He does not write alone...

He does not write alone, as an isolated individual; he writes with the assistance of the Church, of people who help him to deepen the faith, to enter into the depths of his thought, of his rationality, of his profundity. And this is very important: Peter is not speaking as an individual, he is speaking ex persona Ecclesiae, he is speaking as a man of the Church, as an individual of course, with his personal responsibility, but also as a person who speaks on behalf of the Church; not only private and original ideas, not as a 19th-century genius who wished to express only personal and original ideas that no one else could have expressed first. No. He does not speak as an individualistic genius, but speaks, precisely, in the communion of the Church.... This does not mean to say a word that is his alone, but one that really contains the waters of faith, the waters of the whole Church, and in this very way gives fertility, gives fecundity. 

Pope Benedict XVI, in his address to seminarians on February 8, 2013, three days before he was to resign, spoke on 1 Peter 1:3-5.  Sources: Catholic News Service, Transcript of the talk.

II Sunday Lent, Cycle C

Gn15:5-12, 17-18
Ps 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14
Phil 3:17-4:1
Lk 9:28b-36

How many of you have kept your Lenten promises?  If you have broken your promises, no worries – get back on it, don’t give up.  Penances and disciplines that you take up are for your relationship with God, not for anyone else’s benefit.  Those who have lacked the perseverance in promises are in good company with today’s readings.  We hear in the first and third readings of some people snoozing when great things are happening.

In the first reading, God is revealing this covenant for Abram, the promise of countless descendents – numerous as the stars in the sky.  A rough estimate is around 10^24 stars in the universe, 10^12 in our galaxy alone.  That’s a lot of stars!  Abram asks God for a sign and prepares this curious sacrifice.  But as Abram was waiting for the sign, he fell asleep – he fell into a trance and only then did the vision come to pass.  Although the sacrifice is strange, the covenant from God is a promise that would be fulfilled in Jesus.

For the three disciples: Peter, James, and John, the same thing happens in the story of the Transfiguration in the Gospel today.  We have three guys falling asleep as Jesus goes up the mountain to pray and almost miss a miraculous moment of the divine.  Luke’s Gospel is the only Gospel where Jesus’ purpose is specified and I would not be surprised if the author of the Gospel intended to connect a later time where these sleep-deprived disciples would doze off while Jesus was praying: in the Garden of Gethsemane.

I would like to speak a little on how today’s Gospel fits into the theme of Lent and its place in the scriptures.  On a side note, most of what I say to today comes from Pope Benedict’s book Jesus of Nazareth, which is great intellectual spiritual reading for Lent.  The story of the Transfiguration comes eight days after Peter’s great pronouncement that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah of God.  The mention of “eight days” is significant.

According to Pope Benedict, the number of days between the confession of Peter and the Transfiguration, is the number of days between the Jewish feasts of Yom Kippur and the Feast of Booths.  Yom Kippur is the Jewish Day of Atonement – it is the day when the Jewish people as a community atone for their sins and the only day in the year where the name of God may be spoken aloud by the High Priest.

Coincidentally if not really providentially, this is the same day that St. Peter announces who Jesus is: the Son of God.  With the Jewish day of Yom Kippur as a backdrop, St. Peter’s declaration has a nice theological, if not really a poetic impact of the significance of Jesus’ identity.  The identity of Christ, if you read the passage, is intimately tied with His prediction of His passion, death, and resurrection – so keep that in the back of your minds.  As for the Feast of Booths, this is the Jewish feast where they make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and tents are setup as with prayers and food.  It commemorates the Jews’ forty years in the desert and God’s providence in bringing them out of slavery from Egypt.  This occurs one week after Yom Kippur – therefore putting the story of the Transfiguration at the same time as the Feast of Booths.

The Jewish feasts all point to three realities: the natural (God’s providence in creation), the historical (God’s providence for the people), and finally a future event of hope (God’s final fulfillment of promise and covenant) (cf. Ratzinger, Joseph. Jesus of Nazareth, p. 307) Fittingly so, the celebration of the Mass does the same thing.  One cannot help but see the connection of the Feast of Booths – the remembrance of the exodus, from the desert into the Promised Land – and the Transfiguration – where the conversation between Moses and Elijah speaks of the exodus of Jesus; that ends in Jerusalem as a fulfillment of God’s promise.  Ironically, Peter’s strange almost non sequitur suggestion of setting up tents actually makes sense in that he is ready to commemorate the fulfillment of the glory of God – he is identified God a week ago and now here is the proof, the fulfillment.  The problem is Jesus had not yet completed His task and purpose here on earth.

Therefore the Transfiguration, if you are still following me, is a sign of the future fulfillment of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  You will notice that Jesus’ face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.  Unlike Moses whose radiant face reflected the radiance of God from conversing with Him, it was Jesus’ face that transformed and simply radiated.  Why?  Looking at the Creed we have a hint– God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God.  Jesus’ face cannot help but be transformed because of His intimate conversation with God; His very Being resonates with the Father’s Being, the consubstantial beings radiate.  Believe it or not, we should be able to do the same through our very baptism because we are made in His image and we are His children.  How many times have you prayed, and your face became radiant?

But going back to the Transfiguration and the conversation with Moses and Elijah, we see that these two figures represent the Law and the Prophets – all of the Old Testament summed up in these two figures.  Just in case there is any doubt as Jesus’ purpose, we have three men to witness this radical fulfillment of what Moses and Elijah had setup in the Old Testament: the final exodus – Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection.  The exodus for Jesus is also our exodus as then we are set free from sin and slavery to sin. We live freely in Christ who has redeemed us in Jerusalem, which brings us to the here and now.  How have we been set free?  Are we still slaves to sin?  Slaves to our bad habits and vices?

St. Paul says, be imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and observe those who thus conduct themselves according to the model you have in us. We have the benefit of St. Paul and all the saints to help us in this Lenten journey.  Don’t look at those who would lead you astray.  Again, we are looking at people’s example and not for judgment and condemnation.  In this time of Lent do not serve the god of stomachs – the appetites, the whims and desires, but rather struggle forward fighting against that which will take us away from God and hurt our relationship with Him.  Renew and make those Lenten sacrifices real during Lent.  Remember, stand firm in the Lord and we will be changed as St. Paul promises: our lowly body to conform with His glorified body.  Let us glory in the Transfiguration of Christ as He leads the way to Jerusalem and ultimately to the Cross! Our journey to Jerusalem, our journey in the desert is not only but to journey with Christ — that we may die and rise with Him.

cf. Ratzinger, Joseph. Jesus of Nazareth, p. 307

I would like to ask your prayers especially for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, as we are coming into the last week of his pontificate.  I also would like to ask you to pray especially for the next Pope.  We need a holy man of God to lead this Church, especially in this day and age. Though we trust in the Holy Spirit’s guidance, the Church is still very much a human institution and she needs our prayers.

I Sunday Lent, Cycle C

Dt 26:4-10
Ps 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15
Rm 10:8-13
Lk 4:1-13

Every year at the beginning of Lent, we hear about the three temptations of Christ in the desert.  This year we hear from the Gospel of Luke.  What I find fascinating is the fact that the devil only now starts to bug Jesus.  Jesus is about 30 years old at the time and this is the first time we hear about Jesus having a little “pest control” problem.  What was the trigger?  Well the devil found something that piqued his interest: the Son of God.  But how did he not know until now?  Because right before this story in Luke, we have the Baptism of Jesus, where the Father reveals Jesus Christ as the Son of God.  Anytime God is claiming one of His own, the devil is not having it.  The devil isn’t bothered with sinners, He already has them – He’s after God’s children you and me.  Which leads me to think: if you don’t feel the temptations of the devil, it might be because you are already under his power and authority.

The Spirit leads Christ into the desert, which is also quite fascinating.  Part of me wants to think of a super hero and a super villain dueling it out – not in the city where innocent people might be harmed – but in the empty desert, you know like a “let’s take this outside…” kind of thing.  Fortunately, our early Church Fathers took a much better interpretation.  They have this thing called “typology” which shows how the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament. So St. Ambrose who lived in Milan from about 340 – 397 AD preached this:

It is fitting that it be recorded that the first Adam was cast out of Paradise into the desert, that you may observe how the second Adam returned from the desert to Paradise…. Adam brought death through the tree. Christ brought life through the cross. Adam, naked of spiritual things, covered himself with the foliage of a tree. Christ, naked of worldly things, did not desire the trappings of the body.  Adam lived in the desert. Christ lived in the desert, for he knew where he could find the lost…. (Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 4:7-14)

Jesus entered the desert to bring us back from the desert.  We enter the desert in this season of Lent, knowing that He is there with us.  In the three temptations of Christ, we see the devil testing humanity completely: body, mind, and spirit.  The first temptation deals with hunger: the most basic human need of nourishment and appetite.   And yet scripture says Jesus ate nothing during those 40 days – and afterwards Scripture says, “…and when they were over he was hungry.” But just so that there is no doubt of that Jesus is being tempted, after 40 days of starving… the devil comes.  Can you imagine your Lent being like that?  40 days of hard fasting and strict practices and then you are told: “Now the fun really begins!”?

 Jesus’ response is simply this: One does not live on bread alone.  Even something as fundamental as nourishment, we realize that we do not live on nourishment alone.  It’s not about the physical food, it’s not about even about what we think are basic necessities, it is to know that after God has taken care of us through the our suffering of forty days – He will continue to take care of us because we are His own.  “By eating we were conquered in Adam, by abstinence we conquered in Christ.” (Cyril of Alexandria)

The Second Temptation: in a single instant the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.  The devil has authority to give the world to him because he has “wrestled” it from God through inducing them into worshipping him.  Jesus to him is just another mark on his tally sheet.  For Jesus, He knows what is reality and what is deception.  Our minds often suffer the influences of the world – knowing that certain things have value, but that is only because we give it value.  We give the devil power through our false idols and our mistaken values, when we worship at the altars of department stores and televisions.  But with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving – the three Lenten practices – we reject and strip away these vanities that cloud our judgment, so that we can see God clearly and worship Him alone.

Finally the last temptation, again testing Jesus and His Sonship:  We see here, the devil is honing in on the very crucial point: what exactly is your relationship with God?  “'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from this highest place of the Temple where God can see you.  Throw yourself down there; you don’t have to worry because He will see you and save you, you’re His Son!  Go ahead, try it!”  Jesus is not having it, He is not submitting to this kind of false paternity test – testing the Father on our terms.  The Father has already declared: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

The true paternity test for us – the one where we know that our Father loves us as His sons and daughters – is right here: on the Cross and in the Holy Eucharist.  On that day, Christ was lifted up high on the Cross to leap off that cross on His own terms, not to test the Father – but to give His Father everything back to Him: Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit!  

Christ’s journey in the desert was to walk in our shoes and show us the way.  It was to prepare Him, and to prepare us, for the journey to Jerusalem where He shows us the ultimate defeat of the devil and all his snares.  Our first reading from Deuteronomy has Moses telling the people to give an offering to the priest – a basket to be placed in front of the altar of the Lord while the people are to recount their entire history.  The verbal confession of their journey from slavery to the promise land connects their words with their actions: offering the first fruits of their labor to God.  How fitting it is for us to remember the origins of our own salvation through Jesus Christ on the Cross as we profess our Faith with the Creed.  Like the Jews of old, it is fitting that we should not only confess with our lips and believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord but that our confession and profession of faith must match our offerings, namely, our Lenten penances. You have begun your Lenten practices since Ash Wednesday with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  How full is that basket of offering?  Is your basket to be placed before the altar of God filled with your first fruits?  If not, I encourage you to start now and make this Lent a good one – to really give up those things that are necessary in life, fast, pray, and perform spiritual and corporal works of mercy that you may turn your heart completely to God.  Let us pray for each other in this Holy Season as we journey with Christ in the desert.

Ash Wednesday

Jl 2:12-18
Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14, 17
2 Cor 5:20-6:2
Mt 6:1-6, 16-18

Well, we all know what the Holy Father gave up for Lent.  But seriously… let’s be clear about one thing about this whole situation and why I bring up the Holy Father today.  What the Pope Benedict has done is an act of humility.  Whatever the general news portals out there have said about his resignation hasn’t been exactly accurate reporting because they don’t know him like we know him, they don’t know the Church like we know the Church.  The virtue of humility requires one to know themselves and to be authentic – to be true to self.  But when you think about it, to be true to yourself without placing yourself before God is simply to see what you think you see and not who you really are.

In other words, if we were to look in a mirror – the mirror reflects the image ourselves back to ourselves.  It’s a tautology – there is no change, no difference.  I look like whatever I *think* I look like.  That doesn’t really help us to know us better except to find that blemish or wrinkle on your face.  Then But when you put someone you love right next to you or right behind you holding you facing a mirror, it changes doesn’t it?  When we try to see ourselves, we need God in the picture.  He knows us, He sees us and reveals our identity.  Therefore true humility requires one to humble themselves before God, putting Him first, before discovering themselves.  The season of Lent seeks to do that through taking on the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and giving alms.

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving mark the three major themes of practice during the season of Lent.  Prayer is obvious – we should pray more.  We should spend more time in prayer and meditating on the scriptures, our lives, and our relationship with God.  Fasting is typically concerned with food – because it is so essential and yet so optional.  We can eat a big meal, we can eat small meals.  But fasting can and usually does extend into our optional daily habits as well: television, books, video games, shopping, and entertainment.  Almsgiving is another act of sacrifice – it takes one out of the self and into the life of another.  Whereas the first two are more personal, almsgiving is communal.  There are many corporal and spiritual works of mercy when one helps and supports another.  Almsgiving incarnates your spiritual works of prayer and fasting into action. The first two purify and sanctify the last one actualizes.

In this season, the three must be used together.  Prayer bonds the other two, as does almsgiving, as does fasting.  This trifecta of practice helps us better our relationship with God.  Make it a tough lent filled with lots of suffering without the complaining.  The more you invest, the more you sacrifice, the greater your Easter will be!  If you find yourself frustrated and irritable, that’s when you should be reminded why you are doing what you are doing.  Do not fall to the temptation of giving up your penance, but rather to do your penance better and go to confession.  If you fall off the wagon, get back on.

I have to admit one of my pet peeves is this novel trendy idea: “Instead of giving up something, I’m gonna try to do something.”  As if to say, “between prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, I’m just gonna pick one.”  And while that may work for some, it really misses the point of Lent.  Lent is a season of austerity: somber reflection and stripping things bare.  Why does Lent focus on what you give up?  Because it removes the unnecessary from your life.  We live in a first world country where we have pie eating contests, hot dog eating contests, where we can super-size, add a side, and multiply whatever we want.  There are seemingly endless possibilities with what we can do.  And then when you look at your possessions – how many of these things bring you closer to God?

If you knew you were going to die today, what would you do?  You would do the very things that prepare you to meet God – you would stop doing what is not important.  You would first strip away anything and everything that was unnecessary: video games, internet, television, sweets, extra helpings, etc..  And then you do what was important – confession, penance, and making amends in your life – forgiving others. The ashes that are put on your foreheads are said with these words: “Remember man, you are dust.  To dust you shall return.”  When you think about it – our lives are limited.  One more day to a hundred more years is nothing compared to eternity in heaven or hell.  We are mortal beings – we are limited and the things that we thought are important just don’t seem that important anymore.  I cannot tell you how important Lent is for us this year.  With as many things going on in the world – we here at Seton better get on that praying, fasting, and almsgiving band wagon right now and do our part.

Lent is a season of austerity that strips the leafy branches of our lives to reveal the bare branches of the reality of who we are.  When we take away our coping mechanisms and means of escape through food, entertainment, and luxuries we are left with facing who we really are before God.  And this is sometimes scary – we may not like what we see.  What is life like without the television on all the time, what is life like without Facebook?  When you are faced with that silence instead of the humdrum of life – can you handle it?  Just *doing* something without taking anything away simply adds more layers to your life.  You are already busy enough – why are you going to burden yourself with more stuff!?  Go to the quiet place, go into the desert with our Lord this Lent.  Have a one on one with Him without the distractions in life – don’t add more layers, take things away so that the noise of life will not drown out the sound of His voice.  Go into the desert, have that heart to heart with Him and enjoy that tranquil solitude that only He can give.

V Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Is 6:1-2a, 3-8
Ps 138: 1-2, 2-3, 4-5,7-8
1 Cor 15:1-11
Lk 5:1-11

When I was in the seminary, local parish school students would come and visit to us.  The kids would be anywhere from third grade through middle school.  For many, if not all, it was their first time to visit a seminary: the place where men prepare to become priests.  Of course the kids could not go everywhere, but the grounds of St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston are quite lovely, especially on a spring day.  The pink brick of the Spanish mission style buildings provided a quiet and yet scenic place to pray, study, and work.

The kids would come and we, the seminarians, would give them a tour of the seminary, telling them about our day to day life.  We would throw in fun bits of trivia and show them our recreation and television rooms.  If they were nervous at the beginning of the field trip, they were probably jealous by the end of it because we had so many fun things to do.  (Lucky for them, they did not have to sit in any of our theology classes!)  When I gave the tour, I always ended with our chapel.  I would gather them into the narthex, which was basically a large square box.  It was dark, poorly lit and had a simple piece of stained glass to let in a little bit of sunlight.  I would tell them a little bit about the chapel: that the pews were faced down the aisle, that there was a high altar and a canopy, so on and so forth; and they would nod in feigned understanding.  When I was done describing the chapel, I then asked two of the kids to help me open the chapel doors, telling them that on the count of three to open them together.  You could tell everyone was anxious to see what was on the other side.  And I would try to quiet them down and ask them to take a moment in silence as they prepare to enter our chapel.  1…. 2…. 3….. Go!  Wooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww……!

It’s hard to get young people fascinated with the faith sometimes, but this was different.  They were struck in awe of the beauty of our chapel, because it really was beautiful.  The chapel is a long Romanesque style chapel with a huge dome in the back with gold leaf all over and a mosaic of the tree of life sprouting its branches out and down into the sanctuary and into the aisles.  Pillars of green marble and white marble lined the sanctuary and above stood the Lamb of God wounded with blood outpoured to water the tree of life.  It was a sight to behold and out of these children one could see and hear true wonder and amazement.  They were excited and energized to see it.

Today’s First and Third readings are simply a reflection of that natural human reaction with something so utterly beyond them and wholly unlike anything they have ever encountered.  Imagine Isaiah before the throne of the Lord: angels singing and crying out Holy Holy Holy is the Lord! The sound that is so powerful and mighty that everything and everyone shook.  The majestic throne filled with incense smoke and choirs of angels singing.  What would you do if you were to see that vision?

Isaiah has it right, “I am a man of unclean lips… I am not worthy to be in the presence of His majesty.”  Just like people meeting celebrities – they are excited and can’t wait to meet them and then, when they finally do come face to face with Beiber or Beyoncé, I am willing to bet there is stunned silence and shyness.  But you know what? Seeing and meeting our Lord is so much more than a celebrity or any other dignitary, it is meeting your Creator – the One who has known you since before you ever were formed in the womb and loved you into existence.  In the sight of the angels, I will sing your praises, Lord.  I will worship at your holy temple and give thanks to your name.

What I am trying to describe is so difficult to put into words, but I hope that you can see what I am saying.  When you encounter something in your life that is so utterly beautiful in nature – e.g. the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the Rocky Mountains, and even a simple sunrise or sunset, there should be a movement in your heart; a movement of awe and wonder of God, of the Divine.  When you go to the museum and the churches in Europe you see beautiful works of artists that just make your jaw drop and say to yourself but only with a whisper… “God is here.”

Sometimes that movement of awe and wonder goes even further and you are moved to unworthiness: “Who am I that the Lord should bless me with this view, with this sight, with this gift?  Why does He love me so much when I am so insignificant?”  That unworthiness comes when the something so utterly holy is placed next to something so far from holy that one is just blown away.  And on top of that, when you place yourself next to something so great you feel even more insignificant!!  When you see the photos captured from outer space of the nebulas and galaxies trillions of light years away, you realize you are just an insignificant speck in God’s creation.  In life, it does not matter if it is natural or man-made, spiritual or secular – an encounter with the beautiful and the good will move one to awe.  And much like Simon Peter – when he was awestruck before Christ after a mind-blowing miracle.  Peter knew where he stood, Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.  You are too much, and I am too little.  He knew he was not worthy, nor are we. 

And this is where an amazing thing happens: Christ makes us worthy, He invites us to not only be followers, but to His sons and daughters!!  As if it was good enough to just stand and admire it from far away. (A wallflower in heaven, can you imagine that!??) Jesus calls us to be right there in His midst and to participate in the eternal life of heaven.  We are worthy and we are loved.  Wow… and you know what – that cycle can start all over again: finding God in His awesome beauty and majesty and discovering we are found worthy and loved, moves us again to want to love more and be better for Him who loves us.  It’s a perpetual cycle that never ends and never extinguishes itself.

Just off the top of my head you can see cycle in two situations in the world; you don’t have to wait until heaven.  You see the good, the true, and the beautiful in married couples: as they fall in love with each other day after day; each day saying how beautiful the other is and how unworthy or how blessed they are to be loved by the other.  It is a witness and testament to all of God’s love spurring us and encouraging us to love more day by day.

The other situation where the true, good, and beautiful moves us to awe and a desire to change is in the celebration of the Mass – where something awesome [should be awe-full huh?] happens every time we celebrate Mass.  Did you know that as you sit there in the pews, all the angels and saints, all those have lived before us, and the entire Church, over one billion people are joined together in prayer in the worship of the one most holy sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Holy Eucharist?  If you believe what you are praying and what you are truly experiencing is heaven on earth, you should be moved and filled with awe – Woe is me! I am doomed!… for I have seen the Lord!!  I am not worthy to even be here!!! You would not ask why is Mass boring, but you would be moved to gratitude and thanksgiving:  “the Almighty and Omnipotent God – the God of all Creation, the God that came from Heaven to have a personal relationship with us, wants me to be here…. I am beyond humbled and honored, I am filled with awe for you Lord.”

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we should be searching for and desiring God in searching for Him in the Beautiful, because you will find Him there.  When you are moved to awe and wonder, and your heart wells up with joy – this is a movement and experience of God.  It is real and you should desire it.  If you haven’t experienced it, then perhaps this is something that you should seek during Lent: to find God in the beautiful.  Lent is our time to seek Christ, to be in the desert, devoid of distractions so that you can find the true, the good, and the beautiful.  I hope that your Lent is a blessed one filled with awe and wonder as you journey with Him in the desert.