Fr. Glen introduced our son at Mass since it was the first time my son served with Father. John Paul served about a dozen other Masses, but not with Fr. Glen yet.
Father said, "I'd like to introduce John Paul, the son of Deacon Dennis and Tove Ann Purificacion. Perhaps he will follow in his father's footsteps in the diaconate and then into the priesthood."
I can't remember if Father said "and then the priesthood" or "or the priesthood," but when I reflected with Tove Ann later, she said, "The priesthood!" That is to say, she preferred it if Father said not the married deacon part but the priest part.
My wife also lectored at this same Mass. I saw my wife and son at the sanctuary.
Thank you, God. I told my wife that this was a gift to have both of them doing this at Mass.
The parish community welcomed me at the 10am and 12pm Masses. My family was introduced at both Masses after the post-Communion prayer.
Pat was there to help once again. I loved how she was conscious of the GIRM and what to do when a deacon is present at Mass. Her friends, Clarissa and Paz, helped me, too. Clarissa's name is pronounced clar-ree-sa, since in Hawaii the "i" sounds like a strong "e". The "3 Musketeers" were Pat, Clarissa and Paz.
Ron and Ann were students enrolled in the Oakland Diocesan School for Pastoral Ministry when I was director. Ron reminded me that I brought him in to offer a lector training workshop. I can't believe that this has come around full circle, in a sense. That was over 5 years ago. He sits as vice chair of the Parish Pastoral Council.
I met his daughter-in-law, Rachel, who was baptized at the Easter Vigil last month. She and my wife spoke. We joked around about her being baptized but were also semi-serious how all her sins were removed.
I was very impressed with Rachel's daughter, Jade, who is a candidate for Confirmation and in 8th grade. She helped bring her mom to the Church. I told the family that this makes her special and how important the Sacrament of Confirmation.
I saw Kitty who attended St. Catherine's. I have her a big hug and joked around about being "partners in crime." I met her friends, Jan and Leonard, who plan to help me at this Wednesday's Liturgy of the Word.
Sis. Virgie, sister of Cherie Estaquiao of St. Catherine's, helped me. During Holy Communion, I thought I saw a teenage boy drop the Host and then carry the Host to his pew. As she came to my Communion line, I whispered to her what I thought I saw.
Virgie must have done something because the mom of the boy, who was well dressed for Mass, said that her so did consume the Host. I said okay and appreciated her telling me. On the one hand, I felt bad, but on the other hand when I told my wife she said that I did the right thing.
My met Becky, the sister of Deacon Rudy's wife, Rory.
I met Brian the music director. We checked in about music, and I think he appreciated that I try to sing or chant what I can. I'm glad I was able to talk to him. He was a very friendly guy.
I shook a lot of hands and met new faces. A Knight of Columbus welcomed me, along with members from Couples for Christ and Families in Christ Jesus.
Before the 12pm Mass, I met Dolly, Lea, and Annette H. who helped orient me.
I also met Natalian an usher who thought I was a transitional deacon. Cherie E's other sister, Victoria, introduced herself. I was delighted to meet at Estaquiao.
Esther and her husband, Dennis, who were active with Marriage Ministry were there. I told Esther she was an apostle.
Susan the school principal welcomed me, along with her daughter, Lily, a freshman at UC Betkeley. We talked about some events and Vallejo. She was a dedicated mom and educator. Alice who helps with the Latin Mass asked me if I was the new deacon and if my family was planning to attend the Latin Mass. I said yes I am but my family planned to attend the Latin Mass another day. I also said that I was not trained in assisting at the Latin Mass. I would love to learn since it is out patrimony as Catholics to attend Mass in Latin. People should not be hostile to it. My former St. Pat's High student, Pauline, spoke to me. That made me even more happy to see a familiar face. She and my wife spoke. I also got to see her 5-moth old baby. She called me "Mr. P." like my high school teaching days. This moved me greatly to see a former student attend Mass on her own without anyone to tell her to go to Mass.
But my best and greatest moment was with my kids. After the 12pm Mass, the 3 kids were being silly. As I was greeting people after Mass, the kids would pretend to "introduce themselves" to me. I would say, "Oh, nice to meet you. What's your name?" And then they would go back in line to greet me after every 3 or 4 parishioners. They giggled as they did this. And I loved it!
And I just wanted to let you know that, over
the summer, Fr. Resti who oversees St. Joseph’s Parish in Vacaville asked me if
I could help him at his parish.So I
volunteered to be on temporary “on loan” duty at St. Joseph’s.
I say that I
say that I am “on loan” but I will actually be “a-lone” since there is no
deacon at this parish that is slightly smaller than ours.(They have no deacon in a parish of about
2,000 families, so I hope to eventually recruit new deacons for the parish.)
St.
Catherine’s will still be my parish, and my wife, Tove Ann, and I still plan to
attend Mass at St. Catherine’s with our kids whenever I’m not on deacon duty at
St. Joseph’s.
[This
reminds me of a joke about two parishioners at St. Catherine’s.One attended the Sat. 5pm Mass, and the other
attended the Sunday 12pm Mass.One day,
they happen to meet at a parish festival.The first parishioner said to the other parishioner, “Hey, do you still
go to St. Catherine’s?”The second
parishioner replied, “Yeah, I still go to St. Catherine’s.Do you still go to St. Catherine’s?]
So I’m not
leaving St Catherine’s.I’m just going
to help St. Joseph’s.
I give you
all a big group hug (from my deacon’s bench here).And I love you all.
Pope Paul VI with Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (Future Pope John Paul II)
* * *
Audience: 3 Masses (1500-2000 parishioners)
* * *
God’s
Plan for Marriage, Sex & Family (Homily #37)
27th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Oct.
4, 2015
Over
20 years ago, I was at World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado, in 1993,
when Pope St. John Paul the Great visited the United States.In his all-too familiar Polish accent, the
Holy Father departed from his prepared homily and said, “The family is under attack!The
family is under attack!”
And
according to Italian moral theologian Cardinal Carlo Caffara, Cardinal Caffara once
received a letter from Sr. Lucia of Fatima, Portugal, who the Blessed Virgin Mary
appeared to in 1917.Sister Lucia wrote
to Cardinal Caffara, “The final battle
between Our Lord and the devil will be over marriage and the family.”
Whether
it’s John Paul II or Sr. Lucia’s letter, these themes are consistent.This makes today’s Gospel on Jesus’s teaching
on marriage and family so needed for us in the 21st Century.
There
are two simple points from the Gospel on Jesus and His Church’s teaching on
marriage and family.They are the 2 main
purposes of marriage and the marital act.
1.)The
unitive purpose: The complementarity of the man and woman
in marriage until death.
2.)The
procreative purpose: The openness to children and fruitfulness
in marriage.
And
I realize that for us today, even among Catholics, the Church’s teaching on
marriage and family can be difficult.But it is not impossible.“With
God, all things are possible” (Mt. 19:26).
I.
Regarding
the first point about the complementarity
of the man and woman in marriage, the unitive purpose, or the two becoming
one flesh, Jesus pointed us to the beginning
of creation, “God made them male and female.For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to
his wife.”Jesus affirmed what we see in
the First Reading where it is written in the Book of Genesis: God will make a “suitablepartner” for the
man in marriage.
In
Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, this exclusive suitability is a
complementarity, a natural unity of
a man and a woman.It is “natural” or is
a type of “natural law”.The suitability
of one man and one woman is inscribed in nature.Jesus reveals that God is the author of
marriage—not the state, not the federal government.The state’s
role, rather, is to uphold the natural law, not re-define it.“What God has joined, no human being (and
that means no state officials, no judges) must separate.”
Additionally,
in the Judeo-Christian worldview, the man and the woman share a fundamental equality in their dignity.Just as Eve came from Adam’s rib, his side,
so too does the Church come from Jesus’ “rib” his pierced side when he died the
sleep of death on the Cross.The man
and woman are side by side, equal in
dignity, different in function.
God instituted marriage,
but Jesus elevated marriage to the dignity of a Sacrament.This is why, dear brothers and sisters, for
Catholics, we must be married in the Church instead of just being married
civilly before the Justice of the Peace, or in Reno, or even just living
together – or cohabiting – without marriage.The vow or consent of the man and woman makes the marriage.In the case of two baptized people before a priest (or a deacon
delegated by the pastor), it is the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, but in the
case of two Catholics only civilly married, in the eyes of God they are not
properly married.[READ SLOWLY:] For those Catholics in the state of only a
civil marriage, this is an invitation to be married in the Church and have your
marriage “convalidated”
with the priest in a simple, beautiful ceremony.
For
couples living together even if they have kids already, secular research
studies have shown that the rate of divorce, spousal abuse, and infidelity are
higher than those that are married.This,
too, is an invitation to be married in the Church.When we are married in the Church, God pours
forth His graces upon the marriage and family which do not occur in any other
way.This is the unitive purpose of
marriage.
II.
The
second main purpose of marriage and the marital act is the procreative purpose:
the procreation and education of
children.In the Gospel, Jesus said,
“Let the children come to me” after being indignant or angry when his apostles
did not welcome children.
Thus, all sexual activity belongs in
marriage.Notice
that the Church here doesn’t just teach that sex belongs in marriage, but all
sexual activity belongs to only married people that have taken a vow.This is called chastity, not just abstinence,
but chastity.We must prepare not only
our children for chaste, faithful Christian marriages.But we ourselves who are married should also practice
chastity, too, within marriage.
The
unitive and procreative aspects of marital love cannot be separated.What God has joined, let no man put
asunder.Contraception and sterilization are contrary to the plan of God for
marriage and family.Contraception deliberately violates the
mutual self-giving of a man and woman as designed by God.The Church isn’t saying that conception must
occur with each marital act, but rather, that when married couples do engage in
the marital act, that it is open to life.And, for those that need to space their
children’s births, couples may turn to natural means such as Natural Family
Planning – N.F.P. – which respects the women’s fertility cycle.Secular studies have shown that the spousal
abuse, infidelity and divorce rates are in single digits – actually 1-2% – for those
who practice NFP.
Did
you know that, up until 1930, all of Christianity – our separated Protestant
brothers and sisters included – taught that contraception was against God’s law?Then, the Protestants, one after the other,
voted to change this 2,000 year-old teaching.Only the Catholic Church
affirmed that contraception was against God’s plan for marriage and
family.In 1968, Blessed Pope Paul VI, wrote a letter called Humanae Vitae.In Humanae
Vitae (no. 9), the Holy Father beautifully taught that married love is
total, truly human, faithful, mutually exclusive, and fruitful.He
warned that contraception would promote marital infidelity and a general
lowering of morality, especially the youth (HV no. 17).He foresaw that men would lose respect for women, not as an equal partner
but someone to use to just satisfy his needs.Governments would disregard the dignity of the human person and basic
human rights (by treating humans beings as a number), and the contraceptive mentality would
eventually lead to abortion and as we see today human trafficking, pornography,
domestic abuse, sexual slavery and violence around the world and even in our
own city.
At
Fatima, Portugal, when the
Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to 3 shepherd children, she said that many marriages do not please Our Lord and most souls are
lost because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason.Against this flood of modern-day assaults,
let Christians rejoice in the Good News of God’s plan for marriage, sexuality
and family.So, in summary: The 2 main
purposes of marriage and the marital act are the (a) unitive and (b)
procreative aspects.
The
Sacrament of Holy Matrimony will help us lead marriages that are pleasing to
God, and as we sang in the Responsorial Psalm, “May the Lord bless us all the
days of our lives!”
