Validity of Diocesan Inquiry into Cause of Fr. Rudolph Lunkenbein and Simon Bororo

Validity of Diocesan Inquiry into Cause of Servants of God Fr. Rudolph Lunkenbein and Simon Bororo

(ANS – Vatican City – December 31, 2020) – The Congregation for the Causes of Saints in its 0rdinary session of December 16 ruled that the Acts of the diocesan inquiry into the cause of the Servants of God Fr. Rudolph Lunkenbein, SDB, and Simon Christian Koge Kudugodu, known as Simon Bororo, was carried out correctly and validly. The diocesan investigation into their lives and martyrdom and on their reputation as martyrs was done from 2018 to 2020 in the diocese of Barra do Garças, Brazil.

The Vatican document was signed by the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro. It confirms that the testimony and documentary proofs have been collected according to the established norms.

Commenting on the document, the Salesian postulator general, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, underscored that “this is a great milestone, the result of the work carried out with passion and competence in the diocesan phase. A special thanks goes to the members of the diocesan tribunal, to the vice postulator Fr. Paulo Jacomo Eduardo, and to Fr. João Bosco Maciel for their generous dedication, and to Dr. Lodovica Maria Zanet of the postulator’s office in Romefor her constant and qualified collaboration.”

Fr. Gildasio Dos Santos Mendes, general councilor of the Salesians for communications since March 2020, supported with determination the martyrs’ cause in his previous capacity as provincial of the Campo Grande Province. He expresses his joy as follows: “This news, which arrived at Christmas time, is a special gift for the whole Church, the Salesian Family, and indigenous peoples from all over the world. It is also an invitation to continue praying for the good outcome of the cause itself, and a stimulus for all of us to live our vocation in following Christ with hope, in fidelity to Don Bosco our father, who taught us by his example, that holiness is the main goal of our life.”

Now the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will proceed with the appointment of the relator and an external collaborator for the preparation of the “Positio super martyrio,” that is the volume that presents and examines the lives, the material, and the formal martyrdom of the Servants of God and their reputation of martyrdom.

Rector Major's Commentary on the 2021 Strenna

Rector Major's Commentary 
on the 2021 Strenna

(ANS - Rome - December 30, 2020) – On December 29 the official commentary of the Rector Major on the 2021 Strenna for the Salesian Family, "Moved by hope: 'See, I am making all things new' (Rev 21.5)," was published.

Four days earlies, a video on the strenna was released. Together with the commentary, these are primary tools for the animation of the Salesian Family in the new year. 

The commentary consists of 22 pages in its American English version, divided into 6 parts and ends with a prayer to Mary, Mother of Hope.

THE TEXT

Introduction

In every part of the world, in whatever country or religion, the “image of the year” that will remain impressed on everyone’s mind will be the one of an elderly man, dressed all in white, all alone in the wide expanse of St. Peter’s Square in Rome on a rainy afternoon toward sunset on March 27, 2020. The man was Pope Francis, who has never been alone like this while leading prayer, but at the same time never accompanied by all of humanity in quite the same way. With this gesture he reminded this world of ours, made up of different races, cultures, nations, and religions, that God is able to lead even the most disastrous and painful things to what is good. And he invited us to look compassionately at our poor faith.

What we have experienced over these last eleven months is, without a doubt, a challenge that we have been faced with and that we cannot ignore as if nothing has happened or as if it were somehow in the past.

Read the full commentary.

Homily for Feast of the Holy Family

Homily for the 
Feast of the Holy Family

Dec. 31, 1978
Luke 2: 22-40
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, Westwego, La.

“They returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth.  And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the  favor of God upon him” (Luke 2: 39-40).

The Holy Family (Murillo)

Today is the feast of the Holy Family, that poor, simple, love-filled group of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus dwelling in a dusty, poverty-ridden, out-of-the-way village called Nazareth.

These 3 would appear to be of no great significance except that they are a family centered on the Word of God:  the Word of God spoken in the Scriptures, for it is this that brings them to the Temple in today’s gospel reading; the Word of God revealed in their own lives, for it is this that makes Mary say “yes” to God’s angel and makes Joseph take the pregnant virgin as his wife; and the Word of God made flesh, for it is he who is Jesus, the Son of Mary.  Mary and Joseph are blessed by Simeon today, for they have heard God’s Word and received him into their lives (2:34)—as Jesus will later called blessed all those who hear the Word of God and keep it (8:21).

Those of you who are husbands, wives, and parents, or who hope to be such someday, observe Mary and Joseph.  Observe their attentiveness to God’s Word, and attend to it yourselves in Scripture readings, personal prayer, and the celebration of the sacraments.  Observe their faithfulness to each other in difficult times, and find your strength in each other.  Observe how they are blessed in the child whom God gives to them, and see a blessing in the child whom God has sent or may send to you.  The Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore of India expressed this blessing well:  “Every child comes with the message that God is not discouraged of man.”

Because the Son of God becomes a child among us, we have the greatest reason for encouragement.  This Son of God, Jesus the son of Mary, “grew and became strong” in a human family, living, working, playing, and studying in Nazareth.  We know almost nothing historically of Jesus’ childhood, and so we may certainly suppose it was an ordinary child’s life.  He helped his mother with the chores in what was probably a small, one-room stone house, accompanied her to the village well to draw water for the day’s needs, learned carpentry from Joseph in a shop probably attached to the house, played with the other village boys, studied the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the sacred writings of his people, celebrated the Sabbath and other festivals at the synagog, and took short walks into the neighboring fields, vineyards, and orchards of Galilee, possibly even to the Sea of Galilee some 20 miles to the east or to Mt. Carmel and the Mediterranean some 20 miles to the west.

It was in this simple, ordinary family context that Jesus “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”  As a fully human being, he had to develop his bodily, intellectual, and emotional resources just as you and I do.  He did it in a poor, lower-class, working family, among friends and relatives, and with respect for the laws and traditions of his people.

Those of you who are young people, observe Jesus. As a boy and then a young man, he learns and grows and becomes holy within a family.  He is devoted to his family, helps them, learns from them, studies his lessons, plays, worships in the synagog, and takes on a trade.  Thus he prepares himself for the great work that lies ahead of him in God’s plan.  God has a plan for you, too, and he wants you to prepare yourself for it now by loving your families, studying your lessons, developing your skills, playing with your friends, and practicing your Catholic faith.  It is in the ordinary lives of your families that you, too, will grow and become strong, filled with wisdom; and have “the favor of God upon you.”

Homily for Christmas Day

Homily for Christmas
Mass during the Day

Dec. 25, 1981
Isaiah 52: 7-10
St. Vincent de Paul, Charlotte, N.C.

As noted last weekend, we are quarantined because of Covid-19 in the house.

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, ‘Your God is King’” (Is 52: 7).

Thruout the Advent season the Church has been reading from Isaiah the prophet, particularly from the second half of his book, known as the Book of Consolation.  This second half of the book emphasizes their long exile in Babylon some 540 years before the birth of Christ.

I don’t suppose any of us have ever thought feet were beautiful, not even at Christmas.  Of course, the prophetic emphasis is on the good news arriving at Jerusalem —arriving with a messenger who has travelled on foot over the mountains.

The glad tidings being carried to Jerusalem—the city is little more than a ruin after the siege, capture, and sack by Nebuchadnezzar 50 years earlier—the glad tidings are that the Lord is comforting his people at last.  He is baring his arm like a warrior preparing for battle (52:9-10).  Babylon is to be destroyed by the Lord’s appointed agent, King Cyrus of the Medes and Persians (ch. 46-47, 45:1).  The Lord’s people will return to Zion, that is, to Jerusalem, to restore it to splendor for everyone to see (54:1-3, 52:10).

The prophet thus speaks of the Lord redeeming Jerusalem.  In the Bible, redemption doesn’t mean paying a ransom or buying back.  It means fulfilling the family obligation of vengeance.  Israel is the Lord’s child (49:15; cf. Hos 11:1), and Babylon has done horrible things to Israel (47:6).  The Lord redeems Israel from Babylon not with a bribe but with victory—conquest followed by freedom and return to the Holy Land (49:26).

The word for glad tidings or good news, translated into Old English, was Godspell—our modern “gospel.”  The gospel message in 540 B.C. was redemption, restoration, freedom, and peace for God’s people—in an earthly sense of return home from exile, the rebuilding of a ruined city, and the renewal of worship in the holy city.

For ages the Church has applied Isaiah’s prophecies to the messianic time, to Jesus the Messiah and what he has done for us.  The glad tidings today are our God is King.  He has shown his power in our world by giving us a Savior, a redeemer.

But this time Zion, that is, God’s holy people, is not redeemed from a worldly conqueror but from an other-worldly one.  We have been ravaged by sin.  We have been conquered by the powers of darkness and by death.  And today light shines in our world!  Death is beaten back by life, sin is overcome by grace—not a payoff, a bribe, or a ransom, but by the awesome might of our God—awesome, yet gentle enuf to come to us in the form of an infant, a savior whose glory inspires us with love, nor with fear.  Jesus restores us to our Father from the exile of sin.  He shares his eternal life with us who accept him, his victory, his good news that we are loved.

At Christmas we easily see the effects of salvation.  We not only wish each other peace, but we share it.  We try to give joy and comfort to one another.  We act kindly even to strangers. And it’s beautiful. That is the gospel message proclaimed in the world for everyone to see.  Men and women are restored to God in the sacraments.

But the effect is lasting only if it survives the Christmas season.  It has to carry over into our everyday lives; it has to endure, as does God’s love for us.  Only then will the world that sin has ruined begin to be restored as a holy land where God evidently dwells.

May God bless you with peace, not only today and not only for yourselves, but always and for everyone whose life you touch.

World Premiere of Rector Major's 2021 Strenna

 World Premiere of Rector Major’s 2021 Strenna

(ANS – Rome – December 21, 2020) – The first world screening of the Rector Major’s 2021 Strenna will take place on December 26; its theme, “Moved by hope: See, I am making all things new (Rev 21:5).” The event is an exceptional novelty, even as it respects traditional canons.

The program of activities foresees, first of all, the meeting of the Rector Major with the Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and a small group of sisters at the FMA Generalate at 4:00 p.m., Italian time. Fr. Angel Fernandez will present a preview of the strenna’s contents; according to a long tradition, the Salesian Rector Major as father and center of unity of the Salesian Family first delivers the strenna message for the new year to the FMAs.

Subsequently, at 6:00 p.m. (UTC + 1) – and here is the real novelty – the worldwide screening of the strenna video will take place – a screening that will be livestreamed on the ANS Facebook page, with simultaneous comments in five languages, and which will make it possible immediately to share the perspective indicated by Fr. Fernandez to all today’s followers and admirers of Don Bosco throughout the Salesian world.

Finally, immediately after the video screening – still livestreamed – the Rector Major will make himself available for an interview wherein users from home will also be able to participate by posing questions, and will thus deepen the themes and salient contents of the strenna.

To participate, please connect to: https://www.facebook.com/agenziaans

Fr. Ignatius Stuchly Is Venerable

 Fr. Ignatius Stuchly Is Venerable

(ANS - Vatican City – December 23, 2020) – On December 21, 2020, the Holy Father received Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in audience. During the audience, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation to promulgate the decree concerning the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Ignatius Stuchly, priest of the Society of St. Francis de Sales. Ven. Stuchly was born on December 14, 1869, in Boleslaw in the former Prussian Silesia (now part of Poland), and died in Lukov, Czechoslovakia, on January 17, 1953.

Ignatius was born into a large family of peasants. He had a first intense experience of faith at school, where the teacher, Jan Kolibaj, much in love with our Lady, urged him about a priestly vocation. His rather precarious health suddenly improved when a “folk healer” changed his diet. This healer also prophesied his priesthood. This dream could be fulfilled only many years later, not without some difficulties due to external and independent circumstances.

Many spoke to him about Don Bosco and, after various vicissitudes, in 1894 Ignatius was welcomed in Turin and accompanied on his vocational journey by Fr. Michael Rua. He was an aspirant in Valsalice. There he met the Venerable Fr. Andrew Beltrami, who left a permanent impression on his journey of faith and his mission. In 1895 he entered the novitiate at Ivrea. On the eve of his vows, he experienced a moment of vocational crisis, which he overcame thanks to the paternal help of Fr. Rua, who urged him to make his perpetual profession immediately, which he did on September 29, 1896.

In 1901 Ignatius Stuchly was ordained a priest by the archbishop of Gorizia (in Venetia Julia), Cardinal Missia. Until 1910 he dedicated himself to poor children, distinguishing himself as a sought-after confessor and expert spiritual guide. These were years of sacrifice but of great spiritual fruit for vocations. Then he went to Slovenia, between Ljubljana and Verzej, until 1924, dedicating his energies to the maintenance of the Salesian works and the construction of the beautiful shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Ljubljana. From 1925 to 1927 he returned to Italy in Perosa Argentina (Turin), where he was in charge of the formation of young people from his native lands, Bohemia and Moravia, in order to graft the Salesian Congregation “in the North,” according to the prophetic words given to him years earlier by Fr. Rua. In 1927 he returned to Frystak in his homeland, where he held Salesian government posts, including the office of provincial, from 1935 (Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia), and saw an extraordinary flowering of the Salesian presence. He faced both the World War II and the spread of Communist totalitarianism. In both cases, the Salesian works were requisitioned and the confreres enlisted or dispersed; Fr. Stuchly suddenly saw the work to which he had consecrated his life destroyed.

Forty days before the fateful “Night of the Barbarians,” in March 1950, he was struck by apoplexy. He spent the last three years of his life, first in the retirement home in Zlin, then in Lukov, always guarded by the regime and isolated from his brothers. Thus his prophecy that he would die alone was fulfilled; but around his bed, peace and joy flourished, which he radiated in abundance. The very high esteem that he had always aroused in superiors, and his great ability to love and be loved, flourished more than ever in his reputation of holiness. He died peacefully on the evening of January 17, 1953.

Treasurer, prefect, vice director, director, provincial, the Venerable Servant of God held positions of responsibility for a large part of his life. A bit like Blessed Fr. Rua, whom he took as an example, Fr. Stuchly was considered a “living rule,” an effective witness to the spirit of Don Bosco, capable of passing it on to subsequent generations, in very different contexts from 19th-century Turin. “Ignatius Stuchly was a religious who did not write ‘Rules’ but obeyed them.” In difficult contexts and facing them with great faith and hope, he leaves us a message of great relevance: “We work while it is day. When the night arrives, the Lord will take care of it.”

Website: https://istuchly.cz/

Salesian Missions' Clean Water Initiative

Salesian Missions’ Clean Water Initiative provides funding for clean water access in 5 communities

(ANS – Abuja, Nigeria – December 14, 2020) – Five communities in Nigeria have clean water access, thanks to donor funding through the “Clean Water Initiative” of Salesian Missions of New Rochelle. Borehole projects have been completed in Alaenyi, Umuaju, Bagbe, Nsasak Afaha, and Neke. Due to geographic conditions, there is very little potable water in this region, and people—mostly women and children—are forced to travel long distances to access clean water for their daily needs or rely on rain and river water, which can sometimes be contaminated.

UN-Water estimates that worldwide 2.1 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services, and by 2050 the world’s population will have grown by an estimated 2 billion people, pushing global water demand up to 30 percent higher than today. One in four primary schools has no drinking water service, with students using unprotected water sources or going thirsty.

The new boreholes provide clean water, reduce outbreaks of waterborne diseases, and eliminate the need for traveling hours each day in search of water. Poor residents of these communities, students, and women and children will benefit from these boreholes. Children can remain in school instead of searching for water. Women no longer have to travel long distances, often risking their lives just to find a water source.

“The water projects we fund ensure that Salesian programs around the globe have access to safe, clean water for the health and safety of those we serve,” said Fr. Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Ensuring access to clean water brings a sense of dignity to communities and promotes proper hygiene. This also reduces the number of waterborne illnesses that can affect those in our schools, keeping them away from important study time.”

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and the second strongest economy in the continent, also has extreme rates of poverty, with 100 million people living on less than $1 a day. About 64% of households in Nigeria consider themselves to be poor, while 32% of households say their economic situation had worsened over a period of one year, according to UNICEF. Poverty remains one of the most critical challenges facing the country, and population growth rates have meant a steady increase in the number of people living in conditions of poverty.

Homily for 4th Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Advent

At the provincial house we got an unpleasant surprise on Wednesday nite, in the form of a positive Covid test result for one of our confreres.  Consequently, none of us can go out for at least a few days, and we won't be celebrating Sunday Masses in parishes or religious houses.  (We can't even pray together.)  I hadn't finished drafting my intended homily; so I offer y'all an old one.

Dec. 19, 1993
2 Sam 7:1-5, 8-11, 16
Luke 1: 26-38
St. Vincent de Paul, Hunter, Grand Bahama Island
St. Agnes, Eight Mile Rock, GBI

“Thus says the Lord:  Should you build me a house to dwell in?” (2 Sam 7:5).

One month ago the father of a friend of mine threw a surprise 75th birthday party for his wife.  She thought she was going from Florida to North Carolina just to visit one of her sons and his family, but her husband flew all their children and grandchildren—over 30 people in all—down from New Jersey, New York, and has far away as Oregon. The lady had quite a surprise, the whole family had a wonderful time surprising her and celebrating, and her husband considered every dime he spent well worth it to see his wife so happy.

We all love a good surprise—love giving one, love receiving one.  Perhaps we’re like our Father in heaven, in whose image we were created.  For he loves surprises too.

  King David (by Nicolas Cordier), Church of St. Mary Major, Rome

Consider what he did for King David.  David was grateful to the Lord for making him king, defeating Israel’s enemies, and making him secure in his new capital city, Jerusalem.  So David proposed to build a handsome temple for God; the Ark of the Covenant had been kept only in a tent for 200 or 300 years since Moses had it made, as we read in Ex. 26-37.  David, who was now living in an expensive house paneled in the finest cedar, decided it was not fitting for God to continue to live in a tent of cloth.

Now David did something smart.  He tried to discern God’s will in this.  He consulted the prophet Nathan.  Nathan did something dumb.  He didn’t try to discern God’s will but simply told David, “Go ahead” (7:3).

God, however, had a surprise in mind for David. So he paid a visit to Nathan that night.  We must always consult God before a major undertaking.

What God directed Nathan to tell David was this: You shall not build me a house.  I will build you a house: a dynasty and a kingdom that shall endure forever (7:16).  God surprised David with a wonderful, unexpected gift: his name would be famous forever and his offspring would rule eternally.

For the next 400 years David’s descendants ruled over the kingdom of Judah.  But then Judah was conquered and ruled by a series of foreign invaders: the Babylonians, the Persians, Alexander the Great and his Greeks, and finally the Romans.  For 580 long years the Jewish people kept alive God’s promise to King David and the hope that God would deliver them and restore David’s family to the throne of Israel.  They longed to crush their enemies and take a proud place among the powers of the earth.

But once again God had a surprise up his sleeve:  “The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David” (Luke 1:26-27).  If any of David’s descendants aspired to overthrow the Romans; if any of them had royal pretensions—it certainly wasn’t the carpenter Joseph or his spouse-to-be, Mary.  They were just 2 humble country folk in an out-of-the-away little town.  You remember Nathaniel’s reaction when Philip told him, “We have found the Messiah, Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth?” Nathaniel replied, “Nazareth?  Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:45-46).  Who would have thought God would see anything special in that couple?  Yet he did.  He saw in them people completely open to all the goodness of his own heart.  God surprises us by what he sees in people.  God surprises us by the people he chooses.  God surprises us by what he can do with the people open to him.

                                                                                                                                            Annunciation (Domenico Beccafumi)

And if you think it was surprising for God to choose Mary, the betrothed of Joseph the carpenter, what comes next is a real shocker.  “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”  “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (1:34-35).  Never before, never since, has it been reported that a god took on authentic human flesh and bone, heart and mind and soul.  What a surprise that God should be so madly in love with the human race as to want to become part of it!  What a surprise that he would do so thru the womb of one of his creatures!  What a surprise that he would do so in a unique way, leaving no mistake that God alone would think our eternal happiness was worth all that—and more:  you noted that in our opening prayer the incarnation of the Son was pointed toward his suffering, death, and resurrection, for that is where Christmas leads us—our happiness was worth all that, despite the track record of the human race.  What a surprise that the promise to David would be fulfilled thru the eternal life and everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, and not thru earthly power.

Brothers and sisters, God never runs out of surprises.  He sure surprised me the day Fr. Provincial called me into his office and invited me to consider going down to the Bahamas for 6 months.

Not all surprises are as pleasant as coming to Hunter and Eight Mile Rock.  But we can never predict what God is going to do for us, to comfort us or to shake us up.  We can only be sure that he loves us.  Whatever unpleasantness he allows to happen to us, whatever beauty or goodness he unexpectedly lays before us, he means to produce growth, holiness, and happiness in us for the long run.  An unpleasant surprise like an injury or a layoff may force us to reorder our values and priorities.  A lovely surprise like falling in love or the birth of a child calls us to reflect on the loveliness of God and the unspeakable joy he wants to give us.

God’s surprises are always profitable to us if we are open to them, as King David was.  It was easy, of course, for David to accept the promise of an eternal dynasty—tho maybe not so easy for him to set aside a building project.  But David later showed that same openness to God when the prophet Nathan surprised him by publicly denouncing him for adultery and murder.  David repented and returned to the path of justice and holiness.

God’s surprises are profitable to others if we are open to them, as Mary and Joseph were.  No doubt Mary was shocked by the angel’s appearance; she was “troubled,” Luke tells us.  She must have been more shocked by the implications of his message, and really shocked by the realization that she was truly pregnant.  And you bet Joseph was shocked!  But Mary said, “I am the Lord’s maidservant.  Let it be done to me as you say” (1:38), and she meant it.  Joseph sought God’s guidance; as a “just man” he wanted to do what would please God, and so he received an angelic dream (Matt 1:18-25).  From Mary and Joseph’s openness to God’s surprise came the birth of our Savior.

May our hearts, our minds, our souls ever be open to God.  May we always seek what he wants.  May we look for him in life’s surprises, and grow from them in human maturity and in holiness.  And on the last day, may we be joined to the Son of David, Mary’s Son, who lives and reigns forever and ever.

Homily for 3d Sunday of Advent

3d Sunday of Advent

Dec. 13, 2020
Holy Name of Jesus, Valhalla, N.Y.

Introduction to Mass

In today’s liturgy 2 shifts take place.  1st, we shift almost completely from looking toward the 2d coming of Christ, so much stressed during the 1st 2 weeks of Advent.  St. Paul does mention it in the 2d reading.  Instead, we shift to expectation of Christ’s imminent appearance, primarily in his saving public ministry, but the coming feast of his Nativity also gets mention.  2d, our tone shifts to one of joy, of rejoicing, because the Lord is near, which is why Advent’s usual violet tone softens today into rose.

Homily

John 1: 6-8, 19-28

“John came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe thru him” (John 1: 1).

The Preaching of John the Baptist

Alessandro Allori

Note how many times the words joy and rejoice are used in today’s prayers and readings, so much that this 3d Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday, “Rejoice Sunday,” from the 1st word of the Entrance Antiphon in Latin.  In English, it’s “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I say it again, rejoice!”  In the Collect we spoke of “the joys of so great a salvation” and of celebrating “with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.”  The prophet Isaiah announced “glad tidings,” healing, liberty, growth, justice, and “hearty rejoicing.”  In the Psalm Response, from our Blessed Lady’s Magnificat, our souls rejoice in our God.  St. Paul exhorts us to “rejoice always.”

In the gospel passage, we interrupt this year of reading from St. Mark to take up, today, a text from St. John similar to last week’s from Mark but also notably different, to be followed in the coming weeks by the gospels of Jesus’ incarnation, birth, and infancy—the familiar Christmas gospels from St. Luke and St. Matthew.

St. John’s Gospel references John the Baptist as “the voice of one crying in the desert,” as Isaiah had prophesied, commanding us to “make straight the way of the Lord” (1:23).  That much is like Mark’s introduction to John the Baptist, which we heard last week.  The rest of today’s passage is quite different.

John the Evangelist introduces the Baptist as a witness “to the light” that is coming into the world to conquer darkness (1:5-6).  This, of course, is reason for joy even if John doesn’t use that word.  The gospel goes on to record John the Baptist’s testimony.

His testimony is given to “priests and Levites” whom the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem have sent to question him about his activity—his message and his baptizing.  Some Pharisees also come to question him.  So we’re introduced to those who will be the opponents of Jesus when he appears and undertakes his public ministry.  They ask John, “Who are you?” (1:19).

“Who are you?” is the fundamental gospel question.  The entire Gospel of John addresses that question—and so do the other 3 gospels, as when Jesus challenges the apostles:  “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (Mark 8:27 ǀǀ).  The fundamental question isn’t who is John the Baptist, but who is Jesus.  John himself deflects the question by strongly stating that he is neither the Christ (the Messiah) nor the prophet Elijah returned to inaugurate the time of the Messiah nor the Prophet like Moses, a new lawgiver and redeemer.  John knows exactly who he is:  a voice, an announcer sent by God to get people ready for someone else, “the one coming after me,” one so exalted that John himself isn’t worthy even to untie his sandal strap (1:27)—the humblest job of a slave.

So the question is put to us who hear this gospel passage:  who is Jesus?  The answer we give to that question has to affect our hearts and souls, our manner of life.  If Jesus is just a prophet, just a holy man, just a wise man, then we can take him or leave him, select what we like from his teachings and discard the rest.  If he is the light of the world, the one sent into the world by God full of grace and truth (1:16-17), then he commands our total allegiance.  Will we put aside the works of darkness, the works of the Prince of Darkness, our sins, our malice, our evil thoughts and deeds?  our pride, avarice, sloth, lust, gluttony, quick tempers and nursing of grudges, rash judgment and gossip?  Will we walk with Jesus Christ in the light?

Besides the fundamental questions of the identity of John the Baptist and of the one whose way he’s preparing, our gospel passage emphasizes the word testimony, in Greek marturia, whence our word martyr, one who bears witness or gives testimony, in court or in some other fashion.  The word foreshadows John’s fate at the hands of the tetrarch Herod and his spiteful wife Herodias, whose adulterous marriage John condemned.  That was one way in which he bore witness to the light of Jesus Christ, the true light of the world—the light of truth from God.

Christianity adopted the word martyr for those who gave the ultimate testimony of their lives, who across the centuries have borne witness that Jesus Christ is Lord, who submitted to death rather than worship the Roman emperor or any government or ideology, who died in witness to human dignity, to the truth of marriage, and to virtues like purity and justice.

When we have answered the question, “Who is Jesus?” by affirming that he is the Christ, the Messiah, our Lord, then like John we’re bound to bear witness, to testify to the light, testify to the truth.  Our lives must proclaim that Jesus is Lord, that he, and he alone, is the way to eternal life.  Today we make our own the prayer of St. Paul:  “May God make [us] perfectly holy, and may [we] entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes 5:23).

Homily for Friday, Week 2 of Advent

Homily for Friday
Week 2 of Advent

Dec. 11, 2020
Collect
Matt 11: 16-19
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

Today’s Collect reminds us of the Lord’s parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids and their lamps.  Wisdom and foolishness are themes running thru the readings.

If we’re wise and heed God’s commands, we’ll prosper, says the Lord thru Isaiah (48:17-19).  The Psalmist assures us of the same:  the person who walks in the way of the Lord “is like a tree planted near running water” (1:3), while the wicked are like chaff blown away by the wind (1:4).

Jesus uses a parable to bemoan his contemporaries who refuse to listen to either him or John the Baptist, who can’t be pleased by any variety of spirituality or asceticism.  When he pronounces his judgment—“Wisdom is vindicated by her works” (Matt 11:19)—he’s implying that the critics have rejected wisdom and opted for foolishness.  They’ve been shown 2 forms of repentance and renewal—John’s asceticism and Jesus’ “good news” approach—and pooh-poohed both.  There just ain’t no pleasing some folks!

Or perhaps it’s a case of some folks’ believing that all wisdom resides within themselves, and any other usage is out in left field.  We can find a lot of those sorts in the Catholic blogosphere and other media.

On the other hand, in the Prayer over the Gifts we’ll present “our humble prayers and offerings” and confess our own lack of merits, throwing ourselves under the protection of divine mercy.  There is wisdom!

And wisdom, sisters, is not only in our humility but also in our kindness and respect for one another:  no passing judgment, no gossip, no snippiness, lots of patience.  Oh Lord, that’s hard!  May the Lord in his mercy help us to stay alert, lamps lit (Collect), eager to see him at hand.

Homily for Solemnity of Immaculate Conception

Homily for the Solemnity
of the Immaculate Conception

Dec. 8, 2020
Collect
Eph 3: 1-6, 11-12
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“By the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, O God, you prepared a worthy dwelling place for your Son” (Collect).

Window, St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church,

Fredericksburg, Va.

Today we celebrate the wondrous work of God, who by the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross has totally vanquished sin.  Christ’s mastery over the evil inflicted upon humanity by the malice of the Devil and the foolish choice of our 1st parents is so complete that no trace of that evil was permitted to touch Mary of Nazareth, that most favored woman, that woman chosen “before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before him” (Eph 1:4).

In a theological sense, it wasn’t necessary that the Messiah’s mother be completely sinless.  But, to use a word the Fathers like, it was “fitting” that God make her so from the very start of her existence, not at some later point as the Holy Spirit does to us thru Baptism.

We’ve all seen the labels printed on alcoholic beverages and cigarette packages, warning pregnant women that those products could harm the babes in their womb; some form of physical, material poison might seep from mother to unborn child.  How fitting that no spiritual poison, no trace of sin, should be in Mary’s spiritual bloodstream, so to speak, even remotely to be transmitted to her unborn Son.

The Church takes care to teach that this superabundance of grace in Mary wasn’t her own doing but her Son’s, in anticipation.  The Prayer over the Gifts will use a technical word—one you’ll never find on an SAT—to describe the grace given to Mary:  “prevenient,” the grace that came beforehand, before Christ died and rose for our salvation.  “You preserved her from every stain by virtue of the death of your Son, which you foresaw,” the Collect stated.  God made that wondrous grace available to Mary from her 1st moment of existence.

No wonder the Psalmist can acclaim, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds; his right hand has won victory for him” (98:1):  total victory over sin and over the mortal enemy of the human race, the great Deceiver who promised, “You’ll be like gods” (Gen 3:5), whereas, of course, only grace touches us with divinity.

The victory that Christ wrought beforehand in the Virgin Mary foreshadows the victory he’s working in us thru his sacred mysteries, thru word and sacrament and all the ways in which his grace touches us, ever so slowly transforms us, day by day by day rendering us holy and spotless images of himself, fit to be adopted as children of God, according to God’s plan (cf. Eph 1:5).

We can’t celebrate Mary’s feastday without noting its meaning for the Salesian Family.  Dec. 8 is a date that Don Bosco marked with the greatest significance, the date that God chose for young, inexperienced Don Bosco to begin to gather poor and endangered youths; and later, a date on which other notable events in the life of the Oratory took place.  On 12/8/1844 Don Bosco blessed the Oratory’s 1st chapel in his rooms at Marchioness Barolo’s Rifugio.  Three years later, he opened his 2d oratory at Porta Nuova, dedicated to St. Aloysius.  After lightning had struck a building at the Oratory in 1861, Don Bosco erected a statue of Mary Immaculate on the spot as a lightning rod, which he blessed on Dec. 8.  On 12/8/1855 the Sodality of Mary Immaculate was founded at Mornese, out of which emerged eventually the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, to whom Don Bosco presented their official printed Constitutions on 12/8/1878.  On this date in 1885, Don Bosco announced in a letter to his Salesians that Fr. Rua was to be his vicar with the right of succession, by Leo XIII’s express will.

All such happenings in our Founder’s life were marks of the prevenient grace of God, God’s grace working for numberless future generations after 1841.

Last spring Priest magazine posed a question to its readers:  “What role does the Blessed Mother play in your priesthood?”  In May several responses were published, including this from Fr. Michael Quinn of Sausalito, Calif.:  “The Blessed Mother is the primary patron saint for priests.  I believe as a priest my goal is to seek to love Jesus as she did.  She knew and loved Jesus best on earth—with a pure heart.  This is my ideal.”  All of us can endorse that, including a brother.

Mary responded to God’s initiative with her famous—and necessary—“yes” to the destiny the Father planned for her.  So did Don Bosco.  Mary probably had to repeat her “yes” many times in her life—certainly at Calvary.  For sure, Don Bosco also had to repeat often his “yes” to God’s initiatives, not just on 12/8/1841.

“Yes” is also the secret of our holiness, “yes” to whatever God’s specific plan is for us, and to his ultimate plan that we, like Mary, should be “holy and without blemish” in his sight as he “accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory” (Eph 1:11-12).

Homily for 2d Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Advent

Dec. 6, 2020
Mark 1: 1-8
2 Pet 3: 8-14
Holy Name of Jesus, Valhalla, N.Y.

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God” (Mark 1: 1).

Last week we began a new church year and switched our Sunday gospels from St. Luke to St. Mark.  The passage from Mark that we read last Sunday spoke of Jesus’ 2d coming, which is the 1st theme of the Advent season, a theme present most vividly in today’s 2d reading.

(Despite all the advertising we’re subjected to at this time, and all the music you hear on the radio, Christmas is not here.  We’re in a season of preparation, a season of longing, for Christ’s coming—his 2d coming, his coming in his saving ministry, and the commemoration of his 1st coming at Bethlehem.)

It’s the “middle coming” that claims our attention today, the coming of Jesus of Nazareth’s public ministry, thru which he saves us from our sins and restores us to God.

St. Mark opens his Gospel with an announcement of what he’s offering us:  “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.”  That 1st noun, “beginning,” echoes the 1st words of the entire Bible, the entire message of God’s dealings with humanity:  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1).  Mark is telling us now of a new creation, of God’s remaking of reality, thru his Son Jesus Christ.

Mark calls his writing a “gospel,” a word that means “good news.”  When he wrote it, possibly in the late 60s A.D., it was a completely new literary form.  It’s the “good news” of Jesus Christ—a phrase which can be interpreted in 2 ways:  the good news about Jesus Christ, informing us about him and his message, as one might read a biography of Theodore Roosevelt or Amelia Earhart; or the good news that Jesus Christ brings, the good news coming from Jesus Christ, the content and the import of his message that confronts us and makes us choose to hear it or not.

But Mark doesn’t introduce us straightaway to Jesus.  Instead, citing the prophet Isaiah (our 1st reading this morning), he presents the “messenger” who prepares the way for Christ’s appearance (1:2).  The good news of Jesus Christ will be that God forgives our sins and offers us eternal life.  To prepare humanity for that, “John the Baptist appeared in the desert.” (1:4).  The desert is where God turned the Hebrews into his people after he led them out of their slavery in Egypt.  There in the desert, John “proclaims a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (1:4).  He calls upon his audience—people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem—to turn away from their sins, and he washes them, symbolically, in the Jordan River, so that they might be made again into God’s people, redeemed from spiritual slavery.  We can’t welcome the coming of God while clinging to our sins.  We can make room for God only by emptying ourselves of evil, by making straight a way for the Lord (1:3).

John announces the one for whom we’re waiting:  not a delicate baby but “one mightier than I.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (1:7,8) rather than with symbolic water.  Being washed by the Holy Spirit will be a genuine cleansing of our sins, and this will be effected by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God.  This divine work of redemption begins with the coming of Christ in his public preaching and healing, which John announces is at hand.

Redemption will be completed on the day of the Lord’s re-appearing, of his return, a “day coming like a thief” at nite, says St. Peter (2 Pet 3:10), when all of creation as we know it will be dissolved (3:11) and “everything done on earth will be found out” (3:10).  Therefore, now is the moment to listen to John the Baptist and prepare for the Lord’s final coming by heeding the message of his 1st coming.  “Be eager,” St. Peter exhorts us, “to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace” (3:14).

Advent doesn’t have the same penitential character that Lent does.  Nevertheless, it’s a season for repentance, for looking eagerly toward the Lord, for preparing to receive him wholeheartedly—in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, and at that sacred moment, entirely unknown to us but absolutely certain to come, when he’ll call us forth to meet him, filled with his Holy Spirit, so as to “gain admittance to the company” of Jesus Christ the Son of God” (cf. Collect).

Art credit: St. Mary Church, Fredericksburg, Va.

Message of the Rector Major for December

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime

 
WITH THE POWERFUL STRENGTH
OF HOPE
 
CHRISTMAS DURING A TIME OF PANDEMIC

Greetings, dear friends and readers. On the eve of Christmas, I want to share with you a dialog between a grandmother and her granddaughter. This is a grandmother who knows and understands the human heart from the wealth of experience she has gained from walking the road of life.

“Grandma, if you were my Fairy Godmother, what gift would you give me?” asked the little girl.

Cinderella and her fairy godmother (Gustave Dore')

“If I were your Fairy Godmother, I wouldn’t give you dresses or a carriage,” said the old woman as she smiled at her granddaughter. “Instead, I’d you give the gift of KNOWING HOW TO LIVE WITH HOPE. With this knowledge, you’d understand from the earliest days of your youth that time passes quickly and, once it’s gone, you can’t get it back. You’d know never to spend the time you have on anything but a full and meaningful life with those whom you desire, whom you love, and who need you the most.

“You’d gradually come to understand how to bury the weapons of your internal struggles so that your life would produce peace, for you’ll see things that you’d like to change until the day you die. You’d learn how to dance with the winds and tides of change while keeping your feet firmly planted on the ground, rooted in your intention, your dream, and your desire to be very human and very divine at the same time. This way, you’ll never turn against that huge heart within you that’s capable of receiving everything that has life and everyone who comes to you.

“That’s what I would give you, little one—but you already have a “Fairy Godmother”! It’s the very LIFE and LOVE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU.”

Dear friends, even amid the tears of this year, 2020—one so difficult, strange, hard, and painful for us and, above all, for so many families and elderly persons—it still makes sense to look forward with hope. The life and the light that the Lord of Life continues to hold out to us is where we must ground this hope.

Even though poverty has gripped the lives of so many people this year, it’s been accompanied by the generosity of many others. Even though people have had to look on silently, “saying” painful goodbyes to loved ones and “embracing” them only with their gaze, it still makes perfect sense for us to wish each other a life built daily on smiles, dreams, and hope amid these tears and fatigue. This is what the grandmother taught her granddaughter.

A stranger in the night

The feast of Christmas returns laden with light and with hope. Even in this year, one most unfavorable to gathering for celebrations thanks to this COVID-19, which doesn’t seem to want to leave us, the crib in Bethlehem appears before our eyes and our memory with all the essentials of our humanity. Thanks to the suggestion of a passer-by, whose name has remained hidden for all the ages, Mary and Joseph find a cave which was being used as a stable where they could spend their last night of vigil, awaiting the Lord’s birth. It’s here that Jesus was born in such absolute poverty.

Artistic iconography has surrounded this holy family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph with angels and stars. Yet how many fears and how much trepidation were also present! Today, magazine photos show us children alone and abandoned in their innocence, helplessness, and weakness. Christmas places before each of us the eternal values brought by this Incarnate Child to a hungering humanity, sometimes sick with illness and devoid of attainable goals and perhaps even seemingly devoid of a compass that gives direction to life. It’s a humanity that feels more fragile and powerless during a pandemic. It’s one that needs hope, a hope that is born in the depths of our humanity, for it’s made in the image and likeness of the God who is Love.

COVID has forced us to slow the growth of our relationships, locking ourselves in, while the Baby Jesus invites us to open up, to give our life, or part of it, to others. His is a light that’s combined with love. For this reason, the feast of Christmas also helps us to live amid precariousness, limitations, and illness and helps us to start over each morning with faith and with hope.

For the Christmas greetings that I composed to send to some friends, I chose a very brief and profound text from Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Spe Salvi (“In hope we were saved.” Rom. 8:24).

I share these words now with you, for they tell us precisely how life is a journey and a goal and what traveling on the ocean of history is like: sometimes lived amid storms that bear the name of “COVID Pandemic” or some other “pandemic” that we endure every day, and how much damage they can do. This is a journey guided by true stars: the people who radiate light and hope until we reach the One Who IS the light par excellence, Jesus the Lord, the Son of God and son of Mary, who pitched his tent among us on that very first Christmas night.

This is the greeting; these are the beautiful words:

Human life is a journey.
Toward what destination? How do we find the way?
Life is like a voyage on the sea of history,
often dark and stormy,
a voyage in which we watch for the stars
that indicate the route.
The true stars of our life are the people
who have lived good lives.
They are lights of hope.
Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light,
the Sun that has risen above all the shadows of history.
But to reach him we also need lights close by—
people who shine with his light
and so guide us along our way.
Who more than Mary could be a star of hope for us?
With her “yes” she opened the door of our world to God himself;
she became the living Ark of the Covenant,
in whom God took flesh, became one of us,
and pitched his tent among us. (cf. John 1:14)
(Spe Salvi, no. 49)

And so, I wish every family, each of you, and especially those who feel alone and abandoned and yet moved by hope, a very “Merry Christmas.”

Fr. Angel