The Resurrection is not ‘just some miracle from the past’

Easter Sunday: Gospel – Luke 24:1-12 (Vigil); John 20:1-9

“If it were simply that somebody was once brought back to life, and no more than that, in what way should this concern us?”

With this pointed question, Benedict XVI called us to deepen our understanding of the Resurrection of the Lord – and what it means for us, our lives, and our eternal destiny.

Christ is truly risen in the flesh, not to resume earthly life as we know it, but to take up a transcendent life in His glorified Body:

If we may borrow the language of the theory of evolution, it is the greatest ‘mutation,’ absolutely the most crucial leap into a totally new dimension that there has ever been in the long history of life and its development: a leap into a completely new order which does concern us, and concerns the whole of history…

The Resurrection was like an explosion of light, an explosion of love which…ushered in a new dimension of being, a new dimension of life in which, in a transformed way, matter too was integrated and through which a new world emerges.

It is clear that this event is not just some miracle from the past, the occurrence of which could be ultimately a matter of indifference to us…

We have been caught up into this supernatural reality through Baptism. Incorporated into Christ, each baptized person is capable of “finding oneself within the vastness of God,” sharing in the intimacy of God’s own life:

The great explosion of the Resurrection has seized us in Baptism so as to draw us on. Thus we are associated with a new dimension of life into which, amid the tribulations of our day, we are already in some way introduced.

To live one’s own life as a continual entry into this open space: this is the meaning of being baptized, of being Christian. This is the joy of the Easter Vigil.

The Resurrection is not a thing of the past; the Resurrection has reached us and seized us. We grasp hold of it, we grasp hold of the risen Lord, and we know that He holds us firmly even when our hands grow weak.

— Easter Vigil Homily of April 15, 2006.

Question for reflection: How am I changed by encountering the Risen Christ?

Engaging the Gospel – Mark 10:2-16

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B): Gospel – Mark 10:2-16

Jesus proclaims the indissolubility of marriage

“God Himself is the author of marriage,” as the Catechism reminds us (paragraph 1603).

“Since God created [the human race] man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man” (1604).

Sadly, when sin came into the world, this harmony was disrupted: “as a break with God, the first sin had for its first consequence the rupture of the original communion between man and woman” (1607). “To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need the help” of God’s grace. “Without His help, man and woman cannot achieve the union of their lives for which God created them in the beginning” (1608).

Jesus comes “to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin,” and thereby “He himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God…This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ’s cross, the source of all Christian life” (1615).

To learn more about God’s design for the family, see Love Is Our Mission, a guide prepared for the recent World Meeting of Families. Also, for practical helps, visit www.foryourmarriage.org, an initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Spiritual value of work

No matter what kind of work we do – whether inside or outside the home – our daily duties have a spiritual dimension.

The Church offers us a rich theology of work, what St John Paul II calls a “gospel of work,” that may revolutionize how we see our workaday lives. In Laborem Exercens, JPII explains that we are in fact collaborating with God’s work of both creation and redemption.

“The Church finds in the very first pages of the Book of Genesis the source of her conviction that work is a fundamental dimension of human existence on earth.” God created us in His image and gave us the task of earthly stewardship. “In carrying out this mandate, man, every human being, reflects the very action of the Creator of the universe” (4).

This truth took on special resonance when God became man in Jesus, and worked in St Joseph’s carpentry shop. Jesus “belongs to the ‘working world’…He looks with love upon human work and the different forms that it takes, seeing in each one of these forms a particular facet of man’s likeness with God, the Creator and Father” (26).

And the “sweat and toil” of our work likewise give us a share in Christ’s work:

This work of salvation came about through suffering and death on a Cross. By enduring the toil of work in union with Christ crucified for us, man in a way collaborates with the Son of God for the redemption of humanity. He shows himself a true disciple of Christ by carrying the cross in his turn every day in the activity that he is called upon to perform. The Christian finds in human work a small part of the Cross of Christ and accepts it in the same spirit of redemption in which Christ accepted His Cross for us (27).

Engaging the Gospel – John 6:1-15

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B): Gospel – John 6:1-15

Jesus’ miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fish not only fed the vast crowd, but it far exceeded their desires. This miracle, prefiguring Jesus’ offering of Himself in the Eucharist, illustrates that God’s generosity is boundless.

Indeed, God’s generosity is at the very root of creation itself:

St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things ‘not to increase His glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it,’ for God has no other reason for creating than His love and goodness.

And as St Thomas Aquinas wrote,

Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened His hand.

— Catechism paragraph 293.

Hence creation is not the result of “any necessity whatever, nor of blind fate or chance,” for it “proceeds from God’s free will; He wanted to make His creatures share in His being, wisdom, and goodness” (295).

The magnitude of creation is taken up into every celebration of the Eucharist:

The Eucharist, the sacrament of our salvation accomplished by Christ on the cross, is also a sacrifice of praise in thanksgiving for the work of creation. In the Eucharistic sacrifice the whole of creation loved by God is presented to the Father through the death and the Resurrection of Christ…

The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father…the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all His benefits, for all that He has accomplished through creation, redemption, and sanctification. Eucharist means first of all ‘thanksgiving’

The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of praise by which the Church sings the glory of God in the name of all creation.

— paragraphs 1359-61.

Question for reflection: How have I experienced the superabundant generosity of God?

 

Engaging the Gospel – Third Sunday of Advent

(Year B) Gospel – John 1:6-8, 19-28

When cross-examined by the priests, Levites, and Pharisees, St. John the Baptist stands firm, declaring that he prepares the way of the Lord. His clear realization of his own identity as Christ’s forerunner, rooted firmly in God’s plan, is instructive for us.

Contrary to what the world tells us, our worth is not dependent on the opinions of others; rather, our true identity is bound up in God, our Creator and our ultimate end. We are each created by God, “in a plan of sheer goodness,” in order to “share in His own blessed life” (Catechism paragraph 1).

“It is in Christ,” the Eternal Son of the Father, that we are “created in the image and likeness of the Creator.” Although we have defaced this image through sin, “it is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior,” that our “original beauty” is restored and “ennobled by the grace of God” (1701).

It is this wondrous gift of Christ that we will celebrate in a heightened way at Christmas.

“The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God” (457), “so that thus we might know God’s love” (458), “to be our model of holiness” (459) and “to make us partakers of the divine nature” (460).

All human beings have “the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone.” We are each “called by grace to a covenant” with God, “to offer Him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in [our] stead” (357).

Question for reflection: How do I define myself?

Thanksgiving

The term “Eucharist” is derived from the Greek for “thanksgiving.” This form of prayer reaches its apex in the celebration of the Eucharist, in which we participate in Christ’s offering of Himself to the Father, in a salvific work that encompasses the entire cosmos.

As the Catechism explains, “in the work of salvation, Christ sets creation free from sin and death to consecrate it anew and make it return to the Father, for His glory.”

Because Christ is the Head and we are the members of His Body, we too are integrally involved in this action. When we make our own offerings at Mass – of our time, resources, and most of all ourselves – all are taken up and absorbed into Jesus’ perfect sacrifice of thanksgiving.

But our thanksgiving is not limited to the Mass itself. Anything that we experience can become an occasion for thanksgiving. Although it is obviously easier to render thanks in happy circumstances, we should also learn to thank God even in our trials. St. Paul exhorts us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess 5:18).

By offering thanksgiving to God in the midst of difficulties, we grow in trust, knowing that the Lord is ordering all things for our eternal welfare. In this way we keep our earthly lives in the proper perspective of our ultimate destiny.

God did not have to create us at all, or share with us His own divine life. If we maintain a spirit of gratitude for God’s great works of creation, redemption, and sanctification – which we could never merit on our own – we can better shoulder the burdens of daily life.

For more, see Catechism paragraphs 2637-38.

Exercise Proper Stewardship

Summary of Catechism paragraphs 2401-63:

• The Seventh Commandment, “You shall not steal,” governs our relationship with goods; it calls us to respect what belongs to our neighbor and to exercise proper stewardship of our own resources, so that we may help others in need.
• God gave the entire earth to humankind as a whole, and all should take their part in its benefits, according to what is known as the universal destination of goods; nevertheless, its division into private property is necessary to safeguard our human freedom, dignity, and means of support.
• To respect others’ property rights, we must not take their goods against their will by theft; fail to pay workers a just wage; engage in fraud, bribery, or other forms of financial corruption; violate contracts; willfully refuse to pay debts or taxes; do slipshod work; or improperly take supplies from work for our own personal use.
• Economic life is bound by the moral law because it is ordered to the human person; work is a duty whereby we develop our gifts and talents to earn our livelihood, contribute to the good of others, and collaborate in our own unique way with God’s work of creation.
• As a result, each one of us has the right of economic initiative, so that we may pursue our interests and undertake ventures that help to build robust, flourishing societies; for this reason, the Church condemns communism because it stifles freedom and reduces people to cogs in a collective machine.
• At the same time, the centrality of the human person in economic life demands that profit should not be the overriding objective, to the detriment of moral concerns; while business owners have to seek profit to make their firms sustainable, they should also have due regard for their employees’ well-being.
• To promote both free enterprise and social justice, the Church advocates a system of appropriate government regulation, but leaves it to the lay faithful to determine the precise terms of that regulation; although the state has a role to play, the private sector has the primary responsibility to act justly in the economic arena.
• We are to have a “preferential love for the poor” because Jesus identifies with the poor, and warns us that we will be judged by our response to their needs; by helping the poor – both those suffering from a lack of material necessities and from spiritual poverty – we help Christ Himself.
• In the same way, wealthy nations are obligated to assist poor nations, so often crippled by the injustices of history; while direct aid can be helpful, it is more important in the long run to contribute to their economic development, and enable them to sustain themselves.
• This commandment also extends to our relationship with the environment; because we have been entrusted with the awe-inspiring gift of creation, we must tend it with respect; even as we may appropriately use animals for food and clothing, we must care for, and never abuse, God’s beautiful creatures.

Live Your Faith

We can be tempted to cut corners in all kinds of ways that we don’t necessarily think of as stealing. Do we cheat on our tax returns, or expense accounts?

Do we spend money disproportionately on ourselves, splurging on unnecessary things and hoarding closets-full of clothes, while neglecting to give sufficiently to our neighbor in dire need?

Do we spend time idling on social media when our employer thinks that we are working? Do we have pirated versions of movies, games, music, or software? All of these are forms of theft in that they unjustly deprive someone else of goods.

Engaging the Gospel – Matthew 6:24-34

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34

Jesus reassures us not to worry, but to seek the kingdom

For Blessed John Paul II, Sunday’s Gospel features “particularly touching” words about the Father’s loving care for each one of us:

With these words the Lord Jesus not only confirmed the teaching on divine Providence contained in the Old Testament. He entered more deeply into the subject as regards humanity, every single person, treated by God with the exquisite delicacy of a father…

They are said by the Son who, ‘scrutinizing’ all that has been said on the subject of Providence, bears perfect witness to the mystery of his Father, a mystery of Providence and of paternal care which embraces every creature, even the most insignificant, like the grass of the field or the sparrows. How much more, therefore, human beings!…

In this page of the Gospel on Providence we find the truth about the hierarchy of values which is present from the beginning of the Book of Genesis, in the description of creation — man has primacy over things. He has that primacy in his nature and in his spirit, he has it in the attention and care of Providence, he has it in the heart of God!

Moreover, Jesus insistently proclaimed that man, so privileged by his Creator, is duty-bound to cooperate with the gift received from Providence. He cannot be satisfied with the mere values of sense, of matter and of utility. He must seek above all ‘the kingdom of God and his righteousness.’

—General Audience, May 14, 1986.

Question for reflection: What worries must I let go of and entrust to the Lord?

Honor the Gift of Sexuality

Summary of Catechism paragraphs 2331-2400:

• The Sixth Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” reflects the profound meaning of human sexuality; far more than a mere satisfaction of appetites, sexuality is ordered to God’s plan for us – our vocation to love and communion.
• God created human beings as male and female, emblematic of God’s own attributes in our different, but complementary, ways; inscribed in our very nature, this physical, moral, and spiritual complementarity is designed for the lifelong union of man and woman in marriage.
• Our sexual identity as male or female is not to be denied, but integrated properly within our entire being; this wholesome integration is what we call “chastity,” which enables us to live our sexuality in a morally healthy way, whether as unmarried people living in continence, or as spouses in fidelity to each other.
• All Christians are therefore called to chastity; both a grace from God and a moral virtue that we diligently strive for, chastity empowers us for self-mastery, helps to regulate our passions, and safeguards our personal integrity.
• Chastity lays the groundwork for, and makes possible, the true gift of self that takes place in marriage; having given themselves to each other totally, exclusively, and irrevocably until death, husband and wife become one flesh; in this way their sexual union expresses their all-encompassing marital covenant.
• God Himself designed this intimate communion of spouses as the means of transmitting new life; through the gift of the marital embrace, spouses participate in God’s own creativity by conceiving children; sexual union is also for the good of the spouses, but that can never be separated from openness to new life.
• Children are thus gifts from God, the natural fulfillment of the spouses’ union, not optional accessories to one’s lifestyle; spouses can responsibly decide to regulate their fertility, but must do so by moral means (e.g., periodic continence in NFP), not by contraception, which denies the gift of self and fails to work with God.
• Because sexuality has such an amazing purpose in God’s plan, any sexual activity outside of marriage is sinful; adultery is a grave sin since it violates the marital bond, hurts the betrayed spouse, and can lead to the tragedy of divorce, a rejection of the covenant that is detrimental to both the family and society.
• Fornication is similarly a lie, for it speaks the physical language of union without there actually being a covenant; prostitution and pornography are destructive of human dignity because they treat others as objects; masturbation and lust are sinful because they are disordered pursuits of sexual pleasure for its own sake.
• Homosexual activity is wrong because it is inherently incompatible with God’s design for our sexual expression and with the transmission of life; our brothers and sisters with homosexual orientation are to be welcomed and supported to live out the baptismal call to chastity and holiness.

Live Your Faith

Our culture constantly propagandizes us about sex, as if it were just a recreational activity that we engage in whenever and however we please, without consequences.

But there is a deluge of evidence to the contrary: broken hearts, devastated families, an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases.

The truth is that sex is not a game; it is wrapped up in the mystery of the human person as created by God.

The Church teaches the full truth about sex, and however unpopular and countercultural it may be, only by honoring God’s gift in the way He intended can we find lasting happiness. If we have failed, the Lord is always eager to forgive us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Keep Holy the Lord’s Day

Summary of Catechism paragraphs 2168-95:

• If we love God above all, and revere His holy name, then we will desire to give Him the public worship He deserves; this is the basis of the Third Commandment, that we are to “remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
• The sabbath is vital to the divine revelation given to the people of Israel: the seventh day of the week was consecrated to God, in commemoration of His “rest” after the work of creation, His saving action of liberating them from slavery in Egypt, and their intimate covenant relationship with Him.
• In keeping with the pattern throughout the Old Testament, the sabbath was a preparation for the coming of Christ; Jesus emphasized its true meaning by performing miraculous healings on the sabbath, freeing people from the shackles of sin and disease.
• Through His Resurrection on Easter Sunday, Christ ushers in a new creation while completing His work of redemption; because both creation and redemption are intrinsically related to the sabbath, the observance of the sabbath was transferred to Sunday, the “Lord’s Day,” at the dawn of the Church.
• As the New Testament illustrates, the first Christians were already gathering on the first day of the week for the breaking of the bread; ever since then, for 2,000 years, the Sunday Eucharist has been “at the heart of the Church’s life.”
• When we assemble in the same way with our parish family to celebrate the Lord’s Day, we testify that we belong to the Church that transcends time and space; like our forebears, we are nourished with the Word of God in Scripture and in sacrament, as we receive the Word made flesh, the Lord, in the Eucharist.
• This worship is so crucial to our spiritual health, and our right relationship with God, that it is a grave obligation; if we deliberately fail to attend Mass on Sundays or other holy days, without a serious reason (such as illness), we commit a mortal sin and must seek the sacrament of Reconciliation.
• God also gives us this commandment for the sake of our physical and emotional well-being; He commands us to rest from our usual daily grind of work and toil, reclaim our freedom from material preoccupations, and savor a foretaste of our eternal rest with God.
• By being faithful to the Sunday rest from work, we can relax with family and friends, enjoy healthy recreations, set aside more quiet time for reflection, and reach out in charity to others in need.
• Unfortunately, many have to work on Sundays because of the nature of their employment; while this is unavoidable in certain instances, employers and customers should not place excessive or unnecessary burdens on workers, and those who do work should still carve out time to keep the Lord’s Day holy.

Live Your Faith

Whenever we deliberately skip Mass on a Sunday or other holy day, just because we didn’t bother to go, we are telling God, “I’ve got something better to do.”

But nothing in the entire cosmos is more important than thanking God for loving me personally before time began; for creating me; for redeeming me; for forgiving me; for enlightening me with the fullness of His truth in the Catholic Church; for giving me His own Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist; for desiring me to spend eternal life in unimaginable happiness with Him.

Only in the Mass can we render proper thanks and praise, because it is the very sacrifice of Christ to the Father.

Matrimony

Summary of Catechism paragraphs 1601-66:

• God is the author of marriage; by inscribing the complementarity of male and female into our very human nature, He created man and woman for each other, so that the two would become one flesh, in a lifetime partnership of mutual self-giving, for the procreation of children.
• Faithful love between husband and wife mirrors the abiding love of God for His people; first developed by the Old Testament prophets, this imagery reached its fulfillment in Christ, Who weds Himself to the human race by becoming man, and invites us all to His eternal wedding feast in heaven.
• It is deeply significant that Jesus’ first public miracle takes place at the wedding at Cana, symbolizing His active presence in the marriage of the faithful; thus the natural institution of marriage, known and celebrated by cultures from time immemorial, is elevated into a sacrament of Christian life.
• The name matrimony derives from the Latin terms for the “state or condition of motherhood” — revealing that this sacrament is designed for the welcoming of new life, that the spouses may cooperate with God through openness to fertility, raising children in the faith, and forming a family that is a “domestic church.”
• Christian marriage involves the total self-gift of each spouse to the other, in a covenant ratified by God; as a result, the marital bond, once freely entered into and consummated by baptized persons, cannot be dissolved; this is no man-made rule, for Christ Himself taught that marriage was to be a lifelong union of fidelity.
• Because husband and wife are offering themselves to each other, the marriage celebration appropriately occurs during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, when Christ gives Himself to us in the Eucharist.
• This liturgical context illustrates that marriage is not strictly private, but rather a state of life – an order – in the Church; spouses correspondingly have duties and responsibilities to each other and to their children.
• Mutual consent is absolutely necessary for the validity of marriage; if full consent is lacking on either part at the exchange of vows, they are not actually making a covenant, and there is no sacramental marriage between them; marriages can be annulled on this basis – not “divorce,” but finding that the marriage never existed.
• As a sacrament, matrimony confers special grace upon the spouses; although they will experience the difficulties and trials of any relationship between flawed human beings, Christ imparts His grace to help them through the rough times, sustain their marital bond, and support their family life.
• By striving to live out their marriage vows, spouses fulfill their vocation to follow Christ, accepting the crosses that come their way, for their mutual sanctification; husband and wife thereby become beacons of the covenant between Christ and His Church.

Live Your Faith

Marriage is not an arrangement of convenience for our own gratification, nor can it be arbitrarily redefined by legislative or judicial fiat.

The truth about marriage is much more challenging to us, but also a far nobler vision of what God wants for us.

He calls husband and wife to an exalted vocation, and equips them to fulfill it, if they would be open to His grace. While many will fall short of this ideal at one time or another, let us never forget that God is a party to our marriage.

Dignity of the Human Person

Summary of Catechism paragraphs 355-84:

• The human person occupies a unique place in creation.
• Made in God’s image, and composed of both body and soul, we unite in ourselves the spiritual and material worlds; God therefore wills our human nature to be a union of body and soul.
• Because God has so designed us, we cannot properly view ourselves as spirits who are merely trapped in the flesh; our bodies are integral to who we are as human beings.
• God chose to create human beings as male and female, in perfect equality as persons; at the same time, the complementarity of male and female serves to reflect God’s perfection.
• Accordingly, man and woman are created to be a communion of persons, and to collaborate with God in the transmission of life.
• This collaboration involves the direct action of God, who alone creates each one of our souls; parents contribute their physical substance, but they do not produce their children’s souls.
• Each of us is called to enter into God’s own life, to give Him a personal response of faith and love that no one else can give in our stead.
• Since every human being is a child of the Father, we are all truly brothers and sisters; recognizing this profound unity binding the entire human family, we are to show our love for all and our solidarity with all.
• God’s primordial plan was for us to be in harmony with Him, at peace within ourselves, with each other, and with all of creation.
• This state of original justice existed in the beginning, but as the account of Genesis reveals, it was destroyed by the sin of our first parents.

Live Your Faith

The truth that each human person – from the microscopic embryo on up – is made in God’s image, and that God in His love has fashioned our souls, should convince us of the dignity of the human person, and the sanctity of human life.

We must dedicate ourselves to building a culture that welcomes and upholds life, while in conscience opposing ideologies that seek to cheapen or destroy life.

Creation

Summary of Catechism paragraphs 279-301, 337-49:

• God created the entire cosmos out of nothing; all that exists, whether spiritual or material, owes its origins, life, and existence to God.
• Perfectly sufficient within Himself, God was under no necessity or constraint to create.
• But out of His own sovereign freedom, He chose to create the cosmos, to show forth His glory by making creatures who could share in His life, goodness, and love.
• As St. Thomas Aquinas observed, “Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened His hand.”
• Creation is thus the first step toward God’s covenant of love with humankind; indeed, He made the cosmos as a gift for us.
• The creation accounts in Genesis are not intended as a scientific textbook; the sacred author is not trying to explain precisely how God created everything.
• Rather, the language of Scripture conveys the essential theological point: that creation has its origin from God, and that it is good in itself because it reflects the order, beauty, and wisdom of the Creator.
• As a result, the Church welcomes scientific advances that can teach us about the nature of the physical world, and its fascinating intricacies that inspire wonder and admiration.
• While science plays a vital role in analyzing the material world, it cannot properly address the profound spiritual questions that have long absorbed the human mind.
• The Church has defended the truth about creation from various heresies over the centuries, upholding its goodness and testifying to God’s continuing care for His creatures.

Live Your Faith

Has the beauty of the natural world helped us to draw near to God, praising Him for its extravagant variety? Or do we sometimes take creation for granted, and miss out on God’s elaborate gift to us? Let us examine our attitudes toward creation and resolve to be better stewards of the world God has entrusted to us.