Out of the Depths

The story of "Finding Nemo" focuses on the journey of Marlin, Nemo's father, braves all sorts of dangers in order to find his son - sharks, a jellyfish forest, the East Australian Current, even a whale's mouth. He is single-minded in this search: nothing matters for him, except finding his son and bringing him back. Nemo, for his part, knows that his dad will find him and attests to this faith to the rest of his aquarium mates. Even when no one has such faith, Nemo stands (or swims) firm in his faith in his father.

With the help of friends, who remind us (and Marlin) of the true meaning of this love - love that often means letting go, even when it might be against our own heart - Marlin makes the massive journey to Sydney and finds Nemo.

This single-minded devotion of father to child is like God's love for us. He searches for us when we are lost, and He rejoices when we are found. He has sent His Son into the world to remind us of His faithfulness. We are approaching Holy Week, when the depth of God's love for us will be remembered in all its drama, pain and triumph. may we too know that faithfulness of God, which does not let us remain lost, which searches for us even now. And in our faith, we let ourselves be found.

A Tale as Old as Time

Love can transform a person - and true love truly transforms us.

The film, "Beauty and the Beast," portrays a "tale as old as time" - the story of how sacrificial love brings out who we truly are and transforms us again to what we were made to be. Belle, on finding her father taken prisoner by the Beast, offers to take his place, giving up herself out of love for her father. In her time in the Beast's castle, her simple love and care begin to soften the monster who had lived there for so long. The Beast's desire to keep her prisoner is not really explained well - he simply does it, it would seem, just to be mean. That was who he was - he was a beast.

However, over time, as he relates to Belle, and she continues to show him care and acceptance as he is, his hardness begins to soften. As he starts to open up to that love, he begins to realize that there is actually hope for breaking the spell and being human again.

Here, we see the parallel with God's actions for us in the Incarnation. Jesus freely gives himself for us - actually, in place of us. His selfless sacrifice - the gift of his very self. In so doing, we are transformed, and the image of God in which we are created - an image that has been marred by sin - is restored. We become fully human again. For us, the trick is opening ourselves up in faith to this transformative power of the love of God, given us through the sacrifice of Christ.

The song from the film, then, speaks to something even more profound than a simple love story. It is the Love Story.

Tale as old as time
True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody bends
Unexpectedly
Just a little change
Small to say the least
Both a little scared
Neither one prepared
Beauty and the Beast

Ever just the same
Ever a surprise
Ever as before
Ever just as sure
As the sun will rise

Tale as old as time
Tune as old as song
Bittersweet and strange
Finding you can change
Learning you were wrong
Certain as the sun
Rising in the east
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast

Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast

We Want to See Jesus

Over the past fifteen years or so bookstores’ “self-help” sections have grown astronomically. The spirituality sections, as well, have swollen. Books on everything from prayer to yoga, from what and where the Holy Grail is to who the “real” Jesus was. Perhaps you or someone close to you has been caught up in one of these spiritual fads. We hear about the usefulness of yoga or kaballah or transcendental Buddhist meditation as a way for people to reach out and connect with that deep, spiritual core of their beings.

But, we must all be very careful with these – or any – trendy forms of spirituality. They may help us to become more reflective (and for this reason there is good in them), but often, they do not lead us to God, but rather to ourselves. However, they remain very popular. Why?

I think that they speak to a very real and human need for the spiritual in our culture – a spiritual hunger – a hunger that is not fulfilled by television, iPods or the Internet. The “Greeks” in today’s gospel give voice to this spiritual hunger: “We want to see Jesus.” Later, even Philip will ask Jesus to “show us the Father” expressing his own spiritual hunger to know the One who created him. Isn’t that what we all want? Isn’t that the goal of our spiritual journeys? No wonder we are drawn to new and exciting ways of prayer and reflection.

We want to see Jesus.

However, we do not need fads to find Him. The Greeks turned to the Apostles – to the early Church – to be led to Christ. So must we. Using new techniques to meditate, reflect and pray can be good – as long as they truly lift us up in our hearts to God.

When we go deep within ourselves and find that spiritual core of our hearts, what do we find? Just a good feeling? "Relaxation”? I can take a nice walk to find that!

When we truly look at our hearts, we find what Jeremiah was talking about in our First Reading: “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts.”

Our hearts bear the mark of God. If we seek to find Jesus, we must start here. Saint Augustine, after much searching on his own – in books and learning – finally found this answer:

GREAT are You, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Your power, and of Your wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of Your creation, desires to praise You, man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that You "resist the proud," – yet man, this part of Your creation, desires to praise You. You move us to delight in praising You; for You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You? Lord, teach me to know and understand which of these should be first, to call on You, or to praise You; and likewise to know You, or to call upon You. But who is there that calls upon You without knowing You? For he that knows You not may call upon You as other than You are. Or perhaps we call on You that we may know You. "But how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe without a preacher?" And those who seek the Lord shall praise Him. For those who seek shall find Him, and those who find Him shall praise Him. Let me seek You, Lord, in calling on You, and call on You in believing in You; for You have been preached unto us. O Lord, my faith calls on You,--that faith which You have imparted to me, which You have breathed into me through the incarnation of Your Son, through the ministry of Your preacher.' (Confessions, I,1).

This is what our Lenten journey is all about: looking within, searching for Jesus’ place in our lives, removing those things that keep us from fully loving Him, and then turning outward to love as He has taught us – as He has “written on our hearts.” There is no need for a book or a weekly or daily regimen. God reveals the way.

Through the Church and the Sacraments we are given a path to God. As Philip and Andrew showed those Greeks Jesus, so too do we find Him here. Let us continue our Lenten journey,

A journey into our hearts; a journey to Jesus – culminating in His Passion, Death and Resurrection.

When He is lifted up, he will draw all people to Himself.

We want to see Jesus.

Now, we must let ourselves be drawn.

A Five-Alarm Deacon

Baltimore Sun reporter, Laura Vozzella, wrote this Friday:

Fire Chief James Clack aims to keep us out of blazes - in Baltimore and in the hereafter.

The city fire chief just became a deacon in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, so he can save people in more ways than one. He'll be introduced during Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus in Highlandtown on Saturday.

What sounds like an odd resume combo is old hat to Clack, who was ordained as a deacon in St. Cloud, Minn., in 2003, when he was with the Minneapolis Fire Department. "They are different, but ... both are vocations where your main focus is helping others," Clack said.

Clack worked in a small parish in Zimmerman, Minn., until he left to take over Baltimore's department last April.

When you move across the country, you don't automatically get to continue being a deacon," he said. "The bishop of the province has to agree and give you - it's called faculties."

Clack spent the past three or four months getting those faculties - submitting to a criminal background check and interviews with church officials.

The archdiocese seems happy to have him.

"We think it's great," said Sean Caine, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. "His profile as chief of the Baltimore Fire Department lends visibility to what is sometimes an underappreciated aspect of church life that our deacons serve with great faith and great devotion to the church."

A Mormon who converted to Catholicism, Clack already attends Mass at Sacred Heart. As a deacon, he will set the table for the Eucharist, read the Gospel and, about once a month, preach the homily. He will also do some sort of community ministry, possibly in a prison, nursing home or food pantry.

"The role of the deacon is to have one foot in the work world and one foot in the [church]," he said. "A lot of times I preach about the everyday world, family life."

The Deacon chief returned the favor by naming Archbishop O'Brien "honorary fire chief." As assistant to the bishop in pastoral charity and care, deacons have to put out a lot of fires. Now, when they preach that "fire and brimstone," we'll have someone on hand to make sure it doesn't get out of control!

(Photo from The Catholic Review, by Kevin Cartwright)

The Dog Ate It?

I want to extend a word of welcome to the students who have found this blog as part of their homework at Paramus Catholic High School in New Jersey. Your comments have been great, and I am assuming that they are part of your "Faith and Media" homework. I suppose this is one assignment you can't blame the dog for not doing!

Keep up the great work, gang!

"Receive this Veil"

A sign of hope for a home-grown order - from the Baltimore Sun:

As incense smoke danced in the sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows, Anthonia Nwoga knelt in the hushed chapel for the long-awaited moment. It took but a few seconds. Off came the white veil she had worn for the past year. On went a black one that she may keep for life.

Taking the black veil Wednesday signified Nwoga's first profession of vows - a key step toward a permanent commitment to the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the nation's oldest religious order of African-American women, founded in Baltimore 180 years ago.

For this Catholic congregation, based since 1961 in Catonsville, Nwoga's decision brings a fresh dose of hope at a time of declining numbers at religious orders. In the past year and a half, 10 elderly sisters have died. But Nwoga is one of only a few to don the black veil in recent years.

"Our newly professed sister," declared the order's superior general, Sister Annette Beecham, to about 80 applauding guests, including a few women wearing vibrantly colored Nigerian head scarves.

See the whole story here. Sister Anthonia's acceptance of the habit and the life that it entails is a reminder to us that Jesus continues to call us all to follow Him - some in dramatic ways, some in very ordinary ways. But however He calls, our response can make for an extraordinary life.

Disney World Goes to Jesus?

I don't know about your areas, but our cable company places the Catholic network next to the Protestant one on the channel-surfers curl. Yesterday, I was with a friend and we came across TBN's "Holy Land Experience" advertisement. There is a theme park - in Orlando, of course - that is based on "the sights and sounds of the world of the Bible." You can walk with Jesus as he teaches in the streets, spend time in the belly of Jonah's whale, shop at the Jerusalem street market, have a bite to eat at the Oasis Palms Cafe, check out a model of Jerusalem, circa AD 66., and cap the whole day off with the stunning light, water and music show of "Crystal Living Waters."

I wonder if they have Fast Pass - or does God's grace provide that?

"And the Word Became Flesh..."

From this point of view we must consider once more the fundamental event in the economy of salvation, namely the Incarnation of the Word at the moment of the Annunciation. It is significant that Mary, recognizing in the words of the divine messenger the will of the Most High and submitting to his power, says: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word" (Lk. 1:38). The first moment of submission to the one mediation "between God and men"-the mediation of Jesus Christ-is the Virgin of Nazareth's acceptance of motherhood. Mary consents to God's choice, in order to become through the power of the Holy Spirit the Mother of the Son of God. It can be said that a consent to motherhood is above all a result of her total selfgiving to God in virginity. Mary accepted her election as Mother of the Son of God, guided by spousal love, the love which totally "consecrates" a human being to God. By virtue of this love, Mary wished to be always and in all things "given to God," living in virginity. The words "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord" express the fact that from the outset she accepted and understood her own motherhood as a total gift of self, a gift of her person to the service of the saving plans of the Most High. And to the very end she lived her entire maternal sharing in the life of Jesus Christ, her Son, in a way that matched her vocation to virginity.

Mary's motherhood, completely pervaded by her spousal attitude as the "handmaid of the Lord," constitutes the first and fundamental dimension of that mediation which the Church confesses and proclaims in her regard (cf., LG, n. 62) and continually "commends to the hearts of the faithful," since the Church has great trust in her. For it must be recognized that before anyone else it was God himself, the Eternal Father, who entrusted himself to the Virgin of Nazareth, giving her his own Son in the mystery of the Incarnation. Her election to the supreme office and dignity of Mother of the Son of God refers, on the ontological level, to the very reality of the union of the two natures in the person of the Word (hypostatic union). This basic fact of being the Mother of the Son of God is from the very beginning a complete openness to the person of Christ, to his whole work, to his whole mission. The words "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord" testify to Mary's openness of spirit: she perfectly unites in herself the love proper to virginity and the love characteristic of motherhood, which are joined and, as it were, fused together.

- John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, n. 39.

Do You Wear Many Hats Too?

I've done it now!

Friend and fellow worker in the Vineyard of the Young Church, Scott Miller, just gave me a new position: Chaplain for his blog. While I am honored to have such an esteemed charge to my pastoral care, I wonder how many of you out there have also been so "honored" - by receiving more work!

Isn't that always the way in the Church?

Once "they" find out you're willing to do one thing, you're willing to do it all!

But seriously - thanks, Scott!

Holy Horcruxes!

Sunday evening after our Mass at the Newman Center, some of the kids and I went across the street to the local restaurant for dinner. Typical stuff. As we were wrapping up our meal, we got into a discussion about faith, God, evil and the Incarnation. Again - typical stuff! One of the girls asked about what we believe about Jesus - did he exist before the Incarnation and "God" said, "OK, now you go down there and do your thing" or what? I reminded her that we believe that God the Son is co-eternal with the Father; he exists from all time. In the Incarnation, God becomes human in Jesus. His humanity begins then, but his divinity is eternal. This is part of the mystery of both the Incarnation and the Trinity.

Then another of the girls, who has Harry Potter on the brain for some reason, asked if Jesus left "horcruxes" when he returned to heaven. For the Potter-deficient, a "horcrux" is defined in the sixth installment of Harry Potter. It is "an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul." Professor Slughorn gives the mechanics of it: ""Well, you split your soul, see ... and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged." It is what is known as "Dark stuff, very Dark indeed." When pressed by Tom Riddle about how to do this, the professor explains, "you must understand that the soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of violation, it is against nature." Voldemort uses these horcruxes to keep himself alive, and they play into the resolution of the entire tale, so I won't ruin the story for anyone who is still reading.

Now, let me be clear - this is fiction. There is no such thing; we cannot base faith on Harry Potter. And, furthermore, our discussion at dinner was merely speculative - and intellectual exercise. However, as it should be clear from this blog, I think that imagery from popular culture can serve as a gateway to explain our faith in an accessible way. Using the horcrux image, I told her that in a certain sense, Jesus did leave a "horcrux". He left us the Eucharist. However, it is nothing like that described in the books. Rather, Jesus does not "split" His soul and place it into the Eucharist. When we receive Communion - every time we receive - we receive all that He is - perfect, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. He did leave us this Sacrament as a memorial of His sacrifice of Love on the Cross, but that is because He is God - and God is Love.

Moreover, when we receive this "Eucharistic horcrux", we become horcruxes ourselves - bearing Christ to the world in our very persons. So, in a way, Jesus did leave horcruxes - He left us. Contrary to those in the Potter universe, this is not "Dark stuff" - it is holy. We do not bear some "part" of Jesus' soul. He remains intact, complete, sharing the glory He had with the Father from the beginning of time. His Body on earth now - the Church - must now bear Him to the world, to show that Jesus is real and wishes to have a relationship with us all.

The Strength of an Eyelash

(The inspiration for this homily came from Fr. Tom Hurst, SS, who gave a day of reflection to the priests of Baltimore last Monday)

What is the root of the word “reconciliation”? It is not “conciliation.” Rather, the root is smaller than that. It is “cilia.” What does that mean? It comes from the Latin word meaning “eyelash.”

There you have it. One of the central themes of our faith, something that is at the heart of this penitential season of Lent, something that finds its source and power in the death and resurrection of Jesus, has to do – somehow – with an eyelash!

Where does it say that in the Bible? Looking at my concordance, there is “eye”, “eyebrows”, “eyeing”, “eyelids”, “eyes”… but, hmm – no “eyelash.” So what, dear preacher, you might ask, are you talking about eyelashes today for?

Well, I think that this curiosity of etymology can help us to delve deeper into our readings today – as well has get a better understanding of what we really mean and experience in Reconciliation through Jesus Christ. So, bear with me.

Today we hear the familiar line from John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This gift of God – the gift of Himself, of His Son – is given to us for a reason: that we might not perish but have eternal life. Nicodemus, you might recall, was a member of the Sanhedrin, and a “secret disciple” of Jesus. He came to the Lord at night. That’s why Jesus’ conversation with him has so much “light” imagery in it. As Jesus recalls the story of Moses, the People of Israel and the serpent in the desert, he is calling Nicodemus to “look up,” to open his eyes and see truly.

Jesus, then, comes among us – truly alive in the flesh – in order to present to us the human face of God. It is to this human face that we are called to look as Christians – to look God in the eye – once reconciled to Him. You know how when children are in trouble they can’t look you in the eye. Their gaze seems fixed on some place on the ground or on their shoes. That is the grasp of guilt – of shame. However, God does not want us to remain like that. He gave His only Son, so that we might not perish but have the fullness of life with Him. This is the power of the Incarnation: Jesus comes among us – eyelashes and all – and calls us back. Through His power to forgive, He reconciles us, and we are able to look God in the eye again.

We are re – con – ciled.

That is the strength of an eyelash.

The light that Jesus promises in his conversations with Nicodemus is that light of faith that brings life to all who believe. Through this faith – faith in a person, Jesus Christ – we remember who we are: children of God, created for a purpose. This purpose is not to be reminded of our guilt and sin; rather, it is what St. Paul recognizes: we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

God expects good works from us, because He has made us for this. Knowing this – that God has made and equipped us for our part in His grand divine plan – we grow in hope. This hope is present in our lives at all times – even when all seems dark – because that light of faith, the light of Christ, shines in our hearts.

Pope Benedict is in Africa this week. On Thursday, he addressed the crowd at Mass – and all of Africa – reminding them of the power of Christian faith, hope and love:

“Hoping against hope”: is this not a magnificent description of a Christian? Africa is called to hope through you and in you! With Jesus Christ, who trod the African soil, Africa can become the continent of hope! We are all members of the peoples that God gave to Abraham as his descendants. Each and every one of us was thought, willed and loved by God. Each and every one of us has a role to play in the plan of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If discouragement overwhelms you, think of the faith of Joseph; if anxiety has its grip on you, think of the hope of Joseph, that descendant of Abraham who hoped against hope; if exasperation or hatred seizes you, think of the love of Joseph, who was the first man to set eyes on the human face of God in the person of the Infant conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Let us praise and thank Christ for having drawn so close to us, and for giving us Joseph as an example and model of love for him (B16, Homily, 3/19/09).

Today, we may be searching like Nicodemus. We are, perhaps, walking around with our eyes cast down. Maybe this is the weight of our consciences; maybe it is the burden of uncertainty about the future; maybe it is the memory of failed relationships. Whatever it might be, we still stand in need of reconciliation – that ability to look God, and one another in the eye and see the love that is present there.

When we gather around this Eucharist, we remember the moment when that reconciliation became real and effective in our lives and the life of the world – when God’s plan kicked into high gear through that gift of His only Son. Now, as we look upon Jesus on our altar, we see God among us. In turn, we look at one another and see those who, with us, are children of God. We see in the eyes of one another the love that God has placed in our world.

That is the true love that is shown in Christ. That is the strength of an eyelash.

Wherever You May Go ...

Ubi eas ibi ibo.

No. I am not babbling incoherently. Those words actually mean something. They are Latin. They are part of an ancient Roman formula for marriage vows. It means, "Wherever you may go I shall go."

I use this line sometimes as part of a wedding homily. I think that it encapsulates well the newness of the relationship that we are witnessing there at the altar. As husband and wife promise themselves to one another, these words become true. Wherever he is she is; wherever she is he is. This is not just true physically. The wedding band is a reminder that man and wife belong to each other and they carry one another with themselves wherever they go, whether they are together physically or not. Seeing her, we should be aware that there is a "him" - and vice-versa. This is not because she is "Mrs. John Doe," rather, it is because the love of that couple radiates from each of them in all aspects of their life. Husband and wife are a blessing, not only to each other but to all. The grace of the sacrament ensure this - wherever they may go.

Testing Our Faith?

In 1650, James Ussher, Anglican Archbishop of Armagh (Ireland), published a work on the calendar in which he dated the earth to have been created ex nihilo on the evening preceding October 23, 4004 B.C., based on his study of the chronologies in the Bible and corresponding historical events. He sought to reconcile his faith in Scripture with the fact that we live in a world of history. While today it may seem a bit odd that our planet is 6,013 years old, his attempt was part of a growing movement to reconcile faith and reason. Of course, the good archbishop gave precedence to faith.

Science has shown us that the earth is much older than that. Life on this planet has changed and evolved over billions of years, and the amazing diversity and complexity of life on earth should give us all pause to contemplate the forces that drive them. The fact remains: just because there are dinosaur bones older than "Adam and Eve" does not mean that the truth of the Book of Genesis is any less true. God still has a plan; He continues to carry it out; we are intimate cooperators with Him in that plan. There is no contradiction there. Faith and science should be compatible because they have the same Author.

So relax. Let Mr. Colbert soothe you:

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NASA Name Contest

Take Me to Your Leader

This weekend I was one of the many who went to see Disney's "Race to Witch Mountain". I remember the films from the 70's and was anxious to see this new offering. I was pleasantly surprised - again, no Academy Award-winning performances, but a nice film nevertheless.

The story follows two aliens who have landed on Earth in search of information that would assist their parents back home on their dying world. They are two teenagers as far as anyone else can tell (except for their exceptional command of the English language!). They "enlist" the help of a local Las Vegas cabbie, Jack Bruno (played by "The Rock" - or as he now wants to be known, Dwayne Johnson). Realizing, finally, that the kids are who then claim to be, the no-nonsense Jack chooses to assist them in their quest, not only to find the info they need but to help them get home.

There is pleasant action and banter in the film, and I'll let you go see it to enjoy that. One particular insight that one of the teens gives comes from her observation of Jack's insecurity: "How can someone of such large statue feel so small inside?"

This story can help to illustrate the quest that our teens and young people are on in their relationship with God. They are here, among us! They are searching, and they need our help. Our task, as educators or simply as adults who care, is to take them at their word in that quest. Don't gloss over their search. Don't just pat them on the head and say, "That's nice. Isn't that nice? They're praying, dear." And don't, above all, give them simplistic or childish answers. This might require that we know our faith better, but perhaps that is one of the blessings of the role of young people in the Church now.

Yes, sometimes teens seem like aliens. However, not all are out to kidnap and probe us. In fact, in helping them we might just discover something about ourselves.

Fairy Tales versus Reality

I haven't shared this at large before, and I am a little hesitant about doing it. However, I do think that it can lend some power to what I am going to say today. So (deep breath)...

My dad has been battling cancer for the past year. He started with what he thought was the flu last year, and after MANY tests and problems, the doctors determined that he had a type of bone cancer that affects his marrow. Basically, he has been producing too much of the fibrous matter in the marrow, which has been squeezing out his production of red and white blood cells.

He was very sick.

The doctors and staff at the University of Maryland Medical Center, where he spent a month for treatment have been wonderful, and I have nothing but good things to say about the care he received at their bone marrow unit there. They determined that my aunt, his sister, was the best genetic match for a bone marrow transplant. What they extracted from my Aunt Mary were her stem cells.

That's right: stem cells.

These came from her bone marrow - one of the places we can retrieve adult stem cells.

There has been a lot of press over the recent executive order "freeing" scientists to perform more research with embryonic stem cells. Politicians, researchers, celebrities and patients have hailed the dawn of a new hope, as we are now finally able to play with these cells that can magically become everything we want them to be and we can heal tragic diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's.

You would think that the "miracles" have already occurred.

But they haven't. In fact, the medicine, biology and science tend to suggest that they won't. Embryonic stem cells, my young friends, are those cells that are present in the earliest stages of our life - from just after an egg is fertilized. These cells are what is called "pluripotent" - they have the capacity to differentiate into the variety of cell types that make up our bodies: bone, muscle, brain, nerve, skin, etc. The hypothesis is naturally attractive: take these cells and find some way of manipulating them to change into the type of cell we want, and BANG! - no more Alzheimer's. However, their track record has proven difficult.

All of the perceived benefits of ESCR (embryonic stem cell research) are theoretical: they are pluripotent (as I noted above); they are "immortal" (providing a theoretically infinite line of cells); and they are available (any fertility clinic has embryos waiting). However, the difficulties with ESCR must also be known, and this is where the politicians and celebrities (and most of the public) don't share a strong knowledge base. ESC's are more likely to be rejected by a recipient, since they come from a "random donor" whose compatibility is completely unknown; they are capable of forming (or helping to form) tumors; they don't all differentiate into a single type of cell (you could get brain cells mixed with some muscle - imagine the horror of being that recipient!);finally, there's the moral element of the fact that in order to get these cells, the embryo (which is defined as a fertilized and developing human egg - with a unique genetic identity) is destroyed.

The adult stem cells that they transplanted into my father (after a bout of chemotherapy) we not pluripotent, like ESC's. Rather, they were capable of becoming the stuff that our bone marrow produces: either red or white blood cells or the fibrous matter. Once they "take root" Aunt Mary's marrow takes over my dad's. Interestingly, he now has a different blood type. No embryos were destroyed, there is little possibility for rejection; no tumors should develop; and they all will become healthy marrow cells. Dad is not completely out of the woods, but he is back playing tennis and itching to go back to work. And he soon will.

That is science. That is medicine. That is success. As a taxpayer, I'd rather see my dwindling funds that are spent by my government go toward further research and development of proven, successful treatments, rather than the ghosts of "possible" success. This is not simply about abortion or pro-life arguments; it is logical. I'd rather buy land in a swamp here than 5,000 acres in Honah Lee.

And now, thank God, I can still live in that swamp with my dad.

(Thanks the The Anchoress for the inspiration!)

The Pipes are Calling ...

Erin go bragh!

Reconciliation: the Relationship Repaired

Go to the Archdiocese’s home web page, and you can click on a short video. It’s actually a commercial – part of the media promotion of the Lenten program “The Light is on for You”, where every church in the diocese is open for the Sacrament of Reconciliation on every Wednesday evening in Lent, from 7PM until 8:30PM. As I speak, Fr. O’Connor and Fr. Profitt are hearing confessions in this church, as are dozens of priests across our area. The mercy of God is flowing freely!

Anyway, if you watch that short video link, you’ll see Archbishop O’Brien inviting us to this Sacrament. He says, “God loves us just the way we are; but He loves us too much to leave us that way.” What an affirming and loving way to describe the action of this wonderful Sacrament! God loves us as we are. Certainly, this is part of Who God is: Love. However, that love is also directed at helping us become the best we can be – to become the persons God made us to be – holy, worthy of Him.

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we experience that mercy and love of God that rejoices over the return of just one sinner. We are absolved of our sins and transformed into people of mercy ourselves. When that Relationship with God and with others has been damaged or broken by sin, we have this great grace that heals us and makes us whole once more.

The Relationship is repaired.

So often, we think of Reconciliation as a deeply personal and private reality. This is true; but as a Sacrament, it is necessarily communal as well – it is ecclesial. Not only is the penitent healed and made whole, but the Church is healed as well: one of Her members – a lost sheep – has returned
to the flock and we are all once again whole. The Catechism puts it this way:

This sacrament reconciles us with the Church. Sin damages or even breaks fraternal communion. The sacrament of Penance repairs or restores it. In this sense it does not simply heal the one restored to ecclesial communion, but has also a revitalizing effect on the life of the Church which suffered from the sin of one of her members. Re-established or strengthened in the communion of saints, the sinner is made stronger by the exchange of spiritual goods among all the living members of the Body of Christ, whether still on pilgrimage or already in the heavenly homeland (CCC, 1469).

This is what Jesus means when he says that “there is greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than in ninety-nine righteous ones who have no need of repentance” (Lk 15:7).
The late pope John Paul II wrote about the Sacrament of Reconciliation about 25 years ago. He said,

It must be recalled that . . . this reconciliation with God leads, as it were, to other reconciliations, which repair the other breaches caused by sin. The forgiven penitent is reconciled with himself in his inmost being, where he regains his innermost truth. He is reconciled with his brethren whom he has in some way offended and wounded. He is reconciled with the Church. He is reconciled with all creation (Reconciliatio et paenitentia, n. 31).

From the pope’s teachings we can see how the celebration of the Sacrament should also touch on the way we live and act, and therefore, on our moral life.

When we are forgiven we become people of forgiveness. Those who have received much are expected to give much. Recall Christ’s parable about the debtors. One man owed the master a huge sum, such that to repay it would require the sale of all his possessions and his family into slavery. Out of pity for the man who begged mercy, the master forgave the entire debt. Then, in turn, that servant went to his fellow servant and would not forgive even a tiny debt owed to him. He learned nothing; and because of that inability to be merciful, he was punished.

The experience of the mercy of God in Reconciliation – that gratuitous gift that requires nothing more than acknowledging our sins – is a message to us. We are to become agents of this forgiveness to others. “Blessed are the merciful,” Jesus tells us, “for they will be shown mercy.” Again, if you do not forgive your brothers and sisters, how can you expect your heavenly Father to forgive you? “The measure with which you measure shall be measured back to you.” The New Testament is full of admonitions to forgive others from the heart. Humanly speaking, this is not “natural.” In fact, it is “supernatural” – it is the effect of grace that comes to us through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When our Relationship is repaired by God’s grace, we are more easily forgiving with others, and the community of the Church – our communion – is made whole.

Therefore, rather than seeing this Sacrament as a “pain,” or an ordeal to be avoided or at best to be gotten over quickly, we can see Reconciliation as a real opportunity for healing and a chance to be strengthened by God’s ever-present grace. It is this grace that says to us, “Go, your sins are forgiven.” And it is this grace that allows us to go and share that forgiveness with others.

Anointing of the Sick: the Relationship Recalled

During this season of Lent, we journey together as a Church toward that memorial of our redemption, the death and resurrection of Christ. In fact, it is through Jesus’ suffering that our salvation is made real. Therefore, the acts of self-denial and, yes, our suffering bring about for us a true participation in the salvation that Jesus won for us, once for all. This is what we mean when we talk about “redemptive suffering. John Paul II wrote about it in one of his Apostolic Letters:

In the Paschal Mystery Christ began the union with man in the community of the Church. The mystery of the Church is expressed in this: that already in the act of Baptism, which brings about a configuration with Christ, and then through his Sacrifice—sacramentally through the Eucharist—the Church is continually being built up spiritually as the Body of Christ. In this Body, Christ wishes to be united with every individual, and in a special way he is united with those who suffer. The words quoted above from the Letter to the Colossians bear witness to the exceptional nature of this union. For, whoever suffers in union with Christ— just as the Apostle Paul bears his "tribulations" in union with Christ— not only receives from Christ that strength already referred to but also "completes" by his suffering "what is lacking in Christ's afflictions". This evangelical outlook especially highlights the truth concerning the creative character of suffering. The sufferings of Christ created the good of the world's redemption. This good in itself is inexhaustible and infinite. No man can add anything to it. But at the same time, in the mystery of the Church as his Body, Christ has in a sense opened his own redemptive suffering to all human suffering. In so far as man becomes a sharer in Christ's sufferings—in any part of the world and at any time in history—to that extent he in his own way completes the suffering through which Christ accomplished the Redemption of the world (Salvifici Dolores, n. 24).

The celebration of the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick has everything to do with this union with Christ in our suffering, since it is through that Sacrament that we are reminded that we share the Relationship with God in a new way, just as Jesus did in his humanity. Those who are visited or come to receive the Anointing are told of their nearness to Christ who suffers with them and for them, and that Relationship is recalled.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo, the Hobbit who carries the Ring, is given a gift by the queen of the Elves. It is a vial that contains the light of the Evenstar. She tells him to use it when all other lights seem to have gone out, and it would carry him through. He makes use of the light when he is in the darkness of Mordor and death seems dangerously near.

Every priest has a small gold, silver or brass container. It may be in his car, in his pocket, in his desk, by his bed – or perhaps in all those places. In this container is the Oil of the Infirm, blessed during Holy Week by the bishop and distributed to all the parishes throughout a diocese. It is this oil that is used for the Anointing of the Sick – whether a person is going for surgery, experiencing severe pain and suffering, psychologically and spiritually distress, or even dying. When I bring mine out, I like to describe it to people as “Church in a jar.” Why? Because this oil, kept in every parish church, is a sacramental sign not only of Christ’s healing presence but also of the prayers and support of all a person’s fellow parishioners.

Illness and suffering are isolating experiences. A person is often limited, cut off from family and friends – physically, mentally, and spiritually. A visit from this Sacrament tells a person, “You are not alone. God is here, and you are near to Him.”

While Anointing of the Sick may seem like a highly personal and individual Sacrament, it – like all the Sacraments – has its communal and ecclesial – and, yes, moral – element as well. As a sign of God’s life and an expression of our life in Christ, reflection on this Sacrament calls for a certain way of living and acting from us all.

First, this Sacrament recognizes above all that all life has value, no matter what the condition. People don’t “wear out their usefulness” as our bodies and minds deteriorate. In celebrating the Anointing of the Sick, we are affirming that this life – this life of suffering and personal “passion” – has meaning, and that meaning is found in our unity with Christ. Giving up on that life means giving up on the grace that our life shares with God.

Second, it means that we all have a duty to reach out and continue to remember and include even the weakest and most limited of our brothers and sisters. Even when the church is full on a Sunday there are still many more who wish they could be here. Who are they? How do we know? What can we do for them?

Finally, the Sacrament redirected the attention of the suffering individual to their membership in a community; at the same time, it reminds the community of the needs of the individuals who share in that communion. Once again, the Sacrament is oriented toward communion.

Every relationship needs those little (and big!) reminders of the specialness of each partner. A bunch of flowers for now apparent reason; a card to say “I’m thinking of you”; a phone call when you haven’t seen each other in a while. The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, while it brings real effects, is also one of these reminders of a person’s nearness to God and of His presence in their life – even when they are feeling cut off and alone. Christ comes to them in this Sacrament; the Church is present too; and the Relationship is recalled.

Holy Orders: the Relationship Regulated

Often, when we hear the word “vocations,” we automatically think of priesthood – and, perhaps, religious life. “Please pray for vocations.” “We pray for an increase in vocations.” However, I think this language is flawed for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, everyone has a vocation – not just priests or religious. Secondly, it’s not the vocations we want to see increase so much as the responses to these vocations that we want to increase. God is always calling; we just aren’t always listening or open to that call.

Having said that, we turn to the other Sacrament of Vocation: Holy Orders.

Why “Orders”? What does this word mean in the context of the Church and the Sacraments? We are not talking “order” as in a “command.” We are talking an order as in a group of similar members, who become so via “ordination.” There are three sacred orders in the Church: the episcopacy, the presbyterate and the diaconate. Each of these are orders unto themselves and not “stepping blocks” toward the next one. Each one is required before receiving the other, but they remain independent orders.

In the earliest Church, the orders that we know were different. From the day of Pentecost, there were only the Apostles – those who were commissioned by Christ to preach the Gospel and baptize. These men were given authority by Christ to heal the sick through laying on of hands, to forgive sins, and even to raise the dead. At the Last Supper, they were empowered and commanded to celebrate the Eucharist “in memory of me,” and they were to become the servants of all, following the example of Christ himself. These men formed the nucleus around which others came to the Gospel, who led communities of faith throughout Judea, Israel and beyond. Paul joined their number later and spread the faith abroad, establishing his own communities with their own “elders” and “overseers.” These elders, or “presbyteroi” and “episkopoi” in Greek, were the first “priests.”

Acts tells us of the establishment of the order of Deacon when the Apostles were becoming too busy to tend to the celebration of the Word and Sacraments. These good men, these “servants” (or “diakonoi”) were chosen to care for the poor, the sick and the widows of the community in the distribution of the goods of the Church.

Over time, these three orders developed into what we can recognize today. In fact, they were pretty well set by the end of the third century. Be they bishops, priests or deacons, these men share in the Priesthood of Christ, the Head, albeit in varied ways. That’s right: the Priesthood – the only true Priesthood is that of Jesus Christ. All the Baptized share in it, but we share in it in different ways. As Vatican II says:

Though they differ from one another in essence and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated: each of them in its own special way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ. The ministerial priest, by the sacred power he enjoys, teaches and rules the priestly people; acting in the person of Christ, he makes present the Eucharistic sacrifice, and offers it to God in the name of all the people (LG, n. 10).

So, our bishops, priests and deacons are not “better” than any other Christian simply for being ordained. However, they are necessary, since without them, we could not enter into the mystery of that relationship with God beyond a merely human capacity. Without this priesthood, there is no Eucharist, there is no absolution, there is no bridge between God and humans. In short, the ministerial priesthood of ordination is needed to regulate the Relationship that we begin with God at Baptism.

Those functions of the priest – sanctifying the Church, teaching God’s People, leading the flock – these are part of Jesus’ role of Shepherd. The ordained are themselves sacraments – living signs of Jesus’ guiding presence among us. They deserve obedience, yes; they deserve love, certainly; they deserve respect, to be sure. However, they themselves are also servants of the mysteries they celebrate and are not “lords” over them. In the celebration of the Eucharist, the personality of the priest must disappear and Christ must shine through; in the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the minister is the servant of the mercy of God that both penitent and confessor experience; in the Anointing of the Sick, Christ comes to visit the suffering ones with His healing love.

I read an article once on retreat about the changing models of the ministerial priest. Many comparisons have been made about the priest as a “CEO” of a parish, or the bishop as “CEO” of the diocese. The author noted that is partially correct, but the image that he wanted to promote for our consideration was priest/bishop as “manager of relationships.” For priests stand as bridge-builders – to borrow the ancient Latin name for priest, “pontifex.” Priests manage people’s relationships with God through the sacraments, with others through their pastoral guidance, and with themselves through the counsel they so often give. Without these “managers,” the Relationship can suffer. We need each other.

Prayer “for vocations,” then, is our prayer that God continue to provide faithful leaders and shepherds for His People, and that young men are inspired and courageous enough to follow that call in their lives, for the good of the Church.

Marriage: the Relationship Reflected

St. Paul, whose life and ministry we have been celebrating this year, had a small group of Christian friends to whom he wrote in the town of Ephesus. As he encouraged them to “be imitators of God,” he gave them advice as to how to live out the Relationship which they began at their Baptism. That they might be a sign to others and a source of grace for them, he admonishes them to “watch carefully how you live,” and he even goes into the relationship of marriage – with mutual love and respect between spouses. Why?

“For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.

This “great mystery” is what the Church has come to call a “sacrament” and from it we derive the meaning of the Sacrament of Marriage.

When a man and woman fall in love and marry – as the invitations go out, the showers are celebrated, the gown is purchased, tuxes are rented, and cakes are ordered – they are fulfilling their call to holiness that came to each of them at Baptism. All of us receive this call, and all of us are called to live it out in our particular states in life. Marriage is that vocation whereby man and woman are called, not just to God, but to God through each other. In other words, husband and wife are made for each other. Their goal is to assist the other to grow and live in holiness.

Moreover, this call is a call to reflect the Relationship that is the Love of God – to reflect the very life of the Trinity through the total gift of self that is what Marriage is all about. The Relationship of Love that is the intimate life of the Blessed Trinity is the same relationship that is reflected in the Sacrament of Marriage. The Fathers of the Church, in attempting to describe the ineffable mystery of the life of God in the Trinity, referred to the “divine perichoresis” – which is a fancy Greek word that means, literally, “a dancing around.” There is joy in that Love of the Trinity; there must be joy in the love of husband and wife.

Now, joy is not simply the fruit of “good times.” Rather, joy is a Fruit of the Holy Spirit, who is present in the Marriage too. Recall, that husband and wife give themselves faithfully to one another “in good times and in bad.” However, even in difficult times, there can be joy. This is not naïve “happiness,” blind to all that is happening around us. Rather, joy is an abiding sense of the presence of the Lord. What makes this possible for the married couple is love. In one of the most popular wedding readings, St. Paul lists the characteristics of the Love of God that a couple will share and reflect:

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

So, the gift of Love that characterizes the Holy Trinity is the same gift of love that is the mark of a good Marriage. Through love, a wife can forgive, a husband can be patient, a family can persevere.

This love, too, gives completely of itself, and rather than being exhausted, it grows and deepens day by day. The reflection of God in married love comes through this total self-gift of husband to wife, wife to husband – a love that holds nothing back, a love that is passionate, involving body, mind and spirit, a love that is so powerful that it cooperates with God in creating life.

This is the dignity of Marriage – what Jesus recognized as a new unity of life (“the two become one flesh”). This dignity is the source of the Church’s constant teaching regarding marriage and the indissolubility of the Sacrament. The joining of a man and woman in Marriage is the creation of a communion of life and love that has as its “goods,” first, the joy of the couple and, second, the blessing of children. Without an openness to these ends, the Sacrament cannot be a reflection of that Relationship of Jesus with His Church and God with the world.

Many feel that the Church has spent too much time in people’s bedrooms. Perhaps She has. However, the Church’s presence there is, and should be, an affirming one – a presence that is not there to stunt the love and affection that spouses share, but one that recognizes the intense power of married love. The Church’s “Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” says it like this:

Authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is governed and enriched by Christ's redeeming power and the saving activity of the Church, so that this love may lead the spouses to God with powerful effect and may aid and strengthen them in sublime office of being a father or a mother. For this reason Christian spouses have a special sacrament by which they are fortified and receive a kind of consecration in the duties and dignity of their state. By virtue of this sacrament, as spouses fulfill their conjugal and family obligation, they are penetrated with the spirit of Christ, which suffuses their whole lives with faith, hope and charity. Thus they increasingly advance the perfection of their own personalities, as well as their mutual sanctification, and hence contribute jointly to the glory of God (Gaudium et spes, n. 48).

That brings us back to where we began: a call to holiness. This call is fulfilled for the married couple in the joy and holiness of the other. In that joy, we are assured of the presence of God’s Love – and the Relationship is reflected once more.

Eucharist: the Relationship Realized

What is the “third” Sacrament of Initiation?

It’s not Confirmation – it’s the Eucharist. Participation in the Eucharist through Holy Communion is the culmination of that path that one begins when they are first brought to the baptismal font. The Eucharist is that Relationship with God Realized. “Realized,” because in the Eucharist we fully receive all that God is in the Body and Blood of Christ, and we celebrate the eternal love with which God loves us – a love that gives completely of itself and is never fully consumed.

If we want a Biblical example of the centrality that we place on the Holy Eucharist, I will point you to the Book of Exodus. Moses goes back and forth between God and Pharaoh, saying "Let my people go." However, this book is not an anti-slavery manifesto. Moses isn't asking that the Israelites be freed just for the heck of it - freedom for freedom's sake. Rather, he tells Pharaoh to let them go to worship their God in the desert. That is why they are set free: to worship. And that is why we are baptized - not "so I don't go to hell" but so that I can participate in the Eucharist!

Too often, we think of the Eucharist as something we “do.” “I went to Communion,” “I received from the cup,” “I served at church,” etc. However, this “mystery of our faith” is so much more than that. In 2003, Pope John Paul II gave us a great encyclical letter on the role and power of the Eucharist in the Church. He began that letter like this:

The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfillment of the promise: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of the New Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days, filling them with confident hope (JPII, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n. 1).

He later goes on,

A significant consequence of the eschatological tension inherent in the Eucharist is also the fact that it spurs us on our journey through history and plants a seed of living hope in our daily commitment to the work before us. Certainly the Christian vision leads to the expectation of “new heavens” and “a new earth” (Rev 21:1), but this increases, rather than lessens, our sense of responsibility for the world today. I wish to reaffirm this forcefully at the beginning of the new millennium, so that Christians will feel more obliged than ever not to neglect their duties as citizens in this world. Theirs is the task of contributing with the light of the Gospel to the building of a more human world, a world fully in harmony with God's plan.

Many problems darken the horizon of our time. We need but think of the urgent need to work for peace, to base relationships between peoples on solid premises of justice and solidarity, and to defend human life from conception to its natural end. And what should we say of the thousand inconsistencies of a “globalized” world where the weakest, the most powerless and the poorest appear to have so little hope! It is in this world that Christian hope must shine forth! For this reason too, the Lord wished to remain with us in the Eucharist, making his presence in meal and sacrifice the promise of a humanity renewed by his love. Significantly, in their account of the Last Supper, the Synoptics recount the institution of the Eucharist, while the Gospel of John relates, as a way of bringing out its profound meaning, the account of the “washing of the feet”, in which Jesus appears as the teacher of communion and of service (cf. Jn 13:1-20). The Apostle Paul, for his part, says that it is “unworthy” of a Christian community to partake of the Lord's Supper amid division and indifference towards the poor (cf. 1 Cor 11:17-22, 27-34) (JPII, EE, n. 20).

The Eucharist, because it is also nourishment, necessarily strengthens us to do what is right and good not only for ourselves but for all. John Paul affirms this when he says that the Eucharist builds the Church. We are built into the Body of Christ by the Body of Christ, and that relationship – both personal and communal – is realized in us.

“Happy are those who are called to His Supper.”

The Eucharist is a calling – but not simply a calling to receive Jesus. It is a calling to live what we receive; to become what we touch; to act in our world as members of that Body of Christ by whom we are built up. There is a responsibility that comes with participation in the Eucharist. It is not a right. We “are not worthy to receive Him.” By committing ourselves to the Eucharist, we are committing ourselves to a way of life – a life of justice, a life of forgiveness, a life of love.

So, our actions, as people of the Eucharist, as persons in whom this Relationship is fully realized, reflect on our worthiness to receive, and on our worthiness to go forth “to love and serve the Lord.”

Jesus tells us that if we approach the altar and realize that we have some quarrel with our brother or sister – if we are conscious of some sin that somehow limits our full communion with the Body of Christ – we are to go first and be reconciled – either with our brother or sister or with God. Then, the full power of the Eucharist – a power for life and forgiveness and good – is made whole within us.

Confirmation: the Relationship Reinforeced

Continuing the theme from this week's mission, I give you the second part of the first talk, on Confirmation:

The Sacraments of the Church are wonderful, to me, because they provide exactly what we need to fully and faithfully live out the relationship that God wants to have with us. Through Baptism, as I have noted, that relationship begins. However, if it was simply a matter of Baptism, then one dip in the font would be all we need to set us for life. All that I just spoke about would be old-hat for most of us, and we are just wasting our time with everything else.

But …

We still need strength.

As you may have learned, the Sacrament of Confirmation has developed in practice over the life of the Church. Originally, it was actually a part of the Baptismal celebration, and today it is foreshadowed in the Western Church by the Anointing with Chrism. As the Church continued to grow and it was harder for the chief priest (the bishop) to celebrate all the Baptisms, Baptism was delegated to the presbyters (the priests) and deacons, while the anointing was reserved to the bishop. Today, Confirmation has lost, it seems, its intimate connection with Baptism, and it is seen more as a “coming of age” sacrament for teens – a time when they “take their faith on themselves” as they “become an adult in the Church.”

Let me first say this: a thirteen- or fifteen-year-old is not an adult – in the Church or anywhere else. No amount of Chrism slathered on their forehead will make that so.

So, if Confirmation is not a coming-of-age ritual, then what is it?

Confirmation is a Sacrament. As a sacrament, it is an expression of the life and love of God. It is an element of that Relationship that begins at Baptism. The Catechism says this about it:

[B]y the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed

The Catechism also points out that Confirmation is necessary for the completion of that baptismal grace. This goes back to that early unity of the two sacraments in the primitive Church. Thus, we can see that the Sacrament of Confirmation shows us how that Relationship with God that begins with Baptism is now reinforced.

This world is becoming a harder and harder place in which to live out one’s faith. Everywhere we turn, it seems, our values are being challenged as out-of-date and out-of-touch. Left to our own devices, resisting these pressures toward a worldly view of life and morality is all but impossible.

Thank God, we are not left alone on this count!

2000 years ago, Jesus knew it would be a hard task upon which he set his Apostles. Therefore, he promised them a Helper – the Holy Spirit – who would strengthen them and “teach them all things and remind them of all he had taught them” (cfr. Jn 14:26). This same Holy Spirit is given to us at Baptism and poured out again at Confirmation.

Do you recall the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit?

• Wisdom
• Understanding
• Counsel
• Fortitude (or Courage)
• Knowledge
• Piety
• Fear of the Lord (or Reverence)

There is also a responsibility that comes with having this relationship reinforced. We are now “more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and by deed.”

In Disney's movie, "Bolt," the title dog thought he had super powers, like a"super bark" and secret ninja moves. However, these were simply Hollywood tricks. Bolt believed he had the strength to save his friend, penny, when she was lost. After learning that he did not have those powers as he searches for her, Bolt learns that there is a stronger force driving him to find her: the power of love. It is this love that we share in the Relationship of faith that begins at Baptism, and it is this love that strengthens us at Confirmation. We can draw on that to be courageous as defenders and spreaders of our faith.

How do we do this? By living those gifts! When was the last time we prayed for a strengthening of one of these gifts? Are we understanding with others – not just to know what they are saying, but to know who they are – to walk in their shoes? Have we been courageous in our faith, or have we allowed fear of rejection, mockery or loss of popularity to shut our mouths and guide our actions?

Confirmation makes these demands of our faith possible, and when we truly live that relationship out, we are being faithful to that day when we were sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.

Made Whole Again

Fr. Joseph Martin, the founder of Fr. Martin's Ashley, a house of recovery for those with alcoholism and substance abuse problems, died yesterday at the age of 84. Fr. Martin, himself a recovering alcoholic, realized the healing power of God in what he was one of the first to term the disease of alcoholism. Realizing that there is a person behind the addiction, the staff at the home has help hundreds of men and women, priests and laity, to become whole again.

Father Martin, who liked to say, "Give me a blackboard, a piece of chalk and a bunch of drunks and I'm at home," always greeted new arrivals with a hopeful welcome: "The nightmare is over."

Father Martin also made sure that no one was turned away because of their inability to pay for treatment that can cost $20,800 for the 28-day program.

In the more than 30 years since it accepted its first patient, more than 30,000 people have been treated, including celebrities from the world of Hollywood, sports and politics.

While retiring from active management in 2003, Father Martin, who had celebrated 50 years of sobriety, continued lecturing patients until late last year.

Michael K. Deaver, former White House chief of staff during the Reagan administration, had been a patient and later served on Ashley's board for a decade.

"When I came to Ashley, I had been with presidents, kings, popes and prime ministers, but Father Martin was the most powerful person I had ever met," Mr. Deaver said. "You see, Father has the power to change people, to make them better, to make them whole again."

The Baltimore Sun has his full obituary here.

"Well done, good and faithful servant."

Baptism: the Relationship Rooted

There was a moment or time in each of our lives when we were truly “lost.” The power of sin and death held us tight, and there was nothing we could do about it. We were powerless.

Then, in another moment, we were not.

What happened? St. Paul tells his young friend, St. Titus, about this moment:

“when the kindness and generous love of God our Savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life” (Ti 3:4-5).

This “bath of rebirth and renewal,” of course, is our Baptism. In that moment, our eternal relationship with God began, and to this very moment, that relationship continues. We’ve all had some experience of Baptism – beyond our own, I mean. Perhaps we are a godparent or sponsor; or we are parents or relatives or friends present at a Baptism; or maybe we happened into a Mass where there was scheduled a Baptism during that celebration. Whatever our connection to those moments, we are privileged to be present for a remarkable event: a moment of rebirth into eternal life and the start of a person’s life in Christ.

But what does this life require? Once baptized, what is next – if anything? Yes, this is a religious ceremony, a beautiful occasion celebrated with family and friends; but when the cake is gone and the ice cream melted and the baptismal gown packed away, what is required of us in this relationship that finds its root in that Sacrament?

Pope Benedict XVI has had a lot to say about Christian Baptism. He goes beyond the Sacrament celebrated to the Sacrament lived:

“Baptism is not only a word; it is not only something spiritual but also implies matter. All the realities of the earth are involved. Baptism does not only concern the soul. Human spirituality invests the totality of the person, body and soul. God's action in Jesus Christ is an action of universal efficacy. Christ took flesh and this continues in the sacraments in which matter is taken on and becomes part of the divine action” (Homily, 1/7/07).

However, not only is the common element of water made an agent of rebirth and renewal, but the baptized person themself is transformed - made "another Christ" through conformity to His death and resurrection. Therefore, that divine action is not only a bestowal of grace from above, but also the new action of that "alter Christus" in the world. “Divine action”: that is, now that we share in the divine life of God through Baptism, we also share in the action of God. Our life must reflect this relationship always. How do you tell if someone has been baptized? Is there any distinguishing mark? Do we need to wear a special hat or T-shirt?

Christians are known by their actions. Christian life received means Christian life lived. This means that we are responsible actors in our world – actors who show forth that relationship in which we are rooted. When we are baptized, we become sharers in the intimate life of the Holy Trinity – that relationship of Love that is God Himself.

If our actions define us as Christians, then there is a sense of responsibility that is connected with our Baptism – even when we were baptized as infants. Through our Baptism, we are made responsible actors, making use of our freedom within the relationship we share with God. Therefore, as free, responsible actors in our world, this life – this relationship – of Baptism carries with it a moral sense. As sharers of that intimate life of the Trinity, everything we do is to be a reflection of that Love that is God.

John Paul II wrote in his encyclical on the moral life, Veritatis Splendor, how life in Christ means a life of following Christ.

Following Christ is not an outward imitation, since it touches man at the very depths of his being. Being a follower of Christ means becoming conformed to him who became a servant even to giving himself on the Cross (cf. Phil 2:5-8). Christ dwells by faith in the heart of the believer (cf. Eph 3:17), and thus the disciple is conformed to the Lord. This is the effect of grace, of the active presence of the Holy Spirit in us. …

To imitate and live out the love of Christ is not possible for man by his own strength alone. He becomes capable of this love only by virtue of a gift received. As the Lord Jesus receives the love of his Father, so he in turn freely communicates that love to his disciples: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love" (Jn 15:9). Christ's gift is his Spirit, whose first "fruit" (cf. Gal 5:22) is charity: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Rom 5:5). Saint Augustine asks: "Does love bring about the keeping of the commandments, or does the keeping of the commandments bring about love?" And he answers: "But who can doubt that love comes first? For the one who does not love has no reason for keeping the commandments". …

Love and life according to the Gospel cannot be thought of first and foremost as a kind of precept, because what they demand is beyond man's abilities. They are possible only as the result of a gift of God who heals, restores and transforms the human heart by his grace (JPII, Veritatis Splendor, nos. 21, 22, 23).

Thus, tonight, I won’t give you a laundry list of precepts that must be followed in order to “really” live out your Baptism. This law – the law of Christ – is already written on your heart. You can follow it because God has given you each His grace to make “all things possible.” Baptism, fully lived, means loving; and all love – true love – finds its root in God.

Goin on a Mission

This week, I will be offering a parish mission at St. Michael the Archangel here in Baltimore. I am excited and nervous about the opportunity, but I also and glad, since it gives me some "no-brainer" blog entries.

The theme I am taking is "Focusing on the Relationship: Our Life in Christ through the Sacraments." Since the parish has been participating in a catechetical program called "Why Catholic," and this year has been focused on Part Three of the Catechism, I thought I'd take a look at the relationship of the Christian to God as it starts with Baptism and continues through our life - as an active, lived experience. In short, there is a moral element to our sacramental life.

So, for the next seven days, I plan to post a reflection, as I give them, on each of the Sacraments as expressions of the Relationship of the Christian to God. Each Sacrament can be seen as an element of the Relationship, and they'll break down like this:

• Baptism: the Relationship Rooted
• Confirmation: the Relationship Reinforced
• Eucharist: the Relationship Realized
• Matrimony: the Relationship Reflected
• Holy Orders: the Relationship Regulated
• Anointing of the Sick: the Relationship Recalled
• Reconciliation: the Relationship Repaired

I hope this proves helpful. Since I already have the talks written, it will be helpful for me (I don't have to think up a new post every day!). Pray for me and the people of St. Michael's as we enter this time of reflection together.

Footprints of Faith

Here's a neat story about the first capital of Maryland, St. Mary's City, and the Jesuit-built chapel there. The church was strangely more grand than the rest of the architecture of that town, making a statement about the importance of its presence there.

ST. MARY’S CITY - Henry Miller's assignment might have been hopeless.

As research director for Historic St. Mary's City, he was expected to guide the reconstruction of the first Roman Catholic house of worship in English America, for which no drawings or even written descriptions have ever been found.

All that was left of the 1667 Brick Chapel in Maryland's first Colonial capital were its huge, 3-foot-thick brick foundation and thousands of fragments of glass, lead, brick and plaster sifted from the soil during 20 years of painstaking archaeology.

But after some dogged research - and six seasons of construction using 17th-century techniques - the Brick Chapel has reappeared on its original foundation, rising out of the field like a revelation.

Twenty-five feet tall, with an elaborate, classically inspired brick facade plastered to imitate stone, it is modeled after 17th-century Jesuit chapels from Rome to Macao.

Even Miller, who has spent decades uncovering the lives of Maryland's first settlers, recognizes that the chapel may seem impossibly grand for a town clinging to the edge of a vast wilderness.

"It was a bit intellectually jarring, I agree ... inspired by a completely different cultural sensibility," he said as he guided visitors through the nearly completed chapel. "It's not very big, but in terms of the quality of the materials, it's so far above what people were living in in early Maryland. It is truly an amazing statement."

The entire story is here. The chapel has been restored and is a beautiful testament to the faith of the early Marylanders who built it.

Photos from the Baltimore Sun.