Homily for 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the

30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Oct. 24, 1999

Ex 22: 20-26

Guardian Angel, Allendale, N.J.

This 18-year-old homily reads in many spots (not including the opening paragraph!) like it could have been written this week.

Are you ready for Y2K?  For several years, and with increasing intensity, we’ve been hearing dire warnings about computers crashing as 1999 rolls over into 2000, and about what computer breakdown will do to our banks, utilities, traffic control systems, social security records, etc., etc.

St. Paul points to a different sort of crash:  “You await God’s Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead:  Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath” (1 Thess 1:10).  Paul speaks of the wrath of the day of the Lord, the day of Christ’s 2d coming, the last day, the day of judgment.  In a few more weeks—on Nov. 14 and 21, specifically—St. Matthew will relate to us 2 parables of Jesus concerned with the coming of the Lord and his ensuing judgment.  The 2d of those parables will be of the separation of the sheep from the goats, good people from evil.  And in that parable Jesus will teach us that the criterion of goodness is our active compassion for our fellow human beings:  “I was hungry and you fed me, naked and you clothed me, sick or in prison and you visited me, a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matt 25:34-36).

The Pharisees questioning Jesus (James Tissot)

Jesus makes that point of active compassion in a theoretical way in his answer to the scribe or lawyer who questioned him about the greatest law.  The greatest law is to love God wholeheartedly, and “the 2d is like it”—i.e., equal in importance—to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:39).  In St. Luke’s recounting of this same discussion, Jesus questioner then asks, “Who is my neighbor?”  Whom do I have to be nice to?  And Jesus replies with that most beautiful parable of one man’s compassion for another, the Good Samaritan, which concludes with Jesus’ injunction to imitate the Samaritan’s compassion toward his anonymous neighbor in need (Luke 10:25-37).

Our 1st reading this morning takes the theoretical and makes is specific.  It comes from the book of the law in Exodus—what Moses brought down from Matt. Sinai, according to the book of Exodus, not just the 10 Commandments but a whole code of laws.  And this passage is all about compassion toward our neighbor:  You shall not oppress the immigrant, you shall not wrong the widow or orphan, you shall not extort from your needy neighbor.  If you wrong these people, my wrath will flare up against you.  I’ll hear their prayers for help, for I am compassionate (Ex 22:20-26).  This is the Lord speaking.

That theme of compassion for the weakest and most vulnerable members of human society ties in with a document which our bishops have just issued—about 4 days ago—called “Faithful Citizenship:  Civic Responsibility for a New Millennium.”  Cardinal Mahony, head of the committee that drafted it, remarked, “Catholics really have a great responsibility to be active members of society, to really be informed,” and to try to shape their society as disciples of Christ; to evaluate political candidates and public policy by a gospel standard.

In contrast, the priest-publisher of a national Catholic weekly newspaper believes that Catholics have allowed themselves to become voiceless in a culture that devalues the family.  Why aren’t educated and well-to-do Catholics shaping society for the better?[1]

A columnist in a Catholic magazine asks this week whether we want to leave public policy to the likes of Donald Trump, Warren Beatty, Cybil Shepherd, or even Jesse Ventura.[2]  If we don’t speak up and get involved with Christ-like principles and positions, we’re abandoning the field to that sort of person and to the Ku Klux Klan[3] and to what they stand for:  harsh capitalism, hostility to family, sexual exploitation, racism, atheism, more abortion.

Our bishops, in their latest statement and in others, have instead asked us to work for more protection for the unborn, better treatment for pregnant women, the aged, the dying, working men and women and especially the working poor, immigrants, and refugees.  They have spoken for debt relief for the poor nations of the world, who are victims of that sort of extortion condemned by Exodus.  They ask us to be more active in preventing human disasters like Rwanda, Kosovo, and East Timor.  They call for more aid for education and other forms of development in the Third World.

Charity (Pieter Bruegel the Elder)

Many of the things the bishops push for—on public welfare, immigration, debt relief, foreign aid—are as unpopular with Catholics as with other Americans.  These are political issues inasmuch as they concern the body politic.  But they are not partisan issues.  And of course, how best to implement a gospel principle—what is the best means of aiding an immigrant or improving education or reducing the number of abortions—is a practical judgment beyond the pastoral competence of the bishops (or me) to say.

What the Scriptures call us to is to find some means to practice the love of God and of our neighbor:  particularly this morning, in our treatment of the alien who dwells with us—and we have tens of thousands of them in our midst, and the Bible doesn’t care whether they’re legal or not—and of the other poor, vulnerable, and marginalized members of our world:  the beggar we meet on the street; the unborn child whom we may save or condemn by our vote for a pro-life or a pro-abortion candidate; the victim of political repression or religious persecution whom we help or hurt by the foreign policy we support, or are indifferent to; the single mother who needs some kind of public support to hold a job and raise her child at the same time.

If they cry out to God, he’ll hear them, for he’s compassionate (Ex 22:26).  Jesus asks us also to be compassionate toward them.

---

        [1] Fr. Owen Kearns of the National Catholic Register, reported in The Beacon, Oct. 21, 1999, p. 17.

        [2] Terry Golway, “A Curious Business,” America, Oct. 23, 1999, p. 6.

        [3] An allusion to a controversial KKK rally in Manhattan the day before, widely covered in the media.

The Francis Project

The Francis Project
To Transform Souls with Mercy

by Fr. Henry Bonetti, SDB

Fr. Bonetti, an American Salesian, has been a member of the Korean Province since the 1960s, having gone to the East as a newly professed confrere and missionary.  For the last half-decade he has been rector of one of the Salesian houses of study in Manila, which serves Salesians in formation from all over the Far East.  He sent me this reflection two weeks ago, hesitant about possibly publishing it.  I offered to blog it, and finally I’m doing so.  I have lightly edited his text for style, inserted some bracketed words for clarity, and put a title and subtitle on it.

Inspired by Pope Francis’s example, we have just completed a life-size “smelling-of-sheep” Good Shepherd on the Cross for our seminary chapel. Christ has a sheep around his neck. A local artist carved it using a medieval German cross as an example.

(Avalon Gallery)

Pope Francis is now in the midst of a problem with some of his conservative colleagues over points of doctrine. Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, once said, “I know a bishop who said, ‘I don’t have time for all this mysticism. I have a church to run.’ And he [the bishop] was a good man.” Some good people never get it. The theology experts who have signed a letter pointing out [perceived] errors in doctrine, I’m sure are good men and more learned than I. But they don’t seem to understand Pope Francis.

He is a mystic, a Jesuit religious, a spiritual guide, a visionary, a prophet. Like Mary the mystic, he can ponder in the biblical sense and hold in tension two seemingly contradictory statements in one whole.

Another way of looking at it: St. John Paul II was a philosopher, Pope Benedict is a theologian, Pope Francis is a spiritual guide. He helps people discern. Mercy and transformation are two words that best sum him up, whereas faith and truth would sum up [the two] former popes. Meister Eckhart, a mystic of the Middle Ages, says that the word that best describes God is neither truth nor love but mercy. Thomas Merton, Catherine of Siena, and Julian of Norwich say the same thing.  Pope Francis wants to bring the Church from [being] a Church of morality with constant “NOs” to a Church of discernment with constant “YESes.”

Francis, the prophet, is trying to get us back to the Church’s prophetic spirituality. Prophetic spirituality is about producing difference. It dances between the customary and the new, between the possible future and the given past or present. Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same things over [and over] and expecting different results.

Then, too, looking at Pope Francis from the point of view of the Fathers of the Church, he is not Tertullian (a lawyer), nor is he Origen (a seeker of truth). He is St. Irenaeus (a pastor). He works for transformation with mercy. Pope Francis is talking about a totally different order of reality than the letter-signers. He belongs in no camp, neither Tertullian’s camp of law nor Origen’s camp of truth. Yet he is not outside either camp. Even if he answered the letter, I [believe] the senders would not understand the answer. He transcends both camps while keeping his feet on the ground. And that is why some church officials have a hard time understanding where he wants to take us and what his transformation is all about.

The new students of theology do not study laws and dogmas they study a Person, Jesus Christ. The goal is ultimately to fall in love with Him and obtain what St. John Paul II spoke of as “intelligence of the heart.” And that changes everything we do in life. Our goal is first to make the Church attractive, and later to learn practice and law.  

Engaging Pope Francis in “fraternal dialogue” means to me only that [those theologians] have failed to grasp the true nature of Francis’s mystical path, his prophetic vocation, and his world-transforming service. To understand Pope Francis, one has to believe Jesuit theologian Fr. Karl Rahner’s comment that the whole Church must become mystic, or else it will cease to exist.

Good Shepherd image from the Roman catacombs

When I was first training seminarians, the goal of formation was to become a “JP II priest.” Now the goal is to become a PF I (Pope Francis) priest. As one who is in charge of forming seminarians for the 21st century, I wish to form them into Pope Francis’s shepherds, smelling of sheep. The reform is irreversible. The alternative makes me shudder.

Homily for 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
29th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Oct. 22, 2017
Matt 22: 15-21

I prepared this homily for a parish in Washington, then was informed on Friday evening that a missionary would be speaking at all the weekend Masses there (for Mission Sunday).

“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Matt 22: 21).

Tribute to Caesar, by Gustave Dore'

If you’ve ever been to Canada or Great Britain and have used their coinage, you probably noticed that all those Canadian quarters and dollars, all those British pence and pounds, bear the image of Queen Elizabeth.  They remind citizen and tourist alike that she is the sovereign there.

In our country, as we’ve often heard, the people are sovereign.  Our coins are stamped with the images of American heroes—and also with national mottos like “United States of America” and “E Pluribus Unum.”

There’s one other motto on all our coins:  “In God We Trust.”  Our sovereignty as a people rests on a firmer foundation than ourselves, as our foundational document, the Declaration of Independence, states plainly.  Our fundamental rights come from our Creator, and on him we rely to sustain our freedom and our nationhood.  Like Jesus’ audience, we too have a kind of double allegiance, to both God and country, a phrase we hear often, and rightly so.

In 1st-century Palestine, various Jewish, Greek, and Roman coins were in circulation.  Apparently, tho, only Roman denarii could be used to pay the taxes directly due to Rome, as distinguished from money paid at the Temple, or King Herod’s taxes.

Many Jews, of course, resented the Roman overlords and hated paying taxes to their foreign rulers, especially since graven images—like Caesar’s on those Roman coins—violated the First Commandment, and the Caesars did claim divine honors.  So there was a trap in the question put to Jesus by the Pharisees and their unlikely allies, the Herodians.  (The Pharisees were super-devout Jews zealously obeying all the rules of the Torah.  The Herodians were partisans of King Herod, not likely to be pious but jealous of power and influence over the people.)

Could a patriotic and conscientious Jew pay Roman taxes?  Say “yes,” and Jesus is compromised in the eyes of many of the people.  Say “no,” and he’s inciting resistance to the Roman authorities—who were by no means gentle with rebels.    

Our Lord is no fool, of course.  In fact, he’s far more clever than his enemies.  He asks them for a coin used in the Roman tribute, and they produce a denarius.  He asks them whose image is stamped on it.  “Caesar’s,” they say.  That would be Tiberius Caesar, emperor from 14 to 37 A.D.  Many of his coins have been found in Palestine and other parts of the Empire.

What are the implications of a Roman denarius?  It bears Caesar’s image.  A stamp, a brand, a seal marks ownership.  It’s Caesar’s coin.  It acknowledges his sovereignty, like the Queen’s or the inscription “United States of America.  For a 1st-century Jew, it would also challenge God’s sovereignty.

But when Jesus asked for a denarius, the Pharisees and Herodians had at least one in their pockets!  They had no qualms about using Roman money, about acknowledging Roman authority.  If they had any nationalistic or religious principles against Rome’s lordship, those principles didn’t extend to their pockets.  Roman money was good money.

So Jesus tells them, if it’s Caesar’s money, give it to him when he demands it of you.

After dealing with the direct question about Caesar’s taxes and authority, Jesus deals with the indirect one about God’s rule in Israel:  “Give to God what is God’s.”

But he’s not specific, is he?  What belongs to Caesar, besides his denarius, and what belongs to God?

Well, what bears the image of God?  Where is God’s likeness stamped?  You know the answer very well:  “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27).  Human beings, male and female equally, belong to God.  He is sovereign over our lives, our doings, our words, even our thoughts and hopes and desires and fears.

Modern men and women, especially in the Western world, don’t like to hear that.  We prefer to be independent, to be autonomous, to be self-directed, to be sovereign of our own wills and doings.  We’re proud sons-of-guns!

But you know what?  The only limit on Caesar’s power is that image of God:  give to God—and not to Caesar—what is God’s.  That’s why totalitarian regimes—Henry VIII, Napoleon, Hitler, Communist tyrants from Lenin down to China and North Korea today, and the Chavistas in Venezuela, demand to control religion or to destroy it.  That’s why the Church resists anything that infringes human dignity, anything that doesn’t respect the image of God.  The Church has a large body of social teaching, teaching that applies the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lives of men and women living together in society.  How is a good and just society ordered?  What leads to authentic peace, to balanced relationships between people?  If we don’t adhere to God’s directives, divine principles, then Caesar—or Big Brother—will step in.

One of the biggest stories in the news in the last 3 weeks has been about Harvey Weinstein—him in particular, and more generally, how women are treated in society.  I hear a lot of confessions, and those confirm to me what I’ve read a lot about and heard a lot about:  Americans, especially American men (but not only men) have a serious pornography problem.  It’s an addiction.  It’s a plague.  It’s one of the biggest businesses in the Western world.  It reflects and feeds the same attitude that produces Weinsteins and Hefners and a sex trafficking racket.

If we respected all human beings as images of God, we wouldn’t have a pornography industry.  We wouldn’t have Harvey Weinsteins.  We wouldn’t have date rapes, a sex “industry,” high divorce rates, tens of thousands of kids growing up without fathers, and HHS mandates for contraception.

If we respected all human beings as images of God, we wouldn’t need a Black Lives Matter movement, and we’d be able to repair our immigration laws, and we’d have trustworthy politicians, and we wouldn’t dread the next Columbine or Las Vegas, and we wouldn’t be slaughtering millions of unborn children worldwide every year.

Caesar has no business claiming rights over human beings as tho they belong to him.  But he does have rights and obligations for the good ordering of society—in international relations, in business, in public safety, in education, and so on.  Making policy in such matters isn’t the Church’s business, altho those subject matters are religious concerns insofar as they concern human dignity, the respect due to men and women stamped with the image of God.  And it is, emphatically, the right and duty of individual Christians to guide Caesar’s doings thru their participation in political life, school boards, community organizations, etc.

Jesus’ words have as much import today as they did when Rome ruled the Mediterranean world.

Homily for 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
28th Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 14, 1984
Is 25: 6-10
Salesian Jr. Seminary, Goshen, N.Y.

“On this mountain, the Lord of Hosts will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines (Is 25: 6).

What is salvation?  What is dwelling in God’s presence like?  Isaiah tries to describe it.

“This mountain” is Mount Zion, the place where YHWH dwells among his people:  the temple mount in Jerusalem.  On “that day” the last day, the day of salvation and judgment, YWHW will make his presence manifest to all the world, and all nations will share in the glory and the abundance that signify his presence.

The most apt comparison of abundance that Isaiah can think is a banquet.  Jesus uses a similar comparison in today’s parable (Matt 22: 1-10).  The banquet is exceedingly rich: not buffet cold cuts and salad bar but fat meats and rich wine—and salad bar, too, I suppose.  And since I used to think of heaven as an eternity of baseball and ice cream, I hope that the ice cream, at least, will be there.

Food is important to our earthly sense of joy and security.  But in the long run we need more.  So Isaiah goes on: YWHW will destroy “the veil that is spread over all nations” (25:7), perhaps a veil of mourning—for tears also shall be wiped away from all faces (25:8)—or perhaps a veil of ignorance.  So there is to be perpetual joy and, perhaps—let’s hope a so—a fuller knowledge.

More important, YWHW “will swallow up death forever” (25:8).  On earth, all our celebrations—christenings, birthdays, weddings, ordinations, retirements, etc.—are tempered by awareness of our mortality.  More than for food, we hunger for life!  This too YWHW will bestow—eternal life.

Each earthly meal foreshadows the eternal banquet to which YWHW has invited us in Christ.  That’s why we celebrate a weekly Eucharist, using bread and wine as sacramental symbols.  In the Eucharist, we not only look toward eternal life, but we already begin to share in that divine life because the Eucharist is more than bread and wine; it’s the body and blood of Jesus Christ, who is our life and our salvation.

(Place and photographer unknown)

Each earthly meal foreshadows the eternal banquet.  That’s why it’s imperative for us to share our abundance with the poor.  In a sense, YWHW has already provided the rich meal for all nations.  There’s enuf food on earth to feed everyone, yet some are hungry, others overfed.  Everything we share with the needy imitates God’s own generosity and anticipates the final redemption of his lowly ones.

Each earthly meal foreshadows the eternal banquet.  That’s why we fast during Lent—and even to a minimal extent before Communion.  The fasting symbolizes our mortality, our sinfulness, and our hunger for eternal; life. 

“We have waited for our God, that he might save us” (25:9).  Mankind waited thousands of years for Christ’s coming; we still await his coming again on the final day of salvation and judgment.  We look with longing for the day of our final deliverance from every anxiety, every trial and sorrow, death itself.  We look with longing for the eternal day when we shall live in our Father’s presence, when we shall know and love him as he knows and loves us.  To him be glory forever and ever.  Amen.

Unexpected Harriman Holiday

Unexpected Harriman Holiday

Out of the blue, I was asked on Friday, Sept. 29, to drive Don Bosco Cristo Rey's participants in the province's leadership retreat for select junior students, starting on Monday the 2d.  This is an annual program of the youth ministry office.  Driving, as in one of the school's mini-buses (14 passengers); and staying up at Don Bosco Retreat Center till the retreat concluded on Friday morning, then driving them back to DBCR.

The retreat participants (ANS photo)

I confess that I wasn't super-enthusiastic, for several reasons.  1st, it was very late notice  2d, it was covering someone else's "back end."  3d, I hadn't driven any form of a mini-bus since about 1972, altho I've had loads of experience driving 15-passenger vans (which are now basically unlawful for schools).  4th, I had to cancel 3 sacramental appointments.  5th, I had to jump immediately thru some hoops with Maryland Vehicle Administration, and pay for that, in order to get onto DBCR's driver insurance.  6th, the province newsletter has a Monday nite editorial deadline.

But I agreed because 1st, there was some urgent need; 2d, I'm supposed to be involved in DBCR, and so far there hasn't been much chance; and 3d--an inducement that was mentioned to me--since I didn't have to assist with the retreat, I could go camping in Harriman State Park while I was up there.

So, altho I dislike doing editorial work on Sundays, I made an exception on Oct. 1 and got all the copy and photos off to the designer with a cover explanation that I wouldn't be available for proofing until Wednesday afternoon, but could be reached by text with any question that might come up before then.

And after delivering our 7 students and Fr. Dieunel Victor to the retreat house, depositing my non-camping bags in my room in the residence, and doing a final email check, I borrowed a car from the local SDBs and betook myself and camping gear to Silvermine Lake, about an hour later than I'd desired but the best I could do, given the plans for the retreatants.

I didn't plan an elaborate 3-day loop hike with overnites at different shelters.  I went simple: get to Stockbridge Shelter on Monday well enuf before dark to gather firewood, and stay there except for a day hike on Tuesday.  After parking at the western end of the Silvermine parking lot, I toted my 35-lb. pack (estimated)--heavy with about a gallon of water besides tent (just in case), pad, saw, hatchet, food, stove, fuel, layers of warm clothing, sleeping bag, 1st aid kit, medications, 2 small flashlights, spare batteries, etc., and hurried 1.5 miles west up the Menomine Trail, past Lake Nawhunta,

almost all uphill, to the Long Path.  I was in good enuf shape that I didn't need to make any long rest stops, just 3 or 4 very short breathers.

At the Long Path, the unmarked Nawahunta Trail continues where the Menomine ends.  But I turned right (north) and hiked the .1 mile, most of it steeply uphill, to the Stockbridge Shelter.  (I'd swear it's longer than .1 mile, but that's what Harriman Trails says.)

The shelter, perhaps the nicest one in the park, with 2 good fireplaces and a wide wood floor that could sleep 8, was unoccupied, altho there was a 2-person tent (without rainfly) set up on the platform (visible in the photo above).  There was still about an hour of daylight, and I gathered a good bit of firewood, altho substantial pieces were not to be found.  In fact, I noticed that a LOT of standing wood had been cut in the general vicinity of the shelter.  I thought some not-nice thoughts about the perpetrators.

As I was starting to prepare my supper (the 2d half of the beef stew package that I started on my August hike, plus an orange--which left me feeling a bit hungry), a day hiker came along from the north.  He was a friendly, talkative fellow named Chris, also very religious.  So once I'd finished supper and hung my bear bag, we got into conversation--he was a bit intrigued, I think, that I was a priest and didn't seem to know much about Catholicism--and we prayed together and admired God's creation together (ranging from the bright stars to the loud crickets).  He didn't seem fazed that it got dark and he'd have to follow the trail back to Silvermine with only his cell phone as a light--plus an almost full moon.

The Long Path heading north from the shelter.

My bear bag is hanging from the tree to the left of the trail.

Once Chris went on his way, I stayed up to feed the fire

and read a bit longer, finally retiring after 10 o'clock.  The nite was getting a little chilly outside; it was fine in the shelter.

On Tuesday I got up at 7:00 a.m., not by a particular plan but because the sun was up and I'd had about enuf of the hard floor and insufficient pillow (spare clothing stuffed into my sleeping bag stuff sack).  I celebrated Mass, made my breakfast, and used my iPad for the Divine Office.  To my chagrin, I discovered, that I'd brought very little instant coffee, which made me just 1 cup today.  The rest of breakfast was oatmeal, a granola bar, and peanut butter--quite sufficient.

A little after 9:00, I tossed most of my gear into that unoccupied tent and took what I needed for a couple of hours of hiking, plus the water bottles I'd emptied between supper and breakfast, and my pump filter.  (Note: I'd brought the Sawyer bag with water, and it leaked into my pack.  But I've found it hard to fill the bag at water holes, so went with the slightly heavier but more manageable pump.)  I had to use my backpack because I hadn't brought along any sort of day pack.

I went back down the Long Path to the Nawahunta Trail, that unmarked woods road that I remarked earlier.  It goes .6 mile, mostly downhill, to Baileytown Rd. and isn't particularly remarkable.

At Baileytown Rd., another unmarked woods road, 1st I went west, quite level, .15 mile to the gate at the boundary of the Harriman estate.  It was a very plain iron gate, like many others along park boundaries, and there wasn't any sign that I noticed.

From there I took a little side road of some sort till I came to a dry creek bed.  Hoping to find water, I followed that for 10 or 15 minutes, striking a bit of mud now and then, coming to a swamp area with no more water than the creek, till I figured "enuf of this" and headed slightly uphill thru briers and other undergrowth till I hit the road again.

I turned left and came upon some stone walls, which I photographed. 

I didn't notice, almost right in front of my nose, the Bailey family cemetery, which I'd seen on the maps for years and wanted to see in person.  I continued northeastward for a quarter mile to Camp Lanowa on Upper Twin Lake--a pretty body of water with other camps on its shores.  There was a Palisades Interstate Park truck at the camp, but I didn't see anyone. 

I went to the lake and pumped water to refill my bottles.  When I returned to the road, the truck was gone.

Looking for the cemetery, I doubled back on Baileytown Rd. and found it right where I'd missed it half an hour earlier.  Chagrin! 

I prayed for the dead, took a few photos, and noted mentally that fixing it up would be an excellent Eagle Scout project.

Then it was back to the entrance to Camp Lanowa to find the unmarked trail running .5 mile up Stockbridge Mt. to the cave shelter.  At the ridge I picked up a bit of firewood--there was ample room in my backpack.  From the cave shelter to Stockbridge shelter is .3 mile.  I noted a bit more firewood that I might come back to retrieve.

At the shelter I found 3 older guys standing around, deciding where they wanted to camp.  They'd set packs in the shelter but weren't interested in using it.  I guess they were content to see that the stuff in it hadn't been abandoned--except for a fire grill that had been there when I arrived.  They asked whether they might take it, and I said "sure."  (I was claiming the abandoned tent, with future student camping in mind.)  The 3 finished scouting for a camping site and went down the cliff to one of the fine spots there--also much closer to wood supply.

I spent the afternoon gathering firewood, reading, and relaxing.  I took down the abandoned tent and stowed it in my pack.  It's backpacking light, weighing about as much as my 1-man tent.

3 day hikers came by, 2 of them doing a loop trip out of Silvermine, the 3d one doing in-and-out from Silvermine.  A pretty gusty wind came up, and apparently I overexposed by sweaty body to it because overnite I noticed the onset of a cold.  But the day remained sunny and at times warm.

Sunset, Tuesday

With evening I prayed, made my supper (freeze-dried lasagna--very tasty and filling; no half package this time), and read.  When I set my fire in the same fireplace as last nite, most of the smoke blew back into the shelter.  I guess the strong wind was affecting the chimney's draft.  So I built a new fire in the other fireplace, and that was better.  I had found some substantial wood to burn in the afternoon, including a good 3" maple log that I cut into 5 or 6 pieces.  So I had myself a fine fire for several hours, till well after I went to bed around 8:30.

The wind continued to howl thru the nite, and it was a bit chilly inside the shelter.  I kind of wished I'd left the tent up and had gotten into it.

I made no rising plan, and voila! at 7:00 a.m. I figured it was time to get up, then checked my watch.  Same morning routine as yesterday, sans coffee.  I finished breakfast and clean-up with about 3/4 of a canteen of water left.

I finished packing up, picking up trash (I nearly filled a small plastic bag, mostly with junk I found in or around the shelter, including a ruined cooking pot), and double-checking the site in time to hit the trail at 9:00 a.m.  My pack was a good bit lighter without water and food in it, of course.

Below the ridge I shouted a good day to the 3 chaps who'd camped there and were apparently getting their breakfast going.  Going down the Menomine was considerably easier than coming up, obviously, and I reached the car by 9:45 even after a fairly long halt to shoot some photos in the pine grove near Lake Nawahunta.

On my way back to the Marian Shrine I stopped at the park visitors center and bought an new set of Harriman maps (2016).  I passed my 2012 set to one of my confreres who does some hiking.

Since a couple people asked about meals, I'm including a photo of my "kitchen" from a 2013 hike.

Salesian Martyr Fr. Titus Zeman Beatified

Blessed Titus Zeman’s remains are presented in a specially designed casket at the beatification Mass. (ANS)

Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, beatified Salesian Fr. Titus Zeman, martyr, on Saturday, September 30, in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Fr. Zeman in his youth

Fr. Zeman had been arrested in 1951 by the Communist authorities of what was then Czechoslovakia, charged as a traitor and a Vatican spy for smuggling young Salesians out of the country, and sentenced in 1952 to prison. He was paroled after 12 years, his health broken. His death on January 8, 1969, due to heart failure, was a direct result of the torture he had experienced during interrogation and in prison.

Fr. Zeman’s prison “mug shots.” (Salesians of Don Bosco)

Fr. Zeman’s cause as a martyr was initiated in Bratislava in 2010, and in 2016 the CSC declared he was a martyr who had suffered “in hatred of the faith.” Pope Francis approved the decree of beatification earlier this year.

Fr. Zeman became the second Salesian beatified as a martyr at the hands of the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. In 2013 Bro. Stephen Sandor was beatified in Budapest; he had been hanged in 1953 by the Hungarian government for the “crime” of youth ministry. A third potential martyr’s cause was just initiated (October 6) in Poznan, Poland, that of Archbishop Anthony Baraniak, SDB (1904-1977), archbishop of Poznan (1957-1977), described by the current archbishop as a “martyr of the Communist system, a man persecuted and tortured in prison by Stalin’s investigators.”

National celebration of Slovak martyr

Poster promoting the beatification program.

(ANS)

Blessed Titus’s beatification ceremony was attended by about 25,000 people, including Slovak Cardinal Jozef Tomko, 25 bishops and the apostolic nuncio, about 500 priests, 200 seminarians, the Rector Major (Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime), the postulator general (Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni), two of Fr. Zeman’s sisters, and other relatives. One of the priests present was Fr. Al Pestun, 89, of the San Francisco Province, parochial vicar of Corpus Christi Parish in San Francisco. He is the last surviving Salesian whom Fr. Zeman attempted to lead from Czechoslovakia to Austria and on to Turin; the attempt was unsuccessful, but seminarian Bro. Pestun escaped later.

Cardinal Amato preached that “to donate his life for his brothers was Blessed Titus Zeman’s ideal. He was arrested because he helped seminarians and priests to flee the country so as to live their apostolic ideal. His imprisonment was transformed into a sacrifice of redemption for others."

On the following day, October 1, there was a celebration in Vajnory, the section of Bratislava where Blessed Titus was born on January 4, 1915, and where he died. Fr. Angel Fernandez, the Salesian Rector Major, preached the homily at this celebration, focusing on the timeliness of Fr. Zeman’s witness in view of the upcoming synod of bishops on “Young people, faith, and vocational discernment.” His relics were placed at a side altar of the parish church where he had been baptized and confirmed and celebrated his first Mass in 1940.

The reliquary-casket with Fr. Zeman’s remains, following its blessing. (ANS)

The new blessed’s relics were encased in a small, coffin-like casket designed by two Slovak artists, Andrei Botek and Marian Kralik. The façade of the casket includes two sculpted reliefs showing Fr. Zeman leading a clandestine escape party and the moment of his capture.

Blessed Titus’s memorial will be observed on January 8, his dies natalis (“heavenly birthday”).

Following his Salesian vocation

As early as age ten, Titus Zeman wanted to become a priest. He studied with the Salesians at Sastin and made his profession on August 6, 1932. He began theological at the Gregorian University in Rome and finished in Chieri. He was ordained in Turin on June 23, 1940, and returned to Slovakia, which had declared independence and allied itself with Germany during World War II. Nevertheless, he was able to exercise his Salesian ministry first at the youth center in Bratislava, then as a parish priest, and finally as a chemistry and biology teacher in Trnava.

The website set up by the Slovak Salesians to promote information about Blessed Titus. (ANS)

Reunited after the war, Czechoslovakia suffered a Communist coup in 1948 and became a Stalinist satellite. In April 1950 the government ordered that all religious be rounded up in the dead of night. Many of them were sent to concentration camps. Fr. Zeman happened to be away from the Salesian house for Easter services and so evaded the round-up. He decided to go underground to help his young confreres who weren’t in camps to escape to Turin to complete their studies. He led successful escape parties totaling more than 60 Salesians in August and October 1950. A third group’s attempt to cross the Morava River into Austria was foiled by a border guard, and most of the group, including Fr. Zeman, were captured. (Bro. Pestun was one who got away.)

Some of the Salesians whom Fr. Zeman led to freedom. (tituszeman.sk/)

A section of the Salesian Slovak webpage on Fr. Zeman called “Saved by Titus“ records the names and history of many of those whom he assisted to get away. Of interest to New Rochelle Province Salesians is that one of them was Bro. Jozef Hercog (sic).

Captured, tortured, killed slowly

Fr. Zeman faced the death penalty during his trial but in February 1952 was sentenced instead to 25 years in prison. With his health ruined by torture and harsh conditions, he was paroled to Vajnory in March 1964, and during the “Prague Spring” of 1968 was finally given permission to celebrate Mass again. He died of heart failure, however, on January 8, 1969.

The entire country took up Fr. Zeman. In April of this year a pilgrimage of 200 altar servers came to Sastin, where Blessed Titus had once been an altar boy, to celebrate “Titus, one of us.” A hymn was composed by Slovak poet Daniel Hevier in honor of the holy martyr. A biography titled Beyond the River, Toward Salvation: Titus Zeman, Martyr for Vocations, was published in both Slovak and Italian versions. Festivals and conferences were held in Bratislava, Trnava, and elsewhere, and TV and radio specials were aired. The Slovak bishops issued a pastoral letter regarding him in September. As noted above, hundreds of clergy participated in the beatification Mass, which was broadcast nationally. The Salesians organized a masterful webpage with multiple language options: www.tituszeman.sk, which includes an hour-long documentary film, I Passed the Border (with English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HbvlZSgq4w.

Altar servers who took part in a pilgrimage to celebrate
the upcoming beatification of a former altar boy. (tituszeman.sk/)

On May 30, Fr. Jozef Slivon of the postulator’s office concelebrated Pope Francis’s Mass and then presented him with a relic of Fr. Zeman and a copy of the just-published biography. The Holy Father kissed the relic and sent his blessing to everyone involved. In his Angelus message on the day after the beatification, he said: “He joins the long line of martyrs of the 20th century.... His testimony supports us in the most difficult moments of life and helps us recognize, even in hardship, the presence of the Lord.”

Pope Francis reverences a relic of Blessed Titus given to him at the Vatican. (L’Osservatore Romano)

The witness of Blessed Titus’s life and ministry

Fr. Fernandez addressed a short letter to the entire Salesian Family to mark the beatification, highlighting Fr. Zeman as a fruit of Salesian sanctity, as a faithful Salesian totally in love with the Church and the priesthood, and as a zealous apostle of vocations.

A young Titus Zeman (2nd from right) with friends. (tituszeman.sk/)

Young Fr. Zeman greeted by girls in traditional dress

Many people who knew Fr. Titus offered their testimony about his character, dedication, and courage, even before the events that led to his martyrdom. One of his students described him as “my spiritual father.” Another calls him “simple-hearted, very funny, and a great sportsman.” He helped hide Jews during World War II and hide nuns when the Red Army advanced through Slovakia. A Salesian student of theology remarked on how he helped clean up their school after the Russians left it full of excrement and stinking like a sewer: “I saw there his great love and tenacity for his work. He was a true Salesian who did everything in a humble way. It was clear he liked us, the young students of theology, a lot. He saw us as the hope for the Salesian Congregation in Slovakia.”

Procession of clergy entering the cemetery for Fr. Zeman’s burial. (tituszeman.sk/)

Fr. Zeman’s “funeral was exceptionally touching … not only because of its outer aspects (it was a true triumph of sympathy, wonder, and gratitude) but mainly because such unity of emotion … is truly rare. There was not only a homily at the Mass but also several speeches and a funeral oration. All of the speakers emphasized the great qualities of the deceased: conscientiousness, strength of his spirit, profound faith, strong will, transcendental devotion to God’s will, but mainly absolute self-sacrifice for the priestly ideal and effort to save young priestly vocations for the Church and the Salesian Society.”

Blessed Titus’s best known saying is probably, “Even if I lose my life, I do not consider it a waste, knowing that at least one of those whom I have saved has become a priest to take my place.” At his funeral the Slovak provincial noted that more than 50 priests and religious owed their vocations to him; his life was a kernel of wheat that fell to the ground and produced abundant fruit. “If every priest who died in Slovakia left such religious posterity, the funerals of Slovak priests would mean not a decrease but an increase in the priestly ranks.”

Fr. Al Pestun (Salesians)

Read Catholic San Francisco’s story on the beatification and Fr. Al Pestun’s recollections: http://catholic-sf.org/CSF-home/article/csf/2017/09/12/slovakian-martyr-aided-local-salesian-who-escaped-communism