Found Difficult and Left Untried

In a recent online discussion on premarital sex and attempting to remain chaste, I was struck by how often I heard the term "unrealistic." I understand this coming from non-Christians and non-believers in general, since in our current secular world there aren't many voices strong enough to compete with the blaring sex-crazed culture, but I often encounter this idea among fellow Christians and specifically Catholics. It seems a lot of people have good intentions, they know what the "ideal" is, but, they seem to say, let's be realistic, pretty much everyone has premarital sex, so to expect otherwise is just being naive.

For some reason, this outlook has been weighing on me heavily. I can't seem to shake a certain feeling of dread and despair when I encounter it from Christians, and especially Catholics.

It reminds me of the well known quote from G.K. Chesterton, that "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried." Perhaps in this instance we could replace "Christianity" with "chastity," and it would be quite a good synopsis for what seems to be happening in our world. Chastity in all areas of life is hard, it's difficult, it takes effort, it takes self-control, it takes self-discipline and patience and respect and selflessness, all things extremely undervalued and avoided in our society. And again, I understand when highly secular people find the notion unrealistic, and unnecessary besides. All it takes is a quick look around to see how often humanity falls short when it comes to difficult tasks.

But I suppose I'm conditioned to imagine that when humans find something difficult, this will inspire them to encourage their children to work even harder at it, so that the children can have the benefit of learning from the parents' mistakes and go even farther in life. And yet, for some odd reason, there seems to be this notion among many now that when something has been found difficult, it's better not to put their children through the trouble of trying it at all, especially concerning issues of chastity.

When it comes to fellow Christians with this attitude, though, I have to wonder where the belief in the transforming power of Christ and His grace is? What of our belief that, in Christ, all things are possible? Are these mere platitudes we drag out when encouraging our children to go for that scholarship or try out for that team, but conveniently fail to mention when talking about something vastly more important in the grand scheme of things - the state of their souls and the importance of chastity?

Yes, we humans are weak. Yes, we fail. Yes, we should practice mercy and forgiveness when we do fail. But knowing that we are likely at some point to fall short, practically speaking doesn't it make sense, then, to reach even higher, to reach for the ideal in hopes that we go as far as possible towards it? If we shrug and proclaim it "too difficult" or "unrealistic," will we even try, then, to reach for any worthy goal?

The wonderful thing is we Catholics have available to us a treasure chest full of realistic ways to actually strive for the best and practice chastity, for people married and unmarried. We have abundant grace available to us in the Eucharist, in confession, just waiting for us to boldly ask God, not just to help keep us from sin, but to make us holy. It takes a deliberate willingness, yes, but that willingness isn't going to be inspired by a half-hearted rattling off of chastity rules that you know your children *should* practice, but deep down don't have any confidence they *will* practice. And why should they? What child will believe he can do something his own parents don't believe he can do?

Writing this out has helped me to pinpoint a bit where I think that feeling of despair I mentioned is coming from. It saddens me deeply when it seems my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ don't even seem to be aware of or place much confidence in the truly transforming power of God's grace. The thing is, it's only as powerful as we allow it to be, and we must ask for it deliberately. And yet, if parents aren't aware of it or don't seem to have much confidence in it, how will their children know the importance of seeking it out, how will they ever discover its power in struggling with chastity, or in conquering any sin? And if we aren't actively seeking to be really and truly transformed by this grace because we aren't aware of it or don't have much confidence in it...well, what's the point of being a Christian at all?

Acknowledging our human weakness is certainly being realistic, it is a good thing, it teaches us humility and emphasizes our utter dependence upon God. But there is a danger in thinking our weaknesses are too much for God's grace to handle, and this is known as despair. This is what I have been sensing, and it hurts my heart. Instead, we should be rejoicing that God is waiting for us, wanting to make us new creatures. Let us never underestimate God's transforming power, and never take for granted the sacraments widely available to us, which are direct channels of that grace. Let us use them liberally, teaching our children by example! For you can never, ever have too much grace. Nobody claims it's easy, but we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us...even remain chaste in a sex-crazed world.

The Bread of Life

The last tool of the series I hesitate to even call a "tool," because it is so much more, a "hard saying" that sets Catholics apart, the most blessed of all the sacraments, and the core of our very faith - the Eucharist.

There is so much to be said about Christ in the Eucharist, Christ who humbles Himself to appear before us under the appearance of bread and wine. This is the reason for every mass, the source of our strength, the most precious gift on earth. There is so much to be said that I feel overwhelmed at even attempting to encapsulate what the Eucharist means to us as Catholics, and compelled simply to let scripture do the talking for me.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup, gave thanks, 16 and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matt 26:26-28)

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
But I told you that although you have seen (me), you do not believe.

The Jews murmured about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"
Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

Then many of his disciples who were listening said, "This is a hard saying; who can accept it?"
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, "Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father." As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:35-36, 41-44, 47-58, 60-68)

The following is one of the most touching pieces of music concerning the Eucharist ever written, in my opinion...Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus.

(*Note that the last few words are not an exact translation of the Latin!)



I hope this series has been of some interest, it has certainly helped me to learn more about the wonderful tools we have as Catholics, and to more fully appreciate them.

A blessed and glorious Easter to all! Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

The Emblem of True Love

We're going to take a slight detour away from sacraments for a moment, and return to a certain sacramental, something that is above all others associated with Catholicism...that is, the crucifix.

Today is Good Friday, one of the most solemn days of the year. Christ has died, and we await His resurrection. There are no masses today, the only day of the year on which mass is not said. Holy water fonts are dry, tabernacle doors in churches all over the world are left open, revealing their hauntingly empty interiors. The altar lamp signifying Christ's presence in the tabernacle is extinguished. In many churches, statues are covered with violet cloths. In Catholic Churches everywhere today, there is a tangible emptiness, a somberness, a heaviness of heart.

Christ has died.

His passion is recalled with special emphasis in the stations of the cross today. It's a day of both fasting and abstinence from meat, and as mentioned before, when there is fasting there is prayer alongside it. Today above all days, we strive to unite our sufferings with Christ on the cross.

And Christ on the cross is the focus of this whole day. All year long Catholics see crucifixes in their churches, in their homes, many wear one around their necks at all times. The crucifix is a constant reminder of Christ's love for us. I once heard a wise priest say something in a homily that struck me and has remained with me since. He said, very simply, there is no true love without sacrifice. God is love, and he proved it with the ultimate sacrifice, and that is what the cross, and especially the crucifix bearing the corpus of Christ, reminds us of constantly. Today in many churches, crucifixes are taken down from their central location and a tradition from the early centuries is practiced called the veneration of the cross. Catholics come and kiss the foot of the cross, both honoring Christ's immeasurable sacrifice, and reminding ourselves in a very tangible way that as Christ embraced His cross, so, too, are we to embrace our lesser crosses and in this way unite our suffering with His. It is in this way that we proclaim the true love of Christ.

We adore You, 0 Christ, and we praise You.
Because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.




And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up... (Jn 3:14)

O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?(Gal 3:1)

But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal 6:14)

but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles (1 Cor 1:23)

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.(1 Cor 2:2)

Till Death Do Us Part

The next sacrament we'll be looking at is the sacrament of matrimony. Catholics believe that God actually grants a special grace to couples getting married, to help them live out their lives in service to Him, to have a fruitful union. Marriage is such an important institution in the Church that it was raised by Christ himself to the level of a sacrament, and it is a sign of Christ and His Bride the Church. It was at a wedding that Christ's public ministry began with his first miracle. The family unit plays a central role in the life of the Church, as well as in society at large. As is the case with all sacraments, once validly done it cannot be undone.

One interesting thing to note about the sacrament of matrimony is that, while most sacraments are conferred by the priest, in the West matrimony is understood to be conferred by the spouses themselves.

1623 In the Latin Church, it is ordinarily understood that the spouses, as ministers of Christ's grace, mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church.

More from the catechism on this sacrament:

1601 "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."

1638 "From a valid marriage arises a bond between the spouses which by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive; furthermore, in a Christian marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and the dignity of their state by a special sacrament."

The marriage bond

1639 The consent by which the spouses mutually give and receive one another is sealed by God himself. From their covenant arises "an institution, confirmed by the divine law, . . . even in the eyes of society." The covenant between the spouses is integrated into God's covenant with man: "Authentic married love is caught up into divine love."

1640 Thus the marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never be dissolved. This bond, which results from the free human act of the spouses and their consummation of the marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable, and gives rise to a covenant guaranteed by God's fidelity. The Church does not have the power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom.

The grace of the sacrament of Matrimony

1641 "By reason of their state in life and of their order, [Christian spouses] have their own special gifts in the People of God."[145] This grace proper to the sacrament of Matrimony is intended to perfect the couple's love and to strengthen their indissoluble unity. By this grace they "help one another to attain holiness in their married life and in welcoming and educating their children."

1642 Christ is the source of this grace. "Just as of old God encountered his people with a covenant of love and fidelity, so our Savior, the spouse of the Church, now encounters Christian spouses through the sacrament of Matrimony." Christ dwells with them, gives them the strength to take up their crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another's burdens, to "be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ," and to love one another with supernatural, tender, and fruitful love. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here on earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb:
How can I ever express the happiness of a marriage joined by the Church, strengthened by an offering, sealed by a blessing, announced by angels, and ratified by the Father? . . . How wonderful the bond between two believers, now one in hope, one in desire, one in discipline, one in the same service! They are both children of one Father and servants of the same Master, undivided in spirit and flesh, truly two in one flesh. Where the flesh is one, one also is the spirit.

Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him, saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?" He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate." (Matt 19:3-6)

"For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. (Eph 5:31-2)

The Laying on of Hands

During Holy Thursday mass, one of the things we celebrate is the institution of the Priesthood, which happened at the Last Supper along with the institution of the Eucharist. So in honor of the institution of the priesthood which we celebrate on this day, the next sacrament we'll examine is that of Holy Orders.

1536 Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time: thus it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate.

1544 Everything that the priesthood of the Old Covenant prefigured finds its fulfillment in Christ Jesus, the "one mediator between God and men." The Christian tradition considers Melchizedek, "priest of God Most High," as a prefiguration of the priesthood of Christ, the unique "high priest after the order of Melchizedek"; "holy, blameless, unstained," "by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified," that is, by the unique sacrifice of the cross.

1545 The redemptive sacrifice of Christ is unique, accomplished once for all; yet it is made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Church. The same is true of the one priesthood of Christ; it is made present through the ministerial priesthood without diminishing the uniqueness of Christ's priesthood: "Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers."

1548 Christ is the source of all priesthood: the priest of the old law was a figure of Christ, and the priest of the new law acts in the person of Christ.

1554 "The divinely instituted ecclesiastical ministry is exercised in different degrees by those who even from ancient times have been called bishops, priests, and deacons." Catholic doctrine, expressed in the liturgy, the Magisterium, and the constant practice of the Church, recognizes that there are two degrees of ministerial participation in the priesthood of Christ: the episcopacy and the presbyterate . The diaconate is intended to help and serve them. For this reason the term sacerdos in current usage denotes bishops and priests but not deacons. Yet Catholic doctrine teaches that the degrees of priestly participation (episcopate and presbyterate) and the degree of service (diaconate) are all three conferred by a sacramental act called "ordination," that is, by the sacrament of Holy Orders:
Let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop as the image of the Father, and the presbyters as the senate of God and the assembly of the apostles. For without them one cannot speak of the Church.

1581 This sacrament configures the recipient to Christ by a special grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may serve as Christ's instrument for his Church. By ordination one is enabled to act as a representative of Christ, Head of the Church, in his triple office of priest, prophet, and king.

1582 As in the case of Baptism and Confirmation this share in Christ's office is granted once for all. The sacrament of Holy Orders, like the other two, confers an indelible spiritual character and cannot be repeated or conferred temporarily.

1584 Since it is ultimately Christ who acts and effects salvation through the ordained minister, the unworthiness of the latter does not prevent Christ from acting. St. Augustine states this forcefully:
As for the proud minister, he is to be ranked with the devil. Christ's gift is not thereby profaned: what flows through him keeps its purity, and what passes through him remains dear and reaches the fertile earth.... The spiritual power of the sacrament is indeed comparable to light: those to be enlightened receive it in its purity, and if it should pass through defiled beings, it is not itself defiled.

If we were to look through scripture for examples of ordination, we would first need to know what we were looking for. This describes the actions called for during ordination:

1573 The essential rite of the sacrament of Holy Orders for all three degrees consists in the bishop's imposition of hands on the head of the ordinand and in the bishop's specific consecratory prayer asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his gifts proper to the ministry to which the candidate is being ordained.

Our priests and bishops are our shephards on this earth, and without them we would not have the most precious of the sacraments, the Eucharist. We should remember to pray for priestly vocations, and especially to keep our own local bishops, priests and deacons in our prayers.

There's more about the three tiered priesthood in the Old Testament and its fulfillment in the New Testament here.

Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them. (Acts 6:3-6)

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 12:2-3)

Do not neglect the gift you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word with the imposition of hands of the presbyterate. (1 Tim 4:14)