Franciscan at Home

I want to write about loving the Church. This is especially important in an era when so many institutions are no longer loved and are subject to much cynicism.

The announcement of Pope Benedict’s State Visit to England almost two years ago seemed to awaken hostility to the Catholic Church to a degree unknown in our own life-times. I could not help but recall in the moments of prayer in the chapel at Oscott College before the Holy Father’s final address to the Bishops of England and Wales, that Blessed John Henry Newman had come close to offending an earlier gathering of England’s Hierarchy when speaking of the disregarded position of the Catholic Church in the England of a century and a half ago: “The utter contempt into which Catholicism had fallen by the time we were born,” Newman had painfully explained, “you alas, know it far better that I can know it…a few adherents of the Old Religion, moving silently and sorrowfully about as memorials to what had been.” He went on to warn the bishops assembled in those same benches that they must anticipate martyrdom even in Nineteenth Century England. “We are engaged in a great, a joyful work,” declared Blessed John Henry, “but in proportion to God’s grace is the fury of His enemies...”

Do we, does each one of us Christians, believe in God’s love, which stretches over and covers the entire world and each one of us? Deists—and many Christians—say, “I believe in the Creator of the world, but I don’t believe he plays a role in the life of the world.” St. John Chrysostom says that those within the bosom of Christ’s Church who reason in this way are worse and more dangerous than unbelievers. We may boldly, and without fear of error, add to the words of this “Teacher of the Whole World” that the rejection of God’s Providence—that is, the rejection of God's continued care for the world—contradicts reason.

My dear ones, we know that the Creator’s plan for the world is a loving plan. And therefore it is impossible for God the Creator to deprive the world of His care.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the last Wenesday's Catechesis we reflected on the opening words of the Creed: “I believe in one God”. But the profession of faith specifies this affirmation: God is the almighty Father, Creator of heaven and earth. Thus I would like to reflect with you now on the first and fundamental definition of God which the Creed presents to us: he is Father.

And Preparing for the Baptism of the Child

Archbishop Kurtz explains how "The Blessing of the Child in the Womb,” approved on 8 December 2011 by the Congregation for Divine Worship for use in the United States of America, can be a pastoral moment of first evangelization of the child and of new evangelization of the family.

"The Blessing of the Child in the Womb” was approved on 8 December 2011 by the Congregation for Divine Worship for use in the United States of America. This blessing is a pastoral moment of first evangelization of the child and new evangelization of the family. Warmly extending the love of Christ to families as they prepare for the birth of their child, this sacred gesture is both a positive and hope-filled way to announce to society the great gift of human life as well as a gracious invitation for the parents to begin steps for the baptism of their child, once born.

In this address given to the recent Synod for the New Evangelization and the Transmission of the Christian Faith, Pedro Ossandón, Auxiliary Bishop of Chile, calls us to a new awakening of our awareness of the Holy Spirit working in our own lives and in the Church for the handing on of the Faith. This, he says, is the key to the new evangelisation.

Our beloved Blessed John Paul II wrote appreciatively of the gift of the Second Vatican Council, fruit of the action of the Spirit, of our indebtedness to this Council, and of the necessary examination of conscience we must undertake concerning its reception. He also left us a vision: “To make the Church the home and the school of communion: this is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings.”[i] The Pope here was inviting us to a new spirituality. This, I believe, is the challenge of the present moment: to rebuild and to reignite our communities throughout the world in the life of the Holy Spirit in a way that lays solid foundations for the New Evangelisation.

In baptism the Holy Spirit calls us to sanctity[ii]. He makes His dwelling in our hearts, not as a mere place of passive residence, but as the best place from which to move us to love God and love our neighbour as ourselves. So we are to recognise the Spirit as the Teacher of the interior life and the Teacher of evangelisation who helps us discover and walk the journey of faith, both personally and as the Church of God.[iii] From within ourselves, therefore, through the indwelling of the holy Spirit, should spring that mystical life that every Christian ought to cultivate in order to give, in the very heart of society, an eloquent testimony of his faith, shining like a light in the midst of the world.

Do you want to be a saint – really? If one billion Catholics were really trying to be saints, wouldn’t the world be a rather different place? But what about us? Sometimes I think we’re afraid to be saints. Our image of them can be unreal, as if they were perfect from start to finish. Some seem sanctimonious, the kind of people who offer everyone improving advice, or are simperingly pious, or levitate while in trances, or live in a cave wearing animal skins. Glorious eccentrics, these Catholic saints, but not really the sorts of people you’d want your daughter to marry!

If the way some of the saints lived here on earth does not appeal, our image of how they live in heaven might be equally unappetising. Sitting on clouds, staring at God, singing hymns is not going to attract moderns who treasure individuality, variety and entertainment so highly.

Then there’s the problem that saints are expected to live exemplary lives. Like the young St Augustine who said “Lord, make me chaste, but not just yet”, we might want to be holy by the time we’re old, but in the meantime we live a middling good and banally bad life. We’re weak and there are many distractions, and who wants penance in a consumer culture? Who’s up for virginity, missions and martyrdom in a postmodern world where nothing’s worth living for, let alone dying for? Who wants plenary indulgences when indulgence of a rather different sort is the order of the day?

Decimos al final del Credo, ‘Creo en el Espíritu Santo, la santa Iglesia Católica, la comunión de los santos…’ Esta ‘comunión de los santos’ es un misterio de mucha importancia en nuestra fe.

Y, sin embargo, nuestra fe en ese misterio puede pasar desapercibida ‘así nomás’. Decimos, ‘…el Espíritu Santo, la santa Iglesia Católica, la comunión de los santos, el perdón de los pecados…’ ¿Permitimos que aquellas frases del Credo se deslicen inadvertidas porque nos acostumbramos a ellas?

Debemos de tener en mente el misterio de la comunión de los santos y recordar que vivimos esa comunión muy especialmente en la Misa. Cuando llegamos al momento de la gran Plegaria Eucarística y nos invitan a ‘levantar el corazón’, eso significa que vamos místicamente al cielo. Por la liturgia de la Iglesia, el Espíritu Santo nos recuerda a todos la verdad acerca de Jesús. Y en la Misa somos levantados místicamente al cielo y allí estamos con el Señor, con María, la Reina de todos los Santos, con José, con todos los Apóstoles, con los mártires, y los ángeles. Nos levantan para estar con todos los santos.

Juan cuenta la historia de esta forma:

Hubo una boda en Canaán. María asistió como invitada. También estuvo presente Jesús, su Hijo. También estaban sus primeros discípulos. María se dio cuenta que se estaba acabando el vino, lo cual era una vergüenza tremenda para los anfitriones de la boda. Al ir con su Hijo, María le dijo con sencillez: ‘No tienen vino’.

Imagina a Jesús que la queda mirando profundamente, diciéndole con un pequeño suspiro: ‘¿Qué tengo yo contigo, mujer? Todavía no ha llegado mi hora.’ Lo mejor estaba por suceder. La respuesta de María. No dijo nada.

Ella encontró a los que servían el vino. Señaló a su Hijo. Dijo: ‘Hagan lo que Él les diga.’

With affection, great joy, and sincere admiration, I greet each of you! The Church thanks you for dedicating time and part of your lives to Christian education. You have clearly understood that Christian education is the best investment in the future that we can make today. It is without doubt the Holy Spirit who drives forward this fundamental work in the life of the Church and the world.

The need for Christian education is heightened in a situation like ours with insufficiently evangelized adults and young Christians, frequently separated from the practice of their faith, who on occasion abandon that Faith, with important shortcomings in Christian initiation, and with children, in growing numbers, who have not reached religious awakening. Dedicate yourselves to it apostolically with evangelical zeal; respond with a type of education that makes the Gospel of Jesus Christ joyfully present, in whom is revealed the truth of God and man inseparable from each other since the Incarnation.

There is an urgent need today to promote education with a religious depth that leads to a real and effective meeting with, and experience of, the living God, following in His way of life and in His engagement with mankind. It is necessary to provide an unambiguous Christian teaching, fully integrating the essential elements of faith and Christian morality, clear in the presentation of the living substance of the Gospel and of Christian life or morality.

Let us never succumb to the temptation to reduce Christian education to a vague religious awareness or a mere anodyne introduction to a series of values or ideals that do not reach the depths of the heart of man, incapable of newly conforming him to the will of God. Never, amongst us, should education be reduced to a blurred announcement of Jesus Christ that represents something other than Jesus himself in person (that which has been called ‘the cause of Jesus’, or an ideal together with some attractive values).

Everyone who is baptized and lives in the grace of Jesus Christ is called to holiness. That is one of our greatest privileges. In contrast to the world around us, our vision extends beyond death to the joy and glory which the Lord is prepared to share with us.

One of the great mysteries of our life in Christ and in the Catholic Church is that Jesus calls some men and some women to help Him love and care for His people. Priests have a special role in this and in the life of the Church and in the lives and hearts of God’s faithful. It is a wonderful thing when young people can begin to grasp something of this mystery and open their hearts to the grace of God.

During my years working with young men who may be called to the priesthood, I have learned that interaction with priests can be very helpful for them. They see priests as models. They learn that priests are normal people just as they are. They see priests having fun. And they see priests praying and loving the Lord and the people whom they serve. They see a life worth living.

They may also see that priests are not perfect. I tell them that one day they will look in the mirror and realize that they are not perfect either. This is part of the wonder. God chooses men who are not perfect and calls them to help love and care for his people.