Homily for Solemnity of St. Angela Merici

Homily for the Solemnity
of St. Angela Merici

Jan. 27, 2020                                               

John 15: 9-17
Proper Collect
Eph 3: 14-19
Hos 2: 16-20
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

The Ursuline Order, or the Company of St. Ursula, was founded in 1535 by St. Angela Merici.  I was privileged this morning to celebrate the Eucharist for them on their foundress’s feastday.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15: 16).

Statue of St. Angela Merici on the campus of the College of New Rochelle, 2011.

The college closed last June due to financial difficulties.

That’s an apt verse to go with the “loving initiative” of God in calling Angela for an inspiring life of “contemplation and service” (Collect).  Considering the canons and traditions of the Church—which would block the plan of St. Francis de Sales for the Visitation 70 years after Angela—it was evidently divine initiative that Angela could found a company of women so radically new, and so radically necessary for the Catholic Reform that was barely getting started and most churchmen still didn’t know was needed.  It was evidently divine initiative that Pope Paul III saw what even Angela didn’t, that this company merited canonical recognition.

Hosea speaks of God’s leading Israel once more into the wilderness, to speak tenderly to her and rekindle her love (2:16-17).  Call the wilderness a contemplative encounter with God; it’s the necessary foundation for any great enterprise in God’s service, as necessary for us (still, at this stage of our lives) as it was for Angela, at it was in our younger, more vigorous, perhaps more exciting, days.  Only with such contemplation of the Father and of the Lord Jesus can “we be attentive to the flow” of God’s love now, here (Collect).

St. Paul prays that “charity be the root and foundation” of our lives (Eph 3:17).  That was the goal of all Angela’s work with the young, in founding your Company—the charity of grasping the depth of God’s love for us in Christ (3:18) and sharing that love with our sisters and brothers.  She grasped families form the young, no doubt influenced by her own experience as an orphan taken in by her own relatives, and so how important it was to prepare the young for family life, and thru families to form a healthy society.  For us, love is to be shared 1st in community, then with the wider world, so desperately needing authentic love.

May our Lord Jesus, who has chosen us to be his friends (John 15:14) as well as his apostles, empower us to live as friends with our community and with all until we abide entirely and finally with him (cf. Eph 3:19).

We Did the Will of God

“We did the will of God by animating the Congregation in the style of Don Bosco”

Rector Major Gives Last Good Night of His 6-year Term

(ANS – Rome – January 24) – On January 23, 2020, the general council of the Salesian Congregation met for the last time in its six-year term. At the conclusion of the meeting, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime presided over the last Mass of this general council. “During this last celebration in Don Bosco’s rooms” [the rooms that the saint used during his last visits to Rome], he said, “it comes directly from my heart: to thank God for these six years of work in the service of God and young people.”

During the Mass, Don Bosco’s the 10th successor expressed all his emotion for the work done in these past six years: “We must be happy, joyful, and extremely grateful to God for the work we have done as departments animating the Salesian communities. We have been in the service of God.”

As the Salesian Constitutions state, the “general council collaborates with the Rector Major in the animation and government of the Congregation.” Therefore, in this term’s last Salesian Good Night to the community of the Salesian Generalate at the Sacred Heart Church, Fr. Fernandez wanted to thank all the general and regional councilors, as they contributed to “identifying and studying the problems that concern the common good of the Society, promoting fraternal union between the provinces, and making sure that the Congregation is increasingly effective in carrying out the Salesian mission in the world,” as is also specified in the Salesian Constitutions. The Rector Major thanked the staff of each of the departments “for their professional and service dedicated to the mission.”

In his Good Night the Rector Major then provided the details of the general council’s meetings of this winter session (December 2, 2019 - January 24, 2020).

The provincials of 15 provinces and vice provinces were appointed in. 27 provincial councilors and 120 directors of works were appointed; 3 houses were canonically erected, 3 new presences opened; the reports of 9 extraordinary visitations and 33 provincial chapters were studied.

“The journey of the Congregation has been a journey of fidelity to the Lord, to Don Bosco, to our charism, and to young people,” the Rector Major concluded. “We did God’s will by walking and animating the Congregation in the style of Don Bosco. This experience of animation leaves me with a very serene heart and a feeling of immense and profound gratitude for the work done by each of the councilors of the Salesian Central Office.”

Fr. Francesco Cereda, vicar of the RM (at left), and Fr. Tim Ploch, 

councilor for the Interamerica Region, concelebrating with Fr. Fernandez

Homily for 3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 26, 2020

Is 8: 23—9: 3
Matt 4: 12-23
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

“First the Lord degraded the land of Naphtali; but in the end he has glorified the seaward road, the land west of the Jordan, the District of the Gentiles” (Is 8:23).

The territory Isaiah speaks of is in the northern part of the land of Israel.  So it was the 1st territory overrun by various enemies of Israel, most notably by the Assyrians when they conquered the northern kingdom in 722 B.C., deported 9 of the Israelite tribes, and settled new, pagan populations there, making the northernmost section, particularly, a “district of the Gentiles.”

Centuries later, when the Maccabean revolt liberated Israel from Gentile governance for a while, northern Israel—Galilee—was only partially re-assimilated and, it seems, Galilean Jews weren’t fully accepted in Judea.  We catch traces of that in the gospels.

But Isaiah prophesies that the darkness of paganism will be dispelled by a great light; abundant joy and merriment will be brought in; a yoke will be lifted from the shoulders of Israel.

Jesus Preaches at Sea of Galilee (van den Eeckhout)

St. Matthew sees that promise realized with the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.  He doesn’t say where Jesus was until John was arrested, other than his 40 days in the wilderness (4:1-11).  St. John’s gospel includes a tantalizing mention that Jesus and his disciples for a time were baptizing in Judea (3:22; 4:1-3)—perhaps imitating John the Baptist’s message.  If that’s so, we can think that John’s arrest suggested to Jesus a prudent retreat to his home territory (Matt 4:12).

And so he becomes the great light for Galilee, overpowering the darkness and the death ruling that region and its people thru paganism, half-hearted fidelity to Torah, sickness, demonic possession, and other ills—overpower these as he preaches repentance and the breaking in of God’s rule.

Pope Francis recently designated the 3d Sunday of Ordinary Time—today—as Sunday of the Word of God.  We already have plenty of “special” Sundays, and the Word of God is supposed to be a feature of every Sunday.  But today’s gospel does stress the Word:  “Jesus began to preach,” and “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom…” (4:17,23).

Jesus’ preaching is light for the people of Galilee, for those who assemble in the synagogues on the Sabbath, for people in market squares, at crossroads, and along the shores of the sea of Galilee—along the “seaward road” of Isaiah’s prophecy, the great trade road that ran from Damascus thru Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea.  (That trade route explains the presence of a customs post, where Jesus finds Levi the tax collector.)

Jesus’ preaching brings light also to the Gentiles of Galilee:  Syrians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Arabs.  Galilee is a crossroads for merchants, soldiers, and government officials, and Jesus makes his home not in the hills of Nazareth—“What good can come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46)—but in Capernaum by the sea, along the main road.  Matthew informs us, "He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea" (4:13).  He goes to the people, Jews and Gentiles.  “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:1), and they come to the light, attracted by truth and goodness—attracted perhaps even by the challenge of repenting their sins, for Jesus also offers hope:  “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 4:17).

It’s this hope that causes anguish to take wing, that dispels darkness (Is 8:23), a line picked up by the Exsultet proclamation celebrating the light of Christ, which disperses wickedness, sin, and death.

The Word of God that Jesus preached is always open to us.  We have only to listen to it at Mass, to take up our Bibles for reading and prayer, and we too will be taught as the people of Galilee were, brought into the divine light of truth and mercy.  Maybe we also have opportunities to share the Word with others.

How happy, how fortunate, how blessed are we to see this light, to bask in its warmth, to walk in Christ’s light—toward an even more radiant and glorious light!  We look forward to dwelling in the house of the Lord, to gazing on his loveliness (Ps 27:4), to seeing him face to face and knowing him intimately forever and ever (cf. 1 Cor 13:12).

2020-2021 Pastoral Assignments, 2d Announcement

2020-2021 Pastoral Assignments, 2d Announcement

Fr. Mario Villaraza

On January 20, Fr. Tim Zak published a letter that included 3 assignments for the next pastoral year.  Two directors in Canada will be trading places:  Fr. Mario Villaraza, who has been director of the SDB community at Etobicoke, Ont., which serves St. Benedict Parish, will move to Edmonton, Alta., where the SDBs serve 5 parishes.  Fr. John Louis Mariapragasam has been director in Edmonton, and he'll move to Etobicoke.  In theory, these are 3-year appointments.

Fr. John Mariapragasam

The 3d assignment is that Bro. Jerry Meegan will move from Abp. Shaw HS in Marrero, La., to Mary Help of Christians Center in Tampa.  In Marrero Bro. Jerry has directed or assisted with youth ministry activities for about 10 years, and he'll continue doing youth ministry in Tampa at Cristo Rey Tampa Salesian HS and at Mary Help of Christians Parish.

Bro. Jerry Meegan

Fr. Tim announced further that the province will assume pastoral responsibility for St. James Parish in Chicago on an experimental basis as a further evangelization outreach from neighboring St. John Bosco Parish.  There was a province-wide consultation before our province submitted this proposal to the Rector Major and the general council, who gave their approval.

Homily for 2d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 19, 2020

Collect
Christians Brothers, Iona College, New Rochelle, N.Y.
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle

“Almighty ever-living God, … mercifully … bestow your peace on our times” (Collect).

Our country has been at war in Afghanistan since 2001, in Iraq since 2002.  A short time ago, we seemed about to go to war with Iran.  Some might say that Iran has already been at war with us for 40 years.  But presently people have been praying for peace.

As we look around the globe, we see numerous places that need peace, in some of which America has been involved; but many of these numerous places hardly register in Western media.  Ongoing civil war in the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for instance, has taken millions of lives.  Insurgencies go on and on in the Philippines, Colombia, Burma, and Yemen, to list just a few places.  We’re all aware of drug wars in Mexico, gang violence in certain countries in Central America, and the murderous battles over land, logging, and mining in the Amazon region.  Muslim terrorists are in action from the western Sahara to Afghanistan in the east.  India sees repeated violence between Hindus and other religious groups.  Russia makes war on Ukraine and harasses other parts of its former empire.  In our own cities, people, especially young people, are gunned down in horrific numbers day after day, month after month.

Part of an exhibit at the Murambi memorial

to the Rwandan genocide

Why all this violence?  Altho it’s not in today’s readings, St. James tells us in the 4th chapter of his letter:  “Where do the wars and … conflicts among you come from?  Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?  You covet but do not possess.  You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war” (4:1-2).

James also proposes the remedy:  “Submit yourselves to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (4:7-8).

So in our prayer today we beg the Lord to bestow peace upon us.  In fact, we make a similar prayer at every Mass as we prepare for holy Communion:  “Deliver us, Lord, we pray from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress….”

In this prayer, as in the Letter of St. James, we make the connection between peace and the ways of the Lord, the help of the Lord.  Peace in our hearts is related to our being free from sin, being at peace with God, living in his grace.  Peace in society is the fruit of the same relationship—whether we mean peace in our homes and families, peace in our streets, peace in our public discourse and policy-making, peace between nations, races, tribes, ethnic groups, social classes, or religions.  “Peace in our times” follows only from our being at peace with our Father in heaven, from doing his will and not our own.

A commentator on the sacred liturgy noted in an address last summer “that everyone worships something.”  All persons are made for worship.  We want to worship something or someone, and need to do so.  He continues, “But we can and do worship the wrong things,” e.g., power, money, sex, fame, pleasure, beauty, eternal youth, “and worshipping the wrong things can be deadly.”[1]  Worshipping the wrong things is idolatry; we become selfish, egotistical, and competitive.  Politics becomes a zero-sum competition rather than public service.  We harbor grudges because our pride’s been hurt.  Men and women use each other without respect for their God-given dignity and eternal value.  War, violence, and abuse and arise “from your passions that make war within your members,” St. James says.

In our hearts we find no lasting satisfaction in that, nothing that lasts, nothing truly worthy of worship.  The same commentator then reminds us of St. Augustine’s most famous teaching, his conclusion after his years of ambition, pursuing a career and sexual pleasure; he addresses our Creator:  “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Blessing of the Wheat in Artois

(Jules Breton)

In the Lord do we find the peace he wishes to bestow upon us.  Peace begins within us, with our commitment to him.  Thence it spreads outward as we try to share God’s goodness with our families, our religious community, and others.  We pray for divine peace in international relations, in Washington, in societies broken by greed and ambition, in the souls of people everywhere.  For this were we created; like life itself, it’s a gift from our Creator.  “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

---

       [1] “Address of Dr. Timothy O’Malley on University-Level Liturgical Formation,” Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship Newsletter, October 2019, p. 36, citing in part a speech by David Foster Wallace.

1st Pastoral Assignments for 2020-2021

1st Pastoral Assignments 
for 2020-2021

Last Sunday Fr. Tim Zak, provincial, published a letter with some appointments for the next pastoral year of our province, which will begin on July 1, 2020.

Of chief interest is the appointment of several directors (religious superiors of the SDB community).

The term of the director is 3 years, and normally he may be reappointed for a 2d term in the same community (Const. art. 177).  In recent years it hasn't been unheard that individuals are "extended" to a 3d term.  And for this new round of appointments, the province is going further yet:

Fr. Jim Heuser

Fr. Jim Heuser, director of the community at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., for the last 10 years has been appointed for one more year.  (The letter is specific that these appointments are for the 2020-2021 pastoral year.)

Fr. Jim McKenna, director of the community of the Marian Shrine-Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw-Stony Point, N.Y., for the last 9 years, has been appointed for one more year.

Fr. Jim McKenna

Fr. Lou Molinelli, director of the community of Archbishop Shaw HS in Marrero, La., and the 2 Salesian-led parishes in Harvey for the last 9 years, has been appointed for one more year.

Fr. Lou Molinelli

Two directors completing their 1st term of service were appointed to new terms, presumably for 2020-2023 (altho the letter isn't clear on that point):
Fr. Matt DeGance as director of the community in Belle Glade, Fla., whose pastoral mission is care for St. Philip Benizi Parish;
and Fr. Alain Leonard as director of the community in Sherbrooke, Que., whose apostolate includes pastoral care at Seminaire Salesien (Le Salesien), a co-ed high school with a lay board of directors.

Fr. Luc Lantagne was named director of the community in Montreal, which runs the Don Bosco Youth Centre.  Fr. Luc is also the missions procurator for Canada.

The provincial nominates directors with the consent of the provincial council.  The nominations must be confirmed by the Rector Major, as these have been.

Homily for Feast of Baptism of the Lord

Homily for the Feast
of the Baptism of the Lord

Jan. 12, 2020

Is 42: 1-4, 6-7
St. Pius X, Scarsdale, N.Y.

“Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit” (Is 42: 1).

The Baptism of Jesus (Lambert Sustris)

The prophecies of Isaiah include 4 passages on the Spirit-filled servant of the Lord.  This servant does an abundance of good but also, thru his suffering, atones for sins.

At his baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, Jesus is revealed as the Spirit-filled servant of the Lord, a servant who very much pleases God the Father.

In fact, as yet Jesus has done nothing publicly that would mark him as a special servant of God.  After his baptism, which affirms his commitment as a man, as a faithful Jew, to God’s ways, the Spirit will lead him into the wilderness of Judea for a period of testing or trial—“to be tempted by the devil,” St. Matthew says (4:1).  Only then will he undertake his public ministry.

Jesus’ baptism wasn’t a sacramental Baptism.  It didn’t bestow God’s sanctifying grace upon him, for he already enjoyed complete communion with his Father and the Holy Spirit.  It didn’t establish him as a child of God, as sacramental Baptism does us; he was already God’s only-begotten Son.  But it was a vocational baptism.  Somehow, in conjunction with his 40-day retreat in the desert, his vocation was revealed to him, that vocation spelled out in Isaiah’s prophecies.

The vocation of Jesus of Nazareth, the Father’s beloved Son (Matt 3:17), overshadowed and empowered by the Holy Spirit, is to “bring forth justice to the nations” (Is 42:1).  Justice here doesn’t mean legal justice, such as one might hope for when nations have disputes with each other, or when citizens demand their human rights, or when an accused person is put on trial.  Justice, often translated as “righteousness” (as it is in today’s gospel [Matt 3:15]), means a right relationship with God.  The vocation, or the mission, if you like, of Jesus is to put the nations, all the earth (Is 42:4), into a right relationship, a holy relationship, with God.  Toward that end, Isaiah says, he’ll be a light for the nations, carry out works of mercy and healing and earthly justice, and be in person a covenant between God and humanity.  St. Peter preaches to the household of a Roman centurion, members of one of those foreign nations that Isaiah speaks of:  “Jesus of Nazareth … went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).

When you and I were baptized, it was a sacramental act, as you know.  The pouring of water upon us as the trinitarian words of consecration were spoken was an outward sign of what God was doing secretly and mysteriously within us:  pouring upon us his sanctifying grace, embracing us with love, making us his daughters and sons, like Christ.  The rite is also called christening, for by it we are made christs, anointed like Jesus with the Holy Spirit, for christ means “anointed,” and the sacred oil called chrism is smeared upon our heads immediately after our ritual washing and cleansing.

But our Baptism, like Jesus’, also has a vocational component.  Like Jesus, we are commissioned as God’s beloved children, filled with his Holy Spirit, and missioned to do good and oppose the devil.  We enter a covenant relationship with God, a bonding of our loyalty and God’s protection.  We are to be “a light for the nations” (Is 42:6), to be agents of God’s healing by our actions and words, to practice the works of mercy and justice, “to bring the good news to the poor” (Preface).  In due course our heavenly Father will bring us home to the kingdom of light where Christ his Son awaits us.

“The coastlands will wait for his teaching,” says Isaiah (42:4).  Today we are the bearers of Christ’s teaching:  that God loves every human being, that God calls every human being to eternal life thru the cross and resurrection of his Son Jesus, that all who adhere to Jesus must strive to live like him.  Isaiah addresses the Lord’s servant, “I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand” (42:6).  We are designated now as the servants of the Lord, washed in Baptism and anointed by sacred chrism, grasped by Christ’s hand, to live in justice, to live holy lives, exemplary lives, committed lives that will reveal God’s holiness to our neighbors, our fellow parishioners, our own relatives—so many of whom are skeptical, no?, about the followers of Jesus.  They’ll know the good deeds of Jesus, his holiness, his conquest of the devil insofar as we reveal it to them.

In today’s Collect we prayed that we, God’s “children by adoption, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit,” will “always be well pleasing” to him, like Jesus.  By God’s grace, may it be so.

Rector Major Publishes Commentary on 2020 Strenna

Rector Major Publishes Commentary 
on 2020 Strenna

It took an uncharacteristically long time for the text of the Rector Major's (Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime) explanation (commentary) of this year's strenna or Salesian theme to be published.  As noted almost 2 weeks ago, he presented it orally (in Italian) to the Salesian sisters and other members of the family gathered at the sisters' generalate.  See https://sdbnews.blogspot.com/2019/12/good-christians-and-upright-citizens.html

The commentary is quite lengthy (as usual), and after the original Roman English text was delivered to me a few days ago, I spent 3 days refining its grammar, typos, and style into something that (we hope) will be easier for our confreres and other members of the Salesian Family to read.

Actually, I don't know where the text originated; it hasn't been published at the Congregation's website.  It was forwarded to me by one with whom I frequently collaborate on Salesian matters.

Read it at https://donboscosalesianportal.org/wp-content/uploads/Commentary-on-2020-Strenna-AMERICAN-ENGLISH.pdf 

Homily for Memorial of Sts. Basil and Gregory

Homily for the Memorial
of Sts. Basil the Great 

& Gregory Nazianzen

Jan. 2, 2020

Collect
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

In this season of light, the Collect for Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen speaks of the light that they brought to Christ’s Church by their example and teaching.  They came from the same part of the Roman Empire, from Cappadocia in what’s now Turkey, and they were friends, admirers, and supporters of each other from their youth.  As the excerpt from Gregory in today’s Office indicates, they had a friendly rivalry—each promoting the excellence of the other.

St. Basil the Great

(Kiev Cathedral)

Basil apparently was marked for greatness from the start.  Gregory was more retiring and had to be pushed toward ecclesiastical office, including by his friend.  Both became bishops, and both were staunch defenders of the divinity of Jesus Christ in the face of Arianism—which was politically correct at the time and caused a lot of grief particularly to Gregory, who had the misfortune, shall we say, of being made patriarch of Constantinople and thus thrust into the teeth of the imperial court and its Arian friends.  His theological writing was so sound and so clear that he became known as “the Theologian,” a title he retains in the Eastern Churches.  Nevertheless, the opposition in Constantinople induced his resignation after just a couple of years, and he retired to a life of recollection and hymn-writing in the friendlier neighborhood of his home region.

St. Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzen)

(Kariye Camii, Istanbul)

Basil, on the other hand, didn’t encounter political difficulties.  He mixed a life of prayer with a very active one of pastoral care and practical charity—supporting schools, founding hospitals, promoting monasticism (St. Benedict learned from him a century and a half later), and fostering liturgical life (composing texts for the Eucharist and teaching people to pray the Psalms).  He urged care for the poor upon the political authorities and defended true doctrine in writing.

From Basil and Gregory we may learn, as the Collect suggests, to pursue the truth with humility and to practice charity—to be humble and loving prophets of fraternity toward each other, 1st of all; then toward those whom our charism calls us to serve, including our staff; and then toward others—servants of the young and of all.  Pursuing the truth, I suggest, includes taking a keen interest in contemporary events—not just elections—but all else that touches Christ’s Church, human dignity, natural law, and the common good, so that, like doctors Basil and Gregory we may enlighten others with the Gospel.  In all things, we seek divine sustenance by prayer—mystics in the Spirit.