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The Three Comings of Christ

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2014/03/28 at 12:00 AM

An excerpt from a sermon by St. Bernard of Clairvaux

We know that the coming of the Lord is threefold: the third coming is between the other two and it is not visible in the way they are. At his first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among men, who saw him and hated him. At his last coming All flesh shall see the salvation of our God, and They shall look on him whom they have pierced. In the middle, the hidden coming, only the chosen see him, and they see him within themselves; and so their souls are saved. The first coming was in flesh and weakness, the middle coming is in spirit and power, and the final coming will be in glory and majesty.

This middle coming is like a road that leads from the first coming to the last. At the first, Christ was our redemption; at the last, he will become manifest as our life; but in this middle way he is our rest and our consolation.  If you think that I am inventing what I am saying about the middle coming, listen to the Lord himself: If anyone loves me, he will keep my words, and the Father will love him, and we shall come to him. Elsewhere I have read: Whoever fears the Lord does good things. – but I think that what was said about whoever loves him was more important: that whoever loves him will keep his words. Where are these words to be kept? In the heart certainly, as the Prophet says I have hidden your sayings in my heart so that I do not sin against you. Keep the word of God in that way: Blessed are those who keep it. Let it penetrate deep into the core of your soul and then flow out again in your feelings and the way you behave; because if you feed your soul well it will grow and rejoice. Do not forget to eat your bread, or your heart will dry up. Remember, and your soul will grow fat and sleek.  If you keep God’s word like this, there is no doubt that it will keep you, for the Son will come to you with the Father… he is the one who makes all things new. For this is what this coming will do: just as we have been shaped in the earthly image, so will we be shaped in the heavenly image….
Liturgy of the Hours

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The Deutero-canonical books of the Bible

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2014/02/07 at 12:00 AM

The Deutero-canonical books of the Bible are yet further proof that the Bible is a Catholic, not a Protestant book, given to the world by the Roman Catholic Church.  The following will show why. and is taken from the excellent resources of Catholic Answers founded byDr Karl Keating.

It has been asked  why it is that the “Catholic” Bible of today includes books that are not included by the Fathers of the Church.

During the Reformation, primarily for doctrinal reasons, Protestants removed seven books from the Old Testament: 1 and 2 Maccabees, Sirach, Wisdom, Baruch, Tobit, and Judith, and parts of two others, Daniel and Esther. They did so even though these books had been regarded as canonical since the beginning of Church history.

As Protestant church historian J. N. D. Kelly writes, “It should be observed that the Old Testament thus admitted as authoritative in the Church was somewhat bulkier and more comprehensive [than the Protestant Bible]. . . . It always included, though with varying degrees of recognition, the so-called apocrypha or deuterocanonical books” (Early Christian Doctrines, 53), which are rejected by Protestants.

Below we give patristic quotations from each of the deuterocanonical books. Notice how the Fathers quoted these books along with the protocanonicals. The deuterocanonicals are those books of the Old Testament that were included in the Bible even though there had been some discussion about whether they should be.

Also included are the earliest official lists of the canon. For the sake of brevity these are not given in full. When the lists of the canon cited here are given in full, they include all the books and only the books found in the modern Catholic Bible.

When examining the question of what books were originally included in the Old Testament canon, it is important to note that some of the books of the Bible have been known by more than one name. Sirach is also known as Ecclesiasticus, 1 and 2 Chronicles as 1 and 2 Paralipomenon, Ezra and Nehemiah as 1 and 2 Esdras, and 1 and 2 Samuel with 1 and 2 Kings as 1, 2, 3, and 4 Kings—that is, 1 and 2 Samuel are named 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Kings are named 3 and 4 Kings. The history and use of these designations is explained more fully in Scripture reference works.

The Didache

“You shall not waver with regard to your decisions [Sir. 1:28]. Do not be someone who stretches out his hands to receive but withdraws them when it comes to giving [Sir. 4:31]” (Didache 4:5 [A.D. 70]).

The Letter of Barnabas

“Since, therefore, [Christ] was about to be manifested and to suffer in the flesh, his suffering was foreshown. For the prophet speaks against evil, ‘Woe to their soul, because they have counselled an evil counsel against themselves’ [Is. 3:9], saying, ‘Let us bind the righteous man because he is displeasing to us’ [Wis. 2:12.]” (Letter of Barnabas 6:7 [A.D. 74]).

Clement of Rome

“By the word of his might [God] established all things, and by his word he can overthrow them. ‘Who shall say to him, “What have you done?” or who shall resist the power of his strength?’ [Wis. 12:12]” (Letter to the Corinthians 27:5 [ca. A.D. 80]).

Polycarp of Smyrna

“Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood [1 Pet. 2:17].

. . . When you can do good, defer it not, because ‘alms delivers from death’ [Tob. 4:10, 12:9]. Be all of you subject to one another [1 Pet. 5:5], having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles [1 Pet. 2:12], and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed [Is. 52:5]!” (Letter to the Philadelphians 10 [A.D. 135]).

Irenaeus

“Those . . . who are believed to be presbyters by many, but serve their own lusts and do not place the fear of God supreme in their hearts, but conduct themselves with contempt toward others and are puffed up with the pride of holding the chief seat [Matt. 23:6] and work evil deeds in secret, saying ‘No man sees us,’ shall be convicted by the Word, who does not judge after outward appearance, nor looks upon the countenance, but the heart; and they shall hear those words to be found in Daniel the prophet: ‘O you seed of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you and lust perverted your heart’ [Dan. 13:56]. You that have grown old in wicked days, now your sins which you have committed before have come to light, for you have pronounced false judgments and have been accustomed to condemn the innocent and to let the guilty go free, although the Lord says, ‘You shall not slay the innocent and the righteous’ [Dan. 13:52, citing Ex. 23:7]” (Against Heresies 4:26:3 [A.D. 189]; Daniel 13 is not in the Protestant Bible).

“Jeremiah the prophet has pointed out that as many believers as God has prepared for this purpose, to multiply those left on the earth, should both be under the rule of the saints and to minister to this [new] Jerusalem and that [his] kingdom shall be in it, saying, ‘Look around Jerusalem toward the east and behold the joy which comes to you from God himself. Behold, your sons whom you have sent forth shall come: They shall come in a band from the east to the west. . . . God shall go before with you in the light of his splendour, with the mercy and righteousness which proceed from him’ [Bar. 4:36—5:9]” (ibid., 5:35:1; Baruch was often considered part of Jeremiah, as it is here).

Hippolytus

“What is narrated here [in the story of Susannah] happened at a later time, although it is placed at the front of the book [of Daniel], for it was a custom with the writers to narrate many things in an inverted order in their writings. . . . [W]e ought to give heed, beloved, fearing lest anyone be overtaken in any transgression and risk the loss of his soul, knowing as we do that God is the judge of all and the Word himself is the eye which nothing that is done in the world escapes. Therefore, always watchful in heart and pure in life, let us imitate Susannah” (Commentary on Daniel [A.D. 204]; the story of Susannah [Dan. 13] is not in the Protestant Bible).

Cyprian of Carthage

“In Genesis [it says], ‘And God tested Abraham and said to him, “Take your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the high land and offer him there as a burnt offering . . .”’ [Gen. 22:1–2]. . . . Of this same thing in the Wisdom of Solomon [it says], ‘Although in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality . . .’ [Wis. 3:4]. Of this same thing in the Maccabees [it says], ‘Was not Abraham found faithful when tested, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness’ [1 Macc. 2:52; see Jas. 2:21–23]” (Treatises 7:3:15 [A.D. 248]).

“So Daniel, too, when he was required to worship the idol Bel, which the people and the king then worshipped, in asserting the honour of his God, broke forth with full faith and freedom, saying, ‘I worship nothing but the Lord my God, who created the heaven and the earth’ [Dan. 14:5]” (Letters 55:5 [A.D. 253]; Daniel 14 is not in the Protestant Bible).

Council of Rome

“Now indeed we must treat of the divine scriptures, what the universal Catholic Church accepts and what she ought to shun. The order of the Old Testament begins here: Genesis, one book; Exodus, one book; Leviticus, one book; Numbers, one book; Deuteronomy, one book; Joshua [Son of] Nave, one book; Judges, one book; Ruth, one book; Kings, four books [that is, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings]; Paralipomenon [Chronicles], two books; Psalms, one book; Solomon, three books: Proverbs, one book, Ecclesiastes, one book, [and] Canticle of Canticles [Song of Songs], one book; likewise Wisdom, one book; Ecclesiasticus [Sirach], one book . . . . Likewise the order of the historical [books]: Job, one book; Tobit, one book; Esdras, two books [Ezra and Nehemiah]; Esther, one book; Judith, one book; Maccabees, two books” (Decree of Pope Damasus [A.D. 382]).

Council of Hippo

“[It has been decided] that besides the canonical scriptures nothing be read in church under the name of divine Scripture. But the canonical scriptures are as follows: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua the Son of Nun, Judges, Ruth, the Kings, four books, the Chronicles, two books, Job, the Psalter, the five books of Solomon [Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, and a portion of the Psalms], the twelve books of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Ezra, two books, Maccabees, two books . . .” (Canon 36 [A.D. 393]).

Council of Carthage III

“[It has been decided] that nothing except the canonical scriptures should be read in the Church under the name of the divine scriptures. But the canonical scriptures are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings, Paralipomenon, two books, Job, the Psalter of David, five books of Solomon, twelve books of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, two books of Esdras, two books of the Maccabees . . .” (Canon 47 [A.D. 397]).

Augustine

“The whole canon of the scriptures, however, in which we say that consideration is to be applied, is contained in these books: the five of Moses . . . and one book of Joshua [Son of] Nave, one of Judges; one little book which is called Ruth . . . then the four of Kingdoms, and the two of Paralipomenon . . . . [T]here are also others too, of a different order . . . such as Job and Tobit and Esther and Judith and the two books of Maccabees, and the two of Esdras . . . . Then there are the prophets, in which there is one book of the Psalms of David, and three of Solomon. . . . But as to those two books, one of which is entitled Wisdom and the other of which is entitled Ecclesiasticus and which are called ‘of Solomon’ because of a certain similarity to his books, it is held most certainly that they were written by Jesus Sirach. They must, however, be accounted among the prophetic books, because of the authority which is deservedly accredited to them” (Christian Instruction 2:8:13 [A.D. 397]).

“We read in the books of the Maccabees [2 Macc. 12:43] that sacrifice was offered for the dead. But even if it were found nowhere in the Old Testament writings, the authority of the Catholic Church which is clear on this point is of no small weight, where in the prayers of the priest poured forth to the Lord God at his altar the commendation of the dead has its place” (The Care to be Had for the Dead 1:3 [A.D. 421]).

The Apostolic Constitutions

“Now women also prophesied. Of old, Miriam the sister of Moses and Aaron [Ex. 15:20], and after her, Deborah [Judges. 4:4], and after these Huldah [2 Kgs. 22:14] and Judith [Judith 8], the former under Josiah and the latter under Darius” (Apostolic Constitutions 8:2 [A.D. 400]).

Jerome
Father of the original Vulgate Bible
“What sin have I committed if I follow the judgment of the churches? But he who brings charges against me for relating [in my preface to the book of Daniel] the objections that the Hebrews are wont to raise against the story of Susannah [Dan. 13], the Song of the Three Children [Dan. 3:29–68, RSV-CE], and the story of Bel and the Dragon [Dan. 14], which are not found in the Hebrew volume, proves that he is just a foolish sycophant. I was not relating my own personal views, but rather the remarks that they are wont to make against us. If I did not reply to their views in my preface, in the interest of brevity, lest it seem that I was composing not a preface, but a book, I believe I added promptly the remark, for I said, ‘This is not the time to discuss such matters’” (Against Rufinius 11:33 [A.D. 401]).
Pope Innocent I

“A brief addition shows what books really are received in the canon. These are the things of which you desired to be informed verbally: of Moses, five books, that is, of Genesis, of Exodus, of Leviticus, of Numbers, of Deuteronomy, and Joshua, of Judges, one book, of Kings, four books, and also Ruth, of the prophets, sixteen books, of Solomon, five books, the Psalms. Likewise of the histories, Job, one book, of Tobit, one book, Esther, one, Judith, one, of the Maccabees, two, of Esdras, two, Paralipomenon, two books . . .” (Letters 7 [A.D. 408]).

The Fathers not only included the Deutero-Canonicals in the canonical texts of the Bible but liberally quoted from them and the Councils of Rome, Hippo and Carthage, which gave us the versions of the Bible that everyone uses, also included them.

The proof is conclusive.

The “Catholic” Bible is the real Bible and the Catholic Church decided which texts were in the Bible.

No Catholic Church – no Bible.

This commentary by Catholic Answers can be found here: http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-old-testament-canon and it has an imprimatur from the Bishop of San Diego.

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors. Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004

IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827 permission to publish this work is hereby granted. +Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004

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Come Up Higher

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2014/01/16 at 12:00 AM
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Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers
Our Lord says, “Every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  Humility doesn’t mean having low self-esteem, or being overly pious or holy because true humility isn’t about us.  Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking about yourself less.
What does humility look like?  When Solomon became King of Israel, he asked God to give him “an understanding mind [wisdom] to govern thy people, that I may discern between good and evil […] It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.  And God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word’” (1 Kings 3:9-12).
To be humble is to live with the realization that I am constantly in the presence of God.  To realize that everything I think, say and do is done in His presence.  To acknowledge that everything that I am, everyone I meet, and all that I experience in this world is His creation.  To understand that every time I go against Christ and the teachings of his Church, I am separating myself from being able to have a personal encounter with God.
Yet, in our weakness, we often spurn humility and turn our backs on God when we sin; when we believe that we know better than God; when we think we are the author of our own success; when we live by our own rules apart from the Church; when we ignore God’s plan.  In our pride, we too often live absent the awareness that we are forever in the presence of God.
The virtue of humility permits us to live before God as we truly are, and the first step in deepening our relationship with God is to understand and acknowledge that we are prideful.  Pride is the opposite of humility and seeks to draw attention to oneself.  Pride is shallow, focusing on the “outer life” (how I appear to other people) and denying the “inner life” (how I appear to God).  Pride may be expressed in different ways: coming to Church on Sunday but deliberately living apart from the teachings of the Church the rest of the week; taking personal credit for our accomplishments and achievements as if they had not been the result of God’s divine goodness and grace; minimizing our sins because “I’m such a good person”, and by emphasizing and dwelling on the sins of others.  When pride is carried to the extent that a person is unwilling to acknowledge dependence on God, and refuses to submit his or her will to God and the lawful authority of His Church, it is gravely sinful.
True humility can only begin when our eyes are fixed upon Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Peter knelt before Jesus and said, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man.”  Mary Magdalene wept at the feet of Jesus and dried her tears with her hair.  The Roman centurion told Jesus that he was not worthy that he should enter under his roof.  The humble recognition of our own sinfulness allows us to experience the mercy of God.  When Jesus speaks to the Apostles concerning the grace of true humility, He uses today’s parable about assuming places of honor. In the end, Jesus Himself models this behavior for His Apostles, by becoming the servant of all.  “While on earth, go to the lowest place at the table” Jesus tells us.  “Later on, at the resurrection of the righteous, you will be brought up higher.”
 

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Re-oriented World

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2013/12/27 at 12:00 AM

From Pope Emeritus Benedict before retiring:  Christ’s birth, “something so radically new that it was capable of changing the course of history”.

The Lord’s nativity, the Holy Father commented, “once again illuminates the darkness that often surrounds our world and our hearts with its light, and brings hope and joy. Where does this light come from? From the grotto in Bethlehem where the shepherds found ‘Mary and Joseph and the Child lying in the manger’. Before this Holy Family another, deeper question arises: How can this small and weak Child bring a newness so radical into the world that it is capable of changing the course of history? Isn’t there something mysterious in his origin that goes beyond that cavern?”

“In the four Gospels, the answer to the question ‘where does Jesus come from?’ emerges clearly: his true origin is the Father, God. He comes entirely from Him, but in a different way than any other prophet or messenger of God who preceded Him. This origin of the mystery of God, ‘whom nobody knows’, is already contained in the stories of His childhood in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which we are reading during Christmastime. The angel Gabriel announces: ‘The Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God’. We repeat these words every time that we recite the Creed, the profession of faith: ‘et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine’, ‘and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary’. At this phrase we kneel because the veil that hid God is, so to say, opened and His unfathomable and inaccessible mystery touches us. God becomes Emmanuel, ‘God with us’. When we listen to the Masses composed by the great masters of sacred music?I’m thinking, for example, of Mozart’s Coronation Mass? we immediately notice how they linger over this phrase in a particular way, almost wanting to try to express with the universal language of music that which words cannot make manifest: the great mystery of God made flesh, of God made man”.

“This affirmation of the Creed does not concern God’s eternal being but rather speaks to us of an action that the three divine Persons take part in and that is realized ‘ex Maria Virgine’. Without her, God’s entrance into human history would not have been achieved and that which is central to our Profession of Faith would not have taken place: God is God with us. Mary thus undeniably pertains to our faith in the God who acts, who enters into history. She puts her entire being at His disposition, she ‘accepts’ becoming the place of God’s indwelling.”

“Some times, even along the path and in the life of faith, we can sense our poverty, our inadequacy in front of the witness to be given to the world. But God chose precisely a humble woman, in an unknown village, in one of the furthest provinces of the great Roman Empire. Always, even amidst the most arduous difficulties to be faced, we must have faith in God, renewing our faith in His presence and in His action in our story as in that of Mary. Nothing is impossible to God! With Him our existence always walks upon a safe path and is open to a future of steadfast hope.”…

“What happens in Mary, through the action of the Holy Spirit himself, is a new creation. God, who has called being from nothingness with the Incarnation, gives life to a new beginning of humanity. The Fathers of the Church repeatedly speak of Christ as the new Adam in order to emphasize the beginning of the new creation with the birth of the Son of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary. This brings us to reflect upon how faith also supposes in us a newness so strong as to produce a second birth. In fact, at the beginning of being Christians is the Baptism that makes us reborn as children of God, that makes us to participate in the filial relationship that Jesus has with the Father. And I would like to note that Baptism is received, “we are baptised”?it is a passive verb?because nobody is capable of converting themselves into a child of God by themselves. It is a gift that is freely conferred… Only if we are open to God’s action, as Mary was, only if we entrust our life to the Lord as to a friend in who we trust completely, does everything change. Our lives acquire new meaning and a new face: that of the children of a Father who loves us and never abandons us”. …

“There is another element in the words of the Annunciation. The angel says to Mary: ‘the power of the Most High will overshadow you’. This is a reminder of the holy cloud that, during the Exodus, covered the tent of meeting over the ark of the Covenant, which the people of Israel carried with them, indicating the presence of God. Mary, therefore, is the new holy tent, the new ark of the Covenant. With her ‘yes’ to the archangel’s words, God receive a dwelling place in this world. What the universe cannot contain dwells in the womb of a virgin”.

“Let us return to the question with which we began, that of Jesus’ origin, summed up in Pilate’s question: ‘Where are you from?’. From our reflection it appears clear, from the beginning of the Gospels, what Jesus’ true origin is: He is the only begotten Son of the Father. He comes from God. We are facing the great and disconcerting mystery that we celebrate in this time of Christmas: the Son of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, became man in the womb of the Virgin Mary. This is an announcement that resounds ever new and which carries with it hope and joy to our hearts because each time it gives us the certainty that, even if we often feel weak, poor, incapable of facing the difficulties and the evil of the world, the power of God is always acting and works wonders precisely in our weakness. His grace is our strength”.

VIS 130102

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Incarnation: God Assumes a Human Condition to Heal It

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2013/12/12 at 12:00 AM

The meaning of the word Incarnation, “a term,” the Pope said, “that has resounded many times in our Churches over these past days, expressing the reality that we celebrate at Christmas: the Son of God become man, as we say in the Creed.”

The Holy Father began by explaining the meaning of this word, which is central to the Christian faith, starting from the Church Fathers, especially St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Irenaeus, who used it when “reflecting on the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel, particularly in the expression, ‘the Word became flesh’. Here the word ‘flesh’,” the Pope emphasized, “refers to the person in their entirety, precisely in light of their transcience and temporality, their poverty and contingency. This tells us that the salvation wrought by God made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth reaches the human person in their concrete reality and in whatever situation they may find themselves. God took on the human condition in order to heal it of everything that separates it from Him, in order to allow us to call Him, in his Only Begotten Son, by the name of ‘Abba, Father’, and to truly be children of God.”

Then the Pope recalled the Christmas tradition of exchanging gifts with those closest to us. Sometimes this may be a gesture undertaken out of convention but, generally, it “expresses affection. It is a sign of love and esteem.” This same idea of giving is at the heart of the liturgy of these feastdays and “it reminds us of the original gift of Christmas. On that holy night, God, becoming man, wanted to make himself a gift for humanity … he took on our humanity in order to give us His divinity. This is the great gift. … In this we find the model of our giving because our relationships, especially those which are most important, are guided by generosity and love.”

The fact of the Incarnation, of God who makes himself man like us, shows us “the unprecedented reality of divine love. God’s action, in fact, is not limited to words. Rather, we can say that He is not satisfied with speaking but immerses himself in our history and takes upon himself the worry and the weight of human life. … God’s way of acting is a strong stimulus for us to ask ourselves about the reality of our faith, which should not be limited to the arena of feeling, of the emotions, but must enter into the concrete reality of our existence, must touch, that is, our everyday life and orient it in a practical way. … Faith has a fundamental aspect that affects not only our mind and our heart but all of our life.”

Citing the Church Fathers again, the Pope observed that on numerous occasions Jesus was compared with Adam, even to the point of calling Him the “second Adam”, or the definitive Adam, the perfect image of God. With the Incarnation of the Son of God a new creation occurs, which gives a complete answer to the question ‘who is man?’ … Only in Jesus is God’s plan for human being fully revealed: He is the definitive man according to God.”

“It is important, therefore, that we rediscover our wonder at this mystery, that we let ourselves be enveloped by the grandeur of this event: God walked our paths as man. He entered into human history to give us His very life. And he did this not with the splendour of a sovereign, subjugating the world with his power, but with the humility of a child.”

“In that child, the Son of God whom we contemplate at Christmastime,” Benedict XVI concluded, “we can recognize the true face of the human being, and only in opening ourselves to the action of His grace and seeking every day to follow Him do we carry out God’s plan for us.”

VIS # 130109

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Advent Reminds Us Of God’s Presence In The World

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2013/11/29 at 12:00 AM

Vatican City, 12 December 2012 (VIS) – The phases of Revelation, conveyed in the Scriptures and culminating in the Advent of Jesus Christ, were the theme of Benedict XVI….

The Pope observed that “reading the Old Testament, we see how God’s interventions in the history of the chosen people with whom He established an alliance were not passing events forgotten over time, but rather become living ‘memory’, together constituting the ‘story of salvation’ that resides in the consciousness of the people of Israel through the celebration of salvific events”, such as Easter. “For all the people of Israel, to recall God’s work becomes a sort of constant imperative, in order that the passage of time be marked by the living memory of past events which thus create history anew, day by day, remaining ever present. … Faith is nurtured by the discovery and the memory of God who is always faithful, who guides history and is the sound and stable foundation upon which life should be built”.

Benedict XVI explained that for Israel, the Exodus “is the central historical event in which God reveals the power of his action. God frees the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt so that they may return to the Promised Land and worship Him as the one true God. Israel does not set out to become a nation like any other … but rather to serve God in worship and in life … and to bear witness to God amid other peoples. And the celebration of this event renders it present and current, as the work of God does not cease. … God reveals Himself not only in the primordial act of creation, but by entering into our history, into the history of a small population that was neither the most numerous nor the strongest of its time. This Revelation of God … culminates in Jesus Christ: God, the Logos, the creating Word at the origin of the world, is made flesh in Jesus and thereby shows His true face. In Jesus every promise is fulfilled; the story of God and humanity finds its culmination in Him”.

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarises the phases of divine Revelation”, continued the Holy Father. “God has invited mankind, since the very beginning, to engage in profound communion with Him, and even when man, through his own disobedience, lost His friendship, God did not abandon him to the force of death, but renewed His offer of alliance with man many times. The Catechism chronicles God’s path with man from His covenant with Noah following the flood, to the command to Abraham to leave his homeland and become the patriarch of a multitude of peoples. God creates Israel as His people, through the Exodus, the Sinai covenant and the giving of the Law through Moses, so as to be recognised and served as the one true and living God. By means of the prophets, God leads His people in the hope of salvation … In the end, they no longer await a king, David, the Son of David, but rather the ‘Son of Man, saviour of all peoples’ … In this we see how the path of God broadens and opens the way towards the Mystery of Christ, the King of the universe. Revelation finds its full realisation in Christ, in God’s benevolent plan: He becomes one of us. All these steps demonstrate “a single salvific plan dedicated to all of humanity, progressively revealed and realised through the power of God”.

The Pope then turned his attention to the liturgical time of Advent, which prepares us for Christmas. “As we all know, the word ‘Advent’ means ‘coming’ or ‘presence’, and historically indicated the arrival of the king or the emperor in a province. For us as Christians it has the wonderful and awe-inspiring meaning that God Himself has crossed over from Heaven and inclined towards man; he has made a covenant with man, entering into the history of His people. He is the king who enters into the poor province of earth, offering us the gift of His visit, taking on human flesh and becoming one of us. Advent invites us to retrace this path and reminds us again the God has not left this world, He is not absent and has not abandoned us to our own devices, but instead draws towards us in various ways that we must learn to recognise. And we too, with our faith, hope and charity, are called upon every day to perceive and witness this presence, in a world so often superficial and led astray, and to make the light that illuminated the stable in Bethlehem shine anew in our lives”.

Vatican Information Service #121212

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Advent: a time for purification

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2013/11/29 at 12:00 AM

If you view Advent as a time of purification, of evacuating the self to make room for Christ in you at Christmas, it will appear as “a little Lent.”

It would be likening Advent to the state of a desert, which is precisely the meaning of Lent as a desert experience. But Advent has a different and bigger meaning.

Advent is salvation history itself writ small. Its proper understanding demands refocusing on the meaning of Emmanuel — “God with us.”

Indeed, God has become man in Jesus Christ and is with us and continues to be with us. He has not gone “off to heaven,” leaving us alone in what can seem to be a desert.

Recall that the apostles returned from Olivet — the mount of the Ascension — rejoicing. Jesus continued to be with them invisibly in much the same way that he was with the two disciples — unrecognized — on the road to Emmaus.

In an Advent sermon delivered in 1964 by Father Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI explained that because of the discrepancy between Christ’s announcement that “the time is accomplished: The Kingdom of God has arrived” and the apparent failure of said arrival, “Christian theology … turned the Kingdom of God into a kingdom of heaven that is beyond this mortal life.” The expectation of the Kingdom of God taking place on this earth was put aside and vaulted out of reach into the beyond of space and time. Heaven is “up there” and beyond the “now.”

The presence of Christ on earth is put on hold and stored, and his temporal presence is not recognized.

Even when physically present, he also seemed not to be recognized by John the Baptist.

From jail, John sent out messengers asking Christ if he were really the Messiah — or “Shall we look for another?” Christ responds: “Go and tell John what it is that you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up; the poor have good news preached to them” (Luke 7:19).

Of course, John identified Christ at the Savior’s baptism, when he heard the voice of the Father and saw the dove; yet he himself testified twice: “And I did not know him” (John 1:31-33). Puzzling!

He sees, hears and gives testimony with a burning triumphalism that the Messiah “will clean out his threshing floor,” and “the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:17). And so, John knows, but doesn’t know.

And so it is with Advent.

In his 1985 work Dogma and Preaching, Benedict describes it with a seemingly contradictory shorthand: “already,” “not yet.” That is, Christ is present already but not fully so — yet. What does this mean?

It means that Christ is present in the world here and now insofar as you and I become “other Christs.” It does not refer to an objectified institution such as “Christendom.” It refers to the transformation of individual subjects into the Subject, Jesus Christ.

St. Paul speaks about a growth of Christ in the world by a “transformation of persons into Christ.” It is not simply a following of Christ or an imitation of Christ. In his encyclical Veritatis Splendor, Blessed Pope John Paul II quotes St. Augustine saying to the baptized: “Let us rejoice and give thanks, for we have become not only Christians, but Christ. … Marvel and rejoice: We have become Christ!”

Christ becomes progressively present in the world by the transformation of Christians — and others — into Christ.

Emphasis should be put on the words “in the world,” since this most personal and intimate encounter with Christ can take place in the exercise of ordinary work and family life. And is not the whole point of the Year of Faith the recovery of the enthusiasm for having the Lord with us? Doesn’t Benedict XVI see the present state of affairs in many modern societies — without and within the Church — as a practical atheism that is like the chosen people in the desert?

At one point in his 1988 book Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life, then-Cardinal Ratzinger quipped, “However did we arrive at that tedious and tedium-laden Christianity which we moderns observe and, indeed, know from our own experience?”

The task before us is similar to the people of God who had traversed the desert with Moses and were on the point of taking the Promised Land. At the negative report of the scouts who had been sent to reconnoiter it, the people, turned back on themselves and counting only on their own strength, grumbled against the Lord and against Moses.

Caleb and Joshua alone trusted in the Lord with faith: “The country which we went through and explored is a fine, rich land. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us in and give us that land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But do not rebel against the Lord! You need not be afraid of the people of that land. … Their defense has left them, but the Lord is with us. Therefore, do not be afraid of them” (Numbers 14:8-9).

And so must we refocus our minds and hearts and all our efforts on Christ’s constant presence, on the Emmanuel, who is “God with us.”

Father Ratzinger concluded his 1964 sermon this way: “It is Advent. … The first thing we have to accept is, ever and again, this reality of an enduring Advent. If we do that, we shall begin to realize that the borderline between ‘before Christ’ and ‘after Christ’ does not run through historical time in an outward sense and cannot be drawn on any map; it runs through our own hearts. Insofar as we are living on a basis of selfishness, of egoism, then even today we are ‘before Christ.’ But in this time of Advent, let us ask the Lord to grant that we may live less and less ‘before Christ,’ and certainly not ‘after Christ,’ but truly with Christ and in Christ — with him who is indeed Christ yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Amen.”

Opus Dei Father Robert Connor serves as chaplain at Southmont, a center of Opus Dei in South Orange, New Jersey.

He blogs at The Truth Will Make You Free

(RobertAConnor.blogspot.com).

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All Saints and All Souls

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2013/10/31 at 12:00 AM

Reflection by Father Mark Lawlor, Pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church, Charlotte

All Saints & All Souls:  November 1st is the celebration of All Saints Day throughout the Church.  It is a universal Christian Solemnity honoring all Christian saints ~ those known and unknown.  This remains a Holy Day of Obligation.  The Solemnity celebrates all who have died and are now with God in the glory of heaven.

They are known as The Church Triumphant.  It was Pope Gregory IV who in 835 ordered the Feast of All Saints to be universally observed on Nov. 1st.  It is a day when we thank God for welcoming men and women to share in His holiness and heavenly glory as a reward for their faithfulness. The saints have shown us that saintly living is possible.  We venerate their memory, we trust in their intercession; and their Christian witness inspires us.  We know that we have no lasting home in this world.  Heaven is our hope and our goal.  In Faith, we may say that the saints have gone ‘home’ to the Lord.  On November 2nd, we will celebrate the Commemoration of the All the Faithful Departed (All Souls Day).  The feast reminds us of our Lord’s victory and the promise of eternal life for those who have died in the peace of Christ.  R.I.P. is a common abbreviation in cemeteries.  It represents the phrase:  Requiescat in pace or May he or she rest in peace.  This, of course, is the prayer of the Church.  The prayers of the Mass humbly ask for the happy repose of the souls of those who have died.  The Mass actually follows the format of a funeral Mass.  The month of November is a traditional time for visiting the graves of our loved ones who have been called from this life.  They are missed and yet not forgotten.  We continue to love them.  On All Souls Day, we remember the souls of the faithful departed of whose earthly remains have been interred in our parish columbarium (known as Mary’s Wall.)

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Does God’s Holy Spirit Living In Us Make Any Difference? by Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2013/05/16 at 12:00 AM
At some point in their development, children become interested in knowing what life was like before they were born.  In our family, the children enjoy watching our wedding video.  During the reception, while the video camera was rolling, my brother-in-law Regis—who died suddenly and unexpectedly thirteen years ago—left Colleen and me the following message: “I hope you take the love that you’ve been blessed with from God and make it grow exponentially.  Take the love that you have for each other and share it with everyone.  Open up the flower of your love and spread it like a virus.”
When we were first created in God’s image and likeness, Scripture tell us that “the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).  We have the breath of God’s divine life flowing in and through us right now!  The question we must all ask ourselves is, Does God’s Holy Spirit living in us make any difference in how we think, how we act, and how we live?  Is Jesus Christ the heart and the center of our lives from Monday to Saturday as He is for an hour on Sunday?
In the story of the Tower of Babel, we see that when the people lived in loving obedience to God’s holy will there was harmony, community and peace.  But when they began to build their city and “a tower with its top in the heavens, and so make a name for themselves” apart from God, there was confusion, isolation, and discord (Genesis 11: 4).

We are living in the Babel of the 21st century.  The culture says to us over and over again, and in many different ways, “let us make a name for ourselves apart from God,” but instead of building a tower, we build abortion clinics.  We build a multi-billion dollar pornography industry.  We build new definitions of marriage.  We build a society where poverty flourishes.  We build a culture of dehumanization and death where children are sold as sex slaves and the elderly are euthanized.

Saint Paul gives us hope: “We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now, but the Spirit comes to our aid and intercedes […] for the holy ones according to God’s will” (Romans 8:22-27).  We see this clearly in the birth of the Church at Pentecost, which is in stark contrast to Babel.

In the city of Babel, the people were gathered together in community, much like the Apostles were gathered “all in one place together.”  In Babel, the people chose their own spirit instead of the Holy Spirit and their language became confused; they could not understand each other and their community collapsed as they were scattered to the ends of the earth.  Conversely, the Apostles receive God’s Holy Spirit and they begin to speak in different languages, but now with clarity and understanding “as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.”  Instead of confusion and disunity, the Spirit-filled Apostles now are equipped to take the Gospel message to the ends of the earth; to build and strengthen the Body of Christ by word and sacrament; to establish Christ’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church!

“‘No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit’” (1 Corinthians 12:3).  God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to meet us, to awaken and ignite the fire of faith within us.  Our journey to eternal life does not begin when we die, but here and now in our own reception of the Spirit, our own Pentecost.  As we live each day of our lives, let us be mindful of the presence of the Holy Spirit and pray to the Lord as David did: “A clean heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit within me; do not cast me away from your presence nor deprive me of your Holy Spirit” (Psalm 51: 10-11). “If we love one another, God dwells is us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.  The way we know we remain in him and He in us is that he has given us his own Spirit” (1 John 4:12-13).

My prayer is that you take the love that you’ve been blessed with from God in your baptism and make it grow exponentially.  Take the love that you have for Jesus Christ, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, share it with everyone: don’t keep it to yourself!  Open up the flower of your love and spread it like a virus.  †

©2013 Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers

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Three Ways to Know God: The World, Man and Faith

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2013/03/08 at 12:00 AM

Three ways to knowing God (the world, the human being and the faith) provided the theme for Benedict XVI’s catechesis.

The Holy Father began by explaining that “God’s initiative always precedes any initiative on the part of man, and, even on our journey towards Him, it is He Who first illuminates and guides us, while always respecting our freedom. … God never tires of seeking us, He is faithful to the man He created and redeemed, and He remains close to us because He loves us. This is a certainty which must accompany us every day”.

“We know that today the faith faces no lack of difficulties and trials, and its often poorly understood, contested and rejected. … In the past, in the West, in a society held to be Christian, the faith was the environment in which people moved. Reference and adherence to God were, for most people, part of their daily lives, and it was those who did not believe who felt the need to justify their incredulity. In our world the situation had changed, and believers have to be increasingly able to give reasons for their faith. … Our own times have seen the emergence of a phenomenon which is particularly dangerous for the faith. There exists, in fact, a form of atheism, which we define as ‘practical’, in which the truths of faith and religious ritual are not denied but are simply held to be irrelevant to daily existence, detached from life, useless. Often, then, people believe in God superficially but live as if He did not exist. In the final analysis, however, such a lifestyle turns out to be even more destructive, because it leads to indifference towards the faith and towards the question of God.

“The fact is”, the Holy Father added, “that separation from God reduces man to a single horizontal dimension. This reduction was one of the fundamental causes of the totalitarian systems which had such tragic consequences last century, and of the crisis of values we are currently witnessing. Obscuring the reference to God has also obscured the ethical horizon”.

Faced with this situation the Church, “faithful to Christ’s mandate, never ceases to affirm the truth about man and his destiny”, said the Pope. Yet, he asked, “what responses is the faith called to give – with ‘mildness and respect’ – to atheism, scepticism and indifference to the vertical dimension, so that the men and women of our time may continue to question themselves about the existence of God, and follow the paths that lead to Him? I would”, he said, “like to mention some of these paths, which derive both from a natural process of reflection and from the power of the faith itself. They are: the world, man, and faith”.

Referring to the first of these paths – the world – the Pope expressed the view that “we must recover and restore to modern man the chance to contemplate the creation, its beauty and structure. The world is not some shapeless mass; rather, the more we know it, the more we discover its wonderful mechanisms, the more we see a design, a creative intelligence. Albert Einstein said that the laws of nature reveal ‘an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection'”.

To explain the second path – the human being – Benedict XVI quoted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, saying: ‘With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence'”.

Turning finally to consider the faith, the Pope noted how “believers are united to God, open to His grace and to the force of charity. … Their faith is not afraid to show itself in daily life, it is open to a dialogue which expresses profound friendship for all men and women, and is able to bring the light of hope to our need for redemption, happiness and future life. Faith means meeting God Who speaks and works in history. … A single Christian or a community who are diligent and faithful to the project of the God Who first loved us, are a great help to people experiencing indifference or doubt about His existence and action”.

Nowadays, “many people have a limited concept of Christian faith, which they identify as a mere system of beliefs and values, and not as the truth of God revealed throughout history in order to communicate directly with mankind. … In reality, at the basis of all doctrine and values is the encounter between man and God in Jesus Christ. Christianity, rather than a moral or ethical code, is first and foremost the experience of love in welcoming Christ”, Benedict XVI concluded.

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