Thursday, March 29, 2018

The Last Supper



So much happened on the first Holy Thursday, at the Last Supper, that it boggles the mind.  Most people think of it as is the occasion when first transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ took place.  That is indeed the case, but so much more happened. 

What else?  The priesthood was established.  When Christ asked his apostles to perform the act of transubstantiation in his memory, he, Catholics believe, ordained them as his first priests.  From that point on, the immediate successors of the apostles also became priests, and so on down to the present day, such that today we have priests ordained by bishops and the sacrament of the Eucharist offered through these priests at Mass.

What else?  St. John’s gospel, Chapters 13-17, provide full details.  Following are some examples.  1) He washed the apostles’ feet.  When Peter objected, Jesus told him that unless he washes him, “you will have no inheritance with me.”  The message for us seems to be:  Repent of your sins and let Jesus wash you clean.  2) He gave his apostles a new commandment:  to love one another.  He said “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Hate is not an option if you are a follower of Jesus!  3) He told them that in his father’s house, there are many dwelling places, and that he would prepare a place for us.  I’m striving to be holy so that I can have one of those places.  Wow!  4) He told them that no one can come to the Father except through him.  Apparently we need to have true faith in Jesus in order to be saved.  5) He made a statement about the Trinity for us, saying “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” and “…  I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”  This, even though he had always spoken of the Father as a separate person. 6) He told them that if we ask anything of the Father in his name, that he would do it.  Anything?  I’m thinking there may be other requirements …. like maybe nothing that we ask can be opposed to the Father’s will for us?

7) He promised to send us an “Advocate,” the Spirit of truth.  A few paragraphs later, he says that this Advocate is the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”  I take this to mean that we have been kept on the straight and narrow ever since by the Holy Spirit, and that the Protestant claim that his church was off-track for 1500 years just does not make sense.  8)  He said:  “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”  Speaking of off-track, the world is off-track as evidenced by the current wave of secularism.  No reason to fear, however.  Jesus has already conquered secularism!  9) Chapter 17 ends with what seems like a long diatribe with the Father.  Here are two example sentences:  “I do not pray for the world but for the ones you [the Father] have given me, because they are yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them.”  And after asking the Father to consecrate these “ones you have given me” [us], he says this:  “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world my believe that you sent me.”  Those who will be believe in Jesus through their word?  Our word!  Jesus is apparently saying that we need to evangelize, to spread the word!  He prays that all may be one with the Father and the Son.  We can be, through his Church.

After that he went out to the Garden of Gethsemane where he was arrested and later tortured and crucified.

Good stuff!  All of this at the Last Supper!  Lord, help me to understand your word and to always give glory to you with my life.  Amen.  Happy Easter, everyone! 

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Stephen Hawking



Last week, we learned of the death of the famous physicist, Stephen Hawking.  Almost immediately, Facebook and Twitter came alive with posts and comments about this man and people’s perceptions of him.  Unfortunately, it became a classic back-and-forth debate between those who believe in God and those who do not.  Many comments were crude and cruel.  Some people were praising him for his pioneering work in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics.  Others were denigrating him for his atheism and belittling to people of faith.  It was, quite clearly, a debate between those with liberal politics and the so-called “Religious Right.”  I don’t know why such a debate must always result in insult and crudity.  When I understand that, I will also understand partisan politics.

Now, I am a scientist.  I have a Master’s Degree in Chemistry.  But I am also a devoted Catholic, as most of you know.  No one who knows me or who reads “My Thursday Thoughts” each week, would call me an atheist.  Besides being a scientist, most people would place me squarely within the bounds of the Religious Right and a Republican.  And I, myself, would also do that.  However, I am not the crude and cruel type.  So I am not going to write hurtful or insulting things here today.

Hawking seems to have spent most of his life wanting to conclude that there is a God and that God created this marvelous universe.  In his book A Brief History of Time, he mentions God often and indeed seems to be a believer.  In the preface, Carl Sagan, another famous astronomer and atheist, had this to say:  “This is also a book about God … or perhaps about the absence of God.  The word God fills these pages.”  Hawking concludes the book by writing this:  “However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists.  Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist.  If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we would know the mind of God.”  The book was published in 1988.  Hawking live another thirty years.  I understand that he did indeed come to believe that there is no God.

Of course, I don’t understand much about his work - it is much too advanced and mathematical for me.  It seems, however, to be based mostly on speculation.  Ok, black holes, the Big Bang, supernovas, galaxies.  All of this does interest me, but only on a layman’s terms, like the writings of Isaac Asimov.  If Hawking did indeed die an atheist, it is a big disappointment.  My training as a scientist doesn’t sway me away from my faith.  Nor does my background as a devoted Catholic sway me away from science.  To me, the two are completely compatible.  And I’ve know many scientists through the years who have not been swayed.  And the Catholic Church is perfectly fine with what science is doing and has done.  In fact, the Church is supportive of science in many ways.  At least some of us in the Religious Right are interested in answers as much as anyone.  It is just that we are sure that God exists, and it would be a most exciting day indeed when science confirms that.  After all, the scientific evidence already seems to be pointing that way.  For example, the Big Bang Theory.  God’s creation came into being with a bang! 

Thursday, March 15, 2018

St. Joseph


Due to travels, I took last Thursday off.  I apologize, but I forgot to post this notice on Facebook and Twitter last Thursday.  I offer the following prayer to St. Joseph for your meditation.  The feast of St. Joseph, Spouse of Mary, is Monday, March 19.  Until Thursday, March 22 ....

Dear St. Joseph, You were the foster father of Jesus and the spouse of Mary.  You hold a special place in the hearts of all Christians.  Please intercede for us and ask the Lord for special blessings and graces this week especially, as we honor you with your own very special day.  Amen.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

The Mind-Blowing Passion of Christ


Today, I’m thinking of the Passion of Our Lord and how it all unfolded, beginning with his Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.  After instituting the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, Jesus and the apostles went out and entered the Garden.  But before they went very far, Jesus asked that he proceed alone with Peter, James, and John.  In St. Matthew’s account, he “began to feel sorrow and distress.”  He asked the three to stop while he proceeded forward “a little.”  He “fell prostrate in prayer, saying “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will but as you will.”  He knew what was about to happen to him, and the human nature side of him shone through.  It was to be unbearably painful for him and he knew it.

Before too long, Judas arrived with a large crowd armed with swords and clubs.  He was arrested and ultimately led to the court of Pontius Pilate where he was sentenced to death.  Then the painful suffering began in earnest.  We make a big deal out of his “scourging at the pillar,” identifying it as one of the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary.  I say this because it is barely mentioned in the Scriptures.  St. Matthew’s and St. Mark’s gospels calmly mentioned it in passing:  “… after he had him (Jesus) scourged ….”  St. Luke’s description is similar:  “Therefore, I shall have him flogged and then release him.”  It is the same in St. John’s gospel:  “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.”  No mention is made of a pillar.  When I meditate on mystery, I am mindful of the movie “The Passion of the Christ” in which the scourging or flogging was a very big deal.  Jesus was tied to a pillar to keep him standing upright and then thoroughly thrashed with whips with hooks on the tips so that it would open some serious wounds.  And, as I recall, there was considerable blood loss.  I’ve heard that the movie was based on the account of the Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich (1714-1824), a German Augustinian nun, who claimed to have had visions of Our Lord’s passion and death.

We also make a big deal of “the Crowning with Thorns,” another sorrowful mystery of the rosary.  Once again, we have limited coverage of this in the Scriptures.  St John gives the most detail:  “And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!”  According to St. Matthew and St. Mark, this was followed by intense mockery.  I can imagine the soldiers sneering and laughing as they made a joke out of his claim of being a king.  And I think of the pain, with thorns digging into his head and his precious blood streaming down his face.  And all of this after the wounds from the scourging also caused him to bleed profusely. 

When the wine is transubstantiated into his blood at Mass, I always think of his passion and his blood being spilled all over the place.  He asked us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and we do, in the form of bread and wine at Mass.  Many people think that we Catholics are nuts to believe that we actually eat his flesh and drink his blood in this way.  But, I think about what Christ’s passion and death did for us.  I am then completely at peace with it, and even awed!  What an incredibly intimate encounter we have in this Eucharist at Mass!  Not only did his horrible death on Calvary cleanse us from our sins, but his command to remember him in this way is nothing short of mind-blowing. 

My prayer for today has to be one of gratitude:  Lord, thank you so much for your holy church, for your passion and death, and for this extraordinary sacrament.  Amen.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

A Mother's Faith and Love


There probably isn’t a mother alive who doesn’t want the best for her sons and daughters.  That is why the story from the Gospel passage read at Wednesday’s Holy Mass (Matt 20:17-28) isn’t so surprising.  The mother of the sons of Zebedee, whose name was Salome, wanted the best for her two sons, John and James.  John and James were two of Jesus’s apostles and so were in his inner circle, so to speak.  In fact, it seems that they were especially close to Jesus because they, along with Peter, seemed to closely share in special events while the other apostles were at a distance.  Examples include the Transfiguration story where James, John, and Peter were invited to be alone with Jesus on the mountain where he was transfigured (Matt 17:1-8 ).  These three were also invited by Jesus to share in the Agony in the Garden event in the garden of Gethsemane after the last supper, though he was “a stone’s throw” apart from them (Matt 26:36-46).  
Salome must have recognized this intimacy, since in Wednesday gospel reading she requests that Jesus allow it to continue.  She asks Jesus to “command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.”  It would be as though Jesus would be the king and her two sons would be the king’s personal assistants.  What job title would be more special or carry more prestige?  Jesus’ response was that this role of special assistant would be given to whomever God the Father chooses, saying that it “is not mine to give.”  Salome must have been disappointed, but what mother would not be disappointed to learn that her wishes for her sons or daughters would not be followed. 
I remember my mother wanted me to attend a Catholic college or university.  She wanted nothing more than to have the Catholic faith she so ardently treasured passed on to her son and it would not be threatened for him by his being exposed to secular ideas that would be encountered at a public institution.  And she was, I’m sure, disappointed when I declared that I would attend a public state institution after all.  And she was right.  Though this public institution did have an active Catholic Newman Center, I chose not to participate in their activities.  But, in the end, I adhered to my Catholic faith through all the trials that would come my way and I knew, for example, in the back of my mind, that I would not allow myself to stray in any way from this faith that I valued above everything else in my life.  My faith was strong, and my mother was very proud that her prayers on my behalf in this regard were answered. 
Yes, both Salome and my mother were proud of their sons.  John and James are great, great saints.  I am not at that point yet, of course, but I am striving to also be a saint.  I don’t have to be a saint declared as such by the Church … just a man known for his adherence to his faith and for this continuous and personal striving to be free from sin at death.  I want to gaze on the face of God for all eternity.  How unspeakably wonderful that would be.  Thanks to my Mom for passing on her precious faith to me, and thanks to God for this amazing gift.  I am forever grateful.  Amen.
The photo accompanying this post shows a painting of St.John and the Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross at Calvary.