Homily for Solemnity of Christ the King

Homily for the Solemnity
of Christ the King

Nov. 26, 2023
Matt 25: 31-46
Villa Maria, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Assumption, Bronx

“The Son of Man … will sit upon his glorious throne, … and he will separate them one from another” (Matt 25: 31-32).

The Last Judgment (Hans Memling)

This is the 3d parable of judgment that Jesus tells us in Matt 25.  The parable of the wise and foolish virgins advised us always to be ready for our Master’s return.  The parable of the talents commanded us to use God’s gifts, especially our faith, to increase God’s wealth, which I interpret to mean to bring souls to him.

The parable of the final judgment of all the nations presents us with the criteria by which Christ, the Son of Man, will judge us individually.  The Son of Man is a messianic figure, based or prefigured in the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel, who acts as God’s agent in the world.  Jesus uses this name of himself.  In today’s parable he doesn’t say that HE is the Son of Man, but that’s certainly the interpretation given to the parable by the Church, including the parable’s usage on this feast of Christ the King.

The Son of Man comes in kingly glory, “and all the angels with him” (25:31); he’s a divine figure.  And he comes, as we proclaim in the Creed, to judge the living and the dead.  As king he exercises judgment:  he identifies the good and the evil among all human beings (“all the nations,” not just the Jewish people or the disciples of Christ); for God is the universal creator, and all human beings are accountable to him, thru his Anointed One, Christ.

Jesus declared himself a “good shepherd” (John 10); in the parable the judge acts as a shepherd would at the end of the day, sending his sheep and his goats to their proper places for the nite.  Here the king-shepherd sends the sheep and goats—all of humanity—to their proper places.

On my reading the parable this time, I took note of the difference between those respective places.  Those who have wittingly or unwittingly exercised the compassion of Jesus “inherit the kingdom prepared for [them] from the foundation of the world” (25:34).  It’s the divine plan, the divine intent, the humanity become citizens of the kingdom of heaven.  By acting in the manner of Jesus, who healed, comforted, and blessed, “those on his right” (v. 34) show that they belong with Jesus, who announced the coming of that kingdom and invited everyone to come and enter it.

But to “those on his left,” the judge says, “Depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (25:41).  There’s no sugar-coating that verse.  Damnation is a real possibility for people.  But hell is decidedly not God’s intention for people.  He wants everyone to be saved; the kingdom was prepared for all.  Hell, instead, is the realm of Satan and his wicked gang.  But people who act satanically go to Satan’s place.

The main point of the parable, tho, is what kind of human activity merits a place in the kingdom or a place in hellfire.  The judge uses the works of mercy as that determinant.  Those who show compassion for the suffering—the hungry, the thirsty, the alien, the naked, the sick, the prisoner—are invited into the kingdom.  Those who lack compassion are not invited in but are sent away, like the foolish virgins we heard about 2 weeks ago, like the lazy, wicked servant we heard of last week.  What’s to be said for a nation that turns away refugees and asylum seekers?

St. Luke’s Gospel (16:19-31) tells a similar story, the parable of the rich man and the wretched beggar named Lazarus who lay at his door.  The rich man winds up in hell, while the beggar goes to heaven, welcomed by Abraham.  The rich man showed no compassion for the beggar at his door.

In both parables, the one in today’s gospel and the one in Luke, Jesus teaches that it’s not enuf to be chaste, to be honest, to worship God on Sunday, etc.  Those virtues are important but insufficient.  If Jesus truly fills our hearts, we’ll show his type of compassion to anyone in need.

As Jesus ordered at the end of the parable of the Good Samaritan and its interpretation, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).

An Overnite at Stockbridge Shelter

HIKING-CAMPING TRIP TO STOCKBRIDGE SHELTER
IN HARRIMAN STATE PARK

November 24-25, 2023

After stopping at Campmor in Paramus to get an extra propane canister—and lucking into a Black Friday sale, by which I got 2 canisters and a freeze-dried dessert for under $10 including the sales tax—I parked at the hikers’ parking lot on Rte. 6/Long Mountain Pkwy at 11:30 a.m.  I checked the elevation at 950'.

I was on the Long Path southward before noon.  It’s about 2.2 miles from the lot to the Stockbridge Shelter, and that took me an hour and a half with one short breather.  It’s a lot of uphill hiking; the shelter registered at 1250' above sea level. 

I met 3 day hikers who were returning to the parking lot: a woman with a dog and a couple.  Both told me there was no one at the shelter, which I was happy to hear.  I got to the around 1:15, settled in a little bit, and ate a late lunch.  

A couple of backpackers showed up as I was finishing; they’d hiked up from Silvermine Lake.  We greeted each other, and they kept going.  As it turned out, they pitched tents about 100 yards beyond the shelter.  

With a steady stiff, cold wind blowing out of the west, they later relocated their camp a little bit below the ridge and somewhat out of the wind.  These guys seemed to be regulars in Harriman.

The wind touched the front of the shelter a little, but it was appreciably more pleasant inside.  When I set out some tea candles, they stayed lit.

They and I scoured the area for firewood, and they and I found an ample supply—they for their fire pit and I for one of the 2 fireplaces in the shelter.  The last occupants of the shelter had also left a couple of large logs in the fireplace.

While I was gathering, another chap came up from Silvermine and pitched a hammock with tarp below the shelter, well out of the wind.  

He came up later and introduced himself as Seth from Rhode Island, making his first venture into Harriman.  He was pleased to find hills and such a neat shelter, for his future reference, I suppose.  Very friendly guy.  He came in again later to eat his supper and enjoy the fire I’d made after nightfall and to chat a bit.  The sun had set by 4:30, but dusk lingered for quite a while.  A lovely almost-full moon shone above.

Meanwhile, I’d prayed the Liturgy of the Hours and had my own supper:  freeze-dried lasagna with meat sauce (pretty good, tho nothing like Bro. Bernie’s real lasagna), Crystal Lite, and for dessert the 2d half of a package of freeze-dried apple cinnamon crisp (delicious).

I used the bear bag cabling system to hang my remaining food and trash.  These are nicely supplied at all the Harriman shelters by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference—kudos to them, again, for all their trail maintenance and, as time and funds allow, repairing shelters.

Around 6:30, well after dark, 3 more guys showed up (coming up from Silvermine).  They’re engineering students at Manhattan College—one from the Bronx, one from Queens, one from Dobbs Ferry.  They asked to stay in the shelter, and I acquiesced (the only decent answer).  They assured me they wouldn’t be noisy, and they weren’t.  They’d hauled leftover Thanksgiving turkey and a big pan of pasta that one of their mothers had made; all this they warmed up over the fire.  

They repeatedly offered me some, plus bread, but I politely declined, having already eaten quite enuf supper.

The 3 went out about some business of their own for a while.  I read for a while, till it got to cold even when I was wearing a jacket over several layers of shirts.  So around 8:00 I turned it, wearing 5 layers of shirts, long johns under my pants, and 3 pairs of socks (1 heavy, 2 light).  That was sufficient for the nite, but (as usual) I tossed and turned between 3 positions all nite, never getting really comfortable on the wooden floor, even with 2 pads under me.  I did doze a bit, and I must have gotten into one good sleep when I thought I heard strange noise and forced myself ever so slowly to wake up; I must have been dreaming.

With first light, about 6:15, I got up to visit Mother Nature, then tried to rekindle the fire.  My 3 young friends had burned all the firewood except one log left in the fireplace, and gathered some fresh-cut green birch of their own (it’s a no-no to cut standing wood!), which of course wouldn’t burn.  So no morning fire to relieve the chill a little.

I’d turned off my phone, so I don’t know how cold it was.  It was forecast to go down to 20º in Harriman (town).  When I did turn on my phone at 8:00 a.m., it was 27.  Meanwhile, I’d celebrated Mass on a flat ledge in the shelter, with my confreres worldwide remembering our deceased parents.  My fingers were so numb I could scarcely turn the pages of my worship aid.

I retrieved my food from the bear-bag cables.  Then I made oatmeal and coffee for breakfast, topped off with mixed nuts.  I decided not to mess with a fresh orange and took it home.

My young friends stirred gradually and went out to do their business and gather legit firewood.  I prayed the Hours, then packed up.  We said good-byes, and I headed back north around 8:30.  I met one day hiker just setting out on the trail, and I got to the car at 9:50, then spent about 30 minutes stowing my gear and doing some clean-up in the parking lot.  I came away with a large bag full of plastic and aluminum—my contribution to the work of the Trail Conference, I guess you could say.

The weather both days was sunny and pleasant (except for that biting wind), great for hiking.

Photos: https://link.shutterfly.com/qKBe93PO1Eb 

Homily for Thanksgiving Day

Homily for Thanksgiving Day

Nov. 23, 2023
Ps 138: 1-5
Mark 5: 18-20
1 Cor 1: 3-9
Is 63: 7-9
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart” (Ps 138: 1).

That’s the theme of the day, of course:  we thank God for all his blessings—blessings given to us individually, to our country, to our religious families.  We might start to enumerate them, but we couldn’t finish the count.

We may not have had a demon cast out of us like the unnamed man in the gospel (Mark 5:18), but we are grateful that our Lord Jesus has released us from the devil’s grip and restored us to fellowship with God—a release and a restoration he continually renews, given our spiritual weakness and his bountiful mercy.

Paul thanks God “for the grace of God bestowed” on Jesus’ followers, which enriches us “in every way” (1 Cor 1:5).  Well, not in a material sense, for grace can’t be measured.  Rather, we “lack no spiritual gift” (1:7).  He supplies whatever we need to be “firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1:8).  So much for which to be grateful, to “sing of the ways of the Lord” (Ps 138:5), to pray that we may respond every day to “his great kindness” (Is 63:7), and to “announce to [the world] all that the Lord has done for” us (Mark 5:19) and continues to do “according to his great mercy” (Is 63:7).

Our Eucharist is our thanks to God for the “fellowship with his Son” (1 Cor 1:9) that’s extended to us.  We go forth from the Eucharist to extend our gratitude by offering fellowship, love, and mercy to one another:  to our brothers, our staff, our families, and all whose lives we have the grace to touch.

Art: David the Psalmist (St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church, Fredericksburg, Va.)

Homily for Funeral of Vito Michael Salvante

Homily for the Funeral of
Vito Michael Salvante

Nov. 20, 2023
Matt 11: 25-30
Wis 3: 1-9
Rom 14: 7-12
Holy Name of Jesus, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11: 28).

by Paris Bordone

Jesus gives us a warm, friendly invitation to be united with him, yoked with him, teamed with him (11:29).  His invitation is for this life and for a future life too.  “Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:8).

So now, after a long life that had its share of labor, service to our country, and illness, Vito Michael has come to a complete union with Christ our Savior, in whom he hoped; who promises us rest—eternal rest:  “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them” (Wis 3:1).  Altho we’re all sinners, it’s our hope that Christ indeed delivers us from after-death torment and, instead, welcomes us—as we heard in yesterday’s gospel (Matt 25:14-30)—with, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  Come and share your master’s joy.”

Death is an affliction (cf. Wis 3:2).  Vito Michael may have suffered in his last moments.  We who survive him are afflicted, mourning the loss of a brother, a cousin, a friend.  But Vito Michael’s afflicted no more:  “as a sacrificial offering God took him to himself” (3:6).  For that, we are filled with hope; we rejoice even.  “The faithful shall abide with him in love” (3:9).

We pray that Vito Michael and all who pass into eternity may be among God’s chosen ones:  “Every tongue shall give praise to God” (Rom 14:11).  “All things have been handed over to me by my Father,” Christ says, and the Son has revealed the Father to Vito Michael, so that he may “find rest for [himself]” (Matt 11:29), resting easy in the realm of light and friendship with our Lord Jesus, our Blessed Mother, and all the saints.  This is our prayer today for Vito Michael, and the prayer for each one of us who must one day make the same journey to “stand before the judgment seat of God” (Rom 14:10).  May Vito Michael and each of us trust in the Lord and “abide with him in love.”

Homily for 33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Nov. 19, 2023
Matt 25: 14-30
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“Well done, good and faithful servant.  Come, share your master’s joy” (Matt 25: 21, 23).

by Gerard Jollain

The master speaks thus to 2 of his servants after they’ve reported to him on their use of what he’d entrusted to them.  The unhappy servant who did nothing is thrown out of the house.  The master is eager to share the benefits he can offer to faithful servants.  Fearful servitude and laziness, on the other hand, anger him.

This parable of the talents is one of 3 parables that Jesus tells in Matt 25.  We heard the 1st one last Sunday and will hear the last one next week as we conclude the Matthew cycle of Sunday gospel readings.  All 3 are parables of judgment, which is appropriate for these final weeks of the church year, reminding us to be ready for the Last Day, the day of judgment when our Divine Master will return, when we’ll have to present an account of our lives.

In today’s parable the master entrusts his goods to his servants in the form of talents.  A talent isn’t someone’s ability but a sum of money, equal to 6,000 denarii.  We hear several times in the Gospels of a coin worth a laborer’s daily wage; that’s a denarius.  So the servant in this parable who was given 5 talents received a sum equal to 30,000 denarii or about 80 years’ wages for a common laborer, like the men in another parable hired to work in a vineyard for a day (our gospel on Sept. 24).  Even the servant judged of least ability was entrusted with one talent, worth wages for 16 years.  Not chump change!

The master expected each servant to do something with his wealth, not just to sit on it—or bury it safely in the ground.

So—what precious trust has our Divine Master, Christ our Lord, given to us his servants?  Most fundamentally, he has offered us salvation:  redemption from our sins and resurrection to eternal life on the Last Day.  This is our faith, the faith we profess every Sunday when we pray the Creed.

When we were baptized, we accepted that faith.  We renew our commitment to that faith whenever we celebrate the sacraments:  Confirmation, the Holy Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, and the daily living out of Matrimony.

The Church of Jesus Christ teaches that she, the Church, is missionary.  By its nature it must proclaim the Good News of salvation in Christ to the whole world.  Pope Francis reminds us often that every Christian is a missionary, someone who makes Christ known and invites people to accept Christ’s love.  St. Paul exclaims to the Corinthians, “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16).

Given that, we may interpret today’s parable as an instruction to be missionaries of faith in our Lord Jesus, the precious talent entrusted to us:  to work to increase the number of those who believe in him and desire that he save them from sin and lead them to eternal life.

Christians who keep their faith to themselves are like the servant who buried the talent that was given to him.  Christians who proclaim their faith in word and action are like the servants who invested the talents given to them.

How do you do that?  Parents and grandparents do it by teaching their children to pray, taking them to church, instructing them in the faith, and reading the Scriptures with them.  You can also spread your faith by doing ministry in the parish—liturgical ministry like reading at Mass, joining a choir, or bringing Communion to the sick; teaching catechism; engaging in social ministry to the needy in whatever ways are at hand.

You also do it by praying—praying for priests and teachers; praying for vocations (including the vocation of marriage!); praying for missionaries; praying for those who are persecuted for their religious beliefs.

You can do it by keeping yourself informed about what’s going on in the Church thru reading and other Catholic media—seeking balanced media and not “fake news,” of course; and then being ready to speak about your Catholic faith and Christian values when asked or when challenged about them.

You could do it by political advocacy on behalf of issues like human rights, the environment, protection of human life, and other social justice and peace issues.

When our Divine Master summons us to “settle accounts” with him (Matt 25:19), we hope to be received with joy:  “Well done, good and faithful servant.  Since you were faithful in small matters,” I want you to “share your master’s joy.”  Come into the “full and lasting happiness” among the saints for which we prayed in the collect at the beginning of Mass.

Middle Schoolers at Colle Don Bosco in Search of Savio's Holiness

Hundreds of Middle Schoolers Come to Colle Don Bosco 
in Search of Dominic Savio's Holiness

(ANS – Castelnuovo Don Bosco, Italy – November 9, 2023) – Hundreds of young people from middle schools gathered to take part in the Savio Club on November 4-5 at Colle Don Bosco (Don Bosco’s birthplace). During the two days the youngsters tried to discover, with the guidance of their leaders, the secret of St. Dominic Savio's holiness through a mixture of ingredients that Don Bosco himself always advocated: play, meeting, formation, fun, the Eucharist, and confession.

Homily for Tuesday, Week 32 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
32d Week of Ordinary Time

Nov. 14, 2023
Luke 17: 7-10
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“We are unprofitable servants; we’ve done what we were obliged to do” (Luke 17: 10).

https://engediresourcecenter.com/wp-content/

uploads/2015/07/Doing-Our-Duty-1-1024x789.jpg

Jesus’ short parable today doesn’t sound very encouraging to us who follow him and call him Master.  What it comes down to, I think, is that we can’t claim any merit of our own in his service.  We earn nothing, profit nothing, just for keeping his commandments.

But we have hope that our divine Master will in fact tell us, “Come here immediately and take your place at table” (17:7).  On some recent weekdays, we’ve heard Jesus speak about feasts (Luke 14:7-24).  In one, a master sent his servants out into the lanes and hedgerows to gather in anyone they could find to come to the feast.  Jesus does issue gracious invitations—invitations as grace, not invitations that are merited.

Yes, we are unprofitable servants who only try to do what’s expected of us—and who fail often enuf.  But our Master forgives and invites and sits us down for the banquet, foreshadowed already at this table of the Lord’s Supper.

148 Years of Salesian Missionaries

148 Years of Salesian Missionaries

The 1st Salesian missionaries, 1875.

Don Bosco is handing a copy of the Constitutions

to Fr. John Cagliero. On the other side of Don Bosco

is the Argentine consul to Genoa, who assisted in arrangements.

(ANS – Rome – November 10, 2023) – November 11 is an unforgettable date for all the Salesians around the world: the day the Congregation began its missionary thrust. This journey began 148 years ago, on November 11, 1875, with the First Salesian Missionary Expedition. The Congregation has no intention of stopping this activity. Indeed, the entire Congregation is already looking forward to the 150th anniversary of that date in two years time. After not even a century and a half, almost 10,000 Salesians have been sent to mission lands, and the educational work that came from Don Bosco extends to over 130 countries on six continents. And the Rector Major’s call to send missionaries to places of greatest need continues to be more valid than ever.

On the occasion of the First Vatican Council, several bishops asked Don Bosco to send Salesians to China, the United States, and Egypt. Don Bosco studied for three years to try to understand what the distant country was that he had seen in a dream. One day he was asked to go to Argentina, and this led him to get to know about the indigenous people of Patagonia.

The project of the first expedition was thus formed, and had a threefold objective: it had to dedicate itself to poor and abandoned youth, take up the running of an educational institution, and subsequently expand to other locations in Patagonia.

On November 1, 1875, Pope Pius IX received the members of the expedition and blessed them.

On November 11, the church of Mary Help of Christians in Valdocco then hosted the most significant celebration: the Mass sending out the first 10 Salesian missionaries. Don Bosco offered them a long and developed homily. And each missionary brought with him a sheet with reminders from Don Bosco in which various principles were emphasized, such as: seek souls, not money, honors or dignity; take care of the sick, children, the elderly, and the poor, and you will earn the blessing of God and the benevolence of men; love each other, correct each other, do not envy or resent each other, because the good of one is also the good of all.

Then, three days later, on November 14, the First Salesian Missionary Expedition sent and blessed by Don Bosco left Genoa for Buenos Aires.

This first expedition had only 10 Salesians: 6 priests and 4 brothers. The expedition leader was Fr. John Cagliero, 37 years old. He was accompanied, among others, by Fr. Joseph Fagnano, 31, and Fr. Dominic Tomatis, 26. One of the four brothers, Vicente Gioia, played the role of cook.

After this first missionary expedition to America, Don Bosco sent others before his death: in the expeditions of November 1876, 1877, 1878, 1881, 1883, 1885, 1886, and 1887.

On September 24, 2023, Cardinal Angel Fernandez Artime, 10th successor of Don Bosco, presided over the celebration of the sending of the 154th Salesian Missionary Expedition.

Don Bosco’s last missionary dream took place in Barcelona on April 10, 1886. He dreamed of being on a hill, from the top of which he could see a forest, but cultivated and covered by roads and paths. The Shepherdess stopped next to Don Bosco and said: “Good. Now draw a single line from one end to the other, from Santiago to Beijing, make its center in the middle of Africa, and you will have an exact idea of what the Salesians must do.” “But how to do all this?” exclaimed Don Bosco. “The distances are immense, the places are difficult, and the Salesians are few.” She replied, “Don’t worry. Your children, your children’s children, and their children will do this; but be firm in the observance of the Rules and in the spirit of the Congregation. These centers that you see will become houses of study and novitiates and will give multitudes of missionaries. There’s Hong Kong, there’s Calcutta, there’s Madagascar. These and many others will have houses, studies, and novitiates.” Don Bosco listened, looking and examining, then said: “And where can you find so many people?” “Look,” replied the Shepherdess, “be of good will. There is only one thing to do: recommend that my children constantly cultivate Mary’s virtue.”

Homily for 32d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
32d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Nov. 12, 2023
Matt 25: 1-13
Ps 63: 2-8
Assumption, Bronx                               
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx[1]

“The bridegroom came, and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him” (Matt 25: 10).

In the Creed we profess that Jesus Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.  In these last weeks of the church year, we focus on Christ’s 2d coming and the final judgment of human beings.  The parable Jesus tells today is about being ready for his coming—at the end of time, and of more immediate concern, at the end of our personal time—and joining him in the feast of the kingdom of heaven.

In the Scriptures, eternal life is often compared to a great banquet or specifically to a wedding feast.  Today’s Psalm looked toward the Lord, exclaiming, “As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied” (63:6).  We find this in the Book of Revelation:  “The wedding day of the Lamb has come; his bride has made herself ready.  Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb” (19:7,9).  We echo those words before Holy Communion when we acclaim, “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”

Likewise, Christ calls himself the Church’s bridegroom, and the Church is his spouse.  He’s the Lamb whose marriage we share, for we—the Church—are his bride.  That’s what Revelation referred to.  In Jesus’ own ministry, some people asked why his disciples didn’t fast like the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees.  He replied:  “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?  The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Matt 9:15).  So the Church fasts at certain times now that Christ isn’t physically among us as he was during his earthly life.  We fast during Lent to get ready for Easter, and we fast briefly as we wait for Jesus’ sacramental presence in the Holy Eucharist.

So, in this parable Jesus presents 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom to come so that they can light his way into his house for the start of the wedding festivities.  Jesus tells us that 5 of the young women were foolish, and 5 were wise.  The foolish ones had their lamps but neglected to bring oil so they could light the lamps and keep them lit.  Imagine bringing a flashlight on a camping trip but not putting any batteries into it.

Now we might think the 5 wise virgins should have shared their oil; but they object, wisely, that there might not be enuf oil for all 10 of them.

Sharing isn’t Jesus’ point.  He tells us at the end, “Stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (25:13) when the bridegroom will come.  That is, always be prepared for his arrival.

Every day you can read in the Daily News and some other papers about sudden tragedies, sudden deaths:  a horrible chain-reaction accident on a foggy highway; a massacre at a youth music festival; someone gunned down in the Bronx; someone run over in a crosswalk in Brooklyn; someone shoved onto the subway tracks; a youth collapsing at football practice.

Be prepared.  You know neither the day nor the hour.

How do you prepare?  Have oil for your lamp!  Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that his followers are to be the light of the world.  We are light if we take him as our master, our teacher, our redeemer.  We do that by repentance (for we are all sinners) and by doing our best of live virtuously:  by loving our families, our neighbors, and those who are in need; by worshiping God faithfully—Sunday Mass, daily prayer; by being honest; by being chaste in our thoughts and actions; by respecting God’s created world, using resources responsibly; by supporting public policies that accord with God’s law.

When the bridegroom comes on the Last Day—the last day of human history or the last day of our personal history—we won’t be able to borrow oil from someone else.  It’ll be too late to run to the store and get what we need, a life faithfully lived.  We’re all responsible for our own lamps, for the way we’ve lived our own lives.  If our lamps are empty, if our lives have been dark with sin, then no amount of knocking on the door will gain us admittance to the Lamb’s feast (25:11-12).  If we’ve got brightly burning lamps, we’ll enter the marriage feast.  Then we’ll bless the Lord while we live, and with exultant lips praise him (Ps 63:5-6), forever.

---

[1] Also used with a lot of variation in Mass with Scouts on Saturday evening.

New Vehicle Helps Develop New Center

New Vehicle Helps Develop New Center

Photo ©: Salesian Missions

(ANS – Monrovia, Liberia, Nov. 9, 2023) – Salesian missionaries with the St. Joseph Community in Monrovia have a new Toyota pick-up truck to help with growing transportation needs, thanks to donor funding from Salesian Missions of New Rochelle. The vehicle will help Salesians to develop 20 acres for a new Salesian center, which will include a residence, rehabilitation center for at-risk youths and youths in conflict with the law, and a technical training center.

Reliable transportation is needed for Salesians to travel between the center in Monrovia and the western suburb of Virginia, where the land is located, to oversee land development and construction of the new center. Transportation is also needed to carry out other educational and social development programs for youth in the area.

One Salesian noted, “We appreciate the funding for this new vehicle. This will now empower us logistically to visit the villages to help poor youths and their families while also aiding us in our work of the development of this new center.”

Salesians in Monrovia provide a range of education and social services to help poor and at-risk youths have a chance at a better life. This includes work they are doing to support inmates at Monrovia Central Prison for Juveniles. The prison fellowship program takes place two mornings a week and includes group counseling and psychosocial support. Salesians also provide clothing, washing materials, medical help, spiritual support, and legal assistance. Every day, Salesians bring the juvenile and sick inmates a warm meal and a drink.

An estimated 64% of Liberians live below the poverty line, and 1.3 million live in extreme poverty, out of a population of 4.6 million, according to the World Food Program. Food security also affects 41% of the population, making chronic malnutrition high.

Whether working to rehabilitate former child soldiers or to assist young women overcome barriers to education, Salesian programs in Liberia are providing opportunities for youths to live up to their potential through both academic and social programs.

Source: Salesian Missions

Homily for 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Nov. 5, 2023
Matt 23: 1-12
Mal 1: 14—2: 2, 8-10
The Fountains, Tuckahoe
Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“They preach but they do not practice” (Matt 23: 3).

A gospel like today’s always gives me pause.  Conscious of my imperfections, not to say my sins, how can I speak about being faithful to Christ?

All the more when Christ is talking about the bad example or the inconsistent ways of living of the spiritual leaders of his people.  All the more when we listen also to Malachi chastising the priests of God’s temple for “turning aside from the way and causing many to falter” (2:8).

In our time we’ve heard of successions of priestly scandals of various kinds:  sexual and financial crimes, besides so many instances of arrogance, lack of consideration for people, ambition, self-seeking, or watered-down instruction (cf. Mal 2:8).  Those kinds of sins are “turning aside from the way” and do cause people to falter in God’s service.

Yes, the words of Jesus and of Malachi ought to lead priests to examine their words and behavior.  But only priests?  Those words might be taken to heart also by parents, grandparents, teachers, anyone with authority; indeed, by all Christ’s followers.

Aren’t we all called to be servants of Christ and to humble ourselves (cf. Matt 23:12)?  called not only to teach but to practice Christ’s way of life?  Our children and grandchildren, our pupils, anyone who comes under our leadership, our relatives and friends will learn fairness, honesty, diligence, purity, kindness, patience, temperance, and faithfulness from the example we set. 

St. Charles Borromeo, whose feastday was yesterday, advised the priests of his diocese:  “Be sure that you first preach by the way you live.  If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head.”*  Good advice for priests, parents, all of us.  [How many teachers and neighbors have lamented the kind of language that children learn at home!  How many youths don’t come to church because their parents haven’t made that a priority!  How many don’t know how to pray because their parents haven’t shown them how!  Obviously, you are here.  Thanks be to God!]  Continue to set the example of devotion and public worship.

Blessed are those whose hearts are not proud, as we said in the Psalm today (131:1).  Blessed are those who, like St. Paul, proclaim the gospel of God by how they live, who share their very selves with their families and their neighbors, who have received the word of God, let it penetrate their hearts, let it work and come alive in them (cf. 1 Thess 2:8-9,13).

*LOH vol. 4, Nov. 4.  Bracketed passage omitted at The Fountains.

Message of the Rector Major for November

THE RECTOR MAJOR’S MESSAGE

Cardinal Angel Fernandez Artime, SDB

THE MEMORY OF THE FUTURE

We have a dream that is our greatest wealth.

Two hundred years ago, a little nine-year-old boy, poor and with no future but to be a farmer, had a dream. He recounted it to his mother, grandmother, and brothers in the morning. His brothers found it funny. Grandma concluded, “Pay no attention to dreams.” Many years later, that boy, John Bosco, wrote: “I agreed with my grandmother. However, I was unable to cast that dream out of my mind.”

Because it wasn’t a dream like so many others, and it didn’t die with the dawn.

The dream came back again and again—with enthralling energy. It was a source of joyful security and inexhaustible strength for John Bosco—the source of his life.

At the diocesan inquiry into Don Bosco’s cause for beatification, Fr. Michael Rua, his first successor, testified: “Lucy Turco, a member of a family where Don Bosco often went to visit her brothers, told me that one morning she saw him arrive more jubilant than usual. Asked what the cause was, he replied that during the night he’d had a dream that thoroughly cheered him up. Asked to recount it, he explained that he had seen a Lady coming toward him, who had a very large flock behind her, and who approached him, called him by name, and said to him: ‘Behold, John: I entrust all this flock to your care.’ He asked: ‘How will I be able to care for so many sheep? And so many lambs? Where will I find pastures to feed them?’ The Lady replied: ‘Don’t be afraid. I’ll assist you’; and then she disappeared.”

From that moment on, his wish to study in order to become a priest became more ardent. But serious difficulties stood in his way: the financial straits of his family and the opposition of his half-brother Anthony, who wanted him to work in the fields like him.

Indeed, it all seemed impossible. But Jesus’ command had been “imperious” and our Lady’s assistance a sweet certainty.

Fr. John Baptist Lemoyne, Don Bosco’s first historian, summed up the dream as follows: “It seemed to him that he saw the Divine Savior dressed in white, radiant with the most splendid light, in the act of leading an innumerable crowd of young men. Turning to John, he said to him, “Come here, and put yourself at the head of these children, and lead them yourself.” ”But I can’t,” replied John. The Divine Savior insisted imperiously until John placed himself at the head of that multitude of boys and began to guide them just as he had been commanded.”

In the seminary, Don Bosco wrote a page of admirable humility about the motivation for his vocation: “Morialdo’s dream always left an impression on me; it was renewed on other occasions in a much clearer way, so that if I wished to believe in it, I had to choose the priesthood, to which I was greatly inclined. But I didn’t want to believe in dreams, and my manner of life, and the absolute lack of the virtues necessary for this state of life, rendered that decision doubtful and very difficult.”

We can be certain that he had recognized the Lord and his Mother. Despite his modesty, he had no doubt at all that he had been visited by Heaven. Nor did he doubt that these visits were intended to reveal to him his own future and that of his work. He himself said: “The Salesian Congregation took no step unless a supernatural fact advised it. It hasn’t developed as it has without a special order from the Lord. We could have written all our past history in advance in the humblest details.”

That’s why the Salesian Constitutions begin with an “act of faith”: “With a feeling of humble gratitude we believe that the Society of St. Francis de Sales came into being not as a merely human venture but by the initiative of God” (art. 1).

Don Bosco’s testament

Pope Pius IX himself ordered Don Bosco to write down the dream for his sons. He began: “Now, what purpose can this chronicle serve? It will be a record to help people overcome problems that may come in the future by learning from the past. It will serve to make known how God himself has always been our guide. It will give my sons some entertainment to be able to read about their father’s adventures. Doubtless they will read much more avidly when I have been called by God to render my account, when I am no longer among them.”

Don Bosco clearly reveals his intention to involve the reader in the adventure narrated, to the point of making the reader participate in it as a story that concerns him and that he, having been dragged into the story, is called to continue. The narration of the dream clearly becomes Don Bosco’s “testament.”

Here’s the mission: the transformation of the world beginning from the least, the youngest, and the most abandoned. Here is the method: goodness, respect, patience. There’s the security of the strong protection of the Holy Trinity and the tender and maternal protection of Mary.

In the Memoirs of the Oratory, Don Bosco recounts that many years after that first dream in 1824, there was “another dream, which seems to be an appendix to the one I had at Becchi when I was nine years old. . . . I dreamt that I was standing in the middle of a multitude of wolves, goats and kids, lambs, ewes, rams, dogs, even birds. All together they made a din, a racket, or better, a bedlam to frighten the stoutest heart. I wanted to run away, when a lady dressed as a shepherdess signalled me to follow her and accompany that strange flock while she went ahead. . . . After we had walked a long way, I found myself in a field where all the animals grazed and gamboled together and none made attacks on the others.

“Worn out, I wanted to sit down beside a nearby road, but the shepherdess invited me to continue the trip. After another short journey, I found myself in a large courtyard with porticoes all round. At one end was a church. I then saw that four-fifths of the animals had been changed into lambs and their number greatly increased. Just then, several shepherds came along to take care of the flock; but they stayed only a very short time and promptly went away.

“Then something wonderful happened. Many of the lambs were transformed into shepherds, who as they grew took care of the others. . . .

“I wanted to be off …; but the shepherdess invited me to look to the south. I looked and saw a field sown with maize, potatoes, cabbages, beetroot, lettuce, and many other vegetables.

“ ‘Look again,’ she said to me.

“I looked again and saw a wondrously big church. . . . Inside the church hung a white banner on which was written in huge letters, Hic domus mea, inde gloria mea. [This is my house; thence goes forth my glory].”

For this reason, when we enter the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, we enter Don Bosco’s dream, which begs to become “our” dream.

Artwork by Nino Musio

Homily for Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Charles Borromeo

Nov. 4, 2023
Collect
Provincial House, New Rochelle

In today’s collect, we prayed that God’s Church might “be constantly renewed” and show the face of Christ to the world.  St. Charles Borromeo is generally regarded as the paragon of the Church’s absolutely needed renewal in the 16th century.  St. Francis de Sales held him in the highest regard.

Intercession of Charles Borromeo supported by the Virgin Mary

(Johann Michael Rottmayr)

Charles, born into a noble family in 1538, was related to the infamous Medicis and thus was an unlikely candidate for the role of reformer.  He benefited immediately from nepotism when his uncle became Pope Pius IV in 1559 and, following a common practice, immediately made his nephew a cardinal, administrator of the vacant archdiocese of Milan, and secretary of state.  He was 21 years old and only in minor orders.

Altho he had his faults, Pope Pius did promote church reform, reconvening the Council of Trent in 1562 after a suspension of 10 years.  He entrusted its direction to Charles, who guided it for 22 months to a successful conclusion in December 1563.  In that period, Charles himself experienced something of a conversion—tho he’d never been corrupt or immoral—and went ahead with priestly and episcopal ordination and a firmer commitment to asceticism and prayer.  He bore special responsibility for the catechism that the Council published.

Pius IV kept Charles in Rome, however, until he died in 1565.  The new Pope, St. Pius V, finally allowed him to take possession of his archdiocese in 1566; it had not had a resident bishop for 80 years.  That bishops should actually be in their dioceses and not just collect the revenues was one of Trent’s reforms.  Milan’s 600,000 souls, 3,000 priests, and thousands of religious were sadly in need of reform:  moral, catechetical, formational.  Charles undertook all that, meeting such initial opposition that one monk even tried to assassinate him during a Vespers liturgy.

He promoted the establishment of seminaries thruout his ecclesiastical province, compelled his priests to reform their lives, likewise the religious, organized catechism classes in every parish, made his own household a modest one, convened regular diocesan synods—almost annually—and practiced charity to the poor and the sick, even at times personally nursing plague victims.  He constantly urged prayer and perseverance.  He told priests, religious, spouses, and all the baptized to “be what you promised to be.”  Worn out by his work, he died at age 46 in 1584.

Pope John Paul II, whose personal name was Charles (Karol), called St. Charles “a servant of souls.”  To help Christians be conformed to Christ was the purpose of all Charles Borromeo’s reforms.

And that is the purpose to which Fr. Angel Fernandez is calling us thru GC29:  that all Salesians might “transmit more light, be more and more passionate about God and about the Lord Jesus. . . .  We have a wonderful opportunity to seek to live more and more in fidelity, simply and authentically, enthusiastically and with commitment, and at the same time, with deep faith and prayer … convinced as we are that God accompanies us. . . .  It will only be important to serve in the name of the Lord, to do everything for Him in love, and to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to those to whom we are sent, their families, and those who have no family, no voice, and no opportunity.  So we will be a bit more prophetic (or very prophetic).”[1]

 

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[1] “Letter of Convocation of General Chapter 29,” AGC no. 441, p. 14.