April 12, 2009

How does one live in a risen body?

Cardinal George's Schedule

  1. April 12: 11 a.m., Easter Sunday Mass, Holy Name Cathedral Auditorium
  2. April 14: noon, Presbyteral Council Executive Committee Meeting, Quigley Center; 7:30 p.m., Presentation, Servant of the Word Workshop, Valparaiso, Ind.
  3. April 15: 2 p.m., Mass, Installation of the Most Reverend Timothy Dolan as Archbishop of New York, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York
  4. April 16: 10 a.m., Rationality of Belief Conference, Loyola University, Lakeshore Campus
  5. April 17: 9 a.m., Management Meeting, Quigley Center; 7 p.m., Confirmation Liturgy, Resurrection Parish
  6. April 18: 10 a.m., Mater Dei Mass, St. Joseph College Seminary
  7. April 19: 11:45 a.m., Dedication Mass, St. James School and Formation Center, St. James Parish, Arlington Heights; 3 p.m., “Padres Plus On Parade Chicago Style,” St. Scholastica High School
  8. April 20: noon, Dedication Mass, St. James Chapel, Quigley Center; 4 p.m., Cardinal’s Convocation of Catholic Faculty, Xavier University
  9. April 21: 4 p.m., Keynote Address, 2009 Louisiana Priests' Convocation, New Orleans, La.
  10. April 23: 10 a.m., Episcopal Council Meeting, Residence; 6 p.m., Mundelein Seminary’s “An Evening of Tribute,” Sheraton Chicago
  11. April 24: 7 p.m., Catholic University of America, The American Cardinals’ Dinner, Houston, Texas
  12. April 25: 6 p.m., Casa Jesús 22nd Anniversary Awards Dinner, The Palmer House Hilton
Cardinal's Crest

Cardinal's Appointments

April 3, 2009

His Eminence, Francis Cardinal George announces the following appointments:

Incardination

Rev. Andrzej Bartosz, from extern priest from the Diocese of Poznan, Poland, incardinated into the Presbyterate of the Archdiocese of Chicago and will continue to serve as associate pastor of St. Germaine Parish, Oak Lawn, effective immediately.

Rev. Wojciech Adalberti Marat, from extern priest from the Archdiocese of Bialystok, Poland, incardinated into the Presbyterate of the Archdiocese of Chicago and will continue to serve as associate pastor of St. John Fisher Parish, South Washtenaw, and continue his duties as a judge for the Metropolitan Marriage Tribunal, effective immediately.

Rev. Mariusz Nawalaniec, from extern priest from the Diocese of Tarnow, Poland, incardinated into the Presbyterate of the Archdiocese of Chicago and will continue to serve as associate pastor of St. Albert the Great Parish, Burbank, effective immediately.

Rev. Nestor F. Saenz, from extern priest from the Archdiocese of Lima, Peru, incardinated into the Presbyterate of the Archdiocese of Chicago and will continue to serve as administrator of Our Lady of Fatima Parish, West 38th Street.

Rev. Jacek Wrona, from extern priest from the Diocese of Tarnow, Poland, incardinated into the Presbyterate of the Archdiocese of Chicago and will continue to serve as associate pastor of St. Theresa Parish, Palatine, effective immediately.

Christ is risen, Alleluia! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! This traditional Easter greeting will shape our prayer for the 50 days between Easter Sunday and the feast of Pentecost. How should it shape our thoughts? What does it mean for Christ to be risen from the dead?

Basically it means that Jesus now lives with a body that has conquered death and is incorruptible. Jesus is so completely filled with the Holy Spirit that every dimension of his human nature, including his body, is now free of all imperfections and limits. As we listen to the Gospel passages proclaimed on the Sundays after Easter, we hear of a man who can be wherever he wants to be and act in the manner he freely chooses. He is free, even of the limits of space and time that so weigh down our bodies. In the witness of those who saw him after his resurrection, we begin to understand Jesus’ claim that, “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25).

As Jesus lives now, so we are called to live forever. In the Creed each Sunday we say not only that we believe “on the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures,” but also that “we look for the resurrection of the dead.” We will all die. We will all rise in our bodies at the last judgment, but our bodies will be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:11).

With our sins forgiven, we will have passed through death to an eternity marked by a form of bodiliness infused with God’s love. In the resurrection of the dead, God’s eternal love is enough and more; it is all in all, taking up in itself every other form of love and relationship, every instance of desire and of fulfillment.

Life in the risen Christ means seeking “the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Col 3:1). Even with God’s life in us now through the gift of grace, we often seek blindly. We need reminders of what life will be like after the resurrection. The best reminder is the proclamation of the Gospel, but the church’s life has always also been marked by living witnesses to a life in which the love of God is enough and more: in the martyrs, who give their entire lives for the faith out of love, in prophets of various kinds, in consecrated men and women who live now without property, family or independence. God’s love for them has been all in all, taking up in itself every other form of love and relationship, every instance of desire and of fulfillment.

As witnesses to the fullness of God’s love in his eternal kingdom, some of the baptized are to live now as if already dead to this life. Jesus told those who followed him closely to give up everything for him (Mk 10: 29-31), to live as if God’s kingdom had fully come and we were already risen from the dead. After the resurrection from the dead, there will be neither marriage nor giving in marriage (Mk 12: 25), yet today the vow and practice of celibacy is a sign of contradiction even for many believers.

For many, life is impossible without sexual activity. An ersatz freedom in sexual activity is fostered by the habitual use of contraception backed up by abortion. The protection of sexuality in all its manifestations is then central to our common purpose and our laws; and celibacy is therefore both denied and resented. This is the only life there is, we’re told, and our bodies are to be used for our fulfillment, as we see best. To question this conviction is to place much of our life together into crisis; and the church should legitimate contemporary convictions by doing away with celibacy, especially for ordained priests.

The Latin Church takes as candidates for holy orders only those who are also called to celibacy for the sake of God’s kingdom. Celibacy is not a condition or a hurdle that one has to accept in order to be a priest; rather, the call to celibacy is to be discerned before one can ask if he has a vocation to the ordained priesthood. This is not true for the Eastern Churches, except for bishops, and there are exceptions (“married priests”) in the Latin rite as well. Nevertheless, the current discipline strengthens the church’s witness to God’s kingdom and solidifies the call to radical discipleship that precedes a call to orders. Will the obligation to celibacy for priests ever be modified? Who knows? Besides the pressures born of resentment here, some pressure for change has come from those parts of the world where a man is not a man unless he has children. But the power of the Gospel is to transform people and cultures, and celibacy is a sign of that transformation. Maybe that’s why it should be and always will be, like Jesus himself, a sign of contradiction.

When we wish someone a Happy Easter, are we inviting him or her to an eternity of celibacy? In a sense, yes, which is another proof that we should be careful what we wish for! But we find the strength to desire to love God above all and in all when we receive the risen body of Christ in the Eucharist. He promises eternal life to those who take to themselves his sacramental body now so that they can become part of his mystical body here and rise in their own bodies to join him forever. Then it will all be clear. In the meantime, whether living in the state of holy matrimony, or as single in the world, or living celibately for the sake of God’s kingdom, we are to glorify him in our bodies even now (1 Cor 6: 19-20).

Have a Happy Easter. Christ is risen, Alleluia!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Francis Cardinal George, OMI

Archbishop of Chicago