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Fr. Bryan Howard
Divine Mercy Sunday – Year B – 8 April 2018 Pope St. John Paul II named the second Sunday of Easter Divine Mercy Sunday in the year 2000, which is why I have the image of the Divine Mercy placed here in the sanctuary. In the 1930s our Lord appeared to a sister of Our Lady of Mercy in Krakow, Poland, Sr. Faustina Kowalska. Jesus spoke to Sr. Faustina, now St. Faustina, of His mercy, His desire to pour out His mercy on all peoples, and that people should draw close to Him. He told her to have a painting done of what she saw, Jesus, with His hand pointing to His heart, and red and white rays coming from His heart, with the inscription, “Jesus, I trust in You.” The rays of light are meant to remind us of the grace of God the poured from Christ on the Cross. They represent the water and blood that flowed from His side when He was pierced by a lance on the Cross. He told St. Faustina, “The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls.” Of course, an image by itself can’t do anything. It is what the image stands for that has the power. This image is meant to raise our minds to God and help us think about His love for us, His grace, and what He did for us on the Cross. God is the source of all grace, and all graces flow from the Cross. We talk a lot about grace in the Church, but have you ever wondered, “What is grace?” The word grace means “gift.” Grace is a gift freely given by God and it is meant to draw us closer to Him. It is simply God acting in our lives. Graces can cause us to think about God or heavenly things, they can help us to resist temptation, and they can strengthen us to do what we know is right. Grace never forces us to do anything, because God respects our free will; grace only suggests, encourages, and calls, like Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio. You were probably taught as a child that it’s rude to ask people for a gift. When it comes to grace you need to get over that instinct. If you were starving to death would you just sit waiting for someone to bring you some food, or would you go out and find some? Well, we need grace to nourish us spiritually just as surely as we need food to nourish us physically. There are some graces that God will give you regardless, but there are some that you’ll only get if you make yourself ready for them. The first thing you can do to get more grace, is to ask for it. It’s like a child asking mom for more vegetables; there’s no way she’s going to say no. So, when we ask God for grace, He will give it to us. Think about what sins you struggle with the most, or what virtues you need to grow in the most, and ask God for those things specifically. This is an act of humility, and God will respond by giving you grace. Second, respond to grace. As I said earlier, grace is an invitation or a suggestion. It’s takes work and effort on our part, too. But, what you do respond to God’s grace, you get more of it. Here’s an example that happens pretty often. I sit in the confession for about 20 minutes before every weekend Mass, starting half an hour before Mass and ending 10 minutes before Mass. So, if you’ve never seen the confession light on, you just need to get here a little earlier. A lot of the times, I’ll hear 1 or 2 or no confessions, so most of the time I’m just sitting in there, but I’m sitting in there with that green light on, and people see that light, week after week, reminding them that I’m there. That light is an opportunity for grace, and invitation from God. If someone responds to that invitation, then they also get the graces of the Sacrament of Confession, which leads to more graces calling them to fight harder against there sins, or giving them the motivation to start praying more and trying to improve their relationship with God. But if you never respond to that first grace, then you never get any of those other graces. Something as simple as a light, or an image, or as profound as the Eucharist, is an opportunity for grace and an invitation from God. During this week, pay attention to those things. What invitation is God giving you, and how are you responding to it?
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![]() The Priest as Alter Christus Last week I wrote about how both Marriage and the Priesthood are calls to service, but what kind of service? What does the priesthood of Jesus Christ look like? The priest is ordained to be alter Christus, “another Christ,” both in celebrating the sacraments and in the way He lives His life. He is called to serve as Christ served, by laying down His life for the flock. In his book on the priesthood, Fr. Jean Galot, S.J., writes, “If the priest is ‘another Christ’ in a special way, this is due not to a merely juridical delegation but to the figure of Christ Priest and Shepherd impressed in His soul.” In His ordination the priest is conformed to Christ as priest and shepherd, and this is why He is able to offer the Mass, to forgive sins, to bless, and to make Christ present for the people. The job of the priest is to be a middle man, or go between, to bring the people to God and to bring God to the people. It is not the priest who forgives sins, it is God who forgives sins through the priest. There was an ancient heresy that only a holy Priest is able to offer the sacraments. Can you imagine if that was true? You would constantly be wondering, “Is this priest really holy? Am I really baptized? Are my sins really forgiven? Was that Mass valid?” No, it’s not the holiness of the priest that allows him to offer the sacraments, it is his ordination and the fact that God works through the priest. But the priest isn’t only called to offer the sacraments; he is also called to live them. In the rite of ordination, after the gifts are brought up for the Mass, the bishop hands them to the new priests and says, “Receive the oblation of the holy people, to be offered to God. Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s cross.” The priesthood is not about power, authority, and privilege. It’s about conforming our lives to Christ, and offering our lives, as He did, to bring people closer to God. None of us are perfect, and all of us fail to live up to our calling in one way or another, but, by the grace of God, may we come closer and closer to it every day. Chapter 6 of the book, Equipped, tackles a difficult and complicated subject, but one that affects everyone: “Understanding Sexual Shame.” Shame is a fact of life that affects everyone, either when we sin, or when we think we’ve failed at something, or when something makes us feel inadequate. It’s helpful to understand how shame works and that it can be both healthy and unhealthy depending on how we deal with it.
Shame can be healthy and even a great grace when it points out a real problem is our relationship with God or with other people. When we’ve sinned and knowingly damaged these relationships we naturally feel ashamed of it. The shame is pointing out this damage and calling us to do something to begin repairing that relationship by apologizing and making up for it, or, in our relationship with God, by going to confession and doing penance. It is calling us back to love. However, we’ve all experienced a different kind of shame; the kind that tells us that we are unloved and unlovable, that we are bad or damaged, and that’s there’s no hope for us. This type of shame draws us away from God and other people. It feeds on our fears and anxieties and often leads to self-destructive behaviors. It’s not from God, it’s a lie from the evil one. We must reject the lie that God doesn’t love us and draw closer to Him. Parents, teach your children about the love of God. God loves us unconditionally and there’s nothing we can do to lose that love. We didn’t do anything to win God’s love, so there’s nothing we can do that would make Him stop loving us. Our good behavior shouldn’t be an attempt to try to win God’s love (He already loves us), but a response to His love (by loving Him in return). The best way you can teach your children this is by living it. Make sure they know that you love them unconditionally, that nothing they do will make you stop loving them, and that they can come to you with any problem and not be condemned. ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
Easter Sunday – 1 April 2018 Alleluia, Christ is risen, Alleluia! Thanks be to God. This evening we celebrate the Easter Vigil. We blessed the fire and brought the Paschal Candle into the Church, symbolizing the light of the risen Christ entering the world after three days of darkness. We listened to readings going through the history of salvation, and then we sang the Easter Alleluia. This is a holy night, a joyful night, a glorious night. Have you ever wondered why Jesus rose from the dead on the third day? Why not the second day or the fourth day? Why the third day? If you came to the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper, you heard me explain how the Last Supper corresponds to the passover feast, or seder meal, of the ancient Jews. Jesus was crucified on the next day, Good Friday, which would have been the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted for seven days. On the third day of the feast of unleavened bread, they celebrated the Feast of First Fruits, which was a feast of great joy in ancient Jerusalem. It was a feast of the harvest. The very first cuttings of the first harvest of barley would be brought up to the temple as an offering to God. People would come from all of Israel bringing offerings of figs and grapes and dried figs and raisins. Everyone would be dressed in their finest clothes. Early in the morning, a special group of priests would go out to a certain field wearing their finest vestments. They would bring an ox with them draped with gold clothes and with a garland of olive leaves around its head. They would cut the very first barley from the field, tie it into a bundle, and place it on the ox’s back. Then they would all process back into Jerusalem, up to the city, to the playing of flutes and the singing of the levites. As Jesus was rising from the dead, there was joy and singing in the Temple in Jerusalem, a festival of life and gratitude to God for the new harvest. When the procession arrived at the Temple, the High Priest would take the sheath of barley, bring it up to the altar and raise it high and wave it from side to side, presenting it to God. This was called the waved offering, and it looked something like this, like the sign of the Cross. As the priest lifted up the barley, they would sing a certain psalm, Psalm 30, “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from the dead, restored me to life from among those gone down to the pit… You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you for ever.” The first fruits was an act of faith in God. You couldn’t be sure that you would get any more harvest, so, if you give God the very first cut of the very first harvest, you’re thanking God for giving you any harvest at all and you’re saying that you trust God to provide for the rest of the harvest, to take care of you and your family. The first fruits is the promise that more will come. Just so you know that I’m not making all this up, listen to what St. Paul says in His letter to the Corinthians, “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.” Jesus Christ is the firstfruits, the promise of the resurrection of the dead, but we are the rest of the harvest, all those who belong to God. Before He died, Moses gave one last talk, one last sermon to the people, saying, “I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him.” God greatly desires to give us life, the new life of the Resurrection, and He has already promised it to us through His own Resurrection. Will you accept what God is offering you? Will you choose to live in His love? ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
Good Friday Solemn Service of the Lord – 30 March 2018 Why do we do all of this every year? Why do we gather together during Holy Week? We believe that these rituals, these celebrations, remember something that happened in the past, and prepare us for something that’s going to happen in the future. On Good Friday we remember and celebrate the suffering and death of Jesus, and we prepare ourselves for the crosses that we have to bear in our lives, and especially for the end of our lives. We learned this from the Jews, because they did the same things. All of these things happened during the ancient feast of Passover. In Passover the Jewish people remember when God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Moses told the people that God was going to send one final plague on Egypt. Because Pharaoh had ordered the murder of the sons of the Israelites, so God would send the angel of death to take the firstborn son of every family. The Israelites were told to each offer a year old male lamb, without spot or blemish, and to spread the blood on the door posts, so the angel of death would know to pass over their houses. Then they would roast the lamb and eat it with bitter herbs, wine, and unleavened bread. To remember this, the Jewish people would all gather in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. They would go to the temple and offer the lamb, then they would roast the lamb and eat it with bitter herbs, wine, and unleavened bread. It was on the feast of passover that Jesus was crucified. Remember what St. John the Baptist said when He first saw Jesus, which we say in every Mass, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” And latter in the Mass, “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.” Jesus is the lamb of God. As Jesus was stretching His arms out on the Cross, the lambs were being offered in the Temple. When they prepared them to be roasted, they would take two sticks, one they would tie down the back of the lamb, and the other would be tied to its front legs, holding them out to the side, in the shape of a cross. And what time was it when this was happening? The lambs were offered in the middle of the afternoon. The Bible tells us when Jesus took His last breath, about 3:00 in the afternoon. At the same time. None of this is an accident. In God there are no coincidences. Everything has a meaning and a person. From the very beginning God knew how He was going to save us. In the Exodus, the Israelites were saved from slavery to Pharaoh, but Jesus saves us from slavery to sin. The passover lamb saved the people from physical death, but Jesus, the Lamb of God, saves us from spiritual death. We are not now being prepared to enter some promised land, like the Israelites were, we are being prepared to enter heaven. Now, you probably thought that was all of the connections, but I want to point out one more. On Passover, after the day was over and all the offering done, they had to clean up, so they would get buckets of water, and splash them all through the Temple area and on the altar, and it would drain through the side of the Temple, through the right side, and form a stream of blood and water. After His death, to prove that Jesus was dead, the soldier took his lance and stabbed Jesus through His right side, and from the would came a stream of blood and water, signifying the saving waters of baptism and the Precious Blood of the New Covenant. The Bible says, “The life is in the blood.” We receive the life of Christ into our own souls every time we draw near to the Cross. The Sacrament of Holy Orders
The last two sacraments are called the sacraments of service, Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony. They are both all about serving others. In Holy Matrimony, husband and wife receive grace from God to better serve one another and their family, to treat one another with love, kindness, compassion, and generosity, and to help one another get to heaven. In Holy Orders, deacons, priests, and bishops receive grace from God to serve the Church, the people of God, to lead people in prayer and service to God, to help people to grow in holiness, and to help people get to heaven. The Sacrament of Holy Orders is based on apostolic succession. Each bishop alive today was ordained by another bishop, who laid hands on his head and prayed over Him, and that bishop was ordained by another bishop, going back in a line all the way to the Apostles and before through them to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gave the Apostles the authority to lead the Church, to perform the sacraments, to forgive sins, and to preach and teach in His name. They passed that authority on to their successors. Priests and deacons are ordained by bishops and receive from the bishop the right to lead prayer, administer the sacraments, give blessings, etc. When a deacon, priest, or bishop uses their authority and power in serving and leading the Church, it isn’t really their own authority and power; it’s the authority and power of Christ passed down to them through apostolic succession. Some of the sacraments change the very soul of the person receiving them, like baptism and confirmation and Holy Orders. If you ever stop by St. Louis Cemetary No. 3, on Esplanade, just inside the front entrance is the priest’s mausoleum, where many priests of the Archdiocese of New Orleans are buried. On the font is has the inscription in Latin, “Tu es sacerdos in aeternum.” You are a priest forever. These three sacraments leave an indelible mark on the soul. They are, truly, eternal, because they connect us to Christ the High Priest, who is eternal. The purpose of Holy Orders, of the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopacy (bishops), is to imitate Christ who “came to serve and not to be served.” We serve people by trying to help them to grow in holiness. Please pray for your clergy, deacons, priests, and bishops, that they may grow in holiness, too, so as to better help all people to grow in holiness. ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper – 29 March 2018 The ancient Israelites had many different kinds of sacrifices. They had thank offerings, given to thank God for some great blessing, and sin offering, in reparation for a sin committed, and holocaust offerings. They had offerings of bread and of grain, of grapes, libations of wine and milk, offerings of lambs, goats, bulls, and oxen. Some were offered every day and some only once a year, but they all had two thing in common. Every offering and sacrifice had to be offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, and it had to be offered by a priest. By the law of God, that was the only place where a sacrifice could be made, because it was the house of God. So, why do we call the death of Jesus on the Cross a sacrifice. First, human sacrifice was forbidden in ancient Israel. Second, it happened outside of the Temple, and outside of Jerusalem. Third, there was no Jewish priest. An ancient Jew would have called the death of Jesus an execution, or maybe even a martyrdom, but they never would have called it a sacrifice. So, how did the apostles, who were Jewish, come to consider the death of Jesus a sacrifice, and not just any sacrifice, but the one perfect sacrifice through which our sins are forgiven and we are united to God for eternity? Well, it has to do with what we’re celebrating today, the Last Supper. You see, the Last Supper was a seder meal, a ritual meal, and it followed a very strict order. It began with the sacrifice of a lamb in the Temple, and continued with a meal at home. When you ate, when you drank, and the prayers to be said was all laid out. So, the apostles must have been very confused when Jesus, at the Last Supper, began to change things. During a traditional seder meal, you eat roasted lamb, bitter herbs, and drink 4 glasses of wine a certain times. The third cup of wine is called the cup of blessing, and it was this cup that Jesus took, and said the blessing, and gave it to His disciples saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Then He said that He would not drink again from the fruit of the vine until He would drink it new in the kingdom of God. The disciples must have been thinking, “But Jesus, what do you mean you won’t drink again the fruit of the vine? There’s another cup of wine in this very meal.” But Jesus left for the Garden of Gethsemane before the end of the meal, before the fourth cup, which is called the Cup of Acceptance, or, sometimes, the Cup of Consummation. Do you remember what Jesus said in the Garden, when He went forward to pray? “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.” The cup is the cup of suffering that is in store for Him, but perhaps He’s also referring to the last cup of the Seder meal. What were the last words that Jesus spoke from the Cross, before He surrendered His Spirit? “It is finished.” Which, in Latin, is Consummatum Est, “It is consummated.” Jesus accepts the cup of suffering from that He had to bear, and, through it, consummates, or completes, His mission. By reflecting on the Last Supper and the Cross of the Lord, the apostles saw the connection between the two. The Last Supper was preparing them for the memorial of the Cross, and we can remember and celebrate the Cross of the Lord by reliving the Last Supper, which is what we do in the Mass. We listen to the history of salvation in the readings of the mass, we speak the words that Jesus spoke, we offer the sacrificial Lamb, the Lamb of God, and we share a meal, the bread that becomes the Body of Christ and the wine that becomes His blood. In the John, chapter 6, we read the words of Jesus, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you.” So, stay close to the Mass, because it is through the Mass that you stay close to the Cross, God’s great act of love for us, and receive His life in your soul. In the fifth chapter, “From Impulse to Life-Giving Union,” we are asked to consider the three sources of temptation and how they relate to pornography and sexual sin. Only by understanding where these temptations come from can we learn how to fight against them and reject them. The three sources of temptation, which are listed by St. John (1 John 2:16-17) are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
The Lust of the Flesh is our bodily desires, for example, for food and drink, for comfort, and for pleasure. None of these things are bad. In fact, they are all gifts from God, but if we allow our desires to get out of control, then they can start to control us. Pornography enhances the lust of the flesh by presenting situations that are out of our fantasies. They go beyond and warp real life. When we begin to control our other bodily desire we can become better at controlling sexual desires as well. We can do this by practicing moderation in what we eat and drink, by putting the thermostat a little bit higher or lower than we normally like it, and by taking cold showers, and in many other ways. The Lust of the Eyes is how we take delight in what we see. It is healthy to delight in a beautiful sunset or landscape, the work of talented artists, or even in the beauty of another person. It becomes unhealthy when we feel like we have to possess or own those things and when we begin to treat other people as objects. Pornography always treats people as objects and teaches those who use it to do the same. We can combat this temptation by practicing custody of the eyes; that is, when you are tempted by what we see, look away. Look at something else, or even distract yourself with something else. If you keep your mind occupied, then you won’t be able to think about whatever the temptation is. The Pride of Life refers to the drive for ambition and power. This distorts our healthy desire to be the best that we can be and grow in virtue and holiness. Pride turns this into arrogance a desire for power over others. Pornography is attractive to some because it gives us an illusion of control. We think that we are in control of what we see, but in reality, the more someone used pornography, the more it controls him. We can fight this temptation through practicing generosity, compassion, and humility, and by praying for those who are trapped in lives of sexual exploitation. All three sources of temptation take what is good and corrupt it. We can fight back through staying close to the source of all goodness, God. ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
Palm Sunday – 25 March 2018 Holy Week is the holiest week of the Christian year. During this week we set aside our normal routine to offer special praise and worship to God, to remember His Passion and death, and to ask for the grace to grow closer to Jesus in our daily lives. Even with all of the extra prayers, devotions, and rites, all of the extra time that we spend in Church during this week, remember that it’s not holy because of what we do for God, but because of what God did, and still does, for us. We don’t make things holy, God makes things holy. In fact, that’s what holiness is, closeness to God. On Holy Thursday, with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we remember the Last Supper of Jesus with His disciples, and how He told them, “Do this in memory of me.” On Holy Thursday night, the night before His Passion, Christ gave us the Mass, He gave us His very body and blood. On Good Friday, we remember the Passion and crucifixion of our Lord, and how He gave His life for us. We remember that He died for love of us and to draw us closer to Himself. On Easter Sunday, we remember His resurrection and how, in rising to new life, He has invited us to receive the new life of the Holy Spirit, just as He appeared to the disciples on this day and, breathing on them, gave them the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ may have been God made flesh, but He was also fully human. During this week, remember how much Jesus struggled. Remember how, after the Last Supper, He took the disciples out to the Garden of Gethsemane and asked Peter, James, and John, “Could you not keep watch for one hour?” They couldn’t. They kept falling asleep. This is what Jesus is asking of us during this week, “Could you not keep watch for one hour?” He is asking us to sit and pray with Him. Remember how, during the time when He needed them most, all of the apostles except John abandoned Him. At that point in their lives they weren’t ready to embrace the Cross of Christ. Jesus is asking us, during this Holy Week, not to run from the Cross, but to learn from it, and to let the Cross of Christ bring us closer to Christ. Jesus gave us the Mass, the memorial of His suffering and death, He gave us the Cross, His victory over sin and death, and He gave us the Resurrection, the new life of the Holy Spirit, but the path to the Resurrection always goes through the Way of the Cross. St. Frances de Sales said, “If you contemplate Him frequently in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with Him, you will grow in His Likeness, and your actions will be molded on His.” Spend time this week in prayer, sitting with Jesus, keeping watch with Him, thinking about His life, His Passion, His death, and His resurrection, and letting Jesus fill your soul with grace and help you grow to be more like Him in imitating His faith, compassion, charity, courage, and perseverance. Holy Week
Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday, is the beginning of Holy Week. Palm Sunday commemorates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem while being honored by the crowds, and it continues through the events of the Passion of the Lord. This is one of the most ancient feasts in the Church. We know this because a pilgrim to Jerusalem, named Egeria, recorded the services of Holy Week in her diary. At that time Holy Week was already a normal celebration in the Holy Land, and these services spread throughout the Church. Holy Week prepares us to celebrate the resurrection at the Easter Vigil, which itself is one of the oldest Masses in the history of the Church. In New Orleans, all of the priests gather for the Chrism Mass on Holy Tuesday. At the Chrism Mass, the Archbishop blesses the holy oils which are then distributed to all of the Churches to be used in the sacraments. There’s the Oil of the Sick which is used in the anointing of the sick. The Oil of Catechumens is used in the Rite of Baptism, to anoint those who are about to be baptized. A catechumen is a student, or a disciple, and this anointing shows that the newly baptized are about to become disciples of Christ. Finally, the Sacred Chrism, which is the only one where the olive oil is mixed with perfumes, is used in baptisms, confirmation, and Holy Orders, and it represents the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is a special Mass for priests because we renew our ordination promises on this day. The next major Mass is the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. Knowing that He was about to be arrested, Jesus gathered His Apostles in the upper room where He washed their feet, thus commissioning them for the service of the Church, and instituted the Eucharist with the very first celebration of the Mass. After Mass, we keep vigil with the Eucharist in Church, as Jesus asked His apostles, “Could you not watch one hour with me?” The Church will be left open until 10:00 pm for those who wish to pray before Jesus in the tabernacle. On Good Friday we commemorate the arrest, condemnation, and crucifixion of Jesus with the Solemn Service, which begins at 3:00 pm, the time when Jesus died. After the service we will keep vigil with the cross, because the Eucharist will have been removed from the Church in honor of the death of the Lord. These are some of the most important, solemn, and beautiful services in the entire year. They celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, which is our salvation and the reason we are Christians. The whole week, and especially the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday) is designed to be like a spiritual retreat. In addition to the special services, we’ll have morning prayer on each day of the triduum, the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, and confessions on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. I’d encourage you to participate in whatever parts of Holy Week that you can. |
AuthorFr. Bryan was pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes from July 3, 2017 to June 2022. Categories
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