Posts from March 2023

Holy Week

There is something unique about Holy Week.  We know that, starting with Palm Sunday, we should be reliving the events which erased the wrongs of our past, give meaning to our present and shape our future with a promise of immortality and eternal glory. Today’s passion narrative (Matthew 26:14 – 27:66) has a particular significance amid all the mysteries we will be reliving in these days with a heavy heart. We experience shame for being the cause of what Jesus…

The Holy Spirit Will Make Us Fully Alive

In my 50 years of ministerial priesthood, I found myself confronted by situations that elicited in me spontaneous, irrepressible pity.  As a priest, of course, I know, and I preach about the value of suffering in union with Christ. I maintain that euthanasia is a direct interference with God’s plan for a dying person.  But, in hopeless cases, marked by palpable, futile struggles, the prayer that, time and again, rises from my heart and floods my mind is a variation…

His Wonderful Light

During World War II an American airman named John was blinded in an airplane explosion. He was discharged from the Army Air Corps, and for the next twelve years he couldn’t see a thing. During these years he lived for a time with his parents in Texas, and then he married, had two children, and got along as well as he could. One day, while walking down a street using his white cane, John suddenly began to see what looked like “red sand”…

Sacraments: Matter and Form

In his book, Jesus Shock, Professor Peter Kreeft declared: “Protestants believe that the sacraments are like ladders that God gave to us by which we can climb up to Him. Catholics believe that they are like ladders that God gave to Himself by which He climbs down to us.” As “outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace,” the sacraments may be categorized as follows: Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist); Healing (Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick); and Commitment (Holy Orders and Marriage). Additionally, each has two unique characteristics: a specific…

I Said a Prayer for You

Life is to live and life is to give and talents are to use for good if you choose. Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be strong. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks, then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life, which has come to you by the…

Spiritual Blindness

For true believers, spiritual blindness is much worse than physical blindness; it would disrupt our life in all its aspects, keep us from enjoying it fully and from bearing the fruits of the Spirit. Of course, the worst type of blindness is the self-inflicted variety, proper of those who refuse to see. Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were…

Saintly Intercessions

On a summer day in the year 2000, Jack Sullivan was told by his surgeon that based on scans of his spine, surgery would be necessary to repair it. Later that day, dejected and suffering from intense pain, he tuned into a television program on the life of Cardinal John Henry Newman. Years later, he recalled that at the time, I knew something about Newman- not much, but that he was a convert, a brilliant man, who preached and wrote about the…

Jesus Offers Us a Future

For a moment, imagine that someone set before you a 5-Carot diamond ring and a 5-gallon jug of water and informed you that, for no cost, either could be yours. Which would you choose?  But wait. Before you make your selection, know that such a diamond ring would cost about $145,000 whereas the 5-gallon jug of water would run you $23.57. Further, your online search of both objects reveals that the prestigious online jeweler, Deacon’s Diamonds, has advertised that “you…

Wells of Grace

In the Gospel of John, perhaps more than anywhere else in the Bible, every single word is laden with symbolism and chosen carefully to evoke other significant, grace-filled events. The mention of a well tells those familiar with Holy Scripture that, today, the Lord is looking for a romantic encounter with our soul. Rebekah was chosen as Isaac’s bride at a well (cf. Genesis 24:15-65) and Zipporah as Moses’ wife at a well in the land of Midian. (cf. Exodus…

The Correct Way to Carry Our Cross

The only way this narrative of the Transfiguration of Jesus becomes relevant to us is by considering ourselves as members of the Body of Christ, as one with him. If this were not also “our Transfiguration” it would be just a simple recollection of a wonderful, distant event that took place 2000 years ago. The preface of Holy Mass for the Second Sunday of Lent indicates clearly that any mention of the Transfiguration is done to help us overcome the…

How Our Senses Shape Us

As human persons, God (potentially) gives us five senses: …to See, to Hear, to Touch, to Smell, and to Taste. Given these gifts, we note that we are different than the angels. Unlike our heavenly helpers, who are purely spiritual beings, we humans have been created with both spirit (soul) and matter (body). According to the Baltimore Catechism, “a sacrament is an outward sign, instituted by Christ, to bring grace.” In each of the 7 Sacraments, God (through His Church) uses physical…