Dear Parishioners,

         As you can see, the Holy Family has returned from their journey to Egypt (just a joke referencing the biblical story) and hopefully will stand out much more now that they are painted in color. I will not see them myself until Saturday as I will have been gone at the Clergy Convocation in Huron this week but I trust that we will like their new appearance. I will bless these statues during the weekend Masses. 

         You also noticed, I’m sure, that the corpus has been removed from the cross in the sanctuary. Like the statues of the Holy Family, it is being painted so as to draw out more of the details in this wooden image of our Lord’s crucifixion, much of which are hidden by it’s brown appearance in front of the brown & tan bricks behind it. Perhaps you are already aware of the fact that most Protestant churches have a cross in their sanctuary while most Catholic churches have a crucifix (a cross with the corpus or dead body of Christ on it). First, many people ask what exactly we mean when we speak of “Protestant” churches. This is something of an umbrella  term which is used to group together those Christian denominations which are not Catholic. Back in the 16th century, Martin Luther (after whom the Lutheran Church or denomination is named), and some others protested against certain practices and beliefs of the Catholic Church. To be fair, Martin Luther and others had some valid concerns. But this created no little amount of argument and even battles. Thus the Protestant Reformation was born, which sought to reform the Church of it’s alleged errant beliefs and practices. Then came the Catholic Reformation, which fought back against the protestors, and which clarified the Church’s beliefs which were often misunderstood and even made changes to either correct or double down on some of the Church’s teachings & practices. The result was the birth of what has come to be thousands of individual Protestant denominations, with some of the bigger or well known ones being called Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. My church history professor would say that while the Protestants had some valid concerns, they unfortunately “threw the baby out with the bath water.” 

But getting back to the cross vs. crucifix issue…the empty cross (minus the corpus) stresses the resurrection for those of the Protestant denominations. It emphasizes Christ’s victory over death. But Catholics prefer the crucifix because without the sacrificial death of Jesus, there would be no resurrection. Also, the Mass is the “unbloody sacrifice of Jesus” which means that as Christ becomes present through the words of institution (“This is My Body…This is My Blood”), we unite ourselves with the sacrifice of Jesus as we offer ourselves with Him to the Father. Every Mass is a celebration of Christ’s sacrificial death and of his Resurrection. 

Gratefully today we have put aside many of the battles that have been fought between Catholics and Protestants over the last 500 years (battles of words and battles of real fighting) as we work and pray together for the coming of God’s kingdom (sadly, this is not so true in Ireland). But Christ prayed for unity in the Church so for this we must continue to work and pray. For us as Catholics, our disagreements with those of the Protestant faith have allowed us to become more precise in our understanding and expression of our Catholic faith. And we continue to hold that while all religions and Christian denominations have some truth as revealed by God, the fullness of God’s truth and the fullness of grace that comes through the sacraments resides in the Catholic Church founded by Christ. Feel free to ask questions!

 Fr. James P. Schmitz