How did Abel know his offering was acceptable?

A few years ago, as I was reading through the book of Genesis, I noticed something interesting. After the Great Flood of Gen 7, we are told that Noah “built an altar to the Lord...and offered burnt offerings on the altar” (Gen 8:20). In Gen 8:21, we learn that God was pleased with Noah’s offering and subsequently made a covenant of peace with Noah and with the whole of His Creation.

When I read this, it got me to thinking back to Cain’s and Abel’s offerings in Gen 4:3ff. But I noticed something...Abel’s sacrifice was simply called an “offering”; whereas, Noah’s sacrifice was called a “burnt offering”. This caused me to embark upon a study which led me to a variety of conclusions – one of which was how Cain and Abel knew which offering was acceptable to God.

The conclusions I had drawn excited me – so much so that I mentioned them to a few other Christian friends at the time. To my disappointment, they didn’t seem as enthusiastic about what I had discovered – and for the most part, they probably thought I was getting “too lost in details” and seeing things that weren’t actually there. So, I relegated the thought to my mental filing cabinet under “Insignificant / Irrelevant”...

...

...That was until I started reading Genesis again over the past few days from my Douay-Rheims Bible [not because I think that only REAL Catholics read the D-R; but because I personally find the poetic flow of the older English assists me in my devotional reading of Scripture]. Lo and behold! I found that my view regarding the offerings of Cain and Abel actually agreed with the footnote to Gen 4:4 in my D-R Bible.  Boy – was I excited!!! All over again!!! [Sometimes I think that God puts these little gems in Scripture for us to find so that He can take pleasure in our delight – much like I enjoy watching my kids’ excitement when they find the Easter eggs I’ve hidden around the garden on Easter Sunday morning].

So I decided to retrieve my previous thoughts on this topic from the category of insignificance and share them here in my blog – with the hope that whoever reads it will be able to join me in the excitement of marvelling at the wonder of our God and the Scriptures He has given us...

Here goes...

Gen 4:2-5 tells us that:

“Abel was keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time [probably a reference to the Sabbath] Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.”

We see in the above passage that God accepted Abel’s offering, but didn’t accept Cain’s (see also Heb 11:4). The reasons as to WHY God accepted Abel’s offering over Cain’s is a topic for another occasion. For now, I simply want to focus on how I think Cain and Abel knew which offering was acceptable to God.

As already noted above, Gen 8:20 is the first time in the Scriptures that we find reference to “burnt offerings” (Hebrew = “olah”). However, this isn’t the first reference to a sacrifice because we have the offerings (Hebrew = “minchah”) of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. In fact, it is arguable that whilst Gen 4:4 is the first time the word “offering” is used, it is not necessarily the first sacrifice in the Bible.

It is likely that the animal sacrifice of Abel was itself modelled on what had already happened in Gen 3 – where an animal would’ve been put to death (i.e. sacrificed) in order for God to clothe Adam and Eve in “garments of skin” following the Fall (see Gen 3:21). [As a side note, this foreshadows the Lord Jesus Christ, who would be the Sacrificial Lamb to cover the sin of mankind]. Whilst not conclusive, the fact that “burnt offerings” are not mentioned before Genesis 8 indicates that before the Great Flood, worshippers probably did not burn the offerings themselves.

My theory is that when Noah built the altar to the Lord and offered “burnt offerings”, he used the materials that he had readily to hand i.e. he used the wood from the ark which he no longer needed. And thinking a bit laterally here, I would venture to guess that they probably also used the already cut and prepared wood of the ark to build their homes – I mean, why not? Who in their right mind would go about trying to saw, plane, and shape leftover driftwood following the Flood when all the hard work had already been done in building the ark? This might be one reason why Noah’s ark hasn’t officially been found – because it was “demolished” for Noah’s burnt offering, and subsequently building materials. Now this might seem like a digression – and it kind of is...but not completely because it fits into the bigger picture. Stay with me here...

OK – so there were offerings before Genesis 8, but they were not “burnt” by the worshippers themselves. Which brings me back to the question: How did Abel know that his offering was acceptable to God? The answer to the question, I believe, is found by looking at a pattern that continues to surface throughout the history of God’s people in Sacred Scripture:

Leviticus 9:24 – Moses has finished instructing the people regarding the building of the Tabernacle, and Aaron is instituted as the first Levitical High Priest. God sends down fire from heaven to consume the offerings made by Aaron to show His acceptance.

1 Chron 21:26 – David builds an altar and offers sacrifices at the threshing floor of Ornan (the site upon which the Temple would be built by David’s son, Solomon). God showed acceptance of David’s offering by sending fire from heaven. [This in itself was a sign showing that God also accepted the moving of the Ark of the Covenant from Bethel to Jerusalem].

2 Chron 7:1 – King Solomon had finished the building of the Temple – which would now become God’s permanent dwelling place amongst His people – as opposed to the moveable Tabernacle. After Solomon had completed his prayer of dedication, God send down fire from heaven on the offerings to show His acceptance.

1 Kings 18:17-39 – Israel had been led astray by a wicked king (Ahab) and his evil wife (Jezebel – who was not an Israelite). Of particular concern to the prophet Elijah was the fact that Israel was now no longer serving the true God, but rather they were serving the god of Jezebel’s people (Baal). If you are not familiar with the story, I would encourage you to read it in the passage cited; but the long and the short of it is that God showed His acceptance of Elijah’s sacrifice (over the sacrifice of the prophets of Baal) by sending down fire from heaven. 

The common theme in all of the above accounts is how God through the history of His people showed His acceptance of true worship. Each of the accounts represents a momentous occasion in the history of God’s people – and in each account God shows His acceptance of true worship by sending down fire from heaven.

So given this, and the fact that burnt offerings only seem to come in after the Great Flood, it would appear that this is how Cain and Abel knew that God had accepted Abel’s offering i.e. He send down fire from heaven to consume Abel’s offering. Without elaborating on the reasons why, the Douay-Rheims’ footnotes concur with this view:

“[God] showed His acceptance of [Abel’s] sacrifice...as we may suppose, by some visible token, such as sending fire from heaven upon his offerings.”

Now, I don’t know about you – but I find this kind of thing exciting to discover and an encouragement to dig for other little gems that might be hidden for “Scripture sleuths”. However, as fantastic a little titbit as this piece of information might be, I have to admit that what I didn’t appreciate all those years ago is how this interesting concept is actually relevant for Christians...and more importantly, for Christians living today.

The New Testament also contains an account of God sent down fire from heaven – it happened on a day called Pentecost (see Acts 2:1ff). By sending down fire from heaven in the Person of the Holy Spirit, God was not only empowering the Apostles for their mission of building His Church; but He was also declaring His acceptance of them in this task.

As Christians 2,000 years on, we are continually called to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God (Rom 12:1). Ultimately, it is union with Christ’s Sacrifice that makes our sacrifices acceptable to God. More particularly, it is when we present the sacrifice of ourselves united to the Sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist that it is accepted by God as our “spiritual worship” (as St. Paul calls it) – for more on this, see here for a previous blog that I wrote on this subject.

One of the criteria required for the Eucharistic Sacrifice to be valid is ordination in a line of succession with the Apostles. And so it is that if we really want to worship God in the way that is acceptable to Him today, then we must follow the Church that He built upon the foundation of His Apostles – because Jesus promised that He would build His Church (Matt 16:18); and that the Holy Spirit that He would send would lead the Church into all truth (Jn 16:13).

The Holy Spirit that God poured out upon the Church founded by Christ upon His Apostles 2,000 years ago has never left the Church – and He never will. So, if we want to worship God today in Spirit and Truth, if we want to know how to present our bodies as living sacrifices acceptable to God, then the best way to do so is by listening to the Holy Spirit speaking to us through the Holy Catholic Church.


[For a follow-up post to the above - see http://justingridveritasluxmea.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/the-mass-fire-from-heaven.html]
 

Redeeming the Time - a Catholic Perspective

As Catholics, we sometimes struggle to keep up the various acts of devotion that we practice – things like morning and evening prayers, the Rosary, reading the Scriptures, etc. We can be lured into thinking that we don’t always need to do these things because we are OK. After all, we still attend Mass every Sunday – granted, our minds might be wandering somewhere else, but hey – we’re just human and God understands. Right?

It’s very easy to fall into this way thinking because we often deceive ourselves into thinking that we are fine with God – but what we don’t realise is just how indifferent to God we can actually so often be. I think that another problem is that we don’t actually realise the impact that our little devotions can have. We think that they are insignificant – and this is exactly what Satan wants us to think. The Second Reading from last Sunday (Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B) deals with exactly this:

See therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly: not as unwise,

But as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Wherefore, become not unwise: but understanding what is the will of God.

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury: but be ye filled with the Holy Spirit,

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord:

Giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father.
(Eph 5:15-20)

In the midst of this passage there is a curious phrase in which St. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to “redeem the time because the days are evil”. As a Protestant, my understanding of what St. Paul was telling Christians to do was simply not to waste time taking part in frivolous activities, but rather to spend time doing things that had eternal value. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad interpretation of what St. Paul is saying – but it doesn’t do complete justice to St. Paul’s exhortation. It is true – but it is only the starting point of what St. Paul is really saying.

To understand what St. Paul is getting at, we need to understand what the word “redeem” means. Throughout the Scriptures, the idea of redemption has to do with buying something from another for the purpose of rescuing it. This (redemption) is essentially what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross of Calvary:

 

[Jesus] gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works.
(Tit 2:14)

In other words, the purpose of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord was to rescue [redeem] us from our sins so that we might live for God. And it is essentially this concept of redemption that St. Paul has in mind when he instructs us to “redeem the time”.

Later in the same letter to the Ephesians, and elsewhere, St. Paul teaches that Jesus and His Church are inseparably one (Eph 5:23; 1 Cor 12:12-27; etc.). Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church – and the Church is the Body of Christ. As Christians, we are members of that Body. Whatever happens to be the concern and activity of the Head also happens to be the concern and activity of the Body and its members – if Jesus is actively involved in the redemption of souls, then the Church too is actively involved in the redemption of souls.  This means that when we unite our prayers, works, joys, and sufferings to Christ, these very things become redemptive i.e. they actually achieve the salvation of souls. This is what St. Paul meant when he said that his sufferings filled up what was lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of the Church (see Col 1:24).

So, with this in mind, we return to our phrase “redeeming the time”...

St. Paul tells us that it is “because the days are evil” that we must “redeem the time”. In other words, St. Paul is instructing Christians to live godly lives because how we live and what we do will rescue the evil days in which we live. So, more than simply being a good use of time, or simply for personal edification, things like reading the Scriptures and praying actually have a salvific effect when united to the salvific work of Jesus Christ.

This was affirmed by the Angel who spoke to the children at Fatima before the apparitions of Our Lady when he said:

“Offer up everything in your power as a sacrifice to the Lord in reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners.”

Just as sinners are redeemed from their sin to serve God, so too we as Christians have the responsibility and ability (in Christ) to rescue these evil days for the service and glory of God.

So, next time you find yourself struggling to find motivation to perform some devotion, try to remember that your little act of devotion – as small and insignificant as it may seem to you – is infinitely powerful if it is united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Even a prayer as small as “Jesus I love Thee” is able to save a soul.

If we can remember this as we walk through our days it will become a lot easier for us to perform little acts of devotion – and so redeem the time because the days are evil. 

 

[If you would like to explore this topic a bit further, see here]

The Real Message of the Crucifix

Sometimes, being a Christian can be pretty dark. There are often times when God feels distant from us – what St. John of the Cross called “the dark night of the soul”. This feeling of dryness and separation has been felt by the most eminent of the Saints. In our own times, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta often spoke of the “emptiness” that she felt, even though her life was evidence that she walked closely with Our Blessed Lord every day.

But there are also other times when we can feel distant from God due to our own faults. In our broken humanness, we can say and do things that separate us little by little from the grace of God...until we reach a point where we don’t even recognise God anymore (or ourselves for that matter).

The week gone by has been one of these kinds of weeks for me. As I was examining my conscience last night in preparation for Reconciliation, I saw that little by little I had been guilty of distancing myself from God – an unkind word here, a bad thought there, and so on...and so on...and before I knew it I was looking back at a detestable wretch. But thanks be to God, this is not where things end for us Christians – despite how bad we, or things around us, might get. On my knees before God, I looked up...and before my eyes was the Crucifix.

As I knelt before that Crucifix last night, I realised something. I have crucifixes all over my house – almost one in each room. I am surrounded by them. But seldom does this really touch me. And this really convicted me last night. As much as I see crucifixes in our home and in our churches, I have been guilty of not truly seeing. As much as I encounter crucifixes in my day, seldom do I really encounter them. I dare say that this is probably true for many of us Catholics. Why is this? Is it because we are so surrounded by crucifixes that we take them for granted? Possibly...but, I think that there is something that goes deeper.

Kneeling before that Crucifix last night, I came to appreciate why the Crucifix is so important, and this is because I suddenly grasped the real message of the Crucifix – and realised that I have missed it. And missing the real message of the Crucifix is the root cause of why we are so prone to take the crucifixes that surround us so for granted.

What is the real message – the real CORE message – of the Crucifix? It is this: God loves us! Three little words – so easy to miss; but also three infinitely immense words – with equally immense consequences:   

GOD LOVES US!

On the Crucifix we behold that Christ died for us. Why? Because GOD LOVES US! This is how St. Paul said it in Romans 5:8:

“...God proves His love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us”.

That is the message of the Crucifix! Look at the Crucifix again...what do you see? Do you see it? Do you see that God loves us?

Behold it in the face our Blessed Lord – GOD LOVES US!

Behold it in His nail-scarred hands – GOD LOVES US!

Behold it nailed to His beautiful feet – GOD LOVES US!

Behold how it flows from His open side and crown-pierced brow – GOD LOVES US!

This is why the Crucifix is so important for ALL Christians – not just Catholics. Sadly, Protestants tend to scorn the Crucifix in favour of an empty Cross because, they claim, the empty Cross tells us not only that Jesus died, but also that He rose again. Because this is true may empty crosses continue to abound! But, what an empty Cross is not able to do is portray God’s love in the way that the Crucifix does. So, may crucifixes abound even more!

As Christians, our calling is to love God and to love others...and the Crucifix helps us to do this. This is because it is only as we perceive God’s love for us in the crucified Christ that we can actually learn what it means to love. St. Paul reminds us:

 

“...be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Eph 5:1-2)

As we walk through our homes, or into our churches, and whenever we behold the Crucifix, may we be reminded afresh of God’s infinite love towards us.

And, if the image of the Crucifix that surrounds us every day isn’t continually changing us, may we take some time to remember again the message of God’s love that we have missed.

Behold, O good and sweetest Jesus,

I cast myself upon my knees in Thy sight,

and with the most fervent desire of my soul

I pray and beseech Thee

to impress upon my heart

lively sentiments of faith,

hope and charity,

with true repentance for my sins

and a most firm desire of amendment.

 

Whilst with deep affection and grief of soul

I consider within myself

and mentally contemplate

Thy five most precious wounds,

having before mine eyes that which David,

the prophet, long ago spoke concerning Thee,

“They have pierced My hands and My feet,

they have numbered all My bones."

AMEN

The Blessed Virgin and the Beloved Disciple

In a previous blog I presented some basic arguments why we as Catholics believe that Mary is our Mother – one of which came from the Gospel of John. Over the past couple of days, I was reading the Gospel, and I came across the passage again in which Our Lord gave Mary to be our Mother. As I was reading though, I noticed something that I hadn’t noticed before.

For ease of reference, here is the passage again:

When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son.

After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. (Jn 19:26-27)

The common position of Protestants regarding this passage is that Our Lord wasn’t doing anything more than simply entrusting the care of His earthly mother to the disciple John before He died. In my previous blog I mentioned some arguments against the typical Protestant position which show that Jesus was doing so much more than simply entrusting the care of Mary to another before He died. But as I was reading the passage a couple of days ago, something else occurred to me. I noticed that Jesus FIRST addressed Mary, saying: “Woman, behold thy son”. THEN He addressed “the beloved disciple” saying: “Behold thy mother”.

Common sense tells us that if Jesus were simply entrusting His earthly mother to the care of the disciple John, surely He would have addressed St. John first. But He didn’t. He first addressed Mary; then addressed St. John. This was certainly no accident. Rather than Jesus entrusting Mary to the care of St. John, He was entrusting the care of St. John to Mary. And not just that, but as I mentioned in my previous blog, by addressing Mary as “Woman” and not addressing St. John by name, He showed that His intention was universal – “Woman” because Mary is the new Eve (see Gen 2:23); and “the disciple” because the “beloved disciple” throughout the Gospel of John refers to all those who would later come to believe in Christ.

As brethren of Our Blessed Lord, we need to put our faith in Him and trust that He knew what He was doing when He gave us His Mother to be our Mother. He knew that the Church as the family (or household) of God needs a Mother. A family without a mother is a broken home – and so God the Son knew that His own family would not be complete unless He gave His Blessed Mother to be our Mother too.

May we learn to love her as Jesus Christ did. Just as Christ obeyed the 4^th Commandment of His Heavenly Father (see Ex 20:12) by bestowing His glory upon His Mother; may we too love and honour Mary. May we renew our devotion to her knowing that she will always faithfully lead us to Her Son encouraging us to do whatever He tells us (Jn 2:5). And like St. John, may we take her into our homes and be faithful in leading our children to her – because she is the surest way to lead our children to Jesus.

Feeding the 5,000 - Image of the Eucharist

This past Sunday (17^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B), the Gospel reading was taken from John 6:1-15:

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes
and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip,
"Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little.'"
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?"
Jesus said, "Have the people recline."
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
"Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted."
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

The miracle of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 is typically understood in Catholic theology as primarily Eucharistic. Besides the obvious giveaway in v11 where St. John tells us that Jesus gave thanks (Greek = “eucharisteo”), there are a few other Eucharistic images that are quite amazing.  

The first is the invitation given by Our Blessed Lord to Philip when He asks him “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” At first glance it may appear that Our Lord was asking an obviously simple question; but nothing that Our Lord says and does in the Gospels is ever simply simple. Instead, Jesus’ invitation to Philip hearkens back to the Lord’s invitation in Isa 55:1 (which is itself a Eucharistic prophecy):

“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

 

So our Lord is inviting Philip to expand his thinking past the physical need of the people – instead, He is calling Philip to see that they have a greater spiritual hunger which can only be satisfied by the Lord Jesus Christ. It seems that Philip at that time still didn’t appreciate exactly what the Lord was getting at.

Then in v9 Andrew tells Jesus that he has found a boy with five barley loaves and two fish, although he wasn’t quite sure what Jesus could do with such a meagre offering. But, a meagre offering mixed with the smallest amount of faith, even the size of a mustard seed, is all that Our Lord asks of us in order to do a miracle.

What is the miracle? The Lord takes the little boy’s meagre offering and multiplies it superabundantly to feed the multitude – no less than 5,000 men (not even counting the women and children). And this is what happens in the Holy Mass – we bring our meagre offerings of bread and wine (the work of human hands as the Eucharistic prayer calls these gifts) and we offer them in faith to God the Father.  Then in the words of Institution, these small gifts are transformed superabundantly into nothing less than the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. More than physical food for the masses, Jesus (acting through the priest) in this way gives us food unto Life Eternal.

What of the reference to the twelve baskets of fragments that remained? I think that, amongst other things, it serves two purposes in this passage.

Firstly, I think that it serves to show us that the multiplied bread and fish was no mere illusion or magic trick. The fact that fragments were gathered afterwards proves that the miraculous food was REAL food. The Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is REAL – it is not merely spiritual or symbolic. He is really and truly present – Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.

Secondly, there is the allusion to the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in the Lord’s words “Gather up the fragments left over so that nothing may be wasted”. The multiplied loaves and fish did not cease to exist after everyone had received their fill – rather, the miraculous food remained. So too, in the Holy Eucharist, Jesus remains present even after everyone present at Mass has received Holy Communion and the Mass has ended. For this reason, it is fitting and proper that the Precious Body of Jesus be reposed in a most holy and dignified way in the Tabernacle. And more than that, if Jesus remains present in the Blessed Sacrament, it is our duty as Christians to pay Him homage, worship, and adoration in the Blessed Sacrament.

These are just a few of the Eucharistic images I found whilst I was meditating upon the Gospel reading. If you have any additional images that you would like to share, please feel free to do so.

The Good Shepherd Preserves His Church

The Scripture readings for today (16^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B) all focus around the Lord as our Shepherd – Jer 23:1-6; Ps 23; Eph 2:13-18; and Mk 6:30-34.

However, a closer look at these passages reveals that we are invited to more than simply seeing the Lord as our Shepherd. What Holy Mother Church is inviting us to do is meditate upon the Lord as our GOOD Shepherd, and specifically in the aspect of true doctrine.

For example, we see in Eph 2:13-18 that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who not only “preached peace” (v17); but who also shows Himself as the Good Shepherd who IS our peace (v14). How is He our peace? St. Paul tells us that Jesus is our peace because He broke down the walls of hostility by His death on the Cross (v16) – in other words, He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His Life for the sheep (Jn 10:11).

In the Gospel reading, we see that Jesus the Good Shepherd concerned about the welfare of His Apostles – He desires that they take some time to “rest a while” following the preaching mission that they had just returned from (see Mk 6:7-13). But when Jesus saw the crowds who continued to seek Him, He confirmed that He truly was the Good Shepherd by ministering to the people despite His exhaustion. This was no doubt in order to exemplify to His Apostles what was expected of them as the future shepherds of His Church. What is particularly interesting about the Gospel reading is that the Lord’s ministry to the people is in the form of doctrine i.e. “He began to teach them many things” (Mk 6:34).

With these things in mind, I believe that the first Scripture reading (Jer 23:1-6) contains a particularly significant truth which highlights just how good our Good Shepherd is.

Jeremiah prophesies that in contrast to the many shepherds who had led Israel astray into idolatry, God would raise up a wise and righteous Shepherd (the Lord Jesus Christ) who would lead His people into all truth (v5). In verse 4, we are told that the perpetual protection of God’s people would be assured by the fact that He would appoint other good shepherds to lead them. Jesus taught that this prophecy would be fulfilled in His Church when He taught that He would keep His Church from straying into doctrinal error (e.g. Jn 16:13-14; Matt 16:18).

Going back briefly to St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians – in the context of the unity of the Church (Eph 4:3-5), which includes doctrinal unity (ONE FAITH), St. Paul talks about the Church’s responsibility to maintain that unity (v3). This responsibility, however, is not without hope and insurmountable because it is accompanied by a great and precious promise – the Lord Jesus Christ would Himself give gifts to His Church (vv7-11) which St. Paul lists as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

Note that the gifts referred to are gifts relating to orthodoxy (right doctrine). In keeping with the preceding context, the purpose of these gifts is to maintain the unity of the faith of the Church. For how long? St. Paul tells us in Eph 4:13 that it the gifts will remain in force until the Church is fully conformed to the image of Christ.

This means St. Paul believed and taught that true doctrine would be preserved in the Church that Jesus Christ founded until the consummation of all things at the end of time when the Lord returns in glory. St. Paul believed that with regards to doctrine, the Catholic Church would always remain infallible.

Sadly, there are many non-Catholic Christians who disagree with St. Paul on this point by believing that the Catholic Church has fallen into heresy (some would even say apostasy). However, they are willing to believe that God preserved the Scriptures as infallible (including the New Testament). What is odd about this view is that the Church preceded any of the writings of the New Testament. In their view the fallible Church produced the infallible New Testament. And more than this, it was the fallible Church which declared which writings should even be considered as Canonical Scripture in the first place. It is a logical fallacy to believe that a fallible Church infallibly created and declared the infallible Scriptures. If they are willing to believe that God, by the Holy Spirit, has preserved the Scriptures from teaching error, surely it isn’t such a leap of faith to also believe that God, by the same Spirit, has also preserved the Church from teaching error in interpreting the Scriptures. After all, who better to interpret the Scriptures than Holy Mother Church who gave us the Scriptures in the first place?

This makes even more sense when we further consider that Jesus Christ is the Head of His Church; and if this be the case, then we can safely assume that He will also lead His Body into all truth (just as He promised).

As we meditate on the Liturgy of the Word today, may we be ever thankful to our Good Shepherd that He has given us the assurance of infallibility in the Holy Catholic Church so that we “need no longer fear and tremble” (Jer 23:4), being “tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph 4:14). Rather, let us always listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd as He speaks through His Holy Catholic Church, so that we may become conformed to Him.

Redemption - Private or Communal?

One of the sad consequences of our modern individualistic society is that there are many Christians who think of Redemption in an exclusive way. I’m not here referring to the mentality amongst some who believe that only those who belong to their particular denomination are going to be saved (although that is no less a serious problem). I am referring to the mentality that tends to think of salvation and redemption as exclusively private matters.

The trend in evangelism nowadays is to talk about how God loves YOU and that Jesus died on the Cross for YOUR sins. The emphasis is on a “private” salvation, which in turn I think can lead dangerously towards a self-centred “Christianity”. Of course, personal salvation is true and necessary – but to emphasise it almost exclusively is to miss the whole picture. There is a very big piece of the picture that is missed – and that is the Church.

The tendency with those who think in this exclusively personal way is that “going to church” is seen as a private preference. The Church is not central in their thinking – and it is not necessarily essential for their ongoing growth in Christ much less for their salvation. They believe that all they need to build their relationship with Jesus is their Bible. And this shouldn’t be surprising – it is simply the logical conclusion of a Sola Scriptura tradition that has been handed down in some Christian circles since the time of the schismatic Martin Luther.

Rather than an exclusively individualistic redemption, what we find throughout the Scriptures is that, more often than not, redemption is presented in communal (or corporate) terms. For example, in Eph 5:25, St. Paul tells us that Jesus Christ specifically died for the Church (that’s communal not individualistic language). Of course, personal salvation plays a part in this because the Church is the communal gathering of each of the individual members. But it is vitally important to note that it is the corporate aspect that is emphasised, and not the private aspect.

What is interesting about the individualistic tendency with some Christians is that they are usually OK with accepting that sin is not necessarily a private matter. For example, these same Christians would agree that the sin of an individual can affect the many. The primary example of this would be the doctrine of Original Sin, whereby we know that because of the sin of an individual (Adam), the whole human race is marked by his original sin.

But the issue with these individualists is that they are not consistent in that they don’t apply this same principle to the redemption achieved by Jesus Christ, the Last Adam (see 1 Cor 15). [In its own way, this may point to a more fundamental issue that perhaps they see God primarily as a judge who punishes sinners who refuse to accept His gracious offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. Thus the image they make of God is that of a dictator, rather than accepting the way He has revealed Himself as a God who IS love.]

So what is the true Christian approach to Redemption? If the whole human race is imputed in the original sin of the First Adam, surely we can expect that the redemption achieved by Jesus Christ, as the Last Adam, would abound to an infinitely greater degree – especially given that He was not just a sinless man. He is so much more than that. He is the very Creator of the entire Universe – He is the God who took on human flesh so that He could redeem the human race that He created. And this is why the central message of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ offered Himself up as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD (1 Jn 2:2).  

What is so beautiful about this is that because redemption is corporate, our Lord invites those who are of members of the community of the redeemed (i.e. the Church) to partake in the application of His redemption. Just as our sins are not private but affect others; so too our deeds of righteousness are also able to be applied on the behalf of others.

In the Old Testament, Job understood this when he offered sacrifices in reparation for the sins of his children (Job 1:5). During the time of Christ’s ministry, the faith of a man’s friends was imputed him so that Jesus could heal him (Matt 9:2). During the time of the ministry of the Apostles, St. Paul tells us that He offered up his own sufferings to help complete what was lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of the Church (Col 1:24).

But how is all this possible? It is possible because whatever we offer is offered in union with the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If He is the Head and we are the Body, then it makes sense that what we do is united to what He has already done on the Cross. That is why for the Christian, nothing that we ever do is meaningless – and this includes our suffering.

So when we as Christians suffer some trial, small or great, it can be offered up as salvific – in other words, united to the Cross of Jesus Christ, all our prayers, works, joys, and sufferings are effective for the salvation of others.

In actual fact, as we look deeper into this issue what we see is that when we reduce salvation to a purely private matter, it actually denigrates the value of the individual. But when we understand salvation in the communal way that God intended, it actually serves to highlight the significance of each individual Christian.

So, I would like to suggest that one way to start thinking more communally is by offering up this little prayer (or a something similar) every morning:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys and sufferings, all that this day may bring, be they good or bad: for the love of God, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for all the sins committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. AMEN

In this prayer you will notice that we make recourse through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is because she knows better than anyone else what it means to offer oneself up completely to God for the sake of others. She did so at the beginning of Christ’s life in the Annunciation; and also at the end when as His Mother she silently and trustingly watching Him suffer for the sins of the world – and as she did so, her heart was truly pierced together with His (Lk 2:35; cp Jn 19:34).

May Our Lady help up us to see that everything we do and experience is significant. May she help us to humbly offer up and unite to Jesus Christ all that we are and do for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of souls.

Ad Jesum per Mariam