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TUESDAY February 29, 2000 vol. 11, no. 42 SECTION ONESee why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!"
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In today's editorial, we take advantage of Leap Day by illustrating the Leap of Faith the Holy Father made over this past weekend in completing the Pentateuch part of his historic "Jubilee Journey" and what lies ahead as the mongers of muck and dissidence try to rake him over the coals. We point out that though he is frail in figure, his mind is razor sharp and don't for a minute be deceived that this aged, holy Roman Pontiff is "losing it." Though the media love to infer that he's over the hill and should resign, they forget he has the greatest Ally on his side Who guides and inspires him - the Holy Spirit. For today's editorial The Pope may be slumped over, but he's in no slump! , click on CATHOLIC PewPOINT
The clay, sand and rock surface of this land that encompasses Israel, Palestine, Jordan and the southern part of Lebanon has a long, storied and troubled history that the bible and history books clearly account. Since 1948, when the State of Israel was reinstituted after nearly nineteen hundred years from the fall of Jerusalem, there has been a tenuous on-and-off truce that is very brittle between Arab and Jew. Bad feelings, resentments, and a clash of cultures has pervaded this region. Despite the attempts by the United States, most notably President Jimmy Carter, to bring peace to this region through the Camp David Accord in 1979 between Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin - two men who so desperately wanted peace and whose time has now passed - other factions and cultural differences have greatly deteriorated that accord. Add to this tension the looming Islam shadow in Egypt to the south, Jordan to the east and Syria and Iraq to the north and Israel finds itself as the underdog David against the Muslim Goliath.
Yet, too often this "David" is flinging stones at shadows of the past and conjuring up in their collective minds ghosts of the past they can't let go. We're not just talking about ancient times or the time of Our Lord but as recently as World War II and the Holocaust. Yes, we all know the Jews in Germany suffered terribly and were annihilated in shocking numbers that epitomized the disregard for humanity. But, damnit, it's time they placed the blame where it belonged: with a crazed leader who had alienated all: Adolf Hitler not Pope Pius XII! Yet Jewish factions continue to point the finger at this good, holy Roman Pontiff who did all he could and more, as so many Jewish organizations and rabbis have attested to - people who were there at the time of this devasting and tragic period in history. If, as these present day rabble rousers claim, Pius XII was so silent and did nothing, then why did not the first prime minister of the State of Israel David Ben Gurion, or Israel's first president Chaim Weizmann. or Golda Meir or Begin, or Head of State Ezer Weizman, or Yitshak Rabin or the current leader Ehud Barak and countless other Israeli leaders speak out against the beleaguered Italian Pope? That is because they didn't believe it then and no one should now. It is all part of the pass-the-buck blame game and anti-Catholic sentiment within certain Jewish radical factions.
Notice, this is not prevalent with most Jews, but only certain radical ones. And it is those ultranationalists in Jerusalem we must worry about as they continue making noise and grabbing immense media coverage for their protests of the Pope's visit towards the end of March. Some Ultra-Orthodox Jews have joined the ultranationalistss in criticizing Israel's chief rabbis for their plans to meet with the Holy Father, claiming such rubbish that it "might spur Christian missionary activity." Please, give us a break! Let's face the facts: Christianity has always been in the vast minority in the Holy Land region - from the time of the early Apostles to present day. The Christian population of Israel is only 2% while the Jewish faith claims 82% and Muslim 14%. Yet, Jerusalem is split three ways with each of these monotheistic faiths sharing a section of the Holy City. Christianity is stronger in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and even Syria and Iraq. Yet the Church realizes the need to minister to those Catholics who do reside in Israel. There is not a growing trend to convert the Jews as much as to dialogue in finding mutual understanding between these two great faiths - both intrinsically linked to Salvation History which the Holy Father has stressed in his spiritual pilgrimage for this Jubilee Year. A special symposium with both Catholics and Jews scheduled at the Vatican in two weeks will address many issues the Pope faces in the month ahead. One thing is for sure: the Vicar of Christ has also stressed that he will avoid all politics in his "Jubilee Journey" which is to be considered by him, the Church and all the world as strictly spiritual. After all, he is the most recognized and respected spiritual leader of the world!
That recognition and respect needs to be acknowledged by Catholics as well - specifically the liberal Catholics who seem to diss the Pope as too frail and out of touch. The media loves to latch onto this, playing up his age and his hunched-over posture as a man whose time has passed. Sorry, but his mind is as sharp as ever and that is all that counts! He could be flat on his back and we will listen and obey for he is the authorized successor of Saint Peter whom Jesus charged with the authorization of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Pope is the only one who can "loose on earth" and the only one who can "bind on earth" (cf. Matthew 16: 19). And speaking of binding, the Pope, upon his return from Egypt turned his attention to within and reiterated emphatically Sunday the need to adhere to what the Vatican II Council decreed. He's talking about getting rid of the 'spirit of Vatican II' and replacing it with the 'Holy Spirit of Vatican II' as he stated in his closing address at the Symposium which wrapped up on Sunday. In his concluding talk he said, "it is necessary not to lose the genuine intention of the Council Fathers; on the contrary, it must be recovered, overcoming cautious and partial interpretations that impede expressing to the maximum the novelty of the Council Magisterium." He also asserted, "to read the Council assuming that it supposes a rupture with the past, when in reality it is aligned with the everlasting faith, is clearly erroneous."
What does the Pope mean by all this? Clearly that the pendulum is swinging back to the right and he is informing the bishops to begin to properly police the runaway liberal agenda in the liturgy so rampant in so many dioceses and parishes throughout the world, especially in the United States. It's sad how many bishops don't realize that, by allowing these abominations in the liturgy to continue and which have no semblance to what the Vatican II Council Fathers intended, they are responsible for countless souls who have either left the Church completely or stayed away from their parishes because they are so disillusioned and lost, seeking so desperately to recover that reverence and sacredness inherent in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which too often today resembles a Protestant service. It just solidifies our call last month to bring back the "Old New Mass."
And so, as the Pope reaches out to those of the Islam, Orthodox and Jewish faiths in a sincere and urgent effort to unify and coexist in peace, all for the honor and glory of God, he is not as out of touch as the media and modernists want you to believe. He very much has his finger on the pulse of the world and Holy Mother Church and realizes the harvest is coming soon and it will be time to separate the wheat from the chaff. By his many encyclicals and addresses during his "Jubilee Journey" he is revealing the immediacy of the harvest and by his latest statements Sunday on Vatican II misinterpretations, smart observers can see the scythe is being sharpened as the Holy Father looks forward to fulfilling the words of his encyclical - "that all may be one." Just a few months short of turning 80, the Pope may be slumped over, but he's in no slump!
Today, because Michael Vincent Boyer's column has been delayed since he is putting his March issue of "Goodbye Hollywood" to bed, we bring you a special edition of His Holiness Pope John Paul II's moving homily at Mount Sinai on his final day in Egypt at the Monastery of Saint Catherine at the foot of the holy mountain where Moses received the Decalogue which has been the guideline for Judeo-Christian faithful ever since. He speaks of the austerity of this sacred place and the history as well as the need to reunify the monotheistic faiths. See THE VICAR OF CHRIST SPEAKS
1. In this year of the Great Jubilee, our faith leads us to become pilgrims in the footsteps of God. We contemplate the path he has taken through time, revealing to the world the magnificent mystery of his faithful Love for all humankind. Today, with great joy and deep emotion, the Bishop of Rome is a pilgrim to Mount Sinai, drawn by this holy mountain which rises like a soaring monument to what God revealed here. Here he revealed his name! Here he gave his Law, the Ten Commandments of the Covenant!
How many have come to this place before us! Here the People of God pitched their tents (cf. Ex 19:2); here the prophet Elijah took refuge in a cave (cf. 1 Kgs 19:9); here the body of the martyr Catherine found a final resting-place; here a host of pilgrims through the ages have scaled what Saint Gregory of Nyssa called "the mountain of desire" (The Life of Moses, II, 232); here generations of monks have watched and prayed. We humbly follow in their footsteps, to "the holy ground" where the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob commissioned Moses to set his people free (cf. Ex 3:5-8).
2. God shows himself in mysterious ways as the fire that does not consume according to a logic which defies all that we know and expect. He is the God who is at once close at hand and far-away; he is in the world but not of it. He is the God who comes to meet us, but who will not be possessed. He is "I AM WHO I AM" the name which is no name! I AM WHO I AM: the divine abyss in which essence and existence are one! The God who is Being itself! Before such a mystery, how can we fail to "take off our shoes" as he commands, and adore him on this holy ground?
Here on Mount Sinai, the truth of "who God is" became the foundation and guarantee of the Covenant. Moses enters "the luminous darkness" (The Life of Moses, II, 164), and there he is given the Law "written with the finger of God" (Ex 31:18). But what is this Law? It is the Law of life and freedom!
At the Red Sea, the people had experienced a great liberation. They had seen the power and fidelity of God; they had discovered that he is the God who does indeed set his people free as he had promised. But now on the heights of Sinai, this same God seals his love by making the Covenant that he will never renounce. If the people obey his Law, they will know freedom for ever. The Exodus and the Covenant are not just events of the past; they are for ever the destiny of all God's people!
3. The encounter of God and Moses on this Mountain enshrines at the heart of our religion the mystery of liberating obedience, which finds its fulfilment in the perfect obedience of Christ in the Incarnation and on the Cross (cf. Phil 2:8; Heb 5:8-9). We too shall be truly free if we learn to obey as Jesus did (cf. Heb 5:8).
The Ten Commandments are not an arbitrary imposition of a tyrannical Lord. They were written in stone; but before that, they were written on the human heart as the universal moral law, valid in every time and place. Today as always, the Ten Words of the Law provide the only true basis for the lives of individuals, societies and nations. Today as always, they are the only future of the human family. They save man from the destructive force of egoism, hatred and falsehood. They point out all the false gods that draw him into slavery: the love of self to the exclusion of God, the greed for power and pleasure that overturns the order of justice and degrades our human dignity and that of our neighbor. If we turn from these false idols and follow the God who sets his people free and remains always with them, then we shall emerge like Moses, after forty days on the mountain, "shining with glory" (Saint Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, II, 230), ablaze with the light of God!
To keep the Commandments is be faithful to God, but it is also to be faithful to ourselves, to our true nature and our deepest aspirations. The wind which still today blows from Sinai reminds us that God wants to be honored in and through the growth of his creatures: Gloria Dei, homo vivens. In this sense, that wind carries an insistent invitation to dialogue between the followers of the great monotheistic religions in their service of the human family. It suggests that in God we can find the point of our encounter: in God the All Powerful and All Merciful, Creator of the universe and Lord of history, who at the end of our earthly existence will judge us with perfect justice.
4. The Gospel Reading which we have just listened to suggests that Sinai finds its fulfilment on another mountain, the Mountain of the Transfiguration, where Jesus appears to his Apostles shining with the glory of God. Moses and Elijah stand with him to testify that the fullness of God's revelation is found in the glorified Christ.
On the Mountain of the Transfiguration, God speaks from the cloud, as he had done on Sinai. But now he says: "This is my beloved Son; listen to him" (Mk 9:7). He commands us to listen to his Son, because "no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (Mt 11:27). And so we learn that the true name of God is FATHER! The name which is beyond all other names: ABBA! (cf. Gal 4:6). And in Jesus we learn that our true name is SON, DAUGHTER! We learn that the God of the Exodus and the Covenant sets his people free because they are his sons and daughters, created not for slavery but for "the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom 8:21).
So when Saint Paul writes that we "have died to the law through the body of Christ" (Rom 7:4), he does not mean that the Law of Sinai is past. He means that the Ten Commandments now make themselves heard through the voice of the Beloved Son. The person delivered by Jesus Christ into true freedom is aware of being bound not externally by a multitude of prescriptions, but internally by the love which has taken hold in the deepest recesses of his heart. The Ten Commandments are the law of freedom: not the freedom to follow our blind passions, but the freedom to love, to choose what is good in every situation, even when to do so is a burden. It is not an impersonal law that we obey; what is required is loving surrender to the Father through Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 6:14; Gal 5:18). In revealing himself on the Mountain and giving his Law, God revealed man to man himself. Sinai stands at the very heart of the truth about man and his destiny.
5. In pursuit of this truth, the monks of this Monastery pitched their tent in the shadow of Sinai. The Monastery of the Transfiguration and Saint Catherine bears all the marks of time and human turmoil, but it stands indomitable as a witness to divine wisdom and love. For centuries monks from all Christian traditions lived and prayed together in this Monastery, listening to the Word, in whom dwells the fullness of the Father's wisdom and love. In this very Monastery, Saint John Climacus, wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent, a spiritual masterpiece that continues to inspire monks and nuns, from East and West, generation after generation. All this has taken place under the mighty protection of the Great Mother of God. As early as the third century Egyptian Christians appealed to her with words of trust: We have recourse to your protection, O Holy Mother of God! Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, sancta Dei Genetrix! Through the centuries, this Monastery has been an exceptional meeting place for people belonging to different Churches, traditions and cultures. I pray that in the new millennium the Monastery of Saint Catherine will be a radiant beacon calling the Churches to know one another better and to rediscover the importance in the eyes of God of the things that unite us in Christ.
6. I am grateful to the many faithful from the Diocese of Ismayliah, led by Bishop Makarios, who have come to join me in this pilgrimage to Mount Sinai. The Successor of Peter thanks you for your steadfastness in faith. God bless you and your families!
May the Monastery of Saint Catherine be a spiritual oasis for members of all the Churches in search of the glory of the Lord which settled on Mount Sinai (cf. Ex 24:16). The vision of this glory prompts us to cry out in overflowing joy: "We give thanks to you, O holy Father, for your holy name, which you have made to dwell in our hearts" (Didache, X). Amen.
Today we continue with our new series in the search to uncover the wonderful treasures of the Church contained in the great Deposit of Faith. Today we present the catechesis on Image of God as explained in My Catholic Faith. For part two in the 120th installment, see APPRECIATING THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH
We can prove that the soul of man is immortal, because man's acts of intelligence are spiritual; therefore, his soul must be a spiritual being, not dependent on matter, and hence not subject to decay or death. If even matter cannot totally disappear, howevr small the particle, how can the soul of man, of a far higher order, be thought to suffer extinction?
Man has mind and will. He can reflect, reason, plan for the future, make judgments, remember. These prove his soul spiritual. Such a soul cannot die as the body does. Man longs for an ideal state of perfect happiness, such happiness as is impossible to attain on earth. This universal longing must have been placed in men's souls by God Himsself; it is a desire for the infinite happiness of a union with the Creator. If, therfore, man's soul were not immortal, he would have no chance to realize his dream of bliss, and God would be cruel in implanting the longing for it in his breast.
There have been many instances of the dead appearing to the living. In the Gospel, Moses and Elias appeared on Mount Thabor to Christ and three of His Apostles. At Christ's death, many who were dead rose and appeared in Jerusalem.
The Blessed Virgin Mary has through the centuries continued to appear to men; such instances are almost innumerable. Saints have also returned to earth to comfort or instruct the living; even souls in purgatory have returned, to beg for prayers. We must, however, be very careful about believing in particular instances of appearances by the dead; the devil can and often does use this instrumentality to trick the gullible.
Yes, belief in the immortality of the soul and a life after deathis universal among mankind, including the most primitive peoples. In the Bible are many instances of the belief of the Jews in another life, where the souos of the dead would be. For instance, one of their laws forbade holding intercourse with the dead. The Greeks and Romans believed in Tartarus and Elysium, places for the dead. Other nations have different cults to the dead, especially during their burial ceremonies. Such cults would be meaningless did those who took part in them not have have an idea of another life for departed souls.
If the soul were not immortal, the wicked who commit evil all their lives would go unpunished. The just who suffer continually on earth would not receive any reward. This would be injustice impossible to the perfect justice of God. If even man, imperfect as he is, can see innumberable examples of injustice in life, could not God? Would He not have a way of correcting such injustice? And if so, since it cannot be corrected in this life, there must be another, where immortal souls go to obtain perfect justice.
Holy Scripture, the Word of God, teaches that the soul is immortal. Our Lord Himself said to the good Thief, "This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). "And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul" (Matthew 10:28). "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matthew 22:32).
Tomorrow: Adam and Eve: Our First Parents part one
On this date 1,532 years ago in 468 Pope Saint Hilary passed on to his Heavenly Reward. His seven year pontificate as the 46th successor of Peter was marked by his attention to the formation of the priesthood in determining what level of culture was needed in order for a young man to become a priest. He also declared that Popes and Bishops could not nominate their successors. In addition, he established the first apostolic vicariate in Spain. For other time capsule events that happened in Church history on this date, see MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES
1468 A.D.
Birth of Alessandro Farnese in Canino, Italy. He would go on to become a prized student at Pisa, become treasurer for the Church, then cardinal-deacon before being selected Pope Paul III on October 13, 1534 as the 220th successor of Peter.
Historical Events in Church Annals for February 29:
468 A.D.
Death of Pope Saint Hilary, 46th successor of Peter. Born in Cagliari, Italy, Hilary's pontificate lasted seven years. In his political thought he followed his great predecessor Saint Leo the Great. He decided that a certain level of culture was needed in order to become a priest, and that Popes and Bishops should not nominate their successors.
NOTE: We respectfully recognize and accept the final authority regarding apparitions, locutions and prophecies presently being reported around the world rests with the Holy See of Rome and the Magisterium of Holy Mother Church to whose judjment we humbly and obediently submit.
"Dear children! Wake up from the sleep of unbelief and sin, because this is a
time of grace which God gives you. Use this time and seek the grace of healing of your heart from God, so that
you may see God and man with the heart. Pray in a special way for those who have not come to know God's
love, and witness with your life so that they also can come to know God and His immeasurable love. Thank you
for having responded to my call."
