Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Mt 6:1-6, 16-18.

The reading is from the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew's Gospel has the most complete version of the Sermon on the Mount. The reading selecting for today tells us how to behave when we are giving alms, when we are praying and when we are doing penance. Basically, not to use our performing of these virtuous acts to draw attention to ourselves. The lines omitted, Mt. 6:7-9, are the instructions by Jesus on how to pray where he teaches the Our Father.

Today is Ash Wednesday. In ancient times on Ash Wednesday, sinners were ostracized from the believing community and wore sackcloth and ashes. They wore those dirty clothes for all of Lent until Holy Thursday when they were given a clean white robe and welcomed back into the community. But at the time of the Sermon on the Mount, the community was homogeneous, so that the caution of Jesus not to draw attention to oneself through piety applied to that time. In our secular time, we assent to placing a mark of ashes on our forehead in Church with the prayer, "Remember, from dust you came and to dust you shall return". And we wear that mark out into the community as witness, to tell others we meet that we have marked ourselves as part of the community of the Lord.

The weblog The Anchoress has some wonderful notes on Monsignor Timothy Dolan, the former Milwaukee archbishop who has been names archbishop of New York.

"Maybe the greatest threat to the church is not heresy, not dissent, not secularism. not even moral relativism, but this sanitized, feel-good, boutique, therapeutic spirituality that makes no demands, calls for no sacrifice, asks for no conversion, entails no battle against sin, but only soothes and affirms." - a 2007 lecture on preaching.

From a February 23, 2009 radio interview:
"the liberation of obedience" How liberating it is. I put it in God's hands. I don't have to make the call. I wasn't asked if I would go. I wasn't asked if I were worthy. I wasn't asked if I thought I had the qualifications. I wasn't asked if there were other places I'd prefer. It wasn't an ask; it was an order. As Jesus said, "You didn't choose me. I chose you."

What a joy to be with you. This is the last day before the Lenten fast.

St. Patrick's cathedral symbolizes the strong faith of the people of Ireland who came to the United States with nothing, except the pearl of great price, our faith. In the words of Archbishop Hughes, now my predecessor, "We need a cathedral of suitable magnificence to show our love for the Lord." Now, right smack dab in the middle of the City of New York, perhaps the most prestigious address in the world, this beautiful cathedral soars.

Yesterday, you noticed [when I was televised giving our communion] that I was sort of glowing, a radiance. That was genuine. My soul was overflowing.

Q That has got to be amazing. Now you have the keys to St. Patrick's Cathedral.
A And the debt.

Monsignor Timothy Dolan was born 2/6/50, attended Cardinal Glennon College in Shrewsbury, Mo, finished his priestly formation at North American in Rome, ordained 6/19/76, served as a parish priest in St. Louis, earned a doctorate in American Church History from the Catholic University of America, was secretary to the Papal Nuncio, then made vice-rector of his old college and adjunct professor of theology at St. Louis University, sent to Rome in 1994 as rector of the North American College, on 6/24/01 made auxiliary bishop of St. Louis, on 6/19/01, his 25th anniversary as a priest, made archbishop of Milwaukee and now, 2/23/09, he has been transferred to New York City as archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York.