Sāncta Māter Ecclēsia, Tē Amō.

Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

— Matthew 13:17.

The more discussions I have about Sacred Scripture, the more I realize how much confusion exists regarding it. How often does one read a passage and wonder, "What exactly does this mean? What exactly is God trying to say to us here?"

There are certain moments in which I am granted the gift of a partial realization of how lost I would be without the guiding light of Holy Mother Church. One of these moments came in my discussions with others about the recent decision by the Supreme Court constituting an attempt to alter the unchangeable definition of marriage — a definition which, I should say, is unchangeable even by Holy Mother Church, Herself. In a conversation with someone who was defending the Court's decision, I was taken aback to realize that some are going so far as to make efforts to contort Scripture in such a way that would allow for such alterations:

... from a biblical standpoint, I have been engaged in healthy debates about whether the "homosexuality" Paul may have been railing against had more to do with casual same sex adultery and pederasty than what we see today. ... if [the homosexual act] is a sin (which is debatable), ... stopping the marriage part will not affect the thing some consider to be the sin. ... there is no compelling argument even within the faith community, that justifies the opposition of Gay Marriage.

— An Interlocutor, defending the Court's decision.

It is in moments such as these that my deep appreciation and love for the guiding magisterial light of Holy Mother Church grows deeper. How lost I would be without Her.

I encountered one particular passage in the Gospels a few days ago that caused me some confusion. It was in Luke 19, when Jesus is entering into Jerusalem, and the disciples are rejoicing and praising him, saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord!" The Pharisees then tell Jesus to rebuke his disciples, to which He replies,

I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

— Luke 19:40.

What does Jesus mean by this, "the very stones would cry out"? Well, in such situations when I am confused about a particular passage of Scripture, I've found the commentary from Navarre, under the auspices of Josemaría Escrivá, to be quite helpful. Quoth the Navarre,

The Pharisees, maybe because they fear a riot, criticize Jesus for allowing the demonstration. He replies in a phrase which sounds like a proverb: so obvious is his messiahship that if men refused to recognize it, nature would proclaim it.

— from the Navarre Commentary on Luke 19:28-40.

I must say, yet again: how lost I would be without the guidance of the innumerable well-trained theologians of the Church, lead by the Holy Spirit. I have little doubt that, without them, it is quite possible that I would be among those subscribing to the untenable — to be sure, patently ludicrous — conclusions such as those of my interlocutor above, or even that I would be engaging in snake-handling based on what we read in Mark 16:18. Indeed, we should not take lightly what Jesus tells us in Matthew 13:17. Many great men — even "righteous men" — have lived and died without having heard and understood the words of Jesus. But for the grace of God, working through the teachings and sacraments of Holy Mother Church, there go I.

Quaerimus, "Father, how should we deal more with the Holy Spirit in our ordinary life?"

St. Josemaría Escrivá responds,

In your ordinary life, by seeking -- I am sure that you do so -- the presence of God who is within you. You receive Him in Holy Communion. The gastric juices in the stomach function in their natural way, the sacramental species disappear and with them the presence of Jesus Christ. But then, the Holy Spirit remains behind and continues to act. Together with Him, the Father and the Son also act, because there is only one God. But it is the Holy Spirit who acts in the souls of Christians. And you, who are a tabernacle of God, you go into yourself many times a day and say: "Lord, how can I do this in such a way that it is more pleasing in your sight?; Lord, I am feeling this tempation, and that one, these bad inclinations ... " Don't get frightened, Ok? All of us have a beast inside of us. Even older people. In this regard, we are all the same, and it is one of the marvels of God's goodness, because if we did not know we could fall into all kinds of miseries, we would be very proud. In this way, not being proud, we will tend a little towards humility. If only we could tend a lot more towards humility.

— St. Josemaría Escrivá (✝1975).

St. Josemaría Escrivá, pray for us and our nation, having long faltered.

Etiamsi oportuerit me mori tecum, non te negabo.

An Open Discussion on Liturgical Music

...at some point we must get beyond the matter of taste and various technical issues and go a bit deeper: What is truly appropriate for Mass? How have we justified discarding the texts that the Church provides for us and replacing them with hymns that we choose according to criteria of taste and other subjective factors?

— Father B. Jerabek, from "Pop Music at Mass"

Fr. Jerabek has published a blog post on liturgical music that addresses the questions of whether it is appropriate to deviate from the texts of the Mass established by the Church and how melodies should be selected or composed for the texts chosen. At the end of the post, he references an article at the Crisis website by Jeffrey Tucker that discusses related questions. Mr. Tucker presents a brief sketch of the recent history of liturgical music that has lead up to the Life Teen subculture involving Masses in which one is likely to find a "rock group ... that sings music with repetitive words that have nothing to do with what’s in the liturgical books and accompanies that music with pop rhythms."

Because questions regarding liturgical music -- and especially those involving whether different musical styles and lyrics are appropriate, licit, or even moral within the context of the liturgy -- are of particular interest to me, I would like to open the floor to discussions on this topic. I will begin the conversation below with some thoughts from a reader, followed by my response. Please provide thoughts you have in the comment box below.

As a reminder of the sharp distinctions between the types of music being discussed, I have included below videos from two different Masses containing contrasting musical styles and texts. I will leave it to you to determine which falls into which category.

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Fr. Pacwa, S.J. on John 15:9-11 - Love is not in the Passions

"What does it mean to 'remain in Jesus'?"

He begins in the first 11 minutes (6:15-17:00) by responding to the question from a Scriptural perspective. The Readings will explain in the coming days how we are to "remain in Jesus," in large part by developing the theme of what it means that He is the vine and we are the branches (Jn 15:1-8, the reading from last Wed.). He references the passages that tell us that Jesus loves us as the Father loves Him (John 15:9), and that to understand this, we must see it in light of the passages that tell us that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son (John 3:16), and also that everything that the Father has He gives to the Son (John 16:15). Furthermore, He loves the world in spite of the fact that the world is characterized by an opposition to His Son. As the Father gives completely to the Son, the Son gives Himself completely to us, and it is this love which draws us to Himself (John 12:32). This complete gift of self is "what it means to 'remain in Jesus'." This kind of love, indicated by the word "agapan," is expressed exteriorly: it does not subsist only in the interior life or only in the emotions. The primary expression of this love is the keeping of His commandments, which Jesus emphasizes three times in Chapter 14 to stress its importance.

In the remaining 9 minutes, he gives a practical discussion of these verses, presenting the forces that work against us in today's society when trying to live according to these teachings. What follows, in part, is an elaborate refutation of the common misconception that love is an emotion. In our society, love is commonly portayed as a "passion that somebody undergoes and cannot help feeling." The culture establishes and builds upon this principle that if one has a passion, he must act upon it. In fact, by this principle, one is being "inauthentic" by not acting upon his passions. Fr. Pacwa presents the situation in which one's passions change from being directed from one person to another, in which case it is considered by our culture right for one to act on those new passions, even when these acts of passion are contrary to the commandments of God. Continuing on to a deeper level to unveil the causes of these errors, he states that this principle upon which the media builds is a manifestation of how those in the media are living their own lives, and that a large amount of effort is put forth into promoting to the rest of the culture the worldview based upon this principle. They see this as a very progressive and "post-Christian" worldview that is leaving behind the Christian worldview, which is built upon the "old-fashioned" principle that the foundation of love is the following of God's commandments. However, it is evident that they are so ignorant of history, that they don't understand that in actuality their worldview is not cutting-edge at all, but is even pre-Christian. Because of this ignorance, they are doomed to repeat the same mistakes that follow from this distorted definition of love - as has been done so many times over the centuries by other societies, including the Romans and many others. These cultures inevitably collapse, as Christians have foreseen by the teachings of St. Paul in Eph 2:2-3. And what remains is the Christian Church - those who remain in the love of Jesus, the Word of God who will never perish - by following His commandments.

"Right now, we have people throughout the West who see themselves as post-Christian. They see that they're leaving this behind and coming to a brand new culture. They're not. They are so ignorant of history that they are actually reverting to the type of culture that once existed in pre-Christian times. They are being the conservatives in trying to change Christian morals, Christian family, the definition of what it means to be a family. They are trying to change that and think this is modern. They will fall away." (@ 24:30)