Author: Christine Jordan

Dear Friends,

In 1982 the world of journalism was stunned when it learned that, one of their own, the famous British journalist, Malcolm Muggeridge, had been received into the Catholic Church.  Muggeridge was the son of agnostic parents, and they raised him in the religion of socialistic progress, from his father he had inherited the conviction that man was capable of building paradise here on earth all by himself, and there was no need for God or for grace.  Despite a brief interest in Christianity during his university days at Cambridge by the time he graduated Muggeridge was a convicted agnostic socialist, once writing, “I’m a socialist, because I believe that with the right conditions man can be good, and only the government of collectivism can create such good conditions.”

In 1927, Muggeridge married Kitty Dobbs, she was also a convinced socialist and religious agnostic.  They were proud to establish a marriage that was free of all religious constraints, and with their non-traditional and ultra-liberal attitudes towards sexuality there were many infidelities that caused much suffering for themselves and their children.  In the 1930s Muggeridge was sent to the Soviet Union as a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian newspaper.  He was convinced that in the USSR he’d find a land free of all exploitation and injustice.  He wasn’t there long before learning the truth, and witnessing firsthand the barbarism of that governmental system.  Muggeridge left Russia no longer convinced that socialism was the answer to all humanity’s problems.

Muggeridge made his way back to Great Britain and began to consider the idea of Christianity, the Catholic Church in particular.  But it would be forty years before he and his wife would enter the Church.  There were many experiences that helped to bring this well-known agnostic home to the Church but the deciding factor was his meeting with Mother Teresa (M.T.).  In M.T. he saw a woman whose life had been completely transformed by Jesus Christ, and it was impossible for Muggeridge not to be attracted to her witness of faith, hope, and love.  M.T. in all of her simplicity radiated Jesus to such a degree that Muggeridge felt compelled to embrace the Christian faith.  During the last 8 years of his life he became a devout Catholic, he was one of the Church’s staunchest defenders.  He died in 1990 at the age of 87.

God used Mother Teresa to bring Malcolm Muggeridge home to the Catholic Church.  On this feast of the Epiphany we are reminded of our own call to discipleship and evangelization, which M.T. lived and did so well.  The same missionary fire that burned in her heart should burn in ours as well.  Because of our baptism we are charged with bringing Christ to those who have never heard of him, or to bring him to those, who once knew him, but have grown cold in their faith and no longer see His relevance to their lives.

Today’s gospel describes a story we know very well.  The Magi from the east follow the star to do homage to the newborn king.  St. Matthew tells us that after the wise men have paid their homage they “Departed for their country by another way.”  The Magi after encountering Christ do not walk away the same, they are different.  When we encounter Christ as the magi did our lives too should be different.  And when we are transformed by our encounter with Christ, other people, hopefully, will be transformed by their encounter with us.  They will notice something different about us.  They will be attracted to this faith called Christianity, Catholicism in particular.  Have we let ourselves be radically transformed?  Do we pray for this radical transformation?

M.T. had been profoundly changed by the same Jesus the Magi paid homage to.  She was changed by Jesus every morning in her Eucharistic holy hour, she was changed by Jesus every day at Mass, she was changed by Jesus when she meditated upon His life in the Gospels, and she was changed by Jesus who she found in the poorest of the poor.  It was because she had allowed herself to be transformed that Malcolm Muggeridge was able to write of her in his book, Something Beautiful for God,

“Mother Teresa is, in herself, a living conversion; it is impossible to be with her, to listen to her, to observe what she is doing and how she is doing it, without being in some degree converted. Her total devotion to Christ, her conviction that everyone must be treated, helped, and loved as if he were Christ himself; her simple life lived according to the Gospel and her joy in receiving the sacraments–none of this can be ignored.  There is no book I have read, no speech I have heard … there is no human relationship, or transcendental experience that has brought me closer to Christ, or made me more aware of what the Incarnation means, and what is demanded of us.”

On this feast of the Epiphany as we celebrate the encounter of the Magi with the Christ child, we ask ourselves whether our own encounter with Christ leads us back by a different road, making us instruments of evangelization which M.T. and thousands and thousands and thousands of saints have carried out so well.  Once, when preaching on the feast of the Epiphany, St. Augustine said, “Even we, recognizing Christ our King and Priest who died for us, have honored him as if we had offered him gold, incense, and myrrh.  But what remains, is for us to bear witness to him by taking a different road from that on which we came.”  If we truly bear witness to Christ by taking a different road then we can firmly hope that God will use us the way he used Mother Teresa to bring others to the faith.

That what happened to Malcolm Muggeridge will happen to many others through the Holy Spirit working through us, enabling us to say confidently with the Psalmist today, “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.”

Merry Christmas,

Fr. Christopher Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

In today’s Gospel, we have the only story from the childhood of Jesus.  From his birth until his public ministry, for a total of about 30 years, the Gospels only record this one story.  We do know that most of these years, Jesus spent in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph.  But because we know so little about this time, these years are called the “hidden years” at Nazareth.  As Pope Paul VI wrote, there is much that we can learn about family life from this silence.

First of all, we learn from the silence itself.  The home life is a private life.  It is a place to protect and nourish the children as they grow.

As kids in school and at church, many people would often make comments to my parents about how well behaved me and my brothers were.  So much so, that my parents wondered if these adults were really talking about us.  They must have my kids confused with some other kids, they would think.  And I knew for sure they weren’t talking about my brothers.   Like most kids, my brothers could be polite and kind in public, but at home, it was an entirely different story.  They could be rude, demanding, selfish, and sometimes just downright mean.  And I’m sure my brothers could and would say the same about me.  At home I could be rude, demanding, selfish, and mean.  But in public it was the exact opposite.

The privacy of the home protected us from our own reputations.  And the keeping of this privacy taught us that such unruly behavior was shameful, and not something to be seen in public. And not in the home either, but that was a work in progress.   And because of this behavior in the home we also learned the willingness to forgive, on a daily basis sometimes.  The love within the family looks beyond these faults; it is always ready to forgive.  The privacy of the home combined with discipline, taught me and my brothers how to behave both in public and at home.  At home we learned the importance of forgiving.

Secondly, Nazareth teaches us about the dignity of work.  We know that Joseph was a carpenter.  And by his work he supported the family.  The dignity of work comes from the fact that it supports the family life.  By working, parents are able to feed, clothe, and shelter their children.  And although it’s nice to have jobs we like, and which pay well, these are secondary concerns. The first concern is providing for the family.

An autobiography by Don Snyder entitled, The Cliff Walk, writes about this.  The author is a college professor at Colgate who loses his job.  And he has to take up painting houses in order to support his family.  And here, he discovers the joy of family life.  His job is no longer his primary concern.  His family becomes the primary concern.  The experience of losing his job helps him find his life, a life centered on the people he loves, his family.  His life is no longer centered on reputation and work.

These two things which we learn from Nazareth about the silence and privacy of home life, and about the dignity of work, help teach us our third lesson from Nazareth.  And it’s this, the love within the family, is a love marked by the Cross of Christ.  The love within the family is a sacrificial love.  It’s the epitome of love; it’s the giving of oneself to another.

Family love begins its imitation of the Cross of Christ with the pangs of labor.  The mother endures the pains of labor so that her child might have life.  It continues with the hard works with which father and mother continue to support and raise the child.  The many little sacrifices, such as getting up in the middle of the night in order to change a diaper or feed a hungry baby, or to be with a sick child.  Then, the sacrifices continue as the parents forego their own activities, so that their children can participate in sports, or scouts or school activities.

And in the course of time, the sacrifices get turned around, as parents’ age, it becomes the children’s turn to sacrifice.  As they run errands for parents who can no longer drive or walk.  And as they take in parents, who can no longer live by themselves.

Family life is to be a life of love, a love that’s ready to forgive, and a love that’s always willing to sacrifice for another.  Christian family life is meant to imitate the Cross of Christ.   And for family life to have its fullest meaning, the presence of Christ in the family should be made explicit.  The family itself is a kind of church, it’s a community of believers.  And as a community of believers they gather together in prayer.  Not just in church every Sunday, but also in the home during the week.

Every home should have an area set aside for family prayer.  Ours was in the living room around the crucifix hanging above the couch.  This is where we learned to pray this is where we prayed the rosary.  (This is where I learned to forgive my brother Matt as he breathed all over me when we prayed)

Theologians tell us that we will spend eternity in Heaven with those we are closest to on earth, our family.  And the things we need for a good family life, are the same things we need for eternal life.  They are silence marked by prayer and forgiveness.  And they are work and sacrifice on behalf of the ones we love.  My prayer for us today is that we constantly imitate the example of the Holy Family so that after the trials of this world we may share their company forever.

May we be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

Like all the saints, St. Francis was a man who loved to meditate on the life of Jesus.  He could sit or kneel or lie on the ground and pray for hours just thinking about the life of our Lord.   Many times he would picture in his mind a Gospel scene and put himself right into the midst of the action.  He’d be there at the Cleansing of the Temple watching Jesus drive out the money changers, or he’d be in the crowd listening to the Sermon on the Mount, or he’d be with the people lining the street watching as Jesus carried his cross, and then following our Lord all the way to Calvary and Crucifixion.   But there was one particular event in our Lord’s life that St. Francis loved to meditate on, and that was his birth.  And he must have preached about this quite a bit because many artists have painted St. Francis right into the nativity.  Many times he’s painted in among the shepherds and the sheep.  He’s in these paintings even though he lived 1200 years after the Birth of Jesus.

So we might ask ourselves in his meditation of our Lord’s birth what did St. Francis see?  He maybe saw a nervous first time mom and dad bringing their child into the world in the midst of poverty and grime.  What did St. Francis feel?  He may have felt the course straw and rough wood that was to be the first bed of our Lord.  He may have felt the wet noses of animals that just wouldn’t stay away.  What did St Francis hear?  He might have heard owls in the rafters, the sounds of sheep and cattle.  He may have heard the sound of a baby crying and a new mom soothing her baby.  What did he smell?  He probably smelled hay, manure, cows and sheep, and he smelled the shepherds. Who smelled just like their sheep.

What in his mind’s eye did St. Francis see in his meditations?  He saw that the one who could make the sun warm the earth would have need of an ox and donkey to warm him with their breath.  He saw the one who clothed the fields with grass would Himself be born naked.  He saw that the one from whose hands came planets and worlds would have tiny arms not long enough to reach up to touch the heads of cattle that hovered above.  That omnipotence Himself would be wrapped in swaddling and that salvation Himself would lay in a manger.  All these images and more is what St. Francis meditated on and from these meditations he preached on Christmas day.

A lesson on mystical theology.   As we know, God exists outside of time.  But when Jesus entered into time, time freaked out, time freaked because time cannot contain Jesus or any of the events of his life.  Jesus is not limited to his 33 years of life on earth two millennia ago.   Jesus is true man and true God and because he is true God his life cannot remain in the past, his life transcends time.  And here, is a beautiful and awesome thing about being a Christian.  When we were baptized we were filled with the very life of God, his sanctifying grace, and as the water was being poured over our body our souls received the Divine virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.  And it’s these virtues that allow us to transcend time, and be with Jesus at all the important events of his life.  Amazing!  That’s what we do here at Mass.

Example, whenever our heart is moved with faith and charity at the remembrance of some event of our Lord’s life, the nativity or the events surrounding the nativity, for example, then we are there mystically, transported to that event of our Lord’s life, we are there to love Him and console Him.  And using the Inn Keeper as an example, in a very real way we are more present to Jesus than that inn keeper who turned away the Holy Family.  The inn keeper was there physically but he had no faith and no charity.  But for us who live in faith and charity we are there making room for Jesus in our hearts.  The wisdom of Jesus, the words of Jesus, the Word made Flesh himself, cannot remain in the past, He transcends time.   Our faith, our hope, our charity keeps us very connected to Jesus.

Now it is to St. Francis that we attribute the custom of displaying a nativity in our town squares, our homes, and our Churches.    He may not have been the first to conceive of this remembrance of our Lord’s birth. But he was the one to popularize the custom.  In the year 1223 St. Francis found himself in the small town of Grecchio.  This was a small Italian town built on the side of a mountain.  And St. Francis wanted Midnight Mass to be celebrated in a place large enough so that all the people in town could attend.  Their Franciscan chapel was much too small for everyone to fit inside.  So St. Francis went looking for a larger place to celebrate Mass.  And he found the spot.  He found a cave like niche in the side of the mountain near the town square.  It was “Perfect.”  So in this niche within the side of the mountain he placed an altar.  And then he was inspired, this cave like niche reminded him of the very first Christmas where our Lord was born in similar circumstance.  He said to his brothers, “I want to make a memorial of the Child Jesus who was born in Bethlehem and in some sort behold with our eyes the hardships of His infant state, lying on hay in a manger with the ox and donkey standing by.”  And that’s what they did.  He found a manger for a crib and filled it with hay.  He then found both a donkey and an ox and tied them up next to the crib.  There were probably even a few sheep running around.  And that’s where the people of Grecchio celebrated Midnight Mass in the year 1223.  They celebrated Mass in a stable with a manger in their midst and with the townspeople crowding in and around the animals.

I have homework for everyone here today.  During this season of Christmas, which lasts until January 13th (Some even keep up Christmas decorations until February 2nd), spend some time meditating on the nativity of our Lord.  Read the Gospel passages, sit before your nativity.  Statues and art are a great way to lift the heart, mind, and soul to the realities they represent.  And in your meditation put yourself right into the stable and use your senses, what do you see, what do you hear, what do you feel, and what do you smell?

At that first Christmas 2000 years ago, and every day since, God has been making a proposal to us.  Through his son Jesus he is saying to each and every one of us:  “You give me your humanity, I will give you my divinity.  You give me your time, I will give you eternity.  You give me your bonds; I will give you my omnipotence. You give me your slavery; I will give you my freedom.  You give me your death; I will give you my life.  You give me your nothingness; I will give you my all.”

Merry Christmas,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

One of my favorite saints is a man by the name of Maximilian Kolbe.  He might be familiar to some of you, especially if you’ve done Fr. Gaitley’s consecration to Jesus through Mary.  I have spoken of him before and I a picture of him in my office.  He looks like he could be one of the duck dynasty brothers (long crazy beard).

Kolbe was a Polish priest, born near the end of the 19th century.  He was a brilliant Franciscan; he had earned two doctorates by the age of 25.  He did missionary work in Japan.  He used technology in every possible way so as to spread the gospel.  He founded a city in Poland dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God.  Over 800 monks lived there, many of them drawn there by his example of joy and holiness.   In 1941 he was arrested by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz.  The Nazis, it’s often forgotten, not only hated the Jewish people, they also hated Christians.  As the prisoners entered into this hell on earth they were welcomed with this message:  “You have not come to a sanitarium but to a Nazi concentration camp, from which there is no other exit except the crematorium.  If there are Jews here they do no have a right to live more than two weeks.  If there are priests, they can live a month; the others, three months.”

In late July of 1941, a prisoner escaped somehow from the camp, or at least went missing and was never found.  As punishment the commandant said that ten people from the cellblock out of which the man escaped would be executed by being locked inside a starvation bunker under the ground.  The commandant had the prisoners stand at attention most of the day and then finally began walking through the lines picking the condemned.  The tenth man he selected began to cry out, “Goodbye, goodbye, my dear wife! Goodbye, my dear children.”  At this the unthinkable happened.  Kolbe stepped out of the line and walked in front of the SS commandant, who said to him, “What does this Polish pig want?”  Kolbe answered, “I am a Polish priest; I want to take his place because he has a wife and children.”  And somehow, miraculously, the commandant agreed to let Kolbe take the man’s place, a man who survived Auschwitz and, to my knowledge, just died a few years ago.

And so Kolbe, who was 47 at the time, was placed with the nine other condemned into the concrete starvation bunker to die.  But an odd thing happened in that bunker.  Out of it, heard both by the prisoners in the camp and the SS guards, came singing.  In the middle of this place, a hell on earth, Kolbe was leading the others in prayer and song.  So annoying did this become for the Nazis that after two weeks of this they finally entered the bunker and executed Kolbe by a lethal injection.

Now I bring up St. Maximilian today because he is, I think, a more recent and powerful example of St. Paul and of his words to us in the second reading. St. Paul said to us, “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I shall say it again: rejoice! Have no anxiety at all.”  Now these may not be easy words to hear especially if we’ve lost a job, or we are worrying about the next house payment, or we are about to approach the holidays for the first time after the death of a loved one, or we are helping someone going through chemotherapy and all the hardships entailed with that, or maybe we’re going through that ourselves.    Or maybe it’s something else entirely that makes us anxious.  We might be tempted to say to St. Paul, “Maybe if you knew the suffering I’m going through, or if you were in a situation like mine, you wouldn’t say words like “Rejoice!”  And “Have no anxiety at all.”

But when St. Paul wrote these words of rejoice and have no anxiety, he was sitting in a prison cell.  Like Kolbe in that starvation bunker, Paul was confined to an underground prison when he wrote this.  And just as Kolbe was able, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to sing hymns in Auschwitz, so Paul could say in prison awaiting his own execution, “Rejoice!”

How?  Today’s Third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday, is all focused on joy.  But Paul and Kolbe and all the saints powerfully remind us that joy isn’t dependent on, and doesn’t come from the particular circumstance I find myself in whether that’s being in a concentration camp, prison, out of work, struggling with cancer, or having difficulties in my marriage.  And neither Paul nor Kolbe were under the illusion God was going to magically swoop in and rescue them and “make it all better.”  No.  Their joy, their real joy, was rooted in what God had already done in their lives and for all the world, and in what He has said will happen when either He returns or I die, whichever comes first.

So what has He done that causes such joy?  There are three things that are found in our readings today.  First, he has “Removed the judgment against us.”  He forgives, we can repent, our past does not define us if we come to Him, especially in the sacrament of confession.  Second,  “He has turned away our enemies.  He has destroyed the hellish power of Satan and of death.  Death has been conquered and lost its sting.  There is now a divine hand to reach out to us in death. Third, He “Is in our midst,” as Zephaniah puts it.  Or, in Paul’s words, “He is near.”  He is near in the sense that He, is always with us, always offering us the grace we need for whatever situation we’re in.  And He is near in the sense that His return is closer than it was yesterday.  We’re nearer today to going home than we were last year or five years ago or ten years ago.  And these truths that forgiveness is there for the asking, that death’s power has been destroyed, and that God is both with us now, no matter the situation and will bring us home if we stay close is the cause of our joy, that nothing, no anxiety, no distress, no persecution, no sword, and not even a starvation bunker in Auschwitz, can shake.

As we draw nearer to Christmas, may God help us all better understand what He has done for us.  And may our joy help draw others to Him.

Pax et Bonum,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

I know of a young woman in the Detroit area who is making her way back to the Church.  She walked away from the Church for a number of years and her story goes something like this.  She grew up in a very large suburban parish.  Went to Mass every Sunday with her parents and every year she was enrolled in the religious education program.  The teen years were a particularly volatile time for her and she started becoming attracted to doing what she called “dumb stuff.”  By the time Confirmation came around she had done, again in her words, “lots of dumb stuff,” and she was hoping for some sort of a clean break and a fresh start.

As part of her Confirmation preparation, there was a penance service the night before she received the sacrament.  This young woman spoke of how for nearly two weeks straight she had been thinking and praying about going to confession and doing all she could to prepare herself.

The evening finally came and, a number of visiting priests were brought in to help hear confession.  She found herself in line with one of those visiting priests and she noticed the other teens ahead of her were coming back from the sacrament rather quickly.  “Man, they must all be really good kids!” she thought.  Finally it was her turn to celebrate the sacrament and as she met the priest he told her, “Tell me one sin.”  “Huh?!” she said.  “Tell me one sin,” he repeated. “But Father,” she answered, “I don’t have one sin.  I’ve got lots of sins. I’ve done some bad stuff.”  “We don’t have time for all that,” he said, “There are lots of people out there.”  And when she heard that, she shot back, “Then, forget it!” and she walked out.  That moment she said, along with a couple of other incidents, made her decide to just throw the whole faith out the window.  “If they’re not going to take all this seriously,” she said, “Why should I.”

That young woman from Detroit was looking for a fresh start, and a new beginning.  And on this Second Sunday of Advent John the Baptist appears on the scene, telling us prepare yourselves for a fresh start, prepare yourselves for a new beginning, but first you must repent.  To prepare yourselves for the new life of grace and mercy and peace that Jesus wants to bring you, you must first repent.  This young woman from Detroit serves as a great reminder of what psychologist and psychiatrist have increasingly been saying for years now.  If we truly want to be emotionally well, we must own up to what we have done; we must be accountable.  We must stop blaming others for our problems.  We must, in John the Baptist’s words, repent.

This woman from Detroit stands also as a great reminder that repentance is not merely some external sort of command that is issued by prophets like John the Baptist.  There is deep within all of us a felt need to expunge from our memories and our minds and our hearts those things that we have done that have hurt others and ourselves.  Much like our body, when attacked by a virus, will physically try to expel that virus from our system, so too the soul wants to do the very same thing when sin is present.  For just as sickness is contrary to health, so too is sin contrary to the fullness of life we were made for.  And just as the body usually returns to health after it throws up, though the moment of expulsion might not be all that pleasant, so too does the soul.

The young woman from Detroit, and all of us, long in the words of today’s first reading to, “Take off the robes of mourning and misery” that come from our sins and to exchange them for the garments of joy and peace that come from receiving the Lord’s mercy and grace and love.  And that happens in a unique and wonderful way in the great gift Jesus has left us in the sacrament of reconciliation.

“Oh, this desire, this need of the Father of Mercies to retrieve His lost child and give him life!  That is the Heart of God!  Remember that, each time you pick yourself up after a fall, the feast of the prodigal son is renewed.  Your Father in Heaven clothes you again in His most beautiful cloak, puts a ring on your finger, and tells you to dance with joy.  In a living faith, you will not approach the confessional with dragging feet, but as if you were going to a feast, even if you have to make a great effort each time to humble yourself and to conquer the monotony of the routine. After the absolution, you should dance like the prodigal son did at the request and for the joy of his father.  We do not dance enough in the spiritual life.”  From Fr. Jean D’Elbee’s book, I believe in love.

Contrary to how many people think, the Church is not “hung up on” guilt and sin.  What the Church is “hung up on” is freedom, the Church is “hung up on” virtue; the Church is “hung up on” wanting us to live lives of integrity and authenticity; and finally the Church is “hung up on” love.  Sin is merely the failure to live all of these things well.  And the beautiful gift of confession allows us all to leave behind our failures and to begin all over again in our lives.  That’s what the young woman from Detroit wanted to do the night before her confirmation, but didn’t get the chance.  That’s what many of us, perhaps, have been wanting to do for years:  to begin again, to start anew, to change directions, to leave behind something that’s been keeping us from true freedom and joy.  If this is so, come to the sacrament!  It is the single most under-used and under-valued gift God has given us.

Jesus is not calling you to be just a good person, that’s boring.  Christianity is much more than just being a good person, it’s so much more than that.  Jesus is calling you to be a new person, a new creation, not just converted in mind but transformed in body and soul.  And living as a new creation means that we hate and avoid sin right now, not out of fear of punishment, but because of who we are, we are Christ’s.  We belong to Christ, as Christians we are little Christs and so we say, “I avoid sin because it’s just not me.”  Love is what unites us to Jesus, not obedience or fear, but authentic love.

In these days of trying to find a great deal on a gift for a loved one, the greatest deal in town just might be the one found in confession.  We enter wearing robes of mourning and sorrow and leave wrapped in God’s love and mercy with a chance to start all over again.  May the Lord bring to completion the good work He has begun in all of us.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

 

From a sermon by Saint Anselm, bishop

Virgin Mary, all nature is blessed by you

Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night – everything that is subject to the power or use of man – rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. All creatures were dead, as it were, useless for men or for the praise of God, who made them. The world, contrary to its true destiny, was corrupted and tainted by the acts of men who served idols. Now all creation has been restored to life and rejoices that it is controlled and given splendor by men who believe in God. The universe rejoices with new and indefinable loveliness. Not only does it feel the unseen presence of God himself, its Creator, it sees him openly, working and making it holy. These great blessings spring from the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb.

Through the fullness of the grace that was given you, dead things rejoice in their freedom, and those in heaven are glad to be made new. Through the Son who was the glorious fruit of your virgin womb, just souls who died before his life-giving death rejoice as they are freed from captivity, and the angels are glad at the restoration of their shattered domain.

Lady, full and overflowing with grace, all creation receives new life from your abundance. Virgin, blessed above all creatures, through your blessing all creation is blessed, not only creation from its Creator, but the Creator himself has been blessed by creation.

To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary.

God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Savior of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed.

Truly the Lord is with you, to whom the Lord granted that all nature should owe as much to you as to himself.

 

Dear Friends,
Friday was the feast day of Blessed Miguel Pro. He was executed on November 23rd in 1927. Miguel was a Mexican Jesuit priest executed under the presi-dency of Plutarco Calles after trumped up charges were made against him. He was charged with the bombing and attempted assassination of the former Mexican President Alvaro Obregon. Miguel’s arrest, lack of trial, and lack of evidence gained prominence during the Cristero War. Known for his piety and innocence, he was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1988. At the time of his martyrdom Mexico was under the rule of a president who was fiercely anti-clerical and anti-Catholic. Historians have called this period of Mexican history the most “fiercest persecution of religion anywhere since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.”
Miguel was born in 1891. He was born into a middle class mining family, the third of eleven children. Miguel entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1911. He was noted for his charity and ability to talk about spiritual matters without being boring. He was both a practical joker and prayerful. Miguel studied in Mexico until 1914 when the massive wave of governmental anti-Catholicism forced the novitiate to dissolve causing the Jesuits to flee to California.
The Mexican government of that time prohibited the Church from operating schools, they outlawed all Monastic orders, forbade public worship outside of churches, and priests and religious sisters/brothers were not allowed to wear clerical clothing in public, religious were also denied the right to vote and were not allowed to comment on public affairs in the press.
Miguel was ordained in 1925. His studies were completed a year later and he returned to Mexico. Fr. Miguel served a Church that had been forced under-ground. And he adopted many interesting disguises in carrying out his secret ministry. He would come to houses in the middle of the night dressed as a beggar to baptize infants, to marry couples, and to celebrate Mass. He would appear in jail dressed as a police officer to hear confessions and to bring Holy Viaticum to condemned Catholics. When going to fashionable neighborhoods to get money for the poor, he would show up at the doorstep dressed as a fash-ionable businessman with a flower in his lapel.
Fr. Miguel was a priest in Mexico for about a year before being arrested in early November of 1927 and falsely charged with the bombing and attempted assassination of the former president. There was no trial and he was executed by firing squad. President Calles had the execution meticulously photographed and the newspapers throughout the country carried the photos on the front page. One can still find these photos on the internet, they are very powerful. The President thought that the sight of the pictures would frighten the Cristero rebels into a retreat. It had the opposite effect.
Before his execution Fr. Miguel blessed the soldiers and knelt to pray. He held both a crucifix and a rosary and his arms were stretched out in imitation of Christ Crucified and at the end he shouted, “May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, you know that I am innocent! With all my heart I for-give my enemies!” and before the firing squad was ordered to shoot, Fr. Pro shouted out, “Viva Cristo Rey!” – “Long lives Christ the King!”
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. This may seem like an alien concept to us who live in a democracy but it is theologically correct. Our King and the way of life he calls us to is not something that’s voted in or out. Our King is the Lord of our life he is the lord of every aspect of our life (he should be). He governs our private life, our public life, our physical life, our spiritual life, our intellectual life, and he governs all our relationships. Like Blessed Miguel Pro we absolutely submit our lives to the King of the Universe.
In our first reading of Mass from chapter 7 of the Prophet Daniel we read that, “One like a son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship; all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.” If we were to read the verses of chapter seven leading up to our first reading we would have read of great beasts of vio-lence rising from the sea. Scholars tell us these creatures represent all earthly kingdoms that have wreaked havoc on the world throughout the centuries. These creatures, these rulers, are brought before the Ancient One; they’re brought before God who passes judgment. The Ancient One gives the Son of Man everlasting dominion that will not be destroyed. This was a distant hope for Daniel but for Christians this prophecy is realized in Jesus Christ the King who reigns over all kings.
In the Gospel we read that our King testifies to the truth. And everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice. Pope Benedict throughout his pontifi-cate had spoken out against the dictatorship of relativism a way of thinking that seems to govern much of modern life. A way of thinking that says truth is what you want it to be. It’s a private decision. When truth is relativised when there are no moral absolutes, an environment is opened for tyrants to come in and impose their will, to impose their version of truth. Blessed Miguel Pro resisted this, the Cristero movement resisted this. Countless men and women throughout history have resisted tyrants and their false claims of truth.
Now some today would like to limit freedom of religion to freedom of worship only, keep it in the Church on Sunday. But at our Baptism, we were not only anointed as priests meaning we offer fitting worship. But we were also anointed as prophets and kings-which means we witness our faith beyond the church building, and we serve others beyond the church building. Our faith teaches us that we are of service to one another not when we enable each other in soci-ety to sin, but when we help each other not to sin. This is why it’s so important to vote with a true Catholic conscience. This is what religious freedom is really about – freedom to live virtue and avoid vice; our best examples of it are the saints, whose virtue helped to build up civil society as well as the Church; and we live it best when we follow Jesus in listening to his voice, the voice of truth, even when embracing His truth may include embracing the Cross as well.
Christ on the Cross, crowned with thorns, is our image of a King and his Kingdom – life lived for others, even unto death. I’d like to end with a prayer writ-ten by Blessed Miguel Pro:
I believe, O Lord, but strengthen my faith
Heart of Jesus, I love you; but increase my love
Heart of Jesus, I trust in you;
But give greater vigor to my confidence.
Heart of Jesus, I give my heart to you;
But so enclose it in you
That it may never be separated from you.
Heart of Jesus, I am all yours; but take care of my promise
So that I may be able to put it in practice
Even unto the complete sacrifice of my life. Amen.
Let us be great Saints,
Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

What is wisdom?  Who is a wise person?  Two historical people known for their wise answers asked these very same questions.  Solomon in Ecclesiastes asked, “Who is like the wise man and who knows the explanation of things?”  And Socrates is the other who asked these two questions.  Socrates spent his whole life on a quest for wisdom.  His quest looked a lot like Solomon’s, but unlike Solomon, Socrates died without finding it.  At the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon finds true wisdom and he finds it in the only place it can be found, in the Word of God.  For us that Word is Jesus himself and everything he said, fulfilled, and represented.

Socrates never acknowledged the word of God, and so he never found that true wisdom.  But that didn’t stop people from coming to him looking for wisdom.  There is a story of a young man who came to Socrates looking for wisdom.  Socrates took him to a pond and led him chest-deep into the water.  And there he asked him, “What do you want?” the young man said, “Wisdom, oh wise Socrates.”  So, Socrates proceeded to push him under the water.  After about 30 seconds, he let the boy up and asked him again, “What do you want?”  Again the young man sputtered, “Wisdom oh great and wise Socrates.”  So Socrates pushed him under the water again.  30 seconds passed, 35, 40. Then he let him up.  “What do you want?”  This time the boy was gasping and choking.  But between breaths, he managed to get out, “Wisdom, oh great and…”  This time he didn’t even finish his sentence before Socrates dunked him under again.  30, 40, 50, 55, one full minute later, Socrates finally let him up.  “What do you want?”  This time the boy said, “Air! I need air!”  And that was the lesson.

Socrates told him, “When you desire wisdom as much as you just desired air, then you will have it.”  Air is something we don’t pay a whole lot of attention to until we don’t have it.  And when we don’t have it, it’s the only thing we can think about.  Think about that time you got the wind knocked out of you.  As Christians we want the kind of wisdom that passes the test of faith.  We want the wisdom of the words that will not pass away.  And we want the Word himself, made flesh, who will not pass away.  So let us pursue this wisdom as if our life depended on it.  And it does, our eternal life.

A few weeks ago we heard of the rich young man who had a lot of possessions, but he wanted something more.  His question to Jesus was, “Good Teacher, what must I do to share everlasting life?”  That rich young man had health, wealth, youth, and life.  But he knew that a virus, or a thief, could change that in a moment.  And even if he could avoid such sudden loss, he knew that even at best all that he treasured was temporary.  The unrelenting tick of the clock would slowly rob his youth, erode his wealth, and eventually take his life.  And then what?

Perhaps the young man had been in the crowd on a mountain some months earlier when Jesus said, “Do not store for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal” (Mt 6:19).  Or maybe he had been in the synagogue of Capernaum when Jesus said, “Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (Jn 6:22).  At any rate he wanted what every one of us wants, peace and security, life and happiness that lasts, happiness that never ends, we want that heavenly wisdom that never passes.     And all of this is within our reach right now.

A little theology lesson.   As we know, God exists outside of time.  But when Jesus entered into time, time freaked out, because time cannot contain Jesus or any of the events in his life.  Jesus is not limited to those 33 years of life on earth two millennia ago.   Jesus is both true man and true God and because he is true God his life cannot remain in the past, his life transcends time.  And here, is the beautiful and awesome thing about being a Christian.  When we were baptized we were filled with the very life of God, his sanctifying grace, and as the water was being poured over us our souls received the Divine virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.  And it’s these virtues that allow us to transcend time, and be with Jesus at all the important events of his life.  Amazing!

Example, whenever our heart is moved with faith and charity at remembrance of some event of our Lord’s life, maybe the crucifixion, for example, then we are mystically transported to that event of our Lord’s life, we are there to love him and console him.  And in a very real way we are more present to Jesus than one of the soldiers who was there physically but had no faith or charity.  The wisdom of Jesus, the words of Jesus, the Word made Flesh himself, cannot remain in the past, He transcends time.   Our faith, our hope, our charity keeps us very connected to the eternal Word.

Theologians tell us the Mass is the most perfect prayer we can offer to God the Father.  It makes present to us, all the life-saving events of Jesus.  A priest once said that we should think of prayer, any prayer, but Mass especially, as sitting before God and that with every breath we take in we are breathing in God, we are breathing in the breath of God.  He resuscitates us and fills us with the air of Divine Wisdom.  This is the air we want to breathe, the air of peace, the air of security, the air of life, and the air of happiness that lasts.  The Mass is where we take in the wisdom of the words that will not pass away and we take in the Word himself, made flesh, who will not pass away.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

Today it’s all about widows.  At the time of Jesus and before, widows along with orphans were the most vulnerable members of society.  They were at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.  There was no governmental welfare system or safety net for them.  They relied on the support of extended family or if there was no family they begged.  In our first reading the widow was down to her last meal.  She was as low as you can go.  There was no support, no future, and no hope.  Or so it seemed.  Then the divine entered into her life, at her greatest point of vulnerability the divine entered into her life, and she was ready.  Elijah meets this widow when she is down to her last bit of food, and he knows this, but he still asks her to give (share) it to him.  At the bottom of her life she is asked to give and to give.  And she does.  The great spiritual principle is this:  When we are linked to God who in his essence is gift then we can give and give and never run out.  He replenishes us.  This is the divine logic, the economics of Heaven.  Abundance comes from the willing gift.  Abundance comes to us when we are willing to give.  The widow gave out of her want and for a whole year the flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry.

In the year 258 A.D. the Roman Emperor Valerian issued an edict ordering the death of all Bishops, priests, and deacons.    The pope at that time was Sixtus II and he along with six of his deacons was the first to be killed.   At that time in the whole city of Rome there were only seven deacons, so only one remained alive.  His name was Lawrence and since he was the only remaining Pope’s deacon he became the highest ranking church official until another Pope could be elected.  And as the highest Church official the emperor called him to his palace and ordered him to hand over all the treasures of the Church.  Lawrence agreed saying, “The Church is indeed filled with many riches,” “But I need time to gather all the treasures.”  He asked for three days to gather everything together. The emperor agreed.  But instead of gathering the deeds to property or gold coins, during the next three days Lawrence gathered as many Christians together as he could.  He gathered the poor, the infirm, the widowed, the orphaned, the suffering, and the sick and this was the treasure he presented to the emperor.  And with this group of people standing in front of the emperor Lawrence said, “See the wondrous riches of our God.”  As you can imagine, thinking as the world does, the emperor was furious and in a rage he ordered the immediate death of Lawrence.  Lawrence was killed on a gridiron set over a slow fire.  He was roasted to death.  Lawrence is honored as one of the great martyrs of the early Church.

Lawrence was very correct in presenting the People of God as the Church’s greatest treasure.  You and I my friends are that treasure, that body of Christ, and as Christians we share, we give of ourselves.  We follow that divine logic and economics of Heaven.  When linked to the God who is gift then we can give and give and never run out.  There is that saying with the three Ts.  As Christians we give of our time, our talent, and our treasure.  And we give not from our surplus but from our want.  Blessed Theresa of Calcutta once said, “That we should give until it hurts.”  A hard saying, but one lived out in our Gospel of today.

To the eyes of the world, to the eyes of the emperor, it would seem that the Pharisees are the treasure of the church, and in their own eyes they probably are.  They recite lengthy prayers and they give vast sums of money to the Temple.  But Jesus sees things differently, sitting down opposite the treasury he observes everything, he observes with divine logic.  The widow only gave two small coins.  She gave not out of her surplus, as the rich scribes had done, but out of her substance.  She gives the last thing she has and she does this all for the glory of God.  Her gift meant that she would have to rely on God even more to provide her next meal.  When we are linked to God, who in essence is gift, then we can give and give and never run out.

Bishop Barron repeatedly says, “When we want our faith to increase, then we need to share our faith with another, when we want our joy to increase, then we need to become a bearer of joy, making others joyful, when we want our quality of life to increase, then we need to give our life away serving others.”  This is the divine logic, our being increases in the measure we give it away.   And God always replenishes us.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

St. Joan of Arc once said, “Serve God first of all.”  St. Joan of Arc,  was a French saint who lived in the 15th century during the 100 years war between England and France.  She lived at the time when France was very close to being totally defeated.  At about the age of 12 Joan experienced her first vision she heard voices, and she listened.  These voices were later identified as St. Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret of Antioch.  Over time these voices revealed to her the mission God had intended for her.  She, a simple peasant girl, was to save France.  At around the age of 16 she was told to present herself to the leader of France’s army, and she listened.  She listened to God’s word given to her through the saints.  After being investigated and in a “What do we have to lose attitude” she was allowed to lead the French army.  And so she did, leading the French army to many victories making it possible for Charles VII to be crowned king of France.

 

At around the age of eighteen Joan was captured and sold to the English and placed on trial for heresy and witchcraft.  And even though she couldn’t read or write she defended herself with great theological insight.  But in the end she was condemned.  On May 30th, 1431 she was burned at the stake.  Twenty years later the Church totally exonerated her.  If you want to learn more a good book to read is “Joan of Arc” by Mark Twain.  He said himself that this was his best book.  He spent months in France doing research in preparing to write it.

 

Now Joan’s lifelong motto was “Serve God first of all,” or we might say, “Listen to God first of all.”  She was always listening.  This is very similar to what we read in our 1st reading and Gospel.  Both Moses and Jesus say, “Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”  This command is the great Sh’ma, the most sacred prayer in Jewish tradition; it’s recited every morning and night by pious Jews.  It’s written on bits of parchment and placed on their foreheads, arms, and on doorposts.   It is the defining prayer and belief never to be forgotten.

 

The Sh’ma is just as important for Christians; because we too are claimed by this great prayer.  It’s our defining prayer too.  The very first word of the Sh’ma is “Hear” and this word calls us to obedience to God’s word, and like Joan of Arc we listen.  We are called to hear God’s word.  We don’t just set our own agenda; we don’t just go our own way. And in calling for our obedience our Lord tells us to love Him with the entirety of our being, He’s the only one we are to love and we are to love Him above all things, as we’ve heard many times, with our whole heart, whole soul, and all our strength.   So, Holy Moly, how do we do this?  Maybe we begin by knowing that God is the source, the ground, and the goal of all things.  The Lord is not one being among many, he is the One the One creative source of all things.  Even as we desire a particular thing we can desire God in and through and under those things.

 

Suppose we desire to watch a baseball game.  It’s a lazy Saturday afternoon and we want to sit in the Lazy boy and watch a game.  This is a good desire, nothing wrong with it.  But seen in the light of the Sh’ma we see the beauty and complexity of the game as being reflective of the perfection of God’s being.  Suppose we desire a delicious meal, this is good.  But seen in the light of the Sh’ma we appreciate the food as something that strengthens us for God’s service.  We savor the meal as a foretaste of the delight of Heaven.  Suppose we desire another person, this can be good if we see that person, that potential spouse, our spouse, or friend as a gift from God, someone meant to lead us closer to God.  In light of the Sh’ma we see everything as a reflection of God.  We love God in and through and under everything. We can desire God even as we desire worldly things if we see everything around us in God’s light.

 

I want to end with something about obedience.  Moses in the first reading calls us to obedience and Jesus in the Gospel calls us to obedience.  The great Sh’ma is a call to obedience.  And maybe we don’t always understand the nature of obedience to God. This obedience is something that’s done in love.  We listen to God because God is the God of love, and when Love speaks to us, we want to respond.  Love is attracted to love and obeying God is an act of love.

 

Now part of this obedience in love is attending Mass every Sunday and every Holy Day of Obligation like this past Thursday’s All Saints Day.  Our Lord asks us to do this and it’s a shame that many Catholics do not fulfill this basic loving obligation to God.  As an aside it’s still a mortal sin to miss Sunday Mass or Mass on a HDO.  If we miss Mass we have to go to confession before we can again worthily receive Holy Communion.

Now some will say, and some have told this to me directly “No offence Father but I’m bored at Mass I don’t get anything out of it.”  But this is the wrong approach.  We don’t come to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to be entertained.  We come to praise God, to Thank God, to repent of sin, to petition God, and of course to receive the Holy Eucharist.  Mass is preparing us to praise God for all eternity in Heaven.  At every Mass God will give to us.  We have the opportunity to be filled with His grace and we may not feel it emotionally, but He’s always giving.

 

A way to prepare for Sunday Mass is to pray during the week every morning and night in the great tradition of the Sh’ma reminding ourselves that all things are of God.  Maybe the Sunday obligation begins as an act of simple obedience but with time, hopefully, it is something done out of love with our whole heart, soul, and strength.  Listening to and serving God first of all.

May we be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley