The Deposit of Faith

by Lawrence G. Fox

Introduction

When I was a young boy, I worked a paper route delivering the News American to residents of Irvington, a small neighborhood located within Baltimore, Maryland.

The compensation I received for this daily task prompted me to open a savings account at the Irvington Federal Savings & Loan.  Weekly, I made the trip to the Savings & Loan, clutching my well earned Federal Reserve promissory notes, a thin green savings booklet - intended to help maintain an orderly record of all transactions - and a boyish excitement knowing that I would be depositing funds within a secured institution.

Each deposit included an oral and written transaction, the transfer of funds, a systematic calculation of deposit, withdrawals, interest earned, and final balance. When transactions were complete, I receive from the teller a kindly reminder that my funds were safe and guarded with a little help from the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. (FSLIC)

Little did I know that this outward sign of inward capital served as an analogy for another type of deposit; one recorded and rooted in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

The 2nd Century Doctor of the Church and Bishop of Lyon, St. Irenaeus, wrote about such a deposit, which was not based upon monetary transactions but upon the tradition of truth.  The Apostles of Jesus Christ deposited this truth in the Catholic (Universal) Church.

St. Irenaeus wrote:

 When therefore we have such proofs, it is not necessary to seek among others the truth which is easily obtained from the Church. For the Apostles like a rich man in a bank, deposited within her most copiously everything which pertains to the truth; and everyone whosoever wishes, draws from her the drink of life. For she is the entrance to life, while all the rest are thieves and robbers. That is why it is surely necessary to avoid them, while cherishing with the utmost diligence the things pertaining to the Church, and to lay hold of the tradition of truth. What then? If there should be a dispute over some kind of question, ought we not have recourse to the most ancient churches in which the apostles were familiar, and draw from them what is clear and certain in regard to that question? What if the apostles had not in fact left writings to us? Would it not be necessary to follow the order of tradition, which was handed down to those to whom they entrusted the Churches (Jonathan Quasten pg 301)?

In Irenaeus’ work, with the abbreviated titled Against Heresies - from which the long quote has been lifted - St. Irenaeus contrasts the unitive, sacred, historical, and universal foundation of Catholic Doctrine in opposition to the mythical, vapid, conflicting, and profane foundation of Gnostic₁ Doctrine.

The impetus of his work (Against Heresies) stems from the alarming emergence of various Gnostic movements that attempted to latch onto the Catholic Church by aping the esthetics (accidentals) of the Church while at the same time rejecting the (ascetics) substance. Gnosticism professed a message which contradicted the Faith of the Catholic Church on all levels including: the source and mode of divine revelation (oral and written), the mystery of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Trinitarian Theology), the nature of the Church (Ecclesiology), the incarnation, life, death, & bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ (Christology) and his saving work (Soteriology), the necessity of faith and works (Moral Theology), and the administration of grace within the Catholic Universal Church (Sacramentology). St. Paul warned Timothy to guard against the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge (gnosis). (2Timothy 6:20)

While some things change other things remain the same.  Recently Pope Benedict XVI stated: "An effective proclamation of the Gospel in contemporary western society will need to confront directly the widespread spirit of agnosticism and relativism which has cast doubt on reason's ability to know the truth which alone satisfies the human heart's restless quest for meaning." (MAY 28, 2004)

While combating these movements (spirits), St. Irenaeus incorporated a theme from the writings of St. Paul, who - when passing the baton of leadership and guardianship to St. Timothy - pleaded: “What you have heard from me, keep as a pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Jesus Christ. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” (2 Timothy 1:13-15) 

So here we have St. Irenaeus and St. Paul stating that something of value has been deposited in the life of the Church and it needs to be received, guarded, and passed on.  This something of value is defined by the Church to be the Deposit of Faith.

To understand the context and meaning of the Deposit of Faith let us look at several key points within the instruction and defense for the Catholic₃ Faith as provided by St. Irenaeus.

Who are the Rich Men in the Bank?

The word, apostle, comes from the common Greek word (apostolos) and means “one that is sent.”

Jesus Christ chose 12 men (Matthew 10:1 & Luke 6:12) to follow him and to be his disciples, to learn from him, to be his companions and stand by him in his trials, and subsequently to be sent by him -- with all authority -- to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness, and to be his witnesses to the whole world beginning in Jerusalem (Luke 24:45-49).  These 12 included: Simon, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, Philip, Nathaniel (Bartholomew), Matthew, Judas Iscariot, Jude, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon called the Zealot.

Some of these apostles were disciples of John the Baptist, a prophet called by God to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus the Messiah. John pointed out Jesus to his disciples as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” and then encouraged them to start following him.

Jesus changed the name of Simon, son of John, to Peter (Cephas) which means rock and called him to be a servant of the remaining eleven servants. Jesus prayed that Peter -- once converted -- would strengthen his brethren (Matthew 16:17 & Luke 22:31, 32).

One of the apostles Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin (the ruling ecclesiastical authority in Jerusalem) and hung himself.

Jesus conferred upon the remaining apostles the dignity of ruling over the 12 tribes of Israel in God’s Kingdom (Luke 24: 28,29).  The Church is the Kingdom of God, which sacramentally came forth like blood and water from the side of Christ on the Cross (similar to Eve from Adam’s side). The Church is identified in the New Testament as the New Jerusalem, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the people of God, and the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

As such, Jesus promised these apostles they would rule over his One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic₃ Church. They are in fact the Church’s one true foundation with the prophets and Jesus being the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:19, Revelation 21:14).

After the Resurrection, Jesus breathed upon the apostles and entrusted them with the power to forgive sins, “those sins you forgive are forgiven and those sins you bind are bound” (John 20:21). Jesus gave them authority to make disciples of all nations baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:16). Jesus promised that those who heard them heard Jesus. And those who rejected them rejected Jesus and not only Jesus but his Father also.  Why? The apostles received the Gift of the Holy Spirit, who brought to their memory the sayings of Jesus and led them into all truth (John 16:21). As such, the words they spoke were not their own but Jesus’ words.

This background provides additional context to the warning of Jesus: “It is not those who say ‘Lord!’ ‘Lord!’ who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of my Father.” This is why St. Irenaeus warned us to reject heretical movements outside the Church, “That is why it is surely necessary to avoid them, while cherishing with the utmost diligence the things pertaining to the Church.”

During the first 9-day Cenacle before Pentecost, St. Peter spoke to the 120 disciples, telling them that the Episcopal office once promised to and then abandoned by Judas had to be filled. St. Peter then identified the criteria for replacing him. The candidate must be one of the male adults (andron), who was with them from the baptism of John to the Ascension. And he should be a witness to the resurrection of Jesus (Luke 1: 21).  Two men were presented, Matthias and Barsabbas. Lots were used to select the bishop, the same method used for priestly selection as found in Luke 1: 8. And the lot fell upon Matthias who was then numbered as one of the twelve.

While evangelizing, these Jewish followers of Jesus ran into several major obstacles, namely the Sanhedrin, which diligently attempted to prevent the spread of their message about the person of Jesus Christ, and Roman authority, which recognized Caesar alone to be “Lord and God.” This opposed St. Thomas’ proclamation that Jesus is “My Lord and My God.”

This bring us to the last man Jesus called after his death and resurrection: Rabbi Saul of Tarsus who persecuted Jesus’ disciples by putting them in prison on charges of blasphemy for proclaiming Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Saul received a blinding encounter with the risen Jesus while on the road to Damascus to imprison more of these “people of the way.”  (Jesus said, “I am the Way . . . “) Jesus gave Saul a new name --Paul -- and told him to present himself to the Church (as represented by Ananias) for additional instruction. (Acts 9-19)

Ananias baptized Paul and the scales of blindness and stubbornness dropped from his eyes. Paul then received catechesis for three years in the desert, and then began his ministry as one sent by God to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ. He did so with fervor to the Jews first and then to the gentiles.

These apostles  -- all sent by Jesus Christ -- are like rich men in the bank. Only this bank is the Church, and the deposit is made under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There is no money put in this bank, instead we receive the deposit of truth handed down to the apostles by Jesus Christ.

The Truth is The Deposit

St. Irenaeus states that the apostles copiously deposited within the Church everything that pertains to truth. But truth is not a something. It is a someone, namely the person of Jesus Christ (Fr. John Corapi, SOLT).  In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets, but in these last days God has spoken to us by His Son Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1).  Restated, the apostles abundantly deposited in the Church everything that pertains to Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life.  They deposited in the Church the sayings of Jesus, and their assent to the sayings of Jesus, Jesus’ life story and their conversion stories, Sacraments instituted by Jesus and their administration of his Sacraments in the Church, Jesus’ gift to them of God the Holy Spirit, and their faithful leadership under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that he would be with them until the end of time. And the apostles established the institutions (communion of bishop, presbyters, deacons, evangelist, pastors and teachers) which preserve apostolic authority and minister to and guard the good deposit in the Church until the return of Jesus Christ.

Without a doubt the apostles deposited in the Catholic Church everything that pertained to Jesus including their very lives. (Some as in St. Peter’s case deposited their very bones.)

Jesus promised his apostles that he would send them the Gift of the Holy Spirit who would lead them into ALL TRUTH. (John 16: 12)  In other words, the Holy Spirit would bring to their minds everything that Jesus taught them and enable them to understand and assent in faith to his words and commands. This promise by Jesus was necessary since Jesus commanded his apostles to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teach them to keep all that he had commanded them. (Matthew 28:19-20)

The Good Deposit and Sacred Scripture

John Paul II in his book titled, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, spoke about the Christological Nature of the New Testament. In other words, the New Testament is centered on the person of Jesus Christ in the way the Old Testament is centered on God who is Creator, Savior, and Sanctifier. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Elijah and so forth are characters with whom God speaks and guides but God’s role in their lives is the focus of the message.  In the New Testament, the Apostles, Martyrs, and Saints are characters but the central focus is Jesus Christ -- the Word of God incarnate. And even God the Holy Spirit who is the Divine Author and Interpreter of Sacred Scripture puts the reader’s attention on Jesus Christ:

But when He the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you in all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you.” (John 16: 13-16)

Everything written in the Old Testament is a preparation for the Christ (Messiah). Everything in the New Testament is explicitly about the Jesus the Christ. As such, the whole focus of Sacred Scripture is the person of Jesus Christ – for whom all things were created and through whom all things exist.

We have from the lips of Jesus Christ a demonstration of how the Old Testament speaks about his own life, death, and resurrection. From St. Luke, we find Jesus meeting up with two disciples on the way to the town of Emmaus. They are perplexed about the events that had just happened and the reports that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified and killed, was later seen alive by certain of their women. Jesus slightly admonishes them for not knowing that the Messiah would have to suffer before entering into His Glory. Starting with Moses and the Prophets, he explains how the texts in the Old Testament spoke about the Messiah. This is why the Catholic Church still today retains the Old Testament as Sacred Scripture for it infallibly speaks about Jesus Christ. It should be noted that Gnostic sources and their most successful offspring Islam disparages both the Old and the New Testament stating that they are corrupted and therefore corrected by their own recitals such as the Quran.

Note:  A sound definition for Paganism and Gnosticism is a belief system rooted solely in man’s own imagination.

St. Paul while working with St. Timothy pleads:  “But you (Timothy) continue in those things which you have learned and which have been entrusted to you; knowing from whom your received them. And because from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which can instruct you to salvation by faith which is in Jesus Christ. All scripture, inspired of God is profitable to teach, reprove, to correct, and to instruct in justice that the man of God may be perfect and furnished for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:15) Again the Sacred Scripture that St. Paul is referring to is the Old Testament since the New Testament with a Canon of Books did not exist as of yet.

But the Gnostic movements rejected the Old Testament and treated it as  the fruit of an evil demiurge.  In the 2^nd Century, the Gnostic Marcion started a movement that dispensed with the Old Testament, Matthew, Mark, and John, and retained only a portion of the Gospel of St. Luke and the writings of St. Paul. Marcion developed a doctrine of justification by faith alone from this greatly reduced Scripture.   This approach to salvation history earned Marcion the title of “first-born of Satan.”

St. Irenaeus recounts that when St. Polycarp₂, a bishop and a contemporary disciple of St. John the Evangelist, encountered Marcion, he  was asked if he recognized Marcion. St. Polycarp replied: “I recognize the first-born of Satan.”

So in that sense the whole of Sacred Scripture pertains to Jesus Christ and pertains to truth. But when St. Paul was writing to St. Timothy, he was not telling St. Timothy to guard a good book, he was telling him to guard the oral tradition of Truth. St. Irenaeus states that whosoever wishes, draws from her (the Church) the drink of life.  So Sacred Scripture makes up a part of this good deposit. But it is not alone for the person who seeks life draws it from the Church. St. Irenaeus writes that the Church is the entrance to life, while all the rest are thieves and robbers.  That is why it is surely necessary to avoid pitting Scripture against Tradition, while cherishing with the utmost diligence the things pertaining to the Church, and to lay hold of the tradition of truth. (Jonathan Quasten pg 301)

The Good Deposit and the Tradition of Truth

The word, “tradition,” comes from the common Greek parodosis and as a verb identifies the process of handing over, leaving an inheritance, or the transmission of something. As a noun, tradition means the practice, custom, and belief, which when it is handed down, is bequeathed and transmitted.  As such the tradition of truth is the act of delivering and handing down through a system of catechesis, creeds, customs, prayers, liturgies, and institutions. God is the Source of Divine Revelation and this Divine Revelation comes to humanity in two forms Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Stated in another way, the Good Deposit has a written and oral form. 

The oral form was entrusted to the Church by the apostles through their preaching, the example of their lives, and the institutions they established.  It was what they learned from the lips of Jesus Christ, what they observed of his way of life and his works, and what they understood of this from the Holy Spirit. (Catholic Catechism article 76)  The written form was entrusted to the Church by those apostles and their associates who under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit committed the message of salvation to writing. Together these two make up one common good deposit and tradition of truth. (Catholic Catechism article 77) 

St. Paul commends the Church in Corinth for remembering him in everything and for holding to the traditions, just as he passed them on to them. (1Cor 11:2) And when speaking to the brothers in the Church in Thessalonica, he tells them to stand fast and to hold to the traditions that were passed onto them by word of mouth or by letter (2 Thessalonians 2:15) and then he strictly admonished them to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the traditions they received from him. (2 Thessalonians 3:7)

One example of how this oral form complements the written form is demonstrated by the actions of the Council of Jerusalem when addressing the Gentile believers residing in Antioch on the issues surrounding grace, law, morals, and circumcision. The council was held, a decision was made, and a letter was composed with instructions that it be taken to the Church in Antioch and to every location in which there were Gentile believers. (Acts 16:4)  The Council selected two men to accompany and present the written letter to the Church in Antioch, “We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing.” (Acts 15: 27) The Council of Jerusalem under the guidance of the Holy Spirit did not leave this important issue to the interpretation of the written word alone but demonstrated a pattern in which revelation and doctrine in the Church are to be presented, received, and assented to with the oral and written forms complimenting and confirming each other. 

In the first example, the oral confirms the written.  In this the second example, the written confirms the oral.

St. Luke writes to Theophilus in his Gospel, that many have undertaken to draw up an account of the events surrounding Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Luke said he had also carefully investigated everything and now would undertake to write an orderly account for Theophilus; so that “you may have certainty of the things that you have been taught.” (Luke 1:1-4) 

Theophilus was orally catechized in the faith by the first witnesses and servants of the Word. St. Luke wants to provide Theophilus with a written record for the purpose of engendering a certainty about their transmission.  St. Luke is not trying to correct the instructions handed down orally to Theophilus. St. Luke is essentially confirming what he has heard because the oral and written form are both reliable and support each other since they flow from the one inspiration, God the Holy Spirit.

For example: Luke identifies the source of the infancy narratives of Jesus Christ by twice mentioning that “Mary pondered on these things and treasured on them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19 & 2:40) Theophilus was orally catechized in the doctrine of the Virgin Birth. Now with the written word, he would have certainty to the doctrine’s origins. As a result of meditating on the written record, his prayer life could deepen and lead him to a greater devotion to the Mother of Jesus Christ.

St. Paul identifies this complimentary source of truth: “You my son, be strong in the grace that is Christ Jesus. And the many things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2Timothy 2:2)

Notice that St. Timothy is responsible for catechizing others, who will then pass on the same message to succeeding generations. (Note that St. Timothy is not called upon to entrust the Church with secret revelation, which is the foundation of doctrine within Gnostic communities.)  This is an error that St. Paul was very clear to avoid.  To the Church in Galatia St. Paul writes: “I went to Jerusalem in response to a revelation and set before the other leaders the Gospel that I preached among the gentiles. I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders in the Church out of fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.” (Galatians 2:2) St. Paul wanted to confirm and re-iterate the unity of faith in spite of whatever scrapes, suspicion, and misunderstanding existed amongst himself and other leaders in the Church. In other words, Paul’s message was no different from the message of Peter, James, John, Thomas…etc.

St. Timothy as such, not only has St. Paul’s letters, his oral teaching, but also his very example of life:   “You, however know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions…”(2 Timothy 3:10)

This is why the Catholic Church teaches that her certainty about all revealed Truth does not derive from Sacred Scripture Alone but from Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition together -- both accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. (Catholic Catechism 83)

An example of doctrinal certainty derived from Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition would be the Apostolic Origins of Sunday observance. For instance, Catholic Christians worship on Sunday, while adherents to heterodox movements within Christianity and Judaism worship on Saturday (the Sabbath).

From the Vatican II Document, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (paragraph 106):

By a tradition handed down from the apostles, which took its origins from the very day of Christ’s Resurrection, the Church celebrates the paschal mystery every eighth day, which is appropriately called the Lord’s Day or Sunday. For on this day, Christ’s faithful should come together into one place so that hearing the word of God and taking part in the Eucharist, they may call to mind the passion, resurrection, and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and may give thanks to God who ‘has begotten them again through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, unto a living hope. 'The Lord’s day is the original feast day, and it should be proposed to the faithful and taught to them so the it may become in fact a day of joy and of freedom from work. Other celebrations, unless they are truly of the greatest importance, shall not have precedence over Sunday, which is the foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year.   

We talked about the apostles handing on to us the Truth, found in the complementing Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, the truth which is Jesus Christ. The Church draws its certainty about all revealed truth from these two sources.

The Drink of Life.

St. Irenaeus in his defense of the Catholic Faith emphasizes that those who desire the drink of life must come and draw it from the Church and not from the Gnostic movements.  This language “drawing and the drink of life” poetically flows from the Gospel of John, which recounts what transpired when the Samaritan woman meets Jesus at Jacob’s well.  She comes to the well with a bucket to draw water and Jesus asks her for a drink. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” she asks. Jesus responds that everyone who drinks from this well water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that Jesus gives will never thirst. Indeed Jesus’ gift will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4: 9-15)

This dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman follows a dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3), which talks about the same drawing from the Spirit through the Catholic Church: “Unless a man is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God” and “the flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit.”

Revelation also shows this “Drink of Life” flowing from God’s throne and watering the trees, which bring forth leaves that heal the nations. The water that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb is the Holy Spirit acting literally in the world through the Sacraments of the Church beginning with Baptism. (Rev 22:1)

John the Baptist also testified to this “Drink of Life” when he said that God will give the Holy Spirit without limit to the person who believes in Jesus Christ (John 3: 34). In other words, a person can never exhaust the river of life which flows from the throne of God (Revelation 22:1) and therefore that soul would never thirst for it could draw more and more from the wellspring of life.

St. Paul’s take on the “Drink of Life” is that in Christ Jesus all the fullness of the Godhead lives in bodily form (Colossians 2: 9-11) and that the Church has received this fullness in Christ who is the head of the Church.  As such, St. Irenaeus is reiterating that we must go to the Church for God’s life. The believer who is received into the Church by Grace through Faith in Baptism and maintains the bond of peace - devoting oneself to the teaching (didache) of the apostles, participating in the breaking of the bread, remaining in communion (koinonia), and in the prayers of the Church (Acts 2:42) - draws continuously the Drink of Life from the Church.

Guarding the Good Deposit

To guard the Good Deposit of Faith handed down to us by the apostles is the essential function of the Catholic Church. St. Paul pleaded with St. Timothy: “What you have heard from me, keep as a pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Jesus Christ. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” (2 Timothy 1:13-15) 

St. Timothy, St. Irenaeus and each succession of bishops were given the task of specifically guarding and presenting this good deposit. St. Paul feels this is so important that he uses a military term for guarding that recalls the famous Roman military formation called the Phalanx. He even invites St. Timothy to endure hardship with him like a good soldier. (2 Timothy 2:3)

St. Timothy received a good portion of his instruction from St. Paul. St. Irenaeus also received his instruction from those who went before him marked with the sign of faith: St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna and martyr for the Catholic Faith, Eleutherus, the Bishop of Rome, and his own Bishop Photinus of Lugdunum, another martyr for the Catholic Faith.

St. Timothy -- and by implication every successive bishop -- is supposed to guard this good deposit with “the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”

St. Paul when speaking with the priests in Ephesus warns: ”Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops and shepherds over the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28)

Guarding this good deposit is a collaborative work within the Catholic Church, which is the Pillar and Foundation of Truth (2 Timothy 3:15). In other words, when the Catholic Church guards and speaks as teacher in matters of Faith and Morals, it is the Holy Spirit who is guarding and speaking. And the responsibility falls to all the members of the Body of Christ.

In fact, Pope Benedict XVI recently punctuated the collaborative importance of passing on this deposit of faith through sound catechesis: "The deposit of faith is a priceless treasure which each generation must pass on to the next by winning hearts to Jesus Christ and shaping minds in the knowledge, understanding and love of his Church."

The Good Deposit and the Apostolic Faith

Now to return to our original metaphor: the apostles are the rich men, who have received the Truth, and in turn deposit it in the Bank, that is the Church. But they give us more than what they learned; they give us everything that pertains to truth including their own Faith in Christ Jesus. This makes sense since their faith in Jesus Christ is the source of their communion and our communion with each other, the Church, and God Our Father.

That which was from the beginning, which they the apostles heard, which they saw with their eyes, which they looked at and their hands have touched – this they proclaimed concerning the word of Life. The Apostles proclaimed what they have seen and heard, so that we also may have fellowship with them. And their fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.  We join with them by assenting in will to their faith and this makes their joy complete. (Paraphrasing 1 John 1: 1)

God reveals Himself to Man and Man responds by faith.  Without faith, it is impossible to please God.  Faith requires the assent of the human will to God’s self-revelation.  The foundation of the Catholic Church is the Faith of the Apostles and the Prophets with Jesus being the cornerstone.

Reflecting back on St. Paul’s warning to the presbyters in Ephesus: I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number will men arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.  (Acts 20:30)

The Deposit of Faith provides a hedgerow of protection for the believer. In fact the foundation for discerning God’s will is assenting to this Deposit of Faith. When you step outside the Deposit of Faith, you abandon this protection.

Going back to St. Irenaeus we read:

What then? If there should be a dispute over some kind of question, ought we not have recourse to the most ancient churches in which the apostles were familiar, and draw from them what is clear and certain in regard to that question? What if the apostles had not in fact left writings to us? Would it not be necessary to follow the order of tradition, which was handed down to those to whom they entrusted the Churches (William Jurgens 91-92)?

 What was it that St. Irenaeus could demonstrate as evidence to this statement? In other words what practices and institutions existed within the Catholic Church as evidence of this deposit of truth? 

St. Irenaeus would identify:

•      The administration of the seven sacraments beginning with the saving grace of faith in baptism. Through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son pitch their tent and abide in the mystical members of Christ. 

•      The Sacred Scriptures that is God’s Word in written form, providing a primer and prophetic record of Jesus Christ (Old Testament) and an historical narrative of Jesus Christ and an expression of the Apostles’ Faith in Jesus Christ (New Testament).

•      The Creeds of the Church, which are the synthesis (fusion) of the Apostles’ Faith in Christ.

•      The Councils and Catechesis of the Church, which are the systematic presentation of the Apostles’ Faith in Jesus Christ.

•      The liturgy and prayers of the Church, in which she expresses and celebrates the Apostle’s Faith in Christ.

•      The writings of the various witnesses to this Deposit of Faith especially the Church Fathers especially when there exists a unity of agreement.

All of these actions in the Church represent a heritage of faith.  By adhering to this heritage of faith, the entire holy people of God united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, in communion (fellowship), to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. So in maintaining, practicing, and professing the faith that has been handed on, there is a remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful. (Catholic Catechism 84)

St. Irenaeus could demonstrate that fidelity to the deposit of faith maintained unity in the Catholic Church. Writing in Against Heresies, he states:

For the church although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth has received from the apostles and from their disciples the Faith in one God, Father almighty, the creator of heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them; and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became flesh for our salvation and the Holy Spirit who announced through the prophets the dispensations and the comings and the birth from a Virgin and the Passion and the resurrection from the dead and the bodily ascension into heaven of the beloved  Christ Jesus our Lord and his coming from heaven in the glory of the Father to re-establish all things and the raising up again of all flesh of all humanity in order that Jesus Christ our Lord and God and Savior and King in accord with the invisible Father, every knee shall confess him. (William Jurgens page 84-85)

What he is saying is that communities that shared and professed a common creed, which is a synthesis of the Deposit of Faith, were faithful to the Prayer of Jesus.

Jesus prayed to His Heavenly Father: “My Prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be so that the World may believe that you sent me.” (John 17:20)

In summary, we as Catholics have been given a great treasure. Those who are given much, much will be expected. Let us with confidence and certainty, study and pray and abide in this living truth so that we may eventually enter into eternal life with all the saints in heaven giving glory to God through Christ Jesus, Our Lord.

Bibliography with Notes

New Testament Quotations: New International Version (NIV).

The Navarre Bible: Captivity Epistles. 

William  A. Jurgens: The Faith of the Early Fathers: Selections from the Pre-Nicene and Nicene eras.

Maxwell Staniforth, Andrew Louth: Early Christian Writings.

Jonathan Quasten: Patrology, Volume 1: (The Beginnings of Patristic Literature From the Apostles Creed to Irenaeus).

Catholic Catechism: Second Edition English Translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 8 September 1997.

Vatican II Documents: Constitution on Sacred Liturgy.

John Paul II: Crossing the Threshold of Hope.

Fr. Santan Pinto: Discernment in Your Life.

Notes:

1.       Gnosis the Greek word translated into English as knowledge. A Gnostic says he knows and an Agnostic is one who does not know since alpha (a) in Greek negates the word that follows. Pithis is the Greek word translated into English as Faith.  A Gnostic is a person who professes knowledge (a secret knowledge) and they taught this form of knowledge surpassed Faith in a Public Divine Revelation. Gnosticism taught that Jesus was an angel (Michael the Archangel) prior to his incarnation. Gnosticism taught that the Holy Spirit was the Angel Gabriel.  St. Paul warned Timothy to guard against the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge (gnosis). (2 Timothy 6:20)

2.    St. Polycarp was a 2nd century Christian bishop of Smyrna. According to the Martyrdom of Polycarp, he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire failed to touch him. He wrote one letter to the Church in Philippi. He was born 69 AD and died around 155 AD. St. Polycarp was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist.

3.     The Church was identified as Catholic (universal) towards the end of the 1^st Century. St. Ignatius Martyr and Bishop of Antioch 107 AD wrote in his letter to the Church in Smyrna: “Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. (William  A. Jurgens) The marks of the Church are one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Christ established only one Church. The Church is holy, because her founder is Holy. The Church is Catholic because it is universal. The Church is apostolic because it goes back to the Twelve Apostles chosen by Christ Himself. The Pope and Bishops have their authority in succession from the Apostles.

Eulogy for the Virgin Bride

By Susan Fox

Patricia DeSimone was a friend for over 30 years. This is her eulogy given May 1, 2012 at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Arlington, VA

Terry Burdett and I were in our 20s in 1980 when we joined the Legion of Mary at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, VA. Pat DeSimone was the president of the group. When I informed Terry in Twenty-Nine Palms, California, that Pat was dead on Easter Tuesday, Terry responded, “I remember how she helped knuckleheads like us find our place in the church.”

I conducted several interviews with friends and family of long-time Legion of Mary member Patricia Marguerite DeSimone, who died on April 10, 2012, at the age of 86. What amazed me about their stories of her is that during her whole life she acted as a mentor, a “big sister” if you will, for several generations of younger people.

Pat didn’t just fall into the role of mentoring young people. She had a little brother, James DeSimone, and he was born when Pat was 12 years old. He remembers when he was a teenager and she was in her 20s. She was his big sister and she was very inspiring because she taught him to drive, and “Boy could she ever drive!”

Fr. Daniel Spychala was in the Junior Legion of Mary 40 years ago, when he met Pat DeSimone as president of that group. But what impressed him about Pat was the fact that she stayed in touch with him after he left the Junior Legion. He told me, “She was there at my ordination and first Mass. She was a friend when I was in the seminary and a young priest.”

Thirty years ago, I was a Catholic, who didn’t sympathize with devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I joined the Legion of Mary because they did cool stuff. I told Pat how I felt. Pat was undismayed. She simply gave me a copy of “True Devotion to Mary” by St. Louis Marie de Montfort. It changed my life. I made my consecration to Jesus through Mary in 1980 with Pat DeSimone as my witness. It was the best thing anybody ever did for me. Three years later on my wedding day, I consecrated my marriage and all my future children to Jesus through Mary. That subsequently gave me immense consolation, for two of my three children died in miscarriage.

But many of you are younger and met Pat more recently. I am 59 years old. Jackie DeForge is only 37 years old and she met Pat in 2004 at first Friday devotions at St. Agnes and she remembers going out to IHOP with Pat at 2 a.m., “and it was like going on a retreat!” Jackie said, adding her favorite Pat saying was “Ask the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Spirit to enlighten you!”

That was Pat’s saying and that was Pat’s doing. I have letters from her where she says she is trying to discern God’s will. Pat wrote, “I think the Lord and Our Blessed Mother are sending me more people (to work with). I’m trying to determine if I’m right about them or is the devil trying to distract me?” Verbally, she told me many times, “The devil drives, God leads.”

Believe me, if Pat concluded that God wanted her to work with you, there was nothing you could do about it. That was David DePero’s experience. David met her at all night adoration. He was approaching 40; she was in her 80s. It was a very unlikely friendship on the face of it. He bumped into her at Whole Foods. She gave him a ride. He told me, “She kept trying to get in touch with me. She pursued, kept bugging me, it's like who is this lady?” Finally they started eating together at a local café. “She had a way of releasing you from the bondage of yourself,” David concluded.

I’m tempted here to tell you that members of the Legion of Mary hand out the Miraculous Medal so often, they are called the “Miraculous Meddlers.” And Pat spent a large portion of her life in the Legion.

Eva Balino met Pat in 2003. They both did adoration at St. Agnes, and went out to eat afterwards. Eva related this story: “I was brokenhearted and praying there. She came up to me, and said, ‘The Blessed Virgin Mary told me you need a ride.’ I said, ‘Yes, I need a ride.’ That started our friendship.”

Trudy Harlow said the things she remembered about Pat were that she always tried to bring everyone she met to Christ, and she was irrepressible. She stayed up all night, read junk mail, she had the most amazing laugh, she loved to eat and drink and be Italian and she church-hopped. Trudy said, “I loved her for who she was, for the faith she taught me and the fact that she stayed proud of me. She was humble and outrageous all at once.” And about Trudy, Pat wrote to me in 1991,”Spending Thanksgiving with Trudy. I sponsored her into the Church in 1985. She’s been very active! I’m proud of her.”

Now I am going to tell you the secret of Pat’s fruitfulness in our lives. Pat DeSimone chose to give her life to Christ as an unmarried virgin. I can attest that she lived a life of great purity. The world today does not regard virginity very highly. Watch television, listen to politics, go to the movies and you’ll see virginity is simply something to be thrown away. Some might call Pat a spinster or label her “on the shelf” because she never married. Poor Pat, no children. But the world is wrong.

It’s a paradox, but Pat – the virgin married to the Virgin Christ – had so many children we’ll probably never know them all until we get to heaven. St. Ambrose talked about Pat’s life in 377 AD. He likened Pat’s life to that of Holy Mother Church, who is “ignorant of wedlock, a virgin, yet a mother of offspring. The Church bears her children not by a human father but by the Holy Spirit. She bears us not with pain, but with the rejoicings of the angels. The Church, a virgin, feeds us, not with the milk of her body, but with the milk of the Apostles.”

That’s the kind of milk Pat fed us, the milk of the apostles. “Holy Mother Church has not a husband, but she has a Bridegroom.” Whether she is the Church or a human soul choosing the life of virgin dedicated to God, St. Ambrose said, “Without any loss of modesty, she weds the Word of God as her eternal Spouse.”

Pat understood this. A year ago I was talking to her on the phone and I told her that St. Faustina had a vision of the place reserved for virgins in heaven. Pat -- with longing in her voice -- wanted to know all about it. Unfortunately, St. Faustina didn’t say much except that it was beautiful.

Pat experienced another side to the life of the virgin bride. Our Lord – all bloodied and marred with the marks of His most cruel Passion – appeared to St. Faustina, and said, “The Bride must resemble her Groom.” Pat received that aspect of her spiritual marriage with great enthusiasm. On Good Friday, Pat lay dying of cancer at the Joseph Richey Hospice in Baltimore. She was unresponsive at this point as she hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for five days. I called her up and had the nurse put the phone to her ear.

“Pat, “ I said, “It’s Good Friday, and you’re up on the cross with Jesus!” The nurse got really excited, took the phone back and said, “Miss DeSimone nodded her head! Oh my, the hearing is the last thing to go!”

And so Pat, nicknamed Pasquelina, which in its Latin roots means related to Easter, died two days after Easter. That place in heaven reserved for Virgins? She probably is checking it out right now.

TRANSFIGURED INDEED

by Lawrence Fox

Consider the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. The recorded events are a rich foundation for understanding: the mystery into the Blessed Trinity, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the Communion of the Saints, the Exodus of the New Testament Church out of the Earthly Jerusalem, and the veracity of the Resurrection events (since the apostles were not anticipating nor did they understand the resurrection of Jesus prior to the Sunday event as evidenced by their confused response to his command to tell no one until after His Resurrection from the Dead. They wondered what he meant by, “Tell no one until after I have risen from the dead.”)

And yet the reading last Sunday, which drew my attention, was the responsorial psalm 115 (116) “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.”

I imagine Jesus reciting these words with his disciples on Holy Thursday. Consider the various messianic statements: Jesus’ sacrifice to the Father in the Holy Spirit is most precious for He is the faithful one, God’s Beloved Son. We heard God the Father say as much when Jesus was baptized and again here on the Mountain of Transfiguration. These word are a comfort to those of us who were baptized into the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ for again “precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

Next we hear that the Messiah is the Son of God’s Handmaiden. Mary (Jesus’ mother) confirmed these prophetic words when she humbly responded to the Angel Gabriel: “Behold the Handmaiden of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your message” (Luke 1:38). Mary’s proclamation as being “the Handmaiden of God” testified that Jesus is the Messiah. And because Mary is the Mother of the Messiah, she is the Handmaiden of the Lord. Since Jesus is the same ‘yesterday, today, and forever,’ Mary, too, remains God’s Handmaiden, ‘yesterday, today, and forever.’ Being God’s eternal Handmaiden, she continues to serve and disciple the Mystical Body of Christ as it journeys into eternal life (the communion of saints).

Then we understand via the Psalm that the Messiah offers a new sacrifice, one of Thanksgiving (Eucharist) to the LORD. It is my understanding that rabbinic tradition states: “the Messiah would bring an end to animal sacrifice and establish a new and eternal sacrifice; a covenant with the Father which is a Eucharistic (todah) Sacrifice of Thanksgiving.”
On the night before Jesus died, he took the bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples and said: “This is my Body which is offered up for you… in the same way he took the cup saying this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.”

St. Ignatius the Martyr and the third bishop of Antioch (110+ AD) in his Letter to the Church in Ephesus identified this Eucharist (one common breaking of bread) as “the medicine of immortality and the sacred remedy by which we escape and live in Jesus Christ for evermore.”
Symbolic bread is not the “medicine of immortality and the means of being eternally united to Christ.”

And so, Jesus who is God’s Eternal Word -- for whom and through whom all things were made and through whom God sustains all things – made a command to nature on Holy Thursday, “This is my Body.” The Apostles witnessed Jesus command nature on many occasions: Jesus said to the wind and the waves, “Stop and be still!” (Mark 4:39) and so they became calm. And again in Mark’s Gospel Jesus takes the loaves and fishes, offers a prayer of thanksgiving, breaks the two loaves of bread (Mark 6: 41) and then gives it to his disciples and through them feeds 5000 men not counting children and women. In Mark 14: 22, the same exact words are recorded as part of the Holy Thursday events. And yet, Jesus’ command to nature “this is my body” still scandalizes many disciples.

The literal reality of Jesus' one eternal sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and the Eucharist as being "Body and Blood" remains verboten as part of their assent of faith in Christ. Atheists argue, "Jesus’ words are only symbolic" – a natural conclusion since they deny his Divinity. In other words, a person’s faith only needs to be on the same level of an atheist to hold that the Eucharist is a symbol. Is that the core of the matter? Maybe there resides an element of doubt about whether “Jesus is True God and True Man?” Or is it simply a struggle with obedience to the Deposit of Faith (the oral and written tradition of the Church handed down to us by the apostles) and the implications thereof?

Either way, the Mystical Body of Christ never reaches full communion, as St. Paul envisioned would be the case. “Because there is one loaf, we who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (1 Corinthians 10: 17)

Merry Christmas from the Foxes

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:8-12)

Good News! A Savior is born!

Who knew first? A lowly group of ordinary shepherds. But the news was intended for everybody -- for all mankind for all time because those shepherds were excited. And they checked it out. They went over to Bethlehem to see this thing that happened, and found the Baby lying in a manger. And they told other people!

It must have been very rare to find a new born baby laying in a stable in a place where animals feed. But that is indeed how Our Lord Jesus Christ chose to come into the world. And those are the type of people He invited to His birth -- ordinary people.

When He exited the world, Jesus chose the cross as the means of his leaving. The cross became a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. Muslims teach somebody else took His place on the cross because to them Jesus was a great prophet, and to die on the cross was a shameful death. It's too bad more people didn't pay attention to His birth because being born in a stable is a shameful birth. I mean who do you know who was born in a stable?

But Good News! God doesn't see things the way we do. He picked a lowly virgin to be Jesus' mother. He picked a carpenter to be his foster father. They weren't rich. The didn't have a car. And their status in life was bottom of the barrel. But God was excited because it was His Son -- the Word made flesh -- Who came to dwell among us. And He sent his angels with the Good News.

But he also invited kings from the East. They were led by a star. And they brought gifts, and so the tradition of Christmas giving began. For it is Jesus Who said, "It is better to give than to give than receive."

Whether you are led by a star or led by an angel, we are hoping you also find yourself in a stable this Christmas standing next to an Infant lying in a manger. For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son. . .
-- Susan Fox

HATRED MAKES YOU STUPID: A Family Conversation

by Susan Fox

Imagine a super-intelligent creature, whose whole desire is bent on evil.

But every time he thinks of some terrible tragedy to inflict on mankind, the loving God brings great good out of his evil actions. He does evil, but good triumphs.

“Curses, foiled again.” That is the refrain of Satan.

Case in point: Roughly 2,000 years ago, he plotted against what he thought was a man named Jesus. He organized Jesus’ Jewish detractors to ask him tricky questions. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” Satan probably thought, “Yeah, answer that one.” But Jesus answered with a question, “Whose image is on that coin?” The answer being “Caesar’s” So He answered, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.".(Mark 12:17) And Mark goes on to say, “they were amazed at him.”

Jesus had an answer for everything they threw at him. The Sadducees, who said there was no resurrection, came to Him with another trick question. A woman was married consecutively to seven brothers and had no children with any of them. So at the resurrection whose wife would she be as she was married to all seven? He told them they were in error. “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead -- have you not read what God said to you, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." (Matt. 22:30-33) And again the crowds were amazed at this.

Finally, Satan stirred up so much hatred against Jesus Christ that the Jews spurred Pilate to condemn Jesus to death on the cross. There is a striking literary image of this in the movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” During the scourging at the pillar, a twisted ugly figure with a monstrous baby circles the crowd as Jesus willingly submits to horrible torture by the obviously brutal Roman soldiers. Satan gloats.

But what a short time he has to rejoice! In three days, he finds out that Jesus has risen from the dead! He is again teaching and preparing His apostles for Pentecost when the Church will be born and thousands converted. The apostles will reach the whole world with Christ's message, going first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles and finally to the ends of the earth -- to peoples never even known in that time.

“Curses, foiled again!”

Christ’s death was Satan’s biggest blunder.

But he keeps making the same mistake over and over again. “Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:20) And so the saints and martyrs in all centuries since have suffered through hatred and persecution.

This led to my family conversation. A very holy man died violently Thursday morning in a car accident in India on his way home for Christmas. The blows to his head apparently were quite awful according to eye witnesses. This priest was a dear friend of my family and friends, and he had started an organization that led many onto the path of holiness. His life was incredibly fruitful.

Father used to tell us that Satan often threatened to destroy him -- even when he was a little boy. But Father knew that if God ever allowed Satan to kill him, God would use his death and suffering to save many other souls. It’s called the communion of saints: united with the sufferings of Christ in love, our peril is helpful to others, redemptive in nature.

Given the sudden violence of this priest’s death at a fairly young age, my family and I reflected that it was like Satan finally got his chance to viciously end the priest's life. He must have thought, "I will put an end to that organization by killing the priest. The good they are doing will stop."

So Satan must have also thought when he agitated for the death of Christ. He thought, "His apostles will be demoralized. The work of Jesus will be at an end." If he had but known the good that would come from the tragedy of Christ’s death, Satan would have been stirring up the Romans and the Pharisees to save His life -- not destroy it.

But hatred actually makes you stupid. Think of Satan, probably the most intelligent creature God ever made, certainly one of the most beautiful. He should have realized that great and infinite good that would come out of the death of Jesus Christ, true God and true man. But hatred blinded him. Hatred confused him in his innermost thoughts.

How funny that a creature so bent on causing evil, succeeds and then finds his best efforts have unintended good results because God is in control and God is love.

We -- his family and friends -- will miss Father. Jesus' disciples were terribly demoralized for three days after his death. But on Pentecost they were up and at them -- busy preaching the word of God to the multitudes; exultant when they were allowed to suffer abuse and death for the sake of Christ.

Father used to say that dying was just a change of address. You go to sleep and you wake up somewhere else, and God says, “You are going to live here now.” It's the company you keep that is important. Father used to urge us to become PIGs (Planted In God). "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." (Matt 24:35) Anchor your heart in the Word. Father did. He always kept company with Jesus.

And now Satan must have realized it. “Curses, foiled again.”

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” (Ps 116:15)

Beautitudes are a Map to Happiness

by John Paul Shea, Tucson Seminarian
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Superstition Mountains

In Arizona, not far from where I am from, there is a mountain range called the Superstition Mountains. According to history, there is a fantastic gold mine that was discovered there. The mine is said to have been first discovered by the Apache Indians in the 1500s.

People have been searching for the mine ever since, but no one has found it. Over the years the mine has been given the name the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. Everyone who is said to have discovered the gold have either been found dead or have vanished. Just last year Arizona officials called off a search for three hikers who were on a quest for the legendary lost gold mine. The men disappeared into the sweltering wilderness with little camping gear or water. According to news reports, “They had one thing on their mind, and that was finding [the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine], and they didn't take into consideration the other factors."

In today’s Gospel we also hear about a mountain. Like the Superstition Mountains, this mountain also has a hidden trail that leads to gold. However, unlike the Superstition Mountains, this gold can be found. The map that leads to the gold comes from the mouth of Jesus Christ and is written in the scriptures. This map is the Beatitudes.

The map of the Beatitudes is a map to happiness. Everybody wants to be happy. We want what makes us feel good. We desire pleasure. We want prosperity. Although these things are not bad in themselves, they do not bring us the kind of happiness that Jesus gives us. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus brings the notion of happiness to a whole new level. Jesus is telling us that happiness does not come from what we have. Rather, happiness is given through the way we live.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus shows us a way of living that is radically different than what had ever been heard before. Jesus is asking us to change. He is not just asking us to make a few changes in our behaviors, but is asking us to change every aspect of our lives. These changes do not promise laughter, fortune, or even safety. What they do promise, however, is divine union. We all know that making changes in life is not easy. None of us can do it on our own. That is why Jesus gives us a series of steps. The Beatitudes is kind of like a twelve step program. However, instead of twelve steps, there are only eight.

In the first step, Jesus tells us to become poor in spirit. This first step is very important because it breaks the sin of pride. By taking this first step, we will empty ourselves of our self so that God can fill us with His self. When we become filled with God, we will then have the grace to take the following steps. By the time we reach the last step, we will see firsthand that no Christian will reach the top of God’s mountain without major difficulties. Yet, if we persevere, even to the point of death, we will find true happiness because we will have overcome the world.

If we look into the lives of the saints, we can see that many of these holy individuals have followed the steps of the Beatitudes in their own creative ways. For example, Saint Teresa of Avila climbed through nine mansions, taking each step of prayer and self-denial until she reached divine union. Saint Therese followed the steps in her “little way.” Saint John of the Cross, who climbed the mountain in darkness said, “The beatitudes are a marvelous chain of mountains of which each peak is a steppingstone in the sublime ascent that leads to God. Each one of the beatitudes is something perfect and excellent – a summit in itself; and at the same time it is a beginning of future happiness even in this life.”

My brothers, climbing the Beatitudes is not easy. But, Christ has assured us that he will give us blessings all the way. Let us continue to persevere on this Christian journey. Let us not fall backwards into the false gold of the world, but let us climb up the Mountain until we reach the true gold, the gold of divine union. On that day we will reach true happiness. We will hear the words, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.

The Cross in Christmas, Not the Nightmare Before!

by Susan Fox
Larry, James and I celebrated the week before Christmas at Disneyland. Excessive rain and crowds made the trip a little tough and drippy. The Haunted Mansion ride has been redecorated as the Nightmare Before Christmas with Sandy Claws. What a parody of the truth! The ride is designed to instill fear within children about Christmas, while the true message of Christmas gives us hope and courage. So the highlight of the week for me was the sermon on courage at Sunday Mass at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Anaheim, Calif., on Dec. 19, 2010.

The sermon's setting was significant. I attended first grade at this school in 1959-60. It was two years after my father died, my mother had to work and I went to daily Mass so she could get to work early.

St. Boniface recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. It was 100 years old when I attended grade school there. I remember they said three Masses simultaneously on all three front altars in Latin. I always attended the left altar Mass. That sounds very funny now because Vatican II ended that practice. We have only one Mass said at one time. The left altar at St. Boniface has been replaced with the tabernacle and the right altar with the Nativity crèche.

The church had been redecorated since 1960. So in order for me to recognize it, I had to exit through the door behind the left altar and look at the steps as I remembered rushing down those, running for the bathroom when Mass was over. I suffered during those Masses as I always had to go to the bathroom, but I was too young and shy to realize it was okay to leave during Mass. Somehow the Catholic understanding of suffering had been explained to me at the age of six, so I offered my pain in union with the sufferings of Christ, and I embraced the cross. What a gift. In subsequent years, I sometimes fled the cross. It's never easy to face our fear and suffering.

When I attended St. Boniface, I'm sure that most of the people were white. Now they are mostly brown and of various nationalities. The priest who gave the sermon was Vietnamese. My husband greeted him in that language as he has made a point of learning some phrases from our Vietnamese friends.

Actually, the young priest was once a child who escaped Vietnam as a refugee in a boat. Literally, the man saying Mass at St. Boniface was one of those suffering boat people! The reading for the day was about St. Joseph. You remember he discovered that Mary, his betrothed was pregnant and he decided to divorce her quietly. Why? Because he knew he wasn't the father. But an angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife as the child within her womb was conceived by God not by man. Hence the sign promised to King Ahaz was fulfilled: A Virgin shall be with Child.

Joseph overcame his fear and took Mary into his home, and hence he became the foster father and provider for the Son of God. And so there was suffering in that first Christmas, but Joseph overcame his fear and trusted in God.

The Vietnamese priest said when he was a little boy he was very afraid of the dark. And his family had a very dark cellar. One day his mother asked him to get a can of tomatoes from the cellar, and he told his mother he was afraid of the darkness in the cellar. She told him not to be afraid because Jesus was in the cellar. So the little boy descended the stairs and stood at the doorway of the cellar and yelled, "Jesus! If you are in there, please hand me a can of tomatoes."

He was trying to explain how we can be very afraid in certain situations, but we have to learn to trust God. Later, this priest as a young boy was in a boat escaping Viet Nam and there was a terrible storm. The waves were rocking the boat, almost overturning it. One little boy was almost dying with fear, and another was so relaxed he was almost asleep. The terrified boy asked the relaxed boy why he wasn't afraid. And he said, "Because my father is the pilot of this boat!"

If we could all realize that Our Father in heaven is the pilot of our boat perhaps we would relax more and enjoy this life. It is short.

But I was amazed that God arranged for a sermon on suffering in the church in which I had suffered! I felt like I died and came back to earth to see the changes. All the suffering seems to have paid off as the liturgy at the St. Boniface was absolutely lovely. The music and chant drew me into prayer instead of distracting me as it does in other local churches. That's why I enjoyed St. Boniface. In prayer, Jesus and I can return to the St. Boniface of 1959 and converse about old times. I always wondered what Moses and Elijah had to say to Jesus at the Transfiguration. I guess they were discussing the cross. The Bible says they were discussing Jesus' exodus from Jerusalem. Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt in their Exodus. Jesus led us from the slavery of sin by His suffering on the cross - His exodus from Jerusalem.

I faced the dark cellar in 1959 when I attended Mass in suffering refusing myself access to a bathroom. The young priest faced his fears in a boat when he came to America to grow up and preach the gospel. St. Joseph faced his fears when he took a pregnant Mary for his bride. This year, I feel like I faced a similar fear when I nearly died and had heart surgery. This issue of fear and suffering plagues us our whole lives long. The solution is to trust in God and to realize He doesn't look at suffering the way we do. To Him, it's a means to fulfill our purpose in life - to know, love and be imitators of God, Who Himself suffered and died on the cross.

There is a famous Italian saint, called Padre Pio. He suffered the wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and head for 50 long years. He also fought with the devil - literally. One night as the devil was pummeling him yet again, he noticed his guardian angels were happily flying around the ceiling and singing. When the devil left he asked his good angel why he didn't help him fight the devil. The angel said he did fight -- by praising God. That's the difference between this life and the next. We glorify God with our suffering in this life and with our happiness and singing in the Presence of God in the next life. To believe otherwise would make us bitter, angry and resentful.

We adore thee O Christ and bless thee because by the Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world!

God bless you.
Susan Fox

Mary's Role in Salvation: The New Eve

by Susan Fox
What an amusing time I had reading the web page run by the Evangelical Outreach on the titles of Mary.
They very correctly identified the fact that many Catholic titles of Mary like Morning Star and Help of Christians are identified with the actions of God in the Bible. “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Heb 13:6)
Furthermore, they concluded many Catholic titles of Mary like Gate of Heaven and Refuge of Sinners show that Mary has a role to play in our salvation. However, they erroneously decided that “Mary is never included with Jesus in the Scriptures as having even the slightest role in salvation.” I wonder if we are reading the same Bible!
By the very fact that the Bible says that God sent the angel Gabriel to a Virgin in Nazareth to ask her to be the Mother of His Son, God involved Mary in our salvation. What could be more obvious than that? No Mary, no Jesus.
Not that God needed Mary, but He wanted her cooperation and that is what she offered: “Behold the handmaid (servant) of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)
Just because we recognize her role in salvation and have given her many titles that reflect what God does, Catholics still do not worship Mary. The Catholic Church teaches that all true devotion to Mary is Christ centered. If Mary were the end of our devotion and not the means, we would be idolaters. Christ as God has the power. It was His sacrifice on the cross that brought our salvation. We agree on that! Mary as human being and mother simply cooperated in our salvation. As such, she is the perfect model of a disciple of Christ. She is the Untarnished Image of the Church. “Do whatever He tells you,” she told the servants at the wedding feast of Cana. (John 2:5)
The Bible identifies Mary cooperating in our salvation in many other places. Her role was foretold in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”
Some translations say, “he” shall crush your head and some say “she” or “it.” But the serpent crushing action comes from the Woman and her Seed. The Seed is Jesus Christ. He is God. He has the power. But the Woman is allowed to share in this crushing role -- this defeat of evil leading to our salvation. Her role is cooperative. And as our early Church Fathers remarked there is a justice in having Jesus and Mary joining together to bring about our salvation. For it was through a man (Adam) and a woman (Eve) that sin came into the world. Hence, a man and a woman were needed to repair the damage of sin. It was Eve’s “No” that brought sin into the world. It was Mary’s “Yes” that brought Christ and his redeeming sacrifice on the cross. Hence, Mary is called the “New Eve.” And Christ is called the “New Adam.”
You, who are reading this, are human beings. Yet you may be involved in raising children or some chore helping to bring God’s salvation to the world. God doesn’t need you to do this work. But He wants to share the joy of His work with you. "My Father goes on working and so do I," Jesus said. (John 5:17) And when the apostles brought food to Jesus after his conversation with the woman at the well, He said “I have food to eat that you don't know about." (John 4:32) She had just repented of living with a man after having five husbands, and she went to tell the village about Jesus: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" (John 4:29) Jesus’ food, His joy was bringing salvation to the people! Why does He let you help Him bring the Gospel to all peoples? He doesn't need you. He can do it without you. But God delights to work with nothing. He lets us cooperate with Him in bringing His salvation to the world. And if us, then why not Mary, His mother?
Mary is simply the best model, the first example of the Christian disciple. She responded perfectly. And yes, she was without sin because if she had any sin she would have exploded the minute the Seed was conceived in her womb. Think about David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. What was the Ark? Containing manna, the rod of Aaron and the 10 commandments, it was the tabernacle holding the Real Presence of God among the Jewish people.
The ark started to slip from its pallet and fall and one of David's men tried to catch it with the motive of protecting it. But he died instantly. Why? He had sin. Nothing with sin can touch God and live. "Nothing defiled shall enter heaven." (Rev. 21:27)
But Mary is identified in the first chapter of Luke as "FULL OF GRACE." The angel Gabriel says, Hail (Hello) and addresses her with the title "Full of Grace." Why? She has no sin. She is all full of God alone. To be the mother of Jesus Christ -- true God and true man -- she must be sinless. So the Church calls her the New Ark of the Covenant.
How was Mary conceived without sin? Medieval Theologian John Duns Scotus explained it best. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was applied to Mary at her conception. How? God is outside time. He is in eternity. While she was redeemed like the rest of us by Jesus Christ on the cross, yet the sacrifice was applied to her before His death on the cross by God, who was preparing the Woman and Her Seed from the first moments in mankind's history to bring salvation to the world.
Revelation Chapter 12 gives you a replay of the same thing. At the end of Chapter 11, the Ark of the Covenant is seen in heaven. My goodness, the Ark hasn't been seen for hundreds of years. The Jews lost it. Then it appears in heaven at the end of Revelation Chap. 11. Then the next line is: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” Ah, here again is the Woman of Genesis 3:15, a cooperative human woman doing feats that only God could accomplish by God's power not her own.
She is wailing in pain while she is about to give birth to a Son while a red dragon waits to swallow both of them. This woman is Mary, who cooperates in our salvation as a human being. But it is also the Catholic Church herself, and the pain is the struggle involved in our salvation – the salvation of the members of the Body of Christ. Mary -- being without sin -- probably did not suffer the pangs of childbirth in Christ's delivery. But in trying to bring the Body of Christ into eternity, there is a lot of suffering.
At the end of Chapter 12, the devil is very grumpy standing angrily on the beach. He goes off to make war against the Woman's other children; the one's who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
If this describes you, then God is Our Father and Mary is Our Mother. She is a human being, but as such she was given the opportunity to represent us, to be the one creature who said YES to God when Adam and Eve said NO, allowing sin and death to enter the world.
Another such figure as Mary is Abraham – a human being who said YES to God. He was willing to offer his son Isaac as an offering to God when asked. He was obedient to God. That is why he is called our father in faith. But Isaac hauling the wood up the mountain, asks his father Abraham, “Father where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” Abraham answers, "God Himself will supply the lamb for the sacrifice." (Gen. 22:8)
Without realizing how prophetic his words are, Abraham believes he is about to sacrifice his son, Isaac. But God intervenes and provides Abraham with another sacrifice, a ram. But those words -- “God Himself will supply the lamb for the sacrifice” -- those words resonate down through the centuries and we realize that God Himself so loved the world He gave His Only Son. There was no ram caught on a bush to replace Jesus' Sacrifice on the Cross. In the death of Jesus Christ, God the Father actually made the sacrifice that He symbolically demanded of Abraham.
Now if Catholics gazed adoringly at Mary just for the purpose of worshiping her, that would be idolatry. But no, we fully expect her to be a sinless means to a Great End. She will take us to God. And that is what we want. We want God with our whole mind, heart, strength and being! And Mary is a means to that end. Do you not ask your friends to pray for you? My goodness, who are they but sinful weak people like ourselves? Why not ask the Woman who gave birth to the God who taught us to "HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER?” Would not such a God honor His mother and listen to your request more readily than if you asked Him directly while in all your sins?
All the great titles of Mary, and there are many of them, express the idea that she is cooperating in God's action. So yes, they seem to be strongly related to God Himself, but the power is God's. He has simply allowed Mary to participate in His action, and because she did so perfectly without falling into sin, she is honored, not worshiped. For if she had failed, so would Christ not come into the world and we would not now have the opportunity to accept our salvation from God.
Abraham's faith was rewarded for his children are a numerous as the stars. Mary's faith is rewarded also because at the foot of the Cross, she is made the New Eve, Mother of Mankind, when her Son says to John, "Behold, Your Mother!"
New Eve, Virgin crushing the head of the serpent, pray for us.
And that, my friends, is a title for Mary.

Three Amigos: An Eclectic View on Angels

by Lawrence Fox

Angel of God my guardian dear, to whom God’s Love commits me here. Ever this day, be at my side, to light and guard and to rule and guide.

Three Visible Amigos to the Rescue

My wife informed me that I was to meet her at the car dealer at 5:30 p.m. So after school, I adroitly got in my car and traveled off to meet her. While in transit, suddenly I picked up in my peripheral vision an impending scuffle on the opposite side of the roadway.

I slowed up the car, glanced left, and noticed about six or seven youths ready to pounce on two lanky looking youths. I pulled my car into the middle turn section of the roadway, sounded the car horn, turned on the emergency flasher, got out of the car and yelled, “Get into my car!”

And so they started to run towards my car along with their pursuers. I noticed that two of the ring leaders stayed behind. I wanted to help these youths and at the same time, I recognized the risk of getting into real trouble if someone started to throw fists. In other words, I was not really prepared to deal with the impeding situation. So while surrounded by several miscreants telling me to mind my own business, I prayed in my spirit: “I need a little help here!”

Immediately, three amigos ran up and started to wail on the two ring leaders who had stayed behind. I remember the enthusiasm with which the three amigos executed their task. It was like something out of a Marvel comic: “You want to fight? SMACK @#$% “You want to hit on someone?” POW $@#!

As a result, the miscreants scattered away from my car and headed towards bedlam. I gained my composure and instructed the two lanky kids to get into my car and off we drove. They were so relieved and I was so grateful that nothing else happened.
I cannot state with certainty whether the three amigos were angels or men but the timing was obviously supernatural.

One Invisible Amigo to the Rescue

Many years earlier while walking home from grade school, I was about to turn from the curb and head into the street. I must have been day dreaming or something. I was grabbed from behind and stopped one step from the curb. In a flash a metro bus zoomed past me. If I would have stepped into the street I would have been “food for worms.” Who grabbed me? I could see no corporeal person around. Again the timing was supernatural.

Should I be surprised?

Sacred Scripture time and again speaks of God’s intervention in the lives of men and women; sending his messengers both Angels and Archangels to protect, guide, instruct, and to encourage. The Catholic Catechism Article 336 states that from its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. With each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.

Sometimes these messengers appear and announce good tidings like the gift of a child as was the case with Abraham & Sara, Zacharias & Elizabeth, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Sometimes these messengers appear to execute God’s judgment like at Sodom, in Egypt during the Passover, and with the tribulations described in the Book of Revelation. Sometimes these messengers assist men in battle like the Prince of the Host of the Lord assisting Joshua after Israel crossed the River Jordan.

Sometimes these messengers provide sustenance and comfort to weary souls: like the angel bringing water to Hagar & Ishmael and the angels that came to minister to Jesus after his 40 days of fasting in the desert.

We easily remember these supernatural moments knowing that God has intervened and sent his messenger. Yet, God is always acting in our lives with every breath we take.

I have been told that the sure ticket to heaven is to demonstrate gratitude to God for his constant Love and Protection and to thank God for all the ways He guides and protects us through the various creatures and persons He brings into our lives.

Blessed be God in his Angels and His Saints.

One way that the Catholic Church helps us to live a life of gratitude is through our participation in her various liturgical celebrations: Solemnities, Feast Days, and Memorials.

Two such Feast Days are the Feast of St. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels on September 29th and the Feast of Guardian Angels on October 2nd.

Three Amigos in Heaven

We learn from the Deposit of Faith that St. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are Archangels (rulers or princes).

The Church identifies these archangels as saints. The term “saint” means holy and set apart. The Catholic Church sets these three angels apart in the liturgical calendar because they are set apart in Sacred Scripture for they are specifically named among the myriad and myriad of good angels which make up the nine choirs of angels (not in any order): angels, archangels, virtues, thrones, powers, principalities, dominions, cherubim, and seraphim.

Sacred Scripture specifically identifies these three archangels by name: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, incorporating the Hebrew expression of God “El”. There are three Hebrew names for God: El, Elohim, and Eloah. The proper name for God is Yahweh (IAM).

Note: Sacred Scripture also identifies by name certain bad angels but not for our curiosity but as a warning and that is for another topic.

“Who is like God?”

Michael's name is an interrogative expression, "Who is like God?" And his name seems to be based upon the fact that he fights against those who oppose God with his own brand of humility. His battle cry against Satan and his minions who rebelled against God must have been: “Who is like God that you dare to challenge Him?”

We find St. Michael spoken of by name in the Book of Daniel, the Letter of Jude, and the Book of Revelation. In the Book of Daniel it is the Archangel Gabriel who identifies St. Michael as the one of the chief princes in heaven and the great prince of the people of Israel (Daniel 10:7-21, 11:2, 12:3).

In the Book of Revelation (12:7) we learn of war in heaven between St. Michael and his angels and the dragon and his followers. The battle is fought and St. Michael and the good angels cast the dragon (the ancient serpent called the devil or Satan) and his demons out of heaven and to the earth. Pope Leo the XIII was given a vision of this battle and as a result composed the St. Michael the Archangel prayer.


St. Michael the Archangel defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. And may God rebuke him, we humble pray. And do thou oh prince of the heavenly host by the divine power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirit that prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen!

Our Pastor leads the congregation in the recitation of this prayer after Mass here at St. George’s Roman Catholic Parish in Apache Junction, AZ. I get the sense that God is pleased with this practice.

I remember reciting this prayer to my Baptist friend named Michael and he said: “Baptists do not pray to angels.” I asked him: “Does not the Bible state that St. Michael battles against the devil and wins? Do you not understand that God deliberately reveals to us this task of St. Michael’s in Sacred Scripture? And is not the devil still around harassing us? Then it seems that since God has assigned him this task, and we are God’s children by adoption, we would be fools not to encourage St. Michael to kick butt in our defense.

St. Jude writes that we are to be humble in our language even when dealing with evil. It is from the Letter of St. Jude (1:9) we read that when Moses died, the Archangel Michael disputed with the devil over the body of Moses. We learn from Sacred Scripture that Moses the servant of the Lord died in the land of Moab. And the people of Israel buried him in Gai near the house of Phogor; and no one has seen his sepulcher to this day (Deuteronomy 34:5).

It seems that God collected and transported the body of Moses but where we do not know. There are apocryphal books which attempted to provide some of the missing data: the Assumption of Moses and the Book of Enoch which may have been referenced in this Letter of St. Jude.

It is speculated that it is St. Michael who stands with his sword drawn and proclaims to Joshua that he is the Prince of the Host of the Lord (Joshua 5:14). The presence of this Prince of the Host overcomes Joshua who places his face to the ground.

Angels and Non-Catholic Theology 101

The Watchtower Society teaches that Michael was the word of god (a god) with the god (Jehovah) in the beginning. This is why Watchtower Society manipulates into their New World Translation John 1:1 (and the word was a god). That god (Jehovah) then changed this divine Michael into the human Jesus - from god’s (Jehovah) memory of Michael. This human Jesus did not have a soul since no human person has a soul [sic] according to Watchtower Society teaching. And after Jesus died on the cross and was buried, the god (Jehovah) took the lifeless body of Jesus away so his followers would not commit idolatry, worshiping the body of Jesus (similar to the reason given for the missing body of Moses). And then the god (Jehovah) created a new spirit being from god’s (Jehovah) memory of Jesus and this new spirit being is sometimes identified as Jesus and sometimes as Michael.

Like the followers of Mohamed, the Watchtower Society denies the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Fourth Century, the Gnostic presbyter and heretic Arius taught (like the Jewish Gnostic Ebionites centuries earlier) that Michael was the first creature that God created. And through this creature Michael, God then created all other creatures.

Speaking of creation, when did God create the angels?

After reciting the Canticle of Daniel 3:57-88, 56 (All you works of the Lord, O Bless the Lord..) over and over, I finally understood that the Jews identifying in Sacred Scripture that God created the angels before He created the material world.
The Canticle of Daniel describes the sequence of God’s creation starting with the angels, then the heavens, the clouds, the armies of the Lord, sun and moon, stars, showers, the earth, the land, the seas, sea creatures, birds, land beasts, men, priests, servants of the Lord, spirits and souls of the just, and finally leading up to his martyrs Ananias, Azarias, and Mizael.

Gabriel means “Strength of God.”

We find St. Gabriel spoken of by name in the Book of Daniel and the Gospel of Luke. St. Gabriel brings to the prophet Daniel many revelations about the people of Israel and the coming of the Messiah. Daniel is a Jew in exile and living in Nineveh. He was praying and confessing his sins and the sins of his people before God when St. Gabriel comes to him to reveal the events which were about to happen soon and much later. The presence of St. Gabriel overcomes Daniel who places his face to the ground while his heart is deeply moved to reverence.
St. Gabriel tells Daniel that he would have come sooner but was delayed twenty one days by the Prince of the Persians (another good angel). And this prince would not let St. Gabriel go until St. Michael came to remedy the situation. Then St. Gabriel tells Daniel that he is going back to fight with the Prince of the Persians and the Prince of the Greeks. This event shows that even good angels can make mistakes.

It is from the Book of Daniel that we come to understand that angels (good and bad so it seems) are associated with peoples and nations. I assume the good angels are assigned their roles from God and the bad ones simply attach themselves like a plague to a place (maybe due to a prevalent type of sin) or they are brow beaten into the task by Satan. It is a good reason to praise the name of God constantly so that the bad angels flee and lose influence over our homes, our land and leave.
We know from the lips of Jesus that each little child has an angel who beholds the face of the Heavenly Father. We also know from the lips of Jesus that when an evil spirit is swept from a soul and the soul remains empty (not filled with Grace and Truth) the evil spirit eventually comes back with many more leaving the person in a worse state.

From the Gospel of St. Luke we read that St. Gabriel brings to Zacharias the good news that his prayers have been heard and that his wife Elizabeth would bear him a son and they were name him John. We know this son to be John the Baptist. St. Gabriel reveals that the son would be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. When poor Zacharias doubts the message, St. Gabriel lets him know that he is Gabriel who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to him.

I always thought that Gabriel words were other worldly and then I realized that Zacharias was in the Holy of Holies offering incense (God’s dwelling place on earth) when the angel came to him. Here is Zacharias standing with Gabriel literally in the presence of God in the Temple and Zacharias suggests that Gabriel is telling a fib. The irony of the exchange is so Jewish.

There is a Jewish tradition that when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to offer sacrifice (one time a year), a rope would be tied to his ankle in the event he perished as a result of some impropriety in the presence of God.

I can imagine St. Gabriel reminding Zacharias “Are you comprehending what you are saying? Who has the rope tied around his foot -- me or you? ” Anyway Zacharias got off with a warning ticket; he could not speak until his son John was born.

Note: Daniel while in exile was offering prayers to God on behalf of himself and his people before the Archangel Gabriel arrives. Zacharias was in the temple offering incense and prayers on behalf of himself and his people, before the Archangel Gabriel arrives.

From the Gospel of St. Luke we read that St. Gabriel brings good news to Mary, a Virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, and that she is “Full of Grace” and that she would conceive in her womb a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. And her child would be known as the Son of God and she was to give the child the name of Jesus (Joshua), which means "God Saves." Perhaps we can conclude that Mary was also praying before the angel appeared to her.

It is St. Gabriel who reveals to the Virgin Mary the mystery of God as Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Prayer: Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.


Angels and Non-Catholic Theology 102

It should be noted that the followers of Mohammed believe that Gabriel revealed the Koran (Recital) to Mohammed. “Recite in the name of your Lord who created, created man from clots of blood. Recite your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, who by the pen taught man what he did not know” (Sura 96:1-5). Mohammed taught that the Koran corrects the errors which crept into the GOSPELS and the BOOKS of MOSES and rules over them (Sura 4:48). It is worth noting that when Mohammed told the angel Gabriel he could not read in order to receive the Koran, the angel squeezed him three times until he could read. Mohammed then read and his followers committed the recitals to memory and wrote them down.

Angels and Non-Catholic Theology 103

It should be noted that the followers of Joseph Smith believe that an angel named Maroni revealed to Joseph Smith the location of the golden tablets onto which were inscribed the contents of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith unearths the golden tablets and uses a peep stone in order to translate the golden tablets into the King’s English. This King’s English translation is the text which the Church of Latter Day Saints identifies as ANOTHER GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST which corrects errors which crept into the GOSPELS and BOOK of MOSES and as such rules over them [sic].

Angels and Non-Catholic Theology 104

In the Third Century, Jewish Gnostics known as Elkesaites taught that Gabriel was the personification of the word and in some cases the personification of the Holy Spirit.

How does one discern the good angel?

There are many encounters described in Sacred Scripture between angels and men. It is certain that when angels appeared in their glory, their presence was overwhelming. When they appeared as men, they were approachable. Whenever they identify themselves as the Angel of the Lord, the recipient of the visit would fall to the ground and worship God. In almost all cases, the angel would respond: “Fear not...” For example: Daniel demonstrates a deep sense of reverence in the presence of the Archangel Gabriel and bows to the ground. Zacharias is troubled and overcome with fear by the Archangel Gabriel’s presence. Mary on the other hand is troubled by the angel’s words of salutation and considers what they mean. In all cases the Archangel Gabriel eases their minds and tells them not to be afraid.

This led the Church Fathers to understand that in the presence of the Angel there is awe and reverence and a natural fear but that the good angel is able to comfort and encourage the soul by his words “Fear Not.” That is because their words are from God who encouraged his disciples with the same words “Do not be Afraid," and "Fear Not it is I.”

Sacred Scripture at times shows men testing the message of the angels as in the case of Gideon.

St. Paul says to the Church in Galatia that if anyone -- including an angel -- brings to them a gospel which contradicts the Gospel which he delivered to them, let him be anathema (Galatians 1:8). What was the Gospel that St. Paul delivered to them? Man is justified by God’s Grace through the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and not be the works of the Mosaic Law. That Jesus gave himself up to death so that man may be delivered from wickedness.

St. John recommended that we test the spirits: Every spirit that denies the Incarnation (that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh and dwelt among us) is of the Antichrist (1 John 4: 3). And who is a liar, but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2: 22). John then says that whoever believes that Jesus is the Son of God lives in God and God lives in him (1 John 4:15).

The other option to test a spirit would be to ask the Angel to pray the Divine Praises: "Blessed be God, Blessed be His Holy Name, Blessed Jesus Christ True God and True Man." I was approached in the airport by a member of a cult. Before the man even could speak, I said firmly, "I believe in Jesus Christ, True God and True Man." And without saying anything he immediately turned and ran away.

Angels and Non-Catholic Theology 105

A tradition recounts that when Mohamed encountered the angel Gabriel in the beginning he suffered much pain and his face turned dark red (like taking too much Niacin). During these first encounters, Mohamed said he did not know if the revelations were from an angel or a demon. These encounters almost drove him to suicide, not a good sign. Visitations from good angels do not tempt one to suicide. A mechanism for determining if the visitor was an angel or a demon was proposed by his first wife. She instructed Mohamed to sit on her lap when he had a vision of the angel. If during the course of his vision, she removed her veil and the vision left, then it was the good angel. If the vision remained, it was a demon. This act of discernment stemmed from a Muslim tradition that angels would not remain or take the prayers of men before God if in their presence there were unveiled women. I suppose this tradition stemmed from an interpretation of Genesis 6:2 in which the sons of God (misinterpreted to be fallen angels) viewed the daughters of men as beautiful and lusted after them. It would be interesting to determine if within this Islamic tradition, the messengers of God are still prone to temptation. The tradition of women wearing a veil in respect for the angels is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11:7-10. I would think this idea of respect should not be construed to mean that the angels are prone to temptation. In the Jewish tradition, there is the practice of men covering one’s head before praying from the Sacred Scriptures.

Raphael means “Healing of God”

We find St. Raphael spoken of by name in the Book of Tobit. Tobit is a saintly Jew who is in exile in Nineveh. He is engaged in an act of charity that endangers his life. He is burying his fellow Jews and in doing so making himself ritually unclean. Tobit is married to Anna and they have a son named Tobias. Tobit is blinded by bird dung. In the meantime, there is young virgin and future daughter in-law named Sara who was being persecuted by a demon with the name Asmodeus. – who killed seven of her newly-wedded husbands.

Tobit and Sara pray to God (each in their own far away locations) to be set free of blindness and the curse of the demon Asmodeus. God hears their prayers and sends St. Raphael to heal Tobit and then sends St. Raphael to bind the demon. The story then continues with the angel leading Tobias to Sara. The two find out they are related and become betrothed. Because of the death of the previous seven husbands, the wedding night comes with much anxiety. On their wedding night, Tobias recites the beautiful prayer that he is marrying Sara out of love and fidelity and not out of lust. They did not know at the time that the demon Asmodeus was already bound by Raphael. Things work out for the two of them, so it seems.

It is from the Book of Tobit and the lips of St. Raphael we learn that the angels receive food and drink which cannot be seen my man (Tobit 12:17-19). Seemingly like Jesus at the well – who said I have a food you do not know – and that food is to do the will of My Father.

In the book of Tobit, St. Raphael reveals that he is one of seven holy angels who take the prayers of the saints to God, and goes in and out before the glory of the Holy One (Tobit 12:15). The reference to seven holy angels finds its way into the Book of Revelation where we read about the seven churches and their seven angels and the seven lamp stands and the seven spirits of God and so forth. In particular there is the reference in the Book of Revelation Chapter 8 verse 2 in which John sees the seven angels who stand before God and God gives to each of them a trumpet. At that point each angel sequentially blows a trumpet and seven woes come upon the earth. Some traditions and texts such as the Book of Enoch and the Pseudo-Dionysius have attempted to identify these seven angels as seven arch-angels with the names of Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, Jegudiel, Sealtiel, and Barachiel. There are other variations but again the Catholic Church recognizes as part of the Deposit of Faith the three Archangels: Michael, Raphael, & Gabriel.

Prayer: St. Raphael, loving patron of those seeking a marriage partner, help them (me) in this supreme decision of their (my)life. Find for them (me) a helpmate in life, the person whose character may reflect some of the traits of Jesus and Mary. May (he) she be upright, loyal, pure, sincere and noble, so that with united efforts and with chaste and unselfish love they (we) both may strive to perfect themselves (ourselves) in soul and body, as well as the children it may please God to entrust to their (our) care. Amen

This prayer can be directed for self (if single) and for others, who are single.
THE END