Feast Day: November 15^th 

The venerable philosopher was perplexed.  As a certain fall afternoon in the late 1240s slipped by, the desk room littered with scrolls of all kinds was a good image of his cluttered mind.  The great mind had tackled scientific inquiries into genetics and astronomy and chemistry … last month his project was calculating the size and speed of the heavenly spheres, though today his astrolabe was gathering dust rather than measuring the angles of rays of light.

More recently, he had been captivated by the question of whether Plato or Aristotle had come up with a better concept of universals.  He had grinned as that philosophical jargon had spiraled around in his head: it was actually a mongrel dog running along the streets of Paris that got him thinking on it.  Every child in the city could tell you what a dog was: four legs, one tail, plenty of teeth, and usually a bark worse than their bite.  But no such generic dog actually existed: different colors, coats, faces, temperaments, and yes, this one only had 3 legs it turned out, but was undoubtedly a dog… we can conceptualize a “universal” dog, the generic form of a canine but did that form exist above and beyond this world, as Plato thought?  Or, was it a concept in his own mind, marvelously instantiated in every one of the critters that trotted past his window?  

But today he wasn’t thinking about stars, or spaniels, he was considering the students who had sat before him in class earlier that day.  Now a young man, Thomas of Aquino, continued to shine amongst his classmates.  The ox whose voice would shake the world, as Albert had wryly nicknamed the husky youngster a few years prior, would soon travel with him to Cologne Germany where they would study and teach there together.  But his thoughts weren’t on the students individually, but universally: how, and what, is a human being?  

Plato’s voice was at first the loudest: “The soul is most like that which is divine, immortal, intelligible, uniform, indissoluable, and ever self-consistent and invariable, whereas body is most like that which is human, mortal, multiform, unintelligible, dissoluable, and never self-consistent.”  Ok, so the eternal ‘side’ of ourselves, the perfect, permanent, most-real, depths of who we are – is the soul – destined to be released from the mortal shell that is our body.  

Plato was onto something here, and yet, the greatest philosopher who ever lived, who had also given his life as had Plato’s Socrates, had once said “in the beginning it was not so”, pointing us eternally back to the moment when God had chosen to create man, and smiled as He “saw that it was very good”.  Man, soul and body, Jesus had remined us, was very good.  What would Plato make of that?  That God, perfect, invariable, divine, would choose to create man, not a soul imprisoned in flesh, but a soul incarnate in flesh, and then, when the time had come, to become man Himself, and show man the fullness of his spiritual freedom and dignity?!  What a God we have?!  What a dignity we have?!

Augustine’s poetry next enkindled Albert’s pondering heart: “You called and shouted: and broke through my deafness. You flamed and shone: and banished my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me: and I drew in my breath and I pant for you. I have tasted you: and now I hunger and thirst for more. You have touched me: and I have burned for your peace.”  If we all yearn for God, thirsting for His fire and peace, doesn’t that mean that our souls, just like our bodies, are incomplete here below?  This jived with a new philosopher he and Thomas were just now investigating: an ancient Greek thinker named Aristotle.  His works had been lost in Europe for centuries, but now, by God’s mysterious providence, had made their way onto his desk – before most anybody else on the continent – through copies received from the Islamic scholar, Avicenna, far east of the Holy Land.  Weren’t all these musings a bit like the Aristotelian idea of the soul functioning as the form, the ordering-principle, of the body: body and soul both destined for ever-greater perfection and freedom and integrity as both were perfected together?  

He glanced out the window, and then it struck him.  Well, both the slanting rays of the setting sun and a glimpse of the answer he sought: light strikes our eyes – from a planet, or a puppy, or a person – and imparts to us data about various objects.  That data our mind, it is true, abstracts in order to articulate the general form of whatever it is we are looking at.  But, there is a form beyond that thing, not quite like Plato thought: more accurately, there is a mind beyond our mind, that has illuminated us.  A Word that has been spoken, a Truth that has been given.  We only come to the higher, beyond-this-world, knowledge because we have been given a participation in the Mind beyond-this-world, Who designed all the intelligible things we see and study … and that Intelligence also dwells within us!  Plato was right: at our heart we are beyond this world, but Aristotle also had something correct: our body and soul together image the God Who has delighted to make us intelligent like He is.  

– Fr. Rankin loves Autumn.  The trees turn gold, speeding his gratitude.  The weather turns cold, speeding his runs.  The year turns old, speeding us towards Christmas.

For the past few weeks, during our weekday masses, we have been hearing from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  This might be one of my favorite letters composed by St. Paul as it offers so many wonderful points that are central to our faith as Christians.  One passage in particular is often in my mind as I reflect on the life to which we are called as we follow the path of the Gospel:

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

(Rom 8:18–21)

St. Paul speaks about the “glorious freedom of the children of God” that awaits us in Heaven, for there, we shall be freed from the slavery of sin which always threatens us in this life as a result of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve.  But thanks to Jesus Christ, this freedom is not an altogether future experience for which we hope.  It is something that has become possible already here in this life.  As St Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians: “For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1)  Here he is speaking of a current reality available to us, one that is possible by our own choosing as we reject sin and choose to follow the path of truth and life made available to us through the Gospel way of life.

As we continue our Family of Faith formation with Section Three of the Catechism – Life in Christ, our focus this month is the freedom that comes from following this way of life proposed by Christ and His Church.  Part of living this freedom is knowing the choices that will lead us to freedom and avoiding those things which deprive us of it.  We will therefore consider the formation of our conscience as a part of this month, an indispensable part of our training to live this gift of the freedom.  As I mentioned a couple of months ago, the moral life in Christ is made possible for us through the graces of the sacraments, especially Penance and the Eucharist.  To the extent that we make these two sacraments a regular part of our lives, we will experience greater freedom in this life, not because of any ability of our own, but because of God’s strength which lives in us through the sacraments.  If we think that we can survive the challenges of this life without these sacraments, we are in for a bumpy road, and the Lord has some stern words we would do well to heed: “Without me, you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)  But if we stay close to Christ in the sacraments and follow His teachings, we will realize what St. Paul himself came to believe by following this path: “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Let us therefore be convinced that submitting ourselves to the yoke of Christ through the sacraments, and obeying His teachings and those of the Church, we lose nothing at all.  Instead, we gain the great gift of the freedom of the children of God, already available to us in this life, and fully in the life of Heaven.

Father Alford     

This week, November 7 – 13, 2021, the Catholic Church in the United States celebrates National Vocations Awareness Week (NVAW), otherwise known as vocations week. This celebration started in the 1970s but has been observed at various times of the year since its inception. However, in 2014, it was moved “permanently” to the first full week of November every year.

During the vocations week, Catholics are encouraged to appreciate and promote vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life in some special ways. We can do this by talking to family and friends about these vocations and encouraging them to discern them. One can also celebrate this vocations week by praying for and or requesting Masses to increase these vocations. Sending financial supports to the office of vocations is another excellent way to celebrate the vocations awareness week.

We can also celebrate this vocations week by supporting men and women in these vocations individually in whatever means available to us. This is mainly those who are still undergoing formations in religious houses and seminaries. In a particular way, encouraging young men and women to discern these vocations and supporting them in the process is a work of LOVE and of CHARITY.

In our diocese, we are fairly doing well with some of these vocations. The ordination of nine priests, two transitional deacons, and six permanent deacons, all for our diocese since last year, is one evidence of this. However, there is no doubt that there has been a continuous decline in these vocations in most parts of the world over many decades. There are so many factors responsible for this decline. They are so many to mention and should not distract us from increasing efforts to appreciate, encourage, and support these vocations more intentionally.

Our failure to appreciate, encourage, and support these vocations is a work of the devil. Men and women in these vocations dedicate their lives to the service of the Church. And Satan does not like the Church. He uses every opportunity available to him to fight the Church. When we hear about all kinds of scandals involving priests and bishops, it is the devil fighting the Church. When pro-abortionists receive the Eucharist, it is the devil fighting the Church. When we ignore the evils that others suffer and keep quiet over all kinds of injustices around us simply because we are not directly affected, it is the devil fighting the Church. When people in lifestyles that contradict the message of the Gospel argue that they are staunch and holy Catholics, it is the devil fighting the Church.

These fights against the Church usually result in the decline of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. How? Because the greatest beauty of these vocations is the holiness they radiate, the love they permeate, and the faith they preach by their very existence and presence. When these satanic attacks of the Church are going on, the beauty of the vocations becomes both invisible and less attractive.

As we celebrate this Vocations Awareness Week 2021, let us pray for and support our brothers and sisters in the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life. Let us also find ways to encourage and support our young men and women to discern these vocations.

Feast Day: November 13^th 

This month our parish will continue to engage the third part of the catechism, on our moral life following Christ, but specifically wrestling with the overlapping topics of our freedom, discernment, conscience, and choice – to get to the heart of the matter: we’re delving into our ability to do what is good, but propensity to do what is not good.  As Bishop Paprocki said when he first came to our diocese, the only thing standing between us and a fervent, fruitful, faithful practice of our faith is sin and the great task of living a moral life is rooting out sin and living according to God and relying upon His grace.  

I think we’ve all heard that sort of thing before though!  How do we take the next step?  Well, this week we are given two specific aids in that journey: firstly, this first week of November, the Church every year celebrates “Vocation Awareness Week” inviting all of us to approach anew the specific call God has offered to each of us.  Plus, this year these days include the feast we celebrate on November 13^th of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.  Famously the first American citizen to be canonized, her story offers a tremendous example to all of us someone seeking to follow God’s call, that is, to place our freedom in the Lord’s hands and discover that we are more free, and more good, and more happy, in doing so.

For Frances, born in Italy in 1850, the first seeds of her vocation were planted at home after Agustino, her father, had finished planting seeds on their family farm.  He would tell the stories of the Church’s missionaries to his children, firing their imagination with the tales of St. Paul and St. Boniface and St. Francis Xavier.  Little Frances would make paper boats as she played behind her home, sending them down the nearby canal hoping they would make there way to India or China as “missionaries”, carrying – in lieu of the Gospel – violet petals she had collected from the nearby flowers.  Jesus continued to mold her heart for the work He had in mind for her during her years studying at a school ran by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart.  Earning good grades all the way through, when she was old enough it was to this order that she applied, desiring to spread the faith as one of their sisters.  She was rejected.

How easy it would have been for the young woman to give up on God’s plan at that point, or to think He had something else in mind?!  Always, there will be uncertainty and setbacks on the road of following Jesus, and always our temptation will be to choose the easier route, the less painful one, the one that doesn’t require failure and risk and trial and trust, but Frances knew she was called and created to be a missionary: her heart was set alight by the idea, and God doesn’t plant dreams in us to watch them wither.  Still, it would be a path of pain that Frances walked in the years that followed.  She lost both her parents at the age of 20, worked as a substitute teacher for a time, applied again to the sisters (and was again turned down), and then found herself heading up an orphanage at the recommendation of a local priest only to have it abruptly closed several years later.

Dead end for God’s designs?  Never!  It was at that orphanage, far from home, having lost her parents, and rejected as a religious sister, that Frances was inspired to begin a religious order of her own.  They started there in Cadogno, Italy, with several young women joining the fledgling institute, and – now “Mother” – Cabrini showing her still-strong desire to head East by taking as patrons St. Francis de Sales and St. Francis Xavier (Cabrini took his name into her own for her religious name).  

But God had different plans.  Meeting with Pope Leo XIII, he was supportive of her order, and desire to teach, but redirected her zeal “not to the East, but to the West.”  Italians by the millions were settling in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere around the USA and South America.  They needed to be sustained in their faith (and in the practical hardships they would meet here!), and that task was the one entrusted to the small group of sisters who had stumbled into teaching behind Mother Cabrini. 

I am out of space already before relating the dozens of schools, hospitals, and other institutions this indefatigable sister would found across our country, or the hardships and rejections and setbacks she would find here too, but we have already learned a great lesson from her. The Lord’s call is not evident based on the comfort we find in our lives – often times we are quite uncomfortable in doing His will.  Rather, His will is found in constant turning again and again to Him: begging that He would show the way through; asking Him to reveal why He has placed this or that on our heart; discovering the responsibilities, and abilities, that He has already entrusted to us, and learning to live in the freedom of knowing that He has our back, but has also entrusted us with a “talent” of our own which He delights in us learning to carry with Him watching on.

– Fr. Rankin rides his bike over to the diocesan offices regularly to get a bit of exercise and avoid paying for gas when he doesn’t have to.  The reason he does not have training wheels to this day is because his dad taught him long ago that sometimes you have to wobble along for a bit to figure out how to balance, and our Heavenly Father often loves  us in a similar way.  Thanks Dad!

When it came time for me to decide on a topic to research and write on for my Master’s Thesis in the seminary, I chose to write in the area of ecclesiology, which is the study of the Church.  When I told my classmates about it, they did not sound terribly impressed, as they thought it sounded like a rather dry topic.  But I persevered and as I did my work, I grew very much in my knowledge of the Church.  More importantly, though, I grew in my love for the Church!

As we enter into the month of November, I like to think of this month as a month during which our attention is especially focused on the Church.  Let me explain why I say that.  On November 1, we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints.  This day draws our attention to what we call the Church Triumphant.  The saints who are in Heaven still very much belong to the Church.  Their membership in the Church highlights the important point that even though they no longer enjoy physical communion with us here on earth, they are still united to us though the bond of faith that was given to them (and us) on the day of Baptism.  We call those in Heaven part of the Church Triumphant because they are sharing in the triumphal victory that Christ has won for them through His Death and Resurrection, a victory that is extended in a final and lasting way to all of those who complete their earthly journey united to Him through grace as members of the Church.

On the following day, November 2, we celebrate the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, also known as All Souls Day.  On this day in a special way, and throughout the entire month of November in a general way, we pray for those members of the Church who have died and are awaiting their being welcomed into the Church Triumphant.  We call those who have died and are in this state of waiting members of the Church Suffering.  They are undergoing any purification that is necessary for them to be fully prepared for Heaven.  Once again, death does not separate these souls from membership in the Church.  As their brothers and sisters in the faith, we offer our prayers and sacrifices on their behalf so that the purgation of the effects of their sins will be accomplished, thus the name Purgatory that is given to those who are in this state.  The members of the Church Suffering have a painful ache for Heaven which is guaranteed to them, but which is not yet something they can fully embrace.  Therefore, we aid them so as to relieve that suffering, and we look forward to benefitting from their prayers when they do arrive at their reward.

Finally, for us who remain in the Church here below, we continue to struggle against our weaknesses and the obstacles the devil and the world place before us.  It is for that reason that this state in the Church in which we find ourselves is known as the Church Militant.  This battle is waged with the graces the Church offers to us in the sacraments and by following the teachings of Christ and His Church.  Our victory is assured if we continue to follow under the banner of our triumphant King, Jesus Christ, who has already won the victory and who never ceases to offer us the help we need to be among the victors at the end of our lives.  It is therefore fitting for us to celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King toward the end of November on the last Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Let us be ever mindful of the beauty of this Church to which we belong by calling upon the intercession of those who are in Heaven to help us with their prayers, by praying for those in Purgatory who need our help to get to Heaven, and by praying for and helping one another who remain here below to journey together along this journey as we look forward to all of us being one day among the members of the Church Triumphant in Heaven. 

Father Alford     

My generation is probably familiar with a quote from Spiderman’s Uncle Ben in the 2002 movie: “With great power comes great responsibility.” I’m sure someone else had said this line many years before Uncle Ben, but it is actually a good expression of our duty as human beings to choose good and avoid evil. Last week I wrote about the Church’s understanding of free choice, and I would like to expand on that today. 

Free will implies a great responsibility that we have been given to choose the good. It is possible to gradually lose one’s freedom over time, if bad decisions are made over and over again. From the very beginning of Genesis, we see that a misuse of free will led to a lessening of the freedom of Adam and Eve, as they were banished from the Garden of Eden, having made their decision to reject God and choose sin. Paragraph 1739 of the Catechism says, “Man’s freedom is limited and fallible. In fact, man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God’s plan of love, he deceived himself and became a slave to sin. This first alienation engendered a multitude of others. From its outset, human history attests the wretchedness and oppression born of the human heart in consequence of the abuse of freedom.” 

Sin begets sin, as holiness begets holiness. After the Original Sin, Adam and Eve turned to blame, then not telling the whole truth to God about what had happened. Sin reduces our freedom, and a habitual sin is called a vice. Good actions increase our freedom, and good habits are called virtues. St. Paul often talks about this freedom in his letters. He wrote to the Galatians, “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1). By submitting to God’s will and accepting his grace, we become free to live lives of virtue and goodness. For someone who follows the false idea of freedom, or doing whatever one wants, freedom can actually be lost. “By deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth” (CCC 1740). 

Jesus has saved us so that we can have the glorious freedom of the children of God. God adopted us as his sons and daughters when we were baptized, and he invites us to call him “Father.” God does not want us to see him simply as a master or a rule-maker, and he doesn’t want us to follow his rules simply because we are afraid of making him angry. He invites us to the fullness of life through prayer and the sacraments because he loves us and wants what is best for us. May we all confidently turn to God as our heavenly Father in true freedom. Sin is only an illusion of freedom, and it is our responsibility to seek that which is truly good. 

Feast Day: November 4^th   

Much could be said about the saintly archbishop of Milan whose life we look to as an example of holiness and faithfulness this week.  He was made shepherd of that important archdiocese shortly after the Council of Trent and worked his entire life to place its teachings, and directives, into the hearts of his flock.  He worked to reform the clergy in his diocese, who were considered so corrupt that a common saying was “if you want to go to hell, become a priest”.  And, if those sobering words do not convince us of the challenges that faced him, in 1576 a famine struck the city, and then the Bubonic Plague.  

The wealthy and those in power fled the city as it was ravaged by the terrible disease, but the archbishop stayed.  As food supplies dwindled, and the numbers of caretakers plummeted, the still-young Archbp. Borromeo spent his own fortune (and then went deep into debt) to procure food, and distribute it himself to the overflowing hospitals and leper houses.  He was surrounded by the sick and dying, and with little help from his own fearful priests, who had abandoned the sick without natural or supernatural sustenance, Charles himself fed some 70,000 people during the coming months, and gave countless suffering persons absolution, anointing, and viaticum.  Famously, he offered Mass on street corners so that the faithful could receive the sacraments with less risk of catching the dreaded plague.

This month, we have considered the saints as exemplars of those who have walked the path to heaven before us.  As we consider how we are doing on that journey ourselves, and how strongly our own lives are directed towards eternity, there is a final lesson to be learned from Charles’ ministry during those terrible 16 months in Milan.  Seeing that there were far too few priests to bring the sacraments to the dying (some 25,000 would die in his archdiocese during those days), the archbishop drafted a “Last Will and Testament of the Soul”, which were distributed widely so that anyone could sign it for themselves, committing their souls into God’s hands if their death came with no chance to receive absolution or Holy Communion.  A few excerpts are sufficient to ask each of us if we are as courageous as they in choosing heaven in the midst of our own sufferings!

[I desire to] pass out of this life, armed with the last sacrament of extreme unction: the which if through any let or hindrance I should not then be able to have, I do now also for that time demand and crave the same; beseeching his divine majesty that he [God] will be pleased to anoint my senses both internal and external with the sacred oil of his infinite mercy, and to pardon me all my sins committed by seeing, speaking, feeling, smelling, hearing, touching, or by any other way whatsoever.  [I repent from my sins of] murmuration against God, or the Catholic faith … any sign of bad example … [and] all the evil whatsoever, which I might have then done or said.  

[I give] infinite thanks [to God, for all His gifts, especially my] Vocation to the holy knowledge of him and his true Catholic faith.  [And] I am willing, yea, I do infinitely desire and humbly crave, that of this my last will and testament the glorious and ever Virgin Mary, mother of god, refuge and advocate of sinners, (whom I honour specially above all other saints,) may be the chief Executress, together with these other saints, my patrons, all whom I invoke and beseech to be present at the hour of my death, that she and they may comfort me with their desired presence, and crave of sweet Jesus that he will receive my soul into peace.

Amen!!  May all of us have the courage to pray this prayer!  

– Fr. Rankin will spend this week taking to heart Charles Borromeo’s words, at this same time, to the priests of his diocese: “We have only one life and we should spend it for Jesus Christ and souls, not as we wish, but at the time and in the way God wishes. It would show great presumption and neglect of our duty and God’s service to fail to do this, with the excuse that God could not replace us by others more capable of working for His glory. This does not mean you should neglect human means, such as preventatives, remedies, doctors, everything that you can use to keep off infection, for such means are in no way opposed to our doing our duty.  … [but] Do not be so forgetful of your priesthood as to prefer a late death to a holy one.”

October seems to be one of the most active months in the Church’s year, apart from the liturgical seasons of Lent, Easter, Advent and Christmas.  As I have previously written, this is the month of the Rosary, in addition to being Respect Life Month.  This Sunday, we add another important annual celebration – World Mission Sunday.  It is worth sharing a portion of the letter that Bishop Paprocki wrote for our celebration this year:

World Mission Sunday joins all Catholics of the world into one community of faith. At Mass that Sunday, we recommit ourselves to our common vocation, through Baptism to be missionaries, through prayer, participation in the Eucharist, and by giving generously to the collection for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. 

Pope Francis’s message for World Mission Sunday this year reflects on the theme: “We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). He reminds us that, “as Christians, we cannot keep the Lord to ourselves,” as we “recall with gratitude all those men and women who by their testimony of life help us to renew our baptismal commitment to be generous and joyful apostles of the Gospel.”

Think of what our lives would be like if we did not have people who were willing to teach us and witness to our Catholic faith?  We would be overwhelmed with all the wordly values and would be missing out on so many blessings that give meaning to our lives and true hope for our future.  But thanks be to God, there have been people, many people, who have been like those first disciples and felt the obligation and opportunity to share the Good News with us as missionaries.

Perhaps on this World Mission Sunday, we can spend some time in prayer, calling to mind those missionaries who have been instruments of our receiving the faith.  For me, I recall my mother in a special way, who taught me how to pray, and who made sure I was able to learn about my faith and to practice it by going to Mass.  I know that she had this passed on from her mother and father, who likely received it from their parents as well.  I think of the priests who served at my parish growing up.  I think of my brother priests with whom I share the privilege of being a missionary sent to proclaim the Good News, how so many of them, by their word and example, have been a powerful witness to me.  I also think of many of you who have shown me the love of God through the witness of your lives as disciples of Jesus.

Who are those missionaries in your life that have brought you to where you are now in your relationship with Christ?  Bring them to the Lord and ask Him to bless them for their generosity in sharing this most beautiful gift with you.  Then I invite you to ask the Lord for the grace to be willing to continue the chain, passing on this Good News to those you encounter in those places to which the Lord has sent you as a missionary – your families, your workplaces, this parish, and the community around you.

Father Alford     

For many years, the slogan “my body, my choice” has been used in defense of legal protection for abortion. The idea is that a woman should have complete autonomy over her own body because we live in a free country, and to put limits on abortion takes away a woman’s “right to choose.” More recently, this same slogan has been employed by people who, for various reasons, do not want to receive a Covid vaccine. This article is not about vaccine guidance, as our bishop has given very clear guidance on this for the past year or so in our Catholic Times. In addition, our Catholic Times also publishes Fr. Tad Pacholczyk’s bioethics column, which recently has covered the topics of Covid and vaccine mandates. 

Whenever the slogan, “my body, my choice” comes into play, it usually indicates a lack of understanding of what freedom is. Our Catechism gives a good definition of freedom in paragraph 1731: “Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate action on one’s own responsibility.” Free will can be used for good or evil. God made us in his image and likeness, giving is the ability to think (reason) and choose (will), which ultimately gives us the unique ability to love as God loves. 

Human freedom is the reason that our society has laws, even laws against certain types of actions which only affect our own bodies. We are not able to just walk into a pharmacy and buy any type of medication for ourselves because some substances can be harmful if used in the wrong way. We need a doctor’s prescription to buy and take certain drugs, because doctors are trained to know what is good for our bodies and what is bad for our bodies. Drugs such as heroine and cocaine are illegal because they are bad for people and bad for society. As I wrote recently, this is grounded in at least a basic understanding of the natural law: human beings are designed to flourish and grow in relationship, which can be perceived by any clear thinker. 

Recently the Speaker of the House of Representatives and fellow Catholic Nancy Pelosi made an interesting but shockingly immature statement about freedom regarding abortion. She said, “I believe that God has given us free will to honor our responsibilities.” For this reason, she supports the legalization of abortion so that everybody can have the freedom to choose abortion and utilize their God-given free will. Speaker Pelosi does not have a basic understanding of what the Church means by “freedom.” Of course, God made us free, but the whole reason for having a legislative system is because people can use their freedom to make evil decisions, and as a society we need to prevent that from happening when we can, or punish people when they make gravely evil decisions. I would be interested to hear Speaker Pelosi give her thoughts on why our government exists, since her understanding of freedom seems to mean that nothing should be illegal. 

As Catholics, we should not use the phrase, “my body, my choice” because it misrepresents why God made us. A better slogan would be “my body, God’s gift” because none of us are totally autonomous or independent. (Or maybe we just shouldn’t use slogans…) We depend on God for our existence, and we depend on other people in many ways. God has given us the gift of community because he made us as one human family and he wants us to grow, love, and suffer in union with each other. One person’s actions can have an impact, for better or worse, on that person’s family and community. May we all seek true freedom, which is ultimately found through a relationship with God, who made us in his image and likeness. 

Feast Day: October 28^th   

The apostles Simon and Jude are given the same feast-day because tradition holds that they were martyred together in Persia or Armenia, having carried the Gospel with great success to the pagan peoples north of Israel.  We know precious little of what took place between Galilee and Armenia, but this, I think, points us back to the middle of their story, and asks a profound question: how were they changed by getting to know Jesus?

We are introduced to Simon and Jude early in the Gospels, at the point where Jesus chooses the 12 men called into particularly close relationship with him.  There, at the end of the list, before Judas Iscariot is listed, we are told that Jesus named as apostles “Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.” [Luke 6:15-16; Acts 1:13 names them both in this same fashion].  

Simon, we are told, is a “zealot”, a term that will, in a few decades, go down in infamy as the name of the violent revolutionaries who tried to kick the Romans out of Israel, and upon whom the anger (and might) of Rome was levied, destroying Jerusalem, the Temple, and hundreds of thousands of Jews finding refuge there in 70AD.  Those terrible days were far in the future when Simon stood out of the crowd of Jesus’ followers and was named an apostle, yet this is the word that Luke uses to describe him when he gets to writing down his Gospel account of that morning.  

Something in Simon’s character called to mind the zealous Maccabees who had revolted against their Hellenistic despots a century before Christ.  (It is enlightening to recall that two of the Maccabean brothers were themselves named “Simon” and “Judas”, so our two apostles have popular names associated with the great heroes of a century before.)  “Zeal” is the word also used to describe Paul’s fiery temperament, originally directed against those who believed Christ to be the Messiah, and after his own encounter with Christ, transformed into a fiery love for the Body of Christ, His Church.

In Paul, we get to witness the moment of that transformation, and though we do not get a similar scene for Simon, as he began to follow Jesus, his zeal as well was redirected and captured for the sake of Christ.  We get the briefest glimpses of this process in the Gospels.  On the one hand, Jesus offers all the apostles an example of true, God-like, zeal.  On the Passover, in the Temple, seeing the money-changers he overturns the tables, looses the animals, and drives the merchants out of the house of God.  The apostles can only have watched wide-eyed as their meek rabbi and miracle-worker tore through the temple precincts.  One word came to mind: zeal.  They recall Psalm 69:9 “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  

Fast forward to a later Passover.  This time Jesus has left the Temple and made his way to the upper room, this time it is not righteous anger, but sadness and compassion that fills his eyes.  He takes off his robe, He washes their feet, He returns to the meal: “he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”  And then Jude, the son of James, for the first and only time in the Gospels, speaks “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” How will you be made manifest?  The people hailed you as Messiah and successor to David when you entered Jerusalem, do we now go the rest of the way and crown you king?  When does the victory happen?  What should our zeal look like?  “Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” [John 14:21-24]

In this answer, of course, both men are transformed.  Of course, Simon’s zeal had to be reordered from earth, to heaven. But his friend and companion, Jude, also had to reorder his own life, in his case his identity had to be reordered from earthly heritage, to heavenly.  Both men encountered Jesus, and found in Him the fiery love that comes from His Heavenly Father.  It is a zeal for God, and like God, and a love for God, and from Him.

– Fr. Rankin, has only slowly befriended Simon and Jude.  It’s so much easier to relate to the more fleshed-out characters of Peter or John (or any of the many more recent saints we also know more about).  But sometimes the Lord deepens our relationships with the saints simply on that spiritual level, without as many of the personal details we usually desire.  Such was the case as He drew me close to St. Jude because my sister’s convent is entrusted to his patronage, and St. Simon, in that wrestling match to give my zeal to the Lord.