In the days of the Roman persecution, a Christian, a citizen whose very mission statement is to bring goodness into society surrounding him, had to unfairly choose between service to Rome and fidelity to Christ. The choice was to renounce Christ—to burn incense to the Emperor and worship him as if he were God–or to die. How could Christians betray Christ? There is a similar decision being forced upon Christians today.

The US Bishops’ document on Religious Freedom, Our First, Most Cherished Liberty, clearly states that there is no intrinsic contradiction between being a Catholic and an American. In fact, Catholics who practice their faith contribute so much to make America a better, just, and civil society—that is why they began running schools, adoption agencies, and hospitals. But again, a choice is being thrust upon Christians, to falsely dichotomize faith and the public life of a citizen.

A mandate has been issued by The Department of Health and Human Services which forces religious institutions and commited Catholics to provide insurance coverage for contraception, abortion inducing drugs, and sterilization, without exhemption, unless they hire and serve Catholics only. Refusal results in heavy fines.

In an unprecedented way, the federal government will both force religious institutions to facilitate and fund a product contrary to their own moral teaching and purport to define which religious institutions are “religious enough” to merit protection of their religious liberty.

Our First, Most Cherished Liberty

Essentially HHS is saying that religious faith does not have a say in matters of government policy. Contraception must be provided by employers/insurance even though this may go against relgiously-formed conscience. The mandate blatantly goes against the freedom of religion, a principle upon which this country was founded. The First Amendment explictly Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Catholic institutions should be free to offer services according to their religious tenants just as a Jewish deli should be free not to sell pork. If the mandate passes, God forbid, the government will be saying that one is free to worship as one chooses, but one is not free to apply religious principles to the way one lives one’s life and does business. It’s quite a breathtaking threat to a free society. If Catholics do not comply with the mandate they will be fined into oblivion and forced to withold charitable services from the less fortunate.

Right at the outset, he bishops’ document states that “[w]e are Catholics. We are Americans. We are proud to be both, grateful for the gift of faith which is ours as Christian disciples, and grateful for the gift of liberty which is ours as American citizens. To be Catholic and American should mean not having to choose one over the other. Our allegiances are distinct, but they need not be contradictory, and should instead be complementary. That is the teaching of our Catholic faith, which obliges us to work together with fellow citizens for the common good of all who live in this land. That is the vision of our founding and our Constitution, which guarantees citizens of all religious faiths the right to contribute to our common life together.”

Catholics have a mandate from Christ, to build up his kingdom: to be leavening agents for good. Our alligence to Christ enables us to be better Americans, obedient to lawful authority. However, when the government issues an unjust law, we cannot obey that law and must oppose it. That’s why the U.S. bishops have announced a “Fortnight for Freedom” from June 21-July 4 to pray for the preservation of religious liberty. June 21 is the the Vigil of the Feasts of two men, St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, who were marytred because they refused to accept the king’s redefinition of Catholicism. The 14 days will be a time to be strengthened by the examples of martyrs who had the courage to oppose political forces that threatened the practice of their faith. When the Roman Empire declared the practice of Christianity an illegal, punishable offense, the steadfast chose death over betrayal of Christ.

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I want to end with a quote from the movie the Robe when the newly converted Roman Tribune (the guy who won Jesus’ robe in the dice game) who stood before the Emperor. The following highlights the fact that religious practice need not contradict public life:

Caligula:
Kneel to us and renew your oath of loyalty to your emperor. Renounce your allegiance to this dead Jew who dared to call himself a king.

Marcellus Gallio (kneeling):
Sire…With all my heart l renew my pledge of loyalty to my emperor and to Rome, a pledge which l have never broken.

Caligula:
And the other? Jesus? Renounce him, so all can hear.

Marcellus Gallio:
l cannot renounce him, sire. Nor can you. He is my king and yours as well.

I’m reading Fr. Michael Gaitley MIC’s book on 33 day preparation for Marian Consecration, 33 Days to Morning Glory, from now to the end of May. The format is a bit different, each week features the Marian spirituality of a different holy person. Even though I’ve already made my consecration and continue to renew it every November, it’s definitely worth reading this book to renew my consecration on the Feast of the Visitation. Father Michael has a lot of great insights. (Btw, here is a post about Consecration to Jesus through Mary and St. Louis de Montfort whose feast day it is today)

The mission given in baptism is to become saints, and in these desperate latter times, we are to become great saints. It is possible for this to happen, just as there is an Immaculate Conception. She is the greatest saint, and there will be no saint greater than she; and yet, we need to realize that her incomparable holiness at conception was a pure gift to her. The graces that we need to become great saints are free gifts to us, they are all acts of the mercy of God. The ultimate act of mercy was when God died upon the cross. And it was upon the cross that Jesus gave us his mother to be our mother.

When the side of Jesus was pierced, the depths of his mercy were outpoured, making it possible to share in the Divine Life as children of God. These graces of mercy enable us to grow up into Jesus, which is the essence of great sanctity. Cooperation with grace consists in loving God and neighbor, and thus has the effect of satiating the thirst for charity that Christ had upon the Cross. It occurs to me that Jesus looks down at his mother, giving her to beloved disciples (represented by St. John), right before crying out, “I Thirst.” Jesus wanted his mother to bear discipless—an army—to address his thirst! (I’m pretty sure Fr. Michael makes the same conclusion).

If we are children of God, brothers of Jesus, then Mary is our Mother. All children need a mother; and just as Mother Mary fed, nourished, and brought up Jesus Christ, she is to feed, nourish and bring us up til we attain to the full stature of Jesus Christ. Fielding potential objections like St. Louis de Montfort does, Fr. Michael notes in his introduction that since the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, Mother Mary nurtures us through her union to him.

It is by the Providence of God that we have our two weapons of Mercy and Mary. Before ending this post, it’s worth sharing that on Divine Mercy Sunday, my ventilator had a technical difficulty (manual error) and today, the Feast of St. Louis de Monfort who gave us his masterful work, True Devotion to Mary in which he teaches Marian consecration, and who inspired me to read 33 Days to Morning Glory right on time.

Today’s the Feast of St. Mark, the Evangelist. He was a disciple of Christ who, after the ascension, accompanied St. Peter in Rome as his secretary. St. Mark lived in Rome and wrote the Gospel of Mark for a Greek-speaking Roman, Christian, audience, probably to encourage them in the midst of persecution. That’s important to keep in mind when reading the first line of his Gospel:

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

While these words may not necessarily jump out at people, Father Robert Barron, in his Catholicism series, points out  just how revolutionary those words were/are! The Greek word  behind “good news” and “gospel” is euanggelion, a word used to refer to an imperial victory won by Caesar. St. Mark is proclaiming the true victory of Jesus Christ who was put to death under Caesar and now lives!  The Roman Emperor is healed as “ the son of the gods,” but it is Jesus Christ who is the true Son of the Living God and God himself!  Right at the outset St. Mark is making quite a bold statement, subversive even, in the eyes of Romans who worshiped their Emperor.

I think that the Gospel of Mark is a manifesto, a proud proclamation of the kingdom of God. On this Feast of St. Mark, I can’t help but to consider the similarities between his day and ours. Specifically, the current state of affairs in American society seems headed in a direction where citizens will have to choose between serving God and serving Caesar. It seems like we may be there already…

End Pt.1

Happy Easter! Christ Jesus is alive; to the wonderment of nature, I received him in Holy Communion on Sunday! It gave me joy to know that I received the Living One, the antidote to my death and the One who raises me up to a new way of life.

He who died is himself the resurrection and life and therefore could not be held by death; Jesus destroyed death, taking the sting out of it. I like the way Saint John Chrysostom puts it in his Sermon on Pascha:

Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed; let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone forth from the grave; let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free.  He has destroyed it by enduring it, He has despoiled Hades by going down into its kingdom, He has angered it by allowing it to taste of his flesh.  

When Isaiah foresaw all this, he cried out: “O Hades, you have been angered by encountering Him in the nether world.”  Hades is angered because it has been frustrated, it is angered because it has been mocked, it is angered because it has been destroyed, it is angered because it has been reduced to naught, it is angered because it is now held captive.  It seized a body, and lo! it discovered God; it seized earth, and, behold! it encountered heaven; it seized the visible, and was overcome by the invisible.  

O death, where is your sting?  O Hades, where is your victory?  Christ is risen and life is freed; 
Christ is risen and the tomb is emptied of the dead: for Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the Leader and Reviver of those who had fallen asleep.  To Him be glory and power for ever and ever.  Amen

God has died. Not sparing himself, God the Son voluntarily humbled himself and took the form of a slave in order to make slaves into children of God the Father, and human beings into partakers of Divine Nature (He is the Life). Jesus experienced human life from conception all the way to death, even a brutal death on a cross; he went through it all, preparing the way for humanity to walk in (He is the Way). Only love in the truest sense can explain why God lies in the stone cold tomb.

On Holy Thursday Jesus showed us, in the washing the feet, how the greatest must be the servant of the least. He instructed his disciples to go and do the same: “love one another as I loved you.” But how can anyone hope to do this? How can we love as Jesus without posessing the love with which he loves? And so, Jesus shares his very Heart under the appearances of bread and wine; the same Love Who died on the Cross gives his saving Body and Blood as food: “this is my body which will be given up for you.”

The Liturgies of Good Friday and Palm Sunday reminded me that I myself shouted “crucify him” every time I commited a mortal sin. When I chased something other Christ, I cried “we have no king but Caesar.” Every sin is a denial of Jesus.

It is on Cross that God manifests the depths of how far He would go to free the likes of me from the eternal enslavement to sin and death. On the Cross the regenerating flow of grace gushed forth from the side of the New Temple; the power to become adopted children of God was made freely available. Jesus’ death is life: The Cross is redemptive. Death is dead, a gate of life. Everything’s upside down—right side up. In light of all this, I can do no other than live for him who died for me that I might live. I must make the most of this free grace because I was redeemed at such a great price.

Jesus thirsts to be thirsted for. How can we refuse? It all starts with accepting the love of God—be loved in order to love in return. Living and loving in Jesus means continually saying “fiat voluntas tua.” Not my will but yours be done. Even in suffering. Jesus exemplifies this: Adam disobeyed at the wrong tree, Jesus obeyed on the right tree. We can unite our suffering to his. Sometimes we complain and suffer poorly—I know about that—we can offer even this after the fact. Our Lady at Calvary knows about thirsting for God and doing his will—that is why he gave her to us at the foot of the Cross.

Today, Holy Saturday, we wait at the tomb–in a garden–with Mother Mary, the New Eve. May she prepare us for the Resurrection of her Son, Christ our Life. In a few hours Jesus will rise: love is stronger than death. How can death hope to contain Life?

Francisco de Zurbarán [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Because March 25 fell on Sunday, the Feast of the Annunciation was moved to March 26. That was the day that I had an appointment to get my tracheostomy tube changed; readers of this blog may be aware of what the biannual procedure entails. Suffice it to say, it’s a somewhat painful and tends to wear me out for the day; the estimated total of 80 minutes on the road have a lot to do with it as well. So I didn’t feel like doing anything but sitting in front of the TV watching EWTN: I heard many reminders about hope in the midst of suffering which connected my thoughts to the mystery of the Incarnation.

My pain is endowed with supernatural power, redemptive power, because Christ became a man and endowed the human experience with his own Life. At the moment of his conception in the immaculate mother’s womb, Christ Jesus assumed our human nature in order to redeem it: quoting an early church father, Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio put it so clearly by saying that “everything assumed [by the Eternal Word of God] is redeemed,” that is to say, bodies and souls have all been touched by God when he himself shared in our humanity. He shared in every stage of my life, from unborn child to grown man. Because Jesus shared in my suffering as well, he knows what is to suffer, and he totally transformed it into an opportunity for tremendous blessings and graces which last forever. Therefore, I’m never alone in my suffering… and don’t we all need Somebody to lean on?

What is so threatening about a 17-year-old kid carrying a bag of Skittles? Trayvon Martin was shot by an apparently racist man who looked bigger than he did–for no other reason than “self defense.” How can a man following a teenager because he did not live in the neighborhood, shoot and kill him out of “self defense”!?! It is a terrible tragedy that should have never happened   if the police took it seriously. And, “to add insult to injury,” the known murderer has yet to be arrested! The injustice is simply maddening. Please sign this petition for the murderer’s arrest right now. It was created by his parents and is currently a little more than 100,000 short of 1 million signatures.

May Trayvon Martin rest in peace. Prayers for the consolation of his parents, friends, and family.

St. Joseph believed that Our Lady was a virgin even though she was pregnant, he lived with two perfect individuals, and he relocated his family twice at moment’s notice. Being the foster father of Jesus, the God-Man and the husband of Mary, the Mother of God must have been a tremendously powerful experience. He guarded Treasures beyond compare! St. Joseph must have been humble indeed; his recorded silence speaks to this fact.

The humility of St. Joseph is a reminder of what is required for being close to Jesus especially during our Lenten preparation. While its true that Joseph was chosen because he was a heir to David, it was his humility that made him a worthy foster father of Jesus. His humility baffled demons as to the identity of the son of Joseph. Humility is necessary for men to live up to the responsibilities of their calling. Far from making one a wuss, humility is the virtue of St. Joseph, a rugged construction worker. It’s the first step towards greatness and courage. Speaking of courage, there is movie worth checking out called Courageous.

There is more that can be said about St. Joseph, but my words end here: St. Joseph, pray for us!

So my nurse and i finished watching Ben Hur the other day. I forgot how long it was–good thing we divided it into segments over the course of a few days. I’ve seen Ben Hur so many times before but this time i watched it purposefully, for Lent. The life of Judah Ben Hur is juxtaposed with the life of Christ (who is only seen in glimpses from behind) and gives witness to the fact that God guides all events and experiences, including suffering, to his greater purpose: Ben Hur loses his life involuntarily and yet, at every turn, is kept alive and led by God’s Providence, not for revenge but for Redemption; he ends up at the right place at the right time.

Both Christ and Ben-Hur are innocent men who are betrayed by friends, both took the form of a slave, and both faced Roman torture and utter deprivation. Ironically, Ben-Hur referred to as “the one true God” by Pilate–the guy who condemns the real God to death! How each man reacts to the suffering is telling–Christ loves, Ben Hur hates, Christ forgives, Ben-Hur wants revenge. The vengeance of Christ is Divine Mercy. It is Love that transforms suffering, making it redemptive to the point where the Cross of Calvary can be called victorious!

In forgetting himself and fully cooperating with Divine Providence, Ben Hur ultimately experiences a level of joy that he would have never  known had he not suffered. That’s what makes this movie so powerful–that, and the chariot race obviously.