“The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter”
4. They sanctify us, make us holy, and help us to be a holy witness to the world
The call to holiness implies that we be as holy as we can be and help others to be holy. The rule of Saint Benedict mandates that a monk, “not to wish to be called holy before one is holy; but first to be holy, that one may be truly so called.” The Litany of Humility says, “That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should.” This call to holiness is capable of being practiced and lived because of the grace we have been given and the faith we have in which to believe and receive it.
Do we live out our call to holiness with grace and faith equips us to do? If we truly believe in the grace of the Sacraments and we accept grace with sincerity and faith, it only follows that we should live it out. The faith that we profess should never be separated from our life. “This council exhorts Christians, as citizens of two cities, to strive to discharge their earthly duties conscientiously and in response to the Gospel spirit. They are mistaken who, knowing that we have here no abiding city but seek one which is to come, think that they may therefore shirk their earthly responsibilities. For they are forgetting that by the faith, itself, they are more obliged than ever to measure up to these duties, each according to his proper vocation. Nor, on the contrary, are they any less wide of the mark, who think that religion consists in acts of worship alone and in the discharge of certain moral obligations, and who imagine they can plunge themselves into earthly affairs in such a way as to imply that these are altogether divorced from the religious life. This split between the faith, which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age.” [1] In today’s Gospel, the leper is overjoyed with the grace and healing that he receives that he goes out and tells everyone. “So great was his happiness that in spite of Our Lord’s warning he began to tell everybody what had happened and spread the new of the great good that had been done to him. Such blessings were too great for him to keep to himself; he had to share his good fortune with others.” [2]
5. They are the center of the Church community because they establish it, strengthen it, and manifest it.
“God gathered together as one all those who in faith look upon Jesus as the author of salvation and the source of unity and peace, and established them as the Church that for each and all it may be the visible sacrament of this saving unity.” [3] The establishment of the Church was sacramental. “Jesus dies on the Cross; a soldier opens His side: blood and water flow out (John 19:34). Blood and water are symbols of the two chief sacraments of the Church: Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. Theme: Christ, the second Adam, is sleeping in death; from His side comes the second Eve, “mother of all the living,” the holy Church.” [4] The crucifixion is the birth of the Church from the side of Jesus. The crucifixion is tied to the Last Supper at which both the Eucharist and Holy Orders are instituted. We are established in the Sacraments. The Sacraments are what give us our strength, our unity, and they are universal (Catholic). Not only does the Church gives us seven Sacraments to strengthen us in the Church but, because of its union with Christ they manifest to the world. “Since the Church is in Christ like a Sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely-knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race, it desires now to unfold more fully to the faithful of the Church and to the whole world its own inner nature and universal mission. This it intends to do, following faithfully the teaching of previous councils. The present-day conditions of the world add greater urgency to this work of the Church so that all men, joined more closely today by various social, technical and cultural ties, might also attain fuller unity in Christ.” [5] Why are the Sacraments a part of everything we do as Catholics? We participate in the Mass and others Sacraments in every moment and especially key moments of our life because they are “the center of our Church community.” This is why programs, private devotions, prayer groups, should never take priority over the Sacraments and the Mass. This is why we include the Sacraments and the Mass in our planning of catechesis, retreats, missions and important celebrations with friends and family.
[1] Council of Vatican II; Gaudium et Spes; Section 43
[2] Father Francis Fernandez; In Conversation with God; Vol. 3; 44.3
[3] Council of Vatican II; Lumen-Gentium; Section 9
[4] Officium Divinum; Friday Sext; The Church and the Holy Eucharist
[5] Council of Vatican II; Lumen-Gentium; Section 1