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From the Pastor - 5th Sunday in Lent

Mar 25, 2024

As we are nearing the end of our Lenten journey, our readings today remind us of the goodness that our God has to offer us.


In today's Gospel, Jesus announces that the “hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” All that He came to do on this earth was soon to be fulfilled. When we reflect on what Jesus says in this passage, He tells us a great deal about how we should be living as disciples of Christ. He clearly states, “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”


We are called to detach from our own desires and entrust our lives to all that God has in store for us. Without self-denial, we might miss occasions God has given us to produce good fruit. We have been practicing this throughout our Lenten season through fasting. One way to continue this effort after Lent is by taking advantage of the countless opportunities God presents to us to sacrifice our desires for something much greater — whether waking earlier to spend time in prayer, fasting from a favorite comfort on a weekly basis or taking the time to check in on a friend or family member instead of turning on the TV, just to name a few. It is important that we continue to make room for God and the good things He wants to produce in us all year long.


As our Lenten journey soon concludes, may we consider the ways in which we might continue the practice of self-denial by offering small, daily sacrifices to the Lord. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2024

 

Pastoral Pondering

A few weeks back the Alabama Supreme Court, in an 8-1 ruling, ruled that human embryos preserved cryogenically in in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics are “extrauterine children,” and are therefore protected under the state’s “wrongful death of a minor” law. Writing for the majority, Justice Jay Mitchell states the following: “It (the law in question) applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation. It is not the role of this Court to craft a new limitation based on our own view of what is or is not wise public policy. That is especially true where, as here, the People of this state have adopted a Constitutional amendment directly aimed at stopping courts from excluding ‘unborn life’ from legal protection.”


For a myriad of reasons, the decision sparked outcry from all sides and two weeks ago, Congress attempted to pass a bill guaranteeing IVF access. There also appears to be a lot of confusion regarding the reality of IVF, what the moral issues are, and what the Church teaches regarding IVF.


As with other moral issues, the Church roots our understanding of the human person in the very design of creation and, thus, Divine law. Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. They, therefore, have inherent dignity and worth. Hence, the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes in paragraph 2378:


A child is not something owed to one but is a gift. The ‘supreme gift of marriage’ is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged ‘right to a child’ would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right ‘to be the fruit of a specific act of the con jugal love of parents,’ and ‘the right to be respected as a person from the moment of conception.’


What occurs in IVF is that human eggs and sperm are combined to create human embryos. Usually, more embryos than are needed are produced leading to some being frozen or destroyed. If multiple embryos are implanted successfully, and the couple only desires one child, the other embryo(s) are often aborted.


There is certainly a high incidence of infertility in our society, and this can be a source of great suffering for couples unable to conceive. Nonetheless, in her moral teaching, the Church has and continues to maintain that there are grave problems with IVF, and Catholics should avoid ever using it. The reasons for the prohibition include:


  1. It goes against God’s plan for the way children are to come into the world – conception is to come about exclusively through the physical expression of love between a husband and a wife;
  2. Some embryos, tiny human beings, are almost always killed through this procedure.
  3. As already noted, if more than one embryo successfully implants in the uterine wall, the doctor will kill one or more of them.
  4. IVF treats children as though they were commodities to be produced for adult needs and can also lead to genetic engineering, “designer babies, and the view that “leftovers” can serve as material for research scientists.


It is important to remember that children conceived through IVF are precious in the sight of God. They are loved by God and should be loved and cherished by us as well.



The adage “what can be done does not necessarily indicate what should be done” is useful here. Infertility is not new. In the Bible Hannah, Sarah and others wept because they were barren. Infertility causes true pain and anguish. Nonetheless, no one has a “right” to children because children are a gift from God. While we may never understand the “why” of a particular situation, we do believe that God can and will work, and this is especially true when we are obedient to the Divine plan without seeking a true good via immoral means. In Catholic thought and teaching the ends never justify the means. Positively, however, there are many pro-life doctors who are making great strides in methods that can be of great help to couples who are infertile. In all of these difficult matters, we have to approach with humility, trust and prayer.


From the Pastor

From the Pastor - Ascension of the Lord

By John Putnam • 10 May, 2024
We often cite Jesus’ quote from today’s Gospel of Mark: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” This was not a suggestion from the Lord. It was quite frankly a command, and it is one which still holds for each of us. Being an evangelist, being a disciple, being a steward is not a matter of choice for those of us who are Catholic and Christian. It is something the Lord expects of us. Often, we may like to spend time debating how to do that, but that does not lessen the fact that it is something we are supposed to do. We need to acknowledge that even the original Apostles and followers of Jesus did not do that immediately. We learn that they stayed in Jerusalem for some time, and it seemed to be only when the Church and its followers were persecuted that they began to reach out and truly share the “Good News.” Once Christians accepted that charge from the Lord, they did indeed take the Word of God to all corners of the earth. Look at the Church today. It is incredible how this Church has grown from one Man/God and a small group into what it is today. That does not, however, get us “off the hook.” As much as we may argue about how to carry out this command from Jesus, the fact remains that our very lives need to stand as a representation of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to “love one another,” what it means to live and to work as a disciple of Christ. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2024 Pastoral Pondering Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a lot of attention in the news cycle concerning various pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, including UNC Chapel Hill. Some have become violent and most, at the time I am writing this, have been addressed by law enforcement. However, I thought it would be a good time to recall the conflict in the Holy Land which is ongoing. As a member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, a papal chivalric and philanthropical order, I have a special concern for the plight of the Christians in the Holy Land. These brothers and sisters of ours are, in a very real way, caught between Scylla and Charybdis, the monsters of Odysseus Book XII. The Christians in the Holy Land are for the most part Palestinian, so they are often caught between the Islamists on the one hand and the Jewish community on the other. Their plight at times is very difficult. The conflict that arose because of the atrocities perpetrated against Israelis on October 7 th by the terrorist group Hamas, was to be expected, but we must always remember that in these conflicts, there are always innocent victims. The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has been consistent in calling for some type of settlement both in this conflict as well as the one in Ukraine so that deaths might be minimized, and the innocent might not become victims. There are any number of forces who want world conflicts to be ongoing; some for ideological reasons, some for financial gain, and some, I’m sure, who operate out their own sense of righteousness. For us Christians, however, we are always called to pray for peace. We must do what we can to in instruments of peace in the world that seems more and more determined to self-destruct in one way or another. Please pray for the Christian community in the Holy Land. Pray that they might be protected in the midst of the fighting and pray that peace may soon be restored.

From the Pastor - Sixth Sunday of Easter

By John Putnam • 03 May, 2024
Our readings today call us to love as Christ loves. In our Gospel, Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” The ways Jesus has loved us and continues to love us are endless. We are called to imitate this love. And He tells us the greatest way to do this when He said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” It is difficult to live that out in our humanity. Yet, it is made much easier when we faithfully love Christ. The fact of the matter is, as our love for Christ increases, so too does our capacity to love others. There are countless moments when we can do just that — for instance, waking up Saturday morning to attend daily Mass instead of sleeping in, or talking to God in the car on the way to work instead of listening to music. These are simple ways to express our love for the Lord by laying down our lives for Him. The more we find ways to love the Lord, the more we will find it easier to put aside our selfishness and serve others. Christ’s command to love others may seem daunting. Yet, Christ would never ask something of us that we cannot live out. All we need to do is take baby steps. Ask yourself, "How can I better love Jesus right now?" for it is in loving Christ that we will better love others, and it is in loving others that we love Christ Himself. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2024 Pastoral Pondering  Last week I had the opportunity of spending the afternoon with my childhood pastor, the Reverend Fred Thompson. He served as the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Newton, NC for over 30 years. He is now 91 years old and continues to live a fairly independent life. We lost touch when my family moved from Newton to Hickory as I began grammar school but reconnected during my undergraduate studies at Lenoir-Rhyne College. We have stayed in touch since then. Such connections from the past are very important. At least in my case, Fred knew things about my parents and my adoption that I never did, and he is always happy to share a story or two. I bring this up because memory, what we refer to in the Mass as anamnesis, is essential not only to our faith but to society as a whole. Our collective memory is important. Significant events of the past are passed on from one generation to the next, and we hopefully learn from our mistakes so that we don’t repeat them. In the Catholic context, we are being obedient to Christ’s command at the Last Supper, do this in memory of me.” And it is through that remembrance that we cannot the past with the present and look with hope to the future – Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. This is why Sacred Tradition is so very important to our understanding of the Faith. That which is handed over (traditio) is essential because it forms the framework upon which the Church travels throughout the centuries. The same is true in families. In the past multiple generations would live together or in close proximity to each other. Children learned about life from a variety of family members with varying degrees of lived experience and a wealth of memory. With our society becoming more transitory and human interaction being impoverished by the reality of technology, families need to be very intentional about connecting with the past. It helps us all understand who we are, why we are here and for what we were made.
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