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Tiempo de Cumplimiento; Reino de Dios; Arrepentirse

Rev. Noah Carter • February 18, 2024

Nuestra triple observancia de la Cuaresma corresponde al triple mandato de Cristo de responder a la Buena Nueva.

Queridos hermanos, hemos entrado en el ayuno solemne de la Cuaresma. Después de habernos reunido el miércoles y recibir la ceniza bendita sobre nuestras cabezas, entramos en un tiempo de oración, ayuno y limosna. En términos de oración, elevamos intencionalmente nuestra mente y nuestro corazón al Dios que nos creó. Como lo vemos evidenciado en nuestra primera lectura del Génesis, incluso cuando el hombre se descarría, Dios ha prometido que nos presentará oportunidades para traernos de regreso, en lugar de matarnos. Así es como Él nos ama. Una y otra vez, cuando amenaza mal tiempo, el arco iris nos recuerda su compasión duradera.

En términos de ayuno, nos alejamos de la comida y bebida que tan a menudo nos hacen pecar. Cuando hacemos sacrificios voluntarios de aquellas cosas que nos distraen de él, vivimos nuestras vidas de manera más simple y confiamos más firmemente en la providencia de Dios que en nuestras propias fuerzas.

En términos de dar limosna, nos despojamos más intensamente de las posesiones y del dinero, utilizando lo que hemos ganado como una manera de levantar a los pobres y necesitados.

 

Estas tres prácticas juntas (oración, ayuno y limosna) son, entonces, una forma de renovar nuestro corazón y dejar de desviarnos que se produce a lo largo del año.

 

No entramos solos en estas prácticas. Sí, tenemos a todos los miembros de la Iglesia. Pero también reconocemos a la persona más importante que ha merecido que obtengamos fructíferamente gracias espirituales durante nuestros cuarenta días: Cristo mismo. Cuando Cristo entró en el desierto y enfrentó las tentaciones, lo tomamos como nuestro modelo para resistir la obra de Satanás en nuestra vida. Hay dos efectos principales que las tentaciones de Cristo tienen para nosotros. Primero, mediante su propio ayuno en el desierto, ha establecido un patrón para nuestras propias prácticas de Cuaresma y las hace fructíferas por su gracia. Al resistir las artimañas de Satanás, él nos ha ganado fuerzas para luchar contra las tentaciones.

 

Marcos nos dice que, inmediatamente después de los cuarenta días de Cristo en el desierto, va a Galilea a predicar: "Se ha cumplido el tiempo y el Reino de Dios ya está cerca. Arrepiéntanse y crean en el Evangelio". Un mensaje simple, pero lleno de poder.

 

"Se ha cumplido el tiempo". Con la venida de Cristo, es el momento en que Dios se revela plenamente al hombre, pero también le revela al hombre quién debe ser. Vemos en Cristo la imagen del hombre plenamente vivo. Sólo podemos imitarlo pasando por este período de purificación e iluminación.

"El Reino de Dios ya está cerca". El reino de Dios en el evangelio de Marcos indica la presencia de Cristo. Nuestras vidas extienden el reino de Dios y sus efectos siempre que permanezcamos espiritualmente en la presencia de Dios. No podemos permanecer en la presencia de Dios realizando actividades y posesiones que sean contrarias a la vida cristiana. Por eso, pasando por este tiempo de purificación y penitencia, nos despojamos de nuestra vida los hábitos contrarios a la virtud. El resultado es que la paz de Dios habita más plenamente en nuestras vidas de tal manera que su reino está más cerca.

"Arrepiéntanse y crean en el Evangelio". Evangelio, en griego, significa "buenas noticias". Al alejarnos del vicio, podemos aceptar la buena noticia de que esta vida no es todo lo que hay en nuestra existencia. A lo largo de milenios la enseñanza de la Iglesia se ha resumido de esta manera: "Mi propósito en la vida es conocer, amar y servir a Dios en esta vida, para poder ser feliz con él en la otra vida". El arrepentimiento y la fe es la práctica de apartar frecuentemente la vista de este mundo y de sus bienes terrenales, y fijar nuestra atención en la gloria celestial prometida a quienes obedecen la voluntad de Dios.

La Cuaresma es un tiempo especial donde vemos la utilidad del sufrimiento con miras a la redención. No es masoquismo. Es un modo de ser probado en el fuego, purificado en el crisol. Lo que sale del otro lado es un guerrero dispuesto a perseverar a través de cualquier dificultad para ganar la corona de la vida eterna.

Pastor's Ponderings

Episcopal Consecration (Part 3)

By Rev. Noah Carter • June 1, 2024
This is part three of a three-part series on Episcopal consecration.

Episcopal Consecration (Part 2)

By Rev. Noah Carter • May 26, 2024
This is part two of a three-part series on Episcopal consecration.

Episcopal Consecration (Part 1)

By Rev. Noah Carter • May 19, 2024
This is part one of a three-part series on Episcopal consecration.

¿Donde está Satanás hoy?

By Rev. Noah Carter • January 28, 2024
Como en la sinagoga de Capernaum, ¿está Satanás entre nuestra congregación?

Notes on Fiducia Supplicans

By Rev. Noah Carter • December 19, 2023
Headlines misrepresent a recent document issued by Vatican

Vatican Update on Cremains

By Rev. Noah Carter • December 11, 2023
Vatican offers updated guidelines regarding the handling of cremated remains

Ove and Joan of Arc

By Rev. Noah Carter • September 3, 2023
A particularly good novel that I finished earlier in the year is A Man Called Ove , by Swedish author Fredrik Backman. First released in 2012 in Swedish, it hit the market in English just a year later and was on the NYT Best Seller list for over 10 months. Ove is a 59-year-old man who is wrestling with sadness and loneliness after having lost his wife Sonja. His neighbors and the townsfolk see him as a crotchety old man with a disdain for others. He has difficulty dealing with others as he is all caught up in his fond memories of his wife and recollections of their life together. Throughout the tale, I enjoyed the author’s keen insights into the human psyche, especially how sadness and loss can cripple one’s ability to form new relationships and darken one’s view on life around them. As the story unfolds, Ove is confronted with new situations, neighbors, and experiences that allow him to come out of his isolation and find meaning in community as a sort-of new family. It is truly a heartwarming read. If I read it again, it would be during winter by a fire with a cup of tea; that now seems the best setting. Warning: the book contains material revolving around depression and suicidal ideation. I came across an interesting read in May — interesting because I found the book per chance at a book giveaway, did not have much hope for it, and ended up content upon finishing it. I am usually disappointed in modern retellings of the lives of the saints, especially when so many modern non-Catholic authors try to debunk the supernatural or discredit the Catholic Church in the way they re-tell the story. I was quite happy with Kathryn Harrison’s Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured . Born in the 15 th Century, Joan of Arc led her fellow Frenchmen into battle against England. She claims that angelic voices led her to do so. Captured during the siege of Compiègne, she was put on trial by the English ecclesiastical authorities. After a trial verdict of guilty that was posthumously overturned, she was burned at the stake at age 19 for blasphemy, heresy, and following demonic visions. Much legend surrounds her life, especially fantastical accounts of her prowess in battle. Harrison attempts (successfully, in my opinion) to entertainingly tell Joan’s story devoid of unhistorical details that lack evidence. Her sources include Scripture, historical accounts, and the trial records kept during Joan’s prosecution. While I do not agree with all of Harrison’s portrayals and conclusions, the book as a whole is a very unique look at the life of the Maiden of Orléans.

The Thanatos Syndrome

By Rev. Noah Carter • August 27, 2023
In preparation for a faculty in-service at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School, I reread this summer C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce . The title pays homage to William Blake’s poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. In Lewis’ short story (less than 150 pages), we follow the narrator on a bus ride to a fantastical place along with many grumpy passengers. When they disembark, they are revealed to be ghosts. There are a number of descriptions that seek to pin down the precise meaning of Lewis’ allegory. I have always described it as souls from hell are given one day at the doors of paradise, but must confront someone they knew in life who is now in heaven. The dialogue is fast-paced and makes the reader reflect about their own actions, responses, and priority of loves in their own life, but weighed against the love they have for heaven. In terms of southern, Catholic authors, Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy are two of my favorites. Walker Percy (1916-1990) lived most of his life in Louisiana and was an Oblate of St. Benedict. He was trained as a physician but, after contracting tuberculosis, dedicated his life to philosophy and writing. This summer, I read Percy’s last novel The Thanatos Syndrome , published in 1987. It is a sequel to Love in the Ruins . It is set in the not-too-distant future in a town where residents are experiencing “off” behaviors. It follows a psychiatrist and lapsed Catholic who returns to his hometown and begins observing strange behaviors in the residents, including his wife with whom he is no longer in love. He feels compelled with the assistance of his cousin to figure out what the root cause is. One element that I enjoy in Percy’s novels is that there is always a fallen priest character that is secondary to the main plot. In The Thanatos Syndrome , the local parish priest has been replaced because he has given up the ministry and run off to live in a wildfire watch tower in a nearby National Forest. The interchanges between the psychiatrist and priest are comical, enlightening, and quite on the nose about fallen human nature. Altogether, the novel moves briskly in its plot as it introduces a number of poignant themes: the fallen hero; a world gone crazy; science’s role in the devaluing of human dignity; and the inability of society to function without a shared language and shared moral values. As a caveat, let me be clear, this is not a novel for young ones as there are some adult themes present.

East of Eden

By Rev. Noah Carter • August 20, 2023
After a hiatus from my Sunday articles in the bulletin, I wanted to switch gears from catechetical topics. For the next handful of weeks, I wanted to offer some recommendations from my own reading. Each week, I’ll offer two books that I’ve enjoyed reading or rereading in the past few months. I hope you may consider taking up a book or two that might enrich your day-to-day life. In terms of something that I read to enrich my faith, I have been rereading this summer The Imitation of Christ by Thomas á Kempis. For such a small book, it seems to smack me in the face every time I read it. Thomas is no wuss. He wants his readers to take seriously the commands and example of Our Lord with such alacrity that we are ready at once to enter into heaven. With books like this, I do not recommend them for the scrupulous. We must take what is useful from them to advance in small steps in the ways of holiness, but not take the ideal they present to us as if holiness is so very far from us or impossible to reach. The Imitation of Christ is divided into four “books.” The individual meditations for each day can be read in all of three minutes, give or take. The first book seeks to stoke the flame of our interior sentiments so that we might see what prevents us from zealously pursuing holiness and begin to desire a life that is ordered to what is above. Then, he moves to true interior conversion by highlighting the obstacles to God’s love and follows with a great treatise on how to bend and conform our interior faculties to despise the world and seek heaven. Lastly, he offers a beautiful set of reflections that can be prayed and mediated upon before the Blessed Sacrament, using the Eucharist as the Christ-now-and-here-present to motivate our imitation of the Savior. This time around, I gleaned the most benefit from his last few chapters in the second book, wherein he admonishes those who do not wish to take up the Cross of Our Lord. It seemed especially fitting since we encounter in ourselves in the present day so much lukewarmness and unwillingness to boldly live our Faith. In terms of a book not directly related to theology or the Faith, I finally got around to reading John Steinbeck’s 1952 crowning novel East of Eden. Finally? Yes, because a friend from high school who teaches English literature has been begging me to read it for about 12 years. Oh my, it’s a long investment; but I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with it. The entire novel has so many allusions to Biblical stories, especially from Genesis, but that’s not what I took away from it. First of all, I love good writing. Too many popular books, especially modern popular books, have great literary elements, characters, and plots, but lack in good writing. Steinbeck’s ability to paint a scene as a backdrop to a character’s decision or response to some interaction is prophetic. Most ingenious is Steinbeck’s ability to describe human nature. Throughout the whole epic, I failed to really identify one character as immaculately good. And that is the predicament with modern authorship. Many times, modern authors want to paint the characters as good, evil, or somewhere in between. Steinbeck has an uncanny ability to elucidate the “good” characters as deeply flawed and the “bad” characters as redeemable. It reminded me that human nature never changes. Even when we are good, we need to illuminate the parts of us that need to be better. And when we find ourselves to commit sin, there is always a good part of us that can be redeemed to overcome the bad.

A Conclusion to the Precepts of the Church

By Rev. Noah Carter • March 25, 2023
To summarize, the five precepts of the Church are: (1) “You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor;” the faithful are required to attend the celebration of the Eucharist every Lord's Day (Saturday vigil or Sunday Mass) and the holy days of obligation as established in the liturgical calendar, unless excused for a serious reason [i.e. illness or the care of infants] (CCC 1388-9, 2042, 2043, 2177, 2180, 2185; 2187-8; 2192-3); (2) “You shall confess your sins at least once a year” (CCC 1457; 2042); (3) “You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least once during the Easter season” (CCC 1389, 2042); (4) “You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church” (CCC 2043, 2177); and (5) “You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church, each according to his own ability” (CCC 1351, 1387, 1438, 2043). Taken altogether, the precepts of the Church give us a roadmap by which we conform ourselves to the life of the Church. They allow a wide diversity to the faithful to adapt them to their own circumstances. When properly implemented in one’s life, they prioritize the centrality of the Gospel and God’s presence in our families. It is important to note that the precepts require us to make plans judiciously. When we look at our budgets, our vacation plans, our Fridays during Lent, and our Sunday plans, we should always have a conversation about how these precepts fit in and, therefore, where God fits in to each aspect of our life. When we go on vacation, for example, we plan our travel, the place where we stay, who we will visit, and where we will eat. We can also plan out where we will attend Holy Mass. “But, Father! There wasn’t a Catholic Church where we were vacationing.” If that is true, it is a godless place that Christians shouldn’t visit. “But Father! We had family visiting during the holidays.” If that was the plan, bring them to Mass and allow them to enjoy your parish community gathered together in joyful worship of God. “But, Father! Money is tight right now with rising prices and inflation.” If money is tight for you, money is tight for the parish, too, and prices are going up as well for the resources that the church needs to operate. When we look at our weekly calendars and monthly household budgets, we can clearly delineate where our priorities lie. The precepts help us fairly balance our temporal needs with our spiritual needs, lest we get swept away by earthly goods (money, success, power, leisure, friendships). An important man once said, “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” We can, however, serve God and use mammon (generally intended to signify temporal goods) wisely in our pursuit of God’s glory and heavenly life.
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