The Two Lungs of the Church
May 25, 2025
“The Church must breathe with her two lungs!” –Pope John Paul II
As we continue the Jubilee Year of Hope, I would like to bring to our attention the recent Jubilee of the Eastern Churches that our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV celebrated in Rome. My original Jubilee calendar listed this Jubilee day near the end of June, but it was subsequently moved to the middle of May, so I missed it until I saw the news reports. The Eastern Churches refer to those ancient ritual Churches that, along with the Roman Catholic Church, comprise the entire Catholic (universal) Church, with the Pope, the successor of Peter, as our head. The Catholic Church is comprised of 24 ritual Churches. The largest by far, is our ritual Church, the Latin Rite Church—usually called the Roman Catholic Church. The other 23 Churches are together referred to as the Eastern Churches. They each have their own distinct spirituality, traditions, and liturgical practices. St. George Church in Bay City is a Byzantine Catholic Church. Their eparchy is based in Parma, Ohio, and their bishop is The Most Reverend Robert Pipta. The Flint area has Byzantine, Maronite, Chaldean, and Ukrainian Rite Catholic Churches. There are a number of Eastern Catholic Churches in the Detroit area as well. These Churches are one with us, although their practice of the Catholic faith might look quite different than our Western practices.
I have personally benefitted from my exposure to the theology, traditions, and practices of Eastern Catholicism. Central to Eastern spirituality is the concept of theosis. The Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Christ our Pascha, defines theosis as “growing in likeness to God . . . partaking in God’s nature [which] constitutes human happiness.” (no. 124) Eastern prayer and spirituality make extensive use of iconography, painted images that are the fruit of the prayer of the artist. Each color has deep symbolism corresponding to the truths of the Catholic faith. Icons also tend to be somewhat distorted, encouraging the viewer to go beyond the surface of the image to the spiritual realities that it represents. I have learned from Dr. Robert Marko, an expert in Eastern (specifically Ukrainian) Catholicism when he was the head of the theology department at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, about the depth of Eastern theology and history. This has been helpful insight over the last few years in light of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
As Pope Leo said to the representatives of the Eastern Churches at the recent Jubilee gathering in Rome, “your traditions of spirituality, ancient yet ever new, are medicinal, in them the drama of human misery is combined with wonder at God’s mercy, so that our sinfulness does not lead to despair, but open us to accept the gracious gift of being creatures who are healed, divinized, and raised to the heights of heaven . . . we must ask, then, for the grace to see the certainty of Easter in every trial of life and not to lose heart, remembering [as St. Isaac of Nineveh] wrote, ‘the greatest sin is not to believe in the power of the Resurrection.’”
“One does not take this honor on his own initiative, but only when called by God as Aaron was. Even Christ did not glorify himself with the office of high priest; he received it from the One who said to him, ‘You are my son; this day I have begotten you;’ just as he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’” –Hebrews 5:4-6
This Friday afternoon, it will be a great blessing for the Saginaw diocese when Daniel Christe will be ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Gruss at the Cathedral in Saginaw. It will also be an especially profound day for our family since Dan is my cousin (his father and my mother were siblings). God has led Dan on a long journey to this day, and we are overjoyed in his generous response to God’s call to serve the People of God in our diocese. Our priests keep us connected to the sacramental presence of Jesus in our lives. Bishop Gruss has asked all of us to love and support our priests. I love the poster that our children made to show appreciation for Fr. Rick and the irreplaceable service he performs here. He is truly a gift to our community! Furthermore, Bishop Gruss has asked us to pray for more young men to respond to the call to priesthood in our diocese. I encourage every household to sign up in the Gathering Space to pray for priestly vocations for one day in June. Please also remember to pray for Dan this week and in the months to come that he will truly be a visible sign of Jesus’ love to the people of the Saginaw Diocese for many years to come!
“[Jesus said:] ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’” –John 15:12-13
This Monday is Memorial Day. We honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for the common good of our country. The heroism of those who serve our nation in military service and their willingness to lay down the greatest gift they have, their very lives, inspires all of us. It can be so easy to take the blessings of our country for granted. Their lives and their deaths remind us all of the great cost of our freedom. May we honor them by never using our freedom selfishly, but to put it at the service of love to help bring each person to fulfill their potential. Those who died in service of our country are the best of us, demonstrating that we will continue to be a great country only for as long as we continue to put the good of all God’s children ahead of our own self-interest. Fr. Stephen Blaxton, pastor of St. Brigid Parish, will preside at a Memorial Day Mass at 8:30 on Monday morning at New Calvary Cemetery. It would be wonderful to see many Assumption parishioners there to start our holiday by praying for “those who gave their last full measure” to show us what true patriotism really is.