Promises, Promises Can Just Transform Your Life

In an internet feature called "Throwback Thursday," I decided to post a paper that the former secretary of my home parish sent to my Mom a few years ago. She must have been going through some old records when she found this chestnut:

This was a really good find, both for the nerdy picture (dig the size of those spectacles!) and for the personal historical value.

For whatever reason my father and Confirmation sponsor (my paternal grandfather, William J. Zelonis, affectionately known by his coworkers as "Bill Zee" and his grands as "Grump") never signed it. 

Dad really stayed in the proverbial back seat with characteristically quiet support. His vocational advice was very simple: "You got a good head on your shoulders. You don't have to bust your ___ like I did." "Just as long as you don't do anything immoral." Works for me.

People's comments have been understandably favorable. One person, who is deeply involved in promoting the Church's missionary activity, called it a "timely Valentine to the Holy Spirit." My gears started grinding.

First, it reminded me of this martyrous meme:

Yep

The Holy Spirit, given initially at Baptism and fully in Confirmation, galvanizes the human spirit to live the primary vocation to holiness. Our cooperation with that Gift entails the promises I made in that declaration: prayer, kindness, seeking intimacy with God, seeking ways to witness to Christ before others.

I have at times been far from faithful to those promises. I dare not claim my vocation to the priesthood as proof of anything--except, perhaps, God's "proof of purchase." While I may piously refer to myself as His slave, and identify myself in terms of the Lord's commitment to me and mine to Him (cf. Song 6:3), I remain dreadfully free to set it aside in favor of lesser loves.

So for couples who identify themselves with each other: they cannot rest on the laurels of their identification. They must engage in the daily sacrificial proofs of love. For the bishop Saint Valentine, love for Christ eventually meant the gift of his life. "No one takes my life away from me; I lay it down freely" (Jn 10:18).

This total gift of self, this further specification of the baptismal call to sanctity, finds expression in marriage, vowed religious life, ordination, or consecrated virginity. People may apply themselves to certain worthy occupations in a way that resembles that total gift, which is valid as far as it goes; but one's vocation as such pertains to the harnessing of love's energies and the itemized investment of our spiritual and temporal resources. This calling--a mystical mixture of God's ideas and ours, God's initiative and our response--it can hurt, it can fulfill.

I was confirmed in 1988 by the Most Reverend Thomas J. Welsh. Six years later he would accept me as a seminarian for the Diocese of Allentown. He would live to see me ordained a priest, he would preside in choir at my father's funeral, and I would concelebrate his funeral Mass.

1988 was a banner year in my life, aside from my Confirmation. Like many public schoolers who attended CCD/PREP I couldn't wait to stop going to classes. This was strange, because I enjoyed learning about my Catholic faith. Perhaps it was the extra allotment of time on a Wednesday night.

To solve that (not really; it was a discrete decision) I enrolled in the local Catholic school. That fact, as I have written in previous posts, really opened me to love of my religion and to an interest in spirituality and service. Now I had religion classes every day. Now I could play the organ for school Masses and serve funerals. 

In eighth grade I became a "mission rep": the school's student representative to the diocesan Holy Childhood Association, now called the Missionary Childhood Association. While I never considered devoting my life to the service of the poor in other countries, I appreciate how they told us we were all missionaries by virtue of our baptism.

I retain a number of friends from that time in my life. One of them just found that Valentine martyr meme. We can still talk honestly and charitably about religious, spiritual, and cultural matters. I have assisted, and even officiated, at the weddings of some.

It is rather consoling to know that the promises made at Confirmation, at an admittedly insane point in the life of most recipients, can be increasingly activated over the years, perhaps to blossom in a life acutely conscious of the reality and relevance of God.

"Unpacking the Precepts": Church Contribution

The fifth precept ("You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church") means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability. (CCC 2043)

The Catechism refers the reader to Canon 222§1, which provides the reasons for material support: "so that the Church has what is necessary for divine worship, for the works of the apostolate and of charity, and for the decent support of ministers."

To paraphrase former Speaker of the House Thomas P. ("Tip") O'Neill who naturally spoke of politics, "All religion is local."  My examination of this fifth precept is also local.

The operating budget of any parish heavily depends on the contributions of parishioners.  Oftentimes we experience, and always we appreciate, the generosity of visitors; but it's the crew who steers the foundering vessel through the quotidian tumult.  Considering the low percentage of parishioners who go to Mass regularly among the parishioners "on the books," we cannot help but acknowledge that a relative few people supply nearly the whole parish income.

That's not fair.

Now I don't claim to know what each participating member is able to give.  It's a personal decision, but that doesn't mean that other people can't make suggestions, especially when those suggestions are based on their own experience.

The practice of "tithing" is rooted in the story of Abram and Melchizedek in Gen 14:18ff.  After  rescuing his nephew and company in a battle, Abram brought the king of Salem "a tenth of everything" he had collected in the spoils.  Melchizedek was a precursor of the tribe of Levi, Israel's priestly tribe, which received all its material support from the tithes of the Israelites (cf. Num 18:21; Heb 7:5).

The priestly practice of depending on the people was also an act of dependence upon the Lord.  "Will they (He) provide for us?"  They will, if they take seriously the Lord's command to sanctify the Lord's Day in His holy dwelling place and if they present a just offering with gratitude for the Lord's providential care for their lives.  In this and many other human affairs, God "relies" on us human beings as secondary agents of Providence (CCC 306-308).

Three relevant winners from CCC 306-308:

God grants his creatures...the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of cooperating in the accomplishment of his plan. (306)

God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors.  Though often unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers, and their sufferings. (307)

Drawn from nothingness by God's power, wisdom, and goodness, [the creature] can do nothing if it is cut off from its origin, for "without a Creator the creature vanishes" (Gaudium et Spes 36§3).  Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without the help of God's grace. (308)

Contribution to the Church and other worthy causes is for everyone an act of faith, that, when it comes to my life, God "is not dead, nor doth He sleep."  But at the same time, by our many and varied contributions, we become part of the answer to others' prayers.

One-tenth has long been understood as a standard of sacrificial generosity.  Whether we distribute our offering entirely to our parish, or among several recipients, is a personal decision; but this author suggests caution against overextending oneself so that many recipients benefit little.

Your parish ought to be high on the list, because the parish is the "precinct" of pastoral care.  Priests celebrate the holy and life-giving Sacraments, preach the Gospel, and offer themselves for your spiritual needs.  The hired workers of the parish (e.g. secretaries, maintenance personnel) keep the facilities in good working order, so that the physical plant is sound and presentable, and so that services divine and human can be provided.  If the parish participates in a school, the parish likely subsidizes a considerable amount of the school's operating budget.  Everyone has expenses, and our good people enable the household of faith to cover its own.

Moreover, the parish helps to provide for people who need a financial boost.  St. Vincent De Paul Societies, Knights of Columbus, and other organizations help local residents.  Parishioners offer non-perishable foods for direct distribution to parishioners and to local pantries.  Holy Guardian Angels Parish also supports Mary's Shelter and Mary's Home, refuges for women who are pregnant or have young children.  These charitable endeavors are distinct from the ordinary expenses that your weekly contributions offset.

We cannot forget the Church's missionary activity.  "Charity begins at home, but can't stay at home forever."  Efforts exist on a diocesan and national level for the ongoing proclamation of the Gospel in other countries and parts of our own country that cannot easily support themselves.  "Operation Rice Bowl" was started in this diocese by Msgr. Robert J. Coll, one of our now retired priests.  Our school children participate in an initiative called the "Missionary Childhood Association" (formerly the "Holy Childhood Association") that raises funds every year.  Older Catholics may recall the practice of "saving pagan babies" with the quarters they saved as school children.  A kinder, gentler Church eschews such nomenclature in favor of bringing spiritual and material sustenance to the most vulnerable of God's precious poor.

Canon 222§2: "[The Christian faithful] are also obliged to promote social justice and, mindful of the precept of the Lord, to assist the poor from their own resources."  Whom and what you assist outside of the parochial context is a matter of conscience.  Moreover, we never neglect personal justice in the name of social justice: remember (as Fulton Sheen did) how Judas spurned a sinful woman's offering in the insincere interest of "helping the poor," and remember how Jesus approved the woman's regard for Him as appropriate for the moment--yes, because He Is Who He Is, but also because Whoever is in front of us deserves our attention.