Homily for December 30

Homily for December 30
Octave of Christmas

Dec. 30, 2021
Collect
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle

“Grant, almighty God, that the newness of the Nativity in the flesh of your Only-Begotten Son may set us free” (Collect).

Christmas creche, provincial house, 2007

Herod the Great died in 4 B.C.  The Son of God was born in the flesh, by the calculations of scholars, in 7 or 6 B.C.  In what sense can we speak of the “newness” of an event that happened irrepeatably 2,028 years ago ± 1?

We could say that it’s new in the sense that such an event—the unseen, incorporeal, mysterious God of the universe really took on our visible, bodily, everyday flesh; became one of us.  No Greek, Hindu, Norse, or other mythology comprehends anything like it.  It was and remains a new thing, a unique thing.  God has come down to us—come down not to display wrath or befuddle us with trickery but to set us free from our sins.

We could say that it’s new in the sense that Christ’s nativity is meant for us.  It’s new to you and me in 2021.  The purpose of his birth, the effect of his birth touches the men and women of today, touches whoever thruout the ages is in need of being redeemed from sin.  Regardless of the experience of the Virgin Mary, Joseph, shepherds, and magi, the Lord’s nativity is new in our regard.

So we pray that this nativity of Christ our Lord may move our hearts and cleanse our souls and turn us into his devoted disciples, his beloved brothers.

Homily for Feast of Holy Innocents

Homily for the Feast 

of the Holy Innocents

Dec. 28, 2021
Collect
1 John 1:5—2:2
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle

The Collect today contrasts the Innocents’ “not speaking” with their dying.  Surely they did speak, crying in terror and then in pain as they were barbarously slaughtered by Herod’s thugs, and surely their parents howled in anger and anguish.

But our prayer asks that we confess God in faith with both our lips and our lives.  Obviously, we voice our faith—in our common prayer and probably in much private prayer.

St. John makes something of a parallel comment in the 1st reading:  “If we say, ‘We have fellowship with [Jesus],’ while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth” (1 John 1:6).  John challenges us, then, to back up our words, as the Innocents unwittingly did, with our lives, with our actions:  to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

John acknowledges that we fail in that regard.  We are sinners.  He calls on us to confess our sins and thus receive forgiveness.  John’s great insistence is love:  “My little children, love one another.”

And that’s where we tend to fail in community life, e.g., by criticism, by impatience, by lack of consideration, maybe by sulking over something that didn’t go as we wanted.

John encourages us:  Jesus Christ “is faithful and just and will forgive our sins” (1:9).  John encourages us to walk in the light with Christ, to walk in greater love with and for our brothers.

Homily for Feast of the Holy Family

Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family

Dec. 26, 2021
1 Sam 1: 20-22, 24-28
Luke 2: 41-52
St. Thomas More, Hauppauge, N.Y.

“At the end of her term, Hannah bore a son whom she called Samuel” (1 Sam 1: 20).

Hannah presents her son Samuel to the priest Eli

(Gerbrand van den Eechkhout)

Our 1st reading comes from the 1st Book of Samuel, the 1st of 4 Old Testament books that narrate the history of the kings of Israel during a period of roughly 450 years.  Samuel wasn’t one of those kings, but as God’s prophet he anointed the 1st 2 kings, Saul and David, whose reigns are reported in 1-2 Samuel.

Our reading, 8 verses from the 1st chapter of Samuel’s story, seems to be a strange one for the feast of the Holy Family, a family held up to us as a model of family life and love in fulfillment of God’s plan.  This reading, instead, speaks of a family that appears to abandon their only child.

It’s not precisely so.  Before this passage, we read that Hannah was childless and, according to the culture of Israel at that time, over 1,000 years B.C., she was regarded as disgraced because she was barren.  So on one of her trips with her husband to Shiloh, where the ark of the covenant was kept at that period, where God dwelt in Israel’s midst, she prayed for a son and, should her prayer be heard and her disgrace turned into grace, promised to dedicate that son to God’s service.

Her fulfillment of her promise is what we read.  What Hannah and her husband Elkanah did was rare but not unusual in the ancient and medieval worlds.  A pious, non-historical tradition holds that Sts. Joachim and Ann similarly dedicated their daughter Mary at a tender age, so that she was raised in the Temple at Jerusalem until her betrothal to St. Joseph.  In the Middle Ages it often happened that children were brought to monasteries or convents—never an only or first-born, but younger ones—either because the family couldn’t provide for them or as an act of devotion, really meaning to give their child to God’s service.  It’s tragic to say that even today in some desperate Third World situations parents will sell a child into slavery, or worse, to earn some cash to buy food for the rest of the family.  And in supposedly civilized societies, millions of children are slaughtered before they’re even born.

So Hannah and Elkanah leave very young Samuel, just weaned, with the priest Eli and his family at Shiloh, “dedicated to the Lord” (1:28).

Samuel’s service to the Lord at Shiloh prefigures the service of Jesus, who accompanied his parents to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in the Temple (Luke 2:41-42).  Unlike Hannah and Elkanah they have no intention of leaving the boy there.  Instead, he attempts to stay there on his own and begin his sacred mission of handing on divine wisdom to the teachers of the Law, and makes a wonderful start of it (2:43,46-47).

Christ Child amid the scribes

(Holy Savior Church, Bruges)

The 2 passages, Hannah’s story and Jesus’, convey to us messages of devotion and obedience.

Hannah places her fertility entirely in God’s hands, trusting him for what her heart so earnestly desires and respecting his lordship over human life.  It’s an example for all who wish to be guided by the Creator of life.  If the Lord rules our lives, and our fertility in particular, that rules out any attempts to control our fertility thru abortion, surrogacy, in vitro fertilization, and contraception, not to mention sex outside marriage.  Hannah presents her young son to the Lord (1:24), acknowledging all that she owes to God.  The followers to Jesus Christ imitate her by entrusting their fertility to the plans of God and by raising their children, if they’re so blessed, to honor and worship God.

Young Jesus has his own idea of what he should be doing to honor his Father.  If you were in Mary’s or Joseph’s position, how would you have handled that?  Luke doesn’t tell us much about their reaction, quoting 2 sentences from Mary, nothing from Joseph.  Maybe Joseph had a private little man-to-man chat with his foster son during their long hike back to Nazareth.  Whatever the case, Jesus “went down with them to Nazareth and was obedient to them” (2:51).  The boy is a son of God’s Law, which commands reverence toward our parents.  For us, it doesn’t matter how old we are.  We may be beyond having literally to obey mother and father; but we can never stop honoring, respecting, and caring for them.

So we prayed in the Collect (opening prayer) of the Mass that we might “practice the virtues of family life in the bonds of charity” as we look forward from family life here to family life in our Father’s eternal home.

Homily for Christmas Mass at Dawn

Homily for Christmas Mass at Dawn

Dec. 25, 2021
Titus 3: 4-7
St. Thomas More, Hauppauge, N.Y.

“The kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared” (Titus 3: 4).

Adoration of the Shepherds (Murillo)

When the shepherds hastened to Bethlehem to see what the Lord had made know to them thru angels, they found only a simple family staying as humble guests in a relative’s home.  Speaking historically and culturally, St. Joseph would’ve had no trouble finding lodging with one of his kinsmen in his ancestral hometown; where there was no room for him and Mary was in the house’s guest room (which is the word that St. Luke actually uses[1]; he never mentions a stable or an innkeeper, in spite of our lovely traditions).  So Mary and Joseph were put in the space where the family kept their livestock.  All over the world it was and is common for peasants to bring their cow or a few goats indoors at nite to protect them and to provide some warmth to the house.  So there would be a manger, a feeding trough, there.  And there, perhaps observed by an ox or a donkey, Mary gave birth to Jesus in truly humble circumstances.

But what did the shepherds see when they found Mary, Joseph, and in the manger a newborn child?  With eyes of faith, they saw “the kindness and generous love of God our savior.”  For the angels had announced to them “good news of great joy….  A savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).  This humble, almost homeless child lying in straw is the Savior of the world, God’s own Son born in our human flesh.  The shepherds recognized the Messiah, and they amazed “all who heard” them speak about the angelic message (2:17-18).

What do we recognize in that child?  Are we amazed that God brings us his kindness and generous love in that child?  That child bears to us divine mercy; “he saves us thru the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5), i.e., thru Baptism and the gift of God’s own Spirit conveying to us divine grace, “richly poured out on us thru Jesus Christ” (3:6).  Are we amazed enuf that we have committed our lives to this Savior “that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life” (4:7)?

Whether we picture baby Jesus in a stable or in a house, it’s insufficient for our salvation just to look and admire.  The shepherds proclaimed him and “glorified and praised God for all they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:20).  The Virgin Mother “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (2:19).  She internalized these blessed events, made them her own, made them part of her life.

We must do the same.  In the Collect (opening prayer of the Mass) we prayed that Christ’s coming might “illumine our minds and also shine thru in our deeds.”  Seeing and recognizing the Savior of the world in this humble child lying in a feed trough has to lead us to praise God like the shepherds, make Christ’s life part of our own interior make-up like Mary, so that our words and deeds reveal God’s kindness and generous love to our families, co-workers, acquaintances, and even strangers, so that the coming of God as man has an effect in our lives.

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    [1] katalyma = “place to stay,” i.e., a guest room, to be distinguished from pandocheion = “inn” (as in Luke 10:34-35).

Homily for Christmas Vigil

Homily for the Christmas Vigil

Dec. 24, 2021
Matt 1: 18-25
St. Thomas More, Hauppauge, N.Y.

“When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home” (Matt 1: 24).

Earlier this month the Church completed a year designated to honor and to learn from St. Joseph.  It’s not too late to pay attention to that, especially since the gospel reading assigned for this evening tells us of the conception and birth of Jesus from St. Joseph’s perspective as recorded by St. Matthew.

Matthew tells us that Joseph awoke from his dream and then acted upon what he’d been told.  Joseph is “woke,” as they say today, but not in the same sense in which that word is used today.  The internet tells me that woke means “alert to injustice in society, especially racism.”  Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus will become victims of injustice in society, Matthew will tell us in his 2d chapter, when wicked King Herod tries to murder Jesus, and Joseph, again heeding a divine dream, takes his family and flees; they become refugees from injustice.

But Joseph is “woke” in a different sense.  Matthew describes him as “a righteous man,” also translated as “a just man.”  In biblical terms, that means he’s alert to the word of God, to doing what God wants, to obeying the laws of God, to carrying out God’s will in everything he does.

Matthew identifies Joseph as “son of David,” a descendant of Israel’s greatest king.  It was expected that the Messiah would come from David’s line.  We heard in the responsorial psalm, “I have sworn to David my servant:  forever will I confirm your posterity and establish your throne for all generations” (89:4-5).  In the time of Joseph and Mary, pious Jews expected the Messiah to come and restore Israel as a free people under the rule of a son of David.

In that context, Joseph was commanded to accept Mary’s unborn child as his own son, not in a biological sense but in a legal sense.  By accepting the Virgin Mary as his wife—which she already was in Jewish law even tho they weren’t yet living together—and by acknowledging and naming her son, Joseph was fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies:  what was promised to David a thousand years earlier, what Isaiah had prophesied 700 years earlier.  Joseph, the righteous man, was cooperating with the plan of God to “save his people from their sins” (1:21).

In that phrase based on the child’s name, Jesus, Yeshua in Hebrew, “Yahweh saves,” Matthew is telling us the nature of his messiahship.  He’s not going to free Israel from Rome, not going to become a ferocious warrior-king like David.  Instead, he’s going to make war on the Devil; he’s going to restore humanity’s health before God.  That’s why God “gladdens us year by year as we wait in hope for our redemption,” as the Collect of the Mass said.  When he bestows healing divine grace upon us, saving us from our sins, “we may merit to face him confidently when he comes again as our Judge,” again quoting the Collect. The Collect reminds us that the Advent we’re winding up is one of waiting for 2 comings of Jesus Christ, the one at Bethlehem 2,000-some years ago and the one in the future when the entire history of humanity will culminate in a final judgment and the redemption of those who are, like St. Joseph, righteous before God.

Going back to the responsorial psalm:  “Blessed the people who know the joyful shout; in the light of your countenance, O Lord, they walk.  At your name they rejoice all the day, and thru your justice (or righteousness) they are exalted.” (Ps 89:16-17)  We pray that by the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, born as our Savior, we’ll be exalted and will rejoice with him when he comes again.

Bro. Gerald D. Meegan, SDB (1942-2021)

Bro. Gerald D. Meegan, SDB (1942-2021)

Bro. Gerald Dominic Meegan, SDB, died suddenly on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 19, in the Salesian residence at Mary Help of Christians Center in Tampa, apparently having suffered a heart attack. He was 79 years old and had been a professed Salesian brother for 61 years.

At the province’s jubilees celebration in 2010

Bro. Jerry was a talented educator, director of youth ministry for the St. Petersburg Diocese, moderator of the 2007 provincial chapter, guide to Salesian Cooperators, and friend and mentor to innumerable people. He played a large role in the New Rochelle Province in reshaping the image of the coadjutor brother.

Gerald Meegan, son of John and Catherine Kesar Meegan, was born in Teaneck, N.J., on Jan. 27, 1942, with the given middle name Richard. He was born into God’s grace on March 29 that year at St. Matthew Church in Ridgefield, N.J., and confirmed there as well in 1953.

The family resided in Palisades Park, N.J., in 1955 when 13-year-old Jerry enrolled at Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, which was both an aspirantate for future coadjutor brothers and a trade school for day students. Jerry pursued commercial art while taking the standard college prep courses. But as his 4 years were ending, he later recounted, “I was attracted to the brothers and decided in my senior year to become a brother, mainly because of my interest in working with young people and helping people.

Salesian Vocation

Following his graduation (as Gerald Richard Meegan), he entered St. Joseph Novitiate in Newton, N.J., on Sept. 7, 1959. The master of novices was Fr. Aloysius Bianchi, and among the 63 novices (at the time of the report submitted to Turin) were also Bob Bauer, Mike Brinkman, Paul Cossette, John Grinsell, and Jerry Harasym.

The novices admitted to profession made their commitment at the novitiate on September 8, 1960. Following the Salesian custom of the time, he took a profession name, Dominic. Unlike most of his confreres, he actually used it henceforth as his middle name. Bro. Jerry made his perpetual profession at Mount Mongola in Ellenville, N.Y., on Sept. 3, 1966, at the end of his annual retreat.

Newly-professed Bro. Jerry was assigned for postnovitiate formation to the coadjutors’ training community at Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, where he assisted the aspirants. The following year, 1961, the aspirantates were re-located: clerical students from Don Bosco Juniorate at Haverstraw, N.Y., to Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen, N.Y., the coadjutors to the renamed Don Bosco Technical Institute at Haverstraw.

Bro. Jerry moved with the coadjutor aspirants and continued his own formation as well as his assistance to them for 3 more years. In that period, some of the staff or fellow trainees were Bros. Oscar Andrejasic, Mario Audero, Bruno Busatto, John Cauda, John Chiabai, Kevin Connolly, Marcel Gauthier, Dan McConnell, Rich Pasaik, Gerard Richard, and John Versaggi.

In 1964 Bro. Jerry moved to the provincial house in New Rochelle, N.Y., and became one of the first coadjutors allowed to pursue academic courses. He studied at Iona College in New Rochelle from 1964 to 1967, earning a bachelor’s degree in education, awarded in June 1968. He followed up his B.A. with an M.S. in education in 1973 from SUNY New Paltz while he was assigned to Goshen. (At both institutions his transcripts and diplomas identify him as Gerald Dominic Meegan, and so do subsequent legal records.)

The Coadjutor Brother

College studies were the first step in Bro. Jerry’s pioneering path in raising the image of the Salesian coadjutor to align better with Don Bosco’s intention, that the brother is the equal of the priest as a member of the Congregation. One former SDB, Bill Moriarty, put it thus: “I remember him as a determined person who helped advance an image change for the coadjutor brothers as religious who did not only the ‘dirty jobs,’ but who excelled in roles in administration and leadership.”

Bro. Jerry took an active interest in the formation of Salesian brothers and was ever ready to remind anyone of their status as religious and sons of Don Bosco. In his footsteps, brothers in the New Rochelle Province serve competently as teachers and administrators, as leaders at local and provincial levels. This has been in sync with similar developments at the world level, including service on the general council of the Salesian Society.

As moderator of the 2007 Provincial Chapter, Bro. Jerry makes a procedural point during a session

guided by Fr. Dennis Donovan. Provincial Fr. Jim Heuser sits next to Bro. Jerry.

Bro. Jerry also took a leading role nationally in promoting and defining the vocation of the religious brother. He helped establish the National Assembly of Religious Brothers (NARB) in 1971 (since 2000, the Religious Brothers Conference), was a member of its first board of directors, served as the organization’s president in 1997-1999, and remained involved for the rest of his life.

Bro. Jerry, 2d row, 2d from right, at the RBC annual conference in San Antonio in 2019.

(Religious Brothers Conference website)

Salesian Formator

College degree attained, Bro. Jerry returned to Don Bosco Technical Institute and the coadjutor aspirants at Haverstraw in 1967-1968. Former SDB brother Alex Tucciarone remembers Jerry as “one of the last coadjutors from DBT Haverstraw. Intelligent, kind-hearted gentleman. Dedicated to his vocation, a role model for students, professional educator, and all-around good guy. I was an aspirant at DBT while Jerry was in formation. His loss will have an impact on all of us who knew him.”

Bro. Jerry moved with the aspirants in 1968 when they transferred to Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen, joining the clerical aspirants, and was designated dean of the coadjutor aspirants. He remained on the teaching staff and house council there until 1974. His major teaching field was social studies, in which he was certified in both New York and Massachusetts, but he also taught some drafting and art. From 1972 to 1974 he was also the province’s vocation director.

With Salesian Junior Seminary’s Class of 1969. (New Rochelle Province Archives)

Two aspirants from his time in Goshen, future master educators, recall him as a superb teacher. Kevin Hutchinson wrote, “I had Jerry in Goshen as an inspiring teacher and [later, as a Salesian brother] taught with him in Boston, where he was a wonderful mentor as principal … many fond memories.” Paul Zaccagnino, later a longtime teacher at Salesian in New Rochelle, wrote: “He came to Goshen my senior year along with the coadjutor aspirants from Haverstraw. He was our very innovative senior history teacher. He quickly became my role model and remained one of my favorite teachers.”

Province Leader

In 1974 Bro. Jerry was sent to Don Bosco Tech in Boston as principal; he served there for 6 years, attentive to almost every detail of the school’s administration. Then he was principal at Salesian HS, New Rochelle, for 5 years (1980-1985). He remained in New Rochelle at the provincial house until 1997, 3 years as the province’s superintendent of schools (1985-1988) and 12 years as a member of the provincial council as delegate for the Salesian Family and for communications (1985-1997). For a short period in the mid-90s he was acting director of Don Bosco Multimedia.

He took a very active interest in the Salesian Cooperators at various locations. Joe Gast of the Hauppauge, N.Y., center identifies him as “a great friend to the Cooperators!” Jeanie Cahill of the Stony Point, N.Y., center writes: “Bro. Jerry so loved the Cooperators. Denis and I are blessed to have shared so many memories with him. He was our mentor for the Salesian Family days. For our 25th wedding anniversary, he cooked dinner for us at our home. He had a special menu printed up, brought his own pots and pans, dinnerware even including silverware! He was a 4-star chef! Such an amazing friend that after our daughter’s wedding he helped us serve refreshments before we all went to the reception. Recently, we just visited him in Tampa, and he was cooking onion soup and invited us to lunch. So many memories to cherish.”

Lynn Krakaur, also of the Stony Point center, links her memories with Bro. Jerry’s zeal for the young: “I have known Bro. Jerry for many years. He had such a passion for youth! We were able to see him at many youth leadership retreats at the Shrine, when the Cooperators hosted refreshments. He always asked how my mom was doing and assured me of his prayers for my family.”

Youth Minister

From New Rochelle, Bro. Jerry moved back briefly to Haverstraw as coordinator of the Don Bosco Retreat Center (1997-1999). Then he returned to the educational field as director of youth ministry for the diocese of St. Petersburg (1999-2008). He energetically promoted youth ministry programs in parishes. When he undertook this ministry, he told The Florida Catholic: “My philosophy is the Salesian philosophy that youth ministry is a very important part of youth development. It has to be a ministry that accepts the young person where he or she is … and moves them on in such a way that they take an active part in the life of the Church and spiritual development on their own, in their own relationship with Jesus, and in developing a God relationship so that it becomes a foundation for the rest of their life.”

Bro. Jerry with Bro. Travis Gunther in New Rochelle in 2012 following Bro. Travis’s first profession.

He left the youth ministry office to become principal, once again, at St. Petersburg Catholic HS (2008-2010).

Recognized as an accomplished youth minister, he was appointed coordinator of youth ministry (CYM) at Archbishop Shaw HS in Marrero, La., in 2010 and served there for 10 years. In 2020 he was assigned to Cristo Rey Tampa HS as a member of the youth ministry team. He offered encouragement and guidance also to parishioners at Mary Help of Christians, such as Lorraine Anctil: “He had such a happy laugh. My greatest memory is while I was very sick he would send me spiritual messages daily and constantly told me to fight and know God was with me the whole time.”

Many remember Bro. Jerry’s assistance and mentoring as a youth minister. Denise Vedros, a veteran teacher and Cooperator at Shaw, says, “He touched so many lives while at Shaw. I was truly blessed to have him as a mentor and friend.” Lisa Stacy, a teacher and Cooperator from Don Bosco Cristo Rey HS in Takoma Park, Md., paid this tribute: “My heart is saddened to read of the passing of Bro. Jerry. I am confident that God greeted him and said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.’ I know he is walking through the Salesian Garden with Don Bosco with a great smile on his face. Bro. Jerry lived Salesian youth ministry with every breath he took, and the world benefited. I am blessed to have served our young people alongside of such an incredible man and youth minister!”

His reach extended across the continent, as Judy Alvarez from California testifies: “Bro. Jerry was an inspiration and role model for all his colleagues in the NFCYM. I am thankful for the many gifts he brought to ministry with the young Church!”

Tommy Siefring, who is now the CYM at Salesian in New Rochelle, recounts that as a student he “met Bro. Jerry back on my first leadership retreat in 2012. He pushed me to go to confession after I told him I hadn’t gone in years. When I saw him at the Marian Shrine, back in October [2021] for CYM meetings, he remembered my story and asked me if I was still going to confession often. He was such a great Salesian, and his memory and spirit live on in all the lives that he touched.”

A current student at Archbishop Shaw HS, Josh Mitchell, posted this: “My first-ever Salesian retreat [was] an event that changed my life forever. I have Bro. Jerry to thank for this experience. Not only did I begin my journey at Shaw without any religion in my life, [but] I knew hardly anyone on campus. Bro. Jerry was a central figure that believed in me and guided me in my first two years. Without his presence in my life, I may never have been deeply compelled and called to become Catholic. Thank you, Brother Jerry, for all of the support and prayers you have given my family and me over the years.”

Opening a gift at Mary Help of Christians Center’s Christmas party, 

Dec. 9, 2021. (Carolyn Espinosa)

Bro. Jerry is survived by his sister-in-law Barbara Meegan of Daytona Beach, Fla. He was predeceased by his brothers Charles and James.

Funeral Arrangements

Bro. Jerry’s funeral will be celebrated first in Tampa and then at Haverstraw-Stony Point.

At Mary Help of Christians Church in Tampa on Monday, Dec. 27: wake from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. On Tuesday, Dec. 28, funeral Mass at 10:00 a.m.

At the Marian Shrine Chapel in Haverstraw on Wednesday, Dec. 29: wake from 4:00 p.m., followed by the Mass of Christian Burial at 7:00 p.m.

He will be buried in the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen on Thursday, Dec. 30, at 10:30 a.m.

Homily for December 22

Homily for December 22, 2021

Collect
Luke 1: 46-56
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

We prayed in the Collect that the fallen human race might merit the company of God’s Only-begotten Son as their Redeemer.

Christ accompanying 2 disciples on the way to Emmaus

(Roelant Roghman)

We, of course, are that fallen race, well aware of our sins.  We’re here because we repent them and desire the company of our Redeemer.

God graciously sent our Redeemer to show his “mercy on those who fear him in every generation” (Luke 1:50), even unto us.  He accompanies us constantly with his mercy.  (Isn’t it wonderful how much our Holy Father emphasizes God’s mercy!)

We can’t “merit” our Redeemer’s company, not on our own.  God’s will to redeem us of itself makes us worthy of grace, worthy of the company of his Son.

His Son becomes our company, the guest of our souls and of our hearts when we celebrate the Eucharist.  He walks in our company thruout the day when we welcome him by prayer and by practicing the presence of God.  His company as our Redeemer also enables us to reveal his mercy, his loving-kindness, to our sisters and to others—sharing his company with them.

We pray on the Last Day to merit the company of our Redeemer; we hope that he’ll address us as his good and true servants, his beloved whom he desires to keep in his company forever, “proclaiming the greatness of the Lord,” of God our Savior (cf. Luke 1:46-47).

Homily for December 21

Homily for December 21

Luke 1: 39-45
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle

“Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste” (Luke 1: 39).

St. Vaast Altarpiece (Jacques Daret +1470)

Commentators note that Mary “set out in haste.”  We’re not told what her motive was—needing to share with Elizabeth the startling news of her own sudden pregnancy, a desire to accompany her elder kinswoman in her own unexpected pregnancy, now well advanced, “in its 6th month” (1:36), getting out of town while she pondered how to speak to Joseph, or some other reason.  Whatever Mary’s motive, she’s perceived a need to act, and she acts at once—not as we do so often, putting off some responsibility as long as we can, maybe hoping it’ll go away.  Mary shows us a better way to act when we know what we must do—quickly.

Then we notice Elizabeth’s reaction to Mary’s arrival—not only Mary’s but her child’s:  “How does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (1:43).  It’s a humble reaction, turned toward the other person in spite of her own marvelous blessing.  It acknowledges something greater than her own blessing now present, to which she must bow in awe.  Do we pause sometimes to marvel at the great things which, other great people whom, God has put along our path?

Then our attention goes to the reaction of the unborn child in Elizabeth’s womb.  He “leaps for joy” (1:41,44).  Luke in fact says it twice.  John exults in the presence of his Lord, like David leaping before the ark of the covenant that he’s leading into Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:14-16).  John teaches us to rejoice that God has come into our lives.

Homily for 4th Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Advent

Dec. 19, 2021
Heb 10: 5-10
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Behold, I come to do your will, O God” (Heb 10: 7).

Nativity Window

OL of the Valley Church, Orange, N.J.

The whole Christian world is excitedly preparing for Christmas, our annual memorial and celebration of the birth of our Savior in insignificant little Bethlehem, “too small to be among the clans of Judah” (Mic 5:1).  It’s such a joy-filled time that not even the stiff, sour Puritans of 17th-century England and New England could suppress it.  (They tried to outlaw Christmas, you know.)

But our festival is not without a quiet note, a somber note, a note with something like foreboding.  The “one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old” (Mic 5:1) comes to save us, and he comes to save us by doing God’s will.

The Letter to the Hebrews explains:  “By this ‘will,’ we have been consecrated thru the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (10:10).  Jesus was born in Bethlehem in order to offer himself up for us sinners, offer himself as a sacrifice on the altar of the cross, and by offering himself to take away our sins and consecrate us to God.  His obedience to his Father counteracted Adam’s disobedience and made things right again between humanity and God.    

This doesn’t mean that God the Father willed his Son’s death.  It does mean that the Father willed his Son to invite all men and women, sinners and saints alike, Jew and Gentile alike, to forgiveness and redemption, to consecration in an intimate relationship with the Father.  Such an inclusive invitation had a price for Jesus.  Not everyone welcomes God’s generosity.  They didn’t in 1st-century Israel, just as today we see people who wish to exclude others who are different from themselves.  So Jesus’ self-offering led to the cross; so he offered his body “once for all,” for all of humanity.

Did Jesus have to do his Father’s will?  No, he didn’t.  We celebrate at Christmas that he was born a flesh-and-blood human being, born the son of the Virgin Mary.  “I come to do your will, O God”—but to do the Father’s will by a deliberate choice.  Remember that he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and could have chosen the way of power, pride, and sensuality instead of the way of faithfulness.  Remember that in Gethsemane he prayed to his Father to take away the cup of suffering that was close at hand.  He could have run away.  He could have backed down from preaching what God wanted of him.

Even before he was born, Elizabeth, his mother’s relative, recognized that he was “blessed” (Luke 1:42)—blessed in anticipation of what he would do in obedience to his Father.

At every Mass we pray the Lord’s Prayer, and you probably pray it often during the week.  It’s called the Lord’s Prayer because our Lord Jesus taught it to us.  In it, like Jesus we pray that God’s will be done.  “I come to do your will, O God.”  When we submit ourselves to God’s will, we act like Jesus.  Acting like the Son of God, we become children of God.

So acting, we also act like the Mother of Jesus.  Before she visited her cousin Elizabeth, she accepted God’s plan for her when she told the archangel Gabriel, “Let it be done to me as you say” (Luke 1:38).  Because of her obedience to God’s will, Elizabeth recognizes her as “blessed among women,” blessed because she believed what was spoken to her and accepted it (1:42,45).

Accepting God’s will—“thy will be done”—in our own lives is what brings the blessing of God upon us.  It’s what enables the grace of our Lord Jesus to consecrate us, to make us sacred or holy before God.

If it wasn’t easy for Jesus always to do his Father’s will, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy for Mary either—as a frightened teenager or as a mature woman standing under her Son’s cross—just as surely it’s not easy for us always to do the Father’s will in our lives, to accept what he asks of us—in the way of carrying out our personal responsibilities, in the way of suffering, in the way of resisting our own temptations to sensuality, pride, and power.  Living obediently, living faithfully, is the “sacrifice and offering” (Heb 10:5) that God desires of us, as he desired it of his own Son in the flesh.  Following Jesus Christ in our own lives is what gives meaning to Christmas; it’s what will “pour forth” divine “grace into our hearts” so that “we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection” (Collect).

Homily for Memorial of St. John of the Cross

Homily for the Memorial of
St. John of the Cross

Dec. 14, 2021
Matt 21: 28-32
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Jesus’ parable of the 2 sons and the vineyard concerns the reception of his preaching by different people.  When those commonly regarded as the worst of sinners accept him, the Kingdom of God opens for them.  When the “proper” people of society close their minds to him, the Kingdom is closed to them.  Acknowledging our sins, turning to Jesus for mercy, and with his grace attempting a more faithful life are the keys to entering the Kingdom.

In the 16th century many religious were like the 2d son in the parable, professing a “yes” to the Christian life but not living up to their “yes.”  Such scandal was one of the many reasons for the demand to reform the Church that produced both 16th-century Reformations, Protestant and Catholic.

(Francisco de Zurbaran +1664)

John of the Cross is one of the saints of the Catholic Reformation.  He wasn’t a terrible sinner, in the class of the tax collectors and prostitutes of Jesus’ parable, when Teresa of Avila recruited him to reform the male Carmelites of Spain, who had long given up their strict, original way of life.  When John began to reform the order, he suffered terribly, first from those who resisted reform, and later even from those in his own, supposedly reformed branch.  The first group, for instance, on one occasion kidnapped him, kept him in a tiny, dark cell for 9 months, and beat him.  Ambitious and bitter members of the reformed group slandered him and persecuted him, driving him, apparently, to an early death at the age of 49.

John’s suffering induced profound meditation on the cross of Christ, on divine love, and on human response to that love.  His spiritual writings are treasures of Spanish literature and in the last century inspired Fr. Karol Wojtyla’s doctoral dissertation and his own spirituality.

The cross is never far from us, whether in physical suffering or some other anguish.  Suffering also comes in the form of repenting our sins—so enticing to us at times—and recommitting ourselves to our Lord Jesus, to the fervor of our 1st profession, to faithful religious life.  Like John of the Cross, we find in Christ’s cross the way into God’s Kingdom.

Homily for 3d Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Advent

Dec. 12, 2021
Luke 3: 10-18
Collect
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx, N.Y.                                                          

“O God, enable us to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing” (Collect).

So we prayed in the collect of the Mass a few minutes ago.  That theme of joy gives today its name, Gaudete Sunday (“Rejoice Sunday”), from the 1st word of its entrance antiphon, taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians:  “Rejoice in the Lord always.”

Homage to OL of Guadalupe

St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle

That joyful theme is the reason why we lighten Advent’s usual purple hue with rose in our vestments and in the candle for Advent’s 3d week.  The rose color also ties in nicely with the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, usually celebrated on Dec. 12.  One of the 2 great signs of her presence that the Virgin Mary manifested was the abundance of unseasonal roses that St. Juan Diego plucked and brought to the skeptical bishop of Mexico in December 1531.  The other sign was—and remains—the miraculous image of the pregnant, mestizo Virgin Mother imprinted on Juan Diego’s cloak, which pilgrims still view today even tho that cheap woven fabric should have disintegrated centuries ago.  Mary’s message to the oppressed native population of Mexico was one of joy because she and her Son love them deeply and are present to them in their poverty and afflictions.

1,500 years before Mary appeared to Juan Diego, John the Baptist appeared in the Judean wilderness announcing a baptism of repentance to prepare for the coming of the Lord, as we heard last Sunday (Luke 3:1-6).  Today we hear more about John’s message.  His message is a mix of glad tidings, divine demands, and warnings.

Last week’s gospel passage ended, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God” (3:6).  This is cause of rejoicing:  “Rejoice in the Lord always.  The Lord is near” (Phil 4:4,5).  Today’s passage concludes, John “preached good news to the people” (3:18).  The good news of God’s salvation is offered to everyone, even to tax collectors—Jews working traitorously for the Roman oppressors—and soldiers, probably rough, unsympathetic servants of King Herod (3:12-14).

On tax collectors, soldiers, and everyone John lays demands of justice:  share your abundance with the poor, don’t cheat or take advantage of people in your business dealings, be honest, don’t be arrogant or overbearing.

More good news:  God’s Mighty One is approaching, viz., the Messiah.  He’ll purify the repentant with the fire of the Holy Spirit (3:16).

But a warning too:  the unrepentant will be burned by that fire, consumed like chaff or the deadwood you might collect on your property.

What does John the Baptism have to say to us?  Do we want to be the wheat that God’s Mighty One will gather into his barn (3:17)?  Do we want to be gifted with the salvation of God that John, 1st, and then Jesus announced?  Then we must repent and confess our sins.  We must ask, like the people who came to John, “What should we do?” (3:10).  We must live as Jesus tells us to:  merciful, forgiving, kind, patient, generous, pure of heart, honest, truthful.  We must pray and read the holy Scriptures, developing a personal relationship with Jesus and with his Father.

In such a relationship, we will “attain the joys of so great a salvation.”  We’ll have cause to “rejoice in the Lord always.”

Homily for Tuesday, Week 2 of Advent

Homily for Tuesday
Week 2 of Advent

Is 40: 1-11
Dec. 7, 2021
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God” (Is 40: 1)

These are the opening words of Handel’s Messiah, introducing that greatest of all oratorios, a musical summary of our redemption.  Handel, of course was quoting the KJV text of Isaiah 40 in that opening segment.  Isaiah 40 is itself an opening segment, the beginning of the 2d part of the Isaian collection we now call 2d Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah.

2d Isaiah, ch. 40-55, is an extended prophecy of Israel’s impending liberation from their exile in Babylon, their 2d exodus thru a wilderness into the Promised Land.  “Proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated.  In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!” (40:2,3).

(from www.bible.com/bible/1/ISA.40.4-5.KJV)

Now the Lord thru Isaiah announces to a world bound in servitude yet another liberation, yet another path of the Lord.  Now our servitude isn’t to Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar but to Satan; our liberation is from the guilt of our sins and the damnation they merit.

Jesus Christ has marked out the path thru the wilderness of our human sinfulness, the way of the cross, leading to the new Jerusalem:  “Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news!” (40:9).  From God’s holy city on high comes the announcement that “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” (40:5), that our God is at hand to save us—to save us with a shepherd’s tender care (cf. 40:11).

Homily for 2d Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Advent

Dec. 5, 2021
Luke 3: 1-6
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“John went thruout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3: 3).

The Preaching of John the Baptist (Mattia Preti)

When an important dignitary comes to town—a president or a pope—the local government goes to great lengths to prepare:  repairing highways, decorating streets, repainting buildings—to make the visitor welcome and create a favorable impression.  In St. Luke’s Gospel, John the Baptist announces a divine infrastructure plan in advance of the coming of the Messiah:  “Prepare the way of the Lord” (3:4).  Roads will be straightened out and leveled, the potholes filled in.  And when the Lord appears, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (3:6).

This is no fantasy.  This is no myth, like the fantastic stories we read in Greek mythology.  What John the Baptist announces is real.  St. Luke drives this home by setting his account in a specific time that many of his readers would’ve remembered:  when Tiberias was emperor of Rome, when Pontius Pilate governed Judea, when Herod Antipas ruled Galilee, when Annas and Caiaphas were in charge of the temple at Jerusalem and led the priestly class there—all of them men we can read about in history books.  He places John in an identifiable place known to his readers and to countless pilgrims to the Holy Land, the Jordan River.

This is where the salvation of the world became known, its way announced in advance by John.  This is the salvation still being made known as we prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Messiah.  John wasn’t announcing his birth but his public appearance to Israel.  Before he appeared, and before we can welcome him personally later this month, John’s listeners and we have work to do:  clearing and repairing and leveling the roads.

The roadwork is, of course, a metaphor.  John “preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  Salvation will take the form of forgiveness; not political liberation from the taxes and other oppressions of Rome but spiritual liberation from Satan’s rule over our hearts and our eternal destiny.

We want to be happy.  We want the weight of guilt, anger, and spiritual filth lifted from us.  We want to be healthy and alive.  We want “the salvation of God.”

John baptizes the people who come to him—washing them clean symbolically with water in the river.  The cleansing, the forgiveness, depends upon repentance.  We’ll hear more of that next Sunday.  People have to be sorry for their wrongdoing and be willing to change their behavior, as John will specify next week to the wealthy, to tax collectors, and to soldiers.  Repentance opens up the road to forgiveness, happiness, and life.

St. Paul issues a similar call to us today in the 2d reading:  “This is my prayer:  that your love may increase ever more,” that you may “discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Phil 1:9-10).

Advent is one of the times when parishioners are more likely to come to the sacrament of Penance, to confess their sins, to seek the spiritual cleansing of Christ.  Certainly, it’s even better to do that often—but only when our hearts are contrite, when we’re repentant.  That’s when the grace of Christ forgives us and gives us a fresh start—starts us out on a repaired and leveled road.  That’s when we can make Christ welcome, glad that he’s come into our history, and be favored by him.  That’s when he can, in the words of today’s Collect, admit us to his company, the company of God’s holy ones, forever cleansed, healed, and joyful at the banquet of eternal life.