C A
October 18, 2019
3
Catholic Advance THE CATHOLIC ADVANCE
(ISSN 0008-7904)
Official Catholic Newspaper of the Diocese of Wichita Published by the Catholic Diocese of Wichita,a non-profit corporation 424 N. Broadway, Wichita, KS 67202 Phone: (316) 269-3965 Fax: (316) 269-3902 e-mail: criggs@cdowk.org http://www.catholicadvance.org Publisher: The Most Rev. Carl A. Kemme Business Manager: Bryan Coulter Communications Director: Matt Vainer Editor: Christopher M. Riggs Communications Assistant: Gemma Rajewski Production Manager: Donald G. McClane, Jr. Art Direction: Nicholas Poirier Circulation: Megan Real
Published semi-monthly on the first and third Fridays of the month. Periodicals postage paid at Wichita, Kansas. Member Catholic Press Association, Catholic News Service. Postmaster: send address changes to The Catholic Advance, 424 N. Broad- way, Wichita, KS 67202. Deadlines: classified ads, noon Monday; news and display ads, 5 p.m. Friday
Here is Bishop Carl A. Kemme's calendar for the next several weeks. October Oct. 20: Holy Name, Bushton Fall Dinner at 11:30 a.m.; Holy Hour of prayer and reparation at the Cathedral at 7 p.m. Oct. 21-24: Clergy Convocation at Spiritual Life Center Oct. 24: Dinner with Parents of Seminarians at the Cathedral at 6 p.m. Oct. 25: Curia Day of Recollec- tion Oct. 26: Mass for Life at South- wind abortion clinic followed by Eucharistic Procession at 9 a.m.; Wichita Adore Ministry Benefit Dinner at Holy Spirit, Goddard at 6 p.m. Oct. 27: White Mass at Ascen- sion Via Christi St. Francis Hospi- tal Chapel and awards Luncheon at 11 a.m.; Habitat for Humanity House Blessing at 2 p.m.; 9th An- nual PRC Retired Priest BBQ at 5 p.m. Oct. 28-31: Amazing Parish in Anaheim November Nov. 3: Confirmation Mass at Church of the Magdalen at 3 p.m. Nov. 4: Blessing of new chapel
Bishop Kemme's calendar
The 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Oct. 20: Exodus 17:8-13, 2 Tim- othy 3:14 - 14:2, Luke 18:1-8 In Sunday's second reading, Saint Paul describes how God's Word speaks to us through the words of the Bible. But the "Word of God" is found not only in the Bible. We listen to the Word of God in the Bible in order to re- ceive an even greater gift: the Word of God made flesh. Open- ing our selves to this greater gift is one of the chief dynamics of the Christian life. The very structure of the Mass invites us into this spiritual dy- namic. It's not a coincidence that Holy Mass follows the pattern that it does. The two main parts of the Mass - in the Ordinary Form called the "Liturgy of the Word" and the "Liturgy of the Eucha- rist" - are not interchangeable. That is to say, the Mass would not make sense if the Liturgy of the Eucharist were celebrated first, and then the Liturgy of the Word. After all, the Word is proclaimed and preached as a preparation for the Word made Flesh. We see this if we superimpose the outline of the Mass upon the outline of salvation history. Con- sider what we might call the "first half" of salvation history: the time of the Old Testament. During this long period of time, "God spoke" his Word "in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets" [Hebrews 1:1]. But in the "second half" of salvation his- tory - the time of Christ and his church - "God spoke to us", and speaks to us today, "through [his] son" [Hebrews 1:2], the Word made flesh, who proclaimed to his followers: "Take this, all of you, and eat it. This is my Body, which will be given up for you." Catholics are at times accused of being ignorant of the scriptures. Unfortunately, there are times when this criticism is justified. To that extent, we must dispel our ignorance, for St. Jerome's words are just as true today as when he lived: "Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ." But if our devotion to Scrip- ture does not lead us to a deeper devotion to the Eucharist, we miss the en- tire point of God becoming hu- man: the point of the divine Word becom- ing flesh and blood. After all, what did God the Son say on this earth that God the Father could not have said from the heavens? Couldn't God the Fa- ther have spoken the beatitudes from Heaven, rather than Jesus speaking them during the Ser- mon on the Mount? Couldn't God the Father have taught his People from Heaven how to pray to Him, rather than Jesus teaching us the Our Father"? What words had to be spoken by one who is both ful- ly divine and fully human? "Take this, all of you, and eat it. This is my body, which will be given up for you." Jesus calls us to the Supper of the Lamb - the sacrifice of the divine Word made Flesh - for two reasons. The second and more ultimate is to give us while on earth a foretaste of what we would experience in the banquet of Heaven if we were to persevere in the faith until death. The first and more immediate reason is to strengthen us through the Eucharist for the difficult work of our vocations within this world. If our devotion to the Eu- charist - whether in Adoration, or weekday Mass, or even only our Sunday obligation - does not deepen our Christian service, we're missing an important point of the Word becoming flesh. In Sunday's second reading, St. Paul writes about the nature of the Word of God as found in the Bible. He makes three spe- cific points. First: "All Scripture is inspired by God." Second, Scripture "is useful for" four purposes: for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for train- ing in righ- teousness." But then St. Paul explains that those four purposes serve a larger, overarching purpose. All Scripture is inspired and useful so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work." As faith is meant by God to ex- press itself in a Christian's good works, so Scripture also orients the Christian to good works. As the Word becomes Flesh in the Eucharist, the Eucharist strength- ens the members of the Body of Christ for service in this world. That service aims to call even more persons into the life of the church, and through the church's life with Christ, into Heaven.
The 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Oct. 27: Sirach 35:12-14,16- 18, 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18, Luke 18:9-14 The link between humility and divine charity helps you and me to follow Jesus. Humility is not the most important of the vir- tues. Divine charity - in Latin, caritas, meaning the love that is God's very nature - is the most important virtue. Divine charity is the summit towards which we Christians climb. Humility, on the other hand, is the base of the mountain. While divine charity is the goal that our last step brings us into the pres- ence of, humility is the first step. The old saying reminds us that Every great journey begins with a simple, single step." But if humility is so simple, why do we find it so difficult to practice? God reveals to us in sacred scripture that one reason why humility is so difficult is the split in the human person that's caused by sin. Sin splits man in two. Saint Paul explained this to the Romans in his long letter about sin and grace. St. Paul taught the Romans from his own experience as a sinner, telling them, "I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want" [Rom 7:19]. He's very blunt about his own moral failures, saying, "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" [Rom 7:15]. Most of us, when we take a good long look at ourselves (perhaps with the help of a written examina- tion of conscience) identify with St. Paul in this. There is the problem. What is the solution? God is the solution, of course. But the trick is, we have to acknowledge and own the problem before God can do us any good. God so re- spects your free will that he al- lows you to remain in sin should you choose to do so. But if you open your heart even the slight- est to Him, a flood of grace can transform you. Unfortunately, sin has so great a hold on us that even doing this is tremendously difficult at times. That's how perverse sin is: what should be the most natural thing in the world - opening our heart to our loving Father - becomes one of the great struggles of the spiritual life. Jesus gives us a par- able to help us see the link be- tween humility and divine char- ity, and to take up the struggle to open our hearts to the Father. The Pharisee and the tax col- lector are opposites. It's true that neither of them is at the summit. They're both at the base of the mountain. But they are opposed to each other as they stand at that base because they are facing in opposite directions. As a result, because the Phari- see stands and looks away from
Act in humility in all that you do
the mountain, every step he makes will remove him farther from the mountain's summit. But the tax collector is facing the mountain, looking up towards God and the summit that he has yet to climb. He has a long road before him. But his first step forward is an act of humility. He is doing what you need to do: to face the divine Fa- ther who loves you in your sins, and who calls you to himself by your offering him a confession of your sins. If you listen closely to the words of today's Gospel reading, you hear Jesus carefully point to the difference between those of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus explains that the Pharisee spoke this prayer to himself." He wasn't truly praying at all. The Pharisee was speaking a prayer to himself, not to God. But the tax collector teaches us how to pray because he prays with humility. The link between humility and divine charity helps you and me to follow Jesus. This is true not only in our prayer, but in ev- erything we do. In everything we do, before we even take our first step, we have to act with humility by facing the right di- rection and looking up to God, instead of acting for our own sake. Humility is the beginning, and divine charity - the life of God - is the end. But without the right beginning, we cannot reach the right end: the end for which God made us.
Scripture orients faithful to works
Reflections on the Sacred Liturgy
By Fr. Thomas Hoisington Subscribe at ReflectionsOnThe SacredLiturgy.com Extended reflections at HPRweb.com at St. Joseph House of Formation at 4 p.m. Nov. 5: St. James Augusta School Mass and visit at 8 a.m.; St. Joseph McPherson First Tuesday Event at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 6: Holy Feud Fundraiser for St. Joseph House of Formation at Trinity Catholic High School Nov. 7: Catholic Charities An- nual Chairman's lunch at 11:30 a.m.; Center of Hope Auction Din- ner at Bishop's Residence at 6 p.m. Nov. 9: Confirmation Masses at Church of the Blessed Sacrament, Wichita at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.; As- cend at Kapaun at 3 p.m. This is the sixth in a series of re- flections on Dies Domini, written in 1998 by St. Pope John Paul II. The series is being written in support of Bishop Carl A. Kemme's Pastoral Priority of Reclaiming Sunday as the Lord's Day. St. Pope John Paul II quotes a pope and two saints in the second chapter of Dies Domini in support of the idea that Sunday marks a weekly celebration of the resurrec- tion of Jesus Christ. Pope Innocent I taught that un- derstanding at the beginning of the fifth century. Saint Basil speaks of 'holy Sun- day, honoured by the Lord's Resur- rection, the first fruits of all the oth- er days'; and Saint Augustine calls Sunday 'a sacrament of Easter,"' he writes, adding that the connection between Sunday and the Resurrec- tion of the Lord is emphasized by all the churches of the east and the west. In the tradition of the Eastern Churches in particular, every Sun- day is the anastsimos hemra, the day of Resurrection, and this is why it stands at the heart of all worship," the pope writes. Although the Lord's Day has foundations in the work of creation and in God's "rest," Dies Domini states, it is to the Resurrection of Christ that we must look in order to fully understand the Lord's Day.
Sunday is a weekly Easter
This is what the Christian Sunday does, leading the faithful each week to ponder and live the event of Eas- ter, true source of the world's salva- tion." St. Pope John Paul II writes that according to the Gospels, Jesus' res- urrection from the dead took place on the first day after the sabbath. On the same day, the Risen Lord appeared to the two disciples of Emmaus and to the eleven Apostles gathered together. A week later - as the Gospel of John recounts - the disciples were gathered together once again, when Jesus appeared to them and made himself known to Thomas by showing him the signs of his Passion." The day of Pentecost, when Peter announced to an assembled crowd that Christ was risen also fell on Sunday, St. John Paul II writes. "This was the epiphany of the church, revealed as the people into which are gathered in unity, beyond all their differ- ences, the scattered children of God." Because of these events, the first day after the sabbath, the first day of the week, began to "shape the rhythm of life for Christ's disciples," he writes. This would now be a character- istic distinguishing Christians from the world around them. "
if our devotion to Scripture does not lead us to a deeper devotion to the Eucharist, we miss the en- tire point of God becoming human.
Previous Page