This is the time of year when we welcome and marvel at the return of foliage – leaves on the trees, flowers budding and blooming. These are reminders of God’s love for us and his desire to continually renew his creation.
What many of us don’t welcome is the pollen. Even though my doctors tell me that I don’t have allergies, I’m more likely to be sneezing and stuffed up this time of year than at any other time.
When we’re saturated with something outside, it tends to overwhelm us. There are ways of building our immunity and our ability to tolerate those things. You might be able to build resistance, so you don’t suffer from allergies later in life as an adult.
We are also in the season of sacraments. During the Easter Vigil, we welcomed hundreds of people into the Church through baptism. Having been prepared by parish catechists, hundreds of children received the sacrament of reconciliation for the first time, and they made their first Communion.
On Saturday, June 7, I will ordain three priests for our diocese. The following day, Pentecost Sunday, as we pray that the Holy Spirit will come upon us and renew the face of the earth (Ps 104), I will conclude more than three months of having conferred the sacrament of confirmation on young adults in our parishes. Add to that the number of couples receiving the sacrament of matrimony this time of year and it truly is the season of sacraments.
In encountering the Paschal Mystery through the sacraments and self-sacrifice, we are building our immunity to worldly temptations and negative influences which saturate the world around us and are the consequence of sinfulness, injury and human frailty.
The sacrament of reconciliation is medicinal. It is where and how our sins are forgiven. In our weakness, woundedness and human failings we receive the healing that is at the core of this sacrament.
For any number of reasons, we might be reluctant to seek that absolution. At different points in our lives, we can be like the paralyzed man who needed the healing that Jesus could provide, but who was unable to act on his own (Mk 2:3-5).
His friends interceded, brought him to Jesus and lowered him through the roof. We receive similar help when people pray for us to accept the invitation of the Church to experience spiritual healing through reconciliation with God.
While Penance is medicinal, the Eucharist is food. Our closeness to Christ – our reception of his body and blood in the Eucharist – is spiritual food. Like the food we consume daily, our faith, rooted in the Eucharist, is nourishing.
Jesus, “the Bread of Life,” his Word and Eucharistic presence, provide the sustenance we need to deal with how the world and culture constantly challenge us. Messages and practices rooted in secularism and modernism are detrimental to our spiritual health. The mantra that we are the sole determiners of our destiny, and that by our wills we rank supreme, is faulty and damaging to our relationships – with God and each other.
Our adherence to God’s will and to the teaching of the Church is fundamental to who we are. God made us a certain way so that we would be fulfilled, allowing us to cooperate with him through the teaching that he provides.
If we think our own end is self-determined, we will easily fall into areas where there will be distortions in what should be important to us. That’s when we can fall into any or all of the Seven Deadly Sins – pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth – because we make the self-will preeminent rather than focusing on God’s will for us.
The Eucharist is nourishment. This closeness to Christ nourishes us and serves as a remedy to the secular and cultural tests that we encounter.
In addition to the sacraments, our faith offers nourishment and medicine. Our Catholic traditions, beliefs and the examples of those who have lived faithfully throughout our history also sustain us. When we embrace these, our lives are fuller and spiritually richer. In short, we are healthier because of them.
Unlike pollen, the sacraments – especially the Eucharist and reconciliation – never go out of season. They are always available – there to nourish, heal and build up our immunity to all forms of spiritual weakness. Partake in them often and enjoy the health they provide.
May you have a blessed, restful and enjoyable summer – and remember to remain close to Christ in the sacraments!