Scout Emblem Sunday at St. Patrick's Cathedral

Scout Emblem Sunday

at St. Patrick's Cathedral

Each year shortly after Easter the archdiocese of New York honors Catholic Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts from thruout the archdiocese who've fulfilled the requirements of certain programs involving study of our faith and service to others: Ad Altare Dei and Pope Pius XII programs for boys, and Marian and Spirit Alive for girls. Adults who have made notable contributions to the spiritual development of Scouts may be given the Bronze Pelican, St. George, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, or St. Anne award.

Scout Emblem Sunday this year was last Sunday, April 18, at the 2:00 p.m. Mass.

Five Scouts from Troop Forty in Mt. Vernon, whose chaplain I've been since 1995, completed the Ad Altare Dei (Latin: "to the altar of God")program, which studies the seven sacraments. So did another 111 Scouts. I was part of a team of six who taught the course for the Four Rivers District this year, almost every Wednesday nite from mid-September through February. Sixteen Scouts, including our T40 five, were in this course.

Since I wasn't going to be in a very good position to take photos while concelebrating Mass, I gave my good camera to Sabina, our Scoutmaster's wife. Photos below credit the photographers if they weren't me.

Just going to St. Patrick's Cathedral is a treat in itself.

The Scouts assembled in the International Building, across Fifth Avenue from the cathedral (directly behind the statue of Atlas) and then processed across the avenue into the cathedral while New York's Finest stopped traffic for them. (photo: Sabina Awooner)

On the back wall of the cathedral, to the left as you enter the nave is a bas-relief of St. John Bosco, placed there in 1988 on the occasion of the centennial of his death. We Salesians had a hugh celebration at the cathedral on that occasion, over which Cardinal O'Connor happily presided.

The cathedral, begun by Abp. Hughes in the 1850s and completed by Abp. Corrigan around 1900, is a Gothic masterpiece; this shot of the sanctuary will give you some idea. You may be able to notice the hats of deceased cardinals hanging from the ceiling (that's an old custom which, I think, is no longer carried out). (photo: Sabina Awooner)

On the left side of the main altar (as you're facing the altar from the nave--but I shot this photo from the concelebrants' seats opposite) is the archbishop's cathedra (whence the name cathedral for his church), or official chair as the chief pastor, teacher, and priest of the archdiocese. Only the bishop or archbishop may use the cathedra in his cathedral.

But the jewel, perhaps, of St. Patrick's Cathedral (as of many cathedrals) is the Lady Chapel, in the apse directly behind the high altar. It serves now, also, as the Blessed Sacrament chapel of St. Patrick's.

Msgr. Anthony Marchitelli, chaplain of the Archdiocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting, presided at the Mass. Usually the archbishop does so, but Abp. Dolan was in Italy on business connected with the cause of canonization of Cardinal Cooke. Eight priests concelebrated with him, including our superior at the provincial house, Fr. Steve Dumais. He's just to the monsignor's left in the photo, and I'm to his left. (photo: Sabina Awooner)

My friend Ed Maselli, an assistant scoutmaster, used his cell phone to "shoot" me during the distribution of Holy Communion.

After Mass, Msgr. Marchitelli presented awards to the Boy and Girl Scouts, 141 of them in all, according to the lists published in the program. Here some of the Ad Altare Dei recipients are lined up, including (third in line) Franklyn Mateo, the SPL of Troop Forty and a future Eagle Scout (awaiting his board of review).

The lay leadership of Catholic Scouting took seats in the sanctuary opposite the concelebrating priests--and outnumbered us considerably.

Msgr. Marchitelli places the St. George Award over my head. Seven men and women, including two priests, received this national Catholic Scouting award for having made "significant and outstanding contributions to the spiritual development of Catholic youths through the Boy Scouting program." Standing behind me is Donna Ragusa, who has been teaching Ad Altare Dei for many years in our Four Rivers District, and with whom I just co-taught the course. Donna also is the District program chairman and works with various training programs, including Cub leadership, NYLT, and Woodbadge. St. George is the patron saint of Scouting, and the award's a great honor. (photo: Sabina Awooner)

I got Fr. Steve to take this photo of me with the St. George medal in the sacristy after Mass.

Six Scout troops and four Cub packs were awarded the Pope Paul VI quality unit award "for providing outstanding religious and educational programs." Scoutmaster Mr. Renner of Troop Forty is third in line to accept the award on behalf of Troop Forty.

Assistant Scoutmasters Ed and Pete Maselli (back) and Bill Schaffer (front) pose with Tunji and the National Catholic Quality Unit Award given to Troop Forty. (photo: Sabina Awooner)

On the front steps of the cathedral, Scouts David Ford and Adrian Renner, just awarded Ad Altare Dei, pose with Asst. Scoutmasters Ed Maselli and Bill Schaffer, District Commissioner Marge Nonni, and Scoutmaster Tunji Renner. (photo: Sabina Awooner)

Don Bosco's Vocation Dream

Don Bosco's Vocation Dream
When John Bosco was 9, going on 10, he had a dream that made a remarkable impression upon him and that seems to have recurred later. Looking back at it many years later, he saw in it his calling to be a priest and an apostle for the young, or a "father and teacher of the young," as Pope John Paul II designated him. (JPII grew up in a parish in Krakow that was staffed by the SDBs and so was more than casually familiar with Don Bosco.)
Mike Massey of the New Rochelle Province's youth ministry office has put together Don Bosco's text narrating this dream with images done by Italian artist Nino Musio in this YouTube posting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_fGuKjwe8U

Homily for 3d Sundayof Easter

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Easter

April 18, 2010
Rev 5: 11-14
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle

Bruges claims to be the most beautiful city in Belgium and perhaps in all of northern Europe, and it is indeed a beautiful and charming city with its canals (it calls itself “the Venice of the North”), medieval churches and monasteries, museums, public squares, and windmills. But Ghent could lay an equal claim to beauty and charm. It may not have any more working windmills, but it does have the 11th/12th-century Gravensteen, the castle of the counts of Flanders. Every bit as much worth a tourist’s visit as the castle or a ride thru Ghent’s canals is the artistic treasure of St. Bavo’s Cathedral, a multi-panel altarpiece painted in the 15th century by Jan van Eyck.
Titled The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, it’s a magnificent medieval rendition of the scene described in our 2d reading today, transposed to the Flemish countryside, with the Lamb standing on an altar, blood pouring from a wound in its chest, surrounded by angels, prophets, martyrs, priests, and burgers—a fair reading of Eyck’s contemporary society included among the whole of humanity, biblical and otherwise, paying their worshipful tribute to the Lamb of God. Right now I wish I had one of the handsome post cards they sell in the cathedral gift shop!
Our little tour of the Book of Revelation in this Easter season is necessarily an abbreviated one; we have 6 Sundays to get thru 22 chapters. Your homiletic tour will be even shorter since, like Jesus, I am going away (cf. John 13:33,36)—next Sunday to Willow Towers, and the following weekend with the Scouts—and I will come back to you (whenever next assigned to you).
In ch. 1 John saw “one like a son of man” dressed in the garb of a royal priest, standing amid the golden lampstands representing the churches of Asia. The 4 verses of ch. 5 that we just heard laid before us a vision of the heavenly liturgy, in which John sees Christ as the Lamb that has been slain yet lives, enthroned next to God the Father and receiving the tribute of all creation: “To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might, forever and ever” (5:13).
John’s vision links past and present by bringing together 24 elders (4:4, 5:8), who represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles, the old Israel and the new Israel, all adoring the living God and the redeemer of humanity. The living creatures of John’s vision evoke the prophecy of Ezekiel (ch. 1), and these creatures with their faces resembling a lion, a calf, a man, and an eagle (Rev 4:6-7) suggest to us, if not to John and his hearers, the testimony of the 4 evangelists.
It has been suggested that this vision resembles the Christian liturgy of John’s time, at least in the hymns being sung and the presence of elders (presbyters), in the 1st ranks of the worshipers. Some also think that the hymns resemble the cult of the Roman emperors, which would weigh mightily on the consciousness of John’s communities because the rejection of that cult was cause for exile and martyrdom. Instead, these communities are bringing their “blessing and honor, glory and might,” their “riches, wisdom, and strength” (5:12) to the Father and to the Son, co-equals in the heavenly kingdom. This entire Book of Revelation is an extended encouragement to these communities to persevere in their faithfulness to Jesus in the face of the hostility of the Roman state.
Not only the heavenly kingdom adores the Enthroned One and the Lamb. “Every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe” (5:13) adores God. The Christian Church in its earthly liturgy speaks for the whole of creation and shares already in the heavenly liturgy. That link reminds me inevitably of the well known (and probably legendary) story of Prince Vladimir of Kiev’s search at the end of the 10th century for the most satisfactory religion for his people. He sent ambassadors to Islamic lands, to Jewish populations, and to Constantinople. Those who returned from the Byzantine capital asserted that when they witnessed the Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia they seemed to be transported to heaven itself. And so Vladimir and the people of Rus adopted Orthodox Christianity.
Unfortunately our liturgy, whether the Eucharist or the Hours or any of the sacraments, scarcely seems so to transport us. At least it usually doesn’t in any psychological, emotional, or mystical sense. It’s hardly unheard of for some parishioner—or even an Ursuline—to glance at her watch in the middle of a homily! But does the liturgy not transport us to that reality we call the supernatural life? When we celebrate the sacred mysteries, don’t we really take part in the eternal worship of the Mystic Lamb, with all the angels and saints? The beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer always assures us that we do: “We praise you, Lord, with all the angels and saints”; “The joy of the resurrection renews the whole world, while the choirs of heaven sing forever to your glory”; “We join the hosts of heaven in their triumphant song”; “United with the countless hosts of angels who look upon your splendor night and day, and in the name of every creature under heaven, we too praise your glory”; etc. And then we launch into the “Holy, Holy,” the hymn of the seraphim, according to Isaiah (6:2-3). We are indeed part of that “countless number” (Rev 5:11) whom John the Visionary saw. Our celebration here, always led by an elder—a presbyter—or by one of the successors of the 12 apostles anticipates our celebration for all the days of eternity, blessing and glorifying with heartfelt joy the Lamb who was slain for us but lives forever, and “the one who sits on the throne.”

New Directors Announced

New Directors Announced

Today (April 13), Fr. Thomas Dunne, SDB, provincial superior of the New Rochelle Province, announced the names of two confreres who will assume the office of director on July 1. He also announced the re-appointment of six directors to new terms.

The first new director is Fr. Thomas Provenzano, who will become superior of the SDB community at St. Anthony's Parish in Elizabeth, N.J.

Fr. Tom has been coordinator of youth ministry at Salesian HS in New Rochelle for the last three years. Previously he had been assistant pastor of St. John Bosco Church in Chicago (2002-2007) and vice director of the Salesian community there (2003-2007). He was ordained in Tuckahoe, N.Y., by Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez in 2001 and spent his first year as a priest as assistant pastor at St. Anthony's Church in Paterson, N.J.

The other new director is Fr. James Heuser, who will assume Salesian leadership at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J.Fr. Jim has been on a sabbatical year at Don Bosco Hall in Berkeley, Cal., after completing a six-year term as provincial (2003-2009). He has also served the province as vice provincial, master of novices, director of the house of formation at Orange, and vocation director, among other things.
Frs. Stephen Leake, John Nazzaro, and Timothy Zak were re-appointed for second terms as director of, respectively, the house of formation in Orange, the Salesian community at Salesian Boys & Girls Club in East Boston, and St. John Bosco Parish in Chicago. The director's term in three years.
Fr. Leake, Fr. Nazzaro, and Fr. Zak
Finally, three directors were re-appointed for third terms: Fr. Patrick Angelucci at Salesian HS in New Rochelle, Fr. George Harkins for the Salesians in the (Canadian) province of Ontario, and Fr. Joseph Santa-Bibiana for the Salesian community at St. Philip Benizi Church in Belle Glade, Fla.
Fr. Angelucci, Fr. Harkins, and Fr. Santa-Bibiana

Homily for 2d Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
2d Sunday of EasterApril 11, 2010
Rev 1: 9-13, 17-19
Ursulines, Willow Dr.

“Write on the scroll what you see” (Rev 1: 11).

I’m sure that over the last 50, 60, or 70 years you’ve heard more than a few homilies on today’s gospel (John 20:19-31): on doubting Thomas, on Jesus’ gift of peace, on forgiveness and Reconciliation, on the mission of the Church. You probably haven’t heard a lot of homilies on the 1st chapter of Revelation.

John the Seer or John the Prophet narrates his calling, rooted in a vision. His account echoes some of the prophetic calls of the OT. Whether this John is John the Apostle, and whether John the Apostle is John the Evangelist, and whether any of these Johns is the “beloved disciple” of John’s Gospel; and the relationship between John’s Gospel and the Book of Revelation—all that’s much debated among scholars but need not concern us this morning. (Whew!) Whoever this John is, he’s received a prophetic revelation from Jesus Christ, which he’s instructed to share with his fellow Christians, and does.

John the Seer identifies himself with the local Christian communities, specifically with the 7 major churches of Asia Minor centered around Ephesus. These 7 churches are in fact listed in a half verse omitted in our passage today (1:11) and, as you know, the revelation John receives includes messages for each of them individually, which make up ch. 2-3. The 7 golden lampstands amid which the “one like a son of man” stands (1:12-13) represent these 7 churches; that verse indicates that Jesus is present in and among the communities of his disciples.

John the visionary identifies himself with these churches: he is their brother; he shares with them “the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus” (1:9). If we accept the tradition that this John is the beloved disciple and that he settled in Ephesus with Jesus’ mother, that kinship with the 7 churches is readily understood. Regardless of that, we know that the provenance of Revelation—the end of the 1st century—was a difficult period for Christians, a period of hostility from society and public authority, sometimes of outright persecution. John states that he received the vision “on the island of Patmos,” where he was “because I proclaimed God’s word and gave testimony to Jesus” (1:9). Patmos, a small island off the western coast of Asia Minor, was a penal colony where criminals or enemies of the state were sent. John was there because he was preaching the Gospel.

Hence the reference to “distress,” or in other translations, “tribulation.” Hence the need for “endurance,” or “patience” in some translations. Of course even in good times a disciple of Jesus needs patience or endurance, because the world, the flesh, and the devil are always part of our lives, seeking to lure us away from the straight and narrow path that leads to life (Matt 7:14). The tribulations of daily life can distract even well-intentioned people from a focus on Jesus and on his kingdom.

John notes that he and his sisters and brothers in the churches already share in the kingdom. Serious Christians participate actively in the life of Christ—including the cross of tribulation that demands patience—and they make real that saying of Jesus, “The kingdom of God is within you” or “among you” (Luke 17:21). Christ claims them, lives in them, acts thru them, has an effect on the world thru them; and on a certain level, the level of their relationship with Christ, they already dwell in heaven. Christians also hold that the new creation, the age of the kingdom of God, has already begun with Jesus’ resurrection.

The voice that speaks to John is “as loud as a trumpet” (1:10). It’s the voice of God, the voice of revelation, like the sound of trumpets that accompanied the Lord’s presence on Mt. Sinai (Ex 19:16), like the sound of the trumpet on the Last Day (1 Cor 15:52). Not that this vision is related directly to the Last Day; but John’s visions do include plenty of references to the vindication of God’s saints and the damnation of the wicked.

The “one like a son of man” whom John sees and hears is, of course, Christ. The “ankle-length robe” he wears suggests his priestly office, and the “gold sash around his chest” bespeaks kingship (1:13). Christ is priest, king, and prophet. As priest, he offered sacrifice for the sins of humanity, and that sacrifice was himself. Revelation will go on to refer to Christ as the victorious Lamb. As king he rules the universe in his Father’s name, and he passes judgment on the good and the evil. As prophet, he delivers the Father’s message of eternal life.

John falls down “as though dead” (1:17), the reaction of any mortal coming into contact with the divine. But Christ tells him, as he so often said to his disciples and to others during his earthly ministry, “Don’t be afraid” (1:17). Altho he now wields awesome power in heaven, he wants to be near his people. He’s on the side of those suffering distress and enduring faithfully on his account, those who have identified themselves with his kingdom. He has conquered death—“I am alive forever and ever” (1:18)—and opened the way to life, a way on which he wants to lead all his followers: “I hold the keys to death and the netherworld” (1:18). John should write down his vision (1:19) and share it with the churches, for in this vision Christ is offering encouragement to the persecuted, the promise of life to those who undergo harassment, imprisonment, torture, and death.

Such an encouraging vision still speaks, I would think, to our brothers and sisters undergoing the trials of active persecution—let us say, in Pakistan or Iraq. It speaks to us who experience cultural discrimination because we follow Jesus, because we don’t bow to political correctness, or because we’re Catholics specifically. It speaks to us who oftentimes find life difficult because of personal pain and suffering; because of distress that so much goes wrong in life especially the lives of innocent people, like coal miners and the poor of Rio de Janeiro’s slums and of Haiti; because of anger at the injustice in the world. It speaks to us who are of a certain age and might be nervous about death and judgment—a fear that priests and religious aren’t immune to. As the Lord Jesus stood among the 7 lampstands, he stands still with us. He is still priest, offering himself for our sins. He is still king, ruling the universe and passing judgment on evildoers and on Satan himself. He is still the one who conquers death and offers us life. In the words of our opening prayer today, the Father of Jesus is still the “God of mercy” who “washes away our sins in water, redeems us in Christ’s blood, gives us new birth in the [Holy] Spirit,” “renews [his] gift of life within us.” No need to be afraid, either for the ultimate fate of humanity or for our own eternal destiny, so long as we listen to and cling to Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God (cf. John 20:28).

Going Bald

Going Bald

I have no idea why Harriman State Park's Bald Rocks Shelter got its name; the site isn't much different from dozens of other places in the park.

That's where Fr. Jim Mulloy and I headed, directly from our Easter dinner (previous posting), for a too short hiking and camping trip. We'd have gone to the Catskills for 3 days and 2 nites, but I had to be home for the visitation of the community by the provincial.

We parked in one of the designated spots, where the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail crosses Rte. 106. It was about 4:30 p.m. when we started up the trail--quite literally up, as it immediately starts to ascend, and soon makes a couple of pretty steep climbs that left both of us huffing and puffing because we're so out of shape. As we headed in, we met 20-25 hikers in several parties coming out of the woods at day’s end.

The first real ascent goes right up this.

We got some fine views once we were up on the ridge of Black Rock Mountain, and I took several photos. There were also a lot of hawks "making lazy circles in the sky," and I managed to capture a couple in pixels (almost said "on film")--one of them quite accidentally because I was only shooting the view. (That would be the little smudge a little right of center in this photo.) Off in the distance you see a lot of houses, which I suppose are part of Central Valley, N.Y.

After over an hour of hiking, pausing for the scenery, and huffing and puffing, we came to one last couple hiking out, about 20 minutes from Bald Rocks Shelter. They told us someone was already there. Bummer!
Bald Rocks Shelter, Sept. 2005. The hole in the chimney has since been patched; it's a fine little fireplace.

So when the shelter came into view, we confirmed that it was indeed occupied, then went down to a little pine grove on the opposite side of the trail where there was ample firewood and even a little bit of water. (We'd both toted in about ¾ gallon of water, which would be about 5 pounds in our backpacks.) We ate our of leftover beef from dinner, and in my case also leftover asparagus, cooked with the beef in olive oil over my backpacking stove.
While we were gathering our firewood and eating, I went 3 more times to check the shelter and see if maybe the guy who was there--I'd seen only one person--had maybe been a late day hiker and packed up; no luck on that.

Then, lo and behold, he came down to us, exclaiming, “I thought I heard voices.” He Was a friendly chap, also named Jim, from Glens Falls who was tired of hiking in the Adirondacks (has done it for years, apparently) and has started coming down to Harriman a couple of times a year; he was on a 6-day jaunt from shelter to shelter this time.
Jim from Glens Falls invited us up to the shelter; he was using his tent anyway because the shelter was “dirty and stinky” of smoke. Actually, it wasn’t any dirtier than any of the shelters usually is, and less so than sometimes (see my post from last Oct. 9)—but it did indeed smell of campfire.
There wasn’t any wood left at the shelter--people had been there for lunch and made a fire; so the 3 of us hauled up what Fr. Jim and I had gathered, and around 9 o’clock I made a fine fire.

But first there was a glorious sunset. Jim from G.F. had his tent (and a bear bag of food way, way up in a tree) near the shelter. Fr. Jim wanted to sleep out on the rocks under the stars--he pleaded with God to clear away the clouds that had covered the sky late in the afternoon, and once the sun set the stars came out galore.

So I had the shelter to myself once Fr. Jim retired to his rocks and stars. It was fine weather, and not as cold as I expected (probably got down to the upper 40s in the wee hours). That it wasn’t colder meant that I'd over packed—more layers of clothing than I turned out needing. Better than the other way around—but I wouldn’t have minded my pack’s being 3 pounds lighter!
We all got up between 6:15 and 7:00 on Monday a.m., packed ourselves up, ate breakfast, and hiked out together, since G.F. Jim was going in our direction and was happy to have the company. What took Fr. Jim and me an hour and a half on Sunday afternoon took only an hour to hike on Monday morning, altho we had to be extremely careful on a lot of the downhill portions of the trail.
The excellent weather also meant that the confreres back home can’t rag on me about rain. Both of us came back in one piece, so they can’t heckle us about that. (I still get ribbed a lot about nearly cracking my head open last year in the Catskills, and one of the brothers and I both get it about tackling West Mountain in the middle of violent thunderstorm a couple of summers ago.)

Easter in New Rochelle

Easter in New Rochelle

We solemnized our Easter celebrations (the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday's Mass of the Lord's Supper; Good Friday's Commemoration of the Lord's Passion; the Easter Vigil; and Easter Sunday) here at home, except for the priests who had to be out for services with the Christian Brothers or St. Augustine’s Church on Thursday and Saturday, and several venues on Sunday morning. We had 15 for the Easter Vigil—14 confreres and our annual Easter guest, Bill Fisher (who was an SDB seminarian back in the ’50s). Here's what our chapel looks like, thanks to our terrific job sacristan:

The SDBs from Salesian HS and the candidate who's living with them and teaching at the school joined us, so that we had 24 for dinner. Several of the confreres prepared Easter dinner, which featured cordon bleu and a fine piece of beef (not sure what the cut was), with ample trimmings and followed by a lot of desserts. Bro. Andy and others did their usual magnificent job of setting the tables for the feast:

Don Bosco used to insist that every important feast day be duly celebrated in both the chapel and the dining room. Our two N.R. communities did that this Easter. Alleluia!

Homily for Holy Thursday

Homily for Holy Thursday

April 1, 2010
Ex 12: 1-8, 11-14
Christian Brothers, Iona College, New Rochelle

“Seeing the blood, I will pass over you” (Ex 12: 13).

With this liturgy of the Lord’s Supper we begin the Easter Triduum, our annual celebration of the Lord’s paschal mystery. That mystery is linked inseparably to the Jewish Passover. It begins with Jesus celebrating a seder with the 12 and our reading from Exodus the story of the first Passover meal. It ends with the ritual of Baptism in parishes that have catechumens, and the renewal of baptismal promises by the rest of us, recalling our passing thru the waters of salvation, as Israel passed thru the Red Sea—another Exodus reading of our Easter celebration.

One of the essentials of the seder is lamb. When meat is a rare part of the local diet, eating it makes a feast. So the Passover meal is a feast, specifically a feast of deliverance, of freedom. Lamb or goat would have been (and still is) the most readily available meat for the pastoral people of the Middle East.

This feast is different from others, tho. The lamb is slaughtered in a public ritual, “with the whole assembly of Israel present,” i.e., the entire household, and at a specified day and hour, “during the evening twilight” (12:6). The lamb is a stand-in for the eldest son of the household; all the lambs are substitutes for all the first-born of Israel. “For on this same nite I will go thru Egypt, striking down every first-born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt” (12:12). The Lord YHWH saves his people, but the gods of Egypt are powerless to save theirs. The gods of Egypt are identified with the oppressors of YHWH’s people, and in his saving act he renders crushing judgment against them on this Passover nite.

The lamb, unknowing, gentle, innocent, dies in order that Israel, God’s son, might live and be free. The prophet Hosea remarks, “Out of Egypt I called my son” (11:1), which St. Matthew quotes in his gospel (2:15). God tells Moses to have each household smear the blood of the freshly slaughtered lamb on its doorposts and lintel (12:7), marking that house as protected against the angel of death, as belonging to the Lord.

John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God (John 1:29,36), and the Book of Revelation also does so. So do we at Mass during the Communion rite. This gentle, innocent Lamb offered himself—knowingly, willingly—as a sacrifice for our redemption. This Lamb, the only-begotten Son of God and the firstborn son of Mary, offered himself as a substitute for us—not just the firstborn, but all of us, all sinners who merit condemnation on account of the free choices by which we’ve aligned ourselves with the gods of Egypt. This Lamb died that we might live, that we might be called pit of Egypt, that we might be set free from our sins and the judgment against them. Thru this Lamb, the Lord YHWH has executed judgment on all the gods of this world: on power, on pleasure, on wealth, on pride, on wrath, on the hordes of hell—on everything that would enslave, debase, and destroy humanity.

On this evening when we commemorate the institution of the Eucharist, we thank God for the saving blood of the Lamb of God. We partake of the blood that the Lamb has shed for us, the blood that “marks the houses” (12:13) where Christ dwells. Commenting on that blood on the Hebrew doorposts, St. John Chrysostom writes: “If we were to ask…how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, [the] answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.”* God Almighty notes that blood as he passes judgment upon the world: “Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; …no destructive blow will come upon you” (12:13).

Drinking from the cup of salvation (Ps 116:13), we proclaim the death of the Lord (1 Cor 11:26). We proclaim that the Lamb has been slain for us (Rev 5:12) yet lives. We proclaim that we’ve been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb (cf. Rev 7:14). We proclaim that the Lamb now enthroned on high “leads [us] to springs of life-giving water” (Rev 7:17). We proclaim this Eucharist as “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev 19:9) to which we, however unworthy, have been invited, as the Hebrews were invited from the first seder to salvation in the Promised Land.

* Catecheses ch. 3, in LOH 2:474.

Scouting Weekend, March 26-28

Scouting Weekend, March 26-28

More than a dozen Scouts from Troop Forty, plus a Webelo from Pack Forty, and six adult Scouters spent the weekend at Seton Scout Reservation in Greenwich, Conn.

After almost a week of real spring weather, it turned cold--well below freezing on Friday nite and around freezing on Saturday nite. Some photos will give you the daytime feeling. But we were grateful that it was dry.

Besides cooking and cleaning (in a relative sense of the term!), gathering firewood and hanging by the fires, the Scouts also did a hike. A few did some merit badge work. We celebrated the Palm Sunday liturgy, also with Troop 1 from Crestwood, but no one took pictures of that.

The lads cooking bacon, sausage, and eggs for breakfast on Saturday.

They know how to eat breakfast!

For lunch, burgers and dogs over the coals. Burgers went fast.

Some of the Scouts by one of the fires after lunch.

Assistant Scoutmaster Bill Schaffer with other Scouts by the other fire.

After Mass, Scouts Chris Brock and Sean Price get started on supper, including (leftover) ziti and garden salad.

While the boys were roughing it in lean-tos, most of the adults were cozy in this cabin: Asst. Scoutmaster Bill Schaffer, Scoutmaster Tunji Renner, Asst. Scoutmaster Anthony Jenkins. That's my lower bunk next to Bill, and my pack behind him.

Homily for 5th Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
5th Sunday of LentMarch 21, 2010
Is 43: 16-11
Christian Brothers, Iona College

“Thus says the Lord: Remember not the events of the past…; see, I am doing something new” (Is 43: 18-19).

The 1st reading this evening comes from that part of the book of the prophet Isaiah known as 2d Isaiah, ch. 40-55, which contain the prophecies of an anonymous prophet who, apparently, belonged to some Isaian school or who resembled the original Isaiah closely enuf that the scribes who preserved the sacred writings linked his inspired messages with those of Isaiah.

Whereas the 1st Isaiah lived and prophesied in the 2d half of the 8th century B.C., his unknown disciple was at work at the end of the Babylonian Exile, in the mid 6th century B.C., possibly in Babylon. The great theme of his prophecies is the downfall of Babylon and the liberation of Israel. Among his texts we also find the four poems of the Suffering Servant that will form much of our reading during Holy Week.

Our passage this evening is one of those announcing Israel’s imminent redemption, using allusions to Israel’s 1st liberation, when Moses led them out of Egypt, thru the Red Sea, and into the desert of Sinai toward the Promised Land. “The Lord opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters” (43:16): 2d Isaiah reminds his audience of captives in Babylon of what God did for Israel when Moses lifted his staff over the sea. “The Lord leads out chariots and horsemen, a powerful army, till they lie prostrate together, never to rise, snuffed out and quenched like a wick” (43:17): God leads Pharaoh and his mighty troops into a trap to destroy those who thought to destroy Israel.

But the prophet recalls these events that forged Israel into God’s people only to tell them to forget all about them: “Remember not the events of the past; the things of long ago consider not!” (43:18). What God is about to do for his people will be something else again: “See, I am doing something new” (43:19), something almost enuf to make them forget their history. God is their savior now: “Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (43:19). If they don’t realize that their salvation from their Babylonian oppressors is at hand, they will know it very soon. The Lord will lay low another army when conquering Cyrus the Great descends upon and crushes Babylon. Soon enuf “the Lord will bring back the captives of Zion,” who for 50 years and more have only dreamed of going home to Jerusalem; and their mouths will be filled with laughter, their tongues with rejoicing, in the great things that the Lord has done for them (Ps 126:1-4),

This new redemption will resemble the old one in the defeat of Israel’s enemy and in another journey thru a desert, they Syrian desert, as they return home to Judea from Babylon: “In the desert I make a way” (43:19). But there will be no miraculous passage thru a sea, no parting of the waters; instead, God will raise up waters to ease their journey: “I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink, the people whom I formed for myself” (43:20), even as he had enabled Moses wondrously to provide water for the people from the rocks of the Sinai.

So there will be new exodus of God’s people thru the desert, from captivity to the Promised Land, with a saving presence of water. There just might be a Lenten and Easter theme here?

Well, of course. God’s mighty works weren’t done with on the borders of Egypt, nor were they done with in Mesopotamia. They continue. God’s chosen people, all those who have received his “upward calling, in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14), pass thru the water of Easter, the water of Baptism, and join Christ Jesus, who has laid low their enemies: sin and death, and the armies of Satan. In the desert of our present existence, of this world full of distractions, temptations, and dangers to our well-being (all those things that Paul considers as so much rubbish [Phil 3:8], or worse), God has marked out a safe path for us: in the desert he makes a way, the way of Jesus. God is saving those preparing for Baptism 2 weeks from this evening; God is saving us who have already been baptized and who continue to come to the Word of Jesus and his body and blood. “Now it springs forth; do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.” With the sacraments and with the Scriptures he continues to water and feed us, as if from oases.

2d Isaiah also speaks of creation’s praise of its Lord: “Wild beasts honor me, jackals and ostriches” (43:20). But after he has set his people free once more, they are to join these creatures in “announcing his praise” (43:21). There’s the purpose in God’s coming to our assistance: to praise him in his works, to praise him for freeing us from the bondage of our sins, from the chains of death, from the doom of Satan’s grasp. Christ Jesus wants to “take possession of” us, as he did Paul (Phil 3:12), wants to give us “the supreme good of knowing” (3:8) and being known by him so that we may be with him forever in the presence of his Father. If God delights in the jackals and ostriches of the desert, how much more does he delight in the brothers and sisters of Jesus!

Homily for 4th Sunday of Lent

Homily for the 4th Sunday of LentMarch 14, 2010
2 Cor 5: 17-21
Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32
Salesian HS Band

“We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5: 20).

If you were paying attention, you heard a reference to reconciliation at the beginning of Mass: “Jesus Christ brought mankind the gift of reconciliation.” The reading from St. Paul was an exhortation for us to be reconciled with God. The gospel reading was a parable of reconciliation that we’re all very familiar with.

We can see everywhere around us how people need reconciliation. There are wars and violence all over the world—not only in Afghanistan and Iraq but also in Pakistan, the Holy Land, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Nigeria, Cechnya, Kashmir, the Philippines, Colombia, Mexico—to give a partial list. In our own country the newspapers and radio waves are loaded every day with stories of street crime and domestic violence. In our families, how many arguments take place, how many people aren’t talking to each other!

St. Paul appeals to us to be reconciled to God—to admit our sins against one another and against God, and to come to God for pardon. But reconciliation with God has to mean also forgiving one another and accepting the forgiveness that others offer to us. For us who aren’t statesmen, diplomats, important politicians, who can’t stop al Quaeda from blowing people up or renegade soldiers in Congo from raping and murdering or abortionists from slicing up 4,000 American babies in their mothers’ wombs every day—for us, reconciliation starts in our families and neighborhoods. Whom do we have to forgive and try to get along with better? Whom are we angry at, like the older brother in Jesus’ parable (Luke 15:25-30)—who’s really angry at his father at least as much as at his brother?

When we turn to God for reconciliation, we can be sure that he accepts us, like the father in the parable (15:20-24). But we need to ask him also to help us be reconciled with the real people in our lives: our parents, our siblings, our cousins, the guys we go to school with, the peers we hang out with and the ones we have trouble getting along with, maybe the girl who used to be special to us. While we all want peace and brotherhood in Afghanistan, we also need peace and brotherhood in Westchester and the Bronx—and that’s something that more immediately affects us than does Afghanistan, something we can affect by our own words and actions.

God has already taken the 1st step toward reconciliation with us. He didn’t have to do that; he could have just left us to rot in our own hatred, alienation, sin. But, says St. Paul, God has initiated “a new creation,” brought in “new things” (1 Cor 5:17), thru Jesus Christ. God has re-created the world, opened up the possibility that creation can be the way he made it to be in the beginning before human beings thought they were smarter than God and sinned. God has “reconciled the world to himself in Christ,” who suffered the hatred, the alienation, the punishment that our sins deserve—“for our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin” (1 Cor 5:21)—while Christ embraced our human nature, our human condition; while he embraced us and made us his own brothers and sisters—“so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (5:21). On the cross he cried out to his Father, “Forgive them!” (Luke 23:34). Whom was he forgiving? His executioners--and you and me. And he practiced that forgiveness also with the criminal we commonly call the Good Thief by promising him reconciliation with God, a place in paradise, in the new creation (23:40-43).

Like the forgiving father in Jesus’ parable, Jesus opens his arm to receive us sinners. May we accept his pardon like the younger son (and the sacrament of Reconciliation gives us a wonderful opportunity to do that). May we extend God’s reconciliation to other people, especially those in our daily lives.

Vatican Newspaper Calls for More Women in Church Positions

Vatican Newspaper Calls for More Women in Church Positions of Responsibility

No doubt this story will surprise a lot of folks. Veteran Catholic News Service reporter John Thavis reports from Rome:

Abuse cases show need for greater women's role, Vatican newspaper says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A greater presence of women in decision-making roles in the church might have helped remove the "veil of masculine secrecy" that covered priestly sex abuse cases, a front-page commentary in the Vatican newspaper said.

Read more: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1001020.htm

Homily for the 3d Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
3d Sunday of LentMarch 7, 2010
Ex 3: 1-8, 13-15
Ps 103: 1-4, 6-8, 11
1 Cor 10: 1-6, 10-12
Luke 13: 1-9
Provincial House, N.R.

“I have witnessed the affliction of my people…and have heard their cry of complaint…. Therefore I have come down to rescue them…and lead them…into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3: 7-8).

Some of these words may be extra-familiar to us at this time. Not that we haven’t heard them often before; but they’re words cited by our Haitian confreres as they expressed their appreciation for the visit of the Rector Major to them last month, one month after the death and destruction of the earthquake. Representing the entire Salesian Family, Fr. Chavez came down like God himself to visit them—the Haitians explicitly said he didn’t send a “Moses” to lift them up, but he came himself—and to assure them of coming deliverance. The Rector Major then cited their words as he wrote to all of us on Feb. 25, to encourage us to remain present to our devastated brothers and sisters, to continue our work and our sacrifices to bring them, if not quite into a land flowing with milk and honey, at least into a much better situation than they’ve been in the last 2 months.

Two clear messages in the Scriptures this morning are that the Lord is very close to us, he is present among us, he is leading us to salvation; and if we choose not to heed his invitation to repent and be saved, we’re doomed.

The Lord announces to Moses that he has seen his people’s affliction in Egypt, he has heard their cry of complaint, and he knows well what they’re suffering (3:7). His knowledge isn’t pure observation, distant, uncaring, and without effect. No, he sees and hears, and he acts. “I have come down” from my lofty throne in the heavens “to rescue them…and lead them”—not point out the road, not just send them a savior, but to lead them myself—“out of that land and into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (3:8). God will be among his people, like a good military captain with his soldiers. He’ll guide Moses at each step, he’ll act thru Moses’ staff, he’ll light their way, he’ll protect them from assault.

Moses isn’t any too eager for his battlefield commission as God’s lieutenant and tries various ways to dodge it. One way is to ask God his name. You may remember that when Jacob wrestled with the angel of God at the ford of the Jabbok, on his return to Canaan from his exile in Mesopotamia, he asked the angel his name, and the angel refused to give it (Gen 32:23-31). You may also remember that Adam named all of the animals in Eden (Gen 2:18-20). To name something was to exercise power over it, to have the thing or the person at one’s command. But when Moses asks, God gives him his name (Ex 3:13-14). One commentator compares this to giving out your private phone number to someone you want to be specially close to you, or someone you want to reach you any time there’s a problem.[1] Moreover, the Lord God identifies himself as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob” (3:15). He has remained close to these friends of his, and that’s how he is to be remembered forever by his people—remembering, again, meaning being present to them in a real and active sense.

The responsorial psalm also celebrates the Lord’s closeness to his people. He pardons them, heals them, redeems them from destruction, crowns them with his kindness and compassion (103:3-4). He comes to the defense of the oppressed and makes his deeds known to Israel (103:6-7), i.e., lets them experience what he does for them.

Jesus is the ultimate presence of God. In him God comes down definitively from his heavenly throne to be among his people and save them. He isn’t God’s word spoken from a mysteriously burning bush that Moses mustn’t get too close to, but God’s word in human flesh with whom we can talk and share a meal, whom we can touch. He even remains with us in sacramental form and in the living word of the sacred Scriptures.

This same Jesus, however, cautions his audience against a failure to repent. In his own day various tragedies befell people and made the local news (unfortunately, we have no other historical record of the events he mentions in the gospel today). But these tragedies aren’t divine retribution for the sins of the victims, any more than earthquakes today are God’s particular punishments. Yet tragedies and disasters may serve as warnings: we have here no lasting city, as the Letter to the Hebrews says (13:14), and eventually we must perish in a physical sense. Jesus also seems to be warning his hearers that their failure to repent, their failure to change their ways of acting, could bring disaster upon them, e.g., their looking for earthly salvation might lead them to go too far in their resistance to Rome and get them crushed (“If you don’t repent, you’ll all perish as they did!”—13:5). I suppose that’s comparable to telling our contemporaries that if we don’t relent in our reliance on nuclear weapons we may wind up destroying ourselves.


St. Paul uses the example of the people whom Moses led out of Egypt as a warning to his disciples in Corinth. God took great care to deliver Israel from slavery, to feed and water them in the desert. But they didn’t give up their sins—their idolatry, their grumbling about God’s leadership—and so they perished. (1 Cor 10:1-4) If the Christians of Corinth don’t truly give themselves to Christ, but cling to some of their old pagan habits, they too may find themselves not reaching the promised land. They can’t presume that God’s salvation is complete in them until they actually reach that land: “Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall” (10:12).

We get those sorts of reminders regularly in our Salesian life: daily examens, opportunities for the sacrament of Reconciliation, monthly DORs, annual retreat, annual evaluations of our community and personal lives of prayer and poverty. These opportunities are like the vinedresser’s careful cultivation of the fig tree in Jesus’ parable—the efforts of the Lord to help us bear some fruit, the fruit of repentance, the fruit of discipleship, the fruit of Christian life, the fruit of the Salesian charism. We have that annual evaluation of poverty tomorrow evening—a chance to ask whether our tree bears the fruit of poverty, or the barrenness of material abundance and superfluity.

In such opportunities God comes close to us and calls to us, as if from the burning bush, as if in the words of Jesus: I’ve come to rescue you and lead you into a good and spacious land, flowing with milk and honey, to the banquet table of life. Come with me! Abide with me!

[1] Fr. Joe Robinson, Guiding Light: Feed My Soul. Cycle C (China, Ind.: Shepherd of Christ, 2009), p. 50.

Letter of Fr. Pascual Chavez to the Salesians about Haiti

Letter of Fr. Pascual Chavez

to the Salesians about Haiti

DIREZIONE GENERALE OPERE DON BOSCO
Via della Pisana 1111 - 00163 Roma

Il Rettor Maggiore

“I have seen. I have heard. I understand. I have come down…
Go, set my people free” (Exodus 3:7-8)
A letter after the Rector Major’s visit to Haiti

My Dear Confreres, Members of the Salesian Family, Friends of Don Bosco:

I would like to start this account of my visit to Haiti with the dedication which the confreres of that vice province wrote and signed in the book Haiti, the face of a country, which they gave me just as I was leaving. I consider it is not a eulogy to me but rather a sincere expression of their experience and their feelings, and at the same time, a mark of recognition of all those who have been a sign of the presence of Providence and made them feel the loving, supportive closeness of God:

In a few seconds a terrifying earthquake put us on our knees.
Apocalyptic catastrophe. Ruins. Deaths. Cries. Weeping. Dismay.
Desolation. Silence. Rebellion. Darkness. Trauma. Misery. Desperation.
Hands stretched out to each other. Hands stretched out to the Lord.
“I have seen. I have heard. I understand. I have come down…
Go, set my people free” (Exodus 3:7-8)

Fr. Pascual, like the Lord, you saw and understood. THANK YOU for having understood at once. In the letter to all the Salesians, which with your father’s heart you sent us. Awareness. Response. Solidarity. Fraternity…
Fr. Chavez, before the Lord we say in confidence that the message which pleases us the most is “the open letter of yourself.” What a father’s heart! What sensitivity! Thank you, Father, for not sending us a Moses. Thank you for coming yourself. Thank you for following in the steps of Jesus and the heart of Don Bosco. For sharing with us, from the suffering for our dead and dispersed to the struggle for life taken up again, from our ruins to the refoundation, starting from personal and community conversion.
Fr. Pascual, thank you, thank you!

On February 12-15, 2010, I visited Haiti. From the very first day of the earthquake that on January 12 struck a large part of the country with devastation and death, I kept in touch with the confreres through a daily telephone call to the superior at the time, Fr. Jacques Charles, and to the one who, from the end of January, would take over as the new superior of the vice province, Fr. Sylvain Ducange. I got to work, officially involving the Antilles Province, whose provincial, Fr. Víctor Pichardo, I asked to go at once to Port-au-Prince to set up a link for aid; in addition I sent a letter to the whole Congregation, with information about the dramatic situation of our confreres, requesting the solidarity of all the houses, works, and provinces in response to the emergency situation, and likewise to the future reconstruction; finally I mobilized all the mission offices, with that of New Rochelle leading the way. I have to say that the response I received was extremely positive and exemplary, and for everything that was done I feel the need to give thanks and to bear witness.

Nevertheless, I felt it necessary, important, and significant to go personally to Haiti so that through the person of the Rector Major the closeness, fraternity, and solidarity of the Congregation could be felt. I wanted to share at close hand in the suffering and uncertainty in which the whole population is living. I really wanted to know better the situation of the Salesian houses, completely or partially destroyed, especially those in the area of Port-au-Prince, and, with the superior of the vice province and his council, to reflect together on the decisions to be made in the immediate future.

Even though, as we arrived at Port-au-Prince, the pilot of the helicopter flew over the most devastated area – which gave me the chance to have an immediate overall panoramic view from the air – it was only when driving in the car, seeing the buildings razed to the ground, then walking through the ruins that I was able to have some real idea of the dramatic effects of the quake, which struck this helpless people totally unprepared for such an event.

I was totally dismayed when faced with the extent of the destruction, at the apocalyptic landscape of death, suffering and despair. The National Palace, the symbol of pride and power, has practically fallen in on itself, with the columns sticking up in the air, and similarly the other ministry buildings. Of the cathedral the only things still standing are the facade and the side walls; the roof and the pillars have fallen to the ground. It was as though, in those 28 seconds that the major shock lasted, the city had lost its head and its heart. In fact, that it precisely what happened, since from that moment there has been a total lack of leadership, and life, immensely humbled, continues to go ahead, more by dint of inertia and by the struggle for survival than through any social organization supporting or stimulating it.

While I listened to the accounts of those who survived, especially those who managed to escape death after hours or days being trapped between floors, ceilings, and walls, and gradually as I looked at the buildings and homes destroyed, I tried to hear the voice of God which, like the blood of Abel, cried out with the voices of the thousands of the dead buried in mass graves or still under the rubble. I tried to listen to God, who was speaking through the dull sound of the thousands of people struggling to live under the tents, those distributed by the international organizations or those made of rags somehow put together. I tried to open my ears and heart to the cry of God, which could be heard in the anger and feelings of powerlessness of those who see everything that they had built up – either great or small – gone up in smoke, into nothing. It is estimated that the number without a roof over their heads is between 300,000 and 500,000.

It is true that an earthquake of 7.5 degrees on the Richter scale produces a shock with a devastating, incalculable force, but it is also true that in this case the destruction and the deaths are even more enormous on account of poverty in every sense of the word. In this situation one cannot rebuild a life worthy of the name, nor even houses which are safer and more resistant in the face of this kind of violent eruption of nature. Therefore the challenge for today cannot be merely to reconstruct the walls of the buildings, the houses, and the churches destroyed, but it is rather to make Haiti rise again, building it on living conditions which really are human, where rights, all rights, are for everyone and not the privilege of some.

The almost total absence of any government leaves the people stunned by the suffering, submerged in anguish and overwhelmed by despair, wandering around the streets without goal or purpose. This constant walking of the people on a pilgrimage in the struggle for life makes quite an impression. But also at church level, the death of the archbishop, the vicar general, the chancellor, 18 seminarians, and 46 religious men and women, with the collapse of houses, schools, and help centers meant a tragic loss of pastors, so extremely necessary for this people.

Unfortunately, the time has almost passed for it to be news, when Haiti was center stage of history, like a victim fallen to the ground, on which was focused the attention of the great television networks, of journalists always on the watch for events that increase sales. Today the city is in a state more chaotic than before. Certainly to be admired is the religious sentiment that leads the Haitian people to gather together in prayer, a sentiment which is now being greatly exploited by the evangelical sects; and in a similar way, one is amazed at the efforts to return to normality when basically everything has changed.

Even though the state of emergency could last for at least two months, according to what is said by those responsible for this phase, the hour has struck to roll our sleeves up and begin the rebuilding of this country, or rather, its rising from the ashes. Here, then, is the great opportunity being offered to this poor country, the former “Pearl of the Antilles.”

To make this dream come true, it is not a matter of starting from scratch, but a starting again, in the first place, by the Haitians themselves, who more than ever are being called to take the lead in this new phase of their history. They are not alone. On the contrary, it is very comforting to see so many organizations (a total of 80) seriously committed to this challenging task, together with the very many people of good will who want to sow seeds of hope and build a future for the Haitian people.

The protagonism on the part of the Haitians themselves is absolutely indispensable, in order to overcome not only a tendency to resignation which is something of a cultural feature, but to overcome also a total dependence on outside help, which could lead to the temptation of a power struggle and deprive Haiti of its sovereignty.

Therefore opening up our houses, even though seriously damaged – I’m speaking about those of the Salesians – to take in those displaced, with the effort to make them feel better, even in the midst of their tragedy, and likewise the civilian organization of these camps for refugees and the decision to live in tents like them, caused me great joy and also to feel very proud of my Salesian brothers.

May the Lord change this tragedy which has filled all the families of Haiti with mourning into hymns and dances of joy. It would not be right nor responsible to allow the death of hundreds of thousands of victims, nor the loss of everything by those who now find themselves on the streets with nothing to fall into nothingness, into the void, into sterility.

On our part we feel the need to renew our commitment to the rebirth of the country, refounding, step by step together, the Congregation with the presences which are responding to the expectations and the needs of Haitian society, the Church, and the young.

I said before that rather than simply rebuilding the walls, it is a matter of a change in the way of thinking.

The State has to change in such a way that is ensures a worthy life for all its citizens, guaranteeing all their rights and fighting against injustice, corruption, poverty, without ideologies and with expressions of genuine democracy.

But the Church, too, as part of it consecrated life, has to change, seeking more and more its identity, fidelity to the Lord Jesus, and his Gospel, properly bringing together evangelization, human development, and the transformation of culture and society.

From this point of view, I am pleased with the way the superior of the vice province and his council are managing this situation. They have organized assistance (providing tents, food, water, psychological and spiritual help) for all the thousands of refugees, the homeless who came to find shelter at Thorland, Pétion-Ville, Delmas, Cité Soleil. They have busied themselves in giving help to those employed in our communities and works. They have found places for the confreres from our no longer habitable houses: ENAM, Fleuriot, the provincial house, Gressier.

A immediate plan has also been set in motion which involves the reorganization of the vice province at all levels, including that of refounding the works, revision of the pastoral approach in general, and in certain places, having always in mind in particular the needs of society, the Church, and the young.

After my “on the spot” visit, and with the information available regarding our works, it seems above all necessary to carry out an assessment of the fitness for use or not of those houses which have remained standing, and afterwards:
-- to make secure all the works, some of which have already been looted, rebuilding the security walls that collapsed;
-- to re-build the whole complex of the OPEPB, those next to ENAM and those located in Cité Soleil, which implies drawing up an overall plan for the Lakay School and a youth center;
-- to re-locate ENAM in such as way as to build a vocational training center of the highest quality, also opening a fresh page of the history of this work: however, the best place has to be chosen;
--to rebuild the Young Peoples’ Center in Thorland and the multipurpose hall;
-- to rebuild the parish in Cité Soleil and the youth center;
-- to rebuild the dormitory and classrooms of the school at Gressier;
-- to rebuild a part of the primary school at Pétion-Ville;
-- to re-think the whole of the work at Fleuriot, taking into account the needs of the house for the postnovices and the center of studies;
-- to relocate the provincial house, leaving the present house for the community of Cité Soleil;
-- to simplify the complex of works at Fort-Liberté, giving priority to the Vocational Training Center, the training school for teachers, which is of strategic importance and absolutely necessary for the training of the new kind of educators whom Haiti needs, and the school for nurses, the only one left in the country;
-- to carry out a process of discernment about the future of the Vincent Foundation Agricultural School in Cap-Haitien, situated on a property which is not ours, and consider relocating it at Tosià or at Gressier, where we have quite a large tract of land belonging to us. For the moment it should continue to function with the various educational services it offers;
-- to make a decision about Baudin (the novitiate house, which in fact has been functioning for only three years): either giving it to the Haitian Bishops’ Conference for its formation center, or selling it.

This does not mean that everything has to be done at the same time. An order of priorities for what has to be done has still to be made. We will be able to count on the readiness, already in operation, of the Italian Civil Defense service, which has expressed its intention and willingness to work closely with us, and on the donations that have already arrived from the mission offices, international organizations, the provinces, or individual houses, from bishops’ conferences and benefactors.

Looking at the present and to the future, what becomes the priority is to keep the schools and youth centers functioning where they are fit for use, and in addition to build or rebuild as soon as possible those works which have become unfit for use. The priority of the care and education of the young is absolute, all the more so since what is at stake is the creation, through a new education, of a new culture, capable of building the new Haiti.

All of this urgently requires personnel capable of coordinating the work. This would also be a good opportunity to get the Bureau de Planification et de Développement of the vice province functioning well. The one directly responsible for all the “Haiti emergency re-construction operation,” however, is – as it ought to be – the superior of the vice province, Fr. Sylvain Ducange. Fr. Mark Hyde, director of the New Rochelle Missions Office, to which the work of coordination has been entrusted, and the organizations involved in this reconstruction operation, will refer to him.

Next year the Blessed Philip Rinaldi Vice Province of Haiti will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of our presence in this country. For the Haitian confreres it will be a real jubilee, and I hope and pray that by then we may see the refoundation of the charism as a renewed gift from God for young Haitians.

A jubilee is also a time for conversion: this means acknowledging our sins, personal, community, and institutional, for not having succeeded in living to the full our identity as consecrated apostles, making of the spiritual and apostolic project of Don Bosco, codified in the Constitutions, a genuine plan of evangelical life.

While I thank the Congregation, our mission offices, the international organizations close to us, the benefactors and friends of Salesian work, for the generosity and enterprise with which they have responded to my previous letter, I invite everyone to continue with the efforts we are making to respond to the immense demands of this country in so much need.

I entrust to Mary this new phase of history. May she guide us in rising to the challenge. May she bless you all.

With affection and best wishes, in Don Bosco,
Fr. Pascual Chavez V., SDB
Rector Major
Rome, February 25, 2010

Quake Causes Only Material Damages to Salesian Houses of Chile

Quake Causes Only Material Damages
to Salesian Houses of Chile(ANS – February 28, 2010 -- Santiago) – In spite of the great force of the earthquake which struck the south-central part of Chile early on Saturday morning, Salesian centers suffered only material damage and no personal victims. Yesterday afternoon Fr. Leonardo Santibañez, the provincial, was able to confirm this.

The most serious damage was to the Salesian houses in the region of Maule, and particularly at Linares, where the shrine dedicated to Mary Help of Christians, which survived the earthquake of 1985, has collapsed. The church of Mary Help of Christians at Talca, in the same region, suffered some damage.

The epicenter of the earthquake was in the region of Bio Bio, where the first shock was recorded at 8.8 on the Richter scale. The Salesian house in that area, the Salesian school in Concepcion, had some broken windows and some other damage, but much less serious than that in other parts on the city, pictures of which show bridges, houses, and other buildings collapsed.
-
There was no damage to Salesian houses in the north of the country. The Salesian house in Valparaiso suffered minor damage.

After traveling around the city on Saturday morning, the provincial, Fr. Leonardo Santibáñez; the province treasurer, Fr. Jorge Rivera; and the general councilor for the America Southern Cone Region, Fr. Natale Vitali, who is visiting Chile at this time, were able to confirm that the Salesian houses in Santiago are in good shape, with no structural damage other than some plaster fallen from ceilings and some cracks in some interior walls.

The Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chavez, was about to leave for Ecuador to preach a retreat for the provincials of the two American regions; he expressed his solidarity with the province and the Salesian Family in Chile.

Homily for 2d Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
2d Sunday of LentFeb. 28, 2010
Luke 9: 28-36
Gen 15: 5-12, 17-18
Ursulines, Willow Dr.

“‘O Lord God,’ Abram asked, ‘how am I to know that I shall possess this land?’” (Gen 15: 8).

On Feb. 19 a “Non Sequitur” cartoon in the Journal News, and also the Post, showed a graveside and tombstone. One of the bystanders was observing to another, “He was a devout agnostic.” Engraved on the tombstone was, “See you later…maybe.”

Uncertainty, skepticism, doubt—that famous Missouri attitude that demands, “Show me”—are part of life, and with good reason. No one wants to be taken in, fooled, suckered; and so we have a healthy skepticism of commercials, used cars, politicians, and lots of other people and “received knowledge.” A lot of science involves testing of “what everyone knows,” e.g., Galileo’s dropping objects of unequal weight from the tower of Pisa and disproving “common sense” because both objects fell at the same rate, regardless of weight.

Thus Abram—whose name God hasn’t changed yet to Abraham—asks the Lord for some sign, some evidence, some assurance that God really will give this land to him and to his descendants. God responds by making a covenant with him; for that’s what the solemn ritual of animal slaughter and the fire passing between the 2 rows of carcasses means. God gives his sacred, contractual word to carry out his promise.

The apostles’ vision of Jesus on Mt. Tabor doesn’t involve a covenant. But it does involve a divine commitment. Jesus has just made his 1st prediction of his passion, death, and resurrection to the disciples (Luke 9:22), and in this transfiguration scene the passion—Jesus’ “exodus” in Jerusalem—is the topic of conversation among Jesus, Moses, and Elijah (9:30-31). The disciples haven’t begun at all to grasp that the Messiah must suffer, die, and rise, and so they can hardly demand, “Show me!” Even after the fact it’ll have to be spelled out for them, OT verse by OT verse, as the Risen Lord does for Cleopas and his companion on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:27). But the Lord’s transfiguration is a showing, a promise that suffering and death will open the road to glory. How are Peter, James, and John to know that they shall posses the promised land, the kingdom of heaven? Because they have seen the Messiah in his glory. When the divine voice exclaims, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him” (9:35), it’s an implicit promise that listening to this chosen Son, following the path of Jesus, will bring them to this same heavenly glory.

St. Paul, likewise, saw the Lord in his glory. That was the basis for his conversion and for his total dedication to preaching Christ crucified and risen. It was why he could announce to his hearers and readers, “Our citizenship is in heaven” and “Our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body” (Phil 3:20-21).

In this Lenten season hundreds of thousands of catechumens around the world are preparing for Baptism, for entering a covenant with the Lord Jesus. We who are already baptized are recommitting ourselves to that covenant and will renew of baptismal promises on Easter Sunday. Going into the waters of Baptism, sacramentally dying and rising with Christ, is a bit like Abram’s trance and the “deep, terrifying darkness [that] enveloped him” (Gen 15:12). It’s a bit like being covered over by the cloud on Mt. Tabor. It’s a moment of promise, God’s promise, that he will fulfill his word; he will give us the promised land, he will lead us to eternal life.

Abram believed, and God kept the covenant. The apostles were commanded to listen to Jesus, and so they did; now they “sit on 12 thrones” at Jesus’ side (Luke 22:30). The covenant is made also with us. God’s promise is ours too. How are we to know that we shall possess this land? Because thru the apostles we have already seen Christ’s glory. Today’s patristic reading in the Divine Office comes from a sermon of St. Leo the Great. He tells us that in his transfiguration our Lord “was providing a firm foundation for the hope of holy Church. The whole body of Christ was to understand the kind of transformation that it would receive as his gift. The members of that body were to look forward to a share in that glory which first blazed out in Christ their head.”* For us there’s no “maybe” about “See you later,” thanks be to God!


* Sermon 51 (LOH 2:149).

Outline of a Homily for 1st Sunday of Lent

Outline of a Homily
for the 1st Sunday of Lent
Feb. 21, 2010
Luke 4: 1-13
Troop 40 and NYLT

Jesus filled with the HS
-- conceived by the HS (Lk 1)
-- HS descended on him at the Jordan
-- HS leads him into the desert (Lk 4)

Israel was led into the desert – this is the road to salvation (from Egypt). Israel = God’s son in frequent OT usage. Jesus recognized as God’s beloved Son as the HS came upon him.

In the desert Israel underwent numerous testings (temptations) and failed; isn’t faithful to God. Jesus is tempted in the desert but overcomes. He’s the faithful Son of God.

Jesus fasted 40 days (like Moses). Fasting disciplines the body, sharpens the mind and heart for God and for the poor/needy. It “creates an empty space for God to fill; expression of our desire to be converted from selfishness and remove the effects of sin in our lives.”

Jesus’ 3 temptations
-- bread: the senses, selfishness; cf. teens and sensuality (laziness, gluttony, drink, drugs, cigarettes, sex). These can separate us from God and from others
-- power, wealth, and glory of the world, constant human temptations (Faust, “Devil & Daniel Webster”); control of others, self-will—arrogance, war (Napoleon, Hitler, corrupt politicians, financial scandals, genocides). Devil is lord of this (fallen) world: v. 6
-- make a great (miraculous) scene—fame (Am. Idol, sports star); comes back to self again

Last temptation is set in Jerusalem; devil leaves him “for a time” (foreshadowing). In Jerusalem Jesus will meet most severe test after “the devil entered Judas.” Wicked men will unjustly torture and execute Jesus. He’ll be sorely tempted to quit his messianic role (the Garden), to deny who he is (on trial), to curse his persecutors and mockers, to take easy way and come off the cross, to abandon God who seems to have abandoned him. But he remains faithful to his Father and to his own mission, forgives his enemies, and defeats Satan once and for all.