Quote of the Day

"This liturgical season [Ordinary Time] will invite us to follow the Lord together, to listen to his Word and to imitate his gestures of love towards others. In doing so, we confirm and renew our Baptism, the sacrament that makes us Christians, freeing us from sin and transforming us into children of God through the power of his Spirit of life... Dear friends, God does not look upon the world from afar, unconcerned with our lives, our troubles or our expectations! Instead, he comes among us with the wisdom of his Word made flesh, drawing us into a wondrous plan of love for all humanity... He takes upon himself what is ours, including our sin, and gives us what is his: the grace of new and eternal life."

--Pope Leo XIV, Angelus Address, January 11, 2026

Reflection for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

"In the crucified Jesus the divinity is disfigured, stripped of all visible glory and yet is present and real. Faith alone can recognize it: the faith of Mary, who places in her heart too this last scene in the mosaic of her Son's life. She does not yet see the whole, but continues to trust in God, repeating once again with the same abandonment: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord” (cf. Lk 1:38).

"Then there is the faith of the Good Thief: a faith barely outlined but sufficient to assure him salvation: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” . This “with me” is crucial. Yes, it is this that saves him. Of course, the good thief is on the cross like Jesus, but above all he is on the Cross with Jesus. And, unlike the other evildoer and all those who taunt him, he does not ask Jesus to come done from the Cross nor to make him come down. Instead he says: “remember me when you come into your kingdom”.

"The Good Thief sees Jesus on the Cross, disfigured and unrecognizable and yet he entrusts himself to him as to a king, indeed as to the King. The good thief believes what was written on the tablet over Jesus' head: “The King of the Jews”. He believed and entrusted himself. For this reason he was already, immediately, in the “today” of God, in Paradise, because Paradise is this: being with Jesus, being with God."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, November 21, 2010

Reflection for Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

"In the ancient Near East, in royal inscriptions from both Sumer and the area of Babylonia and Assyria, the king refers to himself as the shepherd instituted by God. 'Pasturing sheep' is an image of his task as a ruler. This image implies that caring for the weak is one of the tasks of the just ruler. One could therefore say that, in view of its origins, this image of Christ the Good Shepherd is a Gospel of Christ the King, an image that sheds light upon the kingship of Christ.

"Of course, the immediate precedents for Jesus' use of this image are found in the Old Testament, where God himself appears as the Shepherd of Israel. This image deeply shaped Israel's piety, and it was especially in times of need that Israel found a word of consolation and confidence in it. Probably the most beautiful expression of this trustful devotion is Psalm 23... The image of God as Shepherd is more fully developed in chapters 34--37 of Ezekiel, whose vision is brought into the present and interpreted as a prophecy of Jesus' ministry both in the Synoptic shepherd parables and in the Johannine shepherd discourse. Faced with the self-seeking shepherds of his own day, whom he challenges and accuses, Ezekiel proclaims the promise that God himself will seek out his sheep and care for them."

--Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth--Part One: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (New York: Doubleday, 2007), pp. 272--273

Signs of the Times

Photo by Justin Soutar

by Justin Soutar

In his popular 1966 book What Is It About Virginia?, Norfolk journalist Guy Friddell opined that there is actually a fifth season in between summer and autumn, which is not quite summer and not quite autumn. He wrote that this fifth season, which runs from mid-August to mid-September, is a mysterious period of transition and change in terms of weather and personal schedules. For me, this unique time of year is simply late summer and early autumn combined. The midday sun is getting lower in the sky and early morning temperatures are often chilly, but daytime readings can still be warm or even hot. Rainfall has noticeably declined, but occasional showers and thunderstorms still visit our area. Some tree leaves are turning color and falling, but most are still green. The growth of grass and weeds has nearly plateaued, but no frosts have yet destroyed them. Several of my garden crops are finished for the year, but several others are still producing vegetables. Some birds have already migrated south, but most are still here. Squirrels and deer are everywhere.

This beautiful and special time of year is a gift from our Creator. He has designed the earth and the solar system in such a way that there are gradual transitions between not only summer and autumn, but also autumn and winter, winter and spring, and spring and summer. These significant month-long overlaps between seasons allow earth's creatures valuable time to adjust, mentally and physically, to the different weather and climate of the approaching season. Without this gentle transition period, life on earth would be much more stressful and difficult if it could survive at all. Signs of the next season unfailingly appear towards the end of the current season as if to remind us that time is marching on. 

In today's overly busy and hyper-stressed world, an increasingly large number of people are so caught up in the performance of daily tasks that they no longer pay attention to signs of gradual change in the big picture in society, culture, education, the economy, politics, law, international relations, etc. However, our Lord Jesus Christ has summoned us, his followers, to pay attention to the signs of the times and to relate the truth of the Gospel to them. There is no shortage of such signs in our country and our world today. We just need to take a candid look at them and where they are pointing in the light of God's unchanging eternal reality, then respond with prayer and action as Christ calls us to do in our hearts and through the guidance of his Church.

Copyright 2023 Justin D. Soutar.

On the Son Who Became a Servant

by Justin Soutar

Today is Good Friday. Today we devoutly recall and prayerfully reflect upon the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. Today we contemplate in silent awe this profound mystery of God's infinite love for sinful humanity and for each one of us. This mind-boggling love impelled the Creator to send his own co-equal and eternal Son to earth as a man, a creature, to be tortured and executed by his own creatures. Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, willingly took upon himself the unimaginably horrific burden of all the sins ever committed and the eternal punishment due for them, freely and deliberately offering himself as a sacrifice to the Father so that we might be freed from sin and spared the awful destiny of eternal separation from God. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life" (John 3:16). Divine justice and divine mercy are seamlessly united in Christ's unique sacrifice on the Cross, which is made present in the celebration of each Mass.

This is the incomparable mystery of the all-holy God who purifies his sinful creatures, the King of Heaven who ministers to his unfaithful earthly subjects, the Lord and Master who washes the feet of his servants who betray and abandon him. Jesus is the Son of God who humbled himself to become a suffering servant so that we, God's servants, might be exalted to the status of his adopted sons and daughters. What the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant merely symbolized and prefigured, Christ himself has definitively accomplished: atonement for sin. Fully divine and fully human, Jesus Christ is the greatest hero of world history because by his one and only sacrifice on the Cross he atoned for all human sin, thus making possible the reconciliation of fallen humanity with God.

"We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world."

Reflection for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

"What do we see, then, when we turn our gaze towards the Cross where Jesus was nailed? We contemplate the sign of the infinite love of God for each and every one of us and the roots of our salvation. From that Cross flows the mercy of the Father who embraces the whole world. Through the cross of Christ, evil is overcome, death is defeated, life is given to us, hope is restored. The Cross of Jesus is our only true hope! This is important! Through the Cross of Christ hope is restored! That is why the Church “exalts” the holy Cross, and that is why we Christians bless ourselves with the Sign of the Cross. That is we do not exalt a cross, but the Glorious Cross of Jesus, a sign of the immense love of God, sign of our salvation, and the path towards the resurrection. And this is our hope."

--Pope Francis, Angelus Address, September 14, 2014

Reflection for Solemnity of Christ the King

"Divine authority is not a power of nature. It is the power of God's love that creates the universe and, incarnating itself in the Only Begotten Son, descending into our humanity, it heals the world corrupted by sin. Romano Guardini writes: 'Jesus' whole existence is the translation of power into humility … it is sovereignty that here abases itself in the form of servant' (Power and Responsibility, Regnery, 1961).

"Often for man authority means possession, power, dominance, success. For God, instead, authority means service, humility, love; it means entering into the logic of Jesus who stoops to wash the feet of his disciples (cf. John 13:5), who seeks man's true good, who heals wounds, who is capable of a love so great that he gives his life, because he is Love. In one of her letters, St. Catherine of Siena writes: 'It is necessary that we see and know, in truth, with the light of faith, that God is the Supreme and Eternal Love, and he cannot will anything if not our good' (Ep. 13 in: Le Lettere, vol. 3, Bologna 1999, 206)."

--Benedict XVI, Angelus Address, January 30, 2012

Quote of the Day

"The starting point of salvation is not the confession of the sovereignty of Christ, but rather the imitation of Jesus’ works of mercy through which he brought about his kingdom. The one who accomplishes these works shows that he has welcomed Christ’s sovereignty, because he has opened his heart to God’s charity. In the twilight of life we will be judged on our love for, closeness to and tenderness towards our brothers and sisters. Upon this will depend our entry into, or exclusion from, the kingdom of God: our belonging to the one side or the other. Through his victory, Jesus has opened to us his kingdom. But it is for us to enter into it, beginning with our life now, by being close in concrete ways to our brothers and sisters who ask for bread, clothing, acceptance, solidarity. If we truly love them, we will be willing to share with them what is most precious to us, Jesus himself and his Gospel."

--Pope Francis

Reflection for Today's Feast

 

"God’s faithful love for His people  was manifested and realized fully in Jesus Christ, who, to honor God’s bond with His people, made Himself our slave, stripped Himself of His glory and assumed the form of a servant. In His love He did not bow before our ingratitude and not even before our rejection. Saint Paul reminds us of this: 'If we are faithless, He – Jesus –  remains faithful , for He cannot deny Himself' (2 Timothy 2:13). Jesus remains faithful, He never betrays, even when we have made a mistake, He always awaits us to forgive us: He is the face of the merciful Father.

"This love, this fidelity of the Lord manifests the humility of His heart. Jesus did not come to conquer men as the kings and powerful of this world, but He came to offer love with meekness and humility. This is how He described Himself: 'learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart' (Matthew 11:29). And the meaning of the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which we celebrate today, is that of discovering increasingly and of letting ourselves be enveloped by the humble fidelity and meekness of the love of Christ, revelation of the Father’s mercy."

--Pope Francis, Homily at Gemelli Hospital, June 27, 2014

"Son of God" Missed the Mark

by Justin Soutar

One year ago, Hollywood film director Christopher Spencer and producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey saddled us with Son of God, a disappointingly banal and inaccurate feature presentation on the life of Jesus Christ. Based quite loosely on the biblical accounts of Christ’s life, death, and Resurrection, this 138-minute film offers a barely tolerable portrayal of most of the significant events while making mincemeat of the details. Although many Jesus films of the past century--out of reverence for Christ’s divinity--made him seem too distant, introverted and otherworldly, with Son of God the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme of presenting Christ as too ordinary, casual, and extroverted. Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado’s fresh and engaging portrayal of Christ as a warmly human, joyful and self-confident figure admittedly has some appeal, but this performance sacrifices historical accuracy and reverence for Christ’s divine dignity to on-screen likeability. Fidelity to the Gospel texts was obviously not a major concern of the filmmakers here; apparently, they were more afraid of making Christ appear trite or cliché. The result is a pathetically mediocre film that doesn’t hold a candle to the likes of Jesus of Nazareth (1977) or The Passion of the Christ (2004).

Focusing mainly on His public ministry and Passion, Son of God attempts to portray the life of Christ retrospectively through the eyes of an older Apostle John, living out his final years in exile on Patmos as he writes his famous Gospel and the Apocalypse (Revelation). As the film opens, we hear the stirring Prologue of Saint John’s Gospel (John 1:1-18), and as it concludes, we listen to the final words of the Apocalypse (22:6-21). The film’s title is a recurring theme throughout John’s Gospel, appearing six times in all (John 1:34, 3:18, 5:25, 11:27, 19:7, and 20:31); it’s also found in several places in the Synoptic Gospels. In the film, when Jesus asks His disciples who they think He is, Peter replies, “You are the Son of God” (cf. Matt. 16:16; Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20). Taken together, these texts and the theme that resonates through them form a solid theological foundation on which a truly great film could have been built.

As a major studio production distributed by 20^th Century FOX, Son of God didn’t live up to the grand religious, historical, and artistic expectations its makers deliberately generated within its mass-market audience. The film is plagued by a variety of issues, chief of which is Morgado’s superficial performance that doesn’t accurately reflect the Jesus of the Gospels. Throughout most of the movie, Christ comes off as too breezy and carefree, too “hip” and trendy, his casual, laid-back attitude failing to reflect the seriousness of his divine mission to save fallen humanity. In the name of making the Person of Jesus more accessible to a contemporary audience, Morgado’s portrayal generally lacks true depth and spirit. Contrast this with Robert Powell’s magnificent performance in Jesus of Nazareth (1977), for example, which--despite some minor flaws and notable artistic liberties--is on the whole much more faithful to the biblical texts.

The tantalizing whirlwind of scenes at the beginning of the film allows the viewer only brief glimpses of Jesus’ nativity and His Baptism in the Jordan as Saint John flashes back to those two pivotal events; then we see the adult Jesus already beginning His public ministry. There is nothing whatsoever of the Annunciation to Mary, her visit to Elizabeth, Christ’s Circumcision, His Presentation in the Temple, or His parents’ discovery of Him in the Temple at the age of twelve. I would have liked to see a bit more of Jesus’ Birth and Baptism, as well as something of His conception and early life, if only for the sake of character and story development.

Christ’s three-year public ministry in Son of God also flashes by the viewer more quickly than expected. About a dozen fairly short scenes of the best-known events in Our Lord’s life—some from John’s Gospel and some from the other Gospels—are stitched together to achieve this undesirable effect; then all of a sudden, Jesus is triumphantly entering Jerusalem as the Messiah. With so much having been skipped altogether, the somewhat befuddled viewer is left with the impression that Our Lord’s public life has been significantly over-edited. For instance, there is nothing of the wedding at Cana, Christ’s discussion with the Samaritan woman, or His healing of the man born blind, all of which are recorded in John’s Gospel and certainly worthy of this type of film. (Scenes of Christ’s temptations were reportedly cut from the film because the actor for Satan looked too much like Barack Obama.)

 By contrast, the events of Holy Week, which collectively occupy as much or more on-screen time as the core of Jesus’ ministry, are drawn out and slow to unfold, albeit with insufficient emphasis on some of the key parts of the story. Judas and the high priests seem to take forever to get around to actually betraying and arresting Christ; Pilate’s wife’s prophetic dream occurs several days before Jesus’ arrest; Pilate threatens the Jews with stern measures should a revolt take place on the eve of Passover. But then, once they finally come, scenes of two important climactic events long anticipated by the viewer—the Last Supper and the Agony in the Garden—turn out to be disappointingly brief.

The novel presentation of Jesus’ life and ministry in Son of God is accomplished through excessive use of artistic license. In a few scenes, such as Jesus climbing into Peter’s boat and the calling of Matthew, this device arguably enhances the film. But as a rule, the wacky liberties taken clearly detract from the presentation: the paralytic comes crashing through the roof almost by himself; Christ ventures inside the tomb to bring Lazarus out; he foretells the destruction of the Temple with casual glee; he abruptly exits the Upper Room after the Last Supper, leaving His frightened disciples behind (we get barely a sentence or two of the beautiful Farewell Discourse that takes up several chapters of John’s Gospel). And in the name of freshness and relevance, the words coming out of Jesus’ mouth are typically a loose postmodern rendering of what the Gospels record. The obvious banality of this style is inconsistent with the true figure of Christ as handed down to us by biblical tradition.

Another drawback to this film is a somewhat inadequate movie set. The ubiquitous stark white background scenery leaves something to be desired, both from an artistic and a historical point of view. Most of the scenes, including the Sermon on the Mount and the feeding of the five thousand men plus women and children—both of which actually took place on the grassy shores of the Sea of Galilee—were filmed in a barren desert of rocky slopes and cliffs where hardly a smidgeon of greenery is to be found to relieve the sameness. A few palm trees are visible in one or two of the scenes, but the film cries out for a bit more of that color. Also, the special effects employed are not quite up to par, with the dark shots of Jerusalem in particular looking fake, which further detracts from the overall viewing experience.

Where Son of God actually comes close to excelling is in its portrayal of the Passion and death of Christ from His arrest to His crucifixion. This owes not so much to the genius of the filmmakers as to the overwhelming influence of Mel Gibson’s timeless masterpiece The Passion of the Christ, which set a new standard of historical accuracy for all subsequent film depictions of this world-changing event. However, the producers, director and cast of Son of God do deserve some credit for achieving a decent blend of realism, artistic license, and special effects in this portion of the film. Whereas the brutally graphic depiction of Our Lord’s sufferings in Gibson’s film demanded an R rating, Christ’s Passion in Son of God is a bit less intense to make the PG-13 grade. Nonetheless, the latter presentation is quite gripping and moving, closely following the biblical account in almost every detail, with the quality of Morgado’s performance resulting in a fairly memorable viewing experience—a notable exception to the rest of the film.

Obviously, the makers and marketers of Son of God already knew what Mel Gibson discovered ten years earlier: a large twenty-first century movie audience exists that is hungry for good religious fare. But whereas Gibson sacrificed and risked everything to make an all-time great film regardless of criticism, controversy, and potential failure—a film that actually became a record-breaking hit--Spencer and his crew appear to have aimed straight for popularity and box-office returns, paying lip service to religious and historical truth while eschewing the fine craftsmanship necessary to produce a work of enduring value. Their film didn’t qualify as good religious fare, so it didn’t satisfy the hunger of the movie audience. Its glaring lack of historical and biblical accuracy offends the sensibilities of Christian believers while offering a rather misleading depiction of Christ to potential believers. If the aim was to make a great, powerfully moving, and unforgettable Jesus film that tens of millions of people will enjoy for decades to come, Son of God definitely missed the mark. If you still haven’t seen this movie, don’t waste your time or money on it. You’re better off reading your Bible and sticking to older classic films on the life of Christ until the next truly great Jesus movie comes along.

 

Copyright © 2015 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

Reflection for Today

"The solemn proclamation of Sonship, however, is now followed by the command "Listen to him." At this point, we are reminded of the link with Moses' ascent of Mount Sinai, which we saw at the beginning to be the background of the Transfiguration story. On the mountain, Moses received the Torah, God's teaching word. Now we are told in reference to Jesus: 'Listen to him.' H. Gese has provided a perceptive commentary on this scene: 'Jesus himself has become the divine Word of revelation. The Gospels could not illustrate it any more clearly or powerfully: Jesus himself is the Torah' (Zur biblischen Theologie, p. 81). This one command brings the theophany to its conclusion and sums up its deepest meaning. The disciples must accompany Jesus back down the mountain and learn ever anew to 'listen to him.'"

--Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Part One: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (New York: Doubleday, 2007), p. 316

Easter Reflection

"What was a simple act, done surely out of love – going to the tomb – has now turned into an event, a truly life-changing event. Nothing remains as it was before, not only in the lives of those women, but also in our own lives and in the history of mankind. Jesus is not dead, he has risen, he is alive! He does not simply return to life; rather, he is life itself, because he is the Son of God, the living God (cf. Num 14:21-28; Deut 5:26; Josh 3:10). Jesus no longer belongs to the past, but lives in the present and is projected towards the future; Jesus is the everlasting "today" of God. This is how the newness of God appears to the women, the disciples and all of us: as victory over sin, evil and death, over everything that crushes life and makes it seem less human. And this is a message meant for me and for you dear sister, for you dear brother. How often does Love have to tell us: Why do you look for the living among the dead? Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness... and that is where death is. That is not the place to look for the One who is alive!

"Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward. He will receive you with open arms. If you have been indifferent, take a risk: you won’t be disappointed. If following him seems difficult, don’t be afraid, trust him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and he will give you the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would have you do."

--Pope Francis

Reflection for the Presentation of the Lord

"When Paul applies the word hilasterion [expiation] to Jesus, designating him as the seal of the Ark of the Covenant and thus as the locus of the presence of the living God, the entire Old Testament theology of worship (and with it all the theologies of worship in the history of religions) is 'preserved and surpassed' and raised to a completely new level. Jesus himself is the presence of the living God. God and man, God and the world, touch one another in him. The meaning of the ritual of the Day of Atonement is accomplished in him. In his self-offering on the Cross, Jesus, as it were, brings all the sin of the world deep within the love of God and wipes it away. Accepting the Cross, entering into fellowship with Christ, means entering the realm of transformation and expiation."

--Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth--Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011), pp. 39-40

Reflection for the Baptism of the Lord

"Jesus loaded the burden of all mankind's guilt upon his shoulders; he bore it down into the depths of the Jordan. He inaugurated his public activity by stepping into the place of sinners. His inaugural gesture is an anticipation of the Cross. He is, as it were, the true Jonah who said to the crew of the ship, 'Take me and throw me into the sea' (Jon. 1:12). The whole significance of Jesus' Baptism, the fact that he bears 'all righteousness,' first comes to light on the Cross: The Baptism is an acceptance of death for the sins of humanity, and the voice that calls out 'This is my beloved Son' over the baptismal waters is an anticipatory reference to the Resurrection. This also explains why, in his own discourses, Jesus uses the word baptism to refer to his death (cf. Mk. 10:38; Lk. 12:50)."

--Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth--Part One: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (New York: Doubleday, 2007), p. 18

Quote of the Day

“We are not so used to thinking of Jesus smiling, joyful. Jesus was full of joy - full of joy. In that intimacy with his Father: ‘He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and praised the Father.’ It is the inner mystery of Jesus, that relationship with the Father in the Spirit. It is His inner joy, his interior joy that he gives to us...

“We cannot think of a Church without joy and the joy of the Church is this: announcing the name of Jesus. To say: ‘He is the Lord. My spouse is the Lord. It is God. He saves us, He walks with us.’ And that is the joy of the Church, who in this joy of a wife becomes a mother...

"May the Lord give us all this joy, this joy of Jesus, praising the Father in the Spirit. This joy of our mother Church in evangelizing, in announcing Her Spouse.”

--Pope Francis

To an Authentic and Renewed Conversion: Vatican II and the Year of Faith

by Justin Soutar

***(Note: All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Bible unless otherwise noted.)***



On October 11, 2011, in an Apostolic Letter entitled Porta Fidei (The Door of Faith), Pope Benedict XVI declared a special Year of Faith from October 2012 through November 2013 to comemmorate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. This Holy Year, according to Benedict, "is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Savior of the world" (Porta Fidei, no. 6). By declaring this Year of Faith, our former Supreme Pontiff invited all members of the Church to reflect seriously on their faith, to rediscover its tremendous riches, to strengthen and deepen their personal faith, and to practice that faith more fully and defend it more courageously in their everyday lives.


“A Profound Crisis of Faith”

Why did our previous Holy Father declare this Year of Faith? A hint to the answer may be found in a statement Benedict made in his message to young people gathered for World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, in August 2011, two months prior to the release of Porta Fidei: “Today we are seeing a certain ‘eclipse of God’ taking place, a kind of amnesia which, albeit not an outright rejection of Christianity, is nonetheless a denial of the treasure of our faith, a denial that could lead to the loss of our deepest identity.” [Bold/italics added]

As a man of deep faith, great learning and profound wisdom, Benedict XVI has a sincere appreciation for the priceless treasure of our Catholic religion. He knows that the Catholic Church built Western civilization and that all the great cultural, intellectual, political, social, economic, scientific, and technological achievements this civilization has bestowed on the world over the centuries have their roots in a Christian society built on faith in God. Benedict is also aware that, under the increasing influence of a radically secularist ideology, Europe and the West today are gradually losing touch with their Christian identity and heritage, allowing God to fade into the background and become more and more irrelevant to social and political life. This insidious “amnesia” not only threatens to eventually cut modern Western civilization completely off from its Christian roots—with disastrous consequences for the entire civilized and globalized world—but has also begun to subtly and unconsciously infect the minds and hearts of individual Christian believers, weakening their faith and leading them away from Christ.

What better way to respond to this “’eclipse of God’” and combat this “amnesia,” this “denial of the treasure of our faith,” than to summon the whole Church “to an authentic and renewed conversion” to her Lord Jesus Christ, “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2) and “the one Savior of the world”? In other words, the Year of Faith is meant to revitalize and reform the Church so that it can more effectively carry out its mission of proclaiming Christ to the whole world. It is meant to strengthen believers in their Christian commitment so that they can help rebuild a crumbling civilization on its basic foundational principles—and through this rebuilding, the entire world will be renewed. The Holy Spirit obviously inspired our previous Vicar of Christ to proclaim this Year of Faith in order to respond to the needs of the Church and the world at this particular moment in human history.

Benedict XVI observed in Porta Fidei that whereas in the past, the vital importance of faith in shaping human society and culture was taken for granted, today this is no longer the case (cf. Porta Fidei, no. 2). Radical secularism increasingly confronts religious believers with the strange idea that faith is an exclusively private and individual matter that must not be allowed to shape or influence public life in any way. This notion contradicts the intrinsic nature of authentic Christian faith, which must be publicly professed and shared with others. “A Christian may never think of belief as a private act,” maintained the Holy Father, echoing similar words of Pope John Paul II. “Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him…Faith, precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for what one believes” (Porta Fidei, no. 10). In light of "a profound crisis of faith" that has gripped contemporary human society and culture, Benedict pointed out "the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ" (Porta Fidei, no. 2).


The Journey of Faith—An Encounter with Christ

What is faith? “Faith is the virtue by which we firmly believe all the truths God has revealed, on the word of God revealing them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived” (Baltimore Catechism #3, no. 122). Faith is “the full surrender of ourselves to God and the acceptance of his truth insofar as it is guaranteed by the One who is truth itself” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 25). “Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the proof of things that appear not” (Heb. 11:1) [Douay-Rheims Version]. Christian faith is not a blind groping in the dark for some cosmic Deity that we vaguely suspect may exist or a set of abstract intellectual speculations about some Higher Power. On the contrary, it is based on the light of divinely revealed truth. Faith presupposes that God has revealed himself to man and that man can know the truth about God with certitude. “We live faith, not as a hypothesis, but as the certainty on which our life is based.” (Ratzinger, Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005, pp. 19-20 [Bold in original]) Faith is a free gift from God and man’s free response to that gift with the help of divine grace.

For us Christian believers, faith is an encounter and a relationship with a Person who loves us—Christ, the Son of God, who became man, suffered, died, and rose from the dead to take away our sins. This encounter and loving relationship gives meaning and direction to our lives. The “journey of faith” begins with Baptism, which gives us a share in God’s Trinitarian life and incorporates us into Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church (cf. Porta Fidei, no. 1). We are aided on the journey by various sacraments: Confirmation, which strengthens us in our commitment to Christ; Penance (or Reconciliation) and Anointing of the Sick, in which we receive God’s mercy and healing; the Holy Eucharist, which renews Christ’s living presence within us; Holy Orders and Matrimony, which help us follow Christ faithfully in specific states of life. The journey of faith “ends with the passage through death to eternal life” (Porta Fidei, no. 1). Christ’s Resurrection from the dead—a real historical and physical event—is the basis of our Christian faith: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain” (1 Cor. 15:17).

Unfortunately, due to poor catechesis, some Catholics today have an inadequate and undeveloped view of faith, seeing it in negative legalistic terms. For them faith is simply the grudging acceptance of a set of boring, archaic dogmas imposed by an authoritarian hierarchy that unnecessarily burdens and constricts their lives. This minimalist, distorted version of faith is utterly powerless in the lives of its adherents and completely unattractive to potential believers. These persons have never experienced faith as the exciting journey and positive liberating force that it is meant to be. There is nothing boring about an authentic personal encounter with Christ. Such an encounter is a transformative, life-changing experience that fills a person with joy and motivates him or her to witness Christ to others.


“An Authentic and Renewed Conversion”

During this Year of Faith, we are invited to rediscover the challenge and adventure of the journey of faith through “an authentic and renewed conversion” of mind and heart to Christ. The word “conversion” comes from a Greek word metanoia, which means “change of life” or “change of perspective.” So we members of the Church—who already call ourselves Christians and believers—are called to change our ways of thinking and living so that they conform more closely to those of Christ and His Gospel. Some people think of conversion as a once-in-a-lifetime, “road to Damascus” experience that is only necessary for nonbelievers or for those who have abandoned the practice of their faith. Not true! Conversion is also necessary for those of us who already call ourselves Christ’s followers, and for us it’s an ongoing, lifelong process because we are weak, sinful human beings who often fail to live up to our vocation as Christians. Moreover, our faith in Christ tends to grow weak as we allow our ways of thinking and living to be (often unconsciously and gradually) corrupted by the anti-Christian attitudes of the world in which we live. Thus in order to remain strong in our faith, we must constantly be turning towards Christ, renewing our commitment to follow Him faithfully, and allowing our ways of thinking and living to be shaped by his Gospel. Saint Paul reminds us: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).

Being a disciple of Christ means first of all believing that He is the Son of God, but it also means listening to His teachings, obeying His commands, and following His example. Christ challenges us: “’Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me’” (Mt. 16:24). He says, “’Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you’” (Jn. 6:53). He says, “’Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me’” (Mt. 25:40), and “what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me’” (Mt. 25:45). He also says, “’Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand’” (Mt. 7:26), and “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt. 7:21). In these and many other teachings in the Gospels, Christ makes it clear that authentic discipleship is not merely an intellectual exercise of belief in Him; it is an ongoing personal relationship with Him, and it demands certain things of us. Faith in Christ is necessary for salvation, but (contrary to the claim of Protestant reformer Martin Luther) “faith alone” is an unbiblical concept and insufficient for salvation. Our faith must be put into action, or else it is useless. “Faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Jas. 2:17).

All of the recent Popes have made a general observation that there is an unacceptable gap between what we Catholics believe and how we live our daily lives. In other words, while we call ourselves Christians, our faith in Christ is superficial and compartmentalized, failing to profoundly affect our whole lives as it should. In fact, a convincing case could probably be made that most of the great evils of the twentieth century—and many of those of the preceding Christian centuries—had their origin in the failure of Catholics to properly live out their faith. Moreover, this failure is certainly at least partly to blame for the current crisis of faith in the modern world. When Christian believers act in a manner contrary to the demands of the Gospel, they betray Christ and his Church, give scandal to fellow Christians and discredit the faith in the eyes of nonbelievers. The Year of Faith is a reminder to all of us followers of Christ that what we believe and how we live must go together in a single, harmonious whole.

The blessed in Heaven, those who followed Christ faithfully on earth throughout the past twenty centuries, are our exemplars for how to live the Christian journey of faith. In a special way, the Church holds up for our imitation the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ and of the Church, she who was called “blessed because she believed” (Lk. 1:45), as the perfect model of Christian discipleship. Pope Benedict also called Mary “the Mother of Missionaries” because she was the first person to joyfully share her experience of Christ with someone else when, after having conceived Him in her womb, she traveled to visit her relative Elizabeth (cf. Lk. 1:39-56). In our own time, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Blessed John Paul II gave us powerful examples of what persons authentically and totally converted to Christ and His Gospel could accomplish for the Church and the world. The secret to their spectacular success is that they were unafraid to allow the full potential of the Christian faith to be unleashed in their lives. They were not perfect human beings, but they were constantly aware of their need for repentance and conversion, constantly renewing their commitment to Christ. Their witness should inspire and encourage us as we walk the journey of faith. Furthermore, since we’re united with them in the Communion of Saints, we should request their intercession for the graces we need to persevere on the journey towards our heavenly destination.


Vatican II and the Year of Faith

But what does the Year of Faith have to do with the anniversary of the start of Vatican II? A great deal, because the primary objective of the Second Vatican Council was to preserve and hand on the deposit of faith. According to Benedict XVI, the timing of the Year of Faith to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican II provides an opportunity to help people better understand and appreciate the great potential of the Second Vatican Council and its documents for the renewal of the Church today. In the following significant excerpt from Porta Fidei, Benedict quotes his great predecessor and then adds a quote of his own on the subject:


…the texts bequeathed by the Council Fathers, in the words of Blessed John Paul II, “have lost nothing of their value or brilliance. They need to be read correctly, to be widely known and taken to heart as important and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the Church’s tradition…I feel more than ever in duty bound to point to the Council as the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century: there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning.” [Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 57]

I would also like to emphasize strongly what I had occasion to say concerning the Council a few months after my election as Successor of Peter: “If we interpret and implement it guided by a right hermeneutic, it can be and can become increasingly powerful for the ever necessary renewal of the Church.” (Porta Fidei, no. 5) [Bold/italics added]


These statements are immensely important. First of all, our Popes made the point that the documents of Vatican II have not become outdated or useless by the passage of forty or fifty years. On the contrary, they are timeless and brilliantly written, and thus they continue to speak to us today and will continue to do so in the coming years.

Second, Popes John Paul and Benedict emphasized that the conciliar documents must be properly read and understood if they are to bear the fruit intended by the Council Fathers. They are not meant to be simply ignored and left on the shelves while we get on with the real business of reforming the Church based on our own ideas and opinions under the pretext of a nebulous “spirit of Vatican II.” Nor are the documents—as small groups of schismatic traditionalists claim—mainly pastoral in nature, riddled with dubious theological opinions and largely devoid of binding doctrinal content. Rather, the Council documents are “’important and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the Church’s tradition.’”

In other words—and the following observation will strike many Catholics as revolutionary—although they do contain pastoral instructions and guidelines, the documents of the Second Vatican Council are first and foremost official dogmatic (teaching) documents of the Church’s Magisterium. Written by the Catholic bishops of the world in union with the Successor of Saint Peter and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the conciliar texts are the product of a legitimate exercise of the Church’s divinely instituted magisterial teaching authority and thus carry the full weight of that authority. The doctrines they contain—even those not infallibly proclaimed—are binding on all the faithful. The Holy Spirit, which has always protected and will always protect the Church from teaching error in matters of faith and morals, guided the Council Fathers in their authorship of the documents of Vatican II. Thus the texts are completely trustworthy and reliable from the dogmatic point of view and must be accepted by all Catholics in obedience to the authority of the Church. Such submission to ecclesial authority naturally requires humility, however. Heretical dissenters on one side and schismatic traditionalists on the other pridefully refuse to accept the Council’s documents because they think they know better than the Church herself what the Church really teaches or should be teaching.

Due to incorrect interpretation and implementation of the Second Vatican Council in the decades following it, Vatican II and its documents have often been misconstrued as a radical break with the Church’s tradition, when in fact they are an organic growth and development of that tradition. None of the Council documents contain new teachings; they merely re-enunciate, synthesize, and develop further what the Church has always believed and taught, and thus are meant to be read and understood within the context of the Church’s 2,000-year tradition.


“A Hermeneutic of Continuity and Reform”

According to Benedict XVI, the Second Vatican Council can only fulfill its potential for renewing the Church “if we interpret and implement it guided by a right hermeneutic.” Our previous Holy Father identified this “right hermeneutic” in an address to the Italian bishops’ conference last year:


The Pope [John XXIII] asked the [Council] Fathers to examine in depth and to present this perennial doctrine in continuity with the 2,000-year-old Tradition of the Church: “to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion”, but in a new way, according “to that work which our era demands of us” (Pope John XXIII’s Opening Speech to the Second Vatican Council, 11 October 1962). With this key to interpreting and applying it — not of course in the perspective of an unacceptable hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture but rather of a hermeneutic of continuity and reform — listening to the Council and making its authoritative instructions our own is the way to identify the modalities by which the Church can offer a meaningful response to the great social and cultural changes of our time which also have visible consequences on the religious dimension. [Bold/italics added]

The “right hermeneutic” for an accurate understanding and correct implementation of the Second Vatican Council is the “hermeneutic of continuity and reform.” This double hermeneutic points to the essentially twofold nature of Vatican II and is the “key” to unlocking the Council’s inner meaning and purpose.

The fundamental objective of the Second Vatican Council was to preserve and transmit Catholic doctrine “in continuity with the 2,000-year-old Tradition of the Church.” Pope John XXIII made this clear in his opening address to the Council on October 11, 1962, when he stated: “The greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously.” [Bold/italics added] In line with this directive, the Council Fathers carefully examined, further developed, and handed on to succeeding generations—while preserving fully intact—the unchanging doctrine of the Faith in a series of authoritative documents called dogmatic constitutions. So the first key to properly understanding Vatican II is to realize that it was first and foremost a dogmatic (teaching) council of the Magisterium in faithful continuity with the Church’s 2,000-year tradition.

The second key term in the “right hermeneutic” for correctly understanding and implementing the Second Vatican Council is “reform.” At crucial moments throughout Church history, the Holy Spirit has inspired certain reforms in liturgical rubrics, canon law, Church governance, and pastoral discipline for the purpose of renewing the Church and helping her better fulfill her mission in the context of the times in which she finds herself. The Second Vatican Council was inspired by the Holy Spirit to address the needs of the Church in the modern world. While carefully preserving and handing on the deposit of faith, the Sacred Liturgy, the sacraments, and prayer in unbroken continuity with the Church’s ancient tradition, Vatican II introduced many liturgical, pastoral, and disciplinary reforms into the Church’s life to enable the Church to more effectively carry out her mission of teaching, governing, and sanctifying believers and of evangelizing non-believers in the context of the modern world. Thus the second key to properly understanding Vatican II is to keep the Council’s liturgical, pastoral, and disciplinary reforms within the framework of doctrinal and liturgical continuity.

The reform of the Sacred Liturgy was a major element of the Second Vatican Council’s mission to help the Church teach the faith, sanctify believers and evangelize non-believers more effectively in the modern age. The Holy Eucharist, “the source and summit of the Church’s life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1324 [Lumen Gentium, no. 134]) and the greatest mystery of our Catholic faith, “is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church” (Sacrosanctum concilium (The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy), no. 2). According to Vatican II, the liturgical reforms were designed to encourage “fully conscious and active participation” in the Sacred Liturgy on the part of the lay faithful while retaining its essential character in continuity with the Church’s ancient tradition (Sacrosanctum concilium, no. 14). Through careful reform and authentic renewal of the Sacred Liturgy, the Council Fathers intended that modern Catholics enter more deeply into this awesome mystery of Christ’s Sacrifice, experiencing the full power of his Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist and drawing from it the strength to live holy lives and witness Christ to the whole world.

Unfortunately, the Council’s full potential for renewing the Church has not yet been realized due to a general failure to interpret and implement it guided by a right hermeneutic. The application of a false “hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture” has led to widespread confusion and error regarding Vatican II, with disastrous consequences for the faith of millions of Catholics. Pope Benedict reminded the Italian bishops that only by applying the proper “hermeneutic of continuity and reform,” by listening to and following the instructions of the Council, can the Church find ways to respond meaningfully to the challenges of the modern world.


Proclaiming the Faith Anew

Through the declaration and observance of the Year of Faith, Benedict XVI has reminded the Church of today to look to the Second Vatican Council as the “sure compass” by which to chart her course through the stormy and turbulent waters of our time. In his Wednesday audience at the Vatican on October 10, 2012, the eve of the opening of the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict stated: “The Second Vatican Council Documents, to which we must return, freeing them from a mass of publications which instead of making them known have often concealed them, are a compass in our time too that permits the Bark of the Church to put out into the deep in the midst of storms or on calm and peaceful waves, to sail safely and to reach her destination.” [Bold/italics added]

By summoning us “to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Savior of the world” during this Year of Faith, the previous Vicar of Christ called us to return to the basic essentials of our Christian faith that the Second Vatican Council proclaimed anew to the modern world. Pope Benedict said that “we should learn the simplest and most fundamental lesson of the Council: namely, that Christianity in its essence consists of faith in God which is Trinitarian Love, and in a personal and community encounter with Christ who orients and gives meaning to life. Everything else flows from this.” The pope further stated: “What is as important today as it was for the Council Fathers is that we see — once again, and clearly — that God is present, concerns us and responds to us. And when, instead, man lacks faith in God, the essential collapses because man loses his profound dignity.”

As an “eclipse of God” slowly darkens our modern age and “a profound crisis of faith” takes hold on it, as man becomes less and less aware of God’s existence and of his fundamental need for God, the basic truths of our Christian faith which the Second Vatican Council proclaimed—and which Benedict XVI more recently proclaimed anew to the Church and the world—shine ever more brilliantly: God exists. He is real. He loves us and He hears our prayers. Man is an essentially religious being, a creature whose “profound dignity” comes from being made in the image and likeness of God, and only in relationship to God, his Creator, does man discover his true identity and grasp the real meaning and purpose of life. Only God can satisfy the deepest yearnings of the human heart, as Saint Augustine wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Faith in God is essential to the wellbeing of man and of society. Man cannot save himself by his own efforts. Christ is “God-with-us,” “the one Savior of the world,” the only hope for humanity. Salvation comes only from Christ through His Church. All Christians are called to sanctity of life (hence the “universal call to holiness”) and to find new ways of preaching the Gospel in our modern world (hence the “new evangelization”).

Pope Benedict observed in Porta Fidei that despite its forgetfulness of God and the denial of its need for him, a profound hunger for God nonetheless exists in our modern culture: “The people of today can still experience the need to go to the well, like the Samaritan woman, in order to hear Jesus, who invites us to believe in him and to draw upon the source of living water welling up within him (cf. Jn. 4:14)” (Porta Fidei, no. 3). Tens of millions of people all over the world today—some consciously, some unconsciously—are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives, presenting us with a truly immense opportunity for evangelization. However, the radically secularist and anti-religious attitudes permeating our modern culture tend to obscure the reality of this vast mission field and intimidate us into keeping the Christian faith to ourselves rather than sharing it with others as we are called to do by virtue of our baptism. But we must not allow ourselves to be intimidated out of our duty to preach the Gospel by word and example and so to help those who are searching for God find the right path to “the door of faith” (cf. Porta Fidei, no. 7; Acts 14:27). Saint Paul wrote, “Woe to me if I do not preach it [the Gospel]!” (1 Cor. 9:16), and our previous Holy Father maintained: "We cannot accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden (cf. Mt. 5:13-16)" (Porta Fidei, no. 3). We Christian believers must be loyal and courageous public witnesses to Christ and His Gospel; in doing so, we will be the salt of the earth and the light of the world that Christ is calling us to be. “Caritas Christi urget nos [The love of Christ impels us] (2 Cor. 5:14): it is the love of Christ that fills our hearts and impels us to evangelize” (Porta Fidei, no. 7).


Rediscovering, Knowing, Living our Faith

In the final paragraph of his October 10, 2012 audience address, Pope Benedict declared: “The Second Vatican Council is a strong appeal to us to rediscover every day the beauty of our faith, to know it deeply for a more intense relationship with the Lord, in order to live our Christian vocation to the full.” How can we Catholics rediscover the beauty of our faith, intensify our relationship with Our Lord, and more fully live out our Christian vocation during this Year of Faith? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Read, study and meditate on the Faith. Start by reading Porta Fidei (The Door of Faith), the charter document for the Year of Faith. It’s concisely written and will properly orient your mind and heart for this Holy Year. Next, study the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which summarizes all the basics of Catholic doctrine in concise question-and-answer format. Then dig into the main volume, The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which Benedict XVI called “an authentic fruit of the Second Vatican Council” (Porta Fidei, no. 4) and which contains the entire deposit of faith. Read the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Unfortunately, for the most part these precious jewels of our Catholic faith have remained buried in the five decades since the Council. Now is the time to unearth these teaching documents and bask in their full brilliance by “reading them correctly” and “taking them to heart as important and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the Church’s tradition.” Pope Benedict recommended in particular the four Constitutions, which he referred to as “the four cardinal points of the compass that can direct us” : Sacrosanctum concilium (On the Sacred Liturgy); Lumen Gentium (The Light of the Nations); Dei Verbum (On Divine Revelation); and Gaudium et Spes (On the Church in the Modern World). The papal encyclicals of Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, which explore Church teachings from within the perspective of Vatican II, are excellent. All of these resources are available on the Vatican website. Also, read the Bible, the divinely inspired Word of God, especially the daily Mass readings. According to Pope Benedict, “We must rediscover a taste for feeding ourselves on the word of God” (Porta Fidei, no. 3), and Saint Jerome famously wrote, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” If we’re serious about experiencing “an authentic and renewed conversion” to Christ, we cannot afford to remain ignorant of Him. Read the Early Church Fathers such as St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Iranaeus, St. Justin, Origen, Tertullian, St. Geogory of Nyssa, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine, who wrote passionately and brilliantly about the same faith we hold today. Another good book for this Year of Faith would be Jesus of Nazareth by Benedict XVI. Although not an official text of the Magisterium like most of the others here recommended, it is written by a man of great faith, wisdom, and knowledge and offers amazing insights into the figure of Jesus as presented in the Gospels.

2. Get the indulgence for the Year of Faith. During this Holy Year, the Church offers us special graces to help us grow in our relationship with Christ. The greatest of these graces is a special plenary indulgence. In a solemn decree issued on May 10, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI announced that this indulgence will be granted to all the faithful who fulfill certain prescribed conditions in addition to the usual conditions of going to Confession, receiving Holy Communion, and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father. The special conditions for obtaining this particular indulgence may be found on the official Year of Faith website at the following link: http://www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en/annus-fidei/indulgentia.html .

3. Receive the Sacraments frequently. The sacraments are channels of grace through which we receive the strength necessary to follow Christ faithfully in our everyday lives. We should especially receive the sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist often to be cleansed of our sins and spiritually nourished for the journey of faith.

4. Spend some time in prayer. Christ says, “’Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me’” (Jn. 15:4), and “’without me you can do nothing’” (Jn. 15:5). When Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta was once asked how she was able to accomplish so much, she replied simply, “I pray.” If faith is an encounter with Christ and a loving personal relationship with Him, prayer is the heart and soul of that relationship. The more time we spend in prayer, the more closely united with Christ we will be, the deeper our faith will become, and the more fruit we will bear in the Lord’s vineyard. Scripture says, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17) Simple daily prayers, such as morning and evening prayers and grace before and after meals, are important to nourish our Christian life (cf. Compendium of the Catechism, no. 567). The Church also recommends the Liturgy of the Hours and the daily rosary; the latter is an excellent method of drawing closer to Christ through meditation on the mysteries of his life in union with Our Blessed Mother Mary, the perfect follower of Christ and the one through whom all graces come to us. Above all, during this Year of Faith we should enter more deeply into the Sacred Liturgy, “the great prayer of the Church.” Lex orandi, lex credendi: “As we pray, so we believe” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1124).

5. Share the faith with others. The priceless gift of faith we have been given is not meant to be selfishly hoarded within ourselves, but rather to be freely shared with others. “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give” (Mt. 10:8). We can all find little opportunities in our everyday lives to witness Christ and evangelize others through word and example. The more we take advantage of these opportunities, the more our faith will grow and the stronger it will become. In his Message for the 1992 World Youth Day, Blessed John Paul II declared:


All baptized persons are called by Christ to become his apostles in their own personal situation and in the world: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn. 20:21). Through his Church Christ entrusts you with the fundamental mission of sharing with others the gift of salvation. He invites you to participate in building his kingdom. He chooses you, in spite of the personal limitations everyone has, because he loves you and believes in you. This unconditional love of Christ should be the very soul of your apostolic work, in accord with the words of St. Paul, “The love of Christ impels us” (2 Cor. 5:14).

Being disciples of Christ is not a private matter. On the contrary, the gift of faith must be shared with others. For this reason the same apostle writes: "If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!" (1 Cor 9:16). Moreover, do not forget that faith is strengthened and grows precisely when it is given to others.


Perhaps no better summary of the Christian life can be found than that contained in Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians: “I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:1-6).

And perhaps no better prayer for this Year of Faith can be said than that of Benedict XVI: “May the Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ and of the whole Church, help us to achieve and to bring to completion what the Council Fathers, motivated by the Holy Spirit, pondered in their hearts: the desire that all might know the Gospel and encounter the Lord Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”



Copyright © 2012, 2013 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

On the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Il Sacro Cuore by Pompeo Batoni (1740)
Church of the Gesu, Rome

"The best way to love Him in return is to open our hearts and let Him love us. Let Him draw close to us and feel Him close to us. This is really very difficult: letting ourselves be loved by Him. And that is perhaps what we need to ask today in the Mass: 'Lord, I want to love You, but teach me the difficult science, the difficult habit of letting myself be loved by You, to feel You close and feel Your tenderness! May the Lord give us this grace."

--Pope Francis

On the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

"God is not something vague, our God is not something vaporous, he is concrete, he is not an abstraction, but has a name: “God is love.” It is not a sentimental or emotive love, but the love of the Father that is the origin of every life, the love of the Son who dies on the cross and rises, the love of the Spirit, who renews man and the world. Understanding that God is love does us a lot of good, because it teaches us to love, to give ourselves to others as Jesus gave himself to us, to walk with us. Jesus walks with us along the road of life.

"The Most Holy Trinity is not the product of human reasoning; it is the face with which God himself revealed himself, not from the height of a cathedra, but walking with humanity. It is precisely Jesus who revealed the Father and promised us the Holy Spirit. God walked with his people in the history of the people of Israel and Jesus always walked with us and promised us the Holy Spirit, who is fire, who teaches us all the things that we do not know, who guides us from within, he gives us the good ideas and the good inspirations.

"Today we praise God not for a particular mystery but for himself, “for his great glory,” as the liturgical hymn says. We praise him and we thank him because he is Love, and because he calls us to enter into the embrace of his communion, which is eternal life.

"Let us place our praises in the hands of the Virgin Mary. She, the most humble of creatures, through Christ has already arrived at the goal of the earthly pilgrimage: she is already in the glory of the Trinity. Because of this Mary our Mother, Our Lady, shines for us as a sign of sure hope. She is the Mother of hope; on our journey, on our road, she is the Mother of hope. She is also the Mother who consoles us, the Mother of consolation and the Mother who is with us on the journey."

--Pope Francis

Was Jesus Crucified on Passover?

Reading Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI has been a wonderful experience for me. In this original work, drawing on his deep faith in Jesus, his vast scholarship and his great intellectual ability, our former Holy Father offers profound and beautiful insights into the figure and Person of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels. Pope Benedict’s remarkable talent for Scripture study is marvelously evident in this three-volume book; he draws brilliant connections between various Scripture passages and truly makes the Scriptures come alive. In summary, I have been greatly enriched through my reading of Jesus of Nazareth, and I would highly recommend this book series to anyone.

In his Foreword to Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict XVI points out that this book is not an exercise of the Church’s Magisterium but rather “my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord’ (cf. Ps. 27:8).” (p. xxiii) He adds, “Everyone is free, then, to contradict me. I would only ask my readers for that initial goodwill without which there can be no understanding.” (p. xxiv) Having gladly given such initial goodwill, I have found very little to disagree with in the book. However, I did find one area where I respectfully disagree with the former pontiff, and that is in his discussion of the dating of the Last Supper and Christ’s crucifixion in relation to the date of the Passover feast (Jesus of Nazareth—Part Two: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011), pp. 106-115).

In this discussion, Benedict XVI draws attention to the apparent contradiction between the date of Passover as recounted in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) and as recounted in the Gospel of John. He observes that the Synoptics place the Last Supper “on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb” (Mk. 14:12), and clearly identify the Last Supper as a Passover meal. This meal took place on Thursday evening, which according to the Synoptic chronology was the eve of Passover. Jesus was then crucified the following day, which would have been the very day of the Passover feast. The Pope finds it improbable that Jesus would have been tried and executed on the important Jewish feast day of Passover. As evidence against this hypothesis, he points to a comment from Mark: “He tells us that two days before the feast of Unleavened Bread, the chief priests and scribes were looking for an opportunity to bring Jesus under their control by stealth and kill him, but in this regard, they declared: ‘not during the feast, lest there be a tumult of the people’ (14:1-2)” (pp. 107-108).

Benedict then turns to John’s chronology and highlights the differences between it and the Synoptic chronologies. He says that John goes to great lengths to show that Jesus’ Last Supper was not a Passover meal. He also notes that “the Jewish authorities who led Jesus before Pilate’s court avoided entering the praetorium, ‘so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover’ (18:28)” (p. 108), implying—in contrast to the Synoptic Gospels—that the Passover had not yet begun at the time of Jesus’ trial. According to John’s chronology, therefore, Jesus was tried and executed on the day before Passover, not on the feast day itself. Both the Synoptic and Johannine chronologies agree that the Last Supper took place on Thursday, Jesus’ death on Friday, repose in the tomb on Saturday, and the Resurrection on Sunday. But while the Synoptic accounts explicitly have the Passover feast begin on Thursday evening, John’s gospel implies that it began on Friday evening.

Benedict remarks that, if John’s chronology is correct, the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple at the same time that Jesus, the true Lamb, was crucified. He observes that this theologically significant connection has led many scholars to write off John’s chronology as a “theological” chronology, deliberately constructed in order to bring out this important theological connection. However, the Holy Father believes that the Johannine chronology is more historically probable than the Synoptic chronologies because it seems unlikely that Jesus would have been executed on the feast of Passover. “On the other hand,” he writes, “Jesus’ Last Supper seems so closely tied to the Passover tradition that to deny its Passover character is problematic” (p. 109).

Benedict notes that attempts have frequently been made to reconcile the Synoptic and Johannine chronologies. He discusses at some length the interesting theory of twentieth-century French scholar Annie Jaubert, who claimed that Jesus celebrated the feast of Passover on a Tuesday evening following an ancient priestly calendar, while the Jewish authorities, following their own calendar, would have celebrated the Passover on Friday evening. Thus the difference between the Synoptic and Johannine dating of Passover can be explained by the use of two different calendars. However, Pope Benedict points out that John’s gospel itself indicates that Jesus followed the same calendar as the Jewish authorities, and he also notes the long tradition assigning Jesus’ Last Supper to Thursday. He concludes: “So while I would not reject this theory outright, it cannot simply be accepted at face value, in view of the various problems that remain unresolved” (p. 112).

Benedict finds a solution to the Passover discrepancy in a meticulous and comprehensive scholarly work by John P. Meier entitled A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. Concluding that one must choose between the Synoptic and Johannine chronologies, Meier argues that the weight of evidence favors the Johannine version of events. The former pontiff notes that Meier cannot give a convincing explanation for the Synoptic references to a Passover meal, dismissing them as later additions to the gospel texts. Meier claims that Jesus’ Last Supper was not a true Passover meal according to Jewish ritual and calendar, but that it was Jesus’ own personal version of a Passover meal in which he gave himself to his disciples as the true Lamb on the eve of his passion and death. Benedict describes this viewpoint as follows: “Even though the meal that Jesus shared with the Twelve was not a Passover meal according to the ritual prescriptions of Judaism, nevertheless, in retrospect, the inner connection of the whole event with Jesus’ death and Resurrection stood out clearly. It was Jesus’ Passover. And in this sense he both did and did not celebrate the Passover: the old rituals could not be carried out—when their time came, Jesus had already died. But he had given himself, and thus he had truly celebrated the Passover with them” (p. 114).

Personally, I find little reason to doubt the accuracy of the Synoptic chronologies. The Synoptic gospels are straightforward historical accounts of Jesus’ life, teaching, Passion, Death and Resurrection. They were written much closer in time to the events they record than was the Gospel of John. It makes sense, as the Synoptics tell us, that the Last Supper was a real Passover meal taken by Jesus and his disciples on the opening night of the Passover feast. After all, Jesus observed all the major Jewish feast days. The notions that Jesus’ Last Supper was not a genuine Passover meal and did not take place on the eve of Passover I find distasteful, unacceptable and incompatible with the Synoptic gospel accounts. Those accounts also contain significant theological connections. According to the Synoptics, the institution of the Holy Eucharist took place appropriately on the feast of Unleavened Bread. Then on the feast of Passover, the day on which the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt, Christ passed over into the realm of the dead, delivering mankind from the slavery of sin. I believe that Jesus’ trial and execution did actually take place on the feast of Passover as the Synoptics indicate. The chief priests and scribes may have originally planned not to arrest and kill Jesus on Passover as Mark’s gospel relates (14:1-2), but then Judas offered to hand Jesus over to them (14:10-11) and did so at a convenient opportunity, which happened to be the night before the Passover feast. Moreover, a statement by Jesus in Matthew’s gospel seems to confirm that his death would really take place on Passover. Jesus says to his disciples: “You know that in two days’ time it will be Passover, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified” (26:2). The way this statement is worded implies two simultaneous events: Passover and crucifixion. It really does not make sense to interpret it any other way. If Jesus was going to be crucified before the Passover, why would he bother to mention the Passover first—or at all? Finally, the Roman governor had a custom of releasing one prisoner chosen by the people on the occasion of Passover (Mt. 27:15); Pilate followed this custom, offering to release Jesus, but the crowds, stirred up by the chief priests and elders, demanded Barabbas’ release instead (Mt. 27:16ff). It makes sense that this amnesty would have been granted on the actual day of the Passover feast.

It’s true that, unlike the Synoptics, John’s gospel makes no mention of Christ’s Last Supper as being a Passover meal. However, John does not therefore deny the Passover character of the Last Supper. He simply chooses to focus on Jesus’ example of humble service in the washing of his disciples’ feet. John fails to mention a great many facts recounted in the Synoptics because his approach is different; his gospel is the “theological” gospel, and his main concern is not to record all the facts of Jesus’ life but rather to present him in all his glory as the Son of God. Also, John prefaces his account of the Last Supper with the words, “Before the feast of Passover” (13:1); this can mean that the Passover feast would occur the next day, that is, Friday.

But how can we explain the statement in John’s gospel that the Jews who led Jesus before Pilate avoided entering the praetorium “so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover” (18:28)? Is this merely a theological device intended to connect Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross with the sacrifice of the Passover lambs? No; this is a simple factual statement, and as such it cannot reasonably be doubted or explained away, even if it seems to contradict the Synoptics. Perhaps this verse from John can be reconciled with the Synoptic accounts in this way. The Jewish feast of Passover is in fact not confined to a single day but constitutes a week-long celebration. True, the principal Passover meal takes place on the first evening of this feast, but the lesser meals taken on the succeeding days are also part of the Passover celebration. The Passover may have already begun on Thursday evening, but the Jews who brought Jesus before Pilate still had to keep themselves ritually pure if they were to continue to eat the Passover feast, which would continue until the following Thursday.

So perhaps there is no real conflict between the Synoptic and Johannine accounts of Christ’s Last Supper and crucifixion in relation to the Passover feast. But even if my explanation of John 18:28 turns out to be inadequate and not well supported, I would still tend to favor the Synoptic version of events, which I find to be historically accurate as well as theologically significant. In the meantime, I will try to keep an open mind pending additional research on this subject.


Copyright © 2013 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.