THE NEW EVANGELIZATION AND CANON LAW

Introduction

First of all, I wish to thank His Grace, Archbishop John J. Myers for the invitation to give one of the Gerety Lectures during the 150^th Anniversary of the Foundation of Immaculate Conception Seminary of the Archdiocese of Newark. While I am honored to make some modest contribution to the work of the Archbishop Gerety Fund for Ecclesiastical History, I am particularly pleased that my contribution is part of the celebration of the sesquicentennial of Immaculate Conception Seminary.

The theological seminary is the heart of a diocese. As Our Lord Himself made clear, from the very beginning of his public ministry, by His call of the Apostles, the life of the Church depends upon the service of worthy shepherds who act in the person of Our Lord, Head and Shepherd of the flock in every time and place. My presence with you, this evening, is meant, in a particular way, to express heartfelt congratulations to the Archdiocese of Newark, whose faithful have so steadfastly and generously supported the work of the Archdiocesan seminary, and to underline the fundamental importance of the continued support of Immaculate Conception Seminary for the life of the Church in the Archdiocese, now and in the future.

My presentation responds to the work of the Archbishop Gerety Fund for Ecclesiastical History by addressing the present situation of the Church in a totally secularized culture and the response of the Church, that is, the call to the new evangelization. After treating, in some depth, the question, especially in the teaching of the Venerable Pope John Paul II, and of the Servant of God Pope Paul VI and of Pope Benedict XVI, I give particular attention to the state of the Church’s discipline, her law, and its irreplaceable role in the work of the new evangelization. While the presentation addresses a number of particular phenomena in the recent history of the Church, it seeks to interpret those phenomena within the organic perspective of the life of the Church, handed down to us, in an unbroken line, from Saint Peter and, with him, the College of the Apostles. While the question pertains to the life of the universal Church, I trust that its application to the life of the Church in the United States of America will be sufficiently evident, in fidelity to the purpose of the Archbishop Gerety Fund for Ecclesiastical History.

The Call to the New Evangelization in the Magisterium of the Venerable John Paul II

The pontificate of the Venerable, soon to be Blessed, Pope John Paul II, may be rightly described as a tireless call to recognize the challenge for the Church to be faithful to her divine mission in a totally secularized society and to respond to the challenge by taking up the work of the new evangelization. The new evangelization means teaching the faith, celebrating the faith in the Sacraments and in their extension through prayer and devotion, and living the faith through the practice of the virtues, as if for the first time, that is, with the engagement and energy of the first disciples, of the first apostles to our native place.

In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, “On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World,” the Venerable Pope John Paul II described the contemporary situation of the Church in the world with these words:

Whole countries and nations where religion and the Christian life were formerly flourishing and capable of fostering a viable and working community of faith, are now put to a hard test, and in some cases, are even undergoing a radical transformation, as a result of a constant spreading of an indifference to religion, of secularism and atheism. This particularly concerns countries and nations of the so-called First World, in which economic well-being and consumerism, even if coexistent with a tragic situation of poverty and misery, inspires and sustains a life lived “as if God did not exist”. This indifference to religion and the practice of religion devoid of true meaning in the face of life’s very serious problems, are not less worrying and upsetting when compared with declared atheism.[1]

As the Venerable Pontiff observed, “a mending of the Christian fabric of society is urgently needed in all parts of the world.”[2] He hastened to add that, if the remedy is to be achieved, the Church herself must be evangelized anew. Fundamental to understanding the radical secularization of our culture is to understand also how much the secularization has entered into the life of the Church Herself. In the words of the Venerable Pontiff, “[b]ut for this [the mending of the Christian fabric of society] to come about what is needed is to first remake the Christian fabric of the ecclesial community itself present in these countries and nations.”[3]

Pope John Paul II, therefore, called upon the lay faithful to fulfill their particular responsibility “to testify how the Christian faith constitutes the only full valid response – consciously perceived and stated by all in varying degrees – to the problems and hopes that life poses to every person and society.”[4] Making more specific the call, he clarified that the fulfillment of the responsibility of the lay faithful requires that they “know how to overcome in themselves the separation of the Gospel from life, to take up again in their daily activities in family, work and society, an integrated approach to life that is fully brought about by the inspiration and strength of the Gospel.”[5]

Before the challenges of living the Catholic faith in our time, the Venerable John Paul II recalled to our minds the urgency of Christ’s mandate given to the first disciples and given, no less, to us today. He declared:

Certainly the command of Jesus: “Go and preach the Gospel” always maintains its vital value and its ever-pressing obligation. Nevertheless, the present situation, not only of the world but also of many parts of the Church, absolutely demands that the word of Christ receive a more ready and generous obedience. Every disciple is personally called by name; no disciple can withhold making a response: “Woe to me, if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).[6]

The “present situation” of the world and the Church “absolutely demands that the word of Christ receive a more ready and generous obedience.” The obedience which is fundamental and essential to the new evangelization is also a virtue acquired with difficulty in a culture which exalts individualism and questions all authority, except the self. Yet, it is indispensable if the Gospel is to be taught and lived in our time. We must take example from the first disciples, from the first missionaries to our homeland, and from the hosts of saints and blessed who gave themselves completely to Christ, calling upon the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit to purify themselves of any rebellion before God’s will and to strengthen them to do God’s will in all things.

The Venerable Pope John Paul II issued the same call to the new evangelization to the faithful in the other states of life in the Church. In the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis, “On the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day,” writing about the spiritual gift of the priest for “the universal mission of salvation to the end of the earth,” he observed:

Today in particular, the pressing pastoral task of the new evangelization calls for the involvement of the entire People of God, and requires a new fervour, new methods and a new expression for the announcing and witnessing of the Gospel. This task demands priests who are deeply and fully immersed in the mystery of Christ and capable of embodying a new style of pastoral life, marked by a profound communion with the Pope, the Bishops and other priests, and a fruitful cooperation with the lay faithful, always respecting and fostering the different roles, charisms and ministries present within the ecclesial community.[7]

According to the teaching of Pope John Paul II, the seminarian preparing to present himself for ordination to the priesthood and for the exercise of the priestly mission, today, must be equipped for and engaged in the remaking of the fabric of the Church, in fidelity to her apostolic nature, developed in organic unity, down the Christian centuries from the Resurrection, Ascension and Descent of the Holy Spirit. Before the forces of secularization which dominate society and culture, the faithful need the spiritual ministration of priests who recognize the gravity of the situation and are prepared to address it steadfastly with apostolic zeal, with fervent prayer, especially before the Blessed Sacrament, with sound teaching, and with obedience to the Holy Father and the Bishops in communion with him.

Seminarians and priests should not be naïve about the influence of secularism and its by-product, consumerism, in their own lives. According to an ancient axiom of the Church’s discipline, “corruptio optima pessima est,” “the corruption of the best is the worst thing.” Satan and the forces of evil understand well that any influence which they can have with the shepherds of the Church will redound to their influence in the whole flock. They know the wisdom expressed in the Prophet Zechariah, “Strike the shepherd and scatter the flock.”[8] The formation of future priests and the ongoing formation of priests, therefore, must underline the essential elements of our life in Christ and, in particular, the irreplaceable office of the ordained priest in the Mystical Body of Christ.

In a similar fashion, in his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, “On the Consecrated Life and Its Mission in the Church and in the World,” the Venerable Pope John Paul II emphasized the new evangelization as the particular form, in our time, of the universal charity which is the characteristic mark of the state of life of consecrated persons. He declared:

Today, among the possible works of charity, certainly the one which in a special way shows the world this love “to the end” is the fervent proclamation of Jesus Christ to those who do not yet know him, to those who have forgotten him, and the poor in a preferential way.[9]

Consecrated persons, because of their identification with Christ the poor, the Chaste and the Obedient, both by their consecration itself and their apostolate – including the apostolate of prayer and penance of those who are contemplative – , carry out an essential service in the Church in every age and, in a special way, in our time. They call the faithful and all persons of good will to Christ, to contemplate Christ and the Gospel virtues, to love Christ and to serve Him.

Later on in Vita Consecrata, the Venerable Pope John Paul II articulated the service to the new evangelization, given by consecrated persons, with these words:

The new evangelization, like that of all times, will be effective if it proclaims from the rooftops what it has first lived in intimacy with the Lord. It calls for strong personalities, inspired by saintly fervour. The new evangelization demands that consecrated persons have a thorough awareness of the theological significance of the challenges of our time. Those challenges must be weighed with careful joint discernment, with a view to renewing the mission. Courage in proclaiming the Lord Jesus must be accompanied by trust in Providence, which is at work in the world and which “orders everything, even human differences, for the great good of the Church.” … In every place and circumstance, consecrated persons should be zealous heralds of Jesus Christ, ready to respond with the words of the Gospel to the questions posed today by the anxieties and urgent needs of the human heart.[10]

Given the individualism and materialism characteristic of a secularized society, the faithful witness of the consecrated life to the obedience, chastity and obedience of Christ are more critically needed in our time than ever.

An extraordinary synthesis of the teaching of Pope John Paul II on the new evangelization is found in his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, “At the Close of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.” Before the grave situation of the world today, we are, the Venerable Pontifff reminded us, like the first disciples who, after hearing Saint Peter’s Pentecost discourse, asked him: “What must we do?”[11] Even as the first disciples faced a pagan world which had not even heard of our Lord Jesus Christ, so, we, too face a culture which is forgetful of God and often hostile to His Law written upon every human heart.

Before the great challenge of our time, Pope John Paul cautioned us that we will not save ourselves and our world by discovering “some magic formula” or by “inventing a new programme.”[12] In unmistakable terms, he declared:

No, we shall not be saved by a formula but by a Person, and the assurance which he gives us: I am with you.[13]

He reminded us that the programme by which we are to address effectively the great spiritual challenges of our time is, in the end, Jesus Christ alive for us in the Church. He explained:

The programme already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition, it is the same as ever. Ultimately, it has its center in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem. This is a program which does not change with shifts of times and cultures, even though it takes account of time and culture for the sake of true dialogue and effective communication.[14]

In short, the program leading to freedom and happiness is, for each of us, holiness of life, in accord with our state in life.

The Venerable Pope John Paul II, in fact, cast the entire pastoral plan for the Church in terms of holiness. He explained himself thus:

In fact, to place pastoral planning under the heading of holiness is a choice filled with consequences. It implies the conviction that, since Baptism is a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of his Spirit, it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethics and a shallow religiosity. To ask catechumens: “Do you wish to be receive Baptism?” means at the same time to ask them: “Do you wish to become holy?” It means to set before them the radical nature of the Sermon on the Mount: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).[15]

Pope John Paul II continued, making reference to the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, by reminding us that “this ideal of perfection must not be misunderstood as if it involved some kind of extraordinary existence, possible only for a few ‘uncommon heroes’ of holiness.”[16]

Pope John Paul II taught us the extraordinary nature of our ordinary life, because it is lived in Christ and, therefore, produces in us the incomparable beauty of holiness. He declared:

The ways of holiness are many, according to the vocation of each individual. I thank the Lord that in these years he has enabled me to beatify and canonize a large number of Christians, and among them many lay people who attained holiness in the most ordinary circumstances of life. The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction.[17]

Seeing in us the daily conversion of life by which we strive to meet the high standard of holiness, the “high standard of ordinary Christian living,” our brothers and sisters will discover the great mystery of their own ordinary life in which God daily showers upon them his ceaseless and immeasurable love, calling them to holiness of life in Christ, His only-begotten Son. Clearly, the “mending of the Christian fabric of society” can only come about by the remaking of “the Christian fabric of the ecclesial community,” beginning with the individual in his family, at home.[18]

The New Evangelization in the Magisterium of the Servant of God Pope Paul VI

To understand the nature and gravity of the call to the new evangelization it is important to note how the same call was issued in the Magisterium of the Servant of God Pope Paul VI who, in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, “On Evangelization in the World Today,” had already called for a new proclamation of the Gospel in the situation of what he called “a dechristianized society.”[19] In the years which followed the close of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, the Servant of God had witnessed the progressive secularization of society and its destructive effects within the Church.

In his homily on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, in 1972, for example, reflecting upon the situation of the Church in the world, he spoke of his sense that “through some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered into the temple of God.”[20] He spoke of a pervasive doubt, uncertainty, restlessness, dissatisfaction and dissent, and of a loss of trust in the Church and of a ready placement of our trust in the secular prophets who speak to us through the press or social movements, seeking from them the formula for a true life.[21] He noted how, also in the Church, the state of uncertainty prevailed, observing that after the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council it was believed that “a day of sunlight had dawned upon the Church,” while, in fact, “a day of clouds, storms, darkness, search and uncertainty” had arrived.[22] He commented that we seek to excavate the abysses rather than fill them.[23]

I am reminded of a comment by the wise Mother Mary Francis of the Poor Clare Colletine Monastery of Roswell, New Mexico, writing, already in 1967, about the approach to the reform of the religious form of consecrated life after the Council. She observed:

It is simply a fact that we can have too many workshops and discussions on such subjects as the formation of novices and juniors, the psychological aspects of religious life, and mental hygiene, which reduce to mere long-ringing condemnations of the past. One, of course, would be too many. We could be using this time and this energy actually forming our communities, in studying and promoting a sound psychology of religious life, and in practicing and encouraging mental hygiene. We are all surely aware that mistakes have been made in the past. We may even be willing to admit we have made a few ourselves. Let us go on from there, not hold a seminar there. Let us by all means get expert guidance in the areas just mentioned and many others, the while not letting the fact elude us that the Holy Spirit remains the Expert, the Counsellor. There may certainly be valid reasons for calmly mentioning some past errors for mutual education. A charitable sharing of blunders can be a genuine service to one another, since we all stumble often enough even when forewarned of booby-traps. However, to talk from a stump of censure will never avail anything positive.[24]

Pope Paul VI’s lament, reflected also in the observations of Mother Mary Francis, points to a rupture in the life of the Church, caused by the failure to see the organic nature of her life, receiving from Christ, faithfully down the centuries, the gift of the Holy Spirit for the evangelization of the world.

Pope Benedict XVI reflected at length upon the rupture in his first Christmas address to the Roman Curia, in December of 2005, which also marked the fortieth anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. He described a struggle between two interpretations of the Council, the “hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture,” and the “hermeneutic of reform.”[25] Without entering into a thorough analysis of his discussion of the struggle of the two hermeneutics, which would certainly be illuminating for the subject of our reflection but which time does not permit, suffice it to say that the hermeneutic of rupture postulates “a split between the pre-conciliar Church and the post-conciliar Church” and, thereby, justifies an interpretation of the Council not based upon the texts approved by the Council Fathers but upon what is called “the true spirit of the Council,” which is discovered “in the impulses toward the new that are contained in the texts.”[26] The result is described by Pope Benedict XVI in these words:

The nature of a Council as such is therefore basically misunderstood. In this way, it is considered as a sort of constituent that eliminates an old constitution and creates a new one. However, the Constituent Assembly needs a mandatory and then confirmation by the mandatory, in other words, the people the constitution must serve. The Fathers had no such mandate and no one had ever given them one; nor could anyone have given them one because the essential constitution of the Church comes from the Lord and was given to us so that we might attain eternal life and, starting from this perspective, be able to illuminate life in time and time itself. [27]

His analysis points to the need of a new evangelization which centers upon the gift of Christ’s life given to us, as individuals and as a community, in the Church, by which we are to live and thus to serve our neighbor.

In the years following the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, but certainly not because of the Council, the Church has witnessed, for example, an erosion of family life, of marital fidelity and the denial of procreation as the crown of marital love. She has also witnessed the betrayal of the liturgical reform ordered by the Council through a manipulation of the divine action of the liturgy to express the individual personality of the celebrant and of the congregation, and even to advance various human agenda, completely alien to the divine action of the Sacred Liturgy. Already, in 1972, Pope Paul VI had the sense that some foreign, indeed hostile element, had entered into the very sanctuaries of the Church. One understands, then, why he urged so adamantly the work of evangelization in the Church and in the world.

The New Evangelization in the Magisterium of Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2010 Christmas Address to the College of Cardinals, the Roman Curia and the Governorate of Vatican City State, spoke clearly and strongly about the profoundly disordered moral state in which our world finds itself, today, and of its profound effect also within the Church. He spoke about the grave evils of our time, for example, the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy, the marketing of child pornography, sexual tourism, and the deadly abuse of drugs.

One also thinks of other most grievous moral evils of our time, for instance, the plague of procured abortion, the abhorrent practices of the artificial generation of human life and its destruction, at the embryonic stage of development; the so-called “mercy killing” of the very brothers and sisters who have the first title to our care, those who have grown weak through advanced years, grave illness or special needs; and the ever advancing agenda of those who want to redefine marriage and family life to include the unnatural sexual union of two persons of the same sex.

Regarding the grave evils which beset the world, in our day, Pope Benedict XVI declared that they are all signs of “the tyranny of mammon which perverts mankind” and that they result from “a fatal misunderstanding of freedom which actually undermines man’s freedom and ultimately destroys it.”[28] They are manifestations, to be sure, of a way of living, to use the words of the Venerable, soon to be Blessed, Pope John Paul II, “as if God did not exist.”[29]

They are a manifestation of sin at its root, which is pride, the pride of man who fails to recognize that all that he is and has comes from the hand of God Who has created us and has redeemed us, after the sin of our First Parents. They are a manifestation of the foolishness of seeking our freedom other than in the will of God and thus making ourselves slaves to creaturely realities. That foolishness manifests itself in a most distressing way in a culture of addictions, in which we seek our freedom and happiness in some creaturely reality and, when we do not find them there, as indeed we never can, we, in our pride, instead of turning in obedience to God, enslave ourselves more and more to the same creature, for example, alcohol, food, sexual promiscuity or pornography, until the creature destroys us.

Pope Benedict XVI’s words in his Christmas Address of last year are redolent of the powerful pastoral concern which he expressed in his homily during the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff, celebrated before the conclave during which he was elected to the See of Peter. He spoke of how the “the thought of many Christians” has been tossed about, in our time, by various “ideological currents,” observing that we are witnesses to the “human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error,” about which Saint Paul wrote in his Letter to the Ephesians.[30] He noted that, in our time, those who live according to “a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church” are viewed as extremists, while relativism, that is, “letting oneself be ‘tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine’,” is extolled.[31] Regarding the source of the grave moral evils of our time, he concluded: “We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.”[32]

In his 2010 Christmas Address, reflecting on the grave evils which are destroying us as individuals and as a society, and which have generated a culture marked predominantly by violence and death, the Holy Father reminded us that, if we, with the help of God’s grace, are to overcome the grave evils of our time, “we must turn our attention to their ideological foundations.”[33] He then identified directly and unequivocally the ideology which fosters these evils: a perversion of ethos, of the moral norm, which has even entered into the thinking of some theologians in the Church.

Referring to one of the more shocking manifestations of the ideology, namely, the so-called moral position that the sexual abuse of children by adults is actually good for the children and for the adults, he declared:

It was maintained – even within the realm of Catholic theology – that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a “better than” and a “worse than”. Nothing is good or bad in itself. Everything depends on the circumstances and on the end in view. Anything can be good or also bad, depending upon purposes and circumstances. Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist.[34]

Pope Benedict XVI describes a moral relativism, called proportionalism or consequentialism in contemporary moral theology, which has generated profound confusion and outright error regarding the most fundamental truths of the moral law.[35] It has led to a situation in which morality itself indeed “ceases to exist.” If, therefore, the irreplaceable moral order, which is the way of our freedom and happiness, is to be restored, we must address with clarity and steadfastness the error of moral relativism, proportionalism and consequentialism, which permeates our culture and has also entered, as the Holy Father reminds us, into the Church.

To confront the ideology, Pope Benedict XVI has urged us to study anew the teaching of his predecessor, the Venerable, soon to be Blessed, Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, “On the Fundamentals of the Church’s Moral Teaching.” In Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul II, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “indicated with prophetic force, in the great rational tradition of Christian ethos, the essential and permanent foundations of moral action.”[36] Reminding us of the need to form our consciences, in accord with the moral teaching of the Church, our Holy Father also reminded us of “our responsibility to make these criteria [these moral foundations] audible and intelligible once more for people today as paths of true humanity, in the context of our paramount concern for mankind.”[37] In the exhortation of Pope Benedict XVI, we see the expression of the deepest pastoral charity of the Vicar of Christ on earth, charity, which like that of the Christ the Good Shepherd, knows no boundary and is unceasing.

For us, as members of the Catholic Church, we discover the true relationship between faith and reason, the true concept of ethos, of the moral norm, in Jesus Christ, in a personal relationship with Him as He comes to meet us and to make us ever more one with Him in His Mystical Body, the Church. In Jesus Christ, God the Son made man, heaven has come to earth to dispel the darkness of error and sin, and to fill our souls with the light of truth and goodness. If we live in Christ, in the union of our hearts with His Most Sacred Heart, when our brothers and sisters, lost in the unreal world of moral relativism and, therefore, tempted to despair, encounter us, they find direction for their lives and the hope for which they are looking and longing. Living in Jesus Christ, living according to the truth which He alone teaches us in His Church, we become light to dispel the confusion and error which lead to the many and so grave moral evils of our time, and to inspire a life lived in accord with the truth and, therefore, marked by freedom and happiness. The words of our Holy Father make clear the inherent dynamism of the life of the Holy Spirit within us, leading us to give witness to mystery of God’s love in our lives and so to convert our own lives more fully to Christ and to transform our world.

The State of Canon Law in the Church

I began my studies of Canon Law in September of 1980, residing at the Casa Santa Maria dell’Umiltà, the residence of the Pontifical North American College for priests doing graduate studies. At the time, the number of priests pursuing graduates studies was much less than the capacity of the residence. As a result, the Casa Santa Maria, at the time, was also the residence for priests from the United States doing a three-month sabbatical. Every fall and every spring semester, a new group of priests arrived, and the normal process of getting to know one another took place. I, who, to be honest, took up the study of Canon Law in obedience to my Bishop and not because of a deep interest in the discipline, soon learned how much the Church’s discipline was disdained by her priests, in general. When I responded to the usual question of what area of study was, the responses ranged were of the following kind: “I thought that the Church had done away with that,” and “What a waste of your time.” These responses, in fact, reflected a general attitude in the Church toward her discipline, an attitude inspired by the hermeneutic of discontinuity, by that sense that “a day of sunlight” had arrived in the Church, in contrast to the darkness of what had gone before. Institutes of the Church’s law, which, in her wisdom, she had developed down the Christian centuries were set aside without consideration of the chaos which would result.

The hermeneutic of discontinuity, which tried to highjack the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, influenced by a pervasive antinomian culture, symbolized by the Paris student riots of 1968, had a particularly devastating effect on the Church’s discipline. Father John J. Coughlin, O.F.M., in his recently published book comparing canon law with Anglo-American legal theory, treats at some length the effect of antinomianism on Church discipline. Reflecting on the long process of the revision of the Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law, he observed:

Over the course of almost three decades of revision, although theoretically still the universal law of the church, the 1917 Code fell into general disuse. It was in many instances abrogated in favor of postconciliar innovations ad experimentum. In retrospect, the ecclesial ambiance in the wake of Vatican II represented a swing of the pendulum from the preconciliar legalism toward the antinomian. While it would overstate the matter to claim that the juridical structures of the church disintegrated during the postconcilar years, it seems accurate to observe that proper function of law in the church became unbalanced. The legalism of the past had been supplanted not only by openness to the new spirit but perhaps also by the tendency to underestimate the need for a healthy ecclesial order. The culture of canon law was reduced, with the effect that law was seen as an obstacle to the manifestation of the spirit in the church.[38]

He shows, in a particular way, how the failure of knowledge and application of the canon law, which was indeed still in force, contributed significantly to the scandal of the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy in our nation.[39]

Indeed, it is often asserted that the just-mentioned scandal was caused by the absence of a proper discipline in the Church to treat such abhorrent situations. In the typical approach of the hermeneutic of discontinuity, it is assumed that the Church lacked the proper canons with which to investigate such crimes and sanction them. The truth of the matter is that the Church had dealt with such crimes in the past, as should come as a surprise to no one, and had in place a process by which to investigate accusations, with full respect for the rights of all parties involved, including the protection of potential victims during the time of the investigation; to reach a just decision regarding their truth, and to apply the appropriate sanction.

In his annual addresses to the Roman Rota, from 1969 to 1973, the Servant of God Pope Paul VI confronted the loss of respect for the irreplaceable, if also humble, service of canon law in safeguarding and fostering our life in Christ in the Church. His repeated appeals for a new appreciation of the Church’s discipline are an indication of the gravity of the situation. Confronting a general opinion that somehow the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council had repudiated the service of Canon Law, he declared:

On the contrary the Council not only does not repudiate canon law, the norm that spells out the duties and defends the rights of the members of the Church, but wishes and desires it as a consequence of the power bequeathed by Christ to his Church, as a necessity of its social and visible nature, its communitarian and hierarchical nature, as the guide of religious life and of Christian perfection, and as the juridical safeguard of liberty itself.[40]

In another address to the Roman Rota, he confronted the false dichotomy between canon law and freedom in the Church, observing that canon law is not opposed to freedom but serves “what is needed to safeguard the common good – including the basic good of exercising freedom – which only a well-ordered social order can adequately guarantee.”[41]

The years of a lack of knowledge of the Church’s discipline and even of a presumption that such discipline was no longer fitting to the nature of the Church indeed reaped gravely harmful fruits in the Church, for example, the pervasive abuse of the liturgical law of the Church, the breakdown of the discipline of priestly formation and priestly life, the loss of direction of many congregations of religious Sisters, Brothers and priests; the loss of the Catholic identity of charitable, educational and healthcare institutions bearing the name of Catholic; failure of respect for the nature of marriage and the time-proven process for judging claims of nullity of marriage in ecclesiastical tribunals. Regarding the last example, it is not simply a matter of a legalistic concern but of concern for the sanctity of marriage, the first cell of the life of the Church and society, which must be respected, above all else, in judging a cause of matrimonial nullity, which is the reason why, in the Church’s procedural discipline, marriage must always enjoy the favor of the law.[42]

A frequent manifestation of the confusion and error regarding the irreplaceable role of canon law in the life of the Church has been the claim that the Church’s discipline is, somehow, in opposition to her pastoral care of the faithful. The Venerable Pope John Paul II confronted the false opposition between Church discipline and her pastoral care in his annual address to the Roman Rota in 1990. He confronted it once again in his last annual address to the Roman Rota in 2005. Pope Benedict XVI has addressed the same false opposition in his annual addresses to the Roman Rota in 2006, 2007 and 2010. In his 2010 address, he recalled the words of the Venerable Pope John Paul II: “The judge… must always guard against the risk of misplaced compassion, which could degenerate into sentimentality, itself pastoral only in appearance.”[43] He went on to observe:

One must avoid pseudo-pastoral claims that would situate questions on a purely horizontal plane, in which what matters is to satisfy subjective requests to arrive at a declaration of nullity at any cost, so that the parties may be able to overcome, among others things, obstacles to receiving the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. The supreme good of readmission to Eucharistic Communion after sacramental Reconciliation demands, instead, that due consideration be given to the authentic good of the individuals, inseparable from the truth of their canonical situation. It would be a false “good” and a grave lack of justice and love to pave the way for them to receive the sacraments nevertheless, and would risk causing them to live in objective contradiction to the truth of their own personal condition.[44]

Regarding the Church’s pastoral concern, Pope Benedict XVI reminded the Rotal auditors and, through them, the whole Church, “that both justice and charity postulate love for truth and essentially entail searching for truth.”[45] “In particular,” he observed, “charity makes the reference to truth even more exacting.”[46]

Canon Law in the Magisterium of Pope John Paul II

The Venerable Pope John Paul II pursued with vigor the revision of the 1917 Code of Canon Law. There was no question in his mind, as a Father of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, that the Council desired the perennial discipline of the Church be addressed to the present time. In the Apostolic Constitution Sacrae Disciplinae Leges, with which he, supreme legislator in the Church, promulgated the 1983 Code of Canon Law, he wrote:

Turning our minds today to the beginning of this long journey [of the revision of the Code of Canon Law], to that January 25, 1959 [when my predecessor of happy memory, John XXIII, announced for the first time his decision to reform the existing corpus of canonical legislation which had been promulgated on the feast of Pentecost in year 1917] and to John XXIII himself who initiated the revision of the Code, I must recognize that this Code derives from one and the same intention, the renewal of Christian living. From such an intention, in fact, the entire work of the council drew its norms and its direction.[47]

These words point to the essential service of canon law in the work of the new evangelization, the living of our life in Christ with the engagement and energy of the first disciples, the pursuing, at all times, of holiness of life.

The Venerable Pontiff described the nature of canon law, indicating its organic development from God’s first covenant with His holy people. He recalled “the distant patrimony of law contained in the books of the Old and New Testament from which is derived the whole juridical-legislative tradition of the Church, as from its first source.”[48] In particular, he reminded the Church that Christ Himself declared that he had not come to abolish the law but to bring it to completion, teaching us that is the discipline of the law which opens the way to freedom in loving God and our neighbor. He observed: “Thus the writings of the New Testament enable us to understand even better the importance of discipline and make us see better how it is more closely connected with the saving character of the evangelical message itself.”[49]

Pope John Paul II then describes the purpose of canon law, that is, the service of the faith and grace, and of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and charity. Far from hindering the living of our life in Christ, canonical discipline safeguards and fosters our Christian life. He declared:

[I]ts purpose is rather to create such an order in the ecclesial society that, while assigning the primacy to love, grace and charisms, it at the same time renders their organic development easier in the life of both the ecclesial society and the individual persons who belong to it.”[50]

As such, canon law can never be in conflict with the Church’s doctrine but is, in the words of the Venerable Pontiff, “extremely necessary for the Church.”[51] The teaching of the Church, in fact, is translated into discipline by the canonical tradition.[52] He then indicated four ways in which the Church’s discipline is a necessary complement to her doctrine, declaring:

Since the Church is organized as a social and visible structure, it must also have norms: in order that its hierarchical and organic structure be visible; in order that the exercise of the functions divinely entrusted to it, especially that of sacred power and of the administration of the sacraments, may be adequately organized; in order that the mutual relations of the faithful may be regulated according to justice based upon charity, with the rights of individuals guaranteed and well-defined; in order, finally, that common initiatives undertaken to live a Christian life ever more perfectly may be sustained, strengthened and fostered by canonical norms.[53]

Because of the essential service of canon law to the life of the Church, Pope John Paul II reminded the Church that “by their very nature canonical laws are to be observed,” and, to that end, “the wording of the norms should be accurate” and “based on solid juridical, canonical and theological foundations.”[54]

Specific Form of the New Evangelization through Canonical Discipline

From the above considerations, it should be clear that the knowledge of and respect for canonical discipline is indispensable to the response to the call to the new evangelization. There are four specific aspects of the form of the new evangelization through canonical discipline.

The first aspect is respect for the rule of law as the irreplaceable foundation for relationships and activities in the Church. In specific, we must confront the antinomian tendency of the culture, which is inimical to the organ unity of the Body of Christ. A general ignorance of canon law, which sees it as some esoteric aspect of Church life, must be overcome. At the same time, the false conflict between canon law and the pastoral nature of the Church, between truth and love, must be addressed.

Key to the form of the new evangelization through canonical discipline is the study of the sources of canonical institutes in the Sacred Scriptures and Tradition. The discipline regarding the refusal of Holy Communion to persons who persist in grave and public sin, for example, must be seen in its consistent development from the time of Saint Paul.[55] The ground of nullity of marriage, lack of sufficient discretion of judgment, must be seen in the long canonical tradition regarding the influence of mental illness on the capacity to give marriage consent.[56]

Thirdly, the study of the text of the law must respect the mind of the legislator and, therefore, avoid all formalism. The wording of Church discipline derives from solid juridical, canonical and theological foundations which can only be known by those humble enough to study them. All forms of manipulation of the law to advance particular agenda redound to the grave harm of the faithful and of the Church as the Body of Christ.

Finally, liturgical law must enjoy the primacy among canonical norms, for it safeguards the most sacred realities in the Church. It is interesting to note that in his first Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, Pope John Paul II confronted the abuse of the essentially personal encounter with Christ in the Sacrament of Penance, reminding us both of the right of the penitent to such an encounter and the right of Christ Himself,[57] and that in his last Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia, he addressed urgently abuses of the Church’s discipline regarding the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.[58] In Ecclesia de Eucharistia, he declared:

I consider it my duty, therefore, to appeal urgently that the liturgical norms for the celebration of the Eucharist be observed with great fidelity. These norms are a concrete expression of the authentically ecclesial nature of the Eucharist; this is their deepest meaning. Liturgy is never anyone’s private property, be it of the celebrant or of the community in which the mysteries are celebrated. The Apostle Paul had to address fiery words to the community of Corinth because of grave shortcomings in their celebration of the Eucharist resulting in divisions (schismata) and the emergence of factions (haereses) (cf. 1 Cor 11:17-34). Our time, too, calls for a renewed awareness and apprecaiton of liturgical norms as a reflection of, and a witness to, the one universal Church made present in every celebration of the Eucharist. Priests who faithfully celebrate Mass according to the liturgical norms, and communities which conform to those norms, quietly but eloquently demonstrate their love for the Church.[59]

As is always the case, knowledge and observance of canonical discipline frees us from the false impression that we must make the Sacred Liturgy interesting or stamp it with our personality, and frees us to be instruments by which Christ, the Good Shepherd, is present among His people and the action of the Sacred Liturgy bears His stamp alone.

Conclusion

It is my hope that these few reflections may help us to understand the key, indeed essential, service of canon law to the work of the new evangelization. There are, to be sure, many other fruitful avenues of reflection on the subject. It must be clear that the remaking of the Christian fabric of the Church, which is necessary for the mending of the Christian fabric of society, will have as a fundamental element a new knowledge of and respect for the laws of the Church.

I conclude with the exhortation with which the Venerable, soon to be Blessed, Pope John Paul II concluded the Apostolic Constitution Sacrae Disciplinae Leges:

I therefore exhort all the faithful to observe the proposed legislation with a sincere spirit and good will in the hope, that there may flower again in the Church a renewed discipline and that consequently the salvation of souls may be rendered ever more easy under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.[60]

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
28 March 2011 – Monday of the Third Week of Lent

BEAUTY IN THE SACRED LITURGY,
ACCORDING TO THE TEACHING OF POPE BENEDICT XVI

Introduction

First of all, I wish to thank His Grace, Archbishop Willem Jacobus Eijk, and the Dutch Association for Latin Liturgy for the invitation to celebrate the Holy Mass and to speak at the Annual General Meeting of the Association. In a special way, I wish to commend the Association for all that it is doing to promote the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy in Latin, the mother tongue of the Church, in accord with the directives of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.[1] Your dedication in the promotion of the Sacred Liturgy is especially important in today’s culture which has grown so secular and, therefore, forgetful of God and of His living presence with us in the Church, especially through the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy.

It is my hope that my words, today, will confirm the work of the Association and also offer some measure of inspiration to you in carrying forward the same work. Above all, I hope that my words will, in some manner, lead all of us to a more profound and grateful appreciation of our life in Christ in His Mystical Body, the Church. There is nothing more beautiful in the world than the life of Christ within us through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, especially in the Sacraments. I hope that our time together today will lift up our minds to contemplate the extraordinary nature of our ordinary life in the Church, informed by sound doctrine, nourished through the Sacraments and their extension in our prayer and devotion, and lived in the practice of the virtues.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is Truth, Beauty and Goodness Incarnate. Living completely and faithfully in Him, we encounter, especially through the sacred liturgy, the True, the Beautiful and the Good.

Living in Christ, we live in communion with each member of the Church, in every part of the world and in every period of time. Indeed, we participate in the Communion of Saints. Like Mary of Bethany, we, encountering the Lord living for us in the Church, wish to offer to Him our worship; we wish to give glory to Him by the very best means at our disposition.[2]

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI who is an extraordinary teacher of the faith has devoted himself, both as a theologian and as a shepherd of the flock, to teaching about the sacred liturgy, as the highest and best expression of our life in Christ. His teaching is certainly a most fitting instrument for our reflection today. In my exposition of his liturgical theology, I wish, first, to present some philosophical principles on beauty and sacred art, and then reflect on beauty in the sacred liturgy according to his teaching, with special reference to sacred music.

Philosophical Principles

In the Catholic tradition, beauty is a metaphysical and ultimately theological notion. The search of beauty has nothing to do with mere aesthetic sensibility or a flight from reason, because, from the divine perspective, beauty, together with truth and goodness, is a manifestation of being. God, the origin and sustainer of all being is truth, beauty and goodness itself. In the language of metaphysics, truth, beauty and goodness are the “transcendentals.” In other words, to the degree that any reality participates in being and ultimately in the being of God, that reality is true, beautiful and good.

In the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church we find an extraordinary declaration which summarizes the theological notion of beauty. It is especially noteworthy that the text in question is found in the section of the Compendium which treats the Eighth Commandment: “You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor.” In response to question no. 526, “What relationship exists between truth, beauty and sacred art?,” the Compendium declares:

The truth is beautiful, carrying in itself the splendour of spiritual beauty. In addition to the expression of the truth in words there are other complementary expressions of the truth, most specifically in the beauty of artistic works. These are the fruit both of talents given by God and of human effort. Sacred art by being true and beautiful should evoke and glorify the mystery of God made visible in Christ, and lead to the adoration and love of God, the Creator and Savior, who is the surpassing, invisible Beauty of Truth and Love.[3]

The beauty of sacred art is always a fruit of a deeper knowledge and love of God in Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Who is all beautiful.[4]

In the context of modern and contemporary western culture, it is precisely the transcendent dimension of beauty, as interchangeable with truth and goodness, which is contested. In the rationalist thinking which has exercised so strong an influence in contemporary western culture, beauty has been stripped of its metaphysical meaning; it has been “emancipated” from the order of being and reduced to an aesthetic experience or indeed to a matter of feeling. The disastrous consequences of this revolution are not limited to the world of art. Rather, along with the loss of beauty, we have also lost goodness and truth. The good is now determined by what pleases the individual or group in power, such that what I determine is good, according to my preference and convenience, can mean destruction for another or for the world around. At the same time, there is the pretense that the individual determines what is true for him, so that the individual determines when human life begins or what constitutes marriage and the family.

One of the most painful results of the contemporary alienation of beauty from the good and the true is an aesthetics which rejects anything beautiful as a deception and holds that only the representation of what is crude, vulgar and low corresponds to the truth. A similar aesthetics has had an effect on the sacred liturgy, as well as on sacred art and architecture. The great tradition of Catholic art, architecture, language, music and gesture in which the Church’s forms of prayer and worship have been expressed, are now often met, even within the Church, with a similar distrust and suspicion. It has not been a rare thing to hear that beauty is not an appropriate category of the Church’s worship.

In the false interpretation of the liturgical reform mandated by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, the destruction of beautiful altar pieces and statuary, for example, in some parts of the Church was justified. I need not dwell on what happened to sacred music in the post-Conciliar period. The corrosion worked by such thinking in the Church seems to be a manifestation of the perennial temptation of iconoclasm, which has beset the Church repeatedly down the Christian centuries. According to such thinking, what is ugly appeals because of its honesty and simplicity.

In an essay on beauty, written in 2002, the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger reflected on Psalm 44[45], which “describes the wedding of the King, his beauty, his virtues, his mission, and then becomes an exaltation of his bride.”[5] He goes on to explain:

[T]he Church reads this psalm as a poetic-prophetic representation of Christ’s spousal relationship with his Church. She recognizes Christ as the fairest of men, the grace poured upon his lips points to the inner beauty of his words, the glory of his proclamation. So it is not merely the external beauty of the Redeemer’s appearance that is glorified: rather, the beauty of Truth appears in him, the beauty of God himself who draws us to himself and, at the same time, captures us with the wound of Love, the holy passion (eros), that enables us to go forth together, with and in the Church his Bride, to meet the Love who calls us.[6]

It is the same Christ to Whom the Church, remembering His Passion, applies the words of Isaiah 53:2: “He had neither beauty, nor majesty, nothing to attract our eyes, no grace to make us delight in him.” In the suffering Christ, we come to know that “the beauty of truth also embraces offence, pain, and even the dark mystery of death, and that this can only be found in accepting suffering, not in ignoring it.” Hence Pope Benedict XVI speaks of a “paradoxical beauty,” which implies not a contradiction but a contrast. The totality of Christ’s beauty is revealed to us when we contemplate the disfigured image of the crucified Saviour, which shows us his “love to the end.”[7]

We, therefore, learn to contemplate the redemptive beauty of Christ, crucified and glorified, which shines forth with particular splendor in the saints and is also reflected in the works of art the faith has generated. The great masterpieces of sacred art and sacred music have the power to lift our hearts to higher things and lead us beyond ourselves to God, Who is Beauty itself. It is the Holy Father’s conviction that this encounter is “the true apology of the Christian faith.”[8]

Sacred Art and the Sacred Liturgy

For the Church, beauty is manifested most fully and perfectly in the sacred liturgy, in the sacramental encounter with the living Christ Who dwells within the Church through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Pope Benedict, during his visit to the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz in Austria in September 2007, exhorted the priests and consecrated persons with these words:

I ask you to celebrate the sacred liturgy with your gaze fixed on God within the communion of saints, the living Church of every time and place, so that it will truly be an expression of the sublime beauty of the God who has called men and women to be his friends![9]

His words apply to all who have been brought to life in Christ and, therefore, worship God the Father “in spirit and truth.”[10]

Pope Benedict XVI emphasized beauty in the sacred liturgy in his Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis of 2007. He wrote:

This relationship between creed and worship is evidenced in a particular way by the rich theological and liturgical category of beauty. Like the rest of Christian Revelation, the liturgy is inherently linked to beauty: it is veritatis splendor. The liturgy is a radiant expression of the paschal mystery, in which Christ draws us to himself and calls us to communion. As Saint Bonaventure would say, in Jesus we contemplate beauty and splendor at their source. This is no mere aestheticism, but the concrete way in which the truth of God’s love in Christ encounters us, attracts us and delights us, enabling us to emerge from ourselves and drawing us towards our true vocation, which is love. God allows himself to be glimpsed first in creation, in the beauty and harmony of the cosmos (cf. Wis13:5; Rom 1:19-20). In the Old Testament we see many signs of the grandeur of God’s power as he manifests his glory in his wondrous deeds among the Chosen People (Ex 14; 16:10; 24:12-18; Nm 14:20-23). In the New Testament this epiphany of beauty reaches definitive fulfillment in God’s revelation in Jesus Christ: Christ is the full manifestation of the glory of God. In the glorification of the Son, the Father’s glory shines forth and is communicated (cf. Jn 1:14; 8:54; 12:28; 17:1). Yet this beauty is not simply a harmony of proportion and form; “the fairest of the sons of men” (Ps 45[44]:3) is also, mysteriously, the one “who had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Is 53:2). Jesus Christ shows us how the truth of love can transform even the dark mystery of death into the radiant light of the resurrection. Here the splendor of God’s glory surpasses all worldly beauty. The truest beauty is the love of God, who definitively revealed himself to us in the paschal mystery.[11]

In his treatise on the Sacred Liturgy, The Spirit of the Liturgy, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger addressed the incongruity of any form of art which is “completely free expression,” that is, which is without reference to the objective order of things. He declares: “No sacred art can come from an isolated subjectivity.”[12]

Sacred art at the service of the sacred liturgy is, therefore, fundamentally an expression of faith. I call to mind visiting, for the first time, a cathedral constructed during the last decade, whose architect was, in fact a non-believer. Concelebrating the Holy Mass within the cathedral, I was struck by the peculiarity of a number of the furnishings in the sanctuary. The ambo seemed especially peculiar to me. When I asked an Auxiliary Bishop from the diocese in question about the furnishings, he responded that I needed to understand that the principle of the architecture of the cathedral was asymmetry. He assured me that my reaction was justified because everything in the building is meant ultimately, in accord with the principle of asymmetry, “to throw me off.” I could only comment that it seemed strange to me to construct a temple to the God of order and harmony by employing an architecture of asymmetry.

In truth, it seems fundamentally unjust to ask an architect or artist, who does not enjoy the gift of faith, to design a Catholic church or any of its furnishings. At best, he can mechanically imitate the work of another who has the faith; at worst, his art will express something other than faith and, even, perhaps contrary to the faith. The then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote:

Without faith there is no art commensurate with the liturgy. Sacred art stands beneath the imperative stated in the second epistle to the Corinthians. Gazing at the Lord, we are “changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (3:18).[13]

He then urges that the Church, recognizing that sacred art is a gift which is received and not manufactured by the artist, foster “a faith that sees.”[14]

The beauty of the liturgy is manifested concretely through material objects and bodily gestures, which man – a unity of soul and body – needs to elevate himself toward the realities of faith that transcend the visible world. This means that sacred architecture and sacred art, including sacred furnishing, vestments, vessels and linens, must be of such quality that they can express and communicate the beauty and majesty of the liturgy as the action of Christ in our midst, uniting heaven to earth. The Venerable, soon to be Blessed, Pope John Paul II, in his last Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia of 2003, recalled the biblical foundation of the Church’s concern for the beauty of her divine worship, namely, the account of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany:

A woman, whom John identifies as Mary the sister of Lazarus, pours a flask of costly ointment over Jesus’ head, which provokes from the disciples – and from Judas in particular (cf. Mt 26:8; Mk 14:4; Jn 12:4) – an indignant response, as if this act, in light of the needs of the poor, represented an intolerable “waste.” But Jesus’ own reaction is completely different. While in no way detracting from the duty of charity towards the needy, for whom the disciples must always show special care – “the poor you will always have with you” (Mt 26:11; Mk 14:7; cf. Jn 12:8) – he looks towards his imminent death and burial, and sees this act of anointing as an anticipation of the honour which his body will continue to merit even after his death, indissolubly bound as it is to the mystery of his person.[15]

This story, above all, illustrates that care for the beauty of churches and for everything employed in the Sacred Liturgy is a connatural expression of love for God.

Even in a place in which the Church does not have great material resources, this should be a priority. In this regard, I refer to Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758), one of the great popes of the 18th century, who wrote these words in his Encylical Letter Annus Qui, dedicated to sacred music:

We do not intend, with these words, to insist on sumptuous or magnificent accoutrements for holy buildings, nor on rich or expensive furnishings. We are aware these are not everywhere possible. What we wish is decency and cleanliness. These can go hand in hand with poverty and can be adapted to it.[16]

The history of the Church is, in fact, rich with examples of great sacrifices made by persons of modest economic means, so that they could provide for the construction of truly beautiful churches, with sculptures in wood and marble, stained-glass windows, and vestments and linens of high quality.

“Faith that sees” is critical to the appreciation of the immense treasure of beauty, which previous generations have left us in their remarkable works of sacred art and architecture. The great cathedrals and churches all around the world are not just cultural monuments. They are, first and foremost, testimonies of the Catholic faith. The then Cardinal Ratzinger, in his masterwork, The Spirit of the Liturgy, observed:

The great cultural tradition of the faith is home to a presence of immense power. What in museums is only a monument from the past, an occasion for mere nostalgic admiration, is constantly made present in the liturgy in all its freshness.[17]

During his apostolic visit to France, Pope Benedict was inspired to a similar reflection during his Homily for Vespers on September 12, 2008, in the magnificent Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, which he described as “a living hymn of stone and light in praise of that act, unique in the annals of human history: the eternal Word of God entering our history in the fullness of time to redeem us by his self-offering in the sacrifice of the Cross.”[18] The Cathedral of Notre-Dame is truly an architectural hymn in praise of the mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God in the Blessed Virgin Mary. As Pope Benedict XVI recalled, it was in the same cathedral that the poet Paul Claudel (1868-1955) had a singular experience of the beauty of God, during the singing of the Magnificat of the Vespers of Christmas in 1886, which led to his conversion to the Catholic faith.[19] It must not escape us that the via pulchritudinis, the way of beauty, is a significant and irreplaceable way for the proclamation of God to a culture beset by secularism and materialism.

Sacred Music and the Beauty of the Sacred Liturgy

The then Cardinal Ratzinger places the discussion of sacred music in the Church in the context of the relationship between the Church and contemporary culture, on which we have already reflected in the consideration of philosophical principles. As I have noted in the discussion of the philosophical principles, the growing division between faith and culture, from the time of the Enlightenment, presents a particular challenge for sacred music. The then Cardinal Ratzinger notes that, notwithstanding the struggle with a growing secularism, especially “during the second half of the nineteenth century as well as at the beginning of the twentieth century,” “great things were accomplished that can be placed beside the main trend in culture at that time since they are of completely equal rank.”[20] Among those accomplishments, also reflective of the spirit of the time, was “the rediscovery and renewal of Gregorian chant and great polyphonic church music.”[21]

He notes that art itself is destroyed in a culture which has become completely secularized, for art is detached from beauty and its source in God. He observes the phenomenon of music dividing itself “into two worlds that hardly have anything to do with each other any more”: 1) “the music of the masses, which, with the label ‘pop’ or popular music, would like to portray itself as the music of the people;” and 2) “a rationally construed, artificial music with the highest technical requirements which is hardly capable of reaching out beyond a small, elite circle.”[22]

Noting that the Church must engage in a dialogue with the cultural situation, Pope Benedict XVI rightly observes that the dialogue must be true, that is, it must be two-way:

When people rightly call for a new dialogue between Church and culture today, they must not forget in the process that this dialogue must necessarily be bilateral. It cannot consist in the Church finally subjecting itself to modern culture, which has been caught up to a large extent in a process of self-doubt since it lost its religious base. Just as the Church must expose herself to the problems of our age in a radically new way, so too must culture be questioned anew about its groundlessness and its ground, and in the process be opened to a painful cure, that is, to a new reconciliation with religion since it can get is lifeblood only from there.[23]

It is evident that sacred music must play a central role in the questioning of the culture by faith, in the new evangelization of culture.

The then Cardinal Ratzinger, in fact, sees sacred music as a part of the great challenge of the Church today. He declares:

For this reason the issue of church music is really a very vital piece of a comprehnesive task for our age which requires more than mere dialogue; it requires a process of rediscovering ourselves.[24]

It, in no way, seems to be an exaggeration to believe that the service of sacred music in the worship of God, in accord with the principles set forth perennially in the Church’s teaching and discipline, indeed helps our culture to rediscover itself.

The Church, Mother and Teacher, witnesses, in our society, man’s profound hunger and thirst for God, his desire to know the ground of his being in the act of boundless and ceaseless love of God for him, the love which has reached its perfect and lasting expression in the Redemptive Incarnation of God the Son, Who is alive for us in His Mystical Body, the Church. The signs of the hunger and thirst are manifold and sometimes quite surprising. I think, for instance, of the great popularity of the compact disks of Gregorian Chant sung by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey at Silos in Spain. I recall reading how popular these CDs were among the motorcyclists of America. More than likely, these devotees of motorcycling knew little about the music to which they were listening, but it conveyed something to their souls which the rock or country music, to which they may have usually listened, did not and could not.

The Biblical Norm for Sacred Music

In addressing the important service of sacred music in worship, Pope Benedict XVI directs us to find the authoritative norm in the Sacred Scriptures, in particular, in the Book of Psalms. He observes:

A first approach to the topic [of music in worship] presents itself if we recall that the Bible contains its own hymnal: the Psalter, which was not only born from the practice of singing and playing musical instruments during worship but also contains by itself – in the practice, the live performance – essential elements of a theory of music in faith and for faith.[25]

Because of the unique function of the Psalter as a bridge between the Law and the Prophets, as well as a bridge between the Old and the New Testaments, the Psalms provide an authoritative key to an understanding of sacred music in our time. In fact, it is not by accident that the Psalms remain central to Christian worship, for Christ brings to the fullness of expression these divinely-inspired songs of King David.

The Holy Father selects a verse of Psalm 47, which Saint Jerome translated, “psallite sapienter,”as the starting point for understanding the profound teaching on sacred music, which is inherent to the Psalms as a living music offered for the worship of God and the sanctification of the singers. After a thorough study of the verse and of the meaning of “psallite,” in general, he is able to draw the following conclusions.

First, the imperative to “make a psalm wisely,” which is found throughout the Sacred Scriptures, “is the concrete version of the call to worship and glorify God which is revealed in the Bible as the most profound vocation of human beings.[26] “Making a psalm refers, first of all, to singing, but also to the use of instruments : in which, as it were, creation is made to sound.”[27] It is, in the words of the then Cardinal Ratzinger, “necessary for responding to God, who touches us precisely in the totality of our being.”[28]

Secondly, “[t]he musical imperative of the Bible is therefore not entirely unspecified but refers to a form that biblical faith gradually created for itself as the appropriate mode of its expression.”[29] Here, one sees clearly the contribution which the development of sacred music, in every time, is called to make to the culture in which the Church finds itself. Since the Redemptive Incarnation, sacred music serves the worship of God, worship through, with and in God the Son Incarnate. Regarding his second conclusion, the then Cardinal Ratzinger notes the definitive transformation of the Biblical imperative, which makes it ever new in the Church:

But the truly new, which had hitherto been merely awaited, happened only now, in the mystery of Jesus Christ. The “new song” praises his death and resurrection and hence proclaims God’s new deed to the whole world: that he himself has descended into the anguish of the human state and into the pit of death; that he embraces all of us on the cross with his stretched-out arms and, as the Risen One, takes us up to the Father across the abyss of the infinite divide separating creator and creature, which only crucified love can cross. Thus, the old song has become new and must be sung as such over and over again.[30]

It is Christ Himself, by the mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation, Who makes possible the encounter of His Mystical Body with culture in such a way that a song ever new is sung to the Father in the Church.

Thirdly, the qualifier, “sapienter,” that is wisely or with reason, means that sacred music expresses the Word spoken by God, both in creation and through the living Tradition of the Church. The form of sacred music, in other words, must be coherent with the Word of God. The then Cardinal Ratzinger observes:

There is an art form corresponding to God, who, from the beginning and in each life, is the creative Word which also gives meaning. This art form stands under the primacy of logos; that is, it integrates the diversity of the human being from the perspective of this being’s highest moral and spiritual powers, but in this way it also leads the spirit out of rationalistic and voluntaristic confinement into the symphony of creation.[31]

Put simply, sacred music must be coherent with the Word of God handed on to us in the Church.

The word, “sapienter,” is also understood to mean “with art,” in other words, sacred music demands the exercise of man’s “highest abilities,” so that his art, “according to the extent of [his] ability,” corresponds with “the complete dignity of the beautiful, the height of true ‘art’.”[32] The biblical analogue of sacred music is found in the teaching on “the construction of the sacred tabernacle” in the Book of Exodus. [33] Three elements are identified in the instruction.

First of all, “[a]rtistic creation reproduces what God has shown as model,” or, in other words, it is not the invention of man. In the words of the then Cardinal Ratzinger, “artistic creativeness in the book of Exodus is seeing together with God, participating in his creativity; it is exposing the beauty that is already waiting and concealed in creation.”[34]

Secondly, “artists are described as people to whom the Lord has given understanding and skill so that they can carry out what God has instructed them to do.”[35] The work of the artist is, therefore, a supreme act of obedience, conforming his gifts to the instruction given to him by God.

Finally, the Book of Exodus tells us that every sacred artist’s “heart was stirred.”[36] In other words, the Spirit of God is at work in the mind, heart and hand of the artist to give glory to God and to edify His sons and daughters.

The then Cardinal Ratzinger concludes his analysis with these words:

For church music this means that everything the Old Testament has to say about art – its necessity, its essence, and its dignity – is concealed in the bene cantare of the psalms.[37]

Sacred music, that is, music written for the sacred work of giving worship to God and sanctifying the faithful, by definition, must be a work which begins in obedience to God’s Word and is brought to conclusion with the help of His grace.

Conclusions for Sacred Music Today

The then Cardinal Ratzinger draws, from his study of the relationship of the Church to culture in what pertains to sacred music, three practical conclusions for today. First of all, sacred music must avoid any form of aestheticism, that is, a notion of music which excludes service of the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Cardinal Ratzinger declares regarding aestheticism:

The philosophy at work here belies the creaturely determination of the human being; it would like to elevate the human person to the level of a pure creator. But in this way it leads the human person into untruth, into contradiction with his or her own nature; untruth, however, always drifts into the disintegration of what is creative.[38]

According to the Christian understanding, however, “it belongs to the essence of human beings that they come from God’s ‘art,’ that they themselves are a part of God’s art and as perceivers can think and view God’s creative ideas with him and translate them into the visible and the audible.”[39]

The norms of sacred art and architecture, set forth in the Book of Exodus, therefore, always apply to any art at the service of the worship of God and the sanctification of the faithful. Music, for example, which does not serve the articulation of the texts of the sacred liturgy cannot be truly sacred music. Music which may have a certain integrity and beauty but which distracts from the inherently sacred action of the liturgy, drawing attention to itself alone or directing itself to human sentiments and emotions which distract from the worship of God cannot be sacred music.

Secondly, “pastoral pragmatism, which is only looking for success, is also incompatible with the mission of Church music.”[40] The then Cardinal Ratzinger specifically mentions rock music which has been introduced into the sacred liturgy through a certain pragmatic approach, noting that its “radical anthropological opposition to both faith’s image of human beings and its cultural intent has been amply and competently elucidated by others.”[41] The then Cardinal Ratzinger concludes:

Is it a pastoral success when we are capable of following the trend of mass culture and thus share in the blame for its making people immature or irresponsible? The medium of communication and the communicated message must stand in a meaningful relationship with each other…. Trivializing faith is not a new inculturation, but the denial of its culture and prostitution with the nonculture. [42]

The then Cardinal Ratzinger distinguishes ‘pop’ music from folk music which is able to provide a service to the Sacred Liturgy, if it is purified and elevated, in accord with the essential qualities of sacred music, as set forth by Pope Saint Pius X, in accord with the constant tradition of the Church, that is, the qualities of holiness, beauty and universality.[43]

Finally, the Church must embrace the challenge presented by contemporary culture with confidence and with a steadfast adherence to the faith and what it demands of us. The then Cardinal Ratzinger observed that, first of all, the conversation between the Church and the culture in the matter of sacred music will certainly be challenging, even as the dialogue with culture, in general, presents, in our time, many and difficult challenges. He reminds us, however, that we are not in the situation of the early Church which found it necessary to reduce “church music to the Psalms,” because in the intervening centuries “an infinitely larger trove of music that is really appropriate has become available.”[44] The fact of the trove of Gregorian Chant, Sacred Polyphony and worthy hymnody should give us courage in striving for the most worthy music possible in the service of the worship of God and the sanctification of the faithful.

The then Cardinal Ratzinger reminds us that the courage to address the challenge of sacred music in our time must, however, be accompanied by an asceticism, by what he called “the courage to contradict.”[45] As he clearly observes, such steadfast asceticism is the condition of the possibility of a true creativity in authoring sacred music in our time. It is the asceticism, I suggest which keeps ever before our eyes the essential qualities of sacred music, that is, holiness, beauty and universality. The then Cardinal Ratzinger encouraged us with these words:

We are sure, however, that the creative potency of faith will suffice right up to the end of time: until all of the dimensions of the human state have been traversed.[46]

Conclusion

I hope that this modest study of beauty in the sacred liturgy and specifically in sacred music, according to the teaching of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has made clear the connaturality of beauty with the sacred liturgy. Following the example of the first disciples who were attentive to the worthy celebration of the sacred liturgy, as Saint Paul, for example, gives witness in the First Letter to the Corinthians,[47] and also our ancestors in the faith, throughout the Christian centuries, who were dedicated to provide for the most worthy and most beautiful celebration of the sacred liturgy, also at the cost of great sacrifices, we must dedicate ourselves tirelessly to the reform of the reform of the sacred liturgy, in order that it may be always more perfectly the worship of God and procure always more surely the sanctification of the faithful. The constant effort to sing “with wisdom,” for example, is at the heart of the worship of God and leads to always greater holiness of life.

As the then Cardinal Ratzinger teaches us, we must take up the way of the reform of the reform with steadfastness and confident joy. If we keep before our eyes the true nature of the sacred liturgy, as worship of God and sanctification of the faithful, and the essential qualities of the art which is at the service of the sacred liturgy, that is, holiness, beauty and universality, we will continue giving faithful and efficacious witness to the Mystery of Faith, to the mystery of the living presence of the Son of God Incarnate in our midst. The way will remain always demanding as it has been throughout the entire history of the Church, especially in times of iconoclasm.

The education of children, young people and adults in the true nature of the sacred liturgy and the irreplaceable service of sacred art and specifically of sacred music in the celebration of the sacred liturgy is essential. Regarding sacred music, it is essential to cultivate the great patrimony of Gregorian Chant, of Sacred Polyphony and of worthy hymnody. The teaching of sacred music should be accompanied by the experience of its most outstanding manifestations.

In a special way, the formation of priests should include an education in the arts which are always at the service of the sacred liturgy. Seminarians, for example, ought to be introduced to sacred music which is truly at the service of the sacred liturgy. As priests they will be critically involved with sacred music both through the involvement of their own voices and through the direction which they give to ecclesial musicians. Seminarians, when they are introduced to the rich patrimony of liturgical music, will, as priests, be duly attentive to the service of sacred music in the worthy celebration of the Mystery of Faith.

Finally, I cannot conclude without noting the solemn responsibility of Bishops, as true shepherds of the flock, in communion with the Roman Pontiff, to give institutional support to the sacred arts in service of the sacred liturgy. Bishops ought to be certain that, in their jurisdiction, the norms of the Church which pertain to the sacred liturgy and the sacred arts are being followed with integrity. Moreover, it is essential that they promote the knowledge of such norms, also through institutions of education, and the respect for those who are dedicated to the service of the sacred liturgy, according to the same norms.

I close with words of Pope Benedict XVI, at the conclusion of a concert offered during his visit to the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music at Rome, on October 13, 2007. They are words regarding sacred music, which underline for us the beauty which is connatural with the sacred liturgy:

How rich is the biblical and patristic tradition in underlining the efficaciousness of chant and of sacred music for moving hearts and elevating them to enter into, so to speak, the very intimacy of the life of God! Well aware of this, John Paul II observed that, today as always, three characteristics distinguish sacred liutrigcal music: “holiness,” “true art,” “universality,” the possibility that is of being proposed to any people or type of assembly (cf. Chirograph “Mosso dal vivo desiderio” of November 22, 2003). Exactly in view of this, ecclesiastical authority must engage itself in directing wisely the development of such a demanding genre of music, not “freezing” its treasure, but searching to insert into the heritage of the past the valid new offerings of the present, in order to achieve a synthesis worthy of the high mission reserved for it in the divine service.[48]

Thank you!

Raymond Leo Cardinale Burke
Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

Epistle: 2 Cor 6:1-10
Gradual: Ps 90:11-12
Gospel: Mt 4:1-11

HOMILY

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and for ever. Amen.

At the beginning of the Lenten Season, the Church proclaims to us the inspired words of Saint Paul: “Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation.”[1] Saint Paul exhorts us not to render vain the gift of God’s grace given to us through the Sacrament of Baptism, strengthened and increased in us through the Sacrament of Confirmation, nourished by the heavenly food of Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity through the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist, and restored in us through the Sacrament of Penance. His exhortation applies to every moment of our lives but, in a special way, to the Season of Lent, during which Our Lord provides us with strong grace for the faithful and generous living of our life in Christ.

Pope Saint Leo the Great, in his Fourth Sermon for the Season of Lent, reminds us of the great importance of our annual time of prayer and penance in preparation for the celebration of the holiest days of the year, the days on which God the Son Incarnate, Our Lord Jesus Christ, accomplished our eternal salvation. Let us listen to the words of his sermon:

It is true that our devotion and reverence towards so great a mystery should be kept up during the whole year, and we ourselves should be at all times, in the eyes of God, the same as we are bound to be at the Easter solemnity. But this is an effort which only few among us have the courage to sustain. The weakness of the flesh induces us to relax our austerities; the various occupations of every-day life take up our thoughts; and thus even the virtuous find their hearts clogged by this world’s dust. Hence it is that our Lord has most providentially given us these forty days, whose holy exercises should be to us a remedy, whereby to regain our purity of soul.[2]

The days of our Lenten retreat with Our Lord are directed to the identification of the ways in which we have, even in the littlest things, compromised our life in Christ; to the penance for the remission of our sins, and to the setting forth anew on the way of Christ with minds and hearts purified and strengthened.

Lest we doubt, in any way, the strong grace of the Lenten Season for the conversion of our lives to Christ, the Church proclaims to us, today, the account of the temptations of Our Lord, as He went into the desert for forty days to prepare Himself for His public ministry. In view of the great work of our eternal salvation, which He was directly undertaking by His public ministry and which would reach its fulfillment in His Passion, Death and Resurrection, His penance is most severe, forty days and forty nights of fasting and prayer in the desert. At the same time, in order that His faithful and enduring love of us might know no boundary whatsoever, at the end of the forty days and forty nights, he permitted Satan to tempt Him in the same way that He tempts us daily. By so doing, He shows us the power of His abiding presence in our midst, in the Church, to overcome sin in our lives and to win in us the victory of eternal life.

Abbot Prosper Guéranger, commenting on today’s Gospel, reminds us that the victory of Our Lord over the temptations of Satan are the source of our hope that the sins of our past need not be the pattern of our future. Making reference to the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews,[3] regarding Christ’s high priesthood, he writes:

When the apostle speaks of the wonderful mercy shown us by our divine Saviour, who vouchsafed to make Himself like to us in all things save sin, he justly lays stress on His temptations. He, who is very God, humbled Himself even so low as this, to prove how tenderly He compassionated us. Here, then we have the Saint of saints allowing the wicked spirit to approach Him, in order that we might learn, from His example, how we are to gain victory under temptation.[4]

As we follow the example of Christ’s penance in the desert, Christ Himself accompanies us during the forty days of our Lenten observance, pouring forth from His glorious pierced side, in abundance, the grace of conversion of life.

In his Message for Lent, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that the gift of God’s grace, given to us in Baptism, “must always be rekindled in each one of us, and Lent offers us a path like that of the catechumenate, which, for the Christians of the early Church, just as for catechumens today, is an irreplaceable school of faith and Christian life.”[5] Through our Lenten observance, with the help of Our Lord, we discover anew the great gift of His life within us and seek, through our fasting, almsgiving and prayer, to safeguard and foster our life in Him. Regarding the First Sunday of Lent, and especially the Gospel of the temptations of Our Lord in the desert, our Holy Father teaches us:

The First Sunday of the Lenten journey reveals our condition as human beings here on earth. The victorious battle against temptation, the starting point of Jesus’ mission, is an invitation to become aware of our own fragility, in order to accept the Grace that frees from sin and infuses new strength in Christ – the way, the truth and the life (cf. Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum, n. 25). It is a powerful reminder that Christian faith implies, following the example of Jesus and in union with him, a battle “against the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in the world” (Eph 6:12), in which the devil is at work and never tires – even today – of tempting whoever wishes to draw close to the Lord: Christ emerges victorious to open also our hearts to hope and guide us in overcoming the seductions of evil.[6]

The temptations with which Satan tried to beguile and ensnare Our Lord and with which he tries to make us his slaves are three, even as described in the First Epistle of Saint John:[7] “the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life.”[8]As Abbot Guéranger reminds us: “Every one of our sins comes from one of these three sources; every one of our temptations aims at making us accept the concupiscence of the flesh, or the concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life.”[9] For that reason, Our Lord subjected Himself to these very temptations, in order to show us and win for us the victory over sin in our lives.

Concupiscence of the flesh is “the love of sensual things, which covets whatever is agreeable to the flesh, and, when it is not curbed, draws the soul into unlawful pleasures.”[10] By our Lenten fast, we restrain the satisfaction of our earthly desires, learning, in the words of our Holy Father, “to look away from our ‘ego’, to discover Someone [Our Lord Jesus Christ] close to us and to recognize God in the face of so many brothers and sisters.”[11] Fasting disposes us to express our love of God in pure and selfless love of our neighbor.

Concupiscence of the eyes “expresses the love of the goods of the world, such as riches, and possessions; these dazzle the eye, and then seduce the heart.”[12] Our Lenten practice of almsgiving trains our heart to see the goods of this world as gifts given by God into our hands as His stewards for His glory and for the care of our brothers and sisters. In the words of our Holy Father, “[t]he practice of almsgiving is a reminder of God’s primacy and turns our attention towards others, so that we may rediscover how good our Father is, and receive his mercy.”[13]

“Pride of life is that confidence in ourselves, which leads us to be vain and presumptuous, and makes us forget that all we have, our life and every good gift, we have from God.”[14] Our Lenten prayer disposes us to the poverty of spirit by which we understand our total dependence upon God and, at the same time, are filled with confidence in His tender, all-generous, and never-failing love of us. In the words of our Holy Father, “when we pray, we find time for God, to understand that his ‘words will not pass away’ (cf. Mk 13:31), to enter into that intimate communion with Him ‘that no one shall take from you’ (Jn 16:22), opening us to the hope that does not disappoint, eternal life.”[15]

Let us pray, especially through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of Mother of Good Counsel, that our Lenten fasting, almsgiving and prayer, will draw us ever close to Our Lord Jesus Christ, alive in us from the moment of our baptism, accompanying us, with the abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit from His glorious pierced Heart, on every step of the way of our earthly pilgrimage home to God the Father. Let us pray that our Lenten observance may be the pattern of every day of our lives, so that we may show ourselves always to be true sons and daughters of God our Father, alive in His only-begotten Son, devoted in love of Him and of all our brothers and sisters, especially of those who are in most need. So may we be ready to celebrate with deepest joy the Paschal Mystery, the dying of Christ on the Cross and His Resurrection to eternal life, so that He, seated forever at the right hand of the Father, might pour out unceasingly His life for us from His glorious pierced Heart.

Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection, have mercy on us!
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Good Counsel, pray for us!
Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary and Guardian of the Redeemer, pray for us!
Saint Benedict of Nursia, pray for us!

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

Epistle: Is 58:9-14
Gradual: Ps 26:4
Gospel: Mk 6:27-56

HOMILY

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and for ever. Amen.

It is a source of deepest joy for me to celebrate the Holy Mass for so many members of the faithful in this important and historic church of the Archdiocese of Sydney. I am deeply grateful to His Eminence Cardinal George Pell for his warm welcome to the Archdiocese and to all who have worked so diligently in making the arrangements for today’s Solemn Pontifical Liturgy. I thank also Father John Pearce, Parish Priest, and all of the Passionist Fathers. I cannot fail to recall that it was during this month in 1888 that Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran came to the parish to celebrate solemnly the arrival of the Passionists in Marrickville.

It is providential that today’s celebration falls on the day when we keep the memory of Pope Saint Gregory the Great whose heroic pastoral charity toward the universal Church found its highest expression in his discipline of the Sacred Liturgy. As His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI reminded us, on the occasion of the promulgation of his Apostolic Letter, given motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, his own discipline and reform of the Sacred Liturgy follows in an unbroken line the reforms of Pope Saint Gregory the Great.[1] I cannot fail to mention also the timeless treasure of sacred music for our worship of God and our growth in holiness of life, which Pope Saint Gregory so much fostered. Recalling the memory of Pope Saint Gregory, let us also ask his intercession that the reform of the Sacred Liturgy, which Pope Benedict XVI has undertaken, will be faithfully received and implemented in the universal Church, so that the action of the Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacraments, above all, in the Holy Eucharist, may be ever more manifest for the glory of God and the salvation of many souls.

We celebrate, today, the Holy Mass for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday. Having just entered into the Season of Lent, strong in grace for the renewal of our Catholic faith and its practice in our daily living, we recognize the great challenge which is ours, so that our forty days in the desert with Our Lord will indeed produce in us the greater holiness of life, which is for our own salvation and the salvation of the world. Because the challenge is so great, we must be alert to the temptation to discouragement, one of Satan’s most powerful tools against our growth in holiness. Holy Mother Church, through the Holy Scriptures to which we have just listened, helps us to overcome the tendency to discouragement at the very beginning of Lent and to cooperate with the strong graces of the season, so that Christ may produce the abundant fruits of His grace in our lives.

In the account from the Gospel according to Mark, the Apostles are struggling against strong winds to row the ship and bring it to port. The work is most arduous, and they are discouraged and weary. When, in the midst of their struggle, Our Lord appears to them, they are, in fact, afraid and cry out. Our Lord immediately speaks to them and calms the winds. He reassuringly tells them: “Have a good heart, it is I, fear ye not.”[2]

As we begin our Lenten observance, we are conscious of how much we need to struggle in bringing greater order and, therefore, greater love, into our relationships with God, with our world, and with one another. The work of our Lenten conversion will be arduous, but we must not be discouraged or afraid, for Our Lord is with us, accompanying us and providing to us strong graces for such conversion of mind and heart. Through our Lenten fasting, almsgiving and prayer, He calms the waters of our lives and helps us to pilot our souls safely and securely to the port which is the heavenly Church, our true and eternal home.

Abbot Prosper Guéranger, in his commentary for today’s celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, draws our attention to the connection between Our Lord’s appearance to the Apostles, urging them to be of good courage and calming the sea, and the bringing of the sick to him for healing, once the ship had reached port. If, in the struggle of our Lenten observance, we become discouraged, the saintly Abbot urges us:

Let us not fear; it is He; He prays with us, fasts with us, and does all our works of mercy with us. Was it not He that first began these forty days of expiation? Let us keep our eyes fixed on Him, and be of good heart. If we grow tired, let us go to Him, as did the poor sick ones of whom our Gospel speaks. The very touch of His garments sufficed to restore health to such as had lost it; let us go to Him, in His adorable Sacrament; and the divine life, whose germ is already within us, will develop itself, and the energy, which was beginning to droop in our hearts, will regain all its vigour.[3]

Let us resolve, at the beginning of Lent, to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus[4] and, above all, to go to Him in the Most Blessed Sacrament, throughout the days of Lent, so that our observance does not grow weak because of the difficulties we face but rather remains strong for the conversion of our lives and the transformation of our world.

In his Message for Lent, Pope Benedict XVI has called us to reflect, in particular, on the life of Christ within us, since the time of our baptism, a moment in our personal history which is the unfailing and dynamic source of energy for the entirety of our earthly pilgrimage home to God the Father. He reminds us:

Hence, Baptism is not a rite from the past, but the encounter with Christ, which informs the entire existence of the baptized, imparting divine life and calling for sincere conversion; initiated and supported by Grace, it permits the baptized to reach the adult stature of Christ.[5]

Our Holy Father invites us to consider anew how our hearts, through Baptism, have been made one with the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus from which there never ceases to flow in abundance the living waters of the Holy Spirit. The grace of Baptism, strengthened and increased in Confirmation, is the dwelling of the Holy Spirit within us, so that, we, in turn, may be “rivers of living water”[6] for our brothers and sisters, especially those in most need.

We must, therefore, never give way to discouragement in following Our Lord on the way of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, but rather recognize His dwelling with us, above all, in the Holy Mass we now celebrate, and in the Sacrament of Penance, by which He receives the confession of our sins and forgives them. We, therefore, must be courageous, be “of good heart.” Through the Holy Mass, Christ makes present for us anew the outpouring of His life for our eternal salvation; He nourishes the life of the Holy Spirit within us by feeding us with the incomparable food which is His true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Through the Sacrament of Penance, Christ restores the life of the Holy Spirit within us, when it has been diminished, in any way, by our sins.

In the reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, God the Father instructs us in the fundamental disposition of soul, which both enables us to recognize His presence in our midst, most especially through the great mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation, and to live more fully in His company. God the Father Who is ceaseless and immeasurable in His love of us instructs us in the humility by which we discipline our will, our thoughts and affections, according to His will. If we undertake the Lenten penance, one in heart with the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the joy and peace of Christ will fill our hearts and His light will shine forth in the world, especially in the lives of our brothers and sisters in most need. Saint Brigid of Ireland, whose memory we honor in this historic church, is a model of the union of the Christian heart with the Heart of Jesus, which brings Christ’s light to others, especially to those who are suffering.

Abbot Guéranger expresses, in a wonderful way, the reassurance and encouragement offered to us by Our Lord through the Prophet Isaiah. He writes:

If we abound in good works during this holy season, in which we have taken leave of the distracting vanities of the world, the light of grace shall rise up even in the darkness which now clouds our soul. This soul which has been so long obscured by sin and by the love of the world and self, shall become bright as the noon-day; the glory of Jesus’ Resurrection shall be ours too; and, if we are faithful to grace, the Easter of time will lead us to the Easter of eternity.[7]

The saintly Abbot continues, exhorting us to humble confidence in taking up the challenging work of our Lenten observance:

Let, us, therefore, build up the places that have been so long desolate; let us raise up the foundations, repair the fences, turn away our feet from the violation of holy observances; do not our own ways and our own will in opposition to those of our divine Master; and then He will give us everlasting rest, and fill our soul with His own brightness.[8]

Because Christ accompanies us on our Lenten pilgrimage and, indeed, our entire life pilgrimage, we are, at one and the same time, humble and confident before the mystery of His love.

Let us pray, at the beginning of Lent, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of Mother of Divine Grace, that our Lenten pilgrimage will deepen our knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of His living presence with us in the Church, especially in the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Penance. Let us pray that, deepened in knowledge and love of our Lord, we may “be of good heart,” responding each day, with new engagement and new energy, to the strong graces of the Lenten season for the conversion of our lives and the salvation of the world.

Let us now lift up our hearts, so often doubtful and fearful and sinful, to the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, always open to receive us and to purify and strengthen us with the gift of His immeasurable and unceasing love. In the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus we find the unfailing truth and love to dispel doubt and fear, and to overcome sin in our lives. One in heart with the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the immeasurable “rivers of living water,” which never cease to flow from His Eucharistic Heart, will flow from our hearts for the sake of our brothers and sisters, especially those in most need.

Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who trust in You, have mercy on us!
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Divine Grace, pray for us!
Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary and Guardian of the Redeemer, pray for us!
Saint Brigid of Ireland, pray for us.

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

THE FALL OF THE CHRISTIAN WEST

Introduction

First of all, I wish to thank the Australian Catholic Students Association and Mr. Thomas Horsfall, President, in particular, for the invitation to speak with you about the crisis of Christian culture in our time. The title of my presentation describes an objective situation which we must acknowledge, but with the firm hope of transforming it. When Mr. Xavier O’Kane, your former National President, in November of 2009, invited me to speak to you, I learned that part of the mission of the Australian Catholic Students Association is “supporting and encouraging Catholic students in their spiritual, intellectual, pastoral, and human development of their faith, in seeking to build a Catholic culture to live in truth and charity.”[1] For that reason, I wanted to honor the invitation. It is my hope, in my own small way, to offer you, as individuals and as an association, support and encouragement in building a Catholic culture which indeed, by its very nature, will reverse the decline of Christian culture in the West.

I thank also His Eminence Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, for his warm and gracious hospitality in welcoming me to Sydney on my first visit to Australia, which, I hope, will not be my last. Before accepting Mr. O’Kane’s invitation, I clearly sought first the counsel of His Eminence who gave me every good encouragement. I am pleased to have the occasion to express publicly my deepest esteem and gratitude for his leadership in the work of the transformation of Christian culture, the work of the new evangelization, in Australia and throughout the Christian West. He is not only, as the title of an excellent biography declares, “Defender of the Faith Down Under,” but also, true to his office of Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, a defender of the faith in the universal Church. To illustrate the importance of the leadership given by Cardinal Pell, I point out that the biography in question has its proper edition in the United States of America, which was published two years after the original Australian edition and which I have had the pleasure to study.[2]

In my presentation tonight, I want to reflect with you on the crisis of Christian culture in the West and our call to build anew a strong Catholic culture, in fidelity to our vocation to give witness to Christ and, therefore, to be martyrs for the faith. First, I will set the context of the living of our Christian vocation in the present time, as presented to us by Pope Benedict XVI who urges us to study again, in particular, the moral teaching of His saintly predecessor, the Venerable, soon to be Blessed, Pope John Paul II. I will, then, present briefly the teaching of Pope John Paul II on holiness of life as the program of the new evangelization. Drawing upon the teaching of both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, I will give particular attention to the witness to the truth regarding human sexuality, as fundamental to holiness of life, and to the question of conscience as the irreplaceable and secure guide in the pursuit of holiness of life. The final part of my presentation is a reflection on witness as martyrdom and the various forms which it takes.

The Present Context: Decline of the Christian West

Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2010 Christmas Address to the College of Cardinals, the Roman Curia and the Governorate of Vatican City State, spoke clearly and strongly about the profoundly disordered moral state in which our world finds itself, today. He spoke about the grave evils of our time, for example, the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy, the marketing of child pornography, sexual tourism, and the deadly abuse of drugs.

One also thinks of other most grievous moral evils of our time, for instance, the plague of procured abortion, the wholesale murder of the unborn in the womb, justified as the exercise of the so-called right of the mother to choose whether to bring to term the baby she has conceived. More and more, too, we face the abhorrent practices of the artificial generation of human life and its destruction, at the embryonic stage of development, which are justified as the means to find supposed cures for crippling or deadly diseases. I cannot fail to mention also the so-called “mercy killing” of those who have the first title to our care, our brothers and sisters who have grown weak through advanced years, grave illness or special needs, which is justified as respect for the quality of their lives. One necessarily thinks, too, of the ever advancing agenda of those who want to redefine marriage and family life to include the unnatural sexual union of two persons of the same sex, which is justified as tolerance of so-called alternative forms of human sexuality, as if there were a true form of human sexuality other than that intended by God, our Creator and Redeemer, as He has written it in our body and soul.

Regarding the grave evils which beset the world, in our day, Pope Benedict XVI declared that they are all signs of “the tyranny of mammon which perverts mankind” and that they result from “a fatal misunderstanding of freedom which actually undermines man’s freedom and ultimately destroys it.”[3] They are manifestations, to be sure, of a way of living, to use the words of the Venerable, soon to be Blessed, Pope John Paul II, “as if God did not exist.”[4]

They are a manifestation of sin at its root, which is pride, the pride of man who fails to recognize that all that he is and has comes from the hand of God Who has created us and has redeemed us, after the sin of our First Parents. They are a manifestation of the foolishness of seeking our freedom other than in the will of God and thus making ourselves slaves to creaturely realities. That foolishness manifests itself in a most distressing way in a culture of addictions, in which we seek our freedom and happiness in some creaturely reality and, when we do not find them there, as indeed we never can, we, in our pride, instead of turning in obedience to God, enslave ourselves more and more to the same creature, for example, alcohol, food, sexual promiscuity or pornography, until the creature destroys us.

Pope Benedict XVI’s words in his Christmas Address of last year are redolent of the powerful pastoral concern which he expressed in his homily during the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff, celebrated before the conclave during which he was elected to the See of Peter. He spoke of how the “the thought of many Christians” has been tossed about, in our time, by various “ideological currents,” observing that we are witnesses to the “human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error,” about which Saint Paul wrote in his Letter to the Ephesians.[5] He noted that, in our time, those who live according to “a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church” are viewed as extremists, while relativism, that is, “letting oneself be ‘tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine’,” is extolled.[6] Regarding the source of the grave moral evils of our time, he concluded: “We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.”[7]

The Ideological Foundations of the Decline

In his 2010 Christmas Address, reflecting on the grave evils which are destroying us as individuals and as a society, and which have generated a culture marked predominantly by violence and death, the Holy Father reminded us that, if we, with the help of God’s grace, are to overcome the grave evils of our time, “we must turn our attention to their ideological foundations.”[8] He then identified directly and unequivocally the ideology which fosters these evils: a perversion of ethos, of the moral norm, which has even entered into the thinking of some theologians in the Church.

Referring to one of the more shocking manifestations of the ideology, namely, the so-called moral position that the sexual abuse of children by adults is actually good for the children and for the adults, he declared:

It was maintained – even within the realm of Catholic theology – that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a “better than” and a “worse than”. Nothing is good or bad in itself. Everything depends on the circumstances and on the end in view. Anything can be good or also bad, depending upon purposes and circumstances. Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist.[9]

Pope Benedict XVI describes a moral relativism, called proportionalism or consequentialism in contemporary moral theology, which has generated profound confusion and outright error regarding the most fundamental truths of the moral law.[10] It has led to a situation in which morality itself indeed “ceases to exist.” If, therefore, the irreplaceable moral order, which is the way of our freedom and happiness, is to be restored, we must address with clarity and steadfastness the error of moral relativism, proportionalism and consequentialism, which permeates our culture and has also entered, as the Holy Father reminds us, into the Church.

To confront the ideology, Pope Benedict XVI has urged us to study anew the teaching of his predecessor, the Venerable, soon to be Blessed, Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, “On the Fundamentals of the Church’s Moral Teaching.” In Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul II, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “indicated with prophetic force, in the great rational tradition of Christian ethos, the essential and permanent foundations of moral action.”[11] Reminding us of the need to form our consciences, in accord with the moral teaching of the Church, our Holy Father also reminded us of “our responsibility to make these criteria [these moral foundations] audible and intelligible once more for people today as paths of true humanity, in the context of our paramount concern for mankind.”[12] In the exhortation of Pope Benedict XVI, we see the expression of the deepest pastoral charity of the Vicar of Christ on earth, charity, which like that of the Christ the Good Shepherd, knows no boundary and is unceasing.

Reason and Faith in the Knowledge of Objective Moral Principles

Later, in the same Christmas Address, His Holiness recalled his “encounter with the world of culture in Westminster Hall,” during his pastoral visit to the United Kingdom, during which he reflected “on the proper place of religious belief within the political process.”[13] Taking inspiration from the example of Saint Thomas More, he addressed directly “the ethical foundations of civil discourse.”[14] As a service to culture, in general, he set forth the Catholic understanding of the matter with these words:

The central question at issue, then, is this: where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found? The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation. According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by non-believers – still less to propose concrete political solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion – but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles.[15]

Pope Benedict XVI noted that the role of religion in public discourse “is not always welcomed,” for various reasons which can also include “distorted forms of religion, such as sectarianism and fundamentalism.”[16]

He observed, however, that such distortions do not justify the exclusion of religion from public discourse, for “reason too can fall prey to distortions, as when it is manipulated by ideology, or applied in a partial way that fails to take account of the dignity of the human person.”[17] What remains necessary and true is the right relationship of faith and reason. The Holy Father concludes:

This is why I would suggest that the world of reason and the world of faith – the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief – need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization.”[18]

Religion, he continued, “is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation.”[19] In the light of the irreplaceable role of religion in public life, the Holy Father expressed his “concern at the increasing marginalization of religion, particularly of Christianity, that is taking place in some quarters, even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance.”[20]

He then gives a telling description of some of the more troubling manifestations of the effort to alienate religion from the public forum. His words which I now quote shed light on the absurdity and indeed moral perversity of a public order which fails to respect the proper role of religion:

There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere. There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none. And there are those who argue – paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimination – that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience. These are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square.[21]

Pope Benedict concluded with an invitation to safeguard and foster the right relationship of faith and reason, which is essential to the pursuit of the common good, of the good of society. In the 2010 Christmas Address, he concluded his reference to his speech in Westminster Hall with these urgent words:

This fundamental [moral] consensus derived from the Christian heritage is at risk wherever its place, the place of moral reasoning, is taken by the purely instrumental rationality of which I spoke earlier. In reality, this makes reason blind to what is essential. To resist this eclipse of reason and to preserve its capacity for seeing the essential, for seeing God and man, for seeing what is good and what is true, is the common interest that must unite all people of good will. The very future of the world is at stake.[22]

There can be no question of the urgency with which Pope Benedict XVI is calling us to reverse the decline of western Christian culture by engaging public discourse with the fundamental truths of the moral law, as taught to us by reason and our Catholic faith.

In his Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the same concern precisely in terms of human development, indicating the harm done to society, in general, when religion is excluded from public discourse. He described the deleterious societal effect of two extremes, the exclusion of religion and religious fundamentalism, in these words:

The exclusion of religion from the public square – and, at the other extreme, religious fundamentalism – hinders an encounter between persons and their collaboration for the progress of humanity. Public life is sapped of its motivation and politics takes on a domineering and aggressive character. Human rights risk being ignored either because they are robbed of their transcendent foundation or because personal freedom is not acknowledged. Secularism and fundamentalism exclude the possibility of fruitful dialogue and effective cooperation between reason and religious faith. Reason always stands in need of being purified by faith: this also holds true for political reason, which must not consider itself omnipotent. For its part, religion always needs to be purified by reason in order to show its authentically human face. Any breach in this dialogue comes only at an enormous price to human development.[23]

To the degree that we restore respect for the essential relationship between faith and reason, to that degree we are filled with hope for the future of a culture which, otherwise, can only be in decline.

For us, as members of the Catholic Church, we discover the true relationship between faith and reason, the true concept of ethos, of the moral norm, in Jesus Christ, in a personal relationship with Him as He comes to meet us and to make us ever more one with Him in His Mystical Body, the Church. In Jesus Christ, God the Son made man, heaven has come to earth to dispel the darkness of error and sin, and to fill our souls with the light of truth and goodness. If we live in Christ, in the union of our hearts with His Most Sacred Heart, when our brothers and sisters, lost in the unreal world of moral relativism and, therefore, tempted to despair, encounter us, they find direction for their lives and the hope for which they are looking and longing. Living in Jesus Christ, living according to the truth which He alone teaches us in His Church, we become light to dispel the confusion and error which lead to the many and so grave moral evils of our time, and to inspire a life lived in accord with the truth and, therefore, marked by freedom and happiness.

Holiness of Life, the Program of the New Evangelization

Addressing the challenge of Christian living in a totally secularized world, the Venerable, soon to be Blessed, Pope John Paul II called us to the new evangelization. The new evangelization means teaching the faith, celebrating the faith in the Sacraments and in their extension through prayer and devotion, and living the faith through the practice of the virtues, as if for the first time, that is, with the engagement and energy of the first disciples, of the first apostles to our native place. Before the grave situation of the world today, we are, Pope John Paul II reminds us, like the first disciples who, after hearing Saint Peter’s Pentecost discourse, asked him: “What must we do?”[24] Even as the first disciples faced a pagan world which had not even heard of our Lord Jesus Christ, so, we, too face a culture which is forgetful of God and hostile to His Law written upon every human heart.

Before the great challenge of our time, Pope John Paul cautioned us that we will not save ourselves and our world by discovering “some magic formula” or by “inventing a new programme.”[25] In unmistakable terms, he declared:

No, we shall not be saved by a formula but by a Person, and the assurance which he gives us: I am with you.[26]

He reminded us that the programme by which we are to address effectively the great spiritual challenges of our time is, in the end, Jesus Christ alive for us in the Church. He explained:

The programme already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition, it is the same as ever. Ultimately, it has its center in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem. This is a program which does not change with shifts of times and cultures, even though it takes account of time and culture for the sake of true dialogue and effective communication.[27]

In short, the program leading to freedom and happiness is, for each of us, holiness of life.

The Venerable Pope John Paul II, in fact, cast the entire pastoral plan for the Church in terms of holiness. He explained himself thus:

In fact, to place pastoral planning under the heading of holiness is a choice filled with consequences. It implies the conviction that, since Baptism is a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of his Spirit, it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethics and a shallow religiosity. To ask catechumens: “Do you wish to be receive Baptism?” means at the same time to ask them: “Do you wish to become holy?” It means to set before them the radical nature of the Sermon on the Mount: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).[28]

Pope John Paul II continued, making reference to the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, by reminding us that “this ideal of perfection must not be misunderstood as if it involved some kind of extraordinary existence, possible only for a few ‘uncommon heroes’ of holiness.”[29]

Pope John Paul II taught us the extraordinary nature of our ordinary life, because it is lived in Christ and, therefore, produces in us the incomparable beauty of holiness. He declared:

The ways of holiness are many, according to the vocation of each individual. I thank the Lord that in these years he has enabled me to beatify and canonize a large number of Christians, and among them many lay people who attained holiness in the most ordinary circumstances of life. The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction.[30]

Seeing in us the daily conversion of life by which we strive to meet the high standard of holiness, the “high standard of ordinary Christian living,” our brothers and sisters will discover the great mystery of their own ordinary life in which God daily showers upon them his ceaseless and immeasurable love, calling them to holiness of life in Christ, His only-begotten Son.

Making pilgrimage to the ancient shrine of Saint James the Greater at Compostela in Spain, in November of last year, Pope Benedict XVI urged Europeans to recognize the great gift of God’s love in the world, in Jesus Christ, and to follow Him in holiness of life. His words to the faithful of Europe, who have grown so forgetful of God and even hostile to His Law, apply also to other dechristianized nations. His words are further illuminated by the context of his pilgrimage, for the very purpose of a pilgrimage is to open our eyes to the great mystery of God’s love in our lives, that is, to open our eyes to see the extraordinary nature of ordinary living. Let us listen to the words of Pope Benedict XVI:

God is the origin of our being and the foundation and apex of our freedom, not its opponent. How can mortal man build a firm foundation and how can the sinner be reconciled with himself? How can it be that there is public silence with regard to the first and essential reality of human life? How can what is most decisive in life be confined to the purely private sphere or banished to the shadows? We cannot live in darkness, without seeing the light of the sun. How is it then that God, who is the light of every mind, the power of every will and the magnet of every heart, be denied the right to propose the light that dissipates all darkness? This is why we need to hear God once again under the skies of Europe; may this holy word not be spoken in vain, and may it not be put at the service of purposes other than its own. It needs to be spoken in a holy way. And we must hear it in this way in ordinary life, in the silence of work, in brotherly love and in the difficulties that the years bring on.[31]

The words of our Holy Father make clear the inherent dynamism of the life of the Holy Spirit within us, leading us to give witness to mystery of God’s love in our lives and so to convert our own lives more fully to Christ and to transform our world.

Holiness of Life and the Fundamental Witness to the Truth about Human Sexuality

Here, it is important to make clear the relationship between the practice of the virtues of purity, chastity and modesty, that is the living of the truth regarding human sexuality and human life, and the practice of justice. The respect for human life is related essentially to the respect for the integrity of marriage and the family. The attack on the innocent and defenseless life of the unborn, for example, has its origin in an erroneous view of human sexuality, which attempts to eliminate, by mechanical or chemical means, the essentially procreative nature of the conjugal act. The error maintains that the artificially altered act retains its integrity. The claim is that the act remains unitive or loving, even though the procreative nature of the act has been radically violated. In fact, it is not unitive, for one or both of the partners withholds an essential part of the gift of self, which is the essence of the conjugal union. The so-called “contraceptive mentality” is essentially anti-life. Many forms of what is called contraception are, in fact, abortifacient, that is, they destroy a life which has already been conceived, has already begun.

The manipulation of the conjugal act, as the Servant of God Pope Paul VI courageously observed, has led to many forms of violence to marriage and family life.[32] Through the spread of the contraceptive mentality, especially among the young, human sexuality is no longer seen as the gift of God, which draws a man and a woman together, in a bond of lifelong and faithful love, crowned by the gift of new human life, but, rather, as a tool for personal gratification. Once sexual union is no longer seen to be, by its very nature, procreative, human sexuality is abused in ways that are profoundly harmful and indeed destructive of individuals and of society itself. One has only to think of the devastation which is daily wrought in our world by the multi-billion dollar industry of pornography. Fundamental to the transformation of western culture is the proclamation of the truth about the conjugal union, in its fullness, and the correction of the contraceptive thinking which fears life, which fears procreation.

It is instructive to note that Pope Benedict XVI, in his Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, makes special reference to Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae, underscoring its importance “for delineating the fully human meaning of the development that the Church proposes.”[33] Pope Benedict XVI makes clear that the teaching in Humanae Vitae is not simply a matter of “individual morality,” declaring:

Humanae vitae indicates the strong links between life ethics and social ethics, ushering in a new area of magisterial teaching that has gradually been articulated in a series of documents, most recently John Paul II’s Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae.[34]

His Holiness reminds us of the essential part which a right understanding of our sexuality has in true human development.

In treating the whole question of procreation, Pope Benedict XVI underscores the critical nature of the right understanding of human sexuality, marriage and the family. He writes:

The Church, in her concern for man’s authentic development, urges him to have full respect for human goods in the exercise of his sexuality. It cannot be reduced merely to pleasure or entertainment, nor can sex education be reduced to technical instruction aimed solely at protecting the interested parties from possible disease or the “risk” of procreation. This would be to impoverish and disregard the deeper meaning of sexuality, a meaning which needs to be acknowledged and responsibly appropriated not only by individuals but also by the community.[35]

The restoration of the respect for the integrity of the conjugal act is essential to the future of western culture, the advancement of a culture of life. In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, it is necessary “once more to hold up to future generations the beauty of marriage and the family, and the fact that these institutions correspond to the deepest needs and dignity of the person.”[36] Correspondingly, he notes that “States are called to enact policies promoting the centrality and integrity of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society, and to assume responsibility for its economic and fiscal needs, while respecting its essentially relational character.”[37]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that “[s]o-called moral permissiveness rests on an erroneous conception of human freedom” and that “the necessary precondition for the development of true freedom is to let oneself be educated in the moral law.”[38] As is clear, from the above considerations, individual freedom and the freedom of society, in general, depends upon a fundamental education in the truth about human sexuality and the exercise of that truth in a pure and chaste life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church goes on to observe: “Those in charge of education can reasonably be expected to give young people instruction respectful of the truth, the qualities of the heart, and the moral and spiritual dignity of man.”[39] For the Christian, it is education in holiness of life at its very foundation, in the respect owed to the inviolable dignity of self, body and soul, and of others as self.

Conscience, the Infallible Guide to Holiness of Life

If we are to seek holiness of life, to live more totally and faithfully for Christ, namely, to give our lives to Christ, without any reserve, our hearts must seek their wisdom and strength in the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus; our conscience must be trained to listen to God’s voice alone and to reject what would weaken or compromise, in any way, our witness to the truth in which He alone instructs us through the Church. Through our daily prayer and devotion, and through our study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and of the Papal Magisterium, our conscience is formed according to the will of God, His law which is life for us.

It is the conscience, the voice of God, speaking to our souls, which is, in the words of the Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, “the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.”[40] As such, the conscience is ever attuned to Christ Himself Who instructs and informs it through His Vicar, the Roman Pontiff, and the Bishops in communion with the Roman Pontiff. The Blessed Cardinal Newman observed that conscience “is a messenger of him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by his representatives.”[41]

Today, we must be attentive to a false notion of conscience, which would actually use the conscience to justify sinful acts, the betrayal of our call to holiness. In the earlier-mentioned 2010 Christmas Address, Pope Benedict reflected, at some length, on the notion of conscience in the writings of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, contrasting it with a false notion of conscience, which is pervasive in our time.

The Holy Father described the difference of the Church’s understanding of conscience, as faithfully and brilliantly taught by the Blessed Cardinal Newman, with these words:

In modern thinking, the word “conscience” signifies that for moral and religious questions, it is the subjective dimension, the individual, that constitutes the final authority for decision. The world is divided into the realms of the objective and the subjective. To the objective realm belong things that can be calculated and verified by experiment. Religion and morals fall outside the scope of these methods and are therefore considered to lie within the subjective realm. Here, it is said, there are in the final analysis no objective criteria. The ultimate instance that can decide here is therefore the subject alone, and precisely this is what the word “conscience” expresses: in this realm only the individual, with his intuitions and experiences, can decide. Newman’s understanding of conscience is diametrically opposed to this. For him, “conscience” means man’s capacity for truth: the capacity to recognize precisely in the decision-making areas of his life – religion and morals – a truth, the truth. At the same time, conscience – man’s capacity to recognize truth – thereby imposes on him the obligation to set out along the path towards truth, to seek it and to submit to it wherever he finds it. Conscience is both capacity for truth and obedience to the truth which manifests itself to anyone who seeks it with an open heart.[42]

Conscience, therefore, does not set each of us apart as an arbiter of what is right and good, but unites us in the pursuit of the one truth, ultimately Our Lord Jesus Christ Who is the only arbiter of the right and good, so that our thoughts, words and actions put that truth into practice.

In the same Christmas discourse, Pope Benedict XVI clarified an often misunderstood passage of Blessed Cardinal Newman, which is used, in fact, to promote the erroneous subjective notion of conscience. Our Holy Father observed:

In support of the claim that Newman’s concept of conscience matched the modern subjective understanding, people often quote a letter in which he said – should he have to propose a toast – that he would drink first to conscience and then to the Pope. But in this statement, “conscience” does not signify the ultimately binding quality of subjective intuition. It is an expression of the accessibility and the binding force of truth: on this its primacy is based. The second toast can be addressed to the Pope because it is his task to demand obedience to the truth.[43]

In other words, there can never be a contrast between what the conscience demands of us and what the truth of the faith, as enunciated by the Holy Father, demands of us. The conscience, in fact, is drawing us into an ever deeper understanding of the truth and adherence to it in our thoughts, words and actions.

Holiness of Life and Martyrdom for the Faith

The witness of holiness of life is, in fact, martyrdom, in one form or another. In the words of the Holy Scriptures, it is dying to self, in order to live for Christ.[44] It is what the Servant of God Father John A. Hardon, S.J., called “the palpable fact of every true follower of Christ.”[45] When we hear the word, martyrdom, we tend to think exclusively of those who have given their lifeblood out of faithful love of Christ, who have been killed because of hatred of Christ and of the Christian faith. Red martyrs or martyrs of blood give the highest form of witness and are our models in giving daily witness to our love of Christ, even though we may not be asked to pour out our lifeblood, as they were asked and did. Through their martyrdom, they also win for us many graces for our daily living. In the words of the Servant of God Father Hardon, “[t]hrough their sufferings we are all made richer, as through their merits the whole Church becomes more holy.”[46]

Saint Thomas More, husband and father, and high-ranking member of the government of King Henry VIII, was a martyr for the faith in the 16^th century. In the face of imprisonment and execution, he steadfastly listened to the voice of God, rather the voices of men who insisted that he act according to a human way of thinking, alienated from the wisdom of God, from the moral law. At his trial on July 1, 1535, Saint Thomas More held firmly to the living Tradition of the Church, which forbade him, in conscience, to acknowledge King Henry VIII with the title of Supreme Head of the Church. When, during the trial, the Chancellor rebuked him, citing the acceptance of the title by so many bishops and nobles of the land, Thomas More replied: “My lord, for one bishop of your opinion I have a hundred saints of mine; and for one parliament of yours, and God knows of what kind, I have all the General Councils for 1,000 years, ….”[47]

When the Duke of Norfolk accused him of malice in his response, Thomas More replied: “What I say is necessary for discharge of my conscience and satisfaction of my soul, and to this I call God to witness, the sole Searcher of human hearts.”[48] Thomas More was condemned to death. The reason for his death sentence was hatred of the Catholic faith and, specifically, of its teaching on the primacy of Saint Peter as the Vicar of Christ on earth. Rightly, Thomas More declared on the scaffold, as he was about to be beheaded: “I die the king’s good servant, and God’s first.”[49] The Saint served his king well by obeying God Who revealed His truth to him through Thomas More’s conscience, instructed and informed by the example of the saints of the Church and by her Magisterium. So, too, we only serve well our brothers and sisters, when we first serve God with fidelity and without compromise, following His voice, our conscience.

During his pastoral visit to the United Kingdom in September of last year, in his earlier mentioned address at Westminster Hall, Pope Benedict XVI reflected on the questions which Saint Thomas More, Martyr, continues to raise to us who are one with him in the Church, Militant, Suffering and Triumphant. He explained:

And yet the fundamental questions at stake in Thomas More’s trial continue to present themselves in ever-changing terms as new social conditions emerge. Each generation, as it seeks to advance the common good, must ask anew: what are the requirements that governments may reasonably impose upon citizens, and how far do they extend? By appeal to what authority can moral dilemmas be resolved? These questions take us directly to the ethical foundations of civil discourse. If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident – herein lies the real challenge for democracy.[50]

Surely, we face, in our time, a similar challenge to our faith as did Saint Thomas More. In the face of the ever advancing anti-life and anti-family agenda of many who are in power in our culture, we pray, through the intercession of Saint Thomas More, that we may be faithful and courageous in loving Christ in every brother and sister, especially those in most need, those whom our Lord called “the least” of His brethren.”[51]

There is also the martyrdom of persecution. Father Hardon explains:

Not all the faithful who suffer for Christ also die for Christ. Opposition to the Christian faith and way of life does not always end in violent death for the persecuted victims. Consequently it is well to distinguish between what may be called martyrdom of blood and martyrdom of opposition which is bloodless indeed but no less – and sometimes more – painful to endure.[52]

We think, for example, of the persecution of our brothers and sisters in China or in some Islamic societies. While they seem to be free, in the sense that they are not imprisoned, “they are, in effect, deprived of every human liberty to practice their religion and to serve Christ according to their faith.”[53]

If we reflect, with some depth, on the martyrdom of opposition, we recognize in certain so-called free nations and in some of their policies and laws an opposition to the Christian’s adherence to the natural moral law. Think, for instance, of the pharmacist who is compelled by the civil courts to fill prescriptions for abortifacient drugs, or the priest who is charged by civil authorities with the use of so-called “hate language” because he teaches the truth about the evil of homosexual acts. Not without reason, there is greater and greater fear that the Church will be unable to carry out her educational, health-care and charitable works in certain nations because the civil law requires that such Church works cooperate in acts which are always and everywhere wrong.

The Servant of God Father Hardon cites a passage from the Book of Wisdom, regarding how the godless persecute the virtuous who are “a standing rebuke to them.”[54] The passage presents the way of thinking of those who oppose the way of faith, with these words:

Let us oppress the righteous poor man; let us not spare the widow, nor regard the gray hairs of the aged. But let our might be our law of right, for what is weak proves itself to be useless. Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training. He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange.[55]

When our upholding of the moral law, as we must uphold it, brings forth resistance, we must recall that we, alive in Christ, are a sign of contradiction to the world’s way of thinking. Our lives are a rebuke of the violation of the moral law, not for the sake of rebuking, but for the sake of the salvation of our world.[56] We must also remember that our witness, like the witness of the martyrs, will work a transformation in our society, will redound ultimately to the safeguarding and fostering of all human life.

Finally, there is the martyrdom of witness, the most common form of martyrdom, the martyrdom which is inherent to the Christian life. It can take the form of suffering personal hostility or simply indifference in giving the witness of holiness of life. The Servant of God Father Hardon describes the martyrdom of witness with these words:

All that we have seen about the martyrdom by violence applies here too, but the method of opposition is different. Here the firm believer in the Church’s teaching authority; the devoted servant of the papacy; the convinced pastor who insists on sound doctrine to his flock; the dedicated religious who want to remain faithful to their vows of authentic poverty, honest chastity and sincere obedience; the firm parents who are concerned about the religious and moral training of their children and are willing to sacrifice generously to build and care for a Christian family – natural or adopted – such persons will not be spared also active criticism and open opposition. But they must especially be ready to live in an atmosphere of coldness to their deepest beliefs.[57]

The hostility and the even more pervasive indifference to the beliefs we hold most dearly tempts us to discouragement and even to avoid the more public witness to our faith. But the martyrdom to which we are called and for which we are consecrated and fortified by the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, requires us to offer tirelessly our witness, confident that God will bring forth the good fruit. Given the breakdown in family life, the wholesale attack on innocent and defenseless human lives, and the violation of the integrity of the union of marriage in our society, the call to the martyrdom of witness is ever more urgent.

As Father Hardon understood, to a remarkable degree, a fundamental and essential form of witness is dedication to the sound teaching of the faith, the condition of the possibility of the love and service of the faith. For that reason, he devoted the last years of his life and his very last energies to the foundation and development of the Marian Catechist Apostolate for the sound spiritual and doctrinal formation of catechists. Before the great challenges of teaching the Catholic faith in our time, he urged catechists to remember the first disciples, the early Christians, who, with the help of God’s grace, faithfully and efficaciously evangelized a pagan world, frequently at the cost of their lifeblood.

Coming to Australia, I cannot fail to mention, in this regard, the heroic example of Mother Mary MacKillop, canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 17^th of last year. She provides for Catholics in Australia and throughout the world the example of total and tireless witness to the faith, in particular, through the fundamental apostolate of teaching the faith. In his homily, during the Mass of Canonization, Pope Benedict XVI recalled her dedication “as a young woman to the education of the poor in the difficult and demanding terrain of rural Australia, inspiring other women to join her in the first women’s community of religious sisters of [your] country.”[58] Recalling the “many challenges” which she faced, he reminded us that “her prayers to St Joseph and her unflagging devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom she dedicated her new congregation, gave this holy woman the graces needed to remain faithful to God and the Church.”[59] May Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Virgin, Foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, inspire you, young men and women of Australia, to be faithful and tireless witnesses to Christ, building anew, with the help of her prayers, the Christian culture of your beloved nation.

Conclusion

Reflecting, at length, on the declining state of the Christian West and our response, in accord with the call to holiness of life and martyrdom for the faith, for the sake of our own salvation and the salvation of the world, we recognize that it is Christ Himself who makes it possible for us to pursue holiness, to be true martyrs. It is in following Him faithfully and without reserve that we bring the light of truth to our world. At the same time, He is with us always, as He promised, to sustain us by His grace, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Our reflection cannot conclude without underlining those extraordinary means by which Christ comes to us in the Church, accompanies us along our life pilgrimage and sustains us in faithful and total witness, bringing us safely home to the Father. I mean the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Penance. In the Holy Eucharist, Christ unites our hearts, as perfectly as is possible in this life, to His Most Sacred Heart. He nourishes the life of the Holy Spirit within us with the incomparable Food which is His true Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. The Holy Eucharist not only strengthens us spiritually to be true martyrs, but is the model of our martyrdom, pure and selfless love, without condition, “to the end.”[60]

The life of the martyr for the faith finds its center and source in the Eucharistic sacrifice, in Eucharistic adoration, and in all forms of Eucharistic devotion, especially visits to the Blessed Sacrament and Spiritual Communion throughout the day. Through Eucharistic devotion and all true devotion, we extend our communion with the Lord in the Eucharistic Sacrifice into every aspect of our lives at every moment of our lives.

The Sacrament of Penance renews the grace of our baptism and confirmation through a personal encounter with Christ for the confession and forgiveness of our sins. Frequent confession, including confession of devotion, is essential to our growth in the truth which is made known to us through our conscience. Essentially connected to it is our nightly examination of conscience and Act of Contrition, by which, day by day, we turn once again to Christ in our heart and prepare ourselves for the sacramental encounter with Him in Confession. The integrity and courage needed to be a martyr of witness in the world today demand the intimacy with Christ, which can only come through the daily examination of conscience and Act of Contrition, and the regular meeting with Him in the Sacrament of Penance.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is both our model and our great intercessor in living the martyrdom of witness, of persecution and of blood. She is one of us, she shares fully our human nature, but, by God’s favor, she was preserved from any stain of sin from the moment of her conception. She was from the first moment of her life and remains always totally for Christ. The Venerable Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, reminds us of our Blessed Mother’s irreplaceable help to us in giving the witness which is martyrdom:

Mary shares our human condition, but in complete openness to the grace of God. Not having known sin, she is able to have compassion on every kind of weakness. She understands sinful man and loves him with a Mother’s love. Precisely for this reason she is on the side of truth and shares the Church’s burden in recalling always and to everyone the demands of morality. Nor does she permit sinful man to be deceived by those who claim to love him by justifying his sin, for she knows that the sacrifice of Christ her Son would thus be emptied of its power. No absolution offered by beguiling doctrines, even in the areas of philosophy and theology, can make man truly happy: only the Cross and the glory of the Risen Christ can grant peace to his conscience and salvation to his life.[61]

May the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for us that we may be true and faithful witnesses to Christ alive within each of us. And may we turn to her always, so that she may bring us to her Son with her maternal counsel, given to the wine stewards at the Wedding Feast of Cana: “Do whatever He tells you.”[62] So may He transform our lives and our world. So may he confirm you, members of the Australian Catholic Students Association in your mission “to build a Catholic culture to live in truth and charity.”[63]

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
22 February 2011 – Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter

House must join litigation fully to ‘defend true meaning of marriage’

WASHINGTON (March 4, 2011)-Leaders of Catholic, Protestant and Sikh communities of faith-together representing tens of millions of adherents-joined together to urge the U.S. House of Representatives to fight for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal courts, in a March 3 letter to Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Signers included Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs; Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland, California, chairman of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Defense of Marriage; Leith Anderson, president, National Association of Evangelicals; Dr. Glenn C. Burris, Jr., president, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel; Most Rev. Robert Duncan, Archbishop, Anglican Church in North America; Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; and Dr. Tarunjit Singh (Butalia), secretary general, World Sikh Council-America Region.

These religious leaders agreed they were “very troubled” by the decisions of the Obama Administration and U.S. Justice Department to “no longer protect the traditional definition of marriage and defend existing law.”

They specifically asked that “the House intervene as a party in all cases where DOMA is challenged, not merely to file amicus curiae briefs,” noting that, although intervention “would be unusual, it would be both lawful and warranted under our current legal system and political context.”

The letter explained that “By choosing to no longer defend DOMA in federal court because it believes the law to be unconstitutional, the Obama Administration has undermined the rule of law and the separation of powers. The House has the authority to rectify this lapse in judgment.” It concluded by imploring the Speaker “to lead the House to take the important, necessary step to protect American law, American families, and American values by defending DOMA and protecting the true meaning of marriage.”

The full letter follows.

Dear Speaker Boehner:

We write to express our grave concern over the Department of Justice’s decision to no longer defend Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) against legal challenges. We are very troubled by the Obama Administration’s decision to no longer protect the traditional definition of marriage and defend existing law. Because DOMA is so crucial to our society, by protecting its cornerstone institution, we urge the House of Representatives to take leadership in defending DOMA in the federal courts. Specifically, we ask that the House intervene as a party in all cases where DOMA is challenged, not merely to file amicus curiae briefs. Though such action would be unusual, it would be both lawful and warranted under our current legal system and political context.

As you are surely aware, DOMA was passed in 1996 by strong, bipartisan majorities. The law is crucial because it gives states the authority to make their own decisions regarding the recognition of marriages, and defines marriage at the federal level as “a legal union between one man and one woman,” preventing the federal government from recognizing same-sex “marriages.” While the traditional definition of marriage has faced legal and popular challenges of late, a clear majority of Americans oppose same-sex “marriage” and have expressed their support of marriage as the union of one man and one woman in all 31 state referenda and initiatives where the issue has been raised. The definition of marriage is one of the central questions facing our society today. The American people do not want their wishes being overruled by the judiciary-or the executive.

By choosing to no longer defend DOMA in federal court because it believes the law to be unconstitutional, the Obama Administration has undermined the rule of law and the separation of powers. The House has the authority to rectify this lapse in judgment. We implore you to lead the House to take the important, necessary step to protect American law, American families, and American values by defending DOMA and protecting the true meaning of marriage.

Original USCCB PDF is here.

First Reading: Is 39:1-3, 5-6
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 45:11-12, 14-15, 16-17, 18
Gospel: Lk 1:26-38

HOMILY

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and for ever. Amen.

Today’s readings teach us the great Mystery of Faith, witnessed in the Eucharistic Sacrifice in which we now take part. God the Son has taken our human flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. God Himself has taken a human heart under Mary’s Immaculate Heart, in order that He might suffer and die for our salvation, in order that He might receive our hearts into His glorious Heart, His Heart which was pierced as He died for us on the Cross. His name is Jesus, for He is the salvation of God in our midst, and “of his kingdom there will be no end.”[1]

By Mary’s obedient response to the announcement of the Archangel Gabriel, God the Son made His dwelling in her womb for the salvation of the world. By our obedient response to the announcement of His saving presence with us in the Church, above all in the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Penance, God the Son makes His dwelling within us for the transformation of our world, in preparation for His Final Coming, when He will establish “a new heaven and a new earth.”[2]

Through the Redemptive Incarnation, the great Mystery of Faith, “a child is born to us, a son is given us,” who bears, in truth, the names of “Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.”[3] Our Lord Jesus Christ, in fulfillment of God’s Word given through the Prophet Isaiah, is alone the light which dispels the darkness of sin and death, bringing us “abundant joy and great rejoicing.”[4] He “confirms and sustains” His kingdom in our midst “by judgment and justice, both now and forever.”[5]

With the Blessed Virgin Mary, we are called to give ourselves totally to Christ for the sake of the new evangelization, so that Christ may be known and loved and served, so that Christ, in His unceasing thirst for souls and their eternal salvation, may reach many hearts. In America, in a particular way, we call upon the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, and we seek to imitate her faithful announcement of the truth of our salvation in Jesus Christ alone. Christ desires us to be, with Mary, His instruments of eternal life for our brothers and sisters. Since He desires us, we are called, like Mary, to give up all earthly attachments, in order that Christ may possess our hearts fully for His saving mission.

As we celebrate a conference for men in the Church, we venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, uniting our hearts to her own Immaculate Heart, so that we may place them ever more completely into the glorious Sacred Heart of Jesus. Honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary, we pray that we, as men, may become ever more like her faithful messenger, Saint Juan Diego.

All of us know the labor and burden of daily life in Christ, the labor and burden of turning away, each day, from sin in our lives, in order that we may turn to Christ, offering our lives to Him in pure and selfless love. We also know, thanks to the generous gift of God’s grace in our souls, the truth of Our Lord’s promise that, in the midst of the struggle to live faithfully for Him, we find rest in His glorious pierced Heart which is ever open to receive us. We find that rest, most of all, in the Holy Eucharist, in the lifting up of our hearts to His glorious pierced Heart as He faithfully makes present for us the outpouring of His life for us on Calvary. Although we struggle, in order to follow Christ faithfully, we discover, in the struggle, the truth of Our Lord’s reassuring words: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”[6]

Although we experience difficulty in resisting the temptation to sin and in giving up our own pleasure and convenience for the sake of loving selflessly God and our neighbor, we find, in the elevation of our hearts to Christ, deep and abiding joy and peace, the joy and peace which are an anticipation of the eternal joy and peace which Our Lord has prepared for us in our lasting home of Heaven. It is, most of all, in His Eucharistic Sacrifice that Our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son Incarnate, reveals to us all that the Father wishes us to know about Him and His plan for our eternal salvation. When we, with humble trust, lift up our poor, doubting and sinful hearts to Our Lord, He receives them into His Sacred Heart. In His glorious pierced Heart, He purifies our hearts of sin and fills them with His unceasing and immeasurable love, so that we, in turn, may love God and our neighbor faithfully and unconditionally.

Saint Juan Diego, the faithful messenger of Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows us the way to place our hearts into the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to know the love of God for us, above all, in the Holy Eucharist, and to respond to His love with love of Him and of our neighbor. Saint Juan Diego shows us the way to Christ, which he learned at the feet of the Mother of God, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Saint Juan Diego teaches us to imitate his example of childlike trust in the Mother of God and her Divine Son by heeding the admonitions of the inspired author of the Book of Sirach:

Humble yourself the more, the greater you are,
and you will find favor with God….
What is too sublime for you, seek not,
into things beyond your strength search not.
What is committed to you, attend to; ….[7]

As the Holy Scriptures teach us, it is enough for us to know that we are doing God’s will. Our attention must be directed to what God has committed to us, to our vocation in life and our particular work in the world. Other concerns distract us from our life in Christ and uselessly consume time and energy which should be devoted to living our vocation and to fulfilling the responsibilities of our work.

Consider the humility and trust which Saint Juan Diego demonstrated in carrying out the mission confided to him by Our Lady of Guadalupe. He naturally questioned his abilities to accomplish what Our Lady was asking; he was a simple man and judged himself to be out of place in bringing the important request of the Mother of God to the Bishop. When, at first, he seemed to fail in carrying out the mission and when he was soon faced with the grave illness of his uncle, he asked Our Lady to choose a different messenger and even tried to avoid her in order to delay doing what she was asking.

Before these temptations, Our Lady assured him that he was her chosen messenger. Listen to her words to him, which are unmistakable in their meaning:

But it is very necessary that you plead my cause and, with your help and through your mediation, that my will be fulfilled.[8]

Regarding his worry about the grave illness of his uncle, Juan Bernardino, Our Lady assured him that she was watching over him, protecting him, and interceding for him. Listen once again to her words:

Am I not here, I, who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more?[9]

Saint Juan Diego, trusting in the words of the Mother of God, abandoned himself to doing everything that she was asking of him, challenging and difficult as the mission was. By humbly attending to Our Lady’s instructions, he brought a great blessing to his uncle and to all the people. The blessing of his cooperation with the will of God, as it was made known to him by Our Lady of Guadalupe, continues to reach us today, as we honor him, strive to imitate him, and ask the help of his prayers.

Through the good services of Saint Juan Diego, the mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe was accomplished. Bishop Juan de Zumárraga received her message, confirmed by the miracle of the roses and by the far greater miracle of the divine writing of her image on Juan Diego’s tilma. The Bishop built the shrine in which Our Lady has spoken and continues to speak to the hearts of her sons and daughters about her Divine Son, the fountain of God’s ceaseless and immeasurable mercy and love toward us, especially in the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Penance.

Through our spiritual friendship with Saint Juan Diego, we are led to Our Lady of Guadalupe who, in turn, leads us to the Heart of her Divine Son. Striving to imitate the example of Saint Juan Diego’s humility and trust, we draw ever closer to the Mother of God who intercedes for us, that we may do God’s will in all things. Through our spiritual friendship with the Virgin of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, we are inspired and strengthened to know the truth about our life in Christ, taught to us by Saint Paul. God indeed has chosen us whom the world may consider to be foolish, lowly and weak, in order that those who consider themselves to be wise, noble and strong might know and love Christ Who alone is “for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification and redemption.”[10]

Following the example of Saint Juan Diego, placing ourselves with trust into the all-loving arms of the Virgin of Guadalupe, let us now, in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, place our hearts into the glorious, pierced Heart of Jesus. Uniting our hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in His Eucharistic Sacrifice, we will find the rest and strength we need to be humble and obedient in doing all that God asks of us. May Saint Juan Diego intercede for us, that we, Catholic men, may be faithful and generous messengers of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who trust in You, have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us!
Saint Juan Diego, pray for us!

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

First Reading: Acts 11:19-26
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 98
Gospel: Jn 17:11, 17-23

HOMILY

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and for ever. Amen.

As we begin our privileged time together, we rightly unite ourselves to our Lord Jesus Christ in His Eucharistic Sacrifice. Today and tomorrow, which will be strong in grace for our daily Christian living, are dedicated to a deeper knowledge of our Lord, a more fervent love of our Lord and a more faithful and total service of our Lord. The theme, Go West Catholic Men, evokes those who braved many hardships and worked hard, over the long haul, to reach this treasured portion of God’s vineyard and to make here a good place in which to live and work. But it also evokes the many challenges which were theirs in living their faith with integrity and thus making this naturally beautiful territory supernaturally beautiful, that is, holy, a land whose inhabitants are devoted to knowing, loving and serving our Lord.

The reading from the Acts of the Apostles reminds us that in every age, we are called to imitate the first disciples who, under persecution and all forms of hardship, responded to the promptings of the Holy Spirit dwelling within their souls by giving faithful and courageous witness to Christ alive for us in the Church. When the first disciples were persecuted and driven from Jerusalem, they understood that they were to teach the faith and its practice to the peoples of the many lands to which they were scattered. They recalled the prayer of Our Lord to His Father, before His Passion, Death and Resurrection, asking that they, whom He was sending into the world even as the Father had sent Him, would be “consecrated in truth.”[1]

At first, they understood that they were to give witness only to fellow Jews, but then they came to understand that the love of God for men knows no boundary. They, therefore, began to teach the truths of the faith to the Gentiles and to introduce them into the mysteries of the faith lived in the Church. Our Lord, faithful to His promise, accompanied them all along the way and, as the Acts of the Apostles attests, “a great number who believed turned to the Lord.”[2] They saw before their eyes the faithful response of the Father to His only-begotten Son Who prayed “for those who [would] believe in [Him] through their word.” Their word, in fact, was not theirs but the word of God the Son Incarnate and, therefore, the word of God the Father, leading those who believed into the communion of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.[3] They saw the power of their communion with God in truth and love to foster faith in their brothers and sisters, even as Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed for them before His Passion and Death, “that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.”[4]

As we pray to receive the gifts of the engagement and energy of the first disciples in witnessing to Christ alive within us, in His Church, in our day, we think also of the example of Father Peter John De Smet, of the Society of Jesus, who left his native Belgium in 1823 as a young man of 22 years of age to bring Christ to our nation and, in particular, to the Native Americans in the West. Because of serious health difficulties, ten years later, he was sent back to Belgium for five years, but in 1838, he returned to preach to the Potawátomi Indians in Iowa, and in 1840 he accepted to call to bring Christ to the Rocky Mountains, where he evangelized numerous tribes, including those of the Northwest.[5] He brought Christ to many nations and tribes of Native Americans, for example, the Sioux, the Flatheads, the Blackfeet, the Kalispels or the Pend D’Oreilles, the Cœur d’Alènes, the Yakimas, the Spokanes and the Kootenais.[6] He heard the call of our Lord to go West for the spread of the Gospel, and he responded with all his heart.

In a letter which he wrote on May 1, 1849, after his first journey to the Sioux, he gives expression to the work of the Holy Spirit within him, inspiring and strengthening him in a most arduous mission. He wrote:

To those who have passed their days amid the joys of family life, and been blessed with prosperity, a journey across the desert appears a forbidding experience of human suffering and misery. But he who lifts his thoughts above the passing things of the world to consider truth, which all nature speaks, and desires the salvation of the many souls who would love and serve their Creator if they but knew Him – he sees in the privations of the desert and in the dangers and perils one encounters there, but slight inconveniences, far preferable to the sweets of indolence and the dangers of riches. Such a man meditates on the words of the Saviour: “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent carry it away.” He recalls the sufferings and trials of God, made man, “who being without sin, yet bore all sufferings.” Through tribulation and dangers, through cold and heat, through blood and death, did Christ enter into the kingdom of His Father; along this path must he travel who wishes to live and die under His noble standard.[7]

When he was already elderly and in poor health, Father DeSmet made a final visit to Belgium to recruit young Jesuits to assist him in the missions to the Native Americans in the West. He suffered a serious illness and was urged to remain in Belgium, but he insisted on returning to the United States, in order to give, in imitation of His Master, our Lord Jesus Christ, his final energies in service of the apostolate.

Regarding Father De Smet’s return to the United States, at an advanced age and in seriously compromised health, one biographer comments:

After a sojourn of nine months in Europe, the missionary longed to return to the neophytes, but his friends tried to dissuade him from taking the long journey, telling him that even if he survived the voyage he would languish in a state of invalidism, for the malady from which he suffered was incurable. All that was human in him said: Stay! But a voice stronger than that of nature, the voice of zeal and charity, cried out: Go! You may still, in that far-off country, accomplish much good. Go to your beloved Indians; take them once more the fruit of your labors, your last words, and if need be, your last sigh.[8]

Father De Smet returned to Saint Louis, but the Apostle of the Rockies never gained sufficient health to return to the missions of the West. Nevertheless, through his daily offering of the Mass, his devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially the daily praying of the Holy Rosary, and the many other prayers and sacrifices which he offered, he remained intimately united to his beloved Native Americans and won for them many graces, to the day of his death on May 23, 1873. Like His Lord, he loved those who were his own “to the end.”[9]

Each of us, according to our vocation in life and the particular gifts which God gives to us, finds in the first disciples and in Father De Smet and other heroes of the faith, who first brought the Gospel to the West, the example of how we are to spend ourselves in total love of God and selfless and pure love of our neighbor in this treasured portion of our Lord’s vineyard. As Catholic men, our call and mission is “to live and die under [Christ’s] noble standard,” the Cross by which we die to ourselves in order to live fully and freely for God and our neighbor. We gather, today and tomorrow, to set out anew, with new engagement and new energy, under “[Christ’s] noble standard,” on the way of our ordinary life, as married men, single men, consecrated men or priests. Today and tomorrow, we will discover anew that our ordinary life is truly extraordinary, because we have been called to life in Christ and have been given the mission of bringing His saving grace to the world.

Let us pray, especially through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, that our time together will deepen our knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of His living presence with us in the Church, especially in the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Penance. Let us pray that, deepened in knowledge and love of our Lord, we may carry out our mission of witness to him in the world with new engagement and new energy.

Let us now lift up our hearts, so often doubtful and fearful and sinful, to the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, always open to receive us and to purify and strengthen us with the gift of His immeasurable and unceasing love. In the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus we find the unfailing truth and love to dispel doubt and fear, and to overcome sin in our lives. One in heart with the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the immeasurable “rivers of living water,” which never cease to flow from His Eucharistic Heart, will flow from our hearts for the sake of our brothers and sisters, especially those in most need. May the first disciples of Our Lord and His faithful priest, Father Peter John De Smet and so many other heroes of the faith, who are all one with us in the Church – Militant, Suffering and Glorious – , intercede for us, in a special way, during our privileged time together, that we may bring to the Northwest the holiness of life in Christ, which is our salvation. May these days transform our lives and, through us, transform the Northwest as a privileged portion of the vineyard of our Lord.

Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who trust in You, have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us!
Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary and Guardian of the Redeemer, pray for us!
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us!
Servant of God, Father Peter De Smet, pray for us!

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

HOMILY

Praised be Jesus Christ!

I am deeply grateful to Father Gregory Apparcel for the invitation to offer the Holy Mass, this morning. As a recently created Cardinal from the United States of America, it pleases me to be able to offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice in this beautiful Church of Santa Susanna, which has been the spiritual home for Americans and other English-speaking Catholics in Rome, since 1922. I am happy to recall the initiative of Father Thomas Burke, Superior General of the Paulist Fathers at the time, — who, I am sorry to say, does seem to be a relative – to establish an American parish in Rome, and the fatherly response of Pope Benedict XV who gave approval for the use of Santa Susanna as a church for Americans in Rome but died just shortly before the Paulist Fathers were able to celebrate the first public Mass.[1] Celebrating the Holy Mass, this morning, I express a particular word of gratitude to the Paulist Fathers for their service of the faithful of Santa Susanna Parish, since 1922.

I also ask your prayers for me as a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, as a “Roman Priest,” that I may always fulfill, with complete fidelity and generosity, the office of assisting the Holy Father in his pastoral charity toward the universal Church, in the City and in the World. Please pray that my love for Christ and for the Church may be further purified and strengthened, so that I may be, in accord with the words which the Vicar of Christ spoke to me at the imposition of the cardinalitial biretta, “ready to conduct myself with strength, even to the outpouring of my blood, for the increase of the Christian faith, for the peace and the harmony of the people of God, and for the freedom and the spread of the Holy Roman Church.”[2]

Our Lord teaches us today that we are, by virtue of our life in Him, “the salt of the earth,” and “the light of the world.”[3] His teaching, which is part of the Sermon on the Mount, comes immediately after the proclamation of the Beatitudes and is followed by the exhortation to obey the divine law which Our Lord has come into the world to bring to fulfillment by His Passion, Death and Resurrection. The teaching is, at once, a declaration of the great dignity which is ours in Christ but also a most daunting challenge to live in a manner coherent with our dignity. What greater dignity could we have than to serve Christ in His saving mission? At the same time, conscious of our many weaknesses, we rightly fear that we may fail in serving Christ, in bringing salt to the earth and light to the world.

Saint Agatha, a third-century virgin and martyr from Catania in Sicily, whose memory we celebrated yesterday, when she was called before the Roman tribunal in an effort to force her to deny her Catholic faith by apostasy, was accused of conducting herself in the manner of a slave, even though she was of a noble family. She responded: “I am a servant of Christ and, therefore, of a servile condition…. The highest nobility consists in being slaves of Christ.”[4] The judge then condemned her, subjecting her to the cruelest tortures, including the amputation of her breasts. Resisting “to the end”[5] the pressure to abandon the Christian faith, Saint Agatha, after the final torture, thanked our Lord for having saved her body and died in the fame of heroic sanctity. In Christ, she became salt to the earth and light to the world. After her death and until today, the Lord has granted so many favors to His flock through the intercession of Saint Agatha. As members of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, we too live in the truth that our nobility, our great source of dignity is to serve Him with all our heart, as did Saint Agatha.

What does it mean to be salt to the earth and light to the world? The Prophet Isaiah, whose instruction finds it fulfillment in the Redemptive Incarnation of Christ, God the Son made man, answers our question:

Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn our back on your own.”[6]

In Christ, we see the deepest meaning of the practice of the virtues, which he proposes to us as salt for the earth and light for the world. The practice of the virtues, both at home and in the wider community, is not a kind of social work of our own invention and choice. It is rather the expression of who we are in our deepest reality. It is the expression of the charity of God Himself, poured into our hearts from the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, most especially through the Eucharistic Sacrifice we are now offering.

In Christ, God Himself took our human nature, in order to love us “to the end,”[7] to save us from sin and its effects, the sufferings of this life and finally death, so that we may share in His life, already now on this earth, and fully one day in His heavenly Kingdom. In Christ, giving bread to the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and homeless, clothing the naked, and loving loyally our own are not just good deeds but rather expressions of God’s own faithful and enduring love of us. Practicing these virtues, having the habit of acting in a loving way toward our brothers and sisters who are in most need, is the result of giving our hearts to Christ, placing our hearts ever more completely into the Heart of Jesus Who alone teaches us pure and selfless love. It is in the Heart of Jesus that our hearts are constantly purified and strengthened to love as God loves us, purely and selflessly, unceasingly and unstintingly.

When we, as Christians, give bread to the hungry, they receive not only essential physical nourishment but the even greater gift of the lasting spiritual nourishment of divine love, the love which we bring to them from the Heart of Jesus. Yes, they receive what they need for life here and now, but, what is more, they receive what they need for the life which is to come, eternal life with God in His heavenly Kingdom. To give them only bread would fail to give them what they most need, that is, the unconditional love of God, pure and selfless, without cease and without limit.

Pope Benedict XVI has helped us very much to reflect upon the truth about our love of neighbor. In his Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est, “On Christian Love,” Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that, since “Christian charity is first of all the simple response to immediate needs and specific situations,” we must carry out charitable works with “professional competence.” But he went on to remind us that, while a humanly adequate response to the needs of our brothers and sisters is fundamental, it is in no way sufficient. He wrote:

Yet, while professional competence is a primary, fundamental requirement, it is not of itself sufficient. We are dealing with human beings, and human beings always need something more than technically proper care. They need humanity. They need heartfelt concern. Those who work for the Church’s charitable organizations must be distinguished by the fact that they do not merely meet the needs of the moment, but they dedicate themselves to others with heartfelt concern, enabling them to experience the richness of their humanity. Consequently, in addition to their necessary professional training, these charity workers need a “formation of the heart”: they need to be led to that encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others.[8]

Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that, before the many challenges of today’s world, which are all, in the end, challenges to safeguard and promote human life, it is the love of Christ alone which enables us to go forward and to respond in a manner which addresses the deepest needs of our brothers and sisters.

Our Holy Father teaches us that it is our faith in Christ which inspires true love of our neighbor. He reminds us, with these words, that only in Christ do we find the inspiration and strength to continue to love, “to the end”[9]:

Faith, which sees the love of God revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love. Love is the light – and in the end, the only light – that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keeping living and working. Love is possible, and we are able to practice it because we are created in the image of God.[10]

With our instantaneous knowledge of the many and seemingly intractable forms of suffering in our world, we can easily be tempted to discouragement or to a hopeless withdrawal before the needs of so many brothers and sisters.

In his Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, “On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth,” Pope Benedict XVI reflected on the particular challenges to charity in our age marked by globalization. He reminded us that globalization makes us all neighbors, but it does not make us all brothers. Only Christ makes us brothers. Let us listen to the words of our Holy Father:

Reason, by itself, is capable of grasping the equality between men and of giving stability to their civic coexistence, but it cannot establish fraternity. This originates in a transcendent vocation from God the Father, who loved us first, teaching us through the Son what fraternal charity is. Paul VI, presenting the various levels in the process of human development, placed at the summit, after mentioning faith, “unity in the charity of Christ who calls us all to share as sons in the life of the living God, the Father of all.”[11]

In a special way, today, let us pray for an ever greater union of our hearts with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the source of the faithful and enduring love of our brothers. Let us pray for the grace to bring to our suffering brothers and sisters in need not only an answer to their immediate needs but a response to their deepest hunger and thirst, the desire to know and love God.

May our participation in the Holy Mass unite our hearts more perfectly to the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, always open to receive us, especially in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Lifting up our hearts, together with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, our hearts will be purified and strengthened to love God and our neighbor with pure and selfless love. In the Heart of Jesus we all will find the grace, which is immeasurable and unceasing, to live in Christ, giving our hearts to Him for the sake of our brothers and sisters who are in most need.

Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity, have mercy on us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us.
Saint Susanna, pray for us.

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

Sg 8:6-7
2 Cor 10:17-11:2
Ps 123:11-12. 14-15, 16-17
Mt 10:32
Mt 10:28-33

HOMILY

Praised be Jesus Christ!

On February 5^th in the year 251, Saint Agatha, a young Christian virgin of Catania, gave her life in faithful and enduring love of her Divine Spouse, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Called into trial by the Roman Emperor Decius because of her profession of the Catholic faith, she, together with many young Christians of Sicily, resisted the pressure to apostasy. She gave the supreme witness, suffering a cruel passion and death, which are depicted in the paintings between the windows and the ceiling of this most beautiful church dedicated to her honor. Agatha, whose name in Greek signifies participation in the infinite goodness of God, resisted, by her virtue and constant prayer, the gravely immoral life of the woman to whom she was given over by the officials of the Roman government, who made her appear before the judge. The judge accused her of leading a life of slavery, notwithstanding her origin in a free and noble family. To this accusation, she replied: “I am a servant of Christ and, therefore, of a servile condition…. The highest nobility consists in being slaves of Christ.”[1] The judge then condemned her, subjecting her to the cruelest tortures, including the amputation of her breasts. Resisting the abandonment of the Christian faith, right up to the end, Saint Agatha, after the final torture, thanked our Lord for having saved her body and died in the fame of heroic sanctity. After her death and until today, the Lord has granted so many favors to His flock through the intercession of Saint Agatha.

In accord with the words of the Song of Songs, the Lord set Saint Agatha “as a seal on [His most Sacred] heart,” and thus the union of their hearts in pure and selfless love proved itself to be “strong as death”; the “[m]any waters” were not able to quench it and “floods” did not drown it.[2] Notwithstanding her young age, she was courageous before those who were able to violate and destroy her body, fearing only those who were able to violate and corrupt her soul. The Lord, for His part, as He promises us in the Gospel, faithfully acknowledged Agatha before the Eternal Father, asking every grace for her, also the most beautiful grace of giving her life in martyrdom for the faith.[3] In the face of the cruelest sufferings, she was a sign of the Church herself, the mystical spouse of Christ, whom the Apostle has betrothed “to Christ to present [her] as a pure bride to her one husband.”[4]

In the life of Saint Agatha, we see the fulfillment of the promise of unceasing and immeasurable love of the Lord for every person, without boundary or limit, that divine love in which we partake in the fullest and most perfect manner by means of the Eucharistic Sacrifice which we are now offering with the Lord. “[I]n the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth,” we truly find “[o]ur help.”[5] It is in the union of our hearts with the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus that we find the true freedom which leads us to eternal life. The Lord called Saint Agatha to espousal, to offer to Him her virginity, her entire being. Saint Agatha responded with all her heart, placing her heart fully into the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Heart of Jesus, her love was purified and strengthened, so that her witness of virginal love reached its crowning in the ultimate witness of martyrdom. The white of her love as a virgin was consummated in the courageous red of her love as a martyr for the faith.

The life and martyrdom of Saint Agatha, like the life of every consecrated virgin, teaches all of us the reality of the love of Christ in our life, a love which invites us to give our hearts to Him, to be one in heart with Him, loving our neighbor as He loves us, that is, with pure and selfless love, right up to the end. Saint Agatha, with her virginal consecration exalted in martyrdom, shows us the way on which the Lord invites us to give ourselves to Him and to His Mystical Body, the Church, and to all men, in accord with our vocation and our particular gifts. We implore Saint Agatha, on this day of her feast: pray for us, so that each of us may remain faithful in the response to our vocation, so that the Lord will find us always ready to give our hearts to Him.

Providentially, the veneration of the relics of the Holy Greek Martyrs in this church illustrates for us the beauty of our life in Christ. The Greek Martyrs were all members of the same family which had come to Rome from Greece. They are Adria and Paolina, the father and the mother; Mary, the 18-year old daughter; Neone, the eight-year old son; and Hippolytus, the brother of the mother. This family, which was known for the extraordinary generosity with which it gave all of its riches to the poor, showed that the true source of its charity was Christ Himself. When the family members were arrested because of being Christians, and were cruelly tortured, one after the other, to force them to apostasize, all of them offered their life rather than betray the union of their hearts with the Heart of Jesus.[6] Let us also pray through their intercession, so that the grace of fidelity and generosity “to the end”[7] in the love of Christ and the Church, His Mystical Body, be granted to us.

In a particular way, on this day of the taking possession of the title which the Holy Father has assigned to me as a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, as a “”Roman Priest” with his own church, I ask the intercession of Saint Agatha and of the Holy Greek Martyrs, so that I may be always able to fulfill, with complete fidelity and generosity, the office of assisting the Holy Father in his pastoral charity toward the universal Church, in the City and in the World. I pray, through the intercession of Saint Agatha and of the Holy Greek Martyrs, that I may be granted the grace of pure and selfless love for the Church, to which, first as a priest and now as a “Roman Priest,” I am united in a particular way, in a way analogous to the consecrated virgin. I ask your prayers, so that my love for Christ and for the Church may be further purified and strengthened, so that I may be, in accord with the words which the Vicar of Christ spoke to me at the imposition of the cardinalitial biretta, “ready to conduct myself with strength, even to the outpouring of my blood, for the increase of the Christian faith, for the peace and the harmony of the people of God, and for the freedom and the spread of the Holy Roman Church.”[8]

One cannot overlook the eloquent witness of this very church to the love of Christ, unceasingly poured out for us in the Church. The first church was constructed in this place by barbarians, by the Goths, to be precise, who were adherents to the Arian heresy which denied the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Two years after the departure of the Arians from the church, Pope Gregory the Great, around the year 591, consecrated the church for true worship with a large participation of the faithful, bringing to the church, at that moment, the relics of Saint Sebastian and Saint Agatha. During and after the consecration, there were various extraordinary signs which showed that the Real Presence of Christ, the light of salvation which he alone brings to us, had finally arrived in this church. Saint Gregory the Great recounts the events in the Third Book of his Dialogues. Commenting on the various signs, Saint Gregory observes that the Lord had made evident to all that the unclean creature, represented by a pig which the people felt going about and exiting the church during the right of consecration, had definitively left the church and that the church had passed from darkness to the light, represented by the strong movements of the earth and the candles which could not be extinguished.[9]

The story of the consecration of this church by Saint Gregory the Great brings to mind the pastoral charity of the Vicar of Christ toward the whole Church, a charity that he never fails to exercise, and for the exercise of which the Cardinal is called to be a very near and strong support. Today, also, confusion and error, sown by Satan in the world, abound, which threaten the life of the Church and of the individual members of the Church. We must pray that the holiness of the Church, the Body of Christ, may always resist Satan and his wiles.

There is another historical fact to recall in this moment, which has a particular importance for the life of the universal Church and for me personally, that is the Roman Pontiff’s entrustment of the Church and Convent of Saint Agatha of the Goths to the Pontifical Irish College, from 1836 to 1926, when they were confided to our dear Stigmatine Fathers who yet today have the care of the Church and maintain their generalate in the Convent. The Catholic faith reached me by way of my Irish ancestors who immigrated to America. Irish spirituality, strongly marked by the monastic life and by fidelity in persecution, nourished and continues to nourish me spiritually. Today, we recall all the Irish priests who received here their education, in the shadow of Peter, under the particular care of the Vicar of Christ, and, having completed their studies in Rome, returned as true shepherds of the flock in Ireland and in missionary countries like the United States. I wish to recall, in a special way, the priestly ordination of Blessed Columba Marmion in this church, on the 16^th of June in 1881, some 130 years ago, who was at the time a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Dublin. I recall also Cardinal John D’Alton, Archbishop of Armagh, who had the title of this church from 1953 to 1965. The roundels between the capitals recall the great saints of every part of Ireland who inspired the seminarians and still inspire us today: Saints Patrick, Apostle of Ireland; Bridget, Dymphna, Malachy, Lawrence O’Toole, Albert of Cashel and Jarlath.

Celebrating my First Mass in this church assigned to me as Cardinal, as a “Roman priest,” I invoke the intercession of Saint Agatha, of the Holy Greek Martyr and of the Saints of Ireland, in order that I may be pure and selfless in my love for the Church, faithful and courageous in the defense and in the promotion of the Church under the guidance of the Successor of Saint Peter. I pray that, if I am not called to give my life in the martyrdom of blood for the faith, I may be intrepid and steadfast in response to the call to give my life, every day, in the daily martyrdom of fidelity to my vocation. I ask you who have come to participate in the Taking Possession to pray for me, so that I may be always ready to give my life, without reservation, to the service of the Church and especially of her Supreme Pastor.

May our Eucharistic celebration on this feast of Saint Agatha and on the occasion of the Taking of Possession of this church unite our hearts more perfectly to the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, always open to receive us, especially in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Lifting up our hearts, together with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glorious Heart of Jesus, our hearts will be purified and strengthened to love God and our neighbor with pure and selfless love. Lifting up your hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I ask you to pray, in a special way, for me, asking that I may always find in the glorious pierced Heart the grace to be “ready to conduct myself with strength, even to the outpouring of my blood, for the increase of the Christian faith, for the peace and the harmony of the people of God, and for the freedom and the spread of the Holy Roman Church.”[10] In the Heart of Jesus we all will find the grace without measure to live in Christ, giving our life to Him for our salvation and the salvation of the world.

Heart of Jesus, King and Center of All Hearts, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr, pray for us.
Holy Greek Martyrs, pray for us.
All Saints of Ireland, pray for us.

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis
Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura