Saturday, June 11, 2022
Saturday after Pentecost-Ember Day
SAINT BARNABAS
Jonah, Chapter 1,
verse 9-10:
9 “I
am a Hebrew,” he replied; “I FEAR the LORD, the God of heaven, who made
the sea and the dry land.”
10Now the men were seized with great fear and said to him, “How
could you do such a thing!”—They knew that he was fleeing from the LORD,
because he had told them.
Jonah as wise as he was tried to flee the Lord, are we
any wiser. We often choose the wrong path. Jonah was motivated but not by love.
He wanted justice and not mercy for Nineveh. Pope Francis in a dispute recently
stated that mercy is greater than justice when confronted with the sins of
mankind and the churches stance. Our Lord desires to give us his mercy and we
should seek it and give it as often as possible.
I
thirst!”[1]
In
the night and the day that followed the Last Supper, Jesus was betrayed by one
of his own. He was delivered over to the authorities in such humiliating
powerlessness that even those who thought they loved him fled. He who came to
reveal to us the God who is Love, fell into the hands of loveless men. Then,
before the eyes of John, the only apostle who was present at the Lord’s
execution, and his mother Mary, he died an appalling death. Here at the center
of the mystery of our redemption, the full measure of the “marvelous exchange”
begins to be unveiled. The Son of God not only became the Son of Man,
fulfilling beyond expectation the great hope contained in the psalms and the
prophets. Jesus came to be the purifying flame of Love in our midst, unsettling
a world that had become comfortable in its estrangement from God. He came to
pour his Spirit on us and reconcile us to the Father. When St. Paul tells us
that the Son of God “emptied himself”, he does not mention only Jesus’ birth.
When the Son of God took on our humanity, his “exchange” with us goes all the
way to the end: “Being found in human form, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even death on a cross”. Elsewhere, St. Paul points to the
same unfathomable mystery of solidarity with sinners that John the Baptist had
glimpsed at the Jordan: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so
that in him we might become the righteousness of God”. When we gaze with Mary
and John on Christ, who “died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures”,
we come face to face with all the consequences of the Incarnation. In joining
himself to his creation, the Son of God took on all our fate. He took on even
the thirst of a world suffering its self-inflicted estrangement from God. Even
death. For centuries, the faithful people of Israel thirsted for God like the
dry earth. They prayed, “My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting
for my God”. All of humanity thirsted, for by sinning, we had rejected the
source of our life. We had defended ourselves against the God who is Love. Yet
our suffering in “this time of God’s absence” was as nothing before the
terrible cry Mary and John heard at the foot of the cross. “Jesus, knowing that
all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), ‘I thirst!’. The
tortured, dying man thirsted for water – but also for love. He thirsted for our
love, for he had come to espouse mankind to himself. And although he was “true
God from true God … consubstantial with the Father,” he thirsted even for God.
John could not have imagined such a use – or fulfillment – of the words of the
psalms as when the Son of God cried out his thirst to his Father: “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?” When John heard this, he somehow understood.
Those words were written for this day. They were prayed through the centuries
so that Jesus might sum up all human thirst for God, all suffering and
forsakenness, in himself. These words were handed down from generation to
generation so that when the Son used them to express his own thirst, suffering,
and forsakenness to his Father, our words would become divine words of
unbreakable, unsurpassable love. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,”
Jesus cried. Finally, “he bowed his head” and handed over the Spirit that bound
Father and Son. He made even his death a revelation of the unbreakable communion
of Love that is God. When a Roman centurion pierced Jesus’ side with a spear,
John, Mary, and the centurion himself saw blood and water – a sign of Christ’s
divinity and humanity – gush forth over the parched earth. The covenant was
established. It would never be broken. The divine bridegroom had truly loved us
“to the end”. Even the centurion, an unbeliever who knew neither the psalms nor
the prophets, recognized this radiant humility and saw the glory of this love:
“When the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last,
he said, ‘Truly, this man was the Son of God!’”
Saturday after Pentecost-Ember Day[2]
EPISTLE, Romans v. 1-5.
BRETHREN: Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God,
through Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom also we have access through faith into
this grace, wherein we stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of
God. And not only so; but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that
tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial; and trial hope, and hope
confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by
the Holy Ghost Who is given to us.
GOSPEL. Luke iv. 38-44.
At that time: Jesus rising
up out of the synagogue, went into Simon’s house. And Simon s wife’s mother was
taken with a great fever, and they besought Him for her. And standing over her,
He commanded the fever, and it left her. And immediately rising, she ministered
to them. And when the sun was down, all they that had any sick with divers’ diseases,
brought them to Him. But He laying His hands on every one of them, healed them.
And devils went out from many, crying out and saying: Thou art the Son of God.
And rebuking them, He suffered them not to speak, for they knew that He was
Christ. And when it was day, going out He went into a desert place, and the
multitudes sought Him, and came unto Him: and they detained Him that He should
not depart from them. To whom He said: To other cities also I must preach the
kingdom of God: for therefor am I sent. And He was preaching in the synagogues
of Galilee.
Today is the end of Paschaltide (after the office of
None).
Ember
Saturday Meditation on the Entombment[3]
And when
evening was now come (because it was the Parasceve, that is, the day before the
Sabbath), Joseph of Arimathea, a noble counsellor, who was also himself looking
for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly to Pilate, and begged the body
of Jesus. But Pilate wondered that He should be already dead. And sending for
the centurion, he asked him if He were already dead. And when he had understood
it by the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And Joseph buying fine linen
and taking Him down, wrapped Him up in the fine linen, and laid Him in a
sepulcher which was hewed out of a rock. And he rolled a stone to the door of
the sepulcher.
Liturgy of the
Cloth: How the Early Church Incorporated the Shroud and Sudarium in the Mass[4]
New research suggests
that the burial cloths of Jesus have been central to the Roman liturgy for more
than a millennium, and possibly from the earliest days of the Church.
A German theologian and
friend of Benedict XVI, drawing on the writings of a ninth-century bishop,
appears to have made a historic and fascinating discovery, revealing how the
Shroud of Turin and the sudarium (the Veil of Veronica) were central to the
Roman liturgy from as far back as the Carolingian times, most probably before.
The two relics and their inclusion in those early liturgies also point to the
Real Presence. The discovery has only now come to light, after debate over the
burial cloths has intensified over the past 10 years and interest has developed
regarding their authenticity. The Register spoke recently with German
journalist Paul Badde,
who has been following the discovery closely and is an authority on the Holy Face of Manoppello, which many believe to be the true sudarium.
The
discovery was made by Klaus Berger of Heidelberg, a German theologian, an old
friend of Joseph Ratzinger and New Testament scholar, who is carrying out
detailed research on the Apocalypse of St. John. During his studies, he came
across one of the great commentators on the Apocalypse, Amalarius (775-850), a
liturgical expert from the Carolingian times. Amalarius, who used to be bishop
of Metz in France and archbishop of Trier in Germany, was a great liturgist of
the Carolingian age, whom Pope Sergius II made a cardinal. Even in those times,
he said the cloth of the altar resembled the shroud and the sudarium, found and
discovered first by the apostles Peter and John in the empty holy sepulcher the
first Easter morning. But we have an enormous gap in documented records from
the first Easter morning in Jerusalem and the moment when they first appeared
in public. We know that the sudarium appeared in 1208 in Rome in public, when
Pope Innocent III put it on public view, and the shroud appeared in 1355 for
the first time in the West in Lirey in the Champagne area of France. But we can
be sure that the two cloths have always been part of the “memory of the
liturgy,” even though their presence arrived later. Amalarius may have
witnessed seeing them there [in Constantinople], and it’s important to note
that their presence in the liturgy didn’t begin in Carolingian times, but
[they] were probably used from the very beginning. …
Where
were the cloths kept before that time?
They
were stored for many years in the East, but they were always hidden. Showing
them to the public wasn’t
a big deal in the Orthodox world. In the West, we make historical records, but
in the East, they don’t
have it that [record keeping as] much. But even in the Dark Ages, in the first
millennium, there used to be a tradition in the Roman liturgy that the cloth on
the altar had to be linen, and the altar had to be rock to be understood as a
sepulcher.
What is
the significance of altar linen — does it date back to these two priceless relics?
Yes,
from this we can understand why the altar linen, analogous to the shroud, until
1969, had to be “pure
linen”
and why the so-called corporal must always be folded in a particular way by way
of analogy with the sudarium. John says that, after Christ’s resurrection, it
was found by Peter and John in the empty tomb: “not lying with the
linen cloths but rolled up or folded (enteeligmenon in Greek) in a separate place.” That corporal is
the starched cloth, which, in the old rite, after the priest had come at the
altar in contact with the bread and wine, could only be touched by him
reverently with his thumb and forefinger.
How is
the altar significant in this?
Since
the altar linens of the liturgy are called sindon and sudarium
and theologically are in connection with the Real Presence of Jesus in his body
and blood, Berger contends that their purpose is to point to the mystery of the
Eucharist on the altar stone. There, the inanimate matter of the bread and wine
—
as the tomb of Christ in the rock in Jerusalem, which had never been used — is always
transformed into the “Bread
of Life”
and living blood of Christ. After the [Second Vatican] Council, we had the
discussion: Is the altar about Communion? Is it a table? Or is it a sacrifice?
Until that time, it was clearly a sacrifice. The altar was understood as a
sepulcher, where lifeless elements were turned into something living — flesh and blood.
That was also the tradition in the eighth century. But whether the actual
relics were seen at the altar or not, the shroud and the sudarium have been
mentioned by St. John and the liturgical tradition, not only in public, but
also been remembered as far back as the eighth and ninth centuries as something
very special, very important in the story of the Resurrection. And this we have
also to keep in mind. Very much can be said about the liturgy, and one thing is
for sure: The liturgy can also be understood as the “inner hard drive” of the sacred
memory of the Church. So, it’s
quite clear that everything Amalarius reports about it in his time has not and
cannot be invented and introduced in the liturgy in the Carolingian age. It
must be much older and points right back to the beginning of the Church, just
like the holy Eucharist itself.
Could you
explain more about how this points to the Real Presence?
The
depiction of the face of Jesus on these cloths could be understood similarly to
the so-called Mass of Pope Gregory (540-604). Gregory, I saw, appearing to him,
a bloodied Lord, directly in connection with the transformation of the
Eucharistic species. The shroud and the sudarium of Jesus would, therefore, be
understood as the direct expression and the personified Real Presence of Jesus
on the altar and would be directly related to the Eucharist as the center of
the holy Mass. In this way, they agree as biblically confirmed evidence of the
resurrection of Christ with the mystery of the Eucharistic transformation
(transubstantiation). You could, therefore, say: Instead of the vision of
Gregory, in Amalarius, there is the real, symbolic content of the altar cloths.
In both cases, it is an expression of the Real Presence of Christ. What is true
for Pope Gregory is the content of the vision, namely, the real, bodily
presence of Christ (particularly of the suffering Christ). According to
Amalarius, it would be expressed sensibly (sinnenfällig) in the liturgical altar linens. On the burial
cloths, showing the stigmata on the shroud and on the sudarium the face of
Jesus, there appeared a lasting imprint of what happened for an instant in
Gregory’s
vision.
What does
this mean for Holy Face of Manoppello?
To
me and to many, there’s
no doubt that Manoppello is the historic sudarium, also called the Veil of
Veronica. It was kept in Rome and often venerated until 1527. It is, in fact,
the very veil that had been laid on the face of the dead Lord when he was laid
to rest in the sepulcher. So, it contains the first breath of the resurrected
Christ. No wonder that nobody can explain how the image — without any
colors! —
got into the sacred veil. Now, the Easterly sudarium of Christ is coming back
into history, at the beginning of an enormous “iconic turn” caused by the
digital revolution —
not to the eyes of a chosen few anymore, but to the eyes of all men. And it
doesn’t
come back to tell the Gospel anew with more words, but to reveal the
Resurrection of the Lord from the dead with one true and unique image.
MEDITATIONS ON THE LITURGY FROM THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM
FOR EACH OF THE EMBER DAYS AFTER PENTECOST.
Written by Monsignor Martin B. Hellriegel, originally
published in the journal Orate Fratres Vol. XVIII, May 14, 1944, No. 7, pp. 299-305,
later reprinted in Vine and Branches, Pio Decimo Press, 1948.
These
meditations are attached to the 1962 Extraordinary Form liturgy. The current
lectionary has different readings and prayers not specific to the Ember Days.
Prayer:
EMBER
SATURDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Station "With St. Peter
The
charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, alleluia (introit)
"At
the end of holy Mass Paschaltide comes to a close," so reads a little
rubric after today's post communion. Needless to say, this little note reminds
us not only of the fact that this blessed season is over but also of the duty
of gratitude for the inexpressibly precious gifts we have received during this
most sacred period of the Church's year.
The
merciful Father so loved us as to give us His only-begotten Son. The obedient
Son died and rose that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. And the
charity of God is poured forth into our hearts by His Spirit dwelling in us,
alleluia! "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is within me
bless His holy name!" (em>introit). We are the Father's adopted
children; we are the Son's redeemed members; we are the living temples of the
Holy Spirit, bound to Christ our Head, and bound to one another by the charity
of God, which is the Paraclete Himself. Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro!
The
prophecy of Joel (first lesson), quoted by our station saint, Peter, on the day
of Pentecost, is fulfilled: God's Spirit is poured out upon us. Aided by the
quickening power of the Holy Spirit we call upon the name of the Lord and we
shall be saved. "Alleluia, it is the Spirit that quickened, but the flesh
profiteth nothing.
The
seven weeks, that is to say, the fifty days, have expired. The victorious Lord
led us into the land flowing with the milk and honey of His eucharistic
sweetness. Let us never forget the loving kindness of our Lord! Gladly shall we
offer Him the first fruits of our love and gratitude and shall leave them int
he sight of the Lord, adoring the Lord our God (second and third lessons).
And
now that the Lord has set up His tabernacle in the midst of us, we shall
faithfully walk in His precepts and keep His commandments, so that He
may remain our God and we His people (fourth lesson). May the divine
fire which our Lord Jesus Christ sent into our hearts never be extinguished but
burn mightily by the power of His Holy Spirit (collect).
Like
the three Babylonian youths we were wondrously saved from the fire of the
eternal furnace (fifth lesson); we are justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access through faith
into this grace wherein we (now) stand, possessing the hope that we are God's
glorious sons...because the charity of God is poured forth into our hearts by
the Holy Ghost, who is given to us (epistles).
We
celebrate this closing day "in the house of Peter: (station: St. Peter).
Jesus will enter this house this morning and will lay His healing hands upon
us. May He in His infinite love remove the last traces of our weakness and give
us full health. At the same time we will ask Him in all humility: Stay with us,
Lord, do not depart form us (gospel), and grant that "Thy holy
mysteries which we have celebrated (in this paschal season) may inspire us with
divine fervor, that we may delight not only in their celebration but also in
their fruits" (postcommunion).
And
so we conclude this blessed paschal season, grateful to the most Holy Trinity
for all that we have received but determined also to preserve in our souls the
divine life of our victoriously reigning Lord to whom be thanksgiving and glory
for everlasting ages. Amen. Alleluia.
Prayer Source: Orate
Fratres/Worship: A Review Devoted to the Liturgical Apostolate , The
Liturgical Press
Apostolic
Exhortation[5]
Veneremur
Cernui – Down in Adoration Falling
of The Most
Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix,
to Priests, Deacons, Religious and the Lay Faithful of the Diocese of Phoenix
on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
My
beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Part III
Loving and Adoring the
Eucharistic Lord
II. Go to daily Mass, if
possible.
III. Increase your time of Eucharistic
adoration.
79. Friends deepen their love
and affection by spending time together. The same is true of our relationship
with Christ. Eucharistic adoration prolongs the mystery of Jesus’ self-offering
in the Mass. To adore the Eucharistic Jesus is to lovingly savor and delight in
His sacramental presence. It is not opposed to the Mass or a substitute to the
Mass. Rather, Eucharistic adoration flows from the sacred liturgy and back to
it again. As lovers’ eyes linger in a shared gaze after and before their kiss,
so adoration before the Eucharist shares a natural rhythm of the “kiss” of Holy
Communion. Love survives on both contemplation and union, on the gaze and the
kiss.
80. Saint Augustine teaches us
this when, in speaking about the Eucharistic Body of Christ, he said that “we
consume what we adore, and we adore what we consume.” To enter into this circle
of adoration and consummation is to know a foretaste of the beatitude which the
Lord desires us to know. The Saints are the best teachers of the power of
Eucharistic adoration. Saint Dominic Savio once wrote: “To be happy nothing is
lacking for me in this world; I lack only the vision in Heaven of that Jesus,
whom with the eyes of faith I now see and adore on the altar.” Once a person
complained to Saint Teresa of Avila that his faith in Jesus would have been
stronger if he could have seen the Lord during the days of his earthly
ministry. The Saint quickly responded, “But do we not have in the Eucharist the
living, true and real Jesus present before us? Why look for more?”. Who can
forget the moving wisdom of the farmer who, when asked by Saint John Marie
Vianney what he does for hours in front of the tabernacle, responded: “I look
at Him and He looks at me.” Venerable J.J. Olier wrote: “When there are two
roads which will bring me to some place, I take the one with more churches so
as to be nearer the Blessed Sacrament. When I see a place where my Jesus is, I
could not be happier, and I say, ‘You are here, my God and my All’.”
81. Extended time in
Eucharistic adoration deepens our prayer in marvelous ways. Pope Francis spoke
of this prayer as a kind of necessity during a homily in 2016: “We cannot know
the Lord without this habit of worship, to worship in silence, adoration. If I
am not mistaken, I believe that this prayer of adoration is one of the least
known by us, it’s the one that we do the least. Allow me to say this: waste
time in front of the Lord, in front of the mystery of Jesus Christ. Worship
him. There in silence, the silence of adoration. He is the Savior and I worship
him”.
To be continued…
Which are the fruits of the Holy Ghost? They are the twelve following:
1. Charity.
2.
Joy.
3. Peace.
4. Patience.
5. Benignity.
6. Goodness.
7. Longsuffering.
8. Mildness.
9. Faith.
10. Modesty.
11.
Continency.
12.
Chastity.
These fruits
should be visible in the Christian, for thereby men shall know that the Holy
Ghost dwells in him, as the tree is known by its fruit.
Notice I have placed the Fruits of the Holy Spirit in stairstep fashion so we may reflect on them seeing that by concentrating on each step of our growth in the spirit we may progress closer and closer to our heavenly Father. Today we will be focusing on the sixth step which is longsuffering.
St.
Barnabas[6]
Strictly speaking, Barnabas was not an apostle, but the title has been bestowed upon him since very early times. His first name was Joseph; Barnabas (etymology: "son of consolation") was a surname. He belonged to the tribe of Levi. He was a Hellenist, that is, a Jew who lived outside of Palestine and spoke the Greek tongue. Born in Cyprus, he embraced the faith soon after the death of Christ, becoming a member of the original Jerusalem community. His first noteworthy deed was to sell his belongings and place the money at the feet of the apostles. It is to his lasting credit that he befriended the neo-convert Paul and introduced him to the apostles when everyone was still distrusting the former persecutor. More noteworthy still was his service to the universal Church by being the first to recognize Paul's potential for the cause of Christ; it was Barnabas who brought him from Tarsus to teach at Antioch. The first missionary journey (about 45-48 A.D.) the two made together, and Barnabas seems to have been the leader, at least at the beginning (Acts 13-14). Barnabas' appearance must have been dignified and impressive, otherwise the inhabitants of Lystra would not have regarded him as Jupiter. He was present with Paul at the Council of Jerusalem (ca. 50). While they were preparing for the second missionary journey, there arose a difference of opinion regarding Mark; as a result, each continued his labors separately. Barnabas went to Cyprus with Mark and thereafter is not referred to again in the Acts of the Apostles or in any other authentic source. From a remark in one of Paul's letters we know that he lived from the work of his own hands (1 Cor. 9:5-6). The time and place of his death have not been recorded. It is claimed that his body was found at Salamina in 488 A.D. His name is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass since ancient times.
Excerpted
from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patron: Antioch; Cyprus; against
hailstorms; invoked as peacemaker.
Things to Do:
- Read
the passages from the Acts of the Apostles about St. Barnabas: Acts
4:36-37; 9:26-29; 11:27-30; 12:24-25; 13:1-12; 13:27-30; 13:44-52;
14:1-14; 14:21-23; 14:36-40.
- Read
the Catholic Encyclopedia's account of the life of
St. Barnabas.
Epistle of Barnabas[7]
CHAP.
I. — AFTER THE SALUTATION, THE WRITER DECLARES THAT HE WOULD COMMUNICATE TO HIS
BRETHREN SOMETHING OF THAT WHICH HE HAD HIMSELF RECEIVED.
All
hail, ye sons and daughters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us
in peace. Seeing that the divine fruits of righteousness abound among you, I
rejoice exceedingly and above measure in your happy and honored spirits,
because ye have with such effect received the engrafted spiritual gift.
Wherefore also I inwardly rejoice the more, hoping to be saved, because I truly
perceive in you the Spirit poured forth from the rich Lords of love. Your
greatly desired appearance has thus filled me with astonishment over you. I am
therefore persuaded of this, and fully convinced in my own mind, that since I
began to speak among you I understand many things, because the Lord hath
accompanied me in the way of righteousness. I am also on this account bound by
the strictest obligation to love you above my own soul, because great are the
faith and love dwelling in you, while you hope for the life which He has
promised. Considering this, therefore, that if I should take the trouble to
communicate to you some portion of what I have myself received, it will prove
to me a sufficient reward that I minister to such spirits, I have hastened
briefly to write unto you, in order that, along with your faith, ye might have
perfect knowledge. The doctrines of the Lord, then, are three: the hope of
life, the beginning and the completion of it. For the Lord hath made known to
us by the prophets both the things which are past and present, giving us also
the first-fruits of the knowledge of things to come, which things as we see accomplished,
one by one, we ought with the greater richness of faith and elevation of spirit
to draw near to Him with reverence. I then, not as your teacher, but as one of
yourselves, will set forth a few things by which in present circumstances ye
may be rendered the more joyful. (To be cont.)
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART
ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION
TWO I. THE CREEDS
CHAPTER
THREE-I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
Article 11 "I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE
BODY"
I. Christ's Resurrection and Ours
The progressive revelation of the
Resurrection
992 God revealed the
resurrection of the dead to his people progressively. Hope in the bodily
resurrection of the dead established itself as a consequence intrinsic to faith
in God as creator of the whole man, soul and body. the creator of heaven and
earth is also the one who faithfully maintains his covenant with Abraham and
his posterity. It was in this double perspective that faith in the resurrection
came to be expressed. In their trials, the Maccabean martyrs confessed:
The King of the universe will
raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his
laws. One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the
hope that God gives of being raised again by him.
993 The Pharisees and
many of the Lord's contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it
firmly. To the Sadducees who deny it he answers, "Is not this why you are
wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?" Faith
in the resurrection rests on faith in God who "is not God of the dead, but
of the living."
994 But there is more.
Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am the
Resurrection and the life." It is Jesus himself who on the last day
will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk
his blood. Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of
this by restoring some of the dead to life, announcing thereby his own
Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique
event as the "sign of Jonah," The sign of the temple: he
announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day.
995 To be a witness to
Christ is to be a "witness to his Resurrection," to "[have eaten
and drunk] with him after he rose from the dead." Encounters with the
risen Christ characterize the Christian hope of resurrection. We shall rise
like Christ, with him, and through him.
996 From the
beginning, Christian faith in the resurrection has met with incomprehension and
opposition. "On no point does the Christian faith encounter more
opposition than on the resurrection of the body." It is very commonly
accepted that the life of the human person continues in a spiritual fashion
after death. But how can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could
rise to everlasting life?
How do the dead rise?
997 What is
"rising"? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the
human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion
with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant
incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the
power of Jesus' Resurrection.
998 Who will rise? All
the dead will rise, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of
life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."
999 How? Christ is
raised with his own body: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I
myself"; but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him,
"all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now
bear," but Christ "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious
body," into a "spiritual body":
But someone will ask,
"How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" You
foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. and what you
sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel ....What is sown is
perishable, what is raised is imperishable.... the dead will be raised
imperishable.... For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and
this mortal nature must put on immortality.
1000 This
"how" exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible
only to faith. Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a
foretaste of Christ's transfiguration of our bodies:
Just as bread that comes from the
earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary
bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other
heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer
corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection.
1001 When?
Definitively "at the last day," "at the end of the
world." Indeed, the resurrection of the dead is closely associated
with Christ's Parousia:
For the Lord himself will
descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with
the sound of the trumpet of God. and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Risen with Christ
1002 Christ will raise
us up "on the last day"; but it is also true that, in a certain way,
we have already risen with Christ. For, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, Christian
life is already now on earth a participation in the death and Resurrection of
Christ:
And you were buried with him
in Baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working
of God, who raised him from the dead .... If then you have been raised with Christ,
seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of
God.
1003 United with
Christ by Baptism, believers already truly participate in the heavenly life of
the risen Christ, but this life remains "hidden with Christ in
God." The Father has already "raised us up with him, and made us
sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Nourished with
his body in the Eucharist, we already belong to the Body of Christ. When we
rise on the last day we "also will appear with him in glory."
1004 In expectation of
that day, the believer's body and soul already participate in the dignity of
belonging to Christ. This dignity entails the demand that he should treat with
respect his own body, but also the body of every other person, especially the
suffering:
The body [is meant] for the
Lord, and the Lord for the body. and God raised the Lord and will also raise us
up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? ....
You are not your own; .... So glorify God in your body.
Today
is my deceased sister Donna Marie’s (Lady-Mistress
of the Sea) birthday please pray for her intentions.
Events
·
Chicago Blues
Festival-June
9-12-Chicago is
the place to visit in June, especially if you’re a fan of the blues. The Chicago Blues Festival is the largest free blues music
festival in the world. Over three days, more than 500,000 people converge on
Grant Park to hear well-renown performers perform on the festival’s five
stages.
The
Week Ahead
·
June 12th Trinity
Sunday
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: End
Sex Trafficking, Slavery
·
The end of Paschaltide (after the office of None
on Saturday afternoon).
·
Saturday
Litany of the Hours Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[1]http://www.kofc.org/en/resources/cis/cis403.pdf?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0RSaU16TmxNemM0T0RFeSIsInQiOiJQWHBpQmtXaHI1dEVzTVhTQWV4TzFLZU9pR0ZiNXMwRGcyU2l3b1J2cERXRkVsTGhXME01S20rZ1g3RVQ3ZEJSTkQ5TXdMRjFmc0RiV3I3ZVRGQ0lwdnRUWXBEWFUrc2QzWlk2dU1zeTFcLzF4blUwY1dOVkFqQkcxMDZXQ09rYWgifQ%3D%3D
[2] Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896
[3] Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896
[4]http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/liturgy-of-the-cloth-how-the-early-church-incorporated-the-shroud-and-sudar
[6]https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2019-06-11
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