Reconciliation: The Church's Vital Sign

One thread that runs through today’s readings is vitality.  After His resurrection Jesus appears to the Church as one who, despite all appearances, has all power over sin, suffering, and death.  In Revelation, He claims to “hold the keys to death and the netherworld.”  That is authority!  While death seems all around us, and threatens to take us in time, Jesus has co-opted the end of earthly life into His victory.  Physical death thus becomes the gateway to everlasting life.  As a venerable Christmas hymn declares, “Now ye need not fear the grave: Jesus Christ is born to save!”

         

When Saint John first witnessed the Lord’s bold proclamation, he says that he “fell at his feet as though dead.”  Jesus stretches out His right hand and picks him up.  As material and spiritual beings, we hear today about other examples of how spiritual vitality is conveyed in ways accessible to the senses.  Jesus conveys the Holy Spirit of forgiveness and healing by breathing on the apostles as they gather in the upper room.  Later, the sick congregate around the apostles in the hopes that Peter would pass by them—that, maybe, just being in his presence would do something for them.  All of this supports the Church’s sacraments as tangible vehicles of the divine life, powered by His Word and operated by His ministers.

         

Today we advert to Reconciliation, to Sacramental Penance, as the ordinary means of forgiving serious sin and remitting its due punishment for the next world.  Jesus told the apostles, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”  He wouldn’t have said that unless He thereby invested the apostles with that sacred power.  To this day people approach the precious court of divine mercy in order to unburden themselves of whatever inhibits their growth in holiness, whatever cuts them off from God and others. 

As an authorized agent of the Holy Trinity, the priest forgives sins and liberates souls for sacrificial, Christian love.  He takes them, as it were, by the right—absolving— hand and raises them up.  By coming to meet the Lord with genuine contrition and deliberate intention, the forgiven penitent comes to share in the vitality of the Lord’s Resurrection in a way that transcends our frail and deceptive senses.  Like Saint John we can stand up and resolutely return to life with a new approach, although it requires our prayerful vigilance.

The abiding offer of divine mercy exhorts us to place our sins with humble confidence in the Lord’s open side, to let them there, and to life the new life of grace.  Don’t let any fears hold you back from a good Confession, whether weeks, months, or years have passed since the last one.  Second only to the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Reconciliation is the reason for my existence.  And that’s not just because I’m a priest.  Are you not all partakers in the priesthood by virtue of your Baptism?  Then you, too, live to offer yourselves to the Father in union with the Son; you, too, live to repent of your sins and to embark upon a daily voyage of prayer and sacrifice.  Through this belief, may you have life in His Name!

We Can Grow Beyond Roe

Today marks the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court that legalized abortion at any stage of pregnancy.  It is no surprise that this has become one of the most hotly-debated matters in our country, with no room for middle ground.  One major political party has legalized abortion in its platform, while the other doesn't.  Recent elections, presidential and otherwise, reveal this near-even split in loyalty and position.

But this matter concerns far more than  "loyalty and position."  It concerns the person, formed in her mother's womb with the faculties of one made to her parents' genetic likeness, and above all, to the Creator's image and likeness.

With and without legal protection--before and since 1973--millions of babies have been lost to abortion.  The current estimation exceeds 50 million, and the ticker increases along the lines of the national debt clock:

What we must "owe" to Roe!

There is no way to quantify the pain--physical, emotional, and spiritual--that a great many women and men experience after their involvement in an abortion.  As a priest I have had the privilege of assisting people along the path of healing, inside and outside the sacrament of Reconciliation.  Pro-Life advocacy must always be fortified by Post-Abortion ministry, lest so many mothers and fathers remain mired in the cauldron of condemnation. 

Speaking of which: the Diocese of Allentown conducts Project Rachel which assists women and men with counseling and a healing retreat opportunity. The toll-free number, which connects you to a real person, is (866) 3-RACHEL.  For more info on the retreats, consult Rachel's Vineyard (www.rachelsvineyard.org).

In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life"), Pope John Paul II reinforced the Church's ardent desire for souls:

I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. To the same Father and his mercy you can with sure hope entrust your child. With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people, and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone's right to life. Through your commitment to life, whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life. 

When and how will we recover--or acquire for the first time?--reverence for the unborn child?  What about our equal deficit of respect for life outside the womb?  Our country's embrace of abortion, alongside pandemic violence in schools, streets, social networks, and homes, will not altogether end, but rather will be transcended one encounter, one choice at a time.  Reverence for life is played out in each person's humble and determined subjection of the passions to the intellect and will.  

For this we are eternally grateful: Right now, in the wake of our mistakes, the Lord desires to move us toward repentance, serenity, and change.  If we wish, we can become compassionate witnesses to, and steadfast coworkers in, the goodness of our own existence (3 Jn 1:8).  Perhaps the shipwreck can become a harvest.

Ahm In

At Mass this morning, one person's response to "The Body of Christ" sounded like "Ahm in" ("I'm in").

The sound of it, the thought of it, seized me for a moment.  Now there were a dozen or more people still in line, so I couldn't just go off into ecstasy right then.  Getting lost in thought isn't an unfamiliar voyage into unfamiliar territory for me!  But, as one of our Scripture profs used to say, "There's a homily in there somewhere!"  (Or a blog post, I suppose.  But blogs weren't around yet.)  So I wanted to keep the idea fresh.

She was receiving the Eucharist, the Body of Christ.  As a fully initiated Catholic she certainly is a member of Christ's Mystical Body.  The recipient of Holy Communion is affirming both dimensions of Christ's Body: two, for the price of One.

The expression Amen derives from the Hebrew word 'emet meaning "truth."  To say "Amen," then, is to affirm the truth.  It does not make truth out of falsehood (for not even God can do that), but it does perfect the one who consciously, freely, and repeatedly assents to a reality outside of himself.

Apud te est fons vitae, et in lumine tuo videbimus lumen (Ps 36:10)

What does the communicant affirm in receiving "the Body of Christ"?  Everything: in terms of the Church's Catechism, we affirm--personally and communally--right doctrine, right worship, right living, and right praying.  The public act of receiving Holy Communion suggests that the recipient is standing (kneeling!) with the Church.  If not, then the person must first "examine himself" (1 Cor 11:28) before approaching the altar.  In nuptial parlance: drop your bouquet, run out of the church (don't mind everyone quizzically looking at you, wondering if there'll still be a reception), and clarify the relationship before declaring your vows.

Now a person's intellectual and moral difficulties--even ten thousand of them--do not equal one doubt (said Cardinal Newman).  Everyone is involved in some sort of struggle, or failure to demonstrate precise correspondence of beliefs and actions.  But the intentional reservation of one's "better judgment" over against the Church is risky--it's far more than risky.  A prompt and earnest beginning to resolve our difficulties always seems appropriate.

All, of course, in the interest of our full investment of self in the Catholic Enterprise, better known as the Body of Christ.  Can I hear an "Ahm in?"

The moment of truth, hands down

Over The Waves, Revisited

While my previous posting concerned a transmission across airwaves, this posting posits me in the midst of a tempestuous sea.

The situation isn't as dramatic as it sounds.

For some time I have been considering the creation of a blog by the name of The Shipwrack-Harvest.  Strange, that I had a name for it before I had a purpose.  But that's the Internet for you, making it easier to "shoot first and ask questions later."  Shoot I did, with this result:

Wow--for the very first time I just took a "screenshot" on my computer!  I've done it numerous times on my phone (though only once on purpose).  This demonstrates to you, patient reader, how far I've come.

Unlike St. Paul, who considered himself in no way inferior to the "superapostles" (2 Cor 11:5), I have questioned my own effectiveness as a blogger.  Some have suggested better--or any--marketing; I proffer ongoing refinement of writing skills and general discipline (with special emphasis on reading, reflecting, and writing).  With the advent of SH, I suspect I will be further "burdened with much serving" (John 10:40).

Not unlike the vessel after which this new blog is named, I don't know how SH will end up.  I may decide to funnel everything into it, to let it capsize, or to balance blogwork betwixt the two.

My decision may come quickly; but so may Christ, rendering deliberation unnecessary.  Meanwhile, I like the title and the concept, so we'll see.

My readership is most welcome to contribute opinions, as one reader has done.  Meanwhile, the "one thing necessary" (Luke 10:42)--pastoral activity--will not abate.  Fine by me!