Pentecost...It's All There!

Gerber baby, Ann Cook Turner at 91
https://wgntv.com/2017/11/21/the-original-gerber-baby-turns-91-years-old-today/

Pentecost is often spoken of as the "birth" of the Church. It's an apt metaphor: The Church, which had been growing en utero you could say, in the persons of Mary, the Twelve, and the small community of disciples, now emerges into the world. And when she does, we can already glimpse all of the distinguishing features by which she will be known as an adult.

The Church’s most obvious feature is that she is Charismatic – she has received the Gift, the Holy Spirit, and the manifold gifts He bestows, as evidenced by the charisms of tongues and preaching. Receiving the Holy Spirit as the common Gift of the Father and the Son (Acts 2:33-36) also immediately distinguishes her as Trinitarian. She is not a political body or social service but a living Tabernacle, making pilgrimage to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.

The Church that the Spirit rushed upon in tongues of fire is also Marian, Apostolic, and Petrine. We find her gathered in prayer with the Mother of Jesus – the Church's strong, silent backbone. Just as the Spirit overshadowed Mary and formed Christ within her womb, so He overshadowed the nascent community. birthing them as the Body of Christ into the world.

She is built upon the Twelve. The apostolic "office" left vacant by Judas' defection and death had to be filled before she began her mission to the world (Acts 1:15-26). And it was Peter, designated first among Christ’s apostles (Mt 10:2; 16:17-20), who lead the Church in this first act of apostolic succession. It was Peter who stood up “with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and address[ed]” the crowd (2:14).

And the sermon that Peter preached that first day, identifying how Jesus fulfilled the words of the Psalms and Prophets, established the Church as Scriptural – she constantly reflects upon and proclaims God’s written word. She is also Christocentric in her reading of Scripture; it all speaks of the Lord Jesus. But Peter’s preaching was not an end in itself. It led the crowd to cry out, “What shall we do?”; and Peter’s response that they must “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (2:37-39). The Church is not just Scriptural but Sacramental.

Even though all who received baptism that day were Jews, the fact that they had traveled to Jerusalem “from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5), intimated the acceptance of the Gentiles. It was a Catholic Church.

After almost two thousand years, the Church has grown and matured; Even though all who received baptism that day were Jews, the fact that they had traveled to Jerusalem “from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5), intimated the acceptance of the Gentiles. It was a Catholic Church.

After almost two thousand years, the Church has grown and matured. Her doctrine, liturgy, and works have continued to develop, to deepen; but for anyone who gazes closely at her “baby picture” –the Pentecost narrative – she is easy to recognize. The Catholic Church of today remains the Mystical Body of Christ, gestated throughout the earthly life of Mary and Jesus and born into the world on Pentecost.

Mary, Elizabeth, Infant Baptism & Immaculate Conception

If you were at Mass (or one of the many Protestant congregations that use the Church's cycle of readings) this Fourth Sunday of Advent, then you heard the story of Mary's visit to Elizabeth. It is an amazingly rich story, but here I wish to highlight what it has to say to us about Mary's immaculate conception and the practice of infant baptism.

Look at Elizabeth's words to Mary: "At the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy" (Luke 1:44). Let the implications of that verse sink in: The New Testament says that John the Baptist responded to grace at only six months of fetal development. John rejoiced, in utero, to be in the presence of Jesus (within the womb of Mary)! It is as the angel Gabriel had promised John's father, "He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb" (Luke 1:15).

You see, the Holy Spirit does not have to wait until a child reaches the "age of reason" to free him or her from original sin and impart supernatural life to the child's soul. This is the reason that Catholics, Orthodox, and the majority of Protestant Christians practice infant baptism. The fact that John was "filled with the Holy Spirit" and his soul able to react to Christ's presence shows us what God wants to do under the New Covenant. The only debate that you find in the early Church over infant baptism was whether, since baptism was the fulfillment of circumcision (Col. 2:11-12), infants had to wait until they were eight days old to receive it! The bishops - in perfect harmony with Luke's Gospel - said no, there was no reason to wait (Council of Carthage, 203 A.D.).

Now what, you might ask, does any of this have to do with Mary's immaculate conception? Well, this Catholic dogma states that, in lieu of Jesus's redemptive death and infinite merits, Mary was preserved, at the moment of her conception, from contracting the stain of original sin. We Catholics believe that, in baptism, both adults and infants are set free from original sin and filled with the Holy Spirit. Today's gospel reading tells us that God did this for John even before birth. The dogma of Mary's immaculate conception is absolutely consistent with all that we've seen thus far, continuing it back to the moment of conception. One may have qualms with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, but it clearly shouldn't be over God's ability to work redemption at the moment of conception!

That's how powerful our God is to save.

Enter the Octagon

Do you remember this theatrical masterpiece? I was six years-old when it came out and remember my next door neighbor bragging how his dad had taken him to see it. I refer to it now because my friend Kathi Strunk (the person crazy enough to suggest I start a blog) threw down the gauntlet: "When will Chuck Norris appear in one of your posts?" 

I admit; I was stymied. How could I bring Chuck to bear on my contemplation of the Faith? Sure, there's the spiritual warfare aspect - but that's so played. Some other aspect of Chuck's mystique was needed. So I asked the Holy Spirit, and as I continued to think about Chuck, the phrase "Enter The Octagon" and this old movie popped into my head.

I realized that Chuck responded, in a highly metaphorical way...involving Ninjas, to the same call as each of the baptized. What, I've lost you?

Well, when you were baptized, chances are that the baptismal font was shaped like an octagon. You will see exceptions but, throughout history, that has been the traditional shape. The reason goes back to a passage in the First Epistle of Peter: 

"God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you." (1 Peter 3:20-21)

Amazing - which of us attending a baptism ever stops to think about the significance of the font having eight sides - that it is a physical representation of the biblical word? Our Catholic Faith is filled with these kind of things, though.

If you want to know more about the way our sacramental liturgies bring Scripture to life, spend a few evenings in Jean Danielou's classic, The Bible and the Liturgy. Oh, and take a moment to reflect upon your own Baptism (when you "entered the octagon) by viewing this profound 1980, theatrical trailer. Just as the announcer says of Chuck, we too "find freedom only one way."

(Note: this trailer has no value other than the ultra-manly pics of Chuck Norris. It should not actually be used for mature theological reflection and is unsuitable for viewing by children.)

So, you wanna go to heaven . . .

This morning on the Son Rise Morning Show I was talking about the "Plan of Salvation" as revealed in the New Testament. Hebrews 10:19-25 seems to encapsulate it perfectly:

The New Covenant Process of Salvation	Hebrews 10:19-25
Jesus’ Life Given to the Father in the Holy Spirit	Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh
We enter by Faith and Baptism	and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
We continue and grow in Him by our Grace-Filled Works,   Membership in Jesus Body   and Participation in her Prayer/Eucharist	Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and
And, in the end, inherit Final Salvation	all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Jesus, the Creator of Mankind

Stworzenie Adama by Tadeusza Kowalskiego

I think that anyone who has attempted to read John's Gospel quickly realizes that he or she is in deep spiritual waters. Granted, it is the Word of God; but John's Gospel reads differently than many other parts of Scripture. We are dealing with an author who uses not only straight forward statements but often play on words and subtle illusion to communicate the truth about Christ.

In his prologue John asserts Jesus's divinity. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:1,14). But he brings this same truth out in the subtle details he provides in his narrative too, showing Jesus to be the Creator the Jewish people read of in the Book of Genesis.

The first example can be seen in the Gospel for this Fourth Sunday of Lent, when Jesus healed the man born blind.  I'll begin my quotation with Jesus's words to the disciples:

"...While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
When he had said this, he spat on the ground
and made clay with the saliva,
and smeared the clay on his eyes,
and said to him,
“Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” —which means Sent—.
So he went and washed, and came back able to see. (Jn 9:5-7)

Just as God, in the beginning, had said "Let there be light" (Gen 1:3), so Jesus came to bring light to the world. God formed Man from the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7); and here Jesus shows His divinity in the recreation of Man, making clay from the ground to restore the man's sight. (Washing in the pool is a wonderful image for how Christ recreates us and heals our spiritual blindness  in Baptism).

The second example that jumps to mind is when Jesus appeared to the Apostles on the night of the Resurrection:

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “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 20:21-23)

The same God who made the man he had formed from dust into a "living being" by "breath[ing] into his nostrils the breath of life" (Gen 2:7), was there that night recreating them as sons in the only begotten Son! 

Do you see what I mean about John's Gospel? It's all of these little nuances that make Scripture so incredibly deep, and why it merits a lifetime of study.

Baptism - Missing What the Bible Says About It

I was recently doing a little research on a popular, non-denominational church in my area.  I know that they have dynamic preaching and, from the snippets that have been shared with me from the lead pastor's messages, he appears very knowledgeable about Israel in both Old and New Testament times.  I like the fact that they have a Statement of Faith on their website, as well as short position papers on Baptism and Communion.  As I read their paper on Baptism though, I was immediately struck by how incomplete it was from a biblical perspective.  I don't think this is rare, so on the chance that you the reader might come across something similar, I wanted to quote the meaty portion of the paper and offer commentary.  Here we go:

There is not one single Biblical example of baptism before conversion. The New Testament order was always "believe and be baptized" (Acts 2:38-41). Christian baptism then, is not what causes you to become a Christian—it is response action taken after becoming a Christian. It is not something you do to earn God's acceptance—it is something you do because you have received the free gift of God's acceptance through faith in Christ. We become Christians when we admit our sin and trust Christ as our Forgiver. Baptism is a symbolic act—the water cannot wash away sin. Baptism is merely an "object lesson" of how our sins were washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19).

The statement that Baptism "is not what causes you to become a Christian" is simply false.  The authors of the paper assert that someone becomes a Christian the moment they interiorly decide to accept God's offer of grace in Christ.  But Scripture does not say that.  Rather, the Bible says, "to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (Jn 1:12).  "Conversion," as defined by this church is the interior acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior.  And that is true, but it only gets us half the way there.  What makes us children of God is reception of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is given to us in Baptism!  The ironic thing is how the verse they cited in affirming their position actually teaches the opposite of what they claim:

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:38-41)

Let me address their second claim: "Baptism is a symbolic act—the water cannot wash away sin."  In one sense they are correct - the waters of Baptism have the symbolic value of showing us that are sins are washed away.  But they stop short of the full truth; they deny that Baptism actually does what the water symbolizes - wash away sin. And that is incredibly problematic because it directly contradicts the Apostles Paul and Peter.  It's not an "either/or" situation, but a "both/and." the outward baptismal cleansing makes present to the senses the forgiveness and regeneration poured into the soul. Look at what Paul wrote to Titus:

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-6)

And Peter was even more blunt - "baptism now saves you"! (1 Pet 3:21).  It is a shame the authors of this paper on Baptism stopped their quotation of 1 Peter at chapter 1, verses 18-19.  Those verses remind us that we are redeemed by the "precious blood," the sacrifice of Christ our Savior.  But had they kept on, to the verse I just quoted from chapter 3, they may have made the connection between Christ's sacrifice and Baptism that Paul made in his Epistle to the Romans:

We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Rom 6:3-5)

Baptism unites us to the very death and resurrection of Jesus!  It is our birth into the Family of God.  As Jesus taught in John's Gospel, "I solemnly assure you, no one can enter into God's kingdom without being begotten of water and Spirit" (Jn 3:5). It doesn't get any plainer than that.  Baptism is no mere "object lesson" of how our sins are washed away; it is a supernatural act, administered by Christ Jesus Himself through the members of His Church!  And that is why it was at the heart of Jesus' final commission to His Apostles:

Full authority has been given to me both in heaven and on earth; go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations.  Baptize them in the name "of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you.  And know that I am with you always, until the end of the world! (Mt 28:18-20)

I guess what makes me most sad is that a church that, in its Statement of Faith, calls the Bible "the unique, full and final authority on all matters of faith and practice," would overlook such important passages for reaching a correct understanding of Baptism.  I guess it is an illustration of an important truth - that God never intended for the Bible to stand alone.  And when we try and make it, we miss out on  much of what it has to say.  What we get is good, and it will benefit us; but it won't be the huge feast for our souls that God intends!

"Jesus spit on the ground ... "

Back in August, I shared how my eleven year-old son helped me get back into the practice of reading Scripture each night before I went to bed.  A couple of thoughts occurred to me last night as I read an acount of one of Jesus' miracles in the Gospel of John:  

[Jesus said,] "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said this, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man [who was blind from birth]'s eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing." (Jn.9:5-7)

 It is an amazing miracle - but what's with the saliva, right? Last night my mind traveled back to the Bible's earliest chapters:  "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (Gen.2:7).  When Jesus healed the man born blind, it was as if He was perfecting what had been askew in the in utero development of this man's ability to see.  In this simple action of combining His saliva - the saliva of the God-Man - with the dust of the ground, the Lord was recalling the Creation Story.  And then He took it to the next level.

By sending the man to wash in the Pool of Siloam, Jesus gave us a sign of Baptism that raises us above natural life, to supernatural!  The waters of Baptism restore us to the dignity of Children of God - the gift given to, but lost, by our first parents.  They impart the supernatural life of the God-Man to our own souls and begin the process that will ultimately lead to the healing of all of our bodily ills as well, in the Resurrection!  Jesus' saliva mixed with the dust, the waters of Siloam - it all speaks of how God uses the things of this world to impart not just natural, but supernatural life!  It's the sacramental principle.

Sandals at Christmas-time

As stylish as those sandals are, if you receive them a s a Christmas gift, then you will have to wait a few months to start showing them off.  It's just too cold outside.  So why do I bring them up?  Because they captured my attention in this morning's Gospel reading.  John the Baptist, when asked if he was the expected Messiah, responded, "I baptize you with water; but He Who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of Whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (Lk.3:16).

Listen to the way John speaks of Jesus, the esteem in which He holds the Lord.  It's so different from the stance many of us take toward God - the "me and my main man, Jesus" mentality.  But John is 100%, absolutely, completely and totally right!  It's the only stance we can assume before Jesus, Who is "the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible ... He is before all things and in Him all things hold together ... For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell"! (Col.1:15-19)  When the Baptist later encountered Jesus, Who was seeking baptism, we are told how "John would have prevented Him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by You!'" (Mt.3:14).

But the gospels give us another scene involving sandals and baptism.  It comes during the Last Supper when Jesus took it upon Himself to remove the sandals from the Apostles' feet and begin to wash them.  Peter didn't want to see Jesus performing the job of a servant, saying "You shall never wash my feet;" and Jesus answered, "If I do not wash you, you have no part in me."  After that all Peter could say was "Lord, then not my feet only but also my hands and head!" (Jn.13:8-11).  It's a beautiful allusion to the Sacrament of Baptism where Jesus not only washes away all of our sins, but brings us into His own relationship with the Father!  (See 2 Pet. 2:14, Jn.1:13).  In the Eucharist He feeds us His own Flesh and Blood, and in Confirmation makes us participate in His anointing with the gifts of the Spirit (Is.11:2-3)! He becomes our divine Lover, the Groom of our souls (Eph.5:25-26, 32).

This isn't meant to make us so "familiar" with Jesus that ever cease kneeling in awe before Him, and praying, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me, a sinner!"  Our nearness to Him increases our awe!
Who are we that God would love us enough to take on all the misery of the human condition? To put on sandals and trod the dusty roads of Palestine?  Who am I that the Creator of the Universe, Who stands above space and time, would want to dwell in my soul?  Who am I that He would die upon a Cross to save?  I am no one ... and yet I have been made a son in the Son.  In the mind of God I am one - and you are one - worth dying for.  Oh the Love and Mercy of God!  Listen to St. Paul, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil.2:12-13).

My Advent prayer this morning?  It comes from the Mass, "Come and save us O Savior of the world."

Jesus' Prayer (offered through YOU) Will Bring an End to Abortion

Here is my talk from today's luncheon:

My hope is to encourage you and renew your excitement over the Mystery at work in you - this Mystery I saw lived out this morning at Mass and in praying the Rosary on behalf of the unborn. We have many incredible Mysteries in our Faith, to which one am I referring?

The Epistle to the Hebrews says that in Heaven, Jesus always lives to make intercession for us. The Catechism of the Catholic Church draws our attention to the way He exercises that intercession through His Mystical Body, the Church!  (CCC 2740)  “The prayer of Jesus makes Christian prayer an efficacious petition. He is its model, he prays in us and with us … the heart of the Son seeks only what pleases the Father …”   We’re going to look at Jesus’ human prayer, He wants to reproduces it within us. We want to consider how we can most effectively cooperate in this Mystery, how we can allow the intentions of Jesus’ Sacred Heart, especially for the unborn, to be lifted up to the Father through us.

Short outline:

1)    Details of Jesus' daily prayer

2)    Talk about His Passover, His offering of Himself, to the Father

3)    How we the Church enter into His Passover sacrifice and prayer

4)    And how Mary assists us in this.

It seems strange for us to think about Jesus learning to pray.  This is God the Son.  He, the Father, and Spirit are eternally communicating Themselves to each other.

When God the Son became one of us, He didn’t lose anything of His Divinity.   He is still one with the Father.  In His human soul He gazed upon the Father just as clearly as the Saints and Angels in heaven.  What He did learn, what He did grow in, however was how to express His love for the Father as a human being - in words and actions!  (CCC 2599)   “The Son of God . . . learned to pray in his human heart.  He learn[ed]  to pray from his mother… He learn[ed] to pray in the words and rhythms of … his people,”

Jesus’ prayer was Jewish prayer.  When we think of Israel’s prayer, the first place most of our minds go is to the Temple.  Luke both began and ended his gospel there.  Jews recognized God as being present in the Temple as in no other point in all creation.  The Holy of Holies was His earthly throne room, heaven’s embassy on earth.  Jesus called the Temple His Father’s House and like all Jews, He, Mary, and Joseph traveled there three times a year for the Pilgrim Feasts of Tabernacles, Passover, and Pentecost.  John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus and His relatives made the 75 mile trip from Nazareth  even when it wasn’t required, such as to celebrate Hannukah (Jn.10:22)

The worship of the Temple was avodah, sacrifice.   Why was that?  With New Covenant hindsight, we understand that God is an exchange of life – A Son Who receives all He is from the Father and pours Himself out in a return of  Love in the Person of the Holy Spirit.  Man and woman were created to share, to have a created participation in, that circle of love and life – to receive all we are from God and pour ourselves out in gratitude and love.  Our first parents said “No” and that original sin damaged us, closed us in on ourselves.

God started to undo the damage by establishing a covenant with Israel.  He began the long process of rehabilitation by calling them to sacrifice,  to give back to Him a portion of the earthly gifts they received.  For an agricultural people like the Israelites, when they sacrificed their animals and crops – the very elements of life – to the Lord, they symbolically offered themselves.   In many sacrifices the Lord stipulated that a portion of the animal was to be held back – part of it eaten by the priests and part by the family making the offering.  God and his people were united in the life of the sacrificial victim.  This was how God wanted to be worshipped, and it was the absolute heart of Jewish prayer. 

I had heard of the Passover sacrifice and sacrifices for sins and to give thanks.  What I didn’t study until very recently though was the Temple’s daily liturgy.  It took place every day at 9 a.m. and again at 3 p.m.  The liturgy began with the priests leading the people in the Shema and the Ten Commandments.  With a crash of symbols priests and people launched into singing the Psalm for that Day.   Trumpets sounded  between the verses and everyone in the Temple went facedown in worship!   After that the priests then placed the perpetual, or daily offering, on the a lamb, cake of bread, and wine on the altar.  Trumpets sounded again and everyone in the Temple prostrated themselves in worship.  A priest chosen by lot went into the Holy Place to offer incense on the altar at the entrance to the Holy of Holies- the prayers of God’s people ascending upward.

The Temple and its sacrifices were the pinnacle of Jewish worship.  Obviously though - Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and millions of other Jews could only participate on very special occasions.  So what did they do on a daily basis?

At least two centuries before the birth of Jesus, Jewish people adopted the practice of stopping wherever they were to pray … 3 times a day, facing toward the Temple.  They prayed at 9 a.m., and 3 p.m., when the Tamid – the lamb, bread, and wine – were placed on the altar and then again around sunset when any final scaps remaining from the day’s offerings were burned on the altar and the Temple gate closed for the night.  Their daily, personal prayer  united them to the sacrifices in the Temple.

At their first and third time of prayer, as the spiritual bookends of the day, they recited the Shema, the Creed.  "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD;  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Deut.6:4-5).  [The full Shema consists of  Deut.6:4-9; Deut.11:13-21; and Num.15:37-41]

Just like when you and I begin and end our day with the Sign of the Cross.  Yes, we have our Creeds, the Nicene and Apostle’s; but every time we make the Sign of the Cross we pray the Creed in miniature. Through the Christ’s Cross, we enter into the inner life of the Blessed Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and His grace empowers us to do so with all our mind, all our heart, and all our strength!  There’s the Shema, our Christian Shema.

At all three times of prayer people prayed The Eighteen Benedictions.  In Hebrew they are known as Tephilla, simply “the prayer”  (Because the Benedictions are always prayed  while standing, you’ll also hear it called the Amidah, which means “standing.”  This is probably what Jesus was speaking of in the Gospels when He said, “When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them” (Mk.11:25).  The Eighteen Benedictions are a beautiful tapestry of blessings and petitions:  “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – our shield (#1);  Blessed be the Lord, the only God. (#3); Blessed be the Lord Who raises the dead (#2); Blessed be the Lord Who loves repentance.  Make us turn back to you. (#5) … Who forgives, forgive us our sins. (#6)  ... Who rebuilt Jerusalem.  Restore the kingdom of David, your anointed. (#14).

Scripture says that Jesus entered history in the “fullness of time” (Gal.4:4), precisely the right moment in history, when these blessings and petitions would be a part of his prayer three times a day.  I suggest that when God willed the Incarnation,   He willed the petitions Jesus offered as a man, willed to bring about Jesus’ resurrection, and all that would mean for humanity, in response to them.

The early Church kept the Jewish practice of praying three times a day, but they didn’t pray the Eighteen Benedictions.  Instead of the Eighteen they prayed the Our Father.  (We find this in the Didache, the earliest Christian writing we have outside of the New Testament.  The Catechism makes note of it in Paragraph 2767.) The Our Father is the perfect prayer.  Listen to the Catechism, “, in the words of this prayer the only Son gives us the words the Father gave him [Jn.17:7] … [Jesus] knows in his human heart the needs of his human brothers and sisters and reveals them to us: he is the model of our prayer” (CCC 2765).  In those seven petitions of the Our Father Jesus encapsulated all Eighteen Benedictions!

The Gospels show Jesus’ prayer extending far beyond the 3 fixed times.  He prayed long after everyone else fell asleep.  He got up before anyone else to go off and pray.  Sometimes He just stayed up the entire night communing with the Father!  But the pinnacle of Jesus’ human prayer was reached at the Cross, when as the Catechism says (2605), “prayer and the gift of Self were one”

It’s at the Cross that Jesus’ gathered up his whole earthly life and poured it our to the Father in one great, irrevocable act of obedient love. The words of Psalms 22, 69, and 31 were on his lips, even as the texts took flesh in His Body – the piercing of His hands and feet, His incredible thirst, and his heart melting like wax within Him.  Mark’s Gospel tells us that He was nailed to the Cross at 9 a.m., the time of the morning sacrifice. His sacrifice was culminated at the 3 o’clock hour, as the Tamid – the lamb, bread, and wine – were again placed on the altar and Jews throughout the world prayed the Eighteen Benedictions:  Blessed are You Lord:  Restore the Kingdom of David … Make us turn back to You … Forgive us our sins … Raise the dead!

That was the moment when Jesus “cried out with a loud voice and yielded up His Spirit.”  The Catechism says that His final cry pulled all of the petitions and intercessions of all history into itself and carrying them to the Father. Jesus’ death was when all the prayers of God’s people, all the prayers of our Messiah’s thirty some years on earth reached a “critical mass” and the Father unleashed the graces of salvation upon the world through the Spirit, blood, and water issuing from Jesus’ pierced Heart.

This  great mystery of salvation and of Jesus’ prayer is being lived out by you and me.  In baptism our souls were fused to Jesus and the Holy Spirit rushed from His heart to ours.    As Paul said “It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me.” (Gal.2:20). The good works we do are not done under our power but His – it is Jesus loving His Father and brothers and sisters through us. St. Paul says that our sufferings are a participation in Jesus’ Cross, and because of that, they have redemptive value. And part of our prayer is Jesus praising and thanking and petitioning the Father through His Body.

We pray the Our Father – St. Paul says that “God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out ‘Abba, Father” (Gal.4:6)  The Spirit started praying in us the moment we were baptized.   Paul told the Romans (8:26-27):  “. . . the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.  And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

The highest point of Jesus prayer, where prayer and the gift of Self became one was at the Cross.  And His sacrifice becomes really, truly present for us at every Mass!  That’s why the Eucharist is the CENTER of our lives, the source and summit of our prayer.

Just this morning, Jesus once again made pilgrimage to His Father’s House.  He made pilgrimage in us!  The Shema echoed when we began with the Sign of the Cross and it will echo again in tomorrow’s Mass when we pray the Creed.  The Eighteen Benedictions were prayed in our Gloria and the Our Father.  The true perpetual offering – the Lamb, under the appearance of Bread and Wine – became present upon our altar.  And we offered ourselves and all of our petitions to end abortion through, with, and in Him!  It is Jesus’ offering, and Jesus’ petition to end abortion, so we know with absolute certainty that they are pleasing to the Father.  The petitions made by Jesus through, with, and in His Body are efficacious – they will be answered by the Father!

But we’re not able to stay at the altar, at least not physically.  God has given us work to do out in the world.  We have to go to our jobs, and see to the needs of our families and friends.  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph did too!  But that’s where personal prayer comes in. That personal prayer is meant to unite our entire day to Jesus’ sacrifice, made present on the altars throughout the world.   It’s meant to help us live the Eucharist, to become Jesus’ offering to the Father.  Like Him, our every thought, word, and action are to be an offering to the Father.  St. Paul practically begged the Romans, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, for this is our spiritual worship” (12:1)

Anybody else out there feel like they ain’t getting’ the job done?  Like they’re coming up short?  How do we change that?  I believe that Jesus gave us the answer at the Cross when He told the beloved disciple, "Behold your mother." We have to take note of what John did, "And from that moment on the disciple took Mary into his home."  John took Mary to himself.  Wherever John was, there was the Blessed Mother. 

Think about John’s Gospel.  It soars up to speak about Jesus Divinity, it penetrates His Mystery in a way much different than the synoptics.  It shows Jesus’ connection to the great feasts in the Temple and the way they were fulfilled in Jesus.  He give us the Bread of Life Discourse and Jesus’ great high priestly prayer at the Last Supper.  I have to think that sharing his life with Mary had something to do with that! 

She became John’s mother.  The woman who taught Jesus to pray as a boy prayed with John.  Think about this woman:   For 9 months His Heart physically beat beneath her own; the flesh and blood He offered in sacrifice were taken from her…;  Mary was Jesus’ prayer partner throughout His Life  - and then she became John’s.  She became John’s mother too.  Jesus wants that for us.  The Mother of the Head, is the Mother of the Mystical Body as well.  In the Communion of Saints she has a special connection to each soul.

Today is the 95^th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima.  What did Mary say to the children?  Jesus wanted to establish devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.  Very simply that means to love Jesus with the Heart of Mary.

The way that I read St. Louis Marie DeMontfort it means that the Faith, Hope, Charity, and virtues that the Holy Spirit poured into the soul of the Blessed Mother remain accessible to other members of the Mystical Body - what is of benefit to one, is of benefit to the whole.  And the Holy Spirit wants to knit our hearts together with Mary’s so that we can share her union with Jesus – her prayer and surrender to Him, her performance of every thought, word, and action out of love for God.  One of the most awesome ways we join Mary in loving Jesus is through the praying of the Rosary.

How did Jesus tell the Apostles to prepare for Pentecost.  Go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Gift My Father promised. The went back to the Upper Room and spent the next nine days in prayer, with Mary. What was there prayer like in those nine days?  Petition, combined with a whole lot of meditation.  They were meditating on, thinking and rethinking the life, death, rez, of Jesus in the light of Scripture.  (Look at Acts 1, and you’ll see Peter sharing what he discovered in the Psalms)  They were meditating on the life of Jesus in the light of Scripture, with the Blessed Mother.  That's the Rosary!

Outside of the Mass, the Rosary is where I think you find the greatest number of elements from Jesus’ human prayer woven together.

· Sign of the Cross – Shema

·  Apostle’s Creed – Shema

·  Our Father – the prayer taught to us by God the Son, the prayer that comes to us in Scripture, and the Holy Spirit cries out within us!

·  On the Cross, Jesus prayed the words of Scripture:

·   The Hail Mary – a prayer composed from Scripture, the words of the Angel Gabriel and St. Elizabeth.

·   The Glory Be – “The glory be to God” the angels sang at Jesus birth;  “as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be” – that’s the Book of Revelation’s “God Who is, was, and is to come”

These are the words are lips are praying as, along with Mary, our hearts and minds are focused on Jesus and how He brought about our salvation.  I love the way Pope John Paul II put it, “With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 1).  If Mary was good enough for the Apostles, if she led John deeper and deeper into the Mystery of her Son … if she taught Jesus how to pray as a child, then she’s good enough for me!

On this 95^th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima we recall our Lady’s requests to the children.  Our Lady was sent to bring about conversion.  She requested acts of penance, Communions of Reparation (the celebration of the Eucharist), and the praying of the Rosary.  That is the prescription to bring an end to abortion too. 

 

Just as Jesus offered petitions throughout His entire earthly life, before that critical Mass of intercession was reached at the Cross, so now the Father seems to have ordained a participation in the intercession of Christ to us.  But know this:  It is the intercession of Christ.  It will be efficacious.  God the Father wants to answer this prayer, and He will answer this prayer.   In His Providence He has woven our petitions, penances, and participation in the Eucharist into His plan to end abortion.  He has ordained that certain graces only be released in response to our prayer, our participation in the intercession of Jesus!  What an honor!  To share in the redemptive prayer and mission of Christ!

Let’s join the Blessed Mother in uniting everything else we do today with the Eucharist celebrated this morning:

Daily Offering from the Apostleship of Prayer (with one addition)

“O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world.
I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, AN END TO ABORTION, and the reunion of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month.”