Yesterday at our meeting of the priests of the diocese our bishop came through on his promise of an autographed Stan Musial baseball. Bishop Stika is a huge Cardinals fan and a friend of Stan the Man. I was, and still am, pretty excited. Stan Musial is one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball hitting 1815 hits at home and 1815 hits away. How’s that for consistency!

Perhaps this will bring some better luck to my fantasy team, the Bourgeois Pigs, who are currently stuck in 7th place. Thanks Bishop Stika!

Press Conference, The Diocese of Knoxville, April 15, 2010, Bishop Richard F. Stika from patrick murphy-racey on Vimeo.

Though it is never uplifting to hear about a priest sexually abusing a child, Bishop Stika’s response to last week’s revelations has given me even more confidence in his leadership in our diocese. In this 26 minute press conference he did everything that I have wanted to see a bishop do when addressing these cases over the years. So often the church has seemed to take a defensive position and one of self protection at the expense of victims. Many times we have spent too much time consulting with lawyers and not enough time listening to victims.

It saddens me to know of more abuse that has occurred in our Church, but I am heartened to see us attempting to help someone to heal and to be repentant for our sins.

The seventh chapter of Thomas Howard’s book, Evangelical Is Not Enough, turns its attention to the subject of the Eucharist as a sacrament. Just recently in our diocese our bishop made national headlines for his response to an attack on the Catholic Church by a local Baptist minister that centered around an improper understanding the Catholic belief with regard to the Eucharist. A link describing the incident can be found here. Growing up in the Bible Belt can make it difficult even for Catholics to gain a proper understanding of the sacraments. The culture is saturated with ideas that are either in direct conflict with sacramental theology or ones that betray a deep lack of understanding at best.

Howard points out that the Eucharist is meant to be a physical presence that serves both as a memory of what Christ has done for us in his Incarnation as well as anticipating His return in glory. One of the first things I learned in my seminary training is the deep connection to the Jewish faith at the time of the apostles that the Eucharist contains. To remember in this sacramental sense is much more than simply what we today would describe through the word remembrance. Anamnesis is the proper term to describe this type of remembering. Howard defines it by stating, “the word suggests a remembering that is also a making present.” Here is where I have many times been accused as a Catholic of believing that we believe that each time we celebrate the mass we believe we are repeating the crucifixion. We do as Catholics believe Christ is made present in the Eucharist each time we celebrate it, but not in the sense that his death and resurrection are happening again and again, but in the sense that we are connected here and now to that one life saving event that took place 2,000 years ago.

Next Howard takes a look at the reality of scandal present in many modern day Christians by the claims made of Christ’s Body and Blood being made present on the altar. This has no doubt been a scandal since Christ Himself was here walking the earth. One need look no further than the sixth chapter of John’s gospel to see this. But Howard also points out that this belief has been consistently held by Christians since the time of the Apostles. It is only recently that Christians themselves have become scandalized by their own tradition. He points out that even the great reformers such as Luther and Calvin believed in the real presence of Christ in the Eucahrist.

The Reformers also used language that acknowledges great mystery here. Luther wrote in his “Small Catechism”, ‘What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true Body and Blood of Christ, under bread and wine.’

Howard ends this chapter by once again directing our attention back to the Incarnation of Christ by reminding his readers that the world’s natural state is in fact sacramental. He writes,

Sacrament, recalling and presenting the Incarnation itself, is not so much supernatural as quintessentially natural, because it restores to nature its true function of being full of God…..Christians, like Saint Paul, see nature groaning and struggling under its unnatural burden of mortality, waiting to be set free once more into its native liberty.

How easily we are fooled into believing that God created us with intention of being pure spirits, detached from our bodies. So often we fall into the trap of thinking sin is natural to humanity and the divine is only attainable in the next life, where we will leave the natural behind. Christianity is ultimately about God restoring creation to its natural state of being in perfect harmony with its creator. I appreciate the reminder Howard has given us in this chapter.

]]> http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2010/03/10/evangelical-is-not-enough-table-and-altar/feed/ 2 http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2009/10/19/carolina-dreamin/ http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/2009/10/19/carolina-dreamin/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:33:52 +0000 Fr. Christian Mathis http://www.blessedisthekingdom.com/?p=1348

Posts at Blessed is the Kingdom have been few and far between of late, much of this due to a recent full schedule that has not allowed for blogging. One positive reason for a lack of posts this past weekend was a visit from my brother and his wife, who are on vacation this week. It was good to relax with them, if only for a day. This coming week promises to be yet again a week of few posts, but fortunately not due to being too busy. Today I am traveling to North Carolina for our annual priest retreat. Bishop Stika has been able to encourage many more of the priests than usual to attend and I am looking forward to the time of rest and renewal.

Fr. David and I also plan to spend a couple of days following the retreat to hike and visit my old home in Ashe County. Last week I was surprised by the excitement of our staff at the mention of the Ashe County Cheese Factory. I never knew it was a staff so enamored of cheese, but I will do my best to make it by there to pick up some for our meeting next week.

I hope that the readers of this blog will pray for my brother priests and I this week. The quiet will continue this week, but it is a good and needed quiet, at least from the standpoint of this new pastor.

Today we welcomed St. Joseph to his new home in the sanctuary of St. Thomas Parish. It is exciting to see images of the saints in our Church to remind us of our universal call to holiness.

Sometimes our protestant brothers and sisters do not understand the practice of having depictions of the saints in our churches. They mistake our veneration of the saints for worship. As I have continued to grow in my faith, I have come to see the saints not only as models for holiness of life, but friends who are still present to us today. We Christians do not see death as an end, but as a beginning of new life. We do not see ourselves as separated from our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep as if there is a wall that divides us. A better analogy is a veil of separation, a thin curtain that allows us to still be connected to the communion of saints.

The best homily I can remember about St. Joseph was from one of my fellow seminarians at Mundelein Seminary in Chicago. He pointed out that we Christians claim Jesus as the savior of the world. He saved each one of us from sin and death. St. Joseph, he said, is the only person he could recall who ever saved Jesus. As his foster father, when Jesus was in danger as a child of being slaughtered, Joseph took Jesus and Mary into Egypt to save him from death. That particular homily has stuck with me for over ten years.

I look forward to having Bishop Stika here to bless the new statue of St. Joseph this coming Sunday!

–1–

So here is my second attempt at 7 Quick Takes. We begin with my happy news for the week. Just two days ago I was able to hire a new temporary bookkeeper for the parish who comes with excellent references and experience. It was a sigh of relief to have someone back in the office who can manage the books for us!

–2–

One of my favorite songs at the moment is Girl Downtown by Hayes Carll. Still not sure what the phrase “Pretty as a plate” means, but it sounds like a compliment to me. And who knows Katie, maybe we could be the one.

–3–

The feast of St. Monica is always a special day for me as I was ordained a deacon on this feast day 10 years ago. St. Monica is a wonderful example of patience and prayer as she spent 30 years in prayer for the conversion of her son St. Augustine, whose feastday we celebrate today. Let us never give up hope in the power of prayer.

–4–

Our newly appointed bishop has been making good progress in his recovery from his recent health issues and continues to amaze me. He recently communicated to the priests of the diocese to give us an update on his progress in moving back to full health and shared these words with us that show me the true character of the man God has sent to shepherd our diocese.

Through all of these recent difficulties I’ve learned that we all have limitations. We are one body, spirit and flesh. We are limited by sin, we are limited by illness, but we can triumph over these. It makes us more keenly aware of the gift of life that God has given us. I personally have been reminded to never take things for granted.

–5–

As the baseball season moves quickly to it’s final days, I would like to share some wisdom from one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game, Satchel Paige. 

How to stay young:

1. Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.

2. If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.

3. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.

4. Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain’t restful.

5. Avoid running at all times.

6. Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.

–6–

My recent JustFaith group is meeting again tonight to try to answer the question, “Where do we go from here?” Please keep us in prayer as we look for ways to put continue our prayer and to put it into action in our community. My prayer is that we do not become stuck in the past, but are able to be open to the future God has in store for us.

–7–

In less than a week I will be traveling to Central America to learn more about the NPH orphanage our parish sponsors in El Salvador, as well as two other NPH orphanages in Guatemala and Nicaragua. I am very excited as I consider Guatemala to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It also makes me happy to be able to spend time with my friends Fr. David and John. Please pray that our trip will be safe and successful.

My Dear Friends in Christ,

We have good news to share! There is more information this morning from the Bishop’s physicans. He had a very good night, is stable and responding to his treatment and is looking forward to returning home to Knoxville.  As we now understand it, he traveled to Florida to visit a sick friend and became ill with severe flu like symptoms, which precipitated a diabetic crisis. Currently, he is responding well to the treatments. Although the Bishop did suffer a mild heart attack related to the diabetic crisis, his heart was thoroughly examined and found to be in great shape. 

 Let us give thanks for this encouraging information and pray for his continued recovery.

 Your Brother in Christ,

Deacon Sean K. Smith