Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard for your Mass of Sunday obligation? Let us know what it was.
For my part, for Quinquagesima Sunday, I connected the image in 1 Corinthians 13 of seeing “darkly” and, in the Gospel, the Apostles inability to see what the Lord was talking about in predicting his Passion, and the giving of sight to the blind man at Jericho. At the same time, I connected the journey Paul described of moving from being a child and doing childish things to being a man and doing mature things, with the ascent Jesus and the disciples will make “up to Jerusalem”, making a connection also with John’s vision of the “new Jerusalem coming down” in Revelations, that recapitulates the ascent of Moses and the elders to the top of Mt Sinai when they have the sight of God in heaven and the shining floor like lapis lazuli. Then I placed that in the context of the sequence of pre-Lent Sundays, which in ancient times prepared prospective catechumens to move from a less clear notion of what they were getting into to a clearer notion, through the texts of Sunday Masses, till they, on this Sunday, ascended the Vatican Hill to old St. Peter’s…. and the same readings we had today. I reminded everyone that Fathers of the Church would refer to Lent as a “sacramentum” (Gk. mysterion). Outward signs help us out of blindness to “see” interior realities. This is how we prepare for Lent, which is also an ascent to Jerusalem, sacramentally made present to us and us to it in the liturgical action, in anticipation of our ascent to the new Jerusalem when all things are resolved.
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OF so the plank in the eye. Main point was that we are all sinners. we should never think we can judge others, only God can judge. It’s very foolish to say “my sins are not serious”, only God can judge, so GO TO CONFESSION.
At the OF I talked about self examination and judgement of others. Jesus talked about judging properly. He said look at self first, then confront your brother. We judge not to condem or gossip, but to aid our breatheren to become better and lead them away from self destruction.
At the EF I talked about the Stational Church – St. Peter’s Basilica. Peter was both faithful and unfaithful, finally showed his resolve through his ultimate sacrifice. All of us are like Peter. We need to fin our strength in the Eucharist to become all that God intends us to be.
Father made a connection with the NO gospel (bad trees produce bad fruit) with the saying “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” More than just being nice to get what you want, honey takes a lot of work to make whereas vinegar just has to sit there are ferment until it’s sour. Likewise, to produce sweet honey, or good fruit, we have to work at it like the little bees.
EF: Christ goes up to Jerusalem so that the Divine love may conquer sin forever. This is the same type of love referenced by Paul in 1 Corinthians. This love will endure forever, even in Heaven. Love remains in Heaven, while Faith and Hope necessarily pass away. This love should guide us in our Lenten discipline.
OF: Despite the old adage about sticks and stones, words CAN and DO hurt us. More and more, culture accepts and sometimes celebrates words or phrases which were once deemed unutterable. The Church has always recognized the danger of using our words to the detriment of others or in as an affront against the Truth. Although “A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” might not be found on a Hallmark card, this is the word of God Himself. We hear that actions speak louder than words, but we cannot use this as an excuse to freely use our words in a singular way.
OF – Father started with a quote from a presidential hopeful about how marijuana should be legal because it brings people joy. He went on to speak about how there are many people today who can’t differentiate between “pleasure” and “joy,” and how so many have lived a life full of pleasure but have never experienced joy. He spoke of how Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and went on to enumerate the other Fruits of the Spirit. He then contrasted good fruit (Fruits of the Spirit) with bad fruit (wages of sin, i.e., death). Father also suggested that besides giving something up during Lent, we should use St Paul’s list of Fruits of the Spirit as a daily examination during Lent, … and then come to confession.
For the first time in my 41 years here, a resident Catholic priest extolled the virtues of Humanae Vitae, at the end of Mass, when promoting Forty Days for Life.
Decades ago, a visiting priest on vacation talked about it. I cannot remember any details.
The only other place I heard it promoted was by a local pastor at a prolife rally at the First Baptist Church.
You heard me right.
The pastor also invited me to set up a special night where the reasons behind why contraception is anti-Christian would be explained, as well as NFP and other methods. We brought down several big city experts and with perhaps 50 people in attendance, it went over with a favorable response.
I had it video taped and presented it to Local Ordinary as a “pilot” for a “Flying Humanae Vitae” show.
No taker.
I was not there today as I attended Mass Sat. night. Fr. Ron Meyer made a brief reference to HV and 40 Days for Life on Saturday, but not like he did at the crowded Sunday Mass. My wife was there as organist. What Fr. Ron said, as he helped to promote Forty Days was, to paraphrase:
“Paul VI warned us that after contraception there would be a push for abortion; after that a push for infanticide; after that, euthanasia. We see this happening before our eyes. You might say, ‘What can we do?’ The answer is ‘Plenty’. No excuses. God will not hear of them. I will be at the Forty Days rally at the Church of God on Saturday.”
We are not used to having prayers answered.
In the Byzantine Rite, Sunday was “Cheesefare Sunday” the last day that dairy products and fish may be eaten. After Vespers on Sunday, Great Lent begins. Father talked about the importance of fasting, how Jesus says that some demons can only be driven out by prayer and fasting. He also related a custom in many Byzantine churches where at Vespers people would go around and forgive each other of the wrongs they had done. What a great way to start Lent.
At the OF Mass our pastor mentioned that it is a good idea to examine our conscience daily instead of once a year when we go to confession!
In the EF, Father preached on charity.
Charity helps us to love God for his own sake. Charity is the only true love. It puts all (our) desires at rest. In our society, bodily pleasure is viewed as the highest love. But in the sacrament of marriage, we are supposed to love each other for God’s sake. Charity for someone does not stop at that person, but goes through that person for God’s sake.
The evil ones sees our attachment to our own desires and pounces on them. Go in the desert for 40 days. Without charity, we have already lost the battle. Pick one or two small penances. Build up your Lenten plan on Him, and not on our own weak selves. He will heal our blindness. Crush the head of Satan through charity.
The only way to live charity is to be faithful to our vocation : for love of God.
I had the joy of attending two Masses yesterday, one EF and one OF:
EF: A defense of Lent as needing to be both moved by charity, but not simply a feeling. Fasting without charity is nothing, but “charity” without physical manifestation is an illusion.
OF: A really nerdy (PhD in Mathematics (applied probability), area of research: baseball statistics) Dominican preached on the uses of WD-40 in our physical lives as a comparison to the uses of Lent in our spiritual lives (move what is stiff-impel us to virtue, prevent creaking-help conquer vices, clean crayon from the walls-remove temporal punishment due to sin). It went on for an impressively long time, which is a testament both to the strength of the analogue as well as the strength of both WD-40 and Lent.
In the diocese of KCMO, Bishop Johnson had a letter read about the dangers of pornography. He did a good job of keeping it discrete enough that children could still be present, but clear enough for adults to get the message. It was good to hear coming from a bishop.
Our newer bishop did our homily yesterday. He stressed the importance of vocations, and even during the present crisis, many Catholics are standing in solidarity with their priests, and are supporting them. Frankly, this is a hard time to be a priest, deacon, or even a practicing Catholic Male like myself.
The newer bishop also mentioned during his homily that our diocese has 75 seminarians. In 2002, our diocese had something like 13 seminarians. The bishop spoke to several parishes in our diocese this weekend via audio as part of the diocesan appeal. Since our newer bishop had previously been a seminary rector, I am glad he chose to center the topic on vocations for the diocesan appeal.
My homily was about gearing up for Lent. Lent is about conversion — which will be my theme through Lent (as it was the past three Sundays during pseudo-Septuagesima — i.e., even though we don’t have that season anymore, I tried to do what I could with homilies). I talked about confession. The first reading gave an image of “shaking the sieve,” which I used throughout.