Jesus and Martyrdom

Today, I'm thinking about holy martyrdom.  Recently, my family played a little game while traveling in the car.  We were to take turns naming a saint who is also a martyr and see if we could get to fifty.  My first thought was that it will be nearly impossible.  Fifty saints who were martyred?  But then I immediately thought of the apostles.  All the apostles were martyred except for Judas and St. John, right?  So I thought I could use most of my turns just naming the apostles.  Piece of cake!  But other family members, I found out, could name quite a few!  St. John the Baptist, Saints Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecelia, and others named in the first Eucharist prayer at Mass.  Then there were more obscure saints that some family members knew about.  St. Tarcisius, St. Maria Goretti, St. Isaac Jogues and his companions, St. Maximillian Kolbe, etc.  Surprisingly, we got to fifty in very short order.

A short while later, I learned about another martyr, one, who, like Maximillian Kolbe, died in a Nazi concentration camp.  His name was Blessed Franz Jagerstatter.  Talk about obscure!  I recently had the privilege of attending a play about his life produced by old friends back in Nebraska.  I drove seven hours to see it and it did not disappoint.  The stories of the martyrs can be really fascinating!

What did Jesus have to say about martyrdom?  The closest I have come to answering that can be found in the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 10.  Jesus seemed to address that very topic when he said "And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gahenna."  (Matthew 10:28).  In other words, do not be afraid of being murdered for the Christian faith.  Other human beings can kill the body but not the soul.  The one who can kill both the body and soul is in Gahenna.  In other words, the Devil.  Yes, be afraid of the Devil, but not another human being.  Give in to the death of the body for your faith, but do not give in to temptation to sin.  Sinning results in the death of the soul and without repentance and forgiveness, it is eternal.  Fear the Devil and don't give in to his temptations.

What else did Jesus say?  A few lines later in Matthew, we read this:  "Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.  But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father."  (Matthew 10:32-33).  Here is the scenario:  One, like a Nazi, points a gun at you and says "Deny your Christian faith!"  If you interpret Sacred Scripture like I do, we must say "no" and let him kill you.  Your body will be gone, but your soul will be in heaven.  If you feel that you would not have the courage, pray for strength and an increase in faith.  I recommend praying to  St. Maximillan Kolbe and Blessed Franz Jagerstatter for their intercession.  Two amazing saints!  Amen!

Unworthy, But Miraculously Healed

Have you ever noticed how many of the prayers that are part of the Mass have their origin in Sacred Scripture?  For example, take the following passage from the Gospel of Matthew:

“The centurion said in reply, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed ….’”  (Mat 8:8)

This closely resembles the words we pray immediately before receiving the Eucharist at Mass:

Lord“, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

In the case of the Scripture passage, the centurion had just asked Jesus to heal his servant who was suffering dreadfully due to paralysis.  But in his humility and because of his great faith, he knew that Jesus did not need to make the trek to his home to “enter under my roof,” but rather, he could just simply say the healing words right where they stood.  This, in fact, is what Jesus did.

So, too, at Mass, it is a prayer of humility … we are not worthy.  We are sinful beings and we acknowledge that Jesus can work the miracle of his forgiveness and we can receive him “under our roof" in spite of our unworthiness.  We have faith in Jesus' holy words and can then receive his body and blood in this wonderfully intimate sacrament while miraculously flooding our souls with the abundance of grace that accompanies it!  Amen!

The Doubting Thomas

I had a post all prepared for yesterday, but then I received what seemed like a message from God saying He did not want me to publish it and to come up with something else. So here I am, publishing My Thursday Thoughts on Friday!  I'm glad, because the Gospel from Wednesday's Mass gives me more important thoughts.

Wednesday was the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle in the Catholic Church and the Gospel from the Mass was the story of his doubt in the truth of Jesus' Resurrection.  He was not present when the resurrected Jesus first appeared to the apostles.  And he doubted the story,  saying "unless I put my finger into the nail holes and my hand into his side, I will not believe."  Well, when Jesus appeared to them the second time and invited him to do just that, Thomas didn't need to do it.  He fell on his knees proclaiming "My Lord and my God."   

Jesus' response was epic.  "Thomas, you believe because you have seen.  Blessed are they who have not seen, yet have believed."  Who are those who have not seen?  You and me!  Jesus is saying that we, you and me, are blessed because we believe.  Jesus said that!  It just makes me shiver with joy!  

If you  have doubts, my prayer today is that you will come to believe, because if you do, you will be blessed by God with awesome feelings of joy.  Amen!

Serra, NOT Sierra!

Today, I’m thinking about our Serra Clubs and their patron, Saint Junipero Serra (pronounced Hoo-nip-err-oh, with accent on the “nip").  First off, let me be clear, I have not misspelled “Serra.”  I’m talking about the Serra Club, NOT the Sierra Club.  Recently, I spoke to someone who presumably was a devoted Catholic.  I told him that I was a member of the Serra Club of Rochester (MN) and he responded with “Oh, the Sierra Club.”  I said, “No, Serra Club.”  I asked him if he knew what it was, and he said “no.”  I’m am writing this post as if I am responding further to him.  So here goes.

Serra is an international organization of Catholic men and women dedicated to promoting and nurturing vocations to the Catholic priesthood and religious life.  Our patron and namesake is Saint Junipero Serra (pictured), a Catholic Franciscan missionary priest who personally founded nine of the twenty-one missions that line the California coast.  These missions, including the Mission San Diego, the Mission San Juan Capistrano, the Mission San Francisco and six others were built between Father Serra’s arrival date in California, July 1, 1767, until his death on August 28, 1784.  He is known as the “Apostle of California” and his bust can be found along with other famous men and women from America’s past in the halls of Congress.  You may recall that he was canonized a saint of the Catholic Church by Pope Francis during the Pope’s visit to the United States in 2015. 

Today, “Serra International” is the name of this lay apostolate in the Catholic Church, otherwise known simply as “Serra” and the members as “Serrans.”  Serra was founded by a group of men in Seattle, Washington, in 1935 and has spread to forty-six countries on six continents.  As of 2013, there were over 20,000 members in 1,109 Serra Clubs worldwide.  The international headquarters, as well as the USA Council of Serra, are located in downtown Chicago.  We are divided into districts, each district having a governor.  Local clubs are relative small.  As examples, the Rochester club of which I am a member, has forty-eight members and the Lincoln, Nebraska, club, which was my former club, has ninety-five members.  Each club has a governing board, which includes a president, and at least seven others, including a secretary, a treasurer, a number of vice-presidents who have charge of important components, such as communications, vocations, membership, etc.  We meet usually twice a month for Mass and lunch.

Serra Clubs have a very important function if they are to live up to their mission to promote and nurture religious vocations.  Our most important task is to pray.  I mean really pray.  Rosaries, Holy Hours, Masses, retreats, group prayers, etc., etc.  The secondary task is to get to know and to befriend all priests in their local area as well as all the seminarians, religious sisters, deacons and any other religious persons.  Promoting and nurturing vocations is the name of the game.  Clubs do have a budget and do have dues.  We sponsor activities that draw from our treasury, including golf outings and dinners for priests and seminarians, promotional “contests” for local high schoolers and elementary students, and the like.

If I have rattled your cage at all and you want to check out the club that serves your parish, please talk to your pastor about who to contact.  Recent scandals among the Catholic clergy has made the job a little more difficult, but remember that our primary tool is prayer and prayer can be used under any and all circumstances.  Here is an idea!  Monday, July 1, 1767, was the day Fr. Serra arrived in California.  This coming Monday is July 1.  It is St. Junipero Serra's feast day in the Catholic Church.  Let's all go to Mass and pray for his intercession.  Saint Junipero Serra, pray for us!  Amen!

Have You Lost Something?

Last Thursday, June 13, was the feast of Saint Anthony of Padua in the Catholic Church.  I took the photograph accompanying this post in the inner courtyard of the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, Italy, while on my pilgrimage to Italy in 2016.  Most devoted Catholics probably know the story.  Saint Anthony is the patron saint of lost things.  If you have lost something of value (think your keys, your wallet, your purse, a credit card, etc.), it is said that if you ask Saint Anthony for his intercession, you may find this lost item.  Some people will tell you that it is uncanny how such a prayer has often worked for them. 

I have an idea.  Have you lost your faith?  Or has your son, daughter, grandchild, cousin, brother or sister lost their faith?  I mean, do you know someone who was devoted to their Catholicism growing up and now they no longer believe in heaven or hell, or no longer believe that the Eucharist is the Real Presence of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ?  Or maybe they have come to doubt in the value of the sacraments, such as confessing sins to a priest.  Or perhaps worse than all of these, do you know someone who has now come to doubt the existence of God and had become an atheist?  Do you see what I’m getting at?  Yes, Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lost things! 

Put it in the hands of Saint Anthony.  After all, something is lost, and he is the expert at finding things again.  Try it!  It may work!  And wouldn’t you be excited?  What a way to potentially give your own faith a shot in the arm!  You would have your own prodigal son success story to tell everyone about!  Saint Anthony, pray for us and for all the lost souls.  Amen!

All Human Life Has Dignity

One of the arguments that my pro-choice friends make  in favor of abortion is that they say pro-lifers only care about the life in the womb and not the life of a baby after birth.  The implication here is that couples faced with an unplanned pregnancy and who cannot or would not properly care for the baby once it is born should be allowed to abort because there would be no one to love and nurture a small child.   To the uneducated, this appears to be a sound argument.  After all, the lack of care for a small child born into a situation in which it was unwanted in the first place would be harmful and dangerous for the child.  And so the child should be denied birth and allowed to be killed and removed from the womb by an abortion provider.

In a perfect pro-life world, all human life has dignity and is wanted and respected.  But we don’t live in a perfect pro-life world.  Pre-born human life is the life we hear the most about because such life is the most vulnerable and killing this life is accepted and sought by many.  The pre-born are hidden from the rest of the world.  No one has seen a pre-born human being (except via x-rays, sonograms, and heartbeats) and some believe that they should not have the dignity nor the “wanted” and “respect” labels until their bodies appear before us in their fully dignified form on their birth day.  And so this is the form of human life that gets the most attention from the pro-life community.  But that is not to say that post-birth life is totally ignored and forgotten.  Quite the contrary. 

Pro-life communities, particularly religious communities, have social programs that give counselling and support to pregnant women, even protection from disagreeable husbands or boyfriends.  And after birth, these protections extend to the families.  Beyond this, adoption is a viable option.  I understand that there are many childless couples that have tried, but cannot conceive.  These couples are crying out for a baby and adoption agencies should be considered.  Indeed, post-birth life is important to the pro-life community and should not be falsely portrayed.

But beyond all of this is that word “dignity.”  Human life is above all animal life and plant life.  We have intelligence.  We have ingenuity.  We make amazing things happen.  We have come the farthest of all creatures through the evolutionary chain.  Even if you don’t profess a particular religious belief, it is simply beneath our dignity to be killing our pre-birth life just as much as it is beneath our dignity to be killing post-birth life.  My dream is that we will eventually all agree on these things rather than to think of ourselves as simply another animal that we can kill at will.  God help us!  Amen!

Did St. Paul Foresee Scandals in the Church?

In the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 20, Saint Paul speaks to the presbyters of his day (the forerunners of present-day priests) saying this: 

“Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the whole Church of God that he acquired with his own Blood.  I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock.”  (Acts 20:29-30)

Presbyters and priests throughout history have heard these words of Saint Paul via the Scriptures and found that they are the truth in different ways.  Could historical figures such as Arius, or Martin Luther, for that matter, be considered the savage wolves of their day?  That could be an interpretation of Saint Paul’s words, since these figures came from among the presbyters (priests) of their own day and did not spare the flock.  But what about today?  It seems the present-day savage wolf is taking a new form, i.e., one that has taken to sexually abusing members of the flock!

How did the presbyters of St. Paul’s day respond to his prophecy?  We read the following a few lines later in the Acts of the Apostle:

“When he had finished speaking he knelt down and prayed with all of them.  They were weeping loudly as they threw their arms around Paul and kissed him, for they were deeply distressed that he had said that they would never see his face again.”  (Acts 20:36-37)

How should we respond to our sexual abuse crisis?  Saint Paul responded to his weeping presbyters (we are weeping and are deeply distressed too) by kneeling down and praying with them!  How many of us have considered kneeling and praying for and with our priests?  Prayers for the faithful priests; prayers for the sinning priests; prayers for the bishops; prayers for the pope!  It is a stressful time for all ordained priests.  Evil forces are at work.  Let’s set our sights on a purging … not simply a purging of the sinning priests, but a purging of all sin and of the Devil.  But stay above the fray; let’s not lose our precious faith.  We are held by the embrace of our Creator God and he will not abandon us if we pray.  Amen!