Fr. JC Maximilian

[Statue of St. Paul, picture taken by me at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Rome]

Today we begin a joyous chapter in the history of the Church:  The Jubilee Year of St. Paul.

What do we know about St. Paul?  We know that he was a young Pharisee, who studied under one of the great rabbis of the First Century A.D.  We know that he was a man of great zeal and commitment.  At first he directed that zeal at spearheading a violent persecution of the first Christians in Palestine, soon after Jesus crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.  At the height of this first persecution of the Church, while he was on his way to the city of Damascus in Syria to arrest the Christians there, our Lord appear to St. Paul, and that encounter completely changed the direction of St. Paul’s life, and it had a profound impact on the course of world history.  After his encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, St. Paul turned his zeal and commitment towards spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.  He became the great missionary, the Apostle to the Gentiles, who tirelessly traveled throughout the Mediterranean for nearly 30 years, starting Christian communities in city after city.  During this missionary life, St. Paul suffered much all for the sake of preaching the Gospel, and he wrote a major portion of the New Testament.

One of the reasons that Pope Benedict XVI decided to dedicate this year to St. Paul is that the best scholars tells us that St. Paul was born between the years 7 and 10 A.D., so we are celebrating St. Paul’s 2000th birthday.

However, the Holy Father has a deeper reason for promulgating this Jubilee Year.  There is an urgent need to remind all Christians of their most basic identity:  every Christian is meant to be a missionary.  Each of us, by baptism into His Mystical Body, and Confirmed in the power of His Holy Spirit, are called to give our lives for the sake of spreading Christ’s kingdom, just as St. Paul did in a most excellent way at the dawn of the Christian era.

In announcing the Jubilee Year, Pope Benedict said, “Dear brothers and sisters, as in early times, today too Christ needs apostles ready to sacrifice themselves….He needs witnesses and martyrs like St. Paul….  St. Paul did not hesitate to change sides to the Crucified One and follow Him without second thoughts…. He lived and worked for Christ, for Him he suffered and died…. How timely his example is today!”

This Jubilee Year is a time for us to reflect more deeply on what it means to be a Christian, a disciple of Christ Jesus.  It is a time for us to re-commit ourselves to being missionaries, in the footsteps of St. Paul.

What does it means to be a missionary?  Most of us often think of missionaries as people who go to Third World countries to work with the poor, and these are certainly excellent examples of missionaries for Christ Jesus.  However, we can be missionaries right here, in our own families, neighborhoods, State, and nation.  In the world today there are many social trends that go directly against Christian values.  As Christians we can either give in to these trends, or complain about the, or change them.  The missionary thing to do is to whatever we can to change them.

I found a wonderful example of just what I am talking about.  In 2004 Ella Gunderson, an 11-year-old Catholic girl from Seattle, went into Nordstrom’s store to buy a pair of jeans.  She could not find a normal pair of jeans.  Every style was either so loose that they would fall down, or so tight that she would have to wear them so low that they would become provocative, but she did not want to be provocative.  As a Christian, she knew that her body was a temple of the Holy Spirit.  She knew that God intended beauty to be pure, inspiring, and tasteful; not degrading and objectifying.  She had learned these lessons by her involvement in a Catholic girls program called “Pure Fashion.”  Instead of just complaining and whining about the problem, Ella decided to do something about it.  She wrote a public letter of complaint to Nordstrom’s.

Her experience resonated with unvoiced concerns of teenagers and women across the country, who also believed it was possible to be pretty without being provocative.  Ella ended up being interviewed by the Today Show, CNN, and various newspapers and magazines.  The media firestorm motivated Nordstrom’s to create a new category for juniors on their Website called “Modern and Modest.”  It also gave a huge boost to the “Pure Fashion” program, which until then had been quite small.  Now Pure Fashion is training young women in Christian values and organizing fashion shows with teen models in 24 American cities and nine other countries (see www.purefashion.com).

All this resulted from one Catholic teenager who decided not just to complain about a destructive social trend, but to change it.  That’s the mark of a Christian missionary.

All of us are called and equipped by God to be His missionaries; His ambassadors.  If we actively carry out that mission we will find the meaning and fulfillment that we long for.  Being a missionary means being always ready to talk about Christ Jesus and explain the Church’s teaching.  To aide you with that, our parish is has various opportunities for Faith Formation, both for our youth and for our adults.  To be a missionary also means being like Christ, letting His saving goodness shine through the way we live.

In a sense, we all have three mission territories to work in.  First, we are called to be missionaries to our families.  Each and every Christian family should be a mini-church; a place where peace, forgiveness, order and harmony reign.  This takes constant prayer, effort, and sacrifice from both parents and children.  However, the mere effort yields joy, wisdom and fulfillment, even when the results are not perfect.  Anyone who has made an honest effort will testify to this.

Next, we are called to be missionaries at work or school.  We show forth God’s goodness and glory by being the very best and most dependable students, athletes, workers, and professionals that we can be.  God wants us to maximize and develop the various talents that He has give us.

Finally, we are called to be missionaries here in the parish.  A parish is meant to be a lighthouse for its community, a spiritual task force that builds unity, combats evil, and spreads virtue as the sun spreads light.  There are many areas in the parish where you can be a missionary.  The Religious Education Program is looking for volunteer teachers and aides.  I am sure that Michael, our Music Director, would love to hear from you if you are interested in joining the parish choir or to be a cantor.  There is Caring Hearts that provides “neighborly care” to the elderly and homebound.  Just call the parish office or ask one of us priests, and we can point you in a direction that needs missionaries.

As we begin this Jubilee Year of St. Paul, let us ask Christ to show each of us how we can live our mission better, so that at the end of our lives we, like St. Paul, can say:  “I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”

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[”Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem” by Rembrandt van Rijn]     [Jiang Zongxiu, possible martyr, 2004]

“Terror on every side!”  So cried the Prophet Jeremiah in today’s first reading.  The word “terror” has become a fixed part of our modern vocabulary; even if it is an unwelcomed one.  Terror has become a too common tool in the arsenal of people who want to make strong political statements.  This became especially real for many of us after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  The fear that arises from terrorism comes not only from the gravity of the act itself, but also from its unpredictability.  This kind of fear can paralyze us; preventing us from both thinking and acting according to our Christian values.

This kind of fear and intimidation was not a stranger to the Prophet Jeremiah.  He never thought of himself as being well suited for a career as a prophet.  Yet he knew that God had called him to be “a prophet to the nations” from before his birth.  Jeremiah warned his people that God’s judgment was upon them because they had sinned against the covenant they had with God.  Despite the threats and plotting made against him, Jeremiah insisted that the crimes that the people were committing against each other were really crimes against God.  He condemned the military pacts that the king made with neighboring countries, saying that instead Israel should rely on God.  He predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, and thus was labeled a traitor.  He was publicly punished, then was exiled to Egypt, and, according to tradition, was murdered by his fellow Israelites in exile.  Why did Jeremiah not give in to the intimidation and fear?  He tells us, “The Lord is with me.”  Despite his reservations, despite his anxieties, despite his frustrations, Jeremiah placed all his trust in God, and he offered up all his sufferings for God’s greater glory.

Today’s Gospel reading wants to drive this point home.  This passage comes in the middle of Jesus’ instructions to the Apostles as He is preparing to send them on their first missionary journey.  Three times does Jesus tell them not to be afraid.  Jesus does not want fear and intimidation to paralyze the Apostles.  He wants them “proclaim on the housetops” the Good News of God’s Kingdom.    He reminds them not to be afraid of those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, because eternal life in heaven is more important that the passing life of this world.  And the reason that they can have this courage is because His power, His life, is with them.  “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.  But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

The terror and intimidation did not end with Jeremiah, nor with Jesus and the Apostles.  The early Church faced much terror, intimidation and persecution, but it did not end there either.

In 1902 a young Italian girl refused to be intimidated by a man who threatened to kill her because she refused his sexual advances, and he did kill her.  Her courageous witness to Christ, in whom she placed all her trust, had a profound impact on so many people, including her murderer who later turned away from his sinful life, and once out of prison devoted his life to humble service.  In 1950 Pope Pius XII declared that young Italian girl, St. Maria Goretti, and her mother and Alexander Serenelli, the man who murdered her, were present at her canonization.

During the Second World War, a sickly, bookish Polish priest refused to be intimidated by the Nazis, and offered his life in exchange for a fellow prisoner.  St. Maximilian Kolbe was canonized as a martyr of charity.

In June, 2004, a 34 year-old Chinese woman went, with her mother-in-law, to the neighborhood market place where they began to hand out Bibles and talk to people about Jesus Christ.  They were arrested by the Chinese police, interrogated through the night, and condemned the next day.  Sentenced to 15 days in prison for “suspected spreading of rumor and disturbing the social order,” Mrs. Jiang Zongxiu never got to serve that sentence.  The police said that she died, while in custody, of natural causes.  Yet secret sources inside the prison where she was held smuggled out the news that she had really been beaten to death during her interrogation.  All for witnessing to the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Faithfully following Christ and fulfilling our mission as Christians does not guarantee a suffering-free life here on earth - not even in our modern, enlightened world.  But it does guarantee a meaningful life here, and a very warm, everlasting welcome hereafter.

We too are called to be witnesses of the Gospel.  Few of us will face the terror, intimidation, and persecution that the examples above faced in proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ, yet how often are we afraid to tell people about our relationship with Jesus?  How often are we afraid to “rock the boat” when family, friends, groups we belong to, are espousing actions and opinions contrary to our Christian values, so we say nothing?  How often do we take the Lord’s Holy Name in vain when things are not going our way and we are frustrated?

Let me leave you with some words from Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Spe Salvi:

“I would like to add here another brief comment with some relevance for everyday living. There used to be a form of devotion-perhaps less practised today but quite widespread not long ago-that included the idea of “offering up” the minor daily hardships that continually strike at us like irritating “jabs”, thereby giving them a meaning. Of course, there were some exaggerations and perhaps unhealthy applications of this devotion, but we need to ask ourselves whether there may not after all have been something essential and helpful contained within it. What does it mean to offer something up? Those who did so were convinced that they could insert these little annoyances into Christ’s great “com-passion” so that they somehow became part of the treasury of compassion so greatly needed by the human race. In this way, even the small inconveniences of daily life could acquire meaning and contribute to the economy of good and of human love. Maybe we should consider whether it might be judicious to revive this practice ourselves” (Spe Salvi, 40).

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I meant to blog about this two weeks ago; however, I am still not the master blogger.  I have had two rather interesting interactions between Church and State this month.

The first was when I went to vote in the New Jersey Primary, Part II.  In case you are not from NJ, we now have a new and somewhat weird primary set up.  For as long as I can remember, the NJ primary was the first Tuesday of June, following the first Monday.  Thus, this year it fell on June 3.  However, I guess some politicos decided that by having our primary so late in the primary season, NJ was having a lesser impact on the choice of national candidates.  For example, in this year’s Republican presidential race, it was all wrapped up months before the June primary, so the candidates would not have had any reason to really campaign much in NJ.  I believe that this was the first year that NJ moved its presidential primary to February; on Super-Duper Tuesday.  However, it was only the presidential primary that was moved, to give us more of a voice in the selection of presidential candidates, and not the primary for State and local offices.

Now, some people (I am one), do not understand this reasoning.  First, I have to believe that it is more expensive to have two primary elections than one.  In a State that is already too expensive to live in, why waste more money on having two primaries.  Either just have it in February or in June.  Now, which month to have it is another debate.  This year it could be argued that we had less influence on the Democratic Presidential Primary, because, being on Super-Duper Tuesday, the candidates had to divide their time among a lot of States.  I think NJ would have played more influence with its June primary, at least among the Democrats, because of the tight race between Obama and Hillary (please NOTE VERY WELL, I AM NOT endorsing any political party or candidate.  I am just commenting on the effect of the timing of the primary).  Of course, the June primary did not effect the outcome for the Republicans.  Therefore, I do not have a strong opinion for either February or June, just not two.

Now, all of that was basically just rambling.  This June 3, as a dutiful citizen, I went to vote in the largely meaningless primary (I think in both parties there was only one race contested).  But God wanted me to be there to be an instrument of His Grace.  As I was signing in, one of the poll workers said to the worker signing me in, “Ask Father.  He’ll know.”  I said, “Ask me what?” and the woman said, “Father, how would I go about getting baptized.”  We then had a nice discussion about baptism.  Neither she, nor her two children are baptized, and they would all like to enter into the Catholic Church.  I spent time talking to her about it, what it entails (RCIA, etc.), and then left her my card.  It is pretty amazing to think I went into the polling place largely thinking “what a waste of time,” and I left maybe bringing three souls closer to Christ.  God truly works in mysterious yet wonderful ways.  Blessed be His Name!

The next day I received some exciting news.  I have been invited by the Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives to be a guest chaplain, leading the opening prayer for the House on July 16 (about 10 a.m. EST).  Over 26 years ago I worked as a Congressional Page in the U.S. House of Representatives.  It was an incredible learning experience.  My family has been friends with our congressman, Rep. Christopher Smith, since before he was in Congress (mom worked as his office manager here in the district after he was elected, and now my sister works for him as a case worker).  For over a year, his aide has been working at getting me the invitation.  I am pretty excited.  I need to start working on my prayer.  It has to be short (no more than 150 words), and not directly address political matters.  I have an idea or two floating about my head.  Of course I will post the prayer on my blog.

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[Filippino Lippi, Madonna with Child, St Anthony of Padua and a Friar, before 1480 — Tempera on wood, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.  Some readers may be wondering why I have entitled this homily as for “the Solemnity of St. Anthony of Padua,” since in every Ordo and Catholic calendar it is listed as a memorial.  One of the benefits of being at a merged parish with a hyphenated name is that we get to celebrate two solemnities for our co-patrons.]

Today our parish celebrates the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, one of the co-patron’s of our parish.  Maybe one of the first questions that comes to mind is “Who was St. Anthony of Padua?”  One of the first surprises we learn about St. Anthony is that he was not Italian and not from Padua.  St. Anthony was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1195.  He was ordained a priest for the Augustinian Order at age 24, but after seeing the bodies of the newly formed Franciscans who had been martyred in Africa preaching to the Moors, he joined the Franciscans with the hope of becoming a martyr.  His missionary days in Morocco did not last very long, because of his poor health.  His superiors called him to Italy, where he became the first Franciscan to teach theology to his brothers in the Order.  St. Anthony was known to be an extraordinary preacher.  There is one story of his attending an ordination at a monastery when it was discovered that they had forgotten to pick someone to give the homily.  They asked St. Anthony, without any preparation, to give the homily, and all in attendance were amazed at the words, filled with the Holy Spirit, which came from his mouth.  His preaching demonstrated his great learning, but also his great gentleness.  Sadly, his health was never very good, and at the age of 36 he died in Padua, Italy in 1231.

Who is St. Anthony of Padua?  What I have already said tells us something about the facts of his life, and while this is a good starting point, just knowing facts about a person does not allow us to really know the person.  To know the person we must enter into a relationship with the person, and as we enter into a relationship with St. Anthony we see that the primary relationship in his life was his relationship with God.  This relationship with the Infinite Mystery defined his “I”, the very core of his being.

St. Anthony, a profound Scripture scholar, allowed his entire being to be formed by the Word of God.  In truth he could say, with the Prophet Isaiah, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me….”  While he had his own plans and ambitions for his life, he always submitted them to the will of God.  He wanted to preach to the Moors in Africa and to die a martyr.  God called him to preach to Christians, mostly in France and Italy, including his only confreres in the Franciscans, and to die not a martyr’s death, but one filled with illness.  Yet in it all, St. Anthony took great joy in giving glory to God.

In one of his homilies, St. Anthony proclaimed, “The man who is filled with the Holy Spirit speaks in different languages.  These different languages are different ways of witnessing to Christ, such as humility, poverty, patience, and obedience; we speak in those languages when we reveal in ourselves these virtues to others.  Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak.”

As Jesus sent out the seventy-two other disciples in today’s Gospel, so He continues to send out His disciples to proclaim to entire world, “The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.”  As the Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, where heard in many languages, so may we witness to Christ Jesus in the different languages that St. Anthony spoke of; the languages of humility, poverty, patience, charity and obedience by practicing these virtues in our lives.

We pray through the intercession of St. Anthony that all the members of our parish will be strengthened in their faith and filled with zeal for living our Christian vocations.

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[The Calling of Saint Matthew, by Caravaggio. 1599-1600. Oil on canvas, 322 x 340 cm. In the Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome.]

Often it is in a hospital room, doctor’s office, or maybe even on the battlefield, but the situation that the Prophet Hosea describes in today’s first reading is a fairly common one, “In their affliction, people will say: ‘Let us know, let us strive to know the Lord….’” In other words, when the going get tough people turn to prayer. The prophet seems to think little of such conversions that are born out of crisis.

Of course the prophet is not saying that we should not turn to the Lord in our times of need, but he is warning the people that they need to really get to know the Lord if they want to know the salvation and peace that He offers them. In a sense the Prophet Hosea is saying that we cannot treat God as some kind of vending machine where we just say a certain number or kind of prayers and God will give us whatever we pray for. This is why he is so critical of the Chosen People; “Your piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away…. For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts.”

It is rather common when visiting someone who is sick, or is going through some other kind of crisis, to hear them say something to the effect of, “Father, I have been praying the Rosary everyday for the past month, but it still does not seem as if God is listening to me.” Or we get the down right silly; “Father, we have been trying to sell our house now for months. We buried St. Joseph upside down just as the kit said, but he does not seem to be working. Is there something you can do?”

So just for the record: I am not some kind of sorcerer. I did not attend Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and while I sometimes pray in Latin, I do not do any kind of incantations and have no magic wand. I am a Catholic Priest. I studied at a seminary so that I could learn more about God — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We call that theology. More importantly I have entered into a deeply personal relationship with God, and because of the special nature of my relationship with God, the Holy Spirit, through the anointing and laying of hands by the bishop, has left a permanent mark on my soul that gives me the grace to be able to act “in persona Christi capitas”, in the person of Christ the Head.

I say all this because too often, many people treat our Christian faith as some kind of magic. They think if they “do and say” the right things, or get the priest to “do and say” the right things, they will magically get what they want. This is the kind of thinking of the people who neighbored Israel at the time of the Prophet Hosea, which the Chosen People too often imitated. God was not someone that they entered into a personal relationship with, but just a ritual duty that they attended to at the proper time, or when they were in need.

Our readings this weekend make it very clear that this is not the faith that God calls us to, in fact it is not really any kind of authentic faith at all. God loves us in an intimately personal way. He wants to fulfill the deepest desires of every human heart, and He knows what will lead us to true and ultimate happiness. However, as a loving, personal God, He will not force Himself on us. We need to freely embrace Him and enter into the relationship that God invites us to.

This is what St. Paul is saying in today’s second reading from his letter to the Romans. He holds up the example of Abraham, our father in faith, who had such a personal relationship with the God who called him, that Abraham accepted as true what God promised him — namely descendants — even though from a strictly natural perspective he and his wife, Sarah, were well beyond the child bearing age. Abraham, through his personal relationship with God, knew that he could trust God. He had faith in God, and thus he was obedient to God.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus recognizes a deep need and longing in Matthew’s, the tax collector, heart. Matthew, while despised by his own people, seemed to be living the good life. He had a lot of money, and a lot of power in that town. People feared him, even if they did not respect him. He had friends and was never wanting for a good party to attend. Yet deep down, there was a hunger in Matthew. All of his money, material possessions, friends and power where attempts to satisfy this deep hunger in Matthew’s heart, and they did succeed to a certain extent in distracting him from the deep desire of his heart, but they did not really fulfill this deep desire. Jesus in passing by recognized this deep longing in Matthew. The Gospel says that Jesus “saw” Matthew sitting at his post. When Jesus “sees” a person He sees their heart; the very core essence of their being. Jesus sees everything about the person; seeing them in a way that they have never been seen before. And in His compassion, in His love, Jesus says to Matthew “Follow me.” Jesus does not call Matthew to do a better job at following the Law of Moses, or even just the Ten Commandments. No, Jesus calls Matthew to Himself, to follow HIM!

A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ, the Risen One, the ever-living God and Lord of Life and history. To be a Christian means more than following some rules. To be a Christian means following a person, Jesus Christ. Christianity is a relationship, a friendship with the one true God who has become Man in order to take our hands and lead us to everlasting meaning and life.

There is a famous painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio who lived in the 16th and 17th century, entitled “The Call of St. Matthew.” Matthew is seated at his post with a few friends around him, and Jesus is pointing towards him, calling him, and Matthew is pointing to himself as if saying, “Who? You want me?” One of the things that I love about this painting is that while Jesus is clothed in the garb common for a Jew of the 1st century living in Palestine, Matthew is dressed as someone from 16th or 17th century Italy. In this painting Caravaggio is not expressing the merely historical fact that Jesus called Matthew the tax collector. No, Caravaggio is expressing the fact as an encounter in the present reality. Jesus continues to see the heart of each and every one of us. Jesus sees past the distractions and addictions in our lives that we try to use to keep us from recognizing the deep desire of our heart. Jesus sees the real us, and He calls us.

How do we respond to this encounter with Jesus and His invitation to follow Him? After his life-changing encounter with Jesus, St. Matthew threw a dinner party, inviting all of his friends to meet this man who changed his life; who truly fulfilled the desire of his heart. St. Matthew did not keep his encounter with Jesus as a “me-and-Jesus” thing. He started to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with everyone, even if he did not fully understand all the “teachings” of Jesus. Having encountered Jesus’ love, Matthew wanted to share that loving relationship with everyone.

Wow! What a novel idea, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ in the context of a meal. Wait a minute! That’s what we do at each and every Mass. At the Mass we do not merely hear words about Jesus, we hear Jesus — the Word of God. We encounter Jesus in a deeply personal way, by receiving His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, and we encounter Him in the midst of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Actually we encounter Him as part of His Mystical Body. How awesome is that?

Then why do so many people seem to treat the Mass as something they cannot wait to be over? What do you have happening in your lives that is better than Jesus Christ, that you have to rush to your cars before the priest has even made it down the aisle at the end of Mass?

Jesus is calling you — YES YOU — to follow Him. Will you accept His invitation and enter into His Joy?

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In hundreds, if not thousands of cities and villages throughout the world people are taking to the streets.  Why?  Our brothers and sisters in Christ are walking the streets of the world in the solemn processions of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

Actually in most of the world they took to the streets this past Thursday, but for us in the United States, we have moved this most important of Solemnities to Sunday.  One of the reasons why the Bishops asked permission to move Corpus Christi to the Sunday following the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, was so that more Catholics in the United States could celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.  So why are we not taking to the streets in a solemn procession with the Blessed Sacrament?

The sad reality is that over two-thirds of all Catholics in the United States do not even understand what the Eucharist is.  Many Catholics in our country think of the Eucharist as being merely a symbol; some think of it as a symbol of our fellowship with one another, while others see it as a symbol of Christ’s presence.  This is the way that most non-Catholics think about the Eucharist; that it is just a symbol and not the real thing.

A symbol just points to a reality, but it is not the reality itself.  The Exit 64 sign on Route 295 South that says “Mercerville” is not really Mercerville, but just points you towards Mercerville.  The Paschal lamb in the Old Testament did not really take away the sins of the world, but just pointed towards the real lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, Jesus Christ.
As Catholics we know, or we should know, that Christ is NOT just SYMBOLICALLY present in the Eucharist.  Rather He IS TRULY, REALLY present.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it this way, “In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (CCC #1374).  This is why St. Paul, in today’s second reading, calls Holy Communion a “participation” in the body and blood of Christ.  And if it still was not clear, the Church gives us the passage from the Gospel of St. John where Jesus Himself says SIX TIMES in just seven verses that His flesh is real food and His blood is real drink.

While it is most fitting that we give adoration to the Eucharist, the readings today have a the theme of eating this Bread from Heaven.  Clearly the Church wants us to think about eating the Eucharist as we celebrate today the gift of the Body and Blood of Christ.  “The readings also suggest three conditions for eating this heavenly bread.  It is to be continual, corporate, and contrite” (J.J. Hughes, Proclaiming the Good News: Homilies for the ‘A’ Cycle, Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., p. 95).

In today’s first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people how for forty years the Lord directed their journey through the desert and provided for them by giving them manna, the heavenly bread.  Let us call to mind that the Lord commanded the people to gather up each day only enough manna to meet their needs for that day; except for the day before the Sabbath.  If they kept it over night, it spoiled.  In making it impossible to hoard the manna, God was reminding the people that they could only live by God’s bountiful love, and not from their own resources.

This same principle applies to the true Bread come down from Heaven, the Eucharist.  We are called to receive the food of the Eucharist continually, NOT because God’s gift is limited, but rather because our capacity to receive God’s gift is limited.  Our coming continually to the Holy Communion reminds us of our dependence upon God.  The Eucharist, as the non-bloody re-presentation of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, is what saves us from our sins and offers us the gift of eternal life; not anything that we can do on our own.  “Those who come infrequently to the Lord’s table, or not at all, are depriving themselves of food they need to nourish the divine life given to each of us at Baptism” (J.J. Hughes, Proclaiming the Good News: Homilies for the ‘A’ Cycle, Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., p. 96).

The reception of the Eucharist is a corporate action, not a purely private affair as too many Catholics today believe.  Our second reading today, from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, makes it clear that the reception of Holy Communion is not something between the individual Christian and God alone.  St. Paul writes, “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”  Unlike ordinary food, which when eaten is digested to become part of our body, when we eat the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus we are converted, transformed into what we eat — the Mystical Body of Christ — and the more continuously we partake of Holy Communion, the more complete our transformation in Christ becomes.

This corporate dimension is expressed in several ways, liturgically, as we receive the Eucharist.  First, as we approach the Eucharist we are suppose to make a common gesture of reverence to the Eucharist.  The Bishops in the United States have decided that in this country the common gesture is a bow of the head.  We then say “AMEN” when the minister says “The Body of Christ” or “The Blood of Christ.”  Amen is a Hebrew word that is never translated to show our oneness with Christ and with one another.  We should never substitute “so be it” or “I do believe” or some other phrase for the “Amen” we say right before receiving Holy Communion.

We then should reverently receive Holy Communion.  It saddens me to say this, but too many of you do not show proper reverence for the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.  Too many come up to receive Holy Communion with dirty hands.  Too many do not say “Amen,” and they do not properly prepare to receive Holy Communion.  The universal manner for receive Holy Communion is, after saying “Amen,” to humbly open one’s mouth to be fed by Christ.  In this country we have received permission to have the option of receiving Communion in our hands, but it MUST be done with reverence.  One is suppose to form an altar with one’s hands, holding them up — at least at chest level — like this [demonstrate the proper way].

Finally, in today’s Gospel reading Jesus says, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”

As with ordinary food, our capacity to benefit from the nourishment it contains depends on our physical condition when we eat it.  If we are sick with an illness of the digestive system, we will not fully benefit from a hearty meal.  Likewise, if we are sick spiritually we cannot benefit from receiving the Lord’s Body and Blood.  To be spiritually healthy means that we come to the Lord’s Table with a CONTRITE heart.  We should come to receive the Eucharist with the words of the Centurion still on our lips, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you….”  We should approach Holy Communion seeking from God not a reward, but rather His mercy.

The Eucharist has an unlimited capacity to give nourishment; however our capacity to receive nourishment from the gift of Christ’s Body and Blood is limited by our consciousness of our need, by our sorrow for our sins, and by our longing for God’s healing and strengthening love.

“These are the three conditions imposed by the Lord, who gives us the Eucharist, upon our eating of it.  We must receive this heavenly bread continually, conscious of our permanent dependence on God; corporately, rejoicing in our fellowship with all who share this sacred meal with us; and contritely, acknowledging our unworthiness and seeking God’s loving mercy” (J.J. Hughes, Proclaiming the Good News: Homilies for the ‘A’ Cycle, Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., p. 97).

If we fulfill these three conditions for worthy reception of Holy Communion, then the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel are fulfilled; “whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

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Today we celebrate Pentecost, the third holiest celebration of our Christian Faith. We know that it is a day when we wear red at Mass, and for remembering of the great event of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples in the upper room. We see this gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate promised by Christ at His Ascension, as the manifestation of the Church. While we remember all those things that we learned in our religious education class, have we really taken the time to ponder the meaning and significance of Pentecost?

First, on what can we base our reflections on the Holy Spirit? In speaking of God the Father, we can base our reflections in some measure on philosophy; He is the Unmoved Mover, or the First Cause. In speaking about God the Son, we can base ourselves on history; even non-Christians recognize the historical reality that at a particularly time and place in history Jesus of Nazareth lived. But what means do we have at our disposal for speaking about the Holy Spirit? None, other than Sacred Scripture, and “spiritual experience”. Jesus tells us Himself that of the Spirit the world, “neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you” (John 14:17). By spiritual experience I do not mean only our own personal experience, though that is a good starting place. Rather I mean also the experience of the Holy Spirit in the Church throughout history, which is nothing other than what we call Sacred Tradition. Sacred Tradition is infallibly the Word of God, as is Sacred Scripture. They are the two wings of the Dove of God’s Revelation.

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit could have manifested Himself in many ways. In our first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles we hear that the Spirit manifested Himself as a “driving wind” and as “tongues as of fire”. However, St. Luke in his account of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles places great emphasis on the phenomenon of the Apostles speaking in different tongues. Why? This is not the well-known speaking in unknown tongues during a prayer assembly, which St. Paul tells us must always be followed by its interpretation by someone else. Clearly in the Pentecost account there was no need for this “interpretation” because “each one heard them speaking in his own language.”

The constant response of the tradition of the Church has been that St. Luke wanted to create a tacit contrast between what happened in the construction of the tower of Babel and what takes place now at Pentecost. In fact, in the expanded, optional Pentecost Vigil, the account of Babel is one of the readings. The relationship between Babel and Pentecost is one that contains both an element of similarity, and one of contrast. The element of similarity or affinity is that both the Tower of Babel and Pentecost involved a project of unity among all people, made possible and manifested by the unity of language. In Genesis we are told that all the people of the earth “spoke the same language” (Genesis 11:1) when they came together to build the tower. On the day of Pentecost each person hears the apostles “speaking in his own language” (Acts 2:6).

The element of contrast consists in the type of unity pursued, and this makes a big difference. At Babel it is a human unity; decided by human beings and having the goal of obtaining glory for human beings. Note that in the Genesis account the people do not offer their work to make a name for God or to give Him Glory, rather they say, “Let us make a name for ourselves!” (Genesis 11:4). The project at Babel is one seeking power and fame, and born out of arrogance. In contrast, on the day of Pentecost, the people hear the apostles speaking in their native language “of the mighty acts of God” (Acts 2:11). The apostles are not raising a monument to themselves but to God.

The difference is what is at the center. Is it a unity according to the flesh, or is it a unity according to the Spirit? Today when we hear the word “universal” we tend just to think about something that pertains to everyone, and that is true, but it forgets an element of the real meaning of that word. The original meaning of the word “universal” was “that which is turned towards the one” (from the Latin, uni = “one” and versum = “turn towards”). This is important for us to keep in mind, for the Church is universal not only when it aims to reach “the ends of the earth” but also when it draws all the ends of the earth towards its center which is the head of the body, the risen Christ Jesus.

Where is our center? This is the essential question for us to ask ourselves today? Do we think that our salvation lies within our own power? Are we like the arrogantly pious builders at Babel who know God but do not render Him the glory and thanks due Him? Do we seek mostly to make a name for ourselves? Or do we exercise the most necessary virtue of humility by accepting that all is from God; that He alone saves us and offers us redemption. Do we put God as the center of our lives so that in Him we live, and move, and have our being? Do we proclaim with our lives the mighty works of God?

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy Faithful; and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

[This homily was inspired by Chapter 1 of The Mystery of Pentecost by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, “‘And They Began to Speak in Different Tongues’: The Lukan Pentecost and the Spirit of Unity.” Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2001.]

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“Spe Salvi:  Saved in Hope”
A Presentation to the Hamilton Council of the Knights of Columbus
On the Pope’s Recent Encyclical”
April 28, 2008
Fr. John C. Garrett

In October 2000, I had the privilege of being in Rome for the canonization of St. Katharine Drexel.  There were several persons raised to the Altar of the Saints that day; one of them being St. Josephine Bakhita.

St. Josephine was born in the Sudan, and at the age of 9 she was kidnapped into slavery.  As a slave, she was beaten regularly.  Throughout her entire life she bore 144 scars left from the many times that she was flogged.  Five times she was sold in the slave-markets of Sudan.

In 1882, when she was about 13, she was bought by an Italian merchant for the consul Callisto Legnani, who then took Josephine back with him to Italy.  It was then that she came to know a completely different kind of “master,” and I do not mean Mr. Legnani, who did treat her kindly.  No, Josephine learned about the “master” above all masters; the living God, who was goodness in person.  She came to know that this “master,” the Lord, knew her and loved her.  She came to know that this Lord had been flogged like her, and now awaited her at His Father’s right hand.

In fact, she came to more than just know about Jesus; rather she encountered Him through His disciples, His Church.  From her encounter with Jesus, Josephine came to have hope.  Not just a hope to have a less cruel master, but the great hope.  In her own words, “I am definitely loved, and whatever happens to me — I am awaited by this Love.  And so my life is good.”

In 1890 Josephine was baptized, and in 1896 she took vows as a Canossian Sister.  In addition to working in the sacristy and as the porter, Sr. Josephine promoted the missions, “the liberation that she had received through her encounter with the God of Jesus Christ, she felt she had to extend, it had to be handed on to others, to the greatest possible number of people” (Spe Salvi #3).

Now you might be wondering what does this story about St. Josephine Bakhita have to do with the topic of tonight’s talk, Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Spe Salvi, which is translated, Saved in Hope.  I started with this personal connection to St. Josephine Bakhita because His Holiness holds her up in his encyclical as an example of true Christian hope.

What is hope?  The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes hope as, “the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (CCC #1817).  In developing a deeper understanding of this definition of hope, the Holy Father starts by presenting an analysis demonstrating how throughout much of the Sacred Scriptures, particularly in the New Testament, the word “hope” is often used interchangeably with the word “faith.”  I will not go through all the examples of this from the New Testament that the Holy Father uses to show this — you will have to read the encyclical for that — rather I just want to emphasize the importance of this point.  For many people in our world the word “hope” is equated with the idea of a wish for a better future, but largely cut off from any connection to the present reality of their lives.  The Christian concept of hope is much different.  While certainly looking towards the future, it is not focused on just the “not yet.”  Certainly the Kingdom of Heaven will not come to completion until the end of time, as Christians we are called to start building up the Kingdom of Heaven here and now.  Our faith in Jesus Christ draws the future into the present, so that the present is actually changed.  Life itself is given a new basis.  If we really have hope, we live our lives differently.  As the Holy Father says in the encyclical, “Here too we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future:  it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness.  Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well” (Spe Salvi #2).

What is Christian hope?  It is to come to know God, the true God.  St. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians says that before they encounter Christ Jesus, through his preaching, they were without hope because they were without God in the world.  Christianity is not a message calling for some kind of social revolution.  Rather Christianity is an encounter with the Lord of Lords, the living God, or the Master above all the other “masters” as St. Josephine Bakhita discovered.

A point emphasized by the Pope is that our encounter with Christ is both informative and performative.  By this His Holiness means that it is not sufficient to know a lot of facts about the Church.  It does not matter if one has memorized a bunch of the doctrines of the Church.  What is essential — that is pertaining to the core or heart of the matter — is the encounter that changes how we now live our lives.  It is not necessarily a changing in “what we are doing” but a change in “how and with what attitude we are doing it.”  As Christians, that is as a person who has encountered the Risen Christ and has formed a relationship with Him, we live as pilgrims:  living in the here and now, the particular circumstances of our lives, while always remembering that our true homeland is heaven.

Why is this encounter with Christ Jesus so profound?  The Holy Father uses two images found on ancient Christian tombs to explain this.  The first image is that of the philosopher, represented on the tombs as Jesus holding a staff and a scroll.  When we think of an image of a philosopher today, we probably think of the stereotypical “absent-minded professor” who seems to be lost in the world of ideas and out of touch with the practical reality of normal life.  This is not the idea of the philosopher in the ancient world.  The philosopher was someone who taught the essential art, the art of living and dying, the art of being authentically human.  The philosopher was seen as a person who really knew what life was all about.  The early Christians clearly saw Jesus as someone who really knew what life was all about, and took seriously His promise, “I have come that you might have life, life to the full.”

The other image from the ancient Christian tombs is one one more familiar to us; Christ as a Shepherd. The image of the shepherd recalls for us the dream of a tranquil and simple life.  In the words of the Holy Father, “The true shepherd is one who knows even the path that passes through the valley of death; one who walks with me even on the path of final solitude, where no one can accompany me, guiding me through:  he himself has walked this path, he has descended into the kingdom of death, he has conquered death, and he has returned to accompany us now and to give us the certainty that, together with him, we can find a way through.  The realization that there is One who even in death accompanies me, and with his ‘rod and staff comforts me’, so that ‘I fear no evil’ (cf Ps. 23 [22]:4) — this was the new ‘hope’ that arose over the life of believers” (Spe Salvi #6).

The Holy Father asks each of us a fundamental question:  Is the Christian faith for us today a life-changing and life-sustaining hope?  Does it change the shape of our lives?

The Pope then uses the example of the Baptismal Rite as means for exploring this issue.  In the Rite of Baptism, the priest or deacon should meet the child to be baptized with their parents at the door of the church.  Then, after asking the name given to the child, the priest asks, “What do you ask of God’s Church for this child?”  One of the responses that the parents can give is “Faith”, and then the priest asks, “What does faith give you?” and the parents respond “Eternal life.”  This is what baptism is really all about.  It is not just an act of socialization within the community.  It is about receiving the gift of Faith, which is oriented towards Eternal life.

Perhaps the reason so many people seem to reject the Faith today is because they are not attracted to the prospect of eternal life.  The Pope points out that this is due to confusing eternal life with living this life forever.  What we call “life” in everyday language is not real “life.”  Ultimately we do not know what the reality of the blessed life is really like, but there is a knowing in our not knowing.  We know that this blessed life exists because we desire it.  “We do not know what we would really like; we do not know this ‘true life’, and yet we know that there must be something we do not know towards which we feel driven” (Spe Salvi #11).  We want a true life, untouched by death.  This unknown “thing” is the true “hope” which drives us.  It can cause despair if in our pride we are not patient with our not knowing.  The Holy Father describes eternal life as “To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality” (Spe Salvi #12).

The Holy Father then turns to an analysis of the modern world’s critique and deformation of Christian hope.  The most common critique of the Christian concept of hope is that it involves an abandoning of the world to its misery, in order to take refuge in a private form of salvation.  Christian hope is portrayed as being individualistic.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  Sin was understood by the early Church Fathers as the destruction of the unity of the human race.  They understood redemption and salvation as the re-establishment of the unity.  In fact the word “community” comes from the Latin “com” which means “with” and “unitas” which means “oneness.”  Thus the redemption and salvation that Jesus won for us begins to take shape in the world through the community of believers, which we call the Church.

It is rather interesting that this critique that the modern world makes of Christian hope — that it is individualistic — really stems from its own deformation of Christian hope.  The basis of the modern age is the correlation of experiment and method to arrive at an interpretation of nature in conformity with its laws.  Everyone can see that Man’s dominion over the world has become disorder (as Christians we would say it is because of the Fall), and up until the modern age it was expected that what was lost by the Fall would be recovered (redeemed) by faith in Jesus Christ.  However, with the modern age came the idea that redemption/recovery of the lost unity and dominion will only come through scientific discovery that is put into practice (what we might call a short definition of “technology”).  In doing this, religious faith is not denied explicitly, rather it is just made a purely private matter that is irrelevant for the world.  Hope becomes “faith in progress.”  Just consider the example of all the “promises” made on behalf of embryonic stem cell research — if only the religious fanatics would stop bringing their religious faith into the public square we are promised we will have cures for all the worse diseases in the world.  They rather not be bothered by the “inconvenient truth” that other, more ethical means that respect the dignity of the human person are available, and have already demonstrated to be more useful than stem cells from embryos.

This “progress” which we are now expected to put our faith in is the growing dominion of “scientific” reason.  Progress is the overcoming of all forms of dependency so that we can achieve “perfect” freedom.  Both “freedom” and “reason” are seen by the modern world as being in conflict with religious faith.  This “faith in progress” develops not just in natural science but in political “science” that calls for new structures of society that will lead to freedom; i.e. communism.

Pope Benedict asks what does this progress really mean?  Certainly scientific and technological progress offers new possibilities for good, but they also offer possibilities for evil; e.g., nuclear weapons, the “Final Solution” that attempted to rid the world of those races that were “scientifically” seen as inferior.  Clearly these scientific and technological developments need to be checked with ethical development.  Moral growth is also needed.  We need a criterion of measurement in order to tell good from evil, and when we look at every human criteria all are found lacking.  Something infinitely Good, True, and Beautiful is needed.  We discover that Man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope for discovering the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.  Faith and reason are not in conflict with each other, rather they need each other in order for each to fulfill their mission.

Incremental progress is only possible in the material sphere.  While we can build on the moral treasury of the past, moral decision making is always new and free.  Science can help, but it cannot redeem Man.  Man is redeemed by Love, which implies a relationship, and unconditional Love provides true certainty in life.  An honest looking at our relationships with other people shows us that they cannot provide this unconditional love we need for certainty.  No matter how hard people try, we human beings are all finite.  Hope can only be founded on our relationship with He who is Goodness itself, Truth itself, Beauty itself.  Hope is our relationship with He who is the source of life; God, who embraces the totality of Reality.  “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

Finally the Holy Father discusses several settings for learning and practicing hope.  Unsurprisingly, the first setting is prayer.  St. Augustine once said that “prayer is the exercise of desire.”  Man was created for God, however our hearts are too small for the greatness to which they are destined.  God stretches our hearts.  God always listens to us even when others do not.  Prayer is not a stepping out of history into a private happiness.  Rather it must be incarnate, it must be rooted in our time and place.  While prayer is personal, an encounter with God, yet it is guided by the public, liturgical prayer of the whole Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ.

Another setting for learning about and practicing hope is action and suffering.  While we cannot “build” the kingdom of God by our own efforts, we can receive the grace of God’s Kingdom.  We must open ourselves to allow God to enter us.  We must open ourselves to truth, love, beauty and goodness so that we will do God’s will.  While we should do what we can to banish suffering, we must have the humility to recognize that it is not within our power to completely banish suffering.  By accepting our finiteness we open ourselves to God’s infiniteness.  “The true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer….  A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear it inwardly through ‘com-passion’ is a cruel and inhuman society” (Spe Salvi #38).

Allow me to end with the invocation that the Holy Father ends the encyclical, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, our Mother, teach us to believe, to hope, to love with you.  Show us the way to his Kingdom! Star of the Sea, shine upon us  and guide us on our way!” (Spe Salvi #50).

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St. Peter tells us, in our second reading today, to “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope….”  How many of us are truly ready to do just that?  A good starting point for answering this question is looking at what do we, as Christians, mean when we use the word “hope.”  Fortunately for us, Pope Benedict XVI recently wrote a beautiful encyclical that is all about hope; in fact it is entitled, Spe Salvi, which is translated “Saved in Hope.”

For many people hope is little more than a wish for a better future.  It tends to be rather abstract and “pie-in-the-sky.”  Hope is not seen as something that has anything to do with present reality.  As Christians, we have more solid understanding of the virtue of hope.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes hope as, “the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (CCC #1817).  A quick reading of this definition of the virtue of hope might lead some of us to conclude that it is just a fancier way of saying that it is a wish for a better future.  There is no denying that there is an element of looking to the future in Christian Hope, but there is much more to it.  Hope is the desire for the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness.  This is not just a desire for something only in the future, but a desire for something NOW.  While the kingdom of heaven will not be complete until the end of time, it is the desire of every person who takes serious their Christian faith to desire the building up of the kingdom of heaven now.

This is one of the reasons why in Scripture the words faith and hope are often used almost interchangeably.  Faith and hope is not just about the “not yet.”  Rather they draw the future into the present, so as to change the way we live in the present.  Our faith in Jesus gives life a new basis; He reveals to us what life is really all about.  One of the first images of Christ to appear on Christian tombs had Jesus carrying a philosopher staff.  For the people of that time, a philosopher was someone who teaches the art of being authentically human, both in living and in dying.  Christian faith and hope is lived because Christ Jesus has communicated the substance of what true life is.  As He says in the Gospel, “I have come that you might have life, life to the full.”

In his encyclical, Pope Benedict uses the sacrament of Baptism as an example for learning about hope.  The sacrament of Baptism actually begins outside the church; the parents and the child should be met at the door of the church as a sign that the child is not yet a member of the Church.  After asking the parents what name do they give their child, they are asked “What do you ask of God’s Church for your child?”  Now there are several acceptable answers to this question such as “baptism,” “entrance into the Church,” etc., but one of the better answers is “Faith.”  In the old rite of baptism the priest would then ask, “What does faith give you?” and the parents would answer, “Eternal Life.”  Right in that simple exchange we see the connection between faith and hope; Faith in the Lord Jesus points to Eternal Life.  It also points to the nature of this faith and hope.  The child is obviously not able to understand a bunch of doctrines and dogmas; in fact the parents and godparents have to say the Creed for the child.  So faith is not primarily about knowing a group of facts.  Faith, and hope, is about having an encounter with God, and encounter with Jesus Christ who loves us and has saved us.  It is Jesus, through His Passion, Death and Resurrection, who has redeemed us so that we can share in eternal life.  While their parents, and hopefully their godparents, will teach the newly baptized child their prayers and the basic “facts” or doctrines of the faith, their real responsibility is to witness a living, loving relationship with Christ Jesus in their own lives so that their child will also desire a living, loving relationship with Christ Jesus.

So what is this hope that we should always be ready to give an explanation of?  St. Paul, in writing to the Ephesians says that they were without hope because they were without God in the world.  As Pope Benedict says in his encyclical, hope for the Christian is to come to know God.  Hope is a relationship with God who is Beauty, who is Truth, who is Love.  Hope is a relationship with God who is the source of life.  The unconditional love of God is what gives us the certainty that we need in life.  As St. Paul says in the Letter to the Romans, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).  How do we give an explanation to anyone who asks us for a reason for our hope?  By witnessing in our lives our relationship of love with Christ Jesus which calls us to love our brothers and sisters with His love.

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