April 27, 2002

The mystical power of Easter makes April a month of transporting prayer and cheerfulness. The song says its showers that come our way bring the flowers that bloom in May, and although little rain has come the flowers will bloom according to the promise of the rhyme. In many ways May is the fairest of months and so it is offered to Our Lady. The nation sets aside a Mothers Day in May, but Catholic culture has many such days. Our parish May celebration begins with a crowning of the Blessed Mother, with some splendid new hymnals to help sing some of the most popular praises. The parish children who will be crowning her are the future of civilization; our Blessed Mother entrusts these young ones to us.

The next Sunday will see the blessing of the new Tabernacle, enshrining Christ ever more centrally in our lives and in the heart of Manhattan. Then on May 19, Bishop McCormick will confirm a goodly number — the first time in quite a while that this parish has had its own confirmations by a visiting bishop; and young ones will receive our Lord in Holy Communion for the first time. A reception following will welcome them, and our many newly registered parishioners, and will also honor our hard working volunteers.

A more intense poet said that April is the cruelest month. War, distress in the Holy Land, terrorism, and dismaying scandals in our Holy Church herself have made it seem cruel indeed. Whenever Satan gets this active, it means something great is about to happen. That should inspire Catholic Christians to be ever more "counter-cultural": speaking those truths which demagogues hate. Some of the same media hounds who profess to be shocked by viciousness in the Church, wanted to penalize the Boy Scouts and the St.Patrick's Parade for not acquiescing to degenerate behavior. Adolescents are exploited by filmmakers, cynics in universities, merchandisers like Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch, and media executives who call for the reform of the Church.

Reforms are always needed ("Ecclesia semper reformanda") but true reformers know the original form. Demagogues exploit scandal in order to deform. Reform will come through holiness and not litigation, unless the lawyers happen to be saints. So make the beautiful month of May a time of rededication to Christ and his saints, mocking the hypocrisy that provoked our Saviour to his most righteous wrath.

Fr. George W. Rutler