Mustard Seeds

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What are relics and what meaning do they have for Catholics?

The word relic comes from the Latin relinquo, literally meaning “I leave”, or “I abandon”. A relic is a piece of the body of a saint, an item owned or used by the saint, or an object which has been touched to the tomb of a saint. Traditionally, a piece of the body of a saint, especially that of a martyr, may be with the permission of the local ecclesiastical authority used in solemn processions recalling the specific holy person.

There are three classes of sacred relics. The first-class is a part of the saint’s body. The second-class is a piece of the saints clothing or something used by the saint, while the third-class is an object which has been touched to a first-class relic.

There are several scriptural passages that support the veneration of relics. For example, the Israelites took Josephs bones when they departed Egypt (Exodus 13:19). The bones of Elisha came in contact with a dead person who then was raised to life (2 Kings 13:21). The same Elisha took the mantle of Elijah and fashioned a miracle with it (2 Kings 2:13). The Christians of Ephesus, by using handkerchiefs and cloths touched to Saint Paul’s skin, effected the healing of the sick (Acts 19:11-12).

To venerate the relics of the saints is a profession of belief in several doctrines of the Catholic faith:

  1. The belief in everlasting life for those who have obediently witnessed to Christ and His Holy Gospel here on earth;
  2. The truth of the resurrection of the body for all persons on the last day;
  3. The doctrine of the splendor of the human body and the respect which all should show toward the bodies of both the living and the deceased;
  4. The belief in the special intercessory power which the saints enjoy in heaven because of their intimate relationship with Christ the King; and
  5. The truth of our closeness to the saints because of our connection in the communion of saints we as members of the Church militant or pilgrim Church, they as members of the Church triumphant.

These relics summon us to appreciate more profoundly not only the heroic men and women, who have served the Master so selflessly and generously, but especially the love and mercy of the Almighty who called these His followers to the bliss of unending life in His eternal kingdom.

Saunders, William. “Church Teaching on Relics” Arlington Catholic Herald. accessed 14 October 2023, https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/church-teaching-on-relics.html

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My relative is about to die, what should I do?

The death of a loved one is always an event that moves us. We as Catholics should not see it as an end, but as a new beginning: it is the beginning of eternal life for our loved one. Therefore, we must prepare his soul for the encounter with our Lord. Thus, our relative must receive the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, and if circumstances allow, this can be preceded by the sacrament of Penance and followed by the sacrament of the Eucharist (CCC 1517).

After death, as human beings, we have a great need to say goodbye to our loved ones and entrust them to God. The rites of the Church reflect that need. A Catholic funeral is made up of three parts: the vigil, the funeral mass and the burial.

The vigil usually takes place the night before the funeral. Family and friends gather to accompany the body of the deceased. In addition to the solemn liturgical rites of the Church, the vigil is an opportunity to pray the holy rosary and honor the memory of the deceased. The vigil can be held at a funeral home, at the family home, or at the church.

The celebration of the funeral mass is in the Church, where the celebration of the Eucharist reveals the presence of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. Just as he or she was received in Christ through baptism and nourished with the sacraments. It is now that the body of the deceased is brought into the Church for the last time, as the Church prays for the gift of eternal life.

As Catholics we believe that the body is sacred. For this reason, during the Rite of Burial, in a sacred place, the Church entrusts the body of the deceased to the earth, so that it can be kept until the day of the resurrection.

If for legitimate reasons the cremation of the body is chosen, the ashes of the deceased must be kept in a sacred place, that is, in the cemetery or, if applicable, in a church or in an area specially dedicated for this purpose by the competent ecclesiastical authority. (Ad resurgendum cum Christo 5)

After the burial, of the body or the ashes, it is meritorious to celebrate masses of honor for our deceased and thus collaborate with their purification and sanctification.

Let us give our deceased the respect they deserve as children of God, let us ensure that they receive viaticum before they die and let us ensure that their remains rest in peace in a sacred place.

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Why is it important to receive communion at mass?

To understand its importance, let us first read what our Holy Mother Church tells us: The Eucharist is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life (Lumen Gentium 11). The other sacraments, as well as with every ministry of the Church and every work of the apostolate, are tied together with the Eucharist and are directed toward it. The Most Blessed Eucharist contains the entire spiritual boon of the Church, that is, Christ himself, our Pasch and Living Bread (Prebysterorum Ordinis 5).

The saving efficacy of the sacrifice is fully realized when the Lord’s body and blood are received in communion. The Eucharistic Sacrifice is intrinsically directed to the inward union of the faithful with Christ through communion; we receive the very One who offered himself for us, we receive his body which he gave up for us on the Cross and his blood which he “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28). The Eucharist is a true banquet, in which Christ offers himself as our nourishment. When for the first time Jesus spoke of this food, his listeners were astonished and bewildered, which forced the Master to emphasize the objective truth of his words: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life within you” (John 6:53). This is no metaphorical food: “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (John 6:55). (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 16)

It is therefore very important not only to attend the Holy Mass but to participate in the banquet that our Lord has prepared for us, a banquet where the main dish He offers us is eternal life through His body.

Let us then get rid of the rags that are our sins (Matthew 22.1-14), let us get ready and share with Christ the great banquet that he offers us in Holy Communion.

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What does being a Christian mean today, here and now?

Being a Christian has never been easy, nor is it easy today. Following Christ demands the courage of radical choices, which often means going against the stream. “We are Christ!”, St Augustine exclaimed. The martyrs and witnesses of faith yesterday and today, including many lay faithful, show that, if necessary, we must not hesitate to give even our lives for Jesus Christ.

In this regard, everyone is invited to a serious examination of conscience and lasting spiritual renewal for ever more effective missionary activity. As Pope Paul VI, wrote in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi towards the end of the Holy Year of 1975:  “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (EN 41).

These words are still valid today in the presence of a humanity full of potential and expectations, but threatened by a multitude of snares and dangers. One need only think, among other things, of social advances and of the revolution in genetics; of economic progress and of underdevelopment in vast areas of the globe; of the tragedy of hunger in the world and of the difficulties in safeguarding peace; of the extensive network of communications and of the dramas of loneliness and violence reported in the daily press.

Let us faithful, as witnesses to Christ who are especially called to bring the light of the Gospel to the vital nerve centers of society, be prophets of Christian hope and apostles of the One “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty!” (Revelations 1:4).

John Paul II, “Jubilee of the Apostolate of the Laity” homily  § 4, Vatican City, 26 November 2000, https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20001126_jubillaity.html

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In these troubled times, how can we have access to God?

As He said farewell to His disciples, Jesus gave them tranquility, He gave peace, with a promise: “I will not leave you orphans” (John 14:15-21). He defends them from that painful feeling of being orphans. In today’s world, there is a great sense of being orphaned: many people have many things, but they lack the Father. And in the history of humanity, this has repeated itself: when the Father is missing, something is lacking and there is always the desire to meet, to rediscover the Father. Today we can say that we live in a society where the Father is missing, a sense of being orphaned that specifically affects belonging and fraternity.

And so Jesus promises: “I am going away, but someone else will come who will teach you how to access the Father. He will remind you how to access the Father”. The Holy Spirit does not come to “make us His clients”; He comes to point out how to access the Father. That is what Jesus opened, what Jesus showed us. A spirituality of the Son alone or the Holy Spirit alone does not exist: the center is the Father. The Son is sent by the Father and returns to the Father. The Holy Spirit is sent by the Father to remind us and to teach us how to access the Father.

Only with this awareness of being children, that we are not orphans, can we live in peace among ourselves. Wars, either small ones or large ones, always have a dimension of being orphans: the Father who makes peace is missing. And so when Peter and the first community respond to the people regarding why they are Christians (1 Peter 3:15-18), says: “do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear”, that is, the gentleness that the Holy Spirit gives. The Holy Spirit teaches us this gentleness, this tenderness of the Father’s children. The Holy Spirit does not teach us to insult. And one of the consequences of this feeling like orphans is insulting, wars, because if there is no Father, there are no brothers, fraternity is lost. This tenderness, reverence, gentleness are attitudes of belonging, of belonging to a family that is certain of having a Father.

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to remind us always, always about this access to the Father, that He might remind us that we have a Father. And to this civilization, with this great feeling of being orphaned, may He grant the grace of rediscovering the Father, the Father who gives meaning to all of life, and that He might unite humanity into one family.

Francis, “The Holy Spirit reminds us how to access the Father” homily, Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Vatican City, 17 May 2020, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2020/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20200517_spiritosanto-accesso-al-padre.html

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Where does our soul go after death?

The Church teaches us that the immortal soul of the human being receives a particular judgment where it can begin its purification process before being able to be before the presence of God, or either enter directly into the blessedness of Heaven, or immediately condemn itself forever (CCC 1022).

Although our destiny as Catholics who follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ is that dwelling in the Kingdom of Heaven that our Lord has prepared for us (John 14:2). We gain that dwelling by following His teachings and fulfilling the sacraments that our Lord left us, especially with the sacrament of holy communion, through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, truly present in the consecrated host and wine, through which we will have eternal life. (John 6:53-54). If our sins do not allow us to fulfill this sacrament, let us first go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so that after sincere repentance they are forgiven, without forgetting to also comply with penance or reparation for them.

It is this last part that we must firmly comply with, since it is what allows us to enter directly into the presence of God when the time of our judgment arrives; failure to do so will lead our soul to a process of purification after death, in order to obtain the holiness necessary to be able to enter the joy of Heaven (CCC 1030).

It is also important to honor the memory of the deceased and offer suffrages in their favor, so that once purified, they can reach the beatific vision of God (CCC 1032). We can do this by dedicating masses and works of penance to them, as well as obtaining indulgences for the sanctification of the souls in purgatory.

Let us frequently participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, let us repent of all our sins, and faithfully carry out our penance so that we can share the glory with our Lord. Let us dedicate masses, works of penance and indulgences for the blessed souls in purgatory for their complete sanctification.

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Should I accept him as a brother when he is so different from me?

“But they are so different… Their customs are so different… they behave strangely…” these are some of the justifications that we sometimes give to ourselves when we encounter cultural or ethnic groups, different from the one we belong to, even in our own mother Church. Let us remember that the Catholic Church, from its beginnings, has welcomed the diversity of cultures, has made them its own and has not denied them the Gospel (Acts 2:1-11).

The grace of the sacrament of baptism, the door to salvation, and the good news of Jesus Christ was also extended to minorities, foreigners and according to the old law, imperfect. Just as Philip evangelized and baptized the Ethiopian eunuch by the advice of the angel of the Lord (Acts 8:26-39), we must extend the grace of the gospel to minorities who feel rejected from the Church, maybe by our own blindness of not wanting to see them as children of God.

The diversity of the Church is even immersed in its own name, when Saint Paul gives the name “ekklesia” (church) to the communities of Christians. In Greek “ekklesia” means “called-out assembly”, this assembly was made up of all those called out to the way of the Lord regardless of their previous affiliation. The apostle himself recognizes in several of his epistles the diversity of the charismas with which the Holy Spirit blesses the faithful (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:28-30, Romans 12:6-8).

Let us recognize our Lord Jesus Christ in each of our brothers in faith, no matter how different from us they seem or how different their customs are. Let us welcome with mercy those who feel rejected and find themselves on the peripheries, keep in mind that everything we do for the least of God’s children, we are doing for Jesus Christ himself (Matthew 25:30-41)

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Who are the guardian angels?

In order that we are never left alone, God has put at each person’s side a guardian angel to support and protect us, to accompany us in life (CCC 336). It is up to us to perceive his presence, listening to his advice, with the docility of a child, in order to keep ourselves on the right path toward paradise.

God has always sent us help, to Moses he said “Behold, I will send an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared” (Exodus 23:20-23). So, the Lord did not abandon but walked with his people. He walked with the man who had lost his friendship with Him: God’s heart is a father’s heart, and he never abandons his children.

Our guardian angel is always with us and this is a reality: he is like an ambassador of God with us. Again, in the passage from the Book of Exodus, the Lord counsels us: “Give heed to him!” (Exodus 23:21) Thus, when we, for example, do something bad and think we are alone, we have to remember that it isn’t so, because our angel is there. Here then, is the importance of heeding his presence and hearkening to his voice, because he advises us. This is why, when we feel that inspiration, ‘Do this… this is better… you shouldn’t do this’, the best thing to do is heed the advice and not rebel against your guardian angel.

He advises us, accompanies us, walks with us in the name of God. The Book of Exodus also points out the best attitude: “if you hearken attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries” (Exodus 23:22). But what does this mean? God’s response is clear: “I will be your protector, I will always defend you, guard you. ‘I!’, the Lord says, but because you have heeded the advice, the inspiration of the angel.

Let us ask the Lord for the grace of this docility, of hearkening to the voice of this companion, of this ambassador of God who is beside us in his name, so that we may be supported by his help, always on the way.

Francis, “The angel and the child” homily, Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Vatican City, 2 October 2015, www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2015/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20151002_the-angel-and-the-child.html

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Why is there so much suffering in this world?

Sometimes, when we see what is happening in the world, we think the following: “I am a fervent believer, but when I look around me and what is happening in this world, I cannot help but see evil around me.” This should make us remember the words of the devil in the second temptation to our Lord Jesus Christ, after showing Him all the kingdoms of the Earth: “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to” (Luke 4:5-7), the devil did not receive the nations of the Earth from God, God gave the Earth to us (Genesis 2:15), but it was us who gave the power to the devil by falling into the same temptations that were presented to Jesus: temptation to pleasures of the flesh (Luke 4:3), temptation to earthly power (Luke 4:6), or temptation to arrogance (Luke 4:9-11).

When these thoughts invade our reflections, we must also remember what our Lord told us: “…Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven…” (Luke 6:20-23). Let us remember that our objective is not in this world, but rather it is the dwelling place in the Kingdom of Heaven that our Lord has prepared for us (John 14:2). Those who suffer in this world will have their reward in Heaven with our Lord and the love of God the Father.

Let us avoid falling into the temptations of the enemy, and let us do the God’s will here on Earth as it is done in Heaven, let us work to earn that abode that Jesus Christ has reserved for us and let us wait with faith for our just reward according to our actions.

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Can I celebrate mass at home?

A special occasion is coming up in my family, and we would like to celebrate it with a mass. Can mass be celebrated at my house? Although celebrating a mass in our home can be considered an honor and a great blessing, there are conditions for this to be done. The documents of the Catholic Church tell us that the celebration of the Eucharist must take place in a sacred place, for example, a cathedral, a church, a chapel or a shrine; unless a case of particular necessity requires otherwise, and in that case, it must be done in a decent place (Canon 932 § 1).

But what could be these situations of particular need? For example: there is no Catholic church nearby, such as in places of armed conflict or trapped on the road after a snow storm. Another special occasion is when the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is celebrated when a faithful is seriously ill, since it is recommended that this sacrament be celebrated within the Eucharist (CCC 1517). Or when the existing church is too small for the community, it can be celebrated in another appropriate place that is worthy of such a great mystery (GIRM 288).

The diocesan Bishop shall be the judge for his diocese concerning this necessity, on a case-by-case basis (Redemptionis Sacramentum 108)

Once permission has been obtained from the diocesan Bishop to celebrate a mass outside a sacred place, there are conditions that must be met:

Instead of a consecrated altar, a suitable table can be used for the Eucharistic Sacrifice, always with a cloth and corporal (Canon 932 § 2).

The celebration of Holy Mass is not to be inserted in any way into the setting of a common meal, nor joined with this kind of banquet. Mass is not to be celebrated on a dinner table nor in a dining room or banquet hall, nor in a room where food is present, nor in a place where the participants during the celebration itself are seated at tables. If out of grave necessity Mass must be celebrated in the same place where eating will later take place, there is to be a clear interval of time between the conclusion of Mass and the beginning of the meal, and ordinary food is not to be set before the faithful during the celebration of Mass. (RS 77)

Let us have reverence for the sacramentality of the great mystery that is the Holy Eucharist, let us go to our local church to celebrate and bless those special occasions in our lives and by being surrounded by holiness in such a sacred place, may this allow us to advance further in our own calling to holiness. (Matthew 5:48)