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At a recent vicariate meeting on the new translation of the Mass, which will be implemented on the First Sunday of Advent, 2011, one of my brother priests kept asking, “So what we’ve been doing has been wrong?” Although I wanted to jump in and say, “Since it’s what you want to hear, yes, Father, what you’ve been doing is wrong,” the director of liturgy wisely didn’t address his question but continued with her presentation. In retrospect, I think that her approach was more pastoral, but hasn’t helped settle the question. If I had to answer that question today, I think I would say, “In some ways yes, and some ways no.”

Behind that question is a far deeper issue than just doing things right or wrong. This priest was ordained within period following the Second Vatican Council when much was changing, and people were still trying to wrap their minds around the documents of the Council. Understandably, there was much confusion as to the purpose of the Council and what it means for the Church moving forward.

Out of this confusion, an approach to the Council’s role within Church history began to coalesce that viewed the Council as an agent for completely restarting the Church. This view of the Council, commonly known today as the “hermeneutic of rupture,” sees the Council as bringing about a complete break from the baggage of the past and invoking a new Church influenced by and open to the movements and philosophies of the Twentieth Century. According to this view, anything from the past which was retained or recovered from antiquity would have to fit within the image of this modern, rebuilt Church, and anything that is viewed as medieval or obsolete would be discarded.

Although it is not universal, much of modern theology during the last 40+ years has operated under this first impression of the Council teachings. In recent years, a new understanding of the Council has begun to exert itself, especially in the 5 years since the election of Pope Benedict XVI. In fact, this renewed understanding of the Council has gained traction in large part to Pope Benedict’s writings as professor, bishop, cardinal, and now Pope.

Pope Benedict and those who follow his thoughts on the Council have proposed a “hermeneutic of continuity.” This alternative view sees the Council not as a break with the past, but in line with what has come before. The purpose of the Council, in this perspective, is to take the 1900+ years of Church teachings and traditions, and present them in ways understandable to Twentieth Century people. The Council did not seek to discard the past in exchange with modern philosophies and movements, but rather to influence these modern philosophies with the Tradition of the Church, passed down from Our Lord through the Church from generation to generation.

Understandably, many who were influenced by the hermeneutic of rupture are upset by the increasing influence of the newer hermeneutic of continuity towards the Council. Much of what they learned and believed is being disregarded and seen as going against the Council instead of acting in the spirit of the Council. Likewise, they see those of us who follow this hermeneutic of continuity as trying to reverse what the Council accomplished through their actions.

While their feelings are completely understandable, they are also regrettable. I purposely used the term “first impressions” in referring to the hermeneutic of rupture. Like many first impressions, they can often turn out to be in error. This is something well understood by anyone who has ever entered into a relationship with another person that ended badly due to a mistaken first impression. This person who might seem to be Mister or Miss Perfect at first glance ends up being Mister or Miss Wrong.

We can prejudge someone mistakenly off of first impressions, and many of us sadly do. Likewise, I propose that the first impression of the Council that became widely taught unjustly judged the Council as seeking to “reboot” the Church and rebuild Her from the ground up. Just like the gradual realization that the first impression of another person can be wrong, the 40 years since the Council has been more than enough time to realize that the first impression of the Council that led to the hermeneutic of rupture was wrong.

Sadly, much time, energy, sweat, and tears have been expended under the hermeneutic of rupture, and those influenced by this hermeneutic may be reluctant to let go of it. All of us, regardless of where we fall in this debate, need to pray for humility and true openness to the Holy Spirit, that we may hear and follow God’s will for the Church and not our own. In the end, all that matters for the Church is to follow God’s will for the salvation of humanity.

Today, the Holy See released a new Apostolic Exhortation on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church. Anything Pope Benedict promulgates is worth looking at, so download the PDF and check it out!

…the front page of the weekly county newspaper includes a photo of a newly-paved highway to a smaller town (population 448) and a debate between the city council and a motel owner over daily tests of the emergency sirens.

Throughout the country, Catholic churches are closing due to lack of Catholics attending Mass and supporting their parishes. In urban centers, it’s often linked to the flight from inner city neighborhoods to suburbia. Rural areas are suffering from a depopulation as young people move to bigger cities seeking jobs and a place to raise their families. On an average, those Catholic young people who are raising families are following the cultural trend for smaller families, which is also affecting church attendance. At least it would affect church attendance if many young Catholics would actually go to Mass, but many young Catholics do not even attend Mass on Christmas and Easter.

So, how do we turn this trend around? Msgr. Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington proposes one classic response: evangelization. In his blog post More Church Closings – So What is God Teaching Us and How Will We Respond, Msgr. Pope challenges dioceses, priests, and laity to make a serious effort to evangelize fallen-away Catholics, other Christians, and non-Christians. He raises 50 questions that all Catholics should take very seriously. We need to take these questions to prayer and spend time reflecting on the answers.

For myself, I can say that I’m not hitting every point Msgr. Pope brings up, and need to seriously look at how I can live up to the demands of evangelization. I’m willing to make the changes in my life necessary to aid in evangelization of my parish and diocese. If you’re worried about the shrinking and closure of Catholic parishes, are you willing to take responsibility for reversing the problem?

Yes, this is a Toshiba laptop having Mac OS X installed on it.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

As we approach the end of the liturgical year and prepare for entering into the Advent season, our readings take on a more somber note. We begin to look at death, the afterlife and the end of time when Our Lord comes again. They should remind us of the importance our daily decisions can have on our lives throughout eternity.
With the first reading and the Gospel focusing on death and the afterlife, it’s good to remind ourselves what the Scriptures mean by the resurrection of the dead. All of us are aware that our lives on Earth will end some day, whether we want to face it or not. The uncertainty of death comes not in its inevitability, but in what happens after we die.

As Christians, we believe in Jesus’ promise that death is not the end of our lives, but only the end of the beginning. Our Lord revealed to humanity that we have immortal souls, souls that will never die, that are joined to our earthly bodies throughout our lives. They will become separated from our bodies by death temporarily, but body and soul will be reunited one day at the resurrection of the dead. This resurrection of the dead will occur when Our Lord returns to “judge the living and the dead”, as we say in the Nicene Creed every week.

With this resurrection of the dead, we need to remind ourselves that there will be a judgment by Our Lord as to how we will spend that eternity. This judgment is not about God condemning us for not doing enough good things or rewarding us for avoiding enough bad things, but rather is a judgment of our own decisions to follow God or turn away from Him. Where we end up for eternity is a direct result of how important we make God in our lives. If we’re not willing to give God and His commands any priority in our lives now, how can we think that we’ll be willing to do so in eternal life?

That is the question that the Final Judgment will answer. It will not be like a criminal trial, but rather a revealing of our souls. Did we dedicate our lives to serving God and others, as Christ commanded, or did we spend our lives serving ourselves and using others? Did we submit our pride and humbly obey God and His Church, established by Christ, or did we place our opinions and what we want over His will? How we answer these questions will determine whether or not we will spend eternity in God’s presence in Heaven.

God does not condemn us, but rather allows us to decide whether or not to be with Him forever. If we are open to the grace God gives all of us to follow Him and remain in His friendship, we freely choose to enter into the perfect life in Heaven promised by Our Lord and opened to us through His death and resurrection. Of course, if we close ourselves off to God’s grace, seeking our own desires and will over His will and refusing to follow Him, we freely choose to shun that Heavenly life for an eternity without God. Those who enter Heaven have chosen God over themselves, but those who are condemned to eternal damnation in Hell have chosen themselves over God. The Final Judgment is a confirmation of that choice.

I think it goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyways: we need to choose God over ourselves, Heaven over Hell. This means we need to commit ourselves every day to following Jesus and His teachings given us through His Church in every aspect of our lives. Living as a Christian means constantly seeking God’s face, wanting to live in His love for us and expressing our love for Him. We need to be steeping ourselves in the Scriptures, daily reflecting on the Word of God. We also need to be learning the teachings and Traditions of the Church, and humbly living them out despite our disagreements or lack of understanding. We need to allow Our Lord, speaking to us in the Scriptures and Traditions of the Church, to root out of us our pride and self-centeredness that keep us from Him.

In short, we need to choose daily to enter into Heaven when our time on Earth is finished. May we allow God’s grace to live in us so that we might live in Him and one day enter into that perfect life in Heaven promised us by Christ.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry