Sunday, May 12, 2013

Gospel For Today

SOLEMNITY OF THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD

In the Diocese of Charlotte, as in many Dioceses in the United States, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated this Sunday.  Whenever this great feast comes around on the calendar, I remember a particular Ascension Sunday Mass I participated in while travelling in Georgia one year.

First, let us briefly remember what the Ascension is all about.  The first reading today is from the first chapter of Acts and is St. Luke's account of what happened "the day [Jesus] was taken up."

[A]s they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.  While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.  They said, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?  This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."

We celebrate today the fact that Jesus ascended bodily into heaven to be united with the Father.  It is the capstone of all the events recorded testifying to Christ's bodily resurrection -- the empty tomb, St. Thomas touching His wounds, Jesus eating a breakfast of fish with His disciples, breathing on Peter, and so on.  All of these things testify to the real physicality of the Resurrection.  

Yet Christ's body was not quite the same as it was before the Resurrection.  It was still a physical body, but also more than that.  He could appear in the middle of a locked room.  He could somehow hide his appearance or identity until He wished to be recognized.  And, of course, His was a body that had conquered death.  It was a Risen Body that did not belong in this Fallen World.  And so He went ahead of us to prepare a New Creation, a new heaven and new earth, a home fitting for perfection where we will one day - God willing - join Him.

Which brings me back to one Ascension celebration in Georgia.  I was away from home and attended Mass at a small parish I had never been to before.  The pastor gave a good homily telling us why it is important that we believe Christ rose bodily from death and ascended bodily into heaven; that in His passion, death and resurrection He redeemed the whole man, body and soul, and so our bodies and our souls will be saved.  

I don't recall any specific words from the homily.  However, I do recall what we sang during Communion.  You see, words set to music have a way of sticking with you.  That is why what we sing at Mass is so important.  Often the words we hear in the homily or even the scripture readings may start to fade by lunch time, but the words of a hymn will stay with us for weeks, sometimes longer. Words set to music are powerful things.  

On that particular Ascension Sunday, as we received the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, the choir had us singing the refrain, "Jesus has no body now but you."  The lyrics of the song were taken from a quote by St. Teresa of Avila.  St. Teresa was making the point that the Church is the body of Christ.  We - all of the baptized - make up His body and we should be the hands and feet, the eyes and the ears of Christ in the world.  This is all quite true and valid.  It is a good point to meditate upon and put into action in our lives.

However, one must question the wisdom of singing "Jesus has no body" as we come forward to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.  Sung at that particular time in the liturgy, removed from the context of St. Teresa's writings, does that refrain support or undermine belief in the Real Presence of the Eucharist?

And is this an appropriate song to sing at a Mass celebrating the bodily Ascension of Christ?  The pastor preached a very good homily about the Ascension being a real physical event and the astounding fact that Jesus's human body resides in heaven united with the Trinitarian God.  But how many will have forgotten the words of the homily before they pull out of the church parking lot?  Meanwhile they are still humming the refrain, "Jesus has no body..."

The words we say, pray and sing at Mass are vitally important to our faith.  They make a difference.  This is why the Church instructs us that we cannot simply sing anything we want at the Mass.  Just like the lectors cannot read anything they want, but must read the assigned scriptures; and the priest cannot consecrate the Eucharist using any words he wants, but must use the words of consecration, the cantor and choir ought to sing the music assigned to the Mass and not words of their own choosing.  

The Church tells us (in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal) that at the Entrance, Offertory and Communion, we should sing the proper antiphon for that Mass (usually taken from scripture) from the Roman Missal, Roman Gradual or Simple Gradual (all official liturgical texts of the Church).  It is not an absolute requirement.  The Church also gives permission to sing a liturgical chant from another collection of antiphons and psalms approved by the bishops.  But the ideal is clear - we should sing the words (and prayers) of the Mass.  

For the Solemnity of the Ascension, year C, the antiphon (refrain) which is prescribed to be sung at Communion in the Roman Missal is, "Christ, offering a single sacrifice for sins, is seated for ever at God's right hand, alleluia" (cf. Heb 10:12).  Or, from the Roman Gradual, which is the official music book for the Roman Rite, it is, "Sing to the Lord, who has ascended the highest heavens, towards the East, alleluia" (cf. Ps 67:33, 34).

If we sing these words, rather than words of our own making - or even words of a great saint used in the wrong context - we can be assured that we will be supporting, not undermining truths of the faith which the liturgy is attempting to communicate.  We can know with certainty that we are singing the liturgy itself, participating faithfully in the Mass by singing or listening to the words the Church desires us to pray with on this day.

Christ is ascended bodily into heaven.  He is seated at God's right hand forever.  Let us sing to Him songs of praise, alleluia!

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Weekly Update from CCM

Dear Students,

Our prayers are with you as you complete your exams this week.  A reminder that there will be no CCM dinner tonight.

This is the last weekly update email until August.  I will continue to send out Sunday Gospel reflections over the summer.

ATTENTION GRADUATES!
St. Mary's is offering a Baccalaureate Mass this Saturday, May 11, at 1:00pm for our graduates and their families.  There will be a light reception to follow.  If you are graduating and would like to be recognized at this Mass, please email me at ccm@wcucatholic.org.  Anyone who would like to pray with and celebrate our graduates is welcome to attend this Mass.  

This Mass is at St. Mary's, not at the Catholic Student Center.  If you need to send directions to the church to your families, the address is 22 Bartlett St, Sylva, NC 28779.

MASS OVER THE SUMMER
Masses are not offered on campus during the summer months.  Last Sunday was our final Mass on campus this semester.  Our next Mass on campus will be Sunday, August 17.  For those in Cullowhee over the summer, please take advantage of St. Mary's Mass times; 9:00am and 11:00am on Sunday morning, or 8:00pm Saturday night (in Spanish).  If anyone needs a ride to St. Mary's, please let me know or use our Facebook Group to arrange carpools.

SUMMER SCHEDULE
We do not have a weekly schedule of activities during the summer.  If any students around during the summer would like to meet and get together for prayer, faith sharing, fellowship, etc., I encourage this.  Again, I suggest using our Facebook Group to plan those details.  

I am around all summer and reachable via email, phone or text for anyone who needs me.

GOING TO CHARLOTTE ?
I know many of our students are from Charlotte or surrounding areas.  If you are going to be near Charlotte over the summer, consider taking advantage of a summer Bible study being offered for college age students.  
Summer College Bible Study: World on Campus
-Focuses on what it means to truly love others as Christ does through scriptural reflection and discussions on relevant topics today
-Where: Catholic Campus Ministry House @ 9408 Sandburg Avenue ( only 1 block from St. Thomas Aquinas Church & 1 block from UNCC campus) 
-Who: Rising College Freshmen- Graduating
-For more information contact: Mary Weiner (mcweiner@email.unc.edu), Kathy Fitzgerald (kfitzge8@uncc.edu), Sr. Eileen Spanier (ccmuncc@gmail.com)

Have a great summer, and God Bless!  I look forward to seeing you back in the 'Whee in the fall!
Pax Christi,
Matt
--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Gospel For Today

REMINDER:  This Sunday evening (7:30pm) will be our last Mass offered on campus before our summer break.  

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)

"Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him."  -- Jn 14:23

In today's gospel reading, Jesus tells us something about the life of the Holy Trinity.  He speaks of the word that he preaches and tells us, "the word you hear is not mine, but that of the Father who sent me."  What He tells us here is that there is no distinction between His word, His will, and that of the Father's.  The two are one in their thoughts and words.  

In the same passage Jesus speaks of the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, often referred to as the Advocate.  Jesus says, "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you."  

Let's unpack this sentence a bit.  Jesus has already told us that He speaks with the voice of the Father.  And now He is telling us that the Holy Spirit will teach us the words that Christ spoke to us.  In other words, there is no distinction to be made between the words of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  

The Holy Trinity is a mystery.  We will never truly understand this aspect of God.  I read on a bumper sticker once, "If God were simple enough that we could understand Him, we'd be so simple that we couldn't."  That is true.  God is the Creator, we are His creations.  He is infinite, we are finite.  Even the holiest saints, even the highest angels, can never fully understand God.  

But just because God is a mystery does not mean we cannot know some things about Him which He has chosen to reveal to us.  One of the aspects of God's inner life that has been revealed in Christ is that He is a Trinity of persons.  We believe, because God has revealed it, that God is three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) who share the same being, the same existence.  This is hard for us to comprehend because in our experience persons each have an independent existence.  But with God it is not so.  God exists as a community of Persons.  This means that God holds within Himself attributes that we can only experience with others -- communion, relationship, love.  

Because the three Persons of the Trinity share in the same existence, they are alike in all things except in their relationship with one another.  Another way of saying this is that the Son possesses everything in common with the Father except to be Father.  The Father is father of the Son and the Son is son to the Father.  Their relationship to one another is the only thing that distinguishes them.  Likewise with the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  His unique relationship proceeding from both the Father and Son in their love for one another is what distinguishes Him from the other two.  (In this passage Jesus speaks of the Spirit being sent by the Father.  Elsewhere, such as Jn 15:26, Jesus speaks of sending the Spirit Himself.)

It is important for us to understand the great unity among the three distinct Persons of the Godhead.  Though we often speak of the Persons of the Trinity as if they had different roles or jobs -- the Father is the Creator, the Son is the Redeemer, the Spirit is the Sanctifier -- these "job descriptions" are overly limiting.  The truth is that the Son and the Spirit both had a role in creation, as well.  "[T]he spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters" (Gn 1:2).  "Let us make man in our image" (Gn 1:26).  Likewise the Father and the Spirit are participants in our redemption.  And the Father and the Son together with the Holy Spirit continue to sanctify us to this day.

For no Person of the Holy Trinity ever acts independently of the other two.  The three Persons are so fully united in love that theologians speak of them dwelling within each other, continually pouring themselves into the other two in this eternal, perpetual cycle of love.  This never-ending giving of one Person in love to the others is the inner life of God. 

Now, if you have followed me this far, you may be thinking, "This is interesting and all, but what impact does it have on me in my life today?"  If you are a Christian seeking to live a life in the grace of God, this has everything to do with you.  We speak of being in a state of grace, and of falling from grace when we commit a mortal sin.  What does it mean to have God's grace?  What is grace?

Grace comes from gratia, and it means a free gift.  Grace is God's gift to us -- and what does God have to give us?  God possesses nothing but Himself.  And that is just what He gives us --   Himself, His very life.

So when we are in a state of grace, we have God's life within us.  And God has shown us what this life is; a life of mutual and eternal love between the Father, Son and Spirit.  No Person of the Trinity is ever separate from the other two.  This means when you receive the Holy Spirit at Confirmation, you receive also the Father and the Son.  When you receive the Son in Communion, you also receive the Father and the Holy Spirit.  The Creator of the Universe wants to come live within you.  The Trinity of Love, and all that that means, can exist inside of you.   

If you meditate upon that fact for a while it may overwhelm you.  When you fully understand that this is what God wants to give us, you cannot want anything else.  

If you keep the word of Christ, which is the same as the word of the Father, which is the same as the word of the Holy Spirit still being proclaimed by the Church today, then the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit will come to dwell in you.  They will make their home within you.  And you will know peace.

God bless!
Matt

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Weekly Update from CCM

Dear Students,

It may not be finals week yet, but it is a week a finals.  This week we will have our final Wednesday night dinner of the semester, and also our final Mass on campus of the semester.  We will be praying for all of you as you finish up those last minute projects and papers and buckle down to study for your exams.  Please remember that times of stress are not occasions to forget your relationship with God.  If anything, you need to rely on Him more.  Take time each day to pray, to talk to your Father and listen to His word for you.  Schedule prayer time before study time, and you will find that these next two weeks will be less stressful and more productive.  Maintaining your faith gives you a perspective that looks beyond the end of the semester into eternity, and helps you to remember what the important things truly are.

WEDNESDAY
Please join us this week for the last Supper @ the Center of the semester!  This Wednesday at 6:30pm we will gather once more for a home cooked meal together.  Afterwards we will relax and have one final night of fun and frivolity before hitting the books.  It's "Whose Line Is It, Anyway," Catholic-style!  The part of Drew Carey will be played by your beloved campus minister.  The contestants will be played by YOU!  Don't miss it!

THURSDAY
Eucharistic Adoration from 6-7pm.  Last one of the semester!

SUNDAY
Mass at 7:30pm.  Rosary 30 minutes before Mass.  This will be our last Mass on campus until August.  If anyone will be around over the summer and will need a ride to St. Mary's for Sunday Mass, please let me know, or post a message on our Facebook group.

Also on Sunday, the Presbyterian Church is once more hosting a pancake dinner to kick off exam week.  The Presbyterians are sponsoring the event, and Signma Chi is serving.  Pancakes will be available from 7 until 10pm, so after Mass why not walk down the street and enjoy some yummy carbs courtesy of our neighbors?

FINALS WEEK
Even though we will not be running our normal programming during Finals Week, the Catholic Student Center will still be open and I will be around and available for most of the week (I will be in Charlotte on Thursday).

During Finals Week, the library will be open until 4am.  Whee Protect is sponsoring a Buddy Walk from 10pm to 4am so that no one will have to walk back to their dorm alone late at night.  They need volunteers!  If you would like to be a buddy and escort people back to their cars or dorms, please email wheeprotect@email.ecu.edu or go to the Whee Protect OrgSync page to fill our the form.  

ATTENTION GRADUATES - BACCALAUREATE MASS
On Saturday, May 11, St. Mary's will be offering a special Baccalaureate Mass for the graduates in between the two commencement ceremonies, at 1:00pm.  This Mass will be at the parish and not on campus.  If you are graduating and would like to participate in this Mass, please email me at ccm@wcucatholic.org.  Please let me know how many family/friends may be attending with you, as we will have a small reception afterwards.  Thanks!

Have a blessed week!
Matt

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Gospel For Today

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)

Many of you may know the hymn, "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love."  The title line for this song is taken from today's gospel reading.  

"I give you a new commandment: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.  This is how all will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
-Jn 13:14-35

St. Augustine once said, "Love God; then do as you will."  Was St. Augustine saying that it was permitted for Christians to do anything at all, so long as they loved God?  Was Jesus saying that all the other commandments and moral precepts that came before Him were abolished in place now of the single command to love?  Are the Beatles right in crooning, "All we need is love?"

The answer is no: at least not in the way that moral relativists would like to believe.  Moral relativism is the idea that there is no such thing as a good or evil action.  Our actions may be judged good or evil based on the circumstances of the particular situation, or some other outside criteria, such as our intentions.  Some actions may be wrong in some situations, but the relativist does not believe that any action is necessarily wrong all the time.  The relativist would read the above words of Jesus, or St. Augustine, and see in them permission to do anything whatsoever, so long as one is motivated by love.

Telling a lie then becomes permissible, so long as you are doing it to spare someone's feelings.  

Having sex before marriage is perfectly fine, so long as the two of you love each other.  But why stop there?  Homosexual acts would also be permitted, if done with love.  And who says love has to be limited to two people?  Why not three or more?  There are no limits in the bedroom so long as what you are doing comes from a motivation of love.

The relativists even cite love as a reason for abortion.  "I love my unborn child too much to bring her into such a cruel, overpopulated world.  I love my unborn child too much to raise him in poverty, without a father."  

What about adultery?  "I don't love my wife any longer.  I love my mistress and want to be with her."

Missing Mass on Sunday?  "God knows I love Him.  I don't need to go to Mass and prove it to anyone else.  I want to spend the time with my friends and family, whom I love.  That's what God would really wants me to do."

It becomes possible to justify any sinful action we choose to commit by finding a loving reason for what we do.  And that is easier than you think; we human beings are experts at finding good reasons to do bad things.  No one, after all, wants to commit an evil action.  We all want to do good things.  So when we are tempted to sin (as we are all too often) we first justify the action in our own minds, giving ourselves permission to do what our conscience tells us is wrong.

Jesus and St. Augustine, however, are not moral relativists.  They teach that there are some actions which simply should never be done because they are wrong, because they are beneath our human dignity and so we do damage to ourselves when we perform them.  Jesus did not come to abolish the commandments, but to fulfill them (Mt. 5:17).  Rather than tossing the commandments out the window, Jesus in fact calls for a more strict observance of them. 
 
The commandments say not to commit adultery, but Jesus says to even look at another woman with lust is to commit adultery in your heart (Mt. 5:27).  The commandments say not to kill.  Jesus wants more. Jesus says not to be angry, not to insult, not to hate (Mt. 5:22).  What Jesus is doing is peeling back the outer surface of the moral law and showing us the purpose behind it.  And that purpose is love.

Jesus teaches us to call God our Father.  We are all His children.  And like any parent, God sets rules in His house.  The rules established by a good parent are not arbitrary.  They exist for a reason.  Parents tell their children not to play in the kitchen around the hot stove, because they do not want their children to be burned.  Parents tell children to stay in the yard when they play outside, because they do not want them to get lost, or hit by a car in the street.  Parents tell children not to eat cookies before dinner because they want them to be healthy.  

Like any good parent, God's rules for us are there for our own good.  They are there because He loves us.  God made us, so it reasons that He knows what makes us tick.  He knows our needs and desires.  He knows what is good and helpful to us, and what will harm us.  And He steers us away from those things that would lead to our harm (even though, like eating cookies before dinner, they may bring pleasure at the time).  

Thou shall not kill.  Why?  Because killing is an extreme violation of the love one human person ought to have for another.  Hatred is also a violation of that love.

Thou shall not commit adultery.  Why?  Because it is a violation of the love husband and wife ought to have for one another.  Lusting after someone else is also a violation of that love.

Each of the commandments can be seen as a commandment of love.  The first three deal with our relationship with God.  If we love God, we will not be tempted to place other gods before Him, or to take His name in vain.  And we will count it a pleasure to give Him worship and adoration on the holy day He set apart for us as a day of rest.

The final seven commandments deal with our relationship with our fellow man.  If we truly love our neighbors we will not want to dishonor them, lie to them, steal from them, kill them, etc.  

This is why St. Augustine can say, "Love God, then do as you will."  Because if we truly love God in our hearts, we will not want to do anything that is against His perfect Divine will.  We will only desire to do what is good, and so our loving desire will lead us to obey His commands, not to disregard them.  

This is why Jesus tells us "Love one another."  Love is the heart of the entire moral law.  If we perfectly love one another, the commandments will take care of themselves.  Sadly, our love for one another is all too often imperfect.  Even the best of human relationships are tarnished by struggles with selfishness, jealousy, resentment, etc.  Perfect love eludes us in this world.  But we try.  We are striving.  We want to grow in love and Jesus is there to help us in that effort.  

He shows us that the commandments are not there to restrict us, but to help us grow in love.  He shows us the ideal love which is self-sacrifice.  He invites us to follow Him in that love.  This is how the world will know we are His disciples.  This is how all things will be made new.  And in that new heaven and new earth promised to us, we will know perfect love, and we will finally be able to reflect that love perfectly in our own lives.

God bless!

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Weekly Update from CCM

Dear Students,

Happy feast day of St. George!  St. George is patron saint of England and also the name patron of our Holy Father (who before he took the name Francis was George).  In light of this, today is being taken as a holiday by the Vatican.  

All people tend to remember about St. George is the story about him slaying a dragon, and so many dismiss him as a fiction.  In truth, not much is known about him.  But we do know he was a Roman soldier and a Christian who was beheaded for his faith under the Diocletian persecution sometime in the very early fourth century.  In addition to being patron of England, he is also patron of several other countries including Lebanon, Beirut and Canada; he is patron of scouts, knights, saddle makers, and soldiers, as well.  

THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE

Wednesday
This Wednesday please join us for a free home cooked meal at 6:30pm.  After dinner, our program will be led by senior Mary Benson.  Mary's been off campus doing an internship all semester, but before she graduates we wanted to have her back!  She'll be leading a discussion about relationships, relating some pitfalls and advice about dating from a Christian perspective.  Should be very interesting, so please come.  We look forward to seeing you!

Thursday
Adoration in the chapel from 6-7pm.

Saturday
A concert production of Dead Man Walking will be performed on April 27 at 3pm in the Coulter building.  Many of you will know the 1995 movie of that name staring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.  This opera, like the film, is based on a book by Sister Helen Prejean about her real life work with death row inmates in Louisiana's prisons.  Sister Prejean is expected to be in attendance at the show and will give a Q&A afterwards. For more information see this article. 

Sunday
Mass at 7:30pm in the chapel.  Rosary 30 minutes before Mass.

ATTENTION GRADUATING SENIORS!!!
We are planning to have a special Baccalaureate Mass at St. Mary's on May 11 at 1:00pm (in between the two commencement ceremonies).  If you would like to be recognized at this Mass, and/or would like to attend with your family, please email me at ccm@wcucatholic.org and let me know how many of your family you expect to attend.  We will have a brief reception after.  

Thanks and have a great week!
Matt

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Gospel For Today

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)

Paul and Barnabas continued on from Perga
and reached Antioch in Pisidia.
On the sabbath they entered the synagogue and took their seats.
Acts 13:14

Many of you know I am on the road this weekend.  While I like certain things about travelling - seeing new places, eating different foods, meeting new people - there are also aspects of travelling I don't like.  I suppose I am a homebody at heart; I like my own space where I can be comfortable, I like my routine.  Most of all I like being around my loved ones.  

So when I travel I like to take a bit of home with me.  Many people do.  I know some who always travel with their own pillow because they can just never get comfortable on hotel pillows.  We take our magazines or books to read.  We take along our own music; and of course our laptops and tablets so we can stay connected on email, Facebook, etc.  

Then there are those things we simply cannot be without.  We take care to pack a toothbrush, whatever vitamins or medications we take each day, shampoo and soap, etc.  We would never dream of being on the road without these things because we know that travelling is no excuse not to take care of ourselves.  We may be taking a vacation from our jobs or from school, but we cannot take a vacation from our health and hygiene.  So when we travel, we plan ahead to make sure we have everything we need for the journey.

This applies to our spiritual health, as well.  You don't stop saying your daily prayers simply because you are away from home.  And of course the highest form of prayer that we do as Catholics is the Mass.  When we attend Mass we do not simply pray alone but we join in the whole Church as she prays to God as a united people.  We offer God the most perfect offering of His Son in the Eucharist.  And we do this not only with those fellow Christians sitting in the pews around us, but the those worshiping at every Mass around the globe, past, present and future.

Our participation in Mass is so important that the Church places us under a serious obligation to attend on Sundays, the Lord's Day.  How serious is the obligation?  It is not absolute - legitimate reasons for missing Mass include illness, taking care of someone who is ill, and travelling.  

Travelling?  Yes, only under certain conditions.  If you are travelling in an area where it is physically impossible for you to make your way to a Catholic Mass on Sunday, then your obligation is lifted.  But simply being away from home is not itself an excuse.  There is no "vacation" from being part of the Body of Christ.

I stumbled upon an article on this subject recently from Michelle Arnold.  She is a staff apologist for Catholic Answers in San Diego, CA.  She often deals with variations of this question: "Is it a sin to miss Mass if I am on a cruise?  If I am camping?  If I am on vacation, etc?"  

In the article she relates two different questions she received on the same day.

The first question came in from a young woman who lived in a sparsely Catholic area in Europe. She wanted to attend Mass on an upcoming holy day of obligation, but her only option to get there was to buy a train ticket she could ill afford. She wasn't asking if she could skip Mass; she was asking how to get to Mass when she was facing a real choice between train fare and food.

The second question was from a gentleman who was spending a weekend in my hometown of San Diego, California. He and his wife had family here, so they made regular visits and thus knew the city well. But this time the schedule was crammed. Between a baseball game, golf, and dinner with the in-laws, he just couldn't seem to find a good time to go to Mass. He skipped, and his question was whether or not his obligation to visit family had been sufficient cause to miss Mass.

Juxtaposing these two questions was like switching on a light. It is the difference between the desire to go to Mass while impeded from doing so and the choice to give more weight to lesser obligations than is given to the Mass. The first inquirer really wanted to go to Mass but was facing significant hurdles in getting there; the second inquirer seemed willing to go to Mass if doing so didn't interfere with more desirable activities.

She writes that the bottom line is this:  it is not that hard for most people to get to Mass most of the time.  I agree with her.  The key is to make Mass - and by extension your worship of God - a priority when you schedule your travel itinerary.  Don't make it an afterthought that you try to squeeze in around everything else you'd like to do.  

Today's Gospel reading speaks of Christ as a shepherd.  Those of you who know me and my recent foray into sheep breeding (two lambs born in our flock thus far!) may have been expecting me to wax elegant about shepherding and sheep this week.  I admit, it was tempting.  I will say this, though.  Sheep never take a vacation from being sheep.  They always need a shepherd, especially when they are in an unfamiliar pasture.

I may be a shepherd myself at home with my wee flock; but whether I am home or on the road I am always one of His sheep.  And this Sunday morning I'll be right there with the other sheep, listening to His voice.  I may be in different pews, surrounded by strange faces, but that's still my flock.  It's where I belong.

Jesus said:
"My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me."
John 10:27

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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