PASTOR S MEANDERINGS AUGUST 2018 TWENTIETH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME (B) SUNDAY REFLECTION

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1 PASTOR S MEANDERINGS AUGUST 2018 TWENTIETH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME (B) SUNDAY REFLECTION The cup of blessing that we drink is a sharing in the life of Christ. The bread, now broken, is a pledge of everlasting life. Nourished by this body and blood, we now go forth into the world, carrying within us the One whom the whole world cannot contain. This simple act of ours today can change the face of the earth. Let us think of what we have just done and what we are about to do. May the grace of these holy mysteries burn deeply in our hearts and overflow into the hearts of others. May the body and blood of Jesus the Christ renew the face of the earth. The cup of blessing that we drink is a sharing in the life of Christ. The bread, now broken, is a pledge of everlasting life. Nourished by this body and blood, we now go forth into the world, carrying within us the One whom the whole world cannot contain. This simple act of ours today can change the face of the earth. Let us think of what we have just done and what we are about to do. May the grace of these holy mysteries burn deeply in our hearts and overflow into the hearts of others. May the body and blood of Jesus the Christ renew the face of the earth. STEWARDSHIP: In today s second reading, St. Paul encourages us not to grow weary or lose heart, but to persevere in following Jesus. Our willingness to give of ourselves, even in the face of conflict and division, is one way to measure our discipleship. St. Augustine of Hippo If you have received worthily you are what you have received.

2 READINGS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY 26 AUG 18 Jos. 24:1-2,15-17: At Shechem, in central Israel, the assembled people formally renew the covenant and profess total loyalty to the Lord. Ps. 34:2-3, 16-21: Eph. 5:21-32: Paul urges that the relationships within marriage should reflect the love that Christ has for His Church. Jn. 6:60-69: Many of those who heard Jesus speaking about the Bread of Life find it a hard saying. As they turn away, Jesus gives those who remain a stark choice: to go or to stay with Him. Peter answers for them and for us: Lord, to whom can we go? You have the message of eternal life. St. Francis de Sales The state of marriage is one that requires more virtue and constancy than any other; it is a perpetual exercise of mortification. JESUS, THE BREAD OF LIFE White bread, rye bread, wheat bread, pita bread, zucchini bread, and pumpernickel! Perhaps no food comes in as many varieties as bread, known as the staff of life. Because bread is so basic to our life, God was wise to nourish us with divine life in the form of bread, the Eucharist. Jesus foretold this marvel when he claimed, I am the bread of life.i am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world (John 6:48, 51). This was not just a figure of speech. Jesus meant the words literally. At the Last Supper the night before He died, He held bread in His hands and said to His friends, This is My Body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me (1 Corinthians 11:24). Ever since then Christians have been celebrating the breaking of the bread. We come together to share a meal and be fed with the bread and wine that is Jesus. The Eucharist is a gift of Jesus' love through which we remember his death and resurrection and share in them. When Jesus called Himself the bread of life, His listeners no doubt thought of Moses. Through Moses God sent down manna, bread from heaven that fed the chosen people for 40 years before they reached the promised land. Jesus explained, Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die (John 6:49-51). God prepared us for the mystery of the Eucharist in several ways. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a town whose name means House of Bread. His mother laid Him in a manger, a feeding trough, a hint that someday He would be bread for the world. All four Gospels tell the story of the miraculous feeding of crowds, which foreshadows what happens at Mass. Jesus fed thousands of people by having the disciples distribute five barley loaves and two fish. After everyone had enough to eat, there were still 12 baskets of leftovers (and in some accounts seven). Even the time Jesus gave us the Eucharist was a clue to its meaning the time of Passover. At this feast the Jewish people celebrate their salvation from death in Egypt by a meal that includes unleavened bread and wine. When we partake of the Eucharist, Jesus feeds us with his body and blood. We enter into communion with Him and with one another. Unlike other food, which becomes part of us, Jesus

3 in the sacred bread and wine makes us more like Him. Therefore we, too, are to be bread for the world. The living bread sustains us and prepares us for that day when we will come to the heavenly banquet. It is a pledge of future glory. It is the means by which Christ fulfills His promise, I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). ADORATION Continued: The Magisterium (The Teaching of the Church It was no coincidence that international Eucharistic Congresses came into existence because of the experience of the faithful. As mentioned before, it was a laywoman, Marie-Marthe Tamisier, whose personal awareness of the spiritual energy available from the Real Presence that Providence used to bring about the first international Eucharistic Congress at Lille, in France, in In the papal brief which Leo XIII addressed to those attending that Congress, he spoke of the "great joy" he had in commending the bishops who organized the assembly. He approved its purpose, namely "of repairing the iniquities wreaked upon the Most Holy Sacrament and of promoting Its worship." He praised the laymen for "the great extension of the work of Nocturnal Adoration" and for the report of "how this salutary institution is taking root, progressing and bearing fruit everywhere." The key factor, according to Pope Leo, is that Eucharistic Adoration is bearing supernatural fruit wherever the practice is nourished by the faith of the people. St. Pius X's devotion to the Real Presence, biographers say, was at the heart of his historic promotion of early and frequent Holy Communion. On the day of his canonization, Pope Pius XII identified the source of his predecessor's apostolic genius: In the profound vision which he had of the Church as a society, Pope Pius X recognized that it was the Blessed Sacrament which had the power to nourish her intimate life substantially, and to elevate her high above all other human societies" (Quest' ore di fulgente) May 29, 1954). Anticipating the publication of his decree on frequent, even daily, Communion (December 20, 1905), Pius X requested that the international Eucharistic Congress that year should be held in Rome. It was the sixteenth in sequence and the first one in the Eternal City. The Pope opened the Congress with the Mass which he celebrated and then participated in the procession with the Blessed Sacrament. Popes Benedict XV and Pius XI carried on the papal tradition of encouraging adoration of the Holy Eucharist, and prayers of expiation and petition to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It was Benedict XV who issued the first Code of Canon Law in 1917 which legislated the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in "every parish or quasi-parish church, and in the church connected with the residence of exempt men and women religious" (Canon 1265, #1). It was this same Code which encouraged the private and public exposition of the Holy Eucharist. Pope Pius XI associated the worship of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament with expiation for sin. St. Margaret Mary had been canonized in 1920, just two years before Achille Ratti was elected Pope. In 1928, he wrote a lengthy encyclical on Reparation to the Sacred Heart. Its whole theme is on the desperate need to plead for God's mercy, especially through the Holy Eucharist. During her prayers before the Blessed Sacrament, Christ revealed to Margaret Mary "the infinitude of His love, at the same time, in the manner of a mourner." The Savior said, "Behold

4 this Heart which has loved men so much and has loaded them with all benefits, and for this boundless love has had no return but neglect and contumely, and this often from those who were bound by a debt and duty of a more special love." Among the ways to make reparation to the Heart of Christ, the Pope urged the faithful to "make expiatory supplications and prayers, prolonged for a whole hour-which is rightly called the 'Holy Hour"' (Miserentissimus Redemptor, May 8, 1928). It was understood that the Holy Hour was to be made even as the original message was received by St. Margaret Mary, before the Holy Eucharist. Pope Pius XII With Pius XI's successor, we begin a new stage in the Church's teaching on the efficacy of prayer addressed to Christ really present in the Sacrament of the altar. A year before his election to the See of Peter, Cardinal Pacelli was sent as papal legate to the international Eucharistic Congress at Budapest in Hungary. It was 1938, a year before the outbreak of the Second World War. The theme of Pacelli's address at the Congress was that Christ had indeed left this earth in visible form at His Ascension. But He is emphatically still on earth, the Jesus of history, in the Sacrament of His love. Pius XII published forty-one encyclicals during his almost twenty year pontificate. One feature of these documents is their reflection of doctrinal development that has taken place in the Catholic Church in modern times. Thus, development in the Church's understanding of herself as the Mystical Body of Christ (Mystici Corporis Christi, 1943); in her understanding of the Bible (Divino Afflante Spiritu, 1943); in her understanding of the Blessed Virgin (Deiparae Virginis Mariae, 1946), proposing the definition of Mary's bodily Assumption into heaven. The Encyclical Mediator Dei (1947) was on the Sacred Liturgy. As later events were to show, it became the doctrinal blueprint for the Constitution of the Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council. Nine complete sections of Mediator Dei deal with "Adoration of the Eucharist." This provides the most authoritative explanation of what the Pope describes as "the worship of the Eucharist," which "gradually developed as something distinct from the Sacrifice of the Mass." The following are brief quotes and commentary on these sections. 1. Adoration of the Eucharist. The basis for all Eucharistic devotion is the fact that Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is the Son of God in human form. The Eucharistic Food contains, as all are aware, "truly, really and substantially the Body and Blood together with the Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ." It is no wonder, then, that the Church, even from the beginning, adored the Body of Christ under the appearance of bread; this is evident from the very rites of the august Sacrifice, which prescribe that the sacred ministers should adore the Most Holy Sacrament by genuflecting or by profoundly bowing their heads. The Sacred Councils teach that it is the Church's tradition right from the beginning, to worship "with the same adoration the Word Incarnate as well as His own flesh," and St. Augustine asserts that: "No one eats that flesh without first adoring it," while he adds that "not only do we not commit a sin by adoring it, but we do sin by not adoring it." (Mediator Dei, paragraph ) Everything else depends on this primary article of faith: that the Eucharist contains the living Christ, in the fullness of His human nature, and therefore really present under the sacred species; and in the fullness of His divine nature, and therefore to be adored as God.

5 2. Dogmatic Progress. There has been a deeper grasp by the Church of every aspect of the mystery of the Eucharist. But one that merits special attention is the growing realization, not only of Christ's sacrificial oblation in the Mass, but of His grace-filled presence outside of Mass. It is on this doctrinal basis that the worship of adoring the Eucharist was founded and gradually developed as something distinct from the Sacrifice of the Mass. The reservation of the Sacred Species for the sick and those in danger introduced the praiseworthy custom of adoring the Blessed Sacrament which is reserved in our Churches. This practice of adoration, in fact, is based on strong and solid reasons. For the Eucharist is at once a Sacrifice and a Sacrament: but it differs from the other Sacraments in this that it not only produces grace, but contains, in a permanent manner, the Author of grace Himself. When, therefore, the Church bids us adore Christ hidden behind the Eucharistic veils and pray to Him for the spiritual and temporal favors of which we ever stand in need, she manifests living faith in her divine Spouse who is present beneath these veils, she professes her gratitude to Him and she enjoys the intimacy of His friendship (131). The key to seeing why there should be a Eucharistic worship distinct from the Mass is that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ. No less than His contemporaries in Palestine adored and implored Him for the favors they needed, so we should praise and thank Him, and implore Him for what we need. 3. Devotional Development. As a consequence of this valid progress in doctrine, the Church has developed a variety of Eucharistic devotions. Now, the Church in the course of centuries has introduced various forms of this worship which are ever increasing in beauty and helpfulness; as, for example, visits of devotion to the tabernacle, even every day, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament; solemn processions, especially at the time of Eucharistic Congresses, which pass through cities and villages; and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament publicly exposed. Sometimes these public acts of adoration are of short duration. Sometimes they last for one, several and even for forty hours. In certain places they continue in turn in different churches throughout the year, while elsewhere adoration is perpetual, day and night (132). To be stressed is that these are not merely passing devotional practices. They are founded on divinely revealed truth. And, as the Pope is at pains to point out, "these exercises of piety have brought a wonderful increase in faith and supernatural life to the Church militant upon earth." Are these practices liturgical? "They spring from the inspiration of the Liturgy," answers Pius XII. "And if they are performed with due decorum and with faith and piety, as the liturgical rules of the Church require, they are undoubtedly of the very greatest assistance in living the life of the Liturgy." Does this not confuse the "Historic Christ" with the Eucharistic Christ? Not at all, says the Pope. On the contrary, it can be claimed that by this devotion the faithful bear witness to and solemnly avow the faith of the Church that the Word of God is identical with the Son of the Virgin Mary, Who suffered on the Cross, Who is present in a hidden manner in the Eucharist and Who reigns upon His heavenly throne. Thus St. John Chrysostom states: "When you see It (the Body of Christ) exposed, say to yourself: thanks to this Body, I am no longer dust and ashes, I am no more a captive but a freeman: hence I hope to obtain Heaven and the good things that are there in store for me, eternal life, the heritage of the Angels, companionship with Christ" (134).

6 Among other forms of Eucharistic devotion recommended by Pope Pius XII, he gave special attention to Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. He spoke of the "great benefit in that custom which makes the priest raise aloft the Bread of Angels before congregations with heads bowed down in adoration and forming with It the sign of the cross." This "implores the Heavenly Father to deign to look upon His Son who for love of us was nailed to the Cross and for His sake and through Him willed... to shower down heavenly favors upon those whom the Immaculate Blood of the Lamb has redeemed" (135). To be continued. INDEPENDENCE DAY REFLECTIONS Cont. Yes, there has been a break in the continuity of these reflections. I suppose I could hold these until next year; better to complete the thoughts now while able to. Somewhere around ten years ago a ceremony was held in Maryland, specifically in what had been St. Mary s City, the first community established by the original colonists to the Colony of Mary-land. The ceremony reveled a story that needs to be heard and remembered when we take the time to seriously reflect on our freedom as citizens of this country. With pageantry and prayerful ceremony people had gathered at the reconstructed 1667 brick chapel in historic St. Mary s City. The sheriff of St. Mary s County, using an exact reproduction of what is arguably the very key that his predecessor used to seal the chapel in 1704 and pushed open the tall, sturdy wooden doors of the building. There was great significance contained within those symbolic actions. They were a reminder that as a free people there is contained within our Inalienable rights that of freedom of conscience and freedom of worship. At the same time, if we are aware of the history of the colony of Mary-land, that our own freedoms are fragile and easily compromised. In 1634, when the ships the Ark and the Dove, arrived carrying approximately 150 English settlers to what is now St. Mary s County, those men and women established the first settlement to guarantee religious liberty to all of the inhabitants of the colony. In reality historically that constructed what would become known as the birthplace of religious freedom in America. All of us here in 2018 are their spiritual descendants and can / should rejoice and take pride in their vision and courage. Unfortunately, in 1704, when those who did not share this foresight and Catholic perspective gained political control, they revoked the freedom of religion in the colony. They found it more convenient to silence the Church even with force than to live in peace with her and her Gospel message. The royal governor offered the brick chapel locked and never again to be used for religious purposes. The Jesuits later dismantled the chapel and used its bricks to construct a manor house at the St. Inigoes Mission. Wit several funerals in the next couple of days and the usual meetings and liturgies this will have to be continued next week. SILENCE Silence can be unnerving; yet only in silence can we hear what is going on within us and set what we do at the liturgy in context within our lives. so having a structured silence which is a

7 lot more than simply time when nothing appears to be happening should form a part of every liturgy. The following comments are from an article written by Bishop Barron. Robert Cardinal Sarah s recent book The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise explores a number of themes both theological and spiritual, all centering around the unhappy role that noise has come to play in our culture and more specifically in the Church. His observations are most trenchant in regard to the liturgy, which should come as no great surprise, given his role as head of the Vatican Congregation devoted to liturgy and sacraments. As I read the sections of his book dealing with the importance of silence during Mass, I often found myself nodding vigorously. I came of age in the period immediately following the Second Vatican Council, when an enormous stress was placed, quite legitimately, on the conciliar call for full, conscious, and active participation in the Mass. That famous phrase, derived from the ground-breaking work of the theologians of the liturgical movement of the early and mid twentieth century, was a clarion call to the laity to assume their rightful role as real actors in the liturgy and not mere spectators. But in its practical application this came too often to imply that the laity must be continually stimulated into action during the Mass: processing, standing, singing, responding, clapping, etc. It was as though the directors and leaders of the liturgy felt they must be constantly grabbing the congregation by the shoulders and shaking them into conscious participation. Silence, accordingly, tended to be construed as the enemy, for it would lull the people into inattention and boredom. Hardly anyone in the post-conciliar liturgical establishment appreciated that silence could be a sign of heightened, even enraptured, attention on the part of the congregation, a deeply contemplative entry into the mystery of the Mass. And what several decades of this in turn has produced, especially among the young today, is the impression that the Mass is a sort of religiously-themed jamboree, during which our fellowship is celebrated and at which lots and lots of sound is indispensable. I will confess that during many years as a priest, and now as a bishop, I have often wondered whether our hyperstimulated congregations know exactly what they are participating in. They know that they are active, but active precisely in what? The Mass is the act by which the Son of God, in union with his mystical body, turns toward the Father in worship. Through our full, conscious, and active participation in this right praise, we become more rightly ordered, more completely configured to Christ and more thoroughly directed toward the Father. We do indeed experience heightened fellowship with one another during the Mass, but this is because we are realizing, not so much our mutual affection, but our common love of a transcendent third, to use Aristotle s language. In this regard, one of the most illuminating rubrics under which to read the Mass is that of call and response: Christ the head, through the priest who is acting in Christ s person, calls out to the members of his mystical body, and they respond, somewhat in the manner of the lovers in the Song of Songs. At the very commencement of the liturgy, the priest (again, operating not in his own name but in persona Christi) says, The Lord be with you, and the people respond, and with your spirit. The spirit in question here is the power of Christ dwelling in the priest through the sacrament of Holy Orders. This exchange continues throughout the Mass, Head and members conversing with one another and solidifying their communion. Jesus speaks his

8 Word in the Old Testament readings and in the Pauline epistles, and the members of his body sing back to him in the responsorial psalm; Jesus announces himself in the Gospel, and the people chant back, Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus breaks open the Word through the preaching of the priest, and the people respond with the Creed, a signal of their faith. Having prepared the gifts (presented by the people), the priest says, Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the Father almighty. This line is of great significance, for it signals the moment when Christ and the members of his body are turning toward the Father in order to perform an act of sacrifice and thanksgiving. How beautifully the Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer expresses this dynamic: Lift up your hearts! says Christ to his people; they respond, We lift them up to the Lord, and then Jesus, through his priest, says, Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. What follows is the magnificent Eucharistic Prayer, directed toward the Father and prayed by Head and members together, the latter s many sacrifices small and large subsumed into the former s definitive sacrifice on the cross. At the conclusion of the liturgy, Christ sends his mystical body, now more perfectly ordered to the Father, back into the world to effect its transformation. Cardinal Sarah imitates his master Joseph Ratzinger in insisting that silence rightly asserts itself throughout this entire process. The silence of gathering, recollecting, listening, praying, offering, etc. There is plenty of sound in the Mass, but unless silence is cultivated therein as well, we can easily lose sight of what we are doing in this most sublime of prayers. BACKPACK BLESSING: This will take place at all of the Masses the weekend of the 25 th and 26 th of August. Whether they are carrying their first box of crayons to preschool or lugging a locker-full of textbooks from class to class, a backpack is the symbol of the student s call to grow in wisdom. We, as a parish will be sending our students and school staff back to school with our prayers and blessings. ALL STUDENTS (public, private or home schooled) and school staff are joyfully invited to bring their backpacks, briefcases, or tote bags and their friends to St. Stephen Martyr Parish for our annual Backpack Blessing. All bags will be blessed as we celebrate God s gift of learning, we will pray for His blessing on students and schools in the coming year. CHRIST S REAL PRESENCE IN THE EUCHARIST I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the Bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this Bread, he will live for ever; and the Bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh. (Jn. 6:48-51) There are those today who accept the authority of the Bible but question whether Jesus was speaking literally in the Eucharistic passages, especially John 6. The Greek text itself evidences the Church s constant understanding. In Jn. 6:49, Jesus begins His teaching by first referring to eating manna. He uses the word, which means eat or consume. This verb can be used literally or figuratively. He then refers to Himself as the new manna, the Living Bread from Heaven, of

9 which those who eat will live forever. In this context, He uses the same word because of the figurative connectin with manna. After verse 52, when the Jews dispute His teaching, Jesus uses more emphatic language to clarify. His teaching and address their concerns. He employs two techniques. First, He abandons any figurative association with manna. He no longer speaks of simply eating, but of eating flesh and drinking blood. He ends His explanation by stating, This is the Bread which came down fro Heaven, not such as your Fathers ate and died (Jn. 6:58. Second, later in the discourse Jesus began using the word, which is rendered gnaw or chew. The verb is rarely used figuratively, and in the context used by Christ is evidently to be taken literally. Many of the disciples had left everything to follow Jesus. They had just witnessed a miraculous multiplication of loaves (Jn. 6:1-14) and probably heard about His walking on water (Jn. 6:16-21), yet now they walk away from Jesus on account of this teaching (Jn. 6:66). This reaction simply would not make sense if Jesus were speaking only figuratively or symbolically. PRAYERS Geraldine Prayer (A Sinner s Prayer) O my Lord and my God! I do not believe enough. I do not adore enough. I do not hope enough and I do not love enough. But You have called me to prayer; and so, I thank You and I bless You, I humbly beg Your pardon for my sins and for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You; For the outrages, sacrileges, blasphemies and indifferences by which Your are so greatly offended. Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly and I offer to You, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the only Perfect and truly acceptable offering, the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, sacrificed upon the cross and truly present in all the tabernacles of the world. Unite this, O Lord, to all the Masses prayed and all the Holy Communions received from the beginning of the Church until the end of time, for the suffering souls in Purgatory, for Your priest and Holy Church for the conversion of sinners, especially for those who do not pray or make reparation for themselves, for them, and for myself, in reparation for my sins and for sinners everywhere. My Eucharistic Jesus, Bread of Life, feed us with Your Body and quench us with Your Precious Blood. Look upon us with Mercy and by Your Divine Grace, heal us. Amen.

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