2.a.Sunday.of.Easter.Divine.Mercy
Acts 2:42-47; 1 Pt 1:3-9; Jn 20:19-31
There is a plethora of topics and themes we could discuss this Sunday:
1. We could talk about the first Christian communities and the ways they were experiencing the Risen Lord.
2. Or about doubting Thomas.
3. Or about Divine Mercy Sunday, which implicitly tries to convey a message about the value of every human being and his or her preciousness in the eyes of God.
4. We could talk about one of the greatest propagators of the devotion to Divine Mercy, John Paul II, who is beatified today, May 1, 2011, by our pope Benedict XVI.
However, I believe that in each of these themes we find one common factor, namely - an encounter with Christ can change the lives of all those who are willing to open their hearts to His truth. The Eucharistic Liturgy for which we gather here should be one of those opportunities when we encounter the Risen Christ.
Recently I read an article called “The Hidden Exodus: Catholics Becoming Protestants,” by Thomas Reese. In his article the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion and Public Life has come up with hard numbers regarding some anecdotal evidence that (quoting or paraphrasing the words of the article):
· One out of every 10 Americans is an ex-Catholic. (That would be about 31 million people, according to my calculations). Other articles mention number of 22 millions.
· If they were a separate denomination, they would be the third-largest denomination in the United States, after Catholics and Baptists.
· One in three people who were raised Catholic no longer identifies him or herself as Catholic.
· Almost half of those leaving the church become Protestant, joining the mainline or the evangelical Protestant churches. The principal reason for them to become Protestant is that their "spiritual needs were not being met" in the Catholic Church. They joined their new church because they enjoy the religious service and style of worship of their new faith.
· Those who join the evangelical churches are leaving the Catholic Church to get spiritual nourishment from worship services and the Bible.
As Reese says in his article, "Dissatisfaction with how the church deals with spiritual needs and worship services dwarfs any disagreement over specific doctrines...the people becoming Protestants are not lazy or lax Christians. In fact, they attend worship services at a higher rate than those who remain Catholic...they also claim to have a stronger faith now than when they were children or teenagers.”
Reading this article sent a chill through my body. What about you? Does this article also speak about our own community of St. Mary's?
Many of us, although we would not admit it, are very confused:
1. Some of us, regardless of our age, are yearning for the church of 50s and 60s easily confusing tradition with traditionalism despite the fact that as famous church historian Jaroslav Pelican says: "Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living."
2. Some sees catholic tradition as religious grab in which they are free to pull out whatever they find appealing. Cafeteria approach to life is the best, isn't it?
3. Some of us, as good consumers, expect the best possible service at the most convenient time and at a minimal cost. It is always someone else who has to sacrifice or deliver. The consumer is always right, isn't that true?
4. And some of us are yearning for the good old days when "priests were priests and nuns were nuns", we had more priests and nuns and pending on a location congregations tended to be smaller. Priests had time to pray and study theology. Priesthood was considered a lifestyle. However, if you are now expecting me to cry on your shoulders about hard times, don’t worry: I won’t.
Rather let us talk about what we can do here, now, in the midst of our community, to make sure that the Eucharistic liturgy for which we gather is one of those opportunities when we encounter the Risen Christ.
Please listen carefully to what I am about to say. I will be seeking your advice and wisdom. I will be also asking you to help yourself to have more meaningful liturgical experiences here at St. Mary's. In two weeks we will take a survey that will help us make final decisions so we would be able to implement them after June 12th, after our parish picnic. If you miss anything from today's reflections, you can check my blog, its address is in our bulletin. These reflections are posted there almost word for word.
What I am about to say is both a proposal and an opening dialogue and consists of negotiable and non-negotiable items.
First the Non-negotiable items:
Starting the weekend of June 18 and 19, we will change to a new Mass schedule. We will have only three Masses each weekend so that we will not be so "splintered" as a community and will have a richer liturgical experience. The Sunday 5 pm Mass will be terminated.
Now, the Negotiable items:
The Saturday 5 pm Mass, if the diocese allows us to do it, could be moved to 4 pm. I think that would be more accommodating for senior citizens and would allow us to have Saturday evening activates as a community after Mass from time to time. Confession would be moved to Friday morning or a weekday evening or between Masses on Sunday. God willing, we would have more "traditional hymns", including organ music, offered during that Mass.
The Sunday 8:30 am Mass would move to 9 a.m. I believe that a later hour of the morning will allow more of you to attend this celebration. Families with children will not feel so rushed in the morning to come to church. God willing, we would have our choir at this Mass with well-known music from the past 40-50 years.
The Sunday 11:00 am Mass would move to 12 noon. I hope this time will encourage many of you who have attended the Sunday 5 pm Mass to come to this celebration. God willing, we will have a band playing contemporary Christian music of the new millennia.
Having Sunday Masses at 9 and 12 should give us the necessary time to continue our children Christian formation classes on Sunday mornings. It could also help us to have an ample time for possible confessions.
To further increase our liturgical experience here in our church, I would request of you the following:
1. Please, if you can, be more generous financially so that we can hire a choir director and /or some accompanists to help us with music for our celebrations. If you are asking yourself if you should put more of your contributions into debt reduction or regular collections, please know that for the next year or two we need more financial resources to help our ministries. This should be our priority for now. The answer should be then regular collections.
2. Be willing, if you have not done so yet, to step up and to get involved in the liturgical ministries of our church. In the narthex for the next two weekends, we will have volunteers waiting for you to sign up to be:
a) an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist,
b) a Lector,
c) an Altar Server, even if you are an adult,
d) a Greeter,
e) an Usher,
f) a Choir member or an instrumentalist, or
g) an Art and Environment Minister
This Eucharistic Liturgy for which we gather should be one of the most important opportunities when we encounter the Risen Christ. We all should do anything possible to make that a reality for all of us here.
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Healing Service on Saturday
THE PROMISE OF THE GRACE OF MERCY FOR THE DYING
"It pleases Me to grant everything souls ask of Me by saying the chaplet. When hardened sinners say it, I will fill their souls with peace, and the hour of their death will be a happy one. Write this for the benefit of distressed souls; when a soul sees and realizes the gravity of its sins, when the whole abyss of the misery into which it immersed itself is displayed before its eyes, let it not despair, but with trust let it throw itself into the arms of My mercy, as a child into the arms of its beloved mother (...). Tell them no soul that has called upon My mercy has been disappointed or brought to shame. I delight particularly in a soul that has placed its trust in My goodness. Write that when they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the merciful Savior"(Diary, 1541).
"At the hour of their death, I defend every soul that will say this chaplet as I do My own glory (...). When this chaplet is said by the bedside of a dying person, God's anger is placated and his unfathomable mercy envelops the soul" (Diary, 811). Lord Jesus to said of Saint Faustina: "I desire that this mercy flow out upon the whole world through your heart. Let no one who approaches you go away without that trust in My mercy, which I so ardently desire for souls. Pray as much as you can for the dying. By your entreaties, obtain for them trust in My mercy, because they have most need of trust, and have it the least" (Diary, 1777).
"My daughter, help Me to save a certain dying sinner. Say the chaplet that I have taught you for him. When I began to say the chaplet, I saw the man dying in the midst of terrible torment and struggle. His Guardian Angel was defending him, but he was, as it were, powerless against the enormity of the soul’s misery (...). But while I was saying the chaplet, I saw Jesus just as He is depicted in the image. The rays that issued from Jesus’ Heart enveloped the sick man, and the powers of darkness fled in panic. The sick man peacefully breathed his last" (Diary, 1565).
"I often communicate with persons who are dying and obtain the divine mercy for them. Oh, how great is the goodness of God, greater than we can understand. There are moments and there are mysteries of the divine mercy over which the heavens are astounded. Let our judgment of souls cease, for God’s mercy upon them is extraordinary" (Diary, 1684).
"God’s mercy sometimes touches the sinner at the last moment in a wondrous and mysterious way. Outwardly, it seems as if everything were lost, but it is not so. The soul, illumined by a ray of God’s powerful final grace, turns to God in the last moment with such a power of love that, in an instant, it receives from God absolution of sins and remission of punishment, while outwardly it shows no sign either of repentance or of contrition, because souls [at that stage] no longer react to external things. Oh, how beyond comprehension is God’s mercy! But - horror! - There are also souls who voluntarily and consciously reject and scorn this grace! Although a person is at the point of death, the merciful God gives the soul that interior vivid moment, so that if the soul is willing, it has the possibility of returning to God. But sometimes, the obduracy in souls is so great that consciously they choose hell; they [thus] make useless all the prayers that other souls offer to God for them and even the efforts of God Himself..." (Diary, 1698).
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