Category Archives: Sacraments

Sacraments

The Christian Idea of Marriage

14 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by in C.S. Lewis, Matrimony, Mere Christianity

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The Christian idea of marriage is based on Christ’s words that a man and wife are to be regarded as a single organism—for that is what the words ‘one flesh’ would be in modern English. And the Christians believe that when He said this He was not expressing a sentiment but stating a fact—just as one is stating a fact when one says that a lock and its key are one mechanism, or that a violin and a bow are one musical instrument. The inventor of the human machine was telling us that its two halves, the male and the female, were made to be combined together in pairs, not simply on the sexual level, but totally combined. The monstrosity of sexual intercourse outside marriage is that those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one kind of union (the sexual) from all the other kinds of union which were intended to go along with it and make up the total union. The Christian attitude does not mean that there is anything wrong about sexual pleasure, any more than about the pleasure of eating. It means that you must not isolate that pleasure and try to get it by itself, any more than you ought to try to get the pleasures of taste without swallowing and digesting, by chewing things and spitting them out again.

Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

This has got to be one of the best and most concise explanations for why sex before marriage is forbidden for Christians. But it still may be hard for people (even Christians) to understand because our society no longer views mankind as an integral (inseparable) union of body and soul.

Many people today act as if the soul does not exist at all, but then would contradict this by saying they believe there is a soul. The reason for the inconsistency seems to be the the false philosophy that is promoted by various forms of media and politicians: the whole separation of church and state mentality. The effect of this on our understanding of the human person is that we compartmentalize what we believe in the public sector and what we believe in the private sector, which is where religion has been relegated to. This false notion is then reinforced by so-called scientists who are really just material reductionists that deny anything spiritual because they cannot see it, touch it, or smell it.

Christians, on the other hand, are called to see the world and mankind as it really is. We were created by God as a hylomorphic union of body (matter) and soul (form): the one cannot exist without the other. (* see note) From this correct understanding of mankind we can see that what we do with the body does in fact have an effect the soul, because you cannot separate the two. And when you use your body in an improper way, as in sex before marriage and especially homosexual activity, then the negative consequences can be felt in your entire being.

Now some people may protest at this point and claim that they feel no negative effects from premarital sex or homosexual activity. I suspect that some of these people, if they were honest, would admit to a certain hollowness within themselves. For the others that do not admit to this, we can explain their lack of remorse on a society that for decades has been filling our minds with the mantra “Oh come on, it’s ok. Everyone is doing it.”

But Christians know that is not true. It is not ok. When the Church says that sex should be saved for marriage (just to clarify – one man and one woman) she is not trying to take away anyone’s fun. She is simply trying to help her children to be truly happy, which can only happen if they are living their lives in accordance with the Truth. And the truth in question here is that mankind is a union of body AND soul. Understanding this and helping others to understand is of great importance.

*Note: At least in this world they cannot exist separately. On the other hand, the Saints in heaven, the souls in Purgatory, and those in Hell exist in a spiritual state until Christ returns and everyone receives their bodies back. God created our souls as immortal and so they cannot cease to exist, but our bodies can and do die as a result of sin. This existence of the soul without the body should be viewed as a Divine concession that has been allowed until all things are restored when Christ returns.

Fear of Death can lead to Life

16 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by in Eternal Life, Repentance, Sacraments

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I have had many failed attempts at making regular posts to my blog. There are many reasons for this, which amount to a pile of excuses. Recently I have been thinking that a regular post of my morning homily might be possible for the to keep up with. But I am going to try to keep it at 200 words or less so that I can actually get it done without spending a great deal of time on it. As a result, I may not explain things as well as I would like. So if you have questions about what I have written it would be an excellent opportunity to post a comment and I will answer.

Today’s Gospel reading for Mass can be found here. It is the story of the healing of the Official’s son.

The distance between Capernaum and Cana was approximately 20-25 miles. And it must be remembered that this distance had to be covered without benefit of modern conveniences such as buses, trains, planes, or cars. Therefore it would have taken a great deal of time for the Official in the Gospel to come to where Jesus was. We all know why he went to see Jesus – to ask for healing of his son. What we need to ask, though, is what motivated him to go to Jesus? His motivation, it seems to me, must have been the fear of losing his son.

Most parents would have a similar motivation for saving their children and other loved ones. That is why people spend billions and billions of dollars every year seeking cures to their various diseases. Therefore, if a doctor or miracle worker was able to guarantee healing for any disease then the line to see that person would never end.

And yet, healing for every spiritual infirmity is offered to us by Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of Penance. So why don’t the lines for Confession stretch out the door and down the street of every Catholic parish? It seems to me that one answer could be a lack of fear. That being, the fear of losing our soul for all eternity. Fear of losing his son drove the Official in today’s to Jesus. In a similar manner a fear of eternal death should drive us to Christ in the confessional. With a word He was able to heal the Official’s son and with a word – I absolve you – He is able to bring healing to whatever ails our souls. It is true that the fear of Hell is not the perfect contrition that God wants from us, but at least it is a start.

Help Thou My Unbelief

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in C.S. Lewis, Faith, Sacraments, Salvation, Thought for the Day

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Below is a very good insight from 'St. Jack'. By the way, I often say the prayer that he mentions, “Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief.” In fact for several years now I have said it at the elevation of the Body and Blood of Christ during the Mass. (Update: after publishing this I realized there should be some clarification. I do not say this prayer in an audible voice. Instead, it is my own private devotion within the Mass.) Please don't misunderstand – it is not that I don't truly believe that it is our Lord's Body and Blood I hold in my hands – I pray it because I want my faith to be continually increased through the supernatural gift of grace we receive in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. And it has had an effect on me.

Don’t bother at all about that question of a person being ‘made a Christian’ by baptism. It is only the usual trouble about words being used in more than one sense. Thus we might say a man ‘became a soldier’ the moment that he joined the army. But his instructors might say six months later ‘I think we have made a soldier of him’. Both usages are quite definable, only one wants to know which is being used in a given sentence. The Bible itself gives us one short prayer which is suitable for all who are struggling with the beliefs and doctrines. It is: ‘Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief.’ Would something of this sort be any good?: Almighty God, who art the Father of lights and who has promised by thy dear Son that all who do thy will shall know thy doctrine: [John 7:17] give me grace so to live that by daily obedience I daily increase in faith and in the understanding of thy Holy Word, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II

 

What is Love?

25 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by in Love, Matrimony, Sacraments, Stratford Caldecott

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How many of you, after reading the title of this post (and seeing the picture), immediately thought the following words:

Baby don't hurt, don't hurt me, no more.

I imagine there are at least some people (at least those close to my age) that did indeed have the above lyrics go through their minds, as it did mine. Even if you don't know who wrote this song you have probably heard it before somewhere, sometime. There is nothing really spectacular about the song–electronic music and lyrics that could have been written by a kindergartener–but nevertheless, it captured the minds of our lovesick society. The reason for this is not because of Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan on Saturday Night Live, but because our society truly wants to know: what is love?

You see, our modern society has little, if any, knowledge of what true love is. In our secularized and God-less society love has become 'whatever feels good.' But then, by pursuing only that which 'feels good', people get hurt along the way, which of course resulted in the above mentioned song being written in the first place. By this I do not want to appear to be condemning feelings or imply that they are not real. Feelings are real; in fact, they are strong truth tellers for us–but only in regards to things that are apparently good. But in order to understand what 'apparent goods' are we must contrast them with those goods which are authentic.

Apparent good – That which merely seems good; that which satisfies some appetite or desire sufficiently to become an object of choice. But it is not the true good because it is not morally right, since it does not conform to the purpose of man as a whole.

Authentic good – (A very good definition by St. John Paul II) – “Acting is morally good when the choices of freedom are in conformity with man's true good and thus express the voluntary ordering of the person towards his ultimate end: God himself, the supreme good in whom man finds his full and perfect happiness.” Veritatis Splendor, §72

The reason that we must differentiate between these two in order to understand that which is truly good is because in all our choices we are always seeking the 'good'. But a problem arises in that we can err in our understanding of whether or not the thing which we pursue is authentically good. St. Thomas Aquinas, along with Aristotle before him, said that “the good is what everyone desires.” The logical consequence to this statement that we must understand is that no one deliberately chooses that which is evil. In regards to this Fr. Robert O'Donnell has this to say in his book Hooked on Philosophy,

No agent, whether animal or human, chooses evil. Only the good can motivate an agent; only the good can act as a final cause. But sometimes an agent may think something to be good which is really evil.

And thus that which he refers to as evil is an 'apparent good' to the one who chooses it. To understand this we must remember that evil is a privation of some good. The best way to explain this is through an example from St. Augustine of Hippo,

For what is that which we call evil but the absence of good? In the bodies of animals, disease and wounds mean nothing but the absence of health; for when a cure is effected, that does not mean that the evils which were present—namely, the diseases and wounds—go away from the body and dwell elsewhere: they altogether cease to exist; for the wound or disease is not a substance, but a defect in the fleshly substance,—the flesh itself being a substance, and therefore something good, of which those evils—that is, privations of the good which we call health—are accidents. Just in the same way, what are called vices in the soul are nothing but privations of natural good. And when they are cured, they are not transferred elsewhere: when they cease to exist in the healthy soul, they cannot exist anywhere else.

But this does not mean that evil doen't exist because we see evil all around us. What this does mean, though, is that evil is not a 'being'. To say that it is a 'being' would be to promote a dualistic understanding of the universe. To say that evil is a 'being' would be to say that good and evil have always co-existed. This is not what the Church teaches nor is it what anyone with common sense would believe. God and Satan are not two eternal but opposite beings. Instead, God is the good Creator of all things, which includes Satan. Satan, or Lucifer, was created by God as a good angel but Satan chose to turn his back on that good. Stratford Caldecott put it this way, “Though Lucifer is by nature part of the image of God's love, he refuses to assume the likeness of God's kenotic nature.” (The Radiance of Being, p.242) What this means is that even though Lucifer was created in the image of God's love (and to a greater or lesser extent so was everything else that is created) Lucifer rejected that image because it meant that he would have to give of himself to those that were lesser than he – it meant that he would have to imitate God – in short, it meant that he would have to love.

And this finally brings us back to the original question: what is love? Part of what is needed to truly understand love can be found above in reference to 'God's kenotic nature.' Kenosis is usually a reference to the 'self-emptying' of Christ referred to by St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians. But here the author uses it to express the love that exists within the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are eternally giving themselves completely to the other Persons within the Trinity. He explains this in the book much better than I have but that is the basic point. From this we can see that to love is to give oneself completely to the 'other'. And later in the book he gives a wonderful definition of what love is:

Love is that absolute freedom that binds itself absolutely.

The Radiance of Being, Stratford Caldecott, p.263

And an example of the love that personifies “the absolute freedom that binds itself absolutely” is the love between Christ and His Bride, the Church. Christ gave of Himself completely for the one He loves – the Church – and the Church in turn gives herself completely to Christ (although this won't be perfectly realized until the end of time, it is forshadowed in the perfection of the Blessed Virgin Mary who gave her perfect 'yes' to God's will for her life). And by analogy it is the love between husband and wife, who have bound themselves freely and absolutely through the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes for us the love between Christ and His Church. And from this we can see why people are so often hurt by 'love' in today's society. People pursue the apparent good of 'what feels good' without any intention of binding themselves to the 'other' in absolute freedom. To say it another way, those who are hurt in their pursuit of love have rejected the good that God intends for us and have replaced it with the lesser apparent good of temporary pleasure. But to do so will leave us, possibly eternally, dissatisfied.

The Convenience of Marriage

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by in C.S. Lewis, Humor, Matrimony, Sacraments

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From Lewis today I have this profound insight into marriage. (Well, actually, I just had to post it because it is so funny.)

Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I’m afraid even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up they were so used to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.

The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis

Of course the reason this is funny is because there is some truth in it. I am always a little skeptical whenever anyone tells me, “Oh, my wife/husband and I never fight or argue.” After all, marriage is the joining together of a distinct and unique man and woman who are also fallen and sinful. As a result, our pride will from time to time (or most of the time) get in the way – those are the times when we forget that marriage is about giving ourselves to our spouse and not about what we can get out of it. Too often we forget this and when we do then quarrelling will result.

Our modern society doesn’t really understand that about marriage and that is why (at least it is part of the reason) that so many marriages end in divorce.* Just because there are disagreements in a marriage doesn’t mean that you picked the wrong person and need to move on and find someone else. I think it is quite the opposite. If we would use those times of disagreement in order to look at ourselves and see what we need to fix within ourselves, instead of expecting our spouse to be the one to give in, then we would be living our marriages as we should and would also be much happier for it.

At this point someone may be making a thousand excuses in his mind of why he is not the one that has to change. When this happens we need to remember that part of being a Christian is learning to die to ourselves. And this dying to self also applies to marriage. Every time you go to your spouse after an argument and sincerely say, “I’m sorry”, and then amend your life (or at least try) then you are in fact dying to self. And it is that dying to self that will lead to happiness – in this life and in the next.

*(Marriages don’t actually end just because a judge has granted a civil divorce. If it is a valid marriage it only ends at the death of one of the spouses. Another point of clarification needs to be made – an annulment also does not end a marriage; instead, it is a declaration by the Church that the marriage was never vaild to begin with.)

The Catholic Conception of Confession

28 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by in C.S. Lewis, Catholic Church, Catholic Obligations, Sacraments, Salvation

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My post today is yet another quote from C.S. Lewis. But, I am not posting it to show an instance of truth but one of misunderstanding. Lewis was much smarter than I can ever hope to be but his understanding of confession misses the mark.

So why point out this misunderstanding of confession? Primarily, it is to correct any misunderstandings that a Catholic may have about the Sacrament of Penance. (And hopefully to explain why confession is necessary to a non-Catholic.) But also my purpose is to give a more balanced view of Lewis. What I mean is that most of the quotes I post from him could have come from a Catholic saint – but Lewis was not Catholic and he should be treated as such. There is a danger inherent in accepting what someone says as the Truth just because you happen to like the person. And if we accept as true what Lewis has to say about confession then it would be very dangerous indeed.

I think our* official view of confession can be seen in the form for the Visitation of the Sick where it says “Then shall the sick person be moved (i.e., advised, prompted) to make a . . . Confession . . . if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter.” That is, where Rome makes Confession compulsory for all, we make it permissible for any: not “generally necessary” but profitable. We do not doubt that there can be forgiveness without it. But, as your own experience shows, many people do not feel forgiven, i.e., do not effectively “believe in the forgiveness of sins,” without it. The quite enormous advantage of coming really to believe in forgiveness is well worth the horrors (I agree, they are horrors) of a first confession.

Also, there is the gain in self-knowledge: most of [us] have never really faced the facts about ourselves until we uttered them aloud in plain words, calling a spade a spade. I certainly feel I have profited enormously by the practice. At the same time I think we are quite right not to make it generally obligatory, which wd. force it on some who are not ready for it and might do harm.

From a letter by C.S. Lewis

* – By “our” he means the Anglican view of confession.

So what is the dangerous part in this letter? It is the fact that Lewis thinks of the ‘Roman’ way of confession as merely obligatory, which according to canon law it is, when he should have first understood confession as necessary, which he did not as evidenced by his saying that confession is “not ‘generally necessary’ but profitable.” But, the reason that confession is obligatory for a Catholic is because it is necessary for our salvation. (At least it is necessary for those of us who have committed a mortal sin, which I think would include almost every person, if not every person, that has ever reached the age of reason.)

Here is a basic summary of why confession is in fact necessary: after baptism incorporates us into the life of God – the life of grace – (which was lost to mankind through the sin of Adam and Eve) we can, and do, still sin. Some of those sins are venial and some are mortal. And if a sin is mortal then we once again loose that life of grace – that connection with God that was given to us through baptism. In a sense, therefore, we have crucified Christ in our own hearts by sinning deliberately against Him. What is to be done to be forgiven and return to the life of grace? The Anglicans, just as Catholics, believe that baptism can only be administered once and so if you break that connection with God that was given to you through baptism then how can you get it back? The answer seems quite clear, if of course you believe what Jesus said to His Apostles, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:23) Jesus gave His Apostles (and their successors) this authority to forgive sins because He knew that we would continue to sin while we remain on this earth.

So, like I said at the beginning, for Lewis to sound so negative about the Catholic obligation to go to confession shows that he missed the mark. The Catholic Church makes it an obligation for her members to go to confession out of love for our eternal souls – because she knows that it is necessary after we have committed post-baptismal mortal sin. If only Lewis had understood that then perhaps he would have done the one thing that I regret he never did – become Catholic.

The Holy Spirit vs. “Feelings”

29 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in C.S. Lewis, Holy Spirit, Promises of Christ, Sacraments, Thought for the Day

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It is quite right that you should feel that “something terrific” has happened to you (It has) and be “all glowy.” Accept these sensations with thankfulness as birthday cards from God, but remember that they are only greetings, not the real gift. I mean, it is not the sensations that are the real thing. The real thing is the gift of the Holy Spirit which can’t usually be—perhaps not ever—experienced as a sensation or emotion. The sensations are merely the response of your nervous system. Don’t depend on them. Otherwise when they go and you are once more emotionally flat (as you certainly will be quite soon), you might think that the real thing had gone too. But it won’t. It will be there when you can’t feel it. May even be most operative when you can feel it least.

The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III

If we have shared in Christ’s death and Resurrection through Baptism, and especially if we have received Confirmation, then we can and should be confident that God is always with us. Of course, we can choose to turn our back on Him through serious sin. But once we repent and turn back towards Him – going to Confession if needed – then we must trust in the promises of our Lord who said He would be with us always. And this remains true even if we do not “feel” His presence. Lewis is very right here and we would do well to reflect upon his words especially when we do not “feel” God.

A Bishop Doing What He is Called to Do

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Excommunication, Sacraments

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This post is from CatholicVote.org and can be found here.

DEAR WOMAN PRIEST, YOU’RE EXCOMMUNICATED…LOVE, BISHOP PAPROCKI

And P.S. – You’re not a priest.

That pretty much sums up Bishop Paprocki’s response to a local Catholic woman’s recent attempt to get ordained.

The woman in question is Mary F. Keldermans of Springfield. Bishop Paprocki wrote to her last month asking her to reconsider her plan, but evidently she ignored him and tried to be ordained a priest at a Unitarian church on May 5.

Bishop Paprocki promptly issued a decree of excommunication (and if you’ve never seen one of those before, they look like this).

The bishop also issued this statement to his diocese:

Please be advised that Ms. Mary F. Keldermans of Springfield, Illinois, has attempted to be ordained a priest for “Roman Catholic Womenpriests, Inc.” in a ceremony at the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Springfield on May 5, 2014. As a result, she has incurred an automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.

That is what you call a bishop who’s not afraid to bishop.

At the same time, we should be careful not to tout this as some sort of righteous smack-down or triumphant display of authority. Bishop Paprocki is much too holy and charitable a bishop for that, and I have no doubt that his declaration of excommunication was issued with sorrow, not pleasure.

But he didn’t hold back from issuing the decree of excommunication either, or from publishing it prominently on the diocesan website.

This is one of the things I love about Bishop Paprocki. Whether it’s standing up forthe unborn, for marriage, or for Holy Orders, he doesn’t shy away from confronting those who threaten his flock, nor from explaining his position to themwith charity.

He prays intensely, he acts decisively, and he teaches clearly.

Lord, send us more bishops like this one!

Amen!

On the Validity of C.S. Lewis’ Marriage

17 Saturday May 2014

Posted by in C.S. Lewis, Canon Law, Matrimony, Morality, Sacraments, Thankfulness

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The quote below is an excerpt from one of Lewis' letters to his friend Dorothy Sayers. The reason I am posting it is because it has given me a bit of information that I did not know about Lewis, and I am sharing it because it is something that everyone who loves Lewis needs to know.

25 June 1957

I ought to tell you my own news. On examination it turned out that Joy’s previous marriage, made in her pre-Christian days, was no marriage: the man had a wife still living. The Bishop of Oxford said it was not the present policy to approve re-marriage in such cases, but that his view did not bind the conscience of any individual priest. Then dear Father Bide (do you know him?) who had come to lay his hands on Joy—for he has on his record what looks very like one miracle—without being asked and merely on being told the situation at once said he would marry us. So we had a bedside marriage with a nuptial Mass.

The important thing to note here is that Lewis' marriage to Joy was completely valid! I had always thought that Lewis was ‘living in sin’ in his marriage because he had married Joy, who was divorced. This always bothered me because Lewis does not seem like the type that would do such a thing. Also, for such a prominent Christian apologist to do such a thing it would cause scandal by making others think that divorce and remarriage is OK, which it is not. But from his own writing in this letter it appears that he knew that Joy's first marriage was invalid because she had married a man who was already married and then civilly divorced. And, as Catholic teaching tells us, once you have entered into marriage any attempt to enter into another marriage is impossible until the death of the spouse. (And, by the way, this is a universal law – not just one for Catholics.)

Truly, I give thanks to God for having discovered this. Now my love and respect for Lewis has grown immensely. And now there only remains one thing about Lewis that makes me sad – that he was never able to see the full Truth of the Catholic faith and convert. But still – his witness to Christ has led many into the Catholic Church and I am grateful to be one of them.

Christ’s Body and Blood: source of eternal life

10 Saturday May 2014

Posted by in Liturgy of the Hours, Sacraments, Salvation

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When the life-giving Word of God dwelt in human flesh, he changed it into that good thing which is distinctively his, namely, life; and by being wholly united to the flesh in a way beyond our comprehension, he gave it the life-giving power which he has by his very nature. Therefore, the body of Christ gives life to those who receive it. Its presence in mortal men expels death and drives away corruption because it contains within itself in his entirety the Word who totally abolishes corruption.

From a commentary on the Gospel of John by Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Jesus, being God, has life-giving power within Himself. Therefore, when we receive His Body and Blood He bestows that life to us who worthily receive Him. That is why He said, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:54)