Wisdom of confessors

.. in 11 quick bites..

Love and Marriage

So they defiled themselves by their deeds and broke their marriage bond with the Lord till his anger blazed against his people; he was filled with horror at his chosen ones.

Part of today's Psalms at Mass (Ps 105), is a common theme in the writings of the prophets as well, associating the relationship between Man and God with marriage, and so infidelity is the abomination of worshipping other gods. One of the questions that come to mind when many bishops suggest that divorced and remarried Christians can be worthy of Holy Communion while remaining in the same state of adultery, is this: is there still such a thing as fidelity? Where, too, is justice, given the price of redemption and given the aggrieved other half of the abandoned marriage? If fidelity is impossible for some people, is it claimed that the grace of God is insufficient?

By Love, heaven is laid open

Today's readings celebrate the marvelous love of God through Jesus Christ. In his encounter with Nathanael (Jn 1:43-51), Jesus declares,

‘You will see greater things than that. .. I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending.’

The last ties in with Jacob's dream of a ladder stretching between heaven and earth, with angels ascending and descending, in which God declares:

‘Through you and your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed. See, I am with you and I will keep you safe wherever you go.’

God-with-us is Jesus himself. Giving up his life for us -- the Incarnation, passion and death and resurrection -- laid heaven open. In a word, love laid heaven open to us. By that love, we are connected to the Father through the Son, depicted by the angels ascending and descending. (I might add that this is likewise depicted by the communion of saints, with our victorious brothers and sisters in heaven working the same way the angels did, through the Son by whom we are all in communion, which death cannot destroy.)
  In the first reading (1 Jn 3:11-21), we are taught that the message we heard from the beginning is that we are to love one another. This love is life itself, for [i]f you refuse to love, you must remain dead. And we have a model to follow, for [t]his has taught us to love, that he gave up his life for us. God loved us first and laid heaven open for us. We who are in Christ should now love others in the same way, giving up our lives in ordinary but real and active ways, giving of our time and energy for others. We who are in Christ can thus make a way between our Father in heaven and those whom we love, through our love, which is God's love living in us, lived out in acts of charity.
  My son Patrick wanted to know more about miracles and I do pray that he will one day see these miracles. But more than the uncorrupted saints of a century or more, the unexplainable cures and the Eucharistic miracles, I hope that he and my other children will experience and ever rejoice in greater things .. heaven laid open at every conversion that turns a sinner into a saint.

Not to forget the missus

So I enthuse to my wife about this podcast from Catholic Answers Live entitled "Husbands, Love Your Wives!" with guest Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers (a really gifted preacher). So I turn it up for her. Two minutes in, I ask "are you listening to this?" Nope.

I guess that sort of thing should be seen and not heard. :-)

Love demands honesty

Retired Bishop Rene Henry Gracida of Corpus Christi, shares the thoughts of Phil Lawler from Catholic World News, concerning the recently deceased Senator Edward Kennedy. It may seem disrespectful to call out the sought after conversion (back to the faith of his youth) from the late senator, but that sentiment comes from the same place where we dread to call out a living person to repentance and truth. It is a deceptive place. What might be thought to be love, preventing us from speaking truth to spare ruffled feathers, even genuine pain, is not love when it does not seek to save one who hurtles towards destruction.

Infidelity

Derrick Jackson (smh.com) talks about something that today's cynical and oversexed culture may tend to disregard in cases of marital infidelity: what about the children? I wonder if this question gets asked enough? It's probably not the most important consideration for people (not necessarily the affected parents) who read about infidelity. We are, after all, steeped in many modernist fallacies. Does it not often seem, according to 21st century western culture, that romance is the end-all? Marriage and exclusive, lifelong commitment seem almost to be taboo subjects. Well.. what does one expect in that situation anyway? If it all hinges upon steamy romance then.. there's nothing for it but to walk away when the steam dissipates. Not that we can belittle the enormity of the commitment, and the magnitude of suffering when we fail to live up to the commitment. But.. that's exactly what sets marriage apart. It is indeed a huge deal. It isn't just a contract, nor is it about satisfaction or your investment back. Call me old-fashioned but that view of marriage is too calculating, too cold, and also too flimsy. What's so romantic about a situation where the door is open for walking away when romance wanes?

My kids often pray that they would love God or love their parents forever. I hope this does not hinge on sentiments, or we're in big trouble.

Tolerance ain't Love: not even close

Ms. Juliette Hughes makes a big opinion splash out of the mess in St. Mary's Brisbane parish. It's a rather judgmental piece, which is ironic, and it's also loose with facts, which is.. well.. perhaps standard fare for too many writers when the topic is religion. Her piece revealed too many misconceptions about the Catholic faith, and I sincerely pray for her and her parish priest and/or bishop. They should get together and clarify some rather pressing issues. Foremost of these was the disastrous confusion between love and tolerance.

Tolerance is a postmodern buzz-word. It falls horribly short as a noble cause. Tolerance is about "live and let live". It makes rubbish of responsibility (there is no sense of it) while allowing everyone to feel good about themselves. Love goes much further. Love means accepting an appropriate amount of responsibility. Love means caring beyond the feelings of the loved one. Otherwise, the latter may feel wonderful about their lives while harming themselves in various ways. Leaving them in such a state is not love. Encouraging them to remain in that state is not love. What Ms. Hughes should really be considering are the Catholicism's claims in the case of St. Mary's. She does not sound interested. She dismisses the bishop's views with one short quote.

She prefers tolerance to love. But rejecting love in favor of tolerance rejects so much more: sin (the absence of which accounts for why tolerance must be infinite), forgiveness (since there is no forgiveness if there is no such thing as sin), correction (nothing to correct, eh?), healing (what's to heal if everything is fine?), salvation (if there is no sin, what is there to save us from?). No, ma'am, tolerance ain't love. Ask any parent and they'll tell you. If they've ever had to compel their child away from something clearly harmful, which their child did not understand as being so, they'll tell you: their children deserve love, not tolerance.

Good deeds...

.. must have, at its root, love:

If, in accomplishing a good deed, we do not have as our goal God’s glory and the real well being of our brothers and sisters, looking rather for a return of personal interest or simply of applause, we place ourselves outside of the Gospel vision.

That's from Papa Benedict XVI in his Lenten Message this year.

[Thanks to the blog, Against the Grain, for this timely message.]

Hard but liberating words to live by

In today's Gospel reading, our Lord teaches us how to pray. He also leaves us some hard words to consider about forgiveness:

‘Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.’

I am currently discussing with Lutheran friends what they call JBWA: "justified by works also". They object to it based on the Protestant principle of being saved by faith alone (sola fide). But these particular Lutherans do not subscribe that once one is saved, one is always saved (and assured of it). It is therefore plausible to explain that, in that lifetime of being saved, or, having been saved, in the lifetime of remaining saved, one's cooperation has an impact. This cooperation, they see as "works also", and they will never permit that it is a cause of justification. Fair enough, I think. The who of salvation is of course he-who-saves (Yeshua), our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. The what of remaining saved, as in the things that impact our state of grace, includes, significantly, obedience. Not as a cause, but as a requirement of God, i.e., he requires our obedience. In their doctrines, faith that saves (or that which keeps us saved), seems to what we Catholics might refer to as a living faith, or a life of faith. This necessarily involves obedience -- and that involves love, as in the two greatest commandments to love God with all our mind, heart, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Love exhibits itself in good works.

Faith without (good) works is dead, says St. James, so works are in there someplace as the "flesh" of our faith. If we refuse to give our works over to the will of God in obedience, then we most certainly wreck our faith and imperil our salvation. This refusal to obey is the opposite of cooperation with grace. This refusal to love is a rejection of God, who is love. Therefore, cooperation with grace, which is by obedience in our whole being (body included), does impact our salvation. It is not the cause of it, but it is a requirement. More precisely, it is God's requirement.

But a word about the Catholic notion of being saved: we don't generally express it in this way. We know instead of the state of grace, which keeps us in friendship and unity with God. Mortal sin (deliberate and gravely evil works) severs that state of grace, so we therefore understand salvation as a process that mortal sin can interrupt. We also understand that refusing to re-establish that state of grace, that friendship with God, may completely derail salvation. Thus, it is our habit to speak only of the state of grace, not of being certainly saved. The New Testament also refers often to the Last Day, at the hour of judgment, as the definite time of salvation, because that is when the process is complete. It is not a lack of confidence in the God who saves, but a realistic assessment of our sinful nature, which, in the state of grace, is being repaired by the Holy Spirit. It is daunting to think that God has given us the will to resist and rebuff the Holy Spirit. Just look again at what the Lord teaches above about the refusal to forgive. But we take comfort in the fact that we are not without help -- we refer to the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete, the helper. With his help, we can discern, we can forgive, we can love, we can obey.

Brother, or sister, or mother

In today's Gospel reading from Mark 3:31-35, we have the story of the Lord's earthly family trying to see him. When the Lord is told of this, he looks at his audience and points out ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.’

While I was reading this to my family during bedtime prayers, one of my sons asks, quite interested: who were the brothers of Jesus? He's never heard of them (he's only 6). I explained that Aramaic limitation in vocabulary which makes it possible that these brothers or sisters were simply relatives. I also pointed out that some of these brothers are mentioned elsewhere as being sons of another Mary, a relative of our Lady. Obviously, this was more food for thought for my Evangelical wife than my kids, but I'd rather give a proper answer anyway.

It bears thinking that this oddity about the largely unknown brothers and sisters of Christ cause interest. Obviously my children are not atheists looking for a way to discredit Christian tradition. It does not matter: if it is interesting, the question ought to be asked and the answer should be given.

First I had to make clear that the point of St. Mark here was to marvel at God's gift of household, making all who do the will of the Father his children, making them brothers and sisters and mothers of the Lord. I've read of strange arguments using the Lord's brothers as a way to discredit the Church, as if it really mattered so much. Our Lady's perpetual virginity is not quite drilled in vehemently in the catechism, and its theological value is the pressing subject of volumes. There is a passage in Ezekiel about the gate that shall not be opened after the Lord had already gone through it. It has elicited comment from Saints Ambrose, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and certainly from many others. It is logical if you put yourself in the shoes of St. Joseph, who would probably feel some awe at the fact that our Lady was, in the virgin birth, a holy vessel who was overshadowed by the Spirit -- the Jews were clear about how holy the ark was as a result of that overshadowing in the OT.

And yet wrangling about these brothers of the Lord detract from the message. This particular message is about the marvelous inclusion of all as children of God. His hearers, who naturally held the Lord in high regards, were likely to have felt some envy for those who were closest to the Lord: his mother and his brothers and sisters -- even twice removed cousins, or even his childhood friends who grew up around him. The Lord, however, grants them a wonderful boon: we who did not know him as a child, who did not grow up around him, are also called to be his brothers and sisters -- simply from doing the will of God.

Now I don't mean here a case of works-righteousness. This is not about buying our way into God's family. But having been adopted into this family, even so purely by grace, here is a deeper truth. We are not family in name only. We are a family in fact. The will of God? St. Basil the Great, in today's Office of Readings, expounds on the marvelous and generous love of God. And our proper response (because it is a response, not an advanced payment) is simple: Love. That is what makes a family.

Now that I think about it, the Church actually does one better than those who would use the brothers of the Lord as a stick with which to beat Church tradition. They might claim, on the cursory reading of a few passages, that Christ had younger brothers, children of Mary. The Church claims more: we are all children of Mary. We were adopted into God's family through kinship with the firstborn, Jesus Christ. If we become his brothers and sisters in baptism, what does that make of Mary who is his mother?

The Charism of Blessed Mother Theresa

Reacting to analogies between dark nights of the souls for Dr. Martin Luther and Bl. Mother Theresa, someone objected in this way:

"Martin Luther's despair and feelings of abandonment from God, are as different from that experienced by Mother Theresa, as darkness is from light. Why? Luther's dryness did not last for 50 years like Theresa. Theresa was a devout Catholic, consecrated her life to the 'Immaculate' heart of Mary, prayed to Mary, instead of through the 'Sole' Omnipotent Mediator, The Lord Jesus Christ. She was known to have held dying 'Hindu's' and 'Muslims' in her arms, and said to them, '...believe in your god...' I ask, is this what a 'true' Christian, who knows JESUS as personal Saviour and Lord, DOES? Certainly not! No wonder she did not feel the presence of God in her life for 50 years! When you give this kind of credence to Roman Catholicism, you do a terrible disservice to the Lord Jesus Christ, and His Word, which are all vitiated and invalidated by the utterly unchristian doctrine and dogmas of Catholicism. This is just not right!"

This was my response:

"1 Corinthians 13:8 - 13 tells us: "Love does not come to an end... In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love." Blessed Mother Theresa's preaching has effectively been through action, not words. Hers was the charism to care for the sick, the dying, and the neglected. Perhaps she shuns arguments over religion, but preaches love and the Gospel by caring for those who need it. Perhaps she felt that it would be ineffective to hold a dying person, preaching the Gospel to them insistently and expect them, at that moment, to come to faith with their dying breath. Perhaps she is the neighbor who, finding someone close to death on the road, comes to the victim's aid, regardless of his religon."

I'm not saying that all religions are equal. I don't think Bl. Mother Theresa does either, who was indeed a faithful Catholic. I might baptize them (if they haven't been), but I probably wouldn't go preaching into a dying person's ears either. A terminally ill man, yes, definitely, but someone at the point of death? Show them faith, give them hope, and lavish them with love: I think Bl. Mother Theresa does them all throughout her life in Calcutta. These readings from today's Liturgy of the Hours (via Universalis.com) are probably apt:

	Mid-morning reading (Terce) 1 Corinthians 13:4 - 7
	Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
	Noon reading (Sext) 1 Corinthians 13:8 - 13
	Love does not come to an end. But if there are gifts of prophecy, the time will come when they must fail; or the gift of languages, it will not continue for ever; and knowledge – for this, too, the time will come when it must fail. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect. In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.
	Afternoon reading (None) Colossians 3:14 - 15
	Over all these clothes, to keep them together and complete them, put on love. And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, because it is for this that you were called together as parts of one body. Always be thankful.

Living faith, living love

From today's Liturgy of the Hours via Universalis.com:

Mid-morning reading (Terce)	1 John 4:16 ©
We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves. God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.

---

Noon reading (Sext)	Galatians 6:7 - 8 ©
What a man sows, he reaps. If he sows in the field of self-indulgence he will get a harvest of corruption out of it; if he sows in the field of the Spirit he will get from it a harvest of eternal life.

---

Afternoon reading (None)	(Galatians 6:9-10) ©
We must never get tired of doing good, and then we shall get our harvest at the proper time. While we have the chance, we must do good to all, and especially to our brothers in the faith.

Love, love, love

It hasn't been a good day. Three of us sent off a paper to a tier one conference and .. mine was rejected. Not enough analysis. Didn't consider this or that. It's a bad idea. Sigh. And then I read the following from the Liturgy of the Hours (courtesy of Universalis), and then things aren't as bad as they seem, because they're not as important as they seem.

Mid-morning reading (Terce) 1 Corinthians 13:4 - 7 Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Noon reading (Sext) 1 Corinthians 13:8 - 13 Love does not come to an end. But if there are gifts of prophecy, the time will come when they must fail; or the gift of languages, it will not continue for ever; and knowledge – for this, too, the time will come when it must fail. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect. In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love. Afternoon reading (None) Colossians 3:14 - 15 Over all these clothes, to keep them together and complete them, put on love. And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, because it is for this that you were called together as parts of one body. Always be thankful.

There were recent waves made about Blessed Mother Theresa having prolonged periods of doubt. Apart from the fact that some people simply do not understand sanctity, the journey of faith and dark nights of the soul -- which lifted towards the end -- they also conveniently ignore one unassailable truth about this mighty figure of our times: she was a bastion of love for the least loved. That can never be taken away from her, and by all accounts, that will never be overlooked by the God whom she served so well.

[Link to First Things article by Fr. Groeschel found via Intentional Disciples.]

The crown of thorns

Musing on this third sorrowful mystery of the holy rosary usually brings to mind the bewildering inversion that Christ embraced: that the king of kings should be treated with the utmost contempt. Tonight the musing gave way to real horror. Those thorns! These were not shallow cuts, since the soldiers actually hammered the thorns in with blows. How could the Lord have stayed silent for that? Like a lamb led to slaughter -- I cannot imagine how I could have withstood such treatment. This is particularly difficult for the Son of God to endure because he was completely innocent and he had complete power over the situation had he chosen it. Scores of angels would have fought for him at his call, and those heartless soldiers would have perished horribly. What kept the Lord on his seat, enduring the humiliation and pain?

What love he must have in his sacred heart, which made such treatment acceptable to him who had his marching orders from the Father above and saw the desired end: the redemption of wayward children. St. Josemaria Escriva wrote in the Holy Rosary that the torture meant for our flesh was received willingly by Christ for love of us. He did the heavy lifting. He took on the eternal and impossibly horrible punishment for us. Expiation in his blood for us. What is left for us then? The free will on our part to seek mercy and forgiveness. That which the expiation does not take away is the necessity of contrition -- already assisted by the Holy Spirit's constant call to repentance -- that which must be ours. Not because our contrition in any way makes amends, but in our onward journey full of scenes of contrition, the Holy Spirit shapes us into sanctified children of God.

Marriage or Me?

This is a must-read from Charles Colson about me, myself and Marriage -- and why the "me" mentality contradicts Marriage.

Mortification: works-righteousness or love?

Back in my Opus Dei days, mortification was a relevant topic. I never came close to becoming a numerary, but those three on-and-off years were blessed years anyway. As I told my wife, they were among my most peaceful. Mortification was a key element. It can be easily misunderstood as a means of earning my way to salvation, but that is far from what is taught.

Why delay that drink of water? Why shower in cold water? Why walk the extra mile? Why bite back that irritated retort? The clear lesson from St. Josemaria Escriva was that this was training. Training for what? The most succint answer came to me the other day while meditating on the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary. Daily mortification is training for love by small exercises -- deliberately done for love.

Every ounce of pain and sorrow that the Lord endured, from birth to Calvary, was for love. We share that calling. The thought came to me that, one day, or perhaps in several occasions throughout our lives, the Lord will invite us to some considerable acts of love. Watching my wife's sacrifice with the kids, I know she has been called in a special way to acts of motherly love. My sisters go through the same with their children. Such occasions, where purely natural and human love would fail, is where supernatural and holy love is called for. Small acts of sacrifice -- mortification, or dying unto ourselves -- are the small exercises in preparation for those times. We must die to our self-love so that it does not hold us back from loving God and our neighbor. For love of our God, we want to be well-prepared for the opportunities that will come.

Some of the above mentioned exercise seem insignificant. But think about how we train up our children with small, seemingly trivial exercises, which turn out to be indispensable. Not because they are objectively important, but they are the necessary single steps to walk a mile, then two, and so on.

The Lord invites us to pick up our daily crosses, and I heartily agree that delaying a drink of water is nothing compared to holding back an angry retort. But any act, with a holy intention, with love as the inspiration and the rule, becomes a supernatural act. Not in order to merit salvation, but rather to condition ourselves to love as the Lord wills.

Running the race

In my conversations with Lito at extranos about his concerns regarding Catholics trying to buy their salvation with works (something which the Catholic Church does not teach but many misconstrue to be the case), I sometimes wonder what the point is in arguing about words. I recently read through Jimmy Akin's explanation of the term "justification" in Catholic teaching, and he reminds us that St. Paul exhorted his listeners "to avoid disputing about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers" (2Tim. 2:14, RSV; cf. 1Tim. 6:4).

Lito is only being thorough when he wants me to articulate my attitude concerning justification and works. This morning at Mass I was comforted to find St. Paul in today's readings (Philippians 3:8 - 14) capturing my very Catholic perspective on that:

"All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death. That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have become perfect yet: I have not yet won, but I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. I can assure you my brothers, I am far from thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come; I am racing for the finish, for is the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus."

Yes, it is Lent, and I can tell a Lutheran that I also wish to share in Christ's sufferings by training my flesh in self-denial. This is something that Christ called us to do. Am I trying therefore to buy my salvation with this self-denial? No. At the foot of the cross in the school of Christ's passion, I simply wish to live the Incarnation in my flesh. To be perfect, as God calls me to be, in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Sin, Scrupulosity, Fear and Lov

Lito had posted in his blog about Sean Hannity and Fr. Tom Euteneuer, the latter having publicly contradicted the former's heterodox notions about contraception. Lito had latched on to Fr. Tom's later statement (in another venue) that he was compelled to try and correct Mr. Hannity by his duty as a pastor, that to fail to even try would jeopardize his salvation. Lito and I had been going back and forth about justification by works (and Catholics do not advocate that this is by works alone), so I felt that I had to respond in order to head that off. Then Lito asked about mortal and venial sin:

All sins from my understanding are mortal as I think Jesus taught - for example he says to the Pharisees "to look at a woman to lust after her" is already tantamount to adultery so we sin in our thoughts, in our words and in or actions too. Would you agree to this characterization of sin? For example we do not love God and neighbor constantly so we are sinning mortally everyday.

This was my response. Not that everything that follows is spot on -- I am often guilty of hastily writing a response, particularly when I'm way past my bedtime (and the bread has probably gone past simply cooling down -- it is probably soaking by now -- in the bread pan). But Mark Shea's quip that no thought of his, "no matter how stupid, should ever go unpublished," is forever etched in my mind, so I wish to post my response to Lito for posterity:

I think the Catholic theology on mortal and venial sin is more .. rigidly organized. To constantly ask the question "is this mortally sinful or is it venially sinful only?" is not really the right attitude to sinfulness, but some people do fall into that. I have been known to drive myself crazy with scrupulosity, particularly when I was still in college.

BTW Cardinal O'Connor gives a good homily on that.

For me, scrupulosity loses out with love and trust: God's love and my trust in God's love more than any fear of God's judgment. It took a while for me to get here though, and scrupulosity can still rear its ugly head from time to time...

But as to sinning mortally everyday.. let's just say that we would disappoint God daily if not for His grace which, from time to time, manages to spur us into love. When we are called to regular confession, Catholics are urged to consider two things: God's love and our contrition. Love is superior to fear, but fear is not without its place. The fear of the Lord is of wisdom. Love of the Lord is at the end. Fear brings about imperfect contrition. Love spurs us into perfect contrition, with the right motive being that we would want more than anything to please the Lord because we love him. Now for those who would worry about mortal and venial sins.. I guess at a tender age with an immature level of faith, one would go through that stage when the Law is a set of rules; before one moves into the Law being a life of freedom written in our hearts. For those, I guess it is important to reassure them that, so and so are not serious acts of unrighteousness and so should not elicit an exaggerated dread of having lost Heaven, something which can harm one's faith -- the notion of God picking you apart for every transgression, the minor as much as the major. At the same time, it is important to be able to bluntly (sometimes necessary) point out to those with calloused consciences that so and so are serious sins which cry to Heaven for justice and must be dealt with appropriately. To do otherwise would also be harmful to the faith -- the notion that God does not care for the oppressed, does not expect justice in our actions.

There will always be people for whom the difference between mortal and venial, serious and minor trespasses, are relevant. To fail to distinguish them could be harmful to such people as they are still growing in their faith and righteousness.

Pope Benedict Releases Sacrament of Love

Today I received this email from CatholicCulture.org:

Pope Benedict XVI today released Sacramentum Caritatis (Sacrament of Love), his apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist following up the work of the 2005 Synod of Bishops. What this important document covers can be roughly outlined by the titles of its three main parts:

1. The Eucharist, A Mystery to Be Believed
2. The Eucharist, A Mystery to Be Celebrated
3. The Eucharist, A Mystery to Be Lived

The document is available on CatholicCulture.org: Sacramentum Caritatis—Sacrament of Love.

Love into action

From the Daily Gospel, I found this gem from St. Cyprian concerning "love into action", as a good commentary of today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5:17-19.

Saint Cyprian (about 200-258), bishop of Carthage and martyr
Treatise on jealousy and envy, 12-13

The fulfilment of the Law: love into action

To put on the name of Christ, and not to go in the way of Christ, what else is it but a mockery of the divine name, but a desertion of the way of salvation; since He Himself teaches and says that he shall come unto life who keeps His commandments (Mt 19,17), and that he is wise who hears and does His words (Mt 7,24); that he, moreover, is called the greatest doctor in the kingdom of heaven who thus does and teaches; that, then, will be of advantage to the preacher what has been well and usefully preached, if what is uttered by his mouth is fulfilled by deeds following?

But what did the Lord more frequently instil into His disciples, what did He more charge to be guarded and observed among His saving counsels and heavenly precepts, than that with the same love wherewith He Himself loved the disciples, we also should love one another? And in what manner does he keep either the peace or the love of the Lord, who, when jealousy intrudes, can neither be peaceable nor loving? Thus also the Apostle Paul, when he was urging the merits of peace and charity, and when he was strongly asserting and teaching that neither faith nor alms, nor even the passion itself of the confessor and the martyr, would avail him, unless he kept the requirements of charity entire and inviolate (1Cor 13,1-3).

It would be easy to think that the Lord speaks to a separate group of people, i.e., unbelievers, when he warns of wrongdoing, e.g., "whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven." It is easy for us to think that our baptism makes us privileged members who can do no wrong. Not so. Being privileged members, much more is required of us. Our baptism gives us the means of sanctifying the world through our witness in deeds and words. In this generation, as much as it had ever been, the world needs a pure witness of charity/love, so that the world might believe that God the Father sent the Son who brings the gift of our salvation. Being recipients of this gift ourselves, we must share this gift with the whole world. To do otherwise would be to turn our backs on those who desperately seek satisfaction in the wrong places, whereas their hearts will only find joy when they rest in the Lord.