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.
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
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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[i] the other two being St. Stephen and Lawrence. Vincent is also Spain’s most famous martyr.
Friends in Christ, in 2008, Michelle Stepney was pregnant with twin girls; during her pregnancy, she was feeling a lot of kicking going on down there. A visit to her doctor showed some disappointing news: she had developed life-threatening cervical cancer; the doctors said that all the kicking was the babies kicking away at a tumor that was growing there. According to the doctors, this saved her life, because otherwise they would never have known about it.
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Then the doctors told her, she should have a hysterectomy to be sure to get all the cancer, and that means aborting the twins. She refused. “I owe my life to my girls, she said; ‘I could never agree to an abortion.’ She agreed to have low-level chemo-therapy, ultimately giving birth to her healthy babies.
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Friends, today, January 22nd, the Church in the United States is asked to do penance and pray for an end to the sin of abortion. This is the day our country legalized the killing of babies who are inconvenient. Today, hundreds of thousands of young people are marching in Washington in the March for Life, but it will not be big news in the newspapers. Enthusiastic teens there, are determined that this nation will once again protect innocent children from abortion.
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There is a vast culture of death that has taken hold, and many very powerful people are trying to expand the culture of death. But the resistance of we pro-lifers has been amazing, and we aren’t going away. It’s true, that abortion is really only a symptom of the poison and the twisting of the soul of society. People want ultimate freedom – they call ‘freedom’ the right to do whatever they want, with no consequences.
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Indecent and filthy lifestyles are promoted as freedom; pre-marital sex is taught to be normal; but what about the consequences? ‘I didn’t want a baby!’ ‘We have a solution for that too, says the world, we’ll take care of it.
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Our society – well, we want our cake and eat it too. We want license to do what we please, but please, take care of the consequences for me. We live in such a way, that we get what we want, how we want it, when we want it.
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Until we start to know what it means to accept consequences for our actions – little babies will have to die, so that we can live as we please.
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Let us offer some penance today for our country, for a conversion of society. So that Jesus Christ will begin to reign here, and bring life, to our law and our land.
Friends in the Lord, today is the feast of St. Agnes.
St. Agnes is one of the famous virgin-martyrs of the Church, and her name is still in Eucharistic Prayer I of the Mass, going back to ancient times.
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As a young girl, she committed her virginity to the Lord, but one day, while coming home from school, the Prefect’s son saw her and fell in love at first sight, she was a beautiful girl. He promised her wealth and love if she would be his wife; but Agnes told him: I am already pledged to another lover. The young man persisted, so she told him – ‘The one I love is more noble than you. His Mother is a Virgin, and his Father is served by angels. His love is chastity, and union with him, is virginity.’
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The boy went home, and lay sick in bed for days. The doctors examined him; the Prefect asked, ‘What is wrong with my son?’ The diagnosis – he is lovesick, but the girl he loves is taken. The Prefect demanded to know, who is the girl’s lover!? Someone told him, it is Christ, and since it was illegal to be a Christian, he would now make sure she changed her mind.
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She was arrested and chained up, and ordered to sacrifice to the gods, but she refused, and at that moment, as if possessed by the Devil, the Prefect’s son rushed into the room demanding to have Agnes for himself, but on the spot he fell over dead. Agnes knelt and prayed for the boy, and before them all, he came back to life.
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Even this miracle however, instead of instilling faith, merely angered the authorities more, and so they threw Agnes into a fire, but she was unharmed. Then a soldier thrust his dagger into her throat, sending her to her Beloved in heaven. A martyr for Christ, Agnes was only 12 years old. At her grave, her sister told the people how wicked they were for killing her, so they stoned her to death, and at that moment there was an earthquake and many pagans died.
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Her parents later were praying at the tomb, and they saw angels in shining garments walking with Agnes, She said to them, ‘do not weep, but rejoice, because I am safe now, with all these holy ones.’
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St. Ambrose tells us: Girls of the age of Agnes, even when pricked by a needle, they cry. But she offered her body to be put to the sword. The crowds marveled at her recklessness in throwing away her life, as if she had already lived life to the full.
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St. Agnes is the Patron Saint of: purity, chastity, and of rape victims.
Friends in the Lord, today is the feast of St. Sebastian.
Sebastian was a solid Christian man and a soldier, and well-thought of by the Emperor, who made him Captain of the imperial guard. Now although it was illegal to be a Christian, Sebastian used his position to help persecuted Christians in prison, and by his efforts, he brought many to Christ.
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One important man, Chancellor Nicostratus, was very bull-headed, and told Sebastian that he would never become a Christian. Now Sebastian had sensed that the man’s wife, Zoe, was a woman of faith, so he turned to Zoe and asked, ‘why don’t you speak to your husband about the Lord? Tears began to role down her cheeks, and Sebastian wondered why she was crying; Nicostratus said, ‘Don’t you know anything, she is mute! She has never been able to speak a word.
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Sebastian therefore lifted his eyes to heaven and prayed, and turning to her he said, ‘Zoe, look at me.’ He made the sign of the cross on her lips and said: Zoe, do you believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ?’ And for the first time in her life, the woman spoke: ‘I do believe in Jesus, Our Lord!’ – Her first words.
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Hardly had she finished speaking when her husband knelt down and declared his faith. He too was won for Christ.
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Soon however, Sebastian was found out; summoned to appear before the Emperor he was told: ‘I have always considered you to be my best soldier, but all this time you have been acting against the gods. Sebastian said, I worship the True God who is in heaven, and pray to Christ for your salvation and the good of the Empire.
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‘Death!’ snarled the Emperor. ‘Death by arrows.’ He was tied to a post in the center of the camp with a thick rope. The archers were then told to shoot him full of arrows. One writer says: ‘they shot so many arrows into his body that he looked like a porcupine.’ But he was not quite dead.
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A woman named Irene brought Sebastian home, and cared for him in her own house. After his recovery, he went straightaway to the Emperor, and rebuked him for his wickedness. Enraged, the emperor ordered him beaten with clubs until he expired. His body was thrown into a sewer. Later, Sebastian appeared to a woman named Lucina, to show her where the body was, and asked that he be buried near the Apostles.
It was the year 288.
Many miracles soon occurred through his intercession.
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St. Sebastian is the patron saint of archers, police officers, soldiers, and athletes.
Friends in the Lord, today in the gospel, we see that people are complaining that Jesus’ disciples are not fasting. Our Lord’s response is interesting: ‘Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?, he asks.
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William Barclay tells us that at the time of Our Lord, there was actually a rabbinic law that said, at the time of marriages, those in attendance on the bridegroom were forbidden from any fasting. As we’ve said before, Christ is the Bridegroom, and it is to this that Jesus refers. We can see that Our Lord shows us, that although there are times for fasting – such as Lent – life with Christ is a life of joy. Our daily encounter with our Savior should be enough to light our way with great happiness.
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There was a Japanese criminal named Tockichi Ishii. He was a ruthless, beast-like thug. He had viciously murdered many men and women in his criminal life; the day came when an innocent man was about to be mistakenly hanged for a crime Ishii had done. Surprisingly, Ishii confessed that he had done it, and he was therefore himself sentenced to death. He would later say that he confessed because he felt that it was the only way he could find peace.
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Now it happened that as he was awaiting death, two Canadian ladies visited him in prison. He would not speak to them, but they gave him a copy of the Holy Scriptures, hoping that he might read. He did. And there he read about another Man who was sentenced to death, and though innocent, was brutally crucified on behalf of sinners. This story changed him.
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He immediately began to write a journal as quickly as he could before his execution, singing the joys of finding the mercy of Christ. 182 pages. It is one of the most famous stories in all of Japan that is still read today.
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When the jailer went to bring him for execution he found not a hardened, offensive brute, but a smiling, radiant man; Ishii the murderer had discovered the love of Christ.
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Jesus did not come to save us from a temporal death, but he did come to save us from eternal death. And for us, that should daily, be a cause for joy.
Friends in the Lord, today is the feast of St. Anthony of Egypt. This is not Anthony of Padua, but Anthony of Egypt. He was born around the year 250AD, and is honored in both the East and the West, and is most famous for his life of penance in the desert.
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When Anthony was only 18, his parents died, leaving he and his sister. He cared for her and looked after their home and property. One day, he was on his way to church for his usual visit, and he began to think of how the apostles had left everything and followed the Savior; he also thought of those in the Acts of the Apostles who had sold their possessions and gave the money to the needy. He reflected too on the great hope stored up in heaven for those who give all for Christ.
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This was all in his mind when, entering the church, he heard the gospel being read. ‘If you want to be perfect, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor – then follow me. It seemed to Anthony that it was God who had earlier brought all those thoughts to his mind, and that the words of the Gospel had been spoken directly to him. Immediately he left the church and gave away the property he had inherited: 200 acres of beautiful, fertile land, However, to care for his sister he retained a few things.
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The next time he went to church he heard the Lord say in the gospel: ‘Do not be anxious about tomorrow.’ Without a moment’s hesitation, he went out and gave the poor all that he had left, and he placed his sister in the care of some trustworthy virgins, to be brought up in the convent. Then he himself took up the ascetic life, not far from his home.
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He prayed without ceasing, and was so attentive when scripture was read, that nothing escaped him. He retained all that he heard, and therefore his memory served him in place of books. The villagers came to call him the friend of God, and they loved him as both a son and brother.
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He then went off to live a life of penance in the desert, and many would follow him. His bed was the hard ground, he fasted rigorously, eating bread and salt, and drinking only water. Often, he spent whole nights in prayer. He often taught that we should begin each day as if we will not live ‘till evening, and go to bed as if we will not awaken in the morning. If we live this way he said, as if each day is our last, then we will not fall into sin, and no desire will enslave us, no anger move us, and no treasure bind us to earth.
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Anthony of Egypt died in 356 on Mount Kolzin by the Red Sea. He was 105 years old.
Dear children, this morning in the gospel today, we read about a man who was paralyzed. That means he could not get up, he could not walk, or move, or anything. he just laid in bed all day. Well when his friends heard about Jesus in town, they told him, we are going to take you to the Lord! So they put him on a stretcher, and carried him down the street. But there were such crowds that they could not get into the house. The paralyzed man said, ‘its no use, we might as well go home.’ ‘No said his friends, and they got ladders, and began to climb up to the roof. Then they dragged that man up those ladders to the top; then they cut a hole in the roof with a saw, and lowered the man down inside, to Jesus.
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So there he was, on a stretcher, hanging from the ceiling by ropes, swaying back and forth in front of Jesus; Our Lord gazed up at the hole above, to see the faces of his friends. He was very proud of those boys who did all of this for their friend – so he cured him then and there.
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My question for you today is, what kind of friends do you have? Do we have good friends? And also, how do we make friends? Friendship is very important to us as we grow up. We are usually friends with people who like the same things we like, we do things together, share in games and activities, and enjoy being together because we are, kind of alike. Most of the time friendships just happen by accident.
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But you know, it would be very good if we THINK about who our friends are, not just let it happen. Let me give you an example. Suppose one student is kind of quiet, and so we don’t talk to that person very much. But then we think, he might be a very interesting person, maybe we actually have a lot in common. So you say, ‘hey, would you like to play this game with me at recess?’ or maybe you ask that person for help on your assignment. Many times we are surprised, and we make a new friend – but we had to think about it, and ask that person.
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Another time that we should think about being a friend, is if another student say, does not seem to have a friend, or other kids pick on a student – then we could go and be a friend for that person, so that they feel happy. I knew one student who was very sad, but when another boy became his friend, he was happy every day. This is what Jesus would like us to do, to help others.
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Good friends listen to each other, and they don’t hurt the other person’s feelings, and they stick up for each other. Let’s say there is a party you really want to go to; you get invited, but they told your friend that he is not invited? What would you do? I think we should stay with our friend, and if they won’t invite him, then I’m not going either.
Friends are also dependable. That means if you tell your friend you will be at this place at a certain time, you make sure you are there.
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How can you tell when a friendship is bad? A friendship is bad when it is based on foolish or sinful things. If someone is your friend just because you have beautiful hair, or if you are friends with someone just because they have nice clothes, or because a boy is quite handsome – well, these are not good reasons to be a friend. If your friend wants you to do things that are sins, then you should get rid of that friend. If he says, we should go to such and such a movie or place, even though your parents don’t want it – then you should tell him – I am a Christian, but you are not: goodbye!
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If your friend uses bad language, or does not love God, then we should be through with him. Bad friendships cause us to give up praying and forget about God – they are no good, but pure and good friends make us modest, and courteous, and help us to do what God wants.
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Therefore, let us have good friends, and pray for them each day. If we have good friends, they will still be our friends when we get to heaven.
Friends in the Lord, today we see this leper who comes to Jesus seeking to be healed. In ancient times, if a person had leprosy, they lived a sad life. They were ostracized from society so that no one else would get the disease. Quarantined, if you will.
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During the Middle Ages, leprosy was also a grave problem. In the early 13th century, it was estimated that there were some 19,000 lepers in Europe. But unlike in pagan times, Christian institutions sprang up to help lepers; these institutions were actually run more like monasteries; lepers were encouraged to live there for their own health as well as a quarantine.
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People then thought that those suffering from leprosy were going through Purgatory on earth, and so they were deemed to be holier than ordinary people because of their suffering. The Order of Saint Lazarus was an order of monks that began as a leper hospital outside Jerusalem. In fact, the first members were all lepers. A historian of the 12th century tells of a monk named Ralf who was so moved by the plight of lepers, that he prayed that he himself would catch leprosy, which he did.
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In those days, a leper would carry a bell to warn people, and this also attracted attention so that people might give alms to help him. In churches, there was a slot in the wall called a ‘leper squint’ by which the leper could peer through to participate in Mass.
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Leprosy is not in our modern society much, yet it remains true that when a person contracts a serious disease, they often feel alone and isolated; friends don’t come around so much, people feel too awkward to visit.
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In light of this, we see today a revealing picture of Jesus Christ. The leper who came to see him, broke the law, for he had no right to approach Jesus. But Christ does not drive him away. He meets the man in his very human need with compassion, and he healed him: ‘Be thou made clean’ and he was. Our Savior gives us an example: when someone is sick, or shunned, or unwanted, or for some reason is ostracized from the circle of humanity, we should be the first to show compassion and understanding.
