As you are likely aware by now, the priests of the Cathedral (minus Bishop Paprocki and Father Peter who were away at the time) had to go into quarantine due to close contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19.  The first day or two of quarantine involved getting adjusted to a new, albeit temporary, way of life.  But after settling into a routine, I found myself thinking: “I’ve been here before.”  

Now, this is my first (and hopefully last) time of being in quarantine, but I could not help but feel like there was something very familiar about this experience.  The “here” to which I have been is the experience of living life as a priest physically separated from the faithful.  In particular, it is the experience of not being able to celebrate Mass with the people physically present that strikes me, something I had to endure for nearly three months this past Spring.  Of course, during that time, I still celebrated Mass every day and even though people (including my mom in Texas) joined me every day virtually, it just was not the same.  As I am in this situation again (though thankfully for a shorter length of time), I continue to celebrate Mass every day, knowing that doing so is more than just a personal devotion, but that every Mass benefits the entire Church regardless of who is present.  Nevertheless, it is hard to escape that unsettling feeling.

However, lest I let my feelings have the final say, I am also reminded of the words of St. Paul: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)  The “good” that the Lord is working to bring about in this experience for me is the reminder of something that we Catholics (priests included) can sometimes overlook, namely, that what takes place at Mass far exceeds what we see, hear, or feel.  In his last Encyclical Letter, Pope St. John Paul II addressed this very point:

This is an aspect of the Eucharist which merits greater attention: in celebrating the sacrifice of the Lamb, we are united to the heavenly “liturgy” and become part of that great multitude which cries out: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev 7:10). The Eucharist is truly a glimpse of heaven appearing on earth. It is a glorious ray of the heavenly Jerusalem which pierces the clouds of our history and lights up our journey. (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 19).

I know that when I return from quarantine, I will be filled with joy at the opportunity once again to celebrate Mass with and for the faithful physically present.  At the same time, I will have a greater awareness of how, at each Mass, Heaven and earth unite and we join with the whole host of Heaven in praising God.  I pray that each of us will come to better appreciate how truly remarkable each and every Mass is, no matter how large or small.

Father Alford     

Transubstantiation may be the fanciest word that I ever use with somewhat regularity. I was not sure about the wisdom of writing my article on this word because it’s a little technical, but then I remembered that I taught this word to some first- and second-graders one summer, so if they can handle, so can we. 

This word began to be used by Catholic theologians in the 1200’s, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, to describe what happens when the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus at Mass. Up until this time, theologians did not have a word for what happens, because what happens at Mass does not happen anywhere else: one thing is changed into another without the appearance changing. Because this had never been a part of our human experience, there was no word to describe it. The word “transformation” gets at the idea, but transformation simply refers to the visual form of something; the form or image of something is changed. Catholics wanted to have a word to describe the events of Mass in a more exact way. 

As I wrote last week, Catholics have always reflected on the question from scripture, “How can this man give us his body to eat?” Some ask this question in disbelief; some ask it in faith. The Church wanted to help us understand Jesus’ gift of the Eucharist to us in a fuller way. So, someone had to invent a new term! Transubstantiation is the word that theologians began to use to describe what happens when the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus. The substance (what something is) of the bread and wine is changed into the substance of body and blood, while there is no change in the shape, size, color, taste, or location of the object itself. If somebody has a gluten intolerance, he or she will still have the same effects from consuming the Eucharist. Consuming too much of the Blood of Christ will also have the same effect as drinking too much wine. (Every once in a great while, God also changes the shape and appearance of the Eucharist into that of body and blood. This is the topic for a future column.) 

Some Christians did not like the use of this new term because it seemed overly technical, and they thought that people with strong faith should not worry about technicalities. However, the Church disagreed and officially adopted this term at the Council of Trent (1545-1563) to describe what happens during the Consecration at Mass. If you care to read it, here is what the Council declared:

“But since Christ our Redeemer declared that to be truly His own body which He offered under the form of bread, it has, therefore, always been a firm belief in the Church of God, and this holy council now declares it anew, that by the consecration of the bread and wine a change is brought about of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ Our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His Blood. This change the holy Catholic Church properly and appropriately calls transubstantiation.”^[1]

It really is an awesome belief – that when we receive the Eucharist at Mass, we receive the entirety of God into our bodies and into our hearts. This makes us, for a few minutes, real tabernacles, just as we find in every Catholic Church. We carry God within us as we leave Mass and go out into the world. Tabernacles are usually embellished with gold plating and beautiful artwork to show the beauty of Jesus who dwells inside. We should be the same. Our actions and whole way of being should be impacted by Who we carry inside of us. How can we be better tabernacles for Jesus? 

^[1] Quote taken from The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, trans. By Reverend H.J. Schroeder. (Tan Books: Charlotte, North Carolina. 1978.)

Feast Day: January 20^th

We all know the story of St. Sebastian.  Who? Soldier, in the Praetorian Guard of Diocletian.  What? Christian, converting others.  Where? From Gaul, now in Rome.   When? 300s.  Why? …

Why?

Why did a sturdy, young man, in the prime of his life, rising towards the highest ranks of the Roman army, make such a big deal out of his faith that he got himself killed for it?  Sebastian knew Diocletian was not a fan of Christians, and was looking for somebody to scapegoat and throw the power of Rome against.  He knew, as a Praetorian guard, that his actions were going to be doubly scrutinized for fidelity to the emperor.  He knew that Marcus and Marcellian, twins also in the guard, and deacons in the Church, had been imprisoned after refusing the usual sacrifices.  And yet, when the twins’ affluent parents, Tranquillinus and Martia, came to try and convince their sons to just offer the incense and not get themselves killed, Sebastian converted them, and then he converted the prefect, Chromatius, who had imprisoned them to the true faith.

Why??

Diocletian had Sebastian tied to a stake and shot at for target practice.  He survived!  He came back to Diocletian and called him out for his persecution of Christians!  The emperor, shocked that he was alive, and that this minion had the gall to confront his emperor, had him beaten to death and thrown in a sewer.  This time, the crown of martyrdom was granted to him.

Why???

Why make a scene?  Why convert others to the faith when it was just going to get them, and him, killed?  Why go backafter you survive martyrdom the first time around?  Why not just go along with the incense thing, drop a pinch on the charcoal, say a prayer to Jesus under your breath, and live a normal life?  

Because as Christians “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” (1 Cor 8:6).  Perhaps you have heard those words before?  Perhaps you have not realized that Paul is taking the most important prayer of the Jewish faith, the shema, the great prayer professing belief in one God – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord;and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might”. (Dt 6:4) – and St. Paul finds Jesus within that prayer. It is a breathtaking, marvelous, astonishing twist in the saga of salvation history.  God is one, and God is three.  

Everything the Jews practiced – keeping the sabbath holy, circumcision of their sons, following the dietary laws, reciting daily prayers and psalms, following the decalogue and torah – all these were cultural means of maintaining their worship of the one true God.  As Christians, we do not have such cultural norms, instead, we, from every culture under heaven, must conform our lives completely to Christ, Our Lord. 

Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus,who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Ephesians 2:5-11)

Why? 

Because every time we receive Holy Communion, we are giving our lives as living sacrifices in union with the one sacrifice of Christ.  We are offering ourselves crucified with Christ to the one true God, committing ourselves to adoring Him alone.  We choose to announce Him as the only true King, and to conform our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies, to be like His, and to be His alone!

St. Sebastian is the patron saint of soldiers, athletes, and plague-victims.  His Eucharistic faith, His Eucharistic commitment, His Eucharistic self-sacrifice must be an example to all of us of our Eucharistic belief in One God, and a reminder that every day offers us the chance to recommit ourselves to that belief.

– Fr. Dominic Rankin once was with Bishop for a Confirmation and realized that 6 of the young guys, who had all conveniently, and humorously, arrayed themselves in the front row, had all taken St. Sebastian as their Confirmation patron.  My usual vocation spiel immediately changed as I challenged those guys, and myself, to be willing to lay down our lives for our One Lord. 

In the Gospel account for this Sunday’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we hear the following words immediately after John baptized Jesus in the Jordan:

On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. (Mark 1:10)

The symbol of the dove is very interesting, and it has been interpreted in various ways throughout the history of the Church, especially by the Church Fathers (those who wrote much closer to the time of the life of Jesus).  One summary from a modern commentary describes the symbol of the dove in this way:

The Fathers usually interpret the dove as a symbol of peace and reconciliation between God and men. It first appears in the account of the flood (Gen 8:10–11) as a sign that God’s punishment of mankind has come to an end. Its presence at the beginning of Christ’s public ministry symbolizes the peace and reconciliation he will bring.   –Saint Mark’s Gospel , The Navarre Bible (Dublin; New York: Four Courts Press; Scepter Publishers, 2005), 53–54.

Another explanation can be found in the writings of St. Bede the Venerable, who comments on the nature of the dove and how it applies to how we should live in imitation of Christ whose life we share through Baptism:

The image of a dove is placed before us by God so that we may learn the simplicity favored by him. So let us meditate on the nature of the dove, that from each one of its features of innocence we may learn the principles of a more becoming life. The dove is a stranger to malice. So may all bitterness, anger and indignation be taken away from us, together with all malice. The dove injures nothing with its mouth or talons, nor does it nourish itself or its young on tiny mice or grubs, as do almost all smaller birds. Let us see that our teeth are not weapons and arrows. -St. Bede the Venerable, Homilies on the Gospels

A final interesting interpretation concerns the numbers associated with the Greek letters for the dove.  The following summary expresses the view proposed by St. Irenaeus:

One possible reason for the use of the word ‘dove’ to describe how the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus has to do with gematria – the assignment of numerical equivalents to letters.  The letters of this word, ‘dove’ in Greek form the numerical sum of 801.  801 is also the numerical sum of the Greek letters alpha and omega.  Therefore the description of the dove could mean that the one on whom the dove descends was the Alpha and the Omega – an identification the Bible ascribes to Jesus (Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13)  -Michael S. Heiser article in Bible Study Magazine, Nov / Dec 2017, 9

Is there one absolutely correct way of understanding the symbol of the dove?  Probably not, but what they all have in common is that they all point to Christ.  As we come to the end of the Christmas Season, let us pray that when people study our lives, they will see that everything that we say and do points to Christ and reflects the gift of His life that He has given to us through the sacraments.

Father Alford     

Last week, I gave some examples of when Jesus “instituted” (started or began) the celebration of the Eucharist in the Scriptures. I mentioned that the Gospel of John does not show Jesus doing this at the last Supper, but the entirely of John Chapter 6 is devoted to Jesus’ extensive teaching on and explanation of the Eucharist. This was something that was hard for many of his followers to accept; so hard, in fact, that many of Jesus’ disciples no longer followed him and went back to their former way of life. These disciples who left Jesus seem to ask a legitimate question: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). Jesus had not yet revealed exactly what he would do at the Last Supper, although he hinted strongly when he said, “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35). 

These people who heard Jesus at Capernaum must have wrongly thought that Jesus was encouraging some sort of cannibalism in which Jesus’ body would be destroyed. However, the Eucharist is the furthest thing from cannibalism because the Eucharist is the living and glorious body of Jesus. After his Resurrection, Jesus’ body was not just the same as it was before the Crucifixion. Afterwards, Jesus could walk through walls, and now his body is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. At the same time, Jesus is present in the Eucharist at every Mass and in every Catholic tabernacle around the world. 

The Church has always firmly believed that the consecrated Bread and Wine at Mass are truly the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. There have been those who have doubted this truth from the time of Jesus until today, and it is true that many have walked away and returned to their former way of life, just as some of Jesus’ disciples did in John 6. This is a great tragedy, but one that happens frequently, sometimes because no one has ever fully explained this teaching to many Catholics! 

Last year, a widely-publicized Pew research study announced that only one out of three Catholics in the United States believe the Church’s teaching that the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. While I’m skeptical of Pew’s questioning methods (it’s hard for a non-believer to make an accurate survey about a technical religious question), I was honestly not surprised at this statistic. In the United States, only 10-20% of Catholics attend Mass on Sundays. In some other parts of the world, it’s below 5%. If 95% of a  population never or rarely attends Mass, it only makes sense that they have no idea what is going on at Mass. Why would somebody want to sit through an hour-long ceremony every week if they think nothing meaningful is happening during it? On the other hand, if somebody understands that Jesus Christ, the Creator of the Universe and Eternal Source of all Existence and Life, is physically present at every Mass around the world, how could they stay away? 

This belief that Jesus is physically present under the appearance of bread and wine is called the Real Presence. Our belief in the Real Presence is why we can say that we worship the Eucharist, because the Eucharist is God Himself. This is why we are so careful and respectful of the Eucharist at Mass after the Consecration. When a consecrated host falls to the ground (which happens not infrequently by accident), we must do all we can to ensure that any particles that may have broken off are cleaned up, because that is Jesus physically present in those particles. 

We have a lot of work to do to spread the Good News of the Eucharist to the world. We can start with ourselves! Let’s commit to occasionally visiting Jesus in the tabernacle whenever we pass by a church. One of the best ways we can share our belief in the Eucharist is by living a Eucharistic life: centering our lives of faith around Sunday Mass and prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 

Feast Day: January 7^th  

“And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” [Genesis 1:28] … and many years later, though in much the same galaxy … Jesus, “lifting up his hands he blessed them” [Luke 24:50] and said “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” [Matthew 28:19-20]

The wonderful sight of many families and children at our Masses here (both on weekends and weekdays!) shows that some of you are very clearly multiplying, and discipling.  Thank you, for fulfilling that part of God’s first command, and Jesus’ final one!  But God also speaks of “subduing”, and Jesus calls His followers to “baptize” and “teach”, and I think these tasks are much more difficult than “multiplying” and “making disciples”.  It’s one thing to home-grow disciples, but there “in the world”, it is a darker, murkier, crazier place, and people are doing their own thing and not really mindful of us, much less the Gospel we are called to preach to them.  

Furthermore, there is a general feeling these days that it is not your or my place to impose our faith on someone else.  Faith is a personal thing, not meant to be foisted on someone!  So, how do we strike that right balance, not imposing but proposing (as St. Pope John Paul II would say)?  How do we find the courage to proclaim properly the Gospel that is our source of joy (as Pope Francis so beautiful describes it in Evangelii Gaudium)?  We need the example and intercession of St. Raymond of Peñafort! 

I neglect many other facts of his life, to just say that this scholar and priest became a Dominican at the age of 47, after 2 decades teaching and writing canon law.  He could have stayed in the solid and prosperous position he held at the university, but instead he becomes a friar of the Order of Preachers.  In the middle of his life, he chose to double-down on the primary vocation we all have: become a saint, and produce other saints.  How did he engage this daunting task?

For one, he helped found the order of Mercedarians, a group of friars who would turn themselves in as captives, to replace a Christian who had been captured by the Moors and were at risk of losing their faith.  The group still exists, and still vows to “give up our lives, as Christ gave his life for us, should it be necessary, in order to save those Christians who find themselves in extreme danger of losing their faith by new forms of captivity.”

Raymond also wrote a book to train priests to be good confessors (this was not just a list of sins and suggested penances; it tied in doctrine and Church practices, distinguishing for the good of priest and penitent such things as self-defense vs. violence done for vengeance or anger.)  The book’s clarity and foundation in charity allowed generations of Christians to better know how to return, and stay, in God’s grace.

Raymond learned Hebrew and Arabic to preach the Gospel to Jews and Arabs, who formed the non-Christians of his own day.  He established priories in non-Christian strongholds.  He convinced King James of Aragon to have a respectful debate between a Moshe ben Nahman (a Jewish rabbi of Girona) and Paulus Christiani (a Jewish man of Montpellier, who had converted and became a Dominican), to speak clearly, and freely, about the identity of the Messiah. 

Oh, and he floated on his own cloak back from the island of Majorca because King James had angrily forbade any ship to take him home after the good saint had challenged the royal-sinner to dismiss his concubine.

Teaching, preaching, challenging, debating, ransoming, pardoning, pacifying … all situations were places to preach the Gospel, and Raymond did not hesitate to do so.

– Fr. Dominic Rankin has only baptized two (little) people.  That’s barely addition, much less multiplication.  Of course, currently, my assignment as Bishop Paprocki’s MC, and in the Diocesan offices does not offer many opportunities to directly create disciples, and it also offers surprisingly few opportunities to preach the Gospel to those who have not already heard it.  But, this all means that I need to look more diligently, more creatively, more constantly, for ways to do just that, because God’s grace is there, and the call is there, and there are plenty of people who still need Jesus, myself most of all!