Homily for Saturday, Week 7 of Easter

Homily for Saturday
7th Week of Easter

May 18, 2024
John 21: 20-25
Missionaries of Charity, Bronx

“Jesus said to him, ‘What if I want him to remain until I come?  What concern is it of yours?  You follow me.’”  (John 21: 22)

Jesus with Peter at the shore (Tissot)

Have you ever heard a passage of Scripture, a piece of spiritual reading, a homily, or an examination of conscience and reacted something like, “Oh, I hope so-and-so was listening to that.”

It’s quite true that we are our sisters’ and brothers’ keepers.  We are members of Christ’s body.  We do have responsibilities of concern, sharing, support, and correction toward each other.

On the other hand, Christianity is also an intensely personal religion.  Historians of the early Church tell us that its personalism, as well as its brotherly love, was a sociological reason for Christianity’s flourishing so soon after its birth.  Belief in Jesus as Lord involves a keenly personal relationship with the Father thru the Son.  It also means personal responsibility:  every person is ultimately responsible for her own destiny in conjunction with God’s grace.

What I like about Peter as we see him in the gospels is his plainness.  He’s an ordinary human being like me:  now straightforward, now perplexed, now courageous, now overcome by fright, now selfish, now generous.  The Peter we see this morning is, in a word, nosy.  He’s just had a personal encounter with Christ, been made responsible for pasturing the flock, been told his earthly destiny, and been instructed to follow his master.  So he turns around, sees the beloved disciple, and wants to know, “Lord, what about him?”

Why do we get so curious, so nosy, so gossipy about other people?  There are a variety of reasons that motivate us, such as escapism, dominance, and judgment.

By escapism, we mean to avoid our own selves—our problems, our struggles, our weaknesses, our shallowness.  We distract ourselves by looking outward at others.

By dominance, we mean to satisfy our self-importance, to make ourselves the center of attention, by what we know and what we can say about others:  “Guess what I know that you don’t know.”  Sometimes we even use that knowledge as a weapon against others.

By judgment, we mean to find out who’s doing what, or why she’s doing it, so that we may make comparisons and pass judgment upon her deeds and upon her.  Maybe that’s just a variation of self-avoidance and self-importance.

Whatever.  Jesus sets Peter straight at once, bluntly.  “If I want him to remain until I come again, what business is it of yours?  You just worry about following me.”  Leave your idle curiosity behind and concentrate on discipleship.

May the Lord give us wisdom to sort out nosiness and gossip from genuine sisterly concern.

Homily for Friday, Week 7 of Easter

Homily for Friday
7th Week of Easter

May 17, 2024
Collect
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Given that this was the 4th day this week in which I had to preach, I pulled out my 2015 homily for this day and updated it slightly.  That homily also was for my provincial house confreres, but in the 9 intervening years the entire community had changed over; even I had been missioned elsewhere, then returned.

In the Collect we prayed about “partaking of so great a gift.”  From the structure of the prayer, it appears that the gift in which we partake is having “the gates of eternity unlocked for us.”

The Gate to Heaven (Andrea di Bonaiuto)

It sounds a bit strange—to me, anyway—that the gates of eternity (which in context means heaven in particular) are unlocked for us.  We’re still here, and I’ve never had a mystical experience that transported me thru those gates.

Yet we learned in the earliest days of our catechism—those of us who cut our catechetical teeth on the Baltimore Catechism—that one of the effects of Baptism is that the gates of heaven were opened for us.  Does that mean they’re open only when we arrive at the pearly gates?

I don’t think so, and neither does the Collect, which speaks of our “partaking of so great a gift,” present participle.  We already partake of this “great gift” of open gates.

What opened those gates for us?  According to the prayer, “the glorification of Christ and the light of the Holy Spirit.”  Christ’s glorification—his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension—burst open the gates of the underworld, we know, setting free souls till then bound by sin and condemned to death.  But then the gates of heaven must also have been unlocked for those souls to enter:  out of the underworld, into the upper world!

But what do the “unlocked gates of eternity” mean for us who are still here?  And how does “the light of the Holy Spirit” figure in this heavenly mystery?

Heaven is open to our prayers, our prayers brought by the glorified Christ to the Father’s throne—Christ, 1st of humanity to pass thru those gates.  Heaven is open to shower grace from the Father upon us thru our brother the Son, and thru the intercessions of the saints, with whom we have communion thru those open gates.

Heaven is open to us so that God’s holy ones may reach down to us as our patrons, protectors, and guides, like Mary, the powerful Help of Christians, and our individual patrons:  Thomas the Doubter, Michael God’s right hand, Stephen the Protomartyr, Abbot Bernard, William the Pilgrim, James Son of Thunder, Lyrical David, Timothy the Missionary Companion, Gabriel Messenger of God, Matthew the Tax Collector, Dominic the Preacher, Bishop Hubert, and the Martyr Adalbert.  Redeemed by the glory of Christ, joined to us now by the Holy Spirit, bond of love, they labor spiritually to draw us toward themselves thru those pearly gates.

And “the light of the Holy Spirit”?  The Spirit is Holy Wisdom, let loose by the Father and the Risen Son to pour his fire and light upon our hearts and minds so that we may know and desire spiritual goods, things divine—starting with the mystery who is Christ our Savior.  Led by the Spirit’s light, we’ll come to Christ in Person on the other side of those heavenly gates.

Heaven is open to us, comes down to us, is with us in the sacred mysteries, actions of both Christ and the Spirit.  A story from medieval history—probably legend—illustrates this well.  It tells how the Rus, the ancestors of Russia, became Orthodox Christians.  According to the story, Vladimir, prince of Kyiv, toward the end of the 10th century wanted to convert his people from paganism but was unsure which faith they should adopt.  Accordingly, he sent ambassadors to the Crimea, where a Muslim people dwelt, to investigate their religion.  The envoys weren’t much impressed.  He sent other ambassadors to Germany to look at Latin Christianity and, sad to say, they weren’t much impressed either.  He sent a third delegation to Constantinople, where the ambassadors witnessed the glories of Byzantine liturgy:  splendid vestments, majestic icons, golden vessels, incense, chanting, and all the ritual—and they were so impressed that they reported to Vladimir, “We didn’t know whether we were in heaven or on earth.”  Vladimir and his people converted to Eastern Christianity.

The Baptism of St. Vladimir (Viktor Vasnetsov)

How wonderful if our celebration of the liturgy does transport us mystically to heaven; but of a certainty it does bring heaven down to us.  For the time being, in these moments when we’re still in time and history, “may our devotion grow deeper” and “our faith be strengthened” by our partaking in the heavenly gift we have received.

Homily for Thursday, Week 7 of Easter

Homily for Thursday
7th Week of Easter

May 16, 2024
Acts 22:30, 23: 6-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Wishing to determine the truth about why Paul was being accused by the Jews…” (Acts 22: 30).

Our reading from Acts is drastically abbreviated in these final weeks of Easter.  Paul concluded his 3d missionary journey with a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and the Jewish leaders noticed him and tried to do away with him.  He was rescued and jailed by the Roman forces in the city.  As we’ll see tomorrow and Saturday, or if we read the rest of Acts on our own this is prelude to Paul’s last recorded journey, which will take him to Rome, as if to the culmination of giving witness to Jesus “in Jerusalem, thruout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (1:8)—not that Rome is the ends of the earth, then or now, but in religious terms was at the other end of the spectrum from Jerusalem, “true pole of the earth, the Great King’s city” (Ps 48:2, Grail).  There, in the center of imperial power, Paul will continue to teach the truth of the Great King, that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

The heart of the Gospel shows in our reading today, “the truth about why Paul was being accused”:  “I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 23:6).  As we heard at the beginning of Acts (and as recently as Tuesday[1]) when a replacement for Judas had to be chosen (1:21-22), the central point of the Gospel, the central truth of history, is the resurrection of Jesus.  He is risen, and he offers to Jew and Gentile a revived relationship with God and a shared brotherhood based on that relationship, a relationship leading to eternal life for all who follow Jesus—“that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one” (John 17:22-23).  That’s why Paul was accused by the Jewish leaders in one town after another, and why Christians are still accused by the powers of the earth.  Nevertheless, we maintain our hope in the living Christ.  As Pope Francis has been saying recently in connection with the Jubilee Year, “Hope does not disappoint.”

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[1] Feast of St. Matthias.

Pakistan's Christians Pray for Akash Bashir's Beatification

Pakistan’s Christians Pray 
for the Beatification of Akash Bashir

(ANS – Lahore, Pakistan – May 16, 2024) – “The life of the Servant of God Akash Bashir shines as an inspiration and ray of light in Pakistan and in the world afflicted by terrorism and unrest,” Fr. Lazar Aslam, a Capuchin priest serving in Lahore, says. In May, the Catholic community of the archdiocese of Lahore intensified prayer for Akash Bashir, past pupil of Don Bosco, the first Servant of God in the history of Pakistan. And the pilgrimage to his tomb is fervent, especially for young Pakistanis: “His faith in God motivated him to protect and serve his community, and led him to perform a gesture of extreme altruism in the face of a suicide bomber,” says Fr. Aslam.

Akash Bashir was born in Pakistan on June 22, 1994, to a humble family and studied at the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Lahore. He led a simple life, had dreams for his future, lived with his family, had friends at school and at work, enjoyed playing sports, and prayer was part of his life. On March 15, 2015, one Sunday morning, a suicide bomber attempted to enter St. John’s Church in Youhanabad, a Christian district of Lahore, which at that time had more than a thousand faithful attending Mass. Realizing the situation, Akash did not hesitate to sacrifice himself to prevent the bomber from causing a massacre in the church. On March 15, 2022, the 7th anniversary of his death, the diocesan phase of the canonical process for the proclamation of martyrdom was opened by the Church of Lahore.

Fr. Aslam says that “Jesus taught that the highest form of love is to lay down one’s life for friends, and his act of altruism reflected these teachings. Akash’s last statement, ‘I will die, but I will not let you in’ perfectly expresses his courage and devotion.”

“His story,” Fr. Aslam continues, “serves as a powerful testimony to the transforming power of faith, resilience, and sacrifice. It offers hope and inspiration to Christians in Pakistan and beyond. His life reminds us to embody unwavering faith and stand firm in the face of adversity. His extraordinary journey continues to guide and enlighten our community.”

According to Father Nobal Lal, director of the Salesian community in Lahore, the profound experience of Salesian spirituality that derives from Don Bosco’s Preventive System “had a profound and personal impact on Akash’s human and spiritual formation. It led him to develop a deep understanding and friendship with Christ. He would often pause for a moment of prayer at the grotto in the courtyard of St. John’s Catholic Church in Youhanabad, before beginning his service. The 3 fundamental principles of Salesian spirituality – Preventive System, holistic education, and love for God – have had a significant influence on his development of faith; they have been important pillars in determining his path,” he notes.

“In this month of May we pray intensely for the beatification of the Servant of God Akash Bashir, past pupil of Don Bosco,” says Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, postulator general of the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family. The postulator notes: “For the Christians of Youhanabad, for the Church of God that is in Pakistan, and for the entire Salesian Family, Akash, with his great faith, is exactly this: a beacon, an example to follow. Many go to his grave to pray and ask for intercession.... He had committed himself to living as an upright and good Christian citizen, as Don Bosco wanted, and had become a security volunteer in his parish church at a time when the situation in Pakistan was worrisome with the risk of encountering suicide bombers who targeted religious sites,” Fr. Cameroni says.

The sacrifice of Akash Bashir had a huge impact on the Christian community – Catholic and Anglican – in Pakistan, but the Muslim community was also deeply affected: “Many in Islam have veneration for this testimony of faith, of strength, and therefore I believe it is a seed that will be a form of reconciliation, of prophecy, coming above all from a young Christian.”

“This young Salesian past pupil, the first Pakistani on his way to the altars, represents all Christians and all young people who are brave and proud of their faith,” Fr. Cameroni concludes.

Province Treasurers Course Concludes

Province Treasurers Course Concludes

“A charismatic figure who carries out his responsibilities in all the aspects of Salesian life and mission”

(ANS – Rome – May 13, 2024) – The 2024 formation course for newly appointed province treasurers ended on Friday, May 10. They were 5 days of intense work and deep commitment, not without, however, various moments of recreation and relaxation, cultural, spiritual, and fraternal enrichment during which all the participants were able to deepen the meaning of their service to the Congregation and to the young people in the office assigned to them as provincial treasurers.

“The province treasurer is not so much an administrator or a technocrat, but rather a charismatic figure at all levels (house, province, Congregation), who offers his services and carries out his responsibilities in all the aspects of Salesian life and mission, especially whenever the decisions made at province level produce inevitable economic and financial effects. It is important to point out that the role of the treasurer within the [provincial] council is a very special feature of ours not to be found in all other congregations and religious orders,” Bro. Jean Paul Muller, treasurer general of the Congregation, stressed. He was the one who organized this formation course.

During the event attended by province treasurers from 21 circumscriptions across all 7 Salesian regions, a wide variety of topics related to all the different dimensions of the treasurer’s work were discussed: the ordinary management of provincial assets, the laws, norms, and procedures governing his action, accounting, ethical criteria, and the tools available to evaluate the different financial options, the management of solidarity, collaboration with NGOs and other relevant offices and bodies, as well as the aspects proper to the spirituality of those who through finances participate in an eminently religious and social mission.

One of the participants was the new treasurer of the New Rochelle Province, Fr. Richard Alejunas.

To give structure and content to this quantity of topics, the treasurer general’s office made use of a team of prominent and competent speakers and experts who offered their contributions. “Given the complexity of economic and financial issues, it is now almost impossible to do so without collaboration,” Dr Janko Jochimsen, a collaborator in the treasurer’s office, said in his address.

But he also reminded that “the ultimate responsibility for administrative, economic, or financial decisions can never be handed over to members of the laity or to those of other Institutes.”

Speaking in the part dedicated to canonical and institutional regulations, economic offenses, and procedures, the Congregation’s procurator general, Fr. Pier Fausto Frisoli, observed: “What regulations govern church property? The assets of canonical public juridical persons are ecclesiastical assets and are, as such, subject to canon law: universal law (CIC Book V "The Temporal Goods of the Church" cc. 1254-1310); particular law (norms established by episcopal conferences and individual dioceses); proper law (rules laid down in the Constitutions and General Regulations and in the Provincial Directory).”

Shedding light on the relationship between prayer and mission, on the concluding morning the Rector Major emeritus, Fr. Pascual Chavez Villanueva, explained: “Jesus immediately defines his life as an evangelizing mission, as a mission to preach, to proclaim the Gospel, and to deliver from the evil one, from disease, from everything that makes human life a prisoner of sin and death, incapable of good, of joy, of love. Certainly, Jesus gave himself moments of solitude, of retreat, of prayer in the night and in the desert, but for him they were not an alternative to the mission, nor were they times in function of the mission. For him, praying and going out to preach, to heal, and to deliver from the evil one were two aspects of a single reality. And this unity was what Jesus wanted to draw his disciples to. To be a disciple of Christ is precisely to enter the unity of prayer and mission that Jesus lived. That is why it’s important to understand what this unity meant for him.”

Finally, in the closing words of the course, Bro. Muller offered reassurance and a guideline to all participating treasurers: “Your service to the Congregation is essential, and we at headquarters are here to assist you. Do not hesitate to ask.… And remember: the texts of the Congregation and the doctrine of the Church are of fundamental importance to be able to carry out your service precisely and accurately.”

Provincial House Community Fetes Two SDB Graduates

Provincial House Community 
Fetes Two SDB Graduates

On May 17, Bro. Hubert Twagirayezu, SDB, of the Great Lakes Province will graduate from Iona University in New Rochelle with a master’s degree in business.  The following day, Fr. Geomon Kalladanthiyil, SDB, of the Bangalore Province will graduate from Fordham University in the Bronx with a doctorate in education.  Bro. Hubert has been a member of the provincial house community during his two years of study, while Fr. Geo was serving as parochial vicar at Our Lady of the Assumption-Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in the Bronx and for five years.

Bro. Hubert and some of his tablemates

The provincial residence community in New Rochelle celebrated the achievements of both confreres with a graduation party on Sunday evening, May 12.  Fr. Mike Conway and Bro. Bernie Dube' prepared a spectacular meal, and the community presented both graduates-to-be with cards and gifts.  Both Bro. Hubert and Fr. Geo voiced profound gratitude for the friendship and support offered by the province in these years, especially at the provincial house.  Both will soon return to their own provinces for new apostolic responsibilities.

Fr. Geo (2d from right) with some of his tablemates

Homily for Feast of St. Matthias

Homily for the Feast of St. Matthias

May 14, 2024
Acts 1: 15-17, 20-26
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“They gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the 11 apostles” (Acts 1: 26).

In 1980 I was serving happily as campus minister at Don Bosco Prep when the provincial asked me to move to Paterson as principal of Don Bosco Tech.  The brother who was principal wanted a change after only one year in the job, and at least one other confrere had already said, “No, thanks,” altho I didn’t know that at the time.  I wasn’t especially well prepared for such a responsibility, which I also didn’t know at the time.  I made a lot of mistakes in the 4 years I served at DBT.

Many of you may have had similar experiences in your years as Christian Brothers, called upon to leave some ministry where you were doing good and doing well, or in an edifying community, and to undertake something new that maybe you didn’t especially want to do or to go somewhere you wouldn’t have chosen.

Imagine how Matthias felt when suddenly plucked from the mostly anonymous crowd of the disciples of Jesus.  Who even expected a job opening in that inner group called the 12?  Who had any idea what to expect in Jesus’ absence?

Acts doesn’t tell us much.  Matthias was thought of highly enuf that the assembled followers of Jesus nominated him to join the 11 as a “witness to Jesus’ resurrection” (Acts 1:22).  One tradition holds that he’d been one of the 72 disciples whom Jesus had sent “ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit” (Luke 10:1).  Now, the church left the final selection to God, and it was God who chose Matthias by lot.  After that, Matthias disappears as an individual apostle, and we have various uncertain claims about where he preached and whether he was martyred and how.

As for us, or at least for you who are more or less “retired,” the lot has already been cast.  Maybe it was cast several times over the last 60 years.  Can we see God’s hand in our past?  Once chosen by God’s providence to be a religious and several times called upon by a superior for this or that way of witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus, how did we do?  Can we praise God now for what he did in us and thru us?  What do we have to be grateful for?  Jesus has invited us to friendship with him, revealed himself to us, and appointed us to make others his friends (John 15:14-16).  Certainly that’s something to be grateful for and a friendship worth deepening.

Salesians Assist Brazil's Flood Victims

Salesians Assist Brazil’s Flood Victims

(ANS – Porto Alegre, Brazil – May 13, 2024) – The southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul has been hit in recent days by extreme rains which have caused flooding, landslides, and the deaths of over a hundred people. Meanwhile, the number of injured and missing is growing and the number of municipalities involved is also increasing: 428, according to the State Civil Protection. Of these, 397 were recognized by the federal government as being in a state of public calamity. Faced with this situation, the Salesians of the Porto Alegre Province continue to support people affected by the floods.

In addition to putting pressure on authorities to adopt public policies that address climate change, times of crisis like this also require a lot of solidarity. In this sense, in fact, the SDB Province is sensitively addressing this situation through its network in Rio do Sul and other presences in southern Brazil, such as in the states of Paraná and Santa Catarina.

The Salesians have already mobilized to take concrete action in support of flood victims. This help came about thanks to the collaboration with the social works, schools, and parishes, with their collaborators and volunteers. The Salesian Family and numerous young people are also making their own contribution. Overall, a great solidarity movement is consolidating to bring help and comfort to those who have suffered serious damage and losses.

The collection of foodstuffs, basic necessities, and other economic aid, and a strong sponsorship of campaigns on behalf of the victims are just some of the solidarity commitments that the Salesians are supporting. The economic support is facilitated by the social fund of the Porto Alegre Province, which invites those who wish to “play their part in this collective effort of solidarity.”

“The Salesian presence in southern Brazil,” they write from the province, “reaffirms its

commitment to be by the side of those who need it most, inspiring others to join this noble cause.”

More information is available on the website: www.missaosalesiana.org.br 

Homily for 7th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
7th Sunday of Easter

May 12, 2024
John 17: 11-19
Acts 1: 15-26
Villa Maria, Bronx [with modifications]
Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx  

“They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world” (John 17: 14, 16).

In his prayer to the Father, Jesus prays that line twice, then speaks twice about his followers’ being “consecrated in the truth” (17:17,19).  It’s for the truth that he’s sending his apostles into the world, and he identifies the truth as the word of God (17:17-18).  He prays that they, and all of us who are his followers, be “kept in [the Father’s] name,” be kept in union with one another and with the Holy Trinity (17:11), and be protected from the world’s destructiveness and from the Evil One (cf. 17:12,15).

The Mission of the Apostles (Tommaso Minardi)

The world into which Jesus sends the apostles is in the power of the Evil One (Luke 4:6; Rev 13:2) and there is hostile to him and to them.  He sends them, as Peter tells the 120 disciples assembled in the upper room, to be witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 1:22).  That’s the fundamental truth that God’s word speaks to the world.

It’s not a truth that the world is eager to hear.  If God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, then Jesus’ teachings must be listened to:  all that he preached and demonstrated “the whole time that he came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us” (1:21-22).

The world into which Jesus sends us is more familiar, and perhaps much more comfortable, with lies and deceptions.  Those may range from the propositions of the Flat Earth Society to people who argue that NASA faked the moon landings to conspiracy theorists who debunk the death of Elvis, the Newtown school shooting, etc.  We’re pretty sure that hackers spread disinformation all over the Internet, and we’ve all heard the one-liner that you know a politician is lying when his lips are moving.

Advertisers want us to believe that the right toothpaste or shampoo enhances our personality, that happiness depends on grabbing all the gusto we can, that the right vehicle will set us free.

More seriously, the world argues that we create our own truth.  Justice Anthony Kennedy put it this way in a Supreme Court decision: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”[1]  So every individual has the right to define his own existence and the meaning of the universe.  The Greeks called that attitude hubris, the Yiddish call it chutzpah, and in plain English it’s arrogance.

Can what’s true for me be false for you, and vice versa?  Maybe human beings are degrading the planet, or maybe they’re not?  Maybe Ukrainians are really Russians even if they don’t think so?  Maybe everyone is created as an image of God, and maybe not?  Maybe the Son of God became a human being to redeem everyone, or maybe he didn’t?

If we accept that the word of God revealed by Jesus is truth; if we believe that our Baptism has consecrated us to God thru Jesus Christ—then we have to confront the falsehoods that the world preaches to us about who has value as a human being, about the meaning of our human sexuality, about the purpose of politics, and about the ultimate purpose of our lives.

St. John writes:  “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.  God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16).  That’s the truth made personal by Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, who “has given us of his Spirit” (4:13), who is present to us here and now “in the unity of the Holy Spirit,” in our union with him thru the sacred liturgy, thru our attention to his word, thru our pursuit of truth.

In the final prayer of the Mass, we’ll pray that “what has already come to pass in Christ [our] Head will be accomplished in the body of the whole Church” (Postcommunion); that all of us will come to eternal life because the Father has kept us one with himself and with his Son, consecrated us for himself. 

Ascension of Jesus (Gebhard Fugel)

    

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[1] Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 1992.

Homily for Saturday, Week 6 of Easter

Homily for Saturday
6th Week of Easter

May 11, 2024
Acts 18: 23-28
Provincial House, New Rochelle

The reading from Acts today begins with Paul taking a break in Antioch between his 2d and 3d missionary journeys (18:23).  Then, like a good provincial, he sets out—his 3d journey—to visit the disciples in the little towns in the interior of Asia Minor where he’d preached on earlier trips.

At this point, Luke diverts from Paul to introduce us to another missionary, Apollos, and bring into his story again the distinguished couple Priscilla and Aquila.

Icon depicting Sts. Epaphroditus, Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, and Caesar

Apollos came from the large Jewish community in Alexandria, where the Scriptures had been translated into Greek in the 3d century B.C.  That origin may account in part for his being “an authority on the Scriptures” (18:24).  It may have been in Alexandria that he became acquainted with the teachings of Jesus and the preaching of John the Baptist (18:25).  As we would hear in Monday’s reading but for our feast of Mary Mazzarello, Apollos wasn’t the only one in Ephesus who didn’t know Jesus’ teaching in full and the gift of the Holy Spirit (19:1-7).

In Apollos’ case, Paul’s friends Priscilla and Aquila, who’d been Paul’s hosts in Corinth and shared his tentmaking trade (18:2-3), enlighten Apollos and, presumably, have him baptized.  Then the church in Ephesus encourages him to take his eloquent preaching and debating to Corinth.  There he greatly helps the believers (18:27), in effect becoming a collaborator in the work Paul had begun.  Paul would later write to the Corinthians, “I planted [the Word], Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. . . .  We are God’s co-workers” (1 Cor 3:6,9).

What happened in Ephesus illustrates the gradual process that coming to a mature faith in Christ usually entails.  Apollos comes to know Jesus in stages, and his abilities then can be effectively directed.  He’s assisted by patient teachers, Priscilla and Aquila.  The episode also illustrates what Paul teaches about the different roles of believers in building and maintaining Christ’s body.  And it illustrates the cooperation of everyone involved and cooperation between the Ephesian and Corinthian churches.

Unfortunately, that kind of cooperation and collaboration broke down in Corinth ere long, as Paul’s letters evidence and, later, the letter of Pope Clement.  Who knows how much the factions in Corinth hampered the spread of the Gospel?  Unfortunately, the Church in our day, too, is often hampered by factions rather than demonstrating clearly enuf that we all belong to Christ and are God’s co-workers.  At times that may also be a defect in our own apostolic work; it’s at least something to be on guard against.

Well do we pray, then:  “O Lord, shape our minds … that, trying always for what is better, we may strive to hold ever fast to the Paschal Mystery” (Collect)—and may be faithful, patient teachers and preachers of the Mystery.

Homily for Solemnity of Ascension

Homily for the Solemnity 
of the Ascension

May 9, 2024
Collect
Eph 1: 17-23
Mark 16: 15-20
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

by Dosso Dossi

“The ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation” (Collect).

We celebrate today not only something that Christ did but also what his action means for us.  By his incarnation, he joined himself forever to all that’s human.  By his resurrection and ascension, he lifts up all that’s human.

The Fathers of the Church remarked that God became man in order that man might become God.[1]  They don’t mean that in an essential or—to use a word from the Creed—a consubstantial sense but in a spiritual sense.  We’re adopted into God’s family.  “Where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope” (Collect).

St. Paul prayed that we attain “the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones” (Eph 1:18).  We aspire that the fullness of Christ fill us and all humans in every way (1:23); that we become all that God created us to be, images of the Son keeping company with the Son forever.

Even as he physically departed our company in time, he charged us to spread the Good News “to every creature” (Mark 16:15).  Pope Francis once told a child that perhaps our pets will be with us in heaven.  I don’t suppose Christ means for us to preach, literally, to our dogs and cats and all the wild creatures.  On the other hand, St. Francis is supposed to have done something like that, and Martin de Porres was known to commune with the mice in the granary.

Be that as it may, we’re certainly commanded to make the Gospel known; to make known God’s love for us and his eternal plan.  Christ isn’t distant from us as we do that but accompanies us thru his Holy Spirit.  In an Ascension Day sermon, St. Augustine preached:  “While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him.  He’s here with us by his divinity, his power, and his love.  We can’t be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.”[2]  By loving God our Father thru Christ, and by loving Christ’s Body here on earth—our brothers at St. Joseph, our staff, our visitors—we make Christ present now and anticipate the glory that we’re called to share in an eternal future.

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[1] E.g., St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation.

[2] Sermo de Ascensione Domini, LOH 2:921.

Homily for Tuesday, Week 6 of Easter

Homily for Tuesday
6th Week of Easter

May 7, 2024
Acts 16: 22-34
John 16: 5-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your household will be saved” (Acts 16: 31).

Following the usual pattern of Paul’s missionary work, he and Silas have some initial success in preaching the Gospel at Philippi.  Then opponents arise and make trouble for them.  There’s a great disturbance, and the apostles are arrested, beaten, and jailed.

The pattern changes with the intervention of what insurance people call “an act of God,” an earthquake.  The apostles’ jailer is frightened—not by the earthquake but by the mysterious powers Paul had displayed in the exorcism that led to the civic disturbance (16:16-22), now followed by this disturbance of the earth.  In the face of what the gods are doing, the jailer seeks salvation or safety.

Paul, of course, sets him straight.  The Lord Jesus is the key to salvation.  Or, in terms of today’s gospel, he offers us divine righteousness, being made right with God.  Thru Christ, “the ruler of this world has been condemned” (John 16:10-11).  The dark powers of evil have lost, and the gods of Greece are useless.  The God of Israel has won our redemption.

We prayed in the collect that we might share in Christ’s resurrection, in his victory over the Devil and whatever dark powers there may be.  “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” is how victory comes about.  That’s a 2-step process:  belief in our minds and hearts, complemented by putting our belief into action—not necessarily in the form that Paul and Silas did, but at least as Jesus told us yesterday:  “You also testify” (John 15:26), i.e., you also bear witness that Jesus is the way by which we come to the Father, and we walk his way by obeying his command to love one another (John 15:17).