"Who Touched Me?"

Today's Gospel reading (Mark 5:21-43) was a really good reminder for me about how I live my life with God.  A woman afflicted with "hemorrhages" for 12 years (possibly what we today call endometrioisis) came up behind Jesus, convinced that if she could just touch the tassels on his garment (tzitzit, Num.15:38-39) she would be healed.  I was very struck by what came next:

Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?"
But his disciples said to him, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

There were a crowd of people in physical contact with Jesus, but only one person really "touched" him; and it was her faith that allowed her to.

It reminded me that there is a danger I need to be wary of, a fine line that always needs to be walked.  It's important to have fixed times of prayer throughout the day.  It's also important to be faithful to specific forms of prayer; for me that's Sunday Mass and the daily Rosary.  I do a lot of spontaneous prayer in addition to those, but those are the meat and potatoes of my spiritual life.  The daily Rosary ensures that I make time to meditate on Jesus' life in Scripture; I have a set time every day for God to speak to me through His Word.  Sometimes I receive incredible flashes of insight, but much of the time it is just thinking on the mysteries and trying not to get distracted.

So there is that, and it is good.  But I need to be careful that I do not let prayer become routine.  That doesn't mean that I break my commitment to the Rosary - or even worse Sunday Mass - but that I strive to always remain cognizant that I am in contact with the Living God!  It's faith in a Person - trusting in, clinging to, and relying on God in absolutely everything I think, say, and do - that allows me to "touch" Jesus, to receive the grace He wants to pour out.

Making "reparation" for our sins?

When a non-Catholic Christian hears that Catholics believe in making acts and offering prayers in reparation for our sins and those of others, it sounds like we don't believe that Jesus' sacrifice was sufficient to atone for all sin.  That would certainly be a problem . . . if that's what we were saying.  But it isn't. 

Jesus received baptism, a baptism of repentance, as our representative.  He redeemed us by giving the Father the loving obedience we had denied him.  In the desert, he withstood temptations to which Adam and Israel had succumbed.  Jesus lived his identity as Son even when it meant being scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed to a tree, and pierced with a spear.  By saying “yes,” and enduring it all in obedience to God’s will, Jesus redeemed the “no” of our sins.  Let me be absolutely clear: the eternal punishment of sin, the separation from God that we call hell, was atoned for – totally, completely, even superabundantly – by the sacrifice of Jesus.  Having said that we Catholics also believe that, joined to Jesus, we are called to offer satisfaction, or reparation, both for our individual sins as well as other members of the Mystical Body.   I’ll do my best to explain why this is.

From time to time you hear of  a “jail house conversion.”  Someone was baptized in infancy but received no real formation in the Faith, and went from one bad decision in life to another.  He finally murdered someone and was jailed.  While in jail he experiences a profound conversion.  He understands that he has done something incredibly evil and vows to live a new life.  The visiting priest hears his confession and gives him absolution.  The convict’s sins are really and truly forgiven.  Jesus’ sacrificial death (pure love) atoned for the act of murder (hate) and reconciles the prisoner’s soul to God, saving him from hell.  Since the prisoner has been forgiven in this way, shouldn’t he be released?  Something tells me I’m not the only one out there saying “no.”

We understand that even though the eternal punishment of his sins have been atoned for by Jesus’ death and that heaven now stands open to the man, there is still an earthly penalty to be paid here in time and space.  It’s called the temporal punishment of sin; and it’s not just the state requiring this of the man, but God. 

 Analogously, this is why the Church insists that even though we’ve been absolved of our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we need to perform an act of penance.  Penance is a concrete act meant both to repair, or when that is impossible, to make amends for, the harm we have done as well as to get us walking in the right direction again.  (You no doubt remember how Peter, who denied the Lord three times; was asked by the Risen Jesus to reaffirm his love three times.)  

Note, the Church says this to baptized Christians, members of Christ’s Mystical Body.  A state board of corrections will not recognize it, but the Church understands that Baptism wipes away eternal punishment, as well as all temporal punishment earned prior to Baptism.   The baptized soul has been regenerated by grace and made a child of God.  As a “newborn” it is completely free of all punishment!    

But when a Christian sins after Baptism, when she act out of selfishness instead of love, then her loving Father disciplines her. “Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required” (Luke 12:48).  Don’t’ be discouraged by this. “My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him . . . God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?” (Heb.12:5,7).  And you’re not going through this discipline by yourself – you’re filled with the strength of Christ (Phil. 4:13).  Jesus’ love of the Father is so superabundant that it erupts into acts of love in our own lives, acts that make satisfaction for our sins.  “I am the vine, you are the branches.  Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit” (John 15:5).  The branches produce fruit because of the sap they receive from the vine, and we produce acts of love because of the Holy Spirit we receive from Jesus.

We also can’t forget that the Christian life isn’t just “me and Jesus.”  He isn’t at work just in us, but in the whole communion of saints!  In the Body of Christ, “if one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor.12:26).  That is why St. Paul went on to say, “I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Colossians 1:24). United to Jesus and empowered by his grace, Paul made reparation for the sins – the failures to love – of other members of the Body.  

We can consciously choose to enter into this great act of making reparation.  We intentionally ask Jesus to fill us with strength and allow us to express his love for the Father, in reparation both for our failings and those of his whole Body.  We can perform the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.  Perhaps we tighten our belts, literally through fasting or figuratively by almsgiving.[1] Like St. Paul we embrace and offer up the frustrations and sufferings God allows to come our way.  Reparation can be performing a kind act, additional Mass attendance during the week, or asking the Lord to forgive another person’s sins.[2]  Any element of the Divine Mercy is an incredible prayer of reparation!  All of this spring from the same love, the same Holy Spirit, that Jesus poured forth on the Cross. 

Almost everyone has heard the story of Fatima, how the Blessed Mother appeared to three shepherd children in Portugal during World War I.  Europe was experiencing the natural result, or the “temporal punishment,” of abandoning its love of God and neighbor.  Mary came to request a return to the Gospel and reparation for sin through the praying of the Rosary and acts of penance.  What many are unaware of was how the children were prepared for Mary’s visitation, over a year before, through the appearance of an angel and the prayer he taught them.   Prostrating themselves with their foreheads to the ground, he instructed them to pray three times, “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you!  I ask pardon of you for those who do not believe, not adore, do not hope, and do not love you.”  

 Pope Pius XI, who became pope shortly after the events at Fatima, made a profound connection between our prayers and acts of reparation and Jesus’ Passion.  In his encyclical On Reparation to the Sacred Heart, he speculated that the angel who “strengthened” Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane did so by crossing time and space to bring him our acts of reparation!

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[1] As water extinguishes a blazing fire, so almsgiving atones for sin” (Sirach 3:30).

[2] ““If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one—to those whose sin is not mortal” (1 John 5:16)

Corpus Christi Visitation

NO, not this kind of visitation - 
 








I was going for this one,
which is clearly far more awesome; God Himself was in Mary's womb!  And I love Elizabeth's reaction, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Lk.1:42-43)

So there's the Visitation part of my post, but where does Corpus Christi come in, the celebration of Christ's Body and Blood present in the Eucharist? Well, when you and I receive him in the Eucharist He comes into our bodies just as truly as He did the Blessed Mother's!  Take that in.  Throughout Mary's 75 mile journey to Elizabeth, she guarded and nurtured Jesus inside of her.  You and I are supposed to do the same!

And look at Elizabeth's reaction again.  Do we greet our friends at Mass with that kind of joy?!  They just received Jesus into themselves whole and entire in the Eucharist.  God Himself is dwelling inside of them!  So at Mass this weekend, when you hug those friends, try and have yourself a Corpus Christi Visitation.

"By What Authority?" A Lesson for American Catholics

I've always loved today's Gospel.  When I read it aloud today, it spoke to me in a different way though.  I'll share the passage and then what struck me:
 As he was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him
and said to him, "By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?"
Jesus said to them, "I shall ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was John's baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me."
They discussed this among themselves and said, "If we say, 'Of heavenly origin,' he will say, '(Then) why did you not believe him?'
But shall we say, 'Of human origin'?"--they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet.
So they said to Jesus in reply, "We do not know." Then Jesus said to them, "Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things."

Now of course I had always enjoyed seeing Jesus verbally out-maneuver His opponents, but today I finally understood that what Jesus is saying to them is that faith is all a matter of authority - whose word you believe.  John came claiming to speak for the Lord, and calling people to a baptism of repentance.  Because the chief priests, scribes, and elders didn't believe that John had the authority to do this - that he really spoke God's word - they ignored what he said and did.  So when they ask Jesus by what authority he teaches and acts, it will not matter if He says "from God" or not, because they have already decided that His message, critical of them, could not possibly be from God.  It strikes me that something similar is playing out before our eyes on the evening news.

Watching CBS's national news last night, I saw an interview with Sr. Pat Farrell, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the group recently criticized by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).  Sr. Pat has been a religious for the past 47 years and took great exception to the CDF's assessment.  The CDF is also requiring Archbishop Sartain of Seattle to meet with LCWR leaders, representing 80% of U.S. women religious, "in order to implement a process of review and conformity to the teachings and discipline of the Church."

What issues did Sr. Pat take exception at being criticized for?  Sisters recommending birth control to low income women they minister to, and the sisters affirmations that homosexual acts are valid forms of affection in God's eyes.  Alright, if you're a person who really does accept the authority of Jesus of Nazareth, then those are not issues up for discussion.  Jesus, the Apostles, and all of her male and female saints, Bishops, and Popes throughout two thousand years have taught that birth control and homosexual acts are objectively - always objectively - wrong.  A person's ignorance of that obviously mitigates their culpability for engaging in these acts, but it does not change the fact that they are objectively disordered.  

The sisters should obviously continue reaching out to the people they have been serving - that is part of the Gospel imperative.  But in their service to these people they cannot say that parts of Jesus' teaching are not true.  It's the Truth that sets people free, that gives supernatural life, a life that lasts forever.  Otherwise, sisters who espouse the thoughts of Sr. Pat will be meeting needs that only pertain to this present, fallen world.  And it will soon pass away.  The U.S. already has plenty of social workers.  It needs Christian, faithful women religious, social workers, hospital administrators, teachers, doctors and nurses.

As we watch this play out on the evening news - the sisters "being bullied" by the big, bad Vatican - we need to ask, "By what authority?"  What authority are the sisters claiming for their disagreement with Church teaching, which is nothing but God's word?  

This shouldn't be a difficult issue for American Catholics.  If you believe Jesus spoke the Father's word, if you believe that the prophets and apostles were inspired to speak His Truth, then you embrace it 100%.  The sisters have given amazing service to God's people, and the Vatican praises them for it.  But there also appear to be a significant number, such as the LCWR's president on the evening news, who disagree with Jesus on significant moral issues.  This should not be and should be corrected.  And that is exactly what the shepherds of Christ's Church were given authority by Him to do! (Mt.18:15-18)

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Dr. Vost and I drew from a number of resources in preparing our program for EWTN Radio about the Gifts of the Spirit (both the seven traditional from Isaiah 11 and the "charisms" discussed by St. Paul in Rom.12 and 1 Cor.12), and I thought it would be a good idea to post links.  I beg your forgiveness for beginning with our own works.  Within those however, we share more extensively what we were able to touch upon on the radio, as well as summarizing points from several of the works recommended below:








Other links of interest:
International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services  (located in Vatican City)
U.S. Catholic Charismatic Renewal National Service Committee


And for my discussion of the Charism of Tongues, please click here, for a separate blog post on the issue.

A Catholic Take on the Gift of Tongues

"There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning 'favor,' 'gratuitous gift,' 'benefit.'  Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church." 

- Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2003

Please note that what follows is a Catholic understanding of tongues.  I have no delusions about it being the definitive understanding.  They are my personal reflections, excerpted from Chp.4 and Appendix VI of my The God Who is Love: Explaining Christianity From Its Center

The Purpose of Praying in Tongues

If you have never been exposed to it, you are probably wondering why someone would want to pray in a language they do not understand. It is a fair question, no doubt about it. I cannot claim to give God’s final answer, His rationale for tongues. I can speculate though, given the texts of Scripture[1] and the opinions of myself and others.

First, I believe that tongues allows us to open our spirits to God - to express our deepest longings, our most profound inclinations of love to Him. Because we have been fused to Jesus, we are caught up into His Loving of the Father (in the Spirit). Praising God in tongues is an earthly manifestation of the Son’s eternal adoration of the Father – manifested through members of His Body. Through this charism we are given the opportunity to express things our conscious mind could never adequately formulate.

The second benefit builds upon the first. Not only does tongues allow someone to praise God, but also to intercede– the Holy Spirit allowing a person to pray Jesus’ intentions for the members of His Mystical Body. It is a visible manifestation of something going on within the soul of every Christian:

…the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).

The third value I see is the potential for personal spiritual development. Paul said in First Corinthians that “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself” (14:4). One way this spiritual edification occurs is for a person to yield to tongues in the knowledge that they are worshiping and interceding on behalf of other members of Christ’s Body. They are, in a sense, allowing the Head of the Body, Jesus, to more fully conform the intercession rising from earth to Heaven to that of His sacred heart. In cooperating with Him, the Christian’s soul progresses in grace, being molded more in Jesus’ image and thus more responsive to the stirrings of the Spirit. When Paul said that the person who speaks in tongues builds himself up he was not saying that that was the only way a Christian is built up interiorly; that is foolishness. The same happens within souls whenever they cooperate with the Lord’s will. For example, when a Christian serves someone in need they have allowed Christ to meet that person’s need through them, and the Christian’s soul grows in the image of the Master. 

Humility before God is the final value I see in tongues. What is more childlike than “babbling” before our Father? With the gift of tongues one yields to God in a simple but concrete way, trusting Him to supply each word in turn. Such an act can build faith - the type of faith necessary to pray with a sick person, or speak out what you believe are His words to a prayer group (or your classmates). Tongues is a gift which has benefited me personally.

I do not, however, believe that everyone needs to receive it. The Holy Spirit knows what each of us needs to progress in grace, and He wants to bestow those gifts in abundance. It is our part to be open, not to dismiss any gift He wants to give: “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). Charisms are no guarantee of personal union with God. When a charism is manifested it only means that at that moment, that individual was open enough for God to work through them. Jesus warned that on the Day of Judgment there will be many who say, “’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? …and do many mighty works in your name as well?’ to whom He will reply, “I never knew you; depart from me” (Matthew 7:22-23). The evidence of a person’s union with God is not charisms, but how much they love with Jesus’ Love (His Spirit).

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Should Every Christian Receive the Gift of Tongues?

There are some believers who hold that without evidencing the gift of tongues a person cannot have been “baptized in the Holy Spirit.” There are others who do not go that far, but claim that each Christian has a prayer language, if they would only yield to it. I am convinced, from looking at Scripture and the face of the Church today, that both positions are in error. I will restrict myself to explaining my disagreement with the latter position since those reasons automatically apply to the former. 

First, I do not see the gift of tongues always accompanying the “release” of the Spirit in Acts of the Apostles. We are told in Acts 10:45-47 and 19:6 that tongues accompanied the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on new Christians; in the second example this occurred when the Apostle Paul laid hands on the newly baptized. In Acts 8:14-17, however, we are told that the Holy Spirit came upon the newly-baptized Samaritans through the laying on of Peter and John’s hands – but without a mention of tongues. An oversight on the author Luke’s part? Well, consider also that there is no mention of the three thousand who were baptized on the day of Pentecost receiving tongues either. In fact, if you went through all the other conversion stories in Acts you wouldn’t find another mention of the charism.

St. Paul is clear that tongues is not an integral part of everyone’s Christian experience. In The First Epistle to the Corinthians he wrote:

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess the gift of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol” (1 Corinthians 12:27-13:1).

At this point some “charismatic” believers will object to my citation of the above passage. They interpret Paul as saying that not all Christians should expect to speak a prophetic message in tongues, one in need of interpretation; but every Christian should expect to pray in tongues. I acknowledge that the gift of tongues has two different manifestation – but I see no justification for dividing it up into two different gifts. In the list of gifts given in First Corinthians 12 Paul listed tongues – just tongues; he did not speak of a gift of praying in tongues and a separate gift of speaking in tongues.  He then went on in Chapter 14 of the same letter to discuss different manifestations of this one gift – primarily a gift of prayer, but sometimes a gift of prophecy when combined with the gift of interpretation. Notice how Paul goes back and forth between the terms “speaking” and “praying” in the following passage:

Therefore, he who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also. I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how can any one in the position of an outsider say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may give thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all; nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue (14:13-18). 

When you come together…if any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silence in church and speak to himself and to God (14:26-28).

Do you see what I mean about the terms praying in tongues and speaking in tongues referring to one and the same gift?  In time I experienced both forms. When I was finally moved to speak a message in tongues at a prayer group I wasn’t receiving a new gift; I was only moved to direct toward others what up until that time had been directed only toward God. (An interpretation in English followed and the group heard the message the Lord had for them.)

I think that the overemphasis some Christians have placed on tongues flows from the blessing it has been in their own lives – because it has been a great blessing for them they conclude that it should be a blessing received by all. It is a pretty common human reaction. The reality, however, is that the Holy Spirit decides which gifts each member of the Body needs to best fulfill their assigned task:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit…To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith…to another gifts of healing…to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy…to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills (1 Cor. 12:4-11).

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[1] Paul stated in his First Epistle to the Corinthians that “A man who speaks in tongues is talking not to men but to God. No one understands him, because he utters mysteries in the Spirit” (14:2). It’s evident that St. Paul saw a value in tongues, “I should like it if all of you spoke in tongues” (14:4) and “Thank God I speak in tongues more than any of you” (14:18).

Not Your Average QUEEN

Praying the Rosary as I walked today, I really felt inspired to think about the mystery of Mary's Coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth.  Probably 90% of the times I have prayed this mystery in the past year, I have thought about how each of us are called to persevere in following Jesus and receive the "crown of righteousness" at the end of our lives (2 Tim.4:6).


Today however I really wanted to focus on Mary's experience of receiving not just a crown of righteousness, but of Queenship.  And I was immediately struck by how different this Queen is.  Most women destined for queenship were born into nobility.  From their earliest days they were surrounded by the finest things and taught the ins and outs of high society.  The best are taught that royalty bear a responsibility toward the care of their subjects, but those subjects are kept at a distance.


Our Lady, the Queen of queens, is so completely different!  She was born into poverty, but with the nobility of a spotless soul.  Her training to be queen was much different:  She worked side-by-side with the other women of her village throughout her life.  She knew the pain of a spouse considering divorce, the ache of widowhood, and the death of a child.  And through it all she persisted in saying "Yes," to God, "yes," to whatever He permitted.  Instead of resting aloof in glory, she is a Queen accessible to the most sinful and most scorned among us, wrapping her motherly arms around us and lifting us up in prayer to her Son.  

She really is a Queen unlike any other, and she has to be -  she sits beside a King Who was crowned with thorns.

Pentecost, Here We Come!

It's only Tuesday, but I'm already getting excited for Pentecost Sunday.  Jesus said some wild things to the Apostles:   "I am sending upon you what My Father promised; so stay here in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (Lk.24:49); ". . .these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues . . . they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover" (Mk.16:17-18); and "the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father" (Jn.14:12).


Greater works than Jesus?  Yes, because the Church is the extension of Jesus' life in time and space! (See 1 Cor.12:27 & Eph.1:22)  In His Physical Body the Lord proclaimed the Kingdom in the Judea and Galilee of the first century, but through the Church He has proclaimed it throughout the world - delivering and healing people as He went!  We read how it began in the Acts of the Apostles, but it continues today all around us!


If we're not seeing like the early Church did - and like the saints throughout history have - we need to ask ourselves "Why?"  The only difference I can see between us and a Therese of Lisieux or a  Francis of Assisi is the quality of our "Yes." Lets take a minute or two to think about what we need to say "yes" to, to allow the Lord to "clothe" us with "power from on high."

Hard to Imagine the Afterlife?

I know. St. Paul had the same problem though, “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:10). Right now our knowledge of God is conceptual, we use analogies from this created world to speak of the Totally Other: “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face…[we] shall understand fully, even as we have been fully understood” (1 Cor. 13:12). Don’t take this “darkness of faith” too hard though –we’ve all been through it before; and it turned out great.

None of us remember our first 40-or-so weeks, but they were lived in complete darkness. Our entire world was that wet, increasingly-cramped space inside our mom's womb. And we couldn’t even begin to imagine that there was this entire world, entire planet, awaiting us outside. We lived beneath our mother’s heart, exposed to its constant rhythm, and yet we had never seen her face! We had grown to recognize her voice, but we hadn’t developed to the point of understanding any of her words. And birth – talk about TRAUMA! All of that amniotic fluid we’ve been swimming in, gone in an instant; our heads compacted and squeezed through the birth canal; the light; the cold; that humiliating slap on the butt! But we finally entered the real world, finally got that chance to see mom face-to-face, to eat through our mouths instead of our belly buttons, and a million other experiences that we’re impossible to conceive of from the darkness of the womb.

Turns out that was just the warm-up; we’re still in utero, and the REAL world awaiting us "outside" remains inconceivable. We’re going to get the chance to enter it though; and just like before, we don’t have a clue when. This time around though, we get to participate in our own growth process. Each "yes" to God allows our spiritual "organs" to develop a bit more. If we haven't come to full term when the moment of birth arrives though, God has a top-notch NICU experience planned for us (the Church calls it purgatory; 1 Cor.3:10-15). Listen to the Apostle John:

"Beloved we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when [Jesus] appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure." (1 John 3:1-3)
 
St. Francis of Assisi was right on, "It is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

Hot 'N' Cold

"Someone call the doctor
Got a case of a love bipolar...
'Cause you're hot then you're cold
You're yes then you're no
You're in and you're out
You're up and you're down
You're wrong when it's right ..."

Katy Perry's lyrics always give me something to think about. (My first post was a reflection on her "I Kissed a Girl.") This evening I find them to be a perfect segue for discussing some hard words to hear from Jesus:  "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15-16). 

Everyone holds up signs reading "John 3:16;" but why not Revelation 3:16? I ask that rhetorically. It's easy to see why not - most Christians prefer a caricature of Jesus to the actual Person recorded for us in Scripture. We prefer an imaginary Jesus, who forgives our failings but makes no demands. The imaginary Jesus never gets upset - unless it's at religious bullies, and they've got it coming, don't they? He came to relieve suffering (because pain, not separation from God, is the ultimate evil) and to teach us that if we'll just be "tolerant" enough of everyone else's opinion (translation = truth does not exist in fact; truth is what we individually believe it to be), peace will finally come.

That is NOT the Person we find in the New Testament - or in any kind of historical research on Jesus of Nazareth. "Caricature Jesus" isn't the type of guy that gets nailed to a Cross! (And calls his followers to join him.) The real Jesus is a passionate lover, who forces us to make a decision, "He who is not with Me, is against me" (Matthew 12:30); "Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth, but the sword" (Matthew 10:34). No, not a sword of physical violence, but of Truth/Reality:

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 12:12-13)

Jesus is like the doctor who has to tell the patient he has cancer; hiding the gravity of the situation, denying the need for aggressive treatment, wouldn't be doing the patient justice.

Recently, a friend of mine (also Catholic) got very excited when she found out I had a blog. I don't think that excitement lasted very long though; when we next spoke she diplomatically told me, "I don't agree with you on many things." She didn't elaborate; and my sense was that it wasn't the right moment to ask her to either. From little things she's shared in the past though, I fear her disagreement has to do with Jesus' s teachings regarding sexuality; and that makes me terribly sad. We are supposed to be in a real, life-giving relationship with Jesus of Nazareth, our brother and God. We can't pick and choose what parts of His message we are going to live by. That's like picking which part of the marriage vow you're going to honor. Oh, plenty of people try to do it...and thus our 50% divorce rate. Hot or cold - thinking that you can exist as "lukewarm" is self-deception. I'm not saying this as someone looking down from a summit; I think I've blogged enough about going to Confession to prove that that isn't the point. Christianity is Life-giving, it gives Divine Life; but only when we fully surrender ourselves to Jesus. We come, broken as we are, sinful as we are, and allow Him to embrace us - embracing Him in turn. We ask for, and receive, the help of His Holy Spirit. And then we have the ability to Love and Live the Reality, the Life that Jesus (the real Jesus) proclaimed!

If you're reading this, please pray for me. Please pray for my friend too - a beautiful, smart, young woman looking for her heart's completion.

Mary for Mother's Day

Norman Rockwell's Mary, Queen of Heaven

My mind honestly wasn't on it when I got to Mass; it wasn't until the music leader started singing "On this day, oh beautiful Mother . . ." that I thought to wish Mary a happy Mother's Day.  But she warmly deserves it.  I am amazed when I think of my Grandma Kapler being the mother of twelve kids, but Mary is mother to over a billion!  (See Jn.19:26-27; Rev.12:1-5,17)

And please don't let your mind be troubled by accusations that the honor we give Mary today - and at today's Mass for that matter - takes anything away from the worship we give to God.  We sure aren't worried that the honor we pay our biological mothers today slights Him!  Mary is the daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, and the Spouse of the Holy Spirit (as we are all called to be).  Believe me, whatever expression of love you show her, it won't hold a candle to the love and honor Jesus is showering upon her!

Scripture tells us that we are made in the image and likeness of God (Gen.1:26), and that all fatherhood is rooted in Him (Eph.3:15).  Now which of us human fathers ever feels slighted when someone praises our daughter?  Are you kidding?  When someone praises my Lily, my heart leaps!  And my fatherly heart is only the palest reflection of God's!  So don't let this Mother's Day end without telling Mary how much you love her and how much you appreciate her "yes" to God's will.  And thank the Father for giving you such a beautiful mother.

"Who You With?!"

Such a simple question.  My man Bernie Mac use to start every episode with it.  It's a question that every Catholic in America needs to ask:  Am I with Jesus' Church in what I believe about human life and marriage, or not?  

Because if you're with Christ and His Catholic Church, you are going to find yourselves in direct conflict with the majority of the talking heads you see on the evening news and sitcoms.  Jesus is blunt in today's Gospel, "If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, 'No slave is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you'" (Jn.15:18-20).

Allow me to be equally blunt.  Being a Christian in our society means fighting the fights that need fighting - not with violence, but our willingness to stand up and speak the truth, to remind our society of the objective reality it use to hold to, in the face of jettisoning clear thinking and wrapping itself in the Golden Rule as justification (as our President just did).


The thing is, even though I disagree with those wanting same-sex marriage, I am not a homophobe, a bigot, or "hater." And if you'll give me a moment or two I'll explain why:

First, just because we human beings have the ability to do something, it doesn't mean we should. That goes for everything from the use of nuclear weapons, to girls kissing girls, to purchasing a Kenny G album. Seriously, all of us agree that there are some actions human beings shouldn't perform - murder immediately comes to mind as a universal. I can't think of a culture that celebrates theft, treason, betrayal, or slander either. Now I'm not trying to equate homosexual activity with the malevolent sentiments accompanying any of those activities; I simply want to remind you that objecting to certain behaviors is a trait common to all of us.

I'll continue by saying that each of us have struggles, and some much more than others, with strong impulses and inclinations. I have had occasion to work with young people living with severe autism and other developmental disorders. I see some strong sensory needs and some very startling attempts to have them met- tactile input sought through slapping the teacher or oral-motor sensation through licking fabric. The overwhelming urge is there; the child didn't choose it, and he/she shouldn't be looked down upon for it. At the same time however, those are behaviors not deemed acceptable, and we look for ways to help the child meet his/her needs in a different way. Myself, I have seen some of the people I love most struggle with clinical depression. I've seen them not want to get out of bed, to dread living through the next day; and yet, despite those incredibly strong emotions they had the conviction that they had to go on, that their lives were a gift from God and that however bleak it appeared, they didn't have the right to end them. And thank God they didn't!

So coming at the issue of homosexuality, or any issue for that matter, as a Christian, I begin with the conviction that we have a Father in Heaven with loving, and specific, desires for His children. We can recognize many of these desires by looking at the moral norms common across the entire globe, engraved upon our hearts you could say. There are a number of moral issues however, where God's will seems murky to us - and many of these seem to cluster around how we express ourselves sexually. I don't think we should be surprised by this - the intensely physical and emotional nature of the act is intoxicating; it's very easy to become confused, to begin following our own impulses and inclinations instead of God's, or that should be obvious to us from biology (male and female bodies fit together in a specific way and, biologically speaking, for a very specific purpose).

This is one of the reasons we Christians believe God spoke to the world through the prophets of Israel, even going so far as to become one of us. He came to cut through the confusion that arises from our impulses and inclinations, whatever their root - genetic, environmental, psychological, social, etc. - and make clear His intentions for us. He spoke with compassion for our condition, compassion for our struggles; but He did not mitigate the Truth. Part of that truth is that sexual union is meant to be male and female; it's written into our very anatomy.  Those struggling with same-sex attraction are not helped when we Christians adopt an attitude of, "It's not right for me, but who am I to say for you?" In the midst of depression my loved ones wouldn't have been helped by my saying "Intentionally ending my life isn't right for me, but who am I to say for you?" No, their lives were preserved because of a truth, a conviction, that transcended their psychological bent (and genetic predisposition to depression, in many cases).

When Jesus told His disciples to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (Mt.7:12), and "Judge not, lest you be judged" (Matthew 7:1), He wasn't telling them to withhold judgment as to whether a behavior was right or wrong in God's eyes. That ignores the entire rest of the Sermon on the Mount (three chapters in length); that type of interpretation is a complete betrayal of the context. Jesus' very next words were, "For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged...You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matt.7:2-5). In other words, if you want to see our Father's will spread through this earth, you have to begin by letting His Truth transform you; only then can you bring it to your brothers and sisters out of a desire for their well-being, instead of from some false sense of moral superiority.  Speaking the Truth in love is authentically living the Golden Rule!

And what is this Truth that we Christians should bring to our brothers and sisters struggling with same-sex attraction? We find it in those first pages of Genesis, in the creation stories God delivered to the world through Israel:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." So God created man in his own image...male and female He created them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen.1:26-28).
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed (Gen.2:24-25).

The one God (Who is a plurality of Father, Son, and Spirit) created the sexual union of man and woman - a oneness that brings forth a new, third life - to mirror His own inner Life! Human sexual love reflects the Trinity; it is an integral part of the claim that humanity is in God's image! And this inner life of God consists in a love that is freely given, eternally faithful, and overflows with Life. As it is in Heaven, so should it be on earth; that is God's intention for us. So if you're a Christian walking around with the idea that "sex is dirty," drop it. That wasn't the teaching of the Old Testament, of Jesus, or His Church. If you got that idea from a minister or a devout family member, you've been misled.

But homosexual acts do not have a place in God's plan. The male and female complementarity is completely absent, as is the possibility for new life, a child, to emerge from the union. God's plan has been written into our biological makeup; reproduction is possible only through the union of male and female gametes.

If one wants to come at the matter from an evolutionary standpoint, I think one has to recognize that homosexual sex is aberrant. Natural selection favors those traits which aid an organism to survive and pass those traits onto offspring. In nature's book sex is solely about reproduction; impulses and urges are simply a means to an end. Homosexual sex has quite an enemy in natural selection!

Homosexual acts are in conflict then with God's intention for us, both as reflected in biology and special revelation (through Judaism and Christianity). Up until 1973, the American Psychiatric Association recognized homosexual attraction as a disorder. Our brothers and sisters struggling with same-sex attraction, no matter its origin (whether it be genetic, environmental, etc.), are experiencing a struggle that the majority of us do not. The 1994, Catechism of the Catholic Church expressed it well:

They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's cross the difficulties they may encounter
in their condition.

These brothers and sisters need Truth, not platitudes like "I'm o.k., and you're o.k." No, we are all members of a fallen race. I need God's grace, and His people's help and encouragement, to keep moving forward under my own crosses, and people facing same-sex attraction need those same supports to move forward in life despite the sexual impulses and temptations they face. For our culture, and especially the Christians within it, to say otherwise is a betrayal of our call to speak the truth in love.

So my Catholic American friends, "Who you with?"  Jesus, or the popular culture you're surrounded by?  Think carefully.  One is eternal and the other will fall like every other great culture that came before.

Just a Catholic, or "Charismatic" Catholic?

I am very forthcoming about the positive effect the Catholic Charismatic Renewal had on me.  Our name Catholic literally means "universal, all-embracing;" and the charisms that the Lord brought back to our attention through the Renewal continue to be valid and valuable for the Church of today.  (See CCC 800-801, and CCC 2003).  That said, there are so many beautiful spiritualities within the Church - Carmelite, Franciscan, Dominican, etc., etc. - some demonstrative and others more oriented in silence.  The Lord calls us to Himself along different "roads," and we may change the one we travel several times in the course of our lives.  Each road passes through the Sacraments though; that is common to every Catholic's journey.  Other than the seven Sacraments however, it would be incredibly shortsighted of me, of anyone, to try and absolutize his experience, and require it of someone else (1 Cor.12:29-31).  Jesus is the Good Shepherd, not me - He knows what each of His sheep need far better than anyone else.  (Omniscience is funny that way.)


What is my prayer life like in 2012?  Morning offering with my kids.  Daily Rosary on the way to work.  Conversational prayer throughout the day.  The charism of tongues to praise and intercede.  Read the Gospel of the day.  Chaplet of Divine Mercy on the way home.  Some spiritual reading before bed.  The Eucharist every Sunday, and the occasional weekday Mass when my work schedule allows.  Each November, I start the 33 days of preparation for Total Consecration prescribed by St. Louis Marie De Montfort and renew my consecration on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  I also enjoy getting together with a good friend every other week or so to study the Carmelites - Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Therese of Lisieux, and Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein). I've never felt a pull toward becoming a third order religious and don't feel any desire to refer to myself as anything other than "just a Catholic" - a person who wants to embrace all of the spiritual treasures our Father has deposited in the Church.

Visiting the "Journey Home"

Only one day until my visit with The Journey Home airs on EWTN.  The episode was taped on April 2nd, and I have been nervous since:  The time flew by, so the end of the interview is rather abrupt; and there was much more I wanted to explain about the process.  Mostly though, I have worried at what people will take away from it.  

Those who know me today hear me present more on the "intellectual" side of the Faith - logical reasons to believe in God and the Scriptural and historical witness to Catholicism as the full expression of the Faith Jesus gave us.  The early years of my journey on the other hand were so "experiential," which of course is open to argumentation; and yet, that is the way God led me and I am eternally grateful that He was so merciful in reaching out to me in a way I could understand prior to the years of study that have followed.  In between the experiences I shared on TJH, there were of course months of reading Scripture and other books, and talking to the adults I had come to trust about the truths the experiences forced me to grapple with.  

In the end my prayer is that God will use that hour on EWTN to excite people at the thought of how much He loves them and challenge those on the fence to dive into study and prayer on the beliefs they struggle with.  I also pray that it can direct parents, teens, and college students to The God Who is Love: Explaining Christianity From Its Center.  There my experiences provide an introduction for each chapter, but the other 75% is the Scripture, logic, and history the experiences introduced me to and the cumulative effect that had in bringing me fully home.

A War on Women?

Like many Sundays, I started this morning watching NBC's Meet The Press with David Gregory.   Several times I heard he and his panel use the term, "the war on women" in reference to the supposed move to "restrict women's access to contraception" which was frustrating, because it is a political fiction.  There is no movement in Congress or the courts - state or federal - to make contraception any less available to women than it has been for the past 40 some years.  I also heard Hilary Rosen and Rachel Maddow equate "the war on women" with movements by lawmakers to restrict abortion.  The response that immediately jumped to my mind was, "In what sense could the attempts to save the lives of the 500,000 girls who are aborted every year be considered a war on women?  Isn't it the exact opposite?"

Christopher West's "At The Heart of the Gospel"

I remember the discussion I had with my friend Michael in the summer of 2009 when, following a story on ABC's Nightline, criticism of Christopher West was coming fast and furious.  Both of us had really benefited from West's work, so it disturbed us to read comments on the internet like, "West is leading people into dangerous waters . . . He isn't doing justice to John Paul II's Theology of the Body . . . West is not taking into account the incredible strength of concupiscence, and his readers and listeners are going to be caught off-guard."  As I talked with Michael, the most intense lover of the Carmelites I've ever met, the conviction emerged that West's critics were not accounting for the spiritual theology of one of the Church's great Doctors, the Carmelite's St. John of the Cross.  West's critics appeared comfortable teaching that Jesus could empower people to overcome any sin - racism, alcoholism, the hunger for revenge, etc. -and actually live as blazing examples of those sins' opposing virtues . . . except for when it came to living a real, sustained victory over lust.  In that one area we seemed forever doomed to live on a precipice.  West on the other hand seemed to completely embrace St. John's teaching that God can bring us into a transforming union with Him, one that allows us to conquer temptations and take on the image of Christ, albeit with some slight imperfections, even in this life!  Jesus' desire is to brings healing and wholeness to the whole person - and sexuality is an integral part of who we are as human beings."I have come that they may have life and have it to the full" (Jn.10:10). 

Christopher West

So imagine my excitement when I saw the title of Christopher West's new book, At the Heart of the Gospel: Reclaiming the Body for the New Evangelization.  Does West answer his critics?  Yes, and with a tremendous amount of charity.  Hats off to him for taking those criticisms to prayer, reflecting upon them, and emerging with an even stronger presentation of Theology of the Body (TOB hereafter) to show for it.  Throughout this new book he anchors his explanation of TOB with quotations from John Paul II's text as well as Scripture and the Catechism.  He supports his points with TOB commentary from theological heavy weights like Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) and Dr. Michael Waldstein (who in 2006, made the new, critical translation of John Paul's TOB), and offers supporting insights from bedrocks of orthodoxy such as Fulton J. Sheen.  I have absolutely no doubts that what West gives readers is a completely faithful presentation of John Paul's thought, accessible to today's culture.

Christopher West does a masterful job of teaching us the true value of the body within Christian Faith.  As much as the world around us - and even our own poor catechesis - would like to characterize Christianity as souls seeking release from sinful flesh, nothing could be further from the truth.  The great scandal of Christianity - as opposed to the Platonism of the Greeks, or the Cartesian duality of today - is the conviction that God not only descended into human flesh but, through the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, has raised it to literally unimaginable heights.  The goal, the victory, we Christians await is not our souls' liberation from the body and the spiritual experience of heaven, but the glorification of both soul and body on the day Christ brings heaven to earth!

I did find myself taken aback at several points in the book - not from anything irreverent or immodest on West's part, but by the depth of the Holy Father's reflection.  Allow me to site one example: the Holy Father's vision of marriage as the "primordial sacrament" (TOB 97:2).  Prior to humanity's fall, John Paul sees marriage acting as an "efficacious sign," communicating divine life (TOB 19:4).  The union of man and woman, and the new life that flowed from it, was an anticipation of the union to be achieved by Jesus and His redeemed Church, His Bride (Eph.5:31-32), and the supernatural life that would come into the world through it.

And the "transforming union" Michael and I discussed so many moons ago?  Oh, it's here - in spades. West quotes from John Paul II (TOB 43:6), showing the Holy Father's complete agreement with St. John of the Cross that we can experience a "liberation of our hearts from 'concupiscence,'" a true transformation of our desires.  (The Holy Father's agreement with St. John isn't surprising considering that he was the subject of JPII's 1948 doctoral thesis!)  But like John of the Cross, the Holy Father and West insist that the purity of heart Jesus spoke of in the Beatitudes (Mt.5:8) comes only after  many purifications and dark nights.  We should not overestimate our strength or progress in the spiritual life.  For the vast, vast majority of us, periodic "custody of the eyes" will be a necessary safeguard to looking upon someone of the opposite sex with lust for a good, long while.  But we are called to transformation.  We are journeying toward looking at others with the very eyes and mind of Christ - that's the Beatitudes, that's the Sermon on the Mount.  And the Lord wouldn't issue the call unless it were a real possibility!  The question is, how serious are we about achieving it?

Looking back at what I've written so far, I recognize that my words have not, and in my opinion cannot, do justice to the depth of this book.  I already have a list of friends to whom I plan to loan it.  If you are ready to see yourself, marriage, reality, to see the Catholic Faith through a new set of eyes, then click this link:
 

Contraception INCREASES Abortions

A dear friend laughed the other night when I shared that the popularization of contraception in our country led to an increase in irresponsible sexual behavior, which in turn led to an increase in abortions.  

Fortunately, the wonderful Jen Fulwiler posted an article on this very subject, citing the supporting statistics from Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute.  Bottom line:  Half of the 1 million abortions performed annually in the United States are the result of failed contraception.  Instead of sharing the beautiful, life and culture-changing truth that we human beings can control and channel our sexual love in strong marriages, we keep perpetuating this idea that "Teens are going to do it; and a pregnancy in high school or college will ruin their lives.  They need to play it 'safe.' "  Ironically, lowering our expectations, has led to MORE unintended pregnancies - and as a result, hundreds of thousands of children being aborted every year!  It's not too late though; this is a powerful moment for our culture to take stock and embrace the truth of our sexual nature - as created by God, and observable to all - and not just pull back from the brink, but make authentic headway.  Stay tuned for my review of Christopher West's At the Heart of the Gospel: Reclaiming the Body for the New Evangelization.

The Holy Family for Today's Families

For those who caught today's EWTN broadcast, here are those promised links to books:





Please examine these wonderful papal documents too: 
Pope John Paul II's Mother of the Redeemer and Guardian of the Redeemer (On the Life & Mission of St. Joseph), and Pope Leo XIII's On Devotion to St. Joseph. 


And while I realize that they do not compare with the above works, here are a couple of articles from yours truly:  
Did the Apostles Pray the Rosary?

Sharing in the Obedience of Jesus

Am I Not Here Who Am Your Mother?  (Marian Consecration)
The Eucharist, Mary, and Redemptive Suffering