Lent

Every person is subject to temptation. The greatest characters in the Old Testament all underwent temptation, from Adam and Eve to Moses. We cannot allow ourselves to be troubled too much when temptation comes our way. It is inevitable. There is no tribulation or temptation whose limits God has not appointed so as to serve not for our destruction but for our salvation.

God never permits us to be tempted (or afflicted) beyond our strength. It is only through temptation that we can enter into the kingdom of God. We must trust in God and His divine providence. Nothing happens to us in this life unless God wills it so. We owe our lives entirely to God.

In fact, God is the only person we can blame for the wrong we may suffer. Although God is not the cause of the sin when a person mistreats us, He is the cause of the suffering that person inflicts upon us while sinning. God did not inspire your enemy with the desire and will to harm you, but He did give him the power to do so!

We have only to look to the life and suffering of Jesus Christ Himself and learn from His own example. Christ was unjustly persecuted and put to death, and this was by the hand of God Himself. Christ allowed Himself to be tempted by satan, yet He showed us by His example how to always overcome the enemy.

This lent let us pray and fast and unite ourselves to Christ's sufferings. Let us draw our strength from our Lord and Saviour who gives us courage to do battle.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Prayer and Temptation

Christ our Lord allowed Himself to be tempted in order to give us an example and to instruct us. The Catholic Church teaches us that there are three levels of temptation. The first level is that of suggestion, or external temptation. This is the only way that Christ could be tempted since He was perfect. We can all undergo external temptation without committing any sin. The second level of temptation is that temptation in which we take delight. Although we may not give clear consent, this level of temptation becomes internal and thus becomes sinful. Finally, there is temptation to which we consent. This form of temptation is always sinful because it affects the deepest part of our soul. Christ allowed himself to be externally tempted in order to show us how to fight and conquer our own temptations. We must learn to trust in God and turn to prayer when we are tempted.

Nobody is above temptation. All the great saints were tempted. We must prepare ourselves for temptation by prayer and fasting just as Jesus did. This is why the Church gives us the beautiful season of Lent. Jesus’ withdrawal into the desert invites us to prepare ourselves by prayer and penance to battle temptation, but also teaches us how to prepare before making any significant decision or action.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Charity Continued

"Whoever loves me will keep my commandments. And this is my commandment: that you love one another." If a man truly loves God, he must love his neighbor as well. We must strive to serve one another out of love for Christ. Our love for God manifests itself in the ways we find to do good for others. Hence, love is the fulfillment of the law. Faith alone cannot save us.

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Saint Paul

Saint Paul was unsurpassed in his example he gave of what a Christian should be. In fact, no one knew Christ better than Paul. He learned to become the very image of Jesus Christ so that is seemed to be Christ Himself speaking through Saint Paul. "It is no longer I who live: it is Christ who lives in me."

Saint Paul is a great reminder for us that if we want to be more than Christians in name, we must bear witness to it by our way of living. We must direct our thoughts, words an deeds all toward Christ. We must free ourselves from every passionate inclination and focus on Christ who is our peace. Christian perfection consists in expressing Christ in our minds, our prayers and the way we live.

Sicerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

The Theological Virtues

Saint Paul in his letter to the Corinthians speaks of the three theological virtues; faith, hope and love. The theological virtues are among our greatest gifts from God. They are infused into our hearts through divine grace. However, we must remember our responsibility to nourish these God-given gifts. We must always and everyday pray for them. We should beg God that we grow in them, never take them for granted, but instead cherish them as our most prized possessions.

We are all people of faith. Perhaps we may know somebody whom we believe to be a person of great faith. Chances are we know somebody who seems to have little, if any faith at all. Faith is a precious gift. The strength of our faith depends a great deal on how we ourselves nourish it. We should constantly ask God for an increase in faith.

We see in the Gospel another great example of Jesus Christ demanding faith from the blind man who wishes to see. Our Lord gives the blind man his sight because “thy faith hath made thee whole.” The blind man believed in his heart that Jesus had the power to heal him. Therefore when the blind man asked for his sight, it was given to him.

Our Lord wants the exact same faith from each one of us. One of the easiest and most effective ways of nourishing our faith and praying for the other virtues is meditating on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When we mediate upon the resurrection, for example, we must beg God for a greater faith. We should contemplate the unprecedented faith that was given to the Blessed Virgin Mary and ask God for a share in this same faith. When we focus on the ascension we should ask God for a greater hope that where He has gone, we will one day follow.

Saint Paul explains that the virtues of faith and hope mean nothing if we do not put them into practice, therefore the greatest of these virtues is love. “Holy” people are people who exercise on a regular basis the virtue of charity. Hence, charity is the key to holiness and sanctity. We can find charitable things to do each and every day that help us grow in holiness. These can be the smallest of acts, because God looks at the intention of one’s heart, not the magnitude of the act.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

The Communion of Saints

Our Protestant brethren object to our invocation of the saints on several grounds: (1) Invocation of the saints seems to compromise the one mediatorship of Christ (1 Tim 2.4). (2) The scriptures are silent on the practice. (3) We do not need the saints; we can go directly to God.

With regard to the first objection, the Catholic Church has never understood that invocation of the saints in any way compromises the unique mediatorship of Christ, any more than Paul’s request that the churches pray for him compromised that unique role of Christ (Rom 15.30; Eph 6.19). If Christians can ask other Christians on earth to pray for them, why can they not ask the saints in heaven to pray for them? The invocation of the saints is subordinate to and made possible by Christ’s mediatorship.

The fact that Christ is the one mediator does not exclude the possibility that Christians can pray for one another and that the saints in heaven can continue to serve as their intercessors. We are intercessors for one another and the saints are intercessors for us entirely in dependence on Christ and because of Him.

The second objection assumes that everything belonging to Christian faith is found explicitly in the Bible. But the Bible itself does not make that claim; neither did the Church for sixteen hundred years. Christ did not write a book as the depository of His truth, but founded a Church, to which He promised the guidance of the Holy Ghost to lead it into all truth. The Bible did not come before the Church, but the Church before the Bible. The Church did not come from the Bible, but the Bible from the Church. Actually, one can find the foundation for invoking saints in the Bible.

Saint Paul tells his churches that he prays for them; he asks them, in turn, to pray for him. If Paul could pray for his friends when he was still on earth, why can he not pray for us now when he is in glory? Does death destroy the communion of the saints? If Paul could ask his friends to pray for him, why can we not ask Paul to pray for us? Surely we can! And if we can ask Paul to pray for us why can we not ask other saints to do the same? The Church has always recognized that we can!!

Finally, yes, we can go directly to God in our prayer, and we should do so often. But that does not mean that we cannot or should not ask other people to pray for us. No doubt God is pleased that we do this loving service of praying for one another, since Paul encourages us to do this.

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

The Church Suffering

As she has done from the earliest days, the pilgrim Church continues to pray for the souls in Purgatory and to offer suffrages for them. The faithful are encouraged to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the faithful departed, and to offer up prayers, sacrifices, and good works on their behalf.

The pilgrim Church on earth also remains in close communion with those who have entered into the glory of heaven. The Church has always believed that the apostles, and Christ’s martyrs who had given the supreme witness of faith and charity by the shedding of their blood, are quite closely joined with us in Christ. She has always venerated them with special devotion, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the holy angels. The Church too has devoutly implored their intercession. Veneration of the saints must not be seen as in any way detracting from the true worship of God, but rather as inspiring us to more perfect discipleship and worship.

Our communion with those in heaven, provided that it is understood in the more adequate light of faith, in no way weakens, but conversely, more thoroughly enriches the supreme worship we give to God the Father, through Christ in the Holy Ghost. For by its very nature every genuine testimony of love which we show to those in heaven tends toward and terminates in Christ, who is the “crown of the saints.” Through Him it tends toward and terminates in God, who is wonderful in His saints and is magnified in them.

In every Mass we recall the memory of the angels and saints, and join our voices to theirs in giving praise and thanksgiving to God. They, in turn, inspire us with their devotion and intercede for us, as they offer to God on our behalf the merits which they acquired on earth.

Winning the Crown

The discipline it takes to be a successful athlete spills over into the spiritual life. Unless we strive to develop and maintain a well-ordered, disciplined and regular life of prayer to God we cannot advance in the spiritual realm. “Brethren: Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one!”

We should approach the spiritual life with a competitive spirit. We should beg God that nobody is getting ahead of us. We should ask God for the grace to pray our rosaries more attentively than the next person. We should ask God each day that we are counted among His favorites. We must be ready and willing to sacrifice. We must not let anything get in our way of our relationship with God. There will always be obstacles, failures and personal limitations, but we can never grow discouraged.

Saint Paul says: “…but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” Even our most serious sins should not discourage us because we have God in the Sacrament of Penance to grow holier through forgiveness. How many times in scripture do we see Jesus Christ our Lord moved by a sinner’s repentance?

Furthermore, we must never take our efforts for granted. Saint Paul says: “Let no one feel assured of this gift with an absolute certainty, although all ought to have most secure hope in the help of God. For unless we are unfaithful to His grace, God will bring the good work to perfection, just as He began it, working both the will and the performance (Phil 2:13).” Saint Paul reminds us of the necessity of physical mortification and self-control. When we make the effort, God will always help us with His grace. This we must do to earn our “crown of righteousness.”

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

The Catholic Church Continued

In Christ, our humanity has already entered into glory. Yet He remains with the Church. “He is continually active in the world, leading men to the Church, and through her, joining them more closely to Himself, and making them partakers of His glorious life.” He does this through the Holy Ghost and by giving us His own Body and Blood as nourishment. The Church must be deeply conscious of the continued presence of the risen Lord in her midst, especially when she gathers to pray:

Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, “the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered Himself on the cross,” but especially under the Eucharistic species. By His power He is present in the sacraments, so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes. He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the Holy Scriptures are read in the church. He is present, finally, when the Church prays and sings, for He promised, “Where two or three are gathered together for my sake, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18.20).

Sacraments are encounters with Christ!! We should also be conscious of the continued presence and activity of the risen Lord in and through the ministers He has raised up to be the representatives and instruments through whom He cares for His people. “Although guided by human shepherds, the Church’s sheep are nevertheless ceaselessly led and nourished by Christ Himself, the Good Shepherd.” This is especially true of bishops, because they “in an eminent and visible way undertake Christ’s own role as Teacher, Shepherd, and High Priest and…act in His presence.”

Priests also must be seen as “living instruments of Christ the eternal priest…; every priest in his own way represents the person of Christ Himself…” In fact, all the baptized faithful are instruments through whom Christ and the Holy Ghost continue to act for the sanctification of the world, because all are members of one mystical body in which Christ lives, and one living temple in which the Holy Ghost remains present in the world.

The Church of God on earth remains in intimate communion with those who have gone before, whether they be the suffering souls in Purgatory or the saints reigning with Christ in glory. The loving union which Christ establishes among His disciples is not broken by death, but is rather increased. Knowing that nothing unclean can appear before God (Rev 21.27); knowing also that those who are united with Christ can help one another by prayer and good works, from early times members of the Church have prayed for the faithful departed, confident that they are able to bring them help in their need “because it is “a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed form sins” 2 Mach 12.46).

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching