Tuesday, April 23, 2013

From WCU: Gospel For Today

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER (DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY)

Today's first reading is from The Acts of the Apostles.  This is a unique book in the New Testament.  It is not a gospel account of the life of Jesus.  It is not a letter written to a church or an individual.  It is a history, written by Luke, of the earliest days of the Church.  This is the beginning of our story, the story of the Catholic Church.  Reading the book of Acts shows us two things: we see the continuity of the early Church and today's Church, in the apostolic mission, the ordaining of bishops, priests and deacons, the celebration of the breaking of the bread (the Eucharist), baptisms, and even a Church Council; it also shows us the continuity between that early Church and Jesus Christ.

In the reading today from Acts 5:12-17 we hear of gathering crowds.  People are bringing their sick and lame out into the streets, hoping that they might be healed if only they might be touched by the shadow of....  not Jesus.  Peter.  

It reads like a scene from one of the gospels, where the crowds are pressing in on Jesus in expectation of a healing miracle.  But this time it is not the Christ, but the one whom He left in His stead, the one to whom He gave the keys to His Kingdom; Simon the fisherman, now called Peter.  He is the chief shepherd of the flock of Christ.  And it is not because of anything special about Peter that the crowds come to him.  It is because the graces of Christ flow through him.  

So, you see, they still come for Jesus.  They are not called "believers of Peter," but "believers of the Lord."

They come to Peter because as one of the Apostles he has the authority of Jesus Christ.  It is the same authority that Christ possessed of the Father; the authority that allowed Christ to heal, that allowed Him to forgive sins, that allowed Him to teach as He did.  That authority has been handed on to the Apostles.

In today's gospel reading from John we read of Christ appearing to the Apostles after the Resurrection.  "Peace be with you," He says.  "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Then He does a magnificent thing.  Our Lord breathes on them.  We must remember that the root word of "spirit" means "breath" (as in "aspirate").  Jesus breathes on them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."

God alone has the authority to forgive sins, for when we sin, it is God whom we offend.  Jesus possessed this authority from the Father.  And now Jesus passes it on to men.  

The Apostles are still with us today.  Not the same men, in the flesh, as we read of in Acts.  But their successors are with us.  Just as Jesus sacramentally passed His divine authority to the original Apostles, so they passed that authority on to others, and they to others, down the line of Apostolic Succession to the present day bishops in our Church (and the priests and deacons ordained to aid them in their ministry).

Just as it was in the earliest days of the Church, Jesus Christ is still alive and still ministering to us through His chosen men.  Our faith should be as strong as those who came to Peter and the others for healing and reconciliation.  St. Thomas in today's Gospel refused to believe in the Resurrection until he could touch the wounds of the Risen Lord.  Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."  

That is you and me.  We have not seen the Risen Lord.  But we have seen those who carry out His ministry, with His divine authority, still today.  Hold fast to the bishops.  Hold fast to the Catholic Church.  As St. Ignatius of Antioch (a disciple of St. John, ordained bishop by St. Peter) wrote in the year 110, "Wheresoever the bishop appears, there let the people be; just as wherever Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."

---
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY
Today is also Divine Mercy Sunday.  Jesus said in a vision to St. Faustina that whoever would not enter in through the door of His Mercy must pass through the door of His Judgment.  To accept Christ's mercy means three things:
1. You must ask for it.
2. You must yourself be merciful to others (allowing Christ's mercy to flow through you).
3. You must trust in Jesus.

If you are unfamiliar with the devotion to Divine Mercy, take a few minutes today to familiarize yourself with it. Here is one helpful link:

St. Mary's will have a Divine Mercy Holy Hour at the parish today at 3:00pm.  And this evening at 7:00 at our student center, in place of our usual rosary before Mass, we will be praying the Divine Mercy chaplet.  (If you are unfamiliar with this prayer, come anyway, we will have guides).  

This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it!  
God bless!
Matt

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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From WCU: Weekly Update from CCM

Dear Students,

'TIS THE SEASON
No, not the Christmas Season - I don't have my holidays mixed up.  I meant the Easter Season!  Yes, it is a whole season in the Church year.  I once read an article by a very misinformed Catholic who did not understand this fact.  She had gone to a Protestant church with a friend on the Sunday after Easter.  At this church they were celebrating "Butterfly Sunday" which she said was a beautiful reminder of the power of Resurrection, using the image of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.  She really liked the service and suggested that the Catholic Church really ought to do something similar, to extend Easter beyond just Easter Sunday so we can give the Resurrection its fair due.

The writer identified herself as a Catholic, but her comments left me wondering how often she makes it to Mass.  We certainly don't need "Butterfly Sunday" to help us extend the Easter holiday.  For us it is a whole season, stretching from Easter Sunday itself for fifty days until Pentecost.  More than that, the eight days from Easter until the next Sunday (the "Octave of Easter") are regarded really as one extended day in the liturgical calendar.  To give an example, in the Liturgy of the Hours (the Divine Office) for Morning Prayer, the psalms and antiphons for each day this week are taken from the Easter Morning Prayer.  It is the same day over and over again.  But unlike "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray, we don't repeat the emergence of a rodent from a den, but the Risen Christ from the Tomb.  We consider this such a seminal event in our faith that one 24 hour day just is not enough!

The Second Sunday of Easter in particular has been designated as Divine Mercy Sunday (far better than "Butterfly Sunday" in my book).  The Divine Mercy devotion is rooted in the diary of a young polish nun, St. Faustina Kowalska, written in the 1930s.  In it, she recounts many revelations she received about God's mercy.  The message of mercy is that God loves us, no matter how great our sins.  His mercy is stronger than our sins.  If we trust in His mercy, we not only receive His mercy, but we allow it to flow through ourselves and spread to others.  In short, we must ask for God's mercy, we must ourselves be merciful, and we must completely trust in Jesus.

If you are unfamiliar with the Divine Mercy devotion, or the chaplet, here is a great link to an EWTN mini-site with all sorts of information.

Butterflies are beautiful creatures of God - but if I have to choose between them and God's mercy, all I have to say is, "Jesus, I trust in You!"

God bless and have a great week!
Matt


--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Gospel For Today

EASTER SUNDAY

He is risen! Alleluia!  Allow me to wish you a Blessed Easter by taking you back to Holy Thursday.  I was praying before the Blessed Sacrament immediately after the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper; the Sacrament had been removed from the sanctuary and taken to an altar of repose.  Like many churches, our place of repose was decorated with flowers and Easter lilies, making it a reflection of the Garden of Gethsemane, where our Lord spent his final hours before his Passion.

I was reflecting on this, putting myself there in the scene, waiting in the garden, keeping watch with Jesus.  As I meditated on this, a thought entered my mind:  He is there now.  

This was not merely a reenactment of an event which happened long ago.  Christ was there, is there, now, waiting in the garden to be arrested.  When he says, "Stay here and keep watch with me" (Mt 26:38), he is speaking to you and me.  

How can I say Christ is still there at Gethsemane?  Isn't he in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father?  Yes, of course he is.  And that is precisely why he is still in the garden; why he is still suffering on the cross; and why he is even now risen from the tomb.  Christ lives and reigns from eternity.  And eternity gives one a very unique perspective.

Most of us have a very wrong view of what eternity is.  We tend to think of it is just a really, really, really incredibly long time that stretches forever before us without end.  When we think of eternity that way, and imagine heaven as us sitting and adoring God in awe and wonder for endless centuries, we cannot be blamed for thinking, "how boring."  No wonder we don't try very hard to get there.

But eternity is not "a really long time."  Eternity is completely outside of time.  From the perspective of eternity, all time is the present.  We cannot fully understand what that will be like from within time, but it means that there is no past and there is no future.  All time - every moment - is eternally now.

So from his perspective in eternity, Jesus is waiting right now in the garden for the soldiers to arrest him.  He is hanging right now on the cross, bruised and bleeding, struggling to draw one final breath.  He is emerging from the tomb, risen and glorified, the conqueror of death.  He is living through it all, right now, for you and for me.

Today is Easter Sunday.  It is the day in the liturgical year when the Church celebrates in a special way the Resurrection of our Lord.  But in truth, we celebrate the Resurrection every Sunday, just as every Friday is a day of penance in honor of our Lord's death. Every Mass is a memorial of his Passion.  We do not simply remember it as something that happened once long ago.  We believe that the celebration of the Mass truly makes present Christ's sacrifice for us, so that we may participate in it (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1362-1372).   This is only possible because God allows His Church to sacramentally "tap into" eternity.

As I thought of Jesus, from his perspective in eternity, perpetually living through the events we recollect during Holy Week, it occurred to me that this will one day be our perspective as well.  The human soul is immortal.  We will live forever.  That is not in doubt.  The question is what kind of life will it be?  

Every moment of Christ's life is eternally present to Him.  We only know the highlights.  His Incarnation; his being born of the Virgin.  His preaching in the temple.  Turning wine into water at the wedding in Cana.  Restoring sight to the man born blind.  Raising Lazarus from the dead.  The Last Supper.  His trial before Pilate.  His death on a cross.  His rising from the dead.  His ascension into heaven.  Jesus walked with us for thirty-three years.  How many hidden moments were there that we will never know of?  Each of these moments is eternally present to him.  For Jesus, each of these moments was a moment infused with grace.  He never wasted a single breath.

Can you say the same?  I certainly can't.  I have no shortage of wasted moments, missed opportunities, and times in my life that were certainly less than grace-full.  I am reminded of a lyric from Jack Johnson; "If I had a minute for every hour that I wasted, I'd be rich in time."  

In eternity, every moment of your life will be forever present to you.  You can go back and relive them all.  Whether this is a good or bad thing depends entirely on how you lived your life, the choices you have made.  So consider that as we celebrate Easter today.  Jesus Christ is risen TODAY.  This is the day - TODAY - that the Lord has made.  Live it, and every day, the way you want to live forever.

God bless, and Happy Easter!

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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From Davidson: CCM bulletin for week of March 25


FAQs about the Triduum….

  • “Triduum” is Latin for “three days.” Lent ends at sundown on Thursday (the day ending  and beginning at sundown is a holdover from our Jewish past). The Triduum goes from Thursday evening of Holy Week through Sunday evening, at which point the Easter season begins.
  • You can think of the three days of the Triduum as really being one 3-day Day; or one celebration (of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus) that’s spread out over three days.

  • On Holy Thursday, in the evening, we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. This marks the beginning of the end of Jesus’ earthly life, the last meal he shared with his friends. We commemorate the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper; some churches observe Eucharistic Adoration after this mass.
  • Many churches practice the rite of foot washing. Holy Thursday is often called “Maundy Thursday” in the Anglican church (and others) because it was after this foot washing, as John’s gospel tells us, that Jesus gave the mandatum, the command, “As I have done for you, so you should do for others.”  Mandatum became ‘maundy’ in English.

  • Good Friday is a day of abstinence and fasting for Catholics. But this fasting is not the same as Lenten fasting (to repent and reform); rather, it’s Paschal fasting (in anticipation and preparation for Easter and the resurrection). It’s the day we observe the Passion of Jesus, so the liturgical color is red (like last Sunday, Palm/ Passion Sunday). The service is traditionally held at 3pm, the hour when Jesus died.  At this service we also observe the Veneration of the Cross.
  • Eucharist is never celebrated, but instead a communion service using bread consecrated at Holy Thursday is offered instead.

  • The Easter Vigil on Saturday night plunges us into the whole story of salvation history, God’s plan for the world and for us. It’s a long service—in the early church, it used to last all night, till dawn, as Christians kept vigil during those dark hours Jesus’ body lay in the tomb, as he passed from death to life. Nowadays it lasts a few hours.
  • It begins with the kindling of the new flame, the lighting of the Easter candle, and the singing of the Exultet (the Easter proclamation). Then there is a series of readings (from five to nine) from the Old and New Testaments that trace God’s saving actions in our history. Then we sing the Gloria and the Alleluia (which we haven’t done since Lent began) and we hear the gospel of the resurrection proclaimed. After this, new members might be baptized or received into the Church, and everyone renews their baptismal vows. Finally there is the liturgy of the Eucharist. And with any luck, after all of this, there are refreshments in the church basement!

  • Easter Sunday is the Easter service most folks actually experience, and it’s full of light and lilies and trumpets. Easter is the most important celebration in the Christian churches, the “Great Feast.” Just as Eucharist is meant to be the ‘source and summit,’ the foundation and goal of our Sunday worship and our daily lives, so Easter is the source and summit of all our worship throughout the year and of our whole lives as Christians.
  • The Easter season comes to an end with the Feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given to the Church to continue Jesus’ mission and ministry. After that, Ordinary Time begins again.

___________________________
Karen Soos
Associate Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister
Davidson College
Campus Box 7196
Davidson NC 28035
704. 894. 2423

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From WCU: Gospel For Today

PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD

Today is Palm Sunday, also called Passion Sunday.  These two names reflect two very different aspects of today's liturgy, which is unique in that two different gospel readings are proclaimed.  In churches all over the world today people will gather outside the parish doors, or in the fellowship hall, parking lot, or otherwise out of the church proper to begin the liturgical celebration in joy and triumph.  We will read from Luke 19:28-40, of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding on an ass.  As he rides along people spread their cloaks out on the road for him, and "the whole multitude of his disciples" praises God with joy and sings, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord."  

After the gospel reading we are given blessed palms and asked to lend our voices to the praising crowd, as we sing, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!"

Inside the church, though, is another matter.  Turn a page or two in Luke's gospel.  Now we hear of the Last Supper, Jesus's arrest and trial, his passion and his death.  We participate in the gospel reading this morning, reading aloud the words belonging to the gathered crowd.  With the crowd, we shout, "Crucify him!  Crucify him!"  Our voices are the ones that choose Barabbas over Jesus.  Our voices, that moments ago sang his praises, now condemn him.

Isn't this exactly like the human heart?  Aren't we all too often like Peter, swearing that we would never deny our Lord, but then before the cock crows find we have done it not once, but multiple times?  

Why does the Church ask us today to be the voices that call for Christ's death?  I know some people who literally break down into tears as they shout those words at Mass; it breaks their heart.  We do this because we are the ones who crucified Christ.  We are the ones who are responsible for his suffering and his death -- you and me, and every other person who has ever sinned, which is to say everyone.  We need to be reminded of this not simply so we can express gratitude (though we should), but so that we can feel true sorrow for our part in Christ's passion.  It should break your heart.  It should hurt.  

But Jesus doesn't just suffer because of us; he suffers for us.  Christ is not only crucified for us; he asks us to join him on the cross.  "If you would be my disciples, you must take up your cross and follow me."  Being a Christian means you must suffer on the cross as well.  Jesus did not come to end all suffering; he came to transform suffering into a means of salvation. The way this is achieved is to join our suffering to his.

When we are baptized, we are sacramentally joined to Christ's death and resurrection.  From that moment on, each occasion of suffering in our life can draw us closer in communion with our Lord's passion.  This all sounds rather grim, I know.  But the Passion is not the end of the story.  Palm Sunday is followed by Easter.  When we join our suffering to the Lord's, we join with the one who conquered death.  The more we die with Christ, the more we will rise with him.  This is the great joy of the cross.

Hanging from the cross, beaten and bruised, thirsty, humiliated, and in excruciating pain, our Lord uses one of his last breaths to exclaim, "My God, my god, why have you abandoned me?"  Did Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, really feel abandoned by God?  No.  Our Lord was quoting from Psalm 22, which we hear at today's Mass.  The psalm is prophetic.  Composed by divine inspiration hundreds of years before the Crucifixion, the psalmist speaks of being mocked, having his hands and feet pierced, surrounded by evil doers, and having lots cast for his garments -- all things that describe the suffering of the Christ.  But then the psalmist proclaims, "But you, O Lord, be not far from me; O my help, hasten to aid me.  I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you..."

Jesus was never and could never be separated from God.  And God is never far from those who suffer with His Son.  The closer you come to the cross, the closer you draw to God.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel, and the Suffering Servant.  

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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From Davidson: CCM Bulletin for the week of March 18

O Paradise, garden of delight and beauty, dwelling place made perfect by God,
Unending gladness and eternal joy,
The hope of the prophets and the home of the saints.
By the music of your rustling leaves
Beseech the Creator of all to open to me the gates which my sins have closed,
That I may partake of the Tree of Life which was given me in the beginning.
            ~Byzantine Vespers



FAQ about Palm / Passion Sunday
  • Holy Week begins with Palm / Passion Sunday. On Palm Sunday we give out blessed palms in commemoration of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and we hear this gospel story read.
  • The blessed palms are called ‘sacramentals’: they are reminders to us of our faith, and people often put them in their homes or cars where they’ll see them regularly.
  • Palm Sunday is also called Passion Sunday because we read the (quite long) Passion narrative—which we do again on Good Friday. Why do we have such a long reading twice in one week? Partly because Holy Week developed out of different traditions observed in different parts of the early Christian world, and they ended up all lumped together…and partly because lots of people don’t go to church on Good Friday.  Easter makes no sense without the crucifixion which preceded it.
  • Our liturgical color is red for both Palm Sunday and Good Friday, because red signifies blood, the Passion and the martyrs.

___________________________
Karen Soos
Associate Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister
Davidson College
Campus Box 7196
Davidson NC 28035
704. 894. 2423

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From WCU: Weekly Update from CCM


MORE ON THE HOLY FATHER
In a somewhat unusual move, Pope Francis this morning opted to not use the normal readings for the Mass for the Inauguration of the Pope.  Instead he chose to use the readings from today's Solemnity of St. Joseph.  This is a wonderful reminder to us, linking the patron of both fathers and of the Church to the Bishop of Rome, who is spiritual father for the whole Church.  

What this brings to my mind today are the strong links between the sacrament of matrimony and the sacrament of holy orders.  Both are sacraments of vocation.  All too often in today's discourse the two are pitted against each other.  We are told that celibacy is a bad thing, because marriage is a good thing.  We are not often told the opposite today, but in the past there have been ultra-ascetic heretical groups that forbade marriage altogether as an evil and required celibacy of all believers.  Both are wrong.  Neither is the position of the Catholic Church.

The Church teaches us that marriage is good, and worthwhile, and holy.  But the Church teaches us also that some people are called by God to set that good aside for the purpose of another good.  While Christian marriage is a great witness to God in the world (the family is often called the "domestic church"), those who give up the possibility of marriage to embrace life in the priesthood or as professed religious give witness to God in a different sort of way.  They are able to give themselves in service to the Church and her people fully, in a way that a husband or wife, responsible for one another and for children, simply cannot.

I see this personally even as a campus minister in our small Catholic community here at WCU.  I am not clergy, and I am not called upon to do all the many things that clergy are expected to do; I cannot hear Confessions, I cannot baptize your children, or witness your marriages; I do not receive 3am phone calls to come to the hospital and administer Last Rites.  But even with my much more limited ministerial responsibilities, I often have conflicts between ministering to my students and being a husband to my wife, and a father to my children.  I am a finite man with only so many hours in the day.  And my wife and children will always win.  Always.  Because marriage is my vocation.  

I could not even begin to imagine being a pastor responsible for the spiritual needs of a large parish with a wife and kids at home.   I know some do it.  Contrary to what many think, there are some married Roman Catholic priests (mostly former Anglican clergy who have received special dispensation from the discipline of celibacy).  But even they will admit that it is not the ideal.  It's hard.  We in the Latin Rite allow for married men to be ordained as deacons, and in the Eastern Rite churches married men may even be ordained priests.  But even then bishops are only selected from among the celibate clergy, because it better reflects the ideal of Christ's self-sacrificial priesthood.

When a man forgoes the good of being a husband and a father so that he may be ordained as a priest, he is allowing himself to be husband to the Bride of Christ (the Church) and a father to all her children.  This is true of your parish priest.  And it is true of Pope Francis.  The title "pope," it is good to remember, comes from the Greek word papas, which which is a very informal word for father; like our English word "papa."  Papa Francis, like Papa Benedict before him, is spiritual father for over a billion Catholics.  Please pray today, on the feast of St. Joseph, patron of fathers, for strength, courage and guidance for our Holy Father.  And remember, he can only be father to us because of the sacrifices he has made in his life, including the great sacrifice - and gift - of celibacy.  

Pope Francis is already being called a "reformer."  But what does that mean?  To the secular media, a "reformer pope" is one who might allow contraception and abortion, married priests, and so forth.  But true reform of the Church means something else.  For a glimpse at what a Pope Francis reform might look like, check out this article from the Catholic Culture web site.


--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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