Fr. Paul Weinberger
St. William’s Roman Catholic Parish
Greenville, Texas
Epiphany of the Lord
1/08/06
They were overjoyed at seeing the star and entering the house they saw the child with Mary, His mother. They prostrated themselves and did Him homage, then opened their treasures and offered Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
Today is the Feast if the Three Kings. The Three Kings are our older brothers in the faith; the first non-Jews, the first of non-Jewish ancestry to go and worship the newborn King in Bethlehem. This image in the center of the Church is a depiction of that scene at Bethlehem.
The Three Kings are contrasted with King Herod. King Herod says,
“Go and search diligently for the child and when you have found Him, bring me word that I too may go and adore Him.”
Well, he didn’t want to adore Him, he wanted to kill Him; hence the picture on the far side of the Church, the Fight into Egypt. You can see these two pictures up close after Mass today.
If you were not present at St. William’s for Mass and were not able to view the pictures Father Paul is referring to you can access them at the links below.
Flight into Egypt
http://egypt.cla.umn.edu/merson.jpg
Adoration of the Magi
http://faculty.evansville.edu/rl29/art1 ... o_magi.jpg
The Holy Family had to flee because Herod didn’t want to adore the newborn King he wanted to kill Him. These Three Kings entered in and adored the Child, recognizing Him as one greater than all three combined. They teach us something about prayer, which needs to be re-emphasized and practiced today and that is the prayer of Adoration.
We pray but most of the time our prayers fall into the category of petition. How about a pop quiz? I don’t need a show of hands but everyone knows how dry it has been in the last few months or even the past year. In the past week in Hunt County here, we had some fires that were really doing a lot of damage. Lives were put in peril as well as property futures etc. But, I wonder when everyone has heard about the plight in Hunt county and adjoining counties here and in Oklahoma, how many people actually turned and did this and prayed for rain.
Father Paul turned toward the Tabernacle with his hands folded in prayer.
It is more like the street cleaner. You just expect him to be cleaning and you never call and ask him to come down your street because you just expect that he will. It is like your parents and how you think they should fall down and worship you as children. It is not going to happen if you have good parents. Some children think they can say,
“Pick it up! Aren’t you the maid? Oh! You are my mother!”
We treat God in much the same way.
“Hey! Where is the rain?”
What a beautiful prayer! It sounds more like one of our recent translations of the Mass!
“God! Give us rain! Amen!”
What a beautiful prayer and is so different from,
“God, our Heavenly Father, we beseech You in the Name of Jesus, send down Your generous rain upon this dry land.”
The two translations are very different. The prayer of petition seems to take up all of our time in prayer and the amount of that time probably isn’t much time at all. Here we are at the beginning of a New Year and parents and grandparents should see in this an opportunity to instill in their children an understanding of Adoration.
I grew up at St. Phillip Catholic Church and school. The same architect built St. Williams; different windows but the same lay out. The Tabernacle…I remember the Sisters drilling into us, that entering into the Church we had to genuflect and then enter the bench and upon leaving the Church we had to genuflect on our right knee, touching it all the way to the floor and that was a way of saying hello and goodbye to Our Lord in Adoration. We were falling down. It is like that beautiful hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas. The Sisters were insistent and emphatic and taught us again and again. In fact, about the only excuse for not genuflecting was having a broken leg and then I guess there was even degrees of broken legs.
“Well, Johnny, you did break your WHOLE leg!”
Father uses an Irish accent.
Anyway, the Sisters just really drove it in so much so, that the few times we would go to the theatre and get our popcorn and drinks and before getting into our seats we genuflected. [Laughter]
“Oh, Catholics huh?”
Some people still do this.
In the First Reading today we hear about camels and dromedaries being loaded down and going to Jerusalem. The old joke is that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee. All the looks are mixed up. The Churches up until thirty or forty years ago were Churches that drew us into Adoration and well as the Mass. But, a committee today builds so many Churches and they have all the dignity and balance of a camel. The Blessed Sacrament is often placed far to the side or at the rear of the Church; or if there is a vacant broom closet that isn’t being used, Our Lord is placed there. How sad! Evidently these committee members do not have children because most parents and grandparents appreciate it when they can lean down and say,
“Now Johnny and Suzie, contained in the Tabernacle is the left over Communion, so Jesus is there Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. And see the red lamps there and there…that tells us that He is inside.”
“You mean Jesus is really there grandma?”
“Yes, He is in that beautiful gold container there at the very back wall.”
Now, contrast that with this.
“Johnny and Suzie, Jesus is really present in Holy Communion. Down the hall to the right, across the parking lot, in the back of the gym and right next to the volleyballs.”
By that time Johnny and Suzie have been totally lost, right? Kids are very literal and they need to focus. Now this appears to be comical and not that wide spread but it is everywhere. In fact, this is in ascendancy. Many of the churches today that are being built appear to be more like a theatre than they do a Church. So, many people are not drawn into Adoration. Those who build these kinds of churches give as their basis for so constructing them,
“The Tabernacle is a distraction!”
What is that all about? I bet if I asked for a show of hands, which I am not asking for, how many people consider the Tabernacle, Our Lord’s True Presence in our midst, God is with us in our midst, as distracting? It is remarkable that anyone can get away with this.
In 1917 in Portugal, Our Lady of Fatima appeared to three cousins, three little children who were out in the countryside tending sheep. Our Lady appeared to them several times. Not even one hundred years have passed since this happened. Before Our Lady began her appearances… her apparitions, a very incredibly beautiful angel appeared to the three children and he bent down until his forehead touched the ground. The girls did the same immediately but Francisco didn’t hear the angel’s voice. He was probably still playing while the girls were following the angel; notice there were two girls and a boy.
So, the angel appears and he takes his forehead and touches it to the ground so that the children will imitate what he is doing. He did this and began to pray this prayer;
“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee! I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love Thee.”
What a beautiful prayer. The angel told the children to pray in this way. He was getting them ready for Our Lady of Fatima’s visits to the children. Months went by and the children were exhorted to pray. Again the children were tending sheep and the angel returned to find them playing. The girls were probably still trying to beat Francisco at a game. All of a sudden the angel was with them but this time he seemed a little impatient.
“What are you doing? Pray, pray a lot! The Most Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High.”
So the kids got with it and began to pray and sacrifice. Francisco put the rocks down and began to pray, right? Then the angel returned another time and this time was very different from the first two visits. This time he was carrying a Chalice and above it was a consecrated Host with Blood dripping down into it. This was a very tremendous sight and really caught the attention of the children. The angel left the Chalice and Host suspended in the air and prostrated himself. There is that word again! He touched his head to the ground before the children and said this prayer three times.
“Oh Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.
I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I beg the conversion of poor sinners. Amen.”
So, he prostrated himself! The children noticed that as beautiful as the angel was the first time, now he seemed very dull compared to the Most Blessed Sacrament that he carried. The Most Blessed Sacrament was so vibrant and beautiful that He out shown the angel carrying Him easily.
That angel, in 1916, probably had copyright infringement with St. Francis of Assisi. That prayer he prayed sounded very similar to the prayer that St. Francis use to pray in the presence of Our Lord in Holy Communion in the Tabernacle. Upon entering the church, St. Francis would immediately search for the Tabernacle. He didn’t have to get a map or a global positioning satellite to locate Our Lord either. He would find the Tabernacle and he would fall right on his face, prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament. No, he didn’t trip; he threw himself down in the presence of Our Lord.
Across this country today, you will hear people speak of the difficulties they have in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. There are people who kneel to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion and there are people who kneel during the consecration and they are reviled for it.
“How DARE you KNEEL in the presence of the Living God!!!!!!”
Did I miss something? The Old Testament is full of people kneeling in the presence of the Living God and throwing themselves on the ground while hiding their faces in the dirt in the presence of the Living God. When people show reverence to the Blessed Sacrament today the stories are everywhere. There is a great battle because an error has been allowed to circulate for at least forty years. I am going to synthesize the argument to its simplest form. The argument says this;
“During the Mass Our Lord is present in the Eucharist, in Holy Communion. That’s His “active” presence. So when He comes in the Mass, that is the “active” presence of Christ but the minute the priest or the deacon takes the remains of Holy Communion after all have received and places it in the Tabernacle, it becomes static. We don’t know how, no one can explain it but…active, good…static, bad.”
That is what the argument today says. Well of course this is just some fabrication that I have cooked up for today? Oh, here is Cardinal Ratzinger’s book published just a few years ago, “The Spirit of the Liturgy”. Cardinal Ratzinger is recognized today on his American Express card as Pope Benedict XVI. Right? A few years ago he wrote this “Spirit of the Liturgy” and chapter four, page eighty-five, begins the chapter, “The Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament”. Again…Blessed Sacrament, Eucharist, the Bread of Angels, and Holy Communion…these are all interchangeable. On page eighty-eight, the pope makes this beautiful point about Holy Communion. He says
The Lord has definitively drawn this piece of matter, the bread that is to be consecrated to Himself. It does not contain just a “matter of fact” kind of gift. No, the Lord Himself is present, the Indivisible One, the Risen Lord with flesh and blood, with body and soul, with divinity and humanity; the whole Christ is there.
Everyone understands that today though, right? Years ago I was distributing Communion on Easter Sunday and there were three of us distributing; one on this side, one in the middle and someone on the other side. A lady with her grandson went to the middle and they went past me as I was distributing Communion on the way back to their seat. The little boy had received Communion and on the way back to his seat he stopped and his grandmother ran into him. She asked him what was wrong and he pointed to me and said,
“They don’t have anything to drink here!”
Hum, see… for him, Holy Communion is something to eat and I guess where He goes to Mass, Holy Communion is also something to drink. They don’t have anything to drink here…. how sad that He doesn’t understand that the whole Christ is here.
Now, Pope Benedict writes about this error, this static presence of Christ. See…the static presence of Christ says that Christ isn’t there, He has just left us a little gift there but not His presence.
The Eucharistic Presence they say, is to be understood NOT as the presence of a Person, but as the presence of a gift distinct from the Person.
“Oh look, the Easter bunny left me an egg, left me a gift. Oh Jesus has left me a gift in Holy Communion, but it isn’t Jesus.”
How sad! The Holy Father is saying it here.
The Eucharistic presence they say, is to be understood NOT as the presence of a Person, but as the presence of a gift distinct from the Person.
Now Germans…and I can talk about Germans because I am one, Germans are notorious for their long sentences. Of course, I am no exception. But whenever you hear a German utter a short sentence, after you give thanks, you should study that short sentence because it is there for a reason and are so few and far between you know it has got to be a zinger. Listen to the short sentence that Pope Benedict places after the sentence I just quoted, which I will quote again with the addition.
The Eucharistic presence they say is to be understood NOT as the presence of a Person, but as the presence of a gift distinct from the Person. THIS IS NONSENSE!
Father Paul leans down and kisses the sentence in the book [Laughter]
SO BEAUTIFUL! You see…this is an error, an insidious error, which is being broadcast widely. Like I said,
“How DARE you KNEEL in the presence of the living God!!!!!!”
As if this is pornographic, to kneel in the Presence of the Living God! Pope Benedict talks about what happens in Communion in a way that is so profound. He said, that in Communion,
“There is a Person to person exchange, a coming of One into the other. The Living Lord gives Himself to me, enters into me and invites me to surrender myself to Him.”
Wow, this is so beautiful! He goes on to say about this Presence, the Real Presence…capital “R”eal and capital “P”resence, the Real Presence is describing Jesus Christ; His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in Holy Communion…
“We must make a proper place for this Presence. His Presence really does now dwell among us.”
Emmanuel…God is with us.
“His Presence really does now dwell among us, in the humblest parish church no less than in the greatest cathedral.”
This insidious error tells us and incorrectly deforms us that Adoration and the Mass are contrary to each other. On page 90 the pope says,
“Thus, Adoration is NOT opposed to Communion nor is it merely added to it. No, Communion only reaches its true depths when it is supported and surrounded by Adoration. The Eucharistic Presence in the Tabernacle DOES NOT set another view of the Eucharist alongside or against the Mass, the Eucharistic Celebration, but simply signifies it’s complete fulfillment.”
He writes about something so pressing in our times. He says,
“The Church never becomes a lifeless space but is always filled with the Presence of the Lord. A Church without the Eucharistic Presence, (without Holy Communion reserved in the Tabernacle), is somehow dead, even when it invites people to pray. But a Church in which the Eternal Light is burning before the Tabernacle is always alive, is always something more than a building made of stones.”
You go into these churches that are built by committees during Mass and they say,
“Oh, here we have no Tabernacle because the emphasis is on the activity.”
The minute they are gone they want to go somewhere nice. It is a place that doesn’t hold you or draw you into prayer. Revert back to what I said earlier about how dry it is outside right now. The earth will just soak up the rain when it comes and if you multiply that example hundreds of times you start to get an idea of the soul without Adoration.
St. Augustine said,
“O Lord, you made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”
If you don’t have Adoration in your life, you wonder why you are so dry all the time and why life has no meaning. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is following the example of these Three Kings, these Three Wise Men, who fell down in Adoration before the Baby Jesus, acknowledging that He is greater than all three of them put together; all of their wisdom combined.
Those who have gotten away from Adoration should recognize first of all, there are parts of the Mass that are pushing us to Adoration. I remember seeing Pope John Paul II celebrate Mass so often and He would elevate the Consecrated Host and leave it there elevated for a very long time. No, he is not the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz; he hasn’t rusted up. He is holding the Consecrated Host for all to see and all to adore; the same with the Chalice of Consecrated wine. This is a moment for Adoration when we are on our knees in Adoration.
When the priest holds up the Host and Chalice and proclaims that they ARE the Lamb of God, it is a moment of Adoration; leading up to that moment when the Host is before your face and you hear the words, “the Body of Christ”. All Adoration is preparing us for that moment and then after Communion Our Lord has come into our very body and soul; He is our Divine Guest and it is a time of Adoration.
Our Parish Feast Day is Tuesday, January 10th. There is a picture of St. William on the front of your bulletin and he is mentioned on page five, as well as the biographies of St. William that talk about his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and his love for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. You will notice that at 1:00 pm today we will begin three hours of Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Today is a day that we are drawn into this important aspect of Adoration. We have “petition” down pat…gimme, gimme, gimme. We learn that as kids and perfect it as adults. We need to move on from petition to Adoration and we will know that we are maturing in the faith when Adoration seems to take more of a place in our prayer life than gimme, gimme, gimme. There are those who can’t make it to Church everyday for a visit. If you do make it to Church during the day for a visit, count yourself very fortunate; it may perhaps be the greatest thing you will do that day. To be in the Real Presence of Our Lord and to adore for a while, to pray for a while is to rest in the Lord. There are those who do not have the opportunity to visit the Church everyday due to transportation problems or illness but you can still visit the Church and Our Lord in the Tabernacle; this is called a Spiritual Communion.
“Lord, I cannot be at Church today. I am coughing and sneezing and this is keeping me home but I unite my heart with Your Sacred Heart in the Tabernacle at Church”
You are keeping company with the Lord in this way also. This great tradition has to be seen as part of the constant teaching of the Church. This is what, then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI is trying to address in the “Spirit of the Liturgy”, that we can feign Adoration like King Herod or we can follow the example of these Three Kings.
Sad, but so many times Catholics have to imitate St. Mary Magdalene, who when she came to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning could not find our Lord and she exclaimed,
“They have taken my Lord and I do not know where they have placed him.”
It is sad that people walk into Church today and they cannot find Our Lord. The instruction on where to place the Tabernacle says that it should be placed on the “central axis” of the Church, visible for all to see. So now they start picking apart the word “central”!
“Well, central means kind of over to the side.”
How about “axis”? How about axe? Oh sorry! Anyway…I got a little carried away there. [Laughter] These people REFUSE to put Our Lord in the most prominent place; rather a chair should go there for the priest, or the choir should go there. Or…like in many Catholic Churches we honor the pipe organ. [Laughter] Try to make a Spiritual Communion with a pipe organ!
Today is a great opportunity to renew or begin Adoration; I don’t care who you are or what faith you are. The ability to adore Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament is for all the Nations and these Three Kings represent all of us, all of the Nations.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star and entering the house they saw the child with Mary, His mother. They prostrated themselves and did Him homage, then opened their treasures and offered Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen