These are my very first posts that have YouTube videos embedded in them. I was emailed these videos, and I wanted to share them with you. This seminary is in my backyard, as it were, and some of my old friends are priests there. If you are looking for an excellent, faith-filled and faithful place of formation for men, Saint John Vianney Seminary is a must see.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label priests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label priests. Show all posts
3.15.2008
Blessed Solemnity of Saint Joseph
In honor of the great Saint Joseph, I want to direct you to the posts wherein I talk about him. The articles may be found here, here, here, here and here and indirectly here.
Most of us do not realize the grandeur of Saint Joseph and the intensity of his faith and trust in God. If my theory is correct and God originally planned that we conceived children virginally as Mary and Joseph did, and if the test of virginity was the test of our first parents, then Joseph is more than the foster father of Jesus. If God had originally planned that parenthood was to be obtained via a deep union with Him and a profound trust in His provision, then Joseph would be a true father of Jesus. We usually don't say Joseph was the true father of Jesus because that implies, in the common way we use that word 'true,' that Jesus was conceived in the normal manner. Mary conceived from the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowing her, not from the generative powers of Joseph.
Fatherhood is more than physical generation. There are plenty of men walking around today that have physically generated children who have little or no resemblance to being a father. And on the other side of that reality, there are a great number of wonderful men and women who could not have children, and yet they sacrificed and brought children into their life through adoption; they are mothers and fathers in the full sense of the word. Parenthood has more to do with the care of children than with their generation.
In their trial of faith, Mary and Joseph trusted in God immensely; they desired children more than anyone has, and yet God asked them to remain virgins forever. That doesn't make sense, and yet they trusted in God's unintelligible request. The reward for crucifying their greatest earthly desire? They are entrusted with the Son of God as their very own child. In addition to that unimaginable gift, Mary is the mother of us all, and Joseph as the patron of the universal Church is the father of all. Trusting in God, they let the seed of children fall into the ground to die, and it has become the greatest of all plants bearing overabundant fruit. Their sacrifice has become their reward.
With all that being said, I think it can be said that in the true and full sense of fatherhood, Joseph is the human father of Jesus. Since Jesus was conceived through Mary and Joseph's unity as spouses and their unity to God in their trust of Him, they passed the original test of our first parents. They did what Adam and Eve did not, and as such, they did what God had originally intended man to do to become a parent. Fatherhood has to do with caring for children in that unique fatherly way together with union with God, and in that regard, no one has been more a father than Joseph was to Jesus.
On a side note, this is partly why priests are called father. They are united to God and have passed the test of virginity as Joseph did, and they care for God's flock, the children of God. Priests truly are fathers who daily lay down their life for the protection and care of their children. Priests also participate in the spiritual birth to the children of God when they baptize, and they cooperate in bringing the dead children back to life through the sacrament of Confession. It is commonly said that priests take the Church as their spouse, and some saints have said that they take Mary as their spouse. I think that is true. To priests: take Mary as your spouse and give your whole self to her as Saint Joseph did so that together in your complete trust in God you may bear abundant fruit, giving birth to Christ Himself once again and bearing Him to the world.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Most of us do not realize the grandeur of Saint Joseph and the intensity of his faith and trust in God. If my theory is correct and God originally planned that we conceived children virginally as Mary and Joseph did, and if the test of virginity was the test of our first parents, then Joseph is more than the foster father of Jesus. If God had originally planned that parenthood was to be obtained via a deep union with Him and a profound trust in His provision, then Joseph would be a true father of Jesus. We usually don't say Joseph was the true father of Jesus because that implies, in the common way we use that word 'true,' that Jesus was conceived in the normal manner. Mary conceived from the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowing her, not from the generative powers of Joseph.
Fatherhood is more than physical generation. There are plenty of men walking around today that have physically generated children who have little or no resemblance to being a father. And on the other side of that reality, there are a great number of wonderful men and women who could not have children, and yet they sacrificed and brought children into their life through adoption; they are mothers and fathers in the full sense of the word. Parenthood has more to do with the care of children than with their generation.
In their trial of faith, Mary and Joseph trusted in God immensely; they desired children more than anyone has, and yet God asked them to remain virgins forever. That doesn't make sense, and yet they trusted in God's unintelligible request. The reward for crucifying their greatest earthly desire? They are entrusted with the Son of God as their very own child. In addition to that unimaginable gift, Mary is the mother of us all, and Joseph as the patron of the universal Church is the father of all. Trusting in God, they let the seed of children fall into the ground to die, and it has become the greatest of all plants bearing overabundant fruit. Their sacrifice has become their reward.
With all that being said, I think it can be said that in the true and full sense of fatherhood, Joseph is the human father of Jesus. Since Jesus was conceived through Mary and Joseph's unity as spouses and their unity to God in their trust of Him, they passed the original test of our first parents. They did what Adam and Eve did not, and as such, they did what God had originally intended man to do to become a parent. Fatherhood has to do with caring for children in that unique fatherly way together with union with God, and in that regard, no one has been more a father than Joseph was to Jesus.
On a side note, this is partly why priests are called father. They are united to God and have passed the test of virginity as Joseph did, and they care for God's flock, the children of God. Priests truly are fathers who daily lay down their life for the protection and care of their children. Priests also participate in the spiritual birth to the children of God when they baptize, and they cooperate in bringing the dead children back to life through the sacrament of Confession. It is commonly said that priests take the Church as their spouse, and some saints have said that they take Mary as their spouse. I think that is true. To priests: take Mary as your spouse and give your whole self to her as Saint Joseph did so that together in your complete trust in God you may bear abundant fruit, giving birth to Christ Himself once again and bearing Him to the world.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
12.10.2007
The Quest for the Son Begins Again
Last night we discussed how Abraham was called back to his ancestral home to reclaim the family’s rightful inheritance; once he established a peace from his enemies round about, the undisputed head of the family, Shem/Melchizedek, comes out to bless Abraham. Shem is also the King of Salem and priest of God Most High who celebrates using bread and wine. It is possible that Salem, which means peace, later becomes Jerusalem when the Hebrew word for “it will be provided” is added as a prefix. It was added later in Abraham’s story when he offers up his only son in chapter twenty-two and says that God Himself will provide the lamb.
Shem was one of a handful of righteous first-born sons, and he is the king of peace in (Jeru)salem who offers bread and wine. Later, in this same location, Abraham/Isaac offer up Isaac, and God provides the lamb. This provision is all fulfilled when the true King of Kings and King of Peace, the true King of Jerusalem comes offering bread and wine; Jesus is the Lamb that God provided on Calvary in the same general location as Mount Moriah where Isaac offered himself up. Isaac was passed over, becoming the reason God provides the Passover to the Israelites in Egypt, and Jesus fulfills all of these prefigurements when He remakes the Passover at the Last Supper which ends with His own self-offering as the Lamb of God upon the cross.
Abraham is blessed by Shem when Abraham retakes the Promised Land, which solidifies the constant quest for the Promised Land by his descendants. The other primary quest now comes to fruition: the quest for a son. The very first thing that is mentioned after the blessing sequence is completed, is that God speaks to Abraham who immediately asks for a son. Blessings/the inheritance are meant to be passed on to one’s son. This is no ordinary blessing but a powerful, life-changing reality, and it is meant for one’s son. Abraham was quite wealthy before, but now that Abraham has been endowed with such a blessing from the patriarch, Shem, he knows he needs a son and so asks for one the first chance he gets. Thus begins anew the quest for the son.
God does not take long to respond: “And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir.’ And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the LORD; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:4-6). God wants to give Abraham a son; that was His plan from the beginning and why He called Him to come to his homeland. Abraham trusts God and believes that God will provide him a son, even though he is at the age of 75 and his wife is 65 and has been barren her whole life.
Ten years later, Abraham and Sarah still have not been given a son. There are key parallels to this story and the Adam and Eve story. Here Abraham and Sarah, with the God-given promise of a son, have been given something like the command to be fruitful and multiply. They have not been given the command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but they are tempted to have a child outside of the ordinary way children come to couples. In both stories, the husband listens to the voice of his wife and sins. Both tried to fulfill God’s will by their own strength instead of allowing God to provide the son. Eve conceived Cain, and Hagar conceived Ishmael. Neither was the son God promised.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Shem was one of a handful of righteous first-born sons, and he is the king of peace in (Jeru)salem who offers bread and wine. Later, in this same location, Abraham/Isaac offer up Isaac, and God provides the lamb. This provision is all fulfilled when the true King of Kings and King of Peace, the true King of Jerusalem comes offering bread and wine; Jesus is the Lamb that God provided on Calvary in the same general location as Mount Moriah where Isaac offered himself up. Isaac was passed over, becoming the reason God provides the Passover to the Israelites in Egypt, and Jesus fulfills all of these prefigurements when He remakes the Passover at the Last Supper which ends with His own self-offering as the Lamb of God upon the cross.
Abraham is blessed by Shem when Abraham retakes the Promised Land, which solidifies the constant quest for the Promised Land by his descendants. The other primary quest now comes to fruition: the quest for a son. The very first thing that is mentioned after the blessing sequence is completed, is that God speaks to Abraham who immediately asks for a son. Blessings/the inheritance are meant to be passed on to one’s son. This is no ordinary blessing but a powerful, life-changing reality, and it is meant for one’s son. Abraham was quite wealthy before, but now that Abraham has been endowed with such a blessing from the patriarch, Shem, he knows he needs a son and so asks for one the first chance he gets. Thus begins anew the quest for the son.
God does not take long to respond: “And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir.’ And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the LORD; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:4-6). God wants to give Abraham a son; that was His plan from the beginning and why He called Him to come to his homeland. Abraham trusts God and believes that God will provide him a son, even though he is at the age of 75 and his wife is 65 and has been barren her whole life.
Ten years later, Abraham and Sarah still have not been given a son. There are key parallels to this story and the Adam and Eve story. Here Abraham and Sarah, with the God-given promise of a son, have been given something like the command to be fruitful and multiply. They have not been given the command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but they are tempted to have a child outside of the ordinary way children come to couples. In both stories, the husband listens to the voice of his wife and sins. Both tried to fulfill God’s will by their own strength instead of allowing God to provide the son. Eve conceived Cain, and Hagar conceived Ishmael. Neither was the son God promised.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
12.02.2007
No Marriage in Heaven?!
Tonight I want to try and tackle a very difficult passage that sheds light on my theory and vice versa. It is from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 11: 7-10: “For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. (For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.) That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head, because of the angels.” What I want to focus on is that man is the glory of God and woman is the glory of man. The word for glory means, among other things, heavy and full; women have a certain ability to be heavy and full, and that is when they are pregnant, especially in the third trimester. Woman is the glory of man because she bears their fruit. Likewise, man and all mankind is the glory of God because we bear the fruit from God in our trusting heart.
Both men and women bear fruit for God in their hearts; it seems that the man is able to bear fruit for God in a special way, and so he is the glory of God. How are we to correctly understand this? God is pure being and action; He does not receive, but acts and is the Creator of all that is. As the Creator, He reveals many things about Himself in creation. The primary image in all of creation is the relationship between men and women in marriage; this image symbolizes God’s relationship to humanity. Certainly, men and woman have an equality, yet men do symbolize God in a unique manner. Man, in his body and psyche and soul, has a similitude to God, and he seeks to initiate and penetrate and actively give himself. Woman, in her body and psyche and soul, is receptive and nurturing and reciprocates the loving advance. As symbols, man is God and woman is humanity; symbolically man is greater, but not in actuality (the greatest human is a woman, after all). In relation to God, ever human is feminine, that is, receptive. In our relationship with God, it is He who initiates and acts and gives us Himself; we actively respond to His loving entreaty. This is reflected in John’s first letter: “We love, because he first loved us” (4:19). God loves us, and if we are receptive, He fills us with His life; as a result, we are His glory and grow full with good fruit.
A question remains: why do woman have to cover their head due to the angels? Paul is talking about a woman covering her head in church, at the Mass. Do angels really care if a woman’s head is uncovered? Paul says she can either cover her head or shave it; both accomplish the purpose. What is the point? Who are the angels? I do not think Paul is using the word “angel” here literally. Looking to how Jesus uses the word “angel” in the context of marriage sheds light on how Paul uses it here in Corinthians.
The synoptic gospels all have the account where Jesus is rebuking the Sadducees for not believing in the resurrection. Matthew 22:30 says: “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Mark 12:25 states in almost identical fashion: “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Luke 20:34-36 gives an expanded version of the first two: “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
In heaven there is no marriage of man to woman. We are not married anymore to our earthly spouse, for we are married only as long as our spouse is alive on earth. In heaven, we are not married, but we are like the angels. In heaven, we will not die, we will be equal to the angels, we will be sons of God and sons of the resurrection. Remember, marriage is a symbol of God’s relationship to man, so when the earthly symbol has served its purpose, then we enjoy the reality: marriage with God. The reason there is no marriage in heaven is that all of us are married to God. He is the one spouse, the one husband, and we are His bride. Sure we will still have a special relationship to all those close to us on earth and all those we helped get to heaven and all those who helped us, especially our favorite saints, but the primary relationship is my marriage to God, my True Spouse. In earthly marriage, each spouse is meant to assist his beloved to heaven, so a close relationship in heaven to our spouse makes sense; we will have a similar closeness to our guardian angel who has been appointed to lead us there, too.
I still haven’t answered the question about who the angels are in Paul’s prohibition of uncovered heads. Real angels are pure spirits in heaven who are united to God; when we get to heaven and are married to God we become like the angels (although we will never be pure spirit; we are embodied spirits); right now on earth the “sons of this age marry and are given in marriage” and so do not live like the angels. The angels, then, are those men who do not marry a human woman but the Church. We call them priests. The celibate life, the Church teaches, is living the heavenly life here on earth. Paul’s concern is quite simple: he doesn’t want the celibate priests to be distracted by the beauty of women in the congregation at Mass. A woman should either cover her beauty or shave her head so that she does not become a temptation to those who live celibate lives. I think that is the point of what Paul is saying. Today, I think Paul would be content that women dress modestly at Mass. It makes sense that everyone comes modestly to Mass so that we decrease the likelihood that we are a distraction to another. It is ironic to accentuate one’s attractiveness when we go to Mass because it is there that Our Husband gives us His Body: he is meant to be our focus and attraction.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
Both men and women bear fruit for God in their hearts; it seems that the man is able to bear fruit for God in a special way, and so he is the glory of God. How are we to correctly understand this? God is pure being and action; He does not receive, but acts and is the Creator of all that is. As the Creator, He reveals many things about Himself in creation. The primary image in all of creation is the relationship between men and women in marriage; this image symbolizes God’s relationship to humanity. Certainly, men and woman have an equality, yet men do symbolize God in a unique manner. Man, in his body and psyche and soul, has a similitude to God, and he seeks to initiate and penetrate and actively give himself. Woman, in her body and psyche and soul, is receptive and nurturing and reciprocates the loving advance. As symbols, man is God and woman is humanity; symbolically man is greater, but not in actuality (the greatest human is a woman, after all). In relation to God, ever human is feminine, that is, receptive. In our relationship with God, it is He who initiates and acts and gives us Himself; we actively respond to His loving entreaty. This is reflected in John’s first letter: “We love, because he first loved us” (4:19). God loves us, and if we are receptive, He fills us with His life; as a result, we are His glory and grow full with good fruit.
A question remains: why do woman have to cover their head due to the angels? Paul is talking about a woman covering her head in church, at the Mass. Do angels really care if a woman’s head is uncovered? Paul says she can either cover her head or shave it; both accomplish the purpose. What is the point? Who are the angels? I do not think Paul is using the word “angel” here literally. Looking to how Jesus uses the word “angel” in the context of marriage sheds light on how Paul uses it here in Corinthians.
The synoptic gospels all have the account where Jesus is rebuking the Sadducees for not believing in the resurrection. Matthew 22:30 says: “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Mark 12:25 states in almost identical fashion: “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Luke 20:34-36 gives an expanded version of the first two: “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
In heaven there is no marriage of man to woman. We are not married anymore to our earthly spouse, for we are married only as long as our spouse is alive on earth. In heaven, we are not married, but we are like the angels. In heaven, we will not die, we will be equal to the angels, we will be sons of God and sons of the resurrection. Remember, marriage is a symbol of God’s relationship to man, so when the earthly symbol has served its purpose, then we enjoy the reality: marriage with God. The reason there is no marriage in heaven is that all of us are married to God. He is the one spouse, the one husband, and we are His bride. Sure we will still have a special relationship to all those close to us on earth and all those we helped get to heaven and all those who helped us, especially our favorite saints, but the primary relationship is my marriage to God, my True Spouse. In earthly marriage, each spouse is meant to assist his beloved to heaven, so a close relationship in heaven to our spouse makes sense; we will have a similar closeness to our guardian angel who has been appointed to lead us there, too.
I still haven’t answered the question about who the angels are in Paul’s prohibition of uncovered heads. Real angels are pure spirits in heaven who are united to God; when we get to heaven and are married to God we become like the angels (although we will never be pure spirit; we are embodied spirits); right now on earth the “sons of this age marry and are given in marriage” and so do not live like the angels. The angels, then, are those men who do not marry a human woman but the Church. We call them priests. The celibate life, the Church teaches, is living the heavenly life here on earth. Paul’s concern is quite simple: he doesn’t want the celibate priests to be distracted by the beauty of women in the congregation at Mass. A woman should either cover her beauty or shave her head so that she does not become a temptation to those who live celibate lives. I think that is the point of what Paul is saying. Today, I think Paul would be content that women dress modestly at Mass. It makes sense that everyone comes modestly to Mass so that we decrease the likelihood that we are a distraction to another. It is ironic to accentuate one’s attractiveness when we go to Mass because it is there that Our Husband gives us His Body: he is meant to be our focus and attraction.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
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