Layers-A Catholic Mom's Musings: April 2010

Layers - in the knowledge of God and the path to holiness

Learning about God is like unwrapping a head of lettuce, pealing back one leaf at a time. Always there is another leaf below. We will eventually reach the center of the head of lettuce; but we will never unwrap everthing there is to know about God.

The path to holiness is like pealing an onion. God shows us what is sinful and convicts us that we have sinned. No matter how sweet the onion, there are always tears in the peeling. No matter how sweet the grace of repentence, there are always the pain of letting go of the sin. As the peeling of the onion reveals another layer, so God shows us what we lack in holiness, drawing us ever closer to "be(ing) perfect even just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48

What I Believe

Why I am and always will be a Catholic. "So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Tthe living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." John 6:53-58 The words and actions of man cannot sanctify. Only the priest, empowered by his ordination, can invoke the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into Jesus so we can receive Him - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into our bodies and souls. This is the core of the Catholic Church; without this there is no purpose or meaning to the Catholic Church. There are other ways to holiness, to grow in grace; there is no better way than union with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Real Presence

How is Jesus present in the Eucharist? Some believe He isn’t. Some believe that He is there only during worship. Some believe that His presence is there only if the person receiving believes He is there. The Church believes and teaches that at the moment of consecration, when the priest (regardless of his worthiness) invokes the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine is transformed into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, permanently. This is why we are able to have chapels where we can adore Jesus and talk to Him “face to face.” His presence is not dependent on our spirituality. If two people were in an adoration chapel, one believing in the Real Presence and one not, Jesus would be there for both, physically. The adoration chapels are only an offshoot of the true purpose of the Eucharist. Jesus did not mean the Eucharist for us to gaze on and adore Him. The reason for His Presence in the Eucharist is so we have a way to be nourished spiritually. The Eucharist is compared to the manna in the desert - our daily bread, if we so desire. The Eucharist is a physical assurance. When we receive the Eucharist in Communion, we have received Jesus into our bodies. How our souls receive Him depends on our souls, the sin we have committed that block up the doors and window of our souls. We receive Jesus into our bodies; bur our sins can block Him from nourishing our souls with His graces. Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 11:27 “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.” Not only do we block the graces of the Eucharist, but we also are guilty of profanity against the Lord.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Sacrifice of the Mass

When we go to Mass, what are we doing? By the power of the Holy Spirit, through the ordination of the priest, we are uniting ourselves to Jesus’ death on Calvary, His sacrifice for our salvation. The Israelites were rescued from Egypt through the Passover. Each year they celebrated Passover, uniting themselves with the first. The Jews had a different sense of time than us. We have difficulty thinking outside of linear time. For them, Jesus included, in celebrating Passover, they were re-presenting the original event at their table. Jesus was celebrating Passover at the Last Supper. When He offered bread and wine as His Body and Blood, though, He was looking forward to the next day when He would be offering His Body and Blood on the Cross. In the Mass, we, like the Jews, look backward uniting ourselves with Jesus’ offering on the Cross, as the Jews united themselves with the first Passover. Jesus is our high priest. He made that one offering for our sins, our salvation. We, in turn, offer His sacrifice, His offering, to the Father. When we celebrate the Mass, we unite ourselves, not only with all those who also are celebrating the Mass at that time but also those who have in the past because God is timeless. One sacrifice, one offering, re-presented across time. A working of God that our minds are unable to comprehend. A gift of God to enable us to repent our sins and receive His grace, direct from Jesus on the Cross.God

Adoration Chapel-Visitation Church

+JESUS, THE EUCHARIST+ “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." John 6:51 ++++++++++++++++++ "The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on earth. Each moment you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in Heaven, and will help bring everlasting peace on earth." Mother Teresa

The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist

When I walk into the chapel and go down on bended knees, what do I see? What do I recognize? My eyes tell my mind that upon the altar is a white piece of unleavened bread. Faith tells my mind that what my eyes see as bread is really Jesus. The mind struggles with the incongruity. It does not want to accept a different reality than what the eye sees and experience has taught. It cannot expand to intellectually understand how it could be possible. Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist is not rational. It goes against what the senses tell us and what the mind says is possible. The human mind tries to understand God. There are those who say that it cannot be possible and thus put limits on what God can do. If we can, however, say that it is possible for Jesus to assume human form in the Incarnation, then can we say that He cannot transform bread into Himself? It is really a smaller step to accept Jesus in the Eucharist than the Incarnation. The mind struggles. It is easier to accept the Incarnation because Jesus took a form the mind can accept. God looking like a man, being a man is something the mind through the senses can accept, because the mind can understand Jesus in His humanity even if it cannot comprehend all that is God. Jesus being the Eucharist eliminates what the senses can comprehend. Our senses cannot tell us that this is Jesus whether in His divinity or His humanity. Where the apostles saw the human Jesus and in faith needed to recognize His divinity, we are asked to recognize in faith both His humanity and divinity in the Eucharist. “I do believe; help my unbelief.” Mark 9:24