God redeems us through every aspect of life

There are sacred symbols such as the candles, relics and holy water used in the Catholic church. Do you know the meaning? Msgr. John Wynand Katende explains them.

Someone, out there, asked me about the mind of the Church concerning a rosary bearing the image of Pope Francis. My immediate response was the apparent invitation to pray for the pope, since he was still alive and not yet a saint.

Catholics devoutly pray using rosary beads, make pilgrimages to shrines, wear scapulars and medals, prayers in honor of the saints, take holy water, receive blessed ashes, candles, or palms, and so on.

Many of these practices are classified under devotions. The Church acknowledges that whereas people’s souls have many needs in common, each particular soul or class of souls has its own special needs. 

The Church, however, judges devotions less strictly from doctrinal matters. She permits many practices that are the outcome of a simple faith and affection and are of real use to large numbers of her members.

But, the moment, they involve or imply a false conception of the teachings of religion, she bans them. 

We are not bound to practice all the devotions which the Church declares holy and harmless; but we are bound to restrain our criticism in the spirit of respect for our fellow Christians; and we are also called on to conform to certain general usages under pain of becoming disagreeable in our religious community.

Catholics have, thus, the widest freedom, far more than is to be found in any of the sects.

This discussion also provides a good occasion to talk about sacraments, sacramentals and relics. The Church defines sacraments as efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us.

The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They are seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the sick, Ordination and Matrimony (Catechism). 

The Church knows that we experience all of reality through our bodies, and there’s a natural, healthy tendency to want to fill that reality with meaning and beauty.

These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments, called sacramentals. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them people are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy (Catechism– 1667).

The crucifx, holy water, candles, etc, are examples of sacramentals.  

Oftentimes, God works miracles through sacramentals. One of the most remarkable effects of sacramentals is the virtue to drive away evil spirits whose mysterious and menacing operations affect sometimes the physical activity of man.

To combat this occult power, the Church has recourse to exorcism and sacramentals. Another effect is the delivery of the soul from sin and the penalties thereof.

God blesses people to bless others and objects. Blessings are “sacramentals” because they prepare us to receive the grace of the sacraments and help us to grow to be more like Christ. Because of their special role, parents can bless their children.  

Blessed objects must always be treated with reverence and respect and never as a charm or object of superstition. Placing blessed objects (sacramentals) into the walls or foundations of buildings for the protection against evil is a common practice among Catholics.

Catholic tradition encourages the wearing of blessed objects, to adorn our living rooms, to build beautiful churches as sacred spaces worthy of the celebration of the Mass. 

However, there’s always the temptation to turn a sacramental into a superstition. Persons may sin in using them in a way or for a purpose prohibited by the Church; also by believing that their use will save us in spite of our sinful lives.

Sacramentals can aid us only through the blessing the Church gives them and through the good dispositions they excite in us.

Relics
Catholics also use relics. A relic is an object or a personal item of religious significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial.  God can perform miracles with relics. In 2 Kings 13:20-21, God revived a dead man through the bones of Prophet Elisha.

Jesus healed a woman who touched His cloth (Luke 8:43-45). In Acts 10: 11-12, God did miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. 

St. Jerome declares, “We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore Him whose martyrs they are.”

Reflections
Acts  1:12-14
12 After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the mount that is called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, within a sabbath day’s journey.

13 When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James.

14 All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers

1 Peter 4:13-16
13 Beloved: If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

14 If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you shall be blessed: for that which is of the honour, glory, and power of God, and that which is his Spirit, rests upon you.

15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a railer, or a coveter of other men’s things.

16 But if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

Gospel – John 17:1-11A

1 Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

2 just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.

3 Now this is eternal life: That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

4 I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.

5 And now glorify you me, O Father, with yourself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with you.

6 “I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

7 Now they have known, that all things which you have given me, are from you

8 Because the words which you gave me, I have given to them; and they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from you, and they have believed that you did send me.

9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom you have given me: because they are yours,

10 And all my things are yours, and yours are mine; and I am glorified in them.

11 And now I will no longer be in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to you.