Jesus Our Passover Lamb

Good Friday
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

On Good Friday, Jesus took our place, our shame, our chains, our disfigured personalities, our toils, enslavement, and disgraced. He demonstrated the nature of the human condition through his pains, suffering, and disgrace. By his suffering and death, Jesus took our position. He exchanged our shame with his glory. This is an indescribable love. The passion and death of Jesus is a mystery beyond our comprehension. It is a mystery because it is God’s love for us. We understand bits and pieces, but our minds are too finite to understand the whole thing.

We are also conscious today of the reason Jesus underwent his passion and death for us. The prophecy of Jesus’ passion in our first reading today from the prophet Isaiah tells us:

It was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured. . .
he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins;
upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.  (Isa 53:4-5)

In the Old Covenant, before an animal was sacrificed in the temple, the priest would put his hand on the animal’s head to signify the sins of the person making the offering being transferred onto that animal which was then offered for his sins. In the New Covenant, our sins went on Jesus during his passion and death. He willingly submitted to the torture of his passion and death to take our sins on himself.

St. John tells us that when Jesus was offered wine on the cross to dull his pain, the sponge was put on a hyssop stick. Hyssop was the plant used by the Hebrews at the first Passover to put the blood around their doors to protect them during the night when the firstborn of the Egyptians died.

When the Passover lamb was killed and prepared for cooking, not one of its bones was to be broken. The soldiers broke the legs of the two crucified criminals next to Jesus to make them suffocate and die, but Jesus had already died so they did not break his legs.

The blood of the first Passover lamb spared the lives of the Hebrews in Egypt; the blood of Jesus our Passover Lamb saves us from the damnation due because of our sins. The Passover lamb had to be consumed and not just killed, and we consume Jesus our Passover Lamb in the Eucharist.

So, let us confidently approach his throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need. Therefore, beloved brothers and sisters, as we celebrate the mystery of the Lord’s passion and death, may God forgive our sins, assist us in our sufferings, and give us the grace to identify with those who suffer.

The Meaning of Malchus

By Fr. Victor Feltes

Judas Iscariot came to the Garden of Gethsemane with soldiers and guards who carried swords and clubs, lanterns and torches. Jesus’ disciples realized what was about to happen and asked, “Lord, shall we strike with a sword?” When one struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his right ear, Jesus shouted, “Stop, no more of this!” Jesus then touched the man’s ear and healed him. All four gospels record the event but only St. John reveals it was St. Peter who had wielded the sword. Perhaps there was no longer a need to conceal his role in this violent episode once Peter had been martyred. St. John also tells us the wounded man was named Malchus.

Why did Peter strike at Malchus? It’s hard to imagine Peter attacking him if Malchus were unarmed and posed no immediate threat. That Peter slashed at him suggests Malchus was one of the most aggressive among those threatening to capture Jesus dead or alive. Why do all four gospels note that Malchus’ wound was his ear? Perhaps this is highlighting the truth that it’s harder for people to hear the Good News when the use of violence deafens them. Christ converts through loving persuasion, not force.

Given the apparent zealousness with which this slave served his master, risking life and limb to achieve Jesus’ quick arrest, Malchus may have been the kind of slave described in Deuteronomy 15. A Hebrew could sell himself into slavery but it was not automatically for life. The Old Covenant said: “If your kin, a Hebrew man or woman, sells himself or herself to you, he or she is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year you shall release him or her as a free person. However, if your slave says to you, ‘I do not wish to leave you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, you shall take an awl and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever.” An awl resembles an icepick, a small pointed tool typically used to pierce holes through leather or wood. A Hebrew slave whose devotion was such that he wished to permanently serve the same household would get his ear pierced in this way. The hole in the servant’s ear and the matching imprint and blood stain on the house’s wooden door would be visible signs of the servant’s permanent commitment.

To whom did Malchus belong? Whether his ear had been awl-pierced or not, Malchus was enslaved to the high priest. “Malchus” comes from the Hebrew word for “King,” with sources saying the name means “My King.” His name providentially pointed to whom he truly belonged. Like everyone, Malchus rightfully belongs to Christ our King. Perhaps Jesus restored the ear of Malchus renewed, healed unpierced as a sign, since Christ through his Passion was setting him free. Jesus Christ is the Suffering Servant foretold of by Isaiah the Prophet. Jesus, because he loves you and your household, freely chose to dedicate himself to us forever. His body still bears the marks where we pierced him. And the wood of his Cross, which bears puncture holes and Christ’s blood stains, is our doorway to salvation—to living together with him forever.

His Manifest Devotion

2nd Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Victor Feltes

How could Abraham do what he did? He fully trusted in God, and through this trust he and us were greatly blessed. God had promised descendants to Abraham through his son, Isaac, declaring, “Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.” Because of the miraculous birth his son and other experiences with God, Abraham believed the Lord could and would keep all his promises.

So when Abraham reached the mountain of sacrifice, where the Jewish temple would be built about 900 years later in Jerusalem, he told his servants (in a passage omitted from our first reading): “Stay here with the donkey, while the boy and I go on over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” The Holy Spirit tells us in the Letter to the Hebrews that Abraham “reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, and he received Isaac back as a symbol.”

After Jesus was transfigured and proclaimed by the Eternal Father to be his beloved Son, “as they were coming down from the mountain, [Jesus] charged [Peter, James, and John] not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when [he] had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.” The sacrifice of Isaac, in which Abraham’s son was spared, foreshadows the sacrifice of Jesus offered by God the Father for us.

Upon staying the hand of Abraham, the Lord’s messenger said, “I know now how devoted you are to God.” After Christ’s sacrifice, we now know how devoted God is to us. St. Alphonsus Liguori agrees with St. Thomas Aquinas in saying, “God loves man just as if man were His god, and as if without man He could not be happy; ‘as if man were the god of God Himself, and without him He could not be happy.’”

Such is God’s devotion to us. And brothers and sisters, as St. Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?” So let us fully trust God as Abraham did, and through this well-founded trust be greatly blessed and greatly bless others as well.

Rites of Miraculous Cleansing

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

The gospels record how a man with some advanced form of skin disease once came to Jesus in one of Israel’s towns. Seeing Jesus, he approaches and kneels and bows beseeching him, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Our Lord, who can read human hearts, probably knows how much this particular miracle will cost him, but he is moved with compassion. Jesus reaches out his hand, touches the leprous man and says, “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leprosy left him immediately.

One can imagine that man’s joy and excitement. He wants to tell everyone about his miracle! However, Jesus warns him sternly, “See that you tell no one anything.” Apparently, at this point in his public ministry, Jesus does not want to attract too much attention too quickly. Instead, Jesus tells the cured man, “Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” What did this offering prescribed in the Mosaic Law look like?

We read in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus: “This is the law for the victim of leprosy at the time of his purification. He shall be brought to the priest, who is to go outside the camp to examine him.” This reference to ‘going outside of the camp’ dates back to the days when the Hebrews were still wandering in the Sinai desert. “If the priest finds that the sore of leprosy has healed in the leper, he shall order the man who is to be purified, to get two live, clean birds, as well as some cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop.” So this offering involves a curious collection of items: two birds, some cedar, scarlet yarn, and at least a branch of hyssop plant.

Then Leviticus says, “The priest shall then order him to slay one of the birds over an earthen vessel with spring water in it. Taking the living bird with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, the priest shall dip them all in the blood of the bird that was slain over the spring water, and then sprinkle seven times the man to be purified from his leprosy. When he has thus purified him, he shall let the living bird fly away over the countryside.”

Jesus told the man he cured to perform to this peculiar ritual saying, “that will be proof for them.” But what would it prove? First, it would demonstrate to the Jewish leaders at the Temple that Jesus had not come to transgress God’s Law but to fulfill it. Also, the cured man himself would be living proof of Jesus’ greatness, for the miracle of a leper being suddenly healed is documented only twice in the Old Testament (i.e., the case of Moses’ sister Miriam and that of Naaman the Syrian). Yet ultimately, this ritual provides proof for all people that Jesus Christ’s saving sacrifice had been long-foreseen by God.

The scarlet yarn, the wood, and the hyssop would each have a role in his Passion. The scarlet yarn foreshadows the robe in which they clothed him. That cedar wood points to the Cross connected to his death. And St. John’s Gospel notes how a sprig of hyssop was employed to lift a sponge of sour wine up to Jesus’ lips. The two birds in that purification ritual were of symbolic importance as well. One bird is slain, while the other is spared. That second bird, after being dipped in the water and the blood of its brother, is set free. That spring water, risen from the earth, points to the liberating water of Christian baptism which receives its power from Jesus’ blood.

In addition to its commandments regarding sometimes contagious skin diseases, the Book of Leviticus has rules for evaluating, quarantining, and purifying fungal infections of houses, fabrics, or leather. These commandments were useful in helping protect peoples’ physical health. But these teachings also illustrate, in an allegorical way, lessons about sin in our lives. Mold in your home can harm the health of your whole household. Knowing this, people take black growths on their walls seriously. How seriously do you take diseases in your flesh? How seriously do you take the sins in your soul?

If you had been a leper back then, would you have come to Jesus? Lent begins this week, so decide what you will you do. Go, show yourself to the priest in Confession and faithfully offer the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Remember and honor the scarlet yarn, the wood, and hyssop of the Innocent One who took your place and through whom you can be cleansed and freed.

Why Five & Five? What Is Our Oil?

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

Jesus tells us, “The Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.” In those days, the Jewish custom was for a man and woman to get betrothed. This marked the start of their marriage covenant, yet the husband and wife would live separately for the first year. In the meantime, the bridegroom would return to his father’s house and prepare a dwelling place for their life together. Once all was ready, he would joyfully return to bring her to himself. She would be expecting him, but would not know the hour, so she awaited his arrival with her bridesmaids. The bridegroom and his groomsmen would come and escort the bride and her bridesmaids to his father’s house for the consummation of their marriage and seven days of feasting.

This is the cultural context for what Jesus tells us at the Last Supper, as recorded in St. John’s Gospel: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” These Jewish marriage customs also provide the setting for today’s gospel parable about ten virgins awaiting the bridegroom.

Five of them were wise and five of them were foolish, with the foolish ones foregoing flasks of extra oil and, as a result, being shut out of the wedding feast. Jesus Christ called himself the Bridegroom and the Book of Revelation says his saints will enjoy “the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Before unpacking how we can avoid the foolish ones’ fate, consider this question: why five foolish ones and five wise?

Like other storytellers, our Lord theoretically could have crafted his parable’s details differently. Given ten female characters, instead of five foolish and five wise, Jesus could have told a tale about one foolish virgin and nine wise ones, or preached a parable about nine foolish virgins and one wise one, or shaped his story as one of the six other mixtures where some were foolish and some were wise. So why did he say five and five?

Jesus knew that if his parable had featured just one fool beside nine wise virgins, we might presumptuously assume this story’s warning does not apply to us. On the other hand, if Jesus’ parable had featured nine fools and only one wise virgin, we might despair of being among those who enter the feast. Instead, Jesus speaks of five and five so that we will take this parable seriously yet also have confidence that we can take prudent steps to follow the Bridegroom.

What do the five wise and five foolish virgins teach us? What sort of persons were they, and what oil do we require? For an answer, recall another parable of Jesus.

In the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, after a life in which he callously neglected to care for poor Lazarus at his doorstep, a rich man suffers punishment in flames. He calls out to Abraham above: “I beg you, father, send [Lazarus] to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment!” St. Jerome, the fourth-century Church Father and Doctor of the Church, saw symbolism in this rich man’s five brothers. Jerome sees them as the wicked man’s five bodily senses which were not ordered and dedicated to God. St. Jerome declares to that rich man:

“[Y]ou have five brothers: sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. These are the brothers to whom formerly you were enslaved. Since they were the brothers you loved, you could not love your brother Lazarus. Naturally you could not love him as brother, because you loved them. Those brothers have no love for poverty. Your sight, your sense of smell, your taste, and your sense of touch were your brothers. These brothers of yours loved wealth and they had no eye for poverty. … They are the brothers who sent you into these torments.”

God created and bestowed us our bodily senses, and they are good. Through them we sustain our lives, experience one another and this world, and delight in God’s good creations. The goodness of these material things reflect the goodness of their Maker. But it is easy for sinful humanity to become fixated on these delightful things resulting in the distracted neglect or sinful contempt of our Creator.

What is to keep our flame of faith from going out, plunging us into darkness, stopping us from following the Bridegroom? How can we properly order our five senses, and be like the wise virgins rather than the foolish, lest the Lord declare, “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you”? We need oil to keep our lamps faithfully burning and follow Christ in the light. But what is that oil?

In the Old Testament, priests, prophets, and kings were anointed with holy olive oil. Jesus was revealed to be the Christ, the Messiah – titles which mean “Anointed One.” At Jesus’ baptism, St. John the Baptist knew Jesus was the “Anointed One” when he saw the Holy Spirit descend upon him. And then at Nazareth, Jesus proclaimed, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me…” So the Holy Spirit, who descended upon Jesus, our priest, prophet, and king, is like anointing oil. The Holy Spirit is the oil we need for our burning lamps. If we are wise we will invite and welcome this third divine Person to pour out upon us, fill us, and fuel us. He will keep our faith burning and direct our bodily senses so that we may wisely follow Christ our Bridegroom into joy.

“Come Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful
& kindle in them the fire of your love.”

Jesus’ Praising & Rebuking of Simon Peter

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

When Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am,” Simon answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” Jesus changed Simon son of Jonah’s name to “Rock,” or “Petros” in Greek, which we render as “Peter.” In the entire Old Testament, God changed the names of only three people: Abram to Abraham, Abram’s wife Sarai to Sarah, and Jacob to Israel, so the changing of Simon’s name is a big deal in salvation history. Jesus then declared to Peter, “I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.”

In last Sunday’s readings we heard of how in the days of the Prophet Isaiah the Lord chose “Eliakim son of Hilkiah” to become chief steward of the royal house, that is, prime minister for the reigning Davidic king. The Lord declared, “I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.” The holder of that office possessed plenary power under the king throughout the kingdom and reportedly carried a visible key indicating this authority that he would pass on to his successors.

The great Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine of Hippo, taught that the New Testament is concealed in the Old and that the Old Testament is revealed in the New. In the Old Testament, the Lord gave Eliakim “the key of the House of David” and authority to open and close. Likewise, Jesus Christ the new Davidic king gave Peter “the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” and authority to bind and loose. Eliakim’s authority extended throughout an earthly kingdom, but Jesus promised Peter that his earthly decrees for the Church would also be confirmed in Heaven. Eliakim would become, in the words of the Lord through Isaiah, “a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.” St. Peter became the Church’s first “pope,” a title which comes from the Greek word for a “papa” and an office held today by Peter’s successor, our Holy Father Pope Francis. Jesus foresaw that without a visible shepherd his Christian flock would inevitably scatter. Like Moses for the Hebrews in the desert, or like King David for God’s people in Israel, Christ established a chief shepherd for his Church on earth through his popes, beginning with St. Peter.

That highlight moment for Simon Peter is followed this Sunday in St. Matthew’s Gospel by a very humbling event. Jesus begins revealing to his disciples that he must suffer greatly from the Jewish leaders, be killed, and be raised on the third day. So Peter takes Jesus aside and starts rebuking him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you!” Jesus turns and says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! (That is, “Get behind me, Adversary!”) You are (being) an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does but as human beings do.” Notice how Jesus here reproaches Peter differently than how he once rebuked Satan in the desert, to whom he said, “Get away, Satan!” Jesus does not cast Peter away but tells him to “get behind me,” that is, “Follow me again.” Whenever you or I go wrong, Jesus calls us to follow him anew. Satan wants you to fall and stay down, but Jesus wants you to rise again.

Why was Simon Peter praised last week and why was he corrected today? First, Jesus tells him, “Blessed are you, Simon…. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my heavenly Father.” Now, Jesus reproves him, “You are thinking not as God does but as human beings do.” Peter was praised for accepting the truth God had revealed and rebuked for trying to substitute his own ideas for God’s will. In today’s second reading, St. Paul urges us:

“Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Who in this age could correctly discover these things in our world apart from Christ’s one Church built on rock? Our Catholic Faith is a religion revealed by God with infallible teachings about what is true and how we are to live. Being faithful can be a cross, but our Lord always sees us, and he will repay each person according to our deeds with punishments or rewards. Jesus tells us, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” To get fully behind Christ and receive his endless blessings, receive everything that God has revealed to us through his Holy Catholic Church.

The Keys to the Kingdom

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

The great doctor of the Church St. Augustine of Hippo taught that the New Testament is concealed in the Old and that the Old Testament is revealed in the New. We see an example of this in our readings. In the days of the Prophet Isaiah, the Lord chose “Eliakim son of Hilkiah” to become chief steward of the royal house, that is, prime minister for the reigning Davidic king. The Lord declared, “I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.” The holder of this office possessed plenary power under the king throughout the kingdom. He reportedly carried a visible key indicating this authority that he would pass on to his successors.

In our gospel today, when Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am,” Simon answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus replies, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” Jesus changes Simon son of Jonah’s name to “Rock,” or “Petros” in Greek, which we render as “Peter.” In the entire Old Testament, God only changed the names of three people: Abram to Abraham, Abram’s wife Sarai to Sarah, and Jacob to Israel, so the changing of Simon’s name is a big deal in salvation history.

Jesus then declares to Peter, “I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.” In the Old Testament, the Lord gave Eliakim “the key of the House of David” and authority to open and close. Likewise here, Jesus Christ the new Davidic king gives Peter “the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” and authority to bind and loose. Eliakim’s power extended throughout an earthly kingdom, but the Lord promises Peter that his earthly decrees for the Church will also be confirmed in heaven. Eliakim would become, in the words of the Lord through the Prophet Isaiah, “a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.” St. Peter became the Church’s first “pope,” a title that comes from the Greek word for a “papa” and an office held today by Peter’s successor, our Holy Father Pope Francis. Jesus knew that without a visible shepherd his Christian flock would inevitably scatter. Like Moses for the Hebrews in the desert, or like King David for God’s people in Israel, Christ establishes a chief shepherd for his Church on earth through his popes, beginning with St. Peter.

Yet, this highlight moment in Simon Peter’s life is immediately followed by a humbling event in St. Matthew’s Gospel, which will be our gospel reading next Sunday. Jesus starts revealing to his disciples that he must suffer greatly from the Jewish leaders, be killed, and be raised on the third day. So Peter takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you!” Jesus turns and says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! (That is, “Get behind me, Adversary!”) You are (being) an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” Notice how Jesus here reproaches Peter differently than how he rebuked Satan in the desert, to whom he said, “Get away, Satan!” Jesus does not cast Peter away. He tells him to “get behind me,” that is, ‘Follow me again.” Whenever you or I go wrong, Jesus calls us to follow him anew.

For what was Peter praised by Jesus and for what was he corrected? First Jesus tells him, “Blessed are you, Simon…. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” But later Jesus reproves him, “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” Peter was praised for accepting the truth God had revealed and rebuked for trying to substitute his own ideas for God’s will. In today’s second reading, St. Paul reflects, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?” Our Catholic Faith is a revealed religion with infallible teachings about what is true and how we are to live. Who could discover all of these things correctly apart from Christ’s one Church built on rock? Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself… and follow me.” To get fully behind Jesus Christ, always accept what God has revealed to us through his Holy Catholic Church.

Fruitful Love Despite Our Flaws — The Justin Wachtendonk & Brenna Werner Wedding

By Fr. Victor Feltes

Justin and Brenna, you have chosen beautiful readings for your wedding Mass. Including your second reading, the most popular of all wedding reading options: St. Paul’s famous poetic hymn about love. In the 13th chapter of his 1st Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul teaches what love does and does not do. These words contain blessed lessons for us all. Today, I wish to highlight the rarely-considered context of those passages to help married couples and people within Christ’s Church of our day.

When we think of the early Church, we tend to picture it as a golden age. The apostles were still alive on earth preaching the Gospel, performing miracles, and founding Christian communities. Divinely inspired books were still being written for what would become the New Testament of the Bible. The Church’s membership was growing widely and rapidly, while producing great saints and martyrs. But this does not mean that everything was perfect. Far from it!

You can see this in St. Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians. He writes them to address the many things that were going wrong at the Church in Corinth. For instance, Paul corrects the Corinthian Christians’ bitter internal rivalries and factionalism. He notes the external scandal caused by them suing each other in secular courts. He critiques the Corinthians’ inflated pride. He excommunicates a certain man for his unrepentant sexual sins. He condemns the Church at Corinth’s liturgical abuses (against the Real Presence of Jesus and one another) at their celebrations of the Holy Eucharist. And St. Paul cites still more controversies than these. So things in the early Church were not so idyllic as we might imagine. And that can be a great encouragement for us today!

The early Church, despite the many flaws of her members, produced good, much good, world-transforming good and the salvation of many souls, in those days and thereafter. The Church today, despite the many flaws of her members, still produces much good, world-transforming good and the salvation of many souls. His Church build upon a rock is, as Jesus says in our Gospel, “a city set on a mountain which cannot be hidden.” She remains, “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” — purifying, enlightening, enhancing, and saving.

Whatever goodness is found in Christ’s Bride, the Church, is like the worthy wife the Book of Proverbs describes in our first reading. As the pearl of great price, “her value is far beyond pearls.” “Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life.” She labors alongside him, “reaches out her hands to the poor,” and he will “give her a reward of her labors, and let her works praise her.” This is a great encouragement for us in his Church, but also a great encouragement for all Christian married couples here.

Justin and Brenna, you are about to enter a new covenant with Christ. In your sacramental marriage, you will encounter each other’s flaws and experience trials, as every married couple will. Do not be surprised when not everything is perfect and do not be alarmed. Maintain your peace. With a love that is patient, a love that is kind, a love that most importantly has its origin and strength in Christ, you will ‘bear all things and endure all things.’ His “love never fails.” Like his Church, which despite the imperfections of her members produces much good fruit, your marriage — if united to Christ — will never fail.

The New Manna

Solemnity of Corpus Christi
By Fr. Victor Feltes

In the Old Testament, God freed his people with the Prophet Moses. The Hebrews in Egypt were slaves to Pharaoh since birth, but God’s mighty works through Moses liberated them. Though he had led them through the waters of the Red Sea their journey was not yet completed. They were still in the arid desert and God wished to lead them into his Promised Land, “a land of milk and honey” he had promised to their ancestors. God had already blessed his people, yet he wished to give them his even fuller blessings there.

How were the Hebrew people sustained for forty years in the desolate Sinai desert? What did they eat to survive? Every day, God made fine flakes appear on the ground around their camp. These flakes were “white, and tasted like wafers made with honey.” Upon seeing them the people asked, “What is this?” (in Hebrew, “Manna?”) Moses told them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” Without that manna they would have starved to death. God’s people ate this bread until they entered the Promised Land.

Here we see things and events of the Old Testament foreshadowing events and things of the New. In the New Testament, God liberates his people with Christ Jesus his Son. We all were slaves to sin, Satan, and hopeless death, but God’s mighty works through Jesus Christ freed us. He has led us through the waters of baptism; however, our journey is not yet completed. We possess renewed life in this fallen world but God wishes to lead us into his Promised Land of Heaven. God has already blessed us, yet he wishes to give us his even fuller blessings there.

So how are we to endure as we walk through the present desert of this world? Every day, in churches like this one, God offers us the Bread that has come down from Heaven. Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” He gives us himself in the Eucharist. People see the Blessed Sacrament and wonder, “What is this?” It is the New Manna; the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.

In addition to Sacred Scripture, the Early Church Fathers attest to this. These theologians living in the first centuries of the Church teach and document what the earliest Christians believed about Jesus Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist. For instance, shortly after 100 AD, St. Ignatius of Antioch said, “The Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.” Around 150 AD, St. Justin Martyr taught, “The Eucharist… is both the Flesh and the Blood of that incarnated Jesus.” St. Augustine of Hippo wrote in the early 400’s that, “Christ was carried in his own hands when, referring to his own body, he said, ‘This is my body.’ For he carried that body in his hands.” And there are many other examples of such teaching from that era.

This is what Christ’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church has always believed and taught, and God has affirmed its truth here and there by Eucharistic miracles throughout the centuries. In the Old Testament, God’s people ate the manna until they entered the Promised Land. Had they not regularly eaten of it, they would have died from starvation. This reflects how important faithfully receiving and promoting the Holy Eucharist must be for you and me.

Never neglect Sunday Mass. To skip Mass from Saturday evening through Sunday night (without a grave reason for doing so) is to prioritize something else above of Jesus, spurning the Lord who commands us to keep his day holy. Let Jesus Christ be first in your life through faithfully worshipping and receiving him at Mass. And opportunities to worship and receive our Lord at Mass are not limited to the weekends.

If your schedule permits, I welcome and invite you to try weekday Mass, celebrated at St. Paul’s on Monday through Friday at 7:15 AM and mornings at St. John’s on Mondays, Thursdays, and First Fridays. Weekday Mass is only a half-hour long, it features a homily, and is among the best devotions for drawing closer to Jesus.

Are any of your friends or relatives interested in our Catholic Faith? Invite them to come with you to Mass or bring them to that other great way to encounter our Eucharistic Lord: Eucharistic Adoration.

What greater treasure do we have than Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist? Let us treasure him as we ought and introduce this treasure to others. Strengthened by his food, our Lord would bring us all together into his Promised Land of Heaven.

God’s Glorious Temples

5th Sunday of Easter
By Fr. Victor Feltes

For the Jewish people, the temple in Israel was the one place where they could offer Old Covenant sacrifices to God. Jerusalem’s temple was at the center of their relationship with God. So it was very disturbing to Jesus’ hearers when he declared in its temple courts, “All that you see here—the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” Jesus was proven right about forty years later when the Romans conquered Jerusalem and destroyed that temple in 70 AD.

On another occasion, Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” Some Jews objected, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But St. John’s Gospel tells us Jesus “was speaking about the temple of his body.” In the New Covenant, Jesus Christ himself supersedes that temple in Israel at the center of our relationship with God.

Here in this holy church building we encounter Jesus and his one sacrifice. In this church, this New Covenant temple, we draw near to the Body of Christ, in his tabernacle, upon his altar, in his Most Blessed Sacrament. And as if that were not enough, in this church through baptism and the Holy Eucharist we become the body of Christ.

After his Ascension, when Christ appeared to an early enemy of his Church on the road to Damascus, he said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul asked, “Who are you, sir?” And the voice from heaven replied, “I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.” This Saul became better known after his conversion as St. Paul and his story affirms that Christ’s Church is more than just buildings but his holy people, and that Jesus is now mystically one with us.

In today’s second reading, we hear St. Peter—the Catholic Church’s first pope—tell us, “let yourselves be (like living stones) built into a spiritual house (that is, a temple) to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” We are called to be holy, called to be more like Jesus, called to offer spiritual sacrifices to God not only at Mass but throughout our lives.

What good is a having beautiful church building if our souls do not become more beautiful too? Jesus says possessing pleasing outward appearances without internal conversion and holiness is like being a whitewashed tomb, beautiful on the outside yet full of dead bones and uncleanliness within. So having a very beautiful church building is not enough. Jesus Christ must be our way, our truth, and our life, for no one comes to the Father except through him. Yet, it is most fitting and right our churches should be supremely beautiful, reflecting the beauty of our faith and the beautiful glory of God, so that others may be transformed by encounters with Jesus Christ like St. Paul our patron was.

Meet our Risen Lord at Mass with Opened Eyes and Burning Hearts

3rd Sunday of Easter
By Fr. Victor Feltes

On Easter Sunday afternoon, two of Jesus’ disciples were walking seven miles to Emmaus. Everyone journeys down the road of life. They have heard stories of Jesus’ Resurrection yet feel uncertain, pondering it, discussing it, and debating it. This is how they first meet the Risen Lord, with eyes not yet recognizing him as he walks with us. Jesus initiates the encounter. One whose name means “Glory to the Father” (whose life is meant to give glory to the Father) has questions about Jesus, the Nazarene called Christ. Cleopas and another disciple discover on their journey the very best person to answer the questions on their hearts. This meeting on the road to Emmaus parallels, beat-for-beat, how Jesus meets us in the Holy Mass.

Upon greeting and gathering his disciples near himself, Jesus begins a presentation of God’s Word. Starting with the Old Testament, he proclaims and explains how the Scriptures refer to him. Jesus preaches a homily pointing to himself. They hear, listen, and believe. These Christians would now profess as their creed, “I believe in Jesus Christ… For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died, and was buried, and on the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures.” Next, they repeatedly petition the Lord: ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over. We pray, Lord, that you will grace us amid the darkness of this world.’ And the Lord grants their requests.

Before, his disciples’ spirits had been heavy and downcast. But now that the Lord is with them, with a new spirit they lift up burning hearts to the Lord our God, rightly giving him thanks. Then at table, having presented to Jesus the customary bread and wine, he takes the bread, says the blessing, breaks it, and gives it to them. With that their eyes are opened and they recognize his real presence, made known to them in the breaking of bread. In conclusion, they go at once and with rapid steps walk seven miles more to share their Good News about Jesus Christ with others.

Every Sunday since those early days, Christ’s Church has celebrated the Breaking of Bread, the Holy Eucharist, the Mass, in fulfillment of his instruction to “Do this in memory of me.” As the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, we have testimony from the second century showing that the basic outlines of early Eucharistic celebrations match the Holy Mass today. Around the year 155 A.D., St. Justin Martyr composed an open letter to the pagan Roman emperor to explain Christians’ beliefs and worship. St. Justin wrote:

“On the day we call the day of the sun (that is, Sunday), all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place. The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read… When the reader has finished, he who presides over those gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful things. Then we all rise together and offer prayers for ourselves…and for all others… Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed together to him who presides over the brethren. He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a considerable time he gives thanks that we have been judged worthy of these gifts. When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present give voice to an acclamation by saying: ‘Amen!’ [Then] those whom we call deacons give to those present the ‘eucharisted’ bread, wine and water and take them to those who are absent.”

And St. Justin Martyr adds:

“This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth (that is, baptism), and who lives as Christ handed down to us (that is, the Christian moral life). For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink… [W]e have been taught that the food consecrated… is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus.”

Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus and St. Justin Martyr, we today are invited to encounter Jesus Christ at Holy Mass. Let us always recognize him, rejoice in him, and receive him with eyes opened with faith and hearts burning with love.

Why the Third Day?

Easter Sunday
By Fr. Victor Feltes

Why did Jesus rise from the dead on Easter? Christ’s resurrection was foretold, for instance in the 16th Psalm: “You will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.” Furthermore, Jesus rose again because without the Resurrection our Redemption would be incomplete. As St. Paul told the Romans, “[Our Lord] was handed over for our transgressions, and was raised for our justification.” In the words of the Church’s Catechism: “The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life.” Jesus Christ came to redeem and save not only our souls but also our bodies and the rest of creation as well. Easter changes everything. Instead of living in a secular world where nothing really matters because cold death claims all, we now can live forever with God in Christ’s Kingdom.

Jesus rose again on Easter, but why did he resurrect on the third day in particular? Why not choose the first or second day, or the fourth or fortieth day to rise again? I see several reasons why God chose the third day to be Easter.

First of all, this number of days helps to confirm Jesus’ death. If Jesus had resurrected right away, immediately after being taken down from the Cross or sealed in the tomb, some would wonder if he had ever really died. Absent a miracle, no one could survive flagellation, crucifixion, and two nights alone in a cave without medical aid. The three days establish that Jesus was definitely dead.

Another reason for the three days was to fulfill the Scriptures. Post-resurrection, Jesus said, “Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.” Many Old Testament passages foreshadowed this. For instance, Jesus and St. Paul both liken resurrection to plants sprouting, and it was on the third day of creation that God said, “Let the earth bring forth… every kind of plant.” It was “on the third day” that Abraham obediently offered Isaac in sacrifice, reasoning that God would keep all of his promises by raising his only son from the dead. But Heaven halted Abraham’s hand and he received back his beloved son alive on the third day. Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees, “Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days… so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth.” Jesus also said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” (He said this in reference to the temple of his body.) The Book of Ezra records that the second Jewish Temple was completed on the third day of the month. And there are other Old Testament stories and signs one could cite as well. Jesus rose again on the third day in fulfillment of the Scriptures.

A third reason for the third day is what Jesus was doing on the second day. While his body was in the tomb observing a perfect Sabbath rest, his soul descended to the abode of those who had died before Christ. St. Peter writes in his First Epistle how Jesus “went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits;” that “the gospel was preached even to the dead.” Christ declared on earth, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Jesus used these three days to open heaven’s gates for all the just who had died before him.

Another reason for the third day is to signify a New Creation. “The third day,” Easter, was a Sunday. In Genesis, God’s work of Creation began on this first day of the week. Likewise, Easter Sunday and the Resurrection mark the beginning of a New Creation with Christ.

Though there may be millions of more reasons in the mind of God, a final, important reason I see for why Jesus rose on the third day is to give his Church a saving lesson in faithful endurance. The apostles had witnessed Jesus work many miracles. For example, they saw him use five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand men. Then, the following day, they heard him speak about the Real Presence. “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink,” he said, and “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” However, people would not accept this teaching and in his Gospel St. John records, “as a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” Then Jesus asked his apostles, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

They believed in Jesus. His teachings were challenging, but they stayed with him. How shocking then was it for them to witness the torture and death of their Messiah, the Christ. Throughout Holy Saturday, they were full of doubts and fears, yet the disciples remained together in the Upper Room in which they had eaten the first Eucharist. Those apostles might have discreetly fled for home and missed out on Easter entirely, if they had not religiously respected the Sabbath which kept them from traveling far from the gathered Church. Therefore, when Jesus appeared on the third day, none of them had strayed too far away. Except for Judas and Thomas, all of them were there on Sunday to encounter their Risen Lord. They saw Jesus, and touched him, and he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and the deeper meaning of their past and present and future. Then their doubts and fears and desires to be elsewhere, which had felt so very strong before, were now emptied of power, replaced with joy and peace. However, they never forgot what they experienced on that Holy Saturday leading to Easter Sunday, and they present to us a saving lesson for our faithful endurance.

Jesus Christ works miracles. He teaches beautiful, challenging things. And today, he is risen from the dead. The betrayals of Judases and doubts of Thomases do not change the reality of these things. Called here by God, you have gathered in this Upper Room for Easter. You have drawn near to Christ’s Holy Eucharist and his Church. Whatever doubts or fears (or even desires to be elsewhere) you might feel, I pray you will hereafter never stray nor remain far away. To whom else would you go? Only Jesus Christ has the words of eternal life. Remain here for him with his Church so that you may encounter and know the Risen Lord and us more deeply. As I said before, Easter changes everything. Instead of living in a secular world where nothing really matters because cold death claims all, we can now rejoice that we can live forever with God in Christ’s Kingdom.

Behold the Tree of Life

1st Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Victor Feltes

God grew many lovely, fruit-bearing trees in the Garden of Eden, but only two trees are mentioned by name. In the middle of the Garden the Lord God placed the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Tempted by the Devil, Eve ate from the forbidden tree and “gave some to her husband—who was with her—and he ate it.” If only Adam had been willing to confront the dragon-serpent and protect his bride, perhaps even to lay down his life for her! But the first man did not do this and the whole human family fell. (Let men called to lead and protect their families take note.)

Then our Triune God said: “Behold! The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil! What if he now also reaches out his hand to take fruit from the Tree of Life, and eats of it and lives forever?” For this reason, God banished our first parents from the Garden. This was not from divine jealousy, but from divine concern for us. Imagine everlasting human lives lived in unending sinfulness; that would be a hell on earth. “Through one man, sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men…” But God promised Adam and Eve a redeemer who would crush the serpent’s head and save us from sin and death.

In today’s Gospel, that Savior undergoes the Devil’s temptations not in a paradise but in a desert. The ancient tempter approaches Jesus and says, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread… If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down (from this temple rooftop)… All (the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence) I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” Jesus refuses each of these diabolical suggestions.

If the Christ conjures bread for himself when hungry, then how can he refuse to fill every hungry mouth? But what good would our filled stomachs be if we are never delivered from sin and death? And if the Christ demands that God his Father protect him from every harm, then how could he ever offer his life’s blood as our saving sacrifice? And if the Christ submits to our enemy’s rule over this world, then how could we ever be free? Jesus Christ understands his messianic mission and where it will lead him. It will lead him to the Cross.

Jesus calls himself the Bridegroom, and St. Paul calls him the second and final Adam. Unlike the first Adam, Jesus Christ the New Adam willingly and courageously lays down his life in battle with the Devil to save us, the Church, his Bride.

“[T]hrough one transgression
condemnation came upon all,
so, through one righteous act,
acquittal and life came to all.

[T]hrough the disobedience of the one man
the many were made sinners,
so, through the obedience of the one,
the many will be made righteous.”

One beautiful Mass preface for Sundays in Ordinary Time praises God with these words: “[W]e know it belongs to your boundless glory, that you came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself, that the cause of our downfall might become the means of our salvation…”

St. Paul’s tells the Galatians, “Christ ransomed us from the curse… by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree…’” In the tree that is his Holy Cross, we now see the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life combined.

During this Lent, contemplate the crucifix. Meditate upon the crucifix to know goodness, to behold God’s love for us. And gaze upon the crucifix to know evil, to see our sins at work. And ever-faithfully eat the fruit from this Tree of Life, which is Jesus Christ himself given us at Holy Mass. As Jesus taught in the synagogue at Capernaum, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life… For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. …Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” God once said in the Garden: ‘You shall not eat of the Tree or even touch it, lest you die.’ But now Jesus invites us, provided we are well-prepared: “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body… given up for you.”

The Lamb of God

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time
Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

I want to tell you about a tourist, who was visiting Germany. Passing a church, he was surprised to see a figure of a lamb carved on the bell tower of the church. He asked why it was there and was told that when the bell tower was being built, a workman fell from a high scaffold. His co-workers expected to find him dead. But to their surprise and joy, he was alive and only slightly injured. How did he survive? A flock of sheep was passing beneath the tower at the time, and he landed on top of a lamb. The lamb broke his fall, but the man was saved. To commemorate that miraculous escape, a fellow stone artist carved a lamb, on the tower at the exact height, from which the workman had fallen.

This statue of the lamb expresses a bit of what John the Baptist means when he introduces Jesus to his disciples saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus the Lamb of God came to save us, from falling into hell.

In the Old Testament, lambs were sacrificed as an offering to God. The offering was to atone for the sins of the people. The first time in the Old Testament where they talked about lambs, was when Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac. The boy asked where the sacrificial lamb was, and Abraham told him that God would provide. Abraham had faith in God and knew that everything would be okay.

On the day of Atonement, a lamb was brought to the temple. The high priest held his hands over its head, transferring all the sins of his people to the animal. The lamb was then released in the desert. There was also a daily atonement. Every morning and evening lambs were sacrificed to atone for the sins of the Jews.

Jesus is also referred to, as the Passover lamb. The first Passover occurred during God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. The angel of death passed over Egypt and killed the firstborn sons. The Israelites had been instructed to kill a lamb without blemish, and wipe the lamb’s blood over the doorpost. When the Angel of death saw the blood on their doors, he passed over. The Israelites were saved by the Lamb of God.

Jesus’ public life begins with his Baptism by John in the Jordan. Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament sacrificial system. He became the once-for-all offering for our sins. Jesus being the Lamb of God also refers to other prophecies regarding the Messiah. The book of Isaiah tells us that He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. Like a sheep that is silent before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

During Mass, we pray, “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us” and “grant us peace.” In this prayer, we show our understanding of the identity and purpose of Jesus Christ as our lamb and Lord. By His life of Love and sacrifice, he is the one who came and continues to come into our broken world to take our sins upon Himself.

We need to live like the Lamb of God. We need to lead our lives pure, innocent, and humble, obeying Christ’s commandment of love. If we truly appreciate the love and protecting care of the Good Shepherd, we will be able to share, that love and care with those around us.

We receive spiritual strength from his Holy Spirit through the sacraments and prayers. The more we are able to share our talents, time, wealth, and love with others; we enable ourselves to be better members of the church. We can also offer our suffering, illness, and pain for the salvation of souls and as reparation for our sins and those of others. We are called to be saints.

Holy Shepherds and a Holy Mother

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
By Fr. Victor Feltes

The shepherds, after encountering the herald angels, went in haste to Bethlehem. They knew they were searching for an animal stable, for the angel had told them their “Messiah and Lord” would be “lying in a manger.” They came to the cave of the Nativity and found St. Joseph, Mother Mary, and her holy child. She had wrapped Jesus’ tiny body in strips of cloth called swaddling clothes and laid him in a feed trough to serve as his first crib. On the first Christmas night, lots of people were in and around the little town of Bethlehem. The Roman census had brought so many visitors that there was no room for the Holy Family at the inn. So of all the people in the area why did the angels announce the big news of the Savior’s birth to the shepherds in particular?

Jesus was “born of a woman, born under the law,” about five miles from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. In the law of the Old Covenant, God commanded his people to sacrifice lambs. Every day and especially for the Feast of Passover, lambs were offered on Jerusalem’s holy altar. God’s instructions were clear: the “lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.” By custom, these lambs came from the fields outside of Bethlehem. And so, the young, male, flawless lambs to be sacrificed in Jerusalem were first presented by these shepherds. Mary had a little lamb; the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, and these shepherds made him known. The circumstances of Jesus’ birth foreshadowed what was to come.

Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, would go on to be slain, sacrificed at Passover. His mother Mary, who had wrapped him in swaddling clothes, would go on to see him wrapped in a linen shroud. One Joseph had arranged the place for his birth, another Joseph would provide the place for his burial. Mary, who had given birth to Jesus in a cave, would deliver his body to a rock-hewn tomb. And Baby Jesus, who was laid in a grain box in a city whose name means “House of Bread,” would offer his own Body as the Bread of Life for the salvation of the world.

Today we celebrate Mary as the mother of God. How is she the mother of God? Is she the mother of God the Father? No. Is she the mother of the Holy Spirit? No. Is she the mother of Jesus? She is. Is Jesus God? Yes, he is. Therefore, Mary is rightfully called the mother of God. Celebrating her as the mother of God at the start of each year helps to preserve and protect the truth about who her Son is. Jesus is fully human, born of a human mother, while at the same time he is also fully divine, begotten by God the Father. On Christmas, Mary gives birth to a single person who is both God and man. Without Mary, we would not know Jesus in the way that we do now.

There is further reason to celebrate Mary: God created her to be Jesus’ mother and to be our mother, too. As the recently departed Pope Benedict XVI said, “Mary has truly become the mother of all believers.” He observed that “if Mary no longer finds a place in many theologies and ecclesiologies, the reason is obvious: they have reduced the faith to an abstraction. And an abstraction does not need a mother.” Our faith is more than a mere concept—it is about relationship as part of a family. “Being Christian,” Pope Benedict wrote, “is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” He wrote: “Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ.”

In the future, Pope Benedict is very likely to be canonized a saint and declared a Doctor (that is, a great teacher) of the Church. He is arguably the greatest theologian of the 20th century. So what would you guess were the last dying words of this brilliant man (according to his private secretary)? They were simply, “Jesus, I love you.” We are blessed and rejoice to have a mother in Mary. And through her we have a Brother, Friend, Lord, and Savior in her Son, Jesus. With this new year, let us rejoice in Jesus Christ, our Mother Mary, and our Catholic Faith, for they produce great saints and salvation from Christmas in Bethlehem to across our world today.