| Editorial
Note:
Letter to Earl E. Byrd and Ms. Medea Medium
continued:
At this point, fellow truth seeker, you are
probably asking what has any of this to do with the original questions.
It is simply this: You are asking me to comment on the nature of Baptism,
Confirmation, Holy Communion and Marriage. These are four of the seven
Sacraments. The others are Holy Orders, Penance, and the Anointing of the
Sick, (or as we used to call it Extreme Unction.) It is interesting
to note that for the first five mentioned, halls, caterers, photographers
and uncomfortable clothing are involved. I have never had anyone invite
me to a First Confession Banquet or to an Extreme Unction Party. When the
Little Dears come to their first Confession I have never had to deal with
an obnoxious photographer saying he “missed the shot. Could we do it
over again?” Nor have I had to endure a long, drunken, embarrassing toast
to the almost deceased at an Extreme Unction Banquet, though I have endured
some rather strange eulogies at funeral Masses. The fact that two
of the seven Sacraments are relatively hoo-ha free should tell us that
there is something out of kilter. We don’t understand sacraments. A few
more horror stories before I get on with my point.
I remember a Catholic high school teacher
who told me quite a tale. She taught religion among other subjects, and
her students were pretty much comatose in religion class. She decided to
ask the students why this was so. They told her that they, and their parents
didn’t go to church on Sunday, and they didn’t believe any of this
nonsense, nor did their parents. She was shocked. She asked them why their
parents went to the expense of sending them to Catholic school. The told
her that their parents had the money and wanted to keep them away form
gangs by sending them to private schools and that Catholic schools were
the cheapest kind of private school and besides if you didn’t get your
Sacraments you couldn’t be married in a Catholic Church. She was astounded!
Why would you want to be married in a Catholic Church if you didn’t believe
in the Catholic Church? The answer was simple; “Where do you expect us
to get married? In a hotel?” In other words, it was all about the sacred
wedding video.
I remember a Vietnamese priest who had
suffered for his faith in the concentration camps of Vietnam. He was a
seminarian and a catechist in Vietnam and was arrested after the fall of
Saigon. He faced interrogation and torture. He finally escaped and came
to America to finish his seminary education and achieve his dream of ordination
to the priesthood. He was a true confessor for the faith. He was serving
in a suburban parish where there were not many Vietnamese people and English
was difficult for him. He had been assigned by his pastor to officiate
at one of the many weddings that filled the parish calendar. The bride
was a wreck! She refused to allow him to do her wedding. His heavy accent
would have just ruined the video. She had the chance to have her
marriage blessed by a saint, but preferred quality production values
to sanctity. I wonder if the happy couple are still married. I have a suggestion.
In Japan it has become common for former priests or imitation priests to
do fake western weddings which have become all the rage. We could do that
here. Fake priests doing fake weddings and performing fake sacraments for
the camera. We wouldn’t have to bother with all the rules and the restrictions
that the Catholic Church seems to delight in. We could just celebrate ourselves
and it would look the same in the video and the pictures. (Just a
note for the humor impaired: this is sarcasm. I don’t really mean it.
I am trying to make a point.)
So, you may ask, what is your point?
I have already made my point. In the new, good time, God-is-luv, my friend
Jesus Church, we haven’t a clue about the meaning of Sacraments. If we
understood Sacraments, most of us probably wouldn’t want them.
Perhaps I should explain in a little more depth.
What is a Sacrament? The old Catechism
definition of Sacraments is a good place to start: “a Sacrament is an
outward sign, instituted by Christ to give grace.” The original
questioner mentioned that he would like his children to have the graces
of Confirmation as soon as possible. Don’t be too sure.
The mother of Louis IX, Saint Louis of
France, told her son on the day of his First Communion that, “My son,
I would rather see you dead at my feet than have you commit a mortal sin.”
This was woman who understood Sacraments. Grace. It’s a good thing, isn’t
it? Oh, yes, very good. So was the Cross of Calvary and so were the tears
of the Virgin Mary, our Blessed Mother.
Grace, the Latin-English word translated
from the Greek word “Kharis” translated from the Hebrew word “Khen.”
It means undeserved favor. Favor from God. It sounds good, but have you
ever read any of the lives of the saints? Let’s look at the first
and greatest of the saints, Mary, the princess of the royal house of David.
An angel appeared to her and said, “Rejoice, o highly favored one.”
You may have heard it translated, “Hail Mary, full of grace.” Grace
and favor, the same thing. He then went on to explain, that, though she
was a virgin, she was to become pregnant with the Messiah who was to be
the Son of God and the Son of David, her ancestor. Pregnant, though not
yet married in a culture where she would be stoned to death, if her fiancé
Joseph made it public. She was told to go to Judea, and shortly after that
she was told that a sword would pierce her heart and shortly after that
she had to flee for life and the life of her baby who eventually left her
to become a rabbi and she stood at the foot of His cross when he was tortured
to death as a blasphemer and an insurrectionist. O highly favored one!?!
Grace is about election. Grace is tied
up in the fact that God has chosen you (or your children) for his work
in the world. So you want the grace of the Sacrament, or still worse, you
want the grace of the Sacrament for your children! “It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God!” (Hebrews 10:31)
To be continued.........
click here for Part 3
The
Question Was
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