Call Us    1-336-996-5109

Busquemos la estrella

Rev. Noah Carter • Jan 08, 2023

(Además de las Escrituras, el contenido citado a continuación se recopila de varios sermones y discursos de nuestro difunto Papa Benedicto XVI.)


El viaje que hacemos

Nuestro Evangelio de hoy dice: “Y he aquí, la estrella que habían visto en su salida los precedía, hasta que llegó y se detuvo sobre el lugar donde estaba el niño”.

Los Reyes Magos, hombres de prominencia, saber y sabiduría, comenzaron todos por emprender un viaje. “Los Reyes Magos partieron por un profundo deseo que los impulsó a dejarlo todo y emprender una aventura. Era como si siempre hubieran estado esperando esa estrella. Era como si el viaje siempre hubiera sido parte de su destino y finalmente estuviera a punto de comenzar”.

“Como los Reyes Magos, todos los creyentes, y en particular los jóvenes, han sido llamados a emprender el camino de la vida en busca de la verdad, la justicia y el amor”. “Debemos buscar esta estrella, debemos seguirla. La meta última del camino sólo puede encontrarse a través de un encuentro con Cristo, un encuentro que no puede tener lugar sin la fe”.

 

La respuesta que encontramos

Nuestro Evangelio continúa: “Al entrar en la casa, vieron al niño con María su madre, y se postraron y lo adoraron”.

Una vez que lleguemos a la cúspide de nuestro viaje, debemos detenernos y pasar tiempo con el Señor. “Para encontrar al Salvador hay que entrar en la casa, que es la Iglesia”.

Esta no es una historia lejana que tuvo lugar hace mucho tiempo. Está con nosotros ahora. Aquí en el [tabernáculo] está presente ante nosotros y en medio de nosotros. Como entonces, ahora está velado misteriosamente en un silencio sagrado; como en ese tiempo, es aquí donde se revela el verdadero rostro de Dios”.

“Los Reyes Magos de Oriente son solo los primeros de una larga procesión de hombres y mujeres que han tratado constantemente de mirar el rostro de Dios en sus vidas, yendo en busca del Dios que se ha acercado a nosotros y nos muestra el camino”.

 

El viaje interior de los Reyes Magos

“Exteriormente, el viaje de los Magos ya había terminado. Habían alcanzado su objetivo. Pero en este punto comenzó para ellos un nuevo camino, un peregrinaje interior que cambió toda su vida. Su imagen mental del rey infante que esperaban encontrar debe haber sido muy diferente.

“El nuevo Rey, a quien ahora rendían homenaje, era bastante diferente a lo que esperaban. De esta manera tuvieron que aprender que Dios no es como solemos imaginar que es”.

 

El don de la adoración

Nuestro Evangelio describe lo que hicieron después de postrarse: “Entonces abrieron sus tesoros y le ofrecieron presentes de oro, incienso y mirra”.

“Estos tres reyes y gobernantes habían venido para ponerse al servicio de este Rey, para modelar su propia realeza sobre la suya”. “Incluidos en esto estaban sus regalos: oro, incienso y mirra, regalos ofrecidos a un Rey considerado divino. Su adoración tiene un contenido y se trata de dar. A través de este acto de adoración, estos hombres de Oriente querían reconocer al niño como su Rey y poner a su disposición su propio poder y potencial, y en esto ciertamente estaban en el camino correcto”. Nosotros también debemos no sólo mirarlo, sino adorarlo y entregarnos a nosotros mismos.

 

Una lección de poder

Nuestro Evangelio también habla del malvado rey Herodes, quien dice: “Id y buscad con diligencia al niño. Cuando lo hayas encontrado, avísame, para que yo también pueda ir a rendirle homenaje."

“Los Reyes Magos sabían que para cambiar el mundo es necesario tener poder. Por lo tanto, era poco probable que buscaran al niño prometido en otro lugar que no fuera el palacio del Rey. Sin embargo, ahora se inclinaban ante el hijo de gente sencilla y común, y pronto se dieron cuenta de que Herodes, el rey al que habían consultado, tenía la intención de usar su poder para tenderle una trampa, obligando a la familia a huir al exilio. ”

“Ahora pudieron ver en el pequeño bebé que el poder de Dios no es como el de los poderosos de este mundo. Los caminos de Dios no son como los imaginamos o como desearíamos que fueran. Dios no entra en competencia con los poderes terrenales en este mundo. … Él contrasta el poder ruidoso y ostentoso de este mundo con el poder indefenso del amor, que sucumbe a la muerte en la Cruz y muere siempre de nuevo a lo largo de la historia; sin embargo, es este mismo amor el que constituye la nueva intervención divina que se opone a la injusticia y anuncia el Reino de Dios”.

 

Rumbo a casa

Nuestro Evangelio termina con esta línea: “Y advertidos en sueños que no volvieran a Herodes, se fueron a su tierra por otro camino.

“En su viaje de regreso a casa, los Reyes Magos seguramente tuvieron que lidiar con peligros, cansancio, desorientación, dudas. ¡La estrella ya no estaba allí para guiarlos! La luz estaba ahora dentro de ellos. Su tarea era custodiarla y alimentarla en la memoria constante de Cristo, de su Santo Rostro, de su Amor inefable”. Nosotros también, mis hermanos y hermanas, tenemos la luz de la presencia de Dios en medio de nosotros y también en nuestros corazones para ser guardados y alimentados. Que nunca perdamos su presencia confiando en nuestra propia fuerza y poder.


“Que Jesús, rostro del Señor misericordioso para cada persona, siga iluminando nuestro camino, como la estrella que guió a los Reyes Magos, y nos llene de su alegría”.

Pastor's Ponderings

Tiempo de Cumplimiento; Reino de Dios; Arrepentirse

By Rev. Noah Carter • 18 Feb, 2024
Nuestra triple observancia de la Cuaresma corresponde al triple mandato de Cristo de responder a la Buena Nueva.

¿Donde está Satanás hoy?

By Rev. Noah Carter • 28 Jan, 2024
Como en la sinagoga de Capernaum, ¿está Satanás entre nuestra congregación?

Notes on Fiducia Supplicans

By Rev. Noah Carter • 19 Dec, 2023
Headlines misrepresent a recent document issued by Vatican

Vatican Update on Cremains

By Rev. Noah Carter • 11 Dec, 2023
Vatican offers updated guidelines regarding the handling of cremated remains

Ove and Joan of Arc

By Rev. Noah Carter • 03 Sep, 2023
A particularly good novel that I finished earlier in the year is A Man Called Ove , by Swedish author Fredrik Backman. First released in 2012 in Swedish, it hit the market in English just a year later and was on the NYT Best Seller list for over 10 months. Ove is a 59-year-old man who is wrestling with sadness and loneliness after having lost his wife Sonja. His neighbors and the townsfolk see him as a crotchety old man with a disdain for others. He has difficulty dealing with others as he is all caught up in his fond memories of his wife and recollections of their life together. Throughout the tale, I enjoyed the author’s keen insights into the human psyche, especially how sadness and loss can cripple one’s ability to form new relationships and darken one’s view on life around them. As the story unfolds, Ove is confronted with new situations, neighbors, and experiences that allow him to come out of his isolation and find meaning in community as a sort-of new family. It is truly a heartwarming read. If I read it again, it would be during winter by a fire with a cup of tea; that now seems the best setting. Warning: the book contains material revolving around depression and suicidal ideation. I came across an interesting read in May — interesting because I found the book per chance at a book giveaway, did not have much hope for it, and ended up content upon finishing it. I am usually disappointed in modern retellings of the lives of the saints, especially when so many modern non-Catholic authors try to debunk the supernatural or discredit the Catholic Church in the way they re-tell the story. I was quite happy with Kathryn Harrison’s Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured . Born in the 15 th Century, Joan of Arc led her fellow Frenchmen into battle against England. She claims that angelic voices led her to do so. Captured during the siege of Compiègne, she was put on trial by the English ecclesiastical authorities. After a trial verdict of guilty that was posthumously overturned, she was burned at the stake at age 19 for blasphemy, heresy, and following demonic visions. Much legend surrounds her life, especially fantastical accounts of her prowess in battle. Harrison attempts (successfully, in my opinion) to entertainingly tell Joan’s story devoid of unhistorical details that lack evidence. Her sources include Scripture, historical accounts, and the trial records kept during Joan’s prosecution. While I do not agree with all of Harrison’s portrayals and conclusions, the book as a whole is a very unique look at the life of the Maiden of Orléans.

The Thanatos Syndrome

By Rev. Noah Carter • 27 Aug, 2023
In preparation for a faculty in-service at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School, I reread this summer C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce . The title pays homage to William Blake’s poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. In Lewis’ short story (less than 150 pages), we follow the narrator on a bus ride to a fantastical place along with many grumpy passengers. When they disembark, they are revealed to be ghosts. There are a number of descriptions that seek to pin down the precise meaning of Lewis’ allegory. I have always described it as souls from hell are given one day at the doors of paradise, but must confront someone they knew in life who is now in heaven. The dialogue is fast-paced and makes the reader reflect about their own actions, responses, and priority of loves in their own life, but weighed against the love they have for heaven. In terms of southern, Catholic authors, Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy are two of my favorites. Walker Percy (1916-1990) lived most of his life in Louisiana and was an Oblate of St. Benedict. He was trained as a physician but, after contracting tuberculosis, dedicated his life to philosophy and writing. This summer, I read Percy’s last novel The Thanatos Syndrome , published in 1987. It is a sequel to Love in the Ruins . It is set in the not-too-distant future in a town where residents are experiencing “off” behaviors. It follows a psychiatrist and lapsed Catholic who returns to his hometown and begins observing strange behaviors in the residents, including his wife with whom he is no longer in love. He feels compelled with the assistance of his cousin to figure out what the root cause is. One element that I enjoy in Percy’s novels is that there is always a fallen priest character that is secondary to the main plot. In The Thanatos Syndrome , the local parish priest has been replaced because he has given up the ministry and run off to live in a wildfire watch tower in a nearby National Forest. The interchanges between the psychiatrist and priest are comical, enlightening, and quite on the nose about fallen human nature. Altogether, the novel moves briskly in its plot as it introduces a number of poignant themes: the fallen hero; a world gone crazy; science’s role in the devaluing of human dignity; and the inability of society to function without a shared language and shared moral values. As a caveat, let me be clear, this is not a novel for young ones as there are some adult themes present.

East of Eden

By Rev. Noah Carter • 20 Aug, 2023
After a hiatus from my Sunday articles in the bulletin, I wanted to switch gears from catechetical topics. For the next handful of weeks, I wanted to offer some recommendations from my own reading. Each week, I’ll offer two books that I’ve enjoyed reading or rereading in the past few months. I hope you may consider taking up a book or two that might enrich your day-to-day life. In terms of something that I read to enrich my faith, I have been rereading this summer The Imitation of Christ by Thomas á Kempis. For such a small book, it seems to smack me in the face every time I read it. Thomas is no wuss. He wants his readers to take seriously the commands and example of Our Lord with such alacrity that we are ready at once to enter into heaven. With books like this, I do not recommend them for the scrupulous. We must take what is useful from them to advance in small steps in the ways of holiness, but not take the ideal they present to us as if holiness is so very far from us or impossible to reach. The Imitation of Christ is divided into four “books.” The individual meditations for each day can be read in all of three minutes, give or take. The first book seeks to stoke the flame of our interior sentiments so that we might see what prevents us from zealously pursuing holiness and begin to desire a life that is ordered to what is above. Then, he moves to true interior conversion by highlighting the obstacles to God’s love and follows with a great treatise on how to bend and conform our interior faculties to despise the world and seek heaven. Lastly, he offers a beautiful set of reflections that can be prayed and mediated upon before the Blessed Sacrament, using the Eucharist as the Christ-now-and-here-present to motivate our imitation of the Savior. This time around, I gleaned the most benefit from his last few chapters in the second book, wherein he admonishes those who do not wish to take up the Cross of Our Lord. It seemed especially fitting since we encounter in ourselves in the present day so much lukewarmness and unwillingness to boldly live our Faith. In terms of a book not directly related to theology or the Faith, I finally got around to reading John Steinbeck’s 1952 crowning novel East of Eden. Finally? Yes, because a friend from high school who teaches English literature has been begging me to read it for about 12 years. Oh my, it’s a long investment; but I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with it. The entire novel has so many allusions to Biblical stories, especially from Genesis, but that’s not what I took away from it. First of all, I love good writing. Too many popular books, especially modern popular books, have great literary elements, characters, and plots, but lack in good writing. Steinbeck’s ability to paint a scene as a backdrop to a character’s decision or response to some interaction is prophetic. Most ingenious is Steinbeck’s ability to describe human nature. Throughout the whole epic, I failed to really identify one character as immaculately good. And that is the predicament with modern authorship. Many times, modern authors want to paint the characters as good, evil, or somewhere in between. Steinbeck has an uncanny ability to elucidate the “good” characters as deeply flawed and the “bad” characters as redeemable. It reminded me that human nature never changes. Even when we are good, we need to illuminate the parts of us that need to be better. And when we find ourselves to commit sin, there is always a good part of us that can be redeemed to overcome the bad.

A Conclusion to the Precepts of the Church

By Rev. Noah Carter • 25 Mar, 2023
To summarize, the five precepts of the Church are: (1) “You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor;” the faithful are required to attend the celebration of the Eucharist every Lord's Day (Saturday vigil or Sunday Mass) and the holy days of obligation as established in the liturgical calendar, unless excused for a serious reason [i.e. illness or the care of infants] (CCC 1388-9, 2042, 2043, 2177, 2180, 2185; 2187-8; 2192-3); (2) “You shall confess your sins at least once a year” (CCC 1457; 2042); (3) “You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least once during the Easter season” (CCC 1389, 2042); (4) “You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church” (CCC 2043, 2177); and (5) “You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church, each according to his own ability” (CCC 1351, 1387, 1438, 2043). Taken altogether, the precepts of the Church give us a roadmap by which we conform ourselves to the life of the Church. They allow a wide diversity to the faithful to adapt them to their own circumstances. When properly implemented in one’s life, they prioritize the centrality of the Gospel and God’s presence in our families. It is important to note that the precepts require us to make plans judiciously. When we look at our budgets, our vacation plans, our Fridays during Lent, and our Sunday plans, we should always have a conversation about how these precepts fit in and, therefore, where God fits in to each aspect of our life. When we go on vacation, for example, we plan our travel, the place where we stay, who we will visit, and where we will eat. We can also plan out where we will attend Holy Mass. “But, Father! There wasn’t a Catholic Church where we were vacationing.” If that is true, it is a godless place that Christians shouldn’t visit. “But Father! We had family visiting during the holidays.” If that was the plan, bring them to Mass and allow them to enjoy your parish community gathered together in joyful worship of God. “But, Father! Money is tight right now with rising prices and inflation.” If money is tight for you, money is tight for the parish, too, and prices are going up as well for the resources that the church needs to operate. When we look at our weekly calendars and monthly household budgets, we can clearly delineate where our priorities lie. The precepts help us fairly balance our temporal needs with our spiritual needs, lest we get swept away by earthly goods (money, success, power, leisure, friendships). An important man once said, “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” We can, however, serve God and use mammon (generally intended to signify temporal goods) wisely in our pursuit of God’s glory and heavenly life.

Church Precept #5

By Rev. Noah Carter • 18 Mar, 2023
To provide for the needs of the Church.

Junto al pozo

By Rev. Noah Carter • 12 Mar, 2023
Reconocimiento del pecado, aceptación de quién es Jesús y darlo a conocer a otros
More Posts
Share by: