Finishing the Way We Started

Fifty days ago, the Church celebrated the grandest feast of her liturgical year, the pinnacle, if you will, the Easter Vigil.  Parishes throughout the world decorated their churches with the brightest of flowers, shiny gold candlesticks and tall, new candles.  The joy of the Resurrection was certainly palpable and exhilarating. Choruses of "Alleluia" abounded.

But, now, after seven weeks, we have come to the end of the Easter season with the Solemnity of Pentecost. Sadly, at this point, the Easter flowers have faded, the candlesticks are half-way gone and, in not a few places, the momentum has slowed.  It is as though we were on a roller coaster and the rush of reaching the topmost part of the ride has faded as we reach the end.

Our general treatment of Pentecost perplexes me.  This day marks the occasion when we experienced the full throttle effect of the Holy Spirit in all His glory, His breadth and His Depth.  Yes, the Holy Spirit has always been present throughout salvation history, albeit subtly in the Old Testament in veiled forms, such as the "glory cloud".  We first see Him manifested in the infancy narratives of Christ, when the Archangel Gabriel tells the young Blessed Virgin Mary that the power of the Holy Spirit will overshadow her and she will conceive Jesus.  Some 30 years later, we see the first visible manifestation of the Blessed Trinity when St. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River.  The Father's voice proclaims Christ as His Son while the Holy Spirit, taking the form of a dove, descends upon Jesus.

In John's Gospel, Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit to Nicodemus.  Later on, in His Farewell Discourse during the Last Supper, Jesus tells the remaining 11 Apostles that He will be sending them an Advocate, the Paraclete, who will  be with them.  Then, the evening of the Resurrection, when Jesus speaks to the surviving Apostles, sans St. Thomas, He breathes on them and tells them to "receive the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit is the breath of God.

In St. Luke's Gospel and in his sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, the beloved physician notes that Christ tells the 11 to remain in Jerusalem to await the Paraclete.   St. Luke notes that the Blessed Mother joins the Apostles during their nine days of prayer, the first Novena.  Then, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit roars through the Upper Room like a fierce wind and tongues of fire descend on the heads of the Blessed Mother and the Apostles.  Then, courage overtakes them and the Apostles leave that same Upper Room that they had locked themselves in out of fear and go and boldly proclaim Christ to the crowds gathered below.  Peter begins to energetically preach his first "homily" to the crowds and the rest of the Apostolic band goes out into the crowds.  Each person in that vast assembly can hear the Apostles in his own native tongue.  The punishment of Babel has been undone.

That should be enough to infuse us and fill us with Apostolic zeal, and certainly a great love for the Holy Spirit.  Yet, we do not give this monumental feast the joy, the beauty, the solemnity and the majesty that it deserves.  Why does Pentecost matter?  Do we know understand the significance of this feast or have we just reduced it to a celebration of the Church's birthday?

It's as though I am echoing the frustrations of Charlie Brown when he laments that his fellow Peanuts have lost the real meaning of Christmas.  Then, Linus shows up and recites St. Luke's Gospel account of the Nativity.

Almost on cue, a successor to Pope St. Linus, now steps forward to remind this scribe, and, hopefully those of you who are reading, just why Pentecost matters.  From Pope Benedict XVI comes this beautiful homily that he preached during the Mass of Pentecost back in 2008:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,St Luke places the account of the event of Pentecost that we heard in the First Reading in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The chapter is introduced by the words: "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place" (Acts 2: 1). These words refer to the previous setting in which Luke described the small company of disciples that had gathered perseveringly in Jerusalem after Jesus' Ascension into Heaven (cf. Acts 1: 12-14). It is a description rich in detail: the place "where they were staying" - the Cenacle - was an "Upper Room"; the 11 Apostles are listed by name and the first three are Peter, John and James, the "pillars" of the community; mentioned with them are "the women" and "Mary the Mother of Jesus, and "his brethren", already an integral part of this new family, no longer based on blood ties but on faith in Christ. 

The total number of people which was "about a hundred and twenty", a multiple of the "Twelve" of the Apostolic College, alludes to this "new Israel". The group constitutes an authentic "qlhll", an "assembly" in accordance with the model of the First Covenant, the community summoned to listen to the Lord's voice and to walk in his ways. The Acts of the Apostles stresses that "[a]ll these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer" (1: 14). Prayer, therefore, is the principle activity of the nascent Church through which she receives her unity from the Lord and lets herself be guided by his will, as shown by the decision to cast lots in order to elect the one who would take Judas' place (cf. Acts 1: 26).
This community was gathered in the same place, the Upper Room, on the morning of the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, the feast of the Covenant which commemorated the Sinai event, when God, through Moses, proposed that Israel be his own possession among all peoples to be a sign of his holiness (cf. Ex 19). According to the Book of Exodus, that ancient pact was accompanied by a terrifying manifestation of power by the Lord when we read: "Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain quaked greatly" (Ex 19: 18). We find the elements of wind and fire in the Pentecost of the New Testament, but untainted by fear. The fire specifically took the form of tongues of flame which settled on each one of the disciples who "were all filled with the Holy Spirit" and through the effect of this outpouring "began to speak in other tongues" (Acts 2: 4). It was a true and proper "baptism" of fire of the community, a sort of new creation. At Pentecost, the Church was not established by human will but by the power of God's Spirit. And it is immediately clear how this Spirit gives life to a community which is at the same time one and universal, thereby overcoming the curse of Babel (cf. Gn 11: 7-9). Indeed, it is only the Holy Spirit who creates unity in love and in the reciprocal acceptance of diversity which can free humanity from the constant temptation to acquire earthly power that seeks to dominate and standardize all things. 

"Societas Spiritus", a society of the Spirit, is what St Augustine calls the Church in one of his homilies (71, 19, 32: PL 38, 462). However, prior to him St Irenaeus had already formulated a truth which I would like to recall here: "Where the Church is, there also is God's Spirit; where God's Spirit is, there is the Church and every grace; and the Spirit is the truth; to distance oneself from the Church is to reject the Spirit", and thus "exclude oneself from life" (Adversus Haereses III, 24, 1). Beginning with the event of Pentecost this union between Christ's Spirit and his Mystical Body, in other words the Church, was fully manifest. I would like to reflect on a particular aspect of the Holy Spirit's action, that is, the manner in which multiplicity and unity are interwoven. The Second Reading speaks of this, addressing the harmony of the different charisms in the communion of the same Spirit. But already in Acts we heard the account of this interweaving which is revealed with extraordinary clarity. In the event of Pentecost it becomes clear that many languages and different cultures are part of the Church; in faith they can be understood and make one another fruitful. St Luke aims unambiguously to convey a fundamental idea, which is, that the very act of the Church's birth is already "catholic" or universal. From the outset the Church speaks in all languages, because the Gospel entrusted to her is destined for all peoples, according to the will and mandate of the Risen Christ (cf. Mt 28: 19). The Church which is born at Pentecost is not primarily a particular Community - the Church of Jerusalem - but the universal Church, which speaks the languages of all peoples. From her other communities were to be born in every part of the world, particular Churches which are all and always actualizations of the one and only Church of Christ. The Catholic Church is therefore not a federation of Churches but a single reality: the universal Church has ontological priority. A community which was not catholic in this sense would not even be a Church. 

In this regard, it is necessary to add another aspect: that of the theological vision of the Acts of the Apostles concerning the journey to Rome of the Church of Jerusalem. Among the peoples represented in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, Luke also mentions "visitors from Rome" (Acts 2: 10). At that time Rome was still distant, "foreign" to the newborn Church: it was a symbol of the pagan world in general. But the power of the Holy Spirit was to guide the footsteps of the witnesses "to the end of the earth" (Acts 1: 8), even to Rome. The Acts of the Apostles ends precisely when St Paul, through a providential plan, reaches the capital of the Empire and proclaims the Gospel there (cf. Acts 28: 30-31). Thus the journey of the Word of God which began in Jerusalem reached its destination, because Rome represents the entire world and therefore embodies Luke's idea of catholicity. The universal Church is brought into being, the Catholic Church, which is the extension of the Chosen People and makes its history and mission her own. 

At this point, and to conclude, John's Gospel offers a word that harmonizes very well with the mystery of the Church created by the Spirit. The word that came twice from the lips of the Risen Jesus when he appeared among his disciples in the Upper Room on the evening of Easter Day: Shalom - "peace be with you!" (Jn 20: 19, 21). The expression "shalom" is not a mere greeting; it is far more: it is the gift of peace promised (cf. Jn 14: 27) and won by Jesus at the price of his blood, it is the fruit of his victory in the battle against the spirit of evil. Thus, it is a peace "not as the world gives" but as God alone can give it.
On this feast of the Spirit and the Church, let us thank God for having given to his people, chosen and formed in the midst of all peoples, the precious good of peace, of his peace! At the same time, let us renew the awareness of the responsibility that is connected with this gift: the Church's responsibility to be, constitutionally, a sign and instrument of God's peace for all peoples. I sought to pass on this message recently by going to the Headquarters of the United Nations Organization in order to address my words to the representatives of the peoples. However, we must not only think of these events "at the summit". The Church carries out her service to Christ's peace above all in the ordinary presence and action among men and women, with the preaching of the Gospel and the signs of love and mercy that accompany it (cf. Mk 16: 20). 

Of course, among these signs it is mainly the Sacrament of Reconciliation that should be emphasized. The Risen Christ instituted it at the very moment he gave the disciples his peace and his Spirit. As we heard in the Gospel passage, Jesus breathed on the Apostles and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (Jn 20: 22-23). How important and, unfortunately, insufficiently understood is the gift of Reconciliation which sets hearts at rest! Christ's peace is only spread through the renewed hearts of reconciled men and women who have made themselves servants of justice, ready to spread peace in the world with the force of the truth alone, without descending to compromises with the world's mentality because the world cannot give Christ's peace: this is how the Church can be the leaven of that reconciliation which comes from God. She can only be so if she remains docile to the Spirit and bears witness to the Gospel, only if she carries the Cross like Jesus and with Jesus. The saints of every epoch witness precisely to this! 

In the light of this word of life, dear brothers and sisters, may the prayer we are raising to God in spiritual union with the Virgin Mary become ever more fervent and intense. May the Virgin of listening, the Mother of the Church, obtain for our communities and for all Christians a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. "Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae - Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be recreated, and you shall renew the face of the earth". Amen.

But, how do we celebrate this grand solemnity?  How can we re-infuse the same zeal we experienced for the Easter Vigil into the Pentecost Vigil?   In 2002, the third typical edition of the Roman Missal put into place an actual Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of Pentecost, using the Easter Vigil as the framework for the Liturgy of the Word  The English-speaking world was introduced to this when the revised translation was released in 2011. The four optional Old Testament Readings are now proclaimed in a manner similar to that employed for the Easter Vigil:  Prayer, Reading and Psalm, and then Prayer.  The beauty with this format is that it allows us to rediscover the presence of the Holy Spirit throughout salvation history. We see how the Holy Spirit has existed from even before the foundation of the world.  In Ezekiel, the third reading, we read how the prophet preaches to the dry bones and how these bones slowly take on flesh and then, at the end, the Spirit breathes life into them, just as He breathed life into the nostrils of Adam. The Epistle and the Gospel are then proclaimed in the usual manner.  The Gospel, in this case is, comes from the seventh chapter of St. John's account, wherein Jesus invites us, exclaiming, "Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink."  He speaks of living waters, almost prophetically pointing out to the water (and blood) that will flow from his pierced side.

Sadly, the missallette publishing houses completely ignored the beauty of the vigil, opting to only print the old format.  The publishing houses did not even include the corresponding psalms so that parishes could make full use of the majesty of the Pentecost Vigil.  This is sad because it cheats parishes from celebrating the Pentecost Vigil as it should be.  We cannot let the publishing houses, who have no more ecclesial authority than I do, dictate how we should mark this important feast in the life of the Church.

We need to retake the Pentecost Vigil and celebrate this magnificent feast in a manner worthy of the grand mystery that it marks.  The Third Person of the Trinity deserves nothing less.  Veni Creator Spiritus!

Even during Easter, Judas remains

Five weeks ago, we heard the account of the Passion of Our Lord wherein we went back to the precious, most sacred moments of Christ's suffering.  Judas' painful, selfish betrayal set the events in motion.

Now, as we begin the Fourth Week of Easter, one day removed from Good Shepherd Sunday, the specter of Judas returns, as one of Pope Emeritus Benedict's former assistants spews vitriol against the beloved former Supreme Pontiff.  In an interview published by the Vatican Insider, Archbishop Piero Marini lashes out uncharitably at Benedict in much the same manner that Roger Cardinal Mahony did when he tweeted his snide remarks in the wake of the election of Pope Francis.

In part, Marini told La Stampa (known in English as the Vatican Insider):

"It’s a breath of fresh air; it’s opening a window onto springtime and onto hope. We had been breathing the waters of a swamp and it had a bad smell. We’d been in a church afraid of everything, with problems such as Vatileaks and the paedophilia scandals. With Francis we’re talking about positive things". With the new Pope, added Mgr. Marini, "there’s a different air of freedom, a church that’s closer to the poor and less problematic".

For those of us who are still wading through the transitionary period, Marini's comments only make things harder.  He certainly did not help things any.  The words were hurtful and spiteful, tantamount to a betrayal of the man whom he had served for roughly three years.

That Piero Marini and Benedict had vastly different liturgical views is well-known.  However, Benedict treated the Master of Ceremonies that he had inherited from Blessed John Paul II with dignity and respect.  Whatever disagreements they may have had, liturgically speaking, were handled quietly.  When Benedict chose Msgr. Guido Marini as his new Papal MC, he assigned Piero Marini to serve as President of Eucharistic Congresses.  While it may not have been a high-profile position, Marini still retained some sort of office.  It was not as though Benedict had sent him completely to liturgical Siberia, as Pope Paul VI had done to Piero Marini's mentor, Archbishop Bugnini, the architect of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Archbishop Marini's harsh comments call to mind similar remarks that Judas had made when the woman had anointed Jesus with the costly spikenard.  It seems to me that Archbishop Marini, like Judas, cared more about himself than about his leader.

The Vatican seems strangely silent on Archbishop Marini's words, apparently taking the same stance it took when Cardinal Mahony unleashed his Twitter tirade.  I do not believe this to be the right approach.  Granted, we are in unchartered waters because we have two living Popes, one current and one in retirement; nonetheless, it would only be right for Pope Francis to put a stop to all of this nonsense and request that both Piero Marini and Mahony cease and desist.  True reform comes when you start cleaning up your own house, and this includes errant Cardinals and Archbishops who should know better.

Reflections from a Shepherd

Friday, April 19th, marked the eighth anniversary of the election of the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church. For not a few of us, the events of April 19, 2005, brought sheer joy as we heard the name "Josephum" pronounced when the "Habemus Papam" announcement came.

The joy was not fleeting for the new Pope ushered in a period of authentic liturgical renewal, something many of us believed that the Church needed (and still does).  What he wrote in his famous book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI slowly brought to life.  He taught us that liturgy matters.  In fact, his first homily as Pope gave us insight into the direction he would lead his flock.

Preached on April 20, 2005, in his first Mass as Supreme Pontiff, Benedict XVI touched on the importance of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

4. My Pontificate begins in a particularly meaningful way as the Church is living the specialYear dedicated to the Eucharist. How could I fail to see this providential coincidence as an element that must mark the ministry to which I am called? The Eucharist, the heart of Christian life and the source of the Church's evangelizing mission, cannot but constitute the permanent centre and source of the Petrine ministry that has been entrusted to me. 

The Eucharist makes constantly present the Risen Christ who continues to give himself to us, calling us to participate in the banquet of his Body and his Blood. From full communion with him flows every other element of the Church's life:  first of all, communion among all the faithful, the commitment to proclaiming and witnessing to the Gospel, the ardour of love for all, especially the poorest and lowliest. 

This year, therefore, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi must be celebrated with special solemnity. Subsequently, the Eucharist will be the centre of the World Youth Day in Colognein August, and in October, also of the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, whose theme will be:  "The Eucharist, source and summit of the life and mission of the Church". I ask everyone in the coming months to intensify love and devotion for Jesus in the Eucharist, and to express courageously and clearly faith in the Real Presence of the Lord, especially by the solemnity and the correctness of the celebrations. 

I ask this especially of priests, whom I am thinking of with deep affection at this moment. The ministerial Priesthood was born at the Last Supper, together with the Eucharist, as my Venerable Predecessor John Paul II so frequently emphasized. "All the more then must the life of a priest be "shaped' by the Eucharist" (Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday 2005, n. 1; ORE, 23 March, p. 4). In the first place, the devout, daily celebration of Holy Mass, the centre of the life and mission of every priest, contributes to this goal. 

5. Nourished and sustained by the Eucharist, Catholics cannot but feel encouraged to strive for the full unity for which Christ expressed so ardent a hope in the Upper Room. The Successor of Peter knows that he must make himself especially responsible for his Divine Master's supreme aspiration. Indeed, he is entrusted with the task of strengthening his brethren (cf. Lk 22: 32).

As the Successor of St. Peter, Benedict believed that he was called to strengthen and confirm his brethren, the same charge that Christ gave to the Prince of the Apostles during the Last Supper.  Strengthening and confirming was something that Benedict continuously did, especially when it came to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  He led by example and sought to have the beauty and majesty of the Papal liturgies he celebrated serve as the model for the Universal Church to follow.

In doing so, Benedict also followed the command that Christ gave to St. Peter, feeding and tending the sheep and lambs entrusted to him.  Benedict fed and tended the flock entrusted to him in many ways, but, the most visible was in the celebration of the Mass and in his definition of what it meant to be a shepherd.  Again, let us look at the words that he preached at the Mass to mark the start of his reign.  Here, he explains the meaning of the Pallium and what is it to be a shepherd:

The first symbol is the Pallium, woven in pure wool, which will be placed on my shoulders. This ancient sign, which the Bishops of Rome have worn since the fourth century, may be considered an image of the yoke of Christ, which the Bishop of this City, the Servant of the Servants of God, takes upon his shoulders. God’s yoke is God’s will, which we accept. And this will does not weigh down on us, oppressing us and taking away our freedom. To know what God wants, to know where the path of life is found – this was Israel’s joy, this was her great privilege. It is also our joy: God’s will does not alienate us, it purifies us – even if this can be painful – and so it leads us to ourselves. In this way, we serve not only him, but the salvation of the whole world, of all history. The symbolism of the Pallium is even more concrete: the lamb’s wool is meant to represent the lost, sick or weak sheep which the shepherd places on his shoulders and carries to the waters of life. For the Fathers of the Church, the parable of the lost sheep, which the shepherd seeks in the desert, was an image of the mystery of Christ and the Church. The human race – every one of us – is the sheep lost in the desert which no longer knows the way. The Son of God will not let this happen; he cannot abandon humanity in so wretched a condition. He leaps to his feet and abandons the glory of heaven, in order to go in search of the sheep and pursue it, all the way to the Cross. He takes it upon his shoulders and carries our humanity; he carries us all – he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. What the Pallium indicates first and foremost is that we are all carried by Christ. But at the same time it invites us to carry one another. Hence the Pallium becomes a symbol of the shepherd’s mission, of which the Second Reading and the Gospel speak. The pastor must be inspired by Christ’s holy zeal: for him it is not a matter of indifference that so many people are living in the desert. And there are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of God’s darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast. Therefore the earth’s treasures no longer serve to build God’s garden for all to live in, but they have been made to serve the powers of exploitation and destruction. The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance. The symbol of the lamb also has a deeper meaning. In the Ancient Near East, it was customary for kings to style themselves shepherds of their people. This was an image of their power, a cynical image: to them their subjects were like sheep, which the shepherd could dispose of as he wished. When the shepherd of all humanity, the living God, himself became a lamb, he stood on the side of the lambs, with those who are downtrodden and killed. This is how he reveals himself to be the true shepherd: “I am the Good Shepherd . . . I lay down my life for the sheep”, Jesus says of himself (Jn 10:14f). It is not power, but love that redeems us! This is God’s sign: he himself is love. How often we wish that God would make show himself stronger, that he would strike decisively, defeating evil and creating a better world. All ideologies of power justify themselves in exactly this way, they justify the destruction of whatever would stand in the way of progress and the liberation of humanity. We suffer on account of God’s patience. And yet, we need his patience. God, who became a lamb, tells us that the world is saved by the Crucified One, not by those who crucified him. The world is redeemed by the patience of God. It is destroyed by the impatience of man. 

One of the basic characteristics of a shepherd must be to love the people entrusted to him, even as he loves Christ whom he serves. “Feed my sheep”, says Christ to Peter, and now, at this moment, he says it to me as well. Feeding means loving, and loving also means being ready to suffer. Loving means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment of God’s truth, of God’s word, the nourishment of his presence, which he gives us in the Blessed Sacrament. My dear friends – at this moment I can only say: pray for me, that I may learn to love the Lord more and more. Pray for me, that I may learn to love his flock more and more – in other words, you, the holy Church, each one of you and all of you together. Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves. Let us pray for one another, that the Lord will carry us and that we will learn to carry one another.

Many of us can say that Benedict certainly did his best to feed and tend the flock entrusted to him on April 19, 2005.  Even though not a few of us were privileged to have attended the Papal Liturgies that he celebrated, we were able to join him through electronic means such as telecasts and internet broadcasts.  I, for one, was nourished by his preaching and united myself in prayer with him even though we were an ocean and several time zones away. The words that Benedict preached and the example that he gave of a proper celebration of the Mass are slowly bearing fruit.

But, being a shepherd also means suffering for the flock.  While Benedict's suffering may not have been as publicly visible as that of Blessed John Paul II, nonetheless, the Bavarian pontiff certainly had a heavy cross to bear.  It was only after his retirement, that we have seen the physical toll it has taken on his body.  Yet, Benedict continues to present himself as a daily oblation to Christ on behalf of the Church.  In fact, Benedict once said that the priest must continuously offer himself as an oblation to God for the Church.  In this way, he is truly an Altar Christus, uniting his sacrifice to that of the Lamb.

In one of the Prefaces that the celebrant ues during the Easter Season, he prays that

By the oblation of his Body,
he brought the sacrifices of old to fulfillment
in the reality of the Cross
and, by commending himself to you for our salvation,
showed himself the Priest, the Altar and the Lamb of sacrifice.

This section of the Preface calls to mind what we heard in today's second reading from the Book of Revelation, wherein the Lamb who was sacrificed now leads the innumerable throng of believers.  As Benedict said, God stands on the side of the lambs.

On this Good Shepherd Sunday, then, let us pray for both Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and his successor, Pope Francis, that the Lord may strengthen them and sustain them.  Even though one shepherd is retired, he still looks out for the good of the flock.  Even though he remains hidden from us,  he continues to offer himself as a spiritual victim for the good of the Church.  For Pope Francis, I pray that the Lord will sustain him in his ministry.

Sparing no expense

The social media seems to be teeming with images and comments comparing Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.  Some of the comments question Benedict's humility in his use of beautiful vestments and the ornate papal throne.  Sadly, even one of the princes of the Church has taken to Twitter to register his disdain for Benedict's use of beauty.

Today's Gospel account taken from St. John reminds me of what has been unfolding before us these past 12 days.

“Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about to betray him, said: Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and having the purse, carried the things that were put therein. Jesus therefore said: Let her alone, that she may keep it against the day of my burial. For the poor you have always with you; but me you have not always.” 

The first commandment is that we love God.  Loving God means giving to him our best, especially when we render to him worship that is befitting to His Divine Majesty.   When the Lord dictated to Moses just how He was to be worshipped, the Father gave very specific instructions and parameters, right down to the gold, silver, silk and cedar that was to be used. 

We tend to have the mistaken notion that Jesus pretty much set aside all of the beauty of the Temple and the sacred rituals of Ancient Israel.  However, such a notion appears to be ignorant of Sacred Scripture.  All of Ancient Israel's sacrificial cultic practices in worship of the Lord find their fulfillment in Jesus.  God used the beauty of the Temple, the grandeur of the priestly vestments and the precious materials to elevate the heart.

Jesus understood the deeper significance of what Mary of Bethany had done when she anointed His feet with the expensive oil and them dried them with her hair.  She spared no expense in demonstrating her deep love for Jesus.  He had restored her beloved brother Lazarus and had shown her the depths of His boundless mercy.  She wanted to give Jesus her best. When we love someone, we spare no expense.

What then, are we to make of the approach that the man who served as the Vicar of Christ on Earth had taken during liturgy and during his particular exercise of the Petrine ministry? St. Augustine of Hippo noted that beauty wounds the heart wonderfully.  There is something about beauty that pierces the soul and fills us with such wonder.  Sublime beauty attracts us and elevates our hearts and minds to the beloved.  It attracts us with such a gravitational pull that we cannot resist.

Such beauty also compels us to want to give that beauty back in return to the beloved. In his short story, "The Gift of the Magi" O' Henry captures this notion rather exquisitely.  The young husband sells his most precious possession so that his beautiful wife can have a precious comb while the bride sells her hair so that her beloved can have a gift that expresses the profoundness of her love.  Each parts with that which is most valuable out of love for the other.   Mary parted with a considerable sum of money for the spikenard, not counting the cost nor worrying about the expense.  For her, the sacrifice was made out of love and even at that, she did not believe it enough to give to Jesus.

Judas, on the other hand, bullies his way onto the scene.  "Why this waste," he brazenly asks, "when this money could have been given to the poor?"  His Eminence Roger Cardinal Mahony seems to make that same remark in his repeated condescending tweets about Benedict.  Sadly, even my fellow Catholics echo that same sentiment when they try to pit Benedict against Pope Francis.  They just do not get it.

Jesus tells Judas and he tells us, "The poor you will always have with you, but you will not have me." We cannot love the poor if we do not first love Christ.  If the arrow of beauty does not pierce us and lead us to love of God, how then can we love the poor?

The vesture that Benedict used for the Mass, the gold finery of the candlesticks, the jewel encrusted chalices and ciborria, the gilded Book of the Gospels, the ornate Papal throne, the red shoes and the magnificent pastoral staff point to the dignity and solemnity of the liturgy being celebrated.  As the Universal Pastor, the Holy Father offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God, making supplication for us, his flock.  When the high priest of the Old Covenant offered the sacrifice to God on behalf of the faithful, he wore ornate vestments because he was offering worship to the Lord.  In fact, every detail of the vesture was dictated to Moses by God, Himself.  If God demanded the best when He was worshipped during the sacrifices of the Old Covenant, should we not do the same for Him in the New Covenant?

Mother Theresa certainly recognized that.  She was cruelly criticized for spending the proceeds of her Nobel Peace Prize on a golden tabernacle for the Blessed Sacrament instead of tending to the poor.  She believed that the Lord deserved the best, for her missionary work was deeply rooted in loving Christ first.

To wear the sacred, beautiful vestments for Mass is not a sign of arrogance nor is it a repudiation of humility.  To wear the gold, the silver, the silk and the lace shows that we recognize that we are in the presence of a King, a Crucified King who did not spare any expense in His love for us.

Joseph remains with us

Today, the Universal Church celebrates the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Foster-Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  This just and holy Patriarch is also the Patron Saint of the Universal Church.

We know very little about St. Joseph, but, what we do know is highly significant.  We know that he is of the House of David, Israel's beloved king from whose lineage would come the Messiah.  He is compared to our first patriarch, Abraham, who was constantly ready to serve God no matter where that journey would take him.

When looking through images of the beloved saint, I came upon this beautiful depiction.  We tend to assume that St. Joseph was an elderly man, but, this particular image depicts him as young and strong. St. Joseph, like perhaps most of the young men in Nazareth, probably had plans about his future.  He met and fell in love with a wonderful young woman and he was set on building a home for her and their future family.

Yet, God had other plans.  While Joseph was building a house for his beloved betrothed, Mary, unbeknownst to him, received a visit from the Archangel Gabriel who told her that she would conceive and bear the Son of God. Mary gave her consent, setting the wheels in motion for our redemption.  Joseph learned that Mary was with child, and being a righteous man, he chose not to expose her publicly to the Law of Moses.

St. Paul calls Abraham a just man.  In Genesis, God credits Abraham's act of faith as righteousness.  St. Matthew, in his Gospel account, uses these same adjectives to describe St. Joseph.  This young carpenter loved Mary with his whole being.  He knew in his heart that she could not be unfaithful to him; yet, there was something mysterious about the circumstances.  Perhaps he perceived that Mary's condition might have been supernatural and he did not consider himself worthy of such a profound mystery.  That night, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to St. Joseph and told him not to fear taking Mary as his wife for the child she has conceived is of the Holy Spirit.

God asked Joseph to set aside his dreams and his carefully laid plans.  He led him on a different path, a path that was not even on his radar screen.  Yet, of his own free will, Joseph accepted and trusted, not once, but many times.  Shortly after the Christ child was born, the Lord led Joseph to take Mary and the Child Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod's wrath.  Once the vile king was dead, the Lord told Joseph to take the Holy Family back home.  Some 12 years later, even when he and Mary thought that they had lost the Child Jesus, they persevered for three days until they finally found Him in Jerusalem, in the Temple.  What was even more remarkable was that Jesus willingly submitted himself to the authority of two human beings.  Just as Joseph was obedient to God, Jesus was obedient to him and his mother, Mary. He had confidence that this humble carpenter was going to protect the family.  What Adam failed to do in the Garden of Eden when he left Eve unprotected, Joseph was now doing in caring for the Holy Family.  St. Joseph never uttered a word in Sacred Scripture, yet, his actions, his willingness to surrender his plans and follow the will of God unreservedly, speak volumes.  Even though he was hidden and silent, his strong presence reverberated in Nazareth and now in the Church.

But, the beloved Patriarch from Nazareth is not the only Joseph who continues to watch over the Church.

Today is the feast day of another Joseph, one who has tenderly watched over the Church for nearly 33 years, 25 as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and nearly eight years as Pope, the former Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, Supreme Pontiff Emeritus.

Like his namesake, Joseph Ratzinger had his own carefully made plans.  His intent was to serve as a priest and as a professor of Dogmatic Theology.  But, God had other plans, plans that would lead him in a direction he never thought he would take.  When the Metropolitan See of Munich-Freising was vacant, the late Pope Paul VI named Ratzinger its Archbishop.  Ratzinger did not want to take the post as he considered himself ill-equipped for the position.  But, out of obedience, he submitted to the will of God.  Roughly four years later, God would manifest Himself again to the now Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger when Blessed John Paul II asked him to become Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  Ratzinger had previously declined the Polish Pope's request that he serve as Prefect of another Congregation.  This time, he could not refuse Peter again.

He stayed by John Paul's side for nearly a quarter of a century.  He wanted to retire, but, John Paul would have none of that and threw Ratzinger's retirement letter away. When the beloved pontiff died on  April 2, 2005, Ratzinger presided over his friend's funeral six days later.  He thought that after the conclave he would return to Regensberg to live with his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger.  But, God had another plan.  He charged Ratzinger with the same charge he made to St. Peter so long ago on Lake Genesaret:  "Feed my sheep.  Tend my lambs."  Like the beloved Patriarch of Nazareth, who was asked by God to abandon his plans, Joseph Ratzinger set aside his dreams of a quiet life and took on the role of shepherding the flock of the Universal Church as Pope Benedict XVI.

With profound wisdom and immense humility, Pope Benedict XVI led the Church for nearly eight years. He nourished us with his teaching.  He guided us with the deepest of love. He confirmed us in the faith.

And now, God has called Benedict to devote himself to a life of prayer and reflection.  But, as the Supreme Pontiff Emeritus explained, he has not abandoned us.  Like St. Joseph, Benedict continues to watch over the Church, praying for her and with her.  While he remains hidden from us, just as St. Joseph was hidden through the Gospels, he remains close to us, just as his namesake remains close to Christ.  Benedict remains with us through a bond that can never be broken, that of love.

Just as Benedict is praying for us, so, we, too, should pray for him.  We should never cease thanking God for this wonderfully humble soul who only seeks to do the will of the Father and who teaches us that true Power lies not in holding on to authority, but, in giving that authority back to God.

The continuity of authentic reform

This scribe remains somewhat shell-shocked over Wednesday's grand announcement.  Although the white smoke has cleared, clouds of questions remain.  What are we to make of our new Holy Father, Francis, and how are we to interpret his reasonings behind selecting this completely new name?

The first Pontiff to choose a new name in several hundred  years was Cardinal Albino Luciano when he was elected to the Chair of St. Peter back in 1978.  He chose the double name of John Paul (a surprising novelty) because he saw his mission as a continuation of what now-Blessed John XXIII and Pope Paul VI tried to do.  Unfortunately, some 33 days into his reign, Pope John Paul died.  The mantle then fell to a young and athletic Polish cardinal, Karol Wojtyla, who, although not choosing a new name, decided that he would be called John Paul II to carry on the unfulfilled work of his predecessor.

But, what of the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis?  Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, the Vatican spokesman, confirmed what many of us had speculated:  our new Holy Father chose to name himself after the beloved St. Francis of Assisi, the great reformer of the Middle Ages. 

Many of us know the famous vision that St. Francis had wherein Our Lord charged him to rebuild His Church.  The saintly deacon thought that Christ meant that he needed to rebuild the church in Assisi that had fallen into disrepair.  The Lord had a deeper meaning, as St. Francis would soon find out.

Now several centuries removed, Pope Francis believes that this is his calling.  However, while there are definitely problems with the way that the Curia has operated, this does not mean that the rest of the Church has fallen into despair and disrepair.  To make that accusation, as the secular media has done, is to ignore the nearly eight-year reign of His Holiness, Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus.

Benedict was not perfect; none of us is.  Benedict also inherited many problems left behind by Blessed Pope John Paul II, namely the way the Curia operates.  Benedict tried to make solid appointments:  Raymond Cardinal Burke to head the Apostolic Signatura; Antonio Cardinal Canizares Lloera to be in charge of the Congregation for Divine Worship; Marc Cardinal Ouellet, to preside over the Congregation for Bishops; and Archbishop Gerhard Mueller to lead Benedict's former post, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

But, it is in the area of the sacred liturgy where Benedict made, perhaps, his greatest mark.

With the assistance of the very learned, yet very humble, Msgr. Guido Marini, Benedict re-infused the sacred back into the liturgy, an element that had been missing for quite some time.  He ensured that the propers, the official texts of the Church, be chanted and that the Mass have its proper orientation.  He stressed that the focus during the Mass needs to be on Christ, hence the use of the Ad Orientem posture during the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

There has been a lot of opining on the internet, especially on Twitter, Facebook and the blogosphere about the liturgical particularities of Benedict's successor.  The internet has certainly been fodder for pictures of Pope Francis washing a woman's feet during the Holy Thursday Mandatum and video footage of some of the Masses that he celebrated in Buenos Aires.  Not a few people, myself included, have expressed concerns.  Conversely, many other bloggers have sought to downplay these concerns.  One person in particular, Roger Cardinal Mahony, has been very spiteful in his commentary about Benedict's liturgical practices, almost as if to drive a wedge between the Pope Emeritus and the new Holy Father.

I accept Pope Francis because, as a practicing Catholic, I am bound to by obedience.  However, disagreeing with him on Ars Celebrandi is not the equivalent of disobedience.  The changes he has made are subtle departures from the Ars Celebrandi of his predecessor, including using the portable altar at the Sistine Chapel instead of the permanent one that is affixed to the wall and the lessening of the formality.  It is as though we are making a paradigm shift from the sublime beauty and dignity of Msgr. Guido Marini towards the informal watered down style of Archbishop Pietro Marini. Although I may not agree with Peter, I cannot separate myself from him.

That Pope Francis is personally humble and a gifted preacher is certainly wonderful and quite a positive  thing.  Humility is a gift to which all of us should aspire to attain.  However, it would be a total misreading of St. Francis' reform if we were to take humility to the extreme and strip the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass of its beauty, grandeur and sublime majesty.  The holy deacon once said that "Lady Poverty should never enter the sanctuary." St. Francis' words are not new.  If we were to read through the Old Testament, the Lord was very adamant about how the liturgical rites of Ancient Israel were to be conducted. Nothing but the finest materials, gold, silver, and cedar were to be employed for the service of the Lord.  The vestments of the priests of Ancient Israel were to be of the finest materials.

Benedict certainly understood that.  The vesture that he chose to use during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the copes for the solemn celebration of Vespers and the attire he wore for his Urbi et Orbi addresses were not about him; it was about the office of Vicar of Christ.  As someone on Twitter wrote, "Christ did not negate the gift of the precious oil from the woman who anointed his head and feet."  Furthermore, when Judas rebuked Jesus for allowing this waste when the money could have been used for the poor, Christ turned to him and said, "The poor you will always have with you; you will not always have me."

With regard to the poor, there are some dimensions of poverty that, perhaps, Pope Francis has not considered.  Much has been made about material poverty; however, a person can be poor on so many levels.  When one of the cardinals told the newly elected Holy Father not to forget the poor, it should not be automatically assumed that this refers to the materially poor.  A priest friend of mine reminded me that one can be spiritually poor,  morally poor, emotionally poor, physically (health) poor and psychologically poor.  Robbing the Church of her rich liturgical treasures in the name of poverty, in the name of solidarity with the poor, actually does more harm than good.  The rich treasures of the Church are employed not for material pomp, as Cardinal Mahony would have us believe; rather, these wonderful riches are employed for the divine worship of God.

My prayer is that Pope Francis will open himself to the wonderful example set forth by his much beloved predecessor, Benedict XVI.  I pray that his heart may be wonderfully pierced and wounded by the arrow of beauty and that he will allow himself to be guided by Christ so that he can feed and tend the sheep and lambs entrusted to him.

Electing a New Shepherd: Seeing as God Sees

While most of the Church will read and reflect over the Cycle C Readings during this Fourth Sunday of Lent, those who are marking the Second Scrutinies of the Elect will ponder the readings for Cycle A.  For me, the first reading from Cycle A, which comes from the First Book of Samuel, takes on a deeper significance, as 115 Cardinal Electors prepare to enter the Conclave which will elect a successor to our beloved Benedict XVI.

In this particular reading, we encounter the prophet Samuel whom God commands to travel to Bethlehem to go and anoint a new King of Israel from among the sons of man named Jesse.

“The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king from among his sons.’

“Samuel consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely, the Lord’s anointed is before him.’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’

“And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.  And Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen any of these. Are all of your sons here?’ Jesse said, ‘There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.’ Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send and fetch him; for we will not sit down till he comes here.’

“And he sent, and brought David in to see him.  Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.  And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.’

“Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.”

Ever since the Supreme Pontiff Emeritus, Benedict XVI, announced his resignation, the media, Catholic and secular alike, have speculated as to who his successor would be. The usual list of Papabile showed up in practically every media outlet.  The list rivals that of the 64 collegiate basketball teams competing for March Madness’ Final Four.  CNN, ABC, FOX, BBC, CBS and NBC and even the Catholic Channel on Sirius XM, raised questions concerning where the future pope could be from or whether or not he would be reform minded. Facebook and Twitter are abuzz with everyone issuing a wish list of the qualities they want in the new pope. 

I have to admit that I have fallen prey to this mindset  I suppose that I want a younger Joseph Ratzinger: a devoted promoter of authentic liturgical reform, superb theologian, a gifted preacher and teacher and a lover of souls.

Yet, at this particular moment, the Church presents us with the account of David’s anointing.  She reminds us that “man does not see as the Lord sees.”  We look at whether or not the man who would be Pope is media savvy, has charisma, is able to be a populist and can modernize the Church.  I cannot presume to speak for God; none of us should dare try.  However, maybe He is looking for something beyond what we see.  While being a part of the world is certainly important, the Church needs someone who will be able to help fit us for the next world, the heavenly Jerusalem.

God chooses the most surprising instruments to bring about his greatest accomplishments.  Jesse certainly did not expect that the boy tending sheep would wind up leading a kingdom.  Samuel probably did not see that one coming. David was probably just as surprised.  But, God had a plan.

In the same way, no one probably saw a shy, elderly man wearing a white alb step out onto the  loggia of St. Peter’s as the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI. But, just as He had a plan for a very young shepherd named David, God, had a plan for Joseph Ratzinger.

In about 40 hours or so, the Cardinal Electors will process into the Sistine Chapel to perform the most sacred duty of electing a new Pope.  They will do so under the intimidating gaze of Michelangelo’s panorama of salvation history.  My prayer is that each Cardinal see as God sees and not as the media or the secular world sees.  The Pope Emeritus told the Cardinals that the new Pope was already in their midst.  Just as God pointed out the new King of Israel to Samuel, so will He point the new Supreme Pontiff to the men who will elect him.