Author Archives: Father L

Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Anselm of Canterbury.

Anselm was born in the year 1033 in Aosta, Italy. His dear Mother taught him to love God very much, and this never would leave him his whole life. At age 15 he wanted to join a monastery, but his father forbid it, so he turned to a worldly life.

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His mother having died, Anselm walked on a bad path for some time; in later life he would never cease to repent of those days. He went to France, and applied his brilliant mind to his studies, but at the age of 27, the call of the monastery returned to him; he entered the monastery at Bec, France. 3 years later, he was named the prior of Bec!

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Because he was so young, out of envy, many monks complained. One monk named Osbern was a bitter opponent of Anslem; but Anselm took a kind interest in him, and guided him from his lazy ways to become a very disciplined monk. Patience and gentleness eventually won them all over.

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Making many visits to the monastery in England, Anselm would have a long series of run-ins with the King who did everything in his power to oppose his work. But Anselm eventually was named the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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He was the greatest theologian of his age, a Doctor of the Church. He wrote many things, but his most famous is on the Incarnation, ‘Why God became Man.’ Although he was brilliant, it was not his brain that made him a saint, it was his heart.

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He had a kind charm about himself and a method of his own for teaching even the most simple persons. He was always trying to see God in every event of the day; once, as he was riding his horse, a rabbit, being chased by dogs, ran under his horse for safety; the dogs, who were with hunters, stayed back from the horse. He said to the hunters, ‘This rabbit reminds me of the poor sinner who is near death, and is surrounded by the devils.’ He then ordered the dogs to stay put, while the rabbit ran off.

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St. Anselm built up goodness wherever he went; once, he saw a boy who had tied a string to a bird’s leg and was stopping it from flying; Anselm didn’t like it, so he cut the string; and as it was often told, ‘the bird flew, the boy howled, and the priest rejoiced!

Friends in the Lord, today in the gospel we encounter Jesus in the temple; he is teaching the people, and it tells us that it was the time of the Feast of the Dedication. This feast of the Dedication is called by its Jewish name as ‘Hanukkah;’ and Hanukkah is generally celebrated around December 25^th.

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The origin of this feast goes back to the 2^nd century BC when the Greeks dominated Palestine. They wished to eliminate the jewish religion and replace it with Greek culture; Jerusalem was attacked, killing some 80,000 Jews. Since circumcision was the sign of the covenant, it was outlawed; mothers who were found to have circumcised their children were crucified with their children hung around their necks.

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The Temple was profaned, the chambers turned into brothels, and offerings were made to Zeus on the main altar. It was then that Judas Maccabaeus and his family rose up and led a rebellion against the Greeks. They were victorious, and the temple was cleansed and re-dedicated, hence the name: The Feast of the Dedication (Hanukkah).

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But this feast had another name too: it was called the Festival of Lights. There were brilliant lamps lit in the temple; in fact, in the main temple area, were some enormous oil lamps that lit up the night sky all around. There were also lamps lit in the window of every Jewish home. It was around this time of illumination that Jesus had said: ‘I am the light of the world.’ As we see today, Our Lord indicates his Divine Nature; he says ‘I and the Father are One;’ and when lights were illuminating everything for the feast, he tells us that he is the Light of the world; He is the One who lights the way to God.

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We had 8 people baptized this year at the Easter Vigil; after that, they were given a candle, and then father said this prayer over them: ‘You have been enlightened by Christ. Walk always as children of the light and keep the flame of faith alive in your hearts. When the Lord comes, may you go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.’

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This prayer was said over us too, at our baptism. So we also, are to keep this Light of Christ always alive in our hearts.

Friends in the Lord, the gospel we’ve been reading these days, and tomorrow, is from the 6^th chapter of St. John, and this is called the ‘Bread of life discourse.’ Our Lord is teaching about this miraculous ‘Bread’ that he will give. ‘This is the Bread that comes down from heaven, if anyone eats this Bread, he will live forever.’

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The Lord is of course speaking about the Holy Eucharist, and this is the way that he will remain with us as he promised. He teaches that this Bread is really his Flesh, it is he, himelf. But many of the Jews of those days could not accept this teaching. So too today, many other non-Catholic Christians cannot accept this teaching either, they are like the Jews of those days who reject what happens on our altars each day. ‘They quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?” Does Jesus respond by explaining to them that he only is speaking symbolically? No. He responds forcefully: ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you have no life in you.

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We continue to believe this teaching, given to us by Christ, and so today I thought we could consider the doctrine of Concomitance.  Concomitance means, that when we receive even one particle of the Sacred Host, or one drop of the Precious Blood, we are receiving the whole, living, resurrected Lord Jesus.

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Sometimes there is a person at our parish with celiac disease who is not able to receive the Host. A tiny sip of the Precious Blood, and that person receives the entire Living Lord: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. In the Holy Scriptures Christ says you must ‘eat my Body and drink my Blood,’ but then later he says, ‘He who eats this Bread will live forever.’ This means that receiving only the Host or only the Precious Blood is the same as receiving all. Likewise, if we are running out of hosts due to an unexpected crowd, and we must break a Host into small pieces so that each person can receive a little, they certainly receive the whole, entire, living, resurrected Lord.

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Let us therefore stir up our Eucharistic faith.

That Christ has chosen to unite himself to us in this way, demonstrates his enormous love for us, and his promise to really be with us unto the end of the age.

Friends in the Lord, to be a Catholic means to live a certain way of life – to live according to a moral code which, begins with the ten commandments but goes beyond that to the beatitudes. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, and even to pray for those who hurt us and hate us: to pray for our enemies. We are to be persons of integrity and honesty; and to be chaste and holy. So we have a moral code that God has given us.

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But our moral code is in many ways similar to other religions. Buddhists and Hindus would agree that we should be faithful to our spouses, to be truthful, and to be pure. And Muslims would agree for the most part. These religions would not agree however, that we should love our enemies, yet there ARE many similarities. For this reason, some say: all religions are about the same.

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But then they miss the point of our Faith. The Catholic Faith is not really about a moral code. Saint Paul hammers away at this: he says that we can’t think of our faith as just ‘keeping the law.’ The heart of our Faith is not a moral code, it is the Divine Person, Jesus Christ. God has come to earth, and has done a great thing to save us. He has revealed himself to the world, now he asks: who do you say that I am? Am I merely a good moral teacher? That is not the answer.

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Jesus is God made Man, who came to unite himself to us. Our salvation is through Faith in Jesus, the Divine Man. This claim therefore, makes our religion TOTALLY different from others. God has visited his people – he has taken on a Body, and he wants us to acknowledge him, love him, and praise him, and of course, follow him in a moral way of life.

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The gospel says: The Father loves the Son, and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

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If you want to hurt someone, refuse to acknowledge them. Refuse to speak to them or even about them. This is the worst sin against our Lord, to ignore him. Our Lord says: ‘He who acknowledges me, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father,’ ‘He who does not acknowledge me, I will not acknowledge before my Father.

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Our religion has a moral code. But what it’s all about, is Jesus Christ; He is God, whose Sacred Heart is aching for our love and our witness. This is central to our faith.

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We read today, the high priest said to them: ‘We gave you strict orders to stop teaching in that name. But Peter and the Apostles said in reply, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’

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So too, we ourselves are called to be witnesses, witnesses of Jesus Christ in the world.

Friends in Christ, in the gospel today, St. Mark tells us that when Mary Magdalene went to report to the disciples that she had seen the Risen Lord, they did not believe her. Part of their doubt may be due to her background.

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The gospels tell us that Jesus had once driven 7 demons out of Mary Magdalene. For good reason, she has been presumed to be a ‘woman of the street’ – the sinner, who washed Jesus feet and whom he forgave of her sins.

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She is a representative of the sinner who has been restored – redeemed by Christ and given a second chance. It is only some so-called modern scholars who try to insist that Mary Magdalene was not a sinner. But even St. Gregory the Great said she was the sinner who converted.

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The point is, here she is at the tomb, this former sinner who has been given the privilege by Our Lord to see him there, and bring the news of the Resurrection. Mary Magdalene is there in the gospel as a testament to the power of Christ’s redemption.

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Veneration and love of Mary Magdalene flourished for many centuries among the Catholic faithful, as well as in art and liturature. This is because of how much hope she gives us weak sinners, that nothing is ever hopeless.

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In 1871, English novelist Henry Kingsley wrote a little poem about Mary Magdalene. In the poem, she has come to the gate of heaven, which in this case is guarded by St. Michael. (here paraphrased)

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Magdalene at Michael’s gate,

she fumbled at the latch;

and on the thorn bush sang the blackbird, “Let her in! Let her in!”

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“Have you seen the wounds?” said Michael, the wounds to Christ?

“Do you woman, know your sin?”

“It is evening,” sang the blackbird, “Let her in! Let her in!”

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“I have seen the wounds,’ she said.

And I know my sin.”

“She knows it well,” sang the blackbird, “Let her in! Let her in!”

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“You bring no offerings,” said St. Michael, “Except your sins.”

And the blackbird sang, “She is sorry, she is sorry, Let her in! Let her in!”

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And when he had sung himself to sleep,

and night then did begin,

ONE came and opened Michael’s gate,

and Magdalene went in.

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That ‘One’ who opened the gate for her – that’s Jesus, he opens to all repentant sinners who come to the gate of heaven.

Friends in Christ, after the Lord’s resurrection on Easter day, we are told of a number of the different instances in which Jesus showed himself to the Apostles. We read of one such instance today; when the risen Lord appeared, it says that the Apostles thought they were seeing a ghost, but Christ insists that he has really risen, bodily. ‘Touch me, he says,’ because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.’ He asked for something to eat, and they gave him a piece of baked fish. Our Lord did this to demonstrate the reality of the resurrection. Ghosts don’t have flesh and bones, and they don’t eat baked fish! Only people do.

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In doing these things, being with the Apostles, resurrected – and even staying and living with them for 40 days before the Ascension – Our Lord was strengthening their Faith. He gave instructions to them for the good of the Church, and also, special graces: it says ‘he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.’

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As Bishop Knecht says, ‘it was not without reason that Our Lord wanted to convince the apostles by their senses that he had risen from the grave..he did this because they were to testify before the Jews and Gentiles to the fact of his resurrection.’

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This would allow Peter to stand up and teach: ‘The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses. He then goes on to quote scripture left and right, this previously unlearned fisherman.

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Also, because the Lord demonstrated clearly to them his resurrection, St. John would be able to write: ‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, and seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled, the Word of life, Jesus Christ – we declare unto you….’

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Jesus made his apostles definitive witnesses of his resurrection for the good of the Church, that the gospel would be preached to the ends of the earth.

Friends in Christ, we read today this meeting of Jesus with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It is interesting, that they did not at first recognize Jesus, as they walked and talked. Also, we read yesterday, that when Mary Magdelene first saw Our Lord, she did not recognize him, she thought he might be the gardener of that place. What gives?

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Well, when we are resurrected in our bodies on the Last day, we WILL rise in our own bodies, this is true. But they will be renewed, beautiful, even youthful bodies. In Ludwig Ott’s book on Catholic Dogma, he says ‘The bodies of the just will be transfigured to the pattern of the risen Christ.’ Of course this is from St. Paul, who says that our glorified bodies will be conformed to Christ’s body. He also says that we will reach the ‘measure of the age of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:13)

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Now Our Lord resurrected at about age 33, which many think is the ideal physical age. Thomas Aquinas says that our physical age is not at it’s best when we are children, and it is weakening when we are old; consequently, he thinks we will be resurrected at that ideal physical age of 33. St. Augustine also thought we will rise at that youthful age, following the model, Jesus.

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Most important to remember however, is that this will be a beautiful renewal of ourself, the beauty of the soul shining through. And this is perhaps why those disciples on the road could not quite realize that this striking, youthful man who spoke to them on the way – was Jesus. So different from a crucified man – he was renewed and without blemish.

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But here, they experienced someone – whose splendor shone through his person – In fact, after the experience, they marveled, saying to each other: ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way?’

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The radiance of the glorified Lord Jesus – this is a sign of our own destiny as well: beautiful and youthfully renewed – if we follow him.