In the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., one will see a mosaic of Christ in Majesty or “The Pantocrator.” (pictured) It is one of the largest mosaic images of Jesus Christ in the world and measures 34 feet from hand to hand. It contains more that 4,000 shades and colors. (Read more HERE)

The word “pantocrator” is a Greek word that means “ruler over all.” This is how St. Paul describes our Lord in his epistle to the Corinthians and by John writes nine times in the Book of Revelation: Jesus All Mighty and All Powerful. One of the oldest paintings of Jesus of Nazareth, depicted as a ruler and called “Christ as Pantocrator,” is dated back to the early 6th century under the reign of Emperor Justinian. He founded St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mt. Sinai in Egypt, and it was under his reign that this type of iconography was first created.

There is another famous mosaic of the Pantocrator in the Hagia Sophia, which was once a church, built by Justinian in 537. It became a mosque after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, then a museum, and in 2018, reverted back to a mosque.

The Pantocrator is the vivid image of what St. Cyril of Alexandria describes: “Christ has dominion over all creatures. The Word of God, as consubstantial with the Father, has all things in common with Him and therefore has necessary supremacy and absolute dominion over all things created. From this, it follows that to Christ, angels and men are subject.”

We end and we start our liturgical calendar with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. In 1925, Pope Pius XI wrote the encyclical “Quas Primas” (in the first) that instituted the Solemnity of Christ the King. We may recall that, at this time, the world was still recovering from the devastation caused by the First World War. Also, it was only a few years after the bloody Bolshevik Revolution of Russia, which gave birth to atheistic communism. Everywhere the Pope looked, he saw human societies abandoning Christian values as they tried to build a world independent from God and based solely on human powers and resources. With this dark backdrop in mind, he instituted this feast to remind the world that Jesus is the true King, and He is the only hope for the salvation of the world.

Pope Pius XI wrote: "When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony... That these blessings may be abundant and lasting in Christian society, it is necessary that the kingship of our Savior should be as widely as possible recognized and understood, and to that end nothing would serve better than the institution of a special feast in honor of the Kingship of Christ." (Quas primas, #19, 21)

This feast is all the more necessary in our time. The world has grown from bad to worse. It is said that when you reject someone, at least you still consider him as an existent being. But when you ignore him, it simply means he does not exist. This is what is happening in the world nowadays.

People do not reject God; they simply ignore Him. They have the time to have fun, watch television and indulge in all sorts of worldly activities and vices, but they do not have a minute to spare for God. In today’s world, it is our indifference that is hurting Jesus the most.

When someone asks, “To which parish do you belong?” you immediately think of the Church where you attend Mass and other liturgical celebrations year-round. In this case, you’d say, “I belong to the Parish of the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Our Lady.” The key word in your answer is “belong.” What does it really mean for us when we say “we belong” to the parish? Or, sometimes, I get a call from someone requesting a sponsor certificate for the baptism of a family member or confirmation of a niece or nephew. We encourage them to register with the parish if they are not already a member.

But why do we need to “belong” to a parish? How does it affect our spiritual life and our ultimate goal to enter the Kingdom of God?

Our catechism says, “a parish is a definite community of the Christian faithful established on a stable basis within a particular church; the pastoral care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor as its own shepherd under the authority of the diocesan Bishop. It is the place where all faithful can be gathered together for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. The parish initiates the Christian into the ordinary expression of the liturgical life; it gathers them together in this celebration; it teaches Christ’s saving doctrine; it practices the charity of the Lord in good works and brotherly love. You cannot pray at home as at church; where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests.” (CCC, 2179)

Therefore, the parish is not just a mere organization in which one becomes a member. It is the Body of Christ — the community of believers singing and praising in one mind and heart, celebrating Heaven on Earth in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Etymologically, the word parish is derived from the Latin “parochial” which has its root in the New Testament Greek, “paroikia.” The New Testament “paroikia” refers to a temporary place or living in a foreign land. The term is derived from the word “paroikos,” which means “stranger.”

Whenever we think and speak of “belonging to a parish,” I hope this etymology reminds us of who we are, here on Earth. We are strangers. We are pilgrims. We are living in a foreign and temporary land; let us be reminded that our true home is HEAVEN.

Rev. Bevacqua says in one of his writings, “Our culture has become increasingly secularized resulting in a certain forgetfulness or lack of total awareness of this crucial fact. Our life is not so much about here and now, but the future, for eternity. When we recognize that fact, it can make a difference in how we live our short lives on Earth.”

Here, I present the lead story from the August 4 edition of National Catholic Register, “If you think you’re a priest, and you really aren’t, you have a problem.” This story refers to the interesting case of Fr. Matthew Hood from the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Father Hood was ordained a priest in 2017 and has been doing his priestly ministry until this summer when he learned that he was not even a baptized Catholic. The article says, “If you want to become a priest, you must first become a deacon. If you want to become a deacon, you must first be baptized. If you’re not baptized, you can’t become a deacon, and you can’t become a priest. Of course, Fr. Hood thought he had been baptized as a baby. But this month, he read a recently issued notice from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The note said that changing the words of baptism in certain ways makes it invalid. That if the person doing the baptizing says, ‘We baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,’ instead of ‘I baptize you...,’ the baptism is not valid. He remembered a video he’d watched of his own baptism ceremony and remembered what the deacon said: ‘We baptize you…’ "

"His baptism wasn’t valid. Father Hood called his archdiocese. He needed to be ordained. But first, after three years of acting like a priest, living like a priest, and feeling like a priest, he needed to become a Catholic. He needed to be baptized."

"Matthew Hood was baptized, confirmed and received the Eucharist. He made a retreat. He was ordained a Deacon and on August 17, 2020, Matthew Hood finally became a priest, this time, it’s for REAL!”

In the case of Fr. Hood, one might be tempted to ask, “Isn't it legalistic to say that, even though there was an intention to confer a sacrament, there was no sacrament because different words were used? Won’t God just take care of it?”

The response of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, published August 6, 2020, says, “deliberate modification of the sacramental formula was apparently introduced to emphasize the communitarian significance of Baptism, in order to express the participation of the family and of those present, and to avoid the idea of the concentration of a sacred power in the priest to the detriment of the parents and the community that the formula in the Roman Ritual might seem to imply.” However, the Congregation notes, according to Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium, “when one baptizes, it is really Christ Himself who baptizes... When the minister says “I baptize you…,” he does not speak as a functionary who carries out a role entrusted to him, but he enacts ministerially this sign-presence of Christ, who acts in His Body to give His grace.”

This event helps us understand why priests do not memorize the words at Mass, even though we use the same book and almost the same words at every Mass. They are not our words, they are the words of Christ that we read; thus, it is the power of the Word of God and not the words of the priest.

During this pandemic, many of us have been confronted with fear and anxiety. Most of us turned to God, who ultimately gives us consolation and reassurance in the gospel when He said, “Do not be afraid.” And so, let us take a look at our spiritual life in general, and check our country’s spiritual health based on the recent Catholic survey conducted by RealClear Opinion Research and sponsored by the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).

This recent research shows more severe findings when compared to the previous year’s survey, particularly the degree of acceptance of the Church’s teachings. According to RealClear, 18% of Catholics indicate that they accept all of the Church’s teachings and the teachings are reflected in how they live their life. Another 38% report they accept most teachings and try to live their life accordingly; 29% do not accept some of the key teachings; 13% say that Catholicism has only a minor influence on their lives; and 2% consider themselves former Catholics.

The research shows surprisingly high numbers found on the questions of whether Catholics believe in Hell and the Devil. The results show that 81% of Catholics believe in Hell and 78% believe in the Devil with 79% of those who believe in the Devil saying that the Devil is not merely a personification or a symbol of evil, but is a fallen angel. Our Catechism teaches us this: “The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity.... The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.” (CCC 1035)

One of the contradictory surprises of the recent survey shows that an overwhelming majority of 72% of Catholics believe that certain acts are intrinsically evil (meaning that they are always immoral at all times regardless of intention or circumstances). However, a majority of Catholics still dissent, knowingly or unknowingly from the Church’s teachings in several important areas: less than half of all Catholics say that abortion (47%), euthanasia (45%) and physician-assisted suicide (41%) are intrinsically evil.

In last year’s EWTN/RealClear poll, one of the most shocking findings was that only 49% of Catholics believe in the Real Presence of the Eucharist, even among the 56% who accept all or most of the Church teachings. “Real Presence” refers to our belief that the host becomes the Most Precious Body of Christ, and His humanity and divinity are really present in Holy Communion (this is called Transubstantiation). These results revealed that even among the most dedicated Catholics, there is still a gap in living the faith.

This is also apparent in this year’s poll findings on the issue of abortion. In the poll, 51% of all Catholics believe abortion should be legal; 44% saying it should be illegal. Among “active” Catholics, only 56% say it should be illegal while 23% say that abortion should always be illegal, and 27% say abortion should always be legal.

This is the faith situation in our country. Where do you think you belong in the survey?

May we find our way back to the Lord and His teaching and voice in the Church.

If there is one figure in the history of the world that is mostly associated with poverty, it would be the frail, wizened nun from Calcutta. One of St. Teresa’s greatest quotes is, “There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” Poverty is evil, especially in the face of material excess, and yet the idea of poverty is a central theme in attaining eternal life.

One of the great paradoxes of Christianity is embracing poverty. Critics of this Christian virtue think of our embrace of it as anomalous or contradictory. Countless people are born into it and want to escape from it, yet a select few choose -- by their own will -- to embrace poverty, in spirit and in fact.

The Christian embrace of poverty, together with chastity and obedience, stems from the model of Jesus Christ’s life on earth: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Matthew 19:21)

There are two approaches to the Christian embrace of poverty. The first approach is from the idea of perfection. The second approach is from the resurrection of the body and everlasting life.

Let us start with the first approach. When we think of perfection or execute something to perfection, we are not just fulfilling some task out of necessity; we are not merely doing something for the sake of obligation. To perfect something means that one has gone the extra mile, say, by exceeding expectations or the bare minimum required.

It is in this sense that Catholic tradition makes a distinction between the precepts of the Gospels and the Counsels. The precepts of the Gospels are those necessary to attain eternal life, such as living the 10 Commandments. The embrace of poverty falls into the second distinction (the Counsels) and is called a “supererogatory act.” This means that a life of poverty is not a universal call meant for all Christians but a vocation for those who are called to a more specific way of life.

Supererogatory acts are acts that point to a reality greater than the person. The embrace of poverty is not done out of a desire to be hungry or wanting, or even out of a hatred of comfort or luxury. It is a very specific form of witness to the Kingdom that Christ promised is to come. It is in this sense that the Evangelical Counsels are a prefiguring of the life to come: that the Kingdom of Heaven is both an event in the fullness of time and an event that can be achieved in “the here and now.”

This is where consecrated life derives its meaning and its fullness. A life consecrated to the counsels of poverty, obedience and chastity means that a person, by his or her own will, has taken upon him/herself to do his/her utmost in following the life of Christ.

Today, we are celebrating the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord. While you are reading this, I am 6,000 miles away. This day, you are all in my prayers as I go down to the waters of the River Jordan to renew my baptismal promises at the spot traditionally believed to be the place of the Lord’s baptism.

While there is no precise location of the baptism, tradition tells us that it is closer to the southernmost part of the 156-mile river. This river starts from the foot of Mount Hermon, near the borders of Syria and Lebanon at Ceasarea Philippi, and feeds the waters of the Sea of Galilee, all the way to the Dead Sea. The first photo (top) was taken from the foot of Mount Hermon, approximately 57 miles north of Capernaum.

The second photo (bottom) was taken at the southern portion of the river. This baptismal site of our Lord is approximately four miles north of the Dead Sea, the Earth’s lowest elevation on land. The photo shows one of the pilgrims being blessed with the water of the River Jordan after renewing her baptismal promises.

This Feast of the Baptism of the Lord leads us to consider our own baptism. To most Catholics, baptism is just one religious ceremony. But the fact is that it effects a fundamental change in our whole being. From being just the sons or daughters of our parents, in baptism we become sons and daughters of God. As God’s children, we are expected to exhibit the characteristics of God. In fact, Jesus revealed to us the benchmark of our life: “So be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). We are supposed to be holy and to live and act with Christian dignity. Our whole being should be infused with Christian spirit and values. We should think, behave, move and live as citizens of heaven. As St. Paul puts it, we are in this world but not of this world. So, we must conform ourselves not with the standards of this world but with the standard of God.

In the Gospel, we see Jesus going down the waters of the Jordan to be baptized by John. He did not need to undergo this baptism of repentance for He is sinless and holy. Yet He did this for our sake. St. Gregory of Nazianzen tells us why: “He comes to bury sinful humanity in the waters. He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake.” Jesus made holy the waters of the earth so that we can use it in our baptism to cleanse and sanctify us. Let the feast this Sunday remind us of the sublime dignity we received in baptism as God’s children. And let us strive to live according to this dignity so that we may eventually hear the words of the Heavenly Father, “You are my beloved children; with you I am well pleased.”