Be living stones, not stumbling blocks

Saint Peter, inspired by the Heavenly Father, was a rock foundation for the Church when he confessed that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Now, instead, he knows the poverty of rebuke; he now serves only as an obstacle to salvation, a stumbling stone to trip the Lord and frustrate His path to Calvary.

Reborn in the sacrament of Baptism to share the Lord's life, it thus becomes our destiny to also share His Cross. Whether our crosses are the result of our own sins and failings or those of someone else, they remain ours to bear. Only in the Lord can life come from death. Only in the Lord's cross can our crosses become redemptive.

It thus remains our task to open ourselves to the Father's inspiration that we might bear our crosses uncomplainingly so that they will lead to the reward of eternal life. Borne in solidarity with the Lord's cross, in serenity and confidence flowing from trust in the Father's love, our via dolorosa becomes easier and we grow in servant love. The image and person of Christ through grace becomes a lived reality in our minds and hearts.

We each bear our crosses so that the fullness of His eternal Life and Love may be ours. The life of grace is serenity in bearing the cross in the full confidence that the reward of eternal joy will be ours in God whose love is stronger than death.

"Dying He destroyed our death, rising He restored our life. Lord Jesus, come in glory!" we cry out as we behold the Crucified One raised up in the hands of the priest, triumphant in the sacred Host of our communion at holy Mass. He goes before us to show us the way, the Cross leads us to Life!

It yet remained for Saint Peter to become a most wonderful and living stone, the foundation of the Church, in a marvelous configuration to the Lord's Cross through his martyrdom at Rome. Be not stumbling blocks of scandal in the path toward Christ. Be, rather, living stones building up the spiritual edifice of the Church!

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy offers a reflection for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time.

(Martyrdom of St Peter, Masaccio,1426. Egg tempera on panel, Berlin, Staatliche Museum)

There is no confusion.

In the Chuch there is no confusion, and never has been, about the sanctity of life.

The Church from the first century has condemned procured abortion.

This is in distinction from theological debates about ensoulment, which never affected the Church's teaching on the sanctity of human life from the womb.

As we hear from Archbishop Wuerl:

"We respect the right of elected officials such as Speaker Pelosi to address matters of public policy that are before them, but the interpretation of Catholic faith has rightfully been entrusted to the Catholic bishops. Given this responsibility to teach, it is important to make this correction for the record.

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear: the current teaching of the Catholic Church on human life and abortion is the same teaching as it was 2,000 years ago. The Catechism reads:

“ 'Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception…Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.' (Catechism, 2270-2271)

"The Catechism goes on to quote the Didache, a treatise that dates to the first century: ’You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.’

"From the beginning, the Catholic Church has respected the dignity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death."

In the same way, though today the Church does not know exactly when the soul leaves the body, the Church insists that human remains be treated with dignity and respect, whether cremated or not.

Unfortunately it is all too clear that the only confusion is on the part of those, like Mrs. Pelosi, who fail to make the proper distinction between conjecture on when the soul enters the body of a child in the womb and the sanctity of every human life from conception regardless, and entirely distinct from, our human inability to determine when ensoulment takes place.

(Photo: Image of six week unborn child whose life is sacred, because created in God's image and likeness, regardless of whether or not one can prove the child has yet been given a soul by the Creator.)

Killing Christians to stop development and dignity of tribal peoples and Dalits

Orissa, India

by Father Augustine Kanjamala, Svd

A sociological expert reveals the motives at the base of the recurring violence against the Christians: the conversions to Christianity, the instruction, the emancipation of rescuing tribals outside the cast of slavery. Hindu Fundamentalism wishes to stop the search for greater justice and the ongoing social transformations.

Requiescat in pace: Thomas Pandippally, Martyr of a New Missionary Age

"It is my firm conviction that our missionary Church will flourish and missionaries will make a richer and more courageous contribution to the Church as a result of the martyrdom of our beloved Fr. Thomas."

ITALIAN TEXT:
Orissa: uccidere i cristiani per fermare sviluppo e dignità di tribali e Dalit
di P. Augustine Kanjamala, Svd
Un esperto sociologo rivela i motivi alla base delle ricorrenti violenze contro i cristiani: la conversione al cristianesimo, l’istruzione, l’emancipazione sottraggono tribali e fuori casta allo schiavismo. Il fondamentalismo indù frena la ricerca di maggior giustizia e le trasformazioni sociali in atto.

(Photo and story from asianews.it)

Meeting Christ in the Eucharist: the right to refuse to give holy Communion

"Now, regarding the reception of Holy Communion, there is Our Lord Himself who is involved. There is the person who is receiving Holy Communion. Then there is the minister of the Sacrament, the one who has the responsibility to make sure that the Sacrament is distributed only to those who are properly disposed. Certainly the Church does have the right to tell someone who persists in public grave sin that he may not receive Holy Communion because he is not well disposed.

"That right of the minister to refuse to give Holy Communion to someone who persists in public and grave sin is safe guarded in the Code of Canon Law, under canon 915. Otherwise the minister of Communion would be put in the situation of violating his conscience regarding a most serious matter, when he sees a notorious sinner coming to receive Holy Communion to the scandal of everyone, and he is somehow told he does not have the right to refuse to give Holy Communion, in such a circumstance. That simply would be wrong."

-- Archbishop Charles Chaput, Denver, Colorado

(Photo: "Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life" by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput)

Always gravely evil: "The evasions used to justify" abortion

His Excellency, the Most Reverend Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Denver, Colorado, on abortion:

"It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it."

Who do you say that He is?

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn't be a great moral teacher. He'd be either a lunatic- on a level with a man who says he's a poached egg - or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse....But don't let us come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He hasn't left that open to us. He didn't intend to." --C. S. Lewis

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy offers a reflection for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time.

(Art: Colossal mosaic of Christ, the Pantocrator, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.)

In Liturgy: Vatican Says "Yahweh" Not to Be Pronounced

Calls on Practice Used by 1st Christians

WASHINGTON, D.C., AUG. 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A note from the Vatican has reiterated a directive that the name of God revealed in the tetragrammaton YHWH is not to be pronounced in Catholic liturgy.

Bishop Arthur Serratelli, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Divine Worship, in a note informing prelates of the Vatican directive, said the indications "do not force any changes to official liturgical texts," but might cause "some impact on the use of particular pieces of liturgical music in our country as well as in the composition of variable texts such as the general intercessions for the celebration of the Mass and the other sacraments."

Commonly used songs with phrases such as "Yahweh, I know you are near," will need to be modified.

The June 29 Vatican message, from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, clarified that the name of God revealed in YHWH was not pronounced by the first Christians, following the tradition already in use.

It explained: "The venerable biblical tradition of sacred Scripture, known as the Old Testament, displays a series of divine appellations, among which is the sacred name of God revealed in a tetragrammaton YHWH -- hwhw. As an expression of the infinite greatness and majesty of God, it was held to be unpronounceable and hence was replaced during the reading of sacred Scripture by means of the use of an alternate name: 'Adonai,' which means 'Lord.'

"The Greek translation of the Old Testament, the so called Septuagint, dating back to the last centuries prior to the Christian era, had regularly rendered the Hebrew tetragrammaton with the Greek word Kyrios, which means 'Lord.' Since the text of the Septuagint constituted the Bible of the first generation of Greek speaking Christians, in which language all the books of the New Testament were also written, these Christians, too, from the beginning never pronounced the divine tetragrammaton."

Theology

The Vatican goes on to note that this practice had "important implications" for New Testament Christology.

"When in fact, St. Paul, with regard to the crucifixion, writes that 'God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name" (Phil 2:9), he does not mean any other name than 'Lord,' for he continues by saying, 'and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord' (Phil 2:11; cf. Isaiah 42:8: 'I am the Lord; that is my name')," the Vatican note explained.

"The attribution of this title to the risen Christ corresponds exactly to the proclamation of his divinity," it continued. "The title in fact becomes interchangeable between the God of Israel and the Messiah of the Christian faith, even though it is not in fact one of the titles used for the Messiah of Israel."

"Avoiding pronouncing the tetragrammaton of the name of God on the part of the Church has therefore its own grounds," the Vatican concluded. "Apart from a motive of a purely philogical order, there is also that of remaining faithful to the Church's tradition, from the beginning, that the sacred tetragrammaton was never pronounced in the Christian context, nor translated into any of the languages into which the Bible was translated."

(Photo: The Incipit of the Canon taken from the Ambrosian Missal dated end XI-beginning XII century, Ambrosian Library, Milan. www.30giorni.it)