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.

O Sapientia (Wisdom)

O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who orderst all things mightily,
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

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

Many people mistake that the scriptures tell a story of man searching for God; however, scripture is, in fact, the story of God searching for man.  The incarnation is the ultimate proof for this claim that many scripture scholars have made throughout the tradition of the Church.  God becomes man in Jesus Christ and literally searches for the stray sheep, a suffering and lost humanity. 

In the ancient world it was thought that man’s true food, that which would nourish him as a human, is the Logos, eternal wisdom: this same Logos now truly becomes food for us out of Love.  The Eucharist draws us into Jesus’ act of self-gift on the cross.  The word became flesh so that we might know God’s love for us.  God is love and by God becoming incarnate in Christ Jesus we are drawn into God and his love for us.  This is done through the self-offering of Christ in the Eucharist.  Communion draws us out of ourselves and toward God where we become one body.  The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass includes the reality both of being loved and of loving others in turn.  We are able to love others because we have received love from God.

God sent his only Son into the world so that we can have eternal life.  We couldn’t have redemption without the cross and we can’t have the cross without the incarnation.  This is why Christmas is so important and we know these revelations of the Gospel because of the wisdom given to us through the Word/ Logos who was made incarnate by God.  

During this upcoming week I will offer daily reflections on the “O” Antiphons.  This is an ancient custom practiced by the Church to assist the faithful in preparing for Christmas by recalling the biblical titles for Jesus Christ.   These titles have been worked into the favored Advent hymn O Come Emmanuel as you see at the beginning of this blog.  Each day I plan to offer a short reflection on the theology of the Antiphon along with the hymn verse and a short prayer from the Magnificat Advent Companion.  I pray you find these reflections useful and that they assist in preparing your own heart for the coming of our incarnate Lord, Jesus Christ.

O Wisdom, you came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and reached from end to end, and disposed of all things sweetly and mightily: come and teach us the way of prudence. Amen.

Five ways to keep Christ in Christmas

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  But it can also be the most stressful time of the year.  Shopping, card writing, final exams, concerts, pageants, work and family parties, grab bags, cooking, baking, and all other festive chores and celebrations come towering down on us during this short season. 

But where is Christ among this list?  It’s a shame how secular Christmas has become and how we allow ourselves to get so stressed out to the point of forgetting the true reason for the season!  Below I offer five simple suggestion for keeping Christ, and your sanity, this Christmas. 

1)      Get an Advent Wreath (no, it’s not too late)

Whether you are living alone, with a roommate, or your family get a wreath and light it!  The most appropriate times to light it is when you eat dinner and/or when you pray.  I have an advent wreath in my room that I light every time I sit down and pray (once in the morning and once in the evening).  This simple, and decorative, action keeps you grounded in the spiritual season of Advent.  

2)      Get a Nativity Scene!

Don’t just get a nativity scene for decorative purposes but use it for prayer!  “No one, whether shepherd or wise man, can approach God here below except by kneeling before the manger at Bethlehem and adoring him hidden in the weakness of a new-born child.” (CCC #563)  I have seen a number of nativity scenes at Walgreens for very inexpensive prices.  And if you have the option, don’t put Jesus in the manger until Christmas day. 

3)      It’s ok to have you Christmas tree up.

Even though Christmas doesn’t begin until December 25 it’s ok, in my opinion, to have a Christmas tree up in your home.  It allows for you to fully enter the joy of the season.  Just because it’s Advent doesn’t mean we can’t joyfully await the coming of Christ in the manger.  So put up your Christmas tree and make it fun!  Listen to some carols, drink some eggnog (with some rum), and even watch A Christmas Carol!  Make it a fun evening with friends/ family.

4)      Go receive the Sacrament of Penance

Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ.  We clean our homes before the guests arrive for our parties, we clean our kitchens before we start baking and cooking, and so we need to clean our souls for when Christ comes into our lives in this very personal way.  The King of Kings and Lord of Lords lowers himself to being born of a virgin in a barn.  He becomes one of us.  God becomes man.  He enters our lives in a powerfully personal way and we need to be ready physically and spiritually.  Cleansing our souls of the sin we have committed is the best way to prepare spiritually for Christ coming again into our lives.

5)      PRAY!!!

When you feel stressed, overwhelmed, under-appreciated, or just tired then you need to share that with Jesus.  Hand over all your worries, cares, suffering, and joy to Christ in prayer and he will be there with you to care for your pain and increase your joy!  Even taking five minutes to just pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be is enough to calm and center yourself.  This can be done in the car as you await a parking spot at the mall or waiting for your guests to arrive. 

Of course all five of these suggestions are built on the foundation of receiving the Eucharist weekly on Sunday.  The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith and so it is essential to receive the Eucharist and pray the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass each week.  This is the #1 way to prepare for Christ coming…attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass each week on the Lord’s day to give him thanks and praise! 

 

I hope these suggestions help you to keep Christ in Christmas.  May you have a prayerful Advent, a very Merry Christmas, and a Blessed New Year!

#sluttyconfessions

The other night I was looking through some posts on twitter and I decided to look at what was trending.  I was very surprised to see #sluttyconfessions was trending on twitter.  My interest grew and I wanted to see what people were posting.  The following are some examples (and not the R rated ones) of what I read:

•   "Getting naked with my crush"

•   "I sent these nudes to a guy once"

•   "I just want to cuddle & make out with someone. I just don't care."

•   "Friends with Benefits"

•   "When kissing scenes come on TV I don't close my eyes"

•   "I gotta slow my rocker and stop breakin boys hearts"

•   "I sleep naked"

•   "Sometimes when I walk up the stairs at school I look at people's butts"

•   "I'm a virgin"

          What I truly don't understand is how our culture has evolved to degrading the human person as a trending topic on social media.  When did we lose sight of our own self-worth?  In a culture that is so self-centered how can we also be so self-degrading?  It would seem to me that in our self-centered culture our sexuality would be last thing we would want to compromise.  And yet here are all these people throwing their sexuality to the masses as a game.  Even to joke on one’s own sexuality just blows my mind.  Sex is a Holy act that reveals God.  In my own case (living a celibate life) sex is more mystical because the Eucharist is the nuptial for the Church- "This is my Body given up for you."

          All I can think of is that these sexual self-degrading acts are really a cry for love.  I think these people are searching for love.  They want an intimacy that they aren't receiving from their friends with benefits, online relationships, and superficial friendships.  They think that by giving away one of the best gifts God has given us they will find the love and intimacy they seek.  If only they knew that true love and intimacy only lies in a relationship with God.

          We will find true love in God.  But to be in love we need to fall in love and then let the love deicide everything.  To fall in love with God is the vital point of energy for every choice that follows and is the sustaining truth that endures throughout ones relationship with God.  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said this about falling in love with God: "it's a longing so great that it passes human nature."  This is a falling in love with God that opens the door to a chaste life (which we are all called to live) and turns you into an eschatological person/sign. As an eschatological sign you will show others what sainthood looks like.

          The nature of love is about decimation.  God will destroy our selfish self.  For those called to be married your spouse will kill your selfish self.  There is no other reality that contains the true intentions of God toward us other than the cross.  We MUST live at the foot of the cross with our Blessed Mother and behold Christ.  This is the reality of the Saints!  We must allow this mystery to wash over us and live on us so that we may remain in love with God.  Another way to remain in love with God is to be explicit in our prayers with Jesus so that he can heal our wounds.  Be deeply specific and vulnerable with Christ and he will meet us in the pain.  By doing this we will experience a profound dying to all that is kept secret and hidden in our souls.  To keep secrets from Jesus (and others for that matter) is giving in to Satan.  Jesus wants our WHOLE HEART!  We can't keep anything from Jesus!

          God has made visible the invisible.  We are images of God created "very good" according to Genesis.  We need to respect ourselves, especially our sexuality!  All humans yearn for love and intimacy and God waits to be intimate with you.  God already loves you and is seeking you.  Go and find him.  Go and fall in love with him.  And hopefully the next trend will be #holyconfessions. 

How he is NOT a Roman Catholic

This past Sunday as I was enjoying breakfast at the rectory table my pastor came up to me and asked if I had come across Roger Ebert’slatest journal article in the Chicago Sun Times.  I had not read it and so my pastor pulled it up online for me to read in his office.  This is proof of how terrible catechesis has been in the Church and why we are now focusing on the New Evangelization. 
 

Roger makes a great point at the beginning of this article when he states that the Papacy, along with the Catholic Church, is the oldest human institution on the planet.  Of course any good Catholic would know that the Church is not simple a human institution, but a divine institution, which is run on earth by humans.  I remember eight years ago when Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was elected, Francis Cardinal George was interviewed about the attached picture.  The interviewer was curious as to what Cardinal George was looking at.  He was looking out at ancient Rome, at the ruins left of the ancient eternal city, the Colosseum (where hundreds of early Christians were persecuted), at the remnants of the Emperors monuments, and the Circus Maximus.  He was thinking of all the Monarchs and Emperors that have come and gone throughout our world’s history and how they are all gone, yet the Catholic Church, and the successor of St. Peter himself still remain.  

The moment when I started to second guess Ebert’s intelligence was when he stated the Church “continues to regard it [homosexuality] as a sin.”  That is not true.  Homosexuality is not a sin.  It is a sexual identity just like Heterosexuality is.  The sin lies in acting on one’s homosexual temptations.  Just as a heterosexual person sins when they engage in sex outside of marriage so too does a homosexual person.  Of course those of homosexual nature cannot get married because they are unable to fulfill the vows of Holy Matrimony but this is a discussion for another topic.  I just wanted to point out Mr. Ebert’s ignorance on basic Catholic moral teaching.

While I am glad to read he is against abortion it made me sad to read he is still pro-choice.  I used to be of the same mind.  Even though I encouraged non-abortion options I still believed that the woman should have options.  But I was foolish to believe that and Mr. Ebert is just as foolish as I was.  Clearly he believes there is a child in the womb from conception.  So if you believe there is a child then why would you allow a woman the legal right to kill that child?  I don’t have the legal right to kill any person because they inconvenience me so why should a mother have that legal right?  See, this logic does not make sense. It is wrong to take the life of another who is not trying to take your own life.  But this point he makes on abortion is not what troubles me the most but his belief that the Church is proportionalist in our moral theology.  The Church does not simply seek a greater good compared to a lesser evil.  The Church seeks to do the good and avoid evil.  We do not compare the consequences (consequentialism), seek the greatest happiness an action may or may not bring (hedonism), nor do we judge an act by the situation we find our self in (situation ethics) but we as Catholics follow the Natural Law which is inscribed on our hearts and we have discovered through revelation and tradition.  Again, this is a larger topic for another time.

THE BIGGEST AND MOST UNBELIEVABLE STATEMENT ROGER MAKES IS THIS: “I cannot believe in God.”  WHAT?!  Then why does everything prior to this statement matter if there is no God?  Why does it matter that you prefer women not kill their children?  Why do you care that the Church you claim to be a member of doesn’t allow homosexuals to get married?  Why is the Pope so important to you?  All of these items come from Divine Revelation (God speaking to man).  If there is no God then you can’t have divine revelation and that makes all the above points’ human positive law which can be argued and changed as many times the culture wishes.  Mr. Ebert did nothing but waist his own time writing this article and his readers time.  I was so upset that I had wasted five minutes reading and getting upset over his article until I realized that people probably read this article agreeing with him and that made me more scared. 

Now I want to make a clear distinction between doubt and nonbelief.  Roger Ebert says “I cannot believe in God.”  He does not say that he doubts Gods existence nor does he allude to any misunderstandings on the existence of God.  He comes right out and denies his belief in God.  A supreme being, an unmoved mover, the first cause, alpha and omega, creator, Father, and so on.  If he were to doubt Gods existence and still considered himself Catholic believing in the teachings of the Church then that would make sense.  Many of our great Saints doubted the existence of God including Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and Therese of Lisieux.  Both of these great Saints doubted the existence of God but they didn’t let that stop or hinder their faith.  They were women of great Faith, Hope, and Love.  Their doubt was a means to increase these Saintly virtues.  Roger passed doubt a long time ago.  The evil one grabbed him in his ignorance of the truth and led him to the state of nonbelief.  Sooner or later, and I pray never, Roger will realize that without God nothing matters.  We are simply here by accident and will someday leave by accident.  This is when Satan wins.  I pray that Mr. Ebert never makes it to that point but finds the truth that God DOES EXIST!  I pray he reads some Thomas Aquinas!  Robert speaks on his love of reason and science, well then Thomas should be his intercessor and teacher!  

 

I do believe that the foundation of secularism is the nonbelief in God.  We as a Church, not just the Bishops, but all of us within the Mystical Body of Christ need to catechize and evangelize first on the existence of God, second on the Blessed Trinity, third on our Creed, and then let the Holy Spirit flow.  We can’t expect people to fall in love with Christ and the Trinity without first believing in God.  Thomas’ argument from contingency explains it all.  Nothing in this world has to exist.  There is no necessity for any one of us or anything in the universe.  Yet we all exist.  Why?  To give praise and glory to our creator.

I am sorry Mr. Ebert, but you are not Catholic.  You are a misguided and confused atheist.  And until you are able to figure out who you are please stop confusing more Catholics and leading them to sin.  I pray that St. Thomas Aquinas intercedes for you, that Our Lady wrap her mantle around you, and that you have the courage to allow the Holy Spirit to guide your reason.  In the same way I pray for those who, like Mr. Ebert, have lost their foundational faith in God.