Homily for the
Memorial of
St. Charles
Borromeo
Nov. 4, 2025
Collect
Christian
Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.
 |
| St. Charles Borromeo (by Antiveduto Grammatica) |
This is a slightly revised version of a homily preached to the New Rochelle Salesian community in 2023.
We
prayed that God’s Church might “be constantly renewed” and show the face of
Christ to the world (Collect). St.
Charles Borromeo is generally regarded as the paragon of the Church’s
absolutely needed renewal in the 16th century.
St. Francis de Sales esteemed him most highly.
Charles,
born into a noble family in 1538, was related to the infamous Medicis and thus
was an unlikely candidate for the role of reformer. He benefited immediately from nepotism when
his uncle became Pope Pius IV in 1559 and, following a common practice,
immediately made his nephew a cardinal, administrator of the vacant archdiocese
of Milan, and secretary of state. Already
in minor orders, he was only 21 years old.
Altho
he had his faults, Pope Pius did promote church reform, reconvening the Council
of Trent in 1562 after a suspension of 10 years. He entrusted its direction to Charles, who
guided it for 22 months to a successful conclusion. He bore special responsibility for the
catechism that the Council published. Charles
himself experienced something of a conversion—tho he’d never been corrupt or
immoral—and went ahead with priestly and episcopal ordination and a firmer
commitment to asceticism and prayer.
Pius
IV kept Charles in Rome until he died in 1565.
The new Pope, St. Pius V, finally allowed him to take possession of his
archdiocese in 1566; it hadn’t had a resident bishop for 80 years. That bishops should actually be in their
dioceses and not just collect the revenues was one of Trent’s reforms. Milan’s 600,000 souls, 3,000 priests, and
thousands of religious were sadly in need of reform: moral, catechetical, formational. Charles undertook all that, meeting such
initial opposition that one monk even tried to assassinate him. Watch out for monks![1]
He
promoted the establishment of seminaries thruout his ecclesiastical province,
compelled his priests to reform their lives, likewise the religious, organized
catechism classes in every parish, made his own household a modest one,
convened regular diocesan synods, and practiced charity to the poor and the
sick, even at times personally nursing plague victims. He constantly urged prayer and perseverance. He told priests, religious, spouses, and all
the baptized to “be what you promised to be.”
Worn out, he died at age 46 in 1584.
Pope
John Paul II, whose personal name was Charles (Karol), called St. Charles “a
servant of souls.” To help Christians be
conformed to Christ was the purpose of all Charles Borromeo’s reforms. And, Brothers, it’s our purpose in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment