On Priests and Penance

The recent events in the news have left us all a little shaken and perhaps more than a little discouraged. There is a particular kind of pain and sense of betrayal that we experience when our leaders in the church fail us so unbelievably. It’s hard for me not to feel immense shame and disappointment (not to mention rage) when I think of the conduct of some of my brother priests. 

So now what are we to do? Sometimes the only good that can come from times such as these is that they can bring us back to some basic truths, like the truth that only God is God. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Yet how easy is it for us to confuse God’s fidelity with that of His servants?

If these clergymen have failed us, then God has failed us too (or so we conclude). But we can never confuse the evils of men with the goodness of God. Priests are weak human beings. They are called to be in the person of Christ. But that doesn’t mean they are Christ. Only Christ is Christ; only God is God. No matter how disappointing it is when a priest falls (and it is), our faith was never meant to be in that priest. My faith is not in any priest (myself least of all); it is in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. I am ashamed of my brother priests, and yet I remain proud to be a priest; because my priesthood is a sharing in the priesthood of Christ Himself, and that is always something to be proud of. The sins of priests don’t change the holiness of the priesthood, and the priesthood is holy because it belongs to Christ, not to any one of its sinful members.

The only advice I can give during these disturbing times is to keep your eyes on Christ (again, back to the basics). Unfaithful priests don’t change God’s faithfulness. He hasn’t given up on us; we cannot give up on Him. For myself, I can only ask God to make me worthy of His priesthood and to use my priesthood in any way He can to make reparation for the sins of my brother priests. Let us all keep our eyes on the High Priest, not on the low priests.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 4-Day 1

Well, the last week of Advent is a short one this year, and so this is my last Advent post for the year. In these final hours leading up to the celebration of Christmas, this is the thought I'd like to leave you with. We're all familiar, more or less, with the traditional story of Christmas, as given to us in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. There's another slightly different version of the birth of Jesus that we hear in the book of Revelation (chapter 12). This one describes His Mother as a woman clothed with the sun and with a crown of 12 stars on her head. It also describes the Devil in the form of a 7-headed dragon, waiting to devour the child about to be born from the Woman. But the child is taken up to God, and the woman flees to the wildness, where a place is prepared for her by God.

This version of the Christmas story is far more war-like and apocalyptic, but it speaks to the reality of what Christmas really is. Christmas in a certain sense is like the fairy tale that really happened. The dragon has taken the people of God captive, and so our King comes in the disguise of a humble baby to save His people from the dragon. Mary, the Woman with a crown of 12 stars, is like the noble princess who opens the gate to let in the King, the King who comes to save His people. As it says in the Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", "Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day, to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray." This is very much an act of war on God's part, because those are the lengths our King is willing to go to save His people.

As this Christmas is finally almost here, it is my sincere hope that my reflections this Advent have in some way helped you to enter into and prepare better for this Christmas, perhaps in a new way. Now that Christmas is very nearly upon us, it is also my hope that the joy of this Christmas strikes you in a new way. May you see with fresh eyes how great is the love of the King who comes for you this Christmas. And may you see how precious you are in His sight, that He moves heaven and earth, that He declares war on the dragon to save you this Christmas. This is the fairy tale that really happened. This is the love of our King. This is Christmas.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent Week 3-Day 7

Today I performed a funeral, which is a fairly common thing for me, but I don't recall ever having one quite this close to Christmas Day. I was reminded that even in our darkest hours, Christ comes to shine His light through our darkness. The only thing that can give us any kind of real hope when we lose someone we love is the knowledge that there is a world beyond this one, and therefore that death is truly not the end, thanks to the death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hope can be an overused word from which we tend to strip away any real meaning (like faith and love, for that matter). But true hope is found only in the One who comes to defeat death, the One who gives us a real reason for hope, the One who gives us a life beyond this one. Christ is coming this Christmas to fill you with that hope; indeed, one of the major themes of Advent (yes, it's still Advent-it's not Christmas yet...) is the theme of hope - that we look forward to our deliverance, to our Savior, to the fulfillment of all our joy. But we do so precisely because we live now in the beautiful confidence and certainty of knowing that our Hope is indeed coming. Our hope is not in our own efforts or even in our trust in our fellow men; it is in the God who comes to us to defeat death itself, so that we can live forever.

This Christmas, where do you most need the hope that only Jesus can offer? Whether for yourself or for a loved one, for a past wound, for a present pain, or for a future fear, bring all of it to Jesus. Ask that He fill you with His hope, the only real kind of hope that there is. And this Christmas, live in the glorious freedom of knowing that Christ comes to defeat every source of darkness, even death itself.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 3-Day 6

My apologies for the technical difficulties I was having with this post. Should be all set now!

These last few days leading up to Christmas, there are certain antiphons used both at Mass, during the Alleluia, and during the Church's Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. These antiphons are known as the "O" antiphons, because they all begin by addressing Our Lord with a different title and beginning with "O" ("O Wisdom", "O Saving Lord", "O Key of David", etc.). I made a video about these antiphons last year, which you can check out here. These antiphons are also the inspiration for the best known Advent hymn of all, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".

The antiphon for today goes like this, "O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; O Keystone of the mighty arch of man, come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust." Jesus is at once the sovereign Lord of all that is and at the same time the intimate joy of every individual heart. He is the King of the universe and the consolation of the lowliest soul. At Christmas, we celebrate that God is both of these things; He is the Lord of all and yet He comes to be with us in a very intimate way.

This Christmas, the King of all the nations comes to be the only joy of every human heart, including yours. As Our Lady lets in the King of all the nations to be the joy of her heart, let the same King into your life this Christmas. He comes not just for all the nations, but for you.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 3 - Day 5

Today the Church offers two options for today's First Reading. The first is from the Song of Songs, that short but beautiful book right in the middle of the Bible that uses the image of two lovers to paint a picture of the intensity of God's love for us. The passage from today says, "Hark! my lover - here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills...My lover speaks; he says to me, 'Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!' " This reading captures the spirit of the anticipation with which we continue to wait for the coming of Christ, the lover of our souls, with all the anxious longing of a beloved waiting to be reunited with her lover.

At the same time, the words of the lover who is coming to his beloved also speaks of God's longing and desire for us. "Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!" Not only do our hearts cry out to God , but His Heart cries out for us too. He sees us as His precious beloved, whom He invites to rise and go with Him. Though Advent and Christmas are fundamentally about God coming to us; they are also about us coming to God. Jesus is the lover who comes springing across the mountains and leaping across the hills to claim us as His own. But He does nothing against our will. He waits with all the patience of a lover who waits for his love to be accepted and embraced by the one he loves.

As Christmas comes ever closer, it is still not too late to prepare your heart for the coming of Christ. I invite you to take time to prayerfully reflect on the great love of the God who moves heaven and earth to come to you. Let your heart yearn for Him, and open wide the doors when He comes on Christmas Day, so that you may know how great is the Love that comes to you on that day.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 3-Day 4

The Gospel for today is the Annunciation - the angel Gabriel announcing the birth of Jesus to Mary. There is a beautiful homily written by St. Bernard, which he writes as though addressing it directly to Mary, as one who is anxiously waiting for her to consent to being the Mother of God. He says, "We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us. The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent." St. Bernard speaks on behalf of all humanity, which is still held in captivity under the weight of sin. We too, like him, await to be set free from our captivity. And our salvation will come indeed, if only Our Lady consents to the angel's message.

The homily builds, emphasizing that all creation awaits with ever-growing anticipation the answer that Mary will give. Saint Bernard encourages Mary not to hesitate but to answer quickly, for the salvation of the entire world depends on her word. Finally, the homily ends with the words of Mary's response, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word." With these precious words, it is as though the whole of creation breathes an immense sigh of the sweetest relief, knowing that our salvation is near at hand.

In these last few days leading up to Christmas, we too await with all creation the arrival of our Savior.
We too experience that same sense of growing anticipation, awaiting the word of our salvation to be spoken and knowing that immense relief when it finally comes. Like Our Lady, let us open our hearts to the arrival of her Son. Let us welcome Him into our life, as Mary did, inviting God's will to be accomplished in us, as it was in Mary, so that our Salvation may indeed arrive. Be it done to all of us according to His Word.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 3-Day 3

I'd like to revisit the role of John the Baptist during this Advent season. Yes, I've already spoken of him twice, but today I'd like to focus on today's Gospel, which tells of the first mention of his birth. The angel Gabriel appears to a man named Zechariah and announces that his wife, Elizabeth, will bear a son, despite the fact that she is too old to naturally conceive. Gabriel says that, "He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God."

There are many striking similarities between this announcement and that of the birth of Jesus to Mary. Both are given by the angel Gabriel. Both reveal a miraculous conception in the bodies of two women who, naturally speaking, should not able to procreate. Both make promise of the significant role that the Holy Spirit will play in making all this happen. And both tell of the spectacular influence that these two unborn babies will have on the rest of the world.

John the Baptist therefore, even from the first moment of his conception, foreshadows the coming of Christ. He is completely dedicated and given over to God even in his mother's womb. And indeed his entire life will be one that is completely dedicated to God and to pointing forward to Christ, who is to come after him. In these few remaining days of Advent, let us pray that we too may be filled with the Holy Spirit so that our entire life may be totally dedicated to God and given over to pointing others to Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to come upon you in a new and powerful way, so that you may be transformed by the fire of His love and that that love may burn bright in your heart this Christmas, as it burned so powerfully in the life of John the Baptist, even from the moment of his conception.

Pax Vobiscum