1/9/2022

Today is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It is the Sunday when we transition from Christmas Time to Ordinary Time. So next week is the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.
It has been suggested that I address some myths about the Catholic Church. These are things that non-Catholics (and some Catholics) believe about the Catholic Church, which usually indicates a misunderstanding about what we believe. I have a list of eight right now, and if you want me to address something like this, then submit your question to me and I will put it on the list.
Question #1 is: Catholics think they one can earn his/her way into heaven. Response: No, that is not true. Catholics believe that (except for Baptism by Desire) before baptism, we are in a state of separation from God due to the sin of Adam and Eve, called Original Sin. We cannot extricate ourselves from that predicament, so cannot achieve heaven or salvation or union with God, no matter how many “good deeds” we perform. Only God can cross that chasm. Fortunately, God does this by, sending the 2nd person of the Blessed Trinity to save us. To be saved, to attain heaven, we must believe that Jesus Christ became incarnate as God and man (totally both, born of Mary and conceived by the Holy Spirit), that he suffered, died, and rose from the dead in order to bridge the chasm which separated us and made possible our salvation. To make any progress towards union with God (heaven, salvation), we humans must believe the basics of salvation – that is the only way ‘back’ to God. But faith demands that we behave according to our belief, that our faith manifest itself not just as an intellectual conviction, but is also reflected in our actions. Jesus himself said that his disciple is “the one who hears the word of God and keeps it.” The phrase “keeps it” is called love or works of charity which flow from our faith. James 1:22 says, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.” In James 2:17 it says that faith without works is dead. I like to say that faith is an assumption on which one bases his/her action(s). This is true on both the natural and supernatural level. On the natural level, if you believe that there is extraterrestrial intelligent life, you will favor spending money to look for communication from this life. If you don’t, you won’t. On the supernatural level, if you believe that we are called as humans to live in union with God for all eternity, it is something you will strive to accomplish while here on earth. I do need to add that after having made an act of faith in the saving actions of Jesus, actions of love which we do as a result of our belief in Christ do have merit, as these acts are done in union with the redeeming acts of Christ. Faith makes that possible.
Question #2: We worship Mary, not Jesus. This is a myth. We do not believe that Mary existed before she was conceived (as we do Christ), we do not see her as part of the Blessed Trinity (as we do Christ), we do not see her as conceived by the Holy Spirit (as we do Christ). We honor Mary in a special way as we would the mother of anyone who is special to us, more so because she is the mother of our savior. In this case, Jesus is God and man, God by the Holy Spirit and man by the nature which Mary agreed to give Him. She is special because she was favored by God (“Rejoice, O highly favored one!” said Gabriel), she is a model of what it means to be a disciple (to hear the word of God and keep it, to obey, cooperate in God’s plan), she is thus a model of what the Church is meant to be, and she had privileges which are befitting of one who bore and reared the Son of God. It may appear to outsiders that we have more statues of Mary than Jesus, and emphasize devotion to Mary more than to Jesus, but it is our experience as Catholics that one who has a true devotion to Mary will always be lead by her to her son, Jesus Christ. To be continued. Please submit other questions you may have.
Let us have a blessed year in 2022!

Father Albert, O.S.B.