Author Archives: Father L
Lamps should not be under the bed
Friends in the Lord, in the early Church, to reveal that one was a Christian meant death. It was required in those days, to worship the official gods of the Empire; keeping the same gods meant unity in the Empire, and the Emperor wanted that.
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On certain stated days, everyone was to go to the local shrine in their town, and throw some incense on the fire to the gods. It was, in effect, a test of political loyalty. The person would then receive a certificate stating that his worship had been witnessed. We still have many of those certificates today.
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In those days, all that a Catholic would have to do to save his skin, was go through that formal act and receive the certificate. But as we know, thousands refused and gave their life. We often hear about some of these martyrs at weekday Mass. For example St. Barbara, who even at a tender age allowed her faith in Christ to shine forth.
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Those Christians could have concealed their religion easily, and lived quiet, private lives with no problems. But they chose instead to reveal the truth.
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Jesus says today that a lamp is lit up brightly, and is not meant to be put under a basket or a bed. It is meant to be displayed, to illuminate everything. Truth is meant to be seen, not concealed. There may be times when stating the truth of our faith is the quickest way to become unpopular at a social gathering. But Our Lord expects us to let His Truth shine: ‘Whoever is ashamed of me and my words [in this life,] the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his glory.
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There may be times when it is dangerous to speak out as a Catholic. But such moments, that risk ridicule, or mockery, or death – these are the moments of our glory on this earth. ‘No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket or a bed, Instead they put it on its stand, so that it gives light to all in the house.’ ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others.’
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We are called to show forth the truth, and to align our life with it.
St. Thomas Aquinas – I
Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.
St. Thomas lived 800 years ago, yet his books are the most important of all theology.
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When he was growing up, his parents wanted him to be a very important man, but Thomas felt that God was calling him to become a Dominican priest. The Dominicans live a simple life, they wear a white habit, and their main work is to study and to preach the gospel. But Thomas’ parents were determined to prevent him from this path.
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So one day while he was walking along, Thomas saw two men riding quickly toward him on horses. He realized they were his brothers, who came to stop him from being a priest. They captured him, and locked him in the tower of their castle, until he changed his mind. They took away all his books, except one: the Bible. And so for the time he was locked in that tower, he read the bible. Because of his great mind, Thomas was able to memorize the entire bible, and this would serve him well in the future.
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His sisters continued to try to help him, and they often brought him food, sliding it under the wooden door. One day an angel appeared and placed a rope around his waist; ‘you will be a Dominican priest the angel told him.
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His brothers, determined to keep him from his plan, brought a wicked woman to tempt Thomas to give up his purity, but Thomas boldly grabbed a hot poker from the fireplace and ran at her yelling, get out! Get out! Which she did. Ultimately, his sisters came with a large basket and some rope, and lowered him down from the tower so that he could escape.
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St. Thomas DID become a Dominican, and his main teacher was Albert the Great, who taught him many things. Now he was a very gentle boy and rather quiet, so some fellow students thought he was not very smart. They often called him ‘The Dumb Ox,’ but Thomas didn’t mind; he just smiled and prayed for them. Albert their teacher once reprimanded the students. He said to them: ‘You will see that one day this dumb Ox will bellow so loud, that the whole world will listen to him.’ He meant that Thomas would be a great teacher and doctor of the Church, which he was.
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Even though Thomas had great knowledge, he had a child-like simplicity. The goodness of his heart shined in his face, and each person who met him felt happy. After his death, his confessor said: “Thomas Aquinas was as innocent as a five-year-old child.’ He died at only the age of 50, yet he accomplished more than any other man.
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His sister Theodora once asked him, ‘how can I become a saint?’ He told her: just decide to do it, and then do it.
St. Angela Merici
Friends in the Lord,[i] today is the Feast of St. Angela Merici.
St. Angela was born in 1474 in Italy. By age 10 she was an orphan, and some years later her dear sister suddenly died; because her sister had not received the last sacraments, Angela was worried; she prayed often for her sister.
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She lived a life of great austerity, possessing nothing of her own, not even owning a bed. She ate bread and water and a fasted on vegetables. One day God showed her in a vision that her sister was with the saints in heaven, and this gave her much peace.
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Now Angela was a very short person, but she was quite attractive and really a born leader; she wanted to use her gifts and charm, to lead people to heaven. In those days one of the big problems was that young people knew very little of their Faith, so she organized her friends into a group of teachers. They gathered girls of the town together to teach them the Faith.[ii]
Eventually, many schools were built, and even the Pope in Rome heard of her success as a religion teacher.[iii] [iv]
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One time, she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and while on the way, she suddenly went blind.[v] Her friends suggested turning back, but she insisted on completing the pilgrimage, praying at each of the places in the Holy Land, though seeing nothing. On the return trip she abruptly regained her sight and returned to her work of teaching.
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In 1535, she placed her little group under the protection of St. Ursula, and this was the beginning of the Ursuline Order of Sisters.
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Angela was like the mustard seed in the gospel. Though she was very short in stature, her life flowered like a giant mustard tree and brought many young girls closer to Jesus.
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She once wrote to her Sisters telling them: ‘Be ever concerned about each one of your daughters. Embrace them with a living love, for mothers, even if they have a thousand children, carry each one in their heart, and they never forget any one of them. The more children a mother has, the more her love for each one is increased.
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St. Angela Merici died in 1540. She is the patron saint of disabled people.
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[i] strive to draw them by love, modesty, charity, and not by pride and harshness. Be sincerely kind to every one; you also ought to exercise pleasantness toward all, taking great care especially that what you have commanded may never be done by reason of force. For God has given free will to everyone, and therefore he forces no one but only indicates, calls, persuades. Sometimes however something will have to be done with a stronger command, yet in a suitable manner and accordion to the state and necessities of individuals; but then, also we should be impplelled only by charity and zeal for souls. Brev. III, p. 1333.
[ii] She taught them that ‘a good heart and soul, inflamed with charity, can do nothing but good and holy works.’
[iii] In the jubilee year 1525, she visited Rome; Pope Clement VII, who had heard of her great holiness and her extraordinary success as a religious teacher of young girls, invited her to remain in Rome, but Angela, who shunned publicity, returned to Brescia.
[iv] It is related that one day, while in an ecstasy, she had a vision of young virgins ascending to heaven on a ladder of light; a voice had said: ‘Take heart, Angela: before you die you will found a group of maidens similar to those you have just seen.’
[v] On the island of Crete.
St. Timothy and Titus
Beloved in Christ, one of the things taught in the Catechism about our Faith, is the 4 marks of the Church.
For any Church to be the True Church of Christ, it must have these four things. We say them in the Creed each Sunday: the Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.
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How is the Church catholic? The word ‘catholic’ means universal. In other words, the beliefs of the True Church must be the same everywhere. Japanese Catholics believe the same thing as Catholics in the Philippines and in Nebraska. And this universality of the Faith must be true, not just geographically, today, but – through time. So today’s Catholics believe the same thing that our great-grandparents, and Thomas Aquinas, and St. Agatha believed.
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The True Church of Christ is also ‘Holy.’ How is the Church holy? Well, Christ lives at the center of our Church – in the Holy Eucharist. This is holiness par excellence. Our Blessed Mother is the first member of the Church, and countless saints live in the Bosom of Mother Church. We still struggle here for holiness, but the Church triumphant in heaven, is very holy.
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How is the Church One? The Church is One, in that there is a unity among her. When I was in Greece, we met up with a group of Catholics from Korea and Singapore, and there was an immediate fraternal bond in Christ even though we did not speak the same language. We share in the same Sacrifice of the altar, the same sacraments, and we are under the vicar of Christ: the Pope.
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Finally, the True Church must be Apostolic. This means, that we have the Faith and the priesthood which have been passed down to us from the Apostles. We read of this today in the scriptures, on this Feast of Timothy and Titus. St. Paul says to Timothy, who is a bishop: stir up the grace that is in thee by the laying on of my hands (2 Tim 1:6) Do not lay hands hastily upon anyone. (1 Tim 5:22)
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St. Paul tells Titus, his other bishop, to appoint presbyters – that is, priests – in every city. So the Church of Christ must have Apostolic succession by the laying on of hands. Which we do. This is how the priesthood and the power of the sacraments is transmitted through the generations. We possesses all 4 marks of the True Church. One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.
The 5th Commandment
Latin Mass: 3rd Sunday after Epiphany
Beloved in Christ Jesus, in the year 350AD, a slave in Egypt was dismissed for theft and murder, and he became the leader of a gang of bandits who roamed about spreading terror and violence. His name was Moses the Black. Having gotten into more trouble, he fled to the desert and took shelter with some monks in the desert. But he became very much captivated by their monastic life, and remarkably, he joined the community.
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Eventually he would become the spiritual leader, the Abbott. And this former criminal became known for his mercy. When a brother committed a fault and Moses was summoned to discuss what to do with the monk, he took a basket filled with sand, with a hole in it, the sand pouring out. ‘What is that for?, they asked. He replied, ‘My sins run out behind me, and so how can I judge the sins of another?’
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When he was 75 years old, word came that a group of renegades planned to attack the monastery. The brothers wanted to defend it, but Moses said no; he had them all retreat, while he and 7 others remained and greeted the invaders with open arms. All 8 were martyred; the final action of SAINT Moses the Black, a killer who became a saint.
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Friends in Christ, the 5th Commandment is: ‘Thou shall not kill,’ and this is our subject today.
Killing was the first sin to occur after our expulsion from the Garden of Eden; it was the first prohibition God gave after the Flood. One person asked, ‘why do you Catholics still talk about the 10 commandments? That was the old law.’ Well, the commandments in fact, have not been discarded, but rather, amplified by Jesus Christ. In his Sermon on the Mount, the Lord makes clear, that the Christian is to live an entirely elevated spirit of the commandments.
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– ‘Thou shall not kill.’ I recently asked our students, what is the most common sin of killing in our country? One girl knew: abortion. And this we can say, is the saddest violation of this Law of God, because this is the killing of, not guilty or sinful people, but the killing of innocents. A million per year. It hardly need be said, that Catholics must be Pro-Life.
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But living the 5th commandment means more than not killing. As Jesus told us: ‘You have heard it said by the ancients, ‘you shall not kill, but I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.’ And so, anger, hatred, fighting, bullying – these are against God’s law. The catechism of the Council of Trent says: [This precept] commands us to cherish sentiments of charity and friendship towards our enemies, to have peace with all men, and to endure with patience every inconvenience.
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This is an echo of St. Paul’s admonition today in the Epistle: He tells us that we should do good to our enemies, and heap hot coals of charity upon his head.’ ‘Revenge not yourselves,’ he says. Enemies are most easily converted by love, not revenge. Revenge should be no part of a Catholic heart. I remember how my mother used to get upset when everyone started to become ‘sue-happy,’ suing everyone. ‘This is not how a Christian lives,’ she used to say. Nothing is more disgusting than to hear a Catholic person demanding their rights, like some pagan. ‘I demand to be compensated for my injury. I will sue!’ Holy Scripture says: ‘The fact that you have lawsuits among yourselves is a defeat for you. Why not rather just accept the wrong? Why not rather be cheated?’[i]
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Yes, maybe in some cases, if we are impoverished by medical bills, and the other party can afford to pay them, maybe we go to court. But not to get even, or to win 6 million dollars. In most cases, we offer up our troubles. ‘I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.’
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The 5th commandment requires us to safeguard the lives of others, but also, within reason, we must take care of ourself. Of course suicide is against this Commandment, but we also must not abuse our body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit: gluttony, drunkenness, cutting, abuse of drugs – these are ways that we are not caring for our own body. But obsession with the body can become un-Christian as well; the Catechism warns against today’s ‘cult of the body;’ this fixation on physical perfection or obsession with diet and health.
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Extreme sports in which one’s life is needlessly put at risk is against the 5th commandment.[ii] There must be a good reason to put our life at risk, such as caring for a person with a contagious disease, rescuing a person in danger, or a job that involves danger. But risking our life for love of speed[iii] or frivolous reasons is hardly Christian.
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Self-defense is certainly not against the 5th Commandment, and it is possible that someone might die in our defending ourself, although we are not required to defend ourself. In the case of innocent persons, we are obliged to defend them, and this may mean stopping or even killing an attacker. The same is true in a Just War: a country has a right and duty to protect it’s citizens from an aggressor, eve n if it means the killing of an enemy.
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But the 5th commandment is not just against harming a person in body, but also in soul. We wound persons in their soul by cruel or demeaning words, or by prejudice, or by humiliating them – and we wound others by bad example, because leading others into sin harms a person the most.
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In the New Law of Christ, the 5th commandment is a command of peace, to bring peace where we are. As St. Paul says today: ‘Live in harmony with one another; live peaceably with all.’ And this is surely fulfilled in Jesus’ words: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’
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The great peacemaker is Mary. St. Bernardine says that after the Flood, God put a rainbow in the clouds; ‘Mary, he says, is this bow of eternal peace,’ seeking peace between God and man’ and man and man.
Help us Mary, to be apostles of peace, in our home and in our world, and so be worthy of the promises of Christ.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Therese]
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[i] Also: ‘Dare any of you … go to law before the unjust?’ 1 Cor 6:1
[ii] Moral Theology, Jone – Adelman, #208.
[iii] Catechism of the Catholic Church #2290
St. Vincent (children’s Mass)
Dear young people,
Today is the Feast of St. Vincent. St. Vincent was a Deacon, one of the Church’s 3 most famous deacons.[i] Now as you know, in the sacrament of Holy Orders, there are 3 ranks: Bishop, Priest, and Deacon. So Vincent was a Deacon, and he assisted his bishop, in Saragosa, Spain. In fact, his bishop had some kind of speech impediment, he had a hard time speaking, and so he commissioned his Deacon Vincent to do the preaching for him in the diocese.
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In those days, many of the authorities were against Catholics; but nevertheless, Vincent spoke out clearly and strongly, teaching the truth about Jesus Christ, salvation, and the Church he founded, the Catholic Church. Now this angered the anti-Catholic authorities. So by order of the Governor, Dacian, Vincent and his bishop were arrested, and dragged in chains to Valencia and kept in prison for a long time.
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Vincent was told that he would be released, if only he would take the Holy Bible and throw it into the fire; but he adamantly refused, because the Holy Scriptures is the Sacred Word of God. Vincent was then put on the rack, and his arms and legs were pulled and pulled apart. Dacian asked him, ‘Tell me Vincent, how does your body look to you now?’ But the saint smiling, replied: ‘This is what I have always longed for, you are doing me great favors!
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Beside himself with rage, Dacian yelled at the torturers: ‘Miserable wretches, you’re getting nowhere with him.’ So they drove iron hooks into his sides until blood spurted forth and his intestines hung out, but he still said, ‘I have no fear of your tortures.’
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He was taken from the rack and carried to a hot gridiron with a fire under it. He was seared and roasted, but nothing could undermine the courage of his faith. Frustrated, the Governor ordered him returned to prison. During the night, a heavenly brightness flooded into the prison bringing a great peace; seeing this, the guards immediately converted to the Catholic Faith.
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The governor then tried a different approach. Instead of tortures, Vincent was placed on a soft bed in the hope that lenient treatment would convince him to give up the faith. Yet no matter what methods were tried, because he believed in Jesus and the truth of heaven, he remained invincible in spirit.
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After he died, they threw his body out for the vultures to eat, but a flock of ravens suddenly flew down, and guarded his body. His body was taken to what is known as Cape St. Vincent, and even today, his grave is guarded by flocks of ravens.
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St. Vincent is often pictured as a deacon being torn by hooks and being defended by ravens. He is an example to us, that no matter what anyone tries to do to get us to do something wrong or give up our Faith, we never, never, will.
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