Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 29, 2006
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David have pity on me.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
On the face of the bulletin you see a beautiful depiction of two Feast Days that are mentioned on page four and five. Tuesday is the Eve of All Hallows, All Saints Day. Hallow is another word for holy, as in the Lord’s Prayer, “hallowed be Thy Name.” Wednesday is All Saints Day and Thursday is All Souls Day. The cover of the bulletin depicts All Saints Day; Our Lady and Jesus are with the saints in Heaven and below are the souls in Purgatory ascending to Heaven.
View picture here
http://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html
You can see Our Lady holding the baby Jesus and near His left hand is St. Francis, who I mentioned last Sunday. Behind him is St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominicans and below his arm are Jesuits. On the other side and behind Our Lady’s shoulder there appears to be St. Peter because he is holding up two keys. Then we have who appears to be St. Augustine and I could not tell who the saint in black is. This represents principle religious orders in Heaven. Look at our Lady’s halo; there is a host of cherubim around her. This is very beautifully executed. I have to say, if we look closely at this picture, there aren’t very many women in Heaven. [Laughter] I didn’t paint it so don’t shoot me! There are few in Purgatory in the picture as well. Anyway…we won’t speculate anymore. [Laughter] Notice how St. Ignatius and the saint in the black cassock are praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
The entire month of November is reserved for praying for the dearly departed, those in Purgatory. We are not as accustomed to praying for the dearly departed as we should be and you will be hearing about the dearly departed and Purgatory throughout the entire month of November because of the culture in which we live. For example, 500 years ago this year the first stone was placed in building the new Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome. That was the easy part! The rest was the difficult part, such as the beautiful art and furnishings inside. The Pope sent priests throughout the world to let the people know about the new construction of St. Peter’s and to also beg for money, kind of like the Annual Appeal, to ask support for something central.
The further away the priest and missionaries got from Rome, the less control Rome had over what they were saying. There was an instance in Germany where there were abuses of this mission appeal and on Halloween 1517, an Augustinian priest by the name of Father Martin Luther nailed 95 abuses or complaints that he saw in the Church to the door of the Whittenburg Cathedral. If I had been in charge of the Cathedral I would have asked him who was going to repair that hole he made and let him know he was in trouble. I wasn’t there though.
Some of the abuses that Luther pointed out were not imagined or erroneous, they were real, such as the one abuse connected to the Holy Souls. The preacher who was asking for support to build St. Peter’s became full of himself and he started telling people,
”Now listen, here is the box; just put your coin or coins in the slot and when you hear the coin fall into the box, at the same instant your dearly departed are flying into Heaven.”
Sound like a good sales gimmick and that is exactly what it was; it wasn’t Catholic Doctrine and it isn’t what the church teaches and it wasn’t what the Church taught then but it was collecting money to build St. Peter’s. The pope at the time and other popes tried correcting this but Fr. Martin Luther saw it and counted it as one of the abuses among his 95. He was right about that abuse but as you know he eventually left the Catholic Church instead of staying. His idea was that the Church was in need of reform. Name me a century, a decade, and a year that the Church has not been in need of reform. You see, the Church is made up of human beings like you and me and we are always in need of reform and renewal so why is it amazing that there was a need of a reformation then? There is today and there will be next year and the next. Welcome to the Church!
They didn’t call it a Reformation but a revolt; they were protesting abuses, hence the name “protestant”. It was a revolution and revolt. Only after the fact did they give it the gentler name, Reformation. This was one of those points that were really central to Father Martin Luther’s criticisms. We need to take a look at this because we live with many Christians, who are Christians but not Catholic Christians, who do have an influence. For example, Protestants believe,
Once save, always saved!
On the basis of that, at 15 years old I could be saved but I could live the rest of my life going from one gutter to the next and at the end of my life I would expect to leave this world for the next and enter the Divine Embrace, going into the arms of Jesus. This doesn’t make any sense, it is not Catholic Doctrine or teaching and yet, I have heard other bishops and priests from the pulpit canonize the dearly departed. So and so has died and now they are in the Arms of Jesus! They do not have the power to canonize and have no special binoculars to judge from where they are if a person is indeed in Heaven. This mindset is all around us and it does have an influence on us. It does exert a certain weight over us and that is why throughout the month of November we are going to examine this.
Some friends of mine just left this week for a one-week road trip to Tennessee, Alabama and then back to Texas. This is possible for many reasons; the gas prices are down. Last week in Dallas I saw gas at $1.95 a gallon. It was great; $1.95 and I get to live in Texas as well, I mean, I had to pinch myself, right? Anyway this made it possible for my friends to make the trip. They started talking about it three or four weeks ago and of course when they started planning it the paper comes out and the lists start to form. The husband has a list and so does the wife, so we have “dueling lists”, right? Her list focuses on certain things and his list is focusing on certain things. The last few days before the trip they go to the shorter list because now there is a time limit they have to meet.
A few weeks ago she purchased a couple of coats for herself and then she came to the coats on her list and she couldn’t find them. If you buy a coat for a kid you expect it to be lost within 24 hours, right? But if you are 18 you should be able to keep up with it. [Laughter] She couldn’t find her coats so she had to go and find more. When they were 200 miles away from home they probably remembered that the iron was on high and plugged in, laying flat on the ironing board and that the cat was in the oven or something like that…I don’t know. But I don’t care how good your lists are, you pull away and then remember things that you forgot to remember. How about this one? You get miles away and remember that you forgot to mail in your weekly donation to St. William’s. [Laughter] You must be asleep now and are dreaming if you think that happens…if I don’t bring it up.
Now, people go on trips and they have to plan like the dickens and still things get lost or are left unverified. Last night a man said that he could go on a trip anytime he wanted on the spur of the moment. I told him that it was because his wife is such a good planner and so happy to see him go too. He can go out on a business trip at any moment because she is such a great planner and she makes sure that everything is there and ready. He agreed with me.
With all of that as preface, why in the world do we think that some day in the future we will draw our last breath on earth and we will be that ready to go before God. Why in the world do I think that? I don’t think that. If I told you that I was that ready, you wouldn’t believe me. People don’t walk around saying,
”Mom, dad?”
“What? Oh, I am sorry, I was meditating on Heaven.”
We are not like this! We are not intensely focused on the things that we should be and it is obvious but the minute we draw our last breath….
“I am ready, let us go!”
Of course we are not ready! We can’t go on a trip, not cross an international border without intense planning and consultation and we still forget things and we think that we are ready to cross from this life into the next! Don’t kid yourself; and we do find different ways to kid ourselves. Others decide since you believe this kind of thing then they will just introduce something else as well. The Church never recommends that we adopt that kind of thinking.
Look at the First Reading from the Prophet Jeremiah,
Shout with joy for Jacob, exalt at the head of the nations, proclaim your praise and say, “The Lord has delivered His people, the remnant of Israel.”
Notice the word remnant? Remnant means a small part of a whole.
Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the world with the blind and the lame in their midst, the mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng.
It is like the picture from Easter of the people pressing in from every side onto the Altar and in the background is the Heavenly Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a symbol of Heaven, the new restored Jerusalem that is restored by God.
They departed in tears but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble.
They departed in tears; perhaps we can see that as a reference to the real suffering that the dearly departed experience in Purgatory. This is the teaching of the Church but as it says at the beginning of that reading,
Shout with joy for Jacob.
Every soul in Purgatory is guaranteed entrance into Heaven. For many there is going to be a wait but there is a certitude; you are not going to walk through Purgatory and slip through a hole and fall into Hell. It is not like walking across the street where you walk out the door and down the street and there is this huge hole. It is like walking the plank to cross the street in front of this Church; you are taking your life into your own hands because there is a big hole out there. But, you won’t fall all the way through to Hell and it is not going to happen to you in Purgatory either. If you are in Purgatory there is a joy even in the midst of tears. In the Responsorial Psalm it says that they go out full of tears carrying the seeds to be sown. That is a lot of work but then they come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves; bringing in a harvest is joyful and planting it is a lot of work. Scripture says,
I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble.
Doesn’t that bring up images of Psalm 23 that is always connected with funerals?
Beside restful waters He leads me, He refreshes my soul.
So, Purgatory is a very helpful teaching of the Church, still a teaching of the Church and yet we give Purgatory so little thought and it is probably because of the many Protestants that influence us but also due to our own flaws. Don’t blame it on the Protestants; it is just easier to think that we will let Holy Mother church take care of it. You see this in kids; they just let mom take care of it when they see a towel on the floor and just walk by it because mom just loves doing those things, right? No, pick it up; we can do these things on our own and save mom’s back. These errors creep in; they creep into daily life and into our spiritual lives.
Last Tuesday I went down to the Court in Dallas because I was summoned for jury duty. When I purchased my dad’s house after he died a few years ago, getting a jury summons seemed to go along with the process. We all started in the central jury room at 9am. I didn’t pull out of that parking lot until after 6pm that evening and that was just for jury selection. There were two men accused of aggravated robbery. Seventy-five people were in that room with me and we were being pelted with questions from the judge and the DA and defense attorneys. I have to tell you that I have never undergone such intense questioning and I am so proud to be a Texan and an American. We, the people in that room, came from all kinds of different backgrounds, races, and religions and I thought I was going to hear a lot of crazy things but I was so impressed and it is so good to be a Texan and an American. I am serious; talk about having my faith restored in my state and my country…that did it.
These two men and the man they robbed were all taking cocaine and the two are charged with robbing him at gunpoint. The judge was talking to us and of course we were dozing off like some of you right now. You got an extra hour of sleep and still….. Anyway, I admit that I was kind of dozing off and then when the judge stopped the Assistant DA started and I noticed the judge was dozing off. Father laughs What really surprised me though is that these two men were facing 5 to 99 years and they weren’t dozing off, they were asleep and they were facing us! If 5 to 99 years won’t get your attention, nothing will!
I came away from there wondering why I was there. I know one of the reasons I was there. I don’t know these men’s names, but during the whole selection process they are facing us and we are facing them as if we are on some scrimmage line during a football game. It wasn’t a game; these men could spend 99 years in prison. That is a life thrown away at such an early age. I know that now I am responsible to pray for them because I know them. I don’t know their names but I know those “two guys” who made me waste a day in court. Actually it is not a wasted day because the memory of them is seared into my memory and I will never forget it so I am responsible! It is my responsibility to pray for them now. I have to pray for them because they have done something terrible and they have thrown away their lives, bringing dishonor and disgrace upon their families. Look at the time it took up in the day for 75 people and that is just those being selected for the jury and not everyone else involved.
In the same way we have to be able to identify those who died and are in Purgatory and not in Heaven. Those people are doing some real suffering in Purgatory and they all have names. At the end of the Eucharistic Prayer I always pause for a while where it says to remember those who have gone before us and marked with the sign of faith. Do you pray for people? Do you go through lists or groups of people? Yesterday I asked my CCD class, grades 1-4, whose parents were also present, to name someone in the family or maybe a friend who may have died. About twenty five percent of them couldn’t name anyone. Children’s prayers are very important because they go straight to God’s ears. Because children aren’t employed they have a lot of time to pray for the dearly departed; what a waste of such attention and not recommending our dearly departed through our children is a real tragedy and the blame is put right at our feet because we don’t help our children to understand this.
We have to remember real people who were involved with our lives and have helped us but are now gone before us marked with the sign of faith. To not recognize the incredible power that is placed in our hands is a shame.
In the Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, it is speaking of the priests in the temple in Jerusalem.
Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
So, no high priest ever made himself the high priest; he was always chosen or elected.
In the same way it was not Christ Who glorified Himself in becoming High Priest, but rather the One Who said to Him, “You are My Son, this day I have begotten You”, just as He says in another place, “You are a Priest forever according to the Order of Melchizedek.”
Notice that when Christ is referred to as High Priest there is a capital “H” and a capital “P”. Christ is our great High Priest by God’s design and any prayer or sacrifice attached to the perfect prayer and sacrifice of Christ goes directly to God the Father’s heart.
There is a quote from Pope John Paul II that I have provided for you in the bulletin, which says,
My prayer and my sacrifices, as imperfect as they are, when joined to the perfect prayer of Christ, which is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, represents a force that melts the heart of God the Father. Such great power is placed in our hands and has been done so by God’s Design, yet we are reckless in applying those graces; we fail to pray for those who have helped us to be the persons we are today.Prayer joined to sacrifice constitutes the most powerful force in history.
”Oh, who cares…they are dead!”
So we don’t worry about them and put them under the heading of those who have already made it to Heaven. Yet, when you and I die we want a national day of prayer declared where all will pray for us and make sacrifices for us to help us on our way. Our children have to be taught to pray for the faithful departed because they don’t understand it naturally. They have to be reminded of it again and again.
”You know, your Godfather passed away dear, when is the last time you offered Mass and Holy Communion for him?”
”Uh…uh…huh?”
”By the way, where is your coat?”
Right? Children need this kind of constant reminder…welcome to being a parent!
When we look at how easily God is swayed by just the earnest petition of a blind man; Mr. Nobody, Bartimaeus, blind and on the side of the road has the complete attention of Christ, Who is looking him in the eye and allows the man to look Him in the eye. He cures the man and He answers him when he asks Christ,
Son of David have pity on me.
Christ doesn’t drag His feet in answering that prayer and yet we drag our feet concerning praying for the Poor Holy Souls in Purgatory. The self interest that we should have in praying for the dearly departed is obvious because when the poor souls make it to Heaven they are indeed saints and there is no one in Heaven who has passed through Purgatory that is not a saint and they pray for those who have prayed for them and others as well who are on the way. We must recognize that Christ has placed great power in our hands and it is the Will of the Father that this is so and that we might intercede for those who have gone before us and for those who are still in this world.
In the bulletin there are those intentions that I have asked you to pray for and number 31 is for the Souls in Purgatory. One day when we die we too might make it to Purgatory, not Heaven. You aim for Heaven and if you miss, there is Purgatory. But if you aim for Purgatory and you miss, it is going to be very warm for a long, long time. We have so much power in our hands; let us use that power wisely.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David have pity on me.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen