Homily for Feast of the Visitation

Homily for the Feast of the Visitation

May 31, 2024
Zeph 3: 14-18
Luke 1: 39-56
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

by Frans Francken

“Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem” (Zeph 3: 14).

Zephaniah prophesied during a difficult period for the kingdom of Judah:  the brutal power of Assyria loomed over the kingdom and idolatry plagued the people.  So Zephaniah wasn’t much given to joy.

But he positively cheers up in the last of his 3 chapters.  He bursts with joy and exultation, telling the people of the holy city to sing out enthusiastically, almost to break into dance, for God remains in their midst and will in the end deliver them (3:15).

John the Baptist didn’t break into song in his mother’s womb, but he did—in a manner of speaking—dance as salvation approached, as Mary came to Zechariah’s door and Elizabeth welcomed her and, surprisingly, John too.

John’s behavior calls to mind how David danced before the ark of the covenant as he led it into Jerusalem, its new home, almost 1,000 years earlier (2 Sam 6:14-16).

Mary is the new ark of God.  She doesn’t bear the tablets of the Law, Aaron’s staff, or bits of manna like Moses’ ark.  She bears the Lawgiver himself, whose law is love; the Good Shepherd himself, not a staff; the Bread of Life, the true manna from heaven.  He who dwells in this ark comes to make a home among the human race; he gives ample reason to leap for joy, to sing, and to dance.  “The Lord our God is in our midst” (cf. Zeph 3:15).

And Mary has reason to burst into song:  “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46-47).  The Lord comes to the help of his lowly servants (1:52,54).

Message of the Rector Major for June

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Cardinal Angel Fernandez Artime, SDB

WHEN AN EDUCATOR TOUCHES HIS CHILDREN’S HEART—OR THE ART OF BEING LIKE DON BOSCO

The art of being like Don Bosco: “Remember that education is a matter of the heart, of which God alone is the master, and that we can achieve nothing unless God teaches us the art and hands us the key” (Biographical Memoirs 16:376).

My dear friends, readers of Salesian media and other friends of Don Bosco’s charism,

I’m writing this greeting, I’d say, almost as a livestream, before it goes to print. I say this because I experienced the scene I’m going to tell you about only 4 hours ago.

Salesians greeted the Rector Major
on his arrival at Lubumbashi

I recently arrived in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. For 10 days prior, I’d already visited very significant Salesian presences such as the displaced and refugee population of Palabek, Uganda. These people are living in much more humane conditions today than when they first came to us, thank God. From Uganda, I went to the region of Goma in the eastern DRC, a place struggling under a difficult situation. There, the Salesian presences are full of life. A number of times, I observed that my heart was “touched”; that is, moved at seeing the good that’s being done and that God’s presence is so strong there, even in the midst of very great poverty. Still, my heart was touched with pain and sadness when I met some of the 32,000 people (mostly the elderly, women, and children) who have been welcomed and taken in on the grounds of the Salesian presence of Don Bosco-Gangi. I’ll speak about this next time because I need to let it rest on my heart for a while.

Right now, I wish to refer only to one beautiful scene I witnessed on the flight that brought us to Lubumbashi. It was a non-commercial flight in a medium-sized plane. I didn’t know the flight captain but the local Salesians did. When I greeted him on the plane, he told me that he’d studied vocational training at our school here in Goma. He told me that those were years that changed his life, then added something else, speaking to me and to all of us: “And here’s someone who’s been a ‘father’ for us.” In African culture, when you say someone is “a father,” you’re paying the greatest compliment possible. Not infrequently, though, this father is not the biological father to a son or daughter but the one who has really cared for him, supported him, and accompanied him.

This captain is about 45 years old; his son, already a young pilot, was accompanying him on the flight. To whom was he referring? To one of our Salesian coadjutor brothers, not a priest but a consecrated layman; that’s how Don Bosco conceived the Salesians. That Salesian brother, a missionary from Spain, Brother Honorato, has been a missionary in the Goma area for more than 40 years. Together with the other Salesians, of course, he did everything possible to make such a vocational training school—as well as many other things—a reality. He came to know the captain and some of his friends when they were just kids—hundreds and hundreds of boys. In fact, the captain told me that 4 of his companions, who were practically street kids in those years, were able to study mechanics in Don Bosco’s house and today are engineers in charge of the mechanical and technical maintenance of their company’s small planes.

Well, when I heard the captain, a former Salesian student, say that Brother Honorato had been his father, the father of all of them, I was deeply moved. It made me think of Don Bosco, whom his boys considered their father.

I thought, “How true it is that education is a thing of the heart.” It just confirmed my conviction that our presence among boys, girls, and youths is for us almost a “sacrament” thru which we, too, reach God. That’s why I’ve spoken with such passion and conviction in recent years to my Salesian confreres and to the Salesian Family about the Salesian “sacrament of presence.”

Youngsters from the Salesian schools of Goma

I know that in the Salesian world, in our Family throughout the world, among our brothers and sisters, there are many fathers and many mothers who, with their presence, affection, and ability to educate, reach the hearts of young people, who need so much today. Indeed, I would say more and more that they need these presences that can change a life for the better.

Greetings from Africa—and every blessing of the Lord to you, friends of the Salesian charism.

Blessings,

Cardinal Angel

Homily for Tuesday, Week 8 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
Week 8 of Ordinary Time

May 28, 2024
1 Pet 1: 10-16
Year II
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, N.R.

“Set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1: 13).

The Triumph of Christianity
(Dore')

After testifying to the work of the Holy Spirit in Israel’s past thru the teachings of the prophets, St. Peter places believers in Christ into the context of the Spirit’s work (1:11).  The Spirit has announced the Good News to them thru the apostles and evangelists of their time (1:12) to fill them with hope for final salvation when Jesus comes again.  This hope depends on a certain determination of their minds and on “sober” living (1:13), putting aside any unsuitable “desires” (1:14).  In Christ, God has called us to holiness of life (1:15) modeled (as far as we’re able) on the holiness of God himself (1:16).

Jesus Christ has already been revealed to us thru the prophetic and apostolic preaching.  Further grace lies ahead of us when Jesus completes what he’s begun in us, his work of salvation.  Jesus himself calls this “eternal life in the age to come” (Mark 10:30).  This is our firm hope, the basis for the sacrifices we make and for our daily living.

Fr. Maravilla Explores Kazakhstan as Possible Salesian Mission

Fr. Maravilla Explores Kazakhstan 
as Possible Salesian Mission

(ANS – Atyrau, Kazakhstan – May 28, 2024) – Fr. Alfred Maravilla, general councilor for the missions (5th from left in photo), was on an exploratory visit to Kazakhstan from May 24 to 28 at the invitation of Fr. Peter Sakmar, apostolic administrator of Atyrau. “I accepted the invitation because it is the task of the general councilor for the Missions to explore new possible frontiers for the Congregation” he explained. The general councilor arrived on the solemnity of Mary Help of Christians. During the Eucharist in the main church of the apostolic administration in Atyrau, he entrusted this visit to “She who did everything.”

As early as the 4th century, Christianity was present in this part of Central Asia, the world’s largest landlocked country, known today as Kazakhstan. Franciscan William of Rubruck traveled to Kazakhstan in 1254 and met Möngke Khan and Sartaq Khan, great-grandson of Genghis Khan. A few years later Pope Nicholas III established the Diocese of Kipchak, in the Kipchak steppe. The Kipchak people practiced Tengrism, but some of them converted to Christianity.

Paradoxically, it was Joseph Stalin, as leader of the Soviet Union, who caused a great increase in the Catholic population of Kazakhstan, through the deportation of Catholics of Polish, German, and Lithuanian ethnicity and their clergy to the country’s concentration camps. Some of these priests helped to found the Church, within which the most widely used language is Russian.

In 1960 there were two officially registered Catholic churches. After the fall of communism in 1991, Pope John Paul II established an apostolic administration for all of Central Asia. But, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, many German Catholics returned to Germany, decreasing the Catholic population. In 1997 the other Central Asian countries became separate apostolic administrations. In 1999 Pope John Paul II divided Kazakhstan into a diocese and three apostolic administrations. In 2003 Pope John Paul II elevated the diocese of Astana, the capital, to an archdiocese, and Almaty and Karaganda to a diocese. In 2020, 104 priests and 133 nuns served 81 parishes across the country.

Kazakhstan is a secular state whose Constitution guarantees religious freedom. “Discrimination on religious grounds” is prohibited and everyone is guaranteed the “right to determine and indicate or not their ethnic, party and religious affiliation.” The recent census indicates that the total population is 20,075,271 people. 69.3% are Muslim and 17.2% are Christian. The free practice of religious belief and the establishment of full freedom of worship have led to an increase in religious activity. Since 1990, hundreds of mosques, churches and other religious structures have been built within a few years. There are conversions between “cultural Muslims” and “cultural Christians,” since conversion is a guaranteed constitutional right.

The apostolic administration of Atyrau is a sui iuris pastoral zone covering the western part of Kazakhstan, bordering Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It has 7 parishes spread over an area of 287,278 square miles (larger than Texas). Most of the country’s oil fields are located in this western part. Catholics represent 0.1% (2,650) of the population of Western Kazakhstan. In many young people today there is a desire for transcendence and a search for something that cannot be identified. Therefore, the current situation is an excellent ground for the first proclamation of the Gospel and for pastoral care to strengthen the faith of the few Catholics.

Unlike other dioceses, the Church of Atyrau is really in its infancy. The 7 parishes of the apostolic administration are small and far from each other. Some are only in houses without a real cult building. The challenge now is to reach the Kazakh-speaking ones. In fact, some of these parishes are located in places where 70% are ethnic Kazakh. Diocesan priests from Poland, Slovakia, and the Philippines work in the apostolic administration. There is only one group of nuns working in Atyrau.

The apostolic administrator explained that he sought unsuccessfully the help of the male and female religious congregations in the promising but demanding work of first proclamation. He took Fr. Maravilla to visit some parishes and to meet some parishioners and young people. “I saw the need to reach young people, many of whom are looking for something they can’t name,” Fr. Maravilla explained.

During their talks, he explained to the apostolic administrator the criteria of the Congregation for accepting the opening of a new presence in a country and the preferred beneficiaries of the Salesians of Don Bosco: young people, especially those who are poor, marginalized and at risk. “I just came for an exploratory visit. It is up to the apostolic administrator to take the next step” he said. Fr. Peter Sakmar assured that these criteria and the conditions presented by Fr. Maravilla will be discussed in their presbyteral council.

“The rest we leave to the Holy Spirit who blows where he wants,” Fr. Maravilla concluded.

Homily for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity

Homily for the Solemnity
of the Holy Trinity

May 26, 2024
Matt 28: 16-20
Rom 8: 14-17
The Fountains, Tuckahoe
Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

The Holy Trinity
(Hendrik van Balen)

 I’ve heard of a priest who takes his vacation every year at this time—so that he doesn’t have to preach on the Holy Trinity.  I did go out camping one nite last week, but as you can see, I came back and am celebrating the Trinity with you.

 Many saints and learned people have tried to explain the Trinity.  Even if that were possible, a homily isn’t the occasion.  But we can think about what that unexplainable doctrine means for us.

 The Trinity is a core Christian belief, brought out not only in the Scriptures like our gospel today but also in our most basic professions of faith like the Apostles’ Creed.  It distinguishes us from Jews, Muslims, and Unitarians, all of whom honor the one God, creator of the universe, father of all human beings.

 But those faiths find it shocking and incomprehensible that God should be so personal and so loving as to enter human history, to assume our flesh, to become our companion, and to invite us into an intimate relationship with himself.

That’s just what God did in the Person of Jesus Christ.  Jesus revealed himself as God’s own Son and the Father’s equal:  “the Father and I are one” (John 10:30); and he revealed that the creator God is 3-personed:  Father and Son share a personal Spirit.  In today’s gospel the Son instructed us at the end of his earthly presence to make disciples and baptize them “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19), thus bringing us into fellowship with himself, his Father, and their Spirit.

The Trinity involves relationship or fellowship.  We can say that God is family, and thru the Holy Spirit Jesus brings us into that family relationship:  “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8:14).  Thru the Holy Spirit God has adopted us as his own children, made us heirs of the kingdom of heaven with Christ, and enabled us to invoke God as our Abba, our beloved Father (Rom 8:15-17).  When we invoke God as our Abba, our Papa, we’re uttering the same prayer that Jesus taught his disciples (Matt 6:9), which we pray often including at every Mass; the same prayer he spoke in the Garden of Gethsemane when he begged his Abba to take away the cup of suffering ahead of him (Matt 26:39).  We’re joined spiritually, at the core of our existence, with God’s Son and thus with his Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit whom the Father and the Son bestowed on the Church at Pentecost, as we heard graphically last Sunday, and bestowed on us when we were baptized.

You may have noticed that we end every main prayer of the Mass and other sacraments—the prayer we call the “collect”—by praying “in the unity of the Holy Spirit.”  Father and Son are united by their Spirit, and they live and reign in us the Church, brothers and sisters; we are made a unity with the Father and the Son by their Spirit and are made one with each other by the Spirit.  As one theologian expresses this mystery, we “share, with the uncreated Persons of the Trinity and with one another, a communion of divine life.”[1]

That’s the communion into which we were baptized and confirmed, the communion we share because the Spirit of God transforms our bread and wine into the Body and Blood of God the Son, the communion that’s God’s ultimate plan for us in eternal life.

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[1] Abp. Augustine DiNoia, cited in Magnificat, May 2024, p. 390.

New House Built for Volunteers thru Salesian Missions

New House Built for Volunteers thru Salesian Missions

(ANS – Kazembe, Zambia – May 22, 2024) – Salesian missionaries had the funding to build a house for volunteers in Kazembe, Zambia, thanks to donor support from Salesian Missions of New Rochelle. The building can accommodate 10 volunteers or guests who stay at the Salesian community. In the summer months, the community will also house 5 seminarians. The community supports more than 100 children and more than 50 youths in its youth center.

(Various Salesian organizations in Europe, Australia, and the U.S. send young volunteers for year-long service projects in missionary settings.)

Prior to the construction of the house, volunteers and guests needed to find space either at the main Salesian house or in an orphanage belonging to another organization. Neither of these situations was ideal as most of the volunteers are young women who need separate accommodations.

The new building has three bedrooms, a spacious kitchen connected with the living room and space for an office. In addition to the construction of the building, the funding provided the necessary financial support for drilling a borehole for water, installing a water stand, and building an underground septic tank. The building was then equipped with water, sewage, and electricity. Funding was used also for furniture and necessary items including an oven, refrigerator, pots, plates, and kitchen utensils.

A Salesian noted, “One of the people impacted by this donation was Kelvin. He joined us in May 2023 as a helper on the building site. After three months, we realized that he was skilled and hard working. In November, he started to work as a bricklayer. He improved his skills so much that now he is working for us on a daily basis as a top bricklayer in our whole mission. We are planning to provide him with a skills course in bricklaying and a certificate of completion. That will help him in his future life.”

Salesians in Zambia provide a range of social development programs and education to aid poor and at-risk youths so they can have a healthy, productive life. Early education helps youths gain a foundation to allow them later to advance to skills training for employment. Basic needs are met along the way, ensuring that youths focus on their education.

Beyond Green Pond

Beyond Green Pond

With Fr. Jim Mulloy and on solo jaunts, I've camped a good number of times at Green Pond in the western sector of Harriman State Park.  There are 2 very fine sites on the hill west of the pond.

On one such trip, I went looking for the creek flowing out of the pond--the pond itself isn't accessible because of swamp, reeds, etc. all around it.  I hoped to find water easier to get to than by hiking down the Nurian Trail toward Southfields, which has a steep, rocky decline to a creek.  I found the creek and followed it a ways to see where one might collect water.  On my way back to my camp, I ascended the western ridge (plateau?) and found area that would be fine for camping; indeed, someone had already created a magnificent site up there.

Island Pond Rd. was paved back in the day.

On Tuesday, May 21, I returned there.  I parked in the hikers' lot on Kanawauke Rd. near Island Pond Rd. late in the afternoon; mine was the 3d car into the lot.  At one car a woman conversed non-stop with a friend, apparently on a phone.  At the other, a chap emerged with a big camera and headed up the White Bar Trail in the direction of Island Pond Rd.  I caught up with him as he was photographing some caterpillars (which proved to be super-abundant).  He was the only other hiker I saw on either Tuesday or Wednesday.  We talked a little before he diverted eastward off IPR.

I continued on IPR till I came to the Nurian Trail, and I took that and part of the Dunning Trail to Green Pond.  It took about 45 minutes at an easy pace.  

About 15 minutes hiking beyond the Green Pond campsites brought me to the well established campsite I knew of:  a large fire pit, a smaller one, a slab set as a table on supporting rocks, a neat woodpile against a boulder; there's even a mallet carved out of a short log, which I gather was used to pound an axe to split the wood for the woodpile.  The site appeared to have been used not very long before and was perfectly clean and neat.

I checked the elevation at just under 1,100'.  I hiked a couple of hundred feet down into the ravine to filter and fetch 2 liters of water.  

It was after 6 p.m. before I prepared supper:  freeze-dried 3 cheese and macaroni, which is pretty good, Crystal Lite, and some trail mix, and dried fruit.  

There was still plenty of time to set up my tent and hang my bear bag.  

The mild, dry weather meant I didn't have to put the fly on the tent; I slept under the screening, the stars, and a full moon.  Beautiful.  It wasn't quiet, tho.  Motorcyclists (I presume) roared up and down Kanawauke Rd. for quite a while, and the rumble of traffic from the Thruway was constant all nite.

The sun set around 8 p.m. and dusk lingered.  I prayed the Office and read part of a Smithsonian magazine till I was tired enuf for bed a bit after 9:00.

I slept decently enuf cushioned by 2 sleeping pads and the grass under the tent floor.  I rose well after sunrise, about 6:15 a.m.  It was cool enuf to put on a windbreaker over the thermal I'd worn to bed.  I celebrated Mass on the slab, then prepared breakfast:  oatmeal with peanut butter (a camper's meal, but not freeze-dried like the macaroni), some nuts, and some dried fruit--and coffee, of course!  Readings and Morning Prayer followed.

The only wildlife about seemed to be birds, including at least one woodpecker; perhaps some crickets.  And plenty of flying insects and tiny caterpillars, some black and some green.  I saw a couple of frogs on the trails.

Wednesday's sky was cloudless, and there was a slight breeze.  It was very pleasant in the shade, but gradually the day got pretty hot, as forecast.  I read more of my magazine, sitting in my camp chair in the shade, prayed a bit, and napped a bit till the sun pierced the tree canopy.  So I slowly broke camp and departed at 11:30; got back to the car at 12:20.  There were 4 cars parked at the head of Island Pond Rd. and several more in the parking lot.  I suppose all their passengers had gone to the pond to cool off a little; but I didn't see anyone.

An enjoyable 20 hours or so in the woods--a mini-retreat.

Homily for Thursday, Week 7 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
Week 7 of Ordinary Time

May 23, 2024
James 5: 1-6
Mark 9: 41-50
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

The Worship of Mammon
(Evelyn De Morgan)

When we hear St. James castigate the rich for their selfishness and oppression of the poor, we may think he’s not talking to us.  We’re not rich and never have been.  We haven’t “lived on earth in luxury and pleasure” (Jas 5:5).

Rather, we’ve tried to be “poor in spirit,” aiming at “the kingdom of heaven” (Resp. Ps.).

That doesn’t mean we can’t ask ourselves whether we’ve truly been poor in spirit, whether we haven’t sometimes been selfish or oppressive—obviously not with overwhelming wealth but with such goods as we have or perhaps with our talents or our time and availability, or in how we’ve assisted and been gentle with God’s “little ones” of whom Jesus speaks (Mark 9:42).

“You’ve stored up treasure for the last days,” James warns (5:3).  Indeed, we have.  Jesus urges us to store up treasure in heaven (Matt 6:20) to be counted up on the Last Day.  If we’ve given many cups of water to the disciples (Mark 9:41), blessed are we.  And we can still do that, if not literally, then with kind words and listening ears, in person or with a timely phone call, letter, or email.  A word of encouragement is like a cup of water.

Homily for Tuesday, Week 7 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday

Week 7 of Ordinary Time

May 21, 2024
James 4: 1-10
Mark 9: 30-37
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“You do not possess because you do not ask” (Jas 4: 2).

James speaks of our divided hearts, pointing to a desire to possess riches or to wield power as the source of war and conflict.  On a smaller scale, we wage war too, acting like the 12 in today’s gospel, considering our own greatness and trying to manifest it (Mark 9:34).

We know that’s not what Jesus desires.  We know that’s not the way to our own peace and contentment.  What would James have us ask for?  What ought we want to possess?  He suggests the grace of submission to God (4:6-7), i.e., putting ourselves into God’s hands instead of trying to stuff our hands with material goods.  He decries our being of 2 minds (4:8); rather, we ought to be single-minded—focused on God, humbling ourselves before him (4:6), focused on our littleness alongside Jesus:  to be, like him, “the last of all and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35).  To be like Jesus is to possess all we need, and it’s a grace to ask for.

Homily for Solemnity of Pentecost

Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost

May 19, 2024
John 15: 26-27, 16: 12-15
Gal 5: 16-25
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me” (John 15: 26).

Descent of the Holy Spirit
(National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception)

An advocate is one who stands at the side of someone and defends him.  That’s one of the meanings of the Holy Spirit of whom Jesus speaks to his apostles at the Last Supper.  In our gospel this morning, Jesus identifies this Advocate as a witness:  “he will testify to me” and “he will guide you to all truth” (15:26; 16:13).

The Holy Spirit has been a guide to Jesus ever since his baptism by John, when the Spirit came down upon him in the form of a dove (Mark 3:15 and par.)—not as dramatic a descent as what we heard in the 1st reading:  “There appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:3-4).

The Advocate “will testify to me,” Jesus stated.  Jesus promised to send this Advocate to his apostles, and he kept his promise.  How does the Spirit testify to Jesus?  Jesus continues to bestow the Spirit on the Church that he founded on the apostles.  He told them, “You also testify.”  So the Church continues the apostolic mission of preaching the truth under the Spirit’s guidance.

1st, as we heard in the 1st reading, the apostles went out into public and preached the Gospel.  Acts 2 continues by summarizing St. Peter’s sermon that day:  God raised Jesus from the dead and made him the means by which God forgives our sins, fills us with the Holy Spirit, and grants us a share in Jesus’ life.  This is the fundamental truth of our faith, which the apostles went forth to preach all over the world—in person or thru their successors right down to today.

2d, the Spirit backed up the apostolic preaching by enlightening the minds and hearts of the men whom he chose to write down the message of Jesus, which was handed on orally for 20 years after the resurrection.  Guided by the Spirit of truth, the Church composed the Gospels and the rest of what we call the New Testament, and the Church also ratified selections of the Jewish sacred writings and collected them as what we call the Old Testament.  We recognize these sacred Scriptures as the Word of God; i.e., God is their ultimate author, regardless of whose name is put on a particular part, such as John, Paul, David, or Moses.  Thru the Scriptures the Spirit continues to “guide us to all truth,” and that’s why we ought to read the Bible faithfully.

3d, the Spirit continues to guide the Church to truth in its teachings.  “I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church,” a Church that maintains and explains the preaching of Jesus’ apostles; a Church that applies Jesus’ teaching to the present age and the present needs of humanity.  Jesus told the apostles that the Spirit of truth “will declare to you the things that are coming” (John 16:13).

Like St. Paul writing to the Galatians in mid-1st century, the Church still identifies “the works of the flesh” (5:19), the sinful deeds of our fallen human nature like lust, hatred, jealousy, anger, excessive drinking, and black magic.  Thus the Church speaks against war, human trafficking, abortion, deviant sexual practices, racism, public corruption, organized crime, and our own lies, abusive language, and gossip.  Like St. Paul, the Church continues to promote peace, patience, gentleness, self-control, etc.  A commentary I read yesterday remarks that these virtues are “a recipe for a moral life…. But they seem much better described as a portrait of a happy [life].”[1]

Also yesterday Pope Francis embraced together 2 victims of the Israel-Hamas war:  an Israeli whose parents were murdered on Oct. 7 and a Palestinian whose brother was slain in Gaza; the crowd that witnessed that 3-fold embrace applauded wildly.

And that, brothers and sisters, is what the Spirit of truth demands of us:  not the applause but the practice of moral, honest, peaceful lives.

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[1] Ed Condon, The Pillar, May 17, 2024.

Homily for Saturday, Week 7 of Easter

Homily for Saturday
7th Week of Easter

May 18, 2024
John 21: 20-25
Missionaries of Charity, Bronx

“Jesus said to him, ‘What if I want him to remain until I come?  What concern is it of yours?  You follow me.’”  (John 21: 22)

Jesus with Peter at the shore (Tissot)

Have you ever heard a passage of Scripture, a piece of spiritual reading, a homily, or an examination of conscience and reacted something like, “Oh, I hope so-and-so was listening to that.”

It’s quite true that we are our sisters’ and brothers’ keepers.  We are members of Christ’s body.  We do have responsibilities of concern, sharing, support, and correction toward each other.

On the other hand, Christianity is also an intensely personal religion.  Historians of the early Church tell us that its personalism, as well as its brotherly love, was a sociological reason for Christianity’s flourishing so soon after its birth.  Belief in Jesus as Lord involves a keenly personal relationship with the Father thru the Son.  It also means personal responsibility:  every person is ultimately responsible for her own destiny in conjunction with God’s grace.

What I like about Peter as we see him in the gospels is his plainness.  He’s an ordinary human being like me:  now straightforward, now perplexed, now courageous, now overcome by fright, now selfish, now generous.  The Peter we see this morning is, in a word, nosy.  He’s just had a personal encounter with Christ, been made responsible for pasturing the flock, been told his earthly destiny, and been instructed to follow his master.  So he turns around, sees the beloved disciple, and wants to know, “Lord, what about him?”

Why do we get so curious, so nosy, so gossipy about other people?  There are a variety of reasons that motivate us, such as escapism, dominance, and judgment.

By escapism, we mean to avoid our own selves—our problems, our struggles, our weaknesses, our shallowness.  We distract ourselves by looking outward at others.

By dominance, we mean to satisfy our self-importance, to make ourselves the center of attention, by what we know and what we can say about others:  “Guess what I know that you don’t know.”  Sometimes we even use that knowledge as a weapon against others.

By judgment, we mean to find out who’s doing what, or why she’s doing it, so that we may make comparisons and pass judgment upon her deeds and upon her.  Maybe that’s just a variation of self-avoidance and self-importance.

Whatever.  Jesus sets Peter straight at once, bluntly.  “If I want him to remain until I come again, what business is it of yours?  You just worry about following me.”  Leave your idle curiosity behind and concentrate on discipleship.

May the Lord give us wisdom to sort out nosiness and gossip from genuine sisterly concern.

Homily for Friday, Week 7 of Easter

Homily for Friday
7th Week of Easter

May 17, 2024
Collect
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Given that this was the 4th day this week in which I had to preach, I pulled out my 2015 homily for this day and updated it slightly.  That homily also was for my provincial house confreres, but in the 9 intervening years the entire community had changed over; even I had been missioned elsewhere, then returned.

In the Collect we prayed about “partaking of so great a gift.”  From the structure of the prayer, it appears that the gift in which we partake is having “the gates of eternity unlocked for us.”

The Gate to Heaven (Andrea di Bonaiuto)

It sounds a bit strange—to me, anyway—that the gates of eternity (which in context means heaven in particular) are unlocked for us.  We’re still here, and I’ve never had a mystical experience that transported me thru those gates.

Yet we learned in the earliest days of our catechism—those of us who cut our catechetical teeth on the Baltimore Catechism—that one of the effects of Baptism is that the gates of heaven were opened for us.  Does that mean they’re open only when we arrive at the pearly gates?

I don’t think so, and neither does the Collect, which speaks of our “partaking of so great a gift,” present participle.  We already partake of this “great gift” of open gates.

What opened those gates for us?  According to the prayer, “the glorification of Christ and the light of the Holy Spirit.”  Christ’s glorification—his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension—burst open the gates of the underworld, we know, setting free souls till then bound by sin and condemned to death.  But then the gates of heaven must also have been unlocked for those souls to enter:  out of the underworld, into the upper world!

But what do the “unlocked gates of eternity” mean for us who are still here?  And how does “the light of the Holy Spirit” figure in this heavenly mystery?

Heaven is open to our prayers, our prayers brought by the glorified Christ to the Father’s throne—Christ, 1st of humanity to pass thru those gates.  Heaven is open to shower grace from the Father upon us thru our brother the Son, and thru the intercessions of the saints, with whom we have communion thru those open gates.

Heaven is open to us so that God’s holy ones may reach down to us as our patrons, protectors, and guides, like Mary, the powerful Help of Christians, and our individual patrons:  Thomas the Doubter, Michael God’s right hand, Stephen the Protomartyr, Abbot Bernard, William the Pilgrim, James Son of Thunder, Lyrical David, Timothy the Missionary Companion, Gabriel Messenger of God, Matthew the Tax Collector, Dominic the Preacher, Bishop Hubert, and the Martyr Adalbert.  Redeemed by the glory of Christ, joined to us now by the Holy Spirit, bond of love, they labor spiritually to draw us toward themselves thru those pearly gates.

And “the light of the Holy Spirit”?  The Spirit is Holy Wisdom, let loose by the Father and the Risen Son to pour his fire and light upon our hearts and minds so that we may know and desire spiritual goods, things divine—starting with the mystery who is Christ our Savior.  Led by the Spirit’s light, we’ll come to Christ in Person on the other side of those heavenly gates.

Heaven is open to us, comes down to us, is with us in the sacred mysteries, actions of both Christ and the Spirit.  A story from medieval history—probably legend—illustrates this well.  It tells how the Rus, the ancestors of Russia, became Orthodox Christians.  According to the story, Vladimir, prince of Kyiv, toward the end of the 10th century wanted to convert his people from paganism but was unsure which faith they should adopt.  Accordingly, he sent ambassadors to the Crimea, where a Muslim people dwelt, to investigate their religion.  The envoys weren’t much impressed.  He sent other ambassadors to Germany to look at Latin Christianity and, sad to say, they weren’t much impressed either.  He sent a third delegation to Constantinople, where the ambassadors witnessed the glories of Byzantine liturgy:  splendid vestments, majestic icons, golden vessels, incense, chanting, and all the ritual—and they were so impressed that they reported to Vladimir, “We didn’t know whether we were in heaven or on earth.”  Vladimir and his people converted to Eastern Christianity.

The Baptism of St. Vladimir (Viktor Vasnetsov)

How wonderful if our celebration of the liturgy does transport us mystically to heaven; but of a certainty it does bring heaven down to us.  For the time being, in these moments when we’re still in time and history, “may our devotion grow deeper” and “our faith be strengthened” by our partaking in the heavenly gift we have received.

Homily for Thursday, Week 7 of Easter

Homily for Thursday
7th Week of Easter

May 16, 2024
Acts 22:30, 23: 6-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Wishing to determine the truth about why Paul was being accused by the Jews…” (Acts 22: 30).

Our reading from Acts is drastically abbreviated in these final weeks of Easter.  Paul concluded his 3d missionary journey with a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and the Jewish leaders noticed him and tried to do away with him.  He was rescued and jailed by the Roman forces in the city.  As we’ll see tomorrow and Saturday, or if we read the rest of Acts on our own this is prelude to Paul’s last recorded journey, which will take him to Rome, as if to the culmination of giving witness to Jesus “in Jerusalem, thruout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (1:8)—not that Rome is the ends of the earth, then or now, but in religious terms was at the other end of the spectrum from Jerusalem, “true pole of the earth, the Great King’s city” (Ps 48:2, Grail).  There, in the center of imperial power, Paul will continue to teach the truth of the Great King, that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

The heart of the Gospel shows in our reading today, “the truth about why Paul was being accused”:  “I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 23:6).  As we heard at the beginning of Acts (and as recently as Tuesday[1]) when a replacement for Judas had to be chosen (1:21-22), the central point of the Gospel, the central truth of history, is the resurrection of Jesus.  He is risen, and he offers to Jew and Gentile a revived relationship with God and a shared brotherhood based on that relationship, a relationship leading to eternal life for all who follow Jesus—“that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one” (John 17:22-23).  That’s why Paul was accused by the Jewish leaders in one town after another, and why Christians are still accused by the powers of the earth.  Nevertheless, we maintain our hope in the living Christ.  As Pope Francis has been saying recently in connection with the Jubilee Year, “Hope does not disappoint.”

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[1] Feast of St. Matthias.

Pakistan's Christians Pray for Akash Bashir's Beatification

Pakistan’s Christians Pray 
for the Beatification of Akash Bashir

(ANS – Lahore, Pakistan – May 16, 2024) – “The life of the Servant of God Akash Bashir shines as an inspiration and ray of light in Pakistan and in the world afflicted by terrorism and unrest,” Fr. Lazar Aslam, a Capuchin priest serving in Lahore, says. In May, the Catholic community of the archdiocese of Lahore intensified prayer for Akash Bashir, past pupil of Don Bosco, the first Servant of God in the history of Pakistan. And the pilgrimage to his tomb is fervent, especially for young Pakistanis: “His faith in God motivated him to protect and serve his community, and led him to perform a gesture of extreme altruism in the face of a suicide bomber,” says Fr. Aslam.

Akash Bashir was born in Pakistan on June 22, 1994, to a humble family and studied at the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Lahore. He led a simple life, had dreams for his future, lived with his family, had friends at school and at work, enjoyed playing sports, and prayer was part of his life. On March 15, 2015, one Sunday morning, a suicide bomber attempted to enter St. John’s Church in Youhanabad, a Christian district of Lahore, which at that time had more than a thousand faithful attending Mass. Realizing the situation, Akash did not hesitate to sacrifice himself to prevent the bomber from causing a massacre in the church. On March 15, 2022, the 7th anniversary of his death, the diocesan phase of the canonical process for the proclamation of martyrdom was opened by the Church of Lahore.

Fr. Aslam says that “Jesus taught that the highest form of love is to lay down one’s life for friends, and his act of altruism reflected these teachings. Akash’s last statement, ‘I will die, but I will not let you in’ perfectly expresses his courage and devotion.”

“His story,” Fr. Aslam continues, “serves as a powerful testimony to the transforming power of faith, resilience, and sacrifice. It offers hope and inspiration to Christians in Pakistan and beyond. His life reminds us to embody unwavering faith and stand firm in the face of adversity. His extraordinary journey continues to guide and enlighten our community.”

According to Father Nobal Lal, director of the Salesian community in Lahore, the profound experience of Salesian spirituality that derives from Don Bosco’s Preventive System “had a profound and personal impact on Akash’s human and spiritual formation. It led him to develop a deep understanding and friendship with Christ. He would often pause for a moment of prayer at the grotto in the courtyard of St. John’s Catholic Church in Youhanabad, before beginning his service. The 3 fundamental principles of Salesian spirituality – Preventive System, holistic education, and love for God – have had a significant influence on his development of faith; they have been important pillars in determining his path,” he notes.

“In this month of May we pray intensely for the beatification of the Servant of God Akash Bashir, past pupil of Don Bosco,” says Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, postulator general of the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family. The postulator notes: “For the Christians of Youhanabad, for the Church of God that is in Pakistan, and for the entire Salesian Family, Akash, with his great faith, is exactly this: a beacon, an example to follow. Many go to his grave to pray and ask for intercession.... He had committed himself to living as an upright and good Christian citizen, as Don Bosco wanted, and had become a security volunteer in his parish church at a time when the situation in Pakistan was worrisome with the risk of encountering suicide bombers who targeted religious sites,” Fr. Cameroni says.

The sacrifice of Akash Bashir had a huge impact on the Christian community – Catholic and Anglican – in Pakistan, but the Muslim community was also deeply affected: “Many in Islam have veneration for this testimony of faith, of strength, and therefore I believe it is a seed that will be a form of reconciliation, of prophecy, coming above all from a young Christian.”

“This young Salesian past pupil, the first Pakistani on his way to the altars, represents all Christians and all young people who are brave and proud of their faith,” Fr. Cameroni concludes.

Province Treasurers Course Concludes

Province Treasurers Course Concludes

“A charismatic figure who carries out his responsibilities in all the aspects of Salesian life and mission”

(ANS – Rome – May 13, 2024) – The 2024 formation course for newly appointed province treasurers ended on Friday, May 10. They were 5 days of intense work and deep commitment, not without, however, various moments of recreation and relaxation, cultural, spiritual, and fraternal enrichment during which all the participants were able to deepen the meaning of their service to the Congregation and to the young people in the office assigned to them as provincial treasurers.

“The province treasurer is not so much an administrator or a technocrat, but rather a charismatic figure at all levels (house, province, Congregation), who offers his services and carries out his responsibilities in all the aspects of Salesian life and mission, especially whenever the decisions made at province level produce inevitable economic and financial effects. It is important to point out that the role of the treasurer within the [provincial] council is a very special feature of ours not to be found in all other congregations and religious orders,” Bro. Jean Paul Muller, treasurer general of the Congregation, stressed. He was the one who organized this formation course.

During the event attended by province treasurers from 21 circumscriptions across all 7 Salesian regions, a wide variety of topics related to all the different dimensions of the treasurer’s work were discussed: the ordinary management of provincial assets, the laws, norms, and procedures governing his action, accounting, ethical criteria, and the tools available to evaluate the different financial options, the management of solidarity, collaboration with NGOs and other relevant offices and bodies, as well as the aspects proper to the spirituality of those who through finances participate in an eminently religious and social mission.

One of the participants was the new treasurer of the New Rochelle Province, Fr. Richard Alejunas.

To give structure and content to this quantity of topics, the treasurer general’s office made use of a team of prominent and competent speakers and experts who offered their contributions. “Given the complexity of economic and financial issues, it is now almost impossible to do so without collaboration,” Dr Janko Jochimsen, a collaborator in the treasurer’s office, said in his address.

But he also reminded that “the ultimate responsibility for administrative, economic, or financial decisions can never be handed over to members of the laity or to those of other Institutes.”

Speaking in the part dedicated to canonical and institutional regulations, economic offenses, and procedures, the Congregation’s procurator general, Fr. Pier Fausto Frisoli, observed: “What regulations govern church property? The assets of canonical public juridical persons are ecclesiastical assets and are, as such, subject to canon law: universal law (CIC Book V "The Temporal Goods of the Church" cc. 1254-1310); particular law (norms established by episcopal conferences and individual dioceses); proper law (rules laid down in the Constitutions and General Regulations and in the Provincial Directory).”

Shedding light on the relationship between prayer and mission, on the concluding morning the Rector Major emeritus, Fr. Pascual Chavez Villanueva, explained: “Jesus immediately defines his life as an evangelizing mission, as a mission to preach, to proclaim the Gospel, and to deliver from the evil one, from disease, from everything that makes human life a prisoner of sin and death, incapable of good, of joy, of love. Certainly, Jesus gave himself moments of solitude, of retreat, of prayer in the night and in the desert, but for him they were not an alternative to the mission, nor were they times in function of the mission. For him, praying and going out to preach, to heal, and to deliver from the evil one were two aspects of a single reality. And this unity was what Jesus wanted to draw his disciples to. To be a disciple of Christ is precisely to enter the unity of prayer and mission that Jesus lived. That is why it’s important to understand what this unity meant for him.”

Finally, in the closing words of the course, Bro. Muller offered reassurance and a guideline to all participating treasurers: “Your service to the Congregation is essential, and we at headquarters are here to assist you. Do not hesitate to ask.… And remember: the texts of the Congregation and the doctrine of the Church are of fundamental importance to be able to carry out your service precisely and accurately.”