Non Nisi Te: None but You, Lord

Solemnity of St. Thomas Aquinas

            St. Thomas Aquinas is known for a great many things.  On the lighter side, it is commonly held that St. Thomas was a very large man.  In fact, he was called the Dumb Ox in school, due to his large size and (ironically) seemingly slow-working intellect.  Stories are also told that at the table at which St. Thomas would usually sit for meals, a crescent had to be cut away so that he could sit close enough to the table to take his food.  On a more serious side, St. Thomas is known for his great writing: Summa Theologica, Summa contra Gentiles, Corpus Christi texts for Mass, the hymns: Tantum Ergo, Pange Lingua, Adoro Te, Devote, and so many more.  His intellectual understanding of the faith is, in my humble estimation, unrivaled by any person before or after him.

            And yet, there have been many smart people who are not saints.  And St. Thomas’ size, no matter whether the stories are true or false, did not create his holiness.  No, there was something else in St. Thomas’ life that was greater even than his love of knowledge.  And that trait is best described by a true story of St. Thomas.

            When St. Thomas was in Naples, celebrating Mass, the crucifix on the altar spoke to him, saying, “You have written well of me, Thomas.  What reward will you have?”  To this grand question from the Lord, St. Thomas answered, “None other than You, Lord.”  Those words in Latin, Non nisi Te, appear on the crest of our great parish school.

            None other than You, Lord.  What profound words from a man who had systematically progressed through the major and minor questions of the faith with stunning accuracy, such that, centuries later, Pope Leo XIII advised that all seminarians be required to study St. Thomas Aquinas (no other saint received such a recommendation, not even St. Augustine), and declared St. Thomas the patron of Catholic universities, schools, and students.  St. Thomas could have answered that he wanted more knowledge to complete his great Summa Theologica.  He could have answered that wanted to be assured of salvation for him and his family.  He could have asked for the flourishing of the order to which St. Thomas dedicated his life, the Order of Preachers or Dominicans.  But he simply said, “None other than You, Lord.”

            What a great question to ask ourselves: if Jesus spoke from this crucifix here in this church, or, indeed, from any crucifix, and asked me what I wanted, what would be my answer?  Would I ask for wisdom, money, power, friends, health, peace, an end to poverty, or assured salvation?  If so, we would not have answered as well as St. Thomas, and would not receive the fullness of the gift that God wants to bestow on us.  Sure, wisdom is good so we can choose to do good and avoid evil.  Money is a fine means of providing for our family, for the Church, and for helping to end poverty.  Power can be used to advance the respect for human dignity and justice.  Peace is the gift of the children of God in the beatitudes.  And who doesn’t want to be in heaven with God forever?  And yet, we should be asking God for the conversion to desire nothing but God alone, because He, as St. Thomas taught, is the greatest good, the good to be desired above all other goods.

            In desiring and receiving the Lord, we find that all those other things which are good and helpful, especially to our salvation, are provided for us anyways.  This is what our Lord means when He said, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.”  If we desire the Lord, and we open our hearts to receive Him, then nothing which is truly good will be denied us.

            In this Mass, we have the opportunity to deepen our love for our Lord, and to receive Him, especially through His Word and through His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.  How blest are our ears that they hear God’s Word, our minds that they are taught with heavenly wisdom, and our tongues that the receive the Lord of all creation under the appearance of bread and wine!

            So great was St. Thomas’ love of the Eucharist that, besides penning the texts for the Corpus Christi Mass, texts which we still use today, and writing eloquently about the Sacrament of Sacraments, when Thomas was dying and received the Eucharist for the last time in Viaticum, he said:

I firmly believe and know as certain that Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, is in this Sacrament…I receive Thee, the price of my redemption, for Whose love I have watched, studied, and laboured.  Thee have I preached; Thee have I taught. 

 Knowing that he wanted nothing but the Lord, in his last hours of life, he affirmed that the Eucharist was precisely the great desire of his life, more than knowledge or any other gift.

            St. Thomas provides us with the example of what it means to prefer nothing above God.  It’s a tall order, but something which we are all called to do: whether priest or deacon, religious or consecrated person, married or single, adult or child.  Are we there yet?  Maybe some of you are.  I’m certainly still working on it.  But we know it’s possible because St. Thomas has shown us the way, a way that he did not create, but a way which he pointed out to us in showing us Jesus who is the Way.  As St. Thomas said, “God alone satisfies.”  Help us, O Lord, to purify our desires so that we can say with St. Thomas that we desire “none but You, Lord.”  Non nisi Te.  St Thomas Aquinas: pray for us!

"Little Baby Jesus" ~Ricky Bobby

Epiphany of the Lord

            Just a few weeks ago the trailer for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” was released.  As a big “Lord of the Rings” fan, both the books and the movies, I was pretty excited.  It looks to be a good movie telling the first half of the tale of Bilbo Baggins’ adventure.  Still, there’s always a little awkwardness that can come when, if you’ve read the books, you picture characters looking a certain way, and then on the screen the actors with all their makeup look different than you pictured.

            Today, as we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, we celebrate Jesus showing Himself forth to the nations, the Gentiles, the non-Jews, represented in the three magi who came from the east.  The very word epiphany could be translated as “showing forth.”  And, in fact, the Solemnity of the Epiphany has, historically, celebrated the three manifestations of Jesus: to the magi, at His baptism, and at the wedding of Cana, where Jesus, in three different ways at different times, made Himself known to others. 

            But, sticking with the Gospel passage we have today, I wonder if the magi saw what they expected.  They told King Herod that they were traveling to see the “newborn king of the Jews.”  So when they showed up at the home of Joseph and Mary, and saw a little boy, living in humble circumstances, I wonder if they were taken aback.  As they were offering their precious gifts: gold for a king, frankincense for a deity, and myrrh for a rich burial, I wonder what they thought of this little boy.

            We, of course, have ways that we like to think of Jesus.  Maybe we’re like Ricky Bobby from “Talladega Nights,” and we like to think of our Lord as “little baby Jesus.”  Or maybe when we picture Jesus we think of a king in royal robes and a crown.  Perhaps we think of Jesus as a poor, itinerant preacher, a radical of His own day.  Or maybe we see Jesus as a strong carpenter.  Or when we think of Jesus, maybe we always see Him on the cross.  In whatever way we like to think of Jesus, it is still the case that Jesus continues to surprise us by his presence.

            For some, Jesus surprises them by being present today in his brothers and sisters: in the poor begging on the corner; in our family members, especially the ones that we want to avoid; in the terminally ill; in the elderly; in those with a same-sex attraction, or in broken marriages.  And yet, Jesus still makes Himself present in these people, who have inherent goodness because they are human persons, created in the image and likeness of God, who, no matter what good or bad choices they have made, still deserve our love and can still manifest Christ, even if it’s harder to see at times.  In these manifestations, Jesus continues to make Himself known, and we still are called to care for Him who lays hidden beneath those human frailties. 

The life of St. Martin of Tours, whom the Church celebrates on November 11^th, bares this out in a very clear way.  St. Martin was a soldier, and he was riding his horse in the cold winter.  Along the road was a poor man who barely had any clothes on and was freezing.  Martin cut his cloak in two with his sword, and gave half to that poor man so that he could warm, even if just a little.  That night, St. Martin had a vision of Jesus wearing that cloak, and realized what Jesus meant when, in Matthew 25, He said, “What you did for the least of my brothers and sisters you did for me.”

In our own times, there are a number of people, maybe right here in our own parish, who struggle to see Jesus manifest Himself through His Mystical Body, the Church.  And certainly, some members of the Church don’t always make it easy to see Christ in the Church.  We certainly are a corpus permixtum, as St. Augustine of Hippo calls us, a group made up of both sinners and saints.  And yet, in a mysterious way, the Church is the mystical and immaculate Body of Christ, without sin, and communicating the fruits of Christ’s own redeeming life to those who cling to it.  As Timothy Cardinal Dolan has said on many occasions, “Christ and his Church are one.”  You cannot have one without the other, period.  Or, to quote the Catechism, which quotes St. Cyprian of Carthage, “No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother.”

How often do we hear the phrase, again, sometimes from Catholics, “I’m spiritual, but not religious”?  Or, “I have a great relationship with Jesus, but I don’t want to mess it up by getting other people involved.”  When Jesus manifests Himself, even today, He does so always with His Mystical Body, the Church, and never apart from her.  To quote the great Vatican II theologian, Henri de Lubac, “For what would I ever know of him, without her?” 

Does this mean that everyone who represents the Church is always perfect and always right?  Certainly not.  Does this mean that we should never struggle with some of the teachings of the Church on matters of faith and morals?  Some people do struggle with what the Church teaches, seeking to understand what the Church has defined as belonging to the deposit of faith.  But, when it comes to matters of faith and morals, we can know that when the Church acts, it is Jesus acting through her, whether it’s on the Church’s teaching on abortion, contraception, the preferential option for the poor, marriage, who Christ is, who the Church is, and down the line.  We may not have been expecting to see Christ in that way, but just because we do not expect Christ to be shown forth in that way does not mean it is not Christ.  Maybe instead of wanting the Church to change to fit our desires, we need to change our desires to fit with the Church.

Jesus continues to manifest Himself to us, as He did to the magi 2,000 years ago.  As He likely shocked the magi then, sometimes He may shock us in His manifestation.  The question for us is whether, like the magi, we will choose to lay down what is precious for us: our time, our treasure, and our assent of the will in faith.  I would suggest that, for many of us, money and an independent will are the two things which are most precious to us.  Will we lay them down at the feet of Jesus Christ as He manifests Himself to us in the marginalized and in His Mystical Body, the Church?

The Blessing!

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

            Well, here we stand, at the beginning of a New Year, the Year of our Lord 2012.  On New Year’s Eve people around the world stayed up late to be awake at the moment we changed from 2011 to 2012, made New Year’s resolutions, perhaps kissed loved ones, and hoped that this new year will have fewer sorrows and more joys.  In essence, they were asking God to pour out His blessings upon them and their loved ones.

            The theme of blessing is unmistakable in today’s readings.  Our first reading begins with the Lord telling Moses to tell Aaron, the newly ordained priests of the covenant of Sinai, how to bless the Lord’s people: “‘The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!’”  And God promises that when the priests do this, the Lord will truly bless them.  And in our responsorial psalm we hear the invocation of God’s blessing.  Even our second reading, though it does not contain the word “blessing,” talks about the true blessing of how “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”  St. Paul talks to us about our blessing of being made sons and daughters in the Son of God.

            But what is a blessing?  We use the word all the time, but do we understand it?  The word itself comes from two Latin words, bene and dicere, meaning to speak well.  When we bless people, we certainly speak well of them.  Still, when we talk about God’s blessing, we are talking about God whose Word is effective.  A blessing is not just a wish for good things, but when it comes from the Lord, it is an effective way of communicating God Himself through certain words.  Of course, blessings are not magic.  We must be open to the blessing to be able to receive the goodness that it is meant to convey.  But as long as we are open to the blessing, God’s grace is conferred upon us for our benefit.

            I would suggest that for the New Year, as we seek God’s blessing, God’s goodness, that we take this celebration as our starting point.  Today we celebrate Mary, the Holy Mother of God.  We celebrate the human woman, the highest honor of our human family, who said yes to God in all things, and so merited to be the Mother of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  And because Jesus is fully God, we rightfully call her the Mother of God, not just the mother of Jesus, as some heretics would do in the fourth century.

            Since Jesus Christ is the greatest blessing, as St. Paul reminds us in our second reading, because by His death and resurrection He has made us heirs to eternal life, and as the true High Priest has truly communicated God’s fullest blessings to us in having the courage to cry out, “Abba, Father!”, we should look to Mary to receive the fullness of these blessings, because it is only through Mary’s yes to God that we were able to receive the greatest blessing: Jesus our Savior.

            Now, do not confuse me.  I am not elevating Mary over Jesus, as if there is a quaternity rather than a Trinity.  We only believe in One God in Three Persons, and Mary is not a part of that Blessed Trinity.  But, we receive the grace of Divine Love in its fullest expression through Mary, and so it is through her that we receive Christ, even in our daily lives.  This is what that pious phrase, “To Jesus, through Mary,” means.  It means that, while we have access to the Father in Christ, we have access to Christ through Mary, His Mother, who is always leading us back to Jesus, and reminding us as she did at the Wedding at Cana, “Do Whatever He Tells You,” the very words we have in our Cana Chapel (here) at St. Thomas.  While our Gospel today spoke of Mary keeping all the mysteries that happened at Jesus’ birth, and reflecting on them in her heart, she does not keep our prayers to herself, but presents them to her Lord and her Son in faithful trust.  And what Son can refuse the prayers of so loving a mother?  Surely the author of the commandment “Honor your father and mother” would not refuse the request of His Mother, especially since her will is now united in heaven with the will of God.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

            Catholics, for centuries, have turned toward the Mother of God, and since that day that Jesus gave Mary to us as our mother as He told His beloved apostle John, “‘Behold your mother,’” we have not ceased to turn to Blessed Mary, ever-Virgin to plead our cause and to present our prayers to her Son.  We need only think of the rosary, the Angelus, the first Saturdays, the brown scapular, and devotions to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, La Virgen de Guadalupe, Our Lady of Sorrows, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and so many others.  Sadly, many of these faded after Vatican II.  But as Pope Bl. John Paul II reminded us so frequently, that was not the Council’s intent.  With the words of his papal motto: Totus tuus—Totally yours, our late pontiff reminded us of the love we should have for Mary.

            In this New Year, let us be bold in asking God for His blessings.  Let us approach Him as we would a loving Father.  And how many times, when wanting something from our earthly fathers, have we, wisely, asked our earthly mothers to intercede for us so that we may obtain the good things we need and want?  May we make our requests for blessings through the intercession of our Blessed Mother each day, by uniting our lives to Christ through her.  May her name be on our lips as we rise each morning, and in thanksgiving for her assistance as we fall asleep each night.  For me it is as simple as the pious prayer, Mater mea, fiducia mea: my Mother, my confidence at the beginning of the day, and a hymn to Mary, usually the Salve Regina, as I go to bed.  Or we can make our own the Morning Offering, as I do when I put on my scapular: O my God, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer thee the Precious Blood of Jesus from all the altars throughout the world.  O my Jesus, I desire today to gain every indulgence and merit I can, and offer them, together with myself, to Mary Immaculate, that she may best apply them in the interests of thy Most Sacred Heart.   O Precious Blood of Jesus, save us!  Holy Mary, mother of God, mother of the Church, and our mother: pray for us!