Signs, signs, everywhere the signs

Signs are good. They point us to our destination. In Christian typology, signs point us toward the greater good. So why, to continue robbing from the Tesla song, would I find they are "clogging up the scenery, cluttering up my mind"?

Well it is simple really, signs point to a greater good. They are not the good, they just help us find it. So if the sign holders get disordered, they can actually cloud the view of the destination. Imagine so many signs along the roadway that you miss the exit. Okay, enough analogies, how does this apply to us.

The ultimate good in the eyes of a Christian is Christ. Being connected with Him, having a relationship, knowing and loving Him. For Catholics, the ultimate connection with Jesus is receiving Him; Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist. All Sacraments point towards this ultimate Sacrament. The priesthood was given so Jesus could continue offering Himself to us at every Mass. Confession washes in the blood of the Lamb and reminds us that we are indeed forgiven, reorders our lives to better receive Him in the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is the ultimate good, the most Awesome connection we have to Jesus on this earth. Many signs point to this. Marriage is a prominent sign or type of the Eucharist. Type being something that prefigures or points to the Anti-Type. Adam, Moses and Elijah were all types of Jesus, Jesus being the Anti-Type. Eve was an type of Mary. The union of marriage points to heaven, our ultimate union with God. Without going to heavily into Pope John Paul's Theology of the Body, our earthly marriages should point to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

A quote I am going to work in here by Fr. Euteneuer of HLI, "The marriage bed is the altar of the domestic church." God intended our marriages to bring life to others, to bring love to the world. A good marriage requires sacrifice. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Ephesians 5:25. That is the basis for the e5 Men.

So marriage is a sign pointing to the Eucharist, to Christ's love for all humanity. Where does the clutter enter? Many of us have a passion for liturgy, we do our best to right the wrong and pray when we can't. But abuses can happen from any angle. It is an abuse when the Rainbow Sash people try to make Pentecost about themselves. It is also an abuse when the Marriage Encounter people twist the sign to point to themselves.

Perhaps you are not familiar with the practice of the husband and wife receiving Communion together. It seems to be gaining ground in our parish and it needs to stop. The husband and wife walk side by side to receive the Eucharist and wait for each other. Then when receiving the Blood of Christ, the wife takes the Cup first, and then hands it to her husband as a sign of their unity and love.

What could be wrong with standing up for good marriages, you ask? When you are in the presence of God Almighty, the signs shouldn't get in the way.

Think about it. We are at Mass to worship God. Any demonstration that draws attention away from God probably shouldn't be there. What is greater, the sign or the destination? The creature or the Creator?

***Update***
Thanks to Frival in the comments for correcting me on the Type/Anti-Type reversal. It is fixed in the article now. And for those dealing with this, feel free to use the article to help your case if you act on this.

Hardness of head and heart

The Curt Jester's article, Hardness of heart got me to thinking about a sermon we heard a few weeks back. We were camping and at a different parish which also had a visiting priest.

The Gospel was about Jesus telling his disciples that he had come to bring division and how households will be set against themselves. So the good priest starts his homily by telling about his large family and how his father thought he had left the Church when he joined the Jesuits. (har har.) As in any good homily, the priest is supposed to break open the Word. But in this case, he proceeded to break it into crumbs and stomp on them.

As Jeff suggests, the Church is the one portrayed as cruel or hard when it is precisely the hardness of our hearts that makes divorce an option. We fail to live the Gospels and then have to find someone to blame for our failings. The priest told about how his sister filed for divorce and after she shared the news, her father wouldn't talk to her for many years. So he was trying to lead us to the conclusion that he was cruel and hard hearted because he believed the teachings of the Church. No mention was made of how the selfishness of the sister and husband were perhaps hurting the father. How the pain might have been too great to even talk with her. No, he was just a big bad authoritarian father who sided with the cruel Church.

I considered approaching him after Mass and just mentioning the phrase, "because of the hardness of your heart." I didn't but it always burns me when the homily is wasted by cutting down the teachings of the Church, especially on a day where I was hoping for some real insight into the readings.

Plan B

Megan Basham takes to task the feminist notion of scaring women into working. Although I am not a fan of using statistics to prove one's point, she uses them well to refute the baseless claims that women need to work in case their husbands

a.) run out on them
b.) die
c.) lose their job.

Now I am not against women working. But I don't agree with the notions that the feminist perpetuate, namely that the women is an insurance policy and that most men are scum and will eventually leave their faithful spouse high and dry.

But mostly I disagree with the idea that individuals should enter the marriage hedging their bets. The "I gotta have MY time, MY money, MY interests..." is self-fulfilling. Starting with that selfish attitude, it is likely that "MINE" is all you will end up with.

It reminds me of a retreat master that asked us if we trusted Jesus. Then he asked if we had a "plan B" in case that first option didn't work. That isn't trust. Neither is it a marriage if we enter marriage as a contract rather than a covenant. Contracts have language to protect the parties in the event it is broken. A covenant has language that says, "I will die before turning my back on you."

via Bettnet