Pope Benedict's New Ministry

I got up early this morning and spent about a half hour on the treadmill getting exercise both physically and spiritually as I prayed the rosary. When I returned to my room to stretch I turned on the television where I heard the "breaking news" and saw photos of Pope Benedict. At first I thought he had died. Then I was shocked to hear that he had resigned.  It is taking some time to digest this news.

In the announcement of his resignation, Pope Benedict told the Cardinals whom he had gathered the following reason for his resignation:

"After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me."

As we talked about the resignation in the office this morning and wondered how we could make a smooth transition as we publicize Pope Benedict's monthly prayer intentions, Michael, one of our part-time employees and the coordinator of our volunteers, reminded us of something very important. He said, "Now he'll be the praying Pope." Not that Pope Benedict has not been a Pope who has prayed intensely as he strove to be faithful to his call and ministry, but now prayer and sacrifice will be his primary mission. 

Today is the 21st World Day of the Sick and the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.  Is it a coincidence that Pope Benedict chose this as the day on which he announced his resignation due to health concerns and his growing weakness? With God there is no coincidence. 

When he resigns Pope Benedict will focus his attention on a different but very important ministry.  Here is what he wrote at the beginning of his Message for this World Day of the Sick:

"This day represents for the sick, for health care workers, for the faithful and for all people of goodwill “a privileged time of prayer, of sharing, of offering one’s sufferings for the good of the Church, and a call for all to recognize in the features of their suffering brothers and sisters the Holy Face of Christ, who, by suffering, dying and rising has brought about the salvation of mankind” (John Paul II, Letter for the Institution of the World Day of the Sick, 13 May 1992, 3). On this occasion I feel especially close to you, dear friends, who in health care centres or at home, are undergoing a time of trial due to illness and suffering. May all of you be sustained by the comforting words of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council: “You are not alone, separated, abandoned or useless. You have been called by Christ and are his living and transparent image” (Message to the Poor, the Sick and the Suffering)."

In his Message for this day, Pope Benedict also mentioned St. Anna Schaffer whom he canonized last October 21, saying that she "was able to unite in an exemplary way her sufferings to those of Christ."

He said the following in his homily at the time of her canonization:

"Anna Schaeffer, from Mindelstetten, as a young woman wished to enter a missionary order. She came from a poor background so, in order to earn the dowry needed for acceptance into the cloister, she worked as a maid. One day she suffered a terrible accident and received incurable burns on her legs which forced her to be bed-ridden for the rest of her life. So her sick-bed became her cloister cell and her suffering a missionary service. She struggled for a time to accept her fate, but then understood her situation as a loving call from the crucified One to follow him. Strengthened by daily communion, she became an untiring intercessor in prayer and a mirror of God’s love for the many who sought her counsel. May her apostolate of prayer and suffering, of sacrifice and expiation, be a shining example for believers...."

The world doesn't understand this. Some commentators said that the Pope is retiring so he can enjoy a well-deserved rest. No. On rare occasions  Popes have resigned but they don't retire. Pope Benedict will be moving to a new and powerful ministry for the Church and the world. In great humility, he will leave the work that he has faithfully offered to God and will now focus on offering up his prayers and sufferings.

You are Necessary

I celebrated Mass at 8 AM today, the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, with the Discalced Carmelite Sisters in Flemington, NJ and the small community that gathers on Sunday to pray with them.  Here is my homily:

I want to begin with a question: when did God think of you?  Was it nine months and a day before you were born?  Or ten months before your birth?  In the first reading (Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19) we hear God say, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you...." So God had us in mind before we were conceived and began to develop in our mothers' wombs.  But when did God first think of you?

In a homily he gave shortly after being elected to lead the Church, Pope Benedict XVI said that "each of us is the result of a thought of God."  The thoughts of God are eternal. God had you in mind from all eternity, not just at some moment in time preceding your conception and birth.  The Holy Father went on to say, "Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary." 

Me?! Necessary?! Yes!

We have a tendency to think along the lines of the people of Nazareth whom we see in today's Gospel (Luke 4:21-30). They had an agenda and expectations about what the Messiah would be like. They thought he would be a great religious leader, a great military leader. Jesus, the hometown boy and son of a carpenter, didn't meet those expectations. They saw Him as insignificant.

We too have expectations. We too judge according to worldly standards of greatness.

Paul confronts that in our second reading (1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13). He writes that what's important is not prophecy or speaking in all sorts of human or heavenly tongues. What's important is not the miraculous moving of a mountain or being able to "comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge."  What's important is not giving up everything and living a life of poverty like that of St. Francis of Assisi.  What's important is not even undergoing great sufferings for the faith or undergoing martyrdom.  All of these can become the source of pride, that which first separated the devil and the first humans from God.  What matters is love.  We and what we do are nothing without love.

Why?  Because God is love and we're made in the image and likeness of love. We are here on earth for one reason--to learn to love. We exist to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength. Loving God totally, we will love what God loves--our neighbor, those others whom God also had in mind from all eternity.

What matters--what makes us necessary to God and for God's plan--is not doing great things, but the love with which we do everything. This is what Blessed Teresa of Calcutta taught when she said: "It is not how much we do, but how much love we put into what we do." This was the "Little Way" of the Doctor of the Church, St. Therese of Lisieux. This was the way of St. Teresa of Avila who, at the end of The Interior Castle, wrote:

"In sum, my Sisters, what I conclude with is that we shouldn't build castles in the air. The Lord doesn't look so much at the greatness of our works as the love with which they are done. And if we do what we can, His Majesty will enable us each day to do more and more, provided that we do not quickly tire. But during the little while this life lasts--and perhaps it will last a shorter time than each one thinks--let us offer the Lord interiorly and exteriorly the sacrifice we can. His Majesty will join it with that which He offered on the cross to the Father for us. Thus even though our works are small they will have the value our love for Him would have merited had they been great."

This is the way of the Apostleship of Prayer. We offer to God every day with its thoughts, words, and deeds, its prayers, works, joys, and sufferings, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In that way, every moment can be an act of love. United to the perfect offering of Jesus on the cross and at Mass, every moment becomes significant, eternally significant. And in that way, a necessary part of God's plan for you and the world. You and every act of love are necessary.

"A Stupendous Gift"

I am blessed to be in the second day of an eight day retreat that I am giving to the Carmelite Sisters of Flemington, New Jersey.  So far I have been reflecting with the Sisters on a beautiful 1999 document, "Verbi Sponsa"--an instruction from the Congregation  for Institutes of Contemplative Life and  for Societies of Apostolic Life.  From beginning to end this document, subtitled "Instruction on the Contemplative Life and on the Enclosure of Nuns, is filled with gratitude for this special vocation.

The first section says that "cloistered nuns" are "a unique grace and precious gift within the mystery of the Church's holiness."  And the conclusion contains this tribute which contains a quote from the Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consacrata: "The intention of this Instruction is to confirm the Church's high esteem for the wholly contemplative life of cloistered nuns, and to reaffirm her concern to safeguard its authentic nature, 'that this world may never be without a ray of divine beauty to lighten the path of human existence'."

Next week, using the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and excerpts from Pope Benedict's first volume of Jesus of Nazareth, I will reflect with the Sisters on the Our Father. The Sisters live a cloistered life, apart from the world for which they offer intense prayer. I celebrate Mass and present my conferences through a grill.

I'm especially blessed to be here today, the World Day for Consecrated Life. In 1997 Blessed John Paul II called for this special day on which to remember and pray for all those who are called to the consecrated life like these Sisters and like myself, a Jesuit.  In his Message for the first such World Day, Pope John Paul gave three reasons for instituting this special day.

First, to give praise and thanks to God for the vocation to consecrated life which the Holy Father called a "stupendous gift." He followed these words with a quote from the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, the foundress of these Discalced Carmelites: "What would become of the world if there were no religious?"

Secondly, Pope John Paul wrote, "this day is intended to promote a knowledge of and esteem for the consecrated life by the entire People of God."  From such "knowledge" and "esteem" it is hoped that many more young people will hear God calling them to this life.

The third reason for this special day concerns consecrate people themselves. Blessed John Paul II hoped that this celebration would help them "to acquire a more vivid consciousness of their irreplaceable mission in the Church and in the world."  He wanted them each year "to return to the sources of their vocation, to take stock of their own lives, to confirm the commitment of their own consecration." Doing this, the pope was convinced, "they will be able to give witness with joy to the men and women of our time, in diverse situations, that the Lord is the Love who is able to fill the heart of the human person."

What a blessing it is for me to celebrate the "stupendous gift" of a religious vocation at the Carmel of Mary Immaculate and Saint Mary Magdalen in Flemington, NJ! What a blessing it is to give a retreat to these Sisters during the Year of Faith!

Rejoice! Here is Your Instruction Booklet

I'm preparing to celebrate Mass this evening at the Newman Center for the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.  Here's part of what I'll say:

In the first reading (Nehemiah 8:2-10) the people of Israel weep as they hear the Law of God proclaimed.  Why?  One reason is that they have just returned to the Promised Land from exile. They weep for joy to be back in their homeland where God's Law can be read publicly.  But they also weep with sorrow, realizing that the reason for the disasters that befell them were the result of not following the Law they are hearing proclaimed.  They and their ancestors had forgotten God and His Law.  And God honored their choice to follow a different path which ended in disaster. 

The reality is that God made humanity with a plan.  To follow that plan leads to happiness; to reject that plan leads to unhappiness.  It's as simple as that. 

Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to say that God's commandments were not something that were imposed on us from above, but rather were built right into our nature.  They are the instruction booklet that comes with every human being at birth. 

Thus Ezra, in the first reading, tells the people to rejoice because they have found the instructions that had been lost and they will now know what to do. 

Even then, the temptation to think we know better than God is always there.  We want to change nature and create our own law.  We want to ignore reality, the way God created the world, and be our own gods.  In a recent meeting in the Vatican Pope Benedict called this "technological Prometheanism" and said: "This is a radical denial of the nature of the creature and child in man, which ends in tragic loneliness." 

Jesus came as the obedient Son of the Father who, as Paul wrote, "did not deem equality with God something to be grasped" (Philippians 2:6). This is good news.  Jesus comes as the Living Law of God who not only invites us to follow Him to eternal happiness but also empowers us to follow Him. How?  Through the Eucharist we celebrate. Jesus gives Himself to us.  In union with Him we now have the ability to follow the Law of God, the path that leads to happiness. 

The Wedding Feast

I'm giving a parish mission at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Odessa, Texas. The focus is on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the parish bought two cases of my book A Heart on Fire: Rediscovering Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. These copies were available after all the Masses and after my first talk last night and I'm happy to report that the parish sold all but 6 of the books.  As always, I preached at all the Masses this weekend and here is a summary of my homily:
This is my first time in West Texas and I always like to get a "feel" for new places so as I was getting ready for Mass on Saturday evening I asked the ushers what professional football team the people of Odessa support.  I was thinking it would be the Houston Texans but I found out it was the Dallas Cowboys.  That caused a little concern because I was born and raised in Wisconsin and my Green Bay Packers have somewhat of a rivalry with the Cowboys.  But this year we can both commiserate. Neither of our teams will be in the Super Bowl. 

Though our teams won't be playing, I suspect most of you will still be watching. Are you getting your menu of appetizers ready?  How about the list of people that you'll be inviting to your Super Bowl party?  Now, here's a question: if you could, if it were possible, would you invite Jesus? 

I imagine some of you are thinking: "Jesus? Well, I don't know. I have to be honest: I'm sort of afraid of Him. You know, most pictures of Him don't show Him laughing or smiling, and the Gospel stories don't really show that either.  I don't know if it be much fun having Jesus at my Super Bowl party."

And then maybe some of you are thinking: "Wait a minute!  Remember what Jesus did at Cana?!"

Isn't it interesting that the first miracle of Jesus that we find in John's Gospel is not a healing but water being changed into wine.  In today's Gospel (John 2:1-11) this is called the first of Jesus' "signs."  A sign points to something and the miraculous signs of Jesus point to His divine power, to His glory.  Jesus chose to show His divine power for the first time, according to John, by providing something that would bring pleasure and joy to a party.

The marriage celebrations at the time of Jesus were long affairs. Because travel was dangerous and expensive, instead of going away on a honeymoon, the newly married couple stayed home with their family and friends for a week long celebration. They were treated like royalty and were even given crowns to wear. The women would have been at work behind the scenes preparing the food for the couple and their guests. So it's no surprise that Mary became aware of the fact that the celebration was running out of wine.  She goes to Jesus to make him aware.

Jesus' response to her is curious.  He calls her "Woman."  At first this may seem derogatory, but in the context of faith, it's a reminder of how in the book of Genesis Adam referred to Eve as the "woman" for she had come forth from her man.  We recall that Eve, as "Woman," is representative of all women.  In John's Gospel, Jesus refered to His mother as "Woman" in one other place.  As He hung dying on the cross, He saw His mother Mary and His closest friend John standing there.  He told Mary, "Woman, behold your son," referring not to Himself but to John.  He gave Mary into the care of this apostle and in telling him, "Behold your mother," we hear Jesus giving us Mary to be our mother. 

The reason Jesus gave for not immediately sharing Mary's concern about the lack of wine is that His "hour has not yet come."  By this He meant not only the hour or time for Him to reveal His power to work miracles, but the hour of His suffering, death, and resurrection.  This was His "hour," the hour when He triumphed over sin and death.  And by working a miracle that would capture people's attention, Jesus would set in motion the events that would ultimately lead to that "hour."  So it seems Jesus hesitates.

But Jesus is the Sinless Son of God who is also the Son of Mary.  He is obedient to the commandments and follows what has traditionally been called the 4th Commandment--"Honor your father and your mother."  He honors His mother by responding to her hint.  He obeys her wish that He do something to help the newly married couple about to be embarrassed.

This is why we Catholics honor Mary.  We imitate Jesus who honored and obeyed His mother.  We know that as she interceded for the couple at Cana, she will also intercede for us with her Son.  We can confidently approach her with our needs and then hear her tell us "Do whatever he tells you." 

And so, after Mary's intercession, Jesus works His first sign or miracle.  He changes water into wine.

In a few minutes an even greater miracle will take place on this altar.  Water will not become wine but wine will become the Precious Blood of Jesus. Bread will become His Body. Why? Why does the Lord do this through those words of His that the priest will pronounce over the bread and wine? 

The answer can be found in our first reading (Isaiah 62:1-5).  The prophet writes: "The Lord delights in you."  When you delight in another you want to be around them, you want to be with them.  The Lord delights in us and wants to be here with us.  But even more: when you truly and deeply love another, you don't just want to be around them.  You want to be one with them.  Again, in the words of Isaiah: "As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you."  Our "Builder" is our Creator, our God.  God wants not only to be with us but to be one with us.  We are made for union with God and that union begins here and now when the Lord comes to us in Holy Communion.  "Com--union."  A union with.

The Eucharist is the beginning of the Heavenly Wedding Feast.  It's the beginning of the celebration which will reach it's finale, its culmination, in heaven when, in the words of St. Paul, God will be all in all (Ephesians 1:10).  Now that will be one super party that will make our earthly parties seem like nothing.    

Temptation

The first reading at Mass today has one of my favorite passages from the Letter to the Hebrews. It's from the last verse of chapter 2 and goes like this: "Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested."  Another translation uses the word "tempted" instead of "tested."  It's consoling to know that Jesus was tempted by the devil.  Though we know that from the Gospel stories of His temptations in the desert, we tend to think that Jesus could not have been tempted the way we are.  Yet, a couple chapters later in Hebrews we read: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin" (4:15).  In other words, Jesus was tempted "in every way" that we are but did not sin.

The temptations we experience are certainly related to "concupiscence" (a tendency toward sin), one of the effects of Original Sin that remains after Baptism.  But the fact that Jesus, the Sinless One and Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, was tempted shows us that temptation involves more than our inherent tendency toward sin.  What else is involved?

First, we, like Jesus, have enemies who tempt us to get off track, to follow our self-will rather than the will of God.  Today's Gospel (Mark 1:29-39) shows Jesus doing battle with these enemies, driving demons away from people.  In our daily lives we face temptations that come from demons and we must engage them in battle, praying and fasting them away from us.

Secondly, temptations enabled Jesus to be in a position to "sympathize with our weaknesses."  Because He suffered temptation, He was able to be compassionate, to "suffer with" those who are being similarly tempted.

Thirdly, this battle with temptations makes us stronger.  Another verse from Hebrews says that Jesus "learned obedience from what he suffered" (5:8).  In other words, He grew in the virtue of obedience by exercising it during those times when He was tempted to do His own will rather than the will of the Father. The climax of that painful testing was in a Garden called Gethsemane where He prayed for the cup of His Passion to pass Him by but in the end chose to fulfill the will of the Father perfectly by drinking that bitter cup on the cross. 

More and more I've come to see temptations in this light--as opportunities to grow in particular virtues.  Virtues are like spiritual muscles and just as physical muscles need to be exercised lest they atrophy so too the virtues.  These spiritual muscles will only grow through the exercise that goes with fighting temptations. 

It's a good idea at the end of the day to review the temptations of the day.  What were the opposite virtues in which God was calling you to grow by allowing you to experience those temptations?  Were you impatient?  Then clearly you were given the opportunity to exercise and grow in the virtue of patience.  Were you anxious or worried?  God was giving you the opportunity to exercise faith and trust.  Were you despairing? You were called to practice hope. Were you tempted by lustful thoughts, desiring sexual pleasure for yourself and seeing others as objects for that pleasure rather than as persons made in the image of God? You were being called to grow in a pure heart and the virtue of chastity.  Did resentful thoughts come you way? God wanted you to grow in forgiveness so that you might have a merciful heart like His. 

Looking back on the temptations of the day and seeing them as opportunities to grow in virtues is a good thing to include in the daily examination of conscience or examen or evening review.  It's also a way to exercise your eyes.  Eyes?  Yes, the eyes of faith.  During this Year of Faith it would be a good idea to see all reality--the situation of the wider world and the events of your own day--in light of faith.  That means seeing the enemy who is active in our world and in our lives and seeing the opportunities that are being given to grow in a virtuous life.

The Holy Innocents

Today the Church remembers with a feast the massacre of children in Bethlehem shortly after the birth of Jesus.  According to the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who lived shortly after the time of Jesus, King Herod was a “man of great barbarity.” King Herod was the puppet king of Israel when Jesus was born. Afraid of losing his power when he heard from three mysterious visitors from the East that a new king had been born, he “ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under” (Matthew 2: 16). Jesus escaped when His parents fled with Him to Egypt. Thus the Son of God began His earthly life under the threat of murder and as a refugee.

These innocent boys are honored today as martyrs; the vestments at Mass are red in their memory. The word "martyr" means "witness" and so the question naturally arises, how can the victims of King Herod's fear and jealousy be venerated as martyrs? How can they be considered witnesses to Christ? They had not reached the age of reason. Moreover, they died at the beginning of the earthly life of Jesus; how could they have given witness to and died for the faith?

St. Quodvultus answers those questions in the second reading in the Office of Readings today:

"The children die for Christ, though they do not know it.  The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The [Christ] child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. See the kind of kingdom that is his, coming as he did in order to be this kind of king. See how the deliverer is already working deliverance, the savior already working salvation. ... To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory." 
The children died for Christ.  They died in place of Christ.  Surely the One whose life was saved as their lives were taken blesses their short lives with the gift of eternal life which He won for all through His death and resurrection.  Here's how the British author Frank Sheed put it in his book To Know Christ Jesus:

"There is anguish for us, twenty centuries later, in thinking of the slain babies and their parents. For the babies the agony was soon over; in the next world they would come to know the one they had died to save and for all eternity they would have that glory. For the parents, the pain would have lasted longer; but at death they too must have found that there was a special sense in which God was in their debt, as he had never been indebted to any. They and their children were the only ones who ever agonized in order to save God’s life."

 

The violent deaths of innocent children have not ended in what many think is a more civilized time.  Families are grieving in Connecticut because a man shot their children.  People speculate on the reasons, but the ultimate reason can be found in our culture. Blessed John Paul II called the culture of the contemporary world a "culture of death."  People are treated as objects and the "virtual reality" of our media and games encourages us to see them as such.  Fear still drives people, as it drove King Herod, to kill children who are seen as threats to our freedom, our life style, our happiness.  Growing and developing outside or inside the womb, children are viewed as property that can be discarded for convenience or in anger.  I am praying for the families of the Innocents of Connecticut today and offering Mass for an end to abortion.