On the Conversion of St Paul (Extract from a Homily)

If we want to understand St Paul, we need to understand what happened to him on the roads to Damascus. If we want to understand why he wrote so passionately, travelled so tirelessly, was willing to endure shipwreck, imprisonment and beatings, we need to understand what was special about that event. There was a blinding flash of light, a heavenly voice, and a force that knocked St Paul to the ground... extraordinary things indeed, but they don't explain the great change which occurred in Saul of Tarsus. The important thing which happened on the road that day was that Paul met the Risen Lord, and that's what changed his life. And why did this meeting make such an impression? Because in Christ he encountered the mercy and love of God. Christ does not punish Paul for persecuting his followers, but offers him the chance of forgiveness. And Christ doesn't simply say to Paul, "I have forgiven you, let bygones be bygones." No! Through Annanias, Christ invites this former persecutor to become an intimate friend, someone who is entrusted with a mission which is no one else's. That's how God works. That's who God is.
My brothers and sisters, that same meeting happens in the life of every Christian. He presents Himself too us, He dearly wants to meet us. He extends to us the same mercy and makes known to us the same divine love. He invites each and every one of us to that same friendship. He has known each and every one of us from before the foundation of the world and has for each and every one of us a mission which He has entrusted to no other.

What precisely has the Pope done?

This morning's bulletin from the Holy See's press office contains the news that the Pope has lifted the excommunications of four bishops of the Society of St Pius X. Now, I'm worried about how the media - and in particular the Irish media - are going to report this event. I fear that all too easily this will be used as a stick with which to beat the Pope and that most journalists lack the background to explain the precise significance of this event. So, I'm writing a brief post to explain what precisely the Pope has done and what the background to this event is.

Basically the Society of Pius X is a society of priests who are not in full communion with the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church as a whole. It was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre because of his resistance - and the dissatisfaction of many clergy and laity - concerning the liturgical changes which came into effect after the Second Vatican Council and various elements of the Council's teaching - especially on the subject of religious liberty. It operated for some years outside the normal structures of the Catholic Church in what might be described as being, at best, a canonical grey area. In 1988, without papal permission, Archbishop Lefebrve ordained 4 men as bishops. This was a very serious crime under Canon Law, so he, an assisting bishop and the 4 men who were ordained bishops were excommunicated.
Archbishop Lefebrve has since died, as has the bishop who assisted him. The 4 men he ordained bishops (Bishop Fellay being their leader) were, until this morning, still excommunicated.

However, in recent years there has been an attempt to reconcile the SSPX to the Church. There have been behind the scenes discussions and communications. In order to facilitate this process of reconciliation, the Pope has lifted the sentence of excommunication placed on the 4 SSPX bishops. He has removed the punishment they incurred for allowing themselves to be ordained bishops without permission. This is an act of mercy and a gesture aimed at healing wounds and encouraging reconciliation.
However, that does not mean that all is well with these bishops and the clergy of the SSPX. Whilst no longer excommunicated, these bishops are still not proper Catholic bishops in union with Rome. They lack the necessary permission to act as bishops, and the priests who work under them do not have the necessary permissions to act as priests. The division between the SSPX and Rome has not been healed, and it is still a very serious matter for a Catholic to receive the sacraments from a member of the SSPX in all but emergency situations. SSPX clergy do not have the necessary permission from Rome or from local bishops to carry out their work anywhere in the world. The Pope lifting the excommunications does not mean that the separation between the SSPX and Rome has ended. However, it is a move which seems to promise a sincere effort on Rome's behalf to bring the SSPX back into the tent of the Church. The ball is now very much in the SSPX's court in terms of how they will respond to this gesture.

It should especially be noted that the lifting of the excommunication does not mean that the Pope agrees with anything or everything that the SSPX bishops might say. In a singularly infelicitous episode, one of the SSPX bishops seems to have denied the holocaust recently. Do not let anyone try and convince you that the Pope endorses these views. Sometimes it is necessary to extend mercy to people whom we do not approve of - in this case, for the sake of the souls of the SSPX clergy and the people who attend their chapels, the Pope has been very brave in persisting with this act of mercy even though it threatens to be a PR disaster.

What next? There are a whole host of things that need to be sorted out between the Roman Curia and the SSPX. Fortunately, other smaller communities with an attachment to the older form of the liturgy have been received back into the Church in recent times. Aside from the liturgical issue, the question of the interpretation of Vatican II and its teaching on religious liberty is something that will need to be agreed between Rome and the SSPX. I suspect that even if the proposed discussions are successful, not all of the clergy and faithful who are attached to the SSPX will be happy to reconcile with Rome. Some hold opinions which flatly contradict the teaching of the Church and they may not be willing to abandon these opinions. However, I think that we should all be praying that this process of reconciliation goes smoothly and that we will be able to welcome many back into full communion with the Holy Father. We should also pray that those hostile to the Church and those hostile to the Holy Father within the Church will not take advantage of an act of Papal mercy in order to further their own agendas.

As usual, American blogger Amy Welborn covers this issue very well.

Prayers for Fr Foster

My former teacher and latinist sui generis Fr Reggie Foster is not doing well, according to Fr Zuhlsdorf:

Fr. Reginald Foster, famous American Carmelite Latinist who works for the Holy See, continues to have serious health problems, ever since his fall last June. He has basically been bed ridden ever since that incident. What follows is the latest.
Yesterday (Saturday) he was taken from his monastery to the Fate bene fratelli hospital on the Tiber Island. Shortly after arriving, he suffered some kind of seizure and was put in intensive care. At first they diagnosed it as pulmonary embolism and they did not expect him to survive. Now they say it was NOT an embolism, but apparently his spleen ruptured and the ensuing rush of fluid in his body caused temporary heart failure.

Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord

I think that we tend to under-rate the importance of this Feast and the event that it celebrates. I seem to recall reading that the Orthodox put much emphasis on Christ's Baptism in the Jordan as being one of the great Trinitatian theophanies - it's one of those rare times when the Three Persons make themselves 'visible'. We hear the voice of God the Father, God the Son Incarnate is baptized, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.

Of course, part of the difficulty is in correctly interpreting that baptism. John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, so understanding why Christ submitted to it can cause difficulties. The Arians took Christ's baptism and the fact that He received the Holy Spirit at that time as evidence that He was not equal to the Father. Well-intentioned Christology which seeks to affirm Christ's divinity tends to downplay the importance of the Baptism of the Lord, reducing it to a mere gesture of humility. I'm inclined to think that such an over-simplification of things tends towards monophysitism - a rejection of the dogma of Christ's two natures, human and divine.
On the other hand, other theologians treat the Baptism as though it were the moment when Christ became divine, or as though He were just an ordinary man whose miracles and preaching derived purely from His having received the Holy Spirit at that time. Similarly, whilst it is evident that this Baptism was hugely significant in Our Lord's beginning his public mission, it would be a mistake to treat it as being the vocation-moment in His life when He realised who He was and what He had to do.

So, what is the Christological significance of the Baptism? Well, I shan't attempt to give a comprehensive answer, but I will highlight some aspects which strike me as important. Firstly, whilst Christ was sinless and not in need of forgiveness, I think that we can understand undergoing John's baptism as being more than just a gesture of humility or solidarity with the mass of sinful humanity. Rather, Christ is the Head of the Church and assumed a human nature which was marked by Adam's sin. He did not have the stain of Original Sin or the concupiscence which comes from it, but he did assume many weaknesses to which man is subject as a result of the Fall. It was therefore fitting that the Head of the Church should take part in the Baptism of repentance and thereby bring the Body with Him. Of course, it is the sacrifice of the Head which makes possible the repentance and salvation of the Body.
The Baptism is also profoundly a sign of acceptance - a prefigurement of His redeeming death. The logic of our sacramental relationship with Christ means that it makes perfect sense that if His baptism is a sign of His acceptance of His death, that our baptism allows us to share in the benefits of that sacrifice.

Various

Many thanks to Don Marco for posting an English Translation of the Holy Father's catechisis on Rom 12:1. My blog title is derived from that verse, and I took the concept of rationabile obsequium as a challenge to myself in the exercise of the priestly ministry.

True Worship in Christ
But the question persists: Then how should we interpret this "reasonable spiritual worship"? Paul always supposes that we have come to be "one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28), that we have died in baptism (Romans 1) and we live now with Christ, through Christ and in Christ. In this union -- and only in this way -- we can be in him and with him a "living sacrifice," to offer the "true worship." The sacrificed animals should have substituted man, the gift of self of man, and they could not. Jesus Christ, in his surrender to the Father and to us, is not a substitution, but rather really entails in himself the human being, our faults and our desire; he truly represents us, he assumes us in himself. In communion with Christ, accomplished in the faith and in the sacraments, we transform, despite our deficiencies, into living sacrifice: "True worship" is fulfilled.

Christ's True Sacrifice Made Present
This synthesis is the backdrop of the Roman Canon in which we pray that this offering be "rationabile," so that spiritual worship is accomplished. The Church knows that in the holy Eucharist, the self-gift of Christ, his true sacrifice, is made present. But the Church prays so that the celebrating community is really united to Christ, is transformed; it prays so that we ourselves come to be that which we cannot be with our efforts: offering "rationabile" that is pleasing to God. In this way the Eucharistic prayer interprets in an adequate way the words of St. Paul.

Alas, the current English translation of the Roman Canon fudges the following:

Quam oblationem tu, Deus, in omnibus, quaesumus, benedictam, adscriptam, ratam, rationabilem, acceptabilemquw facere digneris: ut nobis Corpus et Sanguis fiat dilectissimi Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi.

Secondly, Kansas Catholic has some wonderful pictures of a first profession of vows by one novice and the investiture of four postulants by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. Amongst the 4 who received the habit was my good friend Sr Mary G.

Finally, may Fr Richard John Neuhaus rest in peace.

This Sunday's Readings...

We're fortunate in Ireland that the Feast of the Epiphany is celebrated on the 6th of January, so we have the wonderful readings of the 2nd Sunday after Christmas tomorrow morning. A friend of mine from seminary suggested that the core of the Gospel would be preserved if, through some freak occurrence, the New Testament were lost except for the Letter of St Paul to the Galatians. I keep meaning to re-read Galatians with that hypothetical scenario in mind in order to make sense of what he was saying.
As I was reading the 2nd Reading and Gospel of this Sunday's liturgy, I realised that a somewhat similar claim could be made about those two readings. Between them they manage to encapsulate much of what is most central to our faith. If one were to commit them to memory, one would have the answers to the most pressing existential and philosophical questions.
The Second Reading ( Ephesians 1:3-6. 15-18) summarises God's plan for us quite nicely:

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved.

That will explain why I, having once heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and the love that you show towards all the saints, have never failed to remember you in my prayers and to thank God for you. May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit

The Gospel (John 1-1-18), on the other hand, is virtually a complete Credo and a summary of all that follows in John's Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word:
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came to be,
not one thing had its being but through him.
All that came to be had life in him
and that life was the light of men,
a light that shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower

A man came, sent by God.
His name was John.
He came as a witness,
as a witness to speak for the light,
so that everyone might believe through him.
He was not the light,
only a witness to speak for the light.

The Word was the true light
that enlightens all men;
and he was coming into the world.
He was in the world
that had its being through him,
and the world did not know him.
He came to his own domain
and his own people did not accept him.
But to all who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to all who believe in the name of him
who was born not out of human stock
or urge of the flesh
or will of man
but of God himself.
The Word was made flesh, he lived among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory that is his
as the only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John appears as his witness. He proclaims:
'This is the one of whom I said:
He who comes after me ranks before me
because he existed before me'.

Indeed, from his fulness we have, all of us, received –
yes, grace in return for grace,
since, though the Law was given through Moses,
grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God;
it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father's heart,
who has made him known.

Back in the day that (up to the words 'grace and truth') was recited by the priest at the end of Mass as the 'last Gospel'. There was a decided wisdom in repeating the richest of scriptural passages after each and every Mass.