CATHOLIC COMMENTARY

SERMON ON THE MOUNT

BLESSED ARE YOU WHEB THEY PERSECUTE YOU AND HATE YOU FOR MY SAKE

I have been thinking recently why the society I live in and the government that is there to serve the “common good” are so often unfriendly and sometimes, even threatening, to a practicing Catholic who puts God’s Law and his conscience first.

At the same time, I worry how much pressure there is in the Catholic community on the Church Magisterium to water our doctrine down to accommodate the world and other religions.

Over the last few decades some practices, centuries old, have changed.  Fasting Days in the Catholic Church were reduced some time ago.  Holy Days of Obligation have been reduced as well.  Homilies on sin or hell are remote and spare.  Today, you see in some dioceses across the globe accepting same-sex marriages, inviting divorced and remarried Catholics without an annulment invited to receive Holy Communion and Protestant spouses of Catholics invited to receive with their spouses.  And the beat goes on…

I just don’t see how becoming more like every other denomination is attracting more to the Catholic Church. What must attract people to the Catholic Faith is its authenticity to the Gospel, its sacraments, and its liturgy, the Mass. A watered down Catholic Church is a “lukewarm” Church.

Jesus was counter-cultural. “You have heard it said, but I say to you.”  Jesus taught with authority.  His authority came from the Father.  “Who sees me, sees the Father.”  Jesus founded a counter-cultural Church on Peter, the Rock and promised the Holy Spirit to guide it on earth from error.   Catholic Church teaching condemns abortion, contraception, divorce and remarriage, same sex marriage and gender identity theory.

All right, so we pull ourselves up, tighten our belts, and go forward as soldiers of Christ.  What can we expect? Jesus gave us the answer. “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first….. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. John 15:18 – 23 Well that isn’t very comforting is it?  But why do we expect more than our Savior who gave His all for all of us?

Hold on, there is more…Jesus also tells us what happens if we persevere

to the end.  “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you because of me Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven, they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11

]Catholicism remains the staunchest opponent to the culture of the times. Our doctrines are stubborn things, even for some inside the Church who would like to change them. The Rock of Peter, whatever the human limitations may be.  By God’s own promise, the gates of Hell slam against the Rock but cannot prevail.

REFLECTION

PHILLIPIANS 2:6-12

Taking the form of a slave,

coming in human likeness;^*

and found human in appearance

he humbled himself,

becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.^*

Because of this, God greatly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name^*

that is above every name,

That at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,^*

of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth

And every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES HEBREWS 12:1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us

and persevere in running the race that lies before us.

 INTRODUCTION

 This month of August we have celebrated two feasts of Mary Mother of God.  Mary is the model to all women saints in the great cloud of witnesses.  Mary’s devotion and prayer life was exemplar!

When she asked Jesus’ assistance at Cana wedding feast fully confident that Jesus would answer her and He did with gallons and gallons of good wine.  Mary is the best intercessor with Jesus and so are many of the women in our lives Grandmothers, Mothers, Sisters, Wives, Aunts…… Our mothers are praying for us right now because that is what mothers do.

 COMMENTARY

 Where would the Church be without Mother Mary, Mother Teresa,\Therese, the Little Flower,  Faustina,  Bernadette. Joan of Arc, and Clare of Assisi to name a few women in the “cloud of witnesses.”

There are certainly passages in the Old and New Testament that could be interpreted as painting women as less than equal to men.  But that was in a culture thousands of years ago in the Middle East.  We would have a better understanding of women’s place in God’s kingdom (Church) by focusing more on Jesus’ interchanges with women in the Gospels.

Jesus, himself, did not discriminate against women but engaged them in His Public Ministry: Jesus raised the widow’s son at a funeral procession in Nain Luke 7:11; Jesus healed the woman suffering years of blood loss Mark 5:24-34; and forgave the Woman caught in adultery John 8:1-11 without any discrimination.

Breaking the sexist and racial customs of his day, Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, offering her “living water”

John 4:5-42.

JESUS AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN AT THE WELL

To the degree that a Christian treats women in a discriminating or exploitive way, they separate themselves from Jesus Christ.  Jesus treated women with openness, respect, acceptance, and tenderness. In this way he honored the dignity that women have always possessed according to God’s plan

WOMEN MINISTRY IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS

Over 85 percent of those responsible for altar preparation are women. Over 75 percent of adult Bible study leaders and participants are women. Over 85 percent of those who lead or assist in ministries designed to help the poor, visit the sick, comfort the grieving, and minister to the handicapped are women.  

 PAUL LETTER TO EPHESIANS

Women have had a particular problem with St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 5:22-25 that talks about wives being subordinate to husbands, kind of a poor way to put it for 21^st century folks.  Early Church Fathers said that Scripture can be rightly interpreted in a variety of ways, but that any understanding of a passage that undermined love of God or love of neighbor ought to be rejected.

Paul is really not placing women in a slavish role to their husbands but trying to compare a marriage couple to the Church the bride, and Christ the bridegroom.  The key verse is verse 25, “Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her”

The Catholic Church teaches the proper recipient of Holy Orders is a baptized male as Jesus is.  The reservation of priestly ordination to men is perhaps the grievance most often brought up by critics of the Church. The Church does not discriminate against women. Are women less holy than men, of course not, less intellectually capable, of course not?

While on earth, Jesus ordained only men, Women were among the earliest and most courageous followers of Jesus, yet he did not call them to be among the Twelve. Even his own Mother, who according to Catholic belief is the greatest human person in all of history, was not among the Twelve nor ordained a priest.

Jesus’ Church today cannot go beyond Jesus.  Some will argue it is a cultural thing.  We don’t live in First Century Middle East.  But as I stated earlier Jesus was not bound by the usual social norms and broke them all the time.  Also women priestesses of pagan gods were common place in the time of Jesus.

 CONCLUSION

The First Letter to the Corinthians (I Corinthians 12:12) indicates, just as the human body has different members and each member a different purpose, so, too, the various parts of the body of Christ have many missions, prophets, teachers, healers, helpers, administrators…, all essential, valuable, and vital for life of Church, Christ’s Body.

 The bottom line is this…. most saints in heaven are not ordained clergy. The layperson can participate actively and fully in the Church as a layperson, and may they do so with vigor and zeal! The Spirit bestows different gifts on different people. Below are just a few women saints that have gone before us and pray as intercessors.

St Monica Model of Prayer

St Monica the Mother of St. Augustine is remembered and honored for her outstanding Christian virtues of grieving mothers, difficult marriages, victims of abuse and conversion of relatives.

St Therese of Lisieux (Little Flower)

Model of Faith

 At the heart of Therese’s understanding of the spiritual life is the principle that holiness can be appreciated and accomplished not only in the performance of mighty deeds but in a willing surrender to the purposes of God as we engage the seemingly ordinary experiences of life.

Mother Theresa of Calcutta Model of Works

St Theresa did amazing works of charity…feeding the poor. nursing the sick and housing the homeless through her order, The Missionaries of Charity, for over 45 years.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him

might not perish but might have eternal life.” JOHN 3:16

 JESUS CHRIST SAVIOR OF THE WORLD

 The Sacrament of Penance is sometimes referred to by various names such as, Sacrament of Confession (we acknowledge our sins); Sacrament of Forgiveness (our sins are forgiven and removed); and Sacrament of Reconciliation (we are reconciled to God and His Church).

After Original Sin, man was separated both from God’s presence and God’s divine life of grace.  At the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, God lets it be known that one day a Savior will come and restore man’s relationship with God.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman (Mary the New Eve), and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” Genesis 3:15 

 The Prophets of the Old Testament promise in their oracles a Savior one day who will offer himself up for the many that we might be restored and reconciled with the Father.

 “See the days are coming when I will make a New Covenant….it is Yahweh who speaks…since I will forgive their iniquities and never call their sins to mind.” Jeremiah 31

During his public ministry, Jesus called the people to conversion just the same as the Church does today.  Prior to receiving the Sacrament of Penance, we must turn back to God and reject sin.

Jesus is at dinner, with tax collectors and other sinners, some Pharisees object, “why is he eating with tax collectors and sinners?”  Jesus replies, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick; I did not come to call the virtuous but sinners.” Mark 2:15-17

In Luke 7:36, Jesus is administered to by a woman, a known public sinner.  The Pharisee who invited Jesus is distraught by the attention this sinful woman was paying and Jesus allowing her to do so. 

Jesus says, “…this woman though with many sins has shown great faith and love.  The one who is pardoned more will love more.”  Jesus absolves the woman of her many sins, “Your sins are forgiven.”

What great peace and joy the woman must have felt to hear these words of absolution.  Jesus told the woman, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.” 

How similar these words are to the words of absolution we hear from the priest who absolves us in the name of Jesus today in Sacrament of Penance.

The Sacrament of Penance was instituted by Jesus Christ on the evening of his resurrection. “In the evening of the same day… As the Father sent me…so I am sending you…After saying this, Jesus breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit for those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven.  For those whose sins you retain, they are retained.'” John 20:19-35

REPENT AND BE SAVED

 Like all the Sacraments, Penance is a liturgical action.  The elements of celebration are ordinarily these: a greeting and blessing from the priest, reading the word of God to illuminate the conscience and elicit contrition, exhortation to repentance, the acknowledging of sins to the priest, the imposition and acceptance of a penance, the priest’s absolution, a prayer of thanksgiving and praise and dismissal with a blessing from the priest. (CCC 1480). 

“Catholics should go to Confession because everyone needs forgiveness for their sins.”  “Whoever says he is without sin is a liar or blind!”  Confession is meant to be a sincere moment of conversion, trusting in God’s willingness to forgive His children and help them back on the path of following Jesus, Pope Francis

The sacramental sign of the Sacrament of Penance are the words of absolution through which forgiveness of our sins and distinctive graces of sanctification are conferred.

The Priest receives the penitent with a greeting, a sign of the cross and invitation to trust in God’s mercy

 When the priest receives the penitent, he is fulfilling the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seek the lost sheep, of the Good Samaritan who binds up the wounds, and the merciful Father of the Prodigal Son who welcomes the son back to his family.  The priest is the sign and instrument of God’s mercy.

Reading of God’s word

 The reading of God’s word is a sign that it is God calling the penitent to conversion.  It is this call which draws us to God’s mercy and forgiveness.  It is the call which invites us back into right relationship with God and His Church.

 Confession of sins

 Through the admission of our sins, we look squarely at our relationship with God and our neighbor and open ourselves again to be reconciled with God and full communion with His Church.  We accept our Penance as satisfaction for the offense to God and the harm to His Church.

 Our act of contrition

 Our act of contrition expresses our sorrow for offending God and our detestation of sin.  Our words of contrition (sign) express an inward condition and meaning to love God and avoid sin in the future.

Prayer of absolution

 The words of absolution by the priest, “I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit” and the reply by the penitent, “Amen” restores the penitent to God’s grace, reconciles him with the Church, with himself, with his brothers and sisters whom he has somehow offended, and all Creation. 

 Proclamation of praise of God and Dismissal

 “Give thanks to God for he is good.  His mercy endures forever.”  This proclamation of praise by the priest and penitent expresses all glory to God the Father and commitment to the First Great Commandment, to love God with our whole mind, our whole heart, our whole soul and with all our strength.

LORD JESUS CHRIST HAVE MERCY ON ME, A SINNER

FIDUCIA SUPPLICANS (“Supplicating Trust”) is a 2023 Declaration on Catholic Doctrine that allows Catholic priests to bless couples who are not considered to be married according to church teaching, including same-sex couples.

INTRODUCTION

Let the games begin! Once again the Francis Papacy is jarred by controversy.  The Church on the left believe Francis approves same sex marriages. The church on the right wants Francis charged with heresy and removed from office for blessing same sex couples.

Division is the main tool of the adversary, the Evil one. There is nothing Satan, wants more than division in God’s family the Church.

Satan is not going to bother those who have already drunk his Kool-Aid.  Satan’s attacks are on those struggling to go home to Abba, Father.  Satan, so envious, wants no one to have what he can never have, union with the Father.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world… into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Revelation 20:10

 COMMENTARY

Fiducia Supplicans

DECLARATION

                     On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings

                      Ex Audientia Die  18 December 2023
Francis

 VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A Catholic priest can bless a gay or other unmarried couple as long as it is not a formal liturgical blessing and does not give the impression that the Catholic Church is blessing the union as if it were a marriage,

Key points of Fiducia Supplicans

 1. It reaffirms the traditional Catholic doctrine on marriage. It makes clear that the Church the Church does not have the power to impart blessings on unionsof persons of the same sex”

 2.It clarifies the role of the Church in offering blessing.a distinction between blessing a same-sex couple and blessing their union.

3. It emphasizes Pope Francis’s focus on pastoral charity and inclusivity. Fiducia Supplicans encourages the Church to avoid being overly judgmental or exclusive in its ministry where people seek blessings in faith and sincerity, regardless of their life circumstances.

 4. It makes a clear distinction between liturgical rites and blessings. The Church may not create liturgical rites for blessings of unions outside the traditional marriage definition. But the Church can still offer blessings in a pastoral context, to those who ask for a blessing that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched and healed by the presence of the Holy Spirit” FS 29

 Fiducia supplicans remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage, but it also explores the “pastoral meaning of blessings” in a way that opens “the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.”

The Church responds to the requests of people who are in objectively sinful and disordered situations (either same-sex relationships or other irregular situations, like those who are divorced and invalidly “remarried”) with a prayer that God may help them to overcome sin, to live holier lives, and even discern how they may be restored to full communion..

When we ask for blessing to help us along the way, we receive Actual grace, a divine assistance given to help one do the right thing, distinct from sanctifying grace which is habitual.

Sanctifying grace is the gratuitous gift of His life that God makes to us; it is infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. Sanctifying grace makes us “pleasing to God Sanctifying grace is the habitual experience of God’s love.

Actual grace is God’s love at work in specific moments. An example of actual grace might be a revelatory moment of prayer. It could be a timely phone call or answer to a prayer.

REFLECTION

 What blessings have I asked God for myself?

 For others?

Are there times when I bless myself with sign of cross? Bless others with sign of cross?

The sign of the cross must be a prayer not a good luck charm or superstition.

The last image of Jesus on earth is that of his hands being raised in the act of blessing the Eleven, “And lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven” Luke. 2450-51