For daily readings, click here
St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, once said - If we could see a soul tarnished by mortal sin, we would die of horror.' Dramatic, I know, but I think the Cure has a point for us. Rightfully, we marvel at Jesus' compassion, and his willingness to make himself unclean by touching a leper, in the same way that we are inspired by the compassion of Mother Teresa and her sisters, who daily cleanse the open maggot-filled sores of the most destitute in Calcutta. Yet the comments of the Cure tell us that there is something more gruesome than even leprosy, or any other disease or human trait that tempts us to want to avoid our neighbor. That something more gruesome is sin. That something more horrible than skin ravaged by leprosy is a soul tarnished by sin. If this were not the case, we would have to find Jesus a foolish physician. Clearly, by today's readings, Jesus has the power to cure disease, yet we know that he only chose a few people to heal. He ascended to the Father after only three years of public ministry, leaving plenty of lepers, and cripples and people possessed with demons behind. What possible reason could there be for this, other than the fact that there was an even more vicious disease than leprosy that Jesus was sent to touch and to heal. The Cure of Ars says that this more vicious disease is mortal sin. The Cure says that sin actually disfigures the human person more grotesquely than leprosy ever could.
The healing of the leper, like all the miracles performed by Jesus, was a sign that pointed toward the true identity of Jesus, and thus to his true mission, to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus, who was according to the Jewish law ritually clean, makes himself unclean by touching the leper. He does not merely cleanse the leper from afar, which we know he could do, but takes the disease upon himself by touching the leper. In a similar way, Jesus, who carried no stain of sin on his soul, took upon Himself our sins by taking on a human nature that could be touched and crucified by evil. Jesus' power over leprosy eventually gives way to belief by his disciples that Jesus also has power to forgive sins that destroy not only the human body but also the human soul. The cleansing of the leper gives way to Jesus' more central mission of cleansing souls that have been made by sin unfit for communion with God. Jesus' healing of the leper makes faith in his ability to forgive sins reasonable, but of course, not compulsory. Jesus' healing of the leper does not force people to believe He can take away sins, but makes faith in this power of Jesus reasonable to those who do.
Going back to the Cure' of Ars statement that if we could see a human soul disfigured by sin, we would die of horror, whereas upon seeing a leper we might or might not flee away in disgust, focuses us on how important it is for us to have our souls cleansed by Jesus, thoroughly and regularly, if we are to live. A well-formed conscience enables us to see our souls in the way that John Vianney invites us to see them. A well-formed conscience enables us to feel compunction and sadness at how our sins distance us from God's love and the ability to love one another. A well-formed conscience shows us that we can and do separate ourselves from God and from one another, far more than the separation of lepers from town that the Mosaic law proscribes in the book of Leviticus. At least a leper could yell from a distance and have some communication with those he loved. Our sins threaten to cut off our ability to love God and one another completely.
We are challenged, as we have heard, as Catholic Christians, to approach the Holy Eucharist in a state of grace. Like the leper who after being cleansed by Jesus will presumably be pronounced clean by a Levitical priest and restored to the community, so too we as Catholics have the sacramental grace of reconciliation that allows our souls to be touched by Christ and be made clean. We are never to approach the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin, for by mortal sin we separate ourselves from God and from the Church by our own choice, unlike the leper who did not choose leprosy. Like the leper, however, it is incumbent upon us to declare ourselves unclean when we are indeed unclean, so as not to damage the community to which we belong. The leper had to declare himself unclean out of love and respect for health of others. We likewise have the option of ex-communicating ourselves from time to time, of choosing not to receive the Eucharist, out of love and respect for the community of the Church to which we belong. We have the option always available to us of attending Mass without receiving communion, so as to give witness that the Eucharist contains too much grace to receive that grace in vain. Just as we would not leave the Eucharist on the floor if we dropped the host, but would immediately secure the Eucharist because of our faith that it is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, so also our souls should be in a state where they can contain the grace of the Eucharist, rather than letting that grace fall to the ground, because our soul cannot contain it. The grace of one Eucharist, my dear friends, is enough to turn any one of us into a saint, to make us a completely new creation. The reason we are not immediately made saints is that our consciences need better formation, and our souls more cleansing, so that the grace we receive might be effective in transforming us. This formation and cleansing is greatly fostered by frequent and more fervent reception of the sacrament of reconciliaton.
I am not here to tell you to receive the Eucharist less frequently. God forbid I would judge to tell you that. I am only saying that the option of not receiving the Eucharist at Mass can be a tremendous witness to those around you about the faith you have in the grace of the Eucharist. Pride tempts us to think that those around us who see us choosing not to receive the Eucharist will presume we have done something unthinkable. Yet this is not a judgment for them to make. One who has a well-formed conscience can fall into mortal sin more easily than one whose conscience is dulled. Telling a lie for someone might be a mortal sin who because of his conscience knows and feels the damage this lie does to his soul and to his relationship with God and his neighbor, whereas for the person right next to him in Church lying is not a mortal sin because he neither sees nor feels the effects of his lie. So we cannot tell by who is receiving communion who has committed the worst sins; oftentimes, it is just the opposite.
Again, I'm not advocating necessarily that we should be receiving the Eucharist less. I only say, to myself, and to you, that we should always try to receive the Eucharist more worthily, knowing that in the grace of one Eucharist is the power to turn away from sin forever, and to fulfill the call each one of us has to be holy. In reality, it may take receiving the Eucharist 10,000 times more, for the battle to be able to hold the grace of the Eucharist in these fragile human vessels that we are, can be a long battle indeed. Yet, there is a difference, wouldn't you agree, to one who is determined that each and every time he receives the Eucharist, he will try to hold on to more of the grace that is offered there. This is often done in conjunction with more frequent and fervent reception of the sacrament of reconciliation. Imagine, if you would, if you would be better off receiving the sacrament of reconciliation 52 times in the new year, and the sacrament of the Eucharist only once, during the Easter season, as is required. If we could imagine that we would be better off receiving the sacrament of reconciliation more often than we receive the Eucharist, then it should be clear that our inability to change is more related to the need to form our conscience so that we can hold the grace we do receive. The option of ex-communicating ourselves until we have been touched by Christ in the sacrament of reconciliation can be a great motive for spiritual growth for us and a great witness to others.
Receiving the Eucharist casually even once puts us at risk of receiving the Eucharist casually on a regular basis, and what is worse, it leads to thinking that we can skip Mass without any great consequence, since receiving the Eucharist has not had any great effects on us in our recent pasts. Going to Mass and not receiving the Eucharist can sometimes be the jolt that we need to recognize that our faith in the Eucharist is growing dull, and that we can and should make a good confession, perhaps a better confession than we have ever made before, before returning to the sacrament of the Eucharist that we should love above all things. Far from encouraging you to be more scrupulous, I am encouraging you to return to more frequent and more fervent reception, perhaps monthly, of the sacrament of reconciliation so that Jesus can cleanse your souls, and resensitize you to the good that you should be doing and the evil you should be avoiding, and restore you to right relationship with Him and with the Church, just as surely as he restored the life of the leper in today's Gospel. I do not consider myself scrupulous, but my rule of thumb is that every time I make a confession, I want to open up a new area of my life that I have never opened up in confession before, in the hopes that the next time I receive the body and blood of Jesus, I can hold his grace a little more than I ever have before! +m
St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, once said - If we could see a soul tarnished by mortal sin, we would die of horror.' Dramatic, I know, but I think the Cure has a point for us. Rightfully, we marvel at Jesus' compassion, and his willingness to make himself unclean by touching a leper, in the same way that we are inspired by the compassion of Mother Teresa and her sisters, who daily cleanse the open maggot-filled sores of the most destitute in Calcutta. Yet the comments of the Cure tell us that there is something more gruesome than even leprosy, or any other disease or human trait that tempts us to want to avoid our neighbor. That something more gruesome is sin. That something more horrible than skin ravaged by leprosy is a soul tarnished by sin. If this were not the case, we would have to find Jesus a foolish physician. Clearly, by today's readings, Jesus has the power to cure disease, yet we know that he only chose a few people to heal. He ascended to the Father after only three years of public ministry, leaving plenty of lepers, and cripples and people possessed with demons behind. What possible reason could there be for this, other than the fact that there was an even more vicious disease than leprosy that Jesus was sent to touch and to heal. The Cure of Ars says that this more vicious disease is mortal sin. The Cure says that sin actually disfigures the human person more grotesquely than leprosy ever could.
The healing of the leper, like all the miracles performed by Jesus, was a sign that pointed toward the true identity of Jesus, and thus to his true mission, to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus, who was according to the Jewish law ritually clean, makes himself unclean by touching the leper. He does not merely cleanse the leper from afar, which we know he could do, but takes the disease upon himself by touching the leper. In a similar way, Jesus, who carried no stain of sin on his soul, took upon Himself our sins by taking on a human nature that could be touched and crucified by evil. Jesus' power over leprosy eventually gives way to belief by his disciples that Jesus also has power to forgive sins that destroy not only the human body but also the human soul. The cleansing of the leper gives way to Jesus' more central mission of cleansing souls that have been made by sin unfit for communion with God. Jesus' healing of the leper makes faith in his ability to forgive sins reasonable, but of course, not compulsory. Jesus' healing of the leper does not force people to believe He can take away sins, but makes faith in this power of Jesus reasonable to those who do.
Going back to the Cure' of Ars statement that if we could see a human soul disfigured by sin, we would die of horror, whereas upon seeing a leper we might or might not flee away in disgust, focuses us on how important it is for us to have our souls cleansed by Jesus, thoroughly and regularly, if we are to live. A well-formed conscience enables us to see our souls in the way that John Vianney invites us to see them. A well-formed conscience enables us to feel compunction and sadness at how our sins distance us from God's love and the ability to love one another. A well-formed conscience shows us that we can and do separate ourselves from God and from one another, far more than the separation of lepers from town that the Mosaic law proscribes in the book of Leviticus. At least a leper could yell from a distance and have some communication with those he loved. Our sins threaten to cut off our ability to love God and one another completely.
We are challenged, as we have heard, as Catholic Christians, to approach the Holy Eucharist in a state of grace. Like the leper who after being cleansed by Jesus will presumably be pronounced clean by a Levitical priest and restored to the community, so too we as Catholics have the sacramental grace of reconciliation that allows our souls to be touched by Christ and be made clean. We are never to approach the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin, for by mortal sin we separate ourselves from God and from the Church by our own choice, unlike the leper who did not choose leprosy. Like the leper, however, it is incumbent upon us to declare ourselves unclean when we are indeed unclean, so as not to damage the community to which we belong. The leper had to declare himself unclean out of love and respect for health of others. We likewise have the option of ex-communicating ourselves from time to time, of choosing not to receive the Eucharist, out of love and respect for the community of the Church to which we belong. We have the option always available to us of attending Mass without receiving communion, so as to give witness that the Eucharist contains too much grace to receive that grace in vain. Just as we would not leave the Eucharist on the floor if we dropped the host, but would immediately secure the Eucharist because of our faith that it is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, so also our souls should be in a state where they can contain the grace of the Eucharist, rather than letting that grace fall to the ground, because our soul cannot contain it. The grace of one Eucharist, my dear friends, is enough to turn any one of us into a saint, to make us a completely new creation. The reason we are not immediately made saints is that our consciences need better formation, and our souls more cleansing, so that the grace we receive might be effective in transforming us. This formation and cleansing is greatly fostered by frequent and more fervent reception of the sacrament of reconciliaton.
I am not here to tell you to receive the Eucharist less frequently. God forbid I would judge to tell you that. I am only saying that the option of not receiving the Eucharist at Mass can be a tremendous witness to those around you about the faith you have in the grace of the Eucharist. Pride tempts us to think that those around us who see us choosing not to receive the Eucharist will presume we have done something unthinkable. Yet this is not a judgment for them to make. One who has a well-formed conscience can fall into mortal sin more easily than one whose conscience is dulled. Telling a lie for someone might be a mortal sin who because of his conscience knows and feels the damage this lie does to his soul and to his relationship with God and his neighbor, whereas for the person right next to him in Church lying is not a mortal sin because he neither sees nor feels the effects of his lie. So we cannot tell by who is receiving communion who has committed the worst sins; oftentimes, it is just the opposite.
Again, I'm not advocating necessarily that we should be receiving the Eucharist less. I only say, to myself, and to you, that we should always try to receive the Eucharist more worthily, knowing that in the grace of one Eucharist is the power to turn away from sin forever, and to fulfill the call each one of us has to be holy. In reality, it may take receiving the Eucharist 10,000 times more, for the battle to be able to hold the grace of the Eucharist in these fragile human vessels that we are, can be a long battle indeed. Yet, there is a difference, wouldn't you agree, to one who is determined that each and every time he receives the Eucharist, he will try to hold on to more of the grace that is offered there. This is often done in conjunction with more frequent and fervent reception of the sacrament of reconciliation. Imagine, if you would, if you would be better off receiving the sacrament of reconciliation 52 times in the new year, and the sacrament of the Eucharist only once, during the Easter season, as is required. If we could imagine that we would be better off receiving the sacrament of reconciliation more often than we receive the Eucharist, then it should be clear that our inability to change is more related to the need to form our conscience so that we can hold the grace we do receive. The option of ex-communicating ourselves until we have been touched by Christ in the sacrament of reconciliation can be a great motive for spiritual growth for us and a great witness to others.
Receiving the Eucharist casually even once puts us at risk of receiving the Eucharist casually on a regular basis, and what is worse, it leads to thinking that we can skip Mass without any great consequence, since receiving the Eucharist has not had any great effects on us in our recent pasts. Going to Mass and not receiving the Eucharist can sometimes be the jolt that we need to recognize that our faith in the Eucharist is growing dull, and that we can and should make a good confession, perhaps a better confession than we have ever made before, before returning to the sacrament of the Eucharist that we should love above all things. Far from encouraging you to be more scrupulous, I am encouraging you to return to more frequent and more fervent reception, perhaps monthly, of the sacrament of reconciliation so that Jesus can cleanse your souls, and resensitize you to the good that you should be doing and the evil you should be avoiding, and restore you to right relationship with Him and with the Church, just as surely as he restored the life of the leper in today's Gospel. I do not consider myself scrupulous, but my rule of thumb is that every time I make a confession, I want to open up a new area of my life that I have never opened up in confession before, in the hopes that the next time I receive the body and blood of Jesus, I can hold his grace a little more than I ever have before! +m
No comments:
Post a Comment