Catholic East Texas: March 2017 (Vol. 30, no. 3)

Jesus Christ sTK Gorman s Father Sardinas s Nuns in Paris s Food Pantry March-April 2017 January-February 2017

This Issue THE MAGAZINE OF THE DIOCESE OF TYLER

Vol. 30 Issue 3 March-April 2017 Catholic East Texas (USPS 001726) is a publication of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler, 1015 ESE Loop 323, Tyler, Texas 75701-9663. Telephone: 903534-1077. Fax: 903-534-1370. E-mail: news@ catholiceasttexas.com. ©2016 Diocese of Tyler.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: CET Subscriptions, 1015 ESE Loop 323, Tyler, TX 75701-9663 Published five times per year. Periodical postage paid at Tyler, Texas, and additional mailing office.

Subscription is $20 per year. News, calendar and advertising deadlines: Aug. 10, Oct. 10, Dec. 10, Feb 10, April 10.

The publisher and editor reserve the right to reject, omit or edit any article or letter submitted for publication. The Diocese of Tyler and/or the Catholic East Texas cannot be held liable or in any way responsible for the content of any advertisement printed herein. All claims, offers, guarantees, statements, etc., made by advertisers are solely the responsibility of the advertiser.

Deceptive or misleading advertising is never knowingly accepted. Complaints regarding advertising should be made directly to the advertiser or the Better Business Bureau.

Publisher Most Rev. Joseph E. Strickland Bishop of Tyler Chaplain Father Matthew Stehling Editor Ben Fisher Ben@catholiceasttexas.com Spanish Editor Sr. Angélica Orozco EFMS sistera@dioceseoftyler.org Contributing Writer Amanda Martinez Beck

03 04 08 10 16 18 22 24 26 30 32 34 40 44 48 50 52 56 58 60

Bishop Strickland Diocesan News and Events Taking Jesus Seriously Bishop Joseph Strickland

Only Begotten Son Marissa Pierotti

Jesus of Nazareth Book review by Ty Jackson

Mother of Jesus, Mother of God Father Matthew Stehling

Decree on the Placement of Tabernacles Bishop Joseph Strickland

Jerusalem at the time of Christ Terri Bolton

Getting to know Jesus Better Father Hank Lanik

Answering the Internet Father Joshua Neu

Food Pantry Pros President of TK Gorman School

An interview with Father Anthony McLaughlin, JCD

Visited by a Saint

An interview with Father Juan Carlos Sardinas

Welcome to Paris The Sisters of Fatima

Monseñor Strickland

Los Padres de la Iglesia y la persona de Jesús Jesús ha Conducido mi Vida

Padre Guillermo Gabriel-Maisonet

¡Viva Cristo Rey! Hna. Angelica Orozco

Hermanas Marianitas Hna. Angelica Orozco

Cargo Cults Ben Fisher

All registered parishioners in the Diocese of Tyler receive the Catholic East Texas magazine for free. If you are a member of a parish or mission in the Diocese and you are not receiving your free subscription to the magazine, please contact your parish/mission or complete this form so that we may add you to our mailing list: http://cetmag.org/cetsubscribe

www.dioceseoftyler.org 1

Bishop Strickland leads the rosary in front of the Planned Parenthood offices in Tyler.

Photo by Peyton Low

Bishop Strickland

Fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Tyler

As I reflect for this issue of the Catholic East Texas, my mind continues to be on teaching the faith to our young people. As I wrote in the last issue, we need to embrace this challenge of making sure that every child in our diocese understands the Catholic faith, and has every opportunity to live a wonderful life in Jesus Christ. Well, as bishop, I need to embrace this challenge, too. I need to move forward to do those things which will help foster this new Springtime of Catholic education in our diocese.

So, I have made a change in our largest Catholic school, Bishop TK Gorman School in Tyler. I have instituted a new model of governance for the school, the president-principal model, and I have appointed Father Anthony McLaughlin, JCD, to be the first President. Father McLaughlin will lead the search for a new principal, as Jim Franz steps down with our thanks for his service, after 19 years as the principal of TK Gorman.

I feel that the president-principal model of governance is right for TK Gorman, and that it will help us to achieve our goal of truly teaching the Catholic faith to all of our students.

This model has a tested track record, with over half of all Catholic schools in the USA using it. Specifically, the presence of a priest-president will help us to create a truly Catholic environment within the school.

This is of utmost importance, that our Catholic schools be truly, unabashedly Catholic.

Previously, the principal was expected to do so much, and a Catholic school has special needs which the president can really focus on. We need Catholicity, and we need Development. These are like two pistons, firing together, and that can run the engine of a vibrant Catholic school. The president will focus on these two things, so that as many students as possible can experience the great advantage of a truly Catholic education. With the principal free to focus on the day-to-day operations of the school, he can create the best possible academic environment, while the president creates those conditions in which a Catholic school can flourish, and Catholicity can flourish within the school.

You know, for a middle school or high school student to go to Mass as part of their school curriculum is unusual in our culture. We need to become more unusual in this way. We need to be unabashed about Jesus Christ and His Church in

our schools. We’re not there yet; it’s not a wonderfully finished product, but we are well on our way.

I want our Catholic schools to be tremendously attractive to families. I want TK Gorman to be something that would draw people to want to live in Tyler, and to draw all of our Catholic families here to want to see their kids in this academically and spiritually wonderful institution. Our culture seems to get more confusing and bonkers every day, and I want our schools to be bastions of truth and beauty and goodness that stand out from this confusion and offer the Catholic Faith, truly and completely. Our Catholic schools, teaching the truth of the Catholic Faith, are an integral part of our mission to strengthen families and to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to each and every family in East Texas.

The move to the presidentprincipal model is tied very strongly into our renewed focus on teaching, on catechesis and evangelization which has to pervade the entire diocese. I think Father McLaughlin, with his academic, pastoral, and fundraising experience, is the best man to tackle this challenge at TK Gorman. We will go on to reform our other institutions, and to recruit the best and brightest to the mission of teaching in the diocese. We really are “turning a corner” in many parts of the diocese, and we will be bold as we go forward.

To families in the area whose kids are not currently enrolled in Catholic school, I have a special message: TK Gorman is going to be unabashedly and forthrightly Catholic. We will do this. We will create a partnership between the school and parents in forming our students in the Catholic faith. I want your family in partnership with us. I know it’s something of a gamble, and not to be taken lightly, but have faith in us. Help us to accomplish this goal, by bringing your family’s Catholic faith to our school. We are making these personnel and managerial changes, but really what is happening is a philosophical change, to more fully embrace the Catholic faith in our schools. We will support you and help you in your mission as parents and first teachers of the Catholic Faith. Please consider Catholic education for your family. Your presence, as a committed Catholic family, can only deepen the Catholic nature of TK Gorman.q 3

Diocesan News

For more news, go to: www.dioceseoftyler.org/news

Come and join us at the YOUTH 2000 Retreat for a fun, faith-filled Eucharistic centered retreat for youth (ages 13-18).

Led by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. April 21-23, St. Edward’s Parish, Athens, Texas.

The YOUTH 2000 Retreat includes lively music, inspiring talks led by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a time for fellowship and fun, sharing the faith, personal testimonies, panel discussions, Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Reconciliation.

YOUTH 2000, a Eucharistic centered Retreat, leads young people to seek a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Through talks, music, adoration, prayer, workshops, fellowship, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and the celebration of the Mass, the young people deepen their love and understanding of the Catholic faith, and encounter the power and richness of God’s love and mercy.

This Retreat brings young people to know the joy of a life lived in the worship of God and in service to God’s people.

This weekend Retreat empowers them to go forth with renewed faith, to be witnesses to the Faith, to share the Good News and to be the evangelizers of the New Evangelization.

Cost is $25 per person. For more info, please email Jessica Bentley:

mqhstedsyouth@gmail.com

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Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Nacogdoches is hosting the 29th annual mulicultural festival on May 6 & 7. The event will be held on the church grounds from 11am to 7pm Saturday, and 9:30 am to 6 pm on Sunday.

Food booths include Filipino, Mexican, Indian, BBQ, Cajun, Hungarian, ice cream, pastries, cotton candy, hot dogs, and funnel cake Singers and dance groups will perform. A silent auction will be held, as well as kid’s games to include a jump house.

More activites are planned and expected.

Pastor, Father Christopher Ruggles said, “As we begin preparation for our 29th annual multicultural festival, I am particularly pleased with our sustaining the Year of Mercy which ended on the Feast of Christ the King in 2016. We have chosen to carry this message of Mercy forward as a living example and testament of what we discerned in the past Church Year of Mercy and now extend that to the local community of Nacogdoches and the many cultures that make up the fabric of our wonderful community as we go forward into our next 300 years.”

Diocesan Director of Faith Formation Linda Khirallah Porter is retiring.

Since 1994 Linda has served as Director of the Office of Faith Formation for the Diocese of Tyler. She is married with three adult children and five grandchildren. Linda earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education from University of Dallas and a Master of Theology Studies from University of Dallas Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies.

She was presented the first Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Dallas Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies in 2004 in recognition for distinguished service to faith formation in the Diocese of Tyler. She also received the Women of Excellence Award in 2006 from the Baptist Church for promoting faith formation in East Texas Area.

She has published articles in the Tower magazine from the University of Dallas, Catechetical Leader published by the National Conference Catechetical Leadership, and The Catechumenate magazine published by Liturgy Training Publications. In 2014 she created a program in the Diocese of Tyler entitled Bridging the Gap: Faith Formation for Special Needs.

She has served on several committees, commissions, and boards over the last 23 years both in the diocese and around the country.

for Life, are the prayer warriors of today that will enact change for the future to truly make abortion and other acts that go against life truly unimaginable.”

Divine Mercy Sunday will be celebrated on April 23, 2017. At the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Tyler. Rev Nelson Munoz will offer a Divine Mercy celebration imediately after the 1:30 pm Spanish Mass. The prayers will include the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Praises of Divine Mercy, Prayers for the Pope, Adoration and Benediction followed by confessions.

At the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul in Tyler, Rev Jonathon Frels will lead a holy hour in honor of Divine Mercy beginning at 3 pm. The celebration will include praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Praises of Divine Mercy, prayer for Pope Francis, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction and confessions.

The second Mass for Families with Special Needs will be celebrated on April 29 at 10:00 AM at the Chapel of Sts. Peter and Paul in Tyler. A reception will follow in the chancery.

Students from St. Mary’s Catholic Campus Ministry at Stephen F Austin University in Nacogdoches attended the Rally for Life in Austin. Austin Thurman, Pograms Director for the Campus Ministry, reports: “When we went to Austin for the Rally for Life this year, we had no idea of what that weekend would entail. When we arrived, we were met by 200+ students from all across the state of Texas who were all pro-life and to our amazement, they were students of all different backgrounds, beliefs, denominations but all united for a common cause: life. We were all joined together to support the sanctity of all life, from natural birth to natural death and everything in between.

Over 30 students from SFA joined thousands of other Texans in the march on the capitol. We heard great speeches and participated in awesome talks, workshops and activities reminding us of why we are fighting for what we believe as Christians. All life is precious. All those who God our Father created need that chance to live in this great world. If the innocent can’t speak and fight for themselves then who will? We as Christians as children of God need to answer that call to defend the innocent and the marginalized. The Catholic Jacks of SFA, especially those who are involved at St. Mary’s and those associated with the Lumberjacks

SpringFest: A Celebration of Hope will be held at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Whitehouse, TX on Saturday, May 13.

The celebration begins at 10am and runs until 2:30 pm.

Activities include games and activities for kids and adults, food concessions, a silent auction for arts, crafts, gift baskets, gift cards, and a special jewelery collection.

There will also be music, door prizes, a bake sale and raffle. Raffle prizes include a lawn tractor, a 58” color TV, a gas/ charcoal grill, a $250 Visa gift card, and 6 tickets to the Cherokee Trace drive-thru safari.

The Diocese of Tyler is committed to providing a safe environment for children and vulnerable adults. Please report any questions or concerns about the behavior of church personnel to the diocesan Promoter of Justice, 903-2662159, promoter@dioceseoftyler.org, or 903-939-1037 (fax). All communications are confidential. The State of Texas requires that any suspicions of abuse of a minor be reported. Contact 800-2525400.

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Jesus Christ is the very center and heart of everything we believe and live as Catholics. It may sound obvious, but this fact cannot be overstated.

He is the reason for all that exists in the Church; everything stems from Him and points back to Him. This issue of the Catholic East Texas focuses on the Person of Jesus Christ, who He is, what we believe about His nature, and how He offers us salvation. We can never stop delving into the mystery of Jesus Christ, and we must never be afraid to answer our friends and family members when questions arise about our faith in Christ. We must be ready to respond to our modern culture which seeks to push Him aside.

As Catholics, we encounter Christ in every Sacrament, but most especially in the Holy Eucharist which the Catechism calls the “source and summit of the Christian life”. The Eucharist holds a special place in the very center of our churches.

All the theological knowledge of Christ is of no avail, however, if it doesn’t bring us into a closer relationship with Him through prayer, service, and the sacraments. I hope the following pages teach us more about our faith in Jesus Christ, and bring us closer to our Lord and Savior.

Father Matthew Stehling Chaplain, Catholic East Texas

Facade, St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice, Italy

A radical Idea People don’t appreciate and respect sin enough. Does that sound odd, coming from a Catholic bishop? It’s a very Catholic idea. There is a simple truth that we must all learn: We cannot take Jesus seriously until we respect sin. Conversely, if we minimize sin, its power and importance, we minimize Jesus Christ.

I think this is happening in our world, every day in myriad ways.

We need to talk about sin, and we need to gain a healthy respect for it, so that we can approach a proper respect for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sin has lost its Punch We Catholics are to be the salt of the Earth. But, as Scripture says, if the salt loses its savor, what is it good for? If we lose our sense of the horror of sin, what good are we? We cannot be a sign of contradiction in this world if we don’t think differently from this world.

This is why I am concerned that Catholics today have lost our sense of sin. We do not connect the ills of our world and our society with sin. We do not see sin as the Apostles did or the great saints did. We are neither afraid of sin nor respectful of it.

I think we do not respect sin because we are not aware that sin is primarily an offense against God. We tend to concentrate on sin as being only against our fellow human beings, to the exclusion of sin being committed against God. When we recite the Act of Contrition after confessing our sins to a priest, we say “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee...” and this is reality. If sin was only an offense against our fellow human beings, we would not need to be saved from it.

It pains me to see how our world and our society has come to actually embrace sin. So much of the moral confusion in the 8

world today comes from this mistaken understanding of what it means to have love for our fellow human beings. Love, first and foremost of all, would seek to save others from sin, and never to encourage people to sin or confirm them in sin. We as Catholics need to reform ourselves on this point. We can never support another human being in sin, never encourage another to sin, and never campaign for someone’s right to sin. To do so is completely contrary to the mission of Jesus Christ.

And, if we do not have a proper view of sin, if we are not conscious of the evil of sin, we will never have a proper respect and appreciation for God. If sin has lost its punch for us, then God will have lost His punch in our lives. If we don’t fear sin, we won’t appreciate Him who saves us from it.

How can we regain a sense of sin, and understand what it means to “offend God?” I suggest we turn to a man who lived a thousand years ago and let him teach us.

A teaching Bishop Saint Anselm was a priest, a monk, an abbot, a philosopher and theologian, and finally Archbishop of Canterbury in England in the 11th century. He has been declared a Doctor of the Church (one of the greatest theologians in the history of the Church).

This amazing man was perhaps the greatest theologian during the time between Saint Augustine in the 5th century and Saint

Regaining a sense of sin, so that we can respect God. By bishop joseph strickland Thomas Aquinas in the 13th. He wrote several great works, and formulated the thought-provoking Ontological Argument for the Existence of God. His book Cur Deus Homo (Why did God become Man?) speaks to our topic here.

Saint Anselm wrote about the Atonement, which literally is At-One-Ment, or how man is reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Because Jesus accomplished the Atonement through His sacrifice, but didn’t give a detailed, technical explanation for how it worked, Christian theologians have worked to explain the mechanism of the Atonement for two millennia. In Cur Deus Homo, Saint Anselm explains sin so that we can understand his theory of the Atonement. Anselm tells us that each sin creates an infinite debt.

To Infinity “Bishop,” you may be thinking, “what are you getting at?

How can any little sin create an infinite debt?” I’ll let a great Catholic theologian and Anselm expert, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, explain: “An offense, an injury, or a sin, is always to be measured by the one sinned against. It would be, for example, a far greater offense to insult the mayor of your own city than a citizen of your own city, and it would be a greater offense to commit a crime against the governor of your state than against the mayor. In like manner, it would be a still greater offense to commit a felony against the President of the United States than against the governor of any state. In other words, sin is measured by the one sinned against. Man sinned against God. God is infinite.

Therefore, man’s offense is infinite.”

Every one of our sins is an infinite offense against God, not because we are so great, but because God is. .

1850 Sin is an offense against God

-Catechism of the Catholic Church

Sin the Great and Powerful St. Anselm, in Cur Deus Homo, actually uses the same words to describe sin as he does to describe the power of God. I find this significant. Only rational beings created in God’s image can sin. All of this terrible force in the universe springs from the human heart. That is awesome and scary and probably why we tend to discount the power of sin, because we are the sources, the “nuclear reactors” from which the power of sin emerges.

In sin, we choose to disobey God, who is all good and deserving of our love and obedience. We offend the very order of the cosmos. On earth, if someone commits a crime, we clamor for justice, not because we are vicious, or sadistically want to see someone punished, but rather because we know that justice should prevail. A criminal should pay his debt to the victims and the society he has wronged. We all perceive the justice in this.

By comparison, then, this is how gravely we sin whenever we knowingly do something, however small, contrary to the will of God. For we are always in His presence, and He always commands us not to sin.

-Saint Anselm, Cur Deus Homo 9

In the same way, we can see that the debt of sin must be paid. Now, perhaps, the doctrine of Hell begins to be a bit more clear. How many times have people rationalized away a belief in Hell, on the grounds that it seemed entirely out of proportion for someone to be punished eternally for finite, even small sins committed on earth? Anselm has explained this to us, and we can see the justice in this. If God were only a God of justice, the story would end here, with every sinner condemned to an eternity of punishment to pay an infinite debt.

This is the dividing point in human history, before which the world “groaned” as St. Paul says, needing and awaiting a savior to pay this debt.

452 The name Jesus means “God saves”. The child born of the Virgin Mary is called Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins”

-Catechism of the Catholic Church

Mercy to the Rescue We know, however, that God is perfect in mercy as well as justice. St. Anselm reasoned that only an infinite God can pay an infinite debt, but in justice, it must be mankind which does the paying. It seems to be a conundrum: what mankind must pay, mankind cannot. What we each must pay, we cannot. In order to show us His mercy, God would have to pay our debt, as man.

This is Saint Anselm’s theory of the Atonement in a nutshell.

This is his answer to Cur Deus Homo…Why did God Become Man? To pay man’s debt as a man, out of His perfect love for us.

Only God is great and powerful enough to achieve this satisfaction that justice requires. This is why Anselm described sin in the same words as the power of God, to point out that only He is great enough to obtain salvation for us. Only “one of us” can produce sin which upsets the order of the universe and incurs the infinite debt, and only God as “one of us” can restore order in both justice and mercy.

I think there is a rebellion against this, initially, in the human heart, a refusal to admit that we can’t “do it ourselves” and that we need salvation. I think this is the source of some distortions of redemption that have crept into Christian thought and had to be rooted out by the Church through the centuries. A heresy which has come to be called Pelagianism states that human beings can earn salvation entirely through their own efforts and good works. The Church rejects this utterly, and Saint Anselm helps us to understand why. Only God is great enough to vanquish sin, to pay our debt, and triumph over death. Only God. Perhaps now we can see why Saint Paul was always preaching that “works of the law” were not the answer to sin, and that only Jesus is the answer. He was preaching the same theology which Saint Anselm would further explain a millennium later.

Tenderness All this talk of debt and obligation can make God sound distant and cold, but here Saint Anselm can also help us. Anselm points out that Jesus Christ has healed us, through the patient love that is displayed in all of history and through his incarnation and life on earth, and His Passion. “Healing” has a differ10

ent, more tender connotation than “redemption” or “paying our debt.” In His great power, Jesus Christ has performed the most tender, healing act for us.

A real appreciation for the power of sin includes an admission of how badly it wounds us. Sin damages the human being, badly. The effects of sin aren’t only remote, in terms of debt, they are also immediate and personal. By recognizing this power of sin we can appreciate the healing God offers us. If we don’t recognize the one, we can’t appreciate the other.

Bringing it together So, when we look out at the world, and see how sin is not only tolerated, but actually celebrated, we should feel a revulsion. We most certainly should never be in favor of sin, and that means we will be oddballs in our society. A world reveling in sin will not understand people who are ashamed of it. We should always remember that we “hate the sin but love the sinner,” but we have to hate the sin. We have to keep that straight.

Moving closer to home, when we consider our own sins, like when we are examining our consciences to prepare for confession, we must consider that each of those sins we discover on our hearts, every one of them, created an infinite debt of offense to the infinite dignity of God. We really do deserve punishment for these sins, and that punishment would be infinite. Justice demands it.

Then, we can consider that we have been saved by Jesus who through the greatest act of love paid that infinite debt. That should move every soul to immense gratitude, and it should grab our attention intensely when we say the act of contrition: O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.

Every word of that prayer is full of meaning for the Christian who has a profound appreciation for the power of sin, and the power of God who saves us.

Finally, moving inward, we recognize that our sins wound us, they harm us, and they make us miserable creatures. When we comprehend that Jesus even saves us from our misery, then we get the complete picture of how much He loves us.

Go and sin no More The next time you realize that you are being tempted to sin, or are about to put yourself into a situation that might lead to sin, stop and think: This sin, which I am about to commit, will create an infinite debt and offense to the goodness of God, who loves me and only wants me to be happy with Him. Nothing on earth is worth that. Nothing.

And the next time you realize that you have sinned, stop and think: Jesus loves me so much that He became incarnate and suffered terribly, just to pay my debt. All He asks of me now is to come before Him and confess my sins, and promise not to do it again. That’s all.

There is no greater love.q

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by Marissa Pierotti

Asking Questions I grew up as a Roman Catholic in the Bible Belt, so I learned at a very young age that my faith was going to be questioned.

Someone once asked me, “Are Catholics Christians?” I was very young, but I knew enough to say, “Yes, we believe in Jesus. We’re Christians.” Another time a girl asked me, “So, what do Catholics believe?” I didn’t really know what to say at first.

“Well, we believe in...in...one God. The Father, who is almighty, who created heaven and earth…” and the next thing I knew, I was reciting parts of the Creed to her. I didn’t entirely understand what the words meant, but I was grateful that years of being dragged to Mass had at least given me something to say.

Sometimes I had answers. Other times I didn’t. Whenever someone asked a question which I could not answer, I went straight to my father. He seemed to always have an answer.

Not only did my dad help me answer my friends’ questions, he also encouraged me to ask questions of my own. He would say, “This is our faith, the faith of our fathers. But you have to take the faith and make it your own.” Learning to recite what the Church believes was a good start, but it was not enough. My dad knew that I needed to really think about what our beliefs meant before I could say that they were mine.

Who wrote the Creed, and Why? One Sunday during Mass, as we stood to profess the Creed, I remembered my childhood profession to my Protestant playmate. I also remembered my dad’s challenge to ask my own questions. I began to wonder, “How long has the Creed been around? Who wrote it? What do the words mean? Why is it so important that we say it every single Sunday, right in the middle of the Mass?”

The Council of Nicaea The word “Creed” comes from the Latin word credo which means “I believe.” A creed is a statement of belief. The Creed we say during Sunday Mass is called the Nicene Creed because the first draft of it was written at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The Church calls a council when someone has raised a question or problem so important that all the bishops have to gather to discuss the solution. Gathering all the bishops together is no simple task, especially in a time before trains, planes, and automobiles! So what question was so important in 325 AD? What was the problem?

Arius The problem was centered on a priest named Arius. Arius was teaching that Jesus Christ was not a divine person. He argued that since there was only one God, Jesus could not also be God. Therefore, he denied that Jesus was consubstantial with the Father, the term in Greek being homoousios or “of the the same substance” as the Father. Saying that Jesus is not consubstantial with the Father means that God, “the Father,” is the almighty creator, while Jesus Christ, the “Son of God,” is one of God’s creatures, a lesser being.

Arius’ ideas caused great division and confusion in the

Church. For a time, Arianism was a very popular belief and was held by many of the ruling elite of Roman society, particularly in the Eastern part of the Empire. Popularity, however, does not determine truth.

The Church needed the bishops, as successors of the Apostles, to shed light on the matter. We needed the bishops to teach us what was true.

The Church Responds And so the Council of Nicaea was called. At the close of the council, the bishops reaffirmed that Jesus Christ was divine and declared Arianism a heresy (a false teaching). The bishops drafted a Creed so that all Christians would know exactly what the Church teaches about Jesus Christ. Because it was substantially drafted by the bishops at the Council of Nicaea, the Creed we say on Sunday is usually called the Nicene Creed.

Because the Church put a few finishing touches on the Creed at the First Council of Constantinople in 381 AD, it’s sometimes technically called the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed. Both of these names refer to the same Creed we recite together at Mass.

195 The Niceno-Constantinopolitan or Nicene Creed draws its great authority from the fact that it stems from the first two ecumenical Councils (in 325 and 381). It remains common to all the great Churches of both East and West to this day. - Catechism of the Catholic Church

Did the Bishops invent a doctrine?

Since the Creed was written several hundred years after the gospels, does that mean that the bishops were just making everything up? No, not at all. For the first 300 years or so after Christ, the Church was persecuted and had to exist secretly. It was not until the Roman Emperor Constantine became Christian in 312 AD that the Church was free to hold a council.

When they did meet to respond to the challenges of the time (most notably Arianism), the bishops were not inventing doctrine out of thin air. They were clarifying the truths revealed by Jesus Christ — which has always been the job of the bishops.

Jesus said that He came to the world to forgive sins and bring the world back into union with God. Only God can forgive sin, so for Jesus Christ to forgive sin, He had to be truly God. The doctrine of Christ’s divinity is supported by both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. St. John the Evangelist identified Christ with God when he wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). There is testimony to the divinity of Christ also in the Letter to the Philippians, which says that Christ was, “in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6). There are many other testimonies to the true divinity of Christ in the Bible.

Beyond Sacred Scripture, notable early Christians testify to the divinity of Christ. St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, a contemporary of St. Peter, said “There is only one physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and unborn, God in man, true life in death, both from Mary and from God, first subject to suffering and then beyond it, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Letter to the Ephesians, 7.2.0). Texts and testimonies such as these reinforce the Nicene proclamation concerning who Jesus Christ is.

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Who is Jesus Christ?

Who, then, is Jesus Christ? Let’s look at some of the words of our Sunday Creed. About half of the Creed is dedicated to Christology, although the Creed also speaks of God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Church: I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through Him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, He suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen

True God You might notice that we use the word “begotten” twice.

Christ is the “Only Begotten Son.” He is “begotten, not made.”

What is the difference between begotten and made? You beget something which is the same kind of thing as you. You make something which is a different kind of thing than you. A person makes a chair. A person begets another person. When we say Jesus is begotten of the Father, we are saying that Jesus Christ is not a human person. He is a divine person.

Since Christ is a divine person, He is not a creature. This is a part of what we mean when we say He was begotten “before all ages.” He existed with the Father before the creation of time. In fact, Christ played a role in the creation of the world, which we profess when we say that “Through Him all things were made.”

If Jesus is not a creature, but rather truly God, then how is He different from God the Father? The Father and the Son are the same in their substance, but different in the manner in 14

which they have the divine substance. We know that God the Father has the divine substance of Himself and God the Son has the Divine substance from the Father. We express this distinction when we speak of Christ as “God from God,” in Latin, Deum de Deo.

True Man Does the fact that Christ is God mean Christ is not human?

No, Christ is human, too. He is a divine person, but He took unto Himself a human nature, that is, everything that makes a human a human. That is what we mean when we say that He “was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.” When we say these words in the Creed, many Catholics often bow from the waist. The Incarnation, God becoming man, is the most profound event in human history, and bowing is a way of showing reverence to this mystery.

True Story This divine person who became man was “crucified under Pontius Pilate.” It seems a bit odd that Pontius Pilate is mentioned in the Creed. Pilate is not mentioned just because he is notorious. He is mentioned because he is a real, historical person, agent of the real, historical Roman Empire which continued to persecute Christianity for three centuries. By mentioning Pilate, we are testifying that Jesus Christ, too, is a real, historical person. Our faith is not based on a myth. Our faith is founded in truth.

Why every Sunday?

It is not only the priest who says the Creed during the Mass. Every one of us in the congregation says the Creed. We all together profess the truths which the Church proclaims. By doing this, we unite ourselves in an official, explicit way to all Catholics past, present, and future.

Towards the end of the Creed, we say that we believe in “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” The Catholic Church is “one” because it is unified in faith. Being “unified in faith” does not mean we all have the same sort of positive, vague feelings. Rather, being united in our faith means we have all come to know that what the Church teaches is true.

One of the fundamental truths of the Church is that God made us so that we could love him. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” How are we supposed to love God, who is so far above us?

Well, for a moment, let’s consider human lovers. What is one of the deepest desires of the human heart? To be known and cherished, and to know and cherish in return. This desire is why human lovers exchange secrets. Lovers tell each other things they’ve never told anyone else. A lover gives himself to his beloved by revealing who he really is. His beloved cherishes all he has revealed of himself. She cherishes him. In turn, the beloved reveals herself to him, and he cherishes her.

God, our Creator, revealed Himself to us in the Incarnation. At no other time in history has God revealed Himself the way He has revealed Himself in Christ. The Creed contains our great teachings about who Christ is. By reciting the Creed, we are cherishing the secrets which God has lovingly revealed

about who He is.

Our Creed is not a bunch of words which we only have to recite to fulfill a religious obligation. Our Creed is not an obscure and outdated theological treatise. When we say the Creed, we express God’s love for us and our love for God. This divine love is the only thing which can fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts.

Catholic Charities Diocese of Tyler Serving East Texas

Faith of our Fathers

The human person needs many things. We need food and shelter. We need answers. We have wounds and sins that need healing and forgiveness. We need love. Fathers provide for the needs of their families. My dad has always taken care of me, but there are some things which are beyond his power to do for me. That is why he made sure to introduce me to my other fathers, the fathers of the Church, so that I would always have somewhere to take my questions. But even more importantly, my dad made sure to teach me that I had another, Heavenly Father. And this Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, so that whoever believes in Him might not die, but have eternal life.

At the center of the Catholic faith stands the teaching that Jesus Christ is both truly God and truly man. He came to save us. He offers us the most profound love we could ever know. This is our faith, the faith of our fathers. But you have to take the faith and make it your own.q Marissa Pierotti grew up in Our Lady of Victory Parish in Paris, Texas. She holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Saint Thomas, and is pursuing her master’s degree.

Parish Nursing

Catholic Charities hires Registered Nurses to combine the spiritual, mental and physical care of individuals in their own faith community for up to 8 hours per week. Parish nurses provide professional, onsite medical and health evaluations, health care educational programming, navigational assistance, and individual case management. Flexible hours are determined by the parish nurse in collaboration with the pastor.

For More Information Contact: Jennie Pierce MSN, APRN-CNS Parish Nurse Coordinator, Catholic Charities 903 372-3229 or nursecoordinator@cctyler.org

Did Santa Claus punch Arius in the face?

In ancient Asia Minor, at the time of the the Council of Nicaea, the bishop of the city of of Myra, 200 miles to the south, was St. Nicholas. Yes, the Saint Nick, who, because he was known as a great giver of gifts to the poor, became associated later with gift-giving at Christmas. The actual Saint Nicholas, however, was a real bishop who fought against heresy in the Church.

Nicholas was born in Asia Minor (what is now Turkey) in 270 AD. His wealthy parents died in an epidemic. Heeding the lesson of Jesus to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor,” Nicholas gave away his family fortune and dedicated his life to God. Nicholas was apparently imprisoned during the general persecution of Christians under the Emperor Diocletian. It is said that during this persecution, the prisons in some towns were so full of priests, there was no room for actual criminals.

Constantine, sympathetic to Christianity, ended this persecution when he became emperor.

When he was 35 years old, Nicholas became a monk in the Holy Land, living in a monastery in Bethlehem. He visited all of the holy sites in Israel and lived there until he was 47, when he returned to Asia Minor and was made the bishop of the city of Myra.

Some people have disputed whether Saint Nicholas was in fact present at the Council of Nicaea, but the latest re-

search indicates he was the 151st bishop to arrive, and this seems very likely considering that his diocese was relatively near to Nicaea.

A story which has been told for many generations says that, as Arius was defending his ideas at the council, Bishop Nicholas became so angry that he punched or slapped Arius across the face. This event, which has reached legendary status, has been celebrated in art and writing throughout the Catholic Church. We don’t have any eyewitness accounts of the famous blow, and so we can’t say for certain that it happened. We can imagine, however, the passion that a man who had been imprisoned for his faith would feel. So, it’s possible.

Santa Claus may have punched Arius in the face!

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Several years ago I was in one of those very dark places that seem to be a part of life from time to time. It was a time of great emotional pain, bordering on despair. If you have ever experienced something like this you know that one of the most painful aspects is the apparent silence from God. I could hear nothing from Him. Finally in my despair I cried out to God, “Please, just be real to me.”Thanks be to God, He answered my prayer and began to reveal Himself in new ways to me; through good friends, through the Church, and to a recommitted prayer life. But one of the most important ways in I began to grow closer with Him is through good spiritual reading. Here I encountered the wisdom of saints, theologians, and mystics: people who had a deep, personal relationship with Christ. Reading them helped me to grow in my understanding of who Christ is and what He came for. I learned that growing in knowledge of Christ through good spiritual reading is indispensable for growing in Christ.

To that end I would like to suggest that you pick up Pope Emeritus Benedict’s three part series Jesus of Nazareth. Whether you are just starting your spiritual reading or if you want to go deeper in your Biblical understanding of Christ, there is no better place to start than here. In Pope Benedict we have both the brilliance of one of the foremost theologians of our time, together with a man who has the deepest love for the Son of God. Each of these books begins to put us in touch with and help us to know more intimately, Jesus Christ, who assumed a human nature for our salvation.

Jesus of Nazareth goes beyond just telling the story of the Gospels or even relating who this historical Jew of the first century was. Benedict’s search is a search for the Jesus of the Bible, for the Jesus of faith. Pope Benedict employs the latest in biblical scholarly research to draw out who Jesus is and what He came to do. He shows how the Gospels with their many enigmatic sayings, Old Testament allusions, and far removed cultural context all come together to point to the God-man. For this alone the books are of immense value, but their true worth is helping to bring God nearer to us; so that we can almost reach out and “touch the hem of his garment.” Although we cannot explore each one in depth in this re16

view, here is a brief glimpse that I hope will encourage you to read them in their entirety.

Volume one, Baptism to transfiguration The first volume covers the years of Jesus’ life from His baptism through His self-declaration as the Son of God and the “I Am”.

In the forward to this volume, Pope Benedict describes the central point around which he constructs this book: to see Jesus Christ in His closeness to God. “Without anchoring in God, the person of Jesus remains shadowy, unreal, and unexplainable.” It is this unreal-ness that Benedict helps to dispel for us. The Pope also wants to present “the figure and the message of Jesus in his public ministry so to help foster the growth of a living relationship with Him.” From these two quotes we can clearly see that the Pope is not so much concerned with theorizing about the Jesus of history but more properly concerned about personalizing the living Christ. As the Pope goes on to explain the teachings of Jesus he reminds us that we must understand first where these teachings come from if we are to understand what they mean.

“The question that every reader of the New Testament must ask – where Jesus’ teaching came from, how his appearance in history is to be explained – can really be answered only from this perspective.”

And that perspective is, that Jesus “lives before the face of God, not just as a friend, but as a Son; he lives in the most intimate unity with the Father.” Jesus Christ is from the Father and has been sent to reveal His face. This is the great truth that has radically changed the world and it is the source of all that Jesus said. Benedict shows a real penchant for drawing out that which is most important. When writing on is the temptation of Jesus, where Christ encounters the enemy of our souls, Satan, he says: “Matthew and Luke recount three temptations of Jesus that reflect the inner struggle over his own particular mission and, at the same time, addresses the question as to what truly matters in human life. At the heart of all temptations, as we see here, is

the act of pushing God aside because we perceive Him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives.

Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building on our foundation; refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside as an illusion – that is the temptation that threatens us in many varied forms.”

Here Pope Benedict is being a good pastor, pointing out a danger that we are all susceptible to: “putting God aside.” But, he also helps to reveal to us who Christ is in this moment by the very fact that He did not yield to this desire to see God as secondary. With Jesus, the Father’s will is all that matters. He has no teaching of his own. He came to do the will of the one who sent Him and so He rejects the temptations of Satan and keeps God at the center of his life.

Volume Two, Holy Week The second volume deals with the period of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday until the Resurrection. There are many wonderful sections in this book that provide great insights into these pivotal final moments in Christ’s life, but I would like to highlight two specifically: the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

Here Benedict is truly at his best as he brings together many different facets to paint a vivid portrait of Jesus and His single minded devotion to the Father. In confronting the events of the Last Supper, one question that arises is: what does the “breaking of the bread” really mean? Benedict deals with this question in a particularly eloquent way: “The breaking of bread for all is in the first instance a function of the head of the family, who by this action in some sense represents God the Father, who gives us everything, through the Earth’s bounty, that we need for life. It is also a gesture of hospitality, though which the stranger is given a share in what is one’s own; he is welcomed into table fellowship. Breaking and distributing; it is the act of distributing that creates community.

This archetypically human gesture of giving, sharing, and uniting acquires an entirely new depth in Jesus’ Last Supper through His gift of Himself. God’s bountiful distribution of gifts takes on a radical quality when the Son communicates and distributes Himself in the form of bread.”

This has opened up for me a whole new dimension of the Eucharist and therefore the holy sacrifice of the Mass. In the Eucharist, the “breaking of the bread”, God is sharing His very self with me and thereby entering into communion with me, but not me alone, also with everyone else who is now truly part of a common community. It is not just about me and Jesus. I am one part of a much bigger kingdom, a kingdom where our gracious Father gives us His very own Son as nourishment and so unites all in Himself.

Next we turn to the crucifixion. Here Pope Benedict penetrates deeper into this mystery by looking at the relationship between our sin, the problem of evil, and God’s suffering: “The reality of evil and injustice that disfigures the world and at the same time distorts the image of God – this reality exists, through our sin. It cannot simply be ignored; it must be addressed. But here it is not a case of a cruel God demanding the infinite. It is exactly the opposite; God Himself becomes the locus of reconciliation, and in the person of His Son takes the suffering upon Himself. God Himself grants His infinite purity to the world.

God Himself “drinks the cup” of every horror to the dregs and

thereby restores justice through the greatness of His love, which, through suffering, transforms the darkness.”

In one short paragraph Benedict helps us to see the depths of God’s love and his solidarity with his people. We do not have a God who cannot sympathize with our sufferings. In fact, it is the exact opposite. Christ has endured all and held nothing back in His mission to reconcile mankind to the Father. In so doing He has transformed the darkness of human suffering into a source of redemption. To know this love is to know how to love.

Volume Three, the Infancy Narratives In his final volume the Pope Emeritus covers the infancy narratives of Jesus. Once again he expertly shows how the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But more than that, he also draws deeply from the expectations of first century Jewish culture, particularly its desire for a Messiah who would deliver them from Roman rule. Benedict shows how this desire set the stage for the coming of God’s presence to His people. If God was to come to this world though, surely he would come in His power and might and free His chosen people from occupation. Rather, He came not in power but in complete and total vulnerability. Why did He come in such poverty and humility, so much so that His first bed was a manger; a place where livestock would be fed? Here again Pope Benedict shows us the deeper meaning of who this person is and why He has come. Referencing Saint Augustine, Benedict writes: “Augustine drew out the meaning of the manger using an idea that at first seems almost shocking, but on closer examination contains a profound truth. The manger is the place where animals find their food. But now, lying in the manger is He who called Himself the true bread come down from heaven, the true nourishment that we need in order to be fully ourselves. This is the food that gives us true life, eternal life. Thus the manger becomes a reference to the table of God, to which we are invited so as to receive the bread of God. From the poverty of Jesus’ birth emerges the miracle in which man’s redemption is mysteriously accomplished.”

The manger, the Last Supper, and the Crucifixion; all point to the great truth that God has redeemed His people and continues to nourish them with the Eucharist. This brings us back to our original point: we all seek a God who is real. We all want to know Him and need Him to be near. The great truth that we as Catholics possess is that nothing is more real than the Eucharist. We know Christ is truly present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament. No God could be any closer to His people.

I encourage you to continue to learn more about Him so that you can grow in love for Him. This is precisely what this masterful three volume work helps us to do. When I think back to when I first met my wife, we would talk for hours at a time because we wanted to know everything about each other. As I learned more and more about her I fell more and more in love with her. This is how all relationships begin and grow. It is no different in our relationship with Jesus. Spend time getting to know Him better by reading Jesus of Nazareth and let Him become more real to you, and you will fall more in love with Him.q Ty Jackson is married to Angela and is the father of Abigail, Olivia, Sophia, and John. The Jackson family lives in Tyler and are parishioners at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The three volume set “Jesus of Nazareth” by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is available at many bookstores including www.ignatius.com 17

PietĂ , original painting by Jessica Kane

by Father Matthew Stehling Last summer I gave a series of homilies in my parish on the Creed. For nearly two months I picked apart the phrases we repeat every Sunday, often without thinking about them. Our muscle memory takes over and we say the formulas, forgetting that behind each and every phrase is a trail of history that’s nearly 2000 years old. We forget that men fought bitterly over these phrases because they were vital to handing on the true Faith given by Christ to His Apostles. I find the history of the Nicene Creed fascinating—patriarchs and bishops excommunicating each other and sending each other into exile; a fistfight between St. Nicholas and Arius, the heretic denying Christ’s divinity at the Council.

The formulas produced in the Councils are important. It may seem trite or obvious to say, but words have meanings and consequences follow from those meanings.

It’s not just the Creed however. There is another phrase that is often said hurriedly and by rote. Five of the most repeated words in history yet we often give very little thought to what’s behind them.

As Catholics we accept them and move on. But to change them would change the faith entirely. We say them every time we pray the Hail Mary, and the phrase I’m referring to is: Holy Mary Mother of God. Catholics are often criticized for our focus on the Blessed Mother, but we’ll see that these words tell us just as much if not more about Jesus Christ as they do about Mary.

The Pendulum Swings The title for Mary as Mother of God (Theotokos in Greek) is one of the first titles given to the Blessed Mother by the early Christians. But after the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, this title came under attack by some within the Church, in particular the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius. When he became the Patriarch he began preaching that the title Mother of God, Theotokos, should be changed to Mother of Christ, or Christotokos. Nestorius was reacting to another heresy pushed by Apollinarus of Laodicea, Apollinarianism, which held that Jesus had a human body but the Divine Word, the Logos, took the place of Jesus’ soul. This meant that Jesus wasn’t a complete human being. Jesus was a human body without a soul. The Divine Word, the Second person of the Trinity would have operated the human shell of Jesus like a costume.

Forgive the comparison, but I can’t help but think of the movie Men in Black. The villain of that movie is a giant space bug that quite awkwardly wears an ill fitting human suit as a disguise. While it’s a crude comparison, this is somewhat the idea that Nestorius was afraid of teaching. To avoid falling into one heresy, he swung too far in the other direction and got off track.

Nestorius believed and taught that in Jesus there were two natures (human and divine), two subjects (two wills or egos), and two persons (the Divine Word and Jesus the man). He also taught that they were so closely linked that it seemed like only one person. For Nestorius there was the complete person of the Divine Word, and the complete person of Jesus the Man. Imagine two individuals occupying the same space at the same time and doing everything in complete synchronization. If you had met this Jesus that Nestorius imagined, you would have to say, “Hello Jesus, and Hello Jesus” because you would be addressing two persons.

The result was that, for Nestorius, Mary was not the Mother of God, but only the Mother of Christ the Man. Words have meanings and those meanings have consequences.

A Fight Breaks Out With Nestorius proclaiming Mary the Mother of Christ, the Christotokos, there began a vigorous debate between Nestorius and St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria. St. Cyril defended the title of Theotokos, and the unity of the Person of Christ. Nestorius accused St. Cyril of being an Apollinarian. The debate became so heated and the confusion between the bishops so thick that the Emperor Theodosius II had to step in. (Theodosius II was emperor of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire which was split in 285 AD. He ruled from Constantinople.)

Theodosius II called for a council to resolve the matter and in 431 AD the Council of Ephesus began. While the debate never quite came to fisticuffs, it was hard fought. 250 bishops attended the Council of Ephesus in June and July of 431AD. Eventually the view of St. Cyril was defined and upheld and Mary proclaimed Theotokos. The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes the findings of the Council of Ephesus: For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb: “Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity received beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since the body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh” (CCC 466) What this boils down to is a re-affirmation of the teachings handed down from the Apostles through the early councils, that Jesus Christ is one person with two natures (human and divine), which we call in theological terms the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is true God and true Man.

For the Want of a Nail At this point you may be asking yourself, “That all sounds great Father, but what difference does it really make? Aren’t we just arguing about words? What difference does it really make if we call Mary Theotokos or Christotokos? I don’t speak Greek anyway.”

There’s an old proverb used by many in history and in popular culture. It goes something like this: For the the want (lack) of a nail the horseshoe was lost, for the want of the horseshoe the rider was lost, for the want of the rider the message was lost, for want of the message the battle was lost, and for want of the battle the war was lost.

This proverb reminds us that seemingly unimportant omissions can have terrible consequences. Five small words, Holy Mary Mother of God; but if you change them, you change the meaning of the Incarnation. If you change the meaning of the Incarnation you change the nature of Jesus’ person and life, you change the nature of the sacrifice he offered on the cross. It must be these five words.

If not, our salvation in Christ is merely an illusion. We Catholics hold on tight to Mary’s title as Mother of God, because we know that this title of Mary is the truth, and it safeguards an even more impotant truth about Jesus Christ.

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Nothing New Under the Sun Nestorianism, Arianism, Docetism, Gnosticism, Monophysitism, and Pelagianism, to list a few, are all heresies condemned by the Church through the centuries. But they still exist is different forms, and they come back from time to time particularly as groups move away from the Catholic Church and the promise of Christ to St. Peter as Rock on which the Church is founded.

Here in East Texas, you can still find people who believe that Catholics “worship” Mary, and who refuse to call Mary “The Mother of God.” This isn’t just something “different” between Catholics and some non-Catholics, this is a real problem. We know that a proper understanding of the role of Mary is vital to a proper understanding of who Jesus is. If you give up the title “Mother of God,” you will have real problems. Combined with the fact that many non-Catholic groups refuse to use the Nicene Creed, and what else can we ex-

pect to happen, but that people will become confused about who Jesus Christ is?

We as Catholics like to say, “Mary always points to Christ,” and this is not just a nice phrase, it’s really how the theology works. Every time we pray the Hail Mary, and join with the ancient Christians in calling her Mother of God, we are affirming a complex, beautiful, and necessary part of our belief in Jesus Christ: That he is one person with two natures. He is true God and true man, and can therefore offer the sarifice which saves us from our sin.

Holy Mary Mother of God. It’s not a pious platitude. It’s not really even centered on Mary, but rather on the relationship she has with her Son, Jesus Christ and who He is. Five simple words, but centuries of meaning and salvation hanging in the balance. Remember, words have meaning. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.q Father Stehling is the Chaplain of the Catholic East Texas magazine.

This is one of my favorite pieces of religious art, St. Cyril stepping on the head of Nestorius, portrayed as a snake. Early Christians were serious about their beliefs concerning Jesus Christ. May we be so fervent!

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JOSEPH EDWARD STRICKLAND

BY THE GRACE OF GOD AND THE APOSTOLIC SEE BISHOP OF TYLER

Decree On the Placement of the Tabernacle for the Reservation of the Most Holy Eucharist The Lord Jesus is present to us in many ways – in the Church, in the faithful gathered, in the word of God proclaimed and preached, in the sacraments, in the person of the priest, and in the poor. Yet His presence in the Eucharist is raised above all else because it is where “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.”

The Eucharist, both in its celebration and in its adoration, is the “sum and summary of our faith” and sits at the center of our lives as Christian individuals, families and communities gathered in our parishes and missions.

As St. John Paul II wrote, “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church.” The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council beautifully summarized the centrality of the Eucharist to the People of God, declaring it “the source and summit of the Christian life.”

In our Faith, the wonderful preeminence of the Eucharist is made perceptible in physical ways: using signs and symbols, and in the orientation of our places of worship. Among the ways the centrality of the Eucharist is expressed in our churches is the location of the altar and the tabernacle.The altar stands as the center of sacrifice and thanksgiving that takes place during the celebration of Mass when the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of the Lord. Following Holy Communion, the portion of the Eucharist that remains is reserved in the tabernacle for adoration and distribution to the sick.

Within the church, the tabernacle serves as a sign and gives a sense of the Savior’s presence in the midst of His people. Consequently, the universal law directs the tabernacle to be located “in a distinguished place” that is “conspicuous, suitably adorned and conducive to prayer.” In making these prescriptions for the place where the Lord dwells among us, the Church seeks to promote a deeper personal relationship with Jesus, foster adoration of the Lord, provide a sign for all that the Eucharist is at the heart of our work, and contribute to

the recognition of Christ’s real presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

Mindful of these things, and while aware that the tradition of the Church admits of the tabernacle being situated in either the sanctuary or in a chapel suitable for private adoration, it is my pastoral judgment that, for the good of the mission of the Church and the souls of the faithful in the Diocese of Tyler, the tabernacle is always to be located in a prominent place of honor in the main body of the church.

Therefore, I decree as follows: 1. In all current and future churches, chapels and oratories, the tabernacle for the reservation of the Most Blessed Sacrament is to be located in the sanctuary, apart from the altar of celebration, along the center axis of the church.

2. Tabernacles which are not currently so positioned are to be moved so as to comply with this decree by May 31, 2018.

3. With the permission of the diocesan bishop and for a serious reason, the tabernacle may be located in another visible, prominent and noble space, but always in the sanctuary of the main body of the church.

Finally, I ask all the clergy to review the universal laws and liturgical norms governing the place for the reservation of the Most Holy Eucharist and ensure they are faithfully observed.

Given at Tyler, at the Diocesan Curia, under my sign and seal, and the countersign of my Chancellor, on the 20th day of the month of January in the year of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, two thousand and seventeen.

Most Reverend JOSEPH E. STRICKLAND Bishop of Tyler

Golgotha (Calvary)

The site of the Crucifixion of Jesus, identified with Golgotha and the Place of the Skull (Mt 27:33; Mk 15:22; Jn 19:17). It is not known why the place was so called. Jerome suggested that the skulls of criminals lay about unburied; according to an early Christian tradition cited by Origen, it was believed that the skull of Adam was buried under the cross. But more probably the name is connected with the skull-like shape of the hill or rock. Calvary or Golgotha is located today within the compound of the Holy Sepulcher. The small, modern chapel of the Holy Sepulcher (Tomb) is built over the bedrock on which the original tomb of Christ once stood.

Temple

The Temple Mount is holy to both Muslims and Jew Jews as the place where God gathered together th Solomon built the First Temple there. That structur the Romans in 70 AD. According to the New Testament, the Temple of Jeru in accordance with the Law of Moses (Lk 2:22-28). When he was a boy, he to jump off the Temple to prove His status (Mt 4:1-11, Mk 1:12-13, and L (Mt 21:12, Mk 11:15-19, Lk 19:45-48, Jn 2:14).

Herod’s Palace In the 33 years of his reign (37-4 BC), Herod transformed Jerusalem as had no other ruler since Solomon. He built palaces and citadels, a theatre and an amphitheatre, viaducts (bridges) and public monuments.

These ambitious building projects, some completed long after his death, were part of the king’s single-minded campaign to increase his capital’s importance in the eyes of the Roman Empire.

King Herod built a fantastic fortified palace to provide protection for the Upper City.

Just like the Temple, Herod’s Palace was constructed on a platform, about 1000 feet (from north-south) and 180 feet (from east-west). The palace consisted of two main buildings, each with its banquet halls, baths, and accommodations for hundreds of guests. It was surrounded with groves of trees, canals, and ponds studded with bronze fountains.

The Upper Room The Biblical Gospels offer no details as to the location of the Upper Room. The cryptic message of Jesus to the two disciples was, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the householder, The Teacher says, ‘Where is my guest room, where I am to eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us” (Mk 14:13-15).

The Cenacle is the traditional site of the room in which Jesus had His Last Supper with His Apostles. The term comes from the Latin coenaculum (dining room), which is used in the Vulgate as the translation of two different Greek words. The first of these, used in Mk 14:15 and Lk 22:12, refers to the large furnished upper room chosen by our Lord for the celebration of His Last Supper and the institution of the Holy Eucharist. The average ancient-Palestinian home was one storied and flat roofed. The homes of the wealthy, however, often included a guest room, penthouse-fashion, on the second or upper floor, often having an outer staircase leading up to it. The other word, also meaning upper room, was applied by St. Luke in Acts 1:13 to the place where Mary and the Apostles stayed in prayer after the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, presumably until Pentecost day.

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The City of Jerusalem

When Jesus was born toward the end of Herod’s reign, Jerusalem, population of about from the Mount of Olives was dominated by the gleaming, gold-embellished Temple wh South of the temple was the Lower City. Limestone houses, yellow-brown colored from Zion, where the white marble villas and palaces of the very rich stood out like patches o Most of Jerusalem’s working people lived in the crowded, noisy precincts of the Lower broad fashionable avenues of the Upper City were laid out in an orderly grid pattern like powerful Jewish families and high-ranking Roman officials. Along the small market str the city’s weavers, dyers, potters, bakers, tailors, carpenters and metalworkers. Farthe perfumes and jewelry. Only on the Sabbath was the street empty and quiet. Directly in and an open court for market booths in the center. Here were the shops of the dealer merchants; the goldsmiths and silversmiths; the dealers in ivory, incense and precious During the three holy days of the year, the enormous crowd of pilgrims flowing into th brought an important stimulus to the city’s economy. There were many taverns or resta wine or imported beer. Many pilgrims found lodging in one of Jerusalem’s inns or in priv the Essenes and Pharisees also provided lodging for fellow members.

ws, and to Christians as well. A rectangular platform covering 35 acres of Jerusalem, it is revered by he dust to create Adam and where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac. In about 1000 BC, King re was destroyed by the Babylonians, and the Second Temple was built in 516 BC and destroyed by usalem played a significant role in the life of Jesus. After his birth, Jesus was dedicated at the Temple e impressed the Jewish teachers with His knowledge (Lk 2:41-52). Jesus was later tempted by Satan Lk 4:1-13) and He angrily overturned tables of moneychangers during the “Cleansing of the Temple”

Garden of Gethsemane

The Garden is at the base of the Mount of Olives and is known as the garden in which Jesus prayed the night before he was crucified. “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’

He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me.’ He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, ‘My Father,if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.’ Mt 26:36-39 Gethsemane: the Hebrew name means “oil press” and designates an olive orchard on the western slope of the Mount of Olives;.

The name appears only in Matthew and Mark. The place is called a “garden” in Jn 18:1.

In the center of the Basilica of the Agony, located adjacent to the Garden of Gethsemane, the high altar overlooks a large slab of rock, which is said to be the very rock on which Jesus prayed in agony on the night of His betrayal.

Mount of Olives

m at the Time of Jesus

by Terri Bolton

t 25,000, was the capital of Judea, which was part of the Roman province of Syria. The view hich stood high above the old City of David, at the center of a gigantic white stone platform. years of sun and wind lined the streets and rising upward to the west was the Upper City, or of snow. r City in their one and two-story houses which stood packed closely together. In contrast, the e the elegant cities of Greece and Rome. This part of Jerusalem was the home of the rich and reet in the Lower City, there were open-air shops where Jerusalem’s craftsmen sat at work: er down the road merchants sold fruits and vegetables, dried fish, sacrificial animals, clothes, n front of the palace stood the Upper Market, with its Roman-style arcades along three sides rs in luxury goods: the distillers of expensive oils and perfumes; the master tailors and silk stones. he Holy City inflated its population of 25,000 to at least four or five times that number. This aurants offering fresh or salted fish, fried locusts, vegetables, soup, pastry and fruit and local vate homes. Some of the foreign Jewish communities had built shelters for their citizens and

Old Testament - In Zac 14:4, on the day of the Lord’s return to Jerusalem, “… his feet shall rest upon the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem to the east. The Mount of Olives shall be cleft in two from east to west by a very deep valley, and half the mountain shall move to the north and half to the south.” The place where the Lord will come to rescue Jerusalem from the enemy nations.

New Testament - The road from Jericho to Jerusalem passed over this ridge. It was along this road that Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem took place (Lk 19:37). When He came over the brow of the hill and saw the city, He wept because of the suffering in store for it (Lk 19:41–44). Jesus delivered His eschatological discourse while sitting on the Mount of Olives (Mt 24:3; Mk 13:3). He spent the last nights before His death on the Mount (Lk 21:37), at Bethany, or Bethphage, or in the Garden of Gethsemane just across the Kidron (Jn 18:1) at the foot of the Mount. The Ascension of Jesus into heaven took place from the Mount of Olives, according to Acts 1:12.

Today a modern basilica at Gethsemane is built upon the foundations of earlier churches. Halfway up the hill is a small chapel commemorating Our Lord’s weeping over Jerusalem. Farther up the hill is a church and convent of Carmelite nuns, called the Pater Noster Monastery in memory of Luke’s account of the Lord’s Prayer (Lk 11:1–4). On top of the hill are the restored remains of an octagonal church, now in the possession of Muslims, and believed to occupy the spot from which Jesus ascended into heaven.

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Getting to know

JESUS Better

Father Hank Lanik

We talked to Father Hank Lanik, Rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and asked him, “How can people get to know Jesus better?”

The Basics

First thing, if someone wants to get to know Jesus better, would be the sacraments. I would ask, “Are you going to Mass? Are you confessing your sins regularly? Are you confessing before you receive communion?” We have to get the basics right, because Jesus comes to us in the sacraments, and the grace He offers us there is foundational to our relationship with Him. First off, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a meeting with Jesus Christ. To get to know someone better you have to meet them and be honest with them. While the priest is present and is the minister of the sacrament, our theology is clear: It is Jesus Christ who forgives sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He is there. Confession is primarily a meeting with Jesus, and it is all about reconciling, that is, improving your relationship, with Jesus Christ. When our sins are forgiven, and we receive the other graces of the sacrament, we’re open to growth in our faith and we can deepen our relationship with Christ.

If someone hasn’t been confessing regularly, or if they need to come back to the sacrament after a long time, they can call their priest, and set up an appointment. A lot of times, that’s the easiest way to come back. Trust me, we’ll make it as easy as possible!

Next is Mass. First off, we need to go to Mass because it’s required of us, and to fail to do so is wrong. If you haven’t been going to Mass, you need to go to your priest and confess that. Get back on track. But, we should also cultivate a desire to come and worship with the community. This is another opportunity to meet Jesus, who is present in several different ways in the Mass. He is present in the priest, who acts in His person. He is present in the Word of God, proclaimed to us, and He is present in the gathered people, who are the Church, the Body of Christ in one sense. All of these presences of Christ in Mass are ways we can get to know Him. But, He is present in a special way in the Eucharist.

HeIn our is quest Here to know Jesus better, we need to chal-

lenge ourselves. We need to always be looking for the next, deeper aspect of our relationship. I think for many people, we need to challenge ourselves in Eucharistic devotion. We need to take adult ownership of our belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

First off, we need to realize that every time we receive communion, we are being challenged to believe. When the minster of the Eucharist says “the Body of Christ,” or “the Blood of Christ,” we are being challenged to believe. We say “Amen,” which means, essentially, “Yes, I believe.” We

agree. We believe. I think this should be a challenge. If this belief is not at all challenging to you, I think that is worth thinking about. To pray and read and think about this belief of the Church is a good way to deepen that relationship with Jesus. There is so much information available in the world to help us understand our Catholic beliefs, we should never just go on in a lukewarm way, not understanding and not believing as deeply as we could. If we take ownership of this belief, then every single Mass, every time we receive communion, is an opportunity for real devotion. I think when people understand this, they start to come to Mass on other days and not only Sunday.

So, these are the most basic parts of the our relationship with Jesus, receiving the sacraments, and obtaining the grace that Jesus wants us to have. Once we have done this, we can “go forth” to seek Jesus in the outside world.

Different Strokes Before, we were talking about beliefs, sacraments,

and precepts of the Church, things that all Catholics do and profess like confession, going to Mass, and receiving communion. Now, we move to optional things, and we have to realize that everyone is wired differently. Devotions and practices that really help one person to know Jesus better might not speak to another person. These personal devotions are things we discern—we have to figure them out for ourselves. And, in order to figure them out, we have to think about them, and if they seem to interest us, we need to try them.

It’s a good thing to try many different devotions and practices, and if one doesn’t suit you, that means you are closer to finding one that does. If someone tells you about a charity or a prayer group or a devotion they like very much, take that suggestion and see if it might be a good match for you. If it isn’t, there’s no harm and no foul. So, here are things to consider to deepen your relationship with Jesus:

The Least of These I highly recommend that, after you have been strength-

ened through the graces offered in the sacraments, that you act on them by finding a practical charity to participate in. It might take some effort to find one that works for you, but try to find one.

When we do practical charity for others, whether it is visiting, providing food or clothing, or providing for some other need, we meet Christ in the person we are helping. “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40) That process of discerning the presence of Christ in the needy, this is an education in Christ. When you offer charity, you are acting as Christ to others, and you learn about Christ when you emulate Him. If you perform merciful acts of charity, you will deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ.

It’s not easy. Doing practical charity is a challenge. It takes up our scarce time. It’s frequently difficult. People might take advantage of your charitable gifts…it’s ok.

When I take the time to do something charitable, I know and feel that I have deepened my relationship with Jesus.

Now, some people are very extroverted, and they might find one niche in practical charity that fits their personality. Other people are more introverted and that same job would drive them crazy, but they can find a different niche where they can serve just as well. We’re all different, and we all can serve in subtly different ways. With charity, we need to discern what we’re good at, and do what we’re best at. If that’s visiting the sick or imprisoned, if that’s feeding the hungry, or if it’s doing fundraising, we should do it.

Recharge

If we find a practical charity that suits us, and we work at it, we are going to have to eventually recharge. Often, just from our busy lives, we need to recharge. I recommend spending time with Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

If we do believe that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist, then we can spend time with Him. We can do this in formal Eucharistic adoration, or we can just come and spend time with Him in the Church. We need to understand: whether Christ is exposed in the monstrance (the vessel in which the consecrated host is placed in for adoration) or whether the Eucharist is reposed in the tabernacle, Jesus is there. If you’re in that Church, He’s with you in that special, Eucharistic way.

Whether you choose to have a specified hour of adoration that you do every week, or whether you just pop into the Church for a minute on a busy day, the fact that you will come to be with Jesus will help to deepen your relationship with Him. As a pastor, I’m much more concerned that someone really believes that Jesus is with us, than how many hours they happen to spend with Him at a time. I just know, when someone will take the time to come and be in the Church because Jesus is there, that’s a person who is working on their relationship.

Read!

Catholics should read the Bible. It’s sort of a “Protestant thing” to read the Bible, and unfortunately it’s sort of a “Catholic thing” not to. We have to get over this idea.

Catholics who go to Mass are exposed to most of the Bible in the readings. It’s our Catholic book, collected and protected by the Church since the earliest days.

If we want to deepen our relationship with Jesus, we need to read the Bible, often. The Saints tell us that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ, so knowledge of Scripture is knowledge of Christ. Reading the Bible works.

So, how do you start reading the Bible? Well, the most basic thing you can do is follow the readings at Mass,

every day. Even if you can’t make it to daily Mass, you can follow the readings online, or you can subscribe to a daily Missal like Magnificat, and this is an excellent way to get started.

Once you’ve started, pick up a good Catholic Bible study book. I’d recommend something which takes you through the Gospel and Acts, so that you can read about Jesus and His Church.

Finally, dive into some spiritual reading. Pick a wellknown book by a well-known Catholic author; The Lamb’s Supper by Scott Hahn or Rediscover Catholicism by Matthew Kelly are good starters. Once you are doing spiritual reading, you’ll be able to discern what kind of books are going to help you most.

Praying with Friends

Finally, if we want to get to know Jesus better, we need to pray. We will get to know Him by talking to Him. If we want to know Jesus, we should take a good look at the rosary. The mysteries of the rosary are really the events of the life of Jesus. When we pray the rosary, we are saying simple memorized prayers that focus us on God, but they are simple prayers for a reason: we are then free to meditate on these mysteries of Jesus Christ. If we spend time meditating on His life, we will get to know Jesus better. I also like to start people off with the Stations of the Cross, because it’s another simple, Christ-centered devotion wherein we can get to know Him better.

I like to see people start with these, because they are simple devotions. I see too many people who jump into a complex or dramatic devotion, often one that is associated with some promise. If the promise doesn’t come to pass when it’s expected, people get frustrated and quit.

That’s not the way to get to know Jesus. Devotions, such as novenas, are not primaily to accomplish our goals — they are primarily to give glory to God and to deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ. If God grants our requests, so much the better.

Lastly, we should pray with Jesus’ friends, the saints.

We should learn about the saints, because these are people who emulated Christ. I particularly like saints like Mother Cabrini, who are known for their determination.

You may become interested in particular saints, and you can learn about Jesus through their lives and writings.

You can pray with them and ask them to pray for you.

To sum up, if you want to get to know Jesus better, I suggest this plan: Live the sacramental life of the Church well and honestly, and really work on your faith in the Real Presence.

Then, try to find a practial charity so that you can see Christ in other people. Recharge yourself in His presence.

Finally, pray devotions that center on Him, and bring His friends, the saints, into your prayer life. That’s how you can get to know Jesus better!q

Music Ministry News and Needs

The music ministry of SFA’s St Mary’s Catholic Campus Ministry in Nacogdoches, TX will be giving a 6:00 pm choir concert of sacred music at Sacred Heart Church on Saturday, April 29, 2017. The “Lord of the Dance” Eastertide music celebration will follow the 5:00 pm vigil Mass with Very Rev. Christopher V. Ruggles of Sacred Heart and Fr. Denzil Vithanage of St. Mary’s concelebrating and with the combined choir-led music ministries of both St. Mary’s and Sacred Heart Church. The concert, under the direction of SFA pianist Linda Parr, will be a special collaboration with SFA student instrumentalists, “Dancers of the Son,” and members of Sacred Heart’s music ministry in a variety of musical styles and composers. The program will include psalm settings and music of David Kauffman, Peter M. Kolar, Dana Mengel, and Chris de Silva. Also, two hymns of Jacques Berthier (Taizé community) “In the Lord I’ll be Ever Thankful” and “Laudate, Dominum,” plus the Franz Biebl “Ave Maria” and Gabriel Fauré “Cantique de Jean Racine” will be featured. Instrumentals include piano, organ, guitar, percussion, strings, winds, and brass. “Lord of the Dance” is open to the public with free-will donations accepted towards a planned 2018 spring break choir monastery retreat. A reception for all who attend will immediately follow in the Margil Center.

Sacred Heart Church is located at 2508 Appleby Sand Road in Nacogdoches, TX 75965.

For more information, contact Linda Parr at 936-715- 5148 or email: lparr@sfasu.edu.

The student praise and worship band at the St. Mary’s Catholic Campus Ministry is in dire need of help to afford micrphones, cords, and sound equipment. The students are seeking $1850.00 for the necessary equipment. If you can help, please contact the Campus Ministry at the phone number below. Any help you can offer is appreciated, as are your prayers. Thanks for your help!

St. Mary’s Catholic Campus Ministry

211 East College St. Nacogdoches, TX 75965 Phone: 936.564.0661

In every age, God desires the Church declare the truth about Jesus, and in every age the Church has heard objections to the truth she teaches. Great saints throughout her history have provided us with responses to subtle and difficult questions about Jesus. Giants of the Catholic faith like St. Athanasius, St. Leo the Great, and St. Maximus the Confessor all responded in their own day to some of the vexing criticism of our Catholic faith in Jesus.

These days, the most vexing claims about Jesus posed by non-Christians are found in the comments section of any online article or video about Christianity.

Scrolling down the page will turn up some pithy critiques (and some bizarre ones) that leave many Catholics scratching their heads. Since I cannot hit “reply” to every post criticizing the Catholic faith, I thought this would be the next best thing. Here are my answers to seven of my favorite online critiques of Jesus.

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1. Jesus didn’t really exist.

When people ask for proof that Jesus really existed, they are usually asking for evidence of him outside the Bible itself. Jesus is mentioned multiple times in ancient, non-Christian texts. Tacitus mentions Jesus in the book called The Annals, written in the early 100s AD. A Jewish writer named Josephus mentions Jesus in his history book called Jewish Antiquities, written late in the 1st century.

Other non-Christian writers who mention Jesus include Pliny the Younger, Celsus, and Suetonius. By using ancient, nonChristian writers alone, we can show that there was a man named Jesus in early 1st century Palestine, that he was also called “Christ,” that he was executed under Pontus Pilate, that he had a band of followers, and that his followers spread to various parts of the Mediterranean world during the mid-1st century.

Really, if a person claims that Jesus

did not exist, he has a lot of explaining to do. He must explain why all of these non-Christian writers are mistaken about Jesus’ existence, how a hodgepodge group of Jews in an insignificant part of the Roman world concocted and spread an elaborate myth without any historical basis, and why no ancient writer bothered to contradict their basic claim of Jesus’ existence while they were spreading the story around. Indeed, it is far better to admit that Jesus really did exist.

2. Nobody who wrote the New Testament ever met or walked with Jesus.

This claim is two things: false and misleading. It is false because some people who wrote the New Testament did spend time with Jesus, such as Matthew, John, and Peter. It is misleading because it suggests that the writers who did not spend time with Jesus could not have reported Jesus’ life or teaching accurately. The re-

ality is, though, that writers such as Mark and Luke never met Jesus themselves, but were close companions of the Apostles who did know Jesus. If they needed to ask a question about Jesus’ life, they had the best sources, the Apostles themselves.

3. None of the early Christians thought Jesus was God. The Church made that up in the 4th century.

This claim shows a big misunderstanding of scripture and the Church’s history. When we read the Bible, we have to keep in mind that these texts were written 2000 years ago for a different audience and a different culture. When Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), he is claiming to be God. When St. Paul writes, “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil 2:11), he is declaring that Jesus is God. “I am” and “Lord” referred to God in Judaism, and those who first heard these words would have recognized that immediately.

In the 4th century, at the First Council of Nicaea, the Church declared that Jesus is God. She chose to make this statement in the 4th century because some people, following a priest named Arius, had started to deny it. In doing so, the Church didn’t make up a new belief out of thin air.

Instead, the Church simply declared officially what she had always believed and taught, which is what Jesus and his Apostles taught from the beginning.

4. The Bible says Jesus was from Nazareth, but Nazareth isn’t a real place.

No one would find this claim more surprising than the people who live in Nazareth to this day. It certainly is a real place. I have been there!

With a current population of about 75,000, Nazareth has grown quite a bit larger over the past 2000 years ago. At the time of Jesus, it was a simple, unimportant village, so it is not mentioned in writing in those early days. It certainly was around, though, as archaeological evidence suggests that the place has been inhabited since the 2nd millennium B.C. 5. The story of Jesus is just a re-telling of the Egyptian myth of the God Horus.

It isn’t often that I run into people who spend their weekend afternoons drinking coffee and catching up on the latest in Egyptian mythology. (The few times I have

run into people doing so resulted in thrilling conversations, though.) It is striking, though, how often people on the internet bring up ancient mythology in an attempt to debunk Christian history.

The myth of the Egyptian God named Horus is a prime example. I have heard the most incredible claims about this Egyptian deity, such as the claim that Horus was born of a virgin named Meri, was prophesied by an angel and visited by shepherds. On the internet, you can find hundreds of people claiming Horus was “baptized by Anup the Baptizer.” It is said that later Horus was crucified between two thieves and rose from the dead!

Unfortunately for Horus, none of these tales were told about him in Egypt.

The Horus of Egyptian mythology was born of the Egyptian goddess named Isis, who wasn’t exactly a virgin, though I will spare you the details. There was no angel Gabriel in the Horus story, nor were there any shepherd guests on his birthday. There was no “Anup the Baptizer” in Egyptian mythology. This Egyptian god was said to have had sixteen followers in his band, not twelve, and there definitely was no crucifixion and resurrection story associated with Horus.

Horus was many things in Egyptian mythology, such as a sky god or a god of the hunt. Often he is depicted as a falcon or as a man with a falcon head. Numerous stories about Horus, some fun, some frightful, survive in ancient Egyptian texts, but nothing in the tales of Horus gives any hint of being the basis for stories about Jesus.

6. Well, then it’s a re-telling of the story of Mithras.

This claim is almost as old as Christianity! Mithras was a popular god in the Roman Empire, so the cult of Mithras popped up quite often back then, in opposition to the early Christians. (One famous Church in Rome, San Clemente, is built on top of an ancient temple to Mithras, which itself was built on top of a more ancient Catholic Church!) To this day, people still make outlandish statements about the cult of Mithras in an attempt to debunk Christianity. These claims, like the ones about Horus, are false.

7. Jesus, even if he existed, couldn’t be the Jewish Messiah because he didn’t fulfill the requirements.

Often people imagine that ancient Judaism was completely united, that everyone shared the same expectations about the Messiah. A cursory glance at the real situation in Israel and the Mediterranean world 2000 years ago reveals that this presumption is far from the truth.

Even the Bible recognizes the variety of viewpoints in Judaism at that time, mentioning the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and other groups.

Along with different viewpoints on other issues, Jews at that time disagreed about who the Messiah would be and what he would do. There was no catechism listing the qualities of the Messiah that all children had to learn!

The fact is, some Jews certainly did think Jesus was the Messiah, believing that he fulfilled the requirements for being the Messiah. These Jews became the first Christians. Think of St. Paul, an extremely well-educated man, familiar with the teachings of the Rabbi Gamaliel and instructed in the doctrine of the Pharisees. With all that training, St. Paul recognized Jesus as the Messiah because Jesus fulfilled the requirements. Many other Jews agreed with St. Paul and saw Jesus as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament.

Now, I’m not encouraging you to go on the internet and argue with people. Arguing on the internet is like the old saying about wrestling with a pig: “Never wrestle a pig in mud. You both get dirty and the pig enjoys it.”

However, I hear these objections from people in the “real world” from time to time. More and more people get their religious information from the internet, and that usually means they’re not getting the truth.

If you hear one of these ideas, you now have the facts and can provide a reasonable answer. If you are confronted with an even more obscure one and want to be able to answer it, I recommend that you politely explain that you’ll be happy to research the issue. Then start with www.

Catholic.com where you can get answers to thousands of different objections to Jesus and many Catholic doctrines.q Father Joshua Neu is a priest of the Dicoese of Tyler and a student at the Pontifical Biblical University in Rome. He studies Old Testament languages and literary forms.

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Food Pantry PROS

St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Frankston runs a modern, ultra-efficient food pantry to serve the needy “You should look at Frankston, that’s one of our parish food pantries. They do a great job.” That’s what Kathy Harry, head of Catholic Charities-Diocese of Tyler, told us when we asked about featuring a charitable ministry in this issue. So, on a cold February morning, we rolled into Frankston to see how they do it.

Ultra-efficiently, that’s how. From the food organization and inspection area, to the registration system for their “clients,” to the ticket “order” system, to drive-up delivery, Saint Charles has its charity down to a science.

The pastor, Father Jonathon Frels, bragged on his crew: “We

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have a great group of volunteers and a generous parish. They make it possible for St. Charles to offer assistance to the community and welcome as many people as we can.”

The food pantry, which started with a $1,000 grant from Catholic Charities in September of 2015, has expanded from serving 37 families at first to over 95 families at peak times.

“Our average over the past 18 months has been about 55-60 families per month. It seems to be growing, however. In the past six months, our average has been 78 families. Word is getting out that our Drive-Thru Food Pantry is the BEST EVER! I am not aware of

another Food Pantry that you can drive up to and they load your sacked groceries into your car for you. Our clients LOVE us!” said Coordinator Mary Ann Cluley.

We asked several of the volunteers, “Why a drive-thru? Why the extra service?” and all of them said exactly the same thing: “We do our very best for our clients, because we love them. We give them the absolute best service we can.”

The system is impressive. Volunteers register clients, determine the exact mix of foods needed, and create tickets customized to each family. Once the clients pull into the loading area, vounteers take the tickets, create the order, and load it for the clients. It’s a total-service system.

Mary Ann said, “When you work at our Food Pantry you SEE Jesus in every person that walks through the door, and you are able to BE Jesus to that person by treating them with love and respect, and also giving them a helping hand in the process.”

She further explained that the St. Charles Food Pantry partners with the East Texas Food Bank and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Tyler: “We mainly purchase our food from ETFB and have a great relationship with them. They provide all the documents we need and the training we need to serve our clients with respect and dignity.”

“Catholic Charities has been a tremendous help. They gave us the $1,000 to get started, which we used toward the purchase of our freezers and refrigerators. They have continued to support us monetarily over the past year with various donations, and our food pantry has partnered with them to serve as a mentor to other parishes in the diocese that they put in contact with us. When another parish shows that they

are interested in feeding the hungry in their area, Catholic Charities offers to help them monetarily, and they also put them in contact with our food pantry to help mentor them and get them started in the process.”

The Food Pantry in Frankston is growing by leaps and bounds: “We have so many volunteers at St. Charles that we have another leg to our food pantry work: a group of about 13 volunteers who actually go work at the East Texas Food Bank warehouse. They work 3-4 hours each month there, re-packing bulk food, such as rice or beans, into smaller one pound packages for easier distribution. They earn $1.00 per hour worked and their earnings are credited to our food pantry account which is used each time we purchase food. We earn about $150 each month which helps tremendously to reduce our bill.”

Kathy Harry explained how Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Tyler helps parish food pantries: “We offer financial and mentoring support for food pantries operating within the Diocese. Some are managed solely by the parish; others are a community effort that includes a Catholic parish. We currently provide financial support to approximately 20 food pantries within the Diocese.”

“There are many ways to be “Christ” to one another, but one of the most basic is feeding the hungry. When we feed the body we feed the soul, for ‘whoever sees you, sees Him.’ Catholic Charities-Diocese of Tyler has the financial resources to help all parishes establish hunger relief programs.

Whether it is purchasing bags of groceries to distribute from the church office, gift cards for a burger or sandwich, or establishing a food pantry, Catholic Charities can assist parishes in this ministry. Joining

together we can help the hungry feel God’s love through the generosity of their neighbors.”

For more information about starting a food pantry or other hunger relief programs available for your area, please contact Kathy Harry, Catholic Charities-Diocese of Tyler. 903-258-9492 ext. 105 or email kharry@cctyler.orgq

We caught Sue Brown dressing these heads of cabbage, spending extra time to make them look perfect. We asked her why: “I want it all to look good, to be high-quality. Our clients deserve the best.”

We asked Virginia Goodson the same question, “Why go to extra trouble?”

She said, “The banquet Christ offers us is only the best, so to truly be Christ to others, you don’t offer the minimum, you offer the best you can. Do you want to achieve social justice? Don’t do the minimum. Do your best!” That sums up the attitude of the Frankston crew.

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Father Anthony McLaughlin, JCD, canon law professor and Vicar General of the diocese, has been named the first president of TK Gorman Catholic school. We interviewed him about his life, Catholic education, and his plans for TK Gorman.

Father McLaughlin: I was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which at the time was embroiled in the Troubles. I went to elementary school in 1975. The Troubles had begun in earnest in August of 1969, so that was 6 years into the Troubles, where our community was divided against itself—nationalist against unionist, Protestant against Catholic. There was murder and mayhem on a daily basis. One of my memories from elementary school was as I was preparing for confirmation.

Our parish church attached to our school, St. Anne’s, was firebombed and burned to the ground a week before we were to receive confirmation. We had to receive confirmation in the gymnasium of the school. That had a great impact on me, because we realized that we were under siege as Catholics. Many anti-Catholics had risen to power in the government, and they were determined to keep Catholics as second-class citizens. And so one of the things I received from school was a political awareness, that we were a people under siege, and an occupied people, but also the importance of our Faith, down through the ages. We as a Catholic community have clung to the Faith—not just for ten years or a hundred years, sacrificing our own lives for the Catholic Faith.

St. Anne’s Primary School was my elementary school, from 1975 to 1982. My secondary education was at our diocesan college, St. Malachy’s College, from 1982 to 1989. So my entire formation as a child was in Catholic school.

In the elementary school, my instructors were lay men and women. In secondary school, the diocesan college, they were again mostly lay men and lay women, but also some priests. They were a real example to me, as to what it meant to be a good priest, to be a good disciple. I entered the diocesan college when I was twelve, and attended from twelve to eighteen. I left the diocesan college and basically went right across the street into

the seminary, because the philosophy seminary was connected to the school.

I then went to St. John’s seminary in Waterford. In 1996, the rector of the seminary put me in contact with Bishop Carmody, the second Bishop of Tyler. After conversations with Bishop Carmody, and because of his willingness to receive me into the Diocese of Tyler, I joined the diocese. I was ordained a deacon of the diocese in 1997, and first came to Tyler in the summer of 1997, and I worked in the cathedral for three months. I then returned to Ireland, back to seminary, and was ordained a priest just before Christmas, 1997, by Bishop Carmody.

These past 19 years, I’ve ministered throughout the diocese—the length and breadth of the diocese. I’ve been pastor of several parishes. I’ve been vicar of other parishes. I’ve held a number of diocesan positions. I taught at the Catholic University of America for six semesters.

I returned about two years ago to be Vicar General of the diocese and to be pastor of Mary, Queen of Heaven in Malakoff. Several months ago, the bishop first began talking to me about the possibility of coming here to Gorman.

Thankfully, I’ve had the privilege of a very strong education. I studied philosophy and Latin, and then theology. I have a license in canon law and a doctorate in canon law, then I taught canon law. That background is very important because not only is it a background in theology but a background in reason and discipline. I think that reason and discipline are very important for the ministries that I will exercise here at the school.

CET: How important was your Catholic education in confirming your vocation?

Father McLaughlin: Oh, very. When I was 11 or 12, going to the diocesan college, the expectation was that you were going to be a dentist or a doctor, or a lawyer— something that would make a contribution to the community. I had passed an exam called the Eleven Plus, which meant that I had had a choice of colleges to go to without tuition. So I thought at first I would be a doctor. And then I decided, well, I’d like to be a lawyer. And then when I was 16 or 17, I thought maybe I might be a priest. It was the example of the hope of the Catholic people around me, but more importantly the example of the priests around me, that made it very real and very attainable—that this was something that perhaps I might be called to, and that I perhaps could attain in my life. And so, I felt called to be a priest. All of that is very mysterious because as a priest, I became both an academic doctor and lawyer. So the Lord is never outdone in generosity. I ended up becoming all that I ever wanted to be. For me, that was very thrilling.

CET: How important is the presence of priests in a school?

Father McLaughlin: Very important, for many reasons. The external, to be visible: the people are reminded that there is this caste of person in the Church called “priest.” That visibility is important, so that people are reminded that there are priests. But hopefully, even more deeply, the interior life of the priest is made vis-

Father McLaughlin in his class photo from 1989 at St. Malachy’s College.

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ible in the school. That if he is a person who loves the Lord, if he is a disciple, if he is a person of prayer, if he is committed to the faith as expressed by the Church —that manifests itself in the interaction of the students with him in the school. Visible? Yes, there’s the priest. But hopefully, the invisible is also made present in his example. Just having a priest doesn’t necessarily engender vocations. The usefulness of the priest that you have engenders vocations.

cause the government paid for the faculty. But, the Church was always conscious that the Catholicity of the school needed to be preserved, and that was the function of the president: he represented the interest of the Church in every aspect of the life of the school.

CET: What is the role of the president in a Catholic school?

Father McLaughlin: Up to this point, the principal has been expected to be the jack of all trades: the master educator, the master faith former, the master curriculum director. Additionally, they were expected to be the development officer, the chief fundraiser, and the chief cheerleader. But now, with the president-principal model, these responsibilities are shared between the president and the principal, each person focusing on the areas that they feel gifted in. In our case, to use a business model, the president is the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and the principal is the COO (Chief Operations Officer).

The president-principal model is not an attempt to add another layer of bureaucracy. It is a leadership model that can serve the school better, because I get to focus on Catholicity, publicity, affordability, and advancement. The principal gets to focus on the classroom, and the two of us complement each other. That’s not to suggest that the president has nothing to do with the classroom or the curriculum. I hope to teach some classes, because my goal is not just to represent the school to the outside, but my role is also to understand the school from the inside. I can only help the school if I understand it from the inside. So I don’t intend to be a bureaucrat, a cheerleader, to be someone relegated to fundraising. It is a significant leadership role and a significant pastoral role. I will relocate to Tyler soon, hopefully close to the school. I will office here at the school and at the chancery, and my responsibilities will be to the school and to the chancery.

Father McLaughlin: As people will note, Bishop Gorman, for its entire history, has been led by what you might call an “all-in-one” style of leadership, where the principal has to be all things to all men, to take all of the leadership roles on himself.

The president-principal model affords the possibility that what the principal had to shoulder for so long is now shared. Now, you have two people in leadership, and hopefully they can focus on areas of ministry that they are particularly competent in. The role of the president is very significant. The president is not merely a part-time mascot or a cheerleader for the school. It is a position of true responsibility, of true leadership.

The president is the primary administrator for the school. He focuses on the areas of Catholicity, Publicity, Affordability, and Advancement. Catholicity is the making of disciples and the nurturing of the Faith within the school. Publicity, so that the people come to know the presence of our Catholic school, and not only that they are made aware of it, but that they come to respect if ever more deeply and want to support it. Affordability, so that Catholic education is available to all. Advancement, so that our Catholic school is not static, but is a growing and improving entity. To do so, I’m responsible for development, theology, fundraising, enhancement—significant areas.

Interestingly enough, the school I went to, since its foundation in 1833, had adopted the president-principal model for its governance. Dr. Morne was the principal and Father Conway was president, so we had that model. In our school system, to be honest, there was not a lot of fund ra i s i n g , be-

CET: How best can people understand the difference between president and principal?

CET: How would you explain or describe Catholicity to someone who is not familiar with the term?

Father McLaughlin with Father Charles Vreeland, chaplain of TK Gorman, and students.

Father McLaughlin: To help the students love the Lord, to foster a prayer life, to foster a moral life, to live their life in different ways, and that’s what I mean by Catholicity. That it should make a difference—it’s not just external observances, a few statues, a few crucifixes—it’s deeper than that. It’s an interior conversion to the good, the beautiful, and the true.

But what does all of that mean? It begins with Christ. How do I relate to the Lord? In what ways do I have the supernatural present in my life? In what ways do I live the elegant life? In what ways do I live my discipleship in a more intense way? So it begins with Christ, and flows into other areas. It’s not easy to encapsulate, because it’s a life’s journey. But, we have to begin it here in the school. It’s reflected first of all in how we love God as a school community. Is prayer a part of daily life? Is the prayer substantial, is the prayer meaningful? How are we worshiping the Lord as a community at Mass? What is our outreach to the community?

Are we taking care of the poor? Are we taking care of the vulnerable? Do we have any meaningful outreach? That’s really important for the school. Otherwise, we’re just a prayer group for the middle class. I don’t want the school to be a prayer group for the middle class. It has to be available to all and for all.

CET: Does having true Catholicity in the school hamper the school’s ability to serve non-Catholics?

Father McLaughlin: No, not at all. Because to be truly Catholic is

to be open, and so we recognize the good that is present in the belief systems of others, and while recognizing the good that’s present, we should also be unafraid to encourage persons to look good and hard at the Catholic faith. Because we will propose the Catholic faith as the fullness of the Christian message, we will propose the faith as the best way to salvation. Hopefully, in that regard, the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Jewish person, the Muslim—whoever attends our school would not feel that somehow we are not tolerating their belief system, but they should feel that we are calling them to much more. And that much more is present, fully, in the teaching communicated by the Church.

CET: Can you expound on the importance of Mass for the school?

Father McLaughlin: The way we worship God says much about our disposition toward God. So, we need to celebrate the Mass here at Gorman fully, actively, and consciously. We need to participate in the mass with great joy, with great earnestness. And how is that done? Do the students participate? Are they making the responses loudly? Are they attentive when the readings are proclaimed? Are the students open when the preaching takes place? Do we adopt the necessary postures, not just simply as an exercise, but as devotion? And there is an expectation, when we kneel there is an expectancy—not just simple observance.

I think our students do really well in their participation in the

Dec 21, 1997 - Father Anthony McLaughlin is ordained at St. Joseph Church in Antrim, Ireland, by Bishop Edmund Carmody, second bishop of Tyler, with future Bishop Joseph Strickland in attendance.

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Mass on Wednesdays, but I think we need to root it very deeply.

The students in a Catholic school cannot approach the Mass as a biology lesson, a history lesson, something to be gotten through.

No—it’s the worship of God. It’s fundamental. God deserves the praise that is his due. And we must render unto God the praise that is his due, and from that comes everything else. There is no love of neighbor where there is no love of God. There is no love of neighbor where there is no proper worship of God. It is absolutely fundamental. And how do we feed the Mass? It’s not just arriving five minutes early to Mass. The Mass is fed by our daily commitment to Christ as individuals and as a school community. What are we doing for devotional life to stir the people to have a love for the Lord and not just a love for the religious structure of the Mass? It has to be a love for the Lord himself. And that’s shown in how we participate in the things of God. So that’s going to be a real emphasis for me.

CET: The president is responsibility for the teaching of theology in the school. What do you hope for in the teaching of theology?

Father McLaughlin: We know, of course, that in Catholic school there are many subjects taught, and rightly so. We know that all of those subjects should be taught through the lens of Christ, because Christ is the beginning and end of history. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the center of the universe and the savior of all. All that is good, beautiful, and true comes from him and leads back to him. So we have all subjects taught, but the flagship department at Gorman should be the theology department. It needs to have the best and brightest and because this is the very reason for the establishment of our school—that people learn the

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faith. Our school was not established for biology or math, as important and necessary as those subjects are. And while we invite people to excel, theology must be the flagship in our school, meaning that our students leave our school with a tremendously deep sense of our faith, and an ability to articulate our faith: why we believe what we believe. And not only the ability to articulate our faith, but an articulation that is translated into the way they live their lives. I want people to think of Gorman and say, “My goodness, the theology department at Gorman is off the charts fantastic! I send my children to Gorman because of the way the faith is taught there.” I will take personal care of how theology is taught at the school because it’s fundamental.

CET: The statistical data on our culture points to a crisis of faith in young people. What do you think of that trend, and how does your mission at GK Gorman relate to the state of faith among young people?

Father McLaughlin: It’s certainly a challenge. The students, upon leaving high school and entering college, are leaving the faith— even students who attend Catholic school. When you compare students at a Catholic school and students at a state school, students at a Catholic school are much more likely to continue practicing the faith into the future than those who attend a state school. However, the fact that any Catholic would leave a Catholic school and no longer live the Catholic faith is a tragedy. It begs two things from me. First of all, I recognize free will. We all have the gift of free will. You can lead a horse to water, but it’s hard to make him drink. Sometimes people walk away from the faith because they decide to—not necessarily because what they have received wasn’t foundational enough. However, I have to be con-

cerned that what they received at the school is the best foundation that we can offer them. So I’m going to have to look at every area of the school to make sure we are giving them the best ever.

In conscience, I have to be sure before God that we make every effort that the foundation we provide them with is the best possible foundation.

What would pain me, and what would keep me awake at night, is that we would simply not have done enough to keep people in the faith. So if there is an area of greatest concern, it is this one.

CET: Any final thoughts?

My Dear Gorman Family, In recent weeks our capital campaign to construct the Brodnax Family Crusader Center has received new momentum. We have now entered the final phase of this campaign but there is still much work to be done. I’d like to express my deepest thanks to those who have pledged already and I urge those who have not yet had the opportunity to pledge to please do so as soon as possible.

Participation in this worthy campaign is not simply limited to “Gorman people.” The benefits of having this center on campus

will be felt beyond Gorman. I urge all the faithful and all persons of good will to step forward to support this campaign. Please help us, so that the Brodnax Family Crusader Center may become a reality!

Anyone wishing to help us in this important work, please contact me directly at TK Gorman Catholic School, (903) 5612424. Your contribution to this campaign will benefit generations of Catholic school students to come. Thank you for your generosity to our Catholic schools in the Diocese of Tyler.

-Father Anthony McLaughlin, JCD

Father McLaughlin: I’d just like to encourage all who read this article to look again at the benefits of Catholic education and our Catholic schools, to consider sending your child to a Catholic school, to make the sacrifice for the sake of your child’s salvation and for the sake of academic excellence. I know some people are put off because of the cost of tuition, and I resolve to help anybody who wants to send their child to a Catholic school, to make it work.q

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Visited by a Saint Father Juan carlos Sardinas, Pastor of St. James Catholic Church in Sulphur Springs, tells us about his life, his priesthood, and the visit of Saint John Paul II

Growing up in Cuba CET: Father Sardinas, can you tell us about your early life?

Father Sardinas: I am a Cuban priest. I was born in Cuba in February of 1970. I have two brothers and three sisters. I went to seminary in September 1990.

CET: You were born 11 years after the Revolution, so you were born into communist Cuba. In 1970, what was happening to the Catholic Church in Cuba? Were people free to go to church?

Father Sardinas: In 1970, whoever wanted to go to church could go, but the problem was that the people who went to church and believed in God had no rights to go to university, to study medicine, or whatever.

This was the right for the revolutionaries.

During my childhood, my parents didn’t go to Church or talk about religions at all. I was baptized in secret, but had no instruction in the faith. When I would ask my mother, “What is that building (a church) for?” she would just say, “Shhh, we don’t talk about that!”

My grandmother believed in God. Shortly after the Revolution, when persecution of Catholics was most intense, she built herself a secret shrine. She moved a heavy wardrobe into the corner of the room, with just enough space so she could slip behind. There, she had a crucifix and a sacred heart image, and she would go to her secret shrine to pray every day. My godmother lived next door. She prayed the rosary every day—maybe five or six times a day. I was baptized when I was maybe two years old, in secret, at the parish. You could profess your faith publicly, but if you professed your faith, you had no rights. And my parents preferred that I studied.

never heard about Jesus. For me, Jesus was the man on top of the cross, with the crown of thorns, which I thought was some kind of hat! For me, it was a tremendous discovery. Reading the New Testament was a passionate experience. I received confirmation and holy Eucharist when I was 17 or 18. Three years later, in 1990, I went to the seminary. Since I was almost an adult, my mother said, “If that’s your decision, I respect it.” My father said nothing.

I started seminary in 1990, in a class of 21, but by the halfway point in formation, all the other 20 had left and I was alone.

Visited by a Saint Saint John Paul II attempted to visit Cuba several times, but was put off by the

Cuban government until 1997. Once an agreement was made between Cuba and the Vatican, preparations began for the 1998 visit. My bishop traveled to the Vatican to discuss the arrangements with the Pope.

In the meeting, Saint John Paul asked my bishop how many men would be ordained for the nation of Cuba in 1998. My bishop responded, “Only one, your holiness.”

Saint John Paul, learning that I was the only one in the entire country, was moved and sent me a gift – a chasuble, which I wore at my ordination and for my first Mass.

As the only transitional deacon in the country that year, I got to serve as deacon in the Papal Mass at Santa Clara, the first Mass that the Pope celebrated in Cuba. It impacted me how the Pope paid attention

The Church Calls CET: If you didn’t go to Mass and your family didn’t talk about God, how did you discern the priesthood?

Father Sardinas: When I was 15, I was following a pretty girl down the street to try to talk to her, and she went into a church.

I followed her inside, and as soon as I was there, the priest engaged me, and I forgot all about the girl. A catechist gave me a New Testament, and I read it in three days. I saw that it had the answers to the questions I was asking about the purpose of life. I had

Saint John Paul II with Fidel Castro 41

to each person; each person was important to him and he saw the eyes of each one.

CET:So, you were ordained in August, and there were no other priests in your year, and there were not enough priests in Cuba, so you went immediately to work?

Father Sardinas: Yes. I was ordained August 2nd, and on August 8th I was in my first parish, Santo Domingo. I was a pastor with 11 churches: two parishes, two chapels, and seven gatherings of Catholics in homes, in little towns. The good thing was that I had a group of nuns with me. I would leave the nuns in a place to prepare—to visit the sick, prepare the choir, the youth, the catechesis, the faith formation. And then I came back to say Mass.

started to get inquiries and warnings from the government about me, and I could feel the crosshairs on me. I was becoming a target, and exile was near. It went on for a while, and then I decided to come to Miami. I stayed in Miami for 11 months at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, with Monsignor Román, the bishop of Miami. But I didn’t like Miami, so I planned to move to Puerto Rico.

CET: Was it difficult to leave Cuba or did the government want you to go?

Father Sardinas: For the government, they don’t mind if the priests visit other countries, and if they don’t come back—even better. To have a priest in Cuba is a problem. Fewer priests, fewer problems.

The Papal Mass in Santa Clara

Speaking the Truth

Coming to Texas

CET:What was it like to be Catholic in Cuba in the years after you were ordained?

CET: How did you come to be in the Dicoee of Tyler?

Father Sardinas: Priests are nuisances to the Cuban government, because the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, the teachings on life and human dignity, are contrary to communism.

Out of 2,000 priests in the nation in 1959, Castro exiled 1,800.

After I was ordained, I immediately began to preach against the human rights violations of the Cuban government—in particular, the splitting up of families through compulsory boarding education. The government took children away from the family to teach them to rely on the commune. I talked about what is important for the families, their duty with their children. They had to pay more attention to their children. They had the right to educate their children like they want, not as the government wants. The government should not be responsible for the children. My bishop

Father Sardinas: In the church in Miami, there was a nun who knew Bishop Corrada. Through her, he knew I was going to Puerto Rico, and he contacted me and invited me to come. When he called me, I told him, “Bishop, I appreciate it, but I have my ticket in my hand to Puerto Rico.” He said, “Don’t worry—lose the ticket.

Come and visit us. If you don’t like it here, I will help to find another place for you.” I came in February 2005. When I arrived in Dallas, I liked the airport and I liked the people. They were very friendly. But when I flew from Dallas to Tyler, I had to carry my luggage on my legs because it was a little plane. And when I arrived to the airport in Tyler, it was just a little house in a field in the the country! And I thought, “Tomorrow I leave; I don’t like the country.

Texas is the country.” But now I’ve been here for eleven, almost twelve years.

CET: So what changed your mind?

Father Sardinas: While I was living in Miami, I traveled to Mexico in November 1999 for a meeting with different indigenous people, and there I thought, “I would like to work with these people one day.” When I came here in 2005 and met so many Mexican people, I felt that these people needed me as a priest.

CET:How is Catholicism in Cuba different from Catholicism in Texas?

Father Sardinas: The Church in Cuba is made up of Cuban people. The Church here in Texas is made up of people from all over— Anglos, people from Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala—from everywhere. When I was in seminary, one of my teachers was a nun who said, “Do not view celibacy as the hardest thing about being a priest; the hardest thing about being a priest is to make the community into one family.” In Cuba, it was hard to make a community—how much harder it is here!

here for good.

The United States is a great country. I love the United States. Now I’m in the process of citizenship. This nation has two great things: freedom and respect of life. Yes, it is prohibited to teach religion in the public schools. But in the prison, you can go and minister. What is better? To teach God in the school or to teach God in the prison?

The Church has freedom here that it does not have in Cuba. Sins make us more animal, not human. The Church helps us practice all those things that help us to become more human. q Father Juan Carlos Sardinas is the Pastor of St. James Catholic Church in Sulphur Springs, Texas.

Cuba today CET: Now it’s 2017. What are your thoughts about the Cuban Revolution and communism?

Father Sardinas: The government has had a lot of time to destroy the quality of life and to change the mind of everybody. I remember when I was in elementary school, in my classroom, there was one Catholic. Maybe twice a month, the principal went to the door of the classroom and called that one student out to intimidate her. I don’t know what they said to that student, but there was a constant intimidation of Catholics. The communists are afraid of the Catholic Church because its social doctrine promotes human flourishing, dignity, and freedom. Communism likes to keep the people’s eyes closed; the Catholic Church helps the people think and use their brain.

In Cuba we had a joke: A schoolchild came to the teacher and said, “My cat had seven kittens, and all are communists!” The teacher replied, “That’s wonderful!” The next day, the child said to his teacher, “We still have seven kittens, but now only one is communist.” “What happened?” the teacher asked.

“The other six opened their eyes.”

CET: What did you think when you heard that Fidel Castro had died?

Father Sardinas: If Fidel Castro were still governing now, and he died, something would change. But he was no longer in government, so nothing really changed. His brother Raúl is president. I am concerned that the celebrations of the Cubans in Miami at the news of Fidel’s death could provoke Raúl and negatively affect the situation in Cuba.

Lessons to pass along CET: What would you like to say to our readers and to seminarians or young men considering the priesthood?

Father Sardinas: What is my message to the priests and to the seminarians? This is our diocese. The meaning of our priesthood is here. This is the diocese of mission. This is my diocese. I am

Father Sardinas in the chasuble he received from Saint John Paul II 43

The Sisters of Fatima have come to Our Lady of Victory in Paris, increasing their presence in the Diocese of Tyler.

The Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima (the “Sisters of Fatima”), have come to Paris, Texas. Their order is based in Yauco, Puerto Rico, and so far eight of the sisters are serving in the Diocese of Tyler: four in Palestine and now four at Our Lady of Victory. They arrived on January 28 (the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, another Dominican) and according to the pastor of OLV, Father Anthony Stoeppel, “The sisters wasted no time at all. They got immediately to work, and they’re already making their presence felt in the parish, and outside of it.”

Peter Kane, Director of Development for the diocese, explained how this order came to have a presence in the Diocese of Tyler: “The first group of sisters came here in a partnership between the diocese and Catholic Extension. I heard about an Extension program which funded the presence of sisters from Latin America in the United States for five years, so they can become established, called the ‘Latin American Sisters Exchange.’”

“Catholic Exchange helped us to contact various orders, and the Sisters of Fatima fit our diocese perfectly. The Prioress General, Sister Mariola, and Sister Irene (who is now the local superior of the convent in Palestine) came to visit the diocese in early 2014. Sister Angelica (Orozco, coordinator of catechesis for the diocese) and I drove them around the diocese for a week.

They wanted to know everything about East Texas. They were particularly interested in the piety of the people. They had never been to Texas before, and noted the kindness of the people. They were also intent to confirm that there was real poverty and material need, since from outside of the mainland United States, they don’t always get a clear picture.”

The sisters were excited by the opportunities they saw, and decided to come to the Diocese of Tyler. “They had other dioceses to choose from, but they chose Tyler. The Catholic Extension grant was able to help get us started, and the Bishop’s Appeal was able to purchase the convent. When we obtained the convent, we knew it could happen. Two years later, when there was interest from parishioners in Paris to have religious sisters at Our Lady of Victory, it was natural to work with the Sisters of Fatima again. Father Anthony and I contacted Sister Mariola and made a pitch; we invited her to come and see OLV. She liked what she saw.”

Father Anthony Stoeppel, pastor of Our Lady of Victory said, “We had everything they needed. Generous donors, people who need the sisters, and we even had a convent on the property!”

In the month since the sisters arrived, they have been visiting dozens of families in the parish, working with the Spanish-lan-

All of the Sisters of Fatima in the diocese, from both the Palestine and Paris communities, joined Bishop Strickland as he blessed the new convent at Our Lady of Victory in Paris.

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Father Anthony Stoeppel and Bishop Joseph Strickland welcome the Sisters of Fatima to Our Lady of Victory.

From the left, the sisters are: Sister Mariola, Prioress General of the order; Sister Yadira, a novice on her mission year; Sister Maria Belen; Sister Aurea Maria, local superior for the Paris convent; and Sister Ester.

guage choir, and getting involved in teaching. Sister Aurea Maria, the local superior, said, “Over the last month, we’ve received an extremely warm welcome into this community. It’s like we’ve been in Paris for years. This place already feels like home.”

Sister Ester said, “People here have been so generous to us. they’re excited to see religious sisters in their town again.” Sister Aurea agreed. “Many people here had positive experiences with the religious sisters who worked at the hospital, and there is continuity for them; they are saying, ‘Wow, look, the sisters are back!’ When we were out visiting families, one young woman made her mother stop the car so she could get out and greet us.”

Sister Maria Belen said, “Even if people don’t know what religious life is, when they see us, they want to know. There’s a real curiosity about nuns!”

Father Stoeppel explained, “The sisters live a particular life, the religious life, which is centered around communal prayer. We are dedicated to supporting their life as religious nuns, not just as teachers or employees. The fruit of their ministry really comes from their prayer, and then is manifested publicly in their works.

We have to first cherish and protect their life of prayer.”

“The sisters recently had an ‘open house,’ and we took all the classes of faith formation to tour the convent. The kids (and even the catechists) were impressed and even a little awed to learn about the schedule of prayer the sisters keep for the parish and the world. They were also impressed to know that the sisters have a chapel in their convent. I asked the small children, ‘Whose room is this?’ and they all responded, ‘Jesus!’”

“I think the witness of these religious sisters will have profound effect on vocations in this part of the diocese.”

One of the nuns, Sister Yadira, is a novice (and is distinguished by her lighter-colored habit). Sister Aurea said, “This is her mission year together with us. We are very thankful that she gets to be part of this team.” Sister Yadira told us, “I am finishing my second year of the novitiate. And, if God wills it, in July I will make my first profession of vows.”

“My discernment here in Paris has gone very well. This experience of mission here in Texas has been very different, and not what I expected, from the different language to everything else, but a great growth in my life, spiritually and personally.

Therefore, I give thanks to God!” Sister Aurea said, "To everyone in the diocese and to Bishop Joseph Strickland: Thank You! Thank you for this opportunity.

It is very much a blessing for this community to work with the families here. Our founder, Madre Dominga, founded this community to work with families and to help families grow in the love of God. We thank everyone for this blessing here in Paris, Texas.”

Peter Kane explained, “People often ask, ‘How do we get sisters back in our parishes?’ Well, here’s one way. It takes an entire diocese, working with pastors, donors and parishioners. It can happen, but it takes a coordinated effort.”

Father Stoeppel said, “Our Lady of Victory is going to work to expand this ministry. We want to be able to welcome more sisters from this order in the future, and we’ll be building them a permanent home here at OLV.”q

47

MonseĂąor Strickland consagra el altar de la parroquia MarĂ­a, Reina del Cielo en Malakoff.

Monseñor

Strickland

Al estar reflexionando sobre esta edición de la revista Catholic East Texas, mi mente continúa enfocada en lo importante que es enseñar la fe a los niños y jóvenes. Como escribí en la última edición, necesitamos abrazar este reto, todos, para que todos los niños, en nuestra diócesis, conozcan la fe Católica y se les provea todas las oportunidades para que vivan una vida en Jesucristo más plena. Bueno, como obispo, yo debo también abrazar este reto. Necesito seguir adelante para hacer aquello que ayudará a nutrir un nuevo tiempo primaveral de la educación católica en nuestra diócesis.

Por lo tanto, he hecho un cambio, muy grande, en la escuela católica de Tyler, Bishop TK Gorman. He instituido un nuevo modelo de gobierno para la escuela, el modelo de Presidente-Principal y he asignado al Padre Anthony McLaughlin, JCD, como primer Presidente. El Padre McLaughlin comenzará la búsqueda de un nuevo principal para la escuela.

Siento que el modelo de Presidente-Principal es el mejor modelo de gobierno para la escuela TK Gorman porque nos ayudará a lograr nuestra meta de enseñar, de verdad, la fe católica a todos nuestros estudiantes. Este modelo se ha probado ya con más de la mitad de las escuelas católicas en USA. Especialmente, la presencia de un sacerdote como Presidente-Principal, nos ayudará a crear un ambiente verdaderamente católico en la escuela. Esto es de mucha importancia: que nuestras escuelas católicas no se avergüencen de su catolicismo.

Previamente, se le pedía al principal que hiciera un sin número de cosas pero la escuela católica tienen necesidades especiales en las cuales el presidente podrá enfocarse. Necesitamos el Catolicismo y por lo tanto necesitamos su desarrollarlo. El Catolicismo y el Desarrollo son como dos pequeños cilindros quemándose juntos y que juntos pueden hacer andar el motor de una escuela católica vibrante. El presidente, de la escuela, se enfocará en estas dos cosas para que todos los estudiantes, que sea posible, puedan experimentar la gran ventaja de una verdadera educación católica. El mantener al principal libre para que pueda lidiar con las operaciones de, día-a-día, de la escuela, hará posible que pueda crear un mejor ambiente académico, mientras que el presidente podrá crear esas condiciones, para que, a su vez la escuela y el catolicismo florezcan.

Saben, para un estudiante de la escuela secundaria, el ir a misa como parte de su currículo es inusual en nuestra cultura.

Necesitamos ser más inusuales de esa manera. Necesitamos no avergonzarnos de Jesucristo y su Iglesia en nuestras escuelas. No estamos ahí, aún. No es un producto bellamente terminado pero creo que vamos por buen camino.

Es mi deseo que las escuelas Católicas sean tremendamente atractivas para las familias. Quiero que la escuela TK Gorma sea una atracción para que la gente quiera venirse a vivir a Tyler y atraer a todas las familias católicas y quieran ver a sus hijos en esta institución que será bellamente académica y espiritual.

Nuestra cultura parece estar más confundida cada día y yo quiero que las escuelas sean instituciones de belleza y bondad y salgan de esta confusión y ofrezcan la Fe Católica completa y verdaderamente. Nuestras escuelas católicas, enseñando la verdad de la fe católica son una parte integral de nuestra misión de fortalecer las familias y traerles la Buena Nueva de Jesucristo a cada una de ellas.

El movernos al modelo de Presidente-Principal se liga muy fuertemente a nuestro intento de renovar “el enfoque” sobre la enseñanza, en la Catequesis y la Evangelización, hecho que tiene que prevalecer en toda la diócesis. Pienso que el P. McLaughlin es la mejor persona para impulsar este reto, con su experiencia académica, pastoral y de administración, en la escuela TK Gorman. Seguiremos reformando otras instituciones y reclutando lo mejor y lo más sobresaliente para la misión de enseñar la fe en la diócesis. De verdad estamos “dando la vuelta a la esquina” en muchas partes de la diócesis y seremos constantes en seguir adelante. Para las familias, en esta área, que no tienen a sus hijos inscritos en la escuela Católica, les tengo un mensaje: La escuela TK Gorman será verdadera y radicalmente católica. Si, así será. Crearemos un compañerismo entre los padres de familia y los maestros para formar a los estudiantes en la fe católica. Quiero que su familia se una a nosotros. Sé que esto es un albur y no se debe de tomar ligeramente, pero tengan fe en nosotros. Ayúdenos a lograr esta meta, trayendo la fe católica de su familia a nuestra escuela. Estamos creando estos cambios del personal y manejo, pero lo que en realidad está pasando es un cambio filosófico, para abrazar más enteramente la fe católica en las escuelas. Nosotros los apoyaremos y ayudaremos en su misión como padres y primeros educadores en la fe de sus hijos. Por favor, considere la educación católica para su familia. Su presencia, como una familia católica comprometida, puede profundizar la naturaleza católica de TK Gorman.q 49

Los Padres de la Iglesia

y la persona de JesĂşs

Uno de los artículos más básicos de nuestra fe católica es nuestra creencia que Jesús es verdadero Dios y verdadero hombre. Decimos esto cada domingo en el Credo Niceno. Pero hay muchos que dicen ser cristianos y niegan esta verdad. Puede ser que usted haya sido visitado por estas personas, o quizá haya alguien en su familia que sea uno de ellos. Pero como católicos nos aferramos a la verdad que nos ha sido entregada por los Apóstoles y recordamos la advertencia que San Pablo nos da en la Carta a los Gálatas 1: 8 “Pero aun si nosotros mismos o un ángel del cielo les anunciara un evangelio diferente del que les hemos anunciado, sea anatema.” Los cristianos desde la época de los Apóstoles han creído que el hecho de que Jesús era Dios verdadero y hombre verdadero es el punto central de nuestra fe.

Mucha de la confusión y las diferencias en las creencias de los no católicos, como los Testigos de Jehová, viene de los malentendidos acerca del Concilio de Nicea en el año 325. Ellos reclaman que fue el emperador Constantino quien decidió que Jesús era verdadero Dios y que fue él quien propuso y presionó esta doctrina en el concilio. Sin embargo, la realidad es otra.

Durante los años antes del Concilio de Nicea habían algunos sacerdotes y obispos que estaban predicando en contra de la creencia en la divinidad de Jesús causando muchos problemas.

El emperador Constantino convocó el Concilio de Nicea con el propósito de mantener la paz en su reino. El presidió/organizó el concilio, pero él mismo no votó. Ni tampoco tenía una opinión fuerte a favor de una posición o la otra.

Podemos ver ejemplos de la divinidad de Jesús mucho antes de Constantino, tanto en las Santas Escrituras, las cuales fueron escritas entre los años 48 y 97, y en los escritos de los antiguos Padres de la Iglesia, quienes escribieron poco después que las Santas Escrituras estaban en circulación, y continuaron escribiendo aun después del Concilio de Nicea. El hecho de que la Iglesia desde sus comienzos creyera que Jesús era verdadero Dios y verdadero hombre no era algo nuevo en el siglo 4, sino más bien la Tradición que habían recibido y que nos ha llegado aún a nosotros hoy.

Estos son algunos ejemplos de lo que los primeros cristianos creían acerca de la divinidad de Cristo: San Ignacio de Antioquia: (c. 50-117) Porque nuestro Dios, Jesús el Cristo, fue concebido por María según el plan de Dios, tanto de la simiente de David, y del Espíritu Santo”.

San Policarpo de Esmirna: (c. 69-155) “Pero el Dios y Padre de nuestro Señor Jesucristo, y el eterno gran sacerdote mismo, el Hijo de Dios, Jesucristo, te edifica en la fe y la verdad… Y a nosotros con ustedes, y para todos aquellos que aún bajo el cielo creerán en nuestro Dios y Señor Jesucristo y en su Padre que lo resucito de entre los muertos”.

San Justino Mártir: (100-165) “Permítanme primero relatar las profecías que deseo hacer para demostrar que Cristo es llamado Dios y Señor de los ejércitos.”

San Ireneo de Lyon: (120-202) “Cristo Jesús [es] nuestro Señor, y Dios, y Salvador, y Rey, de acuerdo con la voluntad del Padre invisible.”

San Tertuliano: (c. 160-225) “Porque solo Dios es sin pecado y el único hombre sin pecado es Cristo, porque Cristo es Dios” Orígenes: (c. 185-254): “Jesucristo… en los últimos tiempos, despojándose (de su gloria), se convirtió en un hombre, y aunque siendo Dios se encarnó, y al mismo tiempo se hizo hombre sigue siendo el Dios que Él era.”

Como fuente para apoyar esta doctrina, la Iglesia desde su comienzo, ha ido a las narraciones Bíblicas, lugar donde se encuentra la fuente de esta verdad de una manera clara. En el Nuevo Testamento podemos encontrar varias referencias a la realidad de que Jesús es Dios y hombre verdadero, por ejemplo: Mt. 1:23; Juan 1:1, 14, 18; Hechos 20:28, Heb. 1:3, 8; Ped. 1:1; 1 Juan 5:20, entre otras.

Tanto la Iglesia primitiva como la Iglesia del mundo de hoy ha contado con grandes personajes que se han dedicado a darle realce a la doctrina sobre la naturaleza humana y divina de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo. Convencidos de que ninguna de estas naturalezas está una sobre la otra han puesto gran esmero en propagar y defender esta doctrina tan excelsa.

Uno de los más recientes teólogos que ha profundizado en esta realidad es su Santidad el Papa Emérito Benedicto XVI. Este hombre, de renovado prestigio, ha escrito infinidad de libros en los que defiende valientemente esta doctrina tan debatida por hombres sin fe. Una de sus más recientes obras es la de Jesús de Nazareth. En esta obra su Santidad nos descubre a Jesús de una forma clara y precisa. hablando sobre el título de Mesías que algunos le dieron a Jesús y que Él no se dio así mismo, dice el Papa: “Sobre la cruz queda plasmado, esta vez de manera pública, el título de Mesías, Rey de los judíos. Y aquí puede tranquilamente aparecer escrito en las tres lenguas del mundo de entonces (cf.

Jn. 19:19 s), pues por fin se le ha quitado toda ambigüedad. El tener la cruz por trono le da al título su interpretación correcta.

Regnavit a ligno Deus: Dios reina desde “el madero”; así es como la Iglesia antigua ha celebrado este nuevo reinado.

Si nos ponemos a pensar sobre este título puesto sobre la cruz del Señor, lugar desde donde el Dios y hombre verdadero, derramó hasta su última gota de sangre por amor a la humanidad, llegaremos a la conclusión de que este nos revela la realidad del reinado autentico de Dios, puesto que El, al sufrir como hombre la muerte en Cruz, nos ha mostrado como es el modo perfecto de hacer que su corazón reine. De igual modo, como Dios, pudo darnos la redención de nuestros pecados, porque “para Dios no hay nada imposible” (Lc. 1:37).

Más adelante, en este mismo libro, su Santidad el Papa Benedicto, hace referencia a la respuesta que Jesús da a sus discípulos cuando le preguntan sobre sí mismo y responde con su “Yo soy”. Con esta respuesta, Jesús “muestra su unicidad: en Él está presente personalmente el misterio del único Dios… se trata de la inseparabilidad entre Padre e Hijo”.

Testimonios, pruebas y muestras de que Jesús es verdaderamente Dios y verdaderamente hombre han existido desde siempre y existirán hasta el fin de los tiempos. Los hombres y mujeres sin fe que intentan introducir el misterio de Dios en su mente e inteligencia humana, se encontrarán con el fracaso porque a Dios lo conoceremos tal cual es cuando estemos en su reino. La fe nos hace más fácil la comprensión de los misterios divinos porque el Espíritu revela estos misterios del Reino a los sencillos para confundir a los sabios.

Es, por tanto, menester que, si cuestionamos con nuestra inteligencia la doctrina de la Iglesia con la convicción de que ante los misterios de Dios hay que doblar la rodilla, Él mismo nos concederá la gracia de comprender aquello que para muchos es incomprensible porque “para una persona que no cree ninguna explicación es convincente mientras que para la persona que cree ninguna explicación es necesaria”.q 51

Jesús ha Conducido

Vida

mi

Padre Guillermo Gabriel-Maisonet Mi desarrollo en la fe Puerto Rico es una nación con un promedio de 85-90% de católicos, pero yo crecí siendo Metodista, en Aricebo, al norte de Puerto Rio. La fe Metodista es importante para mi familia, y tengo varios primos que son Ministros Metodistas. Inclusive tengo familiares en las altas jerarquías de la iglesia Metodista en Latinoamérica.

Relativamente yo era un buenjoven. Asistí a una escuela Cristiana privada, mis amigos eran buenos chicos y muy activos en sus parroquias. Recuerdo que en los años 80’s, las iglesias protestantes estaban volviéndose más carismáticas. Como muchos de mis amigos, viví una experiencia carismática a la edad de 13 años.

Esa fue el primer hito de fe y cuando mi relación con Dios se volvió personal.

Poco tiempo después, le dije a mi familia que no volvería a la iglesia Metodista, y les anuncié que asistiría,con mis amigos,a una iglesia sin denominación. Era carismática, mis amigos estaban ahí y además tenía otra cualidad que yo estaba buscando. Mi padre nunca asistió a la iglesia. No puedo recordar que haya ido con nosotros. Esto era típico en mi experiencia, los hombres no eran activos en la iglesia Metodista. Las iglesias sin denominación eran diferentes, los padres de familia estaban ahí con sus hijos y eran activos. Ahora veo que lo que pasaba es que yo quería estar en un ambiente donde los hombres también estuvieran presentes y viviendo su fe públicamente.

A la edad de 16 años, yo estaba totalmente convencido de que 52

quería ser pastor, pero sabía que no quería ser pastor de mi iglesia o cualquier otra parecida. La energía y vitalidad que me habían parecido tan atractivas ahora parecía caótica. A los 16 años de edad comencé a apreciar la estructura y el orden que había conocido en la iglesia Metodista. Me daba cuenta de que la iglesia sin denominación, a la que asistía, estaba cimentada en tierra movediza y yo sabía que yo quería estabilidad aún en mi vidapersonal.

Como laico, estaba bien, pero mientras discernía una vocación para trabajar en la iglesia sabía que necesitaba una con estructura.

Esto fue otrohito, el reconocer que la iglesia necesita de autoridad.

Estabilidad y organización

Regresé a la iglesia Metodista para encontrar estabilidad y pronto me convertí en candidato para convertirme en pastor Metodista. No era un proceso tan importante como convertirse en un seminarista Católico pero era importante. Los ancianos de mi comunidad anunciaron mi candidatura a la iglesia y comenzaron a darme posiciones de responsabilidad.

Estuve muy activo en la iglesia durante estos años. Asistía a estudios bíblicos después de la escuela, y buscaba clases universitarias de Biblia en los grupos juveniles. Asistía a todos los retiros que encontraba y a todo lo que se me ocurría. Todo seguía un proceso a esa dirección hasta que termine la escuela secundaria.

Me gradué de la secundaria a los 17 y estaba totalmente seguro de que me convertiría en un pastor Metodista.Fui a la Universidad en San Juan para estudiar historia. Como muchos de los estudiantes en su primer año, tuve una crisis de fe. Nunca me volví

ateo o algo parecido, pero tuve un momento donde mi relación con Dios estuvo en bajo rendimiento. Dejé de ir a la iglesia. Fue un tiempo difícil.

Me recuperé, gracias a Dios, por el esfuerzo de uno mis profesores. Este profesor y yo comenzamos a hablar y le pedí que me guiara y el aceptó – con una condición. Él me dijo que él estaría contento en ayudarme siempre y cuando yo comenzara a asistir a su iglesia, La Iglesia Episcopal Reformada.

El Señor esté con ustedes

La Iglesia Episcopal Reformada es un retoño de la iglesia Anglicana la cual tiene aproximadamente unos 150 años de existencia.

Esta iglesia es más litúrgica de lo que yo estaba acostumbrado. Es bastante protestante en teología, con inclinación a las creencias Calvinistas acerca de que las personas que están pre destinadas al cielo o al infierno, pero como una persona que busca orden y que la religión tenga sentido, realmente me convenció. Puedo recordar la primer ves que escuche “El Señor este con ustedes”, “levantemos el corazón.” Esta experiencia fue otro hito en mi vida y muy grande. Cuando descubrí la liturgia, alabanza intencional que era dignificada, viví en realidad unaexperienciaprofunda. Aunqueel templo era un pequeño edificio rentado y en un muy mal estado, la gloria de la liturgia se hacía aparente para mí. Fue una experiencia trascendental y transformante.

Una vez que entre al culto semanalmente, cuestioné todas mis experiencias religiosas previas. Siempre encontré que mis experiencias eran tan individualistas; cada quien haciendo sus propias cosas, para nadie tenía sentido el ser parte del pueblo de Dios.

Comprendí que la liturgia es real y contiene un valor sólido y que la persona comienza a sentirse privilegiada de formar parte de ésta.

Comencé a ver que esta iglesia, a pesar de sus humildes alrededores, a pesar de su teología tan errada y su rebelión contra Roma mantenía un suficiente catolicismo como para mostrar el camino.

Yo sabía lo que quería y era “la liturgia”.

Fui confirmado en La Iglesia Episcopal Reformada, y al poco tiempo el obispo habló conmigo sobre ir al seminario. Yo aceptéy me convertí en un seminarista en camino a convertirse en ministro de La Iglesia Episcopal Reformada. Me integré a La Casa Teológica Cranmer, que es un seminario Ánglico en Luisiana. El seminario fue construido por Markham Allen Dickson, quien estaba encargado de la distribución farmacéutica de Morris y Dickson en Shreveport.

Los seminaristas estudiaban teología y trabajaban en la bodega de la compañía para ayudar a costear sus estudios. Yo estudiaba toda la mañana y trabajaba,en la compañía,por la tarde y parte de la noche y termine sin deudas de estudios. El Sr. Dickson era dueño de un jet de negocios, así que traía a conferencistas de alrededor del mundo para ofrecer series de lecciones intensas. Teníamos oradores de Oxford, Inglaterra, de Australia, de África y de todas partes. Fue un cursode cuatro años de estudiomuy intenso.

Me gradué un viernes y fui ordenado diacono episcopal el sábado. Mi ministro de Puerto Rico vino a mi ordenación, y me dio la noticia de que dejaría el ministerio para conseguir un doctorado y que necesitaba que tomara su lugar en la iglesia por algún tiempo. Por dos años, fui diacono encargado de esta iglesia. Era una responsabilidad enorme y me tenía exhausto. Eventualmente, cuando no se encontró ningún diacono permanente, la iglesia se tuvo que cerrar. Yo tuve que encontrar un nuevo hogar.

La tormenta perfecta

No había encontrado lo que buscaba en la Iglesia Episcopal

Reformada. Comencé a asistir a la iglesia episcopal principal, la cual tenía una liturgia aúnmás impresionante y comencé a ver el canal católico EWTN en la televisión. Yo principalmente quería ver algo bueno y completo, no tenía ninguna intención de convertirme en Católico Romano, pero encontré TheJourney Home (El Camino a Casa)un programa en el cual entrevistan a ministros Protestantes que se han convertido al Catolicismo. Yo en realidad no entendía porqué harían eso pero comencé a ver, el programa ávidamente y gradualmente comenzaron las ideas a trabajar en mí.

Durante este tiempo, aunque estaba cansado y desgastado por haber estado a cargo de la iglesia sin ministro, comenzó en mí un deseo de adorar a Dios más de una vez por semana. En mis iglesias anteriores, la adoración era única y exclusivamente para los domingos. Yo comencé a desear la liturgia todos los días y entonces quise buscar oportunidades de adoración todos los días.

Mi única opción era la Iglesia Católica.

Esta, en realidad, era la tormenta perfecta. Estaba desgastado, sintiéndome cabizbajo, escuchando conversaciones de historias jubilosas de gente que se había convertido al catolicismo y comencé a ir a misa todos los. Aun iba a la Iglesia Episcopal los domingos y, a la vez,tenía el suficiente cuidado de llegar a misa después de que ya hubiera comenzado. También salía antes de que terminara para que nadie me hablara y me hiciera preguntas sobre mi persona. Supongo que aun conservaba un poco del anti Catolicismo que había aprendido de joven y era, todavía, un verdadero creyente Anglicano. Yo pensaba en el Anglicanismo (y todas sus ramificaciones) como la mayor expresión del Cristianismo y en el catolicismo como la menor.

Un día

De repente, un día sin esperarlo y sin leer sobre esto, creí en la presenciareal y verdadera de Jesús en la Eucaristía. No sé exactamente como pasó pero estaba en misa, en la Iglesia Católica, y en un instante creí que Jesús estaba realmente presente en la Sagrada Eucaristía. Esta realización de fe fue otro hito extraordinarioen mi vida de fe. Lo único que puedo decir es que las gracias que se obtienen, por asistir a misa todos los días, hicieron su obra en mí. Dios abrió mis ojos y esto fue obra de sugracia.

Lo primero que hice, después de esta experiencia, fue dejar de recibir la comunión en la misa. Antes yo creía que lo que se recibe es solo pan y vino y en realidad, para mí, no importaba que no fuera Católico. Una vez que creí y me di cuenta de lo que estaba haciendo, yo sabía en mi corazón y en mi alma que lo que recibía era realmente aJesús, sabía que debía de seguir las reglas de la Iglesia Católica. Despuéscomencé también a ir a misa los domingos.

¡No quiero!

Me encontraba en conflicto. No quería convertirme al catolicismo. Sabía queera absurdo, obviamente, tener un montón de iglesias que enseñaban doctrinasdiferentesy contradictorias en el nombre de Cristo. Esto realmente se meaclarócuando consideré la evangelización. De vez en cuando, cuando era diácono en la Iglesia Episcopal Reformada, la gente me preguntaba sobre la evangelización o me la sugeríaalgún pastor y esto obviamente me traía conflicto. Prácticamente no había ateos en Puerto Rico. Si convencíamos a alguien de venir a nuestra iglesia hábilmenteestábamos robándolo de otra iglesia. A mi ver, esto no tenía sentido.

El asistir a misa y ver EWTN fue lo que inició mi despertar al tema de la autoridad. Comencé a ver que la razón por la que todas las iglesias protestantes, en Puerto Rico y el mundo, ense53

ñan cosas contradictorias es porque ninguna tiene la autoridad de enseñar la verdad sobre el Cristianismo. Esto también me llevó a dudar sobre mi ordenación. ¿Con que autoridad el obispo me había ordenado al diaconado? ¿Quién lo ordenó a él? ¿Con que autoridad? Perdí la confianza, que siempre habíacreído tener,para ser ministro. De cualquier forma, esto aún no despertó, en mí,deseos de convertirme al catolicismo a pesar de haberme convencidode la presencia real de Cristo y de reflexionar sobre la necesidad de la autoridad eclesial, yo me resistía.

Poco después de aquel díanefasto, fue mi cumpleaños, y mi hermana me preguntóqué quería de regalo. Le pedí una copia del Catecismo de la IglesiaCatólica. Me quede atónito al ver que la iglesia tenía una respuesta para cada una de mis preguntas. Todos los asuntos que me molestaban en el protestantismo se aclararon al leer lo que la Iglesia Católica enseña. En el protestantismohacía mucho que me atormentaba la tolerancia que ellos tienen sobre el divorcio ysobre volver a casarse, cuando Jesús claramente enseñó en contra de esto. Leyendo el Catecismo, me di cuenta que la Iglesia es fiel a las enseñanzas de Cristo.

Todos los días yo leía el Catecismo hasta aproximadamente las diez de la noche, hasta que un día me mantuve despierto toda la noche. Aproximadamente a las dos de la mañana, lleguéhasta donde están las enseñanzas sobre la primacía de Pedro, vi a Cristo nombrándolo papa y prometiéndole estar con él y sus sucesores, y encendí como es que el tema de la autoridad debía funcionar para la Cristiandad. Me sentí devastado y comencé a llorar. No estaba llorando de alegría sino de derrota. Mi edificio religioso se hizoañicos ante mis ojos. En ese momento ya no era protestante pero sabía que tampoco quería ser Católico. Esto fue otrohito, pero no uno alegre.

Mi problema con María

Tenía problemas serios con La Madre de Dios. Yo viví como protestante por mucho tiempo y pensaba como protestante. No podía entender la devoción Católicaa Santa María Virgen. No podía entender su virginidad perpetua y su inmaculada concepción. Yo me revelaba en contra de estas doctrinas. Viendo EWTN, llamé al programa TheJourney Home (El Camino a Casa) y pedí ayuda.

Ellos me pusieron en contacto con un sacerdote convertido en Puerto Rico y élhabló conmigo. Éste era un hombre sabio y me hacíaregresar al tema de la autoridad ytenía que admitirlo, puesto que creía en la autoridad de la Iglesia Católica, podía poner mi fe en ella, aunque aún estuviera inseguro de algunas de sus enseñanzas en particular.

Esto me acercó un poco más pero yo continuaba siendo un desastre. Recuerdo que rezaba el rosario pero después le pedía perdón a Dios por hacerlo en caso de que fuera idolatría. De hecho, cuando yo rezaba algunas devociones católicas siempre omitía el Ave María. De lo que me di cuenta fue que tenía que conformarme a Cristo. Estaba siendo llamado a tener los mismos sentimientos de Jesucristo y a amar a Maríaexactamente como El la ama. Eso fue suficiente para mí desde este momento y pude comenzar una relación, una devoción particular y verdadera hacia la Madre de Dios que también es mía.

La Conversión

Dejéde ser el tipo que “se salía de misa antes de que terminara” y me quedé después a hablar con el sacerdote. Formalmente pedí los sacramentos de iniciación en la Iglesia Católica y en la Vigilia Pascual del 2002, recibí los sacramentos para convertirme

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en un miembro de la Iglesia. Otrohitocompleto. Era Católicoy ahora que entendíacómo funcionaba realmente el sacerdocio, me veía a mí mismo como laico. Estaba estudiando y no pensaba seriamente en la opción del sacerdocio. Pero de alguna manera si creía que necesitaba un “guía espiritual” que me ayudara a crecer en la fe.

Estaba viendo la misa, en un canal de televisión católico local, y fui inspirado por la reverencia con la cual el sacerdote celebraba la misa y pensé; “Yo quiero que esa persona sea mi director espiritual.” Llamé al canal de televisión y obtuve su nombre. Enseguida lo llamé y élaceptódarme ser mi guía. El dirigió mi lectura espiritual y me ayudó en varios aspectos de mi vida y después de algunos años, de dirección, comenzó a hablarme del sacerdocio.

Me dijo que el creía que yo podía estar siendo llamado al sacerdocio y me invitó a una ordenación sacerdotal. Fue la ordenación del Padre Jorge Dinguis, un sacerdote de la Diócesis de Tyler. En la ordenación, mi director me presentó con el Obispo Álvaro Corrada, Obispo de Tyler.

Después de la ordenación, en la sacristía de la iglesia, mi director mantuvo una larga conversación con el Obispo Corrada sobremi persona. El Obispo Corrada me conoció, me entrevistó, y me invitó a visitar la Diócesis de Tyler. Lo hice y cuatro meses después me había convertido en un seminarista. El resto es historia. El 28 de mayo del 2011, fui ordenado sacerdote, el último y gran hito.

Hoy en día soy pastor de la parroquia de San Antonio en Longview. Me parece increíble que ese chiquillo de Puerto Rico, creciendo en un ambiente religioso tan confuso, haya encontrado el camino de regreso a casa a la Iglesia Católica y haya sido elegido, por Dios, para el sacerdocio. Lo que he aprendido, es que si ponemos nuestra fe en Dios y trabajamos duro para entender sus designios, Él nos mostrará el camino hacia nuestro siguiente y final hito.q

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Por: Hna. Angélica Orozco, EFMS “Que viva mi Cristo , que viva mi Rey, que impere doquiera triunfante su ley, !Viva Cristo Rey, Viva Cristo Rey!” Estas son unas de las palabras de un himno religioso que resuena en el corazón del mexicano, por ser las palabras con las que declara, cada uno de ellos, su fidelidad a Cristo y su amor a la Iglesia.

Con un Viva Cristo Rey, morían algunos de los hombres y mujeres que vivieron el horror de la persecución religiosa, en México, durante los años 1920-1930. Esta persecución fue iniciada por gobernantes anticatólicos que quisieron exterminar la fe del país.

Intento que resultó un fracaso a pesar de tantas muertes puesto que lo que intentaron destruir resurgió con un renovado vigor y fuerza. ¿Por qué es que con el grito de VIVA CRISTO REY, a todos los fieles mexicanos, se les ensancha el corazón? ¿Qué significa para ellos esta declaración? Solo una cosa. Que Cristo desde la cruz gobierna y reina, con el poder del amor, en el corazón del hombre que lo acepta como su Rey y Señor. Este estilo de reinado, de Cristo, no es común, es más, ni siquiera se ve como poder, se contempla más bien como fracaso y pérdida. Jesús reina desde la cruz porque su reino no es de este mundo (Jn. 18:36) porque si fuera de este mundo sería un reinado meramente humano e imperfecto. Cristo reina desde la cruz porque desde ahí es de donde se dio totalmente al hombre.

Son afortunados aquellos que por defender su fe mueren con este grito en los labios, como lo hicieron el Pro. Agustín Pro y el 56

¡Viva Cristo Rey! joven Jose Sánchez Díaz, mejor conocido como Joselito. Estos dos personajes mexicanos murieron ante la intolerancia religiosa del gobierno y con su martirio han dejado claro que Jesús reina desde la cruz, desde el sufrimiento.

En nuestra Diócesis de Tyler hay una Iglesia dedicada a Cristo Rey. En esta Iglesia la comunidad hispana es mayor mente mexicana. Los feligreses de esta comunidad de fe, se sienten orgullosos porque desde su sufrimiento, desde su pobreza y esfuerzos han logrado construir un salón parroquial digno del Rey. Hace algunas semanas el Obispo Álvaro Corrada bendijo, con gran agrado, este salón y animó a los feligreses a que se siguieran esforzando para que muy pronto tengan una Iglesia nueva y puedan todos participar de la Santa Misa de una forma digna y cómoda.

El Padre Dan Dower, pastor de esta parroquia dijo al respecto: “Me siento completamente agradecido con Dios y con toda la gente buena de esta parroquia de Cristo Rey, quienes han luchado por hacer posible este momento. Este proceso lo comenzó el P. Matías Rodríguez hace algunos años. Ha sido una alegría tan grande, para mí personalmente, el sentarme y ver las caras alegres de todas la personas que junto conmigo se han reunido para esta maravillosa celebración”.

El amor al Rey del Universo ha echado raíces en esta comunidad de fieles, quienes en sus corazones sigue latiendo el amor que llevo al martirio a tantos compatriotas. Por esta razón, se han esforzado por años para hacerle a Cristo un lugar digno donde

todos puedan venir y expresarle, con mucho amor, su deseo de que reine en sus hogares y en sus corazones.

“Cuando les digo a los pastores de otras comunidades de fe, aquí en Kilgore, que tenemos un promedio de 800 familias registradas” dice el Padre Dower, “se quedan en shock”. Existen por lo menos 45 comunidades Cristianas de diferentes credos en nuestra área. Un número muy pequeño llegan a este número o lo exceden. Esto significa que seguimos creciendo, por lo tanto, tendremos una mayor influencia social, cultural y desarrollo de la fe, en Kilgore. Este nuevo edificio nos ayudará, no solo a cubrir las

necesidades de nuestra comunidad creciente, sino que también a ofrecer hospitalidad y patrocinar una variedad de eventos comunitarios locales”.

Como podemos contemplar, ¡Viva Cristo Rey! Será el grito que continuará haciendo eco en esta comunidad de fieles, porque lo volvemos a repetir… es con el esfuerzo, con el trabajo constante de la gente sencilla, con el sudor de la frente, que este nuevo templo se construirá. En este templo el rey será el Señor y esta comunidad de fe seguirá cantando con la iglesia perseguida en México… q

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Jesús, a Donde Vayas, con Gozo, Iré

Hermanas Marianitas

Hace un par de meses, llegaron a la Diócesis de Tyler un grupo de tres religiosas para apoyar y animar a los hispanos católicos, radicados en esta área del Este de Texas, a tener un encuentro personal con el Señor Jesús. Llegaron de México, lugar donde hasta la fecha habían estado ejerciendo su ministerio. Para dos de ellas, la Diócesis de Tyler es un lugar completamente nuevo y están haciendo todo lo posible por ubicarse y conocer la realidad. Para una de ellas este es un lugar ya conocido puesto que ya había estado antes por acá.

Este grupo de religiosas está compuesto por la Hna. Gabriela Delgado, quien funge como superiora local, por la Hna. María ConcepciónNava y por la Hna. María Elena Gutiérrez. Ellas son miembros del Instituto Santa Mariana de Jesús fundado en el Ecuador y cuya espiritualidad es Ignaciana.

La Hna. Gabriela ejercerá su ministerio en la Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción, su labor será la de acompañar, coordinar y buscar la formación continua de los hispanos/latinos de la parroquia. La Hna. Maria Concepción ha sido asignada a la parroquia de St. Boniface en Chandler. Su labor será la de formar grupos de pastoral, acompañarlos y también trabajar en el programa de formación en la fe parroquial. La Hna. María Elena estará en la parroquia de St. Peter Claver y su labor será la de animar y coordinar el programa de formación en la fe parroquial, proveer encuentros de catequistas y animarlos a que tengan a Jesús en su Corazón y así lograr una Iglesia más viva.

Quise entrevistarlas para dar a nuestros lectores la oportunidad de conocerlas y de alguna forma pedirles que las apoyemos con nuestras oraciones. He aquí la entrevista.

Hna. MaríaConcepción: “A mii sí me dio un poco de miedo por no conocer la realidad de las personas que viven en esta región, pero más miedo me dio el idioma. Sí me ha costado un poco la transición por el clima, ¡ahora está muy frio! Con las personas no, porque nos han acogido muy bien. Todos se han portado excelentemente con nosotras. El sentirnos esperadas y queridas pues nos hace placentera la estadía”.

Hna. Gabriela: “Por segunda vez fui enviada a esta diócesis. Ya no se me hace tan difícil entrar en el ritmo de vida de estos lugares porque ya sabía a lo que venía. Veo que la diócesis está caminando, y encuentro un espacio nuevo que me invita a ubicarme y a buscar formas nuevas y concretas para evangelizar y a entrar en ese proceso del caminar diocesano. Esta experiencia nueva me motiva a luchar por facilitar oportunidades de crecimiento y desarrollo en la fe de las personas a las que sirvo”.

Sabemos que las Marianitas profesan una espiritualidad Ignaciana, ¿Cómo se manifiesta esto en su ministerio?

Hna. Gabriela: Desde la respuesta libre al llamado de Jesús para servirlo, puesto que el llamado lo hace El. Somos ‘llamadas a estar con Él y llevar a cabo su obra’. Todo parte desde Cristo; nuestras acciones, nuestros pensamientos, nuestras palabras, nuestro ir y venir. La espiritualidad Ignaciana vivida por Mercedes de Jesús Molina, nuestra fundadora, expone estas preguntas: con respecto a esto. ¿Qué he hecho por Cristo? ¿Qué estoy haciendo por Cristo? ¿Qué debo hacer por Cristo? Al examinar y dar respuesta a estas preguntas, anima y reta a la Marianita a ser una verdadera y autentica discípula misionera del Señor. Ejercitando y compartiendo con ¿Cómo han estado lidiando con la transición de México a amor misericordioso el servicio que realizamos en el lugar donde esta área del Este de Texas? somos enviadas. Hacerlo todo por, para, con y en Jesús”.

Hna. María Elena: Para mí ha sido fácil. Fui descubriendo en los acontecimientos de cada día como el Señor me confirmaba lo ¿Es suficiente el profesar la Fe para que una persona se que quería que yo hiciera. Dejar mi patria para seguir ayudándole en salve o también son necesarias las obras?

Texas a darles a las personas su mensaje de salvación. Por eso se Hna. María Concepción: “Creo que no basta con solo creer me ha hecho fácil. en Jesús para salvarse, sino que el ser salvos implica también vivir

como El. Vivir como Jesús compromete a vivir de acuerdo a sus exigencias y de acuerdo a sus enseñanzas. Esto no es fácil y por eso muchos no buscan un acercamiento personal y profundo con El. Hna. María Elena: No podemos separar una cosa de la otra.

“Ser cooperadores de Jesús “implica poner en práctica lo que Él nos enseña. Y él nos dice que una fe sin obras es una fe muerta, por eso es necesario demostrar con nuestras obras lo que creemos.

En la espiritualidad Ignacia el centro es Jesús, ¿Qué estrategia utilizarán para que su ministerio sea Cristo-céntrico?

Hna. Gabriela: Nosotras hablamos y practicamos el acompañamiento. Es importante para la Marianita acompañar a la persona para que encuentre el amor incondicional de Dios en su vida.

Aceptar a las personas donde están y junto con ellos ir descubriendo pautas nuevas para su vivir. Para nosotras el procurar o facilitar oportunidades de ‘encuentros con el Señor’ será una de las tareas prioritarias. Una vez que suceda el ‘encuentro’ acompañaremos a las personas en su crecimiento y desarrollo de la fe”.

Desde su experiencia, ¿Cual creen ustedes que será la necesidad más grande que tiene la Diócesis de Tyler en estos momentos?

Hna. María Elena: Afianzar y ayudar a las personas para que dejen su miedo al compromiso y se decidan a tener un encuentro personal con Cristo. El miedo es la herramienta que usa el demonio para alejarnos de Dios y de esa forma poner pretextos, el no contar con tiempo y tener mucho trabajo. Esto nos impide ser verdaderos hijos de Dios y dedicar un poco de nuestro tiempo para alabarle, bendecirle en nuestro diario vivir.

Hna. Gabriela: Hay necesidad de propiciar una experiencia de encuentro entre todos como hermanos, como la gran familia de Dios que somos. Oportunidad de verse, de hablar, de interactuar y sentirse uno cerca del otro. Y si no hay encuentros entre familias, entre personas, mucho menos puede haber desde la persona con Jesús. Y Creo que este egocentrismo y aislamiento facilita el trabajo del demonio. Dice el Francisco en La ExhortaciónApostólicaAmorisLaetitiaque “La Iglesia es una familia de familias”. Si somos familia hay que buscarnos, cuidarnos y tratarnos como tal.

Una de las preocupaciones de los Obispos en E.U. es el sacramento del matrimonio. ¿A qué se debe el hecho de que los jóvenes de hoy no quieran asumir el compromiso serio del sacramento matrimonial?

Hna. María Elena: “Yo pienso que una de las razones por la que los jóvenes no quieren asumir un compromiso serio es el ejemplo que han tenido en su familia en la cual no han vivido como personas maduras, responsables y capaces de asumir un compromiso y ser tolerantes con las otras personas que viven a su lado. Ellos viven como personas egocéntricas donde todo se mueve alrededor de ellos y se hace lo que ellos quieren y desean viviendo, en muchas ocasiones, como islas. ¿Desde su perspectiva cómo influye la sociedad para que los jóvenes no tengan un sentido de compromiso sobre el matrimonio?

Hna. María Concepción: “La sociedad pinta el sacramento del matrimonio como algo no accesible, no real no pegado a la realidad del mundo social. La televisión, el internet, todo lo que tiene que ver con la tecnología tampoco ayuda mucho. Como catequistas tenemos una competencia “bárbara”. A nuestros jóvenes y niños nos los está educando el gobierno y la tecnología. Esto hace más difícil que los jóvenes comprendan la magnitud de compromiso

que se contrae con el sacramento. También creo que influye mucho el hecho de que las que optamos por la vida consagrada no estamos tan visibles. El testimonio que damos sobre lo que significa un compromiso no esta tan accesible a nuestras familias. El compromiso que los y las religiosas contraemos con la Iglesia y con el Señor Jesus pasa desapercibido y esto no ayuda a que los jóvenes tomen conciencia cuando quieren formar una familia. ¿Que podríamos hacer nosotros para concientizar a los jóvenes a que vivan la vida con sentido, con metas y centrada e Jesús?

Hna. Gabriela: “Estamos en una cultura en la que cada cual hace lo que quiere. Pero, hay algo permanente: La experiencia que cada ser humano tiene en el fondo de sus ser de pertenecer a algo y a alguien. Tenemos a Dios, tenemos una familia, tenemos amigos etc. Cuando el joven no tiene sentido de pertenencia éste no tiene nada que defender y por lo tanto vive sin sentirse miembro de algo. Este sentido de no pertenencia lleva al joven a vivir una vida descentralizada y completamente egocéntrica. Lo que podemos hacer es proporcionar a los jóvenes diferentes oportunidades en las que vivan su fe en su parroquia y se sientan miembros de ella. Que se enteren de que las actividades parroquiales no son solo para los adultos. Que ellos también son miembros y pertenecen a una comunidad. Lo bueno, también es que hoy en día hay algunos jóvenes que si se están proponiendo defender sus valores, de optar por la vida y aceptar la invitación a vivir de acuerdo al evangelio, por lo tanto, hay esperanza en la juventud. ¿Ven alguna esperanza en la Diócesis de Tyler? ¿Qué ven?

Hna. María Concepción: “Hay personas convencidas de su compromiso. Hay personas que asumen su catolicismo y llegan a misa, aunque tengan que venir de lejos. Si, se ve también el sentido de convencimiento de que estamos en la religión católica lsque posee toda la verdad.

Hna. María Elena: Si, veo el esfuerzo que se hace por trabajar en conjunto: Señor Obispo, sacerdotes y laicos y vida consagrada. Para ayudar a seguir preparando en la vida espiritual a cada uno de los bautizados, que tomen conciencia de la importancia que tiene vivr como verdaderos bautizados.

Como podemos apreciar, este grupo de hermanas han llegado a nosotros con un convencimiento notable, de que la persona de Jesús, una vez aceptada por el corazón del hombre, éste se puede transformar. Estas tres hermanas dan testimonio viviente de esta realidad. Hagamos pues el esfuerzo de hacer que Jesús, el Hijo de Dios, sea el centro de nuestra vida y oremos con San Ignacio de Loyola, Madre Mercedes de Jesús y las Marianitas:

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Cargo Cults Have you ever heard of a cargo cult? They are a fascinating phenomenon.

Although they have appeared in various places, the best known of the cargo cults began on the islands of Melanesia after World War II. The Melanesian islanders, many of whom had never had contact with an outsider before the war, were suddenly at the center of a major global conflict, first being occupied by the Japanese, and then by Allied troops. For these people, living a near stone-age lifestyle, the technology and abundance of goods which suddenly came to their islands was a tremendous shock.

For the Melanesians, who had no knowledge of massproduction, the source of all of the “cargo” which was suddenly present on the islands seemed to be supernatural. The soldiers shared some of this unimaginable bounty with the islanders and then, abruptly, the war ended. The soldiers left and the cargo dried up.

What happened next is fascinating. The islanders began to practice a religion designed to restore the cargo. This “cargo cult” worshipped a deity named “John Frum” which appears to mean “John from America,” and it is he whom the islanders expect will bring back the cargo.

They began to construct replicas of all of the things they had seen the soldiers use, as best they could fashion them.

They built straw airplanes and wooden jeeps, and made “radios” out of coconuts. They began to paint “uniforms” on their bodies and they marched in formation up and down the leftover airstrips. They did all of the things they had seen the soldiers do, with the expectation that these activities were, in fact, rituals that appeased John Frum and caused him to send the cargo. What the soldiers did in the course of fighting a war, the islanders, not knowing the larger reality of global politics and modern warfare, assumed were sacraments and liturgy which caused the cargo to arrive.

Although the islanders have had much more contact with the outside world in the last few decades and the cargo cults have largely faded away, there are still pockets of John Frum worshippers on islands such as Vanuatu. They bury their dead with cross-

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by Ben Fisher, Editor shaped grave markers, not because they are Christians, but because this is what the Allied troops did, and it became part of the cult-reenactment of the cargo ritual. There have been schisms and reforms and apostates among the cargo cults, but they still go on.

What can we as Roman Catholics learn from this story?

We are in danger of becoming something of a cargo cult, ourselves. We have a rich tradition, full of many beautiful and wonderful things, but if we do not teach each successive generation what the meaning and reality behind our practices are, they become just “actions” without a connection to salvation and God. We have to teach people what the purposes of our rituals and actions are, or we cannot expect the next generations to know what they are for. They will become like the actions the cargo cultists do, completely divorced from their actual purpose.

Why do we genuflect before we enter a pew in a Catholic Church? Why do we make the sign of the cross on our bodies?

Why do we recite the Creed every week at Mass? Why does the priest kiss the altar at Mass? Why do we often keep a lamp lit in the sanctuary? Why do we kneel for parts of the Mass? All of these and many others are actions we Catholics do which have theological meaning, but that meaning is not always obvious and needs to be taught. If we don’t teach, people won’t understand why we do the things we do, and all of these parts of our Catholic practice become things done without understanding. As we can see in our society, this often leads to people deciding not to do any of them, anymore.

We live in a world where the answer to almost any question is just a click or a swipe away. If there is some aspect of the Catholic faith, something we do or believe that we don’t understand why, let’s stop and look up the answer. We worship what we know, and everything we do has a reason behind it. We’re not just blindly doing these actions, hoping something good will happen, like cargo cultists. We’re following a plan for worship given to us by Jesus Christ and refined under the care of the Holy Spirit over 2,000 years. Let’s find out why…and then pass that knowledge on.q

Introducing the...

As the Diocese of Tyler enters its 30th year, the Church in East Texas is coming of age. With growth in our Catholic community, we must think beyond today and into the future. As we look to the next generation of the Church, you may ask, how can I direct my giving to where it is most needed? How can I ensure my planned gifts are invested according to my faith? How do I make a LASTING impact? To help your generosity pay dividends for generations to come, the East Texas Catholic Foundation is here to serve.

Joseph Strickland

Bishop of Tyler

What is the East Texas Catholic Foundation?

Charitable

The mission of the East Texas Catholic Foundation is to help donors make a lasting impact on the spiritual, educational, and charitable works of the Diocese of Tyler to serve the future of the Catholic Church in East Texas through the grace of stewardship.

Reliable

The East Texas Catholic Foundation is an independent, non-profit 501(c)(3) foundation governed by a board of expert trustees who manage the permanent funds and endowments of the Catholic causes you care most about while faithfully stewarding the intent of your gifts.

Catholic

Managed by a board of clergy and lay leaders in our community, the Foundation serves the parishes, Catholic schools, agencies, and ministries within the 33 East Texas counties comprising the Diocese of Tyler.

For more information: (903)266-2152 info@easttexascatholicfoundation.org

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