Homily for Thursday, Week 30 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
30th Week of Ordinary Time

Oct. 31, 2024
Eph 6: 10-20
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power” (Eph 6: 10).

Today Paul paints a dark picture of the world we live in—perhaps as dark today as it was in his time and place—a world ruled in large part by the powers of darkness.  It’s dark in Gaza and Lebanon; in Ukraine, Sudan, the eastern Congo, Nigeria; in the South China Sea, in the worlds of drug cartels and human trafficking; even in an election in which the Pope advises us to choose the lesser evil—which means still to choose evil (unless you want to cast a protest vote for a 3d party; there’s one whose platform aligns with Catholic social teaching).

Nevertheless, the Pope continues to preach hope, which is the theme for the coming Jubilee Year.  We have hope because the armor of God (6:11) protects us; faith shields us (6:16).  By the mighty power of the Word of God—enfleshed into our world in the person of Jesus Christ—we are “able to stand firm against the tactics of the Devil” (6:17,11).

The tactics of the Devil won momentarily in the Sanhedrin, the court of Pontius Pilate, and Calvary.  But the strategic victory is revealed in “the mystery of the Gospel” (6:19), in the power of Christ’s resurrection.

Prayer by Antoni Piotrowski

For God’s help, we rely upon prayer:  “With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit” (6:18).  That’s a vital ministry of God’s people, whom the Fathers of the Church call the soul of the world—the world’s life, the world’s hope.  We place our confidence in him who is the light that overcomes the darkness of the Devil and his world.

Homily for 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Oct. 27, 2024
Creed
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

This is the 5th, final homily in a series on the Nicene Creed, preached in alternating weeks in the 2 parishes.

“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life” (Nicene Creed).

Bernini's Holy Spirit

2 weeks ago we began to consider the 3d Person of the Holy Trinity.  I quoted a writer who calls the Holy Spirit is “the effective presence and power of God among humans.”^[1]  His presence and power are spelled out in the last paragraph of the Creed.

This final section is the 4th that begins “I believe,” after the sections on “one God,” “one Lord Jesus Christ,” and “the Holy Spirit.”

“I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”  The Church is one, bound in a unity by the Holy Spirit even tho she’s also diverse—not only among the hundreds of nations and peoples of the world, but also in 24 different rites with their particular laws, customs, languages, and liturgies.  We belong to the Latin Rite, by far the largest in numbers.  There are also Byzantine, Maronite, Melkite, Syro-Malabar, Coptic and 18 other “Eastern Rites,” all united by the Catholic faith and the authority of the Pope, all united by the Holy Spirit.^[2]  Many of our prayers to God the Father, you’ve noticed, end with the phrase “through our Lord Jesus, your Son, who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit.”  As we noted 2 weeks ago, the Spirit is the bond of unity between the Father and the Son; he’s also the bond of unity between the Church and the Trinity and between all the members of the Church.  We are the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Further, it’s the Holy Spirit who guides our prayer, as St. Paul teaches in his Letter to the Romans:  “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we don’t know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep for words.  And the one who searches hearts knows what’s the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will” (8:26-27).  The Spirit unites us with the Father and the Son in our prayer.

Unfortunately, Christians aren’t completely united.  That’s been a problem since earliest Christianity.  Some reject a truth of the faith like the divinity of Christ or Christ’s working thru the sacraments; others reject the unifying office of the Holy Father.  St. John XXIII called the 2d Vatican Council, which met in 4 sessions between 1962 and 1965, in part to seek ways to reunite all Christ’s followers.  We’re still working on that.

The Spirit makes the Church holy because the Spirit conveys the grace of God to us.  We’re not professing that there are no sinners in the Church.  Lord knows there are, starting with you and me.  But when the Spirit pours God’s sacramental grace upon us, he renders us holy and eligible for eternal life.  More on that momentarily.

The Church is catholic, with a small c.  That’s from the Greek word for universal.  Jesus, Mary, the apostles, and the 1st believers were all Jewish.  But the Church isn’t just for the Jews.  It’s for every race and nation, like the Gospel itself—“from the rising of the sun to its setting,” in the words of the prophet Malachi (1:11) and the 3d Eucharistic Prayer.

And the Church is apostolic.  As St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, she’s “founded upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone” (2:20).  She continues to be guided by the apostles’ successors, the bishops, and by the work of the Holy Spirit infallibly preserves the apostolic faith—which the Holy Father, successor of St. Peter, guarantees.

Next, we “confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins.”  This brings us back to the sanctifying work of the Spirit.  Jesus teaches that to enter the kingdom of God we must be “born of water and Spirit” (John 3:5), i.e., washed in Baptism, which confers the Holy Spirit upon us, makes us children of God by our relationship to Christ, and unites us to Christ’s saving death and resurrection.  Baptism and the other 6 sacraments convey God’s grace to us; the Eucharist and others renew the forgiveness that began when we were 1st washed clean.  In the Eucharistic Prayer, listen to how the Spirit is invoked as we pray that our bread and wine be changed into the body and blood of Christ and we be firmly united to God thru Christ. 

The forgiveness of the sins we commit after Baptism is particularly renewed in the sacrament of Reconciliation, which we sinners need on a regular basis.  How good Jesus is; he came to call not the just but sinners (Matt 9:13), and he makes himself available to us so easily thru his priestly ministers.^[3]

In truth, there’s only one Christian priest, Jesus Christ, whom the Letter to the Hebrews speaks of in today’s 2d reading (5:5-6).  All others whom we call priests and bishops only exercise Christ’s ministry; they act “in the person of Christ” by the great gift and call of the Holy Spirit, conferred by the laying on of a bishop’s hands, anointing with sacred chrism, and prayer.

Finally, we “look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”  We’ll all die, as Christ died.  But by the power of his resurrection, he’ll restore to life all who are united to him by the Holy Spirit, “the Lord, the giver of life.”  Not only our souls but our whole persons, body and soul, are meant for eternal life, for heaven, for unending happiness.  St. Paul writes to the Romans, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has made his home in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies thru his Spirit living in you” (8:11).

I used to joke when I was a lot younger that heaven would be an eternity of ice cream and baseball.  (That might not be good news for Yankees fans right now.^[4])  Now I think it’ll be far, far better than that!  It’ll be a homecoming among all who love us most tenderly, starting with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

“This is our faith.  This is the faith of the Church.  We are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

---

[1] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters (New York: Doubleday, 2003), p. 158.

[2] We might also consider the Anglican Ordinariate of Catholics who have converted from the Anglican or Episcopal Churches a distinct rite.

[3] Jesus says there’s only one unforgiveable sin:  “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin” (Mark 3:29).  If the Spirit is the giver of forgiveness and one curses the Spirit, rejects him, or calls his work evil—then how can that person be forgiven?  If the Spirit guides our prayer to God and we reject the Spirit, how can we come to God?  Unless one repents, of course.  As long as we’re in this life, we can turn back to God, who will never reject a prayer that the Holy Spirit come to us.

[4] They lost to the Dodgers last nite to go down 2-0 in the World Series.

Homily for Thursday, Week 29 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
29th Week of Ordinary Time

Oct. 24, 2024
Luke 12: 49-53
Missionaries of Charity, Bronx

In this morning’s gospel, Jesus makes 2 points.  1st, he wants to set the world on fire, and he’ll do that thru his baptism.  2d, he’ll cause division in families.

St. Patrick lights the Paschal fire
for the 1st time in Ireland

Jesus’ baptism is his passion.  He spoke of that just last Sunday in his dialog with James and John (Mark 10:35-40).  God’s love so evidenced fires human hearts to love God and to extend God’s love to others—which is what Mother Teresa, and indeed all the saints, did so well.

Jesus’ purpose, of course, isn’t division.  But when hearts are fired with his love, that stirs up opposition, as in his own case, which Isaiah foretold in the prophecies of the Suffering Servant, and Simeon when Jesus was presented in the Temple:  “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed” (Luke 2:34).  It continues to happen in history, especially in the lives of the saints.  The early virgin martyrs like Agnes aroused family opposition by their dedication to Christ.  Elizabeth Seton was disowned by most of her family and her deceased husband’s family when she converted to Catholicism.  Thomas Aquinas’s family locked him up to try to block his vocation to the Dominicans (obviously, he escaped).  John of the Cross’s confreres imprisoned him because he was reforming the Carmelites (some brothers!).  Today’s saint, Anthony Claret, dodged an assassination and was compelled to resign as archbishop of Santiago, Cuba, because of his attempts to reform the archdiocese.

Committing ourselves to Christ warms our hearts and empowers us to worship God our Father and do good for others.  It doesn’t forestall misunderstandings, opposition, and division, even within the Church, even within religious houses, even among people of good will.

But God will triumph thru Christ, for he “is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20).

Salesian Missions' Donors Fund Learning Tools

Salesian Missions’ Donors Fund Learning Tools

Tools benefit more than 700 students in India

(ANS – Chennai [Madras], India – October 22, 2024) – Don Bosco Higher Secondary School, located in Perambur, Chennai, India, purchased 15 sets of interactive intelligent panel boards to facilitate a more dynamic and engaging learning environment for students. The boards were purchased thanks to donor funding from Salesian Missions in New Rochelle.

The boards have been installed for classes in 8th, 9th, and 11th grades as well as the audio-video hall for staff. This new technology will have an impact on more than 700 youths. Most of the students are from challenging family situations. The technology will also support 63 staff. On special occasions, other classes will have access to this technology.

One young student said that he found it easier to concentrate and grasp concepts better thanks to the new boards. Other students have voiced the same opinion. Salesians report that many students thanked the school management for having brought about this enhancement into the classroom. Parents have also been pleased.

One Salesian said, “Don Bosco Higher Secondary School has taken steps to sustain engagement and inquisitiveness with improved comprehension levels. The methodology of teaching is interactive and enjoyable. During parent-teacher association meetings, the parents have expressed happiness about the educational progress of their children and the improvement of their exam grades. Given the success of these interactive boards, we plan to expand this technology to all 42 classrooms in the school.”

India has the world’s 4th largest economy, but more than 22% of the country lives in poverty. About 31% of the world’s multidimensionally poor children live in India, according to a report by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.

India’s young people face a lack of educational opportunities due to issues of caste, class, and gender. Almost 44% of the workforce is illiterate, and less than 10% of the working-age population has completed a secondary education. In addition, many secondary school graduates do not have the knowledge and skills to compete in today’s changing job market.

Source: Mission Newswire

Homily for Memorial of St. John Paul II

Homily for the Memorial of
St. John Paul II
Tuesday, 29th Week of Ordinary Time

Oct. 22, 2024
Collect
Eph 2: 12-22
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.  

“You were … without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2: 12).

Paul’s addressing Gentile Christians, former pagans, worshippers of Zeus, Athena, and other Greek divinities, aliens to the covenant between God and Israel.  They didn’t know the one God of the universe and thus were “without hope and without God in the world.”

“But,” Paul goes on, “now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near by the blood of Christ” (2:13).  They were once far away from both God, whom they didn’t know and whom perhaps they had offended by their pagan lifestyles, and far away from a covenant relationship with God.  Now Christ’s offer of grace thru his sacrificial death has brought Gentiles, too, into the covenant.

St. John Paul’s entire ministry as priest, bishop, and Pope was one of reconciliation, of inviting people into Christ’s embrace.  “Be not afraid!  Open wide the door to Christ!”  Christ is “rich in mercy” (cf. Collect) and as “the sole Redeemer of mankind” (Collect) offers saving grace to young people and to couples sanctified by marriage; two of his lasting legacies are World Youth Day and his theology of the body.  He forged a new relationship with our elder Jewish brothers and sisters, who remain people of the covenant.  John Paul even addressed the alienation of his would-be assassin.

We’ve been “instructed by his teaching” (Collect).  His writings merit the title Doctor of the Church, which I expect will be bestowed upon him eventually.  His entire sacrificial life, his travels, his energy, his labors for human liberation (both spiritual and political), and his joy also were instructive.  All together induce many to call him John Paul the Great.

He displayed boundless love for Christ and Christ’s people, notably the young, who felt a special kinship with him.  Just recall mobs of youths at WYD shouting, “JP2, we love you,” and the crowd that stuffed via della Conciliazione on the evening of his death, chanting, “Santo subito!”  (As a university student, Karol Wojtyla learned youth ministry from his Salesian pastors at St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Krakow.)

JPII with youngsters at Becchi, Don Bosco's birthplace

John Paul taught us that we don’t find true life or true freedom in capitalism or socialism but in worshiping God and loving our neighbor.  “The Lord speaks of peace to his people” (Ps 85:9); Christ reconciles and makes peace when we open our doors to him and focus fearlessly on him.  We live joyfully because Christ loves us with tender mercy and redeems us.

Homily for Mission Sunday

Homily for Mission Sunday

Oct. 20, 2024
Matt 22: 1-10
The Fountains, Tuckahoe, N.Y.      

“Go out into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find” (Matt 22: 9).

For Mission Sunday today, Pope Francis published a 4-page message, based on the gospel parable that we just read, the parable of the wedding feast.

Parable of the Wedding Feast
(Paolo Veronese)

In his message, the Holy Father makes 3 points:  1) “Go and invite”—mission is a tireless going out to invite others to the Lord’s banquet.  2) “To the marriage feast”—the mission of Christ and the Church points to the Eucharist and to heaven.  3) “Everyone”—Christ wants every man and woman invited and welcomed at his feast, in the Church and in eternity.

1. Jesus sent his followers to make disciples of all nations, bringing his Good News to the ends of the earth until the end of time.  As we pray in the 3d Eucharistic Prayer, “from the rising of the sun to its setting,” God wants a “pure sacrifice offered” to his name.  Pope Francis reminds us that every disciple of Jesus is a missionary.  All of us have a mission to go into the main roads, at least figuratively, to invite people to come to the Lord’s wedding feast.

You, of course, aren’t going to go out to Africa, Asia, or the Pacific islands to preach the Gospel.  You are to preach it here at The Fountains—by the example of your lives, by being honest, kind, generous, respectful; and perhaps by inviting someone to come to church with you.  The Pope says, “with closeness, compassion, and tenderness, and in this way reflecting God’s own way of being and acting.”

2. A banquet is an image of heaven.  The prophet Isaiah tells of “the Lord of hosts providing for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines” on his holy mountain, at Jerusalem, sign of God’s kingdom (25:6).  Jesus uses the wedding banquet image in the parable we heard and also speaks of the master who seats his faithful servants to dinner and waits on them (Luke 12:37).  The Eucharist is our foretaste of the banquet to which Jesus invites us in God’s kingdom; it’s the feast set for us every week while we’re pilgrims on our way to eternity, until “all of us will be with Christ at his wedding feast in the kingdom of God,” Francis writes.  The Eucharist now is already “the marriage feast of the Lamb of God” (Rev 19:9), which we acclaim just before Holy Communion:  “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”

3. Christ invites everyone to his marriage feast.  The Holy Father quotes St. Paul’s 1st Letter to Timothy:  “God our Savior wills that everyone be saved and come to knowledge of the truth” (2:4).  Thru Christ and thru missionary disciples, God invites everyone to share in his grace.  His call doesn’t depend on our worthiness; in the parable, “the servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests” (Matt 22:10).  God has even invited us!  His grace, his mercy, his forgiveness transform us.  So, let’s celebrate the wedding of the King’s Son, our Lord Jesus, and lets encourage others to come to the feast.

Updates on the Salesian Plan of Formation

Updates on the Salesian Plan of Formation

by Fr. Ivo Coelho, SDB
General Councilor for Formation

Archive photo

(ANS – Rome – October 17, 2024) – A group of 14 Salesians is meeting at Salesian headquarters in Rome from October 18 to November 3 to work on the draft of the 5th edition of Ratio Fundamentalis, the basic plan for formation for Salesians of Don Bosco. The group consists of representatives from each of the regions, the Pontifical Salesian University, and the members of the Congregation’s Formation Department.

The improved text will be presented to the new Rector Major during General Chapter 29. He will decide how and when to promulgate it.

After having studied the text over three sessions (summer 2023, winter 2023-2024, and summer 2024), the Rector Major at the time, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, and his general council decided to submit it to the scrutiny of a team of confreres (cf. letter of the Rector Major to provincials, July 13, 2024, prot. 24/0362) for fine-tuning and final drafting.

The work on the Ratio is a response to the Rector Major’s invitation to the Formation Department to carry out “a serious and demanding work of updating the Ratio” (GC28, p. 34). The department has been working since 2020, with multiple consultations over the whole Congregation. It currently has versions in two languages, English and Italian.

The last major revision of the Ratio dates back to 2000. The two partial revisions carried out in 2009 and 2012 were incorporated into the 4th edition, 2016.

The 2000 booklet "Criteria and norms of Salesian vocational discernment" is now incorporated into the new draft of the Ratio. The "Guidelines on Salesian Studies" (2005), duly updated, will be included as one of the 10 appendices.

Homily for Memorial of North American Martyrs

Homily for the Memorial of the
North American Martyrs
Saturday, Week 28 of Ordinary Time 

Oct. 19, 2024
Collect
Eph 1: 15-23
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Revision of a 2019 homily, also at the provincial house. Only 2 of the confreres who might have heard it then were present today.

I’ve heard that Canada claims these 8 heroic Jesuits as “the Canadian martyrs.”  In truth, they were all Frenchmen on the Jesuits’ Canadian mission.  Some, like John de Brebeuf, had been in Canada for over 20 years; others had been there only a year or 2.  Six were priests, 2 lay missionary volunteers.

Interior of the North American Martyrs Shrine
Auriesville, N.Y.

Five—Brebeuf, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, Gabriel Lalement, and Noel Chabanel—shed their blood in what’s now Ontario.  There’s a beautiful shrine to them at Midland, along with a re-creation of a Huron village and Jesuit mission.  As we know, the other 3—Isaac Jogues, René Goupil, and John de Lalande—died at Auriesville, N.Y., where their blood a few years later seeded the faith of Catherine Tekakwitha.

We’ve all heard news stories introduced with a caution like, “Some listeners may find the details disturbing.”  That’s true of the tortures to which these priests and laymen were subjected:  running the gauntlet, fingernails torn out, parts of fingers sawed off with clamshells, being “baptized” with boiling water, having a necklace of red-hot tomahawks put upon them.  Being dispatched by arrows like Fr. Daniel or tomahawk like Lalande almost sounds merciful.

On one winter occasion while Brebeuf and a companion were sheltering in a longhouse, a chief ordered them, “Go out and leave our country, or we will put you into a kettle and make a feast of you.”[1]

These missionaries didn’t suffer all that for love of the forests, rivers, and lakes of New France but for love of God and zeal for souls.

Shedding one’s blood so gruesomely wasn’t the only witness to love for Christ that Jesuit, as well as Franciscan, missioners displayed in Canada and lands that we know today as New York, Maine, and the Midwest.  In Don Bosco’s introduction to our Constitutions, he tells us that religious suffer a martyrdom of endurance in contrast to the intensity which blood martyrs suffer.  A good many of the Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries in New France endured at length—endured insufferable cold, hunger, choking smoke in Indian longhouses, insects, days of travel by canoe, fatigue, the loneliness of going months without seeing a confrere, struggles with language, insults, the poor moral example of some of their countrymen who trapped and traded among the First Nations.

One Franciscan missionary left this report of a voyage up the Ottawa River:  “It would be hard to tell you how tired I was with paddling all day, with all my strength, among the Indians; wading the rivers a hundred times and more, through the mud and over the sharp rocks that cut my feet; carrying the canoe and luggage through the woods to avoid the rapids and frightful cataracts; and half starved all the while, for we had nothing to eat but a little sagamite, a sort of porridge of water and pounded maize, of which they gave us a very small allowance every morning and night.  But I must needs tell you what abundant consolation I found under all my troubles; for when one sees so many infidels needing nothing but a drop of water to make them children of God, one feels an inexpressible ardor to labor for their conversion, and sacrifice to it one’s repose and life.”[2]

Some missionaries died heroically without shedding their blood.  Fr. Anne de Nouë froze to death in a winter storm while trying to reach a French outpost to celebrate the sacraments for the soldiers.  Fr. Jacques Marquette, renowned for exploring the Mississippi River and having a Jesuit university named for him, died almost alone on the shore of Lake Michigan and was buried in an unmarked grave.

U.S. postage stamp, 1968

Some shed blood without having their cause as martyrs put forward.  There is one cause of martyrdom underway for 5 Franciscans murdered in 1597 by natives in what’s now Georgia,[3] claimed at the time by Spain as part of Florida.  Many others were killed by Indians they visited in the Midwest and Southwest.

Back in New France, Fr. Joseph Bressani, a Jesuit, was captured by the Iroquois and horribly mutilated and tortured but not killed; eventually he was ransomed by the Dutch at Albany—and after recovering from his wounds, returned to the Huron mission.[4]  Fr. Sebastien Râle was a missionary among the Abenaki in what’s now Maine for 30-something years.  He converted most of the tribe and was totally devoted to them.  Their territory was in the borderlands between New France and New England, and he defended their independence from both French and English intrusions during the endless colonial wars.  The Massachusetts English blamed Fr. Râle when the Abenaki sided with the French in the wars and, with their passionate hatred for both the French and Catholics, put a price on his head.  In 1724 they slew him in an assault on his Abenaki mission.[5]

The death of Fr. Rale
Thomas W. Strong, lithograph (public domain)

Truly, all of these priests and lay volunteers were North American martyrs, even if only 8 have been canonized.  They suffered all their hardships and danger in order to enlighten the eyes of native hearts and reveal to them the hope that belongs to the call of Jesus Christ and the riches of the glory we inherit thru him (cf. Eph 1:18); they made it their mission to “acknowledge the Son of Man before others” (Luke 12:8).

That’s their example to us who don’t expect to be tortured or tomahawked.  In the collect we prayed “that thru their intercession the faith of Christians may be strengthened day by day.”  Every day we have the opportunity to witness to the Lord Jesus and to the faith in our struggles—struggles with our various personalities, with perceived shortcomings, with the weather, with household breakdowns, with plans that go awry, with impatience with our own sins and failings, with the effort to be faithful to our vows, with the hard work of administration, etc.  Our witness helps support our brothers—and also the lay people and students who see and hear us and count upon our good example as well as our prayers.  Several nites a week we hear the names of deceased confreres whom we lived with, and some of us have read of the struggles of the Salesian pioneers of North America.  We admire their heroic example, for they were contemporary North American martyrs, witnesses to the Lord Jesus and our faith.  May the grace of Christ strengthen us to be genuine witnesses to him.

---

[1] Quoted by Francis Parkman, The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, vol. 2 of Parkman’s “France and England in North America,” vol. I, The Library of America (New York, 1983), p. 501.

[2] Fr. Joseph le Caron, quoted by Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World, vol. 1 of “France and England in North America,” vol. I, The Library of America, p. 287.

[3] HOME - The Georgia Martyrs

[4] Parkman, The Jesuits in North America, pp. 576-579.

[5] Brian O’Neel, 150 North American Martyrs You Should Know (Cincinnati: Servant Books, 2014), pp. 80-83.  Cf. Francis Parkman, A Half Century of Conflict, vol. 6 of “France and England in North America,” vol. II, The Library of America (New York, 1983), pp. 477-501.

Homily for Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Ignatius of Antioch

Oct. 17, 2024
Collect
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“The glorious passion of St. Ignatius of Antioch … brought him eternal splendor” (Collect).

The splendor that Christ bestowed upon Ignatius follows from his total self-giving to Christ.  Why he had to be transported to Rome instead of being executed in Antioch, I don’t know.  But being in Rome meant his faith received greater exposure, greater splendor.

Ignatius feared that some Christians in the capital might use their influence to obtain his release.  He pleaded with them not to do so:  “show me no untimely kindness,” he wrote.  He saw his passage to God thru his coming martyrdom in the arena.  He saw that by being devoured by wild beasts he would become Christ’s pure bread; he was wheat to be ground by their teeth.  He asked Roman believers, “Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.”[1]

We also are Christ’s wheat being ground into fine flour for pure bread—not by lions or tigers but by daily life.  Have you ever thought of your life as a grind?

In days past, lesson plans, papers to be graded, department meetings, and parent conferences were a grind.  Now we may be ground down by pain, depression, people who complain, someone who tells the same stories over and over, thoughts of mortality, or guilt for our sins.

Ignatius embraced his beasts, so to say.  May his example and his prayers help us to embrace our daily lives and offer them as sacrifices to Christ.

---

[1] Letter to the Romans, LOH 4:1490.

Homily for Tuesday, Week 28 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
28th Week of Ordinary Time

Oct. 15, 2024
Gal 5: 1-6
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, N.R.

“For freedom Christ set us free” (Gal 5: 1).

Christ has freed us and means for us to remain free.

Paul tells his friends in Galatia not to “submit again to the yoke of slavery” (5:1) and then goes on to identify that yoke with circumcision and full observance of the Law of Moses.

He says elsewhere that the Law is holy and good (Rom 7:12,16).  Observing the commandments, keeping the rules, is good.

But such observance has its limits.  It can become mechanical rather than heartfelt, like the way the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal obeyed his father (Luke 15:29-30) or like the attitude of those who objected to Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath (e.g., Mark 3:1-6).

Further, Paul has noted elsewhere, no one can possibly keep all the commandments of the Law perfectly.  Everyone sins.  If the Law is the way to life and we break the Law, where does that leave us?

Dependent on divine mercy!  So Paul champions Jesus Christ, who offers us grace, not Law.  Jesus sets us free from sin and from divine wrath undeservedly, and he means for us to stay free.  His forgiveness is eternal, so often as we need it.  God knows we need it!

Jesus also sets us free to love—not like that elder brother in the parable, who apparently didn’t love his father but slavishly obeyed him.  Jesus, “working thru love” (Gal 5:6), sets us free to respond lovingly to his kindness so that we, too, can work thru love.  We have faith that his love changes our hearts and, as Jesus himself says, draws us to himself (John 12:32).

Province Celebrates 20 Jubilarians

Province Celebrates 20 Jubilarians

Jubilarians with Fr. Hugo Orozco: l-r, Frs. Nazzaro, Heuser, Blanco,
and Orozco; Bro. Pasaik; Frs. Twardzik and Ryan; Bro. Van der Velden

On Saturday, October 12, the New Rochelle Province celebrated 20 priest and brother jubilarians.  This year 11 Salesians celebrated a major anniversary of their religious profession, 7 celebrated a major ordination anniversary, and 2 celebrated both profession and priestly anniversaries. 

The double jubilarians are Fr. Georges Parent of Montreal, 70 years professed and 60 years ordained, and Fr. Drago Gacnik of Hamilton, Ont., 50 years professed and 40 years ordained.

SDBs celebrating profession anniversaries:
Bros. Henry Van der Velden and Richard Pasaik;
Frs. Frank Twardzik, Steve Ryan, and John Nazzaro

Celebrating a marvelous 70 years of profession also are Bros. Henry Van der Velden of Haverstraw, Marcel Gauthier of Sherbrooke, Que., and Jim Wiegand of Ramsey, N.J.

Fr. Frank Kelly of Etobicoke, Ont., Bro. Richard Pasaik of Haverstraw, and Fr. Frank Twardzik of Haverstraw have reached 65 years as professed Salesians.

Professed for 60 years is Fr. Tom Gwozdz of Tampa, and for 50 years Frs. Mario Villaraza of Edmonton, Alta., and John Nazzaro of Orange, N.J. Fr. Steve Ryan of Marrero, La., is professed 40 years.  Fr. Chinnapparaj Desam at Edmonton has been professed 25 years.

Ordination jubilarians:
Fr. John Blanco, 60 years, and Fr. Jim Heuser, 40 years

The ordination jubilarians include Fr. John Blanco of Ramsey, 60 years; Frs. Bruce Craig and Bill Keane of Tampa, 50 years; Frs. Larry Gilmore of Lungi, Sierra Leone, Jim Heuser of New Rochelle, and Luc Lantagne of Montreal, 40 years; and Fr. Mike Pace of the motherhouse in Turin, 25 years.

The 13 profession jubilarians have accumulated among them 750 years of Salesian life; the 9 ordination jubilarians, 405 years of priesthood.

Fr. Jim Heuser reflects:  “I consider my life a story of undeserved grace, of a genuine experience of the saving love of God that continues to unfold for me one day at a time.  The call to serve others through Word and sacrament has been a thread running through my various assignments to vocation and formation work, high school animation, and community and province leadership.  I can only be grateful as I renew my ordination motto:  ‘Father, not my will but yours be done.’ (Mark 14:36)”

Fr. John Nazzaro recalls: “After meeting the Salesians at the Salesian Boys Club in East Boston, I saw their kindness, faith, and just wanting to be present with us young people.  I fell in love with the spirit of St. John Bosco, which was and has been the discerning factor in my life.  It’s a blessed gift to be an instrument in young people’s lives, bringing them closer to Jesus and Mary.”

Fr. Steve Ryan considers himself blessed because “being called to the religious life in Don Bosco’s family has been a great thing.  I still have great energy and enthusiasm for the education and evangelization of young people.  I feel very blessed to be able to celebrate the sacraments with the young, teach theology class, give Good Mornings, play sports with the boys, and just be with them daily.  The older I get, the more grateful I am for friends who have supported me and our mission for all these years.”

Fr. Mario Villaraza has found that “being a Salesian for 50 years means being joyful: having a deep relationship with Christ and spreading that same joy that comes from him.  I witnessed that joy in the many holy Salesians I encountered since childhood. I now realize and understand beneath those smiles were many sufferings—the reality of life; yet they persevered.  Their joy was because of Christ.  My dream is to be like them, like Don Bosco—joyful in the midst of trials.”

Of his Salesian life Fr. Frank Twardzik writes: “The vow of obedience has been my peace and joy and my love of Jesus crucified—[who is] obedience perfected.  This crown of obedience has sent me to serve in the beautiful, holy Byzantine Rite to people I have loved forever—young, old, sick and suffering and our dear deceased and all the several bishops—all of whom I remember daily in my Divine Liturgies!  The truly wonderful parishioners and our beloved young people are what I treasure in my old age.”

Only Bros. Van der Velden and Pasaik and Frs. Twardzik, Blanco, Nazzaro, Ryan, and Heuser were able to take part in the celebration at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw and Town & Country Caterers in Congers.  The other jubilarians were impeded by age, distance, weekend duties, or Hurricane Milton.

Fr. Hugo Orozco, regional councilor for Interamerica, presided at Mass.  The 5 priest jubilarians and another 30 Salesians concelebrated.  Also participating were 14 other Salesians and candidates, 1 Salesian sister, numerous Cooperators, and families and friends of the jubilarians.  Catherine Ramirez provided sacred music.

Fr. Dominic Tran, provincial, preached a 3-point homily on the theme of covenant.  His 1st point was that God takes the initiative in making a covenant with humans.  His 2d, that God always keeps his side of the covenant.  He promises to save us from our sins, and he’s done that through Jesus Christ.  As the responsorial psalm acknowledged, he remembers his covenant forever.

Fr. Dominic’s 3d point was that we aren’t perfect in keeping our part of the covenant.  Nevertheless, in his faithfulness God gives us saints as examples of how we can respond to him.

Then he pointed to St. John Bosco, noting his dream at age nine but zeroing in on the 1847 dream of the roses, with its crowd of boys and of helpers—many of whom he didn’t recognize.  Don Bosco believed in God’s promise that helpers would come.

On this Saturday, we’ve celebrated Mary as a disciple of the Lord, Fr. Dominic continued.  He cited several gospel passages relating to her faithfulness in keeping her covenant with God.

Our jubilarians also have heard God’s promise, Fr. Dominic stated, and they’ve joined Don Bosco’s helpers by responding “yes” to God.  The preacher made particular note of the four 70-year jubilarians: Bros. Gauthier, Van der Velden, and Wiegand and Fr. Parent.  He affirmed that God has made an individual covenant with each jubilarian.  For that, we’re grateful to God and to them.

At the end of the jubilee Mass, Fr. Dominic made a significant announcement:  the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has granted formal recognition to the Marian Shrine as a national shrine of Our Lady Help of Christians.  He presented the certificate of recognition to Fr. Manny Gallo, director of the Shrine community.

Photos: https://link.shutterfly.com/L9gxHEL7GNb

Bro. Travis Gunther also took almost 100 photos at Mass and dinner:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.936891881806859&type=3 or 1OO3KUDagxTFdsaN_QWcEhFox6kFPMqBP.htm 

Homily for 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time (2)

Homily for the
28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Oct. 13, 2024
Creed
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

4th in a series of homilies on the Nicene Creed

“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life” (Nicene Creed).

After reflecting upon God the Father and God the Son, we come to the 3d Person of the Holy Trinity.  One writer tells us that the Holy Spirit is “the effective presence and power of God among humans.”[1] (p. 158)

As it did with the Son, our profession of Christian faith speaks 1st of the Holy Spirit in himself, then of what the Spirit does for us.  Today I’ll treat mostly of the Spirit in himself, lest I go on as long as I did when I preached about God the Son’s relationship with us.

The Creed states that the Spirit is “the Lord,” i.e., he’s God.  Immediately, it calls him “the giver of life.”  Only God can give life.  The Spirit is a creative power, which we see in the opening lines of the book of Genesis:  “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, … a mighty wind swept over the waters” (Gen 1:1-2).  And God began to create.

The Hebrew word for “wind,” ruah, and the Greek word, pneuma, can also be translated as “breath” or as “spirit.”  In fact, some translations say, “God’s spirit hovered over the water” (JB; cf. RSV and NIV).  We could say that the breath of God or the divine spirit was moving over the waters as God began to create.

That’s the 1st version of creation, in Genesis ch. 1.  In the 2d version, Genesis ch. 2, “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being” (2:7).

In both creation stories, the Spirit is “the giver of life.”

We know, too, that the Spirit enabled the Virgin Mary to conceive Jesus; in this, also, he’s the giver of life, for Jesus Christ is our life and salvation.

The Creed tells us that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.”  The love between God the Father and God the Son is so personal that it’s a 3d divine Person.  The Spirit is the living bond of unity between Father and Son.  This 3d Person also is “Lord,” as much to be adored as the Father and the Son.  A weak comparison is a child, the living and personal expression of the love between a man and a woman.

Now the Creed comes to the Holy Spirit and us:  he “has spoken thru the prophets.”  God communicates with the human race by inspiring—breathing into, if you will—particular men and women to proclaim his word, people we call prophets.  E.g., Isaiah announces, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord … has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly” (61:2)—words that Jesus cites with reference to his own public ministry (Luke 4:18).

Thus God sent to his people Moses, Miriam, Deborah, Elijah, Jeremiah, and many other prophets.  He also inspired the people who composed our sacred writings, the Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  St. Peter writes in his 2d Letter, “No prophecy ever came thru human will; but rather, human beings moved by the Holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God” (1:21).

Further, the Holy Spirit guides God’s people—the Jewish people and the Catholic Church—to discern which writings are inspired, to select those writings that belong to the sacred Scriptures, like the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John but not the gospel of Thomas or the early gospel of James; like the letters of Paul, James, Peter, and John but not the letters of Barnabas or St. Ignatius of Antioch and many others—no matter how interesting or edifying they may be.

Someone has asked me when or how the Church decided which texts were divinely inspired.  There wasn’t a particular moment; rather, I think, the Church’s practice developed from the 1st century on, and gradually the local churches from the eastern Mediterranean to the west, from north Africa to northern Europe used certain books regularly, and these became accepted as sacred Scripture.  The canon or official list of 72 inspired books—45 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New—was confirmed definitively by the Council of Trent in 1546.

In short, the Holy Spirit speaks thru prophets and speaks thru the leaders of God’s people when they identify the authentic works of the Spirit.

This is our faith.  This is the faith of the Church.  We are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus our Lord.

---

[1] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters (New York: Doubleday, 2003), p. 158.