The Idolatrous Worship of the Priest

A few days ago I baptised a few children here in the parish. One of those children was the 5th child of a particular family and so her other siblings (all under 9) were there for the great occasion. After the ceremony had taken place and as all the photos were being snapped I was doing a little bit of a tidy up and went to blow out the paschal candle. As I was taking it down out of the candle stand (can anyone tell me what this is called) one little boy of about 5 years of age came running up to me. I lowered the candle to him and told him to blow it out - he duly obliged.

I asked him a question or two about himself and his newly baptised sister and then sent him on his way. I was not prepared for what happened next. Before he took his leave, he folded his hands reverently in prayer and made a profound genuflection in front of me. When I pointed out to him that it was towards the Tabernacle that he should be genuflecting and not to the priest - he looked genuinely perplexed as if what he had done was the most natural thing in the world; and so he turned to head back to his family - none of whom had noticed what he had done.

The incident got me thinking about another incident in which a priest friend of mine was visiting a class of 6 year olds and was asked by one inquisitive young boy if he was God.

My brush with idolatry struck me forcefully though - since that young boy somewhere, somehow probably began to associate (and confuse) the priest with Jesus. And it made me think of the many ways in which I am anything but Christ-like. And what damage can that do to the faith of someone as young or as impressionable as this little boy if I were to be anything less than Christ-like. If only I and every priest would be mistaken for Christ in the way we live and speak and proclaim the Gospel - how much more effective our ministry would be. This little boy's mistaken identity episode has reminded me that I must live up to the calling that is mine as a priest of Jesus Christ.

The Way of the Cross - 6th Station

Veronica Wipes The Face Of Jesus

Psalm 31:16
Let your face shine on your servant, save me in your faithful love.

2Cor 4:6
It is God who said, ‘let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone into our hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of God’s glory, the glory on the face of Christ.


Tradition tells us of an episode in which a woman steps out of the crowd, perhaps in a calm moment amid the storm of abuse and insults, which rain upon Jesus. Tradition calls her Bernice. And she is known to us a Veronica – a name deriving from the Latin for True and the Greek for Image.

John Paul II tells us in Novo Millennio Ineunte that ‘In order to bring man back to the Father’s face, Jesus not only had to take on the face of man, but he had to burden himself with the face of sin.”

Blood, sweat, spittle and dirt cover the Saviour’s face. The human countenance of the Almighty God, so longed for by the Patriarch’s and Prophets who sought his face, that face which must have radiated such majesty, such beauty, such tenderness, is by now disfigured grotesquely and veiled by the effects of sin. Those who lined the streets of Jerusalem not a week beforehand to catch a glimpse of the famous prophet and healer, the wonderworker from Galilee, those same people would not recognise this man now, nor would they wish to look upon that face, so disfigured did he look. Perhaps, this woman was there on Palm Sunday and had caught a glimpse of him. Now she steps forward, and in a simple gesture she looks beyond the appearance and seeks to get to the reality. “I long to see your face.” And tradition tells us that her reward for the compassion she showed to the Lord in his Passion is that he imprinted his image on her cloth. And in a similar way, the Lord will also imprint his image on the souls of those who meditate on and participate in his Passion.

Lord help us to look beyond appearances to the reality. When something looks all wrong, help us to see that you are present in that too; somewhere to be found by those with the patience, faith and desire to see your hand at work in all things, even the worst of things. For though all things are not necessarily willed by you, all things are permitted by you and will ultimately serve your purposes. Father, give us the faith to give thanks to you in all things, seeing in these the will of God for us in Christ Jesus. (Cf. 1 Thess 5:18)

The Way of the Cross - 5th Station

Jesus Is Helped By Simon

Mt 27:32
As they went out, they came upon a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; this man they compelled to carry his cross.

Mt 16:24
Jesus told his disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

Simon is someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is compelled; we are told, to carry the cross. He is obviously reluctant to do so. To carry the cross means to share in the shame of it, what might people think? He might be thought of as the one condemned. But, he isn’t like this condemned criminal. He is a good man. Circumstances have overtaken him though and the soldiers force him; he must take up this stranger’s cross and be associated with him. The fact that the gospel’s tell us that he was the father of Rufus and Alexander, presumably two well known persons to the early Christians, probably means that his time carrying the cross of Christ had a profound effect on him and that somewhere along the way he uncovered the truth of this criminal and the truth about who really owned that cross.

What a privilege, was Simon’s. It is a privilege the Blessed Virgin would have dearly loved to have. One can imagine that St. Paul, that great disciple of the Cross, would have longed to have had it. And here was Simon, a reluctant carrier of the Cross. Simon is like so many of us – the Cross is not something we looked for, sometimes not something we expected and it is placed upon us without our consent. It threatens us because it means stepping into the unknown and the risk of losing so much we hold dear.

Simon thought that he was carrying the Cross for Jesus when in fact it was Jesus who was carrying the Cross for him. Lord may we, when confronted by the cross in our lives, take heed of the words of your Apostle Peter: “In so far as you share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad, so that you may enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed.” (1Peter 4: 13) For we are sure that if we share your sufferings, if we embrace the crosses in our life, we will share your glory and your joy (cf. Rom 8:17).

The Way of the Cross - 4th Station

Jesus Meets His Mother

Luke 2:34-35,51
Simon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, Look, he is destined for the fall and the rise of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is opposed – and a sword will pierce your soul too… His mother stored all these things in her heart.

Psalm 56:8
My heart is ready, Oh God, my heart is ready.

That day in the temple Mary marvelled at the wondrous things that surrounded the presentation of the child Jesus. And Simeon had forewarned her that this first presentation of her Son would have its sequel on a darker day, when a sword would pierce her soul. She pondered these things in her heart so that when the time came she would be ready. And now that day has arrived. With what love she loved her Son and her Lord, and the greater the love the keener the sufferings she would undergo. How did they meet, how long did that encounter take. Perhaps only a few seconds before the guards dragged him on. Tradition affords us no words spoken between the two. Perhaps there wasn’t enough time, but more likely there was no need. What love and pain must have passed between them in the meeting of their gaze; in the meeting of their hearts. Mary looks at her beloved Son, and the sword of sorrow which had always swayed over her maternal heart must have been plunged into that heart in that very instant. And Jesus looks at his suffering and sorrowful Mother and so beautiful is her soul, so strong and so full of love and faith, that it ravishes his Sacred Heart and more resolutely he moves on, so that all might have the chance to be somehow more like her, she who is the supreme triumph of his grace, its highest fruit.

Mother Mary – Blessed art thou among women, but what mother has suffered more than thee. Help us, Oh Holy and Sorrowful Mother, to always walk with Jesus, even when things seem beyond our strength or endurance.

The Way of the Cross - 3rd Station

Jesus Falls The First Time

Hebrews 4: 15-16
For the High Priest we have is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin.

Hebrews 12:11-12
Of course, any discipline is at the time a matter of grief, not joy; but later, in those who have undergone it, it bears fruit in peace and uprightness. So steady all weary hands and trembling knees and make your crooked paths straight; then the injured limb will not be maimed.

The initial enthusiasm with which Christ resolutely took up the cross is now being sorely tested. The weight of the cross, the blood he has lost, the horrific treatment of his body up to now, have the combined effect of making the going one immense struggle. Did he trip on a stone, did his legs simply fold beneath him, or was it a sudden swoon from loss of blood. Any and all of these might be involved, and the Lord falls on his face, his holy face already so bruised is buried in the dust and rocks of the Via Crucis. And the heavy cross comes crashing down on him, on his head, and buries that terrible crown of thorns ever deeper into his sacred head. He gets to his feet again. On he moves to Calvary.

Lord this is your first fall. Headlong you plunge into the dust, a symbol of mankind who from the dawn of creation rushed headlong in disobedience back into the dust from which we are made. Dust we are and unto dust we shall return, though we were made in your image and likeness. This fall is also a symbol of your Incarnation, lowering yourself to be like us in all things, but sin. But as you raise yourself with great effort from that dust, even here we see the seeds of resurrection beginning to sprout. In this scene you speak to our hearts and say: Arise, Oh Man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. (Office of Readings – Holy Saturday).

Lord you desire to give us life to the full, raise us out of dead ways and dead works, raise us out of the dust of sin, let us dust ourselves off, turn with confident resolution towards you and continue walking. Give us strength Lord to walk that journey of faith. We are weak and so we do not expect that we will never fall again. But Lord, when we fall give us the faith and hope to always rise again, relying on your merciful love, give us the strength to continue on. Lord give this day the gift of confidence to all those who believe in your name and may many rise again through the sacrament of penance; your image restored to them, and the dust of sin wiped away.

The Mass is ended - where to from here?

Mark Shea has this wonderful little piece explaining more fully the final dismissal of the Mass - Ite Missa Est! He explains how a poor translation of this latin phrase has led us to lose sight of its forceful admonition to proclaim Christ and his Gospel in our daily lives.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - Irish Style!

The Irish Independent national newspaper has a front page caption today of a priest who is offering his parishioners a "quickie" Mass during Lent which he guarantess will take no longer than 15 minutes.
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Fr. Michael Kenny of Kilconly parish in Co. Galway has introduced these 15 minute Masses to better facilitate his parishioners and their busy lives. Normally the Mass would be at 9am but that time proved to be inconvenient for many who had work and school to attend. And so he now offers the Mass at 7.30am for the duration of Lent.
(For those of you who are not Irish - it's important to understand that places in Ireland, like school and workplace, open soemwhat later than in many other countries.)

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The move has seen a 10 fold increase in those attending daily Mass for Lent (30-40 instead of 3-4). Fr. Kenny says: "Now, more and more people are coming along to the Mass at 7.30am as they know they can be on their way to work or school 15 or 20 minutes later and it is far more suitable."

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The paper (not the online edition) carries a breakdown of the 15 minute Mass and seems to join the parishioners (at least those who were interviewed) in their admiration for the Lenten Fast Mass. The "15 Minute Service", as the paper calls it, goes as follows:

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7.30am (Sharp) Mass begins with the Entrance Antiphon

7.31am Opening Prayer

7.32am First Reading

7.35am Responsorial Psalm

7.37am Gospel

7.39am Communion. Lay Minister of the Eucharist speeds up the distribution of communion.

7.44am Prayer after Communion.

7.45am Fr. Michael wishes the congregation a happy day. Mass over and congregation disperse.

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Now there are a number of problems with this timescale - not least how it is possible to pray the entire Eucharistic Prayer (even Eucharistic Prayer II) and the entire Communion Rite in 2 minutes - between 7.37am and 7.39. That seems to be an impossible feat. Perhaps I have misunderstood or perhaps the reporter mistook a Liturgy of the Word with distribution of Holy Communion for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But Fr. Kenny assured the reportere that he wasn't "leaving anything out" of the Mass. It just doesn't seem possible to do it all in 15 minutes.

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Quite apart from the fact that, with 40 people in the congregation, an Extra-Ordinary Minister of Holy Communion (in my experiencethe correct terminology is still almost unknown in the Irish Church) seems to be illicit; how can it take them from 7.39am to 7.44am to distribute Communion - unless of course Fr. Michael is very particular about the way he purifies the Sacred Vessels afterwards.

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This story just leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. First we had 'A La Carte' Catholicism, then 'Cafeteria' Catholicsim and now Convenience Catholicism.

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One last sound bite from Fr. Kenny: "We are here to facilitate the congregation and if there are any further increases in numbers attending, then the more the merrier."

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Respectfully I would disagree with Fr. Kenny on this point (among others). We priests are here to facilitate an encounter between God and his people, to facilitate the lifting of hearts and minds to the Lord in worship that is beautiful and edifying - both for the priest and the people. We priests are here to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as prayerfully and as lovingly as we possibly can. Fr. Kenny may well be able to do all that in his 15 minute Mass - if so then fair play to him. I couldn't do it in that time and still feel that I have given my parishioners a draft of the spiritual treasures that are in the Mass.

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And one final thought: One of the parishioners interviewed expressed the hope that the cause of the 15 minute Mass would be taken up in other parishes. I pray sincerely that this does not happen.

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From Sacrosanctum Concilium #7 & #10:

Every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree...

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Pastors of souls must therefore realize that, when the liturgy is celebrated, something more is required than the mere observation of the laws governing valid and licit celebration; it is their duty also to ensure that the faithful take part fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged in the rite, and enriched by its effects.