St. Mark, pray for us!!
St. Mark | Saint of the Day | AmericanCatholic.org
Redemptor hominis - Pope John Paul II
21. The Christian vocation to service and kingship
In building up from the very foundations the picture of the Church as the
People of God-by showing the threefold mission of Christ himself, through
participation in which we become truly God's People-the Second Vatican Counci]
highlighted, among other characteristics of the Christian vocation, the one
that can be described as "kingly". To present all the riches of the
Council's teaching we would here have to make reference to numerous chapters
and paragraphs of the Constitution Lumen Gentium and of many other
documents by the Council. However, one element seems to stand out in the midst
of all these riches: the sharing in Christ's kingly mission, that is to say the
fact of rediscovering in oneself and others the special dignity of our vocation
that can be described as "kingship". This dignity is expressed in
readiness to serve, in keeping with the example of Christ, who "came not
to be served but to serve"181. If, in the light of this attitude
of Christ's, "being a king" is truly possible only by "being a
servant" then "being a servant" also demands so much spiritual
maturity that it must really be de- scribed as "being a king". In
order to be able to serve others worthily and effectively we must be able to master
ourselves, possess the virtues that make this mastery possible. Our sharing in
Christ's kingly mission-his "kingly function" (munus) is
closely linked with every sphere of both Christian and human morality.
In presenting the complete picture of the People of God and recalling the
place among that people held not only by priests but also by the laity, not
only by the representatives of the Hierarchy but also by those of the
Institutes of Consecrated Life, the Second Vatican Council did not deduce this
picture merely from a sociological premise. The Church as a human society can
of course be examined and described according to the categories used by the
sciences with regard to any human society. But these categories are not enough.
For the whole of the community of the People of God and for each member of it
what is in question is not just a specific "social membership";
rather, for each and every one what is essential is a particular "vocation".
Indeed, the Church as the People of God is also-according to the teaching of
Saint Paul mentioned above, of which Pius XII reminded us in wonderful
terms-"Christ's Mystical Body"182. Membership in that body
has for its source a particular call, united with the saving action of grace.
Therefore, if we wish to keep in mind this community of the People of God,
which is so vast and so extremely differentiated, we must see first and
foremost Christ saying in a way to each member of the community: "Follow
me"183. It is the community of the disciples, each of whom in a
different way -at times very consciously and consistently, at other times not
very consciously and very inconsistently-is following Christ. This shows also
the deeply "personal" aspect and dimension of this society, which, in
spite of all the deficiencies of its community life-in the human meaning of
this word-is a community precisely because all its members form it together
with Christ himself, at least because they bear in their souls the indelible mark
of a Christian.
The Second Vatican Council devoted very special attention to showing how
this "ontological" community of disciples and confessors must
increasingly become, even from the "human" point of view, a community
aware of its own life and activity. The initiatives taken by the Council in
this field have been followed up by the many further initiatives of a synodal,
apostolic and organizational kind. We must however always keep in mind the
truth that every initiative serves true renewal in the Church and helps to
bring the authentic light that is Christ184 insofar as the initiative
is based on adequate awareness of the individual Christian's vocation and of
responsibility for this singular, unique and unrepeatable grace by which each
Christian in the community of the People of God builds up the Body of Christ.
This principle, the key rule for the whole of Christian practice-apostolic and
pastoral practice, practice of interior and of social life-must with due
proportion be applied to the whole of humanity and to each human being. The
Pope too and every Bishop must apply this principle to himself. Priests and
religious must be faithful to this principle. It is the basis on which their
lives must be built by married people, parents, and women and men of different
conditions and professions, from those who occupy the highest posts in society
to those who perform the simplest tasks. It is precisely the principle of the
"kingly service" that imposes on each one of us, in imitation of Christ's
example, the duty to demand of himself exactly what we have been called to,
what we have personally obliged ourselves to by God's grace, in order to
respond to our vocation. This fidelity to the vocation received from God
through Christ involves the joint responsibility for the Church for which the
Second Vatican Council wishes to educate all Christians. Indeed, in the Church
as the community of the People of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit's
working, each member has "his own special gift", as Saint Paul
teaches185. Although this "gift" is a personal vocation and a
form of participation in the Church's saving work, it also serves others builds
the Church and the fraternal communities in the various spheres of human life
on earth.
Fidelity to one's vocation, that is to say persevering readiness for
"kingly service", has particular significance for these many forms of
building, especially with regard to the more exigent tasks, which have more
influence on the life of our neighbour and of the whole of society. Married
people must be distinguished for fidelity to their vocation, as is demanded by
the indissoluble nature of the sacramental institution of marriage. Priests
must be distinguished for a similar fidelity to their vocation, in view of the indelible
character that the sacrament of Orders stamps on their souls. In receiving this
sacrament, we in the Latin Church knowingly and freely cammit ourselves to live
in celibacy, and each one of us must therefore do all he can, with God's grace,
to be thankful for this gift and faithful to the bond that he has accepted for
ever. He must do so as married people must, for they must endeavour with all
their strength to persevere in their matrimonial union, building up the family
community through this witness of love and educating new generations of men and
women, capable in their turn of dedicating the whole of their lives to their
vocation, that is to say to the "kingly service "of which Jesus
Christ has offered us the example and the most beautiful model. His Church,
made up of all of us, is "for men" in the sense that, by basing
ourselves on Christ's example186 and collaborating with the grace that
he has gained for us, we are able to attain to "being kings", that is
to say we are able to produce a mature humanity in each one of us. Mature
humanity means full use of the gift of freedom received from the Creator when
he called to existence the man made "in his image, after his
likeness". This gift finds its full realization in the unreserved giving
of the whole of one's human person, in a spirit of the love of a spouse, to
Christ and, with Christ, to all those to whom he sends men and women totally
consecrated to him in accordance with the evangelical counsels. This is the
ideal of the religious life, which has been undertaken by the Orders and
Congregations both ancient and recent, and by the Secular Institutes.
Nowadays it is sometimes held, though wrongly, that freedom is an end in
itself, that each human being is free when he makes use of freedom as he
wishes, and that this must be our aim in the lives of individuals and
societies. In reality, freedom is a great gift only when we know how to use it
consciously for everything that is our true good. Christ teaches us that the
best use of freedom is charity, which takes concrete form in self-giving and in
service. For this "freedom Christ has set us free"187 and
ever continues to set us free. The Church draws from this source the unceasing
inspiration, the call and the drive for her mission and her service among all
mankind. The full truth about human freedom is indelibly inscribed on the
mystery of the Redemption. The Church truly serves mankind when she guards this
truth with untiring attention, fervent love and mature commitment and when in the
whole of her own community she transmits it and gives it concrete form in human
life through each Christian's fidelity tò his vocation. This confirms what we
have already referred to, namely that man is and always becomes the
"way" for the Church's daily life.
"O humility, what great blessings you bestow where you are present." St. Teresa of Jesus
God's greatest blessing - Children!!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Monday April 23, 2012 - St. George | Saint of the Day | AmericanCatholic.org
St. George, pray for us!!
St. George | Saint of the Day | AmericanCatholic.org
Vatican Congregation for the Clergy: God Stands Before Us and Invites Us to Touch Him - Living Faith - Home & Family - Catholic Online
Redemptor hominis - Pope John Paul II
20. Eucharist and Penance
In the mystery of the Redemption, that is to say in Jesus Christ's saving work, the Church not only shares in the Gospel of her Master through fidelity to the word and service of truth, but she also shares, through a submission filled with hope and love, in the power of his redeeming action expressed and enshrined by him in a sacramental form, especially in the Eucharist154. The Eucharist is the centre and summit of the whole of sacramental life, through which each Christian receives the saving power of the Redemption, beginning with the mystery of Baptism, in which we are buried into the death of Christ, in order to become sharers in his Resurrection155, as the Apostle teaches. In the light of this teaching, we see still more clearly the reason why the entire sacramental life of the Church and of each Christian reaches its summit and fullness in the Eucharist. For by Christ's will there is in this Sacrament a continual renewing of the mystery of the Sacrifice of himself that Christ offered to the Father on the altar of the Cross, a Sacrifice that the Father accepted, giving, in return for this total self-giving by his Son, who "became obedient unto death"156, his own paternal gift, that is to say the grant of new immortal life in the resurrection, since the Father is the first source and the giver of life from the beginning. That new life, which involves the bodily glorification of the crucified Christ, became an efficacious sign of the new gift granted to humanity, the gift that is the Holy Spirit, through whom the divine life that the Father has in himself and gives to his Son157 is communicated to all men who are united with Christ.
The Eucharist is the most perfect Sacrament of this union. By celebrating and also partaking of the Eucharist we unite ourselves with Christ on earth and in heaven who intercedes for us with the Father158 but we always do so through the redeeming act of his Sacrifice, through which he has redeemed us, so that we have been "bought with a price"159. The "price" of our redemption is likewise a further proof of the value that God himself sets on man and of our dignity in Christ. For by becoming "children of God"160, adopted sons161, we also become in his likeness "a kingdom and priests" and obtain "a royal priesthood"162, that is to say we share in that unique and irreversible restoration of man and the world to the Father that was carried out once for all by him, who is both the eternal Son163 and also true Man. The Eucharist is the Sacrament in which our new being is most completely expressed and in which Christ himself unceasingly and in an ever new manner "bears witness" in the Holy Spirit to our spirit164 that each of us, as a sharer in the mystery of the Redemption, has access to the fruits of the filial reconciliation with God165 that he himself actuated and continually actuates among us by means of the Church's ministry.
It is an essential truth, not only of doctrine but also of life, that the Eucharist builds the Church166, building it as the authentic community of the People of God, as the assembly of the faithful, bearing the same mark of unity that was shared by the Apostles and the first disciples of the Lord. The Eucharist builds ever anew this community and unity, ever building and regenerating it on the basis of the Sacrifice of Christ, since it commemorates his death on the Cross167, the price by which he redeemed us. Accordingly, in the Eucharist we touch in a way the very mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord, as is attested by the very words used at its institution, the words that, because of that institution, have become the words with which those called to this ministry in the Church un ceasingly celebrate the Eucharist.
The Church lives by the Eucharist, by the fullness of this Sacrament, the stupendous content and meaning of which have often been expressed in the Church's Magisterium from the most distant times down to our own days168. However, we can say with certainty that, although this teaching is sustained by the acuteness of theologians, by men of deep faith and prayer, and by ascetics and mystics, in complete fidelity to the Eucharistic mystery, it still reaches no more than the threshold, since it is incapable of grasping and translating into words what the Eucharist is in all its fullness, what is expressed by it and what is actuated by it. Indeed, the Eucharist is the ineffable Sacrament! The essential commitment and, above all, the visible grace and source of supernatural strength for the Church as the People of God is to persevere and advance constantly in Eucharistic life and Eucharistic piety and to develop spiritually in the climate of the Eucharist. With all the greater reason, then, it is not permissible for us, in thought, life or action, to take away from this truly most holy Sacrament its full magnitude and its essential meaning. It is at one and the same time a Sacrifice-Sacrament, a Communion-Sacrament, and a Presence-Sacrament And, although it is true that the Eucharist always was and must continue to be the most profound revelation of the human brotherhood of Christ's disciples and confessors, it cannot be treated merely as an "occasion" for manifesting this brotherhood. When celebrating the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, the full magnitude of the divine mystery must be respected, as must the full meaning of this sacramental sign in which Christ is really present and is received, the soul is filled with grace and the pledge of future glory is given169.
This is the source of the duty to carry out rigorously the liturgical rules and everything that is a manifestation of community worship offered to God himself, all the more so because in this sacramental sign he entrusts himself to us with limitless trust, as if not taking into consideration our human weakness, our unworthiness, the force of habit, routine, or even the possibility of insult. Every member of the Church, especially Bishops and Priests, must be vigilant in seeing that this Sacrament of love shall be at the centre of the life of the People of God, so that through all the manifestations of worship due to it Christ shall be given back «love for love "and truly become "the life of our souls"170. Nor can we, on the other hand, ever forget the following words of Saint Paul: "Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup"171.
This call by the Apostle indicates at least indirectly the close link between the Eucharist and Penance. Indeed, if the first word of Christ's teaching, the first phrase of the Gospel Good News, was "Repent, and believe in the gospel" (metanoeite),172 the Sacrament of the Passion, Cross and Resurrection seems to strengthen and consolidate in an altogether special way this call in our souls. The Eucharist and Penance thus become in a sense two closely connected dimensions of authentic life in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel, of truly Christian life. The Christ who calls to the Eucharistic banquet is always the same Christ who exhorts us to penance and repeats his "Repent"173. Without this constant ever renewed endeavour for conversion, partaking of the Eucharist would lack its full redeeming effectiveness and there would be a loss or at least a weakening of the special readiness to offer God the spiritual sacrifice174 in which our sharing in the priesthood of Christ is expressed in an essential and universal manner. In Christ, priesthood is linked with his Sacrifice, his selfgiving to the Father; and, precisely because it is without limit, that self-giving gives rise in us human beings subject to numerous limitations to the need to turn to God in an ever more mature way and with a constant, ever more profound, conversion.
In the last years much has been done to highlight in the Church's practice-in conformity with the most ancient tradition of the Church- he community aspect of penance and especially of the sacrament of Penance. We cannot however forget that conversion is a particularly profound inward act in which the individual cannot be replaced by others and cannot make the community be a substitute for him. Although the participation by the fraternal community of the faithful in the penitential celebration is a great help for the act of personal conversion, nevertheless, in the final analysis, it is necessary that in this act there should be a pronouncement by the individual himself with the whole depth of his conscience and with the whole of his sense of guilt and of trust in God, placing himself like the Psalmist before God to confess: "Against you... have I sinned"175. In faithfully observing the centuries-old practice of the Sacrament of Penance-the practice of individual confession .with a personal act of sorrow and the intention to amend and make satisfaction-the Church is therefore defending the human soul's individual right: man's right to a more personal encounter with the crucified forgiving Christ, with Christ saying, through the minister of the sacrament of Reconciliation: "Your sins are forgiven"176; "Go, and do not sin again"177. As is evident, this is also a right on Christ's part with regard to every human being redeemed by him: his right to meet each one of us in that key moment in the soul's life constituted by the moment of conversion and forgiveness. By guarding the sacrament of Penance, the Church expressly affirms her faith in the mystery of the Redemption as a living and life-giving reality that fits in with man's inward truth, with human guilt and also with the desires of the human conscience. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied"178. The sacrament of Penance is the means to satisfy man with the righteousness that comes from the Redeemer himself.
In the Church, gathering particularly today in a special way around the Eucharist and desiring that the authentic Eucharistic community should become a sign of the gradually maturing unity of all Christians, there must a lively-felt need for penance, both in its sacramental aspect179, and in what concerns penance as a virtue. This second aspect was expressed by Paul VI in the Apostolic Constitution Paenitemini180. One of the Church's tasks is to put into practice the teaching Paenitemini contains; this subject must be investigated more deeply by us in common reflection, and many more decisions must be made about it in a spirit of pastoral collegiality and with respect for the different traditions in this regard and the different circumstances of the lives of the people of today. Nevertheless, it is certain that the Church of the new Advent, the Church that is continually preparing for the new coming of the Lord, must be the Church of the Eucharist and of Penance. Only when viewed in this spiritual aspect of her life and activity is she seen to be the Church of the divine misison, the Church in statu missionis, as the Second Vatican Council has shown her to be.
St. George | Saint of the Day | AmericanCatholic.org
Vatican Congregation for the Clergy: God Stands Before Us and Invites Us to Touch Him - Living Faith - Home & Family - Catholic Online
Redemptor hominis - Pope John Paul II
20. Eucharist and Penance
In the mystery of the Redemption, that is to say in Jesus Christ's saving work, the Church not only shares in the Gospel of her Master through fidelity to the word and service of truth, but she also shares, through a submission filled with hope and love, in the power of his redeeming action expressed and enshrined by him in a sacramental form, especially in the Eucharist154. The Eucharist is the centre and summit of the whole of sacramental life, through which each Christian receives the saving power of the Redemption, beginning with the mystery of Baptism, in which we are buried into the death of Christ, in order to become sharers in his Resurrection155, as the Apostle teaches. In the light of this teaching, we see still more clearly the reason why the entire sacramental life of the Church and of each Christian reaches its summit and fullness in the Eucharist. For by Christ's will there is in this Sacrament a continual renewing of the mystery of the Sacrifice of himself that Christ offered to the Father on the altar of the Cross, a Sacrifice that the Father accepted, giving, in return for this total self-giving by his Son, who "became obedient unto death"156, his own paternal gift, that is to say the grant of new immortal life in the resurrection, since the Father is the first source and the giver of life from the beginning. That new life, which involves the bodily glorification of the crucified Christ, became an efficacious sign of the new gift granted to humanity, the gift that is the Holy Spirit, through whom the divine life that the Father has in himself and gives to his Son157 is communicated to all men who are united with Christ.
The Eucharist is the most perfect Sacrament of this union. By celebrating and also partaking of the Eucharist we unite ourselves with Christ on earth and in heaven who intercedes for us with the Father158 but we always do so through the redeeming act of his Sacrifice, through which he has redeemed us, so that we have been "bought with a price"159. The "price" of our redemption is likewise a further proof of the value that God himself sets on man and of our dignity in Christ. For by becoming "children of God"160, adopted sons161, we also become in his likeness "a kingdom and priests" and obtain "a royal priesthood"162, that is to say we share in that unique and irreversible restoration of man and the world to the Father that was carried out once for all by him, who is both the eternal Son163 and also true Man. The Eucharist is the Sacrament in which our new being is most completely expressed and in which Christ himself unceasingly and in an ever new manner "bears witness" in the Holy Spirit to our spirit164 that each of us, as a sharer in the mystery of the Redemption, has access to the fruits of the filial reconciliation with God165 that he himself actuated and continually actuates among us by means of the Church's ministry.
It is an essential truth, not only of doctrine but also of life, that the Eucharist builds the Church166, building it as the authentic community of the People of God, as the assembly of the faithful, bearing the same mark of unity that was shared by the Apostles and the first disciples of the Lord. The Eucharist builds ever anew this community and unity, ever building and regenerating it on the basis of the Sacrifice of Christ, since it commemorates his death on the Cross167, the price by which he redeemed us. Accordingly, in the Eucharist we touch in a way the very mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord, as is attested by the very words used at its institution, the words that, because of that institution, have become the words with which those called to this ministry in the Church un ceasingly celebrate the Eucharist.
The Church lives by the Eucharist, by the fullness of this Sacrament, the stupendous content and meaning of which have often been expressed in the Church's Magisterium from the most distant times down to our own days168. However, we can say with certainty that, although this teaching is sustained by the acuteness of theologians, by men of deep faith and prayer, and by ascetics and mystics, in complete fidelity to the Eucharistic mystery, it still reaches no more than the threshold, since it is incapable of grasping and translating into words what the Eucharist is in all its fullness, what is expressed by it and what is actuated by it. Indeed, the Eucharist is the ineffable Sacrament! The essential commitment and, above all, the visible grace and source of supernatural strength for the Church as the People of God is to persevere and advance constantly in Eucharistic life and Eucharistic piety and to develop spiritually in the climate of the Eucharist. With all the greater reason, then, it is not permissible for us, in thought, life or action, to take away from this truly most holy Sacrament its full magnitude and its essential meaning. It is at one and the same time a Sacrifice-Sacrament, a Communion-Sacrament, and a Presence-Sacrament And, although it is true that the Eucharist always was and must continue to be the most profound revelation of the human brotherhood of Christ's disciples and confessors, it cannot be treated merely as an "occasion" for manifesting this brotherhood. When celebrating the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, the full magnitude of the divine mystery must be respected, as must the full meaning of this sacramental sign in which Christ is really present and is received, the soul is filled with grace and the pledge of future glory is given169.
This is the source of the duty to carry out rigorously the liturgical rules and everything that is a manifestation of community worship offered to God himself, all the more so because in this sacramental sign he entrusts himself to us with limitless trust, as if not taking into consideration our human weakness, our unworthiness, the force of habit, routine, or even the possibility of insult. Every member of the Church, especially Bishops and Priests, must be vigilant in seeing that this Sacrament of love shall be at the centre of the life of the People of God, so that through all the manifestations of worship due to it Christ shall be given back «love for love "and truly become "the life of our souls"170. Nor can we, on the other hand, ever forget the following words of Saint Paul: "Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup"171.
This call by the Apostle indicates at least indirectly the close link between the Eucharist and Penance. Indeed, if the first word of Christ's teaching, the first phrase of the Gospel Good News, was "Repent, and believe in the gospel" (metanoeite),172 the Sacrament of the Passion, Cross and Resurrection seems to strengthen and consolidate in an altogether special way this call in our souls. The Eucharist and Penance thus become in a sense two closely connected dimensions of authentic life in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel, of truly Christian life. The Christ who calls to the Eucharistic banquet is always the same Christ who exhorts us to penance and repeats his "Repent"173. Without this constant ever renewed endeavour for conversion, partaking of the Eucharist would lack its full redeeming effectiveness and there would be a loss or at least a weakening of the special readiness to offer God the spiritual sacrifice174 in which our sharing in the priesthood of Christ is expressed in an essential and universal manner. In Christ, priesthood is linked with his Sacrifice, his selfgiving to the Father; and, precisely because it is without limit, that self-giving gives rise in us human beings subject to numerous limitations to the need to turn to God in an ever more mature way and with a constant, ever more profound, conversion.
In the last years much has been done to highlight in the Church's practice-in conformity with the most ancient tradition of the Church- he community aspect of penance and especially of the sacrament of Penance. We cannot however forget that conversion is a particularly profound inward act in which the individual cannot be replaced by others and cannot make the community be a substitute for him. Although the participation by the fraternal community of the faithful in the penitential celebration is a great help for the act of personal conversion, nevertheless, in the final analysis, it is necessary that in this act there should be a pronouncement by the individual himself with the whole depth of his conscience and with the whole of his sense of guilt and of trust in God, placing himself like the Psalmist before God to confess: "Against you... have I sinned"175. In faithfully observing the centuries-old practice of the Sacrament of Penance-the practice of individual confession .with a personal act of sorrow and the intention to amend and make satisfaction-the Church is therefore defending the human soul's individual right: man's right to a more personal encounter with the crucified forgiving Christ, with Christ saying, through the minister of the sacrament of Reconciliation: "Your sins are forgiven"176; "Go, and do not sin again"177. As is evident, this is also a right on Christ's part with regard to every human being redeemed by him: his right to meet each one of us in that key moment in the soul's life constituted by the moment of conversion and forgiveness. By guarding the sacrament of Penance, the Church expressly affirms her faith in the mystery of the Redemption as a living and life-giving reality that fits in with man's inward truth, with human guilt and also with the desires of the human conscience. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied"178. The sacrament of Penance is the means to satisfy man with the righteousness that comes from the Redeemer himself.
In the Church, gathering particularly today in a special way around the Eucharist and desiring that the authentic Eucharistic community should become a sign of the gradually maturing unity of all Christians, there must a lively-felt need for penance, both in its sacramental aspect179, and in what concerns penance as a virtue. This second aspect was expressed by Paul VI in the Apostolic Constitution Paenitemini180. One of the Church's tasks is to put into practice the teaching Paenitemini contains; this subject must be investigated more deeply by us in common reflection, and many more decisions must be made about it in a spirit of pastoral collegiality and with respect for the different traditions in this regard and the different circumstances of the lives of the people of today. Nevertheless, it is certain that the Church of the new Advent, the Church that is continually preparing for the new coming of the Lord, must be the Church of the Eucharist and of Penance. Only when viewed in this spiritual aspect of her life and activity is she seen to be the Church of the divine misison, the Church in statu missionis, as the Second Vatican Council has shown her to be.
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