Holy Day, Holy Union
I don’t know about you, but I must admit to feeling a mixture of excitement and dread every time Christmas comes around. With shopping to be done, cards to be sent, food to be prepared, rooms to be cleaned … it can all be a bit much. And it doesn’t always help when people say, “Just focus on Jesus, the reason for the season!”
Well, yes, of course he’s the reason, but the season is insane. So insane, in fact, that the preparation can often eclipse the actual holiday. So busy, that the checklist of tasks can keep one up at night. So expensive, that it can rob the heart of the joy of giving. And so secular, that it’s easy to forget Church and our obligations to the Lord during the Advent/Christmas season.
C.S. Lewis once wrote, “My brother heard a woman on a bus say, as the bus passed a church with a [Nativity] outside it … ‘They bring religion into everything. Look – they’re dragging it even into Christmas now!'” We can chuckle at this confused perspective, but it’s not entirely inaccurate. The Church has been infiltrated by secular influences that demand celebration but conveniently forget why. Sometimes, when I’m stuck in shopping mall traffic, or up to my eyeballs in wrapping paper and bows, I forget why, too. What’s worse is, I can even begin to resent it!
This morning I read from the prophet Jeremiah, who denounces those for whom God is “always on their lips, but far from their hearts” (Jer 12:2b). My first instinct was to mentally apply this condemnation to Pope Francis for Monday’s release of Fiducia supplicans, a Vatican declaration which uses all manner of flowery gobbledygook to ultimately spread confusion among the faithful while giving non-traditionalists a reason to preen and crow. Laden with praise for Francis’ “fatherly and pastoral approach” (2), this disaster of a statement belies a far darker purpose.
Although technically Fiducia does not alter prior Church teaching on the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman, it invites, even encourages, Catholic clergy to offer blessings upon same-sex couples and those in irregular unions. It parses the definition of priestly “blessing” so precisely as to nearly strip it of its power and mystery: It literally says that “blessing is transformed into inclusion” (19). It further admonishes priests from subjecting the faithful “to too many moral prerequisites (12),” as though such standards oppress rather than serve as sources of true freedom.
The document attempts to assure the baffled reader that clerical blessings are disassociated from any “intention to legitimize anything” (40). Yet there is no question that such a priestly gesture upon a couple living in sin will be interpreted as precisely that. And Francis is not ignorant of this. He clearly anticipates objections, warning in the document itself that “no further responses should be expected” (41), shutting down any hope or opportunity for papal clarification.
This pope is a master at sowing confusion, and he does so by using the words of charity and inclusion to mask what he knows will be heresy interpreted. God may be on his lips, but I fear he is far from Francis’ heart.
These are the initial musings that passed through my troubled mind in my devotions this morning … and I think they are not without merit. My second – probably better – instinct, however, was to apply Jeremiah 12 to my own hypocrisy, particularly in the Christmas season: I mutter under my breath at the hoards of shoppers in my way at the mall, rather than rejoicing that we live in a country where so many people celebrate Christmas. I offer financial donations earmarked for Christmas, but take too much contentment in my anticipated tax deduction. I even get irritated that I have to go to Mass twice this weekend to fulfill my Sunday and Holy Day obligations!
Are my spiritual shortcomings as serious as the Vatican’s theological ones? Maybe not. They’re certainly not as impactful on the wider world. But both reflect a troubling invasion of secular values into what ought to be an entirely Christ-centered matter. Whether it’s Christmas or marriage that is being celebrated, holiness should be at its heart. Guarding the sanctity of both the holy day and the holy union is the duty of all who belong to Christ. Words of true blessing should come forth from lips that honor the Lord above all, whether my lips or the lips of one who has the ear of the world.
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
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My Name is Bernadette
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Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000 1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]Continue reading→
Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
First Holy Communion: Sermon from May 16, 1943
Here is a sermon from the good old days by +Rev. Msgr. Vincent Nicholas Foy (August 14, 1915 – March 13, 2017), from 1943. Readers may recall that Pope Saint Pius X, by the decree Quam Singulari in 1910, lowered the customary age of reception of Holy Communion – after the rigours of the plague[…]Continue reading→
In the Glorious Light of Easter, Alleluia!
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory (Col. 3:3-4). The Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour[…]Continue reading→
An Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday
The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is one of waiting, in silence, as the world wonders – anticipates – what will happen, after the death of Christ. We re-live this time each year in the anamnesis of our liturgy, and in turn look forward to the glorious re-creation of all things at the[…]Continue reading→
Europe’s Long Descent
(As we meditate on this day on Christ’s burial, and His descent into hell, it is fitting to ponder here with contributor Peter Marcus how the world seems to be heading there as well. The difference is that, although God cannot ‘redeem’ hell, nor those therein, He can and did redeem the world. There is[…]Continue reading→