To non-Catholics, what goes on at Catholic Mass (the Sacrament of the Eucharist, Holy Communion) must seem a bit of a mystery.

Catholics believe that at Mass they receive on their tongue the Body and Precious Blood of Christ — yes, literally, the Presence of Christ himself.

The reality of one’s Catholic-ness must also remain after the Mass in changed lives — lives full of love for God and for our brothers and sisters whom we meet every day.

* * *

Today is the Second Sunday after Pentecost.

It falls a few days after the feast of Corpus Christi (last Thursday) which honours the Body of Christ in the Eucharist . . . .

and a few days before the feast of the Sacred Heart (next Friday) which honours the divine and human love of Christ shown in his redemptive suffering and death on the Cross.

* * *

At Mass today, the priest reads words from the First Epistle of Saint John:

Do not be amazed, brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. He who does not love, remains in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.

The proof of the love of God is that Our Lord laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

Anyone who has sufficient worldly goods and sees his brother in need, and refuses him compassion: how can the love of God remain in him? My little children, let us not love merely in words or in talk, but in deeds and in truth.

* * *

That’s today’s take-home message — religious people are always in danger of being quick to talk love but slower to help out in real life.

Likewise, of course, non-religious people — perhaps even more so.

God, in Christ, has shown us an example of infinite and supernatural love . . . .

He offers us supernatural help through his sacraments, especially the Mass, to practise the love that we preach, willingly and generously.

Last Friday, British Catholic bishop, Richard Williamson, was fined 10,000 euros by a German court for “holocaust denial”.

He had been fined 12,000 euros earlier this year over the same charge, but he refused to pay — hence the new trial.

The court convicted him because he said in a television interview broadcast in January 2009, that “200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them in gas chambers”.

* * *

Background:

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, superior of the Society of Saint Pius the Tenth (SSPX), consecrated Bishop Williamson and three others as bishops in 1988 without the blessing of Pope John Paul II, who then proceeded to excommunicate all five of those involved.

The validity of this excommunication was always contested, and was reversed by Pope Benedict in January 2009.

Pope Benedict then announced that there would be formal discussions between the Vatican and the SSPX over their differences, especially concerning the “reforms” of the Second Vatican Council  of 1962-65.

These discussions are now taking place, providing the SSPX with an opportunity to explain the doctrinal reasons it believes to be the basis of the Church’s present difficulties.

* * *

It seems that modernist elements in the Church are seeking to discredit Pope Benedict by drawing attention to unfashionable views of Bishop Williamson, whom he reinstated.

For them, Germany’s bizarre laws prohibiting free expression of opinion regarding certain historical events must seem a “godsend”.

The laws could equally logically be considered a “Satan-send” — depending on who is right about the Second Vatican Council.

The problems with that Council include its teaching that the Catholic Church is not the one and only true Church established by Christ – as the Church had taught for the previous 19 centuries.

The Council also spawned the new Mass liturgy which downplays the supernatural aspects of the Faith, including the Real Presence of Christ and his sacrifice in the Eucharist – as the Church had taught for the previous 19 centuries.

* * *

The Council’s supporters in the Vatican currently have the numbers — but it could be argued that it is the SSPX which has the Faith.

Pope Benedict certainly isn’t one of their most fanatical enemies.

A lot of smart business types are turning, these days, to the self-help industry as a source of easy money.

They say there’s a mug born a minute.

Certainly there’s no shortage of suckers willing to hand over their dollars if you promise them radiant wellness, fame, wealth and never-ending up-beat thoughts.

In the USA, the self-help industry is said to rake in about $19 billion per year.

The punters seem not to notice that to have a “self-help coach” is a contradiction in terms. If you can help yourself you don’t need a coach. If you need a coach, you’re incapable of helping yourself. Ho hum.

* * *

A particularly disgusting example is so-called “alternative medicine”.

While emptying sick people’s pockets, these sweetie-pies tell them to stay away from orthodox medical help and to invest in herbs, dietary fads, manipulations or whatever.

By the time they notice they are being led up the garden path, the patient’s cancer or whatever has become untreatable.

Even some so-called orthodox medicine borders on quackery.

Our anti-depression pills, counselling etc. are basically tinsel, denial, delaying tactics and a refusal to confront the real cause of our misery.

The modern secular world’s attitudes to suffering and to what constitutes happiness is so wrong . . . .

Everybody is going to suffer. Yet we don’t teach children how to suffer — or that suffering has meaning and purpose.

* * *

Before psychologists were invented, people went to Confession — acknowledging their sins to God through his representative, the priest – from whom they received forgiveness in God’s name, plus a penance (punishment) to carry out. 

At the end of which, the sins were finished with.  God had forgotten about them.  The sinner was free to forget about them too. 

Something real had happened.  The world was different place.

Doubtless some relief can result from conventional psychological methods.  But there’s nothing definitive about it.

Once a cancer is cured you can throw away the Band-aid.

Marriage provides a more stable family environment for growing children than does living with unmarried parents.

Ten times more stable.

This is confirmed by research, based on almost 30,000 family cases, published last Monday.  

The survey found that in 1992, 70 percent of married couples who had children stayed together until their child’s 16th birthday. By 2006, this had increased to 75 percent.

Only 36 percent of couples who were unmarried when their child was born stayed together until their offspring reached 16 in 1992. By 2006, it was down to 7 per cent. (Family Law Week, ‎22 February 2010‎)

 Dr John Hayward, director of the Jubilee Centre, which commissioned the study, commented that the evidence suggests that families headed by traditionally-married, biological parents provide the best environment for both themselves and their children.

 Didn’t everybody know that already? It seems funny that we need “research” to prove it.

***

Meanwhile, a “same-sex marriage” bill was defeated in the Australian Senate on 25 February 2010, by a vote of 45 to 5.

Those voting for it were all Greens Party members — a party ever so keen to provide the best environment for trees, whales, lizards and so forth, actively trying to promote what is , arguably, the worst possible environment for young humans.

How about that?

* * *

It is important to remember is that Marriage is, first and foremost, a Sacrament of God’s Church.

Marriage was invented by God — the God who created us.

Marriage is not just an option or a photo-opportunity.

Marriage is an obligation that God demands of those who would have children. It is a sin, punishable as God sees fit, to do otherwise.

* * *

Catholic Marriage, like all the Catholic Sacraments, is a means by which God offers us grace.

God’s grace is a practical thing.

The sacramental grace conferred by Christian Marriage offers married couples extra power, unavailable by any other means, for dealing with life’s day-to-day problems.

Couples who are not married must struggle on without this grace and power, in a state of spiritual poverty and impotence of willpower.

I was reading about how Mother Mary MacKillop tried to help children find God in their lives – not only through school-teaching, but also in out-of school activities.

In the 1860s, she started a group for young people in Adelaide which she called “The Guild of the Holy Eucharist”.

Its rules included that the young people must “dress with simplicity, modesty and neatness. They must be known to be obedient at home and at school. They must not be out after dark unless with someone approved by parents or the Sisters. They must hear Mass every day, and suffer any inconvenience rather than miss it.”

* * *

Every day?

Wasn’t that a bit much to ask of young people?

Yet hasn’t God has always demanded of human beings that they give him generously of their time?

The Ten Commandments include the command to keep one day a week “holy”.

In today’s “busy” materialistic, individualistic, self-indulgent world we have plenty of spare time. Ordinary Australians spend up to 20 hours per week looking at television.

We must have time, literally, to kill.

* * *

Most people do, in fact, treat Sunday as in some way a different day.

You could say that everybody worships on Sunday.

*  you play sport on Sunday?  You’re a sport-worshipper.

*  you drink beer on Sunday?  You’re a beer-worshipper.

*  you spend  Sunday with family without devoting time exclusively to God?  You’re a family-worshipper.

Which is not good. 

Jesus said, “He who loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me.  He that loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me.”

* * *

You attend church on Sunday?  You MAY be a worshipper of God — only God knows your motives.

On Sundays, try put God first.  Go to Mass — at least every Sunday. Make it an unbreakable rule.

Just when you thought television couldn’t get any more stupid or perverse, along comes news of  the 2010 version of “Celebrity Big Brother” in the UK, starting next Sunday.

Its theme is  “Hell”. Executive Producer, Shirley Jones, says the notion of Hell “inspired much of what we have done to the house, particularly the entrance which is dark and cavernous with flaming walls”.

She also said, “Hell is other people, and everyone has a different idea of hell . . .”

* * *

What the series will NOT be about is whether Hell exists – not just as an idea, but something real, eternal, with burning, screaming, hatred, remorse, pain and despair.

 And whether there is some way of escaping it.

* * *

There is no doubt that Christians are obliged to believe in Hell.

Jesus himself taught, “Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell.”

Our Lord also taught how he intends people to avoid Hell.

In Saint John’s gospel, he told the apostles at the Last Supper, “Receive the Holy Ghost. Whoever’s sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

This is Jesus giving his first Catholic priests, the 12 apostles, the role of forgiving sinners who repent and make their confession to their priest.

* * *

What if Hell did not exist?

If Hell did not exist, we would not exist as real people.

Life would be meaningless. What we chose to do in this life would have no meaning — no effect on anything, including our eventual future fate.

We would be mere robots.