Most Rev. John O. Barres, STD,JCL

Daily Mass Novena-Day 6

Most Rev. John O. Barres, STD,JCL

Bishop Barres:On this Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi when we celebrate the ecstatic and mystical joy of a great peacemaker, we find ourselves at an important crossroads of Catholic Church history in the United States and an important crossroads in terms of the history of our nation. A synod on the New Evangelization has begun in Rome. A Year of Faith begins in our universal Church on October 11th. And as Catholic Americans we are once again asked to form our consciences for a vibrant, faithful citizenship that celebrates our nation’s history of religious liberty and that boldly and appropriately expresses itself in the public square. Let’s examine together how these different crosscurrents of grace are related. The New Evangelization is an expression of the Catholic Church’s mission to spread the Gospel and the truths of our Catholic faith to the ends of the earth. My ownepiscopal motto, which comes from Redemptoris misio, Holiness and mission, expresses that reality that personal holiness can never be separated from missionary zeal. The 2 always go together – holiness and mission. There are many dimensions of theNew Evangelization that expressed the signs of the times of our 21st century and the dynamic action of the Holy Spirit in history. Pope Benedict XVI’sbiblical theology and spirituality expressed in Verbum Domini in the 2 volumes of Jesus of Nazareth and is called to all Catholics to read, study and pray the inspired sacred Scriptures is a critical expression of the New Evangelization. The liturgical translations implemented on the First Sunday of Advent 2011 have resulted in a vibrant liturgical catechesis and a deeper understanding and appreciation of the power and the mystery of the Mass. J.R.R.Tolkien’s in a letter to his son at the end of his life wrote these words. “I put before you the one great thing to love on earth – the body and blood of Jesus Christ. There you will find true romance, true honor, true glory and the true ways of all your loves upon earth.” That deep love for the Mass is the key to the New Evangelization. The new apologetics helps Catholics of all ages to reason through their faith and to be able to give a vibrant reason for the faith that is within them. The vision of ecclesia in America teaches us that ecclesial bonds of charity, unity in truth and the use of modern means of communications must express the ecclesial unity of South America, Central America and North America. Currently, Pope Benedict 16 in his papal audiences has been engaging in a catechesis on prayer in which he explains how authentic spiritual life and spiritual growth has to be founded on the rocks of the objective truths of our Catholic faith – the truths of the Creed, the truths of the Sacraments, the truths of our moral teaching and the truths involved in the experience of the great saints and mystics through the centuries, their teaching on prayer. Pope Benedict XVI has often emphasized that one of the keys to the New Evangelization is people who carry the cross of Jesus Christ with faith, generosity and courage. St. Francis is a beautiful example. He was so identified with the cross of Christ that he had that beautiful grace and experience of the stigmata. We follow today in the footsteps of St. Paul who says in his Letter to the Galatians, “May I never boast except in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” The cross is the center point of World and salvation history. It is the center point of every person’s destiny. It is the center point of the New Evangelization. The Year of Faith is a dynamic initiative of the New Evangelization. Pope Benedict XVIis urging each of us to open our minds, hearts and souls to an expansion of the gift of faith. He is asking us to use one of the great instruments of the New Evangelization – the Catechism of the Catholic Church. He is asking us to study the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. And he is asking all of us in the Church to confront the dictatorship of relativism in a spirit of charity and truth. As the Bishop of the Diocese of Allentown Pa., I am asking every active Catholic to invite one inactive Catholic back to Mass during the Year of Faith. I am asking active Catholic parents with young children to invite inactive Catholic parents with young children back to Mass. This is a very practical and real step of the evangelization and it could have incredible results. We want our Catholic parishes to be so on fire with the Holy Spirit and so warmly welcoming that inactive Catholics will rediscover their true home. Even when an invitation is not immediately accepted, it always does an enormous amount of good and it plants a seed for the future. I invite all of our viewers here today to join with Catholics of the Diocese of Allentown, Pa. in this venture. Invite your inactive Catholic friends and relatives back to church, so that they can rediscover the truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ. And make that invitation with great tact, with great emotional intelligence and with great charity, love and humility. In addition to the New Evangelization and the Year of Faith and very much related to them, as Christians we are once again being called to be dynamic defenders and promoters of religious liberty. We are being called again to political responsibility and to form our consciences for faithful citizenship. On October 3, 2011 the Catholic Bishops of the United States repurposed to our people Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,a beautiful document, which gives guidance to Catholics in the exercise of their rights and duties as participants in our American democracy. I encourage all of us to study it and pray it carefully. In the new Introductory note to the document the USbishops state “We are members of a community of faith with a long tradition of teaching and action on human life and dignity, marriage and family, justice and peace, care for creation and the common good. As Americans we are also blessed with religious liberty which safeguards our right to bring our principles and moral convictions into the public arena. These constitutional freedoms need to be both exercised and protected as some seek to mute the voices or limit the freedoms of religious believers and religious institutions. Catholics have the same rights and duties as others to participate fully in public life. The Church through its institutions must be free to carry out its mission and contribute to the common good without being pressured to sacrifice fundamental teachings and principles.” In pursuing the cause of religious liberty and that key dimension of studying the documents of the Second Vatican Council during the Year of Faith, we are reminded of the words of the Second Vatican Council in the Declaration on Religious Freedom. “The human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of any human power; in such ways that no one is forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs. The right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person, as his dignity is known through the revealed Word of God and by reason itself.” We are also reminded of a language of James Madison concerning the very first of the natural rights that the framers of the Constitution insisted that no government could lawfully infringe. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In that regard let us recall the immortal last words of St. Thomas More, the patron of statesmen, politicians, lawyers and faithful citizenship. His words have echoed down the ages and inform their consciences to this day. Just before he was executed, St. Thomas said that he was “the King’s good servant but God’s first; the King’s good servant but God’s first.” These words are key to all of us in the 21st century. As Christians we strive to maintain good relations with civil authority. But while we will “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” we will likewise “render to God what is God’s.” And we must always remember that we are God’s good servants first. That is the nature of our calling. That is our mission and it is not one that any of us will forsake. Moreover, it is a calling in mission that is fully in keeping with our American understanding of law and justice. Under our Constitution, no law, no regulation, no administrative guideline may require us to violate our religious consciousness. Nor the government agencies legitimately insist that our right to religious freedom exists only in the confines of our church buildings and that our ministries,in the public square exists, solely at their sufferance. Indeed, those contentions get it precisely backwards. Under our Constitution, it is government power that is limited and subject to regulation, not the conscience rights of Americans. Those rights were granted to us by God, not by the government and no government agency may lawfully infringe upon them. Neither we nor the American people generally will silently acquiesceas the right to religious liberty is whittled down by regulatory fiat. We can, as Americans and as Catholics, celebrate, defend and promote every American’s right to religious liberty. The current struggle for religious liberty cannot be separated from every other civil liberty that Americans enjoy and celebrate. It is a struggle for our nation’s soul. A government that has the power to enact regulations that fundamentally reject religious liberty is a government that has the power to override any constitutional right and that is not a path that the American people will long tolerate. The torch of the Statue of Liberty symbolizing America’s witness to religious liberty globally, internationally and domestically cannot be dimmed or compromised. I am very proud that the Diocese of Allentown Pa.has been and continues to be proactive, creative and at the forefront in promoting our fight for religious liberty. Along with DeSales University and ourDiocesan St. Thomas More Society, we hosted a Symposium onReligious Liberty that was shown on the Pennsylvania cable network repeatedly. Our local newspaper graciously gave us a forum to explain our position last February after I had the chance to preach on religious liberty at the closing Mass recognizing our diocese’s 50th anniversary. Our priests and deacons – how proud I am of them – our priests and deacons have preached dynamically and consistently on the issue. Our Diocesan Commission for Women spearheaded a letter-writing campaign which resulted in 48,000 letters sent to our legislators. It was such a powerful expression of what Blessed John Paul II described as “the feminine genius” which so often boldly leads and guides the Church. I am so proud and grateful to the women of the Diocese of Allentown. I am so proud and grateful for all the laypeople of the Diocese of Allentown for their courageous,nonstop witness to religious liberty. Our celebration at the Fortnight of freedom included Opening and Closing Masses,a specially dedicated website with religious liberty resources, education events in all of our 5 counties; bell ringing from our churches on July 4th in honor of our nation’s rich legacy of religious liberty. We hosted aTheology on Tap event for young adults. The Knights of Columbus, as always,were so steadfast and supportive in all the efforts. And here I am today on EWTN addressing not only the faithful of the Diocese of Allentown but a global audience asking all “to let freedom ring.” Let freedom ring boldly courageously and let’s take that sentiment to the public square. I celebrate as the Bishop of the Diocese of Allentown the inspirational efforts of the priests, deacons and lay faithful of the Diocese of Allentown, Pa. – efforts that will only accelerate and gain momentum step-by-step overtime in the 21st century. And I celebrate today the dynamic religious liberty witness given by every archdiocese and diocese around the country in so many creative and compelling ways. Our exercise of our First Amendment religious liberty rights also helps us in political responsibility to witness courageously to the sanctity of human life, which is the foundation of all other humanrights; the sanctity of permanent marriage between one man and one woman, a fundamental moral and social institution essential to the common good; the necessity of addressing poverty, hunger, unemployment; the need to defend and protect the human rights and dignity of immigrants and refugees; the importance of following the example of Pope Benedict XVI in this recent courageous trip to Beirut, Lebanon of a witnessing on this Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi to the need for global world peace and to religious liberty, charity and tolerance. Fr. Richard John Neuhaus once spoke of the Catholic moment. “Today is a unique Catholic moment of the laity, a Catholic laity that helps to lead all Americans to a new,vigorous and reborn love for religious liberty in our country and around the world.” And in this moment of the Catholic laity, we ought to consider once again the example of the courageous St. Thomas More. St. Thomas More, the layman for all seasons and century, gives 21st century Catholic laity special inspiration. In 1929 the great Catholic writer, G. K. Chesterton wrote that “Thomas More is more important at this moment than in any moment since his death, even perhaps the great moment of his dying. But he is not quite so important as he will be in about 100 years’ time.” Let’s do the math; 1929; 2029. As we come closer to that 100 year mark we see how prescient that observation was. On October 31, 2010 in a joint statement celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Blessed John Paul II proclaiming St. Thomas More to be the patron of statesmen and politicians, in addition to lawyers, the Pennsylvania Bishops stated: “St. Thomas More had been executed because he had refused to place the demands of the state before the requirements of his conscience and he insisted that the there were objective truths that governments could not legitimately seek to override. We, the bishops of Pennsylvania, propose St. Thomas More as a model for all citizens of the Commonwealth because of his outstanding virtues and his refusal to bend his conscience, no matter what inducements were offered or threats were made. St. Thomas More’s moral integrity truly made him‘a man for all seasons’ and most especially for all Americans in the 21st century.” We ask at this Mass today that St. Thomas More may intercede for statesmen, politicians, judges and lawyers that they may be courageous and effective in their defense and promotion of religious liberty and the sanctity of human life, the foundation of all other human rights. The secret of St. Thomas More’s holiness and history-changing martyrdom was his humility in the end. Our Lord says in the Gospel of Matthew, “Cometo Me all you who are burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest for yourselves for My yoke is easy and My burden light.” It is in the end a magnanimous courage grounded in humility that makes the difference in history. As Pope Benedict XVI says in his encyclical Charity and Truth,“To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction and to bear witness to it in life are therefore, exacting an indispensable forms of charity. Truth preserves and expresses charity’s power to liberate in the ever-changing events of history. 21st century Catholics and people of goodwill all around the world,may we be always instruments of that humility, truth and charity that sets the world free in moments of change and crisis. “Our Lady,Patroness of the United States, pray for us.”

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