novenas, because they’re short, are great for families to pray together, and it gives you a reason to get the family together. You can do the novena prayer before a meal every day for nine days or for nine Sundays in a row (if you have a family dinner on Sunday or some other day). I’ve included the novena after this article, and you can find it here: www.praymorenovenas.com/corpus-christi-novena-for-eucharistic-revival. Every morning I’ll upload a video for that day’s novena prayer to our youtube and facebook pages, which you can get to through our website: www.StCletusChurch.com. A couple of days ago I saw my first termite of the season flying around the light at the door to the Adoration Chapel. Compared to Our Lady of Lourdes in Violet we don’t get very big swarms around here. Every year around this time we’d have swarms of thousands and thousands of termites around any light source. They would crawl into the rectory through the cracks around the doors and get into the attack and crawl through the light fixtures and fall down in my lap. I would have to turn off all of the exterior lights and as many inside as I could spare, which helped a lot, but many of them still found there way inside.
The way termites are attracted to light got me thinking. Why are they attracted to light? Scientists aren’t actually sure, but many of them think it’s because they mistake artificial lights for natural lights and get confused. If, for example, they’re trying to use the sun or moon to help navigate, they can get confused by a light bulb and end up flying circles around it, which makes them easy pickings for predators or bug zapping lamps. This is a great example for the spiritual life. We are attracted to the light of Christ and naturally want to move towards Him. When we follow the light of Christ we find meaning, joy, and true life. Unfortunately, we often confuse mere reflections of the light of Christ for Christ Himself. These are genuinely good things that truly reflect the light and goodness of Christ, like human sexuality, food and drink, the respect of other people, money, and so many other things. These are all good things and gifts from God, but they are mere reflections of God, Who is the source of all goodness. If we confuse them for the true Light of Christ, then we end up circling our lives around them and don’t get to where we’re meant to end up, which is union with God in heaven. We should use these things as God intended them, and see His own light and goodness reflected in them, but keep our eyes fixed on the true Light of the World, our Lord Jesus Christ. In heaven we’ll see God face to face, so we won’t be able to confuse anything else for the Supreme Good. In this life we often get confused, so we need to continuously recalibrate ourselves so we can refocus our lives on God Himself and ensure that we’re using the good things of this world to lead us to God rather than as substitutes for Him. One way to achieve this is through meditation. Meditation is a form of mental prayer. Some non-Christian forms of meditation involve emptying the mind or thinking about nothingness. Christian meditation involves a sort of prayer in which we have a sort of conversation with God. To meditate, first, choose a time and place where you can focus on your prayer without too many distractions or interruptions. Then, choose the topic of your meditation, such as a Bible passage, the teachings of the Church, or the lives of the saints. I’ll use meditating on the Bible for my explanation. When you begin to pray, focus on God by pushing any distractions out of your mind and invite God to guide your prayers. Then, read through the Bible passage slowly. Read it a second time, looking for any words, images, or ideas that stand out to you, raise questions, or stir up your emotions. Use your reason to examine what it really means, asking what the author meant at the time when it was written, how it fits into the context of the entire Bible and Church teachings, and what God may be saying to you through it right now. You may also use your imagination to place yourself in the story as one of the characters or as a bystander; this can give you different perspectives on it. Stay with it until you’re satisfied and then move on. Finally, ask God what He’s calling you to do through your prayers: to thank God for some blessing, to pray for grace or increase in some virtue, or to make a change in your life. Make a resolution to do something specific, so that you can look back and see if you’ve followed through on it. Close out your time of prayer in whatever way seems good, either by thanking God for being with you, asking your patron saints for their prayers, saying a traditional prayer, etc. Meditating in this way helps us come to know God better, so we don’t mistake some lesser good for Him, love Him more, so we desire to grow closer to Him, and put our faith into action. |
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