Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
Springfield, IL
Our Veteran’s Day Ceremony was a heart warming experience for our students, and many were moved to tears. We are so grateful for those who have served our country! Cathedral School says THANK YOU for your service! A special thank you to Mrs. Janine, Mrs. Wellman, Mark Gifford, Debbie Ross, Heath Erwin, Dan Wellman, and Karl and Cheryl Lercher for putting on our ceremony this morning!
I would like to revisit last Sunday’s Gospel reading. Last Sunday we heard our Lord say that love of God and love of neighbor are the summation of all the law and prophets. In light of this truth, where does love of self enter into the equation?
Love of God and love of neighbor is not possible without love of self. Now, do not read what I have not written. There is a distinction between love of self and being in love with oneself; the former must be embraced and the latter must be avoided. Love of God and love of neighbor will not be fully possible without a healthy, holy, and balanced love of self. So, what does love of self-look like?
There are three components to the human person: body, mind, and soul. All three components must be taken care of as best as possible. St. Irenaeus teaches us that, ”the glory of God is man fully alive.” In light of this, am I fully alive in the eyes of God?
Contemporary culture has been known to be too concerned at times with the human body, but even though society may overemphasize the body, that doesn’t mean that the Christian should neglect it. I’ve often joked that one of the things that I look forward to in the resurrection of the dead on the last day is the gift of a glorified body. While there is nothing wrong with that hope, I still need to do my part to take of my body here and now. The body is holy. The Church teaches us that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and it is to be honored even in death. Am I honoring God by taking care of my physical person?
The human mind is a wonderful reflection of our creating God who himself is the ultimate intellect. The mind is one of the areas in which we are created in the image of God in that we have reason and the ability to choose between right and wrong. The mind is an awesome mystery that we will most likely never fully understand. All that being said, it too needs to be taken care of and nurtured. Our intellects need to be allowed to expand and our mental and emotional health must be taken care of. Do we take time to learn new things about God, our neighbors, and ourselves? Do we seek to avoid stress? Do we seek balance in our daily living?
Finally, there is the soul which, along with the mind, is what reflects the divine in each of us. Unlike the body and the mind, the soul is made to be eternal. The soul must be open to God’s grace so that it may be continually transformed into a clearer reflection of God. Make no mistake; the overall health of the human person will suffer if the soul is not well. Do I pray daily? Do I make time for God apart from Sunday Mass? Am I actively seeking to grow in holiness?
There is only one of you. There will never be another one of you and no one can take your place. No one is an accident. The fact that you are is the direct result of God’s will and you have a purpose in building up the Kingdom of God here and now. Think about that fact and how wonderful that is. In light of that truth, love yourself. Take care of yourself: eat well, sleep well, avoid stress, stay away from harmful behaviors and unhealthy relationships, and pray always. If you don’t love yourself, you will never be able to fully answer God’s call to love him and your neighbor.
God loves you; you must love yourself too
Monday – March 23
7am: Helen Ziegler (William & Debra Stonikas)
12:05pm: Leo Lenn (Lenn Family)
5:15pm: William Henry Pontzious (Betty & Glen Rogers)
Tuesday – March 24
7am: Boyan Petkov (Judith Mohler)
12:05pm: Terry Mattox (Shana Gray)
5:15pm: Mary Corrigan (Carl & Lou Ann Corrigan)
Wednesday – March 25
7am: Mary Priester (Judith & Ignatius Hodnik)
12:05pm: Richiusa & Leo Families (Family)
5:15pm: Otis Huber (Huber Family)
Thursday – March 26
7am: Ben Garde (Family)
12:05pm: Bonnie Donnals (Edwards Family)
5:15pm: Mary Dwyer (Barbara Bitschenauer)
Friday – March 27
7am: Doris Drea (Asher, Gittler, & D’Alba, Ltd.)
12:05pm: Joyce Jenness (George & Agnes Friedel)
5:15pm: Helen F. Call (Mary Fleischli & Michael Fleischli)
Saturday – March 28
8am: John & Edith Bakalar (John Busciacco)
4pm: Thomas Rapps (Carolyn Yoggerst)
Sunday – March 29
7am: For the People
10am: Adele Karle (John & Mary Sivak)
5pm: Dr. Eugene Stonikas (William & Debra Stonikas)
This coming week, November 1st, is the Solemnity of All Saints, the day we honor all those in Heaven, especially the “small s” saints who are not canonized and whom God alone knows. The saints are not just our models they are also our friends. They cheer us on in our earthly struggles and support us with their prayers so that we might eventually join them in the praise of our God in Heaven.
The veneration of the memory of the saints (not worship or adoration) goes back to the earliest days of the Church, to the middle of the second century precisely. It was recorded that the memory, as well as the bones, of St. Polycarp were honored by the early Christians following his martyrdom. It was around the martyrs in general that the veneration of saints began and by the sixth century that veneration extended to other men and women who themselves did not die a martyr’s death, but who nonetheless lead lives that were models of holiness.
In the early seventh century, following successive attacks on Rome, during which the catacombs were raided by barbarians, the bones of the martyrs in Rome were all gathered together and buried beneath the Pantheon, a pagan temple dedicated to all the Roman gods. The Pantheon was then dedicated by Pope Boniface IV as a church to the honor of the Blessed Mother and all the Martyrs with the feast being celebrated on May 13. A century later, Pope Gregory III dedicated a new chapel in the first St. Peter’s Basilica that was dedicated to the Apostles and all saints on November 1, suppressing the former feast celebrated on May 13. Some have attributed All Saints Day being on November 1st because of the Irish pagan traditions of celebrating the dead at that time. This is historically dubious since the November 1 celebration of All Saints did not begin as a universal feast but started in Rome, then spread to Germany, and finally to the rest of the Church.
Immediately following All Saints Day, the Church remembers all the faithful departed on All Souls Day (November 2nd) as well as through the whole month of November. The Church is especially mindful of those souls who, while dying in the state of grace, died with some remaining attachment to venial sin and are experiencing a process of spiritual cleansing and perfection in purgatory. The custom of praying for the dead is found in the Scriptures with one of the primary references found in 2 Maccabees 12: 26, 32 which says, “turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. Thus they made atonement for the dead that they might be free from sin.”
Beginning on All Souls Day, the Book of Remembrance will be placed in front of the baptismal font so that within it you may inscribe the names of family and friends who have died. They will be remembered at all Masses throughout the month of November.
Father Christopher House is the Rector-Pastor of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, specifically Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.
“Mommy, I can do it, trust me.” She says to me, as she is wavering on an overturned laundry basket, reaching on her tip toes to reach her mermaid costume. “I am not worried about you, hunny, but…(the potential boo-boos that might exist in a few moments). She barely got ahold of the mermaid tail and tumbles down to the ground. Yes, crying begins. And yes, mommy is sorry. I suppose this will not be the last time that I “oversee” a bad choice, a potential pitfall that is going to hurt. It isn’t that we don’t trust our children; it is that they don’t always make the best decisions, right? If the issue isn’t about trust, but about what is the right choice or wrong choice, how come we don’t interrupt? How can we be bystanders to an epic fall that will come from an overturned laundry basket turned ladder?
It got me thinking about my relationship with God and the trust He places on me, despite any metaphorical laundry basket I might be standing on. Just as I have to have a trust in Him, He in turn trusts me. He trusts me to make the right choices, yes, but more importantly to interrupt the bad ones. To interrupt or to stop the bad choices can mean that you are consciously trying to make the good ones. Looking through the lens of stewardship, we see that the good choices are commonly those involving time, talent, and treasure. Simply put, can I make a choice to spend more time with God, to serve God’s people, and to share my wealth with those who need it more than I do week after week? If I live my life through the lens of stewardship, I see that I can keep making good choices a priority, so that I don’t entertain the bad choices that come to mind.
As Gracey got up and calmed down, I had to explain that a laundry basket is not a ladder. She thought she was being creative and that practically, “it worked, mommy.” While I appreciate her cleverness, she and I both realized that sometimes we need to pause, take a step back, and ask for help…oh, and keep the laundry basket right side up.
Katie Price is the Cathedral Stewardship and Discipleship Coordinator. She can be reached at [email protected].
Due to the inexhaustible human capacity to come with excuses, I would like to begin this article by saying that there is no better time to start reading scriptures than right now. The scriptures, however intimidating they may seem, can provide for us deeper insight into the human experience and our relationship with our creator. The Holy Bible contains the story of our salvation and narratives that help us understand who God is, who we are, and the relationship between us. The parables that Jesus told to his contemporaries are just as relevant to the lives of twenty-first century Americans as they were for first century Israelites. The Bible can speak to our hearts and help us through the many experiences that life brings our way from the greatest of joys to the deepest of sorrows. For many, the question of where to begin might raise an issue when deciding to dive into the scriptures. The short answer is, anywhere, but it certainly helps if we have some more direction than that. Many people find it fruitful to begin with the Book of Genesis, or the Psalms, or the Gospels. No Matter where we begin, finding a good Catholic Study Bible can absolutely help us when we first approach scriptures. Knowing the context that each book was written, who it was written to and why it was originally written give us important details that can help us understand what the book is attempting to convey and what that means in our own lives. We must never forget however, that the scriptures don’t only let us know things about God but can truly allow us to know God. Our study of scripture should never be divorced from praying with the scriptures because prayer is the means by which we come to know our God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Asking the Lord in prayer to guide our reading of the Bible and bring us closer to him through it can absolutely enhance our experience of spending time with the scripture. This can certainly make our journey through the bible a much slower experience but that it not necessarily a bad thing. We must have patience with ourselves and understand that reading the bible is less about finishing the book and more about coming to know the story of our salvation and truly growing in our relationship with the Lord.Christian stewards are conscientious and faithful. After all, the first requirement of a steward is to be “found trustworthy” (1 Cor 4:2). In the present case, moreover, stewardship is a uniquely solemn trust. If Christians understand it and strive to live it to the full, they grasp the fact that they are no less than “God’s co-workers” (1 Cor 3:9), with their own particular share in his creative, redemptive, and sanctifying work…Christian stewards are generous out of love as well as duty. They dare not fail in charity and what it entails, and the New Testament is filled with warnings to those who might be tempted to substitute some counterfeit for authentic love. For example: “If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him?” (1 Jn 3:17)…The life of a Christian steward, lived in imitation of the life of Christ, is challenging, even difficult in many ways; but both here and hereafter it is charged with intense joy. Like Paul, the good steward is able to say, “I am filled with encouragement, I am overflowing with joy all the more because of all our affliction” (2 Cor 7:4). Women and men who seek to live in this way learn that “all things work for good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28). It is part of their personal experience that God is “rich in mercy [and] we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” (Eph 2:4, 10)
I was able to get away a few weeks ago for a week’s vacation. I went to England, London mostly, for a week. I first visited that grand city twenty-five years ago this past summer on a French club trip, in between my sophomore and junior year in high school. I was way too young then to truly appreciate the city, but over the past ten years or so I have become a self-taught student of Tudor history and decided it was time to go back and see what I have read so much about. That Monday, while I was eating breakfast, news started coming in real-time about the horrific shooting in Las Vegas. Since then our nation has struggled to come to grips with another senseless tragedy which resulted in the loss of so many innocent lives and so many injuries. Debates have raged, and will continue to, about guns, and laws, and rights, and so on. In the aftermath of this great tragedy we may feel adrift in darkness, but that is not so.
At times like this, I always turn to the Word of God for there we can find answers, and if not answers, at least comfort in times of sorrow and distress. This time was no different. In the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John we are told that Jesus has come into the world to give us life and that His life is the light of the human race. And the truth of that light is this: “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).” The shooting in Las Vegas is undoubtedly one of the darkest moments in our recent history, but the darkness is not absolute, because in the midst of it, the light of Christ shone brightly.
In the stories that have come out in the aftermath of this tragedy we are able to see how the light of Christ shone brightly in those moments. We have been blessed to hear stories of men and women who in those moments ran into the hail of gunfire to help others. How people used their own vehicles as ambulances to rush strangers to the hospital. How one husband sacrificed his own life to shield his wife from the shots. The stories go on and on. If you have not read or heard any of them, I encourage you to do so. These heroes did not debate the pro and cons of what they were about to do, they simply responded naturally to the need before them. The heroism that we have seen in the midst of this tragedy reminds us that human beings are still inherently good, because we have been made in the image and likeness of God. Sin gets in the way of that inherent goodness at times and we have to deal with the struggle of having a will and intellect that have been darkened by the initial fall from God’s grace, but, make no mistake, we are still ordered to good.
Sadly, we must accept the fact that in spite of our best efforts, evil will remain the world until it is forever destroyed when our Lord returns in glory on the last day. Until that day, we must do our part as sons and daughters of God, as heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven, to stand against evil in the world. How do we do this? Simply by being the people that God has made us to be; by striving to witness to his life and love each and every day in thought, word, and deed. There are moments when we are going to be tempted to give up hope, but if we look, God will always give us a reason to hold on to hope and many times those reasons will be found in ordinary people around us.
Let us continue to pray for those who suffer so unjustly from violence and from all sins against God’s love. May those who have died have their sins forgiven and find everlasting joy and peace in heaven. May those wounded in mind, body, or spirit, find comfort, healing, and consolation. May all of us remember the truth spoken to us by our Lord: “you are the light of the world (Matthew 5:4).” May our hearts be open to God’s grace each and every day so that the light of Christ may shine brightly in and through us. Darkness is nothing more than the absence of light. Go and be that light in a world plagued by shadows.
About the Author:
Father Christopher House is the Rector-Pastor of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, specifically Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.