FOR THE RESTORATION
OF DOCTRINAL AND LITURGICAL DISCIPLINE
IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
LAYMEN'S REFLECTIONS,
RESOLUTIONS, AND PETITIONS TO ALL THE SHEPHERDS IN THE CHURCH
1.
DIVINE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY
OF THE CHURCH TEACHINGS
We reaffirm our resolution to be totally and wholeheartedly faithful to
all the official teachings of the Catholic Church on faith and morals
promulgated by the Popes and Ecumenical Councils in union with the Popes
and explained and practiced by the Church Fathers and other Saints
throughout the two thousand-year history of the Church.
We believe that these teachings are divine in nature by virtue of (1) the
authority that Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, bestowed on His Church
in entrusting His teachings to her for preservation and propagation and
(2) the constant workings of the Holy Spirit in the Church prompting and
guiding her members to properly and effectively carry out their missions
from the Lord.
While being open to the possibilities of deepening of our understanding of
the divine teachings over time, we reject all attempts to manipulate the
contents of the official teachings of the Church through equivocations,
dilutions, omissions, or alterations "to accommodate the changing needs
of the times" or for any other reasons. Especially, we deplore the
attempts (1) to downgrade the divine origin and authority of the Church
teachings, (2) to explain away the accounts of supernatural events in the
Holy Scripture as fables and fictions, (3) to misinterpret the sublime
teachings of the Second Vatican Council to weaken the traditional pillars
of faith in the Church and accommodate individuals' progressive and
human-centered agenda, (4) to promote the erroneous notion or impression
that the teachings of the Second Vatican Council override or invalidate
the previously-existing teachings of the Church, and (5) to introduce or
induce, in the name of modernization, numerous unnecessary
changes into the liturgical celebrations, prayers, music, architecture,
statues, paintings, and norms of dress and demeanor in the church, which
erode the respect for the divine and blur the true meaning of Our Lord's
teachings in the minds of many people.
With filial obedience and profound gratitude to God for giving us His
teachings along with His grace to enlighten our minds and also for
establishing a divine teaching authority in the Church protected by the
Holy Spirit so that we may be guaranteed the objective possibility of
professing the true faith without error (Catechism of the Catholic
Church #890), we embrace these teachings as the indispensable and
fundamental basis and paradigm for our Christian faith and life and
resolve to diligently study, practice, defend, and propagate them.
2. OUR SUPERNATURAL DESTINY
"God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer
goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed
life." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1). Thus, our destiny
is not limited to the affairs and concerns of this world but is
supernatural and eternal, as its object is none other than God Himself,
Who is the infinite truth, justice and life and the source of everything
that is good. From the moment of our conception in the mother's womb,
every one of us is called to eternal union with God as His loving child
and a loyal subject in His Kingdom.
Being humble creatures of God, we should never
boast or glorify ourselves or our works, as we are not the true source of
anything that is good. A deep realization of the utter nothingness and
poverty of ourselves should help us sense our own lowliness as well as the
infinite greatness and sanctity of God. We need not despair, however, as
God does not leave us in misery and hopelessness but calls us to a new
life in Him offering all the help that we need. We could become like a
crippled person who does not know that he can walk again with the help
from God. All we need to do is to stand up and begin walking, faithfully
following the teachings from God. We can soar to a dignity, holiness,
beauty, and happiness that far exceeds what is proper to the human nature,
when our souls (and our bodies, too, after resurrection) become
transformed by the power of God's grace, which is normally first infused
into our souls at the time of Baptism and restored through the Sacrament
of Confession when it is lost through our personal sins.
The seed of this grace in our souls can grow over
time through the concerted workings of ourselves and the Holy Spirit. In
other words, we can attain our supernatural destiny by exercising our free
will in tune with the promptings of the Holy Spirit, Who always helps us
in understanding and practicing the divine teachings available through the
Church. This way, we will be leading a life on earth in conformity with
the Will of the Father in Heaven (Matthew: 7:21)—attuning
our intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in
three areas: (1) charity; (2) chastity or sexual rectitude; and (3) love
of truth and orthodoxy of faith (Catechism of the Catholic Church
#2518).
We reject all the false teachings that mislead us
(1) to neglect our supernatural destiny and limit our attention and
efforts to the worldly matters and concerns as if they were the ends of
our lives instead of being just the means for achieving our true destiny,
(2) to deemphasize the absolute necessity of God's supernatural graces in
remitting our sins, sanctifying our souls, and thus making us true
children of God, (3) to equivocate on the evil of sins, which are our
disobedience to God and His Commandments and are the only causes of our
losing the graces, and (4) to downgrade the need for our repentance of
sins and doing penance and even to discount the supreme importance and
value of Our Lord's sufferings and death for redeeming the whole human
race from sins and eternal perdition.
We also realize that the natural wisdom and
virtues that can be acquired even before embracing the Christian Faith
through the practice of self-discipline and charitable acts are valuable
and can prepare one to be more open to the knowledge and love of God, but
by themselves are not sufficient for acquiring the divine graces for
remitting one's sins and sanctifying his soul so that he may become a true
child of God. The way of salvation earned and taught by Our Lord is not
just one among many ways of salvation made available by God so that we may
freely choose from them. The need for evangelizing the world as well as
revitalizing the relapsed, confused, or inactive Christians remains as
necessary and urgent as ever.
3. THE HOLY EUCHARIST—
THE PERPETUAL EMMANUEL
The Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity as the Savior of
the world was the greatest event in human history as it was the supreme
act of mercy and love by God toward the fallen humans. Furthermore, the
Church teaches that the mystery of God the Son's Incarnation, Passion and
Resurrection was not merely a passing event in history that becomes buried
in the past but is a perpetually living reality for all times, because
by his death Christ destroyed death and all that Christ is and all that he
did participates in the divine eternity. It transcends all times
while being made present in them all and abides and draws everything
toward life (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1085).
According to the Protestant faith, Jesus left this world after His
Resurrection to be with His Father in Heaven and will return only at the
end of time. While this doctrine is correct in a sense, it misses the
important fact that Our Lord established His Church on earth (Matthew
16:18) so that the mystery of His Incarnation, Passion, and
Resurrection might continue as a perpetual reality through this Church
and, thereby, the work of evangelizing and saving the world might also
continue until the end of time. Just before His Ascension, Jesus promised
to his disciples that He would be with them all days, even to the
consummation of the world (Matthew 28:20). It has become clear
that Our Lord did not just mean a spiritual or symbolic presence.
The Church that Our Lord established on earth is more than just an
assembly of the faithful or a house of prayer. It is a living
organization that has both the inner supernatural reality and the external
visible reality, just as Jesus Himself had the inner supernatural reality
of being God the Son and the external visible reality of being a human—these
two realities not remaining separate but intimately united in one Person.
As her inner reality, the Church has Jesus as her head and the source of
all graces for her members and the Holy Spirit as her soul and the power
that protects and guides the Church. Externally, the Church has (1) a
hierarchy of shepherds who represent Christ on earth carrying out His
command to feed His sheep (John 21: 15-19) and (2) the laity
who also carry out the mission from the Lord of sanctifying their souls
and spreading the faith under the spiritual guidance and administration of
the Sacraments by the shepherds. The Church is the Mystical Body of
Christ that is alive and active with the Spirit of God and journeys on its
way of pilgrimage and spiritual battle spreading God's truths and love,
fighting all kinds of evils and disorders, and enduring many persecutions
until she finally completes her mission and joins the Triumphant Church in
Heaven.
Through this Church, people of all ages can have full access to the Savior
just as the Jewish people two thousand years ago had. From the Church,
all peoples of the world can receive the divine teachings without worrying
about their authenticity; they can really receive the absolution of their
sins and receive many other graces for the sanctification of their lives
through the Sacraments; they can truly participate in the Lord's supreme
sacrifice on Mt. Calvary through the re-presentation of this sacrifice in
Mass; and they can actually be with the Lord not only in spirit but also
substantially by means of the Holy Eucharist. We need to give eternal
praise and gratitude to God for making these arrangements, which are
possible only with the infinite power, wisdom, and love that God alone
has.
The external appearances of bread and wine in the Blessed Sacrament cannot
be a valid excuse for not believing that the Eucharist is not bread and
wine any longer but the truly living, whole, resurrected Christ with His
body, blood, soul, and divinity. At the time of the consecration by the
priest at Mass according to the formula and command by the Lord (Matthew
26: 26-28; Mark 14: 22-26; Luke 22: 14-20; and John 6: 22-71),
bread and wine are no more except their appearances, as their substances
are converted into the living body and blood of Our Lord. He is the
omniscient, omnipotent, and infinitely truthful God Who can neither be
deceived nor deceive us. We must accept whatever He tells us based on His
divine authority. Of course, we are objectively sure of this, because the
Church teaches so with the authority entrusted to her by the Lord. Two
thousand years ago, many of the Jews refused to believe Him and crucified
Him, because, to their physical eyes, He only looked like a human being
but He was claiming to be the Son of God and One with the Father (John
10:30). They failed the test of their faith, trusting their own eyes
more than the words of Christ. In our times, we are being put to the same
kind of test. The Eucharist looks and tastes like bread and wine, but are
we going to trust our senses more than Our Lord's divine words? Likewise,
His Church may look like any other institution on earth, but are we going
to make judgment based on the external appearances only concerning an
entity that belongs to God? Our Lord repeatedly told us that faith is
necessary for our salvation (for example, Mark 16:16). St. Paul
also reminded us of this many times (for example, Galatians 3:7-14).
If Our Lord externally revealed His true glory, beauty, and dignity in the
Eucharist, there would be no room left for faith, and Our Lord could not
test if we truly believed and loved Him. The Eucharist is a mystery, a
hidden reality of God's love and saving power, just as the Church is a
mystery. The external appearances of bread and wine in the Eucharist can
be a blessed occasion for professing our faith in and love for the Lord or
a sad obstacle over which one stumbles because of his lack of faith and
love. Despite the definitive teaching of the Church on the Holy
Eucharist, there have always been many people including some clergy who
have had difficulty in believing the truth about the Eucharist, just as
some of Our Lord's disciples two thousand years ago complained and left
Him (John 6: 60-66). To aid those with such difficulties, Our Lord
has worked miracles of the Eucharistic species turning into visible flesh
and blood and also miraculous receptions of the Eucharist without the
medium of the priest to prove the supernatural origin of the Holy
Eucharist many times in Church history.
Our Lord in the Eucharist is the suffering, bleeding, crucified Christ as
well as the glorious, resurrected Christ. By receiving Him in Holy
Communion, we participate both in His Passion and in His Resurrection. In
this sacrament we can enter a most intimate union with the Lord as willing
participants in His Passion and Resurrection and loyal followers of His
teachings and Commandments. Every time we approach the Lord in Holy
Communion, we must renew and deepen our sentiments of worshipping Him and
uniting with Him and reaffirm our resolution to do His Will. He comes to
us in the humble appearances of bread and wine seeking nothing but our
love and friendship, but, at the same time, exposing Himself to the
dangers of disbelief, neglect, indifference, mistreatment, insult and
sacrilege. We need to take extreme care to minimize such dangers by
properly preparing ourselves before Communion through prayers, contrition,
and Confession if necessary, and also by thoroughly educating the
children, the catechumens, and others. We need to restore the traditional
discipline regarding how to behave in the church, during the Mass, and at
Holy Communion. We need to discourage all practices that promote or
tolerate carelessness toward the Blessed Sacrament and encourage the habit
of longer and more fervent prayers after Communion and during adoration.
For these purposes, we especially implore all the shepherds (1) to restore
the location of the tabernacle in the front center of the church; (2) to
restore kneelers in all churches, (3) to re-install the communion rail if
possible so that people may receive the Lord kneeling (receiving Communion
standing increases the risk of the distributor's finger touching the
communicant's tongue), (4) to encourage Communion on the tongue to prevent
losing little particles of the Sacred Host and to discourage careless
handlings of the Eucharist when received in the hand, (5) to use
extraordinary ministers only when their help is truly needed, (6) not to
use illicit matter in celebrating the Eucharist, and (7) not to improvise
the prayers of the Mass to the celebrant's personal liking. The Church
dogma says: "If anyone denies that the whole Christ is contained in the
venerable sacrament of the Eucharist under each species and under every
part of each species, when the separation has been made; let him be
anathema" (Council of Trent, DS #1653). It is an undeniable
fact that Eucharistic particles sometimes remain in the hand and become
lost when the communicant receives the Eucharist in the hand. Also when a
very large host is used and, after the consecration, is broken into many
pieces for the Communion of the faithful, numerous small particles are
produced and remain on the paten. It is not always true that the priest
cleans the sacred vessels according to the directives from the Holy See.
We may be stunned, if we read about the care, awe, and sorrow with which
the Saints (including St. Thérèse of Lisieux) handled small Eucharistic
particles found on the floor of the church after Mass (cf: Jesus Our
Eucharistic Love by Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, F.F.I., Franciscan Friars
of the Immaculate, 1996).
In fact, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacrament at the Holy See already issued a comprehensive instruction
regarding the correct celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, especially the
Holy Eucharist, on April 23, 2004 under the title:
Redemptionis Sacramentum. This document can be accessed on the
Vatican website:
www.vatican.va. As most of the laity and even some of the priests
seem unaware of the existence of this important document, we strongly
encourage our readers to get a copy from the above site and benefit from
reading it.
Also, as a proper intention and the
state of grace are required for receiving the Communion, the Sacrament of
Confession is a necessity before the Communion when the communicant is
aware of any serious sin. After the Second Vatican Council, confessions
on weekdays disappeared in almost all churches. Neglect of the Sacrament
of Confession weakens our Eucharistic faith and also promotes indifference
toward our personal sins. Hearing confessions and giving absolutions and
penances is the most important duty for priests after the celebration of
the Mass. We sincerely implore all the shepherds in the Church to make
the Sacrament of Confession more available every day. What a precious and
noble work it is to heal the spiritually ill with the authority and power
of Jesus!
4.
GOD HAD A REASON FOR GIVING A
MOTHER TO HIS SON AND HIS
CHURCH
There seems to be a remarkable parallelism between the events surrounding
Adam and Eve's fall and those surrounding the Incarnation of our Savior.
In the Garden of Eden, Satan, the fallen angel, first approached the woman
and tempted her to eat from the tree of forbidden fruit in violation of
God's command. Eve succumbed to the temptation and, then, made Adam
commit the same sin. In consequence, they were stripped of all their
preternatural privileges and blessings and expelled from the Garden. All
their descendants were to be born without the divine graces and privileges
and with a weakened nature.
Later in Nazareth, it was a good angel, Gabriel, who brought God's message
of hope to a young virgin called Mary, asking for her consent to become
the Mother of the Savior, which would involve accepting not only the
dignity and honor but also all the enormous responsibilities,
difficulties, and pains that would be her share as the Mother of the
suffering and dying Son. She agreed in profound humility, obedience,
self-denial, love, and courage, opening the way for God the Son's
Incarnation and Redemptive Work for all humans. Later, the grown-up Son
would accomplish the work of human redemption on a tree in the
shape of a cross.
According to Genesis 1:26, God said, "Let us make man to our
image and likeness". He used plural terms: "us" and "our",
because God is One with one divine nature but is also a community of three
distinct Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit completely
united as one in infinite love and truth. As we were created in His image
and likeness, we are necessarily individual persons as well as members of
the society. Our relationship with God is also individual and social.
Our Lord listens to our private prayers and calls us by name but also
deals with us as a society or community, which is the Church. While He
was on earth, He not only prayed and worked as an individual person but
also associated with many other people and relied on their help—His
family, relatives, friends, travelers, and more. God does not ignore
either the individual aspect of our life or its social aspect. Neither
can we.
Christ's redemptive suffering and death was sufficient to expiate all
human sins and reconcile the fallen human race with the Father in Heaven.
He is the only Savior for the whole human race. The Protestant faith
stops here and does not go any further. According to the Protestant
thinking, faith and salvation are a matter between each individual and God
only, which does not leave any room for the social aspect of the process
of our salvation, which means the cooperation between individuals. Let us
review some quotes from the Holy Scripture:
"If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23).
"I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in
him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing" (John
15:5).
"Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I am
filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his
body, which is the church" (Colossians 12:24).
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