Abbey-Roads2

“He gave them all they craved.”- Ps. 78

The first reading at Mass today expresses something of what I was attempting to say in yesterday’s post, The long and lonely road: A story about nothing.  I’ll paraphrase the text from Deuteronomy 8, as if it was addressed to me alone, and perhaps you will understand some of what I was attempting to say in my post “about nothing“. 

Remember how for forty years now the Lord your God has directed all your wandering in the desert, especially since your conversion.  He did this to test you by affliction and to find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.  He let all of these things happen to you; he let you be afflicted with hunger - and then he fed you with manna - the Body and Blood of Christ, a food unrecognized by your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by the Word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.  It is not by novelties and delicacies confected by men that one lives, but by the Living Bread come down from heaven.

Do not forget the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery to debauchery and sinful pleasure.  Do not forget him who guided you through the vast and terrible desert of dissent and compromise, with its seraph serpents seeking to deceive you with false doctrine, and the scorpions of lust and self-indulgence, and its parched and waterless ground where other’s have died because their faith has no roots, or their dwellings have been built on sand.  Do not forget the Lord, who himself instructed you and showed you the way you must go.  He who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock of Peter- the clear teaching of the Magisterium, and who fed you in the desert with the manna of the most precious Body and Blood of the Lord, a food unknown to your fathers.- Adapted from Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14b-16a   

“He pierced the rock to give them water;

it gushed forth in the desert like a river.”- Ps. 105

O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine.

[Try and remember our troops this weekend, many are not able to receive Communion due to a lack of chaplains and access to Mass.] 

A story about nothing.
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When I was little, my siblings made fun of me because of my devotion. I would dress up as a priest and pretended to say Mass, I prayed the rosary and had processions with my statues. I even carried a jar of water around when we went places in our car - I knew lay-people could baptize anyone in danger of death - so in case I came upon an accident and no priest was available - I was ready.   You see, when I was little I didn’t want anyone to go to hell.  In fact, after I learned about Fatima and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I prayed the rosary every day and made posters to put up around the neighborhood promoting devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.
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My dad used to tell me that I would never make it as a priest, and my mother said I was a little hypocrite, after that, my brother and sister teased me even more. Sometimes, my dad was nice to me about being a priest and would take me to see one, and after I explained my desire to the priest, my dad would ask the priest for money. I’d be embarrassed. My dad would curse the priest as we left the rectory if he did not give him money. At home my dad would say bad things about the Church and tell me I would never make it as a priest.
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When I was old enough to enter minor seminary, my dad brought me to another priest who told me that I prayed too much, spent too much time in church, and used religion as an escape. He said my desire to be a monk was bad - monks had no freedom, and to be a priest in a religious order would be throwing my life away. He agreed with my dad and said I should finish high school and then think about diocesan seminary. I was sent to public high school - where I quickly fell away from the Church.
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When I returned a few years later, I encountered similar opposition as far as my spiritual life was concerned. This time from priests and seminarians and church people - “things had changed” they explained to me.  I knew how to be secretive about my piety from my childhood, lest it was discovered that I was on the traditional side. So I went to prayer meetings and hid my scapular, secretly prayed my rosary bunched up in my hand, attended the earliest Mass every day, and spent long hours in adoration - often at the back of the Church. A few seminarians and priests and monks told me I was much too pious and that I should be more active in the Church and working with the poor. I was warned to stay away from churches like St. Agnes in St. Paul, organizations like CUFF, and never to read The Wanderer.
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In confession priests often told me I did not have to confess this or that mortal sin, or that I went to confession too often, and that my piety was pre-Vatican II. Sometimes I would have to ask for absolution after a priest omitted it - he would tell me I didn’t need it.  Although he usually gave in after I begged and pleaded with him, explaining I must have psychological problems with guilt - he understood that. Once a priest told me anything a priest changed in the Mass was okay, and all one needed for a valid Mass were the words of institution at the Consecration.  (Most priests told me that.)  Other priests told me I did not have to go to confession before Holy Communion, even if in mortal sin. Another priest told me devotion to the Sacred Heart was effeminate, while another told me Fatima was over.
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Of course I met many good priests on my pilgrimage, in fact, many of those I mentioned were considered very good priests. Really, they were. Somehow, I stayed my course, knowing I was odd and would never make it as a priest or a religious, nor ever be able to meet the expectations of others who wanted me to be more “modern”. Of course, once in awhile I was blown into this harbor or that port, only to be caught in an endless whirlpool of dialog, argument or confusion, but Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament pulled me through.
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Now that the Church is recovering Her traditional piety, I’m no longer quite such a misfit, nor do I have to hide my piety. Nevertheless, I still pretty much find myself alone on issues related to morality and sexuality. This priest or that person tells me one thing, and yet I believe what the Roman Catholic Church teaches. It has been such a long and lonely road  however.  “To always lose and let everyone else win…”  - John of the Cross mentions that somewhere - it’s a good thing.
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And my dad was correct, I never did make it to the priesthood.  It is better this way.
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The End.

 May 24 - Help of Christians

Fr. Steve, a Salesian priest who authors the blog, Da Mihi Animas, also celebrates Our Lady’s feast today.   Happy feast day Father! 

The origins of the feast.

Returning to Rome in 1815 from several years of captivity imposed by the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Pope Pius VII instituted this feast in thanksgiving for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin on behalf of the Church. Napoleon had kidnapped the Holy Father and held him captive to demonstrate that the Vicar of Christ was subject to the emperor first and then to almighty God.

The decree of 1809 ordered that the papal States be joined to the French empire; insurgency broke out in Rome, when the French flag was flown and the papal arms destroyed. The Pope immediately excommunicated Napoleon. Soon the Holy Father was arrested and taken captive by the French.

The sacrilegious kidnapping of the Pope accomplished, he subsequently spent five years in exile in various places ending finally at Fontainebleau, France. After 1815 when Napoleon had been deposed, the clemency of the Pope towards the Emperor and his family is a matter of history; the latter were afforded a secure refuge in Rome itself. When the Emperor himself, exiled to the island of Saint Helena, the Pope pleaded for clemency with the Prince-Regent of England. When Napoleon died, it was with the assistance of chaplains sent to him by Pius VII. - Rome-ing Catholics 

Speaking of Pius VII. 

The following is an anecdote I gleaned from Fr. Z’s comment box regarding something the Pontiff said to Napoleon:

“I am reminded of a story about Napoleon threatening Pius VII that he would destroy the Church if the Pope didn’t go along with his policies. The Pope just laughed and said, ‘Priests have been trying to destroy the Church for 1500 years and haven’t succeeded. You won’t either.’” 

And your ‘no’ mean ‘no’… - James 5

Today’s first reading at Mass reminded me of the Lord’s words from the Sermon on the Mount, “Say ‘Yes’ when you mean ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ when you mean ‘No.’  Anything beyond that is from the evil one.”  [Matt. 5:37]

Certainly these passages must give anyone pause when one considers the ongoing debate about admitting homosexuals to Holy Orders.  The Vatican just reiterated, indeed clarified Church policy regarding this issue.  All I can say is there must be a lot of homosexuals in the clergy and the episcopate to cause such an uproar over what the pronouncement means.

The Cardinal.

In fact Cardinal Rosales of Manila more or less contradicted  the Vatican’s prohibition shortly after it was made public:

Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of Manila told reporters that homosexuals who do not “act out” can be good priests. His statement came immediately after the release of a letter in which Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (bio - news), the Vatican Secretary of State, confirmed that a Church policy barring homosexuals from priestly training applies to all the world’s seminaries.

Speaking on Radio Veritas in the Philippines, Cardinal Rosales said that the Vatican did not intend to ban chaste homosexuals from the seminaries. “A homosexual inclination is not bad but acting it out is an entirely different matter, and that is what is written in the sacred scriptures,” he said. - CWN 

So what does the Vatican really say?

“The Vatican policy on the question, explained in an Instruction that was released by the Congregation for Catholic Education in 2005, stipulates that a homosexual identity interferes with a man’s ability to achieve what the document termed “affective maturity and spiritual paternity,” even if the individual refrains from homosexual acts. The Instruction says that anyone who identifies himself as homosexual– whether or not he is sexually active– is not an appropriate candidate for priestly ministry.”- CWN

It was meant for other people. 

I’ve known a fair share of gay priests - how do I know, because they identify as such.  I don’t care if a person identifies as SSA, (same-sex-attracted), gay, queer, homosexual, homosexually attracted, what have you.  If a man identifies himself in this way, there is obviously something “deep-seated” going on.  But many do not believe the rules apply to themselves, or they may feel they are simply meant to placate the faithful.  (Dymphna  has a short post on how confusing this issue can become - it is related to the story of a Texas bishop’s assignment of a gay priest and that priest’s subsequent resignation.)

WDTPRS?  (What do the priests really say?)

Not every “SSA” priest admits his orientation outright, although there are other signs and signals to let another person know, if he wants him to know.  For those willing to discuss the issue, many say they have made peace with their orientation and have accepted it as a gift from God.  They claim to have arrived at a place in life wherein they can be faithful to their vocation, observing chaste celibacy.  So that is good, right?  Pretty much - if he kept himself pure…

Because…

For all of the challenges anyone faces when embracing a life of chastity - I think it is much easier for a gay priest to fall prey to temptation and satisfy the urges of nature, mainly because gay sex is easily had for the taking.  Just ask any married man, or gay man in a relationship, or one who just happens to like cruising and public sex.  (It isn’t always about self-hate when guys do this stuff.  When straight men go to a brothel or massage parlor is it because they hate their sexuality or something inside themselves, or do they just want a quickie, or happen to like dirty sex?) 

Then…

There is that “favored person status“, the “club” atmosphere.  All men hang out with the guys they like and share similar interests with.  Gay men hang out with gay people - and if they are hanging out with straight people, very often these people tend to be “gay” by association.   (J. McNeil, The Church and the Homosexual, 1976)  They’re pretty much open to the artistic, more spiritual and intellectual sensitivity of the SSA priest.  In addition, SSA priests know and cultivate friendships with like-minded priests.  When they become bishops, maybe even cardinals, they continue to cultivate and maintain these friendships and contacts.  The “old boys” - “old girls” club thing.

Cover ups.

The SSA priest understands the lonely isolation of gay men, the slips and falls, and frequent addictive behaviors they can become entangled in.  Therefore they more easily excuse and even cover up their brother priest’s  sin - sometimes assuring him that there was no sin.  It can be like “protective services” for errant priests.  You don’t have to agree with me on this, but you can believe me when I tell you I know what I’m talking about.

Circumventing the rules.

To me, it is a strange obedience when a priest or religious studies and disects a rule to discover all of its loopholes in order to legitimize one’s behaviour.  A priest once explained the loopholes of the Vatican ruling to me in this way:

I have had long discussions with folks in Rome on the three criteria published in the Instruction.  They were very carefully worded so as to respect the infinite variety of souls and of Our Lord’s work in them.  They were not intended to close the door absolutely.  They are principles; their application is entrusted to those who have the grace of state to do so.

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The three criteria:  

1. those who practise homosexuality,
2. present deep-seated homosexual tendencies
3. or support the so-called “gay culture.”

Numbers 1 and 3 are self-explanatory.  Number 2 is more complex.  The deep-seated tendency is generally manifested in the individual for whom the SSA is very core of his identity.  All of his choices and all of his self-expression proceeds from what he perceives as being (ontologically) constitutional of who he is as a person.  Homosexuality as a state of being is a relatively new concept.  The traditional moral theology looks at one’s choices and behaviour: a question, not of being, but of doing, or saying, or acting out, or otherwise expressing what is an intrinsically disordered inclination. - Letter

Obedient dissent? 

Okay, perhaps SSA vocations can be reviewed on a case by case basis, thereby permitting a man with previous homosexual inclination to be ordained - that is a big risk to take though.  How can it be determined the man has resolved the issues of sexuality and the underlying psychological issues that affected the inclination in the first place?  What about a relapse?  It would definitely have to be an exception to obtain a dispensation to admit a “former homosexual” to a seminary or to ordination, and not the “rule” - as it seems to have been in the not too distant past.  That this is an issue for gay men already ordained suggests to me their personal issues have not at all been successfully resolved.

Or, Creative Fidelity?

Diogenes  has an interesting post on this same subject, he writes:

It’s no secret that the old line religious orders are the most fervid dissenters from the ban on homosexuals, and their superiors comprise a kind of Shadow Cabinet within the Church: hostile to the policy of the Holy See but outwardly deferential to its authority — and, most importantly, incubating in their ranks a parallel government and parallel apparat through which the “alternative” policies are discreetly advanced. The Shadow Cabinet’s own term for this genial subversion is Creative Fidelity, and any housewife whose husband protests he was “creatively faithful” to her during his Las Vegas business jaunt will be able to gauge the degree to which the Pope is reassured by the euphemism. - Ad dubiam. 

Yeah, so I don’t think that ”smoke of Satan” thing Pope Paul VI referred to was just about liturgical abuse either. 

Links:

David at Cosmos, Liturgy, Sex  has a couple of presentations which deal with these issues on a more anthropological, theological level, and are easier to understand. 

Nothing Extraordinary

The Vatican will ban gays from seminaries.

I live yet do not live in me,
am waiting as my life goes by,
and die because I do not die.

No longer do I live in me,
and without God I cannot live;
to him or me I cannot give
my self, so what can living be?
A thousand deaths my agony
waiting as my life goes by,
dying because I do not die.

This life I live alone I view
as robbery of life, and so
it is a constant death — with no
way out until I live with you.
God, hear me, what I say is true:
I do not want this life of mine,
and die because I do not die.

Being so removed from you I say
what kind of life can I have here
but death so ugly and severe
and worse than any form of pain?
I pity me — and yet my fate
is that I must keep up this lie,
and die because I do not die.

The fish taken out of the sea
is not without a consolation:
his dying is of brief duration
and ultimately brings relief.
Yet what convulsive death can be
as bad as my pathetic life?
The more I live the more I die.

When I begin to feel relief
on seeing you in the sacrament,
I sink in deeper discontent,
deprived of your sweet company.
Now everything compels my grief:
I want — yet can’t — see you nearby,
and die because I do not die.

Although I find my pleasure, Sir,
in hope of someday seeing you,
I see that I can lose you too,
which makes my pain doubly severe,
and so I live in darkest fear,
and hope, wait as life goes by,
dying because I do not die.

Deliver me from death, my God,
and give me life; now you have wound
a rope about me; harshly bound
I ask you to release the cord.
See how I die to see you, Lord,
and I am shattered where I lie,
dying because I do not die.

My death will trigger tears in me,
and I shall mourn my life: a day
annihilated by the way
I fail and sin relentlessly.
O Father God, when will it be
that I can say without a lie:
I live because I do not die? - St. John of the Cross

“You have no idea of what your life will be like tomorrow.” -James 4

Would you bristle if someone called you an adulterer?  I’m sure very few of us ever use or even hear that word unless we are in divorce court.  What if we called other people what we think of them, or what their behaviour categorizes them as?  What if we called a woman who had an abortion a baby-killer?  Or a woman who sleeps around a slut?  Or a guy who has sex with men a faggot?  I know many people do use these terms, but most of us are too PC to do so, and none of us want to be sued for defamation.  And since we really do  live in an adulterous age, none of these things are considered to be wrong or immoral anyway - so how dare we judge?

Yet the Holy Spirit rebukes us saying, “Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means to be at enmity with God?  Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”- Letter of James

“This is the end of those contented with their lot.” - Psalm 49

This whole week we have been listening to St. James…  I’m piously convinced the Liturgy of the Word is the “Spirit speaking daily to the churches” as the Lord said in the Book of Revelation.  Today the Spirit calls to us,

“Come now you rich, weep and mourn over your impending miseries.  Your wealth has rotted away… your gold and silver has corroded… and that corrosion will be a testimony against you.  You have stored up treasure for the last days… the wages you withheld from workers.   You have lived in luxury and pleasure, you have fattened your hearts for slaughter…” - James 5:1-6 

“But now you are boasting in your arrogance.” - James 4

As oil prices go up and up, along with food prices, our standard of living may be going down.  Indeed, Obama-rama may be correct when he said:

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.”  - Barrack Obama

I’m not fond of Obama of course, but he isn’t alone in his forecast, and if things keep going the way they are, our standard of living will indeed be in full-blown recession.  Wars and rumors of wars with Iran, earthquakes in various places, and cyclones and food shortages, and  other disasters throughout the world - doesn’t it seem like something is going on?  It sounds so biblical, huh?  Yet many good people are defiant - “No one is going to tell me at what temperature to keep my house at, or what to drive!”

“This is the way of those whose trust is folly.” - Psalm 49

So is it just national pride that moves people to say, “No way in hell - this ain’t gonna happen.”  Even though it seems events are unfolding before our eyes?

Though in his lifetime he counted himself blessed,

“They will praise you for doing well for yourself,”

He shall join the circle of his forebears

who shall never more see the light. - Psalm 49 

May 22 is her feast day. 

Since my youth I had devotion to St. Rita - not so much because she is venerated as the saint of the impossible, or that she was supposedly a  battered wife who had been miraculously admitted to a convent by saints after her family died, but because she looked so good in that black habit.  Really.  I liked the image of her in the Augustinian habit, receiving the stigmata before the crucifix - so I developed a special devotion to her.

Did you know she married at age 12?  Kind of Mormon-ish, don’t you think?   Also, her community wasn’t very nice to her… And her wound was accompanied by a fowl smell.  She may not have become a saint if she had been attractive to the other sisters, or her wound smelled pretty, or even if her husband had treated her well.  Adversity is often very good for the soul. 

Note:

The following is my response to an email as to why I continue to pray for Jeff Mylett, an actor I knew who died of AIDS.  I wasn’t going to publish it because my response is clumsy and very personal, but this morning - to my surprise, I noticed another article about prying for the dead on Zenit, and felt it was more than coincidence.  Especially the following quote:

Thus we ask that God’s mercy be expressed in not allowing those who have died to fall into the power of the Evil One. As such, the prayer most likely refers to the moment of judgment itself as the venue where this mercy and this prevention of Satan’s dominion is exercised.

In this way the petition is not essentially different from many other of the Church’s prayers for the departed in which God’s mercy is invoked for the souls of the deceased. That the particular judgment is immediately after death has never impeded the Church recommending prayer for the dead.

God is not limited to our categories of time and space, and even when we pray for those who have passed away long after they have gone, or even pray generically for the dead, we know that God will use the prayer to greatest advantage. - Zenit    

The original email question:

Dear Terry, I am pleased that you are willing to converse with me.  I was reading your blog and appreciate the fact that you are well versed in your faith.  I was wondering how to begin this conversation and I guess I’ll just be direct.  You said that you have prayed for Jeffrey since you met him and that you continue to.  I know that there is a Catholic premise for praying for those who have gone on before and I was wondering if you could direct me to the Scriptural basis for the practice? I look forward to your reply, God Bless, Beth 

My reply:

Dear Beth,

A quick reply to your question.  Consider the Gospel passage of the Transfiguration when Christ revealed his glory and appeared with Moses and Elijah (Luke 9: 28-36).  Then consider this event in the light of that Gospel passage wherein the scribes and Pharisees sought to test Jesus.  They presented him with the story of the wife who had seven husbands who had all died.  Those who sought to trip-up Jesus, challenged him and asked, “And whose wife will she be in heaven?”  Jesus in turn responded, teaching them that God is the God of the living, and in heaven we are not given in marriage, etc. (Matt. 22: 23-33)   I cite these passages to stress the point  that when we pass from this life we are not really dead are we, “but all are alive for God” - just as Moses and Elijah were alive and conversing with Jesus.

Now Moses and Elijah were conversing with Jesus on Mt. Tabor before the death and resurrection of Christ took place.  Indeed, they were alive, but no longer on earth, although not yet in heaven - so where were they?  (Actually, we believe they were in an interim state known as Limbo.)  Just so, not everyone who dies since the resurrection of Our Lord goes directly to heaven; some may go directly to hell, while others go to a place of purification, called purgatory.  This has been Christian teaching for centuries.

The apostle Paul understood this when he writes, regarding adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus, “every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim, Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2:10-11)  Thus we might infer that Paul is referencing both the living and the dead (those under the earth) in this passage.  In another place he writes, “You are strangers and aliens no longer.  No!  You are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God…” (Ephesians 2:19)  With these passages and others, I cannot have any doubt as to the doctrine of the Communion of the Saints, or the Mystical Body after that.  It is very much contained in scripture, as are all the tuths of our faith, albeit obscurely in certain instances.

Of course, The Catholic Church always cites the following passage from the Old Testament in support of prayers for the dead:

II Maccabees 12:43-46: “And making a gathering, he [Judas] sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” - See also here.

If you are serious about pursuing Roman Catholic teaching regarding the Communion of saints - or “the great cloud of witnesses” as you mentioned in another email, then I suggest you investigate the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which happens to be online here:  http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/  You will obtain the answer to all of your questions there, without any influence from my personal piety, or anyone else’s personal interpretation of scripture.  The Catholic Church contains the full deposit of truth, therefore you cannot do wrong but to educate yourself directly from the source. 

Even if you were to remain in whatever Christian denomination you are in, studying the Catechism and Catholic sources will only enhance and deepen your faith.  Perhaps if you come to realize the benefits of friendship with the saints, you would also come to understand the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.  You do not have to be Catholic to pray before him in the Blessed Sacrament, although you need to be to receive him in Holy Communion.

As for me and my private prayer for Jeff Mylett, I do so out of personal devotion. I have hope that God may anticipate my prayer for His Divine Mercy upon Jeff’s soul and grant him the salvation we all seek in Jesus Christ.  With God there is no time, He dwells in eternity, and with Him everything is an eternal present, which is why when he revealed his name to Moses he said, “I AM”.   Though I am not a theologian, nor a biblical scholar, I hope in the power of God’s mercy that “can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine.” (Ephesians 3: 20)  Therefore I pray for the dead - in accord with Church teaching - for all those departed, whose state of soul God alone knows.  In doing so I exercise myself in charity, and love for my neighbor, knowing the most important goal and accomplishment of this life is eternal salvation in Jesus Christ. 

United in prayer,

Terry

PS:  If you don’t mind, I will post this on my blog, that way someone more knowledgeable than I am may have something to add to this.

[Photo:  Jeffrey Mylett]