1/23/2022

I want to thank those of you who contributed to the ACA (Annual Catholic Appeal) enabling us to meet our goal. I also want to thank so many of you who have sent me cards and gifts for my 50th Anniversary of monastic profession, condolences and encouragement for my broken ankle, and of course Christmas. I am overwhelmed by your generosity and kindness.
Last week I wrote about Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist, and how the Eucharist is a sacrament. At the end I referred to the sacramental system in which physical signs are used to communicate spiritual realities. The Holy Spirit works through these seven signs as the main channels by which the Church (the Body of Christ) ministers to its members, making them holy and incorporating them more deeply into union with Christ in his Mystical Body. I want to say a couple of things here about sacraments. A) The sacraments recognize and respect humans as being both physical and spiritual beings, as having a ‘visible’ and an ‘invisible’ dimension. In being both physical and spiritual, the sacraments seek to minister to the WHOLE person, not just his/ her physical side or spiritual side. B) The sacraments make physical signs holy by infusing them with the Holy Spirit, then the physical signs are used to bring about (effect) what they signify. For example, water in Baptism washes away sins after the priest calls on the Holy Spirit to come down on the water and make it holy. In the Eucharist, the priest calls down the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ (called the epiclesis, when I extend my hands over the bread and wine). The bishop consecrates oils used for Confirmation, Ordination, and Anointing of the Sick, then the oil is used to minister to the person being anointed. These signs are powerful and are the primary channels for receiving God’s love, for doing now and through history what Jesus did when he was on this earth. There is more to say, but being a devout and committed Catholic means understanding and experiencing God’s grace through the sacraments.
Question #5) What is purgatory? Heaven is for those who are perfectly aligned with God – His will is their will. Many of us are on good terms with God, but have little pockets of selfishness, willfulness, maybe some habitual sin, that keep us from saying we are in total harmony with God’s will. So we are on good terms with God (i.e. no mortal sin), but may have the sense that we are not totally committed to God’s Kingdom, at least not yet. We have some purification to undergo in order to enter totally into His presence. That purification happens in Purgatory, which is a temporal part heaven. How that purification happens is not clear. This is not to say that God’s grace is insufficient to overcome sin – it most certainly is. Rather, it is to say that some of us are slow to appropriate that grace TOTALLY, to be transformed totally. As a result, we pray for those who have died and are being purified, hoping to alleviate their suffering and hasten their entrance into the fullness of heaven. We find a reference to praying for the dead even in the Old Testament in 2 Maccabees 12:46, where they prayed offering an expiatory sacrifice for slain Jewish soldiers who sinned by wearing “amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia,” (2 Mac 12:40) a pagan God.
There are three more questions. One is about Catholic traditions which are not in scripture, one about why the Catholic Bible is different from the Protestant, and one about the Rosary and “worship of Mary.” If you have any questions, please ask and I will try to respond.
May God bless you! It is a joy to be your pastor.

Father Albert, O.S.B