Feast of Corpus Christi

"CORPUS CHRISTI"
Deacon Keith A. Fournier
© Third Millennium, LLC

Soon, the Catholic Church in America will celebrate the Feast of “Corpus Christi”, the “Body and Blood of the Lord”. It is also an extremely important day in my own personal life, the anniversary of my ordination to the Diaconate in Christ.

What a beautiful custom the Corpus Christi Procession truly is! After having received the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion, and after the priest has enthroned the consecrated Sacred Host in a Monstrance, we come from the Sanctuary and process into the Streets of the world, pausing along the way for solemn worship, singing songs of adoration, and holding the Lord, enthroned.

The celebration of this Solemnity goes back to the thirteenth century. Pope Urban IV instituted it in 1264 for the entire Church. He wanted it to be filled with joy and accompanied by hymns and a festive procession. He asked the great Western Church father, Thomas Aquinas, to compose two Offices of prayer. St Thomas did so- along with five hymns - and they have nourished the piety of Christians for centuries. In writing concerning the Holy Eucharist as heavenly provision and eternal food for our earthly journey, Thomas noted:

“Material food first of all turns itself into the person who eats it, and as a consequence, restores his losses and increases his vital energies. Spiritual food, on the other hand, turns the person who eats it into Itself, and thus the proper effect of this sacrament is the conversion of man into Christ, so that he may no longer live for himself, but that Christ may live in Him. And as a consequence it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual losses caused by sins and defects and of increasing the power of the virtues”.

In this celebration we proclaim in both word and deed our belief in the Real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. We also proclaim the implications of this fact: Jesus Christ comes to truly live within us. In fact, the entire Trinity takes up residence within us. We also live within the Trinity. This is the mystery of communion.

The Christian faith and life is all about entering more and more deeply into this this intimate living communion, with God, in Christ, and because of Jesus Christ, with the world that He still loves so much that He continues to come into it to save it and make it new. The Corpus Christi procession symbolizes this ongoing redemptive mission of Jesus Christ to the world and our participation in it, as it is lived out through his Church, which is a communion of Love.

I have fond memories of this beautiful event which stretch back into my early childhood. Since my ordination to ministry as a Deacon, it has also come to signify my call to go, as I often say “from the altar into the world.” As the years have unfolded in my life, the true beauty and profound symbolism of this Western Catholic custom has captured me. It is a richly beautiful experience. We march with the Body of Jesus Christ, the Eucharistic Host, enthroned in a “monstrance”, a sacred vessel made of precious metal, specifically designed to be a place of repose for the Lord. There we recognize His glory and worship Him.

This recognition of His Real presence - and the accompanying worship- not only occurs in the Church sanctuary but spreads out into the “city streets” of the entire world. In this act of public procession we are reminded that God still loves the world so much that He still sends His Son into the world. This solemn procession is a reminder of the baptismal vocation of every Christian, to carry on the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ, through His Church, until He returns. At an interior level, it symbolizes the universal call to holiness. All Christian men and women, in all the states of life, are called to conversion and transformation. All who are baptized are called into intimate communion with God. He comes to dwell within us and we live our lives now in Him, in the Church, which is His Body and for the world.

In this communion of love we become, in a sense, “living monstrances”, enthroning the Lord in our “hearts”, which is, in biblical language, the center of the person. Then, as we are filled with His real presence, we are called to carry Him into the world of our daily lives. At its very core, the Christian faith reveals this profound truth - the God who created the entire universe can be known - intimately and personally. He is more than a theory or a principle; He is a loving Father who hungers for a relationship of love, a communion, with all men and women.

It proclaims that in the fullness of time, this God of love came to us, in His Son Jesus Christ. Through His Incarnation, life, death and resurrection, He has now made it possible for us to experience the fullness and intimacy of that communion of love. In the Holy Eucharist that we receive and the Divine Host whom we carry in procession, the Lord continues to come into the world. He has also taken up His residence, chosen to dwell within each one of us who have been baptized. He lives His very life now, through His Body, the Church. In that Church, and in each of her members, He processes into a world waiting to be reborn.

Through our Baptism we now live in God. We are also called to carry Him into the real world of our daily lives--- just as we carry the monstrance into its streets today. Jesus told his disciples “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”

We who have been given the bread of angels, who have been invited to this Eucharistic Feast, now have life within us; His Life - the very life of the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit - a communion of Divine Persons in the Perfect unity of Perfect love. This is why this Feast of Corpus Christi follows the great Feast of the Holy Trinity in the Western Catholic Church calendar, to show this profound connection.

Through the Holy Eucharist, we are invited into the Trinitarian communion and then sent into the world to carry Jesus to others so that they all may join in the Feast! The Church is the family of God; she is the home of the whole human race. This is a mystery that is both deep and profound. It is also a gift to be received, lived, loved and experienced at a level beyond our human comprehension.

We are called into communion with the living and true God. The implications of that invitation unfold into a dynamic life of continual conversion. This conversion happens in and through the very “stuff” of the struggles and travail of our daily lives; through the mistakes, the wrong choices, the failures, and even the pain.

Through it all, the love of God purifies and refines us like the refiners’ fire purified the gold that was used to make the many Monstrances that are being carried into the Streets of the world on this great and glorious Feast of Corpus Christi.

We are invited to respond in faith to Gods real presence in our midst. Often, especially in difficulty, He appears to be hidden. But, with the light of faith, He soon reveals Himself. All who have been baptized into Jesus Christ can now live in Him and He really lives in us. Through the continuing work of grace - and our response to God’s loving invitations - we can become “living monstrances”, living tabernacles, wherein the Lord dwells.

Like Mary, the Mother of the Lord - and the mother of all who follow her Son - we are invited, in the stuff of our daily lives, to give our “Fiat”, our surrender of love, our “Yes” to the God of love. We are sent into a world that has squeezed the true and Living God out of the equation. Yet, though we are strangers and pilgrims in this world, we are called to approach it –in Christ, with redemptive love.

Through living our lives in the “Fiat” of surrendered love, we can carry Jesus Christ everywhere, just as we carry the Monstrance today. We can help to bring Him back into the lives of all who, knowingly or unknowingly, still hunger for Him. We can enthrone Him in the center of the “City” of this age as we marched the Monstrance into the cities of the world today.

The early Eastern Church Fathers referred to the Church as the “world transfigured” and the “world reconciled.” These insights can help us to unpack the mystery of this great Feast. That reconciliation and transfiguration continues in our day. The baptized, no matter what their state in life or vocation, continue the mission of Jesus Christ until He comes again. We do that through living in His Body, His Church, of which we are members.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Philippi, reminded them—and reminds us—that our true “citizenship” is now established “in heaven.” While we live in this current age we participate in bringing heaven to earth and earth to heaven. We now live in the Church, which is that communion of the faithful in Christ, and go into the world to bring it back to God in Christ.

On the Feast of Corpus Christi, we commemorate the great gift of God to mere mortals, the banquet of immortality. This God of Love, who chose to give Himself fully and completely to you and me, in and through His Son Jesus Christ, now feeds us in the most Holy Eucharist. Through Jesus Christ, on that Cross on Golgotha’s Hill, He reached out to embrace a world that had become lost in the desert of sin. He continues to gather that world back to Himself through the mission of the Church.

The same God who fed His chosen people Israel manna in the desert, satisfying their physical hunger, gives the Living Bread, the Eucharist, to satisfy the deepest spiritual hunger of every man, woman and child. Our participation in this Eucharist is a communion in the very life of God. It is also a call to our own continuing conversion and transformation. It is a call to participate in the very transfiguration of the world. When we feed on this heavenly food, the Lord comes to dwell within us and makes us like Himself. We then “give thanks” by living our lives differently. That is what the word Eucharist literally means, “thanksgiving.”

We have received Bread from heaven. Let us choose to become what we consume. On this Feast of Corpus Christi, as we march through the Streets of the world, with Jesus Christ enthroned, let us resolve to become “living monstrances” by allowing the consuming fire of God’s love to purify us so that He can be enthroned in our daily lives - for the sake of the world.
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Adore Te Devote (Hidden God)
St. Thomas Aquinas

ADORO te devote, latens Deitas, quae sub his figuris vere latitas: tibi se cor meum totum subiicit, quia te contemplans totum deficit.

HIDDEN God, devoutly I adore Thee, truly present underneath these veils: all my heart subdues itself before Thee, since it all before Thee faints and fails.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, sed auditu solo tuto creditur; credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius: nil hoc verbo Veritatis verius.

Not to sight, or taste, or touch be credit hearing only do we trust secure; I believe, for God the Son has said it- Word of truth that ever shall endure.

In cruce latebat sola Deitas, at hic latet simul et humanitas; ambo tamen credens atque confitens, peto quod petivit latro paenitens.

On the cross was veiled Thy Godhead's splendor, here Thy manhood lies hidden too; unto both alike my faith I render, and, as sued the contrite thief, I sue.

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor; Deum tamen meum te confiteor; fac me tibi semper magis credere, in te spem habere, te diligere.

Though I look not on Thy wounds with Thomas, Thee, my Lord, and Thee, my God, I call: make me more and more believe Thy promise, hope in Thee, and love Thee over all.

O memoriale mortis Domini! panis vivus, vitam praestans homini! praesta meae menti de te vivere et te illi semper dulce sapere.

O memorial of my Savior dying, Living Bread, that gives life to man; make my soul, its life from Thee supplying, taste Thy sweetness, as on earth it can.

Pie pellicane, Iesu Domine, me immundum munda tuo sanguine; cuius una stilla salvum facere totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

Deign, O Jesus, Pelican of heaven, me, a sinner, in Thy Blood to lave, to a single drop of which is given all the world from all its sin to save.

Iesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio, oro fiat illud quod tam sitio; ut te revelata cernens facie, visu sim beatus tuae gloriae. Amen.

Contemplating, Lord, Thy hidden presence, grant me what I thirst for and implore, in the revelation of Thy essence to behold Thy glory evermore. Amen.

The Baptism of Jesus: Immersed In God
By: Deacon Keith A Fournier
© Third Millennium, LLC
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“Therefore the Lord Jesus came to baptism, and willed to have his body washed with water. Perhaps some one will say: “He who is holy, why did he wish to be baptized?” Pay attention therefore! Christ is baptized, not that he may be sanctified in the waters, but that he himself may sanctify the waters, and by his own purification may purify those streams which he touches. For the consecration of Christ is the greater consecration of another element.

For when the Savior is washed, then already for our baptism all water is cleansed and the fount purified, that the grace of the laver may be administered to the peoples that come after. Christ therefore takes the lead in baptism, so that Christian peoples may follow after him with confidence.

I understand the mystery: for the column of fire went first through the Red Sea, that the children of Israel might tread the hazardous journey without fear; and it, itself, went first through the waters, so that for those coming after it, it might prepare a way to pass. Which event, as the Apostle says, was a symbol of baptism.

Clearly baptism in some sort of way has been carried out when the cloud overshadowed the men, and the wave bore them.

But the one who performed all these things was still the same Lord Christ, who as he then went before the children of Israel in a pillar of fire, now by baptism goes before Christian peoples in the pillar of his body. This is the very pillar I maintain which then supplied light to the eyes of those who followed, and who now furnishes light to the hearts of believers; who then in the waves of the sea made firm the pathway, and now in the laver strengthens the footprints of faith.”

A Sermon by St. Maximus of Turin (423 AD)
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Last week, in the Western Catholic Church, we “ended” the Christmas season with the great feast of the Lord’s “Baptism in the Jordan”. Decorations in our Churches (and in many of our homes) came down-unless that occurred Sunday, which was the Western Feast of the “Epiphany”.

The origins of the differing timelines of the commemoration of these Feasts in the East and the West; and the theological distinctive they reveal; are rich, important and supremely interesting.
Yet, while theologians continue to grapple with these matters, in the Third Christian Millennium, the plan of God is still being revealed by Epiphanies. His “manifestation” continues to unfold and we are invited to be a part of that great mission.

I was struck this morning with the meaning of the Baptism of Jesus and our invitation, through our own Baptism, to live our lives in Him and continue His redemptive mission. It is to that ongoing plan of redemption that I now turn as I share my reflections on the meaning of this Feast.

This event of the Baptism of Jesus by John marks the beginning of His “public” ministry. He was thirty years old. He died His redemptive death at Golgotha when He was thirty three. The tomb could not contain Him and three days later He was raised from the Dead.

He spent thirty redemptive years of life in what writers have sometimes referred to as “His hidden years” in Nazareth’s school, “growing in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52) During those years, in the hearth of a human family, the Son of God, fully Divine and fully human, sanctified and transformed the entirety of the human experience.

The fathers of the Church referred to the Christian faith, and the sacraments of the church, as “the mysteries”. They are “mysteries”, in the sense of deep unfolding truths. They are inexhaustible in their depth of meaning, like a rich feast that never ends and a deep ocean of wonder into which we are invited to wade. We can never touch the bottom.

The God, who made the whole universe and created man out of the dust of the earth, took on our humanity. He lived in the first home of every human, for Him it was His self- chosen mothers womb. By first occupying a womb, those first nine months of His life have made every human pregnancy even more profound. There was a Redeemer in the womb of Mary! God was a “fetus”, a child in the womb. Because of this extraordinary fact, every human pregnancy, every womb, every child in the womb, was forever elevated beyond the dignity it already possessed.

Also, the extreme evil of abortion is made even more obvious and profane.

This year, we in America will soon “commemorate” the horror of legalized abortion when one more “anniversary” of the infamous judicial decision of the case “Roe v. Wade” is remembered. Roe v. Wade gave legal protection to the killing of children in the womb. In America, it has been the law of the land for over thirty years and now taken the lives of close to fifty million children. What horrors it has unleashed. How desperately we need to be saved from the “culture of death” that it represents.

This Redeemer in the womb, Jesus, began His saving work “in utero”. So powerful was His “hidden” presence in that womb that the one to whom He would come for Baptism, John, was himself “baptized” in the womb of his mother Elizabeth by the mere encounter between the pregnant Mary and Elizabeth.

That encounter, traditionally called “the visitation” is recorded in the sacred text of the New Testament. The story of this encounter between two children in the womb, the “forerunner” and his Savior, both hidden in their first home, is recorded in the first chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel.

This child of Mary's was born and heaven touched earth.

He was raised by a human mother and father; and parenting and family life forever took on a deeper meaning. At the bench of Joseph the carpenter; he learned the carpenter’s trade and sanctified all human work as a participation in the continuing work of both creation and redemption.

Both activities continue in and through the work of His Church in the world. The Church is the Body of His Son still active, still mediating the fruits of His redemption as she journeys through time on the way to eternity.

At the breast of his mother, He elevated the already holy wonder and dignity of motherhood. He allowed Himself in His sacred humanity to be nurtured as a sign of the beauty of the entire human experience of growth and maturation. He now symbolically entrusts that nurturing work to that Church which has, from antiquity, rightly been called a “mother” for the whole human race. She is called to manifest the life of God on the earth.
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The Epiphanies of God
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Last Sunday, in the Western Church, we remembered the “Manifestation” to the Gentiles, the Feast of the Epiphany. We reflected on the “wise men” from the East who followed the light to the fullness of Divinity who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.

The word “Epiphany” means “manifestation”, it is a making present, a revealing. There is no doubt that even during those “hidden” years the plan, purpose and redemptive implications of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus were manifested. They were an “Epiphany” of how the ordinary becomes “extraordinary” when lived in grace.

Yet, from antiquity, the Christian church has pointed to this “Manifestation” in the river of Jordan, this “Epiphany” in the waters, as the event wherein the full plan of God for His Church and the entirety of creation itself is made manifest. It is not only the beginning of the Lord’s “public ministry”, it is the beginning of the new creation, re-constituted in Him.

The beloved disciple John wrote in His first letter: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)

We shall be like Him for we shall “see” Him as He is? How? We shall be “like Him” when we learn to live in Him and allow Him to live within us. This process of conversion and transformation begins at our own Baptism when He initiates the relationship.

The great spiritual writers tell us that through our baptism we are “incorporated” into Christ and enter into His “Mystical Body” which is the Church. As Maximus wrote: “Christ therefore takes the lead in baptism, so that Christian peoples may follow after him with confidence”

This Church is not simply a human “congregation” but rather a “Communion”. We are invited to begin in the here and now to live our lives, immersed in God. When we live this way, we reveal, we manifest, heaven on earth.
We are invited to see Him as He is and to become “like Him” for others. We are called to become a “manifestation”, an “epiphany” of God in a world stumbling along in the darkness of sin. We can do that, more or less effectively, by becoming immersed in Christ, becoming more like the One who is the “Light of the world.”

The process of being made “pure”, of being made “holy” (which literally means being “set aside”) lies at the foundation of this great feast; if we seek to understand it in its fullness, its “mystery”. The Baptism of Jesus, the great “Theophany”, speaks to the very meaning and mystery of the vocation of the whole Church and of every Christian. We are called to be immersed in God and to bring the whole human race and the world along with us.

The Apostle Peter writes in his second letter to the dispersed early Christians explaining to them, and to us, that we are to become “partakers of the divine nature”. Eastern Christianity and its theological language speaks of this process as “theosis”. God manifests Himself in and through you and me!

The word “Epiphany” (meaning "manifestation") is not often used in Eastern Christianity. Instead it is replaced by the word “Theophany”, which in Greek literally means not only a “manifestation” but the "manifestation of God."

The Theophany, the Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan, manifests the very life of the Holy Trinity to the whole world. In so doing it invites the whole world into a “communion”, a participation in that life of the Trinity through Baptism into Jesus Christ! The scene reveals this deeper meaning of the “Mystery” that is the “Theophany” or the "Baptism of our Lord" and why it truly is the “Epiphany of Epiphanies”. In this extraordinary biblical account we find the very Trinity revealed. The heavens open, the voice of the Father speaks to the Son and the Spirit descends!

The waters of the Jordan are sanctified by the Son. In the first creation, God created the heavens and the earth through the Son. Now, that Son, come among us as a man, goes down into those waters and re-creates the world in Himself. The redemptive mission of Jesus will only be complete in the new heavens and new earth. All that was created, re-created in Him and given back to the father.

From antiquity, the Church has found a deeper meaning in this Baptism in the River Jordan. Symbolically, all water is sanctified when God the Son is immersed into it. Just as the Spirit hovered over the waters of the original creation, the Spirit now hovers over these waters wherein the Son, through whom the entire universe was made, is immersed. This is the reason why, in the East, when this feast is celebrated, waters are blessed. In fact, in the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, the clergy often lead the faithful to rivers and entire rivers are blessed!

One of the first elements of creation (Genesis 1:9/ St. John 1:1-5)), created by the Father through the Son, is now re-created through the Incarnate presence of the Son. God now stands in the waters of the earth He created. Into these waters, through which the people of Israel were once delivered, the entire human race is now invited to follow Jesus in every Baptismal Font, in every Church, for all eternity.

In Christ, the Son, all water has been sanctified and what was once the means of God’s judgment and purification at the time of Noah, has become the fountain where men and women are delivered from sin and made new! There, as on this great day, at every Baptism, the heavens open, and the Holy Spirit appears, as a sign of the beginning of the new creation in each new life.

Through Christ’s Baptism, the waters of the whole earth have forever been sanctified and the Church is now given new waters for her saving and sanctifying mission.
In the waters of the Jordan, the Trinity, the Communion of Divine persons, in perfect unity, is revealed. In the great liturgical prayer of the East the Church proclaims: “When Thou, O Lord was baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest... O Christ our God who has appeared and enlightened the world, Glory to Thee." To this day and up until the consummation of all things, the Church of Jesus Christ baptizes in the “Name” - the identity- of that Trinity.

The commemoration of the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River by the Prophet and Forerunner John is a manifestation of a deeper “mystery” that informs the heart, the center, of the Christian faith. The Baptism of Jesus is about the conversion and transformation of the entire human race, and the transformation of all creation!

In his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus is not sanctified for He is without sin. He is the Holy One who makes us holy as we choose to enter into communion with God through Him. We become “sons (and daughters) in the Son. He descends into the waters of the Jordan River and sanctifies the waters of the whole earth. He begins the new creation and we are now invited to follow Him as He “makes all things new.”

The Theophany speaks to the great teaching of the Christian faith that all of creation will be redeemed! In fact as Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome, creation itself “groans” for that full redemption (Romans 8:28). This belief in the full redemption of creation, of a new heaven and a new earth, is integral to the Christian faith.

Christians are NOT anti-matter. We profess in our ancient creed that we await the resurrection of our bodies and life in a “world to come.” We should live as though we believe that we will spend eternity in resurrected bodies in a new heaven and a new earth. We need a “redemptive” approach to the material world, including our own bodies.

The last Book of the Bible, the Revelation or “Apocalypse” of St. John ends with the beloved Disciple revealing his vision, given to him at Mt Patmos, of “a new heaven and a new earth” coming down from heaven, sent by God (Revelations 21).

The Feast of the “Theophany”, the Baptism in the Jordan celebrates the full salvation and sanctification of all matter. The Greek word for “Baptism” means to be immersed. Before it is all over, the entire world will be “immersed” in God and transformed. It will be freed from sin and made new! The entire Universe is God's creation. His Wisdom and love are revealed in its design; his Word brought it into being. The breath of His Spirit sustains and redeems it.

The Christian faith does not teach that the created order is evil. Nor does it teach that humanity has nothing good left within it. (Though, some theologies in certain segments of the Christian world come awfully close to both proclaiming and demonstrating that mistake.) The world, created through the Son, was “good”. Sin disrupted that relationship with God. Now, in the Son, it is restored and elevated to an even greater dignity. Do we who are Christians live our lives in the world in a way that “manifests” the goodness of Gods creation and His loving plan for all men and women in a new heaven and a new earth?

Sometimes the confusion comes over the word rendered in English “world.” The word “world” is used in two contexts in the sacred scriptures.

First, the scripture speaks of that “world”, the created order, that God so loved that He sent His only Son. (See, St. John 3:16). He hasn’t changed His mind! He still “sends” His Son into that world through those who are baptized into Him and form His Body on the earth which is His Church. This Church lives and works in that creation that He made out of love and gave to us! The Church is called to continue His work of redemption and re-creation in Christ. He still looks at this world and says “it is good” (Genesis 1:31)
Then there is the use of the word “world” to refer to a system that has no room for God and which, like its inhabitants, is affected and corrupted by sin. Sin involves the rejection of God and His plan. It is a wrong use of our freedom to choose. That wrong choice not only affects us, it affects the world in which we live.

At the center of our nature, that which makes us different than all other creatures, is our capacity to choose. The very “Imago Dei” or “Image of God” is manifested in our capacity to make choices. Sin is always the wrong choice. The “Original Sin” of our first parents, corrupted not only the entire human race but the creation itself.

The order of the entire universe was affected by that sin. The system that has no room for God is now under the power of the Evil One. This created order in rebellion is also called “the world” in the Bible. It is a system at odds with God. This is the “world” we are warned of when the apostle writes “do not love the world nor the things of the world” (1 John 2:15)

God came into this “world” to redeem it. On that great day, when He comes again, that work of redemption will be fully complete and the cry of the Book of Revelations will be heard throughout the entire universe “The Kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ (Revelations 11:15)

The world, created as “good”, was corrupted by our sin. The men and women created for communion with their Creator were marred and disfigured by sin. We needed a Redeemer, one like us in all things but sin. One who, because He was Divine could win for us the fullness of redemption from the penalty of our sin and One who, because He was human, could transform our mortal bodies to be like His Resurrected Body.

We are not born into a world that reflects only its Creator's beautiful design. No, we are now born into a world system where both matter and people are used as products for evil ends. Even so, the creation still reveals the beauty of Gods design. Men and women, the apple of His eye, the “crown” of His creation, still reflect His Image. Both reflection and Image are marred by sin and must be fully redeemed and transformed in Christ.

Descending into the waters of the Jordan Jesus, God the Son, who now shares our humanity, makes that living water a sign of his redemptive, re-creative presence. The waters of Baptism, in every font throughout the world, now flow with mercy. The Creator who spoke those waters into being through the Son, now condescends to step down from heaven in the Son, take on our flesh, and be immersed into the waters of the Jordan!
Once, the Spirit hovered over the waters.

Now the Word Incarnate descends into Jordan's water making it holy. In so doing, He begins the redemptive, re-creation of the universe. Jesus Christ’s immersion, his descent into the Jordan, begins the redemption, the re-creation of all matter. We are invited into its continued mission.
This redemption of the entire created universe, of all matter, is an ongoing work. We who are now baptized into Him are called to share in this work. The public mission and ministry of Jesus began at the waters of Jordan. It continues now through His Church.

As sons and daughters of that Church, we carry on His public ministry through time into eternity. We are invited on this great Feast to learn to live our lives in the “Theophany” of God. When we truly begin to live our lives “immersed in God” we will begin to reveal the Love of the Trinity to the entire human race.”

May God be manifested in and through us!

May the Church truly be an Epiphany of God.

May we who are Christians come to grasp the depth of the mystery that is the Christian life and mission and live it in its fullness!
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Deacon Fournier is a Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia serving at St. Benedict's Catholic Church, a dynamically orthodox Roman Catholic Parish, dedicated to fidelity to the Magisterium and faithfulness to the Church's mission of sanctification, evangelization and transformation. He holds degrees from Franciscan University of Steubenville, the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and is currently a PHD student in Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America. His latest book is entitled, "The Prayer of Mary: Living the Surrendered Life".

Marriage Matters

(C) Deacon Keith A. Fournier

The news is filled with the oxymoronic phrase “gay marriage”. The two words have no connection.

Those who support marriage as a lifelong committed relationship between one man and one woman are being pilloried in the press. No matter where one stands on other issues, if you support marriage - as marriage – you are being brushed with all the disparaging terms thrown at people who insist that there is any such a thing as objective truth in an age of moral relativism. As a convinced and committed Catholic Christian, I know that there are immense social implications to living the truth as revealed by the Natural Law and confirmed in Revelation.

This is an age deluded by the siren song of moral relativism.

I have fought for decades in the noble fight to restore the fundamental human right to life for all men and women from conception to natural death. I have been labeled a “conservative” because of my absolute insistence that the womb is the first home of the whole human race and that every child has a right to life and a freedom to be born. Yet, I insist that I am not a “conservative”.

I openly opposed the initial incursion into Iraq, insisting that it could not be justified under the classical “just war” analysis. I have long opposed capital punishment - as no longer necessary to protect society. I have raised deep concerns about the insistence that we build walls to prevent people from following their hopes for freedom on our Nations borders.

However, I long ago gave up any hope that either major political party had a place for me. I am pro-life, pro-marriage and family, pro-freedom, pro-peace and pro-poor. I am neither liberal -nor conservative, neither right nor left. I support the Federal Marriage Amendment because it is essential to authentic human freedom. Marriage matters. It serves the common good.

Monogamous Marriage, and the family founded upon it, is the first society, the first school, the first economy, the first hospital, the first church and the foundation of a just social order. The oxymoron, “gay marriage”, once used by only the fringe elements of the extreme homosexualist movement, has quickly become an acceptable expression. It is being wielded by the media - “conservative”, “liberal” and “mainstream” - as it reports on efforts to defend and promote marriage. In an Orwellian spin, those who support marriage as marriage are being called “narrow minded” and accused of trying to push our “values” or, even worse, “religion” on others.

ACTIVISM

The efforts of the homosexualist movement to force legal recognition for homosexual relationships has gained great momentum through a sophisticated, intelligent and well funded and multi-faceted effort. The goal was clear - the total re-ordering of civil society in a new cultural revolution. Proponents had a clear verbal, social, legal, cultural and political strategy. On the legal front they were led by the “Human Rights Campaign”, a well funded public interest legal group dedicated to convincing the public that there is some kind of “civil” or “human right” to engage in homosexual sexual practices. They have very able lawyers.

The “Human Rights Campaign” has succeeded in reframing this entire issue. They speak of “the freedom to marry”, as though the efforts to protect authentic marriage as marriage is to somehow deny homosexual practitioners from “freedom” or to refuse them a “right” to marry. This was a smart and calculated move. I understand the approach very well. I practiced public interest law for years. They simply recast the effort and redefined the word. Now, it is the proponents of true marriage who are on the defensive. In short, some of our difficulties are of our own doing.

I understand public interest law because, as a practicing Catholic, I helped to establish and lead the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a predominantly evangelical public interest legal group, for seven years. This was long before many of my fellow Catholics either knew that the battle for marriage had been engaged, or accepted the idea that Christians could come together, in an authentic ecumenical effort, to engage the cultural struggle. In 1990 I wrote a book entitled “Evangelical Catholics: A Call for Christian Cooperation” with a forward by Chuck Colson. One year after I began the ACLJ I hired Jay Sekulow, who now continues the struggle.

I note that the new public interest legal efforts, including the “Thomas More Law Center”, a Catholic effort funded by Tom Monahan, are continuing the fight in the public interest legal fray. I have had many people ask me whether they should give to the ACLJ or the Thomas More Center. It is a hard question for me to answer. I actually came up with this name, Thomas More Law Center, years before while I was a Dean at Franciscan University of Steubenville. I proposed the idea to Tom Monahan and Dick Thompson, the Chief Counsel, years later in a cabin in Michigan after I had left the ACLJ. They took the idea. Sadly, I now feel like much of the fundraising in these legal efforts, Catholic and evangelical Protestant, is duplicative.While the various groups compete for donations, the struggle to defend marriage suffers.

POOR LANGUAGE

In addition, well intended “orthodox” (by which I mean classically faithful) Christians and Jews, in trying to defend marriage, have sadly used expressions such as “traditional marriage”. They might as well walk around with a huge bull’s eye on. The expression has become fuel for the homosexual activist war machine which is intent on redefining “marriage” to include those who engage in homosexual sex with one another for a protracted period of time. The proponents of equal status for homosexual paramours with authentically married heterosexual couples can now simply ask the question “whose tradition”? They can also argue that we Christians are trying to force our “religious” views on the Nation. They follow this by painting the effort to defend authentic marriage as a “religious” bigotry.

Philosophers speak of ontology as the science or philosophy of being, the essence of a thing. For example, a rock is a rock and not a cabbage; a man is a man and a woman is a woman. Marriage is ontologically between a man and a woman, ordered toward the union of the spouses, open to life through the conjugal act in procreation. It also forms the foundation of family. There can be no such thing as “marriage” between two same sex people engaging in sexual acts, even if they engage in such acts only with one another and for a protracted period of time. This is true no matter what a Court or legislature may try to impose to the contrary.

The late great C. S. Lewis coined the phrase, “verbicide” in his Book entitled “Studies in Words”. The term referred to the murder of a word. In the past, when I wrote concerning the fundamental human rights issue of our age, the right to life, I referred to the current assault against words as “verbal engineering” and maintained that it is always the first step in social, legal, political, and cultural engineering. Remember, it was by using the word “choice” to describe the killing of a child in the womb that advocates of legalized child killing paved the way for abortion on demand, once universally opposed, and opened the door for it to be heralded as a “right” in America - and throughout the West. The same deluded revolutionary trajectory has been at work in marriage.

Monogamous Marriage between a man and a woman forms the first cell of civil society upon which family is founded. Monogamous two parent marriages form the healthiest framework for the rearing of children. This fact was once widely accepted by the overwhelming majority of sane people. Marriage between a man and a woman was not seen as simply a “religious” idea but a human understanding, a natural institution. Monogamous heterosexual marriages and in tact families formed the basis of civil society. Even those who broke their marriage vows and divorced did not call for scrapping the institution. Marriage and the institution of family were viewed as promoting the common good of society. Stable marriage between a man and a woman was seen as a “good” that promoted human flourishing. Marriage was viewed as a “good” of persons which promoted and protected the “common good” of the society as a whole by forming the foundation of family, the first society.

Let me be clear. To defend marriage- as what it is and not what cultural revolutionaries seek to redefine it to be - must never be used to justify discrimination against those with homosexual tendencies, desires - or even those who choose to live in homosexual relations. However, genuine tolerance does not mean the re-ordering of civil society to accommodate these “alternative” lifestyles and the use of the police power of the State to enforce them. There is a difference between freedom liberty and libertinism. Yet, that is what the “Human Rights Campaign” seeks to do with their carefully orchestrated legal campaign.

In order to help us to comprehend what is occurring let me borrow a Property Rights Analogy. It does not even come close in terms of the magnitude of the danger we now face because persons and their flourishing are so much more vitally important than the ownership of property. However, it may help to unmask the tactics being used. In order to comprehend what is occurring let me borrow a Property Rights Analogy. It does not even come close in terms of the magnitude of the danger we now face because persons and their flourishing are so much more vitally important than the ownership of property. However, it will help to unmask the tactics being used.

We still accept a uniform definition of “private property.” We defend the private ownership of property as a “right”. It forms a basis for our social, economic and political order. Let’s say that next year; a group among us had decided that “private property” should mean that our land also belongs to the neighbors on adjoining land. Why? Because they decided that approach was better and they changed the definition, first among themselves, and then they had decided to enforce that private opinion upon the broader society. Next, they insisted that the law recognize their new definition by giving it an equivalent status to the “traditional” notion of private property. Well, we can see where this is headed. You simply cannot have two distinctly different things being called the same thing. One has to yield to the other.

MARRIAGE MATTERS

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, speaking on behalf of the “Magisterium” (teaching office) of the Catholic Church, released a definitive document in 2003 concerning the defense of marriage. It unequivocally addressed growing efforts in some Western nations to redefine the word marriage and thereby eliminate the institution of the family. In it they said:

“The Church's teaching on marriage and on the complementarity of the sexes, reiterates a truth that is evident to right reason and recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world. Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. It was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and purpose. No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons. In this way, they mutually perfect each other, in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives.”

True marriage is the most fundamental of all human social institutions. It is a relationship proposed by and written in the natural law that binds all men and women. It finds its foundation in the order of creation. Civil institutions do not create marriage nor confer upon anyone a “right” to marry. The institutions of government should, when acting properly, defend marriage against those who would redefine it. As a Catholic, I am seriously embarrassed by some of my fellow Catholics, such as Senators Biden and Kennedy, who errantly lead the efforts to grant legal equivalency between homosexual paramours and married couples. They should be ashamed of themselves! They are wrong in their policy position. They are also unfaithful to the teaching of their Church.

Government has long regulated marriage for the common good. For example, the ban on polygamy and age requirements were enforced in order to ensure that there was a mature decision at the basis of the Marriage contract. Heterosexual marriage, procreation, and the nurturing of children form the foundation for the family, and the family forms the foundation of civil society. In now “redefining” marriage, these renegade Justices and their complicit public officials have imperiled the stability of our society and struck a blow against the common good. To confine marriage to heterosexual couples is not discriminatory. Homosexual couples cannot bring into existence what marriage intends by its very definition.

To “confer” the legal benefits that have been conferred in the past to stable married couples and families to homosexual paramours is very bad public policy. Sadly, those who claim that this is simply a matter of “tolerance” are often the most intolerant. They insist on forcing their brave new world on the rest of us. Notice how intolerant they are of those who, though respecting the dignity of every person, including homosexuals, also insist that marriage is what it is.

HISTORY

The current cultural situation we face as Christians in America is not unfamiliar. We need to consider it in terms of our 2000 year Christian history. I do not care how “scientifically advanced” the contemporary West thinks it has become, or how “modern” the issues of the modern cultural revolutionaries purport to be, there is nothing new about it. The struggle we are engaged in as Christians in contemporary western culture concerns a clash of worldviews, personal and corporate, and competing definitions of freedom. In the circles of contemporary cultural and social revolutionaries, Christians (at least orthodox, faithful ones) are once again being presented as unenlightened, forcing “our view” on others.

Yet, our position on marriage and family, the nature of authentic human freedom, the dignity of every human person, the right to life and the reality of objective moral truth, are what brought freedom to those in bondage to disordered appetites and enslaved to totalitarian regimes, left and right, for centuries. Truth is. It exists. It is not a matter of “my truth” and “your truth”. There is an objective truth for all men and women that can be known, having been revealed by the Natural Law.

As Christians, we need to reassess the political terrain and our role in it. Many of my fellow Catholics succumbed to a delusion, hoping that following a politically “conservative” line would effect true change. They either never understood the social teaching of our Church or failed to critically think through the implications of its claims. Now, they are seriously disillusioned. There is now a “Compendium of the Social teaching of the Catholic Church”, which should place the Catholic issues in perspective. Catholic Christians cannot be first “conservative” or “liberal” or “neo-conservative”. We must first be Catholic.

Some of the strongest voices insisting on legal equivalency between homosexual paramours and married couples are self professed “libertarians”. Libertarians are often characterized as being “on the right”. I remember when I served the Presidential campaign of Steve Forbes as an advisor on pro-life, pro-family and faith based issues. I saw the “alliance” between libertarian groups such as the “Cato Institute” and evangelical and Catholic activists, in its infancy. I knew then that the implosion of the Republican coalition was inevitable.

One morning, a self professed “libertarian Catholic” (another oxymoron) engaged me at a meeting of the advisors of the campaign. I told her, with as much sincerity and kindness as I could muster, that libertarianism and Catholicism were antithetical. Libertarianism exalted an atomistic individualism as the measure of freedom while Catholic Christian faith insisted that we are by nature and grace social creatures, made for family and called to find authentic freedom only through serving the common good.

It was Christianity that taught such novel concepts as the dignity of every person and their equality before the One God. Christians proclaimed the dignity of women, the dignity of chaste marriage and the sanctity of the family. It was Christianity that introduced the understanding of freedom not simply as a freedom from, but as a freedom for living responsibly and with integrity.

In 1996, a professor of Sociology and comparative religion named Rodney Stark wrote a compelling book entitled “The Rise of Christianity.” Rich in sociological and empirical data it details the growth of Christianity at the beginning of the first millennium. The book chronicles the rise of the Christian faith from a small Jewish sect in the first century to extraordinary cultural dominance 300 years later. Using historical documents, the author demonstrated how the early Christians lived in faithful, heterosexual, monogamous marriages in the midst of a pagan culture, claiming to be “enlightened” while they decayed from within. The lifestyle of the Christians had an extraordinary affect over time on that debased culture.

Christians insisted that freedom must be exercised with reference to an objective moral code, a law higher than the emperor, or the sifting sands of public opinion. It was Christians who understood that choice, rightly exercised, meant always choosing what was right and that the freedom to exercise that choice brought with it an obligation and concern for the other. The Christian faith presented a coherent and compelling answer to the existential questions that plagued the ancients, such as why we existed and how we got here. What was the purpose of life? Questions like how evil came into the world and why we could not always make right choices? What force seemed to move us toward evil and how we could be set free from its power? Christian philosophy began to flourish and the arts also flourished under the Christian worldview. Philosophies of government and economic theory began to be influenced by these principles derived from a Christian The Christian understanding of marriage and family is not some outdated notion of a past era but the framework for a future of true freedom. We are now living in a new missionary age. The mission field is our own Nation.

During the first millennium, in the pagan culture of ancient Rome, fidelity between a husband and wife was uncommon. Sexual promiscuity, reflected in “hetero” and “homo” sexual aberrant behaviors were common. Women (and some men) were considered to be property - and used as sexual objects. Abortion, infanticide, and exposure (placing children on rocks to die by the elements or be picked up by slave traders) were not only commonplace practices but proclaimed to be “lawful” by an arrogant and misguided government. Epidemics began to multiply among the promiscuous Romans, apparently related to the lifestyle of sexual excess, causing civic and (Pagan) religious leaders to flee the cities, leaving the sick to die.

In contrast to this ancient pagan culture, the Christian way of life stood out as an alternative. The emphasis of those ancient Christians was upon marrying once. Husbands and wives remained faithful to one another. Children were welcomed, cherished and seen as both gifts from- and the means of - serving the God whom they proclaimed in both word and lifestyle. Christians did not abandon the sick, but cared for them, even the sick pagans, to the point of sacrificing their own health. According to Stark, Christianity helped to answer the question "why bad things happen to good people"? It was answered through understanding the implications of the suffering and Cross of Christ.

In addition, the Christian faith answered the existential questions that were unanswered in classical paganism. The Christians lived the love they proclaimed and had a strong family system that was increasingly attractive to the pagans. This lifestyle also allowed the Christians to live longer. The author writes: "Christian values of love and charity, from the beginning, had been translated into norms of social service and community solidarity. When disasters struck, the Christians were better able to cope, and this resulted in substantially higher rates of survival. This meant that in the aftermath of each epidemic, Christians made up a larger and larger percentage of the population even without new converts."

Stark noted that Christianity in the first millennium brought about the formation of a new culture: "To cities filled with homeless and the impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services."

In short, the Christian Way of Life transformed Christianity from a sect into the major dominating faith. It also transformed the world of the First Millennium…and the Second. It can and it will do the same in the Third Millennium, even in this contemporary Rome. A new missionary moment has come with this assault on Marriage. Let us put our hands to the plow, for the fields are ready.

Marriage Matters.