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Mark Mullaney was ordained to the transitional diaconate today. I have never been to an ordination of any kind and it was just tremendous to participate in. There was a sizable contigent of priests from the diocese though most of them, I think, had June weddings today. The choir was larger than the congregation, which I found regrettable. Ordinations should be announced throughout the Diocese and the faithful should come to share in these sacraments with their future shepherds.

The organist at the Cathedral is wonderful and his bell choir is the best group of volunteers I’ve heard in the Diocese. He does a great job conducting from the organ – something that ain’t easy. You’re all waiting to hear what I’m going to complain about. Well, there was a number of people in the choir who turned around to look at the bell choir when they were playing alone. That’s just bad form. Especially when one is bobbing their head to the rhythm. The choir sits above and behind the altar, so you can imagine that this was somewhat distracting. That’s complaint number one. Complaint number two has to do with the guy sitting next to me. He had a good voice and if he got rid of two terrible but common singing mistakes I wouldn’t be complaining. He revved up to each note beginning a phrase on a hum, like nnnngAAAAHMEEEEEEEEEEEN! He did that the whole time. That was pretty bad. The other thing is that he sang R’s like we speak them. I wrote about this previously. Sounds likes this “LORRRRRRRHEARRRRRRRROURRPRRAYERRR.” He are actual lyrics of a hymn we did today. “Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell.” With R-man on the job that didn’t sound so good. “Well, Steve,” you say “why didn’t you say anything to this guy?” If I was in some position of authority I might have, but I was just a volunteer like everyone else and no one showed up to listen to me tell them how to sing. So I just stood there and let The Growler go at it. Do you tell the lady on the art committee who can’t cut fabric straight that she can’t cut fabric straight? Well you do. But musicians are different. Which is why OCP is in business.

I’ve been a resident of the Washington DC metro area since Reagan was President so I have an interest in local politics and politicos. This article from The Washington Post caught my eye today. HBO is considering doing a biography of the former mayor and some-time ward of the Feds. That takes me back to a shot Jonah Goldberg invented with some of his friends named after the, uh, honorable Marion Barry. The ingredients are Jaegermeister, Khalua, bourbon, and Coke, because they wanted a drink, “So black, not even the man could keep it down.”

tells me something I never knew about the Papacy.

In the Vatican after they have chosen a new pope, they lead him to a room off the Sistine Chapel where he is given the clothing of a pope. It is called the Crying Room. It is called that because it is there that the burdens and responsibilities of the papacy tend to come crashing down on the new pontiff. Many of them have wept. The best have wept.

The same friend who I mentioned below is trying to convince me we can all be assured of salvation. And that the Bible is the standard for “Truth” with a capital “T.” And Christ’s sacrifice ended on Calvary so there is no purpose in the Eucharist. And that we are saved by faith apart from works of the law. Well the last one is true, since what Paul was saying is that we don’t have to become Jewish before we can become Christian. Why when a mere Christian sees that word “law” in the New Testament they think of the Catholic Church I have no idea. They equate “law” with a church that has rules. Christ gave us rules – what’s wrong with rules? We all know Martin Luther inserted the word “alone” into the passage on being saved by faith apart from works in order to appease his own scrupulosity. It is a terrible sin of pride if when God has forgiven us we cannot forgive ourselves. It is insidious emotion, too – we think we are being righteous or penitent when we are scrupulous but we are not. Rather we should glorify Christ’s love and mercy in the confessional by leaving our faults and trangressions there with Him, accepting His forgiveness and being renewed in our Christian lives. But I digress!

Putting the issues of sola scriptura and the assurance of salvation aside, it’s clear that there is a failure here to understand the nature of Christ’s sacrifice. She sent me this passage from John:

When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30
and said “The sacrifice is complete-finished, ‘paid in full.'” Do we deny Christ’s sacrifice-and say, well maybe it wasn’t good enough?

Of course we don’t say that. What we do say is that Christ’s sacrifice wasn’t over when he died on the Cross, it was accomplished. It is accomplished. Christ offers Himself to the Father perpetually for the redemption of our sins – what else would the eternal High Priest do? Christ appeared with glorified wounds as a sign of His perpetual sacrifice. The Lamb in Revelation is slain. And this from the earliest Christians:

The Didache
“Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with you until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of your sacrifice [Matt. 5:23-24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, ‘Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations’ [Mal. 1:11, 14]” (Didache 14 [A.D. 70]).

How people can ignore what the first generation of Christians knew of the nature of Christ’s sacrifice is utterly beyond me. It’s going to take me a while to reply to her. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

I’ll be right back.