Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

As  I look out my window and see the hills of buildings here in Bethlehem I think of that morning, after the birth of our Lord, when Mary and Joseph started planning their next move to Egypt so they could escape Herod's massacre of all infant boys (Matthew 2:13-16).  I too will be leaving Bethlehem, in about two weeks, and traveling in the footsteps of our Lord.  While Egypt is not one of the stops my seminary classmates and I will be making we will be traveling to Nazareth, Galilee, and then Jerusalem.  We are making a pilgrimage, much like the one Mary and Joseph made from Nazareth to Bethlehem to Egypt back to Nazareth and then Jesus' pilgrimage from Nathareth to Jerusalem.  During my pilgrimage it is my intention to write at least one blog a week as a way to reflect on my pilgrimage.  My seminary brothers are keeping a daily blog that you can follow here if you wish.  

One week has past since landing here in the city of David. I would have to say that the main theme that has stuck out to me this week has been the awesome spiritual tradition of our faith, specifically the monastic tradition, both East and West.  Almost every site that we visited this week either had or currently has a monastery.  When we visited Masada, an ancient fortress built by Herod the Great around 37BC, and since then many people have taken pocession of it for various reasons including an ancient Byzantine Monastery dating back to the 4th century.  This mountain was in the middle of nowhere, next to the dead sea, and it was so peaceful and quiet.  No wonder Monks went there for peace and solitude to reflect on our Lord.  As I stood in the ruins of this monastery I could feel the monks still praying on our behalf to the Blessed Trinity.  

This week we also visited Mar Saba, an ancient Monastery built in the 5th century, and the beauty of this place was breathtaking.  Even though the Lord is not calling me to monastic life I could definitely be a monk there.  Just knowing, and in the case of Mar Saba seeing, monks praying for the world is a beautiful thing.  These holy men don't leave their monastery, have no connected to the outside world at all, don't have any luxuries, and they are joyful and filled with the Love of Jesus Christ.  This is a Love I wish to cultivate in my own heart and God willing this pilgrimage is a time where I can start this cultivation.  

Please, keep my brother and I in your prayers as we continue traveling to various Holy sites and walking in the footsteps of Jesus.  Be assured of my prayers for you.

Assumption of Mary into Heaven

It has come to my attention that there are many Catholics who don’t really understand the importance of our upcoming Solemnity, and Holy Day of Obligation, celebrating the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. It’s easy for me to understand the confusion behind the importance of this feast day because I too used to question its importance. Don’t get me wrong…I love Mary and I want to celebrate her as often as I can…but why make this day obligatory? Don’t we have enough obligatory Mary feasts? To take this a step further, it seems that this feast of Mary’s assumption, although important, doesn't compare to her Immaculate Conception or her role as Mother of God. So why is this day obligatory to celebrate?!

     As always, it is important to look at the big picture of our liturgical life and rich Traditions. It’s fitting that we celebrate Mary’s Immaculate Conception just before Christmas (December 8) because it assists us in understanding the mystery of the Incarnation (God becoming Man). We also can’t argue the logic in celebrating Mary as Mother of God just after Christmas (January 1). This is where we need to see the big picture; Mary was immaculately conceived without sin, totally giving herself to God and led to her fiat, accepting her new role as Mother of God. Mary was intimately united to God as both a beloved daughter and his Mother and these roles were lived out in her total commitment and acceptance of Gods will, as well as, giving birth to and raising the second person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Because Mary lived her life in accordance with Gods will, and became the Mother of God, she was graced with the blessing of being assumed into Heaven, body and soul, to live with her Son and be crowned Queen of Heaven.

     I do not want this blog post to become a theological debate over the question of "did Mary die or fall asleep?" The question at hand is why this day is obligatory to celebrate. The answer is because it completes Mary's mission and vocation as Mother of God and model disciple. Mary is proof that when Christ promised a resurrection of the dead and eternal life in Heaven, for those who follow the New Law (Jesus Christ), that Christ wasn't kidding. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the model disciple, our natures solitary boast, and because of her choice to follow the will of God she was rewarded with everlasting glory! We are obligated to celebrate this great feast because it reminds us of our own future resurrection day when our bodies will rise from their graves and enter the eternal glory of Heaven!

     It's my prayer that all Catholics will spend this day in prayer asking for our Queens intercession and protection that we can faithfully follow the will of God and grow closer to her Son. Only by taking up the Cross of Jesus Christ and following the will of our Father in Heaven will we be able to enter the new and eternal Jerusalem. Have a Blessed Feast Day!

Mary, assumed into Heaven, Pray for Us!

My review of NOAH

Last night I saw the newest biblical epic out in theatre's...NOAH.  I went into the film hearing many negative reviews on the films theology and overall quality.  I tried my best to keep an open mind so that I can make my own decision on the film.  I am very happy to say that I liked it and enjoyed myself a great deal!  The over two hour film felt like one hour.  The story moved pretty quick and kept my interest.  I enjoyed it very much.  I am writing this blog on the film in response to the negative reviews I've read.

 A word on the inaccuracy of the movie compared with Sacred Scripture.  The creators of this film definitely took their liberties with the story and added a lot of new plot points, and even characters, who are not mentioned in the original.  Is this something we should be concerned about?  Not at all!  The story of Noah is made up anyway in Sacred Scripture.  It was taken from a collection of myths (similar to that of the Epic of Gilgamesh) and fit to help the writers of Sacred Scripture make God relatable to the people of their time.  Noah is the BC version of the New Evangelization.  Because of this historical fact no good Catholic should fear seeing this movie; however, fundamentalist Protestants will have a hard time given their literal interpretation of their bible. 

On the tree-hugging, human killing, bad father character of Noah all I have to say in response to these critiques is to look at the whole picture and not just the one character.   In the film we have, of course, Noah who is the son of Lamech (correct in Scripture) and has evil cousins who are from the blood line of Cain, who killed Able (not correct in Scripture).  Our main antagonist is Tubal-Cain (Uncle of Noah) who is a King and whose family line has destroyed the land they live in.  All the food has been eaten, trees are cut down, animals killed, and all of God’s creation is being destroyed by the glutinous materialism of Tubal-Cain and his kingdom.  Noah, on the other hand, has a great love and devotion to God’s creation.  Noah doesn't kill animals for food, he only takes plant food that his family needs to survive, and tries to re-plant seeds in hopes Gods creation will come back.

It must be known that BOTH NOAH AND TUBAL-CAIN ARE TRYING TO DO GODS WILL!  Both men share their own view on God’s creation: Tubal-Cain focuses on humanity being created in the image and likeness of God and humanity has dominion over the whole created world while Noah focuses on all of creation being made good in Gods eyes and since humanity turned away from God (the fall of Adam and Eve) we no longer deserve to share in Gods good creation.  None of this (in terms of character and story) are true in Sacred Scripture; however, we are made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27) and all of God’s creation is made Good (Gen 1).  So who's right and who's wrong?  They are both correct; however they look at it as an "either, or" situation when it's really a "both, and!"

In the movie universe Noah is the less of the two evils and God chooses him to carry out His plan.  Noah does make many bad decisions with his family and others but in the end Noah is just trying to do God’s will, which isn't always easy to figure out.  Love, obviously, wins in the end.  Noah realizes that man is created good just like the plants and animals.  Noah sees God's image and likeness in his family which gives him hope for the new creation to come after the flood. 

There are so many great themes in this film!  It's a great witness to what it means to be a beloved child of God, we get a better understanding of us being made in God’s image and likeness, and we are challenged to be the good stewards of creation that God created us to be.  Yes, God gave man dominion over the planet but not as a Lordship, as Tubal-Cain understood it, but as a ministry, as Noah understood it in this film.  Nothing, not even our own bodies, belong to us.  Everything will eventually go back to God who gave it to us out of Love in the first place.  How do you take care of this precious gift God gave us?  NOAH challenges us to look at our relationship with God and see if it's healthy, good, holy, and orthodox. 

Go and see this film!  It's great!  Even if you don't like the production quality (it's ok) you will still leave with a better understanding of yourself as a beloved child of God and hopefully asking yourself how you can be a better person and how you can make your relationship with God stronger.  

The Difference Vows Make

About four weeks ago a came across this article written by a man of faith who argues that two people should never stop dating even when they are married.  He of course meant dating each other, not other people, in that the couple should continue going on dates, dressing up, trying to impress each other, and keep the romance alive.  He says “…in any relationship, communication and the action of constant pursuit is key.”  While I agree with him 100% I do wish he spent more time in the article explaining the intrinsic difference between dating/ courtship and marriage.  That is what I will do in this short article.

First I want to make it clear that when I use the term courtship I am speaking of a man and woman who are not married but are exclusively seeing each other in a romantic relationship.  I am using this (some may think older) term to save us all from confusion from using the term “dating.”  Because a married couple can, and should, go out on dates as the author from the above mentioned article states.

So, what is the difference between courtship and marriage?  There are two main differences: a secular and a religious (Catholic) difference – of course the Catholic also includes the secular.  The secular difference is the vow’s the couple makes to each other when they are married.  The man and woman both promise to love and honor each other in sickness, health, good, bad, rain, shine, etc. for as long as they both shall live.  Catholic couples also vow to accept children lovingly from God and to raise them in the true Church of Christ (the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church).  These vows are a big deal because you are promising your whole self to another human being until one of you die.  That’s a big commitment!  In courtship you should be faithful and respectful to your significant other (boyfriend or girlfriend) but you are free to end the relationship at any time.  In marriage you promise to stick with your spouse no matter how hard the storm may be. 

 

The second difference, which is the Catholic one, is that in marriage you and your spouse form a communion of persons.  Reciprocity is inherent to human existence.  Man and woman were created to be self-giving and the most beautiful, and vulnerable, way to give of yourself to another person is through the conjugal act (sex).  The Second Vatican Council says it beautifully this way: “The body has a ‘spousal’ meaning because the human person is a creature that God willed for his own sake and that, at the same time, cannot fully find himself except through the gift of self.” (Gaudium et Spes, 24:3)  It is in the Sacrament of Marriage that we are able to be that self-gift to the person we love more than anything else in the world.  It is a self-gift that we don’t give to anyone but to the person we love the most which is why this self-gift is reserved for the sacrament of marriage.

Courtship is meant to prepare a couple for

marriage by helping you see if you can still love that person no matter their flaws.  Courtship does not take the place of marriage!  Courtship is a time that should be used to grow in friendship (because you should already be friends), grow closer, and become romantic with each other.  The best way to enter into a courtship, and marriage, is with a friend.  Friends make the best significant others and also the best spouses.  John Gottman (founder of the Gottman Institute) agrees with data to support it.  Couples who are friends first have healthier and happier marriages. 

Courtship and Marriage are two totally different relationships.  Courtship is a time to find your future spouse and prepare for a lifetime commitment and marriage is when you make that commitment (by making a full and beautiful self-gift) and live it out the rest of your life.  While you’re married you should still work at romancing and pursuing your spouse, but marriage and courtship are not the same thing.  As long as you are friends first, respect each other, and understand the importance of the self-gift we make in marriage, you will spend many beautiful years with your loved one. 

St. Valentine, Pray for Us!

O Emmanuel (God-with-us)

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel;
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

For my final blog post on the "O Antiphons" I prayed with two passages: Isaiah 7: 10-15 & Romans 8: 20-24.  The Isaiah reading was Ahaz's prophesy of the virgin giving birth to Emmanuel (God-with-us).  But why a virgin?  Just so God can show how powerful he is?  No.  Because if God was becoming man then he wold need to be born from a perfect & spotless womb.  God is perfect and sinless so he would have to be born from a sinless womb.  This is what led the Church, specifically through the scholarship of Duns Scotus, to the revelation of the Immaculate Conception.  Mary is our races solitary boast!  If not for Mary, Emmanuel would not have come.  This is why Mary is held to such a high esteem and many seek her prayers & intercession.  Mary knew from the moment of her conception that to be one with God is the only way to live.  May we all be as open and willing to do the will of the Father as Mary is.

In Romans 8: 20-24 St. Paul reminds us that we, all creation, needed a savior since thebeginning of   creation.  This leads into a major theological debate many Dominican's and Franciscan's have been having for years.  Was the incarnation a result of original sin?  I tend to lean more on the Franciscan side of the debate that the incarnation was pre-ordained by God before man was even created.  Look back at Genesis where everything was created "good;" however, not perfect.  There was always room for growth, even among humans since Adam and Eve were created "good" as well.  This led Franciscans, like Duns Scotus, to believe that Christ's human birth would have come even without falling because we needed a model of perfection to attain since we were only created "good" and not perfect.

Since the beginning of time we needed God to be with us (Emmanuel) and that is what happened  God gave us his only Son, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he [Jesus] in turn gave us his own life for our redemption.  Jesus is the model for whom our lives should reflect.  We are Jesus in the world today!  May this feast of the incarnation of Christ, God made man, remind us that we are called to share in Christ's life by imitating him and hopefully, if we lived lives of faith, hope, and love, share in his divinity one day in the Heavenly Jerusalem.

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations and their Savior: come and save us, O Lord our God!  Amen.

O Oriens (Dayspring)

O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

For this Antiphon I relfected on John 8:12 where Jesus says "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life."  As I prayed over this passage I immediately thought of the Advent wreath.  The whole purpose of the Advent wreath is to show how our lives get brighter the more we allow Christ to enter into our life.  Because, as our Lord tells us, we will never be in darkness when we choose to follow Christ.

But this light doesn't just show up out of nowhere...we need to be vigilent and look for the light.  Our prayer and the way we life our life must be properly ordered so that we can find the light of Christ easier.  Right praise & worship (please note I am speaking of Orthodoxy...not Christian rock) is what guides us to the light (although Christian rock can guide us as well...but not in the same way an orthodox lifestyle can).

Some may think that this is just "nice language" or a "good metaphore" to describe the importance of Jesus in your life but those people don't understand what this light is.  We practice orthodoxy so that we may be guided to the eschatological light...the light of Heaven where we will be in full communion with God.  It's important to remember that we get to this light by properly praising & worshiping almighty God.  And how do we properly praise him?  By loving him, The Lord our God, with all our heart, mind, and soul.  And by loving our neighbor as ourself.

O Dayspring, brightness of eternal Light and Sun of Justice: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.  Amen.

O Clavis David (Key of David)

O come, O Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Christ as the Key of David opens the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven and judges if we belong there or not.  No one gets to the Father, except through Christ, the narrow gate.  So hot do we get past the narrow gate? How do we enter through Christ?

1) Faith
Faith in God is the fundamental virtue.  Without faith what's the point?  There is none.  But I pose a more important question: what do we need to have faith in?  The resurrection of Christ from the dead! This is central to the Gospel!  The resurrection of Christ IS the Good News!  If Christ didn't raise from the dead he would only be another great figure with a good philosophy.  But Christ is so much more than that.  HE IS GOD MADE MAN!! THE KING OF KINGS!! THE SON OF GOD!!  He died on the cross, killed by sin, and conquered death by rising from the dead and not sits at the right hand of God the Father.

2) Love
St. Paul tells us that without love we are nothing.  We are called to Love as Christ loved.  Christ gave his life for our redemption.  Jesus tells us that there is no greater love than to give your life for your friends.  While Faith is the fundamental virtue...Love is the greatest virtue.

3) Hope
But hope in what?  If we have faith in the Good News that Christ defeated death by rising from the dead then surly we will do the same as he promised us.  So what do we hope for?  We hope, and pray, for Gods mercy.  We are a sinful people who do many stupid and selfish things and we hope that our hearts are contrite enough to seek forgiveness through the Sacrament of Penance and be welcomed by Christ, the Key of David, into the Kingdom of God!

O Key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel: you open and no one shuts; you shut and no one opens.  Come and lead forth from his prison the captive sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.  Amen

O Radix Jesse (Root of Jesse)

O come, O Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell they people save,
And give them victory o'er the grave.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

The passage from scripture i sat with when praying with this Antiphon was John 15: 1-5 where Christ tells us that he is the vine, the Father is the vine grower, and we are the branches.  Just as branches cannot bear fruit without being connected to the vine neither can we grow and bear fruit without being intimately connected to Christ.  The spiritual life is all about relationship and Catholicism is all about right relationship.

How is the spiritual life about relationship?  Well, look at all religions in the world.  They are seeking someone to answer the unanswerable questions.  Why do we exist?  What is the meaning of life?  And so we seek someone transcendent from ourselves for the answer through a variety of means.  The ancient world offered blood sacrifices and incense to multiple Gods, Easter religions sought a transcendent reality through deep meditative prayer, the Jews found God who saved them from their oppressors, and the list goes on.  As each of these religions enter any type of spiritual life it is based on the foundation of building a relationship with their god(s).  The same is true in Catholicism where we are continually building a relationship with Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, our one triune God.  We want to be friends with Jesus.

Now, as Catholics we are focused on a right relationship.  This right relationship is build on the foundations of our sacred liturgies.   Not just the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass but also within the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) and the other Sacraments as well.  When we take time to really pray as the Church tells us to pray we are forming that intimate friendship with Jesus Christ in the right way.  We want to form this friendship on a foundation of respect, dignity, love, and this is done through the prescribed liturgies in the Church.

So how else do we stay in an intimate friendship with Jesus Christ?  Frequent reception of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance.  When we receive Christ in the Eucharist we are literally transforming our bodies into a new creation in Christ.  We strip away our old self and conform more closely to the heart of our Lord.  When we receive the Sacrament of Penance we are again striping away out old self, dying to ourself, and becoming more like Christ.  We turn away from the Satan and toward God every time we receive each of these beautiful gifts from Christ.  Also, pray a daily Holy Hour!  Christ asked his apostles to sit for one hour in prayer when we he went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, which his apostles failed at, and Christ was angry and said "you couldn't sit with me for one hour?"  Christ just wants you to pray with him.  Can't commit a whole hour?  Then give Christ all that you are able...he will understand.  One other way you can grow in this intimate friendship is by performing acts of charity.  tart with the corporal works of mercy and go from there.  When you want to grow in friendship with your best friend you do things together!  Go out and offer service to people with Christ in your heart.

Jesus tells us in this same Gospel passage that the Father, as the vine grower, will prune the branches. We have already been pruned by listening to the Word, who is Christ.  What else can be pruned from our lives?

O Root of Jesse, who stood as a sign for the people, before you kings shall remain silent, and to you the Gentiles shall make supplication: come to deliver us, and delay not. Amen.

O Adonai (Lord)

O come, O come, thou Lord of Might,
Who to thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Today the Church recalls that Jesus is the Lord (Adonai in Hebrew).  Referring to God as Lord/ Adonai goes back to Moses at the burning bush.  God told Moses his name, I Am who Am, and Moses, out of respect, referred to God as Adonai because of his unworthiness to call God by his actual name.

I want to return to this Holy moment of the burning bush.  In Exodus 3: 1-6 Moses is tending a flock when an Angel of the Lord appeared to him and pointed him to the burning bush where God was present.  I couldn't help but think of Luke's Gospel where an Angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds tending their flock and pointed to the star that was over where God was present.

As I continued to meditate on the story of Exodus the most fruit came from my mediation's on Exodus 6:6 where God tells Moses that he will "save the Israelite's from their slavery and by his outstretched arm."  God outstretched his arm through the Holy Spirit conceiving in the Blessed Virgin Mary and become incarnate - one of us.  God outstretched his arm by giving us himself in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity.  Yes, God also assisted Moses and the Israelite's but this is promise God made to Moses was fulfilled in Christ Jesus, and he didn't just stop at the incarnation.  God went one more beautiful and humble step further by giving himself over and literally outstretching his arms on the cross for our salvation and redemption.  This is the all powerful Lord who sends Angels to point us in the right direction and continues to empty himself for our redemption.  Christ gave his whole self to all so that we could be forgiven and redeemed.  The cross is anything but selfish...it is 100% selfless and full of Love.  God is continually searching for us out of Love!

God also outstretches his arm at every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass when the sacrifice on Calvary is sacramentaly re-presented.  At the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Heaven and Earth meet as they did at the incarnation and the cross.  Let us pray that we remember how redemptive the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is and how the graces which flow from this redemptive, and ongoing, sacrifice change our lives.

O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel, you appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and with an outstretched arm, redeem us.  Amen.