Homily for the
Memorial
of Bl. Edmund Rice
May 5, 2021
Wednesday, Easter
Week 5
Collect
John 15: 1-8
SDB Provincial House,
New Rochelle, N.Y.
According to the Collect, our heavenly Father
inspired Bl. Edmund Ignatius Rice “to open his heart to those oppressed by
poverty and injustice.” Bl. Edmund was
not exactly a contemporary of Don Bosco—his dates are 1762 to 1844—but his
character and the situation of his society were similar to our Founder’s.
Edmund’s Ireland knew religious, political,
and economic oppression. For much of his
life, the anti-Catholic penal laws were still in effect, and thruout, British
overlordship kept Irish Catholics in their social place. One biographer calls him “a fearless defender
of the faith.” He died just before the infamous
potato famine began, but the lot of most Irish was still a hard one.
Edmund himself was comfortably middle
class. He inherited an uncle’s
export-import business in Waterford, and at age 25 married. But only 2 years later, his wife was killed
in an accident, leaving him with a daughter disabled in that accident. He found comfort in religious devotion, and
in his own sorrow took note of the troubles of so many young people in the
city.
Edmund was inclined toward entering a
monastery. The bishop of Waterford
discouraged that, encouraging him instead to attend to the city’s street
boys. The bishop’s sister (no
Marchioness Barolo) challenged him: “Would you bury yourself in a cell rather
than devote your wealth and your life to the spiritual and material interest of
these poor youths?”
So Edmund opened a school in a converted
stable in Waterford in 1802. With more
episcopal encouragement and after arranging for his daughter’s care, he and 7
others founded the Presentation Brothers for the education of poor boys, basing
their rule on the Presentation Sisters. Edmund adopted the name Bro. Ignatius. “Trusting in God’s help,” he said, “I hope to
be able to educate these boys to be good Catholics and good citizens.” (That sounds familiar!)
At Edmund’s beatification in 1996, John Paul II
called him “a shining example of the fruitfulness of the Christian life…. Here we have an outstanding model of a true
lay apostle and a deeply committed religious.
The love which he first gave to his daughter blossomed into a host of
spiritual and corporal works of mercy, as he helped the clergy of his parish
meet the pressing needs of his fellow citizens oppressed by poverty and the
weight of anti-Catholic legislation. The
Spirit eventually led him to the total consecration of himself and his
companions in the religious life.”
The Presentation Brothers spread rapidly
within Ireland, carrying out works like Don Bosco’s in his time, but always
under the control of the local bishop.
This caused administrative difficulties (as Don Bosco would have with a
certain archbishop), and that led to the re-founding of the congregation as one
of pontifical right called the Christian Brothers, modeled on the De La Salle
Brothers and approved by Pope Pius VII in 1820.
They seem to have been the 1st, and perhaps the only, religious
congregation founded by a layman.
But some of the brothers chose to remain
Presentation Brothers, still honoring Edmund as their founder.
Edmund remained superior general until he
retired in 1838. When he died 6 years
later, the CFCs had some 2 dozen academic and trade schools in Ireland and
England. Eventual expansion took them to
Australia, India, Canada, the U.S., Gibraltar, and 9 countries in Africa and 5
in South America. Their membership peaked
in the 1960s with over 5,000 brothers in about 600 schools.
1st as a layman, then as a religious, Edmund Rice
firmly attached himself to Christ, the true vine, and so bore abundant fruit
from and for Christ (cf. John 15:1-8), in his own time until our time. May Christ keep this vineyard healthy and
fruitful.
The stained glass image of Blessed Edmund hangs in Bl. Edmund Rice Chapel on the campus of Iona College, New Rochelle. It was done by Bro. Kenneth Chapman, CFC.
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