What Makes Us Catholic

 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Due to my retreat I had tried to get ahead of the game and write my homily before I left, which I successfully did.  And then Friday the sixteenth happened.  So, back to the drawing board.
    This past Friday morning, as I was finishing up our usual Friday morning adoration, I received a text from a brother priest of mine in the Diocese who knows how to celebrate the Extraordinary Form, or whatever we’re going to call it from now on, about Traditionis custodes, the new Motu Proprio.  We spoke after the 8 a.m. Mass about the details and the law of the new document (this brother priest is also a canon lawyer).  I then called Bishop Boyea, only to be reminded by his secretary that he is on retreat this week with the bishops of Michigan and Ohio.  I then had time to read over the document myself.
    I have to admit that, even though I only started celebrating according to the Missal of St. John XXIII a couple of months ago, my heart ached at what looks like more restrictions (we’ll see what Bishop Boyea has to say when he gets back with me).  Even in this short time I have come to see the beauty and transcendence of this form of celebration.  I will say that I also think that a priest can celebrate according to the Missal of St. Paul VI beautifully and transcendently, in its own way.  We’ll have to see what future lies in store for us, though I neither want to freak you out with specious speculations, nor presume that everything will be exactly the same.
    But Pope Francis, who is our validly elected Supreme Pontiff, Vicar of Christ, and head of the Universal Church, also reminds us of important points about our Catholic faith, that I believe are worth speaking about here.

   The first is a general point about what makes us Catholic.  We are Catholics because we believe that Jesus founded His Church in a particular way, namely, upon apostolic foundations, with the successor of St. Peter as the Prince of the Apostles, and the visible sign of unity and head of the apostolic college.  Certainly I understand and sympathize (suffer with you) in feeling hurt by our Holy Father, and likely there are feelings of anger, betrayal, or others.  But to say that the pope is not the pope, or that we do not owe him religious submission of will and intellect because he has hurt us, because he has made decisions with which we do not agree, in a matter that is not de fide or part of the moral life of the Church, is not Catholic.  As your spiritual father I understand your pain, but also want to warn against a schismatic attitude that can separate you from the Body of Christ, which is the ordinary means of salvation.  We will continue to see what this new document means, but we have to do so with respect for Pope Francis, lest we endanger our immortal soul.  Does this mean that this legislation of his is the best or even simply right?  I think we can reasonably disagree in charity with this legislation.  But he is still our pope, allowed for us by Christ Himself.  And if St. Catherine of Siena can give that same respect to popes who were wrongly living in Avignon, we can give respect and pray for Pope Francis.  I certainly mention his name every time I pray the Roman Canon.  If you want to be in a parish that is schismatic, separated from visible unity with the Church, then this is not the parish for you.  We are Latin Rite, Roman Catholics, and too many martyrs died to uphold the papacy for us to reject it because of what we consider a hurtful and wrong piece of legislation.  I invite each of you to storm heaven with your prayers, and pray a Chaplet of Divine Mercy for Pope Francis.  
    Secondly, Vatican II.  The jokes about the Spirit of Vatican II being the scariest Halloween costume are funny because they contain a bit of truth.  Many people have taken Vatican II to mean a variety of things which the Council Fathers never intended nor desired.  I was born in 1983 (yes, I’m young), so I have only known a post-Vatican II world, and I have seen some of the negative effects of wrong implementation on the Church.  Many people saw Vatican II as a jettisoning of everything that had come before.  
    But Vatican II, especially in the Constitutions, and even in some of the documents which have less authority (e.g., decrees and declarations), was not a rejection of what came before, but a re-application of what came before.  Lumen gentium itself contains over 200 quotations and 92 references to Pope Pius XII.  As you look through Lumen gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, there is a beautiful collection of citations from Sacred Scripture, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, and the conciliar documents of Trent and Vatican I.  I didn’t have time to count them all, but the references to solid Catholic saints, previous holy popes, and previous councils, is impressive.  
    Further, Pope St. John XXIII, whose missal we use, declared it to be an ecumenical council, and it was confirmed and approved, in the ways ecumenical councils need to be, by Pope St. Paul VI.  So we cannot ignore Vatican II and its documents, without ignoring an ecumenical council called for and confirmed by the successor of St. Peter.  To do so would be to make the same mistake as Luther, Zwingli, Melanchthon, and other so-called reformers of rejecting what we don’t like and keeping what we do.  St. Augustine says this of the Gospel, but the same could be said for ecumenical councils, that if we accept what we like and reject what we don’t like, we do not have faith in God but in ourselves.  
    Further, while everyone likes to quote Lumen gentium, 16 which says that those who, “through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known through them through the dictates of conscience” can be saved, there is another quote, I would say that is even stronger, about the necessity of belonging to the Church.  Lumen gentium, 14 says, “Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.”  I think all here know that the Catholic Church is a necessary connection to Christ (inasmuch as our Lord Himself said that persecuting His followers was persecuting Him as He spoke to Saul on the road to Damascus).  In the same way, then, we must hold fast to the Church, even when the barque of Peter seems to be adrift and taking on water, or risk damnation, as Vatican II clearly teaches.  
    I know these are hard days.  I know that it seems like the Church may want to abandon us.  But, St. Paul tells us, that we are not called to fear, but to have courage.  And Jesus reminds us in the Gospel, to do whatever it takes to be saved, even if it means suffering greatly.  We can likely see ourselves in the boat in Mark 4 with the apostles, as the storm is pounding us, and the waves are breaking over the boat, so that it seems like it will capsize.  But our Lord is in the boat, and He will not let it sink.  Our duty, even in our pain, frustration, and betrayal, is to stay in the boat with Christ, hold fast to Him, and have faith that He will see us safely to the harbor of heaven, where God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reign eternally, world without end.  Amen.

Start Small

Promising obedience at my priestly ordination

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time    

     This past Friday I celebrated my 11th Anniversary of being a priest.  It’s honestly hard for me to grasp that I’ve been a priest for over ten years already, as the years have just flown by (and everyone tells me that life only speeds up the older I get!).  I remember when I started college seminary in the fall of 2002.  I had 8 years ahead of me of studying and being formed to be a priest after the Sacred Heart of Jesus, at least as close as the seminary could make me.  But I remember thinking that it would take such a long time, and at times it felt like ordination would never happen!
    But the eight years did fly by, and now 11 years have somehow gone even faster.  The days were long, but the years were short.  Still, by trying to do my best each day, and working hard to be receptive by God’s grace, those long days added up becoming a much shorter period than I expected. 
    When we have a daunting task, it can seem like it will never get done.  For gardeners it can be weeding a flower bed after it’s been let go for some time.  For homeowners it can be a major project around the house.  For parents it can be raising children.  For children it can be looking forward to graduating from high school when you’re in 6th grade.  Whatever it is, if we try to think about the entire picture, we can easily give up because it’s too challenging, it seems too big of a project, it appears like it will never get done.
    The same can be said for spreading the faith and preparing for heaven.  It can seem like we’re never going to make a difference or have someone come back to or join the Church.  Or living a saintly life can seem like we have to change so many things immediately, and it will never get done.  St. Paul reminds us today that we are to be courageous.  We should not let the magnitude of the task at hand as followers of Jesus get us down.
    Instead, Jesus reminds us in the Gospel that great things start from small things.  The mustard seed is quite small, but it turns into a larger bush.  The plants never seem to grow quickly enough, but then, before you know it, they are sprouting and bearing fruit.  If you were to look at the growth each day, it would seem miniscule.  But, over time, the growth is real and measurable.
    I would suggest that, for at least some of us, this is the approach that we should take to evangelization.  Perhaps we think about evangelization as walking around the City of Flint, knocking on doors and telling others about Jesus.  And that is one way.  Or maybe we think about a big event, with a world-renown speaker, with showy lights and technological wonders.  Those things can work, and especially for extroverts those can be great avenues for spreading the faith.  But what if you’re an introvert?  What if the idea of going door-to-door and talking to strangers about Jesus sounds as enticing as a root canal without novocaine? 
    If that is you, then I would encourage you to remember to start small.  And you may not even be starting small to finish big; maybe you’re just continuing to spread the faith in small ways.  But those small ways will pay off.  Despite the requirements of my job, I’m not a “big crowds” kind of guy.  I would rather have a conversation with one or two or maybe even three people, max.  While my vocation foists me into opportunities where I am with larger groups, I really feel most comfortable talking one-on-one.  And I find I’m most effective that way.
    So the way I try to spread the faith is to find one person with whom I can talk about Jesus.  Sometimes they’re already believers, and they just want to grow in their faith more.  Sometimes they don’t know Jesus.  But I find that it can really help them to understand who Jesus is, or what the Church believes, when I can just be with one or two persons.
    Now, converting the world to Catholicism (which is our goal), would seemingly take forever just one or two people at a time, especially when that conversion often takes months, or years, or sometimes even decades.  But those relationships that are formed with one or two individuals can often be long lasting, and can be relationships of trust that allows a person more easily to open him or herself up to Christ.  And, if that one person is transformed by Christ, then hopefully he or she can find one or two people with whom they can share the Gospel.  And pretty soon, what started small has become a conglomerate of people who are alive in their faith, all because a person decided to share about Jesus with a friend or a neighbor or even a stranger. 
    Our call to be a part of the New Evangelization can seem daunting when we look at the big picture.  But if it’s overwhelming, just bite off a smaller bite; think about one person with whom you can talk about Jesus, and share the faith with that one person.  It may start small, but the good things in the Kingdom of God often do.