In the July 11, 2021, edition of our Cathedral bulletin, I reflected in my column on the fourth commandment, “honor your father and your mother.” This fourth commandment begins the second part of the decalogue (the ten commandments). The first part of the decalogue includes the first three commandments.  In these three, God reveals his will for our relationship with Him. The second section consists of the last seven commandments in which God makes known his will for our relationships with one another. This week, I want us to reflect on the fifth commandment – YOU SHALL NOT.

In several places in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the bible), Moses made the law against killing very clear (Exodus 20:13, 21:12; Deuteronomy 5:17). But in the Gospel, Jesus goes further to explain this commandment in detail. After stating that whoever kills is liable to death, Jesus expanded the notion of killing to include any actions that attack the human life’s dignity and sacredness (Matthew 5:21-26).

Killing is evil. The Church condemns it in the strongest terms, especially with Pope Francis’s recent abolition of the death penalty as an act that is “morally inadmissible.” While this is so, one may not easily deny the near-justifiability of some killings – specifically, those imposed by states as legal punishments for some heinous crimes.

In reflecting on the fifth commandment that openly condemns killing, I want us to ruminate over another action that involves a deadlier form of killing. One that comes to mind readily is grudges. In many ways, living with grudges has become natural to our human condition. While living with grudges is a moral error and one that we must always endeavor to confess, it is a sin that primarily attacks the dignity and sacredness of the bearer’s life. Bearing grudges against others negatively affects those people in some ways. And, the fact of living with grudges destroys the bearer spiritually and emotionally.

One who bears grudges has a high propensity to self-hate, passive aggression, and unforgiveness. These sins deny the bearer of grudges the ‘peace of mind’ that disposes one to good and charitable actions towards self and others. When this happens, the spiritual strength of the soul begins to deteriorate, and one’s ability to make moral judgments starts to decline. Sometimes, these happen even while we carry ourselves around as good and devout Christians.

Moving forward, let us keep in mind that living with grudges is a form of killing – not just killing the ‘other’ but also killing oneself. When the scripture tells us that we shall not kill, it does not say we shall not kill others but ourselves. So, let us do well to pay closer attention to this commandment by staying away from actions and inactions that directly or indirectly attack the dignity and inviolability of the human person.

Day: August 6th

This Friday (in 2021), we celebrate the feast day of the Transfiguration.  We hear this story every year on the 2^nd Sunday of Lent (a fitting preparation, as it was in Jesus’ life, for His going up to Jerusalem and entering His Passion and Resurrection), and, on August 6^th each year.  Resuming our “bible study” that I wanted to do during these summer months, today I want to turn to this marvelous scene.  Changing up things slightly, I want to just invite all of us together into a prayerful meditation on this passage.  

During my mission trip to Costa Rica in July, each day we did a Holy Hour together and joined in meditating on a consecutive scene from Jesus’ life.  This kind of prayer offered profound insight into Our Lord, and His continued friendship with us, and was a source of tremendous joy as, each evening, we shared with each other the graces of the day.  So, don’t just read the below lines these week, pray them.  The prayers below are my own.  Yours does not have to be the same.  Take what strikes your heart, speak to God as He moves You to speak, and simply remain with Him.

Jesus, I know that You are with me.  [Take a deep breath.  Give yourself space, and peace, and quiet.]  Right now, Jesus, I turn to You and recognize Your promised presence with me.  I do not come to get anything, or to receive any answer, or to fix any problem … I just want to be with You.  I want to grow in intimacy with You.  I want to receive Your love.  And, I want to love You in return.  [Take another deep breath.  Let Jesus love you.]

Open my mind Lord, to Your words that I will reflect upon today.  Open my heart to Your love, especially as You show it in Your transfiguration.  Open my eyes to see how You reveal Yourself in this passage.  Come Holy Spirit.  Come Holy Spirit.  Come Holy Spirit.  [Open your bible to Mark 9:2-8, and just let the lines wash over you.  Below is the movements that Jesus brought about in my heart.]

Jesus … led them up a high mountain.  Jesus, I want to be invited close to You like that.  Why just Peter, James, and John?  Why not everybody else?  Did You know their hearts, and knew which apostles would need that particular grace?  Peter, who would deny You; John, who would see You crucified; James, who would be the first to be martyred for Your name.  Of course, You knew what they would need! And You know me just the same!

Jesus … was transfigured before them.  You have shown Your glory and loveliness to me, haven’t You?!  Like last week during my Holy Hour: just Your gentle encouragement.  Or on the mission trip, when You sustained me through that atrociously hot Eucharistic procession.  Or, even here today, as I know Your Presence in the tabernacle: the host, white, gleaming, simple, but transcendent.  

Peter said … let us make three booths … for they were exceedingly afraid.  Oh, fear.  I did not want to talk about fear today.  Do we have to go there?  Yes, of course, I should bring it to You, but it feels so wimpy to approach You with all my fears and uncertainties…  Then again, I suppose that is why You came to us anyway, to be with us in our fears.  To love us through them, not just despite them.  So yeah, that meeting later today, and that liturgy with bishop … there is a bit of fear there.  What if I do not know what to say?  What if I forget something?  Then again, Your love is not going anywhere is it?  

This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.  I am so distracted Heavenly Father.  There are so many things that fill my mind and heart, and it is so hard to hear Your Son’s voice.  I want to hear it.  I yearn to hear it.  I desire to hear it.  How can I hear Him better?  Ok, scripture is obvious.  I can give myself more time to ponder Your words there.  Oh, the words of the Mass.  Of course, so many of Jesus’ words are right there when I pray them; I can be more intentional.  And, my friends, the best of them are the ones that constantly offer me glimpses of Jesus’ voice, couldn’t I stop and listen to them with more attentiveness?

And suddenly looking around they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.  And Who else would I need?  If I have Your friendship Jesus, I can rest happy.   If I know You, that is enough.  If You love me, and if you are with me, what else matters?  

Lord, I want some takeaway from my prayer today.  Where are You inviting me?  [Give Him time to speak to your heart.]  Ah, resting in Your friendship.  I can choose peace knowing Your love.  Thank you Lord!  [It could be a very different movement for you.  That is good.  Each of us is having a conversation with God, it should not look the same!]

– Fr. Dominic Rankin has long since had a particular love for the transfiguration.  It became his favorite mystery of the rosary when Pope St. John Paul II added it along with the other mysteries of light, to the traditional joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries in 2002.  Not discounting any of the other mysteries, but mountain tops, apparitions of saints, God’s voice from heaven, and Jesus appearing in glory just had a way of capturing my 9 year old heart.  

For the last couple of weeks, I worked at the St. John’s Hospital here in Springfield as a full-time chaplain. My time at St. John’s hospital was an excellent opportunity for me to experience pastoral hospital ministry in a more intense way than usual. I had encounters that both challenged and strengthened my faith and relationship with God in a different way. I also had encounters that left me reflecting on the condition of our Catholic faith in the present times. One of such encounters was my visit to a mid-aged lady in her hospital room one afternoon, who described herself as a cafeteria Catholic.

When I visit patients, they usually understand that I am a Catholic priest because I dress like one and introduce myself as one. Because of this, they usually expect that I jump into giving them the Holy Communion or the other sacraments. But very often, I do not talk about the sacraments until after getting to know the patient and his or her treatment and health condition. And when I talk about the sacraments, I normally start by inquiring about the patient’s faith condition.

As a Catholic priest-chaplain, I visit mostly Catholic patients. But I understand that there are too many kinds of Catholics in our times. While some Catholics are practicing and are sacramentally disposed to receive the sacraments, others may be practicing but not sacramentally prepared to receive the sacraments. However, there are others who are non-practicing but asks for the sacraments. For these reasons, asking about a patient’s faith condition is, for me, a necessary step before administering the sacraments to them.

So, on that beautiful afternoon, I walked into this patient’s room. When I inquired about her faith, she told me she is a cafeteria Catholic. I never had of “cafeteria Catholicism” before that afternoon. So, I asked her what she meant. She graciously explained that the way I pick my foods at a cafeteria is the same way she (as a cafeteria Catholic) does with Catholic teachings. I smiled and asked about her relationship with the sacraments. I know that one ought to be in good condition with the Church (believing and practicing all that the Church teaches about our Lord Jesus Christ) to be disposed to receive the sacraments.

My encounter with this patient at the hospital left me reflecting on our faith as Catholics. Somehow, many of us have become cafeteria Catholics. Sometimes, intentionally and other times, unintentionally. We all know what the Church should and should not teach, believe, and practice. Our subjective interpretations of the catechetical and biblical teachings of the Church have become more important than the objective interpretations of these divine truths and moral teachings. Unfortunately, the rejection or abandonment of any of the teachings of the Church, catechetical or scriptural, indicates membership in the cafeteria Catholicism. This cafeteria Catholicism is different from the Roman Catholicism into which we are baptized.

This weekend, the first reading comes from the book of Jeremiah. It begins with, “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture.” After this scary pronouncement and later in the passage, the prophet proceeded to declare God’s intention to gather the remnant of his flock and appoint shepherds for them.

Jeremiah, one of the Old Testament Bible’s major prophets, lived in a time in Israel when shepherds (priests and prophets) had authorities that transcend religious boundaries. While there were kings and judges, the shepherds were revered authority figures.

During Jeremiah’s time, there were so many challenges and problems. Many of these were social, political, and economic dilemmas, which were rooted in the high moral decadence of the Jewish culture of the time. Some of these problems include infidelity to God, corruption, abuses in the places of worship, idolatry, apostasies, and an increased number of false prophets. The society also faced some difficult challenges. The invasions from their neighboring nations in the north and the long-standing drought were among the more devastating challenges that ravaged the Jewish society during the time of Prophet Jeremiah.

While these problems and difficulties prevailed, the people suffered political instability, economic stagnation, insecurity, and countless social crises. God saw all these and became embittered. His anger was on the shepherds, leaders of the people, who have abandoned the ways of God and preached the ways of men. These leaders engaged in false prophecies, idolatries, false circumcisions, and corrupt practices that destroyed the people’s faith and weakened their relationships with God.

The same problems that attracted the wrath of God upon the shepherds of the people during the time of Jeremiah seem to be present in our own culture today. Infidelity to God? In our times, we have men and women who parade themselves as Catholics but continue to support and enact laws that contradict the teachings of Christ. The abortion law, which directly contradicts the fifth commandment, is one example of this. Abuses in places of worship? The many bad liturgical practices, sexual and financial misconducts among some church officials in our times are abuses in places of worship.

False prophets? Ordained church ministers who agree with some of the teachings of the Church and disagree with others are no less false prophets. Idolatry? People who choose football games or other sporting, shopping, and business activities on Sunday mornings over going to Masses are no less idolatrous. They replace the worship of God with these activities to the detriment of their souls and the souls of the people they influence.

This week, let us pray for God to touch and transform the lives of our leaders (parents and civic leaders) and shepherds (priests and bishops). May they not lead us astray but to God, who is the source of all good things. Amen.

Our second reading for this Sunday from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians is one of my favorite readings in the Church’s liturgy.  It is packed with powerful phrases that get to the heart of what it means for us to live as people of faith, that the Father “destined us for adoption to Himself through Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:4-5) and that “we might exist for the praise of His glory.” (Eph 1:12)

As I read through this reading again, the verse that struck me was the following: “In Him we were also chosen.” (Eph 1:11)  The word ‘chosen’ immediately called to mind the new series on the life of Jesus called The Chosen.  It seems as though more and more people are encountering this series and sharing how much the depiction of Jesus and His disciples in the series has been fruitful to them.  In a story I read about the series, the filmmaker Dallas Jenkins described his desire to present Jesus in a way that is “a little bit more personal, intimate, immediate.”  In my experience with this series, the series has definitely accomplished that.

This past week, I was helping to lead a summer program for high school students focusing on our call to discipleship.  In a session that I led on prayer, I used a clip from the series, the one of the miraculous catch of fish.  I invited the participants to pay particular attention to the face of Jesus as He spoke to Peter and as He observed the miracle unfolding.  As I watched the clip with them, I was struck with the eyes of Jesus, how He looked upon Peter with great love as He invited Him to trust, putting out the nets after an unsuccessful night of fishing.  Then, I was moved by the joy in His face as He watched Peter and those in the boat haul in a huge catch of fish.  I then invited the participants to realize that they could use that image, that gaze of Jesus, to give them an idea of how He looks at them – with love, with delight, with joy.  He does so because each of us has been chosen by Him, chosen to be His beloved children, and chosen to live the fullness of life that comes from following Him.

I would invite all of you to do this little exercise as well.  If you go to your favorite search engine (or directly to YouTube) and search for “the catch of fish The Chosen” you should see a video that is about 5:19 in length.  Watch that video with particular attention to the face of Jesus, then bring that image of Jesus to prayer, allowing yourself to be the object of His loving gaze toward you.  Doing so can be a powerful way to enter into prayer, and it is an image we can go back to over and over again as we are invited to live with constant awareness of our being chosen by Him to be His adopted children.

Father Alford     

One of the most beautiful things about our Christian faith is that we have all the guidelines for doing the right things and avoiding the wrong things. These guidelines come in different forms throughout the scriptures. The Church has also articulated them through the many books of the sacred deposits of our faith, particularly the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2052-2534). While we find these guidelines of our faith in both the bible and the catechism, they are summed up in the ten commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).

In two of my most recent bulletin articles, I have discussed the third commandment. This third commandment is about honoring the sabbath day and keeping it holy.

In this issue, I want us to reflect on the fourth commandment – honor your father and your mother. While we first see this and the rest of the ten commandments in the Old Testament, St. Paul commented on all of them in various places across his epistles in the New Testament. In his letter to Ephesians 6:1-3, he noted the promise that God attached to the fourth commandment. This promise, “…that your days may be long… carries a lot of weight for St. Paul. So, St. Paul proceeded to say that whoever honors his father and mother have more chances of having a good life on earth.

As Christians, we can always interpret this fourth commandment to mean different things in different contexts. But in this reflection, I want to see how it applies to us in the ways we treat our parents (and their bodies) when they pass on to the next life. Do we honor them by keeping their wishes and decisions as they made them? Or do we dishonor our parents by doing what we want with their bodies and their decisions once they pass on?

Recently, I traveled to Nigeria for the funeral of my father. During his burial, a problem arose with the place of his final rest. He had decided where he wanted to be buried. Some members of the family wanted to do otherwise during his burial. They insisted on a different place, though not without legitimate reasons. But the question I was able to ask them was, “Is this about our convenience or about honoring our father even unto death?

Many people have witnessed this problem, especially with some of our devout Catholic men and women. When these staunch Catholics pass on, anyone would expect that their children will accord them a befitting catholic funeral in the most sacred and honorable way. Unfortunately, the reverse is sometimes the case. This treatment of one’s parents is highly dishonorable and goes against the fourth commandment.

Honoring one’s parents is a commandment we should do well to keep even when our parents have passed on to the next life. Praying for them and keeping their wishes and legacies to the best of our strengths is not just a charity. It is also a moral obligation based on the fourth commandment – honor your father and your mother that your days may be long (Exodus 20:12).

This past January, while the priests of the house were in quarantine, one of the activities that we did to pass the time was to take a break from our work for some entertainment.  One of those forms of entertainment was watching the popular Broadway musical Hamilton.  As we watched the plot unfold, we were reintroduced in an entertaining way to some of the figures and key events that led to our nation’s independence.  Two of the more humorous scenes from the show depict King George as he sings about his relationship with the colonies, ridiculing them for wanting to be free, then after declaring independence, trying to discourage them with warnings about how hard it will be for them to be on their own.  

It was the desire for freedom from the oppressive rule of the King that our founding fathers sought.  And this freedom led to a freedom for pursuing the good of our new nation.  It is important to notice these two types of freedom – freedom from, and freedom for.  The fullest understanding of freedom is found when the two of these work together.  As human beings, we often seek freedom from restrictions and limitations, so that we can have freedom for the things that we want to make us happy.  For example, we want to be free from sickness, so that we can be free for an enjoyable life.  On the surface, this seems to be a sound formula, but there are great dangers to be found in seeking this type of freedom in an unrestricted way.  We might perceive freedom from restraints and limitations as a good thing, but if it opens us to doing something that is not good, then we have abused our freedom and we actually fall into a form of slavery.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes this point well:

The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to “the slavery of sin.” (CCC 1733)

In our lives as Catholics, we strive for freedom from sin, so that we can have freedom for doing good.  This is a key concept to grasp, and one that I fear we have often missed.  Sadly, we regularly see our Catholic faith as a set of rules to follow, which we do not necessarily like, especially when they seem to prevent us from having the freedom to do what we want.  We sort of look at the Church like our founding fathers did toward King George, and we may even readily list all of the “rules” we disagree with and want to be freed from so that we can be free for what we deem to be better.

But may we never forget that God is a loving Father, one who knows His children, what will harm them, and what will help them.  His teachings given through the Scriptures are aimed toward our true freedom.  And the Church is not some oppressive organization that we something think exists to keep us subdued.  No, we speak of the Church as a Mother, the best of mothers in fact!  She is always working to keep us free from sin, which enables us to be free for the fullest experience of life in abundance in this life, and eternal life in the next.  And so as we celebrate the freedoms we have in our country, let us be especially grateful for the freedom made available to us through the Gospel and the teachings of the Church, and recommit ourselves to choosing this freedom each and every day.

Father Alford     

In my bulletin article for the weekend of June 12th & 13th, I discussed the topic of Christians celebrating the Sabbath on Sundays instead of Saturdays. That article was prompted by a recent encounter I had with a college student. After seeing the Bible verse where the Sabbath is celebrated on Saturdays, the student stopped being active in her Catholic faith. Christians celebrate the Sabbath on Sundays. She disagreed with this as she perceived it to be inconsistent with the scriptures. But after our interaction and in-depth discussion on the topic, she seemed to understand the reason for our Catholic Christian practice of celebrating the Sabbath on Sundays instead of on Saturdays.

It was the first apostles of Jesus Christ, who started celebrating the holy day of the Sabbath on Sundays. This practice came to be after Jesus Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday morning. The resurrection of Christ characterizes the very reason of our Christian faith. It is central to our Christian teachings and worship. So, it became critical for the apostles to celebrate the sacred day of the Sabbath on Sundays – the day on which Christ signed our salvation by conquering death and overcoming the power of evil.

Since the Sabbath day (Sunday) is so important in our Christian faith, the Church teaches that it is a moral obligation for every Christian to keep this day holy. To keep the sabbath day holy is the third of the ten commandments that God gave us through Moses in Exodus 20:1-17; 31:15. There are two reasons in the Old Testament for keeping the Sabbath day holy. First, this commandment commemorates the last day of creation on which God rested (Exodus 20:11). Second, it is a memorial of the liberation of the Jewish people from bondage in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15). The New Testament basis for keeping the sabbath day holy is primarily the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Sunday morning (Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-8).

The holiness of the Sabbath day (Sunday for Christians) is, to a large extent, a biblical fact for many Christians. However, what should be done and what should be avoided to keep this day holy is still unclear to many of us. But the bible is clear on this. In Exodus 20:10, God declares that we should not do any work on a sabbath day; neither shall we make the people under us or the people who work for us do any work. What still seems unclear here is what qualifies as work and what does not.

What qualifies as work and what does not is more difficult to answer because we live in a capitalist society where the worship of money has become the order of the day. However, as Christians, we should always do well to stay away, on Sundays, from some of those activities that characterize our everyday lives for the rest of the week. Ideally, these include going to work and engaging in any other activities that do not involve physical and mental rest and spiritual refreshment.