Christmas vs. Easter

Earlier this week I reflected on a certain question about Christmas and Easter, and I found it to be an interesting topic to reflect on; therefore, I decided to write a blog post about it. The question that I was asked to reflect on was: "Why do you think that Christmas is celebrated as a bigger holiday than Easter although Easter is a more important day in the Church." In short, my answer to this is that people in society are more selfish and would rather receive gifts instead of give them up. Most people don't look at the meaning behind the celebration and the holiday. On Christmas, we are celebrating Christ's birth in the manger, and on Easter, we are celebrating Christ Resurrection. Both are very important days for the Church and without the birth of Christ then we would not have been saved through his paschal mystery, but the resurrection is when Christ defeats death and begins to teach the Apostles and prepare them to preach the Gospel message to the world. Most people don't think about these things and they are just worried about receiving gifts. We need to remember when we are celebrating certain holidays what the meaning of the holiday is and why we have it. We must not forget that those things are important too.

Easter vs. Christmas

Priests and Marriage

The issue of marriage and priests has been a key issue in the modern world. Many Protestant religions have allowed marriage of priests, and many people believe that in order for their to be a continued interest in the priesthood, priests must be allowed to marry. The Catholic Church on the other hand believes that the priesthood is a calling to a way of life and serving God. I know that at our school the catholic priest talk about being called to married life or being called to the priesthood. By remaining celibate, the priests are able to completely focus on God. Jesuit Priests can be called anywhere in the world at any time by the Pope, but if they were married and had a family they would have to move with him or be supported by the Church. Also, priests take a vow of poverty and would have to rely on the Church to pay for another person or family. Catholic Answers has a great article on the issue of priest's marriage. All in all, I believe that the Catholic will never change their view on the issue of priest's marriage.

Catholic Answers Article 

The Church in the Life of the Faithful

      How can we live our life to praise Christ and spread His message? The Laity, the members of the Church, are challenged by this question every time we think about the God and his call. We are all called to holiness through living like Christ through prayer and repentance. Christ told us in his Sermon on the Mount to strive to be perfect. Our call to perfection is a call to greater holiness. The members of the Laity need to do more than pray every once and a while and go to mass. They need to sanctify others in every part of our lives. The Laity need to participate in the mass, regularly take part in the Sacraments, pray multiple times a day, and sanctify our ordinary lives. We are called to respond to God's call and spread the good news to every one in every part of our lives.

The Catechism on the Laity-

"Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit maybe produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit - indeed even the hardships of life if patiently born - all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives."

The Rites of the Catholic Church

     It may surprise some people to know that there are many different rites within the Catholic Church. Before discussing these rites it is important to note that a different rite has no split from the Catholic Church, but they are the liturgies said by different cultural centers in the times of the Apostles. A rite represents an ecclesiastical tradition about how the sacraments are to be celebrated. As the early Church grew and spread, it celebrated the sacraments as would be best understood and received in the context of individual cultures, without ever changing their essential form and matter. The early Church sought to evangelize in the major cultural centers of the first centuries A.D. These centers were Rome, Antioch (Syria), and Alexandria (Egypt). All the rites in use today evolved from the liturgical practices and ecclesiastical organization used by the churches in these cities.

     The Church of Christ represented in these ecclesiastical traditions is known as a ritual church. The church in a certain territory is known as a particular church. The Catechism lists main seven rites. These rites are listed: Latin, Byzantine, Alexandrian, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, and Chaldean,. These rites are the descendants of the liturgical practices that originated in centers of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. Each rite originates from the authority of the apostles and have developed from a particular region thus integrating the culture of the region. 

"Within the Catholic Church ... Canonical rites, which are of equal dignity, enjoy the same rights, and are under the same obligations. Although the particular churches possess their own hierarchy, differ in liturgical and ecclesiastical discipline, and possess their own spiritual heritage, they are all entrusted to the pastoral government of the Roman pontiff, the divinely appointed successor of St. Peter in the Primacy." 

Indulgences

This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches about indulgences: 

1471    The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance.

What is an indulgence?

“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.”⁸¹

“An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin.”⁸² The faithful can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.⁸³

The punishments of sin

1472    To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the “eternal punishment” of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the “temporal punishment” of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.⁸⁴ (1861, 1031)

1473    The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the “old man” and to put on the “new man.”⁸⁵ (2447)

In the Communion of Saints

1474    The Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and to become holy with the help of God’s grace is not alone. “The life of each of God’s children is joined in Christ and through Christ in a wonderful way to the life of all the other Christian brethren in the supernatural unity of the Mystical Body of Christ, as in a single mystical person.”⁸⁶ (946-959, 795)

1475    In the communion of saints, “a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things.”⁸⁷ In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin.

1476    We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the Church’s treasury, which is “not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the ‘treasury of the Church’ is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ’s merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their efficacy.”⁸⁸ (617)

1477    “This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body.”⁸⁹ (969)

Obtaining indulgence from God through the Church

1478    An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity.⁹⁰ (981)

1479    Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted. (1032)

The definition of an indulgence is remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sin whose guilt has already been forgiven. This means that you cannot buy an indulgence to secure you position in heaven and make sure that you do not go to hell. One can receive indulgences under certain conditions with proper disposition through participation in prayer, devotions, pilgrimages, and acts of charity. An important part of the definition is the part that says "whose guilt has already been forgiven". This justifies why you cannot buy an indulgence to secure your place in heaven or ensure that you will not go to hell because your sins already have to be forgiven. you cannot buy an indulgence to replace the forgiveness of sins. The actual effect of indulgences is reducing or eliminating time spent in purgatory as long as the indulgences are received under the correct conditions.