Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

If you enjoy the art of stained glass you’ll love our new stained glass window in the Chapel of St. Joseph.

The Church has always encouraged artists and the use of sacred art to help not only transmit the beauty of the transcendent, but to bring us who behold such masterpieces into the beauty and majesty of God Himself.  That is the goal of this window: to invite us to share in the wonder of God’s interior life, God’s life shared with us, and our lives transformed into holy women and men in our midst.  Here are just a few of the elements that our design hopes to transmit:

God’s Trinitarian life as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a life of lovecreative and generative love.  As the Father shares with all of creation the gift of His only Son, Jesus furthers this gift by offering Himself from the waters of His baptism to the altar of His Cross to the fruits of His resurrection.  By sending the Holy Spirit, God furthers His great blessings to us in the sacramental life of the Church, most clearly when we are bathed in the waters of our own baptism and nourished in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.  Baptism envelopes us into God’s life while the Eucharist feeds us as we walk along the way God lays out for each of us who believe.

And what is “the way” that God desires for each of us?  We are invited to be holy, to live our lives conformed and bonded to Christ’s own life.  As we gather during our worship of God and celebration of the Eucharist, we are renewed in holiness.  As we approach the sacrament of Christ’s Body & Blood, our daily lives are transformed and we are then empowered to be holy, to live saintly, dedicated lives to God and the Church.

In particular, our window depicts such things: the central image being that of the Trinity… then flowing into the Eucharistic Feast of our own gathering.  Depicted in the lower portion of the window are the various people and professions that were popular at our establishment as a mission church in 1927 (thus the mention of Pope Pius XI).  Thankfully25 years laterBishop Gibbons established us as a parish church, always connected to the Universal Church.  Twelve holy women and men grace the upper panel as guides for us.  Each one tells a story of holiness in their particular actions, devotions and ministries.  Very soon, we will publish an aide to help each parishioner and visitor to delve into the theology of our new window and the stories that make it so inspiring.  Our hope?  That our parishioners may find this window an inspiration…a window into God’s own life…and a window into the life to which God invites all: holiness.

First of all: happy Father’s Day to all of our dads.  We’ll have a special blessing for you toward the end of Mass, but I wish to thank you for all of the ways you help to guide us closer to God and to true love.  I am aware that many times you are unnoticed, generous in secret and quietly caring: thank you for the blessings you are for your families and for our parish community!

With summer fast approaching and kids being ready to play all day, there will inevitably be little tiffs and fights.  Moms & dads will have to be ready to instruct them, as always, to “kiss and make up”, because a kiss is used to heal & strengthen love.  So, naturally, kissing and loving just go together.

So in today’s gospel: a sinful woman has not ceased kissing Jesus’ feet, while SimonJesus’ hostdid not even offer a kiss to the Lord.  The woman’s encounter with Jesus not only brought her forgiveness, but was also an occasion for her to show her great love…with a kiss.

Yes, David in our first reading, and the lowly woman in our gospel: both opened themselves with love to the mercy & forgiveness of God…and it was granted them.  Thus love healed & restored them.

All too often, we try to be the judge as was Simon: we place other sinners outside of God’s love, God’s life by passing judgment over them, while instead, we should be rejoicing over their love, their forgiveness, their restoration & healing.  In our gospel, the woman knew darn well how sinful she wasshe didn’t need Simon to remind herand yet it was, in the end, Simon who was the one in greater danger; Simon was the one without strong faith…Simon was the one who was rooting for Jesus to condemn the poor woman who simply demonstrated her great love.

This week, may we take this Eucharist that is offered on our altar and let it soften our hearts: that we may see as God sees; that we may love as God loves; that we may live as God lives…in love and forgiveness with each of us.

This weekend, as the Church celebrates Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the nascent Church, we here at our parish celebrate anew such gifts of community, of prayerful praise, of faith in God and the sharing of our many individual and varied gifts in common.

Without posting the different homilies of this weekend, suffice it to say that we are a very blessed community.  At our 8:30am liturgy, we recalled our baptism as we were again sprinkled with holy water from our baptismal font.  We then called forth the power of the Holy Spirit during the Confirmation of Megan Gianna Calnan.  She was sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit as she was anointed with Sacred Chrism…and I encouraged Megan to continue to accept and utilize the gifts of the Spirit of God in her blessed future within the Church.  Later, we again called upon the Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify the gifts we presented upon the altar…and during our Communion Rite, we each shared in that food from God.  Finally, before we were sent forth, we welcomed several new families and parishioners to our parish.

After that Mass, we had not only a light reception to further welcome our new parishioners, but we also had a feast of brunch for our RCIA Team and the members of our parish who celebrated the Sacraments of Initiation and were received into the Church at this year’s Easter Vigil.  Our young children also celebrated with parties marking the close of our catechetical year.

At our 11am liturgy, we received and baptized young John Robert McFadden IV, the newest member of our faith community.  Again the Holy Spirit was effective through the blessed waters of baptism…and John Robert gleamed through the entirety of the rites!  Toward the conclusion of Mass, we also extended a blessing for Vic Balog & Terry Zeller who will be married in our church this coming Saturday.

Wow, the Holy Spirit came through: at every moment, when we called forth the Spirit, God generously responded…as He always does!  A happy and blessed Pentecost to all!

 

PS – we also had the opportunity to see one of our new stained glass windows in the Chapel of St. Joseph…if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to stop by the chapel…you’ll be very glad you did.

Happy Mother’s Day to all our moms: our natural mothers; grandmothers; adoptive mothers; spiritual mothers; foster mothers…and all those who minister as mothers for each of us.  Let us pray that these moms always receive from us the blessings of love that they constantly share with us.

Although this seventh Sunday of Easter each year announces the gospel we’ve just heard, it may just be a coincidence that it is also Mother’s Day.  If we take but a moment, most, if not all of us, immediately picture how a mother tenderly and faithfully loves her child.  There’s no hoop for the child to jump through, no payment or bribe to make, no begging…no, the child doesn’t even have to be good or even nice…the mother’s love for that child is guaranteed, constant, ever-present and always full.

And this kind of love between a mother and her child is a wonderful image of the love that is expressed in today’s gospel:  Jesus’ love for the Father and the Father’s great love shared with him in return.  And what is so powerfully important for us to note from our perspective is that Jesus asks the Father to include useach and every one of usin their rapturous love!  Jesus begs the Father to allow such a binding and life-giving love to always bubble up within us, surround us, and enfold us so that His own presence might remain in and around each one of us.  And it is through the love of our mothers and fathers that such a gift is continuously transmitted and shared with each of us to this very day.

Yes, only this kind of lovethat existed from the beginning and has enlivened the Trinity before time beganonly this kind of love is God’s gift to us, a gift to be cherished, a gift to be shared, and a gift worthy of our daily thanks.

May this gift of Christ’s love be ours today and every day.  Amen.

By Brian K. Slezak

(Brian Slezak is a seminarian of the Diocese of Albany studying at Mundelein Seminary just outside of Chicago.  Brian will be ordained a transitional deacon in the summer of 2013 with a view toward priestly ordination in 2014.  I asked Brian for permission to share this on our parish blog because I sense many might enjoy it…he was happy to give permission and to wish us blessings and joy.)

Before a man can be ordained priest, he must first accept ordination to the diaconate – to serve for a designated time as a deacon.  Before ordination to the diaconate he must, in writing, formally petition the bishop for admission  to the Order of Deacon, clearly expressing his understanding of all that Sacred Orders require of him, especially the obligations of celibacy and obedience.

As a candidate for the priesthood, I recently wrote to Bishop Hubbard petitioning ordination to the diaconate, affirming my full understanding and acceptance of all that the Church requires of the deacon.  I concluded my letter saying: “I do this entirely of my own free will, motivated by love of God and the desire to serve His people… I intend to devote myself to the ministry of the Church for the rest of my life.”

By God’s grace, before the bishop and the entire Church, I will be ordained deacon on May 25th.  In that act, I will solemnly promise, of my own free will, to live a life of celibacy out of my love for God. Through the years of preparation for ordination, I have become fully convinced of something Archbishop Harry Flynn once wrote:  “Those who feel God is calling them to the priesthood must also detect a call to celibacy.”

More often than not, celibacy, as a commitment to serving the Lord, is terribly misunderstood.  Especially in our hyper-sexualized culture, the celibate life is seen as pointless, foolish and, to some, impossible.  Today’s culture would tell us that life is all about sex; giving it up would be choosing a life of misery.  Men and women of this superficial culture wonder how one can go through life without the companionship of a loving spouse.  Celibacy, for them, is a deprivation of life and love – something totally undesirable.

Only when we understand the spiritual dimension of celibacy, can we come to appreciate the depth, wonder and beauty of the celibate life.

Celibacy in Judeo-Christianity history is nothing new.  It has been part and parcel with the life of the Church from the very beginning. Although, it did not become an obligatory “discipline” for the priesthood until the 11th century, continence observed for the love of God has been an honored practice since the time of Jesus and even before in the priesthood of the Old Testament.

In modern times, people have lost the understanding and appreciation of celibacy as a component of the Catholic priesthood.   Some argue that it is time to “relax” the discipline of celibacy; they see it as an archaic practice that makes unreasonable demands of a man in today’s culture.  Some go as far as to say it is detrimental to the priest’s “wholeness” and renders him unable to relate to others.

Blessed John Paul II took a more enlightened approach to celibacy in his great work, “The Theology of the Body.” He argued that celibacy can be understood by asking the deepest questions of the human heart: who am I and how am I to live my life in a way that will bring me the greatest happiness?   The answer to both of these questions is the Christian vocation. According to Pope John Paul II, the most basic vocation of the human person is to love.  This is fulfilled, according to the natural order in the vocations of Marriage, Celibacy or vowed virginity.   Each of these gets at the truth of the human person, who was created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26) and “God is love” (1 Jn 4:16).  We see this image most clearly in the nuptial union of the spouses, who as male and female, discover the meaning of the self, that is, giving oneself, totally to the other in self-giving love.

Then should not all people get married then?  Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew that “there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 19:12). A eunuch in the Christian meaning is someone who devotes his or her life to building the God’s kingdom.  This makes the celibate vocation uniquely holy, because it is focused on eternal Love.

One of our teachers recently stated, “Marriage is too good and too beautiful for the world to give up.  The only logical explanation for why we choose celibacy is the knowledge that there is something greater.  In this way, we can see that the lives of priests and religious give a testimony to something greater.”  Venerable Bishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote, that “celibacy makes him (the priest) almost an icon where people look toward eternity.”  Celibacy permits one to offer his or herself, for the sake of others and for the kingdom of heaven.

Does this mean that celibacy is better than marriage?  No. The values of celibacy and marriage compliment one another.  Pope John Paul II explains that the same fidelity and self-donation lived by spouses; provide a model for the fidelity for those who chose the celibate vocation.  Each vocation, even the celibate vocation, is centered on love of the other; self-donation.  Celibate priests therefore, imitate Jesus’ exclusive, unbreakable and intimate love for His bride, the Church just as spouses imitate the same unbreakable union.  Priests freely choose celibacy out of self-sacrificial love for God, giving ourselves totally to Him and His Church, not unlike a man and woman give themselves totally and unconditionally to one another in the sacrament of marriage.  This love, must be lived out totally, committed, demanding the priest’s mind, soul and, yes even his body and sexuality.

Celibacy certainly gives more than what it gives up.   Understanding celibacy, as the offering of oneself for the sake of others has helped me to better live out my call to the priesthood.  This is not without its fruits.   Catholic theologian, Scott Hahn has helped me to see celibacy as fruitful and reflective of the image of God.  He once wrote that celibate priests are not childless, but rather fathers to a multitude of spiritual children, as Abraham was father of Israel.  The late Cardinal John O’Connor once stated, that “good celibates are those who would also make good husbands and fathers.”  Celibate priests are spouses to the Church and fathers to a multitude of spiritual children.

Over the years, I have come to realize that there is something truly beautiful, even heavenly, about the celibate life.  Men and women are called to celibacy so that their lives of chastity become a sign that they live no longer according to the flesh but according to the spirit (Romans 8:8).  God gives them the grace to receive and preserve this gift in a total and complete love for God and His Church.

I look forward to making this commitment permanently as a deacon.  I pray that everyone, especially every Catholic, understand the meaning, value and beauty of the celibate life.