July 15--St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

The Franciscans have given the Church many great saints, among these being St. Bonaventure.  St. Bonaventure lived in the 13^th century, not long after the Franciscans were founded.  He became the Minister General, or leader, of the Franciscans and also was named a cardinal.  He was also influential in helping unite the Latin and Greek churches at the Council of Lyon in 1274.  He wrote many volumes on theology and philosophy.  A contemporary of St. Thomas Aquinas, he also worked on integrating faith and reason.   He died soon after the Council of Lyon.  He was named a Doctor of the Church and called the Seraphic Doctor.

Faith and reason do go together, as shown by St. Bonaventure’s, and others, works.  Many have accused Catholics and believers of having “blind faith”, that is, faith that does not have any connection to reason whatsoever.  This is not true.  Both faith and reason are gifts from God and need to be used in the correct context.  We use reason in acknowledging the existence of God.  We use reason as a natural gift from God.  We use faith as a supernatural gift from God.  Reason tells us there is a God; faith tells us that Jesus is God.  Reason tells us that the statement that Jesus is God is reasonable due to the evidence of the believers who first knew him, listened to him, and witnessed him as risen from the dead.  Faith builds on reason, just as grace builds on nature.  

“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope …” (1 Pet. 3:15).  We need to be ready to use our reason in defense of our hope and our faith, namely Jesus Christ.  We are not “blind fools”, but rather, “We are fools on Christ’s account …” (1 Cor. 4:10).

July 11--St. Benedict, Abbot

Pope Benedict XVI named himself for St. Benedict, the man who wrote a Rule for monks to live together in community.  That Rule is the basis for the Order of St. Benedict, the religious group of monks who Christianized Europe.  St. Benedict was a young man of sixth century Italy who left his studies in Rome to become a hermit.  Some other hermits were drawn to his holiness and asked him to lead them.  He did, but they came to despise him and tried to poison him.  He left that group and later founded a monastery at Monte Cassino, where he died not long after his twin sister, St. Scholastica.

The Rule of St. Benedict is the most common Rule used by monasteries and monks for over 1,400 years.  Its first word is obsculta, a Latin word meaning both “listen” and “obey”.  The Benedictine monk is to listen to and obey the words of the Rule so that he may grow in holiness.  The Rule is also exemplary for its tone of moderation.  Nothing too hard was exacted from the monk.  Everything was to be done in moderation, both work and prayer, which are hallmarks of the Benedictine order.

Benedictine monasticism became the norm in Europe following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in 476 A.D.  Charlemagne mandated that Benedictine monasteries be founded wherever his empire extended.  By the 14^th century there were 37,000 Benedictine monasteries in Europe.  There had been 24 Benedictine popes and over 1,500 canonized Benedictine saints.  So one can understand why Pope Benedict XVI said that “with his life and work St Benedict exercised a fundamental influence on the development of European civilization and culture.” 

We owe much to St. Benedict and to the Benedictines.

July 3--St. Thomas, Apostle

St. Thomas was one of the twelve Apostles, men who were sent out to evangelize and catechize.  We know about him primarily from the gospels, especially the Gospel of John where he is described as doubting the Resurrection.  And yet, when Jesus appears to the Eleven on the Sunday after the Resurrection, Thomas is awestruck, saying: “My Lord and my God,” which connects with the very first verse of John’s gospel:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Thomas’s declaration of faith leads to Jesus’ response:  “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (Jn 20:29).

“Doubting Thomas” is the consummate modern person.  He decided not to believe unless he could see.  That very well may describe many of us in our modern age.  We have been conditioned to not accept those things which cannot be proven to our satisfaction.  We have transferred our faith from belief in that which cannot be seen, touched, tasted, smelled, or heard—spiritual realities—to faith in that which can be experienced by our senses.

However, seeing is not believing; it is seeing.  Can we ‘see’ love? or hope? or courage? or perseverance?  No, we ‘see’ people expressing those realities in their words or actions.  “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1).  “Believing Thomas” is our model; the man who professed belief in Jesus as Lord and God.  We are the ones “who have not seen and have believed.”  We need to maintain and share our faith by our words and actions so that others may ‘see’ Christ in us.

June 29--Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles

It is rare when a saint gets more than one day in the liturgical calendar.  The Blessed Virgin Mary has numerous feast days throughout the year.  St. John the Baptist has two days and St. Joseph has two days, but Sts. Peter and Paul have three each, including one day for the both of them.  Their importance in the early Church forever links them together.  They both died in Rome during the persecution of the emperor, Nero.  Before that, they both worked together to bring Christianity to the Gentiles as shown in the Acts of the Apostles at the Council of Jerusalem.  Both wrote epistles, Peter had two, Paul had 13.  They were both apostles, Peter as one of the original twelve and Paul as one specially chosen by Jesus when he was on the road to Damascus.  They are the main protagonists in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter in the first part and Paul in the second.

Both Peter and Paul shared in the ministry of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Peter was the leader of the entire Church community, the shepherd appointed by Jesus to watch over his flock.  Paul was the founder of numerous communities in Asia Minor and Greece, including most of the places to whom he wrote epistles.

When portrayed in art, Peter is often shown as holding keys, recalling the passage from Mt. 16:19—“I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”  This symbolized the role of Peter as pope, the one who is the visible sign of the unity of the Church.  Paul is often portrayed in art with a sword, which is how he was martyred, or a book, symbolizing his letters in the New Testament.

Both Peter and Paul are essential for us today.  Peter’s role as shepherd-pope reminds us of the importance of the Magisterium and the need to follow its teaching.  Paul’s role as missionary-letter writer reminds us of the importance of Scripture and Tradition in following Jesus.  Both remind us of the importance of witnessing to the faith in Jesus.  Since both were martyred in Rome, Peter, according to tradition on an upside-down cross, and Paul by beheading, this shows the primacy of Rome and her bishop, the pope, in leading the Church throughout the world.

June 22—Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More, Martyrs

Both St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More were martyred by King Henry VIII of England in the 16^th century because they refused to acknowledge Henry as the head of the Church of England.  Fisher previously had been Henry’s tutor, but supported Catherine of Aragon, the king’s wife when Henry appealed to Rome to annul their marriage.  Rome refused to annul the valid marriage and Henry asserted control over the Catholic Church in England, divorced Catherine, and married Anne Boleyn.  Fisher was beheaded for treason the day before the feast of the Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, whom he had invoked in his defense of Catherine.

More authored the book Utopia as well as being Speaker of the House of Commons.  More was elevated to the position of chancellor, which is like a prime minister.  However, he resigned due to the king’s declaration of supremacy over the Church in England in place of the pope.  When More was on the scaffold to be beheaded for treason, he said that he died “the king’s good servant, but God’s first.”

Both St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More chose to oppose the unjust encroachment of the state on the Church’s prerogatives and on Church doctrine.  Henry had his church declare his marriage to Catherine annulled.  Henry had Parliament declare him the Supreme Head of the Church in England.  Further, Henry closed many monasteries and confiscated their lands.  All these actions were possible because of a people who allowed the state to take over the Church.  They valued the “liberties" of the government over the liberties of faith and religion.

We live in a similar time.  But we have the opportunity to speak up.  June 21 is the first day of the Fortnight for Freedom called for by the U.S. bishops.  It is a two-week period of prayer and action to address many current challenges to religious liberty, including the August 1, 2013 deadline for religious organizations to comply with the HHS mandate, Supreme Court rulings that could attempt to redefine marriage in June, and religious liberty concerns in areas such as immigration and humanitarian services.  St. Thomas More is the patron of statesmen and politicians.  We petition his intercession for just laws and the guarantee of the first amendment right to freedom of religion.

June 3--St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs

June 3—St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs

The word “catholic” means universal and the Catholic Church is universal, with Christ being preached and celebrated on all the continents.  This is especially true in Africa, which has 175 million Catholics, or 16% of the total population of Africa.  The Catholic Church has grown 265% there since 1978 when it had 55 million members.  The people of Africa have seen their values confirmed in the Catholic Church, including Church teaching on homosexuality and contraception, as well as working for justice for the poor.

How does this relate to St. Charles Lwanga and his companions?  They were martyred in 1886 under the reign of a Ugandan king who had demanded that they submit to his sexual desires.  Charles was a catechist who protected the young men and boys who were pages to the king.  When they were discovered as Christians, the king ordered them to walk 37 miles to a place of execution.  Some were martyred on the way, while the others were burned to death, including eleven who had converted to Protestantism.

Being faithful to God and to his Church sometimes demands that we stand up to the sins and errors of our time.  Homosexual activity is such a thing.  It is against the complementarity that exists between men and women and against the complete gift of love of husband and wife that is fully expressed in marital intercourse.  It is against the divine law and against the natural law that God has written upon our hearts.  Homosexuality is intrinsically disordered and needs to be understood as such.

We live in a time when that love and that law is denied and made subject to the imperial autonomy of the self and its desires, however they may be supported by popularity and unjust civil law.  It is our duty as children of God and children of the Church to speak up and witness to God’s law of love, not the state’s law of supposed equality.  To be a martyr means to witness to truth, that which is of God.  We may be called to be new martyrs, not in that we will be killed, but that we will be snubbed, ridiculed, and persecuted.  St. Charles Lwanga and his companions knew what they were getting into when they stood up for their faith.  We need to know that and joyfully proclaim our willingness to love those who persecute us.

May 30--St. Joan of Arc, Virgin

May 30—St. Joan of Arc, Virgin

What seems more amazing, a woman hearing voices from the saints or a woman leading men into battle?  Both are found in one woman, St. Joan of Arc.  Born a peasant, Joan of Arc claimed a special mission from God, to lead the French in victory over the English during the Hundred Years War in the 15^th century.  She was able to convince the French leadership of her special calling and raised the siege of Orleans, while also leading her men in holiness by requiring them to attend Mass on Sundays and to avoid the sins of a soldier’s life.  She was eventually captured, sold to the English, tried on trumped-up charges of heresy and witchcraft and finally, burned at the stake.  She was vindicated in a second trial after the Hundred Years War, beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920.  She is a co-patroness of France.

Joan of Arc’s crime was her success.  She listened to the voices that spoke to her and was punished by men.  When she defied the voices that spoke to her she was rewarded by men, but lost sight of her calling.  We, too, have a voice that speaks to us.  It is the voice of God who speaks to us:  in Scripture, in the Magisterium of the Church, in the sound advice and just commands of those who love us.  God also speaks to us through our hearts, in our consciences.  If we violate our conscience, we defy the voice of God.  Does that mean we can do whatever we desire?  No.  We are also called to form our consciences by those other voices that God gives to us: the Bible, the Church, our parents, and authority that follows God and God’s natural law.  We, too, will be punished by others when we stand for love, justice, and right.  But we will be following in the footsteps of one greater than Joan of Arc.  We will be walking the way of the cross with Jesus.