Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Seekholiness Podcast: Tis the Season
Christmas, luck, blessings, and elves are all included in this week's podcast by Father Jeff Coning.
Seekholiness Podcast: Radical Discipleship
Father Franks is our Seekholiness guest speaker. This week he discusses Radical Discipleship: Getting out of the boat.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Advent Season
A theme that has appeared in my homilies this Advent is one of preparation for the coming of Christ. That is the two comings, celebrating His coming as an infant and His second coming in glory. I have consciously tried to concentrate on the second coming of Christ, but I have been drawn to the image of the infant time and time again in my meditation. For awhile it was a mystery as why this was taking place, but I found the answer in listening to my homilies.
I have had two families that are good friends of mine that have newborns in their life. Until this situation, I had never watched infants all that closely. Yes, they are cute, but they are also noisy and demanding. But I have seen these two children grow and mature and it has been an enlightening situation. I have seen how their parents(my friends) lives have changed. At times it is an honor to witness the love the parents have for their children and the sacrifice they demonstrate for them. At other times it has been problematic because we have not been able to eat out and got movies. The children have interfered with our friendship. At times I found myself briefly upset, but I would remember that I was being selfish and these parents, my friends, were being holy by being good parents.
I have been thinking about this even more during this Advent. I had been reflecting on how God demands that we repent and turn to God. I have realized how lovingly God works in our lives. We all know from countless Januaries that new years resolutions we make do not often take hold and last in our lives. They are external principles that we should probably adopt in our lives, but they are difficult to hold onto and remain faithful. That is what God gave us in the Old Testament, that is rules or laws to live by, but it proved difficult.
What wisdom He showed by coming as an infant and teaching the sacrifice that is needed for God first hand by Joseph and Mary. God demonstrated first hand that we are capable of sacrifice. The Father entrusting the Son to us as an infant demonstrated firsthand that with God’s grace we are capable of loving as God does and sacrifice with joy. God showed us in the New Testament that it is not just principles that we are to live, but we are to live for God as God lives for us.
This Advent in 2006 has helped me to realize the true joy of the infant born in Bethlehem. I cannot wait to learn more about the joy of Christ coming again in glory.
I have had two families that are good friends of mine that have newborns in their life. Until this situation, I had never watched infants all that closely. Yes, they are cute, but they are also noisy and demanding. But I have seen these two children grow and mature and it has been an enlightening situation. I have seen how their parents(my friends) lives have changed. At times it is an honor to witness the love the parents have for their children and the sacrifice they demonstrate for them. At other times it has been problematic because we have not been able to eat out and got movies. The children have interfered with our friendship. At times I found myself briefly upset, but I would remember that I was being selfish and these parents, my friends, were being holy by being good parents.
I have been thinking about this even more during this Advent. I had been reflecting on how God demands that we repent and turn to God. I have realized how lovingly God works in our lives. We all know from countless Januaries that new years resolutions we make do not often take hold and last in our lives. They are external principles that we should probably adopt in our lives, but they are difficult to hold onto and remain faithful. That is what God gave us in the Old Testament, that is rules or laws to live by, but it proved difficult.
What wisdom He showed by coming as an infant and teaching the sacrifice that is needed for God first hand by Joseph and Mary. God demonstrated first hand that we are capable of sacrifice. The Father entrusting the Son to us as an infant demonstrated firsthand that with God’s grace we are capable of loving as God does and sacrifice with joy. God showed us in the New Testament that it is not just principles that we are to live, but we are to live for God as God lives for us.
This Advent in 2006 has helped me to realize the true joy of the infant born in Bethlehem. I cannot wait to learn more about the joy of Christ coming again in glory.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Fr. Jeff Coning: Homosexuality and the Priesthood
The Vatican finally released the document from the Congregation for Catholic Education on the homosexuality and the priesthood. This document has been the topic of much debate, from whether it actually existed to what it would proclaim about the topic. I have read the document and have several thoughts about it.
One is that the Church has gone to great lengths to be as specific as possible about the issue of homosexuality. The Church has always taught that it is the act that is a grave sin and not the person; although the Church recognizes that a person with homosexual tendencies carries a greater burden than a person without these tendencies. This document does not change this teaching in any manner. This document does not add a new understanding or dimension to this teaching.
This document states that a young man who presents himself to the Church because he has a calling to the priesthood be rejected if he “practice[s] homosexuality, present[s] deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support[s] the so-called ‘gay culture.’” Some might argue that this is harsh and/or discrimination, but if we stop and think about it this statement actually makes a great deal of sense.
The Church has long taught that the act of sex only belongs in a marriage because it has two principles that must always be joined. That is it must always be unitive and procreative. And that to block one is always a disorder and sinful. If an unmarried man commits either an act of fornication or a homosexual act, he has committed grave sins.
Men who present themselves to the Church because they have a call to the priesthood need to know that they are abandoning the culture of death and are going to live in the culture of life. Accepting the responsibility of the gift means that it is to be used as it is intended. The priesthood is a gift of servitude for the Church. A man should be concerned with adopting the image of Jesus in his life as opposed to furthering his own image.
I would encourage people to read the document and think about the issue. Men in the priesthood need to be as faithful to the Church as men who are married to their wives. Living in this faithfulness is not easy in this world and all of us are called to avoid the near occasion of sin.
One is that the Church has gone to great lengths to be as specific as possible about the issue of homosexuality. The Church has always taught that it is the act that is a grave sin and not the person; although the Church recognizes that a person with homosexual tendencies carries a greater burden than a person without these tendencies. This document does not change this teaching in any manner. This document does not add a new understanding or dimension to this teaching.
This document states that a young man who presents himself to the Church because he has a calling to the priesthood be rejected if he “practice[s] homosexuality, present[s] deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support[s] the so-called ‘gay culture.’” Some might argue that this is harsh and/or discrimination, but if we stop and think about it this statement actually makes a great deal of sense.
The Church has long taught that the act of sex only belongs in a marriage because it has two principles that must always be joined. That is it must always be unitive and procreative. And that to block one is always a disorder and sinful. If an unmarried man commits either an act of fornication or a homosexual act, he has committed grave sins.
Men who present themselves to the Church because they have a call to the priesthood need to know that they are abandoning the culture of death and are going to live in the culture of life. Accepting the responsibility of the gift means that it is to be used as it is intended. The priesthood is a gift of servitude for the Church. A man should be concerned with adopting the image of Jesus in his life as opposed to furthering his own image.
I would encourage people to read the document and think about the issue. Men in the priesthood need to be as faithful to the Church as men who are married to their wives. Living in this faithfulness is not easy in this world and all of us are called to avoid the near occasion of sin.
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