Often called our “second baptism”, the sacrament of Penance cleanses us of our sin and restores us to new life in Christ.  It is a great sacrament of healing, one which ought to be approached often and with great confidence and trust, and is truly a fountain of mercy and grace flowing from the heart of Christ himself through the Church.  But many times, the question is asked:  “Why must we confess our sins to a priest?”  This is a great question frequently asked by non-Catholics and even many Catholics.  Let’s explore these reasons more closely. 

     First, it is Christ himself that established the sacrament of Penance and the confession of sin to one who shares the apostolic ministry entrusted to the apostles and their successors. He gave the apostles and their successors the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive or retain sins on the evening of his resurrection (see John 20: 19-23).  Thus, we confess our sins to a priest first and foremost because it is the will of Christ.  But it goes much deeper than that.  As with any sacrament, the priest is ministering in persona Christi which means “in the person of Christ”.  That simply but powerfully means that Christ is really present and working through the priest.  Thus, it is Christ who baptizes, Christ who confirms, and Christ who hears our sins and forgives them.  We are not just telling our sins to a mere man, but to Christ himself who is truly present and working through the priest. 

     The second reason has to do with the nature of sin and the healing that is needed to bring about true penance or reconciliation.  First, when we sin and deliberately choose to disobey God and turn against his goodness, it wounds or in the case of mortal sin severs our relationship with God.  It is we who break the relationship, not God.  God, like with Adam after the first sin, always searches for us and calls us back to himself.  This is what we call the divine dimension of sin.  Sin always affects our relationship with God and either diminishes or destroys the life of grace within us.  Through confessing our sins to the priest, we are confessing our sins to Christ himself who restores us to our relationship to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.  We come to the foot of the Cross and lay our sins before the Lamb of God who washes them away through the blood that flowed from his side.  That is what really happens when one goes to confession.   

    Secondly, when it comes to sin, there is no such thing as a “private sin.”  Yes, sin can be done privately in that no other person knows about it (but God does), but even a sin that is done in private still hurts and effects others.  Every time we sin, even if it is alone, it affects our ability to love, to be in relationship, and to live in communion with others.  This is certainly true when we commit a sin that directly affects or hurts another, but even sins committed in private, and even our sinful thoughts hurt others indirectly as well.  Sin by its nature isolates and wraps us in ourselves.  Thus, every sin has social consequences, harming and even destroying our relationship with others.  Even more powerfully, as a member of the mystical Body of Christ the Church, sin wounds our communion with the Church and in the case of mortal sins severs our relationship with the Church.  This is called the human dimension of sin.  By confessing our sins to the priest, we are also confessing to the leader and representative of the community and the Church, and therefore our relationship with others and the Church is also reconciled.  Therefore, by confessing our sins to a priest, both the divine and human dimensions of sin are reconciled and our communion with God and the Church is fully restored.    

     The third reason we confess our sins to a priest has a lot to do with our human nature.  God in his wisdom knows that the confession of our sins brings about a deeper and more complete healing of ourselves.  The more we become isolated the more sin is allowed to fester and become worse.  Sin loves to operate in the dark.  When we keep sin inside ourselves it becomes like a cancer eating at our souls and our humanity.  The best way to defeat sin, like cancer, is to get it out and to bring it into the light of Christ.  The reality is that unless sin is brought into the light and brought out of ourselves, true healing is very difficult.

     This is the beauty of the sacrament of Penance.  It brings about in us a true healing.  When we confess our sins to another, we are required to look the sin squarely in the eye, take ownership and responsibility for it, and admit it to another.  We literally empty ourselves of sin so we may be filled with the grace of Christ.  The Catechism powerfully brings out this aspect of the confession of sins: 

The confession (or disclosure) of sins, even from a simply human point of view, frees us and facilitates our reconciliation with others. Through such an admission man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of, takes responsibility for them, and thereby opens himself again to God and to the communion of the Church in order to make a new future possible. (1455)

     This is the most powerful aspect of the sacrament of Penance.  Remember that all the sacraments are visible tangible signs that make present to us in a natural way what God is doing supernaturally.  God is communicating his grace to us in a way that we can really know and experience his love for us.  Penance is an extraordinarily human and tangible experience of God’s mercy and forgiveness.  If we were to only ask God for forgiveness, we would simply have to trust that he has forgiven us.  But through confessing our sins in the sacrament of Penance, we have in a real and fully human way given our sins to Christ, and then we in turn experience and know Christ’s forgiveness in a real, human, and tangible way through the ministry of the priest.  At the end of confession, the priest lays his hand upon us calling down the power of the Holy Spirit, and we hear and know the reality and power of Christ’s mercy and forgiveness through the prayer of the Church:

God, the Father of mercies, through the death and the resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

     Therefore, by confessing our sins to a priest, not only are we participating in the sacrament of Penance that Christ established and is working through, but it also fully heals us from the consequences of sin, brings about a more real and complete healing of our human nature, and we also come to know and experience in a real and powerful way God’s love and mercy that pours forth from the heart of Christ.  May we, through this season of Lent, come to a new and deeper appreciation and practice of this powerful sacrament of Christ’s healing, grace, and forgiveness. 

     On December 8^th, we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. However, if you ask people, including many Catholics, what the Immaculate Conception is, there is a good chance that they will tell you that it is the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary.  In fact, the Immaculate Conception is actually the conception of Mary.  The Immaculate Conception reveals to us that Mary was freed from the stain of original sin at the moment of her conception, and remained free from sin for her entire life. 

      It was intrinsic to God’s plan of salvation that Mary was created without original sin.  In the Book of Genesis chapter 3, we see how sin first entered the world through our first parents Adam and Eve.  Since Adam and Eve represented all of the human family, when they fell away from God, all of humanity fell away from him.  Original sin was then passed on to their children, and to their children’s children, all throughout human history.  Thus, when we are conceived and come into existence, we are born into a natural separation from God and an inclination toward sin that is called original sin. 

      However, God’s plan was to have his only Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, assume a human nature so that as both God and man Jesus could accomplish the redemption of the human race.  One problem: God is in complete and total opposition to sin.  Anything sinful cannot even come into God’s presence without being purified.  How then would God the Son be able to intimately join himself with a fallen human nature?  This is where God’s plan for Mary comes in.  God chose her to be conceived without original sin so that she would be able to give Jesus a pure and sinless human nature.       

       Where do we as Catholics get this teaching on the Immaculate Conception of Mary?  First, it is in fact revealed implicitly in Scripture as an important part of God’s unfolding plan of salvation.

      Genesis 3:15:  Let us first go to the book of Genesis where God is announcing for the first time his plan of salvation that will be accomplished through Christ: 

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel."  (Gen 3:15)

      It is important that we determine exactly who God is addressing and talking about.  God is speaking to the serpent and he says that the offspring of the woman will strike at his head.  Who is the only one who will strike at the head of the serpent who is Satan?  Jesus is the one who will come and strike at Satan’s head and destroy his power.  So if the offspring of the woman is Jesus, then the woman must be Mary. 

      Now God speaks of there being enmity between the serpent and the woman, and the serpent’s offspring and the woman’s offspring.  The offspring of Satan is sin, for it is sin that Satan desires to multiply and fill the earth.  So therefore, there is enmity between Mary/Jesus and Satan/sin.  What exactly does enmity mean?  Enmity means total and complete opposition.  If two things are in enmity with each other, they have nothing at all to do with one another; there is no cooperation or communion between the two whatsoever.  Consequently, both Jesus and Mary are completely opposed to Satan and sin.  They would have no cooperation or communion with Satan and sin whatsoever.  Mary is given the same absolute and perpetual opposition to Satan and sin as Jesus. 

      Therefore, it is necessary that Mary would not have a fallen nature, since any participation is original sin or actual sin would destroy the enmity with Satan and sin.   Thus, we see in the very first announcement of God’s plan of salvation his plan of Mary being totally free from sin so that Jesus would be able to assume a pure human nature. 

      Luke 1:28:  We see an even more explicit reference to the Immaculate Conception of Mary in Luke’s Gospel at the Annunciation when the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary to announce God’s plan of having her be the Mother of Jesus.  The Angel Gabriel’s greeting of Mary reveals her immaculate state.  His greeting properly translated is, “Hail, you who have been filled with grace.”  The Greek word kekaritomene is a perfect participle “have been filled.”   Mary has already been filled with God’s grace, for grace has already been infused into her at the moment of her conception. 

      Also notice that Mary is filled with grace.  Anytime we sin, even the smallest sin, we lose at least some of God’s grace.  That is the nature of sin.  Sin is a choice we make that rejects the grace he offers to us, which is his very life and love.  If Mary is filled with grace, then she would have been completely free from sin, as any sin, even the tiniest, would have caused her to be deprived of at least some grace. 

      Not only do we see the Immaculate Conception in Sacred Scripture, but it has also been constantly and clearly taught throughout Sacred Tradition from the earliest times of the Church: 

St. Ambrose (d. 379): Mary is “free from all stain of sin.”

St. Severus, Bishop of Antioch (d. 538):  “She (Mary) formed part of the human race, and was of the same essence as we, although she was pure from all taint and immaculate…”

St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. 638):  “You (Mary) have found the grace which no one has received…No one has been pre-purified besides you.”

These are only a small sample of teachings that clearly show that the Immaculate Conception was a part of the Church’s belief from the very beginning. 

     Finally in 1854, Pope Pius IX infallibly proclaims the Immaculate Conception as a part of Divine Revelation and a dogma of the Church to be definitively held by all the faithful: 

“We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine that holds that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, at the instant of her conception, was preserved immune from all stain of sin, by a singular grace and privilege of the Omnipotent God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was revealed by God and must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful.”

      How exactly, then, did God preserve Mary from original sin?  Mary needed Christ to redeem her just as much as we all do.  She was redeemed by her Son’s death on the cross, just like all of us.  But how could Mary have been redeemed by Jesus’ death on the cross before Jesus was even born? 

      It is because God is eternal and transcendent, and therefore, he is not bound by either space or time.  Because he is outside of space and time, God sees all of time past, present, and future, right now.  It is like looking at a very long train from a helicopter.  The engines are creation, the caboose is the end of the world, and we are somewhere in between the two.  God is able to operate outside of time.  Therefore, he took the graces and merits of Jesus’ death on the cross and applied them backwards in time to the moment of Mary’s conception.  Thus, Mary was redeemed by Christ as we all are, but through a “singular grace and privilege of the Omnipotent God” she was not only redeemed but also completely preserved from original sin. 

      Even though Mary was preserved from original sin at the moment of her conception, she could have still chosen to sin because as a human being she had free will.  She could have said “no” to the Father at the Annunciation.  She could have also said “no” to the Father at the foot of the cross, where she surrendered her Son, and fallen into despair and cursed God.  However, Mary perfectly cooperated and surrendered herself to the great gift of grace that God had given her and lived the most extraordinary Christian life.  That is why Mary is the Model of Faith and the Model of the Church.  We are all called to cooperate with whatever graces God chooses to give us so that we humbly and lovingly walk whatever path he chooses to give to us. 

     May the Immaculate Heart of Mary continue to inspire us on our journey of faith, especially during this season of Advent, that we may surrender ourselves fully to God through the “obedience of faith” and become Christ’s instruments of hope and love. 

     On August 15^th, we again celebrate the great feast of the Assumption when Mary is assumed body and soul into heaven.  This feast is the crowning jewel in the life of Mary and her Assumption is directly attributed to the fact that she is full of grace and that she lived a life of perfect union with her Son.  Thus, the Assumption highlights in many ways Mary’s role as Mother and Model of the Church.  This title of Mary is not new, but has been attributed to her from the beginning of Christianity, especially by the early Fathers of the Church.  More recently, Vatican II affirmed and reflected upon this important role of Mary in the life of the Church and in our own lives.  As Catholics, Mary is a great gift to us from Christ who wills and desires that we love and honor her as our own spiritual mother, and follow her great example of faith, charity, and holiness. 

     Mary enjoys a special place of honor in the Church, an honor that is even exulted above that which we give the angels and the saints.  Why is this?  First, we do not worship Mary—for Mary would be horrified if we ever exulted her to be at the same level as God.  However, we do honor Mary in a special or exulted way because of her unique faith and holiness, and because it was through Mary’s faith that Christ was able to come into the world and accomplish his work of salvation.  Without Mary’s yes or fiat at the Annunciation, Jesus would not have become incarnate:  “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)  As St. Augustine reflected, “All of creation held its breath awaiting the fiat of Mary.” 

      Thus, Mary is the perfect model of faith and exemplifies the type of faith all of us in the Church should possess.  Mary desired nothing but to do the will of God and all through her life she pondered with an open and docile heart the mighty works of God and the mystery of her Son, Jesus Christ.  Thus, Mary is the first and perfect model of the Church’s “pilgrimage of faith”.  As Vatican II teaches:

“Thus, the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, grieving exceedingly with her only begotten Son, uniting herself with a maternal heart with His sacrifice, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth.. (Lumen Gentium, 58)

     Not only is Mary the model of the Church’s pilgrimage of faith, but Mary is also the model and image of the Church’s destiny in glorification in Christ.  Mary, by being assumed body and soul into heaven, already enjoys the fullness of the Resurrection and is a great sign and witness to the victory won by Christ through the blood of the Cross.  Mary shows us in herself the ultimate and final end of our pilgrimage of faith—sharing in the glory of the most Holy Trinity and living in the communion of all the saints.  Mary shows us all that salvation in Christ is real and is the ultimate goal and destiny of the Church.  This is why the two final Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, the Assumption of Mary and the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth, are ultimately about Christ:  They show us that the grace of Christ’s redemption is real and effective, and Mary stands as a great sign of hope and encouragement for us all.  As Vatican II again states:

“In the interim just as the Mother of Jesus, glorified in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected is the world to come, so too does she shine forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come, as a sign of sure hope and solace to the people of God during its sojourn on earth.” (Lumen Gentium, 68)

     Mary is not only the Model of the Church, but she is also the Mother of the Church in the order of grace.  We see this most profoundly in John’s gospel when Jesus, as his last gift to us on earth, lovingly hands over to us the motherhood of Mary: 

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. (John 19:25-27)

Through this gift of Christ, Mary’s Motherhood not only is for Christ the Head, but also extends to the Body of Christ, the Church.   Just as Mary nurtured, protected, and provided for her Son, so does Mary nurture, protect, and provide for her children in the Church.  Mary is our spiritual Mother who through her motherhood desires only to bring us into a deeper and intimate communion with her Son. 

     What does this mean?  It means that just in the same way that she brought forth her Son into the world through her faith and instrumentality at the Annunciation, and the manifestation of his public ministry through the miracle at the wedding feast in Cana, Mary continues to manifest and present her Son to souls through her constant prayers and intercession and through her gentle witness “Do whatever he tells you.”  (John 2:5)  As Vatican II powerfully teaches:

“This maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent which she gave in faith at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, and lasts until The eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation.  By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into the happiness of their true home.” (Lumen Gentium, 62)

     Therefore, since Mary’s motherhood is a gift to each of us from Christ, devotion to Mary should be an essential part of the life of every Christian.  Devotion to Mary should always lead us to deeper union with Christ.  We never pray to Mary as an end, but ask her to intercede for us to Christ.  She would be horrified if devotion to her ever took away our focus on him!  Everything that she was and did was not only to bring about her own deeper communion with Christ, but to also bring others to a more intimate knowledge and union with him.  This is why we honor Mary as the perfect disciple of Christ and the Model of the Church. 

      Devotion to Mary does not take away from Christ, but rather augments our knowledge of his life and virtues.  Mary shows us that salvation in Christ is real and possible, and she also shows us what it looks like.  If you want to know Christ, know his Mother!  Mary is the perfect model of faith, hope, and charily and she continues to show us even today how to come into a stronger and more real relationship with Jesus.

      Mary’s prayers and intercession before Christ on our behalf are very powerful because of who she is and the role she played in God’s plan of salvation.  She is the Mother of Christ, so she has a unique and special relationship with him.  He has a special place in his heart for his Mother, and so he honors in a very special way her prayers and requests.  Through Mary’s prayers and intercession, we have a unique and privileged way to the heart of Jesus.  This is why prayers and devotion to her have been at the heart of the Church’s life from the very beginning. 

      In addition, Mary, through her Immaculate Conception, was created free from sin and was completely filled with grace and love throughout her life.  She was created with a capacity to love God and others that far exceeds any of us.  Thus, her love for us and her prayers for us are extraordinarily powerful.

     Therefore, as we continue on along our own journey of faith, seeking and contemplating the face of the Lord, and especially during this holy and penitential season of Lent, may we all strive to grow in our relationship with Mary and entrust ourselves more deeply to her maternal care, that she may present us as a pure and holy gift to Christ her Son.  Pray for us O holy Mother of God, that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ!

     Last week, I had the privilege of attending the St. John Bosco Catechetical Conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville.  It was a fantastic week of networking and collaborating with catechists and catechetical leaders from literally around the world who are working tirelessly in the vinyard of the Lord in handing on the faith to those the Lord has entrusted to them.  The ministry of catechesis is one of the most crucial ministries in the Church and is part of the Lord's commisioning to the Chuch to "baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teach them all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20)   I thought that this would be a great opportunity to reflect upon what exactly is catechesis, and that in reality, we are all catechists and are called to hand on the very Person of Christ. 

     What is catechesis?  Catechesis comes from the Greek meaning “to echo.”  It is the mission entrusted to the Church by Christ to “echo” or to faithfully hand on what Jesus has revealed to us through his Incarnation, his life and mission, and the Paschal mystery of his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.  In fact, through catechesis, it is not so much what we hand on but Whom.  As John Paul II simply but profoundly states in his letter on catechesis Catechesi Tradendae:   “At the heart of catechesis we find, in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, ‘the only Son from the Father...full of grace and truth.’”  (CT, 5)  Here we see the essence of what catechesis is:  the handing on of the person of Christ, and truth he reveals and the life of grace he offers to us.  First and foremost, catechesis must hand on the truth of Christ and who he is; the full revelation of the Father and the full revelation of our own humanity destined for eternal glory.  For it is only in the truth of Christ that we can come to know true freedom and the fullness of human life:   “For I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.” (Jn 10:10)  This truth about Christ in turn leads us to his life, a life of abundant grace found especially in the celebration of the sacraments and most profoundly in his real presence in the Eucharist.  As catechists, we are the instruments the Lord uses to echo this truth so that others may come first to know him and then have communion and life through Him.  “[Catechesis] is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ’s actions and words and of the signs worked by him…Accordingly, the definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ:  only He can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity.”  (CT, 5) 

     Thus as catechists, we hand on not our own teaching, but Christ’s teaching.  What a profound gift it is to be the instrument Christ chooses to use to bring his grace and truth to those entrusted to us!   In order to be true and effective catechists we must have the humility to know and understand our role of instrumentality.  With this precisely in mind, Pope John Paul beautifully and powerfully lays forth the role of the catechist: 

Every catechist should be able to apply to himself the mysterious words of Jesus: "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me".  Saint Paul did this when he was dealing with a question of prime importance: "I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you".  What assiduous study of the word of God transmitted by the Church's Magisterium, what profound familiarity with Christ and with the Father, what a spirit of prayer, what detachment from self must a catechist have in order that he can say: "My teaching is not mine"! (CT, 6)

     This indeed is a tall order and we don’t do it perfectly!  But, if we as catechists are to more faithfully echo the person and teaching of Christ, then we ourselves must see that we are immersed into his mystery in our own lives by contemplating and pondering the mystery of Christ through prayer, the sacraments, and our own personal study and ongoing “faith seeking understanding” and conversion of heart.   The more we are rooted in Christ, the more perfect and clear will be our echoing of Christ and his truth.  We see in Mary, who was the first catechist, the first to echo Christ and his truth, a profound living example for us who catechize.  For often in the gospel do we see Mary “pondering these things in her heart.” (Lk 2:19)   She allowed the mystery and truth of Christ to so penetrate her being that she was able to perfectly reflect the light of her Son.  As John Paul explains: 

Christ is the supreme Teacher, the revealer and the one revealed. It is not just a question of learning what he taught but of “learning him”. In this regard could we have any better teacher than Mary? From the divine standpoint, the Spirit is the interior teacher who leads us to the full truth of Christ (cf. Jn 14:26; 15:26; 16:13). But among creatures no one knows Christ better than Mary; no one can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his mystery better than his Mother.  (RVM, 14)

     Thus, it especially when we ponder with Mary the mystery of her Son through the rosary that we sit at the “school of Mary” and come to a deeper knowledge and communion with her Son.  Through the rosary we join with her in pondering in our own hearts the saving truth of Jesus Christ and come into a more intimate communion with him.  This is why the rosary is above all a Christ-centered prayer in which we learn Christ with and through the intercession of his Mother.  Therefore, devotion to the rosary can be a powerful spiritual tool in helping us come to a deeper knowledge of Christ so that we may be ever more faithful in “echoing” Christ through our ministry of catechesis.   

     May we all entrust ourselves to the maternal intercession of Mary who was for us the model catechist, and the first to hand on the Person of Christ.  As Pope John Paul II powerfully prays:

May the Virgin of Pentecost obtain this for us through her intercession. By a unique vocation, she saw her Son Jesus "increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor." As He sat on her lap and later as He listened to her throughout the hidden life at Nazareth, this Son, who was "the only Son from the Father," "full of grace and truth," was formed by her in human knowledge of the Scriptures and of the history of God's plan for His people, and in adoration of the Father. She in turn was the first of His disciples. She was the first in time, because even when she found her adolescent Son in the temple she received from Him lessons that she kept in her heart.  She was the first disciple above all else because no one has been "taught by God" to such depth. She was "both mother and disciple," as St. Augustine said of her, venturing to add that her discipleship was more important for her than her motherhood.  There are good grounds for the statement made in the synod hall that Mary is "a living catechism" and "the mother and model of catechists."

 May the presence of the Holy Spirit, through the prayers of Mary, grant the Church unprecedented enthusiasm in the catechetical work that is essential for her. Thus will she effectively carry out, at this moment of grace, her inalienable and universal mission, the mission given her by her Teacher: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." (CT, 73)

     On June 29^th, we celebrated the feast of Saints Peter and Paul in which we honor and recognize these two great apostles as the pillars of the Church and great defenders of the truth of Christ.   This feast gives us an opportune time to now reflect upon the role and mission of St. Peter as the head of Christ’s Church, and the profound authority that was given to him by Christ himself that is also handed on to his successors, the Pope, until the end of time.  In a world and culture marred by the great errors of moral relativism and the denial of objective truth, the Papacy, in the role of the successor of St. Peter, stands as the one and true defender of all truth as revealed by Jesus Christ. 

    While all the apostles were given the authority and the mission by Christ to teach, govern, and minister in his name, Peter was set apart and given a unique role by Christ that emphasized his teaching and governing authority over all the apostles and other disciples.  This is seen most profoundly in Matthew 16:

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"  They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."  He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"  Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."  Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.  And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Mt 16:13-19)

      In this very powerful scene, Jesus is asking the apostles who others think he is, but in reality, he is asking them who they think he is.  While the other apostles give many different answers, Peter is the one who sees the real identity of Christ as the Messiah and responds, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus responds, “Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.”  Jesus is revealing a profound truth.  Peter has been given a unique gift, or charism, by the Father to know and teach the truth, and his knowledge of Jesus’ identity is a result of this special gift.  Jesus recognizes this gift and special role of Peter and bestows on him a unique teaching and governing authority over all the apostles and the entire Church.

      Therefore, Jesus changes Peter’s name from Simon to Peter, which means “Rock” (Greek petros).  This is packed with meaning as the changing of one’s name in the Scriptures means a new identity, mission, and calling.  For example, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham when he responded to God’s invitation of faith, and he became the father of all of God’s people.  In the same way here, Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter to show his new identity and mission as the “rock” and head of the Church.

      Jesus calls Peter “rock,” and it is upon “this rock” that Jesus will build his Church.  Why does Jesus build his Church upon Peter?  It is fundamentally in response to Peter already exercising his teaching authority given to him by the Father.  He has received a gift of wisdom to know the truth about Christ, and also a teaching charism to proclaim it with clarity and without error. 

      No mere human revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Messiah.  He had not yet told Peter that he was the Messiah, and many were still seriously grappling with exactly who Jesus was.  But Peter was given the gift to know the truth, and he faithfully proclaimed it to the apostles.  He will be the one who will lead, teach, and strengthen the apostles and the other followers after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus. 

      Recognizing Peter’s gift of teaching the truth, Jesus then grants him a unique and profound authority:  “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Jesus entrusts to Peter the keys to the Church!  What does this mean?  In Jesus’ time, when the master was going to leave his estate for a time, he would entrust to his head servant the keys to the estate.  This servant, who possessed the keys, was entrusted with the full authority of his master while he was away.  Thus, the servant does not replace the master, but possesses his authority in his absence.  Peter becomes the “Vicar” of Christ, that is, he has been given the full authority of the Master over his Church until he comes again.  However, with this authority comes great responsibility.  The servant who is given the keys of the master is expected to take care of and run the estate in the way the master desires.  In the same way, Peter’s authority is one of service and obedience to the will and teachings of Christ.  It is the sole responsibility of Peter and his successors to authoritatively and faithfully teach and hand on what Christ has taught and willed.

     This same teaching charism given by the Father and profound authority bestowed upon Peter by Christ himself is also handed on to each and every successor of Peter in the person of the Pope.  By virtue of his office, the Pope is guided by the Holy Spirit to teach and proclaim the truth as it pertains to faith and morals without error.  Thus, it is through the Pope as the visible head of the Church that the sacred Deposit of Faith entrusted by Christ to the Church has remained preserved, intact, and handed on without error for over 2,000 years. 

     The gift of the Papacy has been especially evident in recent history through the great Popes of the 20^th century, especially as exemplified in our late Holy Father Blessed Pope John Paul II and continued today through the great leadership of Pope Benedict XVI.  In these times of great moral confusion, and when the basic foundations of the truths of Christianity are being challenged by an increasingly secular culture, it is the Pope as the successor of St. Peter that continues to steer and guide the Church towards the truth of Christ so that the promise of Christ will be fulfilled:  “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld will never prevail against it.”  

     This Sunday, we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, when the fullness of the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and they burst out of the upper room and began to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This feast is one of the most important events in salvation history for two reasons.  First, Pentecost fully reveals the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.  The strong driving wind and the tongues of fire that fell upon the apostles are the visible signs of the Holy Spirit, the love of the Father and the Son poured forth transforming the apostles and empowering them to be the witnesses of Christ to the ends of the earth thus fulfilling the words of Christ:  “But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

     The coming of the Holy Spirit also institutes the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  Pentecost is the birthday of the Church and all four of these marks of the Church are present at Pentecost.  When you carefully read the Pentecost account in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke makes it very clear that this is not just an individual experience of the coming of the Holy Spirit by the apostles and other disciples, but is in fact above all an ecclesial event.

     First, St. Luke makes it clear that all the nations of the ancient world are present in Jerusalem, and, in fact, if you had a map of the ancient world at the time, Luke mentions almost all of the major regions and cities that encompassed the entire world at this time.  And yet, each person by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit is able to hear the Gospel of Christ preached in his own language.   What is happening here?  St. Luke is making strikingly clear that the same humanity that was scattered in the Book of Genesis at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) is now being intimately united in the power of the Holy Spirit in the Church.  A humanity that was once scattered and divided in sin is now, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, newly created as the Body of Christ, the Church.  Thus, we see that this gathering of the human family at Pentecost is the Church that is both one and Catholic, or universal.  In other words, the Holy Spirit brings about the Church that is intimately united in the Spirit and also knows no boundaries, for the Church is open to every person of every race, language and culture. 

    Secondly, we also see that this Church is holy, first and foremost because it is filled with the Holy Spirit.  We also see that those who are joined to the Church are joined to her by virtue of the Sacrament of Baptism through which they die to their old sinful selves and become a new creation in Christ.  The Holy Spirit sent by Christ not only inaugurates the presence and mission of the Church, but that same Spirit makes the Church holy.

     Thirdly, we also see in the Pentecost event that the Church is Apostolic in that it is Peter and the other eleven apostles that are charged with handing on the Deposit of Faith that has been entrusted to them by Christ.  This is the profound beauty of the Church, that Christ instituted the Church upon the Rock of Peter and the other apostles, and then filled them with a unique charism of the Holy Spirit to hand on, protect, and interpret the Deposit of Faith to each generation.  This handing on of the faith beginning at Pentecost and continuing to this present day in the successors of the apostles, the Pope and the Bishops, is guided, protected, and guaranteed by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

     Two years ago, I had the awesome privilege of visiting Rome and St. Peter’s Basilica where we celebrated Mass at the Altar of St. Peter.  Above the altar at the very front of St. Peter’s is the famous stained glass window of the Holy Spirit pouring down from heaven over the Chair of St. Peter.  This was one of the most moving experiences as I truly sensed the power of the Holy Spirit as he guides and protects the Church throughout the centuries.  It is this presence of the Holy Spirit first given at Pentecost that inaugurated the mission of the Church that has also protected and kept the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church alive and well as the instrument of salvation in the world for over 2,000 years. 

     As we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, let us not only give thanks to God for the gift of the Holy Spirit in our own lives, but for the great gift of the Catholic Church that is truly the “church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15)

I was unable to attend this year's fall meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All the same, I'd like to offer a few thoughts on the election of Archbishop Timothy Dolan as the new president of that body.

(1) Image may not be everything, despite the Andre Agassi commercials of the 90s. But it is very important, and Church leadership at home and in the Vatican has been notoriously inept when it comes to public relations. With this election, however, the U.S. bishops got it right. They bypassed the successor-in-waiting (USCCB VP, Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson) and chose arguably the best communicator among current bishops, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York. To borrow from the song, he is "making it there" in the most prominent U.S. see, so there is every reason to believe that this gregarious, eminently likable prelate will project the right public image for the USCCB.

(2) Commentator John Allen of the left-leaning National Catholic Reporter likens Archbishop Timothy Dolan to a high octane, populist American version of Pope Benedict. So far, so good. However, from there he asserts that his election is not so much the victory of a conservative over a liberal, but rather a victory of the kinder, gentler "affirmative orthodoxy" of Pope Benedict over the harder edge of conservative ideologues. Those looking for a "no spin zone" may want to look elsewhere!

The main problem with Allen's assessment is the fact that Archbishop Dolan's main opposition was Bishop Kicanas, who is unmistakably on the "left," and who had the distinct advantage of being the current VP of the conference, which usually signals victory. Archbishop Dolan is clearly more "conservative" than Bishop Kicanas. Plus, "conservative" here generally relates to degree of the prelate's being in step with the Pope and curia. Any and all "conservatives" would vote for Dolan over Kicanas, and they did, despite the (very) small "t" tradition of simply voting for the VP.

(3) The clerical sex abuse issue still trumps just about everything. The bishops clearly were concerned about voting for Bishop Kicanas in light of the troubling revelations regarding Fr. Daniel McCormick, a  sex abuser who was ordained under Bishop Kicanas' watch, despite indications that McCormick was engaging in homosexual activity while in seminary. The facts are still being sorted out, and perhaps the evidence will eventually show that Bishop Kicanas acted appropriately and in good faith. That's hardly a foregone conclusion, though, and in light of the Church's already tarnished public image in that area (see pt. 1) the USCCB wisely went another route. Already activist groups like SNAP--hardly allies of the "conservatives"--are applauding the election of Archbishop Dolan.

(4) George Neumayr of Catholic World Report makes a strong case that the vote for Archbishop Dolan is in part a repudiation of the controversial "seamless garment" approach to life issues. As summarized at the CWN site, New York's Cardinal John O'Connor pushed for a clear focus on the fight against abortion in the 1980s, while Chicago's Cardinal Joseph Bernardin preferred the "seamless garment" approach, in which abortion was only one of a number of issues to be weighed in political discussions. For years the "seamless garment" approach has had the upper hand in USCCB discussions--reflecting the dominance enjoyed by the late Cardinal Bernardin and his allies. But now Bishop Kicanas, a Bernardin protégé, has been defeated by Cardinal O'Connor's successor in New York.

(5) This isn't like American politics, where the president gets to choose his VP. Still, the election of incoming VP Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville--a "centrist" who is now the odds-on choice to become Archbishop Dolan's successor--deserves some comment. I've always liked Archbishop Kurtz, and I'm eternally grateful that he offered a Mass for my Mom in his cathedral the weekend she died.

What I like most about his election as VP, though, is that he is so forward-looking when it comes to the battle against same-sex marriage. We have to admit that we were asleep at the switch in the years immediately before Roe v. Wade dramatically shifted the landscape. Archbishop Kurtz has been a superb leader in building up Catholic marriage, and he is an able spokesman against contemporary attempts to redefine marriage.

We'll see how all these points play out, but I think there are some solid grounds for optimism here.

I have long disliked the label "conservative." I mean, there's nothing wrong with it per se, but I'm not a political ideologue. I am a Catholic who believes what the Church teaches, and for that reason alone I'm called a "conservative."

After reading articles this morning on the voting patterns of Catholics and whether the Catholic faith and the "Tea Party" movement are a good mix, I figured the time was ripe to give my top ten list of reasons why "liberal" and "conservative" are not useful terms when it comes to Catholic beliefs. These are in no particular order: More...

Today the universal Church celebrates the feast of St. Cyprian (and St. Cornelius, but we'll talk about him another day). Born of pagan parents, St. Cyprian was a third-century Bishop of Carthage who eventually was exiled and then martyred during the persecution of Emperor Valerian.

Among other things, St. Cyprian is known for coining the maxim: "No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother," which is quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 181.

It makes sense. St. Paul talks about the marriage between Christ and His Church in Ephesians 5. As Christians, we are the offspring of that marriage. We truly are children of God, and we're also sons and daughters of the Church. The Church is a supernatural "nuclear family."

In matters of faith, however, we see a lot of "single parenthood." More...

In our legal system, if we don’t like a law, we push for new laws and elect new legislators who might listen to us. When it comes to interpreting and applying existing laws, we hire the most skilled attorneys we can afford, whose job is not to seek the truth but to present our side most effectively. Even if we lose at trial, we can still pursue our cause through various avenues of appeal, all the while using the media to put pressure on the government.

We have many “disciplines” in the Church which are “positive law,” meaning that they’re the product of human invention. While Church leaders in general make the best pastoral judgments they can, such disciplines may turn out to be good, bad, or somewhere in between, and they may be in effect for a week or for 100 years or more.

Church disciplines have been subject of “lobbying,” especially in our time, from altar girls and Communion on the hand to a wider, more readily available access to the extraordinary (Tridentine) form of the Roman rite. The laity have the right to be heard on such matters, though in the meantime the current discipline calls forth our obedience and filial respect for the Church.

However, when it comes to the deposit of faith--what the Church teaches in the area of faith and morals--American democratic concepts simply are out of place. No matter how many petitions are signed, no matter how fervently and repeatedly dissent is allowed to foment and lead people astray, what God has revealed through Christ as proclaimed by the Church is not up for grabs. More...