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Fixing God

Why are some ‘Churches’ so intent on redefining God. Are they that uncomfortable with the God of revelation that they need to fix Him? It would appear so.

The Presbyterians can opt to refer to the holy Trinity as “Mother, Child, and Womb”. The Episcopal Church and others have been referring to the Holy Trinity as —Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier—.

I think that anyone in an orthodox Catholic Church (PNCC, Roman Catholic) will have to take a stand on conditionally baptizing anyone who walks through the door seeking membership.

In Orthodoxy all entering are baptized, chrismated, and given the Eucharist after their period of catechesis. It’s more or less universal without exception. Since so many ‘Christians’ are failing to use the Trinitarian formula given by Jesus Christ Himself, the Orthodox way makes more and more sense, and is the only safe alternative.

Current Events,

Possibilities for the Episcopal Church

At the General Convention of the Episcopal Church there was discussion about changing the name of the Church and that it no longer be referred to as the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA). The convention organizers dragged out sixteen flags and stated that the Episcopal Church (TEC) is represented in all those countries. Very multi-national don’t you think?

TEC has elected a woman as its Presiding Bishop and it looks like they will not comply with the Windsor Report, putting them at odds with most of the rest of Anglicanism.

Ecumenically, TEC has decided, at its convention, to undertake Eucharistic sharing with the United Methodist Church. They already have such an arrangement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and based on the Bonn Agreement with all the Churches of the Utrecht Union. At the convention TEC will be signing an updated “Concordat of Full Communion.” with the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Aglipayan).

In my estimation the stage is set for TEC to break from the Anglican Communion. They have created a sort of union of the left and liberal. They have also set the stage to become the money and the power behind a ‘new’ union (see we’re doing a new thing).

I find it very interesting that Bishop Joris Vercammen, the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, presided at the convention’s June 19 Eucharist, ostensibly in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the Bonn Agreement. Utrecht has already substantially adopted the ‘ordination’ of women and is well on the way to blessings of same sex unions.

In October 2005 when Utrecht met with the Abp. of Canterbury (caution PDF Document) there was much discussion on the issue of overlapping jurisdictions. There are Anglican Bishops in locales under the jurisdiction of a Utrecht Bishop. Since Utrecht and the Anglican Church are in full communion there should only be one Bishop per jurisdiction.

Utrecht used a made up, far less serious excuse to eject the PNCC from the Union (not that the PNCC wanted to remain in union with Utrecht based on Utrecht’s liberal positions).

Could TEC become the new ‘Rome for the liberals’? Could Utrecht align with the TEC? Could Utrecht disavow their relationship with Anglicanism in general and join with TEC, the IFI (who have been in on and off discussions with Utrecht for years), the ELCA and the UMC in a sort of liberal, anything goes movement?

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Each of the parties to that kind of Union would be a dying entity. Each is defective in its beliefs and practices. It would be no more than a set of bodies where the ‘I’ll believe what I want’ crowd can hang out (all the while providing a good income and nice living conditions for its clergy).

Poland - Polish - Polonia

The Wieliczka Salt Mine

Fr. Jim Tucker of Dappled Things has a post on the salt mines at Wieliczka (near Krakow) in Poland. He also has a link to photos of the place.

I’ve visited Wieliczka when I was teaching an intensive Summer English Language course in Poland (1991 —“ 1993). The place is amazing.

It is not only a great historical monument and tourist site, it contains a sanitarium for people with asthma and other respiratory problems. The salt air microclimate in the lowest levels combined with the stable ambient temperature and pure air combine to create the perfect atmosphere for patients.

The carvings and chambers you see as part of the tour are amazing. The chapels and the main church are magnificent.

A pious tradition recalls that before St. Kinga (sometimes also referred to as Kunegunda) came from Hungary to Poland to marry the Polish king she threw a ring down a well. When she reached the site of Wieliczka she stopped for a water break. They drew water from a well and her ring was found there. She directed that a mine be dug there. Salt, which was a valuable commodity in that time, was found and the find added to the Polish coffers.

The actual history and a lot more information may be found (in English) at the official site of the Kopalnia Soli —žWieliczka—.

As I recall, the St. Kinga church is also dedicated to St. Barbara. They are the patrons of miners.

Everything Else,

Miscellaneous

St. Stan’s gets a new website

St. Stanislaus Kostka in St. Louis, MO has a new website.

I like the layout (albeit with a few layout modifications needed, the pages are too wide and you have to scroll left to right). There’s less of an emphasis on conflict (although you can still find info about the conflict between the parish and the Diocese) and more emphasis on the practice of the faith and parish life.

Interestingly, in their links section they provide a link to St. Agatha’s, the Roman Catholic parish set up in opposition to St. Stan’s by Abp. Burke.

I’ve surpassed 500 items of comment spam

Akismet reports that it has filtered 502 items of comment spam to date. What a great plug-in!!!

Current Events

To our Anglican friends

The revisionist, non-biblical path taken by the Episcopal ‘Church’ in the United States is evident. I could list dozens of points as to where the ECUSA has missed the boat. The real truth is that Anglicanism missed the boat from the days of Henry VIII forward.

It is interesting that the ECUSA took its latest step in going over the cliff within the Octave of Corpus Christi, a day and time honoring the most precious body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Interesting because no matter the level of smells and bells, no matter the beauty of vestments and church buildings, no matter how firm you are in calling yourself Anglo-Catholic, you are in a defective church.

The Anglican Communion simply does not believe in the Holy Eucharist as anything more than a symbol. There is no reality behind it. You can wish it to be true, your can delude yourself into thinking it is true, but if you subscribe to the 39 Articles it is not true. If you perform the Anglican ‘communion service’ nothing happens. The Anglican ‘communion service’ is not the Holy Mass and no sacrifice is offered. The whole sacrificial nature of the perpetual memorial has been washed out.

If the Body of Christ is indeed truly and fully present under the appearance of bread and wine then they are to be worshipped. Is that what you believe? The elements are either changed or they are not. Do you believe they are? Setting aside the question of how they are changed (transubstantiation), which we cannot judge, the fact is true Catholics believe that the change occurs, is real, and is true. The bread and wine are no more, it is Christ Jesus. So we bow down and worship. Yes?

For those who are truly catholic at heart and who are willing to bear a share in the Lord’s cross in order to follow His teachings, who are willing to give up their comfort zone and their ‘Anglican’ way, I urge you to take the step and come to Catholicism. Whether in the PNCC, Orthodoxy, or the Roman Catholic Church, come to the living water. Come receive the bread that lasts forever, as well as all of the sacraments instituted by Christ.

Jesus has given us His body and blood to eat and drink, join with those who believe. He said that you must:

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.”

Perspective

Sports = Politics = Church Discipline

Fr. Martin Fox commented on the fact that he had little if any interest in the World Cup. His comment generated a firestorm of comments on politics and Church discipline and only a few comments on soccer itself.

I like soccer, it is an exciting, skilled, and fast moving sport, but frankly I have little love for any particular sport. I’m really not passionate about sports. I’d rather delve into reading, cooking, wine, good conversation, even politics and churchy matters.

Anyway, I made a sports related comment and as part of that comment I mentioned that another writer, who also commented about sports, and her particular love for the German team, should not have used the phrase —Deutschland, Deutschland ueber Alles …—

Perhaps I shouldn’t have broken into politics and history, but I just get a little upset when unknowing ‘fans’ trot out this hymn. It has implications beyond —“ hey my team is great and we will win.

The writer and another writer took me to task for being all sensitive and how dare I criticize the German national anthem.

First of all, check your history. The first two stanzas of the German national anthem are never used (see Das Lied Der Deutschen for background —“ and this from a German writer on the issue).

The official German anthem begins and ends with the third verse (never heard of this happing with any other song —“ i.e., jumping right to the third verse). Why exactly? The anthem jumps to the third verse because the first two stanzas represent the horrors of Nazism in both their historical and present milieu. They were used to engender the feelings of superiority, power, imperial mandate, and alleged racial purity. They were used as part of the pretext for killing millions of innocent people. They remain shrouded in the ethos a Nazism, and no amount of historical documentation, nay saying, or revisionism will change that. As such, the German government has rejected these words and these stanzas since 1946.

The retort comes back —“ but what about the French, American, etc. etc. anthems. They express pride and are warlike. While that is certainly true, it must be remembered that on the whole they were not used as pretext for mass murder (yes and we can debate Native Americans and so on another time…). Further, I am not engaging in a historical analysis of other cultures. I’m talking about something that is personal to me, my family, and my friends.

If you want to study the basis of German complicity and active participation in the Nazi horrors read Hitler’s Willing Executioners : Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen or Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning or Backing Hitler : Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany by Robert Gellately.

I will not comment further at Father’s site because it is off topic to sports. I do urge that people who are all so happy about proclaiming —Deutschland, Deutschland ueber Alles …— study history a little more closely, perhaps visit a concentration camp, talk to survivors and former slave laborers, and understand exactly what that song means.

Homilies

Solemnity – Corpus Christi

“This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you
in accordance with all these words of his.”

In an Essay carried by National Public Radio Marion Winik discussed the process of helping her aged mother clean out her attic. The essay, Cleaning House, and Cherishing Memories started off with the following statement:

Housecleaning is a necessary evil. But at what point do mementoes become clutter — and when should the memories of a home be taken out to the curb?

I listened as Ms. Winik described the things she was getting rid of. She noted that one of the items she was getting rid of was her deceased brother-in-law’s art portfolio.

I had to ask myself why I was shocked by this particular statement. Perhaps it was the fact that the statement was an oxymoron. Here you have an author, an artist of words discarding pieces of art. Maybe I was shocked because art probably represented a lot of this man’s heart and soul —“ art can be the very expression of ones deepest feelings. I felt unsettled and slightly angry. It was in some ways personal. I can imagine people taking what I hold dear —“ for me my writing, and throwing it out as so much trash.

In the end I was most disturbed because I am a Catholic/Christian.

My brothers and sisters,

Today Jesus Christ Himself will re-enact the very sacrifice of Calvary on this altar. Through the hands of the priest and in the priest’s voice Jesus will repeat the very same words found in today’s gospel:

While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, gave it to them, and said,
“Take it; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
“This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

What is ancient will be new. The perpetual memorial will occur right before our eyes as we kneel in adoration. By His sacrifice we will be renewed and cleansed of what is old and dead in us – our sinfulness.

Paul makes this very clear:

For if the blood of goats and bulls
and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes
can sanctify those who are defiled
so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works
to worship the living God.

Once we have received Jesus into our very bodies we will gather as a community to carry out another ancient and holy action. We will place the body of Jesus into the monstrance that has been part of this parish for many years. We will place Him into this artwork, trying as best as we can with our feeble human abilities, to worship, praise, and glorify the living God.

We will sing songs and process with His body. We will go out through the doors of the church and under the open sky, for the entire world to see, we will carry Him, sing to Him, pray to Him, and glorify Him.

The Church in its prayers, devotions, pious actions, processions, and most especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass carries out what Christ has commanded us to do.

He told us to pray —“ we do.
He told us to re-enact what He has done —“ we do.
He told us to bear witness before the world —“ and we do.

Our life as Catholic/Christians is completely bound up with our faith and our actions. We come to God in faith. We are regenerated through an act of faith, and we put that faith to work in perpetuity through what we do.

When Ms. Winik threw out a part of her deceased brother-in-law she committed a sin. It is the same sin as anyone who neglects the reality before them in favor of self revelation and symbolic memories.

Ms. Winik not only threw out his memory, she put into action the philosophy of a society that only values the pleasure of the moment. She forgot that man is not just the here and now. She neglected the fact that man is not just a moment. Rather, man is eternal. She forgot that her brother-in-law presented himself in his art. He left something that he intended to last, something that would give his family a glimpse into his soul.

Things are not just things. Some things mean more then what they appear to be. Today we remember in a very special way that this piece of bread is not bread at all. It is the Body of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. It is God ever before us. It is God among us. It is God united to this world because the world, you and I, are worth saving. It is God with us forever. It cannot be discarded. Jesus left us His body and blood as something that will last. As Catholic/Christians we believe that and we are commanded to teach it.

Take your faith and reclaim the world with it. Tell everyone you know —“ look, here is Jesus in all His reality, look in the Church and find God’s love for us. Every moment of every day He offers us eternity through the body and blood of His Son. It is neither a symbol nor an intellectual exercise; it is what is forever.

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