Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
March 30, 2014
Spiritual Ponderings
Spiritual Randomness

I once had the opportunity through a grant to the Archdiocese of St. Louis to meet with an executive business coach on a couple of occasions. There were many important lessons about management that I learned from my coach but probably the most important thing he taught me was the importance of expectations. It was his belief and mine now that most of the problems in parish life as well as in business come from a lack of clear expectations. The topic for today?s Spiritual Ponderings is the 5 precepts of the Catholic Church or you might say the 5 expectations of the Catholic Church of its members.

1. You shall attend Mass on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation and rest from servile labor.
I don't think that I could explain this one better than Archbishop Fulton Sheen in his book Calvary and the Mass: "If then Death was the supreme moment for which Christ lived, it was therefore the one thing He wished to have remembered. He did not ask that men should write down His Words into a Scripture; He did not ask that His kindness to the poor should be recorded in history; but He did ask that men remember his Death. And in order that its memory might not be any haphazard narrative on the part of men, He himself instituted the precise way it should be recalled."

2. You shall confess your (serious) sins at least once a year.
I feel that there are three good reasons for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The first is that we learn through our senses so by hearing the words of the priest speak the prayer of absolution we can know that God forgives our sins. The second is that our sins do not only hurt us but they hurt God and others and so therefore we need to apologize to the representative that God and the Church has set up for this reason. The third reason is that the devil likes to work in secret and the best way to defeat the devil and temptation is to bring it to the light. It is kind of like the wisdom of Alcoholics Anonymous "the first step is to admit that you have a problem."

3. You shall receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter Season.
This precept guarantees as a minimum reception of the Eucharist during the Paschal Feasts (Ash Wednesday through the feast of the Holy Trinity because it is the center and origin of the Christian liturgical life. We should not be looking for a minimum though and rather we should ask ourselves how do we return God?s love for us.

4. You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church
As a coach asks an athlete under his or her tutelage to give up certain things and to perform certain tasks in order to improve one's skills so the Church asks us to perform certain spiritual exercises so that we can come to a self-mastery and control over ourselves. Here are seven reasons why Catholics fast:
1) From the beginning, God commanded some fasting, and sin entered into the world because Adam and Eve broke the fast.
2) For the Christian, fasting is ultimately about fasting from sin.
3) Fasting reveals our dependence on God and not the resources of this world.
4) Fasting is an ancient way of preparing for the Eucharist the truest of foods.
5) Fasting is preparation for baptism (and all the sacraments) for the reception of grace.
6) Fasting is a means of saving resources to give to the poor.
7) Fasting is a means of self-discipline, chastity, and the restraining of the appetites.

5. You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church
The last precept of the Church means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability. We Catholics like to use the word "steward" because we consider everything we have as a gift from God and we believe that God wants us to use these gifts to bring about His kingdom. Archbishop Carlson's stewardship prayer might summarize this precept: "Lord, what do You want me to do with all the gifts you have given me: including my time, my talents and my material things? Lord, how would You like me to become more fully involved in the life of Your Church? Lord, how would you like me to payback all the gifts You have given me? Lord, what do You want me to do with all the gifts You have given me?"