Pages

Friday, August 31, 2018

The Good and Faithful Servant


Schweizer Seelsorge-Stiftung
Votivmesse von „Maria, Hilfe der Christen“
am 1. September 2018 in der Liebfrauenkirche, Zürich

1 Kor 1:26-31
Matt 25:14-30

Gelobt sei Jesus Christus!

„Und das Niedrige in der Welt und das Verachtete hat Gott erwählt: das, was nichts ist, um das, was etwas ist, zu vernichten, damit kein Mensch sich rühmen kann vor Gott.“ 

„…damit kein Mensch sich rühmen kann vor Gott.“ So ist es, O Herr! Wir danken Dir!

Öfters, wie heute, am Samstag gedenken wir nach guter katholischer Tradition der Gottesmutter, heute mit dem Titel Maria, Hilfe der Christen. Wenn wir dann im ersten Korintherbrief die Worte des Apostels Paulus hören „das Niedrige in der Welt und das Verachtete hat Gott erwählt“ werden unsere Gedanken natürlich sofort zum Magnificat geführt, dem grossen Marianischen Bekenntnis im Lukasevangelium (Lk 1,46b-48): „Meine Seele preist die Größe des Herrn, und mein Geist jubelt über Gott, meinen Retter. Denn auf die Niedrigkeit seiner Magd hat er geschaut.“

In unserer Niedrigkeit, danken wir Gott für vergangenen 20 Jahre Schweizer Seelsorge-Stiftung. In diesen 20 Jahren haben Menschen in und durch diese Stiftung andern grosszügig gedient, mit ihren Spenden besonders für die jungen Menschen und für die vielen guten Werke.

„Sein Herr sagte zu ihm: Sehr gut, du bist ein tüchtiger und treuer Diener. Du bist im Kleinen ein treuer Verwalter gewesen, ich will dir eine große Aufgabe übertragen. Komm, nimm teil an der Freude deines Herrn!“

Unsere von Gott gegebene Aufgabe richtet sich tatsächlich immer nach den Möglichkeiten, die jeder einzelne hat. In diesem Sinne hat Franz von Sales gelehrt, auf die Besonderheiten der einzelnen christlichen Lebensformen zu achten. Das Gebet gehört grundlegend zur Berufung, als Getaufter zu leben. Aber die konkrete Gestalt des Gebetes ist je nach Lebensstand unterschiedlich. Der Mönch muss sicher mehr Zeit in der Kirche beten als der Landarbeiter, aber keiner der beiden kann ein christliches Leben führen ohne das Gebet. Der grosse Bischof von Genf unterschied die konkreten Gebetspflichten und die Anforderungen an die Verwaltung der Güter auf der Grundlage der Lebenssituation der betreffenden Person. So sind die Aufgaben eines Bischofs andere als diejenigen eines Priesters, eines Ordensmannes oder eines Laien…. Was die Wohltätigkeit betrifft, so muss die Bereitschaft, entsprechend dem Vorbild Jesu zugunsten der Bedürftigen und Benachteiligten ein Opfer zu bringen eine Charaktermerkmal aller Getauften sein. Wir sind alle zur Nachfolge Christi berufen, aber diese sieht anders aus bei einem Bettelbruder, die totale Armut versprochen hat, als bei einem Bischof und ebenso anders bei einem jungen Ehepaar, das die Verantwortung für die Erziehung der Kinder hat.

„Dem einen gab er fünf Talente Silbergeld, einem anderen zwei, wieder einem anderen eines, jedem nach seinen Fähigkeiten.“ Und dann im Gleichnis hören wir über den dritten das Urteil: „Werft den nichtsnutzigen Diener hinaus in die äußerste Finsternis!“

Der dritte Diener, dem nur ein Talent anvertraut wurde, ist nicht deshalb verurteilt worden, weil er weniger verdient hat als die andern, sondern aufgrund seiner Haltung. Nicht das Resultat war entscheidend, sondern seine überhebliche Haltung, sein Mangel an Respekt und Gehorsam gegenüber dem Herrn. ER war ungehorsam und hat den Auftrag seines Herrn nicht ausgeführt. So wird es auch bei uns sein. Wir werden beurteilt nach unserem guten Willen, nach unserer Bereitschaft, Gott zu dienen. Es ist richtig, dass wir unter dem Gericht Gottes stehen und dieses Gericht ist nicht monolithisch „für alle gleich“, sondern differenziert, auf die Persönlichkeit jedes einzelnen abgestimmt. Gott misst jeden von uns nach unseren Fähigkeiten und unserer Bereitschaft.  

Alles was wir an Zeit, Talent und Gütern besitzen ist zweifelsohne Geschenk Gottes. In Dankbarkeit gegenüber Gott und zum Zeugnis für die Welt müssen wir den andern gegenüber grosszügig sein mit dem, was wir empfangen oder hinzuverdient haben. Entscheidend ist dabei, dass wir uns bewusst sind, dass es bei unserer Grosszügigkeit nicht um „Menschenliebe“ geht, sondern darum, unsere Pflicht als „Diener des Herrn“ zu erfüllen. Wir sind nicht Herren über den Besitz, sondern Verwalter der Güter, welche uns Gott anvertraut hat, der uns erschaffen und in Christus erlöst hat.

Ein Blick in die Kirchengeschichte zeigt, dass immer dann wenn sich in der Gesellschaft materieller Wohlstand etablierte, auch bei einem Teil der Bevölkerung, die Versuchung wuchs, den Kopf zu erheben und sich zu rühmen, als hätten wir etwas Besonderes verdient, oder würde uns etwas Besonderes gebühren. Hochmut, Neid und Eifersucht können uns dazu führen, besser über unseren Göttlichen Meister nachzudenken, welcher in der Welt durch seinen Mystischen Leib handelt. Es ist zu einfach, wenn wir nur, wie der unglückliche Diener, einfach den Herrn anklagen und ihm die Schuld für unsere Situation in die Schuhe schieben. „Zuletzt kam auch der Diener, der das eine Talent erhalten hatte, und sagte: Herr, ich wusste, dass du ein strenger Mann bist; du erntest, wo du nicht gesät hast, und sammelst, wo du nicht ausgestreut hast; weil ich Angst hatte, habe ich dein Geld in der Erde versteckt. Hier hast du es wieder.“

Nein, unsere Aufgabe ist es vielmehr, zu erkennen, dass wir Söhne und Töchter Mariä sind, Brüder und Schwestern des von Maria geborenen einzigen Sohnes des Allmächtigen. In Maria, der von Gott aus allen Menschen auserwählten, finden wir das passende Bild für die Kirche, welche ihrem Herrn steht und mit ihm wirkt zum Heil der Welt. Wir sind nur Diener, aber in diesem Bewusstsein sind wir wie Maria voller Freude und begierig, sein Wort zu hören: 

„Sehr gut, du bist ein tüchtiger und treuer Diener. Du bist im Kleinen ein treuer Verwalter gewesen, ich will dir eine große Aufgabe übertragen. Komm, nimm teil an der Freude deines Herrn!“

Gelobt sei Jesus Christus!



Sunday, August 26, 2018

I Guess I Must Have Dreamed It?



Despite its title, which might ring negative to some, this [Reinhardt, Volker. Luther, der Ketzer: Rom und die Reformation (German Edition) C.H.Beck. Kindle Edition.] was one of the books I picked up and read for the big reformation jubilee of 2017. Among the key takeaways I had from Reinhardt's compelling analysis of the why and wherefore of the tragedy set sail by Martin Luther, was Rome and the Papacy's unresponsiveness to the devastation which would not have had to be or at least would not have had to bring such harm to the edifice of faith and culture starting from the 16th Century. 

The Pope and Rome just did not understand the rage of German folk and others. Justified anger or not, an exaggeration of the case which could be made back then against some of the indulgence fundraisers, the people who could have made a difference either sat back or busied themselves with other issues. As far as today is concerned, I find myself drawing parallels, but there cannot be reasons for drawing parallels with the then of heresy and the now of a lack of due diligence in confronting the disordered lifestyle of significant numbers of men in Holy Orders, can there? I guess I must have dreamed it, right?

Would it be hysterical or off-base to see a link between the negligent attitude of Rome toward Luther's protests and the Protestant Reformation and the kind of hedging by the hierarchy which seems to have characterized the two flareups of indignation by priests and people in the past 12 years to the clerical sex abuse crisis? Aren't we just as much in denial about consequences for the life of the Church of the evident lack of episcopal oversight, not to mention the tolerance by bishops and chanceries of dissolute living on the part of priests and seminarians, the conniving or outright transgression in such matters even by princes of the Church? At least back in Luther's day most the money was going toward building St. Peter's. Today, it's a half million here in hush money or a half million there to feather the nest of a man who in his youth had vowed the evangelical counsels or at least should feel bound by the Council teaching to a life of pastoral poverty.

The TESTIMONY published by His Excellency Carlo Maria Viganò, Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana, Apostolic Nuncio, touches three papacies, just as many cardinal secretaries of state, and almost countless other curial figures. The time frame is not so long as that of the 16th Century, but what Volker Reinhardt analyzes as German sentiment against Rome could be paralleled to present estrangement on the part of the English speaking world from not Italians but perhaps from a lavender mafia of various ethnic persuasions and pedigrees, busy creaming off money for creature comforts. 

Luther over the years had his outrageous demands sustained by his folk and perhaps today various calls for the resignation of whole episcopal conferences or something just as draconian have more sympathy than they should, but the issue is ever one of an adequate response. Ultimately the Catholic Counter Reformation had to supply where honest measures in time failed. In that contrast, the pattern was set for an ever fragmenting Christianity. Had Rome's reaction been timely and earnest, the garment might not have been ripped asunder.

What will be our lot? How will the thing go today? I don't know. Just let me say that genuine responsiveness to people's anger seems preferable to living the nightmare of Bauernkrieg, Bildersturm, and subsequent ills. The Bride of Christ deserved better treatment back then and certainly deserves better treatment on our part today.

As hypocritical as calls for prayer and penance on the part of one and all can sound, their saving grace is that they are for all a genuine antidote to the kind of twisted self indulgence (read sexual, especially homosexual, lifestyle) which is at the core of most of the embezzling and theft of recent years. Normally, we blame the bad example of priestly unchastity for having subverted Catholic marriage. Perhaps a bootstraps effort to recover the sanctity of Christian matrimony, open first and foremost to children, might shame priests back to ordered living. One thing, however, is certain, such a grace cannot help but be crowned by the gift to parents and to the Church of happy and holy priestly and religious vocations.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI


Saturday, August 25, 2018

Decide Today Whom You Will Serve!


21st Sunday in Ordinary Time – 26 August 2018
Bruder Klaus – Bern
Joshua 24:1–2a, 15–17, 18b
Ephesians 5:21–32
John 6:60–69

Praise be Jesus Christ!

If you will bear with me, I want to try to say something this Sunday about the essential nature of faith in our lives, faith in God. In saying that, I would emphasis that between one “god” and another, between one religion and faith system and another there are no comparisons. There must be a gathering in, God is one and so is His Church in Christ Jesus. In the Creed, we profess faith in the one, holy and Catholic Church, coming down to us from the Apostles.

“If it does not please you to serve the Lord, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

As I was preparing my homily for today, Joshua’s talk with the tribes of Israel (from our first reading today) struck me funny in the sense that it dawned on me that for folks back then there was never any question of whether they had to serve some god or not. Atheism and agnosticism were unthinkable for those people. You had to have a god. I asked myself at the same time, what has changed really to permit people to opt out of being believers, of being religious? Why do we seem to remain indifferent in the face of the phenomenon of the so-called “nones”, n-o-n-e-s, people who, when filling out forms or questionnaires and being asked to specify their religion, put down “none”?

“…decide today whom you will serve…”

The choice for Israel was between their God, Who had brought them out of Egypt through the desert to the Promised Land, or some strange or stranger’s god. Living without God was not an option. No doubt, they would find the godless people in our world today impossible to understand and, well, a real scandal, nonsense or worse. Moreover, it is so. Our world and we ourselves, we did not just pop on the scene. We were created by God and saved from sin and everlasting death in Jesus Christ. God made us for His own in this life and if we so choose to respond to His gift, destined for eternal happiness with Him in Heaven.

Whether we are talking about Old Testament times and Joshua or about Jesus confronting His disciples in Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, these are the terms of what common sense tells us is reasonable discourse. That is to say, that Jesus in the Gospel does for us today what Joshua did for Israel. He puts His disciples before a choice, not so much of which god to choose but rather of choosing between Him, Jesus, the one and only God, and nothing. Certainly, faith is part of it. Jesus’ very asking, however, implies that He has already provided access to the gift of faith. The disciples and we have what we need to respond to Christ’s challenge, “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.”  The faith to be saved in Him is not something that the Lord gives sparingly. He wills that we come to know, love and serve Him. That is why He made us for this life and for life with Him forever in Heaven, for sharing the Master’s joy.

“Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

What is at issue here is clear. The Gospel is absolutely at odds with the way many people in society today speak. The order of the day in most of the Western World seems to be political correctness, your truth versus my truth, and well, it is all relative anyway and as such cannot but be false. Misery! Hopelessness! Contemporary society does not reflect a Christian worldview. As for Jesus’ words, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”, sadly many people hear those words today without the slightest understanding of what they require of us. People do not choose Jesus on His terms. They just kind of stand there or they drift off, if you will, they exit from the scene, sometimes without the slightest provocation.

“As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

What to do? Well, there is lots that one can say. Let us limit ourselves for this Sunday to affirming that Christ’s grace is sufficient, no matter how great the trials we have to face in life might be. “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” What does turning to the Lord involve? Taking prayer, the lifting of our mind and heart to God, keeping God company, as the mainstay of our lives. We are never too old, we should never be too busy, too sick or too worried, to miss our basic prayers, our morning offering, our meal prayers, our examination of conscience, prayers before climbing into bed. Assisting at Mass on every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation becomes an eloquent expression of what we live out each day as we seek the Lord and strive to follow Him through obedience to His Commands out of love. The regular and worthy celebration of the Sacrament of Penance is the necessary door for us sinners to gain access to the Lord Who feeds us for the journey in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

“Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

Think about it today! Think hard and pray hard! Come to realize that we cannot live without Jesus at the center of our lives!

Praised be Jesus Christ!


PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI


Saturday, August 18, 2018

In Mary So Destined


Maria Himmelfahrt
Patrozinium in Rheinau
19. August 2018

Offenbarung 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab
1 Kor. 15:20-27
Lukas 1:39-56

Gelobt sei Jesus Christus!

Ich freue mich ganz besonders, dass ich in diese wunderschöne Kirche von Rheinau zurückkehren darf, um einerseits mit der Pfarrei das Patrozinium Maria Himmelfahrt zu feiern und zugleich in derselben Feier meine alten Freunde von der Fatima-Gebetsgruppe wieder zu begegnen, welche hier heute Fatima-Gebetstag im Monat August begehen.

Der Sinn des Hochfestes Maria Himmelfahrt  und die Botschaft von Fatima lassen sich gut in den Lesungen zusammenfassen: Mit den drei Abschnitten aus dem Neuen Testament gibt uns die Kirche einen tiefen Einblick, ich möchte sogar sagen einen zentralen Schlüssel, um das Geheimnis unserer Taufberufung in und für die Welt zu verstehen. Einfach gesagt: Es gibt keine andere Art und Weise, Kirche zu sein, d.h. als Christ zu leben, als unter dem schützenden Mantel der glorreichen Gottesmutter Maria zu sein. Es ist Maria selbst, die uns zu unserer letzten Bestimmung vor den Thron des Allerhöchsten führen wird. Sie ist unsere Mutter und führt uns alle, ihre Söhne und Töchter zu Christus, ihrem Sohn, dem wahren Gott und wahren Menschen.

„Der Tempel Gottes im Himmel wurde geöffnet und in seinem Tempel wurde die Lade seines Bundes sichtbar. Dann erschien ein großes Zeichen am Himmel: eine Frau, mit der Sonne bekleidet; der Mond war unter ihren Füßen und ein Kranz von zwölf Sternen auf ihrem Haupt.“

Unsere Bestimmung im Jenseits weiss von Schönheit und Zärtlichkeit, weiss von der Immaculata, „mit der Sonne bekleidet; der Mond war unter ihren Füßen und ein Kranz von zwölf Sternen auf ihrem Haupt.“

Leider ist es so, dass die zentrale Bedeutung der jungfräulichen Gottesmutter in unserem christlichen Leben nicht immer so offensichtlich sichtbar ist. Es gibt viel Verwirrung in unserer Welt. Zu unserem ewigen verderben versucht der Teufel, der alte Drachen der Apokalypse, auf alle möglichen Arten zu erreichen, dass wir das Ziel unseres Lebens aus den Augen verlieren und vergessen, weshalb wir hier auf Erden sind. Der Teufel, der Vater der Lüge, versucht andauernd, unser Verständnis von der Kirche als der einen, heiligen, katholischen und apostolischen, als der Braut des Lammes umzustürzen. Wenn wir diesen Angriffen widerstehen wollen, so hilft es, wenn wir die Kirche betrachten als Mutter. Die eine und einzige Kirche Gottes lässt sich leichter verstehen in ihrem Gewand als Braut Christi.

Der heute weit verbreitete Brauch, sich institutioneller Modelle zu bedienen, um die Kirche als ganze aber auch die Pfarreien zu beschreiben birgt die Versuchung in sich, das weniger würdige dem edleren vorzuziehen. Die so als weltliche Sache beschriebene Kirche beschränkt uns zu sehr und führt uns halbwahren oder ganz falschen Schlüssen bezüglich des Sinnes des menschlichen Lebens und der Natur der Kirche, welche in Christus begründet und auf das Fundament der Apostel gebaut ist. Wenn wir hier im Westen die Kirche oft beschreiben als Institution, die zu managen ist nach den Kriterien der Effizienz, Transparenz und Wirtschaftlichkeit, dann fallen wir in die Falle jener, welche ohne Glauben über die Kirche sprechen. Man redet dann nur noch von Autorität, Macht, Diskriminierung usw. Wenn man so die praktischen Dinge angeht, führt man die Gläubigen in den Irrtum.

Die richtige Sprache um die Mutter Kirche zu beschreiben ist die Bräutliche Sprache. Diese Sprache erwerben wir uns vor allem durch die Betrachtung Marias, der Mutter Gottes. Auf Anordnung ihres am Kreuz erhöhten Sohnes Jesus Christus ist sie auch unsere Mutter geworden. Wir bekennen, dass Maria unsere Mutter ist, die Mutter aller Getauften. Sie ist bereits in der Herrlichkeit des Himmels. Ihr Körper ist nicht im Grab geblieben. Vielmehr befindet er sich schon jetzt vollständig erhalten in der Herrlichkeit ihres Sohnes.

 „Und sie gebar ein Kind, einen Sohn, der über alle Völker mit eisernem Zepter herrschen wird… Da hörte ich eine laute Stimme im Himmel rufen: Jetzt ist er da, der rettende Sieg, die Macht und die Herrschaft unseres Gottes und die Vollmacht seines Gesalbten.“

In den 50-er Jahren hat man die Natur der Kirche vor allem mit dem Begriff des Mystischen Leibes Christi beschrieben. In diesen fernen Zeiten hat man nicht viel Zeit damit verloren, über die gesellschaftliche Organisation der Kirche zu sprechen. Auf der Ebene der Pfarreien gab es nicht so viele Sitzungen und Kommissionen wie heute. Die Lebendigkeit einer Pfarrei hat sich gemessen in der Feierlichkeit der Feste wie dem heutigen Patrozinium. Die grossen Messen und Prozessionen zählten mehr und prägten das Jahresprogramm einer Pfarrei. Die Familie als Hauskirche und Ort der Begegnung mit Gott stand im Zentrum von allem. In Übereinstimmung mit der Heiligen Schrift redete man immer wieder von der Familie als dem Ort, an dem man für den Himmel bereitet wurde.

„Der Tempel Gottes im Himmel wurde geöffnet und in seinem Tempel wurde die Lade seines Bundes sichtbar. Dann erschien ein großes Zeichen am Himmel: eine Frau, mit der Sonne bekleidet; der Mond war unter ihren Füßen und ein Kranz von zwölf Sternen auf ihrem Haupt.“

Hier ist die Frau, in der Person Marias, das Bild des Tempel Gottes. Jeus, der neue Adam und Maria die neue Eva! In der Jungfrau Maria sehen wir unsere Bestimmung, uns werden so motiviert, in dieser Welt mit dem auf das unvergängliche Leben gerichteten Blick zu leben.

 „Denn wie in Adam alle sterben, so werden in Christus alle lebendig gemacht werden. Es gibt aber eine bestimmte Reihenfolge: Erster ist Christus; dann folgen, wenn Christus kommt, alle, die zu ihm gehören.“

Maria Himmelfahrt wurde immer mit Stolz und würde gefeiert, denn die unvergleichbare Heiligkeit der Mutter Gottes ist der Stolz der Menschlichen Rasse, mehr noch von allen Geschöpfen. Maria Himmelfahrt wird immer gefeiert in der Hoffnung dass das, was sich an der demütigen Dienerin Gottes erfüllte sich am Ende auch an uns erfüllen wird: Es wird sich erfüllen, wenn wir uns von der Sünde abwenden, wenn wir der Mutter Gottes nachfolgen und uns in den Sakramenten der Kirche ihrem Sohn nähern. 

 „Denn auf die Niedrigkeit seiner Magd hat er geschaut. Siehe, von nun an preisen mich selig alle Geschlechter.“

Vielleicht ist es nicht viel, aber ich freue mich, dass ich bei allen hier anwesenden einen Ruf zugunsten einer Kirche, ja auch einer Pfarrei hier in Rheinau vernehme, welche die Mutter Gottes in ihrer Mitte hat. Schliesslich ist Maria, die demütige Dienerin, welche in unserer Welt die Herrlichkeit des ewigen Gottes ausstrahlt. Wir müssen wieder Worte finden und Gefühle wecken, um Maria besser oben zu können. Mit ihr und durch sie können wir unseren Platz bereits in dieser Welt finden und auch dereinst in der Ewigkeit bei Gott. Unseren Platz, um Gott zu kennen, Gott zu lieben und Gott zu dienen stets unter dem Schutzmantel der Frau, mit der Sonne bekleidet.

Gelobt sei Jesus Christus!





Sunday, August 5, 2018

Reclaiming Our Birthright as Catholics

At 24 hours distance and still very much in reflection upon my latest celebration of the Vetus Ordo, I want to share some thoughts on an issue that has been somewhat primary in my mind and heart for the better part of a year and that being so in kind of intensive fashion, and honestly not without a certain urgency. The issue is that of reverence in the liturgy, especially as good Catholics, both priests and people, would address it in terms of the Novus Ordo.

Yesterday’s Pontifical High Mass at the faldstool was special for me for a number of reasons. It was my first Vetus Ordo Pontifical in my home diocese of Sioux Falls. The parish church of St. Mary’s at Salem, though I never had relatives in the town, was always a landmark in the countryside for me as a small child going up by car with my folks to the grandparents’ farm not far away, just up in the next county and where in the neighborhood back then any number of Dad’s uncles also had their farms (today only a memory, but St. Mary’s still marks the route!). Here too as in my other Vetus Ordo experiences in Switzerland, I felt very much carried by the liturgy and by the seminarians and young people, who with their parish priest had so diligently prepared this First Saturday Votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary with commemoration of St. Dominic.

Reverence in worship as something urgently necessary to claim for the Novus Ordo and that to the mind generally of people of good will? Yes, I think this topic is one which resonates most everywhere in the English speaking world and far beyond. I was asked to address that very topic in conjunction with priestly spirituality for the secular clergy in a conference I gave last March in Knock, Ireland. That is sort of where I began formulating the notion that exhorting to reverence as such is a no-starter, in the sense that it evidently must not be inherent in the Novus Ordo and, hence, must be striven for albeit in vain.

Perhaps we should define reverence. It could be lots of things, among which that sense of awe accompanying a clear awareness of the presence of the Almighty. In a classical sense, it is a or the habit of the Vetus Ordo. It, reverence, somehow does not seem second nature to the Novus Ordo. I think I can say that, because if you have never encountered liturgical abuse or just plain banality with the Novus Ordo, you can find it documented aplenty on YouTube. DISCLAIMER: I am not denying that back at the time of the Council, before, during and after, that I never witnessed a priest irreverent in the celebration of the Mass of the Ages, because I did. Exhorting to reverence, keeping an eye on rowdy altar boys is all part of the package, perhaps since forever. It is just that it is more of an incongruity or shock if encountered in the Vetus Ordo. Irreverence in the context of the Vetus Ordo is simply an indefensible enormity. When the puppets and dancers come out, you just don’t have that leverage in crying outrage in a Novus Ordo context.

Let us however leave abuse situations aside and argue from the structure and the gestures, which for the Vetus Ordo are beautifully deliberate and pondered. Now, you might say: “Archbishop! The Vetus Ordo is not your routine. It’s the novelty of it all for you! If you were daily celebrating the Vetus Ordo and for years, you’d become dulled to its signs and gestures as well!” Perhaps, but I guess for now I would like to risk it over the Novus Ordo situation which only seems to come close to saving itself in a parish where the priest is willing to give his life’s blood to get the Novus Ordo right and train his people up to be a part of this effort. He’s always working at a structural and conceptual disadvantage, though. For example, the Roman Canon/First Eucharistic Prayer is just not the same between the two forms; the Novus Ordo form has been hampered in various ways. This then in part is what underlies my insistence that we need a liturgical restoration, a reset, in order to reclaim the possibility for the organic development of our priceless heritage. We need to get back to the work of God and relegate catechism to the classroom on another day and time of the week.

It is fair enough to say that you cannot program a sense of the presence of God through words and gestures. Then again, programming or automating the thing is not the point, but rather banishing the arbitrary and the discursive in favor of what is always and everywhere good, true and beautiful. At this point in time, the greatest single impediment to a liturgical restoration would be resignation on the part of most priests and people to our 50+ year vernacular patrimony. Out of a sense that it is what we’ve got and we have no choice but to keep filing away at it in hopes of achieving something better, people balk at the very idea of abandoning the familiar for something they have the impression was jettisoned. We’re bound to a notion of progress or an evolutive paradigm which denies that something better which is our millennial patrimony, still very much there and vibrant, even if relegated to certain outposts and to the enthusiasm of a young, practicing Catholic minority.

I live in hope of the restoration in matters liturgical and yoke it to a renewal of Catholic family life.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI 


Friday, August 3, 2018

Prayer and Presence



Pontifical High Mass for the First Saturday
4 August 2018, Salem, SD

Praised be Jesus Christ!
Immaculate Heart of Mary!
Saint Dominic!

I am confident that the great Saint Dominic does not mind at all that today, on this his feast, we are giving first place to the Mother of God and to the First Saturday Devotion.

I trust that you are all aware that the First Saturday Devotion comes to us by way of Fatima. Our Lady gave the details about the devotion to Sister Lucia some years after the original apparitions and in these words: “See, my daughter, my Heart encircled by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Do you, at least, strive to console me. Tell them that I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, in order to make reparation to me, on the First Saturday of five successive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour, meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.”

Last year’s  Fatima Jubilee celebrations did much and continue to serve to bring faithful Catholics to a deeper awareness of God’s love for us mediated through His Most Blessed Mother. Know that you are doing something truly great when you share the riches of true devotion to Mary at home with your children, first of all, and with family and friends, to the extent that you are able. Be it the Holy Rosary, the First Saturdays or the Scapular, or all of them and more, there is no more enlightened path to accomplishing the Church’s mission of saving our world from sin and leading souls to Christ. Simply stated: to Jesus through Mary!

In today’s Epistle we read:

“I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue.” (Ecclesiasticus)

The Votive Mass for the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Common of the Blessed Virgin bind our understanding of who Mary is to this beautiful passage from the Old Testament Wisdom literature and to its teaching about Holy Wisdom. There is an essential lesson, a very important teaching for us here. Catholics generally are in great need of this teaching today. It is a teaching about the nature of the Church which too often goes right over the heads of all too many people, some of them practicing Catholics, lots of them priests and even bishops in the Church. Too many people today cannot seem to grasp the supernatural character of Church life, centered as it is on the sacraments, but oriented above all toward family life. For too many Church is a social structure open to manipulation or adaptation to achieve certain ends, quantifiable ends that you won’t find cross referenced anywhere in the index to the catechism.

Let us look again briefly at this powerful teaching about the greatness of God’s humble servant, Mary ever Virgin! “I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue.”

The Gospel message mediated for us through our Mother Mary is a message to be lived out day by day. It is an essential message; let’s call it an existential message which, at its very heart, is lived out at home. While it certainly is a moral message about doing good and avoiding evil, it is first and foremost a call to a life of living in God’s presence and of prayer.

Not that long ago, I was at some function in Bern and speaking to a lady ambassador colleague, an upright woman with a good Catholic sense. Somehow our conversation turned to matters of church life and I mentioned to her that in Switzerland and throughout many countries in the Western World we are already seeing the third generation in once staunchly Catholic families who have not been catechized. If the children have been baptized and have learned the Sign of the Cross, they certainly don’t know either the Our Father or the Hail Mary and are totally oblivious to their obligations to assist at Mass on all Sundays and holy days of obligation, to confess their sins and more. They don’t pray before meals or at bedtime, nor do they make even a simple morning offering on rising. I told her that for me and not just me, that needed catechizing can’t happen in religious class at school alone. If a child is to be nurtured in the faith, this cannot happen, except by some miracle of God’s grace, but at home. The Council taught that parents are the first and best teachers of children in the ways of faith. Parents are the ones who give their children a sense of the presence of God in their lives, of the love of the Lord for each one of us whom He, the Lord knows by our name.

I saw my ambassador friend again the next day and she told me that she was so shocked by my words and filled with remorse wondering if she had not failed her children before God. She phoned an adult daughter when she got home to tell her of our conversation and to ask the daughter whether she had indeed failed her in matters of faith when it came to praying with her and speaking to her about Jesus, about His death on the Cross for us, and about the love of Mother Mary. Her daughter reassured her that in terms of her Christian duties she had been a good mother, but I could see that for both mother and daughter the point was well taken by my friend. It is the little Church, the family, which counts and it is Mary especially who enlightens us here. Nobody quite like the Mother of God can lead us to Christ and to what is essential in the life of a Catholic.

As on this first Saturday of the month of August, we make reparation yes for horrible sins committed and thus tormenting the Heart of Mary, let us also resolve day by day to bring joy to Her Heart by making Her Beloved Son Jesus central to our every breathing moment. When I come home to Sioux Falls each summer I try to get in a long walk each morning, which can take me past the two houses where my family lived over 50 years ago. I remember the friends who lived next door or elsewhere in the neighborhood and marvel to myself at how out of touch we become with people our age who were once our best of childhood friends. That happens naturally when for any reason we cannot spend time with them. At Fatima, Mary asked us for just 15 minutes on the first Saturdays. By way of relationship we owe her and her Son much more. Presence and personal prayer are at the very essence of what it means to be a faithful Catholic. Mary’s terms communicated to Sister Lucia for gladdening her Immaculate Heart are minimal. In truth, we owe her and her Son much more.

Praised be Jesus Christ!
Immaculate Heart of Mary!
Saint Dominic!