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Saint Monica and
Saint Augustine
On August 27th
and 28th,
the Church celebrates the holiness of St. Monica and her son, St. Augustine. The
relationship between these outstanding saints is very unique, not only because
they are mother and son, but also because it was through the prayers and
sacrifices of the mother that the son was converted to the Catholic faith,
became a priest, later on a bishop and ultimately, one of the greatest saints of
the Church. When Augustine was young and a far cry from living a life of virtue,
his mother cried and prayed night and day for his conversion, in such an intense
way that a bishop once told her as a way of encouragement: ‘A son of so many
tears could not be eternally lost.’ Years after his conversion, Augustine
reflected in his own spiritual journey realizing that he was the prodigal son
whom the Father was lovingly calling to repent and to be embraced with
everlasting love, and so he would write: “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever
ancient, ever new, late have I loved you.” It was that love for Divine Beauty
that allowed Monica to persevere for years and years, praying and making
sacrifices for the conversion of her son. She had a living relationship with the
Father of mercies, she knew herself to be a beloved daughter of the Father,
sister with Christ and a living temple of the Holy Spirit. With great confidence
she expected the day when her prayers would be answered, and the Lord certainly
rewarded her faithful confidence with gifts beyond her imagining: her son became
holy, Augustine would be a saint. After his conversion, with deep maternal
insight Monica realized that her son had come to love the Lord with such
intensity that she told him: “Son, as far as I am concerned, nothing in this
life now gives me any pleasure. I do not know why I am still here, since I have
no further hopes in this world. I did have one reason for wanting to live a
little longer: to see you become a Catholic Christian before I died. God has
lavished his gifts on me in that respect, for I know that you have even
renounced earthly happiness to be his servant. So what am I doing here?” Not
long after this conversation, Monica became fatally ill and died. From that
moment on, from the dwelling place that Christ had prepared for her in Heaven,
she continued to show her profound maternal love for the son and she most
certainly interceded in the presence of God so that Augustine might persevere in
his conversion and in his pursue of holiness. That loving intercession was
rewarded and in St. Augustine, the Church has one of the wisest and most
prolific writers and teachers, one of the greatest saints of all times. Through
the intercession of St. Monica, let us pray for all mothers who suffer and pray
for the conversion of their children. May they persevere in their prayers with
confidence and hope, with the conviction that God always hears the prayers of a
mother. Amen.
Sincerely
yours, Fr. Héctor.
“The Blessed Virgin
Mary, Queen of Creation”
“A great sign appeared in Heaven: a woman,
clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars
on her head” (Rev 12:1) These prophetic words of John the Apostle refer to the
mystery the Church celebrates on August 22nd (though not this year since it
falls on a Sunday): the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is Queen of Creation. She is
the most perfect human being, for she never suffered from the stain of sin. Her
Immaculate Heart was always free from sin, her humanity was constantly clothed
in Divine grace, that is why the Archangel Gabriel greeted her as being ‘full of
grace’. She is the masterpiece of Creation, the finest pearl among the jeweled
treasury of the saints. She was forever consecrated as the Ark of the New
Covenant when she conceived in her womb the most blessed fruit of the Holy
Spirit: Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world. An
ancient chant praises Mary as being ‘tota pulchra,’ ‘all beautiful.’ In her we
find the ideal image of womanhood, the true feminine beauty that every woman is
called to embrace through a life of grace and holiness. Mary’s beauty is beyond
compare, in Heaven the angels delight in contemplating her face for in her
features they discover the features of the ‘fairest among the children of men,’
Jesus Christ. It was from her humanity that Jesus received his own humanity. He
became fully human through the motherhood of Mary. If He is the King of the
Universe, it is only fitting that the honor of queenship falls upon his beloved
Mother, especially since in Biblical tradition, the queen was always the mother
of the king. Mary is the queen of angels for the greatest mission ever given to
an angel was to announce to her the Incarnation of the Son of God. Mary is the
queen of martyrs because she stood at the foot of the Cross as her Divine Son
died for our salvation and the sufferings she endured were beyond compare: St.
Bernard calls her she who is ‘more than a martyr.’ Mary is queen of the apostles
for she encouraged the Apostles to persevere united in prayer and mutual love
after Jesus went back to Heaven. It was with Mary that the gift of the Holy
Spirit on the first Pentecost was given to the Apostles. Mary is queen of
virgins for she will always be the only woman in the whole history of humankind
whose virginity was preserved intact even after she became a mother. Mary is
queen of families for hers was the Holy Family and in the radical love between
her, Joseph and Jesus every family finds the perfect model for family life. Mary
is the queen of all saints because, through the mercy of God, her holiness is
absolutely perfect because from the moment of her conception, until her
Assumption into Heaven, she never sinned. Mary is our queen and with loving
submission we entrust our lives to her, knowing that in her loving kindness, she
will lead us ever deeper into the Sacred Heart of her Divine Son, Jesus Christ.
Mary, Queen of Creation, pray for us. Amen.
Sincerely, Fr. Héctor
The Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
Gerard Manley
Hopkins sings about “Mary, the atmosphere, Christ the air we breathe.” We could
not have one without the other, for they are eternally united in the love that
flourishes in the Heart of God. The Father looked down from Heaven and delighted
in the shinning beauty of Mary, radiating humility, purity and holiness. She was
chosen to be the spouse of the Holy Spirit and the Mother of Jesus Christ. From
that day on, the life of Mary has been forever united to the life of her Divine
Son. That is why, at the end of her life, she was not simply taken into the
presence of the beloved Son of her womb, but she was divinely taken to him in
the exact same way in which He himself left the world: ascending up to the
Heaven. We adore Christ in his Ascension and we venerate Mary in her Assumption.
The Ascension means that through his own Divine power, Jesus ascended up to
Heaven. The Assumption means that it was only through the power of God that Mary
was taken up to the Heavenly Kingdom. She who was deeply united in heart and
mind to the Son of God in this world, will be forever united in love and
understanding with him in Heaven. St. Paul teaches that God wills all men to be
saved and come to the fullness of the knowledge of truth. This is the will of
Christ, that every person should be saved. This is also one of the greatest
desires in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that we may be saved and rejoice
forever with her in the presence of the Most Holy Trinity. From the perfect
bliss of Heaven, Mary intercedes for us in the presence of the Father, through
the power of the Holy Spirit, as she partakes in the love of the Most Sacred
Heart of Jesus. She prays that our lives in this world may become living images
of the life of Christ: totally dedicated to the will of the Father in radical
love and service for all. She prays that at the end of our lives the Just Judge
may be merciful to us, bestowing upon us the gift of eternal life. Today, as we
celebrate with joy the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we rejoice for her
triumph is the promise of a bright future for us, because she is our Mother in
Heaven, we are truly dear to her heart and she anxiously waits for the day when
our earthly pilgrimage will end, to run to the gates of Heaven, as she grasps
Jesus by the hand, looking deep into his eyes, inspiring in his mind thoughts of
mercy and in his Heart feelings of clemency, so that we may be fully forgiven,
embraced and taken to the place that has been prepared for us from the
foundation of the world, a dwelling place in Heaven, to rejoice forever in the
contemplation of the most beautiful face of Christ, the radiant beauty of Mary
and the magnificent splendor of all the angels and saints, as they sing for joy
in the Heavenly Banquet.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, in
your Assumption into Heaven, pray for us.
Sincerely - Fr. Héctor
People are much better that we
imagine
(First part)
Fr.
Werenfried von Straaten was a Dutch priest and monk who spent most of his life
helping the poorest of the poor and encouraging Christians all over Europe to be
generous with their time and talents to help the poor. He once said: “People are
much better than we imagine. They all seem capable of heroism. They are only
waiting for a word of fire to set their hearts ablaze. Then Christianity can
begin again –the only thing that can save us.” How could we apply these words to
our daily lives? By seeing each person with new eyes, especially those whom we
think we know well. We tend to forget there is a tremendous potential in every
individual. We should have a sense of awe in the presence of the mystery of each
person and make a conscious effort to allow the other to grow in our eyes,
shinning with the talents and gifts God has given him. Let me first apply this
principle to the relationship between parents and their children. Parents, you
should be attentive to the signs of talents in your children, encouraging them
to develop those. The greatest talents are spiritual and the Lord gives them to
us to better fulfill our calling in life. Talents are the tools He provides us
with to be able to grow and to help others do the same in the context of the
mission He has prepared for us from all eternity. Therefore, parents must be
attentive to the spiritual talents in their children and encourage them to
cultivate them, first of all by acknowledging the gift. It is necessary for you
to kindly praise your children for their gifts, reminding them to give glory and
praise to God, who had given them those gifts. Another way to help them grow in
their talents is by creatively providing them with opportunities to develop such
gifts. Joy, Kindness, humility, piety, prayerfulness, generosity, simplicity are
only some of the many gifts you may discover in your children. Each day brings
new opportunities for you to help them grow and also to discover new talents in
them. It is in the experience of being loved by you that your children will be
able to shine with their gifts, constantly growing in them. The time you spend
with your children while they grow up is like the time of training for an army
before going into battle, singing by the river, polishing their armors,
preparing their weapons, while carefully listening to the advice of their
leaders. A battle will certainly take place in the field of this world, whose
prince is the Evil one. You are helping your children to get ready to be
courageous soldiers for Christ, fighting to defend the truth, the good and the
beautiful, using their talents to be victorious with the Lord in the battle of
this life, so to be triumphant forever in Heaven with the Risen Christ. May the
Lord Jesus allow you to help your children to constantly grow in their talents,
in order to fight the good battle to the end. Amen.
(to be continued)
Sincerely
yours in Christ --Fr. Héctor
‘Human maturity,
salvation and holiness: the gifts of a good family’
(Third
of three parts)
A good family is a ‘readier path to human
maturity, salvation and holiness.’ According to this teaching of Council Vatican
II, holiness is fostered by a good family. Holiness is the perfection of love,
that all of us are called to pursue through the grace of Baptism, because we
truly are children of the Father, brethren with Christ and temples of the Holy
Spirit. Our entire lives are called to become a generous imitation of Christ,
for He is the Beloved Son of the Father and the most perfect man. The more we
become like Christ, the more we fulfill our vocation of being children of God.
Holiness is nourished by the grace of the sacraments of Holy Mother Church,
through which we receive Divine grace. How does holiness grow in the family? The
family is the domestic Church, i.e., the Church at home. Therefore, the grace of
God, in a different and less perfect way than in the sacraments, is given and
continues in the context of family life. We all know the saying: ‘The family
that prays together stay together’ There is great truth to that, especially
because children learn how to pray, this is, how to relate to God within their
families. It is crucial for them to learn how to relate to God at an early age,
to receive his unconditional love and to share that love with others, embracing
the supernatural calling that every Baptized person has: ‘to be holy and
blameless in his sight.’ (Eph 1:4) The graces of the sacraments flourish within
a good family, because Divine grace transforms our lives and a good family helps
us to lead lives that are truly good. Grace is built upon nature, and human
nature is built within a good family. True virtue must be practiced by parents
so that children may learn to be truly virtuous. Parents must be true Christians
so that children may know how to be truly holy. In his letter to the Ephesians,
St. Paul teaches that marriage is an image for the love between Christ and his
Church. He is the Bridegroom and she is his Bride. Husbands must love their
wives as Christ loved the Church and gave his life for her. When spouses embrace
this truly Christian lifestyle, children learn by their witness the true meaning
of holiness: to lead lives of love that are sustained by the grace of the
sacraments, prayer and a conscious choice for love, forgiveness and mercy, which
are supernatural virtues that God bestows upon his children, in greater depth
for those who constantly try to embrace a life of virtue. My brethren, your
family is called to become a reservoir of holiness. Children will grow in
holiness if their parents are growing in holiness, particularly through
faithfulness to the sacraments, commitment to prayer and a constant willingness
to love, serve and forgive from the heart. May our families be holy, as the Lord
Jesus wants them to be holy.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
--Fr. Héctor.
‘Human maturity,
salvation and holiness:
the gifts of a good
family’
(Second
of three parts)
A good family is a ‘readier path to human
maturity, salvation and holiness.’ We continue our reflections upon this
statement from Council Vatican II. Salvation is the Divine gift through which we
receive the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of life eternal in Heaven.
How is the family an instrument of salvation? Parents are the first ones to
announce the message of salvation to their children. They teach them the faith
and how to grow in it through prayer and works of mercy. Children, even at an
early age, experience the need for forgiveness when they fall short of loving
and caring for other family members or when they fail to do what is good out of
selfishness or weakness. Parents, in their readiness to forgive their children’s
shortcomings and in instilling upon them the need to forgive others, prepare the
way for them to learn the truth about God’s infinite mercy, through which we are
totally forgiven of our sins when we ask for forgiveness, especially in the
Sacrament of Reconciliation. Children need to learn at home the importance of
this sacrament by seeing their parents going to Confession often. In the
catechesis that takes place at home, parents should also be attentive to sow in
the fruitful soil of their children’s hearts the truth about Heaven. By praying
to Our Blessed Mother, to their guardian angels and patron saints, children are
able to develop a profound sense of the reality of Heaven, the fulfillment of
all our true desires for happiness. It is not uncommon to find children who have
a simple but clear and profound notion of Heaven. A friend of mine who is a
nurse tells the story of a little boy who was dying of cancer. When he saw his
parents devastated for his imminent death he told them: ‘Why are you sad? Don’t
you know that I am going to be with Jesus in Heaven?’ Parents are called to give
joyful witness to the hope for life eternal, with a conviction that inspires
their children to be certain of the fulfillment of the promises of Christ,
especially eternal life with him in Heaven. The lifestyle of the family
strengthens or weakens that conviction for life eternal. If every aspect of
family life points towards comfort, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, it will
be more difficult for children to understand the priority of Heaven as the true
end of our lives and how our choices affect that goal. If our families are
worldly in their interests, hobbies and use of time and talents, our children
will not learn to make their choices in life based upon a simple question: How
will this choice help me to draw closer to Heaven or not? My brothers and
sisters, I pray that our families may become spiritual places where salvation
flourishes, especially through embracing the truths about God’s unconditional
forgiveness and the promise of life eternal in Heaven.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Héctor.
‘Human
maturity, salvation and holiness:
the gifts of a good
family’
(First of three parts)
Vatican Council II described a good family
as a ‘readier path to human maturity, salvation and holiness.’ The greatest
gifts that we may acquire in this life are given to us through the intervention
of a good family. This is truly amazing. In my next reflections, I will explore
the dynamics of how the family is the channel through which we receive human
maturity, salvation and holiness. We will now reflect about human maturity. Our
culture is deeply concerned with providing the young with a sound academic
education as a way to fully develop their human potentialities. That is fine,
except that there are more dimensions to human development besides the academic.
When Aristotle said that man is a ‘political animal’ he was not referring to a
common urge to be involved in politics, but rather to a central aspect of being
human through which every person is called to live in society and to develop
meaningful relationships with others. We have been created by God to be in
communion with other persons. The first relationship that we need to develop is
that with God himself. Only in the experience of friendship with God, we may
have true happiness in this life. The family is the first place where we learn
to develop such friendship. A great theologian said that we first experience the
love of God when we as babies are embraced by our mothers. Later on, in the
relationship with our fathers we first encounter the strong, faithful, forgiving
love of God the Father. Parents are called by God to reveal the two greatest
aspects of his love for each person: tender mercy and unconditional love.
Fathers and mothers are called to become faithful channels of his Divine love
for their children. The more faithful they are to themselves and to each other
in receiving the love of God and sharing it with each other in faithfulness and
forgiveness, the more their human love for their children will become an
effective channel through which the love of God will be personally revealed to
their children. It is within the family that we are called to learn how to
develop meaningful relationships with other persons. The child is called to
discover himself in his uniqueness to be a true gift for others, invited to
receive the gift of the other person with great respect and a true sense of awe.
Forgiveness and the willingness to make sacrifices for the wellbeing of the
other person are indispensable to develop such meaningful relationships. Parents
are called to give example to their children. I pray, that our families may
become places of human growth, where each family member strives to become fully
human by developing meaningful relationships, first of all with God, then with
his parents and siblings and then with other human persons outside of the
family.
Sincerely
yours in Christ, Fr. Héctor.
The beauty of summer time
“If it could only be like this always – always summer, always
alone, the fruit always ripe and [my friend] in a good temper . . .” This quote
from Evelyn Waugh conveys to me the beauty of this time of the year, the
exquisiteness of summer time. There is a sense of brightness, the days are
longer. There is a sense of intimation to rest, the days are warmer. There is a
sense of freshness, the breeze is always cooling. There is a sense of
fruitfulness, the harvest is ready. The sky also seems to be brighter and its
deep blue tonalities make me think of a very calmed sea at noon time. Everything
shows itself to be an expression of the greatness of Creation, which bears the
mark of the might of its Creator. On this very day we are invited to delight and
to rejoice with the beauty that surrounds us, giving thanks to the Lord for
having chosen us to enjoy the gift of nature, the gift of this world to us
entrusted, the gift of nature embraced by summer. The smell of the air during
this season is intense and filled with different scents, which perhaps bring to
mind remote places that we have never been to but we would love to visit. The
birds of the sky with their simple songs and carefree flights are eloquent
symbols for the angelic world not only dwelling with God, but surrounding us and
constantly protecting us. How could we not simply delight in the words of
Genesis: ‘And God saw everything He had created and it was very good’? The
goodness of Creation is deeply united to its beauty; both are an expression of
God himself. My dear brethren, as the Lord grant us the gift of life to see
another summer, let us focus on all the positive aspects of it and realize that
all the challenges of the season (hard work for farmers, unpleasant heat for the
elderly, difficulty at work at noon time for everyone and so forth), are simple
reminders that this life is only a shadow of the real life. Everything that is
good and beautiful around us will flourish to perfection in eternity, while
everything that is negative and painful will fade into oblivion for the friends
of God. Hope is the virtue given to us in Baptism through which we have the
assurance that all the promises God the Father has given to us through his
Divine Son will be absolutely fulfilled. The Lord Jesus himself has prepared for
us a dwelling place in Heaven, where there is always summer, the fruit is always
ripe and our friends always in good mood.
May the Lord grant us this day to hope for
eternal life more intensely than we did yesterday, realizing that Jesus Christ
himself calls us to dwell with him for days without end in the infinite beauty
of Heaven. Amen.
Sincerely yours,
Fr Héctor.
The gift of being present to
others
In all honesty, we do care
for our neighbors and we try to love them. It is not complicated to do it on a
daily basis, and we show our love through kind greetings, sharing the vegetables
we grow in our gardens, stopping by at their places when they have a birthday
celebration and by sending them a Christmas card every year. These are simple
ways to show that we love them, that we care for them. There are times in life
though, when tragedy strikes a neighbor and we find ourselves kind of paralyzed.
We simply don’t know exactly what to do. How do we reach out to them? We are
sensitive enough to realize that they don’t need unexpected guests or that their
grief needs to be expressed in the privacy of their families. This is true.
However, that doesn’t mean that we should simply stay away from those whom we
know to suffer, out of courtesy, tact or respect. We need to acknowledge that if
our neighbor is suffering, he needs to experience in some way or another that we
love him and care for him. Therefore, we need to be honest and realize we need
to make an effort, sometimes a difficult one, to reach out to my neighbor who is
suffering. The first step in reaching out is by praying for him and for his
family. Not only the casual prayer but something more significant, like a Rosary
or offering a Mass. And when we are actually praying for the one who suffers, we
need to ask the Lord, how is He inviting us to show our love and concern. A nice
card, a phone call might do it, but it could also be that Jesus invites us to go
and visit with the person, perhaps even feeling awkward and not knowing what to
say, but if we do that out of love and the conviction that the Lord is inspiring
us to do that, we should definitely do it. And as we do it, we need to realize
that even before we speak, our loving presence is already making a difference in
the life of the person. When we go out of our way to visit with someone who is
suffering, the simple fact of being present to him is already an eloquent
expression of love. A handshake and a smile will do. Even silence is a gift when
our loving presence fills the person with peace and the joy of being loved at a
difficult time. Mother Teresa used to say that we are called to do small things
with great love. Being present to my neighbor who suffers is perhaps a small
thing, but when it is motivated by love and inspired by Jesus himself, it
becomes a powerful instrument of the love of God for he who suffers. We are
truly called to become channels of mercy, instruments of God’s peace, especially
for those who suffer. We do that even by simply being with our suffering
neighbor, as we keep in mind and in our hearts, that when we love those who are
in distress, we are loving the Lord Jesus himself, who calls us to discover his
hidden presence every day, especially in those who suffer. Let us therefore, be
present to them.
Sincerely, Fr Héctor.
The gift of service
In the Gospel Jesus uses a powerful image
for Heaven: The king who will rise from table to wait upon the servant who comes
back from his labor. A most shocking image for the contrast implied on it. I
remember when my sister was in High School, she waited tables at a downtown
café, and she would often relate stories about people who expected to be served
promptly and perfectly and in return they would act rudely and be stingy in
their tips. To serve others is not easy, especially when our service is not
valued or when we are mistreated. That is why many of us shy away from serving,
or if we serve, we do it for those whom we know will be appreciative of our
service. When we reflect about service, we need to realize that a significant
aspect of being a Christian is to become a true servant. Jesus Christ is very
clear when He says: “If you want to be the first, you should be the last one and
the servant of all.” Jesus walked the talk when He himself acted as a servant
during the Last Supper, washing his disciples’ feet, a task that was reserved
for those in the lowest ranks of society: slaves. However, that was neither the
first nor the most significant instance of Christ acting as a servant. St. Paul
teaches us that when He entered into the world, Jesus became a slave: “He
emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found
human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death
on a cross.” (Phill 2:7-8). Just think about it for a second: The Son was God,
dwelling in the perfect, everlasting joy of Heaven, enjoying the love of the
Father, united with him through the love of the Holy Spirit. In the midst of
that absolute bliss, He accepted the will of his Father and embraced our human
nature, with all the suffering, pain and limitations that we experience every
day, except for sin. Christ, out of love for his Father and out of love for us,
freely chose to become a servant, a slave. His entire life was devoted to loving
service beginning with the hidden years of family life in Nazareth, continuing
with three years of ministry, where his teaching, healing and the gift of his
loving presence were different expressions of service, which culminated in the
highest expression of love, which was also the ultimate form of service: He gave
up his life upon the Cross. When we look up to the Crucified Christ, we
contemplate the Servant of God, who embraced every suffering out of love for us.
When we realize that, we are also convicted by the fact that serving others is a
gift, for when, out of love, we do become servants of our neighbors, we imitate
Christ himself. That is the goal of our Christian lives, to become living images
of the Lord Jesus. May He, who is the Servant of the Father, allow us to come to
know, even daily, the consolation and joy that mutual service out of love brings
into our lives. Amen.
Sincerely yours, Fr. Héctor.
The gift of fatherhood
Fatherhood, as every other good gift, is a
blessing that comes from God. Jesus Christ revealed to us that God Our Creator
is also Our Father. Every father is called to love his children as Our Heavenly
Father loves us who are his children. In the Old Testament, one of the key terms
which reveals the fatherly love God has for us is ‘hesed,’ which is a manly
expression of love that flows from a profound attitude of ‘goodness.’
Faithfulness flows from this Divine goodness. The Lord loves us and his love for
us will never change, because He is faithful, as St. Paul teaches: “If we are
unfaithful, God remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself” (2Tim 2:13). There
is no greater encouragement for a constant growth in our relationship with our
Father than the conviction that no matter how much we sin, if we truly repent
and ask for forgiveness, He will always bestow his mercy upon us, restoring our
relationship with him, allowing us to constantly enjoy the amazing gift of being
the children of God, because He is always faithful. That is why forgiveness and
restoration to his grace are the main fruits of the faithful love the Father has
for us. Every man that has received the gift of fatherhood has also been called
to love his children as he himself is unconditionally loved by our Heavenly
Father. The first condition for a man to love their children in such a way is
to have a profound and personal relationship to the Father, but as grace builds
upon nature, virtue is also needed. Every father should be truly good, i.e.,
truly virtuous. It is not enough to have good intentions, but to actually act
upon them. The word virtue comes from ‘virtus,’ which means strength. A father
is called to be a strong man, always willing to practice what is good and to
avoid what is wrong without counting the cost. True virtue requires self denial
for the sake of being strong to love without selfishness. Every father is called
by God to be a strong man willing to love his family more than he loves himself,
being open to embrace whatever sacrifice is required for the sake of their
wellbeing. That strength which is both an instrument and an expression of love
should also help the man to be constantly willing to forgive the failings of his
children, especially when they come from weakness. The father is called to be a
faithful witness to the love of God for his children, by loving them selflessly,
faithfully, from the heart, with a radical disposition to forgive them. The love
of a father is called to be like the bed of a river through which the waters of
Divine love may flow like a powerful torrent. My brothers, you who have the
awesome gift of children, joyfully love them as Our Heavenly Father loves you.
And you, my brethren who are their children, pray for your fathers, so that they
may be constantly sustained and renewed by the love of the Father.
Sincerely yours, Fr.
Héctor.
The Most Holy Trinity
We are celebrating this Sunday the Most Holy
Trinity. It is a true mystery for we can neither fully understand it nor totally
explain it. However, that does not mean that it is irrational, but it rather
means that it surpasses the capacity of our minds to understand it, for it is
the mystery of God himself. When Jesus Christ came into the world, his mission
was to reveal to us that God the Creator is Our Father in Heaven. And when Jesus
calls us into his friendship, he calls us to a filial relationship with his
Father. We are able to have this type of relationship because of the action of
the Holy Spirit in our lives. He is the love that unites the Father and the Son.
At the core of the Most Holy Trinity we find the reality of communion: There is
an absolute union of love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Love is the
greatest expression of goodness and since true goodness is always willing to be
communicated, to be given to others, therefore the Holy Trinity, who is eternal
and perfect love, longs to communicate his goodness with us: He invites us to a
personal, life giving relationship with him who is three persons in one God. As
we know well, if we want to develop a friendship with someone, we need to get to
know the person, talk to him and to spend time with him. The same happens if we
want to be friends with God. It is in the sacrament of the Eucharist where we
encounter God himself as a friend. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, comes down from
Heaven to fulfill his promise of remaining with us until the end of times. Every
time we receive Holy Communion, we allow God himself to come to us and we
encounter him in the most powerful way. At that time, we have the privileged
opportunity of growing in that personal relationship with him, because He is
even closer to us than we are to ourselves. He is truly present in our hearts,
willing to be with us, enjoying our company, longing for us to allow him to love
us, desiring our friendship. It is not a coincidence if the greatest moments of
peace, joy and content we experience in life take place right after we receive
Communion. It is simply the consequence of allowing God to be with us, to be
within us and to stay with us. Through the Eucharist we enter into communion
with the Most Holy Trinity. It is the time when it becomes easier to talk to the
Lord and to listen to him. Let us always make it a point to pray with our whole
hearts, minds and bodies right after we receive the Eucharist, cherishing,
enjoying, delighting in the Divine presence dwelling within us, knowing that
Christ is with us, leading us to the Father, through the loving action of the
Holy Spirit. My brethren, if we desire true joy and happiness in this life, let
us receive the Eucharist with great love, and as often as we do, in the words of
St. Teresa of Avila, ‘let us talk about love with the one we know loves us the
most.’ Sincerely yours, Fr Héctor.
“The Holy Spirit, the
Consoler”
Pentecost is the celebration of the Holy
Spirit. God the Father sends from Heaven the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is the
eternal love that unites him with his Divine Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. The
Father loves us infinitely and He wants us to open our hearts to be transformed
by the power of his Love. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Most Holy
Trinity, one of his titles being the Consoler. He is the source of all
consolation. Through him we experience the fulfillment of God’s promise:
“Praised be God, the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and
the God of all consolation! He comforts us in all our afflictions and thus
enables us to comfort those who are in trouble, with the same consolation we
have received from him. As we have shared much in the suffering of Christ, so
through Christ do we share abundantly in his consolation.” (2Cor 1:3-5) With
every trial and temptation that we experience in this life, God sends us the
grace we need not only to persevere, but to actually grow in his love and in the
experience of sharing in his own Divine life. Consolation is a central aspect of
this growth. The Holy Spirit himself brings comfort to us in time of suffering
or tribulation, for God will never abandon us. We are his children. We only need
to trust in Him and in the fulfillment of his promises; in other words, we need
to grow in the virtue of hope, through which we confidently trust in the
fulfillment of every promise the Father has given us in Christ. Every day offers
to us the exciting adventure of discovering the many different ways in which God
wants us to receive his love, especially through comfort in the presence of
tribulation. He might not take the suffering away, but if we truly trust in him,
we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, who always brings the balsam of
peace, joy and every good gift that we need at any given time. The more we trust
in God, especially during dark times, the more we allow Him to bring comfort
into our hearts. The more we do so, the more we learn that the Lord calls us to
become instruments of the Holy Spirit. The comfort of God is often hidden behind
mutual love and forgiveness. When our hearts are willing to love our neighbor as
God has loved us first, we are also willing to bring comfort to those who
suffer, for they are our brethren. A smile, a word of encouragement, a small
service, an act of kindness are simple realities that God uses and transforms
through the power of the Holy Spirit to bring his comfort into the lives of his
beloved children. My brothers and sisters, God the Father longs to bring comfort
into our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit and He invites us to become
instruments of his consolation for those who suffer, through our mutual love and
forgiveness. Let us receive the gift of the Consoler, and let us share it with
one another. Sincerely yours in Christ, Fr. Héctor.
The priesthood of Jesus
Christ
(Part One)
On the solemnity of the Sacred Heart (June
11th), the Holy Father
will close the Year for Priests. It is then fitting to take the time to reflect
about the amazing gift of the priesthood that Jesus Christ has given to his
Church. Saint John Vianney said: “The priesthood is the love of the Heart of
Christ.” This holy priest, who is the patron saint for all priests, had a very
profound experience of the love of Christ and understood that the ministry of
the priest is all about the unconditional love of God being given to others,
especially through the sacraments. When you see different priests you realize
that we are unique individuals, with gifts and talents, but also with
imperfections and sins, just as every other Baptized member of the Body of
Christ. However, in faith we know that there is only one Priest: Jesus Christ
himself, who shares the gift of his priesthood with those men whom He had
consecrated, through the sacrament of Holy Orders. That is why each priest
reveals the face of Christ to the world, particularly when he celebrates the
sacraments. The heart of the life of the priest is the celebration of the
Eucharist, and at its most sacred moment, when the bread and wine are
consecrated and truly become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the priest
says: “This is my body. This is my blood,” as opposed to saying: “This is the
body of Jesus, this is the blood of Christ.” This is the mystery of the priest
acting in persona Christi
capitis, Latin expression that means that he acts
in the person of Christ as head (of the Church). Therefore, every time we
participate at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we have true glimpses of the Lord
Jesus himself, for at the time of the transubstantiation (the miracle through
which the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ), the priest allows
the Lord Jesus himself to take over his life and Our Savior makes himself
present to his beloved brethren. What an amazing mystery of love! The Mass is
called sacramentum
charitatis, the sacrament of love, because the
everlasting, merciful love of the Most Holy Trinity is directly given to us
through it. When you receive Holy Communion, you become the most sacred vessel
of the universe, for your own body shines with the real presence of the Beloved
Son of the Father, Jesus Christ. What an incredible miracle! It is possible for
us not only to witness, but to actually participate from this tremendous miracle
only because the Lord Jesus has given to his priests the power to celebrate the
Eucharist. It is only through the priest that the Body and Blood of Christ may
come into the world. Let us give thanks to the Father for the eternal love He
gives us through the Eucharist, celebrated by those among us who are mere sinful
human beings called to be for the world, priests of Jesus Christ!
Sincerely yours, Fr. Héctor.
The world will
become a better place
My brothers and sisters, we know in faith
that whenever great gifts are given by God to the Church, the world becomes a
better place. That is about to happen in our midst, because next Saturday, May
15th at the Cathedral of
the Immaculate Conception, our shepherd, Archbishop Charles will ordain five men
to the Order of Priests. We will have five new priests for our Archdiocese and
for the Universal Church. After their Ordination, these men will go to their
first parishes and will celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every day,
allowing Jesus Christ himself to come down from Heaven and find his dwelling in
the hearts of many. They will also bring to the hearts of the penitents the
unconditional love of our Heavenly Father through forgiveness in Confession.
They will prepare those who are departing from this world to confidently
encounter Christ at the threshold of eternity. And as they walk around town,
they will be the living presence of Jesus Christ among us for all to see. What
an amazing miracle of God’ love for us! Of those five men, I had the joy of
spending several years of Seminary life with three of them, and I have the
privilege of calling them my brothers and true friends. I know them well and I
am proud of them for they are very good men who love Christ and his Church
wholeheartedly. They are also greatly gifted with many human and spiritual
talents. The parishes to which they go will be truly blessed with these apostles
of the New Evangelization. My heart is filled with joy for them, because they
themselves will rejoice in the incomparable gift of becoming one with Christ as
Head of the Church, and they will experience his unconditional love in an
entirely new way. The faithful to whom they will minister will come to know God
better and love him more, because these men are true disciples of the Lord.
As a
gift for them in preparation for their Ordination, we will have Adoration to the
Blessed Sacrament all day at Sacred Heart on Thursday, May 13th
beginning after Daily Mass and ending with Benediction at 6:00 PM. Please
sign-up at the back of the Church for an hour of silent Adoration during the
day, offering this gift of love to our five brothers about to become priests
forever. The name of these five deacons to be ordained as priests are: Matt
Book, Mike Rapp, Dave Nix, John Green and Jose María Quera.
What a joy! Next weekend, our world will
truly become a better place, for the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church will
have five new priests, who will be instruments of Divine Mercy through the
ministry of the sacraments. I also ask you to pray with me in thanksgiving to
Father, Son and Holy Spirit for May 13th
will mark the fourth anniversary of my own Ordination to the priesthood. Praise
the Lord for He is good, for his Love endures forever!
Sincerely yours in Christ, Fr. Héctor
The beauty of First
Holy Communion
Reflecting upon the experience of her First
Holy Communion, St. Therese wrote these words: “Ah, how sweet was that first
kiss of Jesus! It was a kiss of love; I felt that I was loved and I said: ‘I
love you and I give myself to You forever!’ There were no demands made, no
struggles, no sacrifices; for a long time now Jesus and poor little Therese
looked at and understood each other. That day, it was no longer simply a look,
it was a fusion; they were no longer two, Therese had vanished as a drop of
water is lost in the immensity of the ocean. Jesus alone remained; He was the
Master, the King.”
These powerful words reveal the miracle of
Jesus, the Son of the Father, who through the Eucharist came down from Heaven to
dwell in the heart of this saint for the first time. Today, as we joyfully
celebrate the First Communion of many of our beloved children, Jesus himself
rejoices, for this is the first time He will dwell in their hearts through his
Real Presence in the Eucharist. These children will become the true dwelling
place of God, who wants to fill their lives with the true happiness that only
his Divine Presence is able to bring to our hearts. Their white garments are
signs of the holiness that embraces them as they receive He who is the source of
all holiness. Jesus says: “Let the children come to me, for to them belongs the
kingdom of God.” As these children come to Jesus, He wants to give them a
foretaste of life in Heaven through the joy of His Presence. He desires to
remain with them for the rest of their lives. He longs for them to spend the
rest of their lives shining with His holiness, by being united to him through
the Eucharist. You, dear parents of these children, are entrusted with the
mission of allowing this miracle may continue. You are called by God to help
these children come to Jesus and to receive his love. There are very specific
ways to accomplish that. First and foremost, by participating at Mass every
single Sunday and by going to Confession at least once a year. The sacraments
are means for the joy of God’s presence to be always with your children. Then,
you need to remember that your own families are domestic churches (the church at
home) and as such, they should be places of prayer, mutual love and forgiveness.
Make sure that you pray daily as a family and that you teach your children that
a day without prayer is like an ocean without water, like a body without a soul,
like a hungry stomach without anything to eat. Allow yourselves to become true
witnesses to the awesomeness of our Catholic faith, by making your priority to
have a living and true relationship with God the Father. May the beauty of this
First Communion day continue in the lives of your children, through the
constant, faithful and loving participation in the sacraments of Holy Mother
Church.
Sincerely yours, Fr. Héctor.
Many signs and wonders
Apparently, G.K. Chesterton told the story
of a man who spent long hours at work looking forward to the end of the day to
be able to go to a museum to see the beautiful painting of a sunset, and so he
would go all the way across town to be able to get to the museum right before
closing hours and enjoy the painting for a brief period time. However, the same
man was totally oblivious to the sunset we could have enjoyed every day from his
own window. He ignored the amazing works of art that the Lord created and
displayed for him every day. This story shows to me the great need we have to
discover the many signs and wonders God gives us daily. As we celebrate the holy
season of Easter, the Lord wants us to truly rejoice with the Resurrection of
Christ, and as spring time continues to settle in our midst, we are surrounded
by images and signs of new life in nature that are meant to help us lift up our
eyes and hearts to Heaven, and to realize that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
is for real. We know well that He suffered and died for us; every time we pray
with the crucifix we have a vivid image of the amazing sacrifice of Christ on
the Cross. However, we might not have a clear idea of the tremendous gift of
new life the Lord’s Resurrection brings to the world, simply because we might
not have an image in our minds of the Risen Christ. We simply need to open our
eyes to see, to clear our ears to listen, to wake up our minds to understand and
to allow our hearts to feel the many signs and wonders God performs in our midst
all the time, to help us realize that Christ is truly risen and that He wants us
to receive the gift of new life in his name. In the midst of a noisy world that
constantly surrounds us with distractions and offers false joy, we are called to
go beyond that shallow emptiness and to find true joy, which flows from the
images that stimulate our minds to know the truth, the experiences that shape
our hearts to embrace what is truly beautiful, for that is the best preparation
to receive the Divine gift of new life, deeply connected to the real knowledge
and experience of the Risen Christ. But only the Father can reveal the Son to
us, and we need to pray for that gift. Life continues with its joys and its
sorrows, and it will be our choice to go beyond them to have lives of true
happiness, by desiring and praying for the gift of fully drinking from the
fountain of new life. That desire is like a spark that becomes a fire of love
when we choose to live the life God offers to us each day, grateful for all the
amazing signs and wonders with which He constantly surround us, especially the
love the Risen Christ has for us. My brethren, let us enjoy this day the beauty
of God’s creation that surround us, which is singing the melody of all songs:
Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead and He wants us to have new life in
his name.
Sincerely, Fr. Héctor.
The Divine Mercy of Father, Son
and Holy Spirit
(Second of two parts)
Should we wait until we are better people in
order to ask the Lord to love us in a meaningful way? Even though there is a
certain sense of honesty and fairness in this attitude, this is not the way in
which God actually wants us to relate to him. He wants to love us as we are. He
is not waiting for us to be perfect and sinless in order to love us more. As a
matter of fact and strictly speaking, that could never happen. By the effects of
original, social and personal sin we will never be able to be fully free from
imperfection and sin in this life. Then, in order to truly move away from a
lifestyle not pleasing to God, we definitely need to receive his grace first.
Just as the desire to pray is already a form of prayer, the desire to change our
lives so as to please the Lord is already the beginning of true change, and both
the desire and the change are actual gifts from God. The Lord doesn’t love us
because we are worthy to receive his love, but we are made worthy as we receive
his mercy. St. Paul teaches us that God loved us even when we were sinners, that
is, He loved us not only before we changed our lives, but even before we
realized we had to change and had the desire to do so. The mystery of Divine
Mercy is the reality of the superabundance in the love God has for us. He longs
to fill our hearts and transform our lives through the experience of his
merciful love for us, whose first and foremost expression is forgiveness. Mother
Theresa of Calcutta said that at the end of our lives we will be fully aware
that there were many evil things that we shouldn’t have done but we did, and
that there were many good things we should have done, but we didn’t. That is the
experience of sinfulness we all share. Therefore, we all are in need of
receiving forgiveness as an expression of Divine Mercy. Quite frankly, if we
find the time to ask the Lord for so many different gifts and blessings, it is
only honest to constantly acknowledge our sinfulness in his presence and to ask
for his mercy, being fully assured that each and every time we are truly
repentant, at that very moment we receive the forgiving mercy of Our Heavenly
Father. At the same time, we need to come back often to receive the sacrament of
Confession, not necessarily because our lives are a horrible mess, but just
because our broken hearts are in constant need of the healing balm of Mercy. My
brethren, every time we come to Jesus, repentant and asking for forgiveness, we
become a source of joy for him as He forgives us.
The Lord truly delights and rejoices in
granting us his loving mercy.
‘Let us then with confidence draw near to
the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of
need.’ (Heb. 4:16)
May the Divine Mercy of the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit be always upon us.
Sincerely yours, Fr. Héctor.
The Divine Mercy of
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
(First part)
Today we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. With
great joy we give thanks to Jesus Christ for his Mercy, which indeed is the
greatest gift that God gives to us. Let us take a moment to reflect about the
meaning of Mercy. There is a word in the Old Testament that beautifully
describes what Mercy is. The word is rahamim, term that comes from rehem meaning
the mother’s womb. The image for mercy here is the unconditional love that the
mother has for her son. The love that begins even before the baby is born, as
she carries him in her womb. There is nothing that the baby can do to sustain
his own life. His life totally depends on the nourishment given him by his
mother. There is nothing he can give in return. Before birth, the baby doesn’t
even have the ability to show gratitude. The love of Mercy is absolutely free,
not merited, never earned. It always comes directly from the heart. There are
qualities that flow from this unconditional love, including goodness and
tenderness, patience and understanding. All these attributes are also different
aspects of a readiness to forgive. Therefore, Mercy is deeply connected to
forgiveness. God is merciful and that is the main reason why He forgives us.
Just as the mother will always love her child, no matter what, and she will
always be willing to forgive any offense, in the same way, God the Father will
always love his children, and if we repent, He will always be ready to grant us
forgiveness for each and every sin, through the action of Jesus Christ, his
Divine Son, who sends the Holy Spirit as the Divine person who gives us freedom
from sin, healing and new life through forgiveness.
Now, most of us spend the vast majority of
our time trying to be better people, for the sake of being accepted and loved
for the good qualities or talents that we have. It is not a coincidence that
within a group of friends, similar talents or traits of character are shared by
them. Either consciously or unconsciously we try real hard to be accepted by
others by developing the qualities that are valued by the group of people whose
acceptance we seek. It is not uncommon for us to act in the same way in our
relationship with God. We know that he is perfect and sinless and so we try real
hard to acquire those qualities in order to be accepted and loved by God.
Because of that, we find ourselves most of the time being focused in ourselves
and in the things we do in order to be perfect and sinless, to be worthy of
having a meaningful relationship with God. It is almost as if we were saying to
God: ‘Please don’t love me as I am now, just wait for a little while and you
will see me becoming a better person, then it will be OK for you to love me, but
only then, not now.’ Is that the way in which we are supposed to receive his
Divine Mercy?
To be continued next week.
Holy Week is a time for
love
Saint John of the Cross once said: “If there
is a place without love, put your love in there and you will find love.” That is
precisely what God the Father did when He sent his only Son into the world. It
was probably not a coincidence the fact that Jesus was born in the middle of a
winter night: the darkest time of the coldest season of the year served as a
symbol for the situation of the world, the tremendous suffering of humanity due
to lack of love. The author of the Imitation of Christ clearly says that ‘The
entire life of Christ was a life of Crucifixion,’ meaning that from the very
beginning, Jesus embraced suffering, out of love for us. If we come to think
about it, He didn’t have to suffer at all. He was absolutely happy, enjoying the
‘dance of joy and love’ with the Father and the Holy Spirit in Heaven, but out
of love for us, He joyfully accepted the will of his Father, who in his love for
us wanted to bring healing to the wounds of sin that humanity had suffered since
the times of Adam and Eve. Holy Week is a time for love. It is the time for us
to enter into the solitude of our hearts and to silently contemplate in awe and
to joyfully receive the most amazing expressions of love from Our Heavenly
Father: He handed over his most beloved Son to death, so that we, who were the
slaves of sin might become his children, might be forgiven of our sins and also
receive the promise of eternal life in Heaven. My brothers and sisters, what a
tremendous mystery is the love of God for us! When we pray in the presence of
Christ Crucified, we simply cannot be indifferent: Jesus Christ died for us, so
that we might have life and life eternal. The silent, dying Christ is singing
for us the song of love without words that for all eternity the Father will
sing: the melody that sings that we are his beloved children and that he has
prepared for us a dwelling place in Heaven. My dear brethren, this Holy Week,
let us take time away from the many things that demand our time and our
attention, simply to be in the presence of this tremendous mystery of the love
of God for us. This week, let us take time away from entertainment, distraction
and even from work and study, just to pray more, to participate in the Liturgies
of Holy Week, being convicted by the fact that Jesus Christ, the only Son of
God, loves us so much that He willingly accepted his Passion and embraced his
Cross, and as He was dying the most cruel of deaths on Calvary, he was lovingly
thinking of each and every one of us, delighting in the fact that through the
fruits of his most bitter and painful sacrifice, we ourselves would be able to
be forgiven of our sins and become for all eternity, his beloved brethren.
Praise the Lord for He is good. For his love
endures for ever.
Sincerely yours in Christ, Fr. Héctor.
For I was in
prison and you visited me
One of the seven corporal works of mercy is
to visit those who are in prison. In other words, one of the ways in which we
love Jesus himself when we love the poor is by visiting those who are deprived
of their physical freedom. Lent is the time when the Lord invites us to reflect
about the ways in which we love and serve one another, especially through
performing works of mercy. May I be so bold as to ask, when was the last time
when, out of love for Christ, you visited someone in jail? This is a work of
mercy that we tend to overlook for different reasons. We might think that if
someone is in jail, out of justice he deserves to be punished, or we just might
be put off by the possibility of visiting such a rough place as a jail or we
might simply never thought about doing something like that before. All these are
somewhat reasonable attitudes, but if they are impeding us from loving Christ by
loving his poor, then they are not Christian attitudes. As disciples of Christ
we are called to constantly grow in our faith and in the witness we give of it.
We grow in our faith and personal witness, the more we engage in the practice of
the works of mercy. As you probably already know, there is a new correctional
facility (i.e. a new jail) in Hudson, and we are invited at this time to provide
a specific Catholic ministry to our brothers who live there. Christ is inviting
us to visit with him in prison. I encourage to prayerfully and to seriously
consider becoming a volunteer to bring the Word of God and the love of Christ to
those who are in prison. No specific background is required, other than being an
adult who loves God and receives the sacraments as the Church indicates. Special
training will be provided and if we have plenty of volunteers, your commitment
might be as simple as investing a couple of hours once or twice a month doing
this ministry. As I have shared with you before, I have been involved in prison
ministry myself for several years now, and it has been an amazing blessing in my
life and I am deeply grateful to the Lord for allowing me to participate on it.
Once again, I strongly encourage you to pray and to think about it, and then to
say ‘yes’ to being part of this new ministry at our parishes, which will allow
us to love the poor in a new way, and through that experience, we will be
enabled to love Jesus himself even more.
If you are interested, have any questions or
want to find out more about prison ministry, please do not hesitate to give me a
call at 303-849-5313.
Remember, on Judgment Day, one of the things
Jesus wants to say to us is this: “Come to me, blessed of my Father, for I was
in prison and you visited with me . . . When you did it for the least of my
brothers, you did it for me.”
Sincerely, Fr. Héctor.
Saint Joseph:
Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This coming Friday, March 19th, we will
celebrate a truly great feast of the Liturgical year: the solemnity of St.
Joseph, one of the most amazing saints in Heaven. We could call St. Joseph a
“Four H man” First of all, he was called by God to be the Husband of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. As we know, she is the greatest among all saints, the “All holy
Mother of God,” and if she was called to be the mother of Jesus, just imagine
the great privilege Joseph had in having been chosen to be the spouse of Mary.
He was not only appointed to be her protector, but also the foster father of her
Divine Son. Through his fatherly love, he constantly helped Jesus, in his
humanity, to experience the unconditional love of his Father in Heaven.
Secondly, Joseph is a man of Honor. When the angel revealed to him that Mary was
going to be the Mother of the Messiah and that he himself was called to receive
them in his house, he did so immediately, without any questions or doubts. He
also showed himself to be a man of honor when he obeyed the angel who told him
to go into exile to protect Mary and Jesus from the wrath of Herod. As soon as
he received the divine communication, Joseph took them into Egypt and he
certainly endured tremendous hardship not only during that journey, but also
throughout the entire time they spent in a foreign country, where he worked very
hard to provide for his family. Thirdly, Joseph is a man of Humility. He never
pursued his own benefit or self glorification. He never called any attention to
himself as the foster father of the Messiah. None of the Gospels record any of
his words, but only his actions: manly expressions of his love for God
manifested through his constant fidelity and loving care for Jesus and Mary.
Finally, the greatest attribute of Joseph is his Holiness. It was not a
coincidence that he was chosen to his lofty mission. God called him to a
tremendous life of holiness, and in responding to the Lord’s will, he was
already holy when called to take care of the Holy Family. God the Father would
never have entrusted him with his only beloved Son if Joseph were not already a
man of great holiness. Mary would never have entrusted her perpetual virginity
to a man who was not already pure, chaste and loving. Holiness is the perfection
of love. St. Joseph perfectly loved Mary and Jesus, because of his true,
profound and authentic love for God. His holiness grew as his love for the Holy
Family increased. My brothers and sisters, let us entrust our own families to
St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, a man of true honor, profound humility and
tremendous holiness. Let us do so by coming to Mass on his feast day on Friday,
March 19th and by praying the Rosary on that day. St. Joseph, Patron of the
Universal Church. Pray for us. Sincerely, Fr. Héctor.
The gift of being a
prophet
When we think about prophets and prophecies,
we might bring to mind men who announced doom for the immediate future. There is
something daunting about prophecies when seen in that light. It is true that in
the Old Testament, most prophets were given the difficult task of announcing
impending punishment to the people of Israel for their lack of fidelity to the
Covenant the Lord made with them. But there is much more to prophecy than the
mere foretelling of imminent punishment. The main aspect of the prophetic
mission is God who chooses to communicate with men out of love. Then, he chooses
specific persons to give his message: the prophets. He created them to be
messengers of his Word. The main reason for their existence is to be the
instruments that play the voice of God. That is why the prophets are also
witnesses: through their obedience to the Lord who calls them to bring his Word
to others, their lives give testimony to the existence of God, who loves his
people and who wants them to change their ways so to lead lives that are
meaningful, good and fruitful. The prophet is then called by God to be a witness
to his love by giving testimony of love and fidelity in delivering a message
which always flows from and goes back to the unconditional love of God for
humankind. From this standpoint, Christ himself is the first among the prophets.
The one in whom all prophecy is fulfilled. He says in the Gospel of John: “For
this I have come to the world, to bear witness to the truth.” (Jn 18:37) Not
only his words, but every single aspect of his life gives testimony to the
truth. As a matter of fact, he himself is the Truth. When we contemplate his
life as it is described in the Gospels, we find that everything he does, every
word he says, every gesture he performs is prophetic, in other words, absolutely
everything that pertains to Christ gives testimony to the unconditional love of
God for us. The life of Jesus Christ is not only the fulfillment of all the
prophecies of ancient times, but it is also the fulfillment of the deepest
desire of every single human heart: absolute happiness. It is only in a personal
relationship with the Lord Jesus that the person is able to know and to
experience the true happiness that comes from friendship with him, which will
become absolute happiness in the beauty of Heaven, where suffering and death
will be no more.
The Lord God wants us to be prophets with
Christ. The only way to be true prophets with him is by first embracing him as
the Way, the Truth and the Life; by accepting with our minds and by embracing
with our hearts the awesome reality of God who is not only our Creator, but also
our Father in Heaven, who wants us to be embraced and be transformed by his
unconditional love for us. It is only when we actually enjoy the gift of his
love that we have the ability and strength to be his prophets, by being
witnesses to “God who so loved the world that he gave his only Son that everyone
who believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16)
Let us embrace our calling to be prophets,
by accepting, embracing and being transformed by the unconditional love of God,
the Father of mercies.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Héctor.
The beauty of our parish
We are in the midst of winter, and I am
usually amazed by the quiet beauty of sunny, mildly warm days that we are able
to enjoy at this time of the year. During one of those days, as I was driving
through a country road late in the afternoon, with no one to be seen for miles,
I was struck by an unusual sight on the side of the road. In the middle of a
ploughed field there was a herd of unusual looking game. They were more than
twenty, smaller and apparently more curious, nervous and alert than deer, with
light brown fur and slim horns. They were Colorado Antelopes, of course, but I
didn’t know it at the time. I was just fascinated by a group of amazingly
graceful creatures silently staring at me as I was approaching. Their heads
follow me in unison as I was approaching, seemingly doubtful to stay longer to
take a better look at me, or to follow their better instincts and just run away.
Their leader chose the running part and off they went, running side by side to
my car! If you are one of those crazy people that love running like me, you
would probably know the excitement of watching a running group of animals that
are way faster that you would ever be, and still are graceful, noiseless and
swift. Incredible! Finally, they abruptly turned heading east and crossed the
road to be lost in the semi wilderness of our vastly open surroundings.
The combination of a quiet, sunny day with a
mildly cloudy sky, the running herd of antelope was truly a poetic image that
showed me the greatness of God. I was the only human being for miles around and
the beauty of that scene was not wasted for God created all and from all
eternity designed that hour to shine with the radiance of the light, vastness,
swiftness, power and silence of his creatures. In his mercy, He disposed that I
should be the single privileged witness of that simple but magnificent aspect of
his creation. The Lord certainly does not need spectators to admire the
greatness of his power, but in his infinite kindness, he invites us to rejoice
in the experience of his creation clothed in beauty. What a mystery is the power
of God surrounding us in quiet but eloquent ways. Every day, every moment of our
lives we are being cared for by the loving Providence of God, and if we take the
time to be silent and look around us, we will be able to see and rejoice in the
simple but powerful ways in which the Lord assures us of his fatherly presence,
for ‘everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected when
received with thanksgiving.’ (1Tim 4:4).
Praise the Lord for the simple, quiet and
amazing beauty of our parish!
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Héctor.
Amazing, Divine grace
We have begun once again the celebration of
Ordinary Time in the Church. The first thing that strikes us about the name of
this Liturgical season, is the fact that the ordinary way in which God is active
in our lives is truly extraordinary. Every time we come to Church to receive the
sacraments, if our minds are open and our hearts disposed, we receive Divine
grace. We experience the physical signs of the sacraments. But we do not feel
the grace that comes to us through them. The reason why is because the grace of
God is spiritual, and spiritual realities can not be seen, touched or smelled.
They far surpass the capacity of our five senses. But they are connected: In
faith, we know that when we do receive the physical sign of the sacrament, at
the same time we also receive the spiritual gift of grace. How could we define
this gift? Grace is the spiritual gift through which we participate in the life
of God himself. When we receive grace, we participate in the Divine life. It is
possible for us to be friends with God because we share in his own life. We know
that through Baptism we become the children of God. How does that happen?
Through divine grace that sanctifies us and changes us from within, uniting us
to the life of Jesus Christ himself, in such a way, that when the Father looks
down from Heaven upon us, he sees Christ himself. This for two reasons: Firstly,
for the grace that puts a seal that will never disappear from our souls, being
the mark that shows that we belong to God. The second reason is that when the
Son of God became the Son of Mary, he embraced our human nature, and from that
time on, the Son of God will always also be the Son of Man.
Grace is then the life of God. When we
celebrate the sacraments, we receive Divine life. There are four main effects of
Divine grace: It makes us holy and pleasing to God; it makes us the adopted
children of God; it makes us temples of the Holy Spirit and it gives us the
promise of life in Heaven.
How is it actually possible that God offers us such amazing gifts? The main
reason why He does bestow upon us his grace is because of Jesus Christ. When
Jesus fully embraced the will of His Father and not only became man but embraced
his cross and died upon it, the radical sacrifice of his life became the price
that was paid for us to receive the treasure of Divine grace.
Through the merits of Jesus’ Passion, death
and Resurrection, the Father gives every person that is willing to receive it,
the gift of grace as a sign of his perfect love that will honor for all eternity
the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. Every time we receive the sacraments, the
Father offers us the amazing gift of his grace, and we only need to be willing
to receive the gift in order to live not a simply human but a truly Divine life.
Not even the angels are able to receive the grace that come through the
sacraments, because they have no bodies that are able to receive the physical
signs that always accompany sacramental grace.
My brethren, let us always give thanks to
God for the amazing gift of his grace Divine, and let us be reminded that the
first place in which the Lord wants to give us his grace are the sacraments.
Each one of them being like a wedding present that the Father offers to the
Church who truly is the chosen bride of the Son of God.
Sincerely yours,
Fr. Héctor.
Vocations and
holiness
We come to the end of the National Vocations
Awareness Week. Throughout the week we have prayed for and meditated upon the
great gift of vocations. As we go back to our daily routine of prayer, let us
make sure we continue to ask the Lord of the harvest to send many laborers into
his vineyard. God is Our Father in Heaven and He always listens to the prayers
of his children. He wants us to pray for more priests and more religious
sisters. There is a shortage of them in the Church. We ourselves suffer from it.
We have three parishes and one priest. Would not it be wonderful to have at
least one priest at each parish? There is a tremendous need for more priests and
we must earnestly pray for more priestly vocations. Besides prayer, it is
through the holiness of Catholics that vocations are granted to the Church. All
of us, because of our Baptism are called to be holy and blameless in His sight
(Eph 1:4). Holiness is the perfection of love. The more we receive the love of
God, the more we love and serve one another, the more we grow in holiness. If we
need more priests, we also need to grow in holiness to be granted the gift.
Holiness is totally opposed to selfishness, and many times it is through egotism
that vocations are impeded. If parents think that it is only through a well paid
job that their children are going to be fully happy, they have a selfish
mindset. If young men have as their main goal in life to have as many exciting
experiences and to be as wealthy as possible, they are being selfish. Vocations
will never grow in such a barren soil. Therefore, my brethren, let us pray for a
greater generosity and willingness to serve. We need to grow in holiness in
order to receive the greatly needed gift of more priests. The Lord has sown in
the hearts of many of your children and grandchildren the seed of a priestly
vocation. God wants you to water and nourish those precious vocations through
your prayers, sacrifices, witness of Christian life, the teaching about the
beauty of a life totally dedicated to His service, and most importantly through
your personal holiness.
Sincerely yours,
Fr. Héctor.
The end and the beginning of the year
As I
was brushing my teeth this morning, I was distractedly and randomly reading the
information at the back of my toothpaste and I was shocked when I read: “It aids
preventing tooth decay.” The phrase struck me as a refreshing breath of honesty
in the midst of a deceitful world of consumerism that promises eternal youth and
happiness through the use of cosmetic products. Our teeth will eventually decay,
and there is no toothpaste that can avoid that, for it can only help preventing
it happening sooner than it should. Our teeth will decay, for our entire bodies
will decay. Our life in this world is temporary. The journey of life will come
to the end that we call death. We have come to the end, not only of a year, but
the end of the first decade of the third millennium. And all of us are closer to
the end of our journey in this world. When would that be? No one knows. Last
year beautiful babies were born and beloved friends passed away. This is the
dynamics of life as described in the Wisdom of God: “There is a time to be born
and there is a time to die.” There are monks who daily bring to mind the phrase:
“Memento mori”: “Remember you will die.” Is it morbid to do so? Not at all. If
monks bring to mind the reality of death is in order to be better prepared for
it. We can ignore death as long as we want to, but we cannot altogether run away
from it. It will eventually catch up with us and we will have to face the fact
that our life in this world will come to an end. What do we prepare for when we
prepare for death? We prepare for life eternal. In faith we know that through
death, life is not absolutely ended but transformed. Death is only eternal when
we are not prepared for it, when we spend our lives ignoring the loving call of
God who invites us to know him better and to love him more. The Lord, who
created us out of love, calls us to an eternal life of happiness with Him in
Heaven, and we prepare to receive that gift by embracing his love in this life.
We prepare by receiving the love of God deeply in our hearts and by sharing this
precious gift with every person we encounter. The Lord God gives us the gift of
life as we begin the new year, so let us be truly grateful for this great
blessing and make it a point to prepare for an eternal life of bliss, trusting
that the happiness God promises to us goes beyond our wildest desires and
imaginations. Let us prepare for Heaven by living each day of our lives as if it
was the last, allowing the Lord to love us as we are, and by loving others as
they are, not waiting to love them when they change and become what we would
like them to be.
Praise the Lord for the gift of life this year! Praise the Lord for the gift of
life today! Praise the Lord for the promise of life eternal with Him in Heaven!
Sincerely yours,
Fr. Héctor.
The
smile of God in the face of Jesus
My youngest niece is a little precious. When
I first met her over a year ago, the thing that most impressed me of her is how
joyful she is. The very first thing she does in the morning when she wakes up is
to look at you and to smile in such a carefree and delightful way that is truly
remarkable. One of my teachers at Seminary once remarked that babies, in coming
directly to the world from being with God, they are able to convey to us his
love in a very powerful way, especially for those who need it the most. That is
probably one of the reasons why when we see the face of a baby, we have a
glimpse of the face of Christ himself. How fitting it is for us, as we continue
to celebrate the holy season of Christmas, to reflect upon Baby Jesus, who
reveals the face of God the Father to us. St. Paul tells us that in the fullness
of time, God sent his Son into the world, so that we might become children of
God. Saint John the Apostle reminds us that, even though no one has seen God,
when we see Christ, he reveals the Father to us, for that is why he came into
the world: to manifest the face of the Father to us. As we come to adore the
Lord Jesus at the crib in Bethlehem, we discover in awe the smiling face of the
most beautiful baby of all times, and in that smile we truly see ‘the face of
God shinning upon us’ as the wisdom of the Old Testament describes in such
eloquent way. My brothers and sisters, we truly are the children of God, and we
need to be in constant communication with our Heavenly Father, that is why daily
prayer is indispensable for us. At this time of the year, when we pray, let us
do a couple of things: let us read the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus and
then let us bring to the eyes of our minds, through the use of our imagination,
the smiling face of the new born Christ, and let us open our hearts so that He
might filled them with this divine joy. Then we will come to know ourselves as
the beloved children of the Father, brethren with Christ and temples of the Holy
Spirit. And when we go back to our daily routines after praying, let us allow
our prayer to be fruitful by sharing with others the gifts we have received from
the Lord, especially the gift of joy. If the Son of God loves us so much that He
accepted with joy the utter poverty of human life in the most meager of
circumstances, let us also be joyful in accepting the difficulties of our daily
lives, and let us make it a point to love another, as God has loved us first;
for most of us the first and most difficult step is to reach out to others. Let
us do it with an open, sincere and joy filled smile.
Sincerely yours,
Fr. Héctor.
Christus natus est pro nobis
!
For us Christ is born !
My dear brothers and sisters
in Christ: Merry Christmas! I pray that the wonderful celebration of the birth
of our Divine Messiah may be an occasion of tremendous joy and profound peace
for you and for your loved ones.
My prayers are with you all,
especially as the Masses on Christmas Day will be offered for each and every
family at Sacred Heart, Holy Family and Our Lady of Lourdes.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Héctor
“Merry
Christmas versus Happy Holidays”
One of the positive aspects of our culture is
the fact that we honestly try to respect those who are different to us,
especially by being respectful to other cultural and religious traditions. That
is very good. However, we need not to deny our own identity in the process. Let
me refer that to the wonderful Catholic celebration that we are about to have:
Christmas, the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not only one more
celebration in the year, but it is actually one of the most important events of
the whole year. We as Catholics celebrate Christmas not because we love to go
shopping and drink hot cider while listening to Bing Crosby. We celebrate
Christmas because we know that over two thousand years ago, the Son of God
himself became man and was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judea. The
birth of the Messiah is not a fairy tale that warms our hearts but it is an
actual historical event, prepared by God from all eternity that gives meaning
not only to our personal lives but to the entire history of humankind. After
Christ was born, the universe was changed forever through his redemption, which
brings forgiveness of sins and the promise of life eternal in Heaven. Human
beings were enabled to have a personal relationship with God himself, and
through the life and eventually, the death and Resurrection of Christ, to each
person is offered the possibility of becoming a child of God himself. The
Eastern Fathers of the Church do not hesitate to say that we are ‘divinized’
through our union with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Therefore, for us as
Catholics, the celebration of Christmas goes far beyond the materialistic, empty
and sappy way in which the world celebrates Christmas, presenting it as just
another nice celebration that should be equal to many other cultural and
religious celebrations. Christmas is at the core of our Catholic identity, and
we need to joyfully proclaim that we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
who embraced our humanity and was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If we do so,
we will be giving witness to the Gospel of salvation we are called to proclaim
and our faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world will also be
strengthened. In the same way as we respect other traditions, we must make sure
our own millenary Catholic tradition is respected. Therefore, let us not be
afraid of boldly expressing our joy and our desire that others may share in that
joy by avoiding the dry, meaningless and sad Happy Holidays and instead, let us
wholeheartedly offer one another a rich, meaningful and joyful: Merry Christmas!
Sincerely yours in the new
born Christ,
Fr. Héctor.
“2012 or the end of the world”
(Part 1 of 2)
There is a new movie (2012) that apparently deals with the end of the world as supposedly to take place in a couple of years, according to the Mayan calendar. When we think about the theme behind the movie, which I am by no means endorsing or suggesting you should waste your time watching, especially since I have not and will not do it myself, it is nevertheless fascinating and puzzling to realize that time and again, we find instances throughout world history (especially in our own times) about collective fear and hysteria for the end of the world, in connection to a significant event, be either the change of the millennium, a certain anniversary or the apparent coincidence of certain events in conjunction with obscure mathematical or merely astrological conjectures. Many cults have developed around an alleged specific date for the end of the world and the preparation of its members for such a final catastrophe. Among the most notorious in modern times were the Jehovah Witnesses, who talked about specific dates at the end of the XIX century, and when those dates came about and the end of everything did not, they simply kept moving the date forward until they realized it was embarrassing to the point of ridiculousness to do that two or three times on a row, and they just simply dropped any reference to a date for the end of the world and focused on a rather confusing, inaccurate, and morally misleading interpretation of the Bible.
There are a couple of basic questions underlying this whole issue of the end of the world, Why are we so puzzled and fascinated by it? Why do we worry and even fear when there is talk about the end of everything happening? The answers to these questions are obviously complex, nonetheless, we as Catholics are able to reflect upon these issues and find meaningful insights. First of all, underneath the fear for the end of the world there is a deeper fear: the fear of our own death. We are afraid to die, and our minds develop defense mechanisms through which the actual occurrence of our own death seems to be an event lost in an impossibly far away future or we might even entertain the subconscious illusion that we will not experience death at all. Therefore, when we actually think about it in a more conscious way, we usually fear, because even though we do not know the actual experience of dying, we know it is deeply connected to serious physical and spiritual suffering. Besides that, we have no experience of what happens after death itself. It is only human to fear in the presence of such appalling perspective.
We as Catholics are able to give concrete and meaningful answers to these issues from the perspective of our faith. Now, faith is neither wishful thinking nor sublimated emotion or romantic foolishness. Faith is the assurance of the things not seen, including the realities of God and everything that happens beyond this life. This type of assurance means that our reason is able to grasp its meaning, not exhaustively for its full meaning goes beyond our intellectual capacity, but it provides a firm grasp of meaning that our mind is able to sustain as being thoroughly reasonable.
“2012 or the end of the world”
(Part 2 of 2)
The end of the world, as it is
explained through faith, is deeply connected to the Second Coming of Christ.
When we pray the Creed every Sunday we say: “We believe in Jesus Christ, the
Only Son of God . . . He will come back in glory to judge the living and the
dead and his kingdom will have no end.” When we profess our faith, we are being
reminded that this world will see its last day on the same day when Jesus comes
down from Heaven to preside over the Final Judgment. All of us will be judged
according to the way in which we conducted our lives; in words of St. John of
the Cross: “At the evening of our life we shall be judged in our love.” Those
whose lives were directed by the love of God and neighbor, will be lead by
Christ to eternal life in Heaven, and those who rejected love, will have chosen
for themselves eternal death in Hell. Therefore, we must be prepared.
At the same time, even before the Final
Judgment, for those who will die before the Second Coming, all of them will
experience at that time, a personal judgment by Jesus Christ, which will result
in the immediate reward or punishment for the person: Heaven for those whose
lives were fully united to the love of God; Purgatory for those who died
accepting the love of God, but are still in need of purification from their sins
and Hell for those who utterly rejected the love and forgiveness of God. The
souls will be separated from their bodies until the Day of Judgment, where the
Final Judgment will confirm the personal judgment and bodies and souls will be
reunited for eternity.
Once again, we must
be prepared. Jesus Christ in the Gospel says clearly that no one knows the
specific time for the end of the world (Mk 13:32). In the same way, nobody knows
the time of his own death, with the exception of some saints to whom God granted
the special grace of knowing the time of their death, but incidentally, all of
them where fully prepared for their personal judgment.
It is only natural to fear death when we are
not prepared. But we as Catholics, are called to be supernaturally prepared for
death, by conforming our lives to the will of God, by opening our hearts to his
love, and by allowing his love to be the main force in our lives. How do we know
that we are actually doing that? It is not that complicated, really. If we
choose to love God and neighbor no matter the cost, we are on the right track.
When we realize that we need the grace of God to be able to do that, it is in
the sacraments that we find that strength, especially in the Eucharist as the
bread from Heaven, and forgiveness and cleansing through Confession, when we
fail to conform our lives to the love of God and neighbor.
In other words, if
we are faithful to receiving the sacraments in this life, and we try to receive
the love of God as much as we can and we share this divine gift with others, we
need not to be afraid neither of the end of the world, nor of the end of our own
life. As Jesus said, “when these signs [of the end of the world] begin to
happen, stand erect and raise your heads for your redemption is at hand.” (Lk
21:28)
May the Lord Jesus
allow us, especially as we celebrate the holy season of Advent,
to confidently wait for his coming at the end of our lives and at the end of
times.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Héctor.
“Christ Our King, Christ the Truth”
(2nd part)
When Our Lord Jesus says that He is the Truth, he uses a fascinating term (aletheia, in Greek), which has a great depth of meaning. One of the aspects of this word refers to revelation, the manifestation of that what was hidden, to the encounter with reality as it is. When we come to know any aspect of truth, we experience a certain uplifting, refreshing sense of liberation. When we encounter Jesus Christ as the fullness of Truth, we finally begin to understand what does it mean to be fully human, what is the way of true happiness in this life, for when we actively engage in the imitation of Christ, even to the point of self denial and suffering, then we come to know a deep sense of peace, an intense sense of joy, an inkling of the plan that God has in mind for us: fullness of life in this world and eternal life in Heaven. When we encounter Jesus Christ as the Truth, we understand not intellectually, but experientially the words of Saint Augustine, when he says in his Confessions: ‘Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they find their rest in you.’
How could we possibly experience that awesome quality of life? By simply acknowledging that we do not have all the answers, that our desires can not be our rule of life, since they are often capricious and lead us into emptiness and brokenness. And then, by turning up the eyes of our heart to Jesus, to encounter his loving gaze, looking upon us, in the words of St. Bernard, inviting us to renounce to the bitterness of our own spirit, to receive the sweetness of his Holy Spirit, by embracing the wood of the Cross. But, you might be asking, how could we possibly do that in our ordinary daily lives? Simply by conforming our choices in thought, word and action, to the choices of He who came into the world to give witness to the Truth, by loving his friends to the point of death. And we show our willingness to die to ourselves when we choose to follow the Ten Commandments, the precepts of the Church and the guidance of her shepherds; the Pope and the bishops in communion with him, even when we may not fully understand or when we do not fully agree with laws and regulations, trusting that if we honestly try to thoroughly conform our lives to Christ the Truth, by conforming our lives to the teachings of the Church, in his Providence, the Lord will lead us to a life that is fully human and truly open to be transformed by his own Divine life.
May the Lord allow us to embrace Christ the Truth in such a way that the freedom of our lives may shine in contrast to the darkness of the slavery of those suffering from the ‘dictatorship of relativism.’
Sincerely yours,
Fr. Héctor.
“Christ Our King, Christ the Truth” part 1
Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to us as the King of the Universe, when in the presence of Pontius Pilate he said: ‘I have come to give witness to the truth’ When the Roman governor asked him the question: ‘What is truth?’ he was not in fact, interested in the answer, as we see by his continuous speech, that did not even give chance for a response from Jesus.
At the beginning of the third millennium, most people don’t even care to ask the question about truth anymore, for this ultimate value doesn’t mean anything to a vast number of people. Cardinal Ratzinger, right before his election as Supreme Pontiff, in his homily to the College of Cardinals made reference to this situation when he said: ‘We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.’ (C. Ratzinger; Homily. Mass for Election of the Pontiff. April 18th, 2005)
If we look around carefully, we would be able to see, that the prevalent motivation in many people’s lives is to fulfill their own desires and to experience as much pleasure while avoiding as much suffering as possible. The media promotes a self indulgent lifestyle that goes against every reasonable attitude that could possibly enable the person to engage in a truly human way of life, one that would allow him to grow as a human person, by developing virtues and other abilities and attitudes which are truly good, true and beautiful.
What happens when someone leads his life by the mere pursue of his own desires and selfish inclinations? The person ends up experiencing a deep seated emptiness and boredom that more often than not leads into despair and the desire for death.
This situation could be described as some sort of never ending spiritual adolescence that is self seeking and unwilling to suffer anything neither for the sake of others, nor for the sake of perfecting oneself in order to become a mature human person.
What is the way out of this dramatic situation? The way of Christ, which is also the way of the Cross. The more we know Christ, the more we realize that his life was a constant sacrifice of love, in order to fulfill the will of the Father and to bring salvation to mankind. Through his obedience to the Father, he was willing to embrace the poverty of humanity to the point of death, as St. Paul beautifully describes it in one of his letters (Phillip. 2:6-11).
Christ is the way to the Father. Christ is the way to the fullness of humanity. At the same time, when he said ‘I am the way,’ he also added: ‘I am the truth and the life.’ (Jn 14:6) Jesus Christ himself is the absolute, radical, perfect and unsurpassable Truth, which happens to be the radical opposite to relativism. If we acknowledge that there is such a thing as an absolute Truth, then we simply cannot guide our lives by our selfish desires, for they will, more often than not, be in radical opposition to the Truth of God revealed in Christ, whose life was a perfect act of love that lead him to die upon the Cross.
Sincerely yours
Fr. Héctor
(continued next week)
‘The presider’s chair’
At the end of this month we will celebrate the beginning of a new Liturgical year. As we prepare for this important event, I would like to call to your attention a small but significant change that will take place at the sanctuary. Beginning with the First Sunday of Advent, instead of using a bench, we will have what is called a presider’s chair for the priest and stools for the Altar servers. What is the significance of this change? The General Instruction for the Roman Missal, which is the official document that explains the Mass in detail, has something to say about this issue: “The chair of the priest celebrant must signify his office of presiding over the gathering and of directing the prayer. Thus the best place for the chair is in a position facing the people at the head of the sanctuary, unless the design of the building or other circumstances impede this . . . Any appearance of a throne, however, is to be avoided. It is appropriate that, before being put into liturgical use, the chair be blessed according to the rite described in the Roman Ritual.” (GIRM, 319)
There is a powerful liturgical and Christological symbolism behind the chair used by the priest at Mass. It signifies the presence of Christ presiding at the Eucharistic celebration. It also symbolizes Jesus Christ as king of his chosen people. This is one of the three ‘munera’ or ‘offices’ of Christ as the Messiah: He is king, prophet and priest. The other two ‘munera’ are also symbolized at the sanctuary: the ambo (the lectern) from which the Word of God is proclaimed represents Christ as the prophet. The altar, upon which the most perfect sacrifice is offered, the Body and Blood of Christ, symbolizes Jesus as the High Priest of the New Covenant.
Therefore, as we implement this small but significant change, let us be reminded every time we see the presider’s chair at the sanctuary, that it is a symbol for Jesus Christ himself as king or head of his Mystical Body, which is the Church.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Hector.
Dear Friends in Christ,
Since the summer, the Catholic bishops of the United States have worked diligently with members of Congress and the White House staff to craft good health-care reform. This issue is not a new priority for the Church. America’s bishops have pressed for reform of the health-care industry for decades.
The Church sees access to basic health care for all persons- including immigrants--as a right, not a privilege. But to be legitimate, reform must respect the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death. At a minimum, this means it must exclude abortion and abortion funding, no matter how well disguised that funding might be. Legitimate reform also needs to respect the conscience rights of medical professionals and institutions so that they cannot be coerced into violating their moral convictions. These are modest, reasonable and vitally important principles, but the legislation now being pushed rapidly through Congress ignores them. This is deeply disappointing, It’s also profoundly dangerous.
Despite Washington’s promises to seek “common ground” on controversial issues, and despite the praiseworthy efforts of a few leaders like Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak, Congress and the White House have rebuffed every attempt by the Catholic community to find morally acceptable compromises on national health-care reform. As a result, the health-care legislation now pending in Congress is fatally defective. It undermines human dignity in the name of serving it. And unless the legislation is amended to address the vital Catholic concerns we have mentioned here, it needs to be vigorously opposed and defeated.
Do not be mislead by claims that the current legislation is “consensus” health-care reform. That is false. Do not be mislead by claims that Catholic concerns are already adequately represented in the legislation. That is also false.
Please contact your U.S. Representatives and Senators today. Press them to amend the current health-care legislation to include these reasonable concerns of the Catholic community. Your pastors this weekend will provide you with a background and a contact information sheet regarding this urgent issue. The website of the Archdiocese of Denver, www.archden.org also has this material. Please urgently make your convictions known to the elected officials who represent you. This is a decisive moment on a crucially important issue- an issue with huge implications, for good or for ill, in shaping America’s future.
Gratefully yours in Christ,
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput and Bishop James D. Conley
The Power of Virtue
(First Part) (part two) (part three)
We all know well the word virtue. When we call someone a virtuous person, we acknowledge there is something very good in the life of that individual. But, do we really know what true virtue means? The meaning of the word itself is a good place to begin with in the task of defining virtue. In Latin, virtus mean strength. Virtue therefore, is a form of strength. It is a spiritual type of strength that constitutes a morally positive personality. This type of spiritual strength is expressed in various different ways, which are all the different traits of character that allow an individual to become and to grow as a mature human person. It is fair to say that there is an element of virtue in every positive aspect in the life of a person. But there is more to virtue. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines virtue in a thorough way: “A virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions.” (n.1803)
Let us reflect about the different element of this definition. First of all, true virtue must be habitual. If we perform one single action that is good, that does not immediately makes us good, but only if we repeat good actions to the point of changing our personality and allowing them to become part of who we are, only then we have true virtue. In other words, when we practice constantly an action that is good, and when we act that way in every circumstance, then we can say we have that particular virtue. To use an example, if I work hard one day, that does not mean that I have the virtue of laboriousness (i.e., that I am a hard worker). I could only be laborious if I work hard every day. Another example: If a person is kind to others every once in a while, that person does not have the virtue of kindness. The true kind person uses kindness every time he interacts with another person.
Another element in the definition of virtue is firmness. In order to constantly repeat a good action that will result in our acquiring of a virtue, we need to be constant, firm, strong. We need to realize that it takes a real effort to be consistent in doing good. To be virtuous doesn’t happen overnight. It takes real willingness and strength.
The power of virtue
(Part 2 of 3)
The next element is that virtue goes beyond performing good actions, but it actually inspires the person to give the best of himself. That implies the constant effort to become a better person and the ongoing generosity in doing good to others.
The definition continues by referring to a unified tendency towards doing good. That means to focus one’s own energies, both physical and spiritual, in one, simple goal: to do what is right and to avoid what is wrong at every circumstance. Another way to express the same idea is to focus all of our energies in doing what is good.
The last element in this definition refers to one of the main signs of true virtue: to choose to do what is good in concrete situations. In other words, it is not enough to think or even to desire to be good. We need to do what is good at specific times, in ordinary situations, consciously choosing to do what is good, striving to put into practice the ideal to be good on a daily basis, even in ordinary circumstances. There are different types of virtue. In this reflection we are referring to human virtues, which are the ones that allow us to become and to grow as true and fulfilled human beings. The Catechism expands the definition of virtue by describing human virtues as: “Firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good.”
Most elements of this definition have been already explained in the first one. But there are new aspects to be considered: First of all, virtue improves and perfects the two greatest spiritual faculties God has given to us: intellect and will. The next aspect is that it orders our passions, which refer to our emotions and feelings, especially when they lead us to act or not to act in a situation that is felt or imagined to be good or evil. In other words, virtue helps guide our feelings, so that we may be able to do good and avoid evil, beyond what our mere impulses lead us to do. The second definition also talks about the two main criteria that allows virtue to lead us to do what is good: reason and faith. Then, it mentions the major effects of a virtuous life: ease, self-mastery and joy. In other words, the virtuous person practices what is good immediately, he is able to be in control of himself in any given situation, and he is able to be joyful in doing good. This is a basic description of true happiness. Finally, the second definition refers to freedom. Only the man who freely chooses to do what is good and to avoid what is evil is truly a virtuous man.
The power of virtue
(Part 3)
How could we become true virtuous people?
By choice, desire and action. We need to choose virtue. We must decide to have as a major goal in life to do what is good and to avoid what is wrong, no matter how difficult that could be. Then, we must desire goodness more and more. Our desire for goodness will grow the more we experience that goodness in our own lives. In other words, the more we practice what is good, the greater the experience of true joy and the greater the inspiration we will have to pursue it even more. And we only acquire virtue through action, which needs human effort. After choosing and desiring to do what is good, we need to actually do it, at every circumstance in our lives, without counting the cost.
At this point you might want to ask the question:
Why would I want to go through so much work and trouble to become virtuous?
The response is simple and straightforward: True virtue prepares us to enter into communion with God who is love. St Gregory of Nyssa says it in a beautiful way: ‘The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God.’ If God is the source of everything that is good, the more we conform our lives with goodness, the closer we draw to he who is the source of everything that is good. If there is joy in the practice of virtue, it is because virtue allows us to be closer to God, in whom we find the source of true joy in this life and in the life to come. Virtue opens for us the door to a personal friendship with God, and it is only when we enjoy this divine friendship that we experience true happiness.
May the Lord allow us to become truly virtuous, so we may delight in the joy of being real friends with God.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face
(First of two parts) (part 2)
On Thursday, October 1st we celebrated the feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. She was a French Carmelite Nun who lived at the end of the 19th century. It was in the fall of 1997, exactly one hundred years after she died, that Pope John Paul the Great gave witness that her wisdom was an outstanding way of drawing closer to God for every Christian, and declared her to be a Doctor of the Church, a privilege reserved to few saints. What lies at the core of the teaching that she left us? It has been called ‘the little way.’ Before you frown upon this term or dismiss it as being too romantic, passé, childish or effeminate, please try to understand its meaning. One of St. Therese’s greatest desires in life was to do the will of God, no matter what. That explains why, when a careful consideration of her life and writings was taking place after her death, the scholars and officials in charge suggested that the virtue of fortitude was the one that she practiced with the greatest perfection. She was only 24 years old when she died, but she was already a strong woman of faith. Therefore, it is necessary to accept the fact that her ‘little way’ to approach God offers a true way of heroism for every Christian who is willing to become a saint. But, what is this ‘little way’ all about? First of all, it is a concrete explanation of the words of Christ who said: “Unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven.” (Mt 18:3). We have been promised life forever in Heaven, but life eternal is a gift God will not oblige us to receive. In order words, there is a real possibility for us not to go to Heaven, unless we are willing to receive salvation. Obviously, it is not enough to say that we want to go to Heaven. We need to show, through our way of life, that we are willing to be saved. It is Christ himself who said: "Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 7:21) We were saying before that one of St. Therese’s greatest desires was to embrace the Father’s will. That desire she expressed through her way of life. Every action, every word of hers was inspired by her willingness to obey God. In that context, we may refer to that poignant question that was asked to Jesus: “Which commandment is the first of all?” In other words, what is the best way to do the will of God? This was Christ’s response: "The first commandment is . . . you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mk 12:29-31)Then, the will of God is centered upon love. To love God and to love our neighbor is the fulfillment of the Divine will. --Fr. Hector
St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face
(2nd of two parts)
St. Therese understood this well. She expressed her commitment to do the Father’s will by loving God and neighbor wholeheartedly, while at the same time she united this basic orientation of her life, to a constant, creative, personal pursue of spiritual childlikeness. In other words, she longed to go to Heaven in such a powerful way, that she wanted to become like a child, in obedience to the words of Jesus, but not any type of child, but a child totally devoted to love God and to love his brethren with undivided heart. That is the principle behind the ‘little way’ she walked. What does that mean in a practical way? To follow the ‘little way’ implies doing everything, even small, ordinary things with great love. It requires the imaginative power to find in every circumstance of life and in every person we meet, an opportunity to show real love for God and neighbor. It becomes the exciting adventure of finding the will of God at every step of the way and discovering the specific way in which he wants us to love one another. You may be asking yourself: Could I possibly practice all that myself, in the midst of this busy and noisy world? The answer is simple and straightforward: Yes, by all means. There are at least two different reasons. First, because when God asks anything from us, he is also willing us to give us the grace we need to actually do it. If Jesus commands us to do the will of the Father, by loving him and neighbor, while at the same time pursuing a spiritual childlikeness, then, He will give us the grace to do exactly that.
The second reason is the example of St. Therese. When Holy Mother Church declared her to be a saint and a Doctor among them, we are reassured, with the Divine authority of the Church, that by following the example and teaching of this saint, we will be following a path leading us precisely to achieve the fulfillment of the will of God, through real love, in the pursue of spiritual childlikeness. This is ‘the little way’ of St. Therese.
May we find the courage, inspiration and imagination to follow it, finding the excitement that life has in store for us, when we realize that God is with us all the time, inviting us to receive his love and to share it with others everywhere we go.
St. Therese, pray for us.
Sincerely,
Fr. Hector.
Father Hector's Reflection on the fruits of Holy Communion
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 |
