Franciscan at Home

Why do we need to develop the virtues?

Arguably, the cornerstone of the moral life is the theological and the cardinal virtues. Each of us can recognize that our human nature is wounded due to the effects of Original Sin because we experience every day that it is very difficult to maintain a moral balance in our lives. We know that we must combat, above all, the selfishness and pride which hinders the perfect love for God and our neighbour to which we are called. Living virtuous lives helps us to live in true peace and joy, because we ‘not only perform good acts but give the best of ourselves’ (CCC 1803). Therefore, we should all want to pursue this goal. However, developing the virtues is not something that we simply accomplish through our own will power. ‘Christ’s gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues’ (CCC 1811). At the core of all virtue is love and actions are needed to express this love.

The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity are infused along with sanctifying grace into the soul of the person at Baptism. These virtues are supernatural, meaning that they are above our nature. These virtues form the foundation of the Christian life because they bestow on us the capacity to live in a relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This relationship consists in acting as God’s children by believing in Him and everything that He has revealed to us; hoping in His promises because we can trust Jesus, who says, ‘He Who made the promise is trustworthy’ (Heb.9:23); and loving our neighbor because of our love for Christ.

With beautiful simplicity, Holy Mother Church reminds us that this miraculous birth we are about to celebrate stands as the fulcrum point of all history. Our Blessed Lady is about to give birth. In every Catholic Church, the faithful (and not so faithful) parishioners and those without a parish are drawn to the Christmas Crib. Why? Modernism and moral relativism have chipped away at the faith of many. Scandal and apathy have hardened many hearts. Life, at its beginning and end, is no longer protected or cared for. The family is attacked in its very definition and spousal love is no longer fruitful or faithful in many homes. Why do they still come, seeking shepherds and angels and looking with longing at the man and woman and their baby?

This Christmas Story speaks of all that this world finds laughable—chastity, virginity, miracles, commitments and promises fulfilled. Perhaps we are still drawn to Bethlehem, the “House of Bread” because we believe that Mary’s son was also God. We still want what He had already given his Mother, the gift of his very life that is sanctifying grace, before he was even born. In Mary, we begin to see the truth of the great exchange we experience in the Eucharist, through the Incarnation, Jesus receives his humanity from his mother’s flesh, while as her redeemer, He makes her a partaker in the divine life. We see eternity, the beginning and the end.

We begin the Church year in advent both remembering the long preparation for Christ’s first advent in the Old Covenant and preparing ourselves for his second advent. Sometimes we assume that everyone understands the necessity of the Incarnation. I think we assume too much.

The parish community is where theory stops and practice begins! In the parish the education of children and adults is often accomplished through volunteer catechists. Most have good intentions, some have little or no catechetical formation, and much of what they think they know is not true. In the United States the Bishops have tried to address texts that give insufficient attention to the Trinity, are not centered on Christ or who downplay his divinity, ignore the magisterium, God’s initiative, the doctrine of grace, the sacraments, sin and the moral life. However, for the parish catechist, even the best texts are chosen for them by someone else, and they are given little preparation. Relying on bits and pieces of childhood memories or practices are insufficient to serve the catechetical task at hand.

Almost twenty years ago it was into this confusion that the Catechism of the Catholic Church was developed and promulgated. Not since the issuing of the Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent four hundred years earlier had the magisterium provided one source to serve as the sure norm to deliver the deposit of the faith. Ironically, after the Second Vatican Council it seemed to many parish catechists that what they had been taught as children was no longer true. In reality the Council desired to rearticulate for modern man the same truths of Divine Revelation entrusted to the Church by Jesus. The new Catechism of the Catholic Church became part of the embodiment of the real “spirit of Vatican II”: collegiality, biblical renewal, ressourcement and boldness in the presentation of the faith.

Death, judgement, heaven and hell are not things many of us consider with any frequency. But they should in fact be very close to our minds and hearts, for hidden within each of these realities is the Person of Christ.

Eschatology is sometimes referred to as “the last things”. It is a fine nickname, as far as it goes, but it can be quite misleading. For starters, these ‘last’ things are not supposed to come last at all. Instead, the reality of our own death and judgment should inform the way we live in the present moment. In other words, we should live our lives with the end in mind. Our teleology (our end, or our final purpose) supplies a certain orientation for how we are to live right now. “Although the end is last in the order of execution, yet it is first in the order of the agent’s intention”[i]. The last thing, then, becomes first.

Yet this knowledge of our ultimate end will not suffice. In our fallen humanity, we need grace in order to live according to what we know. And here, too, the term ‘last’ is lacking. For God has not left us alone and unguided in our attempts to make the last things first. In reality, we have been offered a foretaste of heaven on this side of eternity. This we find in the liturgy of Christ’s Church.

Here Lorraine Buckley reflects on a theme that may be far from our minds at Christmas but is nevertheless a reality the Church brings forward for our contemplation in the liturgy of Christ’s birth.

It may seem odd to reflect on the last things at Christmas time, but this is what the Church’s liturgy invites us to do. The Post-Modern philosophy that pervades the current cultural climate in the West rejects all types of universal meta-narratives, fragmenting our world-view and outlook. The seasons of Advent and Christmas offer particular opportunities to help break out of this cultural trend. During Advent we have been preparing ourselves to celebrate the first coming of Christ in Bethlehem and renewing our desire for Christ’s second coming. Christmas is a time when Mother Church invites her children through the liturgy to step back from our day-to-day concerns to take a wider view: one which spans the whole history of salvation from the beginning of time to the eschaton. The Masses for the Nativity are a rich liturgical source for supplementing catechesis on death, judgment, heaven and hell.
The Gospel for Mass during the Day of the Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ[i] reminds us that “in the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God”[ii] and then recounts creation, the Incarnation, and the purpose of the Incarnation in bringing light to the world so that all could become children of God who would see His glory. This short little scripture passage encapsulates the whole history of creation and salvation.

Christmas is a time when we take the opportunity to go home and spend time with family. We can all relate to the experience of joy when we return home. We go back to the places where we grew up as a child or maybe our families come to us. Either way, the experience of “going home for Christmas” can be a foretaste of Heaven!

For many of us, Christmas and “going home” rest hand in hand. We gather as a family to celebrate the greatest Gift ever given to the world. The Gift of Jesus not only opened the gates of heaven, but His life, death and resurrection brought about the grace to enter those gates into eternal life. This is the supreme act of love, “the condescension of the goodness of God.” [i] Christmas is a time to gather close to the ones we love and celebrate the cause of our love and joy. There is something intrinsic to “going home” that really completes the celebration. We all know that when we are not at home for Christmas, it is not the same and something is missing.

In this article, Sarah Pedrozo invites us to see that Christ is not so far removed from all the bustle of Christmas after all.

Amid all the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations normal to our culture these days, it is easy to be swept up into a seemingly endless list of tasks. Everything from packing and traveling, to hosting guests and dealing with varying family dynamics, not to mention the added expense of presents and charitable donations can all combine to make us overwhelmed and exhausted. Where, we might wonder, is Christ in all of this? How can we hope to truly join in the Advent preparations of getting ready in heart, mind and soul for the birth of Christ when we have so many additional demands on us? Maybe we simply wish to leave it all behind, withdraw from the world and spend Advent and Christmas in prayerful retreat. While there is no doubt that it is always a challenge to keep Him at the center of our Christmas activities in the midst of an increasingly secular society, perhaps what we need more than a change of location or activity is a change of perspective.

St. Bernard of Clarivaux wrote that, in reality, we can think of three comings of Christ. The first occurred in the stable at Bethlehem, over 2000 years ago. The 2nd Coming will take place in the future, at a time known only to God, when Christ will return in glory and majesty. But the 3rd coming is going on right now. It is the time in between the 1st and 2nd Comings, called a “ hidden intermediate coming,” when “only the elect see the Lord.” St. Bernard says that in this 3rd Coming, Christ comes “in spirit and in power.” There is a unique synthesis in activity between all three comings of the Lord. Particularly at Christmas, the activities we engage in (during the 3rd coming) reflect the 1stcoming while at the same time preparing us for the Final Coming of our Lord.

Infallibility can be a difficult and misunderstood issue both for Catholics and enquirers, so clarity about what is meant by infallibility is of great importance to anyone engaged in the ministry of teaching the Catholic faith. We need to be able to explain why, and to what extent, the Church has the power to teach without error.

Infallibility is a supernatural gift bestowed on the Church by God in order to preserve her from doctrinal error. The first question that confronts us is why God would make such a gift. To this question, Blessed John Henry Newman offers the following answer:

Supposing then it to be the Will of the Creator to interfere in human affairs, and to make provisions for retaining in the world a knowledge of Himself, so definite and distinct as to be proof against the energy of human skepticism, in such a case – I am far from saying that there was no other way – but there is nothing to surprise the mind, if He should think fit to introduce a power into the world, invested with the prerogative of infallibility in religious matters.[i]

Here, Newman goes straight to the heart of the matter. The gift of infallibility protects the work Christ came to accomplish. As well as dying for us, Jesus came both to reveal God and to show us the way to Him (John 17:26). It is inconceivable that having done this, and returned to heaven, Christ would not have left some mechanism by which this knowledge could be passed on, with certainty and undefiled, to all subsequent generations.

By way of analogy, Newman offers us the example of creation. God not only creates, He also takes care to preserve His creation so that it does not fall back into nothingness: which, having been made from nothing (ex nihilo) it is apt to do at every moment without His sustaining action. Likewise, when God teaches and communicates truths about Himself to mankind, He takes care to preserve it, and this is done through the establishment of the Church endowed with the gift of infallibility.[ii]

Jason Gale explains how the Credo ultimately contains only a single dogma, whose mystery can and must be spread out in many aspects. There is a direct relationship between the person of Christ and the one Deposit of Faith. In catechesis, we say that we teach Christ, but we also say that we teach the Catholic Faith. The Creed, Sacraments, morality, and prayer not only describe what is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but also summarize for us God and his plan for salvation. This plan is fully revealed and receives its power in Jesus Christ. He is the center of our faith and life. When our faith and life blend together, we describe ourselves as persons of integrity. The integrity of the Catholic faith is sometimes overlooked in catechesis. We must strive to teach the whole of who Christ is as expressed in the Church’s faith.