Pray for your spouse/future spouse

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

October 15, 2023

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101523.cfm

Is 25:6-10a     Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6

Phil 4:12-14, 19-20     Mt 22:1-14

Scripture is full of analogies comparing Heaven to a wedding feast.  St. Paul often calls Christ the bridegroom of the Church.  We see this in today’s readings from sacred scripture.  Jesus’ first miracle occurred at a wedding banquet, emphasizing the sanctity of marriage that the Catholic Church holds tight to.

Last month I mentioned Confession as a forgotten sacrament. We could easily include marriage as a forgotten sacrament as well.  Last year we only had one single sacramental marriage at Holy Family Church - just one. But why have a Sacramental marriage?  I hope to explain that now.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say:

God himself is the author of marriage." The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. 

The Sacrament of marriage is written on our souls by our creator!  If that’s not reason enough I don’t know what is.

Let’s take a trip back to October of 1984.  It’s when I started dating the girl I would marry.  She was a Junior in High School and I was a Freshman at Bridgewater State.  I was working at St. Thomas Aquinas in Bridgewater MA.  It’s where Allison and I met, she was teaching religious ed and I was out mowing the lawns.  Even though I was an all-knowing teenager at the time the Holy Spirit was there, invisibly guiding me along.  Skip ahead about 5 years and we began to plan our wedding and decided we should get married at St. Thomas.  This was one of those unseen nudges from the Holy Spirit also as neither of us were practicing our faith at the time but we went ahead and set up a meeting with the priest anyway. St. Thomas was where we met and where I worked for eight years so we had that nostalgia driving us there too.  From that first meeting with the priest at the rectory we had all the priests at the rectory, four of them, praying for us.  At our rehearsal the night before the wedding Fr. Ed Serena suggested we go to confession.  We did and to be honest, I was truly penitent and glad we went!

We were going to have a full mass and he reminded us we should be in a state of grace not only for the full efficacy of the sacrament of marriage but also to receive Jesus in the eucharist.  The wedding was beautiful and moving.  Our second reading today reminds me of the wedding vows as St. Paul:

I know how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance … I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need.

For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.  St Paul also reminds us that it is God who will fully supply whatever we need.

Sadly, at that time our faith was like the seed that fell on the rocky ground, sprang up at once but was soon scorched and withered for lack of roots.  We again stopped going to church soon after our wedding.

It wasn’t until four years later when we decided that we wanted children after all that we came back.  We came back with a passion knowing we had lost time to make up for.  We were asked to be lectors, and Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist, sang in the choir (no, not me, only Allison!!), were youth ministers, helped organize Vacation Bible School, and taught religious education and other things at St. Ann’s in Raynham.

Now I’m not saying all this to brag but to illustrate what the Holy Spirit knew far before that all-knowing teenager that I was.  Without that sacramental marriage, we wouldn’t have done all that, we wouldn’t have gone to China to adopt, and I certainly would not be preaching to you today as a deacon.  None of this would have happened, in fact, we might not even still be married today calling it quits during the tougher godless times we went through.

But what can we do now?  We can certainly pray for an increase in the vocation of Catholic marriages.  If you are grandparents or great-grandparents pray for your grandchildren and for their future spouses.  As parents, you should also pray for your children and their future spouses if they are not married.  If you are single start praying immediately for your future spouse, God already knows who they are, ask Him for guidance!  If you are much younger and still think boys or girls still have cooties, well, someday that will change, you can and should pray for your future spouse as well however gross that may sound to you!

Pray often and deeply for a return of the sacrament of marriage - it can save our church, our community, and even our society!

I’ll leave you with these thoughts from St. Josemaría Escrivá: 

“Marriage is to help married people sanctify themselves and others. For this reason, they receive a special grace in the sacrament which Jesus instituted. Those who are called to the married state will, with the grace of God, find within their state everything they need to be holy.”

Do NOT fear Confession

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

August 20th, 2023

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091723.cfm

Sir 27:30—28:7      Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12

Rom 14:7-9        Mt 18:21-35

Today Jesus tells us to forgive 7 times 70 times - 490 times.  It seems kind of oddly specific.  I figure with that number in mind my wife Allison already forgave me more than 490 times around the time I proposed to her in my car while driving around the Middleboro Rotary back in the late 80s!

The human need for forgiveness goes farther back than the 80’s, all the way back to Genesis where, out of jealousy Cain kills his brother Abel.  Soon after in Genesis, we hear of a man named Lamech who was Cain’s great-great-great-great-grandson.  Lamech killed a man simply for wounding him and he says to his wives:

If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.”

What does this mean in Genesis?  Cain’s violent past is continuing but the question is how will God’s creation be renewed now?  There is a prophecy in the book of Daniel 9:24-27 that reads:

“Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and for your holy city: Then transgression will stop and sin will end, guilt will be expiated, Everlasting justice will be introduced, vision and prophecy ratified, and a holy of holies will be anointed. Know and understand: From the utterance of the word that Jerusalem was to be rebuilt until there is an anointed ruler, there shall be seven weeks.

The holy of holies will be anointed - anointed in Hebrew means Messiah.  Daniel’s prophetic vision was of seven, seventy-year periods and that equals 490 years, and then an anointed one will be cut down.  457 BC to AD 33 is 490 years (Jesus died around 33 AD).

It’s clear Jesus wasn’t just throwing out some odd random number when He said “seven times seventy times”, he was, pointing to Old Testament prophecy and scripture.

Of course, we know the rest of the story - we will be renewed by the ultimate and perfect sacrifice offered for the forgiveness of our sins, Jesus Christ, the perfect unsinful lamb of God.  Even with that we still hold on to sin as our first reading from Sirach tells us:

Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.

We are talking about parts of the Mass again in September and one of the parts we need to focus on is forgiveness.  Forgiveness has two major parts, first, forgiveness for ourselves and what we have done wrong, and then forgiveness of others who have wronged us.

First, let’s touch on forgiveness of ourselves.  We open Mass with the entrance antiphon, we reverence the Altar, have the greeting, and next up, the Penitential Act in which we typically use the Confitier. That’s where we begin with “I confess to almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters”.  We state how we have greatly sinned because any sin is an offense against God and hurts our relationship with Him.  We confess not only what we have done and said, but also what we failed to do and thought about doing.  It’s basically a formula of general confession and ends with the Priest's absolution BUT, and this is a big deal, it lacks the efficacy of the Sacrament of Penance, in other words, we still need to go to Confession to a priest - who is in persona Christi - or in the person of Christ in the confessional.  Confession with a priest is not optional.  Confession is often called the forgotten Sacrament.  Don’t let it be forgotten.  Even if it has been a very long time, perhaps since your first confession way back in second grade, it doesn’t matter.   Sure, it’s uncomfortable and squirmy, I don’t like it at all while I am confessing my sins but that discomfort helps me avoid sin in the future!  When finished we have those wonderful words of true absolution when the priest says “I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”.  The feeling after that is fantastic!  

Next up is forgiveness of others.  I don’t think any of us want to be the wicked servant from today’s Gospel. Soon, together we will all pray the Our Father, in which we say “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.  We tell God not to forgive us unless we also are forgiving!  Later in the Mass, we will encounter the Rite of Peace just before the Eucharist is distributed.  Mathew 5:23-24 tells us:

If you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal talks about the Rite of Peace as the way “by which the Church entreats peace and unity for herself and for the whole human family, and the faithful express to each other their ecclesial communion and mutual charity before communicating in the Sacrament”.

The Catholic Church is defined by its four marks - we are One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  We need to act as one and to do that we must forgive.

Remember, God is our creator so trust God to know what’s best for us.  Forgiveness is not just us forgiving others, but also forgiving ourselves too, especially in the sacrament of Confession.  Do NOT fear Confession.

St. John Paull II had this to say about Confession:

“Confession is an act of honesty and courage – an act of entrusting ourselves, beyond sin, to the mercy of a loving and forgiving God.”

Receive the Holy Spirit

May 17th - Sixth Sunday of Easter - Year A http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051720.cfm

In our first reading, we see that Philip, the deacon, was the opening act for Peter and John.  He went down to Samaria, got the crowd riled up for the word of God, and once finished, Peter and John show up, and they do something fascinating.

We see that the people to whom Philip was preaching to “had only been Baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus but had not yet received the Spirit.” So what exactly were Peter and John doing?  They were conferring on them the Sacrament of Confirmation - the Sacrament that completes their Baptism so that they may fully receive the Spirit.

As a matter of fact, if you research the sacrament of Confirmation in the Catechism of the Catholic Church you find this very reading at the bottom in the “In Brief” section, CCC 1315:

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17).

Another interesting discovery requiring just a little digging tells us more about Philip. Philip was one of the deacon’s mentioned in last week’s first reading from Acts 6:1-7.  He didn’t lay hands on them but he could baptize.  We can see this in Acts 8:26 where Philip baptizes the Ethiopian.  He was only a deacon and like today in time could not confer the sacrament of Confirmation.  That’s where Peter and John come in.  We know that they are Bishops because when they choose a successor for Judas, the betrayer in Acts 1:20 we read:

 For it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘Let his encampment become desolate, and may no one dwell in it.’

  And:

‘May another take his office’.

Ok, so that’s not very interesting to my point here is it? May another take his “office” actually is a big deal. If you take another translation that is older (Douay-Rheims Bible) Acts 1:20 reads:

For it is written in the book of Psalms: Let their habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein. And his bishopric let another take.

Peter and John were amongst the twelve so they were indeed considered Bishops of the very early church, and like today in time, the Bishop is the “ordinary” minister of Confirmation.

So the next time someone asks you where the sacraments are in the bible you can answer this one!  By the way, Acts 1:5 is another good spot to see Confirmation in action!

That leads us to a nice segue into our second reading from 1 Peter 3:15-16:

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame.

As confirmed adults (well, if you are confirmed already) the responsibility lies on your shoulders to learn more about the faith so that you may teach others.  You don’t have to teach religious education but you do need to be ready to teach when the opportunity presents itself.  It could be to family, to coworkers, people you meet, anybody really but you have to have the knowledge.  

Our second reading also tells us we need to teach “with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear”.  We see this kind of teaching in today’s psalm where the psalmist is lovingly telling the listeners about what God has done for them.

Our first step towards this should be prayer.  This is how we “sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts” as the first letter from Peter today reads.  If Christ is not Lord in our hearts then how can our hearts work with our minds so that we can properly teach about him?  

Ask the Holy Spirit for assistance because there is a lot of bad theology out there.  When in doubt refer to the sacraments in the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well.  Google carefully!  A good search might be “CCC Confirmation” and the first couple of links I saw were from www.vatican.va.  That’s definitely a reliable source, the Pope is there after all!  

Books can be valuable too but if you aren’t sure if it’s really Catholic look for the Nihil Obstat or Imprimatur on the first few pages, it means the book has been reviewed and stays true to Catholic teachings.  I don’t want to turn this into a commercial but you can always count on books by Scott Hahn, Edward Sri, Saint Pope John Paul II, Bishop Fulton Sheen, and the like.

Today’s Gospel tells us the best way to learn, to achieve sanctity, and to ultimately gain Heaven:

Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Know what Jesus’ teaches and you know what the Father teaches because Jesus and the Father are indeed one!  Each day spend some time in scripture, especially the Gospels.  Get yourself a good Catholic bible like the St. Joseph Edition or the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible and read the Gospels often.  Study them.  Refer to the notes at the bottom of the page.  In doing this you will get to know Jesus, you will become a friend of Jesus and you can’t go wrong there!

As St. Catherine of Siena (Doctor of the Church) once said:

All the way to Heaven is Heaven because Jesus said ‘I am the Way’

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank the guys from my Wednesday night Bible Study for making my thoughts come to fruition this week!