Sermon: St. Therese Homilies

Jesus Servant, Savior & Eucharistic Lamb of God

Homily 2nd Sunday Yr A: Jesus Servant, Savior & Eucharistic Lamb of God
Fr. Dwight P. Campbell, S.T.D.

In our 1st Reading from ch. 49 of Isaiah: “The Lord said to me, ‘you are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory.’”

Here we learn that God calls the nation of Israel His “servant.”

But then Isaiah goes on to say: “the Lord formed me as his servant from the womb. . . .” Who is this servant? It is a prophecy of Jesus, whom we know was formed in the womb of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And Isaiah goes on to say: “It is too little, the Lord says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore Israel. I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

In these words we see a prophecy regarding Jesus as future Savior – not only of Israel, but of all peoples of all nations throughout the world.

If you keep on reading from the book of Isaiah, in chapters 52 and 53, the Prophet tells us that this “servant” will suffer and die to pay the price for our sins:
“It was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured. . . He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins. Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole. By his bruises we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep . . . the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth.” (Is. 53: 4-7).

Yes, Jesus, the Eternal Son sent by the Father, was the innocent Lamb who was led to the slaughter to pay the price for our sins.

God revealed all this in the Old T. in types and figures. The greatest of these types was the Passover lamb described in ch. 12 of the Book of Exodus. If the Hebrews killed a young male lamb, sprinkled its blood on their door posts, and then ate the flesh of the lamb, they would be saved from the punishment God inflicted on the Egyptians: the Angel of death would pass over their homes and not kill their firstborn sons.

Jesus is the fulfillment of that Old T. type. This is what John the Baptist confirms in our Gospel today. When Jesus begins His public ministry and appears at the Jordan River to be baptized, His cousin John points Him out: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

Yes, Jesus is the true Lamb of God, who saves us by the shedding of His Blood on the Cross. He atones for all of our sins, and redeems or buys back that share in God’s divine life that was lost through Adam’s sin.

And just as in the Old Covenant under Moses, the Hebrews’ firstborn sons were saved from death if each household ate the flesh of the Passover lamb, so we will be saved, and raised up on the Last Day, in bodies glorified, if we partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus, the True Lamb.

This is precisely what Jesus tells us. In ch. 6 of John’s Gospel, the “Bread of Life” discourse, Jesus speaks these amazing words to the crowds of Jews:

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

At hearing these words, almost everyone, including most of His own disciples, walk away in disbelief. “This is a hard saying; who can accept it?,” they say. The only ones who remain with Jesus are the 12 Apostles.

A hard saying, indeed! “Eat my flesh and drink my blood, if you want eternal life.”

Last week was the Feast of Epiphany. I always use that feast to preach about faith in the great mystery of the Eucharist. I did so last week. Today I will repeat what I said last Sunday.

Belief in the great mystery of the Eucharist requires great faith, a faith even greater than the Magi, or three Kings.
They prostrated themselves before the Baby Jesus, believing that He was not only their King, but their God and their Savior who would die for their sins, and therefore should be worshipped and adored.
Their gifts signify this belief: gold for their King, incense for their God, and myrrh to anoint His body after death.
How the Magi knew these things remains a mystery to us.

With the great mystery of the Holy Eucharist, we must have an even greater faith than the Magi: Although they could not see the divinity of the Christ Child, they could see His humanity.
In the Eucharist, we see neither the divinity nor the humanity of Jesus. After the words of consecration by the priest, the appearance of bread and wine still remain visible to us; but in faith we believe that the substance of the bread and wine are gone;
that by divine power, when the priest, acting in the Person of Christ, utters those words that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper – “This is my body which will be given up for you . . . this is my blood of the new and everlasting covenant” – the bread and wine undergo a change of substance (which we call transubstantiation).
The great miracle of the Eucharist defies our senses: The consecrated Host still looks and tastes like ordinary bread, but it is no longer bread; in faith we believe it is now the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Why do we believe what is contrary to our senses? Because Jesus said it; and the Church for 2000 years has taught this truth, this great mystery.

The bishops of our country have called for a three-year program in which we are called to “rediscover the Eucharist.” I suppose the word “rediscovering” can be interpreted in various ways.
Those who have lost or abandoned faith in the Eucharist should make an effort to rekindle their faith.
Those who already believe should strive to deepen their faith, to uncover more and more the unfathomable riches in this great Sacrament.

How can we, who believe, deepen our faith in this Mystery of the Eucharist?

One way is by our actions of adoration:
When we genuflect, bend the knee, when we come into church and leave our pews, we attest to our belief that Jesus is truly present in the tabernacle.
When we kneel before our Lord and our God in receiving Holy Communion.
When we spend time in prayer and adoration before our Eucharistic Lord, speaking to Him heart to heart, knowing that He is present before us as truly as He was present to the Magi who adored Him and to crowds who heard Him preaching in their streets and synagogues.

If you’ve never spend time in prayer and adoration before Jesus in the Eucharist, I encourage you to do so. Just a reminder, we have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in our church here every Friday after Mass throughout the day; and on first Fridays of the month we continue exposition until 6 AM Saturday morning.
I encourage you to come and spend time before our Lord in the Eucharist. You’ll find great comfort and peace in doing so. Pray the Rosary, read some Scripture or the writings of a saint; or just sit in silent contemplation of Jesus, who is truly Present before your eyes.

Another way to be discover or deepen your faith in the Eucharist is through study: Try to learn about Eucharistic miracles. Go on the Internet, on FORMED (see the bulletin). Or attend a class. In February, I’ll be teaching a class on Pope St. Paul VI’s encyclical, “The Mystery of Faith” (on the Eucharist).

On Tues. June 6, author and EWTN guest Michael O’Brien will come and do a presentation on Eucharistic miracles.

Finally, today after Mass we will have Benediction. And will expose the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance briefly on the altar to worship and adore Him, and then administer a blessing with Our Lord in the Eucharist.

This is something I plan to do on a monthly basis during this time of “rediscovering the Eucharist,” along with preaching on this topic.

Let us call upon the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her beautiful title “Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament,” that she – who taught the Apostles and first Christians about the deep mystery of Jesus in the Eucharist – to deepen our faith and devotion to Our Lord and Savior truly Present in the great Sacrament of His Body and Blood.

Epiphany 2023

Homily: Epiphany 2023
Fr. Dwight P. Campbell, S.T.D.

“Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the Lord shines, and over you appears his glory. Nations shall walk by your light, and Kings by your shining radiance. They come to you . . . from afar.”

These lines from our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah are very fitting for this glorious feast of Epiphany: They reveal to us that before the coming of Christ, the world was covered in the darkness of sin. Beginning with His Birth, light has come.

God is light; and Jesus, the Eternal Son of God who became man, the Word who was made flesh, is the True Light that has come into the world, to bring light to all who are in darkness of sin and death.

Jesus, the Savior, came to bring the light of salvation not only to the Jews, God’s Chosen People; He came to enlighten and to save all peoples of all nations.

The coming of the Magi, or Wise men, who were kings from the East, is a sign that salvation is now open to the Gentiles as well as the Jews – something that the Old Testament Prophets, like Isaiah, had foretold.

In fact, the Magi represent all the Gentile, or non-Jewish, nations.

The origin of the Magi, what countries they were from, and what motivated them to follow the star – that radiant light in the night sky that shined in the darkness, which guided them to the newborn Christ Child – remains shrouded in mystery.

Somehow they knew that this little Babe in His Mother’s arms was not just any king, but the King of kings – because He was also their God, and their Savior.

The gifts they bring signify these truths: gold for the King of kings; incense to burn in praise of God – the smoke of which rises like our prayers; and myrrh – a perfume that was mixed with oil, used to anoint bodies of the dead.

“Epiphany” means “manifestation.” Jesus manifested Himself as our Lord, our King, and our Savior to all the nations of the world in the persons of the Magi, whose coming with their gifts is a revelation –

“that the Gentiles are coheirs [with the Jews], members of the same body [the Church], and copartners in the promise [of a Savior]” who has come in Jesus Christ, as St. Paul tells us in our second reading, from Ephesians.

But how the Magi knew, we do not know. Some say a private revelation; but this is only speculation. It remains a beautiful mystery.

What we do know is that they believed this little Babe was their divine King, and their Savior-God. Their belief was signified not only by their gifts, but also by their actions: upon entering into the presence of the Baby Jesus and His Mother, Mary, they “prostrated themselves and did him homage,” as St. Matthew tells us.

To “prostrate” means lay oneself flat on the ground face downward – an act of deep reverence, symbolizing total submission.

The last three verses of the hymn We Three Kings beautifully expresses this truth:

Frankincense to offer have I / incense owns a Deity nigh / prayer and praising gladly raising / worship him, God on high.

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume / breathes a life of gathering gloom / sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying / sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

Glorious now behold him arise / King and God and Sacrifice / Allelujah Allelujah / Sounds through the earth and skies.

In this glorious feast of Epiphany I always think it fitting to compare the faith of the three Magi in the presence of the Infant Jesus, with our faith in the Holy Eucharist who is Really Present in the substance of His human Body, Blood, Soul, and His Divinity.
When they prostrated themselves in worship, the Magi could not see the divinity of Jesus, the God whom they adored; all they could see was His humanity, in the form of a newborn Child: but they believed, in faith, that this tiny Babe was their Lord and their God, their King and their Savior.

With the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, we must have an even greater faith than that of the Magi:

They at least were able to see the humanity of Jesus; in the Eucharist we see neither the humanity nor the divinity of Christ, Our Lord; for both are hidden under the appearance of the bread and wine.

In fact, we believe what the senses are unable to perceive – nay, what defies our senses: The Holy Eucharist still looks and tastes like ordinary bread and wine; but in faith we believe that after the priest utters the same words of consecration that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper – “Take and eat, this is my body . . .Take and drink, this is my blood” – the bread and wine are no longer present; rather, it is Jesus who is Present, in His full divinity, as God, and His full humanity – His Body, Blood and Soul.

And in the Eucharist, we not only receive Christ’s Body and Blood as food for our souls; we worship and adore Jesus, who remains Present – in the fullness of His divinity and of His sacred humanity, in the consecrated Host.

At the end of Mass today, we will have Benediction: a brief time to worship and adore Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament – just as the Magi worshipped and adored Him on that very first Epiphany.

Mary Mother of God & Our Spiritual Mother

Homily Jan. 1: Mary Mother of God & Our Spiritual Mother

Fr. Dwight P. Campbell, S.T.D.

 

Today, January 1, the last day within the octave of Christmas (7 days after the Birth of Our Lord), the Church – most fittingly – celebrates the divine Motherhood of Blessed Virgin Mary.

Since the earliest centuries, the Church has called Mary “Mother of God.” This is her most exalted title, and all the other graces and privileges given to Mary flow from this great truth: that she is the Mother of God.

Actually, in the Greek language, where this title was first used, Mary was called Theotokos – i.e., God-bearer.

We believe, in faith, that God is eternal; He had no beginning.

This is true of all three Persons of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Blessed Virgin Mary conceived in her womb and gave birth to the second Person of the Trinity, the Eternal Son of God.

How can we say, how can we believe that Mary is the Mother of God, if all three Persons of the Trinity, including the Son, are eternal?

To understand the mystery of Mary’s divine motherhood, we must first understand the great mystery of the Incarnation.

What is the Incarnation? God the Son, who is also called the Eternal Word, became man while remaining God when He was conceived in Mary’s womb, by the power of the Holy Spirit, on Annunciation Day – March 25, exactly 9 months before his birth on December 25. 

This is what St. Paul, in our 2nd reading today from Galatians, calls the “fullness of time”: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, . . . to ransom those under the law [i.e., the of Moses, which could not save us], so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

The Incarnation is called the “fullness of time” because the eternal Son of God, who always existed outside of time, now enters into time.

It is also called the “fullness of time” because from all eternity, God willed the Incarnation: that the Son of God would become man, and that He would do so through Mary.

In other words, Jesus and Mary were always united in God’s eternal plan.

The Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, has a divine nature: He is co-eternal with God the Father and the Holy Spirit; He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving. 

When we say that “the Word became flesh” in Mary’s womb, we mean that the Son of God took on a human nature: He truly became man, with a human body and a human soul – with a human intellect and human will.

On Annunciation Day, Mary conceived Jesus Christ in her immaculate womb. At the moment she uttered her “Fiat” or “Yes” to the Archangel Gabriel, she became the Mother of God.

At the Incarnation, the second Person of the Trinity united a human nature to His divine Person. What does this mean? It means that Jesus Christ is a divine Person with two natures, both divine (because He is God, the eternal Son), and human (because He truly became man).

Therefore, we can truly say that Mary is the Mother of God – because she conceived in her womb the Son of God who truly became man, while remaining God.

The 6th century poet, St. Fortunatus, beautifully summarizes all this:

 

1  The God whom earth and sea and sky / adore and laud and magnify, /
whose might they own, whose praise they tell, / in Mary’s body deigned to dwell.

2  O Mother blest, the chosen shrine / wherein the Architect divine, /
whose hand contains the earth and sky, / vouchsafed in hidden guise to lie:

 

Why did the Son of God become man? To redeem us from our sins. He needed a human body to accomplish the work of redemption, to suffer and die on the Cross in order to win back for us to share in divine life (which we call sanctifying grace) that Adam had lost with the Original Sin, to bring us once again into friendship with God and make us adopted sons and daughters of God the Father, through Jesus, our Brother (cf. 2nd reading, Galatians).

So, when we say that Mary is the Mother of God we do not mean that the eternal son of God began His existence at the Incarnation. We mean instead that the second Person of the Trinity took on a human nature when she conceived Him in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But there is another truth that we acknowledge today, on this feast of Mary Mother of God: the Blessed Virgin Mary is not only the Mother of God; she is also our spiritual mother in the order of grace.

This truth is reflected in the Opening Prayer for today’s Mass: “grant, we pray, that we may experience the intercession of her, through whom we were found worthy to receive the author of life, our Lord Jesus Christ.”

As He was dying on the Cross, Jesus gave Mary to us as our spiritual Mother when He said: “Woman, behold, thy son”; and then said to St. John, the Apostle, “Behold, thy mother.” John represents all the disciples of Jesus.

It is because Mary is truly Mother of Jesus, Head of the Mystical Body, the Church, that she is also spiritual Mother of all the members of Christ’s Body, the Church. She is truly Mother of the Church, both Head and members (see the closing prayer in today’s Mass).

And how does she exercise her spiritual motherhood? The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) no. 963 teaches, under the heading “Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church”:  “The Virgin Mary is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the Redeemer. . . . She is ‘clearly the mother of the members of Christ . . . since she has by her charity joined [with Jesus] in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head.’”

Mary’s spiritual motherhood is not only exercised by giving spiritual birth to us; she also, as our loving Mother, forms Christ in us, and conforms us to Jesus, her Son. Vatican II (Lumen Gentium 63) teaches: “The Son whom she brought forth is He whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, namely the faithful, in whose birth and education [formation/development] she cooperates with a maternal love.  

Moreover, as our spiritual Mother, Mary mediates the grace of Christ; she is Mediatrix of all the grace which Christ won for us on the Cross – because she not only gave birth to the Savior, but united herself in love to her dying Son as He suffered and died to redeem us from our sins – making her co-Redemptrix/ cooperatrix/associate with Jesus in redeeming us.

CCC 968: “In a wholly singular way [Mary] cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace.” (LG 61)

CCC 969 “This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation …. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”

Pope Benedict XVI’s homily May 11, 2007 in Brazil at canonization of Fr. Antonio Galvão, OFM: “There is no fruit of grace in the history of salvation that does not have as its necessary instrument the mediation of Our Lady.” This is really a short summary of the teaching of the Church down through the ages (Sacred Tradition) on Mary’s sublime role in the mediation of the grace of Christ.

And what should be our response to this truth? We should entrust ourselves to Mary, our spiritual Mother, and totally consecrate ourselves to her. St. Louis de Montfort, in his masterpiece, True Devotion to the BV Mary, explains how to do this. Let us always go to Jesus through Mary, knowing that she is the Mediatrix of all the grace of Christ, and that no grace comes to us but through her. 

Christmas 2022

Homily: Christmas 2022
Fr. Dwight P. Campbell, S.T.D.

Our Catholic Faith is filled with mysteries, supernatural mysteries: truths about the infinite God which our small, finite minds are unable to fully grasp. We can’t wrap our minds around them; we never will (b/c we’re not God!).

Consider the Trinity, the central mystery of our Faith: One God, but three distinct persons in the one God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Each divine Person is God. All three are co-eternal, with no beginning; each of the three divine Persons is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving.
As God told St. Catherine of Siena: “There is not a leaf of a tree that falls to the ground without My providence” (i.e., My knowing it and willing it).

What makes each divine Person distinct from the other? Their relations:
As we profess in the Creed: God the Father, by knowing Himself perfectly, eternally begets the Son – the Word, who is “begotten, not made”; that is, He is not created; the Word is, like the Father, eternal.
The Word is the Father’s self-knowledge personified: God the Father knows Himself so perfectly that His act of knowing Himself generates another person – a divine Person of the same substance as the Father; thus the Son, the Eternal Word, is the perfect image and reflection of the Father.
So, God the Father begets; God the Son is eternally begotten; and God the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the mutual love of the Father & the Son.

From all eternity, in the divine counsels of God, only one of those divine Persons would become man – while remaining God: the Eternal Word would become flesh in the immaculate womb of the Virgin Mary – most fitting, b/c the God-man, the Eternal Word, would preach the word of God to us.
The Word becoming flesh in Mary is another supernatural mystery, which we call the Incarnation – the next greatest mystery after the Trinity.
Can we understand how the Son of God, while remaining God, could become man in one divine Person? No. We believe this mystery on faith.

The Incarnation was foretold by the Old Testament prophets who spoke under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit. For example, more than 700 years before Christ, Isaiah prophesied: “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel” (that is, “God is with us”).
This prophecy was fulfilled on Annunciation Day, when the Virgin Mary uttered her “Fiat” – “Let it be done to me according to your word” – in response to the Archangel Gabriel’s message.

It was at that moment – the “fullness of time” as St. Paul calls it – that the Word became flesh, the Son of God became man, in Mary’s womb. And for what purpose? To save us, to redeem us from our sins by dying on the Cross.

But consider – another aspect to the mystery of the Incarnation, the Eternal Word becoming flesh: He whom the entire universe cannot contain, dwelt enclosed in Mary’s womb for nine months before His Birth.
Jesus, as an unborn child in Mary’s womb, was totally dependent on her. We can ponder, in awe and wonder, that the Creator of all things depended totally on His Mother whom He created, for nine full months – and even after His birth, as an infant who needed to be nourished, clothed, cared for.
Here our Savior gives us an example to imitate: to depend upon Mary, our spiritual Mother, for all our needs.

The 6th century poet, St. Fortunatus, beautifully summarizes all this :

1 The God whom earth and sea and sky / adore and laud and magnify, /
whose might they own, whose praise they tell, / in Mary’s body deigned to dwell.
2 O Mother blest, the chosen shrine / wherein the Architect divine, /
whose hand contains the earth and sky, / vouchsafed in hidden guise to lie:
3 Blest in the message Gabriel brought; / blest in the work the Spirit wrought;
most blest, to bring to human birth / the long-desired of all the earth.
4 O Lord, the Virgin-born, to thee / eternal praise and glory be, /
whom with the Father we adore / and Holy Ghost for evermore. Amen.
And today we celebrate the glorious Birth of the Savior, and we sing with the angels, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will.”

Still another aspect of this mystery: Mary remains a virgin in giving birth to Jesus; her virginity is left intact, there is no pain or rupture of her body. It is a miraculous birth – fitting for the Mother of the God-man. She is “ever-Virgin,” as we say in the Confiteor.

After His birth He is wrapped in swaddling clothes – strips of cloth wrapped around His tiny body which bind Him, restrain His movement – a sign, a foreshadowing of that dark day when His body, bruised and beaten, will be fixed firmly to the Cross by three nails, to pay the price for our sins.
Mary looked upon her newborn Babe in swaddling clothes with great joy and wonder; beneath the Cross she will behold Him with unspeakable pain and sorrow in her Mother’s Heart, pierced by that sword foretold by Simeon.

On the night of His Birth the newborn Jesus is laid in a manger – a feeding trough with hay, for cattle to feed upon; again, a sign that He is the “living bread that comes down from heaven,” who nourishes us with His own Body and Blood, to enable us to live, and act, and love, like Him; and to take up our daily crosses and follow Him.

This is why, just as without Christ, there is no Christmas; likewise, there is no Christmas without the Mass: the re-presentation of Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary. Christmas literally means “Christ’s Mass.”

And without the Cross, the Incarnation and Birth of the Savior is emptied of its true meaning. As St. Augustine says,
“You would have suffered eternal death, had he not been born in time. Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh, had he not taken on himself the likeness of sinful flesh. You would never have returned to life, had he not shared your death.”

The great saints and missionaries throughout the ages preached Christ’s Birth and Death for our salvation: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Among the greatest of those missionary-saints were the North American Martyrs, the French Jesuits, who in the 17th century proclaimed the Kingdom of Christ to the Native Americans in New York and Canada.

Some, like the Iroquois and the Mohawks, mostly rejected the Gospel message; in fact, they put to death SS. Jean de Brebauf, Isaac Jogues and their companions after horrible tortures; but others, like the Huron tribes, received the Good News of the Gospel with open hearts.

To help instruct the Hurons about Jesus and His Birth of the Virgin Mary, the Jesuits composed Christmas carols, adapting the biblical story of Christ’s Birth to their Native American culture, using terms which they could understand.

I’ll end by quoting from one of these carols, called the Huron Carol, written in the Huron language by the Jesuit martyr, St. Jean de Brebeuf. The actual title is Jesous Ahatonhia (“Jesus, he is born”). The text is very tender and moving. Imagine you’re a Huron on Christmas singing this hymn:

1. ‘Twas in the moon of winter-time / When all the birds had fled, / That mighty Gitchi Manitou / Sent angel choirs instead; / Before their light the stars grew dim, / And wandering hunters heard the hymn:
(Refrain): “Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, In excelsis gloria.”
2. Within a lodge of broken bark / The tender Babe was found, / A ragged robe of rabbit skin / Enwrapp’d His beauty round; / But as the hunter braves drew nigh, / The angel song rang loud and high. Refrain
3. O children of the forest free, / O sons of Manitou, / The Holy Child of earth and heaven / Is born today for you. / Come kneel before the radiant Boy / Who brings you beauty, peace and joy. Refrain

Mary’s 3-Fold Virginity

Homily 4th Sunday Advent Yr A:  Mary’s 3-Fold Virginity

Fr. Dwight P. Campbell, S.T.D.

 

The virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel” (Is. 7:14).

 

These are the words that the great Prophet Isaiah spoke to King Ahaz more than 700 years before the Birth of Christ – a prophecy that was fulfilled with the Blessed Virgin Mary: 

Mary, a virgin, would conceive and give birth to Jesus, the Eternal Son of God who became man – who is called Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”

 

We know from St. Luke’s Gospel, in his account of the Annunciation, that Mary conceived Jesus as a virgin: “The Angel Gabriel was sent from God to the town of Galilee, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary” (Lk. 1:26).

 

Why did God arrange that Mary be a virgin in conceiving Jesus? Why is her virginity important in regard to conceiving and giving birth to Jesus? 

 

Pope St. John Paul II, in a discourse on Mary’s virginity on May 24, 1992, said:

“Reading through the writings of the holy Fathers [the great Saints of antiquity] . . . we notice that few of the saving mysteries have caused so much amazement, admiration or praise as the Incarnation of God’s Son in Mary’s virginal womb. . . . They observed that the virginity of the mother is a requirement flowing from the divine nature of the Son; the concrete condition in which, according to a free and wise divine plan, the Incarnation of the eternal Son took place.”

In other words, it was most fitting that the Son of God, when He became man, should take flesh in a woman of singular virtue and sanctity – this is also why Mary was conceived without sin: to be a sinless vessel, without spot.

 

As Msgr. Arthur Calkins says: “For the Fathers, the BVM is the terra virgo – the virgin earth from which emerged the Son of God. Her fruitful virginity cannot be separated from the blessed fruit of which it is a sign. . . Catholic Tradition always witnesses to an indissoluble link between Mary’s virginity and the Incarnation of the Word.”

 

The prophecy of Isaiah to King Ahaz also reveals another aspect of this mystery that is not all that well known: In giving birth to Jesus, Mary’s virginity remained intact. “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” 

In the process of giving birth, Mary remained a virgin. 

What does this mean? It means that Mary gave birth to Jesus in a miraculous way; that her body suffered no physical injury, no rupture of any bodily part, in giving birth to the Savior God made man. 

Why is this so? Well, it is fitting that the Mother of God, the Word made flesh, in giving birth to the Savior, should not experience any physical injury or pangs of childbirth. These were a consequence of Original Sin, and Mary, in addition to being the Mother of God, was conceived without Original Sin.

 

The Church has always taught this truth about Mary. The CCC 499 teaches: “Christ’s birth ‘did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it’ (LG 57), and so the liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as Aeiparthenos, the ‘Ever-virgin.’”

Yes, as we profess in the Confiteor at Mass, and as the priest says during the First Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon):  Mary is “ever Virgin.”

 

This title “ever-virgin” also means that Mary remained a virgin forever after having given birth to Jesus.

 

The First Lateran Council (649 A.D.), presided over by Pope St. Martin I, teaches that anyone who denies that Mary is a virgin in conceiving Jesus, in giving birth to Him, and for ever after: “let him be condemned.”

 

Is there biblical evidence for Mary being “ever-Virgin”, i.e., remaining a virgin after giving birth to Jesus? Yes, but first, we need to answer a common objection by Protestants. 

Protestants look to the references in the Gospels to Jesus’s “brothers and sisters” to justify saying that the Virgin Mary had other children. 

 

How do we respond? 

First of all, the term “brother” or “sister” was used among the Hebrews refer to close relations, one’s kin. 

For example, in the book of Genesis we see that Abraham’s nephew, Lot, is called his “brother” (Gen. 13:8; 14:16 – see Douay-Rheims transl.; other English Bibles use the word “kinsman”). And we know that two men, James and Joseph, who are called “brothers” of Jesus in the Gospels (Mt. 13:55) – were in fact sons of another woman named Mary (Mt. 27:56; cf. 28:1).

As Pope John Paul II taught (Aug. 28, 1996): “it should be recalled that no specific term exists in Hebrew and Aramaic to express the word ‘cousin,’ and that the term ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ therefore included several degrees of relationship. The phrase ‘brothers of Jesus’ indicates the children of a Mary who was a disciple of Christ (Mt. 27:56) and who is significantly described as ‘the other Mary’ (Mt. 28:1).”

Here’s another significant fact: Both Martin Luther and Urlich Zwingli – founding fathers of Protestantism – held for Mary’s perpetual virginity! So, modern-day Protestants are ignorant of what the founders of Protestantism themselves believed and taught.

So, what biblical evidence do we have for Mary remaining a virgin after giving birth to Jesus? We have Mary’s own words at the Annunciation (Luke ch. 1).

When the Archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will conceive and bear a son who will reign on the throne of David forever, Mary objects and says, “How can this be, since I do not know man?” 

These words of Mary revealed that she never intended to “know” Joseph in an intimate manner; to have marital relations with him. Otherwise, Mary’s words make no sense. 

Just think about it: If you’re a young woman engaged to be married, and an angel tells you that you will conceive and bear a son, what you would naturally think? That after and your husband are married, you will have relations, and bear a son.

But Mary objects and says, “How can this be? I do not know man.” These words reveal that Mary never intended to have marital relations with Joseph; rather, that she intended to remain a virgin. But she was open to do whatever God wanted. 

The Archangel Gabriel assured her she would not have to renounce her vow of virginity: “The Holy Spirit will overshadow you” – she will conceive through the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary then utters her “Fiat” – “Let it be done to me according to your word.” 

As St. JPII taught (July 24, 1996): “[B]y voluntary choice [Mary] intended to remain a virgin. Therefore, her intention of virginity appeared to be an obstacle to the motherhood announced to her. The phrases ‘How can this be’ and ‘since I do not know man’ emphasize both Mary’s present virginity and her intention to remain a virgin. The expression she used, with the verb in the present tense, reveals the permanence and continuity of her state.”

JPII goes on to relate Mary’s “fullness of grace” (Lk. 1:28) with her desire to remain a virgin: “Mary received a wondrous grace. The unique privilege of the Immaculate Conception influences the whole development of the young women of Nazareth’s spiritual life. Thus, Mary was guided to the ideal of virginity by in exceptional inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”

Yes, Mary’s vow of virginity is an expression of her total consecration, her complete dedication, to God and His divine will.

Now, what about St. Joseph? We believe that he agreed to take Mary as his wife knowing that she had taken a vow of virginity. He was going to be truly her husband, and Mary would truly be his wife; but it would be a virginal marriage, never consummated (in this unique circumstance, to fulfill God’s plan). 

Joseph would be her provider and protector, and also would be the guardian and foster-father of Jesus. God had arranged things this way, to safeguard against any scandal after Mary gives birth to Jesus.

Our Catholic tradition also holds that Joseph was a virgin as well – the reason he is portrayed in artwork holding a white lily – for purity.

In a catechesis on these topics (8/21/96), Pope St. John Paul II first speaks of Mary’s determination to remain a virgin and of her virginal marriage to Joseph. He points out that the Jewish marriage custom consisted of two parts; first, the betrothal, which was a legal contract, and then the completion when the man took the woman to his home. 

JPII says: “We can wonder why Mary would accept betrothal, since she had the intention of remaining a virgin forever. . . . It may be presumed that at the time of their betrothal there was an understanding between Joseph and Mary about the plan to live as a virgin. Moreover, the Holy Spirit, who had inspired Mary to choose virginity in view of the mystery of the Incarnation, and who wanted the latter to come about in a family setting suited to the child’s growth, was quite able to instill in Joseph the ideal of virginity as well.”

In Matthew’s Gospel, we read how Joseph, upon learning that his betrothed, Mary, was with child, decided to “divorce her quietly.” Why? Some think he was scandalized. But the better interpretation, in keeping with the great saints and devotees to St. Joseph since the Middle Ages, is that Joseph planned to divorce Mary out of reverential fear; that he somehow learned that Mary was carrying the Son of God and he felt unworthy to undertake the responsibility of being Mary’s husband and the foster-father of the Word made flesh. This explains why the Archangel Gabriel assured Joseph with the words, “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife” (Mt. 1:20). 

Now, having spoken about the true and virginal marriage of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, I would be remiss if I neglected to mention the assault on marriage and the family which took place in our country this past week.

President Joseph Biden signed into law a bill called the Respect for Marriage Act. This new law – which is the law of the land throughout the United States – really has nothing to do with authentic marriage as instituted by God at the beginning of the human race, between man and woman. 

It not only permits people of the same sex to “marry” but forces all the States in our nation to recognize the fantasy of what is called same-sex marriage.

And legal experts say that businesses, and institutions such as the Catholic Church, may now be targeted by the government for refusing to go along with this law. The Church could lose its tax-exempt status (which may not be all that bad – maybe Catholics would finally wake up and stop voting for people who are undermining the common good, which is precisely what this law does by attacking the fundamental unit of society, the family). People who own businesses, or various professionals (lawyers, doctors, teachers, etc.) may be open to lawsuits for refusing to go along with same sex “marriage.” 

The day may come soon when people may be denied entry into professions such as law, medicine, teaching, for refusing to assent to “gay marriage.” Priests who refuse to perform “wedding” ceremonies may be sued. I could see priests, and others, going to prison, or “re-education” camps, for refusing to go along with this evil agenda. 

And make no mistake about it: This is evil. It is an agenda straight out of Hell. This new law tries to force us to accept, and celebrate as something good, homosexual sodomy. I’ll say that I am willing to shed my blood to defend the teaching of Christ on marriage. 

Before she died, Sister Lucia, the last Fatima seer, said that Satan’s final attack will be against the family. My friends, we are seeing this happen before our very eyes.

When signing the bill into law last Tuesday, President Biden insulted all of us who believe and hold to the notion of Christian marriage. He said that anyone who disagrees with this new law is guilty of (and I quote here his words) “racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, trans-phobia, they’re all connected.”

So, by Biden’s logic, if you believe that traditional marriage should not be undermined and that people of the same sex cannot be married, you are evil.

Shame on President Biden. Shame on all those U.S. senators and congressmen who voted for this evil bill. All the Democrats did, but many Republicans did as well. 

God instituted marriage to make a man and woman one flesh, in a union that is ordered towards procreation education of children. 

We must pray for our president, pray for our Congress. We must pray for our country. The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for us!

Jesus living in Mary/Union of their 2 Hearts

Homily 2nd Sunday Advent: Jesus living in Mary/Union of their 2 Hearts

By Fr. Dwight P. Campbell, S.T.D.

People of Sion, behold the Lord shall come to save the nations:  and the Lord shall make the glory of his voice heard in the joy of your hearts.”  These words from our Introit today, the Second Sunday of Advent, are directed to all the peoples of all nations on earth; but they apply in a special way to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Of all the people on earth whom Our Lord came to save, it was Mary whose Heart was most filled with joy when God became man, for this Miracle of miracles took place within her immaculate womb:  It was then, at the Incarnation, that Jesus began living in Mary – a fitting topic to consider in these weeks as we prepare for the glorious Birth of Our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus living in Mary; the Son of God, infinite in power and majesty, whom the whole universe cannot contain, is enclosed within the womb of the Virgin Mother, where he lives for the first nine months of His life on earth.  What humility! What condescension! The All-Powerful Son of God the Father, Who had shared in the glory of the Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity, “empties” Himself, as it were, of His infinite glory and majesty in the mystery of the Incarnation when He takes a human nature and allows Himself to be enclosed in His Mother’s womb for nine months. 

Our Lord could have come to the earth as a full-grown man. But He did not. Rather, He chose, in His infinite and incomprehensible humility, to begin His earthly life in a manner like us: by becoming a little baby and living in His Mother’s womb, unable to talk or interact with others. Yet, we know that Jesus gave more glory to God His Father by living within His Mother for nine months, than if He had been preaching and performing miracles for all to see.

Why was it part of God’s plan that Jesus should come to us through Mary, by living within her for the first nine months of His human life? What purpose did God have in doing things this way? No doubt, Jesus wanted to teach us to imitate Him by His example.  As any other child living in its mother’s womb, Jesus was totally dependent on His Mother, for His human life and nourishment.  What a wonder this is – that the Creator should be totally dependent upon a creature of His own making! 

By living in Mary as a Babe in her womb, Jesus teaches us to have that same dependence on Mary for everything, and to entrust ourselves – our lives, our desires, our needs – totally to her.  For she is truly our spiritual Mother in the order of grace, who not only foresees our needs, but protects us from harm as well.  The oldest known prayer to Mary in the Church, the Sub tuum praesidium, dating from the late 200’s if not earlier, reflects this notion:  

We fly to thy patronage or holy Mother of God, despise not our prayers in our necessities, but ever deliver us from all dangers, O glorious & Blessed Virgin!” 

In addition to giving us His example to imitate, Our Lord Jesus Christ had another reason for living within Mary for nine months: to establish a deep and abiding bond of love between Himself and His Mother. And this ineffable bond of love can, I believe, be best understood as a loving union of their two Hearts.

As Pope St. John Paul II teaches, at the moment of the Incarnation, when the Eternal Word was made flesh, when Son of God became man, the Heart of Jesus began to beat beneath the Heart of His Mother, Mary; and at this time a profound and abiding union of love between their two Hearts was established – a union which began to grow and deepen over time, and which now perdures in Heaven.

With this teaching, Pope John Paul was merely echoing what the great saints and spiritual writers had been saying for many centuries. For example, in the early 1600’s, Pierre Cardinal Bérulle, the founder of what is known as the “French School” of spirituality – in which many great saints and spiritual writers, like St. Louis de Montfort, were formed.

Cardinal Bérulle says that the Hearts of Jesus and Mary “live in one another,” and maintains that when Jesus was a babe in His Mother’s womb, there existed a mystical movement or inclination of Mary’s Heart toward the Heart of Jesus, and of His Heart toward the Heart of Mary. Bérulle insists that these two Hearts mutually ravished on another; that the Hearts of Son and Mother experienced a “continual attraction” and maintained a “perpetual glance” toward each other, caused by the love which Jesus impressed on Mary’s Heart, and which the Virgin Mother’s Heart returned to Jesus.

This mutual bond of love not only united their two Hearts, making them almost one Heart; it also bore fruit: a deep, abiding joy. We cannot fathom the immense joy that must have overflowed in Mary’s Heart, knowing that the Eternal Word took flesh in her womb and was living within her.  Her Heart was literally bursting with joy as she awaited her Son’s birth – a beautiful thought to contemplate during this holy season of Advent, as we await His Birth.

Contemplating this great mystery of “Jesus living in Mary” and the union of love between their two Hearts should also move us to imitate the Virgin Mother. We can imitate Mary, and share in her joy by meditating on the Joyful mysteries of the Rosary: the Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Birth of Our Lord; and then the Christ Child’s presentation in the Temple and the Finding of the Child Jesus after He was lost for three days.

In 1685, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, to whom Jesus revealed His Sacred Heart, was novice-mistress in the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial, in France. During Advent of that year she put out a “challenge” for her novices, saying:  “Our challenge for Advent will be for us to unite in spirit and in heart with the most holy Virgin, . . . in order to render homage to the Incarnate Word, this God made child in the womb, adoring him and loving him in silence with her.”

During this Advent season let us make this challenge our own by uniting our hearts with the Heart of Mary, asking her to help us to imitate her in loving and adoring her newborn Son, and also to share her joy with us as we celebrate His glorious Birth, so that like her, we may bring that joy to others; be heralds of that true, authentic joy which finds both its source and terminus in the Eternal Word made flesh, Christ Jesus, Our Lord.

 

Christ’s 2nd Coming & the Antichrist

Homily 33rd Sun. Year C:  Christ’s 2nd Coming & the Antichrist

Fr. Dwight P. Campbell, S.T.D.

Today we hear these awe-inspiring words from the Prophet Malachi: “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”

 

Of what “day” does the Prophet Malachi speak? He refers to the Day of the Lord, the final day of the world, when Jesus, the Son of Justice, will come again to judge the living and the dead. 

Today is the 33rd Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year, which comes to an end next Sunday with the Feast of Christ the King. It is most fitting that as the Church’s liturgical year comes to an end, that the readings focus on the end of the world, the “End Times” as they are called.

 

In our Gospel today from St. Luke, Jesus describes two events: 

first, the destruction of Jerusalem & the Temple that would take place in 70 A.D by the Roman armies under the Emperor Trajan. Re the Temple He says: “there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down” (only “wailing wall” left); 

and second, He describes the things that will precede His Second Coming. 

 

Why does he speak of both events in the same context? Because the violence and upheaval that would accompany the destruction of the Temple will be both a small version, and a foreshadowing, of the violence and turmoil that will come before the end of the world.

 

In ch. 21 of St. Luke’s Gospel, as well as in ch. 24 of St. Matthew’s and ch. 13 of St. Mark’s, Our Lord reveals the signs that will precede the end of the world and His Second Coming – some remote signs (in distant future), and some immediate signs. 

 

For example, in today’s Gospel from St. Luke we hear Jesus say: “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place.” Sin and evil will increase. 

And in today’s Gospel from St. Luke, as well as in the Gospels of Saints Matthew and Mark, Jesus warns us: “Do not be deceived, for many will come in my name saying, ‘I am he.’” —  Here Our Lord is speaking of many false Christs, or “antichrists,” who will come throughout the centuries and will lead people away from His true Gospel and the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church that He founded on Peter and the Apostles.

 

St. John the Evangelist, in his first epistle, speaks of “many antichrists” who will come; he describes them in these words: “Who is the Antichrist? He who denies that Jesus is the Christ, and who denies the Father and the Son, is an antichrist (1 Jn. 2:22). 

In fact, there have been many antichrists throughout history – precursors of the final Antichrist; some were religious leaders: like Arius (the 4th century priest who denied that Jesus was the eternal Son of God), Mohammed, the founder of Islam (who likewise denied that Jesus was God), and Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism (who denied that Jesus was eternal Son of God the Father); some who were secular leaders: like the Emperor Nero – who demanded worship of himself as a god; and more recently, Hitler, Stalin and Mao Zedong, who also really made themselves out to be venerated like gods, and the State to be worshipped.

 

But immediately before Jesus’ 2nd Coming, the final Antichrist will come, he whom St. Paul refers to in 2 Thess as “the lawless one” and the “man of perdition” (2:3) who “exalts himself above every so-called god . . . claiming that he is a god” (2:4). 

This is the man whom St. John, in the Book of Revelation, refers to as “the Beast” (ch. 13) and assigns to him the mysterious number of “666” (13:18) – and says that only those who have the mark of the Beast will be able to buy and sell.

This “man of iniquity” will openly deny Our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Son of God who came in the flesh. 

Christ came in the name of His Father; the Antichrist will come, as Jesus tells us, “in his own name” (Jn. 5:43).

 

What will be the signs, and what will pave the way, for worldwide acceptance of this great deceiver, the Antichrist? St. Paul reveals to us in 2 Thess. that before the “man of perdition” appears, there must first come “the great apostasy,” i.e, the great falling away from the faith by masses of people throughout the world. 

Once people have fallen away from the true faith and belief in Jesus Christ, they will readily accept someone who deceives them into thinking that he is the Messiah.

 

Saints and scholars are of the opinion that the Antichrist will come at a time when there will be great upheaval in the world, possibly when powerful nations will be on the brink of war; the Antichrist will then appear on the world scene, masquerading as a man of peace. He will deceive government leaders throughout the world, who will hand over to him all political and economic power; then, when his power is consolidated, he will impose a false religion, false worship, and ultimately demand worship of himself. (Cf. Msgr. Hugh Benson’s superb book, Lord of the World.)

 

Both the Prophet Daniel and the Book of Revelation reveal that the Antichrist will rule the world for 3 ½ years (in imitation of Christ’s 3 ½ years of public ministry); during which time he will bring a true reign of terror upon the Church, and will unleash the last and greatest persecution upon the faithful that the world has ever seen. 

The Prophet Daniel says: “It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time. . . . many shall fall away and evil shall increase” (Dan. Ch. 12). Some saints think that the persecution will be so great that, during the reign of the Antichrist, the Mass will not be offered publicly anywhere in the world, based on the Prophet Daniel’s words: “He [the Antichrist] will abolish sacrifice and oblation” (i.e., the Sacrifice of the Mass).

But it will also be the time of the greatest saints and martyrs, those who are most devoted to Our Lady – because, as the Book of Genesis (3:15) tells us, the battle will be between the serpent (Satan) and “the woman” (Mary), between his seed and her seed (i.e., Mary’s Son, Our Lord), and she will crush his head

Finally, Jesus will bring the Antichrist’s reign to an end, at which time, with His Second Coming, Jesus will definitively establish Kingdom.

The best book on this topic: The Antichrist, by Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J.

 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us sound teaching and guidance on these matters:

675 “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo [or false] messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.”

677 “The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover,  . . . only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, . . . God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.”

When will all these things happen? When will the Antichrist make his appearance? Could we live to see the day?

 

Sister Lucy, the third Fatima visionary, died in 2005 as a Carmelite nun. In a 1957 interview with Fr. Augustine Fuentes, who at that time was the postulator for the cause of canonization of the other two Fatima visionaries, Jacinta and Francisco, Sister Lucy said this to him:

 

“Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world but She made me understand this for [the following] reasons. The first reason is because She told me that the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. And a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. Hence from now on we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the devil. There is no other possibility.

 

“The second reason is because . . . God is giving two last remedies to the world. These are the Holy Rosary and Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

Cardinal Carlo Caffarra in an interview in 2017 told how he had received a handwritten note from Sr. Lucia back in the 1983, in response a letter he had written asking for her prayers. Sister Lucia’s letter: “Father, a time will come when the decisive battle between the kingdom of Christ and Satan will be over marriage and the family. And those who will work for the good of the family will experience persecution and tribulation. But do not be afraid, because Our Lady has already crushed his head.”

Cardinal Caffarra believed these words of Sr. Lucia were being fulfilled in our present age, especially with the horrors of abortion and the legalization of homosexual marriage.

And consider these words spoken by a Polish bishop at a meeting of bishops in Philadelphia in early November 1978: “We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the church and the anti-church, of the Gospel versus the anti-gospel.” 

That Polish bishop was none other than Carol Wojtyla, who was later elected Pope and took the name John Paul II, and who is now St. John Paul II.

 

These are sobering words, indeed. What does our Lord want us to do? To be faithful to Him; to be prepared, which means to always be in a state of grace (because in the end, all that really matters is that we die in a state of grace). 

We know not the day nor the hour of His glorious return. The key to being prepared is to persevere in remaining faithful. In today’s Gospel Jesus assures us: “He who perseveres to the end will be saved.”

 

Let us remember also the two remedies: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Let us pray the Rosary – daily – as Our Lady beseeched us to do at Fatima. And let us show devotion and honor to her Immaculate Heart, knowing that it is through her pierced Heart that we enter into the Heart of her Son, Our Redeemer, and remain in His love. (A reminder: Every 1st Saturday of the month we have morning Mass with devotions to the Immaculate Heart of Mary!)

 

Finally, let us remember that the victory is ours, if we remain faithful, for Christ has already conquered by His death and glorious Resurrection; and as Our Lady told us at Fatima, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” How? The Blessed Virgin Mary, the “Woman” of Genesis 3:15, will crush the proud head of the serpent (Satan) under her foot!

Abortion: THE Fundamental Issue

Homily 32nd Sunday Year C: Abortion: THE Fundamental Issue

by Fr. Dwight P. Campbell, S.T.D.

 

My brother Scott has been in a book club before about 30 years with a circle of friends from college. They meet once a month and discuss the book they’ve read.

A couple of months ago, a discussion arose related to the topic of the book they were discussing about the religious practices of different cultures. My brother brought up how the Aztecs in Mexico, who back in the 1400’s and 1500’s would make war on other tribes. The people they captured would be murdered – sacrificed as offerings to their pagan god, Huitzilopochtli

My brother emphasized how evil this practice was. Another member of the book club, a friend of my brother’s, who is a Catholic, bright and very successful in business, objected to my brother calling the practices of the Aztecs as evil. He said, “You can’t call this evil, because this was part of their religion.”

My brother responded, “Does that make it OK?” The friend insisted that, yes, because offering people in sacrifice was part of their religious belief, that made it okay, and we cannot condemn it as wrong.

My brother told me that he was shocked. He thought he knew this friend. It turns out he doesn’t really know him – He thinks that someone can murder other human beings, as long as he claims doing so is part of his religious practice. 

About 80 years ago there was a country in Western Europe that suffered a humiliating defeat in WWI. A political party arose that promised to revitalize the country: to build up the economy as well as the military, to improve education, create new jobs – and they accomplished this very successfully. 

The citizens were very happy that their nation once again prospered.

But there was only one problem: This political party began to build gas chambers, and proceeded to put people to death: Jews, Gypsies, and Catholics – especially Catholic priests and religious who opposed this evil.

One of those put to death: the Franciscan, St. Maximilian Kolbe.

This political party was the Nazis.

Anyone who supported the Nazi Party platform was accountable for the murder of innocent human beings.

The central issue in our country’s upcoming election, on both the national and state levels, is an evil even worse than that committed by the Nazis: abortion. 

That abortion is the central issue should be abundantly clear to anyone who has watched the news and has seen the campaign ads by the respective candidates.

Those who support abortion make all kinds of false claims:

I’ve seen ads by the pro-abortion candidates who say: “We must not allow radical lawmakers to make medical decisions regarding women’s health.” 

But abortion is not about “health” care – it is the brutal murder of an innocent human being, and pre-born child.

The pro-abortion crowd repeats the chant, “My body, my choice.” Well, in general terms we have a right to our own bodily integrity. But even here, this right is not absolute. There are limits. We do not have a right to put illegal drugs into our bodies, or to end our lives – kill ourselves – when we think life is no longer worth living.

God is the Author of all life; and our rights come from God. There is no God-given right to kill ourselves, or to kill an innocent human being in the womb. 

On the abortion issue, the right of a woman to her bodily integrity does not include the right to abortion. Why? Because here we are dealing with another person’s body, and right to life of another person, the preborn baby – a human being created in God’s image and likeness. 

God speaks to us in Psalm 139: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” This is precisely why God condemned the ancient Israelites for killing their children – offering them in sacrifice on the altars of pagan gods like Baal and Moloch. And God severely punished them for doing so – He allowed other pagan nations to defeat them.

Just as slavery was the central issue in the 1860 election, abortion is the central issue of this election. In my opinion, this is the most important election in our nation’s history, because we are faced with the most important issue we have ever dealt with: whether to continue the legalized murder of preborn children, or to put an end to this monumental evil. 

And the people whom we elect, both on the national and the state level, will determine the course of our nation for years to come – especially on the state level, because after the recent US Supreme Court Dobbs decision, the abortion issue is now back in the states. 

We will now decide, through the people we elect, whether abortion will continue, or end.

As Archbishop Lisetcki has said, the right to life is THE fundamental issue, because all our other rights depend upon this right, and mean nothing without it. 

Our Declaration of Independence recognizes this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Our Founders acknowledged that first and foremost is the right to life; if you take this right away, then liberty and the pursuit of happiness are meaningless. And creation of human life begins at conception, in the womb.

In our first reading (2nd Macc.), seven brothers were tortured and put to death for refusing to violate God’s laws. They committed no crime. They simply refused to eat pork, as faithful Jews.

Children in the womb are put to death by abortion for nothing more than having been conceived, and being unwanted. 

We should be willing to die for unborn brothers and sisters, in order to put an end to them being murdered in violation of God’s law, the 5th Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”

We hear people say, “Roe v. Wade is established law.” Nonsense. For 100 years prior to Roe it was established law that the child in the womb should be protected. After the invention of the microscope in the 1800’s those in the medical field were able to see the embryo, and it was clear to them that human life began at conception. 

In 1859 the American Medical Assoc. sent a report to all the states, recommending laws be changed to reflect this truth. Many states at that time, ignorant of this truth, allowed abortion in the early stages of pregnancy (until “quickening” – when a mother could feel child moving within her). 

All the states responded and passed laws protecting children in the womb and outlawing abortion from conception. 

These laws remained until the sexual revolution in the 1960’s, when people wanted the pleasure of sex but not children who are the natural end of the sexual act; and some states began pass laws which permitted abortion in the early stages of pregnancy.

But in 1973, a majority of nine unelected judges on our nation’s highest court forced abortion on an unsuspecting nation, overturning every state law and allowing abortion through the full nine months of pregnancy. I remember this well as a sophomore in H.S. 

Since then over 60 million children have been brutally murdered – a literal holocaust, that continues. It makes the murders carried out by the Nazis pale in comparison.

Now, with the Dobbs decision, we, the electorate, have the opportunity – and the moral duty – eliminate this horrendous evil, this scourge on our country; or we can allow it to continue. By the people we elect to public office we can put an end to abortion, or keep it “legal.”

And make no mistake about it: The people running for public office know this.

I’ll quote President Biden. On Oct. 18, 2022 he told supporters during a Democratic National Committee event in Washington, D.C.:

“The [Supreme] court got Roe [v. Wade] right nearly 50 years ago, and I believe Congress should codify Roe once and for all [i.e., make the right to abortion a national law binding on all the states]. If we do that, here’s the promise I make to you and the American people: The first bill I will send to Congress will be to codify Roe v. Wade. And when Congress passes it, I’ll sign it in January, 50 years after Roe was first decided to be the law of the land.”

Shame on Joe Biden, who claims to be a Catholic. He’s sold his soul for political gain.

And shame on the Democratic Party, which supports abortion. It’s part of their national party platform – even to use our tax dollars to kill children in the womb, under the banner of “choice.”

I grew up a Democrat, in Chicago, and in college worked for Mayor Richard J. Daley. It pains me to see what has happened to this party. But as a Catholic, a follower of Jesus Christ, I could no longer support a party which advocates the so-called “right” to kill babies in the womb. This is evil; it is insane.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if we elect people to public office who support the so-called “right” to abortion, then we become cooperators with this evil, and the blood of the innocent unborn will be on our hands.

But if we elect people who will defend the unalienable right to life for all – born and unborn – and if we repent of having allowed tens of millions of children to be put to death in the womb, and beg God for forgiveness, I believe that God, in His mercy, will forgive us, and He will bestow His blessings upon our nation. 

Let us pray that we may become a country, and a people, that welcomes all human life and that fosters a true culture of life.

Pray Always Without Becoming Weary

Homily 29th Sunday (Year C): “Pray always without becoming weary”

– In the Gospel today from St. Luke, Jesus tells His disciples a parable about the necessity to “pray always – without becoming weary.” This is only one of the many parables in which Our Lord instructs us about the value – and necessity – of prayer.
In our first reading we see Moses persevering in prayer, holding his arms up (in the shape of a cross, as saints tell us), to gain a victory for Israel.
– Some years back, Pope St. John Paul II (Gen. Aud. 12/1/94) addressed the topic of the need to take time out of our day to converse with God in prayer. He said:
“Doubtless, when work is performed according to God’s will, something pleasing to the Lord is being done, and this is a form of prayer.”
In other words, we can offer up to God the good works we perform, and in a general sense we can call this prayer, or, a sacrificial offering to God.

– Continuing, St. John Paul tells us: “But it is equally true that this is not enough: Specific moments must be expressly devoted to prayer, following the example of Jesus, who even in the midst of the most intense messianic activity withdrew to pray (Lk. 5:16).”

– St. John Paul goes on to say that in these daily “pauses” for prayer, we can find “inspiration, energy, the courage to face difficulties and obstacles, balance, and a capacity for initiation [for doing good].”

– Traditionally, these daily pauses include prayers in the morning, at meals, and prayers before retiring at night.
– “Prayer is bread and life for the soul,” says St. Padre Pio.
– We should, as we begin our day, turn to God and ask His assistance.
– The “Morning Offering” which the Apostleship of Prayer promotes, is an excellent means to start the day; for in this prayer, we offer to Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, all of our prayers, works, joys and sufferings of the day, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world – even if we do not have the opportunity to attend Mass, we do so intentionally; and in this beautiful prayer we pray for the salvation of souls, we make reparation for sins, and we pray that all Christians may be brought back into union with Catholic Church.

– Another prayer we should always say in the morning is the prayer to our Guardian Angel, asking that he be our “light” and to “guard over us, and guide us” throughout the day.

– Praying before and, if we can, after meals is way of sanctifying our daily routine by giving thanks to God and acknowledging that even the food we eat is His gift.
It also helps to guide our conversation during meals.
If done in public, we can make a good impression on others by our brief pause for prayer, whether done in silence or in a soft voice, and by making a reverent (not rushed) Sign of the Cross. It’s a great way to evangelize.
I recall hearing of someone whose conversion to Catholicism began when he saw someone each day at lunch make the Sign of the Cross, slowly and deliberately, and was inspired.
As a priest, I always pray when at a restaurant, and often I hear conversations at surrounding tables turn to religious topics.

– In addition to praying at meals, we should make it a practice to pause briefly at different times throughout the day, in the midst of our duties and activities, to lift our minds and hearts to God in some manner.
Doing so sanctifies our work.
St. Josemaría Escrivá recommends that we keep a crucifix nearby our work station, in order to stop periodically and gaze at the Savior who performed the greatest work of all, our Redemption.
Another worthy practice is to stop every hour or so and make an act of Spiritual Communion, asking Our Lord that even though we cannot receive Him sacramentally, He come at least spiritually into our hearts. (See back inside cover – green missal/hymnals – 1st prayer)
– Each evening before we retire, we should undertake a short but thorough examination of conscience. Different ways: one can use Ten Commandments, the Seven Deadly Sins, or some other means as a guide or checklist.
– One of my favorite means: use the Fruits of the Holy Spirit & ask:
Was I at peace today with all that happened?
Did I consciously try to exude joy, to being the joy of Christ to others?
Did I practice patience; in what way did I fail to take up my daily cross?

– In doing the Examination of Conscience, we should ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us as to how this day we have offended God, or failed to cooperate with His grace – in thought, word, act or omission, and then make a sincere act of contrition, and resolve to do better tomorrow.
This is an excellent way to develop sensitivity to our own habitual weaknesses and to grow in true self-knowledge – a prerequisite for becoming saints.

– In addition to the above practices, we should set out some block of time each day for meditative prayer. Jesus tells us: “Go to your room, shut your door, and pray to your Father in secret.”
I always think of my mother – every night, while all the guys were watching TV (my dad and I and my brothers), she would go to the bedroom, shut the door, and pray. It made an effect on the rest of us.

– For some, the morning is a good time for meditation; for others, the evening; still others may be able to devote some of the lunch break to meditative prayer.
– The important thing is to SET A TIME and try to be faithful to that time – and to realize that the Devil will throw up every obstacle to prevent us from praying. The evil one does not want us to pray, especially meditative prayer.
St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church who reformed the Carmelites, stresses this (her image is in our sanctuary, top right).

– The Most Holy Rosary an excellent method for meditation, with its four sets of twenty mysteries on the life of Our Lord and Our Lady: joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious.
– Popes call it a “compendium of the Gospel.”
– Pope John Paul II liked to say that with the Rosary, we meditate on the mysteries of Christ “through the eyes of the Heart of Mary.” How beautiful!
The Mother of God helps us, her spiritual children, to come to know her Son.
– Recall that Our Lady was sent by God to Fatima, Portugal to command us to pray the Rosary (5 decades) each day for the conversion of sinners, and to bring peace to the world. Both simple and profound, anyone can pray this prayer!

– Another excellent means to practice meditation in prayer is to read Sacred Scripture – the written word of God – which, as St. Paul tells us in our 2nd reading today (2nd Tim.), is “useful for teaching, correction, and training in righteousness.”
When reading Scripture, pause when a verse strikes you, and ponder it. Ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you as to its deeper meaning, and how to apply to your life.

– Once again, the important thing about meditation is to be committed to a daily routine, and this is not easy; it takes discipline. It may require turning off the television or computer, or cutting short our socializing with friends and neighbors to get in our prayer time.
– St. John Henry Cardinal Newman, the great convert from Anglicanism, says: “Nothing is more difficult than to be disciplined and regular” in our prayer life. “It is easy to be religious in fits and starts” – at times when we “feel” spiritual, but to be consistent at prayer is a trial, he says, because by nature we are so weak and inconstant.
Newman stresses that Satan “perceives well that daily private prayer is the very emblem and safeguard of true devotion to God,” and of maintaining us in a course of good conduct, of holiness of life.
– This is precisely why the Devil will use any and every means to prevent us from praying regularly. He will whisper, “Oh, put off prayer, this or that thing is more important, more necessary now.”
– To guard ourselves against his wiles, we should turn to the “Woman” who crushes his proud head: the Blessed Virgin. She is, after Jesus Himself, our model in prayer.
– Let us call upon our Mother, Mary, each day, and beseech her to help us in order that we may “pray always, without becoming weary.

God or Mammon

Homily 25th Sunday Year C: God or mammon

Fr. Dwight P. Campbell, S.T.D.

God or mammon. Jesus in today’s Gospel tells us that we must choose between these two; that we cannot make both out masters, because we cannot serve two masters.
Why not? Because we will either hate the one and love the other, or we will be devoted to the one and despise the other. We cannot love both God and mammon.
What is “mammon”? It is the Hebrew word for riches, wealth. This is the context in which Jesus uses it, in today’s Gospel parable about the unjust steward who connives to keep his position as steward.

Of course, riches and wealth are not evil in themselves. People with great wealth can be very generous and fund worthy charitable causes.
But riches and wealth can easily become the predominant pursuit in our lives, which results in putting God in the backseat, or forgetting about Him completely.
People with great wealth can easily tend to think that they are self-sufficient, and that they need no one, including God, to make them happy.
The same is true regarding great fame and popularity, or great power and prestige. When these become the main focus of one’s life, they become a false god.
Some people make work, and earthly success, their god.

This is why, in a broader context, mammon is a pejorative term that refers to any created thing that weakens or breaks our relationship with God.
I have a good priest friend who admits that, in the days of his youth, and before he took his faith seriously, golf was his “god.” Every Sunday he spent the day on the golf course.
There are parents who make their children their “god,” carting them around to sporting events almost every weekend, but sadly, neglecting to worship God as they ought. And what are they teaching their children?

Here’s a fundamental question: Why would anyone choose money, or any other earthly good – such as popularity, political power, etc., why would someone choose these over God? The reason is: A lack of faith in God, or ignorance of him, or both; and failure to have a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who is the Way to the Father.

Earlier today I along with a number of other people stood outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in Waukegan Illinois, praying the Rosary and holding pro-life signs. I held my blown-up photo of an unborn child in the amniotic sack. It’s a beautiful photo which shows a little baby at 10 weeks old with a body perfectly formed.
Most people driving by on Lewis Avenue honked their horns and waved to us, or gave us a thumbs up. But a good number of people yelled out obscenities, or held up their middle finger at us. I don’t think these people have a strong personal relationship with Jesus. When I encounter such people, I pray for them. As St. Paul tells us (2nd reading), God want all to be saved.

So, how do we deepen our faith and grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ – in order that we may always choose God over mammon? First and foremost, we need to pray.
What is prayer? Prayer is lifting our minds and hearts to God, a conversation with God.
In order to have a personal relationship with someone, we have to talk with them, converse with them. And we have to do so daily if we want to have a deep personal relationship with God, and with Jesus, our Savior – something all of us should be striving for.
Practically, how do we do this? We have to make sure that we schedule a time within our day for prayer, for conversation with God.
If we don’t schedule in prayer, we won’t pray. Believe me, I know this from first-hand experience.

And how do we pray? There are many ways. We can read the Bible slowly and meditate on a verse that strikes us; we can pray the Rosary and meditate on the mysteries of the life of Jesus, and of Mary.

Praying is the pathway to God. Because of our fallen nature, without daily prayer, we tend to love ourselves, and the things of this world, more than God – who created us, and everything in the world.

Without daily prayer, we cannot love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength; nor can we truly love our neighbor as we should – that’s the Opening Prayer for today’s Mass.

Without daily prayer, and a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we will not be able to walk daily in the footsteps of Jesus, and take up our daily cross, as He commands us.

Without daily prayer, we will forget the whole purpose of our existence: to know, love, and serve God in this life, in order to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.

In fact, without daily prayer, we cannot keep our eyes fixed firmly on Heaven. That’s why St. Paul (2nd reading) urges us to pray at all times.

The Saints are our models in faith and in prayer. Yesterday, on the calendar of the traditional Latin Mass, the Church celebrated the feast day of the stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi. Two years before he died, St. Francis received the marks of Jesus Christ on his body: the piercing of his hands, feet, and side, as a living sign of his conformity with Jesus Christ.

This coming Friday, we celebrate the feast of a spiritual son of Francis of Assisi – Padre Pio, now St. Padre Pio, who bore the stigmata on his hands, feet and side for 50 years.

Both St. Francis and St. Pio were men of great faith, who came to know Jesus Christ by their deep and profound life of prayer. Let us us ask these two great Saints to pray for us, that through our daily prayer we may grow in faith, in order that we may always choose God over mammon.