B. Isenbarger Evangelization, Feast Days, Relationships

Have you ever met Jesus?

Hey, have we met before?

In the readings for the feast of St. Paul’s Conversion from the Acts of the Apostles we get a startling story of some one meeting Jesus for the first time. It really is an incredible story. You can check here for the details.

But how do you typically answer that question?

Honestly, I usually get a little uncomfortable when I think about it. Have I really met Jesus? I mean, I’m not sure how tall he was, or how long his hair was. Or, what color were his eyes? Maybe I haven’t met Jesus…

Yikes! That’s a scary thought.

Before we get too unsettled, let’s take a closer look at St. Paul’s conversion to see how he met Christ.

On the way to attack the Christians living in Damascus, Paul experiences the blinding light and hears these words from Jesus: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 22:7). Jesus does not say: “Why are you persecuting my friends?” or “Why are you attacking my children?” No, Jesus says that when Paul was persecuting Christians, he was persecuting Christ Himself.

So often, it is easy to think of Christ as a theoretical idea or a moral teacher from the first century. But we cannot let this be the case. A few years ago, Pope Benedict brought this to light in his encyclical Deus caritas est when he said the following:

“Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

And so it was with St. Paul. On that road to Damascus, he encountered Christ – and was changed forever. This is one of the most pivotal moments in history. On that road, after encountering Christ, Saul became Paul and began to transform the entire culture of the Roman Empire and Western civilization.

So, have you ever encountered the Person of Christ?

I bet you have, and the answer may be closer than you think.

It is precisely through the Church – your brothers and sisters sitting right next to you – that you have encountered Christ.

Every Christian has entered into relationship with Christ through the Church – made up of individual persons. After Paul had the encounter on the road to Damascus, where did he go? He went to Ananias to be instructed in the faith and to receive baptism. His encounter with the light of Christ was inseparable from his encounter with the flesh and blood of Christ in the people of his Church.

Certainly, as Catholics, we see Christ most distinctly in the Blessed Sacrament, but he is also truly present in our other Christian brothers and sisters. That’s not me just saying that in some poetic way – it’s a reality. Jesus shows this to us in the story of St. Paul. Another master of evangelization also brought this out in a clear way. C.S. Lewis makes the point in the following way:

“Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”

In short, to the world, you are Christ. You are Christ’s true and living presence here and now. You may be the only “Bible” a person ever reads or the only “sacrament” some one ever experiences. As Paul met Christ on the road and was changed forever, may every one who encounters you and I – the Church – sense the warmth and light of Christ.

M. Hellinger Feast Days, Jesus Christ, John the Baptist

In Defense of Ordinary Time

Moving back to Ordinary Time after spending the last month or so reflecting on the mystery of the Incarnation and the Second Coming is always shocking in a sense. The parties are over, the lights are down, and here we are, returning to our regular schedules of work and study. This year was great because we had a full week between the Ephipany and the Baptism of the Lord. In fact, its because of this that I felt inclined to reflect on Ordinary Time.

Three things are worth considering: 1) the color green, 2) the ending of the Gospel from the Saturday before the Baptism as a guide for understanding Ordinary Time, 3) the goal of the Christian Life: the divinisation of Man and its relation to the name of the season.

First, green. I love talking about this color, mainly because I never recieved a satisfying answer about it as a kid and once I found one I was so happy (call it my thurst for knowledge taking revenge on ignorance, or just call it a mild OCD, whichever). Anyway, apart from a sad attempt at self-deprecating humor, green is important: it serves as a constant reminder of the nature of Ordinary Time. The best way I’ve come up with to explain this is the example of the Wizard of Oz.

A common misconception is that Oz is green because it is wealthy and ostentatious. I disagree. I argue that it is green because green is the color of hope and fidelity. Oz is Dorthy’s only hope, and she has to remain fixed on it as her end if she is going to get there. The green of Ordinary Time reminds us every time we see it that we have our own “Emerald City,” that place that is our hope: the life of the Trinity. And it is through fidelity to the Person of Christ that we journey onward to it.

The difference in our case is that instead of having a vague idea of a mysterious city that we’ve never been to or heard of before this journey, our journey is in and through a concrete experience of a Person, the God-Man Jesus Christ… but that’s a whole different reflection.

Second, it hit me just this year in the hearing of the Gospel on the Saturday before the Feast of the Baptism. The best guide for what to do with Ordinary Time is found in the words of John the Baptist: He must increase, I must decrease. We get to spend considerable amounts of time each liturgical year reflecting on the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Resurrection. Obviously, those are of the highest importance as they are central to the Christian Life. However, I think there is immense value in spending a substantial amount of time simply living with the Lord. 

The Baptism of Jesus, Church of St. John the Baptist
Bastia, Corsica, France

This living with the Lord in the ordinary (not the play on words I’m looking for, see below) is the way in which the mysteries take on their power in our lives and transform us. If Christians needed a campaign slogan to quickly explain themselves, I think the words of John the Baptist pretty much sum it up. Which leads us to the next point.

Third, if you’ve ever found yourself in Mass and super distracted (I’ve never met a Catholic who is completely foreign to this experience) the thought may have crossed your mind, “what am I doing here right now?” (in these or similar words) With eyes to see, Ordinary Time is giving you an answer.

The Name: Jesus Christ came to order our lives and our love in response to the disorder caused by sin. Ordinary Time is “ordered” time, a time that is arranged. While I don’t think the connection is intuitive, after all the Latin directly reads something like “time through the year,” there is wisdom in the English term, because it expresses what is understood to take place in this time. The process of conversion and conformation to Christ takes time and it requires us to allow him to reorder us, or rather, put us back in order.

Divinization: This year it struck me that Ordinary Time begins after the Baptism of the Lord (it does every year). I do not want to go into interpreting the meaning of the Baptism, rather I just simply want to draw the connection that our own life of conformity to Christ began at our Baptism. What a powerful yearly reminder of the call we received. And if we submit ourselves to the life of the Church as it is lived properly in each distinct season, we find a beautiful unpacking of the mystery of the gift that Baptism is and what God has done for us, all accomplished through faith in Jesus Christ.

This short, awkward time between Christmas and Lent is not just an afterthought or some sort of attempt to “fill in the time” with something as we await a new mystery to unpack in prayer with the Lord. It’s a renewed call to a relationship which reorders us, a call to realize the hope that Christ brings in His Incarnation, fulfilled in his Death and Resurrection, and has its beginning in the very mystery which brought us to Him: Baptism.

Fr. T. Zehr Catholicism, Feast Days, Jesus Christ

3 Gifts Point to the Cross

Why is the feast of the Epiphany such a big deal? Are we simply celebrating the beginning of giving gifts at Christmas? All of the gifts of the wise men indicate some essential aspect of who Jesus Christ is and what role he will take in Salvation history. These gifts, I don’t doubt, were divinely inspired. As wise as these 3 men were, I doubt they had the supernatural vision to foresee what this little baby was going to become!

The first gift is a somewhat normal gift of homage and respect. Gold. This gift is indicative of the royalty and power that Jesus has.  And really, this was the main reason the magi visited Jesus in the first place: to pay their respects to the new KING! Jesus is the King of heaven and earth, so this gift of gold points to Christ’s kingly royalty.

The Second Gift, of Frankincense seems somewhat strange. Frankincense is a type of incense and during the time of Jesus was almost as precious as gold because of its importance. In the Jewish culture, incense was used by the high priests of the Temple to bless and make holy the sacrifices that would be offered to God in the sanctuary. As the smoke of the incense rose up into the air, it was symbolic of their prayers going up into heaven to God. The gift of Frankincense to Jesus foretold the fact that Jesus would be the Great High Priest and would offer the true sacrifice of himself on the cross. 

The Third gift, is even stranger than the second. Myrrh. Myrrh is an oil that was used to anoint the deceased body of someone as they are preparing for burial. Imagine how Mary and Joseph would have felt receiving this gift for their newborn son??? Why would their son need this? Did the wise men think he was sick or was going to die soon? No, it was foretelling the type of life Jesus was going to live – a life of self-sacrifice, death to selfish desires, and obedience to God the Father even to death. The gift of Myrrh was appropriate because Jesus’ greatest act on the earth was his death, and the oil of Myrrh was symbolic of this great gift. 

Even today, we give these same gifts to God through the Church: We fill our sanctuary with beautiful, golden gifts to point to Christ’s Royalty and to adorn his Church with beauty. On High feast days, we light incense and fill the Church with the beautiful smoke to make holy the sacrifice which is offered on the altar.  And we use holy oil to anoint those who are preparing for death in the Anointing of the sick, We anoint with oil those who are dying to their old ways of sin in baptism, and we anoint priests and bishops who will die to their selves in a deeper and true way in their ministry, no longer living for their own passions and desires, but conforming themselves to the life that Christ lived. 

We celebrate on Epiphany more than just 3 guys who went to visit Jesus to give him presents on his birthday. We celebrate a great Foreshadowing of who this small child will become, what he will do, and how he will bring life to each one of us.