Homily for 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sept. 29, 2019

1 Tim 6: 11-16
St. Pius X, Scarsdale, N.Y.
St. Anthony, Bronx, N.Y.                                                                   

“But you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  Compete well for the faith” (1 Tim 6: 11-12).

Orthodox icon of St. Timothy (public domain via Wikipedia)

Paul continues to address his beloved disciple and co-worker Timothy.  At the same time, he’s addressing all of us.  When he addresses Timothy as a “man of God,” he’s using the Greek anthropos, the generic term for a human being.  In the Bible, the term “man of God” very often refers to one with a special calling and mission from God, which Timothy has as an apostle collaborating with Paul and taking his place as leader of the Church at Ephesus.

But every one of us has a calling and mission from God.  Every one of us is a man or woman of God, called to pursue “righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness,” called to “compete for the faith,” that is, to engage in competition against the powers of evil in this world, to fight Satan and his earthly allies so as to live faithfully “the noble confession” that we “made in the presence of many witnesses” (6:12).

In the ancient Church, that “noble confession” was made when an adult Christian was baptized in the presence of the rest of the community.  Most of us were baptized as infants, probably in a relatively private rite.  But we do publicly confess our faith, that is, proclaim it, every Sunday when we recite the Creed and when we celebrate the Eucharist.  We renew it annually at Easter.  Thru these actions, lived out faithfully, we “lay hold of eternal life” (6:12), for they connect us to our risen Lord Jesus.

Jesus, too, Paul says, made his own “noble confession,” “giving testimony under Pontius Pilate” (6:13).  He told Pilate, according to John’s Gospel, that he came into the world to bear witness to the truth, and everyone who is of the truth hears his voice (18:37).  He was put on trial by the Jewish leaders for claiming to be the Messiah, God’s Son, and this he did not deny, but affirmed.

All that is our affirmation, too, that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, the Savior of the world, the one who reveals God’s truth to us.  Paul charges Timothy, and us, “to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14), i.e., to keep all that Jesus taught us about our relationship with his heavenly Father, about what is true and good, about what is demanded of us morally—e.g., in today’s gospel (Luke 16:19-31) about our moral obligation to care for the poor, the sick, the needy, the distressed; and unless we do so, we will not enjoy eternal life but will suffer damnation.

The Gospel of Jesus is not all sweetness and light!  It’s very demanding, as Jesus’ own suffering and death demonstrate.  He saves us thru the cross, which leads to resurrection.  He saves us thru “righteousness,” i.e., living in a right relationship with God, one based on truth, the practice of love, patience, and gentleness, thru faithful battle against the temptation to seek power or fame, to pursue pleasure for its own sake, to cling to money (last week we were reminded that we can’t serve both God and money [Luke 16:13]).

The gospels and the rest of the New Testament teach us the truths that Jesus wants us to live by, e.g., mercy, forgiveness, chastity, and humility; teach us how to “compete well for the faith.”  The successors of Paul, Timothy, and the other apostles spell out details for us in our own times as we continue to await “the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  E.g., the Church reminds us repeatedly of the dignity of every human being, from conception in a mother’s womb until natural death; hence the utter immorality of abortion, euthanasia or “mercy killing,” or any other form of murder, and the general wrongness of capital punishment and of war.  E.g., the respect that’s due to every person regardless of race, gender, age, national origin, religious belief, or sexual orientation.  Such respect isn’t the same as approval of everything that a person might do, for the Church also teaches us and, citing the words of Jesus in the gospels, has always taught, that God has a design and purpose for our sexuality; he created us “male and female,” which are givens from the Creator and not something emanating from our own minds, and for the exercise of our sexuality for the inseparable purposes of both totally committed, self-giving love and of procreation.

Paul concludes his exhortation to Timothy by reminding him that at God’s own “proper time,” our Lord Jesus will appear again; that God is “the blessed and only ruler” of humanity, “the King of kings and Lord of lords” (6:14-15)—statements that directly challenged the claims of the Roman emperors and in the past have challenged other dictators, like Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, and today confront the Communist rulers of China and North Korea and the dictators in Nicaragua and Venezuela.  These are statements that Americans, as well, need to remember when we set our state and national policies.

Paul continues his thought:  God alone has immortality, altho in his kindness thru his Son he shares with us his eternal life; and to God alone do we owe honor and eternal power or sovereignty—not to any emperor, king, president, or political party.  God has created us to give him glory, and he happily shares that glory with those who, with Jesus Christ, “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness”; who, like Jesus Christ, persevere in their noble confession of the faith, who “keep the commandment without stain or reproach” until our Lord Jesus returns.

Homily for Saturday, 25th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Saturday
of the 25th Week of Ordinary Time

September 28, 2019

Year I

Zech 2: 5-9, 14-15                                                  

Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

I am going “to measure Jerusalem, to see how great is its width and how great its length” (Zech 2: 6).

Like the priest Ezra and the prophet Haggai, from whom we read this week, the prophet Zechariah belongs to the period in Jewish history when the exiles were starting to return to Judah and Jerusalem, devastated 70 years earlier by the Babylonians.

Nehemiah Views the Ruins of Jerusalem (Gustave Dore')

In the 1st verses of ch. 2, the prophet promises that the enemies surrounding the Jews will be crushed and kept at bay.  In today’s verses, he foresees a peaceful and secure Jerusalem, large enuf to require special measurement of its dimensions, safe enuf that it doesn’t need protective walls but, instead, will be like “open country” (2:9).  God himself will circle the city with his own protection (2:8).

In the previous history of Israel, God had dwelt among them in the Temple.  Thru Zechariah he promises to return:  “See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord” (2:14), and the Lord’s presence will be an attraction that will draw many nations to join the Jewish people.  God’s presence will be widely known and desired (2:15).

In spite of what Zechariah and some of the other prophets preached, Jerusalem, even with its rebuilt Temple, did not become a focal point for the nations, nor did Israel open its heart to receive the nations.

It remained for God truly dwelling with the human race, God enfleshed in Jesus Christ, to welcome the Gentiles and thru that son of Judea to join to the Lord all the nations of the earth.  Thanks to the gift of salvation offered by Jesus, the new, heavenly Jerusalem is indeed “open country,” open to men and women of every race and nation of the earth, and no wall suffices to contain them all.

How good God has been to bless us with his Son, who dwells among us—not in a static building like the single Temple on Mt. Zion but wherever his followers assemble and in the Holy Eucharist everywhere on earth, as well as in his sacred Word addressed to us every time we open the Scriptures.  How good God has been to call us to be his apostles, especially to the young—to make people aware of God’s love for us all, of his presence among us, of his desire to be an encircling wall to defend us against any enemies, especially the enemy of our souls.

Homily for 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 Homily for the
25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sept. 22, 2019

Luke 16: 1-17
St. Anthony, Bronx, N.Y.

“If you aren’t trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth” (Luke 16: 11).

In one description of his educational program, St. John Bosco said that he aimed to make of his pupils upright citizens and good Christians.  In his mind these 2 objectives were almost identical.  A good Christian is necessarily an upright citizen.  An upright citizen is infused with the goodness that comes from God even if that citizen isn’t a professed Christian.

No one can serve 2 masters (cf. 16:13); a person of integrity has only one master, one higher power whom he or she serves, whether that service is expressed in worship or in daily living.

Jesus’ parable today is a little puzzling.  It doesn’t seem to illustrate what he says about serving either God or money, and on the surface it can be read as tho Jesus is giving credit to dishonesty.  He tells of a situation that his listeners would have been familiar with.  1st-century Palestine was an agricultural society, with numerous great landowners who lived in Jerusalem, Damascus, or elsewhere and entrusted their estates to property managers—like the fellow called a steward in today’s gospel.

Parable of the Dishonest Steward (Jan Luyken)

This particular property manager has been caught “squandering his master’s estate” (16:1)—perhaps embezzling funds or spending his boss’s money too freely, living lavishly, like the German bishop who earned the nickname “Bishop Bling” or the former bishop of West Virginia who’s been found to have spent hundreds of thousands of diocesan dollars on jewelry, chartered jets, 1st-class vacations, and more.  He’s in very hot water now and isn’t allowed to set foot in his former diocese.  Both of these church leaders have been called to account, like the gospel’s steward.

The steward, however, before turning in his accounts, has recourse to his master’s debtors—tenant farmers who had to give the estate owner a share of their crops.  It would’ve been the property manager’s responsibility to set their rents, and what he does today in adjusting those fees isn’t necessarily crooked.  It does aim to make friends with those tenants, however, so that after he’s been fired he might find employment and not be reduced either to begging or to hard manual labor.

The master praises his shrewdness—not his past wastefulness, whatever that entailed.  Perceiving his predicament, the steward has taken decisive action to deal with it.  He knows how to use mammon, material goods, money.  So Jesus observes that “the children of this world” (16:8), worldly people, know how to deal with their own kind—as you and I can observe in any day’s news headlines about business people, politicians, Hollywood elites, sports stars, and others.

Then Jesus contrasts that worldly prudence with the behavior of “the children of light” (16:8), those who profess to be devout, those who say they walk along paths lit up by divine truth.  Are the children of light prudent or decisive like the dishonest steward?  Knowing their predicament, do they take appropriate action?

What’s the predicament?  All of us are going to have to settle our accounts.  The day will come, sooner or later, when we’ll all come before the divine master to give an accounting of our service.  Would we like to face death like Cardinal Wolsey, the ambitious, unscrupulous chancellor of Henry VIII who fell out of royal favor after 15 years and died just before he could be put on trial?  His last words were to the effect that he ought to have served God as diligently as he did the king.  Or would we not rather die like another of Henry’s lord chancellors, St. Thomas More, as “the king’s good servant but God’s first”?

Mammon, material goods, money can be our friend.  It can be useful as long as we keep it in perspective and use it wisely, to provide for what we truly need and to assist our neighbor; in other words, if we are the masters of our possessions and not the other way around; if we recognize that all we have comes from God, belongs to him and is lent to us for a brief time in order that we might serve him well, that by our actions we might reveal ourselves as “children of light,” upright citizens and good Christians, ready to give a good accounting of ourselves when we meet our divine master.

Province Leadership Meets in Haverstraw

Province Leadership Meets in Haverstraw

32 of the New Rochelle Province’s leaders met at Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y., on September 19-20. They included the provincial and his council, the directors of most of the communities, and confreres with various province responsibilities. Bro. Rob Malusa, just arrived from his mission in Zambia, also attended.

Fr. Tim Zak, provincial, presented printed copies of Fr. Tim Ploch’s extraordinary visitation report, introduced by the Rector Major’s letter and followed by the 2019 Provincial Chapter’s documents. He said that the province’s project for the coming year will be to implement the findings of the chapter, especially in the light of Fr. Ploch’s report and the Rector Major’s letter.  The directors took copies to bring back to their communities.

Fr. Steve Ryan, vice provincial, addressing the assembly

Discussion from the floor included observations about the implications of the aging of the province—the effects of aging on the confreres, on our relationships with the young, and on the mission to the young. In part, that’s why the province needs a serious “lay project,” which Fr. Zak prefers to call “formation for ministry.”

Presentations and discussion followed on formation for ministry, formation in the Salesian charism in our schools, networking with other Salesian schools in the region, and ongoing formation of Salesians themselves.

Fr. Steve Ryan led a review of the province’s safe environment policies, procedures, and issues.

In the afternoon there were presentations on the missions, including a talk by Bro. Malusa, on the status of the province’s educational-pastoral plan and youth ministry in general, on province finances, and on a pastoral proposal from the New Delhi Province.

Copies of the Province Handbook, approved by the 2019 Provincial Chapter, were delivered and distributed—a copy for every confrere in the province.

On the second day of the meeting, the assembly was joined by nine young adults from several Salesian works, the men in formation from Orange, Fr. Bill Bucciferro, and Sr. Maryann Schaefer, to contribute to an extended day dealing with the accompaniment of young people.

Morning youth panel

Fr. Abe Feliciano offered a reflection on Christus vivit, which was the day’s guiding light. He clarified two terms used in that apostolic exhortation: when Chapter 7 speaks of “youth ministry,” it really means “ministry of the young” (or “by the young”); references to a “popular youth ministry” mean “grassroots youth ministry.”

Afternoon youth panel

Throughout the day’s presentations, reflections, and discussions, the importance of personal relationships was brought out. Accompaniment depends upon relationships, on the other’s feeling that he or she is cared for. The ultimate purpose of our accompaniment is to lead the young to heaven.

Finally, small group discussions and whole group discussions considered how to improve our accompaniment of the young as individuals, communities, and province.

Fr. John Thompson Visits New Rochelle

Fr. John Thompson Visits New Rochelle

Missionary in Africa for 40 Years

Since his arrival in Liberia almost 40 years ago, Fr. John Thompson has served in five countries in West and South Africa, survived two ferocious civil wars, and grown ever more in his love for the people he serves as one of Don Bosco’s sons.

Every couple of years Fr. John returns to the U.S. to visit his extensive family around the country, to speak on behalf of Salesian missionary work, and to raise some money to advance that work. He arrived at the provincial house in New Rochelle on September 11 and spoke freely with the confreres about his experiences in over 50 years of Salesian life. This year he’s one of the province’s jubilarians, professed on August 15, 1969, and ordained on May 26, 1979.

Fr. John’s latest mission, since last November, is as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Maseru, Lesotho, where every weekend he celebrates two Masses in the Sesotho language—which he’s just learning—and one in English. The first two Masses draw congregations of 600 and 1,400; the one in English, just 40.

He’s been in the Southern Africa Province since May 2009 and seen service, mostly as a parish priest, in Swaziland (2009-2012) and Johannesburg (2012-2018) before his mission to Maseru. He’s had to learn two other African tongues, Zulu and Siswati, in his ministry.

Origins of a Missionary Vocation

From the time he was a novice, Fr. John desired to go to the missions, and he applied several times without being accepted. When he was a student of theology in Columbus, Ohio, Fr. Bernard Tohill, general councilor for the missions at the time, finally, allowed him to spend the summer of 1978 in Guatemala, working alongside Australian missionary Fr. Tony DeGroot among the native people in the mountains. This experience confirmed then-Bro. John in his sense of being called to the foreign missions. This time his application was accepted. Fr. Edward Cappelletti, director of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, encouraged Bro. John to visit the work of Fr. Javier de Nicoló in Colombia for street children and troubled youths before he came back to the U.S.

So it was that after his ordination he and three other confreres were designated as the first Salesian team for West Africa as the Congregation’s Project Africa was kicking off. Because of some health issues, Fr. John had to wait until March 1980 actually to go to Monrovia. He recalls that the Congregation asked the Salesians of the U.S. to sponsor the Liberian mission, but the provincial and council in New Rochelle declined, in view of other commitments at that time. That’s how Liberia became a mission of the British Province.

(During the rectorate of Fr. Egidio Viganò [1978-1995], the Salesians launched Project Africa, which aimed to increase the Salesian presence and work in Africa, until then confined mainly to the former Belgian colonies in central Africa and South Africa. By 2005, there were 1,145 Salesians in 171 houses in 42 countries. That expansion has continued apace.)

Missions in Liberia, and Civil War

In both Monrovia and then at a new mission in Tappita, Fr. John enjoyed the collaboration of men such as Fr. Larry Gilmore, the late Bro. Bill Regner, and the future martyr lay missionary Sean Devereaux.

Only months after Fr. John’s arrival in Liberia, there was a coup, and a long civil war began. Eventually Fr. John and Fr. Larry had to leave Tappita and return to Monrovia. One of their greatest sorrows was seeing so many people killed, many of them out of tribal rivalries. Fr. John negotiated with the rebels, especially on behalf of prisoners and others in danger, often successfully. But he didn’t hesitate to confront wrongdoing, and sometimes this got him into hot water. He also saw people murdered before his eyes, and on several occasions his own life was at risk.

On several occasions Fr. John met rebel leader Charles Taylor, whom he describes as “a very bad man.” When Taylor was put on trial in The Hague for war crimes, Fr. John was ready to go there and testify against him, but he saw that it wouldn’t be necessary because the man’s guilt was more than evident. Taylor is now serving a 50-year sentence in British custody.

The Salesians were able to return to Tappita in the late 1990s but subsequently had to withdraw again. Only in 2018 were they able to re-open the mission.

Service in Sierra Leone

In 1998, with Liberia still at war, Fr. John was transferred to Sierra Leone, a mission sponsored by the two U.S. provinces. He spent about a year at the original mission in Lungi, then moved over to the capital, Freetown, to start a work for street children, for which he was able to draw on not only his own Salesian instincts but also what he’d observed in Fr. de Nicoló’s project in Colombia. That work became all the more important in the aftermath of Sierra Leone’s civil war, when it helped rehabilitate former child soldiers and other young victims of the war. Once more, the Salesians suffered with their people through a violent civil war (depicted in the film Blood Diamond). From his earlier experience of dealing with rebel forces in Liberia, Fr. John was able to help guide his confreres and their people through this tragedy, although they suffered material losses such as vehicles and equipment.

From that mission the flourishing work of Don Bosco Fambul grew with great support from such local Salesians as Bro. Regner, Fr. Dominic DeBlase, and Fr. Al Mengon (among others). Fr. John remained in Freetown until late 2008 before his transfer to South Africa.

The Salesians of Anglophone West Africa received a great deal of financial support from American Salesians, the U.S. Church, and their own families. Fr. DeBlase, as a former provincial, was also able to influence the Salesian superiors in Rome to direct some considerable funds raised by Salesian Missions of New Rochelle to Sierra Leone for several years because of that country’s dire poverty.

Early Years

Fr. John was born 69 years ago in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father worked for the U.S. Government on the canal. His mother often brought him into Panama City to visit the church of St. John Bosco, Panama’s patron saint, and so young John developed a love for Don Bosco. Two of his brothers went to New York to become Salesian aspirants, and John aspired to follow. Since grade school he’d nurtured a desire to become a priest.

Mr. Thompson was reluctant to let another son venture toward priesthood and religious life. (In fact neither Robert nor George persevered in Salesian life.) Finances were also a factor. But the Knights of Columbus intervened very generously, and thus in 1965 John undertook a long solo journey—by train across the isthmus of Panama, ship to New Orleans, and bus to New York (before there were many interstate highways) to enter Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen, N.Y., as a sophomore. He spent three happy years there before going on to the novitiate in 1968 and making his first profession in 1969.

After graduation from Don Bosco College in Newton, N.J., in 1973, he did practical training at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., and then studied theology at the Josephinum in Columbus from 1975 to 1979.

(Your humble blogger was a schoolmate of John in Goshen, Newton, and Columbus, 2 years ahead of him at each stage.)

What Were the Greatest Challenges as a Missionary?

The first challenge that Fr. John mentioned to his interviewer was health. Malaria was a constant in West Africa. Far more serious, however, were the civil wars, the pain of seeing people killed out of tribal hatred. All the trials of war remind Fr. John of St. Paul’s missionary tribulations—imprisonments, beatings, shipwreck, etc. It also pained him that neither Liberia nor Sierra Leone allows white foreigners to become citizens.

What Were the Greatest Satisfactions?

There was great satisfaction in saving lives during the wars. It’s a matter of pride that the Salesians stayed at their missions throughout. Serving God through the poor and offering his life for them is a precious vocation. Fr. John can’t foresee ever returning to the U.S. to retire but wants to remain on mission until death like our American confreres Fr. Jack Trisolini in Korea, Fr. Harry Peterson in Chile, and Bro. Regner in Sierra Leone.

(On Fr. Jack, see also http://sdl.sdb.org/greenstone/collect/english/index/assoc/HASH0112/d36ef11a.dir/doc.pdf)

FMAs Break Ground for New Chapel

FMAs Break Ground for New Chapel in North Haledon

(North Haledon, N.J. – September 16) – At Mary Help of Christians Academy in North Haledon, the Salesian Sisters broke ground—in symbolic form—on Saturday, September 14, for the reconstruction of St. Joseph Chapel. The old chapel was destroyed by fire on May 18, 2018. In the photo, l-r, are Sr. Domenica DiPeri, who has seen the dedication of three different chapels on the school campus; Sr. Joanne Holloman, provincial; and Sr. Marisa DeRose, MHCA head of school, along with North Haledon’s Mayor George and officials involved in the new construction.

Homily for 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sept. 15, 2019

Ex 32: 7-11, 13-14
1 Tim 1: 12-17
Luke 15: 1-10
St. Anthony, Bronx, N.Y.

“Moses implored the Lord, his God, saying, ‘Why, O Lord, should your wrath blaze up against your own people…?” (Ex 32: 11).

Our Scriptures this morning present us with sin, repentance, and intercession.

Sin:  The Hebrews, just recently liberated from slavery in Egypt, turn to gross idolatry at the very time when Moses is conversing with God their liberator on Mt. Sinai.  You may be familiar with the scene from watching The Ten Commandments.

St. Paul recalls his proud, self-righteous past when he persecuted Christ’s followers:  “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant” (1 Tim 1:13).

Jesus tells parables about a straying sheep and a lost coin, and if we were to read the rest of Luke 15, of 2 lost sons.

We may not be blasphemers or persecutors of Christ’s people, as St. Paul describes himself.  But perhaps we have been idolaters like the Hebrews at Mt. Sinai, worshiping something that isn’t God, making something else the priority of our lives, such as career, money, physical beauty, pleasure, national pride, even such goods as family.

Certainly all of us have at times been straying sheep, foolishly wandering away from the ways of Christ and needing him to come looking for us, to bring us back to safety and good pasture.  We may stray by harboring grudges, speaking ill of a neighbor or a colleague at work, being lazy at work or school, driving recklessly, not taking care of our health, ignoring the needy around us, being indifferent to immoral public policies promoted by politicians and special interests—so many ways in which we may be lost!

Repentance:  But Christ comes looking for us, like the shepherd in the parable, like the woman in the 2d parable, like Jesus knocking Paul onto his tail end and rattling his conscience into a conversion.  Repentance from our sins is always possible while we breathe, and indeed is what God truly desires.  The prayer of Moses turned away his wrath against the idolatrous Hebrews and gave them another chance.  When we examine our behavior and our attitudes, we also get another chance from Jesus our good shepherd, who truly loves us and wants us to be close to him, to be among his flock.  In fact, whoever we are, we’re in constant need of conversion, of fresh repentance and return to God.  Even the Pope goes to confession every other week!

Intercession:  Moses interceded for his people, and God listened to him.  True, Moses enjoyed a very special relationship with God.  The Bible says they talked with each other “face to face, as one man speaks to another” (Ex 33:11).  But God also called sinful, blasphemous, arrogant Paul into an intimate relationship with himself and made him a minister of divine mercy (1 Tim 1:12,16).  Every one of us is invited to a close relationship with Jesus.

We celebrate and nourish that relationship thru the Eucharist.  Because of that relationship, we, as much as Moses and Paul, have the power of intercession before God.  In fact, that’s exactly what we do in the general intercessions at Mass.  If any of you pray the Liturgy of the Hours, you do that daily at Morning and Evening Prayer.  Listen to the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass, which is full of intercessions after the consecration, when all of us unite ourselves to our Lord Jesus present on the altar and pray for the Church and the entire world.  How often someone asks us to pray for her or him—that’s intercession.

So, sisters and brothers, we have great power before God to pray for our friends, for people in need, for the advancement of peace and harmony, for the prevention of or recovery from natural disasters, for countless other causes—not just for the forgiveness of sinners after the example of Moses or for the finding of lost souls as in Jesus’ parables.

Brothers and sisters, examine yourselves and recommit yourselves to follow Christ our Savior.  Then intercede as one of Christ’s faithful followers, that the whole world may be preserved in God’s love.

Interview with Abp. Cristobal Lopez

Abp. Cristobal Lopez, SDB

“The Church of which Francis speaks excites me; it’s my Church”

By Ruben Cruz

(ANS – Rabat, Morocco – September 12) - When Abp. Cristobal Lopez Romero greeted the Pope for the first time in Rome as the newly appointed archbishop of Rabat, Francis told him in a playful tone: “I nominated you after having studied well who you were, but without knowing your face. When I saw your picture in the magazine Vida Nueva, I calmed down a bit.” That initial joke was the starting point of an exercise in trust that was reinforced by the papal trip to Morocco last March, which the Salesian organized in various stages, having acquired a good knowledge of his adopted country.

After just one and a half years as archbishop, you now go on to the scarlet garb of a cardinal. How do you interpret the speed of Pope Francis’s movements?

The Pope wants to strengthen interreligious dialog, and this is another small gesture. The Pope has learned about this Church and wants to make it visible. Even if we are small, we are significant and want to put ourselves in the spotlight so that the other Churches can see what we do and how we live here, and who knows whether they might be able to draw some lessons from it. A third reading is to send us a message of encouragement and approval for our work with all those who are in a state of migration. The fourth interpretation, perhaps more diplomatic, is a wink to the Moroccan people, who showed him their country and are working to spread an Islam that’s open to dialog.

But there must have been something related to you personally.

This appointment, being archbishop of Rabat—the Pope broke with tradition and made Rabat a cardinalate to bring to light a Church that operates silently, but relentlessly.

Your Salesian brothers will be happy for this appointment.

The truth is that it is a joy for the Congregation. If this appointment is in any way my own, I will transfer it to the Congregation, because I am the son of Don Bosco. Every personal glory must be reoriented toward the Congregation.

Finally, what do you want to bring to the Church? What sort of Church do you dream of?

I dream of the only Church that exists: that of Jesus Christ. And I want to contribute through my experience of the Gospel in the most authentic way possible, because I am not the one who draws its lines. The Church of which Francis speaks excites me; it’s my Church, so that I can only collaborate with him to help it become a reality in the best possible way. A poor Church for the poor is the one I endorsed when I made my vows, a Samaritan Church. I’m just a collaborator of the Pope.

Source: www.vidanuevadigital.com 

Salesian Abp. Lopez Romero Named Cardinal

Salesian Abp. Lopez Romero 

Named Cardinal

“My highest title and diploma is to be ‘son of God’”

(ANS - Vatican City – September 2) – After praying the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, September 1, Pope Francis announced a consistory for the creation of 13 new cardinals. Among them, the Pontiff appointed Salesian Archbishop Cristobal Lopez Romero of Rabat, Morocco.

Abp. Lopez’s comment on the appointment was: “I repeat what I already explained when I was appointed bishop: my highest title and diploma is to be ‘son of God,’ and I obtained it through Baptism. Like most of you, I’ve already attained the highest honor; I can’t go higher or be promoted, because one can’t be more than a child of God.”

Abp. Lopez Romero was born May 19, 1952, in Velez-Rubio, Spain; he made his novitiate in Godelleta, professed his first vows on August 16, 1968, followed by perpetual vows on August 2, 1974, after which he was ordained on May 19, 1979.

He served the Salesian Congregation in multiple ways and in various geographical areas. Following ordination he provided pastoral ministry to the marginalized in Barcelona; he was director of the Salesian Bulletin of Asuncion, Paraguay (1991-1992); then superior of three different provinces: Paraguay (1994-2000), Bolivia (2011-2014), and Seville, Spain (2014-2017). In between, from 2003 to 2011, he also gained the experience of director of the community and head of the parish and school ministry in the vocational training center in Kenitra, Morocco. Precisely in virtue of this service, and of the good relations he developed with the Christian and Muslim religious leaders in Morocco, on December 29, 2017, Pope Francis appointed him archbishop of Rabat. In this capacity, he accompanied the Holy Father throughout his apostolic journey to Morocco last March.

On the day of his appointment, in which the liturgy recalled, “The greater you become, the more humble you should be” (Sir 3:18), Abp. Lopez wrote on his Facebook page: 

Dear friends ... I would have wanted to answer all the messages I received.... But I give up: they are so many! ... I would like every greeting to become a prayer for the Pope, for the Church, for this diocese of Rabat, and for my person. I thank Pope Francis for the deference he has shown me, and I intend to continue to serve the Church by helping her with everything she needs....

I reiterate what I already explained when I was appointed bishop: my highest title and diploma is that of being “son of God,” and I obtained it in Baptism. Like most of you, I’ve already attained the highest honor; I can’t go higher or be promoted, because one can’t be more than a child of God.”

Being bishop, priest, cardinal, Pope ...  is nothing but a concrete service rendered to the Church and in the Church.... But it doesn’t put you above anyone....

The responsibility received overwhelms and overcomes me, but I’m counting on the One who began his work in me to bring it a happy end.

Let your kingdom come!”

Homily for 23d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
23d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sept. 6, 1998

Luke 14: 25-33

Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Will he not first sit down and calculate the outlay?” (Lk 14: 28).

One of the many images that has stuck with me from my months on Grand Bahama[1] is the unfinished cement-block house:  the walls halfway up or even all the way up, no floor poured, scrub brush starting to sprout within.  Every time I saw one—and there were many—I thought of today’s parable about building.

Bro. Andy, I’m sure, can appreciate its architectural angle.  Before he draws up plans, he wants to know what’s budgeted for the project.  (Or he tells the provincial what the project will cost, and the provincial tells the treasurer to find the money.)

We’ve all seen happens in the province when we don’t calculate our outlays and our income honestly and realistically.  Secular history provides plenty of examples of leaders who miscalculated their abilities to win a battle or a war, e.g., Hitler’s invasion of Russia or our efforts in Vietnam.

Jesus uses these 2 little parables to illustrate his main point.  Before becoming his disciples, we ought to calculate what it will cost us and whether we’re willing to pay the price, whether we have the strength.

In 1939 a young Lutheran pastor and scholar from Germany, previously a student at Union Theological Seminary in New York, was on a speaking tour in America.  He had already been speaking out against the Nazis, and in 1937 published a book called The Cost of Discipleship.  With war imminent he decided to cut short his tour and return home, to the consternation of his New York friends.  He had to take a stand in Germany as an authentic disciple rather than remain here safely.  Before the war was over, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested and executed.  He took his discipleship and its price absolutely seriously.

When Thomas Aquinas wanted to become a Dominican, his family tried every means available, including imprisonment and gross temptation, to turn him away from his vocation.  Many another saint, like Francis of Assisi, has been disowned by his family for becoming a religious or, like Elizabeth Seton, for becoming a Catholic.

Such choices lay very much before the people of the 1st century, the people for whom Luke undertook to write down in an orderly sequence whatever Jesus had done and taught (cf. 1:1-4).  Both pagans and Jews who accepted the Gospel risked being cast out by their parents and families.  “If anyone comes to me without turning his back on his father and mother, his wife and his children, his brothers and sisters …, he cannot be my follower” (14:26).

Every Christian knew how Christ had borne his cross and been nailed to it.  Many of the faithful must have witnessed criminals on their way thru the streets or along the roads to execution.  All of them knew they risked being imprisoned and put to death if the emperor put out an anti-Christian decree or if some wave of hysteria caught up the community where they lived.  “Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (14:27).

Jesus speaks to you and me, brothers, on 2 levels.  He addresses us as disciples, as his followers who have been baptized and confirmed, who commune with his Body and Blood.  He addresses us also as religious, men who have turned our discipleship into a profession.

As disciples today we don’t have to turn our backs on our parents and relatives, and gone are the days when Don Bosco would caution us against returning to our families and native places lest our vocations or even our salvation be imperiled.[2]  But the point remains:  Is Jesus the 1st person in our lives?  Is there any personal attachment that distracts us from following him wholeheartedly?  any person or family more important to us than Christ’s Church and the Salesian Society?  any office or habit or object of which we are so possessive that it impedes our discipleship or our practice of obedience, chastity, or poverty?

Jesus tells us that we must turn our backs on our very selves in order to follow him.  How often the practice of Christian charity or fraternal love for a confrere requires that we swallow our pride, submit our opinions to the judgment of another, lay aside our own convenience to serve someone!  Persecution is no longer the order of the day for Christ’s followers in most parts of the world.  But, as the Introduction to the Constitutions used to say, “the merit of one who takes the vows is equal to that of one who undergoes martyrdom, because what the vows lack in intensity is made up by duration.”[3]  I think the same is true of day-to-day self-denial, trying daily to put aside our own egoism and desire for comfort in order to live with and love one another.

We admire a confrere who assists someone who is sick or who gives his time or energy to perform some community service or who spends himself tirelessly for young people.  This is not because we admire philanthropy but because we see the confrere carrying the cross with Jesus.  Someone who’s never satisfied with the food or the furnishings or the fraternity displeases us because he doesn’t know how to deny himself.

So each of us needs from time to time to remember what our Baptism means and why we signed up with Don Bosco.  We can add up the outlay and recalculate the odds of victory.  The cost hasn’t changed in 25 or 50 years; but now it’s real and not theoretical.  The odds of victory haven’t changed either.  Jesus is still our Risen Savior, and Don Bosco still promises us bread, work, and paradise.

---

         [1] As acting pastor of St. Vincent de Paul, Hunter, and St. Agnes, Eight Mile Rock, from Nov. 30, 1993, to the first week of June 1994—a very happy exper-ience which at this time (early September 2019 after Hurricane Dorian) leaves me feeling for and praying for my friends there.

[2] See, e.g., BM 12:7, 259; cf. “Introduction to the Constitutions (1957), pp. 12-15.

[3] Ibid., p. 24.