On Friday, March 19th, the Church will celebrate the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, foster father of Jesus Christ and spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Normally this feast day passes by in relative obscurity, yet because this year marks the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, Pope Francis declared 2021 a “year of St. Joseph.”

What happens when the Eucharist is consecrated at Mass?

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, “The Eucharistic Prayer is the heart of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In this prayer, the celebrant acts in the person of Christ as head of his body, the Church. He gathers not only the bread and the wine, but the substance of our lives and joins them to Christ’s perfect sacrifice, offering them to the Father.”

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) lists the following elements in the Eucharistic Prayer:

There is no contradiction in Masses being called a holy sacrifice and Scripture’s testimony that Christ was offered as a sacrifice once on Calvary to atone for sins. The resolution of this apparent contradiction is found in the fact that Christ is not sacrificed anew at every Mass, but re-presented to the Father for the atonement of sin. According to Pope St. John Paul II, “The Eucharist is indelibly marked by the event of the Lord’s Passion and death, of which it is not only a reminder but the sacramental re-presentation. It is the sacrifice of the Cross perpetuated down the ages.”

Lent is a special penitential season of the year, when disciples of Jesus Christ offer Him some sort of sacrifice for His Glory, our salvation, and to atone for our sins and the sins of the whole world. Some people do big things, and some people just one small thing, but we should all do something for the One who did everything for us. Lent will begin this Wednesday with ashes, please prepare now for the season if you haven’t already.

One of the things you could do that is actually enjoyable is to watch The Search. If you’ve been reading these pastor columns for the past two weeks you know what I’m referring to. If you haven’t signed up for an on-line small faith sharing group please do so now by clicking on this link:

A few months ago I sat down to watch a new video series on the Catholic faith. To say I was impressed is an understatement – I binge watched all seven videos of The Search. The Search is an innovative video series that tackles the key questions of every human heart. In seven beautifully filmed episodes, Chris Stefanick and experts from multiple fields of science, medicine, psychology, art, and religion examine our place in the larger story of existence. Holy Redeemer Parish has an account with Formed.org that enables our parishioners to access The Search for free.

So this is the deal. Every Lent you are encouraged to join a small faith sharing group, to read a good Catholic book, share your faith journey with others, and let them share theirs with you. This year we’ll be watching The Search video series instead of reading a book, and meeting online instead of in person.

As of your reading of this, I will be closing in on the end of my third week of Exodus 90, the 90 day program designed to help liberate men from bad habits, vice, and sin. So far (and I have 69 days to go so I could still go off the rails) it has been the best thing I have done for myself in 16½ years as a priest. I’ll write a pastor’s column on it and my experience in the future. There are three major aspects to E-90: fraternity, prayer, and penance, but it’s this last one, the penitential part, that scares so many men off: no sweets, no snacks, fast two days week, only water, milk, tea & coffee (without dairy or sugar), daily exercise, and, the biggest of them all for many, only cold showers. Yikes you say.

We don’t like to suffer, yet we have to accept it to achieve any greater cause.

For almost a year now, the world, and our nation in particular, have been racked with anxiety due to the plague, quarantines, economic contraction, BLM/Antifa protests, the buildup to the election, the aftermath of the election, the storming of congress, and the second impeachment of President Trump. As a result of all this, many people have lost their peace. Perhaps that’s because for most, their peace isn’t found in the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. Remember these words of Our Lord: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. Not as the world gives do I give it to you (Jn. 14:27).”

In reading the lives of the saints, one aspect of their lives that stands out is their inner peace. They can be slandered, arrested, and trotted off to their martyrdom all while maintaining their peace. How is that possible?

The world as we have come to know it is falling apart. That is to be expected from a world that has turned its back on Jesus Christ. The inevitable consequence of this is collapse, so that we can rise again in Christ. This story is repeated over and over again in the Old Testament where the Jews in their comfort and security would grow indifferent toward God and break His laws; ultimately collapsing, repenting, and reestablishing their fidelity to God.

Covid-19 vaccines are now available and being given out world-wide by the millions. Many people have asked me what the moral ramifications of these vaccines are, as many of them are derived from immoral sources. There are three issues as I see them:

1. The moral ramifications of a given vaccine (there are many different vaccines);

2. Whether there are long term health consequences of taking a vaccine which we do not yet know;

3. Whether you should use a vaccine given these two points, considering the immediate need to keep yourself and others safe.

The first issue deals with the moral development of a vaccine: did scientists use immoral means to create a vaccine, and if they did, could that vaccine still be used? The Word of God (Bible), all of the Church’s 2000 year moral tradition, and common sense, tell us that it is evil to do something evil to achieve a good end.

Epiphany is a Greek word that means revelation or manifestation. This Sunday we celebrate the manifestation of the divinity of baby Jesus to the nations (as opposed to just the Jews). Until the 19th Century this feast day was as significant to Christians as Christmas; in many countries around the world it still is.

“Epiphany originally celebrated four different events, in the following order of importance: the Baptism of the Lord; Christ's first miracle, the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana; the Nativity of Christ; and the visitation of the Wise Men or Magi. Each of these is a revelation of God to man…”

1. At Christ's Baptism, the Holy Spirit descends and the voice of God the Father is heard, declaring that Jesus is His Son.

2. At the wedding in Cana, the miracle reveals Christ's divinity.

3. At the Nativity, the angels bear witness to Christ, and the shepherds, representing the people of Israel, bow down before Him.

4. At the visitation of the Magi, Christ's divinity is revealed to the Gentiles – “the other nations of the earth”.

None of us will miss 2020; it has been a horrible, terrible, awful year: the plague, the fear, illnesses & deaths, the quarantines (Church, businesses, schools, and family), the masks, the economic uncertainty and decline, election anxiety and upset, my broken leg , etc. For these reasons, Christmas this year stands out in stark relief, bringing hope for a return to normal, civility, and even love; even if we can’t spend it with family in the ways we are used to. Like the light at the end of a tunnel, Christmas this year seems to signal hope. Hope that the dark days of 2020 are fading into a brighter 2021, even if 2021 isn’t better, we still have hope and the joy it brings because hope is about Jesus Christ. We hope for a safe and effective vaccine, we hope for economic prosperity, yet none of that matters if there isn’t Jesus Christ. True hope comes from the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and His Ascension into heaven. Without those two things, there is no hope in a better tomorrow. But first Jesus had to come into the world, and while none of us have experienced our own resurrection and ascension, we have experienced coming into this world and so we can relate.

There are two kinds of critics who claim that the sacrament of the Eucharist was borrowed from pagan religions: anti-Catholic Protestants who believe that distinctly Catholic belief came from pagan mythology, and Jesus “mythicists” who believe that Jesus never existed and that anything related to him was borrowed from that same mythology.

Bart Brewer represents a position typical of anti-Catholic Evangelicals when he says that after the conversion of Constantine and the legalization of Christianity, “[new converts] brought with them pagan rites which they boldly introduced into the church with Christian terminology, thus corrupting the primitive faith.” But many of the “rites” the Church adopted are harmless customs, such as styles of vestments or temple architecture. (Protestants do the same thing when they exchange wedding rings, because this practice is not found in Scripture but is found in ancient Roman sources.) More to the point, we’ve already seen that the “pure and faithful” pre-Constantine Church Brewer speaks of did believe in the Real Presence of the Eucharist (along with many other distinctly Catholic doctrines).

A year or two ago I heard about a program for men called Exodus 90. The ‘exodus’ in Exodus 90 refers to the book of Exodus in the Bible; so named because of Israel’s exodus out of enslavement in Egypt. The number 90 refers to the number of days the program lasts; 90 because that’s how long it takes to break bad habits and form good ones (so say people in the know). The program begins every year 90 days before Easter, the day of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; a day hopefully when the participants of Exodus 90 will have experienced their own resurrection from the enslavement of sinful habits and the development of good ones.

This year I am going to give it a try. I invite you to join me. For those who do, we will begin on January 4th, 90 days before Easter; an extended Lent. With the aid of others on the same journey, it will be a time of prayer, self-denial, fraternity, and discipline building. So what does it involve? Before I address that, I need to introduce Magnify 90.

Acts 2:42 tells us that the early Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” According to Protestant church historian J.N.D. Kelly, early Christians’ teaching on the Eucharist “was in general unquestioningly realist, i.e., the consecrated bread and wine were taken to be, and were treated and designated as, the Savior’s body and blood.” Anglican scholar Darwell Stone also makes the same point and says, “Throughout the writings of the Fathers there is unbroken agreement that the consecrated bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ, and that the Eucharist is a sacrifice.”

Here are just a few excerpts from the early Church Fathers that demonstrate their agreement on this issue:

• St. Ignatius of Antioch, A.D. 110 – “[Heretics] abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes.” . .

Why are we so quick to complain when something is wrong – and think nothing of it when something is right? Why do we keep mulling over what is wrong and losing our peace, as opposed to mulling over what is right and living in peace? The answer to that question is this: God made us for truth, goodness, and beauty. So when something is true, good, or beautiful we don’t notice it because it is as it should be. But when something is false, evil, or ugly we do notice it because it’s out of place, and we worry.

This truth begs another question: on what grounds do atheists have to complain? If the atheist believes that all of creation is nothing more than random chance, then why do they think anything is ever out of place? Why do they think that things should be a certain way and get upset when they aren’t? If all is chance, then by their logic, atheists have no right to a particular order of things, nor any meaning to anything, nor a right to life itself; so they shouldn’t complain, yet they do because they can’t escape reality: God is for real, and life (even the atheist’s) has meaning and order.

Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever ~

I love the above line; you’ve seen it leading off my pastor columns for quite a while now.  I love it for its eternal truth.  It isn’t an opinion that Jesus is God, He Is.  As God, He is eternal, all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and invincible.  It is very important to know all of that and to embrace Jesus Christ.  Those who don’t will lack peace in this life and will suffer terribly in the next.

One day all political parties will cease to exist.  One day all republics or democracies will cease to exist.  One day the United States of America will cease to exist.  One day the earth as we know it will cease to exist.  Focus on what exists forever: God and souls.  Do not sell yourself out to things that are passing away. 

This Sunday we celebrate Christ the King, for He is a King, the King.  Sometimes my pastor columns begin with “Jesus Christ: King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”  I love that line too, for it sums up in puny words the who, and the power of Jesus Christ. 

Perhaps the most common objection to the biblical evidence for the Eucharist is the observation that Jesus routinely used self-referential metaphors that Catholics don’t take literally. For example, Protestant apologists Norman Geisler and Ralph MacKenzie note that Jesus said, “I am the door” (Jn. 10:7) and “I am the vine” (Jn 15:5), yet, in their words, “Roman Catholic scholars do not take these statements literally, even though they come from the same book that records “‘This is my body!’ It is therefore, not necessary to take Jesus literally when he said ‘this is my body’ or ‘eat my flesh.’”

The problem with Geisler and MacKenzie’s argument is that it can be taken too far. If any of Jesus’ commands are too demanding or strange they can simply be written off as metaphors since Christ used metaphors on some occasions. Of course, the question isn’t whether Christ spoke metaphorically. The question is did he speak metaphorically in this instance?

Unlike the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John’s Gospel does not contain a description of the Last Supper. Instead, John offered a teaching of Jesus that complements what the other Gospels tell us in their depictions of the Last Supper.

John 6 takes place after Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 people. The bread of life passage begins with a group of people following him because of this miracle. Christ knows that they seek more bread, so he tells them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst” (Jn 6:35). They still question Jesus about who he is, which prompts him to answer, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn 6:51).

I wrote this pastor’s column on funerals a few years ago and thought that it would be a good idea to reintroduce it – and update it a tiny bit. It not only speaks to the nature of Catholic funerals, but what our policies are at Holy Redeemer Parish. Please plan to have a Catholic funeral. 

Over the past fifty years or so, Catholic funerals have fallen on hard times. Most Catholics do not have a Catholic funeral upon death, and that number continues to drop. That is very unfortunate and clearly reflects a loss of faith in general, and a lack of understanding in the meaning and value of a funeral.

Jesus said, “Do this in memory of me,” and the words “in memory” come from the Greek word anamnesis, which means more than a mental recollection of a past event or person. It means instead, a “remembrance brought about by the act of sacrifice.” An example of this can be found in Leviticus 24:7-8, in which the Israelite priest and his sons are instructed to offer a memorial sacrifice of bread to the Lord each Sabbath. The verses say, “You shall put pure frankincense with each row, that it may go with the bread as a memorial (anamnesis) portion to be offered by fire to the Lord. Every Sabbath day Aaron shall set it in order before the Lord continually on behalf of the sons of Israel as a covenant forever.” The original Hebrew word for memorial in this passage, azkarah, also means “memorial offering.”

The Gospel this Sunday, “Render unto Caesar”, potentially touches upon issues of Church and State. While I will have given some reflection upon that in my homily, in this pastor’s column, I am passing along the US bishop’s statement on “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” Perhaps I should republish it every two years prior to an election. It may be of help in informing your conscience and guiding your decision making. It is worth a read if only once in your lifetime. You can find it on the web or simply start reading it below. You may want to read a printed out version (it’s kinda long).