EASTER PREACHING SERIES 2022

During the Sundays of Easter, we will reflect on the transforming power of the Sacraments. Jesus risen from the dead wants to transform us in many ways. We usually speak of seven ways that communicate and reveal the presence of Christ:

  1. Holy Scriptures: Christ speaks through His inspired Word.

  2. Christian community: Christ is present where “two or more are gathered in his name.”

  3. Indwelling of the Holy Spirit: Through the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit our hearts become the home for the presence of God.

  4. Creation: God speaks and is present to us through the beauty and majesty of His created world. 

  5. Providence: God also reaches us through the events that happen to us. Everything works for the good of those who love Him. 

  6. The Very Poor: Christ is also present and comes to us through encounters with the very poor. He says that what we do to the least of our brothers we do it to Him. 

  7. Sacraments: the seven sacraments of the Church communicate the life of Jesus to us; through them we receive New Life in Christ. 

During this Easter, we are going to focus on the FRUITS OF NEW LIFE that some of the sacraments communicate to us.

HOMILY SCHEDULE

April 24th- Confession and spiritual resurrection

“Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”(John 20:19-31)

May 1st- Eucharist as source of charity and faith

“So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’” (John 21:1-14)

May 8th- Holy Orders as a mediation of the voice of Christ

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27-30)

May 15th- Baptism as source of indwelling

“Remain in me, as I remain in you.” (John 15:1-8)

May 22nd- Marriage and the New Jerusalem

It showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It gleamed with the splendor of God.(John 14:23-29)

May 29th- Confirmation: Living in the Power of the Resurrection

You are clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:49)

ABOUT THE SACRAMENTS

“The [seven] sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.” CCC 1131

They are “visible rites”: The sacraments have a visible element that communicates invisible realities. Through words and material elements the grace of God reaches us.

They communicate the life of Christ to us: The resurrected Jesus is ever-living and life giving and we connect with his life through the sacraments: “Sacraments are ‘powers that comes forth’ from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving.” CCC 1116

If we receive them properly, they transform us, configuring us more with the person of Christ: “Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify. They are efficacious because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies. The Father always hears the prayer of his Son's Church which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit. As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.” CCC 1127

Sacraments do three essential things: They renew our identity as beloved sons and daughters, heal our brokenness, and renew us in our mission (HIM: Healing, Identity, Mission). “Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism, Confirmation (or Chrismation), the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony. The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to the Christian’s life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life.” CCC 1210

Our preparation and faith increase the fruitfulness of the sacraments.

FRUITS OF THE SACRAMENTS

Baptism: By which we are born into the new life in Christ

  • Remission of Original Sin.

  • Birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father, a member of Christ, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.

  • Incorporation into the Church, the Body of Christ, and participation in the priesthood of Christ.

  • The imprinting, on the soul, of an indelible spiritual sign, the character, which consecrates the baptized person for Christian worship. Because of this character, Baptism cannot be repeated.

Confirmation: By which we are more perfectly bound to the Church and enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit

  • An increase and deepening of baptismal grace.
  • A deepening of one’s roots in the divine filiation, which makes one cry, “Abba, Father!”
  • A firming of one’s unity with Christ.
  • An increase of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
  • A strengthening of one’s bond with the Church and closer association with her mission.
  • A special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the Faith by word and action as a true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and to never be ashamed of the Cross.
  • The imprinting, as in Baptism, of a spiritual mark or indelible character on the Christian’s soul. Because of this character, one can receive this Sacrament only once in one’s life.

Holy Eucharist: By which Christ associates his Church and all her members with the sacrifice of the cross

  • An increase in the communicant’s union with Christ.
  • Forgiveness of venial sins.
  • Preservation from grave sins.
  • A strengthening of the bonds of charity between the communicant and Christ.
  • A strengthening of the unity of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.

Reconciliation or Penance: Reconciliation or Penance: By which sins after Baptism are forgiven

  • Reconciliation with God: the penitent recovers sanctifying grace.
  • Reconciliation with the Church.
  • Remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins.
  • Remission, at least in part, of temporal punishments resulting from sin.
  • Peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation.

Anointing of the Sick: By which a special grace is conferred during grave illness or old age

  • Unity with the Passion of Christ, for the sick person’s own good and that of the whole Church.
  • Strength, peace, and courage to endure as a Christian the sufferings of illness or old age.
  • Forgiveness of sins, if the sick person was not able to obtain it through the Sacrament of Penance.
  • Restoration of health, if it is conducive to the salvation of the soul.
  • Preparation for entering eternal life.

Holy Orders: By which the task of serving in the name and in the Person of Christ is conferred

  • The mission and faculty (“the sacred power”) to act in persona Christi.
  • Configuration to Christ as Priest, Teacher, and Pastor.
  • The imprinting, as in Baptism, of an indelible character that cannot be repeated or conferred temporarily.

Matrimony: By which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love

  • The grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church.
  • A perfecting of their human love.
  • A strengthening of their indissoluble unity.
  • Sanctification on their way to Heaven.
  • The grace to “help one another to attain holiness in their married life and in welcoming and educating their children.”
  • An integration into God’s covenant with man: Authentic married love is caught up into divine love.