Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
4th Sunday of Easter
April 30, 2007
Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice; I know them and they follow Me.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
The cover of the bulletin is a beautiful image of St. Joseph and the baby Jesus, beneath the Holy Spirit and surrounded by the angels. What a tender image of St. Joseph leaning his head on the head of the Child Jesus and vise versa. Notice that in the Child Jesus’ arm He has a little cross symbolizing the cross on which He would be nailed years later.
Beneath the cross a bit lower is a chubby little angel holding a banner. If you are under twenty you can read the inscription in Latin, which reads,
Salus nostra in manu tua est
This means,
Our health is in your hand
This refers to St. Joseph; the health of our souls is in his hands. It is a very tender picture and on the bottom there it says,
The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, May 1st
It is interesting that this Feast of St. Joseph the Worker hasn’t been around even one hundred years. My mom has told me again and again that when she was growing up during WWII that there was a record label that was very popular. Of course the kids are wondering what a record is. Right? The record label was RCA Victor and it features a Victrola. I know,
“What is a Victrola?”
There was a dog in front of the Victrola and the dog was listening with its ear cocked to one side and the motto for RCA Victor was,
His master’s voice
It was insinuating that a record could fool the dog. All you had to do was crank up the Victrola and you would hear the master’s voice.
Just after WWII ended and the Germans were defeated the allies rolled into Berlin and so did the Russians. For most of the war we were fighting the Russians, Germans and the Japanese. Toward the end of the war the communist Soviet Union joined us and were on our side. With friends like these who needs enemies, right? At the very end when we were rolling in to take Berlin and they were rolling in to take part of Berlin themselves as well as most of Eastern Europe. The communists ended up with a big part of Europe after the Nazis were defeated. The Nazis were defeated but we all know that anti-Semitism wasn’t defeated or extinguished. Just because the allies won the war doesn’t mean that hearts and minds were changed.
In a similar way, in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell and communism was defeated after a long cold war, there is still a lot of communist thinking today, especially about work. You notice that at the bottom of the picture on the bulletin it says, “Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker.” At about the same time as WWII, Pope Pius XII instituted the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker because the communists had declared that May 1st would be May Day. They would roll out their tanks and their troops and rockets for a great display of the production of the USSR. This was a day to celebrate work.
When I was a kid, Tennessee Ernie Ford, in his very deep voice would sing that song that sold a lot of RECORDS. It said,
”You load sixteen tons and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt.”
He sang it so low and the refrain was,
“I owe my soul to the company store.”
Like credit cards are new, right? Only before we had the “company store”. This is the idea that the communists had about work; it was something one had to do for the state and the government. If you were old or handicapped in some way, if you were useless then somehow the state helped you do the right thing and end your own life. If you wouldn’t do it yourself they did it for you. With this kind of thinking, you are only good if you are useful and productive, as a great prominence here in the USA, even with the Berlin Wall down. So, an antidote is found, if you will, in Saint Joseph the Worker.
If you look again at the front of the bulletin you will notice that closeness between Christ and St. Joseph. The work of St. Joseph would begin with focusing on Jesus and it would end with Jesus. If it didn’t meet those standards St. Joseph wouldn’t pursue it and he certainly wouldn’t complete it. That intimacy between Christ and His Foster Father is the exact element that is missing today in the lives of so many people who work. Their work has no connection with Christ; it doesn’t begin with Christ and it doesn’t finish with Christ. No wonder so many people feel as if they are in a Gulag or in slave labor. That is exactly how they felt in the former Soviet Union.
When we hear the Gospel today, one that is a postage size stamp Gospel, it is about Jesus the Good Shepherd, just like in Psalm 23.
The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me;
This is the Good Shepherd Gospel; this is Good Shepherd Sunday and Christ is the Good Shepherd. He is very clear.
My sheep hear My voice; I know Mine and Mine know Me.
He is very direct. St. Joseph is obviously one of His and St. Joseph, in all of his work served Christ from start to finish.
We are tempted to see work merely as something to do so that we can be productive and buy things; that is very hollow. But it does represent much of Wall Street and Hollywood but what does that have to do with Christ and the Good Shepherd?
Today in the Divine Office, the Office of Readings, we read the Book of Revelations, chapter 12. It talks about the one who can deceive us, especially about work. If you think about work you see that there is nothing more basic than work. So, we have been seduced and tricked about work. Chapter 12 of Revelations says,
Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge dragon, flaming red with seven heads and ten horns. On his heads were seven diadems. His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and hurled them down to the earth.
You see in this huge dragon incredible power. It is not some diminutive lizard or snake in the garden but a huge dragon, flaming red with seven heads and ten horns. Kind of what you would picture working at the IRS. A big monster, right? Later on in the Book of Revelation war broke out in Heaven and St. Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. Even though the dragon and his angels fought back, they were overpowered and lost their place in Heaven. Listen to how the dragon is described.
The huge dragon, the ancient serpent known as the devil, Satan, the seducer of the whole world was driven out; he was hurled down to the earth and his minions with him.
Do you know that there are Rabbis, who over the centuries have taught that Eve and then Adam were tempted in the Garden of Eden not by some snake, but by this dragon. If you look at the image of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, you see beneath her foot, the head of the serpent. Perhaps you will recall that on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo has a serpent that is very ample but he is no dragon. But the way the serpent is described in the Book of Revelation is consistent with the teaching of many Rabbis, that Eve was tempted in the garden by a huge dragon, flaming red with seven heads; the kind you would hear about in Revelations. In fact, Revelation 12 mentions that the huge dragon, the ancient serpent known as the devil or Satan, the seducer of the whole world, describes the devil going all the way back to Adam and Eve.
When God gave the entire Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve it was for them to cultivate, but also, Adam was to guard this garden. Now, where was Adam when this huge dragon appeared to Eve? He was probably very close by. But, he saw this huge dragon and thought,
“You know, if I go against this dragon, I am going to die.”
He probably realized he still had some extra ribs and could always get another wife. [Laughter] So Adam did not guard that which God had given him. Christ is the New Adam and the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life gladly for His sheep. Adam perhaps was timid and afraid in the face of such a great dragon. Christ is the conqueror of sin and death. He is victorious over the dragon known as the seducer, the ancient serpent, and the devil.
With all of that as background we should understand that the Good Shepherd is the voice of God, the voice of our Master speaking to us. We have a hunger to be in communication with God. Try driving on any street or highway and find someone without a cell phone connected to his or her ear; someone is talking to someone else about something or about nothing. There is a thirst to be in communication. If we see work as we should see work, then we wish to be in constant communication with the voice of Our Lord Himself; our Master’s voice coming through loud and clear about what we should begin, what we should continue, and what we should conclude.
One of the saints, who just loved St. Joseph was St. Teresa of Avila. She and St. John of the Cross reformed the Carmelite Order in the last half of the 1500s in Spain. Of course that reform spread around the world. She loved St. Joseph and when she started a new convent she always put the keys in the hands of St. Joseph, the same way Christ is there, placed in the hands of St. Joseph.
Our health is in your hand.
St. Teresa is great to read concerning the spiritual life. Once she wrote something about her brother-in-law, who passed away suddenly as well as her sister.
So, her brother-in-law had not been careful to make his confession and died with the Sacraments. He was far from his last confession.Once when I was in great distress because a brother-in-law of mine had died suddenly without being careful to make his confession, I was told in prayer too, that my sister would die in the same way and that I must go to see her and get her to prepare for death.
You always see St. Teresa of Avila pictured with the dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. She was constantly in communication with God, about what God wanted for her and what works He was going to perform through her. So, Teresa had the inspiration concerning her sister and she writes,
This is the confessor for the convent where she lived.I told my confessor about this but he would not let me go to see my sister.
So, she didn’t go there and tell her sister she was going to die and she needed to get to confession; no…she probably went and said the same things that most women would say.I then heard the same thing several times more. When my confessor found that this was so he told me to go and be with my sister, as no harm could possibly come from it. She lived in a village and I went there without telling her the reason, but giving her what light I could about everything.
“Oh, I love your hair this way. Is this new? I have to get the recipe for this!”
Whatever, just fill in the blank. This is what she started saying to her sister and it influenced her.
Ah Ha! That would be the case for most diocesan priests and most Catholics. I am telling you right now, you and I will die without having someone there to hear our confessions. Forget the movies and what Hollywood says.I got her to go to confession very frequently and always to think of her soul’s profit. She was good and did as I said. Later, some four or five years later she had adopted these habits and begun to pay great attention to her conscience. She died; she died in such circumstances that nobody could come to see or hear her confession.
“Oh Father, thank you for coming. Please everyone leave, I need to go to confession.”
Yea, right! For 99.5% of Catholics and most diocesan priests included, you and I will not have a priest there. I could just see me calling a priest. I would never get through to another priest. Right? A blocked call.
“Oh, it is that Weinberger again, don’t answer it. He is probably dying again and wants to go to confession.”
Right? Most diocesan priests die without the Sacrament of Confession. It goes something like this….
“Well, Father is not at Mass this morning; I wonder what the matter is?”
“Let him alone; he is probably sleeping.”
So Father So and So has probably died in his sleep and then the next day when they don’t see him at Mass and they need some checks signed, they break the door down and there is Father dead now for two days. [Laughter]
“Who is going to clean this up?”
Right? I am just saying that most diocesan priests die in this manner and without someone there. Listen to what St. Teresa said about her sister.
St. Teresa of Avila had that understanding of constant communication and connection with God, her Master’s voice, not only through prayer but also through the Sacraments. If you look on page seven of your bulletin there are two paragraphs that I have cited from Pope Benedict’s most recent Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis, which in English means, “The Sacrament of Love”. It is a reference to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which we are in attendance. Notice that the date is February 22nd of this year, and the Pope wrote this in consultation with all the bishops of the world; this represents not some eclectic point of view but an understanding that Christ is speaking to us through His Church. Let me just mention the paragraph above where it says, “Actuosa participatio” Instead of it being mistranslated as “active participation” you will notice that paragraph #52 says that “Actuosa participatio” means “authentic, real” participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. I am going to skip down to where is says,So, some four or five years after she’d adopted these habits and begun to pay great heed to her conscience, she died in such circumstances that nobody could come to see her or hear her Confession. It was a fortunate thing that, following her usual custom she had made her last Confession a little more than a week before. When I heard of her death it made me very happy to think that she had done so; she remained only a very short time in Purgatory.
“Personal conditions for “active participation or authentic participation.”
The Holy Father is writing about how we can most authentically participate in this most intimate communication of Our Lord. I guarantee that if you reflect upon what Christ teaches through His Church, where you are at this moment, represents the most intimate event of the 168 hours in a 7-day period. There is nothing more intimate than hearing the Word of God in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and if possible, receiving His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in Holy Communion. What you see on the cover of the bulletin is available for all of us, which is that Divine Intimacy most especially in the Sacramentum Caritatis, the Sacrament of Love, which is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
In paragraph #55 the Pope is talking about how we can approach the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, whereby reaping the most benefits; active participation in the Eucharistic liturgy…the Mass.
#55
Let’s start at the beginning where it says that this inner disposition can be fostered by recollection and silence for at least a few moments before Mass. When I was a kid I thought that the way you prepared for Mass on Sunday was fighting with your brother on the way to Church. Well, isn’t that the way we are supposed to prepare for Mass? My mother is sitting on the front row and she can tell you that is how we prepared. My dad’s arm is only so long; he was driving us and we were in the back seat. So, get to Mass early, even a few minutes early to recollect. Also it says by fasting and sacramental confession. You heard in that story by St. Teresa of Avila the importance of sacramental confession.Active participation in the Eucharistic liturgy can hardly be expected if one approaches it superficially, without an examination of his or her life. This inner disposition can be fostered, for example, by recollection and silence for at least a few moments before the beginning of the liturgy, by fasting and, when necessary, by sacramental confession.
So, what we are doing here is to have an impact on the world outside of here. If you look on page #6 you will see that prayer that shows up every Sunday. Then you see forty-one intentions that are very important intentions. Without such a prayer and without such a list, many Catholics, who have not learned anything different, after receiving Our Lord in the Eucharist and return to their seats, and twiddle their thumbs. Or they are thinking about where they are going to eat after Mass instead of beginning their missionary outreach right away. Do you realize that, after receiving Holy Communion Jesus is with us for about fifteen minutes before the Sacred Host dissolves. During those fifteen minutes the list of intentions I have provided for you, reminds us of some of the important and some recent events that we need to pray for. It will jog our memory and maybe we will remember to pray for something or someone else. But it is a start to our missionary commitment to bring Christ’s love into the life of society.A heart reconciled to God makes genuine participation possible. The faithful need to be reminded that there can be no actuosa participatio in the sacred mysteries without an accompanying effort to participate actively in the life of the Church as a whole, including a missionary commitment to bring Christ's love into the life of society.
Continuing with the pope’s document.
This is so important. I have been a priest for almost eighteen years now and every year for eighteen years I have heard reference to the same sin no matter where I am hearing Confessions.Clearly, full participation in the Eucharist takes place when the faithful approach the altar in person to receive communion (169). Yet true as this is, care must be taken lest they conclude that the mere fact of their being present in church during the liturgy gives them a right or even an obligation to approach the table of the Eucharist. Even in cases where it is not possible to receive sacramental communion, participation at Mass remains necessary, important, meaningful and fruitful. In such circumstances it is beneficial to cultivate a desire for full union with Christ through the practice of spiritual communion, praised by Pope John Paul II (170) and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life (171).
“I didn’t make it to Mass on Sunday. I could have gone but didn’t go because I knew I couldn’t go to Communion.”
It is kind of like someone peeling a banana and throwing the peel away because what are they going to do with that; it was just there to protect the banana.
“If I go to Mass and can’t go to Communion…why bother…it is really no use.”
Do you realize there are lots of Christians, not Catholic Christians but Christians who attend Mass, do not receive Holy Communion and are rewarded with many blessings during the Mass. That is why the pope says that even in cases where it is not possible to receive Sacramental Communion, participation at Mass remains necessary, important, meaningful, and fruitful. Say someone comes to Mass but cannot receive Holy Communion because they have to go to Confession first. After their Confession they can go to Communion. It happens, right.
Perhaps you are absolutely unfamiliar with Spiritual Communion. I mentioned this last week. On the front of the bulletin we had the Tabernacle that was just dedicated last Sunday and contains the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord; Holy Communion is kept there. If you are unable to attend weekday Mass, you can make a Spiritual Communion, even from your place of work if you are on break where you can go off by yourself and unite your heart with Our Lord in the Tabernacle. It is not a cell phone call, it is a direct line to Our Lord, turning to Him and making a Spiritual Communion and to lean your head on His Heart or to allow His Heart to lean on yours.In such circumstances it is beneficial to cultivate a desire for full union with Christ through the practice of spiritual communion, praised by Pope John Paul II (170) and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life (171).
“Lord, I can’t make it to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because of circumstances, but I wish to unite my heart and soul to Your Sacred Heart in the Tabernacle in Holy Communion.”
During this time you can recommend to Christ those in your family, your needs etc., which is the missionary commitment that you and I are supposed to bring into the life of society. This is very important because then, we are constantly listening to the Master’s voice.
If we are honest and admit it, we don’t like this; we yearn for prayer and we long for communication with Christ, but we run from prayer as if we are running from and explosion. Let me give an example. If someone reached into your purse or pocket and took your money, you wouldn’t like that, obviously. But when Catholics are constantly reaching into Sunday and seeing in Sunday a day in which we can do servile work, and I am not talking about those whose circumstances demand it, but those who look on Sunday as “free time’ and do servile work, thinking God won’t mind. Yes, He will! He told me! There is a Commandment; the third commandment says to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
“Oh well, God is not going to mind.”
Yes He does! This is the day when He wishes to grace us with His many directions and promptings for the rest of the week.
In the Office of Readings, Pope St. Gregory the Great is taking to us about Jesus; the Master’s Voice.
Excuse me?I assure you that it is not by faith that you will come to know Jesus.
Yes, that’s right! It is out of St. John’s Gospel and are the words of Jesus. He tells us that anyone who claims to know God without keeping His Commandments is a liar! To know God has been given to us so that our work and our time away from work spent in leisure is spent in communication with God so that He can direct our lives away from the “ancient serpent”, the dragon and seducer of all who ever lived and ever will live. He leads us through dark valleys to green pastures and He is My Good Shepherd.I assure you that it is not by faith that you will come to know Jesus, but by love, not by mere conviction but by action. St. John the Evangelist is my authority for this statement. He tells us that anyone who claims to know God without keeping His Commandments is a liar!
Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice; I know them and they follow Me.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen