Homily for Thursday, Week 4 of Easter

Homily for Thursday
Week 4 of Easter

April 30, 2026
Acts 13: 13-25
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Art in the Basilica of
St. Paul Outside the Walls, Rome

Acts has shifted its focus from Peter’s preaching and leadership to Paul’s.  The preaching of both shows God’s revelation to Israel leading up to the coming of Christ.

Peter’s opening of salvation thru the Jewish Messiah also to pagans came about by exception—the Spirit-led conversion of Cornelius and his household (Acts 10).  Paul’s opening to them begins on his 1st missionary journey in a passage that the lectionary omits; he and Barnabas convert a Roman official on Cyprus.  It’s also at that point, apparently, that the missionary leadership shifts from Barnabas (13:2) to Paul—who is so named for the 1st time (13:9).

Back on the mainland of Asia Minor today, they go together to the synagog, but it’s Paul who takes up the invitation to “exhort the people” (13:15).  He’ll hardly stop talking for the rest of the book.  He addresses both Jews and “God-fearing” worshipers in the synagog, i.e., Gentiles who have joined the Jews as devotees of the one God, perhaps by a full conversion to Torah, perhaps only by a moral conviction.

Today’s passage also hints at Paul’s strong personality.  Earlier, his preaching of Jesus had provoked violent reactions that endangered his life (9:20-30).  Now John Mark leaves the mission (13:13).  That’s not explained, but later Paul and Barnabas will break up their partnership, acrimoniously, on account of it, which Paul viewed as desertion (15:36-39).  Maybe John Mark found Paul all too much to deal with.

We continue to see God’s work unfold—out of the history of Israel, out of the mission of John the Baptist, out of Paul and Barnabas’s cooperation with the Holy Spirit (13:2), in spite of the human personalities involved and other obstacles.  Step by step, personality by personality, charism by charism, God aims at and works for salvation.

So God always does.  He continues to save thru the glories and despite the defects of the Church and individual Christians.  He uses the unseen charism of an unknown young Carmelite nun in an insignificant town in Normandy[1] and the powerful charism of a larger-than-life Pope from Poland to build his kingdom.  He uses humble religious like us—and what varieties of personality types we’ve known!—and like the families we came from and the colleagues we’ve associated with, all of us trying what we can to follow Jesus and counting on his grace to compensate for our weaknesses.  As we’ll pray shortly, we trust that God’s graciousness will conform us to the mysteries of his mighty love (Prayer over the Offerings).

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[1] St. Therese of Lisieux

Two Cardinals Commemorate St. Maria Troncatti

Two Cardinals Commemorate St. Maria Troncatti

(ANS – Hong Kong – April 29, 2026) – Both Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau Yan, SJ, bishop of the diocese of Hong Kong, and one of his predecessors, Salesian Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze Kiun, attended the Mass in commemoration of St. Maria Troncatti, FMA, organized by the Salesian Sisters of the Chinese Province on Saturday, April 25. In his homily, Cardinal Chow recalled the admirable qualities of Sr. Troncatti, including her far-sighted wisdom; her courage in breaking with traditions that restricted the freedoms of the indigenous Shuar people of Amazonian Ecuador, among whom she worked as a missionary until her death; a life deeply rooted in prayer; and her constant commitment to reconciliation. For her part, the provincial, Sr. Teresina Luk kum Lee, recalled how the greatness of the FMA saint lay in her faith, hope, and unconditional love, which translated into a profound capacity for introspection, complete submission to God’s will, selfless generosity, and evangelizing zeal. The ceremony concluded with the reading of a message sent for the occasion by the FMA mother general, Mother Chiara Cazzuola, containing an invitation to “manifest holiness in our evangelizing mission.”

13 Young Men Are New Catholics

13 Young Men Are New Catholics    

Twelve Salesian HS students and one alumnus (2024) received the sacraments of initiation—Baptism, Confirmation, and First Eucharist—at a special Mass in the school chapel on Saturday, April 18.  They had been prepared by religion teacher Michael Marasco since September thru the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults. 

Praying the Litany of the Saints
on behalf of the candidates for Baptism

The current Salesian students included six 9th graders, three 10th graders, and three 12th graders.

Fr. Michael Conway, Salesian director, presided and preached, and 4 Salesian priests concelebrated, while 2 brothers joined the young men’s families and sponsors in the congregation. Fr. Conway compared the 13 young men to the people who came to believe in Jesus after the resurrection and the preaching of the apostles.  Washed clean of sin, they now have the grace to remain with Jesus.  With him, they have all that they need, and all of us who belong to Jesus have cause to rejoice.

The newly initiated Catholics and their families and sponsors were invited to a spectacular brunch in the cafeteria after Mass.

Homily for Tuesday, Week 4 of Easter

Homily for Tuesday
4th Week of Easter

April 28, 2026
Acts 11: 19-26
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

St. Barnabas, by an anonymous
18th-century Lombard artist

We saw last week that persecution in Jerusalem led to the spread of the Gospel to Samaria and to an Ethiopian court official.  Today reaches Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and in Antioch, the 3d city of the Empire, the Word of God is preached also to Gentiles.  Christianity is on the verge of transformation from Jewish sect like the Pharisees or the Essenes to embracing the whole world, as Jesus commanded before his ascension (Matt 28:19).

According to tradition, Luke was from Antioch.  If that’s true, he’s a firsthand witness to the transformation’s beginnings, as he’ll later be to its development on Paul’s missionary journeys.

Our reading re-introduces Barnabas, who’s already been described as a generous man (Acts 4:36-37) and a sponsor of Saul, the recent convert (9:27).  Now, as a Cypriot, he’s sent as an envoy to Antioch, where his compatriots have been such daring evangelists.  Jerusalem, the mother Church, is concerned for her daughters in the provinces and acts like a provincial sending out an extraordinary visitor.

Presumably Barnabas has kept in touch with his protégé Saul.  He must have seen his potential, based on Saul’s earlier, passionate preaching (9:20-22,28-29).  Now, he brings him out of his seclusion in Tarsus and sets him going on the mission (11:25-26) God had in mind when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus (9:6,15-16).

God’s plans evolve slowly, and they evolve with the cooperation of a lot of people—good men like Barnabas and even persecutors—people who may not be aware of their part in the plans or grasp their part only vaguely, like the anonymous evangelizers “who had been scattered by the persecution” (11:19) and the anonymous Cypriots and Cyrenians who “began to speak to the Greeks as well” (11:20).

In the large picture, we too are among the anonymous evangelizers.  We’ll be mostly unknown a century from now, just names in a necrology or pictures in the files.  But so long as we do our best to be “good men, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith” (11:24), God will remember us and our little labors to spread the Good News of Jesus.  For that we’re grateful to Jesus and his Father.

Homily for 4th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Easter

April 26, 2026
John 10: 1-10
The Fountains, Tuckahoe
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

Good Shepherd mosaic
(Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna)

“The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10: 3).

From all the Scripture readings today, you may have figured out that today’s Good Shepherd Sunday.  It’s also World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

God gives everyone a vocation, a particular, personal path by which we are to come to the “verdant pastures” and “restful waters” where we shall be secure for eternity, “dwelling in the house of the Lord” forever.

For most of you, that vocation is marriage and family life.  For some, it may be a single life devoted to serving Christ as a teacher, medical professional, or some other form of contributing to the welfare of society, however glorious or humble that service may be, so long as it’s done in Christ.

But our prayer today is especially for those vocations that directly serve the Church, vocations that take up Christ’s role of shepherding his sheep and leading them to those green pastures and pure waters.  We pray for priests, sisters, deacons, brothers, and other men and women who are consecrated to God’s service.

God chooses such people; they don’t decide it on their own.  Our prayer is that they may recognize his choice and respond “yes” to it; and that after responding they may follow his path faithfully.  We pray, then, for the men who are already bishops, priests, and deacons, the women and men who already belong to religious orders and other forms of consecrated life.  And we are grateful to them for their commitment to the Lord.

And we pray that more young women and men will hear God’s call and answer it, to become shepherds like Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who thru them will care for God’s flock, keep it safe from thieves and wolves and the enemy of our souls, and lead the sheep to heaven.

You know every well how much Jesus needs priests, nuns, deacons, and religious brothers to lead parishes, teach the faith, care for the sick, counsel the troubled, preach the Gospel in places where Jesus is unknown.  You see how parishes are being closed or consolidated because there aren’t enuf priests to serve them all.  It’s far, far worse in many parts of the world, where priests travel over huge territories to bring the sacraments to the faithful perhaps once a month.  You see how Catholic schools have to close because there aren’t enuf sisters and brothers to staff them at a cost working families can afford.  (When I was in Catholic elementary school in Tampa ca. 1960, I think my parents paid $5 or $10 a month for tuition; the internet tells me that’s equivalent to about $55 or $110 today—which won’t get you even a week in Catholic school now.  We have to admit that one reason tuition was so affordable is that nuns were grossly underpaid back then.  Nevertheless, the School Sisters of Notre Dame provided us with an outstanding education, for which I owe them a great debt.  And they helped nurture the seed of the vocation that God had planted somewhere within me.)

Is God not calling young people to his service now?  Or are we not listening?

Church vocations arise out of Catholic families, for the most part.  That means that Catholic families have to foster them, encourage them.  If you want priests and nuns, do more than pray that someone else’s children will answer the call.  Plant the thought in your own children or grandchildren.  Bring them to church, teach them to pray, and explain our faith to them.  Hold up the noble example of priests, sisters, and deacons you know or know about.  Encourage, but don’t pressure—in any direction, whatever their inclinations or talents might be.

Of course, priests, deacons, and sisters, for their part, have to try to be noble examples—in spite of being sinners, as we all are.  And that’s why it’s important that you pray for us, as we pray for you.

God doesn’t call men to be priests or women to be sisters because they deserve it or because they’re talented or because they’re good-looking or for any such reason.  He calls for his own reasons, which we can’t fathom.  And then he supplies the grace the individual needs so that he or she may be ready and able to call the Lord’s sheep by name and lead them out, walking ahead of them (John 10:4), guiding and protecting them.

Homily for Thursday, Week 3 of Easter

Homily for Thursday
Week 3 of Easter

April 23, 2026
Acts 8: 26-40
John 6: 44-51
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Yesterday’s reading from Acts narrated Deacon Philip’s happy experience in Samaria.  That came about because of the violent persecution that broke out after Stephen’s martyrdom and the scattering of some of Jesus’ followers (Acts 8: 4-8).  God was bringing it about that faith in Jesus would grow on account of adversity.

The passage ended, “There was great joy in that city” (8:8), Samaria.  We can imagine also the joy in Philip’s heart as he saw the fruit of his preaching—and satisfaction and comfort, such was we’ve all experienced at various points in our teaching or other ministries.

But the Holy Spirit didn’t allow Philip to rest on his diaconal laurels.  He was ordered to move on, as we all have been ordered more than once.  The word of God doesn’t allow us to sit still.  It wants to spread, for which it needs preachers, teachers, and doers.  It demands our availability and readiness.  I’ve heard it said that obedience means availability.

In the gospels we’ve been listening to Jesus’ bread of life discourse, which up to today’s last half verse concerns Jesus’ word as food for eternal life.  Today’s passage began, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him” (John 6:44).  There, again, we meet availability:  Jesus is at the Father’s disposal, ready to be sent—sent from on high thru his incarnation, sent about Galilee and Judea to preach the Good News, eventually sent to Calvary.  And we meet in that verse also God’s action on us:  he draws us to Jesus; he leads us to Jesus—if we allow him, if we’re ready, if we’re available to the Word.

In sum, Philip, Jesus, and we all move on at the Father’s direction.  Even here—you’ve been sent here for some purpose of God, I’ve been sent to you by my superior (quite willingly), and Greg and Jim will be told soon enuf, “Get up and head south (or north or east or west) on the road that goes down” (Acts 8:26) from New Rochelle to somewhere God has planned.  Philip found himself on a desert road.  Perhaps for some of you St. Joseph’s Residence seems like a desert.  Philip found an opportunity to bring someone to Jesus.  It may be so also for you.

When we let the Holy Spirit direct us, blessing follows.

Homily for the Memorial of St. Anselm

Homily for the Memorial of St. Anselm

April 21, 2026
Collect
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Fides quaerens intellectum is St. Anselm’s famous description of theology:  faith seeking understanding.  That’s echoed in the collect, in which we prayed “that our faith in you may so aid our understanding”—our understanding of God, which of course can never be complete until we come into God’s very presence.  It’s not faith we seek but God himself.

That seeking was the object of Anselm’s life, leading him to one of the most prominent monasteries in Europe in the latter part of the 11th century, Bec in Normandy, where he aspired “to seek out and teach the depths of your wisdom.”  As a teacher, Anselm founded that school of theology which became known as Scholasticism, the method of the schools.  It relied on the use of reason rather than directly on Scripture—the method of the Fathers of the Church—to ponder and better understand God and his wonders.  The monastic schools eventually evolved into the universities, where men like Albert, Thomas, and Bonaventure further developed Anselm’s method.

In theology, liturgy, and prayer, we better understand God and his wonders so as to find our heart’s delight, as the collect says, to delight in God’s love revealed in the Scriptures, in the life of Christ, in the natural world, in the human mind, and in the bonds of friendship.  Anselm fostered all that in popular devotional writings as well as in theological treatises—and so has been ranked a doctor of the Church.

He also became a great churchman after he was compelled to become archbishop of Canterbury and to defend the rights of the Church against royal impositions.  Part of the responsory in today’s Office of Readings says, “He steadfastly asserted that the Church, the bride of Christ, was not a slave but free.”  For that, he was exiled twice.  Thus he set a precedent for one of his successors, Thomas Becket, and foreshadowed what would come more radically in Thomas More’s time.  The conflict lives on in China and elsewhere, even in the Pope Leo-Donald Trump contretemps.  “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

But Jesus doesn’t change; he continues seeking to grasp us with his love.

Salesian Family Day Celebrated in Sherbrooke

Salesian Family Day Celebrated in Sherbrooke

(ANS – Sherbrooke, Que. – April 21, 2026) – On Saturday, April 11, members of the Salesian Family in Quebec Province gathered to celebrate Salesian Family Day, with representatives from Montreal and Sherbrooke in attendance. The gathering took place at the Don Bosco Youth Centre and was inspired by the Rector Major’s 2026 strenna: “Do whatever he tells you: Believers free to serve.” The day began with a moment of prayer led by Fairouz Hanna, provincial coordinator of the Salesian Cooperators in Canada, followed by the screening of the official video for the 2026 Strenna. Following this reflection, the participants split into small groups to explore the 4 key verbs of the message: look, listen, choose, and act, guided by various facilitators. This was followed by the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Association of Salesian Cooperators, with a presentation on the history and current activities of the Association. The day concluded with the Eucharist, presided over by Fr. Richard Authier. Present were Sr. Alphonsine Roy and Fr. John Puntino, delegates of the Salesian Family and the ASC in Canada, together with other Salesians, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians from Montreal and Toronto, members of ADMA Montreal, past pupils, ASC members from the 3 centers, and numerous supporters.

Homily for 3d Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
3d Sunday Of Easter

April 19, 2026
Luke 24: 13-35
Villa Maria, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

Disciples and Jesus on the way to Emmaus
(Fraternita di Emmaus)

“Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter his glory” (Luke 24: 26).

No one of sound mind likes suffering, either his own or someone else’s.  Nor, if our theology is sound, do we believe that God the Father wanted his Son to suffer.  There is a misguided theology of the atonement that maintains God demanded the blood of Christ to atone for all the sins of humanity.

Yes, Jesus’ blood—his passion and death—has atoned for our sins; not because God required it, but because we sinners inflicted all that pain and suffering on God’s Son, which he didn’t run away from in spite of his fear—remember his prayer in the garden of Gethsemane to be delivered from it.  Instead, he accepted what evil men imposed upon him, rather than abandon his mission of bringing God’s love and mercy to everyone—to everyone!  That universal love outraged a lot of people, somewhat like people being outraged today that God loves people of all races, all nations, all languages, even all faiths.

Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer?  Yes, inasmuch as suffering comes without fail to every woman and man, even very good women and men, even the saints.  God’s Son assumed our full humanity so that he might elevate us with a share of his divinity, with a share of his glory.  So as a human being he had to suffer.  He had to be one of us, like us in all things except sin.  The sinless One had to suffer and die as we do so that, like him and thru him, we may be raised up to be with God.

Bp. Robert Barron makes the keen observation that “his willingness to go to the limits of godforsakenness … [saves] those who had wandered from the divine love.”[1]  You remember that Jesus cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46).

So Jesus suffered injustice, pain, abandonment, and death—like victims of the Holocaust, persecuted Christians in Nigeria, the people of Ukraine, the victims of genocide in Gaza, the millions of unborn humans aborted every year, women and children abandoned by their men, women and children trafficked by merchants of human misery.  Jesus suffered pain as we do from illness, accidents, allergies, loss, heartbreak, and unfair treatment.  It was necessary that the Christ should suffer so that we weak and afflicted men and women can look to him with hope:  “Your faith and hope are in God,” St. Peter reminds us today (1 Pet 1:21).  He cares for us, having shared our experience, and he will redeem us from our sins and our sorrows, even from death, so that we might “enter his glory” and live with him in God’s kingdom.

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[1] The Word on Fire Bible: The Gospels (Park Ridge, Ill., 2020), p. 446.