You probably thought I had been splurging on flowers for the altar. Nope; much as I would like to do that, the flowers have come from another source: an unusual run of weddings here at the Holy House of Soubirous.
The last day of July brought Julie McCord and Vincent Mata to the altar. The next Saturday saw Adriana James become Mrs. Samuel Vasquez. Last week, Victor Brooks and Dawn Hall became husband and wife. This weekend, it was Jerome Johnson and Narissara Taseeta. Please pray for God’s abundant blessings upon them!
It is surprising, but generally, we have few weddings here. Over past decades, the kids who grew up here had long since married, and new parishioners arrived already married, leaving a bit of a generation gap in the parish. But now we have younger adults joining before their marriages, and there is the prospect of kids I have seen become adults over recent years come trundling home with prospective spouses to walk the long, elegant aisle of Saint Bernadette.
It would be hard to imagine anyone not wanting to be married here in our beautiful church, with its handsome altar, rich stained glass, excellent organ, and that dramatic aisle, especially if they have been nourished in their faith and identity here. But kids move further away, and establish new lives in other places, before marrying. I concede that some might legitimately prefer to begin their married life in their new church homes.
But I think a lot of people, even Catholics these days, take their wedding vision and cues from other sources. The competition to have more innovative, more personal, or more astonishing weddings affects even Catholics, leading them to look everywhere but to the Church for their perfect “wedding venue.” While they may get much beauty, individuality, or novelty in the process, they lose something far more important: the sacrament of matrimony.
Catholic marriages happen in church, ideally a Catholic church. When marrying a non-Catholic in his or her home church, provisions can be obtained by preparing with the Catholic pastor. But with only specific exceptions (e.g., a Catholic marrying a Jewish person), a wedding in a building that is not a church, no matter how grand, special, or beautiful, is almost certain not to have the blessing of the Church. And a sacramental wedding never occurs outdoors.
The Church will always accommodate genuine needs – such as for a wedding in a hospital room – but otherwise expects couples seeking marriage in Christ to bring themselves to His “house,” showing their commitment to having Him dwell in their home. If they undertake marriage elsewhere, they undermine their union with Him in all the other sacraments, as well, wounding their Baptism and, in fact, breaking their Communion.
More beautiful even than our magnificent church is the sacramental intimacy that we as Catholics enjoy with the God who dwells among us, and marriage is part of that relationship. Jesus’ miracle at Cana only hinted at the abundant gifts he gives to those who invite Him to their wedding. His fidelity to His bride, the Church, is our only hope of life and salvation. To have that hope in our lives, remember – and teach your kids: if you want, skip the stained glass; skip the aisle and the organ. But bring your marriage to the altar! It’s about the life of grace – not the flowers.
Monsignor Smith
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Nun - of us!
It is always a bit of a bene when a Holy Day of Obligation falls on a Sunday – two for the price of one, and all that. Especially now in midsummer when none of us is looking for something extra to do, we can welcome the gift of efficiency in this year’s liturgical calendar.
Not everyone among us, however, is looking for ways to reduce the portion of our days we offer to God. At the beginning of this summer I wrote you about the priestly vocations that have come from Saint Bernadette; today I want to let you in on the news of another vocation from our midst, this one to religious life.
Teri Rockenhaus, a young women who has been a parishioner here for two years, will be entering the Sisters of Life. It is a relatively new community, founded in 1991 by the late Archbishop of New York, John Cardinal O’Connor, for the protection and enhancement of the sacredness of every human life.
The Sisters of Life are well known within certain circles of the church, but I think a lot of you wouldn’t know about them. Though based in New York, they attract sisters from around the country. Like my friends, the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, they include a number of highly educated and even “high-powered” women, if you’ll pardon the expression, who seek union with Christ, the opportunity to serve, and the blessings of religious life.
Which brings us to the simple question, why would any woman today want to be a nun? For a good answer, you will have to ask Teri, not me. But it has long been my observation, since my priestly assignments have blessed me to get to know various communities of sisters, that once you see how joyful is the life of women religious, how could anyone NOT want to be among them – or at least consider it?
It used to be that sisters staffed most of the primary schools of the church in our country. Not all sisters were teachers, but every young Catholic was exposed to the basics of the consecrated life. Since the near-collapse of religious life after the Second Vatican Council, hardly anyone ever sees sisters anymore, or if they do, they can’t recognize them. But they exist, and like the Church herself, they are young.
Some communities clung to their charism over the turbulent years, and continued to attract new life. Some communities have rediscovered themselves, and begun to flower again. And some vigorous souls have undertaken new foundations, or re-foundations. Whether long-faithful, or newer “renewal” communities, these institutes are in fact teeming with new life because they have whole-heartedly embraced an identity that is suited to the modern world and the post-conciliar Church, and fully conforms to the ageless elements of Christian consecrated life.
More and more, women are looking far and wide for a contemplative or active manifestation of religious life that brings to flesh the voice they hear calling them. They are giving their lives to Christ, and finding what the voice of Jesus is offering them: joy. And we would ask nothing less than that joy of intimate union with Christ among her new Sisters for our sister, Teri. I am sure we will be in her prayers; let’s keep her in ours.
Monsignor Smith
Not everyone among us, however, is looking for ways to reduce the portion of our days we offer to God. At the beginning of this summer I wrote you about the priestly vocations that have come from Saint Bernadette; today I want to let you in on the news of another vocation from our midst, this one to religious life.
Teri Rockenhaus, a young women who has been a parishioner here for two years, will be entering the Sisters of Life. It is a relatively new community, founded in 1991 by the late Archbishop of New York, John Cardinal O’Connor, for the protection and enhancement of the sacredness of every human life.
The Sisters of Life are well known within certain circles of the church, but I think a lot of you wouldn’t know about them. Though based in New York, they attract sisters from around the country. Like my friends, the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, they include a number of highly educated and even “high-powered” women, if you’ll pardon the expression, who seek union with Christ, the opportunity to serve, and the blessings of religious life.
Which brings us to the simple question, why would any woman today want to be a nun? For a good answer, you will have to ask Teri, not me. But it has long been my observation, since my priestly assignments have blessed me to get to know various communities of sisters, that once you see how joyful is the life of women religious, how could anyone NOT want to be among them – or at least consider it?
It used to be that sisters staffed most of the primary schools of the church in our country. Not all sisters were teachers, but every young Catholic was exposed to the basics of the consecrated life. Since the near-collapse of religious life after the Second Vatican Council, hardly anyone ever sees sisters anymore, or if they do, they can’t recognize them. But they exist, and like the Church herself, they are young.
Some communities clung to their charism over the turbulent years, and continued to attract new life. Some communities have rediscovered themselves, and begun to flower again. And some vigorous souls have undertaken new foundations, or re-foundations. Whether long-faithful, or newer “renewal” communities, these institutes are in fact teeming with new life because they have whole-heartedly embraced an identity that is suited to the modern world and the post-conciliar Church, and fully conforms to the ageless elements of Christian consecrated life.
More and more, women are looking far and wide for a contemplative or active manifestation of religious life that brings to flesh the voice they hear calling them. They are giving their lives to Christ, and finding what the voice of Jesus is offering them: joy. And we would ask nothing less than that joy of intimate union with Christ among her new Sisters for our sister, Teri. I am sure we will be in her prayers; let’s keep her in ours.
Monsignor Smith
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Good dogs!
This Sunday is also the Feast of Saint Dominic. We won’t celebrate it liturgically, since the celebration of Sunday “wins” and Saint Dominic goes unobserved here. If we were in a parish named for him (which Washington has downtown, in southwest DC) we could celebrate him, but we aren’t, so we can’t.
I like to celebrate Saint Dominic because I studied in a Dominican university for three years while in seminary, the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, also known as the Angelicum, because Saint Thomas is called the Angelic Doctor. So did Father DeRosa, for that matter. Never having encountered Dominicans before then, the more I learned about the them, the more I liked them.
Saint Dominic, who lived at the turn of the 13th century, founded his community to preach the truth in the face of falsehood, hence their official name, the Order of Preachers. Their dedication to study of the scriptures and teachings of the Church is so that their preaching will be grounded in the truth, which is the motto of the order -- Veritas.
Eight hundred years later, the Order continues to serve the Church in many ways consonant with Dominic’s vision. Their commitment to study and teaching leads them to serve in many universities and even to operate some of their own, like my alma mater. The Papal Theologian, whose responsibility it is to provide the Holy Father with doctrinal support for his Petrine ministry, is always a Dominican. Currently, that office is held by a Polish priest who taught me a seminar my first year in Rome (I didn’t do very well in that one.)
There is no shortage of need for the Dominican commitment to preach and teach the truth, especially in our culture that has subscribed to Pontius Pilate’s cynical dismissal, “What is truth?” Though the Cathar (or Albigensian) heresy which first motivated Dominic to undertake his mission has long since died, today’s aggressive and destructive relativism requires a response from those who know Christ Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Our local Dominican province is thriving, thanks be to God. Recent entrance classes to their novitiate have numbered in the mid-teens, to this year’s low twenties. That is a strong indicator of the community’s fidelity to their charism in the truth, and speaks of this generation’s hunger for that same truth.
One of the more robust communities of religious women in the United States, and perhaps the most robust, is the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecelia, in Nashville. After repeated expansions of their motherhouse, and additions of new missions by their sisters, the Nashville Dominicans still fill every novitiate class, while being very selective about whom they admit.
The dogged commitment to the truths of the faith revealed in Christ Jesus has earned the Dominicans the nickname the Dogs of the Lord, a pun in Latin: Domini canes. Thanks be to God for the work of Saint Dominic, which continues into our own day, when the need is as great as ever for the truth to be proclaimed, and heard, and embraced. Christ is the truth, and the truth alone will set us free.
Monsignor Smith
I like to celebrate Saint Dominic because I studied in a Dominican university for three years while in seminary, the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, also known as the Angelicum, because Saint Thomas is called the Angelic Doctor. So did Father DeRosa, for that matter. Never having encountered Dominicans before then, the more I learned about the them, the more I liked them.
Saint Dominic, who lived at the turn of the 13th century, founded his community to preach the truth in the face of falsehood, hence their official name, the Order of Preachers. Their dedication to study of the scriptures and teachings of the Church is so that their preaching will be grounded in the truth, which is the motto of the order -- Veritas.
Eight hundred years later, the Order continues to serve the Church in many ways consonant with Dominic’s vision. Their commitment to study and teaching leads them to serve in many universities and even to operate some of their own, like my alma mater. The Papal Theologian, whose responsibility it is to provide the Holy Father with doctrinal support for his Petrine ministry, is always a Dominican. Currently, that office is held by a Polish priest who taught me a seminar my first year in Rome (I didn’t do very well in that one.)
There is no shortage of need for the Dominican commitment to preach and teach the truth, especially in our culture that has subscribed to Pontius Pilate’s cynical dismissal, “What is truth?” Though the Cathar (or Albigensian) heresy which first motivated Dominic to undertake his mission has long since died, today’s aggressive and destructive relativism requires a response from those who know Christ Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Our local Dominican province is thriving, thanks be to God. Recent entrance classes to their novitiate have numbered in the mid-teens, to this year’s low twenties. That is a strong indicator of the community’s fidelity to their charism in the truth, and speaks of this generation’s hunger for that same truth.
One of the more robust communities of religious women in the United States, and perhaps the most robust, is the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecelia, in Nashville. After repeated expansions of their motherhouse, and additions of new missions by their sisters, the Nashville Dominicans still fill every novitiate class, while being very selective about whom they admit.
The dogged commitment to the truths of the faith revealed in Christ Jesus has earned the Dominicans the nickname the Dogs of the Lord, a pun in Latin: Domini canes. Thanks be to God for the work of Saint Dominic, which continues into our own day, when the need is as great as ever for the truth to be proclaimed, and heard, and embraced. Christ is the truth, and the truth alone will set us free.
Monsignor Smith
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Good Counsel
Vacation. I know that is what is on the minds of many of you right now – a vacation about to begin, or perhaps recently enjoyed, and maybe, for the very lucky, both. It is what we do in the summer, especially if someone in the family is on an academic schedule.
Strangely enough, that is not our focus here at Saint Bernadette Central. While the school is quiet and Father DeRosa has been traipsing about in shorts far more than one would think prudent, we have been dealing with matters fiscal.
You see, rather like the Federal government and all associated with it do on 30 September, we of the Archdiocese of Washington end our fiscal year on 30 June. That means that over the last month, we have been finalizing our tallies on all the material aspects of this spiritual undertaking that is our happy parish. Our budgets have to be finalized, and our accounts have to be reckoned and rendered in our Annual Report to the Archdiocese.
You may not realize this, but over the course of one fiscal year almost five million dollars move through our church and school. Sixty-five people are employed here. And the Archdiocese of Washington makes certain that every penny and every person are carefully shepherded through their connection with us, and every bit of it is documented. The reason I am not a quivering mass of pummeled protoplasm today is largely due to two entities about which you probably do not think very often. One is our parish business manager, Delfina Castro. The other is our Finance Council.
Delfina handles all of these management and reporting tasks with aplomb. That’s a good thing, too, because all that information is what our Finance Council needs to make good recommendations to me, which is what I need to make good decisions.
Delfina and I, along with Mrs. Cheri Wood, the school’s principal, sat down with the Finance Council for our year-end meeting this week. We reviewed everything we were submitting about last year and this coming year, along with the changing circumstances that keep even our best planning on its toes.
So on a sultry summer evening when many folks would have preferred to be at the pool, ten of us sat around the conference table in our rectory meeting room, reviewing documents and projections, asking questions and making suggestions, and in the end, taking responsibility for stewardship of the resources that make this parish possible.
There is a lot of financial, accounting, managerial, and legal experience in that group, and operational insight and personal understanding to boot. What unites them is their care for the Church and her mission, and for you and me, her members. There is an awful lot of goodwill and good nature, too, which means that what could be burdensome or boring is in reality enjoyable. And it gives me insights, understanding, and confidence in which I truly rejoice. You may never see our Business Manager or Finance Council at work, but you need to know that they do – and well.
The good news is that there is good news; we are in pretty sound shape. But I am not going to go into that now. It will all come in the annual report to you, the parishioners, which we will publish in the fall – when everyone is back from vacation.
Monsignor Smith
Strangely enough, that is not our focus here at Saint Bernadette Central. While the school is quiet and Father DeRosa has been traipsing about in shorts far more than one would think prudent, we have been dealing with matters fiscal.
You see, rather like the Federal government and all associated with it do on 30 September, we of the Archdiocese of Washington end our fiscal year on 30 June. That means that over the last month, we have been finalizing our tallies on all the material aspects of this spiritual undertaking that is our happy parish. Our budgets have to be finalized, and our accounts have to be reckoned and rendered in our Annual Report to the Archdiocese.
You may not realize this, but over the course of one fiscal year almost five million dollars move through our church and school. Sixty-five people are employed here. And the Archdiocese of Washington makes certain that every penny and every person are carefully shepherded through their connection with us, and every bit of it is documented. The reason I am not a quivering mass of pummeled protoplasm today is largely due to two entities about which you probably do not think very often. One is our parish business manager, Delfina Castro. The other is our Finance Council.
Delfina handles all of these management and reporting tasks with aplomb. That’s a good thing, too, because all that information is what our Finance Council needs to make good recommendations to me, which is what I need to make good decisions.
Delfina and I, along with Mrs. Cheri Wood, the school’s principal, sat down with the Finance Council for our year-end meeting this week. We reviewed everything we were submitting about last year and this coming year, along with the changing circumstances that keep even our best planning on its toes.
So on a sultry summer evening when many folks would have preferred to be at the pool, ten of us sat around the conference table in our rectory meeting room, reviewing documents and projections, asking questions and making suggestions, and in the end, taking responsibility for stewardship of the resources that make this parish possible.
There is a lot of financial, accounting, managerial, and legal experience in that group, and operational insight and personal understanding to boot. What unites them is their care for the Church and her mission, and for you and me, her members. There is an awful lot of goodwill and good nature, too, which means that what could be burdensome or boring is in reality enjoyable. And it gives me insights, understanding, and confidence in which I truly rejoice. You may never see our Business Manager or Finance Council at work, but you need to know that they do – and well.
The good news is that there is good news; we are in pretty sound shape. But I am not going to go into that now. It will all come in the annual report to you, the parishioners, which we will publish in the fall – when everyone is back from vacation.
Monsignor Smith
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Power Plant
Don’t you hate it when someone else is minding your business?
It is such an intrusion, an invasion, an uninvited insertion of someone else’s expectations into our lives and our privacy. Few things are more galling and few things are less welcome. Always true and universally recognized, this is something we can all agree on. Until we need help, that is. Funny, isn’t it, how welcome someone else’s interest becomes only when we decide we want it?
But so often we are unwilling or unable to communicate our needs, or to find the people who could help us. This, I am pleased to let you know, is precisely why this parish exists. To mind your business!
If instead of a spire atop our church, we had a towering brick smokestack straight out of the industrial revolution; and if somehow the work of prayer gave off visible exhaust -- non-polluting, of course; then we might be able to see the clouds of radiant smoke billowing heavenward, and spreading across our community at all hours of the day and night.
This parish is a factory of prayer, a union of mutual effort and energy, roaring with the good and generous exchange of spiritual strength, and welded together by our communion in Christ. And whether you or I realize it at the moment, whether we have asked for it or not, whether we know the names of the people or not, whether we want it or not, people of this parish are praying for us, for me and for you.
More effective than the common currency of the European Union, the sacrifice of prayer is a shared medium of work and wealth that binds us together in spirit, and gives us the strength we need to function in the face of adversity or uncertainty. These prayers absorb some of the impact of pain and punishment on us, and magnify the good and the grace that nourishes our joy. Never seen or handled, much less taxed, prayer has no expiration date, but neither can it be hoarded.
As manager of this operation, I get to point this power-production in the direction where it is most needed. When people tell me they’re praying for me, I thank them, and tell them to keep it coming – because I burn them fast! I try to bring every intention of which I have been told, or that I have observed, or that I can only guess, to prayer – my own, and our common prayer of the Sacred Liturgy.
Still, there are the entrepreneurial souls out there who insist on praying on their own, or in small groups. They too direct their exertions toward brothers and sisters and their needs and intentions, whether they know of them directly, or not. Rooted in Eucharistic unity, these dedicated pray-ers can sense and respond to circumstances and situations that are fully known only to the mind of Christ.
These people are messing about in your business and in mine, in the most powerful way possible. Thank God! Monsignor Smith
It is such an intrusion, an invasion, an uninvited insertion of someone else’s expectations into our lives and our privacy. Few things are more galling and few things are less welcome. Always true and universally recognized, this is something we can all agree on. Until we need help, that is. Funny, isn’t it, how welcome someone else’s interest becomes only when we decide we want it?
But so often we are unwilling or unable to communicate our needs, or to find the people who could help us. This, I am pleased to let you know, is precisely why this parish exists. To mind your business!
If instead of a spire atop our church, we had a towering brick smokestack straight out of the industrial revolution; and if somehow the work of prayer gave off visible exhaust -- non-polluting, of course; then we might be able to see the clouds of radiant smoke billowing heavenward, and spreading across our community at all hours of the day and night.
This parish is a factory of prayer, a union of mutual effort and energy, roaring with the good and generous exchange of spiritual strength, and welded together by our communion in Christ. And whether you or I realize it at the moment, whether we have asked for it or not, whether we know the names of the people or not, whether we want it or not, people of this parish are praying for us, for me and for you.
More effective than the common currency of the European Union, the sacrifice of prayer is a shared medium of work and wealth that binds us together in spirit, and gives us the strength we need to function in the face of adversity or uncertainty. These prayers absorb some of the impact of pain and punishment on us, and magnify the good and the grace that nourishes our joy. Never seen or handled, much less taxed, prayer has no expiration date, but neither can it be hoarded.
As manager of this operation, I get to point this power-production in the direction where it is most needed. When people tell me they’re praying for me, I thank them, and tell them to keep it coming – because I burn them fast! I try to bring every intention of which I have been told, or that I have observed, or that I can only guess, to prayer – my own, and our common prayer of the Sacred Liturgy.
Still, there are the entrepreneurial souls out there who insist on praying on their own, or in small groups. They too direct their exertions toward brothers and sisters and their needs and intentions, whether they know of them directly, or not. Rooted in Eucharistic unity, these dedicated pray-ers can sense and respond to circumstances and situations that are fully known only to the mind of Christ.
These people are messing about in your business and in mine, in the most powerful way possible. Thank God! Monsignor Smith
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Give and Take
Well, you turn your back for a moment, and look what happens!
Those of you who were here Independence Day weekend probably heard – and many others of you have noticed. Over that Friday night, while I was away, thieves tore the copper downspouts off the east side of the church and the west side of the convent. They took them to sell the copper as scrap, since it has such a high value these days.
They hit Saint John the Evangelist about six weeks ago, and other churches have suffered, too. Two men were arrested for stealing copper wire along the Amtrak rail lines, and police estimate they got $19,000 worth of it. Also hit have been air conditioning units, for their copper components. Of course, the cash value of the copper as scrap is but a fraction of the cost of replacing any of it.
I find it particularly galling that these troubled souls should take from churches, and while that may just be my predjudice, I also have a basis for it.
These copper downspouts, along with the granite eaves, are a sign that the priests and people who built this church did not skimp in offering something beautiful to God. Being quite familiar with all the aspects of our beautiful facilities here, I know that they did not give from what they had left over; they did not build the temple of the Lord after they had outfitted themselves completely. No; it was a priority for them to have – and leave us -- a beautiful church, and they set about doing it at great cost to themselves.
Now the challenge comes about what to do to replace them. I hate to use a lesser material, undermining the intention of our founders and the elegance of our church. But it makes no sense to put up new copper, only to give them a chance to tear it down. There’s not much more that we can do to protect them.
I will be nervous every time I go on summer vacation from now on, dreading the phone call like Father Nick’s last weekend. I KNEW he wasn’t calling just to say hello. Last year when I was away, someone smashed into the Blessed Mother statue and the entrance to the school. I cannot really credit these people with waiting until I am away to wreak their havoc, but I am suspicious.
The thieves left untouched the side of the church that faces the rectory, fearing the ramifications of awakening the priests. They have to know how many police spend at least part of their shifts in our parking lots overnight. What is left – besides electrifying the downspouts, which I admit has some appeal? What is there to do to keep our holy place safe?
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle! Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, cast down into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. Only prayer can defend us against sin – sins of others, and our own. Peace! Monsignor Smith
Those of you who were here Independence Day weekend probably heard – and many others of you have noticed. Over that Friday night, while I was away, thieves tore the copper downspouts off the east side of the church and the west side of the convent. They took them to sell the copper as scrap, since it has such a high value these days.
They hit Saint John the Evangelist about six weeks ago, and other churches have suffered, too. Two men were arrested for stealing copper wire along the Amtrak rail lines, and police estimate they got $19,000 worth of it. Also hit have been air conditioning units, for their copper components. Of course, the cash value of the copper as scrap is but a fraction of the cost of replacing any of it.
I find it particularly galling that these troubled souls should take from churches, and while that may just be my predjudice, I also have a basis for it.
These copper downspouts, along with the granite eaves, are a sign that the priests and people who built this church did not skimp in offering something beautiful to God. Being quite familiar with all the aspects of our beautiful facilities here, I know that they did not give from what they had left over; they did not build the temple of the Lord after they had outfitted themselves completely. No; it was a priority for them to have – and leave us -- a beautiful church, and they set about doing it at great cost to themselves.
Now the challenge comes about what to do to replace them. I hate to use a lesser material, undermining the intention of our founders and the elegance of our church. But it makes no sense to put up new copper, only to give them a chance to tear it down. There’s not much more that we can do to protect them.
I will be nervous every time I go on summer vacation from now on, dreading the phone call like Father Nick’s last weekend. I KNEW he wasn’t calling just to say hello. Last year when I was away, someone smashed into the Blessed Mother statue and the entrance to the school. I cannot really credit these people with waiting until I am away to wreak their havoc, but I am suspicious.
The thieves left untouched the side of the church that faces the rectory, fearing the ramifications of awakening the priests. They have to know how many police spend at least part of their shifts in our parking lots overnight. What is left – besides electrifying the downspouts, which I admit has some appeal? What is there to do to keep our holy place safe?
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle! Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, cast down into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. Only prayer can defend us against sin – sins of others, and our own. Peace! Monsignor Smith
Sunday, July 04, 2010
A More Perfect Union
Last week brought birthdays for several people; this week, for our nation. 234 years young and still going strong, the United States of America has every reason to celebrate. The first nation in history founded not on geography or ethnicity, but on a covenant of governance, she still manages to amaze and impress, even as the signs of age and abuse show.
One thing that makes me so glad to be an American is that I have not only visited, but also lived in another country. Even in the twenty-first century, even in super-modern Europe, there is still a system of class and culture that restricts the possibilities of citizens to what someone else, or sometime else, has deemed appropriate to them. We Americans intuitively notice and reject these obstacles and expectations that are woven into the fabric of daily life for almost everyone else on earth. It is more obvious in Europe because they think that they are liberated by their modernity – but they are not. Modernity cannot liberate anyone from anything, except possibly good sense.
Last week the Sacred Scripture we encountered at Mass reflected on the nature of freedom. When confronted with the call of God to be holy, people offered excuses that did in fact excuse them from any legal or technical obligation to follow. But God’s call is not a legal one, and our response is not obligatory. They call of love is answerable only with and in love, and love cannot be obliged nor extracted, only offered in freedom.
Our Founding Fathers were all versed in a Christian understanding, however deprived of the fullness of Catholic teaching. But their understanding of freedom was based on a firm grip on from where it comes, and toward what it is directed.
Freedom comes from God (endowed by their Creator) and inheres in our human nature. Freedom belongs properly and exclusively to man, because man, and man alone, is made in the image and likeness of God.
Freedom has one, and only one, proper end: to do what is good. We know what is good: to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Without freedom, love is not possible; but in freedom, anything less than love is an abuse of that freedom.
Fools and selfish men will tell you that it is not possible to know or to say what is good, and therefore freedom requires that everyone be able to designate to be good whatever he sees fit. This is false liberation, the siren song of the dictatorship of relativism.
No individual man but Jesus Christ has had in himself a perfect understanding of true goodness. But our nation, by her nature larger than any individual inclination or attraction, and by her design capable of discerning and describing publicly that good, can and must define and defend what is good, what is true, and what is beautiful, if she is to fulfill her charter, and if she is to have any hope of enduring.
Brothers and sisters: For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. (Gal 5:1) Saint Paul would have encouraged us all to take seriously our obligations of this great nation, and as citizens of heaven, and to proclaim what is true and good – and live it. To resolve again to do so in our lives is the best gift you and I can give to our mother country on this her birthday. God give you all a happy Independence Day -- and many more!
Monsignor Smith
One thing that makes me so glad to be an American is that I have not only visited, but also lived in another country. Even in the twenty-first century, even in super-modern Europe, there is still a system of class and culture that restricts the possibilities of citizens to what someone else, or sometime else, has deemed appropriate to them. We Americans intuitively notice and reject these obstacles and expectations that are woven into the fabric of daily life for almost everyone else on earth. It is more obvious in Europe because they think that they are liberated by their modernity – but they are not. Modernity cannot liberate anyone from anything, except possibly good sense.
Last week the Sacred Scripture we encountered at Mass reflected on the nature of freedom. When confronted with the call of God to be holy, people offered excuses that did in fact excuse them from any legal or technical obligation to follow. But God’s call is not a legal one, and our response is not obligatory. They call of love is answerable only with and in love, and love cannot be obliged nor extracted, only offered in freedom.
Our Founding Fathers were all versed in a Christian understanding, however deprived of the fullness of Catholic teaching. But their understanding of freedom was based on a firm grip on from where it comes, and toward what it is directed.
Freedom comes from God (endowed by their Creator) and inheres in our human nature. Freedom belongs properly and exclusively to man, because man, and man alone, is made in the image and likeness of God.
Freedom has one, and only one, proper end: to do what is good. We know what is good: to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Without freedom, love is not possible; but in freedom, anything less than love is an abuse of that freedom.
Fools and selfish men will tell you that it is not possible to know or to say what is good, and therefore freedom requires that everyone be able to designate to be good whatever he sees fit. This is false liberation, the siren song of the dictatorship of relativism.
No individual man but Jesus Christ has had in himself a perfect understanding of true goodness. But our nation, by her nature larger than any individual inclination or attraction, and by her design capable of discerning and describing publicly that good, can and must define and defend what is good, what is true, and what is beautiful, if she is to fulfill her charter, and if she is to have any hope of enduring.
Brothers and sisters: For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. (Gal 5:1) Saint Paul would have encouraged us all to take seriously our obligations of this great nation, and as citizens of heaven, and to proclaim what is true and good – and live it. To resolve again to do so in our lives is the best gift you and I can give to our mother country on this her birthday. God give you all a happy Independence Day -- and many more!
Monsignor Smith
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)