To my sons who are distracted at Mass

.. from time to time at least, I must remind them that many who start out as Catholics later claim that they never got anything out of the Church. And I am reminded of this passage: We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn. (Mt 11:17). There is a first, perhaps a second reading, plus the Psalms and a Gospel reading at each Mass. The prayers in the Mass themselves are shot through with Scriptural passages, in addition to beautiful articulation of the faith from the Church Fathers and the saints. John 6 and the Last Supper come alive at the Eucharist, and the sacrifice in Calvary becomes present to us, and of course we are nourished with the Bread of Life. Even the chapel itself is an evangelization in colors, shades and depictions of our Christian heritage.

So, to my sons, and all who likewise find the Mass at times unbearably uneventful: could it be that sometimes at least, the Mass would be fruitful indeed if you were to pay a bit more attention to it? Lest you miss the miraculous: ecce homo, an ordinary carpenter, the Son of God just the same.

The Mystery of the Annunciation

I wonder if Evangelicals would sometimes consider the significance of the episode of the angel Gabriel's annunciation to Mary. When I was praying the Rosary earlier, in contemplating the mystery of that event, I was struck as I often was: this annunciation is now to me! I am not kecharitomene or full of grace as Mary was, but I am given grace. Unearned, undeserved grace, given in baptism, a free gift of justification and sanctification begun. Graced in every sacrament and Eucharist, every And the announcement is simply unbelievable, that I should somehow bring Christ to the world. I shall have to ask with Mary: how can this be? For I am a sinful man! But Gabriel provides the answer: it is the Holy Spirit's work, for what is my body if not, as St. Paul says, a temple of the Holy Spirit. And as St. John says, if I have love, then God lives in me and I in Him. And, again, St. Paul declares, that I am a member of the body of Christ. Whatever else I may bemoan of my unworthiness, I must never forget: this is the work of the God who raised the dead, brought inexplicable healing, gave men the power to cast out demons and change hearts and minds. We're talking about the God who became man, after all. What have I to fear and fret about? I cannot fathom it, but the Word does not return to the Father in vain. I have but one logical answer to give to the God who loved me first: fiat -- "be it done to me according to thy word."

And it only makes sense to ask our Lady who especially lived through this mystery, and knew our Lord best through those years, to walk with me and teach me the ways of her son, our Lord. And may he be made flesh in me.

Feast of the Annunciation

I shall always miss my days in De La Salle University, Manila, where the chime tolls twice a day for the Angelus (noon and 6 pm), and most everyone stops and at the very least listens to the prayer. It is the threefold celebration of God's mercy and love towards man:

  First, it is he who loves us first, and promises salvation for mankind. And his graciousness means he does not override our Lady's will, but permits her to respond freely.

  Second, she responds for all mankind with the only response we should rightly give: fiat -- let it be done. We must respond with docility to God's will, with faith, even if we do not fully comprehend.

  Finally, as God promises, his Word does not return in vain, but accomplishes as it proceeds. The Word is made flesh, and that is also his promise to all who respond to His grace.

Each time we pray the Angelus, we go back to the mystery of the Incarnation, and renew its fulfillment in ourselves -- we who are called see and love Christ in the least of our brethren, and for them to receive Christ's love through our love, which we give for His sake.

Mary is crucial to Christmas and the Incarnation

Explained well -- by a Lutheran pastor!

Spirit and truth

The Jews do not seem to have any metaphoric understanding of "Spirit." Yet many Christians cite such a metaphor as the key to the doctrine of the Eucharist as a purely symbolic meal. One step improved is the doctrine that the Eucharist is a purely Spiritual meal, but even that is not good enough. The Catholic doctrine is instead the sacramental one: the Eucharist is a parallel of the Incarnation. It is Spiritual and physical. It is also holy -- sacramental. How can something Christian not be sacramental, when Christ came and remains our most Blessed Sacrament? Just as the Incarnation is about God becoming man, the Eucharist is about God becoming bread and wine. And just as the Incarnation does not compromise the fullness of divinity, neither does the Eucharist.

It came to mind earlier that a similarly strange metaphor of the Spirit is also responsible for compromises on Baptism as a sacrament. Likewise Confirmation, the Eucharist, Holy Orders, Matrimony, Confession, and Extreme Unction.

I have an image of the Enemy chipping away at athe faith of the Church. Chip, chip, chip. No sacraments, no bodily Incarnation, no bodily Resurrection -- pretty soon, one is worshipping a christ who is not Jesus Christ; God who never became man.

When you exclude the hard doctrines because they are divisive, what do you risk losing? Who says that divisive doctrines are wrong simply because they are divisive?

Mother of God

Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio writes a short but very informative piece about the controversy that is still generated by the Catholic and Orthodox dogma of Mary as the Mother of God (in Greek: Theotokos or "God-bearer". If you are one of those who squirm at this title, or know people who would, then please read this piece. As with any spiritual reading, please ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and reveal the truth to you before you start reading. After a thoughtful and prayerful reflection, please consider the implications of this dogma:

God the Son united Himself with a human nature forever. Humanity and divinity were so closely bound together in Jesus, son of Mary, that they could never be separated again. Everything that would be done by the son of Mary would be the act both of God and of man. So indeed it would be right to say that a man raised Lazarus from the dead and commanded the wind and waves, that God was born that first Christmas day and that, on Good Friday, God died.

And please consider the implications of rejecting this dogma:

It would mean that God had not really embraced our humanity so as to become human. Rather, the humanity of Christ is hermetically sealed off from the divinity, as if Jesus were two persons, as if human nature were so distasteful that God, in Christ, had to keep it at arm's distance. ...

[Did God] just come and borrow a human body and drive it around for awhile, ascend back to heaven, and discard it like an old car[?]