SDB Cardinal Bo Promises Francis the Prayers of Burmese Catholics

Cardinal Bo: “Holy Father, this small flock will continue to pray for you”

Francis poses with Burma's bishops, including Cardinal Charles Bo, SDB

(at the Pope's left in the photo)

(ANS – Rangoon – November 30) – On November 30, the Holy Father departed Burma for Bangladesh, his second and final stop on his apostolic journey. Among the last appointments in Burma on the 29th was Mass at the Kyaikkasan Ground area in the heart of Rangoon, filled with circa 150,000 faithful from all over the country. After the Eucharist, Rangoon’s archbishop, Salesian Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, who worked hard for the preparation and success of the papal journey, expressed words of thanks to the Pope.

“This is an experience of Mount Tabor,” the cardinal began. “Simple Catholics are living a truly emotional experience. Today we are transported to a mountain of the Beatitudes, and life will never be the same again for Catholics in Burma.”

“Only a year ago,” he continued, “the thought that this little flock would have shared Bread with our Holy Father Francis would have been nothing but a dream. We are a small flock. We are like Zacchaeus. In the midst of the nations, we could not see our shepherd. Like Zacchaeus, we were summoned: ‘Come down. I must stay at your house.’ Such is our Holy Father Francis: a good shepherd who looks for the little ones and those on the margins. You, Holy Father, broke the Bread of the Eucharist with us. Let us make our own the moving words of our mother, the Virgin Mary: ‘He raised the humble. My soul magnifies the Lord.’”

“Like the disciples on Mount Tabor,” he concluded, “we return home with an extraordinary spiritual energy, proud to be Catholics, called to live the Gospel. This day will be imprinted in every heart present here, and full of gratitude, we thank your generosity. . . . Thank you, Holy Father. This small flock will continue to pray for you.”

Among the other activities carried out by the Pope in Burma on the 29th was a meeting with the Supreme Council of Sangha of the Buddhist monks with whom the Pontiff reaffirmed a common commitment “for peace, respect for human dignity, and justice for every man and woman”; a meeting with the bishops of Burma, whom he reminded that “prayer is the first task of the bishop”; and on November 30, a Mass with young people, whom he exhorted to be “courageous, generous and, above all, joyful!”

Homily for Solemnity of Christ the King

Homily for the Solemnity
of Christ the King
Nov. 24, 2002
Matt 25: 31-46
Nativity, Brandon, Fla.

“Then the king will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Matt 25: 41).

During a hot debate in the U.S. Senate back in the early 1920s, one impassioned senator told a colleague to go to hell.  The affronted senator appealed to the presiding officer, Vice President Calvin Coolidge, about the use of such language.  Coolidge, who had been leafing thru a book, looked up and said, “I have been checking the rules manual, and you don’t have to go.”

When people get angry, they’ll often curse others.  Wishing someone real harm, not just using naughty words, is what cursing is.  But quite often someone says “go to hell” rather thoughtlessly.  We say a certain injury “hurt like hell” or we have “a boss from hell.”  We’ve been known to have “a helluva good time.”  We joke about hell—how if we end up there, we’ll have a good time with all our friends.

Such flippant attitudes suit Satan quite well.  His best friends aren’t atheists, who may be sincere and virtuous people, but people who don’t take sin seriously, who don’t think their moral or immoral choices have consequences.  If hell is a joke or just a 4-letter word, then sin isn’t serious, and neither is virtue.

How awful is hell?  Consider 9-11.  All of us shudder to imagine what it was like at the top of the WTC—a friend of mine died there—or at the Pentagon.  We may gauge the horror from office workers’ preference to jump out windows rather than stay where they were.  That was an image of hell.  People who survived the Nazi concentration camps tell us they were in hell on earth, and with good reason.

Those earthly examples, however, have significant flaws.  Concentration camp inmates who sustained themselves with hope, e.g., of seeing a spouse or a child again, appear to have had a markedly greater chance of survival than those without hope.  The last seconds of office workers engulfed in burning jet fuel or choking in acrid smoke may have seemed eternal, but they were seconds.  We all pray we never find out what that’s like.

The Last Judgment by Hans Memling (Wikipedia)

The real hell, the one created for the devil and his angels, is everlasting, never-ending.  Appropriately did Dante imagine a sign over the gate of hell:  “Abandon hope, all you who enter here.”  There are no 2d chances, no reincarnations.  The hell of the Bible and of Christian doctrine is a hopeless eternity of pain, anguish, self-loathing, hatred of everyone and everything.  It’s no everyday matter.  It’s no joking matter.

There’s a tendency among some Christians to discount hell.  God is merciful, after all.  Could he really damn anyone for whom Christ died and rose from the dead?

Three answers to that, and one hope.

1st answer:  We have Christ’s own teaching that hell is a reality and a possible outcome of his judgment on our lives.  We’ve just heard his parable of the last judgment.  We may also remember his parable of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus who wasted away at the rich man’s doorstep, as well as some of Christ’s other warnings.

2d answer:  We all have a natural instinct for justice, an instinct planted in our hearts by God, in whose image we’re created.  Justice isn’t fully administered in this life; even when we try hard, as in democratic societies, we often fail.  We believe that God is the inescapable, undeceivable, just judge who in eternity vindicates the innocent and punishes the wicked.

3d answer:  It isn’t God’s choice to damn anyone.  It’s our own choice.  God wants us to turn from sin and be saved, but the one force against which he is powerless is our free will.  If we choose to sin and not to repent, he can’t compel us to accept his pardon, can’t compel us into heaven.  It’s as if he asks us, “Are you sorry for your sins,” and we say, “Hell, no!”  And he says, “Is that your final answer?”  And we say, “Yes!”  Only then will he utter those terrible words, “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Yet there is one substantial hope.  St. Francis de Sales, the patron and namesake of the Salesian Society, believed that God in his mercy calls each of us into eternity at the moment when each of us is best prepared to go.  One modern theologian[1] published a book called Dare We Hope That All Men Will Be Saved? which, while acknowledging that damnation is a real possibility for each of us, answered positively that we may indeed hope that God’s mercy will so touch every single human heart as to win its repentance and salvation.

A final point—the point Jesus emphasizes in this parable of judgment, as well as in the parable of the rich man and the beggar at his door:  we will be judged, and our eternal fate depends, upon the mercy we extend to or withhold from our brothers and sisters.  It’s God’s grace that saves us by moving us to repent and by moving us to imitate Christ in our lives.  But it’s always within our power to reject grace or accept it and act on it.  And we’ll be judged, according to what Jesus tells us, not by what we’ve believed—all the mysteries of our Christian faith—but by what we’ve done, the sin or the virtue in how we’ve treated one another.  “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matt 25:40).

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      [1] Hans Urs von Balthasar, named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1988.

SLMs in Bolivia Appeal for Some Help

SLMs in Bolivia Appeal for Some Help

Veteran readers of this blog are already familiar with the Salesian Lay Missioners.  For more years than I know (a LOT of years), SLMs have been serving orphaned and other needy little girls and teens at Hogar Sagrado Corazon (Sacred Heart Home) in Montero, Bolivia.  The Hogar is truly a home for these girls, the sisters who staff it are truly mothers to them, and the volunteers (not only from our SLM program but from Salesian volunteer programs in other countries too) become very attached to these girls and vice versa as they provide service to them and grow in their own Catholic faith at the same time.  Services include 24/7 availability, helping the little ones dress or get ready for bed, homework help, lots of play time, medical attention in-house and trips to doctors when needed, outings, etc.--with (at least theoretically) a day off each week.

Last August we commissioned 13 new SLMs for service in Bolivia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Congo, Zambia, South Africa, and the exotic country of Florida (my home state).  Two of them, Thao Nguyen and Avra Dugan, accepted mission to Montero.  They have just launched a modest appeal for some financial assistance for the program, which I post here in support of the Hogar and our SLMs.

Hello family and friends,

I'm writing to ask you all for help in fundraising efforts for Hogar Sagrado Corazon. For those who aren't familiar, the Hogar is a home for girls age 1-20 in Montero, Bolivia. It provides a loving home, basic necessities, activities, education, and a lot of fun for over 120 girls who have no families, or families who are unable to provide for them. We (Thao and Avra) have only been here for about a month, but already we feel welcomed with the greatest possible warmth and love into the gigantic family here. It is difficult to explain how much this place means to the girls who live here. Often girls arrive undernourished, ill, afraid, and completely abandoned. Many have never attended school, never lived in a house, and never had a stable family. The Hogar provides a safe and caring environment for them, and it's amazing to see girls who were unable to walk or speak when they arrived playing and laughing with the other girls. The Hogar is run by a group of Franciscan sisters, whom the girls call 'Madre', as well as paid staff and volunteers. Some financial support comes from the church, as well as the state, but the Hogar also runs an independent fundraising initiative called the Madrina Program. Girls are sponsored by a Madrina (Godmother), who pays yearly dues to help them purchase necessities, or small gifts to help them feel special. We are currently trying to raise money for the general account. This account is shared among all the girls, and is for yearly purchases of items that all the girls will need, like new shoes (most of the young girls have only one pair of flip-flops, and many of them are broken), school supplies like erasers or colored pencils, clothes, and hairbrushes. We also hope to raise enough money to purchase fun Christmas presents, like small toys or books for the girls. It's rare for most girls to receive birthday presents, or any gifts during the year, so Christmas is a very special time for them, and we hope with your help to make this a wonderful Christmas for these very wonderful girls.

We are including a link to a gofundme page with a few pictures and stories about the girls, so you can get to know a few of them, and see why we are so happy to have the opportunity to work with them all the time!

https://www.gofundme.com/hogar-sagrado-corazon-christmas

To Donate: 

Donations can be made via PayPal, Venmo, or by Check. If you should feel it is better to send the money to me, you can Venmo me @Thao-Nguyen-9. I promise 100% of the donated money will be going to the girls! 

Checks are made out to Hogar Sagrado Corazon, and can be mailed in the U.S. to 

Mara Fuller 501 Oakwood Ave. Lake Forest, IL 60045

(Mara is one of the administrators of the Madrina program, and checks are mailed to her to avoid having to mail money into Bolivia, which is difficult)

PayPal is to marafuller@hotmail.com

Venmo is to sagradocorazon.hogar@gmail.com

Some girls are also without Madrinas, currently. If you would like to be a Madrina, please let me know and I can send you more information on how that program works.

Avra Dugan isn't hard to pick out as she entertains some of the younger girls of the Hogar.

Thao Nguyen (center) with a couple of the older Hogar girls.

The color scheme that I used on the title for this post reflects the colors of Bolivia's flag.

Remains of Don Bosco's Successors Transferred to Valdocco

Remains of Don Bosco's Successors
Transferred to Valdocco 

(ANS – Turin – November 22) – The mortal remains of Frs. Louis Ricceri, Egidio Viganò, and Juan Edmundo Vecchi were delivered to the basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Valdocco on the afternoon of Monday, November 20.

Their remains of the sixth, seventh and eighth successors of St. John Bosco had rested in the Salesian cemetery at the Catacombs of St. Callistus in Rome until November 18, when they started their journey from the capital to Turin.

In Turin, a delegation from the motherhouse community of the basilica and Mary Help of Christians Parish arranged for their placement inside the wing dedicated for this purpose, namely, in the basilica’s relics chapel.

Fr. Pascual Chavez Villanueva, when he was Rector Major, conceived the initiative of bringing together the remains of all the deceased Rectors Major, which is still in process.  Already entombed in the basilica, relatively near Don Bosco’s tomb, are Frs. Michael Rua, Paul Albera, Philip Rinaldi, and Peter Ricaldone, all of whom died in Turin (between 1910 and 1951) when the Salesian Society’s general headquarters were located there.

The transfer of the bodies from Rome makes a reality of collecting the successors of Don Bosco with their founding father in one place.  He now lies in the bronze and glass casket at the altar dedicated to him in Mary’s great Valdocco shrine.

On this evocative and holy site of Valdocco, the Salesian Congregation had its start in truly concrete terms, and thanks to this transfer, the faithful and pilgrims will be able immediately to perceive the enormous historical legacy to which each successor of Don Bosco, and each Salesian, is bound.

Homily for Wednesday, 33d Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Wednesday,

33d Week of Ordinary Time

Nov. 22, 2017
Luke 19: 11-28
Day of Recollection, Washington Community[1]

“He proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God would appear there immediately” (Luke 19: 11).

The parable is actually a double parable.  Luke places it in Jericho immediately after the episode with Zacchaeus.  On the surface, then, it might seem to teach about the proper use of wealth, which Zacchaeus has to some degree just demonstrated.

But, as the Zacchaeus episode isn’t really about money, but about repentance and divine mercy, neither is the parable about money.

Luke sets the double parable in a context that tells us it’s about the kingdom of God.  Indeed, the secondary parable that frames the primary one deals with a king and his subjects.  Luke introduces the parable with an interpretation.  Jesus told it because he was on his way to Jerusalem, and people—not the disciples specifically, but according to Luke (19:1-11) the larger audience gathered around Jesus and Zacchaeus—“they” expected that in Jerusalem he would claim the throne of David.  The blind beggar had just acclaimed him as “Jesus, Son of David” as he approached Jericho (18:35,38).  It’s many of these same people, presumably, who will herald his arrival in the holy city by hailing him as “the king who comes in the name of the Lord” (19:38) in the passage that follows the parable.

We know that Jesus’ parables are based on the everyday life of farmers, shepherds, merchants, women, laborers, and travelers.  William Barclay observes that the secondary parable about kingship is the only parable based on a historical event.  In 4 BC Archelaus, son of Herod the Great, traveled to Rome to petition Augustus to confirm him as king of Judea.  He was trailed by a deputation of Jewish leaders petitioning the contrary.  Augustus did confirm Archelaus, but only as tetrarch—you remember that St. Matthew tells us that Joseph settled the Holy Family in Nazareth when he heard that Archelaus was ruling Judea (2:22).  Archelaus may not have slain the Jewish deputation—“hacked them to pieces,” in Barclay’s translation of Luke 19:28—but he did prove to be a bloody and corrupt ruler, and Augustus removed him after 10 years, installing a Roman procurator instead.  We don’t doubt that this back story would’ve been in the minds of Jesus’ audience.

Luke presents to us another king departing on a journey in pursuit of a kingdom.  Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, where he will undergo his exodus (9:31), as Luke terms his passion, death, and resurrection in the transfiguration story, is the prelude to another journey that will take him away from his subjects for a very long time, viz., his ascension, where at the Father’s right hand he’ll be given kingly power.  And, as the angels tell the gawking apostles when he ascends, he’ll return just as they’ve seen him ascend (Acts 1:11).  In the meantime, they are to preach the Good New everywhere (Acts 1:8), giving to men and women the choice whether to accept him as their king.

The primary parable promises big rewards to faithful subjects, while the kingship parable tells the fate of whoever rejects Jesus as king.  Luke may also have in mind the fate of Jerusalem in 70 AD after the Jewish leaders and most of the people rejected Jesus; later in this same chapter, he will, uniquely, show us Jesus weeping over the city for its not “recognizing the day of [their] visitation” (19:41-44).

But of course Luke is speaking to generations of Christians.  Those who reject the lordship of Jesus are doomed when he returns.  It’s fitting for us to ponder his message on our DOR.  Every day we renew our commitment to our religious consecration.  More fundamentally, we ought to be renewing our commitment to Jesus every day:  Jesus as Lord, Jesus as Dominus—a title the Caesars claimed as their own, and so an imperial title as well as divine.  We ask ourselves on a DOR, does Jesus rule my life? my words, my desires, my decisions, my actions?  To the extent that he is not our Dominus, to the extent that we have rebelled in some way, looking to ourselves rather than to the Lord, we renew our commitment on days like this, and in sacramental Reconciliation and in daily personal prayer.

The core parable of the servants who are entrusted with money to trade with closely resembles the parable of the talents in Matthew.  Here the sums of money are much smaller; the coins are Greek minas, each worth 100 drachmas or 100 denarii.  (A talent was worth 6,000 denarii.)  But, as I said, it’s not about the money as such.  It’s about the trade or the investment, as it also is in Matthew’s version.

Servants rendering their accounts (Rembrandt)

While our king is absent, what is it that he has entrusted to us for investment, for the increase of his revenue?  I propose to you that it’s the Good News of the kingdom.  While Jesus is “away” in heaven, we his followers have what he left us, and he has tasked us to multiply it.  Do you remember Dominic Savio commenting to Don Bosco, “Here at the Oratory you deal in souls”?  That’s the business, the transaction, the goal of our investments.  When the king returns, we hope to hand over to him the great wealth that the Good News has earned for him thru our efforts (in human terms; the real work, of course, is God’s).

You may have heard of the Benedict option—the title of a book and of a contemporary movement in the Church.  It takes its name not from Pope Benedict but from St. Benedict, who withdrew from a decadent Roman society to found a pure Christian community.  One observer defines today’s movement as “the idea of traditionalist Christians choosing to step back from the now-futile political projects and ambitions of the past four decades to cultivate and preserve a robustly Christian subculture within an increasingly hostile common culture. That inward turn toward community-building is the element of monasticism in the project. But its participants won't be monks. They will be families, parishes, and churches working to protect themselves from the acids of modernity, skepticism, and freedom (understood as personal autonomy), as well as from the expansive regulatory power of the secular state.”[2]

I don’t detect much of a missionary thrust there, much of a sense of spreading the Good News.  It seems to me to be more like hiding the Good News in a napkin so that it will be purely but privately preserved, not tainted by the business of dealing with the real world.  Not exactly what Pope Francis has been charging the Church with:  to go out to the peripheries, to live among and smell like the sheep, to man the field hospitals.  And I think that’s what Jesus is telling us in the parable.  “Me and my Jesus” faith is seriously deficient.  Before he ascended, Jesus commissioned the disciples to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

As Salesians we know this, and we take it to heart.  We’re working hard to invest what the Lord Jesus has entrusted to us, hoping to hand over to him a great revenue in souls.  The DOR is a refreshing reminder not only of who our King is, but of what he wishes us to do with the vocation that he’s given us—and of the reward, too, that awaits the “good and faithful servants.”

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       [1] Atonement Sisters of the Washington Retreat House also present.

       [2] Damon Linker, “The Benedict Option: Why the religious right is considering an all-out withdrawal from politics,” The Week, May 19, 2015. Online: http://theweek.com/articles/555734/benedict-option- why-religious-right-considering-allout-withdrawal-from-politics

Salesian Fr. Sala Appointed Secretary for Synod on Youth

Salesian Fr. Rossano Sala Appointed Special Secretary for the Synod of Bishops on Youth

ANS doesn't identify the two priests, one of whom is Fr. Costa, the other Fr. Sala.

We can be pretty sure which man is the Pope and which one the cardinal.

(ANS - Vatican City – November 20) - Pope Francis has appointed a relator general, Cardinal Sergio Rocha, archbishop of Brasilia, and two special secretaries for the 2018 Synod, which is dedicated to young people. The secretaries are Fr. Giacomo Costa, SJ, and Fr. Rossano Sala, SDB. The appointments took place at the end of the November 16-17 meeting of the council of the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.

Announcing the nomination, the general secretariat explained that “the appointment of two special secretaries conforms to Article 14 §3 of the Ordo Synodi Episcoporum” (see Can. 348 §2 of C.I.C.)

Cardinal Rocha was made cardinal by Pope Francis on November 19, 2016. Fr. Costa has been director of the journal Aggiornamenti Sociali since 2010, and is thought to have been one of those consulted in the writing of the encyclical Laudato Si’.

Fr. Sala has been a Salesian since 1992 and a priest since 2000. For four years, he served his pastoral-educational ministry in the Salesian house of Bologna, and for six years he was director and principal of Brescia’s Salesian Institute. Licensed in sacred theology in 2002 at the Interregional Theological School in Milan, in 2012 he received his doctorate in sacred theology at the same School.

He taught fundamental theology at the Studentato Teologico Salesiano in Turin (the “Crocetta”). Since 2011, he has been part of the academic community of the Salesian Pontifical University of Rome. In 2016, he was appointed director of the magazine Note di Pastorale Giovanile.

“This assignment as special secretary is a sign of confidence in the Salesian Family,” Fr. Sala told ANS. “It is a task that comes from the Holy Father to be of help and support in the preparation of the Synod and, above all, to accompany Cardinal Rocha closely.”

“I am very grateful for the confidence shown to me by the Holy Father, as a Salesian and, above all, as a representative of the Salesian Family, which works with young people,” he said. “We are a large family which has an educational-pastoral ministry with young people, a way of being with young people, and a style to accompany them. This is a great responsibility for me, and I ask you to accompany me with prayers. As the sons of Don Bosco, we must be faithful to our founder when it comes to a commission that comes from the Holy Father.”

Homily for the 33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
33d Sunday of Ordinary Time
Nov. 16, 2008
Collect
Matt 25: 14-30
Provincial House, New Rochelle

“Father of all that is good, keep us faithful in serving you, for to serve you is our lasting joy” (Collect).

Faithfulness and service resound thru the Opening Prayer and the readings this morning.  The industrious housewife who serves her household is praised (Prov 31:10-31), the man who fears the Lord is blessed (Ps 128:1-5), the children of the light stay alert and sober in faithful vigil for the Lord’s coming (1 Thess 5:1-6), the master praises the good and faithful servants who carry out his wishes (Matt 25:14-30).

Some are praised and rewarded for their industry, some for their vigilance.  Both industry and vigilance are activities of sorts, and both require faithfulness.

In our situation—here at the provincial house—how are we to be faithful?  Some of us can be industrious like the worthy wife of Proverbs or the slaves in Jesus’ parable because we have province assignments or household chores to carry out.  Some of us are like John Milton in his blindness:  “They also serve who only stand and wait.”  (He was reflecting, by the way, on this gospel parable of the talents.)[1]  That is, we’re present to God in prayer and in waiting for his will to be revealed (as Dominic said in his conference on Wednesday).  We’re present to one another in friendship and support.  We’re ready with hospitality when called upon (even when our guest doesn’t show up)[2] and with an attitude of service to the young, however indirect it may be, as 2 of our Toms reminded us Thursday nite.

Blind Milton dictating poetry to his daughters

All of us are challenged to be faithfully alert and sober.  That, of course, doesn’t refer to our state of mind at meditation in the morning (and it might be good that it doesn’t!) or our use of Irish coffee on birthdays.  It does refer to our living in God’s presence, living in joyful hope of the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ (communion rite), awaiting our master’s return and ready to turn in our accounts.  That’s vigilance.

Whether we have a specific task to do or we’re basically retired, we’re still the master’s servants.  The talents entrusted to us may involve money or publishing or maintenance or guidance of people; or encouragement, prayer, attentiveness.  It doesn’t matter how big or small the matter, so long as we seek to please the Lord.  That’s industry.  We all remember, too, Mother Teresa’s wisdom:  success doesn’t matter, so long as we’re faithful.  For all of us our faithful service involves a right intention:  fearing the Lord and walking in his ways (cf. Ps 128:1) and not our own, seeking his will and not our own.

The Opening Prayer identifies our lasting joy with our service.  The psalmist—ignorant of eternal life—promises material blessings to the person who fears the Lord, and the compiler of Proverbs awards a sterling reputation to the faithful housewife.  In Jesus’ parable the master welcomes the faithful servant into his joy, echoing also a Lucan parable we heard 3 weeks ago wherein the master who finds his servants vigilant on his arrival will “have them recline at table and proceed to wait on them” (12:37).  That’s an image of the eternal banquet, of the lasting joy awaiting those who are faithful and industrious:  not by comparison with everybody else but in relation to what the Lord has asked of them.

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       [1] Sonnet “On His Blindness.”

       [2] Last nite we expected our regional councilor, Fr. Esteban Ortiz, to arrive, but his flight from Tampa was cancelled.

Pope Francis Commemorates Ceferino Namuncura

Pope Francis Commemorates Ceferino Namuncurá’s  Witness

and Desire to Be a Priest

(ANS - Vatican City - November 15) - “It makes me feel very good to think of Ceferino’s desire to be a priest to serve his people. That is how it must be. The priest always identifies with his people in such a way that his time, his life, and his person are for his brothers.” With these words, in a letter to Bishop Esteban Maria Laxague, SDB, of Viedma, Argentina, Pope Francis recalled Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá, son of the Mapuche people, who embraced faith in Jesus Christ and the Salesian Family, and died of tuberculosis in Rome in 1905, at only 19 years of age.

In the letter, sent on the tenth anniversary of Ceferino’s beatification (November 11, 2007), also marked the 131st anniversary of his birth (August 26, 1886). The Pontiff described the ceremony of beatification: “I was impressed by that crowd of people coming from different areas, and those faces filled with joy for the beatification of one of their own, one who had never forgotten his roots, his people, his culture.” [As archbishop of Buenos Aires at the time, Cardinal Bergoglio had been influential in the arrangements for the rite to be celebrated in Chimpay rather than the capital, and he had attended it.]

In addition to praising Ceferino Namuncura’s desire to be a priest at the service of his people, in his letter the Pope emphasizes that “youths know how to answer with generosity when Christ is presented to them through a witness of authentic and truthful life, such as Ceferino’s.” He adds a wish “that many young people today find in Jesus the love of their lives and the impetus to give of themselves to others.”

Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá represents the most convincing proof of the fidelity with which the first missionaries sent by Don Bosco could repeat what Don Bosco had done in the Oratory of Valdocco: form young saints. The formation received was part of an educational process based on the Preventive System. But what launched his formation toward the highest peaks was to learn about the life of Dominic Savio, whom Ceferino ardently imitated, and his First Communion, by which he made a covenant of absolute fidelity with Jesus, his great friend.

Source: Vatican Radio

Homily for 32d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
32d Sunday of Ordinary Time
Nov. 8, 1987
Matt 25: 1-13
Holy Cross, Fairfield, Conn.

“Father, why’d you fail me?”  It’s a question I hear after every report card, and I’m sure every teacher does.

Of course, the kid asking the question is the same one who does several of the following:  sleeps in class; whispers to his neighbor in class; copies someone else’s math homework during history class; raises his hand only when he needs a tissue; doesn’t have a clue when asked to comment on part of the lesson; can’t understand how come half his book report reads word-for-word like the article in the World Book; studies history for an hour at home—the nite before a test, that is.

You probably know that student, or did way back when.  You probably also know his cousin—the gal who can’t hold a job, can’t keep an apartment, can’t keep the house clean, always needs a favor, whose kid always gets into trouble because of someone else’s little brat, who needs you to cover for her at work all the time.

Temptation and Fall (William Blake)

In fact, that type of person is as old as creation.  “The Lord God said…‘You have eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!’  The man replied, ‘The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it’” (Gen 3:9,11-12).  In other words, it’s the woman’s fault and yours for putting her here.  “The Lord God then asked the woman, ‘Why did you do such a thing?’  The woman answered, ‘The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it’” (Gen 3:13).  In other words, it’s the serpent’s fault, not mine.

More recently, we’ve heard Gary Hart and Bess Myerson blaming all their troubles on the press.

Or, as Flip Wilson got rich explaining, “The devil made me do it.”

I needn’t remind parents how many times they’ve heard, “He started it.”

So we can reasonably draw the conclusion that we human beings like to dodge responsibility for our action, or at least that most of us have a ferocious tendency in that direction.

That’s what Jesus is talking about in today’s parable.  “The kingdom of heaven is like (the situation of) 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom” (Matt 25:1).  Apparently these are the man’s maidservants, and they’re waiting for him to come home with his bride so the feast can begin.

As you know, 5 were responsible enuf to bring not only lamps but oil; the other 5 were thoughtless, lazy, dumb, or something of the sort.  Now when the groom, their master, appeared, suddenly the 5 foolish ones realized their plight.  They weren’t ready for him, and he probably would be angry with them.  Like the student begging a homework to copy at the last minute, they beg their fellow servants to bail them out.  “Give us some of your oil” (Matt 25:8).  The wise virgins are wise also because they refuse:  why should they all get in trouble when all 10 lamps fail?  They’re also kind enuf to make a practical suggestion:  go buy some oil.

The Wise and Foolish Virgins (William Blake)

And as we know, while the 5 foolish girls were buying their oil, their master returned, the feast began, and the door was barred.  Apparently the foolish maidservants thought they could sneak in unnoticed by banging on the locked door and getting one of their fellow servants to let them in.  Unluckily for them, it’s the master himself who answers their knock.  They find out how responsible they are for their own foolishness.  He says he doesn’t know them—perhaps meaning they’ll have no share in his wedding feast; perhaps, even worse, that they’re dismissed from his service.

We’ve come to the last 3 Sundays of the church year, as we’ve come to the dying of the calendar year and of Mother Nature.  Matthew is throwing parables of judgment at us today, next Sunday, and the Sunday after that, reminding us servants of the Lord Jesus that we must be ready for his return.

Some interpreters understand the lamp oil the wise virgins have and the foolish ones lack to be repentance.  Other commentators take it to be good deeds, concrete acts of love for God and neighbor.  Either way, this oil isn’t something any of us can borrow from a friend or neighbor.  We are responsible for ourselves.

Just as Adam couldn’t shove his responsibility to Eve, nor Eve hers to the snake, we can’t shove off ours, nor can we dodge it, nor can we borrow it.  Our sins are our own, and we must acknowledge them.  Only we can repent for ourselves.  Only we can respond to God’s love by deeds of love.

And we must act before the master returns.  On judgment day there’ll be no time to go shopping for oil.  At the moment of our deaths, either we’ve owned up to our personal history and confessed it, or we find the door barred and ourselves dismissed.  At the judgment, either we’re there with our kindness, our generosity, our perseverance in doing good, or we miss the wedding feast, the banquet of life.

We won’t be able to whine, “Father, why’d you fail me?”

Homily for 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
31st Sunday of Ordinary Time
Nov. 5, 2017
1 Thess 2: 7-9, 13
Visitation Convent, Georgetown, D.C.

“Brothers and sisters:  We were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children” (1 Thess 2: 7).

When we conjure up an image of St. Paul, it’s usually not the image of a gentle and affectionate man.  He’s the fierce preacher of the Gospel, the zealous and impatient apostle, bearing a sword not only because of the form of his martyrdom but also because he’s combative and easily riles up opponents who are more than ready to murder him. 

But both his letters, like our passage this morning, and Acts show how much he loved the people of the local churches that he’d founded on his journeys, and how they in turn loved him fervently.

Paul’s sensitivity toward his congregations went so far that he refused to burden them with his own living expenses (cf. 1 Cor 9:12,15-18), as he indicates today.  Altho he writes elsewhere that the laborer in the Lord’s work deserves compensation (1 Cor 9:3-14), he himself works at his trade as a leather worker (sometimes rendered as a tentmaker [Acts 18:3]) and so earns his daily bread.

But his main work is the Gospel, which he preaches by word and example.  His love for his people, whether at Thessalonica, Corinth, or Ephesus, is a living example of the Gospel, as is his diligence and his generosity.  The verses passed over in today’s reading, vv. 10-12, continue to tell of his affection, switching the metaphor from motherhood to fatherhood.

In our Christian lives, whether in community life or in family life, such affection is important.  Once upon a time we religious were sternly warned against outward shows of affection, except maybe for our immediate family.  Nowadays we understand that it’s important to show our sisterly or brotherly care for those we live with, and not just with smiles, kind words, expressions of interest, and a helping hand but even with a pat on the shoulder or a hug.  St. John Bosco advised those who work with young people, “It’s not enuf that you love them.  They must know that you love them.”  (Of course, we have to show our love for the young in appropriate ways.)  I’d say it’s true of our fellow religious too—and of families.  It’s part of what bonds us together into a community, into a communion.  It’s part of how we imitate our Lord Jesus, who showed his compassion for the sick by laying his hands upon them as well as by speaking powerful words; who wept for his friend Lazarus; who lived in very close communion with the Twelve; who even today comes to us not only in the spoken words of the Scriptures but in sacramental bread and wine too.  We’re all aware of the deep, spiritual, yet intimate friendship between Francis and Jane.  We can’t have a relationship like that with everyone, obviously, but how fortunate if we have one with one or two soul-friends—much more than mere BFFs!  And how beautiful is everyone in the house should behold us as her friend, someone she loves and is loved by.  In fact, one of the psalms says something like that:  “How beautiful it is when brothers dwell together in unity” (133:1).

Today we begin Vocation Awareness Week.  Let it be noted that marriage is a vocation, and strong, holy Christian families are absolutely essential for Christ’s Church; each household is a “domestic church,” worshiping God and raising up new saints.

As for vocations to the consecrated life, we must heed what the young are telling us today when they investigate a possible call.  They’re seeking 2 things above all:  1st, a life of communion with Jesus Christ, a community with a strong spirituality and not just a lively apostolic mission; and 2d, a community that is a communion of brothers or sisters, such as we’ve just been speaking.  Relative to both those points, let me quote a line from the Introduction that St. John Bosco wrote to the Salesian Constitutions when he presented them, newly approved by Rome in 1874, to the 1st generation of Salesians:  “Such great peace and tranquillity are enjoyed in this mystical fortress [of religious life], that if God were to make them known and experienced by those who live in the world, we should see all men [and women] leaving the world and taking the cloister by storm, in order to enter and live there for the rest of their earthly days.”[1]  It’s up to us, sisters, to make that “great peace and tranquillity” a reality in our home and to let it be known outside our home.  (Coffee and donuts help!)

Don Bosco, with Fr. Michael Rua behind him and his hand on the shoulder of Ceferino Namuncura' and youngsters reaching up to him. (Mario Bogani)

The warm relationship between St. Paul and the Christians of Thessalonica was based on the Gospel.  He had brought them the gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, and they’d responded, “receiving the word of God … not as a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe” (2:13).  Paul didn’t bring the Thessalonians (or anyone else) a book, a New Testament.  True, Jewish Christians had the Scriptures, what we now call the Old Testament; and Gentile Christians would necessarily have been introduced to those Scriptures.  But Paul brought the living teachings of Jesus and the living message of his death and resurrection, with the apostolic interpretation of what those teachings and those events mean—why they are Good News, or Gospel.  For Paul the Gospel was strictly oral; in fact, this letter, 1 Thessalonians, is generally accepted to be the earliest writing of the New Testament, ca. 50 or 51 A.D., about 20 years after Jesus’ resurrection and almost 20 years, probably, before St. Mark would put his Gospel into the written form that we know.  It was a great act of faith for a Pauline audience to recognize his preaching as “truly the word of God,” a word “at work,” i.e., working their salvation, establishing and building their relationship with Christ and thru Christ with the Father.

Which must make us ask how WE receive the word of God.  Do we read it, study it, believe it, pray with it, make it part of our lives?

And what about the oral Gospel, i.e., the teachings of Christ’s living Church that aren’t in the Scriptures as such?  Do we receive the teachings of the Holy Father and our bishops as the contemporary interpretation of the Gospel, how we are to understand and live out the Gospel today?

Paul “gave thanks to God unceasingly” because his dear friends in Thessalonica had received and made their own the word of God.  How blessed are we when we do it too!

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     [1] “Saint John Bosco to the Salesians,” Constitutions of the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (Paterson, N.J., 1957), p. 3.