"Lest We Forget"; Of Michael Christopher and Christopher Michael

My latest Coronatide Consideration comes at the cusp of transition time, when the five counties in our diocese act in consort with civil authorities in permitting public Masses, albeit with still-appropriate safety precautions. The Gospel (Jn 16:29-33) packs the punch, which our deacon delivered deftly. As for my follow-up, I cannot say much, except everyone was left standing.

Jesus' disciples claimed to appreciate His long-awaited clarity, though He never meant to be murky to them. In fact, the Lord observed, they still won't get it, "for had they known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor 2:8); they would never have done their part by abandoning Him at the moment of truth.

"Speaking plainly, with no more figures of speech"! I wonder where that would leave me, or any other poetically-plumed penman. Penmen of note like John McCrae of In Flanders' Fields fame, Recessional's Rudyard Kipling, or my man Hopkins' not-quite-titled "The Soldier," which starts with "YES."--fittingly expressing the consent of every redcoat and tar to their service.

In our day, to that last point, I would add "whitecoat" and "whitecap" to include nurses, doctors, and everyone in the way of this hidden harm, COVID-19. Many fallen heroes among them, too.

YES. Where would our world be without its poets? Some soldiers and patriots might opine poets' oft-controversial positions are posturings, virtue-signals, plain nonsense at best or subversive at worst. Casting things in a different light was never out of season, except in countries that weren't free.

The freedom in which we celebrated the Mass this morning was in some sense never withheld from us, although most bishops and priests considered it best to contain folks as much to their homes as possible, given how close quarters like churches can be flash-points for the sickness.

Today's open-air method is among the options when things officially open on 1 June. By then we will have an FM transmitter to spread the Word. (This morning I learned the transmitter is supposed to be coming tomorrow! Oh, to have been a little quicker to the draw when in other purchases a slower draw might have helped.)

Mass is at once a sacrifice, a banquet, and a memorial. The "Mystery of Faith" acclamation is ingredient to that part of the canon called Anamnesis (Gk, not-forgetting), according to Jesus' command to "do this"--take, break, bless, give, eat, and drink--"in remembrance of Me." Be with us yet, lest we forget, and do we!

Just as Memorial Day exhorts us not to forget the men and women "who more than self their country loved, / and mercy more than life," so every day's Memorial Offering mystically transports us to that moment of supreme truth, goodness, and beauty, the mountain of mercy that lends meaning to every sacrificial offering, large and small.

Please God, these days will remind us of the constant need for remembrance, in the Biblical sense that God remembers: acting concretely on behalf of the one in question.

+ + + + +

Sarah Coleman, top row, second from left; Helenann Welker, bottom row, last at right

My late mother was the best friend of Sally Coleman since high school and nursing school days. They both went on to be faithful and caring wives, mothers, and Licensed Practical Nurses.

They were so close, and so closely pregnant, that they made a kind of pact to name their children together. The first one to emerge was Michael Christopher Wargo (sharing her husband's first name); the second, a few months later, was Christopher Michael Zelonis (a name Mom had in mind and heart for years).

These two boys were in each other's company only a handful of times over the years, as their families' lives went on, fortunately enjoying periodic episodes of quality and quantity. This was much the case in the last fifteen years, after my Dad died in 2004. Mom had become an occasional beach bum in the Wargo pool. Many laughs and reminiscences shared, including a June 1977 birthday party of Michael when the two of us were in the same playpen--photo to follow. I met him as if for the first time at another party, years later.

Mom accompanied the Wargo family in moments delightful and difficult, especially when Michael, who had served his country nobly, took his own life on 20 May 2013, after an arduous struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which had taken a few family tolls prior to that day. As they do, every survivor was left holding the proverbial bag, mourning and speculating.

Many and varied are the battles of the "War at Home," as it has been termed, where servicemen and women still fall, often despite the best efforts of those around them--often amid a certain unawareness of those around them, or within themselves.

Mr. and Mrs. Wargo have since given their lives to foster mental health awareness and care for our veterans. They further honor their son's memory by volunteering for the "Valor Clinic" and "Mission 22," which has honored veteran victims of PTSD with steel silhouettes, including Michael's near the trailhead in his native Lehighton. I pass and pray often, while on the run. The templates of these soldiers are scheduled ("virus-permitting," Sally says) to repose permanently--appropriately, by name--in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, come October, having made a tour of duty in several spots.

Learning that my latest assignment would be in Lehighton was a joy, especially knowing the Wargos all my life, and even Sally's parents George and Margaret Coleman, who tolerated the precocious five-year-old who hung around George's typewriter stand at "the Auction" (the Hometown Farmer's Market). Margaret thought enough of me to buy me a religious item of my choosing at the one Catholic goods stand. I chose a crucifix, which I still have. God bless her, she still thinks of me so, with sharpest mind, in her 90s.

It was never far away: at my desk. St. Anthony has come through for me on lesser things with greater effort.

The pastoral delicacy surrounding self-wrought deaths is something that alas, not all priests, have exercised. I wonder sometimes, when it comes to any commendation in circumstances perhaps awkward, shameful, or volatile, how we do it. A Power Greater, no doubt, even when (only God knows why) that Power seemed utterly inaccessible to them, or they felt utterly unworthy of His regard--which in fact could never have been stronger, at any point.

Lord God of Hosts (armies), be with us yet, even when, for that final moment, we forget.

A Fifth of Containment Considerations

Though there be "nothing new under the sun," we just keep on feigning innovation. Take this blog. Please!

"With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well, so dearly beloved had you become to us" (1 Thess 2:8); or this blog's byline from the Sufferer:  "Would that my words were written down" (Job 19:23).

Whether these candid admissions are prescriptive or descriptive elements of Scripture, they reveal the desire to reveal that God has installed in the heart of every person by dint of his or her unique creation in His Image, which is Heaven-bent on Self-Disclosure.

Another snippet of personal revelation occurs to me, from None Other than Our Lord Himself. How much of an eisegetical stretch is it to hear a tinge of sadness* in His Sacred Voice (≠ disappointment, as if He didn't expect it) when people backed away from Him at the mountain of John 6:

Numquid et vos vultis abire? Certainly you also don't want to go away?

A brief review of Latin interrogative conjunctions suggests the expected answer to numquid? (elision of nunc quid--"now what?") is negative. "No, Lord, we don't want to leave"--whence Simon Peter's confession:

Domine, ad quem ibimus? Lord, to whom shall we go?

We can't readily dismiss Peter's prophetic pence as pietistic. "We have, not even as a matter of choice, nowhere else to go for what You are and have and give." The words of eternal life, the real-food Flesh and real-drink Blood--it's a Jesus of Nazareth Exclusive, the only Public House in town.

Wherefore the denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance that, vapor-like, haunts the airwaves as Holy Week approaches without the offering of public Liturgy. The stage (or better, dimension) I read of most, because the Online is nothing if not a vent, is anger:

This is unacceptable, criminal, cowardly...exhibitionist!

I know that Mind-Reader isn't one of the minor orders en route to ordination. I'm reading exhibitionism into the sentiments expressed passim. 'Splain yourself, Lucy--so that your name, which means "light," might make things plain. Such is always my Desire. And I have a Ball with it.

While we're out here suffering without the Rations we need (not "deserve," we daren't say that), you're showing off your 24/7 Eucharistic access with your sloppy Novus Ordo Masses and homiletic cliches to beat the band--and that's just what they do: beat this band of banned Catholics into a condition unrecognizable.

Dramatic much? I have a history of it.

Sed contra:

By Christ's own Do-This, His Holy Sacrifice--Passover Renewed--is to be offered as the clearest expression of His ongoing Presence "until the end of the age" (Mt 28:20), for it encapsulates the Redeemer's Priestly, Prophetic, and Kingly service to a †.

Whether all the world gather for a Mass in one space or the priest alone celebrate it, everyone is present to Christ, Who is here-and-now submitting everyone to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. He re-presents that one, total, faithful, permanent, exclusive, and fruitful offering each time.

Far from dismissing the directive to "go (Ite), make disciples of all the nations," this truth reinforces  evangelical efforts. It commands everyone to live the Gospel as loudly as your volume goes. 11: looks like two towers, two swords, two books (Covenants Old and New) not meant for a shelf.

The more I read reports (whatever for?) the more I suspect COVID-19 will re-surface in waves, and not disappear in such a way that justifies the wholesale return to civilization--certainly not to Western Civilization and its consumerism of things and persons.

Said civilization's economy won't countenance further isolation before long, and maybe another Great Depression? Did such not eventually follow the Spanish flu epidemic? Our stock-markety Internet-gasoline-driven age will hasten the days.

Saint Augustine famously said every age considers its times unprecedentedly and unrepeatably evil (physical and moral). I must find the reference, as I advert to it often, but the cursory Googling mentions, self-helpily (and what else is Google?), that we are, or make, the times we live in.

The only problem is, there's too many to "we." We're not all alike, so it's hard to construe our condition confidently and concertedly. Sorry, the coffee has commandeered my consciousness.

While I'm at it, then, I will share a tidbit of the elder Father Z of the Internet, whose stalwart blog "What Does the Prayer Really Say" has gone on to say more than the prayers, if it ever so constricted itself.

This episode seized me because its title resonated with the direction I thought he'd be going, and sure enough, he lambasts the new formulary "in time of pandemic" for having said too much, [but not having] said enough. Not his words, though not mine either: it's the only R.E.M. song I ever think of.

Be thou warned: you'd better go to the bathroom before clicking.

In its 10-year-old attempts to tighten up the verbiage of the Ordinary Form of the Mass, the liturgical PTB ineluctably inject some of the same into newer collects, and this trend long pre-dates the 2011 editio typica tertia. The new wine of wordiness, and the old skins of syntax.

Speaking of wordiness (and that I do), how to strew the invisible palms of this weekend's webcasted worship ought to occupy me hereafter. We'll see, and hopefully, you'll see and hear.

+ + +

Because I am not of the "Leave Well-Enough Alone" style of resource management, I add a response from the Twitters to @teawithtolkien who is concerned about explaining the continuance of containment to her children without traumatizing them. @FrAndrewHart observed, "This is a good analogy for our bishops and some of the faithful right now ["hmmm face" emoji]."

My pesky irascible drive prompts sharp rebuke for those who smart over the current Liturgical and Sacramental drought. I pull back when I think of it in terms traumatic.

Everybody hurts, if I must retract my earlier statement regarding R.E.M., and everybody needs--deserves, regardless of appearance to eye or ear--some compassion, especially from those Jesus appointed as watchmen over the house of New Israel (cf. Ez 3:17ff).

Watchmen are lifeguards, and they need to put the mask on themselves before--admit it, while--affixing it to others.

*I say eisegetical ("reading into") because Saint John scarcely hints at sadness and uncertainty in his Gospel. Even on the Cross, Jesus is large and in-charge.

Steven Wright and the Eucharist (A misleading title for the first of seven articles on the Sacraments)

One of the pastoral prerogatives is the direction of, and contribution to, the content of parish communication organs, whether it's the message board out front (which we don't have...yet), the various social media (for us, definitely a work in progress), or the reliable weekly bulletin. Since my first weekend at St. Michael the Archangel nearly two years ago, I have written a bulletin column called "To Inspire, To Inform,  To Entertain" (IIE) That's not the actual headline because I write too much to be able to fit the title, but those words do appear above a nearby quotation, which I take from sources as diverse as Steven Wright and Flannery O'Connor.


Fondly I tell of how I met Steven Wright. I flew to Boston to compete in the Marathon in 2017. While hanging out at Logan International Airport before my return flight, I saw a bearded man with a Red Sox cap wheeling his luggage in my direction while I was approaching (where else?) Dunkin' Donuts. From several dozen yards the man's identity seemed clear, although he was either trying to conceal it or just be a regular citizen. He seemed somewhat surprised I could spot him. I identified myself as a Catholic priest and a big fan. Wright, himself raised Catholic, seemed genuinely humbled by a priest's respect. I told him I feature diverse quotations in my weekly bulletin. "You mean that paper you get in church? Wow! That's neat." We gave a fist bump (WHY DIDN'T I REQUEST A SELFIE, COUTH BE DAMNED?) and he went on his way. I got in line for coffee, feeling a bit better for having competed earlier that week, even though my time was far slower than I'd desired.


IIE has featured series on the Spirituality of the Twelve Steps, Indulgenced Prayers (in honor of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation--"just to show 'em," God forgive me), and, more recently, the Seven Sacraments. For your penance, here is the first of the seven columns, largely unedited. You are always free to read past bulletins--nothing like "yesterday's news!"--archived under the relevant tab on our parish website.

. . . . . . . . . .

I was thinking about doing some sort of series on the Sacraments for the next seven weeks, because 1) there are seven of them; and b) for the next five weeks, the Gospel reading will be taken from the sixth chapter of Saint John’s Gospel. Permit me to do something unconventional by starting with the Eucharist. Think of Baptism as the egg and Eucharist as the chicken. In this series I declare that the chicken comes before the egg, in terms of both time and significance.

John 6 presents the famous “Bread of Life Discourse” in which Jesus declares the necessity of eating His flesh and drinking His blood in order to share in the Son’s eternal-life relationship with the Father. This chapter takes the place of “institution narratives” found in the other (“Synoptic”) Gospels, where Jesus offers His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity for our salvation in the forms of bread and wine, first in the Upper Room with His Apostles on Holy Thursday, then on the Cross on Good Friday.

The Church’s Code of Canon Law presents a theologically rich description to lead off its treatment of each of the seven Sacraments. For Holy Eucharist, the Code references the Second Vatican Council’s liturgical document when it says, “The Eucharistic sacrifice, the memorial of the death and resurrection of the Lord, in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated through the ages is the summit and source of all worship and Christian life, which signifies and effects the unity of the people of God and brings about the building up of the Body of Christ. Indeed, the other sacraments and all the ecclesiastical works of the apostolate are closely connected with the Most Holy Eucharist and ordered to it.”

That’s right, Catholics: Mass makes Calvary as real for us today as it was for Jesus Himself, those who dared to stand with Him, those who fled in fear, and for those who neither knew nor cared about the event. Through the Eucharist we share in the Paschal Mystery in more than a merely spectatorial manner. When we are all together at Mass, even if we don’t spiritually “have it all together,” insofar as we are “all together,” at least we have a chance. Moreover, every good work of ours finds its force from the Best Work of the God-Man. We are well reminded that we don’t, can’t, save ourselves.

“We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works. We should not stay away from our assembly, as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb 10:24-25).

The Holy Spirit: Seal for Consecration and Mission

Readings for Pentecost, Mass of the Day

Holy Mother Church rejoices in the abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In our Diocese of Allentown, she rejoices in four newly ordained priests: Father James M. Harper, III, assigned to Notre Dame of Bethlehem; Father Daniel E. Kravatz, Jr., assigned to our parish; Father Kevin M. Lonergan, assigned to St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton; and Father Mark R. Searles, assigned to Sacred Heart, Allentown. The same Spirit who hovered over the primordial deep, the same Spirit who led Moses and the Israelites through the parted waters of the Red Sea, the same Spirit who breathed life into a field of dry bones, the Spirit who filled the womb of the Virgin Mother: this Holy Spirit enlivens the Church in her doctrine, liturgy, morality, and prayer from one generation to the next. Jesus conveyed the Spirit upon the Apostles, St. John says, by breathing upon them on the night of His Resurrection; by contrast, the Book of Acts offers the traditional account of the Apostles and Mary gathered in the Upper Room in expectant prayer. In either case, the Spirit descends upon them to set them afire with missionary charity and clarity.

The Holy Spirit is the Prime Agent in the Church’s Sacramental life. In the Eucharistic Prayers of the Mass notice how the priest extends his hands over the Gifts, meanwhile invoking the Holy Spirit to transform them into Christ’s Body and Blood. This action is called epiclesis, “calling upon” in the sense of “over top of.” Then there is the ancient action of “Laying on of Hands,” which is a constitutive or at least optional component of most of the sacraments. In Confession it is optional for the priest to lay his hand on the penitent’s head if there is no grate separating them; at the very least, he extends his right hand as he grants absolution. In Anointing of the Sick, the priest first lays his hands upon the person’s head before anointing his head and palms. There are the three sacraments that confer the Holy Spirit upon a person in a game-changing, identity-forming way: Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. While Baptism does not involve the direct imposition of hands, the minister’s hand may touch the candidate in the imposition of Sacred Chrism. In Confirmation, the minister extends hands over (toward) the candidates, and touches the Chrism to the person’s forehead. The Bishop ordains candidates by imposing his hands upon their heads; once again, Chrism is used upon a priest’s palms, and upon a bishop’s head.

All this is to note how the divine Mysteries convey the Holy Spirit’s vital power upon the recipient who by repentance and gratitude strives to be worthy of such magnificent gifts. Confirmation, in particular, “in a certain way perpetuates the grace of Pentecost in the Church” (CCC 1288). The Bishop, in his very person and in his sacramental actions, re-presents the Spirit-breathing Christ by breathing upon the Chrism he consecrates in anticipation of the Paschal Feasts. The Baptized is rightly called a “Christian,” that is to say, one who is anointed as Jesus Himself was anointed Prophet to speak the Word of God, Priest to offer both Himself and mankind in sacrifice, and King to care for and lead people into the true Freedom of the Spirit.

Just as the Spirit descended at Pentecost to unite the confused tongues of the human race, so the Christian is anointed and commissioned by God to be a force for unity, clarity, and enthusiasm. If you have been baptized and confirmed, and you strive to live in communion with God and neighbor in the state of sanctifying grace, then you are duly empowered to be that force for unity, clarity, and enthusiasm into a world that surely needs it!

Memorial, Sacrifice, and Banquet: An Easter Homily

Last night at our Easter Vigil we initiated seven persons into the Catholic Church: two through Baptism and Holy Eucharist, five through a Profession of Faith, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist. While Baptism is always the first Sacrament a person receives, Eucharist is the highest. In this Sacrament, Jesus Himself abides with us as our pledge of heaven. In the Holy Mass He comes to us as memorial, sacrifice, and banquet. These themes fit into the Easter Triduum:

Memorial: When you “remember” someone, biblically speaking, you act on his behalf. God “remembered” childless wives like Hannah and Elizabeth with children who would do great things for Him. The Psalmist boasted of how God, in His mercy, “remembered” Israel in her distress, countlessly saving her from distresses both self-inflicted (sin) and enemy-inflicted (oppression). 

On Holy Thursday, the night before His death, Jesus "remembered" His apostles: He washed their feet. He gave them His own Body and Blood in the Eucharist. He entrusted them with the power to make that Body and Blood present on our altars; in other moments He entrusted the power to forgive sins, to anoint the sick, and to bestow the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Sacrifice: Sacrifice is the heart of religion. The Jews, in particular, sacrificed their best animals and produce in order to demonstrate to God and to themselves that God deserved the best of their love. To purely materialist minds, it seems like the biggest waste; in a sense they’d be right. By spending our time and attention on divine things, somehow our perspective on earthly things changes. They become at once more important and less important: more, because now we want to use those things well, and less, because we know they're not all there is to this life. 

On Good Friday, Jesus followed through on the promise of Holy Thursday by offering His fully divine and fully human life. Everything He endured, from the lies that people levied against Him to the physical and mental torture to the crucifixion itself, He endured for our salvation. At every step, love was His motivation; no other reason would do.

Banquet: People need to eat. The act of eating often provides as much emotional satisfaction as physical. Food finds its way into most gestures of hospitality, welcoming, congratulating, and mourning—in a word, every human interaction. With good intentions we flash it around whenever we want to impress people. Among all cultures the Italians come to mind with that word, abbondanza, which to my mind includes food, but encompasses all wealth and every expression of value. 

On Holy Saturday, death’s scarcity becomes life’s abbondanza when Jesus treats the souls of the blessed to His eternal wedding feast, when He forever unites Himself to His Church in a total bond of fidelity, permanence, and fruitfulness.

The quiet Upper Room meal, the Silence of the Lamb that was slain, the darkness of the grave: these three days together form one great, mysterious day of joy and hope. We know too well how our sorrows and sins can get the better of us, but the Lord Jesus declares to us once and for all--and as often as necessary--that sin, suffering, and death do not have the final say on our lives, as long as we steep ourselves in the meaning and power of this most sacred day.

Christ our Life is risen from the dead, glorious and immortal. By our faithful participation in His Word, His Bread, and His Charity, it shall be so!

The Altar: A Conversion Table

On the heels of Saint Francis de Sales the Church celebrates Saint Paul.  While the Church has come to revere him as "the Apostle," he described himself as "abnormally born" (1 Cor 15:8) because he was an apostolic latecomer, not one of the original twelve-plus-one.

The Church commemorates certain events in the lives of particularly noteworthy saints in addition to their "personal day."  Think of Mary-as-Godbearer (1 Jan) as well as her Maternal Consent (25 Mar), her Assumption (15 Aug), her own birth (8 Sep) and Immaculate Conception (8 Dec).  Think of John the Baptist (24 Jun) alongside his martyrdom (29 Aug).  Saint Paul's conversion (25 Jan) is honored in addition to his being the "two" of the "one-two punch" of Saints Peter and Paul (29 Jun).

I have a particular appreciation for the 24th and 25th of January because of a priest-friend and mentor  who for nearly 20 years was pastor of a Saint Francis de Sales Parish and whose birthday has been celebrated on the feast of Paul's conversion since 1938.  Although I was intrigued with the priesthood since the age of five, priests like this one have inspired me through the years to embrace kindness, devotion, wisdom, and knowledge, with humor and humility.

Some astute camera-wielding individual thought enough to take a picture of this priest and another priest (a classmate and dear friend from another diocese) while they were embracing me at the "Kiss of Peace" which takes place within the Ordination Rite.  These two photos are in the next room as I write.  Upon ordination I presented each of them a copy on which the phrase was inscribed, Ecce quomodo amabat eum: "See how much He loved him" (Jn 11:36).  You may recognize that as the remark of the Jews who beheld Jesus weeping upon the death of His friend Lazarus.  The affectionate greeting of those brother priests--whom I still marvel to call "peers"--reflected their love for me and for the sacrificial priesthood in which we share.

My best pose

Following the embrace of those men and dozens of others, my classmate and I were led to the Altar, having been "converted" from deacons into priests by the laying on of hands, a consecratory prayer, the Chrismation of our hands, and the repositioning of our stoles from over the left shoulder to around the neck.

I have settled into the living-out of "my" sacrament perhaps no better but no worse than any married persons.  At tonight's RCIA, part two of our matrimonial considerations, the presenter noted how she and her husband didn't fully understand what they were getting into either, what personal changes they would be prompted to make over the years, what joys awaited them.  I mentioned how the priest mentioned above inspired me to adopt the custom of kissing the ring hands of couples whose vows I had just witnessed--a gesture of mutual reverence that priests and married couples should offer because we all build up Christ's Mystical Body.  Earlier today, in talking to the 4th and 5th graders, I offered preliminary premarital formation by talking about the formation of conscience and the blessing of repentance, unique to human beings among all of God's creation by virtue of our will and intellect.  If we but contemplated our own divinized humanity a bit more deeply and a bit more often, who knows what might happen?

The "conversion" of me is only beginning, it seems; but the Altar of God is always the place of "reversion"--where I must return and love to return for the Offering of Peace and Sacrifice of Praise.  Whenever people join me at this altar, I am the richer for it.  Even when I am alone, however, I am never truly alone, for all the angels and saints are there; and soon the Lord of heaven and earth is there.

+ + + + +

Later this morning I will be leaving for the March for Life in Washington, D.C.  It will be blasted cold, I know; but this might be a spiritual boon for someone who doesn't gladly tolerate the winter, or anything else he perceives to be an inconvenience.  Pray for the health and safety of the traveling participants.  Pray especially for all who have participated in abortion by commission, coercion, suggestion, assistance, approval, and governmental support: for the repentance of those who still need it, for the continued growth of all who have repented, and finally, that the enveloping merits of Christ's sacrifice will shake the people of this nation into a new and comprehensive reverence for our own existence and worth.