Category Archives: essays, editorials, fisks, and rants

Signs and Ceremonies: The Redemption

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The following is from Teaching Truths by Signs and Ceremonies or The Church, Its Rites and Services Explained for the People by Rev. Jas. L. Meagher (1882, New York: Russel Brothers).

“[T]he Redemption was really and truly of infinite value, an infinite price,
not like the Pelagians and Socinians said, for these taught that Christ redeemed
us, not by paying the debt of our sins, but by resisting the temptations of the
evil one in the desert, or by being obedient to his Father; but the Catholic truth
teaches that Christ redeemed us from sin by wiping it completely out, pleasing God
in our place, and restoring us to heaven lost in Adam” (Ch. 7, pp. 117-118)

“He gave an equal return for the honor and respect and reverence due to God,
for sin is infinite because it is an injury done to an infinite God. But the reparation,
the satisfaction returned to God for that sin was infinite, for it was the prayers,
offerings, and the suffering and death of an infinite Person, Jesus Christ, the
Second Person of the Trinity; therefore his satisfaction was equal to the sin and
injury done to God.” (Ch. 7, p. 119)

“But he did not deliver us from the evils of temptation, of death, of sickness,
of suffering, or return to us the perfect and easy control which Adam and Eve had
before their fall, over the lower powers of our soul, or deliver us from all the
evils which fell on the human race from the sin of Adam, but only sanctifying grace,
which gives the right to enter heaven.” (Ch. 7, p. 120)

“And to say that Christ died for us all and that nothing more is required,
is to put the saint and the murderer, the good and the bad all on the same level,
all going to heaven, no matter what they do in this world. Our salvation then depends
on our own actions, the loss or the salvation of each one depends on their sins
or their good works; by these good works gaining the merits and graces of Christ
ready to be showered down upon us when we merit them. By His death he gained all
these, and these are to be given us when we show ourselves worthy by our good lives.”
(Ch. 7, pp. 120-121)

“Such then is the Mass; it is the applying of these merits of Christ to our
souls – the showering down of these graces into our hearts and the continuation
of the sacrifice of Calvary. A sacrifice is the great act of man offered to the
Divinity; here in the Mass we have the Victim only worthy of the Deity, the sacrifice
of the Son of God, there immolated to the God-head, the Offering only worthy of
the Deity of the Second Person of the Trinity is present there, and as the sublime
tragedy of Calvary is continued, there continued in remembrance of Him, the Victim
and the Sacrificer, as all is offered to the God-head, the face of the celebrant
is turned from the people toward God. The people are bowed down in prayer; it is
not necessary that they understand the words, for they are said not for them to
hear but for the ear of God. All may be in silence, still it is a sacrifice offered
to the Lord; not one besides the celebrant may understand these rites and ceremonies,
still they are for the eye of God and not of man, and God accepts them from
the hands of the priest, for how can he reject the offering of His only begotten
Son?” (Ch. 7, pp. 121-122)

Bad for Ratings

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The Olympics bore me. I haven’t been excited about them since I was a kid. A lot
of that has to do with the detritus that grows every four years – the list of sports
nobody really cares about. I think IOC should wipe the slate clean and start from
scratch. Do we really need synchronized swimming, for instance? That may be an art
form to someone, but it’s not a sport. Neither is ballroom dancing. There’s talk
of making “dance sport” an Olympic event. I’ve done ballroom dancing before.
It’s art, not sport. Anyhow, room should be made for popular competitive sports,
such as ultimate frisbee. The sad thing is, with the number of events currently
bloating the Games, if ultimate was added, it’d probably be broadcast at 4 AM. *sigh*
One more thing: Ban professionals from the Games!!! “Amateur” comes
from Latin for “lover”, i.e. an amateur one who plays for the love of
the game. That’s who should be competing in the Games, not a bunch of spoiled millionaires.

All of that ranting was actually a digression. My original gripe started with this
BoingBoing article. The basic gist is that the Olympics were a huge ratings
and advertising success, so you’d think the networks would jump at the chance to
put on a similar spectacle. You’d be wrong. The Paralympics will not be aired on
American television. No offense to Olympic athletes, but I think handicapped athletes
are far more impressive and worth my viewing time and applause. It’s a shame that
Americans won’t get to see some real winners. I’m not talking about winning gold
medals. I’m talking about overcoming adversity and thriving in the face of it.

Signs and Ceremonies: The Real Presence

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The following is from Teaching Truths by Signs and Ceremonies or The Church, Its Rites and Services Explained for the People by Rev. Jas. L. Meagher (1882, New York: Russel Brothers).

“In the Greek text [the expression of carnal nature of the Eucharist] is stronger
than in our English Bible. Those who do not wish to believe use all kinds of ways
in order to get out of believing the truth of Christ’s presence. But these words
are so clear, the universal belief of all antiquity, the writings of the fathers
of the Church, who give the belief of all ages up to the time of Christ, all these
are so strong on that even Luther himself says, ‘These words are so clear that no
angel from heaven, no man on earth could speak clearer.” (Ch. 5, p. 81)

“St. Ignatius, made Bishop of Antioch in the year 69, writing against the Gnostics
says: ‘They abstain from prayer, because they confess not that the Eucharist
is the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ St. Justin, the Martyr, born in the
year 105, explaining the Mass to the Roman Emporer Antoninus, says: ‘He who is the
chief among the brethren, taking the bread and the vessel of wine and water, giving
glory to the Father of all, in the name of the Son and Holy Spirit, continues the
Eucharist…Then all the people say Amen…But we do not take this as communion
bread or drink, but as for our salvation, by the Word of God, Jesus Christ was made
flesh, thus by these prayers we receive the flesh and blood of the same incarnate
Jesus Christ.'” (Ch. 5, p. 84)

“St. Ambrose, born in the year 340, says: ‘Of the bread the flesh of Christ
is made…But how can that which is bread become the Body of Christ? By consecration.
By whose words and by whose language does the consecration take place? Those of
our Lord Jesus Christ. For it was not the Body of Christ before the consecration,
but I say to thee, that after consecration it is now the Body of Christ. He said
and it was done, he commanded and it was made.'” (Ch.5, p. 85)

Signs and Ceremonies

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I just finished reading Teaching Truths by Signs and Ceremonies or The
Church, Its Rites and Services Explained for the People by Rev. Jas. L. Meagher
(1882, New York: Russel Brothers). I acquired a second edition copy from my grandfather’s
estate in 1998. He was one of the very few Catholics in my family. It’s too bad
I didn’t convert until two years after his death. I’d love to have a family member
to fully share my faith with.

This book is full of nuggets of wisdom and I’ll be posting some of them for the
next few days. Some of them are eternal Truths, others are sad reminders of the
damage done by “progress”.

“In this Ritual [of the Mass], every sign recalls a doctrine, every movement has its meaning,
and every action breathes of mystery.” (Preface)

“Thus all in the Church, the plan, the foundation, the music, the ornaments,
the style, all point to the altar, telling of the unchanging faith, the belief of
past ages in the Real Presence, of God in the Sacrament of the altar.” (Ch.
1, p. 9)

“[S]how me a religion without rites and ceremonies, and I will show you a people
drifting rapidly toward infidelity and the denial of all religion.” (Ch. 1,
p.14)

“Sometimes you will see the Church as a great building on a rock in the sea.
That is the true Church built by Christ on the rock, that is on the Papacy, in the
sea, in the midst of the changing governments and institutions and peoples of this
world, who are ever fluctuating like the waves of the sea, but the Church is on
an impregnable rock, for the Church never changes. You see the waves dashing against
the rock-bound shores, but beaten back. Thus the Church built on Peter and his successors
stands alone in the world; it never changes; it remains the same; it is attacked
on all sides by the waves of error, the storms of persecution, the roar of the elements
of passion, of governments, of politics around it; it is attacked by these, but
they are driven back; they go down. Governments may change, nations may rise and
fall, people may change their forms of laws, their idea, their manners, but the
Church alone, as an institution founded by Jesus Christ, stands to-day and ever
will, a thing that can never be destroyed. “And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.” (Ch. 3, p. 51, quote from Matthew
16:18)

Journalism Rant

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There’s been a lot of talk lately of the potential effects on mainstream journalism by blogging. One improvement I’d suggest is linking to source material!!! It drives me nuts when a journalist posts a story about some survey, poll, website, research, or whatever and doesn’t tell us where to find it!

To any journalists reading this (yeah, right), if you’re going to summarize someone else’s work, please tell your humble readers where to find the material in its entirety. Thank you.

Here’s an example. Would it really have hurt to provide a link to Vote for Change or Rock for Life?