1B

SECTION B
LIGHT
FROM THE
ETERNAL CITY
Pope’s Audience . . .
On The
Parable Of The
Prodigal Son
VATICAN CITY (ZENIT) — Here is
a translation of Pope Francis’ weekly
general audience given May 11.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!
Today, this audience is being held in two
places: as there was the danger of rain, the
sick are in Paul VI Hall and connected with
us with a giant screen — two places but only
one audience. We greet the sick who are in
Paul VI Hall.
Today, we wish to reflect on the parable
of the merciful Father. It speaks of a Father
and his two sons, and it makes us know the
infinite mercy of God.
We begin from the end, that is, from the
joy of the Father’s heart, who says: “Take the
fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate
with a feast, because this son of mine
was dead, and has come to life again; he was
lost, and has been found” (Luke 15: vv. 23-
24). With these words the Father interrupted
his younger son at the moment he was confessing
his fault: “I no longer deserve to be
called your son. . . .” (v. 19). However, this
expression is unbearable for the heart of the
Father, who instead hastens to restore to his
son the signs of his dignity: the best robe, the
ring and the shoes.
Jesus does not describe a Father who is
offended and resentful, a Father that, for instance,
says to his son: “you’ll pay for this.”
No, the Father embraces him, awaits him
with love. On the contrary, the only thing
that the Father has at heart is that this son is
before him safe and sound, and this makes
him happy and he celebrates. The welcome
of the son that returns is described in a moving
way. “While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him, and was filled
with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced
him and kissed him.” (v. 20). How
much tenderness; he saw him from afar:
what does this mean? That the Father went
out continually on the terrace to look at the
road and see if his son was returning; that
son who had done just about everything, but
the Father awaited him. How beautiful is the
Father’s tenderness!
The Father’s mercy is overflowing, unconditional,
and it is manifested before the son
speaks. The son certainly knows he has erred
and he acknowledges it: “I have sinned . .
. treat me as one of your hired servants”(v.
19). But these words dissolve in face of the
Father’s forgiveness. His Father’s embrace
and kiss make him understand that he was
always considered son, despite everything.
This teaching of Jesus is important: our condition
of children of God is fruit of the love
of the Father’s heart; it does not depend on
our merits or our actions and, therefore, no
one can take it away, not even the devil! No
one can take away this dignity.
This word of Jesus encourages us never
to despair. I think of mothers and fathers in
apprehension when they see their children
distancing themselves, entering dangerous
ways. I think of parish priests and catechists
who sometimes wonder if their work was in
vain. But I also think of those who are in prison,
and who think that their life has ended;
of all those who have made mistaken choices
and are unable to look at the future; of all
those who hunger for mercy and forgiveness
and believe that they do not merit it. . . . In
whatever situation of life, I must not forget
Continued on 8B
VOLUME 149, NO. 20
THE WANDERER www.thewandererpress.com
Learn Your Faith
The Liturgical Celebration
Of The Eucharist
By DON FIER
Live Your Faith
What Is Faith?. . .
The Meaning Of Original Sin
By RAYMOND
DE SOUZA, KM
As narrated in the Gospels of Matthew,
Mark, and Luke and in the First Letter of St.
Paul to the Corinthians, our Lord Jesus Christ
instituted the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper
on the night before
He died. Jesus
and His apostles had
just traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the great
Jewish feast of Passover in commemoration of
the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery
in Egypt.
During the course of the meal, Jesus “took
bread, and when he had given thanks he broke
it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body
which is given for you. Do this in remembrance
of me’” (Luke 22:19). After supper, He
likewise took the cup and gave it to them, saying,
“This cup which is poured out for you is
the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20).
“By this action,” explains Fr. John A. Hardon,
SJ, “Christ gave the Passover its ultimate
meaning and anticipated the final Passover of
the Church in the glory of His kingdom” (The
Faith, p. 118). By instituting
the Eucharist, our
Lord fulfilled words He
had spoken during His
Bread of Life Discourse:
“He who eats my flesh
and drinks my blood has
eternal life, and I will
raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is
food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He
who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides
in me, and I in him” (John 6:54-56).
Moreover, by giving the command, “Do this
in remembrance of me,” our Lord gave the
apostles and their successors, the bishops, the
power to do what He had just done until the
end of time, thereby ensuring the preservation
of the Holy Eucharist in the one, holy, catholic,
and apostolic Church. “The Eucharist,” contin-
Haven’t you met Catholic people who
question the gravity of Adam’s sin? They do
believe that all humans stem from a single
couple, yes, but they find it hard to accept
that stealing an apple is such a big deal. Surely
God could not
be that much offended
by that!
Such people
argue in this manner because they do not
understand the seriousness of original sin.
The fact is that our father Adam committed
a very serious sin. It was very serious for
several reasons:
First, Adam knew perfectly well that
God had warned him of the consequence
of his disobedience: He would die. Period.
“Of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil you shall not eat, for in the day that
you eat of it you shall die” (Gen. 2:17). And
death here has a double meaning: a) spiritual
death, whereby Adam would lose divine
grace; and b) physical death, whereby
the gift of immortality would be removed
from him.
Part 25
ues Fr. Hardon, thus “became the center of the
Church for the obvious reason that the Eucharist
is Christ” (ibid.).
The Catechism of the Catholic
Church (CCC) now considers
the structure of the Eucharistic
Liturgy as it has been
handed down through the ages.
“As early as the second century
we have the witness of St. Justin
Martyr for the basic lines of the
order of the Eucharistic celebration
. . . [which] have stayed the
same until our own day for all the
great liturgical families” (CCC, n.
1345).
In his description, written around
AD 155, it is easy to recognize the
same fundamental order of the Mass which is
celebrated today in Catholic churches throughout
the world.
The Celebration of the Eucharist, then, “displays
two great parts that form a fundamental
unity” (CCC, n. 1346):
the Liturgy of the Word
which includes the
readings, homily, and
general intercessions;
and the Liturgy of the
Eucharist which includes
the offertory,
consecration, and Holy Communion. These
two components are so intimately linked together
that the Vatican II fathers unequivocally
affirm that “they form but one single act of worship”
(Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 56).
As elaborated upon by Pope Emeritus Benedict
XVI in his 2007 post-synodal apostolic
exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, “From
listening to the word of God, faith is born or
strengthened (cf. Romans 10:17); in the Eucharist
the Word made flesh gives himself to us as
All in attendance are encouraged to listen
carefully to the very words of God as
He speaks to us personally through the
writings of the inspired authors of Sacred
Scripture.
Second, the command was easy to obey:
In simple terms, “Just steer clear of the tree,
and you’ll be fine”; the gifts he enjoyed compensated
him by far for having to do such a
simple act of obedience.
Third, there was also an element of bad
will, because Adam was not the victim of
passion or caprice: He acted from cool reason
and on full deliberation, which showed
the calculated malice of his sin.
Fourth, the tempter’s promise was “to be
like God” in the knowledge of good and evil,
so that he might be his
own director and decide
for himself what was good
and what was evil (just
like the moral relativism
of our days). This is a most
important aspect, which
deserves closer scrutiny.
Fifth, he sinned, not as a private individual,
but as the head and representative of the
human race.
Unlike certain liberal politicians and
churchmen today, Adam was not an idiot: He
“Just steer clear of the tree, and
you’ll be fine”; the gifts he enjoyed
compensated him by far for having
to do such a simple act of obedience.
May 19, 2016
our spiritual food. Thus, from the two tables of
the word of God and the Body of Christ, the
Church receives and gives to the faithful the
bread of life. . . . The word of God, read and
proclaimed by the Church in the liturgy, leads
to the Eucharist as to its own connatural end”
(n. 44).
The Catechism now takes us on a brief journey
through the order of the Mass beginning
with the gathering together of the people to
form the eucharistic assembly. Important to
recognize is that “it is the whole community,
the Body of Christ united with its Head, that
celebrates” (CCC, n. 1140). At its head is
Christ Himself, represented by the ordained
minister (priest or bishop) acting in persona
Christi capitis (“in the person of
Christ the Head”), who is the principal
agent of the Eucharist and presides invisibly
over every Eucharistic Celebration.
The Introductory Rite begins with
the Sign of the Cross and the apostolic
greeting of the priest: “The Lord be
with you,” followed by the response:
“And with your spirit.” This response,
which went into effect with the new
translation in late 2011, is reflective
of the scriptural language of St. Paul
(see Gal. 6:18), but even more important
acknowledges the Holy Spirit’s unique activity
through the priest by virtue of his Ordination.
It is followed by the Penitential Rite which
usually includes the Confiteor and Kyrie Eleison,
where we acknowledge our guilt before
God, express our heartfelt repentance, and ask
for an outpouring of His mercy. On Sundays
(except in Advent and Lent) and major feast
days, the tone shifts from sorrowful repentance
to a joyful song of praise to each Person of the
Blessed Trinity in the Gloria. The Introductory
Rite concludes with the Collect, a prayer which
summarizes the intentions of the celebration.
The Liturgy of the Word follows, “which
‘includes the writings of the prophets,’ that is,
the Old Testament, and ‘the memoirs of the
apostles’ [their letters and the Gospels]” (CCC,
n. 1349). All in attendance are encouraged to
listen carefully to the very words of God as He
speaks to us personally through the writings of
the inspired authors of Sacred Scripture.
“For in the sacred books,” teaches the Second
Vatican Council, “the Father who is in
Continued on 6B
knew perfectly well that he was not divine.
He knew that God, His creator and master,
had laid down the rule of law: If you disobey,
you will do evil and be punished by death.
Now, the tempter tells him and his wife that
if they listen to him — the tempter — and
not to God, they will be like God and decide
for themselves what good was and what evil
was. They would be like God.
Adam should have known, also perfectly
well, that by eating a fruit (or whatever it was
that God has forbidden; it does not matter
here) he would definitely not receive divinity.
No apple or any other fruit is so good that
makes you like God just by eating it. So he
believed the word of the tempter; he made an
act of faith in the message of the tempter, and
turned away from the word of God. He sealed
the pact with the tempter by eating the fruit.
In later days, the tempter would make people
sign a contract with their blood in order to receive
the promised gifts.
Here is a most important aspect: Upon
believing the word of the tempter, and abandoning
God’s word, didn’t Adam commit a
sin of Satanism? That is what Satanists do:
They believe in the promises of the tempter
and turn away
from God in order
to receive the gifts
promised by the
tempter. And they
fall flat on their
faces in a hot place,
because the Devil,
being the Father of Lies, does not give what
he promises.
Now, here is the mystery: Why did he do it?
Especially since he knew perfectly well that it
Continued on 3B
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