Homily for 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
7th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Feb. 24, 2019 

Luke 6: 27-38

Nativity, Washington, D.C.                  

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6: 36).

We’re all familiar with the teaching of Genesis ch. 1 that men and women are created in the image of God (1:27).  Jesus teaches us today that we’re supposed to think and act like images of God; we are to be reflections of God’s mercy.

All of us, I think, are guilty sometimes of talking and acting like we think we’re God.  That, of course, isn’t the same thing, not at all.

Pope Francis has been trying to teach us that the name of God is mercy.  That’s what Jesus is saying today, even if not in so many words.  That’s what Jesus’ entire life was about, showing us in his words and actions how merciful God is.

The point of that mercy isn’t that we deserve it.  Hardly.  If God treated us as we deserve, most of us, if not all of us, would end up in a very bad place.  God sent us his Son precisely because need mercy, need forgiveness, need redemption.  And all we have to do is admit that and ask humbly for it.

Oh, there is one more thing.  That’s what Jesus is telling us today:  we must offer to others the same mercy that we hope to receive from God thru him.  Jesus doesn’t say, “This is my hope,” or “This is my suggestion”; but “This you must do.”  He commands us to imitate his Father’s mercy—his Father whom he calls also our Father.  He commands us to love our enemies, bless them, do good to them; to be generous with those who ask for our help, without regard for what they might be able to do for us in return; not to pass harsh judgments on the actions of others.

Return of the Prodigal Son -- an illustration of God's mercy -- by Pompeo Batoni

All of which we find hard to do, very hard.  When it comes to others, we want justice, not mercy!  Give ’em what they deserve—or what we think they deserve.

Only when we pause long enuf to reflect on how God treats us does our attitude start to change; only when we hear our Lord Jesus forgive his own executioners (Luke 23:34).  Then our own genuine conversion can begin.

It begins with a desire to be like Jesus, to be forgiving, generous, kind, patient.  It begins with prayer that our Father will help us come to that place in our spiritual lives, our attitudes, even our behavior:  not to wish evil on those who’ve offended us, not to retaliate or seek vengeance—but to ask God to give them the graces they need just as we pray he’ll give us the graces we need; and to treat everyone, even offensive relatives or co-workers courteously, whether they deserve it or not.

I suppose most of us find it a bit of a relief that Jesus doesn’t command us to like our enemies, those who hate us, those who curse us, those who mistreat us.  Nor does he tell us to desire their company.  Instead:  “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (6:31).  Be kind and patient around them, look for good interpretations for their sins or mistakes (as we judge them, in our not-so-humble opinion) as far as possible, don’t speak ill of them.  (Didn’t your mother tell you over and over again, “If you can’t say anything good about so-and-so, don’t say anything”?)  “Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked” (6:35)—which too often includes us, too.

All of this is hard, maybe the hardest thing that Jesus asks of us.  Undoubtedly we need his help.  Learning to forgive, as I said, begins with a desire; and with prayer.  And then it takes time and effort and practice.  It takes letting go of our own pride and stubbornness (oh, how we hang on to those!—and not to our benefit, as we admit in our more lucid moments).  It takes turning our eyes and our wills toward Jesus—every day, and the more often each day, the better.  We could well pray daily today’s Collect:  “Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, always pondering spiritual things, we may carry out in both word and deed what is pleasing to you.”  And we pray that, as we do almost all our liturgical prayers, thru Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ, who alone is our Savior, the one who delivers us from our pride, our selfishness, our hardness of heart, our sins.  To him be glory, forever and ever!

Eyewitness Account of Murder of Fr. Cesar Fernandez

Eyewitness Account of the Murder 

of Fr. Antonio Cesar Fernandez

(ANS – Lomé, Togo – February 22) – One of the Salesians who was traveling with the late Fr. Antonio Cesar Fernandez told us in detail all the painful events of that Friday, February 15. Below, his account:

It isn’t easy to narrate such an event after having lived it so closely. For the memory of Fr. Cesar, however, for the mission that has been entrusted us and in which [his memory] encourages us, I want to try to speak. We left from here [ed.: Lomé] Friday, February 15, in the direction of Ouaga [ed.: abbreviation of Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso]. In Cinkassé [ed: Togo city on the border with Burkina Faso], we left the confreres who work in this city. With a certain serenity, we continued along the road. After the border formalities, we began the journey in Burkinabé territory.

After 30 minutes of travel we arrived at a border checkpoint. From there, we could see trucks from afar that were along the way. And while we were wondering what was happening, we saw a man who asked us to park the car and then asked us to get out of the vehicle, which we did. We weren’t physically assaulted. We were subjected to an interrogation. They asked us to identify ourselves: “What are you doing? Where are you going?” We said that we were priests, that we had just finished a meeting and were returning to Ouaga.

Then one of them asked the priest who was driving to search the vehicle, which he did with him, while the others started to break the windows of the three parked vehicles, probably the customs officers’ vehicles. After smashing them, they took gasoline from a nearby fuel vendor and set these vehicles on fire. As they did so, Fr. Cesar asked why they were burning them. The one in front of him, naturally well-armed, didn’t give an answer. He whispered some answers, but we didn’t catch his words.

Later, they asked me and Fr. Cesar to move on through the bush. From the checkpoint to the bush it is about 500 meters. Once there, we saw other individuals of that group. In that bush, we weren’t subjected to a violent interrogation. Suddenly, we saw that they were loading on their motorbikes all they had taken from the attacked station. We also saw the confrere who was driving being ordered to move the vehicle forward. In the vehicle they had loaded our computers and the money we had with us, as well as phones, external disks, USB sticks; in short, everything they could take. Then he pulled the vehicle out of the tarry ground and headed towards us. He couldn’t go any further with the car, because there was a ditch on the road.

He then got out of the car and came to us on foot. The one [ed.: one of the terrorists] who was following our brother left him and approached me and Fr. Cesar. The others had already left; only two of them remained. One of them told me, “You, turn around and go!” As soon as I turned around, I heard the shot. I turned my head back and saw Fr. Cesar already on the ground. I thought it was my turn. I raised my hands to the level of the nape; I heard still other shots, but they weren’t for me, and I understood that they were still for Fr. Cesar.

I would have wanted to go back to the body, but something told me to move on. I advanced to the confrere who was driving, and he asked me, “Where is Fr. Cesar?” I replied, “They shot him.” So I told him we would take the body back, and he told me to wait a bit for the terrorists to go away. After they left, we approached the body of Fr. Cesar. I closed my eyes. I made a sign of the Cross on his forehead and we took him. He was soaked with blood. Then we returned to the border.

A New Salesian Martyr?

A New SDB Martyr?

Fr. Antonio Cesar Fernandez Murdered in Burkina Faso

(ANS – Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso – February 16) – Alas, the time of martyrs is hardly over. A tragic death has struck the Salesian Congregation in Africa. Our confrere Fr. Antonio Cesar Fernandez, of the Francophone West Africa Province, was shot dead in an ambush by jihadist assassins on Friday, February 15, around 3:00 p.m.

It remains to be determined whether Fr. Fernandez was murdered in odium fidei, the classical definition of martyrdom, or for some other motive.

At the time, Fr. Fernandez was director of the SDB community of Ouagadougou. He and two other confreres were returning home from Lomé, Togo, where they had just taken part in a session of the provincial chapter.

According to reports, before the attack on the Salesians, the jihadist militiamen had already attacked a customs post and killed four customs officers. When Fr. Fernandez and the two Salesians accompanying him arrived on the scene, they thought they were being stopped for a routine border check. Instead, they were surrounded by armed men, who separated them, then shot Fr. Antonio Cesar and fled the scene.

Fr. Fernandez, 72, had offered his life for Africa, and his offer was fully accepted. He arrived with the first group of missionaries in Lomé, was also the founder of the parish of Mary Help of Christians, and was the province’s first master of novices, a responsibility he carried out for 10 years.

This attack is part of the wave of violence that has been afflicting Burkina Faso since 2015; terrorist threats have surged in the past few weeks.

We pray for his eternal rest. May the Risen Lord welcome our brother Cesar with tenderness alongside all those who have given their lives to the Salesian mission, and may Mary Help of Christians, whom he so loved, welcome him with the affection of the Good Mother of Heaven.

At SDB headquarters in Rome, Fr. Fernández, left behind many good memories among the confreres and the ANS editorial staff.

Fr. Eusebio Muñoz, delegate of the Rector Major for the Salesian Family, was one of his closest friends and collaborators. Born in the same city, Pozoblanco, Spain, he attended the same high school and completed his novitiate one year later than Fr. Fernandez. Fr. Muñoz helped his friend discern his missionary call in the early 1980s. A few years later, as provincial, it was Fr. Muñoz who assigned him the office of master of novices.

“He was a man of exceptional goodness and great intelligence, convinced of his vocation,” recalls Fr. Muñoz. “When we were studying in the community of Ronda, our classmates said that it took him only a week to do what they needed a year for.”

“He was aware of the risks involved,” continues Fr. Muñoz. “Once while I was visiting the African communities, we were stopped by militia, who threatened and attacked us. But he wanted to stay [in Africa] and would repeat to me: ‘I won't go back to Europe.’ And he shared everything with the young Africans: he slept on the ground, drank water from the streams.... There was no way to make him change. He wanted to testify to the young people his complete donation.”

Fr. Martin Lasarte, from the Missions Department, also had the chance to collaborate with Fr. Fernandez on several occasions, to organize several events in the Africa Region. “He transmitted the Salesian charism to the Africans; as master of novices for 10 years he a formed generation of African Salesians. And today it is no coincidence that the provincial of Francophone West Africa is indigenous.”

“He was happy; his was a life in the service of young people,” continues Fr. Lasarte. “Service and availability were his hallmarks. If we asked him for translations, he was always ready, to organize, to prepare.... He had already said yes to the request to accompany the orientation program for the missionaries of the 150th Missionary Expedition, next September.”

In 2011 he released an interview with ANS talking about the social difficulties in the Ivory Coast. Again on that occasion he evidenced his concrete attention to the needy population, the refugees, the most fragile people. He also spoke to us about his personal and Salesian commitment to promoting interreligious dialog.

“Working with him was a joy,” concludes Fr. Muñoz. “As other people who knew him also wrote to me, I am convinced that he has also forgiven his murderers.”

Fr. Fernandez’s funeral is being celebrated in Lomé over several days. Despite his personal wishes, his family has requested that his remains be sent to Spain for burial.

Soon after receiving the news of Fr. Fernandez’s assassination, the Rector Major wrote to all the SDBs:

Rome, February 16, 2019

To my Salesian confreres, to the worldwide Salesian Family:

My dear brothers and sisters, I arrived in Rome, at our Sacred Heart community, just a few minutes ago, on my return from Ireland, where I was visiting to the province of St. Patrick, whose headquarters are in Dublin, and right away I am getting in touch with all of you.

The reason for this is the sad and painful news that came a few hours ago, during the night, which informed me that our Salesian confrere Fr. Antonio Cesar Fernandez, missionary in Africa since 1982,was assassinated yesterday, at 3:00 p.m. local time, shots three times during a jihadist attack perpetrated about 25 miles from the border of Burkina Faso [with Togo]. Fortunately, two other confreres managed to survive the attack. They were coming from Lomé, after taking part in the first session of the provincial chapter of the Francophone West Africa Province.

Dear brothers and sisters, there are many days during the year in which I receive the news of the passing of Salesian confreres from natural causes. This is the law of life, and it will come for us as well. In such cases, however, we give thanks to the Lord for so many beautiful lives generously offered. 

But our confrere Antonio Cesar war deprived of his life; they killed him without any reason. He was a good man, a man of God who, like the Lord, spent his life “doing good,” especially among his beloved African people. Antonio Cesar was 72 years old, with 55 years of religious profession and 46 of priestly life. We had met a few months ago in Burkina Faso, precisely in his community of Ouagadougou, where he was director and pastor.

Antonio Cesar adds to the number of many other martyrs of the Church in today’s world (some of whom are Salesians and members of our Salesian Family).

I invite you to thank the Lord for the beautiful life of our Fr. Antonio César. And also to ask God the Father to help mankind to put an end to this escalation of violence, which only causes damage. May the Lord grant that Cesar’s blood, shed on African land, be the seed of Christians, faithful followers of Jesus, and of young vocations at the service of the Kingdom.

Rest in peace, dear Cesar.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us proceed more united than ever in the service of the People of God, and of the poorest youths. Evil never has the last word. The resurrection of the Lord clearly shows this to us, and it follows that, even in suffering, it is becoming a reality that the Lord transforms everything. 

I embrace  you all, and all of us utter a prayer for the eternal rest of Fr. Antonio Cesar. We affirm our affection to his family in Pozoblanco, Spain, and wherever they are, for the beloved Francophone West Africa Province to which he belonged, and for the Seville Province of Spain, where he learned to love Don Bosco and to live like him.

With true affection,

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, SDB

Homily for 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Feb. 11, 2001

Jer 17: 5-8
Ps 1
Luke 6: 17, 20-26
St. Joseph, Passaic, N.J.

“Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord” (Jer 17: 5).

Jeremiah certainly knew not to trust human beings—at least not kings, nobles, courtiers, and priests:  people of power, influence, and wealth, the people who accused him of treason, flogged him, put him in stocks, imprisoned him, threw him into a dry well, and constantly threatened his life.  He could have been speaking for himself instead of the Lord.

But he was speaking for the Lord.  With all that he endured for the Lord, you have to wonder that he persevered, continued to prophesy.  He did say he couldn’t help it, the Lord’s word burned like fire inside him (20:9).  Even so, he must have been convinced of what he preached:  that the Lord is the only source of blessing, and if we put our trust in human beings we’re very foolish, cursed even.

The Lord’s curse is not on the wealthy and the powerful as such, but on those who trust in wealth and power and turn away from the Lord, those “who follow the counsel of the wicked, walk in the way of sinners, and sit in the company of the insolent” (Ps 1:1).

In the gospel we have St. Luke’s version of the Beatitudes.  In contrast with St. Matthew’s edition of these blessings, Luke’s blessing of the poor is absolute, without qualification:  “Blessed are you who are poor” (6:20).  Matthew recorded, instead, the more familiar “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (5:3), allowing that the wealthy and powerful could be humble and lowly—which experience shows us is possible but unusual; and that the really poor could be as greedy and corrupt as anyone else—which, also, sadly, experience confirms for us.

Joshua tree: Joshua Tree National Forest

Even more noteworthy is that with Jesus’ blessings Luke records a set of curses lacking in Matthew’s version—one curse or “woe” for each blessing:  woe to the rich, woe to the satisfied, woe to those who laugh, woe to those who are praised (6:24-26).  We are meant to connect these woes with the curse uttered by Jeremiah:  “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.”  If those who are high and mighty in this world are not “barren bushes in the desert” or “salt and empty wastes” in human eyes, it may be that they are so in divine eyes, and their eternity will be barren and empty.  One example:  When certain retired justices of the Supreme Court have died in the last five years, the media have sung their praises as champions of our civil liberties; the major newspapers and the news magazine gave their passing multi-page coverage and lavished them with glory.  I don’t know their heart of hearts; I don’t know how their consciences stood before God.  But God the author of life looks upon their championship of “a woman’s right to choose” to kill her baby in the womb rather differently than the media do.  We can only pray that their eternity isn’t being spent reflecting upon Jesus’ words:  “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way” (Luke 6:26).  “Cursed is the one … whose heart turns away from the Lord,” whether in the name of power or of greed or of ideological fashion, whether we are people of power and influence, or ordinary folks.

An example from the lives of the saints:  One day Don Bosco went to the priest responsible for the house’s financial matters, Fr. Rua, with some urgent bills and asked what was on hand to pay them.  Fr. Rua said there wasn’t much because in 2 weeks a really big debt had to be paid, and he was holding his little cash for that.  Don Bosco rejoined:  “It is sheer folly to neglect debts which we can pay today so as to meet those which will fall due two weeks from now….  Earmarking money for future needs closes the door to Divine Providence.”  When we rely on ourselves, “God holds back” (BM 14:80-81).  Don Bosco taught us to trust in the Lord, to hope in the Lord; and the Lord will water us, keep us green, make us fruitful (cf. Jer 17:8).  So Fr. Rua paid the immediate bills and left the later one to Providence.  The biographers don’t tell us how Providence came thru on that later one, but there are so many anecdotes about other financial crises to suggest we needn’t worry about it.

Or about the assorted decisions and crises in our own lives, whether they’re material or spiritual or moral.  Do I waste psychic energy on matters I have no control over?  Do I bring all my concerns—material, spiritual, or moral—to the Lord, completely open to whatever he wants?  How do I plan for my family—the number of children, their education, our retirement?  How involved should I be with my community? in the local, state, or national political process, in decisions being made for me and all of us about health care, education, child care, care for the elderly, public safety, crime and punishment, public housing and other welfare issues, abortion, the environment, arms control, investment in the Third World, refugees from war and famine?  How do I spend or invest money?  How do I handle serious illness, face possible death?  Do I do what is right today, and not worry about tomorrow?

The message from Jeremiah, Ps 1, Luke and everywhere else in Scripture is not to trust in human resources, human ways of weighing the balances, human wisdom, human power—but in God.  When we’re reviewing the general direction of our lives; when we’re faced with a major decision of any kind—we’re not to ask ourselves only what Pres. Bush or Alan Greenspan thinks about the subject; or the academic community or a Gallup poll; or Wall St. or 9 out of 10 doctors.  We must also ask, and weigh in especially, what our sacred scriptures say, what the long Christian tradition says, what our heavenly Father is speaking to our hearts at prayer.

Like Jeremiah, are we willing to speak what God tells us to speak, to do what God tells us to do, regardless of what other people think or say?  “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:22).  Last month a magazine published by a New York homosexual organization included in its review of 2000 cheers for the passing of Card. O’Connor.  But when the cardinal died, God didn’t judge his soul on the basis of editorials for or against him in The New York Times or the opinions of NARAL or various homosexual organizations, or, for that matter, of our military services or the unions or the police department—groups that were very friendly to the cardinal.  The cardinal was judged, as you and I will be, on how he preached and lived out the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to his and our respective vocations.

Are we willing to hear what Jesus says about wealth, and share what we have with the less fortunate:  our material resources, our time, our talent, ourselves?  Do we delight in God’s law, in his scriptures, in time spent with him in prayer?  “The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes” (Ps 1:6).  Our hope is not in this life, but in eternal life:  “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all” (1 Cor 15:19).  So we live in this life and use this world’s goods and treat our brothers and sisters with our eyes, and our hearts, on a greater prize:  eternal life in Christ Jesus.  “Behold, your reward will be great in heaven” (Luke 6:23).

Homily for Friday, Week 5 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Friday
Week 5 of Ordinary Time

February 15, 2019

Gen 3: 1-8
Don Bosco Cristo Rey Staff Retreat, Washington Retreat House

The Greek myth of Pandora’s box explains how all the evils known to humanity got loosed upon us, perhaps in spite of the intentions of the gods.  That unleashing of evil was the result of a deliberate human choice.

Genesis ch. 3, the infamous story of “the Fall,” presents a similar myth—this one faulting members of both sexes, again by a deliberate choice.  Unlike the Greek myth, the story in Genesis is divine revelation—not merely a human explanation for the presence of evil, both natural evils and moral evils, but also a truth that the Holy Spirit lays before us concerning the presence of evil in the world.

The Fall of Humanity (Michelangelo)

The Book of Wisdom says:  “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.  For he fashioned all things that they might have being” (1:13-14).  Genesis shows us a perfectly ordered universe, with men and beasts and all the created world in harmony—until humans invite evil by, literally, tasting the fruit of the tree of knowing good and evil.  They sample this knowledge, symbolized by fruit “good for food, pleasing to the eyes, desirable for gaining wisdom” (Gen 3:6).  And both the man and the woman bite, like a computer user clicking on a link he knows he shouldn’t open.  Not all knowledge is genuine wisdom.

And the eyes of both are opened (3:7).  Unlike the ears and the mouth of the man Jesus cures in the gospel (Mark 7:31-37), opening his ears to the wisdom of God’s word, his mouth for the praise of the good things Christ does for us, the eyes of the man and the woman in the garden are opened to their own shame, i.e., to their sin, and by implication, to a new world of disorder, chaos, and ruin in creation—which will be spoken of in the following verses of ch. 3 and, indeed, in subsequent chapters of Genesis until God begins his saving intervention by calling Abraham out of Chaldea and into the Promised Land (Gen 12:1)—Abraham, the man of faith who believes in God’s promise, acts in obedience to God’s word, and cooperates in God’s plan to begin our redemption.

Some of us—I won’t call anyone out—are old enuf to remember Flip Wilson, a comedian whose famous line about his failings was, “The devil made me do it.”  In the next verses of Genesis, which we’ll read at Mass tomorrow, that’s mankind’s excuse when God confronts them in the garden:  the snake tricked me into eating the fruit (3:13).  God, of course, doesn’t bite—doesn’t fall for the excuse but holds them responsible for their free choice.

On a day of recollection like ours, one of our tasks—it’s a challenge—is to look into our choices; or, more specifically, into our relationship with God as revealed in our choices.  There are words, actions, and omissions that shame us, or ought to.  We may be tempted into bad choices by other people:  pressure from family, friends, TV ads, or poll numbers, which is the oldest excuse known to humanity:  “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it” (Gen 3:12); or tempted by those passions we all know well—pride, sloth, lust, gluttony, envy, anger, and avarice; or tempted by the devil speaking to our hearts as he tempted Jesus himself.  The choice of doing good or evil, of speaking good or evil, of failing to speak or act when we ought to—this is our choice.  We can’t use Flip Wilson’s excuse that the devil made us do it.  When I do wrong, it’s because I choose to, like the woman and the man in Eden.

But I can also choose good.  I can be a person of faith like Abraham, who set in motion more good for the universe than he could ever have dreamed of.  More than Abraham, Christian teaching has always held up to our gaze the woman called the “new Eve,” the woman who said to God’s messenger, “I’m the Lord’s humble servant.  Let it be done to me as you say.” (Luke 1:38)  That was a redeeming moment for the human race, as the 1st Eve’s choice to seek knowledge of evil was a damning moment.  Each of us has the power to imitate the obedience and humility of the Virgin Mary as a servant of the Lord.  And when we do that as people of faith, we allow Jesus into our hearts as surely as she allowed him into her womb, and we can give birth to Jesus, in a manner of speaking—more than a manner of speaking, for it’s a mystery of our faith too—by making him present in our attitudes, words, and deeds.  The choice is ours.

God bless you.

Homily for 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
5th Sunday of Ordinary Time           

Feb. 9, 1986

Isaiah 6: 1-8
Luke 5: 1-11
Assumption, San Leandro, Calif.

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!” (Is 6: 1-8).

Today’s Scriptures could lead us to reflect upon a number of topics: holiness, sin, redemption, the resurrection, faith, vocation.  Since we don’t want to be here for 3 hours, let’s consider just holiness and sin.

Isaiah sees in the temple a vision of YWHW enthroned, surrounded by seraphim who worship and proclaim, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!  All the earth is filled with his glory!”  Simon Peter experiences God’s presence in a different way, in a miraculous haul of fish that totally amazes the professional fishermen.

Holiness is a characteristic of God, of his not being like us.  He’s beyond us in his power, his goodness, his mercy, his purity. All that we are not, he is.  He’s completely apart from and above us.  He’s the absolutely incorruptible judge who sees not only what we do but why.  He directs history while we can only respond to it.   

If we think for an instant of how we might feel in the presence of nature’s awesome power, as in a volcanic eruption or a hurricane; or how we might feel if the President suddenly walked into our living room—then we just begin to grasp the idea of otherness, of transcendence, of overwhelming majesty that belongs to God.

When we read the Bible, we see that people usually come into God’s presence with feelings of awe and fear, those feelings that Isaiah and Peter have today.  The revelation of divinity leaves the apostles frightened and speechless on that occasion when Jesus is transfigured and they get a glimpse of his divine nature; it strikes Saul to the ground on the road to Damascus and forces him to reassess his life.

Nevertheless, in God’s presence we do need a sense of reverence.  God’s holiness, and these persons, places, and things associated with him, don’t allow is to react in our ordinary everyday manner.

Take people’s behavior in church as an obvious example.  Churches are holy places because they belong to God in a special way that stores, theaters, and even our homes don’t—above all when the Most Blessed Sacrament is reserved in the tabernacle.  God is specially present here.

Therefore a church is a place of reverence.  We come here to enter into communion with God, not to continue our profane everyday manners and conversion.  We behave in certain ritual ways that bespeak reverence:  by blessing ourselves with holy water, by walking more slowly, by genuflections, by fasting before communion, by silence sometimes, and by common liturgical acclamations and songs at other times, including Isaiah’s “holy, holy, holy.”

When people violate this atmosphere of reverence, e.g., by talking, chewing gum, or coming to Communion with their hands in their pockets, we’re offended; our sense of the holy, our sense of God’s presence and his majesty, has been attacked.  Our privileged communion with him in our public or private prayer is assaulted.

When we sense God’s power, majesty, immeasurable goodness, we do so largely by comparison with ourselves.  God is holy; we are not.

This is certainly the immediate reaction of Isaiah and Peter.  They protest that they’re sinners, unworthy to stand in God’s presence, doomed if God really looks on them.

Unfortunately, we moderns have largely lost our sense of sin.  Perhaps some of you remember Dr. Karl Menninger’s best selling book of 15 years ago, Whatever Became of Sin?, and he’s a psychiatrist, not a theologian.  Well, if we protest something like racism or a rigged election as a violation of human rights, we usually make no connection between those human rights and mankind’s dignity as the centerpiece of God’s creation.  But failure to make that connection is not only theological and logical nonsense; it also pulls the political and philosophical rug out from under the United States of America.  For our Revolution was founded on the premise that our rights and liberties are the inalienable endowments of our Creator.

We must realize that our offenses against one another aren’t indifferent matters.  If you come from the hand of God, you have a holy dignity that arises from that divine connection—independent of any constitution, law, court, or custom—and anything I might do that violates your human dignity or your standing as a child of God also violates God’s holiness.  This is rebellion against the Creator.  This is sin.

And it goes without saying that we can and do sometimes violate God’s holiness directly, e.g., by using his name in vain or by failing to honor him.  And we can and do sometimes violate God’s holiness by offending against our own human dignity, e.g., by failing to protect our health or by abusing alcohol or other drugs.  You may have seen two 60 Minutes segments last month on active euthanasia—suicide by the elderly or terminally ill, in other words.  What’s wrong with that?  It tells God to shove off:  our dignity’s in our own hands and not his; the life he has bestowed upon us has no meaning except in pleasure or usefulness; his own Son’s passion and death were wasted!  (Please note that I said “active” euthanasia, i.e., deliberately causing death, which is distinct from passively allowing death to come, e.g., by not using extraordinary means such as expensive or high-risk surgery or mechanical life-support systems.)

If we’ve lost our sense of sin, if we casually float thru life without thinking about God’s holiness and our own relationship to him—then we’re in sorry shape.  Until we can look at ourselves and admit sinfulness, like Isaiah, Peter, and so many other people in the Bible; until we can confess our real and specific failings, like King David and St. Paul, we can’t share in Christ’s redemption.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians “that Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3).  If we don’t admit our sin, then we can’t claim Christ.  We can’t be forgiven if we refuse his forgiveness.

But when we do come to Christ to say, I’m a sinful man (Luke 5:8) or woman, then he gladly says to us, as he did the woman caught in adultery, to sin no more (John 8:11) and gives us his holy grace to help us in that direction.  He proclaims to us, “Your faith has saved you!” (Luke 7:50).

One of the beauties of the sacrament of Penance is that it allows us to confess our sinfulness to Christ out loud, to hear ourselves say it, to get our sins into the open, so to say, by speaking them.  Penance allows us to hear Christ purge our sins away as his minister proclaims, “I absolve you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Psychologically and sacramentally, it’s important for us to hear that.

Confession also offers us a chance for some all-too-rare advice, consolation, and encouragement for our Christian lives.  And, we have to admit, confession is an act of trust in God’s holiness, a holiness so great that it can annihilate our own sinfulness and make us whole again, just as we came from his heart on the day we were baptized.

May we reverence God and know the power of his mercy!

We've Moved!

We’ve Moved!

It was long time coming, but—finally—on Saturday, January 26, the 5 Salesians who make up what is termed the Washington community relocated 6.7 miles from their residence in Silver Spring, Md., to a new one in College Park, Md.—2.3 miles closer to Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park, Md., where they serve as teachers, administrators, or volunteer staff.

The house in Silver Spring (317 Southwest Dr.)

A fine little ranch-style house in the Burnt Mills section of Silver Spring had been the SDBs’ rented home since mid-2013 when the province withdrew the community from Nativity Parish in Washington (hence its designation). Until June 2017 it was a 3-confrere community and the house served its needs well.

But in a reconfiguration of the province at that time, the community grew to 5 men. The 4 confreres freshly assigned that summer (after 2 others were given new assignments) were solemnly advised not to unpack except for what was essential “until November” because the community was about to move to new, larger quarters.

One of the moving vans at the garage door in Silver Spring

Part of a long unloading process at the new residence.

Which didn’t happen as quickly as anyone hoped.  At last, in March 2018 the province settled on and purchased a 1930s boarding house on U.S. 1 in College Park, about a mile south of the University of Maryland campus.  Ten months of design, debate, and renovations followed before the house was ready for occupancy at the end of January 2019.  There’s still some additional work being done.

The new house features a roomy chapel, a large dining room, and a large, modern kitchen. The original living room got some updating but is much the same as it was.  A 3d bathroom was added upstairs, leaving 7 modest bedrooms (or in the present arrangement, 6 bedrooms and an office for the confrere who works for the province)—1 for each of the 5 confreres and a guest room.

Office being unpacked--3 bookcases in, 3 to go

In the basement another bedroom was renovated for guests, the laundry was upgraded, and an existing bathroom is being renovated.  Most of the basement is being left open as future meeting space, but it also serves as a 2d TV room.

One way of measuring the difference in the morning commute to school is this:  your humble blogger regularly could say 5 decades of the Rosary along New Hampshire Ave. between Silver Spring and DBCR.  Now on Baltimore Ave. (U.S. 1) and East-West Hwy, it’s just 2 decades or maybe 2½.

The house at time of purchase, March 2018

The house was already graced last week with 3 distinguished visitors:  Fr. Dominic Tran, the province’s vocations director, Cardinal Joseph Zen (see previous post), and Fr. Joseph Ng, provincial of the SDB China Province.  Neither of our 2 guestrooms is ready yet, tho, to receive visitors.  As we did in Silver Spring, we have to put up our visitors at a nearby hotel.

After renovations, January 2019 (different angle from photo above)

Your humble blogger is happy to have an office in which to work (on the province newsletter and other communications matters, the provincial chapter, and Salesian books), after almost sitting on his bed while pecking at his computer for over 18 months in Silver Spring.

Salesian Cardinal Zen Celebrates Feast of Don Bosco at DBCR

Salesian Cardinal Zen 
Celebrates Feast of Don Bosco at DBCR

Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park, Md., welcomed Cardinal Joseph Zen, SDB, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, as celebrant and preacher for the solemnity of St. John Bosco on January 31. Mass was celebrated in Our Lady of Sorrows Church adjacent to the school at 10:00 a.m. in the presence of students, staff, Salesian Cooperators, and friends of the school. 

Mass was originally scheduled for 8:00 a.m., but winter weather caused a 2-hour delay in opening, for the 3d time in the week, and there was an early dismissal on one other day. Fr. Dieunel Victor’s careful plans for the celebration of Don Bosco Week were thrown for a loop, badly.

Cardinal Zen had been visiting the U.S. for several days and earlier in the week was honored by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation with the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom on account of his staunch defense of human rights and freedom of religion in China.

During the 1st reading at Mass: Cardinal Zen with Fr. Mike Conway seated to the left 
and Fr. Joseph Ng to the right. Fr. Martin Yip is seated behind them.

The Salesian cardinal was accompanied by Fr. Joseph Ng, provincial superior of the China Province, based in Hong Kong, who was visiting one of his men, Fr. Martin Yip, a student at The Catholic University of America and a member of our Washington SDB community. Except for yours truly, the priests of our local SDB community also concelebrated the Mass. (I was taking pictures and notes on the homily.)

Basing his homily on the gospel (Matt 18:1-6,10), the cardinal noted how Don Bosco put into practice Jesus’ exhortation to take care of the little ones and the poor. He asked why Jesus blesses the poor and responded that suffering is part of life because all of us are sinners; but Jesus, the Good Shepherd, takes care of his sheep and thru his own suffering on the cross leads us to salvation.

Cardinal Zen said that believers live by hope in something this is already present, a first installment in salvation, because of God’s love. Life without love is meaningless, he said, and life without suffering is not possible.

The cardinal noted that the Mass was taking place in Our Lady of Sorrows Church and linked the Virgin Mary’s suffering, in mystery, to the joy of salvation that followed her sorrows.

Turning again to St. John Bosco, the cardinal said that he was always happy in spite of the difficulties of his life because he always knew that he was on his way to Paradise.

The cardinal, so well known for his defense of the freedom of the Church, spoke briefly about the recent increase in persecution by the Communist authorities in China. He mentioned Pope Benedict XVI’s encouragement to Chinese Catholics to persevere in the Faith even if they have to suffer for it. Christians, the cardinal said, are always winners if they are on God’s side, if they are little ones who put their faith in God.

Thru the humble servant of God St. John Bosco, he concluded, many little ones got the help they needed in life and grew up to help others also.

The cardinal gives a solemn blessing at the end of Mass.

DBCR’s students and staff very much appreciated Cardinal Zen’s visit. According to theology teacher Fr. Dennis Hartigan, they were particularly receptive to his message about the situation of Christians in China.

In the evening Cardinal Zen, Fr. Ng, and Fr. Yip visited our new SDB residence in College Park, Md., and took part with the community in Evening Prayer II of Don Bosco. 

In the SDB chapel at College Park after Evening Prayer: Bro. Bill Hanna, Fr. Mike Conway, 

Fr. Martin Yip, Cardinal Joseph Zen, Fr. Joseph Ng, and Fr. Dennis Hartigan

Then we all went to a local restaurant to enjoy a fine meal in honor of our Founder and celebrate our common vocation as Don Bosco’s sons. The cardinal very much enjoyed himself, and both he and the provincial regaled us with stories from their experiences in China, both good and not so good.

In the midst of dinner, we were surprised when Salesian Bishop Vitaliy Krivitskiy, bishop of Kiev, Ukraine, walked in with 2 friends and recognized the 8 confreres already dining (either because of some lapel pins or because they heard mention of Don Bosco). Bp. Krivitskiy, who visited Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J.,  on January 12, has been staying with a Pallottine community in Silver Spring, Md., to study English, but this was the first time he came upon the local Salesian community. A great deal of lively conversation ensued before the 3 Ukrainians went off for their own dinner.

At dinner: Bishop Vitaliy Krivitsky (standing) with Fr. Joseph Ng, 

Cardinal Zen, and Fr. Dieunel Victor. Photo by Fr. Mike Conway.

Homily for 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Ordinary Time

As has become sadly normal for our SDB community in Maryland, I didn't have an "outside" Mass to celebrate, altho I did take part in the celebration of Consecrated Life Sunday at the pastoral center of the Washington Archdiocese.

But here I offer you a fine Sunday homily from my friend Deacon Greg Kandra (rather than pull up an old one of my own).

Is there any scripture passage more familiar than that reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians?

You hear that passage all the time at weddings. I know it was read at my wedding. It’s been used at funerals – most famously, perhaps, at the funeral for Princess Diana, where it was read by Tony Blair.  When he was sworn in as president, Franklin Roosevelt had his family Bible opened to that chapter. He rested his hand on words that proclaim and define the meaning of love.

We hear it so much, we feel as if we know it.

You can read it all at https://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2019/02/a-more-excellent-way-homily-for-february-3-2019-4th-sunday-in-ordinary-time/