- Feb 5, 2002
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Fr. Bruce Natsuhara is the man!
This man has been graced with an oratorical charism. His homilies are always poignant, poetic and hit home perfectly. This weekend was no different.
He tackled two issues which I have not seen tackled in a long time. He started out speaking about the perfection of Mass, how beautiful and how theologically rich it is, and how... if we humans could grasp but a fraction of this beauty, richness and perfection, how we would wish we would never have to leave.
To paraphrase him:
Which brings us to the Holy Day of Obligation which we celebrated on Wednesday, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where this perfection and beauty was present for all the faithful... and only a fraction showed up. On a day where the Church rightly states that the Church, as a whole, should partake in the Sacrifice of the Mass, few people bothered to walk away from their daily routine and walk into Church.
Now, I suppose the Church could, in Her wisdom, speak on the gravity of such a lax attitude, and proclaim this sort of behavior a mortal sin...
...Oh wait...
She already has.
He then spoke of the gravity of missing Mass, and then, worse of all, continuing to partake of the Eucharist while in a state of mortal sin.
He nailed it all on the head. The importance of the Mass, the importance of our attendance to Mass, our continued self-examination of conscience in order to attend Mass worthily and partake of the Eucharist in a state of grace.
I wanted to jump out and shout AMEN! But... I would have spoiled the moment.
Fr. Bruce continued to go on and lament about the lack of attention that people pay to the Mass, and he spoke about the effect that American Culture has had on the Catholic Church. He spoke about the over-culture of the Church (the Magesterium) and how it is frequently ignored in favor of the sub-culture, where people appoint their own "Magesterium" whereby the support their own sinful desires and deem them "good" because it satisfies them...
... and then the world wonders why she is continually depressed and without hope, and embroiled in constant strife.
And with that, there was a perfect tie into today's Gospel, where a world that was without hope, found itself being preached to John the Baptist, as he ushered in cure for the worlds ills.
Man... I wish I could print the exact words of Fr. Natsuhara's homily here... but it was beautiful. I nominate him for "Priest of the Year".
This man has been graced with an oratorical charism. His homilies are always poignant, poetic and hit home perfectly. This weekend was no different.
He tackled two issues which I have not seen tackled in a long time. He started out speaking about the perfection of Mass, how beautiful and how theologically rich it is, and how... if we humans could grasp but a fraction of this beauty, richness and perfection, how we would wish we would never have to leave.
To paraphrase him:
Which brings us to the Holy Day of Obligation which we celebrated on Wednesday, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where this perfection and beauty was present for all the faithful... and only a fraction showed up. On a day where the Church rightly states that the Church, as a whole, should partake in the Sacrifice of the Mass, few people bothered to walk away from their daily routine and walk into Church.
Now, I suppose the Church could, in Her wisdom, speak on the gravity of such a lax attitude, and proclaim this sort of behavior a mortal sin...
...Oh wait...
She already has.
He then spoke of the gravity of missing Mass, and then, worse of all, continuing to partake of the Eucharist while in a state of mortal sin.
He nailed it all on the head. The importance of the Mass, the importance of our attendance to Mass, our continued self-examination of conscience in order to attend Mass worthily and partake of the Eucharist in a state of grace.
I wanted to jump out and shout AMEN! But... I would have spoiled the moment.
Fr. Bruce continued to go on and lament about the lack of attention that people pay to the Mass, and he spoke about the effect that American Culture has had on the Catholic Church. He spoke about the over-culture of the Church (the Magesterium) and how it is frequently ignored in favor of the sub-culture, where people appoint their own "Magesterium" whereby the support their own sinful desires and deem them "good" because it satisfies them...
... and then the world wonders why she is continually depressed and without hope, and embroiled in constant strife.
And with that, there was a perfect tie into today's Gospel, where a world that was without hope, found itself being preached to John the Baptist, as he ushered in cure for the worlds ills.
Man... I wish I could print the exact words of Fr. Natsuhara's homily here... but it was beautiful. I nominate him for "Priest of the Year".
