Brent

The Transfiguration and the Awe of Catholicism

Monday, August 6th, is the Feast of Jesus’ Transfiguration which we meditate on in the Fourth Luminous Mystery of the Rosary. One question I’ve always had about the Transfiguration is why Jesus felt it was necessary. After all, He had traveled throughout the region preaching God’s Word and healing people. The apostles, for the most part, already believed He was the Messiah. Why this extra revelation? And what meaning does it have for the Catholic faithful today?

The Transfiguration was necessary, in part, because Jesus’ ministry had become routine to the apostles. I bet they must have lost some of their sense of wonder and awe while ministering with Jesus. They traveled from village to village listening to Jesus tell the same (or similar) parables, heal the sick, and occasionally admonish them for not understanding Him. While Jesus’ miracles probably amazed them initially, they probably lost some of the awe over time.

Wait, what? How could being witness to Jesus’ miracles lose their awe? Well, let’s look at how many of us treat the amazing miracle of Mass. How often do you fall into the Go to Mass, receive communion, repeat cycle? At Mass, we are in the presence of Jesus, the same Jesus the apostles served with, and yet we’re probably already thinking about what donut we’ll get afterward or how we’ll spend the rest of the day. The miracle that occurs during the consecration comes and goes for us without much thought similar to maybe how the apostles started seeing Jesus’ healings.

“Haven’t we, like, seen this show a hundred times already?”

And it’s not just Mass either. Even if you have a more regular prayer life, it can also descend into a routine and lose its awe. While I try to pray the Rosary every day, I admit that some days are better than others. I can often pray an entire decade of the Rosary only to realize that I didn’t even consciously know what mystery I was praying. I’m having a conversation with God and I’m thinking more about what I’ll have for dinner!

When Peter, James, and John witnessed the Transfiguration, it must have been a real wakeup call for them. Maybe it snapped them out of any complacency they were feeling about their calling. It took a great event to give them a needed kick and boost of energy

We don’t have Jesus physically transfiguring before us today. Most of us will never have a direct apparition of Jesus, Mary, or the saints telling us what to do. So how do we re-energize our spiritual zeal? First, we need to admit when the miraculous blessings of our faith have become routine and resolve to re-ignite our passion. Taking a cue from the Transfiguration, maybe we have to do something out of the ordinary. Some ideas include:

Going to Mass on a weekday
Attending Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
Receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation
Joining a parish prayer group or organization
Finding new prayers to say
Reading a book or article either on a saint or written by a saint

It would be nice if Jesus personally invited us to something as wonderful as the Transfiguration. And in a way, He does through prayer. He offers Himself to us all the time but we have to be listening to Him in the silence of prayer and meditation (ehem… the Rosary!). When we do listen, amazing things can happen whether it be a physical miracle or just a renewed zeal for living our faith.

The Pope’s August 2018 Intention — The Treasure of Families

Take a look at the news and ask yourself, do politicians generally support laws that promote or limit family freedoms? What importance do current laws and legal rulings place on traditional family structures? Think about rulings trying to redefine marriage, the limiting of rights parents have over how to best raise their kids, and just the overall societal devaluing of marriage’s role in promoting a stable, peaceful, and strong society.

In that light, here is Pope Francis’ intention for August 2018:

Universal – The Treasure of Families

That any far-reaching decisions of economists and politicians may protect the family as one of the treasures of humanity.

I think it’s obvious that governments in general, and individual politicians specifically, are acting increasingly more hostile to the traditional family ideal. Much of it comes from politicians knowing that people need to be part of a close-knit unit. But unfortunately for politicians, the original close-knit unit, the family, acts as a political ideological wall. It acts like a wall because parents can act as a political filter and are usually a much closer role model for their kids. But if politicians can chip away or tear down that wall, they know that people will seek the guidance from another community, one where the politicians wield more control — the government.

Politicians are human and have human weaknesses. Many are greedy and seek increases in political power. When they obtain that power, they want to keep it and grow it. That endeavor becomes easier when they have more control over the population. One such lever to increase control is to reduce the influence of a mom and dad. In other words, as the independence of the family goes down, the influence of the government increases because it fills that decision-making, rule-enforcing vacuum.

Once again, we have the Catholic faith taking the now counter-cultural view of promoting the value of the traditional family. In a world where there is a separation of church and state or an open hostility towards religion, then where else but the family will people learn and love God? When Pope Francis asks us to pray for the protection of the family, he does so to our benefit and ultimate happiness. It’s through the family that parents pass their love of God and the importance of faith to their children. It’s that love of God and reliance on Him and His grace that people find strength and motivation to not only endure life’s challenges but prosper and find a meaningful peace.

The Rosary Connection

The Fourth Joyful Mystery, The Presentation in the Temple, is a wonderful Rosary mystery to reflect on the value of family. In this mystery, Mary and Joseph impress the importance and value of living their faith and passing on those traditions to Jesus. I find it interesting that of all the events in the Gospel, this one made the cut of being worthy of a Rosary mystery. Our Mother Mary obviously wants us to understand the importance of family and sharing in God’s love with one another. Following the pope’s intention, let’s remember to pray for politicians, economists, and employers as well in respecting the importance of family.

Remember, the pope is asking us to pray for a group of people (politicians) that are currently skewing in an anti-family direction. We are essentially praying for a change of hardened hearts. Pray for the people in power when you pray the Third Luminous Mystery of the Rosary, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Call to Conversion. Remember that Jesus’ message wasn’t always well received, especially by the authorities in the Sanhedrin because it challenged their power. So too, does a free and independent family challenge modern politicians’ power. After Jesus’ resurrection, the apostles also encountered a lot of hostility establishing the early Christian Church. Saint Stephen was even martyred on the order of Jewish officials (Saul, later Saint Paul, being one of them). We too are called to the same mission as the apostles — spreading Jesus’ teachings to everyone, especially the powerful who may be hostile towards them.

The Power of the Pompeii Rosary Novena Part 2

In my first article about the Pompeii Rosary Novena, I discussed what I learned about Rosary prayer from a tactical standpoint. I discussed my strategies for finding time to pray 15 mysteries every day and its benefits. In this article, I’m going to discuss whether Mary responded to my 54 days of Rosary prayer. I prayed this novena asking Mary to intercede on behalf of people in my life who have chronic illnesses.

The big question is, were the people whom I prayed for cured? Yes, but not in the way you may imagine. I learned that there are more ways to cure the sick than just physically. The people I prayed for have gotten marginally better, but not miraculously cured of their physical ailments. Naturally, I hoped that they would be in that select group of people who experienced a miraculous physical cure as a result of the Pompeii novena. But that was not God’s plan, at least not yet.

I’ve come to realize that a physical healing is not necessarily the point of a novena. I know that Mary heard my petition and that Jesus is comforting them in His grace. The physical illnesses may still be there but so is the increased strength and courage to endure. God, in His infinite wisdom, decided that a miraculous physical healing is not what is needed in this case. And while that would have been great and I still hope and pray for one, I also understand that God applies His grace uniquely to every situation.

Now the cynic would claim that I’m just rationalizing God’s inaction and that I really just wasted my time over the last 54 days. But I’m sure many people would be cynical of the Pompeii novena even if there was a physical cure. They would say it was good science and medicine and prayer played no part. There are some people with such a hardened heart that even the greatest miracles wouldn’t change them, let alone the more subtle ones. That is why we must keep the hardened-hearted cynics in our prayers too; for they benefit from them whether they admit it or not.

God’s response to my novena reminds me of Jesus’ crucifixion (Fifth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary) where the criminal asks Jesus to remember Him. Jesus’ response was that that criminal would join Him in paradise (Luke 24:43). Here you have the criminal in a terrible situation reaching out to Jesus similar to how we reach out to Him in prayer. Jesus didn’t miraculously bring the criminal down from the cross. But that doesn’t mean Jesus did not respond to the man’s plea.

Jesus gave the criminal something much more important than physical relief from his dire situation and that was His grace and the promise of Heaven. While I’m sure the criminal would have been grateful if Jesus had physically rescued him from the cross, that physical saving would have paled in comparison to what Jesus actually gave the criminal. Because no physical saving can compare to the promise of Heaven brought about by one’s faith in Jesus Christ.

Like the criminal on the cross, I have faith that Mary, Jesus, and God the Father heard my plea to remember those in my life who are ill. While God didn’t bring them down from their “crosses” by physically healing them, I know that my prayers will help them obtain graces and spiritual healing. And ultimately, that is more important than any temporary physical cure. Because all physical cures are temporary because our lives in this world are temporary. It’s our souls that live on for all eternity. When it comes to tradeoffs, a healed soul always wins over a healed body.

Thus ends my Pompeii novena experience for this year. But it won’t be my last. I will turn back to it when I know people who are in dire need of some sort of healing. Or, if my energy to pray the Rosary starts to wane, the Pompeii novena is a great way to jumpstart it again. It’s like going through spiritual boot camp. Remember, Mary does hear your petitions. But you must be open to how she intercedes for you and how God responds.

Priests are People Too — Pope Francis’ July Intention

I don’t know if you’ve ever encountered this uncomfortable situation when you were young — running into your teacher outside of school at a restaurant, bank, or supermarket. I was often confused on how I should act because there was a person who was an authority figure in one context but a “regular person” in another. It was hard seeing my teacher as anyone other than my teacher.

As I got older, I realized how isolating that must have made teachers feel if their encounters outside of school with students were so awkward. To many of the people in their lives, they would only be that red pen using, sticker distributing, detention giving teacher.

The same goes for priests. Growing up, I always viewed priests, not as regular people with hobbies and interests, but as men who spent all their time conducting Mass, teaching, visiting the sick, and praying. In my mind, they didn’t watch sports, read non-religious books, play musical instruments, or browse the internet. Nor did they have normal faults that I could relate to like impatience, selfishness, greed, laziness, etc. Like teachers, my interaction with priests always felt awkward because I couldn’t figure out how I should act around them. After all, how do you act normally around someone who has heard all your sins in the Sacrament of Confession?

Pope Francis’ July 2018 intention is for priests, who experience fatigue and loneliness in their pastoral work, may find help and comfort in their intimacy with the Lord and in their friendship with their brother priests. It’s important to understand that priests lead hard lives. In many instances, they are away from their friends and families and the area where they grew up. They are always on call for emergencies like administering the Sacrament of Healing to the sick or need to counsel those who are having difficulties in life. I’m sure that they would appreciate some normalcy in their lives. It’s not that they want to get away from their vocation, but instead, not have people act awkwardly around them because of their vocation.

The Rosary Connection

Vocation is a central theme of the First Joyful Mystery of the Rosary. In this mystery, God calls Mary to a very specific life. And that’s what a vocation is — a calling. Mary responds with a humble yes with an idea that her vocation would be difficult even without full knowledge of what she was accepting. And so it is for priests who freely enter the priesthood with an understanding that it will be a difficult vocation but probably not fully realizing it until they’ve lived it for years. The Annunciation should teach us to really discern our vocation and once we say yes to it, to work as hard as we can to make the most of it. We should be mindful that priests, as learned and experienced as they are, are also discovering new aspects of their vocation and can benefit from the lay faithful’s support.

Moving on to the Fourth Joyful Mystery — the Presentation. There are many vocations at play in this mystery. We see Mary and Joseph living their vocation as husband and wife and parents to Jesus. The presentation shows that they are committed to raising and teaching Jesus their faith. It’s a model that all parents should imitate — that we are responsible for teaching our children the Catholic Faith. This means setting a good example and actively practicing our faith. In keeping with Pope Francis’ July intention, it also means educating our children on religious life and the important role priests play in our spiritual development. Parents should be open to the idea that their sons may have a calling to the priesthood and help them explore that vocation.

Another important person in the Fourth Joyful Mystery is Saint Simeon. In the Gospel, all that is really said about him is that he was a righteous man who spent most of his time praying in the temple after the Holy Spirit came to him with a promise. Doesn’t that sound like the call to the priestly vocation? Saint Simeon’s life revolved around prayer and he was one of the first to introduce the world to the Chosen One, Jesus Christ. This parallels the role of priests — introducing the lay faithful to Jesus. But Saint Simeon’s life must have been difficult; one of solitude and uncertainty. When you pray this mystery, think of the solitude your parish priest may feel as he works on bringing Jesus to his congregation.

Finally, think of the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus carrying His cross. Jesus was exhausted and close to death as he fell three times and could barely walk. I think priests must feel the same way at times — exhausted by the years of living their vocation. We need to be like Veronica; making an effort to comfort and support the priests we know in our lives. It can be something as simple as inviting a priest you are close to (like the one who married you, baptized your children, etc.) out for coffee or breakfast; something “normal” and relaxing.

What will you do? Stand on the side like so many people did when Jesus carried His cross? Or make an effort to let priests in your life know how important they are and that you appreciate their sacrifices?

The Power of the Pompeii Rosary Novena Part 1

Earlier this month, I finished praying the Pompeii Rosary Novena. It is a 54-day novena split into two halves — 27 days of petition and 27 days of thanksgiving. In other words, it’s six nine-day novenas. Each day, you pray 15 decades. Before Saint Pope John Paul II introduced the Luminous Mysteries, 15 decades meant all the Rosary Mysteries, every day, for 54 days (I’m unclear if we should now pray 20 decades every day). That’s 810 decades in about a two month period.

The Pompeii Rosary Novena was first prayed by Blessed Bartolo Longo in 1874 and he was miraculously cured of typhoid fever. Later, in 1894, a young girl was cured of a terminal disease after praying this novena. There have been numerous, documented cases of healings as a result of this novena. The Pompeii novena is often prayed to ask Our Lady to intercede on behalf of someone sick. Since there are people in my life who need healing, I too turned to Mary through the Pompeii novena.

You Always Have Time

I learned a few things about Rosary prayer during this novena. On the practical side, I learned that I have more opportunities for prayer throughout the day than I thought. When you commit to praying 15 decades every day, you have to be very disciplined and scheduled so you are not left rushing through decades at 11pm.

My schedule typically looked like this. I would wake up early in the morning and say the Joyful Mysteries before getting out of bed. I would aim to have the Sorrowful Mysteries done by early afternoon and finish the day with the Glorious Mysteries. I squeezed in decades while driving, before meals, waiting for my kids to fall asleep, etc. There are so many opportunities for the Rosary if praying it is constantly on your mind.

Talking to God

Because Rosary prayer was constantly on my mind throughout the day, my relationship with God was constantly on my mind too. I was sharing more of my day with God, telling Him the good and the bad as they happened. I asked Him for more help and guidance for the challenging parts of my day and thanked Him for all the good. Instead of waiting to share my day with God in my last few waking moments, praying the Rosary every few hours gave me the opportunity to talk to God as my day unfolded. I was including God in my day in real time instead of running through a highlights clip at night or the next day.

A Spiritual Banquet

Praying all the Rosary mysteries every day was also beneficial. If you think of the Rosary as a balanced spiritual diet, then praying a single set of mysteries each day is only getting you 25% of the necessary vitamin G (God). Now, of course, the Rosary isn’t the only source of daily spirituality. There’s other prayers, meditation, Mass, scripture, etc. But the Rosary is an important part of one’s spiritual diet because it covers so many important Catholic teachings and has so many benefits.

Praying 15 decades (sometimes inserting the Luminous Mysteries too) felt like a more complete daily prayer regiment. It was easier to build on ideas when I visited each mystery every day instead of letting several days pass between mysteries. I really felt like I gained new insights into certain mysteries that I overlooked when I only prayed them twice a week.

Now, many of you might ask the million dollar question — did the Pompeii novena work? Did Mary respond to my petitions? Stay tuned for part 2 on this topic.

How the Rosary Helps Us Avoid “Everlasting Sin”

“’Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.’”

This passage from the Gospel of Mark confused me until recently. We talk about an all loving and merciful God so how can there be an unforgivable sin? How can the God that created everything from nothing not have the capacity to forgive everything? When I was younger, I asked myself, “what if I already committed this unforgivable sin and not know it? Is the rest of my life pointless because God has already told St. Peter to not allow me into Heaven?”

Fortunately, the unforgivable sin doesn’t work like that. This isn’t some sort of gotcha or fine print in Catholic doctrine that God will use to keep you out of Heaven. It’s simply a way of restating that a sin will remain unforgiven if you never ask for forgiveness. This Catholic Exchange article does a good job of breaking down the unforgivable sin into six aspects:

despair
presumption
impenitence
obstinacy
resisting truth
spiritual welfare

Do you notice a common theme in these? As the CE article states:

In every case analyzed above, we can determine that the only way any sin is truly unpardonable is if the person remains unrepentant. The reasons, as we have sorted through, vary from envy to despair. Each is caused by a hardness of heart, which is directly opposed to meekness. Meekness is that beatitude that mollifies and softens what has become calloused by deep, unhealed wounds. Our models for meekness, of course, are Jesus and Mary.

How does the Rosary teach us about meekness and avoiding behaviors that lead to an unforgiven sin? Let’s look at the Fifth Joyful Mystery and the finding of Jesus in the Temple. Mary and Joseph searched for Jesus for three days after losing Him in the caravan. They did whatever they needed to do to find Jesus. We too must do whatever it takes to find Jesus when we lose Him by sinning. We can’t have a hardened heart or the presumption that Jesus is okay with our behavior. We must acknowledge our wrongdoings and come back to Him through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Think about the Second Luminous Mystery of the Rosary and Jesus’ miracle at Cana. We see Jesus’ ability to perform miracles and turn potential disaster (a wedding without booze, oh no!) into overflowing joy. That miracle is a great metaphor for what happens to our souls in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. God, through the Holy Spirit, takes our broken, damaged soul and miraculously transforms it into a pure one filled with hope, joy, and grace. Mary asked Jesus to perform a miracle at Cana. And, whenever we enter that confessional, we ask Him to perform a miracle too.

Next we turn to the Third Glorious Mystery of the Rosary — the descent of the Holy Spirit. Why is a hardened heart such a grave offense? Remember, the Holy Spirit is one part of the Holy Trinity. So rejecting the power and authority of the Holy Spirit is rejecting God. And what’s mortal sin but the total rejection of God? By thinking that God can’t or won’t forgive us, we reject His supremacy over His creation. We are saying that we, the created, are capable of actions that are beyond God’s control. When we pray this Rosary mystery, let’s not only think of the Holy Spirit as our guide but also remember that He’s also God as part of the Holy Trinity.

Finally, the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus’ Crucifixion. There’s actually two things to consider. First, Jesus is so willing to forgive that He asked God to forgive the ones who crucified Him. For most of us, our sins will probably never be as grave as murdering God’s begotten Son. If God can forgive that, He can forgive anything we do.

Also, the criminal crucified next to Jesus simply asked Jesus to remember him. And Jesus proclaimed that the criminal would be with Him in paradise. Again, ask Jesus anything with a meek and humble heart and Jesus will respond.

Okay, now that we’ve talked about the power of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, I’ll end on a more light-hearted note. Here’s a clip from The Simpsons about the limits of God’s power.

Come to Jesus in the Eucharist Prepared

I came across an article about how to best prepare to receive the Eucharist at Mass. I thought it was timely since the pope’s June intention revolves around the idea of fostering respect. I mentioned in my last post how we not only have to respect each other but we also have to respect Jesus Christ. And there is no better way to respect Jesus than receiving Him in the Eucharist in the fullest and most reverent manner possible.

The Catholic Exchange article breaks down Eucharistic preparation into ten items. Please read the article for a full explanation. For the TL;DR crowd, they are:

Practice your faith
Appreciate the gift of the Eucharist
Confess your sins
Do not arrive late to Mass
Show reverence
Have intentions
Participate in the Mass
Keep a Marian heart
Show thanks
Be a Eucharistic apostle

I liked how the CE article made comparisons to the Mass and Eucharist to attending a party or some other social event. Typically, we try not to be late, we thank our hosts, we dress appropriately, and we respect the venue. And yet, many times we don’t extend that same level of courtesy when it comes to receiving Christ in the Eucharist. We sometimes come to Mass late, zone out during the readings and prayers, stand in line at Communion thinking about other things, and receive the Eucharist almost mechanically.

Being respectful isn’t easy. If it were, we would be respectful more often. Respect takes work often at the cost of personal convenience. It’s hard to focus on prayers during Mass, to set aside time on a weekend to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, to continue praying as you walk up the aisle for Communion, and to pray in thanksgiving when you come back to your seat. But if we truly understood that there is literally nothing on Earth more valuable than the Eucharist, we would be horrified to even consider receiving Jesus without making our best effort to prepare ourselves.

Here’s my item #11 to add to the list of Eucharistic preparation. Pray the Rosary regularly. Ask Mary to help increase your faith and understanding of the great gift Her Son offers us. Ask Her how you can most worthily accept Jesus during Communion. Showing faith in the power of the Rosary prepares us for the faith we need to fully accept Jesus in the Eucharist.

The Pope’s June Intention: RESPECT

My wife and I spend a lot of time teaching our boys about respect; respecting adults as well as respecting each other. That usually means lessons about listening, responding, and following directions. When we don’t follow directions and do what is expected of us, we aren’t respecting others. We need to listen and acknowledge what people are saying and can’t ignore them. We need to understand that sometimes people have deadlines and multiple priorities and so we need to show respect by providing our full cooperation.

Pope Francis’ June intention is, “That social networks may work towards that inclusiveness which respects other for their differences.” The key word in the pope’s intention is respect. The easiest way to think about respect is to remember the Golden Rule — treat others as you want to be treated. Or, as Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Respect isn’t only about loving those we see and interact with. We also need to respect Jesus and His Church. We need to listen to Him, talk to Him, and follow His instructions. We can’t say we follow and respect Jesus if we do the opposite of how He asks us to live. By sinning, we are showing disrespect. We are like little kids ignoring our father’s directions.

Even if we’re not committing confessable sins, we still may be disrespecting Jesus by ignoring Him and not responding to His call. Are we talking to Him in prayer? Are we listening to Him? Is our relationship with Jesus something important to us and something we work on maintaining? Respect implies that we acknowledge the importance and authority someone has. How can we call ourselves one of Jesus’ disciples if we don’t routinely and honestly acknowledge His importance to us?

Social Media

In the modern world, much of our communication is online whether it be Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, email, or even just the comments section of web pages. Now ask yourself, what if Jesus was one of your “friends” or “followers” on your social networks and He read your posts? Would you be proud of them? Are you fostering a respectful environment? Note that respectful doesn’t mean always being agreeable or a pushover. It doesn’t mean compromising your values and the values of the Church. But it does mean recognizing that how you treat others is also how you treat Jesus. So if you’re not respecting others online, you’re not respecting our Lord.

The Rosary

There are many rosary mysteries to consider and meditate on when it comes to respect. For example, think about the Descent of the Holy on Pentecost (Third Glorious Mystery) and the role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives. Are you showing God the proper respect by listening to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to guide you in life? Or are you ignoring Him like a disrespectful child? The same can be said about our Mother Mary who reigns as Queen of Heaven which we pray in the Fifth Glorious Mystery. Are we listening to the guidance of our Heavenly Mother and respecting Her authority?

What about respect for Jesus in the Eucharist which we meditate on in the Fifth Luminous Mystery? Are we receiving Him in a worthy state or are we showing him disrespect by receiving Him in a state of mortal sin? And are we truly appreciating the gift which is the Eucharist and thanking God for how lucky we are to receive Him? While we may not have any mortal sins on our soul, receiving the Eucharist without much thought of its preciousness is another sign of disrespect.

Of course, we all falter and sin. We all disrespect Jesus at some point in our lives. But the good news is that Jesus is willing to forgive us and start anew through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Think of Jesus on the cross in the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery. He said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Our Lord was willing to forgive those who killed Him. He will surely forgive us for the times we haven’t respected Him.

In this month of June, let the idea of respect, particularly how you conduct yourself online, be at the forefront of your mind. Show Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and your Heavenly Mother Mary the proper respect they deserve by listening to their guidance and following Jesus’ teachings. You may not always succeed in living how Jesus directs you, but He will be proud of you when you put in the effort.

How God Enables Greatness in Us All

When Jesus ascended into Heaven, the apostles must have felt incredibly scared. This wasn’t the fear they felt when Jesus was arrested and crucified. That fear had passed since experiencing the truth and glory of His resurrection. But they must have been scared knowing that the Church was now in their hands. The apostles were no longer followers, but leaders. They were commissioned to go out and spread Jesus’ teachings to the whole world. But there was a hitch — they weren’t Jesus! They were fishermen, tradesmen, and even a tax collector. They only had two years of on-the-job training with Jesus and they were confused most of the time. How were they going to lead God’s Church as effectively as Jesus?

That’s where the decent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost comes into play. On Pentecost, we see God’s plan coming together for the post Jesus-as-human world. The apostles weren’t left to their own devices but had the Holy Spirit to guide them. I’ve often talked about how one of the greatest gifts of the Holy Spirit is courage. I’m now realizing that part of that boost in courage must come from the reduction in anxiety. When the Holy Spirit came and the apostles were able to speak in any language, that must have been a great confidence builder for them. At Pentecost, the apostles must have realized that it was possible for them to go out and do the seemingly impossible — spread Jesus’ teachings.

Icon of the Pentecost (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What about us? Are we any different from the apostles? They were common people who were able to do uncommon things because they allowed the Holy Spirit to guide them. They weren’t Pharisees, scribes, or other learned people. We, the laity, aren’t priests. But Jesus does not want us to be passive consumers of the Catholic faith and leave the heavy lifting to the priests and nuns. We are called to the same service as the apostles and we have the exact same strength and courage through the Holy Spirit as they had. In other words, we are just as capable of leading God’s Church as the original apostles.

We have to remember that compared to the power of God, all humans are roughly the same. Comparing the greatest saint to the lowest sinner and then comparing them to God is like asking what grain of sand is mightier compared to a mountain. The original apostles did great things, but not because they were superhuman. They would have failed if they were left solely to their own abilities. The apostles succeeded because they had the help of the Holy Spirit. They contributed all their power and ability, and God provided them with the rest (which was probably 99.9% of the overall power needed to spread His Word).

Pope Francis’ May intention is all the more relevant in the light of Pentecost. He asks that the lay faithful may fulfill their specific mission, by responding with creativity to the challenges that face the world today. The pope echoes what Jesus asked of His apostles in the Ascension — do not be passive consumers of the faith. Do not hoard your faith by not sharing it with others. We each have a mission which requires active participation. Be champions of the faith. Embrace it. Listen to the Holy Spirit, and don’t be afraid to follow Him.

What the Rosary Tells Us About Judas’ Betrayal

Because we celebrated the Solemnity of the Ascension on Sunday, many of us didn’t hear the regular readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles was particularly interesting to me. It highlighted the discussions among the apostles on how to fill the vacancy in the apostleship left behind by Judas. This reading provides plenty of rosary meditation ideas.

Here’s a clip from the first reading. You can read it in full here or listen to the audio here.

Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers
—there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons
in the one place —.
He said, “My brothers,
the Scripture had to be fulfilled
which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand
through the mouth of David, concerning Judas,
who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus.
He was numbered among us
and was allotted a share in this ministry.

“For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
May another take his office.

“Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men
who accompanied us the whole time
the Lord Jesus came and went among us,
beginning from the baptism of John
until the day on which he was taken up from us,
become with us a witness to his resurrection.”

The downfall of Judas is interesting to me for many reasons. Judas was someone who was as close to Jesus as anyone could have been. He was in the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples and had an understanding of Jesus teachings no one else had. Remember, the apostles understood Jesus on a different level than everyone else. In Mark 4:11, Jesus said He talked in parables to people because “the knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you [the apostles], but not to them [the people].“ Judas had been given all these graces and yet he threw them away for 30 pieces of silver. Judas exemplifies the inherent weakness of the human spirit; that we willingly give away so much for so little.

We may not be one of the twelve apostles, but we know Jesus through the lens of history and Church teachings. We know the tremendous gifts God offers us and yet we so readily throw them away like Judas did. How? Maybe we skip going to Sunday Mass because we would rather watch a football game or sleep in. We break fasts because that Snickers bar looks way too tempting. We skip prayers because there is something good on TV. We engage in sinful activities substituting happiness through God’s grace with empty pleasures. Whenever we sin, we are like Judas giving away so much in return for so little.

“At least at Mass I could have coffee and donuts afterwards.”

Judas’ story also shows us just how much freedom God gives us. Even as one of the twelve apostles, Judas freely left and betrayed Jesus. We know from the Agony in the Garden how scared Jesus was of his crucifixion. He had all the power to stop Judas if He wanted to. But it was so important to Jesus to let people freely chose to follow or reject Him that He accepted Judas’ choice to betray Him. We never fault Jesus for Judas’ betrayal. And hence, we shouldn’t feel like we have failed when those closest to us turn away from their faith or fall into a life of sin. If Jesus could be betrayed, any one of us can also be.

The Rosary Connection

Think of the Fifth Joyful Mystery and how Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple after they had lost him. We lose Jesus whenever we sin but we return to His grace when we look for and find Him in the Sacrament of Confession. Jesus is always willing to welcome us back. Even Judas could have received forgiveness if he had only looked for it. After all, Peter denied knowing Jesus but returned and was strengthened because he understood Jesus’ ability to forgive him. The Fifth Joyful Mystery should remind us that the choice is always ours on how we want to deal with our sin. Do we want to wallow in it and have it ultimately consume us like it did Judas? Or do we choose to seek God’s forgiveness and return to His grace?

We should also think about those who have their own Judas in their lives — those who have loved ones who chose a life of sin. Think about them when you pray the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery. They have heavy crosses to bear that may not be entirely of their own doing. But it weighs them down all the same. We pray that those who are rejected in favor of sin have the strength to carry on whether that means continuing to reach out and help those who have turned away from God’s path or accepting that sometimes we can’t bring people back from their sinful ways through physical actions. And when I say accept, I don’t mean give up. We should always continue to pray for lost souls because while we may not be able to change their hearts, the Holy Spirit can.

We Pray…

Lord, please forgive us for the times we’ve acted like Judas. Provide strength to those who feel betrayed by those closest to them. Help those who wallow in sin and let them know that they can always choose to return to you through your sacraments. Amen.

Universal – The Treasure of Families

The Rosary Connection

The Rosary Connection

You Always Have Time

Talking to God

A Spiritual Banquet

Social Media

The Rosary

Related articles

The Rosary Connection

We Pray…