Homily for Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Homily for the Feast of
Our Lady of Perpetual Help[1]

June 27, 2024
Is 12: 2-6
Luke 1: 39-56
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Isaiah’s hymn in ch. 12 (our responsory) lauds God’s   saving action on behalf of Israel.  It probably looks back to the Exodus and forward to further help from the Lord.  In fact, the 2d main section of the prophet’s book, ch. 40-55, will focus on the new exodus, Israel’s deliverance from exile and return to Jerusalem, and will speak of God’s salvation among all the nations.

Mary’s hymn, sung as she comes to help Elizabeth deliver her child, proclaims again God’s saving power for Israel—“in every generation” (Luke 1:50), not something only of the past.  Mary’s aware that she’s becoming God’s agent:  “The Almighty has done great things for me” (1:49); not for her sake but for all Abraham’s children (1:55).

We, Abraham’s children by faith, as Paul believes (Rom 4:16-18), then benefit from our Mother Mary’s agency.  She comes to our help as she went to Elizabeth’s so that we might “sing praise to the Lord for his glorious achievement” (Is 12:5) and might live as Paul urges us:  loving sincerely, with mutual affection, hating what’s evil and holding on to what’s good, fervently serving the Lord and contributing to the needs of the holy ones (Rom 12:9-11,13), in imitation of Mary herself.

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[1] OL of Perpetual Help is the patroness of the Irish Christian Brothers.  The feast has proper prayers and readings.

Homily for Tuesday, Week 12 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
12th Week of Ordinary Time

June 25, 2024
2 Kings 19: 9-11, 14-21, 31-36
Matt 7: 12-14
Ps 48: 2-4, 10-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, N.R.

Sennacherib

Our 1st reading was a severely condensed version of God’s delivery of Jerusalem from an Assyrian siege.  The Assyrian Empire had overrun the Middle East, coming “down like the wolf on the fold,” in Lord Byron’s words,[1] ruthlessly killing, plundering, and transporting populations.  They’d already destroyed the northern kingdom, Israel, as we’d have heard yesterday but for the solemnity of John the Baptist, and deported its inhabitants, the so-called lost 10 tribes of Israel.  Only Judah and Benjamin remained of God’s chosen people—and those Levites who lived in that territory.

The sacred historian tells us that Israel perished because its rulers, like the infamous Ahab and Jezebel, and its people too, had been unfaithful to the covenant and ignored the prophets like Elijah, Elisha, and Amos.

The kingdom of Judah reacted differently to the prophets in spite of some faithless kings like Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father.  Hezekiah, tho, was faithful.  He tried to root out idolatry and obey the laws of the covenant.  So when he turned to God in humble prayer, as we heard this morning, the Lord listened, sent a plague among the besieging army, and saved Jerusalem: 

There lay the rider distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. . . .

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord![2]

King Hezekiah

Hezekiah’s faithful life and his fervent prayer induce us to live faithful to the covenant—to the new covenant given us by Christ:  to “do to others whatever you would have them do to you” (Matt 7:12) and to “enter thru the narrow gate … that leads to life” (7:13-14), the gate of Jesus (cf. John 10:7).

We also are to pray for humanity, which seems so far from God at times thru the violence of war, the economies of greed, ruthless nationalism, and pagan lifestyles.  We pray that “God uphold his city” (psalm response), that city which St. Augustine identifies with the kingdom of God.  Our prayer is that each of us will be faithful, that our brothers and sisters will be faithful, that persecutors and the violent will be softened and the godless converted—not “a plague on both your houses,” to quote Shakespeare,[3] but that God’s name, his mercy, and his praise may reach the ends of the earth (Ps 48:11).

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[1] “The Destruction of Sennancherib.”

[2] Byron again.

[3] Romeo and Juliet, Act III, scene 1.

Final Feast of the Rector Major for Cardinal Fernandez Artime

Rector Major’s 2024 Celebration of Thanksgiving

10 Years of Gratitude to Don Bosco’s 10th Successor

(ANS – Rome – June 24, 2024) – On Monday, June 24, the traditional feast of Thanksgiving for Don Bosco and his successors at the head of the Salesian Congregation was renewed for the 154th time.

The celebration of Rector Major came about spontaneously on June 24, 1870, the feast of the birth of St John the Baptist, whom the young men of Valdocco (mistakenly) supposed to be the namesake of Fr. John Bosco. So the first past pupils of the Oratory wanted to show their affection to their father, teacher, and friend with homage and symbolic gestures.

The Salesian feast of Thanksgiving has taken on its own characteristics over the years and has become the annual opportunity to pay solemn tribute to those who spend all their time and resources to guide and animate the Congregation and the Salesian Family, and thus embodies in his own person the mission of Don Bosco to love, educate, and evangelize young people.

Thanksgiving 2024 has its obvious special features that make it more special than usual: 1st of all, it is being celebrated in Rome again after two years in Turin because of the renovation work at Salesian headquarters, which isn’t quite complete yet.

2d, and more important, it represents the last feast of Thanksgiving for Cardinal Angel Fernandez Artime, Don Bosco’s 10th Successor, Rector Major since March 2014 and created cardinal in September 2023. In August he’ll leave this office and receive a new assignment from the Holy Father.

Card. Fernandez Artime also wanted to highlight some reasons that make this Thanksgiving celebration special. “First, after these intense 10 years in my term of office, I have always considered that this celebration is not just to say thank you to me. I also wanted to say THANK YOU to you: to the Congregation and to the Salesian Family for all the collaboration, commitment, trust, and dedication you have shown to me and to the mission of Don Bosco, and for the many miracles that have been achieved in the daily life of so many young people,” he said.

He added: “Another thought that arises spontaneously when I think of this feast, is how it’s an example of Salesian joy, a typical tradition of ours, which does not exist for all congregations, but which breathes the climate of genuine collaboration typical of the movement that Don Bosco originated. This feast speaks to us of the closeness and shared responsibility of so many people toward the Congregation and even more toward the Salesian charism.”

Finally, Card. Fernandez Artime addressed a special and specific thought to the Past Pupils of Don Bosco, who celebrate the anniversary of their foundation on this same date. “With their gift of coffee cups to Don Bosco, Charles Gastini and the other Valdocco past pupils not only paid homage to him, but gave life to a tradition that has become a legacy. For this reason, as heir of Don Bosco, I express my great affection for all the past pupils and friends of Don Bosco around the world: in many circumstances and countries they are the right hand of us Salesians, and they constantly cooperate in the mission. It’s certainly thanks to many of them that so many plans and projects of Don Bosco and his successors have been achieved!”

With this climate of mutual affection, the celebration of the feast of Thanksgiving 2024 began in the afternoon of June 24, with the Salesian headquarters community gathering at the Catacombs of San Tarcisio to celebrate the Eucharist together – presided over by the Rector Major – and to share the next moment of celebration. In addition to Card. Fernandez, also several sons of Don Bosco in the community were honored as they celebrated their jubilee anniversaries of 50, 70, and 80 years of religious profession, and/or 25, 50, and 75 years of their priestly ordination.

Homily for Solemnity of Birth of John the Baptist

Homily for the Solemnity of
the Birth of St. John the Baptist

June 24, 2024
Collect
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y. 

“You raised up St. John the Baptist to make ready a nation fit for Christ the Lord…” (Collect).

We thank the Lord for having called us to be his people, partly thru the ministry of John the Baptist.  God’s people is in fact the object or purpose of John’s life, according to our Collect.

Every collect begins with a statement of the mystery or saving event being commemorated on a given day, or a tribute to some divine attribute.  Today we note—and by implication praise God for—his having “raised up St. John the Baptist to make ready a nation fit for Christ the Lord,” and immediately move on to the petition part of the prayer:  “give your people, we pray….”  Thus the Collect identifies us—“God’s people”—with that “nation fit for Christ” which “John the Baptist made ready.”

Here we acknowledge John as the forerunner, as the lamp shining (John 5:35) in a dark place, as the one who points out the Lamb of God (John 1:29-36), as the one who steers his own disciples toward the One who is to come (John 1:19-40).  In his lifestyle, his preaching, his spiritual direction (if we may call it that), and finally his martyrdom John is at the service of Someone greater than he—a service consisting largely in helping people get ready for that Someone, preparing the way.

That’s our own aspiration.  None of us is the Expected One—not even those called alter Christus.  Rather, we’re the servants of Christ, or his friends, as he said at the Last Supper (John 15:15), and as John the Baptist referred to himself in a little parable about a bridegroom and best man (John 3:28-30).  In all the varied forms of our ministry, in our prayer, in our relationships, in our openness to God’s direction in our lives—in all this, we imitate John the Baptist and point to the Lord Jesus as the true Lamb of God, the one who redeems the world from its sins.  We have the mission of making ready a nation fit for Christ the Lord as much as John the Baptist did.  We may do that in a school, a camp, an office, thru retreats.  Every setting is a divine opportunity to point to Jesus.

Maybe you remember Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man” speech in As You Like It,[1] which credits each person with playing many parts in a lifespan.  We play many parts too—imitating now this saint, now that one.  We might imitate the Virgin Mother in how we treasure God’s Word and meditate upon it; imitate Don Bosco in how we relate to youngsters; imitate the fearless heart of John Chrysostom in our preaching; imitate Francis de Sales in our gentleness; imitate Francis of Assisi in our appreciation for Mother Earth.  And in John the Baptist we have a model of pointing always to Jesus in whatever we say and do—if not in words, which we can’t always do or shouldn’t always do, then in our character, our manner, our actions.

The Collect asks God to “direct the hearts of the all the faithful into the way of salvation and peace.”  That’s what John strove to do.  That’s what each of us can do:  direct our own hearts, direct the hearts of our brothers, friends, pupils, and co-workers into God’s saving ways, the pathways of Christ—with God’s help, of course, which is why we make it our prayer.

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      [1] Act II, scene vii.

Homily for 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

June 23, 2024
2 Cor 5: 14-17
The Fountains, Tuckahoe
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“Christ indeed died for all” (2 Cor 5: 15).

A Garfield cartoon last summer (Aug. 10)—you all read Garfield, don’t you?—showed our feline character lying on his back, typically.  1st panel: “Maybe someday I’ll finally get what I deserve.”  2d panel: silence.  3d panel: “But I hope not.”

Garfield comics (jikos.cz)

St. Paul would agree with Garfield.  In today’s reading he voices our conviction that Christ’s death on the cross was a sacrifice that brought us forgiveness.  His death atoned for our sins.  All of us sinners were alienated from God, doomed to eternal separation from God—to an eternity of misery, self-loathing, and hatred for everyone.

Christ changed that.  He is saving us from what we deserve.  In the Garden of Eden, the Lord God told our 1st parents, “You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gen 2:17).  To know evil means to taste it, to experience it—to be guilty of sin.  But in Christ’s death “all have died” (5:14).  He died so that we might live.  For our sake he “died and was raised” (5:15).  Bonded to the human race by his birth as one of us and his experience of everything human except sin, he has captured all of humanity, won pardon for us, and brought us the promise of being raised with him.  “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation,” Paul remarks:  “the old things [our sins] have passed away; behold, new things have come” (5:17).

God the Father has “set [us] firm on the foundation of [his] love,” the prayer for today states.  Jesus Christ is that firm foundation.  Based on him, we “might no longer live for [ourselves] but for him” (5:15).  That is, we can turn away from our selfishness and give ourselves to him, to his way of living.  We can love all our brothers and sisters, all the children of God, instead of competing with them, shoving them aside, looking down on them.

Love like Christ’s makes us a new creation, close to God thru his Son Jesus.  Christ’s love demands of us a new way of living.  His love empowers in us a life of virtue:  of humility, purity, honesty, kindness, generosity, and prayer.  That’s what Jesus teaches us.  It’s the foundation of love already instilled in us by Baptism and reinforced by the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist.

(by Ludolf Bakhuizen)

Our closeness to God thru Jesus means we’re traveling with Jesus—or he’s sailing along with us, as he did with the apostles.  We needn’t be afraid we’ll perish; be afraid that life’s troubles, pains, dangers, and temptations will sink us.  Instead, we put our faith in him (cf. Mark 4:40-41).  He died for us so that we might reach the shore we aim for, that we might live for him and with him forever.

Maureen Devereux, Member of Order of British Empire

Maureen Devereux Named a Member of the Order of the British Empire

Mother of Martyr Sean Devereux

(ANS - London – June 20, 2024) – On June 15, King Charles III of the United Kingdom made public the list of honors for his birthday, a list that collects the different awards and recognitions granted by virtue of their merits to the citizens of the United Kingdom and the other 14 realms of the Commonwealth. Among those honored is Maureen Devereux, the mother of Sean Devereux – Salesian past pupil, Salesian Cooperator, teacher, and humanitarian volunteer assassinated at the age of 28 in Kismayo, Somalia, on January 2, 1993, while he was working in a UNICEF food program.

U.N. Secretary General Dr. Boutrus-Boutrus Ghali commented: “In adverse, and often dangerous circumstances Sean showed complete dedication to his work. His colleagues admired his energy, his courage, and his compassion. Sean was an exemplary staff member and gave his life serving others, in the true spirit of the United Nations. Sean was a real soldier of peace.”

Mrs. Devereux is cofounder and administrator of the Sean Devereux Children's Fund. She will be awarded the honor of Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for the services she continues to give, in memory of her son, in the fields of education and humanitarian support for young people in Africa. “I am shocked, humbled, and deeply honored,” she commented. I accept it on behalf of the Fund, its dedicated trustees, past and present, and the very many friends and family who have helped establish, run, and support our charity over many years. The essence of Sean lives on in us today more surely than his death, to keep his vision alive and the Sean Devereux Children’s Fund continues to help less fortunate children in Africa.”

Pakistan Past Pupils Continue Salesian Education

Pakistan Past Pupils Continue Salesian Education

Remembering Fr. Peter Zago

(ANS – Quetta, Pakistan – June 19, 2024) – From the time of Charles Gastini ca. 1870, the Past Pupils of Don Bosco have been an active and prominent pillar of the Salesian mission. And they are often even more noteworthy in places on the peripheries of the mission, where the good stirred up by the first Salesian houses is beginning to bear fruit in seeds of good that they do not want to lose This is clearly visible today in Pakistan, where the Past Pupils of Don Bosco are working to save a school founded by the late missionary Fr. Peter Zago from closing.

Fr.  Zago (1935-2017) spent 62 of his almost 83 years of life as a missionary, serving the young people of India, Indonesia, East Timor, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and finally Pakistan, where he spent his last 18 years. He founded the two works currently in that country (Quetta and Lahore) and contributed actively to the support of refugees and the poor and to the reconstruction of villages after the earthquake of 2005 and the floods of 2010.

With his initiative, together with that of his mission companions, Fr. Zago profoundly influenced the lives of countless children in Pakistan. Today his legacy survives through these institutions, which continue to embody his dedication and love for education and the underprivileged.

Last December, the National Federation of Past Pupils had the opportunity to visit Quetta to establish the elections of the local unit. During this trip they also made a visit to Ziarat, a district of Quetta, to see another school, also started in the early 2000s by Fr. Zago.

“We were all deeply moved by the warm welcome and the obvious impact of Fr. Zago's work,” testified Asif Boota, national vice president of the Past Pupils of Pakistan. “But the opening address given by the school’s principal revealed an unexpected and heartbreaking situation: the school was at risk of closure due to insufficient funds.”

The news was disappointing for all present, including Bro. Francis Nhat, Salesian delegate for the local unit of the Past Pupils in Quetta. After the initial disappointment, Mr. Boota tried to explore the possibilities of intervention together with the director of the house in Lahore, Fr. Noble Lal, the president of the Quetta unit of the Past Pupils, Awaish Yousaf, and the director of this work, Fr. Samuel Ghouri.

So now, at the proposal of Fr. Ghouri, the National Federation of Past Pupils of Pakistan is working to develop a solid operational plan that will allow it to take responsibility for the management of this school, and to explore ways to prevent the closure of this vital institution for young people in Ziarat and throughout Quetta.

“We are now formulating and discussing the plan with the Salesian community, and we are all determined to honor Fr. Zago by ensuring that this school remains operational and continues to provide quality education to the children of Ziarat. We recognize the profound importance of this center and are committed to mobilizing resources to support it,” Mr. Boota said.

Currently the National Past Pupils of Don Bosco Federation in Pakistan plans to sign a detailed contract that provides for the management of the school in Ziarat for one year, based on compliance with certain parameters. Subsequently, the National Federation entrusted the management of that school to the local unit of the Past Pupils in Quetta, but continued to monitor all activities.

For this reason, concludes the national vice president of Past Pupils of Pakistan: “This agreement would not only honor the legacy of Fr. Zago, but would also guarantee the continuity of education and service to the less privileged of Ziarat and Quetta. I am sure, sir, that together we will be able to support the mission of Don Bosco and the dear memory of Fr.  Peter Zago, ensuring that his vision of education and service to the underprivileged continues.”

Homily for Thursday, Week 11 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
11th Week of Ordinary Time

June 20, 2024
Matt 6: 7-15
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“This is how you are to pray” (Matt 6: 9).

Jesus teaches the apostles (Duccio)

We’re still listening to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Our passage today is mostly about prayer.  As you know, many books have been written interpreting the Our Father.  I was quite impressed years ago by Louis Evely’s We Dare to Say Our Father, which you can still find online.

This week we’ve been reading in the Divine Office St. Cyprian’s “Treatise on the Lord’s Prayer.”  Regarding the petition “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” Cyprian observes that no one can prevent God from doing as he wills.  Our prayer really is “that God’s will be done in us, because the devil throws up obstacles to prevent our mind and our conduct from obeying God in all things.  So if his will is to be done in us we have need of his will, that is, his help and protection.”  He cites Jesus’ example in Gethsemane, praying that he be able to face his passion, that he carry out his Father’s will rather than run away from the cup set before him.[1]

So do we need the Father’s help daily to take up and consume the cup presented to us.  Often it’s a cup of joy—in our brotherhood, in affection from our relatives and friends, in some success achieved, in a good visit to a doctor.  But often—too often, no?—it’s a cup of suffering; not as severe as the Lord’s passion, not as severe as the violence in Sudan, Congo, Ukraine, or Gaza, not as severe as the wildfires in the West or homelessness in our cities, but severe enuf for our frail bodies and hearts.

May our Lord Jesus help us accept his Father’s will daily.  May our Mother Mary, the Lord’s obedient maidservant, also assist us.

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[1] LOH 3:367-368.

Salesian Mission Offices Respond to War in Ukraine

Salesian Mission Offices Respond to War in Ukraine

(by Fr. Marcin Wosiek, SDB)

(ANS – Krakow, Poland – June 19, 2024) – A meeting of leaders of the Salesian mission offices of the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Poland took place in Krakow, on June 13-14. The program, “War in Ukraine: Emergency Response Mechanism,” envisaged a review of coordination (difficulties, successes, corrective measures); future planning 1 (situation analysis, donor analysis); future planning 2 (priority of needs, decision on areas of action); agreements and conclusions (roadmap, communication). Participants posed in front of the Juliusz Slowacki Theater in Krakow. Salesian Missions of New Rochelle was represented by Fr. Gabriel Slawowy (standing at left in photo); Fr. Gabriel is a member of the Krakow Province serving presently as assistant director in New Rochelle.

Some women teachers from Odessa, Ukraine, participated in the meeting.

All the participants also visited the historic center of Krakow and experienced various opportunities for fraternity and Salesianity.

Salesian Missions Feeds Displaced People

Salesian Missions Feeds Displaced People

Camp Don Bosco in Goma, Congo, Takes in Refugees

(ANS – Goma, DRC – June 19, 2024) – People who have been internally displaced and are living at Camp Don Bosco at the Don Bosco Ngangi Youth Center in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, have access to healthy nutrition thanks to a partnership between Salesian Missions of New Rochelle, and Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit Christian organization committed to “feeding God’s children hungry in body and spirit.”

The donation was sent in partnership with Flexport.org, which managed the logistics and sponsored the shipping costs for two containers. It helped 2,780 people over 3 months in 2023. Salesian Missions will partner with Flexport.org for additional upcoming humanitarian aid shipments.

“The humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not receive much attention and resources globally. Being able to support this underfunded emergency response and help those in dire need is precisely why we established the Flexport.org Fund,” said Kristen Czapar Dohnt, head of Flexport.org. “Partnering with Salesian Missions to transport this life-saving food is a true honor.”

The war between a rebel group and the loyalist FARDC army has been going on for nearly 2 years. Camp Don Bosco was set up in the fall of 2022. Don Bosco Ngangi Youth Center welcomed the displaced people and allowed them to use a plot of land that was once used for youth sports activities. Most of the now 21,000 people camped on the land have been displaced from Rutshuru and Nyiragongo.

Camps for displaced people, such as Camp Don Bosco, are overcrowded and lack adequate infrastructure. Living conditions are extremely precarious, with limited access to clean water, sanitation, food, and health care. Disease, malnutrition, and other health problems spread rapidly in such conditions.

A Salesian noted, “The highly nutritious food from Feed My Starving Children has been warmly welcomed by the families living in the camp. The families know that they are getting much-needed nutrition and are able to provide healthy meals for their families. Families with children testify that this food is highly nutritious and facilitates a quick recovery of malnourished children.”

Malnutrition is high. War and forced displacement have disrupted people’s livelihoods. Agricultural land has been abandoned leading to increase in poverty, food insecurity, and dependence on humanitarian assistance. People in the camp are suffering psychological trauma impacting their emotional well-being.

A Salesian explained, “Food donations go a long way in helping this population remain fed and have a little hope for the future.”

Salesian missionaries have been working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for more than 100 years, ensuring that the most vulnerable children are not forgotten. Salesian primary and secondary schools and programs lay the foundation for early learning while Salesian trade, vocational, and agricultural programs offer many youths the opportunity for a stable and productive future.

Source: Mission Newswire

Homily for Tuesday, Week 11 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
11th Week of Ordinary Time

June 18, 2024
1 Kings 21: 17-29
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Elijah confronts Ahab & Jezebel (Thomas Matthews Rook)

Yesterday and today we’ve read the story of Naboth from the town of Jezreel.  Naboth adheres firmly to the covenant between God and Israel.  His ancestral land is God’s gift, the sign of the covenant.  He can’t alienate that land, not even for the king.

His story is similar to the story of David and Bathsheba, in which the king covets something that isn’t his and murders to acquire it.  David had his prophet, Nathan, to confront him with his sin and provoke repentance.  The responsorial psalm (51) echoes that sin and repentance.

Ahab, too, repents.  But there are differences between him and David.  David was fundamentally good, a man at the Lord’s service, whereas Ahab “gave himself up to the doing of evil” (1 Kgs 21:25).  His repentance follows Elijah’s pronouncement of doom, but David’s followed the exposure of his guilt, preceding his punishment.  According to Ps 51, David pleaded for forgiveness and cleansing, but Ahab doesn’t explicitly confess his guilt even tho he does some penance.  Nor, according to the account, does he repent of his idolatry or of his wife’s complicity in evil.

Catholics are famous for our sense of guilt, even to the point of confessing things that aren’t sinful:  “Father, I missed Mass because I was sick.”  “Father, I was tired and didn’t say all of my prayers.”  But blessed are they who recognize genuine sin in their hearts, words, actions, and failure to act and who repent—at least out of fear of God’s wrath; but better, out of remorse at offending the Creator who has so richly blessed us, the Redeemer who’s given his life for us.

Salesians Protect and Promote Native Rights

Salesians Protect and Promote the Rights of Native Peoples

(ANS – Campo Grande, Brazil – June 18, 2024) – “We’ve made a choice as a Congregation: we will never abandon our presence among the original peoples.” With these clear words, pronounced at the time of the 150th Salesian Missionary Expedition (2019), the Rector Major, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, established in a compelling way the perennial commitment of Don Bosco’s family in favor of indigenous peoples. This is particularly true for Brazil and the Campo Grande Province of Brazil, where engagement with native peoples is a fundamental part of Salesian work.

In the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, there are 47 indigenous peoples numbering about 26,500 persons. These native ethnic groups have been living for more than a century in a context of struggles for the conservation of their territories, whose biodiversity is increasingly threatened by intensive crops, indiscriminate use of pesticides, and the extraction of various natural resources by landowners, cattlemen, and miners. These invasions compromise access to critical resources such as food, health, and education. Indigenous peoples practice subsistence agriculture, hunting, fishing, and handicrafts.

Created in 1972, when Brazil’s military dictatorship took the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the majority society as its only perspective on the indigenous question, the Consejo Indigenista Missionario (CIMI) is an organization linked to the National Conference of Bishops that immediately began working through rights awareness, promoting large assemblies with the original peoples, where the first contours of the struggle for the guarantee of the right to cultural diversity were drawn.

The Salesians have been in Mato Grosso since the end of the 19th century and have been active in CIMI since its foundation. Since 2022, they’ve been managing a valuable project that aims to strengthen the processes of autonomy of indigenous peoples, support their original rights to territory and identity, economic sustainability, education, health, and their own forms of organization, in complete adherence to the CIMI guidelines.

The project is structured to benefit directly 80 leaders (men and women) and 5,870 people belonging to 10 indigenous communities settled in the heart of Mato Grosso (Bororo, Kayabi, Apiaká, Munduruku, Xavante, Chiquitano, Rikbaktsa, Nambikwara, Myky, and Enawenê-Nawê).

Articulated in various training, awareness, and appreciation activities, the project fully involves all members of the 10 communities, from village leaders to ordinary people. The initiative aims to improve participation and the exercise of rights for indigenous peoples, strengthening the social and economic fabric of these communities for the conservation of their natural and cultural heritage.

Indigenous peoples face prejudice and discrimination. They need assistance in the recognition of their rights. The growing number of native professionals and the strengthening of the indigenous movement are potential resources for the defense of rights.

This is why Salesians never tire of standing by the side of indigenous peoples and working for their full recognition and emancipation.

For more information, visit: www.missionidonbosco.org

Homily for 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
11th Sunday of Ordinary Time

June 16, 2024
Mark 4: 26-34
Villa Maria, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“This is how it is with the kingdom of God…” (Mark 4: 26).

We hear 2 of Jesus’ parables today, which St. Mark links because they’re concerned with seeds.  Let’s consider just the 1st one, which we can view from 2 perspectives.

(Van Gogh)

1st perspective:  the growth of God’s kingdom in a universal sense.  The seed that God has scattered on the land—thru the preaching of Jesus, the prophets, the apostles, and the Church grows secretly but surely, and like the farmer who scattered the seed, we don’t know how that happens.  It’s in the very nature of seeds.  Of course, as regards seeds agricultural scientists and botanists can explain growth.  But who can explain how God’s work in the world proceeds and eventually yields fruit, a glorious harvest of grain?

The harvest may not be the same year by year.  Storms, drought, locusts, or other factors might limit or destroy it.  The development of the kingdom of God on earth is often hampered by sin.  People have observed that we know the Church is divinely led because nothing that people have done—not persecution, not heresies, not bad Popes (there were quite a few in the Middle Ages), not wicked priests, not indifferent Christians—has been able to destroy the Church, the visible kingdom of God.

In the long term and by the very nature of the seed that God has scattered, the land is fruitful.  The kingdom grows invisibly.  The grace of God overcomes all natural disasters, all the sins that human beings commit.  The farmer sleeps and rises night and day; Jesus has ascended and isn’t physically among us.  But his Spirit is with us; holiness is evident everywhere.  The grain will sprout, ripen, and yield the harvest that God desires, the salvation of the human race.

The 2d perspective:  the seed of the kingdom of God within you and within me.  That’s mysterious and secret, isn’t it?  God planted the seed of his grace, the seed of holiness, on the day of our Baptism.  There’ve been days when the seed’s felt awfully dry, and days when it was like to drown in temptation (or worse).  But God’s work will “lift high the lowly tree and make the withered tree bloom,” as Ezekiel assures us (17:24).  It may seem to us that our growth has been so slow, maybe even stunted.  But we trust God’s power to do what he intends—we know not how—so long as we try to keep our hearts open to him, to be fertile soil.  “This is how it is with the kingdom of God.”

Homily for Saturday, 10th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Saturday
10th Week of Ordinary Time

June 15, 2024
1 Kings 19: 19-21
Mass of Mary, Disciple of the Lord
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

When we think of vocation calls in the Bible, our thoughts probably go 1st to young Samuel (1 Sam 3:1-14) or to the pairs of brothers at the Sea of Galilee (Mark 1:16-20).  There are plenty more in the Gospels, not all of them with positive responses.  Luke records that Jesus chided one would-be follower, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God” (9:62).

(by Augustin Hirschvogel)

Elisha did exactly the opposite.  He took his hands off the plow, and not only didn’t look back but even destroyed the means of his livelihood (1 Kgs 19:20-21).  That was dramatic enuf.  Also dramatic is the manner of his call.  It’s wordless.  Elijah uses a symbolic action, throwing his cloak over his intended disciple (19:19).  The gesture appears to mean that Elisha should take on Elijah’s prophetic role.  The gesture will be confirmed later when, after a fiery chariot carries Elijah off to heaven, his cloak falls from him for Elisha to pick up and wield immediately to divide the Jordan as Elijah had done and to cross over, filled with the spirit of Elijah. (2 Kgs 2:1-15).  Elisha faithfully followed Elijah after leaving behind father, mother, everyone else, and everything else, and he continued Elijah’s prophetic mission in Israel.

In our prayer this morning, we identified the Virgin Mary as “a disciple faithful to the words of life” (Collect).  We’ll pray later that “we may be true disciples of Christ, eagerly hearing his words and putting them into practice” (Postcommunion).  Mary’s discipleship of the Lord must have begun long before Gabriel came to her; her heart had to be ready to receive the word he spoke to her so that her womb could receive the unspoken Word.  She had no plow and gear to burn in sacrifice.  Instead, she had to sacrifice a quiet, “normal” life and, in God’s time, to surrender her Son.  She initiated that process of surrender freely at Cana, when he protested it wasn’t yet his hour (John 2:4) and—good Jewish mother—she prodded him along, ready for whatever his hour would bring.  Then she faithfully stood with him when that hour culminated (John 19:25) and continued her discipleship by becoming mother to all his disciples (19:26-27).

St. John & the Virgin Mary at the Cross
(St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church,
Fredericksburg, Va.)

As mother she continues her care for all the disciples and continues to model discipleship to us, to model listening to, receiving, pondering, and obeying the Divine Word.  She puts her cloak, her mantle, over us so that we may be filled with the same Spirit that overshadowed her (Luke 1:35).  Amen.  So be it!

 

Homily for Thursday, 10th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
10th Week of Ordinary Time

June 13, 2022
Matt 5: 20-26
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you won’t enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5: 20).

We continue reading the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus lays out a plan of life for his followers.  Altho the gospel writers present a different view, the scribes and Pharisees in general were good men, striving to please God by observing faithfully, even rigorously, the Law of Moses—all 613 precepts, by one count.

Jesus tells us today that literal observance of all the rules isn’t sufficient.  His followers must aim higher—at a greater form of holiness, at a closer relationship with God.  External observance of the Law may mean nothing if it doesn’t come from our hearts, from a desire to please God, to become close to him, to become more like him, to “be perfect as [our] heavenly Father is,” as Jesus will put it later in Matthew 5 (v. 48).

Jesus uses the example of someone so angry with a brother—a fellow Israelite, or anyone really—that he’d kill him if wasn’t against the Law.  He submits to the Law but doesn’t embrace it.  He maintains a harsh, judgmental attitude toward his brother—not a holy attitude, not an attitude expressive of closeness to God.

Jesus requires of us patience and forgiveness toward our brothers, even when they’re offensive or merely irritating.  That’s an observance of the Law—and of our religious rule of life—that’s more difficult but more like Jesus himself, a surpassing sign of being right with God and of walking the road toward his kingdom.

Homily for the Salesian Martyrs of Poland

Homily for the
Salesian Martyrs of Poland

June 12, 2024
1 Kings 18: 20-39
Salesian Missions, New Rochelle, N.Y.

In the 1st reading, the prophet Elijah challenged the people of Israel to choose between worshiping the god of the pagan Canaanites, Baal, or the Lord God of Israel.  The reading demonstrates the nothingness of Baal, who can’t answer the cries of his followers because he doesn’t exist.  The Lord, however, does answer Elijah.

In 1999 St. John Paul II beatified 108 Polish priests, religious, and lay people who chose to follow Christ rather than Hitler and the Nazi program.  Others have been beatified since; e.g., last year the entire Ulma family—parents, 6 youngsters, and a stillborn child—who were murdered by German police because they’d hidden 8 Jews.

Among the 108 beatified by John Paul were the 5 young men we Salesians honor today.  They were between 17 and 21 when the Gestapo arrested them in 1940 because they were assisting the young people of the Salesian youth center in Poznan with prayer, catechism, and recreation—all of which the German occupation had outlawed.  After almost 2 years in prison, they were executed in the German prison at Dresden.  They remained faithful to prayer and the sacraments, to Christ, until the end.

The prison yard where the 5 youths were executed in 1942.

Every day you and I also have the choice of following Christ in the choices we make:  to pray, to make sacrifices for our families, to be honest and truthful, to be kind and patient, to work diligently—here at Salesian Missions trying to be conscious that our work is on behalf of at-risk young people whom the Salesians serve in 134 countries around the world.  As Christians we don’t worship Baal, the false gods of wealth, comfort, power, or fame; we serve Christ by humbly serving our sisters and brothers.

Homily for 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
10th Sunday of Ordinary Time

June 9, 2024
2 Cor 4: 13—5:1
Ps 130
Gen 3: 9-15
Mark 3: 20-35
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“The one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us with you in his presence” (2 Cor 4: 14).

by Raphael

Brothers and sisters, there you have the Gospel in one sentence!  God the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and he’ll raise us from the dead, too, and give us a place alongside Jesus.

St. Paul goes on to tell the Christians of Corinth that God “bestows his grace in abundance on more and more people” so that gratitude to God may overflow, gratitude that gives glory to God (4:15).

God’s grace means forgiveness of our sins.  The 1st reading and the gospel speak of sin—human disobedience to God, human ducking of responsibility for their sin, and the demonic power of Satan in human lives.

In the Genesis story of human sinfulness, the couple—representing all of us—try to shift blame:  “The woman made me do it.  You put her here with me [3:12], so it’s your fault!”  That’s a pretty bold thing to tell God.  And her excuse is that the serpent tricked her (3:13):  “The Devil made me do it!”  God, of course, doesn’t buy their excuses, and he banishes them—us—from Eden, from paradise (3:23).  We’re barred from eternal life.

In such a state, we pray with the Psalmist:  “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice!  Let your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication.  With you is forgiveness, that you may be revered” (130:1-2,4).

Forgiveness!  That brings us back to St. Paul:  Grace is bestowed in abundance.  And since it’s grace, it’s unmerited, undeserved.  It’s God’s gift.  “With the Lord is kindness, and with him is plenteous redemption.  He will redeem Israel”—and all of us, “more and more people”—“from all their iniquities” (Ps 130:7-8).

Already in Genesis, God had promised us help.  “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.  He will strike at your head…” (3:15).  A human being descended from Eve, namely Jesus of Nazareth, son of the new Eve, Mary, will strike at Satan in mortal battle and will smash him.  Jesus announces himself as the one powerful enuf to enter the Devil’s stronghold, bind him up, and plunder his house (Mark 3:27).  Jesus goes down to the underworld, the realm of the dead, defeats the Devil by his resurrection, conquers our sins, sets the Devil’s prisoners free, raises us up to live and to glorify God forever.

Victory goes to everyone, to “more and more people” who seek to “do the will of God” and so become brothers and sisters of Jesus (Mark 3:35), forgiven and placed with him in God’s presence.