Summary of the Week - 18th April

ON THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY ORDERS DONE ON 18^TH APRIL 2012

Introduction

The sacrament of Holy Orders and the sacrament of Marriage are called the sacrament of mission. They help us to build the body of Christ. These two sacraments were established by Jesus in view of the fact that we belong to a double family: the family of the flesh and the family of the spirit. My concern now is on the sacrament of Holy Orders.

It is God’s will that we be provided with priests on our way to heaven

Priests have two fold roles:

v  They offer to God the prayers and sacrifices of their people and express to him the peoples’ needs.

v  They make God’s will known to their people.

In Old Testament priests were appointed from among the descendants of Aaron, while the rest of the tribes, the Levites would be at the service of the priests. At the time of Jesus, a few priestly families in Jerusalem had all the power in their hands. They bitterly opposed Jesus during his preaching, and eventually condemned him to death. Through the death of Jesus a new worship was being established and a new High Priest, Jesus was consecrated.

Only Christ can claim to be a priest in his own right

Jesus is priest, a unique priest, offering a unique sacrifice: a sacrifice in which he was at the same time the priest and a victim. Jesus is a priest who will live forever, he does not need to be replaced as the Jewish priests were in fact even in heaven he will continue to be a priest. His work is to intercede for us all with his father (Heb.7:25).

Jesus offered a unique sacrifice on the cross: his sacrifice need not to be repeated as the sacrifices at the temple of Jerusalem which were repeated day after day. Jesus offered his sacrifice once and for all. Being himself not only the priest but also the victim offered to the father.

S0 wonderful is Jesus our priest: He is holy, untouched by sin, and at the same time compassionate towards our weakness, since he too was tempted the way we are tempted. Besides being our priest, he is also our brother; he chose to become so, when he made us, his father’s children at Baptism (heb.2:11; 4:15; 8:26).

Jesus turns his followers into priestly people, to enable them join him in his worship

Only Jesus can render our worship worthy of his father. To enable us to join our worship to his, he bestowed on us a gift no one would ever have thought of. Jesus shared with us his own priesthood that made us truly his priests at Baptism. Not in exactly the same way as ordained priests are but true priestly people.

We Christians have the righty to call ourselves “the priestly people” with far more reason than the tribe of Levi called themselves so in the Old Testament. But this should not be an empty title. In his letter to all Christians, Peter reminds us that having been appointed priests; we should not neglect our daily offering.

From among his followers, Jesus chose twelve men who were supposed to do the following:

Ø  They were to preach the good news as he was preaching it: “Go out to the whole world: proclaim the Good News to all creatures” (Mk.16:16).

Ø  They were to turn believers into God’s children by communicating to them the life in the spirit through the Baptism he would establish: “Baptize them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit” (Jn.20:23).

Ø  They were to forgive the people’s sins as he was forgiving anyone who repented: “if you forgive any man’s sins they are forgiven” (Jn.20:23).

Ø  They were to change bread and wine into his Body and Blood as he had done at the Last Supper:” Do this to remember me” (Lk.22:19).

Ø  They were to govern  God’s people ; but they should carry out this task not as the rulers of the world do, who demand service from everyone, but as the servants of everyone, following Jesus’ own example (Lk.22: 24- 30 ; Jn. 13: 12-15).

Who is pope?

As Peter, for a time an apostle like the rest, was appointed by Jesus to lead the whole church, so the Pope, a Bishop like the rest, on being chosen Pope, becomes the head of the whole church. His power does not come from those who choose him but from Christ himself. Pope is the successor of Peter, Chief Shepherds and teacher who represents Christ in our midst. The e whole church, both flock and shepherds is under his care.

His work: Guided by the spirit, he teaches us the true faith, governs us and leads us to holiness.

After the pope we have Bishops: Each Bishop is I in charge of a dioceses, a kind of “province” within the church, just as the various apostles had certain reigns under their care. The Bishop carries out his work under the guidance and union with the Holy Father.

His work: to preach the Good News to non- Christians, to instruct Christians in the true faith, and to lead to holiness the various communities entrusted to his care.

We have priests: we could call them “helper-priests”, since they are appointed by the Bishop to help him with the care of the Christian communities he entrusts to them.

Their work: to preach the Good News to non- Christians, to instruct Christians in the faith, to baptize, to celebrate the Eucharist, to forgive sins in the sacrament of Reconciliation, to anoint the sick and to bless marriages. With permission from the bishop they may also administer the sacrament of confirmation.

 And finally we have Deacons: they are collaborators of Bishop and Priests.

Their work: to see to the administration of the goods of the church and to the distribution of relief to the poor, to preach the Good News, to prepare for Baptism and to baptize them, to distribute the Eucharist, to bless marriages and so on.

Deacons do not have the power to preside over the celebration of the Eucharist, to administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation or the Anointing of the sick. These are works to be carried out by priests.

Conclusion

Jesus turned his apostles into priests out of love for his people and it was his will that they should pass to their successors those same priestly powers they had received from him. To that purpose Jesus opened a particular channel for the life in the spirit to flow with particular abundance into the heart of those chosen to become priests. We call this particular channel the Sacrament of Holy holders.

The effects of this Sacrament on the person ordained priest are not limited to the day of Ordination but extend to his  whole life  providing him  with the light and the strength he needs to faithfully carry out his mission and to gradually become a faithful copy of Christ, the High Priest.

Summary of the week - April 11th

BAPTISM; BORN AGAIN IN BAPTISM.

BY; MILLICENT DIANG'A

Jesus planned to communicate divine life to man and woman through baptism, before his resurrection he gave his disciples a clear command, …..'Go make disciples of all nation, baptise them in the name of the father ,the son, and the Holy Spirit,  and teach them to observe all the commands I gave to you.” (Mt 28 19)

What is baptism then?

The word baptism mean cleansing.

Did the baptism which Jesus commanded to his disciple the same with what John gave him?

John himself confirms that the baptism Jesus would confer would carry far greater power than his own. But as seen in the baptism Jesus established, does resembles John because it consist of external washing, it is also a sign of determination to abandon sin and start a new life.

John himself said........ ‘I baptise you with water but the one who follows me is more powerful than I am....he will baptise you with the holy spirit (Mt.3;11).

He meant that in accepting my baptism, you express your determination to start a life of holiness, get ready to receive messiah, and a baptism you will receive from Him will work more radical change than the one I give.

Jesus explanation of baptism he commanded to his disciple was …....“unless one is born through the spirit and water, he cant enter the kingdom of God. He adds that what is born of flesh is flesh what is born of spirit is spirit, one must be born from above.

In Jesus explanation we see clearly that he was talking of two lives; life of a body natural life; the life which God communicated to us through our parents. And....

The divine life; which the spirit communicate to us through water, and this is obtained through baptism,which is called life in the spirit, since according to Jesus it is the spirit who gives it to us.

Water symbols

In the bible we see that water and spirit are mentioned together for the first time......and Gods spirit hovered over the water(gen 1;1-2)this emphasizes that there was nothing in the beginning but water and Gods spirit

This new divine life will not at all replace the first life one received from the flesh but it will make such a tremendous change in ones life

Baptism makes us the children of God, since we are, a divine life is communicated to us by God. known as life in the spirit, our parents too are not the ones who gave us the natural life though they claim us to be their children. They are instruments which the spirit make use of to communicate divine life.

Water is so essential to our lives, in real sense it sustain and maintain life. God used water  to express his love and generosity for their people,he led his people from slavery through the waters of red sea, the church always regard this as the perfect symbol of baptism, which led people away from slavery of sin to freedom of the children of God. Moses from the apparent rock he gave to people water to drink through Gods power.

According  prophet Ezekiel....... shall pour clean water upon you.......i shall clean you of all your defilement and all your idols.  Ezekiel 36;25”.

He also saw a vision of a stream gushing out of the temple,this symbolized that there was no heart so wicked that  the spirit is unable to change when communicating in his divine life.

Jesus also connected the symbol of water at Jacob's well when he was talking to the Samaritan woman’.........anyone who drinks the water i shall give will never be thirsty again...................welling up to eternal life (John 4;16)

He also said that if one is thirty let him come to me and drink and believes in me.......from his breast shall flow fountains of living waters, (jn7;37-38)

Finally when they speared Jesus, came out the blood and water.

BAPTISM; SET FREE AND BEING CLEANSED.

In this episode we are going to look in to details what life in the spirit brings to those who have been baptised, I would like to focus on the wonderful transformation which takes place in a person at the moment he is possessed of the life in the spirit.

It makes us ready to be Gods children, and through this the spirit through baptism set us free from the slavery to the devil.

·        Through baptism our sins are cleansed

·        The spirit adorns our soul with a beauty beyond description;

·         It gives us faith; through faith we adhere firmly to Christ

·        brings hope; hope for eternity, for the rewards stored up for us in heaven, a great conviction that Christ will not fail us.

·        it kindles true love in our hearts, Gods love. it leads us to love God as our father, here it leads us to love people the way God loves us.

BAPTISM;  BECOMING GOD’S CHILDREN.

We now have no doubt who is a child of God ,as the previous sessions we already knowN that through baptism we become Gods children The question comes along ...what does it mean to affirm God’s child ?.

We become children of God even outside the Christian faith, devoted and well meaning people of the past often declared all men and women  in the world children of God. This is just a figurative use. According to John he says that the title children of God is not only words but the realities due to the extra ordinary change we experience which takes place in the moment we receive baptismal, We are Gods children not by adoption but by truly sharing God s love. Gods treats us not as  his servants but as his own children, whom he shared with the life in the spirit God's very life starts flowing from God to us, in John where Jesus himself acknowledge that am the vine and you are my branches (jn 15;5)

He affirms to us that ....”as I who am sent by the father, myself draw life from the father,”

so who ever eats me will draw life from me. This is to say that there is a flow of life from the father to Jesus and from Jesus to us; this life is non other than the life in the spirit The life by which both father and son themselves lives.

Mk 1;11. during baptism In river Jordan God spoke to Jesus ..’One more thing we should keep in mind is when we are baptised we become Gods children but we DONT become exactly like Jesus,  Jesus is Gods son by nature he is always so, He shares his Fathers life in full..The life in that spirit renders us God –like but not divine.

“you are my dear son” We start being Gods children only after baptism is when we become Gods children and shares Gods life in a limited way, that is only as much as we are capable of sharing, there fore life in spirit does not makes us God or divine, but it renders us.

Hence

·        Baptism makes us truly Gods children

·        It is not a question of God merely adopting us as children,or treating us as such.

·        We truly becomes Gods sons and daughters the very moment he communicate divine life to us/just as we become our parents children when they communicate to us our life as human beings

·        When communicating to us the life in spirit,God takes us into his family,or as Paul puts it; we start forming part of God’s household

·        It was Jesus who made divine life available to us,He obtained it at a price of his blood.

BAPTISM; LIVING TEMPLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

God communicates himself to us in Baptism he dwells in us He chooses us as His Temple; we cannot exactly say what it means Baptism turns me into Gods temple. On receiving divine life, I truly become the temple of the Holy Spirit. Temples are that houses where God is suppose to dwell in, we refer to our church building the temple when the Eucharist is kept in them. Materially how big the structure is it has no life,  because we are living beings then we are living temple.

God wants to be worshipped first and foremost from within the heart of man and woman

When we vividly recall the episode of the Samaritan woman in John 4;5-26.

1. First Jesus lets the woman know that God has a gift to offer for her, here Jesus wanted her to know that the spirit is the Gods gift to us. The grace gift which encloses all the other gift.

Sometimes called grace of life...that is living gift. when applied to the spirit the gift that gives life. finally in order to prepare her to accept his message in full, Jesus faces the woman with her own sinfulness.

The living water he has been talking about is the Holy Spirit if accepted  he would take possession of a man’s heart and change it radically.

It was Jesus longing that the worship going on within him should  be repeated in the hearts of each and every Christian Jesus  loved the Jerusalem Temple as a sign of his father love to the people of Israelites. When the temple was turned to market place Jesus  could not bear it, he drove them  away due to anger. The angry businessmen ask him why he did so, he replied ....”destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up.  People could not understand him, John went ahead translating that he was speaking of sanctuary which is his body. Human Beings should aspire to nothing greater or holier than to become temple. He promised us to ask the father and He will give us an paraclete to be with us for ever. (jn14;16-17)

Ignatius of Loyola loved to call himself theophous, a name which means bearer of God, one who bears God whenever he goes, On his judgement day the judge called him devil, with great dignity Bishop Loyola said ….let no one call devil the bearer of Christ, Then the judge boasted saying that ….let Ignatius who calls himself a bearer of Christ be sentenced to become the food of wild beasts in Rome.

·        The spirit carries within us a wonderful work

·        it enlightens us to discover Gods plan of love for us

·        He leads us in prayers

·        He gave us the affirm assurance that we are Gods children

·        He gives us light and strengthen us when persecuted

·        He brings peace and joy help us to patient, to forgive offences received and to love every one without distinctions.

·        Indeed in all we do, in order to do what God wants us to do,we must allow ourselves to be guided by the spirit.

Sin is the greatest enemy of spirit ,Though there is no power at all that can destroy the spirit we got in baptism,, only the persons on his own will can chase away the spirit one do this through sins. Paul says to the Corinthians ...did you not realise that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God lives in you. 1Cor 3;16, he added that if anyone destroys the temple of God, He  will destroy him because the temple of God is sacred and we are the temple, and not just our souls but our bodies too.

BECOMING ONE WITH CHRIST AND WITH THE BROTHERS AND SISTER

We have seen how and when one becomes a child of God ,now we want to see clearly on when one belongs to the family of God Mary was the first creature to be incorporated into the family of God,she receive the favour right when he was conceived. Gods family grow from pentecost  trough apostles.

The church is the family of God in the church there is no discrimination, old and young, learned and unlearned, the only people left out of the Lords house are those that on their own free will has rejected the gift of the spirit. Only in heaven we will know what a wealthiest and noble family we have made on earth

Summary of the Week and a Reflection (29th & 30th March)

THE CELEBRATIVE MOMENT OF CHRISTIAN MYSTERY: THE LITURGY

Sr. Mary Mbom

1.1  What is liturgy? It is means the “work” or “work for the people” or “public service”. The essence of the liturgy is the actual work or deed done by God’s grace Christ, not the humanly invented ceremonies that carry it. It is what God does not what we do, and what God does is to redeem us from sin and make us holy. In the divine sacrament of the Eucharist, the work of redemption is accomplished. (CCC 1068). This accomplishment is not just a symbol but is really done. Through the liturgy, God gives us the dignity of sharing in his own work, opus Die which is the work of our redemption.

1.2  The Holy Spirit in the liturgy: when the Holy Spirit comes upon the bread and wine and accomplishes what surpasses every word and thought, bread becomes the body of Christ and wine becomes His blood. The same Holy Spirit through Mary, the word became flesh. (St John Damascene) In liturgical actions the Holy Spirit is sent in order to bring us into communion with Christ and so to form His body.(CCC 1108). The Holy Spirit is also to prepare the assembly to encounter Christ and to recall and manifest Christ to the faith of the assembly. Finally the Holy Spirit completes the liturgy as he completes the Trinitarian plan of salvation.

1.3  Who celebrates the liturgy? According to the book of Revelation, St John say it is the following:

A)    A throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne, the Lord God. (Rev 4:2-8)

B)    It then shows the Lamb, standing as though it had been slain; Christ crucified and risen, the one high priest…. (Rev 5:6).

C)    The river of life…..flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Rev 22:1; CCC 1137)

           Those who take part in the service of the praise of God are the adorers and they are:

1)      Angels,

2)      All creation,

3)      The servants of the Old and New covenant,

4)      The new people of God,

5)      The martyrs slain because of the word,

6)      A great multitude which no one could count, from every tribe, nation, peoples and tongues.

To conclude this part, the liturgy is far greater than the universe and the liturgy is not in the world but vice versa.

2.2. The visible elements in the church

The altar is where the sacrifice is offered, it is also the tomb where Christ rose, and it is the Lord’s Table.

 Tabernacle. It is where the Blessed Sacrament is kept and they are situated in the most worthy place with the greatest honour.

Cathedral, this is the chair of the bishop in the cathedral, or that of the priest in the parish. Usually it is the biggest among all the other chairs on the altar.

The lectern or ambo, the word of God is being proclaimed from there.

Baptistry, is where baptism takes place.

     The church has a space where one is free to recollect and pray silently. It is the house of God and everyone is welcomed.

The life in the Spirit

3.1. Christ came into the world to communicate to us a wonderful treasure.

St Paul tells us that no one has ever seen God (Jn 1:8). We know something about Him from creation, about his power which creatures to existence, his wisdom in arrangement and his love to man. But His life is beyond us because we don’t what is in God’s heart. We cannot say how we were conceived in our mother’s wombs and how we grew to till when we were delivered. It goes same with not knowing who God is really is.

 In the Old Testament, God spoke Moses and revealed his name to him in the burning bush (Ex 3: 13-15). Still the Jews could not dare pronounce his name, they substituted it with different titles.