36. BITESIZE CATECHISM: THE DOUBLE-FEASTS OF THE HOLY CROSS WITH OUR LADY OF SORROWS & THE SIGN OF THE CROSS

APPETIZER: It is love "to the end" that confers on Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life. Now "the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died." No one, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all people and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the Divine Person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all humankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.  The Church emphasizes the unique character of Christ's sacrifice as "the source of eternal salvation" and teaches that "his most holy Passion on the wood of the cross merited justification for us." And the Church venerates his cross as she sings in her liturgy: "Hail, O Cross, our only hope." The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and humankind"..Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven." (CCC #615-618)

MAIN COURSE: To the eyes of the first Christians, the cross had no beauty. It stood outside too many city walls, decorated only with decaying corpses, as a threat to anyone who defied Rome’s authority—including Christians who refused sacrifice to Roman gods. Although believers spoke of the cross as the instrument of salvation, it seldom appeared in Christian art until after the Emperor Constantine’s edict of toleration, making Christianity a legal religion in 313 AD.

Early in the 4th century, Saint Helena, Constantine's mother, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. She had the second-century Temple of Aphrodite torn down, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher on that spot. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Ancient stories tell that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.

The Holy Cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the 4th century, according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus’ head: Then all the people passed through one by one; bowing down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and then kissing the cross.  This is where we get our tradition of venerating the Holy Cross at our Good Friday services.

To this day, the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September 14th, the anniversary of the basilica’s dedication. The cross is today the universal image of Christ and of Christian belief. Countless generations of artists have turned it into a thing of beauty to be carried in procession, enshrined in churches, hung upon the walls of our homes or worn as a sign of faith.  

The gesture of the Sign of the Cross is the most popular prayer used by Christians today and is both one of the shortest and most spiritually powerful of all prayers.  While being simple enough for a toddler to learn, it carries within it two of the most important doctrines central to Christianity.  The words we recite while making the Sign of the Cross profess our belief in the truth of the Blessed Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The gesture we make proclaims our trust in the saving death of God the Son become human, Jesus the Crucified Savior. The Church and her Saints have consistently asserted that the sign of the cross is: a confession of faith; a renewal of baptism; a mark of discipleship; an acceptance of suffering; a defense against the devil; and a wonder-working instrument of miracles.

Closely associated with the Feast of the Holy Cross on Sept. 14, is the feast of Mary under her title, Our Lady of Sorrows celebrated the next day, Sept. 15. Just as the feast of the Holy Cross reminds us of Jesus' ultimate gift of himself out of love for us, so the feast of the Sorrowful Mother recalls that Mary was intimately associated with him in the offering of this gift. Mary stood fearlessly at the cross while others fled. Mary looked on her Son’s wounds with pity, but saw in them the salvation of the world. As Jesus hung on the cross, Mary did not fear to be killed, but freely and bravely exposed herself to his persecutors. When Jesus gave the beloved disciple to Mary, we were represented by him at the foot of the cross. As Mary mothered Jesus, she became mother to all his followers in every generation.

DOGGIE-BAG: A little something to take with you for spiritual snacking...

Holy Quotes...showing that the prayer of the Sign of the Cross has been used since the earliest days of Christianity.

"At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign of the cross." (Tertullian, ancient Church writer, 225 AD)

"All believers make the sign of the cross in whatsoever work they begin upon, and especially at the beginning of prayers, or of holy readings..." (Origen, ancient Christian writer, 285 AD)

"Let the sign of the cross be continually made on the heart, on the mouth, on the forehead, at table, at the bath, in bed, coming in and going out, in joy and sadness, sitting, standing, speaking, walking in short, in all our actions. Let us make it on our breasts and all our members, that we may be entirely covered with this invincible armor of Christians." (St. Gaudentius, 410 AD)

"Whatever may be the temptations that oppress us, we must repulse them. For this end we should make, not carelessly, but carefully, the sign of the cross, either on our forehead or on our breast." (St. Gregory of Tours, 594 AD)

The Prayer: Hail Holy Cross Our Strength

Hail, O holy Cross, our strength.

Hail, O adorable Cross, our praise and glory.

Hail, O Cross, our help and refuge.

Hail, O Cross, consolation of all the mournful.

Hail, O Cross, our victory and hope.

Hail, O Cross, our defense and our life.

Hail, O Cross, our liberation and redemption.

Hail, O Cross, our sign of salvation and bulwark against the enemy.

May the Cross be for me always hope of my faith.

May the Cross be for me resurrection in my death.

May the Cross be for me triumph against demons.

May the Cross be for me mother of my consolation.

May the Cross be for me rest in my tribulations.

May the Cross be for me support in my old age.

May the Cross be for me healing in my illness.

May the Cross be for me protection in my nudity.

May the Cross be for me consolation in my life.

May the Cross be for me solace in all my difficulties.

May the Cross be for me balm in my tribulations.

May the Cross be for me medicine to my infirmities and protection against all my enemies.

Amen.

Prayer to Mary, Mother of Sorrows

O my Mother Holy Mary,

I deliver myself to your faithful protection and your special care,now, for every day, and at the hour of my death.

I seek refuge in the bosom of your love,

and I entrust my body and soul to Jesus through your hands.

I entrust all my hopes and consolations,

all my sufferings and miseries, my life and its end

that through your most holy intercession and your merits,

all my works may be directed and performed

according to the will of your Son.

O my Lady! O my Mother! I wholly offer myself to you, and to give you a proof of my love, I now consecrate to you my eyes, my mouth, my ears, my heart, and in a word my whole being. Since therefore I am yours, O Good Mother,

preserve and defend me as your own child. Amen.

35. BITESIZE CATECHISM: ST. PETER CLAVER & SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR HUMAN EQUALITY

APPETIZER: Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a creature. These rights are prior to society and must be recognized by it. They are the basis of the moral legitimacy of every authority: by flouting them, or refusing to recognize them in its positive legislation, a society undermines its own moral legitimacy. If it does not respect them, authority can rely only on force or violence to obtain obedience from its subjects. 

Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that "everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as 'another self.'  No legislation could by itself do away with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man a "neighbor," a brother.

Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all people have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine blessedness of Heaven: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity. Human equality rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it.  Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design. 

There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel: Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace. (CCC #1930-1938)

MAIN COURSE: The social teaching of the Catholic Church quoted above in our Appetizer is so  vitally important in that I ask you to read it again. Slowly. Ponder it. It truly contains the solution to the racial and economic disparities we are seeing in the USA today.  And the Saint of the Week we are learning about - St. Peter Claver - is an outstanding example of someone who took this teaching to heart and made it the focus of his priestly ministry in  very unjust and oppressive culture.

Pedro (Peter) Claver was born to a prosperous family in Verdu, Spain, and earned his first degree in Barcelona. He entered the Jesuits in 1601. When he was in Majorca studying philosophy, Claver was encouraged by Alphonsus Rodriguez, the saintly doorkeeper of the college, to go to the missions in America. Claver listened, and in 1610 he landed in Cartagena, Colombia. After completing his studies in Bogotá, Peter was ordained a priest in Cartagena in 1616.

Cartagena was one of two ports where slaves from Africa arrived to be sold in South America. Between the years 1616 and 1650, Peter Claver worked daily to minister to the needs of the 10,000 slaves who arrived each year.  He would head for the wharf as soon as a slave ship entered the port. Boarding the ship, he entered the filthy and diseased holds to treat and minister to their badly treated, terrified human cargo, who had survived a voyage of several months under horrible conditions. It was difficult to move around on the ships, because the slave traffickers filled them to capacity. After the slaves were herded from the ship and penned in nearby yards to be scrutinized by crowds of buyers, Claver joined them with medicine, food, bread, brandy, lemons and tobacco.

St. Peter gave short instruction in the Catholic faith and baptized as many as he could. In this way he could prevail on the slave owners to give humane treatment to fellow Christians. He would then follow up on them to ensure that as Christians they received their Christian and civil rights. His mission extended beyond caring for slaves, however. He preached in the city square, to sailors and traders and conducted country missions, returning every spring to visit those he had baptized, ensuring that they were treated humanely. During these missions, whenever possible he avoided the hospitality of planters and overseers; instead, he would lodge in the slave quarters.

St. Peter Claver baptized more than 300,000 slaves by 1651, when he was sickened by the plague.  He stands out for us today as a heroic servant of the sick who ministered to their material and spiritual needs without closeting himself to remain free from infection. Claver's work on behalf of slaves and the sick did not prevent him from ministering to the well-to-do members of society, traders and visitors to Cartagena (including Muslims and English Protestants) and condemned criminals. Through years of unremitting toil and the force of his own unique personality, the slaves' situation slowly improved. In time he became a moral force, being called the "Apostle of Cartagena".

In the last years of his life Peter was too ill to leave his room. The ex-slave who was hired to care for him treated him cruelly, not feeding him many days, and never bathing him. Claver never complained. He was convinced that he deserved this treatment. In 1654 Peter was anointed with the oil of the Sacrament of the Sick. When Cartagenians heard the news, they crowded into his room to see him for the last time. They treated Peter Claver’s room as a shrine, and stripped it of everything but his bedclothes to be treasured as relics and mementos. Claver died September 7, 1654, at the age of 53.

During his trip to Colombia, Pope Francis visited the Shrine of St. Peter Claver in Cartagena. Pope Francis said of him, “Saint Peter Claver was austere and charitable to the point of heroism. After consoling hundreds of thousands of people in their loneliness, he died without honors and was not remembered, having spent the last four years of his life in sickness and confined to his cell which was in a terrible state of neglect. This how the world paid him, yet God paid him in another way.” 

Unlike many of his own countrymen, Claver saw these people as human beings and not animals. He devote his whole life and ministry to advocating that they receive the same respect and dignity that was given to anyone else. He cared deeply about them and the salvation of their souls, believing that each one needed to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  However, he didn’t simply talk about equality.  Above all, St. Peter Claver shows us clearly how actions speak louder than words and if we want true racial equality in the world, it must first begin with ourselves and how we treat other people we encounter on a daily basis.

Like Peter Claver, as Catholic Christians we are called to act with mercy and treat each other as brothers or sisters in the spirit and practice of human fraternity. We are called to uphold the dignity and equality of all people, no matter who they might be for all, as both Sacred Scripture and the Catechism teach us, are created in the image and likeness of God. 

DOGGIE-BAG: A little something to take with you for spiritual snacking...

Holy Quotes...

"We must speak to the needy and suffering with our hands by giving, before we try to speak to them with our lips about God and faith." (St. Peter Claver)

“How I desire that we Christians be more deeply united as witnesses of mercy for the human family so severely tested in these days. Let’s ask the Spirit for the gift of unity, for only if we live as brothers & sisters can we spread the spirit of fraternity.” (Pope Francis, May, 2020)

Prayer in Honor of St. Peter Claver (from the Liturgy for Sept. 9)

O God, who made Saint Peter Claver a slave of slaves 

and strengthened him with charity and patience as he came to their help, 

grant, through his intercession, that, seeking the things of Jesus Christ, 

we may love our neighbor in deeds and in truth. Amen.

INVOCATIONS IN HONOR OF SAINT PETER CLAVER.

Peter Claver, worthy son of St. Ignatius,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, priest of God and servant to the Church,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, generous imitator of St. Francis Xavier,  pray for us.

Peter Claver, brilliant light of the New Word,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who exchanged the riches of this world for evangelical poverty,  pray for us.

Peter Claver, apostle to blacks brought to the New World,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who by vow made thyself slave of the slaves,  pray for us.

Peter Claver, refuge of the miserable,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, great wonder worker,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who cured the sick and consoled the afflicted,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, Liberator of slaves unto the freedom of the children of God,  pray for us.  

Peter Claver, model of evangelical industry,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, tender father of the poor and orphans,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who made thyself all things to all in order to gain them for Christ,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who in all trials of this life didst put thy trust in God,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, who wished to be accounted as nothing and forgotten by men,  pray for us.  

Peter Claver, who sought no other wisdom but the folly of the Cross,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, shining example of humility and self renunciation,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, perfect example of obedience and subjection,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, intrepid apostle, powerful in word and deed,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, martyr for Christ for the salvation of souls,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, zealous lover of the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist,  pray for us.  

Peter Claver, imitator of the suffering Savior,  pray for us. 

Peter Claver, powerful protector of all who invoke thee,  pray for us.   

Scripture Quote to Memorize:  "There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)

34. BITESIZE CATECHISM: ST. MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA & LIVING AS MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY

APPETIZER: Charity is the God-given virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Jesus makes charity the new commandment. By loving his own "to the end," he makes manifests the Father's love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive. This is why Jesus says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." And again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands that we practice active kindness and also lead others to doing good; it is good will that fosters mutual kindness and remains unselfish and generous; it promotes friendship and unity.  Love is itself the fulfillment of all the commandments of God. (cf. CCC 1822, 1823, 1829)

MAIN COURSE: Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia, Agnes Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children. For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father’s construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death. During her years in public school, Agnes participated in a Catholic youth group and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions. 

At age 18, she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin and was was assigned to teach in a high school for wealthy girls in Calcutta. But she could not escape the realities around her—the poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of destitute people that she saw everyday just outside her comfortable convent-school.  In 1946, while riding a train to her annual retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear.  she said that Jesus told her, "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them; to follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.” She received permission to establish a new religious community and undertake her new work. She went to Calcutta, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor children. Soon several of her former students at the wealthy school for girls joined her and with Mother Teresa as their leader, the group became the pioneer Missionaries of Charity Sisters (called MC Sisters for short). 

These new Sisters dressed in blue-bordered white saris and wore simple sandals–the ordinary dress of an Indian woman– something quite unusual back in the 1950's. To us in the USA the MC Sisters look like traditional nuns in long dresses with veil-covered heads, but in India they blend right into a crowd.  To distinguish themselves in dress from other women, they pinned a small crucifix on their shoulders to hold the sari in place, and strung a rosary from their belts.  They soon began getting to know their neighbors—especially the poor and sick—and getting to know their needs through visits. The work was exhausting, but others helped by donating food, clothing, supplies, and the use of buildings. 

As the order expanded, services were also offered to orphans, abandoned children, alcoholics, the aging, and street people.  Before the end of the 20th century there were Missionaries of Charity in every part of the world and this religious family grew to include Missionaries of Charity Brothers,  Priests, contemplative nuns and lay associates, becoming one of the largest religious communities in the Church.  For the next four decades, Mother Teresa worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her home. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was canonized a saint by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016.

There are many lessons of the Catechism that are exemplified in the life of St. Mother Teresa. But the one that stands out for me overall, and is one which is so much needed by us today: the teaching of Christ and of Scripture that Charity is the greatest of all virtues and a non-negotiable commandment given to us by Jesus. This is why St. Teresa named her new community the Missionaries (which means Ambassadors) of Charity (which is the highest form of love).   It is a title that really belong to each and every Christian: we are all called by our baptism and confirmation to be missionaries of charity where we live, work and socialize. Pope Francis calls this being a missionary disciple.

Charity is hard to accurately translate into modern English.  We tend to think of charity as doing something kind to another person, particularly the poor. And that's part of it but not the full definition. It means a higher universal kind of love that is like God's love as described in St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians: "Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.Love is eternal." (1 Cor 13:4-8). 

Mother Teresa called the task of spreading charity "doing something beautiful for God".  And this is what we need to learn from her today as we strive to live our Christianity in the midst of a society that is becoming so self-focused, mean-spirited, divisive and violent.  We need to take up our Christian mission seriously and become missionary disciples of charity right where we are planted. How do we do this?  What does it look like to do something beautiful for God?  Let's listen to Mother St. Teresa!

Do you want to do something beautiful for God? Find a person who needs you. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.

Peace begins with a smile. Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. We will never understand all the good that a simple smile can accomplish. 

Smile at each other. Smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other – it doesn’t matter who it is – and that will help to grow up in greater love for each other.

I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one. It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.

If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive. If each of us would only sweep our own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.

Your true character is most accurately measured by how you treat those who can do ‘nothing’ for you. If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us, and we change things.  The beginning of prayer is silence. If we really want to pray we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks. And to be able to see that silence, to be able to hear God we need a clean heart; for a clean heart can see God, can hear God, can listen to God; and then only from the fullness of our heart can we speak to God. But we cannot speak unless we have listened, unless we have made that connection with God in the silence of our heart.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.

DOGGIE-BAG: A little something to take with you for spiritual snacking...

The best doggie-bag take-aways for this week are found in the quotes from Mother Teresa above. But I do want to include this prayer by Mother St. Teresa that is recited by the Missionaries of Charity Family every day...

Dear Jesus, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus. Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others. Amen.

Scripture Verse to Memorize: "Truly I tell you, whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, that you do to me." (Jesus, in Matthew 25:40)