Faith Is Possible Only Through Communion With The Church

The widespread tendency today to relegate the faith to the private sphere contradicts its very nature. We need the Church to confirm our faith and to experience God’s gifts: His Word, the Sacraments, the support of grace and the witness of love. In this way, our “I” taken up into the “we” of the Church – will be able to perceive itself as the recipient of and participant in an event that far surpasses it: the experience of communion with God, who establishes communion among men.
Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI has named the current year of October 2012 through November 2013 "The Year of Faith," in which he is encouraging all Catholics to learn the beliefs and dogma of the Church and deepen their faith. The Holy Father has been giving a very profound series of talks in explaining how we receive faith and how it affects our lives.

In a talk given on October 31 in St. Peter's Square, Our Holy Father explains how essential the Church is to our faith, and that we cannot have faith unless we are part of the Mystical Body of Christ.   As he tells us, we cannot be "lone wolf" Christians or in any way separated from Christ's Mystical Body, The Church. Christ told us that he is the vine and we are the branches, and we have no life apart from him.  That translates to His Mystical Body, the Church.  We can have no faith apart from Christ's Church:

I cannot build my personal faith on a private conversation with Jesus, for faith is given to me by God through the community of believers, which is the Church. . . .Our faith is truly personal only if it is also communal.

Our union with God and the Church begins with our baptism, the sacrament which erases the original sin inherited from our first parents. We receive faith at baptism when we receive the Holy Spirit:

[T]his new birth, which begins at baptism, continues throughout the whole course of life.

The Holy Father tells us that just as we are brought into communion with the Church at baptism, we must continue in the Church or we will lose our faith:

I would like to emphasize that it is within the ecclesial community that personal faith grows and matures.

The Holy Father emphasizes that faith can be found only in the Catholic Church, the one and only Mystical Body of Christ.  All truth comes through the Catholic Church, and all faith comes through the Catholic Church:

The Church is the mother of all believers. ‘No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother’ [St. Cyprian]” (n. 181). Therefore, faith is born in the Church, leads to her and lives in her.

Pope Benedict makes it clear the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, has always been the place where faith was "transmitted" and through which we enter into Christ's death and resurrection:

From her earliest days, then, the Church was the place of faith, the place where the faith was transmitted, the place where, through baptism, we are immersed in the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s Death and Resurrection, which frees us from the prison of sin, gives us the freedom of children and introduces us into communion with the Trinitarian God.

Below is the translation of the Holy Father's talk from zenit.org:

ON THE ECCLESIAL NATURE OF FAITH

 No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother.

VATICAN, OCT. 31, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today in St. Peter’s Square. Today the Holy Father continued with the second reflection in his new series of catecheses on faith.

* * *
Dear brothers and sisters,

We continue on our journey of meditation on the Catholic Faith. Last week I explained that faith is a gift, for it is God who takes the initiative and comes to meet us [faith is not something we can get by ourselves or "work up"by ourselves, it is a gift from God]. Thus faith is the response whereby we welcome him as the stable foundation of our lives. It is a gift that transforms our existence, for it allows us to see through the eyes of Jesus, who works in us and opens us to love for God and for others.

Today I would like to take another step forward in our reflection, beginning once again with a number of questions: Is faith only personal and individual? Does it only concern my own person? Do I live my faith alone? Certainly, the act of faith is an eminently personal act that takes place in the most intimate depths of our being and signals a change in direction, a personal conversion. It is my life that is marked by a turning point and receives a new orientation.

In the liturgy of Baptism, at the time of the promises, the celebrant asks for a manifestation of faith, and he puts forward three questions: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty? Do you believe in Jesus Christ his only Son? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? Historically, these questions were addressed personally to the one who was to receive baptism, before immersing him three times in water. And today, too, the response is in the singular: “I believe”. But my belief is not the result of my own personal reflection, nor the product of my own thoughts. Rather, it is the fruit of a relationship, of a dialogue that involves listening, receiving and a response. It is a conversation with Jesus that causes me to go out of my self-enclosed “I” in order that I may be opened to the love of God the Father. It is like a rebirth in which I discover that I am united not only to Jesus but also to all those who have walked, and who continue to walk, along the same path. And this new birth, which begins at baptism, continues throughout the whole course of life.

I cannot build my personal faith on a private conversation with Jesus, for faith is given to me by God through the community of believers, which is the Church. It numbers me among the multitude of believers, in a communion which is not merely sociological but, rather, which is rooted in the eternal love of God, who in himself is the communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - who is Trinitarian Love. Our faith is truly personal only if it is also communal. It can only be my faith only if it lives and moves in the “we” of the Church, only if it is our faith, the common faith of the one Church.

On Sunday, when we recite the “Creed” [the “I believe”] during the Holy Mass, we express ourselves in the first person, but we confess the one faith of the Church as a community. The “I believe” that we profess individually is joined to an immense choir spanning time and space, in which each person contributes, as it were, to a harmonious polyphony of faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes this with great clarity: “’Believing’ is an ecclesial act. The Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all believers. ‘No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother’ [St. Cyprian]” (n. 181). Therefore, faith is born in the Church, leads to her and lives in her. This is very important to remember.

At the beginning of the Christian adventure, when the Holy Spirit descends with power on the disciples on the day of Pentecost, as narrated in the Acts of the Apostles (cf. 2:1-13), the nascent Church receives strength to carry out the mission entrusted to her by the risen Lord: to spread the Gospel, the good news of the Kingdom of God, to every corner of the world, and to guide every man to an encounter with the risen Christ and to the faith that saves. The Apostles overcome every fear in proclaiming what they have heard, seen and personally experienced with Jesus. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they begin to speak in new languages, openly announcing the mystery they had witnessed.

In the Acts of the Apostles, we are then told about the great speech Peter addressed on the day of Pentecost. He begins with a passage from the prophet Joel (3:1-5), refers it to Jesus and proclaims the core of Christian faith: He who had been bountifully good to all, and was attested to by God with miracles and mighty works, was crucified and killed, but God raised him from the dead, establishing him as Lord and Christ. Through him, we have entered into the definitive salvation announced by the prophets, and whosoever shall call upon his name shall be saved (cf. Acts 2:17-24). Many of those who heard Peter’s words felt personally challenged; they repented of their sins and were baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2: 37-41).

Thus begins the Church’s journey. She is the community that carries this proclamation through space and time, the community of the People of God founded on the new covenant in Christ’s blood, whose members do not belong to a particular social or ethnic group but who are men and women from every nation and culture. The Church is a “catholic” people that speaks new languages and is universally open to welcoming everyone, that transcends every border and breaks every barrier. St. Paul says: “Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians3:11).

From her earliest days, then, the Church was the place of faith, the place where the faith was transmitted, the place where, through baptism, we are immersed in the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s Death and Resurrection, which frees us from the prison of sin, gives us the freedom of children and introduces us into communion with the Trinitarian God. At the same time, we are immersed in a communion with other brothers and sisters in faith, with the entire Body of Christ, and in this way we are brought forth from our isolation. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council reminds us: “God does not make men holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased Him to bring men together as one people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness” (Dogmatic Constitution,Lumen Gentium, 9).

Again recalling the liturgy of Baptism, we may note that at the conclusion of the promises whereby we renounce evil and respond “I believe” to the central truths of the faith, the celebrant declares: “This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church and we glory in professing it in Christ Jesus Our Lord”. Faith is a theological virtue given by God but transmitted by the Church throughout the span of history. Again St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, states that he has handed on to them the Gospel, which he himself had also received (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3).

There is an unbroken chain in the Church’s life, in the announcement of God’s Word, in the celebration of the Sacraments, which comes to us and which we call Tradition. It provides us with the guarantee that what we believe in is Christ’s original message, as preached by the Apostles. The core of this primordial announcement is the event of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection, from which the entire patrimony of faith flows. The Council says: “The apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved by an unending succession of preachers until the end of time (Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 8). Thus, if Sacred Scripture contains God’s Word, the Tradition of the Church conserves and faithfully transmits it, so that men of every age may have access to its immense wealth and be enriched by its treasures of grace. In this way the Church, “in her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes” (ibid.).

Lastly, I would like to emphasize that it is within the ecclesial community that personal faith grows and matures. It is interesting to observe that in the New Testament the word “saints” refers to Christians as a whole - and certainly not all of them had the necessary qualities to be declared saints by the Church. What, then, was intended by the use of this term? The fact that those who had faith in the Risen Christ and lived it out were called to become models for others, by putting them in contact with the Person and the Message of Jesus, who reveals the Face of the living God. This is also true for us: a Christian who allows himself to be gradually guided and shaped by the Church’s faith - despite his weaknesses, limitations and difficulties - becomes, as it were, a window open to the light of the living God that receives this light and transmits it to the world. In the encyclical Redemptoris missio, Blessed John Paul II affirmed that “missionary activity renews the Church, revitalizes faith and Christian identity, and offers fresh enthusiasm and new incentive. Faith is strengthened when it is given to others!” (no. 2).

The widespread tendency today to relegate the faith to the private sphere contradicts its very nature. We need the Church to confirm our faith and to experience God’s gifts: His Word, the Sacraments, the support of grace and the witness of love. In this way, our “I” taken up into the “we” of the Church – will be able to perceive itself as the recipient of and participant in an event that far surpasses it: the experience of communion with God, who establishes communion among men. In a world in which individualism seems to regulate human relationships, causing them to become ever more fragile, faith calls us to be the Church, i.e. bearers of God’s love and communion to all mankind. (cf. Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 1). Thank you for your attention.

[Translation by Diane Montagna]

* * *

The Holy Father is saying many things in this short talk, and it is well worth reading more than once.  Each time I go through it, I get something new.   But the main message seems to be that faith is a result of communion with the Church.  Faith is not a private matter:  "The widespread tendency today to relegate the faith to the private sphere contradicts its very nature."  Jesus did not die so that we could be islands unto ourselves.  He has given us the gift of faith so that we can spread it to others.  The parable of the talents tells us that the one who hoards what he has been given will lose it.  We must not hide away from the world and cower in fear, especially as times become more and more evil.  Christ is the Savior of the world.  He is the one who takes away the sins of the world and unites us to the Trinity.  However he works through his church - which is you and me.  Christ has made us the light of the world, the salt of the earth.  But we must stand together.

In a world in which individualism seems to regulate human relationships, causing them to become ever more fragile, faith calls us to be the Church, i.e. bearers of God’s love and communion to all mankind.

Vote: We Can't Sit It Out

Today is Election Day in the United States of America.  As Americans and as Catholics, we have a responsibility and a duty to vote.  I had seriously thought about sitting this one out because I absolutely cannot vote for Barack Obama and I am highly skeptical of Mitt Romney.  But this one is just too important. And it is about more than the presidential race.  We also must consider our local races.  There are many good candidates running for office, men and women who support Godly traditional values and morals.  They need our support and our vote.

We are in the middle of a great spiritual war.  The sides are clearly delineated.  As Blessed John Paul II told us, it is the Culture of Death versus the Culture of Life.  I don't believe the results of the election will necessarily change the course of our nation, but it can certainly mitigate the damages and perhaps give us more time so that we can hopefully change the road that we are on.  If Barack Obama and the Democrats are given four more years, the United States of America as we know it will cease to exist. That is not hyperbole.  It is that serious.  Americans voted for the Culture of Death in 2008, and we have seen the disastrous results:  a ruined economy, a more deeply divided country than we have ever seen, greater dependency on the government, and for Catholics, a direct attack on our Church, our beliefs and our way of life.  I'm not trying to sound like a Republican attack ad on the Democrats, but those are the facts.

So pray about your choice, and then get out there and vote.  Do the right thing.

I have copied below an Election Prayer which National Catholic Register reposted from Catholicvote.org:

CatholicVote.org has released "An Election-Year Prayer" by Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura at the Vatican: 

O Lord Jesus Christ, you alone are the Way, the Truth and the Life.

In your Church, you show us the way, you teach us the truth, and you give us your life. 

Grant, we humbly beg you, that, always and in all things, we may be faithful to you in your holy Church and to your vicar on earth, the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI. 

Grant also, we beg you, that, in these times of decision, all who profess to be Catholic and who are entrusted with the sacred duty to participate in public life may, by the strength of your grace, unwaveringly follow your way and faithfully adhere to your truth, living in you with all their mind and heart, for your greater glory, the salvation of souls and the good of our nation. 

Amen. 

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, pray for us. 

St. Thomas More, patron of religious freedom, pray for us.

Meditation On the Fourth Joyful Mystery: The Redemption of the Redeemer

Yesterday, November 3, was the First Saturday of the Month. The First Saturday Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was first mentioned by Our Lady of Fatima on July 13, 1917. After showing the three children a vision of hell she said, "You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace... I shall come to ask for... the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays..." The First Saturday devotion is as follows:

It consists in going to Confession, receiving Communion, reciting five decades of the Rosary and meditating for a quarter of an hour on the mysteries of the Rosary on the first Saturday of five consecutive months. The Confession may be made during the eight days preceding or following the first Saturday of each month, provided that Holy Communion be received in the state of grace. Should one forget to form the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, it may be formed at the next Confession, occasion to go to confession being taken at the first opportunity.

I'm late on this one, but I have developed a tradition of sharing my monthly meditation here, and I don't want to make an exception this month.

This month I have chosen the Fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary - The Presentation of our Lord at the Temple.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph, the spouse of Mary, were devout Jews who lived strictly according to the laws handed down to the Israelites by God.  One of those laws is found in Exodus 13:2:

Sanctify unto me every firstborn that openeth the womb among the children of Israel, as well of men as of beasts: for they are all mine.

From chabad.org.pl, a Jewish website:

The Torah specifically instructs that a woman's first-born male male is required to serve in the central place of worship. However, the Torah then presents a change in plans: the Levites are chosen to replace the first-born male Israelites as the workers in the Tabernacle, and later, the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Israelite parents were required to take their firstborn male child to the temple and then redeem him, which means to buy the the child back:

To legitimately excuse the Israelite first-born male from direct service to God, the child's father is required to buy his son from the Kohen for the redemption price of five shekels, with five silver dollars serving as an appropriate substitution in modern times.

Luke 2:23-24 tells us the redemption price at the time of Jesus:

As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord: And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons:

Circumcision of Christ by Albrecht Dürer

Many people confuse the presentation of our Lord at the temple with the time of Christ's circumcision.  The circumcision took place 8 days after Christ's birth which, assuming that Christ was born on December 25, would correspond to January 1.  That is why January 1 has always been a holy day in the Church's calendar.  Unfortunately, the new calendar of the church has changed this day to "The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary," which obscures the original meaning of January 1.  The circumcision is the first shedding of Christ's Precious Blood, picturing the time when he would shed His Blood on the Cross to redeem the world.

The presentation of our Lord at the temple, when the Redeemer was redeemed, is called Candlemas and is celebrated on February 2, which is 40 days after the birth of Christ.  Father Michael Cummins explains why this feast day is called Candlemas and its significance in our lives:

Just as Joseph and Mary carried the infant Jesus (the light of the world) into the temple so we now, through our baptisms, carry the light of Christ within us.

This is why we process with candles on Candlemas, to picture carrying the True Light, Jesus Christ, to the world.

Procession at Candlemas

So Mary and Joseph, in accordance with the command of God to the Israelites, brought the 40-day old Jesus, the Light of the world, to the temple.  Luke 2:21-22 and verse 25:

And after eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised, his name was called JESUS, which was called by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb.

And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord: 

The first announcement to the world that the Savior had come occurred at the time of Christ's birth when the angel announced it to the shepherds in the field and to the wise men who journeyed from the East to see this great King.  The old man, Simeon, was used by God to once more announce that the Saviour had been born and was among us, and our Lord was here for everyone, not just the Jews:  "A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel."

From Luke 2:25-32:

Simeon holding the child Jess

And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was in him.

And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.  And he came by the Spirit into the temple.

And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, He also took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said:

Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace; Because my eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

Neither Joseph nor Mary fully comprehended this great message of Simeon (verse 33):

And his father and mother were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning him.

Joseph and Mary had to accept on faith what they were told, as so often we must do.  Often we will not understand unless and until we obey.

And then Simeon went on to give a disturbing message to Mary, the mother of Jesus:

And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.

St. Alphonsus Ligouri told us that this was beginning of  Mary's sorrows which she carried with her for the next 33 years right to the time of her Son's crucifixion:

Abraham suffered great affliction during the three days he passed with his beloved Isaac, after he knew that he was to lose him.

Oh God! not for three days, but for thirty three years, Mary had to endure a like sorrow.  Like, do I say?  A sorrow as much greater as the Son of Mary was more lovely than the son of Abraham.

The blessed Virgin herself revealed to Saint Bridget, that while she lived on earth there was not an hour when this grief did not pierce her soul. “As often,” she continued, “as I looked on my Son, as often as I wrapped Him in His swaddling clothes, as often as I saw His hands and His feet, so often was my soul overwhelmed as it were with a fresh sorrow, because I considered how He would be crucified.”

As often as she put on Him His clothes, she reflected that they would one day be torn from Him, that He might be crucified, and when she beheld His sacred hands and feet, and thought of the nails that were to pierce them, as Mary said to Saint Bridget: “My eyes filled with tears, and my heart was tortured with grief.” (Saint Alphonsus Ligouri, from The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

This mystery of the presentation of Jesus is included in the Joyous Mysteries of the Rosary because it pictures the redemption of the Redeemer, who is bought from God the Father and given to His mother in order to redeem the world from Satan, the enemy of God who held mankind captive from the time of our first parents.  Certainly there can be no more joyous message than this, that the Saviour has come to redeem the world from death and destruction.  But it comes at a very great price for both Christ and His mother, who must carry this heavy burden every moment of every day for the rest of Christ's physical life.

As St. Alphonsus Ligouri told us, the patriarch Abraham carried the burden of having to sacrifice his son, Isaac, for three days, and then was relieved of the burden at the last moment when an angel of the Lord stopped Abraham from carrying out this command of the Lord.  Abraham then received his very much alive and unharmed son into his arms, and a lamb was substituted in place of Isaac.  This lamb, of course, pictured our Savior, Jesus Christ.  

Our Blessed Mother carried this heavy burden for 33 years compared to 3 days for Abraham, and then, unlike Abraham, she had to watch her beloved Son be mercilessly crucified with no relief whatsoever.  At the end, our Blessed Mother received into her arms the bloody, disfigured, mutilated and lifeless Body of her Son and our Savior.  

When we contemplate this mystery of the Rosary, we should certainly think of the joyous message that Simeon gave us:  "my eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel."  But we must also remember that it was also at this point that our Lady's sorrows began when. as she and Joseph were redeeming Jesus from God the Father, she was at the same time willingly and unselfishly giving her perfect and beautiful Son to world so that He could redeem us.  Truly, if Abraham is the father of the faithful, how much more is Mary the mother of the faithful?  Has any human being ever walked in faith more than she did, or suffered more than she did, literally walking every step of Calvary with our Lord, beginning before he was able to walk, when he was just a small babe in arms.