What should I do this year for Lent?

        Well, it is almost March and Lent has still not begun.  But in just ten days – ready or not – Ash Wednesday will be here.  The Church offers Lent as a way for us to be healed of our spiritual sicknesses, namely, our personal sins and vices.  Like the paralytics in the gospels, we often times encounter obstacles to Jesus’ healing in our lives.  These obstacles can be people, places and things.  Nevertheless, the four actions that help to liberate us from sin – to receive Jesus’ healing – are prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and our own personal sacrifice during Lent.

       Some of you may already know what you want to do for Lent, but I would like to offer for your own spiritual reflection some ideas.  If you have decided to “give up” something, there needs to be an action on your part to “do” something in its place.  For example, if you are giving up soft drinks or sweets (or alcohol!), you need to donate the money that you would have spent on these things to the church or another charitable cause. (This year, the Bishop's Annual Appeal begins right before Lent, so contributing to the ministries Bishop Strickland is promoting in the Diocese of Tyler is a wonderful way of making a sacrifice in union with our local successor of the apostles.)  If you are giving up TV and/or radio, you should take up a practice of prayer or spiritual reading to do in their place.

       If you are thinking of “doing something extra” during Lent (as opposed to “giving up” something), then it needs to be united to a pure intention.  For example, if you are going to start a new exercise routine during Lent, your intention cannot just be so that you “look good.”  Physical health (detached from vanity) is good, but perhaps you could go to daily Mass during Lent as “spiritual” exercise.  Rather than exercising with your iPod ear buds in your ears, you could pray a rosary instead.  If you are planning on giving more money to charity during Lent, you could decide to not go out to eat to restaurants during Lent as a sign of your solidarity with the poor.

       If you are still unsure of what spiritual practice you want to do during Lent, you might ask God in your prayer: "What do You want me to do?"  The important thing is that we do not take on too much, but that we persevere with our personal discipline through all 40 days as a sacrifice pleasing to God.  As we approach Jesus today in the Most Blessed Sacrament, let us ask Him what He wants us to do during Lent — that our prayer, fasting, almsgiving and our own personal sacrifices will bring us closer to Him throughout the upcoming Lenten season.

The Sermon on the Mount

Last Sunday, the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time were replaced by those of the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.  Unfortunately, we missed the gospel reading of the Beatitudes (Mt 5:1-12).  This Sunday’s gospel (Mt 5:13-16) and the Sundays leading up to Lent are a continuation of what has traditionally been called the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7; Luke 6:20-49).  The Sermon is early in our Lord’s public ministry; it has a prologue of Jesus traveling around, and it begins with the Beatitudes and ends with the “Parable of the Two Foundations.” The Navarre Bible Commentary sums up the Sermon with five main themes:

1. The attitude a person must have for entering the Kingdom of heaven (the Beatitudes, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, Jesus and His teaching, the fullness of the Law).

2. Uprightness of intention in religious practices (here the Our Father would be included).

3. Trust in God’s fatherly providence.

4. How God’s children should behave towards one another (not judging one’s neighbor, respect for holy things, the effectiveness of prayer and the golden rule of charity).

5. The conditions for entering the Kingdom (the narrow gate, false prophets and building on rock).

Vital to these teachings of Jesus Christ in the Sermon is the perfection of the Mosaic Law rather than its elimination.  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Mt 5:17); “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets” (Mt 7:12).  Jesus Christ presents Himself as the New Moses.  Like Moses going up Mount Sinai to retrieve the Law, Jesus ascends the mountain to teach the New Law.  St. Matthew accounts the disciples following Christ up the mountain, a sign that the New Law consists of encountering Jesus Christ Himself—not just His teaching.  He begins His discourse with the Beatitudes, His plan of how each believer can obtain blessedness—true happiness—amidst the tribulations of this world.  They are promises of definite salvation, though not in this world.  I will return to the theme of the Beatitudes during Lent, and this Sunday I will treat the themes of salt and light in my homily.  It is my hope that these teachings and reflections on the Sermon in the coming Sundays will help you to find true blessedness in your work and prayer amidst the coldness of winter.

The Problem of Removing Texas Woman from Life Support Last Sunday

The last two months have been a blur for me as a parish priest.  The sheer amount of liturgical celebrations and sacramental ministry plus the preparation and leadership of the Rome Pilgrimage have kept me barely informed of current events.  I remember hearing about a pregnant woman on life support in Ft. Worth at the end of November, and I tracked some of this news on National and Texas Right to Life e-mail updates.  Unfortunately, this woman, Marlise Muñoz, and her unborn baby were disconnected from life support last Sunday, January 26.  Since I do not have space in this posting to recount all the details of what happened, I direct you to an article of The New York Times .  This case was tragic and complicated, and moral arguments were made on both sides.  However, for several reasons I believe the wrong decision was made – both by the family and by the district judge – to remove life support from this pregnant woman.

Firstly, the use of the term “brain dead” is ambiguous in medicine because it has a different definition depending on the hospital or the doctor whom you ask.  (The debate of when live organs can be harvested from “brain dead” patients has already been a long-standing bioethical issue due to the lack of a standard definition.)  According to Texas Right to Life, Ms. Muñoz was “not experiencing multi-system organ failure or cell disintegration, and her body [was] supporting the growth of the child within her – all signs to indicate that her brain, though impaired or quiescent, [was] still ordering her physiological functions at some level.”  Secondly, while it can be morally licit (and even necessary depending on the circumstances) to remove extraordinary life support from a dying patient, the fact that this was a woman whose body was nurturing an unborn child makes this choice an act of direct abortion, which is intrinsically evil.  Some have tried to make the case that “disconnecting” the mother (a shrewd way to evade the word “abortion”) was justified since the child would be badly-deformed and mentally-handicapped anyway.  How sad that we have to remind good-intentioned people that no one deserves to die simply because he or she is handicapped.  A person is still a person even in the womb — even if deformed in the womb.  Thirdly, under Texas law, this pregnant woman was supposed to be protected from medical officials cutting off life support.  This is just one more example of a radically liberal judge who legislated and executed his own ideology instead of applying the law.  If this were not exasperating enough, Dallas Morning News reported a lawyer of the family as saying, “[P]regnant women die every day. . . They die in car accidents. They die of heart attacks. They die from head injuries. . . And when they die the fetus dies with them. That is the way it has always been and that way it should be.”

The coldness of the world (and of the weather!) can be overwhelming and discouraging to us as Catholic Christians.  Today on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, almost two weeks since we remembered the fateful decision Roe v. Wade (and seeing the appalling repercussions of this law as in the case of Ms. Muñoz and her baby), we are mindful of how much our society – even Pro-Life Texas – needs the truth and love of Jesus Christ, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel (Luke 2:32).

Back from Rome Ready to Go

Many of you know that I was leading a pilgrimage to Rome for the last two weeks.  It started out as an opportunity solely for parishioners of Centerville and Hilltop Lakes, but eventually it was opened up to other folks in the Diocese of Tyler and beyond.  I accompanied twenty-five pilgrims from my own parishes as well as from Gilmer, Nacogdoches and a few other places.  Having studied in Rome for five years, I was ready to offer the pilgrims an experience of the Roman Church in her glory from an East Texan perspective.  I spent almost a year planning the pilgrimage with Perfect Impressions Tours of Springfield, Illinois so that I could utilize the expertise of two of my favorite English-speaking tour guides, John and Ashley Noronha, and also so that I could be the one to give the tour of St. Peter’s Basilica and keep the group together and on schedule.

We arrived in Rome on the morning of January 14.  The very next day, everyone was ecstatic to be present at the general audience of Pope Francis.  Over the course of nine days, the pilgrims visited St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, the Holy Staircase, San Clemente, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums.  The seminarians of the Diocese of Tyler who study at the Pontifical North American College (the NAC) greeted the pilgrims and gave them a tour of America’s seminary in Rome.  Most everyone spoke of Sunday Mass at the NAC as a highlight of the trip.  We also took a day trip to visit the Eucharistic Miracle at Orvieto and the shrines of Sts. Francis and Clare at Assisi.  The meals were at restaurants that specialized in regional cuisines of Italy.  And, of course, there was a bit of time for free-spirited pilgrims to tour the city, shop, pray and appreciate (or be intrigued by) Roman culture.

As the priest in charge of the pilgrimage group, I was a little concerned at first if I would be able to comply with all the needs of each and every one of the pilgrims.  However, despite the range of ages, genders and comfort levels, I think everything went pretty well.  I was impressed with how everyone looked after each other, how they let me know if someone was left behind, if they needed a bathroom break, etc.  (Lots of bathroom breaks are the key to a happy pilgrimage :-).  It was a joy for me to celebrate Mass for the group each day at some of the most beautiful and sacred altars in Christendom.  On one of the days, I offered Mass at the Altar of St. Leo the Great in St. Peter’s Basilica.  The relationship of the 5th Century pope to Centerville, Texas at that moment was a profound reminder of the reality of the Communion of Saints and the universality of the Catholic Church.

During the pilgrimage, I was able to visit with some of my friends and professors who still live, work and study in Rome.  I received some inspiration in my priesthood from them, and now I am fired up to get back into the swing of things in Centerville, Hilltop Lakes and Madisonville.  For the next few weeks I will be planning for pastoral, spiritual and building goals for 2014 in keeping with my five-year plans.  I am thankful for the prayers and support of my pilgrimage group and to start this year with the blessing of Pope Francis and the encouraging example of the Church of Rome.

Are Catholics Spiritual or Religious?

This Sunday's readings can be found here.

Have you ever heard someone say “I consider myself more spiritual than religious” or “I am a spiritual person, not a religious person”?  There is a temptation today to see some sort of opposition between spirituality and religion.  Many people are interested in different kinds of spiritualities but some reject religion as almost a bad thing — as if it threatens or impedes spirituality.  To be able to respond to this apparent contradiction, we need to define “spirituality” and “religion.”

“Spirituality” refers to a person’s relationship with God.  It is deeply personal, individual and interior.  “Religion”, on the other hand, is an external, social phenomenon that has profound roots in the human personality.  Lots of people want to consider themselves “spiritual” rather than “religious” because they fear that religion gets in the way of their personal relationship with God.  Sadly, this can be true of more than a few Christian sects.  Some of these fear Catholic Christianity in particular because they think it stifles their interpretation of the Bible.  A “Me and Jesus” spirituality is more appealing than “belonging to the Catholic Church” — or any church for that matter.  Another reason these kinds of people fear religion (in this case, Catholicism) is because being “religious” means living according to moral precepts and being subject to an authority outside oneself.  Sadly, they see the Catholic Church as not only being an obstacle to spirituality but also to their conception of freedom.

What is awesome about being Catholic is that we are both 100% spiritual and 100% religious.  In the Catholic Church, there is no contradiction between these two dimensions of our faith.  In fact, spirituality and religiosity complement each other.  As regards spirituality, we must have a deep, abiding relationship with Jesus Christ as the Lord of our life and as our dearest friend.  This is expressed in our personal prayer, devotions, and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  And yet, because man was not created to be alone, we express our faith “religiously” when we come together to praise God as members of His holy Church at holy Mass!  Without sounding too hokey, I think it is fair to say that Catholicism is not just a “Me and Jesus” spirituality but rather a “We and Jesus” community.

As members of Christ’s Body, the Church, God gives us everything we need to live through, with and in Jesus Christ.  However, He knows we are weak, we struggle with our own sins and broken relationships, and we cannot do anything without Him.  In the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of Unity, our Lord wishes to sacramentally unite His sacred flesh with our weak flesh in order to keep us faithful to Him in our thoughts, words and deeds; to keep us close to Him in our spirituality and united with each other in holy religion; and to speak to us tenderly as our God and dearest friend.

Holy Smoke! The Gift of Incense

One of the most distinctive physical characteristics of Catholic worship is the burning of incense during Mass on Sundays, Holy Days, and within Eucharistic Adoration.  The rubrics encourage the use of incense at these celebrations, but it is still only an option (GIRM 276-7).  Many priests simply opt to use incense at Christmas and Easter.  Some never use it at all in sacred liturgy.  This can give the impression that the use of incense is only for the Traditional Latin Mass or just plain outdated.

Visitors to the Catholic communities of Centerville and Hilltop Lakes sometimes ask me why I use incense at almost every Sunday Mass.  The most important reason, for me, is that the burning of incense is Biblical.  In the OT, Moses built an altar of incense (Exodus 30) on which the sweetest spices and gums were burned.  The office of daily renewal was entrusted to a special branch of the Levitical tribe (1 Chronicles 9:29).  In the NT, the Christ Child receives the gift of frankincense from one of the Magi (Matthew 2:11) as an allusion to the divinity of Jesus.  One passage that indicates the early Church was familiar with incense is the vision of St. John the Evangelist of the heavenly liturgy: Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne. The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel (Revelation 8:3-4).

While the theological explanation for incense may be satisfactory to everyone, there is still another problem: Some complain that they are allergic to incense.  I use a brand called Gloria Incense which is produced by an Orthodox monastery in Johnstown, PA.  It is a non-allergenic resin-based formula.  Resin incense is generally regarded as superior to wood-based products that burn quickly (often with the aid of “Chemical Catalysts”) and produce chokingly harsh smoke.  This is what people are “allergic” to – not incense itself – and I always try to apply a moderate portion to the coals so as to not “smoke people out” of my little church.

Incense in Mass connects us to our Jewish roots and to the antiquity of our Catholic tradition, and it reflects the holy worship of Almighty God in heaven.  As sacred liturgy engages all our senses – our sight, hearing, taste, and touch – so incense engages our sense of smell.  When we adore Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament on Sundays, may our attitude and disposition reflect that of the psalmist:  Let my prayer be incense before you; my uplifted hands an evening offering (Psalm 141:2).

The Holy Family Is Not Plastic

Sunday's readings can be found here.

When we look at the crèche, it is easy to think that the life of the Holy Family was plastic — almost like the material out of which the little figures are made.  Of course, we know the story of how Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem; we know that St. Joseph had to take Our Lady and the Child Jesus to Egypt to flee the “Massacre of the Innocents” (the gospel reading this Sunday); we know that their lives were not easy.  However, it is still difficult to imagine them as human beings.  Yes, they lived in perfection and without sin, but that did not mean they did not laugh or have “bad days” or play together as a family.

I believe there are several reasons the Church celebrates this feast so near the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord.  One reason is to remind us that the Holy Family was not angelic; they were, in fact, humans.  In the fifth joyful mystery of the holy rosary (Luke 2:41-52), the Holy Family goes on their yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  Notice: St. Joseph is not like a lazy dad who stays at home watching football and drinking beer while the wife and kids go to church.  He accompanies them to worship and to offer sacrifice.  Eventually, Jesus gets lost in the massive amount of crowds.  Does this mean Mary is a terrible mother or Joseph is a terrible [foster] father?  No.  But it means they were human, and things like this happen to human families — even to holy human families.

Jesus goes to the Temple to converse with the doctors about the Law and Prophets — and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers (Luke 2:47).  (This is a reminder to elders that just because a person is young does not mean that that person has nothing meaningful to say.)  When Our Lady finds the Child Jesus, He explains that He must be in His Father’s house.  Nevertheless, He goes with Our Lady and St. Joseph and is obedient to them.  And Our Lady ponders all these things in her Immaculate Heart (Luke 2:51).

This feast helps us see the Holy Family as a model for our family life.  Yes, they were perfect in their obedience to God’s will, but they had problems and difficulties like we have.  Priests hear so many confessions of people who struggle with family problems and hurt [and are hurt by] the ones they love.  The people we love the most can sometimes be the ones hardest to live with!  And yet, the Holy Family shows us that when we strive for mutual respect and obedience, we can achieve virtue and allow the Holy Family to perfect our own fallen family.  Let us imitate Jesus, Mary and Joseph in our desire for a holy family – a family of saints – and always ponder – like the Blessed Virgin – the life of Jesus in our hearts.