Ten Catholic Tweets

These are ten tweets about Catholicism that I've recently tweeted. Trying to communicate Catholic truth in 140 characters or less is a real challenge - because you can't give context. It's easy to be misunderstood, especially since we live in a culture where people have been trained to practically try  to be offended, and to seek out points to disagree with, or to be upset that what you said could  possibly be misconstrued.

That said, I tried anyways. What do you think?

1. Receiving the Holy Eucharist is the most intimate experience imaginable.

2. Disobedient Catholics presenting themselves for Communion is much like unfaithful spouses expecting sex at home. Intimacy without fidelity.

3. Catholics don't have open communion for many of the same reasons that I do not have an open marriage. No intimacy without total commitment.

4. Bringing a disobedient heart to Holy Communion is like bringing a mistress to your wife's bed.

5. Communion means "with union." Sounds pretty intimate to me.

6. You can receive Holy Communion without faith; you can also have sex without love: however, I don't recommend either.

7. Catholics receiving Communion outside of the Catholic Church is like kissing your wife's picture while she's waiting for you at home. Reality trumps symbols.

8. The typical Evangelical understanding of salvation is like having a wedding; the Catholic understanding is more like having a marriage.

9. Baptism is like getting married: you can never undo it; tho you can renounce it; also, it initiates a lifetime of deepening a relationship.

10. So in Catholicism, baptism is like the wedding but salvation is like the marriage; it is an initiation into a new life united to another.

Three Reasons I Love Catholicism

There's a great new monthly link-up at California to Korea: Three Reasons  I love Catholicism. Many different bloggers are linking up to share three things they love about Catholicism. I've decided to join the fun. Keep in mind that these are not the TOP three reasons I love Catholicism, there just three reasons. Trying to pick the TOP three reasons would land me in analysis paralysis Purgatory.

1. The Mystery of the Incarnation

Incarnation means en-flesh-ment. Specifically, it refers to the en-flesh-ment of Jesus Christ. Catholics often speak of "the Mystery of the Incarnation;" in fact, it's one of the "Joyful Mysteries" of the Holy Rosary. The Mystery of the Incarnation centers on astonishing implications of the teaching that our God, a Spiritual Being, took on human flesh, when the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was conceived as a physical being in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother.

In the west we are overly familiar with this idea: we often think of it as just a Christmas thing. The Incarnation is a HUGE DEAL though. It is one of the things that makes Christianity different from other major religions. In some religions, since God is above humanity it is considered insulting to God that He would condescend to become a physical human person. That is not what Christianity teaches: our God is above humans but He did not stop Him from humbling Himself to become one of us:

⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:6-8 (NASB)

This reality has enormous implications for the inherent dignity and value of humanity, the body, and the created world. God Himself entered into humanity, into a body, into the created world. Catholicism, taking its cue from this mysterious reality, and affirms life, the body, and humanity vigorously. We are not hesitant to get physical with our spirituality. Posture, motions, verbalizations, fasting, feasting, work, water, oils, smoke, incense, wood, stone, bread, wine, etc., the physical world is incorporated into our spiritual life because it is part of our life, our world: like Christ who incorporated (the word means "embodied") Himself into our world which He created.

2. The Catholic Understanding of Salvation

Catholics, like other Christians, affirm that salvation is a gift that comes from Jesus Christ and that nothing we can do could ever make us deserve to receive it. Jesus gives that gift despite that fact that we don't deserve it, never will, and never could. We differ somewhat with many other Christians in how Christ gives us this most precious gift. A key to my conversion was realizing that Catholics define the very nature of salvation differently than the way some other Christians do. All Christians agree that all people are in need of salvation in order to go to Heaven. Salvation, is "that which makes us fit for heaven." Many Christians believe that faith alone makes one fit for Heaven, many would go on to state that a one-time declaration of belief that Christ alone can get them to Heaven is all that is needed to be saved. This view is sometimes called "justification." Christ "justifies" you and makes you fit for Heaven just because you ask Him to do so. Sanctification (becoming holy) is a separate - though important - matter.

Catholics have a different understanding. Salvation does not consist only in being declared holy by God because of an act of faith (such as saying "the Sinner's Prayer). Rather, the Catholic view is that Salvation is "being made holy." Nothing that is not holy will enter into heaven. Catholics do not believe that God pretends we are holy simply because we have faith in Jesus. Protestant reformer Martin Luther famously compared salvation to dung being covered by snow. That's a pretty crappy concept, in my opinion.

God doesn't ignore the fact that we are sinners just because Christ died for us, rather, because Christ died for us He makes us Saints (sanctified, or "holy ones"). The grace of Christ doesn't just "cover over our sins" but also transforms our very nature. We are not merely pardoned, we are also rehabilitated. I don't have time to go on now, but this understanding flows right into the Catholic understanding that both faith and works are part of becoming holy (and therefore, part of being saved) and also why we believe that God finishes the process of making us holy after we die - if necessary - in Purgatory (Purgatory means "purification.") 

3. The Holy Eucharist

The Holy Eucharist is "that which is received" during Holy Communion, also known as "the Lord's Supper." The "bread and wine" thing. During a Passover meal the night before He died, Jesus Christ took bread and wine, said "This is my body, this is my blood" gave it to His disciples to eat and drink, and told them "do this in remembrance of me." He also said at another time that to gain eternal life one had to "eat his flesh and drink his blood" and that His flesh was real food and His blood was real drink.

Many other Christians (strangely, most of those who pride themselves on taking Scripture literally) going out of their way to not take Jesus at His word. They don't believe that Jesus really meant what He said.  Catholics do. For the past two thousand years, we have understood that when a priest prays over the bread and wine, it becomes the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, although it still looks and feels like bread and wine. It's a hard teaching; but it's also an astonishing blessed privilege. God not only humbled Himself to become a man, God humbles Himself to become our food and drink, He hides His Glory under the forms of bread and wine.

It is difficult to explain how amazing and precious the Holy Eucharist is in Catholicism. The Eucharist is Christ. Through the Eucharist, Christ is physically present with us. Through the Eucharist, Christ is working on making us holy. The Eucharist is so precious, that consecrated Bread, the flesh of Christ is always kept in reserve in every Catholic church, in a cabinet called a tabernacle.

When I became Catholic, the greatest desire of my heart came true: I was able to sit at the feet of Jesus and adore Him, simply by sitting by the tabernacle. 

The Spirit of Christ is present everywhere in the world. The Body and Blood of Christ is truly present in every tabernacle of every Catholic church, and on every Catholic altar during every Catholic Mass.

The Shepherd Comes for Thomas

Today I want to talk about the gospel reading from today's Holy Mass. Today was the Second Sunday of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday.

This is from the gospel reading:

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe."

Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

What I love in the passage is that we clearly see Jesus the Good Shepherd come after His one lost sheep and carry him back to fold. Thomas in previous gospel passages was ready to go die with Jesus (John 11:16), and he demonstrated a concern with knowing "the way" to where Jesus was going (John 14:5).  He loved Jesus, he wanted to know the way of where to follow Him, but he was unable to believe in the Resurrection proclaimed by the other Apostles. He falls into error and is headed the wrong way. What does Jesus do? He goes out of His way to show Thomas the truth, to lead him the right way.

I concluded some time ago that if I truly love the Lord and I want to know the way and if I'm willing to follow Him wherever He is going (even if it's imperfectly, after all, all the disciples fall short regularly in the gospels), that Jesus Himself will be my Good Shepherd and make sure I know where to go. The sheep doesn't know where to go, and if given directions he wouldn't understand. All he can do is listen for the voice of his Shepherd when he calls (John 10:4) and if he has strayed out of earshot, the Shepherd will come get him (Luke 15:4).

I used to spend a lot of time worrying that when the Shepherd calls I might not hear His voice and therefore might fail to heed His call. It was a great relief now to know that the Shepherd rejoices to come put the lost sheep upon His shoulder and take it home (Luke 15:5-7).

The merciful love of Christ is more than generous enough to guide me if I intend to follow, so I am no longer afraid that I will somehow prevent Christ from leading me when I want to follow. How could I ever be so lost that Christ could not bring me home so long as I lay meekly on His shoulder as he carries me there?

Have You Prayed for Your Parish Today?

Tonight I was perusing The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic by Matthew Kelly. It looks like a good book, get a free copy.

Anyways, of the many things that struck me as I leafed through the first few chapters, the thing that struck me hardest was a line about how infrequently most Catholics pray for their parish. I was immediately convicted. I hadn't prayed for my parish today. I didn't pray for my parish yesterday. Or the day before. I didn't even pray for my parish last Sunday, which was Easter, the Holiest Day of the Year! I hadn't prayed for my pastor any of those days either.

In fact, I couldn't recall the last time I had prayed for my parish. The last time I had prayed for my pastor had been a few days after the election of Pope Francis, when my wife and I said an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and Glory Be for the intentions of Pope, the Archbishop, and our pastor while we were in the car on our way to go get sushi one Friday evening.

I remarked to my wife that evening that I thought it would be a good custom to regularly say those three prayers for the intentions of those three men each Sunday on the way to or from Holy Mass. She readily agreed. I also remarked that I would probably forget all about it. I was right. I did forget.

So tonight, the Holy Spirit convicted me for withholding from my prayers from parish and my pastor. It is my duty to pray for them. It is my blessed privilege to have them to pray for at all! I quickly rattled off a Hail Mary for my parish and for my pastor, and as I finished I realized I wasn't paying attention! I was thinking about writing this blog post!

So I started over again, and slowed down. I said a Hail Mary again, with greater reverence and better attention (not necessarily great, but greater). Then I slowed down even more and I thought about my parish and my pastor, and I spoke (inside my head) to God about them. I asked God for the things I thought my parish needed, the needs I figured my pastor has. I placed them both in His hands, He knows best.

I thought about the financial needs my small, indebted parish has. I thought about the fundraising endeavors I'm participating in as part of the new fundraising committee. I thought about our committee's desire not to just acquire new financial resources but to acquire new spiritual resources via evangelization. I asked God to bless us, lead us, and to grant us favor and success.

I thought about my pastor, what a good man he is! I thought about how much wisdom and discernment he needs to lead our parish. I thought about how important it is for him to be healthy, physically, mentally, emotionally and especially spiritually! I asked God to provide to our pastor all his needs and to make him very strong and to draw him ever closer to Himself.

When I was an Evangelical Protestant, I lived with my pastor's family for a year and half - at the beginning of my college years. Every evening, his family gathered for prayer. On Saturday evenings, the night before Sunday morning services, prayer was usually especially focused on the church community. We always prayed that the service would go well, that people would be touched by the music and inspired by the sermon. We prayed the visitors would come and that they would be drawn to Christ. We prayed that the music and the sermon would be good. We prayed that our members would be welcoming.

You know what? The music was touching. The sermons were inspiring. The people were welcoming. Visitors came fairly often, and not only a few were drawn to Christ. Prayer works. Don't we believe that? Why not act like it then?

Pray for your parish! Pray for Sunday Mass! Pray that the liturgy would be reverent and that people would see its beauty. Pray that the organist prays well and that the cantor sings well, to the glory of God. Pray that the lectors read well and that when they speak the Word of God that the hearts of the people would be open. Pray that the books go from in the red to in the black! Pray that the pews would be full of repenting lapsed Catholics, curious Protestants, and seeking non-believers. Pray that after Mass your parish social hall would be the best hang-out in town! Pray that the confessional lines are full.

Pray for your pastor to be so holy, wise, and effective that he gives serious competition to the patron saint of parish priests, St. John Vianney!

Have you prayed for your parish today? Have you prayed for your pastor? How long has it been?

What are you waiting for?