1/16/2022

This past week Bro. Luke Kral, O.S.B. came to live in the rectory. He will be living at the rectory during the week while he goes to school at NWMSU studying Graphics Design and preparing to work at The Printery House. Weekends he will be back at Conception Abbey. He is not my assistant, but may help out here and there. Please make him feel welcome to Maryville and our parish community!
Last week we discussed how Catholics are accused of “earning their way into heaven” and “worshipping Mary the Mother of God.” This week I would like to discuss two more questions.
3) “Catholics worship saints rather than Jesus.” Catholics honor saints – they are our heroes in the spiritual life, much as Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods would be in golf, Michael Jordan or LeBron James in basketball, or Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady in football. These people succeeded at their sport and would be able to give good advice. Likewise, there are a multitude of saints, heroes or role models in the spiritual life. My patron saint is St. Albert the Great. He loved the natural sciences, philosophy, and theology. In fact, he wanted to learn everything about everything. Bright as he was, he still was humble before the reality of God. He is a good patron for me because I like the intellectual life, and like my patron, I do not see a contradiction between science and faith and philosophy. So he models ways by which I might go to God. But what if you are not an intellectual? Perhaps you want to live simply and be dependent on others. Well, St. Francis of Assisi might be the patron saint for you. There are saints for motherhood, for missionaries, for martyrs, for married people, for visionaries, for contemplatives and mystics. We honor all these people because they have achieved what we long for: union with God. They serve as an inspiration to us of what is possible when we truly listen to what God wants from us and seek to cooperate with God’s plan. In other words, saints are people who OBEYED God’s promptings in their lives, and as a result helped to build the Kingdom of God on earth. In all they do, the primary goal is to believe in Jesus, obey Jesus, and grow closer to Jesus by doing his bidding. We stand in awe and wonder at what saints may have accomplished, but never doubt that it is Jesus Christ and his Spirit who are the real guides and sources of power. Far from worshipping the saints, we find that their humble obedience to Christ enables good to come about, and the New Creation to be furthered. Jesus works through them, and wants to work through us. During the liturgical year the Church places saints before us to show us how.
4) “Communion is just a symbol of Christ’s presence, not his Real Presence as Catholics believe.” This is a matter of difference in belief, based on how Catholics and Protestants interpret scripture differently. Catholics take the Gospel of John literally where Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” (Jn 6:54-55) Likewise do we take literally the words of Christ at the Last Supper when he took the bread, said it was his body, and said to eat it. Then he said to drink the cup of his blood, and to “Do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor 11:23+, Lk 22:19+). From these accounts we conclude that Jesus is totally present (body, blood, soul, and divinity) in the bread and wine at Mass after the consecration, that we should eat his body and drink his blood, and that he intended us to “do this in remembrance of me.” This is our “bread for the journey” that sustains us until we die or He comes in glory. Eucharist is central to our practice and belief as Catholics – everything in life flows from the Mass as the source of our faith (Christ) and towards the Mass as the summit of our faith. It is truly the greatest and richest, most profound and precious gift that God has given us. If we get Eucharist right, our Christian faith flows naturally from it and eventually back to it. I should also say something about the sacramental system of physical signs which do spiritually what they signify physically. Maybe next week.
Please submit any other questions you may have to the office or to me. I think that it is important to be able to articulate what we believe, not in condemnation of anyone else, but to affirm who we are and what we believe.
It is a joy to be your pastor!

Father Albert, O.S.B.