Keep Christ in Advent!--A Reflection on the First Sunday in Advent

This Sunday, November 28, 2010 is the First Sunday of Advent. It is the beginning of the Church's liturgical year. The Mass readings are all about getting ready for the coming of Jesus, the Son of Man as he refers to himself in the Gospel.

In the first reading, Isaiah foretells it, "In days to come,/the mountain of the Lord’s house/shall be established as the highest mountain/and raised above the hills." God himself will instruct all nations. After this instruction and judgment, there will be peace--the universal peace of Christ. In those oft quoted words, Isaiah says, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares/and their spears into pruning hooks;/one nation shall not raise the sword against another,/nor shall they train for war again." Instruction, judgment, peace.

The problem is that instead of listening to the Lord's teaching, we have been sleepwalking through life. St. Paul calls for us to wake-up! "You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed..." In our sleepwalking we have wandered off the path. Instead we have stumbled into orgies and drunkenness, promiscuity and lust, rivalry and jealousy. That may sound like a pretty good Saturday night to some, but it makes for a terrible Sunday morning!

In the Gospel, Jesus compares us to the people of Noah's day. There's old Noah, building a boat in the middle of the desert. He was preparing for a judgment that seemed to never come. So the people did what we would do, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. They probably even had a pool going on when the first raindrop would fall or when Noah would quit. So life went on as usual; until it began to rain!

Since we don't know when that first drop will fall in our time, Jesus calls for us to stay awake. The Church gives us this season of Advent at the beginning of it's liturgical year to remind us to prepare for Christ's coming. It is a time to consider our resolutions for this new year. What will you do to prepare for Christ's coming? It's not just his second coming we need to consider. Jesus comes to us every day, especially in two ways. First, he comes to us in the poor. They may be poor in spirit or poor in health or poor in morality. They may be financially impoverished or emotionally impoverished. They may be in the womb or at the end of life. They will probably be people we don't like very much. Learn to see Christ in them.

Second, he comes to us in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist. Every Mass is not only a memorial of his passion and resurrection, but is also an anticipation of his coming to us. Jesus is meek and humble of heart, so he comes to us in bread and wine. Because if he came in his glory, to such sinners as we are, we could not see his face and live. But by his grace in the Eucharist, he does come to us; body, blood soul and divinity. As St. Peter says, his divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion so that we may come to share in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). He feeds us with his life so we will be able to live with him in Heaven.

Let us use this season of Advent to wake-up from our spiritual sleep, to leave behind the sin that so easily trips us up and to prepare the way of the Lord, in our hearts and in our world. Keep Christ in Advent! He is coming. He is almost here.

Myers Wanna "Cracker"?

PZ Myers is a godless liberal. Hey, that's what it says on his blog! He's a professor of biology at the University of Minnesota at Morris. He is an atheist and proud of it. In recent days he has become notorious for the sacrilege of desecrating a consecrated host or, as he calls them, "horrible little crackers."

According to the Catholic Church, when a priest speaks the words of consecration over the hosts (i.e. thin wafers of wheat bread) during a Mass, by the power of God the hosts become the body, blood soul and divinity of Jesus Christ in their essence while retaining the appearance of bread. Since the hosts are changed in what they essentially are but not in how they appear they still look and taste like bread. If you could examine them in a lab they would have the chemical composition of bread. Except for a few Eucharistic miracles, the consecrated hosts don't become physical flesh and blood. If you prick them, they do not bleed.

But that is apparently what PZ Myers expected or thought Catholics would expect. He did prick a consecrated host by pushing a nail through it. It did not bleed. Imagine his surprise and dissappointment. (It's funny how fundamentalist atheists become when it's to their advantage, but I digress). Remember this is not the first time someone put a nail through Jesus. On that occassion he said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." I'm sure that what Jesus said when PZ Myers drove a nail through him--again!

Catholics must forgive PZ Myers for his sacrilege. This desecration of the Eucharist, this taking something of value to someone else and breaking it, is the action of a frightened, arrogant, petulant child who can't play nicely with others and whose vocabulary consists of profanity, silly blasphemies and "nyah, nyah, na, nyah, nyah!"

PZ Myers said that "nothing must be held sacred." I suppose that includes even the U of Minnesota and it's students. So the University might want to be careful. This breed will turn on you. For militant atheists have only their anger at a God they don't believe exists and at anyone who believes in anything other than their bitter screed. To them, all religions are lies and we would be better off without them. They are right in a sense. As St. Paul says if Christ is not raised our faith is in vain; we are still in out sins. If Christ is not God, if God doesn't exist, then the Eucharist is just a "horrible little cracker".

Fair enough. If PZ Myers wants a world without religion, especially Christianity, especially Catholicism, he can have one as long as he gives up any of the benefits of the Church. No hospitals, no art, no genetics, no seismology, no music, no charitable organizations, no universities, no care for the poor or elderly, no atheists, no one to rant and rail against.

So let's not rail and rant against PZ Myers. Let's pray for and forgive him. Priests at the London Oratory are doing just that!

Are You Being Fed?

In some protestant churches if someone wants to know if the church you joined is a good place for you to be they will ask “Are you being fed?” The choir can be musical, the sanctuary beautiful, the sermons evangelical, the youth ministry radical, but “Are you being fed”?

Now you will almost never hear someone ask a Catholic “Are you being fed”? Many would assume we are not! Yet if anyone can answer “Yes” to that question, it’s a Catholic!

First, the Catholic, like the protestant, is being fed with the Word of God from the Bible. On a typical Sunday the Catholic hears four readings from Scripture: an Old Testament passage, a Psalm, a New Testament passage from the epistles, Acts or Revelation, and a Gospel passage!

I’ll admit that Catholic priests aren’t exactly known for their preaching skills. (Catholics call their preaching “homilies” not “sermons”). Yet I would say that the average priest’s homily is as good as an average protestant pastor’s sermon. The key difference is its purpose.

The Catholic scripture readings and homily are part of the Liturgy of the Word, the first part of the Mass. They prepare the faithful for the second part, the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the heart of the Mass. In Protestant churches the sermon (and perhaps the altar call) is the heart of the service.

In answer to the question “Are you being fed?” Catholics can say “Yes! Not only am I being fed the word of God from the Scripture, but I am literally being fed the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, in the Eucharist!

The Eucharist is a continuation of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Once consecrated, the bread and wine become the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. Just as “the word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) at the Incarnation, so in the Eucharist Jesus gives us his flesh and blood as real spiritual food and drink (John 6:53-59). He gives us himself.

Am I being fed? Yes, both through the Scripture and the Eucharist I am receiving the Word of God. I am being fed by and with Jesus. And you are what you eat!