Tuesday, April 23, 2013

From WCU: Weekly Update from CCM

Dear Students,

Happy feast day of St. George!  St. George is patron saint of England and also the name patron of our Holy Father (who before he took the name Francis was George).  In light of this, today is being taken as a holiday by the Vatican.  

All people tend to remember about St. George is the story about him slaying a dragon, and so many dismiss him as a fiction.  In truth, not much is known about him.  But we do know he was a Roman soldier and a Christian who was beheaded for his faith under the Diocletian persecution sometime in the very early fourth century.  In addition to being patron of England, he is also patron of several other countries including Lebanon, Beirut and Canada; he is patron of scouts, knights, saddle makers, and soldiers, as well.  

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

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From WCU: Gospel For Today

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)

Paul and Barnabas continued on from Perga
and reached Antioch in Pisidia.
On the sabbath they entered the synagogue and took their seats.
Acts 13:14

Many of you know I am on the road this weekend.  While I like certain things about travelling - seeing new places, eating different foods, meeting new people - there are also aspects of travelling I don't like.  I suppose I am a homebody at heart; I like my own space where I can be comfortable, I like my routine.  Most of all I like being around my loved ones.  

So when I travel I like to take a bit of home with me.  Many people do.  I know some who always travel with their own pillow because they can just never get comfortable on hotel pillows.  We take our magazines or books to read.  We take along our own music; and of course our laptops and tablets so we can stay connected on email, Facebook, etc.  

Then there are those things we simply cannot be without.  We take care to pack a toothbrush, whatever vitamins or medications we take each day, shampoo and soap, etc.  We would never dream of being on the road without these things because we know that travelling is no excuse not to take care of ourselves.  We may be taking a vacation from our jobs or from school, but we cannot take a vacation from our health and hygiene.  So when we travel, we plan ahead to make sure we have everything we need for the journey.

This applies to our spiritual health, as well.  You don't stop saying your daily prayers simply because you are away from home.  And of course the highest form of prayer that we do as Catholics is the Mass.  When we attend Mass we do not simply pray alone but we join in the whole Church as she prays to God as a united people.  We offer God the most perfect offering of His Son in the Eucharist.  And we do this not only with those fellow Christians sitting in the pews around us, but the those worshiping at every Mass around the globe, past, present and future.

Our participation in Mass is so important that the Church places us under a serious obligation to attend on Sundays, the Lord's Day.  How serious is the obligation?  It is not absolute - legitimate reasons for missing Mass include illness, taking care of someone who is ill, and travelling.  

Travelling?  Yes, only under certain conditions.  If you are travelling in an area where it is physically impossible for you to make your way to a Catholic Mass on Sunday, then your obligation is lifted.  But simply being away from home is not itself an excuse.  There is no "vacation" from being part of the Body of Christ.

I stumbled upon an article on this subject recently from Michelle Arnold.  She is a staff apologist for Catholic Answers in San Diego, CA.  She often deals with variations of this question: "Is it a sin to miss Mass if I am on a cruise?  If I am camping?  If I am on vacation, etc?"  

In the article she relates two different questions she received on the same day.

The first question came in from a young woman who lived in a sparsely Catholic area in Europe. She wanted to attend Mass on an upcoming holy day of obligation, but her only option to get there was to buy a train ticket she could ill afford. She wasn't asking if she could skip Mass; she was asking how to get to Mass when she was facing a real choice between train fare and food.
The second question was from a gentleman who was spending a weekend in my hometown of San Diego, California. He and his wife had family here, so they made regular visits and thus knew the city well. But this time the schedule was crammed. Between a baseball game, golf, and dinner with the in-laws, he just couldn't seem to find a good time to go to Mass. He skipped, and his question was whether or not his obligation to visit family had been sufficient cause to miss Mass.
Juxtaposing these two questions was like switching on a light. It is the difference between the desire to go to Mass while impeded from doing so and the choice to give more weight to lesser obligations than is given to the Mass. The first inquirer really wanted to go to Mass but was facing significant hurdles in getting there; the second inquirer seemed willing to go to Mass if doing so didn't interfere with more desirable activities.
She writes that the bottom line is this:  it is not that hard for most people to get to Mass most of the time.  I agree with her.  The key is to make Mass - and by extension your worship of God - a priority when you schedule your travel itinerary.  Don't make it an afterthought that you try to squeeze in around everything else you'd like to do.  

Today's Gospel reading speaks of Christ as a shepherd.  Those of you who know me and my recent foray into sheep breeding (two lambs born in our flock thus far!) may have been expecting me to wax elegant about shepherding and sheep this week.  I admit, it was tempting.  I will say this, though.  Sheep never take a vacation from being sheep.  They always need a shepherd, especially when they are in an unfamiliar pasture.

I may be a shepherd myself at home with my wee flock; but whether I am home or on the road I am always one of His sheep.  And this Sunday morning I'll be right there with the other sheep, listening to His voice.  I may be in different pews, surrounded by strange faces, but that's still my flock.  It's where I belong.

Jesus said:
"My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me."
John 10:27

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

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From WCU: Gospel For Today

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)

Jesus said to them, "Come, have breakfast."  

What an ordinary thing to say.  But it is reported in today's gospel reading from John that Jesus did just that.  Of course this was no ordinary breakfast encounter.  This was an encounter with the Risen Lord.  The apostles had seen their Lord, teacher, master and friend die on the cross, and then seen him again appearing in their midst, with those comforting words, "Peace be with you."  

I'm sure they were still not sure what to make of it all.  And so they went back to fishing.  They went back to business as usual.  They carried on.  And when Jesus appeared to them again, they didn't even recognize him.  "The disciples did not realize it was Jesus" speaking to them as they fished, according to the gospel account.  And when they did realize who it was (because John pointed it out to them), the first thing the Risen Lord said to them was, "Come, eat breakfast."  

Sometimes we forget just how ordinary Jesus was.  He is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, that is true.  He is eternally begotten of the Father, the Divine Logos, the Word made flesh -- but he was made flesh.  He was fully human, as well as being fully divine.  He was like us in all things but sin.  And that means that while he walked on earth with us, he got hungry.  And he ate breakfast.  And he no doubt combed his hair, and sweat when he worked hard, and needed to clip his toenails once in a while and did hundreds of other little ordinary things that you and I do each day.

We forget how like us Jesus is.  And like us, he knows betrayal.  Jesus knows what it feels like to be abandoned by his friends, to be disappointed by the ones you love most, and to feel let down.  After all, he was betrayed by one of his twelve hand picked followers, the ones closest to him.  He couldn't count on them to stay awake and pray with him on the hardest night of his life.  He watched them all abandon him -- even deny that they knew him -- at his darkest hour.  The suffering Christ endured on the cross for us was notonly a physical suffering.  Christ had a broken heart.  

That means he knows what your broken heart feels like.  He knows the pain of being abandoned by friends, betrayed by loved ones, and let down by those you count on.  These are, sadly, rather ordinary experiences of human life.  And Jesus went through them.  And that's pretty extraordinary.

Even more extraordinary is Jesus' example of forgiveness.  "Do you love me?" he asks Peter three times -- once for each time Peter denied him.  "Do you love me?"  "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you," Peter replies.  He is forgiven.  Healing has been found.  And Jesus takes this sinner, this man who publicly denied him, and makes him chief shepherd of his flock.  

This is the example Jesus leaves us.  "Forgive us our trespasses," he teaches us to pray, "but only as we forgive those who trespass against us."  He wants us to be a forgiving people.  If you have trouble forgiving someone who wronged you, ask Jesus for help.  Ask for his mercy to flow through you and make up for what you are lacking.  This does not mean being weak or letting people walk all over you.  It means being merciful.  It means not carrying hatred or bitterness in your heart.  It means being extraordinary.

.    

--
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


EUCHARISTIC ADORATION
We are very blessed to be able to offer Eucharistic Adoration on a regular basis in our chapel.  This semester it has been Thursday evenings from 6-7pm.  Usually it's just a few people there.  If you are one of those who sees it in the schedule each week and wonders, "What is that all about?" please allow me to share some information taken from the University of Notre Dame's campus ministry web site.
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Adoration: What is it?
Simply put, Adoration is prayer. Adoration is worship of Jesus Christ, who is fully present under the appearance of bread at Mass and reserved in tabernacles in Catholic churches and chapels. At Adoration, Jesus comes to meet us in a unique way, face-to-face. Adoration is a time for us to pray, to listen, and to be in his presence.
Where did it come from?
The Bible. After Christ instituted the Eucharist and celebrated the first Mass at the Last Supper, He took his disciples to the Mount of Olives and invited them to stay awake with him, praying there in vigil for what was to come. Christ gave to the disciples, and to all Christians, this pattern of prayer. Jesus' question to his disciples, "Could you not keep watch for one hour?" Could you not keep watch with me? (Mark 14:37) is the same question he asks us today.
How does Eucharistic Adoration relate to my life?
Whether it is homework, service work, faith, athletics, a relationship, friendships, or fun, everything you do can be rooted in Christ through spending time with him in Eucharistic Adoration. Pope John Paul II reiterated Vatican II's proclamation, that the Eucharist is "the Source and Summit of the Christian life." Eucharistic Adoration nourishes us, inspires us, and gives us the strength and grace to make Christ relevant, whether in our school work, our leisure time, our relationships, or our service to those who are in need. By spending time with Jesus in Adoration, we are made more mindful of Him and His presence with us throughout our day.
How is it different than Mass or private prayer in my dorm room?
Prayer can be done at anytime, anywhere, by anyone, and can take on a myriad of forms. You can always find and make time for prayer.
Mass is the perfect prayer. When we gather as a community at Mass, we celebrate God's gift to the Church in giving us his Son. By the words of the priest and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine offered at the altar become Jesus' Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Jesus' Real Presence remains in the Eucharist, which is reserved in the tabernacle following Mass. Outside of Mass, people are always welcome at any time to pray in our churches and chapels in the presence of Christ.
Eucharistic Adoration is that time set aside when the Eucharist is "exposed" (placed in a monstrance on the altar) so that the faithful may see, pray, and adore our Risen Lord, present under the appearance of simple bread. Jesus is just as present in the tabernacle as in the monstrance, but many believers find comfort and peace when they are able to pray while looking upon Jesus exposed in the monstrance.
What do I do there?
Pray. When you walk into the chapel, you will find resources to help you pray. Sometimes you might read Scripture. You might pray the Rosary or another favorite devotional prayer. You are welcome to bring spiritual reading with you. You also might simply have a conversation with Jesus, telling him about your day, about your needs, and giving him time to speak to your heart. You can also simply engage the silence, waiting and listening for our God to speak in your life.
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If Eucharistic Adoration is something you are interested in, but Thursday from 6-7 does not work (you have a class, etc), please do let me know when a better time might be -- after all, there is no rule that says we can only offer it once per week!  And if you cannot stay for the whole hour, even just a few minutes with the Lord can mean so much.  After all, He is timeless.

God bless, and enjoy the day!
Pax Christi,
Matt


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

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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."

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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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