ABVM PARISH COMMUNITY

CONFIRMATION AND THE PASCHAL MYSTERY             Pope St. Paul VI spoke of the Sacrament of Confirmation as perpetuating the grace of Pentecost in the Church.  The Holy Spirit is “the Lord, the giver of life,” as we say in the Nicene Creed.  His presence at the beginning of creation is noted in the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis: “and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.”  He is what the tradition calls the Creator Spiritus , united with the Father and the Son in creating the material world and giving spirit to man, symbolized when God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen 2:7) .  The Spirit of God is prominent in the preaching of the prophets and in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament.  He is made more explicitly known in the New Testament, beginning with the baptism of Christ, when he comes upon him in the form of a dove.                 The Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver not only of natural life, but also of supernatura

  THE PASCHAL MYSTERY AND THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY ORDERS             The Sacrament of Holy Orders includes three degrees: the episcopate (bishops), presbyterate (priests) and diaconate (deacons).  Deacons exist to serve bishops and priests in their ministry, while priests are co-workers with their bishop, who is a direct successor of the apostles and has the fullness of Christ’s priesthood.  Whatever the degree of participation in Holy Orders, it is received for the sake of the salvation of others.  Inasmuch as it contributes towards an ordained man’s personal salvation, it is by his service to the Church.  The minister is called to serve as Jesus served.  For this reason, in the ordination right to the priesthood the bishop places in the hands of the newly ordained a paten and chalice which have bread and wine to be consecrated.  He says, “Receive the oblation of the holy people, to be offered to God.  Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the my

  THE PASCHAL MYSTERY AND THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE             On the evening of the day of Jesus’ Resurrection, after passing through the closed doors of the Upper Room, where the apostles were hunkering down, Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you.”  He showed them his wounds, which caused them to recognize him and be glad.  Jesus repeated the greeting, and affirmed their vocation: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (the word “apostle” means “sent”).  Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (cf. John 20:19-23).  At that moment, Christ gave the apostles the power to forgive sins.  The Church has come to call this the Sacrament of Penance, also known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation or simply Confession.              The Sacrament of Penance was the second gift of Christ to the Church after he completed his paschal sacrifice.  It was given with the b

  THE PASCHAL MYSTERY AND THE ANOINTING OF THE SICK A good part of Jesus’ public ministry involved miracles of healing.   These healings served as signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God.   They also convinced some that his teachings could be trusted.   An attentive scholar of the prophets who witnessed his miracles might reasonably have wondered if they were fulfillments of prophecy, such as in Isaiah 35: “Then the eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf be opened.   Then the lame shall leap like a stag, and the mute tongue sing for joy,” or Isaiah 53: “Surely he has born our infirmities and carried our diseases.”   Jesus himself pointed to his healing miracles as proof of his messiahship when the disciples of John the Baptist asked him if he were “the one who is to come” (cf. Mat 11:2-6).   The healings which Jesus performed revealed his compassion for both the temporal and spiritual needs of the human person.   They also anticipated his ultimate victory over all

  THE SACRAMENTS AND THE PASSION OF OUR LORD     The work of Christ to redeem us from our sins by his Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension is referred to in the liturgical books and teachings of the Church as the Paschal Mystery.  Pascha is the Hebrew word for Passover and roughly means “passage.”  Passover commemorates the deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt approximately 1,500 years before the birth of Christ, when they marched out of the country under the leadership of Moses.  The Jewish feast of Passover commemorates this event and is the most solemn of all the Jewish festivals.  Jesus celebrated his Last Supper as a Passover meal on the night of his arrest.  This began his “passage” through the Passion to the Resurrection and Ascension.  These saving events, taken together, constitute the Paschal Mystery.     My articles for the next seven Sundays will consider the relationship of the sacraments to the Paschal Mystery.  The sacraments are also called “