The Tribe of Ruben

As of February, of this year, it had been about six months since a distraught woman had wandered onto our ten-acre property. On that day I was working from home. The dogs sounded particularly agitated, so I went out to see what had them excited. I walked to the edge of our fence and heard a short distance away, the sound of a very tense conversation between an agitated woman and two men trying to calm her down. Our property is a very wooded area, so I could not see what was going on. From the sound of things, it was not something I felt comfortable investigating, so I walked back toward my house. My wife met me outside and told me to come indoors quickly. I did not notice at the time that there were over ten police vehicles parked on our circle drive. 

          Earlier that morning, about two miles away from our property, a woman was reported by her neighbors to be walking around outside her home carrying a pistol in her hand and threatening to kill herself. The neighbors reported this to the police. As the woman wandered away from her home, the police, who had begun tracking her on foot, followed her to where she ended up on our property. The tense discussion I had heard were two police officers trying to calm the woman down and have her surrender her firearm. 

The police had come to our door to tell us to lock our doors because of this situation. A negotiator was brought in, and the standoff lasted what felt like several hours. My family and I prayed off and on during that time for a peaceful conclusion. During that time, I still had the responsibility of carrying on my workday, but also remaining mindful of keeping our children away from windows and closer to the end of the house furthest away from the police negotiating with the woman with the gun. 

          After some time, a gunshot was heard, and we soon saw paramedics carrying a stretcher into the woods. It seemed clear what had happened, so we began to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the woman. Moments later we saw them carrying the wounded woman out of the woods and toward the ambulance. We had seen her move her body somewhat. We finished praying the Chaplet for the woman to receive God’s mercy before she died. We had learned from one of the officers who came to our door that the woman had shot herself in the head. The officers, and particularly the negotiator, appeared deeply upset at the outcome, as we all were. It was a tragic moment. The police and the ambulance lingered for some time on our circle drive and eventually began to depart. We did not understand why they were not rushing the wounded woman off to a hospital and it appeared like a hopeless situation.  

It was not until this past February that we heard anything more about this terribly unfortunate event. It also happened in February that my wife had gotten severely ill, so much so that I had to take her to the ER. Fortunately, she got the medical attention she needed and was sent home the same day. During the time she was severely ill and during her recovery I reflected on how it seemed that despite my many prayers for the health and safety of my family, that there still ended up being moments of having to watch them suffer. On top of that, there were other things that seemed to have piled up that were a cause of deep suffering for my relatives back in Texas. There seemed to be a dark pall over everything.

          During this time our home received an unexpected visitor. An officer from the Sheriff’s dept came to our property. My wife was still in bed recovering so I went to greet the officer. The officer had come to ask some questions as part of an investigation that was ongoing concerning a legal matter involving a neighbor that lived close by. I answered what questions I could and a moment later my wife came outside to join the conversation. She answered some questions as well. My wife had the presence of mind to ask the officer if she knew what had happened to the poor woman who shot herself. To our astonishment, we learned that the woman survived the self-inflicted gunshot wound to her head.

There is no way of fully comprehending in what manner, or when God chooses to answer our prayers. I remembered how in that moment six months prior, it seemed at least by human reckoning, that there would not be much hope in the survival of that poor suicidal woman, but we nonetheless, in charity, offered our prayers for her salvation in what seemed would be a probable death.

          At the crux of all this is a mystery that I have very often encountered throughout the years after my conversion. There have been many times when there have been inexplicably heavy palls shrouding one’s sense of hopefulness. February of this year was such a period. Between the sickness of my wife, and a series of calamities besetting my family in Texas, and a close friend there as well, it all seemed like a sort of “Gethsemane”, in miniature. It did not occur to me at the time, but I have found that in the midst of these crucibles, that there very often seem to be at some point, a dramatic manifestation of the power of God’s arm in his providence within these moments. The news of the survival of the woman who on our property had attempted suicide months back, was just such a manifestation.

God’s providence is his love for us. The manifestation of His love in these events recalls to my mind how Saint Catherine of Siena described her experience in her relationship with Christ, as living immersed in His wounds, and in moments, permitted to emerge from them, that she may behold His face.

The title of an angel describes not so much what an angel is, but rather describes the office that an angel holds. The office that an angel holds is that of the office of messenger. God’s messenger. Angels are pure spirits. They are bodiless, genderless beings of pure intellect, and will. They possess unfathomable gifts. They are as intelligent over us as we are intelligent over animals, perhaps even much more so. Their power is such that in the Old Testament one angel killed 185,000 soldiers. It has been said that even the lowest of angels has the power to destroy all of physical creation. Each individual angel is as unique, one to the other, as every species of creature on earth is unique to each other so that each individual angel is as a unique species unto itself.

There are nine choirs in the hierarchy of angels. These are Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels. Each has a special function and gifts. The number of angels exceeds the number of people who have ever been born and whoever will be born. The exact number is not known though. We do know that one-third of the angels rebelled against God and were cast down to hell. These are the fallen angels or demons. The chief among these was Lucifer, whose name translates to “son of the dawn”. He led the rebellion against God, but was challenged and defeated by St. Michael, whose name means “Who is like unto God”. It was this that St Michael shot back at Lucifer, who dared to say “I will be like unto God”. These fallen angels are allowed by God to tempt us. It is through resisting these temptations that our wills are strengthened, our love for God is proved and the demons are humiliated by our overcoming their temptations. .

Among the angels that are given to us by God and who watch over us, are our guardian angels. These angels are assigned to us at conception and stay with us until the day we die. With these angels, we should always strive to cultivate a closer relationship with them. These angels help us to illuminate our intellect, self-knowledge and knowledge of God. Ultimately they are our invisible guides and desire nothing more than to lead us to Heaven. The doctrine on angels is a core teaching of our Catholic faith. This doctrine is these days so often overlooked to our loss. It would be good to remember to pray the Guardian Angel prayer and St Michael prayer daily, or perhaps learn the Chaplet of St Michael. We should live each day fully awake to the reality and to capitalize on that reality that the holy angels are our chief allies in our daily battle against Satan’s kingdom of darkness.  

The word “Catechism” is derived from the Greek word “katecheo”, which means “to teach by word of mouth”, or “to echo”. It is a word used by the Church to describe the giving of religious instruction in the teachings of Jesus Christ. In catechisis, instruction is given to the intellect so as to inspire the will. That the will may be inspired from a selfish love of self, to a selfless love of God above all things and a selfless love of neighbor out of love for God. Catechisis springs from supernatural love. It is offered for the sake of the absolute highest good of the beloved. To help bring them into a closer union with God Himself.   

It is through the practice of the selfless love of supernatural charity that we are able to impart the faith to others. It is to the degree that we practice our own faith that we may be effective in catechizing others. We must live what we teach. We must be what we live. We must be living Gospels. Others ought to be able to see in us the Spirit of Christ, in that when we love, it is Christ in us who loves. In this way we can be fruitful in spreading the kingdom of Christ on earth by allowing Him to act through us.

The act of teaching catechism is bound to the act of the making of the catechist. In living our faith fully, we become as we have said, living Gospels. So that by our mode of living, we may reflect Christ’s presence in the world. This is only possible through God’s divine grace. So that filled with that treasure of grace that God pours into us “clay pots”, us “earthenware”, we may from the abundance of God’s generosity to us, in turn generously bring to others the message of the Gospel shared in love, so that as Jesus said: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologiae, “A thing is received according to the mode of the receiver”. This means that our interior disposition will determine to what degree we shall appreciate or value what is imparted to us. For example, if we were to receive a gift from someone, we may express appreciation for the gift, to a greater or lesser degree, depending upon the mood (or mode) we are in. In a sense, the higher a value we place upon a gift, the higher the value that may be actualized for that gift. Conversely, if we were to place a lesser value or appreciation upon the reception of a gift, a diminished value for that gift would be actualized. This principle is also at work in our dispositions and the manner in how we receive the free gift of God’s grace. We receive according to the mode of our receptivity.

In our Catholic liturgy we orient our interior dispositions with ceremonial actions. These actions are not just ceremonial, but are acts of religion. As acts of religion, they are the virtue of religion in action. The virtue of religion, which is related to the virtue of justice, is the virtue by which we pay to God the honor and service that is due to Him in justice. In our worship of God, for example, we use visible signs as a means to express our worship in a reverential manner. In the Mass we kneel, we bow our heads, we genuflect, we make the sign of the cross, we observe reverential silence, use incense and bells, sing religious hymns and even dress our “Sunday best”. In a strict sense, God does not need these external signs, but rather, we need them. The external or sacramental signs that we use in our worship are like the bricks in the structure of our faith. If we were to remove these external signs, the structure of our faith would weaken and possibly crumble.

As persons, we are all composites of both soul and body. As God’s creatures, we worship Him with the powers of both soul and body. Is it not true, that in our fallen nature, we commit sins throughout our lives with the commision of not only our intellect and will, but with our body? Why else are the members of our body anointed with holy oil in the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick? If after all, there is not a sin that we commit without the use of not only our intellect and will, but of our body, why would we think that we should not use the same powers of both soul and body to give God His due worship? For these reasons should we be mindful of our external actions in our public worship to desire to give God our best, so that by offering Him signs of external glory, for His greatest possible glory, that we may receive from Him, in great abundance, the torrents of grace He desires to pour down upon us to receive.

The Mass, or liturgy, is the official public worship of the Catholic Church, offered to God the Father by both the head and body of the Church. It is offered by the head of the Mystical Body, Jesus, vicariously through His priest, who acts in “Persona Christi” (in the person of Christ). In union with the priest, offering the sacrifice of the Mass, are the “People of God”, Christ’s Mystical Body. This sacrificial act of worship to God the Father is the sacrifice of Jesus’ body and blood for the salvation of all humanity. This act of atonement, or “at-one-ment”, is how God has chosen to apply all the merits won on Calvary by Jesus for the sake of our salvation. 

How can we receive the most out of our participation at Holy Mass? The answer is that we fix our intentions at the Offertory of the Mass. In the Offertory the priest offers bread and wine to be transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ. In their natural state, the bread and wine represent the sacrificial offerings of the laity. Our prayers and sacrifices are placed upon the paten and poured into the chalice. God looks down upon the altar and sees our prayers and sacrifices upon that paten and in that chalice. Then, in the sublime moment of the consecration of the bread and wine is joined to it, our offerings, our intentions in union with the sacrificial offering of Jesus’ Body and Blood. Our sacrificial offerings are taken up to God.  

We all have prayers we want answered. Perhaps we want to ask God for a particular favor for ourselves or someone we love. Perhaps we desire to ask God to make us saints or ask for the grace of a holy death, when our time comes. God wants us to bring to him our supplications, as well as adoration, thanksgiving and reparation. When we attend Holy Mass, should we all not desire to receive all the graces and blessings that our Lord so generously desires for us to receive by simply fixing our intentions at the Offertory? After all, when we eat or drink, will we eat or drink our fill using a sewing thimble? So why would we want to do the same when we attend the Mass, the Lamb’s Supper? Perhaps we should keep these things in mind by remembering a Russian proverb once told by a good priest to his congregation: “When you eat, use a big spoon.”

Contrition is sorrow for having offended God through sin. There are two types of contrition, perfect contrition and imperfect contrition. When we have perfect contrition, our sorrow for sin is out of the love for God, who is all good and who out of His love created us out of nothing. Conversely, when we have imperfect contrition, our sorrow for sin is because of fear of punishment. Put another way, imperfect contrition is sorrow for sin because of the fear of the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. 

Without contrition there is no remission of sins. Therefore since we are all sinners, should not our hearts be inspired to contrition when we sin? It is good to consider here that contrition is not just to be found in our emotions or our feelings, but that contrition is essentially an act of the will. Just as love is an act of the will and not just to be found in our feelings or moods. We may very well “feel” sorrow or regret for our sins, but it is through our will that  sorrow or regret for our sins is expressed in contrition.      

The ordinary means of the forgiveness of venial and mortal sin is through the sacrament of confession. The extraordinary means of forgiveness of mortal sin is through making an act of perfect contrition, under the strict condition that we resolve to go to sacramental confession as soon as possible. It is though required that we make a sacramental confession before we can receive Holy Communion. But in the danger of death, an act of perfect contrition along with a firm intention to go to confession (should we survive) would remit mortal sin, even if we were to die before sacramental confession. 

We can learn to cultivate perfect contrition by asking God for the grace to do so and making a daily examination of conscience and praying the Act of Contrition daily, as well as by meditating on the suffering and death that our sins caused to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus. Along with frequenting the sacraments, the value of striving to cultivate perfect contrition is evident. By the practice of frequent confession we make our intention sincere to go to confession the next time we have an opportunity, because if the opportunity for sacramental confession were not a possibility, such as in the danger of imminent death, perfect contrition along with the sincere intention to make a sacramental confession, would suffice for God to grant us His mercy for the sake of our salvation.

Jesus said to his disciples: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Matt 16:24). These words of Christ tell us that in order for us to live in the higher order of the life of God’s sanctifying grace, we must die to the lower order of our sinful human nature. This is what is meant by the words to “die to self”, or to “die to sin”. Put another way, in order to obtain salvation, we must practice the virtue of mortification, which is from the Latin word “mortificatio” and that means “to put to death”. Mortification, therefore is self-denial in order to do what is pleasing to God.

Mortifications may also be practiced in the form of sacrificing some legitimate pleasure such as a favorite food or a favorite tv show. These can be offered to God as a means of doing penance or making reparation for past sins, or for failures to love God as we ought to have. We can offer mortifications to make our prayerful supplications to God even more efficacious, such as when asking God for the grace of the coversion of someone we love. Mortification is a means of imitating Jesus in doing the will of His Father.

We should also remember the words of Jesus: “Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light” (Matt 11:28-30). If we are burdened by the weight of our crosses, we should reflect on these words. It is one of the great inexplicable mysteries of God’s grace, that if we are willing to embrace the crosses God sends us to follow Jesus, that at times we may even find a palpaple consolation in the acceptance of those crosses and remember Jesus words: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory” (Luke 24:26). As willing as we shall be to mortify our own self-will in this life, we can be assured to obtain everlasting life in the presence of God in the world to come.

We all possess in a manner of speaking two lives, a life and a super life. One is the natural life of our flesh and blood. The other is the supernatural life of our immortal soul. In order for us to have life, we must be born to it. In order for us to have supernatural life, we must be born to it. This second birth begins when we receive the sanctifying grace given in the sacrament of baptism. Having been born into a share in God’s divine life, this life is to be nurtured so that it may grow into the fullness of that life of grace that God intends for us. To do this God has given us the seven sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Eucharist, Matrimony, Holy Orders and Anointing of the Sick. 

What is a sacrament? A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible grace, instituted by Christ. Why are there seven sacraments? This may very well be because there are seven conditions under which we live out our lives. The first as we stated, is that we be born. In this we see a reflection of the sacrament of baptism. Second, this life must grow to maturity. In this we see reflected the sacrament of confirmation. Third, this life must be healed of sickness and injury, which is a reflection of the sacrament of Penance. Fourth it must be nourished with food, which is a reflection of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. Fifth, there is the bearing and rearing of children, for which we have the sacrament of Matrimony. Sixth, we must be governed, for which we have the sacrament of Holy Orders. Seventh, we are all destined to die, for which we have the sacrament of Annointing of the Sick.  

The spirit is the voice. The physical is the echo. God has created us and has conditioned that we work out our salvation in the physical order, but on a spiritual plane. Just as He provides for us in our physical needs, so He provides for us in our spiritual needs. We are in time, but we are made for eternity. Our permanent home is not this earth, but it is in Heaven. We are to live out our temporal lives here on earth, but with footing in Heaven. In that sense the life of Heaven is to be lived even now, long before we die. The means God has given to us to live out our present life on earth with footing in Heaven are the seven sacraments. They are the familial covenant signs God has given us and are the signs of our election and the promise of Heaven.              

Of the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, it is Charity that the saved will possess for all eternity. “Charity never falleth away…” (Cor 13:8). Of these virtues it is charity that is the greatest. “And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity”. (Cor 13:13). What does it mean to possess Christian charity? It means to love God above all things for His own sake and to love others out of love for God. Christian charity is selfless love. It is a supernatural love that would have been unknown, except that it had been revealed to us through the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Put another way, God is Love, and for us to know what love is and how to love, Love had to become man.

It would be easy to say that we can love someone enough to save their life. It would not be so easy to say we can love someone enough to save their life, if they had taken the life of someone we love. The first way is the way we love, with a natural love. The second way is the way Christ loves, with a supernatural love. It is this supernatural love that we call Christian charity. It is a love that we could not possess nor practice, except through God’s supernatural grace. 

Jesus said “I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). In our prayer to the Holy Spirit we pray “Come Holy Spirit and enkindle in us the fire of thy love…” In fire we can see represented in it’s warmth, the love of God. In fire we can see represented in it’s light, the truth of God. In these two symbols can be seen that in charity there is always union with the truth. For the Christian, that truth is the person of Jesus Himself. It is only in the supernatural love of Christian charity that this truth can be communicated to others. We spread the Gospel in love. It is only through the fire of the supernatural love of Christian charity that God permits the light of the Gospel to pass through us so to penetrate the hearts and minds of others. Let us all pray that God will give us the grace to be transformed into incendiaries of the the fire of God’s love. 

“Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ…. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor 12:12, 27). St Paul describes the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. The Church teaches that the invisible head of the Mystical Body is Christ in heaven and her visible head is the Pope on earth. The members of the body are all the souls in Heaven (the Church Triumphant), all the souls in Purgatory (the Church Suffering), and all the baptized souls on earth (the Church Militant) who share the same faith, the same sacrifice of the Mass, the same sacraments and the same supreme Pontiff, our Pope. 

The soul of the Mystical Body is the Holy Spirit, who vivifies the Church and gives her the power to govern, to teach and to sanctify. The Spouse of the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the mother of the Mystical Body. Mary, as the mother of Christ, the head, is the mother of His Mystical Body and therefore is the “Mother of the Church” (Vatican II). In Mary can also be seen the spousal dimension of the Church as bride, “without spot or wrinkle”, with Christ as groom, so that just as bride and groom become “one flesh”, we as members of the Mystical Body become “one spirit” in Christ.    

Pope Pius XII wrote in his papal encyclical, Mystici Corporis Christi (On the Mystical Body of Christ) “If we would define and describe the true Church of Jesus Christ—which is the one, holy, Catholic, apostolic Roman Church—we shall find nothing more noble, more sublime, or more divine than the expression ‘the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ’—an expression that flows spontaneously from the repeated teaching of the sacred Scriptures and the holy Fathers.” -Venerable Pope Pius XII