FOR THE RESTORATION
OF DOCTRINAL AND LITURGICAL DISCIPLINE
IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
LAYMEN'S REFLECTIONS,
RESOLUTIONS, AND PETITIONS TO ALL THE SHEPHERDS IN THE CHURCH
1. DIVINE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY OF THE
CHURCH TEACHINGS
We reaffirm our resolution to be totally and
wholeheartedly faithful to all the official teachings of the Catholic
Church on faith and morals promulgated by the Popes and Ecumenical
Councils in union with the Popes and explained and practiced by the
Church Fathers and other Saints throughout the two thousand-year history
of the Church.
We believe that these teachings are divine in nature
by virtue of (1) the authority that Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior,
bestowed on His Church in entrusting His teachings to her for
preservation and propagation and (2) the constant workings of the Holy
Spirit in the Church prompting and guiding her members to properly and
effectively carry out their missions from the Lord.
While being open to the possibilities of deepening of
our understanding of the divine teachings over time, we reject all
attempts to manipulate the contents of the official teachings of the
Church through equivocations, dilutions, omissions, or alterations "to
accommodate the changing needs of the times" or for any other
reasons. Especially, we deplore the attempts (1) to downgrade the
divine origin and authority of the Church teachings, (2) to explain away
the accounts of supernatural events in the Holy Scripture as fables and
fictions, (3) to misinterpret the sublime teachings of the Second
Vatican Council to weaken the traditional pillars of faith in the Church
and accommodate individuals' progressive and human-centered agenda, (4)
to promote the erroneous notion or impression that the teachings of the
Second Vatican Council override or invalidate the previously-existing
teachings of the Church, and (5) to introduce or induce, in the name of modernization,
numerous unnecessary changes into the liturgical celebrations,
prayers, music, architecture, statues, paintings, and norms of dress and
demeanor in the church, which erode the respect for the divine and blur
the true meaning of Our Lord's teachings in the minds of many people.
With filial obedience and profound gratitude to God
for giving us His teachings along with His grace to enlighten our minds
and also for establishing a divine teaching authority in the Church
protected by the Holy Spirit so that we may be guaranteed the
objective possibility of professing the true faith without error (Catechism
of the Catholic Church #890), we embrace these teachings as the
indispensable and fundamental basis and paradigm for our Christian faith
and life and resolve to diligently study, practice, defend, and
propagate them.
2. OUR SUPERNATURAL DESTINY
"God, infinitely perfect and blessed in
himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him
share in his own blessed life." (Catechism of the Catholic
Church #1). Thus, our destiny is not limited to the
affairs and concerns of this world but is supernatural and eternal, as
its object is none other than God Himself, Who is the infinite truth,
justice and life and the source of everything that is good. From
the moment of our conception in the mother's womb, every one of us is
called to eternal union with God as His loving child and a loyal subject
in His Kingdom.
Being humble creatures of God, we should never boast
or glorify ourselves or our works, as we are not the true source of
anything that is good. A deep realization of the utter nothingness
and poverty of ourselves should help us sense our own lowliness as well
as the infinite greatness and sanctity of God. We need not
despair, however, as God does not leave us in misery and hopelessness
but calls us to a new life in Him offering all the help that we
need. We could become like a crippled person who does not know
that he can walk again with the help from God. All we need to do
is to stand up and begin walking, faithfully following the teachings
from God. We can soar to a dignity, holiness, beauty, and
happiness that far exceeds what is proper to the human nature, when our
souls (and our bodies, too, after resurrection) become transformed by
the power of God's grace, which is normally first infused into our souls
at the time of Baptism and restored through the Sacrament of Confession
when it is lost through our personal sins.
The seed of this grace in our souls can grow over
time through the concerted workings of ourselves and the Holy
Spirit. In other words, we can attain our supernatural destiny by
exercising our free will in tune with the promptings of the Holy Spirit,
Who always helps us in understanding and practicing the divine teachings
available through the Church. This way, we will be leading a life
on earth in conformity with the Will of the Father in Heaven (Matthew:
7:21) - attuning our intellects and wills to the demands of God's
holiness, chiefly in three areas: (1) charity; (2) chastity or sexual
rectitude; and (3) love of truth and orthodoxy of faith (Catechism
of the Catholic Church #2518).
We reject all the false teachings that mislead us (1)
to neglect our supernatural destiny and limit our attention and efforts
to the worldly matters and concerns as if they were the ends of our
lives instead of being just the means for achieving our true destiny,
(2) to deemphasize the absolute necessity of God's supernatural graces
in remitting our sins, sanctifying our souls, and thus making us true
children of God, (3) to equivocate on the evil of sins, which are our
disobedience to God and His Commandments and are the only causes of our
losing the graces, and (4) to downgrade the need for our repentance of
sins and doing penance and even to discount the supreme importance and
value of Our Lord's sufferings and death for redeeming the whole human
race from sins and eternal perdition.
We also realize that the natural wisdom and virtues
that can be acquired even before embracing the Christian Faith through
the practice of self-discipline and charitable acts are valuable and can
prepare one to be more open to the knowledge and love of God, but by
themselves are not sufficient for acquiring the divine graces for
remitting one's sins and sanctifying his soul so that he may become a
true child of God. The way of salvation earned and taught by Our
Lord is not just one among many ways of salvation made available by God
so that we may freely choose from them. The need for evangelizing
the world as well as revitalizing the relapsed, confused, or inactive
Christians remains as necessary and urgent as ever.
3. THE HOLY EUCHARIST - THE
PERPETUAL EMMANUEL
The
Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity as the Savior of
the world was the greatest event in human history as it was the supreme
act of mercy and love by God toward the fallen humans.
Furthermore, the Church teaches that the mystery of God the Son's
Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection was not merely a passing event in
history that becomes buried in the past but is a perpetually living
reality for all times, because by his death Christ destroyed death
and all that Christ is and all that he did participates in the divine
eternity. It transcends all times while being made present
in them all and abides and draws everything toward life (Catechism
of the Catholic Church #1085).
According
to the Protestant faith, Jesus left this world after His Resurrection to
be with His Father in Heaven and will return only at the end of
time. While this doctrine is correct in a sense, it misses the
important fact that Our Lord established His Church on earth (Matthew
16:18) so that the mystery of His Incarnation, Passion, and
Resurrection might continue as a perpetual reality through this Church
and, thereby, the work of evangelizing and saving the world might also
continue until the end of time. Just before His Ascension, Jesus
promised to his disciples that He would be with them all days, even
to the consummation of the world (Matthew 28:20). It
has become clear that Our Lord did not just mean a spiritual or symbolic
presence.
The
Church that Our Lord established on earth is more than just an assembly
of the faithful or a house of prayer. It is a living organization
that has both the inner supernatural reality and the external visible
reality, just as Jesus Himself had the inner supernatural reality of
being God the Son and the external visible reality of being a human?these
two realities not remaining separate but intimately united in one
Person. As her inner reality, the Church has Jesus as her head and
the source of all graces for her members and the Holy Spirit as her soul
and the power that protects and guides the Church. Externally, the
Church has (1) a hierarchy of shepherds who represent Christ on earth
carrying out His command to feed His sheep (John 21: 15-19)
and (2) the laity who also carry out the mission from the Lord of
sanctifying their souls and spreading the faith under the spiritual
guidance and administration of the Sacraments by the shepherds.
The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ that is alive and active with
the Spirit of God and journeys on its way of pilgrimage and spiritual
battle spreading God's truths and love, fighting all kinds of evils and
disorders, and enduring many persecutions until she finally completes
her mission and joins the Triumphant Church in Heaven.
Through
this Church, people of all ages can have full access to the Savior just
as the Jewish people two thousand years ago had. From the Church,
all peoples of the world can receive the divine teachings without
worrying about their authenticity; they can really receive the
absolution of their sins and receive many other graces for the
sanctification of their lives through the Sacraments; they can truly
participate in the Lord's supreme sacrifice on Mt. Calvary through the
re-presentation of this sacrifice in Mass; and they can actually be with
the Lord not only in spirit but also substantially by means of the Holy
Eucharist. We need to give eternal praise and gratitude to God for
making these arrangements, which are possible only with the infinite
power, wisdom, and love that God alone has.
The
external appearances of bread and wine in the Blessed Sacrament cannot
be a valid excuse for not believing that the Eucharist is not bread and
wine any longer but the truly living, whole, resurrected Christ with His
body, blood, soul, and divinity. At the time of the consecration
by the priest at Mass according to the formula and command by the Lord (Matthew
26: 26-28; Mark 14: 22-26; Luke 22: 14-20; and John 6: 22-71),
bread and wine are no more except their appearances, as their substances
are converted into the living body and blood of Our Lord. He is
the omniscient, omnipotent, and infinitely truthful God Who can neither
be deceived nor deceive us. We must accept whatever He tells us
based on His divine authority. Of course, we are objectively sure
of this, because the Church teaches so with the authority entrusted to
her by the Lord. Two thousand years ago, many of the Jews refused
to believe Him and crucified Him, because, to their physical eyes, He
only looked like a human being but He was claiming to be the Son of God
and One with the Father (John 10:30). They failed
the test of their faith, trusting their own eyes more than the words of
Christ. In our times, we are being put to the same kind of
test. The Eucharist looks and tastes like bread and wine, but are
we going to trust our senses more than Our Lord's divine words?
Likewise, His Church may look like any other institution on earth, but
are we going to make judgment based on the external appearances only
concerning an entity that belongs to God? Our Lord repeatedly told
us that faith is necessary for our salvation (for example, Mark 16:16).
St. Paul also reminded us of this many times (for example, Galatians
3:7-14). If Our Lord externally revealed His true glory,
beauty, and dignity in the Eucharist, there would be no room left for
faith, and Our Lord could not test if we truly believed and loved
Him. The Eucharist is a mystery, a hidden reality of God's love
and saving power, just as the Church is a mystery. The external
appearances of bread and wine in the Eucharist can be a blessed occasion
for professing our faith in and love for the Lord or a sad obstacle over
which one stumbles because of his lack of faith and love. Despite
the definitive teaching of the Church on the Holy Eucharist, there have
always been many people including some clergy who have had difficulty in
believing the truth about the Eucharist, just as some of Our Lord's
disciples two thousand years ago complained and left Him (John 6:
60-66). To aid those with such difficulties, Our Lord has
worked miracles of the Eucharistic species turning into visible flesh
and blood and also miraculous receptions of the Eucharist without the
medium of the priest to prove the supernatural origin of the Holy
Eucharist many times in Church history.
Our
Lord in the Eucharist is the suffering, bleeding, crucified Christ as
well as the glorious, resurrected Christ. By receiving Him in Holy
Communion, we participate both in His Passion and in His
Resurrection. In this sacrament we can enter a most intimate union
with the Lord as willing participants in His Passion and Resurrection
and loyal followers of His teachings and Commandments. Every time
we approach the Lord in Holy Communion, we must renew and deepen our
sentiments of worshipping Him and uniting with Him and reaffirm our
resolution to do His Will. He comes to us in the humble
appearances of bread and wine seeking nothing but our love and
friendship, but, at the same time, exposing Himself to the dangers of
disbelief, neglect, indifference, mistreatment, insult and
sacrilege. We need to take extreme care to minimize such dangers
by properly preparing ourselves before Communion through prayers,
contrition, and Confession if necessary, and also by thoroughly
educating the children, the catechumens, and others. We need to
restore the traditional discipline regarding how to behave in the
church, during the Mass, and at Holy Communion. We need to
discourage all practices that promote or tolerate carelessness toward
the Blessed Sacrament and encourage the habit of longer and more fervent
prayers after Communion and during adoration.
For
these purposes, we especially implore all the shepherds (1) to restore
the location of the tabernacle in the front center of the church; (2) to
restore kneelers in all churches, (3) to re-install the communion rail
if possible so that people may receive the Lord kneeling (receiving
Communion standing increases the risk of the distributor's finger
touching the communicant's tongue), (4) to encourage Communion on the
tongue to prevent losing little particles of the Sacred Host and to
discourage careless handlings of the Eucharist when received in the
hand, (5) to use extraordinary ministers only when their help is truly
needed, (6) not to use illicit matter in celebrating the Eucharist, and
(7) not to improvise the prayers of the Mass to the celebrant's personal
liking. The Church dogma says: "If anyone denies that the
whole Christ is contained in the venerable sacrament of the Eucharist
under each species and under every part of each species, when the
separation has been made; let him be anathema" (Council of
Trent, DS #1653). It is an undeniable fact that Eucharistic
particles sometimes remain in the hand and become lost when the
communicant receives the Eucharist in the hand. Also when a very
large host is used and, after the consecration, is broken into many
pieces for the Communion of the faithful, numerous small particles are
produced and remain on the paten. It is not always true that the
priest cleans the sacred vessels according to the directives from the
Holy See. We may be stunned, if we read about the care, awe, and
sorrow with which the Saints (including St. Thrse of Lisieux)
handled small Eucharistic particles found on the floor of the church
after Mass (cf: Jesus Our Eucharistic Love by Fr. Stefano M.
Manelli, F.F.I., Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, 1996).
In
fact, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacrament at the Holy See already issued a comprehensive instruction
regarding the correct celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, especially the
Holy Eucharist, on April 23, 2004 under the title: Redemptionis
Sacramentum. This document can be accessed on the Vatican
website: www.vatican.va.
As most of the laity and even some of the priests seem unaware of the
existence of this important document, we strongly encourage our readers
to get a copy from the above site and benefit from reading it.
Also,
as a proper intention and the state of grace are required for receiving
the Communion, the Sacrament of Confession is a necessity before the
Communion when the communicant is aware of any serious sin. After
the Second Vatican Council, confessions on weekdays disappeared in
almost all churches. Neglect of the Sacrament of Confession
weakens our Eucharistic faith and also promotes indifference toward our
personal sins. Hearing confessions and giving absolutions and
penances is the most important duty for priests after the celebration of
the Mass. We sincerely implore all the shepherds in the Church to
make the Sacrament of Confession more available every day. What a
precious and noble work it is to heal the spiritually ill with the
authority and power of Jesus!
4. GOD HAD A REASON FOR GIVING A
MOTHER TO HIS SON AND HIS CHURCH
There seems to be a remarkable parallelism between
the events surrounding Adam and Eve's fall and those surrounding the
Incarnation of our Savior. In the Garden of Eden, Satan, the
fallen angel, first approached the woman and tempted her to eat from the
tree of forbidden fruit in violation of God's command. Eve
succumbed to the temptation and, then, made Adam commit the same
sin. In consequence, they were stripped of all their preternatural
privileges and blessings and expelled from the Garden. All their
descendants were to be born without the divine graces and privileges and
with a weakened nature.
Later in Nazareth, it was a good angel, Gabriel, who
brought God's message of hope to a young virgin called Mary, asking for
her consent to become the Mother of the Savior, which would involve
accepting not only the dignity and honor but also all the enormous
responsibilities, difficulties, and pains that would be her share as the
Mother of the suffering and dying Son. She agreed in profound
humility, obedience, self-denial, love, and courage, opening the way for
God the Son's Incarnation and Redemptive Work for all humans.
Later, the grown-up Son would accomplish the work of human redemption on
a tree in the shape of a
cross.
According to Genesis 1:26, God said, "Let
us make man to our image and likeness". He used plural
terms: "us" and "our", because God is
One with one divine nature but is also a community of three distinct
Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit completely united as
one in infinite love and truth. As we were created in His image
and likeness, we are necessarily individual persons as well as members
of the society. Our relationship with God is also individual and
social. Our Lord listens to our private prayers and calls us by
name but also deals with us as a society or community, which is the
Church. While He was on earth, He not only prayed and worked as an
individual person but also associated with many other people and relied
on their helpHis family, relatives, friends, travelers, and
more. God does not ignore either the individual aspect of our life
or its social aspect. Neither can we.
Christ's redemptive suffering and death was
sufficient to expiate all human sins and reconcile the fallen human race
with the Father in Heaven. He is the only Savior for the whole
human race. The Protestant faith stops here and does not go any
further. According to the Protestant thinking, faith and salvation
are a matter between each individual and God only, which does not leave
any room for the social aspect of the process of our salvation, which
means the cooperation between individuals. Let us review some
quotes from the Holy Scripture:
"If anyone wishes to come after me, he must
deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke
9:23).
"I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me, and I in him will bear much fruit, because
without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
"Now I rejoice in my suffering for your
sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the
afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church"
(Colossians 12:24).
The above scriptural quotes indicate that we belong
to a body, the Church, and, therefore, must help each other for
salvation. Our relationship with God is not a one-to-one
relationship only. Our Lord says that we are branches of the vine
which is Himself and the Church. In this community of the
faithful, all members have important but different functions, just as
many organs and parts in our body have different functions (1
Corinthians 12: 12-31). They all work together for one same
goal: the salvation of the world.
Among all the members of the Church, the Blessed
Mother's role is by far the most special one, as Our Lord not only took
His body from her and was raised by her as her true child but also was
with her even during the supreme sacrifice on Mt. Calvary. She was
not only His Mother but also His most perfect disciple, friend, and
companion, denying her own self for the sake of her Son and
carrying her cross daily with Him. It was God's Will that His
Son entered into the world as a little Baby and Son of a Woman and
Mothera most humble, most pure, most caring, and most loving one that
the divine Child deserves. God could have chosen a different
method that did not require others' help, but willingly chose this way
in which the Baby was totally dependent on His Mother like any other
human baby and also on St. Joseph, and, after He grew up, needed many
others' help as well like Peter's, John's, Andrew's, Matthew's, Mary
Magdalene's, the Samaritan woman's, and so on. It was God's Will
that His Son's followers participate in His redemptive work not only
during His life on earth but always thereafter so that His work of human
redemption may continue until the end of the world. God made our
help necessary for building up His Church and saving the
world. And He also made it necessary that, in doing our work, we
should be aided by the Blessed Mother, just as Jesus was aided by her
throughout His life on earth. It would be so unnatural and
unthinkable that the Mother of Jesus would not care about the Church,
which is the Mystical Body of her Son, and her members, who are little
Jesus', still weak and vulnerable but so precious in her eyes. In
fact, St. Alphonsus de Liguori likened the Blessed Mother to the neck of
the Mystical Body of Christ, through which all the graces from her Son
flow down to the members of the Church (The Glories of Mary, St.
Alphonsus de Liguori, Redemptorist Fathers, Brooklyn, New York,
1931). St. Bernard of Clairvaux and many other Saints also
testified that God willed to give all the graces to people through the
hands of the Blessed Mother. Many Popes have confirmed the
orthodoxy of this doctrine. For example, Pope Pius XI quoted St.
Bernard's words in his encyclical, Ingravescentibus malis (1937):
"Thus it is God's will that we should have everything through
Mary". God has created humans as male and female.
It seems so appropriate that the Savior, a man, does the primary work of
earning graces but is aided by His Mother, a woman, in distributing what
He earned to all His and her children, caring for them and bringing them
up.
Throughout Church history, the Blessed Mother has
continued her work of looking after the Church as a whole and her
individual members, especially protecting them from heresies, wars,
pestilences, and other disasters. Sometimes, she visited
individuals for their needs or for the needs of the whole Church as in
Guadalupe (1531), Paris, France (1830), Lourdes, France (1858), Fatima,
Portugal (1917), Akita, Japan (1973), Naju, Korea (since 1985), and
other places bringing God's messages and miraculous signs to prove the
supernatural origin of the messages. Many of the apparition sites
have developed into major shrines visited by millions from all over the
world every year. In the messages, the Blessed Mother has informed
us that God wills to save the world through the Sacred Heart of Jesus
and her Immaculate Heart. She also emphasized the need for more
fervent rosary prayers and more sacrifices in our daily lives to
overcome the tremendous crisis facing our present world. If more
of us pray the rosary fervently every day and offer up even the littlest
difficulties and pains as sacrifices, we may be saved from many
disasters, as the Christian Europe was saved from an overwhelming
Turkish invasion by a spectacular victory in a naval battle at Lepanto
on October 7, 1571. Also in Naju, Korea, Julia Kim, who received
the Stigmata from the Lord several times and constantly suffers extreme
pains in reparation for the sins of abortions and other sins in the
world, saw a special vision on September 7, 1995. She saw
countless soldiers in red uniforms marching in lines toward people,
aiming their rifles at them in a frightening way. However, when
the people began offering up fervent prayers, the soldiers gradually
lost their strength and lowered their hands with which they were holding
their rifles. Even the color of their uniforms slowly turned from
red to light grey and then to light blue. Soon they turned back
and the threat was removed. At that moment, Julia saw the Blessed
Mother appearing in the sky surrounded by bright light and giving her a
message of hope and love. This vision probably tells us the best
solution to the worsening crisis of our world involving terrorism and
proliferation of nuclear weapons. The only way we can overcome
this terrible crisis may be for more and more of us to kneel before God,
do penance for our sins and the sins of the world, and pray hard relying
on Our Lady's help and intercession, as God has given her to us as our
true Mother and entrusted to her the power to crush the head of the
serpent. Her final victory in this battle with Satan is predicted
in Genesis 3:15 and also described in the Apocalypse.
Despite the certainty of her final victory, how soon and how extensive
it will be very much depends on how faithfully and resolutely we pray
and reform our lives. Efforts by a few individuals at a few places
only may not be sufficient to turn the tide, as the scale of the problem
is worldwide. What we need is to make many efforts to motivate
people all over the world to return to God and His teachings and
Commandments and begin a life of fervent prayers and charitable
acts.
The Marian devotion has been attacked by the
Protestant Reformers since the 16th Century and, has been
repressed even in the Church by the progressive forces after the Second
Vatican Council in the 1960s. It seems likely that the ongoing
many problems in the Church, especially, the erosion in the doctrinal
and liturgical discipline as well as the cooling off of the missionary
spirit has been the result of our neglecting the Blessed Mother, who is
not only the Mother of God the Son but also the Mother of the Church and
the conduit of all graces. If we continue belittling her role in
the Church and keep secularizing the Church, we would be compromising
the traditional teachings of the Church that belong to God in order to
appease the progressives with their human agenda. This would be
contrary to what all the Saints have believed and practiced. The
subject of Mary lies at the heart of deciding the future course of the
Church: continuous confusion and disorder or true reform and
restoration of the truth and order in faithful obedience to God's
Will.
We invite our readers to make more copies of this
article and give them to more people.
Also, if you still do not have the book: The
Catechism of the Catholic Church, we strongly encourage you to
purchase your copy from a Catholic bookstore as it is the best available
summary of God's teachings entrusted to His Church for our salvation.
Mary's Touch By Mail
P.O. Box 1668
Gresham, OR 97030 U. S. A.
Phone: (503) 492-7979
Benedict Sang M. Lee
Reviewed by Spiritual Director: Rev. Robert J.
Billett, C.M.F.
October 11, 2006
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